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The travelers were staying in New Delsta while Throné was off to do some business. She had told them what she needed to do. She was going to find the key to her collar, after two failed attempts. The night previously, she had told them a disturbing clue she had found.
“‘ I await where it all began,’” Throné recalled to her friends. “I know where I need to go now, but what I need to do is still unclear.” She was standing in the doorway, as if in a hurry to get to where she needed to be.
“What does that carving mean?” Castti asked. None of them were there at the start of Throné’s journey, so nobody had the faintest idea. Temenos, Osvald, and Hikari were also curious for the answer.
Throné stepped inside and shut the door. She then leaned against the doorpost and told her tale. “My friends and I were on a mission ordered by Father, but one of them blew our cover. We escaped into the sewers, but not before one of us got injured.” She looked to the ground. “I could’ve saved Donnie…” She shook her head.
“Anyway, we came to a door and tried to go through it, but it was locked. At the time I didn’t think anything of it but now… I wonder why it would be locked in the first place. Surely our pursuers didn’t foreshadow us escaping through there?”
Her friends were left pondering the locked door, those truly interested tried to think of a reason why it was locked.
“So, to answer your question Castti, it all began at that locked door.” Castti nodded her comprehension.
“But how will you get through if it's locked?” Agnea asked.
Throné smirked and pulled two keys from her pocket. “With these, of course.”
Everyone collectively fit the keys and the locked door together in their minds. Throné worked hard to obtain those keys. They all hoped they would be the answer to this new mystery at hand, and also the end of her journey.
“Well, I’m off,” she said, turning and opening the door again. She looked behind her, a set expression of sheer determination on her face. “Wish me luck.”
-
“What is it, Ochette?” Castti asked. Everybody turned to Ochette, who was staring at the inn door. Her tail began to wag, tickling Agnea’s leg. Everyone had just gotten back from the tavern and were doing their own thing. Osvald and Temenos had been reading one of the cleric’s religious books, Hikari was also reading on the end of his bed, Agnea had been doing Ochette’s hair, and Castti and Partitio were deep in a playful conversation.
Before the beastling could answer, they heard the door open.
“I’m back,” Throné said tiredly.
She had been gone for over twenty-four hours. During that time, Agnea and Partitio kept voicing their concerns for her, while the more quiet and conserved ones kept it to themselves.
Temenos perked up at her voice, laying the book in his lap. After Throné stepped inside and shut the door behind her, everybody gasped when they noticed a major change in Throné as she leaned against the wall. Her collar was gone.
“You did it!” Agnea exclaimed. Throné smiled in return, but stumbled as soon as her hand left the wall. Castti immediately stood up and rushed to her side. Throné sighed in relief when she saw Castti and let herself collapse to the ground, Castti grabbing her arm to keep her from totally passing out
“What happened?” Castti asked. “You have cuts everywhere- is that a stab wound?” She dug into her satchel for a salve, but stopped and looked up when she realized Throné wasn’t beside her anymore.
“Sure is,” Throné replied sarcastically, though it sounded more monotonous than she wanted.
“T-Throné, let Castti patch you up,” Partitio suggested. She wasn’t listening, because she marched right up to Hikari and stretched out a hand.
“Give me your spear.”
Hikari blinked in confusion. He was quite reluctant to, especially when he noticed a nasty gash in her side that looked quite recent. He started to shake his head, but stopped when Throné gave him a death stare. No number of bloody battles would have prepared him for the threat standing before him. She was staring daggers into his eyes…
The young warrior sighed and reached for the spear next to his bed. He handed it to Throné, who swiped it from him and strode to the open space by the entrance.
“Throné, what are you doing?” Castti asked, still holding her satchel.
Without a word, Throné dug into her torn pocket and pulled out her collar. She tossed it to the ground in disgust and, glaring at it as if it were some vile creature, raised the spear with both hands.
“ GO TO HELL, CLAUDE!”
Throné thrust the spearhead with all her might into the neck of the collar. The iron shattered, sending a glowing green liquid in all directions. Partitio, who had been standing by the desk, yelped and jumped back when a drop of the strange liquid came inches from his foot. It came in contact with the furnished wood floor and immediately sizzled a black hole through the plank.
Both the spearhead and the poison created a massive hole in the middle of the floor, devouring the wood to nothing.
Everybody was speechless. They stared at the now broken collar that Throné once wore emitting green smoke. Throné panted, holding the spear to eye level. The spearhead didn’t look damaged at all, so she walked over to Hikari and handed it back. He took it, eyeing her cautiously, and slowly put the spear beside him on the bed.
“Sorry about that,” she said. She gave an attempt at a laugh, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor in it.
She walked over to the only empty bed and plopped onto the soft mattress, letting out a long sigh.
“What’d you guys do while I was gone?”
They all continued to stare at her as if she were mad. She was obviously trying to draw the attention to somewhere else, even though they all wanted to hear her story. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were torn, and she had several visible wounds, some looking severely serious. Not to mention the fit she just had, and the man she mentioned before destroying her collar.
All at once, Partitio, Agnea, and Ochette protested against her question.
“Whoa now, this ain’t about us-”
“What’d we do? We want to know about you, Throné-”
“Hey don’t change the subject, Néné!”
Amongst the chaos, Temenos stood and sat next to Throné on the edge of the bed. Castti also wove around the beds and set her medical stuff down. Throné looked from Temenos to Castti. Both healers, oh boy.
“Throné, can I tend to your wounds now?” Castti asked, uncapping the lid to one of her salves. Throné nodded, to which Castti knelt in front of her and examined the wound on her side. It would definitely leave a scar no matter how well she treated it. She unlaced the thief’s corset for easier access to the wound and started gently wiping the blood away.
“Can I help too?” Temenos asked. Throné turned and met his gaze. He held his usual calm expression, though even his eyes betrayed him, and Throné could see the worry behind them. With a curt nod, she turned towards him while still sitting in a way that Castti wouldn’t be disturbed, hands in her lap.
Somehow, she knew that Temenos would be the one to heal the cuts on her face. He’d done it before, and there was something… special that only he could accomplish. Something that healed her wounds and her very being. Throné closed her eyes when Temenos cupped her face delicately. His warm hands erased the tension that had been eating away at her in an instant.
Despite Castti being as gentle as she could, the wound stung pretty bad, but she was enjoying what Temenos was doing. When her face was healed, he moved on to her arms. Castti had bandaged the major stab wound in her side and started to clean the cuts on her legs.
Osvald, who hadn’t spoken once since Throne’s return, decided to move things along.
“Would you tell us about what happened, Throné?” he asked. The thief mentioned eyed him carefully. His astute gaze made her feel like she was under a spotlight in front of a thousand judges, watching her every move. She flitted her eyes to the ground just thinking about her encounter with Claude. She was still trying to make family connections in her mind based on what the man had told her, though it disgusted her to think of what he did.
She looked around the room and realized all eyes were on her, awaiting the story that has led her here. Throné sighed in defeat. She didn’t know why she was trying to avoid the topic in front of her friends. They deserved to know what happened.
Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she cocked her head as if thinking of what to say. She looked down at Castti, who had stopped wiping her cuts momentarily when Osvald spoke up. Curious and slightly annoyed, the healer met eyes with her patient, then went back to work. Throné sighed.
“Alright, I’ll tell you.”
She covered everything she experienced in the past day: The old man and the lift, the abandoned town, the crying baby, Claude, and the fight. She explained with great distaste how she was related to Claude, and incidentally everybody a part of the Blacksnakes as well. Everything was said.
When she was finished, everybody was left astonished. The room was quiet as everybody contemplated what she had said. Castti by then had finished her work and was sitting next to Partitio on the floor. Temenos had also finished healing Throné’s hand, and when she started her tale, he forgot to let go. He sat there, confused and deeply disturbed by the relationships of the Claude bloodline, subconsciously rubbing her hand with his thumb. It must’ve been a habit of his.
Deciding to get past the incest bit, Agnea tried to lighten the mood.
“But hey… you’re finally free from your past life. You’re not bound to the collar anymore, so you can do whatever you want.”
“Yeah! The road was difficult, but now the hardships are past,” Partitio chimed in. Everybody nodded agreement and gave Throné their affirmations. She smiled at the sincere care she was receiving.
“Thank you, guys.”
-
A little while after, the travelers started to turn in for the night. There were only 6 beds, so 2 people had to sleep on the floor. Osvald offered to be one of them since he was used to it, much to Castti’s dismay, but he insisted. Ochette also offered since she could sleep anywhere. She headed to a spot on the floor when she noticed an empty bed. Confused, she looked from Osvald to the bed and back again.
“Pops, tell me if my math is correct. There’s six beds and eight of us, so two of us have to sleep on the floor.”
He looked up at her from where he sat on the floor with his book and nodded. “That is correct.”
“Then how is there an empty bed?” she asked, pointing to the bed. He looked over and realized what she was saying. From what he knew, everybody was there. He too became confused, until they heard Agnea giggle.
“Becaaaause, two people are sharing a bed, obviously!”
Those who were up, Ochette, Osvald, Agnea, and Hikari, looked over at where she was looking.
Shortly after Throné explained her day, she and Temenos started talking about it. She was the first to fall asleep quickly, rambling on until her consciousness slipped away. She snuggled into Temenos, who adjusted himself so he was leaning against the backboard. He had his arms around her and played with her hair until he soon fell asleep as well.
So there they were, fast asleep on top of the covers in a single bed. How had nobody noticed?
Agnea began giggling again and eyed Hikari.
“What’d I say, Hikari?” she teased. From across the room, Hikari gave out an audible sigh.
“You can’t assume things about somebody without full knowledge.”
“But Hikari! My reasoning is believable! And I have three pieces of evidence now!”
Osvald hushed her, but it was too late. Partito groaned and sat up, rubbing his hair and looking around. “What’s with all the racket?” he asked lazily.
Agnea pointed to Temenos and Throné and he followed her gaze. Partitio grinned smugly and chuckled.
“That’s three now.”