“Bart?!” June cried for her brother, her heart racing a mile a minute. Frightened, she turned her head in all directions, trying to pinpoint the mysterious sound she had just heard. “What just happened? That thing was about to kill me. Did you save me?”
“Well! Look who we’ve caught here, Ash!” A deep yet shrill voice called out from the darkness up ahead. “Now what could a couple of foolish scamps be doing all the way out here? Perhaps they have a death wish? Would make our job a whole lot easier.”
“…Our target.” A second voice added.
“W-Who’s there?!” barked Bart. The ever-anxious prince twisted around and hastily pulled his dagger out, holding it shakily at the silhouettes in front of him. His other arm struggled to keep the tarp with the woman’s body aloft. “What target?!”
Two figures stepped out from the shadows. A rugged looking man with black hair in casual dress. He seemed decked out in hunting gear. His fleece, leather jacket had seen better days. In his hand was the crossbow that had fired the shot that saved June’s life.
The figure next to the man had almost made Bart drop the body in stark horror. He couldn’t believe his eyes. A tall, slender knight in armor made of gold stood imposingly, towering over all three of them. Her face was obscured by an intimidating looking helm, while a torn red cape billowed in the wind behind her. In her hand was a thick, leathery whip that looked like it could leave a nasty wound on anyone looking to oppose her.
“June…” Bart whispered to his sister behind him. “A troublesome duo has shown up. And one of them is another Scarlet Sister. It seems we’re not done dealing with the Church after all.”
“Bart. I almost died just now… It was so…” June was still shaken up from the near fatal experience, she had little time to process the mysterious shift in situation. “Wait—Did you say Scarlet Sister? Do you think they’re here for us? Or for the cult? Was she the one that saved my life?”
“It doesn’t matter. Their presence always spells calamity. June, we’re supposed to hiding from them. This might be the end of our journey—” Bart jumped at the loud crack of a whip next to him, forcing him to lose his grip on the tarp. It slammed the floor with a dull thud.
“Silly boy,” commented the Scarlet Sister. “Do you always give away your position so easily when you’re being shot at?”
The man trained his crossbow on the young prince, keeping him in his sights. “Seems our detour proved to be a fruitful endeavor after all.”
“It’s not a detour!” The armored woman yelled at him. She seemed to be keeping him on a short leash. “Some things are more important than capturing some stuck-up brat!”
“Hey!” June shouted from the back. She gingerly placed her end of the tarp down and balled her fists in annoyance. “I’m an ingénue at best!”
“But I suppose this makes things a tad easier for us.” Her sultry voice echoed in her helmet as she spoke. The armored woman strutted over with a hand on her hip and stood before Bart, looming over him menacingly. She was all the more frightening without a face to put to her intimidating presence. “I’m really not sure how you managed to survive in there, but you’re shit out of luck now, boy. D’rrota will soon be taking your soul!”
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“B-Boy?! I’m nearly 30! And I know who you are, Scarlet Sister!” Bart steadied his dagger, holding it out in front of him. The point of the blade was nearly level with her heart.
“Real impressive. But I’m pushing 80!” The slender woman cracked her whip in undeserved arrogance.
“Oi!” the man shouted from behind, his crossbow still trained on them. “Quit screwing around! You want I should shoot him now or what?”
Bart gasped.
“No!!” June ran up to her brother and stood in front of him. “You are not shooting him! You said we’re your targets, correct? That means you know who we are! Aren’t you supposed to be capturing us and taking us back home?”
“That’s bold talk coming from a traitor,” replied the man.
“Traitor?!” Bart piped up. “Isn’t that a bit of an excessive remark?! All we did was run away!”
“Thieving’s a lot more than just running away,” the man answered matter-of-factly. “How about you tell us where the artifact is and we can end this all painlessly.”
“Artif—?”
“Enough!” The armored woman yelled, cracking her whip against the ground beside them.
June whimpered painfully as the sound hit her delicate ears.
“There are more important issues to deal with right now!” she continued. “The girl can wait!” The woman seemed to be glaring at the two siblings. She raised her coiled whip and with its edge, lifted up June’s chin. “You two! What was your business in there? And you better not waste my time!”
June sneered, a piercing glare of defiance through the dark sunglasses she wore over her cloudy eyes. “We followed a strange march of foreign wayfarers through the streets to this location, where we were witness to a disturbing murder earlier today.”
“Earlier today, huh? They seem to have no shortage of tourists to kill… And this strange march… Was it one following a strange buzzing—sort-of-humming—siren?”
“That’s right! Full of towering men, fully garbed in large coats and big hats and horrid masks! At least, according to my brother. We arrived here but laid low. It was then that I heard a woman screaming and according to my brother, those strange men had murdered a poor woman in the streets! Weirder still, there was no one around to stop their grisly deed! Is that just what happens in other countries?! Well, we decided to investigate and it turns out this place is a front for a sinister cult. One I’d seen before in my visions.”
“Visions?” the man repeated, confused.
“The Knights of the Lost Star,” added the woman. She briefly glanced at the large cathedral behind them. “Yeah, I recently discovered they had been in hiding out here.” She quickly looked back at June. “Did you know they were here? Is that why you came all the way out here?”
“And what if it was?” added Bart, placing his hand on his sister’s shoulder.
“No,” exclaimed June. “I will not lie. We snuck in to retrieve her body so we could give her a proper burial. I wanted justice for the murdered woman, especially after we soon discovered her identity as a Scarlet Sister.”
“Impossible,” claimed the knight. “The only Sister that should be stationed out here is me and—” The woman hesitated to answer. “But that was days ago. How can you be so sure? You must have misheard.”
“It’s true! We have her body right here!” June pointed toward the tarp on the ground. “It was an elfwin woman! Surely you’ll recognize her.”
“What? An elfwin?!” The woman tore off her helmet and rushed over, kneeling before the worn tarp sinking into the mud. She scrambled to unfurl the body laying inside.
“Dear Goddess!” screamed Bart. “It’s you!”
“Who, Bart?! Who is it?!”
The Scarlet Sister, a beautiful elfwin woman, unveiled the body in front of her. A corpse that was a dead ringer for the priestess in front of them. Laying there on the bloody tarp, with her insides flayed open, was her exact double.
“It’s me…” said the elf woman, oddly relieved.