Chapter 20: Asperity

The world was all dark and fuzzy, as if it was already nighttime and a thick fog had rolled in. Even the things that could be recognised didn't look familiar - that building was out of place, and there wasn't supposed to be an intersection here.

Her legs not wanting to co-operate, Melia stumbled around trying to keep her balance, trying to find a way out. She had the distinct feeling this was how the world looked to drunk people, though they could probably at least see colour.

After what felt like a few minutes of fumbling about, she finally fell over and couldn't get herself back up. Everything was spinning as well as fuzzy now. She couldn't remember what she was trying to do, but whatever it was certainly couldn't be done in this state. She figured she might as well try going to sleep.

Melia slowly woke up, groggy all over. Unable to recall what had just happened, she tried to get up from her sitting position, only to find that she was stuck somehow and couldn't do more than wiggle around.

After a few seconds of clumsily unsticking her eyes, she stared out through her mask to find she looked to be in a basement-level storage room. A pair of lights on the ceiling illuminated the place, revealing several boxes of various materials strewn about. Directly in front of her was the only door, currently closed, and next to a table on which sat several televisions and her Protect Staff. She was confused for a moment over how her staff had left her side - it was supposed to be impossible to forcibly remove it from her grasp. Considering the matter more, she reasoned that she probably had to be conscious for the bond to be active, a disappointing yet likely inevitable fact.

She made to try and grab her staff, but was still unable to move. Finally looking down at herself, she noted that she was sitting in quite a nice chair - mahogany, fancy armrests, comfortable red padding. The problem was that the full length of her forearms and shins were chained to the chair, in addition to a chain around her midsection, all secured with five comically large locks.

...well this is a fine quandary. Melia tried to hop the chair, but had zero success. She tried to look behind herself, but her mask destroyed her peripheral vision. She took a few deep breaths.

Okay. Remain calm, panicking will not help. What is the situation? I have been restrained in an unknown building for unknown purpose by that traitor of a guard. What could the purpose be? The immediate one that comes to mind is for ransom, to extort something out of Father. Father is no fool, he will not give in to anyone's demands that easily. He will demand proof that it is indeed me, and not some impostor, and even then delay for as long as he can. While he stalls, or perhaps even before then, Brother will certainly be searching for me. He has an uncanny sense for knowing where I am. I very much doubt that the traitor, or whoever paid him to do this, would risk injuring me as a threat, at least not to begin with. Therefore, I do not believe I am in much real danger as of this moment.

That being said, I should prepare for the worst. Let us assume that the next person to come in here intends to injure me for no reason. If I can take command of my staff, I should be able to hold him off, if not incapacitate him entirely, even if I remain unable to move.

Melia opened her right hand and started willing her staff to come towards her. She wasn't really sure if she expected it to work - she'd never tried similar before, and she was only told that it couldn't leave her possession against her will, nothing about being able to summon it into her possession. But it was most certainly worth an attempt.

Initially, there was no result. But after half a minute of intense concentration, the staff began to stir, inching across the surface of the table in tiny increments.

If I can manipulate it at this range, it can only become easier as it gets closer.

Continuing to focus, she kept mentally pulling her staff closer and closer. Eventually, it fell off the table with a loud clatter, and just like she intuited, its movements became smoother and quicker at it approached. Upon getting close enough to bump her foot, it left the ground and soared up into her open hand.

Got it. Melia grasped her staff and immediately summoned a bolt, before deciding to prepare further and summon two more.

I may be armed, but I am still a defenceless target. It would not be wise to simply attack the first person to come in here, but instead to bide my time, and only attack once I see an opening. To that end, I need to hide both my staff and my elementals.

It was easy enough to direct the three bolts to hide near the lights, their purple glow drowned out by the bright whiteness. Hiding her staff was a tougher challenge, but not too difficult. Letting go of it and keeping a constant focus, she directed it to crawl up her arm and behind her back, before compacting it and dropping it between her back and the chair's back.

There. Hidden from view, yet still in contact with my body. I wonder if I can summon something if it's against my back rather than in my hands...this is not the best time to try it.

Now, what next? There's nothing more I can do to prepare except plan. My immediate objective is to free myself. To do that, I need to get ahold of the keys. It stands to reason that I should avoid launching my offensive until I can identify the jailkeeper, unless something of more urgent need occurs, in order to avoid tipping off that I am capable of retaliation. It matters less if I can eliminate anyone who comes in without them raising any alarms, but even then, eventually someone will wise up.

Perhaps I can mentally probe the immediate surroundings to get a feel for the area. Melia started trying to sense nearby sentient ether signatures. It quickly became apparent that the surrounding rooms were almost vacant, with just two people that she could sense. As she continued to blindly scan about, she deduced that she was in the second basement floor, with the ground level floor and above being reasonably populated. But just as she came to this determination, she felt a small group of people split off from the bustle and begin descending, quickly becoming level with her.

That feels like...a group of...two or three? Three. Men. With intent to...intent to do...do...something. She regretted not bothering to spend much time honing her ethersense, and decided to start putting some effort into it once she got out of this situation.

Melia's thought process was interrupted by a loud click, followed by the door swinging open and three large men walking in, each wearing rather crisp suits. It did not take long for her to recognise them: Brent, Dev, and Charles, the three bullies she met several years ago.

So, those mindless goons have gotten a job with whatever immoral scum has captured me? I can't say I'm too surprised. It's not like they have the talent or smarts to get employed anywhere respectable. Though they are rather sharply dressed, which indicates this is a highly monetised and organised criminal operation.

"Well?" Charles bent to his knees and tried staring into the blackness of Melia's mask. "You awake yet, princess?"

Melia didn't move. No, not at all. Please continue to run your mouth and spill some useful information.

"Eh who cares." Brent had some sort of camera attached to his right shoulder, which was autonomously turning to follow his gaze. "Don't need her to be. Let's get on with it."

Charles turned on the televisions on the table and set each of them to a different channel while Dev stood in front of the clearest wall, some papers in his hands. Brent positioned himself in front of Dev so that the camera had his top half in view.

It looks like they're about to record a ransom video. Should I comply with anything they tell me to do, or inconvenience them as much as possible?

Brent pressed what was presumably the "record" button on the camera. The televisions on the table started losing reception, and before long, they all started displaying Dev's smug face.

Oh I see, they've hacked into the broadcasting system and are presenting it live to the entire city. That would require some major wrangling; this has to be an elite-level illegal corporation or such.

"Good afternoon, people of Alcamoth," Dev's oily voice began. "I'm so sorry to interrupt whatever you were just watching, but you see, we needed to find some way of contacting the Emperor, while at the same time informing everyone about what has just transpired." He held out his arm towards Melia, directing Brent to turn the camera towards her. "You see, the Diamonts Syndicate is holding your princess for ransom."

So it's Diamonts, the biggest protection racket in the city. That means this building, whatever and wherever it is, is probably their headquarters.

"Now, I don't plan on holding you from your regularly scheduled programming for too much longer, citizens. I just need enough time to go over exactly what we want, and what will happen if we don't get it." Dev flipped to the second page of his script and edged back into the camera's view, which was now squarely on Melia. "Our demands are quite simple, and are as follows: One hundred million G in cold hard cash, a heavy cargo ship, and the palace's entire stock of fire ether crystals. You know how to contact us."

Melia had a pretty good idea what the syndicate was planning: mass production of Truth Cloak gems, a rare type of fire gem that allows the user to effectively disguise themselves. For obvious reasons, they were heavily regulated by the authorities, and it would be incredibly damaging for a mafia to be in control of a large supply of them.

"You have one hour to comply with our demands. Failure to do so will result in your little princess...undergoing a host of unpleasant experiences, shall we say." Dev let out a sinister chuckle. "If we hear nothing after an hour, we'll begin to pluck out her feathers, one by one. If we run out of feathers, we'll move to dripping a constant stream of ice-cold water on her head. Should that not elicit a sufficient reaction out of you, after two hours, we'll be force-feeding her some of our special oatmeal, which won't take long to upset her systems and produce a truly embarrassing mess. Lastly, if you don't respond in three hours, we'll also start heating up the chains she's got around her limbs. We have plenty more on the list, but I think that's enough to start with."

So, I have one hour to get out of this predicament, or to wait for rescue. When put like that it honestly doesn't seem that hard, but there's most certainly going to be some trap in the way.

"And finally, I know what you're thinking right now, your Emperorship. You're saying that we have an impostor here, that the real princess is off hiding in the palace somewhere. Well, I think we both know the quickest way to prove we've got the real deal here."

Uh-oh. He's going to remove my mask. Melia quickly started considering whether taking out these goons now and possibly alerting the rest of the syndicate would be worth keeping her anonymity. She once again considered how she kept neglecting to remind herself of how bad the consequences would be.

Luckily, the decision was made pretty easily. As Dev approached her, she could see a keyring sitting in his coat pocket.

"Well, princess," he said softly so it wouldn't be caught on the camera, "looks like your last big secret is toast."

She couldn't help herself from smirking. "As usual, you couldn't be any more wrong," she whispered.

"...what?"

The three bolts soared out of hiding and struck the goons in the back of their heads, knocking them out instantly. The camera on Brent's shoulder fell off and was now staring up at the featureless ceiling.

That was the easy part. The higher-ups may not know what just happened, but it probably won't take them long to figure it out.

Moving her staff back into her hand, Melia summoned a wind and got to work on using it to pull the keys out of Dev's coat. It took a bit; she was used to moving loose objects through the air, not pull a whole keychain out of someone's pocket. After about thirty seconds, she had the keys in the elemental vortex.

The hardest part came next, as she slowly and carefully tried to manipulate the elemental to get the correct key into her left arm's lock. It was a much finer process than she had ever attempted before, and it took several failed attempts at getting the key into the lock, followed by discovering the key was incorrect and having to start over three times. But eventually, after two minutes, she found success.

"Ha!" She ripped her arm off the chair, sending the chain flying across the room. It took no more than twenty seconds after that to free the rest of herself.

An approaching commotion could be heard in the hallway outside.

I have no time to leave this room. I must hide and hope they decide I have already escaped into the building proper. She located an empty box and dove into it.

The commotion grew quiet as it reached the door. Melia couldn't see what was going on, but could sense that a group had arrived and were surveying the scene.

"Secure the building," a voice said. "No one is getting out of here."

A mass of receding footsteps suggested that everyone had left. Melia waited a few seconds before poking her head out of the box.

"Hey!" Apparently not everyone had left; one person had stayed behind and was about to do something with the idle camera, but noticed Melia's movement.

Drat. Melia fired a bolt at the man, but the damage was done; it wouldn't be long before someone in the building who was watching the broadcast could report her discovery down to the minions chasing her. Looks like I'll have to fight my way out of here. She hopped out of the box and prepared to leave the room.

Before she reached the door, an idea popped into her head. If I were to take this camera along with me, I may be able to broadcast glimpses of the area outside the building through windows and such, even if I ultimately fail to escape, which should expedite any rescue missions. The downside will be giving away my position to the goons, but at this juncture I don't think that matters. They all deserve what's coming to them.

Melia looked down at the camera, then back up at her image being broadcast across all channels, before bending down to pick it up and talking straight into it.

"It is true. I am the real Melia Antiqua. And in the grand scheme of things, I think that's the last thing this hive of villainy wants to hear, because anyone who tries to oppose me in my escape from their grasp will be swiftly eliminated." She placed the camera on her right shoulder, where it automatically began following her gaze. Ten years ago, I'd be scared out of my wits in this situation, cowering in that chair waiting and pleading for help to arrive. Not today. Today, I'm making my own rescue, and if they know what's good for them they'll let me be.

Melia walked out into the hallway and turned to the left, planning to find the stairs and climb up to ground level. A few stragglers were present, but they all ran away.

They are all scrambling upstairs to mount a defence, perhaps knowing that I can detonate a flare and fill these narrow halls with fire. There must be a more open area ahead.

After considering her strategy, she followed the minions' path up the stairs at the end of the hallway. The stairs ended two flights up, with nothing but a nondescript door at the top.

This must be the ground floor. Assuming they are following what this camera can see, they know I have arrived - which works out quite well in my favour, as it will make their timing all the more predictable.

Hesitating for a few seconds, Melia leapt through the door and protected herself with Reflection. Several dozen gunshots went off, with many streaks of ether drawing the various bullets' trails across the expansive, open-plan lobby of the building - tracing them directly back to the thirty men who fired them, incapacitating the entire force that had been stationed there.

I hate to reveal another art that I know, but it's hard to say there could ever be a better situation to save it for.

She looked towards the main entrance, but it was clearly unavailable, a large metal shutter having closed in front of it. She started thinking of what to do next when a voice started speaking over a public address system.

"Well, well, well. I see our guest was a bit unsatisfied with our accommodations." The voice instantly conveyed the image of a mob boss: simultaneously sneering and respectful.

Just what I needed, an auditory distraction.

"I'm impressed you managed to escape your solitary confinement and survive the lobby surprise. So how's about I cut you a deal. If you can reach me on the fifteenth floor, fighting through my men every step of the way, I'll open up the main entrance for you."

Melia looked back at the entrance. The shutter was solid steel and appeared to be at least five centimetres thick; there was no way she was getting through it. All of the windows had been similarly blocked off by the internal security system; their shutters weren't as thick, but she'd have to bust through the glass as well, which was probably reinforced by itself. The elevator transporters were disabled - the stairs were really her only option.

I'm not going back into the basement to try and disable the security system myself; by the time I do so, there will be another ambush set up in here, which will be more prepared and far harder to get through.

Pausing to think for a moment, she decided to reply, speaking into the void knowing that the camera on her shoulder would relay it to the boss. "Why should I trust you?"

A chuckling came from the speakers."You are a smart one, aren't you? Yes, of course you would doubt my truthfulness, and nothing I could say would sway your mind. So have some further knowledge of the situation. In sixty seconds, the foyer will be flooded with knockout gas, so if you don't try and make your way up here, you won't be escaping quite so easily as before. On the other hand, if you do accept my challenge, don't expect my men to be too interested in ensuring you survive their efforts to subdue you. Your death would be a very real possibility - and quite a shame, too. So, what's it to be? Accept defeat, or risk your life?"

Whether he keeps his word or not, I'll still have to get up there and defeat him to access the security controls. And win or lose, I'll still be dealing a major blow to this organisation, if I can destroy some choice rooms along the way.

"I accept your challenge."

A sinister laugh. "Very good. I await to see how far you can advance before your endurance wanes."

Melia was already on her way towards the stairs that lead upwards. She planned to climb as high as possible up one column before needing to cross through the floor proper, but the goons had already done their work; she could see as she looked upwards that every other flight of stairs had been cut down, forcing her to traverse across the entire length of the building for every one of the fifteen floors.

That may be just as well. More time spent running around this building means more time for the authorities to recognise it through this camera, and more time for me to sabotage it.

She climbed up to the first floor and stepped out into the hall with more confidence than she actually felt. Only five minions were visible, none of them armed, but all with more than their fair share of muscles. A single flare set most of them ablaze, and from there it did not take long to pelt them with bolts until they stopped moving.

I sense the kingpin is amusing himself by sorting his underlings by fighting style, perhaps also using this as an opportunity to dispose of the ones he is most displeased with.

She moved down the now-clear hallway, glancing into the few doors that were open along the way. She hadn't seen a single window yet, and suspected all the windowed rooms were locked. She did however find a room filled with paperwork, and gladly tossed a wind inside to shred it all to pieces.

From there, events fell into a pattern. Melia would climb to the next floor and easily dispose of the goons stationed there, followed by crossing through the hallway without resistance and messing up the occasional open room. The first few floors were a cakewalk: dummies with nothing but their fists, followed by some armed with knives and daggers. Floor 6 was the first potential stumbling block, housing someone with a full-sized sword, but since Melia was still at a distance he was just as easy to take down. Floor 8 also held a quirk in that everyone was cowering behind shields, which she had to remove by using winds to blow them out of their grasp.

The challenge mostly became tougher just in terms of numbers, with the kingpin sending more goons per floor after her, but this was no real issue at all. One particularly full corridor was dealt with by using Burst End, which reflected around the tight confines and set everyone's eardrums ringing, making it quite easy to just slip through and skip attacking anyone. Despite expecting to see brutes armed with ether firearms at some point, none ever appeared; maybe all of them were dispatched on the ground floor earlier.

Only upon reaching floor 14 did Melia meet an enemy that could possibly pose a realistic threat: an ethermaster, prepared with a flare and a bolt. But even then, she had the upper hand: her Reflection deflected his bolt with little issue, while her own bolt blasted straight through his defences to knock him down.

"But...but that's impossible!" he groaned.

Melia scoffed as she dashed over to kick him in the face to stop him from retaliating. She could have responded with some clever quip, but didn't want to waste her time when the last floor was just ahead. She was surprised overall at how flimsy the opposition was - only the biggest and baddest of the foes could take more than two elementals to the head without being knocked out. Sure, they were all unexpectedly pressed into action and wearing no protection, but weren't they still supposed to be tough guy mafia enforcers? Maybe she was grossly underestimating her own offensive abilities. Or maybe most of the underlings in the building today were just paperwork guys.

The fifteenth floor was empty, with a single door. It felt like a trap. Melia very cautiously stepped forward and flung the door open.

It was the don's office. The man himself sat behind a desk, tall and average-width, long and thinning hair tied into a ponytail, probably somewhere around two hundred and sixty years old, wearing a jet-black suit. Dozens of decorations and trinkets littered the desk and various shelves. A television hung from the back wall, relaying the image from the camera still perched on Melia's shoulder.

The kingpin shook his head. "Now, princess, where are your manners? Have you not learned to knock before entry?"

Melia wasted no time. "Will you keep your word, or will I kill you on the spot?" She didn't agree with her own language - she was pretty sure she had only been knocking people out this whole time, not actually killing them - but knew she had to be forceful.

"Quite the firebrand, aren't we?" He let out an exaggerated sigh. "Yes, very well, I will do what I promised." Moving slowly and deliberately, he stood up and moved to a framed painting on the left wall. He swung it open to reveal a control panel and brought the lever labelled "Lockdown" from the lower to the upper position. "There. Off you go."

Melia could sense something was amiss. He's not resisting at all. This is too easy. He'd never let me get away scot-free just because I bested a challenge that involved taking out many of his subordinates. Some sort of trap is in store. She stood her ground, postured as if expecting something else.

The mobster sauntered back into his chair. "Well? I've disabled the lockout and opened up the lobby entrance. You may leave at any time. What more could you want from me?"

"You know very well there is something else preventing me from leaving."

"Quite right. But it is not my doing. I cannot control it." He sneered. "What do you think the natural result would be of setting off multiple fire-based arts indoors? If you guessed "burn down the building with everyone in it, in a remarkable display of short-sightedness", you would be correct. As we speak, the bottom floors are burning to a husk, eroding the very foundation of the upper floors. You can go ahead and try to leave, but good luck running through several levels of inferno before everything collapses on top of you."

Melia nodded thoughtfully, hiding her panic with calmness. "Yes, indeed. That would be a rather difficult obstacle to overcome. Of course, you find yourself in the very same position, and taking down this building will be a significant setback to your organisation, so I'm quite all right with it."

"Me?" The kingpin snorted. "I can just leap out the window and glide down to safety. I'd like to see you try that!"

"Mmm." An idea struck. She slowly reached into her collar, extracted her travel pouch, and started rummaging around in it, apparently looking for something.

"What d'you got in there, then? A parachute? Some sort of magical grappling hook?"

"Oh, nothing." She put it away. "Just checking to see if I had any damns to give." She was very uncomfortable with using even the mildest profanity, but couldn't think of any better word to insert into the phrase.

The mobster snarled. "You've got a lot of nerve for a dead princess. Do you think your dear old father will be okay with you trading your life just to inconvenience us?"

Melia kept up the unafraid attitude, which was becoming easier to believe in by the moment. "Oh, I'm not at all interested in dying today. I'd miss the start-of-autumn feast next weekend. That would be tragic."

The floor jolted a tiny bit, as if the building had lost a minor support and had settled into a different posture. The smell of smoke started to well up from the corridor as well as outside. The television on the back wall cut out, now showing nothing but static.

"Well, it looks like I'll be off then." Melia casually walked over to the window and opened it. The sound of distant fire-suppression craft instantly blared through. "Oh yes, you can have this back. I won't be needing it any longer. It seems to have exhausted its usefulness, anyway." She removed the camera from her shoulder and placed it on the desk.

"And how, pray tell, do you think you'll survive that fifteen-storey drop?" scoffed the kingpin.

"Fifteen? No, I don't think I'll be doing that. About half a storey should suffice." With that, she hopped out the window.

And landed squarely on the Illustrious Alighting, summoned from the palace with her remote, hovering just under the window. She retrieved the remote again and pressed the "return" button. The craft spun towards the palace and began to move.

There was an anguished scream. The mob boss was about to launch himself out the window, attempting to leap onto the ship before it could leave.

"Have a nice fall." Melia fired a bolt at the kingpin's left wing, blasting off all its feathers and staggering him enough that he couldn't make the jump. With only half the necessary lift to glide safely, he plummeted to the ground as the building collapsed behind him. Now that she was outside, she recognised the place. It was an essentially nondescript office building placed in a loose-knit commercial zone; its collapse would not cause notable damage to any of the surrounding structures.

That went well. She settled into the passenger chair as the ship accelerated to cruising speed. Diamonts is going to have their work cut out recovering from that.

As the adrenaline faded during the trip back to the palace, Melia's thoughts turned from reliving the action to considering the consequences. Levos the traitor would have to be disposed of immediately, if he were ever to show his face again. There would certainly be an inquiry as to what exactly his timeline and motivations were, and she saw a very real possibility that this would lead to the end of her being allowed outside the palace for the foreseeable future; either that or restricted to being escorted by only the most trustworthy guards. She should have been doing in that in the first place to be honest, there was absolutely no reason to allow inexperienced guards to travel alongside her. The real question to her was how exactly the sleep-inflicting food was produced; was it the restaurant or a single employee? Probably the one person who Levos said was a friend that worked there, but if the entire establishment was under control of the mafia, then it could be anyone.

I don't feel like thinking about this right now. I want to get back the palace immediately. Melia stood up and walked to the display console at the front of her craft. She quickly scanned the touchscreen to find a control for "Auto-Piloting Speed", proceeding to drag it to its maximum. The city immediately vanished as the Illustrious Alighting pulled into its designated spot in the palace hangar within seconds.

To her surprise, the hangar was empty, with no one awaiting her return. It took her a moment to realise that this made complete sense; the broadcast had cut out before her escape from the top floor, so of course no one was expecting her arrival. She figured she might as well head to the Audience Chamber, where the royal family certainly was.

The palace was deserted. Every hall she traversed and every room she saw was completely void of people. It was spooky, but the explanation was pretty obvious: all the guards were probably called in to support the rescue mission, and everyone else was likely huddled in rooms with televisions watching the spectacle unfold. Still, with nothing more to watch, shouldn't there be at least a few people starting to filter out and around?

It seems that my imminent appearance will be a surprise to all. I expect relief to be the primary reaction, followed by interrogation and subsequently scolding. She reached the Audience Chamber's front entrance.

The chamber was like a war room. What looked to be the entire elite corps was present on the left side, formed up and waiting for orders. The right side was replete with the brass of law enforcement, in discussion with Kallian, Captain Denzel, and the squadron heads. In the centre of the aisle sat a hastily-concocted cluster of four televisions assembled in a square, all showing the same pattern of static. Sorean was pacing nervously across the back of the room, while Yumea was seated in a satellite throne, their expressions indeterminate at a distance. Dozens of other people were present for no immediately-recognisable reason. There was too much chatter to understand anything.

Melia expected that some random guard would be the first to notice her, proceeding to raise a bunch of confusion by voicing so, and that it might take a few minutes if she didn't do something to draw attention first. But pretty much the instant she had the thought, the more predictable happened.

"MELIA!" Kallian's voice shot up in pitch from the Doppler effect as he blasted through the crowd, obliterating an unoccupied chair in his path. He came to a stop with his hands on her shoulders, as if testing to see if she was indeed real.

Oh brother. With the combination of her headdress, mask, and Kallian's body, her view was now pretty much fully obstructed. But given the sudden silence, she could sense that everyone in the room had turned their way. Could you maybe have not done that in such an embarrassing way? She didn't get the chance to figure out how that could have been done before he interrupted her again.

"Melia, you are a flame amongst embers, a paragon of justice in a field of darkness. Do not undersell yourself or your feats, as they will be remembered in history forever."

Sorean arrived from the other end of the hall. The look on his face was an odd combination of strained and relieved; he almost looked like was desperate to hug her, but was forbidden to do so. He also seemed to be at a loss for words, given that he didn't say anything after a few seconds.

After a few moments of eerie silence, the police chiefs began receiving something in their earpieces.

"Beg pardon, Your Majesty," the Commissioner said, "but reports are coming in of a collapsed office building in the Sellior District."

Melia decided to interject. "That's it, that's the building I have returned from."

The Commissioner nodded and motioned for the rest of the cops to come along; it didn't take long for all of them to hustle away. Everyone else in the room started effusing away, making a point to give Melia their admiration and congratulations as they passed. After a few minutes, only the on-duty guards remained.

Now with enough time to think, Captain Denzel spoke to Melia. "Levos has made himself scarce; we are already on the hunt. You need not concern yourself with him any longer."

Now with headdress removed, Melia couldn't help asking the unpleasant question. "How many more traitors do you think are within our ranks?"

To her surprise, Denzel chuckled. "Lady Melia, after today's demonstration of your abilities, I don't believe you will have any further trouble with traitors." He motioned to Sorean and left.

Confused, Melia turned to Kallian. "What's that supposed to mean? Why would my ether skills have anything to do with-"

Kallian held up his hand. "Tell me, sister, do you believe it better to be respected, or to be feared?"

"...er..." It was a really weird question that didn't seem to have much relevance, but she figured she might as well indulge; philosophical discussion could be a coping mechanism for the day's events or something. "...They are both sentiments that must be continuously renewed for best effect. Fear is easier to earn and quite immediately effective, but respect is much more lasting - yet one cannot use fear as a holdover before respect is gained. In that sense, if the goal is to have one or the other for all people, it makes the most sense to attempt respect first, and resort to fear if necessary."

"Exactly. And that is why your success at today's unexpected trial is so complete. It has taken you many years to develop the respect of the people. But our enemies were not so impressed. They continued to doggedly pursue you, assuming you were easy prey, that you were all facade and no substance, that you were nothing without your protectors. Today, that perception has been destroyed - you are indeed capable of defending yourself, to a degree that has never been seen before. Almost certainly, they now fear you, fear what they did not know you were capable of." He paused for a moment, presumably for dramatic effect, but after a few seconds he turned sheepish. "I was going somewhere with that, but I lost my train of thought. No matter. My point is simple - what you demonstrated during your escape from today's hopeless situation will ensure that no one will be coming after you for quite some time. Go ahead and enjoy life for a while."

Kallian turned towards the back of the chamber, presumably to step into the back room and continue whatever paperwork he was doing earlier.

Sorean finally figured out something to say. "Every word of Kallian's is true, Melia. Your deeds today shall precede you for the rest of your life, striking fear into whatever opponents you may face, be they in battle or in politics. I have no reason to modify your privileges as a result of this incident; there is no need to enact additional measures to protect you when you have so clearly demonstrated you do not need them. In fact, I grant you two weeks of vacation from imperial duties, should you require any physical or mental recovery from today's events. Savour it."

He stood still for a moment, clearly still grappling with the compulsion to break the imperial code and hug his daughter. After a few moments, he resignedly shuffled back to his throne at the other end of the hall, waiting for the inevitable report.

Rather overwhelmed with all the words that had just been dumped on her, Melia glanced over towards Yumea. She didn't seem to have moved much if at all the whole time, just sitting in the satellite throne in her typical haughty posture.

I didn't expect that. She wasn't all that surprised that the chief already knew it was Levos, but the rest of the discussion went in a completely different direction that what she had predicted. For now, she decided to just retreat to her chambers and have a rest.

12 September Sorean 17 - THE HIGH ENQUIRY - SPECIAL EDITION - 2G

MELIA DESTROYS MAFIA HQ - Police: Diamonts Syndicate "no longer relevant"

[Lerd Effer, Enforcement Correspondent]

In a shocking display of audacity and fearlessness, Her Highness Melia Antiqua single-handedly brought forth the collapse of the headquarters of the Diamonts Syndicate yesterday afternoon.

Summarising the story cannot do it justice. The princess was captured by the mafia to be used as ransom against the imperial family. Refusing to take the cards she was dealt, she freed herself and began weaving a path of destruction through the building, defeating all the criminals within who tried to stop her. Once she arrived at the top, she escaped on a personal vessel, leaving the building to burn and collapse. The entire event, save for the escape at the very end, was broadcast live across the entire city.

"Frankly, we're stunned," said Commissioner Polm Herzburg. "Our forces were led to believe that the Diamonts headquarters was in a completely different district, and were about to initiate rescue operations when we discovered we'd been had. By the time we got close to the real deal, it was a smouldering pile of rubbish. Lady Melia turned a terrible day into a brilliant coup."

Princess Melia was unavailable for comment, but her exploits of the day speak for themselves. The footage transmitted of her crusade through the building display pinpoint efficiency and mastery of ether arts far beyond what anyone believed she was capable of. We asked a selection of people on the street to comment.

"She summons and casts bolts in the same motion, it's like the legendary Kor himself."

"How did she even get out of that chair?! An escape artist, she is. Those tiny wrists and ankles are good for something."

"She was running through elementals so fast it looked like she had three at once. Slow-mo'ed the footage and can't prove it either way. I'm bamboozled."

"Ruthless. Didn't bat an eye at sentencing a whole building of criminals to death. Let's send her through a jail next, free up some taxes."

"Absolutely stunning. It was like the ending of a movie or something. Prince Kallian hasn't done anything all that exciting on film."

As of press time, a total of 70 casualties have been confirmed by the authorities, with more expected to be found as the rubble is cleared. The interruption to broadcasting services continued for another hour after the building's collapse.

→ CNT'D PG.02
→ MELIA, ALWAYS UNDERESTIMATED PG.03
→ THE RISE AND FALL OF DIAMONTS PG.04
→ KALLIAN LOSING THRONE POPULARITY? PG.06
→ THIRD TELETHIA ATTACK IN TEN YEARS PG.07

Melia fully expected that she would be watched like a hawk for the next little while after the incident, being constantly reminded that people were disappointed she made such a grave mistake in character judgement. But to her complete bewilderment, she heard absolutely nothing of the sort. In fact, both the palace and the public were talking about it like it was the highlight of her life. It was quite unnerving.

It wasn't as unnerving as the negative feelings that began to sprout in her mind over the next few days. She didn't need to pay attention to the news reports updating the situation, and in fact went out of her way to avoid them so she wouldn't relive the memories - she had basically killed over a hundred people, either by attacking them directly or by dropping a burning office tower on them. It was quite a step up from exterminating a bunch of Bunnits that were due for elimination regardless. Sitting in her chambers stewing over the issue, trying to think of why no one was even questioning her morals, she eventually decided that she had to do something.

Melia pretty much never stepped into the Audience Chamber from the front. If she ever needed to speak to her father, she could do so at dinner without interrupting whatever important discussions and debates were occurring in the super-formal room, and the secretive confines of the advisor's rooms was generally sufficient for anything that he wanted to tell her. But the recent events had been weighing far too heavily on her mind to simply bring up her thoughts at a meal. She felt compelled to express herself in the most serious manner possible.

She had looked up her father's schedule earlier in the day and found a free half hour at one-thirty. Timing her movements so she could just arrive and enter without having to wait around, she slowly walked up the aisle towards the standing throne, grateful that Kallian was not present at the moment to distract her.

She kneeled down in the designated location and spoke in Hightongue. "Your Majesty, I, First Princess Melia Antiqua, come to you with a grim request."

Sorean looked both mildly amused and concerned at the situation; he could not recall Melia ever initiating the formal protocol in such a manner before. "Certainly, my kin. What is it you wish to ask?"

Melia continued to stare at the ground with eyes closed. "I must request that I be released to the authorities so I may serve punishment for the crimes I committed on the twelfth of September."

Several of the guards in the chamber gasped audibly before hastily stiffening back into formation.

Sorean tilted his head confusedly. "Crimes? I know of no illegal activity on your part."

Oh don't be that way. "I committed arson and at least a hundred and thirty-one acts of manslaughter and murder. I must face the consequences of my actions."

"But surely you do not want to be held accountable for-"

Frustrated, Melia broke the code and looked directly into the emperor's eyes. "Since when has anything been about what I want?"

There was a long pause.

"Leave us." Sorean dismissed the guards with a wave of his hand. All worried-looking, they obeyed, hurrying out of the room and closing the doors. He then converted his throne into the sitting position and materialised a smaller one, positioning it for optimal conversation. "Come, sit."

Stressed but curious, Melia slowly slunk into the smaller chair. Sitting in one of the satellite thrones wasn't new to her, but being in one facing backwards was, meaning that her father would be the only thing in her vision.

Sorean clasped his hands and switched to the Common language. "Tell me, freely and without repercussion, why you believe you must accept punishment for your actions."

"I set a building on fire and killed scores of men. That cannot be excused."

"You did not simply breach the building and set it ablaze, nor did you seek out these men with the express purpose of killing them. You defended yourself from attack and fought to escape your unlawful imprisonment. There is quite a big difference."

"There is no difference. I placed my well-being on a pedestal above that of many others', others with lives and families and dreams. The imperial family is at the mercy of the people, not the other way around. Some form of punishment must be drawn."

Sorean angled his head. "Are you fully aware of what the punishment would be if you were indeed charged for what you claim?"

Melia had looked it up and burned it into her mind. "Arson of an occupied office building during primary shift, 20 years per 50 offices. Involuntary manslaughter, between 50 and 100 years per offence. Second-degree murder, between 100 and 250 years with potential for a lifetime sentence. All told, an approximate minimum of 6780 years, with an earliest date of appeal of 1356 years. As a sentence of 500 years or more, capital punishment would be considered, followed by eternal dishonour of my name." And likely followed by being trapped in the afterlife indefinitely, unable to ever redeem myself to the point of being worthy to reincarnate.

"Indeed. Such punishment would be quite unkind if it were ever to be applied. So perhaps it would interest you to know that the courts have already officially and unanimously exonerated you in full. You are as free from wrongdoing now as you were before these events occurred."

"That...but..." Melia was becoming somewhat agitated, but was currently succeeding at doing nothing but squirming around. "That's immoral. We can't ignore a crime just because someone important did it."

"You feel guilt and regret over being forced to kill another to save yourself, many times over. That is only natural. But it is not immoral nor selfish to protect your own life from those who seek to end it." He paused for a moment as he considered something. "Tell me, what makes this event different from when you fought off an attacker in the training rooms? You sought no punishment for that."

"It could not be more different. That person had already trespassed our security and attacked bystanders, and in the end I merely held her off without causing serious injury."

"So if that encounter had ended in death for the attacker, what then?"

"Then...then that would have been accidental death as part of self-defence."

"Just as the events of a few days ago?"

"Y-...well...no, as...but..." Spending all her effort to keep her wings stoically stiff, Melia's hands were shaking like they were caught in a paint mixer. She felt like she didn't really know what she was trying to argue anymore.

Sorean leaned forward a bit. "Melia. I am impressed by the degree to which you argue for what you believe to be right, despite such being the worst possible outcome for yourself. Your straightforward and unfaltering honesty is, dare I say, one of your finest traits. But now is not the time for it. Do not dwell on your actions of the past; it will do little but hamper your future." He moved back to his natural sitting position. "If you require counselling to learn to accept your guilt, it will of course be provided. But no punishment will be levied, and nor should any be. In fact, perhaps you ought to remain current with the news surrounding this incident; your calculation assumes that every man you fought was killed, when in fact there were forty-two survivors."

There was silence for a moment. Melia was starting to feel a bit relieved that no punishment was forthcoming, but it still felt so unabashedly wrong to be let off the hook so easily, with absolutely no one other than her conscience trying to claim something had to be done.

"So," Sorean continued, "would you like to take counselling to soothe your doubts and pains? Or do you believe you can move past this incident on your own?"

Melia's immediate instinct was to answer "no"; she didn't want to have to go through this whole explaining-my-entire-mental-state thing more than once, and talking to someone she didn't really know about it didn't seem like it would help at all. But what had her father just said? "Your straightforward and unfaltering honesty is, dare I say, one of your finest traits." And her honesty was telling her that there wasn't much hope of getting out of her current state of mind alone - staying alone was what led her into accepting a life sentence for acting in self-defence.

"...Yes. Yes, I believe I should." It was an all-too common tone of voice - the sullen resignation of doing the right thing despite its undesirability.

"Very well. Go to the hospital wing and ask for Dr. Delphior. He will do what he can to put your mind at ease. I wish you the best of luck, Melia."

Melia nodded, stood up, and turned to leave. She had already assumed that things would get worse before they could get better, so in that sense she was already pretty accepting of what had to be done. She was just hoping it would be over a bit faster than likely several visits to a therapist.