Chapter 36
She can't help but think that she should have gone along.
All she can do is cast, mis-cast rather, explosions. And a sword is of less than no use against even a small swarm of insects. And she'd been instructed to remain behind at the school.
But Louise still can't help but feel that she should have gone along, or followed behind, to...
To do [i]something[/i].
When all was said and done, she had begun to learn to hate fighting, battle, and violence. But a plague of insects wasn't a fight. It was a natural disaster, which everyone competent had to assist in holding back.
... When all was said and done, it just meant that she still wasn't a competent mage. As though she'd needed that re-confirmed.
She sighed grimly, and turned away from the window, where rain was falling gently and storm clouds had grown so thick and black in the sky that it was hard to see anything.
There was a flash of lightning to illuminate the room, and a draft left the candle flickering. After a moments thought, she used it to light another, in case one were to blow out.
Lightning flashed, casting the shadow of a man from the window. Her head whirled...
Empty. Just rain falling. What?
... It's the sort of storm that can lead you to imagining things and seeing things that aren't there. Even so, her hand tightens around the grip of her wand.
The door creaks, and she spins, wand rising.
It clinks against Tabitha's staff as she nudges it to gently point away from her.
"... Empty." She says, softly, still damp from the rain. "Where are the teachers?"
"You just got back?" Louise asks, then shakes her head. "They've left. All of them, to deal with an insect swarm. Most of the eldest students, too. I think you'd have been taken along if you were here."
"Serious?" Tabitha says, looking out the window.
"It seems so. By now, there's nothing you could do but help with clean up, even if you left right away, though." Louise agrees.
It doesn't seem to mollify Tabitha, though, as she continues to stare out into the rainstorm, frown slowly growing.
"Who is here?" she asks.
"... There's us. Our familiars, I guess. The younger students, and the staff, cooks and housekeepers and such-"
"Vulnerable." Tabitha interrupts, turning away from the window. "Something is wrong. You can't tell?"
... Louise doesn't realize what she's talking about. Not at first.
But then it starts to make a little bit of sense. There's a sort of... faint tingling. Tenseness, and unpleasant anticipation. The sort that comes up only when she has just begun to realize, instinctively, that something very bad is about to...
"... Damn." She says, sharply.
Louise has just enough time to pick up the sword, not even enough to strap it to her back, before a scream rings out. Sharp and shrill, and yet barely sounding over the rain. Just loud enough to draw attention.
Even as she curses herself for being a fool, to charge into an obvious trap, Tabitha grabs hold of her collar and points out the window.
"Airship." She explains.
Louise spares a glance, and her mood sours further still.
It's not one of Tristains.
It is flying the banner of the Reconquista [i]dogs[/i].
"This day just continues getting-!" she begins, but bites it off.
One thing at a time. For the first, the scream from the courtyard.
... She wasn't sure what she was imagining. But it wasn't this. There are gasps of horror from the few gathered onlookers aside from them, peering out windows as the rain lightens up a bit to reveal a tableau of carnage, a figure crouched over the prone... what used to be a student. Young. Female.
There are crunches and meaty ripping noises.
Louise brings up her wand, but cannot cast immediately, struck for a moment dumb by the sheer and deplorable horror of the scene. Tabitha has no such restraint, and immediately launches an icicle like unto a spear.
One hand of the figure whips around with a crackle, sword in hand, destroying the missile without a backward glance, or diverting attention from its prey.
"Y-you...!" Louise snarls, her voice beginning to return to her. "Depraved! Monstrous, beast!"
For whatever the reason, it is her words that catch the figures' attention, when deadly assault did not. Its grim feast comes to a halt, and it rises.
Then it turns, and it is as though the whole world has spun and twisted onto its head, colors askew.
"Louise." The bloodied and horrible apparation speaks.
"... You are dead." Louise argues, voice flat.
"My beloved... Louise. My lovely... little wife." the terrible spectre of Wardes rasps.
"I killed you [i]myself[/i], traitor!" Louise howls.
It spurs only riotous laughter from the horrible thing.
"You did. So you did!" It roars. "And in that death I have come to know power greater than you can possibly imagine. Come!"
He smiles, red dripping from his lips in a ghastly smile.
"Even now, my love for you allows forgiveness." He declares. "Come. Kneel at my feet and surrender yourself to me, as it should have been from the beginning, and even now shall I welcome you back with open arms."
The rain itself seemed to grow silent for just a few moments, as Louises teeth grit.
"... I killed you once, when you were merely a traitor." She says. "And now you have returned a monster. If that is what it takes then I'll kill you again! And again, and again, and as many times as it may take before you learn to [i]stay[/i] in your grave!"
Wardes laughs again.
"... Then so be it." He says, grim finality to his words.
In the blink of an eye, he is simply [i]there[/i] before her, sparks flying from a blade risen high in the air, and ready to crash down with all the force and fury of a thunderbolt.