Jemma gnced over at her sisters to see if they had a clue about what Rya had meant by volunteer. However, she was met with a simir expression from her sisters. They didn't have a clue.
Cra was the most clueless among the five. However, that was expected from an eight-year-old.
Sara didn't want to say anything since the dark elf seemed to know more than them, which was something that scared her a bit, and yet, Rya was the only one who seemed to care about them compared to everyone else. However, her sisters seemed to want her to be their sacrificial mb.
"Alright, I'll go," Sara finally said with a sigh.
Jemma and Eleanora gnced at their sister as she approached the dark elf, wondering if they had made the right choice in choosing their older sister as the one who would approach the dark elf.
Sara stopped in front of the dark elf, waiting for her next instructions.
Rya smirked as she gnced at the oldest Revelia daughter before asking her, "So? Where does your husband live?"
Sara didn't know why she was asking her this, but answered her, "Lord Caelum Willowbrook?... He lives in the the Arus Kingdom across the Azure Sea on the Western shores of the Wasser Continent..."
Rya thought about it as she recalled the world map of Tertius in her head. The Wasser Continent was the closest continent to Agon, and it was mostly inhabited by humans, but it was about 1,500 miles away at its closest points between the Azure Sea and the Emerald Ocean, which meant it was a little bit outside the range of a single portal to bring Caelum here. Rya would have to go to one of the isnd kingdoms in the middle of the sea and then use another portal to reach the Wasser Continent. That was too much work to drag the Arusian Noble all the way here. She wanted to show how insignificant Aric was in front of the Court and disappearing for a few minutes before coming back might give the wrong impression. Plus, she doesn't know precisely where the Arus Kingdom is located or what it looks like so she would need Sara's help as looks through the portal's window while moving it around.
"Hm. That's a bit far... Lady Jemma? Your husband lives on the Agon Continent, correct?" Rya asked as she turned her attention to the second oldest.
Jemma looked around to make sure that the Dark Elf was talking to her.
"Uh, he does. In the northernmost part of the Independent Kingdoms... But why are you asking about my husband over Sara's?" Jemma asked her.
Rya smiled and cpped her hands together, "I'll show you."
With that Rya channeled her mana through her body and swirled both her arms out in a circur motion and then brought them together and pointed her right index finger forward. She was aiming north but it was a little tricky due to being inside. Luckily she was looking in the correct direction.
In front of her, a yellow-colored circur window formed from nothing, which caused gasps from the nobles and knights. The rim of this transparent window was gold in color and was filled with runes that none had seen before. It looked like the snow capped mountains in Ysandra Fairchild's Domain.
"Is that, Whispering Peaks? Sister, that's the Frostweald Domain," Saffron said out loud to everyone.
"So, I'm still too south of the Independent Kingdoms? Hold on," Rya said as she channeled while pushing her hands forward. Soon, the imagery of the snowy peaks looked like they were coming towards the portal as if they were flying through the air at breakneck speed as the ndscape moved below. The view then stopped and showed a lush forest below with a city poking out from it.
"This is the magic of the Dark Elves? Amazing!" A Noblewoman whispered to her friend. She never seen anything like this in her life and she was soaking it in.
"It looks like we're flying in the sky," Queen Rianna was also enthralled.
"This must be how the dragons felt when they flew," Sara Revelia whispered to herself. She was the closest to the portal window next to Rya and it made her feel free for the first time in her life.
There were a few that weren't happy about what they saw. With the main one the Duke. He that his Sentinel Sphere aloud him to sneakily spy on people inside his own home, but Rya only to look in whatever direction she so please, and open a window for her and others to see. There is no pce she can't enter, no pce he could hide his crimes and his secrets.
'W-What does she know! How has she kept this from me? What else does she have hidden up her sleeve? I thought I only had to worry about her golems, but a mage that can teleport inside and outside of the walls of my secret fortresses, this is too much. She could take down my entire empire! She must be eliminated! But how!'
Aric was panicking, but he couldn't let anyone notice. He needed to survive today, before he could make a pn.
Rya continued to fly the portal around the Independent Kingdoms in the north, jumping from one city state to another. As she listened to the directions from Jemma.
"Oh!? That's the Tenebris Kingdom! You're in the Principality of Sokaris," Jemma pointed out.
"So, is that your husband's castle right there?"
"No, this is his brother's city state. You just need to head north west of here."
"Got it! Give me a second," Rya said, before rotating the portal and everyone watched as the image zoomed through the nds of the Independent Kingdoms. The terrain was rocky and looked closer to a Mediterranean climate, with how dry and barren the nd was.
"There! That's my home," Jemma said, pointing towards a city state that looked like it was carved into the side of a mountain. The buildings were made of stone, and the roofs were red and sloped. It was on the Northern shoreline of the Agon Continent.
'Wow! It's beautiful, but it looks like it was designed for war?... I'll need to look into the history of this—'
The edge of the portal window started to wobble and fade away in some spots. Rya quickly channeled more mana into it to stabilize it and stop it from breaking apart.
"Is something the matter? Your Highness," Countess Seraphina Valerian asked.
"N-No, nothing to worry about. I'm just stretching limits of the portal. I have enough Mana to sustain it, but if I were to push the distance a little more than it will colpse the incantation. Alright! Let's find your lovely husband," Rya said, as the portal slowly began to move through the city.
The people were going about their business and it looked like they didn't see the portal flying above them.
"Can they not see us?" Rianna asked.
"Only when I open the portal," Rya said, "but since I haven't picked the location yet. They can't see us."
Aric went pale as the portal flew through the walls of the pace and into the empty Throne room. He wondered if she had used this spell to spy on him, but the more he observed her the more he realized that she must have just learned it recently. Otherwise, why would she still use her golems to patrol his mansion, unless the golems used less Mana. Whatever the reason he knew he needed to act quicker if he was to get what he wanted.
"Pretty dreary for a throne room... Hm?" Rya noticed the portal window started looking like white noise for a moment but then quickly stabilized. She looked at the mana consumption and it didn't look like anything out of the ordinary.
'Hm? What happened there? That was odd. Maybe it's because I'm stretching the boundaries of this spell. I better not mess around,' Rya thought as she began to move the portal through the various rooms of the castle. Little did she know that the cause the disturbance wasn't due to her stretching the limit of the spell. It was because the Duke used the Sorcerer's Syer artifact. He used a little of his mana to activate its Anti-Mana dampening fields. It is secondary ability of the artifact which lessen a Mage's incantations, which Aric through it was useless compared to its primary attack "Mana Disruption Ray," which nullifies an incantation completely.
Aric almost let out a sigh of relief when he felt the Sorcerer's Syer artifact kick in and disrupt the portal's mana flow. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep Rya from noticing it. And it was his only defense against Rya spying on him in the comfort of the pace.
'Thank the fates! I still have a—'
Aric's thoughts were cut off when Rya's portal entered Prince Ethan Wisper's sleeping quarters. It looked like nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of hearing whipping noises along with the screams of a woman coming behind a bookshelf on the Northern stone wall of the prince's chamber.
"Ow! Please, my Lord! I promise to—"
*Whipsh!*
All the dies in the ballroom went silent as they heard the whip and the screams. Jemma looked pale as if PTSD was kicking in. She knew what her husband was doing, he was punishing one of his wives. He has done this multiple times before and she wasn't exempt from it. She didn't know why he was so cruel and sadistic, but she swears that she saw him smiling one time when he decided to make an example out Mayra, one of his other wives, who was a former knight. He had her tied up and whipped for an entire night as a warning to the rest of them.
"H-He's... Disciplining his wives..." Jemma's knees started shaking as she felt her trauma come back. "I-I'll be punished for getting healed! I can't—"
"He will be doing nothing of the sort!" Queen Rianna shouted as she looked at Rya, whose face looked like it was about to murder the Prince.
Rya moved her hands forward even so slightly as the portal moved through the room like a ghost. As she got closer to the bookshelf. The sounds of a whip and screaming became louder and more intense. Without hesitation, the Dark Elf clipped the portal through the bookshelf, revealing a secret torture room, where Prince Ethan was whipping his wife, Jemma.
*Whack!*
"Ahhh!"
*Whack!*
"My prince, please forgive me! I'm sorry! I won't talk back again, please stop!"
*Whack!*
The Ladies of the Court were aghast at the scene and were whispering among themselves. Some of them looked away in horror while others gred at the Duke. Whatever little reputation or respect the Duke had with the Noblewomen was gone.
To make matters worse, Aric's Captain of his guard decided to make his move to save his Lord from this humiliation.
"Get her, while she's distracted," the Captain whispered to the other guardsmen as they nodded their head and in one swift movement, they unsheathe their weapons and attempt to surrounded the Dark Elf, who was focused on the scene with Prince Ethan and his wife.
"Strike her—ddddddooooooowwwwwnnnnnnnnnn........"
Without looking Rya waved her left hand at the twenty guards behind her, who were 15 feet away. She cast a stasis field spell, trapping the entire squad and freezing them in pce.
Aric nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw his guardsmen freeze in pce.
'She's a monster! NO! If she can bleed, then she can die!... Her weakness is her love of my nephew. I need a way to exploit that!' Aric thought to himself as he stood up and tried to keep his composure.
The crowd had seen magic that very few have witnessed over centuries and yet they continued to be awestruck as they watched Rya cast a spell without speaking any words.
Queen Rianna couldn't help but smile, 'She's like a goddess in the fsh, and she's on my side. She's going to be my daughter-in-w, even if I have to threaten the House of Lords and Ladies to make it happen. But it won't take much convincing.'
Rya looked at the portal window in front of her and stared daggers at the unexpecting prince who was whipping his wife. With each crack of the whip, the crowd cringed, especially the Noblewomen, who felt a pang of sympathy and anger at the Prince.
'So, this is the type of men, Aric sells his daughters off too... I think it's time to show Aric how merciful I've been to him. It's time for him to witness my true strength,' Rya put her hands together and outstretch them into the center of the portal as if she was trying to open a elevator door that was jammed. Soon as her hands slowly parted, the portal began to expand and the transparent nature of the portal began to look solid. Rya was completing the incantation and it took a little more effort to open the doorway since she the portal was close to the limits of its range. But she was strong and her anger towards this piece of filth was fueling her determination as the portal window tried fighting her hands.
"Haaaaaaa!..." Rya grunted through her teeth and kept her focus. The portal finally opened with a burst of air, which nearly knocked Aric off his feet and made him take five steps back.
The Portal had ten-foot radius and didn't look like an image anymore. It looked like you could walk right through the portal, while the opposite side of it looked like a pitch bck circle with a glowing edge. The audience on the back side couldn't see was was happening anymore, which made them curious. However, they didn't dare try to move and find out what was going on.
Once the portal was fully formed and Prince Ethan looked at this portal with curiosity. He didn't know what was going on as he thought he was seeing things.

