'Never leaving you ever again?'
The words hung in the air like a cloud.
"That seems a bit excessive, Mae." Syrce began, but then she saw her sister's puddling tears. "I suppose we can postpone the trip a couple of days, though. I know Lyra will understand. Until the crisis is solved, I don't think you should go. If the Empire is behind this, like you think, we will need all of our manpower to snuff them out."
"I will go set the watch. The person who caused all this will be dealt with." Maelys dipped her head.
"You mean the people, right, My Lady?" Helie dipped a small curtsy. "There were more than one."
Mae's eyes swept over the group around her. "Right you are, Lady Aurelia. I will make sure they all pay."
"My sister doesn't leave things half done," Syrce smiled at her sibling, causing Mae to beam with pride.
"Of course not. I have to clear my name! My honor depends on it." Brushing back her coral hair, Maelys stepped toward the door. "We should go and let Lady Bel recover her strength. I need to get to work right away, and I don't want anything to happen to you with these murderers about."
Syrce hesitated, but Noble waved her away. "Go. I will be fine. I am sorry for the trouble I caused."
"It's fine, Bel. Don't you fret. Feel better soon. I will see you at dinner?" The Saint offered.
"If that is your wish," Noble answered noncommitally.
The sisters exited the room, leaving four out of the five cohort members alone in the stone building. Roan waited five seconds after the door shut before activating a sphere of silence around them.
"So we are all in agreement? Lady Mae wants all of us dead?" Helie shivered. "Me and my big mouth. I think correcting her might have added fuel to her grudge."
"I agree that could have gone better," Aether wiped invisible sweat from his forehead.
"That look in her eye before she left was unmistakable." Roan continued to grip the hilt of his sword tightly. "I don't like it."
"You should have felt her emotions. She wants to murder me. There's no doubt about it. And for what? A little extra attention? The woman is a psychopath." Noble began to untie the second cord from her legs, releasing the griffin from the bond.
Helie sighed. "No offense. I don't think letting the psychopath know you were on to her was the best move, Bel. At least not without a case."
"Didn't you just get yourself added to her hit list by speaking up?" Noble smiled to show she was teasing.
Helie shrugged. "Fair point. Mistakes were made."
"Indeed, they were." The floating Master nodded."As to why I did it, I was a little out of sorts. I still am. But I did think I had a case. I had a witness who saw the people running, and I had the armor of the fugitives, or so I thought. If only I hadn't passed out, I would know what happened to both."
"It might have been better if you had one of them that we could interrogate in front of the commander," Aether added politely.
"Thank you, Aether…" Noble pinched the bridge of her nose. "That was my initial goal. I picked them up with my levitation, but they slipped through my grasp. It was like they weren't there anymore, even though I could see them. I have never seen anything like it."
"One of their Abilities?" Roan asked.
"No, they all seemed to possess it. That was how they managed to sneak up on me without detection. It's like they can become intangible. I think the mirror may have caused it." Noble felt everyone's heartbeats quicken as they processed her words.
"If that's the case, then all of Lady Mae's people have a hidden power that they haven't mentioned." Roan rubbed his forehead.
"Is that how you ended up unconscious? Was it due to their power?" Aether scratched his cheek.
"No, it was due to my own power…" Noble rubbed the back of her left shoulder as she climbed off the griffin's back.
"You knocked yourself out?" Helie raised one eyebrow. "How did you manage that?"
"I needed those assassins alive to avoid being accused of murder. So, when I couldn't stop them using any of my usual ways, I made an emotion bomb to incapacitate them." Noble smiled softly.
Aether leaned in slightly. "Did it work?"
Noble's smile grew.
"It did. They fell to their knees and begged for mercy."
"You are saying that you can become an emotional atomic bomb?" Roan's eyes grew wide.
"I wouldn't go that far. It was just against four people, not four hundred. Anyway, it turned out to be a terrible idea in the long run." Noble added quickly. "I couldn't keep them under my control long enough. When I pinned them down in their weakened state, they shed their armor and ran. The cowards…I was feeling too poorly from my sudden exhaustion and lost them."
"If they are as ethereal as you said, they would have escaped no matter what. Killing them was the only way to stop them, and that wasn't an option." Aether comforted her with a gentle nod.
"What matters is that you survived the attack. We will stick together until dinner and then regroup. Will you be feeling well enough by then to discuss new plans?" Roan asked the Noble.
"I'm already planning a thousand different ways to make sure the crazy sister leaves so we can finish this nightmare. No overzealous Saint is going to prevent me from finishing this conflict." Noble pushed back her hair defiantly.
"Good." The cohort leader nodded with approval. "Then let's all pick one task and work on it together until then."
The three other Masters spoke over one another, each suggesting what they thought would be the best use of their time.
Noble stood in silence, watching them before coughing lightly. The others quieted as they looked at her, confused.
"I'm not sure why we are arguing about it. If we all need to stay together, there is only one place that we can go: the palace keep." Seeing their lack of understanding, she continued. "Don't you think it would be right if we informed our overly polite friend of a possible threat to his life?"
"You mean Flint?" Hearing the surprise in his voice, Aether coughed. "I mean, of course, we should let him know. It is only right."
The rest nodded, feeling slightly guilty that they hadn't thought of suggesting it first.
"Let's apprise him of the situation, immediately." Roan dismissed the Memory of silence and adjusted his blue scarf. The group headed cautiously up the hillside, each preparing for an attack around every turn.
The fact that Noble couldn't anticipate the danger had put her on edge more than ever, and the other three surrounded her protectively as she healed.
The one good thing about seeing Flint was that he could give her some much-needed relief. Noble looked forward to alleviating some of her exhaustion from her outburst.
But her hopes were unfulfilled when she finally reached the room where Drusus was being held.
For when the cohort got there, Flint and Drusus were gone.