CHAPTER 453: CHAPTER 453- THE LIGHTNING DEMON

The air seemed to crackle with the weight of the name that descended in the Cabin– Fiona Jun. The second eldest, and a Mage of the 11th Class.

Most of what people knew about her was information spread by mouth. Information that lingered between the borderline of insanity and pure genius.

She was well known as the Master of the Jun Tower.

The first ever Mage tower under the name of the Jun Household, a family of Swords.

In a broad sense, one wouldn’t need to think twice about the rumours.

After all, a Mage needed to be at least crazy to build her own tower despite the Merlin’s history of it.

Elsie gulped silently as her conversations with Canary Yellowstone and her cohort came to mind.

Gossip on Raph, his lineage... and most especially, his five elder sisters.

She had discovered a few things thanks to them, but more of her information was yet to be proven... or just lies put together to make a good story.

Out of all his sisters though, no one seemed to scare or surprise her as Fiona Jun. Otherwise called The Lightning Demon.

Her most fearsome skill... the Lightning Cage.

A shiver ran down Elsie’s spine and her body visibly flinched.

There wasn’t much information about that skill, other than it was terrifying to watch and sickening in the way it left its prey.

The description alone gave it enough imagery, and werewolves knew who and what not to mess with.

Fiona Jun just happened to be one of them.

’Hah shit! I... I may not have thought this true, properly!’

Even with the wariness for the woman before her, Elsie’s gaze seemed to continue to stay on Fiona.

Quite a contrast, seeing how she was visibly scared of her.

But really, could she help it?

While her appearance was visibly similar to the rest of her sisters, her aura– the poise she used to carry herself was starkly different.

Even her sudden appearance, as she sat, cross-legged with an amused expression on her face, stood out differently from the others.

Her attire, from the simple white button shirt tucked into the formal, pleated black skirt and the black stockings that seemed to extend to far...unreachable places, stood out with the rest of her without denting a bit of her image.

And with it was the blue robe that adorned the rest of her... a stark difference in the tune of her dressing, which couldn’t have hindered her demeanour, anyway.

Elsie noted all this... without even intending to.

As if Fiona’s existence had simply been there for all to... appreciate?

She was lost in her own confusion and merely stood in silence, but the cabin wouldn’t remain as such for too long.

"When did you hear the news?" Thalia’s voice sliced through the silence and startled the werekin, who turned slightly to her.

Fiona giggled.

"Straight to business, I see, Thalia?" She said with an amusement that couldn’t have been trifled with.

Elsie felt her hair stand on end.

’Damn it! Everything about her screams danger! What the hell is this?’ She wondered.

"It can’t be helped, since you’ve been too busy with your tower to help matters at the Castle."

This was Rebecca now, and her tone was unamused and plain.

And her gaze? Cold and devoid of emotions.

It was like the air around her had begun to descend a few degrees because of it, and standing in the midst of this all was none other than Elsie.

’What sort of mess have I walked into?!’

She screamed in her head. Unable to speak.

Not like she would in a situation like this.

The mood wouldn’t let her.

Fiona sighed visibly, before interchanging her crossed legs with a fluid regality.

"The situation called for it. You know my tower means the world to me..."

The sisters seemed to exchange quiet glances before they both sighed in defeat.

"True."

"But Sister Gloria was overwhelmed... You know the situation isn’t good."

Thalia continued as a frown formed on her face. "After that... stupid wedding."

Her thoughts flashed a few images.

The weeks when Raph had disappeared without leaving a word, and a few days after their Trial.

It wasn’t something worth recalling.

There was no ceremony. No congratulations.

No smiles.

None other than the King at least.

Just a stark reminder of the claws the King tried to extend into their families, and subtly... he was beginning to.

Fiona clicked her tongue as she folded her arms. "Oh, that," she said with that same amused, smirky tone.

Elsie narrowed her eyes at it.

’There’s someone else in the family that acts like that?’

An image of Raph flashed through her mind at that moment.

"The first prince, Thylan Swanstorm isn’t someone worth putting much attention to, and the only reason why things seem tense at home is because I’ve made it that way... the suspicious maids... Thylan’s constant wariness... It’s all me."

Rebecca and Thalia seemed to visibly flinch. Their eyes widened slightly as they glanced at one another.

"What?!" Thalia asked, unrestrained emotions flooding through.

"It’s like I said." Fiona continued. "If everything continued as is... the King would try and do something inconvenient once more.

Thylan had been our warning... and I simply handled it as such."

Fiona explained. Tilting her head as if she were telling a story of a fairytale.

"How?"

The question that rang in their heads was asked by none other than Thalia, who held Fiona’s gaze squarely.

"We already know the maids were sent by the King. Spies who act as Thylan’s hands and feet but actually answer to only the King."

"I intercepted them. The ones you see are doppelgangers meant to fool the Prince and the King."

Rebecca’s pupils flinched.

"What?" Her lips curled upwards, unable to form a smile or a smirk, but something in between.

’That’s right. Fiona had always been meticulous about our enemies.’

"But...would that fool the King? He has mages...scholars... they are powerful and skilled individuals surrounding that man."

Thalia began, quite taken aback as her sister.

"And why would you hide this... until now?"

Fiona shrugged.

"Those fools would never tell my magic apart... and we were all busy up until now... I didn’t want to get in the middle of your school life."

Her lips curled into a wide grin.

Smug and seductive in ways a man would kneel to get a glimpse of her features.

"Though, Gloria is aware of this."

Elsie’s thoughts ran wild on hearing her statement.

The tone and manner in which Fiona spoke seemed to have triggered a few memories... ones she held dear.

’She talks like Raph... proud... arrogant.’

Thalia nodded in understanding and shifted her focus to something more daring.

"How sure are you they won’t tell your magic apart?".

A moment of silence lingered until Fiona sighed and turned to them.

"My Tower isn’t just a place I research and work on magic, Thalia. It serves as a base. OUR base." She licked her lips. "If there is someone we want dead, we find them and make them dead.

If there is information we want hidden from the public, we keep it so.

If there are people who wish not to be found, we assist... our line of work is broad, and our goals... high up in the clouds.

And I am the leader of that group..."

She paused one more time as the smile... the amusement... the girly play, everything disappeared in an instant as her lips formed a stern, thin line.

"My family means the world to me... and those fools won’t harm a hair on any one of you..."

Then, she smirked and laughed.

One loud, sudden burst that was borderline pulsing with madness.

Elsie nearly fell to her knees at the sudden sound, but stopped herself by propping her body against her seat.

Then, Fiona’s voice hummed in the Cabin, dropping so low it felt like her throat dried up.

"If they dared... they would die."

At this point, it was hard to tell how the girls in the Cabin felt from her statement.

Whether shock, excitement or even fear... they simply stared.

Unable to pull a proper reaction to that last line that shook her words.

But the girl who said it... Like a rotating wheel, she spun her entire demeanour back to its playful routine.

And her smile beamed on her face, once more.

"Alright, that’s enough of me, right?"

The girls simply sighed, and Elsie adjusted her position on her seat.

Settling down, properly with her guard raised.

She had hoped the conversations from now would continue within them, but Fiona’s sudden turn, which landed squarely on her, screamed no.

"Who’s the cutie?" She asked, without batting a flinch in that smile.

Thalia faced the window.

"Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but our school got rundown."

Fiona nodded slowly. "I heard that part... Rhabanz would be getting his punishment as such."

Rebecca raised a brow at her statement.

"The Headmaster is alive?"

Her question and tone were clearly laced with surprise. One which Fiona wasn’t expecting.

"Wha– of course he is." She said as she sat up, and turned her gaze away from Elsie, who had never been as pleased as she was by it.

Fiona frowned. "Did something happen?"

As someone who read through people by spending time with them, she could tell something... was amiss... or someone.

Her thoughts snapped.

"I had assumed Raph went with his friends... but where’s Raph?"

The mood in the Cabin instantly turned sombre, and a silence... one that spoke for itself, stretched for quite a while.

Fiona waited, but no matter how much she did, her thoughts couldn’t wait.

She had clicked it together... pieced it the way she needed to, but her entire being chose to ignore it.

"Wh– where’s Raphy?"

Her tone dropped, and the pain revealed itself like a fostered wound.

The sisters shook, and their heads hung low.

Thalia bit down on her lips and with a shaky gasp... she said.

"We don’t know."