Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

For Renton and Marie\'s part, they could not have approached the situation any more differently. Marie was extremely timid and shy as a person so she looked exorbitantly uncomfortable with the situation. Renton simply looked at Kalliope with a patient gaze waiting for a moment he felt like it would be safe to speak without her snapping at him.

Every few minutes of silence or so, Marie would awkwardly glance in Lyrah\'s direction, which she responded with a teasing smile and wiggle of her fingers. Lyrah chose not to say anything and simply enjoyed the scene spread out before her. Despite the tension, now that things had softened after the market incident, Kalliope would not do anything to cause permanent damage.

Kalliope sighed deeply and waved her hand to indicate that Renton could start speaking. Lyrah smiled at the gesture. This very situation was pre-determined by Lyrah. It was a future that she was able to guarantee.

Depending on how things went, it was hard to say there would be no fighting… but at least no one would die. Rather, that\'s what Lyrah had foreseen happening today. With prophecies things were seldom guaranteed. There was always a room for chance and randomness, though in general the overarching theme of the prophecy would come to pass.

For example, she knew that Lucius would go to war. That was a fixed outcome that nothing could change. However, when and how he went to war was something that could be different. Had he gone on time after his dungeon raid was over, then the next fixed point would have been his death. However, if he went to war early, then the fixed-point would be his survival.

Part of the Oracle\'s powers were to dive down these branching paths and find the fixed points. Their recommendation to the kingdom would then manipulate the factors leading up to the event in question.

Just like today, since Renton and Marie survived the war, they were guaranteed to run into Kalliope. Because they did so while Lyrah was present, they survived. Lyrah then suggested the guild hall to meet in, not because of preventing fighting, but rather the long walk would allow everyone to calm down and gather their thoughts, leading to a productive meeting.

She continued to smile and quietly enjoy her desserts, wondering what would happen next. There were a few outcomes, but she decided to see which ones would come about on their own.

"Lady Kalliope," Renton began after taking a deep breath, "I want to start off by saying that we had nothing to do with the attempted assassination of Lucius. Truly, we had no idea that Mia was planning such a thing."

Marie furiously nodded her head in agreement. Though she was still on edge, Kalliope did seem to visibly settle a little after Renton\'s resolute tone. Even she could tell that he was not built for lying.

"Say what you are proclaiming is true… tell me what happened." The wolf-girl demanded.

Renton and Marie carefully explained their recollection of the events. They noticed that Mia was acting strange as they approached the ridge over the valley where the assassination attempt occurred. She had even volunteered to scout ahead alone just before arriving.

When they had recruited Lucius, he took over all of their scouting needs because of his superior senses. Though Mia was better at hiding thanks to her specific skills and mark, Lucius was able to scout further ahead without traveling the immense distance that Mia would need to in order to cover the same area.

Though they thought it strange, no one thought anything of it because they had just lost their member, Lynn. Everyone had agreed to give her the benefit of the doubt on account of loss and grief.

Renton then went on to explain that the assassin was a black-haired elf with amber eyes that seemed to have known Lucius. Kalliope was not privy to this new information because Lucius had declined to explain much about his connection to everyone.

She knew he had been betrayed by people he looked up to, but that was it. Apparently after the attack, Mia and Lucius were presumed dead and the three assassins took Renton and Marie back with them. Richard von Petra and Commander Laris kept their promise to Mia and shipped Renton and Marie away from the battle lines, allowing them to be dismissed from the war effort.

The elf, Shiyani explained some of her backstory with Renton and Marie for reasons they did not understand. Even though Kalliope had calmed down at the beginning of the explanation, her discovery of the details of the betrayal served only to infuriate her more.

Lyrah\'s untrained eyes could almost see the residual mana falling off the woman from the amount of anger she was expressing after the two former party members of Lucius finished explaining everything. The room fell silent once more as neither of the two wanted to do or say anything that might further trigger Kalliope\'s anger.

"Thank you for your information." She managed through gritted teeth. Her large canines had lengthened slightly as she seemed to barely be able to hold back shifting. "Do you know where Shiyani is now?"

Marie shook her head, "N-n-no… we separated from her the moment we arrived back in Arcadios four years ago. We have not seen or heard from her since. Though I did overhear that they might have been going to Aedrider. Again, it\'s been a long time since then, so I doubt they are still there…"

"Thank you both." Kalliope almost whispered. "I am sorry I attacked you, I just… well I\'m sorry."

"It is understandable, Lady Kalliope." Renton affirmed. "You were simply wanting to protect him. Even though you lacked the information to truly understand everything, I believe anyone else would have made the same conclusions, and we do not fault you for that."

"Th-that\'s right!" Marie stuttered, "If y-you need anything at all… please let us know. Our party has kept its name, though there are only two of us now. We are at your service."

Kalliope bowed her head slightly and the two adventurers left the room. Now it was empty save for the young Oracle and the wolf-girl. The only sounds were those of Lyrah snacking. Enjoy new chapters from M-V-L

"So!" Lyrah sang out, "How are you feeling?"

"Ill…"

"Understandable!" She continued, "I knew this would happen of course, but it was interesting to witness!"

"You knew?" Kalliope\'s brow furrowed. "I thought you could only see visions of Lucius. He\'s not here and I doubt that it only needs to be about him for you to see it."

Lyrah gave her a smile, "Perhaps."

"Have you been lying to us?" Kalliope accused.

"That\'s funny coming from you, Lady Kalliope."

"What do you mean by that?"

Lyrah put down her plate. The vision of amusement and playful attitude she normally portrayed vanished in an instant and was replaced with a stone-cold expression. She leaned in close to Kalliope and locked eyes with her, "You\'re a liar."