-46-

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Knowing that Hanna would be sending us reinforcements soon, my primary focus was sighted in on ensuring the boys survived this encounter—and as many others as we could, of course.

Even with the heavily armored Viktor leading our front, we made quick progress covering the distance the defense division made between us.

“We’re here to support the defense team, not replace them,” I started giving orders to my guard knights, “Follow Flik’s lead if things get out of hand, and remember our goal is to intercept and deter. Taking out an enemy here would be beneficial but not if it costs lives to do.”

“First and foremost,” Flik called out, “Keep sight of Her Eminence at all times. If you’re moving to follow her orders and assist the defense team, do so without being split from us.”

My guard captain donned her scarlet helmet and readied her weapon—my other knights did the same.

Feeling a little left out I pulled a dark metal circlet from its usual resting place, a small pouch hidden away behind my crimson divisional officer’s coat.

The band of black sparkled in the open air, sunlight catching the fiery veins of red and orange.

I placed the Crown of Retribution atop my head and felt it settle firmly into place—a feeling both unnatural and slightly unnerving. It was the same proper feeling that Dáinsleif gave off when I held it in my hand, but it didn’t provide the same sense of comfort.

It felt like I was a pretender.

The fake empress of an already long-dead empire playing a game of war like a child.

I sighed and steadied my thoughts.

I’m not a fake. This isn’t a game.

The two presumed attackers from Axio came into view and we were all surprised.

They looked no older than having barely become teenagers—younger than Taryn, maybe. I cast a quick inspection to make sure I put a proper name to the target but realized I could’ve just assumed by their status titles.

Bianca, the White Rose, had pure white hair while Victoria, the Black Rose, had deep black hair.

Both wore matching outfits, elegant dark-gray dresses with Renaultian-blue accessories. They looked like they’d prepared to socialize at a gala, not fight against an invading army.

When they got closer I was able to see that their eyes had the same eerie blue glow to them as Hikita’s. Aside from hair color, they looked like twins.

I checked their statuses again but there was no note about either of them being influenced by a curse.

“Behold, sister Bia,” Victoria pointed in my direction, her voice reverberated unnaturally, sending a chill down my body, “Our quarry already arrived.”

“How fortuitous, sister Ria,” Bianca answered back, her voice equally as disturbing, “It would seem our Great King’s useless retainers will no longer need to throw their lives away.”

“Shall we wrap this up quickly then, dear sister Bia?”

“Let’s do so, dear sister Ria.”

The two girls touched their hands together…

… And a massive arc of empurpled magick ripped the earth asunder, blasting all of the defense team’s members out from the center point.

It cleared a direct line to my guard knights and me.

“Aeko and Pearson, split right! Hawken, left with me!” Flik shouted orders and my knights moved.

Viktor locked the visor on his helm down and readied his weapons, “I won’t let anyone or anything through, Your Majesty.”

He took a small potion from his hip and poured it over his shield. A green crystalline barrier spread out from his shield and enveloped the two of us.

It was a flask of protection—a magick imbued concoction that would deploy a protective barrier. In this case, it seemed to be one of earth magick, based on the shimmer of the spell.

I cast AURA OF LIGHT for the party and BRILLIANCE on myself. I restrained myself from activating PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT, it wasn’t needed just yet and I didn’t want to risk draining too much magicka and having to rely on the connection to Capricorn.

The two young girls continued their approach, passing by the impact site of their previous spell.

My knights were in a position to apply pressure, but Flik was keeping a clear head instead of rushing in. We had no insight on what kind of fighters these two were—they attacked with a magickal spell at first, but then didn’t follow through and began to close into melee.

Not rushing into a fight also gave time for the addled defense team to recover, which some of them had already.

A group of knights had closed the gap and struck at the girls from behind.

Bianca held her arms up towards the sky and a crackle of dark purplish energy split the air apart. A dark emptiness filled the space where the air had parted, and an ebony battleaxe dropped from the tear into her open hands.

She swung it in an arc, beating back most of the assailants.

Victoria performed a similar action, holding her arms out at her sides and grasping onto two blackened daggers that emerged from an identical void.

Victoria’s chilling voice seemed to seep in from every direction, “The fodder are stronger than we were told, sister Bia.”

Bianca responded with a grunt, as she defended against another attack by the defense team’s recovering knights, “I shall handle the gnats, sister Ria. You can strike the target.”

“Like hell, I won’t allow it!” A boyish shout preceded a heavy strike against the dagger-wielding Victoria.

Soren had gotten into the fight and circled past the axe-wielding Bianca. His attack had been deflected by Victoria, but now there was one more person in her way to get through to me.

“Pearson!” Flik shouted.

“Let’s go!” Pearson responded.

The two of them engaged Victoria along with Soren.

Pearson’s aggressive swordplay called a certain moment to mind in which she’d held me at sword point and accused me of being a spy. Her strikes battered the small framed Victoria over and over, each one deflected with extreme precision.

The dagger-wielder struck back an attack by Flik, only to cry out and leap backward.

An arc of lightning crackled between their weapons.

Soren rushed Victoria—but a blur of motion to his right sent him flying back.

Bianca had disengaged from the defense team when Victoria cried out and brought her axe down over Soren, but right before the attack made contact, Alistaire threw himself into Soren, knocking him out of harm’s way.

Alistaire was clutching a rounded targe shield tight against his body. The attack sent sparks flying as the metal of Bianca’s axe desperately tried to bite into the shield.

Her weapon cut a groove across the surface, eventually finding a weak point.

Alistaire cried in pain as his shield caved and the axe blade pierced a hole through it and his arm on the other end.

I was already on the move, with Viktor keeping step just ahead of me. Viktor blocked a follow up attack by Victoria, smacking her daggers, slowed by the protective barrier, back with his shield.

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Dáinsleif’s flames greedily sought after Bianca as I activated WILD STRIKE and closed the distance between us in a flash.

Flik stepped in on my left and followed my attack with a thrust of her own.

Bianca didn’t raise her weapon to attempt to defend herself, instead, she seemed to vanish—becoming translucent—and Flik’s sword passed right through her.

“Do it now, sister Ria!”

“Pawn takes Queen, as they say, sister Bia.”

Victoria’s small body distorted and she became like a mist. She passed through the barrier magick with ease and I was enveloped.

My surroundings changed in the blink of an eye.

I had been teleported a pretty far distance from the battlefield, but I was still outside the city of Axio.

The greenish hue that Viktor’s protective barrier had dyed the sky had been replaced with a flaming red sphere.

Both Bianca and Victoria’s forms solidified nearby, just outside the new flaming barrier.

“How perplexing, sister Ria.”

“Indeed, sister Bia. None of the intelligence reports mentioned the heretic queen could use barrier magick.”

“They have been lacking, sister Ria.”

From their bemoaning, I made a quick connection that I wasn’t being trapped by them—rather this barrier was something preventing them from getting to me.

I gently touched the dark metal circlet atop my head and felt it thrumming with power.

The Crown must have taken their teleportation attempt as an attack and activated BLAZING BARRIER. I hadn’t ever worn the circlet in combat, because of the incongruent feelings it stirred within me and I wasn’t sure of its effects.

“Well,” I started, “I can only imagine your desired destination wasn’t the middle of a field. Were you trying to abduct me to Axio?”

Bianca turned her nose up at me.

But Victoria seemed inclined to answer my question.

“If not for your paltry magick, His Great and Mightiness would be dispatching your head already.” she sneered at me.

I placed my hand against the fiery sphere protecting me. It felt warm and relaxing to the touch.

“Hmm. I wouldn’t consider it paltry if it interrupted your spell so easily,” I mused, “So, what now? You kids gonna pack up and head home for the day?”

Victoria frowned, “No. Sister Bia and I will simply wait for your magick to run out.”

The girl muttered something under her breath and we were enclosed within a second sphere of magick, a creepy purplish one that seemed to twist and distort unnaturally.

“Huh. I didn’t consider that.”

Our battle of strength had become a battle of patience. Whose barrier spell would run out of magicka first.

Mine was being sustained by Celestials know what through the imbuement in the Crown of Retribution—an item that defied the logic of the world per Capricorn’s explanations on undefined objects—and drew on the powers of a mythical Phoenix God.

But, Victoria’s magick was also being sustained in an equally unknowable manner.

I pulled her status up and her MAGICKA hadn’t dipped down at all. I had my suspicions the two of them were using void magick in some fashion, but I didn’t know enough about it to say for certain.

The creepy void in space they manifested weapons from and this eerie barrier were enough for me to accept it wasn’t any magick I knew.

Good news, it wasn’t like we were able to go anywhere so my soldiers found us quickly and were now surrounding the girl’s barrier.

Bad news, we all stood out quite a bit and it would only be a matter of time before more Renaultian forces sallied out from Axio.

Moderately annoying news, the void twins’ barrier seemed to block out sound. Julius and his reinforcements arrived soon after my guard knights and the defense team but the void barrier was also interfering with my ability to use the communirune, so I was stuck in here with no way of knowing what they were planning to do.

“Haaah.” I sighed.

I should have Sara teach me teleportation magick, or at the very least get some kind of trinket that can transpose me a few feet away.

----------------------------------------

“You kids give up yet?” I groaned up from the hard ground.

It had been two hours at this point and I was well past any feelings of worry.

I was bored.

My back hurt.

And worst of all, I really needed to pee.

Both Victoria and Bianca stared at me with looks of annoyance.

“I’m pretty sure I can maintain this barrier for days,” I boasted, “But it seems like you can do the same. So, it’s gonna be a race to see who passes out to hunger and thirst first. I brought snacks, how about you?”

I held a small pack up in my hands and pulled a piece of jerked meat out.

I continued antagonizing them, “I bet you didn’t consider storing any supplied in that weird space tearing magick, huh? If you surrender to my friends out there, I’ll make sure you get dinner and let you go if you tell us why Renault is so obsessed with my family and me.”

The silent treatment continued.

So too did the back pain and boredom.

I was about to give up hope on the other thing that plagued me, but my prayers were answered in an unexpected way.

A glimmer of light inside my barrier began to shine as a pocket of Aethermist formed. The mist condensed into a person-sized cloud of iridescent bubbles and with a quiet pop, burst open to reveal Akari.

“Oh, yay, I did it! Hi, Momma Airis.” she greeted me cheerfully with a hug as if her materializing out of a cloud of Aethermist was no big deal.

“Hey, kiddo. What’re you, uh, doing here?” I hugged her back, keeping an eye on the now-alarmed twins.

They skulked around the flaming barrier, eyeing Akari.

“More unknown magicks, sister Ria.”

“We will inform His Greatness of their poor reports, sister Bia.”

“Have you heard of the heretic queen having a child, sister Ria?”

“Never once, sister Bia. This complicates the mission.”

“Not if we remove one and bring the other to His Mightiness.”

The two of them continued to chat nonsense back and forth.

Akari and I shared a look and she stepped back from our embrace and took my free hand.

“I’m gonna take us back to camp! Hold on tight.”

“Huh, you can do that? Oh Goddess my stomach is… ugh! Oh, Akari this feels—”

The Aethermist coalesced around us and I was hit with a wave of nauseousness. My stomach churned and I barely managed to keep myself contained.

We disappeared from within the barrier and were now in some dark place. The air was thick as if made entirely of Aethermist.

It was the same space Akari had once said was ‘near home’.

Akari was smiling next to me, undisturbed by where we were, and a moment later we were standing in my tent.

“Well isn’t that a convenient skill. Where’d you learn that, kiddo?” I asked Akari, who was running around the room excitedly.

“Dunno! I asked Hanna where you were and she said some bad guys had you trapped, so I just thought it would be great if I could make it so you weren’t. Then I was there with you.”

I bemoaned the fact that Akari was leagues ahead of me in practicing chaos magick. Her understanding of the concepts was lacking, but that didn’t matter when the magick could literally manifest in response to your desires.

“Thank you for the rescue. I don’t think I was really in that much danger but it would’ve taken a long time to resolve without your help.”

“Heh!” she beamed, “Those two stunk like void-beasts and black dogs. I didn’t like them. Oh, what about Uncle Julius? I sensed him out there, should we go bring him back to camp too?”

I tried to call out on my communirune but there was no answer. His proximity to the void barrier was probably disrupting his device now.

I nodded my head, “We should let them know to come back, but I need five minutes real quick or I’m gonna burst.”

After I freed myself from the threat of embarrassment, Akari and I warped through the aetherial plane—what I thought was probably an aetherial plane at least—and materialized right next to Julius.

“Celestials above, what in the—Airis? Akari?”

“Heya, Julius. Fancy meeting you here, I… uh,” I stammered, looking around and noticing a distinct lack of creepy twin assassins and their sphere of void magick, “I came back to help wrap this up but it seems I’m late.”

Julius shook his head to free himself from a stupor.

“Yeah. Shortly after you disappeared, so did those kids keeping you trapped. They vanished along with the barrier.

“Oh,” I said, drumming my hand against my chestplate, “Let’s go back then. Did the second runestone get installed safely?”

“It did.”

“Cool. Hey, Julius?”

“Yes, Airis?”

“Would you mind if I cut you with my sword real quick so I can sheathe it?”

“Yes I mind!” he shouted back at me, “Just wait till we get to camp and you can use some blood from the hunter’s station.”

“That’s a good idea—Oh, is Alistaire okay?” My mind snapped back, recalling that while I was sitting around for hours there had been a whole battle before then.

Julius assured me that both Alistaire and Soren had been treated already and were back in camp.

My guard knights fussed over me on our way back, but it wasn’t so bad. Viktor volunteered to carry my bloodthirsty sword, freeing me to walk around without worrying about burning anyone. I was beginning to get used to being accompanied everywhere I went.