Chapter 10 - Aftermath

What happened after the attack on The Brimming Plaza was a whirlwind of simultaneous events.

Bel-Alis, healed and hale, gathered with the employees of Madam Leticia, and began her work as an enchanter to evaluate the damage the explosion had caused to the runes carved on the underside of the wooden planks that were the manor’s flooring. She kept on doing it even after the attendant that May saw previously checking them with the mana representation showed their condition to the Priestess 一 stating that some damages to the shape and form of the runes could only be seen through practiced eyes.

A statement that felt ironic to May, considering Bel-Alis was… well, eyeless.

Nevertheless, while Alis was dealing with her runes and spells and Madam Leticia kept on pushing her body and Gift to heal some of the wounded 一 which was met with great complaints from her employees, claiming she should rest herself considering the fight; a request that was met with severe distaste from the elder siren 一 Kreacher, now in their new iguana body, was attaining to a task granted by the Priestess.

Bel-Alis said she still felt the thrum of illusion mana in the air, despite the absence of the attackers, so both she and Kreacher agreed that whatever it was that kept on charging the spell currently hiding the Plaza 一 an idea that baffled May at first, but made perfect sense when you considered they were still inside Crystalia and no one came to check on the loud explosion 一 was still working somewhere around the perimeter.

As such, Kreacher was in charge of finding this artifact but not removing them, as according to Bel-Alis, runic formations made by experts usually had dangerous safeguards against their deactivation. Besides that, May thought to herself that the small lizard would be unable to do it even if the women asked them for it.

It was amazing then that Kreacher immediately associated the idea of the artifact with the metal pole he saw the fighter woman carrying when she killed their first body. Bel-Alis asked them to scout for the exact location, as it would be necessary information for when the Order of Amethyst arrived at the scene.

The attendant who was responsible for warning the royal guards of Crystalia had left a while ago, so they should be coming soon. A very delayed response in May’s opinion, but she would judge their worth when they arrived.

To her, the long time it took for them to become aware and respond to the attack reeked of incompetence; the greatest sin a servant could commit against their master.

While they waited 一 Leticia sent more employees outside to look for better healers, supplies and willing citizens to assist in the search for living people under the rubble that is now the left wing 一 May tried to do anything she could to help.

The doll had begun by attempting to search among the rubble by herself, trying to assist in lessening the degree of carnage that happened this morning, but neither her small body nor her Abilities were enough to even move the bricks and tiles. A fact May couldn’t remedy now that she had used the last of her initial Truth to shape [Puppeteer’s Strings].

She would have to talk to Bel-Alis about her new Ability soon. If the woman wanted to see her Shaping, or whatever, then it was only fair May informed the Priestess. Although she had an inkling something was still necessary for her to reach Wood-Rank like Kreacher.

Her Gift told her something was missing. A special thread that would tie her Truth.

But that was for later. So May, unable to help in the manor, took to a job that the workers and wounded seemed ignorant to. The doll didn’t know if it was the lack of fear or the idea of a perfect servant that guided her to leave the manor and go west, walking among the trees where she had wished for her third Ability, but she did it anyway.

May’s steps were silent, respectful even, and as she stared at the body parts and blood, her resolve only firmed itself even more. Along with the disgust.

Silently, she closed her eyes and felt for the connection to her true body 一 which remained on the other side of the lake, probably in one of the houses and away from any damage. With that checked, the servant summoned her newest Ability.

As the black strings grew from her fingers, weak but many, May ordered them to braid themselves with each other, forming a thicker thread for each of her hands. Happy that her idea worked, May began to perform that which was one of the core duties of a servant.

Cleaning.

The ropes climbed onto trees like snakes, collecting the body parts and putting them to rest on the grass beneath her feet, guided by the silent commands she gave. May didn’t stare for long at each of them, but she made sure to be as polite as the circumstances allowed.

A foot here, an arm there, some scraping of a tree’s bark to clean it of the coagulated blood. More viscera and undetermined body parts. More burnt flesh, blood-coated leaves and parts of clothing and accessories that had survived the heat and blast.

May did the gruesome work silently. It was a necessity to her, so she could digest and understand what happened here. This was what happened when one got too deep into their ideals, uncaring of the world beyond.

Her eyes were unfocused as she remembered the perpetrators. The woman who had beaten Bel-Alis and Leticia. The smaller, green man who she had thought was going to help the people buried by the debris, but that she now knew was walking around the devastation of his own doing like a satisfied hunter. And the frog-like man, with an… aura of end and destruction.

She couldn’t help but shiver at the memory of the weight he had imposed on all three of them. Leaving them frozen and utterly defeated by simply standing in his presence.

Part of May wanted that. It was a degree of Control all of its own to command such respect and power without moving a finger.

The other half of her felt glad she was growing in power. Her Gift had given her a new Ability and May wanted nothing more than to see what its tapestry looked like, to grow with it.

For a longer than expected, she worked silently, reminiscing and thinking. By the time the area around her had been clean enough to her particular taste 一 the strings of her Ability being dirty with dark blood and dragging along the floor, waiting for new orders 一 May had processed enough of the scene and events, carving it into her memory.

So she ordered the strings to untangle, feeling the drain to her mana the time using the Ability had caused. For the duration it had been active, it was enough for May to feel exhausted when the job was done, panting a little as she felt her… energy waning little by little.

“It’s odd, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like it’s hurting me to spend mana.” May thought to herself, knowing she would be listened to. “It’s more like getting out of breath.”

How. You. Know? You. Don’t. Breathe. The whispers responded, to which May sighed in return.

“Not in my doll body, but I’ve been breathing now.” She inhaled deeply to prove her point, chest rising. “See?”

Unnecessary. Natural. To. Body. Not. You. They said simply, giving May information that made her stop in place.

“What?” May asked, perplexed at the implications of those simple words.

Your. Body. Dead. Stupid. Dummy. They said slowly, patronizing May in a way she couldn’t retort.

“But I sweat. I salivate. I have tears!” May thought back, trying to understand what that meant about her [Skin Walking].

Because. Want. To. Can. Stop.

May’s mouth opened and closed like a dead fish’s, her mind racing. “That’s… that’s impossible!”

What? Impossible? And they laughed and jeered and snickered at her, a thousand voices and whispers and guffaws in languages unknown, all aimed at her. Silly. You. Have. Gift. Impossible. Only. Perspective.

Her eyebrows raised to her hairline, astonished as she was about the idea of having unexplored depths to her Ability. Still, considering it was the only advanced one she had, maybe it wasn’t that unexpected.

And if so, what would happen if she changed the other two?

May began to think of possible ideas on how to advance her other abilities, so charmed by her imagination that she didn’t even notice the sounds coming from the mansion as she returned.

The Order of Amethyst had arrived.

***

Bel-Alis’s mind was aflame as the Priestess worked on the enchantments of the Plaza. As she had suspected, the sudden heat of the explosion had affected the wooden floor so much that it had dilated the boards beyond the arrays' flexibility, misaligning the runes and warping the formations. The only positive outcome all of this had was that the gathering runes 一 used for harvesting the mana in the air 一 had remained unperturbed at the center, so she could work here even with her meager knowledge of Enchantment.

Detecting one of the so-called connection runes had been warped beyond use, she extended a finger and began to etch the proper symbol with mana, tainting the wood with natural power and allowing the energy in the array to flow properly. Her vision moved for a second, trying to ascertain if any of the runes on the board needed to be redone, and the boring job of examining and evaluating the symbols from memory was not enough to keep her mind focused.

Thoughts and considerations regarding what Bel-Alis had learned today clawed her mind. Leticia’s analysis of May and all that it entailed. The sudden appearance of not only one of those insane Gifted, but three. That power the Sopan man was wielding, a destructive Truth so powerful Alis shook at the memory.

She needed time to process it all… and at least a few pages of proper writing for it all to make sense. All of this sudden, unexplored information left her anxious enough to shake.

Not only that, but there had to be some detail she was forgetting that would only come to her when she wrote it down. Bel-Alis’s hand itched to use [Knowledge is Never Alone] and lock herself in one of the still-standing rooms for a few hours.

It’s a pity she isn’t far enough on the Path she could perfectly focus on two things at once. That was a power reserved for Cardinals 一 like Cas-Inar.

Another mystery she wanted to dig her nails into as soon as possible and couldn’t because her morals dictated so. Alis had work to do here in the Plaza; people to help and magic to use.

It still didn’t stop her from complaining a little under her breath.

Moving to check on another floor board while holding her cane like a crowbar, Bel-Alis felt the pull of the healed skin and muscle, the stretched flesh still taut. It wasn’t her first time being healed with a potion, but she had never done it with a wound as large as this one. Considering the gravity of it, she was amazed the small bottles used had such efficacy.

Seeing Leticia from the corner of her vision, the Priestess couldn’t help but let a sigh escape. Healing powers had grown immensely on her rank of most useful magic now that she had been properly stabbed.

That time she fell on top of a kitchen knife didn’t count.

Using her cane as a lever, she pulled another board, checking the runes on the underside. Unlike the illusion mana in the air 一 or even the other more common ones 一 enchantment-aligned magic was incredibly subtle, almost indistinguishable from the natural power usually permeating the air. It was, after all, a school of magic made for imbuing things in mana, not changing its properties.

The runes on this one didn’t have any major deficiencies 一 although one of the symbols had its bottom-half remade as it didn’t attend to the Priestess criteria; Bel-Alis might not be far in terms of knowledge regarding spell 一 her access to grimoires being fairly limited 一 but she was strict with her learning process. Which meant she knew the basics with all her hearts.

And that happened in both of the schools of magic she worked with. Enchantment and Divination were her passions, the only thing different between them being the access to spells she had. Bel-Alis could get creative with the basic runic alphabet, but she wasn’t proficient enough with magic to study the intricacies of the basic divination spells she knew.

Another board and another check on the runes, the Priestess had been about to get up from the floor when she heard the sound of trotting hooves followed by the heavy steps of armored men on the gravel paths outside.

“Madam! Madam!” A young woman called as she darted through the front door, taking Leticia’s attention as she announced the arrival of the Order and others.

From the window close to her, Bel-Alis could see at least a dozen knights, fully armored in that purplish armor of theirs, being heralded by two other knights on horses; one trotting in front of the other. From her position, the Priestess saw that the one in the front and one of the others on foot didn’t wear the usual greaves and cuirasses, but a type of plated skirt that reached their ankles. Probably sirens.

Behind them, the other attendants that had been sent outside to gather more varied support finally came, carrying bundles of supplies or serving as guides to different concerned citizens willing to help.

The man in the front had started to get down from his horse, taking off his feathered helmet 一 another difference among his colleagues 一 to reveal dark hair and aquamarine fin ears, when Leticia arrived at the porch, fuming.

“Aunt.” The man tried to talk, having the decency to at least look ashamed, but Leticia allowed for no conversation.

Bel-Alis raised her hairless brows at the greeting. She knew Leticia had some connection with noble houses, particularly the House of Naralez, but to have a nephew so high in the Order was impressive. She would need to ask about it later.

“The Left Wing.” The siren cut. “Send your men there, we need to search the rubble for survivors.”

The leader of the knight nodded, swallowing his tongue. It must have been hard to look so lost to the events in the area you were supposed to protect, Bel-Alis thought to herself.

Nevertheless, he seemed fairly competent, if embarrassed, so he pointed to the twelve unmounted knights and ordered. “Go. Heed the Madam’s orders as if my own. You are allowed to use your Gift in its entirety if helpful. Anyone able to cast [Detect Life], [Detect Death] or similar spells are to do so.”

The knights didn’t need to be told twice, and from her place on the windowsill, Bel-Alis watched them taking to the destroyed area, partially impressed by the sound their armor made; it was no surprise the Order had been absent from the front ever since the prince struck that deal, as only a full army marching could possibly hide their advancement. That or a meteor falling.

In the end, all that remained from the purple force was the leader and the one who seemed to be his second in command. Bel-Alis chose that moment to go outside and participate in the conversation.

“Julio, begin communication with the Tower. Tell them to start charging the [Location] spells if possible. Calibrate it with sympathetic magic and possible descriptions.” Their leader said to the only knight remaining, who saluted and started mumbling under his breath, the sensation of mana in the air making it obvious he was either using magic or an Ability.

Bel-Alis had arrived at the door when Leticia began to talk to the knight in command. “Miriano.”

“Madam Leticia.” The leader said, bending to kiss the hand the woman offered, but Leticia pulled it away before his lips touched her skin. He sighed, resigned. “We’re deeply sorry for the delay, there’s no excuse for our lack of response as protectors of the Inner City.”

Leticia breathed through her nose, loudly, but contained herself from more commentary. Apparently, age does bring wisdom in her case. “If they had harmed the statue…”

“They did not,” Miriano said before she could proceed. “Thankfully.”

“Still. All these people… lost.” Leticia bit her lip, and her hunch grew even more pronounced. The woman looked like a shadow of herself for a moment. “I’ll have to contact the Duchess. She won’t like this at all.”

“I’m sure Her Grace will be most understanding.” The knight said, noticing now the Priestess approaching. His smile was polite but distant. “Ah. Hello miss…?”

The drow woman extended a hand. Thin, long fingers coiled around the knight’s gauntlet. “Alis, sir. Bel-Alis.”

“Hello, Miss Alis. What can the Order do for you?”

“She is the best witness you could ask for, Miriano.” Madam Leticia said, nodding to Bel-Alis. “She is the one that saw all who caused this attack.”

“I see. How fortuitous. Please, tell me everything.” The man said, locking his eyes on her, his presence becoming more pronounced as Miriano let his Gift soar free for a moment.

To Alis, it was the call of a bird on the wind; an animal flying high among the clouds. It was life in the copes of the trees, nestling between branches and leaves, never seeing the ground.

She narrowed her eyes at the intensity, almost defiantly. If her Faith was stronger she would have tried to compete, but the man felt far on his Path. Farther than even the woman they had fought against earlier.

“The Endless Abyss sees all.” Bel-Alis preached, using the old proverb to mark her allegiance as she leaned on her cane, a light smile hiding the inner frown. “Should we talk here? It doesn’t seem… private.”

“The sooner the better, Priestess.” The knight said, energy receding. “We are late enough as it is.”

“Then… if you’ll excuse me, Sir Mariano.” The Priestess said, faith coalescing from her fingers and dribbling down her cane as if dark fog. Bel-Alis ignored the way the man’s jaw tensioned as he watched her work. “[Field of Silence]”

Alis’s cane hit the floor and her faith expanded. Guided by the power of her patron, the Ability spread along the ground like a cloud before settling at the rough shape of a circle around the four of them, and then… it vanished. Taking all sound with it.

“Better, Alis.” Leticia complimented, her voice sounding louder than usual in the absence of external sound. “Thank you.”

“Indeed, Miss. A useful Ability.” Miriano conceded. “Now, please start from the beginning.”

Despite the succinct request from the knight, Bel-Alis kept on smiling, telling her tale from the moment she arrived until the explosion and the spell Leticia cast to take them out of the radius. The only things she omitted were Kreacher and May’s presence; best they are left out of this for now.

“So it was an explosion?” Miriano asked, seeking confirmation of the obvious.

“Yes. If it was purely magical, Ability caused, or alchemical, though, I can’t tell.”

“Then what about the attacker? Or attackers?” The knight inquired, and Bel-Alis took a deep breath to organize her thoughts.

“They were… different.” The Priestess began, slow words leaving her mouth. “Leticia got to see one of them. Human woman, Gifted, freiniardian. She had some kind of wind or air-aligned Gift, I believe, and fought with her fists.”

“She had her first Guise as well, so she should be Iron-Rank, but not so overpowering to be more than that.”

Miriano grimaced at the information, face twisting when Bel-Alis talked about the woman’s origin place. The Priestess noticed the reaction, but didn’t comment; she had her suspicions of what the presence of freiniardian extremists in Asden represented 一 especially with one of them being a sopan 一 although Alis would need Cas-Inar’s reports and documentation to confirm.

A pity then that the Faithful went missing without telling her where he had put the diaries.

“The others were even rarer. Both male, but a Sopan and a Goblin. And they’re both freiniardian native races as well, as you should well know.” The Priestess said, technically correct. Goblins, like humans, were present in every continent, although their presence was more pronounced in Freiniard and Belphegor. “The Sopan seemed to be the leader of the trio, high rank as well… I could barely react to his presence.”

“And they let you go?” Miriano asked after silently prompting Julio to pass the information to whatever person he seemed to be connected to. The second-in-command’s mana resembled mirrors and reflections to Bel-Alis’s senses.

“Their leader said their job was done before leaving.” Bel-Alis bit her lip and shrugged, defeated by her inability to understand why the man hadn’t simply killed her there and then. He had the power 一 most definitely 一 and he had all the motivation in the world, considering they were those extremists she was both taught about and had met before. “I… don’t know what they intended, however.”

“Nothing is missing though.” Madam Leticia continued, taking Miriano’s attention in as the Priestess’s voice faded. “The left wing doesn’t have our vaults or any possessions of value 一 besides some minor enchanted items 一 and the other artifacts were undisturbed.”

The knight’s frown deepened, his fin ears twitching. “Was there anything unusual before the attack, then? An event? Or a new employee?”

Leticia reminisced, hand on her chin as she tried to remember an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence, but the morning was going through with no problem. The only new client in the building was the young Gifted girl, but she wasn’t the focus of this attack. “No. Not really, the clients were regulars or had at least come to the Plaza before… and we had no new workers today.”

As silence fell over their conversation, Bel-Alis’s mind 一 once aflame with hypotheses and itching to understand what had happened 一 came to a sudden halt at Leticia’s words. The Madam was correct in saying there were no irregulars in the Plaza today, but what she and Miriano didn’t think about was that there was no need for a new client to be the pivot of the attack.

The Priestess of History drummed her long fingers at the edge of her bone cane as the conversation died down 一 the smooth material serving as a focus for her attention. Again and again and again, her brain looked back at what she knew, the conclusion almost at her grasp, so close to her understanding that she knew it was the needed idea to better comprehend why the history of events had happened here today.

And then… it dawned on her. A floodgate of quick thinking that made her gasp.

It was the detail she was missing all along.

“They were extremists!” Bel-Alis exclaimed, her cane rising as she gripped it with more strength. All three others inside the [Field of Silence] jumped at her sudden exclamation. “All three of them were Gifted extremists!”

Miriano composed himself, an armored hand going through his blueish hair as the scowl on his face deepened. Bel-Alis wasn’t so sure anymore if it was aimed at her or the missing attackers. “Important information, Miss Alis 一 but not necessarily helpful right now.”

“Terrorists? Here? I thought they were more present in Indra or the Free Cities. Not even Ferrovia has to deal with them.” Leticia said, bright eyes looking at her nephew in search of explanations. The man gave nothing away.

Bel-Alis, in the meanwhile, continued with her idea; a little peeved at the blatant dismissal. “It is important, Sir Miriano, because I wasn’t the only Faithful here today.” The Priestess turned to the manager of The Brimming Plaza 一 who was still trying to force information out of the taller, burlier man by the sheer force of her pointed stare 一 and laid out the revelation.

“There were at least a few pledged to the Tearful Woman here as well,” Bel-Alis said, now noticing the absence of the Crying Hounds, the paladins Leticia had said were using the facilities at the same time as her, among the survivors. “Where are they?”

The question made all three of the listeners pause, eyes going towards the Priestess as they understood the implications.

“Nothing endures more than sadness,” Leticia whispered, forgetting about her nephew for a moment as she stared at the rubble, the knights, the volunteers trying to assist her employees… and the corpses. There was not a single glimpse of the snout-shaped helmets of the paladins.

“Exactly,” Bel-Alis said, thinking about the accumulative powers of the servants of the Mourning Damsel. “They should have survived the blast and the debris on top of them.”

“So you think that was their motivation? Killing some Faithful?” Miriano asked, doubt in his voice.

Bel-Alis kept her smile placid, although this lack of trust in her words was beginning to grate a little. She was both a scholar and a Faithful of the Master in the Dark; there was a certain reputation of knowledgeable people Alis took great care in upholding.

The least he could do was give more credit to her words.

“I believe that was their motivation, yes,” Alis said, a defiant conviction in her voice. “There’s little apparent reason for the attack, and considering they were extremists, you should very well consider this a real possibility as to the reason why.”

“Besides… I do believe this to be only a warning shot.” Bel-Alis stated, putting her conjectures forward. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but there seems to be little reward for them at the end of this operation.”

Miriano stared at her, his fin ears twitching, but nodded. Leticia only bit her lips, the hunch she carried growing more and more pronounced at the possibility of this devastation being only a consequence of the attackers' real plans.

Bel-Alis sympathized with the older siren, but she was on an inquisitive spree now. “If someone told me this was their twisted way of retaliation against the Hound’s actions in the Outer City, I would believe them.” The Priestess saw both knights freeze, their faces stony at her subtle prodding. “The woman that attacked us did call it a ‘reckoning’ of sorts.”

“A reckoning?” Julio mumbled from his position, receiving a sharp glare from Miriano before resuming his job as the leeway between them and the Tower.

“We… appreciate the help, Miss Alis.” The leader knight admitted. “But let’s wait until we find the bodies 一 if there are any at all.”

“Of course!” Bel-Alis's smile was all closed teeth. “I would love to give my assistance to the Order of Amethyst if the need arises.”

With a nod, both men went away, stepping outside the [Field of Silence]. Leticia remained.

“You should rest, Leticia.” The Priestess sighed, noticing how pale the woman was. Even her hair seemed to lose its luster with every second.

“Not yet, dear. There’s still work to do and… I need to begin the preparations for the dead.”

“Others can take care of it, Madam. There’s no need for you to do it. You’ve helped enough with your Gift already.”

The older woman smiled, serenely, at her own hands. Her Gift, only a budding thing she never really explored, felt tired under her skin. The Relinquishment had been brutal to her body and soul, causing much of the accumulated power to wane.

“I’ll rest later, Alis.” The siren looked at the younger drow woman and any complaints the Priestess had were forcibly swallowed in front of the expression Leticia wore. A pained, resigned, exhausted face that felt… powerless. Still, the short siren placed a hand on Alis’s arm and continued. “I know you don’t have to, but please help out with what you can.”

Bel-Alis nodded and watched the woman leave the area of silence, letting go of the Ability soon after.

A little lost, she used the cane on her hands as the support necessary. Alis still wanted answers, but the knights seemed cagey about anything they knew and Leticia was too shaken to help her out.

Still, she felt the illusion mana in the air and remembered there was still a way of learning more about the attack. All she needed to do was find something… usable. And Bel-Alis knew just the thing.

The Priestess left the porch and returned to the main house’s interior, going through the hubbub of people and wounded as she went back to the garden. At the same time, a reptile returned to talk to her.

“Did you find it?” Bel-Alis said, kneeling to let Kreacher’s new body climb her arm and rest on her shoulder; they curved their long tail around her neck.

The iguana nodded silently and the Priestess scratched their head in return, relieved.

“Lead the way, please,” Alis whispered, darkness deepening in the empty sockets on her face.

Faith coalesced on her fingers as Bel-Alis called upon the tired mana inside her once again. It was time to make the Priestess of History worthy of her title.