By pure chance, aventurescence

Opal wasn’t flying, but, her legs having basically become two stone wheels directly connected to her will, she was going faster than she ever thought possible, her powers propelled by the worry for her friends and the determination to help them. From what she had heard, Rutile had been pardoned and was a guest at the royal castle – if he was a “guest” as she had been, though, he was probably a prisoner, one way or another –, while Ametrine and Celsian were in the dungeons and had to be sentenced to something still in the air. Nothing good, in any case, because the people in the cathedral were talking about either death or stone crushing and life imprisonment. Opal was sure that she should’ve thought of a better plan than ‘storm the palace, break her friends out of there and escape’, but that had never been her strong suit and she was way too worried to stop and think, so she hoped that a mix of brute force, Saviour’s authority and dumb luck would’ve sufficed.

Once she reached the castle, she transformed her limbs back into human legs and slammed open the entrance door with a certain amount of satisfaction – the good thing about the fact that nearly everything in that place was made out of stone was that she could control it, after all –. She ignored the stares and the more or less hesitant attempts to stop her from advancing, doing exactly that until she found someone important enough to know where her friends were.

Her needs were answered when she saw a very pretty young woman dressed in blue and silver clothes walking rapidly down the corridors. “Hey, you!” Opal shouted, running up at her, a mix of instinct and vague memories telling her that she could help her. “Stop for a second!”

The lady came to a halt, turning to look at Opal as if wondering who dared address her like that, but her light green eyes widened when her gaze landed on Opal. “Wait a minute, you are-”

“Not important. Do you know where I can find the three people that got captured by the royal knights? The ones associated with the new Saviour.”

She lifted one of her perfectly defined eyebrows. “That is you.”

“That is me, but it’s not important. As I was saying, I know that two of them are in the dungeons, but I don’t know where the dungeons are, and I don’t know where to find the third person.”

“… You have no idea of who I am, do you?”

Opal blinked. “No. Should I?”

The young woman seemed surprised for a moment, but then burst out laughing, in a manner that suggested she didn’t do that often, her voice echoing slightly in the corridor. Then she grinned, seeming way younger, bringing a lock of black hair behind her ear. “I guess that it is not important, after all.” Then, she got serious. “You wanted to find your friends, am I right?”

Opal was sure that at least half of the conversation was passing over her head, but she didn’t have time to think about it, much less talk. “Yes” she answered, her mind fully focused again on her objective.

“Follow me. I will bring you first to Rutile Titania’s rooms, he is the easiest one to reach.” The lady started walking, surprisingly fast for someone wearing a gown like hers, and Opal hurried to keep her pace. “Besides, once you break someone out of the dungeons, you will only want to get out of the castle.”

“You seem awfully helpful, for an elegant stranger I just met.” Not that she wasn’t grateful, it was probably better if someone who wasn’t Opal thought of a plan of action in that moment, especially if it was a good one, but if there was something she had learnt from Celsian was that it was better to be safe rather than sorry.

“Aventurine.”

“Bless you.”

“It is my name” said the young woman- well, Aventurine, apparently, rolling her eyes. “So that I am not a stranger to you anymore.”

“I have the impression that there should be more steps to this, but whatever. I’m Opal.”

“I know, like literally everyone else in this castle. However, it is nice to actually meet you.” She smiled, a fleeting but sincere thing. “To answer your question, this situation is way too shady for me. It is right for criminals to be judged, but they did not even get a real trial. It seems to me as though someone is trying to cover up something, and I want to know more.”

“And who better to ask than the people directly involved, right?”

“Exactly.”

Opal could understand that. She may still not know much about Aventurine, but at least it sounded like they were on the same page and that was the most important thing.

They walked through corridor after corridor, somehow managing to avoid all the guards present, and they were nearing their destination when they heard a loud crash and a scared shriek, followed by the sounds of hurried steps and tense voices.

“Hey, that was Rutile! Aventurine, run faster!”

“You are demanding a bit much of me!” she hissed in return. Regardless, she lifted her gown a bit more and made an effort to do what Opal had asked, the low heels of her shoes tick-tocking rapidly on the stone floor.

They ran as though they were being chased by the guards, but when they turned the last corner, expecting to find some sort of catastrophe awaiting them, they were surprised with a door slammed shut, from which came angry noises, and a corridor that was empty, excluding a familiar figure that was breathing raggedly and nervously looking around.

“Rutile!” Opal shouted, running up to him and throwing herself at his neck in her relief. “I’m so glad to see you!”

“Opal! Oh, good Saintess, Opal!” he exclaimed, hugging her in return, as if he couldn't believe she was real. He must’ve been really shaken, because he didn’t even complain about the fact that she was rumpling his clothes. “What happened, are you okay? How are you here?”

“The stained glass in the cathedral, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we’ll all be together again, I promise, but I’m fine.” Or, well, as fine as she could be. She hadn’t given herself much time to think about it. “What about you? Are you okay?” He didn’t seem injured or worse for wear, but Opal knew that not all wounds were physical. “How did you get out of there?”

“I’m better, now.” At that point, he gently detached himself and smiled, seeming proud of himself. “To answer your question, let’s just say that I made full use of my powers” he said, holding a hand palm up and showing her his soul stone, that floated a few centimetres up in the air and transformed into a key. “I just needed a good enough diversion to attract the guards inside.”

Opal grinned. “Celsian would be proud of you.”

“Yeah, well, by dint of constant exposure, one does learn something-” It was in that moment that his gaze moved from Opal and landed on Aventurine, who had chosen to stay on the side and give them at least some semblance of privacy so that they could catch up. He did a double take. “Oh, for the Saintess’ sake, you are- I am incredibly sorry- Opal, why did you not tell me that she was with you?”

When Opal’s sole reaction was a confused look and an “I mean, it kinda slipped my mind”, Rutile put his face in his hands and groaned.

He then raised his head and looked first at Opal and then at Aventurine, seemingly defeated. “… She has no idea of who you are, does she?”

The young woman grinned as though she’d won something, detaching from the wall she was leaning on. “No.”

Opal looked at her up and down: she was a really beautiful lady, whose elegant poise wasn’t actually affected even when she was laughing out loud or running down the corridors; she was very obviously an aristocrat, but at the same time there weren’t many who would’ve behaved like she had. Despite that, Opal was sure she’d never met her before that day.

Rutile let out a long-suffering sigh. “I feel like there should be more of an announcement, but, Opal, this is the crown princess of this country, Her Highness Aventurine of Kristallia.”

At his words, Opal’s eyes widened, and she pivoted on her heels to stare at the young woman. “You’re the princess? Like, the actual princess?” She was suddenly reminded of the two empty seats she’d seen in the throne room on what seemed the day of a lifetime before. She guessed it was, in a certain sense. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Probably because literally everyone knows of her” Rutile said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Apart from you, apparently.”

“How was I supposed to know? She doesn’t even wear a crown!”

Aventurine smiled, in a way that wasn’t apologetic at all. “Sorry, I guess. It was just too funny.”

Opal blinked, utterly bewildered, but then she shook her head. “You know what, we don’t actually have time for this. Let’s hurry, we still have to save Ametrine and Celsian.”

The princess got serious. “Right. Follow me.”

She started walking rapidly in the direction from which they’d come, and Opal fell into step with her. Rutile did too, albeit with a delayed reaction.

“Oh, Opal!” he said, maybe a minute after they had gotten moving, as if he’d suddenly remembered something important. He sounded anxious.

“What is it?”

“The documents I found in the Saintess’ house. You… probably don’t remember them, but they were compiled and gathered by the Saintess herself.”

“By Agata?” If Rutile noticed the familiar way with which she'd called her, he didn’t react. Maybe, though, he was just too worried about those documents. “What were they about?”

“They- well, see for yourself. I didn’t manage to save the whole stack, but…” He halted in his tracks, with them in tow, and, from an inner pocket, he took a few badly folded papers that he gave to Opal. “Here. Your Highness, I would not dare order you around, but I think you should read them too.”

They shared the documents, holding them together, and the more they read the more horrified they became.

When they arrived at the end, Aventurine was livid. “I cannot believe it, so this is what they were trying to cover up. I knew that my father was hiding something from me, I knew it.”

Opal shared the sentiment, feeling cross also on Agata’s behalf. Maybe that was the reason why she hated the king of that time, now that Opal thought about it. “We can’t let this be, we have to do something.” Despite her anger, however, she summoned a grateful look for her friend. “We’re lucky that you were there with us, Rutile.”

“It was the least I could do. Now, however, we have to hurry.”

They exchanged a nod of understanding, and then started running again. The civil servant was trudging behind Aventurine, who was somehow faster than him even with her gown and low heels, but he never once complained about the physical effort.

It wasn’t until they heard a few passing knights talking about how “those two criminals that kidnapped the new Saviour” got caught after they escaped from the dungeons and were being brought before the king to be judged once and for all, that they changed destination and made a panicked run for the throne room.

When they finally reached the wide and ornate entrance they heard a scream, so Opal ignored everything else and slammed open the doors, driven solely by the righteous fury of a worried friend, because that had been the thief’s voice. Upon her arrival all eyes turned to Opal, apart from those of Celsian, who was slumped and leaning limply against Ametrine, the only thing that prevented her from falling on the floor.

Opal thought that she was already quite angry before coming in, but she was wrong.

“Free my friends” she ordered in a voice that didn’t even feel like hers. Until that moment, she didn’t know that it could be so thunderous, or so cold. “Now!”