Spreading Shadows

The power of love is a curious thing

Make a one man weep, make another man sing

~ Huey Lewis

Chapter 4

Widows comfort themselves when they remarry, widowers take revenge. ~ French Proverb

Waking up on a stone floor was no fun, Katarina found.

"Lady Katarina, are you alright?"

"I think so," she mumbled. "How are you, Olivia? ...Olivia!" She sat up sharply and inadvertently headbutted the blonde. "Owie… Oh no!" The other girl had fallen over backwards. "I can't have killed someone with my head!" Katarina exclaimed, trying to remember how to heal someone with light magic.

"I'm not dead!" Olivia protested. "I think…" She raised her hands to her head and rubbed it. "But please don't do that again."

"I promise." Katarina raised her hands. "Let me try and help with that."

'Healing oneself with light magic can be a little challenging,' Ann noted. 'But with the two of you, that's not necessary.'

The two girls applied their light magic to each other's heads, and Katarina sighed in relief. "Thank you." She hugged Olivia once the other girl confirmed that she was also feeling better. "I'm so glad I found you."

The blonde looked a little sad. "I wish I'd broken free so you didn't need to."

"But we can leave now?"

Olivia gave her a rueful look and then reached down to her ankle, revealing a manacle locked around it and chained to the wall. A second chain connected to a similar manacle on Katarina's ankle. "It's not going to be quite that easy, Lady Katarina."

"Oh." Katarina focused on the wall. "Earth bump."

The wall didn't so much as twitch!

"Earth bump!"

The same result.

"No!" Katarina exclaimed. "How could earth bump fail me?"

"I think the wall's been reinforced against magic," Olivia explained. "I've read about it but it's the first time that I've actually encountered it."

The brunette sighed in frustration. "How did you end up here?"

The other girl moved to lean against her. "I was getting ready to leave when I noticed something odd about Prince Julius and his friends. I wasn't sure what it was until I got back to the student council and I told Lord Dieke." She shook her head. "I was such a fool. And I was useless as well. I'm supposed to have the most light magic in years but it didn't mean anything. He knocked me out easily. The next thing I knew, I was down here."

Katarina took the other girl's hand. "There's nothing wrong with having trusted him. He's the Lord President of the Student Council. You didn't have any reason to believe he was a dark mage." She rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed, dislodging the neckerchief she'd still been wearing. "I kind of… guessed it when I was talking to him. I probably shouldn't have just blurted it out."

'No.' "No." Both Ann and Olivia were apparently in agreement on that, although the girl added: "Although it is very like you, Lady Katarina."

"Is it just me, or did he seem a bit… sad?" She bunched up the neckerchief and pocketed it. The summoning pen for Big Stein was still in there as well, even though the giant robot had been destroyed months ago now. Katarina activated it anyway, just in case it helped somehow. It couldn't hurt. She didn't tell Olivia though - there was no point raising her expectations.

"Let me help you with your hair," Olivia offered.

Katarina obediently moved around to sit with her back to Olivia, so the other girl could work at it. Apparently the other girl kept a comb in her pocket. She was obviously crazy prepared for this sort of situation - Katarina decided she should probably start doing the same.

They were just about done working all the tangles in Katarina's hair when the door to the room opened slightly. "Are you both decent?" Sirius asked politely.

"Would you stay out if I said no?" Olivia asked in a tight voice.

"Er, yes? But it might be hard for me to change the chamber pot and give you your food," the boy pointed out.

Food? "You can come in!" Katarina assured him.

The boy moved in with a tray that he left tantalisingly out of reach on the far end of the room, before moving over and collecting a chamberpot from the corner of the room. Stepping outside he returned with a bottle and filled two cups on the tray. "I'd rather not give you a glass bottle," he explained and moved the tray over into reach.

Katarina crawled over and Sirius backed away while she carried it back to Olivia.

"I'll be back shortly," the redhead told her. "Calling for help won't do anything, there's no one nearby."

She honestly hadn't thought of that - the food was too busy reminding her that she hadn't had breakfast. It was some sort of stew, in two wooden bowls. Katarina wolfed hers down and was scraping the bowl before Olivia was even halfway done.

"Would you like some of mine?" the shorter girl offered.

"But aren't you hungry?" asked Katarina and licked her spoon clean.

Olivia smiled and poured about half of what she had left into Katarina's bowl. "It's alright, you're obviously hungry."

"You're the best, Olivia!"

The cups held wine. Katarina didn't particularly like wine. She'd tried some before when she was younger and all she remembered of that occasion was that she'd had the most terrible headache afterwards. Keith said that it was probably for the best that she didn't remember, but mother had been furious as well.

Still, her mother wasn't here and it wasn't a lot of wine. She sipped it a little and then offered the rest to Olivia. It tasted rather watery.

Sirius returned with the chamberpot. He leant against the wall and watched them finish the meal. "This should all be over soon. You ought to be safe here, until then." His face, half in shadow, didn't suggest satisfaction or relief.

"Are you alright?" Katarina asked, after swallowing another mouthful of stew. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He gasped out something like a laugh. "Talk about it?"

"Do you? Want to, I mean?"

He exhaled slowly. "I don't know. I really don't know."

"Why are you doing this?" Olivia asked. "Why use dark magic on the boys - or on Sophia? That was you, wasn't it?"

"Oh, they're far from the only ones." Sirius drew a shaky breath. "I suppose it started with my mother."

"Marchioness Dieke?"

"That woman!" He broke off, seemingly overcome by the venom he'd injected into those two words. Another breath. "That woman is not my mother."

"Eh… but…?" Was he adopted, like Keith?

"My mother was a maid on the Dieke estate," Sirius continued. "After the marquis got her pregnant, she was dismissed and she had to bring me up alone. It was… probably harder for her than I realised. But we were happy. I didn't need a father. And then… and then…" He seemed to choke.

Olivia gripped Katarina's hand tightly. When she glanced at her, the blonde's face was pale.

"We were taken somewhere on the estate," Sirius managed, after a moment. "There was a dark mage there, working for that woman. I saw other children there. Heaped like firewood after the man was done with them."

She wasn't sure if it was Olivia or herself who sobbed at hearing that.

"She… the… that woman cursed my mother. Said, how dare she have a healthy child when her own Sirius was sick and dying. My mother begged her. Said she'd do anything as long as I wasn't harmed. And then she… she said…" Sirius' voice took a haunting tone: "'That precious body won't be hurt at all, it must be perfect for my Sirius to wear'."

Wet tears were rolling down Katarina's cheeks, a match for those on Sirius' face. Or whatever his name was.

"And… and he did it and my mother joined those children… The last time I ever saw her… And I had to pretend!" He cried out, voice rising to a howl. "I had to pretend it didn't matter! I had to pretend I didn't care! I had to act like I loved that woman, that I was precious Sirius! That Rafael Walt was as dead as his mother!" Sirius… no… Rafael fell to his hands and knees.

The boy stayed like that, head down, chest heaving.

"R-Rafael?" Katarina wasn't sure what she was asking. He wasn't alright, that was plain. Could she help? But help him to do what.

Slowly he pulled himself up, kneeling facing the two girls. "I had his memories, or some of them," Rafael continued, voice steadier… although he didn't meet their eyes. "I don't know what went wrong with what they tried. I never saw the mage again, I'd never have trusted his words anyway. But I had something else. Enough dark magic to cloud memories if I slipped up. More than that as I practised."

"You said it would all be over soon?" asked Olivia nervously. "What do you mean?"

"Fanoss is coming," he told them. "The island-breakers, they used to be called. In the old histories. There are centuries of hatred between them and Holfort. They only need an opportunity and they'll break this whole rotten kingdom. Send all the lords and ladies screaming down into the oceans below. Avenge everyone they've murdered and robbed over the centuries. So I gave them that."

Olivia swallowed, "What have you done?"

"That woman thinks I'm her son. She introduced me to all sorts of people." He looked up, and there was a cruelty on his face that did not belong with Katarina's memories of the kind student council president. "A little push, here or there. Making rumours of half-elf line-theft seem real." He laughed sharply. "Who knew that it was actually true at times? Convincing that woman's good friend Malcolm that his plans could still work after his letters were shown in front of court. Sending your friend out with the prince and his pack of fools, so that her father wasn't paying attention to foreign affairs."

So he had been the one who did that. "Did you want to hurt her?" Katarina asked.

"What about the other people?" Olivia burst out. "The people who've already died? The people who'll be killed if Fanoss smashes the entire continent!? People like your mother!?"

Rafael's eyes went shockingly wide. "I…" And then a shadow fell over him. "I don't care any more." Dark magic flared into being around him, a halo of nightmares around his hair, expanding until a ring of black clouds filled the room. "I don't care about anyone since she died. I don't care! I don't care! I want my revenge and then I want it to END!

"No more lies.

"No more pretending to be Sirius fucking Dieke.

"No more of ANYTHING!"

Olivia blazed with light but the shadows cut through it as they tried to swallow her. "No!" the girl protested. "I don't know how to fight this!"

'Guard yourself!' Ann warned, and Katarina envisaged the saintess brushing the dark magic back with a mop.

She reached out and caught Olivia's hand, the other girl having released her in her panic. "Like this." Her own light flared up. Weak compared to the blonde's magic, but she had Ann to guide her.

'I said 'yourself',' the saintess protested. 'You're not strong enough…'

"Oh," Olivia exclaimed. "OH!" And, eyes wide with understanding, she raised their conjoined hands. "Yes, Lady Katarina!"

Light met darkness! The collision was like a thousand discordant bells!

While Marquis Frampton had dismissed reports of dark magic being used against Duke Redgrave, and the student council president had diligently maintained the official line, there was no way to prevent rumours from spreading through the student body.

The students who'd gone out with the fleet were mostly well known - and no one had even tried to hide that Brad had died. Both Marie and Katarina being asked to go with Duke Ades fleet as light mages was also common knowledge.

So when a veritable storm of darkness erupted from the trees at the back of the academy, the result was panic. Classes were abandoned, teachers who stood in the path were simply knocked aside (in one case trampled to the point he'd need medical aid) as students reacted in whatever manner they felt best.

"Is Fanoss attacking?" Yulia called to Violette as she stood on a flower bed to stay out of the way of a flood of young women, servants and a few male students who would probably be quite embarrassed later that they were among those fleeing for the academy exit - either to take shelter in the capital or to take ship for their homes.

Violette glanced at her sister, who should be at least a little more informed as she was on the Student Council.

Scarlet glanced up at the grey-and-black sky. "I see no skyships up there," she reported matter-of-factly. "I'll investigate."

Guessing at her twin's likely intentions, Violette caught her arm. "Wait, you shouldn't go alone. I'll go with you."

The younger of the two blinked and then relaxed slightly. "Certainly." Then she scooped her loose-haired twin up in a princess carry.

"Waaaait!" Violette cried out as Scarlet simply leapt across the panicking students with a single standing leap, rebounding off the wall of a classroom and towards the roof of the dining hall. She was reminded again that Scarlet was - among other things - one of the biggest experts at the academy in physically reinforcing herself. Even the instructor for that class had just given up and granted her immediate completion of the course with perfect results, saying that there was nothing more he could teach her. Not the sort of admission a teacher liked to make.

Scarlet paused, balancing on the edge of the dining hall roof. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Stop at my room first! I want my sword."

"Ah." Her sister nodded and then started jumping from building to building again. Violette was glad she had a fairly strong stomach, because otherwise she might be wearing her lunch right now.

It only took a few moments for Scarlet to land on the balcony of Violette's rooms. "Can you open this from the outside?" she asked.

"I didn't really plan on needing to…" She broke off as Scarlet drove her fist through one of the glass panels of the balcony window, letting her reach through to unlatch the doors. "Well, what's a little more broken glass right now?" Violette figured out loud.

She went inside, careful not to step on the glass, and found her sword where she had left it in the umbrella-stand near the door. Just as she was buckling the sword belt around her waist, someone knocked on the door. "Violette, are you in there? I heard glass breaking."

Violette unlocked the door and opened it, finding Sophia on the other side. "Scarlet was in a hurry and broke a window," she replied. "You'd better stay in your room."

"Wait!" the albino girl exclaimed, pointing at the sword. "You're going to investigate, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I'm on the student council! I should go with you!"

Violette examined the smaller girl and then asked, not unkindly. "What can you do?"

Crimson eyes narrowed. "I'm a wind mage! And I'm not going to be useless again."

"You realise that this could be the same dark mage that caught you before?" Scarlet asked, walking in from the balcony.

Sophia nodded. "That's another reason to go."

Violette took a deep breath. "We may not have time to discuss this. Scarlet, you're in charge."

"I can manage two," the other silver-blonde declared. "But it may be a little rough."

"What do you mean ro-aaaaugh!" Sophia's question was interrupted when Scarlet scooped her up and threw her over one shoulder. Violette had just enough warning to brace herself for winding up in the same position on the other shoulder.

And then they got the even more nauseating experience of being carried backwards as Scarlet ran out of the room, leapt off the balcony and started running for the back of the campus

"This is - not what - I had in - mind!" Sophia exclaimed. "Urk! Oh- ugh - not again!"

One advantage of being carried like this, Violette thought, was that Sophia's lunch was left behind rather than being plastered all over them.

At last the wild ride ended and her sister put the two of them down at the edge of the trees. They turned around and saw the shadows of the forest twisting and maddened by the magic being unleashed.

"Didn't we search the trees after Olivia vanished?" asked Sophia

Violette nodded. "Sirius looked there."

"Leon and I were searching the woods back when Katarina was abducted," Scarlet remembered. "There's a ruined building in there, but before we reached it the ransom note arrived so we never went inside."

"There must be something!" protested Sophia.

"Let's find out!"

The three girls forced their way in, Sophia and Violette flinching away from the crackling bolts of dark magic. "This doesn't seem under any sort of control," Violette exclaimed. "Look out, Scarlet!"

Her sister grabbed hold of a tree branch and swung it against the streamer of magic, sending it scattering back and away from her. "I thought dark magic affected minds. This doesn't seem anything like that."

Sophia shivered. "Is that the ruin?"

Violette nodded. "It is… and it's where the magic is coming from!"

Sure enough the magic was blasting up out from behind the roofless walls of what looked like no more than an old supply building. Something left behind by some old student project, perhaps? They crept closer and peeked through the empty doorway.

Violette saw the darkness was rising from one of the flat paving stones on the far side of the overgrown interior that made up the floor - or rather where it should have been. It had been levered up and she could tell that there were stairs leading down.

"How do we get down there without getting hit by the magic?"

Sophia cupped her jaw. "We can see the stairs, so they lead back towards us, right?"

"I guess?"

The albino girl indicated the floor. "Then why not just go right down? Whatever's down there, it's likely just a cellar so it probably fits right beneath the whole floor." She paused. "Er… wait, we'd need an earth mage. Maybe if we found Keith…"

"I have another idea." Scarlet raised her right hand and then slowly curled her fingers together. Magic began to lightly glitter around the hand.

Violette grabbed Sophia and threw them both off to the side as her sister brought her clenched fist down on the floor right inside the door.

Dirt and stone exploded upwards in all directions. Sophia yelped and threw up her hand, a gust of wind deflecting most of what would have landed on them.

"That… was not what… I had in mind?" the smaller girl admitted, looking up. "But… it seemed to work."

Scarlet brushed herself down and gestured to the crater that had formed. "There's something down there besides dark magic."

Sure enough, what was visible through the hole at the bottom wasn't entirely black shadows. The glitter was a familiar hue.

"Light magic," Violette concluded. "I think we've found Olivia."

Sophia scrambled and looked over. "No… Well, yes! But we've also found Lady Katarina!"

"Sophia!" a familiar voice came from down the hole. "We're down here!"

Grabbing another of the paving stones, Scarlet levered it up and started to expand the hole until it was large enough for them to get down there. Violette and Sophia helped with the smaller debris filling the space between the paving slabs and the roof of the room below.

As soon as there was enough of a hole they dropped through, finding themselves in a corner of the room, shielded from the raving dark magic by a bubble of light magic. Scarlet grimaced at the chains restraining their classmates, but Violette's eyes went directly to the source of the dark magic.

She wasn't sure at first if he was the source or its victim. Sirius' eyes were hidden by shadows, and others formed something like a cloak around him as he screamed wordlessly at the centre of the storm. "S-sirius?"

"No," Katarina corrected her. "Well, yes, kind of. But also no. It's complicated."

"He's the dark mage?" Sophia exclaimed. "My god, it really is always the last person that you'd suspect."

Violette's twin gave up on breaking the chains free of the wall - apparently that was beyond even her - and she snapped some of the links instead. "So we knock him out and bring him to justice?"

"I've no idea what light magic will do to him," Olivia admitted. "But I don't think walking into the middle of that would be… Lady Violette!"

Stepping out of the bubble, Violette felt the magic tear into her. Felt it burrow into her, looking for memories and the pain inside of them.

Every time her mother had screamed at her for not being Auld.

Every time she'd been oh so politely reminded that her father had abandoned her.

Every time that man came back and demanded she be a perfect sister to Scarlet and Vermilion, never bothering to explain how.

Every time Chris turned away from her.

Every time she'd hidden and cried in shame.

In anger.

In fear.

On trembling feet she took a second step. Then another, tears pouring down her face.

Again and again, feeling every moment over again.

And finally, after what seemed like eternity, she was standing in front of her fiance, or whoever he was.

"What is it you want?"

For it all to end, part of her begged.

But there was another part. A part she kept hidden away.

A part that watched her sister dance - or Alan composing music - or even Vermilion playing with his toys.

A part that still hungered for all the cruel lies of love and beauty, even if she'd never have them.

"What do you want?" she asked, forcing the words out. "Tell me."

For a moment there was another face visible over Sirius'. An older man, dark bearded. Foreign, she thought. "I want revenge. My…"

The next words were tangled. As if too many people were trying to speak with one throat. She could make nothing of it.

"Revenge?"

"Yes." Two voices, in agreement. One a grown man, the other a child.

Violette took hold of him, one hand on either side of his face. Her thumbs seemed to crackle, so close to the black voids over his eyes. "Leon says that the best revenge is to live well. I think… he's probably right."

"I… no… mother… what…" His lips spat words. She felt sweat on his face. And for a moment one eye was clear. Grey. Innocent. Terrified.

And like searing light, hands settled upon her shoulders. Reflected in Sirius' one visible eye, she saw Katarina on one side of her, Olivia on the other. And behind them, Sophia and her sister had followed the two light mages into the heart of the darkness.

"Rafael," Katarina pleaded, her voice barely audible over the roaring in Violette's ears. "Let us help you."

Rafael? His real name, Violette guessed.

"No, I… I want…"

"Rafael," Violette asked. "Has revenge ever, even once, made you feel any better?"

Crackling light reached down her arms, scorching them as the magic wove itself into the shadows most directly around Rafael, the cloak around his face, her hands clinging to it.

His head tried to shake. Couldn't. He mouthed one word.

No.

"This will probably hurt," she apologised. And closing her light-wreathed hands upon the shadows, she yanked them away from him.

From the way Rafael screamed, she'd probably been right.

God knew, it hurt her.

Violette fell to her knees keening as the shadows gave way and searing pain blazed through her hands and arms.

Her sister's strong arms caught her, which was the first comfort.

Olivia's healing magic was the second confort.

Rafael - or Sirius - had also fallen. His head lay in her lap as she knelt over him.

"I'm breaking off our engagement," she told the unconscious boy, taking a third comfort for herself.

It was about time she did something for her own sake.

Leon came down on the academy, braced to fight whatever was causing the dark magic to fountain up out of it, only for it to gutter out as he landed. "Well, that was anticlimactic."

"Did you scare it off?" Marie Fou Lafan asked hopefully from his lap. There was only a fairly thin cushion between them and even her modest weight was enough to make that uncomfortable at this point.

"I hope not, because hunting whoever that was would be a pain," he grumbled and landed his knight-armour on the edge of the woods, not far from where the dark magic had seemed to be coming from - and also where Katarina's signalling pen was transmitting from. Most of the students seemed to have sensibly headed away from it, but a number of students led by Nicol and Clarice - mostly younger members of the student council - were approaching, clutching weapons intended for the dungeon.

"Leon!" the blonde called up. "When did you get back?"

He cracked open the hatch. "Get out, Lafan. I've had quite enough of your perfume."

"You just don't know how to appreciate a lady," she protested, but she did scramble out.

Clarice looked up eagerly at the hatch but then her face took a dangerous look. "Lafan? What are you doing in my man's knight-armour?"

The little blonde scrambled down. "He wasn't going to try fighting dark magic alone, Atlee. I was the only light mage he had to hand."

"A painful requirement," Leon confirmed, climbing out with more difficulty than he liked. His legs ached. "Knight-armours are not made for carrying two people. I should probably have considered that when it was being rebuilt."

Clarice grabbed hold of him and kissed him. "We won then?"

He met her gaze, arms encircling her.

"Dammit," she sighed and rested her head against his. "I figured you'd survive a loss, you did last time. But Lafan managed too."

"Giving her fair credit, she saved a lot of lives," he admitted and glanced around. No Ades twins, no Sirius Dieke… "Where's the president?"

"Missing," Nicol told him. "And it couldn't have been a worse time. Deirdre's looking for him and I wouldn't want to be him when she finds him."

"The vice-president?"

Clarice snorted. "You're holding her."

"Promotion?" he asked? The vice-president was another boy, son of a southern count. Hefner? Something like that - he wasn't really memorable.

"His family called him home."

Leon winced. "Right. And does anyone have any idea what happened to that?" he gestured to the woods.

Nicol gestured for them to follow him and started walking into the woods.

"No, but someone saw Scarlet heading towards it, carrying her sister and Sophia," Gerald added.

That… didn't make much sense. "Before the dark magic?" Leon asked, walking with one arm around Clarice.

"No, after."

"Hmmm." At least that ruled out some sudden plot-twist like Scarlet being the secret dark mage. Leon had a pretty good idea who it was, but he'd not picked up on the young man actually doing anything… and there had just been no time to investigate further after bringing Sophia back. "And what was that about Olivia?"

"She didn't make it to the Ministry," Clarice told him soberly. "We all thought she'd left, but the next day Director Smith sent a messenger looking for her."

"...dammit." That suggested that this was close to the book's events around Sirius. And if Katarina was at the Ministry, then no one was likely to help snap him out of his semi-possession by the dark mage who had tried to transplant the real Sirius over to him - assuming that that was remotely accurate. And assuming that she was at the MInistry. It was her signal that Luxion had picked up as Dreadnought arrived in radio range of the continent. So she might be in the middle of this.

He started walking faster, Clarice hastening her own steps.

They'd almost reached the overgrown ruins - an old laboratory building, if Leon remembered the original plans of the Academy correctly - before they saw movement. Two heads of silver-blonde hair, one of the owners carrying the missing student-president and the other being supported by both Olivia and…

"Katarina!" Gerald exclaimed, rushing forwards to his fiancee.

"Violette!" his twin called in almost the same tone and he too ran forwards, taking over supporting Katarina's cousin as the brunette was pulled away by the blond prince.

"Oh my god!" Marie squealed, "When did this - ow!"

Leon removed the hand that he'd chopped down on the crown of her hand. "Read the moment, brat. What happened?" he asked Scarlet.

"We broke into the cellar, rescued the kidnapped girls and smote the villain," she explained.

"Sophia." Nicol pulled his own sister into a hug. "You worried me."

"I'm sorry, big brother." The albino buried herself against him.

Clarice looked at the unconscious redhead that Scarlet was carrying under one arm. "So was he a villain or are you taking him with you as a trophy?"

"He is the dark mage," she said blandly, and then added. "Or I think so. Cousin Katarina said it was complicated."

"Uh, speaking of Katarina…" Marie pulled off the Saintess' bracelet and offered it to Katarina. "This is yours?"

"My bracelet!" she squealed and put it on immediately.

The little blonde gave her an apologetic look. "I got the impression that the temple didn't ask you before giving it to me."

"It's okay, you gave it back." Then Katarina gave her a big hug. "And you came back safely. That's great."

"Ah…" Leon coughed into his fist. "This… Um, Scarlet, Violette… about your father… I have bad news."

The twins exchanged looks. "If you're going to say the bad news is that he made it back safely, I may kick you," Violette said tiredly.

"No," he admitted. "I'm sorry, Scarlet. Your punch bag is gone."

"Ah." She dropped Sirius unceremoniously. "I…" The girl swallowed.

Violette hobbled towards her, supported by Alan. "It's okay to cry, Scarlet."

"Even for him?"

"Even that man."

"Oh." Scarlet leant against her sister and a tear did form at the corner of the normally stoic girl's eye. "I'm going to miss him."

"That's okay." Violette wasn't crying but she put her arms around her sister. Her sleeves were gone, Leon was surprised to see, as if they'd been burned off, but her arms were unscathed. Alan put his arms around both of them.

Reaching down, Leon picked up Sirius Fou Dieke. "His mother didn't make it either."

"She wasn't his mother," Katarina corrected him.

"What?" asked Gerald.

"Well, you meant Marchioness Dieke, Leon? She wasn't his mother."

Olivia spoke up. "The real Sirius must have died years ago. He told us that he was Sirius' half-brother - the Marchioness tried to move her son's soul into his body."

"Is that even possible?" Clarice exclaimed, a horrified expression on her face.

"I don't know," the blonde admitted. "I don't think it worked. Or not entirely. He said he had some of Sirius' memories… but the way he was acting, I think the dark mage who carried it out left something of himself there as well."

"He's the one who enchanted my sister?" Nicol asked quietly, but with a note in his voice that drew all eyes.

"Leave it to the Ministry," Leon told him firmly. "Frampton's gone, I suspect Director Smith will be happy to keep your father informed - he was the previous minister, so she likely knows him well. And we need every source of knowledge he can contribute about dark magic. Garrett's destroyed two fleets, he has to know that the kingdom is on its last legs. And Fanoss is rebelling against what he's done to accomplish that. He's got little choice now but to roll the dice and finish the war in victory so he can go home."

"Who is Garrett?" asked Katarina.

"Count Garrett," Gerald told her. "Leader of Princess' Hertrude's council. But what do you mean Fanoss is rebelling?"

Leon glanced north and pointed at the distant but visible shape of Dreadnought in the distance, as visible for the thin contrail behind as its huge hull, so far away it was. "Princess Hertrude is on her way to offer an alliance against him. Her sister is trying to clear his supporters out of the principality." And Luxion's best guess at lie detection suggested that the princess was at least grudgingly sincere.

"That's… huge." Gerald admitted. "But now that two fleets have been destroyed… How bad was it?"

"Worse than last time," Leon admitted. "My best estimate," Luxion's, rather, which was likely very accurate, "Is that between this time and Duke Redgrave's defeat we've lost something close to ninety thousand sailors and knights."

"Ninety… thousand…?!"

The number was mind-boggling. And what made it worse was that close to half of Garrett's own casualties so far were those of his supporters that had been with Hertrude's forces. Holfort had been mauled and they'd barely managed to hit back at all.

Marie reached out and handed the Saintess' Sceptre to Olivia. Then she reached up and removed the Necklace, offering that as well. When Olivia was obviously too startled to take it, she secured it around the larger blonde's neck. "I thought I could be the heroine," Marie admitted. "But it was all I could do to protect a few ships. I'm not good enough."

"No one would have made it back without you," Leon pointed out.

"The - A real heroine would have saved everyone." The little girl swallowed. "I'll do what I can to help, but the kingdom needs the Saintess' real heir."

Olivia stared at Marie, eyes wide with disbelief. Then she looked at Katarina for direction.

"Looks like there's a few people who need to go to the Ministry," Leon told them. "Back to the Ministry, in one case. What were you doing here?"

"I had an idea to find the dark mage!" she said proudly.

"You got chained up in a dungeon," pointed out Scarlet.

"But I still found him!"

"Katarina!" Gerald cried out. "Why didn't you tell anyone?!"

"It was the middle of the night!"

"Wake me up! I don't care what time it is!"

"But I'm not allowed to go into a boy's bedroom!"

Leon sighed. "Gerald, would you take your fiancee, Olivia and your cousin's little bit of fluff…."

"Hey!"

"Shut it, brat. Look, take our three light mages here, and Dieke, to the Ministry," Leon continued. "I'm pretty sure that you, at least, won't get distracted."

The prince nodded.

"Nicol, Alan, can I trust you with the intrepid rescue party here?"

"Sure," Alan agreed. Nicol said nothing, but he was still holding onto his little sister, as if afraid she'd slip away if he let go. Given recent events, he might have a point.

"What are you going to do?" asked Marie, pointing at him.

"I am going to escort my lady to her rooms and possibly do some things with her that are none of your damn business." He gave Clarice a quick look, "If I may?"

"I thought you'd never ask."