Chapter 21a: Revelations
Ophelia looked at Adrian and Saralyn with an expression of nostalgia, relief, and strangely, remorse. Information coming from Lescatie had said that she was a cold, calculating, and manipulative being that was always trying to get one step ahead of her enemies. Yet, here she was, looking like a child that had finally found a toy that they had lost. Adrian tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"I just want to say… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything you've gone through. It was all my fault. I'm sorry." Ophelia said repeatedly. The seraph genuinely looked remorseful for whatever she had done to the two of them.
Adrian suddenly had a revelation. He put all the pieces together. The strange sense of nostalgia when he had entered Aerokon. The voices he had heard when he had come out of the mine. The visions of a six-winged angel. It had told him to "Stay" and "Come back". The documents with his and Saralyn's name on them.
When he had first met Saralyn, she had explained that she had felt a pull towards the area, despite having no reason to be there. She had also asked him for his blood, something a dhampir wouldn't have done when meeting a human for the first time. It was something they did when they had known each other for a long time, but at that point, they had only known each other for several hours.
It all made sense.
"Ophelia. Do you, perhaps, have something to do with me and Saralyn's amnesia? Are you the one who did this to us?" Adrian asked sternly. "I'm tired of living in the dark. I want answers." Saralyn nodded in agreement.
"…No," Ophelia said, a solemn, regretful expression replacing the one of relief and remorse from earlier. "The Order did."
Adrian leaned back in his chair. He felt an immense sense of relief at what he thought was going to be a lifelong mystery getting explained, yet he still had so many questions. Saralyn shared his feelings. Adrian asked the question that he had ever since he had woken up in the forest. The question that kept him up at night, that had occupied his mind every time he let his mind wander.
"Who did this to us, then?"
Ophelia sighed. "It is a long, long story."
"We have all the time in the world. Tell us." Saralyn growled angrily. Ophelia sighed sadly and slumped back in her chair. She pushed herself back upright and clicked her tongue. She slowly put one hand to Adrian's head, and one hand to Saralyn's head.
"What are you doing?" Adrian asked.
"It is not enough to tell you. I want to show you."
The table, the willow tree, the pond, and everything around them vanished. They were in a church, one belonging to the Order. Saralyn looked around frantically.
"Where are we?!"
"We need to start with your parents, Adrian. Logan and Adeline Walker. By any chance, did you hear any of Aerokon's citizens talk about them?" Ophelia asked, ignoring Saralyn's question. Adrian and Saralyn both shook their heads. Adrian decided not to tell Ophelia about the documents that Meryl had stolen.
A well-built man with black hair wearing fancy, yet sleek clothing walked over to a priest. "In the name of the Chief God, let us confer heroic power upon thee." The priest chanted. A glowing white light surrounded the man's body.
"Your father was a hero of the Order. Logan Walker was born in Lescatie, and the priests had deemed him fit for a heroic blessing. Unfortunately, he had ideas that were dangerous to have in Order-controlled Lescatie. He wanted the government to hold Lescatie's nobility responsible for exploiting the common people. He was anti-corruption." Ophelia said with a tone of proudness in her voice.
A flash of light filled Adrian's vision. When it went away, Logan Walker was standing in a large, circular auditorium. Adrian couldn't hear anything his father was saying, but his body language told him that he was not happy. He watched as Logan moved his arms around violently, his mouth moving silently.
"He made a public speech about his intentions. A well-meaning, yet incredibly naïve move from him." Another flash of light and they were standing in what Adrian assumed was Logan's bedroom. The man was sitting at his desk, poring over some papers in candlelight. A dark figure appeared outside his window, brandishing a crossbow.
"He was a threat to their power. So naturally, they tried to silence him." A crossbow bolt shattered the window. Logan barely managed to get out of the way in time, the bolt leaving a nasty diagonal wound between his eyes. He dived for the door as another crossbow bolt slammed directly into the wall next to him.
"And then they tried to silence his childhood friend. Adeline Walker, your mother." Another flash of light and Logan was standing in front of Adeline with an arrow sticking out of his back. Adeline was lying on the ground with a horrified expression on her face. Adrian winced as he watched his father grab the arrow and pull it out of his back, throwing it on the ground. Logan grabbed the woman by the hand, and the two of them dashed off.
"Naturally, the two of them were furious at being betrayed at the hands of the very organization that they had spent their entire lives under." Ophelia explained. Yet another flash of light and the two of them were on horseback, riding away from Lescatie. A large crowd of people were following behind them.
"A month before Lescatie fell, they fled and created our beloved Aperia, vowing to tear the Order apart and reform it. A year after that… You were born." The scene shifted to a large, fancy-looking bedroom. Adeline was lying on the bed, with several nurses standing around her. Logan was at her side, cradling a baby in his arms. Adrian watched as his father looked at his past self with a look of joy in his eyes. He handed the baby over to Adeline, who shared a similar look of happiness. A familiar looking angel walked over. She reached out towards the newborn child, and her hands began glowing white. The baby's cries grew quieter and quieter, until they stopped completely.
"I was there." Ophelia stated. "I promised that I would take care of you whenever your mother and father were busy. Everything was fine for seventeen years. You were on track to become the successor to your throne after your parents passed on. Unfortunately, they would be passing on sooner than you expected. On a business trip to Zipangu, they were killed by the Order."
The scene changed to a memorial service. A crowd of mourning Aperians surrounded a table with items belonging to the late Logan and Adeline Walker. Adrian saw him and Ophelia standing next to each other, Ophelia attempting to console the weeping teenager. "You were wracked by depression, and I didn't know what to do about it. But…" The scene shifted to the very willow tree that they were still sitting under. A seventeen-year-old Adrian sat under the tree, staring off into the distance. A few seconds later, a girl came and sat down nearby.
"The two of you were inseparable. Funny thing is, I thought she was human. Dhampirs fool everyone, apparently. Including themselves. She genuinely thought she was human. Fascinating, isn't it?" Adrian watched as the two of them walked home together.
"With your depression mostly out of the way, you had something else on your mind. Revenge. Despite my pleas to keep a low profile, three years after meeting Saralyn, you had enlisted in a special branch of the Aperian military dedicated to espionage, stealth, and sabotage. Rather what you're doing right now, for Lescatie." Both Adrian and Saralyn looked on as they trained in eerily similar training courses to what Meryl had used to train the Peacekeepers.
"During your twenty-eighth mission, you were captured by the Order. They interrogated you. They tortured you. But you were strong. You never broke, so in the end, they erased your mind using magic and threw you out into a monster-infested forest, expecting you to be eaten alive by monsters. You should be grateful for the Order's ignorance. As for Saralyn, they cast the strongest teleportation spell they could on her and called it a day."
Adrian blinked, and they were back in the present. He put his hands on his forehead, trying to process everything that he had been shown. Everything matched up but Adrian couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Ophelia's story felt fabricated yet real at the same time.
"This is a lot to take in, I understand. You two have been through enough today, so I have arranged for the two of you to have a bedroom together. Dinner will be delivered to your room by a maid. Anything you want, I will be willing to provide. Consider this my apology for everything you have been through." A carriage drove up to the hill, and Mikayla poked her head out, waving for Adrian and Saralyn to get inside. The two of them silently got up and began walking away from Ophelia.
"Oh, and one more thing. Do not try to escape the country. It will not end well for you. Do me a favor and behave, will you?" Ophelia requested. Adrian and Saralyn nodded slowly. They hopped onto the carriage, and Mikayla ferried them off.
After they left, Ophelia turned to Cassiel. She had kept quiet, not wanting to escape, and not wanting to involve herself in Ophelia's heart-to-heart-to-heart with Adrian and Saralyn. Ophelia's expression darkened. "As for you. I have nothing to say to you, other than you are a disgrace to Aperia. One of our own, going behind our backs to spread an unwelcome religion to people who don't want it. Did Raniel not teach you about the dangers of the Fallen God?"
Cassiel glared right back at Ophelia. "What was I supposed to do? Sit back and let you murder innocent people? Those people on that bridge in Ichoriya. They died because you wanted an advantage against the Order. All those fields you burnt down caused the deaths of hundreds because they couldn't feed their families."
"You would've understood if you had gone what I had gone through-"
"What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Are you even an angel? What kind of angel is fine with killing innocent people?!"
"Means to an end, Cassiel. Think of it this way. If thirty people were trapped in a burning building, and five of them had to die for the other twenty-five to escape, the choice should be obvious to anyone with a working brain. The Order nowadays is losing its ground, by both our efforts and the Extremists' efforts. That means they're willing to try anything they can, unethical or not, to try and save themselves." Ophelia stopped to let her words sink in.
"So why not let the Extremists do their job? Why do you have to be the one to save them?" Cassiel inquired, unconvinced of Ophelia's position.
"Simple. I disagree with their ideology. I disagree with their methods. Druella has no borders, no sense of self-control, and no sense of shame."
"Bullshit… She sent her diplomats to Aperia to try and work something out. They were willing to leave you alone. But you turned them away. You have no one to blame but yourself for Lescatie trying to infiltrate Aerokon and Aperia." Cassiel spat. "You're hypocritical."
"I'm hypocritical because I didn't trust the creature that is known for spreading corruption to everyone regardless of they want it or not? The way she acts, it was only a matter of time before she would turn on us. Yes, Druella turned her attention to us anyways, but I knew it was going to happen sooner or later."
"Do you really dislike her that much? Is she that bad?"
"If she succeeded in her goals of subjugating Aperia, everything I will have worked for will go to waste. The Order deserves punishment for what they're doing, genuine punishment. They don't deserve love from anyone."
"But they're not evil…" Cassiel interjected.
Ophelia sighed in exasperation. She was getting nowhere with this. She telepathically reached out to the nearest valkyries or angels she could find and gave them a set of very specific orders. Her subordinates immediately dropped what they were doing and flew to the willow tree.
"So that's how this is going to be? You're just going to erase my mind and dump me in some random place across the world?" Cassiel yelled as two bulky valkyries grabbed her arms and began dragging her off. "You're just proving my point, you bastard!"
"None of that will happen. Adrian has bargained for your safety, and I am not one to break deals with someone I have spent my entire life working alongside and bonding with. Consider yourself lucky my son sees something in you, whatever that may be." Ophelia reassured the hysterical dark angel.
"Where are you sending me?! What are you going to do to me?!"
"You'll see." Ophelia waved the valkyries off. "Get her out of here. You know where to go."
In the meantime, I have someone I need to confess to. Ophelia spread her wings and began soaring towards her castle. Landing smoothly outside, she nodded to the kikimora greeter and began walking towards the room that Adrian and Saralyn were staying at. She took a deep breath.
Aperia
The room Adrian and Saralyn were given was far beyond anything Meryl could've provided them back at Lescatie. A fluffy, soft bed with red- and gold-colored sheets sat in the center of the room, with a colorful stained-glass window depicting who Adrian believed to be Ophelia bathed the spacious bedroom with yellow and blue light. Unfortunately, neither Adrian nor Saralyn were in the mood to acknowledge this.
"Adrian?" Saralyn spoke, finally breaking the silence that had lasted all the way from the end of their conversation with Ophelia and the entire trip with Mikayla from Aerokon to Aperia.
"Yes, Saralyn?" He mumbled back.
"I feel unsatisfied. I don't understand. Ophelia told us about our pasts. Yet I still feel empty, like there's something she isn't telling us." Saralyn whispered, as if she was afraid that someone would hear them.
"Me too. I had thought for sure that Aperia were the ones who had done this to us. Yet, she tells us it's the Order's fault. Aperia is the only country that has the sort of technology to wipe someone's memories as far as we know." Adrian sighed. "But if it was her… Why would she do this to us? She clearly cared about us, and even promised to spare the others. I don't get it. We were so close to finding out the truth, but now all we have now are more questions!" Adrian ranted.
"It's okay. Just… Just breath. We know they aren't going to harm us. We have all the time in the world to figure things out. Maybe Lescatie will send someone to free us. In the meantime, all we have are each other." Saralyn put a hand on Adrian's shoulder. "Promise, we stay together as much as we can?" She held out her other hand to Adrian. "Promise me."
Adrian grasped her hand firmly "Of course."
The two of them laid back on the bed, hugging each other tightly. For a brief period, both of their worries vanished, and everything felt like it was going to be alright. Adrian and Saralyn stayed like that for an hour. Neither of them were in the mood to have sex but they were willing to fall asleep in each other's arms.
Saralyn soon drifted off, the dhampir tranquilized by Adrian's warmth. As Adrian was about to fall asleep too, a knock on the door made his eyes open again. Part of him knew he had to answer the door, but the other part told him to ignore the voice and go to sleep. Unfortunately, whoever was at the door began knocking harder and louder.
"Fucks sake…" Adrian mumbled, irritated. He reluctantly pushed Saralyn's arms off him and got out of bed. A protest in the form of a soft moan came from Saralyn, but she didn't wake up. Adrian tiptoed to the door and slowly opened it, knowing exactly who was on the other side.
"Adrian. I wish to talk to you." Ophelia requested.
"I thought you were going to leave us alone. Can't me and my wife spend some time together?" Adrian growled.
"I'm sorry. But there's something I needed to confess to you while you're alone." Ophelia tried to take Adrian's hand, only for him to slap it away. "Fine. Just follow me, then."
"Why do I need to be alone, huh? Is this some sort of trap?" Adrian snapped. Ophelia shook her head, a frown visible on her face.
"It saddens me that after everything I've shown you, you think I'm an enemy." Ophelia quietly responded, looking at the ground. "Just know, that I'm happy to see you again."
"Something tells me those visions you showed us weren't entirely genuine. Saralyn felt it too. Is this what this is about?!" Adrian lashed out again.
"It's true. There's something I haven't been telling you." Ophelia led Adrian through a set of double doors, leading to an octangular meeting room. She pulled out one of the chairs for Adrian to sit on, then sat down on one across from him.
"Adrian, while you might think I'm an enemy, I assure you I am your friend. In fact, there's something you used to tell me when the two of us were alone together, all those years ago. It warmed my heart more than anything else."
"And what was that?"
"When both of your parents were killed by the Order, you spent almost all your time with either me or Saralyn. The two of us grew even closer than we were when your parents were alive. Eventually, you confessed that you thought of me as a second mother. You have no idea how happy that made me."
"What?! You're my…?" Adrian recoiled in shock.
"I think of you as my son, even if we aren't related by blood." The seraph quietly stated. "And I brought you here to ask, may we please start over?" Ophelia asked, silently begging him to say yes.
"I…"
Chapter 21b: Special Therapy
Monoghon?
"There are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of men that have been in your situation before. They've either never seen a monster before or have been told by the Order that monsters are evil flesh-eating abominations that take the form of a woman, and their wife has been monsterized somehow. They're in denial at first but their wife shows that despite their new form, she still loves…" Kane stopped talking as she realized that Kovalt was zoning out.
"Are you even listening to me?" The houri asked, frustrated.
"No." Kovalt bluntly and honestly responded.
"Cupid. Lead arrows. In every part of his body." Natya laid out exactly what she wanted to happen to Kovalt in a disjointed manner. "This is like watching someone try and squeeze water out of a rock." Natya groaned and began looking out the window.
"Eros has given me the task of guiding the misguided into loving relationships with their spouses. I don't care how stubborn he is, I will help him."
"There's no point in helping someone that doesn't want to help himself. I say we throw this guy to the cupids." The apsara shot back, her tone irritated and exasperated. "I'm getting some water. This guy's making my head hurt." She got up and left the room.
"Listen. I'm not the type of person to back down from a challenge. Just because he's a hero that's spent his entire life being told that monsters are evil, doesn't mean I'm going to give up on him." Kane shook her head and looked back at Kovalt, a determined glare painted on her face. "You. The way you're going right now, you're probably going to spend all your money drinking yourself to death. That's if Catalina doesn't go apeshit, chase you down, and fuck you into the ground. So, I'm helping you find the best-case scenario with…"
Kovalt stared at her with a blank expression on his face, lost in his own thoughts. He thought of ways he was going to get out. Ways of how he was going to prove Kane wrong. Or I could just do things the hard way… And kill Catalina and Kari.
…
It sickens me that I'm even thinking of that…
"-So, I'd appreciate it if you paid attention and listened to me!" The houri suddenly shouted in his face while slamming the table with both of her hands, startling him out of his thoughts. He quickly looked at Kane, trying to at least give the illusion that he was listening to what she was saying.
"Yeah. I'm listening." Kane looked incredibly unimpressed by his answer. She sighed in annoyance.
"Whatever. You can't ignore the assignment we're about to give you. So, for the third time, are you listening to what I'm saying?" Kane got incredibly close to his face. Kovalt refused to show any signs of weakness to the angel.
"We've sent a messenger to Monoghon to get Catalina and Kari to come to Aerokon. She'll be here at about midmorning tomorrow. All you need to do is have a conversation with them. A friendly conversation, mind you. No yelling about how monsters are evil, got it? It doesn't have to be complex. Just talk about what she's been doing for the past couple of months. Understood?" Kovalt nodded. Part of him wanted to take the opportunity to run away, and part of him genuinely wanted to see how Catalina and Kari were doing.
You're going down a path of self-hatred and destruction. Kovalt recalled something the cupid, Valerie, had said during their battle. He thought he heard Kane say something similar.
"How do you know what's going to happen to me, huh?" Kovalt muttered under his breath. Kane turned around, her glare becoming even more intense.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing. Frankly, I'm sort of excited to see Catalina and Kari tomorrow." Kovalt responded, quickly trying to save himself. The houri seemed to buy his half-truth statement, a small smile on the angel's face.
"Perhaps he's less of a stubborn asshole than we thought." Natya remarked backhandedly as she reentered the room, sitting next to Kane. "I've just been informed that they're almost here. Mamono Realm Monoghon had set up teleportation stations in a city near Aerokon."
"Alright then, I'll release the dream spell." Kane looked at Kovalt with a stern expression on her face. "Remember. Friendly. Conversation. Got it?" Kovalt gave her the most enthusiastic nod he could fake, as his imaginary house began to glow white, the walls slowly melting away. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes to a church, looking like it belonged to Eros. He tried to move his hands. A dull ache came from his right hand. Painful memories of being brutalized by Raniel filled his head.
"You're fine." Natya said, slapping him on the back. "Let's go. Don't want to keep your wife and daughter waiting." She pulled him up, taking him out of the church and to a small park. The two of them sat down at a park table and began waiting for Catalina with bated breath.
Eventually, Kovalt spotted Catalina, and Kari. For the first time since Monoghon's fall, Kovalt saw what Kari looked like as a werewolf. She looked incredibly like her mother, only her fur was slightly lighter colored. Both wore very modest clothing, not showing any skin besides their faces and bits of their arms and legs; A far cry from how Kovalt thought monsters dressed.
"Wait a minute. What if they just try to rape me?! Didn't your friend want to prevent that from happening?" Kovalt panicked. He had zero way of defending himself and running away would be almost impossible.
"Relax. Both Catalina and Kari have been told that they're not allowed to have sex with you yet. You're lucky your wife is so patient. Any other monster would've laughed in our faces if we told them not to do that." Natya calmly reassured him.
Catalina and Kovalt made eye contact, the tall werewolf's eyes widening with excitement. Both her and Kari rushed over. "Remember. Friendly conversation." Natya reminded him, and then left the three of them alone.
'Kovalt… I'm so happy they let me see you. Earlier today, I felt your energy nearly vanish. I was terrified. What happened? Did you try and hurt yourself?" Catalina asked worriedly.
"I'm fine."
"Can you at least tell me what happened? Why are you in Aerokon? Isn't this place Aperian territory? Why would you come here?" Catalina let loose a flurry of questions.
"I wanted revenge on the bastards that caused the corruption of Monoghon. I tracked them here, only for a valkyrie to come out of nowhere and brutalize me. She almost beat me to death, but two angels of Eros decided they had plans for me and saved my life." Kovalt explained. "They're the ones that are forcing me to do this."
"Why do you want revenge on these people?" Catalina inquired. "Everything has been so much better ever since Monoghon was turned into a mamono realm. Everyone is so friendly to each other. I've had the opportunity to try so many things that I would've never got to experience under the Order's control. It's wonderful."
"Daddy." Kari tried to get Kovalt's attention. "Mommy is right. Monoghon is a better place now."
"Even so… I can't ignore how it became that way. Forcefully using corruptive energy on someone who doesn't want it isn't right. Even if the higher ups were complicit in blackmailing Lescatie, nobody else, not the citizens, not the soldiers, not the heroes, deserved what happened to them."
"But they love it!" Kari responded confusedly. "I saw one of the Order priests talking to a dark priest. They said they love each other."
"That's what I'm talking about. Someone abandoning their beliefs and ideals all because a monster that looks like an attractive woman seduced them isn't natural. They're being changed, and not for the better."
Both Catalina and Kari remained silent after that. They looked down at the ground, shaking their heads. Finally, one of them spoke.
"Why can't you understand? We've shown our love for you. Why do you resist?" Catalina asked, her former excitement completely absent.
"I… Can we talk about something else?"
Catalina opened her mouth to protest, but Kari was faster. "I found someone I liked. I've been playing with him every day since Monoghon became a mamono realm. The two of us are going to marry each other!" She said with genuine excitement and happiness in her voice.
"Kari, you're only twelve years old. You can't just-"
"I can! I would've never had the courage to ask him out if I was still human!" Kari interrupted him. "Are you proud of me, daddy?"
"That's enough dear." Catalina gently pushed Kari to the side and stared directly into Kovalt's eyes. "What matters is that we're both better off as monsters. And we would love for you to come home."
"I said this to you in Monoghon. And I'm going to repeat myself now. I can't just abandon my allegiance to the Order because you want me to." Kovalt braced himself for Catalina's response.
"Why?! What good has the Order ever done for you? What good has the Chief God ever done for you? She wants to restore the cycle. She wants us to turn back into bloodthirsty abominations because of some outdated tradition!" Catalina cried. "And the Order, they never gave you the respect you deserved! All they did was push you around like you were their slave!"
"It's not like that. I don't know what Lescatie has been telling you about us, but that's just not true…"
Catalina didn't respond to him after that and neither did Kari. Both looked away from Kovalt, distraught and on the verge of bursting out crying. Natya came from behind a tree.
"I think it's time we took a break. Let's come back tomorrow when we've all calmed down. Does that sound good?" Natya asked, putting a hand on Catalina's shoulder. The werewolf nodded sadly. Taking Kari's hand, she got up and left the park.
"I told you to not talk about how monsters are evil." Kane appeared behind Kovalt, startling him.
"Don't sneak up on me like that-"
"All you had to do was have a simple, friendly conversation with your wife. And you nearly made her cry. Are the Order's teachings shoved so far up your ass that you can't even talk to your wife without bringing up their lies?" The houri snapped. "Damn heroes…"
"They're not lies."
"Whatever. We're done for the night. Go back to the church." Kane forcefully grabbed his hand. "And don't even think about escaping. The no-rape rule is off the table if you even try to leave Aerokon."
Kovalt chose not to respond, shuffling after Kane back to the church of Eros.
Meryl tried to look around. The prison carriage had zero windows or any openings to the outside besides a small slit in the doorway and a small hole in the roof to let light inside. Clearly, it was not made with the intention of keeping its passengers comfortable. Her shoulders constantly brushed up against Sinclair's or Ava's shoulders when the carriage went over any less-than smooth part of the road, earning an annoyed glance from Sinclair and a wince from Ava.
"Into the frying pan and into the fire…" Meryl heard Sinclair grumble. "Meryl. You know what you've gotten us into, right? They're going to scrub our minds."
"No, they won't. Adrian made sure to ensure our safety." Meryl tried to put some conviction in her voice but even she wasn't sure that Adrian would be able to prevent their fates, even if he was supposedly the prince of Aperia like the document had said.
"But we've given them the perfect reason to scrub our heads. We've stolen documents. We've broken into places that we weren't supposed to be in. We've assaulted several angels and valkyries. We're criminals."
"Just have some fucking faith, would you? I have faith that Adrian and Saralyn can stop us from being mindwiped!" Naira said from the other side of the carriage. Jordan nodded in agreement.
"Aperia is unpredictable. Who knows if he can even do that."
The carriage came to an abrupt stop. Meryl turned towards the slit in the door and squinted her eyes to try and see where they were, only for the doors to fling open, the bright sunlight shining into her eyes. She instinctively blocked her eyes for a second to adjust.
"No. No, no, no, no! You goddamn liars! I knew it!" She heard Sinclair screaming in rage. In some sick twist of irony, they had arrived in front of a similar building to the one that they had just broken out of. A mindflaying center. A raiju and an ogre stepped into view, both armed.
"Everyone out. Don't think of running." Everyone except Sinclair did what they were told, slowly hopping out of the back of the carriage one by one.
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! YOU CAN'T!" Sinclair struggled against her restraints, trying desperately to break free. The ogre and the raiju grabbed her arms and tried to pull her out of the carriage. Sinclair took the opportunity to bite down on the ogre's arm as hard as she could. She tore her arm away from the raiju and began sprinting away.
"Sinclair?!" Naira yelled as she watched everything unfold. The raiju and the ogre just smiled as they watched the dark elf sprint off, only for a valkyrie to come down from a nearby rooftop and slam her to the ground. She grabbed Sinclair from the neck and began dragging her back over.
"Good catch." The raiju grinned.
"You know, I shouldn't have to do all the work around here. There's a reason we hired you." The valkyrie said in response, dissatisfied.
"Sure, fine. Just get them where they need to be and tell them what's going to happen to them." The raiju responded dismissively. She turned to the ogre. "Chain them together so they don't escape; Tie the wyvern's wings together so they don't fly away."
The ogre nodded her head and pulled out some rope from her jacket to tie their prisoners together. The group let it happen, seeing no chance of escape. With that, the ogre and the raiju escorted them into the mindflaying center.
It looked completely identical to the one they had escaped from, interior and exterior, only having a different maze-like layout. The ogre gently prodded them into a room that once again looked identical to the one they had broken out of mere hours ago. A mindflayer wearing a white coat stepped into the room.
"Consider yourselves lucky, Lescatians. We're not going to wipe your minds and drop you off far away from Lescatie. Orders from the Aperian higher-ups state that your minds are to be searched for information regarding Lescatie's recent interest in Aperia and Aperia's territories." Meryl felt a pit form in her stomach. She had just made Druella's job even harder for her.
The mindflayer pulled out a piece of paper with one of her tentacles and began reading it. "After that, you will all be allowed to live peacefully within either Aperia, Aerokon, or any of Aperia's territories. Separately, I might add. We can't have you guys collaborating to escape. You'll be under surveillance every second of every day until we can trust that you won't try to return to
Lescatie. Every month each of you will be given thirty minutes to meet with one of your friends."
She looked up from the document. "Do all of you understand?" Everyone nodded their heads in unison, including Sinclair, having given up their resistance.
"Good. I'll be searching your minds for any information regarding Lescatie now."
"Fuck…" Meryl groaned in exhaustion, her allies sharing the same fatigue. Her head was hurting like it had been hit with a hammer. The mindflayer withdrew her tentacles and retreated to the other side of the room, having finished searching everyone's minds.
"Interesting. I'll be relaying my findings to the Aperian government. In the meantime, you all rest for now and wait for the calvary to come pick you up and transport you to your new home." The mindflayer left the room, locking the door behind her.
Meryl laid her head down and closed her eyes, trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately for the tired dullahan, just as she was about to fall asleep, a group of valkyries entered the room. Meryl instinctively reached for her sword, forgetting she had been disarmed when they had surrendered. One valkyrie grabbed Ava's hand and flew off with her to some distant part of Aerokon. Another one escorted Sinclair away. Two grabbed Naira and Jordan and took them back to the carriage, not wanting to carry them and not trusting them to fly by themselves either. Meryl was the last of her team remaining.
The last valkyrie left took Meryl's arm and walked her outside. "Hold on tight."
She spread out her wings and kicked off the ground, soaring through the air to Meryl's new place of residence.
Ophelia entered the room where the captured Lescatians had been held, the room being almost empty save for the mindflayer that had searched their minds. The mindflayer looked up and practically jumped out of her chair.
"Matriarch? I was expecting Raniel or Ophaniel or Nuriel to come here!" She exclaimed.
"Those three are being held off duty for now after what they did. And besides, I want to know everything about what these infiltrators were doing." Ophelia explained.
The mindflayer straightened herself out. "Right. I'll start from the beginning. These infiltrators are called the Peacekeepers, a group created specifically for surveilling any human realms before Lescatie invades."
"Is that so? Why doesn't Druella just hire a village of kunoichis to do the job for her?"
"They have a zero percent turnover rate. The Peacekeepers were both effective and loyal. Two are widows, two already have one partner each, and one of them strangely doesn't seem to care about finding a husband." The mindflayer laid out details about each member of the Peacekeepers. "They first became known about a year ago in the Order state of Monoghon, where they were integral to Lescatie's victory."
Adrian and Saralyn… "Why were they in Aerokon? What was their mission?"
"They were here because Lescatie is planning an invasion of all Aperian territories. They were sent here to scout us out. They had two targets: Zeraphine, the director of the Aperian Magical Sabbath and Hazel, a high ranking Aperian engineer."
Ophelia contemplated the information. Lescatie trying to invade Aperian territories was nothing new. She had known this was going to happen the moment she turned Castor and his wife away during the negotiations. They must have been targeting Zeraphine and Hazel for information regarding Aperia's magical defenses. That must be why they were going for Aerokon first instead of Aperia.
"Anything on an Adrian Walker?"
"He first joined the Peacekeepers in early 1426 ME with Saralyn. Reasons for joining included being worried about the Gray Incubus Project that the Order has been working on. He also felt a sense of urgency to fight against Aperia, following our takeovers of Ichoriya and Arcani."
"I see. That will be all for now, I've gotten what I've needed." Ophelia nodded to the mindflayer to show her gratitude and exited the building. As she flew back to her castle, she began relaying commands to increase the security of every territory that Aperia owned.
She needed to push her plan along, fast.