Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Flat Circle

They instantly pulled Raspin the rest of the way into the room. Talina herself moved to the double doors and closed them. She then locked, barred, and seemed to activate a native enchantment set into the door frame. “That won’t keep them,” she said confidently. 

“Oh no,” Justice keened, so softly that only myself and one of the guards heard her. 

“Tali, you need-” Raspin coughed out, along with a small amount of aspirated blood, “You need to initiate the contingency.” 

“It’s not that bad yet,” She said with some confidence, “Coury, contact Knight Captain Houdra and tell him that we need-”

“He works for Roginor.” Justice’s voice was louder, but not less close to panic. She sounded like she had when her hands had been stuck inside that wall, panic distorting her words.

“What? No, he’s been my mentor and-”

“Roginor has his son. Blackmail. Houdra’s been feeding him lies about your progress, but he turns on you when push comes to shove, oh god, nothing I’ve done matters.” 

She crouched down into a ball, her hands shoved into her face. Her fingers were pressing hard enough on her eyes that it must have hurt. 

I put one arm around Justice’s shoulder. I wanted to keep my other hand free, on Katarachin The princess and one of the guards not tending to Raspin or checking other entrances stated at us. I answered their disbelief, “Assume what she says is fact. I’ve never seen her wrong on details like this. Contact others.”

The Princess seemed to hesitate only a moment longer, as if trying to decide whether to believe her own [Discern]. She finally said, “Contact Fenris. Tell him to meet us at point Barrier. Then contact the circle. We need everyone to know who’s doing this.” The princess left as well, talking to the bodyguard. I didn’t follow the conversation, focused on Justice.

“I’m useless. It’s useless.” Justice had been faring well up to now. She’d only left that cave a week ago. I didn’t blame her for the despair. It was a wholly normal Human reaction to trauma. 

“It is not, Justice. No war has been declared. You saved thousands of lives.”

“It’s so not fair!” She wailed quietly, through tears.

“It is not. Just take some deep slow breaths for me, Justice. We will get through this.”

She started to say something, but sobs overtook her, as eight years of preparation lead to an anticlimax of failure. For her, at least. I was not quite so diffident yet. Or maybe I was too tired to properly evaluate.

The princess came back as her chamber doors began being pounded on. There might have been some muffled shouts as well, but the security enchantment blocked non-concussive sound. She was out of her fine coronation dress suit, and now wearing far more practical war garments. At her side was a mace of white metal, and a buckler was on her other arm. She wore what almost certainly was enchanted leather armor, and she had a helmet with a jaw guard and chin strap. 

In all honesty, I was impressed by her readiness time. It hadn’t been more than three minutes. I appreciated a Human that was prepared. 

“Respin, can you be moved?”

The guard that had been tending him had cut the shafts off the arrow so that pressure could be applied to prevent the loss of blood. Respin still lay on his stomach. A pool of blood spread beneath him still, and if the princess didn’t know what that meant, I wasn’t going to tell her. 

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“No. Lung hit. Need surgeon or elementalist. Go. Without. Me.” Each word seemed to cause him to flag further. Blood foamed at his lips.

The princess swallowed, and put a hand on the shoulder of the guard desperately trying to staunch the blood loss. He looked up, an odd sort of desperation in his eyes. The princess said. “It’s okay, Maekin.”

The guard shook his head. “I won’t leave him.” Respin was obviously unconscious, his breathing shallow and wet-sounding. 

The princess looked torn between giving an order or a hug. She instead looked up at the door she’d barred, where a particularly loud bang sounded. 

“Roginor isn’t stupid. We can’t assume he doesn’t know about each wing’s secret channels. Will you slow them for us, Maekin?”

Maekin looked like he was on the verge of crying, but swallowed, pushing himself up. “Yes, Tali. I can. Can I have the Rime?”

“Yes. All yours.” Maekin nodded and also fled further into the chambers. The princess looked at us. Justice was still shaking, oblivious, I thought, to the world around us. “You two ought to come with us if you want to live.”

“Of course,” I answered, “but I think Justice has hit her trauma point. She’s probably Badly Shaken.”

The princess nodded and came over. Without a word, she scooped up Justice, who turned to hold onto her like a shield in a hailwind. “She’s so light,” the princess said. 

“She’d been living off of Sanctum rations all her life. She only saw the sunlight last week.”

The princess didn’t say anything as she led me further into her chambers. I wasn’t paying attention like I might have. The rooms were rich and opulent but practical in a way that seemed lived in. We passed another one of the guards, who was loading two backpacks. Maekin went back the way we came, holding the highest quality scroll I’d ever seen, gold edged and glowing faintly, even without being cast yet. He had a resolve about him that said I’d never see him again. The princess brushed against him, what comfort she could offer while holding Justice. 

In one of the rooms, an armoire had been slid aside, and there was a trap door that revealed a ladder down into the darkness. I couldn’t see how far because greyvision doesn’t work well while standing in the light. 

The Princess waited for the other three bodyguards to assemble. “Alright. Time to focus. Assemble at Point Barrier. Round up the circle. We can do this.”

“Maekin?” One of the guards I’d not gotten a name for yet asked. 

The princess shook her head.

One of the bodyguards went down the shaft first, followed by Coury. I gathered it wasn’t a long drop because the princess followed next by simply jumping down the hole with Justice in one arm now, angled in more of a fire carry. The last bodyguard motioned to me, and I took the ladder down, ten feet. The two bodyguards had glow rods. While the last bodyguard pulled the trapdoor closed and activated a few more security enchantments, Justice was passed gently from the Princess to Coury. I thought I heard the sound of an armoire sliding back into place as well. 

The underground tunnel was clean and even, running in two directions. The princess indicated the one to our right, and asked, “Alright… Let’s go everyone.” And we all began to jog down the hallway, leaving the Palace behind.

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