Zachary was impressed that the little craft was able to land on the short, secluded runway in the valley to the south of White Chasm. The fog was so dense that he could not see the edge of the runway. The pilots were both oculomancers, and they could see through the fog somehow, though he had never been able to get an oculomancer to give him many details.

As he left the plane, the witch Fiona was waiting for him.

"Sir Zachary," she said. "Thank you for coming. I need to take your aura, however. Our business must remain private, and King Edwin will be able to feel you entering the city if you have an aura."

"Very well," Zachary said. Then his aura was instantly gone. She didn't even reach out and place her hand on his chest.

"Follow me," she said, and began to lead him up into the hills on one side of the valley. "It's a long walk to the caverns below the city, please tell me about your quest."

"I just want to know how they kidnapped the Princess that night. We had oculomancers at the doors to the Imperial Palace who were interviewing everyone to entered or left. They ask the standard questions, 'Do you intend to cause harm to the Imperial family?' But that night, somebody slipped through somehow."

"That seems unlikely," Fiona said. "I had heard that Heritor Alyesha had been kidnapped but I do not know the entire story. There are rumors that she was beaten, that her virtue was stolen, that she was mauled by dogs."

"You could ask Kiera," Zachary said. Fiona shrugged. "You can't believe the rumors. It is true that she was attacked by a dog as she tried to escape her captors. She has small scars on one of her legs from that attack. However she was never beaten or violated, and an oculomancer verified her entire story.

"Sasha was taken to the south of the Ash Sea, in Theocracy lands, to a castle owned by a man named Lord Naxis. Sasha simply bribed the castle garrison with promises of riches once she returned to the Empire. It worked, the guards mutinied, and she effectively became the Lady of the castle. She even sent a letter to her father informing him of her location, and she hid her subterfuge from the nearby lords, who still thought that Naxis was in command of the castle.

"King Sullivan Blaine of Cloudsea sailed across the Ash Sea to fetch the princess. Kiera Blaine was traveling with him at the time, serving as a medic in his army. When they arrived the gates to the castle opened right up and allowed the Blaine family soldiers to walk in. They found Sasha sitting on the throne sipping cherry wine and being entertained by the court bard, and they found Naxis locked up in the dungeons. King Sullivan promptly ordered Naxis to be sent to the mines in Cloudsea as a slave.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Sasha kept all the promises she made to those men. She vowed to get revenge for the kidnapping however. She is gathering her armies to invade the Theocracy now that she is the Empress."

They entered into a cavern at the base of a cliff and began to ascend the interior. The cavern had frequent openings along one side, where ferns grew in the light places. The rock was red and white and there was a small system of creeks running through the caves.

"These passages were used by the Aden Clan during the war," Fiona said. "There is a cafe in White Chasm where I met with Renna. That was the day I offered Renna the chance to speak with the Bloodraker. The Aden family scouts led me through these caverns that day. I am very familiar with them. Me and Annatiki used them frequently after we switched sides."

They arrived at a long, dark stairway spiraling up through the rock. Up and up they went, until finally arriving at an iron door. Fiona opened the door. Beyond the door was the Aden Palace dungeons. They found a handful of oculomancers inspecting the empty cells and taking notes.

"There are two boys here in the city who are trying to start an Aviation Club," Fiona said.

"I would expect you to be an expert," Zachary said, "at murdering such individuals and erasing them from public records."

"I sent Kiera to join their club," Fiona said.

"Kiera is too kindhearted to murder a couple of kids,"

"There are lessons that she needs to learn through experience. Anyways, I was notified immediately when those two boys withdrew auras from the bank."

Zachary whistled. "Did King Edwin betray his oaths?"

"No, the account was owned by Heritor Maxius the Younger of Renna. I found him here in the city. Apparently he and some of his friends were here in these dungeons hiding from the oculomancers. We don't know why. We have tried asking him lots and lots of different questions and he reveals nothing. He is not lying to us either. He legitimately did not know what those two boys were going to do with their auras. What is even more troubling, is that Maxius genuinely does not know why he is in the city, he does not know why he was in these dungeons, and he does not have any ill intentions towards the oculomancers, the witches, or the Elder Saint."

"And you want me to question him?" Zachary asked.

"Yes. You wanted to know how those men from the Theocracy kidnapped the Imperial Princess while she was in the middle of the Palace surrounded by oculomancers. Here, we have somebody from the Theocracy who broke his oaths without knowing it and appears to be able to lie to oculomancers, something that we thought was impossible."

He felt excited. His brother, the late Emperor Corrin, had tasked Zachary with solving the mystery of that night. He had died not knowing, but Zachary intended to keep his promise.

"Thank you for thinking of me, I'll see what I can do."