Gite freed from its drawn-out suffering!

The Angel left from the summit of Gite two days ago. The Ducal plateau was finally let go from the monster’s grasp, letting Leïn’s and lower-Gite’s soldiers reclaim the city’s cultural and political centre. The creature escaped through the north, provoking a large panic and three victims amongst the residents of the Borealis district. Those last victims of the larger massacre perpetrated by the inhuman beast is the last morbid gift it left to the Empire. Some testimonies describe the creature as weakened, which would explain its sudden departure, but more on this will come in the future through the expertise of the authorities in place and our brilliant journalists. Our Imperatrix has expressed her intent in finding ways and countermeasures to face the monster would it ever come back.

Leïn’s newspaper, N°47 of the year 127 after the war of the Firantes.

Nay was redoing her cast once again. She was overjoyed. The Angel had left. Not only that, but she learnt that some people on the plateau had survived. It was written on the second page, which was not nearly as good news as the first one, but still. It was a report on the death estimate. Of the two-thousand people living on the plateau, remained only hundred and fifteen survivors.

There was little doubt in Nay’s mind that most of the people she had learnt to know up there had died. She did hope that Trinne was alive though, as she hadn’t found any mention of her demise in the paper. If her body had been found, it would have been written somewhere. But that may have been wishful thinking.

Nay knew better than anyone that an Angel barely left any traces of her victims behind.

The homeless people were watching her, weirded out. She had been quite loud in expressing her joy, after all. Their curiosity did not last, quickly going back to their affairs.

Nay checked her work on her broken arm. It would hold, if she didn’t fight or do too heavy of a physical effort. What she was happy about though were her ribs, they weren’t broken after all. The pain was receding already, which would not have been the case if some of them had been broken. Her left arm would take at least a month to heal completely, and that wasn’t counting the time she would need to rehabilitate her muscles afterwards.

She sighed, put her head against her bag, and fell asleep.

She woke up four hours later, first signs of dawn were showing through the wooden planks of the flap closing the window above her head.

Marco was sitting next to the counter to the entrance of the now quiet room. Everyone seemed asleep, even him, his head posed on the wooden wall to his left.

Nay got up and did some light warm-ups to help her aching muscles. She enjoyed sleeping outside better than on a wooden floor, as earth and grass were much softer.

Her belongings checked and packed, she went towards the young noble.

Her steps were silent, she woke no one up on her path.

“Marco?” She asked in a hushed voice when she reached him.

“Wha…Yes? Oh, you’re the girl Tristan brought, do you need something?”

“I’m just here to tell you that I’m leaving, and if by any chance you know someone named Pompidour?”

It took a few seconds for him to recompose himself.

“Well, matter of fact, I do. He’s quite a famous Tergeus wine merchant. He has some other side-activities, but I must admit I never paid any mind to those.”

“Is he noble?”

“No, bourgeois, my father buys some of his products.”

“Mhh…and do you know where I can find him?”

Marco gave it some thought. “No, I can ask my father, but I’ll need to know why you’re looking for Pompidour then.”

Nay tensed up, which wasn’t lost to the young man, who explained himself.

“If my father asks why I’m looking for Pompidour, I need to be able to give him a good reason.” He said with an awkward smile.

Nay hesitated. He did not seem like a bad person, and his Rreico was sincere.

“I need him to find my mother and sister. We were separated, and he knows where they are.”

“Police repertories can always inform you about…”

“They are not on the lists, they are refugees.”

Marce’s eyes widened. “Oh, I see. I thought that you were from around here, considering your accent. Priests are helping the refugees so you can…”

“Please. Priests cannot help me.”

Marco was the one who seemed to be hesitating now.

“Listen, I can always ask, but I can’t promise anything. Come here this afternoon. Not later as I do not work next evening. I’ll go and see my father at noon.”

Nay smiled.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We need to help each other in such difficult times…oh…that explains why you shouted in joy last night. You read the newspaper, didn’t you?”

Nay felt conflicted. The Angel’s departure was a benediction, but her earlier joy had been replaced with worry after she slept. Who died? How many had suffered, were suffering? She knew it wasn’t her fault, not really, but guilt was eating at her core anyway.

She didn’t answer the noble’s question.

“I’ll see you this afternoon.”

He nodded. “See you then.”

Nay gazed at the clock on the third church of Ja. Its bells had just rung five times. She had almost twelve hours to spare, so she decided to go look for Pompidour herself.

She found multiple leads. People gave her directions to quite a few different establishments owned by the now obviously quite famous bourgeois. The more she heard about him, the more he seemed extravagant. He must have been quite the Dyone worshipper. She had investigated five places he was managing: two massage parlours, closed when she had arrived there, a liquor shop, a tailor, and a restaurant in Jarulam specialities. The latter had shown a price range equivalent to two months of stay in a high-end inn, for one meal. Nay had almost suffocated when seeing it. She had no idea what could justify such absurd prices.

Unfortunately, no one had been able to tell her where Pompidour was. He went to the liquor shop once every two weeks, his next visit scheduled in five days, the tailor was scheduled to see him in three, and the restaurant had flat out refused to tell her when they expected their boss to be there.

He was most evidently quite the busy businessman.

Nay looked enviously at a food stall selling chicken and pepper skewers. She was sitting on a bench situated just in front of the sixth of Pompidour's establishment she had visited. It was a tavern in the bourgeois district south of the Cathedral.

The young Legio’s left arm was hurting, and she already felt exhausted. The innkeeper had told her Pompidour didn’t come personally but sent a secretary under his orders to check the place weekly. The secretary would be there tomorrow.

If Nay didn’t receive pertinent information from Marco, this was where she would need to go the next day.

The young Legio heard the bells of the Cathedral and the church of Adienha behind her begin to ring.

Three times. Nay was out of time for her personal investigation, she needed to go back to the Imperatrix’s plaza.

“Was she tall?”

“Erm…” Marco looked at the man in Virnyl armour apprehensively. He was so close to him that he was almost breathing over his face.

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“He’s got the authority kid. Answer him.” Leïn’s police chief told Marco once more that he wasn’t faced with any angry guard or conman.

“Yes, she was. Hurt too, her left arm was broken.”

“Broken, you are sure?”

“Certain.”

“How certain?”

“I followed the Imperatrix’s soldiers training; I can recognize broken bones when I see them. She made a cast here, I would have helped her, but she seemed to be perfectly fine on her own.”

“Obviously. Do you know where she was heading?”

“No, but she was looking for someone. She has to come back here so I’ll tell her where he is.”

The man with the Virnyl armour grabbed his collar. “She’s coming back here?”

Marco tried to shake him off. Whoever he may be, he had no right to treat him like that. He quickly refrained when he realized that he could not move. The young noble was confident in his techniques and strength, but he had no doubt at this moment that even if he tried, if the guard in front of him would decide so, he would not be able to move.

“…Yeah. This afternoon.”

Quar Birrebus had a wide grin. “I’ve got her. Commander, can you block the streets around here and post officers on the roofs?”

The police chief looked at him, taken slightly aback. “The roofs? Wasn’t her arm broken?”

“And that’s exactly why I offered my help, commander. You are still underestimating her.”

“So be it then. But consider my debt to Gite paid.”

Marco tried to intervene, as the woman he had met did not warrant such prudence but held himself back.

The two men as well as the three officers following them left the homeless shelter.

“Jia will never believe this.” He said out loud.

Nay stopped on the border between the tall apartment buildings of the city and the quaint wooden houses of the inner village lost inside the metropolis. She set herself out of the way of the crowd, protected from the sun under a balcony. It was almost four O’clock in the afternoon, and it felt like she was listening to the Rreico of a swarm of Frigelles. There were fewer people in this part of the old city, but still way too many for the young Legio’s tastes.

She had stopped because, despite her difficulties with her sixth sense, she had felt the Rreico of men on the roofs. Guards, or policemen as they were called here. They had not spotted her, and Nay could not decipher anything in their rhythm of life to determine what they were doing here. She was distracted by the passers-by’s Rreicos, and she was not even sure her analysis was correct. It could have been workers repainting the historical houses’ tiles for all she knew.

The young Legio hesitated. If her situation had been different, she would have fallen back immediately. The potential presence of guards where they should not have been could mean an ambush. Unfortunately, Nay needed Marco’s information as fast as possible. The more she waited, the higher the chances she was caught. Moreover, if this were an ambush, Nay would have expected guards at street level, not on the roofs.

Nay sighed. Despite her best efforts, she could not grasp what the men were doing up there. She was not able to focus on their Rreicos to learn more.

She continued her way, and, not feeling anything else weird going on, felt a bit reassured.

Once arrived in the Imperatrix’s plaza, Nay noticed that annoyingly, the old festive hall was blocked by a long queue of homeless people that had come for their free meal.

She tried to go past the thirty or so individuals but…

“Hey! Wait like everyone else!” One of them exclaimed.

Nay tried to smile to calm down the men and women’s rising anger. “I don’t want to cheat any of you, I just need to ask something…”

“It’s been done before, girlie. Get back and wait, like everyone else!”

The young Legio immediately understood it would serve no purpose to insist, and she left the angry queue.

She sighed, sat down on a little stone wall separating the road from the church if Ja’s lawn, and watched the queue shrink.

She had no desire to wait, standing up under the sun. Considering the smell, she didn't want to try what was being served there either. Marco would have to leave one moment or another, and Nay would wait for him here. She had a perfect view of the homeless shelter.

“I see her.” Birrebus closed his spotting scope. “Tell your men to get into position.”

Nay raised an eyebrow. There were many roads leading to the plaza, she could see three from where she sat. Nay looked at the clock above her. It had been two full minutes since she had seen anyone come from the road into the square.

Because of it, the plaza was slightly less dense than before. The young Legio rose to her feet. During a fraction of a second, she had felt a familiar Rreico. Except it was an impossible feeling. Nay climbed on the low wall and started to look at the crowd of passers-by with extreme attention.

“Stop. Her behaviour changed.” Birrebus commanded as he was checking on the young Legio with his spotting scope. “Tell your men to wait. I think she felt us coming.”

“Is she human or are you really taking her for a Hivere?”

Quar raised his hand to require total silence. His stare showed the profound distaste he had of Leïn’s police chief’s comment.

She felt it again, closer, then once again she lost the familiar rhythm of life.

She was dreaming, it was the only explanation. It took at least a month to make the trip. Nay concentrated once more, despite the absurdity of the act.

Not only was the Rreico really there, it came from just behind the young Legio, and it had evil intentions.

“Biach.” Birrebus swore.

“A problem.”

“A complication, yes. But nothing putting our mission in jeopardy. Tell your men to resume the operation.”

Leïn’s police chief grumbled but relayed the order to his men.

At the instant where Nay realized someone was standing behind her, she felt an unpleasant pinch on her butt cheek. She turned around abruptly, which provoked a sharp sting in her left arm. Nay almost tripped over herself as well.

“Bouh.” A young woman with hair colour of flames and eyes like the azure skies seemed pretty pleased by the young Legio’s exaggerated reaction.

“Trinne!? You…By Lebe aouch…”

Trinne frowned. “What happened to you when I was away? Your arm is broken, and it looks like you got into a fight with a brick wall…Get down you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Nay opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again.

“You…you…I’m crazy. I’ve finally completely lost it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, not the first time you tell me that. Get down the wall now.”

Nay did as the young woman asked, then put her hand on her friend’s cheek. Her skin was warm and tangible. Nay had experienced ghosts before, and they generally did not display those characteristics.

A clear scar, barely visible, was cutting straight from Trinne’s superciliary arch to the lower part of her cheek. It was as if something impossibly sharp had fallen on her, creating a clean and precise wound.

Nay, unable to talk, touched the scarred skin with her thumb.

“I hoped you wouldn’t notice.” Trinne was looking at Nay attentively, letting herself be touched with just the slightest of smirks on the corner of her lips.

“Wha…you’re alive.”

The Rreico was a field of lowers and metal. Nay could see the fire in her friend’s blue eyes.

“So are you.”

“Of course I…”

“I heard Quar Birrebus had personally gone to capture you.”

“He’s the one who broke my arm.”

Trinne sighed, softly caressing the left shoulder of the young woman with cloudy eyes. “Bastard. He really tried his best to kill us. I hate fanatics.”

“Trinne, you can’t be here…it’s not possible. Gite is free since barely two days ago you…”

“A week. We waited a bit before leaving the tunnels. We weren’t sure if the plan had worked or if it was a ruse.”

“Tunnels? Ruse? A week? Even then, it takes a month to…”

Trinne grimaced. “I’m not happy to admit it, but I’m a bit confused about that too. He brought me here yesterday, supposedly meeting the Imperatrix tomorrow. But why let me go then? I don’t really understand the play here.”

“He brought you? Who? It is…” Nay stopped talking.

Trinne tensed up, and the two women positioned themselves shoulder to shoulder, the church behind them. “What is it?”

“We’re being surrounded. Were you followed?”

Trinne shook her head. “I was visiting the church’s interior; I’ve been here at least one hour. You?”

“No but…there were people on the roofs further down the road, it felt weird.”

“And you came anyway? Really what have you…where are they?”

“No idea. There are a lot.”

“You sure? I see nothing.”

“I’m not even sure you’re here…I’ve got a hunch it is Birrebus.”

“Got it. We’ll act as if you’re not wrong, understood?”

“Yup.”

Nay heard the cogs churn inside her friend’s head.

“There is a corridor inside the church. One entryway, tight. We should be able to handle the acting Commandare there two on one.”

Trinne went towards the church’s entrance, and Nay covered her from potential projectiles.

“Erm…Trinne?”

“Mhh?”

“My arm is broken, and I just have a knife.”

The woman with red hair looked at the young Legio’s belt.

“Really!? What have you been doing when I was away, seriously!? Where is your sword?”

“Inside the Cathedral, somewhere.”

“Inside the…? Take mine, you’re better with it than I am.” Trinne gave Nay her sword as they entered the sanctified building.

An old priest was kneeling in front of a magnificent marble sculpture of Ja. Nay realized he was in fact, sleeping.

“Follow me.” Trinne gave the order once her sword was on the young Legio’s belt.

“You’re sure we can still win a two on one?” Nay asked.

Trinne stopped to look at her. Doubt crossed her face.

“Biach.” Nay swore.

They went towards the sleeping priest. There was a door behind Ja’s statue, and Trinne tried the handle.

“Closed. Nay, find me the key, Kurtzess has to have it somewhere on him.”

“Kurt what?”

“The priest.”

“Ah.” But before she could search the old man peacefully sleeping in front of the divine statue, the church’s door opened violently.

“Block the exits!” Quar Birrebus shouted.

He was followed by a dozen men dressed in Leïn’s police uniform, and Nay could feel triple that surrounding the church.

“Trinne…”

“By Lebe’s cavernous vagina.” She swore.

Nay looked at her funnily.

“What!? I think it’s appropriate right now. Get me the key.”

But Nay knew it was futile. They had no chance.

Trinne understood it as well, when she saw that the young Legio was not moving.

“Acting Commandare, I have been commanded to meet the Imperatrix tomorrow morning, even you have no authority in preventing such request.”

Quar Birrebus, a simple sword in his right hand, walked towards them, followed closely by Leïn’s guards.

“I don’t know how you managed to survive and get here, criminal scum, but don’t believe one second I will listen to anything you say. You shall be imprisoned and brought back to Gite, while the monster of Gite shall be executed right here by my hand.”

The guard following him showed surprise at that statement. He had some sorts of ribbons all over his shoulders, indicating rank, and if Nay had learned their signification correctly, he had to be someone quite highly ranked in the city’s hierarchy.

“That was not what was planned, acting Commandare. The orders, your orders were…”

“She’s far too dangerous. She has magic that goes against the natural order. I tried to capture her last time, and the cost of my mistake was great. I read the Comma…Redrick Darkstar’s report on her, and even his countermeasures were not sufficient. Gite’s monster needs to be eliminated.”

Trinne put her hand delicately in Nay’s left one.

“You have no authority in this city, acting Commandare.” She then addressed the man next to him. “You are Derico Dolio, commander of Leïn’s police force, aren’t you?”

The man holding himself next to Quar Birrebus raised his head. He was not especially tall or short and was in his fifties. His eyes gleamed with intelligence, but his physique showed that he had stopped participating in battles or training a long time ago. “That is correct, Trinne daughter of Yarnt.”

“What are your orders?”

“To capture the girl with cloudy eyes, alive and well. Nothing on your person.”

“So, you…”

Quar Birrebus didn’t let her continue. He rushed straight for them.

“I won’t let you!” He shouted.

Nay removed her hand from Trinne’s and unsheathed her sword. Her friends took out her dagger.

The young Legio did not like their chances.

“May I know what’s happening here?”

The acting Commandare stopped immediately. A drop of sweat fell from his neck. Deadly silence had just fallen into the church.

Jarl the Bohemian was standing at the entrance, and he did not seem in a good mood.