Consequences

Adanita was carefully braiding the short hair of a little girl sitting on her lap. The child was frozen and nervous, trying not to move at all while she was combing her.

She was waiting. Very patiently.

The air in her cabin was dense, nobody present dared to make a sound. Not even Teo, who was treating the still-unconscious alchemist. Rosamund once explained the concept of a steam engine to her. Put coal in, start a fire, get steam. If the pressure becomes too high, it will explode. If it becomes too low, it is useless. She was currently applying those principles to herself.

She was furious. But if she adds too much coal, she will explode, and the people who were responsible were too far to get caught in the blast. Likewise, she refused to be polite, understanding, and forgiving. The shit Lilac stirred in her city on the night she returned was more than enough to start a blood feud with the Earl. But she was calm. She could keep herself in check. Everything was quite alright.

The little girl gasped. The orb on the table in front of her started glowing.
"Can you answer it, dear?" Adanita asked.
"Aye, aye!" She carefully held up the orb and looked at it from all possible angles, deeply focused. After a few moments of her fiddling, including her almost dropping the item, the faces of Earl and Countess shone in front of them. "It worked!" she brightly shouted. "I did it, Captain!"
"I can see that. Thank you very much, Nineve. Ask mister Kaz to help you off the ship. Be careful not to fall."
"Aye aye!"
The little girl hopped off her and ran to the door. She slammed it behind her, and the fading thumps of her running on the deck of her ship were the only sounds heard in the cold silence of her cabin.

Both sides waited for the other to speak.

The Earl cracked first.

"Where is Lilac?" he asked.
"Where is Rosamund?" she replied.

Silence.

Rosamund could be patient. He was old and it was a skill she noticed people tend to gain with age. She was... older now. Debatably wiser. She would not let these gods-damned noblemen and mages push her around again. Blind rage got her to the gallows. She wouldn't let her emotions get the better of her again.

Slow your thoughts to the rhythm of your heart.

Breathe.

"Captain Vervain. I will ask you again. Where is my son?"
"Your esteemed lordship," she quietly said, holding her ground while her nails dug into her palm. "I am currently in the process of cleaning up an astounding mess in my city and I can pinpoint its source directly to your son. And by extension, you specifically. I am very angry. But, I am willing to exchange notes about what happened and negotiate." She raised her hand when he opened his mouth, speaking over him. "Not. With. You. Answer my question, and I will answer yours. Where is Lord Governor?"

The Earl's face was gray. His lips had thinned into a line, and his red eyes were burning into the back of her skull as if they belonged to the King of Hell Herself. She will match his escalations, by the gods. She won't be taken for a fool again.

Just when it looked as if he would start threatening her, Karin interrupted.

"Rosamund is currently in care of Doctor Soxhlet. There was a fire at his manor late this afternoon. There is an ongoing investigation, but according to Ekliptik, the devil was involved in some way."

She felt dizzy, holding onto her head to keep herself from passing out.

"Is he alright?" she weakly asked.
"He should be waking up soon," she said. "Captain, please. Where is Lilac?"
He was safe. He was fine. She needed to keep it together. "In my bed. In my cabin. Unconscious, treated by my witch as we speak," she said.
"What happened?"
"I was hoping you would have the answer to that."

Silence, again.

Adanita picked up the orb and carried it to her bed, sitting down next to Lilac and making sure Teo could keep tending to him uninterrupted. Karin didn't even try to hide her relief when she saw her son. The Earl's frown deepened at the state he was in.

"So? What are we doing now?" Teo asked.
"I suppose we are waiting for them to wake up," she said, making herself comfortable in her seat. "Unless the Earl has something more to say?"
"No," he said.
Hah. He knew what he did. "Waiting it is."

She wanted to yell. She wanted to strangle him. Not only was she tired from sailing all day, not only did she barely have the time to make her landing before being surrounded by people complaining about Lilac's behavior in the city, no- he went all in. By the time she reached his house, there was absolutely ungodly screaming echoing through the streets. The people were rushing away in panic, she had to make her way through a small crowd to reach him. And she found him lying in a puddle of his own blood, with what could only be explained as a devil summoning circle on his table, IN HER CITY- and his books full of arcane and infernal knowledge scattered about, while people from the street were screaming about a man falling from the balcony and there being no body on the ground.

They were going to lynch him.

Teo helped. They put the table out of general sight and put Ekliptik's most trusted men to guard the room, while she was busy calming down the forming mob. They carried the idiot to her ship.

And then the bleeding from his head wouldn't stop.

Teo rushed after her as fast as he could. He was the best doctor they had in the city, or at least the only one they could trust right now. The injury on Lilac's head just kept bleeding no matter what he did. Cauterizing it with hot iron only left sizzling flesh and burns and whatever herbs and medicine he used only slowed down the bleeding. Lilac was growing grayer and grayer, deep in delirium. She honestly thought he was going to die, until he weakly took Teo's hands in his.

The flash of magic blinded her for a moment. Teo barely managed to get out of the cabin and vomit overboard until there was nothing left, and then some more. Whatever Lilac did stopped his bleeding and rendered him comatose. Teo recovered enough to return to his bedside and finish the job, but he looked as if he was on the verge of collapsing by this point. Ekliptik's men brought over the orb and the books from Lilac's room, and Adanita realized she had no idea how to use it to call for the Earl. They fetched the first mage they could find, and not even she knew how to activate the item. They were left to wait, in vague hopes that she could figure it out when they received a call from the other end.

And so, she was left to simmer in her own anger.

This was a war of attrition. One of them will give in if Rosamund doesn't come soon. All she could do was make sure it wasn't her. Next to her, Teo was doing everything he could to wake the alchemist so that he could explain himself before either she or the Earl started yelling profanities.

It wouldn't. Be. Productive.

Lilac stirred in his sleep first. The four people patiently waited for him to recover enough to speak. Adanita could feel her mood worsening as she grew more and more tired. The sun was already rising in the Capital, so at least she got some consolation in the fact that nobody got to sleep tonight.

Rosamund arrived, accompanied by Nivelir who was helping him walk, and Ekliptik, who carried a small case with them. His left arm was in a sling, his hair was full of ash and hanging loose, and his clothes were stained with blood. His face went white when he saw Lilac.

"Wh- what happened to his crown?" His voice was hoarse from smoke. Ekliptik wordlessly placed a glass of water in front of him.
"What does it look like to you?" the Earl asked.
"It's cracked-" he was interrupted by a fit of coughing and gratefully took the water.

"Rosamund. Are you alright?" Adanita asked. He gave her a weak nod and wanted to say something, but she continued speaking instead, not letting him overexert himself. "Now that we are all here, let us go in order of events. Lord Secretary, please explain what happened." Rosamund was tired and injured, and she regretted demanding his presence. The rest of this lunatic family was the problem, not him. Never him.

The man cleared his throat.

"This afternoon around half past five, there was an explosion in Lord Governor's office," he formally started, deeply aware of the tense situation. "It started a fire which spread through the office at an unnatural speed, making us believe there had been an incendiary device located somewhere near the cabinets. The fire was put out by servants, only after it had burned down nearly all currently relevant documents that were stored in the Governor's office and about a third of his archives. The servants found Lord Governor unconscious near the door, with a burn on his arm. He inhaled a significant amount of smoke and was sent to Doctor Zavisha Soxhlet for treatment. As for his documents, we are currently assessing the full scope of damages, however it is likely that nothing was lost thanks to the copies kept in my office, and in the city. There have been no other known casualties. The cause of the fire, as well as the potential culprit, are still being investigated. That," he finished, setting his papers down, "is the story we are sending to the Queen. Spymaster Ekliptik?"
Ekliptik winced, but spoke up calmly. "Rosamund was with me when the explosion happened. He noticed abnormal behavior of the holy barrier placed around the manor and sent me to warn Lord Secretary. He had to have come into the room with the servants, but-"
"Their minds were changed," Rosamund weakly said. "They remember things differently from how they happened. I went in first, they followed." He leaned his head on his healthy arm, trying to keep himself together.
"...yeah. I, uh. It was chaos. I left cleaning up to Soxhlet and Nivelir and went to look for the cause of the barrier issue. Found a hole in the ground near the east wall. Talked to the guards who were on shift at the time. They said it was made by one of Rosamund's gardeners who talked something about his orders to plant a new rose bush there. According to Bluebell, no such orders were given. Gardener was arrested and is currently in joint custody of Hexkey and me, to prevent further fuckups-"
"Language," Rosamund said.
"S-sorry. Anyway, they dug out some holy trinket priests put into the ground as a part of the blessing. I got it here," they said, placing it on the table. It was a simple stone carving, depicting the moons, the sun, and the stars on a flat circle. "They don't know who told them to do it, but they got ten pieces of gold for it. They just thought they were stealing from the manor."
"A significantly smaller issue," Nivelir sarcastically said. Ekliptik shrugged.

The attention shifted to Rosamund.

"Devil," he said tiredly. "Set my office on fire. Stabbed me in the arm with his claws. Dislocated my shoulder. Made me look into his eyes. I think that's how he reads my mind. Learned Lilac is in Hannau and made me pass out."

The Earl started tapping the table. "Nivelir. Why were we not informed of the attack until recently?"
"I was managing a highly chaotic situation. The devil came and left. I understood that keeping things under wraps for a bit longer would be better than sending someone to the Capital late at night. I didn't expect it would go after another person. I miscalculated. I apologize."
"Captain Vervain? Why were we not informed sooner?" he asked her.
"Because I never used this thing in my life and I had no idea how to start it."
"I'm sorry... I should've showed you..." Rosamund quietly said.
"Hush. None of that now, my love," she gently said.

He flinched. Why did he-

The Earl continued speaking. "Captain. Your report now, please."
Her attention shifted back to him. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and started telling them what happened. Lilac used the opportunity to sit up, with Teo fluffing the pillow for him and giving him tea to keep him awake.

"Oh, Lily... you will be full of scars now, too..." Karin said when Adanita described his injuries. She placed her wooden hand over her mouth, visibly distressed.

As if that was their biggest problem right now- no. That wasn't fair. Karin and Adanita both knew how vicious nobles were when it came to appearance of others. For what it was worth, she was sorry, too. They were trying to save his life, but he will now have to live with constant judgment.

She finished her report without commenting.

"Alright. Very good. Thank you for managing the situation in my absence, Captain," the Earl said.
"Your- your absence?! This is my city!" Adanita said.
"And your devil, which we were trying to handle for you. How goes the ingredient search, Captain?"
She let out a growl. No. She will not allow him to look down on her. "I asked a few mermaids for their assistance. You placed a tall order, after all. And I will surely be distracted with other work, now that my devil decided to follow your son here. Not me. Him." This is why she refused to speak to the Earl alone. An incomplete picture both of them had before this would've sparked a war. Deservedly. Nobles and blame games always went hand in hand. Rosamund looked pained, so she controlled herself, but nobody could deny the fact that the devil wasn't after her. It was after Rosamund and Lilac, and she was simply involved by accident.

Used as a means of payment.

She felt sick.

"Alchemist. Bring us up to speed. What did the devil do?" she asked.
Lilac finished his tea and started talking. "Daneken's circle. Failed to restrain it. Attacked. Said it'll kill me. Gold chains dragged it away."
"What did you use to draw the circle?" the Earl asked.
"Chameleon mineral."
"Wh- that's explosive," Rosamund said.
The Earl's eyebrows shot up. "No. It is harmless."
"Purple, turns brown? Or, green... Permanganate," he mumbled. "Combined with the fact he sheds sulfur- maybe sulfuric acid. They explode together- I had a case-"
"The table was in several pieces, somewhat burned," Adanita helpfully said. There was nothing her lover didn't know. He was such a brilliant man... "Whether or not it is related, I'd like to kindly ask you to not do it twice. Not in the city."
"It almost killed Lily," Rosamund said. "Never again."
"What does his crown look like now?" the Earl asked.
"Damaged. I- I don't know if it can be fixed-"
"If it is not broken in half, he will be quite alright. Lily, buy all the mana stones you can, I will cover all expenses," he said. "Replenish yourself, take ample rest. No magic of any kind until Rose says you have fully recovered. Do you remember your breathing exercises?"
"Yes."
"Very good. He simply overexerted himself," he explained. "I have some experience with that, something similar happened when I was crafting arms- although not to this extent. Lily, when you feel better, you will give me a detailed report of the magic you crafted. Captain, Officer, thank you for taking care of him. I apologize for my hostility."
"Apology accepted. I am sorry for jumping to conclusions, too. I nearly accused him of summoning the devil," she admitted.
He nodded, accepting it too.

Rosamund looked relieved.

The tension in the two rooms finally lessened and exhaustion started setting in. Gods- there was so much to do. So much to discuss. She could barely keep her eyes open any longer, and Rosamund and Lilac were on the verge of passing out again.

Nivelir cleared his throat, flipping through his papers.


"So? What now?"