Day 42:
"Iris."
Someone shook her awake in the dark of the caravan.
"Wha…?"
"Reina is gone," said Cor.
Iris sat upright and narrowly missed slamming her head into the underside of Cor's bunk.
"Where?" She clambered out of bed and reached for her boots. Cor was already fully dressed and moving toward the door.
"She's gone to Steyliff Grove, of course." In the bunk above Reina's, Ardyn was lounging, undisturbed. He had his hat over his face but underneath he was smiling. "Going to charge in after her? You two are so cute."
"Should have known this would happen," Cor said. "She won't have taken the car. If we hurry we can still catch her."
No one was asking the important question.
"Why didn't you go with her?" Iris pointed a finger at Ardyn.
"Oh, I will." Ardyn's smile stretched and twisted. "But I thought I'd linger long enough to watch the chaos unfold."
Ardyn dissolved. Black mist billowed out from his bunk, swept around Iris, and seeped through the cracks in the caravan.
"We're going," Cor said.
"How fast can we get there?" Iris asked.
The answer turned out to be 'too fast.' Whoever had designed Reina's car had included enough horsepower to light a whole city. The road zipped by outside, a black blur. Maybe it was better it was dark out there. She didn't have to think about how fast they would slam into the side of the cliff on a bad turn if she couldn't see the cliff. Just don't look at the headlights. Yeah. That was best.
When Cor finally stopped the car outside Steyliff Grove, Iris' head was filled with tingling numbness. They were still alive?
They were still alive.
She was never driving with Cor again.
"Light?" Cor held one out to her.
Iris blinked. They were standing outside some sort of carved stone ruins. There were lights here, but not normal lights. Like. Glowing orange lights inside the stone. Somehow she didn't think they were powered by whatever power company did the street lights out here. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be enough once they went through those gaping black doors. She fumbled for the light and clipped it to the front of her shirt with shaking hands.
"Let's move," said Cor.
Steyliff Grove was a maze of interconnecting hallways, wide chambers with crumbling bridges, and a worrying number of bones. Cor raced through and it was all Iris could do to chase after him. Too bad his legs were twice as long.
Aside from the bones, there wasn't a lot else. Nothing moving except the two of them. Maybe a couple spiders. No daemons, thank goodness, but now that she thought about it, shouldn't there have been daemons? A great big dark ruin in the middle of a swamp and there weren't even daemons? Who wrote this story? Rei couldn't have killed them all, right? Or else they would have just come back. Probably. Maybe. Okay, honestly, Iris didn't really know much about daemons, but they sure weren't here, and whatever the reason was, it was good by her.
They walked through a room that couldn't exist. It didn't make any sense. How could they be looking up through the bottom of the lake? But they were. There were fish and she could see the moon and everything. Iris stumbled a couple steps looking at floating fish instead of where she was putting her feet before Cor grabbed her arm. He pointed up ahead. It wasn't until then that she realized she could hear combat up there.
She gave Cor a nod and they both broke into a run. Charging head-first into a fight. Yup. No way this could end poorly. But hey, Cor was going in first, so if something pounced and cut his head off, she could just turn tail and run, right? Yeah, okay, maybe not so much.
Purple lights burst up ahead. So it was definitely Reina, and now that they were closer they could hear… wings? What was even going on up there?
The roar of some huge beast echoed through the halls and nearly knocked Iris clear off her feet. But Cor didn't stop running, so neither did she. When the hallway dumped them into the room ahead, it was like they had left the ruins altogether. They were standing on the edge of an enormous room—Iris couldn't even see the walls or the ceiling. But she could see Reina. And she could see the thing that had roared loud enough to render her deaf in one and a half ears. It was a… bird? Maybe? A wyvern? She'd never seen one of those, but it was definitely big enough to fit the stories.
Reina walked straight down the center of the room like that giant bird monster didn't bother her. The Armiger spun around her, a whirlwind of blades cutting at the beast whenever it got too close to her. She hardly even looked at it. She hardly looked anywhere except toward the far end of the room—whatever she was after must have been down there.
"Charging in, are we?" Ardyn asked.
Iris spun to find him leaning against the wall by the entrance.
He smiled. Yup. Still creepy. "Do you really think she needs your help? How sweet. And idiotic."
"Reina!" Cor's blade appeared from nowhere in a burst of blue light. Must have been the king's magic, because Reina's was purple. He was on his way down the hall nearly before Reina turned.
When she did turn her eyes widened. "Cor—no!"
The beast dove for him. Cor rolled to one side, neatly missing the talons and turning to face it.
So they were charging in now. O-kay. Iris reached for the magic Reina had loaned her and drew her sword. While Cor's appeared with blue magic, Iris' matched Reina's: violet all the way through. She thought she heard Ardyn sigh behind her.
"Iris, Cor—go back!" A barrage of spectral arms assailed the beast one after another in an unending flow.
"You any good with that?" Cor asked Iris.
"Stopped the emperor, didn't I?" Iris asked.
The beast dove again, trying to escape Reina's Armiger. This time Cor parried the talons, twisting his katana and holding long enough for Iris to strike at one scaled leg. Her blade bit into flesh. It was too dark to tell what color it bled. But it did bleed.
"One old man." Cor grunted, shoving the beast away and cutting across its foot.
"Look." Iris set her stance. "If you don't think Dad's training is good enough, you can teach me your own tricks after this."
When the beast came back, she lunged to the side and came up behind, leaving a gash across the underside of its tail.
"I might just." Cor grunted, holding talons at bay while Iris drove her sword in deeper toward the beast's abdomen.
It took to the air again.
Reina reached them. "Are you alright?"
She looked them over, like she thought they were just kids. Sheesh. Elders had no respect for their juniors these days. Motion caught Iris' eye before she could think of a fitting response. It was coming back down. She lifted her sword as it dove, claws outstretched and—
All four sets of talons slammed into a solid barrier, glimmering luminescent violet in the dark. It covered Iris and Cor completely.
"Reina!" Cor struck it from the inside. Nothing happened, save the twang of metal again magic.
Reina stood on the outside. The Ring of the Lucii blazed on her finger—the power of over one hundred generations of kings swept around her, lifting her off her feet and turning her Armiger into a storm of blades as if the glaive of every Lucian monarch whirled at her fingertips.
Iris' blade went slack in her hand. The Armiger gave Reina wings, the Lucii gave her power—it danced over her skin and burst on the beast whenever its claws came too close to her. In seconds the whole monster was just a pile of feathers and scales on the floor.
Reina landed back on her feet. The barrier around them dissolved. When she turned to face them her skin was still alight with the magic; it sank back into her body bit by bit, leaving faint white lines or ashy cracks, which slowly faded into flawless skin.
Iris was too awed even to be irked that she had locked them away like something to be protected.
Cor wasn't.
