Oath of Steel

11 |Bound by Chains|

As the smoke started getting lost around the theater, Rosalynde looked around to search for the Lady she served, the fumes in her eyes nearly making her shed unwanted tears as her hand found the back of Pharah's dress.

Crouching at Pharah's same level she found the head of the apparent heir, rolling gently the girl on her back to try and make her breath better, an ear on her chest to check if life was still flowing inside her body.

Calming her racing heart, she concentrated all her thoughts on trying to find a heartbeat, but the screaming and bellows of the spectators rushing towards the exit doors made it nearly impossible.

She made her elbows hit the ground, frame crashing against Pharah's unmoving one as she closed her eyes in hope of detecting the heartbeat.

Alienating herself from the rest of the world, she made two fingers press against Pharah's neck, for there on she kept on waiting.

And she waited, waited and waited until she heard something under the layer of the dress, a feeble but steady heartbeat.

Rolling off of the apparent heir, Rosalynde got up after tearing the edges of her dress to move better, trying to pinpoint exactly what was going on all around her.

She looked on her left, her eyes finding no one on the close boxes, both Lord Regulus' and Greys' void of human figures occupying them.

A twirl of air behind her made whatever adrenaline left in her body surge, grabbing a pin she'd styled her hair with spin on itself, pointing the sharp edge to the throat of the person that'd crept inside the imperial box.

But halted her hand as the small blade made contact with the covered throat of the Duke of Sternstorn, his violet eyes taking in the scene as Rosalynde lowered the weapon, hand falling to the side.

"How is her highness?" Lord Regulus asked as Rosalynde moved out of the way to let him get close to Pharah's unmoving body.

"Alive, I shielded her with my body to prevent anything from coming into contact with her, but the shock wave that followed the explosion probably made her body shut down on its own," Rosalynde answered immediately, taking a moment to collect herself as the duke of Sternstorn mimicked the same gestured Steel had done the minute before.

"What about you?" Rosalynde's body and mind seemed to not comprehend his words, the gears inside her head halting as they then started turning backwards.

"Unscattered. However I'll have to leave her in your care, there's something I absolutely need to check," it was the first time she'd ever ordered him, but she knew what her eyes had seen in the instants before the explosion had taken place.

The image of Madame Hellenia smiling at her was now the only thing Rosalynde's mind could focus on.

"Steel!" The voice of Lord Regulus seemed so far when she turned around to hear the rest of the phrase he was going to stay.

"Be careful, and come back alive." All that Steel did in reply was nod her head, gaze turning towards Pharah's body before her mind was made up completely.

Closing the door behind her, Rosalynde looked at the pin in her hand, clenching it as tight her hand could without breaking her bones, placing it then back on her head as she tried pinning some locks away from her face.

She then started running towards the stair that led close to the backstage, taking off her heels as she approached the first wooden step while she discarded them somewhere behind her, as if leaving a trail for someone to follow her lead.

The smoke she'd experimented inside the box seemed nothing compared to the insufferable gray smoke she was met while descending the first steps, her breathing becoming rugged and uneven as she raised a sleeve over her nose and mouth.