A Flurry of Emotions (Finral Roulacase x OC)

Chapter 21

"What do you mean? Who's Artemis? Who're you?" Melody asks.

"I'm Caitlyn, I helped this guy save you and Artemis is the guy who kidnapped you from the dungeon."

"What's going on with him?" Finral demands off the glass mage.

"I figured out why he needs the scroll and what it does, or more accurately, what it is."

"You did? That's great!"

"Should we go to Beckie?" Melody questions.

"Yeah."

Melody and Finral take Caitlyn back to the base, leading her to Beckie's office. Arriving there, Finral knocks on the door and a frustrated 'come in' can be heard from the inside. Carefully Finral opens the door.

"We can come back later if now's not a good time," he offers.

"No, no, it's fine. It's just Luck has been even more clingy than usual since we got married."

"I feel you! Just not with the whole marriage thing, we're nowhere near ready for that," Caitlyn says from behind Finral.

"Caitlyn?" Beckie cranes her neck to see past Finral.
"Melody, you're here too! By all means come in and sit down."

The three oblige and sit down after Finral grabbed a third chair.

"So, did you find anything out about the scroll, Caitlyn?" Beckie wonders, once they've all made themselves comfy.

"I actually did. The following about the scroll: apparently there's going to be a battle about some turf in Diamond and if Artemis doesn't win he'll lose all of the little respect that he already has."

"I thought he was a big shot in the southern area?" Finral says with a questioning undertone.

"He is. That doesn't mean he's well respected though, on the contrary: most people live in fear of him. You could say he's a tyrant."

Melody tries to listen, but it's growing over her head. Finral and Beckie have the advantage that they know who this Artemis guy is. Ever since she'd gotten back everyone was refusing to tell her anything about the plan or the rescue itself. Which had never been a problem until today. 

"What does that have to do with the scroll?" Melody asks, so she isn't just dead weight. 

"The scroll isn't actually magical in any way, like we originally thought. It's a blueprint. For a magic item that increases mana."

"And he's hoping to increase his mana, so that he can win this battle?"

"He does have a problem though. Do you know where Secré is?"

"Who?" Beckie looks confused.

"Lumière's handmaid? Was stuck as a bird for 500 years? My best friend? Yeah, no, that won't help, how are guys meant to know that…," Caitlyn mumbles the last part to herself.

"Ohhhhh, you mean Nero!" Finral says.
"Why's that a problem for him?"

"He needs to seal something into the magic item and an ancient type of light magic to activate it."

"And Nero's sealing magic would be the ideal way to do that."

"Beckie!" Asta bursts into the door. He looks around the small group.
"Guys!" He corrects himself.

"What is it, Asta?"

"Nero's gone!"

"What? Do you have any idea where she went?" Caitlyn asks, panicked.

"No, she went for a nap and after a couple hours I thought I'd check on her, but then she was gone!"

Caitlyn's panic grows.

"Caitlyn calm down! Even if he has Ne-, uh, Secré, he still needs a type of ancient light magic and where's he going to get that?" Beckie comforts her.

"I know a guy."

"How old is he?" Beckie blurts out.
"Sorry."

"No big deal. Well he was 25 500 years ago and he still is. He was just stuck as a statue for those 500 years, like how I was stuck as a fish."

"A statue as a tribute to someone who lived 500 years ago and is actually alive? Who is this guy?" Melody asks.

"He's Lumière Silvamillion Clover. You might know him as the first Wizard King."

Everyone gapes.

"And if Nero was his handmaid, would he go to great lengths to find her?" Finral questions.

"Oh definitely, they have a great relationship."

Silence fills the room again.

"Well, I'm going to check on him, 'cause if he's not in his room, we're going to have to leave for Diamond ASAP."

Caitlyn leaves and rushes off in the direction of the town.

"Can someone please tell me about the rescue plan. I barely had a clue of what was going on just then," Melody pleads.

"Basically we separated into four groups one for the North, South, et cetera, et cetera. Beckie and I went to the South and got surrounded by some bandits, so that's how we met Caitlyn. Then we made a plan on how to rescue you, but just as we were going to leave you were literally sitting on our doorstep," Finral summarises.

"So we're going with a person from Diamond to infiltrate and potentially attack a different person from Diamond?" Melody asks.

"No, Caitlyn's from Clover. She was undercover in Diamond, looking for someone, who I'm going to presume is this Lumière bloke," Beckie finishes. 

"Excuse me," Asta says from the doorway.
"I'm going to leave now,  I still have 500 burpees to do."

"Yeah, of course," Beckie dismisses him

*Caitlyn's POV*

I rush up the stairs of the hotel to his room and dig through my pockets hastily for the key. I find it and unlock the door with trembling fingers. The door opens and I step into the room. No one's there. 

"Oh no, cheerio, what have you done?"

I fly back to the base and run back to Beckie's office. Everyone looks at me with expectant looks on their faces. 

"I have no idea how he found out, but he's gone. Lumière's gone."

Looks of sympathy and sadness cover their faces, then Beckie's turns into determination. 

"Ok, Finral get the gang together, we need all hands on deck."

Finral nods before stepping through a portal. Beckie starts pulling maps, compasses and various other things out of her drawers. And I thought I was organised, but in that moment it dawned on me: everything in this office was exactly, millimetre for millimetre, where Beckie wanted it. Beckie looks up from her maps. 

"We're going to find your friends, Caitlyn," she assures me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: and this is evie signing off of her second competed fanfic (and second part of a trilogy ;)).
i hope you enjoyed and goodbye!