The first one to react was Gilbert. He stepped forward towards the man with his fist clenched tightly.
"What did you call my brother?" he growled.
The man looked surprised at him and the knights around tightened the semi-circle, effectively cutting the way out through the door.
"Your brother?" the man asked, and he glanced at everyone else present in the chapel. His gaze lingered a little longer at Alfred's watch, Eliza's pants and Gilbert's red eyes. Through Alfred's mind flashed a thought that it was a good thing they did not oppose changing into clothes Francis offered them on the ship. The man turned to Feliciano with stern look. "Father, what is this unholy group doing in your church? Are you supporting those acts of witchcraft?"
'What? No! I would never step out of God's way!" Feliciano protested, shaking visibly. "These are good people. And Ludwig is my friend." He pointed towards Ludwig in miserable attempt to convince them to change their mind.
"I see." The official sounded almost sad. "If that's the way it is then I'm afraid you should be held captive until we decide about your future. I'm sorry father – that's the will of the people." Almost like to prove his words right the crowd outside started to yell, demanding justice.
"Are you insane?!" Lovino ran forward and grabbed the official by his tunic. "You're turning against your own priest! It's my own brother you're calling a servant of evil. He wouldn't hurt a fly, even if it deserved it," he spat out last words, looking directly in the official's eyes, but he merely pushed him away like a noisy kid. Then he turned back to the knights, giving orders. "Seize them all, priest included. Kill the wizard."
Alfred turned, scared, to Arthur, ready to protect him from any knight that would come, but one look at him an enraged shout from Gilbert made him realise that they were talking about Ludwig. Most of the knights turned to catch Feliciano, Lovino and Matthew, who were cornered next to one of the statues. They were defended by Eliza, who ran in front of them with her sword, ready to fight anyone who came closer. The rest of the knights turned towards Ludwig with their swords ready to pierce the boy. Gilbert ran towards them with his own weapon and started to cut his sword disorderly, blinded with rage. "Don't. You. Dare. Touch. My. Brother!" he spat out after every hit.
Alfred charged the nearest knight, shouting back to Arthur, "Do something!"
"But what?" he shouted back, looking around for some kind of weapon, as his own sword was lying near the altar. His eyes landed on a candle holder that he grasped like a spear and hauled off hitting knight next to him. Alfred's help made Gilbert's situation a little better, but because of the knights' strength and the fact that they were wearing armours covering almost entire area of their bodies, they were constantly pushed back.
They were getting so close to Ludwig, that when Gilbert dodged a sword that was swung at his head, it actually hit a bench next to which Ludwig was standing. Seeing that, Gilbert charged the knight with all his force. They fell to the ground, yanking each other's arms. When knight's sword fell from his hand Gilbert pressed down knight's arm by his knee and started punching his face. The man soon lost his consciousness and with a smirk of triumph Gilbert stood up. Before he managed to turn around another knight used the moment to drive his sword through Gilbert's back.
It all happened so quickly that before anyone could react Gilbert was lying down with a pool from his own blood that was quickly expanding. When Alfred noticed the situation, Ludwig was already trying to drag Gilbert away from the fight, hastily speaking in broken English-German. "Arthur!" he screamed at the wizard, who didn't notice what happened. "Gilbert!"
Arthur looked back and his eyes widened with realisation of what had happened. He immediately dropped his makeshift weapon and threw back the knights that surrounded him with a force that emitted from his palms. Then he struck the knight that Eliza was fighting with and the ones around Alfred. Before anybody could react all of the knights were down.
Arthur was panting heavily, leaning on one of the benches. The official, who was still near the door, looked in the highest panic at Arthur. "DEMON! He's the Devil!" he screamed at top of his lungs, pointing at Arthur. There was an uproar outside and the villagers started pouring inside the chapel, all of them wielding some kind of weapon.
"We can't fight them all," Alfred shouted to Arthur, who straightened his back and closed his eyes, tensing. Suddenly a wall of fire erupted from the ground between them and the lynch mob.
"Hang in there!" Arthur yelled with a hoarse voice and Alfred felt familiar tug of travelling.
Before anyone could say anything all of them were back inside the manor. Alfred looked back from wide-eyed Italians and saw Arthur swaying back. He tried to catch him before he felt, but was too far away and Arthur hit the ground, unconscious.
Everyone was still in various states of panic and shock. Feliciano tried to hug Ludwig, which was difficult because the boy was shaking Gilbert back and forth, muttering something quietly. When Eliza saw them on the ground she emitted high-pitched noise and kneeled on the other side of the albino, who look grotesque with the sword still inside him. Lovino was too distracted by the travel and magic, and he was cursing with all the force he had, yanking himself from the grasp of Matthew, who took the role of taming the angry Italian.
Alfred kneeled beside Arthur, leaning near his face and he laid one hand on the man's chest. Gladly, he discovered that Arthur was indeed only unconscious, as he could feel the man's faint breath on his cheek and the slight raising and falling of his chest. With a small blush he picked up Arthur's limp body in his arms and carried him out to the next room. He laid him down on the sofa and lightly brushed Arthur's bangs from his eyes. He realised his action and remembered about Gilbert, so he quickly went back to the previous room.
He joined the small crowd that was surrounding Gilbert. It appeared that someone finally took out the blade from Gilbert's flesh. He kneeled next to Eliza, who was staring at Gilbert's body without the word.
"Is he…" he hesitated. "Is he breathing?" he asked her quietly.
"No," she answered blankly. "I don't understand," she said after a moment of silence. "All those times that it stopped us from doing something stupid. Stopped us from… dying." She barely managed to say those words. "And now it decides that it doesn't matter for him. That he's not important enough not to die." She shook her head furiously. "I don't believe it. I trusted him. I trusted Arthur that he knew what he was doing. What else was he wrong about?" She clenched her fists in anger.
He didn't know what he could say that would comfort her in this situation. He didn't think that it was Arthur's fault. From what he could see, the wizard drove himself to the edge, trying to save them, and being accused and almost killed himself. But he couldn't deny that Gilbert's situation was odd. He refused to think dead. His mind didn't really register the event that happened in past fifteen minutes. He desperately tried to think of something he could do in this situation and be useful. His sight laid on Matthew, who was still struggling to keep Lovino's rampage under control.
"I will take the brothers out of here," Alfred said to Eliza, who only nodded in response. When he stood up he heard loud gasp, followed by a sharp cough. He turned around to see Gilbert coughing up blood. They all froze. Even Ludwig stopped speaking and shaking his brother. Gilbert coughed up more blood, opened his eyes and rolled over to one side.
"Ouch. Fucking hell," he groaned between gasping. "That hurts like hell."
"Oh, mio Dio!" Feliciano exclaimed.
"Bruder!" Ludwig shouted, helping Gilbert sit up.
"That's impossible," Matthew said, letting go of Lovino, who stopped struggling.
"What's the matter with you guys?" Gilbert asked, his gaze slightly dazed. He looked around them at the walls. "Why are we back already? Does this mean that you're coming back?" he asked Ludwig?
"What's the last thing you remember?" Eliza asked.
"I remember fighting with a knight and defeating him in an awesome style. Then one of them sneaked up on me and hit me in the back… Wait a minute! Did he hit me?" He tried to look at his back. "That's why it hurts so much."
Eliza leaned forward and grabbed his shirt, lifting it up. "Whoa! Girl! Not so fast! We haven't even been on a real date," Gilbert laughed but it died quickly when he saw the state his clothes were in. "Is this my blood? Was I really stabbed?"
Eliza ran her hand on Gilbert's back, cleaning the skin from the blood that was quickly drying up. They all saw that the cut was not as deep and wide as it should be. It was healing itself up.
"Unbelievable," she whispered, running her hand over the wound.
"Hey, it's tickling," Gilbert shrugged from her touch. "Careful woman, it still hurts. Maybe I will have awesome manly scar to show later," he laughed, waiting for their reaction. "What's wrong with you guys? What has happened?"
"You died, Bruder," Ludwig said with calm voice, but it was obvious that he was relieved to see his brother alright.
"What? Are you serious? But… how?" Gilbert once again tried to look at the wound on his back, which now looked like a small cut.
"You were stabbed like a pig by one if those knights, that's what happened," Lovino spat out angrily. "Now can someone explain something to ME? Where the hell are we?"
"That's not awesome at all," Gilbert said, ignoring Lovino. "But why am I sitting here with you then? Am I," he dropped his voice down to theatrical whisper, "a god?" he smirked.
"Yeah, sure dude. Don't get ahead of yourself," Alfred laughed. "But seriously, I think that there is only one person that could explain everything that happened to us and he's out," he gestured towards the door leading to next room.
"Don't ignore me, bastards!" Lovino stomped angrily.
Eliza, who was looking quietly at Gilbert seemed to wake up from her own thoughts and stood up. She straightened her pants, looking still quite distressed. "I'm going to explain everything to you. Follow me. We should not bother them," she said quietly, not looking at anyone particular. After that she went out the room and was quickly followed by angry Lovino and Feliciano, who was happily looking at their surroundings.
That left the four of them in the room. "Well, I say we move your sick ass to some place more comfortable than floor," Alfred smiled at Gilbert. "Come on, give me your arm. I will lift you like a pretty little bride," he laughed.
"You fuc-!" Gilbert shouted but was interrupted by Ludwig, who despite his younger age lifted his brother easily from the ground. "I'll do it," he said.
Alfred looked slightly confused. He turned to Matthew. "Well, it seems that nobody wants any help from us. I don't know about you Mattie but I'm super hungry. Let's plunder the kitchen." He stretched his arms and went out of the room, followed soon by Matthew.
It was late in the night and the manor was engrossed in a silence. The Italian brothers were sleeping in one of the spare rooms, after Eliza explained, or tried to explain in Lovino's case, who they are and what had happened. Feliciano took all the new information with calm demeanour, claiming all of those to be a gift from God himself, and another one of His wonderful doing, and was happy that everything turned out well with Ludwig's brother. Matthew and Alfred were put into another spare room and judging from loud snores that emitted from behind that door, they were already sleeping.
Eliza walked slowly the dark halls. Her already quiet steps were muffled more by the thick carpet. She stopped in front of the door to the room Gilbert was resting in. With her hand mid-air, she hesitated. It was something normal to check up on a sick person, right?
Who am I kidding; she thought and lightly pushed the door open. It creaked on its hinges; a noise that sounded like a shot in the night. She stopped, looking at Ludwig, who decided to stay with his injured brother. The boy was sleeping soundly, half sitting in a chair, half leaning on the wall. She looked towards the bed but was surprised to find it empty. Soft blow of the wind tickled her skin. She noticed that the door to the balcony was opened. There was a figure standing outside. She tiptoed next to Ludwig and stepped out to the balcony. Just as she thought, there was Gilbert, leaning on the balustrade.
"You should rest, not wander around," she said, stopping next to him.
He smiled at her. "I got bored. Besides, I'm already healthy. Look," he pulled up his shirt, pointing to the place where his wound supposed to be, "there's nothing here. Don't be such a worry-wart," he jabbed her in the rib. She didn't react and continued to stare at the moon which was shining brightly above them.
Gilbert looked at her solemn face. "Ok, I get it. You're not in the mood for joking," he said in a serious tone.
They were standing for a moment in silence, before Eliza said in a soft voice, "I was really scared."
Her voice and the odd gleam in her eyes put Gilbert on the edge. It wasn't something that he would expect from a strong woman like her. "Scared of what?" he asked.
Another long pause of silence. He shuffled his feet restlessly. This quiet behaviour was making him nervous.
"I'd never told you why I was travelling with Arthur, have I?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the sky above them.
He understood that this was not the time for jokes. It was clear how much energy it cost her to open up to him. "No. You haven't," he answered calmly.
"I'd been married once, you know?" she started softly. "Roderich was an angel. Kind, noble, passionate about the things he really cared. That would be mostly his music, but I did get fair share of that too," she smiled. "I was also from noble family, but we were poorer than the Edelsteins. With the amount of money they had they could be easily royals. When I married Roddie, God knows I still don't know how that happened; we had everything that you could ever dream of. A palace filled with happy servants, stables filled with healthy horses for me to ride on, corridors filled with artists with their paintings for Roddie to contemplate. I think that's what destroyed us. We were too happy to notice that not everyone was content with us having money."
She turned around to face the glass door. "Nobody suspected anything. One day I was walking the corridors inside our little palace. I wanted to tell Roddie that our cook found new recipe for a cake. Roddie loved cakes. I walked towards music room, where he always practise a new music set. Did I tell you how he loved music?" She glanced quickly at Gilbert's confused face. "No? Well, he did. That's what should be a tip-off for me. There was unnatural silence around that part of the building. When I walked inside the room it took one glance to know why. There he was, laying on his beloved piano, blood pouring on the marble floor." She took a deep breath, taking a break in her story.
"They told me later it was a matter of succession for the throne. Frankly speaking, I don't believe in any of that. Roddie was twenty-something in the line for the throne. Everything after that fell apart. Money was taken by one of his cousins, as apparently our marriage could be cancelled. Something about bribing the bishop. I was devastated and couldn't find a place without him. I took comfort in travelling and on one of those journeys I heard from simple commoners about a man who helps those with unusual problems. Magical problem. I didn't believe in it at first, but as the time went by I realised I was holding onto that tiny rope of hope. Somewhere in my brain I understood that if he helps with magic he can use it himself. And as you can see I wasn't mistaken," she smiled a little, but it fell off her face quickly.
"I searched and searched, and I found him. At first he did not want to help me. You've got an occasion to see how he is." She looked at Gilbert, but instead of laughter he found only sadness in her eyes. "But eventually he agreed to my idea. I was to turn back in time and stop that murder from happening. Everyone was supposed to live happily ever after." She sighed loudly.
"But it didn't work," she continued. "Every time there was something in the way. The door was locked, the servant tripped me, there was a fire in the kitchen, or he was killed an hour later in the stables. If I'd ever become close to saving him, then time itself prevented me from helping. And to all of that I had to avoid myself from previous attempts. After what seemed like a hundredth time I just gave up. He wasn't supposed to be saved."
She turned towards Gilbert, gripping tightly the balustrade. He had an instant urge to grasp her hand to calm her. Instead of that he asked her quietly, "So that's why you're travelling with him?"
"Yes. I couldn't go back to my time. Not after all that happened. It's bad enough that I didn't find a way to save him. But I couldn't go back to that house, living normal life." She turned back to staring at the moon, taking away her hand from the balustrade.
They stood in silence. She thought about what has happened during last couple of years. How her life turned upside down.
"I'm sorry." Gilbert broke the silence and she looked at him questioningly.
"What for?" she asked.
"For having to watch somebody die again. For being an ass," he smirked and was happy to see that she smiled too.
"Don't apologise for something you're going to do either way," she said, punching him lightly on the arm.
"What? I'm not intending to die again," he laughed. "Anyway, I think I had it figured out. It must be my special power," he smiled broadly.
"Special power?" she raised her eyebrows in mocking confusion.
"Yeah. You remember what Mr. Grumpy said about special powers? And we didn't know what was mine. It could be this! I could be immortal!" He punched the air with triumphant shout.
"Quiet, you monkey. You're going to wake your brother," she said.
"Nah. It's ok. He deserves no special treatment after that stunt with disappearing he put. As his older brother I have every right to discipline him," he laughed.
She turned towards the door and started walking out. "Don't involve me in this," she said. "I've only come to see if you're ok."
"Yeah, sure," he said.
She was almost at the door outside the room, when Gilbert shouted, making Ludwig shift in his sleep. "Hey, gorilla girl!"
She turned around with angry scowl. "What?" she hissed.
"I don't think you gave up. You've done everything you could and just moved on. There's nothing wrong with that," he said solemnly.
She calmed down and there was a small sad smile on her face. "Thank you, Gil," she said and walked out the room.