Amelia’s explanation was a thorough one. She explained it piece by piece, the Immortal Tribe’s origin.

Lucretia marvelled alongside Rapture as she imaged that scene, that image from some two centuries ago as a branch of the Immortal Clan crossed the sea from Svartalfheim, settled in Alfheim and founded what later would become known the Immortal Tribe.

The fundamental difference between these two group’s cultures, overall was in the name alone. While the Immortal Clan was always kin, the Immortal Tribe welcomed outsiders in.

Naturally, however, Abel would not permit these settlers to stay, they sent a force in to purge them before long. Over time this force would splinter from their main body and become the group known as Cain. Cain had been fighting the Immortal Tribe, now split into three, in Alfheim’s northern lands for roughly two centuries, this was the gist of Amelia’s story.

Not just Rapture, even Lucretia and her seven present retainers were stunned silent by this story. They had thought those beings to be the stuff of legends but now they came to know the truth behind the stories. There once was a union of twelve cities that lorded over Alfheim’s northern lands. Though they had a proper name once, which, according to Jupiter’s records, was The Union of Zodia, many people had forgotten that name with the passage of time, others simply remembered it wrongly. Sadly, history hadn’t been kind to them and they had been all but forgotten, almost like an afterthought.

Even so that Union had existed for many, many years unchallenged in the north, even by the Nidhogg Empire, at least before these two groups of Cain and Immortal arrived to break the tie. What remained of those twelve cities now had long been swallowed up by The Nidhogg Empire, Cain, and the Immortal Tribe.

How sad it was, this powerful Union had once stood on equal terms with the Nidhogg Empire in Alfheim’s south, yet now naught remained. Gemini, who fought to the last, had been one of their number, as had Taurus, who had become Loki under the Immortal Tribe and then Cain under Abel.

Three others had fallen to the Immortal Tribe after they lost Loki while yet six more were then swallowed up by the Nidhogg Empire. Lucretia didn’t need to be a genius to realise that none of those twelve cities which formed the Union had been inferior to the Jupiter of today. They had in fact stood together as a force that could stave off even the mighty Nidhogg Empire without the aid of the rotting sea to act as a natural barricade. She knew that they could not have been weak at all and yet Cain had crushed a total of three of them at separate points in its past. Finally, she began to grasp the scope of her enemy, and she didn’t like one bit of it.

“Why did the Immortal Tribe’s founders flee Svartalfheim in the first place?” She asked. Truth be told, what the Princess wanted to know was “why did you let such a mess develop? Why does it have to involve us now?” She glanced at Rapture once or twice, a mix of apprehension and fear gleaned through her eyes.

“I know very little about that. Sadly, since the Mistress herself was only a babe, relatively speaking, when that migration happened, I haven’t got much to go on. Even though she said she’d lived many years more than any of us and she claimed that she could recall personally a time when her clan hadn’t been in Alfheim at all. I suppose she had simply been too young to be told much of their political affairs.

What she did know was that her great-grandmother served the Immortal Clan as one of the fourteen Matriarchs, one of their fifteen leading figures alongside the Patriarch, who was their religious leader and the symbolic avatar of their god. For reasons beyond her understanding the clan was split by the various Matriarchs going to war with one another. When her great-grandmother died their faction, alongside two allied factions, fled...they were simply among the losers.

Her grandmother then served as a Co-Matriarch in Loki alongside the Matriarchs of those other two factions until the day Abel attacked and seized the city from them. Then the factions split up again and her mother served as Matriarch in Fenrir...before Cain laid waste to it, that is. Everyone who lived there was butchered, save for a small few who got away...Beatrix’s lover and their child among them.”

“She had a lover?” Rapture said with a raised brow. He hadn’t expected to hear that.

“Of course,” Amelia replied, “Did you perhaps believe that a woman who had lived for at least two and four-fifth centuries would have but one love? Your mother claimed to have enjoyed the company of many loves over the ages, though not all of those relationships were physical.” The boy thought it over for a moment and, although his feelings remained mixed on the subject, he came to think that Amelia had made an argument which he could not quite agree with but was solid enough regardless. Only an immortal could become a true “life partner” to another immortal, all other lovers must’ve become old and died in what looked like the blink of an eye from Beatrix’ point of view. The boy thus felt that, whether he agreed or not, he had no right to pass judgement on the matter.

“So that is the story, is it?” The Princess of Jupiter called out to them, shaking both Rapture and Amelia back to their senses. She had heard everything now, except for the part about how Beatrix had come to be in the care of Venus' lot, and then, more importantly, why they’d brought her here to these lands. “No, there’s more, there must be more,” She said, glaring Amelia’s way, “After all, if there wasn’t, why would you be picking your words so cautiously?” Amelia frowned. She sighed and bitterly faced the princess’ prying gaze.

“Indeed there is more...when our Mistress realised the city of Fenrir was truly lost. She swallowed the Matriarch’s sole heirloom, their clan’s treasure: one of the fourteen Beacons of their god, of Rognir.” Lucretia frowned. Someone had actually devoured a Beacon? That was something she’d never expected to hear, she didn’t even want to ask how Beatrix retrieved the thing later.

“She swallowed it?” She asked, disbelief in her tone.

“Yes,” Amelia replied, her voice uttering only the flat, obvious truth, “and in so doing she concealed it from their enemies. Cain killed everyone, burned the bodies, left nothing but charred corpses in their wake. Mistress Beatrix also died that day...but the Beacon is more than what its name implies.”

“It revived her from the dead then? Restored her to life?” Lucretia inquired. She hardly believed it, even less could she believe she herself said it, but stories of the gods reviving the dead were commonplace, why would their Beacons not be capable of doing the same thing?

“Yes,” Amelia begrudging answered her back, “and that, according to my Mistress herself, is how she got away from them.” She then turned Rapture’s way. What she had to say next, he had to hear. She was willing to tell him everything now so nothing should be hidden. “That is also why your mother had no Ash of her own. Ash leaves you when you die, after all.” Rapture’s heart skipped a beat. He clenched shut his fists and swung one of them at the wall. Lucretia followed his action with her eyes. Indeed, what Amelia just said made sense, it was, after all, the very reason why nobody made clothing from Advanced Manifestation. Death, or even unconsciousness, would result in that clothing dissolving into mist...it was neither practical nor safe and furthermore it wasn’t a very dignified state to leave your corpse in.

“So then she came to Venus...how?” Said Lucretia once again.

“She fled south...we found her, everything else is none of your business,” Amelia coldly replied. However, Lucretia only gave a faint laugh in return. Truth be told, only one thing really bothered her now. The most important thing.

“So then, if all of that’s the truth, then why didn’t you lot just hand over the Beacon?” Yes, that was the all important question. Why had Venus chosen to protect Beatrix and her Beacon? Why hadn’t they turned her in to save their own hides if nothing else? Naturally Amelia gave her reply, for she had little cause to hide it now.

“Lady Beatrix could not survive without the Beacon sustaining her, it was her life support. We sympathised with her and also judged that for this reason she would never be a danger to others, so we hid her away.”

“That’s the whole story?” Lucretia was stunned. Suppose that was the truth of it, if so then the whole matter boiled down to putting basic human decency on trial. She glanced at Rapture once, then twice. He seemed to be a well nurtured child if nothing else, at least to her eye, it spoke to the character of his mother that he cared so much for her too. He didn’t seem to fit the image of a criminal himself, at least.

“It is.” Amelia said as she too looked towards the troubled Rapture. She then did something which even surprised Lucretia, she bowed her head low to the boy. “That is the whole truth, all of it. I am sorry we kept it from you.”

“It’s...alright,” Rapture took a step back. He’d seen Amelia’s weaker side many times and so he knew that this apology was genuine. He internally complained that because of this matter he might spend the rest of the night checking up on her after this. However, he laid that thought to rest soon after. Amelia did not look like she was of a mind to drown herself in a bottle of wine this time. Rather, she looked a little more sober than she’d ever been, it was as if a truly heavy burden had finally been lifted from her shoulders.

All of the things he’d learned today had shocked him greatly, it had sent his emotions into chaos time and time again, he could therefore only imagine the weight keeping such secrets from him had bore upon the heart of his mentor.

“Alright then...I have heard everything,” Lucretia said with an exhausted sigh. She raised her hand and caressed her temples, this whole matter, in her mind, was something of a mess. “it seems that, rather than treason, the only thing you lot are guilty of...is stupidity.”

“Oi,” Rapture said, crossing his arms as he turned to face her. His expression was clearly cold and unpleasant to behold, but Lucretia ignored it as she glared towards Amelia. Without hesitation, the Princess gave voice to her decision.

“For tonight I shall send a message to my grandfather and then I shall retire to bed. You will not be arrested, nor will anyone be punished...until he gives his verdict.”

“Then we’re doomed,” Amelia said, shaking her head, “Knowing Julius.”

“Sovereign, Julius,” Lucretia said, coldly correcting her. Titles were important, at least for a subject addressing their monarch, no matter how shit that monarch might be. Lucretia did however understand Amelia’s concerns, her grandfather’s machinations were not unknown to her. “Worry not,” She thus declared, “I shall act as your witness.” The master-apprentice pair were shocked almost stupid by the thing she’d chosen to declare. The cat was out of the bag, they had no hope of hiding anything anymore, yet, in the end, the one who’d sided with them was none other than the Princess herself. Yet, even so, they had their nagging doubts.

“What if the verdict is still negative, despite your input?” Rapture was the first to ask after his concern. Lucretia frowned, she thought about it before exhaling a hefty breath.

“Then I will have no choice but to seize control over this city. Any and all who are judged to be working against the country’s interests will be put to death and if need be a new leadership will have to be established.” Lucretia’s tone was blunt, yet she spoke only the ruthless truth. True enough, that’s what would happen, and she’d spoken of it so blatantly with a face that was clearly asking the boy “did you really want to know?” Amelia found herself trembling at the very thought of it, her body said more than words ever could. Jupiter’s might was just so, it wasn’t something they could oppose. Rapture too was feeling a cold sweat drip down his neck, he could scarcely imagine that Jupiter had that much power over the other cities, yet Amelia’s reaction proved Lucretia’s words more than true. The Princess took note of their reactions, she sympathised, truly, but duty was duty, and her duty wasn’t yet fully carried out. “Sadly I have to ask you one last question, where is the Beacon now?”

“Gone. My mother used it already.” The boy, Rapture, then confessed everything, everything that had happened at the Sanctuary. More than once Amelia wanted to object, she wanted to have him hide the fact that he’d been empowered by a god, but then she stopped herself from stopping him.

The reason was simple, Lucretia had already learned enough that she could probably arrive at that conclusion on her own, why bother hiding it anymore? Thus Lucretia learned the reason why the Beacon was used, the results of its use, and everything else related to the incident that day. Though she seemed to doubt his story for a moment, her trained eye could tell that Rapture wasn’t lying, this boy was too naive to deceive her. She thought to herself, 'he’s very honest, almost endearingly so'.

The full story allowed The Princess to feel relief wash over her. The Beacon was gone, thus the threat it represented was also gone. This truth might help when she argued Venus’ case to her grandfather, after all she did find herself somewhat sympathising with Beatrix’ story and the reasons for Venus to aid her. She didn’t necessarily agree with their actions and she’d certainly not do what they did in their shoes, but she understood their motivations at the very least. She stood up, her two heels clapping audibly against the wooden floor. More claps and taps echoed out as she walked forward and in time she passed Amelia by. She glared into her eyes for a time, before glancing back over her shoulder towards the waiting Rapture.

“Most likely my grandfather will demand your capture so I will be staying here the next few days to ensure you don’t go anywhere." Rapture said nothing, he merely looked at her with unease in his eyes. “Don’t give me that look, I already told you, I’m not the bad guy here.”

“Then what are you?” The boy said with a somewhat scornful scoff.

“The law.” Lucretia replied. Then, once again, she reached out towards the handle of the door frame. She turned the knob, the tumblers echoed loudly. The chamber opened, releasing her to the world outside. The taps of her heels which were thin and sharp, echoed out loudly as the door creaked shut to her back. Thus, before long, only Rapture and Amelia were left inside the room.

“Rapture…I’m so sorry,” Said the gloomy Amelia, “Your mother...she never wanted you to have any part in any of this. Cain, the Immortal Tribe, all these things were never supposed to have any meaning to you.”

“I understand,” The boy said as he turned and collapsed onto his bed. He wasn’t really even paying attention anymore. How could be? This day had been one of the longest in his life, not the longest outright but certainly a contender. “I understand...Amy...but...could you leave me alone for a bit?” He closed his eyes as the tension from a moment ago subsided into nothing. He could not stay awaken any longer. Amelia, who realised this, nodded her head and then rose silently to her feet. She turned on her heels and vanished back into the waiting darkness. Tonight was a heavy night for them both, and a life changing one at that. Had tonight not happened, had Lucretia never came, so many things would’ve gone very differently.