“No matter how fond I am of you two, some fibs require brutal correction.”
Pulses of the harpy matron’s authority wash over Fehl. The blue refractions of an underwater view wash into view, bathing the room in illusory wavy light before vanishing.
Setting herself as the center of their attentions bolsters her menacing dressing down, a pretty display that helps Sapphira contain her emotions.
Then, sadness seeps out.
“… Every morning after losing her is like waking to find your favorite lake all… dried up, the clear blue sparkle now a brown and green rot. The great tree I used to perch in to watch the sky should face the west, not the east…”
The matron’s pain subsides when she shakes her head, self-composure easy for her due to experience.
“All those choice memories he stuffed into you must seem wonderful, right? I’m just a silly old woman in comparison, thinking that those years with Dohle were the most wonderful ones despite the painful events clouding the future…”
“I am the future, fake, you are the past.”
“In for a future beaten bottom, if you snap like that~.”
[Why intentionally instigate her, Fehr!? She’s obviously in pain!] [… What she is, her errors then and now… all of the things that are this fake Phira’s fault must come out! Only then will the harpies revolt and pledge to us…]
Certainly, the hierarchy of this manse’ bird population is defined by the way anonymous members stay unobtrusive, while the strongest is allowed to talk down to Representatives.
Even daughters from the days of the old princedom are treated worse than fledglings.
[But it… this is Sapphira, can she not become our strength like the ones behind us?] [She cannot be Phira! I don’t believe it!]
Sapphira’s “harumphs” and smooths her wings that fluffed up when angered. Narrowed eyes soften back to affectionate when seeing past Fehr’s arrogance, but then Sapphira’s gaze turns angry toward Fehl.
“Since he’s started balding, he wants me to lose my feathers to match, the nerve of him!”
(This isn’t my fault…!)
After this, the matron smiles cutely. “You’re raising a bunch of sails pointed in different directions, acting proud when you’re just steering my girls off course.”
“We are one vessel, sailing only toward the promised land.”
“So dramatic, my little Fehr. But you were the one that nearly burned down the scriptorium back then…”
Sapphira’s large wing extends toward Fehl, inviting him toward her.
“She’s a novice captain. Why not help me navigate her ship~?”
[Falke, do not accept her fake kindness or… fail to aid me!]
Fehr’s resonating voice is shrill, but outwardly she is like stone. The twins’ instability is hidden expertly.
“I am Dohle’s shadow, her eternal support. Not her navigator.”
“Falke was the one that drove Dohle in the first place, it’s just so wrong that I can’t comprehend the narrative anymore!”
[Tell her she is unneeded! We’ve… touched upon all that was good and wrong, Falke, we don’t need a…!]
“Fake Phira, you cannot come between me and my Falke!”
“… That part is what is most terribly wrong. Too kind, like he’s a human being rather than a bug…”
[Help me squash her, Falke!] [Why do you fear her? Will you strike now, then?] [The… the mood, it’s not correct! As the leader, I cannot strike until you have weakened her, as I only have one chance to win decisively.]
With Fehr stuck without that moment…
[SHE’S IN NEED OF A SILVER TONGUE TO EARN SAPPHIRA’S WEAKNESS.]
(Of course!)
“There is no narrative, only our purpose: to revive these lost lives and perfect them for a glorious renaissance of power!”
“Like human youngsters do, both enjoy the game they’re stuck in? Oh, fine, fine…”
Not agitating her called for schools of sea creatures, Sapphira ticks forward without fear to confront them.
“Please, then, mighty Dohle and Falke, overlook this simple house chicken whose measly life of nearly a century, compares not to the wisdom of a single day’s rose-tinted navel gazing…!”
Sarcastically, the matron tips her head and then dips her wings slightly. Where nothing else she’s said has truly worried him, a simple jest unsettles him enough to drop his confident expression.
(Is our synchronicity with restored memories possibly not sufficient?)
[THE TWO OF YOU ARE PERFECT!]
“So, ‘Falke is there to help Dohle’, while ‘Dohle is there to make Falke’s dream come true’, nostalgic~?Oka~y, my little drumsticks in the back: stop trying to make them fly before they can even walk, or I’ll string you up naked for the Chosen to ‘eat’!”
Sapphira’s growl toward her descendants behind the twins finally drains their bravado. Kachua’s white face begs Fehl for his back to hide behind.
“I’d figured they’d get prideful like the Pillarsworn, instead they’re greedy for more gold and jewels to make them fail to look ‘pretty’…”
(They buckle so fast! And she assumes we are being manipulated!)
“And if you two can’t calm down and stop letting others mislead you, you’ll be making the same mistakes the real ones did before midnight, guaranteed! Now, I’ve got some harsh truths to relate to you. Falke’s nostalgic stomach ache for the glory days suggests he thinks he was responsible for them rather than a hindrance, most times…”
When Sapphira begins a lecture, Fehr stumbles back in confusion. Only Fehl is too distracted by another to care.
[MIDNIGHT IS WHAT THIS WOMAN PLANS TO KEEP YOU OCCUPIED UNTIL.]
(I don’t understand!)
[IF YOUR CURRENT IS NOT THE STRONGEST OR THE MOST UNPREDICTABLE, ANOTHER’S MOMENTUM WILL DRAG YOU! FEHR SOUGHT ANGER TO THROW THIS CLEVER ONE OFF BECAUSE THERE IS A HORRIBLE SECRET YOU’RE NOT SEEING, AND SHE TAKES YOUR FURY FROM YOU.]
Fehl scans the crowd of harpies that once were cheering for Fehr, finding them muted and curious at how the twins will respond.
“I’m not sure what ‘glorious future’ you two feel responsible for, but the outside world isn’t a nice place, as I keep telling these ill-mannered little hooligans who listen to Kaskin’s stories!
Even the obedient children just ignore the war of evil-and-eviler going on outside our doorstep, squawking about ‘opportunities’ in Petripolis…”
(She thinks little of her children.)
[BUT SHE CONDEMNS HERSELF BY GIVING YOU WHAT HER CHILDREN DESIRE. PAY ATTENTION TO THE SONG, NOT THE STEPS THEY WANT YOU TO DANCE.]
The bleeding kobold that pledged herself squints at Fehl, rolling her eyes, then looks back to Sapphira with hatred fueling her tight fists. This one responds poorly to Sapphira’s systematic deconstruction of their little revolt’s objective.
(Why does she look so dismissive at me!?)
[BECAUSE SHE BELIEVES IN ACTING BEFORE THINKING. IF YOU’RE DISAPPOINTING HER, YOU’RE DISAPPOINTING THE HARPIES.]
“We are Pillars now, that is our only bondage as page harpies. That will not change. We exchanged our way of living for their gifts. So long as we can stay uncalled for, let’s just relax, let the world pass us by?”
[YOUR WORDS HAVE STALLED. ANGER LOOSENS THE TONGUE, AND WHAT SHE SAYS MAY DESTROY HER IF YOU EARN IT.]
(Attack the messenger, not the message, when the counter-message loses? Force a new message…? How astute?)
For being non-corporeal, this distant speaker sounds very knowledgeable of how to undermine others.
[FLATTERY EARNS NOTHING, ONLY RESULTS PLEASE ME. TELL FEHR TO SHARE, AND OFFER THAT HER “GUEST” WILL AID HER.]
Fehl reaches out for Fehr’s core, strengthening their bond and attempting to match their thoughts. He slows the passing of time like the voice did for him.
[List all the steps of your plan!]Outside awareness grows heavier from Fehl’s need. Fehr’s consciousness is mystified by this effect, before calming and listening.
[… I am not certain you will grasp… the contradictory intent of my—?] [Assist in my comprehension! Your… “guest” promises guidance, in return?] [HE WILL!?] Fehr’s enthusiasm peaks so much that she might start clapping with glee. [Th-Then, observe the direct daughters of this fake Phira! Determine their strengths for me!] [AVERAGING BELOW THE MAD RABBIT, MOSTLY ABOVE THE RED WOLF, IF ALL IS EQUAL, THEY SHOULD BE HER MATCH AS A GROUP.]
Conferring between them in this slow moment, that the daughters show certain prowess brings renewed confidence from Fehr.
[That is excellent! Back… at another time, very scared of the idea, the… real Phira told me that page harpies are sought because they’re special in how they “evolve”. There’s something she wanted to avoid, never to happen: “if I have too many children, they say that they will one day want to hurt me to leave if I don’t give them up…” or so she said.] [Leave? For what reason?] [I believe that a page harpy becomes a [queen] when many are added to her lineage as she “gets stronger” like my friend Kol has. Her daughters, too, eventually get stronger and then feel an irrepressible need to rule their own flocks. Naturally, the queen must become something higher than them…] [So they are queen candidates, and now desire to leave?]
All of Sapphira’s daughters can stand within her sphere of influence, merely choosing to bow to its effect.
As condescending as her moods seem at times toward them, they still “backbite” her when annoyed.
[Phira said that the nobles want queens to serve the children of the nobility, to breed more helpers and unite the blood of the “blessed” with this flock of many incorruptible servants! The [empress] at the top likely influences them all, so that’s probably why they’re valuable to humans.] [Then why not just send them away to build colonies?] [Only if she “surrenders” them to slavery can they leave without violence, if they leave after violence they’re unowned by humans thereafter unless beaten again! And so, this is why Phira hoped that… I would have many children, so that Phira would never have to hurt any of her daughters to resist their leaving…] [If there are no Kestner descendants, then she will not be able to “gift” them, and so you will drive them to revolt if you are refused! Cunning!]
His sister loses motivation at this, but Fehl’s approval salvages pride.
[… Uhn, yes, this fake has been restraining our servants, harming their pride and bottling their advancement up, all so she can have numerous subordinates. We have to free them, Falke, so that they can grow our holy empire by choice, offering fealty freely!]
The slow moment finally passes, for Fehl can feel Sapphira’s inspection upon him again. Whatever change there was to his features, this matron notices his surge of understanding and studies for alterations.
[EASY TO ACCOMPLISH, I UNDERSTAND WHAT’S NEEDED. AERIAL RAPISTS WANT ACCESS TO FRESH PREY, AFTER ALL, SO DIRECT THEIR FOCUS TOWARD PETRIPOLIS.]
Something about this observation seems very ill-humored, but Fehl chooses not to comment.
[YOU’RE LEARNING MY MOODS QUICKLY. PAY ATTENTION AND SHARE MY OBSERVATIONS, BECAUSE YOU ARE QUITE SKILLED WITH HOW TO WIN… WITH MY AID.]
“… And so I’ll just add you in with Namia, oh, and five more fledglings can be your learning mates~. Don’t look worried, Fehl, a smooth-talking boy like you is a shoe-in for ‘favorite little brother’~!”
Sapphira’s summoned waters gently splash to the floor as she sways toward them with that sultry manner she enjoys. Cooing at them like they’re her own offspring, the harpy matron can’t stop gushing despite legions of her own silently languishing without kind attention.
(She is still focused on us! And on me!)
“Falke can worship his pathetic moon dolly, let him be a huge bookworm! He’ll still come back, eventually… I give him two years. Until then, we’ll just play pretend, too, and get you kids feisty, but respectful, able to snap back at the goat when he tries to make you his puppets instead of progeny, so that he wi—!”
(I don’t want to be your obsession!)
[THIS IS YOUR ONE CHANCE TO ESCAPE IT. SPEAK THIS…]
“So that he’ll finally love you like you’ve longed for?”
“Hnn!?”
“After you give him ‘children’ that he’ll… actually notice exist and care about, too?”
[WHAT A WOMAN WILL SACRIFICE OTHERS FOR, EVEN HER OWN CHILDREN, IS A MAN SHE LONGS TO PLEASE.]
Momentarily, Sapphira’s cheeks turn red, for observing daughters all around her hiss at the accusation. Being nakedly cut into embarrasses her, but the matron stifles her bountiful body to avoid fidgeting because of the pressuring unshared thoughts of her audience.
“You just can’t stop picking at painful things, Fehl.”
(I don’t understand that particular jab, though?)
[THEN YOU AREN’T OBSERVANT ENOUGH OF SEXUAL MATTERS. FEHR WILL WANT YOU TO NOTICE HER MORE AGGRESSIVELY, BY THE WAY.]
“Love is something… neither of us can ever have, so it’s not worth bothering with trying to get…”
“But still you do.”
Something about Sapphira’s ruffled feathers, the way the older woman collapsed briefly, sparks Fehr’s lunge after her brother’s.
Fehr gathers that distinct winning aura to herself that she’s been groomed with. Now confident with victory, it’s her turn to shine.
“Your daughters are coin to be traded for favors.”
“Don’t dare demean my daughters by calling them that…!”
“The Maker is who you have exchanged everything for: your future, your daughters’ futures, and the fortunes of the Kestner family. Make him apologize for demeaning them first by not caring about their true value.”
“There is no Kestner family anymore! I watched… the last one…”
Fehr’s face is finally too disgusting to behold, driving Sapphira back from the apparent heiress.
For once, the matron gives ground.
“You favored the Maker more than your own mistress, and so you are the one that held your children in contempt then, and now, not us.”
And so this reborn mistress that haunts Sapphira says this, striking a blow that Fehl feels dubious about.
(Is it true? She certainly seems to take care of them…)
[Support this accusation, Falke, using your memories of back then.] [Oh, of course.]
While Sapphira’s expression turns gruesome for a moment, Fehl considers the day he’s spent with her and his gained memories.
He searches his recollections of the holy palace…
(… There’s… nothing in my records about Sapphira… only creations…)
When his enthusiasm plunges, the voice rushes to his support.
[THEN SPEAK AS IF YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ARE THE SAME AS FALKE’S. SINCE YOU ARE FALKE, THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.](What…? But… they aren’t his memories!?)
[SO LONG AS THE EMOTIONS ARE REAL AND YOU’RE NOT TOO SPECIFIC, ANYTHING CAN APPEAR TRUE.]
“Hoh, I could never, not even for a moment, favor that pompous jerk over Dohle, the real Dohle! That is a—!”
“An absolute truth.”
“Fehl!?”
Sparing a look for Sapphira as if he’s spotted a scurrying cockroach, Fehl turns with shame when she squeals his name.
“… Every moment that we were together, every idea we shared, no matter how I tried to change your gaze, I can only recall interest being given mostly to me and not to Dohle, the one whom your affections should truly belong to. You were arrogant enough to confess that you were reluctant to be around her.”
“You have learned truly rotten manners.”
The matron spares no further confusion for his deception, red glare brightening at the wordplay.
Because he can reproduce his feelings regarding this favoritism showed earlier today, he can adequately pretend before others that it is the same as “the past”.
“I have learned much from you, Sapphira, including how to… please you.”
At this insinuation, Sapphira’s daughters subtly alter in the intensity of their hidden gazes.
“In the same way, hearing you boast that you are an [empress] for these wonderful, yet misused, servants of the Kestners makes me want to save them.”
“‘Save them’!? I’ve given up… innumerable things for these girls to indulge in whatever fancy takes them, so that they can always be content despite the wild moods Falke leaps into…!”
“Lording over them as if you are the one that they owe fealty toward instead of Dohle, you’ve sacrificed their age to soar so that you can continue to chide them for emotional self-fulfillment?”
“Hmph, wrong. The lands of Castile are simply dangerous. They all are…”
Uncharacteristically muted, the tall woman folds her wings up. “My only family left.”
At that weak admission, Fehl almost chokes on his next attack, joined by a few harpies that mutter “grandmother” with sympathy.
(Fehr is my only family, too! I will do anything for her!)
[IT’S JUST EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION, ANYWAY. PAY NO HEED. YOUR NEEDS ARE MUCH GREATER THAN HERS!YOUR CAUSE IS THE HONORABLE ONE…]
“Calling the invaders’ conspiracy against the Maker ‘just some game he plays’, perhaps you hope that they will weaken him, to drive him into your eager wings?”
Droplets of water creep up from Sapphira’s taloned feet, anger burning behind her calm face. The milky, heavy air that swirled around her becomes as solid as a mountain in a moment.
No longer bantering, the stern matron’s suspicion grows.
(She’s grown quite agitated…)
[SHE MUST BE EVEN ANGRIER. SHE IS STILL TOO COMPOSED.](Page harpies long for pretty things of their own, which will never accrue if you hide away from sources of danger, would you agree with this information, Voice?)
[THEY ARE GREEDY BY NATURE. THEY DON’T NEED THE ALCHEMASTER’S TAINT, SO OFFER VALUABLES YOURSELF.]
“This is not the only time the Maker has been encouraged to excess, asking others to sacrifice for his whimsies!” Though he’s bluffing with this accusation, the immediate physical reactions of the assembled daughters makes his knowledge real in observers’ minds. “An empress that hoards queens to be used as toys for his sake, how is this just? You claim everything yourself, keeping others from gathering treasures of their own. Knowing what Dohle’s revival will mean for their fortunes, you seek to…?”
Fehr’s flung hand halts his diatribe, extending then to point at Sapphira.
“You’ve had decades with the Maker’s excesses born of guilt, but never have you corrected him.”
Sensing enough blood let out, the heiress stabs forward to widen the wound.
“You are complicit, a traitor to what I would want.”
Sapphira’s motherly concern has departed.
“… No one here is capable of understanding, even the slightest bit, why things can no longer be fixed with that man.”
Half-lidded in her gaze, the matron only responds with her selfish thoughts while gathering more watery currents hidden from view.
[THAT IS THE LOOK OF SOMEONE THAT IS DONE TALKING. YOU MUST WARN—]
Such a directive is unnecessary, because Fehl is already buzzing at his sister’s core.
[She’s going to obliterate us!] [Not anymore. You earned me the “win”. She is… as my friend would say, a “dumb-dumb” at heart when it comes to her children and “family”.]
“I am the successor deserving of the sacred loyalty you pretend you hold for your children. For, I am made perfectly by the Maker.”
“You — are — not — her. You cannot be Dohle. I told you this ba—!”
“Names are irrelevant, only capacity!” Fehr rushes to interrupt Sapphira, her tone wavering momentarily before firming.
[Offer Petripolis, sister!] [… Mistress! But, an effective lure.]
“As is love! Implying you love the Maker, but cannot give it… instead, what the Maker needs to witness is a victory to rouse him. He needs to see us chisel and smooth the cliff-route down toward the town wider, so as to allow the servants of the Kestners to march to war with Regalia at their fore and flank!
To revive the Kestners, one sacrifice is required: Petripolis must consign itself to our conquest.”
More than anything else she’s said, the word conquest causes every page harpy to shiver. Their feathers ruffle, a primal energy coursing through the murder.
In this instant and for this purpose, they attract toward Fehr instead of their matron.
[CONQUEST IS THE FORBIDDEN SWEETNESS MONSTERS CRAVE.]
“So large and lonely the manse is, without lovely victims? But also so tiny for all of you, since its abandoned rooms are forbidden to use? Instead, you’re huddled like pets in a gray, lifeless aviary, now burnt, when in the holy palace you could soar at will without fear of harm!?” Fehr gestures toward Kol, indicating the dangers which reach even here. “How dare a mere mayor claim authority of this spacious town when a Kestner walks the holy earth again with giant knights of iron and stone!” Like an accomplished orator of old, Fehr’s animated movements use gesture and stance to captivate them, drawing them toward the Regalia and then back to herself as its owner. “Shouldn’t you girls roost in Petripolis wherever you wish to, fly its skies at dusk and dawn? My claim is infinitely holier with fighters of your caliber at my call to plunder what I deserve.”
Some of those closest to Fehr come to attention in the same manner as the harpies would when called upon earlier today. Their subservience spreads when others notice this dedication, two becoming enraptured for every third stuck only watching.
“But… the Chosen live there! Will we fight them, even invade their amphitheater?”
One of the quiet spectators speaks up, the worst source of dread for Petripolis named before the meek harpy hunches with everyone staring at her. Though ever silent as duty demands, fear drives her to break ranks.
“I mean, every time they wander into here, it’s always so touch and go nailing them to the walls…?”
(A fair question! Those…!)
[THOSE LOVABLE BUFFOONS WILL WORSHIP THESE HARPIES THE SAME DAY THEY SWARM IN…SO, TELL THEM THIS.]
(I’ll get to it, don’t rush…!)
With the Voice’s wisdom, Fehl launches in to support Fehr after grinding his teeth.
“Through exposure to their superior seed, the murder will grow by victory and loss! No Chosen will withhold their gift, so why avoid confrontation!? Every child born from passion in service to Mistress Dohle’s cause becomes another beloved servant of the Kestners!”
“That actually makes sense!?”
“If the fight is taken to them and female flesh for their tastes provided, then they have no other reason to invade this manse which offers none of the charms of the Castillo!”
In a quieter conclusion, Fehl renews his apparent “masculine charm” with a grin.
“There’s not enough mates to go around already, so why not go out and meet some with Dohle’s blessing. Or is endlessly bathing here to soothe lusts preferable?”
Several harpies click their tongues at this.
[THE FIRST CHANCE THEY HAD, THEY LAUNCHED HEADFIRST AT A MAN’S JEWELS… THE TWIN GLOBES AND ALSO WHAT HE HELD.]
“I know firsthand that these Chosen worship females that entice them back…”
“We can share them in the town square! If we get caught… we’ll just have to put up with it~?”
“Makes a lot of sense! Haah, I’d love to lift off some pretty boys…!”
[PLEASE DON’T MEAN BOYS IN THE LITERAL SENSE.]
(What? Why? Is this considered improper?)
“A poor empress coddles her children instead of rewarding ambition, Miss Sapphira.”
“You children need someone to coddle you.”
Sapphira’s wings spread ever so slightly, the white-black of them glinting…
[BEWARE!]
“HUT!”
A saber’s point slides by Fehr’s ear, stabbing through a transparent watery body coiling around her upper body. Invisible until the gray blade injects color back into it, this grasping jellyfish blob swirls into clumps of disintegrating flesh. Kaskin drags Fehr to his chest to shield her from its collapse with his back.
The fencer’s blade burns with the sorcerous glyphs drawn along it with his reactive saliva. What’s left of the jellyfish bursts into thick fog that flows away.
“Dohle!”
Fehl rushes up to put himself to her side.
“Why Falke wanted to keep his would-be assassin always bothered me…”
“Men have different judgments than women in the face of danger I think, Miss Sapphira, ho ho!”
Kaskin releases his sister to Fehl, becoming guardian of both of them with a sprightly bounce of his fencing stance.
“It would’ve been simpler to let her retire for the night.”
“But not as amusing, and I fear my… ‘spirit’ uncontrollably rouses every syllable I hear from her.”
“She can’t win.”
“Challenging the impossible is the essence of passion.”
(That magic was…?)
[A SIMILAR MAGIC TO HOW SHE TRAVERSES VIA MIST. DESIGNED TO FORCIBLY RELOCATE FEHR TO DEAL WITH YOU ALONE.](She tried to abduct my sister!?)
“They can’t stay.”
Another look that a parent reserves for problem children passes Sapphira with a sigh.
“They’ve already been fed too many stupid ideas. The charade is too… exciting, again? She…” Sapphira points with her wing. “This child can only go outside and be separated from Falke, maybe be allowed to finally have her own life without him ruining his only success…”
(What… does that mean?)
Not even the voice knows this, though its leaking emotions are equally concerned by the words.
“I will never leave my manse, fake.”
The harpy empress starts forward, swaying as she moves without any seductiveness bothered with. Clinging moisture chills the air and Fehl’s heart as droplets appear on people and surfaces like dew. Once she has them at the heart of her territory, she moves no further.
“You meant ‘willingly’.”
“Oh!?”
Kaskin’s blade lifts, sparking when tendrils of water creep out from thin air into being to bat at it. When he swishes in response, the blade severs them only to leave what’s left to squirm in while reforming.
“Win quickly, there’s only a fun little chance of me earning an evening with her by myself.”
Hundreds of spears of solid water wash up to corral them.
Sapphira’s transparent pet eels snap their razor teeth, darting about to test Kaskin’s nerves and harem harpy kicking legs.
“You children will earn your own lives. I’ll… I still remember a few families in the east that owed us favors, perhaps they…?”
In her own world now, Sapphira’s conjured ocean of blinding blue could wash over them without issue with its thirty-foot high waves. Even the growling kobold won’t stray from their circle to attack.
Still more caring than angry with Fehr and Fehl, neither of them is the target of her clearing spells aimed at companions.
[Why does she favor us so much!?] [… Because she’s greedy for our Maker! And that is our attack route! Set your thoughts and advance with me.]
“You care more for us, because we’re made by the Maker, than you do for your own kin.” Fehr’s acerbic complaint is made all the stronger by public refusal to cower from the rising sea.
A stare down is her last chance to sell herself.
“I care about any misled children. Page harpies are difficult to instruct, so by necessity I’m an expert at fixing problem children like you two.”
With Sapphira’s inspection of their offensive meaning picking apart all possibilities of danger, Sapphira narrows her displeasure at Fehl when she detects something.
“Why do you feel of… two minds, little Fehl, constantly flirting between different feelings? Is this the origin…?”
(Does she recognize y—!?)
[SAY “LOYALTY BEGINS FIRST WITH THE LEADER OF THE HOUSE”. IMAGINE THAT SHE’S FAILED YOU PERSONALLY, AND LET YOUR BODY ABSORB THESE FEELINGS.]
“Loyalty begins first with the leader of the house!”
Toward a servant that would threaten her true master, Fehl stalks out with his face set with fury. Teeth revealed and hissing this at Sapphira, he can finally “feel” enough to say that he…
(The Maker should not desire this clingy “love” you offer, where you ignore yourself for his sake! So, you are imposing it on him!)
[THEN SAY, WHILE GESTURING AT…]
Sweeping his arms around to grasp the witnessing flock up into his bosom, what he found in acknowledging his dislike of Sapphira invites them!
“Dohle names you a traitor because you sold your pride! You can never reclaim it because you’ve secretly become the slave of another since long ago!”
“Very boring. He misses the point, too. Like ‘father’, like ‘son’.”
(She’s not cracking…!)
[SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO. YOU WERE NEVER APPEALING TO SAPPHIRA. GAZE AT THE FRUITS OF VICTORY THAT RIPEN UNNOTICED.](To wha— Oh?)
Out of reach of Sapphira’s grand currents and appearing like ghosts when seen through them, certain harpies innocuously spread into a circle.
They avoid drawing attention from the ongoing tumult while taking up positions that can only stand for a mystical configuration when they spread out their wings.
[Dohle! You must appeal now!] [Yes? … Oh! I see, well performed.]
“Any who stand by me, rise now to rule! At my side, join in remaking the Kestner family!” Fehr reaches toward them, too, urging with clawed hands pulled back to her breasts. “Any who are unsure, stand aside and I will keep you safe! But, to all who oppose me…”
Fehr gestures toward Sapphira to aim the lesser servants’ halberds. From her hand, a two-handed cleaver that glints in the light reforms.
“Be destroyed.”
[SEE YOUR EFFECT, BOY? FEHR IS STRONG NOW BECAUSE YOU WERE BRILLIANT IN FULFILLING HER NEEDS. YOU ARE INSTRUMENTAL TO THEIR SALVATIONS.]
Fehl basks in this adulation from within, its tone so comforting. Understanding of what he desires.
(I’ve saved the family with them joining us… haven’t I?)
“No one else will follow you, children. These four at your back and the scraps are all, because the rest cannot ignore my orders!” Always so carefree today with Fehl, the harpy who he claimed men will naturally seek as perfection coaxes lethal waves closer by gently flapping her wings. “My daughters never had nightmares as hatchlings because I was more terrifying than anything lurking in the dark, hohoho! And they won’t worry anymore once I remedy…”
“““[We declare revolt!]”””
All at once, a cascade of thunder through the proving grounds boils the hanging waters until they erupt into steam.
This steam avoids the matron particularly.
“Or… not?”
The world bends with a magical boundary forming that cuts through the sensing pseudoprósōpon of the manse’ structure.
A field anchored to three spots drawing a triangle that has the tall grandmother at its center forces moisture away from her. Its energized red walls stretch to the ceiling that shows the false sky and burn the colors out.
(They’ve betrayed her…?)
[NATURE DROVE THEM TO THAT LONG AGO, YOUR NEED MATCHING THEIRS TO FINALLY STICK THE KNIFE IN.]
“Really… Esandra? Now?”
“Really, mother!”
An uncharacteristic sneer crosses Sapphira’s lips, her plump cheeks brightening when studying crimson, phosphorescent-glowing ideograms shaped like pyroclastic flows carved into the proving grounds.
“A captive Chosen taught you this, didn’t they!?”
“We can’t defeat our teacher with her own lessons!”
One daughter stands on each, their entire existence discharging into them so rapidly that they must concentrate merely to stand upright. They fade from view at parts of their body, skin pale elsewhere and stresses leaving them dizzier by the second.
“Three greater abjurations against water? All for little old me~?”
“You’re twice our age, stop acting innocent, oh ‘Almighty Empress’! You have to know how hot it burns…!
‘A call goes wide across still waters, rousing the lake whose mists vanish with the rising sun…!’”
The still unrevealed harpy weaves her wings about, spinning once to spread a growing configuration of glyphs about.
“I know, child, all too well, how it burns…”
Before being evaporated, waters deprived from Sapphira eagerly flow away to join this focusing and the others that start.
“What was it, finally, though…? The gold, glamor, and cocks to be had, all to yourselves, once you have things ‘your way’?”
“Always digging, you…! Selfish… old pestering…! You want to play ‘empress’, but only care about the once or twice a year the Maker visits you!
Ignore her and overwhelm together!”
Deprived of the comfortable watery legion she called, the empress lazily lifts off the ground without any exertion of energy in the face of mounting harm.
The look on her face is a mixture of feelings: whimsy, disappointment, even a bit of humor at their attempt.
(With this, we can subjugate the manse!)
[SHE’S NOT EVEN FAZED, SO DON’T SOUND HOPEFUL.](If she can’t use water calling, then what can she possibly do to resist…?)
[EXPERIENCE AND HIDDEN TOOLS GO TOGETHER.]
“Is it jealousy about wanting my attention, or…?”
Every daughter not feeding the magical prison chants spells at rapid speed to augment themselves and the rapidly deforming environment.
Waves of their own encircle the matron. A towering advance of creatures hiding within this siege long to rush out.
Where they feverishly seek advantage with voices high and begging for the water’s aid, Sapphira only quietly intones…
“[Me’hd].”
The false sky above cracks with lines through its painted clouds. Solid turns squishy, goopy with rot.
Numerous orange eyes of leviathan origin open to stare down upon the assembled harpies.
“HYAAAH!?”
When they widen with fascination at the harpies that maintain Sapphira’s prison, all three jerk in pain. The toxic ichor that plummets from these extra-dimensional eyes cracks the prison’s conjured walls like molten iron dropped upon ice where they land.
“ESANDRA! THE WATERS ARE LEAKING BACK THROUGH!”
[WHY CAN SHE CALL ORLOSS’ FUCKING SEA MONSTER!?]
(It’s a projection of her will, as well! She’s had the training of a Pillar, and she would need be bonded to this kraken in order to call it!)
Sapphira levitates further toward the ceiling, stopping just under the gaze of the horrible watcher.
“Just to earn you… a minor handicap and turn it from a few Turns to mince you into maybe a Ten-Turn, you do all this so that Falke will gaze at you instead, Esandra~?”
The lead daughter flinches, earning a laugh from Sapphira.
“Was it really so petty, my little girl!? Are we to be his meal together, in your mind, or…~?”
“Steady up, sisters, we can still dethrone mo—HER!”
A howl rushes through the proving grounds, groans of the manse settling.
[THIS IS… UNFORTUNATE!] [FALKE!? What is this fake doing!?]
The gathered harpies shiver with a sudden gale that whispers in their ears, goading them into violence with the promise of glory to be had. Most appear as confused children seeking some hiding spot from a parent’s rising wrath.
(What is going on!?)
[IT’S NOT JUST “SOME RITUAL”, IT’S A GENUINE STRUGGLE WITH ITS OWN RULES…]
Black feathers are torn from the flock which challenge Sapphira, joining the currents which rush in to obscure view from those who choose to look upon her!
“I taught you all to be more respectful. Maybe… you’re rebelling because I was just a little too nice on everyone~?
Oh well, it doesn’t really matter why.”
A hundred beings plunge into another world.
“I, [Empress of Blue Waters], accept your challenges…
and all that~!”
Bubbles and sea foam stream by, freeing all with their clearing to bask in the sight of a transformed Sapphira. Far more idealized with the gathering power of this harpy ritual, the softness of her age burns away to reveal sharper curves that leave her remarkably similar to her eldest daughter.
The ichor-stained waters collecting rip free her purple and gray sashes. Tendrils of corruption spread down her neck, to wings and thick thighs. Growing purple scales over them, they jealously squeeze over her nipples to keep bare, wobbly breasts tight and creep up between her wide thigh gap to guard the entrance to her fertility shrine.
A scaled mask forms over her eyes, with the multitude of a kraken’s orange ones opening to stare instead.
“When did Evil Orloss do… this to you…?”
“Foolish children, freedom is an illusion. So many hard choices become my regrets, alone.”
[We can’t defeat her anymore, Dohle! Not here! Their ritual has unbalanced the fight in Sapphira’s favor!] [That wasn’t… what I’d planned!]
Screams of crows above the surface, thousands of them, deafen Fehl. The thrill of combat peculiar to these harpies subverts the beating heart of the Pillars.
“Want to learn all mommy’s secrets, girls~?”
A mountain of sea-smoothed stone has risen from the depths to become what Sapphira perches upon, waters cascading downward to return to nothing. From it, she leans over like an owl to judge those gathered for her ascension.
There, Sapphira starts to shine like the sun.
“So… this is how that blasphemous ‘Peak’ feels when his ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ gather at his feet like living toys…?”
Sapphira sneers at all below her, the inhuman eyes of her mask excitedly peering in every direction at once.
“… Boys become such beasts with a little height thrown in, but I understand why!”
Fehl discovers sudden terror, because the proving grounds are now only half present, mixed between gray stone and sun-dark ocean. And he is very close to the mountain claimed by an empress. One quickly discovering the joys of rule.
“Everyone how wants to flee, do so now~.”
The first drop of water to hang from this mountain flow before Sapphira’s lifted wing shines more vividly than any of the savageries her daughters have summoned.
“[Oh, cruel depths…]”
Sapphira’s ocean drills forth.
The cracking boom of the strike rolls through them long after a jet of solidified moisture buries a daughter many feet into exploding gray rubble. Purple Vigor rushes out with the filling wake, and the narrowed “beam”’s pressure escapes along the entirety of that wall.
“Pinna, weakest of all. But, the hardest worker deserves first blood.”
No body is visible when the rest of the support structure sags over the ruined daughter.
“Didn’t feel a thing.”
[FEHR UNDERESTIMATED HER FULL STRENGTH, DID SHE?]
(Did you not, too!?)
“She will rest well, I think~. Your abjurations… barely prevent wide-scale attacks? I’ll spank you one-by-one, then share all your frustrations with Falke.”
“Simultaneous attacks! Launch everything at once!”
“Personally.”
[FLEE, NOW. TAKE AS MANY BYSTANDERS AS YOU CAN.]
(Huh!? Do we not need her daughters to win!?)
[VERY SHORTLY, THEY WILL BE BUTCHERED.](Wasn’t this supposed to be our moment of triumph!?)
[I QUESTION THE SAME THING OFTEN, BUT THE TRUTH IS, THE TILES STACK HIGH JUST AS OFTEN AS THEY FALL. LEARN TO RIDE THE COLLAPSE.]
“Fat bird, got made, stronger, angry birds done it? Hyuuu…”
Of those active in the aftermath, only the whistling kobold and the Voice now lodged within Fehl’s core recover with speed.
Not even Fehr, her face screw up in disbelief of the carnage three words can bring, seems ready to act.
Then, a harpy’s heart starts beating again and ruins the quiet.
“[Booming Ball]!”
One of Esandra’s hanging blue spheres spirals straight for Sapphira. Compressed to a degree that makes it harder than iron, these waters loosed with an arrow’s snap make Sapphira’s earlier lethal fishies seem as dangerous as waterfleas.
“Scratch~.”
The scaled Sapphira lazily slaps the bomb with her shining wing, releasing a crushing boom that distorts view. Most of the energy flows toward her other daughters, instead, disrupting their powers and creating more waves of havoc!
Their combined devastation explodes outward into the innocent spectators, flinging the stricken to be caught up by the ocean Sapphira called!
(No… no damage… to her…)
“I have told you constantly, ‘keep tightening until you can’t’! Let me demonstrate.”
A spinning ball of liquid compresses before the matron without a chant needed, pulling at resisting witnesses until it’s a solid as diamond.
She manages this despite the constant cataclysmic manifestations of watery violence that strike out.
A thousand arrows explode off her; a hammer from up high dropping upon her head to splash apart; her skin squirms with invisible hands ripping at her organs, only to slowly return to normal.
No matter the impact, all Sapphira does is sway with it.
“Now… who wants to play ‘catch’~?”
Half a dozen more spells seek her end, with more coming her way, yet Sapphira’s smile doesn’t waver for an instant.
(How can anyone have that sort of resistance!?)
[YOU HAVE BETWEEN THREE TO FIVE MINUTES AT MOST TO COMPLETE YOUR ASSAULT.](Three minutes!?)
“Fe—!”
“ALL WHO STAND BEHIND ME, TO MY SIDE, NOW!”
His sister is running to wrench up the collapsed before he can call her name. The lesser servants at her back pull up more, carrying them from the pounding waves of these magical attacks.
“You!”
“YES!?”
Fehr pulls up the veil of her survivor, staring into the harpy’s naked face. Two women share a bizarrely intimate moment, with Fehr’s sharp features carrying absolute confidence.
In defiance of that, her gaze is just vulnerable enough to make Fehl’s heart throb.
“… You will follow me, to the end, because you believe that this must change. Only you can help me change our world…”
“I…! I…?”
“… and you will, won’t you? For me?”
“I do, I will, yes! Please let me help you, Mistress, I belong to you!”
“Of course, and I belong to you.” A swift hug is given, before the dazed harpy is pushed away. “Go rescue others like yourself and beat up anyone who resists.”
“Yeeesss…~”
Fehl’s momentum is stolen, because this task of rallying others is done better by her.
“You will follow the true mistress of the manse, correct?”
“Huh!? S-Sure…?”
Each lesser servant repeats the gist of these lines with a dashing expression, hope filling their gazes that’s copied from Fehr and seldom refused.
“All who follow me, gather to invade the Maker’s sanctum and free him from despair! With his help as reward, we will depose this fake and bestow riches.”
[WELL, GO GATHER THE GEAR WE’LL NEED AND COORDINATE WITH THE REGALIA.]
“Stupid fat bird! Kol, want…!”
Sapphira’s water ball tears through a daughter that fails to soar in escape of it, its eruption ripping through the entirety of the proving grounds!
“Spread into pairs, attack from all sides!”
The daughters take flight and flank her. Only the abjuring prison of the three sisters keeps Sapphira’s eruptions solely debilitating rather than tearing.
“GAAAH!?”
Struggling through the battering currents, an already crippled kobold nearly lifts off into the wash with each step.
She fancies one artifact, risking everything for what the water’s currents religiously avoid.
[START BY GRABBING THAT.]
(The kobold or the cross!?)
[BOTH!]
Fehl’s will animates what’s left of the proving grounds surrounding the kobold, lurching the idiot toward him along with the cross that churns the pseudoprósōpon by proximity alone.
“Nah!? Oh, Bird Hunk! Good! Cross, annoying! Why, not come back to Kol!?”
Kol whips it up, then drags the man after her while pointing at the personal defense Regalia.
“Help Kol, big suit, climb in!”
“You are not to be the wearer of the Regalia. The ghoul will be.”
“FUCK, ‘REFUSE’! KOL, STRONGEST ARMOR, KOL WEAR!”
“A knight’s oath is to protect their master. You will shield Dohle while you recover.”
“… Huh? Okay! Where, axe?”
Fehl expected far more obstinacy, but is content with her new job. She wags her tail, whipping it about while searching for a weapon in the carnage surrounding her.
[BEFORE SHE LEAVES, SHE MUST BE RESOLUTE! SHE STILL WEARS THE WRONG COLOR!]
(Explain?)
A brief explanation sends Fehl’s grasp to the kobold’s shoulder.
“Hnn!?” Her heated stare is not lewd at all, rather treating him as a challenge when her eyes constrict.
(So, to weaken the Maker enough for victory…?)
“Do you, in your heart, desire to stay here forever?”
“OH!? UMU! KOL, WANT TO STAY! Everyone, do what Kol want, Kol, never work! Only TRAIN, FIGHT! KAKAKAKAKA!”
Kol smiles toothily, all her base desires obvious.
[NO, YOU WON’T FAIL LIKE THIS…]
Fehl rips off a piece of what’s left of her jacket, showing the green to the girl.
“Even if staying means surrender?”
“‘Suh-rehn-duhur’?”
“… You and everyone will lose, fail to win, if even you alone wear this green at the end of ton—”
“KOL, NEVER FAIL! RAH!”
The kobold shreds the jacket like baker’s paper, taking more of her dress undershirt with it. All of the green darkens to black and is carried off with the torrent whipping by.
Huffing with annoyance, she pulls off the scrapped shirt and then ties it around her breasts, ignoring how Fehl blanky stares.
“KOL, WIN, LEAVE!
Birds, birds, more birds, here, anyway! But!”
The kobold grabs onto Fehl’s pantaloons, dragging them downward while growling.
“Cute… Kol, can visit, right?”
“Any time you wish! Just release me!”
[SHE CHOSE THE RIGHT PATH! BUT? WHY IS THERE NO RUSH OF VICTORY? SHOULDN’T THIS MEAN THE GAME IS OVER…?]
(We’ve no time for discussing games! I have to safeguard Fehr!)
[Mercenary! Do you have the fortress scaling tool ready or not!?]
Fehl’s core connects to the Regalia’s internal pseudoprósōpon resonator, a crackling communication open with a luxurious voice that fills him with anger.
[It’s kinda hard to make this thing move with so much elemental water shocking its mechanisms, so back off, pipsqueak!]Its owner steers a sluggish walking armor back from the corner maintenance area and withdraws something, barely clearing it before a radiant wave of water washes into it. Chaotic explosions of chemical mixtures rocket out, pelting the Regalia and frenzied harpies with scrap.
“AN’TINAE!? BIG SISTER!? WHAT WAS THAT!?”
In response to the impacts startling this voice that speaks from the frame, the green glow coating the armor intensifies.
“WAS THAT KOL THAT HIT ME!? Please stop! Big Sister is better than you at this!”
“NAH!? LIE, ELF!”
Fehl’s hand is jerked when his accompanying kobold stoops to hurl a sheep-sized piece of debris full force at the Regalia, cracking it in the head.
[Ugh! Tell… tell this bad luck charm to stop getting so freaked out, and control that fucking tunnel dog! Containment is already exceeding its normal parameters! If I lose my viewing scope, I’ll tumble!] [Deal with it! The entire proving grounds have become a warzone! We’re gathering to strike!] [Be careful, you little punk, or my rates might just mysteriously triple at the worst moment…] [Ah, sorry.]
The ghoul within balances the struggling Regalia, then launches into a plodding run. In one hand is a scimitar, while the other arm cradles a tubular implement with a pointed hook on one end and lengths of cable wrapped around it.
Fehr, Kaskin, the three harpies, and their captured pawns gather at its feet when it arrives.
“Over here! Fight off pursuers and muster for assignments!”
At their backs, several flights of harpies swoop in to chase their advance as support. A ragtag army is all that Fehl and Fehr can claim.
(This isn’t enough! We can’t win!)
[YOU CERTAINLY CAN… VICTORY IS SIMPLE IN THIS CASE.](If Sapphira is this mighty, then the Maker…!)
[IS INCAPACITATED. VICTORY DOESN’T NEED MORE THAN ONE OBJECTIVE. DON’T FEAR, FEHL, YOU HAVE ME IN YOUR CORNER.](… Ah, true…)
“Page harpies, distract and destroy large masses of enemies! Kaskin, defend me! Restia, protect Falke! Kachua and Shiare, eliminate those trying to jump up onto the Regalia! And…”
Fehr leaps up the Regalia with Kaskin after her, both perching on its right shoulder.
“Ms. Ghoul, do not stop until we reach the highest branch, no matter who is lost! I and Falke must reach the central controller of the manse in order to adjust its defenses to target the fake Phira!”
“Yes, Mistress! To war!” Kaskin screams out in that effeminate voice of his, a brilliant enthusiasm visible past his thick makeup.
His raised saber unites the rest.
“Glory to the Kestners, defenders of the will!”
[TESTAMENT TO OUR VERY EXISTENCE, A SHINING BEACON GROWN FROM OUR SEED, PROOF OF THE EARTH’S VOICE]
The plaque’s destination speaks of the finality of their war goal. Its gateway clicks and opens with a shudder.
Revealed behind it is a glowing orange tree of immense size, its roots obscured by mists roving the garden of gem flowers and trees…
“I won’t let you make the same mistakes again, girl!”
All quake with the air rushing away, an electrifying tingle across their skins.
(What is…!?)
[OLD WOMEN IN LOVE ARE TRULY ANNOYING!][Falke, flee through the gate before it’s too late!]
Behind them, a brief lull in her destruction of her daughters grants Sapphira time to lift one wing that sparks with lightning dying to escape.
“Leave… Falke… alone…!”
That flashing death escapes to encircle them all in a buzzing cage, Regalia included. Neither living nor otherwise can move a limb with so much power all around.
“[Sea King’s Gaol]!”
“FUCK AWAY!”
Into the center of this destabilizing cage’s anchor, a black object flung in cries like cracking glass and whispers. It sets off a shrieking cascade of collapse in turn!
“STUPID BIRD, GO BE FAT SOMEWHE—!”
The cataclysmic explosion fires the cross back to its sender along with much of the cage’s lightning.
“NAHGAGAGAGAGAgagagagaga———!?”
It catches Kol in the chest, knocking her into a roll that ejects the electrified knight out the other side.
The rest of the spell’s reserves home in on Sapphira, who swings wildly when electrical constrictions that burn flesh and feather wrap around!
“HOO!? THAT’S HOT!?”
“GET HER, NOW!”
“You girls are so vicious! I’m a little proud of—”
“SHUT UP, HAG!”
“Oh~my~!”
Sapphira then vanishes into a turmoil of choppy waters, her mountain cracking when she’s carried off of it by the horrible spells several daughters rush in to fling at her while she’s defenseless.
“For My glory, charge!”
““““For Dohle!””””
[For our future together, sister!] [To prove… us, perfect…]
Neither hears more than a whisper from the distant adviser that breaks up at the worst moment, for Fehl’s enthusiasm distorts his judgment of its importance after breaching the gateway to heaven.
[What—look like—cry, old bastard…?]