I entered the command room a few minutes after Hailey so things wouldn't seem awkward. If we entered one after another we'd stir up more rumors amongst the nobles, especially since Hailey's expression was bordering on becoming a permanent scowl.
The list of attendees to my first meeting could be described as a who's who of the aristocracy living in Tolin and then some. The volume of participants exceeded the small meeting room's capacity—due to the inclusion of the Aestori nobles—so we adapted the entirety of the room into a meeting hall.
Split in thirds, the seating was arranged so that the Aestori nobles and Divisional officers who held noble titles were on my right, civilians who held non-governmental positions were in the center, and to my left were the remaining key-holders of society; three, recently released from interrogation, state ministers and their noble associates.
I walked to the head of the room and brought the room to silence.
"You've all participated in enough of these meetings to know this, but I'll declare it anyway. This call-to-order is designated as above highly-restricted. If you breathe even one word about what is discussed today, you'll be charged with treason and executed on the spot."
I glared coldly through the room, avoiding a certain corner where a ruby-haired priest was standing, and sat behind a desk that had been positioned to overlook the meeting.
"At ease. I'll get right to it," I continued once the sound of chairs moving quieted, "We'll be taking the fight to Axio and mounting a full-scale assault on the city. While the senior officers haven't detailed an exact date for departure, we're looking at mobilizing soldiers in less than three weeks."
The majority of the room didn't stir at the announcement—as all Aestori and Divisional nobles had already known this was coming. My gaze drifted to the left side of the room where, to no surprise, a hand was raised in the air.
"Speak, Minister Hay."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. A prolonged siege at this point risks exhausting our supply of many essentials. The Renaultians will likely have reinforced the city's fortifications since our people departed, in expectation of this assault. They'll have plenty of crops stored away from the outlying reclamation villages—"
"Then we'll burn their warehouses and depots."
"We'll… what? My apologies, Your Majesty, but—"
"Be silent." I interjected, with a hand raised. "I did not arrange this call-to-order to have a debate on the plan of attack. Nor was it called to make baseless conjecture regarding the status of Axio."
I waved my arm to the right, indicating those assembled there, "The Divisional officers are aware of how the city's defense look. We can make educated guesses ourselves on the post-coup state of things. The only reason you're all here is because I have to leave the civilians in the care of someone while the rest of us risk body and soul to rescue any surviving Vanixians and stomp out the traitors who put us in this position. You lot should make the best effort to avoid making waves, lest any suspicion of aiding the traitors returns."
Jacob Hay stared back at me in surprise, "You can't mean to lead such an assault yourself! If something were to happen—"
I slammed my fist down against the table, standing up from my seat, and silence filled the room.
"I've warned you once already, Minister. Another outburst, and I'll throw the politicians out." I fell back into my chair with an indignant huff, "I'll take this fight straight to the halls of Central Spire myself. And in the process, I'll slaughter—Every. Last. Soul—that attempts to stands in my way."
The next two hours flew by quickly as we assigned generic duties and established an official command chain relating to the assault force, to the dismay of our handful of career politicians.
I was inclined to appoint Julius as a stand-in for me, having him take the mantle of High-Commander and lead the Vanixian forces—however at his, and a number of others urging, it was confirmed that both he and Lady Aisling would command as equals; with Julius filling in for Lady Elin as the Astral Knight's co-regent and Lady Aisling officially being listed as co-commander of the Order of the Scarlet Wing.
And so, the first of many meetings wrapped up with the OSW leaders shuffling into the side room to solidify their new hierarchy.
I'd quickly washed my hands of responsibility in that matter, and sneaked away to take a break.
Before our return the district bordering the Citadel gate were still empty and lifeless, but now they were fairly lively. The residences had been repaired well enough and a number of merchant stands had taken up wares along the roadway.
As reclamation efforts were still ongoing it made sense that the market district lacked a firm grasp on the residents, but even taking that into consideration this closeness of market stalls and stores within the residential areas felt more like how Axio had been built.
The older imperial cities had favored separate districts, or at least large sectioned zones, for each industry: one for warehouses, another for metalworking, et cetera. But the meshing of cultures in Axio before the factional districts had been fully developed, created a number of distinct differences between the peoples of the old Vanixian Empire and the Vanixian Republic.
I was grabbing a quick bite at one such food stand not too far from the Citadel gatehouse when an intense magickal pressure wave garnered my attention. A powerful spell had just been cast somewhere nearby, or someone with incredible magickal power had just unleashed a burst of magicka.
At first, I thought to ignore it, imaging that there was some unscheduled combat practice occurring—but that couldn't be the reason, as the wave of energy had come from the opposite direction of the training grounds.
I placed a hand up behind my ear, bringing the tingle of electricity. "Hanna, Luke. You on-line?"
Hanna's crisp voice responded immediately, "I'm here, Your Majesty."
"I need backup, preferably those who can detect magick and have quick feet. South by southeast in the residences just outside the Citadel. I felt something powerful just now. Not sure if it's a person or worse."
As I called in reinforcements, I began trekking towards the unknown burst of magickal energy.
"Affirm. Stand-by just one moment…" Silence followed for about two minutes before Hanna's voice crackled back to life. "Multiple parties are en-route. I'm heading to Your Majesty's location as well."
I acknowledged Hanna's response and began to focus on pinpointing the exact spot of the burst. I picked up a large cluster of magicka a ways off from where I knew the main road ran, and rushed in that direction.
In a worst case scenario, some remnant monster or demon had appeared and was attacking residents. Best case, one of the city's residents awoke some latent power and was struggling to contain it. Either way, it was not a normal occurrence and needed to be handled.
As I made my way further through the back streets, I noticed that this particular area of the city hadn't yet been built back up. Ruined buildings and overgrowth dominated my vision.
Well, at least the chances a lot of civilians being under attack is little to none.
I crossed under the arch-like debris of a collapsed building into an ominous clearing. The structures here had evidence of recent development—nothing that looked proper, rather it was obvious the work hadn't been done by craftsmen—and the mass of roots and other foliage that been interrupting my pace previously had been cleared.
I visualized the mapping in my head and could tell the pocket of magickal energy was close by, close enough that is was interfering with my ability to pinpoint it more accurately.
"Hello? Is anyone out here?" I yelled out, "I noticed a magickal disturbance and I'm investigating!"
I received no direct response—but the scraping of boots on stone tile caught my attention and I rushed towards the source, my left hand placed firmly on the hilt of my sword. Once I had rounded the corner, I caught sight of what looked to be a person.
They were facing away from me and had stopped dead in their tracks the second my gaze caught them, as if they knew the moment they'd been spotted.
They looked to be on the shorter size and the clothes they were wearing seemed a few sizes too big; like a child…
It couldn't be.
"Akari?"
The figure flinched at the sound of my voice.
"Akari, is that you? Are you alright?"
A boyish voice called back to me, "I didn't do anything wrong. Leave me alone!"
I felt the tension that had built in my chest evaporate and I sighed heavily with relief.
Thank the Goddesses it's not Akari. Nonetheless, I can't leave some random child alone out here if there is something dangerous around.
I chased after the young boy, ducking or climbing over the dilapidated buildings. Eventually I'd managed to catch up, I spotted the boy standing still at the end of an alleyway.
"I don't mean you any harm," I called out as I approached, "There could be something dangerous out here and—" I stopped in my tracks just a few steps away from the boy.
Out of sight while I made my way through the alleyway, but now in clearly visible, was another figure; clad in a dark hooded cloak.
A heavy mist had already begun settling in around us and a cold shiver momentarily stung my senses, causing my hairs to stand on end. As my senses recovered, the desire to flee overwhelmed my usual hit-it-till-it-stops-breathing response.
The turbulence of the Aethermist condensing stirred a gust of wind that rattled the nearby rotten wood. A loose board was sent flying in our direction and I reached out to grab the boy.
"Ack!"
He twisted out of my grasp, and disappeared through an opening in the alleyway behind us.
I turned my head back towards the dark figure.
The thickness of the Aethermist had reduced visibility dramatically, but I could still make them out pretty well at our current distance.
A slender arm reached out from underneath the heavy cloak, drawing back their hood and revealing a face I'd seen before.
"Hikita."
Piercing blue eyes glared at me, glowing in the darkened fog, and betrayed the softer features of her elegant face.
Her golden-blonde hair was disturbed by the wind, and I caught sight of her long ears that betrayed her elven heritage—they were unconcealed, her strange metal face-plate was missing.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {TARGET} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[HIKITA] (The Azure Rose)
HEALTH: (140 / 140) | STAMINA: (210 / 210) | MAGICKA: (755 / 755)
» TARGET SUFFERS FROM A NEGATIVE EFFECT: CURSE OF THE FALLEN
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The woman remained relatively still after she had revealed herself. There was an occasional movement of her arms, a reactionary twitch with an unknown cause, but other than that she hadn't moved.
"I'm. Glad." She struggled to speak, her jaw clenched tight as she formed each word, "You. Managed. To. Return. Safely."
Her awkward way of talking caught me off-guard. It took me a moment to regain my senses well enough to respond, "Are you referring to the traitorous minsters and divisional soldiers?"
She nodded.
"Are there still others in my city like them?"
"Y-e-s." Her voice strained. Her head barely registering in nod.
"Did Renault do this to you?"
Another hard fought nod.
"Will you lose control and attack me?"
"I don't—" One of Hikita's hands jaggedly raised towards her face, grasping at her throat, "—want to. But. I. Might."
Her head suddenly turned sharply around the square, seemingly distracted by something nearby.
With a panicked look on her face she focused back to me, "I have. To leave. No…" Her voice drifted away, quieted by the winds that had begun to stir once more.
The Aethermist collapsed inwards, with Hikita at the center, and her haunting blue eyes disappeared along with the mist. As her appearance faded, I swore I saw streaks of tears running down her face.
A moment later, Hanna and dozens of red-clad guards swarmed in from every angle. I tried to calm Hanna down as she excitedly explained that some sort of fog was causing them to run in circles.
We left the soldiers to investigate the scene, and hopefully find the child who'd ran away. If there were civilians living in these rundown slums, I wanted to find out why.
Hikita's revelation that there were still agents of Renault within the city wasn't too surprising but demanded action.
I asked Hanna to arrange for an emergency call-to-order with our regular vanguard and prominent divisional officers for later this afternoon once we'd wrapped up our other meetings.