Joan’s eyes opened to the sound of a scream. Oh, that was really NOT the best way to wake up. In fact, it was probably the worst way to wake up. She tried climbing out of her cot and instead fell out, hitting the ground with a loud thump. Ow.

“What?” she asked groggily. The sound of broken glass and then a loud thump made her cringe. What in the world was going on?

“Ifrit!” Francis yelled.

That did it. She was up. If they were under attack, she needed to go. She… ugh. Didn’t know what was going on. She had to do it quickly and correctly.

Go in weaker but properly armed or full strength but without armor? Damn it. She knew what everyone would say. She ran to the wardrobe and pulled it open, nearly blinded by the dazzling armor within. She didn’t have time to put it on normally, but she did have a spell to bypass the need. She just REALLY didn’t like how much of her mana it used. Better than going in without it, at least. She cast the spell and a moment later the blinding light in front of her was now the blinding light around her. A quick spell later and it was dimmed. She really wished she could just turn that part off. She then yanked the spider bracer off her arm and tossed it back in the wardrobe, even if it was technically part of her equipment and got caught in the spell. She turned and ran out from her room.

Taking stock of her equipment, the boots, the armor, the bracer, the bracelet, the belt, the… maybe she really just had too much magical equipment. She missed the good old days when she could just pick up a sword and her body was powerful enough she could easily survive a sword swing or two without getting hurt. Maybe she should try and find something that could do the donning spell for her so she didn’t have to.

Another scream. Why wasn’t anyone--

The blade seemed to appear out of thin air when her armor got close enough to illuminate it. The shade slashed out, hitting her chest and shattering against the armor. She reduced the dimming on the armor and the three shades near her erupted from the sudden, blinding light.

So the armor was a good choice, at least. Everyone would be so proud.

“IFRIT!” Francis yelled again.

Joan ran down the hall, activating the boots to make herself run faster. It wasn’t a straight run, so rather than fully stop she leaped up against the wall, kicking off it towards the next wall, less running and more leaping down the hall. Her armor glowed like a second sun, popping the shades that were too close when she passed. It only took her a few moments to get to Ifrit’s room. The two shades blocking Francis’ way were destroyed in the blinding light and she didn’t stop, slamming feet first into the door and breaking it open.

Joan let out a shriek when she kept going, through the room and out the broken window. A moment later she was over empty air, filling the main courtyard with blinding light.

She could see Ifrit from here, that was useful. She was also quite a bit higher up than she wanted to be. That was less useful. The boots, however, were wonderful. The air magic in them allowed her to soften her landing a few seconds later. She still dropped and rolled a few feet, but nothing felt broken. She recovered quickly and darting towards Ifrit. The light of her armor made the shades disappear.

Except the one holding her. The shadow cloaking them were washed away in the light but she realized a moment later they definitely weren’t a shade. She couldn’t see what they were, as they were wearing a hooded robe that hid their features. They had a sword in hand and an arm around Ifrit.

Unfortunately, she realized a little too late that while she could move quickly in the boots and they allowed excellent traction, stopping was not what they were best at. She slammed straight into Ifrit and her captor, sending all three of them toppling to the ground.

The figure took a swing at her, their blade failing to pierce her armor. She reached out and slammed her arms against the blade, pinning it between the ground and her armor. She then less than ceremoniously shoved Ifrit away with her foot before twisting and kicking the figure in the face.

She was rewarded with a string of curses that she was pretty sure came from a male’s voice. He let go of his sword and tried to shove her off, but she rammed her knee into his head and held out her right hand, her sword forming in it and--

He was gone. She let out a startled squeak when he was just suddenly gone and she dropped a few inches. She looked around for a moment, but there was nothing there. Even the shades were gone. She glanced over to Ifrit. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yes,” she said weakly.

“Sorry I hit you,” Joan said.

“B-better than being c-captured,” Ifrit said, her arms around her side. “Ow…”

“Sorry,” Joan said again. “Uhhhh. The armor is good.”

Ifrit just whimpered.

“Francis?” Joan yelled. “You okay?”

“Is Ifrit okay?” Francis yelled down.

“Yeah! How’s your eyes?” Joan asked.

“I can almost see I think!” Francis yelled.

Joan just sighed and laid down. The fighting seemed to be over, at least. Where in the world was Chase?

------

At least a dozen died in that attack, with a lot more of them wounded. If Francis hadn’t yet, most of them could have been killed in the dark. Worse, whoever had done it had obviously been watching them for a while. Chase had returned soon after the attack, but he hadn’t told anyone he was leaving. While she supposed it was possible they didn’t know he’d left, she found that unlikely that they had just managed to pull off the attack the moment he was gone.

For a moment she even considered the idea that he was behind it in some way, but frankly if one of the Chosen wanted to kidnap Ifrit there really wasn’t a whole lot any of them could do about it. The far more likely answer was that they were being watched. The prince would be arriving soon and whoever wanted her was hoping to capture her before the prince arrived.

At least this time Francis managed to not be wounded and she’d grabbed her armor so the shades were far less effective, even if there were more of them. She doubted that trick would work again. Or maybe it would. She really would like it if her enemies didn’t learn from the stuff she did so she could just keep kicking their butts like that. “So what do we do?” Francis asked. “What if they attack again?”

“More lights,” Joan said. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think they’d actually attack us here. Too many soldiers. There had to be, what, twenty, thirty shades? At least?”

“Possibly more,” Chase said. “They must have been preparing for a while to send so many at once.”

“They can’t actually do it again, can they?” Ifrit asked softly. “I mean, I…”

“Not for a while,” Joan said. “But eventually, yeah. We’re kind of just sitting here and we can’t make progress like this.”

“We should go,” Francis said. “Somewhere safer. Somewhere they can’t find us.”

“Like where?” Joan asked. “The Realm of the Gods? Not exactly easy. Ohhh! Maybe the Realm of the Fae? That could be, in theory, doable. I mean, it’d probably go really poorly because the fae are jerks. But it’d be harder to get Ifrit in and out.”

“Are you mocking me?” Francis asked, glaring at her.

“No, if I was mocking you I’d be a lot more obvious,” Joan said with a shrug. “You’re here with one of the Chosen. So long as he doesn’t decide to run off in the middle of the night again, at least. They’re obviously watching us.”

“Watching me, you mean,” Ifrit said softly.

“Eh, us,” Joan said. “I mean, maybe they can track you specifically, but chances are they just know you’re kind of here and keeping an eye out for you. They’ve probably been waiting a while for this, but didn’t want to risk fighting a Chosen.”

“I’m sorry,” Chase said softly before reaching up to rub the back of his head. “I didn’t think if I left for a little bit it’d cause so much trouble.”

“Not your fault you’ve got some of the power of the gods in you,” Joan said. “I wouldn’t like fighting you either. That’s why we’re friends, much safer in the long term.”

“As if you ever choose the route of ‘safe’,” Chase said in a dry, amused tone.

“I just know which reckless choices to make,” Joan said with a dry tone of her own, playfully imitating his. “But at the moment, it’ll probably be a while before they can do something like that again. Unless they can do that quickly. If they can? Oh, then we’re in deeeeep trouble.”

“Wait, what?” Ifrit asked, the fear clear in her voice. “Why?”

“Because that was a lot of shades,” Joan said. “If they could send that many at us every night? Even if Chase managed to fight most of them off himself, eventually we’d be overwhelmed. I guess it is our second night here though, so maybe they can every few days. I really hope not. Either way, we’ll need to make sure things are a lot brighter around here, shades like that don’t handle the light too well.”

“Can’t your armor just kill them?” Francis asked.

“It was made with the Chosen of Light’s magic,” Joan said. “Able to blind just about anything. Including me. Especially me. But there are shades that aren’t quite as weak to bright lights. Harder to summon, but still doable.”

“So we just wait until they overwhelm us?” Francis asked.

“We’re working on a solution,” Joan said softly.

“I thought you said you knew where they were?” Francis asked. “You were so focused on coming here before, doing this yourself. How easy it was going to be.”

“It is,” Joan said with a shrug. “But it’s harder than I thought it would be. I mean, I kind of know where it is. Mostly. If we’re willing to destroy half the city to get to it. But the actual entrance is a little harder to locate, considering half the landmarks are missing.”

“So it’s hidden somewhere in the city?” Francis asked.

“Yeah,” Joan said, but she could already feel what was coming.

“Then we should search every inch of the city!” Francis yelled.

“I mean, we could,” Joan said. “Except it’s well hidden, it’d take weeks, a lot has changed, or will change, by the time I find it. In case you’re wondering, when I found it the first time? It was in this big, flaming place that had sprung up after the city almost burned down due to an inferno troll getting here, which now I guess won’t happen, so I can’t even guess what’s there now. If we can get Thalgren to come here and just rip out the ground and tunnel a few hundred feet or so, it’ll be fine. But that’ll likely take even more time.”

Francis gave a hmph and crossed his arms, glaring at her.

“What? I didn’t ask for everything to be a pain in the butt,” Joan said. “What makes you think an ancient cult filled with insane people worshiping a long dead ‘god’ is going to make itself easy to get a hold of? Scorpion’s Venom, remember? Sneaking around in the shadows is kind of what they do.”

“So we just wait?” Francis asked.

“For now, kind of have to,” Joan said. “I don’t like it either, but it won’t be for much longer. Just be grateful. Chase is here and that means they at least won’t kick us out and won’t ignore my wonderful suggestions.”

“Like make sure there are lots of lights,” Ifrit said softly.

“Shades have a pretty easy to deal with weakness,” Joan said. “It’s kind of why they aren’t used that often past sneak attacks like last night. I wonder if this is just going to be a running theme. First dealing with a fire god, now a bunch of cultists of a shadow god. Actually, I guess that’s kind of a downgrade. Am I going to have to try and deal with just a weird guy who thinks he’s a like… water monster next?”

“Joan,” Chase said, though she could see the corners of his lips struggling to stop from going up. “Now isn’t the time for jokes.”

“I make terrible jokes when I’m anxious,” Joan said. “The prince will be here soon. Either way, they won’t take us by surprise again. But… you’re welcome to come with us when we go to find the Silver Beetle.”

Ifrit gave a sigh and glanced around. “It’ll be… safer… here? With those defenses?”

“Likely,” Joan said. “At least during the day. Night might be more dangerous, but once the prince gets here, well…”

“I’ll stay here,” Ifrit said softly. “But… ummm… Francis. If you’d like to--”

“I’m not leaving your side again,” Francis said, before reaching out and taking her hand. “I thought--”

“And I’ve seen this talk enough times to know it’s time for me to go back to bed,” Joan said before getting to her feet and quickly making her way out of the room, her cheeks burning.

“Joan?” Chase asked, following after her. He quickly caught up, gazing down at her. “What was that?”

“What?”

“Running off like that,” Chase asked.

“Oh, I just don’t want to watch them make those eyes at each other,” Joan said, rolling her eyes. “It’s already kind of awkward on account of him not trying to stab me this time.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Chase said.

“I think you’re too kind,” Joan said. “And yes, I say that knowing you kind of embody the god of kindness so knock that smile off your mouth.”

Chase just chuckled and shook his head before reaching out and patting her on the head. “Are you scared?”

“Only a little,” Joan said. “But we’ll figure this out. We always do. Just…”

“Yes?”

“I miss everyone,” Joan said softly. “You’re here and I like that. But… I always had Bauteut and usually I had Searle and Korgron and… I miss everyone I knew. It feels… weird.”

“Believe it or not, that I understand,” Chase said before giving her another head pat. “Its been a while since you’ve seen everyone, huh?”

“Yeah,” Joan said softly. “It’s just…”

“Saving the world is a lot funner when it’s a group activity?” Chase asked.

“It’s not saving the world,” Joan said with a snicker. “And you’re my friend too, you know.”

“I know,” Chase said. “But you’re an explosive kid, Joan. I’m not really surprised you want to have explosive people around you.”

“I don’t explode that often,” Joan said quickly.

“We literally met in a city that was being destroyed by Korgron’s elemental and--”

“Okay, fine, I explode all the time,” Joan said before flashing what she hoped was a confident smile. “I like to leave an impression.”

“That you certainly do,” Chase said with a light chuckle before patting her head one last time.

MelodyAvant

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