Story:Kings of Strife/Int 6.1

Intermission Six(+1)
The castle rose in front of them larger than anything she had ever seen before. The only thing more impressive than the crystalline azure of all the walls around them was the great moon above, so large and close that it seemed a satellite within the planet’s atmosphere. Every star shone brilliantly that night, as if they had wanted to show off their brightness, just as they had that night of memory, long, long ago.

“Don’t look up like so,” her best friend said tersely. Ashamedly, she lowered her eyes and bit her lip. “We can be tourists after we’ve won.”

“Where do you think everyone is?” she whispered, her eyes darting around the perimeter of the castle and her hand on the hilt of her sword. “This is beginning to worry me. Stand behind me, please.”

The city within the great walls of Kornelia had been peacefully asleep, like the entire world wasn’t at war. Lights were off in buildings and only a small handful of people had passed them in the streets. They had left their stolen motorcycle a mile or so away from the city limits, and they had entered the perimeter with barely a glance from the sole security guard in charge of it. There had been no bluecoats patrolling the streets. Everything was as if the world was completely devoid of conflict.

More surprising than that, though, was the complete absence of anyone in the walls of Castle Kornelia. The great ivory gate leading to the innards of the old seat of the Empire was gaping wide open, and not a single soul occupied the battlements of the castle’s inner wall nor were present in any of the security checkpoints around its perimeter. She couldn’t even see or sense anyone watching them in the towers overlooking both the walls and the greater city of Kornelia.

Her queen snorted, but obeyed. “Very well, Asearya. If it pleases you.”

Soaring battlements, screaming tall towers, and the moonlight. It all put Asearya Jyukyu on edge. She kept one hand on the shortsword hanging from her waist and one hand on the knives strapped to her thigh. “I do not like this, my lady. Not at all.”

Vainia’s retort came midway through a yawn. “You think anyone here could stop me? Or you? Unlikely.”

‘No, but a great number of someones could. And you draw too much of this unholy power, too often. I can see it in your eyes.’ She glanced back to Vainia and looked over her childhood friend. Vainia Sestrum had always been headstrong, powerful, and bold, but in all their years of being together, Asearya had never seen her look so exhausted, so frantic, and so desperate. The woman had not slept more than a handful of hours in days, and she had spent every precious waking hour fighting, commanding, and summoning surreal power with the help of those new eyes of hers. Glowing golden, like an animal’s. She had never seen anything like it. She despised it.

But of course Asearya said none of that. She nodded, and continued to lead her queen and best friend into what she was increasingly sure was a trap.

From what they could see, the entire castle was empty.

Not a soul met them as they crept into the open foyer, nor into the various adjacent rooms. They heard no noise from people in the cold walls. Clearly the castle had been occupied, perhaps not long ago, but there was no one around to be found, at all. The place looked to be abandoned in a hurry, likely evacuated – the bedrooms and office rooms still had possessions strewn about carelessly, save for most of the contents of wardrobes and important documents. Even the kitchens were still stocked for what must have been a full house.

“They knew I was coming,” Vainia said, her hands on her hips as they returned to the first floor of the great castle after the two had explored for at least an hour. She looked impatient and annoyed, and her eyes kept darting to every corner of the massive dwelling. “They evacuated. The President and the High Generals, all of them. They fled like cowards.”

Asearya pursed her lips and kept her eyes on the queen. She did not trust these cold, shadowed halls. “They may have left traps. And taken the Crystal with them, likely. We should return to King’s Town.”

“No. The army will have to meet us here, in time. We will simply hold onto what they have left for us.”

“My lady, I do not trust this place, or this city. Or this nation.”

“Neither do I, Asearya. If it is the safety of this castle you worry about, do so no longer. I will set rune traps that will keep us safer than these walls ever could. No one will enter without my eyes upon them.”

“Absolutely not, my lady. You must rest. I will defend you, of course.”

“I have more than enough strength to continue. My powers will keep me awake, don’t worry.”

The maid to the Queen of Mortis could not help but purse her lips. Her vision stumbled over those unnatural eyes of Vainia’s again. ‘Those are not the beautiful green eyes I remember, Vainia. Green like the sea we loved so much.’ She exhaled through her nose and suppressed the memory. “You will need to rest soon. I will not budge on that.”

Vainia looked down from the plans so obviously running over in her head and cracked a smile at Asearya’s tone. For a moment, she was the loud young girl that Asearya grew up with and loved. Even the Mortisian curse she amusingly belted at her servant was reminiscent of her younger self, struggling to master the ancient language. “If anyone could order me around, it is you, I suppose. Very well. After the traps, I will permit myself to rest. A nap, only an hour and a half at best. Is that satisfactory, Seary?”

“Immensely, sweet Vainia.” She smiled back, forgetting for an instant that the whole world wanted her best friend dead.

The hour and a half went by quick, too quick. Asearya had managed to search the castle from top to bottom, but she saw no sign of life or a Crystal. Everything was silent. Everything was still. The more she scanned and inspected the great old palace of Inus, the more Asearya found herself thinking of the lost palace at Grainis, and the worse her mood became.

When the time came to wake Vainia, Asearya found her not in the throne room, which she visited first. Instead she found Vainia within the great library of the castle, the only room that Asearya had not bothered to check for enemies.

“You lied,” she said to her queen’s upright back, both hurt and annoyed.

“Forgive me, Asearya. The one thing I do not have is time.” Vainia glanced back and smiled sheepishly, the bags beneath her eyes more visible than ever. “I slept for thirty minutes, I promise. But I could not rest much, not when there is so little I do not know, and so much I must do.”

The servant walked with silent steps to the great wooden desk that Vainia sat at. The petite girl had hung her ragged oversized red cloak on her chair, and its fabric spilled out in every direction for some yards beyond her. Around Vainia’s arms were at least three stacks of Inusian books, all of them historical or religious from the looks of their titles. Asearya even spotted a small number of architectural books, and a large, immaculately decorated atlas, as well.

“Ever studious, I see. Is this really the time to be indulging your academic interests, though, my lady?”

“First of all, Seary, that sentiment is nonsense – there is never a wrong time to educate oneself. But now, I am searching for the origin and any historical facts I can find on this castle and its surrounding area. History repeats itself, and if there is some trap waiting for us within these halls, then I do not doubt I can find a hint of it somewhere in these texts.”

Asearya crossed her arms. “Has that ever worked for you before?”

“Actually, yes – in Zeta Academy. The way they tried to kill me back then, with poison… it had been done before. Not on their own people, as it was last year, but done nonetheless. I only realized it after the fact. I would like to be on time with my realizations for once.”

She couldn’t help but frown and lower her arms, with which she made tight, frustrated fists. Five years. Asearya had missed Vainia for the five years she was missing and attending Zeta Academy unnoticed by the world, but she had never truly forgiven her queen for it. She and Asearya were sworn to each other. They had been best friends since the two could recognize each other. Asearya would die for Vainia Sestrum, willingly and without a doubt. Yet she had been left in the dark about Vainia’s plans all those years ago, just like her parents, just like everyone else. Was she really the one that Vainia could trust the most in the world, if she, too, had been deceived?

Not only had Asearya been deceived when Vainia fled – but when she returned, it was with that man. The Knight – or the Undying, as Vainia’s army called him, in their barrack whispers. A man taller, larger, and stronger than Asearya could ever be. She had deduced that from the first moment she laid eyes on the man… and that very same moment, she deduced the kind of bond that Vainia and the Knight had. While Asearya would willingly lay down her life for the Queen, it was clear that Constantus Veit already had done so, or at least tried. Vainia trusted and worked with him without worrying for her own skin or bothering to account for the Knight’s own weaknesses – because she trusted him and his strength absolutely. Compared to her relationship with Asearya, in which she constantly covered for the battle-maid and made sure to protect her, as well… it seemed that her relationship was one step deeper than it was with her childhood friend.

Of course, as the queen’s most faithful and loyal servant, Asearya Jyukyu had vocalized nothing, and she never planned to.

She glanced down and noticed two books close to Vainia that were not traditionally bound. When Vainia reclined to yawn, Asearya reached down and picked up the two thick journals. “What are these, my lady?”

“The two most important books in my life, at the moment. The black tome is filled with the rune spells that I know, or the ones that I am somewhat familiar with. I have dredged those from the oldest, darkest histories available to me, and many of them are still fragmented and incomplete.” The queen rubbed her eyes. In the dim light of the library, whenever Vainia closed her eyes, the reading table grew even dimmer. “The white book is a list of notes, observations, histories, and theories I have written on my Revolutionary Council, with a much less extensive dossier section on those with some importance in my government. Unfortunately, I have forgotten many names. I will have to have someone go through and provide me an inventory of all those I have employed currently.”

“Your Council?” Asearya flipped through the white book out of curiosity. It was filled with small photographs of the Barons and, of course, Vainia’s cramped yet immaculate handwriting. “But why?”

“Because,” the queen replied, “I know one of them will betray me.”

“What?!”

“I dreamt it, many a time in my chambers, before I returned to the throne.” She stood from her desk and draped her massive cloak around her small shoulders. “Grandmother told me to trust my dreams, before she passed. And to memorize my spells. That’s what the black tome is for.”

“Which one?” Each of the three Barons that had travelled with the army came to her mind, each with their own nuances. The one thing they all seemed to have in common was their loyalty to the Queen – but of course, she did not trust anyone but Vainia.

“That’s the problem. I don’t know.” Vainia started to idly trace a circle or script of some kind on the desk with her long index fingernail, though Asearya did not recognize the pattern at all. “I only dreamt that I was in the throne room of a great, obsidian castle, and someone in the uniform of my Barons struck me down and rose above my vision. They had skeletal wings and left behind an aura of crystalline ash falling like snow. Everything was either stained with blood or a bright light coming in from stained glass windows. And on the wind, screams of the dead.”

Asearya kept silent. An obsidian castle could only have been the very one that they were alone in. Was that why she had chosen to travel here with only Asearya, and not a Baron to accompany them? She found herself frowning and crossing her arms again. Another moment where what felt like trust was actually a design for a plan, and Asearya left again in the dark. ‘Is this even the Vainia I know anymore?’

Vainia must have sensed her mood, or ran out of things to ponder. She turned back and her face immediately fell in concern. “Seary, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Don’t trouble yourself over me.”

“Seary, you’re a terrible liar. Come, talk.”

“…I’d rather not.”

“You must. That’s an order from your queen.”

“…”

“Come on. I see that smile on your face, vahd vyulahk!”

Asearya turned away and raised a hand over her face. “What a cruel mistress I serve!”

“Had you any doubts at such?” Vainia smiled and looked up to Asearya. “Please, Seary. Tell me. You know I do not like secrets between us.”

That sent a pang of irritation through Asearya’s body – for had she not been the victim of a secret for five years? – but she only let her embarrassed smile fade away and held the rest of her annoyance within. “It is just… I feel sometimes that I am not useful to you. Not anymore.”

Vainia looked genuinely horrified. “What? Why would you ever think that, Asearya?”

“You have your Knight for physical strength. You have your Council for political savvy and advising. You have an entire army that would give up their lives. Nothing is unique to me anymore. I am more a servant and less an essential guardian with each battle you win.” She sighed, feeling a fool for vocalizing these inner frustrations. “Forgive me for this foolishness. I know you have more important things to worry about.”

“Don’t you ever say such a thing,” the queen responded, with such harsh venom that it actually took Asearya by surprise. She had to look away from Vainia’s eyes, for they shone so brightly and so intensely with golden light that they were painful to look into. “Did you not hear me earlier? About how I cannot trust my Council? Tao… My Knight. I trust him, yes. He is strong and powerful, yes. But do you really think the bond I have with him is anything close to how I feel about you? Asearya, I have known my Knight for over a year now. I have known and trusted you for my entire life.” She took hold of Asearya’s calloused hands in her own, and squeezed. “Nothing can take that away. Nothing can break that between us. Veit had to work to gain my trust… and I can trust him only because I know that no one will challenge him as I do. No one but I has ever defeated him in battle before. But you, and I? We have never had to battle. We will never have to. Asearya… Out of everything I want in this world, and besides everything I have sacrificed, everything I have lost… the only person I would ever sacrifice my life for is you. It has always been you. You are a part of Mortis, my home, my lost kingdom… it is for you that I have done everything. It is for you that I fight this war.”

The eyes were golden, but the heart was still as green, boundless, and powerful as the sea. Only once before in their lives had Vainia Sestrum been so quiet, so open, and so honest to her maid – and that was more than ten years ago, when she first declared to Asearya that she wanted Mortis to rule the entire world. Asearya had been the very first person she had ever said that to, likely even before she had realized it for herself.

All of her doubts escaped her, and Asearya could do nothing to reply but smile and blink away her budding tears. There was no question about it.

Nolstuvainia Sestrum So’octio was still alive. She had new eyes, and new power, and new swords, but she was the same woman. The same queen.

“Come with me, to the throne room,” Vainia said, one of her hands still in Asearya’s. “If you do not believe me, you will, when I tell you this idea I have. You are the only person I will ever tell about this, until it is ready to be unleashed. It came to me in a dream. After this war… after the world is mine… I will have to raise an empire, and organize a realm from ashes. And then, I will have to think of what happens after my death. I mean to conquer even time itself, Asearya, and with this power of mine… I am beginning to think such a thing is possible. The Knight inspired me for this, but you will be very important for it, my friend. A dream I dared not dream may be on the horizon… I just might live forever.”

Asearya could only smile and squeeze Vainia’s hand in satisfaction. Whatever would come to meet them in the castle come the sunrise, she would meet it with unprecedented power and determination. If Vainia Sestrum, ruri ahn tuumis alt kreius – heir to the throne and the world – laid the greatest of trust in her, insignificant little Asearya Jyukyu, then what could possibly stand against her, and prevail?

...End of Sixth(+1) Intermission.

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