37. The Blue Palace

“I can’t believe this shit!” Chief Justice Milray Vilger cursed as I followed him through the corridors of the Blue Palace, home of the Judicial wing of the Kingdom.

“Counterintelligence, my ass! Nutjobs, all of them! Taking kids from the gods damned streets!”

It was only a few minutes ago that we had encountered him by luck on our way to his office to deliver the Archbishop's letter. 

Up until then, it had eluded me that the same man with whom I had fought side by side during the battle of Khaln Fortress over half a decade ago had since taken the role of Chief Justice of Firsland.

At first, he'd been overjoyed to see me again, and he tried to catch up, but I had to cut the pleasantries short. We'd quickly brought him up to speed on the situation. He didn't need much convincing. The more we had told him about the reason for our visit, the stronger the shade of red and eventually purple he had turned, so much so that I thought he would explode before we could finish our story.

It seems the story had struck a nerve, and he was now on a warpath.

“Thank you, Vilger. Your help is tremendously appreciated.” I managed to slip between two of his angry outbursts.

He simply nodded while continuing to forge ahead. 

“Forgive me, Marshall, but this shouldn’t have happened. They ARE supposed to be under my jurisdiction, but so is half this forsaken kingdom! I swear, when I get those lunatics…”

We reached the barracks, and Vilger picked up a sword from a rack. He examined it for a moment before sliding it inside its sheath.

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?” Bishop Feldor asked. 

He was the only one who had come in with me. The trip to the Blue Palace had been a lengthy one, and the girl, Coleen, had fallen asleep. Delian had then stayed back in the carriage with her while waiting for our return.

Vilger snorted.

“You may want to stay here then, Your Excellency. These men are the very definition of paranoia. They are just as likely to pull a sword on us as they are on the enemy. Professional deformation if you take their word for it… Insanity if you take mine.”

He offered me swords as well, which I accepted out of caution. It made me curious regarding 'who' he was referring to… For now, I could only rely on his words.

We headed out through the back door and reached the stables, where we entered the carriage, startling the sleeping pair awake.

“Where are we heading?” I asked Vilger.

“Calvas garrison.” He responded loudly enough for the driver to hear.

“...Can't wait to see their faces when they hear their headquarters location has been leaked.” He mumbled as the carriage departed.

“I apologise for the disruption, but I must ask: how do we know that this is where Silika is held?” Feldor questioned.

It was an oddly timed but fair question. Although Vilger looked sure of himself, the information we had come to him with was at best circumstantial. His jump to action and decisiveness on the matter was nothing short of surprising… If not a little confusing.

“I guess it warrants an explanation for civilians, wouldn't it?" He mumbled to himself.

"Well, let's put it this way, I’ve now been chief judge for the kingdom for 4 years. In that time, many cases have crossed my table, and so, there are normally three possible culprits for this sort of kidnapping.”  He lifted a finger

“One, slavers or brigands. Prefer isolated victims. Young kids are not a prime target unless they are nobles… They're the ones worth anything to most 'buyers' ”

I felt Delian twitch at my side.

Odd...

“...Unless it's a special request from clients with… Unusual tastes, but I would leave that theory aside in this case.”

Coleen looked around confused, but no one in the coach dared meet her inquisitive stare.

“Broad daylight and crowds are not their modus operandi. A garrison uniform would be a bold choice for a disguise, but they would get caught at the next checkpoint. So, possible, but very unlikely”

He lifted a second finger.

“Two, by the book arrest. If she was suspected of a crime…”

“We didn’t do anything bad!” Coleen exclaimed.

Vilger simply smiled at the outburst.

“I know, sweetheart, I’m speaking theoretically… It means ‘what if’ scenarios.”

That was surprisingly smooth. Did Vilger have children? For a man his age, that wouldn't be surprising. It would also explain why the situation angered him so.

He cleared his throat once more.

“As I was saying, this could have been a simple arrest, but then her guardian would have been informed in the quickest delays.”

He looked half-hazardously between Delian and me.

“They wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked.” Delian simply said as he shook his head.

Vilger nodded as he lifted a third and last finger.

“And this brings us to the last option. The counterintelligence squad. They are the kingdom’s first line of defence and the prime reason why it has survived the test of time for over two millennia. They would even be praiseworthy if they weren’t complete sociopaths.”

He rubbed his temples before continuing.

“Despite being a branch of the Blue Palace, my control of them is mostly a formality since they answer directly to the king, and they can make any arrests of individuals deemed reasonably suspicious. Emphasis on reasonably. As I’ve mentioned, they are the very definition of paranoia. If they could have someone standing in every room of every house in Firsland, they would. As I would never allow for it, they instead use a tremendously unreliable network of informants…”

He leaned back on his seat.

“Which brings us to how ‘I know’ they are responsible. Although they can make arrests, they still have to act in tandem with the local garrison… Which does, in fact, answer to me. I was aware of an operation in the lower district today, but not the details… And now they’ve gone and crossed a line.”

As he finished his sentence, the coach came to a stop.

“Alright, we’re here. Ashbrook, with me. The rest wait for us here.”

“I’m coming as well.” Delian announced, stepping out in our wake

“It could be dangerous in there. You should wait here and…” I tried to explain, but he cut me off.

“Neither of you knows how to handle Silika. If she sees you alone, she might panic; it could be dangerous…”

There was something in his voice, a strange lack of emphasis on who would be in danger.

The Bishop also silently stood up and stepped out of the carriage, followed by the girl, who probably didn’t want to be left alone in the carriage at this point.

“Well, invite the whole damn royal family, why don’t you!” Vilger said in an exasperated voice.

“Alright. Ashbrook, stick close to me, as for the rest, stay ten paces behind. Let's go.”

Vilger pushed the door open, and a startled clerk stood up from his seat.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave this place at…” He tried to say, but was interrupted.

“I know gods damned well where this is.” Vilger cut the man off while pulling something from his breast pocket and showed it to him. 

It was a coat of arms adorned with the symbols of the kingdom’s royal council.

“See this thing here?” He said, leaning forward for emphasis.

The clerk stood up from his chair.

“My lord! I didn’t know we should be expecting your visit!”

“Of course you wouldn’t! That’s why you’re part of the counter-intelligence squad, not the intelligence squad!” Vilger said sarcastically.

The man had a confused look on his face. 

“Don’t try to get this one, son. You’ll burn whatever’s still standing between your ears. I need directions. Need to remove someone from your custody.”

“Of course, my lord. If you could take a seat while I…”

“Did I ask for you to get me something? I asked for directions.” He cut off again dryly. 

Vilger looked at me, expecting me to say something which I could easily guess at this point.

“We’re looking for a young girl, aged around 5 or 6. Pink hair, golden eyes.”

The clerk sat down defeated. He looked through his manifest.

“Yes, we had an arrival matching this description, but sir, I must insist that…”

“Where?”

“Down the hall. Take the stairs and turn left…”

“Good boy!”

Vilger walked off without another word. As we left the entrance, I could hear the clerk whimper.

“I hope I don’t get court martialed for this…”

We started down the stairs, but as we rounded the corner, we heard a loud howling sound echoing through the hallway.

“It’s Silika! Quick!” Delian yelled from behind me.

We immediately started running. 

It didn’t take much effort to find the room; the screaming was so loud that even the door was shaking.

Was this truly Silika? The sound… It was impossibly loud. Louder than anything I'd ever heard before. How is this possible?

“Open the door! We have to stop her before she hurts herself!” The Bishop yelled at the top of his lungs, and yet was barely audible under the noise.

Confused, but understanding the urgency, Vilger kicked the door in. 

Across the threshold, a woman and a man were bickering around a table while a guard lamented as he held his head.

“Shut her up! Shut her up!”

The guard yelled while leaning on the bars of a prison cell.

“Shut your mouth, I need to find it! It has to be somewhere in there…”

The woman screamed as she dug through something on the table.

The Silver-haired knight at her side finally noticed us and put his hand on his sword. A painful rictus on his face from the noise.

“Hersia!” He screamed

“What do YOU want n…” The woman began, but stopped herself as she toward her partner and saw us.

Her face was warped in a pained rictus as she tried to withstand the deafening noise of Silika’s screams. 

In her hand was a torn-up bunny doll. 

It was the same Silika had had in her arms this morning. 

She drew a dagger from her belt, but, instinctively, I struck and disarmed her by slicing the back of her hand. 

As she fell to the ground screaming and holding her injured limb, the table came into view, and I noticed something on the table.

A pool of blood.

I had seen many of them before, but this time it felt…

My knees felt weak for a moment. Images of bloodied sheets and Lilica’s tearful face surfaced in my mind. I caught a glimpse of my sword, stained with blood and dropped it in shock. I almost collapsed, but Vilger caught me.

Delian looked in my direction, worried, before looking beyond the table.

“Sh… She’s here!” He screamed out.

I looked up. 

Silika was there.

Screaming, howling.

Her eyes were wide open, but staring off into the void. Tears streamed down her face as horrible and painful screams escaped her throat.

“Move!” The Bishop screamed as he pushed his way through.

He placed his hand on either side of Silika’s face and began mumbling something. 

I couldn’t hear the words, of course, but I assumed it was a prayer to Scorn. 

As quickly as it had started, the screaming stopped. 

Silence hung in the room as our ears buzzed.

Feldor held Silika in place for a few more moments before she slumped in his arms. Unconscious. 

“Thank Scorn…” The Bishop let out a sigh of relief.

“Silika!” Coleen called out as she rushed past us and went to check on her friend. 

I managed to recover from my shock and picked up my blade from the floor, avoiding looking at the bloodied blade again.

Thankfully, Silika looked completely unharmed.  

The blood on the table mustn’t have been hers then… But looking at the scarlet pool still made me feel sick. Why would anyone bring an innocent little girl to such a terrible place? Who let this happen?

I gathered my thoughts and turned my attention to the situation at hand.

“What was that scream?” I asked Feldor who was now carrying Silika in his arms. 

“It’s her blessing.” Delian explained while Bishop checked over the girl. 

Feldor then looked up at me.

“Silika’s blessing is unstable. Due to her condition, she hasn’t learnt how to control the connection between her emotions and the blessing. Her inability to distinguish reality from her imagination causes her fear and anger to go out of control... Resulting in these flare-ups.” He explained.

“That’s nice and all, but who the hell are you people?!” A foreign voice roared.

It was the grey-haired knight who had finally recovered from his stupor.

“Oh! Forgive me.” Vilger scoffed before turning toward him.

“I must have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Count Milray Vilger, Ch…”

“Chief Justice. Yes. Of course. No one else would be able to barge in like this.”

Yet another unknown voice said from behind me.

I turned around, sword at the ready. 

What I found was a strange man standing underneath the doorframe. His uniform was similar to the other two knights, but he wore a golden-trimmed cape while several insignia adorned his collar. I slowly focused on his face, underneath greasy dark green hair, dark circles highlighted two sharp pink eyes.

What could only vaguely be constructed as a smile spread across the slit-like mouth of the man.

“My, what a troupe you’ve brought along with you today, Vilger.” The snake-like man said, as his eyes focused on me like a predator gauging its prey.