“Guy?”
“Oh, right.” He shook the thoughts away. “Sorry, I was thinking about something.”
Dianna looked up at him, smiling and giggling with her hands behind her back. “Was it my voice?”
“Damn right it was!” Bro, that was a smooth as fuck cover up! Guy accessed his Gathering screen as she lent him the pickaxe. He stood ahead of the glowing rock and lifted the pickaxe to give it a good whack.
“I couldn’t sing or play an instrument to save myself until this happened.” She stroked his arm, causing Guy to tense up. He never lowered the tool. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Guy spun to her. “For what?”
“You delivered the blessing to our planet, you and your uncle.”
Uncle Matthew . . . was he the source of it all? Now that I think of it, it would explain his sudden disappearance. “Hey, did you ever talk to my uncle when he was here?”
“Not really, my father did.”
He made a mental note to speak to Dianna’s father, Laurence, and ask him if he felt something odd about Matthew. Guy never brought the affliction to Mennaze. It was his uncle who did it because he also got Guy afflicted. Dianna gave Guy space to mine. It took him a minute to shake off the sensation of her soft hands that had held him. He brought the pickaxe down with a swift strike, chipping off a sizeable chunk of the rock. It morphed by the time Guy collected it.
Obtained: Iron Ore x3
Too bad my mining skill isn’t higher. I’d be able to get the higher-grade ores, and it’d help speed up the Seraphim's repairs.
Guy has attained Mining level 1!
Guy whacked it repeatedly until its astral aura faded, having given him all the ore it could. The mining point’s glittering vanished, making the rock look like a natural one. He collected the ore and placed it into his inventory.
“That should do it,” Guy said while offering her pickaxe and harvesting tool back. “My inventory is getting full. Let’s head back.”
“Why the rush?” She giggled again. Guy was a bigger stud than he thought.
“Well . . .”
“Your ship isn’t ready yet,” she said. “And there’s nothing much to do.” She skipped down the darkened path, eyed a patch of grass near the edge of a river, and sat. Dianna patted the space next to her. “Sit with me.” Guy sat beside her as she pulled out her ocarina and brought it to her red, luscious lips. “Listen to this and tell me what you think.”
Dianna blew into the shiny wind instrument, playing a song infused with astral energy. White coils of magical power encircled the duo as they sat by the river. Guy stared at it ominously. Dianna continued the song, her eyes shut. Guy wondered if she knew what she was doing—
Something moved across the water.
He shifted his head toward it, eyeing what looked like the flickering visage of a white-feathered, four-legged beast with massive wings springing from its back. It was a dragon upon closer inspection, a dragon with white feathers—a white dragon.
Guy stood and stepped to the river, stopping when he ran out of land to walk on. Behind, the ocarina’s soothing sounds played as the swirls of white ribboned energy enhanced the White Dragon’s appearance.
Dianna stopped playing her ocarina, opening her eyes to the shock that grabbed Guy’s attention. She gasped, and when she did, the White Dragon faded like it was never floating above the river to start with.
Guy spun to her. “Did you see that?!”
“Yeah . . .” Dianna nodded, her eyes wide. “A white dragon . . .”
The White Dragon. It was real, and Dianna’s afflicted body and ocarina made it so.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A star-fae and a shadow angel lurked through the halls of the empire’s castle, hiding behind walls when patrolling soldiers marched. Xanthe listened for the sounds of the sabatons walking on the black and gold tiles. Their metallic clanks faded from her ears, so she gave a nod to Rachael. It was time to move.
Xanthe and Rachael entered the more restricted area of the castle now, strolling past decorated doors to their left and right. The biggest chamber door stopped the duo at the end of the hall. Xanthe stood in front of it and stroked its crystal door handle and the sophisticated grooves cut into it by its designer.
“This must be where the emperor sleeps,” Xanthe said. She angled her head to a room to the left. The door's design was similar but smaller than the emperor’s bedroom door. “And there, that must be his daughter’s room.”
Upon closer inspection, the door to Princess Averyl Autumnfall’s room was open. The voices of men echoed from inside.
Rachael joined Xanthe in gazing at Averyl’s bedroom door. “Why are people inside?” she asked.
“Not sure,” Xanthe said and walked to the door. “Let’s find out.”
Xanthe snuck over first, pressing her back and wings against the wall, and inched toward the open door, one ear eavesdropping on the conversation inside the princess’s bedroom.
“Nothing, huh?” one man said.
“No, but it matters not. Averyl was working with the resistance. Our forces saw her fleeing from Holt, moments before the sentinels confirmed that Zuran Firethorn was in the city too.”
“And the Firethorns support resistance activities.”
“Exactly. Then we have Slather’s death, a good friend of Leafblade, and it happened in Holt, the same city our forces found the star-dweller Paladin. There is no doubt about it. The resistance had gathered in Holt to plot against us and killed Slather. Bandits did not kidnap Averyl. She faked it to join them.”
“Then why did she return to her room just now?”
“I do not know. But Averyl’s in prison now. Leafblade will get the answers from her in time.”
What the fuck . . . Averyl’s in prison? How? I sent her off with the star-dwellers. I saw their ship leave—
Footsteps interrupted her thoughts.
The soldiers inside Averyl’s room were moving to the door. Xanthe and Rachael ran, using decorative pillars in the halls to hide from the two imperial men leaving. Their sabatons reverberated on the tiles, and she had no idea which direction they were heading. Xanthe grabbed the Steel Edge from her inventory, held it steady, and waited. The footsteps faded, causing her to sigh as she put the Steel Edge at her side, then fetched the Heavy Kilij and did the same. No point in acting like a slave girl now.
Xanthe looked around the pillar. The men had traveled in the opposite direction, likely on patrol. She was certain they would loop back once they hit the end of the hall. Averyl’s room was their best place to hide for now. Besides, Xanthe wanted to know why the princess had returned home after all that. She and Rachael ran into Averyl’s room and stopped for a long pause. It was bigger than some of the homes she grew up in.
Five windows covered one wall, their curtains shut to dim the twin sunlight. A small chandelier hung above her canopy bed, and next to that lay the princess’s bedroom dresser and mirror. Expensive dresses and jewelry littered the floor, forcing Xanthe and Rachael to make wide steps over them. Neither of them wanted to ruin such beautiful wear.
Xanthe stopped in the middle of the room, wincing, her hands resting on her waist. “So, Averyl came back . . .”
“Who’s Averyl?” Rachael asked.
“The princess of the Autumnfall Empire,” Xanthe replied. “I helped her escape on one of the star-dweller ships at South Town.”
“Doesn’t sound like it, according to those men.”
“No.” Xanthe walked toward the dresser. “It does not. Averyl must have had the star-dwellers drop her off here, and then returned to her room. But . . . why? She seemed to be in a rush to leave the planet. Even asked me to accompany her.”
Rachael followed behind. “The only ships I saw on our way here were the sentinel ones.”
“Likewise.” The mirror shot back Xanthe’s and Rachael’s reflection. “I saw no star-dweller ships. Yet, those men, they said Averyl was here recently. If the star-dwellers did not bring Ave
ryl here, then how did she arrive?”
Something was not right. Xanthe opened the dresser drawers, searching each one, groaning when she realized someone had dumped the contents on the floor. The men had been hunting for clues too, and probably took them.
Still looking, Xanthe asked, “What do you know of the resistance?”
“Nothing,” Rachael said. “We don’t interfere with land-dweller politics.”
“Could have fooled me. It was star-dwellers who transported the crusaders to my world.”
“I was a kid back then, but to my understanding, there was an accident on the fleet and our food and water got contaminated with radiation. We were desperate to survive, so smugglers gave land-dwellers a lift there in exchange for food and water.”
“I do not understand why your kind does not simply build your own farms.”
“Space and resources are limited on ships, and every habitable planet has land-dwellers on it, leaving us with two options, trade or conquest. Take a guess which option we chose.”
Xanthe grunted. They were getting off-topic. “Perhaps this resistance those soldiers spoke of is a conflict exclusive to the planet. But Averyl wanted to leave this world. If she were part of the resistance, would she not wish to stay and meet with them?”
“Again, you’re asking the wrong person,” Rachael said. “I just want to find Guy and get back to the fleet, my home.”
And those men said they sent Averyl to prison? It makes little sense for the emperor to have his daughter arrested, resistance member or not.
Xanthe yanked open the last drawer, uncovering something the searching men missed—a black leather-bound book held together by a gold strap. Xanthe opened the book to find handwritten words in the fae language on its many pages. It was Averyl’s diary.
Rachael looked over Xanthe’s shoulder, sighing at the book she held. “Can we not?”
Dear Diary . . .
Objective: Read Averyl’s diary and search for the reason she might have returned.
Issued by: White Dragon
Reward: 100 Experience Points
Accept quest? Yes/No
Xanthe grinned, her white teeth reflecting on the mirror ahead. “The quest speaks, and we must answer it!”
She tapped Yes, made the screen vanish, then flipped through the book longer, running a single index finger under the curved writing in the fae language.
Averyl used the diary to write and whine about her day-to-day life. It was almost repetitive. The princess had gotten into trouble a lot for sneaking female servants into her bedroom at night. The servants were always late for their duties in the morning because of that. Averyl did not stop, regardless of the scolding that her father, Jaxin, gave. One day a young and free-spirited servant caught Averyl’s eyes. Her name was Rain. Averyl and Rain had a long affair with each other, right around the time Averyl’s father revealed that he will execute the next servant whom Averyl brings into her bed. The two worked hard to keep their energetic romance away from everyone’s eyes.
Rain . . . where did I hear that name from?
Emperor Autumnfall had three children, two girls and a boy, and that boy died years ago in a war the empire fought in. After that, the empress and the emperor grew distant, and in a shock to all, she divorced the emperor. The empress escaped with Autumnfall’s eldest daughter and married the Firethorn Kingdom’s king.
Averyl was the emperor’s only hope to produce an heir as his old cock had grown sterile. The princess toying with servant girls would not get her pregnant. According to the diary, the emperor wished Averyl had been born a man. His words had her crying for days.
So did I when my father told me that . . . “We need men to fight the crusaders!” Xanthe’s father would say. “Not some girl to spread her legs for them when they come!”
The latter is the reason I still draw breath . . .
Xanthe flipped to the next page.
Taking matters into his own hands, the emperor arranged for Averyl to marry a land-human named Wylume, an envoy sent from the sentinels. A land-human is the sentinel envoy? Are the sentinels not star-dwellers too?
She continued reading.
Wylume had become obsessed with Averyl’s beauty and her young birthing hips, and promised she would bear lots of children for the imperial throne. In return for the empire offering Averyl to Wylume, he provided the sentinels machina and support. With that, the empire could conquer the fae nations they failed to, the ones that took the emperor's only son, and then invade the Firethorn Kingdom, where his former wife fled with his eldest daughter.
“Why would the sentinel envoy be interested in bedding a land-dweller like Averyl?” Xanthe asked with a grimace. “With the power, machina, and resources the sentinels have, they could buy a whore on any planet.”
“Some guys like the classy gals,” Rachael snorted.
Xanthe turned the page and read the next entry.
It enraged Averyl to learn that the servant, Rain, whom she had secretly romanced, was discovered by her father and taken away for execution. Meanwhile, Wylume tried to force himself in Averyl. The princess had learned a lot about Wylume that tearful night. Wylume told Averyl the truth about the star-dwellers, the truth that they did not live in the sky but in space. And the other worlds? They were not different realms, but planets in the cosmos. He also informed her what he gained because of the arranged marriage. Wylume had gained power in the imperial army and headed the conquest of Faeheim. Days later, to end Averyl’s endless crying, the emperor offered her a gift, a necklace made from a remarkable crystal. She could feel mystifying energy inside the crystal when she touched it.
According to the emperor, Wylume initially gave it to him.
“Find anything?” Rachael asked.
Xanthe snorted. “I am getting to the good part.”
“Don’t keep me in suspense.”
Averyl had enough. Wylume was a strange man possessed with a dark power that gave her nightmares. She could not marry him, and she could not support a country that would put the woman she loved to death. When night came, Averyl slipped out of the castle and into the countryside, met with human bandits, and offered them her wealth to fake a kidnapping. After that, the bandits were to bring Averyl to star-dwellers who would take her to another world. They were the same star-dwellers she hired to intercept Rain and take her off-world. The empire would not find Averyl and Rain in space and Averyl hoped the sentinel ships would not follow them.
“The name Rain seems familiar,” Xanthe said.
Rachael’s eyes lit up. “Yeah. Remember the captain of the boat we took here?”
“Yes.”
“Rain was the name of his daughter. She traveled to the empire for work or something like that. Rain’s family hadn’t heard from her since.”
“I think I know why. Rain became a servant here, then Averyl’s lover. The emperor sentenced Rain to death because of that.”
She gasped, placing her hands over her mouth. “Oh no . . .”
“Averyl paid good coin to have Rain smuggled off the planet by star-men before that happened. Hmm, it looks like you know something, Rachael.”
Rachael nodded and collected her thoughts. She found a connection. “My people found a land-fae woman in space. We don’t know who she is or how she got there . . . I wonder if she’s Rain. Is there anything in that diary that describes Rain’s appearance?”
Xanthe returned to the pages, searching for her request. She shook her head no and continued reading. There was no mention of the resistance in the diary or talk about the affliction changing the planet. Averyl’s sheltered life as a princess prevented her from learning about that.
Though the arrival of Wylume and his sentinels suggests there was a connection. The sentinels must have brought the affliction to Faeheim, and they wanted Averyl to marry their envoy, Wylume, to secure an alliance—
“What are you doing here!”
She slammed the book shut. “Fuck.”
The imperials ca
ught them.
Dear Diary . . . - Quest Complete
Obtained: 100 Experience Points
Quest completed, though. Rachael and Xanthe spun to meet the four imperials barging into the room. One of them was Leafblade, who ordered the murder and enslavement of Xanthe’s people, his massive hands grasping his two-handed sword. The two entered a standoff—Xanthe withdrew her twin scimitars, and Rachael pulled her staff out and held it ready. Leafblade and his men drew near, without fear. She saw why when she viewed Leafblade’s information.
Leafblade (Berserker) | LVL: 17 | Rank: B
And then his three soldiers’ . . .
Imperial Guard (Assassin) | LVL: 15 | Rank: C
Imperial Guard (Cleric) | LVL: 15 | Rank: C
Imperial Guard (Berserker) | LVL: 16 | Rank: C
The imperials outranked, outnumbered, and outleveled Rachael and Xanthe. She needed a way out from the incoming adversaries—ideally, one that would see Leafblade’s entrails splattered across the wall.
Come to think of it, I will need him to lower his guard so I can escape unharmed after killing him. His trust would do the trick.
“I asked you two a question!” Leafblade yelled, waving his sword to spark intimidation.
But it did not intimidate the two girls, only made Xanthe grin. “What does it look like I am doing?”
Xanthe opened her Party screen fast and selected Rachael’s name.
Remove Rachael from the party? Yes/No
She selected Yes, and Rachael’s information disappeared from Xanthe’s vision. Her astral circuits no longer viewed Rachael as an ally.
“Hey,” Rachael spun her gaze to Xanthe. “What are you doing—”
Xanthe got behind the star-fae, placing one scimitar to her neck, overpowering Rachael with her higher strength. “Leafblade, darling,” Xanthe said. She wanted to retch. “This is a star-dweller, and I have brought her to you.”
Star Paladin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 1) Page 30