"Was it really necessary to demand Arthur Kirkland's restraint?"
"I would say so, yes. He has been a thorn in my side lately, and I need him out of my way for the time being."
"Unfortunately, Your Majesty, it is because of you that I have now been dragged into this matter."
Gilbert listened as Prince Kiku expressed his disappointment over having to answer that query into Arthur Kirkland's behaviour. Gilbert's attempt to get Madeline's fae cousin away from the rescue efforts for a little while has now apparently backfired, and Kiku's timing for this visit could not possibly be worse.
The exact alignment of the planets was to be within the next half hour, and it would only last a few minutes, so that was the short window of time allowed to complete the ritual. Lukas and Yao were downstairs in the ritual room preparing the pyre, while Mikkel and Berwald were escorting Natalya down there right now so she could complete her task.
Provided she made it downstairs safe and sound first. Madeline had warned Ludwig that the rescue was underway, and told him who all was involved. Apparently they found someone who could get them into Tivalon, and the humans were bringing both regular weapons and glamoured iron daggers. In case the rescue was successfully accomplished before the alignment, Madeline was on standby to join the fae in Tivalon and take Natalya's place in the ritual.
In the meantime, Gilbert and Ludwig had to get through this unscheduled - and rather suspicious and accusatory - conversation with the Seelie Prince. Gilbert and Kiku sat on couches across from each other, while Ludwig stood behind Gilbert.
"And what of this rumoured attempt to take over the human realm?" Kiku denounced, "You haven't found a way to alter the delicate balance of force between the fae and the humans, have you?"
"Of course not," Gilbert chuckled in denial, "What a preposterous suggestion."
"Perhaps not so preposterous," Kiku implicated, "The Unseelie fae are known for not respecting humans, after all."
Before anyone could say anything further, Gilbert felt the gemstone in his pocket thrum with an urgent message.
"Just a moment please, Your Highness," Gilbert requested, "I just need to check this quickly."
As Gilbert withdrew the gemstone from his pocket, he glanced over and saw that Ludwig had already done the same. Gilbert raised an eyebrow, then looked at the gemstone as Lukas's voice came through.
A faerie ring portal just opened inside the palace. It's in the parlour across the hall from where you are, Your Majesty.
"I can look into this, brother," Ludwig volunteered, "Please excuse me for a minute, Your Highness."
"Is there something happening, Your Majesty?" Kiku inquired as Ludwig vanished.
"Nothing to worry about," Gilbert covered up, "Just a situation we're keeping an eye on this morning, Ludwig will let me know if it turns serious."
"If you say so."
Gilbert attempted to feign interest and attention as Kiku continued discussing the rumour he heard about an attempted takeover of the human realm. Someone certainly had a set of loose lips, if the word about the ritual made it to the Seelie Court. His fae allies would not say a word about it, so it must have been a foolish human who let the secret loose. Madeline wouldn't say a word, but perhaps Francis or Antonio had loose lips.
The gemstone in his hand thrummed as a message came through from Ludwig.
There's one brown-haired fae in the parlour guarding the portal, he's probably the one Madeline identified as Tolys. Lukas and I are outside on the balcony, hiding behind the pillars.
Just as Ludwig's message finished, another came through from Berwald.
We have suspicious activity out here. A human woman has stumbled into the hallway, she's interrupted us and insists on talking to Natalya. She looks a lot like Natalya, it could be her sister Katerina.
"You are awfully distracted, Your Majesty," Kiku accused, "I may only be a Seelie Prince, but certainly I am worth your undivided attention."
"Yes, my apologies, Kiku," Gilbert disclosed, "The situation Ludwig is investigating is quickly developing, it could make a mess of today's plans. I might need to be pulled away from our conversation in the next couple minutes."
"What exactly is this developing situation?" Kiku persisted, "What is keeping you so preoccupied?"
Just as Gilbert found himself struggling to come up with another excuse, Mikkel suddenly appeared in the room and stood to his side.
"They're making their escape right now," Mikkel reported, "We have maybe twenty seconds."
"Wait here, Your Highness," Gilbert requested as he swiftly rose from his seat, "I'll be back in just a minute."
Gilbert thought of the balcony on the opposite parlour and blinked, quickly teleporting to the spot. When he opened his eyes, he was on the opposite balcony with Ludwig and Lukas, and quickly ducked behind the wall separating the windows. As Mikkel and Berwald appeared and did the same, Gilbert peeked into the room, and saw Tolys watching the doors into the room being thrown open by a short blond man.
"We'll need someone to restrain Tolys," Gilbert pointed out as the two blonde women appeared at the door, "Surround everyone else."
The moment Natalya entered the room, Gilbert thought of the space one foot in front of the portal, closed his eyes and quickly teleported. Before he could even fully open his eyes, he felt something crash into his chest and repel off against it. He opened his eyes to reveal Natalya and Katerina - who did indeed closely resemble Natalya - just in front of him, looking back at him in fear.
He smirked in triumph as his wings stretched out to create a barrier between the women and the portal, while Mikkel suddenly appeared in the room and grabbed Tolys.
"Hey, let me go!" Tolys shouted as he fought back against Mikkel.
The other humans in the rescue party barged into the room, surrounded the women and pointed the swords at Gilbert.
"Let us through," the one with golden-blond hair demanded.
At that moment, Ludwig appeared to Gilbert's right, prompting the tall human with flaxen blond hair to point his sword at him. Berwald suddenly appeared to Gilbert's left, and Lukas behind the group, prompting the other two sword-wielding humans in the group to spin and face them.
Lukas was the only one to make a move, casting a purple dome of magic that quickly surrounded the humans. The golden-blond out front who was pointing his sword at Gilbert prodded the purple dome with the tip of his sword, forcing the dome to repel the sword and keep it from hitting any Unseelie fae outside the dome.
As everyone settled into their positions inside and outside the dome, Gilbert considered Ludwig's report from Madeline and identified each human for his own reference. The golden-blond at the front looked a lot like Madeline, he must be Prince Alfred. The flaxen-blond looked like Natalya and Katerina, so he would be their brother Ivan. The brunet was obviously Prince Lovino, which would make the other tall sword-wielding blond the Solyran guard Lars. The short blond in the middle with the ladies wielding no sword must be Feliks, the other Seelie fae Madeline said would guide the humans in Tivalon. At the moment, Mikkel had a tight hold on Tolys and was keeping him restrained.
"You are all misinterpreting the situation," Gilbert negotiated in a placating tone, "You see, I'd be more than happy to let you all go through the portal. Just put those swords back in their scabbards, and we'll let your little rescue party return to Niba with no harm done."
As the humans glanced at each other, Gilbert saw his own brother give him a confused look and a raised eyebrow, which he did not react to as he kept his straight face.
"All of us?" Lovino checked, "Including Natalya?"
"All of you," Gilbert deliberately twisted his words, "Your entire rescue party."
"What's the catch?" Ivan demanded.
"No catch," Gilbert denied, "You can hold me to my words."
The group huddled together and whispered for a few moments as Gilbert eavesdropped on them. They seemed concerned that Gilbert might be deceiving them - and rightfully so - but it really was their best option for getting Natalya out of here right now. They finally agreed on it, and sheathed their swords.
"We put away our swords," Alfred challenged, "Now let us all return to the human realm."
"That's more like it," Gilbert relented, "Lukas, you can drop the spell."
Lukas immediately ended the spell, and the purple dome lifted from around the humans. Gilbert stepped to the side and lowered his wings, allowing the humans to access the portal. Just as he predicted, the humans pushed Natalya forward to go first.
As she stepped towards the portal, Gilbert swiftly raised his wing to block her from it.
"You're not part of the rescue party," Gilbert refused as he grabbed her arm, "You're not going anywhere."
"No!" Natalya shrieked as Gilbert dragged her past Ludwig, "Let me go!"
"Release her!" Alfred hollered as well, attempting to follow them across the room but being held back by Ludwig, "You gave your word, all of us!"
"I said the rescue party is free to leave," Gilbert commanded, tightening his grip on Natalya, "Ludwig, send them through."
While Ludwig pushed Alfred into the portal first, Gilbert pulled Natalya further away from the portal. Natalya kept fighting against Gilbert and trying to break his hold on her arm, while he noticed Tolys trying to do the same with Mikkel. He managed to buckle her elbow and compromise her position, before wrapping both arms swiftly around her waist, pulling her back against his chest to restrain her.
As Natalya struggled to break free from this hold, Gilbert watched in sadistic glee as the other humans were pushed through the portal one by one. They were all fighting against it, but Berwald and Lukas had used their wings to join with Ludwig's in an impenetrable barrier to close them all in. When Katerina was pushed through, Gilbert heard something metal clatter to the ground, perhaps a weapon, but couldn't see it on the floor past anyone's feet.
To the side of the room, Mikkel finally got a proper hold on Tolys again and pinned him to the floor, taking the victory in their little scrum just as Ludwig pushed Lovino through the portal. Berwald quickly grabbed Feliks, the only remaining member of the rescue party, while Lukas walked around Berwald to approach the portal.
"Tolys?" Feliks called.
"Get out of here, Feliks!" Tolys ordered from the floor.
Feliks fought against Berwald's hold, and managed to jab his finger into Berwald's eye. As Berwald withdrew at the nasty trick, Feliks broke free and immediately vanished before Ludwig could grab him.
"That hurt," Berwald muttered as he rubbed at his eye, just as the portal began swirling with purple magic in addition to the green and red.
"I've blocked any arrival on this side for the moment," Lukas described, "It still needs to be shut from the other side."
"I'll go do that," Gilbert decided as he pushed the girl into Ludwig's arms, "Berwald, help Mikkel get that fae locked up. Ludwig, get Natalya downstairs now."
"What about Kiku?" Ludwig asked, holding Natalya's arms tight so she couldn't break free.
"I'll check on him," Gilbert answered, "Don't worry, brother, I'll be downstairs shortly."
He stepped in front of the portal, glancing down briefly to notice that there wasn't anything on the ground that could've made that clattering noise. Gilbert frowned for a moment, but quickly shook it off as he went through the portal. Swirls of green and red magic, along with purple, surrounded him as Tivalon faded from view and a forest clearing appeared in its place as he appeared in the faerie ring. As he gained his bearings, Gilbert quickly recognized the entire rescue party standing around him, as well as two others who Madeline had identified as her fae cousin Arthur and the witch named Erzsébet.
"Give me back my sister!" Katerina yelled as she charged at him.
Gilbert did not immediately say anything, and merely put out his hands to hold her away by the shoulders when she reached him. As she barreled into him, he stepped backwards onto the faerie ring border, deliberately twisting his foot on the mushrooms to destroy the portal.
"Natalya has a task to complete in Yuvalon first," Gilbert declared as he gave a push to send her backwards, "She will be freed when I am done with her."
Before anyone could ask him for clarification, Gilbert thought of the parlour he left Kiku in, closed his eyes and summoned his own teleportation magic to leave the human realm and return to Tivalon. As he felt the spell complete itself, Gilbert opened his eyes to find himself back in the parlour, finding the doors wide open and the room empty.
Gilbert rolled his eyes in understanding as he strolled out of the parlour into the hall. Across the way, Berwald and Mikkel were dragging Natalya back underneath the stairs while Ludwig approached him.
"Tolys escaped," Ludwig reported, "He broke free and teleported away the moment Mikkel was no longer pinning him."
"Kiku has also disappeared, along with his guards," Gilbert remarked, nodding back at the empty parlour, "I knew his timing was suspicious."
"Lukas is already back downstairs with Yao," Ludwig continued, "They said we have about ten minutes until the alignment."
"I'll teleport to Lukas and Yao," Gilbert decided, "Walk down with Berwald and Mikkel, make sure Natalya gets downstairs without any further interruption."