A quick formatting note before we start this chapter: any dialogue written "like this" is telepathic communication.
Peter groaned as the late morning light shined on his face. He was hoping that sleeping in would cure the strange headache that suddenly started the previous afternoon, but no such luck. As he sat up, Peter decided that all the other normal physiological headache causes had been ruled out, as he had more than enough time to try and heal himself.
Realizing it might have a different variety of cause, he focused on the magical energies of the Deck. Focusing on each of the kingdoms in turn, he halted when sensing Diamonds, noticing a massive change in the balance of life and death. Peter then tried to focus on the Royals themselves, but found something even more perplexing. Two of the four Royals had a strange energy emitting from them, and the other two were missing entirely from the area.
Peter could only conclude that something is rotten in the kingdom of Diamonds.
Jumping from his bed, he ran out of his room and across the corridor. Peter barged through the open door into Gilbert's room, where the other Joker was sitting on his bed with his hand against his head.
"Gil, something's wrong in Diamonds," Peter said, "Have you sensed it yet?"
"No, not yet," Gilbert mumbled, "This damn headache won't go away."
"Well, start trying to sense it, because my headache went away when I did."
"Ugh, fine, what's no damn important about Diamonds all of a sudden?"
"Very strange magical energy, coming from lots of death surrounding their castle."
"What of the Royals?"
"Francis and Vash are there, but there is a strange energy emitting from them. I can't find Antonio or Lilli, they might not be in Diamonds anymore."
They were interrupted by the telepathic voice of a familiar young woman.
"Gilbert, Peter, please answer me, we need your help."
"That was Queen Lilli," Peter told Gilbert.
"Queen Lilli, where are you? What is happening in Diamonds?" Gilbert answered the Queen's plea.
"There's been an attack, Antonio and I barely escaped. Please come to Spades at once," Lilli explained.
"Spades? Why are you there?" Peter questioned.
"Please come, we'll explain when you get here," Lilli insisted.
"Well, let's go find out," Peter said, and Gilbert nodded his head.
After a blink of an eye, they were in a meeting room at the Spades castle. Peter looked around and saw the Spade Royals with Antonio, Lilli and Emil.
"Your majesties," Gilbert said as he bowed, "What happened in Diamonds? There is a disturbance there strong enough to throw off the energies of the Deck itself!"
"The Club Royals showed up at the castle and attacked us," Lilli explained, "They killed Vash."
"Francis stayed behind to allow for our escape" Antonio continued, "He still hasn't sent word of his survival, which means we need your help."
"So, you need us to see what is going on in Diamonds?" Peter guessed.
"Exactly," Lilli replied.
"Why do you need us?" Gilbert asked, "Can't you send some Spade or Diamond soldiers?"
"We saw Roderich using magic, Gilbert," Antonio elaborated, "Magic that didn't come from the Club Jack's Bow."
That made Peter freeze in his spot, and a quick glance over proved that Gilbert was also alarmed.
"That can't be right," Gilbert denied, "Roderich doesn't use magic without his Bow."
"I know, I saw you test it that one time," Antonio confirmed, "And yet, there was a glow of magic when he was holding Vash's wrist after stabbing him."
"Francis instructed that you be summoned if we hadn't received his raven by noon today," Arthur added on, "Considering the situation, we decided getting you involved a bit earlier might be a better idea."
"Good thinking," Peter acknowledged, "What do you say, Gilbert? Are we going to Diamonds?"
Gilbert bowed his head to concentrate for a second, before nodding.
"Yes, we'll go," Gilbert said, "Get some rest, Antonio and Lilli. We'll bring a report as soon as we can."
Gilbert grabbed his shoulder, and Peter closed his eyes while Gilbert teleported them both. Once he felt Gilbert let go, Peter opened his eyes and felt his heart sink.
Corpses were spread all around the entrance to the Diamonds castle. Servants, guards and notaries had all perished, and the smell of death was appalling.
"It was just the four Club Royals that showed up, right?" Peter checked in shock, "They didn't bring a whole army do to this?"
"Don't let that fool you," Gilbert replied through his trance, "Those four alone are strong enough to take on an army."
"It looks like they already did," Peter said, looking down at the corpses. There were signs of different causes of death, but they all involved at least one of either bloody slashes or remnants of magic.
The Jokers went through the castle entrance, and found the foyer was also filled with bodies.
"Peter, over here," Gilbert said, and Peter followed to where a body lay in the middle of the room, dressed in well-tailored orange clothes. As soon as Peter saw the jaw-length blond hair, he knew it was Jack Vash.
"Lots of blood," Gilbert commented, "Lilli said Roderich stabbed him, right?"
Peter breathed deeply, before concentrating. He felt a small source of magical energy near Vash, along with what smelled like burnt skin. He followed the source to Vash's right knee, and halted when he realized what it should be. Peter tore the fabric, and found a large burnt patch of skin, with the outline of a diamond embossed in the middle of it.
"Vash's Diamond Mark," Peter observed, "It is supposed to fade away when he dies, but the skin just burned instead."
"I've never seen that before," Gilbert admitted, looking at the burnt Mark.
"What would make this happen?"
"It definitely wasn't normal, that's for certain. Not only are there no other burn victims yet, but the fabric covering it doesn't have the slightest trace of burning."
The Jokers stood up, and Peter followed Gilbert up the stairs, noting that the smell of corpses wasn't as strong as downstairs. However, when they reached the top, they noticed there was smoke towards the end of the hallway instead.
"Peter, go check that out," Gilbert said, "I'll check this wing."
As Gilbert turned right towards the King's study, Peter went left towards the fumes. Once close enough, he saw that the smoke was coming from Queen Lilli's study. The door was open, but lots of smoke was staying in the room. Noticing the balcony at the other end of the room, Peter teleported towards it and opened the balcony doors. The smoke fled the room quickly, and Peter felt the magical energy flowing through the smoke.
This fire was definitely caused by Queen Elizaveta.
Once the smoke had cleared, Peter looked around the room. The bookshelves and desk had nothing on them, and the ashes and dust were scattered to every corner, as if there had been books and scrolls spread around the floor before the fire.
It was all destroyed. Even all the Diamond Queen Ledgers were gone.
"Peter, I found Francis," Gilbert said, interrupting his thoughts, "He's dead as well, a deep slash through his chest and throat. His Mark is burnt, just like Vash's."
"Elizaveta set the Queen's study ablaze, all the Diamond Queen Ledgers are destroyed," Peter replied back. "The books and scrolls were all over the floor, as if Elizaveta had been looking for something."
"We need to figure out what the Club Royals are up to," Gilbert said, "You report to Spades, tell them what we found. I'll find the Club Royals and see what I can figure out."
"I'm on it," Peter said, before teleporting back to Spades.
Meanwhile, in the King's Study, Gilbert was still kneeling by his friend's corpse. After talking to Peter, the shock had faded into depression. So many years, so many memories, and now Francis was laying there soaked in blood. Especially after Jeanne's death, their group knew that they would all bite the dust at some point.
But not like this. Not so soon.
Gilbert pulled his emotions together, and told himself to get to work. He reached over and pulled on Francis's eyelids to close them, before standing up and going over to the balcony. As he overlooked the nearby plains, Gilbert was relieved to see that the carnage had been limited to the castle. Using the peaceful landscape and fresh air to clear his mind, Gilbert closed his eyes and focused his Joker magic.
First, he channeled the spirits of the Jokers. As a means of accessing the Deck's history, the Jokers were able to summon the memories of their predecessors. Gilbert made the connection, and searched for any appearance of the burnt Marks having appeared before. Nothing came up directly, but one Joker's memory from a few centuries ago surfaced of a prophecy the Four Queens were assembling. The prophecy, known as the Absorbing, spoke of how the Four Suits of the Deck will be destroyed, and all would unite under one banner. This was when the Marks would change differently than before.
Gilbert knew the burnt Marks on Francis and Vash were certainly different, but could it really be the Absorbing?
Having found all he could on the topic, Gilbert ended his connection to the spirits, then channeled his magic on the Deck itself. Searching for the Club Royals, he searched for a few minutes before getting a hit and refining its location.
All four of them were in a carriage.
In Hearts.
Planning his teleport, Gilbert saw a tree that would pass just above the carriage in 10 seconds. With the blink of an eye, Gilbert relocated himself to a branch on that tree. A quick look confirmed that the carriage was approaching. In the nick of time, he teleported himself onto the carriage, landing as softly as he could on the roof. He crawled to the small vent just over the side of the carriage, and he could hear voices.
"When we arrive at the castle, what will be the plan?" Gilbert heard Roderich ask.
"We will play it by ear, but we will do what we did in Diamonds," Ivan replied.
"So, I get to pick a fight with Lovino? That should be fun." Natalya said.
"Queen Valencia wrote the Ledgers I need from Kiku's study. Once I find them, I'll burn the rest." Elizaveta said.
"Very good. Just remember, our top priority is killing the four of them." Ivan said.
Having heard more than enough, Gilbert noticed a city gate approaching, and teleported on top of it. As he watched the Clubs carriage go by, he realized they had just reached the capital city of Hearts.
"Peter, we have a big problem," Gilbert spoke, "The Club Royals just arrived in the Hearts capital. What they did in Diamonds, they plan to repeat here."
"They're planning to kill the Heart Royals? What do we do?" Peter asked.
"See if Spades and Diamonds will give us any backup, then get over here," Gilbert said, "I'll go to the Hearts castle and warn Ludwig."
Author's Note
So, in response to the previous chapter, pastaaddict mentioned that Hearts should watch out, now that Clubs had attacked both Spades and Diamonds. I got a laugh out of that, what a good call! I can't wait to see everyone's responses to what goes down in Hearts!