Chapter 9 - Palisades


Obviously, Teana Lanster didn't like being woken up in the middle of the night.

[INCOMING MESSAGE]

In the dark room, Cross Mirage lit up brightly and ripped its master from her sleep. Teana stirred.

"nnn?"

[TARGET ASKING FOR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE - LOCATING SIGNAL'S CURRENT POSITION NOW]

"t...target?"

[CURRENT ASSIGNMENT, GIVEN AS OF 0930 YESTERDAY MORNING BY ENFORCER HARLAOWN - THE CONTINUED MONITORING OF-]

"Oh, right. Okay, okay..."

Without opening her eyes, Tiana rolled over and faced the opposite wall.

"We'll look in the morning..."

[NEGATIVE - RECOMMENDING IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO CURRENT SITUATION]

Teana slowly opened her eyes, feeling her mood go further south by the second. Her eyebrows were pressed tightly down as she glared at the wall, and she tried one more time to reason with her device.

"Cross Mirage, please..."

[ENFORCER HARLAOWN HAS ENTRUSTED YOU WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT - ALL SITUATIONS MUST BE INVESTIGATED]

Teana knew she'd have to do it, and she let out a long sigh in response. Before forcing herself to sit up, she raised her head, pulled her pillow out from under her, held it tightly to her face, and screamed.

Not a second later, the door to her bedroom was thrown open, and a blue-haired cyborg came charging through it.

"TIA!" shouted Subaru, "are you okay?"

Teana returned with her own cry of surprise and sat up quickly.

"Subaru?" she asked. It took another second for her to process this, but then her brow dropped again and her voice returned to normal.

"Weren't you sleeping over here?"

The blue haired girl tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Err, yeah?"

"Then why aren't you sleeping?"

Teana pushed the covers off of her and stood up. She moved over to her closet to find something to wear while her friend explained herself.

"Because, Tia, I was thinking..."

"Good," said Teana, "you should do that more often."

Subaru closed her eyes and scratched the back of her head with her hand.

"Ehhh, Tia..."

The Junior Enforcer finished putting something on and turned back to Subaru. She probably couldn't tell exactly what she was wearing, but it didn't matter. She'd go over, find out whatever this person had done, and return to the comfort of her bed.

"I need to leave for a bit" she said, grabbing her device and then brushing past Subaru into the main area of her small apartment. "Make sure nothing happens while I'm gone. Or, rather, don't do anything while I'm gone."

"Wait, Tia" cried Subaru, scrambling after her. "I really am stuck on something. Can I come with?"

Teana was almost to the front door of her place. She placed a hand on the door, looked back at Subaru and - oh, dear, look at those eyes. Subaru would probably start pleading if she said no. And so, with a sigh, Teana nodded and opened the door.

"Sure. Come along."

Subaru bounced happily out of the door, and followed closely beside her friend as they made their way outside.

"Okay, Subaru, what do you want to ask me about?"

"Right! Well, I was thinking about the phrase 'funny you mention that'..."

"And?"

"And I don't really get it. Why do people say that?"

"What don't you understand about it?"

"I...I don't know. I didn't get that far."

Teana froze in her tracks and slowly turned to the side to stare at Subaru. Subaru, meanwhile, understood exactly what this meant and put her hands up almost immediately.

"I told you I was stuck, Tia. I really really wanna get unstuck so...so if you could..."

The orange-haired girl sighed again, looked forwards again, and kept walking.

"Okay. Why were you thinking of this in the first place? If I knew that, maybe I could explain this better."

"Well, I just heard someone say it, but it wasn't funny at all. And then I thought that no one's ever laughing when I hear that, so I guess I don't really get it."

The two girls went through the main door of the building out into the night air.

"Well, funny you mention that, actually" said Teana. "I was talking to Erio and he brought up something similar to what you're-"

"But it's not funny!" said Subaru. "It wasn't funny. You didn't tell a joke. I'm not laughing. Unless...err...you did tell a joke, and if you did, I guess I didn't get it..."

Another sigh escaped Tiana's mouth. The two girls stood on the corner of the street outside the apartment.

"Subaru, you don't always take everything someone says literally. When I say 'funny you mention that', you don't need to have actually said something funny. It's just something people say if they have a story or such that relates to the current topic. Do you understand?"

Subaru sheepishly looked down at the street in front of her.

"No, I don't..."

"Okay, here, listen. Let's say that I turned to you and said 'Subaru, you are as thick as a brick'. I don't mean that literally. I'm not telling you that you have the size, definition, and properties of a brick. I'm just calling you an idiot! Or something like that. I think that's what it means."

From down the street, a bus came rolling up towards the corner. It stopped in front of the two girls, and opened up the door. Subaru didn't respond while the two boarded it and found a seat, but almost immediately, she had another question.

"Tia?"

"What?"

"What's a brick?"

Teana took a deep breath and looked upwards.

"A brick is..."

She started having trouble almost immediately.

"It's, uh...umm...It's like..."

Defeated, she turned to her partner.

"I don't know. I heard Hayate say it once. But it was at one of her little parties, and she kept filling her glass with something, and she said some other things that definitely weren't words, so I don't know."

"Or maybe it's something from her and Nanoha's planet! Maybe that's it."

"I don't know" Teana said again. She shrugged and rested her head on the back of the seat in front of her. She kept thinking about closing her eyes, but she knew that if she did so, she would probably fall right back asleep.


A little while later, Teana and Subaru found themselves back inside the complex, standing in front of Bathory's room. Teana's mood hadn't improved at all, she had hardly woken up at all, and she just hoped that this wouldn't take forever.

"Tia?" asked Subaru, "what are you doing anyways?"

Teana balled her hand tightly into a fist, and her arm began to shake a little.

"Just a routine checkup...in the middle of the night..."

Stepping forwards, she knocked loudly on the door.

"Hey, you - it's me. Open up."

"Tia," asked Subaru again, "do you know this is the right room?"

"Yes, idiot. I got all his data transferred to Cross Mirage. I know where I'm goi-"

Something slammed into the door from the other side of it. Teana shifted back, slightly startled by the noise. She heard a bit more movement coming from the very other side of the door, and what sounded like a few soft grunts. Slowly, the door began to slide open, a hand emerged, and Bathory leaned against the wall where the door would close. His face was red, and he seemed to be panting.

"Hey again...it's Tia, right?"

He pointed at her, but all of his movements still seemed to be staggered and slow. Teana crossed her arms.

"Junior Enforcer Lanster. I told you that."

From behind Teana, Subaru stared at the person she had sparred with a couple days earlier. Her eyes grew wide, and she put her hands on the side of her head.

"Oh wow!" she yelled. "Co-in-ci-dence!"

In front of Subaru, Teana pulled her device out of her pocket and looked down at it. It projected a little screen, which Teana worked on with her other hand.

"Okay, let's see here...your limiter shows that it had to advance to the third stage of countermeasures. And, from what I've heard, that's... not pretty."

From the inside of the room, Aphelion joined the conversation.

[MY MASTER WAS EXPERIENCING SEVERE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRESS FROM THE DEVICE - I CONTACTED YOU SOLELY FOR HIS WELL-BEING AND SAFETY]

Teana nodded, fighting back a yawn. It was obvious from her target's movement and current state that he still hadn't fully recovered from his stunt.

"Well," she said, "you mess with a limiter and it'll do that to you."

"Great," replied Bathory, "I don't need a talking to. I'm fine. Go away."

He reached for the door, stepped back into the room, and closed it again. As Tiana heard the sounds of the door locking, her eyes got wide and just stared forwards. Again, Subaru knew what this was going towards, and she put her hand on Tiana's shoulder.

"Tia..."

Teana's arms started shaking again, and she gritted her teeth.

"What, Subaru..."

"Tia, please..."

Eventually, the girl reached a tipping point, and she cried out as loud as she could.

"I WASN'T DONE, YOU KNOW!"

Her head snapped back down to her device.

"Cross Mirage, open the door."

[UNDERSTOOD]

On the face of the card-shaped device, small lights began to glow back and forth in a seemingly random pattern. Next to Tiana, Subaru tried pulling them both away.

"Tia, please..."

Teana was rooted in place, however, and soon, her device quit flashing and spoke again.

[ACCESS GRANTED]

The door released its lock, and Teana slid it back open with all her might. She stormed into the room and found Bathory sitting back down on his bed.

"You are NOT going to decide when I leave. I'm the Enforcer here. You have to listen to me."

With a bit of trouble, Bathory stood up again.

"Ahh, great..." he mumbled.

"I WAS going to say that what your limiter did was punishment enough," continued Teana, "but now I'm not so sure."

"Then what are you gonna do?" asked Bathory. "Fight me?"

"Maybe" said Teana. "Maybe I'll...well, or maybe I should..."

After a few seconds, she thrust her head towards the sky and shouted again.

"AGH! What would Fate have done here?"

Across the hall, another door opened and a black-haired man shuffled across to the other side. Subaru turned her head, saw him, and immediately began to apologize.

"Sorry! I'm sorry. Tia can get really loud when she's angry..."

Satel forced himself past Subaru and stood behind Teana. His eyes, like Teana's were also barely keeping themselves open.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Teana turned around, and her face became almost smug.

"And you - aren't YOU supposed to be doing my job? Aren't you supposed to be watching him so he doesn't do something stupid?"

"That doesn't mean I want to sleep next to him" said Satel, starting to raise his voice as well.

Also from the room across the hall, a red-headed girl made her way over to Bathory's room as well. Subaru saw her as well, but only winced and shut her eyes.

"Oh, Tia..."

Negati made her way in, and the room was quickly running out of standing space. Through her own heavy eyes, she looked at the other two girls. She hadn't seen either of them before, though, and as Teana met her eyes, the orange-haired girl lowered her voice by quite a bit.

"I haven't seen you before" said Teana. "Pleased to meet you. You must be 'Negati', right?"

She held out her hand, and Negati slowly took it, mumbling out a response.

"yeh...loo...lootennannegatiiii..."

"Junior Enforcer Lanster. If I can ask you the same question, why aren't you making sure this doesn't happen?"

"What happened?" asked Negati. Next to her, Satel looked down and answered for Teana.

"He tried to pull his limiter off. It went up to stage three."

"Stage three?" said Negati. She woke up a little and looked at Bathory. "Are you okay?"

"By now, mostly" answered Bathory.

"Well," said Satel, "if you ask me, that's a pretty direct violation. Throw him in somewhere for about a week. That should do it."

Teana put her hand on her hip.

"I wasn't asking you for that. You're all on Midchilda, and I'll choose how Midchilda handles this situation."

"Junior Enforcer, if I could still respond," said Negati, "Both Satel and I have been trained in the application and use of limiters, and I, at least, have been subject to the strongest level of defense. I don't think he's going to try this again."

"Well, that still doesn't give anyone the right to interfere with my work or talk down to me" replied Teana, spinning back around to her target. "And THAT is why I'm really mad."

"Tia, remember when Wendi did something like this?" asked Subaru. "She was curious and then messed with it and then she wasn't the same for an hour or two..."

"Yeah," said Negati. "He's sorry for what he said and it'll clear up by morning."

"Or maybe he's just an asshole. Throw him in anyways" said Satel.

The two other Sibans both paused and looked right at Satel. In the middle of them all, Teana was still frustrated, and she shook her head back and forth.

"Why are you all justifying this..."

"Because," said Satel, "I'm tired."

"Yeah," said Bathory, looking back at the wall, "me too."

"And Tia," answered Subaru apprehensively, "this probably isn't good for your mental health..."

Teana let out a short defeated laugh.

"Tell me about it. Now, Bathory, Fate told me this wouldn't be too complicated. This was going to be easy. So I'm going to give you one more chance to make this easy. I'll excuse you for now; the limiter's punishment was probably enough. But I don't want to have to step in again. Got it?"

"Yeah, kid, we get it" replied Satel. He turned and started walking back across the hall without even waiting for a response. Back in Bathory's room, Teana's will to remain calm nearly cracked and shattered into pieces, but she forced it to stay up.

"Then that's the plan. Got it, both of you? Come on, Subaru. I'm done here."

Teana started to leave, but her device began to glow again.

[TARGET'S LIMITER IS CURRENTLY IN A LOCKDOWN STATE - IT REQUIRES MANUAL RESET BEFORE CONTINUING IN PROPER MODE]

Teana paused again, and the ground mage behind her got very nervous.

"Wh- what does that mean?" he asked.

[MASTER, I AM UNABLE TO ACCESS ANY MANA GENERATED BY YOUR LINKER CORE] said Aphelion.

"So I'm...I'm back at nothing?"

Starting to panic again, Bathory tried to channel some energy, but as hard as he tried, nothing seemed to be flowing.

Grinning, Teana almost started to giggle.

"Well, I didn't know that. If I had known, maybe I wouldn't have even come over here..."

Bathory shot up from the bed. His body was still a little disjointed, and he stumbled a bit.

"Teana, please, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how I acted. Could you change my limiter back?"

She could never be described as haughty, and no one would ever say she was proud, but damn if Teana didn't feel a little bit satisfied. She slowly turned back around, crossing her arms in front of her.

"I don't know. Maybe I should talk to Fate first. She's handled situations like this before and it would be good to get her opinion."

"No, Teana. Please. I will be very grateful if you change it back now."

In the back of the group, Negati nervously looked back and forth from the Junior Enforcer to the other girl. In front of her, Teana acted like she was considering resetting the device or not - and maybe she really was having trouble making the choice - but she relented in the end.

"Alright. Sit down, and I'll get it reset."

Relieved, Bathory sat back on the edge of the bed, and Teana knelt down by his leg. She pressed on the touchscreen part of the limiter, and a number pad appeared in front of her, backed by a red hue that let her know what mode it was in.

"Cross Mirage," she asked, "what do I have to enter?"

Her own device lit up again, and projected several pages of information that Teana skimmed through. She reached the end, and her eyes went wide at a long string of numbers she'd have to type.

"The whole thing?" she cried, having second thoughts of doing this. Still, without another peep, she set to work typing the combo in. Behind her, Negati looked over again at the other girl, who she still didn't know. The Lieutenant smiled lightly and held her hand out.

"Hey there. I'm Negati."

Subaru turned to face the girl and waved excitedly.

"Hi there! I'm Subaru Nakajima."

"Subaru, huh?" asked Negati. "Are you friends with...uhh...Lanster here?"

"Yup!" said Subaru, continuing to almost shout. "We're best friends, and I was going to sleep with her, but then she got called and-"

"Sleep OVER, you idiot" cried Teana. She stopped what she was doing and shot Subaru a nasty glare. "At my place. Don't just drop words like that."

Grumbling to herself, she looked back at the limiter and continued to work.

"...not my fault I could only get a place with one bed..."

She finished entering the reset code, but the screen on the limited flashed red and let out a few short beeps.

"What?" asked Teana.

"What happened?" asked Bathory.

"It didn't go. Maybe I don't have privilege to do this."

"You must have done something wrong" said Bathory. "I mean, not insulting you, really, I'm just saying... try again."

Negati looked over at the other two and stepped forwards.

"Oh, I think you need to hold your finger on it first." She said.

"What do you mean?" said Teana.

"Hold your thumb down on the space above the number pad."

The limiter cycled back to the number pad, and Teana did as Negati said. She held her thumb up on the screen, and after a few seconds, she heard a longer beep. After this, she typed in the code rapidly, and this time, it went through. The limiter beeped again, but the background color turned to green and Bathory could immediately feel some of his magic coming back to him.

"Oh, thank you" he said. "Thank you, Teana."

"Alright," she answered. "Well, then I know what I'm doing if you do this again. Or rather, what I'm not doing. I'll leave it at that, but like I said, you get to control how much I need to keep stepping in."

She stood up to leave, and she got over to the door without any hassle. Teana motioned for Subaru to come along, and began to walk off back down the hallway. Subaru stopped to wave once again to the group of two, but complied after that, and soon two sets of footsteps were heard walking away.

After a few seconds, Negati looked over at Bathory. He looked relieved when Teana left the room, but over the next few seconds, his expression quickly faded and was replaced with anger.

"Bathory, are you okay?" asked Negati.

The other ground mage exhaled and nodded lightly.

"I'm fine."

"Then I'm going back to my room. Get some rest, already."

"I will."

Negati stepped out of the room, lightly closing the door behind her. Bathory spent a few more seconds on the bed, but then he got up as well.

[MASTER] said his device, [I WAS SIMPLY WORRIED FOR YOUR SAFETY-]

"You didn't need to call" replied Bathory.

[BUT WITHOUT HER ASSISTANCE, YOU WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO YOUR LINKER CORE OR YOUR MAGICAL RESERVES]

"I don't think I'd have cared, Aphelion, so long as she didn't come order me around like that."

[I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR HOSTILITY, MY MASTER - YOU HAVE AGREED WITH ALL OF MY PREVIOUS CHOICES WHEN I WAS REQUIRED TO ACT ON YOUR ACCORD]

Bathory walked away, leaving Aphelion lying on the bed.

"I'll see you in the morning, Aphelion."

With anger flowing through him, he slid the door to the room open, stepped through it, and then slammed it shut again with a loud grunt. He stared at it for a bit and then turned around, only to find Negati was still in the hallway.

"You're not okay" she said.

"I'm sick of having to beg, Negati. I'm sick of...of knowing what everyone thinks about me, and...and knowing that all I can do is just-"

"Bathory, quiet" said Negati in a sharp whisper. "Do you want Satel coming out and joining us?"

The brown-haired mage shook his head.

"No. not really."

"Me neither. Do you want to go somewhere?"

"Yeah. There's a break room a few hallways down to the left."

Both Sibans slowly began to head down the hall. It was the middle of the night, and not a single other person in this hall would be awake, unless Tiana's shouting had woken them. But in the hall, it was nothing but empty space next to the two mages. What neither of them noticed, though, was that Bathory never bothered to lock his door after he left, and it could be accessed by anyone who tried to do so.


In the closed room, Satel noticed that Negati hadn't come back. He heard her talking outside, but then her voice had dropped to a whisper and he didn't bother trying to spy on her. Still, he wasn't hearing anything now, and that worried him a little. What was Bathory getting the both of them into?

The Lieutenant thought about what he had been personally instructed to do if complications would arise on Midchilda. And while he didn't want to go behind Negati's back, he just might get a little more done this way. Deciding on an action, he went over and brought his device over to the bed.

"Begin transmission," he told it. "Call the General."

[CONTACT WITH - RECIPIENT: GENERAL PARKENSINE - ENGAGED]

Another screen appeared for him, with another TSAB logo lying there in the background. Soon, another portrait of the General appeared on screen.

"Lieutenant Moraine," said Parkensine.

"General. I apologize if this is a late call for you."

"Late? Hardly. Midchilda's hours must already be messing with your head."

Satel stretched, trying to stay attentive.

"Or it must be the water, of course."

"Of course."

"Now, sir, you asked me to contact you about any of Bathory's behavior that worries me. And we have had several moments just now that I should bring to your attention."

"Ahh, Bathory" said Parkensine. "I spoke to him not thirty minutes ago. If you are to tell me that he appears to be falling apart over there, I would have to agree with you completely."

"Well, I guess sometime after he talked to you, he tried pulling his limiter off. It punished him as it should, of course, but that act drew quite a bit of attention. That called his Enforcer over, and she got involved, and we had a bit of an argument-"

"Enforcer Harlaown?" asked Parkensine.

"No. The case got pushed off onto some other girl. I didn't know her - not important."

"Well, I can only assume that Bathory's actions were responded to with a slap on the wrist and a heartfelt speech of encouragement."

Satel and the General both laughed together.

"Yes on the first part, no on the second" replied Satel. "But this just shows us what we already know. Bathory's going to do something stupid here before his time is up and put the two of us in danger as well. You were right on freezing the program so he'd do so on this planet, but he's adamant about dragging Negati and I into his mess. So, if I may ask, I'd like if you could help us out."

"Certainly, Lieutenant" said Parkensine. "That is why I asked you to contact me in the first place. Now, what are you asking for?"

"I want a way to get out of here if Bathory tries to take us down as well. To get back to Siba if Midchilda assumes we're with him."

"Something like a Dimensional Transfer spell?"

"Yes, exactly. But I never learned how to do that. After all, why would I need to leave Siba in the first place?"

"Lieutenant, it will be hard to fill your request for that very same reason. There isn't much knowledge on Siba that would assist you in that. I can see what is available, but even if I advanced this to a high priority, I don't know what I will find quickly."

"Well, sir, could you please see anyways? I am very worried about our safety."

Parkensine sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Very well. I will raise the question after we are done here. Is there anything else I should know, Lieutenant?"

A couple other things burned through Satel's mind. He still remembered his visit to the church, and it was still such a painful image for the Sankt Kaiser to not only be nothing like he expected, but be wrapped in the arms of the most powerful figure of the Midchildian TSAB. Just thinking about that made him start to shake.

"S...sir..." he stammered.

"Yes?"

"Th...the Kaiser, sir..."

"I know, Lieutenant. She is only a child. Those pictures of her as an adult must have been fabrications, created just to get our hopes up."

"More than that, sir. She's under Nanoha's watch. This...this planet...put BELKA'S shining figure...under HER watch."

"I know, Lieutenant. And there is nothing I can do there. There is nothing anyone can do there. They call the shots. They tell me I must reinstate Bathory, and they tell us that our Kaiser will live in Cranagan. If there's nothing more, then I will leave you, Lieutenant. I am glad that you have maintained contact with me. You are dismissed."

Parkensine faded from the screen, and it was replaced by the TSAB logo. Still alone in the room, Satel stared past the screen as thoughts rapidly flew through his head.

"I can't let her be taken like that. I'm here. I am here. On this planet. I can do something."


At the same time Satel began his conversation, Negati and Bathory were further down the hallway, still walking over to wherever Bathory was headed.

"Bathory?" asked Negati, "what are you worried about?"

The young man looked in front of him while he answered the question.

"I don't think anyone on Siba believes anything that Midchilda says about me. Everyone still seems to believe that I just...just shot the Captain dead for the fun of it."

"Don't take what the General says and assume everyone thinks that."

"Negati, you saw my treatment from S.C.D.U! That's what the Siban public will see. That's who they're all going to think I am."

"I don't think that. I don't think that's right. They're making that up."

"But Negati, you-"

Bathory paused, trying to word his next sentence right.

"Negati, would it be okay to talk about you for a bit?"

"Sure." said the red-head.

"I talked to Satel earlier today, after we visited the Saint Church. I asked him why he was still here, if he hated every aspect of this planet, and he told me it was for you. He told me all about what General Parkensine says of you for not killing me, and of all the others who just parrot the General's opinion."

"It doesn't bother me. Don't worry. They tell me over and over that I should just do what I'm told, but if I would have done something truly illegal - like kill an innocent - then I'm glad I didn't do so."

"Negati, listen," said Bathory, "I know, given another two seconds, I'd be dead. I could - I could remember the sounds clearly. Back in your city, after my battle with Fate. I could hear everything clearly - my footsteps, and a little ambiance, and you starting to give the order. I could hear that, and I was so happy for you to shoot me."

"Bathory, I...I didn't know you were innocent at that time."

"Then why did you hesitate?"

"That's what everyone asks me! Why didn't I just say it? Why didn't I just give the order? Why did I wait?"

"Because no one's able to just kill someone like that. Or, at least, no one who isn't a true psychopath or a cyborg. You hesitated just like I hesitated, and I had no reason to do so. But no one cares about my little second thought, since-"

"Since it didn't change anything. And also, if I hadn't frozen, I'd have followed their orders, just like they wanted me to-"

"While I continued to not follow all the orders to stop fighting and turn myself in. If I had done what was asked of me, I'd probably be lying there up in an orbital prison, next to a real combat cyborg."

"Well, you're not up there. You're right here, on Midchilda. And so I've got a question. Why are you pulling at your limiter? Bringing someone out in the middle of the night because you tripped it - that's something you can control."

Again, Bathory's mood started to sour.

"It's...I...it's not enough, Negati. What they give me isn't enough."

"Not enough for what? What do you mean by that."

"It's just not enough, okay? I can't...you...you don't know-"

"You're right, I don't know. Because I don't know what you're getting at."

Bathory was really not wanting to spill any details about his talk with Parkensine, even though without that context, it was hard to explain anything. However, the two of them entered the break room, and Bathory spied a small kitchen-like area in the corner. At least, there was a refrigerator which probably had food, and he had skipped both meals yesterday.

"Nevermind" he said. "I'm just angry because I'm hungry."

"That's not really an excuse. You can tell me whatever, if you think you need to hide something."

Bathory lightly dismissed her and opened the door to the fridge. Looking around, he noticed on particular tray with the name "Shamal" written on the side of it. The handwriting seemed to be done in a very panicked state, but Bathory didn't really pick up on that. He pulled it out and held it out to Negati.

"Hey, look at this - do you think Shamal made it?"

"Huh?" asked Negati. "Like, Shamal the Wolkenritter?"

"It must be her. And this is still pretty full. No one would mind if I took some, right?"

He set the tray down on a counter that was next to him, and looked at the inside of the tray. The lighting wasn't perfect in the room, in the middle of the night, and whatever it was didn't seem to have any real discernable features.

"There's a drawing of a skull here on the side as well" said Bathory. "Does that mean spicy?"

"I don't know. You're the one eating it" replied Negati. She leaned against the wall a little ways out into the large room.

"Sure, I'll give it a shot" said Bathory. "If I like it, I could tell her so next time we meet. Maybe she'll jump my limiter up an extra rank if I really lay on the praise."

He looked through the draws in the counter and found a plate. While he worked on cutting a piece out of Shamal's dish, Negati looked off towards the windows on the far side of the room.

"How are the Wolkenritter? I've been wanting to meet Signum, but I don't really know how."

"They are basically the same as you've heard they are on Siba. I've met the four of them, and you saw Vita earlier. They all kind of boss you around if you give them an opportunity to do so."

Negati chuckled.

"I figured. But I thought that if I had the chance to watch them battle, or - or maybe even get in a battle with one - then that would be a real highlight. Oh, I think Signum would, again, be the best, personally, but I wouldn't pass up a chance on any of them..."

As Negati spoke, Bathory took the first bite of the meal on his plate. He started chewing, but soon he began to slow down as he realized that something was very wrong. With his eyes almost bulging open, he forced himself to swallow, and then stood very, very still.

"...and, ohhh, if he teaches Steel Yoke to me, and I could put it on my binding spell, I think that would stop someone very, very quickly..."

Without making a peep, Bathory took the plate in both hands, walked over to the trash disposal, and dumped it in there. Then, he moved back over to the tray with the rest of Shamal's dish, took it, moved back to the disposal, and dropped the whole thing as well. Negati didn't notice anything Bathory was doing until she heard the whole tray colliding against whatever it had landed on. She looked over at the other ground mage, and noticed that he seemed to be frozen in place.

"Bathory?" she asked.

Bathory slowly turned around. His expression was that of someone who had watched the world burn before them. He began to shuffle back across the room, seeming ignoring Negati in the process. When he passed the Lieutenant, she reached out for him.

"Bathory, are you okay?"

"...I feel...bad..."

He seemed to stay up on his own accord, but when Negati touched him, he instantly collapsed into her. Fighting to keep them both standing, Negati grunted and pushed back against gravity. Still, Bathory moved forwards, trying to reach the couch in front of the large TV.

"Here, let's get you back to your room" said Negati.

"No" said Bathory. He sat on the edge of the couch, and he seemed to balance himself again.

"This is the camel..." he muttered.

"The - the what?" asked Negati.

"The camel...that broke the straw's back..."

Bathory fell backwards onto the couch, with his feet still hanging over the side. He almost molded into the cushions, and he let out a long groan.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Negati. "Are you sure you don't want to go back?"

"I'm sure" he moaned, almost too quietly for the girl to hear. Still, she understood, and just nodded her head.

"Okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

Negati headed back, alone, through the halls to her and Satel's room. In the break room, Bathory's exhaustion finally caught up to him again, and he slept in that room for the second night in a row.