Almost There

"H-How?" Sayuri sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Huh?" Sascha blinked at her. Sayuri sobbed again and rushed forward, arms draping over Sascha's shoulders in abject misery as she cried.

"How did you know?" Sayuri wailed, tears streaming down her face.

"What are you talking about?" Sascha tried unsuccessfully to peel the cat girl off her, which only caused Sayuri to hold on tighter.

"H-H-How did you know about this one?" Sayuri hicced, still holding onto the princess with one hand while pointing the other toward me.

"Mirielle passed me information?" Sascha patted Sayuri's head awkwardly as she continued to sob brokenly.

"M-Mirielle was a t-t-treasonous w-worm, sir, lady, s-sir," Sayuri sobbed, laying her head on Sascha's ample chest miserably.

"I…see," Carrisyn mumbled, plainly confused by what was happening.

"You said to find out how s-she knew," Sayuri cried louder, her shoulders shaking from the force of her sobs. "S-So I did."

"That was very…er…industrious of you, Sayuri," Sascha soothed, petting her haltingly, looking to Carrisyn for backup. The countess shrugged.

"It was?" Sayuri stared up at the princess, her large eyes glistening with tears.

"S-Sure!" Sascha smiled encouragingly.

"Industry us is good?" Sayuri sniffled.

"Very good, yes," Sascha nodded, glancing at us for help but we all stared dumbly at her, dealing with our own grief at her pending demise in our own way.

"Sayuri is still best girl?" Sayuri asked, peering up at the princess hopefully.

"Yes," Sascha smiled, patting her head again.

"S-Sayuri is happy," the cat girl nodded, certainly not appearing to be happy.

The princess was odd and unnecessarily flirty, but she had always seemed like fun. Plus she had large breasts which wasn't a bad thing. I certainly didn't want her to die. The thoughts of losing one of her own combined with Sayuri's broken-hearted, miserable sniffles brought tears to my own eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Sascha asked the catgirl, once more failing to pry her off.

"Because you're going to get magic blood and dieeee!" Sayuri wailed, throwing her head back dramatically.

"No, I'm not," Sascha assured her, pushing on the cat girl impotently.

"Yes! Yes, you are! Lady sir said so! You'll be drained and die!" Sayuri shook her head, holding on tighter.

"No, I won't!" Sascha suddenly vanished in a puff of wispy smoke before reappearing a meter to the right. "I'm a vampire. Hello! Vampire!" Sascha flashed her syringe-like teeth, pointing to them as proof.

"You're not g-going to d-die?" Sayuri stayed where she was, holding nothing for a moment.

"I'm already dead, so, no, I'm not going to die," Sascha replied, straightening her clothes."

"You're already dead!" Sayuri wailed anew, leaping onto her, and dragging Sascha to the ground.

"Seriously?" Sascha scowled.

"Wait," I shook my head. "You're not going to die?"

"No! I already said I'm a vampire, didn't I?" Sascha paused her struggling for a moment and spread her arms as if to say "see?".

"I'm so glad!" I enthused. I took hold of Sayuri's arm and gently pried her away from Sascha. "It's ok! It's ok! She's going to be fine."

"R-Really?" Sayuri peered up at me from where she kneeled, heterochromatic eyes blinking at me hopefully.

"Really," I nodded, helping her to her feet. Sayuri chewed her lip suspiciously but finally accepted my assurance and smiled.

"Then I am happy," Sayuri nodded in satisfaction and walked away, the issue plainly resolved sufficiently in her mind.

"Now that that excitement is over, we really should get moving before we're trapped in this hall forever," Sascha pointed out, getting to her feet, and dusting herself off.

Carrisyn led us up the stairs at the end of the hall and into yet another long hallway with several doors opening off at intervals. Unlike the lower level, the light here seemed to be provided by what appeared to be stones hanging from the ceiling in braziers which put off a soft silvery glow with no visible smoke. Carrisyn walked behind Zelaeryn and between Alarice and I looking at each door closely before moving on. I could tell she was still exhausted from her earlier magical expenditure but at the very least she seemed to be holding her own.

"No, none of these are right," Carrisyn shook her head. We reached the end of the hall and Carrisyn opened a door on the north wall revealing a short hall ending in a flight of stairs. She looked between the open stairway leading up at the end of the hall and the new stairs for a long moment.

"You have no idea where we're going do you?" Alarice sighed irritably.

"I saw one blueprint one time," Carrisyn snapped in reply. "I'm just trying to get my bearings."

"We've got more husks coming," Zelaeryn pointed out, gesturing to the stairway ahead of us. Sure enough the scuffling of their claws on the stone could be plainly heard coming closer to us from the higher reaches of the castle.

"That way," Carrisyn declared, gesturing toward the new stairway. Alarice glanced over at me, and I shrugged. I would have loved to have been able to say she hadn't led us astray, yet, but the disaster at the Warrens and then again at the Tower of the Moon kind of made a mockery of that assertion. On the other hand, it wasn't like we had much of a choice.

"Well, I for one am very excited to go up the scary staircase of doom!" I enthused. Carrisyn scowled at me and stalked on. "What?" Well, I thought, someone was certainly testy.

"A little less help from the back seat would be appreciated," Carrisyn growled. Sayuri slammed the door behind us loudly and we all jumped in surprise, turning back to her.

"Hai!" She turned around to see if anyone was behind her before beaming at us brightly and waving enthusiastically.

"Ugh," Carrisyn grunted, rolling her eyes, and stalking up the stairs behind Zelaeryn.

"Did Sayuri do something wrong?" she asked, coming up to walk beside me.

"Do you ever do anything wrong?" I asked with a grin.

"Yes?" Sayuri cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"No! The answer is no! Sayuri is the best girl and best girls never do anything wrong!" I corrected her with a chuckle, petting her head.

"R-Really?" She asked, awestruck.

"Definitely!" I smiled, noticing her posture change quickly to one of pride.

"Sayuri is best girl!" She whispered in awe. I chuckled and hurried after the others up the stairs. The door made of thick wood slats bound by iron straps barring the top of the stairs was solid and seemingly impenetrable. It also happened to be locked tight. For some strange reason the others turned to me as Sayuri and I finally caught up with them.

"What?" I asked.

"Can you pick the lock?" Alarice asked.

"Why would you think I could do that?" I cocked an eyebrow suspiciously. "Do I look like a thief to you?"

"Well…yeah. You do," She shrugged. "I mean, except for your boobs hanging out. That kind of says harlot."

"Don't judge me," I snapped. "Fine," I sighed, moving to the door, and kneeling beside it. "Let me see what I've got." I began opening the pouches at my waist at random. "Powder. No. Some kind of frog leg thing. No. Uh…this?" I stared at the wizened piece of bone and scowled. What the hell even was this? "No." I shook my head. Finally, having gone through nearly everything I came across a set of intricate picks which looked promising. I sighed again deeply and dramatically so they were aware how displeased this entire situation left me and inserted the picks into the lock mechanism.

"This is not going to work," I muttered. "I told you before I'm no…" With a soft click the lock disengaged and the door swung open.

"You're a better thief than I thought," Alarice patted my shoulder as she stepped past. It did not feel like a compliment.

"I'm more interested in the harlot angle myself," Sascha grinned at me, glancing down at my exposed breasts. I blushed fiercely but smirked at her, nonetheless. Maybe I was a harem protagonist after all! Oh! I thought, the possibilities!

"We're not here for that sort of thing," Carrisyn's icy voice interrupted.

"That's not what you were saying in the portal room," Sascha teased.

"C-Come on!" Carrisyn stammered quickly, grabbing Sascha's arm and steering her through the door.

"Alarice! Did you know that Carrisyn- "Sascha began with a snicker.

"That's enough of that," Carrisyn interrupted, pushing the blonde princess more forcefully. "We have things to do."

"Whoa!" I breathed, following them onto what turned out to be a wide rampart. The moon rode high in the sky, it's silver light shining down upon the fortress. The jagged peaks of snow-capped mountains thrust toward the starry sky for kilometers in all directions, an impenetrable barrier of stone ringing the Elven castle. Far in the distance a carpet of dark forests lay beneath the silvery moonlight. A cold and biting wind whistled among the parapets, rustling my hair and tattered armor, and causing goosebumps to spring up on my skin.

It looked stunning, like something out of a painting, but also felt lonely and isolated. If, as Carrisyn had said, this was the heart of the Elven Empire, I could very easily see why the elves had fallen. A remote royal court far removed from the trials and troubles and pain the common people felt was ill-suited to govern those same people. History was clear that once nobility lost connection with those who had lifted them to their status and given them their authority the end was not far off. Obviously, I had no idea what had gone on, but I could see how the severity of the threat posed by the human armies could very easily slip the notice of the Empress and her court until far too late to take any sort of meaningful action.

So, while it was, indeed, an awe-inspiring sight, it also felt tragic. Had the Empress and her court walked these same stones and looked out at the realm they were supposed to protect and been blissfully unaware it was all going to hell around them without even noticing? The last years of Czar Nicolas II came to mind. Had the Empress been ignorant of the impending collapse until it was too late as he had been? Or had she tried vainly to come up with something, anything, no matter how desperate to save her people and Empire?

From what Carrisyn had said about the High Elves it certainly seemed like she had tried to do something before being betrayed by the demons Rhade had replaced her councilors with, but something told me her actions were those of a desperate and uninformed woman who hadn't been aware she was careening toward a cliff until the ground dropped out beneath her.

"This door's locked, too!" Sascha called. I dragged my eyes from the stunning, cold beauty of the landscape Silverbough sat nestled within and hurried to open the door into a large tower built half into the cliff face looming above the fortress itself.

"I think I know where we are!" Carrisyn enthused as soon as we made our way through the door and into the large circular base of the tower. I couldn't help but notice the smirks Sascha and Alarice gave each other and had to force myself to keep a straight face. "This is the Tower of the Spear! The Armory should be at the top!"

I trudged after Zelaeryn and Carrisyn as they led the way up the stairs along the outer wall of the tower. More stairs, I raged impotently. Why can't anything be on the ground floor? Not to mention the last time I climbed into a tower I ended up being chased back down a few minutes by a possessed countess shooting white fire out of her hands. What the hell was going to try to kill me this time? Some sort of primeval howitzer? A giant terrible bird with lightning shooting out of it's ass? I shuddered to think of the litany of horrors which most likely lay in wait at the top of the tower.

"There it is," Sascha breathed as we reached the top of the stairs and opened the pair of giant double doors barring the way.

"Very impressive," I muttered, peering around the room looking for fiery hell hounds. Oddly enough, no new nightmares emerged from the shadows with murderous intent. Which, of course, only made me even more nervous.

"We can finally end this nightmare," I heard Alarice whisper to Sascha as the pair approached the blade sitting placidly atop a simple stone pedestal in the center of the room. I had seen this scene in a movie once, I thought, glancing around the room. It had been a golden head in the movie, but a giant round rock had tried to crush the guy trying to take it. I glanced toward the roof expecting to find the agent of our doom suspended above us but only wide windows looking out over the keep and mountains beyond met my gaze.

"Come out you demon bat hell-spawned kangaroo python," I whispered to myself trying to cover the gambit of monstrosities so I wouldn't be as surprised and horrified. I spun the daggers in my hands nervously, the moonlight glinting dangerously off the polished blades.

"We've got it!" Sascha grinned, tucking the sword into her belt.

"I can see the Library from here," Carrisyn said, pointing at something through one of the windows.

I followed the others as they made their way down the stairs, scowling in confusion. What the hell was going on? Shouldn't something have tried to kill us? Honestly, the fact nothing had even bothered trying made me more nervous than if a four-armed, shark-headed man wolf had erupted from the dark with a chainsaw and laser pistols.

"We're almost there," Sascha patted Carrisyn on the back encouragingly.

"Yeah," she smiled half-heartedly. The countess glanced back at me, an almost sad look on her face. "We are."