Thanks to Sailest's light, Lucina was able to navigate around the keep without a torch and minimize her presence. After briefly visiting her knights in the barracks, she found her way into one of the towers and up the spiral stairs that led to the top of the walls around Wyrm Rock. Despite how heavily guarded the keep was, there were no guards along this stretch of wall that allowed an eerie calm to fill the air. Lucina softly hummed to herself as she waltzed along the wall before stopping to admire the view of the north. Thick forests of pine stretched into the distant horizon with dots of light in the distance that marked the various camps of knights who patrolled the woods for demons. Wind whispered through the trees as insects sang songs in the cool night air. Had she not known better, Lucina would have thought the north was a beautiful and peaceful place. As she admired the view, a small flame danced in front of her like a firefly wishing to be admired.
"It's dangerous without a torch, Harbinger," Solomon sarcastically lectured in a soothing voice as he walked over to join Lucina. He was surrounded by small flames that danced in the air with a single gesture of his hand.
"Sailest's light guides me well enough." Lucina already knew he was following her since she entered the tower; it's why she wandered the keep for so long. "Couldn't sleep, Elder?"
"While I would occasionally accompany Saintess Beatrice to handle demons, the night before a subjugation is still a restless one for me." Solomon gestured toward himself and the flames that danced around him widened their dance to encompass both himself and Lucina. His long blonde hair fluttered in the wind and seemed to sparkle in Sailest's light, and his purple eyes shimmered as they reflected the light of the flames that danced around them. Solomon was also wearing his shirt halfway unbuttoned to allow his toned chest to be fully on display. "May I ask for your company, this night?" His voice was like a cool river that effortlessly flowed through the air and into Lucina's ears.
"…Very well." A river that immediately hit a dam and had no real effect on Lucina, but she did her best to play along. There was a large cloud in the distance that was slowly making its way across the sky and would soon blot out Sailest's light. "Though, Elder, your actions make me feel sorry for the Saintess back in Gorinville." Just play along a little longer.
"If that is the case, then you are not fluent in the customs of Auntie Yulash," Solomon playfully laughed as he got closer to Lucina. The small flames that danced around them tightened their dance as Solomon drew closer, and Lucina noticed that they would occasionally stop to land on one of Solomon's rings before taking flight once more.
"Auntie?" Lucina asked despite wanting to throw up at how comfortable Solomon was getting with her.
"The deserts of Yulash can be both lovingly kind and sadistically harsh, like an annoyed auntie. It's just a little title we've given our home as it often seems like the desert itself is alive, at times," Solomon explained. He chuckled to himself, and continued, "In such a lively place, our ways of love, too, are lively. We do recognize marriage and our children are born from our wives, but…" Solomon draped an arm over Lucina and let it gently rest on her shoulder. "Should love exist, why not enjoy its bliss so long as everyone agrees?"
"…" Lucina held back her urges as the cloud was still making its way across the sky. The eyes in the trees could still see her under Sailest's light. "That's a very lively custom, is that also why you wear so much jewelry?" She watched another flame wisp land on one of Solomon's rings and grow brighter as if it was recharging from the ring's jewel.
"It's a similar case," Solomon happily explained as his hand went from Lucina's shoulder to her back since she wasn't pulling away. "What's the point of owning wealth if we don't show it? A jewel kept in a box is only worth the box, as our Sultan would say."
"I guess I'm so used to the clergy of Arlexia that it's strange to see one so covered in jewelry," Lucina stated while doing her best to keep her tone of voice upbeat despite feeling Solomon's hand trace down her back. The cloud crept closer to Sailest. "Your Sultan sounds rather unique."
"It's probably the animali blood in them," Solomon said indifferently as he was more focused on Lucina's body than their conversation.
"Animali?" Lucina wanted to keep their talk going to hopefully slow Solomon down enough for the cloud to get where she needed it to be. "The half-animal species of humans native to Yulash? I've only read about them in books, but they're real?"
"They are, though 'half' is a generous wording." Solomon obviously wanted to move on but didn't want to push too hard since he was getting further with Lucina than ever, so he humored her and explained, "Animali only share a handful of features with animals, at most. Our Sultan has the ears, eyes, and tail of a cat while otherwise looking completely human."
"That's very generous of your people." The cloud was almost in place. "I'm surprised the animali are accepted enough to become Sultan."
"They are a people blessed by Lord Nuz, so what could we do other than treat them like real people?" Solomon offhandedly said as his hand reached Lucina's butt. "But, Harbinger, while I'm touched you're so interested in my home, I'd much rather hear about you." The large cloud rolled across the sky and blotted out Sailest's light, enveloping Wyrm Rock in darkness and making it impossible for the eyes in the trees to see what was going on. Solomon softly squeezed Lucina's butt and whispered in her ear, "Like-!?!" Only for a gust of wind to extinguish the small flames dancing around them and punching Solomon in the stomach, sending him sprawling to the floor.
"…I need a bath," Lucina muttered in disgust as she turned to face Solomon who was keeled over on the ground. Despite the darkness, Lucina's eyes had adjusted enough to see Solomon, but everything beyond the wall was pitch black. "Let's get this over with." The perfect cover to take care of business without being 'directly' held responsible; it was too dark to tell what was happening from an onlooker's perspective.
"H-Harbinger!?" Solomon was taken completely by surprise and unconsciously raised his hand toward Lucina. "I-If you didn't like-" With a single slash of her shortsword, Lucina cut off Solomon's fingers and most of his raised hand. "A-AGH!?!?!" Confused and terrified, Solomon began crawling to his feet in an attempt to flee. If he could escape back to his followers and the Duchess, he would be safe, right? However, when he reached the door to the tower, Solomon ran into three armored figures in red cloaks. "P-Please!" Solomon pleaded to the figures. "The Harbinger's been driven mad! You must help me!"
"…" The three figures stood stoically in place without answering.
Lucina spoke up as she started walking toward Solomon, "Take his right hand, and any jewelry you can find."
"Got it, Commander," the Hellhound knights obeyed.
"W-Wha-!?!" Solomon tried to back away, but a metal gauntlet grasped his wrist so a battleaxe could come down and chop off his right hand. The figures pounced on Solomon, slammed his head into the floor to further daze him, and their cold hands scoured his body to tear off any and all of his jewelry. The screams Solomon cried were lost as a harsh wind howled across the forest.
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"On his feet," Lucina ordered as she picked up one of Solomon's sliced-off fingers to further inspect the finger's ring.
"Got it!" the knights replied and hoisted Solomon to his feet after they were done taking all of his jewelry.
"…" Solomon was slowly coming out of his daze and blankly stared at the floor. "H-…Harbinger?" His voice was distant and he sounded out of breath. "If I was…to far…then please forgive-"
"You're surprisingly clever, for a fool," Lucina interrupted Solomon's wallowing as she inspected the ring she pulled off the finger. "I've never seen a wizard think to cover themselves in jewelry made of magic stones to disguise himself as a priest." She felt the same disgust in her gut she felt when wielding her wizard's staff during the war, solidifying her suspicion.
"…!" Solomon's voice caught in his throat. Seeing no point in lying, given his current predicament, Solomon decided to ask, "H-How did you…know?"
"The Saintess tipped me off," Lucina answered and could feel Solomon's expression drop in horror.
"B-…Beatri-!?!" Lucina punched Solomon's face to shut him up.
"A heretic like you should know better than to speak the name of a Saintess." Lucina had wondered why Beatrice called Solomon a heretic during their last talk which first sparked her suspicion. "But, yes, the Saintess knew you were a heretic. And you also confirmed it earlier with those little 'fireflies'." Lucina held the ring in front of Solomon's face. "They kept landing on your ring to keep themselves going. A Magister's magic can be formed and sustained anywhere near them so they shouldn't be doing that, but a wizard's must form near their magic stone." Lucina tossed the ring aside to fall off the wall and into the sea of darkness below. "If I hadn't been looking for it, I would have glossed over it. Too bad, heretic." Lucina gestured with her head to the edge of the wall and her knights hoisted Solomon up to dangle him over the side.
"H-H-Harbinger!?!" Solomon cried as he felt the ground leave him and his hands desperately grasped at the knight's hands that were the only thing suspending him in the air. "I admit it! I have committed a grave sin! A sin I will gladly testify to committing before the Voices in R'eldrun!" Solomon clamored for anything to save himself, believing that if he could just survive this encounter he could get help from his fellow wizard allies he snuck into the clergy.
"Why would I waste their time?" Lucina asked matter-of-factly, much to Solomon's horror. "I am Zulm's Harbinger, so my word alone will easily convince them; plus the jewelry made of magic stones I'll send to them so they can thoroughly rout out any other wizards skulking about our ranks." Lucina nodded to one of her knights and they started gathering all the remaining jewelry in a sack. "So, I don't see the need to…?" Lucina's words trailed off as, surprisingly, movement below the wall caught her eye. It was far too dark to properly see anything, but unmistakable red lights made themselves known.
"!!!" From out of the forest, a pack of hellhound demons emerged. The red pricks of light in their eyes glowed softly in the darkness to betray their presence along with the howls that reached the top of the wall. How they had managed to slip past all of Einbore's knights during an active subjugation was unknown but the pack ran up to and started clawing at the wall beneath where Solomon was being dangled from. "!!!" They started barking, asking for food.
"…Pfft!" The tense air chilled as Lucina couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Ahaha!"
"…H-Harbinger?" Solomon could hear the hounds beneath him snapping their jaws, and Lucina's laugh was putting a bad thought in his head.
"I guess it's true what they say!" Lucina laughed as she leaned over the wall to get a good look at the hellhound demons. "The gods love irony!" Demons were, at the end of the day, servants created by the gods. Though they sought and killed humans, that was just their nature, their reason for existence. To see demons that had no right to be here snapping their jaws so hungrily filled Lucina with joy. Solomon's route ended with him feeding Olivia to a pack of demons with the help of his followers, so Lucina happily cried, "Just as you did to Olivia, so shall be done to you!"
"What are you saying!?!" Solomon desperately asked as he had no idea what Lucina was talking about.
"Zulm's will be done!" Lucina declared and, after giving a wave of her hand, had her knights drop Solomon off the wall.
"NO!?!" Solomon's voice fell on the howling wind as he plummeted to the ground. The fall, unfortunately for him, didn't kill Solomon but instead broke his back, shattered his legs, and left him completely helpless as the maws closed in around him. "!!!" Incoherent screams echoed back up the wall as the hellhound demons tore into Solomon and ripped him limb from limb. At a certain point, it almost seemed as if the demons were intentionally avoiding outright killing Solomon as they slowly tore at his non-vital organs. One even tore open Solomon's stomach to bury its snout into his guts and gnaw on his heart without piercing it. And while the shadows in the trees couldn't see what happened atop the wall, they could easily make out and watch Solomon's final moments.
"Blessed be!" Lucina declared with a smile on her face.
"Blessed be!" her knights replied. They were all people who had fought and bled alongside Lucina during the war and whose faith was fully in the gods that granted them the blessing of returning alive to fight another day. To help their Commander, their Harbinger, rout out vile wizards who pretended and insulted their gods was the greatest gift they could ask for.
"…Henry?" After calming down, Lucina called to her knights in a sing-song voice.
"Yes, Commander?"
"I take back what I said earlier…" Lucina stopped leaning over the wall and headed for the tower and stairs down. "We're not waiting for tomorrow. Demons have reached the walls, so how could we possibly sit by and let them be?" She spoke through laughs as her knights kept pace. "Awaken the others! We push back the demons starting now!"
"Got it!" her knights all shouted as they fell in behind her. That night, as the large cloud finally left the sky and allowed Sailest to once more bathe the world in light, the Hellhound knights rode forth with a strange vigor. After cleaning up the demons who had approached the walls and dealing with those still loyal to Solomon, they rode their horses into the dark forest to begin a subjugation the likes of which Lorn had never seen before.
***
"How goes the experiment, Andrew?" a wizard asked as he entered the wizard's tower's innermost chamber. The wizard's tower was a massive spire that pierced the distant skyline of Gorinville and housed the most powerful wizards in the empire, as well as the meteor that provided them with their magic stones. In the innermost chambers of the tower, guarded by countless layers of wards and spells, was a laboratory where the wizards would conduct experiments on the meteor to further their understanding and control over its gifts. Vials filled with strange liquids, test tubes circulating concoctions, and strange devices powered by magic stones littered the room as wizards went about their work. It was a place for only the most trusted and high-ranking of wizards which is why Andrew, as the next archmage, was allowed inside to further his studies.
"It's everything we've been hoping for!" Andrew proudly declared as he looked up from the table he was working at to address the other wizard. "Look, Spencer!" Andrew excitedly called as he repeated the experiment for his colleague. With a strange contraption, Andrew sliced off a piece of the meteor's crystal-like body to use and happily watched as the meteor regenerated the missing piece. Placing the piece into a box that had tubes going into it, the box hummed and churned, injecting the strange clouds of dust that filled the tubes as it worked, until it gave a soft 'ding' sound. Andrew opened the box to reveal that the piece of magic stone was now in a powdered form. "I finally got the right ratio for the solute! Once added to the solvent…" Andrew brought the powder over to a different circular device and poured the powder into a tray in the center of the device. After placing a glass lid over the tray, the device started spinning and spreading the powder evenly throughout the vials that lined its exterior which all contained a strange liquid. The device spun for a minute before coming to a stop with a lurch to release the vials. Andrew took one of the vials, held it up to the light emanating from the meteor, and announced, "A potion that temporarily grants the consumer aura!" The liquid pulsed a gentle pale-blue light in the vial.
"Amazing, Andrew!" Spencer and some nearby wizards who had overheard everything all started clapping at the achievement. "All those sleepless nights finally paid off!"
"Of course they did!" Andrew felt pride swell through his chest at the recognition of his peers. "Once we run a few tests to find out how long it lasts, and any side effects, we can present it to the Emperor. Years of research, and we've finally cracked another of the god's mysteries!"
"Those monsters won't keep humanity under their thumbs for much longer," Spencer felt joy in his heart as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Once we crack the mystery of life and death magic, we will officially have no need for them and can begin a revolution of scientific reform!" A sad air overtook their conversation as Spencer comforted Andrew with, "Your father would be proud, Andrew."
"…I know." The current archmage, Andrew's father, had fallen ill after using his own body as a conduit for another experiment that would revolutionize the world. While the experiment had left him bedridden and unconscious, the data the wizards were able to gain gave them the edge they needed to push for another breakthrough in their research. "Once we finish this, I plan on picking up where my father left off."
"You can't!" Spencer tried to dissuade Andrew. "We have plenty of test subjects for that research, Andrew! We cannot lose you, too!"
"My father isn't lost!" Andrew shouted and drew everyone's attention. "And when he wakes up, I want to show him a son that boldly followed in his footsteps of greatness! I want to show him a world free of those monsters and their cults! A world not of predeterminism, but of free will!" And, unsaid, Andrew wanted to create a world so Beatrice could be 'free' of her ties to the gods. As it stood, the title of Saintess and wizard would always be a wall between them; a wall Andrew fully intended to tear down and bring Beatrice over to his side. While it pained him to leave her in the palace with James and Derik, he had bribed the kitchen staff to put contraceptives in her food so that he wouldn't have to worry about a child stealing her away from him when he finally returned.
"Hear hear!" one of the wizards shouted, and the room exploded in applause as the wizards all agreed with Andrew's determination.
"…Fine," Spencer laughed as he was caught up in Andrew's mood. "But I want to be present when you do. Don't think you can hog all the glory." He gave a friendly pat on Andrew's shoulder that Andrew returned in kind.
"Of course, Spencer." Andrew smiled at his colleague and friend as he imagined the world they would create. The wizards all congratulated themselves on the achievement and the lab was filled with the sounds of laughter as the meteor silently floated in the center of the room. Its crystal body softly hummed a tune no one understood in a language no one could comprehend.