Lily could feel her heart race as she looked up, before her were the castle gates leading to the grand castle of Resovult.
As it turns out the first order of business was getting her recognized by the King and Queen of this place, supposedly they’d allow her to move freely if she could pass some kind of test.
What that test was… well no one would explain.
Apparently telling someone what to expect was against the rule.
“Come on, I promise you’ll be fine.” Vonder says with a smile as he walks through the gates into a wide open courtyard. “The King and Queen are the last people you have to worry about pulling anything.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about-” Lily pauses upon passing through the gates, feeling a rush of energy wash over her, quickly she looks back, her eyes narrowing a bit. “Are those… glyphs?”
Her eyes had focused onto carvings in the stone and iron that most people would’ve missed at first glance, something so minute that without feeling this strange sensation she would’ve missed it as well.
Vonder lets out an impressed whistle. “Yeah, how did you know? Aida and I couldn’t tell they were even there until a mage pointed them out.”
“You mean, you didn’t feel that right now? It felt like a wall of cold air blew past me.” Lily asks, now more concerned than ever.
“Nope, I didn’t… but that means you’re more special than I thought!” Vonder eases up a bit more. “After all you have to have some great senses to feel a warding glyph created by The Forgotten!”
“Those glyphs are said to be such fine spellwork that even the majority or mages can’t detect them magically, they have to look for physical traces of them.” Aida continues as she rests atop of Vonder’s head. “So to feel the magic wash over you is a feat in and of itself.”
“Alright… well at least they didn’t activate some kind of alarm.” Lily says now easing up as well.
“Oh yeah, they would’ve only activated if you were walking in with some kind of dangerous magic brewing or a killing intent stewing in your mind.” Vonder continues, now walking towards the castle entrance. “It’s not a perfect system mind you, but it deters most unwelcome guests from sneaking in.”
“Alright then..” Lily looks at the glyph one last time before following Vonder inside the castle.
It was a surprisingly simple place compared to what she was expecting, Mainly using a mixture of Iron and Wood to build the structures and interior, with a few carpets and art pieces hung on the walls.
It was still very much a castle belonging to royalty… but it felt humble, as if all the money wasn’t just going back to the king and queen.
Even the decorations here seemed to be less… eccentric than she was expecting.
It was primarily paintings, a chandelier and one stained glass window.
There were no statues, relics, or collector's items… it was honestly a little surprising to see.
“Ah, there you are, I was wondering when you and your friend would arrive.” A firm but kind voice spoke, the way they spoke was smooth like velvet and kept Lily hooked on every word.
Standing at the end of the hall, in front of a set of double doors, was a woman wearing what looked like a mixture of butler-like attire and armor.
It was certainly a formal suit of some kind, primarily being black in color with little silver accents thrown in.
The armor was primarily a full cover over their right arm, it was silver and seemed to be engraved with the same glyphs that were at the entrance, aside from that the armor was some light protection around the elbows, heart, knees and neck.
All together while it did look stylish it did make Lily believe that this person could attack at any moment, they didn’t seem like a normal servant.
Their appearance was nothing to scoff at either, long snow white hair tied up into a weird mixture of a crown braid and a bun.
Soft icey blue eyes that sparkled in the light.
Ghostly pale skin, making them seem almost like a ghost.
“Grey! What took you so long to show up? Usually you greet me at the beginning of the hall.” Vonder begins, walking up to this strange person and casually slinging his arm around their shoulders in a very buddy buddy manner.
“Caution had to be taken, every new guest must be treated with extreme caution… even if you’re the one to bring them.” They reply with a bit of tired annoyance lingering in my voice. “We cannot just let anyone stroll into the castle after all.”
Their voice- no, that’s… why did it sound so familiar? Why did it tug at her heart so?
It felt like some kind of deep long forgotten memory was welling up inside of Lily, though she couldn’t know what.
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“I apologize, Grey this is Lily, she’s been blessed by Cecil!” Vonder motions his head lightly to Gray now. “Lily, this is Grey, she’s actually an outlander as well, currently she’s residing in the castle to serve under the Queen.”
Another outlander? No, that should’ve been impossible, the journal showed there were no other players here-
‘She’s not from this world or yours, that is the answer’ Six whispered, finally speaking up for the first time.
His voice scared Lily half to death, but she couldn’t show it, not right now.
Six’s answer had provided her enough clarity for the time being.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Grey.” Lily meekly says while holding out a hand.
The white haired woman pauses, looking at Lily’s hand before slowly reaching out with the gauntlet and shaking her hand.
The gauntlet was freezing cold, colder than anything else in the room, it felt like it should’ve been covered in frost but it wasn’t somehow.
“Likewise.” was the only word uttered from Grey as she remained surprisingly stoic in the face of all of this. “Now, if you’re here to meet with Queen Shara and King Flann they are currently discussing strategy in the war room, I’ll show the way.”
“Man, the way you can read people will never not surprise me.” Vonder sighs a little before looking at Lily. “Well, are you ready?”
“Yes! Please lead the way!” Lily replies, now moving up to the other two.
Without saying another word Grey moves away from Vonder, her footsteps silent, not a single sound came from those footfalls.
If one didn’t know better it’d seem like she was gliding rather than walking.
Together the four of them moved through the halls, though not a single word was spoken.
Lily had all the time in the world to just ponder on what was going on.
She knew that Six had some attachment to Resovult, but maybe there was something between him and Grey as well?
Grey’s face evoked such strong emotions that Lily could tell weren’t her own, they couldn’t be, she didn’t know a thing about this person or anyone who looked like her.
Not only that but for the first time Six spoke to her outside of the void, he didn’t manifest but he did speak… and he knew that she wasn’t from either world.
There was something strange here for sure, but Lily would need to better know Six or Grey to figure that out.
“Here we are.” Grey flatly spoke while motioning to the iron door in front of them. “Please do be considerate of the Queen and King, this situation has already caused a great load of stress for them as is.”
“Ah don’t worry, Lily is a good person and I’m here so things will go smoothly.” Vonder lightly replies, earning nothing but a blank stare from Grey before she walks off.
With a sigh Vonder just moves up and pushes the door open, revealing a domed room with a large wooden table in the middle, the familiar sight of a false sky hanging above it.
Standing in front of the table were two people, both wearing surprisingly casual clothing.
One was a short and slender woman with long silver hair that reached down the middle of her back, it flowed freely and seemed to have an almost metallic sheen to it.
Her eyes were that same metallic silver, though were slitted like a snake, yet she seemed unfazed by the new presence in the room.
Her outfit was simple, black slacks, brown boots, white button up shirt, silver bracers and lastly a single silver ring adorning her hand, it had some kind of pearlescent jewel in it, but not one that could be made out from here.
The other was a tall man with a lean but clear muscular build, He had messy black hair that was slicked back and a slightly patchy beard to go with it, to Lily it almost resembled a lion’s mane.
This man’s eyes were a bright orange that seemed to glow vividly, almost looking like embers framed by his coal black hair.
His face bore three scars specifically, one down his left eye, one across his nose, and then one going down the right side of his mouth, all of them connecting in a rather disjointed way.
As for his outfit… It was more simple than the woman’s just black slacks, black boots, a black short sleeved shirt and black fingerless gloves.
The most stand out part of his outfit though was a strange pendant hanging from his neck that appeared to be a shield of some sort.
“Ah, I didn’t know visitors would be arriving today…” The woman spoke up first, clearly a bit surprised and a bit embarrassed by being caught in such casual attire. “You’ve come at a bad time I’m afraid, we were just planning out our final strategy meeting.”
“Final, what do you mean?” Vonder asks, now clearly worried. “You can’t mean you actually decided to give up!”
“Yes, we did.” She responds with clear reluctance lacing her words. “The one who cast the barrier is nowhere to be found, our best option right now is to hold off and keep our people fed and safe.”
“Shara’s right.” The man spoke up, his voice sounding deep and imposing. “No one has been able to find the mage, not even a slayer such as myself… that means they’re either using some advanced spell… or they’re hiding in some place we can’t get them.”
“Just hold on though, I have someone who could help us! Someone from the outside! And, you may want to know this… Cecil woke up when she arrived and blessed her, it changed her rite completely.” Vonder practically begs for them to listen, talking about all this right off the bat and surprising most everyone here.
“Cecil woke up?!” Shara’s eyes go wide as she slams her hands on the table. “Why didn’t you say anything?! Do you not know how important that is?!”
“He only woke up briefly, then he went right back to his normal state.” Vonder replies, holding his hands up in defense. “I didn’t tell you because I was looking to figure out what caused it and to see if I could replicate it even a little bit.”
Shara pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs a bit, now beginning to pace back and forth as she mutters something under her breath.
“An outsider chosen by Cecil huh?” The man comments, a small smile forming on his face. “Well then, I say we get right on to the test.”
Without warning he marches up to Lily, his imposing figure growing only larger and larger by the second.
Shara, Vonder and Aida seemed to panic at this but none stopped him.
Lily was frozen in place, too afraid of him, afraid of what those burning eyes were seeing in her.
As soon as he approaches he places one hand on her forehead and takes a deep breath.
“Now, let’s see who you really are.”
Then, as a wave of magic rushed through her everything went dark.