"It's good that we managed to find a ship that wanted to travel towards Albion," Agnes said as she took a seat at the table with the rest of the students.

The inn that they were staying in was busy. More than a couple travellers were eating and drinking, a few of the workers were enjoying their meals before they had to retire for the night. And then there was their table, where it sat a group of mages, a bodyguard to the queen, and a single Familar.

Sylphid was forced to sleep away from the inn, lest it scare the rest of the patrons. While Bug was currently wandering the area.

All of them looked tired and slightly irritated., with the sole exception of Tabitha was reading her book. Louise was resting her cheek on the palm of her hand as she stared forward, Sib was sitting beside her looking around at the patrons as they walked past the table. Montmorency was just staring at the air without an focus in her eyes. Kirche was the only one that didn't seem that tired, besides Tabitha, even then they could see that she was still fatigued from the trip.

Agnes however wasn't as effected by the trip, her gaze was still as she looked among the group. She tapped her fingers on the table "It's going to cost some money, but at least we managed to secure a trip. I was worried we might be stuck here."

"I still can't believe that they expected us to pay," Montmorency grumbled out. The blonde mage narrowed her eyes at some of the workers currently eating "They should've waived the fee for us when we told them that it was an important mission from the Princess."

"Yeah," Louise joined in "Did you hear what he said 'That's what they all say. The trip ain't free, especially since you're asking us to go to Albion.'" She shook her head "The nerve of them!"

"They deserved compensation for our request," Agnes stated, giving the two of them glares from her spot "Especially since there's a chance that they don't want to leave La Rochelle or even go Albion."

The two mage kept grumbling, but said nothing else.

Agnes sighed "Besides, we need to pay them back for the Windstones that they would use up. A trip to Albion right now isn't going to be cheap."

"A shame we didn't get here sooner," Louise complained, placing a hand under her chin "The moons were closest just two days ago, if we had gotten here then we might not have to pay that much."

"Not that we should pay that amount that they asked for," Montmorency let out an annoyed huff "It's not like Windstones are in hard supply now."

"Oh let them have their gold," Kirche told them, the fire mage was smiling "It's not like we can't afford it." She then shrugged "Besides, if we ever decide not to take a ship we could always take Sylphid to Albion," she turned to Tabitha and threw a hand over her shoulder "I'm sure it could make the trip, eh Tabby?"

The blue haired mage lowered the book in her hands so that she could peek over the top of it, her eyes flicked towards Kirche and answered with a simple "No."

Kirche flinched, drawing her arms back.

Agnes raised an eyebrow "Is there any reason?" She asked "It's always good to have a back up plan, but…"

Tabitha's eyes turned towards Louise, "Louise," the mage's eyes widened at the accusation. Blue eyes then turned towards the small creature at the side, who was still looking at each single passerby "Her Familiars would cause trouble."

"What?!" Louise exclaimed.

Montmorency smirked "I agree," her eyes turned to the irritated mage "Nothing good would come from those things riding on Sylphid."

"Can it Flood!" Louise snapped, almost getting out of her chair "I don't need any more of your slander."

"You gotta admit though Louise," Kirche cut in before she could angrier "Bug and Sib aren't exactly that well behaved when they aren't following your orders."

"I told that I was sorry about Sib!" Louise threw her hands in the air "It's not my fault it tried to pick a fight with the wildlife on the way here."

"That's just proving my point," Montmorency stated "They're trouble, who knows what could happen if they end up on Sylphid."

"My Familiars don't cause trouble!"

"Excuse me!"

Their argument was cut short by a call from the bartender. The man behind the counter that was serving drinks was looking out at the crowd, his eyes scanning the area.

In his hands was Bug, the Familiar was behind held up by the cloak that it was wearing. It didn't seem interested in getting free as it just hung limply as the bartender looked around "Did any Insect lose their child, larvae or whatever?"

"You were saying?" Montmorency smirked.

"This proves nothing!" Louise stood up, and started heading towards the counter. Sib didn't move, simply staying on its seat as its Master left towards the bar.

Agnes stared at Louise as she walked away, and once she was out of earshot Agnes turned to the other three "Okay, you three obviously know more about her Familiars, is there anything that we need to be careful of in the near future?" She glanced at Louise who was now talking to the bartender, trying to get her Familiar back "I didn't want to bring this up while she's here, because she's obviously attached to them."

"Dangerous." Tabitha said, eyes glaring at the Familiar that was sitting with them. It turned from staring at one of the workers to look her in the eye. It tilted its head and its hand twitched.

Kirche mouth pulled into a line, she looked at Sib "That one I'm not sure of, I just know that it likes to pick fights with other Familiars. So… watch out for that I guess." She then jerked her head towards Louise "Bug is… strong. Very strong, we saw what it could do back at the academy."

"The tower. It blew the walls apart like it was nothing." Montmorency mumbled.

There was a pause as both Kirche and Tabitha turned to her with furrowed eyebrows.

Montmorency shook her head "In any case, I just have one piece of advice to give about her Familiars." She turned to Louise, who was now arguing with the bartender to get Bug back, before she looked at Agnes "Don't touch it."

Agnes raised an eyebrow at the warning "Is that all?" She turned to Louise who now had her Familiar in her grasp, the bartender bowing and apologising profusely "Is there something wrong with it? A disease or a sickness? And if so, should we be worried about the horses and him?"

"No." Montmorency shook her head "When I say not to touch it, I mean directly onto its body. Its head and… cape I guess, they're safe to touch." She winced as she massaged her forehead "Something about it… it messes with your head if you grab it directly onto it. Whatever they are," she narrowed her eyes at the other Familiar at the table "and it isn't a Water Spirit no matter what she might say, don't touch it, Bug especially."

"And what about Louise?" Agnes asked, gesturing at how she had the Familiar in her hands and was talking to it "She's had the most contact with her, should we worry about her?"

Montmorency didn't answer.

"The only danger she might have from her Familiars is that it might stand and watch her get impaled when we get to Albion," Kirche spoke out "There's nothing to show that she's in any trouble from touching it too much." She crossed her arms "Though I do agree, we need to careful of Bug," she smirked at the other Familiar on the table "Not to ignore you Sib, but you just don't seem as threatening."

It tilted its head at her comment.

"Okay I got Bug back," Louise said as she arrived at the table, Bug following behind her. She shook her head "Can't believe that he thought that it wasn't mine."

"He should've kept it from you," Montmorency bit out.

A small argument started between the two, one that Agnes ignore as she stared at the small Familiar that stood behind the Valliere.

It was looking into a piece of paper, a quill in its hands as it scribbled away.

After a moment it looked up, and saw her staring at it.

They stared at each other for a moment, before Agnes shook her head and turned away.

[Scene]

Louise sat on the bed of the room she would be sleeping in. The arrangements would be that she and Agnes would share a room, while the rest would be in the next room over. That way she would be the most protected with both her Familiars and the bodyguard, while help would just be one room over.

It also meant she didn't have to share a room with Montmorency, so that was a bonus. Agnes was already on her bed, looking over her weapons and gear.

Walking around the room was Sib, the four horned Void Vessel was admiring the foreign layout, occasionally slapping something with its hands after she told it not to hit anything with its Soul Wand.

Bug was just outside, mapping out the hallway and the floor they were on. Agnes was worried, but she was quick to dismiss her worries by telling Bug to not leave the second floor for the night.

All that was left was to sleep, they would be heading towards a warzone tomorrow and it shook her a bit that she was actually going to Albion. Her hand moved towards her bag, where the letter would be. The ring in her hands glowed as she tried to keep herself calm.

Then, just as she was about to relax enough to sleep, Sib suddenly moved towards the window in the room.

For the longest moment it stared out the window, then it drew the weapon on its back.

Agnes' head snapped up from the pistol in her hands. Her eyes narrowed at the Void Vessel, before she looked out the same window it was staring at. Her eyes widened, as if she had spotted something.

Louise was already worried that it was going to start breaking things. "Sib!" She called out to it "I told you not to…"

She paused when she saw that it's eyes were glowing.

They were shining the same colour that Bug's eyes would be whenever it turned fully black.

"Is something wrong?" Agnes stood up, she was approaching the window warily her pistol was already aiming outside the window "Does your Familiar see something?"

"I…" She was confused, "I don't know."

Then before any of them could react, it smashed through the window. All it took was a single swing from the Soul Wand to blow out the window it had just been staring at. Both of them flinched away from the glass shards and splinters.

When they recovered, Sib had already leapt through the broken window.

"SIB!" She shouted for it. She pushed the rest of the window open, and tried to climb through only to be held back by Agnes. She turned to her with a frown "What are you…"

She trailed off when she saw the serious look on the older woman's face "You won't be able to chase after that." She pointed to the sight of the Void Vessel leaping across the rooftops of the buildings close by. She turned towards the door "We can catch up to it if we go now." Agnes quickly grabbed her bags on the bed "Grab your things, we aren't safe here."

Louise stared just a bit baffled, before she followed her order and reached for her own bag. Both of them ran out of the room, stopping by the next room to inform the rest.

Kirche, Montmorency and Tabitha were all relaxing but with just a few words they followed them.

"Bug!" She called out to the Void Vessel was who staring at a closed door "Sib is running away. We need to catch up to it!"

It tilted its head, but followed the group nonetheless.

As they left the inn, Louise wondered why Sib was running away all of a sudden.

[Scene]

Wardes looked into the flames, the roaring fire was warm even with the distance between them.

With how cold Albion's was, being a continent in the sky and all, the flames would've been a comforting thing.

He ignored the flames suddenly flaring brighter when a Reconquista rebel tossed a body into the bonfire, it was an undignified funeral but it was needed so that they didn't end up with a sudden plague from the corpses of the soldiers that littered the checkpoint.

He had arrived on Albion just this morning, and from the port that he had dropped off from he made his way to the closest meeting point of the rebels. He was caught up, most of it information that he already knew.

Most of the defensives of the Royalty had been worn down, the important checkpoints were already taken, and all that was left was to storm Newcastle.

The only problem was that they saved the best defenders there, as the usual approach would result in a total squad wipe out. And they couldn't really bomb the place.

It was a good castle, they planned to use it after the Civil War was over. Not to mention, their objective was inside and if they just blew it up then this whole conflict would've been useless.

Another body was tossed into the fire. Wardes mused at his lack of affinity for Fire magic, if he were any better at it, he could've sped up the process.

He shook his head, closing his eyes behind his mask and turned away from the giant bonfire. He walked back the other rebels, and took a seat neat the campfire.

Conversation was slow among them, all of them were at edge since he had arrived.

It was expected after all, if he was here it meant that they needed to grab that letter soon.

From where they were situated they could see the castle in the distance, the large building looming in the distance. Their goal was so close.

Apparently the main problem was the prince himself, Wales Tudor. A powerful mage as expected from royalty. Not to mention someone that the Albion Soldiers were staunchly loyal to.

Wardes let out an irritated huff. It would have made things so much simpler if there were some of them were willing to work with them and get them inside the castle.

But things couldn't be simple, and they were forced to rely on their own. Besides, plans had changed when he arrived, a full-out assault was to be made to simple storm the castle and strike them down. Preparations were already being made.

[Scene]

It didn't long for them to catch up to Sib. Despite its agility, it's small size meant that it couldn't gotten too far ahead of them.

The few people that were still out at this time of night watched as the group ran after the small figure.

"SIB!" Louise called out towards it, Bug was in her hands having picked it up so that it wouldn't be left behind.

The Void Vessel in her hands watched as its Sibling continued to run away from their Master.

"I told you it would do something!" Montmorency said angrily "We should be resting, and here we are" she stumbled a bit but kept running "Here we are running after your stupid Familiar in the middle of the night!"

Louise ignore the blonde, though she did throw a glare at her direction.

"Tabitha!" Kirche turned to small figure beside her "Where's Sylphid."

"Close." She answered "Already summoned it. Told to wait at harbour. Waiting to leave."

"We're leaving?!" Montmorency shrieked.

"It's not safe here." Agnes told her, her eyes were focused on the running Void Vessel "From what Louise told me, her Familiars don't really end up running off on their own so something is causing to run off."

Kirche turned to pink haired mage with a raised eyebrow "Didn't Bug run off back during the Familiar Exhibition?"

"It had a reason!" Louise snapped.

"And what was the cause then?" Agnes asked.

"Giant Golem." Tabitha answered.

Kirche let out a grunt remembering the event "Fair enough." She focused on running "But back then, we saw what was the trouble. So what's causing Sib to run away this time?"

"I don't know. Sib isn't like Bug. It doesn't like running off like this!" Louise took a deep breath "SIB, stop running!" she called out for it again.

It didn't listen to her, it didn't even turn to face instead it kept running.

"Okay, that is weird." Kirche admitted, she turned to Tabitha "Tabitha, can you grab it with a spell?"

"Try." She pointed her staff towards the small figure, her eyes focusing on it as hard as she could. She mumbled out the words of the spell under breath, but before she could cast it, it suddenly took a turn and almost disappeared from their sights.

"Avoiding me." Tabitha said, as it stepped back into view "It can tell."

"We'll never catch up like this," Kirche complained.

Louise growled "Damn it Sib." Her grip on Bug tightened as she glared at Void Vessel "I said STOP RUNNING!"

It suddenly jerked to a stop, as it was in the process of leaping from a rooftop.

Gravity suddenly took hold, and it descended downwards. Before it could fall further however, it suddenly dashed forward and stuck to the wall of the building it had tried to jump to.

It looked around from its position in the air. It looked around, before it saw them.

It tilted its head when they ran towards it.

[Scene]

Impossible.

It watched as its Sibling re-joined the group it had been trying to get it away from. There was a commotion between them, the one with pink hair was arguing with the one with blonde hair.

But it didn't care.

It turned to the Sibling that it had been controlling.

Turning towards its right hand, it could see that the glow of its runes were gone. It meant that the control over its Sibling was similarly gone as well.

Impossible.

It shouldn't have been able to just break out of its control, it had done the same to its previous Siblings that it tried to save from their situations. And never once had they broken out of its control.

The group was leaving, all of them heading towards the harbour.

It was then it noticed that there was the other Sibling. It was being carried in the arms of the pink haired one. But it couldn't see it before the sight of the other Sibling obscured it when the carrier picked up the four horned Sibling.

As it was staring at the pink haired one argue with the rest of the group, it then noticed that one of them was staring at its direction.

The blue haired one could somehow spot it as it watched over them from its spot at the top of the cliffs.

At least it thought it…

No. Another one of the group was staring at him as well. It was the one that spotted it when it had been close by.

They noticed its presence somehow. It ignored them for now, and instead turned to focus on its Siblings.

It probably just lost focus the last time. Nothing should be able to resist its control. The only other thing, besides Humans, that could've resisted its control probably would be another Void Familiar. And from what it saw, the one with the weapon wasn't the Gandalfr. It didn't notice the other one the first time around, but if the one with the weapon wasn't the Gandalfr, then the other one probably wasn't as well.

Some part of it hoped that it wasn't, because it meant that it could take them back to safety. In a way, it was glad that it could take over their minds despite the bad memories it brought up.

It focused on the magic within him, different from the Soul it would use. It felt more natural to its own abilities, and when it drew it out the runes that were normally hidden by its dark body appeared on its right hand, glowing bright.

If the two couldn't see it then, then the glow of its hand and eyes gave away its position.

It didn't matter, its Siblings were the priority now. Maybe it had just loss focus, there was no way it could have broken its control.

It reached out with the magic, followed the invisible string that connected every single creature that it could control. The magic entered their minds, it allowed it to look into their thoughts.

It could change it with its own thoughts, but it always found that it was easier in the long run to use the target's own thoughts. It meant that they would be less likely to fight back.

It reached into the thoughts of the two Siblings, it entered their minds.

Its thoughts mingled into their own.

And it suddenly found itself staring at complete darkness.

What?

Had it been teleported away?

No. That wasn't it.

It hadn't detected any changes to its physical body, and it realised that it was still reaching out towards its Siblings. It looked around, was in their thoughts?

This wasn't the mind of the one that it had taken control of just before.

It was then it realised there was a presence there with it. Something compelled it to look up.

So it did. It looked up, and up, and up, and up.

Four pair of slitted eyes, glowing a bright white, stared at it from the darkness.

Neither of them did anything. All it did was stare up at the eyes, while the eyes did the same.

Before it could even do anything, those four eyes suddenly lunged towards it.

A moment later it found itself on the ground, staring up at the sky. When it got back to its feet, the group was gone.

[Scene]

There was flash of light from Bug's eyes, it was short and sudden so no one noticed.

It looked at the cliffs of the city it had just been in. They were flying away from the city, on board one of the ships that they had approached earlier today.

It took more arguing, more money that they had agreed on due to the early departure, but they were off towards Albion.

Bug watched the cliffs, sensing a presence that became weaker as they flew away farther and father.

It tilted its head.

Was there another Sibling?