Mihai Viscol: Frosted Kingdom

Mihai sighed and sat on the edge of the frosted bed. "This is going so well!" He exclaimed sarcastically.
Polina was having a fit on the floor. Haos stepped over her, biting her lip, and sat beside the Grand Mage with a morose sigh.
"Does this mean we've lost Romania?"
"Not yet." he mumbled. Haos frowned.
"Have you got a plan?"
"Not yet."
She gave another sigh and lay back on the frost-covered bed. "We're screwed!"
"The defeatist attitude is unbecoming of you. It's...unnerving..." Mihai stared at his feet. Polina stopped fitting and Santa went to check her vitals.
"I think she's dead..."
Mihai nodded. "We shall give her a proper burial."
"What happened?"
"Anti-betrayal sigils taking effect."
"So you killed her?"
"In a way." He looked away, not meeting the teleporter's eyes. His little crush on Polina had never gone away and this death was going to be on his mind for a while.
"Grand Mage?" Haos asked, shaking his shoulder lightly. He didn't look up and didn't respond. "Grand Mage, please..."
"I need an army."
"W-what?" Viscol was one to avoid war and the like at all costs. This simple statement in such a serious tone suddenly frightened Haos. She wondered briefly where her friend had gone.
"I have a land to protect. A kingdom. My country. I would defend Romania with my life, within reason. I need an army so I can defend my country, like a true leader. An army, and some old friends. Call the American Sanctuary, and the French. I have some people to talk to. Some old, old friends."

-----

Charles woke up and carefully disentangled himself from his lover. He limped to the bars of the cell, resting his head on the cool metal when he got close enough. He hated having blurry vision and he couldn't wait to get to an opticians or something. God, when he could see properly, he would be killing some of Mevolent's lot, and definitely showing Jalousie's punk kid what for. River wasn't here any more. Her and her Remnant were...elsewhere...he heaved a heavy sigh and heard a noise elsewhere.

"Scarlett, this is a stupid idea." Said the German girl with the purple hair, wrapping her arm around her new boyfriend. Scarlett straightened the glasses he could hardly see out of and wrapped his leather-clad arms tighter around himself, shivering slightly. The charming curse of riding a motorbike here. He strolled forwards, arms outstretched to feel his way through the darkness and blindness. Rabe Behinderung wasn't quite sure why he hadn't bought new glasses yet. The tall, thin man with the coal black curls that framed his face wore rounded specs. The frames were more cellotape than frame and the lenses were scratched all over and one of them even had glue visible on it from a shoddy repair attempt on Scarlett's part. Rabe sighed as it was up to her to light the way with a flame. She saw a few prisoners recoil and smirked. "I am looking for Perseus Frivolidad!" She called out loud and clear, "And Wilhelm Scream!"
Charles' eyes flickered back into the cell, where Percy was stirring. He didn't know who these people were and he didn't trust them, but one of them sounded like the German girl who had gone with him to rescue Jasmin ages ago. "Behinderung?" He called curiously. The girl turned to him, shining a fire light in his eyes from which he recoiled, and she smiled.
"Fiable." They had met during the war when she had saved his life. She had been blonde then, and he had been thirteen. He didn't know her very well and vice versa. Jasmin knew her better. Jasmin and Jalousie had known Scarlett as well, but Charles had never seen him before. For the moment he wasn't even sure there was another person there. Then he heard Scarlett speak. The man was Irish, he gathered that instantly.
"I found your brother. He's sound asleep in a suspicious puddle...I think he's lost weight...a lot of weight...think he'll be happy to know Kristian is okay?"
"I am sure he'll be thrilled. Let him out and wake him up." She smiled and drew a symbol on the cell lock. It seemed to take forever. Scarlett was doing the same to Wilhelm's cell. Charles stepped back and sunk back down next to Perseus. It took an eternity before Rabe was strolling in and her face was brightening at the sight of Perseus, who was now wide awake and smiling back up at her.
"Raven."
"Perseus. It's been a while."
Charles raised an eyebrow. "You two know each other?"
"I used to work with him."
"What, as a kidnapper?"
They both laughed. "A minder." Rabe corrected. "We were basically illegal social workers. We can come back for the child you sent me a wire about, but I honestly don't do that any more. Get up, both of you."
They walked out and almost collided with Scarlett Discord, who was supporting a rather sickly-looking Wilhelm Scream. "Isn't your other brother a sense warden?"
Rabe smirked. "I loved the look on that short guy's face when he saw you. You knew him?"
"Advantageous Twist? Yeah, he fought with me during the war for a time...probably among those who think I'm dead..." He shuddered. "He told me all about the deaths of the other members of our brief team, you know. Gale and Mihai and Zafira and Jasmin are still kicking, but then there's Auron and Dexter and Jalousie...at least most of us are still alive...and of course those four who died during missions and got replaced by two guys who died and Dexter and the guy who didn't speak English..." he shuddered again and Wilhelm let out a groan.
"Put me back, I want to lie down, I feel nauseous..." he mumbled in German. Rabe raised an eyebrow and replied in the same tongue.
"Wilhelm, I'm trying to save your skin here. It's Raven, your sister?"
He groaned again. "You're going to hit me..."
"Yes, later. Mainly because I've been tying up loose ends, paying your long overdue bills and looking after Kristian, who is okay, I might add."
Wilhelm raised his head and forced a weak smile. Whoever Kristian was, they were close to him.
Scarlett smiled. "I can remember the way out of here if you want to nullify the security measures here."
"Such a shame it's only here...oh, I'd love to see the uprising chaos when they find their prisoners can use their magic in the cells now..." She went to a wall and went back to her sigils. "The three of us used to study these together, me and Wilhelm and Drakon..." She went into a spiel of reminiscence and Scarlett dragged her brother and led the men out of the castle, as promised. They weren't sure where they were going, but Scarlett and Rabe seemed to have a plan...

-----

Mortis sighed as he left the Sanctuary, eyes cast down at the ground. Jayden and Ursa followed, feeling more than a little awkward. B-J was already in the car and in tears. "He seemed cool..." Ursa remarked. "Terrible dress sense, but I liked him."

Ricky still had a concussion and Mildred was inside, talking to the Elders with a message from some dead guy. Mortis had told her about the others in the Sanctuary he had been making a plan with, then ducked out and decided to just violently stab things.

Garnet frowned as he entered the afterlife. Oh...so this is what it's like... He brightened up a little when he found his brother and sister, Legerdemain and Betty. He wasn't sure how to react when Betty told him what she had heard from some of Mevolent's workers there, who had trusted her as she had fought with them in the first war. Garnet wondered how much older than him she really was. Even so, he found a weak point for both the Irish Sanctuary and Mevolent, and he needed a way to tell the others. What was it Ursa had said Millie could do? Hear the dead? How did he get her to hear him?

Mortis fell asleep on the ride back to Garnet's old house. When he woke up, someone had carried him to his bed, laid Wilbur beside him, and his sleep mask, taken his hair down and put Lance the Tuba in a bath tub he for some reason used to keep in his room, not connected to any plumbing systems or anything. He lay there for a few minutes in the dark when he awoke, thinking about his next move. He could hear Jayden's breathing in the next bed over. He was awake, his breathing shaky. Was he crying? Did he feel that bad about this all? Garnet was his friend too. With a quiet sigh, Mortis slipped out of bed and into Jayden's, giving him a cuddle. Jayden nuzzled his face into his boyfriend's chest and cried quietly. He tried to ignore how soaked this was getting his shirt and tried to ignore the fact that this man had killed Garnet and tried to just focus on their relationship and the fact that his lover was crying.
"I'm so, so sorry..." Jayden moaned into his chest. Mortis ignored him and kept hugging him and tried to fall asleep. He didn't really like hugs, but as long as Jay didn't hug him back, he was fine.

Then, just as he was about to doze off, it hit him and he sat up, scrabbling for Slander's bedside lamp. Jayden sat up, frowning. "What's going on?"
"I have someone to blame. Someone to kill. Someone who would have had access to Miss Maleficent's body before she died."
The Child of the Spider frowned. "Who?"
"I don't quite know yet, but I can find out. The person who put the curse on the necklace in the first place!" He showed the fading sigil marks on his fingers, grinning. "Also, if Regicide's body is still in the building, I might have something to take my anger out on!"

((My brother's disgusting keyboard has pushed out some stories that were stuck in my head via lack of time to procrastinate until this weekend. The team to which Scarlett Discord is referring is based around a story I started then scrapped because I couldn't get it right...it was a Tenebrae/Vex one so they had to be there...and when I started writing Charles' bit, I had no intention of including Wilhelm, but I needed a better excuse for Rabe to be there, so they became siblings...and now my Aurora/Wilhelm fankid is involved...perfect...))