Minotaur statues. Minotaur statues.

Klein poked one right above the carved-stone belt buckle, ready for it to roar and charge, ax gleaming.

Nothing. As there'd been nothing from the snaggly-toothed goblins, the centaur with the Mohawk-mane and an attitude, or the petrified sickle-wielding guy in winged sandals. All were just so much speckled white-and-pink granite.

"Um, Leader?" Even Kunimittz sounded spooked. "He's a great guy, but..."

"Horrible stony death," Harry One muttered.

Yeah. That was what the villagers had said. Though they'd also admitted the cave seemed to be just an empty cave, now. Given Stheno's Cave had been the site of what most people had labeled an unbeatable quest, Klein bet they had Kirito to thank for that. "He's got to be here somewhere."

Then again. Statues. Shadows. Better part of valor, and all.

"Okay, let's head back outside," Klein sighed. "Send him another message-"

"Who disturbs the silence of Stheno's Cave?"

"...Or not," Klein muttered. Damn it. We would hit this place when the quest respawned. And Argo's guide says the quest-giver here can get nasty. "Form up. Let's just be polite and try to talk our way out of this one. If the villagers say they're not being bothered, then we've got no reason to bother anyone back."

He hoped. Heck, it might even work. Argo's guide said Stheno was hard to aggro-

"A human fighter who thinks. And I thought unicorns were rare." A slender shadow moved in the back of the cave, gracefully halting just outside the light. "I'd hate to slay such a rarity. But you have intruded on my home. What would you offer, in recompense for this trespass?" Torchlight glinted on red braids and emerald coils, yet her features were still cast in shadow. "Gold? Mystic secrets?" A hand lifted, claws gleaming. "A life?"

Oh boy. Klein glanced at his guild, looking for any ideas. Dunno what's the right answer. But I know what it can't be. "I'm sorry, ma'am," he said politely. "We didn't know we were trespassing. If there's something you need, let's talk. But it was an honest mistake. Nobody needs to die for it."

"An honest mistake." Sarcasm dripped from Stheno's tone.

But she's not stepping into the light, Klein realized. She's not threatening us. Not really.

His guild could see it too. They were tense, but not wired tight. And Issin looked downright relieved.

"Yes, ma'am," Klein nodded, slow and careful. "We're sorry. And thank you for giving us a chance to say it. If somebody turned up in my living room, I know I'd be all kinds of jumpy." Deliberately, he sheathed his katana. "Is there something we can get you to make up for it? The bakery in town makes an awesome lemon Danish." There. If there's a fetch quest running here, we should have shoved the encounter that direction. Much safer.

The snake-haired shadow stood there, nonplussed. "Lemon Danish."

A familiar chuckle snickered out of the darkness.

Kirito. Klein sighed in relief as an unharmed Black Swordsman stepped into the torchlight. When we get out of here, we're going to have a long talk about not leading friends into caves with petrifying monsters!

"I am only a guest in your domain, Lady Stheno," Kirito said formally, eyes on the floor as he turned toward the medusa. "But if a guest may be so bold as to offer a suggestion? Fuurinkazan are noble warriors, honest and true, who have never faltered when we bring battle to the Dark Pack's minions." The swordsman nodded toward Kunimittz. "In their last battle, that warrior took a tainted wound, and only by the strength of their shaman's power and the grace of your gift was he made whole."

Okay, despite the whole death game mess? Sometimes it was just fun seeing Kirito roll with the world.

The leaves come from here. I knew it! Kirito figured that a quest this tough had to be hiding something good-

...So he faced down a medusa by himself to find it. Argh.

"One might say, they are already in your debt," Kirito went on, apparently ignoring Klein's hand gestures of going to strangle you later. "But if you speak with them, Lady Stheno, you may find they have a greater treasure to offer than mere gold, or jewels, or even the rarest magic." He made a subtle motion with his finger and thumb, almost pulling open a menu. "Their friendship."

Klein's jaw dropped. Is he saying... she's a quest monster, I can see the gold cursor! Could that even work?

He glanced at five other sets of eyes. Harry One looked dubious; the others shrugged. But Issin-

Issin looked downright interested.

"Do it," their shaman mouthed. "Remember Aoneko!"

Yeah, but that was different. Aoneko was a youkai lord, a special kind of NPC-

Kirito called her Lady.

With a deep breath, Klein opened his menu, and offered a friend request.

"Hmm." Stheno stepped into the light, and Klein jerked his gaze down-

Wait. Wait a minute. Did I see-?

A clawed finger tapped Yes.

Stheno the Fierce has been added to your friends list.

"You may look at me."

Klein took the opportunity to do just that. Platinum wire and obsidian lenses, medieval style, but- "You were wearing sunglasses the whole time?"

Stheno chuckled, one hand poised on a silk-skirted hip. "You should have seen the look on your face!"


"Aoneko?" Kirito asked later.

Klein breathed in the green air outside the cave, kind of relieved that Stheno had retreated into the darkness with an ominous smirk and a mutter of girl talk, heh heh heh...

Now they stood on a grassy hilltop with a good view of the cave mouth and the low, wet marsh leading away from it, seven relieved warriors drinking in the sunlight. Dragonflies thrummed through the air; one intrepid green-and-blue flyer perched on Dynamm's helmet to munch a mosquito, before taking off again.

"The youkai lord who adopted me into his clan," Issin answered. "It was a quest reward, we think. I don't know if any other party's done The Cat's Up a Tree yet."

"The background information said it could be possible," Kirito mused. "Are you okay... no, never mind, you don't have to talk about it-"

"You know, you're the first guy outside Fuurinkazan to even ask?" Issin scratched his head, claws lightly tugging apart a stray snarl of hair. "I think I am. It's kind of weird, hearing so much. And the scents... whoof." He shrugged. "I'm getting used to it. At least I can dive into a fight with a lycan without worrying about anything but my HP."

"Then other people will be trying to get... adopted." Jaw set, Kirito looked out over the marsh.

"For a while there, I was wondering if you had been," Issin admitted. "The first day after Aoneko touched me with the Bloodstone, I still looked pretty human, even if I felt a little weird. It was the second day that stuff got freaky."

And that had been a handful and a half, Klein recalled, dealing with a friend suddenly as clingy as a scared kitten. Literally clingy, once the claws had started erupting. Which had given the guild all kinds of second thoughts.

But by then it was way too late. And they were not going to run out on Issin. Fur, fangs, claws - so what? He was still there, behind those slit-pupiled blue eyes. Not like one of those poor unlucky bastards who got bit by a lycan-

And then exactly what Issin had implied hit home, and Klein wasn't the only one stifling an eep. The Black Swordsman as a medusa? The guy was scary enough already!

"I doubt Stheno would ever adopt anyone. She has bad associations with humans." Kirito lifted a shoulder, let it fall. "No. After I completed her quest - something else happened." He hesitated. "I don't know anyone to ask about this. The other magical Skills have to be deliberately activated."

"Yeah, that's-" Issin stared. "You mean yours doesn't?"

"I can use it deliberately," Kirito said quietly. "But if the MP starts building up too much - things happen. Like... this." He turned one hand, palm upward.

In the cup of his fingers, purple flames blazed.

He was not going to jump up and run away, Klein told himself firmly. Even if Kirito had suddenly cornered the market on freaky. "Okay. What is that?"

Dale whistled. "I think it's Darkfire."

A little of the wariness eased out of Kirito's face. He shook the flames out. "You've heard of it?"

"Just a rumor," the brunet pikeman admitted. "Somebody posted a screenshot of what they said was the dev team's tease for the 25th floor boss fight. Darkfire - the caption looked like it was on some kind of player spell or effect a lot like what you had. Only bigger." He rubbed the back of his neck above his armor. "I'm kind of hoping it was just a tease, and they went with some other boss. Lycans are bad enough. The last thing we need is a vampire."

"Man, that's for..." Klein trailed off. "Um. Kirito? I really don't like that look."

"It's nothing solid," the swordsman stated. "But Stheno spoke as if vampires do exist."

Klein thought he could probably count all the hairs on the back of his neck. They were standing straight up. "Oh, this world just keeps getting better. Did you tell Argo?"

"She was there." Kirito smirked, just a little. "I know she'll be interested to hear what you know when she comes out, Dale. Hold out for something good."

She was there? It might be bright and sunny out here, but Klein swore he felt ice down his spine. Because Kirito was at least implying Argo was still in there, and Stheno had mentioned girl talk, and that meant-

Klein shuddered, and decided to think about something safer, like slavering man-eating giant sundew plants. Some things, man was not meant to know.

"Well." Kirito looked down at his empty palm. "It's called the Sorcery Skill. I'm not sure if it's a quest reward or a random event. Stheno said the power just... wakes up in some people. Humans or youkai. So I thought you should know. In case you run into something that can cast spells without chanting."

"A whole Skill as a random event?" Harry One muttered, tails of his bandanna rustling as he eyed Kirito. "What kind of game balance is that?"

As far as Klein could see, Kirito didn't even blink. But he saw Issin's ears twitch, with the determined expression that meant their shaman thought someone needed a manly hug. And he definitely saw the sidestep as Kirito oh so casually moved out of grabbing range. Damn it.

"And Agil thought Issin was going to be more skittish," Klein grumped, crossing his arms. See? Not going to grab you. You idiot. "Something about a long-tailed cat and a room of rocking chairs. Though I guess he's got a point. Nekomata, rocking chair - bad mix. So you've got magic now. So what?"

Kirito's gaze flickered away. "It's not important-"

"Then it doesn't matter if you tell us, right?" Kunimittz tried to look innocent.

Go, Kun, Klein thought, grinning. If he didn't have magic, you'd have been screwed. And he knows it.

"It's... a little complicated." Kirito glanced down at nodding pitcher plants below, as if trying to wrangle a bunch of complicated thoughts into simple order. "Do you know how the NervGear works? Why we started the game without pain, but now, when we get hit, we feel it?"

Klein rolled his eyes. "Because Kayaba's an asshole."

Kirito's face was pale. "Kayaba may not have had anything to do with it."

Issin whistled. "Okay. Try that again with a few more details. You don't think Kayaba wanted us to feel it when our HP goes down?"

"I'm not sure he had a choice. NervGear works because the brain synthesizes reality from nerve input, it's not one to one-" Kirito stopped. Made himself take a few breaths. "When they were first putting out FullDive, there were all kinds of scientific articles arguing about how it worked. Or how researchers thought it worked. Some articles went back a few decades. About researchers deliberately inducing phantom limb feelings in people who didn't have amputations."

"Phantom limbs," Klein said blankly. That totally did not make sense - no, wait. It did. "You're saying our avatars are, what? Phantom body syndrome?"

"Spooky," Kunimitzz sing-songed.

"In some experiments, they had the subject imagine picking up objects, and used visual tricks so the items moved," Kirito stated. "Once someone was used to the 'phantom arm' - they'd stick a pin where the subject imagined the arm was. And the person felt pain."

Klein rubbed at the hairs on the back of his neck. That was beyond spooky.

"Those experiments were just for a few hours," Kirito went on, face grim. "Kayaba's locked us in. We can't log out. We've been here months. The brain is plastic, it can change with your surroundings. And this is the only reality our brains have." He flexed half-gloved fingers, and nodded at Issin's ears. "If sorcery is a random event, if becoming youkai is a quest reward... Klein. The longer we're in here, the less - normal - the Otherworld will be. What if we don't get out soon enough? What's going to happen to us?"

At least he still thinks we will get out. But it was a damn good question. From a kid who... well, if Kirito was even sixteen, Klein would eat a Tree Slug. Raw. "C'mere."

"Um, Klein...?"

Klein dragged the smaller swordsman into a one-armed hug, ignoring the harassment window that popped up. Kirito was already thumbing it off anyway, even if he looked dubious about it. "We," Klein said, very deliberately, "are going to be just fine. Because we are Fuurinkazan and the Black Swordsman, and if we have to fight our way out of Aincrad and then back into the Otherworld, that's what we're going to do." He hugged the kid a little tighter. "You saved Kunimittz. We're all alive. We're going to be fine."


Tapping smoky pollen off an Orchil Iris into a vial, Sachi held her breath. She was a decent Potions maker, and getting better, but one little sigh at the wrong moment and the valuable grains would be dust on the wind...

Gold sifted into glass, and the vial glowed. Orchil Iris Pollen.

There. Ready to brew into shades of violet dye, or add to potions, or even - she'd heard - dust onto an ingot while a Blacksmith was hammering out a new weapon. It wasn't very expensive, but it was worth getting while the flowers bloomed.

Sachi let herself breathe again, and took another cautious glance around the edge of the woodland pond. Dragonflies, cicadas; a violet-spotted frog hopping off a Sawtoothed Lily pad into dark water. Otherwise their little swampy clearing was as quiet as the black-clad swordsman perched on a cypress branch somewhere over her head.

If he is a swordsman. Sachi frowned, and tried to shake away the thought. Kirito knew how to use a sword. And had, well enough to be one of the Black Cats' main offensive fighters. That was what mattered, right? "Aren't you bored? Everyone else was happy to head for town..." She tried not to worry about that. The guild needed some supplies - and this was a low-level encounter area. The two of them should be fine. Just fine.

"I don't like towns much."

Quiet words. A human a few feet away wouldn't have heard them.

But I'm not human anymore.

She still didn't know how to feel about that. It was... it was kind of nice to be pretty, even if it was so different. She loved soft fur. And all her senses were so rich. It was as if the world was jeweled in colors and scents, just for her. Best of all, healing spells had become so much easier to cast after the cougar youkai had adopted her. If she could heal the others, she didn't have to make herself fight. She didn't have to be so scared...

But a lot of players still jumped when they looked at her. Claws. Tawny furred ears, twitching at every sound. A tail almost as quick to twitch, though in town she kept it under her skirt. Other adoptees weren't weird about it, but some of the human players... the way they looked at her was scary.

Kirito never looks like that.

But then, Kirito didn't act like most people. Ever.

Sachi put the filled vial into her Inventory, and looked over the clump of irises again. Maybe one more vial. "Why don't you like towns? Everybody does. They're safe."

"Check Argo's Guide to the first level again." Kirito shifted on his perch, a shadow in green needle shadows. "Some of the beta testers said there was an event in the first month of testing. The Harpies' Midday Raid. For twenty-four hours, the City of Beginnings' guards were missing. Higher-level encounters swarmed the city. A lot of players were overwhelmed and had to respawn." His breath caught. "That's what the guide says."

Sachi swallowed hard, chilled. "You mean... even towns might not be safe?"

"...It's just a rumor." Kirito crouched on the branch, those incredibly black eyes meeting hers. "That's why we stay in inns. And we stay together. As long as we have each other to protect us, even an event can be beaten."

Sachi bit her lip, and put the vial away still empty. "I'm not good at protecting anyone," she admitted. "I'm so scared. All the time. This was supposed to be a game, and I'm going to die here-"

"You aren't going to die." Kirito jumped down to the ground. Dusted his hands off, and gave her a quiet smile. "We're going to make it. You're going to be fine."

"But I should be fighting too!" She was trembling now; she couldn't help it. "Everyone keeps protecting me, you keep protecting me, and - I should be doing something in the fights! I'm just so scared..."

"You are doing something." Kirito's hand rested on her head, fingers brushing the edge of one furry ear. "You heal us. You put on buffs. You stay out of the main fight, but that means sometimes you see things we're too busy to notice." He lifted his hand away, serious. "Sachi. I know the guild means a lot to you. But have you talked to Keita? Maybe-"

"Oh no, I couldn't!" Sachi straightened, even if she still felt like shivering. "How could you? The group has to stay together!"

"...Sometimes that isn't the smartest choice."

And now she had to wonder all over again. She'd heard rumors of what had happened on the twenty-fifth floor. Everyone had. Rumors about a black-clad wizard swordsman who'd betrayed the clearers to the vampire and disappeared...

Except those rumors couldn't be about Kirito. She'd never seen him use magic. Ever.

Besides. Kirito wouldn't ever betray anyone. He wasn't scared. Even in a death game. "How do you do it?" she asked impulsively. "You fight, and you get hurt... how can you keep doing that when you know you could die?"

Black eyes were unreadable. "Pain isn't dying." He took a step back, and brought out a small smile. "If you're about done, maybe we should send a message to the others and head back to town?"

"Okay..." Sachi bit her lip. No. Not okay. "It's just that you act like-" smell like "-you expected something to happen. And it didn't, and you're... disappointed." Which was scary. She fought because her guild fought, but if they ever decided to stay in town, she'd never go looking for monsters on her own!

"Oh." Kirito glanced away. "Heh. So much for learning patience."

"You want the monster to come find you?" Sachi blurted out.

The swordsman turned red. "It's not like that. Sometimes when I'm out in the woods I run into an encounter. That's all."

Sachi gave him a disbelieving look, and gripped her spear. "So what kind of monster is it?"

"He's not a-" Kirito went even redder. "Have you ever heard of linked quest chains?"

Linked-? Sachi hugged herself, suddenly lost. "You're in the middle of a quest right now? And you didn't tell us?"

"No! It's not like that. I haven't seen Vincent since-" The swordsman closed his mouth on the answer.

"Since you met us?" Sachi whispered. She'd spent so much time with the rest of her computer club. It was hard to run up against the fact they were partying with someone they didn't really know.

Kirito scratched at the back of his neck, uncomfortable. "He said he had something to look after, and that he might not be back for months. It hasn't been two months yet." He shrugged. "He's an NPC ranger. He doesn't like people much."

"An NPC," Sachi repeated. Not sure how to feel about that, either. Kirito cared about the guild, she could see that. But from the slight shifts in his scent she was beginning to decipher, he also cared about some NPCs. It was weird.

"His quests help with Survival Skill." Kirito glanced around the clearing, automatically checking for danger. "A few of them have helped me get a toe into Herbalism." He smiled at her. "Enough to recognize Orchil Irises, at least."

Oh. That explained a lot. Though it left Sachi with even more questions. Herbalism did overlap with Potions; maybe Kirito had some magic after all...

They hit a nest of Swamp Dire Toads on the way back, and she was too busy to worry about it anymore.

Except.

In the middle of the fight, she could have sworn she'd seen a light like purple fire flaring behind her. Just for an instant.

Then it was gone, and Kirito was taunting the King Toad into snapping its sticky tongue at him, so she could take the last attack with her spear from its flank.

Purple fire.

There had been rumors about that, too.

Or it could have been some weird status effect Kirito had shaken off without a Cure or a Cleansing. He was scarily good at that.

I'll ask him, Sachi decided at last as they passed the town guards and saw the Black Cats' relieved waves. I will. After we get a place of our own. Somewhere we can all be safe.

Keita already had plans for that. Oh, it would be so good to have doors they could lock, and not have to depend on an NPC innkeeper...

Then I'll ask him. And I'll listen. To everything.


There was a young Moonsword huddled against one of Stheno's meditation boulders, buried under a fluffy mound of cockatrice copper, emerald, violet, and gold.

Hand on a curious youngling's shoulder to hold her back, Stheno sighed in mingled relief and exasperation. She'd meant to introduce Yui to her garden when no players were around, so the orphaned nestling could learn this was a safe place before she had to meet anything as frightening as a human-

But Kirito had dropped out of sight days ago, and no one had been able to find him. Not Klein. Not Argo. Not Stheno herself, even using the low level of access Beniryuu gave youkai lords to his tracking program.

I should have asked Vincent. Yes, he's only been back a few days. And he has enough worries of his own, trying to settle in a newly-turned pack of heroes. But he would have looked.

But she hadn't asked. Kirito's guild had perished, and the swordsman had vanished. It had... hurt. She hadn't expected a human fate to hurt.

The trembling nestling under her hand reminded her exactly why. "Aunt Stheno." A bare whisper. "It's a - it feels like-"

"Shh." Stheno crouched to block the youth from Yui's sight. "Kirito wouldn't hurt you. He wouldn't ever harm a child."

Right now, Stheno was more worried he might harm himself. He'd somehow snuck into her garden without setting off her alarms, and certainly without sending a polite message to ask if she wished a visit. If she truly were the AI-monster he thought her, breaking either of those patterns could have set off an automatic assault by every creature the Cardinal system could summon into being. Kirito was skilled. He wasn't invincible.

And he knows it.

So. What did she do now?

If he were youkai, what would I do?

"Stay back, little one," Stheno murmured. "I'll deal with this."

One wide-eyed nestling huddling behind a sugar-suckle bush, Stheno advanced on the pile of feathers, and clucked softly. Enough cockatrices scattered after grain to reveal a dark head; black eyes blinked at her...

Shut again, resigned.

Stheno sat next to that grim silence. "I've meant to ask for some time. Why did you never bring your guild here?"

"...I didn't want them to know." Halting words, as if he had to drag them up from lightless depths. "If they knew I was the Beater, if they found out how I failed against the Vampire Lord..."

The twenty-fifth floor. It made her want to throttle Beniryuu with her bare hands. So many deaths.

And well and fine for Beniryuu to say there would be no wasteful deaths. Years ago, when the youkai lords had first entertained the red dragon's offer, she'd taken that to mean there would be no true death in Beniryuu's net of magic. That any humans who could not thrive in Aincrad, would be released. But after hearing Beniryuu's promise to the players from Kirito's own words, that they would return to their proper world-

Dragons lie with truth. And it is lies, all the same. They may be truly dead.

And to Kirito, they were. He grieved them. And with good cause. "Vampire Lord Tiberius was a trained fighter in life. That, I knew," Stheno said grimly. "That he was also a sorcerer, with bespelled gargoyles in his service - that, I did not know. Would that I had."

Dark eyes searched her face, and looked away. "It wasn't your fault," Kirito said numbly. "Kayaba changed so many things since the beta..."

Odd words. Though after speaking with Argo, and reading the missives sent by the players, she thought she understood the gist of them. "The beta?"

Kirito opened his mouth, and closed it again. Cleared his throat. "We think the wizard Kayaba has used Words of Unmaking, to unravel lore found by other travelers before us. Even the tomes of your own library may have suffered from his spell."

...Which was a very interesting translation of what Beniryuu had actually done: changed SAO's monsters, their abilities, and their hidden allies, so even her own knowledge of Aincrad's true history was fatally flawed.

Even when he thinks I am no more than a creation of the Cardinal who slew his friends, he speaks to me as if I were real.

"But we knew the lore was flawed," Kirito said, half to himself. "It was our responsibility to find out what we were up against. We failed." He looked down at half-gloved hands. "I failed."

"Why?" Stheno said tartly. "Because you have been a Moonsword for all of four months, while Tiberius had decades to perfect his sorcery? Even if you had been working magic since your first breath, you could not have won that fight! Not alone."

"I could have done more!" A flicker of anger, breaking through the leaden voice. "You didn't see..." Black eyes closed again. "Thinker's face, when we counted who was still left. Or - the other clearers, I-" He swallowed. "I left the clearers. I couldn't look at them... The Black Cats didn't know what I'd done. They just needed another swordsman."

"Another - they didn't know you were a sorcerer?" Stheno demanded, aghast. "Why? How could you even hide it?" A true sorcerer might keep spells uncast, if need required it. A warlock, whose power welled up from elsewhere - no. Never. She could not go a day without calling light and fire to her hands. The pressure within would be unbearable. A warlock Kirito's age, powers just arising within him? He should be throwing sparks at the slightest stress.

Which is how Galifar kills them.

"I went out nights to practice. Who needs sleep? I..." His voice sank. "I killed them."

"If your magic had burst your will's bonds from sheer stupidity, you might have," the medusa said acidly. Harsh, too harsh; but she could hear the crumble of stone statues in his voice. The wail of the maimed and dying. The dry rattle of her kin's bones in Swiftwater Pass.

I should have known.

"You lived alone, survived alone, for months before you met them," Stheno bore on, snakes coiling in true anger. "The first day you trusted another player to fight beside you, he left you to be slain by monsters. Do not deny it!" she hissed, as Kirito sat up in alarm. "I scried your past when first you visited me; I know it is true. You trusted, and it nearly cost your life. You trusted Diabel to lead you against Illfang, and that nearly had you slain by Kibaou's words. You have acted to spread lore amongst your fellow warriors, and seen that flame gutter out as others hoard their secrets to be heroes. So you held back secrets from your comrades? I have kept them even from my own sister! There is always a dark night, when your enemies are upon you and there is no help. Only a fool discards the last knife from his sleeve."

"I didn't trust them about the levels!"

Folding her hands, Stheno waited.

"I could have told them." Barely a whisper. "That I wasn't guessing. That I'd been on those floors before. But I wanted them to trust me. And who'd trust the Beater?" His breath hitched. "And they didn't, they never did, Keita t-told me..."

Did he, then. Stheno bit her lip on what she wanted to say. Kirito didn't need to hear ill of the dead. Not if he needed to grieve...

But Kirito took a slow breath, any tears only a brightness in black eyes. "No one got past the eighth level in the beta. No one knows what's on each new level now." Half-gloved fists clenched. "We could all clear levels faster if we just shared information, so more people could level up. But so many people still live like this is a game, and all that matters is being the highest level, with the flashiest equipment. Help lower level players? Why?"

Stheno glanced over her young Moonsword. Garb black as a raven; a few muted grays, greens, and blues, the better to blend into shadows. No obvious armor, besides the leather of his long coat. Sword, throwing pikes, and knives all plain, darkened metals, to hide any betraying glint of steel. The preening popinjays he spoke of, like the oh-so-noble scions of the Five Nations and the dragonmarked Houses, probably never gave him a second glance.

But if one of Breland's damnable Dark Lanterns ventured here...

King Boranel's loyal spies knew deadly skill when they saw it. They'd leave the peacocks be, and head straight for her little raven.

My raven. Stheno shook her head at the thought. As Argo is my little skulking ash-rat. They're human. But I don't want to lose them.

"That's what Keita said," Kirito whispered. "He thought I was different. That maybe a clearer - even a beater - could care about a mid-level guild. But he said I was just using them. That I said I'd keep them safe, and I should have stopped them-!"

Enough.

Swift as her snakes, Stheno pounced.

Kirito trembled in her arms. Resistance to poison wasn't immunity. He knew what her cobras could do.

Stheno kept their movements easy and smooth, as she tucked his head into the crook of her neck. For a nestling it would be soothing; the scent of skin, scales, and hair, the liquid flow of serpents past ears and throat, tongues flicking skin in a feather-light caress.

Human noses were duller, poor things. But they could still feel.

"You are alive," Stheno said softly. "You are my Moonsword, and I know you did not leave them while breath or hope remained." She stroked his cheek with the back of her claws. "Enough of could-haves. We must live with what is."

He stiffened. "I..."

"You cannot die," Stheno said; as if, like a truenamer, she could warp the fabric of reality to make it so. "You must find Kayaba. You must live to face him, and break the trap he has laid for us all." Her voice sank, as she stroked trembling skin. "You are the last of the Black Cats. No one else can bring a reckoning for the dead."

There was no sound. Only quiet, ragged breaths. But hot tears soaked her shoulder, and he huddled in her arms like a child.

He is young, Stheno thought, rocking him slowly. But he is no child. Not anymore.

Soon, too soon, the tears ceased. Kirito swallowed, and lifted his head. "...You said, the trap he laid for us."

Ah. So she had. Not the most skillful slip of the tongue, no-

"Lady Stheno." Tear-stained eyes were wide. "Are you an admin?"


It's crazy, Kirito thought, through the grief and throbbing headache. But it's the only thing that makes sense.

With that cursor, Stheno couldn't be a player. Yet she was too alive, too real, to be a scripted program. Even one where Cardinal assumed direct control for a specific quest interaction. She talked to people. She had a sense of humor. She read the messages he sent her, and wrote back, seeming as curious about his home islands as he was about Aincrad. She raged, grieved-

She's killed players.

Kirito slipped out of her grasp and rose, hands in front of him and harmless. Blinked away a red flash of pain; ever since Keita had- everything had just hurt. "I'm sorry. Forget I asked. If you don't know, I shouldn't have asked. If you do - I shouldn't have said anything. People were willing to throw betas to the monsters. What they'd do to... someone else Kayaba trapped..." He tried to swallow. His throat was dry. "You've been kind. I should go."

"Wait."

Kirito halted, wishing he could feel his heartbeat. In the Otherworld, it had to be pounding in his ears.

"Are you afraid I'll kill you, too?"

How could he answer that? "Not because you wanted to."

"I am Stheno the Fierce. Stheno of the Night of Shattered Stone!" Her voice should have frozen the garden around them, spring into hoary winter in an instant. "Do you believe any power could constrain me to act against my own will?"

People were impossible to predict. Kirito had found that out the hard way five years ago, when he'd hacked the wrong file and felt the bottom drop out of his world. But Stheno had always been honest with him before.

She didn't say no.

He could still be wrong. He wanted to be wrong.

That's why I never brought the others here, Kirito realized. If they found out I was a beater, and everything went wrong, I could run. Stheno's tied to this cave. If enough players came after her...

He closed his eyes, willing away images of blood and fire.

"So very silent." There was a wistfulness in Stheno's voice. "Were you always so wary, even in your own world?"

World. Not islands. World, as in somewhere that was not Aincrad.

She's not a program.

"Lady Stheno." He had to be very, very careful now. "Is there any lore you have found of the Dark Pack, of Akihiko Kayaba, that we should know?"

"Nothing I can tell you now." Emerald cobras settled almost entirely back into red hair, as a human would have hugged herself against a chill. "Only that his evil runs deeper than I had ever imagined. But you did not need divination to know that."

Kirito's hand almost went to the breast of his coat, where a sickle moon had once marked his guild colors. "No," he whispered.

They're gone. They're gone, I lost them... I'll never laugh with Ducker about snares again. I'll never tell Sachi she'll get home. They're gone, and I'm here, and - I don't want to be here...

He looked down, clenching and unclenching the fingers that had gripped a fatal sword. "Why am I alive? There were so many, I couldn't have killed them all... it doesn't make sense."

"You sell yourself short," Stheno said tartly. "You are quick, and careful. And you are a Moonsword. Legends of their magic may be lost in the shadows, but I know you will find them..." A very peculiar look crossed her face. She blinked, and squinted; as if she'd invoked Scan, though no betraying glow showed through obsidian lenses. "Ah. No wonder my scrying couldn't find you. Kirito? Look in the water."

He'd been avoiding that for days. He didn't want to look at his face - his avatar's face - and see the person who'd killed his guild.

But she says she couldn't scry me. Stheno couldn't find me?

Pushing aside thorny vines to get to the quietest pool, Kirito looked. Trees, roses, sky...

He wasn't there.

No! We beat the Vampire Lord, he didn't-

Stheno was at his shoulder, unflinching. Clearly visible in rippling water, resting her hand on what seemed empty air. Only when she touched his shoulder, her hand blurred. "This magic does not come easily for me. My sorcery draws on the bright sun of divination; yours, on the moon-shadows and night of darkfire. But I have fought from the shadows before."

Her free hand traced dark runes in air. With a whisper, her reflection vanished.

But I can still see her. She's just... shadowy at the edges-

Gazing at the hand on his shoulder, Kirito covered it with his own.

...Like I am. "Invisibility?" he got out.

"Nothing so simple." Stheno's voice was brisk. "Mold your magic against mine. We will lift it... now."

Ow.

He hadn't realized how much his head had hurt. It was like taking a sword out of his side.

My MP's so low, it was starting to eat into my HP. I didn't know, that was stupid-!

"It is called the Displacer's Shadow." Stheno sighed. "You must have been able to break contact with your foes, if only for a moment. It must have been a terrible fight."

Kirito blinked, taking apart the spell's name for what it might mean. "The monsters thought I was somewhere else?"

"Blur makes you seem somewhere else," Stheno corrected him. "Invisibility makes you seem not there. The Shadow is not truly akin to either. Invisibility tells the world, you do not see me. The Shadow is, I am not here."

Which wasn't specific at all, damn it. Though it sounded as if he might have been partially incorporeal. Which... would have explained a lot about how he couldn't remember if the door had ever opened again...

"In short? You were somewhere else. To ordinary eyes." Stheno's breath was a soft hah. "And to most not ordinary, as well. I am Stheno of the True Sight; I see you when you stand before me, even when you wish to be hidden. But your strength was enough to hide you from my scrying. Just as it is meant to hide you from your prey, when you seek those cursed with lycanthropy. When the madness takes hold many do not wish to be cured, and they may turn on all who would aid them." She nodded. "Like the moon in sunlit sky, you can still be seen. But one must know how to look."

But if he'd been hard to see, how - oh. "The cockatrices smelled me," Kirito realized.

"They know your scent," Stheno agreed. "And so they may seek it. But a werewolf pack would get a nasty surprise."

"This works even on werewolves?" Oh god. "I could have saved them-"

"Enough." Cobras glared at him, echoing the gaze behind obsidian. "You have barely begun to tap that magic. You do not have that strength. Not yet." One hand cupped sunlight in her palm, kneading it like molten gold. "And you never will, so long as you believe this," light shimmered like diamonds, "is but an illusion."

Which made no sense. If Stheno was an admin, she knew magic was just a game. "In the isles we came from-"

"Seers aren't supposed to be obvious," Stheno said dryly. "But you are not where you came from."

Mentally, no. But-

"Magic is as real as steel, here," Stheno pressed on. "Your sorcery is real. Will you use it? Or will you hand Kayaba the victory, because you fail to use the gifts you were born with?" She took one deliberate step back. "Because for all the future I cannot tell you, this I can: as your magic can cure a tainted bite, another's can sink its taint deeper. I do not think Kayaba will scruple to use that bane."

It was like a punch to the gut. Lycanthropy was going to get worse?

We're going up levels. Of course it gets worse.

"Think on it," Stheno wished him. "For now - mourn. And heal." She clucked to her flock, skirts swishing as they fluttered around her. "Pushy, pushy... summer will soon be here. And they will be impossible until their molts are finished."

Which was a hint, blatant as a brick through a window. Not that Kirito minded. Better not to think for a while. The ring kept him from petrifying if their teeth broke skin, but it was better not to get bitten at all. Which took steady fingers, concentration, and personal attention to every hen and chick groomed. Especially to the crook of clawed wings; given cockatrices climbed almost as much as they flew, bits of bark or thorn could get wedged in grasping claws...

Something moved in the underbrush. Too big to be a cockatrice. Far too big to be a pixie.

Casually, Kirito slid his glance that way.

Wide black eyes stared back.

A little girl?

Her eyes went even wider, and she dove out of sight.

"Don't follow," Stheno murmured, grooming the most puffed-up, arrogant cock in her flock. "Yui's very shy. I do want her to meet you. But for now, let's just see if she calms enough to be in the same garden."

"Someone hurt her." It made Kirito angry. And sad. And confused; he'd gotten used to feeling numb, after Keita had... chosen to die. This-

The numb ice seemed to be breaking. It hurt. "Who could hurt a little girl?"

"A very good heart," Stheno said, half to herself. "I will tell you. Another time."

He'd have to wait. Damn. He just knew that was going to keep him up nights.

Though fighting his way out of nightmares later, that wasn't the thought that kept him staring at the ceiling. Black eyes. Black hair, dark as his own. But in that hair, shifting in the shadows...

When did I start thinking a medusa was a little girl?