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The Aerian Court Intrigue 5 - The Death of Plots

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 Last time, Revier finally got to meet Serai, and spent time blissfully with her. However, at around the same time, the Duchess of the Aerian Third Quarter herself arrived and tried to warn Lunair to flee, as well as administer her a cure for the love drug. However, she was cut short by some inexplicable pains, and had to flee abruptly. Afterwards, Lunair and Revier prepared for the wedding, and everything seemed to be going well.

The Intrigue


An organizer announcing Lunair and "Heath"''s marriage

However, Lunair notices General Dirk and Lady Windelle talking in hushed tones to themselves, and decides to listen in. He enquires about why the Duke didn't show up for the ceremony, then sets out to meet him.

When he does, he finds that he's dispatched a posse of guards personally. Curious, he enquires about the situation, and finds that Duchess Fione has gone missing! She wasn't seen since the experiments yesterday, and none knows where she could be. A worried Dirk then asks if Fione has broken from their control, more or less confirming that Fione was herself a test subject for a mind control/love drug of some sort. Rayne worries that she can perhaps go to Lunair and leak out their plans, but thinks that hasn't happened yet, since "Heath" didn't notice her talking to Lunair and was with her the whole day. Dirk is still worried about Fione succeeding in her experiments, but Rayne dismisses them, saying that there are just too many possibilities now to take into account. 

With that, he then dryly reports about sending guards to look for her, and testing the samples she had left in the alchemy lab yesterday. Dirk wonders who they're going to use for testing, and Rayne talks about an old Prionese prisoner of war who was left alive to provide material for spies, specifically Lunair in this case. Uh oh.

Rayne then heads out to hold the wedding, however we get to see a glimpse of where the Duchess is. She's, uh, not looking very good:

The queen looking rather bloody...

We then cut to Kardian wandering around Is-fahr in search of a guide and the cure to the Quintessence itself. But again, that is of little relevance to the story here, so I'll skip over it. 

Back to the wedding itself, we see a huge crowd gathered in the wedding hall. Revier is, as expected, fairly tense. Rayne tries to cheer up Lunair by talking about how this is his proudest moment, and how he reminiscences of Lunair playing the piano as a kid. Lunair just blankly responds with an observation of how things have changed since then. Rayne then proceeds to make an excuse for her mother not being present, and Lunair just mildly urges him to let her carry on with the wedding.

Revier being awkward with his vows

During the exchange of vows, Revier tenses up so much that he nearly screws up his lines. Thankfully for him, a guard interrupts the proceedings! Unfortunately for everyone else, he informs the gathering that Duchess Fione is dead. They all rush outside, with Revier and Lunair following behind. Lunair wisely advises Revier to change out of Heath's form, before herself changing into a random citizen woman. 

The guards brought Fione's body to Kardian and Kaire's grave, and report that she was spotted outside of the city walls. She had died of slit wrists, and none could identify any potential suspect. Lunair's mind is filled with questions, but she realizes one thing - their plan has now failed. She beckons a confused Revier to silently leave the spot, just shortly before the crowd is dispersed. We see Rayne himself realizing that the Duchess had reached Lunair, and likely leaked their plans to her.

Thoughts

The intrigue came back in full force, thanks to the Duchess' death unveiling the plans of both sides involved here. We also get setup a lot of stuff that leaves interesting questions in their wake, like: what happens with Serai now? Did the Duchess succeed in her experiments? And, what will Lunair and Revier do now, with their plan coming undone so abruptly?

To find out, join us next time as we continue to closely follow Lunair, Revier, and the Duke himself dealing with the fallout of this!


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