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Title: Maoh, A Day Late
Summary: In which people are puppets.
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Part V, Chapter 4
There is no middle path
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More than the majestic Covenant Castle or the villa-like castle of the Karbelnikoff territory, Spitzweg Castle - with its golden towers and blue roofs - looked like something out of a fairy tale, the Disney castle come to life.
In some mocking parody of an amusement park, the castle appeared to be staffed by nothing but puppets. Life-sized dolls in maid uniforms lined Yuri's path and bowed deferentially, their bodies perfectly articulated but utterly lacking in any features.
Stepping out of the carriage, Yuri glanced back at the doll of his mother, only to see it suddenly collapse as the spell moving it was cut. Where Miko's face had been, there was only a blank mask.
'Ngh, I hate horror games...' Yuri thought, trying to steel his nerves as he stepped into the castle. Despite its beautiful facade, it was shrouded in an oppressive aura, and the halls seemed to be filled with almost liquid shadows that pooled in the corners and slowly slithered toward Yuri as he passed by.
There were more puppets lining the corridors, some dressed as soldiers in what must have been the Spitzweg uniforms - brown and red - and some in full plate armor. Or perhaps the armors had also begun to move, Yuri thought with a shiver.
The lifeless staff all stood aside to let him pass, both guiding him and assuring he didn't stray. Somehow, Yuri doubted any illusion he cast would affect them, so all that was left to do was face their master head on.
Squaring his shoulders, he marched through the entryway, to the main audience hall of the castle.
The grand chamber stood empty, somehow murky and shadowed despite the gallery of windows along one wall. Through the gloom, Yuri could just make out Stoffel's figure slumped upon the ornate chair at the other end.
Ignoring the doors ominously slamming shut behind him, Yuri stalked down the carpet path toward the throne and its occupant. All of his anger was suddenly surging back, drowning out his fear and hesitation.
"Stoffel!" Yuri called out sharply. "What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?!"
Stoffel's body jerked strangely, almost as if yanked awake, and he suddenly sat up, smiling blandly. "Welcome! It's so good of you to come, Your Majesty," he said as if nothing strange at all was happening. "Of course, I suppose my invitation wasn't one you could refuse."
"You call that an invitation?" Yuri snarled. "How did you know what my mother looks like? You've never been to Earth!"
"But it was an unavoidable measure I took to protect you, Your Majesty!" Stoffel continued in the same hollowly jovial tone, as if he had not even heard Yuri. "It was for your sake and for the sake of the Demon Kingdom!"
He stood, spreading his arms wide and rushing down the steps toward Yuri as if to embrace him. Yuri backed away reflexively, but up close, he could see that Stoffel's eyes were unfocused and his face was oddly slack, despite its parody of a smile.
'He's... this is...' Yuri thought disjointedly, swallowing. 'This can't be just miasma. Could it be that, at the Tomb, he...'
"Stoffel... Can you hear me?" Yuri wondered, taking another step back. "Are you... still in there?"
The man's pale blue eyes finally focused on Yuri, though something about his gaze still seemed far away. "Of course, Your Majesty," Stoffel assured him, his fixed smile unchanging. "I am your loyal servant."
"Stoffel, you..." Yuri began, but the man across from him continued to speak, unheeding.
"I had to make you understand that, Sire!" he insisted. "I tried and tried to speak with you myself, but they were always interfering, those deceitful nephews of mine. Just when I thought I could finally meet you alone, it turned out you had been taken away - to the human lands, no less! There's no telling what could have happened to you there!"
"I was the one who decided to go," Yuri muttered, but Stoffel wasn't listening.
He stared into the distance, at something only he could see. The fervent light in his eyes was unsettling. "I knew... I knew I had to do something," Stoffel continued. "This couldn't be the fate intended for our great kingdom. So I sought answers from him - from the Great One. He would put those whelps in their place! I didn't let that charlatan priestess stop me. No, I met him, our originator, the Great One himself."
'...That's not possible,' Yuri thought, stunned. 'He sealed himself away. And even if... then, what Stoffel saw must have been...'
His words were telling. This was the same as with Conrart - rather than the Great One himself, the evil he had been trying to seal had stolen his form and masqueraded as their nation's founder and first king.
Stoffel's eyes shone with zeal, despite the sallowness of his features. He looked sick, feverish. "He has spoken to me since then. He has told me so much," he mused, still smiling vaguely. "The way to bring you here, and even what must be done..."
He reached out, sending Yuri scrambling back again. All around them, the unnatural shadows seemed to deepen, and Yuri felt himself shudder in unease.
The doors, he knew instinctively, had been locked behind him. He could only run so far.
'Where are you guys?' he wondered. 'I could really use a rescue right now. Please come quickly. Please...'
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They made good time, but even knowing that their horses certainly outpaced the carriage by a good margin did little to calm everyone's impatience and sense of urgency. Spitzweg was the closest territory to Covenant Castle, but it felt like they couldn't make it there fast enough.
Conrart kept pushing them faster and faster, despite the others' concern for him. He didn't care about the throbbing wound in his gut. All he could think of was how he had failed. How could he have not realized that was not Yuri? He had known that something was wrong, but he had allowed his other senses to mislead him. And now Yuri was in danger, alone.
He ignored the worried looks his mother and brother kept shooting him, as Spitzweg Castle came into view. The front gate stood open and just beyond he could already see the same carriage that had come to Covenant Castle.
Celi and Raven exchanged a short look as their group passed through the gate. The ominous aura around their home set them both on edge, and they couldn't help but wonder what kind of trap they were rushing into. But it was equally clear that neither Conrart nor Wolfram would stop.
They had expected an ambush, but the courtyard appeared deserted as they reined in their horses, dismounting quickly. If Conrart hesitated for just a moment upon hitting the ground, Celi and Wolfram did nothing more than move in a little closer.
The ambush appeared the moment they took a step toward the castle entrance. Puppets emerged from their hiding places, dressed like maids or soldiers, holding swords, knives or even brooms.
They attacked the Demon Tribes enmasse. The first fell easily to Raven's sword, the second through fifth to Celi's fire magic.
"Let's go! We need to keep moving!" Wolfram yelled over his shoulder. Kicking a puppet maid aside, he let Conrart rush past him into the castle and followed quickly, while Celi and Raven brought up in the rear, keeping Murata in middle.
The Great Wiseman was not incapable of combat, and certainly he could hold his own against the current opponents - the puppets were a little stronger than humans, but they were surprisingly fragile. They fell easily before Conrart's sword, barely slowing his advance through the castle halls, to the point that Wolfram had to jog just to keep up.
"How many of these things did he have made?!" Wolfram complained, shifting his grip on his sword. "There's got to be an end to them, right?"
"Don't count on it," Murata muttered under his breath. 'They are probably repairing continually,' he thought. As they moved further into the castle, the aura of darkness thickened, becoming almost palpable, until even the others had begun to notice, glancing around uneasily in the few spare moments between fighting. 'This isn't just miasma,' Murata thought, his expression tight and strained. 'But at least it should be too weak to infect them. ...I hope.'
Their advanced slowed as they hit the wide intersection in front of the main audience chamber, forced to quickly cover the extra directions. Celi and Wolfram cleared the side passages with twin blasts of flame, buying them a few moments of breathing room, while Raven remained at the rear.
Conrart had headed for the massive double doors with the same unwavering determination, intent on making his way to where he believed Yuri to be. Murata was the only one to notice the way he suddenly froze, his fingertips only lightly touching the ornately carved wood.
Instead of kicking the doors in, as he had done up to that point, Conrart gasped and hunched over. He leaned heavily against the doors, struggling to catch his breath.
"Weller? What's wrong?" Wolfram demanded, moving to his brother's side. "Did your wound reopen?"
Conrart groaned, gritting his teeth as he struggled to say something. Wolfram reached for him, and Murata could see Conrart's body tense in a horribly familiar way while the doors pulsed with a dark power.
He darted forward, his fingers closing desperately around Wolfram's arm, and hauled the other boy back. Just in time - the keening sound of a blade cutting through the air echoed in the sudden silence as Conrart spun and slashed at the place where Wolfram had been standing a moment before.
"Conrart?" Celi whispered as Murata scrambled back further, pulling Wolfram with him.
But Conrart didn't advance or attack again. His entire frame shook as he struggled to hold himself back. "G... get back," he hissed through clenched teeth. "I can't..."
"Lord Weller? What are you doing?" Raven demanded, glancing frantically over his shoulder and trying to keep an eye on their regrouping enemies at the same time.
Unlike the others, their expression showing confusion and horror, Murata felt almost relieved. 'It's not possession,' he thought, grateful for at least that much. 'His mind is still present. That's good...'
"He's being controlled," Murata said shortly, drawing Celi up short as she tried to move toward Conrart. She made the connection with amazing speed, her eyes darting to his stomach, where the strangely shallow wound was concealed.
"...The Wincott poison?" she wondered, immediately finding the most plausible answer - though not the correct one. "But Gisela said she tested for poisons!"
"But not curses," Murata said. "This is the same as the puppets. We have to find and stop the source of this spell. That's our only chance."
That was easier said than done. Glancing behind them, Murata could see that, just as he'd feared, the puppets they had broken were beginning to reassemble and repair. They rose slowly, jerking up in unnatural positions as their limbs twisted around, back into their sockets.
In front of them, Conrart was forced into motion with the same jerking, unnatural movements. Raising his sword, he stood between them and the doors, though from the way his form shook, it was clear he was still trying to fight it off.
He could see their hesitation. "Don't worry... about me," Conrart insisted. "You have to... find His Majesty. They're... beyond these doors. I'm sure of it! Hurry!"
"...Understood," Wolfram said quietly.
He charged suddenly, his sword clashing against Conrad's with a teeth-rattling screech. Despite his older brother's greater bulk, Wolfram managed to force him back and attacked again, keeping the path clear.
Still, Celi's eyes darted to her middle son, fear for him clouding her features. The sight of two of her children fighting was everything she had feared, in that horrible time when Wolfram had traveled with Yuri. To have Conrart return to them and Wolfram begin to accept him, only for them to be forced to fight against their will was simply too cruel.
"Leave this to me! Go!" Wolfram yelled over his shoulder. His eyes met his mother's, both the same shade of deep, brilliant green. Trust me, he tried to convey. Celi's eyes widened, seeing for the first time just how much her youngest had grown. She had always thought he took after his father, but that man had never worn an expression as clear and determined as Wolfram's.
'He's become a splendid young man,' she thought. 'And he'll become even greater in the future...'
"Burn the doors," Murata snapped, his authoritative tone startling Celi into action.
Raising her hand, she called out, "Oh spirits of flame, obey those who defeated the Originators!"
In the hands of one of the Three Great Witches, even the abbreviated incantation called forth a great beast of fire. Those words were more suited than ever to call forth the power to dispel even the unnatural darkness that had polluted the castle.
The flame beast roared and charged ahead, crashing into the doors. For a moment, dark power struggled to repel its assault - as Murata had suspected, the doors had not been locked by any physical means, but rather sealed by magic.
Then, Cecilie the Golden grit her teeth and pushed with all her will. Her beast howled in response. Its claws tore through the enchantment, burning away both the intangible shadows and the thick wood beyond. Even the edges of the surrounding stone wall began to warp slightly under the unbearable heat.
Clouds of hot smoke and dust engulfed them, laced with slivers of wood and debris.
"Let's go!" Murata yelled, covering his mouth and nose with one sleeve. Without waiting for Celi to recover, he pulled her along by one arm. Through the smokescreen, he could hear Raven's heavy footsteps darting forward as well, overtaking them to take point.
In the smoke, light flashed, reflecting off polished metal. Jerked into motion by the dark will that had taken control of his body, Conrart raised his sword and lunged for the nearest opponent. But his attack was blocked by Wolfram, who struggled to hold back the force of it. Sparks flew as their blades clashed, before Wolfram managed to push his brother away.
"That... was good, just now," Conrart told him, smiling painfully.
"I tried putting my weight forward more, like you said," Wolfram replied evenly, his eyes darting to Conrart's midsection. He hoped the wound didn't reopen, or at least that they didn't aggravate it too much. He needed to keep the fight from injuring Conrart even more.
With Conrart in his current state, he actually stood a chance of winning, but not if he held back too much.
Conrart's expression softened, just a little, but also filled with worry and pain. "Wolfram... don't hold back," he said. "Like this, I... could really hurt you... You have to..."
"It'll be alright," Wolfram insisted sharply, holding his sword up again. He tried to smile, though he knew he wasn't like Yuri or Conrart himself. He wasn't any good at comforting or easing someone's heart. "It's alright," he repeated instead. "I trust you."
Conrart shuddered, his body swaying.
"It'll be alright," Wolfram said once more, a sudden, focused calm settling over his heart and his features. "We'll both make it home. Otherwise, that wimp'll definitely cry..."
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