Chapter 5

Apocrypha

It was not the triumphant return that his students made it out to be.

For Waver, returning to the place he both loved and loathed brought a sense of overwhelming conflict. The first place he belonged to something he believed in. The first place where he tasted true defeat. A country of extremes that he never got over, actually importing their entertainment, yet hating the disparity between what they did and what they wanted—much like the Association. In short, Waver had long ago decided that all magi were masochists, which meant they all should have a strong affinity for this Far Eastern country and its masochistic existence.

The plane trip itself was long, uneventful, and boring as hell, as the in-flight entertainment was some kids movies and Waver had not thought to bring his own games to a potential death match. His three students meanwhile alternated between excited chatter and bored lethargy. Waver watched with some perspective—his own trip had been excitement the entire way, but he had done so to be a competitor in a tournament, not as he was now as a scientist trying to prevent global catastrophe.

When they touched down at the Narita airport, his restless mood only intensified with the familiar sights and sounds of a completely foreign nation—the bowing, the character alphabet on signs, the endless sea of black-haired heads. Kids sometimes gave Waver and some of the other non-Asians strange looks, although none seemed ready to approach as he looked like a professional in business attire and glared each time they made eye contact.

Irritably, he waited as Avin went to check out the super-toilet in the first bathroom they came across while Finbar found something other than plane fare to eat.

"Has it changed much?" Tasmir asked.

"No, still terrible," Waver said, arms crossed, tapping a finger on his elbow. He was also feeling up for a smoke but had left his cigars deep in his luggage. He absolutely refused to resort to smoking something from a vending machine.

"Terrible how?"

The elder magus sighed, head lulling to one side as if he could drift off to sleep while still vertical. "You're not weeding anything else out about the last time I was here, so drop it. Get your mind in the game—that goes for the other two as well—or I'm shoving you into a crate and sending you ground-shipping back to London."

She frowned at her professor, but it was not a petulant expression. It was closer in resemblance to a board game player that was reassessing their strategy.

Waver returned his gaze back to the newscast being played out on a television screen near one of the airport cafes. He knew it was an attack in the making. He had been mentally preparing for it the moment the trio of students had shown up to go with him. They would work up a front, get knocked down, then individually try to weasel information out of him. He had been certain Tasmir would be first, as she was probably the sharpest and mentally prepared for the attempt. He knew simply from the classes he held—she was normally a much more involved-in-her-work type and in class often did the minimal amount of socializing to get by. Even in the short time since Heathrow she mostly let the boys do the chatting.

However, it was different to the way the Servant of Emiya seemed to spit out two syllables only when pressed. Tasmir seemed to restrain herself from saying much more than she did and waited instead for the perfect moment to bomb someone with a devastating statement. Waver thought her terribly female. Emphasis on terrible.

"You're the one with their mind out of the game," she said. "If it were completely, wouldn't that mean you had a wish?"

Almost involuntarily, Waver looked down to where his unmarked hand rested cradled to his chest. He could almost remember what the mark there had looked like all those years ago. "I have plenty of wishes. Like peace and quiet for five minutes."

"Slap my ass and call me Betsy, this toilet thing is awesome," Avin said, wandering out of the restroom looking entirely pleased.

"My wishes just never get fulfilled," Waver said, eyeing his student aid like he was the coming of the apocalypse. "Are we finished here?"

They met back up with Finbar at the baggage claim, easily spotting the man with his height and blonde hair amidst the Asian crowd. He handed them all small tins of sushi while they waited—and they were all nearly finished by the time they had all retrieved their belongings.

"Ugh, jet lag," Finbar said as they followed a mass of people to the train line that would take them out of the airport. The attached station would take them into Tokyo, and from there they would have to take a train or bus out to Fuyuki. Although simple spells made them basically fluent in Japanese, the general business and alien appearance was just enough to be a little overwhelming. Particularly to three young people that had only slept the bare minimum during the plane ride.

Not that Waver could blame them. His own trip had been like that the first time—and he didn't even have others to bounce excitement off of. The feeling of being cut off from the Clock Tower and its hierarchy of rules was liberating to the point of manic energy, even if their situations did not resemble his own.

The other shoe would eventually drop, however, and bring them back down. Hopefully it would not involve robbing a library.

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Waver found himself more and more annoyed with his students. For an entirely unexpected reason.

Perhaps it was that hindsight look into what his experience had been. Perhaps it was the comparison of differences. Perhaps he was just feeling his age.

When he had first come to Japan, he was easily caught up in the traffic of people as they went about their travels from the airport to the various stations. Slight in size and dark haired, he had not seemed different enough for the crowds around him to treat him differently than their own. His one and only train ride had been an uncomfortable affair and he had made a point to take a bus and taxi on the way back when he had left the country.

Between tall-and-blonde Finbar and darkly-exotic Tasmir, the crowds were giving them a fairly wide berth to accommodate their obviously-foreign status. Possibly aided by their businesslike attitude, everyone seemed to leave them completely alone. The people around them in the train carriage kept a good amount of distance from them, just enough that it was marginally more than simple politeness.

"I think they're afraid of you," Avin said in English. Apparently Waver was not the only one to notice.

"Hey, besides the hair and height, I made sure to try and wear something non-assuming here," Finbar said. His button-up and slacks did fit in with the salaryman workers that made up the majority of their surroundings.

"Not you," Avin said. He gave Tasmir an annoyed look. "You. I think they find the leather coat intimidating."

"You mean my looks," Tasmir said.

"No, pretty sure it's the coat." Of them, Tasmir appeared the visibly youngest, her skirt and coat style fitting in with some pictures they had seen of some of the youth-culture metropolitan areas. "You look like a chuunibyou."

"You only think that because you just learned what that means six hours ago."

Waver's head snapped up and scanned the crowd. All three students looked his way at the change of attitude, confusion evident. "Joachim, how is your equipment?" Waver asked.

Tasmir looked startled from the sudden scrutiny. "…I can check," she said, eyes narrowing. She pulled her suitcase closer to her and tried working it open without spilling the contents out entirely.

The boys looked to their professor who kept a finger up to his lips.

It was probably paranoia, but Waver knew enough about his world to feel that paranoia was the way to go. He had always felt that it was mere luck that he had gone undetected during his tenure as a participant in the Holy Grail War. Pushing his luck was not something he felt was smart.

As with distancing themselves, the people around them paid no attention as Tasmir fished things out of her suitcase. Another point in favor of Waver's worry.

"Here," she said, holding up a small bag. Waver took it from her as she shifted things around again so she could zip her luggage back up.

The device that he pulled out had a similar appearance to a flip mobile phone save that the piece that opened up was made of a clear glass. Waver held it up, then scanned over each of his students with it, looking at them through the transparent side. Doing so merely gave the impression of looking at someone through a watery lens, distorting their image ever-so-slightly. He repeated the process on himself, then on their luggage.

The image rippled like a disturbed pond over one side of his suitcase.

He handed the device back to Tasmir and motioned for her to look as he flipped his bag on its side and opened it up. When the lid came up, Tasmir motioned to the flap as the source, and he shifted around until his hand came in contact with a small device the size of a coin.

"Tracking bug," Waver said, looking it over. There was no sign of a microphone. He handed it over to the others to look at.

"Whoa," Finbar said, like the situation was finally dawning on him.

"The spell," Tasmir said, waving the device over where Waver had found the device. "Small to casually ward detection. It's functioning much like a small boundary field. How did you figure?"

Waver nodded to himself, feeling marginally better, yet worse off than before. The aversion the locals had was not just been because of Waver and company's foreign appearances, but due to the spell effect. Boundary fields and spells in their category often had a subtle influence on regular people, literally making them feel uneasy in their subconscious and going the extra steps to avoid being around an active field. Even if that field was the size of a hand. "Next lesson," he said, snorting. Before anyone could contest it, he went on, "I checked my things before leaving. It was added sometime during the trip."

"You know, this is why I dislike traveling outside of my car. Can't keep track of my own stuff," Avin said.

"What now, boss?" Finbar asked.

"Don't call me that. Ur, we'll get off at the planned stop, at least." Waver looked to Tasmir. "How far away can that transmit?"

"The field itself would also cripple the transmission, so not very far. Couple hundred meters. I have to expect they're in one of the carriages to either side of us."

So they were being watched even more directly than someone tracking them via satellite or the like. The idea blossomed very clearly in the students' expressions, Avin especially looking like he wanted to glance over his shoulder but was making a valiant attempt to stay composed.

Considering their options and their situation—a foreign place, a lack of preparation, unable to activate overt spellwork while still in the public eye—Waver rubbed at his chin, bouncing ideas around in his head. "We have to get eyes on whoever it is."

Without the use of Volumen, he would need to utilize other options to combat the threat.

"Then…" Avin glanced to the other two students, then nodded. They began fiddling with their luggage in search of something. "Bird's eye, third person, and first person."

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Waver said.

He smirked, motioning at where the small case for Waver's portable gaming system rested amidst the other things in his suitcase. "You know, like your games."

Waver scowled. Or scowled more than before. The train rocked him in place. "I get to be chased down by what might be a trained killer." He said so without inflection, more a statement than a question or even complaint.

"It was in your bag," Avin defended. "And you've survived worse, right?"

Waver sighed.

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When they split up after exiting the train, Tasmir headed for the tallest building within sight.

Bird's eye was in reference to her position, pre-planned amidst the trio of students for a situation such as this. It was both related to her skills in magecraft, most of which were relatively useless in direct combat, and for one of the Mystic Codes she carried with her.

Sneaking past the people she came across and bypassing locked doors took only a few minutes before finding a staircase that led her to the upper levels. Taking her time, the magus shifted her luggage around so that her suitcase was to one side and her instrument case-shaped carry-on was at hand. By the time she reached the highest level, she had the case's top open and drew out a rolled-up length of fabric.

After a moment of looking around the top level, she found the maintenance hatch that took her to the roof. She took a glance around, then found the side of the building facing where Waver and Avin would be, eventually spotting them due mostly to Waver's red coat.

The day was clear, if biting with cold. Her view would be unobstructed.

Tasmir unrolled the code. Although stiff to the touch, the material was thin, appearing hardly anything more than a bedsheet of purple. The only strange thing about its appearance was the spell circle woven into it in metallic thread.

After laying the carpet out flat, Tasmir knelt atop it and activated the boundary field.

This was not the magic carpet of myth, nor did it function like what one would call flying. It was a boundary field, and most boundary fields are stationary in practice. Even spells that resembled boundary fields often could not be changed once made: the spell concealing the tracking device they had found was stuck to the physical space on Waver's luggage.

How it resembled a magic carpet while maintaining a boundary field was straightforward: while the location of the field remained stationary relative to the user's location in space and time, the world around them continued to move on. The perception of time one had when looking out of the field while still within it became dilated, as space and time were affected by the amount of prana charged through the field. Much like the theory of faster-than-light travel, the one inside the field experienced time differently even if, from the outside, it seemed as if they were accelerated.

If the user set up on the eastern side of a city, they could appear to travel as if by flight to the western side of the city as the world rotated beneath them.

Long ago in western Asia, it was a magic related to theories of time travel and, perhaps, an inspiration for magic carpets in myth and lore. Magi of the time however did not have the resources to continually maintain the field with the purpose of eventually reaching Akasha—much like the Emiya family's research of accelerating internalized time, it worked in theory but had limited practical application. Tasmir was granted the carpet as a gift from colleagues she worked alongside in Atlas and its limited function was only suitable for short-term observation or transport.

Observation using a bird's eye view.

With a secondary field obstructing her from view, she could see for kilometers. Her defense was in remaining hidden, so she could not recklessly involve herself in a situation, but she could report what she saw and, if they discovered the pursuer, keep him under observation in return.

"Bird's Eye is ready," she said. Avin had brought a set of hand-held radios for this situation, specifically to use between the three of them and Waver in situations where phones might be a liability.

"Third Person ready," Finbar said. Tasmir spotted him some blocks down the street, not even within line-of-sight of their professor.

"First Person ready," Avin said. "Now let's find us a taxi."

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Finbar was the first person to spot it, and Tasmir confirmed.

He did not follow at the distance his designation suggested. Instead, he took a taxi to the first location they had all agreed to head to—a department store some blocks away—and physically did nothing to keep up on his professor and classmate. They took a separate taxi to their destination and had departed a few minutes before he had rounded up his own transportation.

His view was in his magic as well. Unlike Tasmir, it was closer to a standard application of magecraft, but it took a fairly atypical form. A common thread amidst the senior students that studied under Lord El-Melloi II.

Familiars were common. The practice of making a contract with a creature—whether mystical or not—or animating a specially-made golem was among the basics within the Clock Tower. Often they were simply used for mundane tasks. Occasionally one was used for spying or information gathering. Situations like what Finbar and the others found themselves in would often call for a familiar to act as another set of eyes.

That was the first issue. Finbar did not consider himself sharp-eyed in the same way any of his companions were, nor his professor. He was not a visual learner. Animals often used as familiars were the same—their senses often focused on the ears or the nose, and when they were sharp visually, it was in a different fashion than humans.

His familiars were built to accommodate that. He had three different devices that served in lieu of a standard familiar, all built with a different purpose in mind. The one he had deployed to follow Waver and Avin was nicknamed Bat-Boy and it used a form of echolocation to send information back to Finbar.

Layers of redundancy. With Tasmir given the overall picture, Finbar could focus on the details without missing things due to tunnel vision. It was one of the reasons the Velvet clique within the Tower had decided on the three of them to represent their so-called faction since their abilities overlapped in a complementary fashion. Finbar himself had thought of his golem tools in response to the anecdote Waver had once given regarding the Holy Grail War—the only time he had brought it up in the classroom, in fact—related to the use of familiars to view an opponent's abilities. Waver had described how limited it was to see from an animal's perspective.

The golem was nothing more than a sphere the size of an apple or orange with wings; it moved fast enough that onlookers could mistake it for a bird of similar size. It kept pace with the taxi Waver and Avin had been in, staying a few meters above the tallest vehicle and within a dozen meters of the professor's general vicinity.

Which is where it spotted another vehicle following the exact same path.

Finbar said little at first, as it could be measured within coincidences. There were plenty of taxis and other vehicles that went the same direction only to eventually take off elsewhere or stop to let passengers out. It could even be within possibility for a person to have the exact same destination. Tokyo was a busy, busy place and although their current location, Adachi, was far from the heart of the city, it still had quite a number of people about.

Still, that single car seemed to shadow Waver in a less-than-natural way, changing lanes immediately upon the lead vehicle doing so. Finbar could actually imagine someone in the following vehicle having instructed the driver to "follow that taxi."

"Tas, you have this?"

The radio crackled—interference from the boundary field Tasmir was operating through. "Following a few vehicles behind? Another taxi?"

"I assume so." The problem, of course, was that the echolocation used by Bat-Boy could not distinguish color, so he was not entirely sure it was a taxi. It was of the same or very similar make to the vehicle Waver and Avin were in.

"Someone behind us?" Avin asked, his voice coming in clearer over the radio.

"Don't look," Tasmir warned. "But yes, we think we have your tracker."

"Direct us to the western river crossing when we get out," Waver said. Adachi had the Arakawa River running along its southern end and multiple bridges spanning across it. "When you have him, we'll lose him, get across, and you'll have a bottleneck to watch if he manages to catch up with us again."

"Good luck," Finbar said. "See you soon."

[]==|{::::::::::::::::::::::::::-

Despite the daylight hour and the implicit rule magicians had of not engaging one another in plain sight, Waver could not help but feel his heart rate increase as he sent the taxi on its way.

He had his luggage with him and Avin his, but in a situation where they were made it was agreed that Avin would take both after they tossed the tracking device. Waver hoped desperately it would not come to that. Even as he said his concern for the students that followed him was minimal, he did not want to show that kind of weakness in front of them. And he knew it was a weakness—he was just not a fit man.

They walked for a good three blocks, looking as if they were deciding on a place to eat. As the moments ticked by, Waver tried to keep his emotions clamped down. At least he knew that Avin was worse off, as the student looked like he was positively ready to explode out of his human container from nervous energy.

"We have to look weird, carrying our luggage around," Avin said.

"No, just lost," Waver said. "As befitting of our stupid, not-Japanese selves."

Avin's radio crackled with static, then Tasmir's voice came over it. "We have him. Average height, wearing a skull cap and leather aviation jacket."

"To your left, about twenty meters out," Finbar said.

They did not look, instead continuing with where they were wandering down the street. "Pick up the pace," Waver said. "Joachim, direct us toward the bridge. Kern, we're going to try and get out of his line of sight. Keep your eye near him and let me know when the crowds thicken up too much to see normally."

The first ploy they had was straightforward enough. It was nearing early mealtime for businesses and there was enough of a crowd that at places like cross-walks one could get lost amidst the masses for a moment. Although Waver himself stood out in the crowd due to his fairly colorful overcoat, he was slight enough in size that he could still blend in for the most part.

It took a few tries. Two street crossings later they were at a much larger four-way stop when Finbar's voice came over the radio. "There, you're out of his line of sight."

Waver hurried but did not duck into the first alleyway he found, instead fishing the tracking device he had moved to his pocket and flinging it as far into the crevice as he could, before taking the next closest half a block further. While not a professional in this kind of setting, he did know that someone like an Enforcer would be onto the first place where visibility was lost like a hawk. Even with three extra sets of eyes on the lookout Waver did not feel that stacking his inexperienced students and his own fumbling around in the field against anybody with seasoning was a solid idea.

Avin followed after him, keeping a close watch at the mouth of the alleyway, ready in case their pursuit rounded the corner.

"Clear, he's in that first alley," Tasmir said.

"Kern, direct me to the bridge. Joachim, you keep eyes on him. Direct Aurelis to start shadowing him if he gets within fifty meters again." Waver took a deep breath, annoyed that even a short exertion had him winded. "I'll get us to the bus station after that."

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When they finally disembarked in Fuyuki, all four of them were exhausted from frazzled nerves and stressed eyes and ears. They made sure to check the bus multiple times during the journey for potential threats or tracking equipment but found none. No familiars, no doll golems, no spells, no Enforcers ready to pounce and kill them all.

"I find myself almost disappointed," Finbar said. "I was expecting assassination attempts left and right."

"Give it time," Avin said, lagging behind as he was their designated bag boy. "People haven't had an adequate sample of your real fashion sense."

"What is it with you and fashion, anyway?"

Dark had not yet crept up on the city, but the sun was now at the opposite side of the sky it had been when they had landed in Narita. It left the city feeling cooler and more inhospitable, matching the sense of tension that had followed them after ditching their shadow.

To Waver it seemed little changed. Like parts of London, the city had something of an old-world feel to it that even the encroaching threat of technology did nothing to stamp out. Although people wandered around preoccupied with mobile devices and technology was evident in the streamlined vehicles that drove by or flatscreen televisions glimpsed through store windows, something in the air maintained a feeling of stasis or a static nature.

Reluctantly, without foreknowledge of the local shops and what they offered, Waver resorted to getting coffee from one of the vending machines. He was too tired to work up the resistance for it, eyes feeling baggy and droopy now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

"We lay low until we can establish the plan of attack," Waver said as he sipped at his drink. He glanced Tasmir's way. "I mean that literally. We can't overuse your tricks and end up getting shot out of the sky. Tohsaka should be leaving her place by now, so we have to find a base of operations. Ideas."

The tone he gave suggested something like a test. The three students looked to each other. "A hotel," Avin suggested. "Rent a suite to get a workshop up and running. Or a hostel, to get all of us in one place that won't look too suspicious."

"Second one is better," Waver said.

Avin frowned, scratching at the five o'clock shadow forming on his chin. "Well, or, reading up on the place, there are local-only places. Old-style inns might be overlooked by anyone tracking us."

"Also getting better," Waver said.

"Might just be smarter to look around, find a house with people out of town or that's up for rent to take over," Finbar said. His blank look suggested he had a golem up in the air taking a look around at what was in their immediate vicinity. "Kind of weird to use someone else's space, but…"

Waver shook his head. "If we have to, that's fine, but there are reports on what I did twenty years ago. They might expect that."

"Until we find a long-term solution, it is probably better if we don't discuss this in the open," Tasmir said. "I have a short-term solution."

Said solution was accepted by Waver, if not with a resounding stamp of approval. It kept them in the downtown area not far from the station, but in the opposite direction of the major hotels.

A love hotel. When it became apparent that was what Tasmir had in mind, Avin jumped at the opportunity and secured a set of rooms at a place designed to look like a cheap, idealized version of a Western castle complete with tower turrets and a drawbridge face. Called the Knight's Court, Avin pointed out it was like a mockery of the castles often called home by magi from the Association.

"It's hiding in plain sight, yet not," Avin said. "Totally perfect, yo."

He was already speaking in a stylized Japanese dialect and attempting to sound like a teenager. Waver scowled at the back of his head as the aid led them back to their designated rooms.

"At least we can avoid the strange looks we could get with three guys and one gal going into one of these," Finbar said. The automation for purchasing rooms meant no required human interaction and a sense of privacy: money was digitally exchanged and keys were deposited similarly to a withdraw from an ATM. "But we are going to have to move eventually. Unless we have bottomless wallets." He looked somewhat hopefully to Waver.

"We will be moving a couple of times," Waver said, ignoring the look. "For now, all I care about is making sure nobody is still following us. Did your super-sonar pick up anything suspicious?"

"Nothing so far, boss."

"Stop calling me that."

They unloaded their luggage amidst the three rooms, the boys taking the polite route and giving Tasmir her own, the third for Waver and where they would set up their temporary atelier. They all then took turns alternating between getting something to eat, taking a shower, or keeping watch near the hotel's entrance.

By the time they had all rotated through and had a fresh set of clothes on, Rin Tohsaka had caught up with them, hurried into the building by Avin at watch. Luvia was with her, along with a third woman, the heir to the Matou family, hastily introduced. They brought their own luggage with them and Luvia quickly went about assisting in the finalization of the atelier setup.

"So you've found a…interesting place," Rin said, slowly.

"A real riot," Waver said. "Emiya said he had plans once he got here, but since you had us change our plans, we're winging it for the next day or two. Assuming you can't come up with better in the next ten minutes."

"I would have thought you'd have your own ideas."

Waver shrugged. "I do. They had to change because I have students with a strange notion of glory or honor in what we're doing." His gaze shifted to Sakura, who shuffled her feet nervously, looking out of depth and unsure as to what to do. "I'm assuming we can't breach the Greater Grail cavern?"

Rin explained the situation at the mountain and a truncated version of the information taken from their captured magus. She described the fields blocking their advance and the response time of the magi in the area watching over the situation. She handed out the compiled files she made regarding the magi she knew to be involved or interested in the system.

"I want to take Tasmir down to look at the fields, but it looks like right now we have to run damage control and try to weed out any magi that attempt summonings." Rin sighed. "The only positive we have is that most of us peak around the same time in the dead of night. Finding everyone is going to be an impossible chore, though."

"Nothing for it, then," Waver said. "Set out your list and we can start working out likely starting points. And tell that new girl to sit down, she's making me nervous."

[]==|{::::::::::::::::::::::::::-

If Waver and his students had created layers of redundancy to keep themselves safe, their pursuers had done the same as well. Despite the discovery of the electronic tracker and the state-of-the-art boundary field concealing it, despite the tracker himself being discovered and evaded—

A tabby cat followed after the magi, its presence overlooked or missed entirely. Focus on the tracker had left the familiar to go unnoticed.

It followed Waver, bounding from corner to hole to garbage bin to street bench, keeping the infamous magus in sight as he rejoined his team. The cat had not followed on-board the bus the foursome had taken to Fuyuki, instead making note of the number and license plate.

The tracker merely took his own vehicle to Fuyuki to intercept them, resuming his shadowing and following the team to their temporary hideout. He set up on the opposite rooftop, unable to watch his mark due to the hotel's lack of windows, but making sure to have a clear view of the exits.

When Rin Tohsaka showed up, he knew he had it. It was the simple solution—one that his superiors had listed as acceptable. If Lord El-Melloi II was going to take control of the situation against the majority and stepped foot onto Japanese soil, it was satisfactory to take him out. Despite the lack of an official "start" to the ceremony, the Holy Grail War was a death match. His demise was a consequence of involvement.

He pulled out a phone to make the call—and stopped at the sound of something sharp digging into the rooftop at his feet.

Pain. Sudden pain. The sensation of waves pounding his eardrums as his nerves reacted and his blood shot up to his brain to make sense of the overflowing data.

He looked down to his chest to see a hole where his sternum should have been. Blood leaked from it, running down his windbreaker and pooling between his legs. He followed the sensation, his eyes tracking the path of what made the wound and where the sound of something striking concrete had come from—

A figure stepped in front of him, blocking whatever he could have learned. His gaze was spotted anyway, his consciousness only just understanding that a humanoid figure stood before him. It was dark, or his vision was dark, and the dark sky beyond spun in place until he was looking at it from a different angle.

The figure's shoulders shook in what seemed to be silent laughter. Then it moved, though to do what, he could not tell, as more darkness obscured the action.

His eyes closed. Before consciousness completely left, he could make out the quiet words that meant something to his magical knowledge.

"Zabaniya."