Looking over all of my chapters, I think it's obvious that we aren't following the official QB timeline here. So from now on, you shouldn't be surprised if there is a major deviation in proper times and junk. Of course, this can't really be considered AU, since we are in the same universe… so what, alternate timeline maybe? I don't know, minus time, I'll try to keep things pretty straight and canon, as far as official events and characters go.

Church took careful aim at an approaching enemy soldier, lobbing a scavenged spear at him. His aim held true, and the deadly iron head pierced the guardsman through the leg. It was by no means a fatal blow, but that was exactly what he had been aiming for: he didn't want to kill these guards for simply doing their jobs.

"Well, I may not be much of a warrior, but when it comes to throwing things at people…"

A blast of flame at Church's back caused a wave of blistering heat to wash over him, though his jacket did a surprisingly good job of shielding him from most of it. Chances were that Nyx had just charred another handful of soldiers. This was something Church mentally stated as nonchalantly as possible, even though it did kind of bother him. For a girl so seemingly sweet and bashful, she appeared to have little or no qualms about killing, or at least killing these Vance soldiers in particular. Still, Church wasn't in any position to judge someone he had just met for defending themselves, even if they did it rather remorselessly.

That said, this situation actually wasn't going all that poorly. While the two of them had been detected by the enemy a little too quickly for Church's liking, they were still holding their own in the alleys of Alabaster Town. Unfortunately, staying off of the streets meant that the two strangers had to navigate the maze of narrow corridors between the stone houses in search of an exit.

But for the moment, the enemy had been dispatched. The guard Church had wounded had already fled the scene, crawling or dragging himself away from the carnage. For now, Church and his fire-flinging savior were alone, and a brief respite was more than welcome.

"You really are putting a lot on the line just for some guy you met at the bar Nyx. Unless this is the kind of commotion you usually stir up...?"

The mild glee on her face from striking back against Vance in some form fled Nyx's face immediately as she realized that her newest figure of adoration was addressing her. "N-n-no, I-I don't do things like this often. B-but I... I couldn't let you stay in jail..."

Church gave her a winning smile, since she seemed to like it so much. "Actually, I got arrested for fighting back against those thugs I was in a cell with. It wasn't your fault."

To his surprise, Nyx didn't seem to take this news as though she hadn't already known it. Which raised some interesting questions about how she would know why he got arrested (the obvious conclusion was that she had been there to see it) but Church decided not to ask those questions for his own peace of mind most of all.

Either way, there was no space left for conversation as another squad of soldiers cornered them in the alley with their weapons drawn. As always the arrival of danger put everything else to rest.

"Wow… Dad must be pissed."

Elina and her eldest sister, the latter clad in several bandages, stood within the castle courtyard that had been ravaged quite recently by battle. Together they looked up at the severe damage Claudette's thunder strike had done to the stone wall. Where the evaded bolt had struck, there was a massive hole, spanning nearly one hundred and thirty feet from end-to-end. Several laborers, mostly comprised of villagers from the surrounding area, were working on repairs, but such a thing would probably take months.

And of course, the fact that Claudette had inadvertently caused this damage was not lost on her. She berated herself for not being more careful, but her irritability didn't show on her face in any way.

"Well then it is fortunate that Father is preoccupied with more serious matters. This blunder is probably the least of his worries."

Elina yawned with what was probably more boredom than fatigue. "Yeah, what's got him so serious anyway? I mean, Dad's always serious, but I think it's a little worse than usual today."

Claudette was more than aware of what thoughts occupied the Count's mind, as he had seen fit to inform her of the Swamp Witch's offer of an alliance after she had recovered somewhat from her injuries. But beyond herself and her father's trusted advisers, no one knew what was going on.

The Thundercloud General wasn't really sure how she felt about such a proposal. It was clear to everyone that the Witch could not be trusted, but it was also clear that as things were now, Vance would never possess the capability of taking down the Queen on their own. They just didn't have the military strength, or the tactical aptitude of the current snow-haired ruler.

Realistically speaking, they could have just waited until Aldra was displaced by another warrior, but there was little chance of that happening. The beast of a girl had already eliminated whatever opposition came her way in the last tournaments, and chances were this one would be no exception. Claudette knew she was considered by many to be a match for Aldra, but honestly she did not think it so. She knew without pride that she was strong, but Aldra had never even unleashed her full power against someone. Restrained she had been strong enough to defend her title in the past two tournaments.

That was why Claudette considered Leina's downright foolishness in joining Queen's Blade exactly that. Word had spread quickly of a Vance heiress signing up to participate, so much so that the Count himself had learned of it within a week of the actual occurrence. To say he was monumentally displeased with the development was still a massive understatement. As for Claudette, she just thought her younger sister was a fool. There were far too many strong fighters out there for a naive, unskilled woman like Leina to consider fighting them. To even dream of defeating the Queen herself was absolute stupidity.

That was not to say Leina didn't have time to improve. As it was the tournament itself was still months away, and even a complete amateur could grow quite skilled in that length of time, if they dedicated themselves to their craft. But no amount of intense training would bring Leina to the level of her competition in just a few months. One did not simply accrue skill through dedication and a good teacher. Years of fighting experience were required to reach the level of the highest caliber warriors.

All things considered it was heavily desired by the Count to bring the heir of his lineage back, but it was quite difficult to track one person across the vast vestiges of the Continent, especially with the dangers that it posed for enemies of the Queen herself. The only useful thing known about Leina right now was that she had indeed signed up for the tournament, which was why Elina had decided to as well, in hopes of easily locating her sister when the tournament actually occurred. After all, at least that guaranteed an encounter, provided they could both win enough to actually have a match against one another.

"Uh… Claudette? Sis?"

Elina's questioning tone broke Claudette out of her consuming thoughts, and she realized that she had never answered the youngest Vance sister's question. "The worries of a Count are many, Elina. He's dealing with matters that we thankfully do not have to attend to."

Elina didn't look like she believed her father's job was any more stressful than hers, but she just gave a dismissive shrug and let it stand. Silence ensued for a few brief moments, but with all of the world's problems, it was no surprise that it didn't last.

"Captain Elina! General Claudette!"

The two siblings turned to face an approaching soldier, who was nearly out of breath. Elina looked like she didn't want to deal with anything trivial, so Claudette took the initiative to respond.

"What is it, soldier? I trust there's a good reason for this…"

"A nearby village has requested a platoon of reinforcements to counter a jailbreak! One of the prisoners fits the description of the man found in the castle last night! The town guards have suffered heavy casualties!"

Mention of the man that had broken out of the dungeon caught Elina's interest. In her opinion, nothing was a better remedy for boredom than chasing down a criminal. Still, something about the news being relayed didn't make sense. "The town guards are getting wasted by someone like that? There's no way that can be right."

"He's being assisted by a pyromancer of some sort milady!"

"Well geez, why don't you start with that next time...?"

Seeing Claudette contemplating going to rectify the situation herself, Elina quickly stopped her. "Don't worry, Claudette. I'll take some troops and head over there. Don't waste your time on something so petty."

Claudette knew that Elina was only offering to head up the soldiers so that she could escape her restless boredom, but she figured her little sister could do the job well regardless. "As you wish. Be sure to try and bring him back alive. I would have a word or two with one of our castle infiltrators."

"Yeah, yeah, sure Sis. Hey, can I borrow some of your men? I wanna test them."

"My men are not toys, Elina."

"But they're supposed to be the best we have: I've never gotten to see them work. Besides, all of my troops are on guard duty, so I can't take them."

Claudette was a little averse to giving up some of her personal troops, but she figured that there would be little harm done, even with Elina in command. "Fine, but only a single platoon. My men have more important things to do than round up prisoners."

There was a somewhat morbid appreciation that Church had for Nyx's abilities as he watched her throw flame at anything that looked even remotely armed or armored. That said, Church had gotten to witness even more of the strange paradox that was his savior.

Her expression was completely different while fighting her Vance enemies. It was so sadistically gleeful that Church could not believe for a moment it was even the same person he was looking at. It did not seem possible that the girl that he had aided in the bar had this level of malevolence in her. But even though it was more than a little unsettling, Church did not judge her for it. He may have, but to do so without knowledge of why she was behaving so maliciously would have been entirely unfair of him. For all he knew something terrible had happened to her at the hands of Vance soldiers, and now she achieved catharsis through battling them. He had no right to judge until he knew more.

That said Church didn't have long to speculate on his womanly companion. Another handful of black armored guards was soon rushing towards the two of them. This group of three looked like raw recruits, smooth faced and young. Church felt a pang of regret as he imagined these kids probably even younger than him getting crisped by Nyx, who would most likely care less about their lives if they wore the uniform.

Fortunately, Nyx was distracted by a couple of guards on her side of the alley, swinging that grotesque purple staff and spouting flames of orange from her fingertips. In an attempt to alert the approaching greenhorn kids to the danger they faced. Church made every effort to draw their attention to Nyx, hoping that the sight of a fire spewing beauty would scare them away. Seriously, what moron wouldn't be scared of someone who could manipulate flames in such a manner?

Of course, it was hard to miss a stunningly beautiful and attractive woman spouting small infernos, so the three new contenders in the fray balked and stayed quite a few meters away. Church tried to shoo them away altogether, but the three soldiers seemed to have enough courage to at least stay nearby, instead of fleeing the scene like cowards.

Church heard more cries of agony from Nyx's general direction, followed by the clang of metal clad bodies crumpling to the ground. Finished with them, she turned back to check on Church, and would no doubt spot the three indecisive troopers.

The man in question tried to frantically shoo them away before Nyx decided to torch them as well, but their salvation came in another form. A guard captain someway down the street called out to them. "Squad Seven, pull back to the marketplace! Reinforcements are coming!"

More than happy to comply with the orders to put distance between themselves and Nyx, the three-man squad hastily retreated down the street. Seeing them flee, Nyx raised the palm of her hand in preparation for another fount of flame, but Church stepped in front of her, hoping she would decline blasting him in the face.

"Those guys are already bailing Nyx, there's no need for that."

Nyx's vibrant green eyes were cold for a moment, but her gaze readily softened. "A-alright… I'm sorry about that, I just… I got carried away. I-I'm sorry…"

"I think self-defense is enough justification. Either way, we should probably make ourselves scarce while we have the chance."

Nyx nodded bashfully, averting her eyes. With eye contact broken, Church shifted his gaze away as well and accidentally towards his ally's writhing staff. Just the sight of the thing almost made Church recoil, but it was also grossly fascinating. He felt almost certain that the creature's sole crimson eye was staring at him with near animal hostility.

Eager to distract himself from that unnerving thought, Church grabbed Nyx by her free hand and tugged her in the direction he thought he had entered the town from with Mirim earlier that day. Unbeknownst to him, Nyx nearly passed out in embarrassment, and her staff was incredibly displeased with the whole situation.

"I honestly have no idea how her Majesty can be so nonchalant when so many dangers loom just over the horizon!"

Irma, once again fetching Aldra's adviser, followed slightly behind the balding man in velvet purple robes as he wailed about all the non-royal aspects of Aldra's character. Irma honestly had no idea why he felt the need to vent to someone who cared absolutely nothing about his opinion, but perhaps her lack of response made Jauffre think he was being intently listened to.

"She always spends so much time on her silly games, when she should be fretting over the possible war situation with Vance! And the funds used for the search efforts could be better spent bolstering the ranks for when the Witch's undead armies inevitably invade!"

It was difficult for just about anyone to elicit a reaction from Irma, but Jauffre was one of the few people around who could exasperate the North Realm native to an extent where even she rolled her eyes. Despite the more than satisfying job Aldra was doing ruling an entire continent, Jauffre always found some fault in either her methods, attitude, and in one instance, the lack of regal appearance. His exact words had been, "Lazy posture, unkempt hair, and an outfit more suited to a shameless commoner than a Queen."

No doubt some of the people he ranted to told others of it, and Aldra was more than aware that the man constantly spoke ill of her regarding trivial matters, but she knew that Jauffre only had the country's best interests in mind, and although he was slightly paranoid and incredibly picky about how a Queen should look, act, and speak, Aldra valued his opinion enough to keep him around.

"And sometimes I just wish her Highness would take a brush to her unruly hair! It should be more neat and streamlined and straight. That may be one of the few things the Vance heirs do correctly."

Needless to say, Irma was more than happy to usher Jauffre into the ornate throne room through its large oaken doors, so he could waste his breath on someone other than her.

And he found plenty of reason to do so. He found Aldra lying sideways on her throne, back leaning against one armrest with her legs crossed and thrown over the other. This lax position seemed to be Aldra's favorite when she found little else to do but think.

"Your Highness! Such an undignified position is sure to be harmful to your regal image! What if a civilian saw you like that!? The result would be catastrophic!"

Clearly not alarmed by the 'catastrophic' results of her relaxing pose, Aldra barely tilted her head in order to look in Jauffre's direction. "I believe that with everything we are dealing with at the moment, my disregard for a regal image may be overlooked. Have you acquired the documents I asked of you?"

Aldra moved right into business, and Jauffre, well aware of his position of importance, dropped the trivial matter that had been the previous topic and dove into his role. He at least knew when to focus on the real important issues.

Irma tuned out the words themselves, and focused on the appearance of the young ruler before her. It was clear that Aldra had not been resting well lately. Irma knew this was because of her steadily worsening nightmares, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Seeing Aldra in any less than optimal condition made Irma uncomfortable. Since the closing days of the Barbarian Wars, Irma had viewed her Queen as an invincible force: anything that defied the fantasy of that image unnerved the Queen's most loyal vassal. After all, supreme tactician or not, even Aldra could not outmaneuver her dreams.

"Irma?"

Her name snapped Irma out of her sullen musings, and she bowed low before her Queen. "Yes, your Majesty?"

"I believe I have found a task befitting of someone I trust. Would you mind taking a look at these papers Jauffre secured for me?"

Irma accepted the papers Aldra offered from her unbound right hand. A quick once-over for important parts and key words gave Irma the gist of things. A Warrior Priestess from Hinomoto was coming to the Continent, seeking aid from the Queen after a devastating attack from the Kouma ninja clan. "The emissary from Hinomoto... do you truly think she is here looking for assistance?"

Aldra breathed out a long and weary sigh. "Considering that Hinomoto is truly governed by the shogun aristocrats and not their darling Empress, I find it difficult to believe that visitors from that land would be here for any other purpose than to claim the throne, or failing that, to acquire important information. Although there is a chance that she may be an ally of the Empress and is truly looking for aid, it is also possible that she is a spy."

"I assume that my assignment is to discern the nature of her presence?"

"Indeed. Whether she is a spy or not, I trust your discretion in the matter. Still, try to refrain from killing her regardless of her allegiance. The dead cannot be questioned."

Irma bowed low again, well aware that Aldra was placing a lot of trust in her, and glad that locating a foreigner would not be too terribly difficult. Since Queen's Blade was orchestrated by heaven's hosts, they were very cooperative when it came to reasonable requests from the Capital Church. Melpha would likely be able to pinpoint the foreigner's whereabouts with little trouble.

Since the first step was obvious, Irma decided to go about performing her duties straight away. After all, Aldra would make sure anything important was said before her assassin left.

"There is one more thing, Irma."

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Feel free to take it easy on the way back. You have gone a long time without a break. When's the last time you visited your strays?"

Despite never having told Aldra of the many cats she took care of around Gainos, Irma wasn't the least bit surprised that she knew about it. "I can't afford breaks, so long as you have troubles that I can deal with."

"Well in that case, I order you to remain outside of the castle for at least a month."

"Your Majesty, such an extended absence is-"

"A command. I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself while you spend a little time on you. A lack of social interaction can be quite detrimental to a person's mental health you know. Go out and socialize or some such."

Considering Irma's personality, she was almost sure that Aldra was joking about something as wasteful as 'socializing', but her face and tone of voice were both unflinchingly neutral. Even though Irma was reluctant to leave Aldra's side at all, never mind for a month, she was being ordered to do so, and she knew that Aldra had her best interests in mind. Even Irma had to admit that her life had been stressful of late, and a little time away from serious affairs would be welcome. She was just too stubborn to take that break, especially when it meant leaving all of those troubles to Aldra alone.

"Can we shorten that time to a week, your Majesty?"

"It'll take roughly a week just for you to finish this assignment Irma, leaving no time to yourself. I'm sure a month is fine."

"…two weeks?"

An amused smile flashed across Aldra's face. "Three, at the least. Twenty-one days away from the castle, or else."

Convinced that that was as much negotiating as could be accomplished, Irma made her exit, silently sulking about her misfortune. Despite all of her overly mature features, she was still as stubborn as a young child when it came to leaving Aldra unattended. Whether or not she could take care of herself was irrelevant: it was whether or not the Queen would lose herself in some philosophical musings, or waste several hours of the day creating new stratagems for impossible battle situations. She really was easily distracted by her hobbies these days.

"…are we lost?"

Church stared intensely at another intersection of alleys, trying to decide if he had been here once already. However, it was a hopeless endeavor to notice anything distinguishing, and he had to admit that Nyx's innocent question was most likely the truth.

"Well I am. But you live here right?"

"Um…n-no... I was just stopping for a job on the way somewhere else…"

Of course that was the case. When did anything ever go in Church's favor? Ignoring the instance about two hours ago in which a pyromancer had come to save him from prison. "Then yes, we are definitely lost. But the street can't be too far away: this town isn't that large. Let's go."

Nyx nodded her affirmation, causing her lengthy brunette locks to sway with the motion. Church had noticed that she was more of the type for following rather than leading, but that wasn't surprising with her obvious lack of all-around boldness.

Having decided on a course of action, the two fresh allies made their way continued to move towards what Church hoped was the center of the town. He wasn;t completely hopeless with directions, but the fighting in the back alleys had definitely disoriented him. Thankfully though, the unlikely duo shortly found their way onto one of Alabaster Town's main streets, surrounded by vending stalls and storefronts.

Church recognized it as the market area that he and Mirim had visited earlier that day. Naturally it was devoid of civilians at the moment, likely thanks to whatever forced evacuation they had been forced to undergo during this emergency that included a jailbreak and a pyromancer. Either way, Church found it amusingly ironic that the place that had been bustling with mostly peaceful negotiation and haggling was now empty.

Now that he was in a familiar area again, Church had little trouble discerning where they were in relation to a means of escape. Although to be honest, he was fairly certain that it wouldn't have even been that hard to just clamber over the town walls themselves, as they were scarcely tall enough to thwart any real attempt at doing so. All it would take is a few crates or barrels or maybe even a single ladder.

But there was little reason in bothering with that now that Church was able to determine which direction he had entered the town from. Why bother climbing over a wall when the gate was easily accessible enough? That said Church wasted little time in leading his newfound comrade in that direction.

It was made obvious as they moved through the main thoroughfare that not everyone had gone and hid in their homes as they were probably supposed to, but naturally neither Church nor Nyx was about to go out of their way to harass or hurt a bunch of innocent bystanders.

What was also made obvious as they reached their destination was the fact that, obviously, the town gate was closed. After all, why would it be open if the guards were trying to keep someone in? That said there was only a handful of soldiers at the gate, and Church was fairly sure Nyx could handle most all of them.

Surprisingly enough though, an order to open the wooden gate was issued by one of the guards. For a brief, admittedly asinine moment, Church wondered if they were just going to let them walk out because Nyx was too strong to bother resisting any longer. But of course, it was at that moment that he remembered the mention of reinforcements from one of the soldiers earlier, and it did not take much effort to deduce what was about to come through that gate.

His suspicions were unfortunately proven correct in the worst possible way, as the gates opened to reveal not only a large contingent of Vance soldiers, but a certain blonde in particular that was leading them all into the town. It didn't take more than a second for this blonde to spot Church, and the look of intended vengeance immediately put the soldier ill at ease. He should have known that his fortune in meeting Nyx as a savior was doomed to be countered by meeting Elina as an enemy.

"Eat the fish, Nowa."

"I can't!"

"You'll starve if you don't."

"But I'll be a terrible person..."

"It's already dead, just eat it. It's a waste of life if it doesn't benefit someone."

Alleyne sat back and watched as Echidna tried to convince a starving Nowa that eating a cooked fish didn't make her a terrible and unforgivable person.

"I'd rather starve!"

Seeing Echidna's lack of success, Alleyne took a more persuasive route. "Nowa, if you starve and die, think of all the things you'll never see again. You'll never be able to go back to the forest, Ru will be left all alone, and you'll never, ever get to see me or Church or anyone else ever again."

Nowa almost glared at her instructor for using such dirty persuasive techniques on her, but they worked nevertheless.

By the look on the poor girl's face as she ate, you'd think she just accidentally killed somebody.

So many stories, so many ideas for new stories, so little time… it's been awhile, so I would definitely like to hear from you guys. Don't leave me all alone… no one here beside me…

Anyway, I'm glad to get back to this. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.