Princess Henrietta smiles as she watches Louise cast the latest spell revealed to her by Brimir's Prayer Book. Truly, she was improving far faster than she'd anticipated and was far more powerful than even her Void heritage suggested.
Louise thrusts her wand forwards while chanting, "Implosion!!". This isn't the typical weak explosive Louise usually casts however. Now that she'd learnt how to properly control her magic to some degree, it allowed her many other avenues of attack...
A thin cloud of smoke manifests in front of her, and Louise flicks her wand, causing it to draw a line in the floor. Once it's a meter away from her, she flicks her wand again, causing it to turn and circle around... She has it move in a variety of ways before finally flicking her wand at the dummy at the end of the room, the smoke trail quickly heading for it and hitting its base.
*BOOOOM!*
A large, yet self-contained explosion sounds out. Completely blowing the dummy to smithereens. It doesn't create any shrapnel however as all the force is directed inwards, almost disintegrating the target with ease.
Louise smiles as she feels Henrietta's gaze on her neck, both of them knew that this attack had been as low powered as she could make it. They were in the basement of the palace where a training room had been set up, so she was forced to limit her spells to stop herself from bringing the entire palace down on their heads.
Despite this restriction however, Louise' Implosion spell just now was enough to instantly kill an Orc, or maybe even an Ogre if its skull was crushed. It was honestly less of an explosion spell and more of a Gravity spell, not that either of the girls could tell.
"D-did you see that Princess! Wait! I've learned one more!" Louise quickly says, levitating another target on top of the pile of splinters that composed the last one. "Null Zone!" she excitedly shouts as she jabs her wand at the target.
...
Yet nothing happens, causing Louise to blush in embarrassment. "Ah, perhaps I need more practice?" she mutters, and Henrietta's about to console her when another voice makes itself known.
"Hmph! Is this what you've been idling your time on, Princess? A pathetic failure with almost as much magic as a commoner?" a tall, muscular man states as walks towards them. He has short blonde hair, blue eyes, and handsome features that remind Louise of an older-looking Guiche.
"Sir Teitar... A pleasure." Henrietta drolls at her 'Fiance'. "I would remind you that Louise is a close friend of mine, and insulting her is an insult unto me." she states, crossing her arms.
Teitar laughs, "Is that so!? Then I'll hold my tongue, for now, I'll make sure to show you my grievances once we are wed, 'my love'." he sarcastically says, causing Henrietta's face to twitch in disgust. "I am not here just to mock your pet though, Princess. I come unfortunate news... Prince Wales has been captured, and is scheduled to be executed soon. My truest condolences." he says, obviously not meaning sympathetic in the slightest.
...
Henrietta struggles to keep her sadness from her face, and decides to direct her roiling emotions elsewhere. "And how, may I ask, did you hear of such a thing Teitar? I would think that such news would be difficult to acquire given the state of Albion." she states, her silent accusation obvious to all in the room.
He shrugs, "Perhaps the Gramont family has far more skilled spies than even your Majesty. Not that I am proclaiming ourselves superior to the Royal family, just that there are aspects in which even you lack." he says, speaking 'not-treason' incredibly fluently.
Henrietta shakes her head and waves him off, "Begone, Teitar. I've had enough of your company for one day." she states, waving him off and ignoring him as she turns to Louise. "Let us continue your practice."
Of course, Teitar leaves before Louise can cast any more spells, neither of the girls wanting anyone to see just how far Louise had progressed. She was Henrietta's trump card, so she couldn't be revealed too soon. "Come Louise, Albion will soon turn their attention to us, you must be stronger." she says, more commanding than anything else.
"Y-yes princess!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, at the Tristain Magic Acadamy, Tabitha, Kirche, and Montmorency were walking towards their next class when a raven swoops down and lands on the former's shoulder, a letter attached to its leg.
"A raven messenger? How dull." Kirche remarks as Tabitha pulls the letter off and begins reading it, her face twitching as she reads the first line.
"Dear Charlotte de Gallia." she silently reads, realizing that this wasn't your everyday letter... There were few who knew her true identity, and judging by the wax seal, it'd been sent by her Uncle, the current king of Gallia.
"Ah, private letter." she emotionlessly says before turning and walking towards her room atop the tower. The others can only watch with dumbfounded expressions as they'd never seen Tabitha react like that before, Kirche tries to accompany her, but is swiftly rejected by the expressionless bluenette.
Now in her room, Tabitha's usually emotionless face breaks into a frustrated frown as she reads the rest of the letter... Her uncle, the king, wanted her to leave the academy and hunt down the 'False-Familiar', the Familiar that Louise had summoned and which killed Guiche.
She knew she was far more powerful than the strange magic wielder, so she was more concerned with why, and where. The Familiar was apparently in Albion right now, a wartorn place where she'd likely be regarded as a spy and executed.
This didn't really surprise her though, as most of the missions her uncle sent her on were suicidal at best, his hopes to remove her from the line of succession always fell flat with each success though... This wouldn't be any different. Even if the thought of leaving behind her friends in the academy did upset her.
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Michael and Tiffania follow the cobbled road towards the massive city of Londinium that stood proud not far off in the distance. Michael hadn't actually seen much of this place, despite the weeks he spent here getting tortured... He'd only gotten a glimpse when he and Wardes left via Airship, and even then he was forced to stay inside his cabin most of the time.
Tiffania on the other hand had apparently lived in or next to the palace when she was still with her mother and father. Still, her situation wasn't much different from Michael's though as she was forced to hide due to her elven heritage.
The city itself was impressive, to Michael it was like a far larger, cleaner, more beautiful Windsor Castle, the huge white marble walls surrounded the many Tudor-style buildings within. Even from miles away, he could make out the large airship port, as well as the multitude of aqueducts providing clean water to the city.
"It's impressive, despite the people who live here." Michael mutters, getting a nod from Tiffania.
"My mother used to tell me that most of the city was built by Brimir's sons and their powerful magic." she says before looking upwards in thought, "I think you need to watch out for any magical defences."
Michael crooks a brow, "Just me? What, did you lose your nerve already, Tiffania?" he questions.
She shakes her head, "Ah, no. I just mean that any magic won't work on me... I'm technically royalty, so I think I'll be safe from most things." she sheepishly admits, feeling incredibly tense ever since she'd laid eyes on the city again.
Michael nods, that's helpful to know... They might be able to use this... Could he sneak Tiffania into the palace and simply have her wipe Cromwell's mind? Or maybe kill him in his sleep? The man probably wouldn't expect there to be any more royalty left after Prince Wales is executed. "Do you remember much of the city? The layout or anything?"
Again she shakes her head, not remembering anything concrete from her childhood aside from her mother's death. "I'm sorry..."
Michael's face twitches at the apology, wondering if she'd ever break that irritating habit of hers. Instead, he focus on the gate to the city that was coming up, obviously, the news of Prince Wales capture had been broadcasted all over Albion, so there was a mile-long line just to get into the city... Not only that, but at the gate, they were checking each and every person that enters.
This would be fine, if the guards weren't checking for wands, weapons, magical artifacts, identities, and probably much more. Michael was sure he and Tiffanai were known by now, especially him since he'd been rather publically enslaved by Cromwell and Sheffield.
No, this wouldn't be possible at all. Even if their identities were unknown, they'd be arrested as soon as they pulled Tiffania's hood down.
He grabs her hand and walks her out of the line, "Shit, I think I left my baby in the car!" he exclaims, making a show of leaving to not draw too much suspicion... Even if his acting was rather poor.
The duo get a good distance from the city and Michael begins pacing while deep in thought, "I highly doubt we'll be able to just climb the walls like we did in Cendri... Especially without being spotted.
"Ah..." Tiffania ers as she speaks up while pointing off in the distance, "Can't we try sneaking in through one of those?"
Michael turns and raises a brow as he spots the aqueducts... He wasn't actually sure if it was possible to sneak through one of those, but... It wouldn't hurt to check, right? "We can certainly try..."
Ten minutes later, the duo begins following the aqueduct to try and find an entrance inside of it... Michael was sure there'd be an entrance somewhere, as something like this would require occasional maintenance.
Unfortunately, while they do find a heavy metal gate leading inside, it seems to be occupied by a relatively large group of thuggish-looking men...
They each wore cloaks and looked somewhat unclean as if none of them had bathed in days. Each had a weapon of some sort attached to their hips or backs, and their stances made it obvious that they did not want to be spotted.
The largest man out of the group growls as he walks up to the heavy metal gate and tries to pull it open, only for a sudden spark to sprout from it and strike the man in the chest, knocking him to the floor as he shakes and shudders from the electricity.
"B-boss!" a couple of the men shout, attending to the downed man who was still trembling.
Michael glances at Tiffania, "Er, any thoughts on how to approach this? I'm leaning towards just scaring them away, or if that fails, getting rid of them."
Tiffania sends a meaningful pout his way, both knowing that they'd talked about his propensity towards needless death not a few days ago.
...
Michael lets out a sigh, "Fine, we'll talk to them. Then we'll fight." he says, getting up from his hidden position and slowly walking over, a hand raised in greeting, "Yo, you guys trying to get into the capital as well?"
The group all shift in surprise to his sudden appearance, hands-on weapons, but relax when they notice his relaxed and somewhat friendly stance.
The 'boss' gets up from the floor and rubs his face, "Maybe, it depends on who you represent." he states glances between a few of his men before locking eyes with Michael.
The man himself was older than Michael had first thought, with thin, balding blonde hair and light but messy stubble, and a firm jaw. The many scars decorating his face made it clear that he wasn't a stranger to conflict either, and Michael could sense he wasn't just a common bandit leader either judging by his mannerisms.
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