Chapter the Thirteenth, or 'Tis not a coincidence that I have made the first horror chapter 'Chapter Thirteen''
I stepped softly through the hallway, candle in one hand and knife in the other, The Manakete Formerly Known as Nah hanging onto the hem of my tunic with one hand as she gingerly followed behind me. I had decided against using the sword; these hallways were pretty tight, and there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver.
Once more my knives seemed less like the whim of a filthy otaku and more like a legitimate tactical decision on my part. Funny how coincidences like that worked out.
Nah-Bob was hanging onto my shirt for one simple reason; I was still pissed that the girls and I had gotten separated so damn quickly. This time I wasn't taking chances. And I did remember how annoying the level you recruited Nah in the game was, what with disappearing and reappearing walls and the like. Nuh-uh. None of that bullshit for me, not today, not with the current level of bullshit currently making me consider jumping out one of these windows and saying 'fuck the girls'.
I had actually debated throwing Nah-Bob out one of the windows, but had decided against it. Not because I was worried about her getting hurt; if she was anything like her mother she'd just transform and fly off.
No, I was keeping her around because I was scared as fuck myself.
The hallways were dark, and every time we went around another corner there was a clicking, skittering sound on the ground behind us. Or ahead of us. Or just plain from within the walls.
My nerves were already stretched thin from the hallucination I'd been forced to endure, my anxiety levels high to begin with as a result.
In short, I really didn't want to be alone right now.
We approached another corner in the blank, uniform hallways and the candle fluttered, the familiar skittering returning behind us. Nah gave a little squeak, pressing herself against my back and burying her face in my tunic as I spun, holding the dying candle high.
Nothing.
Just the empty hallway.
"Argh, mother of fuck this is getting old," I seethed through clenched teeth. "You okay back there, Bob?"
"Y-yeah," Nah stammered, moving away from me a little.
"Right, this psychological warfare bullshit stops now," I said, my voice still hushed as we resumed walking. "So. Tell me. Who's your dad?"
"Wh-what? Now?" Nah asked, confused.
"It's called a distraction technique," I explained, eyes scanning the hallway ahead.
I looked back, making sure nothing was coming behind us before we pressed on. Nah remained silent for a moment and I had another terrifying thought. Nowi and I hadn't exactly used what passed as Ylissean 'protection', and despite her assurances it was safe I still had a little nagging thought in the back of my mind.
"Wait, Nah, am I your dad?"
"What!? No! Of course not!" she almost shouted. "Why would you even ask that!?"
I froze, glancing down at the girl.
"Because your mom and I… we… uh… that is…" I mumbled. "Uh… do you even know where babies come from?"
"Yeah, from eggs," Nah snapped, like I was a moron.
"You know what, you're right, this is a conversation for later," I groaned. "Forget it, awkward silence it is."
We took a few more slow steps, my eyes back to scanning the hallway ahead of us and periodically looking over my shoulder, before Nah spoke again.
"I do feel a little less scared now, though," she said in a small voice.
"I don't, but it's a totally different kind of fear," I muttered under my breath.
After a few more seconds of careful shuffling we came to another corner and stopped, waiting for the familiar skitter. Nothing. I glanced down at Nah, the manakete looking up at me with big eyes and her lips pressed into a thin line. I brought my right hand to my face, careful of my knife, and pressed my index finger to my lips to call for quiet. Then I silently inched towards the corner and pressed my back to the wall. I hesitated, taking a deep breath to build up my nerve, and stuck my head out just enough to see another empty hallway. Except this one was different. Still the same uniform blank walls and floor, but now there was a doorway at the end.
I stepped out, Nah following close behind, and as soon as we stepped into the hall with the door there was a whoosh of displaced air behind us.
I spun, wide eyed and expecting the worst, the little candle almost going out at the movement.
Another blank wall was inches from my face, having appeared from nowhere and effectively blocked our way back.
Nah gave a little groan, shuffling closer to me again as I took a deep breath.
"Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck," I repeated as I exhaled. "I forgot this place could do that."
"I hate when it does that," Nah moaned.
"Only one thing for it, then," I shrugged, turning away from the wall. "Let's see what's behind the mystery door."
I didn't think anything of it when Nah grabbed me with her other hand. I just figured she was nervous. But when the third hand grabbed me my heart stopped. Then as more groping hands felt around for my tunic I screamed, grabbing Nah roughly by the shoulder and leaping away from the wall.
"Hands! Fucking hands! Hands! Move!" "Oh Naga! Oh sweet merciful Naga why are there hands!?"
The entire wall erupted with blindly groping hands, seemingly covered in the same drab grey wallpaper as the rest of the wall. Dozens of disembodied appendages reached out, grasping, looking for us, and I shuddered violently at the thought that they had almost had me.
"Door! Now!" I snapped.
I practically dragged Nah with me as I ran straight for the door, both of us breathing heavy, Nah whimpering. I pulled her close as I opened the door, wary of more tricks from this house, and we spun into the room. Nah buried her face in my tunic again, holding onto me with all her strength as we shuffled a few feet away from the walls. Just in case. We took a moment to catch our breath, and in the dimly lit room I realized I'd dropped the candle in the hall.
"Oh fuck I dropped the candle," I groaned.
Nah was silent a moment before pulling back and looking up at me. "Are you going back for it?"
I glanced at the door and had to gather my courage a moment before I nodded, stepping back from Nah and reaching for the handle, expecting more of those hands to appear. When none did I breathed a small sigh of relief and tried to turn the knob. It rattled but didn't move, suddenly locked.
"I guess I'm not," I said, scooting away from the door again.
Nah gave a little frustrated groan, drifting closer to me again. I don't know why, because I was practically hyperventilating myself, but if it made her feel better then whatever.
There was, however, light already in the room. I looked around, taking the space in. It was an old style sitting room, a 'man cave' before they were banished to garages and sheds. Comfortable, high backed chairs sat in front of a fireplace with a decent blaze going, making the room feel stiflingly hot. A line of sweat was already running down my back from the heat. The walls were shrouded in darkness, but from what I could see trophies of every kind hung from every surface, surrounding more odd paintings and statues. Antlers, claws, bones and whole jaws hung in every spare space. And around the fire were the heads. Taxidermized heads of every beast imaginable. To my disgust a full-sized dragon head hung over the fireplace, several Taguel heads around it. Each was mounted on a wooden plaque, each exquisitely preserved. More were spread along the wall around the fireplace; lions and bears frozen mid-roar, boars and deer with antlers wider than my arm span. Even more heads were hung in the shadows outside of the fire's light.
"What is… this place?" Nah asked, her voice tremoring.
I glanced down at her, finding tears in the girl's eyes as she looked up at the remains of a fellow manakete, displayed as a trophy.
"I really don't want to know," I said, my voice low.
I stepped forward until I was out of the cone of light from the fireplace, looking around the space. Nah followed hesitantly, still eying the Manakete head.
I blinked, focusing on the shadowed heads and willing my night vision to adjust. I instantly wished I hadn't. Human heads stared slackly out of the darkness, mounted on the wall like all the others. Men and women, some old and some my age, some even younger. I stifled a gasp, but Nah heard me and came rushing over. She gave a muffled cry when she saw what I had, burying her head in my chest again and shaking.
"I want to leave now," she muttered. "Please. I want to leave."
Oh, I was so burning this place to the ground.
I looked up, spotting two doors. One on the opposite side of the room from where we'd come in, another opposite the fire. I nodded to Nah, kneading the grip of my knife as I took her hand in my now-free left, leading her towards the door opposite where we'd entered. We made it barely a step back into the firelight when another wall just phased into existence in our faces, cutting us off from the door and leaving us with only one option. Nah barked out another little sound of fear, pressing herself to my side again.
I took a shuddering breath, wishing there had been someone for me to hide against.
I approached the new wall, resting my hand against it. It felt like a wall. Like it had stood there for centuries. Hard, cold and unyielding. I looked down at Nah, still pressed to my side, and decided we needed to get the fuck out of here sooner rather than later. Before the kid had an aneurism.
"So, I'm sick of being herded by this house," I said down to the top of Nah's head. "Stay close, I'm gonna do something stupid."
I shrugged Nah off, the girl giving me a terrified look as I drew my left fist back and threw it with all my might at the wall. The old boards shattered under my blow, making a decent sized hole, revealing the other half of the room beyond.
And every head hanging on the wall behind us began to scream.
I flinched back, Nah shouting in alarm as she covered her ears, both of us backing towards the nearest door in the face of the unholy choir we were being subjected to.
"Make them stop!" she cried.
Without thinking I charged forward, eyes wild, and struck the closest head with an elbow drop. I just wanted it to stop, to shut up. It came apart under my blow like papier-mâché, collapsing easily under the elbow.
It just made the remaining heads scream louder.
The animals had joined in now, pigs and deer honking at us as the carnivores roared and snarled. I backed away, the screaming starting to grate on my sanity, and grabbed Nah's hand again, pulling her back towards the remaining door.
"We have to go!" I said, eying the silent manakete head.
To my great dismay its dead eyes swiveled around and eyed me back.
"Fuck this, we out!" I said, opening the door and pulling Nah through.
As soon as I closed the door all was silent again, the only sounds I could hear our haggard breathing and the pounding of my pulse in my ears. It was fast. Way too fast. I took a shuddering breath, feeling it catch against the tightness in my chest. Without another thought I pulled a vulnerary free and downed a third of it, quelling the asthma attack. Nah looked up as I did so, worry etched on her face.
"Are you okay!? Did one of them get you!?"
"I'm fine, just broke my hand on the wall," I lied, deciding it would be easier to explain later.
The girl gave a sob, wrapping her arms around her chest and falling against me.
"I can't take this place anymore! I need to get out of here!" she mewled.
I put a comforting hand on her shoulder, holding her as I looked around. It was pitch black in the hallway, and with a small sigh I held up my free hand and conjured what little fire magic I could. The candle had done a better job than my weak skills, but at least the spell just barely managed to illuminate the area around us. As I'd suspected, it was another empty hallway. No windows, no doors, no paintings. Just plain grey plastered halls and the same old hardwood floor. I glanced over my shoulder at the door we'd come through, scooting myself and Nah away from it a little. Just in case.
"This isn't physically possible," I said, thinking out loud. "The house wasn't this big. We should have already covered the entire second floor, the amount of walking we've done, and still no staircases down or up or… anything. Something's fucking with us and I don't like it."
"I need to get out of here," Nah repeated into my chest. "I need to get out of here… I need… to get out of here…"
I froze, realizing she was probably going into shock. I grabbed her shoulder with my knife hand, letting the blade rest back against my hand, and gave her a gentle shake.
"Hey. Bob. Listen very carefully," I said, bending down to her level. "We are getting out of here. So get your shit together. Get all your shit together and put it in a backpack, all your shit, so it's together, and if you gotta take it somewhere, take it somewhere, ya know? Take it to the shit store and sell it, or put it in a shit museum, I don't care what you do but you gotta get your shit together, okay? You hearing me? Get your shit together, kid."
Nah blinked at me a few times, her tear-filled eyes uncomprehending for a moment before she cracked a grin and chuckled a little, and I felt myself grinning back.
"That was the worst pep talk ever," she snickered.
"But it did its job, because you're focused now, right?" I asked, standing back up straight.
Nah nodded before looking down and trembling a little again, grabbing hold of the bottom edge of my tunic and bunching it in her shaking fist.
"Y-yeah," she said quietly. "But I'm still scared."
"So am I," I told her. "The only reason I wasn't a quivering mess on the floor back in that… trophy room is because we have to find the others. But if we want to get out of here we need to keep it together and stay together. So I need you with me on this one, Nah."
"I thought you were calling me Bob," she said, grinning up at me.
"Just making sure you're paying attention," I shrugged, doing my best to smile reassuringly. "Now while we're here anyway let's see what's down spooky hallway number two."
"Right. Right. We can do this," Nah said.
We proceeded slowly, Nah clinging to me a lot closer than before. As comforting as it probably was for her, it was probably doubly-so for me. I hadn't been kidding about being about to lose it in that trophy room.
As we approached the next corner the skittering sound from before returned inside the wall, and Nah gave a little yelp, jumping a little and ramming the fist she had clenched onto my tunic right into my kidney.
"Ow!"
"Sorry!"
I glared back over my shoulder, making sure to take a moment to ensure that the coast was clear. As I turned back forward I hesitated a moment, making sure that the wall wasn't, in fact, bulging where we heard the skittering from and it was just a trick of the light. I gave a small sigh, moving to run a hand down my face before remembering that one hand was holding a very sharp knife and the other was on fire. Fortunately, Nah missed that part as she was so intent on eyeing our surroundings.
We snuck forward a little more, and I peeked around the corner. A hunched, darkened shape stood in the middle of the hallway. It was too dark to make out details, but the shape of a familiar uniform hood sat atop its head. It had it's back to us and stood perfectly still, as if waiting.
"Bob, there's a Risen in here," I whispered over my shoulder. "I need you to look back and make sure there's none behind us."
"I… I can't," Nah whispered, shame evident in her tone. "You do it."
"I am not taking my eyes off this thing," I told her.
"I can't!" Nah insisted, pressing her face into my side. "You have to do it!"
I paused for a moment, feeling a shiver pass up my spine.
"Fuck it, I'd rather just die," I said.
Nah responded with another pathetic mewling sound of fear, and I gave a small sigh through my nose. Once more that day I took a few seconds and gathered my courage. I flicked my gaze back, taking in an empty hallway in a heartbeat, and turned back to find the Risen now facing us. It was standing in the same spot it had been before, but now its glowing red eyes were turned on us, like blazing embers in the darkened hallway.
"Oh fuck it sees us," I muttered.
"What do we do!?" Nah hissed.
"Kill it?" I shrugged, stepping out into the hall.
One Risen, alone and unarmed, I could kill. One Risen I could kill, and reduce my stress levels while increasing Nah's confidence. This would be easy, I told myself as I approached the Risen.
"Stay close," I told Nah.
The young manakete hurried along behind me, holding tight to my tunic.
I brought my fist back as the Risen raised its claws, distended and sharpened bone glinting in the weak firelight of my spell, and before it could strike I attacked preemptively, punching my knife through its hood and into the creature's face in a stunning show of brute force and violence. I pushed my attack, punching three more times.
And in my hectic movements, Nah lost her grip.
I felt a familiar whoosh of displaced air between us, Nah giving a terrified yelp that was cut off as one of those damned walls separated us.
"Nah!" I shouted, totally ignoring the wounded Risen.
Silence.
"Nah!?" I tried again.
In desperation I smashed both fists into the wall. This one was a lot harder than the one in the trophy room had been, and I felt my knuckles break after the third blow. Fear dulled my sense of pain, though, and eventually I managed to make a hole the size of my fist. Nah's face instantly filled the gap, tears streaming down her pale face.
"Ben!" she screamed.
"Hold on!" I shouted back, desperately trying to widen the hole.
There was a grunt from behind me and pain shot up my side as the forgotten Risen raked its claws down my side. I cried out in pain and kicked blindly at it, focused on reuniting with Nah. The hole was about the size of my head now, and growing with every punch.
To my dismay I felt another familiar whoosh of air, the gap I'd made starting to phase closed as fresh wall filled it in. Nah screamed again in despair, and I snarled as I jammed my flaming hand into the half-formed wall. This seemed to do the trick, as the half-formed wall blinked back out of existence, and I used the opportunity to widen the gap again. I shoved both arms through, letting the fire spell go out, and felt Nah's desperate hands wrap around my wrists. With a mighty pull I yanked her into the hole. Just as she got halfway I felt the Risen's claws sink into my side this time, biting deep. With one hand still gripping at Nah I flailed behind me, feeling blood starting to rise in my throat, the coppery taste heady in my mouth. Once more the Risen fell back, and I tore Nah through the small opening in the wall. She latched onto me, screaming and burying her face in my chest, and at last I turned and buried my knife in the Risen's neck. It disappeared in a cloud of ash, and Nah and I fell to our knees, exhausted and wounded.
The Risen ash smelled faintly of coconuts and lime.
"Are you okay!? Are you okay!? Nah!?" I asked, repeating myself again and again.
As the girl bawled into my tunic I reached down, pulling out another vulnerary and upending it into my mouth. Then I cast the empty vial aside and raised my hand, calling the fire spell again. Nah shuddered against me, her hands gripping my tunic so tightly I thought she'd tear right through it.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, holding her with one hand. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"
"D-d-don't… leave me again!" Nah hiccupped, finally looking up at me.
Her face was a mess of tears, and with a nod I pressed her back into my chest, dropping my chin on top of her head.
"Stay close to me, okay?" I told her.
She nodded against me, sniffling and shuddering a few more times.
"Are you hurt?" I asked softly.
"I… got a little scratched. When I went through the wall," she said pitifully.
I pulled back a little, Nah only slightly resisting as I got a look at her. The arms of her dress were totally destroyed, and her little red cape was in tatters. Blood from scrapes covered her upper arms, running down to her elbows. There were significant tears in the front of the dress, too, no doubt mirrored on the back. The hole had clearly still been too small, but I hadn't been about to leave her alone with god only knew what.
The dragonstone clasped at her throat glinted softly in the weak firelight, and on impulse I reached out, brushing my fingertips against it to assure myself it was really her. Warm, ancient energy radiated out to my fingertips, and I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. Nah reached up with both her hands and held my own to her dragonstone, careful of the trench knife still wrapped around my fingers.
"I'm… cold," she admitted after a moment.
With quick, deliberate movement I pulled back and shrugged off my tunic. It was bloody, and had a few holes of its own now, but combined with Nah's ruined dress would offer her a modicum of modesty and warmth. I held it out to her, smiling a little and clad now only in my ruined undershirt.
"Here," I said. "Your dress has seen better days. Better wear this, too."
"Th-thank you," Nah sniffled.
"No more crying now, okay?" I said softly.
"I… I know," Nah nodded, pulling on my tunic. "I'll get my shit together."
"Atta girl," I grinned. "Come on. I'm gonna do something stupid again."
"Do you have to?" Nah asked as we rose to our feet.
I shrugged. "We know now that I can punch through the walls. Let's see what happens when I really try."
"You mean you weren't trying to save me?" Nah asked indignantly.
"Of course I was," I laughed. "But this time there's no distractions. I'm gonna make this wall my bitch."
Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I extinguished the fire in my hand, grabbed Nah by the wrist, and proceeded to wail on the closest side wall with my knife hand. I felt familiar resistance, about the same as the last one I'd punched through, but this time I was smarter about it. I positioned my trench knife to act as a sort of knuckle-buster, and before long I had a decent sized hole. I began to kick at it, too, and to my surprise Nah got a couple good kicks in as well. Every time the wall would begin to phase itself back I would send a small jet of flames from my knife hand into the gap. Apparently, like most everything else in the world, this house seemed to be allergic to fire. Pretty soon we had a decent sized hole, and as we stepped into whatever was beyond I lit the magical flame above my hand again, Nah latching onto my belt and practically walking pressed up against my side.
Turns out I hadn't needed the magic fire for light, because as soon as we stepped into the hole it was as if the entire world changed.
The first thing I registered, before my sight fully recovered, was the smell. Scorched, burned earth, mixed with death and decay. The stink of burning human bodies, of burning blood. It's not a smell I'll ever forget. And, unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last time I had to smell it.
We emerged from the hole in the wall into what looked to have once been a battlefield camp, burned remains of tents littering the ground. It appeared to be dusk, the sky an angry orange-purple color. I didn't recognize the geography of the surrounding area, but the air was pretty dry. Whether from natural causes or the fire I wasn't sure, though. Charred poles stuck up from blackened earth, piles of ash reduced to dust on the wind, adding to the grey haze that seemed to have settled over the area. Bodies lay strewn about, too. Some in armor, almost unrecognizable as Ylissean it was so burned, others just reduced to blackened skeletons.
"What… the fuck?" I muttered, looking around.
"I think… I think this is Ylisse," Nah said from my side. "Somewhere in the north. One of our camps, from the future. But… I don't understand. We were never attacked up north."
"The place looks deserted. You sense anything?"
"What?"
"Auras, do you sense any weird auras?"
"Oh, right!" Nah chuckled embarrassed.
The manakete shuffled forward a few steps, still not taking her hand off my belt, and closed her eyes. It only took a moment for them to snap back open, a shocked look on her face.
"Noire!"
I whirled on her, grabbing her by the shoulders.
"Where is my little girl!?" I asked desperately.
"O-over there!"
She pointed in a seemingly random direction, deeper into the ruined camp. Without thinking I grabbed Nah by the wrist and we were off, heedlessly stomping through the ruins. I didn't look down at what was crunching beneath my boots. Nah did at one point, and judging from the little moan she gave I had made the right call.
As we went deeper into the camp signs of a slaughter became more and more evident. Bodies were no longer whole, limbs and heads strewn about, just as charred as the rest. I tried not to look around too much, worried for my already deteriorating sanity before we had even stepped into this cursed house, but when my foot accidentally kicked something I couldn't help but look down and watch as it rolled away. A head, half the flesh burned away to blackened skull looked up at me with its single remaining eye, the remaining half of the face that had been buried in the dirt and spared the passing flames instantly recognizable.
"Oh Naga! Laurent!" Nah shrieked.
I had to pull her back, the little manakete struggling with surprising strength. She yanked her wrist out of my grip, and I had to grab her by the hand instead.
"It's not real!" I practically snarled.
"But-"
"Laurent is in Ylisstol right now, thinking up newer and meaner ways to kill people for me," I explained heatedly. "This isn't real. Don't let yourself be fooled by it, Nah!"
She looked up at me for a moment before wiping the tears out of her eyes again and nodding.
"I'm… sorry," she said, her breath shuddering.
"What is this? Another hallucination?" I asked, looking around.
"I think…" Nah said hesitantly, still looking at the fake Laurent head. "What did you see? In your own hallucination?"
"Something I'd rather never even consider again," I growled. "Someone I loved who hurt me very badly."
"Were you… afraid?"
"Terrified. What about yours?"
"Terrified," Nah nodded, finally looking back up at me. "I think, whatever this place is, it feeds off our fear. Our greatest fears."
"That's a little cliched, but given the last few hours I'll buy it," I sighed through clenched teeth, starting to pull Nah along through the camp again. "So, what did you see, anyway?"
"Is this another distraction technique?" she asked.
"It's curiosity," I grinned over my shoulder.
Nah was silent for a few more steps before finally answering. "I was in the future again. And I was hungry. So I ate all the food. And everyone else starved. Because I'd been so selfish."
"But you realized it wasn't real," I said.
"So did you," Nah pointed out.
"Ah, actually only half," I shrugged flippantly. "The other half was the thought 'I'd rather die than do this again', so I don't know if it counts."
I glanced back at Nah as she squeezed my hand, looking down as her fingers brushed the hole I'd made in my tunic earlier.
"I think it still counts," she said at last.
"Well, good," I grunted. "Any idea where Noire is?"
"I can sense her, but it's vague," Nah admitted, looking around.
"Okay, so you said this looked like one of the camps you made in the future, yeah? Did Noire spend any time anywhere?"
"H-her tent," Nah said. "The mess tent. A-and…"
"And?" I prompted when she trailed off.
"The supply tent," Nah said, looking down with a confused expression. "She and… uh, Inigo would sneak off to… um… check the inventory, but why they needed to spend so much time doing that together-"
"I knew it was that smarmy little prick!" I snarled, cutting her off. "I'll kill him! I'll kill him with my teeth!"
Nah gaped up at me in surprise and I cleared my throat, blushing a little.
"Ah, sorry. Let's start there, shall we?"
"Sure," Nah said hesitantly.
We slowly picked our way through the ruined camp, hand in hand, doing our upmost to ignore the bodies and the detritus around us. At one point I think I spotted Severa's shield-pauldron. Weapons that looked oddly familiar. What looked like the corner of Lucina's old mask sticking up from a pile of ash. And most disturbing was Noire's bow, cut cleanly in two. We stopped for a moment to look at this before moving on, me shaking my head a little as Nah remained silent.
As we came closer to the remains of the larger tents to the rear of the camp a strange, lilting melody reached us through the still air, Nah visibly shuddering. Some of the larger tents still had scraps of canvas hanging up, making small walls that we couldn't see through. Given the already low visibility I sucked in a breath and made a face, reigniting the weak fire spell above my hand while Nah clutched my belt again.
"Oh, isn't that cute? I love what you've done with your hair, Severa."
Nah and I exchanged a glance, both of our eyes widening in surprise.
That had been Noire's voice.
"You were always prettier than me, right? You always made sure I knew that, right? NOW WHO'S PRETTIER!?"
Nah jumped at the sudden shout, Noire's hysterical laughter that followed chilling me to the bone.
We got closer to the ruined tent, Noire humming along to something under her breath again. Something clattered to the ground, and as we walked around the scrap of canvas a charred skull came rolling to a stop at our feet. There was a crunch, and I looked up to see Noire sitting hunched on a crate, Falchion in her hand and embedded in another skull. This one still had a few wisps of blue hair on it.
"Now which one of us is more important, princess?" Noire hissed. "You can't keep taking them away from me, you know… they're mine… my friends… my family… my daddy…"
"Well, the apple clearly doesn't fall far from the yandere-tree," I muttered.
"Daddy?"
Nah and I both looked over to the shadows where the voice had come from, a pathetic-looking little girl curled up with her knees pressed to her chest sitting in the ashes. Her black air and violet eyes, though, just like her mother's, were the giveaway. The little girl was Noire.
The older Noire didn't look up, cackling a little to herself as she continued to grind Falchion into the skull at her feet.
"I did this," the little girl sobbed. "This is… all my fault…"
"I killed them all," the older Noire whispered, her voice rapturous. "And I… I loved it…"
"Noire, honey, I…" I said, taking a few steps towards the little girl.
"No!" she shrieked. "I killed them! Stay away, or I'll kill you, too!"
I hesitated as Nah pulled on my hand, glancing back at her. The smaller girl was still looking at the older version of Noire as she bent down, cradling Lucina's skull to her chest now.
"That one," Nah said, pointing at the older Noire.
I stopped cold, glaring down at the younger version of Noire. We made eye contact, the little girl looking pleadingly up at me. I turned away.
"You're sure?" I asked Nah, eying the older Noire. "Because I'm running out of vulneraries."
Nah nodded, and I let go of her hand.
"I think there's enough room to transform in here, Bob," I told her over my shoulder. "Do me a favor and light it up."
I took a few more steps towards Noire, and behind me I heard a peculiar sound. The only other time I'd heard it was when Panne transformed, and I couldn't really describe it. Like a rustling, tearing sound. There was a rush of heat behind me, accompanied by a flash of blue light as Nah flambeed the fake Noire. The Risen, or whatever was masquerading as my daughter, gave a pained shriek. It was the shriek of a little girl being burned alive, and it haunted me for years afterwards. But the older Noire finally looked up, her eyes widening as she spotted me.
"Daddy?" she whispered.
"Hey sweetie," I said softly.
"No!?" she shrieked, curling into a ball and hiding her head in her knees. "Don't look at me! I killed them all, I'm a monster! Don't look at me!"
I looked back at Nah, now returned to her human form. The girl gave me a helpless shrug from where she stood ankle deep in Risen ash. I turned back to Noire and, acting on my underdeveloped parental instincts, took another few steps forward until I was beside her.
"Noire, look at me," I said sternly.
"I can't!" she sobbed. "I'm so sorry… I just… lost control and… and…"
"Noire!" I shouted, my voice dropping a few octaves.
It was the 'dad voice' every man had, and no one could resist it. Noire looked up, eyes wide. And I did what any father would do.
I smacked her in the back of the head so hard her little headband came off.
Nah gasped behind me, and Noire looked up at me with wide, teary eyes as I crossed my arms and sunk to a hip.
"Are you just about done moping?" I asked her. "Give your head a shake, girl."
"D-dad, I-"
"Ah! Don't start with me, little lady!" I snapped, cutting her off. "You get your ass up and you grab a broom, and you start cleaning up this mess you've made!"
Noire blinked up at me in shock for a few more moments before the air around us shimmered, the hallucination seemingly unravelling. After a few more seconds the three of us were standing in another room, what looked to have once been a fancy sitting room. Noire was perched on one of the filthy chairs, Nah standing in front of a sizeable scorch mark on one of the papered walls.
"What…?" Noire mumbled, looking around in surprise. "What happened?"
I rushed forward, wrapping Noire in a tight hug before she could even stand up.
"You scared the hell out of me, that's what!" I said into the top of her head. "What part of don't get separated was so… fucking hard to…"
"Dad? Are you crying?" Noire asked, dumbfounded.
"Fuck you it's been a rough day!"
I took a deep breath, composing myself before I pulled back from Noire. She just sat there, staring at the ground with a slack expression on her face, a haunted look in her eyes.
"Hey," I said, kneeling down. "You okay?"
"That was… all fake?" Noire asked, not moving. "Everything…"
"All of it," I assured her.
"I didn't… kill anyone?" Noire asked, a hopeful expression rising onto her face.
"No one we care about," I said with a grin.
"But it… felt so real," Noire whispered, looking down again. "And it felt so… good…"
"We think this place preys on our deepest fears," Nah said, coming forward. "It wasn't real, Noire."
"Nah!?" the archer asked, her gaze snapping up.
"Yes, and for simplicity's sake we're calling her Bob now," I said with a laugh.
Noire frowned a little as Nah stepped forward, her gaze darkening.
"Why is she wearing your tunic?" Noire asked me, glaring at the manakete.
"There was an instance with a wall and her dress got ruined," I deadpanned. "You need to pump the brakes on that yandere-train, missy."
"Noire!" Nah cried suddenly, flinging herself at the taller girl.
I stood back, letting them cry and hug and whatever else for a moment as I inspected the room. As I guessed, the wall we'd broken through had already repaired itself. There was a door leading back out, but I assumed that it would just lead back to the endless hallways we'd gone through earlier where whatever was animating this house could corral us to its heart's content. Here, in this sitting room, though, there was more than enough space for Nah to transform, meaning she could blow a hole for us to go through nice and easy, letting us make our own path.
Much like the room I'd woken up in there was detritus spread about the corners of the room, and I spotted Noire's bow and equipment atop one pile. I moved to retrieve it, slowly in case more of the phantom walls popped up. I gave a small sigh as I grabbed the bow and bundled the rest of Noire's stuff up.
"If you two are just about done," I said, turning back to the girls.
Noire and Nah both looked up with big smiles on their faces, grinning as Noire wiped the last of Nah's tears away. It was nice to see Noire in older sister mode, even if she still looked a little shaken up. Noire finally stood as I crossed the room again, and I offered her the bow I'd picked up.
"A lot of this place is way too small for Nah to transform," I said, holding out the weapon. "I could use some backup."
Noire's smile dropped as she tentatively put her hand on the bow, her eyes dropping again.
"Wh-what… if I lose it again?" she asked softly.
When Noire moved to take the bow, I held on, and she looked back up in confusion.
"You won't," I said simply, before letting her take the bow. "This house couldn't break me. It sure as hell won't break you. You're way stronger than me, Noire."
"He's right!" Nah added. "You've always been stronger than most of us!"
"I'm not afraid of breaking," Noire whispered, holding her bow close to her chest. "I'm afraid… I want to."
"Then let go," I said flippantly. "Unleash on everything that gets in our way. Let it out. Stop trying to control your anger and start aiming it."
"And what if I can't?" Noire asked, a tremor in her voice again. "What if I can't stop?"
"Then I stop you," I told her. "But I know I won't need to. You don't have to believe in yourself. I believe in you. Believe in the me believing in you."
Noire made a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh and shook her head a little. "You really suck at motivational speeches."
"I told him the same thing," Nah giggled.
Noire took a deep, shaky breath before standing up straight. With practiced movements she slipped her quiver belt around her hips, making sure the quiver was sitting right before wrapping her own cloak back around her shoulders. When she was done she wiped at her eyes with the side of one hand before looking up, favoring both myself and Nah with a determined look.
"Let's go kick this house's ass," she said.
"Yeah!" Nah cheered.
"If you weren't my daughter I would have just fallen in love with you," I laughed.
"Way to make it weird, dad," Noire laughed back.
"I had actually managed to forget how weird your family was," Nah muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, Bob, if you would please do the honors of transforming and blowing us a nice big hole in that wall I'd appreciate it," I said with a grin.
"Why that wall?" Nah asked, taking a few steps towards it.
"It knows what it did," I chuckled.
Nah just rolled her eyes and transformed, incinerating a decent sized patch of wall for us to pass through. Then, before it could reform, Nah transformed back, we formed a chain of hands and ran through the gap.
We emerged into a well-lit room and I was momentarily blinded. I let out a hiss, extinguishing my fire spell as I waited for my eyes to readjust. I felt Noire and Nah move closer to me, clearly just as blinded as I was. I involuntarily shuddered as both girls put a hand on my back, remembering the hand-wall earlier.
As my vision cleared I realized we were standing in a living room. Not a modern one, more the kind of living room you'd find in a cottage in Ylisse somewhere. A kitchen and entertaining space, the kitchen bench along one wall with a table and chair set in the middle of the room. A fireplace with some chairs on it was over to one side, opposite a staircase leading to a second floor where the bedrooms no doubt were. The house was clearly lived in, but well maintained. Everything was clean, and fresh vegetables were piled up near the kitchen counter. Garlic and roots hung, drying in the kitchen window, and the fire crackled merrily in the hearth. Bright sunlight shone in, and outside I could see the shadows of foot traffic.
We, I decided as I slowly sheathed my trench knife, were in Ylisstol.
"Is this… Ylisstol?" Nah asked, her voice quiet with awe as she approached the window.
"Looks like," I said. "Whose nightmare is 'normalness'?"
Nah jumped a little, closing her eyes and turning back to the room.
"… Severa," Nah said, opening her eyes.
"Holy shit I can't believe that worked," I scoffed, grinning. "And good, I was just beginning to miss her level head and good humor."
Noire snickered, but still elbowed me in the ribs. Nah just rolled her eyes, clearly stifling her own grin.
"Sev's greatest fear is… a normal life?" Noire asked curiously.
"I'm sure we're missing something here," Nah said, glancing around again.
I had to admit, finding Noire had done a great deal of good for our confidence. We had beaten the house and whatever malign intelligence was behind its evil, at least in part. It made me think that maybe rescuing the others wouldn't be so hard. It didn't look like this space was big enough for Nah to transform again comfortably, but I'd already proven that I could make a decent sized hole myself.
Of course, we still had to figure out where the fuck Severa was before we could start thinking about moving on.
We spread out a little, wary of being too far separated from each other. Nah and Noire moved to the windows as I studied the kitchen. Something was boiling on the cast iron stovetop, a cold kettle sitting aside on the counter. Despite all the other bullshit we'd seen in this haunted hell-hole, when I lifted the pot's lid I found an aromatic stew, the scent making my mouth water. This was a normal-ass house. Nothing evil or even slightly off about it. The same kind of house as any other in Ylisstol's middle-tier.
I turned back to the girls, all of us approaching the table in the middle of the room.
"The door's locked," Noire reported.
"And the people outside are just… shades," Nah added. "They're not really there."
"I figured as much," I sighed. "No sign of our resident tsundere?"
"Tsunde-wha?" Nah asked, quirking her head.
"I'll explain later," Noire smirked before turning back to me. "Not that we've been able to see."
I shrugged, cupping my hands to my mouth and tilting my head back.
"Oi! Severa!" I shouted.
Both girls flinched at my voice, shooting me equal glares as I grinned.
Maybe I was getting a little too confident…
"What!?" a high voice answered from upstairs.
I watched Noire and Nah exchange a confused look out of the corner of my eye, but when they remained silent I decided to roll with it.
"Get your butt down here already!"
There was a frustrated sigh followed by heavy footsteps above us, and I just grinned at the performance.
"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Nah asked.
"Got a better one?" Noire responded, very unenthusiastically.
"Oh, ye of little faith," I smirked.
We all turned to the stairs, then, as Severa made her entrance. And all three of our jaws dropped. Severa swept into the room wearing a beautiful and simple cream colored dress, her long red hair down and hanging past her waist. Rather than the haggard, gaunt lines of her face that I'd come to associate with the girl, her cheeks full and smooth and her skin practically glowing. She'd even filled out, her dress offering just the barest hint of cleavage.
She looked beautiful, even though she was scowling at us.
She looked like any other girl I'd seen around Ylisse.
But… it was idealized. There was no dirt, her dress practically brand new, her long hair combed perfectly. She didn't look like she'd worked, like most women had. She looked like what someone who had never seen a middle-class city woman would think they looked like.
"What are you three idiots screaming about?" she snapped as she stepped into the room.
Except her voice held none of the venom I'd come to associate with her. Her face was soft, almost gentle, as she favored us with a smile.
"Wow, Twilight Zone much?" I muttered.
"S-Sev?" Noire asked hesitantly. "Is that… you?"
Severa laughed, actually laughed, before she practically skipped up to Noire. And proceeded to hug her.
"I know, the dress was his idea," Severa said, pulling back and turning to Nah, only to wrap the girl in a tight hug, too. "It's good to see you both again. Even King of the Assholes, too, I guess."
"Nice tsundere," I said automatically, giving Severa a thumbs-up.
Severa giggled before sweeping past us again, moving to check the pot on the stove. I froze, dumbstruck by the fact that Severa had fucking giggled.
This day was turning into a very, very weird day.
Nah stepped forward, giving me a significant glance, before turning to the redhead.
"Severa, whose idea was the dress again?"
My face lit up as I turned to Nah, giving her a big grin and an approving nod.
"Good thinking, ninety-nine," I muttered to her.
"My husband's, gawds," Severa sighed, turning back to us. "And what's with the three of you? You all look like you just got off a battlefield! Look at my nice clean floors!"
"It took you that long to notice I'm covered in blood?" I laughed.
"Did you cut yourself shaving again?" Severa asked sarcastically.
The fiery redhead sighed angrily again before rolling her eyes and stomping forward.
"You're not hurt, right?" she asked a little more seriously.
"Considering I never go anywhere without about a kilo of vulneraries in my pocket, yeah I'm fine," I scoffed.
"Good, then go wait outside while I get you something to rinse off with," she said, giving me a little push towards the door. "Girls, can you help me clean this mess up? And Nah, what in Naga's name happened to your dress!?"
"Are you even paying attention right now?" I asked incredulously. "And more importantly, why do I not remember you having a husband?"
"Er, Ben, are you sure it's such a good idea to-" Nah started.
"No, fuck this shit!" I snapped, rounding on Severa. "We're in a haunted house! One that is fucking with our heads! This! Isn't! Real! Wake the fuck up!"
Severa just blinked at me for a few moments before bursting into laughter, doubling over she was going so hard.
"Oh, oh gods!" she laughed. "Oh gods, guys, that happened years ago!"
"Severa… how old are you?" Nah asked, coming forward.
"What?" Severa asked, wiping a tear from her eye.
"How old are you?" Nah repeated.
"What kind of question is that?" Severa asked, beginning to get cross. "I don't know what kind of game you three are playing, but it's not funny. I expect this from them, but not you, Nah."
The young manakete actually flinched at Severa's accusatory tone, and after everything the two of us had been through today I was feeling a little over-protective of her.
"Severa, I swear to god I'm about to hold you up by your ankles and shake the bitch out of you like loose change," I growled. "Open your damned eyes! We need to-"
"Enough!" the redhead snarled, turning away from us. "Just… leave! If you're going to be like this then just leave! All of you!"
"Severa!" Noire hissed, clearly beginning to lose her patience.
"Do you think just punching her back to her senses would work?" I asked Nah out of the corner of my mouth.
"Not every problem can be solved by punching it," Nah groaned.
Severa opened her mouth, clearly about to try to kick us out again if the furrow in her brow was any indication, but she stopped when the front door opened. The front door the girls hadn't been able to budge.
"Mommy!"
The two girls and I turned with wide eyes as a young redhead girl came running into the house, directly for Severa. The girl wore her red hair in twintails the way Severa usually did, a simple white dress covering her. Our jaws dropped when Severa's face lit up, her scowl instantly becoming a smile as she scooped the girl up into her arms, laughing and hugging this miniature version of herself tightly to her chest.
"Where's your daddy?" Severa cooed to the girl.
"He's coming," the little girl giggled, smiling brightly. "He stopped to talk to the neighbors."
"Right, it's been a while, so you might not recognize them," Severa said, turning to face us. "But these are my old friends, Nah, Noire and Ben. You all remember my daughter, Caeldori, right? She looks just like her grandmother, doesn't she?"
"Is Nana coming, too!?" the little girl cheered.
"Maybe later, honey," Severa laughed, leaning in and rubbing her cheek against the girl's.
Watching Severa smile and cuddle the girl I felt my heart break at what I could feel coming on.
"Nah, please don't tell me…" I whispered.
"The girl's… the…" Nah muttered, eyes misting up.
"Risen?" Noire finished softly.
Nah nodded, wiping at her face with the back of her hand.
"She's totally given in to the illusion," Nah explained. "I don't think she could… face her fear. We need to make her…"
I sucked in a shuddering breath. Watching Severa so happy and carefree was breaking my heart. Now to save her I'd have to do the same to her.
"Nah I swear to whatever gods you worship that I will kill you if you're wrong about this. Hold her back."
Severa glanced up from the girl in her arms when Noire and Nah moved to opposite sides of her. A look of confusion soon became one of fear when they each grabbed a shoulder and I stepped forward, a grim look on all our faces.
"I'm sorry, Severa," I said softly. "But you'll thank us for this later."
"What are you… really, this is taking the joke too far!" Severa snarled.
The young woman's struggles increased as each other girl took hold of one of her arms, Severa holding the little girl close to her chest as she struggled against Nah and Noire. She gave a horrified scream as I none-too-gently pried the little girl out of her 'mother's' arms.
"No!" Severa shrieked, pale faced.
"This isn't real, Severa," I managed to say without my voice breaking.
"Mommy! No!" the girl shrieked.
The little girl pulled at my grip, struggling desperately to get back to a hysterical Severa as I drew my knife again.
"Don't you dare!" Severa snarled, almost pulling free of the others. "You bastard! You bastard, I trusted you! You were my friend! Why are you doing this to me!? No! Please! I can't be alone again! I won't! Why!? Why!?"
"That's right," the little girl said, turning back to face me with a now eerily calm voice. "Why?"
The little girl's eyes glowed as red as her hair, her skin taking on a distinctly ashen skein as I brought my dagger down, burying it in her throat.
But before the blow landed the Risen had to get one last barb in at Severa.
"Mommy, save me!"
Severa screamed one more time before collapsing to her knees and burying her face in her hands as she broke down, the illusion coming apart around us as the little girl turned into a familiar wisp of purple-black ashes. I made a sour face and spat to one side. Again, the fucking ashes stank like lime and coconut.
"Oh gods!" Severa bawled, ignoring Nah as the younger girl tried to console her. "No! No-no-no-no-no! This… can't be happening! No! My baby, no…"
As Severa screamed and cried we found ourselves in a relatively clean drawing room, or what had once been one. The remains of an old-style drawing table sat to one side, toppled and broken, and a few chairs under moldy white sheets were placed along one wall. A small staircase led to a mezzanine level above the room's single door, where there were rows of empty shelves. I felt my blood run cold and made a disgusted face as I spied the lonely, empty noose hanging down from the mezzanine. Clearly, we had been just in time for Severa.
The girl in question had returned to her usual appearance, hair tied up and back in her usual light armor, and was inconsolably crying on the floor. Nah was holding her, Noire standing over them with a stricken look on her face. She looked up as I approached, silent tears running down her face as Severa continued to bawl.
"We… did the right thing… right?" she asked quietly.
"It wasn't real," I said, my voice hollow.
"Severa, Severa it's okay," Nah soothed. "It wasn't real. I'm sorry we had to do that, but we did it to save you… Severa, please…"
"Shut up!" Severa screamed. "I hate you! You killed her! I couldn't… couldn't protect her! I'm… I'm… no better than my own mother!"
I rolled my eyes, something inside me breaking.
I stomped over to the redhead, ignoring Noire's questions and Nah's warning glance. Reaching down I dragged Severa to her feet with one hand around her arm. She barely had the chance to look at me with wide, teary eyes before I slapped her across the face.
"Snap out of it!" I snarled as I pushed her back.
Severa stumbled backwards and would have fallen if a surprised Noire hadn't caught her. The redhead blinked at me in shock before her features contorted in fury. She flew at me, landing a decent punch on my jaw that made my vision spin before grabbing my collar and hauling me nose to nose.
"You bastard!" she shrieked in my face. "Fuck you! Do you have any idea what you just put me through!?"
"Yes," I said honestly, my own eyes threatening to spill over. "We all do. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"Fuck you!" Severa repeated, pushing me away.
She wrapped her arms around her chest, looking off at nothing as she finally quieted.
"It was so real," she said quietly. "So… I loved her. That… thing. Pretending to be my daughter. It felt so real, and to watch you take… take her away from me…"
"Please don't kill Noire as revenge," I groaned jokingly.
Severa's furious face filled my vision for a moment before I stumbled back, my nose broken.
"Don't you dare joke about this!" she roared. "It still feels real! I still feel like you… like you all… took her away!"
"Sev, we killed a Risen," Noire said, stepping in front of her. "We do that all the time! W-we know how they can mess with your head!"
"I know!" Severa snapped, looking away again.
"I know," she repeated softer. "And… thank you… for saving me… but I'll need some time to… come to terms with what happened."
"Join the club," I said, massaging my nose.
Severa scoffed, glancing up at the silent form of Nah standing nearby.
"Hi Nah," she said, smiling brokenly. "I'm glad you're okay."
Nah sniffled and nodded, wiping her tears away on my oversized sleeve as she stepped forward to give the other girl a proper hug.
I smiled a little at this display, but the expression hurt. With a quick breath in through my mouth I snapped my nose back into place, hissing in pain through gritted teeth afterwards. If I hadn't deserved that, I'd have been very angry. I decided not to waste a vulnerary on it, though. I'd save those for the potential future injuries I'd incur.
"Okay, we found Severa," I declared. "Robin and Lucina are still somewhere in this house. Severa, I know you need time to deal but we don't have it. We have to find the others."
Severa nodded, still refusing to look at me.
"Let's get to it," I sighed.
AN: I had initially intended to finish up this arc with this chapter but... damn I'm having fun with it. As hard as it is to write. I haven't had this much trouble since the middle of Invisible Ties, honestly. I don't like hurting my harem (that was a joke this is still not a harem story). Robin and Lucina next chapter. Look forward to it! After Future's End and Blazing Trinity update! Because there's a cycle! CYCLE!
Don't forget you can get early access to these chapters by supporting me on (P)atreon! Link's on my bio page, check it out!
Also, if you haven't already please vote on the path the Self Insert story takes. Make no mistake, they'll all get written eventually but only the winner will be the 'canon' route.
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