CHAPTER 202 – RETURN TO THE CITY OF STEAM

“They really weren’t exaggerating… You stormed Rizenford alone?” Virgil questions with a mixture of disbelief and respect.

“I had Pod and my army, but yes.” Emily nods, refilling her empty cup a third time as she finishes recounting her journey. “Elisime was the only ship to cross The Sand Wall, and Rizenford fell hours later.”

“Incredible! We’ve got to have a spar later.”

“Sure, but I think it’ll be a little unfair for me to use Elisime, so you’ll have to make do with a demonstration from her instead.”

Virgil breaks out into belting laughter, waving off her offer of another tea refill.

“Anyway, that’s enough about me,” Emily says, narrowing her focus on Dante and Enzo. “How have you two been? Still in contact with the others?”

“Same old, same old.” Dante shrugs. “Things quietened down pretty quickly after you left, and nothing big has happened since. We’ve spent most of our time at home since Dad’s been giving me some private training, but we visited The Dome again a month ago and ran into Ivor and the twins.”

“Oh? They’re all still based in The Dome?”

“Yeah. We all split once things had calmed down after you left, and Ivor accompanied Juliana back to Candim while we and the twins visited home. The twins went back to The Dome pretty quickly to keep training, and Ivor went back about a year ago to continue his research.”

“You know,” Enzo says, finishing his cup off and setting it down as his gaze focuses on the scarf wrapped around Emily’s neck. “You can just ask us how she’s doing. You don’t have to pretend to be interested in us.”

“I know.” Emily nods without so much as a twitch of her brow, silently bringing her cup to her lips and urging him to continue with her gaze alone.

“She’s…” he starts, pausing as a hint of reluctance seeps into his expression before letting out a sigh. “She’s doing alright. Obviously, we knew what you were going to do when you left, but I don’t think she realised quite how far you’d go until we were all detained and questioned about our involvement in the destruction of half of Eimdon.”

Emily doesn’t visibly react, but everyone can feel the air inside the cockpit ionise.

“They released us before you even left the continent,” Enzo continues, relaxing his tensed jaw as the pressure building in the room vanishes like a lie. “But Juliana refused to talk to us and left The Dome the second she could. She hasn’t returned since, and we still haven’t heard from her directly, but Ivor keeps us updated. Says he only returned to The Dome because she’d settled down back home and, well, started dating again.”

“I see.” Emily nods without batting an eye as both Dante and Enzo brace in preparation for her reaction.

She’s looking for someone else? That’s…

“Good for her.”

***

Early morning, the following day, the smokestacks of Chroni crest the horizon. Virgil, Dante, and Enzo return to the cockpit from the rooms they were given for the night and ask Pod to send a message to Emily, breaking her out of her meditation in the centre of the ship’s Logic Core.

She arrives minutes after them and casts her gaze out towards the city, narrowing her focus on the tall wall surrounding it and seeing dozens of frantic soldiers running to their battle stations and preparing their weapons.

“Morning,” Dante greets with an upbeat smile, unbothered as she doesn’t even spare him a glance.

“Morning,” Emily replies, finally looking over with a light nod before turning her head to Virgil. “You did send word of our arrival, right?”

“Yes,” he nods, squinting towards the distant city to work out what she’s seeing. “Why?”

“They appear to be panicking and preparing to shoot us down.”

“Ah, right. I just said we’re escorting you back, I didn’t mention our speed. They won’t be expecting us till this evening at the very earliest,” Virgil explains before reaching into his flowing black robes and rummaging around for something. “Give me a moment and I’ll let them know this ship’s friendly. You may have to slow down, though, at this rate we’ll get there faster than I can send a message.”

“Don’t bother,” Emily says, sending a few commands through the ship and starting its deceleration as one of her scouting birds shoots out ahead of them towards Chroni. “We’ll just leave Elisime here for now.”

“Are you- oh.”

Before he can ask if she’s sure, Virgil is silenced by a burst of lightning and space mana filling the cockpit, forming into a dizzying blend of runes. He quietly watches her weaving her spell, trying to decipher its exact function to no avail.

“I take it you could get us out of the depths of The Crystal Waters with ease now if we went again,” Enzo mutters, taking one look at the constantly shifting matrix of purple and blue runes and giving up on understanding it immediately.

“I could, but you’d be surprised,” Emily replies, anchoring her spell to her distant scout. “With the density and constant flow of mana in the depths, I’d struggle to warp too far without carving an array like I considered last time. Though, I wouldn’t need to waste time designing one. Brace yourselves.”

The moment she finishes speaking, the cage of mana surrounding them pulses with light and cracks like thunder. They’re ripped through space and appear before Chroni’s wall in an instant, floating on a crackling platform of plasma before the stunned gazes of the soldiers who were preparing to fire on their ship.

Enzo groans and doubles over, clutching his stomach as it threatens to turn itself inside out, but Dante and Virgil both take the warp in their stride.

“Stand down and send word of our arrival,” Virgil commands the stunned men and women on the wall, jolting them back into action as they nod and scramble to comply.

“Why didn’t you just warp us to the palace?” Dante questions Emily while rubbing Enzo’s back reassuringly.

“I can’t,” Emily responds, holding an arm out for her scout to land on, letting it furl its delicate wings before she stores it in her belt. “The array that’s filling the city with mist also interferes with spatial magic. I could probably get us halfway to The Dome if I tried to force it, but even I can’t lock onto any coordinates too close.”

After waiting for Enzo to recover, Emily moves the platform they’re standing on forward, floating past the wall and rising up to sail over the city towards the imposing palace in the centre. Their flashy mode of transport draws attention from the people below, especially as they cut low over one of the tallest pedestrian walkways in the city, flying mere inches above people’s heads, but Virgil doesn’t bat an eye or say anything, despite how many of The Covenant’s rules they’re breaking.

As they approach the looming palace, getting close enough to hear the rustling of flags billowing in the wind, Emily detects several fourth circle signatures inside. Two of them are faint, trying to hide themselves and almost succeeding, if it weren’t for Emily’s unnatural mana sensitivity, but the third is on clear display, letting their mana run free and announcing their presence.

Emily directs her crackling platform down, lowering it until they’re standing in line with the top of a long flight of steps stretching up from the dense mist swirling below. Standing a few metres in front of them, with his back ramrod straight and his shoulders pressed back confidently, is Modo’s current king: Arthur Modo the Second.

He’s wearing a surprisingly simple set of black robes with fine white and red threads curling around it like roots, spreading from the kingdom’s crest woven into place above his heart. His long brown hair, tinted with streaks of dark blue, is tied up behind his head in a tight bun, and his neatly trimmed, matching beard gives him a rugged, imposing look. However, despite the clear pride and power radiating off him as he meets Emily’s gaze, his rich hazel eyes soften, and he dips his head towards her in a show of respect and humility that leaves Virgil’s mouth hanging open.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Emily,” he says as he rises back to his full height with his eyes level with hers, surprising her a little when he gets her preferred address correct the first time. “Before anything else, I would like to offer my heartfelt apology for the way our kingdom has treated you so far. Although the Mandrago family did not, and will never, represent us and how we believe our valuable citizens and allies should be treated, the fact that they, and many of our other nobles, have been able to get away with such deplorable actions for so long is the result my family’s failings. I’m sorry, and you have my condolences; may your family find rest in the Goddess’ embrace.”

Emily stares calmly at Arthur with a neutral expression, but everyone present feels the crushing weight of her presence bearing down on them as she searches his expression for any signs of falsehood. His gaze never wavers, holding hers for several tense seconds before she finally looks away, glancing over her shoulder at Mensacus’ towering form flanking her.

‘He isn’t lying, but I smell more fear than remorse,’ he whispers into her mind, taking advantage of his natural sensitivity to the emotions of those around him to act as a living lie detector without the need to cast spells.

“That’s fine,” Emily says with a nod, turning back to face King Arthur and giving him a standard mage’s greeting with her fist across her heart and a shallow dip of her head. “I accept your apology, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, too, King Arthur the Second. Despite my less than favourable first impression of your noble society, I do hold a certain fondness for my birth country, and I would like to maintain a cordial relationship with you if possible.”

“As we would you,” Arthur responds, relaxing his shoulders ever so slightly and flashing her a warm smile. “Now, shall we move somewhere a little more comfortable? I believe we have much to discuss, and I’m not in the habit of making my important guests wait outside.”

“By all means, lead the way.”

The king nods, his eyes flickering over to Virgil in a silent command, before he turns to lead them in.

“We’ll take our leave for now, then,” the red-headed mage says before Emily can take a step forward, throwing his arms over Dante and Enzo’s shoulders. “We’ll be in The Dome when you’re done; I still want that demonstration.”

“Sure,” Emily hums with a hint of amusement colouring her tone for a fraction of a second as Arthur visibly starts at the interruption, clearly not expecting his vassal to voice his departure. “I’ll let you know when I have a suitable target.”

She tosses them three communicators already linked with hers and turns her back on them without explaining, striding forward and jolting Arthur back into motion. He leads Emily and her entourage through the palace’s wide open front doors, from which she can detect several inactive defence enchantments woven into the dark wood, and into an opulent reception hall without a single soul in sight.

The floor beneath their feet is covered in a long, dark, soft rug made from dyed ocelax fur with the kingdom’s crest in the centre. There’s a self-cleaning enchantment that earns Emily’s approval woven into it, utilising the fur’s natural slick coating to wick away all.

The ceiling supports multiple large chandeliers carved from light crystals and held together by thin bands of mythril that glow with them. The lights are perfectly angled to shine down on the paintings and pedestals lining the walls of the hall, reflecting off the displayed magical artefacts in a beautifully eye-catching manner.

The paintings near the entrance are familiar to Emily, depicting several battles fought for the country’s foundation by Gaius and Arthur the First, but further in, they shift to unfamiliar scenes depicting their long struggle against Morzea, before finally turning to portraits of the royal family. A couple of the displayed weapons draw Emily’s attention, her eyes rapidly scanning their runic engravings as she deciphers their functions, but they don’t pause in the hall, and near the end Arthur turns to a painting of himself instead of continuing to the large, closed doors at the end that Emily assumes lead into the throne room.

Arthur clicks his fingers, sending out a small burst of unattributed mana, and Emily hears a mechanism click in the wall before the painting swings out, revealing a cosy room behind.

It still reeks of wealth, with more magical crystals embedded in the ceiling to light the room and several plush-looking seats with enough comfort enchantments to make Emily raise a brow, but it’s much less oppressive than the entrance hall. There's a quietly crackling fire on the far wall filling the room with heat and, as the painting clicks shut behind them, the faint sound of calming music flows from the fireplace, making the magical flames, fuelled by several fire crystals, dance.

“Please,” King Arthur says, waving his hand and shifting the furniture in the room around to position an assortment of seats facing the only chair marked with the royal crest. “Take a seat.”

He just moved wooden furniture with earth mana. How?

Emily nods and claims one of the sofas, letting Silica step up onto it and curl up with her head in her lap as Pod claims an empty seat and Mensacus takes up his position standing behind his mother. She lets out a faint ripple of machina, scanning the seat below her and discovering several chunks of stone hidden in its hollow wooden legs.

Smart.

“Would you like any refreshments?” the king asks as he takes his seat, waving his hand and moving the unused chairs out of the way to shift several small tables over to stand beside them instead.

“I brought my own, thanks,” Emily responds, tapping one of her metal fingers on the armrest of her sofa once and releasing her teaset from her belt, lifting it to the closest table on a gentle gust of wind. “Would you care to try? All of my blends are the results of my alchemical research. I’m sure I have something to your taste.”

“Do you have anything sweet?” he asks after a moment of deliberation.

Emily nods and begins her brewing, casually switching between elements to lift everything and never moving her hands from Silica’s head or her seat’s armrest. Nobody speaks as she works, leaving the faint music to fill the space as Arthur watches her magical display with a keen eye.

“Here,” Emily finally says, internally casting a modified version of Switch and swapping a small candle holder on the table beside Arthur with his cup.

He lifts it without batting an eye at the spatial magic, taking a deep breath and a slow sip before humming with satisfaction.

“Oh, this is wonderful,” he says with a hint of unconcealed excitement that he quickly quashes. “Would you be willing to sell me the recipe?”

“I’ll consider it,” Emily responds, taking a sip from her own cup before setting it down with a crisp clack. “But first, I believe some proper introductions are in order.”