Date: July 27th, year 1286 (two days after Nyx's arrest), 6:30 AM Location: Main hall, Headquarters of the Fourth Branch
Beatrice was walking in circles in the main hall, more frustrated than she had ever been. She was nervously chewing on her nails, looking at a specific spot on the floor. Ever since that day, she could still sense the remnants of Calliope's closed portal. It was next to a few inconspicuous benches, and at this time in the morning no one would see her open it. They were all too busy dealing with the aftermath of Lady Night's attack anyway.
- "...Okay." Beatrice locks onto the benches. "I'm gonna do it."
She quickly returns to her room in the dorms, and musters all the strength she has to push her wooden wardrobe away from the wall. Behind it, her black cloak was neatly folded next to the golem-making staff she stole during her encounter with Rattles. Next to them, a small pile of unidentified magic rings and baubles that she found during her dungeon dives the past month were lying on the ground. She leans down to pick up a silver ring, featuring a large purple gem with a few glowing runes embedded on it. Its glow grows brighter for a second, as if it was reacting to her. She has a sad sigh when she sees the remains of her lightning staff in the corner of her vision.
- "I'll get you repaired when I have the money…" She promises before getting back up.
She puts on her cloak, takes up her staff, equips her ring and heads towards the door, throwing her hood over her head.
- "Time to do something reckless!"
Date: The same day, 7:10 AM Location: Main hall, Headquarters of the Fourth Branch
- "Ugh…" Beatrice deeply sighs.
She climbs out of the portal under the benches, dejected. While it slowly closes after her, she heads to the infirmary. When she pushes the door open, the doctor turns to her, raising an eyebrow.
- "Who are you?" He asks. "Do I need to call the guards?"
- "Me? You- oh." Beatrice realizes she was still hiding her face with her hood, and wearing her dungeoning gear.
- "Well?"
- "Um… I'm-"
- "That is Night Star, a friend of mine… She is a Lion-rank adventurer in the Rose." Angelica weakly says from her bed, not too far away from them.
- "I see." The doctor turns away, completely forgetting about Beatrice.
- "Thanks Angelica…" Beatrice whispers as she quickly makes her way to her.
- "Worry not!" Angelica lightly coughs.
- "Are you okay? I've never heard you cough before."
- "I am a bit tired is all. I cannot really train you right now."
- "I'm not here for that! It's just… I don't know what to do. I wanted to break Nyx out of jail, but…"
- "She refused?"
- "..." Beatrice silently nods.
- "That was to be expected! You did not have a plan, did you?"
- "Uh… We were gonna run away, and-"
- "Run away? Where? With who? And with what resources?"
- "..."
- "Come on, I believe I taught you better than this." Angelica sits up to look at her directly. "And did you really think she would simply forget about her feud with Lady Night?"
- "...No, you're right, I just…"
- "It is nothing! You are a child after all. In all honesty I do not expect you to devise thought-out plans or advanced tactics. Instead, you should rely on what you do best."
- "Which is?..."
- "You expect me to give you an answer? Haha- urk." Angelica lies back down. "I suggest you go find it for yourself. Nyx will be fine on her own, all you are doing by flailing around is causing her needless worry."
- "Right…"
- "Now go! I do not plan to move from this bed today."
Beatrice quickly runs out of the infirmary and into the main hall, which was slowly filling up with the Fourth Branch's personnel. She flinches as she passes by Julian.
- "These goddamned soldiers are back again…" He grumbles, before glancing at Beatrice. "Where're you going, Beatrice?"
- "..." Beatrice freezes in place, her eyes widening in horror.
- "...?" He notices her staff, and the ring she had on her finger. He quickly rubs his eyes. "Oh sorry, I mistook you for a kid I know. I think I'm a bit tired."
- "..." Beatrice silently nods back at him without turning her head, and quickly walks outside. She also passes by a dozen angry armored soldiers in front of the entrance. "Phew…" She breathes once she makes it to the streets. "I'll just wait until it gets dark before coming back…"
Date: The same day, 11:00 AM Location: The Diver's Decompression, Crystal Rose
Beatrice pushes open the door to a tavern she had become very familiar with over the past month. The bartender, a short buffalo beastfolk with brown hair and small horns protruding from the sides of his head, looks up when he notices her walking into the room.
- "Night Star!" He shouts, and many heads turn to look at her when they hear that. "I don't think I've ever seen you during the day shift! How's business going?"
- "Eeeh it's a bit much, but I think it's going well!" Beatrice replies.
- "Hey Night Star!" A man yells from a table. "Two of my buddies got stuck in a castle in the First Thorn, you think you could help? I'm paying fifty silver Roses."
- "Sorry, but I can't take requests today."
- "Oh, bummer. You got any space in your schedule?"
- "I'll see with Oliver, but I don't think I can do it any time soon. I'm having big… personal issues."
- "Noted! We might have to call actual rescuers for this one though… Food and water's gonna be a problem."
- "Good luck then!"
She walks up to the bar and climbs onto one of the stools.
- "Hi Albus. I'll have pineapple juice." She tells the bartender, putting a few bronze Roses on the table.
- "On the way." Albus has an amused smile as he swipes away the coins and turns to his selection of bottles.
- "Have you seen Oliver ever since the attack?... I went to his house and he wasn't there…"
- "Now that you mention it…" Albus frowns. "He hasn't shown up yet, has he?"
- "Oh…"
- "He's alive." A man says as he sits next to her. It was a brown-haired elf, who Beatrice quickly remembers from her last big expedition, where she was trapped in a sub-dimension with him and Oliver.
- "Flavius! Did you see him?!"
- "Yeah, he's been grinding away at the first Thorn for the past two days. Something about having to make even more money."
The door of the tavern is suddenly slammed open, and Oliver walks through it. He had massive bags under his eyes, his hair was unkempt, and his beard had formed complex knots that almost looked like braids. He walks to the bar like a zombie and sits down on a stool.
- "Gimme something strong." He mumbles.
- "There he is!" Albus has a relieved smile. "I was half expecting that I'd have to be the one breaking the news of your death to your little apprentice over there."
- "Huh? What are you…" He turns, and notices Beatrice waving at him. "Night Star?... It's like eleven in the morning, am I hallucinating?..."
- "Nope, I just… uh… can't really be home right now. They would ask me questions if they saw me going back to my room with my gear…"
- "Damn, that checks out."
- "Yes… but what happened to you? Is it about your brother? I went to your house to see if you were okay after the attack, but you weren't there…"
- "Nah, nothing that serious. The hospital he's in is pretty well guarded. These damn cultists just cost me a pretty great deal in important magic items, so I gotta work to get them back. The ones I lost were pretty important to progress to the second Thorn."
- "Oh, you're planning to go down?"
- "Wanted to keep that a secret till I was ready, but yeah. You want in?" He grins.
- "Hmmm… Definitely! But not right now."
- "Why so? I thought you didn't have anything better to do than be in the dungeon."
- "I just… I can't really focus right now. Someone I care about a lot is in big trouble, and I don't know how to help them…"
- "Big trouble? How big?"
- "Like, massive. They're in jail right now. The one in another dimension."
- "Oh wow." Oliver brings his hand to his beard, pensive. "Well with what I know, the only way to help them is to lawyer up, or to get direct proof that they're innocent."
- "Proof…" Beatrice repeats. She then remembers Angelica's words at the infirmary a few hours earlier, before suddenly springing up. All the doors in the tavern unlock at once when she does. "I know!"
- "Hey Beatrice, come on now I already told you not to do that…" Albus complains, grabbing a bunch of keys on a hook under the bar.
- "Oh. Sorry."
- "Cut her some slack." Oliver smirks. "Kids her age aren't supposed to have that much magical energy, she can't really control it anymore."
- "Don't go telling me that while looking so proud." Albus replies, pointing the keys at him.
- "(I need to find a way to stop absorbing Nyx's energy…)" Beatrice thinks to herself before jumping off her stool. "Bye Oliver! Thanks for the advice!"
- "Bye." Oliver waves at her as she runs out of the tavern. "Man, I can't imagine how weird things gotta be for her parents."
Date: The same day, 10:00 PM Location: Former headquarters of the Fifth Branch, Crystal Rose
The mangled remains of the mansion were covered by a giant dome of pale blue energy, and a few members of the Arcane Guard were diligently patrolling around it. Beatrice approached from the West, taking advantage of the fact that the streetlights hadn't been fixed yet in this neighborhood due to the population having been evacuated. When she sees an opening in the guards' patrol cycle, she rushes to the base of the dome, and places her hand on it. It was solid, and extremely sturdy on top of that.
- "...Unlock…" She whispers, attempting to create a small opening in the structure. The blue energy making up the dome crackles around her hand, but the spell holds strong. "...Okay, Seal Break…"
Her hand is engulfed in a red, flame-like aura as a pulse of crimson energy travels through the entire dome. It then shatters into thousands of pieces, producing a deafening sound akin to that of a ginormous trumpet.
- "What's going on?!" She hears one of the guards yell, as the rest of the guards spring into action.
- "Too much!... Too much!..." Beatrice angrily whispers to herself as she rushes past the dome, right before a new one begins forming from the ground up.
Thanks to the confusion, blaring trumpet noise and blinding light show produced by the destruction of the first dome, she manages to slip past undetected. She quickly makes her way through the flattened ruins of the mansion, until she reaches the area she had spotted earlier: a seemingly inconspicuous slab of stone, lying on the ground among the rubble. Earlier in the day, she had climbed on the roof of an abandoned house in the neighborhood to study the dome, and what exactly they were trying to hide inside. And around four in the afternoon, she ended up seeing a mage being let through the dome, and moving bits of stone using Earth magic. At some point, she saw it for a split second: a downward spiral staircase. It seemed that the mage was busy upkeeping the arrangement of rocks that concealed it, under the pretense of clearing up rubble. Beatrice memorized where exactly she saw the staircase, and then waited until the sun went down to make her move. She removes the cloth she had wrapped around her staff, and points it at the slab.
- "Create golem, retain shape…" She whispers.
The slab silently vibrates in response, and Beatrice has a satisfied smile.
- "Move aside, try to be silent." She continues.
The slab is lifted above the ground by dozens of miniature stone legs, and it glides to the side with a quiet pitter patter, revealing the staircase. Beatrice quickly jumps down, as she hears the guards making their way inside the dome, looking for intruders.
- "Come back, cover the staircase!..." She urges, and the slab slides back into place as the guards reach the area she was in. There was nobody to be found, only an inconspicuous slab of stone.
Beatrice hurries down the staircase, reaching the complex network of underground tunnels under the mansion. Immediately, she is faced with two cultists exiting a door, and carrying a large wooden box. When they see her, they immediately drop their box and rush towards her, drawing daggers. Beatrice calmly taps the floor with her staff in response.
- "Create golem one and two, knock them out."
Two golems rapidly arise from the bricks making up the floor of the corridor, catching the cultists mid-run. They then proceed to brutally beat them into unconsciousness. Beatrice walks over to them and lifts the hood from one of them, only to be met with eyes black as night and an expressionless face. This confirmed what she thought.
- "They're also weird zombie people…" She comments before turning to her golems. "Follow me, stealth mode."
In response, the golems' bodies are ground to dust, and the two large piles of sand start silently rolling on the ground after her as she continues her advance through the corridor. She passes by the box, and when she curiously lifts the lid, she finds a heap of glass-like crystals inside.
- "Are those Spectan glass crystals?... I don't think that's evidence… Well, I might as well gather everything I find in one of these random rooms, with some luck Julian and Agnes will find them when they come here to do their detective stuff. Maybe I should leave a golem with a message too."
A few minutes later, Beatrice closes the door to one of the adjacent rooms, in which she had left the box of crystals along with a deactivated golem holding a stone sign on which she carved: "A gift from Night Star! If you're not Agnes, tell Agnes. Hope that helps!"
She then goes back to the hallways, swiftly defeating cultists and sending golems to store everything she gathered into the room, following a trail of marks she left in the walls with her staff. Eventually though, she ends up overhearing a voice. She freezes, trying to make out what the woman was saying.
- "...No, not this box you dunce. Seriously, far from me to question Lady Night's decisions but you resurrected apostles are really damn stupid."
Beatrice heads in the direction of the voice, and ends up poking her head at the junction between two corridors. In the other corridor, she could see twenty cultists carrying a variety of containers, ranging from wooden crates to ceramic jars and small metallic chests. Most of them were heading in Beatrice's direction, led by the woman she originally heard. Beatrice quickly hides again after noticing that, but she hears the woman stop.
- "Did you see that?... No, of course you didn't." She complains. "Relax, it's all in the name of Lady Night." She takes a deep breath before continuing.
Beatrice quickly counts her options as they approach her. If she ran, they would hear her. If she tried to summon golems, she would most likely be overwhelmed, given that she could only maintain up to ten at once. Fighting hand to hand was out of the question, she wasn't near Angelica or Julian's level, and that's without accounting for the fact she didn't have a weapon. This left her with one move. She steps into view, stopping in the middle of the corridor's entrance.
- "Seal break." She whispers, stopping right in the middle. She then waves in their direction. "Hello!"
- "A child?..." The woman, whose face was hidden by her hood, asks. The other cultists immediately drop their containers, reaching for their weapons, some of them even preparing Fire and Lightning spells from a distance.
- "Rattles, no killing! And capture the one who can talk please!"
The runes on the ring around her finger glow as her shadow suddenly ignites into tall, bright flames. A solid, white shape emerges from it, like it was climbing out of the ground. It was a gigantic, flaming skeletal claw, large enough to block the volley of spells casted by the cultists. It then reaches forward, collapsing part of the corridor with its sheer mass before swatting the group of cultists aside like so many flies. It then nails their leader by her robes using one talon, dragging her to Beatrice's feet.
- "You little-" The woman raises her hand towards Beatrice, and a large spike of ice forms from the tip of her fingers.
- "Create golem. Restrain her." Beatrice taps her staff on the brick floor the woman was lying on, and two large arms made of those same bricks emerge from it. The golem is struck by the ice spike as it finishes forming, and immediately wraps its arms around the woman.
- "How?... Damn you! I need help!!" She screams, but Beatrice had already neutralized anyone who could have heard her call.
- "Oh you want to know how?" Beatrice excitedly grins. "So I found this ring in the dungeon, and it lets me seal a creature in my shadow! Pretty cool right? I can just break the seal and boom, Rattles appears! Then I can just reseal him easily if he lets me."
The flaming skeletal claw taps on the ground in response before retracting back into her shadow. The cultists' robes were all still burning, and they all seemed to be unconscious.
- "Whoops! Go put them out before they die!" Beatrice orders, and the two golems that had been following her in the form of sand piles rush over to the cultists, smothering the flames one by one. "Phew. I don't know if they're real humans but I don't wanna take risks. Killing people is kinda evil, even if you're the bad guys."
- "Who are you?..." The woman asks, trying her best to struggle out of the golem's grasp. Her hands were covered in a layer of ice, and small frozen spikes were shooting in all directions from them. However, she seemed to be incapable of aiming properly in her position.
- "I'm Night Star! I rescue people in dungeons, I kill monsters and I do a bunch of other things on the side."
- "???"
- "That doesn't matter! I need proof that Nyx is innocent, do you have any?"
- "Nyx?... The false god?"
- "She's the real god."
- "..." The woman frowns. "Are they crediting her for all our work?..."
- "Yes! And it's a lot of trouble."
- "I can't tell if Lady Night is going to be furious or delighted… Regardless, I have no intention to cooperate. Kill me."
- "What? Really?..."
- "Yes."
- "That's… not what I thought would happen. What now?"
- "...What do you mean what now?"
- "I don't really know. I didn't think you'd refuse."
- "Have I just lost to an idiot? Me?"
- "Hey that's rude!" Beatrice turns away. "It's fine, I'll just keep asking until you say yes. Can I have some proof? Whatever it is? Like, some evil note Lady Night wrote or something, that says she was gonna do way worse later."
- "...No."
- "Please?"
- "No."
- "Pretty please?"
- "..."
They continue this charade as Beatrice resumes her rampage through the corridors, deploying Rattles whenever she would run into a larger group of cultists. Meanwhile, the brick golem was carrying the woman and diligently following behind Beatrice. Whenever she would notice something that looked like it could be useful, she would send a few golems to return it to the room where she had decided to store everything. After what felt like hours, Beatrice yawns.
- "I thought the cultists were supposed to be really strong, I prepared and all…" She mumbles, kicking rocks on the ground.
- "These are grunts, you imbecile." The woman replies. "We would not deploy our fighters for an operation as mundane as this."
- "Oh, so the fast guys with weapons aren't fighters? That's kinda scary, they look pretty dangerous."
- "You are right to be afraid. Lady Night will not forget what you did tonight."
- "She can come at me! I've got Nyx on my side, we'll never lose. She beat her up once, she can do it again!"
- "Blasphemy. Lady Night was… holding back."
- "No she wasn't."
- "Yes she was."
- "No, she wasn't."
- "Why am I arguing with a child." The woman deeply sighs.
- "By the way, do you know what time it is?"
- "Why would I answer this?"
- "I'll let you go if you do."
- "...Judging by the apostle's activity level, it must be somewhere around six in the morning."
- "Six?!!" Beatrice screams, which attracts a nearby cultist. Said cultist is swiftly taken out by the two sand golems at her side.
- "Your little raid has lasted for hours. It seemed as if you were enjoying yourself a little too much."
- "Well it's kinda like a dungeon dive… But this is serious! Like, really serious."
- "Maybe you should kill me after all. I really loathe the fact that I am going to have to report to Lady Night that our operations were stalled for days, or even weeks, by a mere child."
- "There's nothing mere about me thank you very much!" She looks up at the golem holding the woman. "I'd really want to capture you, but I can't be stealthy if I take you with me and you're probably gonna starve if I lock you up somewhere. So this is bye bye! Golem, knock her out cold!" She pumps her fist towards the golem.
Said golem drops its prisoner on the floor, who immediately swipes her hand towards Beatrice and releases a large volley of ice swords. Beatrice instantly jumps to the side, dodging one, weaving a second and deflecting a third with the headpiece of her staff, producing a loud clang as the ice collides with the golden glowing stones. The woman's eyes widen in shock.
- "Huh?!! Ho-" She never finishes her sentence, as the golem's fist comes crashing down on her head.
- "The first thing Angelica taught me is how to dodge, because it's the most important skill." Beatrice dusts herself off as the woman drops to the ground, unconscious. "Even Nyx could fight just by dodging back at the trafficker's lair! Well she also has the super strength and the cosmic powers, but I have golems. And Rattles."
As silence returns to the corridor, Beatrice suddenly remembers what time it was. She turns tail and runs back, following her tracks to the exit. Once she reaches the top of the staircase, she whispers to the slab.
- "Let me through, don't make a sound…"
The slab slowly slides to the side using a multitude of miniature stone feet again. Beatrice climbs out of the hole, and points her staff at the slab.
- "Thanks for holding out for so long!… Return to position and deactivate…"
The slab seamlessly slides back in place, sealing the staircase once more before going completely still. It was still dark, but Beatrice could see the moon sinking towards the horizon. She had little time. She quickly dashes over to the dome-shaped barrier surrounding the ruins, making sure to use the shadows' cover to remain undetected by the guards patrolling around it. After ensuring none were around her spot, she places her hand on the surface again.
- "Okay, okay…" She whispers to herself. "A seal break but not too strong… control your power, Beatrice…" She closes her eyes envisioning a key turning to unlock a lock, but without opening it. "...Lesser Seal Break."
The blue energy composing the dome crackles and swirls around her hand, eventually stabilizing. She notices the small portion of the barrier in front of her was now slightly discolored. She pushes against it, and it breaks without a sound, the glowing blue energy shards dissipating in the darkness. She quickly notices how fast the barrier was regenerating, so she does her best to carve out an exit before any patrols come by. She eventually manages to barely squeeze out of the dome with her staff, and runs off into the adjacent street, breathing heavily. However, she had no time to rest.
Date: July 28th, 7:50 AM Location: Dorms, Headquarters of the Fourth Branch, Crystal Rose
Beatrice slams the door to her room shut, lightheaded and completely out of breath. She had never run so fast in her life, and it got her to return just in time before the headquarters actually became active. She doesn't even bother removing her cloak, instead simply tossing her staff directly inside her wardrobe before dropping onto her bed.
- "I… don't think I'm doing that again…" She huffs. "They'll definitely be ready if I go back there… But I'm kinda sad. I didn't really end up doing anything… other than annoying them a bit." She rolls on her back to face the ceiling, still struggling to recover from her mad dash through the city. "Actually, I don't think I'm doing anything tomorrow…"
On that closing thought, she drifts into unconsciousness.