Confrontation

Fenrir skirted the city by a fair distance, knowing that to take a more direct route would severely curtail his speed. There were still far too many people abroad to allow him to move with haste through the streets outside the wall, but by staying out in the fields he was able to move at speed. When he reached the sewer entrance, he briefly debated taking his cloak through the enchantment and just allowing the alarm to be triggered, since having an S.E.P. cloak could well prove invaluable, but he reasoned that burning his only sure escape route would ultimately only decrease his chances of success, so he hid his cloak as usual before continuing.

Barely five minutes later he regretted his decision when, peeking out of the alley in which he had come to the surface, Fenrir found the streets still busy. 'There's no way I'm getting through here undetected unless I use Shroud. Even with Shroud, I'll have to move carefully enough that I'll use most of its duration just getting to the Cathedral, which will leave me without one of my most powerful clandestine abilities, and it could prove essential in the Cathedral itself.' He shifted, painfully aware of each passing minute. 'There's nothing for it, though, waiting for the streets to clear is simply not an option. Safara could already have been removed from my reach in the time it took me to make it this far.'

So activating Shroud, the great lupine hastened onwards, utilizing the mostly deserted alleys wherever possible. Where he could not, he had to move very carefully, lest he be bumped into or the magical shadows which enshrouded him be pierced by a particularly observant eye. However, he made it to the Cathedral without incident.

Shroud failed soon after he entered the hidden tunnel into the Cathedral grounds, as he had expected, but it was not until he had reached the secret door into the dungeons that anything gave him pause. As he placed his hand upon the mechanism which released the catch, Fenrir was staggered by a sudden sensation of overwhelming threat. His thick fur bristled angrily and he found his lips writhing back in an involuntary snarl, as though he were faced by a mighty enemy.

'Get a hold of yourself,' he scolded himself. 'Yes, this is likely a trap, but forewarned is forearmed and all that. Yes, it's a shitty situation, but I don't have a lot of other options here. I do have a considerable advantage with the secret passages that lace this place, so maybe I can use them to scout the trap beforehand and subvert it.' He sighed. 'Well, he who dares, wins. Let's go.' And with soundless movements the great wolf eased the door open.

Back at camp, the girls waited in tense silence, eyes straying to where the magical telegraph lay every now and again. Finally Kira threw up her hands and groaned, "I can't take this! If I don't do something I'm gonna go crazy!"

"But what?" asked Katari, who had been polishing the same spot on her sword for the past fifteen minutes.

"Well, we could pack up camp in case we need to skedaddle as soon as the boss gets back."

"A good idea," Katari agreed, but due to Fenrir's insistence that they keep their belongings close in case they might need to break camp in a hurry, properly packing up took very little time.

Kira was not pleased about this and cast about for something else to grant her reprieve from the dreaded waiting. Chellise had helped pack up with a will as soon as it had been suggested, then she had gone back to sitting with her knees hugged close to her chest, staring anxiously into the fire. Katari, on the other hand, began to carefully check over her armor despite the fact that she had already done so less than two hours ago when she and Fenrir had finished sparring. Finding no easy outlet for her nervous energy, Kira began pacing back and forth, all sorts of possible disasters running through her mind. Chellise's eyes followed her, but the younger succubus said nothing.

"It's a trap. It's gotta be. They know that Safara is communicating with someone on the outside, so they captured her to lead him into a trap," Kira eventually burst out, no longer able to contain herself.

"My lord is not stupid. He undoubtedly has already thought of this and has taken steps to avoid being caught off guard," Katari interjected, although her calm tone contrasted noticeably with her pale drawn face.

"I still don't like it. He should have taken one of us with him!"

"We would only have slowed him down. Remember, he is considerably faster than any of us, and there was need of that haste."

"I know, but..."

Katari stood and walked over to where Kira was attempting to wear a trench into the ground. "Kira," she said firmly, taking the succubus by the shoulders, "I know very well how you feel. I feel much the same way, and so does Chellise, but all we can do now is trust in my lord. He has not led us astray thus far."

"But-"

"No buts. I estimate that he should be in the city by now. If he is not back in two hours, one of us can go ensure he is not in trouble, but until then, stop this profitless worry and find something to occupy your mind."

Kira sighed. 'You're right. I'm sorry. But I can't concentrate on anything."

"How about this. We will need some way to communicate with each other if one of us does need to follow my lord into the city, so why don't you fill the time by duplicating that circle that he made? We may not have had time to memorize the code by which he communicated with Safara, but we can agree on a few simple signals which should serve well enough for our purposes."

"Okay," Kira agreed, taking the notebook and writing implements in hand. Wordlessly Chellise passed her a bottle of runic ink.

Once Katari had checked over her gear and ensured all was in readiness for whatever might come, she left to keep watch and the clearing fell into silence, broken only by the soft scratching of Kira's quill as she slowly and painstakingly traced out the lines and runes of the magical telegraph. Once, she growled in frustration and started over.

Once the two hours were up, Katari came back to the fireside. "No sign of him," she replied in response to the other two's anxious looks.

"So, who should go?" Kira asked.

Katari shrugged. "I do not know. I have the most experience, but I am a warrior, not a rogue. Moving in stealth is not my forte. But I do not think my lord would want you to go either. He would caution against any action which could endanger your children."

"And Chellise is still way too inexperienced, period." Kira directed an apologetic look towards the aforementioned succubus as she realized how her words sounded. "No offense intended, Chell."

But Chellise shook her head. "No, you're right, I am too inexperienced. There was a good reason that Daddy didn't choose to bring me along from the start." Her shoulders drooped. "I've been completely useless this whole trip," she mumbled. Then an instant later her head jerked back up, shame and self-reproach written clearly on her face. "I'm sorry! My problems aren't what's important right now. Don't mind me, we need to focus on making sure Daddy's okay." The small succubus offered up a brave little smile.

"You haven't been useless, Chell," Kira told her gently. "You've been helping keep watch, and your cooking is way better than mine could ever be, like, no comparison."

Katari nodded in concurrence. "Remember when she tried to prepare our evening meal three nights after we left?"

Kira groaned. "Don't remind me, I can still taste the charcoal. I thought I'd die of embarrassment."

Chellise looked marginally more cheerful at this reminder, so Kira turned her attention back to the problem at hand. "I know I need to think about my babies, but even so, I think I'm the best fit for this. They're not so far along that they're actually impeding my movement or anything. I'll be super careful, but I think I'm the best option we have."

Katari nodded slowly. "Very well. Remember to keep an eye on your telegraph. One flash means nothing yet, two means my lord is back, and three means emergency. If you get emergency, do not come back here. Instead, we should meet at the oak on the hill."

"Okay, I'll send one flash if I can't find anything, two flashes if I find the boss, and three if I get in trouble. Wish me luck." Double checking the sword at her hip and the telegraph circle tucked into a pocket, Kira set out for the city herself. She knew where to go to retrace the steps Fenrir had taken to reach the Cathedral's interior undetected due to him having earlier given them the necessary instructions. 'Thank the gods the boss had the foresight to tell us exactly how to reach the Cathedral through those secret passages. Just in case, he said, and here I am in just such a case.'

Reaching the sewer outlet, though it took a while, was simple enough. Her cloak provided ample protection from what few curious eyes were still abroad. Her nose rebelled against the smell of sewage, but bravely Kira soldiered on, remembering to shed her cloak and its enchantment before passing through the small gate which marked her entrance to the city. 'I wonder what's different about the circle that the boss made that it doesn't trip the enchantment even though the S.E.P. cloaks do.' She shrugged internally. 'I should probably just be grateful that it doesn't.'

With the use of Sneak, Kira found the night streets easy to navigate. Her first glimpse of the Cathedral, however, filled her with dismay. 'It's lit up like a bonfire. I was right, the boss ran into some sort of trouble, no doubt about it.' She glanced yet again at her telegraph, but the light rune remained stubbornly dark. 'Well, there's nothing for it. I need to find out what happened.' Finding the entrance she sought into the sewers was simple, but finding the secret passage was not. Even with Fenrir's minute instructions, Kira searched the wall in which she was certain the entrance was located for so long she was sure the sun must be rising over the city before the stone she sought finally gave to the impetus of her questing hands.

Quickly conjuring fire in her palm, she hurried forward by the light of her improvised torch, anxiously peering ahead into the dark. When she at length saw the door at the far end of the tunnel come into view, she extinguished the torch and crept forward as soundlessly as possible. Carefully opening it just a crack, Kira peered through. All seemed quiet, so she opened it wider to take a better look. The lit torches disconcerted her slightly; she distinctly remembered Fenrir's account describing this corridor as unlit, but nonetheless with infinite caution she crept forward, peering into every corner as she advanced.

Safara paced back and forth in the confines of the cell in which she had been placed. The comforting bulk of the book she had hidden inside her robes pressed against her stomach, but she knew that that was an insignificant victory and one which would quickly be undone if anyone read her diary or actually searched her. She had only had time to send half of a hurried message before she had been confronted and imprisoned, with no time to get to any of her belongings. It had only been luck that she had even had the spellbook which contained Fenrir's magical telegraph with her when she discovered she was compromised.

After some time, how long exactly she was unsure, her attention was attracted by a slight noise outside her cell. She moved to the bars to see in the flickering torchlight the exceptionally welcome shape of Fenrir.

"Thank goodness. I was worried they might have moved you," he said in a voice overflowing with relief, taking the hands she extended to him.

"I'm sorry, Fenrir," Safara whispered. "I tried to warn you, but I got caught before I could. The Arch-" But then she was interrupted by a beautiful but cold voice which rang through the corridor like the knell of doom.

"It seems I was right to take the precautions I did. Very impressive, to be able to avoid all of our defensive enchantments and even penetrate so deeply into the Cathedral without being detected."

Fenrir straightened slowly, releasing Safara's hands, his expression becoming unreadable as he turned to face none other than the Mistress of the Songs of Heaven, the Archbishop Elmeria Levantine herself. Some distance behind her, Commander Valtos and Bishop Tavill were also visible, ready but silent.

When he did not immediately respond, the Saintess continued speaking. "How did you do it, I wonder? And what foolishness brought you here? Could it be that your double agent here carries knowledge which you do not wish us to discover?" She directed a brief but scathing look at Safara. "Well, monster? Do you have anything to say before you die?"

"I will admit to some curiosity as to how you knew about me to begin with," Fenrir finally replied, his voice sounding calm and unconcerned, though there was a certain tenseness about his jaw and Safara could see that beneath his fur, his muscles were taut in readiness for immediate action.

"Ah, so you can speak. I confess I was unsure if you were actually intelligent. I suppose satisfying your curiosity is the least I can do, since you will die shortly anyway."

'Yeah, right,' Safara thought. 'You just want to gloat for a bit longer.' Glancing at Fenrir, she noticed he had drifted out to the center of the aisle where he had plenty of room to maneuver.

"Did you really think," the Saintess was saying, "that whatever you did up in the mountains when you killed that Inquisitor company would go unnoticed? Such a powerful release of magic could not fail to be detected by any as powerful as me and my friends. I was instantly on alert, so in secret I returned to the capital to wait for the company's return. If they had not, I would have investigated the site myself, but then your puppet returned, spouting some ridiculous story about the company chasing their quarry into the Wyldwood. I might have been more inclined to believe her if the magical surge had not occurred so far from the forest, but it did. So I had her closely watched, and waited for someone to contact her until I noticed pulses of magic coming from her quarters regularly."

"Isn't magic usually rather difficult to detect in such small amounts?" Fenrir asked, his tone still one of polite curiosity.

"For most, perhaps, but I am much more powerful than most," the Archbishop replied haughtily. "So as I was saying, I instantly deduced that she was using some method of magical communication, so I determined to take a more direct approach. I had her captured and searched her belongings, and what do I find but her own personal diary!" Triumphantly she produced the small leather-bound volume from one of her pockets.

Fenrir's eyes flickered ever so briefly in Safara's direction, but he otherwise did not react. Safara felt like crying. All his caution, and she had jeopardized everything he had done by such a thoughtless act as bringing her diary with her on that first ill-fated reconnaissance mission.

"An interesting read, I imagine," he said pleasantly.

"Oh, yes, but unfortunately I have not yet had time to fully peruse it due to how quickly you arrived here. No matter. After I kill you there will be plenty of time to discover the full depths of her betrayal."

"No doubt," Fenrir agreed. Then he dropped his voice so the men behind her could not hear. "But I hope you do not imagine I will simply lay down and wait to die. It is true that you are more powerful than I, but I come armed with knowledge. Specifically, knowledge about you, ...Ria."

The Saintess' caramel skin went white. "How do you know that name...?" she almost whispered, her earlier confidence vanishing like a leaf in a hurricane.

"It is not the only thing I know about you, my dear. I also know what very few, perhaps none other than yourself knows. To most you simply rose from obscurity to become a hero of heroes, but that initial obscurity is never questioned or examined. Where precisely you have come from and how you survived in those first years, no one even thinks to ask. But I wonder, how many would be eager to know once the question was asked?"

"Enough!" the Saintess had become even paler, anger and raw terror fighting for dominance on her face. "It doesn't matter what you think you know! You will die here and now for daring to attempt to impugn the good name of an Archbishop of Marstolle!" And she broke into song.

Safara was horrified to see Fenrir crumple as the first notes sounded in the corridor. He dropped unsteadily to one knee, his fur blowing wildly back as if in the grip of a high wind, his ears folded flat and his head down, a tortured grimace on his face. Then her horror redoubled as she heard, over the melodies of the Saintess' music, a high keening sound, and she realized it was coming from Fenrir. She had never heard him make any vocalization of pain before aside from a slight hiss which could have been as much annoyance as aught else. But this was very different. In his voice was the kind of agony which tore at her soul and made her frantic to do something, anything to give him surcease from his suffering. She strained at the bars which separated her from him and screamed at the Archbishop to stop, but to no avail. She could do nothing as that terrible music destroyed her master. Tears boiled up in her eyes and blurred her vision, but the Saintess just wouldn't stop. In desperation she attempted to cast an ice bolt at her, but the null runes which lined the cell stole the magic from her before it could form, as she had known they would.

But then, through her tears, she thought she saw Fenrir begin to rise again. Frantically she dashed the tears from her eyes and looked again. There could be no doubt about it. Though his face was etched in lines of agony so deep they seemed eternally fixed there, though with every exhale he could not help but betray the depths of the **** which the Archbishop was inflicting upon him, he was with infinite difficulty retaking his feet.

Finally, he once again stood fully erect, swaying against the music which battered him mercilessly, but somehow successfully withstanding the onslaught. The Archbishop broke off, her sudden abatement making Fenrir stagger forwards a step before he could catch himself. "How?!" she demanded. "Nothing can withstand my song! What have you done, monster?!"

"Nothing may be exaggerating a bit," Fenrir said, his voice somewhat hoarse and weak. "I think I am correct in believing that Light-races are unaffected by the negative effects, yes?"

"That doesn't matter!" the Saintess stormed furiously. "You are a Dark-race! There can be no doubt of it!"

"You are correct, as far as you go. But I am more than just a Dark-race."

"Fine then! So you can survive my song. But nothing can resist this spell!" She extended her hand towards him, runic circles made of a deep red light springing into existence before her hand and on the floor under Fenrir. "Begone monster! May you forever languish in the depths of Apollyon for your crimes against the Light!"

At last Fenrir sprang into action, leaping towards the Saintess with a speed that beggared belief, the circle upon the ground moving with him. The dark elf's eyes widened, and frantically she attempted to speed her casting. "If I go, then so do you!" he growled as he reached her.

Finally realizing his real purpose, the Archbishop tried to reverse the spell, but it was too late. The magic had already been released, and she was within the circle with Fenrir. The waves of magical energy whirled up in a mad spiral from the circle at their feet, making them seem to swirl around each other. The torches flickered in the sudden rush of air, then all was still.

They were gone.

And finally, Fenrir's first meeting with a Saintess. Not the way he would have chosen for it to go down, but...
I'll be honest, I believe the latter half of this chapter may be my best writing yet. There's a couple moments in my story that I'm particularly proud of, but this may just take the cake. What do you think? Writing it from Safara's point of view had both benefits and drawbacks, but overall I think using her perspective allowed me to get the most out of this scene.
I do have to apologize for the cliffhanger, though, since I'm not sure when I'll be able to release the next chapter. The rest of this week is going to be very busy for me, since my family will be celebrating Christmas over the weekend. Early, I know, but it's the only time the whole family will be able to get together, and I at least don't think the precise date upon which one celebrates Christmas matters nearly as much as the people with whom one celebrates it. So depending on circumstances, I may not be able to finish the next chapter until the end of next week, but we'll see.
At any rate, enjoy!