Olivia Duma

My bulwark completes the summoning process, sealing me away from the world. Donna Kuat, Don's sister takes her place by my side as Grandmistress of the Cathedral Knights, with the rest of her women forming up behind us, deployment earrings blazing. World's Greatest Top Scorer, the silly rookie I had been saddled with, stands with the blimp's technical staff, looking at us completely awestruck.

"Not letting your partner join us, Paladin?" Donna asks solicitously through the com channel as the blimp's cargo bay doors grind open, revealing the inky night sky in all its glory.

"She's too inexperienced for this," I sigh, taking a quick glance at Holt before acknowledging her presence with her nod, "and we're working on a tight schedule."

"If you never let her spread her wings," Donna says mildly, but with a slight undercurrent of malice, "Specialist Holt will never stop being inexperienced."

"You just reminded me of your brother." Olivia remarks as the unit lifts off as one and plunges into the empty sky.

"Which one?" Donna chuckles, "I've got several siblings. Part of being born in a mobile war camp."

"Don." I snort with a somewhat cheeky laugh, "Your attitude just now reminds me of him."

"I was never close to Don." Donna rebuts as our bulwarks move into formation with each other, "Don't see how I could be reminding you of him, out of all people."

"The mean spiritedness." I explain, "That's pure Don. And there's the barely veiled smugness as well. Can't forget that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about though?" Donna replies, this time in a carefully respectful voice.

"Sure. Of course you don't." I laugh lightly, well past caring about my companion's clumsy manipulations, "Anyway, there's no need for Holt to accompany us. You can just as easily control me as long as Holt remains on the blimp. Am I right?"

"Paladin, about before," Donna sucks in her breath, realizing I'm calling her out on threatening Holt's safety in our previous meeting, "I meant no offence. But needs must and we are in a desperate situation."

"I am sworn to compassion and charity." I answer flatly, leaving the conversation at that.

An awkward silence lingers in the air as Donna has no idea how to respond. That's fine, I wasn't looking for a heart to heart with her anyway. My presence here has been coerced. Donna knows it. I know it. That's all that matters, with nothing more to be said. Our formation of bulwarks races through the night, heading as the crow flies toward Rais Land.

Where the Saint supposedly awaits.

"What do you think about the night, Olivia?" Donna suddenly speaks up again while I'm busy toggling the HUD to light amplification mode.

"Pardon?" I quiz, frowning, "Night is when I sleep. Sometimes its when people call me at home to bother me with investigations. Why the question?"

"The night is kind to people like Don," Donna murmurs wistfully, "we just never realized then."

I ignore Donna's rambling, more interested in the scans coming up on the HUD. The Coalition's bulwark patrols have all been withdrawn from the border. Its clear cruising right into Rais Land for us. The bad news? Those bulwarks are swarming like ants over a particular point of the map. The reason for that is so obvious that I didn't need to be a Yellow Rose investigator to work it out.

That location was most likely where the Saint currently is.

"Don always snuck away from home at night." Donna continues her reverie, "We never understood anything about him. Just as he never really understood the rest of us, I suppose. Strangers living together out of convenience. That's all we were."

"We're losing the race for the Saint." I curse, eyes glued to the HUD. I had recommended that we immediately sally forth to perform the extraction without waiting for the Red Roses and that gamble seems to be going badly. Nothing is locked in stone yet, but I might be called upon to show plenty of charity and compassion later.

"Then again, my other brother barely understands anything either." Donna rambles on, sounding somewhat bitter, "Keeping things in the dark. I'm really no better than Don, am I?"

"So has the night been kind to you, Grandmistress?" I sigh resignedly, as Donna's attention continues to drift. Everyone needs to be focusing right now and the commander of the Leader's own bodyguard is too busy day dreaming. Its so very trying.

"I hope so, Paladin Duma." Donna's incredibly sad voice crackles from the speakers, "I genuinely do."

Our formation begins to drop altitude, now that we have entered Rais Land proper. We fly over the derelict outskirts of the city, a few gawkers emerging from their hovels to stare. Bulwarks from the Citadel and the Coalition gathering in one place. No matter how things panned out, it was guaranteed to be an interesting time.

"The hospital." Donna announces, her head finally back in the game, "That's where we need to go."

"I've been tracking Coalition activity on the HUD." I answer back, "Their bulwarks are heading there as well."

"No!" Donna shouts, incredibly agitated, "The Coalition should have been stopped by now! There's Hiro as well as Regina's -"

"Donna." I flatly interrogate, "What in the world is going on?"

Before the Grandmistress can answer, the squadron frequency squawks to life, demanding my attention.

"Holt to squadron. Holt to squadron. Do you read?"

"Talk to me Holt." I speak up, pushing Donna's loss of composure aside for the time being.

"Lieutenant? We're getting reports from the Citadel." Holt begins, "The Cathedral has gone absolutely crazy. An order has gone out, declaring a false Saint has appeared in Rais Land. The Cathedral's searchers are being told to kill her on sight."

"What?" Donna demands furiously, "Who gave this order? How dare they go over the knights!"

"It comes from the top." I hear Holt smack her lips before answering, "The Chorister of Haiwal ordered it."

"Haiwal? Isn't that the chorister who makes animal noises and rolls about in the dirt?" I query, "Since when did she take such an active role?"

"That's not all." Holt takes a deep breath, "More reports are coming in about the Saint being found at an orphanage in the Citadel. The Cathedral is investigating a rumor about a miracle happening there."

"Impossible!" Donna denies, "The Saint has always been in Rais Land!"

"How would you know that, Grandmistress?" I cut in, not bothering to hide my distrust of Donna.

"Scramble the Red Rose camp." Donna begins issuing commands back to the blimp, "Tell them to intercept any Citadel searchers they find. No one is to reach Rais Land, understood?"

"Understood Grandmistress." another voice replies, someone distinctly older. One of Donna's people then.

"That's all I have." Holt concludes as she signs off, "Stay safe out there."

"We need to hurry Paladin Duma." Donna's voice oozes with urgency and desperation, "It seems your choice to sally forth immediately was the right one."

"The Saint the Cathedral found -" I try to ask but Donna forcefully cuts me off.

"A fake. There is no Saint in the Citadel." Donna grits out, "I'm sure you know what this means."

"Not really." I deny, "If what you're saying is right, the rest of the Chorus would have stopped the kill order going out. The Chorister of Haiwal would have been simply outvoted."

"The Chorus ..." Donna's voice trails off uncertainly before picking up again, "The Leader never wanted the Cathedral involved in the search."

"Whatever you're implying," I drily remark, "is verging very close to blasphemy. The Chorus sing with the blessing of the Seven."

"Never mind. Concentrate on our current mission." Donna quickly covers her misstep, "Anything else can wait."

Then the line goes dead. But there's still a transmission alert blinking on the HUD. Its not the squad frequency, nor a regular private line. I can't even tell who's trying to contact me, the transmission ID is nothing more than a line of gibberish. I partially recognize the gibberish though, its caused by Yellow Rose encryption. This call is meant to be private and confidential.

"Talk to me." I say, accepting the call and letting my bulwark's onboard Yellow Rose protocols unscramble the communication.

"Lieutenant, its Holt." a familiar voice whispers, "I've hijacked one of the blimp's com lines."

"That's dangerous." I remark, "You could be discovered."

"I'm using a Yellow Rose cracking kit," Holt responds, "It should blind the blimp's systems long enough. I'm also hiding right now. So it should be safe."

"Say what you need to quickly." I urge, "Safety first and all that."

"There's something the knights don't want you to know." Holt's voice drops a few more decibels, "They're making a separate report to the Grandmistress now."

"What's the big secret?" my hackles begin to rise. I don't mind Donna playing games, but not when there's a chance I might get burned.

"The Cathedral is enraged at the knights." Holt reports, "The Grandmistress apparently played some kind of trick, sending one of Regina's champions with the initial extraction teams without their consent."

"WHAT?" I blurt out.

This is serious. As the foremost of the Divines, Regina's champions are all tightly affiliated with the Cathedral. The Grandmistress effectively stealing one of them away was not something the Cathedral would forgive.

That's not the real problem though.

Donna approached me because I was a Paladin of Iros. She needed someone empowered by a Divine for this mission. But I'm not the first marked Donna approached. A Champion of Regina had already been dispatched and obviously not gotten any results. Donna was at the very least, downplaying how dangerous this mission is.

"The Cathedral has sent a rapid reaction unit out to Rais Land," Holt's voice strains slightly, "to bring the Champion of Regina back."

"Why?" I demand, "This is a serious escalation. Who is this Champion? Is she really so important?"

"I've got her name." Holt gathers her thoughts for a moment, "She's, uh, I think her name's Nomi. As to how important she is ..."

My heart sinks, waiting for the ax to fall.

"Nomi is the Chorister of Regina's younger sister."

....

Pilot Record

Name: Lieutenant of Merit Olivia Duma

Service Branch: Yellow Roses

Affinity Level: B

Assigned Bulwark: V-18 Protector

STRENGTH - B

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY - C

DEXTERITY - B

FIRE CONTROL - C

ENERGY RESERVE - B

Armanent: Monomolecular Sword

Attack Power: C Base chance to hit: B

D-10 High Power Pistol

Attack Power: D Base chance to hit: D

Additional Notes:

Yellow Rose Pilot: Olivia is well trained, but her duties as a Yellow Rose generally do not involve piloting a bulwark. Her skills have become rusty despite being trained in advanced piloting maneuvers.

Paladin: Olivia's ace in the hole, the true power of Iros made manifest. By taking on the burdens of another, Olivia's abilities can escalate to monstrous levels, commensurate to the suffering she bears.

Marked: Bread and water is cheap, granted by Iros in disdainful response to selfish prayers made to her. Paladin Duma is committed to showing true compassion and charity to others.

Of "Merit": Olivia is a lieutenant of merit, a Yellow Rose who has been issued a veiled reprimand for a particular failure. Her formal record as a Rose remains clean, but the vague and meaningless merit granted singles Olivia out as someone not worthy of higher promotion or further laurels.