(Resumed) Solstice

[Grace]

Scion Jules.

Ghost-skinned royal weasel, the sort who’d wear a delicate business suit into a cave and call it casual wear. His figure held some bloat around the torso, the mark of a life of luxury. The suit hid it well, but I had learned to read the hints in gait and posture. He wore his body shape well, however: were it not for his arrogance and disdain, I might have even entertained a date.

It may also have helped that I had my Shroud about me and I read the room with Magick with the nature of a breath.

Patrick stepped forward, his teeth bared. “Then why’d you stick around to claim the credit?”

The oil-haired poet-wannabe sneered, pacing clockwise about the cavern. “An Emissary of Total Salvation is never alone. I must ensure completion if I’m to atone.”

“Well, Mr. Jules,” 

“Scion, Patrick.”

“Shove it. I’ve been fighting more etsies in adolescence than you have your entire life. I can assure you we have it from here.”

Fowlflesh raced through me again. I didn’t trust Romeo.

“It would appear you do see, for your Squad is but three.”

I cleared my throat. “What are you implying?” I kept my tone dangerously even and level. As a member of a House, who probably knows of my recent membership to a House, I trusted Scion Jules to hear the veiled threat underneath.

The interloper paused his step and curled his lips in a smile. “I imply naught save who stripped corpses bare, and you know well as I ‘twas but Sinclair.”

My Shroud turned cerulean, then a deep sapphire. The added strain tensed my Ætheric Vessel, but peace was no longer an option.

“Ginseng-“

Not letting you take the fall. I kicked off my left foot, propelling myself at the lying prick. I’ll start it, then you’ll act in my defence! 

Romeo reached for Æther and Æther answered him.

“Grace what are you-!”

I drew my hands wide, frosting razor talons in each to cut Romeo from either side. I made sure to slash inward while leaving my centre exposed; if he took the opening I cut his sides and if he blocked the swords a more devastating counter awaited.

Scion Jules crossed his hands, coating his arms fully in Water Magick.

Shit.

Water streamed from both palms to drench my blades. He froze his Magick afterward to shatter mine.

He had positioned himself to perfectly block my following, but I had to commit to it, lest he pierce my heart like Chancellor Jackass did Emmett’s. I set my right foot down and kicked hard with my floating left, projecting a sheer blade of ice to bifurcate him.

Romeo, dumb as he sounded, took my threat for what it was and fanned out his Magick to catch my blade. “Thou willing consort, I shall thine heresy thwart!”

“Leave her alone!!” Patrick’s Magick flared and the lunatic march of war resounded in his charge down to our new enemy.

A ghostly force gripped my body with the full intent of shielding him from Patrick’s onslaught. The tactic was sick: Romeo would either have me die shielding him, or freeze myself to be cooked alive with him.

I felt myself taking the latter option just to spite the bastard. The ice had nearly formed when a much better idea graced my mind. Fluidity, Grace. Dance with shadow so you may return to light.

Shadowdancing as a combat arte relies on cushioning and guiding the enemy’s force in a manner much safer for oneself. This is explicit in its katas, deflections, and takedowns, but above all else, Shadowdancing is a philosophy. 

That meant it also applied to Magick.

I let myself be carried by his Magick and augmented it with my own, freezing myself in ice to sever his link before he could pull me back. I flew right so far and so fast that Patrick’s way was clear.

“Ginseng Cannon!“ His yell broke the pitched silence. Blazing heat thundered in all directions and the snap in the air deafened through the ice. I didn’t need my hearing to feel the foreign Soul crash against the wall or sense the watery cushion the rat saved himself with.

I let my ice armor melt and vaporise to evaporate the excess temperature away and poured Æther into my ears. They were still shot, but strengthening my hearing couldn’t hurt.

“Aegis himself chose Sinclair!” I could barely hear the yelling as a mutter, “To take after him the chair!”

“All I know is you’re a lying sack of shite!” Patrick roared back with a similar apparent quiet, “Emmy's been bedridden since yesterday! He was never here!”

The clamor in my ear started to wane, and I resumed my Shroud.

“What in the Heavens and Havens-“ Samael’s voice cut in, followed by Samael himself. “Scion Jules?!”

“Oh thank the Havens, Michaels!” Romeo darted toward him. “These etsies wish me to hells!”

“Don’t trust him Samael!” Patrick roared, “He's trying to kill us and he thinks Em-”

Samael threw a ball of wind at godspeed, hurtling Patrick into the wall. “You attacked House Jules in cold blood?!”

“Squad Leader!” I shouted.

“Oh that harlot started it all,” said Romeo while somehow giving his voice a sneer, “Please, do your province honor and punish her gall!”

I stood defiant. “I’ve spat in one Triumvirate’s face. What’s one more.”

“Before I do, Scion Jules.” Samael stepped forward, his eyes darting from Patrick to me and back to Patrick.

“Oh screw off Sammy!” Patrick broke into a superhuman sprint at Samael, who raised his hand to slash him again.

I refused. I stamped my foot down to raise a wall of ice like a stalagmite across the floor to separate them. “He’s trying to disorient us so he can-“

My voice was broken by the sight of Romeo Jules covering Samael Michael’s mouth and nostrils with a Magicked palm forcing water down his airways.

Tears stung my eyes. My throat strangled my breath. My muscles coiled and roiled. Chills and flames flashed up and down.

I was going to sever every single vein in his body, bleed him out, and then freeze it in a spike to hang his head from. So this is rage...

“Thou art nex-“

“No.” My voice carried Ætheric force in it. I reached my left hand out like a claw. My Magick rushed into it, clinging with a foreign gravitas. 

Romeo staggered back with a shiver.

Samael dropped lifelessly to the ground, the water in his body thankfully unfrozen.

My Æther darkened, to the cerulean, to the sapphire, to the colours yet darker. I wanted this fucker to hurt. 

The scent of rain polluted the air around us.

Romeo drew a veil of Water Magick around him.

A tendril of lightning lanced straight into his chest. Against all laws of Magick, Lightning punched straight through Attunement.

“You did well!” called a voice I had never heard before, “Get the water out of Samael’s lungs!”

I looked up to find a black cloak fluttering down the wall, by violet Magick alit. She was an Emissary, and worse, one who knew Transmutation. While that didn’t explain how she broke the Laws of Magick, it was very clear we were all dead the instant she wished. 

Why is she having me resuscitate Squad Leader? I pushed the thought out of my mind. No. Saving Leader’s life comes first, and either way she just dropped Scion Jackass so she gets benefit of the doubt.

I sprinted to Squad Leader, using Magick as needed to keep my balance. I rolled him on his back and covered his face with my own hand.

Focus, Grace. You’re on a mission. I pushed past the pain and willed my Æther to Water. I breathed and pushed my Magick into his orifices. So many unpleasant sensations, but saving a life meant you had to ignore how his tongue glided against the literal manifestation of your Soul.

Why hasn’t Patrick said anything? I shook my head and latched onto the water burning his lungs. With a sure grip, I pulled my hand back, flushing the contaminant out of him with a weak splash on the cave floor.

My body slumped to the ground, fatigue setting in the instant I heard a gasp for breath.

The Emissary walked up to us and set her gloved hand on his forehead. “Is Emmett safe?”

I froze. Who was this woman, why was she with the Emissaries, how does she know us, why does she care about him? I shook my head. “Why... do you-“

“Aegis wants him. I’m not letting that happen.”

I forced my gaze toward her. “B-but you-re.. a...”

She shook her head. “I infiltrated. Sacrificed reputation and homeland to do it, but I have to tell someone trustworthy, and I think Celeste’s little sis more than counts.”

I had enough trouble staying awake, never mind protesting what she just said.

“I’m going to blank Samael’s mind after this so he doesn’t suffer the trauma of nearly dying. Patrick's out cold from your wall so that explains that. But the Emissaries are moving. They were hiding in Kalseit. They regrouped in Zelten Plar. They're starting their death march in earnest. They want to seize the Colleges and Aegis wants to turn Emmett.”

A jolt took me. “What? Why?!”

“Don’t tell anybody else, got it? Not even Patrick.”

I nodded. “O-of course. Emmett saved my life. I would never betray her.”

The hooded apparent traitor to the Emissaries tilted her head.

“He, he! Sorry, so sorry!”

“That explains why he had so much trouble back in Charade.”

Emmett Sinclair I am so so sorry I outed your transcasting like that! In exhaustion I failed to recognize the notion that she hailed from Charade Gin, same as Patrick and Emmett. I would thank my weakness later, for I would have assaulted her for ruining two of my Squadmates' lives and died for my folly. 

“Anyway, the secret.”

I shut my inner voice up. I needed to hear this with what little strength I had.

“You know how he lied about seeing invisible Magick?”

Oh please don’t let this be an elaborate humiliation. “W-what about it?”

“He didn’t lie.”

I did not have enough strength to withstand that shock.

“He actually has that ability.”

My consciousness faded to the Astra right then and there.