The servant at the front desk rose when he saw Verian step through the threshold, bowing slightly. Verian ignored the gesture as he proceeded through the side door into the narrow hallway.
A couple of guildsmen strolling through the outskirts of the garden saw Verian approach. They stopped their conversation, nodding in his direction and adhering to a respectful silence. As Verian passed another guildsman on the motel-like stairs, another person reacted similarly. Yuuki began to feel that the priest carried with him an aura of important silence, his billowing black robe transforming smoothly from the visible clothing to the invisible fabric. She and her sister were simply clinging to the edges of this aura, dragged along in his wake.
The woman, Aelise, was still keeping guard over Kana's sickly form. Instead of standing, she now sat with her back against the bedside and her legs extended across the floor in front of her. The darkness of the room blended her dark clothing and dark hair into the shadows of the bed. She seemed the shadow of an exhausted sportswoman recovering her strength after a particularly strenuous drill.
Verian ignored her as he moved beside Kana's bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked his patient.
"Little better," Kana croaked.
"This will take a while. Aelise, if you could take care of Yuuki and Ran here, that would be much appreciated. You've already done enough for Kana, and I understand they haven't had their lunch yet."
They hadn't spoken on the way here. Yuuki didn't ask where Verian learned their names.
Aelise pulled herself to her feet with fingers clawing into Verian's side, but the priest paid her no mind. She pushed herself off from him in barely-concealed aggression before marching out the door.
Yuuki looked to Ran, who shrugged before following the woman. Glancing back at the doorway, Yuuki's last sight of Kana's room was dominated by Verian's quickly unpacked equipment, cylindrical containers suspended from the ceiling by invisible threads, each filled with a fluid of some shockingly bright colour.
Aelise was already a few meters away, and Yuuki had to jog to catch up.
Ran hadn't started conversing with Aelise, and the silence pressed around them for a while. This silence was different than Verian's, more an aura of apathy and antipathy emanating from Aelise than the priest's cloak of importance. It was still similar in the way it silenced the one person they passed on their path down the balcony, though the expression on the man's face was more one of fear than respect.
Finally, Ran broke the silence. "Somehow I get the feeling you don't really like Verian."
"He's a pretentious smartass."
"You still called him over, though."
"It's his fault Kana's like she is, and he can help some of the time."
"Verian also said that it was sort of his fault. What happened?"
"It was Verian's fault, no 'sort of' about it."
Aelise stopped. They had followed the balcony in the opposite direction of the stair they'd first used to get here, but here the balcony ended in a door bigger than the rest. Before opening it, Aelise gestured back at the garden still spread out below them, pointing toward the withered section that scarred the otherwise universal beauty of the place.
"See the black spot?"
"Yeah."
"It was put there last night when some spirit appeared out of nowhere to attack Verian. Well, the spirit landed right in front of Kana's room, and she got dragged into the fight."
"So the spirit did that to her?" Ran shivered.
"No, she held the fucker off long enough for half the guild and Verian to show up."
Aelise opened the door and slipped through. Ran caught the door and held it open for Yuuki.
"The issue is that she's a Phantazcian mage," Aelise finished. Then, realizing the twins had no idea what that meant, she added, "It's a type of magic that melts you slowly."
The twins stopped walking for a moment, before snapping back to their senses and rushing down the hallway after Aelise. Kana was melted? She hadn't looked that way, but then again, there hadn't exactly been a lot of light to see by. It also explained Aelise's apparent desperation earlier, but not everyone else's disinterest. Perhaps it was a regular occurrence? Yuuki's stomach turned at the thought.
"I notice you've been awful quiet," Aelise said, flicking her hand toward Yuuki. "What, you let your sister do all the talking while you formulate your evil plans? Or is there one mind between you two that just prefers talking with Ran's mouth?"
"Ran's just better with people," Yuuki said.
"Damn, I was hoping I'd stumbled on something interesting."
"Does it actually happen? Where one mind has two bodies?"
Aelise laughed. Her face transformed a little, losing some of the harshness it bore whenever she was looking at anyone other than Kana. "I suppose you haven't heard all the crazy stories. Well, they probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to you two."
"Why not?" Ran challenged.
"I hear you players have no idea how magic works. Plus, you're a little, well… young for some of the stories."
That only served to deepen Yuuki's curiosity. "What does age have to do with it?"
Aelise buried her face in her hand, making an effort to hold back a laugh.
Yuuki would have gritted her teeth was she not distracted by their sudden entrance into a much more open room filled with movement. Groups of guildsmen talked and ate food at five long tables that stretched the length of the room. A few players were scattered in small knots here and there along the tables' sides, largely keeping to themselves in some awkward fear. Aelise didn't stop, heading straight for one of the tables and sitting down next to a silent man picking at his food in solitude.
"Not like you to have kids in tow," the man commented without looking. His voice was deep and lazy.
"Flari caught me when I really needed someone to go get Verian." Aelise again spoke differently around this man, her tone holding some form of… respect?
"Kana?"
"Yeah."
Yuuki sat down beside Aelise. There wasn't any food here or anything, she didn't know why Aelise sat here without getting any. Maybe it was brought to them? Or perhaps they were here for the man? Yuuki glanced toward him and noticed with a flinch that he was missing two of his fingers. His left ring finger was a stump, and his right pinkie was missing entirely, even the metacarpals. The side of his face was filled with scars, pocks, and piercings that traced a stripe from his chin to his temple. His hair was a short grey stubble that allowed sight of even more scars.
The man ate his food mechanically, pausing to swallow before stating anything. "The eastern quarter's gone to shit."
"Does Alexis know?"
The man nodded. "Players. Can't do anything, at least nothing obvious."
"Ah. Kana's not going to like that."
"Her idea to take them in?"
Aelise nodded this time.
"Uh… are you talking about us?" Yuuki asked.
Aelise smacked her over the back of the head. It was a light smack, nothing that would hurt, but the message was clear.
The man turned his head, the movement mechanical, measured, as if his neck was an axle and his head a wheel sitting on it. Now Yuuki could see his face, she saw the stripe of pocks and piercings traced around the entirety of his thin, expressionless face. His eyes, sunk in deep hollows, were a bruised, patchy red that made it seem he could start crying blood any moment.
"If you want to get a shadow on them before Alexis comes knocking, you know where to find me," the man's voice grated. He stood, the action unnaturally measured, before wrapping himself in his jacket, sparing one last nod for Aelise, before marching away.
"What was that about?" Ran asked over Yuuki's shoulder.
"That was Hessal. Don't get on his bad side."
A guildsman appeared behind Aelise, suited like Jarq and that other servant had been. "Will you be dining here, my lady?" he asked, picking up Hessal's plate and placing it on a tray.
Aelise nodded. "Who's on duty today?" she asked disinterestedly
"Myrden's food today, lady." He placed three loaded plates on the table before offering a slight bow and continuing on.
Potatoes, assorted vegetables, a soft bun without butter. The food was better than the hard buns Yuuki had eaten yesterday, but it still lacked meat.
"You don't choose what you eat?" Ran asked.
"What, you don't want it? I can take it off your hands."
"No, no." Ran quickly began scarfing down food, Yuuki following suit.
The meal had seemed a little disappointing at first, but now flavour exploded in Yuuki's mouth. She'd had good food in «Serene Garden», the last VR game she'd played, but the sense of taste there never quite reached the level of the real world, tastes always seeming a little too salty or too sweet, and textures being a little too similar. The hospital didn't offer the best food either, not that Yuuki got to eat it often. This made the food she was eating right now the best meal she'd had in years.
She'd almost forgotten what it felt like to eat.
"Anyways," Aelise said. "I suppose you're curious, and I'm supposed to educate you or whatnot, so I'll start with this. In the Magicians' Guild, there are three kinds of mages you always respect. Hey, you listening?"
Yuuki's head snapped up, tearing her eyes away from the plate in front of her. She spared a quick nod before continuing her feast.
"I haven't seen someone eat B-cook rations like that in ages." Aelise shrugged. "So, the first kind is an Iwtwal shaman. You can tell them apart because they're usually covered in scars and missing fingers or limbs."
Aelise paused. It was only when Yuuki was jabbed in the shoulder with a fork that she realized Aelise was waiting for a response. Yuuki gulped down a mouthful of potato and asked, "Like Hessal?"
"Yes." Aelise looked at the sisters oddly, as if asking why this food meant so much to them, before continuing. "The next kind is Phantazcian mages. Sometimes you hear them called green mages, but usually the person calling them that gets a boot to the face. They're usually overbearing and colossal messes."
Aelise looked to the twins expectantly again until Ran choked past a mouthful of peas, "Like Kana?"
"Yes, like Kana. Jeez, I'm not sure if I'm dealing with idiots or you two are just starving dogs. Wrap up already."
Yuuki realized the food was almost gone already. She'd wolfed it down perhaps faster than was totally healthy, but she didn't regret it. That meal had been a good one.
Aelise took a few minutes to put a dent in her food with an expression that clearly said her mind was elsewhere. Yuuki thought for a moment, How can she do that? What could be better than this food? before remembering that Aelise's friend was supposedly somewhat melted after having fought a battle against a spirit. Plus, this food must have just been regular for her.
Aelise noticed Yuuki's look and slid her plate down the table toward her. The sisters descended on it like vultures.
"Anyways," Aelise said, standing. "If we're going by what Hessal said, we don't have an awful lot of time. You done?"
Yuuki looked down on the plate between her and her sister. It was already bereft of food. She stood up from the table dejectedly.
"By the way," Ran said, ever in search of conversation for Yuuki to listen in on. "You said there were three kinds of mages to respect. What's the third kind?"
"Sleepless mages. You can tell them apart because they're a little cranky on Mondays, okay for the next few days, and by Friday look like a tap on the shoulder will knock them to the ground. Not to be confused with the apprentices in the theoretical mathematics department."
"Are you a sleepless mage?" Ran asked.
"Are you calling me cranky?" Aelise was already leading the way back through a warren of corridors and hallways.
"Wait, it's Monday?"
"What day did you think it was? Last I heard, the days of the week line up between here and wherever hole you guys came from."
"Well…" Ran mumbled. "We didn't really know what day of the week it was there either."
"Hm." Aelise didn't say anything as they continued traversing stretches of hallway that all looked the same to Yuuki.
A funny detail that Yuuki only noticed now was that the lamps interspersed along the hallways varied in style from one hallway to another.
She decided to ask about it. "Um, Aelise? Do you know where you are by the lamps?" Yuuki gestured to a desk as they passed it.
"No." Aelise seemed bothered by something. In a few more seconds, she finally spoke. "You know, when I pause in the middle of a conversation with a 'hm', I'm waiting for you to continue."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Ran asked.
"Because you're supposed to be the one talking. What, is conversation new to you or something?"
Maybe it was the brief lull in conversation or the awkward expression on Ran's face, Yuuki didn't know, but Aelise took a moment to gather her words.
"Explain," she urged.
"We've sort of been locked up in a hospital for the last few years," Ran said.
"Three years, actually," Yuuki elaborated.
"That explains your eating habits," Aelise said apathetically.
"You act like you don't care," Ran accused.
"I don't really."
"How can you say that?"
"My specialty is in healing, so don't think watching disease take its course is anything new to me. If you go down to the medical department, you can watch people's humanity slide away in the face of it. I ran out of pity for them years ago. The only ones that I still remember or care about are those that continue their work even when they know they're going to die. Some of the patients put themselves there—Phantazcian mages who took on big spells that melted their brains, Iwtwal shaman that just ran out of limbs. A lot of them knew they would end up there eventually. Others were diseased to begin with and wrote entire books in the confines of their rooms. The ones that don't find a purpose for themselves fade away slowly, and no one gives a damn. The ones that continue to face challenges are remembered by the entire ward, no, the entire guild. So tell me, what have you done to deserve my attention? You've just gotten a second chance, away from that hospital of yours, and so far my impression is just a couple of kids with no idea what they're doing, waiting to be ordered around for random errands. About the only good thing I've seen from you is the ability to question and to listen, and all I can hope is that it's indicative of some kind of learning potential."
Silence robed the group again.
Aelise had just called Yuuki's life pointless. Ran's as well. It wasn't like life had been easy for them, it wasn't like they were on a level playing field with everyone else. What could Yuuki have done? Just not get sick? That wasn't her choice. How could Aelise expect her to do something great when she was still learning how to talk to people? It wasn't fair to compare them to everyone else the same way it wasn't fair to compare a monkey and a fish in their ability to climb a tree.
Didn't Aelise's philosophy just say that if you ever gave up, you were useless? Did she just want the fish to keep trying to climb the tree even if it wasn't possible? In Yuuki's mind, Aelise was just wrong. The woman probably hadn't faced challenges like the twins had; all she'd done was watch other people succumb and comment on how pathetic they were. It was disgusting.
"Hey? Quiet one. Are you Yuuki or Ran?"
It took a moment for Yuuki to realize Aelise was calling to her. They were at a door in the middle of another indistinguishable hallway, and Aelise was leaning out of the portal, a hand on the doorknob the only thing keeping her from falling.
"I'm Yuuki," Yuuki said, realizing after she'd spoken that her tone was more than a little icy. She brushed past Aelise.
The room beyond was another open one, though not quite as large as the mess hall they'd just come from. It was unoccupied, but it didn't feel empty the way Verian's temple had. Along one wall was a series of desks and bookshelves, almost like a small section had been cut out of a library and deposited here. On one end of this arrangement was a number of shelves dedicated to candles, multicoloured stones, mirrors, and other random oddities. The rest of the room was left open, like some kind of training room for sportsmen.
"Sorry if I came off a little harsh," Aelise said. The room seemed to have softened her callousness.
She looked to the silent twins, and seemed to realize she'd said something wrong. Yuuki wasn't sure how else Ran's flaming eyes and her own icy-hard glare could be interpreted.
"I see my views are not appreciated. I suppose I'll tell you what I'm going to ask of you, then."
"I thought you disliked us just following orders around," Ran countered.
Aelise stalked over to one of the desks in the library corner of the room as she began explaining herself. "You're about to be taken away by Alexis anyways. Were you listening to what Hessal said?"
"Didn't really make a lot of sense," Ran said, watching Aelise rifle through the drawers of three consecutive desks.
"There you are," Aelise whispered to herself as she pulled a leather bag out of a desk drawer. She looked back to the twins. "To put it in Hessal's words, the eastern quarter is going to shit. Most of the players went there and just haven't left. Now someone's riling them up, and we can't do anything because players are invulnerable in the city until midnight. Actually, there's one thing we can do."
Aelise left the statement hanging, expecting one of the twins to puzzle it out.
What could they do in that position? Yuuki wasn't really sure what the limits of magic were, but evidently it couldn't stop players who had safe-zone protection. If that was the case, the players couldn't be fought, even containing them would be difficult. Anyone without safe-zone protection wouldn't stand a chance—
Yuuki's icy demeanor melted into an expression of understanding. They would send in whoever had protection. "We're going to be sent in."
"Not just you two, probably a few more volunteers. Of course, someone's going to have to stay behind for communication."
"Volunteers? Why don't we get a choice?" Ran asked.
"Because I'm the one volunteering you. Alexis would probably track you down eventually anyways; she's not really the kind of person to forget a face. Now, I'm going to give you an opt-out. Are you going to back away from this?"
Yuuki got the feeling this was some kind of test. Ran looked over to her, raising an eyebrow; she evidently thought the same. Aelise clearly wanted them to go. This opt-out was probably just a gesture of goodwill more than anything else. Should they rise to the bait?
Ran shook her head slightly, but her expression said she didn't consider her own decision final. Yuuki narrowed her eyes and Ran shrugged almost imperceptibly; Ran was just leaving the full weight of the decision on her.
Even if Yuuki disagreed with Aelise's views, this was still an opportunity to do some good. They didn't really have anything else to do, anyway. There was nowhere they could go other than to the dungeon.
Yuuki suddenly felt a surge of helplessness. They'd been wandering through the game without a care in the world, but in less than a day their invulnerability would run out. She and Ran would be weak and without options. For all the scenes and wonders Aincrad had to offer, you couldn't reach any of it without a fight, whether it was Aelise's fight or some other one. The Magicians' Guild wasn't a bad place. They still hadn't really met Kana, but she'd seemed interested in them. Jarq and that other servant who'd sent them after Verian, Hessal, they'd all seemed interesting. Turning away now could mean throwing that away, leaving the twins to fend for themselves.
"We'll go," Yuuki announced. Ran showed her support by moving to stand beside Yuuki.
Aelise nodded, not looking up from her leather bag. She seemed to be searching for something in there; a chain already dangled from her hand with some metal ornament attached to the end. It looked like one of those oversized jacks Yuuki had seen in a box in Alexis's office, but up close it looked more like some religious trinket, sort of like a three-dimensional cross.
"There we are." She pulled out a small empty vial from the bottom of the bag.
"Did you even listen to us?" Ran asked.
Aelise ignored her. "Now, Hessal offered to put a shadow on you, but I'm going to do it myself because I have respect issues. Now, stand still."
The sisters watched Aelise work. First, she took a candle, lighting it and placing it on the ground by the twins' side. Next, she took the empty vial and carefully pulled out the stopper, tilting it over the ground in the shadow the twins cast by the candle's light. Then, still holding the vial in the same position, she held out the chain and stood completely still, waiting for the trinket at the end to stop swinging. After about a minute and a half, she began whispering rapidly, some incantation Yuuki couldn't understand. There weren't any flashing lights or special effects, just the odd image of someone standing very still while holding an empty vial and a spindly jack on a chain. After two minutes of this, the whispering stopped and Aelise put the vial and the chain away.
"Did it work?" Ran asked.
"Should have. Now, it's easy for me to activate remotely, but I'm going to suppose that if you're in a bind you won't have time to write out a message to me. Just in case, if you can just hit four letters next to each other in a message, I'll set it off. Otherwise, you're going to have to get a drop of blood on your shadow."
"Wait, what?"
"The trigger mechanism is spirit magic, and that's always a tough one to set off. Blood is the easiest one, trust me. It has to be one of yours. Being twins is convenient for this, the spirit can't really tell the difference between you two. I can get you a small knife really quick." Aelise darted off to one of the desks and took out a pair of matching knives.
She twirled the knives in her hands before giving one knife to each of the twins. "Now, it only needs a drop, no need to cut off a finger. You're, what, thirteen?"
"Twelve," Ran said. She took the knife and
"That's old enough to handle knives." Aelise began rattling off rules in the uncaring tone of an irresponsible uncle. "Keep 'em up your sleeves or somewhere else you can easily reach. Don't kill each other, and don't kill anyone else unless they seem really well dressed and have way too many 'sh' sounds in their name." She paused. "That was a joke. Really racist, don't repeat it anywhere."
"Ha. Ha." Ran intoned robotically with half-lidded eyes.
"Shut up. Also, watch out for places where your shadow isn't very accessible. I hear that's the most embarrassing way to die when you have such strong magic on your side."
"Are you done?"
A knock came at the door. Aelise quickly grabbed the leather bag she'd dumped on the ground, stowing the last few trinkets in there, and rushing it back to a desk. Her aura of authority and maturity suddenly dissolved into the image of a little girl hiding the evidence of a prank. "Come in," she called.
The door opened to accept Kana into the room. She looked like a wholly different person outside of her room. Bright eyes looked out under blonde locks that constantly seemed to want to fall and obscure her vision, paralleled by an equally bright smile. She was a lot shorter than Aelise, hardly taller than Yuuki herself, a girl who had grown older but not more mature. There were also obvious signs of messiness in her her her clothing, a crumpled and folded blue shirt with sleeves a little too long, and pants that seemed a little scorched around the base of the left leg for some reason.
"Lii, Alexis wanted to call in her econs, and was—" Kana froze when she saw Yuuki and Ran standing in the middle of the open floor, Yuuki still holding her knife. Her stare was met with one of Yuuki's own, and she could tell Ran was doing the same.
"I'm on my way." Aelise shuffled over beside the twins. She whispered to them, "Stay calm, no sudden movements. We can get through this."
"Alii…" Kana almost seemed to groan. "Don't tell me you've been leading them around yourself? Without meeeeee?"
Tension seemed to be filling the room. Yuuki thought she spied Aelise tremble out of the corner of her eye.
"Just getting them, uh, something to eat…"
"In your workspace? Without any plates? And I don't think any food could still be good after sitting in a desk for two days." Kana's smile seemed dangerous and her eyes had a strange gleam to them.
"Well…" Aelise seemed out of words, and Yuuki didn't know what was going on. She turned her head to look to Ran.
"AAAAH! THEY MOVE!" Kana's cry of delight was loud enough to hurt Yuuki's eardrums. "SO CUTE!"
The next thing Yuuki knew, she was on the ground and caught in a crushing death-hug.
A/N: You know, I sometimes write chunks of the author's note as I write the chapter, just to organize my thoughts. This chapter, I wrote about how I disliked writing Yuuki's perspective because Yuuki and Ran are so directionless and feel so superfluous. They mostly only served as eyes for the reader to get some exposition in. I even had an idea for how I could have done it better. Then, the entire argument basically came up in Aelise's dialogue. Just snapped into place. It's the really long paragraph about how Yuuki and Ran haven't done anything to impress her, and what she respects is determination. It also parallels Irae's speech to Asuna, and does much the same, accelerating their character development and leading into the coming… mess. It was a bit clunky, though.
In other news, there might be new focal characters in the coming chapters. I haven't decided how I want to do it yet, but seeing as there have been several events that just sort of happened in the background, I figure it's time to let the reader (you guys) in on that. I have a spreadsheet, by the way, of what all the characters are doing and where all the chapters start. Colour coded and everything. So I can tell you that there is always several somethings happening at any point in time. The big characters in the background are Vander, Prophet, Glitch, and Verian, along with a few others. It's currently looking like Prophet will get a chapter, but Vander's also on the table. You can tell me which one you want to see, and it might happen if the suggestion comes in time.
And lastly, of course, apologies for another late chapter. This is what, the seventh one running? At least I still average one chapter per week. :/ No guarantees the next chapter will be on Monday, but it will definitely be sometime next week. Hopefully it will come at a more reasonable time than 1 am.
17/6/16