Salvisa opened her eyes to the thick canopy of trees. She was on her back, her side aching like she had fallen on it, and her forehead pulsing with a loud migraine.
"Captain Salvisa is awake!" She heard Ravenna call out.
Salvisa wrested herself onto her elbows and looked around to see everyone clustered around her. As far as she could tell, they hadn't moved from where the monster and been spotted.
"What happened?" Salvisa asked slowly.
"You heard it scream."
"Sigh." Corbin corrected, "It was loud, but it was sighing."
"Sigh, then. And after that light, it disappeared like it burned up. There's nothing left."
Salvisa lurched forward and squinted at the jolt of soreness in her head, "But the Rune!?"
Ravenna looked at Bram, then to Corbin and McKee uneasily. Ravenna gestured slowly, placing two of her fingers on her own forehead. "Captain, you have it."
Salvisa reached up, her hands cold and shaking, to touch her forehead. It was warm and raised with the new mark branded on her. "And Bram? Are you hurt at all?"
Her son said nothing, his jaw clenched tight in an effort to banish any show of emotion. But Salvisa could see it in his eyes what happened before he brushed aside his fine brown hair from his forehead. Half the marking that the monster once bore was now etched into Bram's forehead.
Forgetting about her own pain, Salvisa leapt forward to hug her son to her chest and bury her lips and nose in his hair. Bram wrapped his arms around her weakly.
"I'm so sorry, Bram."
"No, Mam, it will be okay." Bram said, more to convince himself than anyone else, "I'm certain the Bishops can help. If they're strong enough to bear the True Runes, then they must know how to remove them."
"Don't discount yourself either. I remember when I first held you, you were so frail you seemed to have given up on life. And look how strong you've become now."
Salvisa arrived home in shame, handing over herself and the empty rune vessel to the mercy of the Bishops and praying that she would not be suspected of treason. The Bishops motioned between each other that all was not lost; the Rune halves could be removed and reunited. It was, they said, only the matter of a small ritual. Bram followed a rune scholar down the busy halls of the Crystal Palace, and Salvisa obediently waited her turn.
That had been hours ago, when the sun was not even at its zenith. Suddenly, Salvisa heard the click of the door unlocking. Her heart leapt as she turned around.
"Is it time?" she asked. Salvisa didn't recognize this person- he had the grand robes and hat of a Bishop, but smaller stature than any of the Bishops she had seen so far today. The top of his head was barely level with Salvisa's nose, and his face was hidden behind a brass mask. The mask reflected the candle light of the room back warmly, except where it had clearly been shattered and repaired with silvery metal. The cracks looked like lightning in a summer storm.
"No, they are still setting up the ritual. Salvisa, you must not allow them to get the second half of your Rune."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean exactly as I said. It would take too much time to explain… But if the Bishops have the completed Rune of Change, Harmonia will be destroyed. Your Rune itself will show you the result. Salvisa, you must run!"
Salvisa hesitated, not sure what to believe or say or do. The Bishop took her hand. It's small, she thought in spite of herself, and soft and warm. Then again, they couldn't have been cold with how tight his fists were clenched until now.
"I helped design the ritual." He said softly, "It's still too crude- you will be torn to pieces even if the Rune willingly leaves your body. And worse will happen to Bram once his half of the Rune is completed. Salvisa, please escape. If you love your country and you love your son, you have to."
"But if I leave, what will they do with Bram?"
"He will be safe. The High Priest needs him."
They both fell silent for a moment.
"How can I leave? There will be guards everywhere."
The Bishop let go of Salvisa and walked over to a panel in the corner. With a gentle press, the panel swung in to reveal a dark corridor. A draft of cold air stung the room.
"Take this corridor to the kitchen, and out through the storage rooms. The servants will pay you no mind. From there, it doesn't matter what direction you choose. Just don't let the Temple get the Rune!"
Salvisa nodded and stepped into the narrow passage.
"Salvisa, before you go-" the Bishop said, slipping a ring from his finger and pressing it into her hand, "Keep this as well. I will find you as soon as I can, and you'll know me by this ring's mate."
"You won't let me see your face?"
"No, if you fail before we meet again, they will force you to tell everything. I would lose my last chance to help you."
Salvisa shut the door carefully behind her. Once inside the passage, Salvisa found it both broader and lighter than she expected. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the thin streams of light that filtered through from above. The amount of sound that filled the room was fascinating yet frightening. In the room where she had been imprisoned, she thought it was silent save for the whisper of boots and conversation in the outside hallway. Here, Salvisa could hear the creak of the floors above her, the harsh reprimands in the room she thought was exactly next to hers, and could even catch the Bishop closing the main door into the room that previously held her. With a deep, measured breath, Salvisa padded as quietly as she could through this hidden world.
"Please, take a seat." a Bishop gestured for Bram to take a richly upholstered armchair.
He hadn't known what to expect when taken into the hands of the Bishops. They first took him to the infirmary for the most thorough medical exam he ever had, and then halfway across the Palace to some Rune scholars who had only muttered between themselves, made brief incantations, and ceremoniously copied down the form of the True Rune on Bram's forehead. Now he was being asked to sit down in front of people vastly his superior. Gingerly, not sure if he was becoming a punchline in some elaborate prank, Bram sat down. He didn't realize how tired he was until the soft cushions enveloped him.
The Bishop himself occupied almost an entire couch, though most of the space was occupied by the voluminous folds of his robes. Of the man shrouded in them, Bram couldn't guess very much. His long beard was becoming a watery corn-silk blond, and he had a rounded face that could have been forty years old and worn or sixty and well-fed.
"Drink?" The man motioned to a decanter.
Bram shook his head, "No, thank you, your Grace."
"You should relax, Bram." The Bishop laughed softly. It was a warm, easy laugh. "Our scholars tell me that it would be hard to find someone better suited to bear a True Rune. You will be fine."
"Thank you, your Grace."
"I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, considering your father." The Bishop said almost off-handedly. He looked at Bram's expression of shock with deep concern. "You mean Salvisa hasn't told you?"
"I've only heard her husband died in an avalanche at Verloren Pass, before she adopted me."
"Ah yes, Colonel Auxier Posthuma. That's troubling... I should have suspected Salvisa would do such a thing. Bram, I apologize that we haven't taken action sooner. Your true father, Bram, is the High Priest himself…"