To add to this central problem, there was also the fact that, like any organization, the Church was taking for her "dirty" jobs not exactly the intellectual elite. Most Knights of the Holy Office were chosen for their blind obedience, for example (however, the recruitment was better for the others Orders...) However, and this was why they have killed the Inquisitor in priority, the Inquisition was not made of brainless monks...Inquisitors were not frantic and stupid fanatics, far from it. They were generally much more educated than most of the Nobles or even the High Clergy, and not only in matters such as theology. The Inquisition was also extremely methodical and careful in her recruitment: all Inquisitors were actual believers in Ajora, and were totally incorruptible, persuaded that they were working for the triumph of the true Faith.

All this was only making the Inquisition more dangerous than any opponent for someone that had attracted her wrath. The Inquisition, like in fact most of the courts of justice in Ivalice, was of course using physical torture on prisoners. But, usually, Inquisitors were not only wanting the barely credible confessions that could always be obtained by those methods...They were also using more subtle pressures, that could lead the accused of actually believing that they were truly guilty of Heresy. A golden example of those very devious methods was the way their oaths of safe passage have been written...that have been respected, in a way. It was mentioned on the documents "that all the individuals concerned with this case of Heresy must come to Lessaria for the hearings".

What would happen if this condition was not meet was not openly said, but a very good hypothesis was that the safe passage would not be granted...Or, little problem, two Heretics, and certainly not the less prominent ones, had concluded a sort of ''gentleman deal'' with Delita...This gave the Inquisition a golden pretext for arresting the others...Other thing, this condition forced the ''Heretics'' that were (rightfully) cautious about the Inquisition and the Church, to follow to their doom in Lessaria their friends that believed in it, since their absence at the meeting could be used as a pretext for arresting the "Heretics" that would have come to the meeting. An absolutely perfectly conceived trap (although the execution of the said trap was somewhat flawed, since Renard and his group were at least on the way to freedom. But this was a very, very, very long way)

The main objective was to reach a secondary gate, or any decent exit, in the hope that it would not be too heavily guarded. In any case, they had to move constantly, since staying in the same place would allow their enemies to get them, by the portcullis, guard posts, and groups patrolling the hallways for getting them...Most of the time, the ''Heretics'' avoided the patrols, as any delay could be fatal for their escape. They only fight the battles that could not be avoided...Fortunately, those were only small groups for now, made of regular garrison soldiers (from the regular Ivalician army, the Ost, not the Knight Orders) ...But there was clearly some good-sized elite units that were dispatched against them, because as time was passing, there was less ''Heretics'' alive and free...

The casualties had been terrible, but there were still thousands of enemy soldiers in Lessaria...while a mere dozen of them could mean the end of the little group.

And in addition of being badly outnumbered, they were in a bad position gear-wise too…

Saphirre Flora and Corail tried to compensate by making use of the presence of numerous killed, stunned, or wounded female opponents. They equipped themselves hastily with light armour pieces better fitted with their….morphologies….than the ones they had took earlier, on the first guards they had fought. It was an improvement: the armour they had previously had an irritating tendency of impending their breath and movements…

Short of this fact, that most armours where designated according to gender, (and for extremely obvious and purely physicals reasons…), there was no real distinctions between male and female soldiers here. Ivalice was a nation with weaknesses, like all nations, but like the neighbouring Valencia, it was certainly not a backward thinking nation like Damaskia or Rovannia (backward being really a euphemism for Damaskia). This was a thing that Corail, Flora (and probably Saphirre) were acutely aware: being female in Damaskia (and to a lesser extent in Rovannia) was a nightmare…

Those gender issues put apart, even with the "liberated" gear (also including bullets, gunpowder charges, arrows...) their equipment was still wholly inadequate...For instance, Flora and Corail had only two quivers worth of light arrows (including the ones took on enemies), useless against armoured targets, and even less of the precious heavy ones...

But at least, they found something that was stimulating: After turning one corner, they found out a group of Knights, six of them, in a furious battle against opponents that were hard to see. But those opponents were clearly not on the side of the Knights…and this was far enough for the "Heretics". When the Knights were attacked from the sides by Renard group, they were so surprised that, quickly, the survivors of the said attack pulled out...for coming back as soon as possible with reinforcements...But Renard did not cared about that, because he was overjoyed about the identity of the targets of the Knights….

"Lavian ! Alice ! Are you all right? Are you the only other survivors than us? "

"I…Yes, I, think that we are the only ones, with you…" said a visibly exhausted Lavian, while she was trying to tend the best she could the severe injury she had on the right arm. Alice was not in a better shape: the way she was holding her ribs and her quite harsh breathing probably indicated that she received a severe blow of flail in her midsection.

Little consolation, it was probable that, judging by the blood on theirs blades, they had managed at least to injure several of their opponents, despite the fact that they were in full battle armour, while Alice and Lavian had just their clothes to protect them...

No shields, no armour: their gear was down to two short swords of mediocre quality, taken from the first guards they managed to disarm. Surviving with that was quite a feat.

But it was not their light clothing that was making them shiver so much that this was perfectly visible. Sure, Lessarian nights were often quite cold at time of the year…And well, it was quite obvious that they did not have the time to dress up fully…

What was making them shiver was the fact that they were doomed...Fear...It was fully justified in their case...How two squires (Alice and Lavian, even if they were barely around eighteen, were Knights, but they were still called squires, as they were the pages of Agrias) even quite skilled could hope or win against a full garrison? If they get did not get killed in battle, or kill themselves, they would end in a cell, with one perspective.

Trial. Which meant torture, mental breaking, humiliation, and to top this, execution…

No wonder that their morale seemed to be quite low…On this point, charging at two (like Alice and Lavian did…) a full group of Knights of the Holy Office with such deficient gear was probably as close as possible as suicide without physically making the act.

That said, with the help of another group, their chances of survival increased significantly...If they had the same objective as the other group...This was not the case.

"Come with us ! ", said Corail "I'm sure that with some skill, we can manage to escape"

"No ! (Lavian had a quite despaired voice when she said that.) "Our...our mistress, Agrias, stayed behind to hold them...and was captured...and she did this for allow us to escape this infernal trap... We will NEVER let her in the hands of the Inquisition!"

Lavian and Alice had accepted to withdraw only because Agrias had given us the formal order to do so. Agrias really cared about the lives of her squires, who were in this situation because of her. Agrias had in better times noted, half-jokingly, that her squires would certainly follow her in Pandemonium if she ordered them to do so…Half-jokingly, since the other half was mild-concern over the…mental health…of Alice and Lavian.

Loyalty is a nice thing, especially for knights, but at the point showcased by her squires...

Both Alice and Lavian were quite realist and intelligent. For surviving a childhood almost alone in what was left of the Damaskian Kingdom those qualities were quite needed (as well as some other characters traits that were, how to say, maybe less likable…)

They knew perfectly that they would never been able to assault the detention area of the Citadel, even with the help of the others ''Heretics'' that they just met...The greatest strategy or tactic or the most astonishing swordplay would never been enough to overcome the defences...The only thing that awaited them in the Citadel was death...And, the fact was, neither Alice or Lavian wanted particularly to survive this night...

"Err, Lavian...I don't want to look cynical, but I'm sure that you risk before anything else to follow her in jail, which will not be very helpful on the long run...We are seven, poorly armed, against a full garrison. The best we can hope to do is to get out of this trap alive...Then, trust me, we will do anything to save the ones that have fallen in the hands of the Inquisition...or, if the worst happen, avenge them. You can't do anything-"

Flora suddenly stopped her phrase, realizing what Alice and Lavian were meaning.

"We will NEVER let her in the hands in the Inquisition" Add this to some fact that had been bugging her…How they had managed to cross the path of Alice and Lavian ? They were lodged with Agrias, in a fully different wing than Renard and the others !

It could have been pure luck, but this was unlikely…A thing with much higher probability was that theirs paths crossed because they were right now close to the heart of the Citadel, an area that was connected with most of the complex…Flora and her group were trying to get out of this area. Lavian and Alice probably rather tried to get in (Flora had been lodged in an area that forced the crossing of this area…while Agrias had been housed in a separate tower, conveniently easy to seal off, that did not required to pass in this area. This meant that the squires were not here for the same reasons than Flora…

The two squires did not even have hopes to rescue Agrias. What they wanted was to avenge her, by taking down the maximum number of foes before they get killed or captured (hopefully, killed). This including one target in priority, the worse traitor.

The King…Delita…And it was not the first time he betrayed…

They were not headed for the gates: Alice and Lavian tried to reach the Throne Room!

Renard, when he heard Alice replying quite nervously that they had "to do this", with clear tension in her voice, realized that they were before anything else in shock, and that they were just thinking about the dark treason from which they were all victims.. But for them, one "Heretic" in particular was very important: Agrias, the Heresiarch...

Alice and Lavian were both very attached to Agrias...For what Renard had understood, they had a very harsh life in Damaskia before Agrias had picked them as her squires, and both saw Agrias as the person that had given them a chance, despite their...dubious pasts.

(Neither Alice and Lavian had spoke much on this topic, who was probably explosive…)

They were not in their normal state of mind, and reasoning them would probably not work, even with Renard's indisputable skills for diplomacy and discussion...But no one in Renard's group was ready to let them go to their deaths without trying something...

"Hey, Singleton?" said naturally and quietly Flora "Do you still have some doses of those medicinal herbs you found in Yarjilow and prepared? (To Alice and Lavian) You should take some of them, this...would prove quite useful on the long run, trust me..."

Singleton remained frozen for a moment...Did Flora just gone insane? Yes, he have bought some medicinal herbs during their last stay at Yarjilow and prepared them for obtain a very high quality substance, remarkably potent. But how could this substance could be useful to the squires? This was now a narcotic strong enough to drop down in a few seconds any Human when it entered bloodstream, without much side effects. He had prepared it for coating the tips of the arrow of Flora and Corail, for the numerous times where killing everyone in sight was maybe not the smartest option available.

For instance, Flora would have given anything for having at her disposition one of those arrows during one battle in particular...The one in which Miluda have been killed.

Maybe, this way, Corail would not have been depressed/shocked like she had been…

However, Singleton realized what was Flora's plan quite fast...She preferred to have an extremely aggressive discussion with Alice and Lavian when they woke up then leave them here to their horrible fates...Singleton was mildly worried about the time it would take for the effects to kick in if the narcotic was taken by oral way rather than by the bloodstream, but this was certainly the better thing they could do in the situation...

Renard and Corail had understood what Flora was meaning, too, and took their best "natural" looks. All this would make their evasion/escape even harder, since they would have to carry the unconscious Alice and Lavian. At five, it was possible, but hard. And this would have slowed them. But this was far better than letting them go to their deaths.

The risk was high, but saving two more lives was certainly worthy enough to try it…

Saphirre, always cold and detached, merely waited to see how things would turn out...What make this simple plan was in part the fact that Singleton was a very bad comedian (a drunk, blind and deaf cow would have noticed that there was something strange about they way he handed the vial to Alice), and also the natural defiance of Alice. She took the little vial, however. And "accidentally" dropped it. She was grateful for the efforts about saving her and Lavian, even from themselves. Alice even found this admirable. On the other hand, nothing would make her and Lavian changes their goals.

"Alice", said Renard, "listen me...Do you think that the Inquisition deserve to have two more preys for her pyres? There is already enough prisoners for illuminating several nights of Lessaria ! We are the only hope they have...if we survive to this night...Trust me, things will be hard and complicated enough if we manage to get out of here..."

"Yes, yes (there was more than a hint of…frenzy…in Alice voice) ! Tell me what you hope to do after we leave the Citadel ? You really think that you are going to be able to mount a rescue operation ? Damn, Renard, don't try to fool me...You know like me that they will all die on the stake, even if you do your best to save them...and I'm sure you will, by the way...What will you do, hmm ? You know how powerful is the Inquisition and the Church in Ivalice...You will hide into abandoned mines and in the woods ? To turn out fugitive, brigand, scorcher, or even worse ? It's really hopeless, Renard...We are all doomed. In my opinion, we are better to at least fall with some dignity...

Alice had pointed out something that was quite true...If Renard and Flora had come here in the first place, it was because they knew that the Inquistion could have find them if they did not. This would still be the case after (the only difference was that, this Inquisition would have a mere five person group to hunt, not a much larger one)

Although Renard and Flora knew a...fact...that could change that problem, from Alice and Lavian point of view, it was probably true that the future was quite bleak, and that it was better to end "it" now. It was not true, but it was impossible to convince them….

The only point that Renard still could invoke was the fact that if Agrias stayed behind for allow her two pages to flee, then Alice and Lavian had, for not make her sacrifice worthless, to escape...Unfortunately, Agrias never realized how worthless her two squires considered themselves when compared to her, despite their skills...

Which was actually quite simple: they felt completely worthless.

The only feeling left in Alice and Lavian was the hate of the King that betrayed them so cowardly, giving them oaths of safe passage, and treated those documents as scrapes of papers... And, to the top of it, there was the death of Queen Ovelia...Agrias had always found the official version of an assassin group that assaulted the King and Ovelia quite dubious. Of course, those rumours were coming straight from the Citadel, and blamed Heretics for this matter. Sure, the wounds of the King were so severe that it was quite clear that they had not been inflicted by him. But the weapon used for causing the wounds, whose broken blade have been retrieved after the attack by no one less than Agrias, was a bit surprising...A ancient short sword, quite fancy, but that was of extremely dubious combat value : the fact that it broke when striking at the unprotected King was an ample proof of that. An assassin sent against the King, an exceptionally skilled swordsman, was crazy enough to try to do it with such a bad sword ?

The sword was likely coming from an expensive mural display...the kind of weapon that someone without the slightest knowledge of swordplay, but fearing something, would have took for defence. It was also the kind of person that the King did not think dangerous, since this person was obviously the first one to strike, from the face...Last point, it was a bit strange that an assassin skilled enough for almost killing the King did the mistake of not finishing the job...This left only one potential "suspect".

Ovelia…

And "princess" Ovelia certainly did not attempt to kill Delita for no reason...Knowing the past action of Delita, there was a very high possibility that he was about to kill Ovelia (for secure his throne) when she attacked him, in a desperate act of self-defence...

Alice, when she heard about that from Agrias, had basically thought that if the world had been fairer, Ovelia would have live, and the King die...But the world was not fair, they were the living proof of it. Agrias and her squires had been during a long time the companions of Ovelia...her death have affected them terribly...And now, well, the last lingering doubts they had about the culpability of the King were gone.

Both Lavian and Alice were accordingly not thinking very clearly right now….thus the desperate efforts from Renard to make them see that there was another option…

"It's true that we will probably not able to stay in any Ivalican city on the long run...But I don't plan to hide in forests or mines...We will "simply" go Overseas...In Valencia. After have trying everything to save any of our comrades of arms...Including you two !"

At those words, Singleton and Corail looked each other (as usual, Saphirre showed no reaction.) finding this comment somewhat peculiar...Valencia ? Renard and Flora seemed quite sure to find a very safe haven in this Kingdom (from which they were not natives: they had stated several times being Lessarians...) to the point that they had told several times, before their arrival in Lessaria to the three others members of their party too not worry to much about what they will do if the Inquisition tried to arrest them

The tricky question was why they did not used this possibility before...Was it a kind of desperation solution? Judging by the tone of Renard and Flora, it was unlikely…

Whatever was the answer, both Corail and Singleton awaited it with some impatience...Because, there was a slight problem with Valencia: it was a powerful nation, sharing a lot of traits with Ivalice (as the names showed it clearly...Was Ivalice an anagram of Valencia, or was it the reverse ? The only thing that was sure was that, at some point Ivalice and her sister nation won a quite intense war against their rivals, the conflict being named with fantastic originality the Great War) and the same animosity toward Rovannia...The slight problem was that Valencia was the long time ally of Ivalice, and the Valencians, including their Queen, would certainly agree to help their allies to arrest some Heretics: even if the Queen personally disliked Delita...

"Going to Valencia seeking refuge...Oh, what a good plan ! No need to worry anymore, everything is fine! I have another plan in the same lines ! Why we did not install ourselves in the vaults beneath Riovannes? We could also seek out Vieras cities ! "

The poor Lavian was almost (almost ?) hysterical when she was saying that

The last Viera, if they actually existed, which was not sure at all, with all the time that passed since the Great War (it was what, three, four millenniums ago? No wonder that historians were always saying opposite things about the past of Ivalice, with such imprecision for the dates...) had died some centuries after this terrible conflict. And moreover, they were not living in cities in the Human sense of the word.

Making false maps of Vierans cities and selling them to inexperienced adventurers, who never wondered why someone was selling maps of cities supposed to be full of forgotten treasures for a mere fifty Gil, was a very profitable business (Corail, Renard and Flora had produced very interesting similar maps, more credible and more detailed than most maps on the market. But that did not sell as well….) So, saying "I would rather go find a Vieran city"' was almost like saying "I would rather go dressed as an Rovannian Cardinal in Muria" or "I would rather jump bleeding into a pool full of sharks..."

The part about the vaults of Riovannes had the same meaning. There were certainly several vaults beneath the wrecked citadel that have been destroyed in the Second Siege of Riovannes, but if those vaults contained of course some treasures, they also contained some disturbing legends such as the one of the Blue Ghost, and in a more-down-to-earth way, also a wide variety of very aggressive enemies, brought in the past as guards beasts They varied greatly in size, degree of cunning, sheer physical power, but all of them were fully willing to attack any Human foolish enough to adventure itself in the maze below the ruined network of towers. And this was not considering the said "Blue Ghost"

The name was coming from her color...The "Ghost" part was dubious, however, as she had nothing of the Undead. The unusual (well, considering that it was about ghosts, after all…) part was that this apparition of a teenage Human girl, always located in the lowest levels of the maze, powerful to the point that the most powerful exorcist incantations make her merely smile, simply asked to the ones that saw her to leave the place, in an extremely polite, but quite cold too, voice...To those that did not complied immediately, nothing nasty happened, as there was nothing lower in the vaults. So, on the long run, all adventurers had complied with this polite injunction...the wild rumours that Riovannes destruction was related to the Blue Ghost, being not foreign to this moderation...

By curiosity, when they occupied Riovannes during the War of Ajora, the Enemy had sent a full company of soldiers explore the place (and to secure some loot, too, of course…). Surprisingly, a good number of soldiers returned to the surface, alive and sane of spirit, although an even bigger number of their comrades have been killed. They had found nothing but the bones of unlucky predecessors and horde of predators. This prompted the Enemy to proceed with one more sealing of all access to the vaults...that would last until the next attempt to find the fabled secrets of those Vaults

Thus, both sentences were clear….Lavian had not exactly a good opinion on the plan of going in Valencia, and was finding it as stupid as her own suggestions….

"Well", tried Flora, "if you want, we can also try Damaskia...No one will ever think that we are mad enough to try to go there...And, I'm quite sure it's not as bad as they say..."

Flora had said that in the hope of pleasing Alice and Lavian., and convince them to abandon their plan...After all, most Humans were feeling good at the perspective of seeing their homeland. Her and Renard had been quite happy, despite the Inquisition, to see one more time the town in which they were born, despite some...bad...souvenirs.

Unfortunately, Damaskian "cities", if they still deserved this name, were far worse place to live in time of peace than a besieged Ivalician city during the Civil War...

"In Damaskia ? (Lavian really screamed this time…) All my life was about leaving this forsaken land ! I will never return to Damaskia ! NEVER ! YOU HEAR ME ? "

"Lavian, said in a soothing voice Alice, calm down...and don't scream like that ! You will bring others guards !" (This perfectly rational comment seemed to be a good sign to Renard...Maybe Alice was realizing the foolishness of what she was about to do,...)

"Well", said Corail in an attempt to lift a bit of the tension, "it's sure that now, Damaskia is much more the Kingdom of Ashes rather than the fabled land of princess Ashe..."

"You are quite right", said quietly Alice. "I have not love for my homeland...only hate for it...What burned centuries ago was not just the Damaskian towns...it was civilization too...The cities may been more or less rebuilt...civilization will never be...I was doomed from my birth to a dreadful fate, like all Damaskia is...I'm quite happy to have a few good years with Agrias and Lavian, but this was just a small interlude...Between dying on the stake, or receiving a knife in the back in Damaskia, is there really a difference on the long run ? (She laughed in a way that made everyone shiver...) Our fate is sealed..."

"Hey, an Human is the primary maker of his own fate ! Only those damned Nobles truly wishes to have lives is determined by their birth ! (although, in their case, it's much about the "glorious" ancestors from ten generations away than the position of the stars...Two way to determine fate as false as the other...) There is still hope, you know ! No one is forcing you to go to yours deaths ! Agrias like you, she wants both of you alive and free ! The only thing that we can be assured", continued Corail, "is that no one will lift a little finger to help us if we are arrested...The ones in our ranks that could actually strike deals with the King already made it, without thinking too much to us (She was making reference to two persons, not named by her, but that everyone identified without the slightest difficulty) But if we stay alive, we have a chance, a tiny one I must admit, of being able to score a decisive victory against the Inquisition, the King...and Ajora ! "

"Against Ajora ? ", said with derision Lavian. "Corail, I wonder sometimes if you had actually realized who (or maybe what) Ajora was...It's probably better for your sanity that you are with so little faith... We never had a real chance against him...HE IS A GOD, DAMNIT ! AJORA IS A GOD ! How can we defeat, or kill, a God ?"

Both Flora and Renard took this attack on Corail more than a little unfair-the matter evoked by Lavian was as personal as it could be, but Corail herself took it well…