Return
Their return to the Academy was met by the stares of Fate's peers.
As they passed through the gates of the Royal Mage Academy, they were greeted by a throng of students and professors lining each side of the cobblestone pathway. Neither Fate nor his companions said a word to any of them, keeping their heads level and their faces solemn as they carried their fallen comrades.
When they ascended the steps and entered the sprawling building, they found two people barring their way. The Guards and Fate stopped in their tracks, eyes meeting those of Principal Alessandra and a Guard in silver armor. The two Masters carried expressions as somber as those in front of them, unable to look away from the six corpses the three men held.
The Academy was unusually empty, what should be a hallway packed with students on the way to their classes instead a quiet space with no one besides these two Masters. Fate suspected it had to do with privacy, but that was doubtful considering the mob outside.
"You have done the Empress a great service," the silver-armored Guard said.
He was tall, at least 6'6", and his neatly trimmed brown beard lent a serious appearance to the man's dour expression. His slicked-back hair shone in the Academy's omnipresent lights from the glowing crystals in the ceiling, his gray eyes twinkling with the barest hint of unshed tears.
"Sergeant Beadren was a great man, and a wonderful younger brother," the Guard continued. "It's a shame that his sacrifice was scorned by those he gave his life for."
"What do you mean?" Madds asked with an angry frown.
He, for one, was very mad that he wasn't there to save the sergeant, and didn't like what this man was insinuating. Madds knew Richard appreciated the man just as much as he did; the three of them have been in the same squad for three years now. They were almost as close as brothers, so hearing Beadren's actual brother call them ungrateful would obviously invoke rage.
"I don't mean the three of you," the lieutenant sniffed, the tears in his eyes evaporating in small puffs of smoke.
"Fate hasn't told you?" Alessandra asked.
"Told us what?" queried Richard. He turned to Fate. "Tell us what?"
Fate's gloomy expression deepened even further as he sighed. "I didn't want to tell you guys this, but Gus and Bregg tried to run after the sergeant died. The sergeant invoked the 'Settan Protocol' before we fought the shaman."
It seemed for a moment that Madds' and Richard's eyes would pop out of their sockets as they stared at the bodies of Gus and Bregg on Fate's shoulders. Their faces turned crimson, then purple, before calming back down to a slight red as their expressions crinkled with disgust.
"I always knew they were cowards," Madds spat. "You should've told us, Fate. It would've saved you the effort of hauling their traitorous carcasses here."
"Their families still deserve to know," Fate insisted. "And I didn't want to sour your moods any further. Losing six friends in a day would be hard on anyone."
"Giving those bastards the same respect as Sergeant Beadren and his men is more than they deserve," Richard growled.
"Both of you, stop it," Alessandra ordered.
"You have no say over what we do, woman," Madds snapped. "We're not on guard for your Academy right now, and thus you have no jurisdiction over us."
"But I do," stated the lieutenant. "And I suggest you listen to her words. Regardless of how tragic this situation is, it is your duty as Guards to always appear respectful and composed. A task you are both failing."
Madds and Richard took deep, calming breaths, their faces becoming stoic.
"Why are you here, lieutenant…?" Madds trailed off.
"Freyn. Lieutenant Freyn. Along with retrieving my brother's remains, I am here to inform you three of the Empress' wishes."
"The Empress?" Richard's face grew weird. "What could she want with the three of us?"
"She reviewed the footage broadcasted via your armor. It has come to her attention that this young man here grabbed the shaman's journal before he left. A journal that contains the method of achieving peace between our kind and the imps."
"I don't remember picking up a journal," Fate protested.
"Regardless, you have it on you," Freyn told him. "Follow us. We'll take you to a place to put these men to rest, and then you can give it to me."
The two Masters led them through many hallways, each one without any people whatsoever. When Fate asked where everyone was, Alessandra confirmed his previous suspicion, citing privacy and time to grieve.
"Many of the juniors and seniors in the Academy considered Sergeant Beadren a father figure or role model. Many more students had served under him at least once after earning detention, so I've decided to cancel classes today," she explained.
They filed into a door with dozens more on either side of it, entering a room that was much bigger than it should be. When Fate looked at the wall behind him, the other doors were nowhere to be seen, notifying him of the room's Space enchantments.
The left wall had a table pressed against it, a six-foot-by-twelve-foot rectangle of cold metal. The air above this table was distorted and blurry, as if in the presence of heat. The rest of the room was comprised of five chairs in front of a long white table, with two more chairs behind it; a clock on the back wall; a shelf filled with crystal balls on metal stands and multi-colored rocks; and a small fridge with a blood centrifuge on top, filled with empty plastic tubes.
Alessandra and Freyn helped the three men place the bodies on the enchanted metal table before taking the two seats behind the white table. They instructed the three to sit in the other chairs, which they did without a word, and Alessandra pulled a crystal ball off of the shelf.
Placing it on the table in front of her, she said, "Pay attention."
Within the eddy of fog emerged the unmistakable appearance of the Empress, Hendren Settan.