Kingdom of Hallos, City of Beswind, Present day.
Sara tapped the pristine medallion against the stone table. Everything that was said at between herself, Lanace and King Alvion echoed again and again. There could be no flaw here. She needed to complete her end of the bargain. It would be written that Princess Sara joined Lanace in marriage and devised a plan to put an end to a man that perpetuated dishonest actions; Ered. She thought on the other bargains were struck between Alvion and Lanace, that of more weapons and aid to help against the rebellion of Ara'koh.
"Do I make you uneasy, princess?" teased Lanace that was leaned over the table beside her. "There's no need for the restlessness." He motioned over to the empty seat across from them. "The king has left to his chambers, which leaves only you and I at this table." He leaned in with puckered lips.
Sara almost choked on the scent of cactus water perfume that surrounded him as she pulled away.
His wet lips landed on her cheek. "Saving yourself for the night of our wedding?" He shrugged. "The more aged a wine is, the more succulent the taste." He pulled away from her. "I don't doubt an heiress will differ," he continued as he bit his lip. "My brother had you on his arm for years…when he should have had you in his bed."
Heat of anger simmered at Sara's brow as she kept her head down. "Remember who you are addressing." She continued to tap the medallion against the table. "I'm not some far-inn whore. I'll throw your title to the mud and have your tongue in between a branding iron if you continue addressing me as such."
He scratched at his pathetic excuse of a beard. "Noted, my lady." Another smile reserved on his lips.
Was everything a jest to him? Not a single ounce of the man carried any type of respect or decency it would seem.
"It seems you're still perturbed, considering you've yet to cease that tapping," he said. "Where is it you got your hands on that chaza medallion anyhow?"
Sara paused. Chaza medallion? "What did you call this?" She raised the coin.
"It's a piece of chaza," he answered confidently. "Gold is equal to horse dropping when compared to it."
She had wondered since the day of her coronation what the steel was or even what its origin could be. And the person she arbored almost as much as the dogs of Loradel was the one with answers. "A man that claimed my father was to blame for his daughter's death tried taking my life on the day of my coronation. A medallion just like this one was in his home."
Lanace sat on the table, unsurprised. "Chaza used to bribe someone into killing a princess. Not surprising."
His words sat with her. "On my way here, I was again ambushed by a man named Fallaj and his party of soldiers. He spouted something about me being in the way of his people's rise to power." She flicked the chaza over to him. "That medallion was bound to a necklace he wore."
Lanace held it up to the moonlight. "How is it you attained it from him?"
"Taking a necklace from a corpse is fairly simple." A leak of pride escaped alongside her words.
Lanace raised an eyebrow. "Do it yourself? Quite impressive."
"How so? Furthermore, how is it I never heard about this steel before?" She leaned back in her chair.
"Its only found beneath the ground in Ara'koh. It releases a deadly dust when mined, but after it's been properly smelted it becomes a much more valuable."
Sara leaned into her balled fist as she crossed her legs. "Why were two assassins carrying steel from Ara'koh?" she asked herself. Though her answer came as she saw Lanace pause, mouth agape. "Wait—"
"It's apparent now," he muttered. "My dear old cousin must have been behind it."
Sara remained silent as it was obvious that more words rested on his tongue.
"The leader of the behind the Ara'koh Rebellion; Zuria Akatar. She is desperate for control of the kingdom."
"Why target me? I'm no enemy of hers." Her eyes widened as the answer came to her once more.
Lanace snickered. "Zuria knows that if you were to wed Ramses, or now me, the unification of our nations would snuff out her chance at taking the throne. Never would she set foot near the capitol with the power of Zuland backing Ara'koh."
Of course his kingdom's problems leaked over to her lands. It would be too much to expect a man like him to be able to control some rebels. She grimaced. "Keep your kingdom's war within your borders. I have a platterful of problems and I've no interest in adding yours to it."
Lanace prodded at his own chest. "My problems? As sour as it may be for you to swallow, princess, I wasn't the one who failed to kill her four years ago. That what Ramses."
"What?" Sara sat up in her seat. "This is the first I've heard on the matter. I—" Multiple questions collided with one another at her throat. "I—tell me more."
"Gladly, my dear." He sat half-stretched across the table. "You know of the battle that took Ramses' life, but not of who it was that took it."
The mention of him tugged at her heart, threatening to release tears. She inhaled slowly and pushed away the raw emotion, leaving room for only focus.
"The battle of Phadavil. As the name suggests, it occurred at Phadavil Fortress four years before today. It began with an ambush led by Zuria herself. That alone came as a surprise seeing as she never had the numbers to take the fort, siege or not. But alas, she found a crack in our defense and managed to slip a small battalion through the rear while another force attacked the front."
"Another force? You mean to say that the rebels had another mass of men that you were unaware of?"
"Not men…demons." For the first time, the man's pompous smile was gone, replaced by unsteady eyes and parted lips. "A horde of demons ripped through the stone walls as if they were slabs of straw."
"What!" yelled Sara, catching the attention of a random passing servant.
He eyed them curiously before Lanace waved him off.
Sara rubbed her brow. "Demons, does that mean they had the biotic aura sphere then?" She caught her voice seconds too late as she stammered.
Lanace tilted his head. "Biotic aura? You mean the Forbidden Aura; Biotic—from the stories?"
Sara sighed. Defeated, she shrugged. "You've shared information with me, I'll repay you in the same manner." She gulped. "The Forbidden Auras are far from a feature of a child's tale. They are very much real and powerful. My father and Ramses worked for years to create a weapon capable of helping Zuland shape the continent into a better place. By using two of the four auras they created soldiers that know no doubt, know no remorse, know no weakness. They are not human like you and I, rather, they are demons molded into armor."
Lanace smiled, there was a glitter in his eyes. "Fascinating. How many of these soldiers does Zuland have under its command?"
"There were three originally. Dubbed: The Lionslayer, Dragonslayer and Serpentslayer. Father says the Serpentslayer was lost, a failed development. The second, The Lionslayer, is somewhere here in the valley. I sent it to a village on the border to kill a pair of Loradel commanders."
"That would be an act of war," replied Lanace.
Ever the peacemaker now? Sara rolled her eyes. "Those commanders killed my men that were stationed there. My retaliation was justified."
"What happened then?"
"The Lionslayer somehow ended in the hands of our General Giase in Blaika Keep after it failed to kill the Loridian mutts." The mention of them brought strain to her thoughts.
"Pfft. I expected more," stated Lanace, his voice bordering boredom.
"One of the mutts continued by invading the keep, leaving a trail of dead Zuland soldiers in his wake. Last I heard, that commander fled into the Undergrove after his attack. No man could ever survive in that garden of solitude. And if that wasn't enough to confirm the filth's death, the Lionslayer followed him, surely finishing the job."
Lanace nodded with a thin smile. "Where is it now?"
Sara bowed her head. "I've no clue. It was last seen then, but I'll find it once this is all over…it was the reason I left Belfire, to find it and bring it back."
Lanace pushed off the table and began pacing on the grass. "With this new insight—it explains more about the battle of Phadavil. But Zuria doesn't have the power of a Forbidden Aura on her side."
"What makes you so sure?"
"The demons that raided the fort didn't favor a side. They tore through our men as much as Zuria's. To add to my belief, if she had that kind of sway over monsters, she would have taken Ara'koh years ago."
Roxas, were your people behind this? Sara nodded in agreement. Never had she thought she'd align herself alongside his ideas. Let alone that he had any ideas worth crediting.
"Ramses being the kind heart he was…tried to reason with our cousin—the would-be usurper in the midst of battle. He tried recollecting and reminding her how they used to play as children." He shook his head as his voice turned to a whisper. "I saw it happen in pieces while in bouts of my own. She wouldn't have it. They met swords and I know Ramses discarded any thoughts of harming her. Doing that allowed her to land a fatal strike. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to leave him at death's door. And death stepped in through that door in the form of a demon—that beast looked like an executioner." He sighed. "Ramses' death was fashioned by Zuria." He stopped his pace.
Sara was no foreigner on gathering hatred towards an unknown face. She could picture the brown-skinned harlot. In her thoughts she had no admirable features. Her gut recoiled as she wished she had Zuria in her grasp.
"She's the responsible for Ramses," he continued. "And I have no doubt that she now aims to have you killed."
Sara gritted her teeth. "Let her try. She bribed a traitor and now he's dead—she sent an assassin and now he's dead." A new flame of morale burned in her chest. "In two days, King Ered will occupy a casket—she can send an army and they'll all meet the same end." Of that she was certain.