While Noble didn't know the name of every person who had left with her from the treehouse Fortress, she had at least registered most, if not all, of their emotional signatures. Yet not one of the people below her was one she knew.
Well, that wasn't completely true. Aether was down there among the army. He had returned with help as promised.
Noble returned to apprise the new Saint. The polar bear had yet to return to her human form, but Noble was sure that they had not met before.
Roan flew up beside them, his sword still dripping from the most recent kill. "Any of you know anything about our white-haired friend down there?"
Noble, Helie, and Flint all shook their heads.
"Well," the cohort leader sheathed his sword. "I suppose it is time for an introduction."
"You go on ahead. I'll go find Aether so he can join us," Helie answered. "You can put me down anywhere. I'll find my way."
Feeling for Aether's signature, Noble set Helie down close to the edge of the slick battlefield. The others turned their attention to the figure by the gate.
Being this close to the black rift was unpleasant, but the lack of the call made the proximity bearable. But as the three Masters got closer, they could still feel the inherent wrongness in the gate's presence.
Of course it was wrong, it was eating reality–literally!
Noble put aside her feeling of discomfort to address the situation at hand. The white bear watched them approach calmly, her grey eyes taking in the floating humans with surprising ambivalence.
Roan's griffin landed in the middle of the carnage while the other two Masters hovered slightly above the stench.
As the soldiers scattered around began to clean themselves and the area, Roan addressed the white bear with a dip of his head.
"Greetings."
When the bear cocked her head and didn't immediately respond, Roan coughed lightly.
"Uh, I don't believe we have met. I am Roan; these two warriors are Bel and Flint."
The polar bear grunted. Then her grey eyes became wide. Her front paw came to her mouth, and she stood on her back legs.
Releasing her transformation, the woman returned to her human form. Her coral-colored hair cascaded down her shoulders and formed in waves around her light blue tunic. Her delicate fingers obscured an apologetic smile.
"Forgive me," she laughed lightly. "In that form, I sometimes lose myself. How embarrassing!"
The stunning Saint lowered her hand and smiled, making Flint blush and look away.
"Ah, do not worry too much," Flint floated forward and bowed over the Saint's hand. "We all lose ourselves sometimes, Ma'am."
"Ma'am?" Noble's mouth fell open. Who was this man, and what had he done with Flint?!
The woman retrieved her hand and lowered it to her side. She nodded to Roan and Noble.
"I am pleased to make your acquaintance!"
Before Flint could be troubled by the Saint's indifference toward him, Roan pointed to the corpse of the shark nearby.
"That was an impressive display. It is not every day I get to meet a warrior with your ferocity."
"What? That? It was nothing." The Saint glanced at her conquest with a small shrug. "I should be the one commending you! That was quick thinking! Most people would have panicked instead of making a plan to contain it until help arrived."
"This isn't the first time that any of us have faced… the darkness." Noble took a moment to come up with the correct term.
"Clearly!" The woman bounced up and down on her toes. "It seems that everything I have heard about you was true. I am so glad."
"You have heard about me?" Noble's eyebrows shot upward.
"Of course! You are a Realm Walker and a scion of humanity. If not for you and your selflessness, the entire caravan would have been lost!" The woman responded as if reciting a poem.
"You have been talking to Lady Syrce, I see," Noble grinned.
"The one and only," the woman smiled softly.
"What did she tell you about me?" Flint inclined his ear.
The lady placed her finger against her chin.
"About you, Flint? Why…nothing that I recall."
"That's bias if I've ever heard it!" The surly Master exclaimed.
Noble's eyes opened wider. 'That's an inside thought, Flint!'
The man glanced at her with a look of genuine confusion. Thankfully, the beautiful Saint did not take offense.
"I agree. Ceecee is very biased. She will be the first to tell you that she speaks very highly of the ones she favors. I am sure she has told you many wonderful things about me." The lady's grey eyes darted to the ground. "Most of them are probably exaggerated."
'Ceecee,' Noble noted the nickname. Very few people would be able to attain that level of familiarity.
Before Noble could follow up on the comment, a ball of energy came careening across the landscape at breakneck speed. When Syrce materialized in the midst of the group, fear was written all over her face.
"How dare you!" She addressed the woman with the coral hair. "You took off without me!"
The second Saint was taken aback. "You were busy, and they needed help!"
"That doesn't mean you can just take charge. I am the Commander, remember?" The mossy-haired woman continued her barrage.
"Are you saying you wouldn't have done the same?" The second Saint raised an eyebrow.
"That's not the point! You should have called for me," Syrce insisted. "I just got you back. You cannot leave again so suddenly!"
"Oh, Ceecee." The lady opened her arms. "Come here."
Syrce wrinkled her nose at the name. After a moment of hesitation, she melted into the other woman's arms and wrapped her in a hug. "Don't scare me like that again."
The lady in the blue tunic chuckled softly. "I am supposed to be the one fretting over you, remember?"
Noble looked at Roan and Flint, then back at the ladies. They waited patiently for the tender moment to finish.
"Thank you for rescuing Bel. I only wish I had been here sooner to see you in action." Syrce pulled away to address the rest of the group. "How was my sister's performance? Did she live up to the family name?"
Flint's mouth opened slightly, but it was Noble who answered.
"Ah, so it is your sister. I thought I saw a resemblance."
The grey eyes and the odd mannerisms were very similar in both women. But it was the nickname that gave it away.
"Did you not introduce yourself?!" Syrce placed her hand against her chest, scandalized.
"I did!" Her sister responded, "I was just a bear at the time."
"And people say you are the sane one," Syrce shook her head. "Bel and Roan, allow me to formally introduce my sister. She is a heroine of our people, the finder of the lost maps, the keeper of ancient knowledge--"
The other Saint blushed. "You give me too much credit!"
Syrce frowned. "Don't interrupt! I wasn't finished. Where was I... oh, yes. Keeper of the ancient knowledge, firstborn among my father's children, and one of the three Stewards of our great land. I present to you, Lady Maelys of Northgate."
The woman in the blue dress curtsied. "Please, call me Mae."