The Mother

Chapter 8

They ran down the hall and through the door to the main hall, taking a second to place the two masks they held onto their statues before they ducked into the duke's room. The Duke greeted them warmly and they sold their valuables and Scarlett finally let him tinker with Albert's regular pistol, it was the stronger of the two and she wanted to see what he could do with it.

  "Ah... a remarkable weapon, this one. If I do well enhancing it, will you let me do the others you carry?" The Duke asked as he pulled out a rolled cloth that held several tools.

  "Maybe." Scarlett said with a smile as she watched the man work. He first took apart the weapon and cleaned it well before he fiddled with the trigger mechanism and the barrel. Soon he finished with that and placed a sighting mechanism on it over its original sights at the top. He handed it back to her and she checked over it thoroughly, the sight ha a red dot that would make it far easier for her to aim.

  "Thank you, I'll tell you how it handles once I've used it some." Scarlett said before she told Ethan Alcina was somewhere else in the castle because she couldn't feel the woman. Scarlett also decided to use the flower ball to play the labyrinth game earning the crystal remains she sold to the duke for a nice some and bought a back holster for the rifle and slipped it on. They headed out and for the kitchen to see what the treasure was, Scarlett took a few of the spices in the kitchen for later while they took out the grey women, Morocia was their technical name they learned from the duke, and headed down to the dungeons.

   Three Morocia cornered Ethan while Scarlett was taking care of a few and she hissed in irritation, swiftly killing the two she was dealing with before snatching up one of the fallen broadswords they had dropped. She rushed forward grabbing one by the shoulder and stabbed the sword through the back of its head. Ethan killed the one in front of him and looked just in time to see her behead the last one with relative ease.

  "That's one way to take care of them." Ethan mused when she tossed the sword aside and pulled her gun again.

  "Sometimes the best way to beat an enemy is to use the environment and the weapons you can take from them." She said with a shrug before the continued on with their search. They made it back to the insignia door they had seen when running from Bela and used the key to open it finding unlit brazier's hanging and a lit one behind a broken wall. Ethan looked around the room while Scarlett inspected the note again before Ethan grabbed her wrist, pulled her back and threw what looked to be a makeshift pipe bomb at the crumbled wall.

  "Smart." Scarlett complimented when the dust settled and the lit brazier was uncovered, She pushed the closest unlit one at the fire lighting it and Ethan pushed the other one into the one she had lit which caused the cage around the stone coffin lower allowing them to go to it. They worked together to push it open and received an Azure eye that Scarlett put in her treasure bag, they also got a small amount of Lei and a crystal from where Ethan broke the wall,  before they went back up through the kitchens.

  "You'll make the best vintage yet!" Alcina said after they made it back to the main hall causing Scarlett to curse before she realized what Alcina's statement truly meant.

  "You...There's blood in your wine?!" Scarlett yelled as the Lady stilled for a moment before smiling widely.

"Of course, only the best ingredients go into Sanguinis Virginis. Maiden's, pure women who have not been sullied by a mans touch." Alcina said making Scarlett's eyes widen as she realized thar was the precise wine she had drank when dinning with the woman and her daughters. Scarlett gagged at the thought of drinking someone's blood and Ethan yanked her past Alcina and they ran for the area they needed to get to. It was the same hall Bela had chased them down, but they got to open the crest door this time.