We should be entering the area of the last Dark Zone within the hour, Natalia said telepathically. We’ll do what we can to keep this brief, but if it’s really this group’s main base, we’re likely in for much more resistance.
Understood. I appreciate you telling us beforehand, Colette responded.
Um, m-make sure to stay safe! I-Ingrid, Alice, are you two f-feeling better? Malori said, a touch of concern in her voice. Even when checking in, Natalia couldn’t help but notice how much lighter she sounded. Perhaps her time with Colette was doing good by her. Hopefully that was the case. She may not have meshed well with Natalia as religious folk rarely did, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want good things for the girl.
Natalia glanced at the elven duo, both preoccupied with preparing their gear. Neither made eye contact with each other, nor did they make any move to respond to Malori. The illian rolled her eyes.
I believe it’s a no. With any luck, we’ll be done with this by tomorrow and we can all go home. It would do these two wonders, she noticed Ingrid wince at the statement.
The espers broke the link, leaving the four women to prepare for entering the crack in the base of the mountain ahead of them. It was wide enough that she could make out the telltale signs of cut and smoothed out stone used for tunnels and bricks, but visibility was so horrendous that anything else was cut off. If things were calmer, she would have allowed her mind to wander and question what could have left such a gouge in a mountain like this. The sound of the blizzard made it hard to think about anything. If the link had stayed active any longer, it probably would have given her a headache.
She held her hand out, letting the wind and snow batter it. Had Ingrid’s comment struck that much of a nerve? A part of her wished she could properly tell how cold the air against her fingers felt, or watch as the cold dried her skin and caused it to crack. Instead, her skin looked as though she’d just taken a warm bath and used lotion that she could no longer afford.
Human. I’m human, she thought to herself, sighing.
She returned to the group to survey their preparations. Ever since Ingrid and Alice had stopped speaking to each other, she’d become the de facto leader. She had mixed feelings about that. Sure, she didn’t have to deal with Ingrid’s willful ignorance anymore, or having Alice call the shots, but a leading role was never one she’d wanted. Kallen needed minimal setup, instead dedicating time to preparing the wyverns. The plan was to take them into the mountain for safety from the storm, but given their lack of information, she wanted to make sure they were ready for a fight before heading into more tunnels.
Why was it always tunnels? Couldn’t they just stay in the open for once? She looked up at the gray sky and sighed. Flying outdoors would likely be harder than inside. The wyverns had barely managed it, and they were used to this sort of weather. Perhaps the magical nature of her flight would give her some leeway, but she preferred not to test that lest she be carried away by the wind.
“Is everyone ready?” she shouted over the tempest. Both elves nodded, while Kallen gave her a cheerful thumbs up. Natalia returned it, motioning with one of her wings to follow her. She offered a silent prayer to whatever god was using her life as a personal comedy to let this be the end of the act.
Once they’d traveled far enough into the mountain, Ingrid threw her snow-laden hood off, shaking her hair to remove any that had slipped by. Blizzards were rare in Cordelia, and none of them were even close to that intense. Another reason to get home as soon as possible. It ranked somewhere between wanting to eat Chimsley’s cooking again and wanting a private place to let out the mental breakdown that had been building for the past week. Gods, she just wanted to see her brother again.
Her stomach twisted with anticipation as she stared deeper into the tunnels. If what she’d read in the past was accurate, these were Khaelaen. The curved and wildly unnatural stonemasonry was exactly the way she’d imagined it. Her breath hitched. She’d spoken of the Dark Zones and the dark elves in the previous location like their connection to Berith was certain. No one called her out on it. Either they thought she was right, or they didn’t want to shatter the sliver of hope she’d been hanging on to. They had to be connected. There was no explanation otherwise.
Berith had told her that he could reunite her with her brother. If this was connected to him, then that meant Mattias might be within reach. Or he wasn’t. Berith was in Caer Gaofar, but she had just assumed her brother would still be in Amalthea if they had him. What if he’d been moved? What if he just left? They might have been completely wasting their time, not even going in the right directio–
She was pulled out of her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder. Alice’s hand. The dark elf wasn’t making eye contact, her eyes planted firmly in front of her like her life depended on it. Alice gave her shoulder a gentle, comforting squeeze before moving to rub her back. Without a word, she continued forward.
Ingrid watched in bewilderment as her lover followed Natalia down the passageway. She’d been too caught up in her own catastrophizing to even hear the illian’s command to follow. Her fingers drifted over where Alice had squeezed. It was the first physical contact she’d shared with her in days, a week almost. It wasn’t that long, but while constantly within each other's line of sight? It felt like an eternity.
Still the same Alice, she thought as she followed behind the group. She fell in line with Kallen, for the comfort of being near another person if nothing else.
The corridor extended for what felt like an eternity before opening up. The cramped tunnel gave way to towering walls on either side, as though they’d found themselves at the bottom of a deep ravine. Lining the walls were doors, not dissimilar to those she’d seen in Kydanthus. Maybe it was where Colette’s grandmother had gotten the idea. Enormous stone chandeliers lay demolished on the cracked floor, their supports long since having given out. Ingrid couldn’t even make out what in them was supposed to give off light. She would have loved on any other day to explore the rooms, see what they had to offer, or if any of them were even still intact. As they entered the more open area, she noticed Natalia’s wings perk up slightly. Was she thinking about flying?
Open areas would likely be better anyways. More room for Alice to run around, Natalia to get range, and Kallen to take advantage of her enormous weapon. Her heart sank. Already she was thinking about a fight like it was certain. Shouldn’t they be trying to avoid a fight? Her eyes fell on the other three. No, if there were enemies here, a fight was going to happen.
“Where do we even go from here?” Kallen muttered, looking around at the hollow ravine.
Natalia didn’t answer for a moment. She sounded hesitant as she did. “Deeper? Quite frankly I’m not sure. The first area we wandered for hours, the second we ran into enemies almost immediately. I can’t say I know where this one is going.”
Another pause.
“We’re on a time crunch, yeah?” Alice spoke up in a frail voice. If Ingrid didn’t know any better, she’d say the woman sounded scared.
Natalia nodded.
“Then…” she stopped, staring at the ground. “Let me lead. Please?”
Both women stood in place for a moment, Alice raising her head to meet Natalia’s pure white eyes. Kallen and Ingrid exchanged a brief look of concern. A wordless conversation passed between the two before Natalia gestured forward with her wing. Alice gave a strained, grateful smile, then walked forward. The illian followed close behind, leaning in to whisper something inaudibly. Ingrid frowned. More secrets, more things separating them. How did she even know how to navigate this place? It wasn’t something that could be taught from books, nor was it obvious or even discrete, just seemingly random.
Alice veered off down something akin to a street or alleyway. The state of ruin everything was in made it hard to tell. A wry smile spread across Ingrid’s face. It was reminiscent of the first days of their journey, letting Alice lead them through streets and alleys like a maze only she knew the layout of. Her brain split between hoping they were closer to Mattias, and longing to go back to those days. Would she have done things differently? What could she have done differently? Regrets layered upon regrets until she could barely think straight. She focused on keeping her gaze pointed forwards, taking in every single detail of Natalia’s feathers until it was the only thing she could process. That, and the pain in her toe from stubbing it on a rock while not paying attention to where she was going.
When Natalia began to draw her wings further inward, Ingrid snapped out of her stupor to actually examine their surroundings. Alice had led them into a much smaller area. Twisting caves filled with luminescent gems of various colors stretched out from their current intersection. They followed the left path, going by some invisible map in Alice’s head. Gradually, they began passing more doors. Intact ones. Wordlessly, they slowed their pace, Alice’s ears flicking about for any sign of trouble. Ingrid peered into a room with its door ajar. There was an unmade cot inside that caused her heart to leap into her chest. This place had been lived in recently. Just as she turned to inform the group in case they’d missed it, she was shoved from her feet, head slamming into the ground.
She groaned in pain as Alice shouted her name. Her vision was blurry, head throbbing as she was pulled up and placed against the wall. Things started to come back into focus just in time to see Kallen shove her glaive into the back of a dark elven assailant’s head, while Natalia launched a beam of light down another corridor.
Sound came back all at once. The whistling of arrows through the halls, the clashing of steel against steel and rock, it was a cacophony of awful sounds that made her new headache hurt even worse. She brought a hand up to her head, seeing blood as she pulled it away. That was annoying. The fight had just started and she was already nursing an injury. Glancing down, there was a tear in her coat where the knife had stabbed, just under her left breast. She breathed a prayer of thanks to Nilin. Her armor might have just saved her life.
“Is she okay?” Natalia bellowed, not getting even a moment to look back as she shot beams of light past arrows and crossbow bolts.
“Looks dazed! We gotta move!” Alice called out, heaving Ingrid to her feet. The movement was painful.
Ingrid shoved herself away from the dark elf, gritting her teeth against the pain it caused. “I’m fine! I don’t need carrying!”
Alice looked at her for a moment, pain in her expression as she shook her head and rushed at an attacker approaching from behind. There was no hesitation as she jammed her knife into the woman’s ear and eye, then cast a throwing knife into the throat of another. The assailant crumpled to the ground, clutching at the stream of blood gushing from the wound.
“Which way?” Kallen shouted.
“One you’re facing!” Alice called back, rushing past the human.
Ingrid took a deep breath, forcing herself to her feet. She allowed herself to briefly acknowledge the presence of the six people they’d killed before running off after Alice, Natalia and Kallen hot on their heels. Every step sent another pulse of agony through her head. She forced herself to keep running anyway. She turned a corner in time to see Alice tearing her knife from another dark elf’s chest.
“More behind us!” Natalia shouted as she and Kallen burst into view.
“I’m getting lost!” Alice called back. “I know how normal ruins are designed! A bunch of these tunnels are recent!”
Ingrid frantically looked around, trying to get a grasp of where they were. She opened her mind, trying to find a similar presence to the one that had guided her in the dragon’s den, but to no avail. All she could feel was the presence of encroaching dark elves and insects, and a few bats. Her eyes snapped open. Bats. They tended to prefer larger caves, where the ceiling was far out of reach of predators.
“This way!” she said, rushing down one of the nearby tunnels. No one voiced any complaint as they followed her. She clicked her tongue. Obviously she needed to see where she was going, but it was harder to sense everything with her eyes open. Too much sensory information.
“Alice!” Ingrid turned to her, reaching a hand back. “Guide me! I’ll give directions!”
The dark elf looked apprehensively at her hand for a moment. She spat a curse under her breath, then grabbed her hand and dashed past her. Ingrid took the chance to close her eyes, let her mind drift until the cacophony around her was more like background noise. Not perfect, but good enough. She felt outwards, using the hanging bats as a destination and tracing a route with anything she could find. Fungus, lichen, insects, other dark elves, all served to create a map in her head.
“Left turn up ahead!” she said.
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She felt Alice change directions, pulling her along as she raced through the passages. Her lover was being careful not to run so fast that she’d stumble, despite how much quicker she was. Ingrid could feel the presence of Natalia and Kallen only a few feet behind them. She focused completely on her mental map, calling out directions to Alice. The other three made short work of any other enemies they found in their path, but it felt like there were always more. Nearly a score of dark elves lay in their wake, but they were too widespread, through too many walls for her to get a proper grasp. The only reason she was able to focus on the map was because it was along one consistent path. She could feel their destination, it was close now. There were more enemies where the caves opened up, but it was better than being stuck in the tunnels like rats.
“A little bit further! Right turn and then forward, and we’re there!” she gasped through her strides. She was able to open her eyes, the last directions given. Without even turning back, Alice let go of her hand before launching herself forward. The woman dashed around the corner and out of sight. Ingrid felt two lives extinguish a few moments before rounding it herself. She ignored the corpses and continued.
The tunnel opened up into another enormous room. This one was rounded, with large structures scattered around the perimeter and cluttered equipment at its center. It was like an underground town square. She didn’t have long to admire it before a pair of throwing knives shot out from the darkness to her left. Alice knocked them both out of the air. As she did, Ingrid felt a presence appear behind Kallen. She turned to call out a warning, but the human effortlessly rolled out of the way of a dagger. Ingrid froze. This had to be a trick. There must have been an illusionist nearby, that was the only explanation.
The cry of pain as Kallen kicked the attacker away told her that this was very, very real.
“Mattias!”
It came out more like a shriek than a cry. A name screamed with enough desperation that all eyes were on her as she scrambled towards the boy. It was him. Oh gods it was him. The unkempt hair, the frame, his eyes, the dumbfounded expression he looked up at her with. Her brother was in front of her.
She dropped her staff, practically skidding on her knees as she fell into a hug. “Oh my gods. Oh my gods. Oh my gods!” she gasped.
“I-Ingrid? Ingrid! Oh my gods Ingrid what the hell are you doing here?” he stammered, more confusion in his voice than Ingrid had ever heard before. “Holy shit, this, are you real?” he slowly wrapped his arms around her, reciprocating the hug so cautiously it seemed like he was worried he’d break her.
“I could be asking you the same question,” she pulled away, taking a moment to look him in the eyes. Tears were forming, from both of them. “Oh Mattias, I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again,” she choked.
Something seemed to snap him back into reality. “Ingrid, you’re hurt!” he exclaimed, putting a hand to her head. Blood soaked his fingers as he pulled away. “Come on, we need to get you up. Um, introduce me to your friends in a moment, but we need to get you help. Here, Alviss knows first aid.”
It wasn’t just Ingrid who froze this time. She could see the other three go rigid as the name was mentioned. Kallen and Alice readied their weapons as Natalia began charging her hands with magic.
“What’s wrong?” he asked frantically, “Wait, Alice? Is that you? Why are you here too? Wait, does that one have wings?”
“Shiva, if you would?” a calm voice that Ingrid didn’t recognize echoed from across the chamber.
Ingrid found herself and Mattias scooped up by Natalia as an explosion of cracking stone came from behind them. She looked over her shoulder to see Kallen standing in a crater, her glaive raised to hold back a greatsword the size of her. Grasping the handle was a purple skinned man, two curved horns protruding from his forehead and arching backwards over his messy black hair.
As Kallen held his blade at bay, he reached into his long black coat, swinging a flat sword out from it. The khanda nearly cut the woman’s throat open. She leapt back and out of its reach, only to have to dive away from a stinger that threatened to pierce her abdomen. Off balance, she thrust the butt of her glaive forward. The man heaved his greatsword forward to block it. The force of the attack knocked him backwards regardless.
The two paused their bout, sizing each other up. Ingrid was struggling to process the lightning quick exchange. The purple skin, horns, and tail weren’t traits she’d ever seen before, but she knew what they were prescribed to. A mephelos. Devilspawn.
“Moloch, what’s going on?” Mattias cried, struggling his way out of Natalia’s grip. He rushed to the center of the room, where two more figures stood patiently. One was a tall, thin orc. The other she recognized. The dark elf that stabbed her in the wrist, and hand, and side, and nearly her throat. Alviss.
“Not now, Mattias,” the orc said, flicking a hand up. The stone around the boy cracked and split, coalescing into a large hand that shoved him backwards. Ingrid could barely believe it. Was he a druid? A mage couldn’t, shouldn’t have been able to shape stone nearly that precisely or quickly. Not a single thing about him gave any indication that he was drawing on natural magic. “The adults need to chat.”
Her awe turned to a sudden, burning anger. “I swear in Nilin’s name if you so much as lay a finger on him, I will use your corpse to fertilize my garden!” she spat, staggering to her feet.
“Ingrid?” Mattias said, disintegrating into shadows before reappearing next to her.
“Berith did mention you had a temper.”
“Berith knows my sister? Please, can someone tell me what’s going on!” Mattias shouted.
“Mind giving us a bit to sort this out, kiddo? Pretty sure shit’s about to be real confusing regardless,” Alice huffed, tightening her grip on her knife. Her eyes didn’t leave Alviss.
“Simple. We’ve gotten all we needed from this location. Shiva here is meant to secure our exit,” the orc gestured to the mephelos. “As much as I’d like to continue researching, you seem determined to remove us. This isn’t worth the trouble. There are more important matters to attend to. Shiva? Alviss? I have work to do. Make sure they don’t follow?” Both gave a silent nod and closed in around the group.
There were millions of questions Ingrid wanted to ask her brother, but she needed to focus. She tried to raise her hand to block Moloch’s path, but was immediately stopped by a knife flying centimeters from her fingers.
“I’m not letting that happen twice,” she growled at Alviss. The dark elf merely shrugged.
“I want the one with the glaive,” Shiva murmured, his tail flicking in anticipation.
Ingrid’s eyes flicked around, scanning the room for plants or life she could use. She clicked her tongue. “Alice, help me with Alviss. Natalia? Lend Kallen a hand. Somehow I don’t think he’s exactly going to be a pushover.”
The illian didn’t say a word as she launched herself over to the human. The burst of air from her wings caused Mattias to stagger briefly. Seeing the opening, Alviss threw another knife, directly at his sternum. Ingrid’s heart lurched as she saw her lover dash forward and intercept it. She gritted her teeth as she yanked the blade from her forearm, casting it aside.
“You good, kiddo?” she panted. Mattias didn’t respond, a look of abject horror on his face. “Yeah that’s fair,” she said, then sprinted forward.
Ingrid let out a sigh of relief. “Mattias! Get yourself someplace safe while we deal with this!”
“I–Sister, that’s my friend! They taught me–”
“If it wasn’t how to dodge a throwing knife, it can wait! Please, Mattias! I can’t lose you!” she begged, raising her voice so that she wasn’t drowned out by the clashing of Kallen and Shiva’s blades.
Mattias bit his lip, glancing at the pair of dark elves trying to kill each other. He gave one last desperate look at Ingrid, before his entire body turned black and blew away like dust. Ingrid took a deep breath. Her brother was safe for now. All she had to do was survive this. Easy, right? Her heart sank. Failure wasn’t an option. Not anymore.
“Do you think they’re g-going to be alright?” Malori asked, sitting on the edge of Colette’s bed. It had only been a few hours since the message from Natalia and the group, but it was still eating away at her.
The Archmage herself looked beyond stressed from where Malori could see her in the mirror. She hadn’t slept very well the previous night either, tossing and turning until the little esper crawled in next to her. Even asleep, her friend was quick to wrap her arms around her and pull her close. She felt bad thinking about how it was the best sleep she’d had in ages. The nightmares weren’t even that bad.
“I certainly hope so. Professionalism aside, you care about them. That’s more than enough for me to want them to get out of this in one piece,” she said, her voice dropping as she pulled down on her eyelid. “Gah! Ugh, do you think eyeliner is necessary? I want to look my best with makeup and everything, but I’m terrible at doing it without Ivar’s help,” she lamented.
Malori frowned. “Maybe I-I could help?” she offered.
Colette looked a bit surprised as she turned to the other girl, her light blue ball gown swishing as she did. “Do you know how to?”
“Well, n-not entirely,” she admitted, kicking her feet. “B-But if you hold still, it might be easier for someone else to do it. I’ve seen people p-put it on before, so I know what it’s supposed to look like…”
The Archmage considered it for a moment, looking down at the pen in her hand. She smiled at Malori. “Well, it can’t be any worse that I’d make it, but I trust you’ll do marvelously,” she joked. She walked over to the bed, handing the pen off.
Malori took it, looking nervously at the dark makeup on its tip. Already, she noticed it wavering in her grip. She never did have steady hands. “I-I’m going to try it like this…” she said. Focusing her mind, she let go of the pen. It remained in the air, right where she’d been holding it. Far more smoothly than it had in her hands, it glided forward, gently applying itself to Colette’s eyes. She tried to apply it the same way she’d seen Alice’s look, the first time they met. Colette managed to keep from flinching away, but it seemed like she was struggling. She let out a sigh of relief as the pen pulled away and deposited itself in her outstretched hand.
“Well, i-it was my first time doing it, so t-tell me if I did a good job?” Malori asked nervously.
The Archmage smiled as she stood up and approached the mirror, examining it from different angles. “Goodness, Malori, you’re a lifesaver,” she chuckled, beginning to apply the rest of her makeup. “It’s nice to see how much you’re getting the hang of telekinesis as well. Was that to show off a bit?”
“N-No! I just, um, wanted to h-help,” Malori blushed, staring at her lap. “I-I’ve never really had an opportunity to dress up like this. I thought it would be nice to be i-included.”
Colette stopped, turning back to give her a curious look. “You’ve never worn a dress before?”
Malori shook her head. “Th-The closest I’ve come is clerical robes. But… books always spoke of princesses and nobles in their fancy d-dresses and suits. I always i-imagined it.”
“Hm,” the Archmage paused, returning to applying her makeup. “Well, there’ll be a chance to fix that coming up.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve heard Castor and Medea mention the festival coming up, haven’t you?” she said, “Well, every year, the King holds a grand ball. I’ve known Eurytus and Castor for much longer than I’ve been Archmage, so I always end up going with them. When Medea and Eurydice joined, they started coming too. It’s become a bit of a tradition.”
Malori felt her heart skip a beat. “Y-You want me to come?”
Colette smiled at her through the mirror. “Well of course! You’re a member of this little retinue as well. It’s not uncommon for an Archmage to bring her Honor Guard.”
“I’m… not p-part of your Guard,” she murmured.
“Ah, right,” Colette frowned, “I’d been considering you as part of it, I suppose.”
Malori’s shoulders sagged. Her friend seemed to notice immediately.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t come. It’s invite only, but guests are permitted to bring a date, if they so wish.”
Again, Malori thought her heart was going to leap out of her chest. A date? At a ball?
“Honestly, it tends to be expected. Castor has always been the one finding a noblewoman for me to bring, but there haven’t been any that I meshed with enough to make something out of it,” she looked back at Malori, beaming. “I don’t see why I couldn’t help a friend of mine live out a bit of a fantasy at the same time.”
The little esper couldn’t find her words for a moment. “I–That sounds l-lovely, Colette,” she giggled. The small giggle quickly turned to a laugh. Her friend looked at her with a look of mock betrayal.
“Okay, I get that I’m not the most attractive prospect for most noblewomen, but no need to laugh at me!” she joked, flicking Malori on the forehead.
“No! N-No it’s not that,” Malori laughed, “It’s just, th-this is the sort of thing I’ve read about a million times. I always l-loved the scenes in romance books where the lovers went to the ball together, dancing and laughing and s-stealing kisses when no one was looking,” she said fondly, clasping and unclasping her hands. “It was something I a-always thought was out of my reach.”
Colette’s face softened, looking curiously at the shorter girl. Her face looked even prettier than it already was with the makeup on. Still, Malori thought it looked better without. It felt more like her.
“You do love your romances,” the Archmage shook her head, grinning. “I take it dancing is a trope you enjoy?”
Malori nodded. “It’s one of my favorites. Holding each other close, m-moving in tandem, putting your trust in the other,” she smiled, “It just feels so intimate. I d-don’t know how to describe it fully.”
“Hm, good to know. Well, I’m no–” she paused, seeming to consider something. “I may not be a lover, but I can certainly make sure I save a dance for you.”
Malori’s face went bright red. “O-Oh, um, thank you,” she smiled.
Colette chuckled as she poked Malori on the nose. “Any other favorite tropes you have? I’m curious, and gods do I need to think about something other than my presentation.”
“Well, th-there’s a long list…” she muttered, considering the question. She must have read well over a hundred romances, all different in their own ways and similar in others. She’d even been excited to read ones she didn’t particularly like, just for the experience of reading something outside her comfort zone if nothing else. The answer quickly became clear.
“I-It’s not my favorite, but one that I do q-quite enjoy would have to be love at first sight,” she said fondly.
The waves of emotion that constantly radiated from Colette sputtered momentarily. For most people, it was usually what happened when their heart skipped a beat so to speak. This felt oddly like a step up from that. As curious as it made her, she didn’t want to be disrespectful and pry.
“Is that so? Is there anything about it that you enjoy?” Colette asked, calming herself.
“Well, it’s hard to put my f-finger on,” she muttered, noting how often such a phrase was said by the characters in those situations. “I th-think I like the impact, if I were to put it into words.”
Colette tilted her head. “Impact?”
The little esper nodded. “The idea of l-locking eyes with someone, feeling your h-heart pound as time seems to freeze in place…” she trailed off. Part of her wondered if it was truly like that. If it was, she was yet to experience it. “The impact of the emotion in that one m-moment, where hearts are laid bare and i-intertwine. The realization that s-something is there that wasn’t before, and trying to d-delve into it to learn what it means. It just seems romantic, d-doesn’t it?”
“Yes. Yes I suppose it does,” Colette sighed, shaking her head. “You know, I think that might be one of my favorites too–”
A knock on the door interrupted their discussion. “Your Grace!” a voice cried urgently. The person continued knocking on the door.
Colette cast a worried look at Malori, then at the door. Grabbing her grimoire and placing it in her holster, she quickly made her way over, Malori close behind. “What is it, Xander?” she asked, opening the door. On the other side was a tall, masked man dressed in tight fitting black armor. A Shadow.
He looked between the two, eyes lingering on Malori for just a moment longer. He took a deep breath. “Your Grace, assassins are in the castle. Lilith quickly engaged them, and we’re not sure who their target is, but,” he took a deep breath, like he had just ran a marathon. “We think they’re here for Ivar.”