Amethyst awoke to the gentle jostling of the wagon, letting out a long groan as she groggily sat up. She could hear the soft whispers of conversation accompanied with the clopping of hooves as she slowly started to prepare for the day ahead. She grumbled as she put on the leather armor her mother had insisted she wear while traveling, the straps that held it in place giving her some difficulty due to her small frame. She looked at the leather helmet that she was given as she recalled the day before… It was hot… but apparently Hecatolite had a strange infatuation with head protection, or that’s what her mother said when she taught the young girl how to wear it. She begrudgingly put the helmet on.

She let out another sigh as she opened a large chest in the back of the covered wagon removing the enchanted longsword; she took extra care not to touch the mage bane cane or sets of mage bane bands that lay next to it in the chest. She had mistakenly grabbed the cane on the first day and spent the next several hours attempting to regain feeling in her fingers. Alexa had teased her about her lack of mana control before offering to teach her how to pull mana from her hand to keep the mage bane from pulling it out on contact. The guards that traveled with them, however, took a much simpler approach and gave the girl a pair of gloves to use; apparently if the strange stone-like metal did not contact your skin it wouldn’t have such a drastic effect on your mana. 

She took great care to hook the sword to her waist, Hecatolite apparently did not consider such things as size when she picked a sword that was nearly as long as she was tall. But she had enchanted it to the point of nearly being a national treasure, one step below a relic. Though it made walking through doors a little awkward for the young woman, she was forced to wear it strapped to her hip in such a way that she could remove the sword and scabbard in one motion as her arms were too short to pull the sword from its sheath if it remained attached to her armor.

Nearly half an hour later she emerged onto the driver’s platform of the cart and sat beside the acting guard captain who was currently driving.

“Look who’s finally awake.” The woman said as Amethyst sat. 

“Sorry.” She said with a yawn, “mom insisted on sword training before bed. What time is it?”

“Just a few hours past sun-up.” The guard said signaling to one of the guards to the left. “Lady Taaffeite and Lady Alexandrite have ridden ahead to scout the road.”

The guard nodded as he spurred his horse who began to slowly pull ahead. “We… Were there any problems?” She asked in an uncertain tone. 

“No ma’am,” the woman replied with a nod, “there used to be a bandit problem in the area but they seem to have all cleared out.”

“Or they don’t want to risk attacking an armed caravan with a noble crest on it.” One of the other guards laughed, gaining a glare from the woman who was driving the cart. “Sorry ma’am, no problems.” He quickly corrected himself and saluted. 

Amethyst did not like this stiff atmosphere, but her mother insisted that she remained “professional” with the guards. At first, she did not know what her mother meant but after three days on the road she quickly found out that she was expected to get reports from them whenever possible.

“The other carriage?” She leaned over the side to look back at the carriage that followed behind them. The wagon she was currently on was a simple covered wagon that they “borrowed” from the city guard along with the 15 guards that had been used during the night raid nearly 2 weeks ago, the coach behind however, was the family’s personal carriage. It was truly a wondrous sight, a large dark oak carriage with covered windows, from each of the four corners hung the coveted Lapidary ever-bright lanterns. Both sides of the carriage had their family’s crest masterfully carved into the dark wooden doors, the carvings themselves glowing with enchantments as they shifted through a spectrum of colors. She sighed internally as she watched the wagon behind them, unlike their wagon that was constantly jostling about, her family’s coach didn’t even sway as it followed them up the road, the guard who was driving it waving happily as his company glared at him. It has everything: stabilization, temperature enchantments, I think it even has a water stone for fresh drinking water! She lamented as she took a drink from a water skin.

“Nothing to report, your maid and the prisoner have been quiet since we departed this morning.” The woman beside her said.

“Being tried for treason and he gets to ride in luxury…” the guardsman started but quickly stopped himself as the captain shot him another glare.

“Sounds like we have a volunteer for night watch again.” The captain said as the man slowed his pace with a sigh.

“He’s welcome to climb into the wagon if he wants,” Alexa’s voice cut through the air as her and Taaffeite rode up the road causing the procession to come to a halt. “I doubt it will be comfortable though, mom filled it with so many supplies that we had a hard time fitting the… my sister's lady in waiting, in it comfortably.” Alexa shifted uncomfortably in her saddle; the guards' armor her parents demanded she wear was much less comfortable than Amethyst's own leather armor. Amethyst was for once thankful for her small body as fitting her in anything heavier than leather had proven to be impossible without waiting for a custom set of armor to be made.

Everyone present knew who was in that cart, yet none dared speak of the demon woman who was now; after no small amount of convincing, keeping watch over Father Joshua.  

Taaffeite had stated that it would be foolish for the three of them to announce their positions in such a manner. Instead, they filled the cart with all their provisions along with the captured priest and succubus. The world screen she intended to gift the queen was strapped to the top of the wagon as there was no way to fit it in after the cart had been filled. The succubus had suggested removing the priest’s limbs to make the room, thankfully her parents had refused such an idea.

Taaffeite rode next to the stopped wagon looking into the window, a Babylon terminal appearing beside her for a moment before vanishing. Oh, yea she can’t speak Solersol… Was… was I supposed to give her my terminal today? Amethyst thought as her mother rode up next to the lead wagon.

 “Anything to report?” she asked, looking at Amethyst who was quickly shaking her head attempting to wake up fully.

“Nothing to report.” Amethyst quickly blurted while fumbling a salute causing Taaffeite to grin at her daughter. The guard captain next to her stifled a laugh as she repeated Amethyst's statement.

She glanced at Alexa, “stop fidgeting, and put your helmet on.” Taaffeite and Alastair had demanded that both girls get accustomed to armor during this trip, saying that Alexa had grown too reliant on her own magic for simple protection as they had her fitted for a set of “mage” armor.

Her armor consisted of a heavy robe that was enchanted with protections against many different environmental conditions, and thick leather trousers. A breastplate was fitted over the robe that was attached to shoulder plates. She wore metal arm guards that stopped at her wrist so as to not impede her hand movements, as well as metal heavy metal boots that came to her knees to protect her shins. Though her armor also came with a metal open faced helmet, Alexa had apparently opted to not wear it as she circulated a small glob of ice around her neck to cool herself.

“Do I have to wear it? It's so damn hot with all this on, I don't see the point of all this armor. I'm an archmage, what's a few scraps of metal going to do...” Taaffeites glare cut Alexa’s complaints short.

“Do you remember the last person Hecatolite encountered without a helmet on? And look at all the nice stones along the road.” Taaffeite smirked, though she did not agree with Hecatolite’s actions she did agree that head protection was crucial to anyone who may find themselves in combat. Even more for a mage given the standard plan of attack was to remove their hands or halt their speech. She knew that neither action would stop Alexa from casting magic but a hard enough blow to the head would surely stun the archmage, even with three minds.

She turned to Amethyst as Alexa begrudgingly put her helmet on, “And speaking of Hecatolite? Still no word?” There was a long silence.

“Babylon.” Amethyst whispered as a cracked terminal appeared besides her.

“Good morning, Amethyst, you still have not designated a name for your terminal. Would you like to designate one now?” A cheerful female voice called as the terminal appeared.

“No.” she answered as she meekly looked at her mother. “Umm… is Hecatolite awake?”

“No, Hecatolite Lapidary has recovered all of her aether however has not regained consciousness.” It chimed, the screen turning a pleasant blue. 

“Can you not sound so happy about it?” Taaffeite interjected as she sighed.

“I am sorry Matriarch.” It replied as its voice shifted to the normal robotic female voice, the screen quickly turning its usual red. “No changes have been noted with Hecatolite’s current condition. She remains inert inside of the shared soul space.”

“It’s almost been two weeks,” Alexa said as she climbed from her horse, “do you think she needs… “coaxing” like Amethyst did?” She did not want to suggest her younger sister ran around kissing people until Hecatolite woke up, but she was starting to worry about her.

“It is possible that external stimuli could assist her in awakening, however Hecatolite is not being suppressed like Amethyst was in the past. Hecatolite is simply unconscious. It is just as possible that any attempt to wake her in such a manner would result in failure. Advise waiting until Hecatolite wakes on her own.”

“You said before she would wake up when she regained her power?” Amethyst retorted as Taaffeite rubbed her nose.

I hate to think it, but maybe if the succubus were to… no that will be a last resort. Taaffeite pondered as they spoke. She had been overjoyed to find that feeding the succubus did not require carnal relations as the church had preached. However, a transfer of body fluids was the fastest way for them to give power. The unnamed demon lord that now rode in her family’s carriage had informed them that she herself would likely not “need” to feed for quite a while after Hecatolite had given her so much aether, though she would not refuse more food if it was offered. 

As for the succubus herself she was… difficult. The woman had adamantly refused to be separated from Amethyst until her “Mistress” had awakened, they originally thought they would need to fight the woman however, after a very tense discussion through Babylon’s new translation function (that it was quite proud of) the woman had said she could feel her mistress's mark on each of them and as such, trusted them to not bring harm to her while she sleeps. During the week before they departed, she had followed Amethyst around doting on the girl to the point where the only course of action they could think of was to appoint her; reluctantly, as Amethyst's personal lady in waiting. She thankfully seemed to be quite proficient in disguise magic, being able to hide her own features though they had refused to allow her outside of the house. During the spare few moments while the demon was not following the young woman around, she had been seen attempting to… convert… the other maids to her newfound faith in Hecatolite. She has not had much luck in this endeavor given the language barrier but hopefully the former priest of Valor was holding up his end of the agreement during this journey and properly teaching her Solresol. This of course, was after the demon… convinced the man to abandon his former faith in place of hers.

The fact that she could easily inflict the same level of pain to him that he ordered on her in the past seemed to be the main bargaining chip in their “negotiations” on the day of their departure. (The negotiations in question were horrific threats of violence until Taaffeite had suggested to the priest to convert for his own safety. Even Alastair agreed that it was a fitting punishment for his actions). That, along with the fresh memory of having his soul dissected by Hecatolite, left the man with little choice in the matter. As such, the newly formed church of Hecatolite gained its first “priest”.

As for why they still refer to her as “succubus” that was also by the woman’s own choice. Babylon had told them that she believes she has been reborn and that her mistress will bestow her a new name when she awakes.

“I stated it was likely she would regain consciousness when she regained her power. However, there is no way to know when she will awaken.”

Babylon really had no idea when Hecatolite would regain consciousness or if she even would. Normally, if one were to completely drain their soul of all its power as she had, it would separate their soul from their physical body sending the soul for reincarnation while the body died. However, this is normally not a concern given one shouldn’t be able to drain their power to such a point, the souls own natural survival instinct would stop them when their power began to reach the critical state. That, combined with the pain of forcing that much energy through a physical body’s mana channels would deter anyone from trying such a foolish act. 

Yet Hecatolite not only managed to completely drain her aether, her soul showed no indication of stopping, refusing to stop fueling the spell even after she herself had lost consciousness. Luckily for Amethyst, she had also been unconscious given the state of her body after having Hecatolite’s entire aether pool forced through it, it was no small miracle that their body was still capable of utilizing magic at all. Though that was another oddity to the world system. The body itself should have been destroyed by such a power outburst, but aside from superficial damage to her arms the body was… fine? There were no faults in the body’s mana channels, even Amethyst's soul seemed to be unaffected by the truly alarming amount of aether that it was subjected to when it was forced back into control of the body. Mot… X47 may be a monster, but her sister is also an oddity. I wonder if prolonged exposure to X47 is affecting the girl in unknown ways. I should mark her for investigation once Mother Eryl has been restored, as well as summit request a protocol for stopping anyone else from attempting such a suicidal act in the future. 

The only true indication that Hecatolite had survived was the fact that Amethyst's soul space was still under the strange influence of Hecatolite’s soul. Meaning, she not only managed to drain herself completely but was even able to maintain her connection to the body. Babylon itself would have investigated this more if most of its power was not being used to repair the broken terminals, thankfully X47 has been unconscious for the past 11 days 7 hours 37 minutes and 15 seconds, if she were conscious at this time, I am sure she would take offense to the system having to utilize their soul space to repair the damages she caused. 

“She will wake up when she wakes up. I’m just happy to know she is still alive.” Taaffeite stated, looking pointedly at the terminal.

“Hecatolite Lapidary is still alive; I am certain of that.” The terminal quickly flashed.

“Good, now we should really get a move on.” She said waving her hand causing the terminal to disappear. “That is unless you all want to sleep in the carts again.” She said, spurring her horse.

There was a unanimous sound of agreement as the caravan lurched into motion. 

It’s no fair mom can dismiss everyone’s terminals. Amethyst thought as Alexa quickly changed places with the guard captain beside her on the coach seat. “So, where were we on mana manipulation?” Alexa asked as she flicked the reins.