“Sorry to interrupt you ladies,” Ludwick appeared on the roof.

Naomi pulled away, and pretended to rearrange her hair. June smiled at the woman’s cuteness, before giving Lude a dirty look. The way the man looked as embarrassed as Naomi did not escape her.

“You were interrupting,” June stated before reluctantly getting up, and walking back to the vent by which she’d stashed her sword. “This better be important.”

“Oh, I believe it is.” Lude quickly regained his composure. “Your bestest of best friends and your sworn archnemesis are about to get into a swordfight. They probably already have, now that I think about it.”

“Well, that’s a problem,” June spoke as if this wasn’t the understatement of the century. She unsheathed her blade, inspecting it, before putting it back into its scabbard.

She didn’t know how to feel. On one hand, this development meant that she’d be free from her role of fake baroness, and be free to run off with Naomi and Lude. On the other, well, there was going to be bloodshed; royal blood shed onto the floors of Capital City. There was no way of knowing what consequences it would have, not only for her and her entourage but also for the three dukedoms.

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be.” Naomi suddenly spoke.

“Huh?”

“A problem, I mean. As long as we get the ring of Tournesol to Duke Barclays, we can still turn the public opinion against Rose, and have Duke Harvard executed by conventional means.”

“And by conventional means you mean by throwing him into the Chasm?” Lude asked, clearly approving of the idea.

Naomi nodded.

“And you wouldn’t happen to know where the scroll of Thessire is, would you? Giving it to Cedar would solve a lot of problems as well.”

Naomi nodded again.

“It’s hidden in the crypt of Cedar’s last, I mean youngest brother. His father put it there after he died under mysterious circumstances. He suspected that-”

“The crypt of Hetre Harvard got it. I shall retrieve it while June deals with the dukes.”

Lude transformed into his bat form, and had already picked June up to transport her downstairs when Naomi protested:

“What about me?”

“What about you?” June asked, knowing well enough what Naomi meant.

“I’ll help! I don’t know how yet, but I’ll help!”

“No, it’s not safe-”

“We don’t have time to argue,” Lude said, his voice slightly distorted by his current form.

He swept Naomi up and jumped off the roof. June saw Naomi shut her eyes, from the vision of the endless void below them, and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently to reassure her. Before they knew it, they were standing in the ballroom again. Lude vanished through that same broken window not giving the guests the time to have another round of terrified screams.

“Look who’s back.” Rose’s voice echoed in the ballroom.

She was standing not far from the fallen chandelier, with a tall blond man on one side of her, and a slightly shorter soft-faced brunette on the other. It seemed watching the two fight had not been on her program either, and she’d been doing her best to keep the blades of both dukes from touching.

“Don’t change the subject, Rose,” Basil spoke, his voice as commanding as ever.

“Oh, she can change the subject all she wants,” Cedar used the brief distraction to lung himself at Basil.

The emperor blocked the hit, but was pushed back. Cedar moved aside, before coming in with another swing. This one was blocked as well, but it achieved its intended purpose of moving the fight away from Rose.

“Duck.” June suddenly said, as she shoved Naomi to the ground.

A volley of shards from the chandelier had assembled into an arrow formation and flew at June. The woman sliced through them, breaking their link to the caster. Glass, now once again inanimate, fell to the ground, revealing Rose, active mana-medium in hand.

She was holding a cube the corners of which had burst open as energy – that appeared as faint orange-tainted perturbation in the air, barely visible under the current light – flew in arcs in between them.

“You’ve got good reflexes for a baroness,” Rose spoke, as another volley of shards took life, and several of the metal rings that’d supported them undulated and merged together, slithering on the ground and picking up more glass, before lunging at June.

“And the magazines weren’t kidding about you being a genius,” June said, genuinely impressed by Rose’s level of skill.

She planted her sword through the metal and glass snake, but the creature split and reformed around her blade, before sliding up it. June yanked a concealed dagger, and ran it along her other blade, not worrying about the damage to either weapon, as she scraped the snake off.

She hit the thing to the side, with he blunt end of her sword (although some would have argued that after all the metal that’d scraped against it in the past few seconds, all ends of her sword were blunt), before dashing towards Rose.

The mage was completely unbothered, as she swiftly pulled her hands apart, moving two halves of the mana-medium with it. As it opened, the cube released a blast of energy. June fell to the ground. Before she could regain her composure, she metal snake had crawled up her sword once more.

With a quick and broad movement, June did something desperate. She swept her sword, and the animated creature attached to it, and flung it at Rose.

The woman yelped, and almost lost balance. Unfortunately, her concentration never wavered, and the snake did not unravel from June’s blade. But, it gave her enough time to cross the distance between her and Rose, and come for her neck with her dagger.

She was stopped from landing a fatal blow with a sword that slid right under it.

“I guess it’s two against two now,” Cedar spoke, before kicking Basil in the back, making him lose balance.

Basil’s sword moved out of the way, but the opening June had on Rose was gone. And so was the audience – also known as other ball guests.

Swords clashed, against other swords or against animated parts of a derelict chandelier. The battle started to draw out. None of the parties had anticipated or were prepared for anything that’d last beyond a few minutes, and blows began to get slow and sloppy, while blasts the metal snake shedded some of its parts, and the projectiles became fewer and further between.

A loud alarm brought a well-needed break.

“The central ventilation system is failing!” Basil exclaimed. “Darling you need to-”

His right hand, the one holding his sword and wearing the ring of Tournesol fell to the ground.

The man collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain, but Cedar had already snatched the severed hand, and put the ring onto his own finger. It flashed with a bright yellow light, proclaiming him as the rightful heir to the throne.

When the light dissipated, June wiped blood off her sword, and put it away, before patting her friend on the shoulder with a proud smile.

“Rose, heal me, Rose,” Basil begged. “Rose?” He lifted his eyes, and realised, at the same time as the other two, that Rose was gone.

“Well, good to know that your common girlfriend knows teleportation magic.” June spoke.

The alarm continued to ring, as she knelt down, and handed Basil his severed hand. She tore a strip off the bottom of her dress, and hastily wrapped it around his wrist.

“Go find a healer. You will be trialled for your crimes later.” Cedar spoke, failing to contain the joy in his tone.

“Lady June!” Naomi rushed through the main door, “Are you alright?”

Basil swore under his breath, and made his way out, clenching his wrist, just as the girl rushed in. The alarm sound stopped shortly after Basil’d left the room.

“Well, mysterious lady,” Cedar addressed Naomi with a curious smirk, “I would have never imagined you’d play such an important role in helping me reclaim the throne.”

“You two know each other?” June asked.

“We met.” Naomi replied, as she finally reached the duo, and hugged June, seemingly to prove a point to both of them.

“Well, there is a saying about picking up fallen cargo,” Cedar continued, “So although I’m afraid I must leave you now, I would greatly appreciate an audience one of these days.”

“For sure.” June replied. “You know where we live.”

“We? Live?” Cedar smirked. “I’m joking, I’m joking.” He quickly added. “Feel free to stay by the railway for as long as you need.”

June nodded, and Naomi had nothing to add.

They watched as Cedar walked across the empty ballroom, taking off his ring in the process. He vanished out of view, but his voice, reflected by the cavernous walls, of the entry hall, carried all the way in.

“Dear guests, for decades we have lived under the tyrannical rule of a false, self-proclaimed, emperor. I come to announce that his rule is no more,”

A bright yellow light came from the entryway, not quite reaching where the two women stood.

“I, Cedar Barclays, am reclaiming my dukedom, and restoring the independent rule of-” Cedar continued his speech.

“Got the stupid paper.” Ludwick flew in, taking human form as he landed.

“Huh, it’s quite literally a scroll.” June said, surprised at the large rolled-up manuscript in Lude’s hand.

“There was a maze under the crypt. Traps. And Rats.” Lude vented, as he handed the scroll to the two women. “So, what now?”

“You wouldn’t be able to fly us home by any chance?” Naomi asked.

“What do you think I am, miss? Your private transport?”

“Nah, he can’t, he has no arm strength. He’d drop us after five minutes.” June snarkily joked, as she unrolled the top part of the scroll. She didn’t understand any of it, but she let Naomi skim over it with her. “But she does have a point. Shall we head home?”