The two guards were holding Natalya's arms tight as they escorted Natalya down the hallways of the palace. Now that Alfred's rescue attempt had failed, she had no choice but to follow Prince Ludwig with these guards and participate in whatever chaos Gilbert had planned for her.
Little did any of the Unseelie fae realize that the rescue attempt hadn't been completely all for naught.
The key moment happened back in the parlour. Gilbert was restraining her to the side of the room, while Ludwig sent the humans through the portal and back to the human realm. Natalya watched the dagger fall from her sister's hand as Katerina was pushed through, and nobody else seemed to react as the weapon clattered to the floor just in front of the portal. Even once everyone had been sent through, and the fae made their plans for what to do next, nobody bothered to acknowledge that there was a weapon on the floor they could confiscate.
So she claimed it first.
The moment Gilbert had gone through the faerie ring portal, Natalya freed herself from Ludwig's grasp and attempted to run through for the escape. The portal disintegrated before she could reach it, so she collapsed to the ground and feigned her tears of despair. The fae were distracted with wrangling Tolys as he broke free, so she had her opportunity to grab the dagger from the ground. By the time they dragged her back to her feet after Tolys vanished, she had already created a hidden pocket in the sleeve of her magical dress in which to hide the weapon.
Now, as they brought her through and down into the depths of the palace, not a single one of these fools knew that she was armed.
As they led her along, Natalya considered what she knew of these three fae guiding her. So far in her time in Tivalon, Gilbert and the maid Lenka had been the only Unseelie fae she had interacted with, so she had listened closely during the altercations just now in front of the faerie ring portal. The two guards were named Mikkel and Berwald, and that fae who made the purple dome of magic around them was named Lukas. This fae out in front had been called both 'Ludwig' and 'brother' by Gilbert and 'Your Highness' by these guards, so Ludwig must be an Unseelie Prince. She would have to be particularly wary of him, especially if anything happened to his elder brother at her hands.
The decor of the castle changed significantly the further down they went, the light colours on the wall and silver ornamentation gradually deepening to darker blues before giving away entirely to aged stone walls. After a particularly dark and spiraling stone staircase, they arrived at an old wooden door, which Ludwig opened wide and stood just inside of. Natalya followed him in and observed the circular room within.
The centerpiece of the room was a large white ceremonial altar surrounded densely by thin sticks of wood. One side of the pyre was left open and uncovered, revealing wide steps that climbed to access a metal bowl centered on the top of the altar, charred and burnt from many uses in the past. The stone walls climbed high above, forming a dome above the pyre, with the exception of a small vent at the very top to let smoke leave the room.
Gilbert and Lukas were circling the altar at the moment, pouring oil on the wood so that it would burn more swiftly. Hearing the door shut behind her, Natalya spun and saw that Ludwig now stood guard in front of it, preventing escape she might attempt. Berwald and Mikkel were not with him, they must be either waiting outside the room or heading back upstairs.
Natalya took another look around, and focused on the only other thing to see in the room. To the left side of the altar, a table was pushed against the wall. A fae she had not met yet, with black hair and wings, was just pulling silk covers off a series of items on the table. As she approached, the fae pulled up a cover that revealed her white ribbon and the glowing seashell with Erika's voice underneath.
"Oh no," Natalya realized, "It's the ritual?"
"Yes, it's time for the ritual," Gilbert answered as he approached the table with the two emptied oil pitchers, "Your rescue party's timing was nearly disastrous."
"And what exactly is my role in this?" Natalya demanded as Gilbert put down the pitchers.
"Your human blood is required for the last step," Gilbert explained, as Natalya glanced around and saw that Lukas had vanished.
"Don't worry, miss, we can heal you immediately after," the black-haired fae reassured as he removed the cover from the last hidden items on the table and tossed all the covers to the back corner, "We only need a few drops from your palm."
"Unless you misbehave," Gilbert amended as his black jacket suddenly disappeared to reveal just a white shirt underneath, with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows, "I'll be the one cutting your palm, not Yao."
"Let's hope His Majesty's hands are gentle then," Yao said as he picked up a pair of thick gloves from the table and put them on.
Natalya glanced back at the table and observed the remaining items laid out and ready to use. Her ribbon and the seashell were placed on a tray, along with a compass and a pair of metal rings that had a skinny red ribbon looped inside them. The two oil pitchers were off to the side, while a silver pitcher was waiting to be used. The final item was a silver dagger, simple but well-cleaned.
"It should be time."
Natalya spun at the voice to see that Lukas had reappeared, and was handing off a flaming torch to the King. As Gilbert held the torch, Natalya saw his hands begin glowing with blood red magic, before the torch suddenly began to glitter and glow in rainbow colours. When the glowing reached the top of the torch, the flames also changed from their normal orange into all the colours of the rainbow.
"It's time now," Yao instructed as he grabbed the silver pitcher, "Start the ritual."
The black-haired fae vanished just after he finished speaking, and Gilbert approached the pyre and lowered the torch to light the wood.
"Hail Hestia, goddess of the hearth and the home," Gilbert worshipped as he circled the altar with the enchanted torch, engulfing all the wood in the rainbow flames, "Bless these flames of our pyre so we may conduct our ritual."
Natalya kept to the outside wall and began strolling around the side of the room, watching as the flames grew and heated up as Gilbert ensured the pyre was sufficiently lit with the magical fire. Once he was satisfied, he stopped at the front by the open side and handed over the torch to Lukas. The blond fae immediately vanished with the torch, just as Yao reappeared with the silver pitcher. The black-haired fae was delicately holding the pitcher in his protected hands, leaving the handle completely free for Gilbert to carefully grasp.
"Hail Hephaestus, god of metalwork and crafting," Gilbert praised as he stepped up to the altar and poured the contents of the pitcher into the bowl, "Accept this molten gold as our offering, and may you bless it as a base for our forging of the ritual's magic."
Once the molten gold was poured, Gilbert handed the pitcher back to Yao, who took it to the table where Lukas had just reappeared. The blond fae took the tray with the rings, compass, seashell and ribbon, leaving the dagger as the only item on the table not yet used.
Natalya began considering her options as Lukas brought the tray to Gilbert. That silver dagger on the table would probably be used to cut into her hand at the end of the ritual.
The first item Gilbert took from the tray was the pair of metal rings, handling the two ends of the ribbon to hold them in the air without touching them.
"To ye gods Ares, Apollo and Zeus," Gilbert invoked as he stepped up and held the rings above the bowl, "Accept this offering of fire, a pair of iron rings representing the love and passion that burns between a fae and a human."
Gilbert dropped one side of the ribbon and let the rings fall into the bowl with the molten gold. The flames gave a small pulsing flare in response to the rings, and continued to burn in many colours as Gilbert reached for the next item.
Natalya quickly determined that the last step of the ritual is when she must act swiftly. The safety of the human realm was at stake, she must be ready to protect it when she is brought to the pyre at the end.
"To ye goddesses Hera, Demeter and Athena," Gilbert hailed as he held the compass above the altar, "Accept this offering of earth, an enchanted compass that guides across the lands and will not lead astray from the path."
As before with the rings, Gilbert dropped the compass into the bowl and the fire flared once again before he reached for the next time.
How was she supposed to sabotage the ritual though? All she had at her disposal was the dagger hidden in her sleeve, perhaps she could swing it at them in self-defense?
"To ye gods Hermes, Aphrodite and Dionysus," Gilbert offered as he next held her white ribbon out, "Accept this offering of air, the ribbon that bound and grew the hair of a clever young damsel in a tall tower."
Natalya scoffed at the reference to herself as Gilbert dropped the ribbon into the bowl, the fire flaring up at the offering. Finally he took the seashell from the tray and held it above the bowl.
"To ye gods Artemis, Hades and Poseidon," Gilbert implored, "Accept this offering of water, a seashell containing the voice of a siren, used to lure men to their watery death in the moonlight."
While Gilbert dropped the seashell into the bowl at the burning pyre's delight, Lukas took away the empty tray, and Yao brought up the silver dagger. She braced herself in preparation to be forced forward against her will as Gilbert took the silver dagger from Yao. Her strength faltered, however, as Gilbert held the dagger above the bowl and cut into his own palm instead.
"Hail the dread goddess, Queen Persephone of the Underworld," Gilbert supplicated as his blood dripped from his palm into the bowl, "Accept my blood as payment for lifting the veil between the realms."
Just as Natalya was cringing in fear of feeling that similar pain in her own hand, she felt four hands grab her from behind. As she failed to break free, she spun to see that Lukas and Yao had teleported behind her when she wasn't watching them, and were now pushing forward towards Gilbert and the altar. Once she was close enough, Gilbert swiftly grabbed her left wrist and pulled her up the steps to stand by him, while Yao grabbed her right wrist to keep her from fighting. She struggled to break free, both from Gilbert's grasp on her wrist and from the other two fae restraining her, and whimpered as Gilbert cut into her palm with the dagger.
"All hail to Eris, the goddess of discord," Gilbert prayed, "Accept this human's blood as payment, so the fae may run freely in the human realm and cause chaos once again."
As he finished the recitation, Gilbert pulled her arm forward so that her left palm was poised above the bowl, in position for the spilled blood to drip down. Realizing this was the moment to take action, Natalya pulled her right arm out of Yao's grasp, reached for her hidden pocket with her right hand and pulled out the dagger. When none of the fae seemed to react to her holding a dagger in her right hand, Natalya swung it past her restrained left arm and directly at Gilbert.
The dagger plunged into his chest, with no response on his end to keep it from happening. Instead of being stopped by any bones, the dagger burned a gaping hole three inches wide into his chest, right where his heart should be. The wound immediately began gushing with blood and Gilbert swiftly collapsed, only for Ludwig to suddenly appear and catch him before he hit the ground.
"Gilbert?" Ludwig wailed as Lukas rushed in to check on Gilbert, "What did she do to you?"
Freed for the moment, Natalya took a few steps back from them all in shock and pointed the dagger at them, only for two more pairs of hands to grab her from behind.
"Mikkel, watch her right hand, she must be holding a glamoured weapon!" Yao frantically ordered, "Berwald, get her left hand over the pyre! Lukas, can Gilbert recite the last incantation?"
The two guards pushed her back towards the pyre, with Berwald pulling her bleeding left hand as close as possible to the bowl. Before any of her blood could drip in, the flames of the pyre suddenly flared angrily and turned black, making them all back up in fear. The fire then turned back to a natural orange and began burning the bowl and all the items within.
"The King is dead," Lukas announced, rising to his feet.
"The magic is gone, the alignment is broken," Yao added immediately after, "The ritual has failed."
Natalya could only watch in dread as Ludwig weeped over Gilbert's dead body. The other fae said not a word as they did the same as her. She was only trying to defend herself and sabotage the ritual, it wasn't her intention to kill any of them. Her attack wasn't meant to be a deadly one, though there was no way she'd be able to talk them out of thinking of it as such.
After a long quiet minute of observation, Yao was the first to move, going to the table and grabbing one of the silk covers. As he returned, he signalled for Mikkel and Berwald to restrain her once again. Yao threw the silk cover entirely over her hand and the dagger, before pulling on the dagger through the sheet to remove it from her hand. He felt through the fabric in his hands to find the handle, before turning it over to expose the dagger. He summoned crimson red magic to his fingertips as he hovered them just over the blade, making the entire silhouette glow.
"A glamoured iron dagger?" Yao observed, "How did you get this?"
"Back at the faerie ring portal," Natalya answered, "My sister dropped it when she was pushed through."
"You've got to be kidding me," Mikkel groaned as Lukas kneeled down beside Ludwig once again.
"Your Majesty?" Lukas addressed.
Ludwig did not speak, only lifting in his head in shock at the honorific Lukas just used.
"What should we do with Natalya?" Lukas requested.
Ludwig looked directly at her, and his reddened eyes and tear-soaked cheeks did not diminish the intensity of his glare. Natalya steadied her breathing, preparing herself to hear him announce the worst punishment he could muster in his grief and rage.
He finally spoke, his voice having already gone a bit hoarse.
"Lock her up in the dungeon."
Author's Note
I wonder how many of you spotted all the signs leading to this event! The glamoured dagger and the ritual's unforeseeable result were heavily foreshadowed.
Anywho, I'm actually here for context for the ritual spell. Yes, western astrology got combined with the Green pantheon of gods to make this happen. Each of the four trinkets aligned with the elements as assigned to the zodiac signs.
The 'alignment' wasn't the common trope type where all the planets form a straight line in the sky, but rather where they were spread evenly across all twelve signs at the exact same degree. Most planets are in their home signs with their namesake deities, though a few adjustments were required for double-rulerships and to add the asteroids Juno and Ceres in the extra spots.
Aries - Mars - Ares - Fire
Taurus - Juno - Hera - Earth
Gemini - Mercury - Hermes - Air
Cancer - Moon - Artemis - Water
Leo - Sun - Apollo - Fire
Virgo - Ceres - Demeter - Earth
Libra - Venus - Aphrodite - Air
Scorpio - Pluto - Hades - Water
Sagittarius - Jupiter - Zeus - Fire
Capricorn - Saturn - Athena - Earth
Aquarius - Uranus - Dionysus - Air
Pisces - Neptune - Poseidon - Water