Chapter 3 - Null
They had failed, and it was all her fault.
Estrel the Second, queen of Morance, was lost in her own world as she kept replaying the events that had led up to this disaster.
If only I hadn't suggested to Solel to take a day off. If only I hadn't waited for so long to evacuate. If only I could have spotted that thing
sooner, before she destroyed the portal.
But it was too late. She had done none of those things. And now her kingdom would fall into further chaos, its queen trapped in a warzone, her fate uncertain.
She knew where Archibald and the others were taking her — the hidden teleporter in the kitchens. It wouldn't matter. They'd get there soon enough, but charging the diagram would take a while. And long before it was done,
she would be there.
Estrel wasn't just being defeatist for the sake of it. She had a very good reason for it: a magical ability she had acquired at the age of ten, which she had titled the Glance. Obtaining it had been… painful, and she was never able to teach it to someone else, no matter how hard both she and her prospective student tried, but its utility was invaluable.
Name, age, gender, species, and even a rough summary of emotional state was fed into her mind as she Glanced at any being capable of self-awareness. It had been a large reason for the success she had in international politics over the past few years, and only her Royal Guard and Nightwatchers knew about it. After using it for so long, she had lost the ability to turn it off, putting a drain on her already lower than average natural magical recovery speed. As a silver lining, it could now be used on, and warn her of, people she didn't know were there. Which was how she had spotted that monster while she was still invisible.
As she had gazed unfocused in the distance, she had suddenly received a very odd set of information. Age: around 40. It was apparently a s
he. Her name was a screeching cacophony of metallic sounds that had almost made Estrel's ears hurt, even if it was all in her mind. Emotions that were odd enough that she couldn't properly interpret them without further observations.
Strangest of all was the species. It was nothing.
But not the same nothing she got when she looked at inanimate objects, or unthinking living beings. It was as if something had been there before, but disappeared, rather than never having been there at all.
She had gotten a similar result when Glancing at the smaller monster that Ronan had captured at his request, but for all of its attributes this time. As if its name, emotions, and everything that would make it something more than just an elaborate lump of matter were simply… ripped away from it.
But this oddity was not why she was so certain of her failure. No, that was due to the other side of her Glance, one that was far more situational. Namely, a breakdown of magical proficiency in different branches of magic, and an estimate of overall magical power.
Glances did not give her direct words and numbers. Rather they were more akin to concepts, being fed directly into her mind. She had gotten rather good over the years at interpreting age down to around five years, but something as subjective as magical power was a lot more open and inexact.
Still, she could tell that the monster's power easily dwarfed that of Solel's and the Royal Guard's all put together. They would be crushed.
The abomination was no dumb brute either. At a Glance, she was a master in most kinds of offensive magic that Estrel knew about, and very skilled in many other branches. One of which was tracking magic.
We can't beat her. We can't outrun her. Whatever it is she wants with Estrellis, we can't stop her from getting it.
It's hopeless.
Was it?
There had been times before when life had overwhelmed her, when she felt she couldn't find her way out of a terrible situation. When her parents had died. When she had been crowned queen, after her uncle had stepped down as acting regent. When shortly after, King Horace of the Korelon Kingdom had subtly hinted at war because she had inadvertently offended during their first meeting. Though Estrel liked to project an aura of composed confidence to her citizens, she was anything but.
But those temporary lows weren't the end of the story. They were just that, temporary, and she had come out stronger every time. She had grieved her parents, and moved on with the help of Solel. Her royal duties had been overwhelming at first, but she had quickly grown into the job. And that blowhard Horace had quickly backed down when she had shown him that she would not let just anyone walk over her without resistance.
Could she live with herself if the situation further deteriorated because of her inaction? No. She had to try
something.
This is different though, a small, traitorous part of herself whispered.
All those problems you had were mundane, things that were within the realm of expectations. This? This is beyond our comprehension. Solel told you herself.
And Solel also told me that now was the time for me to be a good ruler, and to make difficult decisions, so kindly shut up while I think, she shot back, berating herself.
As she returned to reality, she took stock of her situation. She was currently being carried by Archibald, who was running through the hallways of the palace with ease, despite her added weight. Five others were accompanying them, keeping up with him at a steady pace.
Wait, five?
Ah, right. The city guard, Sidan. She had almost forgotten about him.
She had, of course, already known his name before she'd asked for it. But she hadn't seen any harm in acknowledging his presence, as it would make any potential future interaction with him much less awkward.
The boy was only a few years younger than her, though with his well-built physique he looked much older. She could catch glimpses of his closely cut, fiery red hair through his bloodstained helmet, as well as beginnings of a beard. He was scared out of his wits, but did an admirable job of hiding it, keeping his gaze unflinchingly ahead. As expected of his profession, his proficiency in internal magic was much greater than that of the average person's, but still not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
In other words, he was a wholly unremarkable city guard, nothing about him making him stand out from the dozens she Glanced at whenever she travelled through the streets of Estrellis. And yet, looking him over, she felt the beginnings of a plan form in her mind. It was crazy, rushed, and not at all fair to the poor, out-of-his-depth boy, but it just might work.
"Stop. Get into that room," she spoke, pointing to the right.
"Your Majesty," Archibald said, looking concerned, "the secret teleporter is not-"
"I know!" she interrupted him. "But the others are not going to win this. Our guest will catch up to us before we can escape. We need a new plan."
Archibald looked at the other royal guards, unsure.
"That's an order!" Estrel barked.
That did the trick.
The group filed into the small conference room, and Archibald set her down. She wasted no time, giving out her orders.
"Bridget," she told the only other woman in the group, "you're on lookout. The rest of you, start setting up advanced defenses. Focus
all your energy on that. Once that monster gets here, I want you to slow her down as much as you can. Understood?"
The purple clad mages answered with a quick nod, and went to work, Bridget's eyes glowing yellow while the others began drawing diagrams at the base of the walls.
Now comes the hard part, she internally grimaced, thinking of how to best phrase the next bit.
Sidan stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, his attention rapidly switching between the door and the royal guards. At a Glance, he was agitated. His earlier controlled panic had abated, now replaced with frustration. Did he want to help, but couldn't see a way how? The emotional aspect of her Glances was not that precise, but over the years she had gotten good at reading people on her own merits. If her assessment was accurate, he might accept his mission with less reluctance than she'd originally anticipated.
"Sidan," she called out to him, in a move that surprised everyone present.
The city guard jumped, his attention now fully on her.
"Yes, Your Majesty?" he asked, hesitantly.
"We don't have much time. I need you to listen to me very carefully, and remember everything I say. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes," he replied, standing straighter, his confusion gradually giving way to determination.
"Good. When I tell you too, you will run out of this room to the right, and take the first left turn you see, then the second turn on your right. Keep going straight until you reach the kitchens."
She paused briefly, making sure he had remembered all that.
"Once there, open and close the door of the first oven on your left three times in a row, say loudly and clearly 'Didn't see you there, old friend', and run into the back wall. If you do that right, you should pass straight through it, and arrive in a secret room. Did you get all that?"
After a few seconds, Sidan nodded.
Part of her wanted to scream at him for wasting so much time. The more rational part told her that it was only natural he'd be slower than her to recall information she'd known for years.
"Inside that room, there is a teleporter, and a chest containing white potions," she continued, expertly hiding her frustration. "Drink one of the potions, and stand in the circle. It will charge up on its own, and when done, it will activate automatically. You'll arrive at a bunker on the border of Valronia Forest. Once there, break the diagram, and set out to Dordox, the nearest town. There will be a map. When you get to Dordox, you need to tell them what happened, and form a search team to take with you into Valronia Forest. We have good reason to believe that an artifact of great power has been hidden in there, one that might have the power to repel this threat."
"What kind of artifact?" he asked, not skipping a beat.
In any other circumstance, she might have paused a bit, for dramatic effect. She didn't have such luxuries this time, and answered immediately.
"It's the Daughter of Light's sword."
Sidan's focused expression broke, his eyes going wide. Even her royal guards paused in their work. They hadn't been aware of this particular tidbit.
Luciel Anwar's peculiar sword had been the subject of much academic debate over the centuries. Where she had obtained it, who or what had made it, and if it even had a name were all big questions, whose answers she had kept all the way into the grave.
What had happened to it was another. She had definitely parted with it at some point before the parade thrown in her honor in Estrellis, following her return from the Underworld, but when exactly was a mystery. Until recently.
The Nightwatchers were the
other team of powerful mages under her command, though these ones were far less flashy than the Royal Guard, focusing not on combat and protection, but on espionage, and intelligence gathering. Shortly after taking power, she had asked three of them to look into the whereabouts of the sword, as a just in case. A year ago, they had delivered.
Uncovering a trove of hitherto unknown primary sources, they had been able to reconstruct the rough path the Demonbane had taken on her return home, the last time she had definitely been seen with the sword, and the first time she had definitely been seen without it. Many of the sources were incomplete, and the timeline sometimes included hard to explain holes where Luciel had seemingly travelled great distances in very little time, long before the invention of teleporting circles. Still, all of this left Valronia Forest as the most likely candidate for where she had parted with it by a good margin.
It wasn't overwhelming evidence, but it made sense. Valronia was dense, dark, and filled with monsters. An ideal place to hide something from prying eyes. Its unusually high monster density was another point in its favor. Though places as infested as this one were definitely not unheard of, and could often be explained through completely natural phenomena, the main
unnatural reason for their existence was the presence of a powerful magical object.
Granted, all the search parties she had sent there since had turned up nothing, but considering the size of the forest, that wasn't too unexpected, and not necessarily a sign that she was barking up the wrong tree. It had to be there. For now, she couldn't afford to consider the possibility that it wasn't.
As for why the bunker had been built in this area, that was a simple coincidence. It had been just the right combination of isolated enough to serve as a hiding spot, far enough from the capital to escape potential dangers like this one, and close enough to civilization to ask for help if needed.
"Yes, I know that it sounds crazy. But we have good evidence to believe that it is there, or at least around this area. I know it is no easy task, but I believe that you can do it. You have to try. Harnessing the power of the Daughter might be our best shot at winning this," she said, striking a careful balance between an order and a plea.
She conveniently left out the part where she had not found anything even with a one-year head start on him, and that said evidence was largely circumstantial. If this was going to work, Sidan could not doubt her.
"Um, how will I even convince people to join me in this search?" the young guard asked hesitantly. "No offense, your majesty, but your story isn't the most believable thing in the world…"
Oops. She hadn't thought of that. Normally, she prepared letters bearing her seal as proof of her involvement for these types of missions, but that wasn't an option right now.
"Give him your money," she ordered the royal guards.
They complied, handing Sidan coin-filled pouches they had been keeping attached to their belts. There were no external complaints, though a few of them were decidedly
not happy on the inside.
Suck it up, you big babies, she thought.
With the way things are going, money might soon become meaningless.
Sidan, for his part, was incredulous as he quickly stuffed the pouches inside his own pockets, though she was happy to see greed was not one of his primary emotions right now.
"If your words are not enough to convince them, then maybe gold will," she said, Glancing at Bridget, who did not appear too alarmed at the moment. "Any last questions?"
"Why me? Why not, one of… them?" he asked in a small voice, awkwardly gesturing at the purple clad mages, still hard at work.
That was indeed a good question. Sidan was definitely
not equipped to deal with this kind of situation. Well, none of them were, but of those present, him especially. He didn't have the political clout that a Royal Guard might. He likely wouldn't be able to negotiate as well as them. And it would probably take him longer to find the sword, if it was there at all. No, the reason she had chosen him had nothing to do with his abilities or competence.
He was simply the only one that had a shot at escaping the city in the first place.
"You heard what Solel said. This enemy came prepared. They knew where to strike to hurt us the most. My royal guards aren't exactly celebrities, but their identities aren't a secret either. If our guest sees that one of them isn't there to perform their duty, she'll know that they're planning something, and she'll track them down before the teleporter activates. But you, a city guard among hundreds? You might slip beneath her notice. There's a chance she didn't even notice you back there. Please. You have to do it. It's our only hope."
She said the last part more authoritatively than before, hoping to spur him into action.
Complex emotions warred within Sidan, ones she might need a minute to fully interpret. Determination, dread, thoughtfulness, bewilderment, and even a hint of resentment. Was that last one directed towards her?
She hated that she had to do this to him. That she had to put such a big weight on his shoulders, all because of her earlier incompetence. But this was the only way. Her people sang praises of her big heart and boundless generosity, but she was at her core a pragmatist. She would do anything within her power to protect her kingdom.
"The way is clear," Bridget spoke, breaking the tense second of silence that had ensued. "It's now or never."
"Go!" Estrel ordered, leaving no room for interpretation.
He ran.
* * *
"Your Majesty, I don't know how long we can keep this going…" Archibald said through grit teeth, hands held out in front of him.
Damn it. We need more time!
A minute after Sidan had left, the abomination had arrived in front of their doorway. A minute after that, and the defences that had been erected by world class mages were already seconds away from shattering. The diagrams they had hastily drawn on the floor, reinforcing the walls and placing a thick forcefield in the doorway, were dangerously close to running out of energy. The royal guards themselves weren't faring much better, sweating and trembling as they did whatever they could to delay the inevitable collapse.
Insultingly, the monster hadn't even used magic to achieve this, but just the absurd strength of her ribbons, striking and slicing at any weak spots, and squeezing any part that she could get a grip on.
Assuming Sidan had reached the secret room by now, then he would certainly still be waiting for the circle to finish charging up. Estrel had to find another way to delay.
She could try to keep the defence going as long as possible, buying a few seconds but further straining her bodyguards. Or she could stop it now, letting them recover and potentially buying a few more seconds in the future. She decided on the latter.
"Stop," she said, really hoping that the writhing mass of tendrils could understand her language. She
had chuckled earlier, and her mastery of magic suggested she was capable of complex thoughts. "Cease this attack, and we will negotiate."
The monster stopped, hovering in the air and gently swaying up and down
"So you can understand me," Estrel continued, relieved. "Can you talk?"
"Yes, I can," the thing answered, her voice an unpleasant mix between normal talking and the sounds of metal scraping against metal. From the looks of it, she didn't speak with magic, but by literally rubbing her metallic tendrils against each other to produce sounds.
"If you do want to negotiate," she continued, dragging out the words and making all those present shudder at the unpleasant screech, "then I suggest you tell your lackeys to drop their defence. It won't make much of a difference to me, but it will save them some pain."
Estrel had trouble interpreting the creature's tone through her inhuman voice, but she could detect hints of amusement. Glancing wasn't much help. She could definitely detect
something, emotions-wise, but it wasn't anything she had felt before. Was the abomination's biology so alien that her emotions worked completely differently from a human's? The emotions of Drakes, the other intelligent species living on this planet, always did feel a bit off to her in ways she couldn't explain, so maybe that was it.
"I will, but only if you order your soldiers to stop their attack on my people. Or, if you can't do that right now, then give me your word that you will as soon as possible."
"Done," the abomination replied after a second.
Estrel glanced at Bridget, the most skilled person here with tracking and perception magic.
"It, er, she just used a bit of magic there, Your Majesty," the mage said through heavy breaths, understanding Estrel's silent query. "Not any kind I've seen before, but it feels similar to what Dollmakers use to program their golems. I think she's telling the truth."
Well, that was as much confirmation as she was going to get for now. She ordered her bodyguards to dispel their defences, which they did with a mix of relief and apprehension. The monster squeezed through the doorway, returning to her full size after. This close to Estrel, and in the confines of the small room, she really did look huge. With the complete lack of anything resembling facial features, the young queen didn't know where to look. She settled on staring at the centre of mass.
"Do you have a name?" she asked, harshly. If she couldn't put a face to the monster that had made her kingdom fall overnight, she'd take the next best thing.
"I do," she replied. "But it would be very hard for your kind to pronounce. Instead, you may call me… Null."
"Null, huh? Is that supposed to be an abbreviation of your real name, or did you pick it to satisfy some childhood fantasy? That is, if you even had something that can be called a childhood. In any case, I guess 'Null' has a better ring to it than 'murderer', or 'abomination'."
Despite what one might assume, Estrel's petty insults were calculated. She was fairly sure at this point that this 'Null' did not intend to kill her. She'd had plenty of opportunities to do so already, and seemed more content with smugly asserting her superiority over them instead. If Estrel gave her ammunition like this, she might keep talking, buying Sidan precious moments. She'd also project an image that was more emotional and incompetent than she really was. Being underestimated by one's enemies was not always a good thing, but in this case, she felt it was valuable.
That wasn't to say she had done this completely pragmatically. A small part of her had enjoyed letting her inner child speak her thoughts aloud.
Her guess was proven correct, as despite Archibald's horrified expression, Null began chuckling to herself.
"My, my…" she drawled, after having concluded her ear-splitting laugh. "You are much feistier than I expected. But I believe you are mistaken in your assumptions."
Estrel was struck at just how
normal Null sounded, not counting the clearly inhuman voice. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that the floating collection of metallic razor strips in front of her was just a normal human or drakish mage using magic to alter their voice.
What was she? Was she some kind of elaborate golem, or a living being, albeit one with a very strange biology? If the latter, why was the name of her species blanked out? And what was the relationship between her and her soldiers? Unlike Null, they had acted more like animals than people. Why were they so similar to her, yet so different?
"Come with me," Null ordered.
Estrel remained in place, testing how far she could push back.
"Now," Null ordered, dropping whatever little amusement had been present in her voice.
Not very far, apparently.
The queen and her guards followed the living shredder back to the throne room. Estrel dreaded what she would find there. Her relationship with most of her bodyguards was purely professional, but she had gotten quite close to a few of them over the years, notably Archibald, Stephanie, and of course, Solel. The latter two had remained behind in the throne room when Null had made her entrance. She just had to hope that Null had decided to extend her mercy to them.
She breathed a sigh of relief as the throne room came into view. All of squad A and B were covered in burn marks, cuts, bruises, and various injuries, but alive. Most were slumped against walls or lying on the floor, only Ronan still having the strength to stand up. As they noticed their arrival, the ones that were still conscious felt a mix of anger and relief. A few flinched.
All of them were accounted for, except one.
"Your subordinates, unharmed," Null declared, making sweeping gestures with her ribbons. "Well, not permanently anyway. But I do not wish-"
"What did you do to her?" Estrel cut her off, unable to hide her distress.
Floating above the ruins of her throne, a grey, octahedron shaped crystal lazily rotated. Through its transparent surface, she got glimpses of Solel's unmoving form, her eyes closed as if she was sleeping.
She could not get any Glances of her, which meant either the crystal somehow blocked her unique ability, or…
"She is fine," Null replied, partially quelling her worries. "I felt that this one was a bit too much trouble to keep around, so I put her in… time-out, you could say. But I can release her at any time. If you cooperate with me, I may even do so, as a reward. Like I was about to say before you so rudely interrupted me, I do not wish to be a tyrant. Isn't there a saying from you humans? Something about attracting more flies with honey than vinegar? If we work together, I believe that you will find…"
Estrel barely listened to Null's ramblings, her worries about Solel giving way to anger.
"Shut up!" she finally snapped. "Are you even listening to yourself? What of all the people down there that your soldiers slaughtered? Do they not count? You think I'll just bend over because you did the bare minimum by not murdering my employees and friends before my eyes? Did you even tell the truth when you said you'd stop your little mind-controlled freaks? Or was that another lie, tyrant?"
The accusations no longer felt so petty this time, and Null definitely wasn't chuckling, her constant, hypnotic motions stopping completely. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. The royal guards that were still well enough to fight were tense, no doubt ready to spring into action at the first sight of trouble.
When Null finally said something, she seemed almost hesitant, taking more care to choose her words.
"That… is only one of the unfortunate realities of war. I had to crush the resistance completely, to send a message. You will also note that they did not target the people that stayed inside. This was the most efficient way to do this. It will save lives in the long run."
Maybe Estrel was just imagining it, but Null seemed a bit shaken, her accusations having left a mark. Good. She could keep going on the attack, and try to unravel the mystery that was Null. Winning a battle of words against a being that didn't have a face, a voice that felt like it should belong to a living being, and couldn't be Glanced at was hard, but not impossible.
"So, this
is war, then," Estrel sneered. "Let's just drop the
pleasantries then, shall we, and get straight to the point. Why are you here? What do you want? Do you want to overthrow me and rule in my stead? I'm sure my people will just trip over each other in their rush to accept you as their new queen."
Null said nothing for a few seconds. Then she chuckled.
Damn it, Estrel though,
this was supposed to destabilize her further, not bring her back smug side again!
"You are very foolish to think that I will stop at Estrellis and Morance. No, your fair city is only the first of many that will receive similar treatments. I just decided to pick it first for two reasons," Null said, letting her last statement hang, as if she expected a follow-up question.
When nobody said anything, she continued.
"The first? Estrellis is not the most powerful city in the world, but it is one of the most famous, and culturally significant. Seeing the resting place of your little Daughter of Light be so effortlessly invaded is sure to make waves. Even Drakes respect her more than most of
their own heroes. Many will have their resolve shaken before the fight even comes to them. Those that keep it? Their fall will only be all the harder."
"And what is your end goal to all this?" Estrel asked, trying to regain control of the conversation. "To rule the entire world?"
"Close, but not quite.
I won't be the one ruling. My master will. All I'm doing right now, is preparing this planet for his rightful return. For now, that is all you need to know."
Estrel's mind raced, trying to understand the implications of this. Null was doing this for someone else? Why couldn't he just come here himself and do the job? What was so "rightful" about his "return" anyway, and why did Null follow his orders at all? She had said "planet". Did that mean that her master wasn't on Earth somehow? There was just too much she didn't know. She considered asking a question, to see if she could learn anything more, but Null beat her to the punch.
"The second reason? Well, I think you already know that one," Null said, chuckling to herself.
"I have no idea what you mean," Estrel lied, hoping her guess was wrong.
"Do I really need to say it?" Null asked, waiting for a response. None came.
"Fine. The sword. I need it, and you know where it is. If you tell me, I might even consider giving you a treat," she said, waving at Solel's unmoving form.
Oh no. This was bad. Really bad.
The last time the sword had been used, it had soundly repelled what had arguably been the greatest threat to civilization on record. If a new threat of similar magnitude
used it, instead of fighting against it, then…
Forgive me, Solel. But this is more important than you.
"You're mistaken," Estrel replied, doing her best to not let her distress seep through. "Nobody knows what happened to the sword. It's one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the field of history, and I don't expect that anyone will resolve it in the near future."
"I don't believe you," Null shot back. "But, finding the sword remains a secondary objective, and we have all the time in the world. We will come back to this later. For now, I'm letting you go. You can go announce to your people your surrender. Your little lapdogs can go inspect my forcefield, if they wish. I doubt they'll figure out anything," she chuckled, waving at the assembled mages in various states of disarray.
Null suddenly stopped her movement once more, and Estrel could Glance a sudden shift in her emotions, even if she couldn't tell what exactly they were. Still, it didn't take magic to deduce what had happened.
Shit. She noticed.
"Strange," Null said, dangerously slowly. "Aren't we missing someone? I distinctly remember a fellow wearing banged up, bloody armour. Mind telling me what happened to him?"
Estrel considered outright denying that Sidan had ever been here. Instead, she went with a modified version of the truth.
"He… ran away. He is but a humble city guard who happened to find his way here due to a lucky encounter with Solel. He lost his nerves, and fled."
"A coward, then?" Null asked.
"I find it hard to blame him," Estrel replied, shaking her head in the negative. "He was
not trained to handle events of this scale. Besides, he wouldn't have made much of a difference against you."
"… I'll be the judge of that," Null said, her entire body glowing with the familiar yellow of tracking magic.
Estrel opened her mouth, preparing the order for all those present to slow down Null as much as they could.
"Don't say anything stupid," the monstrosity interrupted her. "Or I
will kill them."
Damn it. Damn her.
"Come with me," Null ordered, roughly hosting her into the air by her waist.
Archibald and the others tensed up, ready to jump into action.
"It's fine!" she yelled. "She won't hurt me!"
She felt much less certain about this statement now than she had before.
Null quickly flew through the hallways of the palace, perfectly retracing the path Sidan had taken. For anyone else, following a trail that was this far into the past required some preparation beforehand, but Null obviously wasn't bound by this limitation. The two of them arrived at the kitchens in no time.
"A clever enchantment," Null growled. "However…"
A blue pulse spread from her body, filling the kitchens. The semi permeable wall that hid the secret room crumbled.
Estrel internally cringed. Setting that up and maintaining it, while at the same time keeping it secret from the kitchen staff, had demanded a lot of effort and money.
Null set her down, and entered the secret room, the chest containing the white potions open and Sidan nowhere to be seen. She placed a tendril on the circle, then stood still. A few seconds passed. She removed it.
"I… hadn't been aware there was another teleporter in this city," she mumbled.
Estrel released the breath she had been holding.
"A queen has to have a few secrets," she replied, allowing herself a bit of smugness.
Teleporting circles were extremely difficult and expensive to build, and their creation was highly restricted. The fact that Null hadn't known it existed until now meant she had covered her tracks well. Ones that could be activated by anyone, and not just a few people, were especially frowned upon. She'd had to pull a lot of strings with some shady individuals to get it done.
"Are there more?" Null asked.
"No," Estrel replied truthfully. She didn't want to be further restricted in her movements, which would probably happen if Null suspected she could escape.
"Where did he go?" the monster demanded.
Estrel said nothing. It was possible for a skilled mage to determine the destination of a teleporting circle if they came in contact with it. However, if the circle on the other side was rendered non-functional, it became completely impossible to do so, at least according to their current understanding of magic. It seemed even Null could not break this particular rule, at least not in just a few seconds.
"TELL ME!" Null howled, floating closer to the queen, lightning crackling down her tendrils.
Estrel was terrified, but didn't let panic consume her this time. She stood tall, glaring at the faceless abomination.
"Or what?" she yelled back, accusingly "You'll torture the answer out of me? Kill my friends in front of my eyes? For all your lofty talks of not wishing to be a tyrant, you are nothing but a thug who uses force to get what she wants!"
Her heart was beating so hard she could almost hear it. Cold sweat beaded above her wide-open eyes, barely able to contain their hatred.
After what felt like an eternity, Null relaxed, harmlessly dissipating her electricity.
"You are right," she said in a voice that almost sounded tired. "I apologize for my outburst. It would be foolish of me not to expect you to do whatever you can to resist me. If I failed to stop you, then it is my fault, not yours. Just… go. Go speak with your people. I'll remain here, and try to get the answer myself."
Estrel, her knees weak, turned around, then hesitated.
"One last thing, Null. What about food and water? Your barrier blocked access to our fields, and with it covering the sky above the entire city, we probably won't get any rain. I don't know how it works with whatever your species is, but us humans need those. So do the few Drakes in the city."
"Hm? Oh, right," Null replied. "Your people can surely survive for a few days with their stored food and water. I'll take care of that problem soon enough. Just… not now."
As satisfied as she could be, Estrel walked out, and began making her way back to the throne room. She still had a lot of questions, and there was a very real chance that Null would find Sidan before he could accomplish his task, but she had done all she could, and had made tangible progress. She didn't feel proud, exactly, but she could allow herself to relax, just a little bit, and move on to other matters.
Her hopes now rested entirely on the shoulders of a young city guard that she barely knew. The best she could do was silently pray for his success.
