Bending at her waist, Vivia threw herself backward at a nearly right angle just as the dagger slashed through the air, narrowly missing her face.
That was close!
A frustrated click of a tongue escaped from the woman, but before she could launch another strike, a shadow jumped on the roof from the side and dove straight towards her, carrying his entire body weight. The impact forced a crash-landing belly-side on the ground, and taking advantage of this moment, Benjamin locked her wrists, disarming the dagger far away from her. He then grabbed a fistful of her hair, forcing her to face up and pointed his sword at her exposed neck.
"Who sent you?" Benjamin crisply asked, his eyes cold and deadly serious about taking her life if she attempted even the slightest trickery.
"Who sent you to harm the Princess? Start talking before I end your life for good!"
"Sir Benjamin!" Vivia intervened, horrified. "Retreat your sword!"
The contours of his expression hardened. "My lady, first you run away despite my instructions that have come directly from Her Majesty, and now you're asking me to free this woman who just attempted to take your life?"
Vivia pressed her temple, already tired as if she had run several long marathons.
"My lady!" Erissa breathlessly followed behind, half-collapsed at the rooftop's entrance.
"You finally…finally stopped…" she muttered through tired breaths. Her eyes then widened at the situation unfolding before her.
"Why has Sir Benjamin caught her like that?"
"She tried to kill the Princess."
A terror-laced gasp escaped her lips, and she hurried towards Vivia despite her aching knees.
"Princess! A-Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" She hastily checked her from head to toe.
"I'm fine Erissa but…" Vivia now practically begged Benjamin. "I'm not saying to release her, but allow her to at least sit."
"Criminals don't need pity," was his cold, gruff answer.
Stuck beneath him, the woman resisted with all her might, but Benjamin proved to be a stubborn foe.
"Let me go, you prick!"
She tried to jab her head against his nose, but he threw his head backward, easily dodging her swing.
"Audreya, that's enough!"
Yes, you're indeed Audreya with those feisty and vicious attacks alright!
The hood fell, now fully revealing her face. Her crimson hair and eyes carried a burning intensity as hot as Lavos's lava itself. One slip and they would fall right into the fiery depths of hell.
"How dare you address me so intimately as if you know me?"
That's because I do, but I cannot say it!
"Don't utter my name from your filthy mouth, you murderer!"
Benjamin pressed his blade deeper against her neck, forming a minor cut that was now beginning to trickle with a drop of blood.
"Mind your words, you impudent. You're in the royal princess's presence."
Audreya sneered. "A killer royal princess, if you may add."
"What is this shameless woman even talking about?" Erissa was losing her patience like Benjamin. "Do you understand that your words alone are treason and can get you punished? Capital punishment, to be clear."
Her lips stretched into a pure menacing jeer. "Capital punishment? Oh, I'm not dying anytime soon. And if I've to die, then I'll take your royal princess along with me."
Benjamin faced Vivia. "Will you still be sympathetic towards her, my lady? It's clearly evident now that she's your enemy and wants you dead."
"But why?" Vivia stared, trying to understand the hatred behind her red eyes. "Why do you want me dead? We've never met. What harm have I caused you?"
Audreya bit her lip until a cut parted her delicate skin. "That's some shamelessness coming from you, Princess Clairette. You dare to shed your hands of my friend's death you killed in cold blood!?"
Friend's blood…?
Benjamin's expression worsened into deeper shades of black. "Have you lost it, you mad woman?"
"I've not lost it, it's your Princess who has! She killed my friend, Vivia Mariel!"
Not a single word escaped Vivia's lips in response. Shock was an understatement to absorb the unbelievable current of information that had zapped through her.
"You-"
She raised her hand, stopping Benjamin's further interference.
"Explain. What do you mean that I killed your friend? Like I said, I didn't know her."
Audreya laughed mockingly. "You didn't know her, yet somehow you magically came to watch her dance performances every single time?"
The more she talked, the more Vivia failed to wrap her head around these rapid developments.
My dance performances? When did Clairette ever visit Stras…?
"Don't act innocent now. Vivia never saw your face, but I did. I had caught you one day revealing yourself through your hood. The same brown hood you're wearing right now!"
Vivia looked down, staring at the loose hooded coat she wore. She took another good look, triggering a flash of memories within her - her own memories as Vivia.
Within them, within the countless performances she had danced in Stras, a woman's figure quietly seated at the farthest bench from the stage slowly came to her like a clearing of a fog. That lone woman had always covered herself in a loose brown coat with a hood pulled over head. The only sliver of her identity were the delicate locks of her long, light blonde hair fluttering in the air just like Vivia's dance on the stage.
The woman would exhibit poise, never screaming or shouting like the other excited voices from the audience. Her aura would emanate a sense of elegance and nobility, a strange atmosphere which Vivia never quite understood. She had never seen or met this woman in her town before, yet she would never fail to visit. Always present for all her dance performances.
That odd connection to Vivia was as if they silently knew each other through the same stage, yet at the same time they were strangers all over again.
The memory of that woman now gradually dawned upon Vivia. She remembered the hood she always wore - exactly like the one she was wearing at this very moment, yet in her zeal to find Audreya, she didn't realize the striking similarity. Added to the fact that on the stage from afar, the woman's brown hood looked like any other usual coat.
Audreya's ruthless, accusing voice snapped her daze into shreds.
"You visited Stras every single time whenever Vivia danced on stage, and it was you who killed her! I witnessed it myself. I heard you talking and handing gold to the very assassin who had shot the arrow through Vivia's chest!"