New stage

Nessa was standing there as if floating, staring at the two would-be assassin and the one legged assailant clutching his wound.

She was currently aware of so much more then what she should be. It felt as if she had transcended her past self. She was more than before, above ordinary life. She wondered if the feeling would remain after she ended the dance or if it was simply tied to the third stage. In a way, she believed that the second possibility was better since this feeling of superiority wasn't a trait she desired.

She didn't want to be overconfident because of this technique.

The royal sword dance was so much more than what she believed it was, so much more special than what everyone imagined.

Describing it as a simple combat technique or a sword style was so far from the truth. The royal sword dance made use of her whole being, body, mind and soul, all her senses erased for her earring only, it went far beyond what a sword art should be able to achieve.

It was a technique combined with a self-magic so refined she couldn't begin to understand a simple piece of it. At a glance, it was a simple circulation of the internal magu to keep the brain of the user from being crushed by the rotations of the second stage but it was just the surface layer. Having stepped across the gap to reach the third stage herself, she could now feel its depth, it was a thing beyond comprehension and the reason was clear.

There was only one explanation for this.

It was soul magic.

It was a sword technique, a self magic and an ancient soul magic all merged into one powerful ability. The self magic turned her into the music itself if she achieved the right speed and mindset while the soul magic bent the world around her and forced it to obey her song.

On the first stage, she learned to listen to the beat of the battle and force it into her own. On the second stage, she learned to tame the speed and forget the world outside of its melody. Now on the third stage, she became that very melody and thanks to the first stage, she knew how to make it obey her will. All the magu running into her veins and the magu permeating the world around her became a vector for her music and dance.

If she guessed right, the fourth stage would be about changing the melody on her own, about not merely being the melody but also the musician behind it.

Every words spoken by the fairy that night when it thought her ancestor the dance were for this moment.

"If you want to dance with death, can't chance your breath. Feel your own life, clear. Breathe, can you hear?"

She did. She could hear it.

"A rhythm of your own."

A rhythm of her own, a rush of blood in time with her breath, the beat of her heart, the tempo of her thoughts, magu chiming in time as a support instrument.

"Attune it, overgrown, through the world, all is one."

It truly was, everything had now become part of her because her own rhythm was now merged into it. The flutter of the butterfly on the wall outside, Myrtille cowering in the corner, Cherry confused and worried in the other room, the knight at the door rushing in her chambers to help, the three assassins, the wind outside flowing into the threes and flowers, the buzz of the mosquito on the nape of the assassin woman, the feeble scratching of the ant on the tree outside, the birds on the roof, the rustle of clothes and the scraping of armor, everything was one and the same.

"This is a dance for kings, not everyone. Rule your heart to rule theirs too."

She could tell, all the hearts in the room where attuned to hers, she was the ruler of the dance and they had all stepped into her domain. By the flow of their blood, she could tell what they were about to do. It was all obvious to her now. The steps of the dance about to unfold, she could see them all right now, every movements leading into another. She could mold the dance to her will, they would dance how she wanted them to, they were not fit to oppose her anymore.

The man wielding the hammer could have overpowered her before so she had to be careful but she didn't feel like she needed to anymore. Everything was under her control. This is where the feeling of superiority came from. She was a diligent person so she understood that such a feeling was dangerous and conceited but she could hardly help it. The sensation of power was so overwhelming.

"Get your arms, not one but two. One above to chase the blow. One bellow to close the show. Can you see ahead, nothing. Moving left, spinning. Moving right, twirling. Can you see behind, nothing. Living, shift, dying. Going, shift, coming. Shock them with a pincer. Back them in a corner. Faster and faster until a third master. Now, do not hear the music, now, breathe, be the music."

Those were the instructions on how to perform the first and second stage correctly but more than that, they were also the words on how to control the third stage properly. This stage was a merge between the first and the second, the techniques of the first applied to the speed and power of the second.

Her arms moved as instructed, one above and one bellow, a blur followed and her swords pointed at the enemy.

The knight outside was now in the other room and rushing this way. More had been alerted and were running towards her chambers. In a way, she would have preferred if they didn't.

She could hear a change of beat in the heart of her opponents, the woman wanted to run now. She had failed her mission and didn't intend to die for nothing. Now Nessa would have to chase her.

Meanwhile, the man prepared a special attack with his hammer. His blood was flowing strangely from the magu moving about. He'd strike from above after a fast charge but by that point she wouldn't be there anymore.

Nessa moved forward, she pushed the ground away with her feet and burst forward but somehow felt as if she just glided across the room smoothly. The sensation was extremely strange, her senses were all in disagreement on what was happening.

The hammer of the man swung downward and the woman darted towards the window, abandoning her companions without remorse.

Nessa raised her arm and slapped the hammer away. Her arm didn't move but a loud clank threw the weapon aside and broke the balance of the man. While the man was being spun from the shock, she used her other sword to slash at him from bellow.

Neither of her arms registered the impact and her eyes didn't catch the movements but the sounds produced confirmed the success of her parry. Metal clashing against metal followed by the hammer roaring to her side. Then, a wet squelch and a confused gasp fell softly as seventeen clear lines of blood were drawn across the man's body.

The one legged man decided to join in the dance and tried to plant his sword into the back of her knee by jamming it between the plates from under. Nessa dodged with a twirl and his arm turned into minced meat as the man wielding the hammer fell into pieces behind her. Again, her swords didn't seem to move at all.

She felt surprised by how effective the attack turned out to be. She had not intended to kill the man wielding the hammer, her sword just went through him as if he wasn't there. Her dress cutting off the leg of the previous swordsman was the first time she gravely injured someone and this was the first time she killed someone.

Her logical mind understood that this was a special moment in her life. She believed that she should be feeling repulsed or shocked right now but her mind was occupied by the royal sword dance. She did not feel anything but the sound of their flesh collapsing to the ground. Hopefully she would go back to normal after this was all over. She wanted to keep her reason after all.

Nessa tried to stop the woman next by attacking straight forward but that last assassin had great senses and bent herself backward ninety degrees before Nessa's attack could land. Wooden splinters flew everywhere as the cry of Lockstep broke down the wooden window. This was fine too, what sort of dance ended at the first step after all? (1)

Still, the scared woman was more talented than she first thought. Nessa assaulted her with terrifyingly sharp sounds from many angles, and the woman still managed to use acrobatics to dodge all of them and made a somersault through the open window.

Nessa followed and spun outside as the first knight burst into her training room to see a corpse and a bleeding man.

"They're escaping through the garden." She called back before he could ask what was happening.

She could see the knight clearly even though he was behind her. She could also feel the others running in the corridors of the Hasting palace to reach her. The feeling was confusing but somehow natural. She could 'see' everything in reach of her ears, nothing escaped her sight.

On the other hand, the sky was like a void, colorless instead of its usual blue, all the clouds vanished as well. Everything outside of her range seemed to simply stop existing.

Her reverberating voice took the guard aback but by the beat of his heart, she expected him to quickly understand and act on her words. She left the rest into his hands and started her chase of the last assassin.

She closed in on the woman quickly but missed again as she jumped onto a low branch of the tree. The assassin used that branch to propel herself further up into the tree as Nessa broke it apart with a scream of the wind.

The sound of wood ripping through air tore holes into the clothes of the woman as she jumped from the tree and onto the roof. Nessa tried slashing upwards at her as she jumped over but her swords weren't long enough. The earsplitting sound of her blades cutting through the air still reached her target however and sent the woman tumbling. She didn't land on her feet but still reached the roof to the annoyance of Nessa.

"Surrender now! There's no way you'll manage to leave Folcourse like this!"

The woman didn't answer her and climbed back up on her feet immediately.

She would probably try to run along the roof and reach the outer wall this way, if she was quick enough, the guards wouldn't have enough time to prepare and block her path.

Nessa couldn't let that happen for many reasons. First, she hoped to get her alive to get some answers out of her, the other two were dead and close to dead so she wouldn't get anything from them. She needed to know why she was targeted.

Secondly, it would be disgraceful to let her run. There would be many repercussion on the standing of her house if one of the criminals escaped. They'd mock the Hastings for letting an assassin inside the palace but they'd be much harsher still if she let them leave free. In no way could she let anyone think that criminals could just get in and out of her home as they pleased.

She had no way of getting on the roof herself however. The surviving assailant obviously thought the same because of the heavy armor Nessa wore and consequently felt safe for now. She knew that she couldn't remain there forever however and didn't waste time arguing with Nessa before running off.

Because of how Nessa now perceived things, she didn't loose track of her right away. She was able to tell where she was going and quickly set out to follow from the ground. The path from under wasn't nearly as straight lined as what it would be on the roof but Nessa was quick and more importantly, she wasn't alone.

"She's on the roof and running for the East wall! Don't let her through!" She shouted loudly.

Immediately, other voices repeated the call from everywhere in the palace. The guards and knights weren't incompetent, they knew what they were doing. There was no way the woman would reach the outside wall quicker than the warning.

She wasn't bad either though, she might still manage to slip away and so Nessa had to follow from under.

She jumped back inside through the window and pushed the confused group of knights along. They were all trying to figure out what was happening from the explanation of the slave, the one who was guarding the door and the shouts from outside.

"The last intruder climbed on the roof and rushed towards the East wall, we can't let her escape so go! Those two won't go anywhere so leave them. Hurry!"

As the group of Knight rushed back out from whence they came, an interesting idea crossed her mind. Maybe this intrusion was the perfect moment to slip out of her confinement.

"You two pack our things and wait for me at the palace gate, we'll be leaving after this." She told Myrtille before running out as well.

She thought about it some more as she tracked the intruder from their footsteps on the roofs.

She didn't feel like returning here afterwards. She believed that she might be able to use this murder attempt as a good argument to let her leave and if not, she could use the confusion to slip out.

She had painstakingly collected some supporters through the help of the maids while she was locked there but despite their best efforts, they couldn't convince her father to let her leave. She could hardly ask them to do anything else than that either because communicating through the maids was unreliable at best. She felt like a lowly conspirator.

The few nobles on her side wanted her to be named duchess of the northern grove and were relatively hard workers but she needed more than a few to tip the balance. Those loyal men could speak and argue with the duke all they wanted, their minority wouldn't change the tide.

If she managed to get out, she would be able to gather many more supporters and have them do more tangible and useful things. Instead of arguing pointlessly with her father, she could have them defend her brother from nefarious influences, she could have them rally the population behind her or just simply raise funds for this endeavor and gather information about what the other side was planning. All of those were hard to ask when locked up in her small piece of the palace. She needed to see for herself and feel the situation on her own before deciding on anything.

Just as importantly, if she could get out, she would be able to go north and join the fight. She'd earn a lot of respect for that and hopefully help strengthen the border against the cursed-bloods. If she wanted the support of the people, she needed to show them that she was worth supporting.

With the voices from nobility and the voice of the general citizens of the northern grove behind her, her father would have no choice but to give up, hopefully. Anyway, she needed to watch over her supporters so that none of them got any excessive ideas on how to progress.

The situation she was living right now was exactly the sort of thing she needed to stop from happening on both sides. She couldn't be certain of why she was targeted for assassination before interrogating the intruder properly but even if it pained her to admit, it might have been someone who really wanted Philips to inherit the duchy who sent them.

It couldn't possibly be Philips himself but some of his supporters might have gotten a bit hasty and wanted to make this quick. Of course, they'd be in deep trouble since their plan failed but she could think of quite a few who might have thought that the risk was worth the reward.

For example, any of those with a daughter that could be a match for Philips would have a good reason to want Vanessa to disappear. They'd have a chance of taking control of the whole duchy after all so it would certainly be tempting. It could also be someone bitter who didn't want the old royal sword dance reappearing. Other might have simply thought that if Philips got the title, they'd be free to do as they pleased and wanted to make sure it happened.

She had feared since the beginning that this sort of people would flock around her brother and try to corrupt him or simply do things on their own hoping to gain his favor.

The same could apply on people form her side. She needed to make it very clear that she would not accept any underhanded method to gain the duchy. She would face her father fair and square with honor and dignity. Like sir Clarence mentioned when speaking about his own daughter, many looked up to her already and she couldn't tarnish that image of her that they had. Not because she was proud of that image or because she was particularly self righteous but simply because of her goal.

She wanted to get the northern grove to bring back its past glory and improve the lives of the people living here, the people who loved this north just as much as she did. She did not want to stain the pristine image of Folcourse and the duchy that she kept in her heart. The means to get to her ends mattered here because her goal was the start of everything else, the start of her work for everyone.

She needed everyone to believe in her and her ideal. She wanted to achieve her objective while being able to keep her head held high. She did not want all the nobles here to assume she'd be fine with trickery and deceit after she received the tittle. She needed to set the example for the future too.

This also meant that she needed to keep everyone under check and so she needed to be free to move.

She couldn't get carried away right now however. All of it depended on whether she could catch that last attacker or not, she couldn't let her mind wander like that in the middle of a fight.

Since she had grown up in this very palace, she knew all of it by heart and so she had no trouble finding the most efficient path to keep up with the woman above her. The real problem was finding a way to get onto the roof or reach the top of the wall before the fleeing woman.

She couldn't go too fast either because if she rushed forward and lost track of the woman's current position, she might have ended up waiting on the wall forever without catching her. She might just take a sharp turn midway and go for a completely different exit. She could perfectly hear the guards calling out her escape route after all.

At least, she wasn't hard to follow for the current Nessa. She followed properly and guessed the correct path to keep up without fail. As expected, she changed the direction she was running towards halfway through and Nessa followed. She even shouted the change to warn the guards as she ran. All the while, she pictured the palace in her head and tried to find a way to cut off the path of the attacker.

When they got close to the wall, Nessa made a sharp turn and barged through a door leading outside, she knew there was a set of stairs close by and ran at full speed there. Those stairs lined the inner side of the wall and climbed up to the top of it. Flowers ran along the railing of the stairs but Nessa ignored them and pushed her way to the top at high speed. She didn't feel her feet touching any of the steps but in no time at all, she found herself on top of the defensive structure.

Trees grew here on top of the wall, their roots strengthening the structure, but there were no guards to be found in the immediate vicinity. All of them had rushed towards the east wall and didn't get the time to rush back to the North wall after she warned everyone of the change in direction. They'd be here in a short moment but Nessa had to hold the intruder down while the guards tried to react.

She moved a bit further on the wall and the woman she was chasing finally jumped to the top some distance away from her.

"How!" She shouted.

She was clearly not expecting to see Nessa up there and couldn't hold back her voice from the shock.

"I just followed your footsteps." Nessa explained.

The woman shot a dubious look at her feet wrapped in cloth to kill the sounds. It's not that those weren't effective though, they had worked on her while she was practicing the second stage, she could hardly feel them. It was only thanks to the unfairly useful sword dance that she had managed to do that.

"Surrender now, I can't let you escape, I need to know who sent you three."

Behind her, she could see and hear the door leading into a tower of the wall opening with guards and knights rushing out to flood the walls.

Before she could say that there was no escape, the would-be assassin ran the other way. At least she didn't just jump off the wall, that would have been inconvenient for Nessa and the guards. She resumed her pursuit and saw the woman throw open the door to the opposite tower from where the guards came and rush inside. Shouldn't there be more guards inside each of these? She ran in so confidently it took Nessa aback.

Maybe she hoped to surprise the guards and just go through unhindered.

Nessa shortly arrived at the door and by what she could hear from outside, the woman hadn't left the tower through the other door. Instead, she used the stairs inside and ran at the bottom of the tower which was used as storage. It was a dead-end, there were no doors or windows she could use to leave from the ground floor. None of the ten guards inside seemed to want to do anything about it however and one opened the door leading to the next section of the wall.

What were they doing?

Nessa opened the door and ran inside the tower. The guards all appeared to be into a frenzied hurry even though she could hear them being lazy just an instant ago.

"My ladyship! I'm sorry, we couldn't react in time and the intruder rushed out the other side! We're going after her right now!" The guard close to the other door said in a flustered way.

Traitors. The word flashed inside her mind, this was the only way to explain this. They clearly saw her go downstairs and opened the door themselves. They were hiding her and were trying to throw Nessa on a wrong path.

She didn't know how to deal with traitors, this was her first time seeing those. She couldn't just beat them up could she? Even if she tried to arrest them for treason, she didn't know how to catch them without dicing them in tiny pieces. She couldn't hold back in her current state, the dance was meant to murder, not stun.

She froze inside the tower and looked at the faces of the ten guards. She didn't recognize anyone but it didn't mean anything really. What should she do?

At least she knew that the woman couldn't flee. Maybe the best course of action now would be to wait for the large group of soldiers running on the wall behind her.

"My lady?" The guard at the other door asked again, he seemed even more nervous now.

"I'm just waiting for the knights." She told them with a smile. "All of you should wait too they're just behind."

Her otherworldly voice seemed to scare the guards but since her words were sensible, they stood at attention and waited.

About ten long seconds later, sir Clarence dashed through the door along with a smaller and younger knight Nessa didn't recognize. After a brief observation however, she concluded that this knight was a woman and so probably was the daughter he had previously spoken about.

"Sir Clarence, I'm glad to see you here." She said while turning to face him.

"At your service my lady but, how did you know it was me?"

Nessa felt puzzled by his words and slightly tilted her head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

"Your eyes are closed."

"Are they? Oh..."

She should have understood that point when she noticed that she could see perfectly fine behind her or by the simple fact there was no sky. Her eyes were still closed. Whenever she asked her limbs to do things, it felt as if they moved but she couldn't really see them do so, the same must have happened to her eyelids.

Then, did it mean she could now hear colors and shapes? This was a fascinating idea but now wasn't the time to contemplate the implications of this.

"Oh my, I must look and sound a bit eerie but don't mind it right now, I assure you that I can see just fine. Let us focus on the intruder for now, those guys said that the woman ran off that way."

She raised her blurry arm to point at the other door.

"In that case, there's no time to loose."

Sir Clarence and his daughter took a step forward but Nessa raised her other arm to block their path before they could get past her.

"They said that she ran that way but I can hear her heart beating downstairs. They even opened the escape door themselves."

The look in Clarence eyes changed instantly. Nessa didn't need to say anymore than that for him to understand the obvious. She felt glad he didn't waste time asking if she could really hear the heart of the intruder beating downstairs.

Nessa felt the heartbeat of all the guards quicken in panic. She could 'see' them throw nervous glances at one another and gulp in worry. Did they really expect to not get caught with this poorly set up plan?

Sir Clarence's daughter didn't catch up quite as quickly, not because she wasn't smart but more because she was pure and inexperienced.

"Eh? What does that mean?"

"It means that those ten betrayed house Hasting and tried to help the intruder escape." The knight answered flatly while the rest of the guards and knights following him all burst into the room. "By the power conferred onto me by the duke Hasting, all ten of you are under arrest!"

The daughter was surprised but quickly did as she was told and everyone following them followed the orders to arrest without questions. The traitorous tower guards were massively outnumbered and had nowhere to run but along the wall so they didn't put up much resistance and all surrendered in no time. Not long after, a dozen knights including sir Clarence and his daughter went downstairs to apprehend the remaining woman.

Since the knights were here now, Nessa didn't need to go there herself. As the daughter of the duke and the one being targeted by the assassins, she knew that she should abstain from following them.

By what she 'saw' from upstairs, it was the daughter that knocked the woman out in the end, she didn't need the help of the others.

Nessa had to run around everywhere for this but in the end, she didn't really do anything special. She felt a bit disappointed, she wasn't robbed of her achievement but wasn't this situation a bit anticlimactic? She wouldn't complain about that however because it would let them gather more information easily.

With all that said, she didn't put an end to her sword dance.

She didn't know how she would feel after it ended and she couldn't afford to collapse or look week here with all the eyes in the palace and the duchy on her. She would only stop once she was back in private.

The knights quickly came back from the storage room with the woman in binds. They approached to stand in front of her with respect. No one really knew what was going on as of yet so they all felt the need to help protect her. She didn't feel like she needed them but it was their job so it didn't annoy her in any way.

"My lady, would you give me some details on what happened?" Clarence asked her politely.

"I will but I'd like to thank her first."

Nessa turned her head towards the young knight. She liked to be pleasant with people and that person deserved some acknowledgement.

"That was quite a kick, you dealt with her very efficiently even though she gave me a lot of trouble, thank you."

Nessa 'saw' it from here, the woman tried to slash at her face but the young knight parried it and knocked her out with a high kick in the chin despite her heavy armor.

The knight was surprised to be so suddenly praised and could only muster a humble thank you in a hurry.

Nessa kept going because it was a good way to improve her relationship with everyone and also possibly help the young knight along the way. She turned her head back to Clarence.

"She's your daughter yes? She has your eyes and your sense of duty too I assume."

"Yes, she does." Clarence nodded with a warm smile filled with pride.

"Then I'm glad to make your acquaintance, what is your name?"

"It's Laurie my lady."

"Lady knight Laurie, I'll remember it. Father will undoubtedly be thankful for your help with the smooth capture of the criminal."

The young knight looked gleeful to be told so. Nessa had acknowledged her ability and essentially declared to everyone that her name was worth remembering. She hadn't even mentioned sir Clarence in her final statement because 'Laurie daughter of Clarence' didn't give off the same effect as 'Lady knight Laurie'.

One acknowledged her father's strength while the other affirmed she could stand on her own. The older knight seemed just as happy by the way she put it.

Like this, she would hopefully have helped Laurie on her path to become a great knight and Nessa would gain the reputation of someone who was willing to reward the achievements of those helping her out. She'd have liked to give her an actual reward but it wasn't her place to do so as it would undermine the authority of her father and this wasn't the effect she was looking for.

After letting his daughter rejoice in silence for a small moment, sir Clarence asked her a new question.

"May I ask my lady about her voice?"

"No need to worry about me. I sound like that because of the third stage of the royal sword dance." She declared confidently.

"You mastered it!" A few knights couldn't help but gasp, including Laurie.

"No, I only stepped into it but mastery comes with practice. With that said, please forgive my strange voice for now as I tell you about the events that just unfolded."

There were no further comments about her voice or her closed eyes but Nessa saw Laurie show some bright sparkling eyes towards her father which almost made her smile too.

She proceeded to tell the knights and guards about how she was assaulted in her chambers by three armed intruders while she was training. She told them about how they came prepared to be silent, how they tried to kill her without warning, how she didn't know who sent them or why and how the ten guards in this tower where apparently in on it.

Thinking back on it, she was lucky that they didn't bring any mage or some strange talisman able to completely deafen someone or she would have been in much more danger.

After everything was explained, they brought the remaining criminals away for interrogation and Nessa excused herself. Instead of returning to her chambers like everyone thought she would however, she glided across the palace and joined up with her two servants at the door.

"Cherry, a quill and a parchment please."

She received the writing tool and wrote down a few words for her father in a hurry.

"Heat up the wax while I write." She said as she made the quill dance on the paper.

< Dear father,

Considering I was attacked in my own chambers and that there is now blood everywhere on my floor, I decided that I should take this opportunity to leave for the north. I will practice the third stage of our royal sword dance I just learned there against real foes while you figure out who tried to have me murdered.

Please do not be too angry, I love you even if I disagree with you.

Lastly, if it has not reached your ears yet, Lady knight Laurie took down the last assassin alive for us. I believe she deserves a reward. Please do not penalize her for my own disobedience just because I mentioned her here.

I will hopefully see you all again soon, I'm not fleeing and I'm not hiding. >

With the letter written, she showed it to Cherry to make sure she really wrote what she intended, sealed it with wax and handed it to the soldier at the gate to confuse and distract him as she passed it and left the palace.

Everything worked out well in the end. Her method might be a bit drastic but it was probably for the best.

Now she just needed to join the battlefield.

She'd end the sword dance later once she was certain that she managed to leave Folcourse properly. Who knew what would happen once she stopped after all. Getting caught right away because of that would be a shame.

*-*-*-*

The wooden window, I'm sorry, I have no idea how to call that in English. The small latticed wooden doors used to block windows. her window doesn't use glass so it's the only thing that can close it properly. I just don't know how it's called in English. In french, it would be a "Battant de fenêtre." or maybe a "Volet exterieur de fenêtre."