Chapter 463 - A Refrain of Broken Chains II

  The party stirred up a fuss upon arriving at the castle. Arciel and Chloe cmored about its architecture while Lana drooled up a storm. Krail and Jules were no better. The pair spent their time muttering back and forth whilst scrutinizing the magically divine rocks used in the building’s construction. Only Allegra and Cire were quiet. The former was frowning with her eyes glued to the ground, while the tter curiously tilted her head.

  Everything about the castle had changed in the few minutes that she’d stepped away. No longer was it somber, quiet, or devoid of life. Servants of all shapes and sizes scurried across its grounds with sentient carts and trays in tow. Such objects were common, not only amongst the luggage, but also amongst the staff. Floor mps in tuxedos strutted about as if they weren’t out of pce. And surely enough, none of the other servants so much as batted an eye.

  Perhaps it was normal considering the variation in their species. Monsters from the Langgbjerns were most common by far. One-legged wolves bounced around with baskets of undry held in their tails, centipede-crabs slithered their way up the walls to decorate them with banners, and pug-faced satyrs worked away at the gardens.

  Occasionally, one could spot a member of a normal race in the midst of simir work. One of the knights patrolling the grounds looked like he was probably human. Partnered with a goblin, a giant, and a bipedal cat, he marched all around the ramparts with his face unsmiling and his back as straight as a rod.

  The butler responsible for greeting the party was just as stern. The wheelchair-bound merman approached the gate with a frown and looked coldly on each of the members in turn.

  “Welcome to Aurora’s domain.” Not bothering to make eye contact, he fiddled with a series of levers and opened the gate with a grunt. “Congratutions on clearing the trial or whatever. Aurora’ll be with you in a bit. She’s busy with another, more important guest.”

  He started wheeling himself towards the building, only to spin around, sigh, and grumble as he realised that guests were still by the door.

  “What are you standing around for? Hurry up. I don’t have all day.”

  “Don’t mind him,” said his wheelchair. “Please take all the time you need. We really aren’t as busy as he’s making it seem.”

  “What the hell!? Whose side are you on, you piece of junk!?” shouted the butler.

  “Certainly not yours,” said the wheelchair. “And for the record, I am not a piece of junk. I’m a respectable, industrial grade wheelchair built perfectly to spec. Do you understand just how much effort it takes to haul someone your size around?”

  “Can’t be any more than what it takes to put up with you,” grumbled the merman.

  “Roll a mile in my wheels, and you’d change your tune in a heartbeat.” The chair almost seemed to defte before turning itself and its rider back to their guests. “Would you rather wait indoors, or out in the courtyard? It’s a little cold around this time of year but the view from the garden is impeccable.”

  “I would rather remain indoors. It has been some time since we were given the opportunity,” said Arciel. “Are there any opinions to the contrary?”

  The party’s members took turns looking at each other and shaking their heads.

  “It is decided then,” said the squid. “We shall elect to remain indoors.”

  “Understood. I’ll show you the way.” The chair rolled towards the building while the merman leaned back, silent but indisputably annoyed.

  The building itself was exactly as it had been upon Cire’s departure, but again, the sheer amount of activity completely warped her perception. Even the guards were helping the servants with their chores, running to and fro whilst carrying ptes and towels aplenty. The transported goods chatted and compined as they moved all over; loaves of bread swore at the maids responsible for their porting as they were jostled around, getinous desserts screamed as they jiggled around in their ptes, and vegetables compined about the temperatures of their soupy baths. With the sheer number of dishes going back and forth, it almost felt like they were in the back of a restaurant, stuck overlooking the kitchen as it went about the evening rush. There was so much foot traffic that a collision almost seemed inevitable, but the servants evaded their coworkers with graceful steps, maintaining their sense of urgency all the while.

  Wading through the fast moving crowd, the wheelchair led them down three halls and into a room with a whole line of maids filing out. The servants in question still had rags, dusters, and buckets in hand. But while their equipment implied much effort, Cire found their assignment without purpose. The castle was already spotless. It wasn’t possible for the room to be any more clean than everything else already was.

  “Alright, that’s done. Let’s get the hell outta here,” said the merman.

  “Absolutely not. You haven’t even begun to do your job,” said the chair. It fttened its wheels apologetically at the guests whilst engaging its breaks to prevent its passenger from pushing it back out the door. “Would you like anything to eat or drink? She’s dealing with an important guest, and we’re not sure how long she’ll end up being.”

  “Snacks!” said a beaming Lana.

  “A warm drink does sound rather appealing,” said Arciel.

  “Then I’ll be right back with both,” said the wheelchair.

  “Are you serious? We’re way too busy for this!” compined the merman.

  “It comes with the job. There isn’t much to be done about it,” said the chair.

  “Ugh… come on…”

  The two continued to bicker as they headed back the way they came. Left to their own devices, the party immediately settled in. Lana and Krail colpsed into the sofa, Jules sank into an extra wide seat, Allegra colpsed by the door, and Chloe followed Arciel to the windowsill. Cire debated joining them, but her ears perking up, she spun around instead.

  “Cire! You’re safe!”

  Darting beneath the wheelchair, Sylvia catapulted through the doorway and into the snake-moose’s arms.

  Cire paused for a moment before returning the embrace and burying her face in the fox’s fur. For a moment, she considered sneaking out of the room and visiting her mother again, but plonked herself down on the couch instead. Squeezing into the space between Lana and Krial, she melted into the seat and closed her eyes.

  Heading straight to her mother was foolish. Aurora had put a number of safeguards in pce to ensure Violet’s obscurity, but Cire’s presence threw a wrench in her pns. Everywhere the caldriess went, a distinct magical trail would follow. That much was normal; there wasn’t a mage who wouldn’t emit enough magic to be tracked, but a conscious effort was all it usually took to suppress it.

  So what, then, was the problem?

  Much to her dismay, Cire found the simple task awfully difficult post recovery. Olethra’s death had only exacerbated the problem. Her trail had a copious amount of divinity mixed in, and she couldn’t dispel it no matter how hard she focused.

  The precaution was admittedly a little extraneous. Allegra probably didn't suspect that her mother was still alive, and she was unlikely to do anything stupid even if she learned the truth. She was hardly inclined to give it a second attempt, let alone under the winter goddess’ watch. At least, according to the visions Aurora had shown her.

  Still, Cire refrained. Allegra was clearly itching to chat in private—she would certainly follow her if she left the room, and the snoose had no intention of dealing with the accompanying awkward conversation. She was already letting the rabbit off easy.

  A part of her wanted to kill her and be done with it, but Allegra was the fighter that Panda had promised them. Without her, they would have to fall back on Sylvia. The fox would likely do just fine, but Vel had already proven that she had her in her sights. There was a non-zero chance that the goddess would try to use the proxy war as an opportunity to strike again, and throwing her into the ring was like adding fuel to the fire. If putting up with Allegra was all it took to nix the added risk, then Cire would just have to turn a blind eye.

  Fortunately, the cottontail wasn’t nearly shameless enough to try to broach the topic in public. She would be able to weasel her way out of having the talk so long as she was careful.

  “I didn’t think you were gonna win,” said Sylvia. She didn’t speak until finally letting go and settling into Cire’s p. Even in her vulpine form, she was sitting like a person, with her back upright and leaned against the snake-moose’s stomach.

  “I told you I was going to be fine.”

  “I know, but it was still super stressful. I kept thinking that I was gonna have to bail you out if anything went wrong, but I wasn’t really sure I could.”

  “Probably not. I would have died the moment she nded a half-decent attack,” said Cire.

  “Why the heck did you keep fighting her then!?”

  “I knew she wasn’t going to hit me.”

  Sylvia sighed. “I dunno if that’s supposed to mean you’re really dumb or just way too confident.”

  “Neither.”

  “Mmmnnnn… right.”

  “I think I’d have been pretty confident too if I was as fast as her,” said Chloe.

  “Oh yeah! I swear you were like ten times faster than usual. Was that all just ‘cause your circuits were fixed? Or was it the mutation?” asked Sylvia. “Oh, and is it just me, or are you a bit taller now?”

  “Just a bit,” said Cire. She was sure that she had reached a whole 156 centimeters, albeit not quite sure enough to ask Colrsaur to run the numbers.

  “It was hard to tell with the armour, but your chest seems a bit bigger too. 2.01702 centimeters bigger, to be exact.” Chloe circled the lyrkress whilst adjusting her gsses. “Your tail also looks like it’s gotten a little bit longer. It’s a shame your ass is as disappointing as ever. It could’ve used a little extra help.”

  “My butt is fine.”

  “Y-yeah,” said Sylvia. “I mean it’s a little ft, but it makes you more huggable from behind.”

  “Perhaps, but I do find myself agreeing with Chloe’s evaluation. Its aesthetic would benefit greatly from an increase in volume,” said Arciel.

  “The size isn’t really the problem. It just needs to be a little rounder,” said Chloe.

  “Mmmnnn… I guess I can kinda see it,” said Sylvia, “but I think it’s probably just ‘cause she’s slim. It’d probably fix itself if she ate a little more.”

  “I don’t think it’d make a difference. Lamias store fat in our tails, not our butts,” said Cire. “And my butt looks fine.”

  “Hold the fuck on,” said Jules. “Why the actual fuck are you guys going on about her ass when she’s got, like, you know, those things.”

  He pointed a thumb at her less-than-subtle wings. Even folded inwards, they made it so she took up most of the couch. Krail and Lana were each only a few inches away from touching it in their seated positions. The elf didn’t even seem to notice. His eyes were closed, and he was already snoring, but Lana was staring intently and prodding at the bded feathers.

  “Well that’s ‘cause that’s just Boris,” said Sylvia. “Weren’t you watching when he transformed and stuff?”

  “Yeah, but shouldn’t he be getting back to normal?”

  “This is normal,” said Cire.

  “Yeah, and I’m your uncle,” said the cm.

  “Panda?”

  “You called?” The raccoon in question suddenly appeared in front of her. Dressed in a set of pajamas and topped with a purple nightcap, he stretched and yawned as he spoke his greeting.

  “Y’know what? Nevermind. I ain’t said shit,” said Jules. “No way in hell I’m crazy enough to be one of you fucks.”

  “Woah there,” Panda raised both hands and backed away. “Look, I know I'm not the pinnacle of normal, but she and I are in completely different categories. At retail, our goods wouldn't even be trying to complete.”

  “Yeah,” said Cire. “Unlike him, I'm perfectly sane.”

  “You just came fresh off killing a goddess,” said Panda. “You do realise that not even that batshit crazy daddy of yours has done anything that absurd?”

  “He could've killed her in a single blow.”

  “That's besides the point. As it stands, you're the only one in the family with a dead god in the bag. Normally, I'd say that's good for profits, but this time, not so much. Most everyone’s panicked out their ass right now. Cadria’s probably the only pce where cash’ll still be flowing in the next year or two.” He threw back his head and cackled. “Congrats! You’re about to be responsible for what’s pretty much a global recession!”

  “Perhaps the festivities around Valencia may stimute the local economy, but I see little reason for the rest of the nation to see the accompanying benefit,” said Arciel.

  “That’s ‘cause you’re not thinking like a Cadrian,” said Panda. “The princess that everyone thought was a good-for-nothing just pulled off the impossible and killed a goddess. That’s good as saying that the country’s future is 100% secure. First thing they’re going to do is throw a billion festivals in her name, and I’m pretty sure you can see where it goes from there.”

  “Wait, don’t Cadrians really like fighting strong people?” asked Sylvia. “Doesn’t that mean Rubia’s gonna be in trouble?”

  “A little. But it’ll be fine,” said Cire. “Headhydra will protect her.”

  “Uhmmm… wasn’t Headhydra the one that was kinda useless? She’s not going to be able to hold up against a high-level warrior, is she?”

  “She’s pretty useless,” said Cire, with a nod. “But it’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Cire nodded. “She’s stronger now too.”

  “Mmmnnnn… I’m still a little worried,” said Sylvia.

  “Rex. She’s pying the part of the princess,” said Panda, with another yawn. “People can’t just get to her willy-nilly. Her guard’ll probably think something is up, but Virillius’ll find a way to smooth it over. His tongue is a few sparks short of silver, but he’s good at making things work out when it counts.”

  There was a knock on the door right as he finished speaking, with the merman and his wheelchair rolling in a cart soon after. It came not only with a series of cups and teapots, but cakes, cookies, crackers, and meats. Lana’s eyes were shining, but the merman met her excitement with a haughty smirk.

  “What are you looking at? All of this is heading straight back out the door,” he said.

  “Aww…” Her ears and tail both sank in time with her mood.

  “We do apologize, but it seems like the goddess and her guest are ready to see you,” he said. “Please follow us.”

  “And her guest?” asked Chloe.

  “You will see in a second.”

  The chair wheeled its way down the chaotic hallway again and led the party to a pair of towering double doors. It wasn’t the same set that had led into the hall with the mirror, but an even more grandiose dispy constructed for the sole purpose of vanity. Reinforced with even more divinity than the rest of the castle’s material, the doorway radiated with pure power. Dulrd or not, anyone could easily detect the strength hammered into the building blocks themselves. And yet, it paled when compared to the divinity that leaked from beyond the gate.

  The merman didn’t give the party a chance to think before pushing the cart aside and pulling open the door.

  He revealed not only Aurora seated upon her divine throne, but the moon in her entirety.

  The audience chamber held the sky within it.

  And Griselda spanned its width.

  The silver chunks that made up her belt floated in the space around her as her massive hat obscured the stars. She was the ceiling, close enough that they could nearly touch her, and somehow far enough that no part of her body was hidden.

  They knew as they saw her, even before they checked their logs.

  They had finally completed her quest.