"Be careful," Reina warns. "Irene uses powerful illusionary magic and Jasper is a summoner. We don't know what we might face."

"Horsemen defending specialists?" Irene scowls. "What madness is this?"

"Our affairs are none of your concern," Reina says and holds out a hand, ice magic glowing in her palm. "Stand down or face the consequences."

"Just what is Tatiana thinking?" Jasper frowns, his eyes flickering between Reina and Leo before he shakes his head in disbelief, holding a bow made of magical glass at his side.

"We will fight on behalf of our Grand Master and on behalf of Queen Iris," Irene says, slamming the end of her black and royal blue ombre metal halberd into the ground.

"And we will fight to free Queen Iris of your corruption," Selia says, stepping forwards as she swirls water around both of her hands.

"You dare accuse us of corruption?" Irene says angrily, raising her chin. "It's time you learn your place."

Irene pulls back her arm and narrows her eyes as Jasper nocks an arrow in his bow and takes aim. Irene's halberd goes invisible as soon as she releases it from her grasp with a forceful throw and Reina forms a barrier of ice around all of us so that the halberd crashes into it instead. The halberd hits the wall with such force that it causes the ice to crack in the center and immediately shatter, the halberd flying back into Irene's hand because of its magic. As the wall shatters, Jasper shoots an arrow through the falling ice debris, aiming directly for Reina.

Reina catches the arrow in her hand and freezes the glass so cold that it shatters in her hand before she lets the pieces fall to the ground. Meanwhile, Irene sends out a royal blue colored smoke that filled the room, making it near impossible to see even the person next to me. Blindly, I reach out and cling to Leo's arm, and Leo reaches for his lamp and lights it with his magic.

"Stay close to me," Leo instructs and I nod in response.

Leo's lamp clears the smoke away from us like a beacon and allows for us to navigate through the fog-like magic. Leo and I quickly duck down when birds made of glowing bright orange energy fly through the fog towards us, flames burning around them. The birds pass by in a swarm and around us I can pick up on the sounds of fighting.

"Jasper," Leo frowns, his gaze watching as the birds disappear into the fog.

Suddenly, the magic fog begins to lift and I look around in surprise to see Selia holding her hands in front of her face and muttering rapidly as she casts a spell under her breath, bright blue energy and water whirling around her and radiating off of her as she purifies the area. Jasper uses the opportunity of Selia's weakness to take aim at her and fires an arrow directly at her chest while Irene fights against Reina, and my heart seizes in panic. A shield of ice rapidly forms in front of Selia just in time to block the arrow, Dietfried having noticed just in time as he finished fending off against Jasper's summoned creatures that Leo and I narrowly avoided.

Leo and I head after Jasper, and I stay a bit behind Leo, only having my magic to rely on since I left my bow back at Selia's house. Jasper quickly notices the two of us coming for him and uses his magic to summon two lionesses made of glowing orange energy. I use my magic to throw bolts of light at the one lioness while Leo easily slashes through the other with his spear, it dispersing into glowing particles. Leo then destroys the one that I was keeping at bay and Jasper shatters his bow only to reach into the air and summon a gun-scythe to fight Leo with. As Leo fights Jasper, I glance back at Selia, Dietfried, Reina, and Irene to see Reina throw Selia the crystal vial meant for Iris as she and Dietfriet fight Irene.

"Run!" Reina shouts to Selia, whose eyes widen as she catches the vial.

Irene glances over her shoulder as she fends off a blow from Reina's ice magic and her eyes widen as well, realization setting in. Selia begins to run towards Iris as Irene knocks back Reina and sends Dietfried sprawling to the floor with a backwards thrust of her halberd. Irene quickly takes after Selia and I charge towards them both, tackling Irene from the side as she attempts to throw her halberd at Selia.

Irene and I collide with the ground and the sound of her weapon hitting the floor beside us rings throughout the ballroom. I climb off of Irene and go to crawl for her weapon to take it from her reach, but she jumps on top of me and the breath gets knocked out of my lungs as my chest hits the floor. I manage to roll over and throw Irene off of me, and just as I go to grab Irene's weapon, I hear Irene gasp from beside me. I look up at Irene's gasp to see a bright light radiating from where Queen Iris was sitting on her throne. Once the light dies down, it reveals Selia holding the now open crystal vial over Iris' face, who blinks a few times and the life seems to return to her eyes.

"Selia Wadsworth?" Iris blinks, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion as Selia retracts her hand slowly, uncertain. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

The entire room falls silent and all of the fighting stops as everyone watches Iris, who rises to her feet as Selia slowly backs away.

"It really worked. Reina was right," Selia laughs happily in disbelief before her expression grows more serious. "Queen Iris, somebody used magic against you to turn you into their puppet to do as they wished. They were going to have you decree a law against magic and a law that would close Asterithe to outsiders. Do you remember anything about that happening or who hurt you?"

"I...I do," Iris nods slowly as she frowns and continues to collect herself. "I remember everything, even when I was under magical influence. I remember feeling trapped, like I could see and hear everything that was happening but unable to act on my own."

Iris gently places a hand on Selia's shoulder before she moves around her and walks down the stairs and heads directly towards Irene, who stares up at her with wide eyes as she sits on the floor. Iris stops in front of Irene with a scowl before she holds out a hand for Irene to take. Hesitantly, Irene takes her hand and stands up.

"My dear friend, somebody has used your magic against me without you knowing it," Iris says. "They had you create a potion with your magic, insisting it was for an interrogation of a specialist and to subdue them. Because it was your trusted colleague, you didn't think twice about it, despite your skeptical nature. They took advantage of your closeness, they took advantage of your power, and they took advantage of me."

"So it's true," Irene inhales sharply. "These people were telling the truth. I knew you were acting differently, but I thought perhaps you finally saw my side of things. But, if that's the case...I only made one of those potions recently and it was for..."

Irene trails off and her gaze flickers over to Jasper, who has grown paler by the minute. As Jasper tries to backpedal and turn on his heel to escape, Leo grabs him by the collar of his shirt and stops him. Jasper, having dropped his weapons in surprise, attempts to use his magic to escape Leo's hold. However, Irene beats him to it and casts a spell that makes him still completely and stop struggling, his expression turning as blank as the one Iris used to wear.

"I'll release him from the spell once he's arrested for treason," Irene says, her eyes moving from Jasper to the rest of us. "As for all of you, I simply can't let specialists go just because—"

"Irene," Iris says, placing a hand on Irene's shoulder with a smile, stopping Irene in her tracks and taking her by surprise. "They saved me from a fate much worse than death. As a friend of mine, please let me at least thank them. I believe they have the right to an audience with me."

"Queen Iris," Irene frowns slightly before she sighs. "Alright, but I refuse to leave your side."

"Queen Iris, if I may be so bold, we were actually hoping to talk to you about a proposal," Leo begins.

"Oh?" Iris blinks, her eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Please," I nod in agreement. "We need your help."

"Well, alright then," Iris nods, "but can we please take this conversation to my study? And I'd like to have my guards take Jasper away for the time being so that Irene can deal with his sentence later."

"Of course," Leo says. "Lead the way."