Gilbert's Point of View

I've heard the sound of heavy blood drops against marble floors many times before, but this is one of the first times the blood has been mine... Last I recall was when Ellie stabbed me.

It burns... a searing hot pain in an arm no longer there. It's mind-numbing and nauseating to the point my sight blackens and blurs... like being covered in black smoke, but I don't have the time to give in.

I cover my hand in searing flames and cauterize my bleeding shoulder. In an instant a white hot pain takes over my body and rips my breath away in a scream.

By the time I put the fire out I've nearly crumbled to the floor. It's far worse than being stabbed by a searing hot fire poker, which is already an experience I never wished to reiterate.

...but this is fine. This is the price paid for our actions.

Even beyond Lionel's shield I can feel the fury emanating from Lily, drawing and tugging at my heart and stomach like she's pulling the soul from my body.

Why did it turn out like this?

How could it go so wrong?

I just want to see both of you happy...

Why must the two of you always hate each other so much?!

"Normand Tepet. Your son is aiding the traitor Augustus Celeste after he attacked my son."

The King's voice echos through the great hall... this time trying to turn child and father against one another with more half lies. I see Lionel's expression twist in pain, but he doesn't falter. He hasn't moved from where he was guarding Lily-chan, though he could've easily killed me while I cauterized my shoulder.

Despite his pained grimace Lionel fully draws his sword.

My stomach sinks.

It would've been so much better if Lionel had just stayed ignorant of Alstair's true face.

"No!"

Alstair scrambles up from the floor, screaming at the top of his lungs with a hoarse choked out voice at his father. He gives a hard glare at Normand, as though a single move from him would have him condemned for treachery as well.

Alstair's composure crumbles like a sandcastle in the rain as he looks to Lionel... Searching Lionel's eyes like an abandoned puppy with tears in the corners of his eyes.

Despite a born and bred paranoia, he never thought Lionel would turn on him in betrayal.... Abandon him, maybe, but never this.

"Why, Lionel?"

Lionel's attention moves to Alstair, but I can still feel bits of that attention on me. He sees me as a threat. The green eyes look like poison... but his answer is filled with pain just like Alstair's.

"I know," Lionel speaks out bitterly.

I already know this, but even so it should never-

"I know what you've done. House Listere. House Stanbell... Your siblings... I know what you are."

...The prince of Headal must have told them... but even if they did, they should have believed it a lie. Lionel has never flinched about those lies before. Just knowing Alstair asks me to torture people shouldn't make him believe the accusations of the enemy...

I feel my stomach sink, and that's when my eyes meet with Lily's.

Her chant is done.

She's watching them... waiting and listening.

"You know nothing!"

Alstair's hands tremble. His eyes tearing up with frustration, as he snaps back at Lionel with desperation in his voice.

A desperation to be understood... and likely to be forgiven since their relationship hasn't been the same since the torture request.

"Even if you cut the tree, the roots are too deep! It cannot change! If we don't control it everything will be covered in blood! I know how you feel, but this kingdom is peaceful... the civilians are safe, well fed and happy. No wars are truly waged between nobles and the kingdom prospers years after year. Those sacrificed are sacrificed for the happiness of everyone else, and for years the horrors of war hasn't touched our land. How is that wrong?!"

Lionel grimaces, but he doesn't waver. Alstair always have a weak spot when it comes to spoiling Lionel...

Just... please let it work this once. It needn't convince them to forgive what happened here, just let it be enough to convince them to leave... to run away from here.

"That prosperity is over. We can walk this path no further or the country will be destroyed," Lionel responds... crushing my hopes for the second time.

As expected, he doesn't know how deep the darkness crawls in the veins of Ristaze... the true number of people that should be killed as criminals every year by the standards of any other country is... horrifying. Most of the criminals in Ristaze are funded or at least connected to House Salender and thus the crown.

"If we give in to those demands the kingdom will fall! It'll crumble into a civil war immediately. The land will be smeared with innocent blood as everything collapses... to change this country the streets would flow red with the blood of thousands," Alstair looks down with wide open eyes as he tries to get a though to understand all of the immense consequences to giving into the demands... for Lily is much too straight laced and honorable to take over the rule of the kingdom as it is, and if I know one thing for sure it is that the country will not want the change.

The massive underground will do everything in its power to kill her or attempt a revolution... it'll be a blood bath on both sides.

All of that will happen, and I've yet to consider how weak we will stand when any of our neighbors decide that the peace treaty has lasted for long enough...

I look to Lionel for any hint of emotion... and I see hesitance.

I snap my head back to Alstair. Hurry. While he's hesitant offer him Lily. Offer him peace and promises of honesty.

I clench my hand onto my singed coat.

"Lionel, what can I do? Do you want Lily? Do you want Claire? I'll let you go. Pretend nothing happened here. No more secrets."

He tries thing after thing, and Lionel grits and frowns with pain.

Please accept it, Lionel.

Please accept it and take Lily far away from here. Take her hand and guide her away from this place of rage.

Make her a happy woman.

Please.

Don't... don't give that look... Lionel...

"I am sorry, Alstair."

Lionel pulls back.

"Ristaze must change, but it cannot do so with you here. As such, I've sworn loyalty to First Princess Emilia."

E-Emilia...

Alstair's younger sister... no, that's impossible, she 's missing-

I feel a rush through my body and I feel short of breath.

Ah, that's it. Emilia awakened, like Ellie. The faeries of darkness blessed her, and opened her world to the voices of the dead. Of those intense voices of vengeance, hatred and fear. She'll never be the same anymore.

... Emilia must have told Lionel about Alstair's plans by listening to ghosts. Headal's ghosts?... or... Her siblings?

Headal might indeed support Emilia's rise to the throne since she's blessed by faeries of darkness.

But how did she tell Lionel?.. what if...

He... he burned down the mansion and took the girls away?

"Emi...lia?"

Alstair and the king both grow pale at those words. When the children of the crown are blessed by darkness they stop at nothing to kill every adult member of the royal family. Something only Normand of House Tepet knows at this point.

"Are you mad?! She's cursed, isn't she?"

Alstair catches on as well, but Lionel scowls at those words.

"She is. She has you as family. A family that wish her nothing but death! If that is not a curse I don't know what is. I'll give you one last chance to be exiled... or you'll leave me no choice, your Highness, your Majesty."

The hesitance leaves his body though his voice cracks.

"Enough! How dare you!"

Normand Tepet finally steps in with the angered roar of a bear.

"How dare you serve the cursed! How dare you turn against the crown! I will not allow you to shred a single drop of innocent blood!"

The doors on the side of the great hall open, and in floods guards. The ones escorting the drugged diplomats away having called for reinforcements.

I grit my teeth.

No, Lily and Lionel are going to be surrounded, there has to be another way around this!

"Lionel, just leave while you still have time!" I plead of him, yet to no avail. Lionel isn't listening to me and Lily is fixating on Alstair like a predator.

Normand's eyes fill with such vicious rage at my words... that I would consider letting them run when they mean to harm the crown must be like treachery to him. The air feels tense as rocks and boulders begin to materialize around Normand...

He doesn't intend to give them time enough to run.

The boulders, once summoned, rip through the air with ghostly cold screeches and smashes against the anti-magic shield, only to drop lifelessly at the foot of the shield, which I only now realize Lionel must have brought along for a reason.

The king joins in along with Normand, putting even more pressure on the two of them. Lionel does manage keeping the rocks going beyond his shield, but fire is different.

It licks across the floor as a hungry beast and tries to wrap around the shield with every flicker. Standing still is going to be a get them killed... for the great hall has been prepared for mages with fire.

All the way down through the long hall stands candles both up and below... all of which we can control easily.

Yet, I don't want to.

I know I can surround them in fire, but I don't want to hear them scream and suffer from the fire devouring them. I know Lily-Chan hates me, but for years she's kept me sane enough to continue all of this.

If they must die... please, let it not be by fire.

An icy voice brings a chill through my spine. It's Lily's. She's chanting again.

The cold dread I felt eight years ago trembles in the air as I hurriedly grasp Alstair's hand and pull him to the side away from whatever magic she is going to use.

"Gil let go!"

Alstair tries to rip his hand from mine, stuck looking back with tears in his eyes at Lionel who is slowly being surrounded by the guards while protecting Lily.

I pull him harder towards the side door Normand came from, while my skin begins to crawl.

Something is angry.

Something is very angry.

"Run!" I scream back at him on top of my lungs.

"Go, Lily!"

I barely get Alstair even halfway down the hall before a deafening roar sounds behind us like a breaking dam.

A tidal wave surges through the hall and rips us off balance as it blasts against our backs. A shock of pain goes through my body as I'm slammed against the guard rail of one of the rises, and I scream out in the water, loosing the rest of my breath... too late I realize that my grip on Alstair is gone.

Then the wave pulls back like a hungry ocean as my lungs begin to scream for air, rolling me around like a ball in its palm... the wave draws us back towards Lily with a foamy hiss.

When I finally feel the floor beneath me and air against my skin I gasp for breath to fill my tortured lungs and look around for Alstair.

He's near a side door, coughing for breath as he scrambles to his feet.

What about the king?

Normand has pulled the king close behind him and made a small tilted shield over them of stone as you'd see House Tepet do on the front line. They're close to the side door where Normand entered, and Normand is scrambling to his feet in the still ankle deep water, but Lily's sword is lodged deep into the stone above Normand and the king like was she cutting into a vegetable rather than stone... her eyes gleam with fury.

Normand stares above him at the sword that's partway through the stone with honest shock... though, as expected of Normand he collects himself.

"Monster," I hear him speak out... much to Lily's displeasure as she bares her teeth at him. She draws the blade out of the stone and with surprising agility jumps down on the other side of the shield for another slash. Normand raises his sword immediately for a parry, but his eyes reveal fear as he does so, and yet... a sense of duty as he steps in to put himself in the sword's way so it cannot reach the king.

Lily's lips curl into a smile as Normand steps in. Her body is like a torrent as their blades clash, and a sickeningly high sound echos through the great hall as... Normand's sword is cut through cleanly.

Yet, Lily's sword stops as it sinks into multiple layers of stone, stopping just short from Normand's chest.

Her eyes gleam with an oddly golden sheen despite her blue eyes. Anger. Irritation. All so vivid. Nothing is held back.

"Halt!" Coughing Tepet soldiers step in to protect their lord. They raise their anti-magic shields and they try to form a circle around Lily, all with a cautious expressions and pale faces...

Normand removes the shield behind him and quickly shoves the king further away from Lily. He's horrified. His anger doused by a sense of reality that Lily, more so than anyone else I know, is one who brings death.

"How little respect you have for a duel!" Lily roars at the soldiers, swinging her sword at them in rage more so than an actual attack.

She's surrounded.

Where is Lionel?

I look back to where Lionel stood before, and he's being surrounded by palace guards... guards that are all magicians.

He's quickly being pressed back towards the door he came from as more palace guards begin to stream in through the side doors of the great hall, throwing whatever magic they can at him in hope to push him back. Yet... Lionel keeps looking towards Lily instead of using magic of his own.

Is he... waiting?

"How dare you lay a hand on my family!"

My stomach sinks at the voice that appears behind me at the other end of the great hall... Eric... and a handful of Celeste knights step in.

"Milord, we finished securing the northern harbor as the Princess ordered! Please allow us to assist!"

I snap my head back to Lionel where more Tepet soldiers arrive behind Lionel... and immediately get ready for combat as though they expected all of this.

I stumble to my feet and look around.

This... this wasn't just Lionel?

The harbor?

"Salender-sama!" I hear my name yelled from across the hall and see one of my remaining spies look at me with desperation in his eyes.

"The harbor has been taken by troops from House Stanbell and House Celeste, the palace will be under siege soon! They're led by Lord Wolfram Stanbell and Miss Claire Talwen!"

My legs suddenly feel weak.

What is... going on?

I see Lily charge into the group of Normand's soldier's with hints of confusion as well, but... if she doesn't know... I had a feeling something was wrong since I never got word back from my spies at Castle Celeste, but how did they... and without Lily knowing...

No, a collaboration between House Celeste and House Stanbell will increase the speed across water expensively... if they traveled across lake Lumere, walked the rest of the way to Larkspur river that goes directly to the capital, then they would've made it from Castle Celeste in time, maybe even with a couple of days to spare. My spies wouldn't have been able to report it in time either.

Everything is spinning out of control. At this rate the royal palace might truly fall. It was never meant to come under siege...

I... I have no choice anymore.

If I don't step in the country will fall...

If that is so, then... I must keep my promise. I promised-

I turn towards Lionel and his soldiers... your rocks will not protect you from my flames...

"Aargh!"

The king's pained scream pulls my attention from Lionel just in time to see the king standing at the door behind the Tepet soldiers... bent over with a knife to his gut from his blonde haired five year old daughter...

Princess Emilia.