“I pulled what I could,” sighed Nana’s uncle. “If it can buy us some time...”
For a while, they ran down the corridors of the dungeons, looking for Yassim. The layout was rather simple, but Cessilia was astonished at how dark and crowded this place was. Dozens of people were in those cells, many glaring at their little group as they walked by. She could tell most of those men did belong here, but some were in a worrying state, skinny and unhealthy... From time to time, they would run into a completely empty cell, though, which made her even more worried...
“There he is!” exclaimed Nana, spotting him first. “Uncle Yassim, are you alright?”
The old man looked a bit sick, but even more surprised to see the little group that had come to his rescue. He was alone in a cell, luckily, but it didn’t solve the fact that they didn’t have anything to free him.
“...Do you think we can try asking the soldiers for the key?” grimaced Nana.
“What key?” scoffed Tessa. “I can just open it...”
She drew out her twin swords and suddenly began attacking the door’s lock. The sound of metal hitting each other was loud for a few seconds, but one could tell that the lock was old and wouldn’t hang on for long. Cessilia grimaced.
“You’re g-going t-to break my b-brother’s swords...”
“No, it should be fine. Just one more hit and then...”
They were both right. On the last hit, the lock gave up, but so did Tessa’s sword, breaking in two. The blade fell on the wrong side, cutting the sword woman’s hand. Tessa grimaced.
“Tessa!” exclaimed Nana, shocked to see the blood.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s not deep...”
Indeed, the cut was long and thin, but only a bit of blood came out. Tessa licked it quickly, making her cousin grimace, but Cessilia ignored her, walking in to help the Counselor out.
“You shouldn’t do this for me, my ladies... It’s fine, His Majesty is mad at me, I don’t want him to deflect his anger at you...”
“Too late for that, Cessi already had words with him,” scoffed Tessa. “Come on, let’s just go before those idiots really bring people to stop us...”
The soldiers were alerted indeed, but the Princess’ presence seemed to leave them all in utter confusion as to what to do. Not only that, but many of them were glancing at Nupia in their strange group, and when they tried to leave, no one dared to stand in their way. It was clear they weren’t freeing a major criminal, either; everyone knew about the old Counselor. Hence, they were let out without a word, although no one dared to voice their support or say anything. A lot of them probably wondered if they would be punished for this, but it was too late to do anything to stop two Royal Counselors, a candidate, and a princess...
On their way out and after they had finally reached the ground floor, Nana let out a long sigh.
“I can’t believe this went well... Are you alright, Uncle Yassim?”
“I’m grateful for my ladies to have come to save a helpless old man, but I’m afraid this won’t help quell the King’s anger toward me...”
“I d-don’t c-care,” declared Cessilia. “I want you t-to b-be my c-counselor if the K-King doesn’t want you.”
“Really?” exclaimed Yassim, looking a bit amused. “If it’s the Princess’ order, then...”
“Let’s g-go t-to my room, I have q-questions for you,” added Cessilia.
“...Are you alright?” Nana asked Tessa, visibly a bit worried.
“I’m fine. See?”
To her surprise, when Tessandra showed her hand, there was no wound anymore, but instead, a thin trail of little, vivid green scales. Naptunie was so shocked she blinked twice.
“Wha...”
“The dragon’s skin,” Tessandra explained. “It’s one of our families’ abilities. When our skin is cut like this, scales appear to accelerate the healing process and protect us. It’s almost instantaneous, and everything will be better in just a couple of hours!”
“It’s so amazing!” exclaimed Naptunie. “And they are such a pretty green too!”
“Right? It means that if I had a dragon, it would have been... Cessi?”
Cessilia, who was walking in front, had brutally stopped. Her eyes were staring ahead, and Tessandra realized the door to their Cerulean Suite was open. She turned her head, but next to her, Nupia seemed at a loss too.
“I... We didn’t leave it open...”
Cessilia left the Counselors there and ran into the bedroom first, her cousin right behind her. The two women’s reactions were enough to make Naptunie worried too, and she followed behind, wondering what was going on. When she finally walked in and saw the state of the room, she gasped in shock, covering her mouth.
It had been ransacked.
“Oh my God,” cried Nana. “Who could have... We were just gone for a while...”
Cessilia and Tessandra were both staring around the room with furious eyes. This had been very plainly targeted toward them, their clothing and possessions had been completely trashed and spread all across the room. The fur coat Nana was looking at just that morning was ripped, as were all of their clothes. The furniture had been turned all over the place, the drawers were thrown out, but the curtains and carpets were fine. This was clearly meant to intimidate and upset them.
“...They took our gold,” muttered Tessandra, furious.
The two young women ventured farther into the room, staring at all the damage. Everything had been done in a hurry, savagely, and without any restraint. The bags they had brought with them had just been violently ripped apart, the contents spread all over the place for more damage. Naptunie was so shocked at the scene, she began tearing up silently.
“All your pretty dresses...” she mumbled, “and your money...”
When she took notice of Naptunie’s tears, Cessilia walked back to gently hug her.
“D-don’t worry, Nana. Th-this is nothing.”
