Sarai blinked at the man blankly for a mont. Her heartbeat pounded in her head while she searched for an answer.
"I didn't anger the gods," she managed.
But her timidity only made the accuser bolder.
"Oh, then who did?"
Sarai gulped.
This wasn't going well at all.
More people joined the first in expressing their displeasure and fear.
"Why is this happening?"
"What's wrong with the barrier?"
"Is the Lord of the Mountain really coming to destroy us all?"
When she didn't imdiately answer, their emotions quickly turned to frustration.
"Why are you just standing there?"
"Have you co to see us all die?"
The crowd surrounded Sarai, pushing in. As the soldiers had all gone running toward the horns, there was no one around to defend the forr Queen.
"This is all your fault!"
Soone threw a stone, barely missing the redhead and landing in the mass of humanity behind her. Shouts of indignation answered the lobbed projectile. The words around her beca violent. Soon the words would turn to action.
The crowd had beco a mob.
Sarai knew from her ti in the Dreamscape that it only took one or two loud voices to turn a cheering crowd into a jeering crowd. It was unlikely that all of these people actually harbored resentnt toward her, but they needed soone to bla.
'And Emira is an easy target since she is no longer Queen.'
Likely none of them knew exactly what their forr monarch was capable of, or in their sudden swell of emotion, they no longer cared.
Sarai's emotions were going wild too. The urge to flee was irresistible.
It would be easy for her to escape these mundane humans and leave them to their demise.
The ground shook, temporarily stopping the mass of humanity from taking hold of the erald queen.
"The ground!" Soone lanted. "The old Queen caused cracks in the earth!"
'How dare you!' The redhead was responsible for many things in her life, but seismic activity was not one of them. She needed to teach these people a lesson in manners!
But then a child cried out among the onlookers, her tiny voice echoing through the square.
"Mommy, what do we do? Are we going to die?"
Hearing the frightened words, Sarai doused the fla that was forming in her hand.
Yes, the child was about to die. At least in the original tiline.
Most of the people around her probably perished when the original conflict happened.
Could Sarai really make a difference this ti?
The fiery woman clenched her fists, her jaw set in a determined line. 'I can try!'
Her eyes filled with determination as she summoned two mories. The first ford in her hand. The beautiful gilded bauble spoke of authority and might. The [Strange Scepter] might not help her to find the right words, but it would help amplify anything she found the courage to say.
The second mory materialized across her shoulders. The beautiful cape was covered with interlocking shapes that seed to move in and out of one another in an endless maze of color. It was entrancing.
The [Mindweaver's Tapestry] was given to Sarai by Snowmobile as a gift. Its description had always made the shy baker reluctant to use it.
[A srizing, intricate tapestry woven from threads that seem to shimr with a life of their own. Each thread in the tapestry represents a strand of thought, showcasing the complexity and interconnectedness of the ntal landscape. A parting gift from an admirer.]
'Let's hope these people will beco my admirers as well.' Sarai took a deep breath.
Keeping both eyes on the crying child, Sarai ignored everyone else around her.
"Don't worry!" Sarai spoke. Through the scepter, her voice ca out loud and clear.
On her shoulders, the golden threads in the tapestry shimred as her words seed to ripple through the air.
While the anger of the crowd did not dissipate, Sarai could see the anxiety on people's faces lessen.
Her anxiety did as well. 'They didn't imdiately maul . That's sothing!' She tentatively continued.
"I don't know who angered the gods, but it doesn't matter. The earth is going to open and swallow you whole."
The panic she had just cald doubled tenfold. They had felt the world quaking below them. And it was more than just the regular shuddering that the mountains sotis sent their way.
"What can we do?!" A woman cried.
"Save us, mighty Queen!" A man begged, hoping his supplication would not fall on deaf ears.
Only a few still resisted the pull of her words. Sarai decided to ignore them.
"Everyone must get to the north side of the city as soon as possible. Those who can fight, get a weapon. Those who cannot, take shelter after you pass the palace."
Sarai felt her mories echo and enhance her words. That is what one of the tapestry's enchantnts did--enhanced the words of the speaker to make them more persuasive.
The crowd froze, fraught with indecision. So believed her wholeheartedly while others were less confident in their previous beliefs about the stoic royal.
Only a few still harbored the anger of a revolution they did not get to enact.
She t the defiant looks with determination of her own.
A screech sounded, breaking the tension of the mont.
All eyes shifted from the ground to overhead. Sarai looked too. Her expression darkened.
A single flying abomination swooped down over the city, ready to capture so delicious human prey. Its hungry fangs glistened with anticipation of flesh.
Coming in from the south, the corrupted being was not part of the Tyrant's horde.
It was rely a bottom-feeder opportunist.
Yet it would suffer the sa fate as all others that opposed the fiery forr Queen.
With a sigh, Sarai lifted her hand and blasted the creature with a ball of flas.
The monster hissed as the sll of charred flesh filled the air. Before the abomination could get anywhere near the people, a second immolating blast hit it across its hideous skull.
The dead mound of flesh and bones crashed into a nearby structure, crumbling it.
"What are you waiting for? The barrier is broken and more are coming. Move!" Sarai wished Noble were here to emotionally jolt them into action.
The tapestry seed to understand. It flashed, blinding those closest to her temporarily. A woman gathered up her child and ran northward. "Let's go!"
Others began to follow until only a few rebels remained to oppose Sarai.
Even after the display of power, they were aching for a fight.
She shrugged.
So people just didn't want to be saved.
Before they could get any ideas about trying to harm her, Sarai sent a spray of harmless sparks in their direction.
"Shoo! Go fight the monsters or each other. Leave alone!"
The [Mineweaver's Tapestry] glowed softly as Sarai's eyes lit with flas.
The revolutionaries looked confused for a mont. It was only when more sparks lit fires under their shoes that they finally fled.
Sarai walked away from them unhard.
'Dead n walking...I tried!'
The ground rumbled like the groan of a sleeping giant.
More cracks ford in the ground.
Sarai quickened her pace.
The Tapestry billowed out behind her as she hurried through the streets with her ssage being spread far and wide by way of her scepter.
Both salvation and doom were located in one direction.
North.
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