"What on earth is going on?"
Even the well-traveled Aaron was at a loss when confronted with five Charlottes, let alone the rest of his party. At the sight of five identical young ladies in distinctly different outfits, Barrel instinctively stepped back. The Sun Elf Mage made his position clear: this was Aaron's private business, and none of his concern.
Charlotte had taken the opportunity to shove Eleanor, and Miss Cleric was still fuming. Seeing this, she raised her hand and swept a spell to banish aberrations across the area, bathing the Mind Flayers' Hoard and the corridor outside in Selûne's divine power.
Yet nothing happened.
"Little brother, little brother!" ×4
Four young ladies crowded around him at once. Aaron could only motion for them to stay back while hurriedly asking the young lady in his arms what was going on.
With time running short, Charlotte quickly gave Aaron the simplest explanation she could.
As mentioned earlier, after the Mind Flayers' Nautiloid dragged their passenger ship into its hold, Aaron and Eleanor had gone exploring, while Charlotte and Barrel were responsible for teleporting away the surviving passengers who had not been captured. Barrel was supposed to stay with Charlotte, but she had told him she could manage alone and sent him to support Aaron with the two Drow.
Charlotte had not appeared during the subsequent battle against the Mind Flayers, but Aaron had thought nothing of it. Sending a whole group of people away was hardly an easy task, even for her.
In truth, however, Barrel had already prepared the Teleportation Circle and the spell. Charlotte only needed to supply the magic. The main reason she had not appeared was that, after finishing up, she suddenly sensed a summons from deep within her bloodline.
A voice within the divine blood