Vol.4 Ch.1 – Debrief

Chapter 1: Debrief

Two weeks earlier.

It was the day after we had beaten the boss of the Crystal Crown dungeon's fifth floor, the one that had been corrupted by the cultists of Shub-Niggurath. We'd decided to lie low in case the escaped leader of the cultists tried for another assassination attempt and even now Yume was casting a spell to shift our silhouettes around to make us more difficult to target, especially at range.

Normally I wouldn't worry about being assassinated within the royal palace but given that the cultist knew Anna and had already tried to kill her within the palace once before we couldn't really let our guard down. Even worse was the fact that the assassination attempt had been carried out with a crystal weapon and conjuring up such weapons was an ability unique to the members of the royal family. Hypothetically it was possible that a family of retainers that had been in the royal family's employ for generations might have similar powers but it was much more likely that the leader of the cultists was related to Annabella, possibly even one of her siblings.

So we were being extra careful, Selene in her metal armor walking in front of the group and me trailing in the back, not taking any chances with the princess. Of course, said princess was formidable in her own right but the last time the assassin had tried to take her out specifically so we had to assume he was focused on her in particular.

Finally we reached the end of the opulent hallway leading to the throne room. The first time we'd been here we'd had to wait. The second time Anna had gone straight in but this time she was hesitating.

“I've got you," I said so quietly that none of the nobles and servants could hear. I would have touched her to reassure her but there were others present who would not approve of a commoner touching a princess.

She turned around and gave me a sweet smile. Her expression wasn't loving, we hadn't been together long enough for that yet, but it was still warm enough to melt a frozen heart and I took the moment to look her over.

Anna had short curly brown hair, normally about two inches long but after almost a month of nearly continuous travel it had grown longer, to about six inches. She had a rather lithe figure, with no chest to speak of but surprisingly round hips, and she was fit. Everything about her was completely at odds with the image of a princess, from her toned stomach and limbs to her work as an herbalist, and the only thing that fit the image was the dress she wore.

After some prodding from me she'd gotten rid of her previous court dress, a golden number that sought to hide her lack of bust behind rows of ruffles and her toned legs under artificial volume and instead wore a silver dress she'd had lying around for some event she'd gone to a few years ago. It was tight and just barely long enough to be acceptable at court and it showed off rather than hid her lack of chest the same way her adventuring clothes did. It looked really nice on her and I was curious to see what the queen would make of it.

“Your highness," the servant at the door said, “her majesty will see you and your companions now.”

“Thank you, Albert," Annabella said and we followed her into the throne room.

A herald hustled after us, then rushed past us and blew into his trumpet. “Announcing Third Princess Annabella Zafira of the Trismegistian Royal Family and her companions!”

We approached the throne in no particular hurry and this time it wasn't just Queen Emilia who was waiting for us, but King Luke as well. I'd never spoken to the man but I had heard he was from common stock so I was hopeful he wouldn't be a pain to deal with.

Once we were in front of the two thrones Anna stopped and we all knelt down, except Anna, who gave a deep formal curtsy and waited for the queen to address her.

“Princess," the queen said. “You have returned to us.” Queen Emilia was a very pretty woman in her mid-fifties, with shining blond hair tied into a bun and calculating blue eyes. Those eyes were currently looking Anna's dress up and down as her lips curled up with amusement and a hint of approval.

“Your majesty," Anna said. “We have completed the task you have given us and are here to report.”

“Excellent news," the queen said. “Please, report.”

Anna was about to open her mouth when the queen seemed to realize something and clapped her hands together.

“Everyone, out!" she called and all the servants and all the guards hurried to comply without question. “There," she said once they'd all left. “Oh, and be at ease, all of you," she told us and we stood up. “Now, please go ahead.”

Anna paused at that moment and looked over to me, beckoning me with her eyes to stand next to her. “It was their mission, technically," she said.

“Of course," the queen said. “However, our retainers informed us that you, princess, tried to contact us the morning after the dinner. Before we discuss your performance I wish to know what you felt the need to share.”

“Yes, mother," Anna said and the queen didn't correct her, telling us that we were in semi-formal mode now. “It will be easier to explain if we start from the beginning.”

“Very well," the queen said, and this time made sure to lock gazes with each of us to make sure we knew she was addressing us all. “Please report.”

Anna nodded and took a half-step back so that I was now the one closest to the queen. “Of course, your majesty," I said. “We have concluded our investigation and have not only found out but stopped what was wrong with your dungeon.”

“A perfect success, then?" the queen asked.

“Almost," Anna said. “One of the culprits managed to escape.” Then she nodded back to me.

“Right," I said. “We quickly found out that the culprits were a group of cultists worshiping the Black Goat, Shub-Niggurath.” The queen and king both nodded at that, telling me that Anna had already briefed her mother of what Syr had shared. “They had knowledge of how to use their vile god's powers to turn their own into cancerous masses they could graft onto other beings in order to control them. On the fifth floor we found two monsters corrupted in such a fashion and disposed of them. Their plan was to corrupt the boss of the fifth floor to make it spawn an army of creatures loyal to the Black Goat, presumably to overrun the capital with.”

The queen looked visibly shaken. “But you managed to stop them before it happened," she said, though it came out as more of a question than she probably intended.

“We did not reach them in time to stop them from corrupting the boss," I said. The queen was already halfway out of her seat before I finished: “But we dispatched the corrupted boss.”

The queen sat down again with a surprisingly undignified flop and the king's mouth hung open.

“The five of you killed the boss of the fifth floor?" King Luke asked incredulously. “That thing took down fifty trained soldiers the last time someone was insane enough to challenge it.”

I tried very hard not to look self-satisfied but I'm not sure how well I succeeded. “To be fair, there were mitigating factors," I said. “The cultist hadn't finished fusing with the boss yet so it spent a lot of time fighting itself rather than attacking us. Additionally, it apparently spawned the creatures at a much slower rate than it should have. On top of that, our cleric has a miracle that can kill hordes of creatures tainted by the Outside. There is no doubt in my mind that we would have perished had we fought the same boss that was documented in the Princess' journal. But we were able to dispatch the amalgamation we encountered instead.” The humility in my words seemed to impress both of them. “Unfortunately, there was another cultist down there, who managed to escape. Even worse...” I trailed off and nodded to Anna, who continued:

“When I tried to contact you after the dinner it was to let you know that there had been an attempt on my life.”

Both the king and the queen looked startled and the queen asked: “You do not mean the attempt on your life in Calice, do you?”

“No, mother," Anna said. “The night of the gala dinner someone tried to kill me with a crystal weapon. And in the dungeon we learned that the one responsible was one of the cultists.”

Stunned silence followed.

“Did you verify what type of crystal?" the queen asked, much more calmly than I would have expected.

“Of course, mother," Anna said. “It was a ruby blade and he," she nodded at me, “placed it in his bag of holding.”

I nodded at her and rummaged around in my bag of holding until I found the cool, smooth blade made out of gemstone and pulled it out. Except... the blade I pulled out of the bag wasn't ruby red. Instead it was green as emerald.

“Tell me I'm not going crazy," Anna all but begged me, completely forgetting court protocol.

“N-no," I said, “I mean, no your highness, the blade was definitely red when I picked it up.”

I looked back to Alisha, Selene and Yume, who all voiced their agreement. I looked back at the sword, then back at the women. Something was nagging at me, if only I could... my gaze fell right into Yume's cleavage, to the alexandrite charm she wore on her neck.

“Alexandrite," I said out loud.

“Pardon?" Anna asked.

“Alexandrite," I said again. “A gemstone that is red in artificial light but green in natural light.”

Anna's gaze snapped back to her mother: “Mother, does someone in our family have the ability to conjure alexandrite?”

Queen Emilia was biting her lip in consternation. “This is highly disturbing," she said quietly. “Yes, there is indeed someone with alexandrite powers, but I will need to verify that this sword is indeed made of it before I will accuse one of my own children.” Oh dear. So not just some family member, but one of Anna's siblings. “I will need to examine this blade in my study. Daughter, which one of them do you trust?”

“All of them," Anna said without hesitation. “With my life.”

“Then all of you come along," the queen said, then turned to her husband. “You too, dear.”

“Of course," King Luke said. I could tell this was weighing on him just as much.

And so we followed the queen into a small room off to the side of the throne room, the door inlaid into the wall so as to be basically invisible to anyone approaching the throne. The queen's study was a small, very cozy room with thick carpet and with bookshelves covering every wall, including the one that held the door, the shelves having a hole in the center that held the door. The only light in the room came from light crystals set into the ceiling. It was easy to see that the light was artificial. It was much too warm to be natural light filtered through a transparent ceiling.

I produced the blade from my bag very slowly, to make absolutely sure nobody would think I was drawing a weapon on the king and queen and, sure enough, as the blade was exposed to the artificial light of the study it shone red as a ruby.

“I had hoped you were wrong," Queen Emilia said. “I have many siblings, nieces and nephews, uncles and aunts who can create emeralds. But only one currently living member of the royal family can conjure up alexandrite.”

“Who?" Anna asked. “Who was it that tried to kill me?” She had seemed so relaxed about it before but now all the emotions she had been repressing came bubbling back up. And I couldn't blame her. For years she'd had to deal with assassination attempts but being the last in line she had believed to be safe from her own siblings at least, believing that she was no threat to their chances of inheriting the throne and therefore safe from their machinations.

“Your brother Wilhelm," the king said, so quietly that I barely heard him.

Anna let out a shocked gasp. Even I had a hard time reconciling my image of the calm and arrogant cultist we'd met in the bowels of the dungeon with that of the timid prince we'd seen at the gala dinner. Until I thought about it.

I had thought he'd been uncomfortable because he wasn't good with crowds. That he had left early because he didn't like being around people. That he wore drab colors because he didn't like attention.

But looked at from another angle, his shiftiness could be seen as a sign of guilt and worry about being found out. His leaving early probably had more to do with needing to get back to the dungeon as fast as possible. And the drab colors weren't just worn by socially awkward people but also by assassins.

“That doesn't make sense though," Alisha said. “We saw Prince Wilhelm at the gala dinner. If he was the leader of the cultists, how did he know to return in time for the dinner?”

Anna looked back as if hoping for Alisha's words to ring true but then shook her head sadly and the queen explained:

“All of my children have personal retainers who would use magic to message them for such events.”

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at Anna and despite the situation she only barely managed to suppress a snort and answered the question I hadn't dared to ask.

“Yes, even me. I do not like her much, but yes, I have a retainer with a communication focus who keeps me informed about the goings-on in the palace when I'm away.”

“Then we should probably catch Prince Wilhelm's retainer as well as the Prince himself," I said. I wasn't stupid enough to try and order the queen around but my tone had probably been a little too urgent to be seen as a suggestion. Thankfully, she was clearly thinking the same thing and therefore didn't take offense because she said:

“An excellent point.” Then she headed out of her study, the rest of us hot on her heel. “Will you fetch the scribe and the herald?" she asked me.

“Of course, your majesty.”

I hurried to the door of the throne room and opened it, then looked around for the two servants.

“Her majesty needs you," I told the men and they hurried into the throne room without complaint. She clearly had these guys trained up well.

“Your majesty?" they said in unison after hurrying all the way to the throne.

“You," she said, looking at the scribe. “Pen a missive.”

“Of course, your majesty," he said and got out his tools.

“As of this moment," the queen began to dictate, “Fourth Prince Wilhelm is suspected of consorting with the powers of darkness and of the attempted assassination of Third Princess Annabella. He is to be brought in for questioning alongside his personal retainers. Consider him extremely dangerous.” I had to give the scribe credit, he didn't stumble over any of it. His eyes were wide as saucers but he didn't stop writing. The herald, meanwhile, was staring open-mouthed at the queen's words.

When the scribe was finished writing he once again used a tiny spell construct of fire and air to dry the ink and then rolled the piece of parchment up.

“Make sure this is received by the entirety of the royal guard," she told the herald and the scribe handed him the scroll. “The Prince's capture is to be treated as a top priority.”

“Understood, your majesty," the herald said and then vanished in a flash of colorless space magic. Seeing that he was no longer needed, the scribe walked off to the corner of the throne room, where he had a little cushion for leaning against when he wasn't needed.

“And now, we wait," King Luke said. “So, the fifth floor. How was it?” The queen smiled fondly at her husband and I wondered whether they had spent time bonding in the dungeon together. There were rumors going around that she had married him after he had saved her life, after all. Maybe that's where it had happened.

I was a little surprised that they would want to talk about the dungeon, knowing that one of their sons was a vile traitor, but then again, they would probably need a while to properly deal with that reality. And Anna seemed more than happy to join in the distraction.

“It was gorgeous," the princess said. “Far more vibrant than great-grandfather described it.”

“How about the monsters? Were they as dangerous as he claimed?" the queen asked, clearly just as curious.

“I couldn't tell," Anna said truthfully. “The cultists had killed most of the monsters that had stood in their way. The only ones still alive were the ones they had corrupted and they certainly put up a fight, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle.”

The queen's smile turned a little sly. “You speak fondly of your comrades," she noted.

Well, that was as good a straight line as we were going to get and Anna seemed to realize it as well.

“I do," Anna said. “I... I wish to keep traveling with them.”

The queen's eyebrows rose and she looked between her daughter and me. “Travel with them, or travel with him?" she asked.

“With all of them," Anna clarified and stepped between Alisha and me, making skin contact with both of us.

“Interesting," the queen said. Next to her, the king was looking at me differently now. I'd gone from a competent mercenary who had kept his daughter safe to his daughter's lover and he didn't seem quite sure how to reconcile the two.

“Well," Anna said when her mother didn't say anything else. “Is that alright?”

The queen tapped a finger against her lip as she thought. “I had planned on sending you on two diplomatic missions in the near future," she admitted. “But if they are willing to accompany you then I see no reason not to let you spend the rest of your time with them. They have already proven themselves to be quite competent and willing to keep you safe, after all.”

Anna looked at us, a little nervously.

I very nearly chuckled. As if we would decline that. “Of course we'll accompany you," I told her and Alisha, Selene and Yume nodded.

She smiled at us.

“Now," the queen said, “let us discuss where these missions will take you.”

She was about to go on when a member of the royal guard burst into the throne room and hurried to make it all the way through the chamber.

“Explain yourself," the queen said as the guardsman approached.

“Your majesty," he said, panting. “As you requested, we hurried to apprehend Prince Wilhelm and his retainers. The maids said they saw him enter his room yesterday around noon but did not see him leave yet and he didn't call for any meals to be delivered. Normally we would never enter a prince's personal chambers but because of your orders we stormed into the Prince's chambers.” He paused to catch his breath. “We did not find the Prince. The room looked ransacked and his retainer is lying dead in a pool of blood on the carpet. By the looks of it, the retainer died yesterday morning.”

And then the queen did the absolute last thing I expected.

She started swearing. Not some dainty noblewoman's pseudo-swearwords either. She started cussing like a sailor, her choice of words so crude that I'm not even going to write it all down. It involved doing something anatomically improbable with a ferret and a tub of bacon grease.

The royal guard member seemed taken aback but not quite as much as I had expected him to. Either the man had a great poker face or this behavior was nothing out of the ordinary for the queen.

When she finished ranting she took a few deep breaths and then said: “Inform the royal guard all across the kingdom. The Prince is to be brought in at all costs, alive if at all possible.”

“Should this be the new priority, your majesty?" he asked. Later Anna would explain that what the guardsman was really asking was whether they should drop absolutely everything else, even the normal peacekeeping duties, to catch Wilhelm.

But the queen shook her head. “No. Place him at the top of the Most Wanted list. Set it up as a quest for the Adventurer's Guild as well. We cannot afford to suspend all operations, not even for this.”

“Understood, your majesty.”

“Dismissed.”

The guardsman hurried out of the room and before the door was even closed we heard him yelling out orders.

“Are we to be involved in the hunt for the prince?" I asked carefully once the servants were out of the throne room again.

The king let out a soft snort and the queen gave a wry smile. “This is not your fight," she said. “But if you happen to find him, the quest will be posted in every branch of the Adventurer's Guild, so you will of course be welcome to bring him in as well.”

“What will happen to him?" Annabella asked quietly. “If he is caught alive, I mean.”

“He consorted with Outsiders and he tried to kill one of my children," the queen said, her tone suddenly hard. “He may be my son, but he is a traitor first and foremost. He will rot in a cell for the rest of his life, his existence as miserable as I can make it.” The king reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, lending silent support. All of us pretended we didn't see the tears running down her face.

“You were going to tell us where to go for these diplomatic missions, your majesty," I reminded, trying to get back on track.

“Yes," she said, composing herself a little. Her voice remained a little shaky, though she seemed grateful for the distraction. “For your first mission, you will be sent to the forests Northwest of the capital.” Alisha suddenly stiffened. “Relations with the Wood Elves have been poor lately. I hope you," the queen nodded at Alisha, “will be able to help Annabella smooth things over.”

“Of course I will try, your majesty," Alisha said.

“Good," the queen said. “After that, I wish for you to head to the Southeast and form an alliance with the Atalanta cult. Between this attack on our dungeon and what King Mordred told us, I believe it is only a matter of time before we need to defend ourselves against the Outsiders, so more allies will help.”

I was beyond confused at that point. The Atalanta cult was part of the kingdom, so it should naturally be allied to the queen. I didn't dare to show my ignorance by asking, though, and later on Annabella explained to us that while the cult was part of the kingdom, they were self-governed and if the queen wanted them to fight by her side she would need to offer them something in return. Apparently this was normal.

It certainly explained why just about every larger village and city had its own garrison of royal guards. The royal guards were beholden to the queen while the guard forces of a region were beholden to their respective lords and if the queen wanted access to those forces she would need to trade with them.

Although I did wonder what had the Wood Elves so upset. From her reaction, Alisha wasn't looking forward to going back there. She had mentioned many times that she didn't want to deal with it yet but now I was beginning to worry. She had said that she had felt smothered, that she had become a priestess to finally be free of her parents' expectations for her, so I had an idea of what was wrong, but I hadn't thought it would be this bad. Either way, we were going to face the problem, together.

“What was King Mordred like?" Annabella asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

The queen smiled in response. “Refreshing," she said. “She is very pretty. She looks young but if her stories are to be believed she is actually quite a bit older than me. Apparently the people of Albion do not age like humans.”

“Perhaps they share some blood with the Wood Elves," Anna mused.

The queen nodded. “That was my thought as well.” She looked pointedly at Alisha, who seemed a bit uncomfortable with the attention.

“I wouldn't know, your majesty. We thought them all myths until recently.”

The queen waved her hand dismissively. “Either way, she is blunt, but savvy. I believe she deliberately uses that bluntness to make people think her foolish, but she is anything but. I would not want her as an enemy, frankly, but that seems unlikely given that we seem to be sharing many interests. Honestly, I did not think killing Outsiders would be so important to us, but recent events seem to have proven me wrong.”

**

Soon the queen began briefing Anna on the specifics of her mission and I tried to stick with her but King Luke pulled me off to the side. Apparently I was going to get the concerned father talk from a king now.

“So," he said. “You're with all of these lovely ladies?”

“I am, your majesty," I said.

He rolled his eyes. “None of that. I'm a stable hand. You're a tailor.” I almost gritted my teeth. Calling me a tailor was what Athena did when she wanted to piss me off, to tell me that I wasn't a Hero because no god ever chose me and that I was meant to be a tailor and nothing but a tailor. But King Luke didn't mean it that way. He was saying this as a sign of camaraderie, to tell me that we were both commoners at heart, despite the directions our lives had taken.

“It's tough to see you as just a stable hand," I finally said.

He chuckled. “Yeah, and you probably won't believe how annoying that is.”

“Oh, I do," I said. “I've seen Annabella lamenting her noble status often enough that I've got a pretty good idea.”

He smiled. “Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

I stayed silent. There was nothing I could say to that.

“Ah fuck," he finally said. “I can't even give you the concerned dad speech, can I? You've already proven that you can keep her safe. I've read the reports. You took an arrow for her.” I couldn't suppress a small smile. “And then you saved her from an assassin in the one place she should have been safe.”

I still stayed silent. Agreeing with him felt weird, but I couldn't exactly deny it.

Finally he seemed to notice that he wasn't really going anywhere and he scratched the back of his head and said: “Look, I guess what I'm trying to say is... aren't you a little greedy? All those pretty women and then you also want my daughter on top of them?”

I finally let out a snort. “I really don't know what to tell you," I said. “It just kind of happened. I wasn't planning on that. Anna is just... really amazing and we all really like her.”

“You really mean that, don't you?" he asked quietly.

“I do.”

He started chewing his lip and I had a good idea of what he wanted to say next, so I preempted him:

“She has told us about her... situation. It didn't change our opinion of her.”

He seemed to deflate, as if he had truly been worried about that. “Good," he said. “I was worried she'd never find anyone who could look past that.” He got this weird, wry smirk on his face. “Then again, you've already got enough women who could give you children.”

I really didn't have an answer to that, so instead I asked: “So, you're fine with it?”

He sighed. “Yeah. It's just... First I learn that one of my sons is a murdering psychopath of a cultist and then you take my baby girl away from me. It's a lot to handle in one day.”

I didn't know how to take that. His tone was whimsical but there was real pain hiding underneath it. “I'm really sorry, your majesty.”

He shook his head. To my relief he didn't make light of it. He knew what I'd meant. “I had always known that my children would plot against each other for the throne eventually. Gods above, Marcus is really not subtle about his attempts to replace Maria.” Prince Marcus was the second in line for the throne, right behind Princess Mariabella. “But I hadn't expected one of them to worship an Outer God and outright try to murder another. How is Anna holding up?”

I considered how much to tell him for just a moment. “I had thought she was dealing with it pretty well but now it seems she just bottled it all up until we were done with the dungeon.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Her siblings always thought she was naive in the way she dealt with them but the way Anna sees it she's last in line to the throne so she never had to worry about her siblings stabbing her in the back. Except now she does, apparently.” He paused for a moment, then said: “Tell you what. I think you're good for her, but I'll withhold my final judgment until you show me that you'll help her deal with this. Be there for her, help her come to terms with it, and if you find Wilhelm in your travels, deal with him if she can't. Do that, and I'll approve of you wholeheartedly.” He held out his hand to shake for the informal deal and I shook it without hesitation.

“Of course, King Luke.”