Cradle of the Heart [Znt/HotS]

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

I've been meaning to move this over to QQ for a while now since it kinda skims SB's rules. So, here it is! I'll be posting these in a row, so please don't post till all chapters are uploaded.

Note: The fic is technically in late beta (like, .9), but still readable. But I had intended to expand the chapters so that it's less 'tell' and more 'show'.

Edit: I'm threadmarking the thing, so an index is not going to be needed anymore.

Currently working on Chapter 16

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

"So, what am I supposed to do with you?" Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere asked her small familiar as it 'chirped' at her questioningly.

To be honest though, her familiar can't really be called 'small'. It was the size of her torso, and yet 'rounder' than it - a sort of flat ugliness that wasn't uncommon in wild animals that she had seen in her sister's collection. Yet the multiple eyes of her familiar unnerved her as it seems to focus on her at all times no matter where she went.

She remember how hard it had been to 'sense' her familiar without touching it on the first day, but the teacher said it was normal. And after being called 'Zero' for so long, she was glad that SOMETHING about her was normal. Now, though, she could still connect with it even if it was on the other side of the academy. Though her teacher did say that her range would lengthen with practice...

She recalled that when she had summoned this creature, it had looked sort of deflated as if it was mindless. But once she had finished the ritual, it came alive and followed her every order.

Louise sighed again as she let the familiar - no, 'drone' - down to the ground. Her classes today regarding straightening familiar bonds had shown her what this creature thought of itself, but then a big jumble of information had confused her enough that she had to stop.

What she did get out of that exercise was that her familiar could do some sort of mining or if it had some large open space it could grow bigger. Thus, she had completed her classes and asked for a day off to explore some of the nearby forest to see what her familiar could do.

To be honest though, she wasn't expecting a whole lot. After all, what can a single 'drone' do?

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 1

History will show that the eventual birth of the Queen of Halkeginia began on the second day of Louise Francoise summoning her familiar. It was a foundation created that still stood hundred of years after the eventual unification of all life on the planet - and it all started with a young girl and her familiar:

"Ok, there should be enough space here." Louise said as she turned to watch the familiar following her. "Now show me what you can do."

They had traveled for nearly an hour away from the academy to find a good spot in the forest nearby in order for her familiar to show what it an do, but she eventually got tired of looking - a few well placed spells that exploded as expected fell a some young trees and cleared enough space that she felt was enough for her familiar.

The drone quickly crawled its way to the middle of the meadow and sat down. Suddenly, a purple-ish liquid started gushing out of the familiar and it started spinning, creating a membrane around it like a worm creating a cocoon around itself.

Louise backed up quickly as she did not want to get her shoes and robe dirty. From what she could see, her familiar had already finished hiding itself under whatever it was that it created, and now a soft glow can be seen coming from it.

"That's it?" She asked, but her familiar bond told her that it was just changing, and it would take some time. The young girl yawned, feeling tired and bored - and started to make her way back to the academy. "Well, come find me when you're done." She muttered as her familiar continued to change behind her.

That night, she dreamed that her familiar had transformed into some sort of building with many rooms and giving birth to some kind of 'worm' the size of an adult's leg. But maybe armored centipede would be a closer description?

When she focused on them, she got another huge rush of information, but couldn't understand most of it. She frustratedly thought that she really need some way to communicate when she gets her familiar back, and felt a surge of willpower rush out of her, leaving her dreams darkening and pulling her to a deeper sleep.

When she woke up in the morning, she found that a drone was resting near her bed. But even though it looked like her familiar, she could tell that it wasn't. Maybe it had created more of itself? But the moment she touched it, she could feel the familiar bond... as if it had reset the range yesterday and yet touching this drone reconnected her. She could also feel something off in the distance where she had left her familiar yesterday, but the distance was too long and she could not tell what it was...

Either way, she spent her morning in class with her substitute familiar and had a quick lunch before borrowing a horse from the academy to head back to where she left her familiar yesterday. To her surprise, the building in her dream dreams stood in front of her, reaching to the heights of the tallest trees around what used to be a meadow.

"What... what is this?" Louise murmured to herself as she stepped forward toward the building. No sooner had she stepped on the purple patch of the ground that the entire area seemed to open up to her as if she was accessing the familiar bond with everything there. She knew that there were 2 other drones in the area, the building, and...

/My Queen! You have returned!/

A large creature limbered from behind the building and quickly stopped in front of her. It had 6 legs and a pair of large... tentacles? seem to stretch from behind it to its side. It didn't have hands, but sharp talons seemed to replace hands... and the fact that it seems to stand three times over her made it a rather intimidating thing to face.

If Louise was honest with herself, the only reason why she wasn't screaming her head off was the fact that she could FEEL it with some sort of sense that she had never had before. Of course, the female tone of voice coming from this creature was vibrating in her head and causing her to become slightly dizzy didn't help.

"What... what manner of creature are you?" Louise asked, doing her best not to stutter. "And where did my familiar go?"

/My Queen? I am a lesser queen, a guardian of this hive/ It answered. /We heard your call last night and I was birthed to help you./

It stared at her for a moment as she tried to get used to 'hearing' the queen's voice in her head. Queen? Hive? Call? She had no idea what was going on.

/As for the one you called your familiar, it is right here./ The queen pointed to the hive. /It has evolved into this hive and will do its best to help you on your goals./

"What?" Louise flatly asked, trying to get her mind around the idea of a creature becoming a building. "You know what? Start in the beginning and explain to me everything you know."

/Of course my Queen./ The queen agreed calmly.

"And stop calling me your queen!" Louise yelled. "There's only one queen on these lands, and it's not me!"

/As you wish, Mistress./ The queen replied with the same tone.

The next couple of hours were spent with the queen explaining the history of the Zerg with both words and pictures directly sent to her head. The queen explained that the entire race is 'psionic', which made no sense of Louise but was explained as something similar but different to her magic, and that she is their leader and focal point of the Zerg here.

"Wait, but you're a queen!" Louise complained, trying to understand why a 'queen' was bowing down to her will. "Why aren't you leading them?"

/Mistress, I am called a queen, but I am only a lowly guardian of this hive./ The queen responded. /We shall always serve you, or any future leaders you decide to create./

Louise had no words to respond to that, not when she could feel exactly what it meant; the queen had asked if they should expand to make sure of her safety, but Louise told it that she was safe within the Academy. However, she did allowed them to keep expanding their home as long as it does not get near any roads or other buildings.

Things were, while not perfect, looking up for Louise when her childhood friend Princess Henrietta de Tristain visited the Academy. Hearing of her childhood friend's strange and unheard of before familiar, she decided to visit the night that she arrived.

They talked about their childhood games. They talked about how long it had been since they've seen each other. They talked about their parents, and how respectable each of them are.

Finally, they talked about Louise's familiar.

"What IS it?" Henrietta asked, looking over the drone and trying to come up with something similar.

Louise touched the drone and told it to let Henrietta do whatever it wanted with it. "It's a drone. Apparently, it's part of a race called the 'Zerg'." She quickly said, feeling excited that she can share this with her closest friend and princess. She managed to explain a bit about how she had summoned a drone just like this one and it had turned into a building able to grow more of them before it started getting late and Henrietta had to return to her room.

"I will see you tomorrow then, Louise Francoise." Henrietta said, replacing her hood. "We still have much to catch up on."

"Of course your highness. And I'll show you where my familiar grew the building tomorrow after the fair. I'll even introduce you to the being that taught me about them!" Louise exclaimed, opening the door for the princess.

It was with such lofty hopes that the two seperated, but fate had other ideas...

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere had a problem. Said problem had immediately struck her the moment her royal childhood friend left and reminded her that there was to be an event to show off her familiar.

The axis of the problem? A drone wasn't very amazing - and she desperately wanted to impress the princess tomorrow afternoon. Maybe she can get it to do some tricks? Can it even do tricks? She's not confident... but she might as well try.

She glanced down at the drone looking at her. "Uh... Roll over?"

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 2

The day started out well for everyone - everyone who had a full night of sleep, unlike Louise. She had spent much of the night testing out what the drone can and cannot do, and thus suffered from a lack of sleep.

She slapped her face while waiting in line to show her familiar, and wonder how her drone can still just watch her with those eyes of it. Did it not require sleep? Or maybe it slept when she wasn't looking? When her turn finally came, she attempted to pretend she wasn't half asleep and started her tricks with her drone.

In the end, she got third place due to being able to amuse the princess, though she had been hoping for second.

Apparently, being able to tell a drone to do whatever you want when you hold it isn't as impressive as, say, a dragon. Still, she had managed to impress some people when she told the drone to try to stand on its 'tail' and spin around like a top while she held its face. But really, it's hard to beat being able to fly in the air since most of what she did with the drone could be done with most other familiars... just not likely.

She was about to thank the princess for her small award when a huge explosive sound came from behind them. When they turned to the sound, they could see some kind of smoke or dust coming from the central tower of the academy. A few seconds later, another loud sound came from that way while the professors quickly sent students away towards one of the other buildings. The princess' own guards were no exception and they started ushering them away as well.

Henrietta pulled Louise with her and they both retreated to the sight of a few other professors floating around the edges of the tower and throwing spells at something. Neither Louise or Henrietta could tell what it was until they saw something turn around the corner - a large stone golem, trying to swat the mages flying around it, but slowly making its way towards where they were.

"I think, this is where we run." Louise voiced her concerns to the guards and indirectly to the princess as she sped up towards one of the doorways to the academy.

The giant golem took another step towards them and Henrietta nodded. "Indeed." She agreed, and turned to retreat as the headmaster started creating a golem of his own. The drone hissed at the golem, but followed behind the pair as they headed towards one of the academy's entrance.

From Louise's point of view, they had only moved 5 steps before a large shattering noise could be heard from behind her. At first, she had assumed that the headmaster's golem had clashed with the other giant golem - but seconds later she felt a large force smash into her right arm and back, spinning her to the side and causing her to cry out and lose her balance.
In front, she could hear Henrietta and many other people cry out in pain as well, as it seems like the golem had exploded forwards and showering all the retreating people with shrapnel.

Another large flash of pain blinded her as she landed on her right arm with a weight pushing her down. From the contact, she could tell that the drone had jumped onto her back and blocked a piece of shrapnel that had been headed to her back. The headmaster's golem had been nearly finished, but it had not been fast enough to block the rocks flying towards the students and visitors.

As she took a breath to steady herself, she could feel that the hive had suddenly flew into a flurry of activity as her pain had been sent to the Zerg from an overlord that had been paroling the area between the lair and the academy. She could tell that pack of zerglings were rushing to the academy intent on killing everything that dared hurt her, and she immediately paled to realize that it would cause nothing but more chaos.

Mustering what remained of her concentration, she managed to command those zerglings to wait outside of the academy and to not reveal themselves. Her efforts seemed to work as she could tell that the zerglings had slowed down its charge, but the effort drained her and she felt her consciousness start to slip.

Before she completely fell into darkness, she could hear people frantically calling the princess' name, and she wonder if her friend was alright or not.

Louise had a lot of practice of being hurt or knocked out due to her unique spellcasting. However, most of the time when she woke she would feel normal and well rested - not this time.

When she woke, she could tell that it was dark from the amount of torches lit on in the infirmary. Looking around, and wincing as she placed weight on her right arm, she could tell that there's still many students and visitors placed on cots moaning due to pain. Some she could see still had pieces of stone stuck within them in arms or legs, while others were bandaged from around their torso to even parts of their face.

Off in a corner, she could see a section cornered off with drapes and people entering and exiting in a hurry. She could just see a leg on a bed inside the drape, while the rest of the area seems to be filled with mages. She glanced at her arm and found it bandaged, but the reddish color under it and the pain indicated that it was not healed by a water mage.

Something bumped her leg and she found her drone sitting there. Someone had pulled the spike of earth out of it and it seems like it had regenerated the wound by itself. She told the drone to let her place her hand on it comfortably and closed her eyes, trying to find out if anything has changed.

The zerglings were still burrowed outside of the academy, and... when did all those buildings appear and how did they reproduce so fast? From what Louise could sense, there were already three overlords in the area and nearly 20 other hydra and zerglings in that area, not counting the amount of drones digging up minerals and other resources for the large building... a hive?

Opening her eyes, she told the drone to follow her while she went to find Henrietta - there's no way the princess would not be there if she didn't exhaust herself trying to heal those who were faced with life threatening injuries!

And she's likely hurt too, if what she could remember just before she was knocked out was correct.

Wandering about the infirmary, she managed to find out that she had been out for most of the day. However, she could find no signs of the princess or her guards. Louise glanced back towards the curtained off area, guessing that Henrietta might be behind it helping with her water magics - but she had no way to be sure as she had been told not to bother them or enter.

She mulled about the area until a large group of people burst into the infirmary, pushing everyone away from the path between beds. Louise blinked and realized that they were guards, and the one entering the room was a frantic looking Queen Marianne de Tristain!

"Where is she?" Queen Marianne demanded as she looked across the room. Her eyes stopped at the curtained off area and quickly marched over with a group of what Louise assumed were healers from the capital.

She keeled down as the group passed, but impulsively rose up and followed the group into the curtained area after the Queen and the healers had passed. Inside was just one bed with a bunch of mages casting spells of healing at the person on the bed, and the Queen was yelling at the headmaster and another man she didn't recognize, but from the armor it seemed to have been the honor guard of Henrietta's couch.

"Your majesty!" The headmaster exclaimed. "Please, calm yourself. We've done everything we can in regards to the situation with Fouquete and I have my personal secretary watching over the artifacts even at this moment! And while the princess was hurt, she's not dying..."

"What happened to the princess?!" Louise blurted out from where she was eavesdropping, catching the attention of everyone nearby.

The Queen looked at her and seemed to had a double-take while the headmaster glanced at her way and sighed.

"Miss Valliere, what are you doing here?" He asked, seeming too tired to even discipline her.

"I was looking for the princess, since I could not find her anywhere." Louise honestly replied. "When I was knocked out, I heard... someone call her..."

Her voice trailed off at the look that the Queen gave her, as if she was looking at her but seeing someone else. It unnerved her as Louise could easily guess that the Queen had thought of her mother at this time.

"Valliere. You are the youngest of Karin's then?" The Queen asked. "I remember that when you were young, Henrietta would drag you along everywhere."

Louise blushed. "It was my honor to be a childhood friend with the princess." She said, but then tried to return to the subject at hand. "But what happened to the princess?"

Both the headmaster and the Queen looked at her for a moment before the headmaster turned to the Queen. She glanced down at him before turning back towards the bed.

"Henrietta was... hurt when the golem exploded." She said as they walked towards the bed. Louise followed behind them nervously, where the mages there had been exchanged with those from the capital.

There, on the bed slept Henrietta de Tristain with a patch of skin above her forehead that was still pink from the healing. Louise could feel the world spinning from just seeing her best (and if she was honest with herself, only) friend hurt from what could had been a fatal wound.

The headmaster walked up to the side of Henrietta's bed while the Queen sat on a hastily created chair and picked up her daughter's hand.

"The princess got hit by a spike of earth that had managed to spear through the front of her forehead, but quick thinking from a nearby guard managed to keep her alive before she bled out." The headmaster clinically described the wound. "We've managed to heal the wound once we got her out of the open, but Your Majesty knows as well as we do that head wounds... take time."

Even Louise knew what he meant by that. She had studied everything she could get her hands on, and one thing she learned about head wounds is that the patient may never wake up even if they were healed by the greatest of water mages.

The mind is something that is extremely hard to heal, even with magic.

"Miss Valliere." The headmaster's voice came from beside her and she snapped up - not even realizing that she had fallen to her hands and knees in her shock. "Please, do not blame yourself."

"How could you...!" She started, but the headmaster cut her off.

"Miss Valliere! Please, I heard from some of the other people who saw the situation. The Princess had stopped hearing your cries, and from the wound, you could see that if she had even taken one more step forward, she would not be of this world anymore." The headmaster tried to console the distraught pink-let by placing a hand on her shoulder. "You indirectly saved her life - now, we only need time for her to recover."

Even as he said that, she could tell that he's only trying to make her and the Queen feel better. In her seat, the Queen was crying into her daughter's hand as the mages around continue their attempt to awaken the princess. The headmaster was saying something else, but she could barely understand him within her haze of guilt and self-loathing for allowing something like this to happen to Henrietta.

She wasn't sure what she can do. Her magic only makes things explode, and she was not as smart or knowledgeable as the healers from the capital. If only she had shielded the princess. If only she had told them to run earlier. If only she had some magic that could save her...!

*bump*

Louise blinked as the headmaster finished his speech. "Do you understand Miss Valliere? Now, why don't you go rest on a bed outside, and we'll let you know when the princess wakes up." He told her, expecting that she would listen to him and get her wound looked at.

"Wait." Instead, Louise got to her feet with a hand holding onto her drone's 'arm'. "I... my familiar is telling me that it could heal her mind."

The room froze as she said that. But even then, she was having a conversation with the queen back at the Zerg's base, trying to understand exactly how it would work. Is 'Queen of Blades' supposed to be a title? It can't be worse than her mother's 'Heavy Wind' title, right?

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

As the group arrived near the area Louise's familiar had first became a building, they were greeted with the purplish muck on the ground (/creep/) and an escort of huge creatures that bowed down to them when they passed (/hydralisks/ and /zerglings/, with a single /roach/ hidden off to the side).

The humans were slightly apprehensive of the hydralisks due to how menacing they look, but seeing that they seem to bowing to them, continued on till they approached the main hive.

The hive loomed over them and all the trees seem to open up to allow it. All around they could see signs of activity - whether it was a drone moving rocks and minerals towards the hive or one of those living buildings (/a spore crawler/) twitching and even some kind of floating bag in the sky (/an overlord, watching out for everything around the area/). There were many signs of /alien/ life, and once again Louise wonders how she managed to summon something like this.

However, their goal is the large cocoon that stood in the front of the hive - somewhat larger than a human and open on the side facing them, it stood awaiting for one who will enter it.
And behind them, the team carrying the princess slows to a stop as Louise moved her horse over to the Queen's.

"That's it. My familiar is telling me that we should remove anything important from the princess as it might get caught or damaged." Louise said as she thought back to how things lead to this.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 3

"Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere." The Queen said as she slowly placed her daughter's hand back on the bed. "If your familiar can heal my daughter, then do so immediately."

Louise blinked for a moment and then quickly said, "OH, I'm sorry Your Majasty, but this isn't my familiar." She pointed at the drone at her feet. "This is... um... an offspring? I'm not exactly sure how to describe it."

"Then how do you know that your familiar can heal my daughter?" The Queen asked, standing up and walking to where Louise stood.

Louise bowed down again. "My familiar is capable of speaking to my mind through a creature it gave birth to. It's telling me that they know much about the mind and if we bring her to them, they could heal her mind."

The Queen looked at Louise weighing her words to the well-being of her daughter. But in the end, a chance of recovery is better than seeing her sleep in a coma for an unknown amount of time.

The cocoon slowly closed around the still sleeping princess as the Queen, headmaster, and Louise watched.

"How long will this take?" The Queen asked once again, having asked the same question before at the academy. She had answered before that they wouldn't know until they looked at the wound itself but no longer than a month. Now...

"They still say a month, though she should be awake sooner than that." Louise said, listening to the Zerg around her. "But the remaining time would be to make sure nothing else is wrong with her body."

The Zerg had also explained that their healing would leave marks of its race on her afterwards, but Louise had made sure that it should be prioritized to make it as hidden as possible. You can't have a head of state looking like she had scars or whatever her familiar was going to do on her!

In the end, the mental picture of Henrietta ended up with her wearing a dark green skin tight corset that extends to her thighs and up to the breasts, some sort of skin-tight black bracer that wraps around her arms, and unfortunately her hair had to be braided as they were likely going to have to regrow her hair afterwards. She figured that the clothing was how the Zerg would have dressed up a person if they were human instead.

At least the princess can wear different clothes to accent the hair. Louise was sure that when Henrietta shows up with her hair braided, it's going to start a new fashion statement.

"I'll be staying here with my familiar to make sure everything is alright, as apparently having me here to help them focus their mental energies is required." Louise said, more to herself than anyone else. "My familiar said that nobody should bother the healing... cocoon thing or else the princess could be in danger."

The headmaster and Queen looked at each other and nodded. "I will stay here as well." The Queen said while the headmaster orders someone to set up a tent nearby. "While your familiar... familiars? Well, while these 'Zerg' look strong, my guards will set up around the area to make sure nobody enters and my daughter's own musketeers will be arriving tomorrow. If Fouquet dares to attack, we will make sure she is to be executed for the attempt!"

The Queen angrily waves her wand and a gush of water smashed down onto the creep like a hammer, spraying the area off to the side with creep. "I've sent a runner back to the captial to place a bounty on Fouquet. She will not escape after doing this to my daughter!"

Louise and the headmaster stayed quiet at the declaration, Louise silently agreeing with the sentiment though she couldn't tell what the headmaster was thinking.

The next few weeks slowly fell into a routine. Louise would spend most of her free time kneeling in front of the cocoon and focusing her thoughts towards what she remembered of the princess.

The queen had explained that she needed to focus her mind towards the cocoon and what she wanted Henrietta to know. Louise wasn't sure she understood at first, but figured it meant that it was to help the princess heal her mind or to converse with her.

So Louise spent her days remembering the times that she had been with Henrietta. That she was her best, and only friend. All the time that they spent together. The trust the princess placed in her close confident, even visiting her in the middle of the night. Even the future that Henrietta would have had if this didn't happen - becoming Queen, with Louise at her side and all the people loving Henrietta. In other words, Henrietta is perfect - she's the one person that Louise will always look up to, and expect to be looked up to simply because she's Henrietta.

The musketeer corps from the capital arrived the day after the princess was placed in the cocoon. The group of people was lead by Agnes Chevalier de Milan, a commoner to Louise's surprise. Apparently, she was hand-picked by Henrietta but had been ordered to stay in the capital to investigate something. Agnes was still in the middle of the investigation when she heard what happened, but she was not going to just wait at the capital while her princess was in danger.

Another thing that changed was that there seemed to be an undertone of excitement and anticipation from the Zerg themselves. When they weren't specifically doing something, they would spend their time resting around Louise and the cocoon.

The entire area had been deemed a no-fly zone, and thus Louise had been rather surprised when her mother and her sister Eleonore arrived one day on the third week. Her mother's familiar was trailing behind on feet, growling slightly at all the Zerg around them. Amusingly enough, it also seemed uncomfortable walking on the creep on the ground, but that's understandable seeing how 'goopy' it was.

Mother and daughter had a long talk about responsibilities and her familiar, but in the end Karin had let her go since she was trying her best to heal the princess (and she certainly agreed to have Cattleya brought here to be looked at if her familiar can heal what previously couldn't be healed).

Eleonore had spent most of her time with the Zerg, poking and prodding this and that. Louise had made sure that the brood understood to not hurt her sister, but also to let her know if Eleonore was hurting them so she could stop it. So far nothing has happened, but she knew her sister...

It was the end of the third week that it happened.

At first, she thought it was the queen talking to her again as it came from within her mind. But as she focused, she could hear a duality coming from the voice entering her mind.
/Mistress?//Louise Francoise?/

Louise jolted to her feet as she realized that it was the sound of the princess mixed with the voice of the queen. Thinking for a moment, she realized that it's probably because Henrietta had no other way of speaking with her.

/You're awake!/ Louise mentally exclaimed, having learned that even if you really are speaking to someone, one-sided conversations are still weird looking and sounding.

/I have awaken.//What happened, Louise Francoise?/ The princess asked.

/You were hurt. When Fouquet's golem exploded, a piece of the rock had damaged your head. My familiar is healing you right now./

/The Zerg is still growing./ /I see. I still feel weak./

/You should be fine in a week or so. The Queen is here, and she is worrying about you. I suggest you concentrate on healing so we can see you soon./

/I will be ready soon./ /I will, Louise Francoise./

/You can just call me Louise like we used to, Princess Henrietta. There is no need to thank me./

//Of course, Louise.//

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

The attack came without warning... would have created some narrative excitement, but Louise was warned of a group of people had been approaching for nearly an hour ago.

An overlord had spotted them slowly approaching with cases that it hadn't been able to identify. After confirming with both the Queen and her Mother that they were not expecting anyone approaching, it was assumed that it was an attempt to assassinate the Queen and princess.

Louise worked with her mother to best use the Zerg to defend the location. Defensive platforms called spine crawler that has the ability to dig into the ground and shoot up from under enemies were placed in a way that would maximize their range and create a kill zone if they were rushed.

"It is the height of foolish for them to imagine it would be so easy to assassinate the Queen." Karin said as she brandished her wand-sword. "Louise, make sure your familiars know not to fire at me when I am in the air."

Louise nodded, her mouth dry. She knew her mother's legend. Everyone knows it - some even said that it has spread as far as the Elven lands. As she watched her mother leap onto her manticore and took to the air, she had to wonder whether this was going to become a new legend in her mother's story. And will she one day be more than just 'Zero'?

In the deepest part of her heart, she fervently hoped so. The person known as Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere cannot bare disappointing her mother - she would rather die before that happens.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 4

In a way, Louise was disappointed in the attack. A hoard of alvis of many different size and shapes charged out of the forest and into a slaughter field. Not only was the musketeers waiting for them, some of the mages were able to cut off their ability to evade by creating walls on the side.

Even if they were able to make it through the initial barrage, many of the Zerg were waiting further back - they were held back to make sure any enemy getting closer would have a nasty surprise, but just the mages and musketeers alone were enough to hold the alvis off without letting any of them close the distance.

The battle ended suddenly when a tornado suddenly sprouted at the location the overlords were telling Louise her mother and the group of people controlling the alvis had clashed - all the alvis remaining suddenly fell to the ground as whoever was controlling them suffered the wraith of Karin the Heavy Wind.

From what the overlord could tell, most of the people were caught by the sudden attack, but it couldn't confirm if anyone escaped due to being pushed away by the explosion of wind. By the time it returned to the area, the fighting had already ended and Karin was standing in a clearing created by her spell in order to find any clues leftover from the attack.

Louise let the others know what the overlord saw, and the Queen sent some people to search for anyone still alive after Karin's spell. Louise didn't know exactly what she felt, but somehow she thought that it really shouldn't be so easy to defeat an assassination attempt on the Queen. What happened to all the honor and valor she had grown up listening or reading about? Where was the endless sea of faceless minions that the hero would have had to defeat before facing the villain in a monologue where the hero would had to prove them wrong in both words and actions? The whole attack had taken less than 10 minutes to clean up, and neither Louise or the Zerg swarm had been required.

But the mental link with the Zerg told her that this was it. That it was this easy to crush her opponents and it would have been even faster if the Zerg had helped. Louise isn't sure what to think, but promised herself to talk with someone about this feeling when the crisis was over.

Karin soon left in order to inform Cardinal Mazarin of the attack. The culprit needed to be found, and they had already gathered all the evidence avalible at the site of the attack.

From what Louise overheard, no humans took part in the attack - only alvis. Whoever lead the group had managed to escape, but no ordinary mage should have been able to control that many alvis at the same time.

Various ideas came to Louise, but with no proof she could speculate all day and still not come to a conclusion. Therefore, she spent her time with Henrietta, talking about what happened and her own thoughts on the situation.

//Isn't it well that they were defeated quickly?// Henrietta asked after Louise told her of what happened.

/I guess, but it just.../ Louise struggled to find the words to describe what she was thinking. /It's just so different from what I thought it would be. Stories tell how the hero would fight the villains with conviction and strength, but.../

/The Zerg is unstoppable./ /The difference in power is just too great./

Louise still find it strange that she's hearing two 'voices' sometimes. It happens less and less as time goes on, but occasionally she would still hear two voices saying similar things, but in different words.

/I know, it's my mother and we knew they were coming./ Louise admitted. /It doesn't mean that I couldn't wish I had something to do, just to show that I can be of use as well./

/We will crush any of your enemies./ /Well, a familiar is an extension of the mage, right?/ Henreitta said, reminding Louise of the fact. //When I exit this cocoon, we will find some use for/ /the Zerg.//your familiar./

/Thank you your highness./ Louise said, close to tearing up. /It will be my honor to help you./

//No Louise.// Henrietta said. //This time, it is I who will help you.//

Exactly 30 days after Henrietta was placed in the cocoon that Louise felt that the princess was ready to be 'released'. Louise alerted the Queen to this fact and they gathered in front of the cocoon, awaiting for Henrietta's arrival back into the world. Louise clenched her fists - she would not regret healing Henrietta, no matter how the princess looked when she came out.

'This was the only thing I could have done.' Louise thought to herself as the cocoon slowly split open. 'My whole life won't just be a Zero.'

But even though she thought that, Louise still gasped in surprise as Henrietta's hands grasped the open slit and forced it open.

Slowly, Henrietta's new form was shown to the world. The hands that pushed the cocoon apart looked like it was armored, but in very minimal way that would allow her to wear gloves.

As it continued to be forced open, her arms looked normal, but up near the shoulder another patch of what seemed to be the armored carapace that all Zerg had could be seen reinforcing the princess' strength.

Her head was the first thing to fully emerge from the cocoon, and at her close range Louise could see that the 'braids' that she originally thought would be hair was made out of some kind of organic tubes just slightly thicker than actual hair, and seemed to be able to move on their own.

'At least the color still looks right...' Louise numbly thought to herself as she noticed that it had the same length as the princess' old hair.

Henrietta slowly pulled herself out and Louise noticed more changes on the body of her princess. What she had originally thought as a corset was also made out of the same armor as the hands and was part of the princess' body. It extended from right under Henrietta's breasts (which Louise noticed with a pang of jealousy had grown larger again from a month ago) down to the thighs; when Henrietta finally stepped out, it was obviously that her feet were also covered by the same armor as her hands, which let her wear clothing and shoes if she chose to do so.

Both the Queen and Louise watched as Henrietta took a deep breath and stretched, her hair bristling as if it was stretching as well. The princess lifted her head as if looking into the sky before coming back down to the two in front of her.

"Louise. Mother." She greeted them with the voice she always had... but Louise couldn't help but feel there was an 'undertone' when Henrietta had spoken. Louise shook her head; it must be because she had been hearing the princess' voice from her mind so often that she would associate the duel tone with Henrietta's actual voice as well.

"Are... You're Henrietta?" The Queen's voice was filled with... surprise? Fear? Louise couldn't tell exactly the mix of emotions in the voice, but she could understand it. If she herself didn't know that the princess changed in order to be healed and saw her like this...

"Of course I am." Henrietta replied in a matter of fact tone of voice. "I can tell that you are surprised at how I look, but it was necessary for me to be healed."

The Queen continued to look slightly skeptical, but Henrietta just sighed and said, "If you like, mother, I can tell you all the little things that only we would know, but do you mind if I washed myself first? I feel like this conversation will go better once I am dressed."

After the princess dressed herself, Louise was not surprised to find that, indeed, most of the 'armor' was actually hidden beneath the fabric - though white would probably not be Henrietta's best color anymore as the darker color of the carapace could be faintly seen under the thinner fabric.

The Queen and princess talked in private for a while, but eventually the Queen was satisfied that the Henrietta that came out of the cocoon was truly her daughter, and the Queen had a touching reunion with her daughter.

It was eventually decided that they would return to the academy for a few days to remove any rumors of the princess' demise before returning to the capital. It seemed that the princess' new body changed some plans, and new ones would had to be made.

As the group moved off the creep, Louise could feel her connection with the Zerg become... muted. It's not as if she couldn't tell what was happening with them if she focused and was within range of an overlord, but it seemed like it was in the back of her mind and no longer at the tip of her thoughts like it was.

In return, she could feel Henrietta even stronger than before when she was in the cocoon.

//Of course, Louise.// Henrietta's mental voice entered her mind. //I am part of your Zerg now. Your 'healing' of me has allowed me to connect closely with the rest of the Swarm, so don't worry. I will always be just a thought away.//

Louise sighed in relief. She didn't want to admit it, but it was daunting to be kept on top of everything the Zerg did. Hopefully, Henrietta would find her familiar useful and help prove that she wasn't just Zero.

//Of course I will Louise.// /I live to serve./ /Of course I will./

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

Their return to the academy was received with loud cheers and excited welcomes from both the staff and students. The headmaster personally greeted them, though he glanced curiously at the hat that Henrietta was wearing to prevent people from seeing her new 'hair'.

The headmaster's secretary, a woman named Longueville lead the group to a guest room in the main building where Henrietta and her guards made themselves comfortable. Louise accompanied them to make sure the princess was alright before returning back to her own room at the East tower.

Louise thought about request by the princess to join her at the capital. On one hand, she would be of more use to her there, but on the other... she can't even cast a single spell correctly. Exactly what use could she be that Henrietta can't do herself with the Zerg?

She was so engrossed with her internal debate that she nearly bumped into the giant dragon that sat in the middle of the path between her and her dorm tower.

Glancing up, she found a blue-haired mage standing beside the dragon and looking at her intensely. Louise searched her memory for who this woman was, and came up with a half remembered memory of being amazed at the girl who had summoned a dragon for her familiar.

"Tabitha, right?" Louise asked, seeing that the girl didn't start the conversation. "Can I help you?"

She was quiet for a few more seconds, but then she asked, "You healed the princess' mind, correct?"

Still suffering a slight bout of self-doubt, Louise answered, "My familiar did, yes." She then narrowed her eye, "Wait, nobody should know that. How did you find out?"

Off in a corner of her mind, she could feel Henrietta respond to her suspicions. But before Louise could figure out what her princess was going to do, Tabitha answered by bowing down to the ground with her head touching the floor.

"Please heal my mother."

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 5

Henrietta arrived in the middle of Tabitha explaining her situation to Louise.

Apparently, Tabitha was actually Charlotte Helene Orleans de Gallia, heir apparent to the throne of Gallia after her uncle King Joseph.

During the previous reign, there apparently had been some tensions with the succession, and her father had been murdered while her mother poisoned with a potion that damages the mind. Tabitha was forced to take on dangerous missions in return for the protection of her mother.

"Or in other words, a hostage." Henrietta ended, a frown on her face. Louise had a similar frown as she tried to understand how could someone be so evil to murder their own brother and then poison their family.

Tabitha - no, Charlotte - didn't say anything, but it was obvious why she would look for a way to cure her mother. If her mother was cured, then they could escape the clutches of the evil king - and who knows what kind of mission she would be sent to? What if her next mission was too much and Charlotte didn't make it back?

Probably exactly what he's planning too.

But then she remembered that to heal the mind, it requires the thought of someone who can help it heal. They didn't have anyone that knew Charlotte's mother, and it's obvious that Charlotte herself can't do it...

//Do not worry.// Came Henrietta's voice in her mind. //You could always have Charlotte go through the process so that she's like me first, and then use that link to heal her mother.//

Louise brightened at that thought. "Then we should try to help her, Princess. I can't imagine someone who would do such evil things to their own family!"

Henrietta smiled and nodded. "Of course. This would also be a perfect mission to send your familiar as they are unknown and perfectly capable of defending you against any foe. I will send an overseer to scout the location for you, but I am required back in the capital. So you should go help my royal cousin in her plight."

After getting the location of where Charlotte's mother was held, Henrietta bid them good night and returned to her room. Charlotte, however, looked at Louise with eyes filled with questions - questions that Louise knew would have to be answered before they departed.

The next day, Louise was surprised by the fact that Kirche von Zerbst had found out about their plans to head to Gallia in secret.

Charlotte gave Louise a shrug as if saying 'it's less of a hassle than to hide it from her' to which the pink-let could only sigh. She had to deal with Kirche before, but a month without the Germanian had dulled her memory of how annoying the red-head could be.

However, even she became serious when they explained what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. To Louise's relief (and that's something she is going to take to the GRAVE!), Kirche stopped making fun of her as the topic became serious.

Before they left, however, they stopped to see the princess Henrietta privately. There they explained how the healing would work and the sort of physical sacrifice Charlotte will be required to heal her mother, as well as the changes to her mother's body, by showing the changes to the princess' own body.

To Louise's surprise, Charlotte took it in stride and said that if physical changes was all it took, she would be willing to become unrecognizable if it meant her mother would be healed.
Kirche was initially surprised, but at Charlotte's declaration, she too said that she would support her friend all the way, even if she shared the same changes.

In a way, it made Louise jealous that the two were such good friends that they could support each other like that, but a reassuring feeling came from Henrietta reminded Louise that she had a close friend in the princess as well.

The trio left in the afternoon after Henrietta told them that she had send some overlords to carry some of the Zerg closer to their destination and set up somewhere they could rest.

They traveled mostly by land, though some parts they had Charlotte's familiar carry them (who, they learned, was a rhyme dragon by the name of Irukuku and able to transform into a girl-like form) in order to avoid patrols and other hazards.

Eventually they reach Charlotte's unofficial territory - unofficial because officially it still belonged to her mother's - where Louise was able to sense that a small Zerg base had been built deep in the forests and hills. Once there, they explained Henrietta's plan to the pair:

The overseer was sent earlier to observe the supply routes to the castle. After observing them, the next time they arrive the overseer will create doppelgangers of them and replace them. Once inside, they will proceed to disable the guards and alert her butler that they are coming to rescue them as well as open the front gates for the Zerg force to enter.

Louise could admit that it's a simple plan. She is somewhat surprised that her princess thought of it, but assumed that it was part of court education - part of being a leader is being able to make plans and lead, of course. Neither Charlotte or Kirche had any problems with it, and thus the princes of Gallia wrote a letter to her loyal butler and waited.

The base that was set up had a good defensive position set up that allowed the Zerg to ambush anything that came from the main roads. A lair was built to serve as a staging area, and already there were over 50 Zerg in the base area.

While Louise was sure that they were more than a match for anyone who could still fight after they enter the castle, Charlotte had said that there is likely an elf watching over her mother.

Louise worriedly looked towards the castle. Elves were a legend that was just as scary a her mother, but had been around for thousands of years. When they were planning and this concern came out, Henrietta shook her head and said something about not being worse than a 'protoss', but didn't explain. All she said was that the Zerg would be able to take down a single elf, and if not they could sneak Charlotte's mother out while the Zerg keeps the elf occupied.

Either way, she hoped that it would be enough. Louise didn't have the amount of faith Henrietta seemed to have in the Zerg, but she would try to believe if it means believing in what her princess believes.

Up on top of the castle, a pair of eyes glanced out to the distance. Something was coming - something the elf will need to confirm with his own eyes.

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

Louise steeled herself to what was to happen tonight. Charlotte's letter was given with the changelings that replaced the people leading the supply wagon, and with the overseer in the sky, she could follow them as they worked.

So therefore she could follow the changelings as they went into the castle, giving all the proper codes and hand signs as the overseer had seen before. She could watch as they greeted the kitchen staff, and handed over a letter for the butler that Charlotte had mentioned. She could watch as some helped the kitchen staff, only to feed them a drug and then take their place. She should make sure that the contaminated food was given to all the guards who had the night shift, and that anyone else that was going to eat dinner would also take part in that food.

But she trusts that the Zerg will follow the plan, and thus she doesn't. Instead, she looks at those who will be assaulting the castle, and mentally prepares herself to fight for real. While she had always mentally imagined herself fighting under Henrietta, she never really imagined what she would actually be fighting.

She also knew that of the three (Charlotte, Kirche, and herself), she was the one with the least capability in fighting. She can't even cast a single spell; how would she fight? Besides her connection with the Zerg, there's nothing special or useful about her. She was just another student at the academy, and one who can't even cast a spell! What can she do in this situation?

And thus her worries seemed to circle around like a never-ending spiral. She focused on herself and her worries, not willing to see the work that others did on her behalf.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 6

Nightfall arrived too soon for Louise.

Having confirmed that the letter was sent and the overseer was able to see the butler with Charlotte's mother, Louise gave the order to advance to the castle.

Louise could feel through the Zerg that things had went just as planned - all the guards had some of the drugged food, and now were unconscious for them to move through. The problem however, was that the butler had told them the elf did not eat with the soldiers, nor did he eat anything from the kitchen.

Without any alternatives, Louise figured that they'll continue growing Zerg creatures and keep having the Zerg fight him while they steal Charlotte's mother. But Charlotte said that they don't need too many because there isn't enough space within the castle for that many Zerg anyways.

Traveling from the hive to the castle was extremely quick when riding on top of the Zerg. It also allowed Louise to keep in contact with the rest of the brood as she finds that the 'connection' is weaker without direct contact or via creep.

The Zergling she was on top of quickly reach the castle, and as planned the changelings opened up the doors for them. She quickly got off and met up with Charlotte who had landed quietly outside the castle once they confirmed that the guards were taken down.

"The brood will find the elf and keep it distracted." Louise said. "Go find your mother and bring her out. We'll keep her with us and then retreat."

Charlotte nodded silently as Louise mentally checked the zergling she left with Kirche. She wasn't there as she was to be backup if anything did not go according to plan, but...

A sudden explosion of air blew out a wall near the top of the wing Charlotte's mother was at, and Louise suddenly KNEW that some part of her brood had died.

Later on when she tries to describe how losing part of her brood felt, she would describe it as having a part of her body bitten off. But at that time, all she could feel was rage - anger at something that would dare go against the Zerg; hatred of having lost some of her brood; and some self-loathing that she had allowed this to happen.

The zergling that had been waiting for her obediently placed its head under Louise's hand, and she immediately focused her attention upon where her zerg had met the elf guarding the castle.

To her surprise, the elf didn't look anything like stories depicted them. Its eyes wasn't blazing in weird powers, nor was there anything like an aura of fear surrounding it. It honestly looked like a person, but with weird fashion tastes and pointy ears.

However, the moment that she focused on the Zerg there, it seemed like the elf noticed as well. "So I have finally caught your attention." He intoned as he waved his arms out towards another pair of zerglings that had reached that floor.

Louise could feel... something /psionic/ towards her and she ordered those zerglings to just jump out from the hole. Her actions saved the zerglings as a ripple of air blasted through the spot they were at, and cut straight through the remaining walls behind them.

A trio of hydralisk shot spines up through the hole, but the elf held out his hand and they were blocked by some kind of barrier. A pair of banelings jumped from the floor beneath and exploded under him in an attempt to melt the floor, but it was like he could see them through the stone itself as he dodged to a side. Roches climbed the stairs and tried to shot its acidic spit at him, but with a gesture the floor turned into a stone hand and covered up the stairway, preventing reinforcements via the stairs.

He jumped out of the castle and to Louise's surprise, floated in mid-air. "Know this, oh Great Enemy. We defeated you thousands of years ago, we will do so again." With those parting words, he flew off into the sky while keeping that defensive shield up to prevent the hydralisks from hitting him.

Louise watched him leave from an overseer, but could not follow. What did he mean with those words? How strong are elves to be able to fight against all the Zerg here and escape without any wounds?

Reorienting herself, Louise noted that Charlotte had headed towards where her mother was held and Kirche had approached her from behind, looking at the hole that was made from the elf.

"So, that's an elf?" She asked. Louise can only mutely nod.

A day later they were all returning to Tristain. Charlotte's mother was being kept asleep with a spell, while the butler made sure she stayed on top of the Roach that was carrying her. Louise was keeping a thought out in case the elf was following them when she felt a mental scream of pure rage resound through her mind.

All the Zerg that was with them stopped at the same time and screeched in response to the feelings being channeled through them. Louise held her head in pain as she could feel the sheer anger resounding through all of the Zerg, but she herself did not have any way to contact Henrietta to ask what happened.

She then felt an order from the princess to move the Zerg to the West coast of Tristian, and felt the brood with her instinctively move to follow that order. Shaking her head to clear it, she quickly regained control of the brood and told it to continue its course back to Tristian

Charlotte, having noticed that the Zerg had calmed down, flew down with her familiar with a questioning look. Louise shook her head at her and told her that she'll explain later that night, but told the dragon riding princess that they need to hurry up.

It took a bit more than a week for them to return to Tristain, and the moment Louise got close to the capital she heard what happened from Henrietta via the overlord network.

Apparently Albion had fallen under the control of the rebels, who call themselves the Reconquista and had somehow had managed to revive prince Wales' corpse in an attempt to abduct Henrietta. The princess saw through the ploy, and managed to capture the group there to abduct her as well as find out who was behind the plan before whoever did the deed cut the magic off, returning Wales to a corpse.

Louise found herself speechless at the audacity of those people. Not only did they kill off the royal family of Albion, but they had the gall to raise the corpse of the prince in an attempt to abduct the princess of a neighboring one. Her anger only rose when she heard that the rebels had used some childhood letters between Wales and Henrietta to break the alliance between Tristan and Germania.

When she asked Henrietta what did she do in response, the princess mentally 'showed' Louise that she had moved a large Zerg force to the Western boarders and set up a Lair there to prepare for an invasion of Albion.

Henrietta had found out who did this to Wales, and quickly ordered the Zerg within Tristian to prepare for an invasion in anticipation for how she knew Louise would react. Louise could barely restrain her anger, but agreed that the Reconquista had to pay for doing all the things they did.

But first, they had to help Charlotte and her mother.

Princess Henrietta met them at Lair where she was healed. She had the sneaky smile on her face that she always wore when she got Louise into trouble and explained that she left a body double in the capital to make sure nobody knew she was gone, and she was able to know exactly what was happening at all time anyways due to the overlords in the area.

"Now, we can't exactly do what Louise did to help me because it requires thoughts from people who know the person and you're not able to connect with the Zerg, but that's why I've been searching through the Zerg's genetic memories to see if I can find anything that could help." Henrietta explained as she lead them back to the cocoon.

As they got near, a large creature burrowed out. From what Louise knew of the Zerg, it looked somewhat like what was called an 'infestor' came out, but she didn't really understand what it did.

"This, is what is called an 'infestor'. And yes, I know how that sounds, but that's what the Zerg calls it." Henrietta explained with a shrug. "What it is going to do, is connect with your mind by placing that tail onto the back of your neck, and from there your mind will be drawn into the Zerg and thus allowing you to heal your mother like Louise did with me."

As a pair of Zerglings carefully placed Charlotte's mother into the cocoon, Louise noticed a small cupped bed filled with some green substance near it. Henrietta explained that since Charlotte needed to be connected with the Zerg for a majority of the process, they had prepared her a place to rest her body while the mind was busy.

Louise, Irukuku, and Kirche watched as Charlotte took off her clothes as directed and stepped up to the large form of the infestor. The infestor offered a small tentacle to Henrietta, who held it and pulled it behind the blue-haired girl.

"Are you ready? It's going to feel weird, but don't worry. We'll be there."

Charlotte took a breath and nodded. Henrietta lifted the tenticle to Charlotte's neck and carefully placed it on her spine. "Now remember, focus on your mother." She reminded Charlotte.

The girl seemed to shoot up taller as the tentacle did something that caused her to jump, but both Henrietta and Charlotte was facing away from them and the princess had blocked the sight of Charlotte's back to them.

Henrietta held the blue-haired girl up by the arms, but soon let go as both of them turned towards the watchers. They couldn't see anything different about Charlotte other than having the tentacle stuck to her back, but Louise knew that they were connected when she spoke.

For when Charlotte spoke, Louise could hear her voice both from the body in front of her, and the mind within the Zerg.

"/Assimilation successful. Your commands?/"

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

Louise couldn't help but feel that there's something weird happening.

Feeling Charlotte within the Zerg isn't exactly something new, since it happened with Henrietta as well. What was new, however, was when Charlotte's body started moving and acting without her mind in control.

Kirche was able to talk and converse like it was Charlotte who was in control of the body, but with Louise's unique ability to listen into the Zerg, she could tell that Charlotte had ignored the entire conversation to pray for her mother - LETTING the infestor act for her.

It was especially surprising when the infestor was able to answer like the princess, moved Charlotte to the prepared 'bed' behind the cocoon, and her mouth explained why she was doing that with words that even Louise herself wasn't sure she understood.

If it had happened to Louise, she wasn't sure she could do that. Oh sure, she sort of did that when she was praying for Henrietta's recovery, but she was still in full control of her body.

But she didn't think she could stand completely losing control of her own body or letting someone else take control of it even if it would allow her to focus on healing Henrietta.

//Louise.//

The girl jumped. That voice...

She turned to face the 'direction' the voice had been coming from and found what she was dreading.

Elenore, with another infestor connected to her, walked calmly towards her with her pale green eyes. The big sister that had always bullied her whenever she had the chance; the person who had always seem so much better than her, walked up and knelled down beside her much like a knight to their liege.

//Louise. I understand now.// Her voice said though the link all Zerg shared.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 7

Elenore explained that she had started this about two weeks ago - so a few days after they had left to save Charlotte's mother. She had noticed that the Zerg had an extremely strong regenerative power that seemed to be able to heal both the mind and the body - maybe they could use this to heal Cattleya or any other people who had crippling illnesses like her.

She had done it because she couldn't figure out anything about the Zerg, and asked the princess if there was some way to help her studies. Henrietta had suggested this as a way for her to understand the Zerg, and reassured her that if the princess wanted to, she could remove the connection at any time.

"But once I became part of the Zerg, it was like... opening an eye that you never knew was closed." Elenore had a dreamily look in her face as she recalled her experience. "I had all this knowledge and I could feel so much more than just myself. It's almost impossible to describe how it felt... Like the first time you cast a spell, or meeting that one person you know you'll be with for the rest of your life..."

Elenore's eyes focused solely on Louise, and for the first time after receiving her familiar the young pink-head wasn't sure that summoning the drone was a good thing.

Louise heard snippets about what Henrietta was doing about Albion in the next few days from people bringing provisions to them from the Academy. The princess had apparently sent an ultimatum to Albion and the rebel government: if they do not release any of the Royal family left and return control of the country to them, Tristian will be at war with the Reconquista and their leaders will be held responsible for the actions.

The response from the Reconquista was the heads of all remaining people from the Royal family of Albion.

Meanwhile, Elenore had sent a messenger to request Cattleya's presence and Charlotte spent much of her time within the Zerg 'mind'. While Charlotte's mind was not within her body, the Infestor kept her body within the prepared bed, covered within some liquid at all time.

This left Louise with a lot of free time, and she spent much of it talking with Charlotte and her sister about the experience. She even managed to get the princess to open up a bit and talk about her mother and some of her past.

By the time Charlotte had finished explaining some of the things King Joseph had forced her to do, Louise was openly crying at how cruel Charlotte's uncle was and promised the girl that she'll do her best to help her in whatever she wanted to do. It was then that Charlotte asked a rather curious question.

/You... won't treat us like Joseph does, will you?/ Charlotte asked in a rather subdued tone. It seems like it was a rather important question to her though, especially since she was asking about her mother as well.

/Of course not!/ Louise denied vehemently. /Even if we weren't friends back in the academy, we are friends now and friends care about each other!/

/I'm relieved./ Charlotte said as she signed in her mind. //I will rest now. She should be ready soon.// With that, the princess left her mother's welfare to Louise while she rested.

Over the next week, Louise was able to figure out what Henrietta was doing by some of the commands that she was giving to the Zerg being used to invade Albion.

One of the more interesting thing that Louise noticed is that most of the commands Henrietta gave was transporting Zerg from the mainland up to Albion. It made sense in a way - there isn't a lot of natural resources on Albion, so it is hard to support a Zerg hive on the floating island itself.

But then, how is Henrietta supporting the invasion? With her own troops?

Just as she was considering that, Henrietta spoke to her in her mind.

//Louise? The date of my coronation has been set. Will you do me the honors of attending?//

The coronation was slated to happen at the beginning of the next month. Something about wanting to signify a new queen and a new beginning, but Louise wasn't too interested in those metaphors.

What she was interested was that Cattleya's arrival coincided with the date that Charlotte's mother was allowed to leave the cocoon and reunite with her daughter, right at the end of the current month.

Well, the term 'reunite' was used, but she had clearly been 'awake' before then, but had talked mainly with Charlotte. Violette de Orleans had thanked Louise in that strange mental double tone for reuniting them.

The Infestor had released its tentacle from Charlotte to allow her free movement, and the moment she laid her green eyes on her mother's form, the two were hugging each other to make up for loss time.

Louise noted dimly that the duchess had similar changes done to her body, but it seemed that Charlotte had less of a problem with her mother looking more 'Zerg-like', as signified by some of the more obvious changes on the duchess' body.

As they moved to get reacquainted somewhere private, Louise blinked and shook her head at what she thought she saw on the duchess' back.

"That can't possibly be a tail, right?" She muttered to herself, but decided to refocus herself as Cattleya's ride arrived... and likely her 'friends' with her.

Elenore was there to greet her sister and mother as Karin had chosen to accompany her remaining daughter. By now, the creep has more than doubled in size since she was first there, and so had the base itself.

Cattleya's 'friends' were left within the carriage to be brought to the Academy where they can be taken care of, while the rest slowly walked to the miraculous healing device that had already healed two people that modern magic couldn't have helped.

Karin was talking with Elenore, with the daughter explaining how the device can heal almost any disease or wounds, if given enough time.

Along the way, Louise answered some questions for Cattleya and even allowed her to pet a zergling along the way. It honestly reminds her of some childhood memories when Cattleya declared it to be 'cute' and asked a bunch of questions that Louise only knew in abstract.

Childhood memories of when she didn't just accept everything about Cattleya floated through her mind for a moment but she quickly pushed them away. The animals! All those animals!
As they got near where the cocoon was, Cattleya asked, "So little Louise, how many of these Zerg are there? They all look so unique and interesting!"

Louise pouted. She knew that Cattleya didn't mean anything by adding that 'little' in front of her name, but sometimes it does get to her.

"Well, I don't know the exact numbers, but according to Henrietta..." A glance from her mother had her quickly adding, "I mean, Princess Henrietta, when she was in the healing cocoon, it allowed her to connect deeply with the Zerg, and let her understand a lot of things about them."

"Ohhh. That sounds so exciting! I can't wait to try it!" Cattleya exclaimed with a girlish giggle.

'Well, she's about to get her wish.' Louise thought as they stood in front of the cocoon.

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

Louise made sure her sister was... well, as comfortable as possible as she could be within a cocoon. Not that she knew exactly how Cattleya felt right now since it takes a bit for the cocoon to actually heal someone to the point where she could talk via the mind.

The young pink-haired paused for a moment as she considered that thought. 'Healing' someone till they could talk through the mind? She wasn't quite sure if it actually worked like that, but that might be because all the people who had gone in couldn't communicate before they went in.

Well, it wasn't anything that time won't fix. Hopefully this will completely heal Cattleya and allow her to do everything her older sister had wanted. And while the process was starting, she'll have time to make it to Henrietta's coronation and come back too!

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 8

The ride to the capital with her mother was... in a word, awkward. Louise really didn't have much to say, and Karin wasn't speaking either.

She was traveling with a group of roach burrowed around and with Charlotte and her mother in another coach behind them. Henrietta had sent word that she wanted the two in the capital for their safety and to plan out what to do in the future.

Duchess de Orleans had taken on a disguise to hide her features, and was with her daughter and the dragon familiar - though there had been some kind of disagreement earlier with Irukuku. Apparently the young dragon didn't like taking human form for too long but eventually did... only to find that dragons don't really understand clothing. They solved it by having the Duchess share her cloak with the dragon for now, but Louise wasn't too sure how to explain to a dragon what clothing was used for.

In fact, she could almost hear Irukuku's complains about the coach being too restrictive or that she didn't want anything restricting her.

Either way, Louise timidly glanced at her mother and silently sighed. She can't say she's unhappy to see her mother, but it's just always so awkward when they were alone like this...
The last time they were alone, she had been sent to the Academy in hopes of learning magic and to show the Valliere pride to the world.

"Louise." Karin said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. "I have to let you know that your engagement to Captain Wardes is to be delayed."

Louise blinked. She had pretty much forgotten about that engagement as she always thought she was too young and with everything that had happened...

"The royal family had decided that this healing method of your familiar is too important to risk at this stage, especially with a war soon to happen." Karin continues to explain. "And has asked us to hold off any official ties to you. We've considered different reasons to do so, but we decided that you will be getting court training and thus to prevent any sort of bias, your engagement to the Captain of the Guards will have to be held off until you have completed your training."

Louise merely nodded dumbly, trying to understand exactly what was happening.

To Louise's surprise, Henrietta was there to greet them personally even though she was to become Queen in less than a week. Her surprise grew as she noticed that this Henrietta had the looks of the princess before she required healing! Though this princess had her hair up in braids similar to what she seen before, it was obvious that this was actual hair and
not... whatever it was that was connected to Henrietta's head.

Is this a fake? Or was it part of the Queen's plan to make her daughter look normal? Louise wasn't sure, but snice her mother wasn't reacting, she figured that it must be some ploy that was known to the duchess.

Karin had a disapproving look on her face at the princess' action, but Henrietta merely tittered in giggles. "I won't have the chance to do something like personally greet my dear friend after I become Queen. Let me have my last chance at the simple joys." Henrietta said as she held Louise's hand.

In that moment, Louise fully realized that this was not Henrietta, but rather the changeling that she had heard the Princess talk about. By touching her, Louise was immediately connected to a network of Zerg in the castle itself... and to her surprise, she could feel Zerg everywhere.

There were Zerg underground. Zerg in the city. Zerg in the castle. Even Zerg in the sky.

But... she can't see any signs that they were there.

Even in front of her; all she can see is the form of her friend, though through her she could feel the real Henrietta is currently somewhere to the West... near the coastline?

A feeling of reassurance came through the link, and even though Henrietta was many miles away, the princess in front of her hugged Louise with a feeling of reassurance. "Don't worry, there's not much you need to do. You and your guests will be staying in the castle for the next few days and we can plan what we should do next."

Louise numbly nodded as the guards escorted the cloaked Charlotte and her mother as well as familiar off to a side entrance, and the Henrietta changeling lead them into the castle.

That night, Louise spent the night talking with the changeling of Henrietta. Or more specifically, talking with Henrietta through the changeling.

//I will be back, a few days before the coronation.// Henrietta said through her copy as she explain why the changeling was needed. //I had to make sure that the base being created will be able to sustain itself to defend the coast after I leave.//

Louise could understand the need to defend the coast against invasions, but did Henrietta need to go herself?

//Now that Duchess Violette has recovered, she can help me command some of the Zerg forces.// Henrietta explained. //It is the only way someone other than you can command the Zerg.//

Louise nodded absently at the thought. What sort of person would she be if she held back healing those people just so that she can retain sole control over the Zerg? A person's life, especially someone as important as Henrietta's or her sister's or even the mother of an heir to another's country, is more important than just remaining the only person who can command the Zerg.

//Do not worry.// Henrietta reassured her. //We are part of the Zerg now. We will not abuse your trust.//

Well, if her best friend and soon to be Queen says so, Louise isn't going to doubt her.

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

"And so, I swear upon the Founder's name that I will uphold the laws and duties of Tristain, to defend the interests of the people within the country, and fight against the injustice where-ever it is."

Cardinal Mazarin held up the Founder's Prayer Book and solemnly said, "This holy artifact has heard your pledge and with the blessing of the Founder and his holy ring, I name you Queen Henrietta De Tristain, rightful Queen of the Blessed land of Tristain. May your reign be long and prosperous."

The Cardinal placed the Prayer Book in the new Queen's hands and lifted a small crown that was being held up by a soldier beside him, and placed the crown over Henrietta's head. She lifted the Water Ruby on her finger and allowed it to shine above her, signifying her claim.

The crowd exploded in cheers as Louise watched from the side of the citadel. Henrietta was finally crowned Queen, and it was all Louise could do to start jumping in joy and excitement like many of the crowd. Hopefully, things will only get better from now on.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 9

Louise watched as Henrietta thanked Cardinal Mazarin for his hard work and left the throne room that the procession had returned to. She took it as her cue to leave and took a side path that would meet up with the Pri... or rather, Queen near her room.

As they went inside together, they found all other people whose life had been touched by the Zerg.

Duchess Violette was sitting down on the bed with Irukuku seemingly asleep on her lap, and covered up by the Duchess' cloak. Every once in a while she would twitch like she was having a bad nightmare and shake the Duchess' entire cloak, but Charlotte would be beside them in another chair, allowing her to pet her familiar's head.

The Queen took no notice of the byplay between the small family on her bed as she took a seat on a small double-seater and told Louise to sit beside her.

"So let us list the situation facing us right now." Henrietta started. "Albion is in a state of confusion right now due to the destruction of their fleet and sudden uprising of those who had supported the Reconquista. They won't be moving anytime soon, and I heard that the uprising is gaining traction against them, so maybe the problem will solve itself."

Sitting besides Henrietta, Louise could only listen in awe as the Queen decided to share all this with her. She did have a feeling that whatever was happening to Albion had something to do with Henrietta's revenge, but she wasn't sure on the details.

"Both Germania and Gallia has been quiet lately, even after the Duchess had been retrieved from her prison." Henrietta continued. "And even Romalia had sent a representative today, so I don't think there will be any major movements from those countries."

"In that case, I would like permission to retrieve Josette." The Duchess suddenly spoke out, startling Louise. Ever since she had been healed, the Duchess had kept mostly to herself and Charlotte and had rarely spoken other than to thank Louise with Charlotte - and even then it seemed like she still wasn't fully there. "She is still my daughter, and there is no reason to keep her hidden anymore."

Louise's brows furrowed in confusion. The Duchess had another daughter? And was kept hidden? She glanced at Henrietta, wondering if she was as confused as Louise was.

"They're twins, Louise." Henrietta explained, and Louise made a gesture of understanding by thumping her fist to the palm of her hand.

Twins were not desirable in the nobility for a number of reasons, especially when they were so close to the crown. They were also considered unlucky, but that was closer to superstition than anything.

"Tabitha can get us to the monastery she was left at quickly, and if an overlord was sent with us, we can easily pick her up and be gone before anyone knew we were there." The Duchess continued in a rather dreamy tone of voice.

Louise blinked. Tabitha?

"Mother." Charlotte said sternly, and the Duchess flinched.

"Oh, I'm sorry Charlotte." Duchess Violette apologized to her daughter.

'What... just happened?' Louise thought to herself as she watched the two interact.

"Either way," Henrietta cut in, "we will have some time before any other major powers move, so if we focused our forces on Albion right now, we should be able to reclaim the island.... though unfortunately, all of the main line has been confirmed to be dead."

Louise thought back to the times when the three of them would play together when they were young... though those were few and in between, she could remember how happy Henrietta was when they were together. Now? Now it's impossible to go back to those happier times.

"...and as such, we'll meet back up in a month's time." Henrietta's voice pierced though Louise's thoughts as she refocused on the present. "Lady Cattleya's recovery is expected to be complete in a few weeks, and we will give her a bit of time to adapt to her body. It should also take about a month to retrieve Lady Josette and return, so if all goes well, we shall meet again at the beginning of the next month."

All the people within nodded as Louise felt... something pass from Henrietta outwards. A woman that Louise was told to be Henrietta's personal maid opened their door and came in while Henrietta moved over to a divider to change her clothes.

As Louise blinked, she suddenly realized that the maid must be part of the Zerg like Henrietta's double was, and she told her (it? But the person looks like a woman...) to come in.

It made her kind of envious that the Queen can communicate over distances like that without trying. Though luckily she could probably do that as well as long as she was touching another Zerg, but what if she ever gets caught alone? Without being able to cast spells or her familiar around...

Henrietta's head poked out from behind the divider where her maid was helping her change. She looked at Louise and said passionately, "Do not worry my friend. Even if you cannot hear us, if you are ever in trouble I will always be able to hear you. And //nothing// in this world will live to regret hurting you."

Louise spent a few more days at the castle with her mother and Henrietta. They were often in discussion with many other nobles, meetings of which Louise was allowed to sit in either as a ward of the state or as her mother's daughter.

Most of the discussions revolved around Albion and how to deal with them. A large portion of nobles were pushing for a slow and methodical move into Albion, even after learning that the enemy's fleet was crippled and they were facing internal revolts.

A smaller group was pushing for an invasion with whatever numbers that they could round up in a month to take advantage of the confusion. Henrietta was heading that group, but she did not want to take decisive action against a majority of her nobles. The noble's main argument against it is that the rebels may turn on Tristain if an outside force tried to invade - of which Henrietta was sure that they would not, but as she was unwilling to reveal her sources, they could not be sure.

The last group was headed by a smaller group of nobles - mainly a few of the larger duchies in the North or South-East other than the Valliere and their closest neighbors. They were attempting to tell the crown that this would be a good chance to negotiate with the new government as they should be able to force good terms with the internal chaos the Reconquista is facing.

While the last group was a minority, they also represented nearly a quarter of the wealth in the country - wealth including gold or weapons or men. Henrietta had secretly confide in Louise that if she could convince this group to join her, then she would likely prepare for the invasion regardless of the rest of the nobles say. The amount of power they wield, in conjunction with the crown, would be able to sway the rest of the nobles regardless of what happened after.

Her mother was keeping her own counsel at the moment, saying that she deferred to her husband's choice but he was busy at their main estates, but Louise had seen letters being sent back to her father - mostly to start preparing for war.

Duchess Karin knows better than most of the other nobles what the Zerg could do. With the Queen controlling them to reinforce the army, Tristain could probably take Albion within weeks, if not shorter. Unfortunately, she was also not allowed to tell anyone of this as the Zerg were still a State Secret.

Louise secretly considered politics to be a huge circle. Everyone was trying to find their own gains in actions, when they should just be loyal to their Queen.
This discussion lasted for two days until something happened on the third.

"Your Majesty. We have received a messenger from a group calling themselves the 'Children of Albion'." A courier delivered the message to the Queen as the nobles argued amongst themselves. Louise's interests was piped as the Queen gave a small grin and nodded for the courier to bring them.

"Gentlemen?" Henrietta said as she rose from her seat. She nodded to Karin and added, "And Lady. I just received word that we have just been approached by guests calling themselves the 'Children of Albion'. I believe that is the group that had rebelled against the Reconquista, and have asked that she be escorted for an audience."

The nobles looked at each other in confusion for a moment before sitting back down in their seats. They seemed confused over the sudden event, but quickly composed themselves as they watched their Queen take a seat and turn to wait for the messenger to enter the room.

For a moment, everyone was silent. Louise glanced nervously around the room at the occupants, but composed herself when she saw Henrietta's reassuring nod. She took a breath, and released it - a sudden tingle of what she has now named 'Zerg sense' caused her to blink quickly before the chamber doors were opened to allow a petite figure in.

At least, her height was not too tall; but to Louise's displeasure, she noticed that the figure was rather well endowed for looking about Louise's own height.

The figure was hooded, but when she lifted the hood from her head, Louise realized exactly why it was so. She was an elf...?!

"Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tiffania Tudor of Albion. Last blood relative to King James of Albion, and I humbly ask for your help to reclaim my homeland." She proclaimed, stunning all the nobles in the room.

Adyen · Jan 11, 2015

The next several hours happened like a blur to Louise.

The appearance of Tiffania and her claim of being blood-related to the Tudors caused as much chaos as her being a half-elf.

She provided several proof of her claim - notably the Founder's Music Box that had been hidden by the Tudors when King James' brother died years ago. Some of the nobles tried to defer confirming it without the artifact being examined, but nobody dared to say it was a fake - even when some of the nobles claimed that no music was coming out of it.

Louise had no idea what they were talking about, as she could hear the haunting melody quite clearly. She wasn't about to blurt it out to the nobility though - and it seemed like Henrietta also caught on as she quickly mentioned that she also had the Wind Ruby that may be able to confirm Tiffania's identity.

All in all, it was quite confusing for poor Louise - especially as Henrietta told her to meet in her room later that night.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 10

Louise physically slapped herself on the face to refocus herself. She was walking through the hallways of the palace to see Henrietta as requested, but she can't help but to imagine why she had been called. Maybe it was something to do with the Zerg? Or perhaps it was about the half-elf that had arrived?

The guards that stood in front of the Queen's door glanced at her before opening the door for her. Curious - but she figured that the Queen had already told them she was going to be arriving.

To her surprise, Henrietta was sitting on one of the chairs and glancing at the door... but knelled down before her was a young woman that she met earlier, the half-elf Tiffania.

"Tiffania, this is Louise Francoise." The Queen said, causing the half-elf's head to snap towards where the pink-head was standing.

What came next is something that Louise would never forget.

"Mistress!" Tiffania practically squealed in utter devotion. "Have I served your cause well? I have done everything the Queen ordered me to do, and I await your orders!"

Louise froze at what could only be called 'an adoring crazy person'. "Wha... huh... who?" She stuttered as she looked between Henrietta and Tiffania in confusion. 'Mistress? Serving her? What?'

Henrietta calmly gestured for Louise to sit down, and the young girl uncomfortable did so while keeping an eye at the worshipful gaze coming from the half-elf.

Once Louise was seated down, Henrietta explained: "Tiffiana here was someone that the Zerg found when I was using them to scout Albion. She attempted to use a spell on them to make them forget that they were there... but the spell ended up connecting her to the minds of all the Zerg here on Halkeginia - including me."

The two of them glanced at Tiffania and her worshipful gaze at Louise; something that didn't change even though the Queen was talking about her.

"Even though she's half-elf, it seems like her mind was no different from a normal person. I couldn't let her erase part of the Zerg's memories, and by opening herself up I learned that she was the remaining blood relative of King James, so I changed the way her mind thought - from her normal self to one of a Zerg instead." Henrietta continued. "It was much easier to do since she had unwittingly placed her mind into the Zerg's hive-mind, since it would have taken much longer if she hadn't done that."

Louise listened in horror as Henrietta continued to nonchalantly speak of changing a person's way of thinking casually and in even deeper terror as Tiffania listened in yet still show no expressions other than one of utter devotion. She was having trouble believing all of this, but the person telling her was her best friend and Queen... thus it must be true?

"Afterwards, I had her start the rebellion on Albion with help from the Zerg." Henrietta concluded. "I also had some agents there to help her, but most of what I needed her to do was easily completed due to how chaotic it was on the island. Once I became Queen, I told her to come and timed it so that we would be in the middle of the conference with the other nobles in order to gain support for the invasion of Albion."

Louise just stared at Henrietta. She wasn't sure if it was from shock of how outrageous her childhood friend turned queen became, or confusion on what all that had to do with Tiffania. The two thoughts fought with each other for a bit, so she asked the first thing that came to mind:

"Why is she so... like that?! With the whole 'Mistress' and that look!" Louise blurted out, the question that had been bugging her the longest exploding out from her.

Henrietta gave Louise an amused look, though Tiffania changed her expression to a confused one for a second before returning to one of devoted bliss.

"This is how the Zerg think." Henrietta explained. "The Zerg exist to serve you. Your thoughts are the thoughts of the Zerg. Your orders are the will of the Zerg. There is no higher purpose than to serve your will. You are the mother, the father, the lover, the Goddess of the Zerg; you are everything to the Zerg."

If Louise had been paying more attention to Henrietta's speech and less on staring at Tiffania as she mouthed every single word that the Queen spoken, perhaps she would have noticed the reverence that Henrietta was putting into speaking the words. But the art of self-deception has been something that Louise had long practiced, and she fell back to those practice in her shock.

"No..." Louise could only whisper in horror as Tiffania leaned closer with a wild look in her eyes. "Then, you're..."

"Yes..." Tiffania hissed as she was addressed by the center of her existence. "Let me serve."

The meeting ended suddenly with Louise quickly moving back to her room and courageously escaping the idea that someone was now completely devoted to her in every way possible. In some way, she understood that the Zerg had that kind of mentality, but she never thought of them as 'people' or 'beings'. They were part of her familiar, so they don't really count right?

But in that short meeting, observing how Tiffania was hanging onto her every move and word... It was something that scared her to the very depth of her soul.

She wanted to be acknowledged. She wanted to be more than 'The Zero'. She wanted the type of fame and fortune that her mother has. She'll even admit to wanting friends who like her for being who she is.

But she never wanted the kind of blind devotion she saw on Tiffania's face. She didn't want to be larger than who she really was. She didn't want someone to be completely dependent on her to make their every thought and action. She didn't want to be known and respected or revered just because she had summoned the drone.

"Tomorrow." She promised herself. After the planned meeting from the nobles about Albion, she'll talk to Tiffania properly.

The next morning Louise and other nobles regrouped in the meeting room with Tiffania looking as regal and composed as she did when Louise first met her.

The half-elf accepted the Ruby of Wind that Henrietta had taken from the corpse of Prince Wales, and started discussing the situation on the Isle of Albion.

She pointed out the grounds that the rebellion has gained, and the problems that faces them. She mentioned how the Children of Albion had sympathizers within the citizens of Albion, and there were even some within the Reconquista itself. Her passionate declaration that it is her wish to request aid from the sister state of Tristain to bring them closer together - much like the two rings they owned - brought out the burning fires of war within the hesitant men within the chambers. But what finally convinced the nobles was the amount of damage Tiffania reported her group has caused the Reconquista - crippling them, but unable to hold any ground due to the lack of educated people to hold the castles or forts. Educated people, who could become a new generation of nobles second only to the crown.

The meeting soon ended with Tristain declaring war with Albion. Louise regretted that she did not get a chance to talk with Tiffania until much later.

The chance came when Henrietta sent the two of them back to the Academy under the premises of showing the officially recognized Princess Tiffania of Albion (to be Queened once they reclaim the land) the lands of Tristain. And the other place even more iconic than the Capitol can only the Tristanian Academy of Magic - a place so famous that nobles all over the known world would be willing to send their children to learn (if they were not enemies of the state).

Of course, the moment Tiffania and Louise were alone in the carriage, the half-elf focused on eyes on Louise and completely ignored all the scenery they were passing by.

Louise endured the adoration for a few minutes while the carriage started to leave the capitol before finally asking the question that had been stewing within her for weeks. "Who are you?"

Tiffania blinked and quickly answered, "My name is..."

"I don't mean that." Louise cut her off and watched as the girl sitting across from her attentively listen to her every word. "I mean, I get why you're like this, and I don't think it's entirely your fault that you're like this." She vaguely used 'this' to describe how the half-elf's personality was. "Though you probably won't be like this if you hadn't used your spell, but what I mean is... who were you before all the stuff about the Zerg."

Louise thought back to the way Henrietta explained what had happened to Tiffania and realized that she knew nothing about the girl before the Zerg found her. Maybe the half-elf was the kindest girl in the world. Maybe she was the most evil being on the planet. But the cusp of the matter was, Louise did not know anything about the person called Tiffania.

If Louise understood Henrietta's explanation right, then Tiffania should answer honestly regardless of what kind of person she was. The being in front of Louise could not and would not lie to Louise because a Zerg could not choose to lie to her - if that was how Zerg really thought. And thus she decided to gamble on this question - the easiest question to ask, but the hardest to answer.

"Who were you Tiffania Tudor de Albion? Tell me everything that you remember, and leave nothing out." Louise commanded.

For the next hours, the ride back to the Academy was filled with Tiffania's words as she told her life's story to Louise.

As Tiffania's story reached closer and closer to the present day, Louise's face got paler and paler. She had picked up a pillow from the carriage early in the trip as a comfort item, but by the time they arrived at the Academy she had held it in her grip so tight that she made a rip in the fabric.

But Louise understood now that something was wrong. This girl - Tiffania Tudor... no, Tiffania Westwood, was someone who had tried her best to live in peace and harmony with role that the world had created for her. She was not ambitious - she was not, as her act had portrayed her, someone who was looking to avenge her family or looking for the throne of Albion.

She thought that she would cry from this understanding - something that was so WRONG with how things had turned out, but she found that she couldn't. Not with this feeling of guilt that was starting to settle within her. SHE had brought the Zerg to this world. SHE was indirectly the reason why Tiffania Tudor was calmly and happily telling Louise the tragic story that befell Tiffania Westwood like she was fulfilling her life's mission to explain everything that had happened to her.

Louise couldn't think. Couldn't act in any way even when the driver announced that they arrived at the Academy other than to continue listening to Tiffania happily talk about a child that she couldn't save back when she was 13 due to hunger, and how guilty she had felt at that time. And now how she sent even younger children to their deaths because they believed it was the only way they will be free to live their lives.

No, Louise could do nothing else but listen; even as the voice of Miss Longueville approached and the door slowly opened to allow them to exit the carriage.

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

This was her fault.

That was the thought Louise just couldn't escape from. 'A familiar's action is reflected on the master' - a saying that would mean that the action of the Zerg is also her responsibility; especially if you consider that all acts they take is only due to her will.

But... this also meant that she could fix this. As long as they act in accordance to her will, that means that they will listen to her - though she'll have to ask Henrietta not to abuse the Zerg like she did with Tiffania anymore and find a way to return her to how she was.

As the door fully opened and the sunlight shined onto Louise's face, it was like she finally found something that SHE could do. It was refreshing - like she was reborn and finally living.
Louise opened her eyes to the light and cut off whatever Tiffania was going to say. "Tiffania Westwood. I don't know how long it will take, nor do I know how I will do it, but I will give you the life you deserve back. I will return you to normal, and I promise that what happened to you will never happen to another innocent person ever again."

Tiffania looked at Louise curiously as if unable to understand what the pink-head was talking about. But it was another voice that interrupted the scene - one that came from just outside the carriage.

"Tiffania?" The shocked voice of Miss Longueville muttered as she peaked her head in and looked at the half-elf dressed in clothing fit for a Queen.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 11

A change seemed to go through Tiffania as another person entered the small confines of the carriage. Her back straighened and she adopted the air that made people think of her as high-born. She turned slightly towards the doorway and dipped her head in greeting.

"Matilda. It has been a while." She greeted Miss Longueville, to the shock of both Louise and said person. "You had mentioned you became a secretary at an academy, but I did not know you meant THE Academy."

Miss Longueville - or rather, Matilda, could only blink and gasp at how Tiffania was speaking to her while Louise tried to figure out what was happening.

"Wait. Tiffania, you know her?" Louise asked, not quite sure whether Matilda was Miss Longueville's first name or something else.

Tiffania's response was immediate, even though the secretary's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen.

"Of course. Matilda here had been taking care of me for a long time." Tiffania answered. "Remember I had mentioned a member of the Saxe-Gotha family had taken care of me occasionally? That's Matilda. I owe her my life many times over."

Louise's eyes widened as she remembered the story she was told and the relevance to the person in question. Before she could say anything, Matilda cut in.

"I'm sure there's a story behind all of this, but could we do this somewhere other than here?" She asked, glancing around the carriage. Louise paused in what she was going to say and nodded - already she could tell that there was a sign of mistrust in the secretary's eyes as the Tiffinia in her memories probably did not act like the one that was currently in front of her.

Louise didn't realize that Matilda had led them to the secretary's own room until they stopped somewhere that she had never been to.

Realizing that she really had no choice, Louise entered the room behind Tiffinia and heard the door close behind her. She turned to see Matilda with a rather complicated look on her face and sighed.

Matilda gestured for them to take a seat as she brought a pair of cups and some tea to the only table in the room. "Tiffania, how have you been? And what brings you here?"

The half-elf calmly accepted the drink and said, "Things have been exciting, thank you. I was invited to visit the Academy by Queen Henrietta as the final preparations for the reclaiming of Albion finishes."

Louise noticed that Matilda's grip on her cup tightened and the woman's eyes turned to glare at Louise as if to look for an answer to her questions.

The pink-hair sighed and said, "If you are someone that known her for that long, I'm sure you can tell that she's... different. You deserve to know the truth, so let me explain what happened..."

After the explanation and telling Tiffania that she no longer needed to act in front of them, Matilda sat quietly in her seat nursing her now-cold drink.

Now that she had a few minutes to think about the situation, Louise can't help but shiver when comparing how Tiffania was acting to how her elder sister Elenore was acting.

Sure she wasn't acting like she was completely dependent on Louise, but Elenore was not acting like how Louise knew her. Did everyone that comes into contact with the Zerg become changed? If so, what about the person who first summoned them to this world? Or... Henrietta?

Louise was startled out of her thoughts when Matilda asked her a question.

"What if you told her to go back to normal?" The woman asked, a hint of hopelessness creeping into her voice. "Tell her to go back to being the person she was before meeting the... Zerg?"

Louise sighed. "I thought of that already... Tiffania, can you please tell me what you will do if I told you to that?"

Tiffania happily chirped, "Of course. I will pretend to the best of my ability to be that person!"

Louise sighed bitterly. "That's what I thought. The biggest problem is not that I'm controlling her, but rather her way of thinking had been replaced with that of a Zerg's. I can tell her to BE anyone or DO anything, but it won't be Tiffania Westwood. Just another Zerg that is acting on my command."

Matilda and Louise were silent in frustration for a moment while Tiffania watched and waited for Louise's next orders. The older women slowly placed her hands over her face, and even Louise can tell that she was trying to hide her tears.

"So this is it? Everything I've done so far is now pointless?" Matilda softly said, trying to keep her voice from hitching. Unable to keep her tone from turning bitter, she spat out, "The only person important to me reduced to this... puppet?"

Louise winced at barb but couldn't argue against it. "Look, I'm sure there's some way of returning her to normal. She knows how the old Tiffania Westwood thought, so probably if she preformed her spell at another Zerg and Henrietta..."

"NO!" Matilda yelled, slamming her hands onto the table and revealing her red eyes. "I will NOT have her go through that again with that... WITCH and maybe come out with something even WORSE."

The pink-head bit her tongue at the insult to her Queen, and reminded herself that the situation at hand could cause someone to think that way. "Look, there's really no way that the Queen won't find out..."

"No." Matilda repeated. "She won't. You're not telling her, and you can tell this... person, to not tell her either if what you've told me is true. I'm not going to be telling her either, so we can keep this a secret for now. I don't know her, and if she can do this to Tiffania, I can't trust her not to do SOMETHING if she finds out about this."

Louise blinked in confusion at Matilda's continued refusal to trust Henrietta, but decided to just shrug it off and continue. "Then what should we do? I don't know any spells that could change the way a person thinks, and I doubt she does either..." Louise glanced over to Tiffania to see the half-elf nod in agreement. "So we're stuck. Unless you have some suggestions?"

Matilda took a breath in and asked, "What if we healed her like we healed your Queen?"

Louise gave her a flat look and said, "That connects them to the Zerg's hive-mind - do you think it's a GOOD idea to let that happen to her? It heals the mind with a sort of reverse of what was done to Tiffania, but with her way of thought like it is... I don't think we want to risk more exposure to it."

Another awkward silent filled the room. Louise felt like she should say something, but it was Matilda who spoke first.

"I might be able to find something to help her... but, Louise?" The woman's face was facing downwards as if shamed to ask the question. "Could you tell her to act like herself before she was changed?"

Louise was at first startled to hear that request, but her eyes softened and nodded. "Tiffania, when it's either just me or Matilda, please be the Tiffania before you met the Zerg."

"Gladly!" Tiffania chirped before closing her eyes. A few seconds passed as both Louise and Matilda watched the half-elf tensely. They weren't quite sure what will happen but when tears started building on the girl's eyes, both were rather surprised by Tiffania crying and throwing herself at Matilda.

For the next several hours, Tiffania cried and cried in the protective embrace of her elder-sister figure. She told of all the things she did while on Albion - ordering people to their death or to kill others; working with the Zerg to make sure certain groups of people 'disappear'; even killing people herself to set examples or to incite the rebellion.

Louise had to keep her fist tightly curled up to keep from expressing her feelings. This is wrong - that was what she felt about the situation. Someone like Tiffania should not have been USED to do things like this.

When Matilda asked about Tiffania's orphanage, the half-elf's eyes went wide; but she quickly sighed as she recounted that the 'other her' had made sure it was safe as it was too important a symbol to lose. She then made a face as if she had a bad taste in her mouth - a feeling that Louise could understand.

A few questions from Louise and Matilda found that even though Tiffania acted like her old self, the feelings that had been placed into her hasn't changed. She still views Louise as the most important person in her life, but she could pretend that Louise did not dictate all her actions and interests.

Louise left the two soon after to let them talk. Even if it was not the 'real' Tiffania, Louise was not so crude as to now allow them privacy - especially Matilda.

The next morning found Louise summoned to the guest suite that was given to Tiffania. Matilda was there, and they talked about several things.

For one, they eventually agreed to keep it so that she's only 'this way' when the three of them were alone. While it would be great if the loss of life ended on Albion, Tiffania had came to realize that if they extended the strife happening on Albion by taking her out of the picture, it would help no-one as well as cause more people to die.

Secondly, Matilda warned Louise that the Reconquista was backed by Gallia and they were looking for items from the Founder's period of time. Since Louise pretty much owned Tiffania's heart and soul at the moment (and was trying to save it), she revealed that she was sent to the Academy to spy as well as steal artifacts from the vault for Gallia.

Louise was a bit shocked by the revelation, but took it in stride as there had been much too many shocks recently.

Next, Matilda told them that she'll be asking her employer for any artifacts that would allow a person to enter another's mind.

While that surprised Louise, it was what came afterwards that completely caught her off-guard.

"Thank you Louise." Tiffania shyly said. "If it wasn't for you, I don't think if I would have ever see Matilda again or understood her more."

Louise couldn't help but be stunned at what Tiffania was saying. "But it's my fault that you're like this to begin with!"

Tiffania shook her head. "I know that the 'me' right now is just the 'other me' pretending to be like this, but I still know everything the 'other me' did. I'm sure when you succeed, the 'original' me would be able to remember all that you've done for her too. Matilda may not show it, but she's glad to know that I'm here too, even if I'm only an illusion."

Matilda blushed and protested against it but Tiffania merely giggled. Louise watched the scene with a blush as well, but she couldn't help but to continue feeling guilty even hours later when she traveled back to where her sisters awaited her.

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

As she walked to where her sisters awaited her, Louise thought back to what she has found out in the past weeks.

Thinking back to how Eleanor was acting, Louise couldn't help but think that something has happened to her as well, but... what if she really was just extremely happy like she said she was?

There shouldn't be any reason to panic. Besides, she can just test it after Cattleya is healed. Just have her come back to the academy with her, and talk. That's all she needs to do. Nothing fancy, just talk.

Because it's not like Henrietta would change Eleanor against her will, right? Her Queen wouldn't do that to the sister of her friend... right?

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 12

The Hive Cluster was bustling with action as normal, but near the cocoon that Cattleya rested, only Eleanor and infestor connected to it could be seen. However, Louise could feel the 33 hydralisk burrowed underground in a defensive formation and subconsciously approved the defenses around the position.

Louise could feel Eleanor and Cattleya's greeting through the creep under her feel and within the Zerg hivemind.

She projected her annoyance rather strongly but missed Eleanor flinching. "Cattleya has a reason to do that, but don't you start with that too!" She muttered, her mind still caught up in the guilt over Tiffania.

"Sorry Louise. But talking is just so... inefficient, especially after talking with Cattleya for so long." Eleanor hurried to explain. "Being able to share your thoughts with someone else is just so much better when compared to talking without being able to let them know exactly what you want them to understand..."

Louise frowned and said, "But that's how people talk. What if you meet someone who can't communicate that way?"

Eleanor nodded thoughtfully and stayed quiet. Louise could sort of tell that she was thinking about what she just heard, but focused on her other sister instead.

"How have you been big sis?" Louise said and thought to the one family member she cared the most about. It wasn't that she didn't love her mother or father or even Eleanor, but Cattleya was definitely the person she liked most in her family.

/Mistress. You have returned.//Oh, little Louise. Have you come to talk with me as well?/ Cattleya thought back with a cheerful tone. However, this time Louise could tell what the first 'tone' was saying, and she paled as she compared that thought to those that Tiffania had been saying.

"/NO! I am not THAT!/" Louise shouted as she threw both her hands over her head and pressed down on her own head reflectively. The thought that her own sister would treat her the way Tiffania was.... it was horrifying.

/...//Louise? Is something wrong?" Cattleya asked in a concerned 'voice'. And for the first time, Louise realized that there is something she can do about hearing those split voices.

The three of them talked a bit about what's been happening in the world. Louise choose to leave out what had happened to Tiffania, but did mention that there was a civil war happening on the floating island and Henrietta had decided to invade.

Both of her sisters listened and made their own comments on the situation, but Louise didn't really listen to that. She was listening to Cattleya's voice - the duality that had always bugged Louise had sort of disappeared: even though Cattleya's voice was a bit weird coming through the Zerg-hivemind, there wasn't always that nagging sense that she was only hearing half of the conversation anymore.

It was... strangely relieving. It wasn't until this had happened that she realized listening from only the mind and hearing two 'versions' of the same voice speaking was like trying to listen to only one conversation in a busy room.

But that also opens up some questions. Did she always hear two voices when she heard people communicate through the mind? Louise couldn't tell whether this was true or not, and that worried her.

What did it mean to hear multiple voices speaking the same words in her mind? If anyone else heard her, they might have thought her crazy! But still, it was something to consider once she understood the Zerg more, and this could be a perfect chance...

"Elder sister?" Louise asked Eleanor politely. It never hurts to talk to her politely. "I have some questions about the Zerg I would like to ask you, but I need to return to the Academy. Will you accompany me back and stay for the night?"

"Of course."

The ride back to the Academy was fairly quiet and uneventful. Louise was sad to be away from Cattleya, but knew that the Zerg force there is practically unbeatable short of an actual army. If anything happened, Cattleya had permission to tell how the brood there to act to protect her - though Louise highly doubt it would come to that.

On the other hand, Cattleya got along with the Zerg scarily well. As in, she though they were quite cute and interesting and wasn't scared of them at all.

Back in the Academy, Tiffania was being escorted by Matilda around to tour the facilities and meet the people with the different classrooms. While most of the students were scared of Tiffania due to her status as an half-elf, they at least retained a level of decorum after learning that she was someone of noble blood (though the students were not able to guess that they were looking at the future queen of Albion).

Louise kept herself and her sister away from the two as she was not sure whether the two wanted her there that night. A quick check with a servant revealed that there was nothing else of interest happening within the Academy, and the guards that were sent to escort her and Tiffania to the Academy had left and will return in a week's time.

The headmaster had left with them - apparently he had been required at the capital, so they had left together. This left the Academy nominally in the command of Matilda and required her to take over some duties to make sure the day-to-day running of the Academy remained as smooth as possible.

Louise decided to stay with her sister in the guest room as it was larger and had tables so the two could sit and talk. They made some small talk about the Zerg for a while, but eventually Louise managed to muster up her courage and take the first small step to understanding the problem that Tiffania had brought to her attention.

"Big sister Eleanor?" Louise asked. "Could you answer another question for me?"

Eleanor looked at Louise and smiled. "I've been answering them all day, so go ahead and ask."

"What..." What exactly should Louise ask? She thought back to how Tiffania described her and took a term from there. "What am I to you?"

Eleanor smiled beatifically to her and opened her mouth...

Louise blinked. She shook her head as she felt some pain near the side of her head and lifted herself from the ground.

She glanced around and noticed that most of the lights were extinguished and the wall that used to have exits were all sealed up in stone. A small candle remained on the light near the wall, but most of the rest were gone.

What happened? Why was she on the ground? And a quick touch on the side of her head found some kind of cloth wrapped around it.

Looking around, she saw no signs of Eleanor - but she saw some debris on the ground and what seemed to be the remains of the door to the room.

Louise slowly sat up and wondered, just what the heck was going on in this world?

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

Louise wasn't sure how long she had spent trying to blow up the wall in front of her.

Her spells generally came out as an explosion, though she never really tried to use the explosion as an explosion before. But between her headache and blurred vision, she could barely focus enough willpower to light a candle, much less blow up a wall.

Sighing, the girl slumped down on a chair that she had placed to face the wall in front of her. She tried to remember what happened, but all she could remember was a sharp pain on the back of her head and then... waking up.

With nothing else to do, her mind started wandering the labyrinth of her mind. So much had changed within the year, yet here she was - still powerless to do or change anything. With her new familiar, Louise had thought that things were starting to change, but now she finds that they had created new problems as well.

As Louise sat on the chair trying to figure out her life, she can't help but feel that the world was unfair. Why couldn't she had been born normal person and be able to cast her spells like everyone else? Why couldn't she had gotten a normal familiar like everyone else?

And why was the room getting so dark all of a sudden?

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 13

"Louise! LOUISE!"

The girl in question slowly opened her eyes. When had she closed them? Who was calling her?

"Wake up! Louise!"

She could feel herself laying down on a bed. But when she tried to look around, all she could see was blurs of color and shape. She tried to speak, but her focus was shot to hell and everything seemed so heavy...

"Someone get a water mage here now!" The voice yelled in a panic. Louise couldn't tell who it was, but she could feel the concern coming from the person. Her mouth opened but she still couldn't get her voice out...

"Come on Louise. Focus!"

'Even if you tell me to...' Louise hazily thought before everything became dark.

The next time Louise woke up, she was able to sit up and focus with no problem. Beside her, she could see Queen Henrietta putting down her wand in what must have been her using a healing spell.

Louise blinked curiously at her Queen as she quickly dashed forwards and hugged her. "Oh Louise. I was so scared that something happened to you..."

In fact, now that she was touching Henrietta, Louise could feel Henrietta's fear like it was her own. Much like when she was feeling the Zerg, the thoughts and feelings Henrietta was being sent to her mind directly. The whirling feelings of fear and love and dependency could easily be felt, and Louise suddenly understood why her elder sister had wanted to keep conversing through the mind.

"Don't scare me like that anymore." Henrietta sobbed, tears running down her face. "I couldn't feel you anymore and I thought something terrible happened."

Louise could only pat the Queen's back and send reassuring thoughts back towards her. Glancing around, she noticed that she was in a private suite, and looking outside the window shows that she could not see any trees - which means this was one of the guest chambers reserved for important guests as they are often located near the top of the towers.

"What happened?" Lousie asked Henrietta, trying to find out how everything came to be.

Before Louise can react, Henrietta sent her a flash of thoughts and ideas through Louise's head. It was like personally experiencing everything in a flash yet only able to see what was happening slowly.

Apparently, a mercenary group had decided to attack the academy with a group of alvis that had similar appearances to those that had attacked the initial Hive location. They had managed to sneak into the academy somehow, and immediately went about rounding everyone in the academy and disabling or killing any resistance.

According to Eleanor, they had detached the door's frame and shot it forwards into the table, hitting Louise on the back of her head. Eleanor had responded immediately and managed to defeat the attackers, but due to not being a water mage, could only preform basic healing for Louise. The elder sister then secured the room, and went out to look for anyone else who had escaped the capture attempts.

She found a group of other teachers and some other people who had managed to raise avoid capture, and together they were able to rescue all the captured students that was being used as hostages in the main dining room. It wasn't until then that they realized that the true target of the attack wasn't the Academy, but rather Tiffania.

Unfortunately for the kidnappers, by that time Henrietta had taken a personal interest in the situation and directed the Zerg force to ambush them.

With the main Hive Cluster close to the Academy, Henrietta was able to send flying units as well as ground units in the path of the retreating alvis, cutting them and whatever remained of the mercenaries that were guarding the mage controlling them. They were caught within the hour of the retreat, and soon afterwards they were surrounded.

Afterwards, it was just a systematic slaughter of everyone who had taken part in the attempt. The men were killed by the Zerg, while the mage who had controlled the alvis was isolated and slowly removed of her protection.

The fight, while not as fierce as the one against the Elf, was one of the most amazing fights that Louise had ever experienced (even if she was only experiencing it second-handed). The woman controlled the alvis like they were part of her body - using them to attack or defend at a whim, and using them to fight off hoards of Zerg creatures.

But while the Alvis was limited, the Zerg continuously had reinforcements. The mage's force was quickly picked appart and was left defenseless to a spine shot that caught her on the shoulder. A Roach acid shot soon followed and as she laid dying, she cursed someone called 'Windalfr', though Louise had a feeling that the curse was actually aimed at her.

Louise shook her head and feel back onto the bed. She wasn't sure how long it took her to understand everything shown to her, but she once again understood why Eleanor had called speech 'inefficient'.

Biting her lips and finding that it was still moist, Louise decided to ask another important question to Henrietta: "What happened to Tiffania? Or Ms Longueville? And please just tell me with words!" Louise quickly added the last part in case Henrietta had planned to do that mind to mind thing again. To her relief, the Queen merely smiled at her antics.

"They are both fine, though they still have some minor injuries. The water mages here had mostly ran themselves dry of willpower healing those who were more heavily injured, so they will be healed after everyone rests up."

Louise looked curiously at Henrietta, and the Queen added, "It has only been a fore-night since the attack, and many people were injured during the rescue of the hostages. Healers had been working around the clock to heal people, and the two of them declined further healing until others - which includes yourself - were healed. As I've said, they'll be fine once the other healers regain more willpower."

Henrietta paused for a moment as Louise had a weird feeling. It felt like something was... different. Not quite wrong, but it was as if she had expected something, but got something equal but not the same.

Henrietta ended up finishing her report by noting that she arrived in the middle of the night, and had been healing Louise ever since. That said, she also added that she will have to return to the palace with Tiffania and try to discover who had send this group to kidnap Tiffania.

"With the mercenaries dead and the mage killed, we are going to need some time to discover how they entered the country and who ordered them." Henrietta concluded before she left Louise to rest and recover.

It was past sunset and Louise was dozing off from the things that had happened throughout the day.

Her sister had visit earlier, but only to report that she was returning to the Hive Cluster as what had happened to Louise scared Cattleya into attempting to break out of the cocoon early. Eleanor was going to return to check on Cattleya to make sure everything was still alright.

Some of the students had also made a token appearance to check on her health, but as those were the same ones who had made fun of her as 'Zero', Louise could tell it was because she was now entitled.

As Louise was about to finally sleep, someone knocked on the door to her room. Sighing, she asked them to entire and it revealed Matilda.

The woman had an unusually serious look on her face as she said, "Louise, I know who it was that had attempted to kidnap Tiffania."

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

The surprise that Gallia was behind the attack lasted only as long as it took Louise to gather her thought and ask if Matilda had any proof.

While the woman was unable to provide any physical proof, a lot of the information that she gave Louise made sense, and the reminder of what the Gallian Princess and Duchess had been put through made it easy for Louise to believe her.

Still, it took them the reminder of the day before Louise was convinced, and by then it was too late to do anything else.

When morning came, they were greeted by Duchess Violette and her daughters. Their arrival surprised Louise for multiple reasons. For one, they had arrived with Princess Charlotte's twin, who introduced herself as Tabitha. Louise had thought that 'Tabitha' was the name Charlotte had chosen while having her classes as Tristain, but apparently was the name of her twin sister? Secondly, while Louise knew intellectually that they were supposed to be twins, the fact that there's the two were practically identical still surprised her, especially since they were separated at birth.

Finally, shouldn't they have reported to the Queen instead? But either way, Louise was glad to have them as she figured she needed as much information on Gallia she possible, and it never hurt to have more friends.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 14

Their travel to the Hive Cluster took much a much shorter amount of time than she remembered it to be.

Speed was of the essence, so they had taken some horses (the Duchess and Princesses had flown in from an overlord and Charlotte's familiar) and ridden straight up till they met the creep spread. Waiting for them were a pair of lesser queens that would take them to where Cattleya was waiting for them. She could also tell that the overlord was keeping pace with them as to not overtake them, and...

Why can she feel another mind by the Duchess?

Louise's eyes jerked upwards to the overlord, and she noticed that there was only one rider on the dragon familiar. That means one of the sisters were connected to the Zerg? Most likely Tabitha?

At the thought of the name, something within the second mind twitched in a mixture of fear/anticipation. Something seemed to start blooming as she paid more attention to it and she shifted more of her attention to it, letting her body guide her mounting of the lesser queen. She could hear a mental sigh, as if the mind was accepting her unconditionally...
Louise physically recoiled and broke the connection: something within her understanding that she SHOULD NOT continue her probing. The lesser queen automatically shifted to adapt to her recoiling, and Louise paid it no attention as she tried to understand what just happened. She had seen... and understood something, but it was like trying to pull a coin out from the depths of a muddy river.

Whatever it was, she needed to have a talk with the Duchess once she lands.

Louise could only stare at WHAT the Duchess was.

She barely paid any attention to Eleanor as she explained how Cattleya was still preparing to exit the cocoon as it was something that she already knew due to the fact that she had spoken to her other sister during the short ride on the lesser queen.

What she WAS focused on, was the tail that was attached to Tabitha's back and originating from the Duchess' lower back.

"What." Louise tried to express her surprise, but the flat 'what' was all she could manage at the moment. On the edge of her mind, she could tell that the Duchess was about to explain exactly what was happening, but she quickly crushed the response in a 'I don't care and I don't want to know' thought.

"Just... stop whatever you're doing. Right now." Louise ordered and watched with some measure of satisfaction as the Neural Parasite release the twin of Charlotte; the freed young girl keeled down to the ground and tears started falling from her eyes.

Her name was Josette.

She had learned that she was the twin of the princess Charlotte about a week ago when the pair had arrived at abbey she had grown up at.

At first, she didn't really believe them - she looked nothing like the princess, and certainly never even suspected such a thing. But she was apparently disguised by a magic that was used by the monastery on all its residents, and when she was released from the disguise, she couldn't help but feel glee that she would finally be released to the outside world.

She had heard many tales and stories about the world from someone who frequently visited her, and she was excited by the fact that she also found out she still had living family who were willing to look for her. Sure, they could have came earlier, but she was leaving the monastery!

That excitement had turned to terror when once out of sight from the monastery, her apparent mother did something that caused her to lose control of her body.

It wasn't too bad on the first day. Her abductors showed her visions of wonder and took her flying in a weird creature she soon found that she knew as an overlord. Whatever her mother had done had connected her to a vast store of knowledge that she was only able to slowly understand.

But then her mother had started calling her Tabitha. And something inside her started responding to that name. She felt that her mind was being torn apart and things were being placed into that tear, corrupting the edges her mental tear to change her from Josette to Tabitha with Josette's memories.

She had tried to fight it, but as the days dragged on she just kept becoming more disconnected from Josette and gaining more of Tabitha. She knew Josette used to like the sweet chestnuts that was brought to her once in a while. She knew that Josette loved talking with the man that came and visit her. Josette's goal was to explore the world and find out all about it with her own eyes.

But Tabitha wasn't focused on those things. She didn't mind those things, but Tabitha was a good girl who likes to study and be praised by her mother. Someone who enjoys reading and being told what to do. Instead of exploring the world around her, SHE didn't want to go anywhere unless told. Tabitha didn't need to go find out about the world herself because books and the Zerg will tell her everything she needed to know.

Josette hated herself for loving those things until she started loving being Tabitha more than being Josette. She wasn't losing any fights because she was gaining things - but they were overshadowing everything Josette had ever wanted. Still, Josette held onto her name and what little she had left of being Josette to herself; but by the time the fourth day came along, she had no doubt that she'll eventually become Tabitha. As she tried to rally her thoughts and feeling, she thought to herself: her goals and dreams may have been changed, but she refused to just GIVE away her identity like it was not worth anything at all!

It was naive of her and she knew it. There was no way back to being just Josette as she had been given and changed too much. As the days stretched into a week, she teetered on the edge of being Tabitha completely. She now identified herself as mainly Tabitha, but still retained enough of her identity to want to answer to 'Josette' - her hold on 'herself'' was so thin that she came close to losing it completely a few times in the last few days, but she managed to hold onto it.

Until finally, she could feel a huge 'mind' approaching her's like a sun descending on a dark world. She knew that if it focused its thoughts on her, whatever left of 'Josette' would be burnt off to make way for the 'Tabitha' underneath. As her mind finally understood that she was feeling her Reason of Being, she was resigned to completely becoming Tabitha...

But then something happened. The mind suddenly left and soon she was freed from her mother's control - and the further pressure of removing Josette. She will never return to being only Josette again, but knowing that the person who had saved her from becoming Tabitha completely was her Mistress made being mainly Tabitha while still remembering 'Josette' alright to her.

As Louise numbly watched, the cocoon that held her elder sister slowly split apart. Cattleya stretched herself out and walked down to the creep, shivering from the slightly cool air.

Ever since Josette fell asleep in her arms and moved to a more comfortable location, Louise had been trying to pay more attention to the Zerg. It wasn't like she had ignored them, but it wasn't until Tiffania and now Josette that she understood that there was more to the Zerg than just some creature that had became her familiar.

They were a different race that had different ways of thinking. They can be capable of miraculous feats of healing, but also demonic acts of cruelty. It's obvious that those who connect for a long time with the Zerg become... adapted to the Zerg; and Louise also knows that she is considered the center of their existence: So why are they so hard to understand?

It was like there's some barrier preventing her from understanding them - one that she gets a glimpse of every now and then, but then fades back to invisibility afterwards. Occasionally something gets past to her or she manages to blindly reach through it, but that doesn't help her figure out what she needs to know!

In the end, Louise figured that she simply wasn't putting enough effort into the attempt. Just like how she had only managed to summon the drone after putting all her effort into the spell, her best was still not good enough. And now there are people like Josette and Tiffania - people who had been broken because she could not put in the amount of effort she needed to understand what was happening.

Louise carefully observed her two sisters as they argued. When Louise had mentioned that she will be traveling with Matilda and the Gallian royalties towards Gallia, they had both choose to go with her. However, it seemed that they disagreed on the details of the method of travel, especially after it was mentioned the dangers of the act.

Cattleya wanted to move in force - for one, she argues it's safer to have a large force fly past the boarders, and secondly it would take less time to rebuild any base so that they can replenish forces if fighting happens (which it would).

Eleanor, and Louise felt a bit of irony as she heard the opinion, wanted to a small force to secretly build a base like when Louise had went to save Charlotte's mother. She suggested that the safety they'll have before appearing with a large force to overwhelm Gallia's forces.

Louise had to sigh as she once again went back to what she's planning. When she was told that Gallia was behind the attempts on Tiffania as well as the events that were happening on Albion, she had first thought to tell Henrietta about it.

But then she realized that even if she did, there's nothing her Queen could do about it. Gallia is still many times larger than Tristain, and even with the Zerg... Well, maybe. But when the Duchess and Princesses had arrived, Louise had found out that a large amount of people did not like their current King - the rumors of how he treated Princess Charlotte and that he was a Kinslayer did not sit well with many people.

In theory, if the current King was to be killed, there would be many people who would agree to Charlotte taking the throne. If that were to happen, then Louise was sure that much of the problem they were having would be solved!

Of course, Josette would not be returning to Gallia with Princess Charlotte or Duchess Violette. This is certainly because there shouldn't be a twin of the leader of a country in the same castle, and... perhaps she could try to care for her and try to let Josette regain more of herself naturally.

Louise could only sigh as she looked up to the dark skies. The Zerg buildings did not create much light so she could see the starry skies clearly. If she was more honest with herself, Louise wasn't sure exactly how she was going to fix anything - but she refused to just give up.

//Louise.// The mental voice of Henrietta sounded tense and rather rushed. //We have a situation. Gallia declared war on Tristain.//

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

Gallia's fleet moved from the West of Tristain in a move that they thought would be least defended as the only thing in that direction was their old ally Albion.

Unfortunately for them, Henrietta had actually considered that Albion would be taken over by hostile forces, and had already set up a line of bases on the unused shores of the country's coastline.

The first signs of invasion appeared on the North-Eastern tip of Tristain - far enough from the boarders of Gallia and Tristain that it could be called a surprise attack, but far enough from the Germainia boarders to not seem like they're invading the large country instead.

They were met with fungal-looking like growths that shot acid at their ships, burning hole through them in seconds. An entire line of spore colonies that littered the coastline and hidden by official looking men that kept people away from the area. Nearly a hundred ships were lost before a squadron of dragon knights flew out from the largest ship and dropped a Firestone bomb into the area, and burning everything to ashes.

After that, the invasion was much slower as they had to scout each and every treeline to make sure no more of those growths existed. Queen Henrietta had made sure to seed the coastlines full of them, and the further towards

Louise saw all that from her seat within the Primary Hive Cluster as she waited for Princess Charlotte and Duchess Violette to meet with her. It seemed that the more she tried to understand the Zerg, the more she finds out about her inability to completely understand them. Each of the Zerg is the same within its strain, but there are individuals within the Swarm as well. As a general rule, she can feel all the strains within the current area, but why did she feel the Duchess moving towards her but not exactly where her Queen was?
So many questions, but she have yet to barely scratch the surface of the enigma called the Zerg.

ZnT/HotS
The Cradle of the Heart
Chapter 15

"I'd like... an explanation." Louise said to the two in her best impression of her Mother. "I don't understand why your mother and your sister is like this." She pointed to each in turn - the Duchess, as even when her own mother was strict, she never tried to harm her own children; and the Princess, as Charlotte had never even met Josette before, but now was sleeping behind Louise in one of the beds that the Zerg had placed her in.

The one she was looking at, Charlotte, merely tilted her head in question before answering.

"My mother... I had loved her." Charlotte started, and Louise was surprised to hear how cold it sounded. "No matter what happened, I loved her like how a child would always love their parents. But when I was healing her, when I was connected to the Zerg, the only thing I could think of was how much the poison had changed her. How much I had sacrificed to let her keep thinking that doll was Charlotte and I was Tabitha."

At the name, Josette stirred from her bed, but when Louise glanced back to the twin of Charlotte, the movement stilled.

"It was the name of a doll she gave me." Charlotte continued, ignoring the sleeping Josette. "And yet because of the poison that was given to her, she could only see me as Tabitha, and the doll Charlotte."

The princess closed her eyes in thought and Louise could not tell what she was thinking. The pink-haired girl glanced at the Duchess, but the woman did nothing other than to wait for Charlotte to continue. Louise frowned and was about to speak when Charlotte continued.

"The Zerg. When you are within the Zerg, you are laid bare to your spirit." The young girl whispered in a reverent tone. "I loved my mother dearly. But I also hated her for her failings. Every feeling I had was magnified and returned to me - I never knew I hated her so much for something she had no control over, and so when the Queen came to me and asked how was my mother to serve you..."

"Wait, Henrietta?" Louise interrupted, but then quickly added, "Serve me? But... oh."

Sometimes, she didn't understand the Zerg at all. Other times... other times, she could only understand too clearly what they mean. She suddenly remembered Charlotte's question just before Violette's recovery; with the advantage of hindsight, she now realized what it truly meant.

"Yes. My family is yours. My life is yours. Your will shall be done. I am Zerg, and I do not regret it." Charlotte intoned as she knelt down in front of Louise with her mother.

Louise sat frozen at the declaration. It was yet another person like Tiffania, who had been mentally changed into a Zerg. She stared at Charlotte with wide eyes, and she could feel panic bubbling at the bottom of her heart. This... how many more are going to be changed like this? Why is this happening? What can she do to stop this madness?

Before her panic could boil over, the Duchess touched Charlotte's arm and the girl glanced up at Louise. Her eyes were so piercing that Louise felt that everything she was thinking could be seen by them.

"When I first set out to heal my mother, I swore that I would pay any price to do so." Charlotte said, trying to sooth Louise's feelings. "The Queen had told me that I would need to become Zerg to fully heal her, and I understand the need for it now. I have changed, but I changed willingly as the price to have my mother healed, so please don't worry about me. One day, I will join with the Zerg permanently like the Queen has, but until then I shall serve you to the best of my ability."

Surprisingly, Louise did feel better about it. "I guess if you knew the risks and had to do that to heal her..." She trailed off, not really wanting to give up on the point, but realizing that since Charlotte had chose to make the choice, it wasn't something Louise should criticize.

"But that doesn't explain why the Duchess and your sister are like that." Louise added, trying to steer the topic back to why they were there to start with.

Charlotte nodded. "As I said, I was angry at my mother. Becoming Zerg, I feel my emotions more... sharply, and no matter how much I loved my mother, I couldn't help hating her as well. So I told the Queen that I wanted my mother to be something like an infestor - to be able to control others like a puppet and turn THEM into Tabitha instead."

There was no shame in Charlotte's voice. Nor did Louise see any other emotion on the girl's face, but then again Louise had never actually seen any emotions on Charlotte's face other than relief at seeing the Duchess. A quick glance over to the Duchess also showed no emotions... a suspicion began to form in Louise's mind.

"I loved her so much that I did not want to see her harmed, but I hated her so much that I wanted some way to show my anger. I am not Tabitha. If my mother wanted a doll so much, she can turn others into one instead!"

But there was certainly anger. Louise was taken back by how much venom was dripping off of Charlotte's words, even as her face remained mainly passive. Only a twitch on the side of her mouth showed the hint of a snarl.

"And Josette may not have had anything to do with the situation, but she did not have to do anything other than live her life at the abbey while mother was suffering. She didn't even know any of us until we came to pick her up." That said, Charlotte's fists curled up and she glared at the form of Josette behind Louise. "I was envious. And angry. At her being able to live peacefully. At her for not having to do anything I've done."

The small room was silent, until a voice said, "And so I became Tabitha."

Louise turned around and saw that Josette had her eyes opened, even if she was still laying on the bed. The twin of Charlotte slowly got up and stretched her arms as if testing their strength, but she kept her eyes on Louise the entire time. Within them, Louise could feel a cold intelligence that she had always felt from Charlotte back when they were only Academy students. But they were now tempered with a burning devotion to HER... She couldn't help but shiver as she imagined what had happened to the girl.

"And so she became Tabitha." Charlotte agreed, regaining her cool. "It wasn't completely planned, but I discussed it with the Queen once I realized what I had done..."

"And it was agreed that I would become your shadow, and protect you from anything the Zerg could not protect you because they could not be seen yet." Josette finished, stalking closer to Louise before standing behind her.

"Princess Josette..." Louise started, but the girl placed a finger on Louise's lips.

"Tabitha. While what is left of Josette within me is glad that you managed to save that much of her, I am Tabitha now. I am your shadow, your protector, your Zerg. I can be seen with you in places where the Queen cannot be, as Tabitha is and will be your friend from the Academy. I will be here for you when Charlotte is not. You will never be as unprotected as you were before... as soon as I train my body to move like I want it to."

Louise could only be captivated by the sincerity of what Josette... or rather, Tabitha was saying. It was horrifying realization of what had befallen the girl that had been a twin, but now becoming what the twin had been pretending to be. Louise could feel her eyes glistening with tears for Josette.

Tabitha, for that was who this person is now, smiled sadly and gently wiped the tears from her Mistress' eyes. "Thank you for grieving for Josette. It means everything to her."

Even if it meant nothing to Tabitha.

Adyen · Jan 12, 2015

Ok, finally finished moving all the current chapters here. Let's see if I can find time to actually crush a big country.

Cradle of the Heart [Znt/HotS]

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