Chapter 36 Hello, Arthur.

  Alejandro rotated his staff in his hand to try and align its bottom tip with the ground, only to have it ripped from his grasp and thrown into the sea by his very shadow. “No!!” The court mage yelled before he was forced back onto the ground by said shadow.

  “Be still, Alejandro.” Isaac spoke calmly. “No one has died, yet. I would prefer to keep it that way, but I need you to cooperate for that.”

  “My Lord, please, cease this before someone actually gets hurt.” The ducal guard pleaded with Isaac from his position on his back against the dock.

  Isaac turned to regard the guard just as the sun was finishing its descent behind the horizon. The sun had found its way through the gap between the seawall and city wall and was now finishing its dip into the ocean. Isaac’s right side was cast in oranges while his left was almost pure blackness from death flames raining down onto the stone steps. “My request was simple. I want to have a discussion with Duke Sasston. If you can guarantee that, then I will let you go fetch him.” Isaac offered the guardsman as the shadow of night started racing up his side. “If not, then you can wait there like a good little tin soldier.”

  “But, my Lor-” The guardsman tried to argue.

  “Otherwise,” Isaac cut him off as the shadow of night finished swallowing him whole and the sun finished its descent. “I’ll throw you into the sea and see if you’ll float.” Isaac’s voice had dropped half an octave as soon as the sun was out of his face. The guard had no further words to offer so Isaac returned his attention back to the closed door in front of him and Lenna.

  “Reality magic and steel.” Lenna told him as soon as his gaze locked onto the object that bared their entrance.

  ‘She’s awake, my Lord.’ Isaac heard in his head from Shamesh across town.

  ‘That’s unfortunate timing, but make sure she doesn’t leave.’ Isaac informed his retainer.

  ‘She is currently screaming, my Lord. I have countered four teleportation attempts already. She may return to unconsciousness if this continues.’ Shamesh replied.

  ‘That’s fine. As long as she is alive and still captured, I don’t care what else happens to her.’ Isaac explained. ‘We are going to be busy for a while but if we need you then I’m afraid that you’ll have to just let Topaz go. I’ll keep you informed.’

  ‘Very good, my Lord.’ Shamesh said and Isaac got the feeling of him bowing before mental silence returned.

  “What’s wrong?” Lenna asked Isaac as it was clear that his focus was elsewhere.

  “She’s awake.” Isaac informed her. “Shamesh has it handled.”

  “Understood.” Lenna replied. “But we should try to make this quick regardless.”

  “Agreed.” Isaac said and walked up to the door. “I’ll break the magic.”

  Lenna nodded and drew her sword as Isaac placed his hand against the door. The death flames pouring off of him stopped cold and pure dark mana began forcing its way into the door. At first nothing seemed to happen, but after a few seconds, the door began to turn black uniformly as the reality magic that was laced through it was entirely disrupted by an incredible imbalance of dark mana. Isaac’s dark mana had insisted that it was a part of the currently active spell and had given the enchantment no room to argue. A lot of mana was wasted in the process but with enough mana there are very few things that are truly considered impossible. Once the door was entirely black Isaac nodded once to Lenna.

  The Oathbreaker’s entire form blazed with barely restrained power as her burning sword cleaved completely through the steel door as if it were butter. Lenna had cut a new doorway through the middle of the door leaving only a two to three inch band of steel around the new entrance. With a casual push from Isaac, whose hand was still resting against the door, the large steel rectangle fell inwards. As soon as the door hit the ground, all hells broke loose.

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  Four crossbow bolts flew at Isaac’s chest and face as soon as their line of sight was open. Seven more rained down on Lenna from above, even though they weren’t likely to do any damage. Isaac grabbed the one bolt that would have hit him in the head with his bare hand and let the rest bounce off of his armor. Lenna slipped past Isaac through the new doorway to dodge the bolts aimed at her while she chanted a spell: “The darkest depths of my rage are both sword and armor, for I need no shield.”

  The guards inside the citadel were figuratively petrified as Lenna encroached on their domain. Her aura slammed down on them with enough force that one of them, a boy no older than seventeen, lost his lunch in pure fright. Her dark purple armor, covered in burning embers, covered in armor shaped physical shadows, covered in her burning aura made her look like a monster out of a madman’s nightmare as she filled the hall in front of them.

  Lenna took a step forward and ordered the soldiers calmly. “Move aside.” She told them with a voice that expected instant compliance.

  Most of them did as they were told but not all. There had only been four crossbowmen in the hallway but there had been six men with leveled spears at the ready. Out of the ten of them, one was losing his lunch, two had collapsed in pure terror and seemed to have lost all faculty, five had complied with her order without a second thought, and the other two stood defiantly in her way. Of the two that were in Lenna’s way, one had a spear and the other a shortsword, that he had drawn as soon as he had fired the crossbow shot and discarded his ranged weapon.

  Lenna walked forwards and let the spear that was leveled at her push into her breastplate where it was turned aside. A whip of shadows reached out and punched the guard in the chest leaving the impact point glowing red hot in its wake. The spearman had no idea what to do so he tried to just shove Lenna away only to push himself off of her and into one of his collapsed squadmates. Another whip reached out a hit the same place as before which caused the point in the armor to go from red to orange as the padding under it threatened to burst into flames. He went down in a heap as he tripped and fell backwards over his companion.

  The swordsman actually had maintained enough control over himself to speak and pointed his shaking sword directly at Lenna’s throat. “Halt. In the name of Duke Arthur Von Sasston, Halt.” He ordered her.

  Lenna casually reached out and grabbed the sword by the blade before she yanked it from the guard’s hand and dropped it to clang on the ground. She stopped right in front of the guard and looked down on the man who stood a full two inches shorter than her. “I have not killed any guards, and I will not start now, but my mate has no such difficulties.” Lenna told the man calmly. “Go, inform your duke that he has company. And let him know that my favorite tea is elderberry and my mate’s is amaranth.” She told the man like she was giving a waitress her order. Lenna hadn’t realized it at the time but her mentioning of their favorite teas had another meaning to most people. Elderberry and amaranth were two of the most potent ingredients in healing potions, as everyone who had ever needed one knew, which sent a very threatening message. A message that seemed to convey a need for healing in the near future. At least she hadn’t said nightshade and hemlock.

  The guard that had just lost his sword looked over and down at his companion that had ‘attacked’ Lenna not once but twice. He saw that his squadmate was clearly still alive and not in any obvious danger. Upon witnessing that fact, combined with the soul-deep fear that he had of the woman in front of him, he was able to make the decision to follow her order. “Wait here.” The guard told her. “I will let his Grace know.” The guard told Lenna as he backed away from her. “I’ll be right back, just don’t kill anyone.”

  Lenna just waved him away in a shooing motion. Once he had disappeared around a corner, shadows seeped into her armor from Isaac, who had taken her distraction as the perfect moment to go invisible. The shadows silenced her every movement and, because of the shared shadows, she was able to watch Isaac run down the corridor after the guard and she quickly sped up to catch him.

  Lenna was about to round a corner after Isaac when his shadows completely encapsulated her and she was entirely embraced with his shadowcloak. As soon as she rounded the corner she realized why. In front of Isaac was the guard that they had been following. He passed along Lenna’s message and what he knew of the situation to another guard who broke away from his team of four to go tell the duke or at the very least, pass the message along again. Isaac managed to slip through the three new and one old guard with ease as he followed after the new messenger guard. Lenna had cancelled her Armor of Ire and stopped projecting her aura or using it to boost herself. She did so as soon as Isaac had made her entirely invisible but that did little for the size of her armored frame. As she tried to thread the gap between the guards, at the intersection, her shoulder hit one of them and he was almost thrown to the ground.

  “What was that?!” The one of the guards called out as the one that Lenna had hit slammed his back into the wall.

  “I, I don’t know.” The guard that had been hit replied.

  “Someone’s in here!” The old messenger called out. “Warn the Captain and his Grace!”

  “Yes sir!” Two of the guards exclaimed and took off in a run in the same direction that Isaac and Lenna were going. As Isaac and Lenna followed the second messenger, two guards followed them without realizing it.

  They went down a few corridors and up a flight of stairs until they reached an office door that was guarded by two more ducal guards. “I have, an urgent message, for his Grace.” The messenger informed the two men standing guard through deep panting breaths. It was at that time that the sounds of another guard racing through the halls could be heard and a moment later one of the two guards that had been accidentally chasing Isaac and Lenna arrived.

  “Someone, invisible, is here.” He panted and dropped to his knees on the ground. “Frisk, going to, Captain.”

  The two guards that had been protecting the entrance to the duke’s office shared a look before they opened the door to their lord’s office. “Pardon the intrusion, your grace, but we have a situation.” The first one to enter stated before he had even taken in the room entirely. As soon as his eyes had looked up from the floor, he was frozen in his tracks. Sitting across from the duke, who was four wine bottles deep on his sofa, was a man in all black casually lounging on the other sofa, with his dirty boots resting on the priceless coffee table between them.

  “Hello, Arthur.” The man in black, who was casually dominating the room, purred. “It’s about time we have a chat.”