Excalibur's Seven - Chapter 16: Chapter 16

IF SELENE HAD IT her way, she would've torched the brothel down and left it to burn, letting everyone inside it fend for themselves. She curled her fists at her sides, eyes focused on the space ahead of her.
The brothel was dimly lit, fine silks draped in place of walls and on the floor. Women of all shapes and ages and cultures were sprawled across furniture, eyeing the group as they came in. Giselle kept Lionel outside, so she wasn't there to be the eye-catcher.
Selene didn't like the attention, but Kit was already drowning in it. He'd removed his armor for this endeavor, and she knew it was just so he could enjoy the attention better instead of focusing on the task. She gave him a look, but he waved her off.
"He says he's got a 'plan,'" Morgana said, joining her side.
"Let me guess, he's going to seduce them into giving information."
Morgana chuckled. "Something like that. Who knows, maybe it'll work."
"He's far more charming than his brother, I'll give him that much. Connor is as charming as mud."
"I've never met him."
"You might want to keep it that way. I get more boring every time I see him." She laughed, but her high spirits were shot down the moment a particular woman emerged from a stall, wrapping a scarf tighter around her shoulders. She wore a pendent around her neck, one she knew all too well.
She abandoned Morgana's side without a word, a plan formulating in her head.
"Excuse me," she purred, slinking up in front of the woman. It felt weird, but she was in the mood for revenge.
"May I help you?" The woman smiled, pouring a glass for Selene and offering it to her.
She took a small sip, but she wasn't much a fan of wine.
"How much to have you for myself?" she asked, making sure to look her up and down.
The woman was buying it, and she named her price. Selene dropped the appropriate coins into her hand, and the woman led her back into a stall made of red sheets. She pulled the curtain, and they were alone as they would get.
The woman's lips were soft, the skin of her thighs supple against Selene's roaming fingers. It had been awhile since she kissed someone, let alone another woman. If she had it her way, she wouldn't have married a man, but he was the most convenient. And at the time it worked. She didn't care about love.
Her fingers pulled away the harlot's coverings, lips against her pale neck, her hands roaming further, up her stomach, her chest, then finally to the pendant at her neck.
The woman yanked away, gripping Selene's adventurous hand with fury like she'd never felt.
"Don't touch that," she hissed.
That was all Selene needed to hear.
"It's you," she growled. "You were the one who lured my husband here and stole half our money."
"I didn't steal it, I worked for it."
"You did something to him, and that necklace has something to do with it. That's cheating, you didn't earn shit." She viciously gripped the front of the woman's loose dress, pushing her off of her lap and out of the stall.
"If you're jealous that your husband likes me better, you can just say it," the harlot taunted.
"I don't give a damn about my husband. I care about the shit you took from me. I want what's mine," she growled. "If you don't, I could just kill you and take what I want."
The harlot wasn't scared at all. "And what is it that you want?"
"I need you to tell me where something is."
She raised a brow. "That's it? Fine, what are you looking for?"
Selene eased up on her, but kept her grip sure on her sword. "There's something ancient here. A shard of the sword Excalibur. It doesn't look like anything, but it has to be here somewhere."
"A piece of metal?" the harlot asked, raising a brow. "I might know where that is."
She nodded her head, gesturing for Selene to follow. She led her to a backroom, where clothes and candles and all manner of storage all lay strewn about the place.
It led to another door, a closet perhaps. The harlot pulled it open, motioning for Selene to go first. "We've got all our treasures here. Maybe you'll find it."
She was hesitant, but eventually she stepped through the doorway and into the dark room.
There was no time to react when the door swung shut behind her, followed by the sound of a lock.
"No," Selene said. "No! Hey, let me out!" She pounded the wooden door with both fists. "Please, you don't understand. Everyone is in danger if we don't get that shard."
The woman was still on the other side of the door. "Not me, darling. The shard protects me. Nothing can hurt me with it, no one ever has."
Selene was an idiot. The necklace, the necklace was the shard. And now she was on the other side of a door, unable to get out and retrieve it, or tell anyone about her discovery.
"You can cry about it all you want, but no one will hear your screams down here. And no one will take this shard from me." The harlot said nothing more, followed by the sound of footsteps retreating.
"Let me out! Come on!"
Eventually, she reasoned that yelling would be useless. She lifted up a foot, violently kicking the door. Nothing moved or even splintered. She tried again with more force this time, but all she got was a small creak.
"Dammit," she whispered. She felt around the dark room in search of something to help. There was a small stool, but nothing else.
She picked it up and smacked it against the door. Once again, it was a fruitless effort. She threw her shoulder against the lock, harder and harder until she accepted that she was breaking her shoulder more than the door.
There was no way she was getting out. She dropped to her knees, letting out an angry scream. It didn't help that she was in a small, claustrophobic room. She tried not to think about it, but the longer she was in there, the worse it got.
She'd long since given up when she heard a deep laugh, followed by a high pitched giggle. She bent down to look beneath the crack in the door, she saw the shadows of two pairs of feet.
"Right now?"
It was Kit.
"Shh, you can't let them hear us."
"Kit!" Selene cried. She pounded on the door, desperately hoping he'd hear her. But somehow, not even her loudest screams were heard.
She had to sit there and listen to lips smacking and breathy giggles, trying to block it out, until the girl let out a string of curses.
"Someone's coming, quick, in here."
Selene had never been so relieved as she was when the door flung open, revealing Kit and the girl he was with, scurrying into the room and holding the door shut.
"Kit."
She swore she never saw him jump as high as he did then.
"My God, Selene? Why are you here?"
She shoved past him, pushing the door open with her shoulder. "It's a long story, but we need to find the woman with the necklace."
"Why?"
"Because that's the shard."
Kit's eyes widened. He gave the girl an apologetic look before joining Selene's side.
"I'm sorry, truly," he said, shoving a coin into the maiden's hand. They didn't have time for formalities.
The prince hissed when Selene gripped his wrist, yanking him out of the back room and into the main part of the brothel. Her eyes landed on Eurion.
"Hey, there you are, have you found anything?" asked the thief.
Selene's eyes were frantic. "A woman with a pendant, she was wearing purple. That pendant is the shard, have you seen her?"
Eurion looked around, then pointed over Selene's shoulder. "She's there."
Selene turned and sure enough, the woman was there. But she had Chalice in a violent grip, and she seemed to be firing them with questions.
"Shit," she hissed, drawing her sword and darting towards the woman.
"How the hell did you get out?" she asked the moment she saw Selene. This gave Chalice the chance to make their escape, slithering out of sight before the harlot could even turn around.
It was just her against Selene now. Like a coward, she ran. She hurried out of the entrance and onto the street, heading right for a hillside of trees.
"Come on!" Selene urged, motioning for the others to follow her out of the building. Giselle and Lionel looked up at the sudden noise, the Seelie immediately standing ready.
"She has the shard," Selene warned, then pushed off towards the woods in which the woman had disappeared to.
When she found her again, she was knelt on the ground, the tips of her fingers turning black as she chanted something under her breath. She was a witch.
When she tried to attack, her sword was ripped from her hand, and she looked up to see a tree branch stretching and twisting and lifting her weapon away.
"Fine," she breathed, swinging her fist. She witch dodged every one, but didn't try to hit back.
Selene danced around her, swinging and ducking and failing every hit she threw.
"Didn't I tell you? No one can hurt me with this shard. You can't take it from me."
Selene didn't give up. She wasn't alone anymore, Kit arrived at the top of the hill with a look of determination. He swung his sword, but missed every hit.
"Give me that," she ordered. For once he didn't question it. She took his sword, but didn't hold it to the witch. Instead, she plunged the sword into the ground, right where she'd placed her spell.
"Watch out!" Kit cried, and Selene moved right before her sword fell against the leaves where she'd just stood.
The two of them had their swords now, and it was harder for her to dodge. Selene felt victorious when she nicked her cheek, and that seemed to scare the witch. Perhaps she wasn't as invincible as she thought.
She ran another way, trailing the knights through the thick trees. It was hard to keep up with her, but they didn't lose her. Selene thought she might've caught up to her, but the witch halted anyways. Not because of her, though.
It was Lionel, standing before her with an innocent expression.
"What are you doing here, child?" she all but growled. In one swift movement, she swept Lionel into her arms, using him as a shield against the others.
Selene stepped closer, but the witch just moved back. Her heart pounded in her chest at the sight of Lionel wrapped in her arms, where he was at the witch's mercy.
"Let him go, he's just a child," Selene said.
"See, that's exactly the point. You wouldn't hurt a child."
"I would."
The witch hardly had time to process Morgana behind her, Selene hadn't even seen him there. He swung his cane, colliding it with her temple. She stumbled back, letting Lionel go.
"You'll regret that," she hissed. She yanked the necklace off, holding it in her hand. She whispered a chant, and Selene watched as the trees creaked and moved, bending above them like a dome.
Selene and Kit fought at the branches and roots which growed closer to them, but they came too fast. A choking sound rang through the clearing, and she turned to see a branch curled around Morgana's neck, lifting him from the ground.
"Put him down!" she cried, running towards him. She was stopped when a root caught her foot and twisted up her leg. Branches sprouted from the ground, wrapping around her, pressing her against the ground.
She could feel the dirt beneath her swallowing her limb by limb. The roots were pulling her into the ground, and struggling only made it worse. She clawed the dirt, but it only pulled her deeper. Morgana's eyes rolled back and he went limp in the branch, and once again, Selene was sure this wouldn't end well.
"No one will take this shard from me," she growled.
Kit had somehow managed to dodge the roots, now standing protectively in front of his son. When he swung, a quick branch knocked the sword away. The roots were catching up to Kit and Lionel, but the prince effortlessly threw the boy over his shoulder, keeping him from the greedy branches.
"I didn't want to do this so early, but I guess I have to now." The witch clasped her hand tight around the pendant, crushing the stone around the shard. Selene was fully confident that she was strong enough to break the metal.
But she wouldn't get that chance.
In a flash of silver, Eurion jumped down from the top of the trees, sword in hand, bringing the blade down and ridding the witch of her hand.
The witch cried out, tripped back, holding her wrist against her chest. The trees creaked as they weakened, branches and roots receding back where they belonged. Morgana dropped to the ground with a lifeless thump, and Selene scrambled towards him the moment she was freed.
"Morgana," she said roughly, flipping him onto his back. She pressed two fingers to his freezing throat, and to her relief, she felt a pulse.
She sat his limp body up, roughly clapping his back until finally, he took in a deep breath, followed by a loud fit of coughs.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
He didn't answer the question, eyes darting around at the scene. He spent a long moment staring at the witch, who Kit and Eurion were now apprehending as she cried. Then he looked to Lionel, who was tracing shapes into the ground with a stick. His eyes landed back on Selene.
"Where's the shard?"
She turned to look behind her where the witch was standing before, and there it lay, surrounded by broken red crystal and a dark pool of blood, dented but real. She held it up to him with a grin.
"Right here."