This Means War

“Don’t talk like that,” Serilda reassured him when he tried to talk about repaying her. “You’re one of my valued soldiers. It’s my responsibility and pleasure to take care of you.”

She listened as he explained about a young woman that had passed him in an alleyway. Apparently the woman had murdered someone, and then she attacked Beaux afterward. The angel turned his face away from her and Serilda knew beyond the shadow of a doubt the shame he was feeling. She’d been there before, feeling like she hadn’t done enough, wasn’t good enough to do her duties. It broke her heart to see him like this but all she could do was keep trying to heal him. Serilda couldn’t give him the long term medical care he would probably need, but she could at least stop the bleeding and numb the pain.

He eventually turned back to try and speak again but couldn’t contain his tears as he explained about how the fight had brought them back here and how this mysterious woman had killed two Rune Knights. A mixture of rage and sorrow slapped her across the face. How dare this woman, this Sanguine, kill two of Serilda’s people on her own ground? She looked up to see where Beaux pointed, and sure enough there on the wall was some kind of symbol she didn’t recognize. Most likely the mark of a dark guild.

Serilda was trembling with rage. She wanted nothing more than to tear Fiore apart to find this bitch and bring her to justice, but right now Beaux needed her. Once she had done everything she could, Serilda sat on the grass next to him and pulled Beaux’s head onto her lap. She wrapped one arm across his chest to hug him and her other hand held one of his. There really wasn’t a whole lot she could say at the moment, so she just held him as tightly as she could so he could feel safe enough to cry.

Elsewhere in the Rune Knight headquarters, Victoria pushed her way into the infirmary and informed the very confused medics that they were needed in front of the building for an injured ally. None of them had ever seen Victoria before so they weren’t sure what to make of her, but a small team of them did gather up a few things and made there way where she directed just to be on the safe side.

Your healers are coming.

Thank you, Victoria.

Then she flew back outside and up to the window outside Mythal’s office. “One of your soldiers has been attacked. I believe Serilda called him… Beaux? The one that’s an angel. He’s not in good condition. I’m going to search the grounds.” The nephilim didn’t bother to tell Mythal where Serilda was, knowing that the two of them were connected strong enough through their magic that they could almost always find one another. Presuming he had no other questions, she took off to track down any traces of blood that she could pick up with her magic.

Serilda sensed Mythal as he was approaching, his scent catching in the air only a moment after Victoria advised the other slayer was on the way. He came careening down beside her so fast that he tore track marks through the grass trying to stop himself. Lux appeared beside him, the two men looking on where Serilda was holding Beaux tightly and cradling him. The injured man recounted the events again as best he could for Mythal’s benefit, and all it did was serve to make Serilda angrier. Her body was trembling as she held the man, looking up at Mythal with a silent expression that warred between sorrow and absolute fury.

When Beaux asked what was going to happen, she let go of his hand to softly comb her fingers through the man’s hair. “We’re going to make sure you’re okay, first. You’re more important, and I need to make sure that you’re being taken care of before I do anything else.” The Voidwalker gulped for a moment before answering his second question, having to forcibly calm herself. She didn’t want to alarm Beaux or put him through any more stress than he was already experiencing by being exposed to the sight of her rage. The anger in her voice would still be evident -- nothing would hide it -- but the least she could do was continue to be calm for his sake. “But yes, we’re going to find her, and I promise you that she will face justice.”

What she really wanted to say was that she was going to hunt this woman and put her down like the rabid cur she was, but even Serilda knew that would be her anger talking and not her logic. Or perhaps it was Ozorith’s influence. The demon lord was surely radiating over the complete and total sense of wrath that was roiling in her soul at present.

The medical team arrived in a hurry. Relief flooded through Serilda as tried and true healers pumped their magic into the man, reaching deep into his body to stop the subdermal bleeding, fix broken bones, knit open wounds back together, and every other thing he needed. It wouldn’t have him back to one hundred percent right away. He would still have a period of recovery time. However, he wouldn’t have to worry about his life being in jeopardy and at least the pain would be almost completely gone, with little more than a dull ache to remind him of the ordeal.

As they worked on patching him up, she told him, “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to try something. I’ve never done it before but… I can use your blood to gain access to your memories of this event. It would help me know who we’re dealing with, and maybe I can find some sort of clue to help us with the investigation. It’s invasive to your privacy, so I won’t do it unless you’re okay with it, but it shouldn’t have any adverse effect on you. You won’t feel it or relive anything yourself…”

Serilda absolutely hated her blood magic. It felt dirty to her, and the thought of digging through something so personal and painful to Beaux made her feel like a horrible person, but she needed to know more. They needed something to help them find this woman, and this was the only sure thing she could think of to get solid facts.

Presuming he gave her permission to do so, Serilda would gently take some of his blood that had gotten on her and raised it to her lips. The crimson digits hovered there shakily for a moment as she steeled herself, clearly disliking what she was about to do. Setting her jaw in determination, she placed the fingers in her mouth and carefully consumed the plasma. It took a second or two for it to hit, but a wave of dizziness came over her and though her blue eyes were open they glazed over as though she couldn’t see anymore.

She didn’t have great control over the ability, struggling to find focus on the right memories. Serilda wound up accidentally shuffling through a couple others before she was able to latch onto what she was looking for. The images flashed in her head of the attack. Beaux had found this woman after she’d clearly killed someone else. This Sanguine was exactly how he had described: a woman with dragon like features, amber eyes, and hair as white as Serilda’s. The field marshal memorized every feature of the villain, setting it to memory so she could recognize her whenever they found her.

Sanguine’s behavior through the fight was… odd, to say the least. Studying her from a investigative standpoint, there appeared to be sporadic breaks in her actions and reactions. Maybe the woman had some sort of mental illness? She reacted to many of Beaux’s words and inquiries in ways that didn’t immediately speak to a woman that was versed in being a murderer, with a number of pauses or delays in her actions.

There were no words to describe the pain that Serilda felt in having to relive the event through Beaux’s eyes. Even though she couldn’t feel his pain through the memory, she was vividly witnessing each attack from his perspective. It made her all the more angry, and all the more heart broken. She didn’t want to see any of this, but she needed to. She had a duty to find this woman and bring Beaux peace. So, Serilda watch everything, even up until the foul bitch killed two more of her Knights and used their bones to stake Beaux to the wall. Even up until she kissed her victim and thanked him for helping her. The absolute gall!

By the time she was finished and the memories faded, there were tears running down her face. Serilda wiped them off gently. “There were two other knights,” she informed Mythal in a very carefully controlled voice. “This woman -- her name is Sanguine -- she killed them. I couldn’t see who they were, but those stakes in the wall… those are their bones. We need to find their bodies and figure out who they were.”