Act 28.

"Did she just call you daughter?" whispered Linda to Mikako.

Still in a little bit of a shock, Mikako could only nod.

"Your hearing is not playing tricks on you, Champion." said the Black Mother, who was smiling, but in an odd way. As if she was not used to doing so.

Linda studied her. After all, how many people can say that they have met a Goddess? Certainly no one she used to hang out with.

The Goddess sat in a throne sculpted from the rock. It was connected from the floor to the ceiling and looked as if it was hone out of a pillar.

She was a giant, her pale white skin, that had probably not seen the sun in centuries, was unblemished. By most standards, she was beautiful, with angular cheekbones and flowing hair, the colour of the very stone around her, falling across her shoulders.

Her lips were the most colourful part of her. They stood out with their deep red colouring causing your eye to focus on them.

Her eyes, though, were what caused you to realise that you were not dealing with just a big person. They were a deep blue into which you could see her power. Linda had heard the old adage that the eyes were the windows into the soul. And now she could say she believed it. The Black Mother’s eyes showed you the old power that simmered beneath the pretty trappings.

"Why have you brought Mikako here?" Linda finally got up the courage to ask.

"I wished to visit with my daughter and nothing more." said the Goddess, "Unfortunately, your Queen was caught in the spell."

She looked Linda right in the eyes.

"However you came here without an invitation. You are not welcome." she waved her hand at them, "You may take your Queen and go and I will not be angry."

"No." said Linda.

There was a silence for a little while.

"Umm." said Margaret, "She is a Goddess. Are you sure you want to say no to her."

"Yeah, Well... Mikako is our friend and we don’t know why She called her here, and so I don’t think I would like to just leave and not know she will be safe."

The Black Mother continued to stare silently at Linda, who stood defiantly in front of her. If she had looked closer she would have seen the sweat that was pouring off of Linda.

In her little time on this earth, Linda had learned that sometimes putting on a brave face could get you out of trouble. Many times she had used it to get someone to back down. She did not expect it to really work on a Goddess but it had become instinct to protect what she saw as hers.

"I have never been talked to that way before." She said.

She mulled it over in Her mind, almost tasting it with Her Thoughts. Finally she said.

"I don’t like it."

She snapped her fingers.

In front of her appeared several creatures. They looked like early versions of trolls and bugbears, and other creatures that lived in the dark. Some creatures were not even recognisable as anything recorded.

Linda thought they looked like rejected first drafts of the creatures that were created.

The Goddess waved her hand and the creatures attacked.

Mikako pulled the Queen behind her and both of them backed up to the wall. Margaret and Linda positioned themselves between the two women and the creatures.

A huge troll like thing swung both fists down on Margaret. She deftly stepped aside of the slower moving creature and kick out. She struck him in the mid section. It flew back a few feet and crashed into another creature that had also been aiming for the Lady knight.

Linda faced her foe. It had a club nearly half her height in its paw. The paw was just as menacing as it looked as though it could cover Linda’s head entirely.

It swung the club at her head. Linda stepped into the swing and ducking under the arm, and slashed at the exposed side of the creature. Blood poured from the wound and the creature cried out, but Linda knew that the wound was not that deep, at least not deep enough to cause it too much harm.

Suddenly Linda caught the glimpse of a fist, just before it connected with the side of her head. She hit the ground hard and couldn’t see anything. Her vision cleared just enough to see the creature that had hit her come out from behind the larger one she had just cut. It swung back its arm to hit her again. She tried to crawl back to get away from it.

A ball of flame struck it on the side and the hair caught fire. The creature cried out more in surprise than in pain and began to try to stamp out the fire with its hands.

Linda looked in the direction the flames had come from. There was Mikako with a sword that looked like it was made of flames. Linda at first thought the blow was making her see things but she realised that it really was a sword made of moving fire.

There were creatures near her. They seemed to be trying to get to the Queen, but were reluctant to get near Mikako. Linda realised they were trying to not hurt Mikako, and that Mikako had realised that and was deliberately putting herself in harms way.

Linda got to her feet in time to avoid the club that struck the ground where her head had just been.

She struck out with the sword, again hitting the larger, slower creature. But still not doing anything more than superficial damage.

She maneuvered herself over to Margaret, who was also having troubles of her own.

There were three creatures attacking her. They were abnormally strong as even Margaret’s strength was not doing as much damage as it normally would. That plus the two Linda had and the two that menaced Mikako and the Queen, made seven in all.

"This isn’t looking good." she said between attacks.

"Your telling me." said Margaret as she punched one of the creatures in the nose, "These are tough ones and I don’t know how much longer we will last, but I believe we will tire first."

At that moment two of the creatures attacked simultaneously. A club struck Margaret full on her chest and another fist found its way through Linda’s defences and struck her another blow.

Both warriors went down. More lights danced in front of Linda’s eyes. She could hear Margaret coughing, trying to get air back into her lungs.

Her vision cleared and she looked up to see that the five creatures had surrounded them.

"And now." said the Black Mother, "I bid you farewell."

Three swords and two clubs were raised and came down on the two women lying on the ground.