4 Chapter 3 - Broken Assumptions

Moving from confusion to pure disbelief, Diane was increasingly certain that everything she was seeing must have just been the worlds most elaborate practical joke.

A decorative carriage moved, seemingly as slowly and as bumpily as possible, through the cobble paved streets of Victus, the capital city of Divinum. The carriage was crowded but was otherwise incredibly quiet inside. Dominic, the flashy man that clued her in on her so-called resurrection, was all smiles as he sat across from Arte. Fidgeting around like an anxious child on their way to an amusement park, at no point during the ride had he ever stopped staring - the metaphorical gleam of curiosity in his eyes almost manifested itself into reality. His long-sleeved tunic was made of what looked like solid gold thread, and he wore leggings to match. Fluffy salt and pepper hair, which was slightly slicked back, topped his head – it strongly reminded her of a skunk's tail in the way it was styled.

The two accompanying them were the priest Tobian, that had originally found her collapsed in the crypt, as well as Gartram, the court wizard and aid to the Queen. Taking them at their word, it turned out that Dominic was quite a bit more important than Diane had otherwise thought him to be. Rather than the court jester, he was in fact Archduke Dominic of house Leathcheann – the second oldest family in the history of Divinum. Of all of them though, she was most uncertain as to why the supposed wizard was accompanying them.

Having asked him a few times, Gartram adamantly refused to perform magic for her – claiming that he would not perform like some sort of street magician. She instead came to, what she considered to be, the logical conclusion that he could not actually do magic. After all, magic could not actually be real, right?

One thing, that she could not quite put her finger on, had been bugging her for the longest. While she was not yet able to figure it out for herself. All her self-defense mechanisms and feelings of being tricked came to a grinding, and crashing, halt all at the same time.

When the carriage, finally, came to a stop and it was her turn to step out she felt all the breath in her chest squeeze out at the sights before her. A ten times larger than life gilded statue of the kingdoms most celebrated hero – Arte – was hovering above what looked like a fountain. The fountain had no fancy mechanical or pressure induced stream of water, but rather the water seemed to pour out from the feet of the floating statue, that was clearly not connected to anything else.

The first realization that she had was the answer to the question that had been nagging at the back of her mind this whole time, 'how does everyone keep recognizing someone that had supposedly died several hundred years ago?' The statue looked almost alive and, except for the sheer size of it, it looked exactly like Arte. It looked exactly like her – well, her that stood before them right now.

Blanking out in reaction, she missed the last step, Stepping straight down to the ground. Causing her to stumble forwards a bit, but luckily regained her balance. The statue and the fountain below it, while seemingly hewn from precious metals, were quite simple in design. The citadel that played the role of its background, however, was breath takingly complex.

More than a dozen twisting white stone spires marked the structures outer boundaries, each of them easily taller than the biggest of skyscrapers, were themselves completely dominated by the sheer size of the citadel itself. Simply massive, the awe-inspiring size of the citadel would have been enough to bring most to a loss of words. But she could tell, even from this far away, that aesthetic value was not lost on the structure.

Just how large must the city around such a citadel be? It was at that very moment that Diane stopped questioning them, no longer seeing any way to possibly dispute such clear evidence. Her mouth moved open and closed a few times, in her best attempt at mimicking a dying fish, as she stared in complete wonder.

"Beautiful, is it not?" Dominic - the not a jester – stopped beside Arte, with his hands clasped behind his back as he too looked up at the citadel. He then turned slightly to look at his hero, before cocking his head slightly to the side. "Although I do find it rather surprising that you are so caught off guard. Was not the original citadel supposed to have been larger than this one?"

Before she could reply, Gartram spoke up from behind the two of them. His cold stare fixed, firmly, to the back of Arte's head. "Surprising indeed." Squinting his eyes in blatant suspicion as he finished, he pushed the arisen hero forward, using the head of his staff. "Confused or surprised as you may be, her majesty awaits your arrival. Hero or king, no one is allowed to make her majesty the queen wait."

'Well, he's certainly grumpy.' Diane had certainly not forgotten how it was to be treated like a child, but she still found it unsettling. Worse now that she still looked like one, only more literally now. "I got it, I got it. Ill keep moving." Sighing deeply with her first step, she let the gilded man lead the way, obviously not having idea where she was supposed to go. They still seemed to be quite a distance from the citadel itself, so she assumed that their destination must have laid elsewhere.

Stopping in the middle of what looked like a place marker, she noticed a few others scattered around the area, each of which containing varying groups of people. Before she could ask what they were waiting on, everything turned bright white. Freaked out at the sudden blinding light, Diane let out a high-pitched squeal as she covered her eyes with her hands.

Hearing a hearty chuckle from behind her, she inched open one of her eyes to look back at its source. What she found almost shocked her as much as seeing the citadel from outside. Gartram, the perpetual grump, wore an innocent smile as he watched her reaction in apparent satisfaction.

"Do forgive him Lord Arte, he means well." Meaty hands patted her shoulder as she tried her best to understand the phenomenon before her. "Sir Gartram may seem angry all the time, but he is only nervous. He practically worships your storie-"

Cutting off their banter, the court wizard loudly cleared his throat as he shouldered his way between them. "That is enough talking for now. The Queen awaits!"

Realizing then, quite embarrassingly actually, her eyes actually did not hurt from the flash of light. She now followed behind them, laughing quietly as she covered her mouth with her right hand. 'aw, that was kind of adorable actually.'

It became immediately obvious that she was now inside the citadel as they moved past one of its many open arched windows. Fighting back the gut wrenching feeling of her acrophobia, she was, however, able to get an immediate grasp of the sheer size of the city of Victus. As far as she could see, it was an ocean of buildings and bustling streets – it strongly reminded her of her time in Shanghai, with a wide river splitting the city in two, the citadel being placed in a particular bend, effectively using it as a natural moat.

'This is definitely real! No dream can be this detailed!' The thought repeated in her head as they walked. Rounding a corner, Diane could not hold her curiosity back any longer.

With her left hand holding up her opposite elbow, she held her chin in contemplation as she decided to let loose the questions that popped up in her head. "How many people live in this place anyway?"

Squeezing his brows together as he looked over at Arte, Dominic decided that he would entertain any questions that he could. Preferring to get them out of the way now, rather than later, when she would be unlikely to accept simple answers. "I am not certain of the exact number, but the citadel itself was built with the entire city's population in mind. After all, it serves also as a safe-haven for the masses in case of an emergency."

Seemingly accepting his answer, Arte nodded his head in understanding – their eyes not focused on any one thing, in particular. "Wait, didn't you say something about the previous one being bigger? Why did you move capitals then?" Looking directly at him now as she spoke, genuine curiosity was clear on the hero's face.

Opening his mouth to answer, Gartram stopped the Archduke with a shake of his head before he took over, dropping a bombshell of an answer. "Forgive me, but your home no longer exists." He looked back with an apologetic smile – strongly reminding Diane of the look her father would have worn when either her or her brother would ask about their mother. "Divinum, the original capital, was taken from us a little more than two hundred years after your passing by a lunatic." Bi-polar, in the speed at which his mood seemed to have changed, his face shifted from one of warm acknowledgement to that of white-hot fury - It would seem that she had happened across a landmine.

No one else seemed to want to speak after that. More than a few times she noticed that each of them would glance at her, probably to gauge her reaction.

'So, your old home got destroyed huh? That's kind of messed up…' Not certain how she should take that information, personally, Diane mulled over the implication that a single lunatic was all that it took to level something even larger than the titanic citadel they were in now. "One lunatic for a citadel like this one, that's kind of crazy though, isn't it?" Not intending to say that out loud, it luckily came out as a whisper.

However, the priest, that still trailed behind her, seemed to have overheard her personal revelation. "I see there is a misunderstanding." Tobian's unexpected reply grabbed her attention – due in part to her still not realizing that she had spoke out loud. "Not just the citadel was taken that day. Not one building still stands in the original capital."

Apparently being a well-known subject, both Gartram and Dominic nodded grimly at his reply. No disputes were given that time. Diane, or maybe Arte, responded much more strongly than she thought possible. After her father died, both her brother and she went their separate ways. Neither tried to reach out to the other, as the last time they spoke, quite literally, ended in a fight – which ended up being the catalyst for her moving to Belfast.

Not really having a strong connection to anyone, or any place, the strong feelings that suddenly welled up within her caught her completely off guard. Anger being prominent, it was loud enough to drown out everything else. She could feel the creeping numbing sensation that came with the feeling of adrenaline bursting through her veins.

Following behind the Archduke and the court wizard, more out of reflex than actual conscious choice, the priest stopped hard in his tracks. Unlike Gartram, who was consciously ignoring the powerful waves of magic that radiated from her in quick, jolting, bursts, Tobian was instead fighting the urge to flee. He was able to feel much more than just her ambient mana. As many priests did, he had a sense of what emotions were currently most prominent in people near him. However, unlike his many peers, he had a much deeper understanding of his empathic abilities, and the strength of what he had just felt naturally terrified him.

But while that empathic revelation scared him, what worried him was the fact that neither her body language nor stride changed at all. An average outside observer would have had no idea about the potential dragon that they could be poking at. A quiet, yet violet, seething rage was boiling under the surface of her calm demeanor.

Catching back up to them, he fell into step behind the hero. Tobian made a mental note to keep a thorough eye on Arte from hence forth. Steps would need to be taken to ensure his mental health – the priest had met many in his life that chose to pack away their emotions, deep within themselves. It created a never-ending, and ever building, vortex of primal emotions – which usually ended in the eventual breakdown of their sense of self. Almost never ending well in the long run, as they were unknowingly stressing their very soul.

While they all moved forward in silent contemplation, the group found their way in front of a large solid marble double-door. The doormen, each armed with a spear and targe shield, with a sword also worn on their hip, stood on either side of the door.

As the group of four came within about a meter of the door, apparently recognizing both the Archduke and the court wizard, they snapped to attention before reaching out and opening both doors. Inside looked like some sort of bomb had just gone off – several people were moving chaotically about the room, with papyrus scrolls covering a massive mahogany table in its entirety. At the end opposite where they entered from, a lady was sat in a large, and ornate, wooden chair inlaid with enough gold filigree and precious gems to fix the national budget of most countries in the modern world.

A show of wealth often correlated to a nation's economic power – which Divinum clearly held in spades. Taking notice of the newcomers, the queen paused in massaging the bridge of her nose just long enough to wave them over. Apparently, all hell had broken loose since both the Archduke and Gertram left to investigate the supposed revival of their nationally celebrated hero.

As the lady stood up Diane got a good look at her for the first time and could only click her tongue in envy. Unlike Diane's original body, the woman, of which there could be no doubt, that now stood before her had an appearance that would draw all eyes to her. While she was dressed very modestly, she clearly had exceptionally long legs hidden under her ankle length dress that led up to a perfect hourglass of a figure. While she was not packing massive weapons to boost her already exaggerated sex-appeal, they were still larger than Diane's used to be. Platinum Blond, shoulder length, hair framed a stern face that seemed to brighten up as she looked over Arte. With gloved hands, her majesty Beatrix Augustus Vermillion grabbed the hem of her dress before curtsying in greeting.

Sticking her lower lip out as she looked down and groped at her own still non-existent chest, Diane Let out a sigh of disappointment as she let her arms fall to her side in defeat.