And here is the third anniversary of the story! A long chapter this time, and it comes with some special news. On the Discord server, I ran a poll on whether to continue with exclusively David-centric storytelling, or try branching with short one-chapter or mini-arc length perspectives of other important characters. Please tell me what you think, this is an experiment for me as well as you all! Here's hoping for another good year of progress!
~~~Late July, Gramont Estate~~~
Unlike the relatively centralized core of the Valliere estate, the Gramont family, one with a history of being high-ranking military commanders instead of royal advisors, had a plan similar to a town, defended by a wall surrounding the entire complex located in southwestern Tristain, though not near the border with Gallia owing to the Gramont's role as the traditional leaders of the Dragon Knights.
Even in times of peace, the training grounds to the eastern end of the town were often in use, and one in particular had been taken on by the heir to the entire estate.
Guiche took a moment to stand still, catching his breath as he and the Valkyrie he had created stood side by side, facing an equally exhausted Montmorency, who had her wand drawn from a distance away. Unarmed, she had to rely on her ranged magic to defend against Guiche's close combat style, and it had started to take a toll on her willpower reserves as she took a deep breath before speaking.
"I don't know what you're on about!" she shouted, a tone in her voice normally used for when she caught him cheating with some other girl. "David this, David that, you act like he's the only person I talk about!"
The boy stood up, the motion of his wand in his off hand directing his golem to raise its sword. "Every time we talk about something, it always comes back to him!" They had sparred numerous times whenever she visited his family estate, but this wasn't a training match like normal. Real motives, and a real fight, this was a match with an end goal in mind. "No matter what I try to talk about, it always comes back to David. You only talked to him for a few days, why did you suddenly get so invested in him?"
With a flick of the flower, the Valkyrie rushed forward, raising its sword in a vertical slash aimed at the girl, who ducked back, planting her free hand on the ground to deliver a kick to the side of the blade, knocking it away and sending the golem off balance, stumbling behind her while she stood back up, pointing her wand at it while facing the boy. "Rad. Ior. Vibrate!" The Valkyrie jolted, frozen in place as the sound of metal sliding against metal came from its bronze body, before it collapsed, turning back to the earth it was made of behind her. "You've been his friend longer than I have, why can't I want to talk to you about something we both have in common? Founder knows we've been distant since you started chasing other girls. I don't see David like that, and you didn't see me accusing you of leaving me when I found out you were sleeping with Kirche!"
"I was being stupid, and I learned my lesson!" he shouted back, raising his wand again, before his eye narrowed as he had to hold his wand hand to his chest. "My willpower...I'm not used to this kind of attrition…" he said to himself, watching as Montmorency knelt to pick up the blade the Valkyrie had dropped, and he blinked as he noticed that the blade had bent under the force of her kick. Laughing hollowly, he stood straight again, pocketing his wand and choosing just to use his sword. If he couldn't create more golems for fear of his stamina running out, then he'd just have to fight personally. "That was 'Fist', wasn't it? You've never used Wellspring against me before…"
"I want to prove to you I'm serious." she replied, lifting the bent sword in front of her. "Even if I have to beat sense into you. That's what I said I would do when you asked me out after the tournament, wasn't it? I wanted to be the foundation your earth magic is built on. That hasn't changed, and I don't want to see you wavering now."
He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling before responding as he lifted his sword with both hands on the grip in front of him. "When I learned about your history, about the hard life you had to go through when your parents died, it made me realize that I shouldn't depend on one platform to support everything about me. It lead to me becoming weak and slipping away from you, but David taught me that I can learn to be independent without sacrificing people I care about. That's why I still use this sword that I gave him when he first came here." He frowned, looking down at her feet as the two got into position to continue the fight. "I knew from the moment I saw you that there was no way I could ever beat you. Even before we first fought, you were always just behind Tabitha and Kirche in grades, and while I didn't know then what sort of magic you had, I could tell you were going to go a lot farther than the me who's just living in the shadow of his dad." He moved his free hand to wipe away the liquid pooling at his eyes, before steeling his gaze as he shifted his feet to look her in the eye.
"I know I'm just being paranoid because I bear the guilt of betraying you before, but it's true that I still don't know that much about you. That Carter guy I've never even seen, who took care of you after your parents died, the life you had before even they found you...I don't even know why you're so desperate to cover those scars from where the tips of your ears were cut off that you spent half an hour a day making sure your makeup perfectly covers them."
He smiled, a sad expression not fitting his normal demeanor. "I always wondered what you looked like before I met you, before the you who was too young to choose for herself was told to act human and never reveal your real nature. Why did it matter? Were you lying when you said your parents never knew where you actually were born?"
Montmorency bit her lip, staring forward and remaining silent for several moments, before giving a wordless shout of frustration as she threw the bent sword to the ground, tossing her wand to the side and letting it skitter across the dirt, raising her arms to either side as she gave a grim frown to her boyfriend. "I don't know who my real parents are, and I don't care. The Montmorency family took care of me and made me their heir even though I was just some random elven orphan, and Carter taught me magic and manners. I'm loyal to the people I trust, but I'm also not going to let myself be hurt because I'm not trusted back." She grit her teeth, her eyes widening as she stood still. "If you genuinely think that I would turn my back on you for someone I only have talked to for a couple hours total, then I'd rather be alone again. I'm done with dealing with this, I can't take it anymore. The pain of constantly losing the stability in my life, that's something I never want to deal with again. It's your choice, whether you think you can unwaveringly trust me again, or if we're done for good. If you can't say you believe me anymore, then it's about time that you finally win against me."
~~~Mid-June, Versailles~~~
"Remain concealed when you go home, Chevalier de Norfatul."
That had been all King Joseph had told the girl when she'd returned to deliver her report, and now, she walked down the path between the carriage unloading station and the Orleans Mansion. It was nice experiencing the warm air of late Gallian spring, especially after being in the bitter cold of Varangia, the northern part of the peninsula frozen over for all but a few weeks in midsummer, inhospitable for anything but skilled explorers like herself.
It had been a long time since she'd been sent on a mission like that, but she was a Chevalier after all, so it was expected that she would eventually be called on again. Now, however, her duty was done, and she narrowed her eyes, worried about what the Brainless King had told her.
Why would she need to be hidden when visiting her own home?
She shuffled her feet to bring herself to a power walk, not wanting to waste too much time. Sylphid was still visiting her family in the Dragon Mountains in the southern part of the country, so she had only her own two feet, and with her willpower reserves still running empty from a run-in with a flock of lesser drakes on the way through Germania, she would be helpless if she was attacked again.
She blinked, looking up as her natural affinity towards wind told her about some disturbance at the back of the estate, and reflexively, her speed walking turned to a full blown sprint, clutching her staff close to her body to make her more aerodynamic as she used what little magic reserves she had right now to Windwalk towards the building.
As she entered the door, she was immediately met with chaos as the servants running the large house buzzed along the halls. While her first instinct was to find the head butler and ask what was going on, the statement Joseph had made echoed in her head, and she frowned, moving to sandwich herself into a corner between pillars and shifting her hood to better hide her face as she listened in on the orders being shouted between the servants.
"Where is Phillipe? He was supposed to be taking food inventory today, the young mistress isn't here right now!"
"He's the only servant on duty who has magic, he went after the assassin! We need medical aid, quickly! Get what healing potions we have, Lady Georgia isn't breathing!"
The girl's eyes widened, and, careful not to be noticed by the panicking commoners, she slipped into the labyrinthine halls of the mansion's interior, sprinting towards the former Duchess' room. "Mother, why would someone…" She shook her head, her gaze narrowing to the usual default expression she wore. No, she knew why that woman would be targeted. Though her illness lead to her resigning as Duchess, soon to pass it to the girl, she was still an influential noble, as well as one of the few living relatives to the King now. So, that was why Joseph told her to hide her identity. If her mother was being targeted, then she might be as well, and with her unable to perform any useful spells right now, she was no stronger than a commoner.
All she could do was bite her tongue and hope that what she had heard was a misunderstanding. Georgia de Orleans had been recovering rapidly since taking the Tear of the Water Spirit months ago, and though she was still confined to a wheelchair everywhere she went, she had finally started to show the life she once lead. Almost nine years of hardship could finally be put past what remained of the cadet branch, it couldn't just all fall apart now!
The door to her mother's room was open, and as servants rushed to and from the quarters, she easily slipped in, but stopped in her tracks as she witnessed the sight in front of her, her eyes widening as she froze, her knuckles turning white with how tightly she gripped her favored staff,
Right away, it was obvious that the terrible things going through her mind had been accurate. Leave aside not breathing, the floor was dark with blood, and though the ex-Duchess didn't have any visible wounds, as she was held up and washed off by multiple servants, her skin was paper-white, drained of all color as she stared forward blankly. Her face was neither a smile nor a look of horror, just that same neutral stare she had given to everything when under the effects of the poison.
As someone bumped into her, she was snapped from her paralysis, standing up straight as she realized she had slumped forward, held up by her staff driving itself into the cracked tile floor. Her hood had come off at some point, and she looked around, aware of the shouting around her, though it sounded muted, far away like it was being spoken through several stone walls.
Her face was uncovered now, she knew it. She should be trying to explain herself, to tell them why she had come home a month earlier than her expedition was planned to end. She should apologize, ask calmly what had happened. She had been prepared for something like this for years now, why was she only now unable to respond?
"Lady Charlotte!" came a gruff voice, and her gaze was torn from the sight of her mother as Phillipe, the head butler who often greeted her when she returned home, grabbed her shoulders, turning her to meet her eyes. The concern on his face was obvious, and she couldn't help but give an uncharacteristic chuckle at the sight.
"Phillipe...I'm home...You weren't at the foyer, I had to come in myself. Everyone's so active today, what's-" She was cut off as the man bent to one knee, wrapping his arms around her as he intentionally turned her to face the door.
"I'm sorry...We weren't...None of us realized what was happening until…" In her recent memory, the old man had never once wavered, but here he was, his voice trembling as his arms shook around her small body. "Your mother, we'll try everything we can, but I doubt we can do anything. I'm sorry, Lady Char...No, Lady Tabitha…"
She was silent for several seconds, a grin on her face as she stared forward art the hallway, before her own arms lifted to meet his embrace. "You never cry, sorry for yelling at you that one time. Mother died a long time ago, didn't she? She passed when she took that poison, but now, she started to rot. Isn't that what's happening?" Her eyes shook in her head, unable to look away from the random spot she'd picked for her view since she couldn't turn around as her voice began to crack, the happy facade failing to remain intact. "Mother is...Who did this?"
Phillipe was her most trusted subordinate, a man she'd known since she was a baby, and she expected him to give her some lie to help comfort her. Something that would work on a baby, because that was how he saw her. The old butler had never treated her as the soon-to-be Duchess she was, or as a veteran Chevalier who had been across the continent. "...It was Ghoti, that damn assassin from those Brimir's Shadow bastards hiding out in Lorraine…"
She jolted, confused by the honest statement as he pulled away, looking her in the eyes again but keeping her firmly facing away from the carnage inside the room. "Lady Josette, no, she is Casper now, she went after him. She should be fighting him as we speak, and with her unique constitution, his signature Exsanguinate spell can't work on her. Just wait, we will have vengeance for Lady Georgia, and we'll-" He blinked, calling the Chevalier's name, before shaking her a few times before his eyes narrowed, and he sighed, bringing her into an embrace again. "...Oh. You've fainted. I truly apologize, you've just returned from an ordeal in that northern place, and this is all you had to return to...I hope you'll forgive me, Lady Tabitha...