Chapter Ten: of Obstacles and Octopods

Lapis stood staring through the door to the meditation room on the third floor. The room came complete with a sand covered floor, a pool of water, a fireplace, and the roof had been designed with a stained glass mural of the sun allowing sunlight to filter in. It was one of the recent renovations to the castle. Lapis for her part imagined there was a great deal of sorcery involved, but had no proof as the actual creators of this castle had been forgotten.

Saturn sat cross-legged on the other side of the pool wearing a white t-shirt that was very tight against her skin showing her muscular form. Her black sweat pants were just as tight. Sure Saturn was very attractive, attractive enough that Lapis had considered stealing the woman’s panties on several occasions, however one thing stood in her way and it was the very reason why Lapis was standing there glaring at the woman instead of talking to her. The one and only thing that Lapis wanted more than anything else was the very thing Saturn had kept throwing away.

Rita’s affection.

Saturn for her part was doing very well in completely ignoring the glares with her eyes closed as she was meditating. Though Lapis wasn’t entirely here just to bug her. There was another reason too.

Lapis had to conceal some of the envy in her voice as she spoke, “So, you came back injured, and exhausted, and I could have sworn that I saw you with someone in your arms.”

Saturn didn’t bother opening her eyes. “That’s for Lamont or Rita to discuss with you. Not I.”

“Oh come on, I’ve been a good girl lately, don’t I deserve to know.”

“It’s not about whether or not you and Wonder deserve to know, I am not in a position to tell you.”

Lapis threw her head back, threw her arms in the air and groaned. “That’s hardly fair.”

“No, it’s not fair, but my honor prevents me from t-“

Lapis cut her off. “-you from being honest with us, blah, blah, code of blah. You knights and your dumb honor. Can’t you think for yourselves?”

“I do think for myself, and even if my code didn’t prevent me from telling you, I still wouldn’t.”

Lapis lowered her arms and growled, “Why’s that?”

Saturn opened her eyes and met Lapis’s glare with a look of tried patience. “Because you and Wonder are both children. Rita at least has already developed her honor code, even if I don’t agree with most of it, I respect her for growing up. You two on the other hand seem to refuse to grow up, even after the mistakes of your childhood destroyed your entire group.”

Lapis’s hear sunk to the floor. A familiar pain surged as she recalled what happened to Heath. It was true, once upon a time there were seven of the Guardian Hearts, then there was six, and now there was three. Lapis had her own reasons for choosing to follow Rita to the ends of the earth. She was sure that Wonder had her own reasons as well, though they were largely unknown to Lapis. Perhaps it was because Wonder was the first one to befriend Rita, and despite some of their major differences, they remained friends for one reason or another.

Once Saturn’s words really hit Lapis, she understood the accusation that was made against her. She shook herself and jumped up to her full height. “Take that back!”

Saturn merely stared at her.

Lapis growled and stomped her foot. “I had nothing to do with that. That was all Rita and Dusk's Fault!”

Saturn just stared. “So you’re saying that because those two had a fight, you could neglect the other members of your team? They had to suffer because of it too?”

Lapis turned, her eyes were burning as she recalled the day they had split up. Painful memories resurfaced and her heart ached. If she was strong like Rita or Mini she would have just punched a wall and felt better, but she couldn’t do that. What Lapis needed right then was a good cry. Making sure to stomp her feet with ever step, Lapis marched out of the meditation room while shouting, “I’M GOING TO BED! GOOD NIGHT!”

She slammed the door behind her and ran down the hall and down the stairs. Tears were streaming behind her as she tried her best to get to her bedroom. Upon reaching the second floor on the staircase a scream echoed from downstairs. It was faint, but she’d heard it.

There was a moment of hesitation as Lapis rubbed at her eyes wiping the tears away. If that was a scream from danger, then she should go and get Saturn, but if it was Wonder having come across a rat or something then she’d look more foolish and childish then before. Lapis debated for just a moment about what to do next, and decided to go downstairs and find out what the trouble was first. If she needed to get Saturn then she would, but she was going to avoid seeing her again if at all possible.

Down the stairs Lapis looked down the hallway only to see Fiona running towards her looking scared. Of course the young woman was timid and shy, so maybe Lapis could exploit some free hugs from the busty woman. Of course there was something different about the way she moved this time. It wasn’t just fear, there was purpose to it.

“Fiona,” Lapis called out as she hit the bottom floor with her shoes. “What happened?”

Fiona looked back towards the great hall with its doors swinging closed behind them. “M-monster, g-got Wonder.”

A pang of fear shot through Lapis’s heart and she wanted to run to get help from Saturn. Even so, she thought about what would happen if she took the time to go all the way back upstairs to fetch her. So instead Lapis braced herself for what she needed to do.

“Fiona, go to the third floor, Saturn is in the meditation chamber, tell her what happened, she can help.”

Fiona didn’t waste any time before hurrying up the steps. She moved with a lot more speed and skill than Lapis would have expected from the woman. Still it was time to see what Lapis was up against.

The great hall’s doors swung wide open revealing a half-naked, stunning beauty with jet black wings that looked more like those of a bat then any bird. Her long black hair was flowing freely behind her, and twin trails of blood ran from her lip down over her chin. Lapis looked behind the beauty only to see Wonder lying on the floor.

Fiery rage burned through Lapis’s body, and she could feel the indigo heart on her left hand burning with power. She took several steps forward allowing her arms to transform themselves into whip like tentacles. “An erotic vampire, it must be my lucky day. Are you gonna save some of those bites for me?”

Nightshade stalked forward, her hips swaying like a dancer as she approached Lapis. “Oh, well if you insist sweet cheeks. How should I bite you? Should I be gentle, or should I be… rough.”

“Heh, I think we can mix it up.” Lapis retorted.

“I like a versatile girl myself.”

The moment that Nightshade was within ten feet Lapis lashed out with a glowing tentacle. For Nightshade’s part she was fast and dodged it with ease. Of course Lapis also had things up her tenticular sleeves. With her left foot firmly planted as she swung her right arm, she also sent energy into her foot and twisted it as soon as Nightshade dodged. A wall of tentacles rose up from the floor right where Nightshade was dodging into. So Nightshade had jumped into the wall of tentacles and as she touched them they all wrapped around their target stretching each limb out and binding them tightly in place. This included the woman’s wings.

Lapis stared at her newly captured target. She could feel the touch of the woman’s bare, and cold flesh against the tentacles as though it was her own flesh against the beauty. Lapis grinned as she pulled back her right arm turning it into a normal hand once more. “So, while you writhe in my wonderful groping grasp for a moment, I’ll go check on my friend you so carelessly hurt.”

Nightshade let out a slight groan as she pulled at the tentacles uselessly. “Oh, you’re just like me.”

Lapis gave her a wink. “Mmm I still have some surprises in store for you.”

Nightshade purred in response. “Oh I'll be waiting.”

Going into the great hall Lapis was able to see that the kitchen door was slightly ajar as well. If Brian had been in there, then he might have been hurt as well. Even without power, training, or weapons the man would have defended the castle with all his might. Like all of the few servants in the castle, he was loyal as could be.

Wonder lay on the hard cold stone floor. Blood had ran down her nose covering half her face, and a little blood was running from her left eye. Other than that there were only two little pinpricks on her neck where she had clearly been bitten. Wonder’s eyes were closed and she was mercifully asleep now.

Lapis knelt down and brushed some of the messy hair aside. “You pushed yourself too far again.”

A loud crashing sound came from the hall she had just left. Lapis ran back to the entrance hall to see what had happened. The front doors had been kicked in and two more people stood there writhed in shadowy clothing. A man with long hair obscuring his face and long thin limbs which bent at odd angles creating a sort of double jointed, hunched over monster look. The bigger man was easily eight feet tall, covered in muscles and scars, and looked much more like some kind of ogre than a man. His pale green skin made him look sickly.

The lanky man pointed a finger with a black ring mark around it at Lapis. “Stop that one.”

The big man, Noct charged forward gaining both speed and momentum as he made his way down the corridor. It was taking energy to hold the spell active which held Nightshade. If Lapis held the spell any longer it would mean having to fight this giant while also wasting energy holding the woman still, yet even if she did that, it wouldn’t take much for an outside force to disrupt the spell anyway and that creepy guy certainly could do that.

Lapis only had one course of action left. She put her will into the tendrils and threw Nightshade into the massive Noct’s path as he charged. He slammed into his comrade sending her flying into a wall with enough force to crack it, yet that didn’t slow him down for even a second.

Lapis was content that at the very least it would have hurt like hell to receive that blow. Now she needed to worry about herself. On the last second, right as Noct raised his giant green fist and snarled, Lapis resorted to a particularly un-womanly attack. Lapis let loose a horrible sound from her throat like that of a broken car engine was running over a cat before spitting out a massive black blob of ink directly into Noct’s face. She slid to the side, lashed out with a tentacle arm and hit him in the legs. Noct tripped and fell forward onto his face.

Lapis turned and ran back for Wonder’s body. She wrapped a single tentacle arm around Wonder’s body and hoisted her up into the air. While Lapis ran towards the kitchen she saw Mind Sliver going to Nightshade’s side.

Lapis burst into the kitchen, and saw Brian laying on the floor, wide eyed and muscles flexed as if he was desperately trying to move yet couldn’t. Lapis grabbed him with her other tentacle arm and kicked open the door leading to outside.

Once out there she saw them. The shadow beasts lumbered about the bailey. She counted ten of them scattered about. Each one of them could have been beaten down easily enough on an individual basis, but with ten of them between her and the workshop, this proved to be much more than Lapis could handle. Especially considering that now both of her arms were being used to hold unconscious and vulnerable friends.

“I’m all for multiple partners, but isn’t this a bit too excessive,” Lapis cursed to herself. “Bobby!”

The air next to her shimmered for a second and then a light blue octopus appeared next to her, floating in the air as if it was in water. The thing wore a monocle, a tophat, and had a little black mustache. “Yes, my lady.”

“Bobby, what do I do about all these things? I only have four limbs. Two for running, two for working.”

Bobby hovered there for a moment. The other shadows had all turned towards Lapis and were starting to slowly walk towards her as if being very cautious. Bobby returned with a light musical note in his voice. “Hmmm I say you either grow more limbs or run, or both.”

“GRAAGH!” Lapis screamed in frustration. “I can’t do either of those.” She needed to keep these people safe first and foremost, but if she set them down the shadows would just come for them. Noct might come right back after her once he got up, so she needed to hurry. The front gate was locked which meant that there was no escape. Getting into a castle was impossible but then again, so was getting out of one.

Then Lapis saw it, Rita’s workshop was across the courtyard. It might not be a way out, but surely it was a safe haven. Not only that but if Rita was caught unaware, it would be just as bad for her if not far worse due to her injury. The loud metal music coming from the workshop however only proved one thing. Rita was just as clueless to what good music sounded like as she was of the danger in the castle right then.

With ten shadows between Lapis and the workshop she had made up her mind. She was going to do this, she was going to reach safety and make everything okay. All she needed to do was run, dodge, and if she had to, fight. It took some energy, and a slight headache was already beginning to form but she created two tentacles on her back, and had them reach out like extra appendages.

“Thanks for the idea, Bobby.”

Bobby had already turned invisible again, but he replied. “I am here to serve you my lady.”

As far as familiars went, he wasn’t half bad.

Lapis didn’t hesitate. She charged forward. The shadows seemed to grow faster as a result and were all aiming themselves towards her. Lapis easily ran around the first two, even with their increase in speed, they were slow. The next one was right in front her, and she could already see its arms were stretching out like hooks to trap, ensnare, and harm her. Lapis waited until the moment it took a swing at her and put her two back tentacles on the ground and push off the earth propelling herself by a good ten feet up and over the monster. She landed behind it on her feet. A slight jolt of pain shot through her legs but she kept running, ignoring it.

She managed to run around three more before three of them had formed a sort of barricade in front of her. They were clearly wising up and had their hooked arms slightly raised up for if she tried another jumping tactic. Yet what they didn’t expect was for Lapis to start glowing and to place her two front tentacles in front of her pushing them into the shadow in the center line. The shadow exploded into a small cloud of smoke and nothingness upon contact. Lapis made it pass their line.

The final shadow was standing in front of Rita’s door, and Lapis didn’t have time for this. She swung her tentacles at the thing smashing it into another cloud of smoke. Then she wrapped a tentacle around the door handle and jerked. The door handle was locked.

“NO!” Lapis cried. “RITA! LET ME IN! THEY’RE HURT!”

Of course she wasn’t loud enough to get through the death metal music. Lapis looked behind her to see the eight remaining shadows all starting to encircle her. They were closer this time, making another charge impossible. A trickle of something hot and warm ran down Lapis’s nose and when she licked at it, she tasted copper.

Lapis began banging on the doorway with her back tentacles. She hit it twice before one of the tentacles vanished. She was losing energy quickly. Too many conjurations too soon. If she didn’t drop the other tentacle soon she might pull a Wonder and pass out.

“RITA! PLEASE!”

The other tentacle vanished of its own accord. The pounding in Lapis’s skull was too intense now. The shadows were only ten feet away. If she dropped the two injured people she might be able to put up a shoddy last stand, but she could feel herself beginning to feint already. Maybe if she was fast?

What else could she do? She couldn’t leave her friends to die.

The door swung open and a small hand grabbed Lapis by the shoulder yanking her back inside. Lapis followed through with the two injured people still in her arms. Once inside she laid them down on the floor just before her arms went back to normal. Lapis hit the floor with her knees and looked up to see Rita standing there with a determined look in her eyes.

“Rita,” Lapis sniffled, “There are bad guys here.”

Rita raised her left arm to reveal some sort of bronze metal gauntlet covering it. The thing was lined with five red gems. “I figured as much when I heard you crying.”

“I-I wasn’t crying,” Lapis wailed as she rubbed at the tears running down her face.

Rita looked down at her and smiled with a sort of confidence that few others could hold. “Don’t worry, I got this.”