From the back of the crowd of Nobles moving towards the garden, a small group of people emerges. They have been walking slower than the rest and inconspicuously gathering together. I put a hold on going to Leomi in order to observe.
Once the entire crowd has passed by them, they turn around and head straight for the carriages. I smile and settle my umbrella on my right shoulder to ensure the hilt of the broadsword on my back is fully visible. I then check my flow and find that I've regenerated past twelve portions of energy.
Only three notice me atop the carriage among the few dozen Nobles that are approaching but that handful brings their entire group to stop. Two of the youngsters try to move forward but they are swiftly blocked by the rest.
Many eyes dart to me in the argument that ensues. I consider going through them but quickly abandon the thought because I'm aware that my current physical state is in no way capable of sustaining me through a battle.
Either way, their group doesn't debate for long before deciding to turn heels and return to the crowd. Those who spoke the most and loudest wearing the most discomfited expressions.
No wonder Leomi had the guts to affect changes she likely planned long ago tonight, between me and Grace, Nobility's morale and unity has dumped to its lowest point ever. Not to mention that the Hospitalier halberdiers must've taken them by surprise.
I have no doubt that Leomi won't leave the Nobility she's crippled to do as it wishes on Izla Meria after she leaves. I would bet money on her drafting at least one Noble from each house for the army and Cecil to gather supporters among the population to control the rest.
I decide to wait for a while atop the carriage before going, considering that it'll be much more difficult for anyone to discreetly slip away from the ball once it has begun. Besides, I have as much interest in the show of etiquette that will indubitably precede the event as I did in the granting of honorary titles.
I soon end up alone in the area if I discount the drivers present to take care of the horses. More than a few have sent outraged glances up to me but none has the guts to come over so I don't bother about the small group. Stop delaying, I want to talk to her.
We hop down and head for the garden. I hear music as I approach and notice that the more richly dressed Nobles have entered the ballroom while the lower Council-members as well as lesser Nobility remained outside.
The distinction irks me so I don't bother slowing down when I notice that there are still people of high-status clogging the entrance. I set my umbrella to hang on my left shoulder and extend my arm out to push aside all those in my way.
“While these changes are great and will cause some chaos, Izla Meria's fate depends on them. The mainland is watching us as rabid starving predators would a wounded prey, we must all make sacrifices to protect our ancestral lands!” I hear Leomi proclaim with a passionate tone.
I can only qualify her speech as a carrot to dangle after the Justiciers presented the stick because I know she does not hold respect for the old traditions so there is no way she would truly believe a justification so similar to the one Thrin relied on to reclaim his house's title and unite his faction.
I start shoving people aside. Many turn around with twisted traits but none dares to block me after noticing my face and the umbrella on my shoulder, very few even have the guts to keep showing angry expressions.
“I assure you all that...” Leomi pauses.
It seems like the commotion I caused by stomping in spread out. I emerge from the crowd onto an empty space in the middle of the ballroom decorated by too many banners and embroideries to count.
“Jessica Freepath, named such for having sacrificed herself to open Lady Leomi Lance's path to preserve Izla Meria's freedom.” Arkur's amused and irreverent voice splits through the silence as an arrow.
I ignore him because I've found Lance. She is on a throne-like chair with martial designs that faces the center of the room. Behind her and near the back wall is a table of honor on a fifty-centimeter tall platform that the upper Council-members occupy and observe the proceedings from.
I head straight for Lance without even affecting a pause to cross what should be the dancing area. I can hear that the musicians are located behind me to the left and right with their instruments so that the music can be heard in here as well as the garden.
Arkur is standing with his sword-sworn not far from Leomi. While the entire room focuses on my approach that shows no regard for decorum, it becomes clear to me that it is no coincidence for the Caroline Prince to be among the first to notice me.
That fact brings me to keep my attention on him even as my eyes lock onto Leomi's and we silently reach an understanding that we are on the same wavelength about our desire to have a good night.
“I do wonder if you are so skillful as to ignore protocol and break past me to reach honorary Duchess Lance.” Arkur utters cheerfully, his tone clashing with his challenging words.
I ostensibly ignore him but do prepare myself for a fight. His attack arrives in the form of an air-blade but not the usual kind, this one is so thin that I only notice a silver horizontal line take shape in front of his raised hands.
I raise my arm without looking and send a kinetic cube towards it, trusting that it'll be sufficient to break it or send it crashing into the shining parquet. My construct impacts his and successfully sends the line flying.
Then, I notice that something's wrong and stop in my tracks. Arkur's construct isn't an air-blade but a very thin air-needle that didn't dissipate under the blow as it should have, it is merely thrown back by the collision..
The Arkur catches it by sending a stream of flow with a swipe of his hand. It sticks to the center of his open palm and he launches it back at me as if he would a spear with a single fluid movement.
I grit my teeth to control my temper. Never mind the fact he didn't bother to propel the line with flow but he didn't even put an effort into the throw considering he didn't close his hand around it.
I shape an air-shield with unstructured energy and block it. The air-needle pierces through but is stopped after a few centimeters. I didn't do so before because a construct propelled physically is incomparably less powerful.
The line of solid air slackens and then straightens with a wave, almost escaping my shield by cutting through. This energy string is very, very dangerous, it could easily be used as a whip or a trip-wire that cuts through unprotected flesh and armor.
I notice Arkur move his fingers from the corner of my eyes so I shape a fire-construct that I throw at the back of my unstructured air-shield which almost loses its shape because of my split in focus when the flames engulf it.
Despite the fact that the Caroline should be aware that the line of air will burst much quicker than my shield inside the hot flames, he sends a second line with another lazy throw.
I move the shield to intercept but, this time, I keep my attention on the line. I notice that it blurs upon impact. Did the string wiggle when the cube hit? I... think so? That's how it dispelled the hit, it diverted the kinetic energy by using vibrations to dissipate the force in the surrounding air.
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The second air-whip starts wiggling like the first to further tear the unstructured shield but I repair the cracks they cause and fix the air-shield into proper segments to free my focus.
I entirely give up on my hope the flames will consume the amalgamation of constructs but leave them to burn anyway so as not to clue Arkur in as the fact I've seen through the construct he's using.
This string isn't nearly as solid as an air-needle so it should be far more resistant to heat but that fact also renders it too supple to effectively be propelled to pierce through defenses by use of flow.
The construct is limited to being used in close combat, traps, or as a way to counter solid constructs by embedding them into it so that they can destroy them with a minimal investment of energy.
Only a lightning construct's instantaneous combustion of the air composing the string might successfully defeat it. Is he testing you? Almost certainly. But you don't think he believes you're Elizabeth Vil, merely curious whether the Rykz taught you as they did me.
I think the fact he isn't seriously trying to kill me precludes that assumption, he is more likely trying to take stock of my ability to find and apply solutions through manipulation of constructs or he would have tested me in more private circumstances.
As I exchange thoughts with my other self, Arkur prepares a third line by his side with a lazy swipe of his index. By the time he takes hold of it and throws it directly at my shield, I've already shaped my second cube with three portions and linked to my fire construct to alter it so that the flames focus on the edges of the amalgamation of constructs.
While I work on adding shredding segments to focus the kinetic energy into a singular point that should overwhelm the strings' capability to dissipate the force, Arkur links the furthest end of the three strings together.
The three begin acting in concert, each using the motions of the other two as counter-weights to lash out even more violently. The singular point where they merge together isn't even anchored and is being thrown around so irregularly I doubt I could hit it with a weapon if I tried.
Even the kinetic construct's homing capabilities aren't likely to work, the cube is liable to miss and end consuming all its energy into making narrow circles around it without ever hitting.
No matter, it doesn't hinder my plan. I target the kinetic construct towards a singular location at the center of my soon to shatter air-shield and launch it. A moment before the cube hits, I voluntarily weaken my air-shield to have it burst early.
As I planned, the construct breaks from the hot outer edge towards the warmer center and the relatively moderate conflagration forces the very light strings to congregate there. A chill runs through my spine because things go wrong from there.
While I was right to assume Arkur wouldn't fight the strong flaming gust because the line of solid air isn't made of enough flow to fight it, I was wrong to think he wouldn't react.
The instant my kinetic construct strikes the three tangled strings and shatters them in half, Arkur snaps his fingers and the six smaller constructs strike at the remnant of the cube that was meant to counter-attack, somehow dismantling the kinetic construct through vibrations.
The fact he could make use of the fact my shredding segments played their part means he read my plan at some point during the confrontation or even before.
A red and white conflagration with six dancing tails consumes the remnants of our air constructs. The rumbling noise seems as if it was meant to enhance the Caroline's joyful laughter.
I raise my hand and send a quick stream of energy in his direction, shaping it into a sphere of air while it travels. Arkur faces it with a grin and sends a formless blade of flow that cuts it along with my link, leaving a mere gust of wind to gently blow on his black suit embroidered with gold filaments.
Then, the Telnur Prince turns around to bow towards the other men and women who came in the hopes of obtaining Lance's hand. They clap their hands as if they watched a good spectacle.
Many of the hopefuls conceal their frowns because they no doubt expected him to block me, as I did. A large part of the crowd joins in the celebration in short order. Apart from my rising anger and desire to tear the Prince's smirk off his face, perhaps literally, I can feel Lance's piercing eyes on me.
I raise my palm towards Arkur's back and gather my last seven portions of energy. Urgent cries of warning erupt from those facing me. Arkur's sword-sworn shifts his posture to prepare to move in and block but the Prince doesn't turn around.
“You've no need to be alarmed, the peasant-warrior has been thwarted!” Arkur declares theatrically. “Seize the opportunity you have been given!”
I shape a hybrid needle-shredding construct with six portions and use the last to shape a thick wall of air to block the guard. I make a small but forceful backhanded swinging gesture to send both at once.
An air-blade appears between the unarmed sword-master's hands and he tries to block with it but I've not solidified the wall of air so his parry turns useless and the impact sends the man stumbling back.
The golden needle hits the polished parquet a meter behind Arkur and pierces it down to the base before bursting. The impact and following expulsion of the incredibly compressed air is directed by the shredding segments to cause the floor to split in a jagged line that runs between the Caroline's legs.
Chips of wood fly out and Arkur tries to jump but the planks under his feet collapse and cause him to sprawl forward instead, putting an end to his obnoxious behavior and whatever hopes these Ladylings held to take what's mine.
“Alas, I have been overly confident. I am defeated!” Arkur calls out with badly feinted despair as he reaches out for help by extending his hand.
I freeze in place as I register his reaction. Two overly tall and rather beautiful women take hold of his arm to pull him up. They pat his suit and use simple constructs to clean his suit of the dust that stuck to it.
I snort and head for Leomi, understanding that Arkur is too frivolous to be taken down short of forcing him into an actual fight to the death. I hear the sword-master take a step in my direction but Leomi raises her palm in his direction.
It takes Arkur's sword-sworn a single second to reach the decision to retreat but the interaction snaps the rest of the Nobles present out of the shock my attack threw them into. I grab my umbrella to whimsically make it twirl.
“Honorary Duchess Lance! This behavior is hardly appropriate!” A voice criticizes and is joined by many others but fewer than I would have guessed.
She utterly ignores the protests or perhaps doesn't even hear them as her eyes trail up and down my body with an inclination towards my right side as well as the rip I made in front. I return the favor as I appreciate how the cloth of her dress tightens around her legs and torso.
I close the distance to my kitten while Arkur milks all the affection he can get out of his loss, with apparently no sense of pride considering how he was dismissive of me for being a low born when we first met.
The complaints coming from all around die down as they've so far clearly fallen on deaf ears. I care very little and turn to sit on the left armrest of Lance's huge strict-looking wooden chair.
She wraps her left arm around my waist while I settle mine around her shoulders. The jay, whose presence utterly slipped my mind, jumps off the top of my head to clumsily fly up to Leomi's. It looks about as ridiculous on her as it must've on me.
“That Miss should apologize!” A man calls out.
“If you can draw an apology out of her, I will give you command of an entire regiment, Gulard.” Lance replies offhandedly.
“This breach of decorum is unbecoming of the Izla!” The man insists.
I don't bother to throw the Lord a look and get comfortable by settling back on the throne. I then raise my right calf and place it sideways on the throne between Leomi's knees who then places her right hand on my leg.
The outrage my action causes almost deafens me but the high-status attendees can't seem to decide whether our posture or my ripped dress offends them the most. Lance remains placid in the storm and patiently waits for silence to be made.
“Was Dame Freepath not respectful of etiquette by avoiding to draw blood?” Lance asks rhetorically with a quizzical tone, ignoring her own action to focus on Arkur's defeat.
Her question stuns the crowd and causes a few points of laughter from the back of it, where I suspect the rich bourgeois have been relegated. I catch sight of a flicker in the Prince's eyes that show that it bothers him to have been deemed the loser, no matter the goofy smile he keeps on his face as he rests in the two Ladies' arms.
Leomi's faction takes the opportunity to slip past the angered Nobles who took the forefront of the crowd earlier and take a stand. A moment later, Roisia, Yvonne, and Rowland exit the fuzzy ranks to head over.
“With my companion by my side, I now declare the ball open!” Lance declares loudly while squeezing me with her slender but powerful hands.