-Pruning the Roses, Part 5-

"You're sure this is the right way?" I pestered Julius for the third time.

"Should be. It's Luke giving directions."

"At least it's not Mei."

"…"

Julius' silence was palpable.

"Not gonna say anything in her defense?"

He choked, "T-There's nothing to say."

"Really? Huh. I asked her about it, and she proudly told me that she'd learned from you. In a one-on-one session. Late at night."

There was a chorus of snickers from the knights. Hikita even seemed to enjoy the banter, letting out a muted snort as she clapped her hands over her mouth.

Zieta and Hakaze were being escorted to the infirmary-turned-forward command.

I had steered Hikita to do the same, but she refused.

She insisted that seeing things through until the end was her responsibility.

It made for good PR at the least. But I felt guilty.

Hailey had been ripping into us about handling children on the battlefields. The influx of kids found living on the streets in the Maarin and Vanixian districts was disturbingly high.

Hikita was seventeen and had volunteered, but because she looked so young, it felt worse.

The officer at the front raised his arm to signal a halt.

"Are we finally there?" I asked.

A waystrider answered, aimed at Julius, "It's, uh, a dead end, Commander."

This is exactly what I was talking about!

Julius called Luke, and they started to hash out where we might have gotten lost.

"Hand scanner." Hikita muttered.

"What?" I asked, then remembered the secret aethertech devices hidden in the walls, "Oh, you think?"

The hallway was pretty dark, but one of the escort knights cast LIGHT and a magickal orb illuminated the space for Hikita.

She ran her finger across the right-most wall and, just as expected, a fancy panel folded out.

"Nice job!" I praised her.

"Thanks, but don't be too happy. I think the pass-code will be different."

Hikita placed her hand on the panel, and it flashed red.

She frowned. "Not authorized."

"Not a problem," I said, "We know there is a hidden door. All we need to do is bust it down and keep moving."

"There are no signs of a struggle." A small voice said from right beside me.

I flinched.

Tatsuko had sneaked up on me. I'd experienced alongside Airis, but damn if it didn't scare the shit out of me in person.

My heart nearly gave out.

"When did you get here?" I asked.

"Hmm?" She gave me a weird look, "I've been with Commander Julius' group the whole time."

"Is that right? Sorry, I must have been distracted."

Hikita's expression implied she too had been unaware of Tatsuko's presence since the start.

"In any case," I continued, "You're right. The missing assault force must have been taken by surprise or passed beyond the hidden door before it was closed."

I rolled my sleeves back.

"Which wall has the door?" I looked around, "Or should we just bust up the whole corridor? Gah!"

Julius chopped my head, "Easy there, destructive psycho. We should hold off on collapsing the palace on top of us. Your Knight-Captain and angelic bestie are on their way."

"Oh, fantastic news. This whole kidnapping fiasco happened because I went out to see her."

"I'm aware."

"You approved it. Don't get sassy with me when the people you assigned couldn't prevent forced teleportation."

"If you would just sit quietly until she returned, we wouldn't have any of these problems."

I socked him in the arm, "It's because you're such an asshole to me."

POKE. POKE. TWIST.

I jabbed two fingers in the gap under his breastplate, reaching his squishier belly.

"Personality wise we might be a little different," I muttered, "But we both have the same memories and similar affections. My best friend keeps treating me like trash, so yeah, I wanna leave the shit-hole you keep locking me up in."

"Ahem."

Tatsuko cleared her throat, "I sense Dame Ikuye's frightening aura approaching."

As she said, a chilly sense of dread was creeping its way down the hall.

"Whatever," I turned away from Julius and left him with a last remark, "Just treat me better."

Strea came into view first, with a floating ball of light trailing above her head. Tomin was a step behind, holding a lantern at his side.

"Aha! I shouldn't have doubted you."

Ikuye's cheerful voice echoed loudly in the confined space.

Their pace quickened, and others appeared. Flik, Aeko, Hawken, and Viktor jogged past them with guilt-ridden expressions.

I quickly waved their concerns away, "I'm fine. Nobody could have expected an encounter at that level."

Flik grabbed my hand, "I'm relieved you're safe, Your Eminence. Did you ever find out who that woman was?"

How great is my Knight-Captain? Hasn't treated me differently from Airis, not even once.

With a glance at Hikita, I shrugged, "Yeah, but I'll go into details later. I doubt it'll make anyone feel better, but know she was out of everybody's league. It's a good thing it didn't end in a fight."

Aeko smirked, "You're right, it doesn't. I still feel like shit. But we're here now to make up for it! Right, guys?"

Hawken and Viktor gave cheerful replies.

An eighth person was trailing behind the others. They didn't look like one of mine. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see them in the low light, but couldn't place them.

"Hey," I whispered to Flik, "Who in the Aether is that?"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She turned and stared at the man.

"Knight Jeffreys? He's part of Dame Ikuye's team."

Oh, that guy! The tag along for the battle-junkie squadron.

"Ah, I see him now. The lighting down here is awful."

My Knight-Captain laughed knowingly.

I looked around, but didn't see anyone else hiding in the back.

"Akari isn't with you?" I asked.

"No, Your Eminence. Miss Akari was accompanying High-Commander Brooks. They're on their way too, but they're on Seeker-One's channel."

"We're getting the band back together." I smiled.

Flik didn't understand, "Sorry?"

"Nothing. It's just been a while since Hailey, Julius, and I went adventuring together."

I glanced at Julius.

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze.

"We're not on an adventure. People are missing."

"Goddess' sake," I groaned, "You still wanna fight?"

Flik looked between the two of us with concern.

"It's nothing." I said, ditching Julius for Ikuye. I was greeted with a beaming smile and wrapped in an awkward hug.

"I wasn't worried." She boasted.

"That makes one of you," I laughed, "Everyone else seemed to have lost their minds."

With newly arrived reinforcements, the forward team finished their inspection and determined which wall was false.

Tatsuko and other mages tried to make an opening, but their low-power spells couldn't cut it. Without risking further collapse of the already unstable palace, their arsenal was fairly restricted.

"Stand aside, frail humans."

Ikuye pushed her way to the front, manifesting her massive scarlet greatsword from beyond a rift.

She swung the blade effortlessly. One slash across the wall at head length, then another cutting straight down, followed by two more in the shape of an angled cross.

Chunks of the hard stone crumbled under the pressure. The wall was singed and glowed hot along the cut marks.

"Raid members of Assault-One, secure the passage," Julius ordered, "Assault-Four, cover our rear. Be ready for anything."

The knights pressed ahead, disappearing one-by-one into the poorly lit tunnel.

Tomin stepped up to the hole, "We'll clear the way, Your Majesty."

Strea followed him with Knight Jeffreys on her heels.

The last of their group, Ikuye, paused.

"Try not to get kidnapped this time~" She teased, and flitted into the dark before I could say anything.

Aeko and Flik shared a look but remained silent.

Hikita shrank back.

"Ignore her and everyone else." I said, "It'll be all the funnier once one of them gets grabbed by a teleport trap or sketchy backstreet magickian."

On Julius' orders, we moved ahead at steady intervals, trailing behind him and the others.

The tunnel went on for a distance.

One of Hawken's skills as a ranger functioned as a sort of mental-mapping—much more detailed than a mage's or my ability to trace down magicka signatures.

We'd left the footprint of the Renaultian palace and were now running parallel to Axio's northern exterior walls. A few meters west, and we'd be directly underneath one of the city guard-towers.

The passage's condition had worsened the further we delved. Revealing simple wear and tear at first, like stonework settling and chipping away at the mortar.

At a certain point, it seemed like the entire tunnel might be structurally unsound. Huge cracks in the walls, with earth seeping through, were dotted with bright-red flowers.

An ominous cluster of blood-spider lilies was growing in the Renaultian underground.

The consequences of my broken seal had come to haunt me.

Thankfully my attendants didn't seem fazed by them.

"It's probably just an escape tunnel," Aeko bickered with Viktor and Hawken, "The assault team got unlucky and ran into some fleeing nobles and their guards."

Viktor shook his head, "Then, why no bodies? No blood? A skilled team gets shutdown completely by flustered nobles? No way."

"I agree." Hawken's reply left both Aeko and Viktor confused.

"With who?" "About what?"

Their hypothesizing would have to be tabled, however, as our ears were assailed by what seemed like a banshee's screech echoing from the tunnel ahead.

I winced, "What in the Aether was that?"

Static crept across my neck, and Julius spoke in my ear, a sense of alarm staining his voice.

"Assault-One to Regal-One, we need you here ASAP."

I motioned for our group to depart.

"Regal-One. Acknowledged. We're on our way. Did you encounter something voidy?"

"No enemy contact yet. We need you to settle Ikuye down."

That screeching was Ikuye? What in…

We picked up our pace, finally spotting a lit entryway in the dark.

Past the door was a massive hexagonal chamber that dwarfed the palace's throne room. Sprawled out on the dark stone flooring were most of the forward guard, shaking and struggling to stand.

Ikuye's form had shifted, revealing her seraphic wings and golden double halo. Waves of unsettling pressure crushed the soldiers unlucky enough to have been close to her.

Strea and Tomin were desperately pleading with her to collect herself, while Jeffreys was carrying fallen knights to the edge of the room over his shoulders.

Aside from them, only Julius and half a dozen guards were spared, as they had waited by the entry.

My aura rattled people when I was near, but its effect was nowhere near this level of debilitating.

It made me a little jealous.

Focusing back in on the issue at hand, I followed Ikuye's gaze and found the source of her rampage.

On the far wall, a monolithic blood-red stone was erected like an altar. Sigils were etched in the floor in concentric circles, gilded bowls placed around held grotesque offerings, and a pair of chains hung down from the vaulted ceiling.

The strange sigils and bowls filled innards alone were more than enough to make the most steadfast person falter for a step. But it was the figure attached to the ends of the chains that had set off the angelic warrior.

A set of spiky, obsidian-like hooks held the bruised and battered body of a pale-haired Alaetüs aloft. Her wings were tainted with void magicks—feathers had withered on her right side, leaving only a sinewy purplish appendage.

And to make things worse, at the core of this awful sight, were two children bound with rope lying motionless.

"What in the Goddess' name…" Aeko bowed her head and whispered a prayer.

My ears itched.

Flik turned to Julius, "Were the other rituals like this?"

"No," He replied, "At least not that I'm aware. If someone had seen a strung up angel, you'd think it would be included in the report."

"Yeah…" Flik's voice wavered.

CLICK. THUD.

Loud rumbling, followed by the sound of something grinding on stone, drew our attention to the north end of the room.

An opening had appeared, and so did a tall, white-haired woman in an extravagant dress covered with dark frills and silvery rose-like appliqué.

She entered the chamber confidently.

A veil of magick glimmered around her body as she circled around Ikuye's radiant form in the center of the room, seemingly unaffected by the rampaging aura.

The woman stopped between Ikuye and the monolith, flicking a small white fan up to her face.

"Hmm, what a surprising development." She mused arrogantly. She barely glanced at Strea and Tomin before changing her tone, "Eugh. More of these pests."

I sneakily cast OMNISIGHT and frowned at the details displayed in my vision.

- - - - - -STATUS- - - - - -

[AUDREY D'FONTAINE] <The Alabaster Rose> HEALTH: (666 / 666) STAMINA: (666 / 666) MAGICKA: (666 / 666)

» ACTIVE EFFECT: COVENANT OF THE VOID » ACTIVE EFFECT: ARCANE BRILLIANCE » ACTIVE EFFECT: FORTITUDE » ACTIVE EFFECT: PRISMATIC BARRIER » ACTIVE EFFECT: AMPLIFY MAGICK » ACTIVE EFFECT: BLOOD SIPHON

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - -ᛏᚪᚱᚷᛖᛏ- - - - - -

[ᛁᚳᚢᛁᛖ] (ᚪᚠᚪᛏᚪᚱ ᚱᛁᚴᚬᚾᛅᛁᛋᛅᚾᚴᛁ) ᚻᛠᛚᚦ: [?] ᛋᛏᚪᛘᛁᚾᚪ: [?] ᛘᚪᚷᛁᚳᚳᚪ: [?]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Annoyingly, the status of the injured Alaetüs had been delivered untranslated in runes, so I had no way of telling if she was alive, dead, or somewhere in-between.

Flik tensed up, having picked up on my expression.

"Orders, Your Eminence?"

"Assist Ikki's squad members in pulling the knights back. I doubt her mood is going to improve, so anyone who cannot withstand the pressure needs to retreat. Those of us who can are putting a stop to whatever is going on."

A few hesitated, but the knights scrambled to assist the incapacitated.

"We're up." I said to Julius.

» AURA OF ANNIHILATION ATTACKS YOUR MIND [SANITY CHECK]

» YOU HAVE RESISTED AURA OF ANNIHILATION

Ikuye's aura hit me like a slap in the face. Painful but brief, I steadied myself and drew Dáinsleif from its scabbard.

Sweet, dark crimson flames roared to life, hungrily licking the air.

My sweet baby is back?

"Oh, you're screwed now, lady."

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