I followed down the hall and arrived to find Hanna sitting on one of the large couches nervously playing with her pale-white hair.
As I came into view, she scuttled towards me. She eyed my still drawn—and flaming—sword, but paid it little mind.
"Morning, Commander. It feels like all we've got for you is problems now that you're back, but I've got a bit of a strange one today."
"Serious enough to warrant such an early morning visit no less. Whatcha' got for me, Hanna?"
"A patrol spotted an armored woman walking around the streets in the western district. We're still on guard since that encounter with that rose assassin, so they moved to detain her as a suspicious person."
"So now we've got some stranger locked up in the Citadel?"
"Ah, no. The woman seemingly had some sort of incredible power and raced off faster than the guards could even register—but then another patrol ran into her, and another… Eventually she was steered to the Citadel but, once she'd been properly cornered, a massive greatsword appeared in her hands."
Halfway through her explanation two guards arrived lugging my armor in their arms.
Hanna assisted me with my breastplate and I handed my weapon to one of the guards, asking them to find me something to strap the thing to myself until I could figure out how to sheathe the damnable thing.
I finished gearing up and questioned Hanna, "Has anyone been injured? Should we wake Julius as well? If it's another assassin from Renault I don't want to take any chances."
Hanna shook her head, "I don't think that's the case. Once she'd been surrounded, the woman cast some sort of barrier and hasn't moved since. The only demand we've gotten out of her, is that she wants to see you."
"Wants to see me? Ah—by the Goddesses…"
My voice trailed off as I hung my head.
"Commander? Should we have been expecting someone?"
"Haaah," I sighed dryly, "Yes and no. I'm pretty certain I know what's going on. It's something I'll have to handle myself. Do you recall the angelic beings I encountered with the Goddesses?"
-✵-
Hanna and I rode through the city as quickly as we could. My sword jostled around in a metallic, quiver-like, container meant to store specialty arrows.
Curse you for cursing my sword, Capricorn.
I explained the recent warning from the problematic Goddess and her previously issued notice that one of her daughters was interested in seeing me.
With the early morning wake up call paired with our surprise guest, it seemed more than likely that the suspected intruder and wayward angel were one in the same.
We approached the Citadel to find a figure encased within a massive golden barrier.
A youthful girl with short wavy hair was sitting with an enormous sword laid across her lap.
As I crossed into the courtyard a jolt ran down my spine and, simultaneously, the girl leapt to her feet while the barrier dissipated completely.
The golden sheen in the air washed away, revealing the true colors of the girl's outfit and features. Her hair was a brilliant blue the same as the sky, and her armor was almost the same crimson-red hue as the battalion of guardsmen that readied weapons around her.
I called out to the guards to disengage and fall back.
Hanna left my side, hurriedly crossing the square to gather the soldiers and get them out of the way.
With a quick swipe across my wrist, I pulled up an inspection window on the mystery girl. I'd hoped that it would grant me insight on what to expect. At the very least, I'd like to know if she was as strong as Hanna made her out to be.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {ᛏᚪᚱᚷᛖᛏ} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ᛁᚳᚢᛁᛖ] (ᚪᚠᚪᛏᚪᚱ ᚪᚾᚾᛁᚻᛁᛚᚪᛏᛡᚾ)
ᚻᛠᛚᚦ: [?] | ᛋᛏᚪᛘᛁᚾᚪ: [?] | ᛘᚪᚷᛁᚳᚳᚪ: [?]
» ᛈᚪᛋᛋᛁᚠᛖ: ᛘᛖᚱᚳᛁᛚᛖᛋᛋ [?]
» ᛈᚪᛋᛋᛁᚠᛖ: ᚢᚾᛖᚾᛞᛁᛝ ᚠᚢᚱᛁ
» ᛈᚪᛋᛋᛁᚠᛖ: ᚠᛖᚱᚩᚳᛁᛏᛁ
» ᛈᚪᛋᛋᛁᚠᛖ: ᚪᚾᚾᛁᚻᛁᛚᚪᛏᛡᚾ [?]
» ᛈᚪᛋᛋᛁᚠᛖ: ᚱᚢᚦᛚᛖᛋᛋ
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Eh? What in the Aether is this supposed to be?
Worried that either the wrist-bound rune or my oversight ability was broken, I inspected a nearby guard and got a perfectly intelligible status screen—I flicked the guard's status away, leaving the weird one in place.
The misty interface was filled with runic glyphs often seen in the arcane formulae for devising spell sigils—and notably, adorning a certain Goddess and the intricate armor worn by her children.
Well, certainly hard to deny it now. This is one-hundred percent the aforementioned angelic child of Capricorn—but where were her wings?
Even with just a brief scan of the girl's appearance, one would notice the presumed hallmark features lacking. Compared to the majestic appearance of her siblings I'd encountered before, this girl looked no different than any of the others around her.
No feathered appendages sprouted from her back. Not even her outfit betrayed a hint of attempting to conceal them either. Her form hugging chest-piece fit tight against her back.
The girl maneuvered through the crowd of armed soldiers with ease, and unexpected quickness.
In a bizarre looking blip of magickal energy, her giant sword suddenly vanished from her hands. The crackle of energy and tear-like ripple was identical to the portal spells I'd seen the others cast, and I knew she'd just stored it somewhere else entirely.
In the span of a blink, I was greeted with a beaming smile that encroached on my personal space.
She was just about two heads shorter than myself and I felt like I was looking down at a teenage recruit and not some Goddess' powerful attendant.
Any shorter and she'd give poor little Tatsuko a run for her money.
"ᚹᛖᛋ ᚻᚪᛚ, hail sister! I've been so eager to meet you. Sorry for coming by with such short notice, but when mama told me you'd wrapped up your business with your elven friends I couldn't wait any longer.
I faltered to find words at first, but once I'd come to my senses I greeted the cheerful girl.
"Good morning, and welcome to our city. Forgive the hassle my soldiers gave you. While Capricorn had given us advance notice, the ambiguous timing of when to expect your arrival has led to us being rather unprepared."
As she was inches away from me, I had a good look at her face while I tried to shy away from outright admitting that she'd been pursued through the city by armed guards.
Her expression changed from a bright friendly to a rather negative grimace that gnawed at my nerves.
A chill ran down my spine, giving me pause.
The shorter length of her hair, paired with the rough expression gave her quite an androgynous look—and another face with almost identical features popped into my mind. Mors, the rather gloomy Avatar of Death.
"Hassled, huh?" Her twisted expression relaxed as she seemed to ponder what I'd said, "Eh, it wasn't really much of a bother. The lower plane is full of all sorts of annoying creatures that pester anything that gets near. These bigger ones chasing me around with steel is preferable to the smaller critters that can crawl around on you."
Hey, did she just group my city guards in with insects?
As if a switch flipped, her expression brightened back up and she wore a smile once more, "Anyway! Whaddya think about having a quick battle? A little sisterly contest to get to know each other better."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You. Me. And an exchanging of blows, ya' know? Oh yeah, I'm Ikuye by the way, but you can call me Ikki. Our other sisters do."
The girl, Ikki pointed between the two of us and then made some sort of awkward motion with her hands which I took to be intended to mime said exchange.
The pieces all fell into place.
Capricorn's early morning appearance, appeasement gift, all the talk about my sword being shattered, and her previous warning before I had set off for the Aestori of a 'rebellious' daughter.
The sly Goddess knew this is how it would go.
Once again I'll have to give her a piece of my mind. Honestly, who would have thought a Goddess could be so juvenile.
"Sooooo, how 'bout it, sister? Ready to tumble?"
I looked around at the crowd which had been standing by uneasily.
Who knows what she'll do if I refuse. I had to hope that she'd be level minded and take a refusal with grace—but I just didn't have enough information from my wonderful patron Goddess to make that call.
To avoid backlash it might just be safer to agree to duel the girl and hope that if I'm really killed, Capricorn was serious about resurrecting me again.
I suppressed the overwhelming urge to sigh.
I really don't feel right scoffing off death so casually.
"Sure, just give me a moment to square all these folks away and we can head to one of the training yards."
Across the worn dirt plot from me, Ikuye readied herself. The signature tear in space appeared, and she pulled a massive sword of scarlet-red metal free of the portal.
The scarlet blade twirled effortlessly around in her hands, coming down in a low-ready position as she took a fighting stance.
"Oh noble blade of justice, find my cause to be good and worthy. Awaken, Dyrnwyn!"
Ikuye chanted some sort of imbuement spell and the center groove along her weapon sparkled with a white sheen.
I took the moment to free my blade from its awkward prison. Raging crimson flames licked at my left hand as if admonishing me for keeping it in a weird place.
Not my fault you didn't want to sheathe yourself. What am I supposed to have done? Cut some random person so you'll go back into your home?
I shook away the useless thought and buffed myself.
"Source of light that dwells among the veiled. Come forth and guide our way, Radiance! Let the power hidden within my being come forth, Brilliance!"
A mix of golden and violet light cascaded over me and I switched into BATTLE STANCE.
"Are you ready, sister?"
"I am. A little nervous, but I'm ready."
"ᚷᚩᛞ ᚦᛖ ᛘᛁᛞ ᛋᛁᛖ!"
She shouted something unintelligible and charged at me with blinding speed.
Her blade came at me quickly but I parried and countered with BLADE SLASH, flames swirled in the air around both swords as they met once more.
We continued to trade blows, but they were leagues away from equal.
Each strike from Ikuye's weapon felt as if it had the weight of a falling tree. I couldn't hope to block any of her attacks, and was forced to rely on agile parries or dodging entirely.
While most melee oriented specializations such as paladins or warriors favor STRENGTH over AGILITY and DEXTERITY, my statistics had grown uniquely to favor ranged attack magicks and avoid combat, resulting in my overall STRENGTH to be below my DEXTERITY.
As such, I held quite a high value in my ability to avoid being struck on potentially fatal spots during training—though I was keenly aware that in a real battle against powerful foes I fell short. Deep, dark, never-ending edge of the Wanderer's Plane depths of short.
I recalled a time not too long ago when I'd been beaten and nearly killed by a certain Ettin…
Darting to the left and swinging my blade up, I parried another crashing timber. Barely keeping the attack from taking an arm.
"You footwork is superb, but your strikes lack force. Is that sword truly your favored weapon, sister?"
Ikuye leapt back and called out to me, her voice didn't betray a hint of exertion. I, on the other hand, was feeling a bit winded from all the moving I'd been doing to stay alive.
"When it comes to physical fights," I strained, "It is my only weapon."
"Aaaaah! Well, don't hold back on my accord. I want to know everything about you, so please show me all you've got."
The bratty girl gave me a wink and readied her weapon again.
No holding back on spell casting then, great. Let's see how you deal with some holy magick.
I hopelessly tried to encourage myself, that my magick would somehow turn the tide in this overwhelmingly one-sided battle.
Ikuye came at me with the same great intensity.
I dodged low and quick-cast a HOLY BOLT at point blank. The golden flame struck her squarely in the chest—but dissipated away as if warded.
The light gave me a moment of respite as Ikuye recovered from the minor blinding effect. I scrambled a few feet away and prepared a barrage of golden bolts.
"Those are quite troublesome, but you'll have to come at me with something more powerful if you want to use magick against me!" She goaded me on, while shrugging off the wave of holy spells.
You asked for it. I'm not sure how I feel about using your mother's power against you, but here goes.
I reached within and drew on the massive font of power that the Goddess had tied to me and flooded my body with magicka.
"Divine power which pulses with me, unleash my wrath to cull those who would stand against me, Reckoning!"
The training ground was washed in a deluge of crimson light. Jagged crystals flew in from every angle at Ikuye. She tried to bat one away with her blade, but it exploded, filling the air with shrapnel.