"Halt! What business do you have in Diamond?" A guard demands of the small crowd.
"Selling," A says briefly, shoving Beckie, Charlie and Noelle forward.
"Okay," the guard says, stepping aside.
Once beyond the gates they split up into their pairs and head in different directions to start their search for Melody.
"I can't believe that worked," Beckie says, heading towards the south with Finral.
"Welcome to Diamond, I guess."
The two continue conversing when suddenly they're surrounded by a bunch of thugs. The two Clover mages immediately jump into action.
"You got my back, Finral?"
"Always!"
A battle commences, where Beckie uses her briar magic to attack and Finral uses his spatial magic to fling her around the battlefield.
Not good. We've only taken down two of their men.
When all hope seems lost, a voice echoes out from above them.
"Glass Magic: Verre Vénéneux!"
Shards of glass fly out of the caster's hands, impaling most of the enemies and seemingly poisoning the rest. Finral and Beckie turn around to see who their saviour is. All they see is a figure wearing a full length cloak standing on a nearby roof.
"Come on then!" The hooded figure shouts down at them.
The figure then creates a ladder of glass, leading up one of the walls.
"As if we'd go with you! You're the most suspicious one here!" Beckie crys back.
"You would've died if it weren't for me!"
"But first, tell me if they'll be ok," Beckie orders the stranger.
"They'll be fine, it was only a mild paralysing poison. You know what men are like. The mildest cold and they think they're on their deathbeds. Now are you coming out not?"
Beckie reluctantly climbs up the ladder and hauls herself onto the roof.
"Are we going anywhere?" Finral asks, who had crawled up after Beckie.
"Home," the stranger says, bluntly.
"And how far away is it?"
"Just around the corner," the stranger says, breaking a smile.
"So when you said 'just around the corner' you meant twenty miles away," a panting Finral says, after trekking around the southern quarter for ten minutes.
"Finral, we've only been walking for five minutes," Beckie says.
"Really? It feels like ten!"
"You're both wrong," the stranger calls from in front of them.
The two Black Bulls look up to her hopefully.
"It's been fifteen."
"Are we at least nearly there?" Beckie asks, despairing slightly.
"Nope," the stranger says, seemingly enjoying the despair of their companions.
"Because we're here already!" They say, cheerily waving at a wall.
"...There's nothing there," Finral states, disappointed.
"You think I have a house out in the open with what I do?"
"We know nothing about you, unless you count that you're a butt-kicking vigilante," Beckie sighs.
"Fair point. Go stand on that brick over there," the stranger orders.
Beckie and Finral do as they say, slightly scared of what they might do otherwise. As the both of them are caught up in their thoughts the hooded stranger catches up to them and squeezes onto the tile with them.
"Sorry, it's not made for three people."
Suddenly the stone shudders and begins to move downward. The three of them sink a good fifty metres into the ground before coming to a standstill. Before them is a large iron door with a keypad. The stranger walks over and puts in a PIN, unlocking the door. Beyond the door is a cavernous room with a waterfall flowing in the centre, there are three rooms around the edge: a bedroom, the bare minimum of a kitchen and an outcove with a bunch of boxes. The stranger removes their cloak and drapes it over a nearby rock, revealing their identity. A tidy brown plait falls down her left shoulder, her dress is cyan with a fuchsia waistband, which matches the colour of her hair tie and sandals. Her almost luminescent eyes give a strong contrast to her pale skin.
"Hi! I'm Caitlyn, Caitlyn Pyrex!" She introduces herself, cheerfully.
"Beckie," the vice captain introduces herself, still taking in her surroundings.
"And this is Finral," she adds, speaking for the spatial mage next to her.
"So what brought you here to Diamond?"
"What do you mean? We live here," Beckie lies.
"Yeah yeah and I wasn't stuck as a fish for 500 years," Caitlyn wanders over to the kitchen and sets a kettle to boil.
"So you believe us?" Finral asks, speaking up.
"No!"
"You were stuck as a fish for 500 years?!" Beckie exclaims, surprised.
"Yeah, it's kind of a long story though."
Caitlyn throws a tea bag into the now boiling water.
"Take a seat," she gestures to two rocks acting as chairs.
"Don't worry, they're comfier than they look."
Finral and Beckie take a seat and Caitlyn walks over with a tray of fractured teacups.
"You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"
"If you must know, we're looking for a friend of ours who got kidnapped."
"Cool, you mind if I join this little crusade?"
"I guess not-?"
"Thanks, what do you already know about the kidnappers?"
Beckie's gaze immediately wanders to Finral.
"Not much, just that one is an arrow mage and the other is a spatial mage."
"What colour was the spatial magic?" Caitlyn asks, her usually cheerful demeanour now stone serious.
"Red and black, why?"
"That's bad. REALLY bad."
"Why what does it mean?" Beckie asks.
"As far as I know, there's only one person with that type of spatial magic. Artemis Scias. He's a big shot down here, he leads the Scade Gang. Why did he take your friend?"
"We don't think he was actually after her, but after a scroll that she had picked up," Finral answers.
"So she's disposable as well? Yikes. The chances of all three of you surviving are basically non-existent."
Beckie and Finral gulp.
"But I'm on your side!"
"I'm not sure how comforting that is," Beckie says, sweat dropping.
"I'm still the one who saved you!"
"Actually, why did you do that? You knew we weren't from Diamond and you saved us anyway. Aren't Diamond's people a bunch of xenophobes?"
"Whoever said I'm from Diamond?" Caitlyn pulls out a three leaf clover grimoire and shows it to the two Black Bulls.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N: new character, some deepening of the diamond kingdom arc and the picture of melody like promised :)
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A Flurry of Emotions (Finral Roulacase x OC)
FanfictionA shunned noble crosses paths with his childhood best friend. While taking their relationship to new levels they uncover each others secrets and insecurities. What will finally drive them apart? This is my second book and you don't have to have read...
