173 Clear and Present Danger (1/2)

\”Is this thing really going to work?\” I asked skeptically while glancing down at the bracelet attached to my forearm. Not the one Aura had given me, but a new one Darah attached there earlier.

\”For the nth time, it'll work,\” Al insisted.

I kept my eyes on the golden loops formed in patterned swirls that went around the bracelet and remembered the magical chains that were wrapped around Luca's neck.

\”Luca… you sure you're good to go?\” I asked.

I turned to face my brother who had a bandaged around his neck and nape which conveniently covered the magical chains that would be revealed by the rising of the sun which was coming very soon.

\”No migraines and the swelling's subsided,\” Luca answered while giving me the thumbs up. \”Besides, I want payback for that earlier ambush.\”

I sighed heavily. There was no use insisting Luca stay back and chill as he was even more stubborn than Edo when he set his mind to it.

\”Enough of your whining, Dapper,\” Dain growled. \”Let's review the plan as previously discussed.\”

\”Yes, let's… all this male bonding is beginning to make my skin crawl,\” Verania added.

Verania's lieutenant, a wily older pixie going by the name of Sutherland, laughed politely at his mistress' biting wit.

I sighed again and thought back to the moments after I shared the info the Inquisitor had given me with Darah and Grimthorn. Their decision to saddle me with my three rivals was a bad one, I thought. No way we could work together to foil this plot.

\”The Great Generals have assigned their own guard to protect key positions within the Palanquin Palace's grounds here and here,\” Al said, pointing out several spots in the map laid out on the table between the four of us. \”The palace guards are in charge of the gates and entryways plus the Patriarch's quarters in the palace's west wing.\”

Al pointed to the spiral tower on the southern edge of the palace's roof which the four of us and our lieutenants were currently on.

\”Our job is to scout out the vulnerable areas between the well-protected spots,\” Al reminded us.

\”Most of our units are patrolling outside the city… we probably have fifty people between the four of us… That's not enough manpower to guard all those locations,\” Dain reminded him.

\”Yup,\” Al agreed. \”The Palanquin Palace is ridiculously huge…\”

\”We don't have to,\” Verania interrupted. She sent an icy-stare my way. \”If what Great General Darah said was true then Dean can tell us exactly where we need to go.\”

The three of them turned their eyes on me, and I swear I could see a hint of jealousy hidden behind their intense gazes. Even Al was looking at me with a slightly less friendly stare.

\”That's assuming this thing works,\” I said, raising the arm that the new bracelet was wrapped around. \”I've never even heard of a temporary anchor before.\”

He tried for a smile which I assumed was born out of guilt at his earlier glare.

\”This should keep you in the Fayne even during the day unless you take it off,\” Al explained.

Sure enough, Sol, the Fayne's dull yellow sun, painted the horizon in fiery orange as it rose up to the sky and bathed us in dawn's glow — and I didn't disappear.

\”Holy sh**, it worked,\” I breathed in as I gazed up at Sol in disbelief. \”I'm still here…\”

\”What an unfortunate but necessary evil, Verania,\” said dryly. \”Now, why don't you used your legendary gift and impress us all with your… adequateness.\”

In a lot of ways, the Fayne was the exact opposite of Mudgard. They were like night and day, literally. And while we humans worked during the day and slept at night, fairies did the opposite. This initially had to do with some fairy species having an allergic reaction to the sun. Some troll breeds, in particular, turned to stone at the touch of sunlight. However, most fairies just preferred the magical light of Idunn over the harsh light of Sol. So while the sun was up, fairies hid in their lairs and gilded palaces and dreamt of the coming night.

Why was this important? Well, if most fairies were asleep during the day then it would also be the perfect time for nefarious plots to come into play. Assassinations in the Fayne actually happened in broad daylight.

This fact, I learned a few hours later, during midday, when, after choosing to tune out Verania's ridicule and Dain's whining, I used Fool's Insight for the seventh time and scouted out the scenery below me.

From my vantage point in the sky, I could see much of the Palanquin Palace's grounds below, but zooming in was necessary for me to make out individual locations more clearly which meant I was more limited in what I could see.

However, as my sight passed over the southern gate and its adjoining courtyard, my eyes flashed on the number of bodies lying on the ground. All of them belonged to the palace guards.

\”Luca… how many guards were stationed in the south courtyard to the right of the Garden of Mana,\” I asked quickly.