[Realm: Uhorus]

[Location: Verdantis]

[Capital City]

Lucinda had expected many things upon arriving in Verdantis. A brutal battle against the Abyss, another grotesque manifestation clawing its way from the tears, or perhaps some especially violent creature forcing them into another exhausting confrontation.

Those possibilities had all felt reasonable considering the state of the world.

What she had not expected, what she could never have anticipated, was revelation after revelation spilling so casually from the mouth of the Court Mage of Verdantis herself.

The room felt quieter than before, everyone present was still trying to reorganize their understanding of reality. Lucinda sat silently for a moment longer, her fingers loosely intertwined atop her lap as her thoughts drifted in too many directions at once.

Part of her wanted to reject everything Lyra had said outright.

Angels, foreign realms, reincarnated divine souls, and fragments of Gods stitched onto beings. It sounded absurd, perhaps like something out of some mythology people dramatized into scripture over centuries.

But Lyra had no reason to lie, not about something like this. And more importantly, too many things suddenly made sense. The strength of Octavia’s spawns and the strange reactions from the Abyss, to name a few.

Even Lucinda herself, and the phase with all that rage. The instincts that never truly felt entirely her own.

("I wonder...") Her red eyes lowered slightly. ("Does that mean Octavia herself was one of these Angels too...?")

The thought lingered, but she did not ask it aloud. Not because she lacked curiosity, there were simply too many revelations already suffocating the room. Everyone else looked overwhelmed too, even if they expressed it differently.

Fiona looked deeply unsettled beneath her composed exterior. Agatha remained quiet, though her silence had become unusually thoughtful. Victoria appeared fascinated, yet even she had stopped masking everything behind humor.

And Mai looked the least influenced, which made sense.

So Lucinda allowed the silence to remain. And with it, her thoughts drifted elsewhere, toward Mikoto.

("Still...") Her lips pressed together. ("Now I can’t stop thinking about what happened to him.")

The phase, Lyra’s explanation still lingered heavily in her mind. About that regression, returning to what they once were. Lucinda remembered her own phase vividly, far more vividly than she liked. The emotions, the fury, and the instability. How anger had lingered constantly at the edge of her thoughts no matter how hard she tried to suppress it.

At the time, she had blamed Octavia entirely, blamed her for the curse. For the rage and the unbearable pressure pressing against her soul.

But now...

Now Lyra’s explanation reframed all of it. Those emotions had not felt foreign because they were foreign. They had felt familiar because they had once belonged to her. Or rather to the Angel she used to be.

If Lyra truly spoke the truth.

Lucinda’s gaze lowered further.

("But you’re strong, Mikoto.") The thought came solemnly. ("Stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. If anyone can survive something like this...") Her fingers tightened slightly together. ("It’ll be you.")

"Wait." Victoria’s voice abruptly cut through the silence, everyone’s attention shifted toward the blonde almost immediately. Victoria’s relaxed posture had straightened slightly now, her blue eyes fixed intently upon Lyra once more.

Something had clicked in her thoughts.

"If what you’re saying is true," Victoria began carefully, "then the Abyssal Warden in Galadriel manifested specifically because of Lucinda."

Lucinda blinked lightly.

Victoria continued.

"An incarnation of an Angel entering direct opposition against the Abyss prompted a severe enough reaction for the tears to create an Abyssal Warden." Her brows furrowed slightly. "That much tracks logically."

Then her gaze sharpened.

"But if that’s the case..." The room quieted again. "How did an Abyssal Warden manifest here in Verdantis?"

That immediately drew everyone’s full attention back toward Lyra.

Lucinda’s eyes snapped toward the Court Mage, even Mai’s expression hardened. Because suddenly that particular question mattered far more than any revelation before it.

Lyra was silent for a moment, then she slowly rose from her seat.

"The answer to that question," she said calmly, "is precisely why I requested discretion today." The atmosphere seemed to change immediately.

Something about her tone made even Victoria lose part of her casual demeanor.

Lyra stepped around the table slowly.

"I shall show you," the Court Mage continued. "However..." Her gaze drifted briefly toward the others. "The subject of this discussion is still... adjusting."

The slight pause there did not go unnoticed.

"And because of that," Lyra finished quietly, "I would rather only a few accompany me."

Lucinda frowned at that.

("Adjusting? To what?") She internally questioned.

Before she could ask, Mai stepped forward first.

"Well," the General said calmly, "I should return to Galadriel regardless." Her tone remained steady, though something else lingered beneath it. "I still need to rally my forces and reorganize matters there before another attack."

Lyra nodded once as Agatha spoke next.

"I should return as well," she murmured quietly. "I still have not seen William today."

Lucinda glanced briefly toward her, there was something oddly softer in Agatha’s tone at the mention of him.

"Excellent," Lyra stated smoothly afterward. "Three will suffice."

Then her eyes settled directly onto Lucinda.

"Though it is important that Lucinda comes with us."

Lucinda blinked.

"Me?"

"Yes."

Lyra did not elaborate further immediately, which somehow only made the statement more concerning.

"I can return the others to Galadriel first," the Court Mage explained instead. "So everyone prepare yourselves for transportation."

Wordlessly, Fiona and Victoria rose from the couches. Mai stepped closer as Agatha moved away from the bookshelves at last. Lucinda followed a second later, though confusion still lingered clearly across her face.

The group naturally gathered closer together in the center of the spacious office.

Then Lyra raised one pale hand calmly, a snap of her fingers echoed through the office. Immediately a massive circular crimson glyph burst into existence beneath them. Complex geometric formations spread outward in layered rings across the wooden floor, symbols igniting one after another.

Lucinda’s eyes widened slightly.

("Whoa... this is really refined. Almost on par with my teleportation.") Refined to a degree that bordered on terrifying.

The red light intensified rapidly, it swallowed the couches, the shelves, the desk and then the entire room. And in the very next instant, the blinding red glow engulfed them all completely.

The blinding light vanished as abruptly as it had appeared, and Lucinda suddenly found the soles of her sabatons resting atop a long scarlet carpet threaded through with gold patterns. The fabric stretched far ahead through an enormous hallway that seemed almost unnaturally pristine despite the calamity swallowing the world outside. For a brief second, she simply blinked, adjusting to the abrupt transition.

The air here was warmer.

Not overly so, but enough to contrast the biting cold of Verdantis outside. The scent of wood, parchment, stone, and incense lingered throughout the corridor. Massive pillars lined either side of the hallway, carved from marble with long banners bearing the crest of Verdantis hanging motionless from the high walls.

"The old castle here in the capital," Lyra explained calmly from beside her. "After the need for a king was abolished, it became little more than a residence for the governing body, the Inheritors, and occasionally myself whenever paperwork begins threatening my sanity."

There was a dry sort of exhaustion in her voice that almost sounded genuine.

"Still rather pristine," Victoria mused from Lucinda’s other side, eyes wandering across the architecture with open appreciation. "Most nations would struggle to maintain something of this scale even during peaceful times, much less amidst an apocalypse."

"Seems even bigger than Galadriel’s," Fiona noted quietly. Her ears twitched as her eyes swept carefully across their surroundings. Unlike Victoria, she examined the hallway less with admiration and more with caution, as though expecting something to leap from behind one of the massive pillars. Seems she was still rather skeptical about everything.

Lucinda, meanwhile, noticed something else.

Agatha and Mai were gone. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The realization made her glance behind herself briefly, only to find the corridor entirely empty beyond them.

Lyra noticed the look immediately. "I sent them back to Galadriel," the Court Mage clarified without being asked. "They had their own priorities after all, now come along," Lyra gestured casually as she moved down the vast corridor. "And I urge the three of you to conduct yourselves properly for what I am about to show you."

"You need not worry about my diligence," Fiona replied almost immediately, her posture straightening ever so slightly as she walked. "Despite this crude armor, I am perfectly aware of proper conduct and decorum."

Her tone had smoothed considerably compared to earlier, sounding almost refined now.

Lucinda blinked once.

("I keep forgetting she’s a noble,") she thought with mild amusement as her gaze drifted over Fiona’s heavy armor and clawed gauntlets. ("The armor really does not help her image.")

"Yes, Fiona is very diligent," Victoria added with an amused smile that immediately made Fiona narrow her eyes suspiciously. "You should have seen her while she attended Luminare Academy. She turned her nose up at practically everything. There were also quite a few su—"

"They do not need to know that," Fiona hissed sharply, shooting the blonde a glare sharp enough to cut.

Victoria looked entirely unbothered.

"What?" she asked innocently, lifting both hands slightly. "Don’t you want them to know of your diligence? I distinctly recall young noble sons nearly lining the academy halls just to—"

"Victoria."

The warning in Fiona’s voice deepened noticeably.

Lucinda bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing outright.

The Solkari looked genuinely mortified.

"Oh come now," Victoria continued mercilessly, clearly enjoying herself now. "It was rather impressive really. You had admirers from half the noble houses. I still remember that one boy who nearly fainted because you merely looked at him for longer than three sec—"

Fiona all but growled low in her throat.

"Continue speaking and I shall throw you out a window."

"See?" Victoria sighed dramatically toward Lucinda and Lyra. "Such elegance. Such grace."

Lucinda finally failed to suppress the small smile pulling at her lips, even Lyra’s lips twitched upward faintly.

For the first time since arriving in Verdantis, the atmosphere felt almost normal.

Almost.

Then the sound of splintering wood violently shattered the moment.

Lucinda’s eyes snapped forward instantly.

A massive bed came flying through a doorway further down the hall. The enormous piece of furniture burst apart against the opposite wall with enough force to break stone, wooden fragments scattering across the carpet while feathers exploded into the air like snowfall.

"Huh?"