The White Darkness

By Helbaworshipper

Lotis Theives Arc: The Seno Aftermath

Mayura should know what she wants in life. She had everything she wanted in that dance. Every piece of her life was coming up properly. She shouldn't have any issues with what was going to happen. So when the Ramito hit the area, she was caught off guard. She felt someone beneath her when she got back to her senses from it, though. It was still quite active, but…

"Kyo, are you alright?" Her mind panicked as she tried to figure out who and what had caused it. She helped him up and was about to heal him when she saw Alice. For some reason it felt more menacing than usual. Was Alice alright or was she… She was the source of it? Her mind panicked a little as she focused on healing Kyo. The ball room was in chaos and anyone not Lotis talented was running out as fast as they could.

She felt her mirror and spoke softly. "Na Sadaru Lotis Ran," the white robes formed over her body as she started to turn to look at the mess she could try and deal with. That was when she heard her mother crying. She looked towards the wall and saw her father… Impaled on a decorative candlestick. Her mother wasn't in much better shape, but at least it wasn't already fatal. She turned towards Alice and began to speak.

"Alice! What did you just do?!" Her body moved while using Riiya to avoid any more damage from the destroyed finery.

"I don't know," her voice as too different than usual. She was honest and calm, but… It felt like this wasn't Alice anymore. Perhaps it was a person who- "What sort of things should a person not loved by the Lotis do?"

"W-what? Alice, what sort of nonsense." Her mind felt confused, and she must have said something more. Yet, the moment Kyo was trying to help her a part of her felt a darkness creep in. Why was he helping Alice? Shouldn't he support her? She'd have to attack Alice for now to help her-

"I wouldn't attack just yet, your highness Seno." Eric was in Maram robes, which was shock enough. However… "You wouldn't want him to go too? Considering Alice just killed off your father."

Behind Eric was Kayna in Maram robes. Right in front of his restrained figure, a sword was poised to go into him. She took a deep breath and did her best to move forward to save him when the sword stabbed without hesitation. So distracted by the outright death of two people she knew of importance, she only just heard the tearing of some sort of parchment. Kayna was gone and the throne was now holding a corpse. Her mind tried to justify the events. Things had been just fine earlier? Alice had been just fine…

When she woke up from probably a combo of things, it was in a rather different location. She could tell that this must be a tent of considerable size. It also felt calming and she didn't hurt as much as earlier. Yet, the moment she moved it ached. Her hand tried to move her own body to sit up.

"I'd avoid doing that." A female voice spoke to her. "Considering your condition, you'd be dead if you recovered in Wakamiya Kingdom or Seno Kingdom." Sitting in a chair near the bed she was trying to get out of was a woman her age in pigtails. The hair buns were something she vaguely recalled. "Don't speak for now. Just nod if you would like to know something." She allowed the woman to put her back into the bed as she nodded.

"So first, your condition?" She nodded. "It's called Maram Insensitivity. When you are effected by Maram directly or know it's attacking you, you're just like any Lotis Master. However, because you are in need of direct hits of Maram to know, you've been poisoned by it for awhile."

Her mind wandered to a moment at what Eric might have done. Not only had he betrayed them, he had done something horrible to Alice. As much as she felt the darkness inside her, a part of her… She needed to save her sister.

"Nod twice if you want to know who died. Once if you want a general damage report." She nodded once first. Then twice which made the woman chuckle. "Your treaty is completely destroyed. The Yugu parchment was undone moments after that ramito struck it. The kingdom is alive, but a good number of the Maram forces did a number on the civilians. If we hadn't been called, most of the citizens and nobles might be dead bodies." She waited for a moment to continue. "From what we can tell, your sister's ramito knocked King Seno into one of the decorative lotis candle holders. Strong, but not easy to take someone off of. He's gone." She carefully put a clean cloth to Mayura's watering eyes. "At some point Eric most likely stabbed Kazuki in the chaos of the ramito. His mirror was pitch black and shattered." Her mind reeled, but she steeled herself to hear more. "Kayna, for whatever reason, killed King Wakamiya without hesitation."

She tried to keep her mind clear as she began to feel the tears leave her eyes. The woman was calm despite the news, though probably more for her sake. "Wakamiya Kingdom's castle is barely standing. You'd be lucky if even the first floor was safe to live in. For now, we took the royal family to our camp." She seemed a bit confused. "I'm a member of the Lotis Thieves." She nodded once to confirm she had heard the rumors.

"For now, get some rest and I'll do a proper introduction. You're safe here. I promise." With how nice the woman spoke, her mind allowed her to rest again.

"I told you that I demand it!" A voice started to wake her up. She was at least able to move now in the bed she was in. "She's the only person awake at the moment who can tell me what happened with some actual factual evidence!" The voice seemed familiar, but she couldn't exactly understand why it was screaming.

"I understand your issue," a male voice she didn't quite recognize. "However, considering her condition, could you argue if you think she lied?"

"My fiance is missing and my tutor took her. What is there to be confused about?" Her mind shuddered for a moment. She felt her arms go around her body as she realized who it was. She had certainly hoped he wouldn't show up during her time in the Wakamiya Kingdom. Now, she was in probably a worse situation than before. Her mind tried to summon the motivation to face what might happen. As the tent flap opened, she found it very hard to form words.

"My apologies, your highness." A man with blonde hair and blue eyes appeared first. He seemed to be quite mature as he was followed by someone she knew well. Frei Weilhausen was standing behind him with a most… perhaps the best word would be unamused expression. She nodded once as the man she didn't know motioned for Frei to sit quietly. "I am Christopher Roland the thirteenth." She looked a bit confused, but nodded. "Currently, I am leader of the Lotis Thieves. Mei Lin said your recovery is going well."

"I can speak at least," she answered softly as her hands went to her lap. "Is my mother..."

"She's resting in private tent. Her mental state is still not up to hearing the rest of the situation." She put her hands on the blanket slowly. "Kyo's in a not very good state, but he took the brunt of the force. Thankfully he summoned us before it was too late." He pulled out what looked like a piece of a gem. The item itself made her a bit wary just looking at it. "This is what triggered Alice." Frei was started to look at it now.

"Triggered? You mean it's not the thing on her neck?"

"Neck?"

"To learn Lotis from Eric, he puts something on your neck." She motioned to the back of her neck. Frei seemed to be thinking for a moment. "She'd had it on her neck for years."

"That explains the rush of Maram letting out all at once." He put the gem back in his pocket. "This is a gem of pure maram. Words aren't necessary on powerful ones." He thought of how to explain it more. "It's like a ticking time bomb of maram that hits the person all at once. A normal person would just go and rampage. For Alice and her sheer amount of power built up… it could easily have destroyed the whole kingdom had she not been stopped."

"Are you going to-"

"No, your choices that led to this are not what I care about." Chris pointed to her Lotis Mirror that was currently quite cloudy. "What will you do to save her, Mayura Seno?"

"I don't know yet," her voice was softer as she noticed Frei quiet down his movements. "I want to do something, but… I knew I was being selfish."

"Then figure it out." Chris slowly stood up. "Kyo is going to fight to save her when he wakes up. I'm quite certain."