Kori Discovers Something Grim...

Meanwhile...

Koriand'r carefully aimed the sonic weapon at the man lying on the table, then she pulled the trigger. Almost immediately, the symbiote covering his body jumped out in pain, trying to flee from the weapon, only to struck and electrocuted by two guards. They carefully guided it with their electric batons into a small container.

Even though the weapon was calibrated in a way to do as little harm to the Tamaranean host as possible, Kori didn't hold the trigger on the device a second longer than possible. Almost immediately, the man began breathing deeper than before, and visibly relaxed. Kori sighed in relief, glad to see that he wasn't harmed. Despite having done this several times now, it didn't feel any easier.

After the attack yesterday, and learning about the symbiote's weakness, Queen Luand'r had devised the ideo of using the sonic weapon to seperate them from their victims, and luckily it was working so far. Still, Kori had been at this for two hours now, and she was starting to feel the stress.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Alisand'r, who looked at her with concern.

“Princess, you have been at this for long enough. Permit me to finish this,” Aliand'r said.

Kori nodded, saying “Thank you,” before handing her the sonic weapon and flying out the room.

As she flew through the air, Kori took a deep breath. Like most Tamaraneans, she took joy in flying. It helps clear her head whenever she felt stressed or troubled.

However, her mood was soured when she heard someone shouting. Looking down, she saw she was just above a nearby lake, and she spotted two figures on the edge below. One was a Tamaranean woman, and the other, to Kori's shock, was a soldier from the Citadel. The woman was trying to fly away, but the invader had his grip on her ankle.

Kori wasted no time, flying straight at the two and slamming the brute in the chest with both legs. At once, the Citadel troop let go of his initial target, who stumbled in the air before righting herself.

“Go,” Kori shouted at her, “Get Help!”

Right as the Citadel solder was getting up, Kori slammed into him again, before quickly punching him in the face and chest. However, the brute managed to wrap his arms around her, and started squeezing.

Kori headbutted him, trying to break free. Unfortunately, the two of them fell into the lake. The woman could only watch, as the water kept violently splashing from the fight, only to then suddenly go still. She only breathed when she saw Kori climbing out of the water, dragging the dead Citadel solder behind her.

Kori threw the body in front of her, and then sat down on the ground to catch her breath. The woman she saved gently landed besides her, asking “Are you alright?”

Kori replied, “I am alright. What about you?”

The woman nodded, “I am alright, thanks to you, Princess Koriand'r.” She took a step back, then bowed before Kori.

“That is good to hear,” Kori said, “now, please rise.”

As the woman stood up, Kori took a good look at her. She was nude, her golden skin glowing in the sun. She had dark, blue hair, and blue eyes.

”Allow me to introduce myself, Princess. I am called Lorall.”

Kori smiled. “It is nice to meet you, Lorall, though obviously I wished it was under better circumstances.” She stood up, and continued, “Now, to drag this back to the palace.”

However, just as she was reaching to grab the body, it suddenly started crackling with blue energy. Before Kori's eyes, the energy covered it before disappearing, and that was left was small bits of ash.

Kori can look on where the corpse once was, whispering to herself, “What in X'Hal's name?” Besides her, Lorall grew worried. She asked, “What do we do now?”

Kori turned to her, a stern look on her face, and replied, “You should head home. I will go back to the palace and tell everyone.”

However, just as she turned to leave, Lorall said, “Please, wait a moment.” Kori turned back to her, as Lorall picked up something off the ground behind her.

Lorall held out a small box to her. “I had heard you had invited a guest at the palace, so I had gotten a gift for her.”

Kori was a bit surprised, but she smiled and took the box for Lorall. “Thank you. May you get home safely.”

With that, Kori took flight, and headed back to the palace. Lorall smiled as she watched the princess go. As soon as she was out of sight, Lorall disappeared in a flash of blue light.