Lock the Dead

"Looks like you've been busy," nodded Raelius, glancing around. "Any good news?"

"I am not sure it can be called so yet. I did arrive here without alarming the whole Castle, for one," she sighed, "but the word will spread soon from the servants who can't keep their mouths shut, I'm sure. I haven't found the Duke nor his lieutenants yet, so I hope that he's still alive and in a state to fight. Otherwise I'll have to lead over a hundred men on my own..."

"Classic measures against jail breakouts... Moreover, it's only been a few days. I think they definitely interrogated your allies Love, and at worse, tortured them. Let's just hope they found them more useful alive than dead."

Milena grimaced, and glanced around at the worried men's faces. She thought so, she just would have been a bit more tactful about it when most of those men looked up to the Duke... Perhaps because he was from another, more dire time, her ancestor didn't seem to care at all about those men's feelings.

"There's something else," he said after a short while. "The Queen isn't in the De Boreal Estate anymore."

"Philomenie?" Milena exclaimed. "Why? What happened?"

"You tell me," he shrugged. "Both her and her White One are gone. The Duke was quite panicked as well, he asked me to tell you as soon as I could..."

Milena took a second to think. She knew Philomenie had acted way too calm about all this. She tried to remember her sister-in-law's expression that day, and no matter how much she thought about it, she was pretty sure the Queen had planned to not stay put all along. Now that the revolt was happening, and the battle was happening on all sides, there was no need for her to pretend she was still in the De Boreal Manor. Milena had a rough idea of what kind of decision she had taken. In any case, she should have known the new Philomenie couldn't simply stay put. That woman was no longer the pretty, silent doll her family had tried to raise her as. Those days belonged to their childhood, and were long gone. In fact, Milena herself had played a big part in that change, so she wasn't even mad at her sister-in-law. Philomenie was now mature and aware enough to make her own decisions, and assume the risks and consequences that came with it. The only thing Milena was worried about was how far the Queen would be willing to go. Even if she had grown stronger mentally, the young woman was still pretty defenseless, without any offensive power, just like the Saint. If anything happened to her, things could get even more complicated...

"What about the Princess? Maelie?"

"She's still in the Estate, which is kind of odd..."

"It's not," sighed Milena. "That means her mother judged she'd be safer there than with her. Go back to Lady De Carseus, I'm sure Philomenie couldn't help herself and went downtown. With her personality, it was unlikely she would stay still while the fire is raging in the Capital. She's probably found a way to help somehow. I would bet on the hospital they'll take the injured to. Go to Lady Alexis, let her know the Queen is around. There's probably no need to make a big fuss about it, the Saint won't let anything happen to her, but just in case."

"Got it."

He vanished again. Milena sighed. How funny that now she found herself worried for Philomenie, after all their history together... These were truly changing and challenging times. She followed the crowd of men running ahead and all around the cells. She didn't even need to do much now, they were trained enough to make some decisions and organize themselves. Moreover, their task was simple: gather more keys, get rid of the guards and free their companions. Milena was simply wandering around the cells, trying to find clues about where the Duke De Nova was held. Because over a hundred men had been captured, it was inevitable that they had been split into many cells, but even as they freed more and more, no one seemed to have any idea what had become of their leader. She was starting to worry he had been taken elsewhere, or killed right away. Even worse, the new cells contained more and more men who had been interrogated, and for most, tortured as well. They found the first body in a cell, a poor soldier who had died from the injuries received during the battle. A lot of those men hadn't received proper care, and Milena was getting worried the troops she had hoped for would not be in the optimal state for an inside rebellion. The men were eager to fight back, but some would definitely be more of a hindrance than a help. As she kept walking through the corridors, she tried to do some simple maths. If she counted that about a hundred men had been taken to those cells, a fifth of them were too injured to resume fighting, others still locked up in the cells which they hadn't gotten their hands on the keys for yet, or are already dead. Moreover, they had a bigger issue pending; they were weaponless. 

They would all have to fight using only their fists or whatever weapon they could find, until they found their way to some armory, or stole from Royal Guards. Even if a strong group, half of them vampires, could probably do some damage, she had to think this was a very large Castle they'd have to spread into. No matter how Milena thought of it, that would be the toughest part of her plan. At least, Rayan and Alexis' troops had armed and mostly healthy men to lead, with their lieutenants helping. Milena would be on her own to lead some pretty roughed-up fighters if she couldn't find the Duke soon...

"My Lady!"

A man ran to her. From the way he politely bowed and the others behind looked at him, she realized he had probably taken on the role of leader for his peers, at least temporarily.

"We have emptied all the cells we could, Your Highness," he said. "There are still five cells with twenty men inside we couldn't free yet, some of us are still looking for a key. We also began to gather our dead and those too injured to fight in some of the cells while we can't get them out of here. We've now reached the entrance of the cells, and gotten rid of the Royal Guards there as well. What are your orders, my Lady?"

"No sign of the Duke?"

"No, Your Highness."

Milena frowned. So he really had been taken elsewhere, as well as his captain. Milena took a deep breath; she had to do this by herself then. If Rayan had already launched his attack, that meant they had no time to lose, the fight would head here and they had to be ready.

"Pick reliable men," she said. "One for ten soldiers, they will have to act as lieutenants for now. Men the others look up to and will follow without discussion. We can't afford any inside fighting for now. Bring them to me, and I'll lay out the details of the Plan."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

He turned to his peers and they quickly spread the word, calling back everyone who had spread out to the cells. Milena looked around. She had lost sight of Blanche in the crowd, and she didn't like that.

"Blanche?" She called out.

She didn't hear or see her come back but, because of all the men gathered around, it couldn't be helped. The whole area had become noisy with the soldiers running around, trying to make improvised weapons, and organizing themselves the best they could.

"What is it doing! Stop that thing!"

Milena turned around, panicked by the sudden ruckus. She could hear the growls of a ferocious beast, and they were all too familiar. She ran, hearing the men shout.

"Don't harm her!" She shouted at them.

"That beast is attacking us!"

"I said don't harm her!"

Milena ran towards the cell the commotion came from. Blanche was attacking the soldiers? Why? She had an intuition why, and a bad feeling about this. She pushed the soldiers out of her way, and grabbed those who were armed to pull them back, away from Blanche; From how her friend was furiously growling, Milena was sure something was wrong. 

She finally walked into the cell, and discovered the scene that had alarmed them. Blanche, covered in blood, her fangs deep into one of the soldiers' neck. She had practically ripped its head off... When Milena stepped closer, Blanche growled even more fiercely, as if to warn her. Milena hesitated. Blanche never growled at her, unless there really was a need for it. It never meant she was mad at her, only that something was wrong. And something was definitely wrong. The wolf bit again into the corpse' neck, as if it wasn't already dead, tearing the body apart even further; no wonder the men around were horrified, and had tried to take it away from her. It was their friend she was ripping apart.

"...Blanche, let go. He's dead."

However, the wolf only growled even more, as if to protest. Suddenly, Milena understood what was going on. Blanche hadn't gone crazy; she was trying to protect her.

"Was that man alive?" She asked the closest man, his face still painted in shock.

"W-what?"

"Was that man dead or alive before she attacked!"

"H-he was among our dead," he said. "I mean, we thought he was dead. We were just about to move him, but he moved, and that thing... I mean, Your Highness' wolf suddenly jumped out of nowhere to attack him..."

"The dead moved?" She asked.

"There must have been a mistake," he said. "We thought he was dead, but he suddenly moved..."

A cold chill went down Milena's spine. Those men hadn't made any mistake, the man was really dead, until someone took a hold of that body. That explained why Blanche had been so determined to rip its head off; she had to make sure that body couldn't be used. It was that White One, again, playing tricks on them. He was going to use the bodies against them!

"Watch out for the bodies!" Milena shouted. "They can be used against us!"

"Wh-"

Suddenly shouts came from another end of the cells. Milena swore out loud. So it really was that White One attacking. She ran to the other end of the cells, Blanche jumping behind her to catch up. They could hear men fighting and grunting, shouting orders, calling a name, probably that of the deceased.

"Lock the dead bodies in a cell!" She shouted to the men she ran past. "Gather the deceased and lock the bodies in a cell!"

While most men stood completely confused, some were quicker than others to catch up what was happening, or at least quicker to obey her orders without questioning it. Milena kept running without stopping, panicked. This was one of the worst scenarios; she already had less than enough men to work with, now that White One was trying to get rid of more! She barged into the cell, spotted a body she was sure to have seen among the deceased before, not only standing but holding one of its peers by the throat, holding them against the wall. From the blood pouring from his head and the wall, the other unfortunate man was already dead. Milena didn't hesitate; she swung her sword and sliced the head off the body without a shred of hesitation. Right after her, Blanche jumped on the recently deceased man, tearing his head off as well. The soldiers around were all completely shocked, but from what she could see, enough of them had been injured by the undead to realize she had not done this by choice.

"They are using our dead against us!" She shouted, loud enough for all those around to hear. "I said lock the dead up, now! If they move and you were sure they were dead seconds before, cut their head off! Hurry!"

If the White One had taken control of those bodies one after another so fast, distance wasn't an issue. They seemed to be able to jump from one dead body to another, which was not good news for them. Milena's men finally organized themselves, running back to where they had left the dead at. For the next few minutes, the cells turned into absolute chaos, with men shouting and running to every cell. The issue was that some men were unsure who had been dead just before, and the more men the White One managed to kill, the more bodies he had to pick from. They had to quickly get rid of all the bodies, chop their heads off or gather them. Blanche herself stopped trying to attack, growling in one direction after another and retreating to protect Milena instead. She just didn't know where to run to next, and was choosing to keep Milena away from danger instead. Some men also did the same, standing in front of the Grand Princess in a defensive position, their eyes on the areas of chaos. 

Meanwhile, Milena observed, listened, and learned. She had to stay calm and get what she could from the situation, remembering her great-grandmother's teachings. There was always something to learn from chaos, and she definitely learned a couple of things.

First, the White One could only possess one body at a time. After watching how the chaos erupted from one area after another, Milena was sure. It took about five seconds to transfer from one body to another, but they were never using more than one. It might have been a trick, but there would have been more sense in using as many bodies as they could to get rid of as many men as possible. No, she was sure that White One had limits, like all the others, and his was using only one body at a time. 

Secondly, they couldn't use any corpse. It was Blanche who had made it obvious first, but the more she listened, the more Milena was sure; the body had to be in a decent state for them to use it. If the head was separated from the body, or the injuries were too great, the White One didn't try and possess it, or it couldn't. Where she stood, there was one body just steps away from her, and it didn't move at all. The head had received a bullet, and the torso was covered in injuries from torture. If the White One had tried to harm her, he would have definitely used this one, but it remained dead. 

Finally, although the selection was limited by the previous rule, the White One could pick the body. It didn't naturally go to the closest one, or the one in the next best condition. The more she observed, the more she found the White One was jumping from one end of the cells to another, trying to spread chaos, but not remaining in one place despite most bodies being gathered together. A wry smile appeared on her lips. She was annoyed she had lost men, but in every battle, mistakes were made, and the White One had definitely made some too. That smile was for all those times she had felt like they couldn't get closer to the real culprit, and now she was finally grabbing on to some weaknesses of theirs. Milena waited until her men were sure all the bodies had been rendered unusable for the White One. A gloomy and silent atmosphere had now befallen onto the cells, and more corpses were spread across the area, sometimes in several parts, but at least, that fight was over. Many of the men were still panting, sending worried glances left and right, as if they feared to see their dead peers rise again. Milena sighed. That was one battle she could have done without...

"Let's hurry," she said, breaking the silence. "That bastard knows we're gathering and about to go upstairs. If we don't hurry, we'll lose the little advantage we’ve got."

Her words seemed to bring life to her men again. The soldiers all moved quickly, strangely silent and focused. This time, they quickly discarded the dead bodies into the cells and locked them without looking back twice, knowing they had no time to mourn. Milena noticed some men were even still glancing at each other, the wounded ones getting more stares than the others. They were all nervous that the White One was still possessing one of them. Seeing their own supposedly dead friends rising from the dead to kill more had caused quite a trauma among the troops. Milena could only hope this would motivate them to be more careful than ever.

"Your Highness," said the man from before, running up to her. "...The new lieutenants are ready, we reassigned everyone to their groups. We're awaiting your orders."

Milena nodded. It was time to take back the Royal Castle from the inside.