It was later that evening when the girls found themselves back home in Castle Night Thorn. Rita stood in the infirmary watching as Lapis lay on the bed, sleeping. She couldn’t stand this. Once again she had put her friends in danger, once again someone she cared about had been hurt because of her actions, and once again she had failed.

Rita couldn’t help it as the flood of tormented thoughts came pouring into her mind filling her with despair. Lapis was one of her closest friends, perverted crush or no, Lapis was special to her. Now Rita had failed to save her from herself. There wasn’t a thing that Rita could do to help her now, just wait.

The waiting was the worst part.

Something in her pocket felt warm and Rita reached for it only to find her hand groping the wish coin she had been offered by Red. If it really did what it was supposed to, it might be able to do what Rita herself couldn’t. It might actually save her two closest friends from harm's way… but the sounds of footsteps approaching meant she would have to focus on that later.

Saturn’s voice came out monotone, leaving Rita without any impression of what she was feeling. “It’ll take time for her to heal, because unlike you she suffers from more than just physical injuries making it hard for me to deal with.”

Rita sat there feeling a cold numbness eating at the inside of her heart. “I know that.”

Saturn pulled a chair up next to her. “I’m surprised that Lapis was able to stay awake long enough to talk to you. The damage she did to herself with her magic will heal, over time. It could take weeks to heal completely from this.”

Rita bawled her hands into fists. “I failed. The bad guys used Noct to distract the guards, letting them have the run of the archive, then I lost the fight, got captured, had the blue prints taken away from me, and watched as Lapis tried to kill herself to save me.” Even though the history book and the aether stone had been left in her backpack, losing the book on Castle Night Thorn left a bleeding wound in Rita’s heart.

There was silence for a moment, and then Saturn asked, “So what will you do?”

The brief moment of anger fled from her bones and her hands relaxed. “I… don’t know. I can’t keep them safe, even from themselves.”

A big hand landed on her shoulder and gently squeezed. “No, we can never fully protect those under us. Take Thaddeus back there. I can’t save him as much as I want to. He's a ranger, one of the best, and he's dying. The only glimmer of hope I have is that his hand started to heal from the sickness earlier today.”

Rita looked up into those pink eyes. “I can’t even cry. One of my best friends is lying unconscious in a hospital bed because I failed to be strong enough, smart enough to keep her safe, and I can’t even cry over it. What’s wrong with me?”

“You don’t face tragedy like others,” Saturn said. “You face it by improving yourself, working to correct your mistakes, and to become stronger in the future. I admire that about you.”

Rita swallowed. “Really?”

Saturn nodded. “Of course I still don’t approve of your thievery.”

Rita rolled her eyes. “I stole the books to keep our enemies from stealing them first.” Of course Rita left out the fact that she also stole a sizable sun stone.

“That’s backwards logic and you know it.”

Rita let out a sigh. “I don't care about that. I just have to make sure our enemies don’t win.”

Saturn looked over at the bed. “You can’t win if you get yourself killed. Maybe that’s a lesson you should take away from this. Sometimes it’s better to flee into twilight in order to battle once the sun rises once more.”

Something clicked in Rita’s brain and she jumped up to her feet. “But what if you didn't have to wait for the sun to rise for you? What if you could make the sun rise yourself?”

Saturn raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

It was like the gears began turning in her mind once more. Rita was off to her workshop. She had plenty of work to do before the night was over. If she was fast, focused, and correct, then she had a way to solve this whole mess. She just needed to hurry. Rita grabbed her pack on the way out, she was also going to do some much needed reading.

***

Wonder paced back and forth in the library. There wasn’t much else she could do. Lapis was down for the count and there was no telling when she’d be back up and ready for action. If there wasn’t the immediate threat of those creeps coming back again soon, Wonder wouldn’t have been so worried, but now they’d just lost one of their strongest fighters. The only one to go up against Nightshade one on one and win so far.

There was no telling what kinds of resources the enemy had at their disposal, for all Wonder knew they had a secret lair filled with healing potions, monsters, and madness. So pacing in the library was all she could do to keep from freaking out. Wonder looked out the window at the afternoon sun. Soon it would be dark once more, and if the past day or two had been any indication, then the darkness would come with uninvited guests.

A pair of footsteps were heard outside the door. Fear shot through Wonder’s heart and she whipped out her wand channeling her magic into a quick and effective invisibility spell. Just as the door began to open Wonder disappeared from both sight and sound.

The door opened completely and Lamont stumbled in. He was relying heavily on his stave for support, his left arm was hanging limp at his side. Saturn was right behind him.

Saturn wore a scowl. “You need to rest, not do research.”

Lamont stumbled to a chair and plopped himself down. Sweat ran down his face as if he’d just run a marathon. He began to disrobe, leaving him in his white undershirt and black pants. “It’s just a little fever. That’s all.”

Wonder saw his left arm clearly for the first time since the attack on the castle. From the tips of his fingers to his elbow there were black veins running through his arm. The bandages covered only a small portion of his arm.

Saturn growled. “Lamont, you need to rest. Look at yourself.”

Lamont laughed. “I’ll be fine. You said it yourself. Thaddeus’s arm looked better today.”

“I don’t know how that happened. So far we’ve had six cases, and half of them ended up dying, the other three became… corrupted.” Saturn put a hand on the hilt of her blade. A worried look came into her eyes. “It usually takes a few hours for the infection to make you useless, and about four days before the infection either takes your life, or your mind.”

Lamont grinned. “Then it’s a good thing Solaria is coming tonight isn’t it then. She’ll have a better idea of what to do with this and might even be able to heal me.”

Saturn turned and looked away from Lamont, she stared unintentionally directly at Wonder, for a brief moment her eyes glistened before she closed them tight and screwed up her face as if her entire body was in agony. “I can’t… Lamont, I’ve lost people close to me before, but I can’t lose you. Not after all we’ve been through together.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Lamont laughed though there wasn’t much heart in it. “Then you don’t need to worry. We’ve been through far worse. Dragons, demons, hell we’ve even fought fell stalkers together. This little sickness is nothing.”

It took a moment but Saturn managed to steady herself. She stood up straight and looked back at Lamont with a cool and collected expression. “You said it was Mind Sliver’s shadowy dagger that got your arm?”

Lamont nodded. “Yes, he got an attack in when I was focusing on Nightshade’s speed. Though I think I learned something about his powers when I was fighting him; he doesn’t seem able to teleport into areas of strong light.”

Saturn nodded. “We did add those extra lights down in the undercroft after that fight.”

“I sent the servants to their homes in Starsera until this mess is done with,” Lamont said.

“All except for Fiona Butters I see,” There was a slight disapproval in her tone.

“What can I say, I like having cute girls around,” Lamont said with a cheesy grin.

“Or you like having a new hero around,” Saturn disagreed.

“She’s the new guardian of patience. Though even if I had wanted her to leave, she already told me she would be staying. Scary monsters or not, the girl is very stubborn when it comes to certain things.”

Saturn shook her head. “So long as she doesn’t get herself killed, then I suppose it isn’t like she’s in the way.”

There were footsteps outside the library door. With a quick wave of Lamont’s hand a thick layer of ice formed over the door, sealing it shut. A sliver of panic raced down Wonder’s spine as she thought about being trapped in here. Her fears were solidified once someone tried to push on the door to no avail.

For a few quick seconds nothing happened, and then the footsteps retreated a few paces. There was silence for but a moment followed by the sound of running. The door came flying open with chunks of ice splintering everywhere across the floor. Fiona came in flying through the air with her leg extended in a kick. She landed looking much more like a bird with her arms extended for balance then she did a human. In one hand she had a feather duster, in the other a broom.

Lamont clapped his hands. “Good job!”

Saturn stood there with an expressionless mask and in total silence.

Fiona looked around. “Oh… um… I uh… I thought the d-door jammed again… s-sorry.”

Lamont smiled broadly. “It’s perfectly fine. I’m glad to see you're this capable at your job. Now tell me, where did you learn that kind of kick?”

Fiona rose and bowed her head slightly forward. “I learned it at t-the G-Gaia Monastery.”

Saturn raised an eyebrow. “Wasn’t that place attacked by a fell stalker a few years ago. I heard there were only two survivors.”

Fiona stared firmly at the floor, her face a stoic mask. “T-that’s c-correct.”

It took Lamont all of two seconds to whistle. “Well we’re glad to have you here with us.” He stood up on shaky legs and attempted to put his robe back on. He fumbled with it limply for a few seconds before he gave up and dropped it back onto the chair. “I don’t need to be properly dressed anyway. This is my castle and I could walk around naked if I really wanted too.” He took a step forward, stumbled and started to fall.

Since Saturn was facing Fiona she didn’t see it, but Fiona was staring at Lamont as he fell. It was almost frightening to see how fast Fiona moved as she threw the cleaning implements, darted forward, reached out and caught Lamont before hit the ground. The cleaning tools hit the ground only a fraction of a second after Fiona caught Lamont.

Lamont looked up at her with a boyish grin. “Thanks.”

Saturn’s mouth was open and her eyes wide. “That was… impressive.”

Fiona shook her head. “I-I was j-just helping. I-I’m s-sorry.”

Saturn shook herself violently. “Never you mind. Lamont, we’re getting you into bed right now. You can do research when your healed.”

As Fiona helped Lamont up and into one over Saturn’s arms she sniffed the air a few times. “Was Miss Wonder in here with you by any chance?”

Saturn shook her head. “The place was empty when we came in.” She took Lamont fully into her arm. “Will you grab Lamont’s robe and stave?”

Fiona nodded curtly and as the two of them went walking towards the door Fiona began folding Lamont’s robe neatly over her arm. After grabbing his stave she paused only briefly to look directly at the invisible Wonder and stare in silence for some seconds. It wasn’t until Saturn called from the doorway for Fiona to follow that she looked away, a slight frown over her lips.

Once they were all gone Wonder dropped the spell and sat down hard onto the wooden floor. “This is absolutely insane. How did she know I was here?” Then it hit her she had just seen something much more important. “Lamont’s sick…” She jumped up to her feet so quickly it made her dizzy. Her next goal was to interrupt Rita’s work, because if anyone deserved to know the state Lamont was in, it was her.

***

Rita had her metal music playing at a deafening roar from the stereo on the counter behind her. She’d managed to finish recharging the gems in her power gauntlet, managed to add a dual functionality to her revolver allowing it to fire both light and fire at the flick of a switch, and did some adjustments to her final plan. Of course this meant clearing out most everything from garage, including the damaged car.

Everything was going great enough for her to finally sit down and read some of the book. It was an interesting read about Queen Solaria and her younger sister Princess Lunaria, which Rita had no idea was even a real person. It was in fact quite unsettling to find out that Lunaria was more than just a dream construct of hers.

The book had detailed the rise of Solaria and Lunaria as they grew up. Solaria having dunked herself into the pool of light to become the ascended god like figure that people knew existed now, while Lunaria emerged herself into the pool of darkness to become much the same. As they grew into adulthood they built an amazing kingdom from the ruins of the ones before them and lived in peace for a couple hundred years until the Twilight War, where Lunaria was murdered by Solaria's blade.

After that… well it got a lot darker. According to the book Solaria hunted down all of Lunaria's soldiers, followers, and worshipers, murdering them in a wide scale genocide. Yet considering the Solaria that Rita knew of now, this seemed impossible for the kind hearted Queen.

If anything, this cemented the fact that Rita never wanted to be immortal.

There was a rapping at Rita’s door that although Rita couldn’t hear, she could see the little wind chime hanging from the inside of the door moving. Rita sighed as she shut her book, turned off the stereo and went to the door. It was a little difficult moving as her side still hurt after the healing she’d received from Saturn. Just like with most pain, Rita ignored it.

Behind the door much to nobody’s surprise was Wonder. She had a terrible look in her eyes that sent shivers down Rita’s spine. For a moment it was as if death had gained the upper hand on a conversation which had yet to even begin.

Wonder shivered and shook as she spoke. “Lamont’s sick. He got hit by Mind Sliver’s dagger, and now he has shadow sickness on his arm.”

Rita stood there. Her heart frozen with the terrifying prospect of losing yet another person she cared about. This wasn’t fair, this was not what she’d asked for. Hadn’t she already lost enough people she loved?

Her side began to hurt even worse. “How bad is it?”

Wonder sniffled. “Saturn said he has four days…”

The worst part of this sickness was that if it didn’t kill its host, it made them corrupted much like the monsters they were fighting. This meant that at best, Lamont died painfully, at worst he would have to be put down by his friends after becoming a monster himself.

Rita threw her fist into the wall next to her. “DAMN IT!” The pain in her hand took the edge off of the frustration in her heart. “I can’t lose more people!”

Wonder was shaking even worse. “I don’t want him to die.”

Rita was about ready to go shoot something, or someone, with as many bullets as she could get away with. First she lost Heath, then half of her team, now Lapis was in bad shape, and Lamont was dying all because of some stupid jerk with a poisoned dagger. This was not to mention the cold pain shooting through Rita’s side from the sudden strike against the wall.

Rita laid her forehead against the wall. “None of this is fair.”

Looking at Wonder didn’t make it any better, the girl was shaking so hard she could hardly even stand anymore. Tears were flowing down her cheeks and she was making quick gasps and choking sounds as she tried to keep herself from crying.

Rita reached out and wrapped her arms around Wonder pulling her into an embrace. “Don’t worry. I’ll capture that teleporting bastard and then force him to give me the cure.”

Wonder sniffled. “Y-you will?”

Rita squeezed tighter. The pain was receding from her side now, but she still felt it lingering in the background. “Of course I will. Now will you do me a favor?”

Wonder pulled away and nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Go find out when the Queen is arriving, and then go tell Fiona that I may need her assistance.”

Wonder nodded. “O-okay. The queen is coming tonight, I heard Lamont say that. I’ll go get Fiona.”

With that Wonder ran off towards the castle. It was best to keep Wonder busy at times like this as she had a habit of spiraling down into deep depression if she didn’t keep moving. Of course that didn’t solve the worst of the problems. After Rita shut the door behind her she locked it and felt every one of her muscles tighten in fear.

Gently Rita lifted up the side of her shirt and looked at the scratch on her right side. Just above the hip was a black line cut into her flesh. Small tendrils of black had already began leaching out in every direction. Rita’s insides went cold as her heart was covered by a dense numbing sensation.

“Heh… four days huh…”