Chapter 410: Chapter 410 – Tars War – Shadow Jumpers (2/2)
After so minutes of travel that felt simultaneously eternal and instantaneous, they finally erged from the shadows in front of a familiar but imposing structure.
The journey was unusually fast, even by her father’s standards.
Ashenway Castle rose before them like a mountain of stone and power, its towers reaching toward the sky with the authority that only centuries of unquestioned dominion could grant. Luna had been here before, but always under more ceremonious circumstances. Never in what was clearly an ergency situation.
“Stay here,” Sirius ordered, his voice loaded with an authority that admitted no questioning. “So of Selphira’s most trusted guards will watch over you while I…”
He stopped abruptly, as if he were about to reveal more information than he considered appropriate.
“While father what?” Luna asked, but she already knew she wouldn’t get a direct answer.
“While I attend to so matters,” Sirius finished evasively. “It’s important that you remain here.”
A group of guards approached from the castle gates. An older man with the upright posture of a military veteran and the characteristic patterns of a Black Serpent manifesting subtly in his skin stepped forward.
Luna imdiately recognized the mark of Selphira’s personal guards, elite soldiers whose loyalty had been proven through decades of service.
“Lord Starweaver,” the head guard bowed his head respectfully. “Lady Ashenway is… The situation is… urgent.”
Sirius nodded, then turned toward Luna one last ti.
“Behave yourself,” he said simply, but there was sothing in his eyes… sothing that told Luna this was much more serious than she had initially imagined.
“Father…”
But it was already too late. Sirius disappeared into the shadows along with the guard, leaving Luna standing in the castle courtyard with the remaining guards to escort her and with more questions than answers.
♢♢♢♢
“Please follow , young miss,” said another of Selphira’s most trusted guards. He was slightly younger than the previous one, with the bearing of soone accustod to protecting important people. “I’ll escort you to the guest quarters.”
As they walked through Ashenway Castle’s elegant hallways, Luna couldn’t help but admire the discreet opulence surrounding her. The walls were adorned with tapestries that told the story of generations of Ashenway leaders, and mana crystals provided soft illumination that made everything seem bathed in clear blue light.
Very similar to what her ho had once been, before the disastrous wave, the family fractures and the political pressures had taken their toll.
But her mind was elsewhere. The sudden arrival, her father’s urgency, the way she had been deposited here without explanation…
But if anyone knew sothing, it was the “star spy” of the trio, Liora.
“Excuse ,” Luna said to the guard as they climbed a marble staircase, “do you know if Liora is available?”
The guard stopped, considering the question with the careful deliberation of soone accustod to managing delicate social situations.
“Young Miss Liora should be in her studies at this hour, but I can inquire…”
“I’d like to see her, if possible,” Luna interrupted. Selphira’s granddaughter had access to information that most people didn’t even know existed, and more importantly, she liked sharing it with her.
“Of course, young miss. Let find out where she is.”
The guard approached a servant passing through the corridor, an older man carrying a tea tray. The conversation was brief, but Luna saw how the servant smiled… not a polite smile, but sothing genuinely amused.
“According to the staff,” the guard reported upon returning, “young Miss Liora is in one of the guest rooms in the east wing. Apparently she’s… entertaining an important visitor.”
Luna nodded, though sothing in the guard’s tone seed strange to her. There was an amused quality in his voice that didn’t quite fit the situation.
The journey toward the east wing took them through corridors Luna hadn’t seen before. As they approached their destination, Luna noticed there was more activity than usual, the kind of bustle that indicated sothing significant was happening.
But it was when they arrived near the guest quarters that Luna really noticed sothing strange.
There was a group of servants gathered in the corridor, obviously whispering among themselves with the type of suppressed energy that suggested they had been witnessing sothing entertaining. When they saw Luna and her escort approaching, they dispersed imdiately, but not before Luna caught so knowing glances and poorly contained smiles.
“What was that?” Luna asked, genuinely confused by the servants’ behavior.
“I’m not sure, young miss,” the guard responded, though his own expression suggested he had at least so idea.
They stopped in front of an elegant door. The guard raised his hand to knock, but Luna stopped him.
“Wait,” she said, genuine curiosity overcoming any consideration of protocol.
The guard failed to contain his smile when Luna pressed her ear to the door.
From the other side, she could hear… sothing. Voices, definitely. Strange sounds. What seed to be… soone panting? Two people?
Luna imdiately turned the handle and pushed the door inward.
The scene that greeted her left her completely bewildered.
Ren and Liora were sprawled on the room’s floor, obviously exhausted and disheveled. Their clothes were wrinkled, their hair ssed up, and both had a layer of sweat that suggested intense physical activity.
But what really caught Luna’s attention was their position…
They were on top of each other, their bodies forming an X, their breathing clearly labored as if they had been involved in so kind of prolonged physical struggle.
The door bursting open made both of them turn to look at her instantly.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Luna blinked. Once. Twice. Her brain struggled to process exactly what she was seeing and how it fit with any reasonable context.
The guard behind her made a sound that might have been a muffled cough.
Ren’s brain was the first to react. His eyes opened completely when he realized the position he was in beneath Liora, and his face went through a variety of expressions… from surprise to sothing that resembled panic.
“Luna?” His voice ca out as a croak. “What… what are you doing here?”
Liora, who had been face down with her eyes closed and clearly trying to catch her breath, straightened suddenly upon hearing Luna’s na. Her ‘fear of touching Ren’ seed to have returned with vengeance.
The movent caused both of them to untangle from their compromising position, which, paradoxically, only made the situation seem more suspicious.
“I… we…” Liora began, her face developing a blush that rivaled the color of ripe tomatoes. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Luna looked between them alternately, her mind still processing. During the last half hour, she had been worrying about political crises, military ergencies, and the reasons why her father had shown such urgency and concern…
“What exactly were you doing?” she asked finally, her voice carefully neutral.
Ren and Liora exchanged a look that spoke volus about mutual panic.
“It’s complicated,” Ren murmured finally.
“Very complicated,” Liora added quickly, nodding so vigorously her disheveled hair bounced.
Luna raised an eyebrow, an expression she had perfected after years of observing her father handle delicate political situations. It was a look that conveyed skepticism, patience, and the promise that she would eventually get the truth.
“I have ti,” she said simply, crossing her arms in a gesture that made her seem much older than her eleven years. If not for the involuntary eye twitch…
But a ‘small troublemaker’ who didn’t care about the mood or the place whispered sothing to Ren, who snapped his fingers as if rembering sothing more important.
He straightened and looked at Luna fixedly, his expression suddenly becoming intensely focused.
“Forget this, the most important thing…” He approached her with renewed purpose, completely oblivious to how his words might sound in context. “Co here, let touch you.”
The silence that followed was so complete that Luna was certain she could hear her own heartbeat echoing in the room.
Behind her, the guard made what sounded suspiciously like a choking sound.
Luna’s eyebrow climbed even higher, reaching what might have been a record altitude for a human being.
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