Along the way back, The Devil took to perching on the neck of Riku's horse – not that it noticed.
"You know Riku, I've been thinking," it started.
"Really?" he said with exaggerated astonishment. "Do people actually do that?"
"You're lucky I'm not allowed to do anything to you, or I'd certainly get you for that."
"You're welcome," he smirked. "So what have you hurt your head trying to think about?"
"The rules aren't so much rules really when you think about it. You can ignore them, as long as you don't get caught, and there's never anyone near the portals."
"It does seem that way, doesn't it?"
"Doesn't that suggest anything to you?"
"That I could unlock a portal, throw you in, then close it again?"
"I wish you'd get over that," it complained. "You can't get rid of me that easily, and there's no point insulting me either."
"I don't know about that. They're good for annoying you as much as you are me. What do sprites look like, by the way?"
"Why ask me? I'll only extort something out of you in return."
"Get out the way then, because there's a group of little green things flying this way."
The Devil turned, gave a short barking laugh, then leapt back down into his shadow.
If they were sprites, he couldn't see why Four had a problem with them. They were tiny creatures, each of them barely bigger than his hand. Aside from being green and having filmy wings, they looked fairly normal and harmless enough.
There were a dozen of them at least, easily flying faster than any horse could run. Interested, he reigned in, but didn't yet reach for his staff. As they flew closer his horse eyed them warily, pawing at the ground as if he wanted to move again.
Riku saw these little creatures were unarmed though. They flitted close, circling him, talking in hushed whispers to each other. One, who had a tiny silver circlet on her head hovered in front of him, her gossamer wings a blur in the air.
"Something I can do for you, little friends?" he asked. The one in front frowned slightly, crossing her arms. "You can talk, right? Or do you just not want to talk to me?"
She gave an imperious gesture to one of the other Sprites who hurridly flew over to listen to a few whispered words from their leader. Then that sprite flew up and in a piping voice said, "Her Highness the crown princess of the Sprites does not talk to lower forms of life."
He chose not to pursue the point of being a lower life form in their eyes, instead asking, "What does her Highness want from me then? I am just a simple card in the game, after all." Somewhere below him, The Devil snorted derisively. One Sprite glanced down, then a chain of whispers brought word to their Princess.
Her expression didn't change when she heard about it. She just gave another message to her herald.
"Her Highness knows you hide one of the Major Arcana," she proclaimed. "And demands to know why you hide it."
"It wasn't my choice. He decided to take up residence in my shadow and make a pain of himself, trying to get me to do whatever he wants. Which he's failed at so far, I might add," he said, leaning out to speak down to his shadow.
"Emphasis on so far," The Devil replied. "You've got the rest of the week yet."
Another whispered exchange took place, followed by, "Her Highness wishes to see something new. You will provide it."
"I'm just a card, like I said. All I have is what you can see. I might be able to find something – in exchange for a little knowledge."
"You would try to bargain with-" the Sprite started, but the princess hit her shoulder, pulling her back to make her listen to another message. Try as he might, Riku could barely hear her speaking, let alone any of the words. After a moment, looking shaken, the Sprite said, "Her Highness wants to know what you want to know."
"It's a simple thing. One of my friends seems to have a problem with Sprites. You might know him, he met some just the other day, the Four of Staves. I'd just like to know why he has a problem with you, when you don't..." he hesitated, then continued, "When you don't seem to be... well, threatening. Not that I mean that in a bad way."
The Sprite and princess shared a look, then the princess nodded. The Sprite's answer was simple. "All cards are given one chance only to show their worth to the crown princess, and if they cannot please, we attack that card on sight with our own kind of magic, not like the magic of men. Now provide what you offered in exchange."
"Something new. Right. Let's see what you think of this then – you might want to back away just a bit your Highness, just to be safe."
Riku held out one hand and simply summoned Way to the Dawn into it, taking care to point it upward and away from the Sprite princess. The Sprites immediately went into another spree of excited whispering, while the princess tried to maintain her disapproving frown.
She couldn't maintain it though, and eventually, grudgingly nodded approvingly. Her herald looked on in astonishment, until the princess muttered a few words to her and she shakily said, "Her Highness wants to see it again."
"As she wishes," he answered, dismissing it and then summoning it back again. The Sprites this time shared in the silent astonishment. Evidently a Keyblade appearing and disappearing was as new as it got. For now.
The princess nodded again, then gestured to the other Sprites as she turned to fly away. Without another word, they formed up behind her and headed away again, back toward the same part of the woodland wilderness they had come from.
"Amazing what a few flashy effects will do for a Sprite, eh?" The Devil observed from below.
"Oh, shut up," Riku told it, nudging his horse on again.
Ten was waiting at the foot of the staircase rather than at the top as was Page's habit. When Riku slipped in through the stable door he glanced up.
"Where's Three?"
"The Cups nicked him off me for the day. Didn't need anyone else they said, so asked me to bring word back. They also said short of magic or a miracle, Six is in pretty much the same condition as their Two, and if the indications as I left were anything to go by, their Queen will soon be a proud mother."
"She's what?" Ten exclaimed. "You mean-"
"As their Page said when I left, she's gone into labour," Riku confirmed. "So I guess we'll find out for sure before the end of the day."
"The Queen of Cups. I'd never have thought – I mean, she's always been so caught up in the running of that place... never thought she'd have the chance to... well, you know," he finished lamely, a flush creeping up his cheeks.
"Must have happened sometime," Riku shrugged. "Now, what am I meant to be doing? Or haven't you decided yet?"
"I'm still waiting to hear back from Seven, or either of the cards Page took with him. I don't even know which of them is the messenger today."
"Probably Five, I'd guess. Four's driving remember."
"Could be. Anyway, I can't say anything for sure until I hear back. At least the Cups are seen too – a weight off my mind," he sighed. "I honestly have no idea what I'm doing, Ace. Managing our cards... it's not something I ever thought I'd do."
"Maybe he's getting you used to it so he can retire," he teased.
"Thanks, but I think I prefer being a card. Go make yourself useful while I wait for everyone else, I'll send someone to get you when I need to."
The Devil took over then without warning, forcing his reply to be, "Just leave me on the walls today. I know Page says we don't have to, but if things go bad between him and the Swords, we should be prepared."
Ten did not notice anything out of the ordinary, staring up at the high windows letting light into the hall. After a few moments he nodded agreement. "Can't hurt. I'm sure Page will understand, and probably thank us for it if the Swords turn sour on us."
He was stuck for it now. Unless Ten changed his mind or someone else overruled him, he didn't have any choice. Being on the walls meant he'd have to grab his crossbow again, so he made sure there was no one else there while he got it.
"What are you up to now?" he grumbled at his shadow. "The walls? Seriously? If he'd been paying attention-"
"But he wasn't," The Devil said, its voice coming from his shadow again. "Anyway, you're not going to stay on the walls. I've got other ideas for you."
"Forget about it," Riku replied. He stayed silent as he headed back out into the hall for the nearest tower, then continued, "You saw fit to have Ten put me there, so that's where I'm going."
"Did you forget who I am?" it asked. "Or do I have to demonstrate again?"
"You can try all you like – I'm not going to cooperate."
"We'll see about that," it responded. This time he felt the compulsion The Devil put on him, trying to make him turn off into the portal corridor. He fought it, refusing to let the little beast control him, causing him to pause as they conflicted.
Riku had experience in this though – Ansem had arguably done more than The Devil was. Try as it might, Riku overpowered it and continued up.
"Was that the best you could do?" Riku asked, concealing the effort he'd had to put out.
"Don't think that was the last of it," the response came. "I'll get past you yet."
"You're welcome to keep trying. Just don't forget to keep your end of our agreement – if you don't manage anything, you leave me alone."
"You do realise of course, if I do make you do something I want, that lets me stick around," The Devil said.
"Of course," he answered, letting himself out to start his own patrol of the battlements. "But I'm not concerned with what won't happen."
It didn't reply. Riku suspected it would use the same ploy that had gotten him up here in the first place – an unexpected intervention. That would only be a one-shot thing though, every time The Devil used that he'd be more aware and have to fight to force him to cooperate.
Once he passed the second tower on to the front walls of the castle he was treated to the familiar commanding view of their world. The rivers seemed wider than they had before, reaching further up the foundations of the bridges spanning them – but strangely, when they met the moat of The Tower they actually sloped back down to normal levels again. Strange magic involved there, no doubt.
Between the Pentacle and Sword castles there were a team of Pentacles who had been hauling carved stones toward the Sword castle for the rebuilding effort, though they had dropped the ropes and were fending off an attack. It was hard from this distance to judge what, but Riku suspected they'd fallen foul of the Sprites.
Two riders came from the Sword castle, one their own Five, the other Riku was sure was one of the two Swords that had captured him the day before. Unless Page had sent word with Five, they wouldn't be let in. Ten would surely abide by the rule that only Page could authorise that. Why then was the Sword coming here?
He also wondered why there was no sign of Seven returning from the Pentacle castle, until he too left with a local card joining him. All they needed now was a Cup to visit and they'd have all four suits gathered in one location – but still no indication of why.
The Devil startled him out of his thoughts at the fourth tower, taking advantage of the lapse to guide him back down the stairs an even on to the portal corridor before Riku forced himself back in control again, continuing past all four doors to ascend again at the other end.
"Nice try," he murmured to it. "You'll have to do better than that."
The Devil grumbled something incoherent in response.