Oath of Steel

27 |The Rope Towards Salvation|

Time had stopped.

The world too along with awareness, had seemed to halt its ethereal footsteps to bow its head before resuming its eternal walk around the cracks of time. Just like a reed bowing to the wind, awaiting for the arrival of a new sire to server till the end arrived.

When thunder struck, the skies open for passage of a new hope to descend from the prayers of men. When lighting parted the earth below, it cracked the shields to the heart of those who opened their hearts for everyone to listen.

Rosalynde too, had tend her ear and lend her eyes for the truth to open her mind, but that hadn't been enough to keep her heart from climbing on the other side of the wall.

She would have been speechless, loosing it with the last words the Seekers had spared her. But she couldn't –

Another one, there was another one.

Another pretendant to the throne she'd swore to serve till her last breath.

Whatever threat Pheron Des Reslow had been up until now seemed to grow more insignificant with each passing second. The bastard on the other hand? A threat to be eliminated as soon as possible. Rosalynde held no doubt in mind on what she would have done when she would have found him.

Because she would have found him before Verity, before anyone else.

She spoke not a word as Hellenia guided they back outside, ready to shut the door on their face, gloating on the knowledge she knew she had on them.

Knowledge meant having the upper hand. An advantage to use to her heart's desire. She already had played her well – tricking her into believing her associating with the opposers to the Crown. Grey had known it from the very start, and nevertheless had deemed right to say not a word on that matter, the reason behind that unsure to the mind.

It would have led her astray, her objectives shifting without her even realizing. Or maybe because he simply had wanted her to figure it out herself.

A test to deem her worthy enough to forge an alliance.

She felt a presence sneak up to her, Cleia's shaken hand clinging to her left arm as she gripped it with all the force she had. It'd been a mistake to take her with them to meet the Seekers, but that hadn't been something she had control over.

Why full herself thought? She'd never been in charge since venturing into their domain, and she was well aware of that, she always was well aware of that. A puppet whose strings had been pulled too many times and now stood hanging from the ceiling, waiting the moment it would have been used again.

Cleia's hold on her tightened as they started ascending the last staircase, the columns of the abandoned temple the silent remark of their journey finally coming to an end.

"Silver," Rosalynde's head snapped towards the sound where Grey's voice had come from, her eyes settling on his steel counterpart – expressive and full of unspoken words left untold.

They needed to talk, but the moment wasn't now.

Madame Hellenia tried to make small talk while leading them towards the temple's exit, the malice in her voice a silver branch tipped in the water of a bottomless lake.

It took all the self-restrain Rosalynde's mind could keep a beady eye on to not snap the woman's neck with her bare weapon less hands the second after hearing those words. Straightening her gloves as a pretext to keep her hands busy with something different from the exposed neck covered with a thin band of gold, she kept faking indifference.

She kept smiling like she always did.

Like she'd been taught to.

The outside seemed to open itself in an interweave of astral colours leading them like comets tracing their paths in the upper skies. The smell of incense too was blown away instantly, replaced by the smoke and vapour coming out from the C.A.R.S, and by the stench of the excrement coming from a nearby stable on a transversal street.