Hostile Interlude

The smell of incense hangs like thick fog in a paltry attempt to cover the scent of blood and death that has permeated the very stones of the room.

The darkness shifts and a purple light just barely strong enough to illuminate the pillar in the center of the room fades on. Said light comes from the ritualistic spell patterns carved then embedded with purple crystal and punctuated at seven intervals with blank circular spaces.

Two of the seven spots bear silver chalices, the purple glow from the surrounding spell script revealing even to the untalented the power overflowing the rims like a roiling fog.

A dozen figures step close enough be seen, hoods and robes to disguise their features, spell and cunning to disguise their voices.

"The summoned hero leaving the watchful eyes of the Holy Kingdom continues to throw awry the great plan, for now four of the seven are free and we only posses two of the chalices." One of the figures intones.

"And just who was it that insisted we allow the Kingdom to complete the summoning ritual in the first place?" A second voice replies with bitter accusation

a third figure wave placating hands "All the portents were observed, and as we know the two vessels we have are full, to wait longer would have risked the undoing of our work as much as striking to soon."

"In fact,' mutters a fourth 'the hero traipsing around with the newly freed champions will at best leave the remaining chalices unguarded in their 'safe' places of power, or the champions will wander the world with them so that we might recover them all in one swoop."

All the figures nod in agreement before the first speaks again

"What of the blade? Has he recovered?"

The third voice replies "Not only has he recovered, he has already been sent to test our gifts of gratitude."

A mummer of approval rippled through the gathering

The fifth voice spoke, "Has consideration of my proposal reached a vote?"

Silence passed, then a slave in a white robe was brought forward and chained the pillar, and a jagged ceremonial knife is placed on a red table just out of reach of the quivering young man.

Each member of the order approaches.

Those opposed to the idea cut a section of the robe away starting at the bottom then stab the poor soul.

If one is in favor of the measure, they draw their own blood to spill upon a section of the white robe.

By the end of this something unprecedented in the order has happened, not a centimeter of robe was cut away, leaving the victim trembling and soaked in blood not his own.

The first recorded unanimous vote.

"It has been decided!' the first speaker proclaims grandly 'We shall offer the circle an eighth cup as a sign of our gratitude and worthiness!"

"May the void ever guard the circle" the assembled intone in response before fading as if they were never there.

Leaving the bloodstained kid and the first speaker.

The first speaker leans down so the child can see the eyes under the hood, black with unnerving swirls of purple "Your service will be remembered for all time." the creature whispers before shoving a purple pill into the unfortunate's mouth.

Violent convulsions end in a stiffening, then he stands, the slave in the blood stained robes now with chains broken from the convulsions,

and eyes crying purple crystal.

**

Charlie Wildingmonte had not been sure what her return to the capital would bring.

At worst she had expected a shamefully public demotion and stripping of honors for letting the Hero fall into enemy hands.

Absolute best case would have been accolades for returning at all in the face of both a Demoness and the Summoned Hero joining forces.

Though she had secretly hoped for something else, she desired revenge and her most private fantasy had been the King and Pope sending her on a mission of penance to slay Shiro the traitor.

Yet her she was, doing paperwork.

She had not seen the King or Pope, in fact the highest ranking official she had met with on her return was the Grand Marshal who had unceremoniously dropped on her the last several months of paper work her position was responsible,

and she was beginning to suspect the paperwork of other positions too.

By itself having to catch up on paperwork after a field deployment was not uncommon.

Not being summoned by the King to give a report of such a vital mission was unheard of, adding to that the fact that she was not getting any word of the usual social gatherings among the nobility could only lead to one conclusion:

She, Charlie Wildingmonte youngest Knight Commander in history, had been benched.

This meant her duties had been rearranged so she was chained to the desk part of the job while someone else, likely the subcommander, got to do the combat part of the job.

This was infuriating, how was she supposed to do penance and kill the traitor chained to the desk, while he seduced his way into more and more power.

After all if he could seduce the Defiled Princess, who Charlie had known as extolled for virtuous cunning in avoiding the wiles of the court men, then it was a matter of time before he broke the seals and seduced the Demoness inside!

Charlie's eyes turned to the window of her office just in time to catch Lily turning onto the main street heading towards the chapel in the slums Charlie had seen her frequent. That was another source of irritation, because Lily had not received any physical wounds she had returned to the capital a lot faster than Charlie had.

While the report Lily had given would have been the perfect opportunity to put Charlie on blast, Lily had apparently gone out of her way to mention the Commander as littler as possible. 

At least that was how the report Charlie had called in favors to procure had read, she knew it was possible the report she had read was the sensitized version for general use.

Still knowing Lily was in the same city was an irksome reminder of a humilation that was fermenting into obsession.

Charlie returned to her work, at least the war against the elves was going well.

While Charlie had been gone the clergy had received visions from the Saint that outlined new war machines that absorbed magical attacks to be converted to power, which tactically she saw working well even when an foe did not cast spells for an allied mage could drop area spells to both clean up fodder and offer the construct a power boots.

Charlie just needed to figure out how to get to Shiro before the army did.