Chapter 4: Finish What you Started!
"You want to know something weird about my planet, Derflinger?" I ask my awesome talking sword that is currently strapped to my back.
"What might that be?"
"We only have one moon, and it's nowhere near as awesome as the two this planet has."
Derflinger chuckles. "Only one moon. Your planet's weird my friend."
I laugh. "I still think this planet's weirder, what with the mages and everything."
It had been a few hours after the duel with Wardes and I was leaning against the railing of the balcony of the hotel we were staying at looking up at the two moons. One blue moon, one pink moon. Beautiful. I'm no poet, on account of having no idea what constitutes written words to become poetry, but these moons were almost convincing me to give it a shot. I almost wish I had my phone so I could take a picture.
"So what are you going to do?" Derflinger asks me.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you going to search for a way back to your world or not?" Derlfinger asks me.
"I don't know. I mean, I want to go back, don't get me wrong. I just don't know if it's possible," I say to him. "By all means I shouldn't even be here. The only reason I'm here is that summoning spell, and there's no such spell that works in reverse. If we had a teleport spell of some kind then maybe I could go home, but that would require a ridiculously powerful spell and knowledge of where my world is. If my world's in a different universe then no teleport spell in existence can get me there. If I find anything that tells me it's possible to get home, then I'll definitely work on it. For now, I say we burn that bridge when we come to it."
"If you say so. If I were you that'd be my top priority."
"Don't misunderstand, it is a priority, I just don't know if it is possible so it's a bit lower."
"And what's high priority?" Derf asks.
"Things I know are possible, like getting the letter from the royalty in Albion and making sure Louise doesn't die," I tell the sword in an almost matter of fact voice.
"You sure are hellbent on protecting the missy, aren't you?"
Are you trying to imply something?
"Well, I'm her familiar, so isn't that my job? Isn't it only right to make your job a top priority?"
"Most jobs don't pay out with whips and withheld meals."
"An excellent point, but an ultimately moot one considering the runes state that I'm kind of locked into the job."
"Good point. And if she dies and the contract's destroyed you don't get those awesome powers anymore," Derflinger says.
"And it'd be a shame if I wasn't Gandalfar and couldn't even lift you without assistance."
Derflinger's silent for a minute.
"What's the matter Derflinger?"
"... Nothing. I just thought I remembered something. Gandalfar's a very familiar word."
"The pun was unintentional, right?"
"As far as you know."
With that we both shut up and look at the twin moons.
Eventually I hear footsteps and turn around and see Louise approaching me.
"Hello, Louise," I say casually. "Fancy meeting you here."
"I was just worried. Are you feeling okay?" she says.
Louise worried about me? If only I could provoke this reaction out of her whenever she starts going to town on me with her whip. Still, it is nice that she shows at least a shred of humanity towards me.
"I'm feeling fine. I just needed a rest after the duel," I tell her. "I'm still not really used to fighting, so it still takes a lot out of me." That and I had a minor concussion and was bleeding pretty heavily during that last part of the fight, but water mages always fix things up just fine. Thank god for healing magic, for it has no limits. Well, I think it stops at raising the dead, but I'll take what I can get in terms of healing. "But enough about me, are you feeling alright?"
"What do you mean?" She asks, her voice laced with curiosity.
"Well, you nearly witnessed your fiancé kill your familiar. Most people aren't too happy when they see things like that," I tell her.
Louise huffs and looks away. "I-it was your fault for accepting. You could have said no and nobody would have thought any less of you. Why did you say yes?"
"Because-" I stop when I realize I don't know why I said yes. Why on earth did I agree to duel Wardes even when I knew it was most likely a futile effort? "That's a really good question." I say as I simply gaze up at the moon.
"Really? Both of you?" Derflinger says.
"What do you mean?" Louise and I ask at the same time.
"Partner here clearly did it to impress missy!" Derflinger says, prompting both me and Louise to blush.
"Wh-what!" Is the reaction we both had in response.
"Partner here thought that if he could show up the Viscount in a contest of strength then missy would dump Wardes and go with him instead!" Derflinger says with complete seriousness.
"W-wrong!" I yell at the sword. "Completely, utterly wrong!"
"Y-yeah! Of course you're wrong you stupid sword!" Louise adds. "Why would Josh even think of such a thing?"
"Agreed! I have no reason for wanting Louise to date me instead of Wardes!"
At that Louise pouts. "Are you saying you don't like me?"
Louise, statements like that don't help either of cases against Derflinger.
"I-it's not that I don't like you, I just don't like you in that way and you're already arranged to be married and all that," I manage to spit out.
"Right, of course," Louise says while nodding and not looking at me.
Derflinger laughs. "You two are just crazy about each other."
"SHUT UP!" Me and Louise roar at the same time.
Me and Louise sigh in anger simultaneously.
"Well," I begin. "Since we are kind of on the topic, are you going to go through with that marriage?"
Louise is silent for a minute. "I don't know. Wardes is by all means a good man. He's kind, he's strong." He's at least a decade older then you and looks like he's in his 50s, "I have no reason not to marry him."
"So is that a yes, you'll marry him, or what?" I ask.
"Why are you so interested in who I marry?"
"You're 16, right?" I ask.
"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?" Louise asks a little impatiently.
"In my world, specifically the country I come from, the age of consent is around 18, so to me you're still underage," I tell her. "Underage marriage is also rather frowned upon."
"Really? Here you're considered an adult when you turn 16, and marriages are set up as early as 6," Louise tells me.
Well that's interesting. That explains why everyone's perfectly fine with this. It's all just my fault for being raised differently and having different views then them. Well, different strokes for different blokes, is how I believe the saying goes. Actually, isn't the age of consent for things like that as low as 13 in some parts of Earth? I never actually bothered to check consentment ages for other parts of the world. I really should have, considering we had the internet and everything.
"So are you going through with this arranged marriage?" I ask. "Since you are 16 and an adult here, doesn't that mean you're free to say no if you wish?"
Louise ponders for a bit. "That's just it. I don't know if I want to say no. Wardes... When I was little..." Louise's voice just kind of trails off.
Oh, so that's it! Louise has been crushing on Viscount since she was a kid! But now I have to ask, was she crushing on him because they were to be married, or were they to be married because she was crushing on him? And which came first, the internet or the trolls?
"Well, it's none of my personal business whether you decide to marry him," I'll just hate him even more. Wait, what? Why the hell did I just think that? I need to get my thoughts in proper order, and to do that I need pizza. As soon as we get back I'm giving that recipe to Emily so the staff can make it. THAT IS #1 PRIORITY! ... I really need to sort out my priorities.
Louise opens her mouth to respond, but is cut off when the balcony we're on starts rumbling. Oh shit, it's an earthquake! Oh, wait, it's only Rock Devil rising out of the ground right in front of us. Rock Devil? Fouquet should be in prison right now! Crap, someone broke her out.
"F-Fouquet!" Louise yells out.
"Nice to know she's still alive," I say. "I vote we regroup and plan out next course of action."
"I concur," Derflinger says.
I grab Louise by the standard female grab area (The arm, close to the wrist, you perverts) and we run back into the hotel. Only to find it being attacked by those bandits that tried to ambush us back in the canyon. So we've got a golem outside ready to eat us, and we're being attacked inside, and we don't have the element of surprise that Kirche and Tabitha brought. I have to give the bandits credit, this is a pretty well thought out plan.
Louise and I notice the rest of out group using a conveniently tipped over chest high table as cover. I knew it! I am a video game protagonist! Now all I need is regenerating health and checkpoints and all will be good with the world.
"What's going on?" Louise asks as we join our friends behind the table.
"Those bandits who ambushed us are attacking," Guiche says.
Well, we figured that. Actually, why did Louise even ask that? Ah well, it's not the time to ask that right now.
"By the way, Fouquet's outside," I tell the group.
"What?" Is their reply.
"I thought she was in jail," Wardes says.
"Yeah, well, us too. What do we do?" I ask.
Tabitha taps her staff against the floor to get our attention, then points at me, Louise, and Wardes.
"Go." Then she points at Guiche, herself and Kirche. "Distraction."
"You want us to just leave you here so we can go on and complete the mission?" I ask.
Tabitha nods.
"I don't like splitting up our group," Wardes says, "but I believe it might be out best shot. You have the letter, right Louise?"
Louise nods.
"Good, then we'll do that. Do your best to cover us," Wardes says.
Wardes seems awfully willing to leave half of out group here. My suspicions of him being secretly evil have jump up 16%. That or he's really committed to the mission, is willing to lay down his life for the princess and I'm just an asshole for thinking he could possible be evil. We'll see how this plays out.
Come to think of it, normally I'd be against things like leaving Guiche and Kirche in charge of anything remotely important, but Tabitha, whom I will now address as Nagato, seems capable. Godspeed Nagato! May you distract our enemies in peace!
So with those other three providing cover for us, me, Louise and Wardes ran for the port to catch our ship. This is the first time I've ever been worried about whether or not I'd make it to my flight early. Normally I'm worrying about being late. Same thing in practice, I guess.
Luckily for us we weren't that far from the port at all. Unluckily for us the port was located on top of a really tall hill so it could fly, and we had a whole lot of stairs to climb. They have magic to fly and they can't invent a simple high speed escalator? Hell, why can't we just have Wardes' Griffon fly us up these steps in seconds? For that matter, why didn't we borrow Slyphid from Tabitha to take us to Albion? Apparently it's not the time to worry about that.
We hit the steps and began climbing them as fast as our legs could carry us. Things were going well, nothing bad had happened. We were about a hundred feet up when we heard Louise scream. Damn everything! Can't we ever have a nice peaceful run for our lives?
We turned and saw that some guy wearing a white mask had was holding Louise with his wand pointed at her head. Look man, I know some people are desperate to get what they can, but she's clearly too young to be your wife. That and she's engaged, so you might want to look somewhere else.
"Let go of her!" I yell at the masked man. He responds by being silent and taking a single step back before starting to float away, as if to challenge me.
Sadly, I can't take that risk. The second I take a step he probably blows Louise's head off, and there's no way I can close the roughly 30 foot distance between us in time. Even if I could, there's no way I can attack him without hitting Louise.
Luckily, for once, Wardes is bound by no such restrictions and shoots a spell out of his sword wand that's accurate enough to hit the guy with the face without hurting Louise. He lets her go and they both drop like a stone. I dash forward and manage to catch Louise before she hits the ground. I put her down and charge after Masky, who's back up and trying to flee the scene of the crime.
I manage to catch up with him and I tackle him to the ground, which is unfortunately a flight of stairs, so we go skidding a bit before we end up right back at the bottom of the staircase. Are you telling me I have to climb all those stairs again? Shit.
Still, Louise and Wardes were still up there so it was just me and Masky, one on one.
"Okay, who the hell are you?" I ask as I point Derflinger at him.
He responds by raising his wand and waving it around a bit. I can't hear if he's chanting or not, but whatever he's doing it's causing a bunch of clouds to start forming around him.
"Um... Derf, should I be scared?"
Derflinger's silent for a bit before gasping. "It's lightning cloud! Yes, you should be scared!"
Unfortunately for me I don't get time to be scared, because Masky launches a lightning bolt at me. I raise Derflinger to try and cut it off and I manage to get the lightning bolt to connect with Derflinger, but that doesn't stop the electricity from starting to pump through me.
I felt like my entire body was being burned alive as wave and waves of pain just kept rolling over me. I cried out in pain as Masky kept pumping electricity into my body. At least that's what it felt like. In reality it was only a few seconds of being shocked, but it hurt like hell. Eventually the lightning ended, and I remember hitting the floor unconscious. Mental note to self: Lightning hurts, try to avoid it. I wasn't out for long, only a few minutes or so.
"Josh! Josh, are you okay?"
I woke up to hearing Louise calling my name and shaking me in an effort to try and get me up.
"Ugh," I groan as I sit up. "What the hell happened?"
"That masked man hit you with a lightning cloud spell," I hear Wardes say off to my right. "Honestly you're lucky to be alive."
"I figured as much. I meant what happened to the masked guy?"
"He fled," Louise tells me. "After me and Wardes arrived he disappeared using some kind of wind spell."
Oh, great, they do have teleporting spells here. Why has no one told me this beforehand?
"Well, that's good and all, but we have a mission to accomplish. I'm fine and ready to go" I say as I try to stand up, only to feel pain shoot through me. I ignore it and pretend nothing ever happened.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Louise asks me. "That was a really powerful spell."
"Indeed," Wardes says as he strokes his beard. "It seems your sword neutralized some of the current. What's it made out of?"
"No idea," Derflinger says. "I forgot."
Wardes raises an eyebrow. "A sentient sword? That's rather rare."
I chuckle and look at Louise. "And you said it was a terrible idea to get Derflinger. Now who was right? Josh: 1 point. Louise: none." I'm careful to avoid using the z-word around Louise, she takes it very personally.
Louise frowns. "If you can talk like that to your master then you're fine. Come one, let's go."
*Scene Break*
"Why is it that everything we do has to go as horribly as possible?" I ask as our new "friends" escort us to the captain's quarters.
So we made it to the ship, got it to take off, and headed for Albion, which I will rename Skyloft when I take it over one day, only for us to get hijacked by some of the rebels. Oh, and apparently my left arm was covered in third degree burns and was close to convulsing. Apparently lightning's bad for you. Go figure. Louise got all pissy because she thought I was hiding such a severe injury from her. The fact that she punched me in the face didn't exactly make me feel any better, but I did tell her that I wasn't hiding it on purpose. Hell, I have no idea how I didn't notice my arm was nearly cooked off. I really need to pay more attention to everything.
And that brings us to our current situation of being in the quarters of the captain and head of these pirates. How could things possibly go wrong?
The captain of the pirates was wearing a red bandana that cover the top left half of his face, but he appeared to be blonde and seemed like a nice young man. Well, except for the whole leader of a bunch of pirates that are going to kill us, but that's besides the point.
"So, who are you three supposed to be?" Captain asks us.
"We're ambassadors from Tristain with important business with the royal family of Albion!" Louise yells at the pirate captain. I can't help but feel it's not a good idea to tell him our real purpose here, considering it's a secret mission.
"Ambassadors?" Captain asks. "What message do you bring to the royal family?"
Louise crosses her arms in front of her chest and makes it clear she isn't saying anything.
"Are you willing to betray them and give us the message?" The captain asks us. "If so, then we might be able to arrange safe passage back to the ground for you three to get out of this place."
"I'd rather die," Louise tells him.
You know Louise, they can probably arrange that too. Then I notice that Louise is shivering. I get it now. Louise is terrified, but she's not backing down even though she's probably facing death. Why does that sound familiar?
"I'll ask again," The captain begins. "Are you willing to betray the nobles?"
Do most pirates ask if you're willing to betray someone? Don't they just ask for whatever it is you have instead of asking you to double cross whoever loaned you the goods? Or am I confusing them with something else? Either way, I think I should speak up before something worse could possibly happen. Paragon interrupt, go!
"She told you her answer already, what's the point in asking her again? It won't change a thing," I tell them.
The captain looks at me. "And who are you?"
"I'm her familiar," I tell them.
"Familiar? You're serious?"
"Why yes I am, why do you ask?"
All the pirate burst into laughter. "A human as a familiar? I knew Tristain had some weird nobles, but this is too much!" They cry as they start laughing.
"Trust me, no one there is happy with it either, especially the one stuck with me," I say prompting Louise to punch me in my good arm. Well, at least she's considerate.
Eventually the captain stops laughing and notices the ring of Louise's finger.
"Ah, that wouldn't happen to be the water ruby, would it?"
Louise tries to hide the ring. "So what if it is?" Yes, that's the perfect response to someone who's about to kill us. You learn fast, Louise.
"Then am I to assume that Princess Henrietta sent you?" He asks.
Louise remains silent, which the captain accepts as a yes. Silence gives consent, as they say.
"Then my apologies, I haven't introduced myself yet," He says as he unties the bandana around his head. "I'm Crown Prince Wales Tudor. A pleasure to meet you."
... Explain?
Wales seems to see the look of confusion on our face and laughs. "You're probably wondering why I'm disguised as a pirate. I guess it's for safety, as if that was still something that existed for someone like me."
"Um, pardon me," I say. "Are you sure you're Wales?"
Wales sighs. "I don't doubt you for not believing it's me. What's your name, girl?"
"Louise."
"Louise, would you please come here for a minute?" Wales asks her.
Louise steps forward, and Wales pulls a brown ring out of his pocket and puts it on. He then touches his brown ring to Louise's Water ruby, and they then perform a rainbow light show.
"This is the wind ruby," Wales explain. "Wind and water make a rainbow, a rainbow that connects the two royal families."
Aren't rainbows formed when light passes through water droplets and refracts into various different colors? How could wind possibly make a rainbow? Still, the ring is good proof as to who he is, so it's good to know we were able to make contact with the royal family. Actually, if I asked, could he get me some medicine? I think my arm is starting to go numb, and I'd rather much like to keep it, thank you very much.
*Scene Break*
Several hours and one medicine-less still numb arm later, me and Louise were meeting with Wales in private. It's not that I forgot to ask about the medicine, it's more that I never got the chance which is just as annoying.
"So, what message has Henrietta asked you to deliver to me?" Wales asks us.
Louise reaches into her shirt pocket and pulls out Henrietta's letter and hands it to Wales. Wales opens the envelope and reads the letter.
"Marriage? My Henrietta is getting... married?"
My Henrietta? Oh come on, why is every named person I've run into, Tabitha and Emily being the exceptions, involved in or trying to be involved with someone in a relationship? Kirche wants me, Guiche wants Montmorency, Louise and Wardes are engaged, and Wales wants Henrietta who is supposed to marry the head of Germania. Do the love issues never end? Wait, aren't Wales and Henrietta cousins? ... This whole thing just got really creepy.
"I see," Wales says eventually. Instead of saying more he heads towards this treasure box he has, opens it, and pulls out a letter. The letter's all wrinkled, so he's either taken really bad care of it, or is constantly rereading it. Judging by the way he's handling it, I'm inclined to think the latter.
"Here is the letter Henrietta requests," Wales says as he hands it to Louise. "Please take good care of it."
Okay, now that we have the letter we burn it right? I mean, what else do we do, take it to Henrietta for her to frame it and put it on her wall? If this letter could completely destroy the alliance we've been trying to build with Germania, wouldn't it be better to just burn the letter right now before it could possibly cause trouble for anyone else ever again? Considering I'm the only one who thought of that, it must be a bad idea.
"Wales, I have to ask, what's in that letter that could possibly destroy the alliance?" I ask.
Louise kicks me in the shin. "Josh, show some respect! If Wales doesn't want to tell us then he doesn't have to!"
"I know, I was just curious and -Arrgh!" That last part was because Louise punched my third degree burned arm. I don't know if you've ever had a third degree burn caused by lightning cover your entire arm and then have someone punch it really hard, but it really hurts. In fact, I nearly collapsed right there.
"Okay, I was wrong about my arm having gone numb," I manage to croak out.
Louise gasps when she realizes what she just did. "I-I'm sorry! I forgot!" She turns to Wales. "Do you have any medicine for burns?"
Wales raises and eyebrow. "Is his arm burned?"
In response I push up my sleeve and show him my arm, and he actually recoils a bit. I don't blame him, my arm did not look nice. Dealing with heavy burns for several hours without treatment tends to do that apparently.
"How did that happen?" Wales asks.
"As crazy as it may sound, there are some people who don't want us to succeed in this mission," I tell him. "One such guy happened to hit me with a stray lightning cloud spell that nearly fried my arm off."
Wales looks impressed. "Lightning cloud? That spell usually kills and it only burnt your arm? That's rather impressive."
"Thanks, but it hurts way more then you can imagine."
Wales nods. "I believe we have some medication for burns here. I'll make sure you get some."
I thank him and let the matter of the letter drop. I'm really not to eager to have Louise punch me again and it probably isn't that important anyway.
*Scene Break*
"Derlinger, why are they doing this?" I ask.
"What, partying?"
"Yes. Aren't they about to march off to their death tomorrow? This isn't exactly a time to celebrate."
"I think it's a perfect time to celebrate being alive," Derflinger tells me. "After all, it isn't going to last much longer."
"Can a sword celebrate being alive?"
Derflinger chuckles. "Probably not, but that's not really the point."
So as you heard, the Skyloft Royal Family Army, was currently having throwing a massive party. There was wine, good food, and plenty of fun times. It would be better of they weren't doing it the day before they die, but I guess I'm not one to judge. Hell, if I knew I was going to die I'd at least try and have a bit of a good time or something, say my goodbyes and all that.
I didn't really participate in the party. I had caught up with Wales and tried to convince him to leave the land of the dragons and come back with us to Tristain, but apparently I didn't have enough paragon points to pick the charm option, because he declined. He said it was his duty to be with his men until the very end. I think Louise might have tried to talk him out of it as well, but she was apparently also unsuccessful. Damn it. I was really kind of starting to like Wales and he has to die tomorrow, and there's nothing I can do about it. Which led me to my current situation of standing in the corner and drinking some punch. I don't drink alcohol, bad things happen.
Eventually I noticed Wardes approaching me.
"Yes, Viscount?" I ask him.
"Will you be leaving early tomorrow or will you be staying with Louise and I?" He asks me.
"I guess I'll be going. You two have the griffon so I'm sure you can catch up." Hey, wait a minute. "Wait, what do you mean you two are staying?"
Wardes looks confused. "I haven't told you yet?"
Well clearly the answer is yes considering I'm asking.
"Me and Louise are being married here tomorrow in the grand church."
Cue spit take.
"I'm sorry, what?" I ask.
"As I said-"
"No, no! I know what you said, but why tomorrow? Isn't that the day the rebels invade?" I ask, my voice starting to shake with worry for some reason.
I-it's probably because I'm worried of Louise's safety with the rebels invading and I don't want them to hurt her. Wait, why don't I want anyone to hurt Louise? It's because I'm her familiar, right? Right! That's the only reason, I think to myself, purposely ignoring the truth of the matter.
"Yes, but Wales has agreed to marry us early, before the rebels arrive," Wardes tells me.
"Well, thanks for telling me Wardes."
Wardes turns and walks away. Okay, so Louise is completely 100% safe, so why doesn't that make me feel better? ... One second.
I try to will Heightened Awareness back on, and I do manage to activate it. I think the reason I could never activate manually before was that I didn't know I could. Now that I know, it's really simple. You just focus and it works automatically.
Everything's once again blue, with only a few select people highlighted. I can make out Louise and Wales, both highlighted in light blue, in the crowd, but what confuses me is Wardes. He's highlighted in red.
I think back to try and remember who else was highlighted in red. Guiche's valkyries during our duel were red, and so was Fouquet's golem, with both Guiche and Fouquet highlighted in yellow. Wait! I think I get it!
"I got it!" I practically yell as I deactivated HA mode. Luckily everyone's too busy to hear my outburst.
"Got what?" Derflinger asks me.
"Light blue means ally, and red means enemy! Yellow is those that I have to take out to accomplish the mission! That's why Louise, Tabitha, Kirche and Wales are blue, because they're helping me out, and why Guiche and Fouquet were yellow! To win the duel I had to take out Guiche, and to get the Staff of Destruction back I had to take out Fouquet! And that explains why the valkyries and golem were red, because they were enemies that were getting in the way of the mission and wanted to kill me!" I starting blurting out at machine gun like speeds.
"What are you talking about partner?" Derflinger asks, but I'm on too much of a roll to listen to him.
"But then why was Wardes red? He was red during our duel, but that's because we were technically enemies. But then shouldn't he have been yellow since to succeed I had to take him out? Unless... Right! It wasn't necessary! I didn't have to take him out in order to complete the mission of getting the letter and returning it to Tristain, that duel was just a diversion! But that doesn't explain why he's still highlighted in red now. Is he plotting something? Maybe-"
"Partner!" Derflinger yells at me. "What are you blabbering on about?"
"Oh, um... Sorry. I think I just figured something out. Can you keep a secret Derf?" I ask him.
"I'm 6000 years old. I've been keeping secrets longer then you've been alive."
And so I told Derflinger about Heightened Awareness and how certain people are highlighted in different colors.
"Any idea what it is?" I ask after I finish explaining.
"Not a clue, I've never heard of anything like it. Still, if you're right and red means enemy, and that Wardes fella is still red, then we might have a problem," Derflinger says after thinking it over.
Well I can't say I expected Derflinger to be of any help considering his age and memory, but it would have been nice if he could just point me in the right direction or something.
*Scene Break*
"Damn it, where's my room again?" I ask as I stumble around the dark hallways of the Skyloft Royal Family's outpost in the middle of the night.
Wales gave each of us our own room to sleep in for the night, and I was currently looking for mine. Despite the actual army apparently being pretty small, the place was large enough for me to get completely lost it.
"I am never getting up to get a drink in the middle of the night again," I mutter to myself.
After about an hour of stumbling around in the dark, and I wandered into a hallway with three really large windows letting the moonlight shine through. Standing in the middle of the hallway looking out one of the windows, still dressed in her academy uniform, was Louise.
"Louise? What are you doing here?" I ask as I approach her.
She turns and I can see what looks like tear streaks trailing down her face.
"Have you been crying?" I stupidly ask. "What's the matter?" Please let it be that you don't want to marry Wardes. I'm far too suspicious of him.
Instead of replying, she collapses into my chest and starts crying some more. Completely by reflex, my arms wrap themselves around Louise in a hug. Completely by reflex. Really.
"Why... Why do these men celebrate when they're about to die?" Louise asks in between sniffles and sobs. "Can't they see there people who don't want them to die, yet they march towards their deaths?"
"I don't understand either Louise, but it's what they want," I tell her. "They want to defend their home until the very end, even when they know it's hopeless." Is that called bravery, or stupidity? Probably a bit of both.
"And what of Prince Wales?" Louise asks me. "Doesn't he see that Henrietta will be horribly saddened by his death?"
As sad as that thought is, it kind of creeps me out. Don't get me wrong, they have the right to love anyone they want, I just find the idea of cousins in a love relationship a little creepy.
"I did talk to him about it," I tell Louise. "He says he doesn't want to burden Tristain with an excuse for the Albion rebels to go to war."
"I-I'll talk to him again!" Louise declares. "I'll convince him!"
I shake my head. "I don't think that'll work. You and I both tried to convince Wales to leave and failed miserably. Wales clearly has an unshakeable resolve and is not going to leave this place alive," I say rather sadly.
"But-"
"Besides," I say, cutting her off. "Your only mission here was to get the letter and return it to the princess, nothing more."
"I hate it here," Louise says. "These foolish soldiers and unreasonable prince who leave everything behind."
Louise gasped, like she remembered something and reached into her pocket.
"Put out your arm."
"Um... Why?"
"Just do it," Louise said in a rather angry voice.
Hoping to avoid Louise's wrath, I stuck out my left arm and rolled up the sleeve, revealing the burnt arm. Now I'm sure the arm has gone numb, so I think even without medicine I'd be fine. Well, except for the sudden bursts of extreme pain that sometimes come about, but other then that it's fine.
Louise pulled out a small bottle filled with a semi glowing blue gel like substance.
"Wales gave me this bottle. It's medicine for burns," Louise tells me.
About freaking time! Screw the numbness, I want my arm fixed!
Louise then proceeded to start applying the medicine. I recoiled at the first touch, because it really stung, but eventually it started feeling a lot better. You know, I don't think I've seen Louise be this gentle with me. Oh shit, a tender moment. I can finally classify Louise as a tsundere now that I've seen the actual dere side! Now I can't help but wonder what caused it to spring forth. I guess I have technically saved her life once or twice, so I guess rescue romance is a viable option. At least it would be if Louise was even remotely attracted to me, which she isn't, and is only doing this because I'm her familiar and it's her job to take care of me like this.
Eventually Louise finishes the application, and I have feeling in my arm again.
"Louise, have I ever told you how much I love the magic in this world?" I ask as I toy with my arm to make sure it functions properly.
She shakes her head. "No, I don't believe you have."
"Well I should. I really love the magic this world has to offer. It's amazing."
Louise smiles, but doesn't say anything.
"By the way," I say. "Wardes mentioned that you two were getting married, tomorrow."
Ah, shit. I shouldn't have said that. Louise smile instantly drops.
"W-well, ye-yeah, I guess we are," She mutters in a voice so tiny I have to strain to here her.
"Well, congratulations," I tell her.
She looks at me, clearly confused. "What's with that reaction?" She asks.
"What do you mean? Aren't you supposed to be happy for people when they get married?" I ask. "Isn't it supposed to be the happiest day of your life, or something like that?"
I could have sworn I've heard people say things like that. Marriage is something I've never understood. What's so big about saying a few words then kissing someone in front of a priest? Now if it was in front of an actual angel and the angel gave the blessing, then I can see it being a freaking awesome marriage. Why go through a low ranking middle man when you can get a god's blessing straight from one of it's direct subordinates?
Louise looks away. "R-right. Happiest day of my life."
She silent for a minute. "I'm sorry, I have to go now." She mutter something about having to think before she runs off.
I sigh in frustration. Not because I'm upset at Louise marrying Wardes, but because I'm right back in the situation I started in. I have no idea where the hell I am, or where my room is.
"Damn everything," I say as I start walking in the direction opposite the one Louise ran off in.
*Scene Break*
Here it is, the day of both the invasion and Louise's wedding, and here I was at the docks waiting to catch the first flight off of this floating chunk of rock.
"Partner, are you sure about this?" Derflinger asks me.
"Well unless you feel like base jumping, I don't see another way of getting back down to the mainland," I say.
"Not that, are you sure about leaving the missy and Wardes alone?"
I sigh. "I sure as hell don't know. I mean, I don't trust him that's for sure. Still, if anything goes wrong they have Wales there, don't they?"
"And you and I are the only one who even thinks he could be evil," Derflinger reminds me. "He could just sneak attack and win at any moment."
"I'd think we know if they won already. Besides, the wedding hasn't even started yet."
"Even on the off chance that Wardes is good, shouldn't you at least attend?" Derf asks me.
"For what purpose?" I ask.
"You said it yourself, a wedding is supposed to be the happiest moment of someone's life. Shouldn't you be there to support the missy and be with her to share her happiness?"
I think for a moment. Ah, damn it.
"Derflinger, where did you learn to debate like that?" I ask as I turn and start walking towards where the grand church is supposed to be.
He chuckles. "I've had practice with the shop keeper."
Perfect, I lost an argument with a sword and was attending the wedding of my master to her fiancé. Sure it was her happiest day ever, but it was turning to shit for me. At least it can't get any worse.
As I approached the door to the church I felt really stupid. Why was I here again? Well, it was too late to turn back now, so I knocked on the church door and opened it up. The first thing I saw was Louise and Wardes standing at the alter, with Wales in front of them. It only took a second for all of them to pull out their wands and point them at me.
I hold my hands up in surrender. "Hey! I'm sorry I don't have my invitation, it got lost in the mail!"
"Josh?" Louise asks, a look of relief on her face.
"What are you doing here?" Wardes asks, a look of irritation on his face.
"Well, I figured it wasn't right just leaving like I was planning on. After all, it isn't really right to abandon my master on her wedding day, now is it?" I say.
Wales nods. "I see. I see no problem with his being here. Any objections from the bride or groom?"
They both shake their head, so I take a seat in the front row and watch the wedding take place.
"You know," I whisper to Derflinger, "I've never been to a wedding before."
"Me neither," Derflinger tells me. "I have to admit, I really only convinced you to come here because I wanted to see one, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity."
"Good to know." That's very good to know. I have a selfish sword that I can't win an argument with. Well, shit.
Wales is playing the part of the priest guy who marries the two, and proceeds to ask the standard question: "Do you take this X to be your lawfully wedded Y?"
Wardes, of course, said yes almost immediately. So Wales turned to Louise and asked the same question. Unlike Wardes, Louise hesitates. She seems to be deep in thought about something or other, because she doesn't even show a sign that she heard Wales.
"Bride?" Wales asks. "Your response?"
Louise jumps a little, like she was startled by Wales' question. "I-I'm sorry, I was distracted."
By what, the nicely decorated floor? ... Actually this church does have a really nice floor. The tiles have a really nice color and shine to them.
"Then I'll ask again," Wales begins. "Do you take this man, Viscount Wardes, to be your groom?"
Louise hesitates for another second, and I have time to think that we'll be here for another year before Louise actually responds. Louise briefly glances over her shoulder in my direction, then looks like she made up her mind.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I can't do this."
No marriage? Success! Hell if I know what changed her mind, but I'm ecstatic and I don't even know why! Praise Madoka!
"Is today not a good time?" Wardes asks, a slight edge to his voice. "Another day maybe-"
Louise shakes her head. "I'm sorry Wardes, I can't marry you. I'm sorry for wasting everyone's time here."
You didn't waste my time, this was completely worth the price of admission! Hell, I would have paid to see it!
Wales nods and turns to Wardes. "Well, Viscount, it appears the wedding is over. I'm sorry."
Wales is awesome. I wish I could be that nonchalant about seeing a marriage fail right before my eyes before it even began. I can only hope.
Wardes looks like he's starting to panic and grabs Louise shoulders, and I feel my left hand immediately reach for my right sleeve. Not yet. Bide some time, nothing's happening yet.
"Louise, you're just nervous. You can't seriously be refusing my offer?" Wardes asks her.
Louise shakes her head again. "I'm sorry Wardes. I may have yearned for you as a child, maybe even loved you, however it is different now."
YES! She doesn't love the bastard who's probably going to betray us! Today is shaping up nicely. I am very happy right now.
"The world Louise!" Wardes shouts. "I will have the world and you are necessary for that!"
Um... Has Wardes just forgotten me and Wales are here? Because it kind of seems like that. Why do people here seam to forget I'm there until I point it out?
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Louise asks in a scared voice.
"I will have the world and you and your power is necessary for that!"
Louise does have magic? News to me, though I guess explosions are their own kind of magic.
"I have no talent as a mage," Louise says.
"I told you, you have just yet to realize your potential!"
Where was I when this conversation happened? Oh yeah, just outside their window, hoping to catch a glimpse of any kind of conversation they were having at the hotel. Looking back that was kind of a waste of time.
"Now I'm even more sure of it," Louise says. "I'd rather die then marry you."
Louise, please, don't tempt him with propositions like that. It makes me nervous.
"I've heard enough," Wales says. "Wardes, step away from her or I will use force."
Wardes sighs, lets go of Louise's shoulders and steps back. I keep one hand near my right sleeve the entire time.
"Such a shame," Wardes says. "It appears I am incapable of completing the first of my goals."
"What goals?" I ask, afraid to move from my spot for fear that he'll snap and kill everyone here on the spot.
"You see, when I arrived here I had three goals," Wardes begins.
"I knew it!" I say. "Listen up Derflinger, this is where he tells us his evil plan."
"I think you're right partner. I guess I owe you five gold."
"We never made a bet and you don't have any money."
"May I continue?" Wardes asks in an annoyed tone. I motion for him to proceed.
"As I was saying, I had three goals. The first was Louise, which doesn't appear to be achievable."
"Absolutely not!" Me and Louise yell at the same time.
Wardes chuckles. "A shame. The second goal was the princess' letter. The third,"
Wales seems to realize something, because he pulls out his wand and begins chanting a spell. Wardes pulls out his sword wand as well.
Now?
"Was your damned life Wales."
Now!
Wardes makes a moves to stab Wales, and the distinct sound of metal stabbing flesh is heard, followed by a scream of pain.
Heh, Wardes screams like a little girl when he gets hurt.
All present watch the scene that just unfolded in front of them, which happened to be Wardes' sword just inches to the right of Wales throat, with a knife impaled in Wardes' hand.
I'll admit it, I stole the kitchen's knife. After the duel with Guiche I wanted to have a means of defending myself just in case something like that happened again, so I took the knife and kept it hidden in my sleeve ever since. I hadn't counted on Louise buying me a sword, but I still kept the knife hidden in my sleeve as a sort of an ace in the hole if I ever needed a projectile to throw and a Kyubey wasn't present. Now I'm really glad I did, thought I didn't really think I'd end up using it. As useful as that was, I don't think I'll make a habit of keeping knives hidden in my sleeve. It was really uncomfortable, and I'm all out of tape. It was a hell of a shot though. I never knew I was this accurate.
Still, Wardes had apparently been prepared for something like that, because he releases a spell he had been storing and a shockwave of wind comes out of his wand. Having been so close to it's epicenter, the shockwave sends Wales flying backwards into a wall. He hits the wall and stops moving. I can still see his chest rising and falling, so he still alive, just unconscious. Thank god for that. I know he's going to be dead one way or another when the day's over, but I don't know what I'd do with myself if he had died and I could have prevented it. However, we have another problem: Wardes.
I draw Derflinger and run in front of Louise who had been slowly backing away from Wardes. Wardes pulls the knife out of his hand, tosses it aside and turns to us.
"Clever," He tells me. "How'd you know I was never working with you?"
"Just a hunch, but I've learned to trust my hunches," I tell him. I wasn't telling everyone here about Heightened Awareness, that would be a bit too difficult to explain.
"You realize you leave me with no choice but to kill both of you and take that letter by force, right?"
"Um... Louise, can I ask something?"
"Is the really the time to be asking questions?" Louise asks me angrily.
"Probably not," I admit. "Anyway, is this the part where I'm supposed to say, 'Wardes, I will not let you lay so much as a hand on my master,' or something along those lines?"
This is when I play the part of the big damn hero, right?
I think I see Louise blush slightly, but she turns and looks at the unconscious Wales, so I can't really tell.
"Y-yeah, say something like that," Louise tells me.
"Got it," I turn and look at Wardes. "Wardes, I sill not let you lay so much as a hand on Louise. Got it?"
Wardes chuckles. "Yes, I do believe I get it. A familiar's unrequited love for it's master truly is a terrifying thing," Wardes says in yet another of this world's failed attempts at sarcasm. They make it far too obvious sarcasm is what they're going for! You need to be subtle about it.
Ignoring that for a minute, both me and Louise blushed slightly at Wardes statement.
"We are not in love!" we both yell at Wardes.
"It's just that I'm her familiar, so should I want to protect her?" I reply, slightly nervous for one reason or another.
"E-exactly!" Louise throws in. "I-Isn't it only right that a familiar feels the need to protect it's master in any circumstance?"
Wardes chuckles. "Yes. Of course. Shall we begin? I do believe we have a duel to settle, don't we, Joshua?"
"Louise, get Wales and get out of here while I take care of Wardes."
"Absolutely not!" Louise yells at me.
"Then at least go stand by the wall or something so you don't get caught in the crossfire," I offer.
I just realized. Why isn't Wardes doing anything? I mean, I've given him plenty of opportunities to take a jab or something at me and try and catch me off guard. Damn, he's either really polite even in battle or knows that I'm waiting for him to attack. It's hard to say.
Louise hesitates, then runs over to the wall to give me and Wardes some room. With nothing in either of our ways, Wardes and I stare each other down, silently taunting the other into making the first move.
Eventually, Wardes decides that this is boring and rushes me. He must be using some kind of wind magic to speed up his movements, because there is no way a human can move that fast on his own, nor can a sword swipe move that fast.
Most likely thanks to the gandalfar runes, I'm able to react just in time. Wardes' sword wand was coming at me in a diagonal left downward swipe. I duck slightly, take a step to the right, spin on my heel and give the same slash, which manages to nick Wardes in the back.
Hmmm... I have an idea. Heightened Awareness on. I'm not entirely sure if it does boost anything other then vision, but I feel like it does. Maybe it's a placebo effect. I think it, therefore it happens, or something like that.
On it's own, what is HA telling me? Wardes is red and an enemy, Louise and Wales are blue and allies. What else can I gather from this. Why isn't this like detective vision in Arkham Asylum? Why can't I get detailed analysis about whoever I'm scanning? Damn. I'll have to rely on the scanning abilities of the other greatest detective who ever lived. Hollywood blockbuster version preferably, considering his scan was actually used for battling for the most part.
Okay, let's try this out and break things down while thinking in an over the top Brittish accent. Rule Brittania! Or something like that. What was I doing again? Oh! Right! My advantages: Wardes is probably really angry, which might make him sloppier then usual when it comes to fighting. He's also has an injured right hand, but like me he appears to be ambidextrous, so that doesn't help me as much as it could. Wardes' advantages: He has magic spells, can use as many as he wants (willpower reserves notwithstanding), I don't know what spells he has, what he can use, or how powerful they are. Also I have been in two sword fights before against Guiche's golems and Wardes duel. I fought him to a draw, but he was only allowed a single spell, and I probably surprised him when I got up for round two. Odds are stacked in Wardes' favor. What can I do to fix that?
Let's how psychic (or lucky) I am when it comes to analyzing people's fighting styles. Wardes appears to prefer straight swordsmanship rather then sticking back and spamming magic, which makes him better then 90% of people I play against in any online game ever. That being the case, he does appear to be using some kind of wind spell to speed up his movements to a degree. That would be a problem, but my gandalfarness speeds up reactions and movement (I'm assuming, because there's no way I'd be able to counter like that in normal circumstances) thus neutralizing his benefit. Point for me.
Now for the actual plan breakdown. I just managed to strike Wardes and cut his back a bit, and he's currently still reeling from that which is why I can use this opportunity to think. After Wardes recovers from that attack, he'll most likely attempt to retaliate with some form of swipe. Judging by his first strike, it'll most likely be at least downward in nature, since Wardes appears to like that direction for swinging his sword. I'll counter with a parry, then try to pierce and catch him. He'll probably summon a gust of wind to blow him back and just out of reach of Derflinger, then he'll probably blow himself forward and counter with his own pierce. Sidestep, then step forward and punch Wardes in the face to knock him off balance, and go in for a swipe. Aim for the shoulder, neutralize his sword arm. If he can't fight back, then the battle is won, right?
Wait.. He's probably expecting me to aim for his sword arm. Keeping that in mind, he'll likely have a spell or something to either push me back or otherwise neutralize me to keep himself safe. Assuming it's some kind of wind spell that creates a gust and pushes things around, he'll definitely use it on me to keep himself safe. Depending on where I am when that happens, I'll either be knocked into a pillar, or just pushed back in which case I can rush forward and continue some kind of assault. For now, let's assume that I'll be knocked into one of the various pillars around. If that happens, I'll be stunned for maybe a second due to the force of smacking into stone at a potentially high speed.
When that happens, Wardes will definitely move in for a killing blow, likely a decapitation to make sure I stay dead. Ignoring the fact that such an act would ruin any plans I have for the rest of my life and that Louise would be seeing someone killed in front of her, something I doubt she's seen much of in her life, that would also result in bad end #3 where Wardes wins and Tristain is screwed (#1 is deciding to do Kirche and Louise seeing which results in Louise murdering me, and #2 is Fouquet's golem stomping me, which I'm not entirely sure how to obtain, it seems to be a luck based event. That or it's based on relationship points, and I'd lose at zero trust).
Therefore, when Wardes goes for the decapathon's main event, duck. Simple solution. Once the blade goes over my head, take advantage of window of opportunity to finally get a good shot in at Wardes' arm. Assuming things go the way I hope they do, Derflinger will connect with Wardes' shoulder and sever the arm from it's original home. This should hopefully bring Wardes down to a state where he is unable to fight, securing victory.
Plan go, Heightened Awareness and British accent off. Sadly. Wait, what's the difference between a British accent and an English accent? Considering my plan worked as I imagined somehow and Wardes was currently kneeling on the floor, holding onto the stump that was once his arm, I think I've earned some time to wonder about things like that.
"You... Bastard!" Wardes growls at me as I stand over him.
"Hey now, no need for that kind of language," I say tauntingly. "I have to admit though, I'm actually kind of disappointed. I mean, I came up with 31 variations if you hadn't done exactly what you did, say a spell designed to draw me into your range as opposed to pushing me out of it to create distance. I didn't expect the one I first came up with to be the one to work! Though I do applaud the ending. That one made me switch to variation number 7 to end it, instead of relying solely on the first."
"Did you just spend all the time between our last duel and this moment brainstorming ways to defeat me if we ever fought again?" Wardes asks with a slight chuckle.
"What? No! I'm not a person to stay stuck on one single thing. Remember the beginning of the fight when I did that counterattack, sliced your back and you were stunned for about 3 and 6/25 seconds? I spent that time plotting out the battle, and various paths it could take, in my head."
"You came up with 32 different plans in a matter of seconds?" Louise asks, dumbfounded. "That's absurd!"
"Not quite. It's mostly the same plan, just with variations if it takes a different turn. Besides, I don't usually come up with that many variations. I can normally come up with around 47 in the span of 5 seconds, but Wardes recovered slightly faster then I anticipated, so I wasn't quite able to stretch out those few seconds as long as I would have liked."
"How do you do something like that?" Louise asks me.
"Well I played a lot of RTS games, so I became pretty good at making strategies in general. Practice made me able to come up with better plans more quickly. Strategy RPGs like Disgaea helped me hone the plans and make them more specific then 'charge in and kill everything using these units instead of those.' Playing quite a few visual novels made me able to mentally branch out and see what might happen if this action is taken. It's nowhere near as specific as being able to predict the future, which'd be awesome, but by analyzing a person's behavior, you can kind of tell what they might do next, or what might happen if they do this. It's all the result of around 7 years of practicing on things like that."
My friends keep bugging me to enter a Starcraft tournament whenever they hear that. "You'll do awesome! You'll win easily with all those plans of yours!" Not quite. It's still mostly just a spin on the same plan. If the original plan is flawed, then none of the variations will work. It's not something that'd win me a tournament.
Louise stares at me, dumbfounded. "So you're capable of doing things like that and planning things that quickly, so why don't you do that all the time?"
I shrug. "It's not fun, and it's way more simple to charge in headfirst."
Oh yeah. That too. That's a big reason I don't enter tournaments.
"You care more about fun then actually winning a potentially life threatening battle that could decide the fate of a kingdom?" Louise asks me.
"Well I planned something out now, didn't I?"
"You... Make the mistake of thinking I'm through!" I hear Wardes shout.
"Well... Yeah," I reply while turning to Wardes. "I mean, you're missing an arm. You have an ace in the hole or up that remaining sleeve of yours?"
In response, Wardes stands up and chants a spells. Suddenly, there are a total of four Wardes, and three of them have a full set of two arms.
"Wind clones?" I ask. "Interesting. However, I'm actually kind of tired of this place and want to get out, so would you mind if I make this quick?"
"What are you talking about?" The four averrunci of Wardes ask simultaneously.
"Give me a minute. Louise, what happens if a mage is casting a spell and then for whatever reason loses their wand?"
Louise thinks for a minute. "Um... I think the spell is cut off, because the flow of magic keeping it in existence is cut when the mage stops using their wand."
"Oh really? So if I get Wardes' wand away from him then the other Wardes will disappear?"
Louise nods. "Yes, I believe so."
That makes things easier. Now all I have to do is- what the hell, why are the Wardes chanting something? Wait, shit! All this standing around doing nothing gave Wardes enough time to chant something probably huge! Well damn. I really should pay more attention to everything around me.
"Quick question, should I be worried about the spell the Wardes are casting?"
Silence, which Derflinger breaks. "Yes and no. It's lightning cloud-"
"Lightning cloud!" Louise asks, panicking. "The spell that badly burned Josh's arm?"
Thank you for reminding me of that pleasant time wondering if I'd lose my arm.
"Yes," Derflinger confirms. Ah shit. "However, I happen to have remembered something that might be incredibly useful. Partner! Raise me up!"
I lift Derflinger into a defensive pose, and four streams of lightning come from the four Wardes. However, when the lightning gets close enough, they're absorbed into Derflinger, and it's like the lightening was never there. Everyone's silent for a few seconds.
"Holy crap, my sword has imagine breaker built in." Now nothing can stop me from taking over the world! Muahaahahahahaha!
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Derflinger tells me. "What I do know is that I can absorb all the magic around me, technically neutralizing it."
I turn to Louise and grin. "And you said getting Derflinger was a terrible idea."
Louise huffs and turns away from me. "We've had this discussion already."
"Ah, you're right. Josh: 2 points. Louise: none. When can I cash in my points for a coupon that excuses me from one whipping?"
"Shouldn't you deal with Wardes first?" Louise asks angrily.
I observe that I'm not too far away from that knife I threw a while back. I walk over to it, kick it up and grab it out of the air. I give it a good toss, and it goes spinning end over end until it implants itself in the shoulder of the still frozen with shock Wardes. He screams out in pain like a little girl again. I take that moment to run up and knock Wardes' wand out of his hand, and I give it a kick to knock it as far away from Wardes as I can before joining back up with Louise. Wardes whistles, and a griffon bursts through the window.
"The mission may have been a failure, but mark my words. Reconquista-"
I shut him up by toss a small piece of ruble caused by the battle at him, which nails him square in the head. He responds by glaring at me angrily, pulling the knife of his shoulder and tossing it at me. It implants itself in the ground around 27.36 feet away from me.
"Your aim sucks by the way!" I yell at him as his griffon flies away.
Well that was fun. Now what? We're stuck with an unconscious Wales, and no way off this rock.
"Louise, see if you can find a way out or something, I'll check on Wales."
Louise nods and goes off to see if the front door or something will open. In the meantime, I go and shake Wales away.
"Hey, buddy, you still in the land of the living?" I'm not Sissel, I can't revive you if you die, so please do your best to not die.
Eventually, Wales' eyes flutter open, and he looks at me.
"Ah. It's you. Am I to assume you were successful in driving off the Viscount?" He asks me as I help him up.
"Yes, actually. He was surprisingly predictable in his movements. And since I know you're probably thinking it, no, I'm not going to try and convince you to come with us. I already know that there's nothing I can say or do that'll convince you. Instead I shall ask you if there is anything last requests or words you would like to say."
Wales chuckles. "You make it sound like I'm being executed. Do you ask that of all the people you know are heading off to their certain death?" Yes. But considering I've rarely been in a life threatening situation... "Nevertheless, I do have a request." Wales takes off his earth ring and hands it to me. "Give this to Henrietta. Tell her I lived bravely and died bravely."
I nod and take the ring from Wales and slip it into my pocket. Wales turns around and leaves, so I rejoin with Louise.
Before either of us can say anything though, we feel a slight rumble in the ground. We exchange a confused glance, which lasts about a second before a hole opens up in the ground which Verdandi pops out of.
"Wha-" is all I get out before Guiche pops out of the hole as well. Again, what?
"Verdandi, what a you doing... Josh? Louise? What are you doing here?" Guiche asks when he notices us.
"Escaping. Come on Louise, let's go!"
I grab Louise's wrist and jump down the hole with Guiche. Unfortunately, that hole led down straight onto Slyphid. Not the most comfortable landing. Not much better when Louise Happened to use my lap to cushion her fall. That's going to hurt in the morning, isn't it.
"Tabitha? Kirche? What are you doing here?" Louise asks as Guiche also climbs out of the hole and joins us on Slyphid.
"I was going to ask the same thing," Kirche responds
"Sounds like we've all got some nice stories for each other. Let's use 'em as travel food while we get as far away from this place as possible," I throw in.
And so, Nagato got her pet dragon to start flying us back home as we all exchanged our stories of out great adventures in Skyloft. It was all very interesting.
I'll say one thing though: I'm so glad I never have to set foot in that chuck of rock again!
Author Notes:
Uncreative: This took far too long to get out, and I apologize for that.
Ariana: Maybe it had something to do with you deciding to completely rewrite the entire ending from scratch.
Uncreative: Well, yeah. The entire battle with Wardes, and a little bit before that, was not always what you just read. Before, it sucked. And I realized that so I completely rewrote from the ground up, which took a little bit longer then it should have.
Ariana: Anyway, I feel this was kind of a "take that" at the people who pointed out how you killed Wales in both your previous stories despite having the capabilities to save him.
Uncreative: Not really. They all had fair points. I could have saved Wales, but didn't due to sheer laziness. I did wonder what would happen if Wales stayed alive, but then I remembered that he'd march straight off to fight off the rebels and die anyway. Failure is his only option.
Ariana: Damn. Sucks for him. Sucks even more for Wardes, what with the being curb stomped by Josh.
Uncreative: Honestly I kind of hated writing that part because it wasn't fun, but it makes sense. Josh said last chapter that he could plan things out like this, but it's nowhere near as fun. It works that way from a writing point of view too, I find writing much more fun when I make stuff up on the spot. It somehow manages to work in my favor most of the time as well.
Ariana: You really suck at this, don't you?
Uncreative: It's a pleasant day when my own original character observes that I suck at this.
Ariana: Sorry. Anyway, how'd Josh keep that knife in his sleeve? It couldn't have been easy.
Uncreative: Josh keeps some tape in his pocket at all times. Unfortunately he used the last of it in making absolute sure that the knife doesn't fall out of his sleeve.
Ariana: Why does he do that?
Uncreative: I don't know. I know a guy who keeps electrical tape in his backpack all the time, so it is something that's done by people in real life, I can vouch for that.
Ariana: I think we're done here. I'm calling it right now. Next chapter, Joshua finds a piece of eden and the plot completely derails and becomes a deeply insightful and meaningful deconstruction of the very fabric of fan fiction! Watch it!
Uncreative: I find myself unable to write deconstructions, I'm not even entirely sure what goes into making one. Also, this story's text. You read text, not watch it.
*Smack*
Uncreative: OW!
Ariana: Watch it!