Let me tell you how to escape from the shade of Shade. It will not be easy, and you will have to sacrifice much on the way, but once you have achieved the perfect calm, you shall be forever free from his dark influence. The frst step is to embrace the Light. In which Light is a small cocktail mixed from a little fruit syrup, vodka and carbon-dyoxide.
The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Let me get right on that then...
Chapter Forty-Eight
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Forty-Eight
There was something eerie in the outpost. The acute lack of guards seemed to be the first important thing of notice, but past it, there was just something strange with the way people seemed to step away from them as if they were carrying the plague or something.
"What is going on around here?" Louise grumbled roughly, her mask back on her face and firmly clasped there. "Hey, you!" she tried to speak with a passerby, whom, at being singled out, yelped and dashed for the nearest alley without even looking back.
Louise looked at the retreating back of the man, and then at Saito. "What is it?"
"I have no idea," Saito replied. "Excuse me-"
And yet, the same reaction happened when it was Saito who tried.
"Oh boy-weren't you folks warned the last time you tried talking with the Duchess directly?" an armed man said with a rough voice, standing near a wooden pillar that seemed a sort of beacon. "Well, credit for your guts in trying again."
"What is going on?" Louise asked with her manly voice. "Why is everyone so afraid of us?"
"It's not you they fear," the man said waving a hand in dismissal and pushing his back off the pillar. "It's the Duchess' reaction. She can be very strict if she's bothered for no reason during her patrols, and having to read unneeded correspondence is just the way to make her angry. And an angry Duchess is something nobody wants to see."
"Unneeded correspondence?" Louise croaked. "That's enough to make her angry?"
"Yes," the man said. "Last guy had all of his body flung against the side of the mountain for wasting her time. He got better, but last I heard he still has to eat through a straw."
"That's-That's madness," Louise muttered in disbelief.
"In the Duchess' defense, it had been a tiring day," the man acquiesced. "You know, how about we go with presentations first? I'm the Chevalier Girard de la Frontiere-and I swear if you're about to make a joke about my surname, know that I will end you." He narrowed his eyes briefly.
"We're knights of the North Parterre," Saito said. "I'm Saito Hiraga, and he's Louis, both de la North Parterre."
"Oh? Then you're not the members of the Gallia Knights corps," Girard said. "I'm surprised. Usually your king sends them with the letters."
"We're not sent by the king of Gallia," Saito said. "We're here because the princess, Lady Charlotte Helene D'Orleans, wished to exchange correspondence with the Duchess."
"Then good luck getting her to read it," Girard said with a snort. "No offense, but between fellow knights," he neared his face to Saito's and Louise, looking around carefully before holding a hand to the side of his lips, so that they couldn't be read, "You'd do best to heed my counsel and just rip that letter apart. That's what the Duchess will do anyway, and you can spare yourself the pain of being flung against a mountain."
"We also have some letters from her husband," Louise said roughly, growling her way into the conversation. "Those she will read, I hope."
"Oh, the Duke actually gave you letters for her?" Girard blinked. "The man's a saint, that's what he is. Still, my counsel is valid. Just know she might feint politely reading it for one second before ripping it to pieces," he turned his head up the beacon, "How's the fire up there, Auberge!?"
A man from up the tower looked down, and yelled, "Still calm! The Duchess hasn't yet arrived!"
With a nod to himself, mostly, Girard returned his attention to the duo. "When the Duchess' about to arrive, we usually light up a beacon so she knows she has letters waiting for her, and stuff like that. And-look, by all that is holy, if you value your lives, never -ever- mention anything remotely tied to her daughters. She will kill you, and then we'll have to hide the bodies or blame the wolves. We've got some of the fattest wolves around here-but they will take the blame eagerly, it's why we feed them the corpses of the morons who think they can open up old wounds."
Saito stared at Louise and Louise stared at Saito. "You're...joking, right?"
"Ah! Of course I am!" Girard laughed, which made both knights of North Parterre laugh in turn, if with thin and stretched smiles. "That said, neither of you has seen her long lost daughter, right? It's really for the best if you haven't, and if you think you have, you'd better have her right here and now," Girard's voice was a simple whisper. "And then you'd best be sure. I saw-let's be clear, I've been here since the start of this place. As one of the Manticore knights, I-look, we all cherish the Duchess. If she told us to wage war on Germania we'd be on our manticores before the end of the day, but-" here he grimaced. "If someone claims to be her child, she has her manticore sniff them, and if turns out they aren't...she has them eaten."
"What."
Louise's 'what' was a soft, and very edging on fury, question. It wasn't as much of a question as a statement.
"It wasn't like that at first!" Girard raised both hands. "But she grew tired after the one hundredth, or maybe the one thousandth, so-so she just decided to make sure they'd stop throwing at her every orphan born without a known mother and with a light shade of hair. It did work-it's been two years since the last fake, but-but well, you know how it is," the man looked away. "Bad stuff. Hearing a child scream as she's eaten alive-really-"
"You're joking," Saito said flatly.
Girard blinked, and then laughed. "Got you both didn't I?!" he smiled brightly after that, even as Louise's form began to tremble from sheer fury. "As if the Duchess would do something like that! Ah! Come on! She's not that bad! She just slashes their left hand a bit so they know not to try again," the man shrugged. "She's kind like that, the Duchess. But we made sure to let the story circle that she has them eaten by her manticore alive," Girard nodded. "That way the common folk don't come here with hundreds of kids."
"When is the Duchess supposed to arrive?" Saito asked. "And is there an inn of sorts?"
"There's plenty of hay in the stables, and the manticore are all trained so they don't bite," Girard replied with a shrug. "About the Duchess-well, she was supposed to be here yesterday, so we are waiting for her to fly in at any moment now."
A sudden gust of wind billowed through Saito and Louise's cloaks, which soon was accompanied by a scream from up the beacon tower. "Here she comes!" Auberge yelled. "The Duchess is coming! Quick with the water and the provisions!"
Louise's legs refused to move.
It took Saito's arm grabbing her wrist to get her to follow him. "Come on, Louis," Saito said. "We have letters to deliver."
"Don't be scared, the Duchess doesn't bite," Girard said, waving them goodbye as they proceeded in the same direction as half the people in the outpost were, "Her manticore does!"
"What a funny guy," Louise hissed. "If I ever meet him again, remind me to slap him, Saito."
"The mask," Saito said offhandedly, a hand towards Louise. "Hand over the mask, Louise."
"If she kills me, I'll come back to haunt you," Louise retorted.
"If she kills you, she'll have already killed me. I'm the meat shield, remember?" Saito quipped, grabbing the mask from Louise and then, just for added assurance, holding his shield with his left hand.
Louise didn't miss the gesture.
This did not boost her confidence.
It did not boost her confidence at all.
There was something eerie in the outpost. The acute lack of guards seemed to be the first important thing of notice, but past it, there was just something strange with the way people seemed to step away from them as if they were carrying the plague or something.
"What is going on around here?" Louise grumbled roughly, her mask back on her face and firmly clasped there. "Hey, you!" she tried to speak with a passerby, whom, at being singled out, yelped and dashed for the nearest alley without even looking back.
Louise looked at the retreating back of the man, and then at Saito. "What is it?"
"I have no idea," Saito replied. "Excuse me-"
And yet, the same reaction happened when it was Saito who tried.
"Oh boy-weren't you folks warned the last time you tried talking with the Duchess directly?" an armed man said with a rough voice, standing near a wooden pillar that seemed a sort of beacon. "Well, credit for your guts in trying again."
"What is going on?" Louise asked with her manly voice. "Why is everyone so afraid of us?"
"It's not you they fear," the man said waving a hand in dismissal and pushing his back off the pillar. "It's the Duchess' reaction. She can be very strict if she's bothered for no reason during her patrols, and having to read unneeded correspondence is just the way to make her angry. And an angry Duchess is something nobody wants to see."
"Unneeded correspondence?" Louise croaked. "That's enough to make her angry?"
"Yes," the man said. "Last guy had all of his body flung against the side of the mountain for wasting her time. He got better, but last I heard he still has to eat through a straw."
"That's-That's madness," Louise muttered in disbelief.
"In the Duchess' defense, it had been a tiring day," the man acquiesced. "You know, how about we go with presentations first? I'm the Chevalier Girard de la Frontiere-and I swear if you're about to make a joke about my surname, know that I will end you." He narrowed his eyes briefly.
"We're knights of the North Parterre," Saito said. "I'm Saito Hiraga, and he's Louis, both de la North Parterre."
"Oh? Then you're not the members of the Gallia Knights corps," Girard said. "I'm surprised. Usually your king sends them with the letters."
"We're not sent by the king of Gallia," Saito said. "We're here because the princess, Lady Charlotte Helene D'Orleans, wished to exchange correspondence with the Duchess."
"Then good luck getting her to read it," Girard said with a snort. "No offense, but between fellow knights," he neared his face to Saito's and Louise, looking around carefully before holding a hand to the side of his lips, so that they couldn't be read, "You'd do best to heed my counsel and just rip that letter apart. That's what the Duchess will do anyway, and you can spare yourself the pain of being flung against a mountain."
"We also have some letters from her husband," Louise said roughly, growling her way into the conversation. "Those she will read, I hope."
"Oh, the Duke actually gave you letters for her?" Girard blinked. "The man's a saint, that's what he is. Still, my counsel is valid. Just know she might feint politely reading it for one second before ripping it to pieces," he turned his head up the beacon, "How's the fire up there, Auberge!?"
A man from up the tower looked down, and yelled, "Still calm! The Duchess hasn't yet arrived!"
With a nod to himself, mostly, Girard returned his attention to the duo. "When the Duchess' about to arrive, we usually light up a beacon so she knows she has letters waiting for her, and stuff like that. And-look, by all that is holy, if you value your lives, never -ever- mention anything remotely tied to her daughters. She will kill you, and then we'll have to hide the bodies or blame the wolves. We've got some of the fattest wolves around here-but they will take the blame eagerly, it's why we feed them the corpses of the morons who think they can open up old wounds."
Saito stared at Louise and Louise stared at Saito. "You're...joking, right?"
"Ah! Of course I am!" Girard laughed, which made both knights of North Parterre laugh in turn, if with thin and stretched smiles. "That said, neither of you has seen her long lost daughter, right? It's really for the best if you haven't, and if you think you have, you'd better have her right here and now," Girard's voice was a simple whisper. "And then you'd best be sure. I saw-let's be clear, I've been here since the start of this place. As one of the Manticore knights, I-look, we all cherish the Duchess. If she told us to wage war on Germania we'd be on our manticores before the end of the day, but-" here he grimaced. "If someone claims to be her child, she has her manticore sniff them, and if turns out they aren't...she has them eaten."
"What."
Louise's 'what' was a soft, and very edging on fury, question. It wasn't as much of a question as a statement.
"It wasn't like that at first!" Girard raised both hands. "But she grew tired after the one hundredth, or maybe the one thousandth, so-so she just decided to make sure they'd stop throwing at her every orphan born without a known mother and with a light shade of hair. It did work-it's been two years since the last fake, but-but well, you know how it is," the man looked away. "Bad stuff. Hearing a child scream as she's eaten alive-really-"
"You're joking," Saito said flatly.
Girard blinked, and then laughed. "Got you both didn't I?!" he smiled brightly after that, even as Louise's form began to tremble from sheer fury. "As if the Duchess would do something like that! Ah! Come on! She's not that bad! She just slashes their left hand a bit so they know not to try again," the man shrugged. "She's kind like that, the Duchess. But we made sure to let the story circle that she has them eaten by her manticore alive," Girard nodded. "That way the common folk don't come here with hundreds of kids."
"When is the Duchess supposed to arrive?" Saito asked. "And is there an inn of sorts?"
"There's plenty of hay in the stables, and the manticore are all trained so they don't bite," Girard replied with a shrug. "About the Duchess-well, she was supposed to be here yesterday, so we are waiting for her to fly in at any moment now."
A sudden gust of wind billowed through Saito and Louise's cloaks, which soon was accompanied by a scream from up the beacon tower. "Here she comes!" Auberge yelled. "The Duchess is coming! Quick with the water and the provisions!"
Louise's legs refused to move.
It took Saito's arm grabbing her wrist to get her to follow him. "Come on, Louis," Saito said. "We have letters to deliver."
"Don't be scared, the Duchess doesn't bite," Girard said, waving them goodbye as they proceeded in the same direction as half the people in the outpost were, "Her manticore does!"
"What a funny guy," Louise hissed. "If I ever meet him again, remind me to slap him, Saito."
"The mask," Saito said offhandedly, a hand towards Louise. "Hand over the mask, Louise."
"If she kills me, I'll come back to haunt you," Louise retorted.
"If she kills you, she'll have already killed me. I'm the meat shield, remember?" Saito quipped, grabbing the mask from Louise and then, just for added assurance, holding his shield with his left hand.
Louise didn't miss the gesture.
This did not boost her confidence.
It did not boost her confidence at all.
- Location
- Postcard from the Root
The anticipation...
On one hand, the update rate makes me rather jealous of your ability to put words to the page.
On the other hand, you're killing me here with the suspense.
On the other hand, you're killing me here with the suspense.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
He needs to take a half hour of boxing or other bareknuckle martial arts, just so that he can remind himself and his runes that the body is a weapon.
and yeah, this suspense...
and yeah, this suspense...
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Its Karin, other square class mages would be at a disadvantage when facing her even if her magic weren't be boasted by her emotions. The only thing that would help any mage against her is spirit magic or the void.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
She'd probably remember whether or not she slashed anyone in the last five days. But, we shall see...
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
On the next episode of The Steep Path Ahead...
Will this be a happy reunion?
Will this be one big misunderstanding?
Will this end up with tears? Be they joy or pain?
Find out on the next exciting episode of The Steep Path Ahead!
Will this be a happy reunion?
Will this be one big misunderstanding?
Will this end up with tears? Be they joy or pain?
Find out on the next exciting episode of The Steep Path Ahead!
Onmur
Archangel of Nutella.
Readers' tears.
It also means that I'm constantly wondering if I stay up just a little bit longer, then I'll get to see the resolution to whatever cliffhanger Shade has left us. This story is not good for my health.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I doubt that would work, they seem to operate on their own definitions, not his.
On the other hand, maybe some weighted gauntlets meant for punching would be a good investment? They'd hide the runes and they might count as a weapon he could wear consistently.
That would be a nice bit of setup especially
Can chose D:All of the above likely in the next two or three updates?
Idle predictions: Karin rejects out of hand because of the slash on her hand
Then they return to the Manner to a proper hero's welcome, much to our hero's confusen
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Karin rejects them prehaps harshly, gets confused about the reaction of her familiar and later finds out from her vampire friends that that really was her daughter...
Cue bark down to manly tears.
- Pronouns
- she/her
Karin's test being based off scent makes me think the manticore will make a beeline for Louise the moment he's downwind.
"Oh Founder not in the face!"
- Pronouns
- she/her
"SAITO GET IT OFF"
"N-nice kitty-bird thing? Please don't eat my partner!"
Chapter Forty-Nine
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Duchess was not the first thing that Louise and Saito saw when they reached the square where she was supposed to land. The first they saw was the hurricane of wind in which the Duchess apparently traveled, or more precisely, the result of the Manticore's powerful wings flapping through the air with enough strength and speed to make it ripple.
When the beast landed with its powerful paws, it roared once, stretching its wing before folding them by its sides. The tail, like that of a scorpion, swished around lazily. It also lowered its face immediately upon seeing a large bowl of water placed right under its nose. There were a few people of the outpost who were quite quick in the execution of certain movements, be it the cleaning of the beast, the polishing of the armor -the Duchess didn't even remove it, and the mask of metal that she wore on her face was certainly not something that inspired trust.
A man in armor neared and bowed, before handing over a selected few letters that appeared to be of some interest -and which were aptly slashed apart in tiny dazzling pieces of paper the next moment, without as much as a read.
Saito swallowed thickly, and then began to walk forward, past the crowd that had gathered around the square.
"Duchess De La VallIére-" Saito said as he drew near, "We have letters-"
The gust of wind that impacted upon Saito's body came out of nowhere. No, it was more apt to say that the time it took between the Duchess seeing him, recognizing the emblem on his cloak and then sending him flying was so small of an amount that the boy couldn't even bring up his shield to counter the invisible hammer of air. His back hit the ground harshly, making him gasp for air.
Louise remained kind of frozen between Saito and the Duchess, whose gaze was now set on her.
"Y-Your husband," Louise said with a rasp. "The letters are from your husband."
"Say so first," the Duchess' voice was icy, and cold. Louise nodded, rushing towards Saito and pulling him up, before grabbing the letters from within the satchel and handing them over quickly.
The letter of introduction that Charlotte had written wasn't even read, simply thrown aside and ripped to shreds without even bothering to glance at its contents.
"You could have read that!" Saito said in surprise.
Louise's face paled when the next blow of air came with enough strength to shatter the boy's breastplate and send him past the crowd, to impact against the nearby wooden wall.
"S-Saito?!" Louise turned, her eyes wide, to stare at the boy-sized wall in the building.
"I do not have to do anything," the Duchess hissed out with enough venom and cold steel to make Louise shudder. She didn't even lift her eyes however. The motion of her swordwand coming up, aiming at Saito and being sheathed once more had been fluid and nearly instantaneous.
Louise rushed towards the boy-sized hole, the crowd making way to let her pass and some shaking their heads as if such a show was simply the norm. Like a raging hurricane, it could simply be tolerated, but not stopped. Louise opened the door of the barracks -it was apparently the building Saito had crashed in, and as the boy had his back against the wall on the opposite side of the thing, she rushed near him and grabbed his face with both hands.
"Saito! Saito-Saito answer me!"
"Alive," Saito gurgled, "Still...alive." He coughed. The shield was in front of his chest. "Can't...feel arm, but alive."
"She's a monster," Louise snapped. "I don't care-she's a monster-a brute-why would she even do this-she can be the Duchess, the Queen or even an Empress or the Pope for all it matters, nobody should do this! Come on-I-Should I move you or not? You did hit your head-" Louise mumbled, looking at the blood that dribbled down from Saito's head, matting his hair. "Isn't there a Water mage around here? This is Tristain-they should have plenty of Water mages!"
"Girl," Girard said, carefully creeping inside the barracks. "The Duchess wants to see you."
"I don't give a damn what that woman wants!" Louise snapped back hotly. "Saito's bleeding badly-don't you have a healer or a barber or someone!?"
"Yeah, how about you go talk to the Duchess, and I get someone here for your friend, all right?" Girard said, kneeling down in order to have Louise at the same eye-level. "You don't want to make the Duchess rip the roof off the barracks. We would like to sleep somewhere warm tonight, so think about us, all right?" Girard smiled thinly.
"Fine," Louise whispered, "But I'll have words with her!" she hissed next, standing right up and marching out with a firm gait to her step. She had the mask in her right hand, and she wasted no time in putting it on, allowing only her hair to flow freely out in the air.
"It's your funeral, not mine," Girard answered, watching her resolute back moving towards the door and outside, in a straight line back to face the Duchess.
"You-" the Duchess began, only to be interrupted by Louise, who had her swordwand out.
"You hurt my partner, and that's something I won't forgive! I'm challenging you, you damn bitch!"
The silence in the square was absolute.
"You...are doing...what?" the Duchess actually had to ask to be sure that she had heard correctly.
"I'm challenging you! This cannot stand! I'm a Knight of the North Parterre, a mage with a wand, and I'm challenging you! This is enough! You can't just throw people through walls like that! Who the hell do you think you are!? A Duchess!? I don't give a damn if you're a Duchess! I'm making you eat the dirt if it's the last thing I do!"
The papers in the Duchess' right hand crumpled when she clenched her right fist, and then were blown away by the sharp blades of wind that emanated from her bare palm.
"A mage and a familiar fight as one," she said flatly, gesturing to her Manticore who snorted, but stood up in all of its glory and reached for its master. "Are you still sure you wish to challenge me?"
In answer, Louise held her swordwand right in front of her. "Even if it were my last breath on earth, the answer would remain yes!"
The manticore snorted at that, and then calmly sniffed the air. The sniffing became slightly more intense even as the Duchess and Louise stared at each other with their gaze firmly set on murdering each other, at least, in Louise's case.
The manticore then swished its scorpion like tail back and forth, and pounced. It wasn't a pounce as much as a sudden disappearance from one point and an appearance in another. The manticore outright disappeared from Louise's eyes, and reappeared behind the girl, the scorpion like tail surrounding the youth and shaking her up and down, even as Louise screamed and flailed her legs.
"Let."
"Karin-" the manticore began to speak throatily, "This-"
"Me." A blinding white light began to spread from a tiny sphere right in front of the manticore's face.
"Is-"
"GO."
The sphere exploded with enough thundering force to send the manticore reeling backwards, dropping Louise as the creature groaned from pain, the face bloody -or what remained of it. Most of the nose was gone, and if not for the creature's quick reflexes, it would have been missing a head too.
Louise landed on her feet, her eyes narrow. "Now it's one on one," Louise hissed, her anger clearly palpable.
"Using magic without a wand does not make you stronger," Karin said after giving a small glance to the manticore, who was still alive, if hurting pretty badly. "It just makes you arrogant." As a wave of the swordwand followed, a massive hurricane of deadly, sizzling winds spewed forth from and rushed with blinding speed towards Louise.
"Karin-Karin stop!" the manticore roared, a flap of its wings rushing at the deadly hurricane with enough force to make it waver, but otherwise not halt it on its tracks. "It's your daughter! It's Louise!"
The hurricane did not care for the revelation. The hurricane simply rushed for Louise, and it didn't care about a mother, a long lost daughter, or a manticore being old enough to talk.
It had a single job to do.
To rip the flesh, to rend the steel, to murder and tear, gut and ravage, and that it would do as long as nothing of equal strength opposed it. Thus it came on Louise with the deadly grace it had been created for, and just as it did, a singular sizzling blade of wind sliced through the ground itself as Saito appeared with his sword and dagger in both hands, slamming them straight against the square wind magic.
The blades both shattered in mere seconds, but it was enough to dull a definitely deadly blow into a simply deadly spell.
It was enough for Louise, who didn't care about incantations, spells, or anything but ensuring Saito wouldn't end up ripped to shreds.
The tiny sphere of light that exploded in the center of the hurricane snuffed out all forms of wind, all types of magic, and made what was considered one of the deadliest spells of the Heavy Wind disperse into nothing more than a light breeze, as Louise's arms were tightly clutching on to Saito's neck, her eyes firmly closed and her breathing hitched in a silent cry of fear.
Saito, for his part, was holding on to Louise with his back against the spell, being the last wall of meat before certain doom.
They held each other like that for a long, drawn-out minute of absolute silence.
The sound of metal hitting the ground followed by a shaky hitching that was remarkably similar to Louise's 'I am about to start sobbing' reached Saito's ears, and as he opened one eye, and then the next, he realized he was still pretty much alive, and so was Louise.
Louise wasn't the one sobbing though, so he turned, and just as he turned and Louise opened her eyes, there she was, the Duchess, with the swordwand on the floor by her side and her eyes teary -considering the amount of 'impossible' being muttered by the crowd, it seemed fair to say nobody had ever seen the Duchess quite like that.
"Louise-"
Louise looked at her mother, and even as she squeezed Saito's left arm a brief instant for assurance, she took a step forward. "M-Mother?"
"Louise."
The Duchess said nothing else, but rushed -just as Louise rushed in turn- to hug her daughter. The two met with a resounding 'smack', the result of their masks colliding with one another as Louise had jumped while the Duchess had knelt. Although they both winced -pretty much in unison, and pretty much in the same way- and then they looked at one another and laughed while crying, even as they both removed their masks before retrying the hug, if with a bit more of calm.
It was to that touching scene of both mother and daughter hiccuping and crying and laughing and smiling all in the same ways -definitely things transmitted from mother to daughter, apparently- that Saito's legs decided they had run fast enough from the barrack's hole to the square to deserve some rest, and his arms agreed with the legs' opinion, and so Saito's brain did the only thing it could do to make everyone happy.
It blacked out.
The healer had tried to tell Saito not to strain himself or make any harsh movements.
It wasn't his fault -and he'd fight anyone who'd dare pin the blame on him- that the boy hadn't heeded his wise advice.
On the other hand, he had saved the Duchess daughter from being murdered by the Duchess.
Perhaps...he'd just silently slink back in the shadows, like all unnamed healers of history that were never worth mentioning in history books.
He'd do just that.
The Duchess was not the first thing that Louise and Saito saw when they reached the square where she was supposed to land. The first they saw was the hurricane of wind in which the Duchess apparently traveled, or more precisely, the result of the Manticore's powerful wings flapping through the air with enough strength and speed to make it ripple.
When the beast landed with its powerful paws, it roared once, stretching its wing before folding them by its sides. The tail, like that of a scorpion, swished around lazily. It also lowered its face immediately upon seeing a large bowl of water placed right under its nose. There were a few people of the outpost who were quite quick in the execution of certain movements, be it the cleaning of the beast, the polishing of the armor -the Duchess didn't even remove it, and the mask of metal that she wore on her face was certainly not something that inspired trust.
A man in armor neared and bowed, before handing over a selected few letters that appeared to be of some interest -and which were aptly slashed apart in tiny dazzling pieces of paper the next moment, without as much as a read.
Saito swallowed thickly, and then began to walk forward, past the crowd that had gathered around the square.
"Duchess De La VallIére-" Saito said as he drew near, "We have letters-"
The gust of wind that impacted upon Saito's body came out of nowhere. No, it was more apt to say that the time it took between the Duchess seeing him, recognizing the emblem on his cloak and then sending him flying was so small of an amount that the boy couldn't even bring up his shield to counter the invisible hammer of air. His back hit the ground harshly, making him gasp for air.
Louise remained kind of frozen between Saito and the Duchess, whose gaze was now set on her.
"Y-Your husband," Louise said with a rasp. "The letters are from your husband."
"Say so first," the Duchess' voice was icy, and cold. Louise nodded, rushing towards Saito and pulling him up, before grabbing the letters from within the satchel and handing them over quickly.
The letter of introduction that Charlotte had written wasn't even read, simply thrown aside and ripped to shreds without even bothering to glance at its contents.
"You could have read that!" Saito said in surprise.
Louise's face paled when the next blow of air came with enough strength to shatter the boy's breastplate and send him past the crowd, to impact against the nearby wooden wall.
"S-Saito?!" Louise turned, her eyes wide, to stare at the boy-sized wall in the building.
"I do not have to do anything," the Duchess hissed out with enough venom and cold steel to make Louise shudder. She didn't even lift her eyes however. The motion of her swordwand coming up, aiming at Saito and being sheathed once more had been fluid and nearly instantaneous.
Louise rushed towards the boy-sized hole, the crowd making way to let her pass and some shaking their heads as if such a show was simply the norm. Like a raging hurricane, it could simply be tolerated, but not stopped. Louise opened the door of the barracks -it was apparently the building Saito had crashed in, and as the boy had his back against the wall on the opposite side of the thing, she rushed near him and grabbed his face with both hands.
"Saito! Saito-Saito answer me!"
"Alive," Saito gurgled, "Still...alive." He coughed. The shield was in front of his chest. "Can't...feel arm, but alive."
"She's a monster," Louise snapped. "I don't care-she's a monster-a brute-why would she even do this-she can be the Duchess, the Queen or even an Empress or the Pope for all it matters, nobody should do this! Come on-I-Should I move you or not? You did hit your head-" Louise mumbled, looking at the blood that dribbled down from Saito's head, matting his hair. "Isn't there a Water mage around here? This is Tristain-they should have plenty of Water mages!"
"Girl," Girard said, carefully creeping inside the barracks. "The Duchess wants to see you."
"I don't give a damn what that woman wants!" Louise snapped back hotly. "Saito's bleeding badly-don't you have a healer or a barber or someone!?"
"Yeah, how about you go talk to the Duchess, and I get someone here for your friend, all right?" Girard said, kneeling down in order to have Louise at the same eye-level. "You don't want to make the Duchess rip the roof off the barracks. We would like to sleep somewhere warm tonight, so think about us, all right?" Girard smiled thinly.
"Fine," Louise whispered, "But I'll have words with her!" she hissed next, standing right up and marching out with a firm gait to her step. She had the mask in her right hand, and she wasted no time in putting it on, allowing only her hair to flow freely out in the air.
"It's your funeral, not mine," Girard answered, watching her resolute back moving towards the door and outside, in a straight line back to face the Duchess.
"You-" the Duchess began, only to be interrupted by Louise, who had her swordwand out.
"You hurt my partner, and that's something I won't forgive! I'm challenging you, you damn bitch!"
The silence in the square was absolute.
"You...are doing...what?" the Duchess actually had to ask to be sure that she had heard correctly.
"I'm challenging you! This cannot stand! I'm a Knight of the North Parterre, a mage with a wand, and I'm challenging you! This is enough! You can't just throw people through walls like that! Who the hell do you think you are!? A Duchess!? I don't give a damn if you're a Duchess! I'm making you eat the dirt if it's the last thing I do!"
The papers in the Duchess' right hand crumpled when she clenched her right fist, and then were blown away by the sharp blades of wind that emanated from her bare palm.
"A mage and a familiar fight as one," she said flatly, gesturing to her Manticore who snorted, but stood up in all of its glory and reached for its master. "Are you still sure you wish to challenge me?"
In answer, Louise held her swordwand right in front of her. "Even if it were my last breath on earth, the answer would remain yes!"
The manticore snorted at that, and then calmly sniffed the air. The sniffing became slightly more intense even as the Duchess and Louise stared at each other with their gaze firmly set on murdering each other, at least, in Louise's case.
The manticore then swished its scorpion like tail back and forth, and pounced. It wasn't a pounce as much as a sudden disappearance from one point and an appearance in another. The manticore outright disappeared from Louise's eyes, and reappeared behind the girl, the scorpion like tail surrounding the youth and shaking her up and down, even as Louise screamed and flailed her legs.
"Let."
"Karin-" the manticore began to speak throatily, "This-"
"Me." A blinding white light began to spread from a tiny sphere right in front of the manticore's face.
"Is-"
"GO."
The sphere exploded with enough thundering force to send the manticore reeling backwards, dropping Louise as the creature groaned from pain, the face bloody -or what remained of it. Most of the nose was gone, and if not for the creature's quick reflexes, it would have been missing a head too.
Louise landed on her feet, her eyes narrow. "Now it's one on one," Louise hissed, her anger clearly palpable.
"Using magic without a wand does not make you stronger," Karin said after giving a small glance to the manticore, who was still alive, if hurting pretty badly. "It just makes you arrogant." As a wave of the swordwand followed, a massive hurricane of deadly, sizzling winds spewed forth from and rushed with blinding speed towards Louise.
"Karin-Karin stop!" the manticore roared, a flap of its wings rushing at the deadly hurricane with enough force to make it waver, but otherwise not halt it on its tracks. "It's your daughter! It's Louise!"
The hurricane did not care for the revelation. The hurricane simply rushed for Louise, and it didn't care about a mother, a long lost daughter, or a manticore being old enough to talk.
It had a single job to do.
To rip the flesh, to rend the steel, to murder and tear, gut and ravage, and that it would do as long as nothing of equal strength opposed it. Thus it came on Louise with the deadly grace it had been created for, and just as it did, a singular sizzling blade of wind sliced through the ground itself as Saito appeared with his sword and dagger in both hands, slamming them straight against the square wind magic.
The blades both shattered in mere seconds, but it was enough to dull a definitely deadly blow into a simply deadly spell.
It was enough for Louise, who didn't care about incantations, spells, or anything but ensuring Saito wouldn't end up ripped to shreds.
The tiny sphere of light that exploded in the center of the hurricane snuffed out all forms of wind, all types of magic, and made what was considered one of the deadliest spells of the Heavy Wind disperse into nothing more than a light breeze, as Louise's arms were tightly clutching on to Saito's neck, her eyes firmly closed and her breathing hitched in a silent cry of fear.
Saito, for his part, was holding on to Louise with his back against the spell, being the last wall of meat before certain doom.
They held each other like that for a long, drawn-out minute of absolute silence.
The sound of metal hitting the ground followed by a shaky hitching that was remarkably similar to Louise's 'I am about to start sobbing' reached Saito's ears, and as he opened one eye, and then the next, he realized he was still pretty much alive, and so was Louise.
Louise wasn't the one sobbing though, so he turned, and just as he turned and Louise opened her eyes, there she was, the Duchess, with the swordwand on the floor by her side and her eyes teary -considering the amount of 'impossible' being muttered by the crowd, it seemed fair to say nobody had ever seen the Duchess quite like that.
"Louise-"
Louise looked at her mother, and even as she squeezed Saito's left arm a brief instant for assurance, she took a step forward. "M-Mother?"
"Louise."
The Duchess said nothing else, but rushed -just as Louise rushed in turn- to hug her daughter. The two met with a resounding 'smack', the result of their masks colliding with one another as Louise had jumped while the Duchess had knelt. Although they both winced -pretty much in unison, and pretty much in the same way- and then they looked at one another and laughed while crying, even as they both removed their masks before retrying the hug, if with a bit more of calm.
It was to that touching scene of both mother and daughter hiccuping and crying and laughing and smiling all in the same ways -definitely things transmitted from mother to daughter, apparently- that Saito's legs decided they had run fast enough from the barrack's hole to the square to deserve some rest, and his arms agreed with the legs' opinion, and so Saito's brain did the only thing it could do to make everyone happy.
It blacked out.
The healer had tried to tell Saito not to strain himself or make any harsh movements.
It wasn't his fault -and he'd fight anyone who'd dare pin the blame on him- that the boy hadn't heeded his wise advice.
On the other hand, he had saved the Duchess daughter from being murdered by the Duchess.
Perhaps...he'd just silently slink back in the shadows, like all unnamed healers of history that were never worth mentioning in history books.
He'd do just that.
