Tulip kept running, she could hear the guards pounding on the doors still like madmen. She looked at her wrists, blood was trailing behind her, she needed to find a way to close the wounds and soon. But she also knew she couldn’t stand still, something felt off, why would Brimrose’s guards attack her so suddenly?

It bothered her, it just felt completely wrong, it shouldn’t have happened. Everything she heard from Brimrose sounded genuine, but she couldn’t deny the ability some people had to lie and hide the truth of their words. Shouldn’t someone have been sent to inform her if something was going on?

She didn’t have time to think through it more, no matter how badly it bothered her. She needed to survive, she needed to find Kirin, and ideally they needed to find the Spacial Mirror. She slowed her sprint to a quick walk, saving her stamina and steadying her breath while she moved through the Keep.

Most of, if not all the torches were extinguished, many sat upon the ground as if they were snapped free of the metal holsters which held them. The only reliable source of light to guide herself with was the incredibly dim light that broke through the occasional windows this deep into the keep, and even rarer, the occasional glowing stone to outline a doorway or a turn.

‘Where even am I in here?’ Her thoughts moved about while she moved, though she fell silent with a tight breath as murmurs and footsteps began approaching her from a doorway.

She quickly moved to flatten herself against the wall closest to where the noise came from, her heart was racing. She could hear the guards talking, as they gradually approached.

“This is going far too easily.” A male voice spoke, it was rough and grating like that of an older man. It was quickly followed by a heavy series of coughs that she could only assume originated from the same man.

“Indeed, though those two human girls need to be found.” A more feminine voice spoke, it sounded middle aged. The tone spoke of someone calm, and dangerous. “Especially now that one of them broke away from those two bumbling idiots.” She sighed deeply, shaking her head. “Never should have relied on that…”

‘Did information really spread that quickly?’ Tulip quickly thought after the unknown woman's words hit her ears.

“Hmm…” The masculine voice mumbled as he rounded the corner, Tulip was able to see from the side on glance and take in the two she now saw.

Both were wearing the lighter, leather armor that the guards of the city seemed to be wearing. Their helms sat under their arms, and while their faces remained hidden as they walked away she could note a few things.

The man was tall, nearly as tall as Levi, and built similarly as well. Only really comparable to that of a bear, yet his ears remained elongated, almost to an exaggerated extent that reached nearly behind his head. His hair was a keen silver, and she could see the edges of a well trimmed beard upon his face, whilst his hair was straightened, falling behind his back.

The woman was notably shorter, though much taller than Tulip still, she could see the spear in the woman's hands, while whatever weapons the man had on him weren’t visible from the angle she was at. While the woman's ears were shorter, her hair was much longer, reaching nearly to her hips with a soft auburn coloration to it.

“What are you ‘hmm-ing’?” The woman remarked, her gaze shifting to her side ever so slightly to watch the man.

“Mmm… Nothing. For a moment I thought I felt some mana, but it must just be residual from other guards.” The man replied with another sigh as he crossed his arms. “Let's go find that runt already.”

As the two guards fell silent and continued walking away Tulip still held her breath until they rounded another corner. Only then did she finally take in a slow, shaking breath to take off down the hall they had just come from.

‘Why are the guards hunting me down?’ Her thoughts began to trail while she ran. ‘They couldn’t have spread information this quickly… What is happening?’

Her eyes moved around, locking onto a partially opened doorway to her right that a set of stairs sat behind moving up. She just had to hope that Kirin was being kept somewhere on the second floor. Biting back her rising panic she turned to push the door open.

It let out a painfully loud creaking noise that left her to wince, one of the hinges was snapped, leaving it incredibly hard to shove open. So much so that she had to bash her shoulder against it to get the door to budge open enough for her to start sliding through the gap.

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First getting an arm through her heart was racing, her eyes darting about so rapidly that she almost began to feel dizzy whilst bile built in the back of her throat. The angle was terrible but the door refused to budge another inch, leaving her to shove into a wall to try and slide around it as she was now past the point of no return.

“There you are!” The masculine voice shouted out for Tulip with a booming laugh that left her to curse in the back of her head. “Some Heir you are huh?! Stuck in a damn doorway!”

“Must you be so loud?” The woman spoke with a sigh, shaking her head. “Just kill her so we can be done with it.” The woman audibly readied her spear, twisting it to aim forwards, ready for a jab at a moment's notice. “She’s not the one we were told to keep alive.”

“Awh, but where's the fun in that?” The man replied, Tulip could practically hear the grin in his voice. But finally one more shove, and a hard kick with her leg forced her shoulders and hips through the cracked doorway.

She glanced back for only a moment, to see the cracked door be filled from the shadows of the people. But something was slumped against it, clad in silver, blood leaking from it. It was a dead guard, one of Brimrose’s.

Panic rose through her body and she started running with twice the power in her steps as she charged up the stares.

“And look now she’s gotten upstairs.” The woman spoke with disappointment in her voice, Tulip didn’t wait to hear the continuation of their conversation though.

She took off, running up the stairs as quickly as she could. The slow, gradual spiral was painfully slow to climb no matter how fast she tried to pump her legs.

‘I’m being hunted down.’

‘Brimrose’s guards are hunting me.’

‘The Elves are against me.’

Her mind was raising, she was running as quickly as she possibly could with barely a chance to take a heaving breath in to slow her pounding heart which only accelerated when she heard the door shatter below her.

“Don’t think that you’re getting away that quickly you little runt!” The man boomed out with a laugh filled roar, she could feel the stomps as the stairs shook with every step he took to race up after her.

Her eyes widened with panic when she saw the door closed in front of her, she had to pray it would open, and as she reached for the handle it pulled open with ease to let her run through with it slammed shut behind her.

“I’ll have to fight soon… I can’t keep running.’ Her thoughts moved through her panic, her chest was pounding, she was about ready to black out from this dead sprint. Her stamina was waning, her only hope was that the second floor would have less guards to overhear any fighting.

She reached her hand out, grabbing a pillar that bulged out of the wall in a junction within the halls, using it to shift her momentum she rounded the corner just as she heard the door behind her shatter like the first.

“Where’d you go you little shit?! Think you’re gonna get away from me?!” The booming voice screamed out with a manic laugh, and a horrible series of coughs after it, they labored for a few moments before the voice groaned and spoke far lower, barely able to be heard by Tulip while she sat against the wall, hidden and heaving for breaths. “Shit I can’t keep running like this anymore…”

Deep breaths moved in and out of her lungs while her eyes closed for a moment. She had to calm down, she had to remember what she could do. But she was utterly terrified, her blade could only go so far, her magic was her back bone… For so long she relied on it and now it was like a limb was torn off from her.

‘You can do it.’ She almost heard Kirin’s voice speak in the back of her mind, the naive hope that Kirin always had. In the few weeks they even knew each other it felt like Kirin had done nothing but smile, even when things only kept getting worse.

‘How can one person be so full of hope?’ Tulip took in a final breath, and soon Lotus’s endless instructions were being drilled into the back of her head.

“Sidestep, watch, parry, strike. Avoid attacks, and force them to extend, if they rely upon range, punish them up close.” It sounded so painfully simple, but it was simple and effective that won fights, not flashy moves that would never hit.

Tulip’s eyes flashed over as a hand slammed against the pillar she had just moments ago used to change her direction, dust was scattered as she jumped backwards with the flash of near glowing green eyes barely visible in the smoke.

“Ohohoho! Done running now you little shit?!” Now that Tulip could lock eyes with the man she could see he was old, honestly ancient was a better way to describe how decrepit his face was, with eyes sunken in so far it was a wonder he wasn’t blind, and skin so loose on his face it looked almost like he lacked a mouth.

She remained silent while her hands tightened, he would think she was unarmed, if she could abuse that she would have an advantage she could leverage. But his strength was terrifying, with a build clearly similar to Levi’s she had to expect the worst. She was just lucky that he seemed weak, a higher level Magus at best.

But that was still the same level Tulip stood at with her magic available to her. Let alone how weak she was without it able to reinforce her body whatsoever.

With a slow exhale she calmed her racing mind, raising her arms into a well practiced guard. Warm blood raced down from her wrists, crawling along her forearms to drip down her elbows slowly, the man opposed to her only grinned.

“Now let's get this little game started!” He shouted before launching forwards into an attack.