Standing at the edge of the
grove surrounding the Heart of the Seven Faeries were a handful of Mercs
summoned there after Patrick Field had rushed the Phoenix Rose. Private Mack’s
incapacitation by the cries of the Phoenix kept Field alive long enough for the
groundskeeper to report everything he’d seen to Santos, who didn’t want to
believe it but was duty bound to investigate. As such, Santos had run at top
speed to the barracks north of the Heart where he grabbed the first men he saw,
all Mercury’s Elite. The Regular Militia had been dispatched after the attack
to protect Avalona and to maintain the borderlands.
Santos stared at the seven bronze faerie
statues forever dancing a circle around the fountain. Their right hands held up
a giant carnelian stone shaped like a heart—not a cutesy Cupid heart, rather an
actual bivalve human heart—and their left hands all held ancient bladed weapons:
a cutler, an ensis, a ferrum, a gladius, a mucro, a pugio, and a sica. He saw
nothing out of the ordinary, at first. Motioning to two of the Mercs nearest
him, they cautiously approached the sacred fountain. The men circled it,
looking every which way yet seeing nothing. Santos was about ready to call the
effort off, when one of the Mercs stopped, tilted his head, and raised an
eyebrow.
