StarChaser: Another (18+)

An unknown Abandoned Temple near Ontala Fort:

“There they are! Get them! Get them all!”

Knights had burst into the chamber, sending some of the cultists to flee in panic. How did they know of this location? Who spilled their secrets? There was no time to dwell on this question for long for all of these hooded figures, some of them ran for their lives, others dove headalong into the wall of armored knights and mages, others took their lives in their own way, by the blade or by ingesting poison, and others with shaking hands and voices used their own spells to kill themselves.

One cultist was knocked to the ground, blades and charged staves pointing at him.

“What did you do!?” The Knight Captain Kevron demanded, pointing at the altar that was now flooded with light. The hooded man quietly laughed when he saw the look of shock in their faces. The spell had worked and now there was nothing anyone could do about it. 

“We’ve brought your doom!” The man shouted. He grabbed his medallion and detonated himself. Several knights threw themselves to shield Kevron from the blast. The explosion tore through their armor and their Mana shielding, the ambient Ether in the air angrily swirled around the men and setting them alight with the spectral flames of Mana Burn as the Ether turned their very life force into fuel.

Kevron pushed himself back to his feet, briefly glancing at the charring remains of his loyal men.

“To the altar!” he shouted. The small group of cultists guarding the steps to the altar were formidable mages, capable of holding back the advancing knights while protecting themselves from the supporting fire from the mages. Still, they were overwhelmed, putting so much of a fight that Kevron ordered them to not be taken alive. 

When the dust cleared, the surviving knights and mages staggered to the altar.

“We’re too late!” one of them said

“No…” one mage said, “I think we’ve stopped the ritual…” he paused, breathing heavily as he collapsed to his haunches, he pointed at the fading wisps of light. “...the summoning has failed.”

Lying on the altar was Lady Eliria of House Corven. Or was… she had been disowned by her family and had become a key figure in the Order of the Red Moon. A wanted figure, there were several allegations of her directly ordering the cult to kidnap various people and use them for vile experiments and other unsavory crimes to grow her cult’s power and influence. After her banishment from House Corven went by the pseudonym The Red Priest. For a while the Priest was an enigma, but the desire to spite the family that turned its back to her eventually uncovered her true identity.

Eliria was lying naked on the altar, unconscious, half of the reason could probably be the crystal shard impaled on her heart, and the other was from the strain of the summoning ritual. Despite the obvious injury, she was not bleeding, her chest rising and falling as she breathed evenly.

“Hey…” one of the more junior knights said, his face uncertain “how is this supposed to be a summoning ritual? Why do they need to sacrifice their leader? This makes no sense!”

Kevron looked at the man who spoke up “Summoning an otherworlder requires someone’s life to be taken. Forget everything you’ve heard from fairy tales, this is reality… this is why it’s something that cannot be done lightly.”

“If at all” Kevron’s lieutenant Caram added “There has been no otherworlder summoning for hundreds of years… it’s against the law. We should kill her now.”

The Knight Captain shook his head “Eliria must answer for her crimes, and there is no way she could have done this all by herself. If she was making herself the sacrifice there had to be someone in the cult who would guide her otherworlder champion towards their goals.”

Caram turned to his men ”Find the others! Take them alive when possible!” With a jerk of his head, a team of men came forward, clamping a Sealing Collar around Eliria’s neck to prevent her from making use of her Mana. Heavy manacles held her wrists together and the same for her ankles would prevent her from making any escape.

“What about that one?” One the knights pointed at the shard of crystal poking out between her breasts. 

“Leave it.” Caram said “we could end up killing her if we don’t extract it properly, save that for the Sages to work with."

One Hour Later, In a bedroom at Concirrica Palace:

"A message from the knights at Fort Ontala, my lady..." A maid said to the two girls making love in the moonlight. As always, she concealed her distaste at the sight of her mistress pretending to enjoy the ministrations of an inept subordinate of hers. That should have been me, she thought, but that was the curse of not only being a Lady's Maid but her mistress' own spymaster.

The blond-haired aristocrat untangled herself from her lover's embrace, pausing briefly to swipe back her hair from her face.

"Speak."

"They've recovered the Red Priest, the attempt to summon an otherworlder was halted. Other prisoners have been taken and are being interrogated. They're awaiting your instructions." The maid paused for a while, the unsaid implications hanging heavily in the air "...before your Lord Father makes his own orders."

Slowly, the blond princess got out of bed and took out from her writing desk a rolled letter. The maid read quickly and frowned, she looked up to her mistress and saw there was no room for argument. Reluctantly, the maid bowed and left.

"My apologies" the Princess purred, climbing back to bed "Shall we continue?"