~(°ẅ°)~

The guards converged on Maya. As soon as they touched her, the blade dissipated, leaving Orlos to slump to the floor. He still wore the same wide-eyed expression, but Tale was relieved to see that the wound was not fatal. It snapped her out of her panic and back into sovereign mode.

"Retrieve Medete at once! Take the girl to a secure place."

Tale watched Maya as she was led out of the room. She didn't fight - the girl appeared emotionless, remorseless.  Tale then stood to oversee the runekeepers' work, almost in more shock than Orlos, as if it were her blood on the ground instead of his.

A moment later, Medete arrived and immediately surveyed the scene - a runekeeper slumped up against the wall and bleeding, Tale standing frozen a ways away from him, guards and others looking concerned and shaken.

The nurse approached Tale. "Milady, may I request you take your leave of this situation?"

Tale blinked. "But the wound..."

"It will be fine, milady." Medete smiled soothingly.

"Medete, how can I possibly leave?"

The nurse took Tale's hand gently, motherly. "Dear, don't worry. I'll report to you after I help Orlos."

And with that, Tale found herself outside the trial room alone. With so much on her mind, Tale let her subconscious start to lead her where it would, on paths she had taken so many times before that she did not need to be too aware of it, giving her ample time to let her thoughts wander.

Medete, the head of the medical branch of the city, had always been a trusted friend to Tale. She was older than Tale, wiser, yet had always refused any offers of a higher position. She had always mothered Tale.

Tale wandered the halls directly underneath the arched trial room, trying not to wonder what was happening above her. Her mind was panic. In her life she was used to the comfort and peace that came of obeying rules, not this constant anarchy. Relative, that is, to what her life was like before these past three weeks.

For a reason that was unknown to her, Zuro came to her mind. He had been her rock through all of this and for a long time before. Yet, it was not right to take Ayde forcibly from Maya. Had Ayde stayed, she might have stopped Maya from wounding that poor man... or would she have incited it?

Nevertheless, it was no use being angry at her head of guard. She confided in Zuro even more than her appointed court advisors. She knew how much she would regret losing someone like him as head of his branch.

No... as a friend.

Tale looked up. Her feet had brought her to the lowest level of the palace. At once, she turned a corner and resumed walking at the same slow, meditative speed.

The corridor she had chosen was only one she had ever been down in times of personal crisis. Since the lowest level of the palace was open to the public, Tale was careful to walk nearest to the interior wall, in shadow. If anyone saw her here, they would likely be inclined to spread rumors that the sovereign was about to fall apart. Tale had long ago learned that any sort of people tend to gossip, and so rarely trusted civilians.

At the end of the corridor she paused at the stone door, gray and solemn before her. Looking over her shoulder quickly, she pushed the heavy door open and slipped inside.

Dim light and a sweet smell greeted her. Flowers that flourished in the nighttime bloomed in sconces along the walls of the dark, but large room. Cushions littered the floor around a pedestal in the center, where a skylight illuminated the focus of this chamber.

The light from above set into perfect relief an engraving in stone atop the pedestal, surrounded by flowers and fragrant, smoking incense. Tale lowered her head in reverence as she neared the shrine. She was now close enough to make out what the tablet said, although she had read it many times before:

EOLA, KING
WISE FATHER AND RULER
SAVIOR OF THOUSANDS BY
HIS ACTIONS AGAINST DARKNESS
WE TREASURE YOUR MEMORY.

She watched them arrive, from her perch atop a white brick archway. She was calm -- the kind of calmness that only newfound freedom can bring.

Her wings were not yet strong enough to hold her weight in the air; she'd climbed up over the archway after breaking out and making sure no guards were still around. Now, after ridding herself of her two-week imprisonment, she saw those responsible for it as she peered over the blasted white stone, and realized just how much she'd missed being able to see.

There was the Odon sovereign, dressed in a wispy blue raiment, pale silver hair fluttering over her gossamer Odon wings. There was the unkempt, apprehensive head of guard, looking steadily forward through red-blue eyes. Also, there was one other, dressed as a nurse. All were advancing towards her swiftly, through the blasted remains of the guard house.

She ducked back, awaiting the moment when, faced with no other options, all three of them entered through the archway she was perched on.

The being she had become was beyond rationality now, because in Maya's body, Ayde was. Blood-drunk and ecstatic upon successfully casting the body-control spell,  Ayde had found that channeling spells through Maya's limbs, which were actually constructed of magic itself, was amplified dramatically. This came as a surprise when she attempted merely to break the lock on her prison cell, and ended up destroying the guardhouse.

Reeling from this new freedom, then, she prepared for the attack. Moments passed achingly by as Ayde tried to control this strong, energetic body. She listened to the voices coming closer, shocked at the destruction ... the chaos that she'd created...

All at once, Zuro's messy brown hair passed into view. She dove off the archway. Tale's silver hair flashed into her blurred vision as she collided with the guard, shoulder to shoulder.

Zuro gave way and  fell to the ground, and Ayde jumped to her feet , holding her wrist high above her head so the light particles could collect in her palm.

"Zuro!" Tale cried. "Her sword!"

Zuro whipped a leg around, tripping Ayde and knocking the spell away as she tried to regain balance. He stood up and looked at Ayde with a gaze of fury, standing his ground.  Ayde recovered and charged.

She aimed each blow  for some vital part of Zuro's body, and he blocked each in turn, until she feinted and caught the Odon in the stomach. He doubled, and Ayde used a rune-covered elbow to knock him to the ground.

She threw her weight back, preparing a finishing blow, and Zuro deftly rolled, evading her and standing all in one motion. He stood his ground once more, waiting.

Ayde laughed, using Maya's voice. "I've got you, Odon. I'm stronger than you. I'm faster. Why don't you do the one thing this body can't? Why don't you fly?"

Zuro exhaled as if to sigh, but didn't move from his rigid stance. "If I flew, I'd be anything but a guard."

Ayde laughed again, the voice feeling strange in a throat that was not her own.

"Besides," continued Zuro, looking over her shoulder, "fighting you gave them enough time."

Ayde whipped Maya's body around. There were Tale and the nurse, on either side of nothing other than Ayde's own unconscious body, laid down helpless in the dirt.

Infuriated, Ayde rushed towards her body, intending to retrieve it. The nurse and Tale moved backward at her advance, as if she were a charging beast.

However, she was impeded by some invisible force, just feet away from her goal. She pounded on the thin air, letting out a roar. Looking around, she saw a silver marking tool in Tale's hand and an apologetic look on her face. Ayde looked at the ground and understood. There, painted onto the blasted ground..

"Barrier runes," Ayde said.