CHAPTER FORTY SIX - CELEBRATE

“Presenting Prince Victor and Princess Camille. Presenting Prince William and Princess Tisha. Presenting Prince Hunter, Prince Hayden, and Lady Jade.” Couple by couple by trio, they were announced to the ball as they entered, walking down the few steps and into the ballroom proper. There were people watching, but most of the ballroom so far consisted of people already in little clumps talking to each other, and others were being announced behind them, so they quickly got out of the way.

As they stepped to the side and various people started approaching them, she took a moment to gawk slightly at the finished decorations. The color scheme they’d chosen was gold and crystal, making everything shine brightly and accentuating the colors of the room. She held a moment of silence for Tisha and Victor, who, in their bright golden outfits, would blend in perfectly with the drapes. Not that the gold would do her any favors either, as it clashed with her silver accents. Not as bad, but not as noticeable if she stayed away from the walls.

But then again...the tables by the walls were where the food was placed. It seemed she would not be keeping her distance, after all. She discreetly began tugging Hayden and Hunter in the direction of some pastries she wanted to try, and she could feel Hunter shaking slightly as he held in his laughter. “Lady Jade, my princes, it’s good to see you…” With resignation, Jade pasted a smile on her face as she was forced to a stop by noble niceties.

Nearly an hour later, Jade managed to take a small break by one of the food tables. The original royal group was easily separated by the crowd as they were invited to dance and chat by those around them. She’d managed to sneak a few bites in between conversations, but at this point she was starving and thus declined several more dance invitations as she quietly inhaled as much food as possible while throwing up a minor illusion around her for a tiny bit of peace. She still ate somewhat elegantly, just in case people saw through it, but at least for a moment, she didn’t have to be as careful.

Once she’d gotten rid of the edge of her hunger, she noticed that there was someone else near the wall closest to her. Her steps quickly brought her closer to the scarecrow-like boy holding his head as he sat down. The clothes hung off his frame as if they’d been made for someone much larger, and there were deep circles beneath his closed eyes. His black hair held a slight greasy sheen and was left to fall haphazardly around his face. His skin was pale, and she couldn’t stop the hitch in her voice as she reached a trembling hand towards him and asked, “Frank, what’s wrong?”

Hazel eyes snapped open and tried to focus on her, but his pupils were dilating crazily back and forth. His voice held a note of confusion as he questioned, “Jade?” It was her voice he’d heard, but her illusions were obviously messing with his head. She quickly dropped them for him, finally letting him focus on her face. Once he realized it genuinely was her, he smiled wanly and shook his head helplessly, “I’m fine. It’s just a minor headache.”

His denial had no weight as her hand landed on his arm, a pulse of healing magic shooting through his body as she automatically eased his strained muscles. She could visibly see his body relaxing as his eyes closed again, seeming to revel in having a moment of peace. As she soothed the aches in his body, she asserted quietly, “Frank, I really doubt the circles under your eyes are a result of just a little headache.” Even as she spoke, she was soothing those circles away.

With a heavy sigh, his eyes opened once more as he stared at his hands, clenching and releasing them repeatedly. “No, you’re right. I’ve been having nightmares ever since we got back. It’s as if something is calling me.” His words caused alarm to shoot through her as she immediately began searching for any hints of the mesmer virus in his system. She was only able to breathe a mild sigh of relief when she couldn’t find a single trace. At least she could rule that out, though her first guess was that he was suffering from some form of PTSD. It wasn’t really all that surprising, considering what he’d been through. She’d made the same assessment when Ammon told her about the guards...

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to dismiss it entirely as that. She made a mental note to check up sooner on the others she’d rescued and see if they’d noticed anything. She didn’t remember hearing Tisha, Hayden, or Hunter mention anything like what Frank seemed to be experiencing. Tisha had mentioned something strange that morning, and the twins seemed to be a bit more tired than usual, but that was all... Maybe it was because he’d been there for almost a week? Noticing the somewhat helpless expression on her face, Frank spoke softly, “Hey, don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Jade couldn’t stop herself from muttering responsively, “Yeah, fine. Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, or emotional.” When he stared at her in slight confusion, she shook her head. “Sorry, just something I used to hear a lot in my old world.” It’d basically been a catchphrase for one of the nurses. Trying to bring her train of thought back to the present, she went on, “Either way, I don’t know what else I can do for you right now, but I think you should go pay a visit to Scylla tomo--”

“Jade, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Oh, hey Frank. Is it okay if I steal Jade away? Dad wants to make an announcement and he kinda needs her there for it. You okay?” Victor interrupted her, chattering away, only seeming to realize after the fact that Frank didn’t appear to feel well. Frank looked a little dazed, but nodded, and Victor shot him an apologetic glance as he hooked his arm around Jade, tugging her away without giving her another option. “Sorry about this,” he said somewhat remorsefully to the two of them.

Jade gave Frank a helpless smile before allowing herself to be pulled away by Victor. “What’s going on?” she asked as he stole the plate in her free hand and passed it off to one of the servants nearby. She plastered a pleasant smile back on her face as she realized that more and more people were paying attention to the two of them.

Under his breath, Victor whispered, “We’ve been looking for you for a while. Dad’s elevating your title.”

“Um, what?” Yes, she was the picture of poise and articulation. Despite the fact that her mind was drawing a slight blank, Victor pulled her to a small stage she hadn’t noticed before, where a crowd of guests had begun to gather. At the side, she noted that once King Derrick saw her, he beamed brightly and ascended the steps to the stage, signaling the musicians nearby, who drew their current song to a close quickly. As musical silence descended, whispers circulated as people turned to the stage.

His voice amplified by wind magic, the king spoke, “Thank you all for coming tonight. We are honored to have many things to celebrate: our allies from Niloi, Resaigh, and Saibreh have renewed our trade agreements. We celebrate our students who have started at Dracona. We celebrate something very personal to me: the successful rescue of our people from the mesmer, including my children. But perhaps the most important thing we celebrate is something related to all three: we celebrate the arrival of the traveler, Lady Jade. Jade, if you would join me up here?”

He paused, nodding to her as Victor gave her a slight push to get her moving. All eyes fell on her as she quickly made her way to the stairs leading up to the stage. Derrick put his arm around her proudly when she reached him, turning her to face the small sea of people in front of them.

“Though she has not been with us long, she has shown her dedication to saving our people and improving our quality of life. Not only did she personally rescue the taken, she has improved our security at the wall and advanced our medical knowledge, among other things. For her current and future contributions, I confer upon her now a new title and present to you Duchess Jade Winward, the Lightbringer!” Raucous applause greeted Derrick’s pronouncement, causing Jade to blush slightly as she looked out at all the people who were cheering for her and her ridiculous new title. She knew the church started calling her the Lightbringer, but she hadn’t expected the king to jump on that particular bandwagon.

Smiling a little sheepishly, Jade waved out at the people as they cheered, wondering if this was what celebrities felt like on the red carpet. She directly jumped up at least five title positions, leaving her feeling somewhat lost. She’d only just started getting used to being called Lady Jade, and now she was worried people would start calling her solely by her new moniker.

When the applause and cheers finally began to recede, Derrick made his final proclamation. “Tonight, we celebrate! Enjoy the ball!” The musicians immediately started up again, as if to punctuate his words.

Derrick finally led her off the stage, where she was immediately wrapped in a warm hug by Ashanna. “Congratulations, and truly, welcome to Andara.”

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What followed was hours of congratulations and dancing, as well as being questioned things like “Did you really fight a mesmer nest all by yourself?” many, many times. She’d even come across Hayden telling an embellished tale of her rescue to a rapt audience. Despite the attention, she was having a blast dancing and sneaking bites in between conversations. It was her first ever party, and she was going to enjoy it to the fullest!

And then it all went wrong.

It was as if a wave swept over the most important guests. All around her, she could see people pulling messaging mirrors from pockets and bags. Guards were rushing into the room, brandishing their own mirrors, trying to get to their targets as quickly as possible. The music in the room died, the dancers coming to a halt as screams of fear filled the air along with panicked voices.

Quickly moving closer to the king and queen, Jade heard the words coming through the mirror clearly. “--mass attack. The guards at the walls are overwhelmed, and they’ve started to go hunting freely in the city. Don’t know how long we’ll be safe here…”

Her ears perked, picking up the conversation from another mirror that had screams in the background. “I’ve never seen so many mesmer! I think the city may very well be lost…”

Another voice, this time coming from Duke Liam’s mirror. “Can you open the gates? We’ve got to try to evacuate at least some of these people…”

She changed her direction, making a beeline straight to Liam’s side. Grabbing his arm, she turned him to look at her, obviously startling him. Her words came out in a rush, “I’ll get you to the gates. I need to go through it.”

He stared at her for a second, then protested, “You can’t! Do you have any idea…”

“YES! I do! And that’s why I need to go, NOW. Before it’s too late!” Before anyone else dies. She added the last thought silently. She could still hear the screams coming from other mirrors, but her words were vehement and loud enough that a good chunk of people turned to look at her in some sort of horrified awe.

“I’m coming too.” Stephen materialized behind her, with Eric and Jarom flanking him.

“Count us in.” From her left, Brady, Carter, Ren, Aiden, Duke Vincent, Dante, and Shara came up as well, and she gave her wonderful teachers a weak smile.

She heard the footsteps coming from her right and turned to see a large contingent of royal guards being led by the king. He met her eyes with steely determination as he spoke, “We need to go, now.”

Raising a brow, she asked softly, “You’re coming, too?”

He nodded. “It’s my duty.” The words were formal, but she could see he fully believed them and wouldn’t back down.

She was a tiny bit distracted as she saw someone pushing their way forward, and Duke Donnely broke through the crowd. “Oh good, not too late.” He seemed to know how necessary it would be for them to hold the gate open as long as possible.

“We need to go outside. Everyone who’s not coming, stay inside so you don’t get in the way.” Derrick reissued her exact words in a booming voice, and as one, the groups of people who decided to go on a crazy, potentially suicidal mission moved with purpose to the balcony doors, the rest of the guests being swept aside by their momentum.

As they left, she noticed a final group breaking off and following them out, and she was a bit relieved. Scylla, Mike, Cody, and the other healers would be supremely helpful to have at the gate, boosting Dukes Liam and Donnely with energy to hold the gate and helping those who were sent back through.

She stepped out the doors, watching everyone pack themselves tightly together as King Derrick ordered, “Once we get through the gate, we need to secure a perimeter and funnel the citizens back through. The safety of our people is our first priority…”

Jade moved to the edge of the mass, checking behind her to make sure no one else was coming out the doors. Hundreds of fearful faces were watching them through the windows. Concentrating, she created a wind bubble around the group, exerting her gravity magic en masse to make them lighter. A few surprised gasps were the only sounds the group made as she lifted them into the night sky. As soon as they were high enough, she bulleted the entire party towards the gates.

Honestly, she didn’t even know what city was being attacked, only that it was one of the three governed under Caoi. Breathing was audible in the bubble, considering that it was self-contained, and Jade took that moment to announce, “I have a bunch of rings I’ve been making that should provide some resistance to the mesmer’s hypnotism. I’ll leave the box next to the gate, so be sure to take one before you go through.”

It was a good thing her experiment worked and that she’d started mass producing them with the intention to give them to the wall guards. She’d only been able to make so many, but it was enough for at least most of the people in the group to have one.

Going through the city sky after dark was quite beautiful. The lights flashed below them in celebration as the general populace remained blissfully unaware of the tragedy taking place behind the walls of their sister city. Meat appeared in her hand and she shoved it into her mouth, chewing furiously to replenish the energy she was using to transport them.

And then they were there. She set them down, releasing her gravity control as the wind dissipated so they wouldn’t hurt themselves by practically jumping in the air with reduced gravity. Liam and Donnely were the first ones forward as everyone else organized themselves into squads. They stood on either side of the gate looking utterly determined. She met their eyes as she dropped the aforementioned box to the ground beside her, the lid flipping open beneath a small twist of wind as she strode forward.

They nodded as she charged towards the gate, their magic pouring into it as she activated her mana sight. She could hear voices and footsteps following quickly behind her, but she was the first one through the gate, zipping along the wormhole-like passage towards the west. The landscape flashed by and she stumbled forward out of the gate, quickly running a few steps further to make sure there was room for the people coming behind her.

The stench of blood and sweat struck her sensitive nose, as well as that tangy-sweet scent she associated with the mesmer. She reacted, throwing up a wind wall around her as several figures pounced from three sides. Glowing red with anger, she caught them in fists of air and held them for a brief moment, their angry eyes burning daggers in her as their pointed teeth were revealed and they began to hiss instructions at her.

“Let ussss--” The voice was cut off, along with its head. She shoved their bodies out of the way and moved forward another few steps as the first of her reinforcements stumbled through. Her eyes were darting back and forth, looking for any other mesmer who were in the area and ready to attack. She could hear sobs from up the street, the sobs of the hopeless and anguished. The sounds of fighting, the clash of metal and whistles of arrows filled the air, caught by her keen ears.

The royal guards were the first to make it through, and they spread out expertly, guarding the gate and those still stumbling through, one at a time. As soon as she felt enough of them were through to be able to hold and protect the gate, she began to sprint forward into the night.

The night of blood was upon them, and she was determined to be the grim reaper to end them all.

EPILOGUE - CALL

They felt the pull, the desire to run into the night, to fight, to kill. Despite the many people around them, the four of them came together, staring out into the night. Hunter glanced down at the boy who was kneeling against the wall, hands clutched over his ears as he rocked back and forth. Frank was practically sobbing in his attempt to ignore the call.

Most other people were giving them a wide berth, but who even knew how many of the panicking nobles even noticed them? Everyone who owned a message mirror was trying to get a hold of their loved ones to find out what was going on. Camille was hugging Tisha, trying to comfort her as she cried silently.

Memories of the darkness flashed through his mind, of the helplessness they felt when they were trapped in that pit, not knowing if rescue was coming. But rescue had come. Jade had come. Looking at the other three around him, Hunter paused, then reached out, putting his arms around Hayden and Frank to comfort them.

His voice was hoarse as he whispered, “She managed to save us; she can do the same for them.”

Frank’s haunted gaze burned into him as he replied, “It’s not the same. Can’t you feel it? The Dark One...is coming. It’s coming for her. I don’t know if I can…” his voice trailed off and he started rocking back and forth more violently, shaking off his arm.

“Frank, listen to me. She’s going to be fine. We have to trust her. Have faith. She’s the Lightbringer.” Hunter tried to instill what hope he could in the boy, but it was a shallow comfort. He could only imagine what he was going through. He felt the call, but he knew it was weaker than what Frank was fighting against.

He wasn’t sure his words weren’t hollow. Sure, he was positive Jade could take care of herself, and that ultimately, she would be okay...for now. He trusted that she could fight, and that she could save people. But the news had come too late. He knew there were people out there right now, fighting the monsters.

It wasn’t just the mesmer. Through the conversations he’d overheard, all manner of beasties had invaded Malartu. Jade had said the forests were empty...well, they knew where they’d gone now. It was too late to regret.

All they could do was hope, trust, and send a prayer up that their loved ones would return. He watched as his mom sent out orders, organizing relief for the people who would escape through the gate. He’d join her...soon. Just as soon as the call lessened, he promised himself.

The dawn could only come after the night passed.