Elaina came up behind Maia to look into the courtyard where the shockwave had erupted from.

“So... I guess we were too late?”

Elaina watched Mira from behind, the older woman appeared to be trembling in place, with rage or...

Elaina walked through the door and past Mira, and saw that the look on her face was less one of rage and more one of worry, anxiety, and frustration.

Well it was less her face saying it and more Elaina taking a quick peak with her divination magic, she could practically feel the ripples of the different emotions Mira was experiencing wash over her.

Elaina quickly recalled her training before those ripples became waves, and swamped over her. She closed her eyes and carefully pictured each ripple being trapped inside a box, the waves reflected back and forth over itself until it became a single buzzing waveform.

“Mira, I'm sure he's going to be fine, he's lead a bunch of missions like this and come back fine right?”

Mira looked aside and Elaina could feel the guilt well up, the waveform she had sequestered it in in her own mind became more violent, and Elaina exerted herself to dampen it, combining a ripple of calm from her own mind into it. It settled out before her, and Mira looked back, her eyes a little red.

“Not always... The reason we pulled him back from the front lines, and pulled him out of command of the crystal knights, is that they started hunting him.

Elaina blinked. “Hunting? What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said. Hunting. The enemy General or someone higher up realized that the lynchpin of our defense was Me, Alex, and Vincent, or at least we are the most visible and active portion of our defense. So they started including special units with every group they send forward. Assasins, armed with accurate, generally poisoned weapons, whose only job is to stay hidden until they spot one of us, at which point they do their damnedest to kill or incapacitate us. Me and Alex have run into them a few times, but the both of us prefer heavy armor, and combined with the enchantments Rose has laid on them we have been able to muddle through. But Vincent, he only wears light armor, he says heavier armor makes it harder for him to aim his bow, and makes his spatial magic less effective. The last time they caught him he almost died, the only reason he's alive now is that both Mother and Vickey were around to heal his wounds and replace all the blood he lost.” Mira smiled sadly at Elaina.

“That's part of the reason we pushed for this engagement. We were HOPING having a new fiance would distract him from the war, and give him time to heal. He won't admit it, but despite all the healing, he's slower than he used to be, and both his vision and hearing have been damaged, so he's more vulnerable than ever. Which is why I gave him SPECIFIC orders to STAY HERE!”

Elaina blinked at this new information, processing. Ezra looked thoughtful, while Elaina could feel Mira getting angrier, as the other emotions rippling off of her became more indistinct.

“Would it make you feel better if you were able to see what he was doing?” Ezra asked, hoping to give Mira something to focus on other than simply being angry.

Mira looked over at Ezra and raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“My twin here is AMAZING at divination, if we can find a crystal ball we can watch the whole battle play out from safety. She's the only one I know of who can hook in other people she sees, with eyes or with her magic, so she can talk to them or show them images. She used to use it to mess with our caretakers back home, make them think she was standing beside them and actively talking to them while she was, more often than not, dragging me off on some foolhardy adventure.”

Mira turned to Elaina and spoke. “Is that true? Can you?”

“Maybe? If I can get a crystal ball definitely.”

Mira chewed her lower lip. “I don't think we have any crystal balls in the castle anymore. When the war started they hit the castle with a massive hex that destroyed most of the more fragile magic focuses, crystal balls in particular. I think they were trying to blind us. We've set up new wards to keep it from happening again but... Crystal balls havent really been a priority. We haven't had anyone with more than a passing interest in divination at the castle in years.”

Elaina pursed her lips and thought. “I could link you in I think... but without a crystal ball you are not going to be shielded from any of the backlash, you will share it with me.” Elaina let that last word hang in the air.

Mira immediately nodded at Elaine. “Yes, I'm fine with it, let's do it!”

Elaina looked around. “Is there anywhere we can sit? Divination can be disorienting and it's easy to lose your balance.” Mira snapped her head towards the north and quickly directed them to a stone bench and began quickly walking there.

Elaina and Ezra followed her at a more sedate pace, whispering back and forth between eachother. “You sure about this? You didn't bring your glasses if it hit's you too bad, and I am not sure letting Mira watch her brother engage in bloody combat will help calm her nerves. Like, at all.”

Elaina snuck a look up at Mira, who was now pacing back and forth at maximum speed in front of the stone bench. “Yeah I don't think we can back out of it now.” She said while quickening her pace.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Mira took a seat on the bench along with Elaina and Ezra, turning to her side to face Elaina. “So... how do we start this?” Elaina took Mira's armored hands in hers, and looked into her eyes.

“Alright, breathe deep, in” Elaina demonstrated.” And out.” Elaina exhaled slowly. “Count, five seconds in. Hold for five seconds. Then five seconds out.” Elaina watched as Mira matched her breathing.

Inwardly Elaina thought to herself this wasn't strictly necessary, it was mostly to calm Mira down so that Mira's emotions wouldn't be hammering Elaina while she was trying to concentrate.

Elaina calmed her own mind, returning the the infinitely stretching plain of black water that was her mind, and with her will, she gently tapped the surface.

Ripples immediately sprang out along the surface, and answering ripples began to pulse out as her search encountered other points of interest that the tiny teardrop of her will thought might be of interest to her. She quickly silenced the ripples emanating from Ezra and Mira, as they were the first her will uncovered for her, and settled back to cancel out the ripples that appeared as she saw them. Her will was pinging people she personally knew, or at least who she had an emotional bond with, and while she had never actually physically met Vincent, she knew enough about him, and his sister, that her will should be able to find him.

After cancelling out the ripples stemming from the crystal knights she had met, the driver, and the few other individuals she had met in this country, the ripples spread for a long time uninterrupted, and then a faint ripple responded, a dark purple ripple spreading out to meet her.

She reached out towards it, sending a dapple of new spreading ripples towards it, the epicenter of each inching a little closer, until they were right next to eachother.

“Mira, hold on, I'm taking you with me... now.” Elaina held tight to Mira's hand and pulled on her with her mind, as she focused in on the ripples cascading over eachother in her mind, the water in her mindscape becoming more and more turbulent, more complex, until it resolved itself into an image.

They were floating above a town, hopefully Seytan village, staring out at a sea of rooftops. On the nearest one she could see

“Vincent!” Mira's voice echoed far too loudly in Elaina's head.

“Shush! I'm right here you don't have to shout.” Elaina admonished her.

“Sorry! Sorry. He looks okay for now at least.”

As they watched Vincent took an arrow from the quiver on his hip and loosed it onto the streets below, the arrow glowing faintly as it left the bow.

“He seems to have the situation well in hand. The village looks to be in a bad way though.” Elaina said, rotating her view around Vincent, who was now shouting down at someone on the ground and waving. In the distance they could see smoke rising, and screams appeared to be coming from the direction of the gate.

Mira started. “Maybe I was being overprotective, he's out of reach of most of the enemies, they don't have many mages, the only things he has to worry about are cross...”

At that moment a dozen small barbed shapes flew at Prince Vincent's back, all but one deflecting off to the side off of his armor. The one that didn't, lodged itself securely in Vincent's back, and launched him from the roof.

“...bows.” Mira finished her sentence while sucking in a breath, Elaina quickly panned the view downwards to refocus in on Vincent, who had by now made it to the ground, and was busy retching into it as he tried to breathe.

“No...” Both Elaina and Mira said at the same time, as Vincent was surrounded by men in enemy colors.

“No no no...” Mira repeated as she watched the men assault Vincent as he lay there on the ground.

“There has to be something we can do! Elaina! Can't you do anything? You can see him, can you help him?” Mira spoke again, panic rising in her voice.

“I don't think I have time, I don't know what...” Elaina was interrupted by the side of the building where Vincent had fallen practically exploded outwards, and a massive armored figure began laying into the enemy soldiers around Vincent.

Mira let out a breath as the figure took a position over Vincent, guarding him.

“I think Baron Vardfort has bought us some time. I'm going to need to reward the old man when this is done... Now, Elaina, can you communicate with Vincent?”

“Um, probably? Normally when you are performing divination you don't want your target to be able to tell you are watching but, yeah, I can probably link him into the same way I did you.”

“From so far away? Really? Okay, do it.”

Elaina focused in on the image, trying to gain purchase on Vincent's mind, which was currently pulsing with pain and fear, and not a small bit of anger. The large man guarding him was bleeding from several wounds at this point, but after every sortie he returned to his position over Vincent, guarding him.

Elaina felt a sensation not unlike the hook on a fishing line going taught, and plucked at it, willing her voice to flow into it.

“Vincent, can you hear me?”