|Evening|
July • 15 • xxxx
Avarice forced his eyes open, trying his best not to fall asleep again. He had been in and out of consciousness all day and was beginning to get suspicious. He knew that the Scarlet Night investigation was tiring him out but this felt like it was more than a simple case of overworking now. Gabriel would come to deliver his meals and they'd talk for a bit but as soon as he was done eating he'd fall right back to sleep.
Just as he had for breakfast and lunch, Gabriel entered the room with a tray of food in his hands. "Hey! Are you feeling any better?"
"I don't know what it is but I feel worse than I did yesterday."
Gabriel placed the tray in front of Avarice and helped him to sit up. "Maybe you're coming down with something." Brushing aside the hair on Avarice's face, he put his hand on Avarice's forehead and hummed thoughtfully. "It doesn't feel like you have a fever. We should keep an eye on it just to be safe though. For now, you should get something in your stomach."
Avarice picked up the fork and stared at the food for a moment. "Actually...I'm not that hungry..."
He wasn't entirely unaware of where he stood with Gabriel. He knew they weren't necessarily friends, but he didn't think Gabriel had a motive for wanting to keep him here, not unless Sin's suspicion on the identity of the Scarlet Night instigator was true after all.
Gabriel watched him carefully before taking the fork out of Avarice's hands and deciding to feed him himself. "Nonsense. If you're not feeling well it's even more important to make sure you're eating your meals."
Avarice sighed, averting his attention from Gabriel's suspicious gaze. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
It became increasingly clear that Gabriel wasn't going to leave until he made sure Avarice ate all of the food, so he did. That seemed to free Gabriel from his suspicion that Avarice had caught on but as soon as he left to take the tray back to the kitchen, Avarice sprinted to the connected bathroom and dropped to his knees in front of the toilet. He heaved until he was able to force himself to throw up all of what he had eaten. Scrambling to his feet, he cleaned himself up and rushed back into bed, pretending to have fallen asleep again.
Perhaps twenty minutes or so later, the door to the room creaked open and someone stepped inside. He could hear footsteps grow louder as they approached the bed and stopped right next to him.
"Is he already asleep?" He heard Gabriel whisper.
"Yeah, it looks like it. He fell asleep a lot faster this time. Did you increase the dosage?" The confirmation came from Hyde.
"No. The drug isn't supposed to make him sleepy...maybe the venom from the snake bite was more potent than I thought...I told him that he might be getting sick since he said he was feeling worse..."
"If he's getting sick then that could explain why his body is so weak to the venom."
"...yeah...we'll have to keep an eye on that. I just bought out the rest of the apothecary's stock of Anamnesis. It should be enough for what we need it for. Go sort them to put in the food, I'm going to get rid of the apothecary before they start running their mouth."
The footsteps faded away and the door creaked shut, leaving Avarice alone in the room to process what he had just overheard. As soon as the felt that the coast was clear, he shot up and quietly got out of bed. It dawned on him that he needed to escape and he needed to do it now. He was confident that they wouldn't be back until breakfast, which gave him the whole night to get as far away as he could.
He stuffed some pillows under the blanket, hoping that if they came to check on him in the middle of the night, this would be enough to trick them for a little while. Once he finished, he peered out of the window. A frown found its way onto his face as he realized that Gabriel's estate was huge and he had no idea how to get out. Nevertheless, he crawled out of the window and carefully made his way down the long corridors of the estate, looking for an escape.
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Callisto rushed up the path to Sana's chambers as fast as he could. He could see a large balcony, elaborately encased in glass further up above from where the courtyard was and figured that his best bet at finding the King was looking in the most luxurious part of the palace. He used the vines that climbed the side of the walls to scale up to the balcony. Just before he reached the top he threw a glance over his shoulder to see Wild stepping through the hidden portal with the rest of the Solarian army in tow. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Illya would soon have back up but as quickly as the relief had come it was gone.
Wincing, his grip on the vines tightened as an arrow lodged itself right in his thigh. He quickly pulled himself up and onto the balcony railings, smashing the glass with the end of his sword and rolling inside. Once he was out of sight, Callisto snuck a peak over the railings to see guards in the window of a tower opposite to him pointing. Ripping the end of his cape off, he bandaged his wound, pulling it tight to stop the bleeding when he removed the arrow and forced his way inside of the palace.
Since he had been spotted, he figured it was best he got things done quickly. Stepping over the shattered glass of the door he crashed through, he scanned the room. It was no doubt the King's chambers. Intricate patterns decorated the walls of a room in which at the very end, Callisto could see a bed shrouded by curtains. He cautiously approached, half expecting someone to bust through the door after hearing the break-in before he could reach the bed. Luckily, however, he made it to the bed with no problem. In one swift motion, he ripped the curtains to the side, revealing the horrendous, heaving mess that was Sana.
His eyes wavered, clearly glazed over and struggling to focus. "Witch...what was that...sound?" He rasped.
"Sorry to disappoint but Li is occupied with Illya at the moment."
Sana pushed hurriedly pushed himself up, clutching his head as the world spun, making him dizzy enough to throw up but not quite enough to fall back. "W-Who..."
"Callisto. You've got a war on your doorstep, your majesty."
Sana was silent for a moment with nothing but a grim expression on his face. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, a sharp pain surged through his head, making him reel back in agony.
"Not like this-I can't-no-ah!"
Callisto could see something in his expression change, something give way and break within the man as his wails faded into an eerie silence. Before Callisto could grab him, the man broke into a violent fit of laughter just as a guard rushed into the room.
"Your Majesty what's-THE INTRUDER!"
Sana's laughter abruptly stopped and he stepped out of bed. As the guard rushed to apprehend Callisto, Sana grabbed a dagger from beneath his pillow and without hesitation, buried it in the guard's neck. He fell to his knees, gurgling messily, choking on his blood like some kind of mindless creature from the void.
"M-Maj...esty...wha-"
"Shut up. We have guests don't you see."
Callisto heard the words spoken in Sana's voice but somewhere in the back of his mind knew that the man standing in front of him was no longer Sana."
His suspicions were only confirmed when "Sana" turned around, blood still splattered on his face and smiled lopsidedly. "You must be her husband. It's a pleasure to meet you. You may call me Iago." Iago dropped the dagger next to the now dead guard and wiped the blood off of his face. "Now that the pleasantries have been taken care of, why don't you take me to meet my granddaughter."87Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxqUuqUOd2e
