"I totally did that..."
"Yes, you did, Princess." Cath didn't react how I hoped and returned to call me Princess too. "If you didn't let them capture us, it would have been much more amazing."
"Small details." I shrugged, still staring at my hands. The voice laughed ever since in my head, and maybe I started to lose my mind, just a little bit. Even if they captured and locked us in a cell again, we were back together. And the arrogant blue-robed bitch got exactly what she deserved. Either way, the result satisfied me.
"Of course, you were very amusing." The woman said in my head, that turned out to be Gadurien. Not only that, but I had to face that one of my favorite knights of ancient times was a female. And to top it all off, her deity lover, Remmol happened to give his blessing to the paladin.
She didn't hear his voice though, or when Gadurien talked to me. Maybe I did go crazy while in solitary confinement. But I performed such amazing miracles, if that was the price I didn't mind.
"Nothing to do with your mental state, we just don't talk to everyone." The god in my head claimed. "Most of us in the Cranta Pantheon have too many followers to pay attention to them, so consider yourself an exception. They answer prayers they deem worthy, but don't bother about the priests at all."
"So you say since you have practically no followers, you became bored enough to entertain me from inside my head?" I asked with a healthy amount of sarcasm. I realized it too late, that I talked and not just thought it, and looking at the paladin's face, it didn't exactly come off as if I was still sane. "Oh, I wasn't... I didn't talk to you, Cath, I just..."
"Yeah, I understand. You can hear the god's voices, no worries." She said, but her eyes told me a different story. Maybe she thought I made it up or was jealous because Remmol did not talk to her.
"No, she thinks you are crazy." My patron played the role of my intrusive thoughts. For now, I refused to believe her and tried my best to lock her voice out of my head. It was a losing battle, but I wanted to focus on the actual person right next to me. I missed her after all.
"So what will happen to us now?" I asked Cath, trying to start a meaningful conversation. Two days passed since our little adventure in the arena, and things calmed down somewhat surprisingly. Or rather, they put us back into the same cell where we started and left us alone. But I had no illusions about it being a long-term solution.
"Well, won't mess around with us now, I guess. But they found out that you're the last Princess of Cranta." The paladin summed it up, ruffling her short blue hair. The brunette dye from mine started to wear off, with a good half inch at the bottom purple now. "Hard to tell, how they will act."
"I mean, logically, they should apologize and let us go since I'm technically the heir of their overlord," I said, but it was more like wishful thinking, than a real possibility. "Or they could ally themselves with me, against the Elder and the whole Cranta Church. They hate them too."
"I'll let you know, that both of you are blessed by the gods of the Cranta Pantheon, which doesn't help your case." The voice started again in my head, and she had a point. Even if we weren't trying to fight the actual deities, but the imposter who took over the church.
"Sure, but the enemy of my enemy is a friend, right?" I asked, earning a curious, if not worried glance from Cath. I kept forgetting that only I could hear this goddess. "Gaddu said our blessings don't help our case."
"Gaddu?!" This was in perfect sync between the paladin and the voice in my head. The latter sounded rather upset about it.
"What? It's such an ancient-sounding, and weird name." I shrugged, both inwards and out. Cath giggled, but I could tell the goddess fumed quite a bit. "What else would I call you? That name is too long, people get tired just by saying it once."
"Gaddu, huh? You are pretty bold for a human, but I don't care. Don't become too arrogant just because I blessed you though. I expect you to treat me with respect, Princess or not." She ranted but calmed down in the end. I couldn't help but laugh. Respectfully, of course. The paladin shook her head, while I contemplated if I had lost my mind and how I could make the most out of it. "You want my help to get you out, or what?"
"Is that an option?" I asked, and Cath looked at me curiously as I perked up. "Oh, she asks if we want her help to get out of here."
"I don't know of a miracle, that would help us break out from an underground prison. This is a labyrinth full of guards and tight turns." The paladin noted, and I pondered too.
"I could bend those bars with my iron fist," I claimed, nodding at the cell door. "And fight our way until we reach the palace garden. The tight corners will prevent them from surrounding us, so as long as we don't encounter a wizard, we'd be unstoppable."
"True, but I saw plenty of magicians. At least a dozen were only at the arena when they captured us. Not counting their princess, Aia, or whatever her name was." The bodyguard claimed, but we heard rushing footsteps approaching immediately. I glanced towards the guard's post but they didn't sound like someone wearing armor, or to a man in the first place.
"It's Aoi, you moron, how dare you?" I was right about that, it wasn't a man, but the very princess we mentioned. Sariah said something about the echoes leading every sound towards the guard's post directly, so it's impossible to whisper here or keep secrets. I wondered, how much she heard before losing her composure.
"I can zap her for you again, for the low cost of a single prayer, if you want." Gaddu offered me with a laugh, and while it tempted me, I decided against it for now. I couldn't suppress my grin though.
"So the proud warrior princess spends her time bravely eavesdropping on the people, who easily defeated her?" Cath asked, also amused that she showed up, but the blue-robed girl had an answer to that.
"You didn't defeat me, only the Princess of Cranta did, remember?" She taunted my paladin. "If anything, you were just as easily and quickly beaten by me, while you wore a bunch of magical artifacts."
That seemed to have hit right where it hurt, and Cath's grin turned into a frown. Still, she didn't explain why she descended into the depths. I didn't notice at first, but she put her face on display, without a thick layer of makeup covering it this time. Her blue robes were similar to what she wore before, but her long black hair was in a simple ponytail. Rather unceremonious compared to her earlier looks.
But she looked nice, even without the usual pomp. She wore some blemishes on her skin but her face had a natural charm. The narrow eyes and thick lips would probably make her popular even in Nordhaben, although her nose and chin were maybe too well defined.
I noticed a few burn marks near her temple, where my lightning reached her. Considering how many magicians they employed, I had no idea how she wasn't treated yet.
"So what do you want?" I decided to stand up and walk closer to her. I tried to act as noble and mighty as my artificially commonerised looks allowed. "Did you come to beg for our forgiveness, and let us go?"
"I'm not sure if your blessing or your jokes are the more amusing, your Majesty." Aoi shook her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"So you only visited to eavesdrop on us?" I asked shrugging, before turning my back on her. I knew every move in the book. To act powerfully, insult another without words, or use my body language to my advantage.
I expected these practices to work wonders for someone as proud as her. And if they didn't, I could still zap her unconscious. A little taunting and she maybe even let us go.
"Are you that desperate, now that you learned my true identity?" I tried again before she answered.
"If you want to know, my father suggested killing you both, but I protested." She announced, moving her hands to her hips this time.
"Why would you do that?" Cath joined in, also standing up. "The eastern king would risk an immediate war with the west, but that's what you wanted anyway. Or maybe you want us ransomed?"
"Ransom? No, your money isn't worth anything here. And true, we were preparing for war ever since the Collapse." She admitted, but I couldn't read her body language. "But I don't think our country is ready. And we have much more burning problems at the moment."
"Oh, so you did come to beg for our help?" I asked, quite entertained by the situation. She did seem desperate if I considered, she came to eavesdrop on us, despite her high rank.
"Beg? You are gravely mistaken. I didn't come to ask or offer, I just wanted to let you know, what I decided." She pointed it out, but her tone was peculiar. "As I said, we have some problems inside the kingdom. To be more exact, inside this very city. But that doesn't mean, I need your help to deal with it, or I have no choice but to ask for aid."
"Go on." Cath raised her eyebrow. The voice inside my head was screaming too. She came to announce our punishment.
"Monsters recently broke into the capital city, coming from underground. Since no similar event occurred in a decade, our wizards couldn't understand it at first. But I'm almost sure, it's a dungeon break." She raised her nose, while she talked. "My father ordered the city guard to isolate it, but refused to send them inside."
"Y-you don't try to say, what I think you are trying to say, right?" Cath asked, stuttering, and the way her eyes widened surprised me.
"The king wanted you dead, and I someone to take care of that dungeon," Aoi said confidently. "You have two options: get executed tomorrow, or join the team of gladiators tasked to clear that dungeon."
"Oh, a dungeon, that sounds interesting." The voice in my head sounded excited, but the paladin looked white as snow. "I don't think it's a difficult choice to make..."
"If we clear that dungeon, you'll let us go, right?" I asked her, but Cath protested with everything she had. The Sea People's princess grinned.
"If you survive, you can go wherever you want..."