Chapter 87 - The White Queen

The afternoon practically turned into night in less than fifteen minutes.

If that was intimidating Gutard or the Bishop, they were not showing it, as they continued with the arrangements. Alexa just tried to locate the little nightingale. She stopped in front of the cathedral, shading her eyes and looking up, seeing the black clouds stirring on the peaks of the building. Looking up and keeping her eyes open was not simple, however, with the strong wind and dust.

'Why did he leave like that?' she wondered, imagining that perhaps Alexander was shocked by the illustrations he saw in the tower, and by revelations against his beliefs. Perhaps he had until then had a firm hope that his mother had abandoned witchcraft when she confessed and pleaded the Church for forgiveness. Today, however, his father would burn his mother's body as a heretic.

Or maybe it was something else. At that moment, what mattered was protecting the soul in that fragile little bird body.

'Alexander, please, if you can hear me, come back to me!' she thought hard, as she heard his voice when the Second Prince was around. Maybe he could hear her too.

The open-air mass began, but Alexa climbed the stairs of the cathedral, because the nightingale had made a straight line there. Behind her, Alexa heard the bishop's harsh words, but there was no reason to pay attention. The Princess found Romeo lying just beyond the entrance, panting and very frightened. In her mind, Alexa heard the disconnected murmurs of the Prince, praying desperately,

~ Ave Maria, Gratia plena… Please, she regretted it! Dominus tecum... Forgive me! I don't deserve it, but please welcome her as your sorry daughter! Ora pro Nobis peccatoribus! Please! ~ His pleas cut the formula, with appeals for forgiveness for his mother.

Crouching down and catching the bird with extreme care, she made a shelter with her cupped hands, and took him into the cathedral. It filled her heart with pity. Alexander, son of the Witch to a Witch Hunter.

'Our minds are so confused these days! Men don't know what they do in the name of their gods,' Alexa took the little soul up in front of the altar, imagining that this was Alexander's initial goal.

Smoke entered through the open cathedral door, while the exhortation went on monotonously. Alexa still held the nightingale in her hands, looking at the magnificent central altar. "If this is your answer for people like me and Alexander," she said to the statue in front of her, "I know you still can't hear me."

At this moment, Alexa felt the ground shake under her feet. She didn't know if there were earthquakes there as there were in Constantinople. But she looked over her shoulder, toward the entrance porch.

Alexa saw the terrifying specter of the White Queen, with eyes sparkling with hate. A long, dreadful shriek echoed everywhere. A cry of hatred and ferocity. The floor under her feet continued to shake, and then, coming from the door, the marble floor rose and burst into pieces as if a giant snake crossed the hall at an enormous speed.

Coming towards her.

"Uh-oh!" Alexa didn't have time to think about the reasons, she just jumped away from the altar, holding the little bird firmly against her chest, while the line of destruction reached the altar and broke it exactly in half, from floor to ceiling. The crack in the middle of the cathedral sank, revealing the lower floor. The ossuary from which coffins and bones emerged to the surface, in the middle of the main nave.

Despite the pain in the back for having fallen badly against a column, Alexa stood up, verifying that the image of the Son of God had remained intact. Balancing while the whole floor trembled, Alexa felt the air whirl around her, and her body was slowing being dragged towards the door.

Out of the corner of her eye, the Princess realized that some brave people ran into the nave, only to be thrown away against the walls and columns, defenseless against Gisela's powers.

The Shade of the Mighty White Queen did not enter the cathedral. The curse and excommunication on her were too strong even for her powers, the Light Bearer reasoned. So the Shade tried to drag them with her.

"It is too early for me to know hell, Mother-in-law. You will need to go first," in no way did Alexa think of releasing Alexander, if that was what the Witch wanted. Even if she failed, she needed to send Gisela to the other side, now that her body received expulsion rites performed by the Christian Bishop.

Alexa jumped to the altar again, spreading her legs to stay exactly over the crack that opened the once peaceful rest of the dead underground.

Raising her hand, she pointed toward the door. She felt the usual pain return to her palms when the flaming light shone on her body. The taste of blood came to the mouth.

"NO! NO! NOT YOU! NO! I WANT MY REVENGE! MY REVENGEEEE! ALLOW ME MY REVENGE!" the Shade screams echoed.

More than her hands, her nose, ears, and eyes were bleeding too. Alexa didn't see it, she just knew that she should expel the White Queen at once from the world of the living.

Her body vibrated and Alexa felt involved in a ball of light, which spurted towards the powerful and maddened Shade, confronting her solid power and her iron will. Many paths have opened up to her senses, but none of them Alexa could peer at. Many bearers of the Light were blinded by trying to know more than was entrusted to them.

The White Queen cried black tears, while screaming, denying letting go.

Behind Gisela's Shade, many otherworldly hands tried to touch and grasp the White Queen, until she was drawn inexorably from the world of the living, while her once majestic form melted into black soot.

Blinded by her own blood, Alexa fell to the floor, just aware of keeping the nightingale with her.

The last thing the maiden heard before she lost consciousness was the people surrounding her.