Celest woke up the next day to a bustling inn, which was quite ominous because Celest had chosen a inn on the quieter side of the capital. If this inn was bustling with news, then something big had happened or was happening. As Celest redressed and went downstairs, she asked someone what all the fuss was about. "The emperor is making an excursion to Glacius to negotiate with the Winter Scion." One of the employees at the inn told Celest. Celest took it in stride as she ordered her breakfast, but inwardly she couldn't help but think of Matthias, who was also in Glacius. From what she had seen of Matthias and his attitude toward Richard, if he saw him in Glacius, there would be a fight, and it would be big.
-Meanwhile, in the Glacian capital-
Dame landed the Lightchaser quickly and deftly in the Glacian capital's dock and hurried out into the cold, fish smelling air. Glacius's main export was fish and other seafood, so things did tend to smell rather fishy. Dame didn't mind the smell, she had smelled worse in her years as a smuggler, but it wasn't her favorite smell. She hurried through the streets, her mind memorizing the streets just in case she had to return. As she hurried, looking for Matthias in a rather scattered way, another smell reached her nose, a much more unpleasant smell than the fish stench. It smelled like burnt flesh, but there was something else to this smell, something pestilential and diseased. The smell spelt a word, a place she had never seen and never would: it smelt like Daemia. Dame held her nose as Glacians flocked to the smell. Dame stopped one such citezen and asked, "What's all the fuss about?" The Glacian looked at Dame, impatient to catch up and curtly replied, "Edward Hyde is caught in the Winter Sovereign's trap. For the past week, Hyde has been at large, burning whatever he wants to with that black fire of his." After saying these words, the citizen turned to rejoin the crowd. Dame quickly turned invisible and sprinted towards the source of the smell. If Hyde was there, then Matthias couldn't be too far, and her reputation with the Winter Sovereign wasn't too good at the moment, so stealth was necessary. She slipped and slid through the ice caked streets of Glacius's capital, Frosthearth, until she reached the massive ring of people, in the middle of this ring a battalion of Glaacian mages and warriors, the warriors holding the signature large shields and long spears of the Glacian military, surrounding a single person. It was Edward Hyde, in his white shirt and brown cotton pants, a midnight black cloak flowing around him like liquid night. "Hahahahahahaha, you think this petty ring can hold me!?" Edward said, his voice as sharp as broken glass. The Winter Sovereign walked into the cirlce, pompous and commanding just like Dame remembered him from all those months ago. "Edward Hyde. You have been a particularly vicious thorn in my side, regardless of how short you were here." Edward gave a growl as he closed his fist, purple smoke billowing from his fist but no fire. The Sovereign smirked victoriously, "My Cryomancers are keeping the temperature in this ring too low for your fire to live, let alone flourish, and without your fire, there is not a single chance for you to escape." Dame continued to watch this exchange from a small perch above the crowd. Hyde's hair fell over his face as his entire right side burst with purple smoke, obscuring him from vision. The Sovereign and the surrounding people laughed as the Sovereign said, "You could be here for years and not make a single spark, and even if you did, it wouldn't matter because I have this." The Sovereign brought out a shining blue crystal from his pocket. "This is the core of Glacius, and it amplifies cryomancy and is responsible for the blizzards that protect this nation." Edward's voice emanated from the cloud of smoke, but it was different, as if someone else was talking in unison with Hyde. "Wonderful. That means that I won't have to go through the tedium of finding it." Suddenly ice exploded from the center of the smoke, surging forward, turning the advantage of the core against the Sovereign, and with that advantage gone, the fire that had been desperate to be free burst into life, searingly bright to look at, a deep black contrast to the stark white ice that emerged from Hyde's left. The fire and ice increased in ferocity, swirling around Hyde like a furious tornado. Hyde walked toward the Winter Sovereign, cowering on the ground before the storm of fire and ice that surrounded Hyde. Hyde, safe within the eye of his own storm, walked casually toward his objective, the core, thinking, "Matthias why did you never tell me you learned Cryomancy?" From within the body they shared, Matthias answered. "I never told you because you were asleep while I was learning it, and your entire being is in my arms and not my brain." Hyde grumbled as Matthias turned their mind to the task at hand. He continued to walk forward, his storm whirling the guards and cryomancers around like they were rag dolls. He crouched in front of the Sovereign and neatly snatched the Glacian core out of his sweating hands. "Thank you." Hyde said as he walked calmly out of the broken ring that only minutes ago had seemed unbreakable and created a burst of fire, smoke surging upward, giving Hyde ample time to hide and put the core to sleep. Dame followed Hyde through the smoke and patiently waited until he had finished turning the core dormant before slowly turning visible again. "Matthias or is it Hyde?" Dame said as she watched Hyde or Matthias turn suddenly to face her, his tensed grimace lightening into a more friendly expression. "Hyde on the outside, but Matthias always." He replied as he and Dame turned a street and started walking to the dock.
-Meanwhile-
Richard sat down in the cockpit of his personal Leviathan, eager to reach his destination: Frosthearth. Richard never particularly liked the Winter Sovereign, infact Richard found the selfish and traitorous leader of Glacius extremely distasteful, but since he had been so kind to invite both Richard and Dina to see Edward Hyde captured, he would make an exception. Richard looked past the smooth easy air to the dock, spotting a small dot on the ground. Richard put the Leviathan into auto park and strapped on his sniper rifle and crossbows and stood in front of the landing dock, Dina decked out in her own less heavy armor, her two swords strapped to her sides. The two waited until the Levithan had landed and extended the docking gear before walking out into the fishy,chill air of Frosthearth.
-Meanwhile-
Edward and Dame walked down the street and entered the docking area, ready to return to Ainesgrove. Dame had told Edward about the location of the Soraj core and was about to tell him more, but then they saw the unmistakable black Leviathan with the Ignation emblem in red on the sides. Dame quickly hid behind a nearby crate, turning invisible for added safety. Edward walked casually into the wide open space of the dock, the core of Glacius tucked safely in a back pocket. Matthias shouted within their shared head, screaming that they should run and fight when they were ready, but Edward blocked out Matthias as he saw the approaching figures of Richard and Dina. Edward gave a snarl of rage as he ignited black fire in his hands and sprinted toward Richard. Richard waited until Edward was almost on top of him before he jumped up, creating an explosion to rocket him into the air as Dina rolled to the side. Pulling his sniper rifle and quickly taking aim at Edward's chest, Richard blasted Edward onto his back. "Of all the opponents I have faced, I think you are the weakest. You never learn and your reckless, and so I will not kill you, but teach you once and for all that you will never beat me." Richard said, planting a foot on Edward's chest. "Dina, if you would be so kind, cut off his arms." Dina looked at Richard with a hint of surprise but complied, drawing her swords, fire dancing along the sharp silver edges. Edward gave a cry of protest as she approached, which soon turned to a chilling scream of pain as Dina's blades neatly sliced off Matthias's arms, the wounds cauterizing from the fire. Matthias laid there, utterly defeated and motionless, as Richard and Dina returned to Richard's Leviathan and left to return to Ignation. Dame sprang from her hiding spot and sprinted to Matthias's inert form. Although Dina's swords had cauterized the wound, it was both incomplete and inconsistent, so that meant that Dame, with the healing skill she had developed in the Faedom, would have to finish cauterizing the half cauterized parts and stop the wounds from infecting. Dame touched the lumps where Matthias's arms had been, ignoring the awful feeling of burnt flesh and the groan of pain from the half conscious Matthias. Silver light flowed from her fingertips as she helped Matthias get onto his feet and settled him onto the medical bed on the Lightchaser. Dame hurried to the cockpit and took off, flying back to Ainesgrove with a disarmed Matthias.
-on day later at 6:00 pm-
Dame walked around the bright, bustling streets of Ainesgrove wondering how her partner was doing on her mission. Matthias had told her to return when she was finished or after the time he set expired, whichever came first. Dame had returned to Ainesgrove with Matthias at about two am in the morning, and Dame had opted to take a nap and then get some food. She had left Matthias in the Lightchaser's medical area, knowing that all his wounds required after her healing was time. Dame walked through the sleepy evening streets, looking for something that seemed appetizing. She had decided on something without meat, she could still picture Matthias's blackened flesh, a slim sliver of sheer white bone peeking out, so she would look for a salad or something. As she finally made her decision, a salad after all, a small cat walked up to her and clawed gently at her pants. Dame looked down at the cat before asking it grumpily, "What?" The cat shook itself and stretched, its body shimmering and expanding, seamlessly transforming from cat into human as Celest shifted back to her natural shape. "I'm back from Ignation. The people are more stubborn than mountains, they were bent on finishing this war. If Matthias thinks that peace is the way, then he hasn't seen Ignation's citizenry."
"So I'm guessing that you didn't complete your assignment." Dame said icily.
"No I didn't." Celest replied with a tired look, "How about you? Did you get the Soraj core?"
"No, Ignation took it long before I did." Dame said as she walked toward the Lightchaser's docking area.
"You've told Matthias about this right?" Celest asked as Dame popped open the lid on her salad and tossed it stylishly into a trash can.
"Yes. I went to Glacius and took him back since he had already obtained the Glacius core, but we ran into Richard at the docks and Matthias got his arms cut off." Celest made a sour face as the two entered the Lightchaser and went down to check on Matthias, but he had disappeared. Dame, who was used to Matthias not being in the same place for too long, immediately turned around and made for the cathedral. If she knew Matthias, then he was securing the Glacius core with the other cores they had collected. Dame and Celest hurried through the slower sleepy streets of Ainesgrove at evening to the Grand Cathedral, the same cathedral where Matthias stored the cores he had stolen. They opened the doors to see the Royal Adviser sitting in a pew, looking up at the statue of Roxy, the statue which hid the cores. "Oh it's you two." The adviser said as they approached him. "What brings you to the Cathedral?"
"We're looking for Matthias. Have you seen him?" Dame and Celest asked, slightly out of breath from running the entire way from the Lightchaser.
"He came here and asked me to help him place the dormant Glacius core and then proceeded up the stairs. That was the last I saw of him." The Adviser said, returning to his taciturn study of Roxy's statue. Dame and Celest hurried up the stairs past the second and third floor to the fourth. The fourth floor was where they found Matthias. He was standing at the edge of the balcony, the warm evening wind tossing his shoulder length brown and black hair back. The empty sleeves of his normal battle suit flowed backward, his eyes turned southward toward the sea that separated Daemia, a wistful expression neither of the two smugglers had ever seen dominating his duo chromatic countenance. "I must return to Daemia. I can't stop thinking that I left things unfinished there." Matthias said, turning to walk past Celest and Dame and proceeding to walk down the stairs. "What!? Again?" Celest said as the two caught up with the fast disappearing figure of Matthias.
"Yes and I am leaving you two in charge. I will not take a Leviathan, but I will walk there instead. It should take about five hours to cross the sea and one hour to reach the Faedom coastline." Matthias muttered as he reached the bottom of the stairs and exited the Cathedral, nodding to the Adviser on his way out.
"Why are you leaving us in charge? Wouldn't the Royal Adviser be more suited?" Dame asked as Matthias made a beeline for the Faedom coastline.
"Normally yes, but I am leaving you in temporary command until I return from Daemia. I would only make the Adviser the ruler if I had no intentions to return to the Faedom. I do not know how long I will be gone, but I will try to not be more than a month. Oh and don't worry about" Dame and Celest stopped at the last wall of Ainesgrove, watching as Matthias walked confidently to the Faedom sea, the breeze blowing his hair and sleeves around his face in a chaotic manner.