He looked and reeked of fear.

He was hunched over, sitting on his golden throne. His eyes shifted to everything and nothing all the time and he held onto the Throne's armrests for dear life. You have no idea how the man had not yet died of a heart attack, since he looked so terrified all the time.

Still, there he was, and there you were. He was still your Father and whether you loved him or not, you had to respect him and heed his commands.

Eventually, his shifty eyes settled on you when you reached the foot of the stairs leading up to his Throne. You curtsied before him and lowered your gaze to the ground, feeling the eyes of his many guards settle on you.

"Athelisa, my daughter," He began, releasing his **** grip on the armrests and moving it to his knees. He sat on the edge of the Throne. "this is no moment for formalities. Look at me."

You stood up and met his eyes. He licked his lips and cleared his throat.

"We'd be lucky to survive another attack, and two attacks, I don't even want to imagine..." He wiped some sweat off his brow, "But there's a way that we might be able to save ourselves. I need your help to make that possibility a reality, my girl."

You **** a smile and nodded, hoping that such possibility wouldn't involve marrying you off to some dickhead of a noble.

Your Father looked to his favorite knight, who was standing beside his Throne. The knight nodded and said something to your Father, something you couldn't hear because of the closed helmet the man wore. Your father sighed and turned to look at you again.

"We need you to go to the dungeon," He said.

You blinked, then tilted your head and raised an eyebrow. "The dungeon? Isn't that where you sent Gerald?"

Your father nodded and you felt a knot form in your stomach. "They've been abandoned for longer than you've been alive, since the incident with the warlocks. We didn't expect there to be a problem when we sent your brother..."

You glare at him, but do your best to keep yourself under control, "He's been gone for longer than a week," You say, "What do you mean 'no problem'?"

Your father winces and sits back, looking up at the ceiling. "Warlock magic usually loses cohesion after a few years, we didn't expect it to have done the opposite. It is considerably stronger than before. The entourage we sent into the dungeon stood no chance, according to the one knight that managed to get back to us."

You scrunch up your nose and huff, "Stronger? You mean-"

"There are all kinds of demons, spirits and monsters crawling beneath our city, yes."

Your heart sinks and you let out a breath you didn't know you had been holding.

"But don't despair. The reason we sent Gerald down was because there's an artifact in the lowest level of the dungeons," Your father said, and for the first time since the siege had begun, you saw a twinkle of hope in his eyes. "This artifact can activate the Guardians of Homerace!"

You look at him hopefully, "The Guardians are real?"

"Of course! What do you think the tacky, gigantic statues in our city are, if not for dormant Guardians?"

You bite your lip. "B-But... If Gerald couldn't reach the artifact, how do you expect me to reach it?"

Your father starts stroking his chin idilly, "We believe that the sheer size of Gerald's group was the reason they were defeated. You see, the more people that are together, the more noticeable their fear and anxiety. Demons sense those things and are drawn to them."

You nod in understanding. He was right, the royal mage always did his best to teach you and Gerald how to control your emotions lest spirits find you and possess you.

"So, we're sending you alone."

You knew he was going to say that, but hearing it still made your heart jump. Sure, you knew you'd be safer that way, but... Who really wants to be alone in a dungeon full of things that go bump in the night?

"And one more thing..." He said, you gulped, "It seems the warlocks responsible for opening the rift in our dungeon were followers of the Cult of Lust."

Your lip quivered. You barely managed to contain your tears. The things you'd heard about the Cult of Lust, how they took people and turned them into crazed, indecent monsters... Safe to say, they were no longes just things that go 'bump in the night', they were also things that go 'hump in the night'.

Whether your Father noticed your distress or not, he didn't react. Eventually, once you settled yourself enough, you spoke. "Why can't we send a knight to retrieve the artifact?"

"The artifact only reacts to the touch of our family. If someone not of our bloodline tries to take it, it won't budge."

And that was that. After a moment, your father dismissed you. You were to start your expedition tomorrow before dawn, and had the rest of the day to yourself. 'Try to relax,' your Father had said. As if he knew the things that were going through your head.