***Author's notes: I won't bother going into too much detail on what a tumultuous past several months it has been. Writing for this project at least was slowed by several other smaller ones with actual due dates popping up, but my general drive to write has also been heavily impacted by other non-writing related issues.

If you are a returning reader who's back after the long silence, the only thing I can do is thank you emphatically for your patience and continued support. And if you are a new reader who has now reached this chapter: I also want to extend a gratuitous amount of appreciation for your having read this far.

I hope to finish this story one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, and I look forward to all your support as we strive to reach that horizon.

Chapter 10.

The Threat, Lancer

I.

Rosa was gently brushing Louise's hair as the world of colorful tulips turned on its unnatural axis, the horizon sometimes folding up so that the field of flowers hung overhead, at other times falling away immediately into the abyss. None of it mattered at this point though. Not only had Louise come to accept the fittingly strange rules of the dream world, she had also come to think of it as a calming space. The more often she had dreamed of Rosa, the less common were the endings where it turned to nightmare, haunted as this world was, even at the most peaceful of times, by the shadow of the black tulip. The more Louise dreamed of Rosa and the flower field, the more she remembered upon waking, and the more she felt connected to Rosa.

Louise had come to understand that the woman she met with here was just as much the real Rosa Laurent as the woman in the waking world who stalked the back-alleys of Paris. Rosa was hurt, and suffering, Louise understood that. But in the dream world her senses were not as dampened by that hurt, she was able to more easily articulate her feelings, and so able to tell Louise so much that she could not when they first met.

Rosa smiled as she ran her hands through Louise's tight-curls, the hair so different to her own, but so pleasant to the touch. "You keep coming back to see me." She said as she continued brushing.

"I like it here." Louise replied.

"But it is not perfect here." Though the bad turns had certainly lessened, Rosa still feared the Tulip's appearance every time.

"And it's not perfect out there either. But..." Louise trailed off before she finished the thought, slightly embarrassed at what she wanted to say.

"But?" Rosa stopped brushing and put her arms around Louise's shoulders, her curiosity fully aroused.

"But... You're here." Louise blushed as she said the other words. "And I... I like seeing you, I suppose."

"You suppose, do you?" Rosa was not usually one to be playfully taunting, but she too was embarrassed, and desperate to hide her awkwardness.

"I always feel happy when I see you after going to sleep. Perhaps it's because it has happened so regularly, but I find being around you is my only true reprieve from the Grail War."

Rosa was blushing immensely behind Louise's back and pushed her face into the other woman's spine to prevent her being seen. "I don't really remember when I wake up. But, having you here makes it so much less lonely."

"How long have you been alone?" Louise asked.

"Ever since..." Rosa hesitated to say his name, the fear that it might conjure him paralyzing her.

Louise turned around and held Rosa close. She wasn't sure why, but she could tell something was scaring her. "Ever since what?"

Being held by Louise burgeoned Rosa's courage. "Ever since Cornelius died." So many emotions mixed in her voice as she said it.

"He's the one, right? The one who gave you the... Tulip?" Louise felt just as apprehensive as Rosa, though for slightly different reasons. It felt very much like an invocation of its darkening shadow to talk about the Tulip, whatever it was.

"Yes. He said he loved me just as he loved it. It was his greatest treasure." Rosa had never been able to speak on the subject since Cornelius's death, and had never really had anyone to talk about it with.

"What is it, Rosa? Just what is the Tulip?" Louise had to know what the demon that haunted their dreams was. She had to understand the curse that was hurting Rosa. If she understood, she could help.

"I don't know." Rosa looked downtrodden as she answered, ashamed that she couldn't help someone so important to her.

"What happened then? When he, when Cornelius died."

"I think... I think I would be able... to show you." Rosa lifted her sullen face to eye level with Louise's. They shared a tender moment of prolonged eye-contact, each young woman looking contentedly at the other when Rosa put her hand up around Louise's eye and used her fingers to hold it open.

Suddenly Louise found herself falling into the depths of Rosa's eyes, pulled from her seated position into a shining green void. As she fell, the green gave way to an inky blackness, and she plummeted through a shadowy abyss until she landed on the hard wooden boards of a darkened workshop. She was still righting herself and trying to get her bearings when she heard a voice call out. The tone was sharp, but wrapped in a layer of tenderness to soften the blow.

"Careful with those instruments. This is delicate work, and I require all my tools in pristine working order." A seated man called over to Louise in a mildly annoyed tone. He didn't turn his head to speak to her, but Louise felt as if his words were meant for her. Louise saw a tray covered in arcane tools and modified surgical equipment on the floor in front of her. Though they were all shifted about messily from a fall, it did not look like anything was damaged. Louise collected the tray and instinctively brought them over to the seated individual.

As Louise closed the distance she couldn't help but notice how strange her movements felt. Her limbs felt floating and detached from her, as if her body were willing itself forward regardless of her thoughts. She put it up to this being an effect of still being in the dream world and put it out of her mind. Louise reached the workbench the man who had called to her was seated at and as she came around his side to set down the tray of tools she got her first good look at his features. She couldn't understand why, but something in her knew this man was Cornelius.

He was a man who looked to be somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties. His skin, though not wrinkled or worn too notably, showed signs of premature aging in its splotchy, bleached powder tones by how it looked tightly drawn over his bones in places. Equally faded blonde hair grew in a disheveled bush on top of his head, and continued along his entire jawline in a scraggly beard of sorts. Had Cornelius put more care into himself, instead of the disproportionate amount he dedicated to his work, his handsome looks would have been more visible as they had been at one time. Now however, his appearance, and the look in his murky brown eyes, showed his unhealthy shift in priorities.

There were a few moments of awkward silence as Louise stood by his side, waiting for the preoccupied man to acknowledge her presence. Without even thinking about the words, or remembering wanting to say them at all, Louise heard herself speak. "Here, Cornelius. Nothing got broken. It's everything you asked for." Her words felt more timid and unsure than her usual noble bearing.

"Hmm?" He looked over, a spurning look that, upon perceiving Louise's features, softened to something that seemed more like forced tenderness. "Ah yes, thank you. Right. Glad everything is fine. Tell me, my dear, how are you? Feeling okay? Your health holding up?"

It seemed an odd line of questioning to Louise for him to be asking so suddenly. But again before she could even think on it too much Louise found herself speaking. "Yes, I'm feeling quite well. I took the medicine just like you told me."

"Three o'clock? Just like I instructed?" His tenderness was mixed with apprehension.

"Yes, Cornelius." A light giggle. Louise was surprised to hear herself giggle. "Three o'clock, just like the past few days, like you instructed."

"Good. Yes. That's good." Cornelius paused a moment, a look of excitement in his eyes. "Only one more treatment then."

"Cornelius, are you sure I need to take it? I told you I didn't feel sick when we started. Its so bitter, and I'd hate to be using something pointlessly that someone else could benefit from-"

"And I told you I know better about it than you." Cornelius's composure cracked for a moment with the outburst. Louise's face must have had a shocked expression of some kind, because when he looked at her his face quickly shifted between several emotions before settling back into the forced tenderness. "I told you," He placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's not the kind of sick you feel right away. It could be really dangerous if we didn't treat you BEFORE something happened. Besides, I need you in tip top condition for tomorrow."

"I know, I know. It's the big day. I'm very excited to see what you've been working so hard on. You're sure I can't help?" What was she talking about? How did Louise know about any of the timing of Cornelius's project.

"Magic, my dear. Magic that will be able to help people." Cornelius's features were screwed up in a strange grimace of barely contained excitement as he alluded to what was to come. "Now why don't you head out into the garden and tend to the tulips? It's difficult for me to focus on this with you here. You are such a great distraction." He said the last part with an audible note of adoration.

"But I want to stay in here and watch you work. I'm sure I can help. It always sounds like you're having trouble bringing stuff up from the basement. If it's heavy I can help lift it. I know you think I can't be of much use but-"

"I KNOW you can't be of much use. I've told you that this is work that you can't be part of right now. Your job is to do what I tell you, and then be ready tomorrow."

Louise felt enraged at the audacity of Cornelius and how he was speaking to her. But rather than the biting retort she wanted to deliver she only heard her words come out stuttering and unsure. "But, Cornelius, I-"

"No more of your buts! I asked you to leave!" Cornelius wheeled off the stool and was standing over Louise. He was far taller than he had looked while seated. It felt like he was easily twice her height, an imposing shadow looming over her. His hand was lifted in the air, but when it came down Louise only felt his grip on her shoulder. There was no strike like she had thought was coming. His hold was soft at first, his features quickly lightening from perturbed aggravation to a sort of begrudging complacence.

"I know you mean well. But you simply don't understand enough." His grip was slowly tightening as he spoke, the fingers pressing harder and harder into Louise's shoulder. "And it's okay that you don't know. What's not okay is you not admitting you don't know things. The sooner you accept your ignorance and that I know better in this situation, the easier this will be. Now, why don't you go out to the garden? It's noon and I'm sure the flowers are feeling rather thirsty in that summer sunlight. Some fresh air will help you think a little more clearly."

"Yes, Cornelius." Louise lowered her gaze as she answered. She had so much she wanted to say, but something inside her made her turn around and leave as Cornelius had instructed. As she closed the door connecting the workshop to the rest of the house she heard Cornelius call out again.

"Oh, and dear? Can you bring a block of ice from the freezer in a couple of hours?. The AC is still out and the last block will be nearly melted by then."

Time spun wildly around Louise as she walked around the house to the garden in the back. Though the sky seemed to shift in quick bursts from night to day, lazy clouds swapping places with shining stars overhead as it did, she still felt the oppressive heat of the midyear sun. She had never really worked in a garden before, even magical botany was not a subject she was personally invested in. Despite that she found herself working skillfully with the delicate flowers that were currently in her charge. She knew just where to trim or pluck wilting leaves and stems, and was able to apply the perfect amount of water without drowning any of the multitudinous tulips in the garden. Though this was not her home, and these flowers and myriad other plants were not grown by her own hands, Louise felt a powerful sense of regretful nostalgia for all of it. A voice in her head saying to itself, "Even if things were never perfect, even if things weren't necessarily good, is it so strange to miss what you once had?"

Louise was standing just on the other side of the door that led to the workshop. She did not remember leaving the garden, though she knew it was something she had done. She did not remember entering the house, though here she was. She did not remember using the thin metal pick to break off a block of ice for Cornelius, though here they both were in her hands. She did not remember hearing a tense exchanging of words coming from the workshop, and yet there was fear in her all the same. She pushed the door open, just a touch, enough to allow her to see at least the workbench, and to hear more clearly what was being said.

"-And what exactly are you implying?" Cornelius's voice was controlled, but his guarded tone showed how desperately he was trying to suppress his emotions.

"Oh I'm sorry, sir. Did it sound as though I was trying to make an accusation?" A confident, condescending voice Louise thought she recognized sounded from the other end of the room in response to Cornelius.

"That is precisely what it sounded like, yes." Cornelius said back.

"Pardon, please allow me to clarify. I did not mean to simply imply something, I meant to fully communicate it. You are stalling. You are wasting Lord Saint-Hermine's time." The unseen gentleman said the inflammatory statement as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "I'm not sure if you simply are not capable of finishing the amalgam in the allotted period, or if you are buying time while you figure out how to run off with the completed project for yourself. The former would prove your incompetence, while the latter your treachery. Neither reflects terribly well on you personally."

Louise positioned herself to peer around the door at a different angle, getting just enough view to see the reflection of the other gentleman in the antiqued mirror that hung in the workshop.. The young Saint-Hermine immediately recognized Alfonso Boxtell, lead agent of the Saint-Hermine Reclamation Agency. He was a man of imposing stature, a noticeable difference in height between himself and Cornelius. His most recognizable trait was his completely shaved head and face, even his eyebrows thinned to almost nonexistence. A series of red magical glyphs were tattooed along the entire right side of his face and continued down the length of his neck. His dress was an extremely formal affair, a fitted black suit over a slightly lighter black dress shirt was accented by a dull orange tie. In his hands, which were covered by brown leather gloves, he was fiddling absentmindedly with a large knife he had picked up off a nearby shelf.

The Reclamation Agency was a branch of the Saint-Hermine family that had been established by Elzear Saint-Hermine when he had first ascended to the position of Family Head. When he created the group he had claimed that it would be necessary to have a team of skilled mages on hand for the specific task of overseeing projects handled by non-family entities. The Reclamation agents would deliver orders, supervise work, and if need be, mete out punishment to rogue elements. Alfonso had been deemed the head of the agency when Louise's father had first created it and had always been a very close friend of the family, even being present at many of their gatherings. He had also been dead for several years. Louise remembered her father's face, normally so implacable, had visibly fallen when the news had been delivered.

Cornelius had been seething during the direct verbal attack Boxtell had launched against him. He was a proud man, and did not take well to criticisms of his capabilities as a mage. "Mr. Boxtell, I assure you that I can finish the Black Tulip. Despite my capabilities, doing so takes time. It is not a simple amalgam as you ignorantly refer to it. It is a delicate and costly thing that no one could finish without enough time and resources."

"And my friend Lord Saint-Hermine, your benefactor, has provided all the resources necessary. He gave you all the mages and bodies you could need. By the looks of things you were the one who got greedy and went out to hunt for more people to add to it on your own. What happened? Needed it to be a little stronger for when you tried to use it yourself and run out on us?" The tone was accusatory, but not against its implication about Cornelius killing more people. Boxtell had killed plenty of people himself and held fast to Elzear's belief that normal people were below elite mages and worthy of little consideration. The disdain in his words was reserved for what he perceived as Cornelius's obvious betrayal. "Also, at this point, I'd say we have given you ample time to finish the fusion process."

"It is not as simple as just sticking magical circuits together!" Cornelius felt Boxtell was being intentionally ignorant about his work and seemed more upset about that than being accused of trying to back out of the agreement. "And I am hardly asking for that much more time. I told you it would be ready in two days. You can simply come back then and it will be prepared for you."

"You say for me to come back in two days. Yes, I see. That way you can finish tonight or tomorrow, and I will be coming back to an empty and abandoned house." Louise watched Boxtell's reflection turn in the mirror to fully face Cornelius as he started walking across the room.

As he closed the distance, Boxtell himself became visible to Louise through the thin opening. He was positioned with his back to Louise, standing between her and Cornelius. "I think that your unfinished prototype here, along with your notes will be more than enough for the Saint-Hermine mages to finish." Boxtell placed the knife down on the workbench as he spoke.

Cornelius reacted by picking a small glowing object up off the workbench and holding it guardedly against his stomach. "I'm afraid that is not an acceptable proposal."

"Oh? And just why not?" Boxtell had dropped his right hand down to his side and Louise could see small motes of red energy gathering in his palm.

"Because if you take it now it will fail. You people haven't been preparing a proper vessel for it. Without that you won't be able to install it in anyone for its final incubation. It will die in your workshops in a matter of days."

"And who is the prepared vessel? You? Is that your last ditch effort to convince me to leave it alone with you? Am I really expected to believe that?" The energy had finished gathering in Boxtell's partially closed hand and a small red orb of magical energy was hovering at the ready between his fingers.

"No. Not me." Cornelius looked nervously towards where Louise was hiding.

"Well that's no problem then." As a punctuation of his words Boxtell suddenly placed the finger of his right hand against Cornelius's chest, and the red energy shot along the outstretched digit and out through the unsuspecting mage's back, his blood spraying the wall behind him.

Louise was already screaming as Boxtell made the deadly gesture. The ice had already slipped from her grasp and shattered across the floor as the bolt of energy had entered Cornelius. She had already charged into the room and rammed the pick into Boxtell's back as Cornelius had collapsed onto the floor. She was feeling the weight of what was happening, the explosion of fear and sadness, even though she had no idea why she felt so attached to and defensive of this man she barely knew.

Powerful as he was, as many spells and formulas as he knew, and as many mages as he had fought and killed, none of that mattered when a normal person attacked in a normal fashion. Boxtell had no reason to even suspect Louise had been there and that she had been armed. He had no time to prepare for the attack. As he staggered from the blow, wheezing in pain and whirling around to see what had happened, Louise was already retrieving the knife from where he had placed it on the bench.

There was a moment of confused eye contact between Louise and Boxtell as she brought the knife towards his throat. "Who-?" He had no time to finish the statement as the heavy blade dug deeply into his neck. With his failing strength he made an attempt to repel his assailant, and a burst of magical energy sent Louise flying across the room. She was thrown with an incredible amount of force into the mirror she had been watching Boxtell through, and her and the decoration both came crashing down to the ground. Boxtell collapsed lifelessly to the ground, the magical discharge having been more of a death rattle than a directed attack. Louise pulled herself slowly up off the ground, the shattered pieces of the mirror scattered around in front of her.

Littered across the floor before Louise were all the things that had just happened, reflected back for her to watch replay. There she was tripping and dropping the tray, pushing her straight brown hair out of her face as she stood back up. In another she saw the determination and sadness reflected in those brilliant green eyes as Cornelius rejected her assistance. A different piece reflected her out in the garden, the sun shining on her slightly pink skin as she tended to the different flower beds. Louise watched forlornly as she once again relived Rosa's life. Rosa's own features, reflected in the scattered shards, returned the forlorn expression. Louise's time spent contemplating the reflections was short as Rosa was already pulling herself towards where Cornelius's bloody body had collapsed on the floor.

Rosa pulled herself up onto Cornelius's chest, dropping the weapons to hold his face in her hands. "Cornelius, please. You're okay, aren't you?" Louise could feel the tears pouring down the sides of Rosa's face, the despair in her voice as she spoke the words even she didn't believe.

Cornelius coughed painfully, blood staining his lips as he heaved achingly. His eyes slowly opened and he cast a genuinely loving look towards Rosa. "My dear... My... Rosa." Cornelius took a long pained breath.

"Don't! Don't try to talk right now." Rosa was panicking, completely at a loss for what to do.

"No. No I must." Cornelius slowly brought one hand up to Rosa's face, his eyes drifting towards the wound above her left eye. "Look what he's done to you. To your beautiful face. A shame."

"Cornelius! What can I do? What can I do for you? I'm sure I can help! I want to be of use to you." The tears wouldn't stop as Rosa implored Cornelius.

"You can't be of much help to me now. But, you can still... Still help like you were supposed to."

"Your project?! This isn't the time Cornelius. We need to- I need to help you!"

"This is the best way for you to help me, Rosa. It's very precious to me. I need you to take care of it now. You were always supposed to anyway." Cornelius looked lovingly over Rosa's features again, his vision slipping in and out of focus as he did so. "Your face, it really is a shame how he hurt it. But..." Cornelius raised the hand that he had up until that point kept carefully tucked against his stomach. "But I'm sure it can fix that."

Cornelius pressed something with a dull green glow against Rosa's left temple, just above her eye. As he did so Louise was able to catch a brief glimpse of what the tulip was. A twisted, knotted up bundle of what looked like flat and angular green veins emanated a warm energy from within their tangled mass. From what she had heard being said by Cornelius and Boxtell, Louise could guess at what the Black Tulip actually was.

"This will hurt my dear, but you're mostly prepared. I need... I need you to think really hard about something for me while it hurts." Cornelius's voice had gotten extremely quiet and soft while he was talking, his strength quickly leaving his body. "I need you to not focus on the pain... I need you to focus on me. Think of me. And... Think of how this is you helping me..."

There was a bright flash of light as Cornelius pressed the merged mass of stolen magical circuits into Rosa's head. The pain was unbearable and Louise could feel all of it. She could feel the entry point, the wound on Rosa's head twisting horribly one way as the circuits surged through her body, finding any pathway they could to worm their way into her very being. She then felt the wound twist back around the other way in a paltry attempt to fix the damage. The foreign circuits, interlopers stolen from dozens of other people, burned their way like rivers of magma through Rosa's body, steam rising from every orifice as she was burned from within.

The pain was not solely physical. Magical circuits, being an extension of the soul and self, carried small parts of their original owner's psyche. These numerous pieces of other consciousnesses were desperate to assert themselves somewhere within their new host. All of them clamored in Rosa's own soul and mind, a cacophony of confused, hurt, and scornful voices all crying out at once, a chorus of suffering calling out with one voice.

That one voice was Rosa's as she screamed horrifically into the world with a voice that matched the screaming in her soul and body. Louise could feel Rosa's back especially alight with the flame of the surging magic. She could feel the energy carving along her spine, excess magical power springing out like water leaking through a cracked dam. The smell of burning flesh filled the room just before a great cracking sound drowned out Rosa's scream and the entire workshop was obliterated in a wave of overflowing power. Louise was flung out of Rosa's body by the blast as everything else around her was incinerated. She caught one last look at Rosa sitting on the ground, her head lolled back, as she screamed towards the heavens, magical fire pouring out in a great conflagration.

Louise called out to Rosa, desperate to be heard over the sound of the rushing magic and Rosa's own agony. "Rosa! Please! I want to help! Come find me! I promise I'll help you!" A final wave of magical energy poured out from Rosa and Louise saw only blackness.