June: Musings of the Apparatus

Once the base was secured, everyone searched it for any evidence. Caspar fanned himself after the grueling battle. "Whew. That was exhausting. I love a good fight, though. It really gets the blood going." He leaned back against the wall, and fell through it. He picked himself off the floor and looked around the hidden room he found. "Huh. What's this?"

Caspar found many textbooks about magic and legends about other worlds. Complex calculations were mapped out on graphs, and many theories strewn about haphazardly on paper. "This is like some evil mastermind lair." He checked out one of the notes.

"Now that we obtained a member containing Velezark's blood, we can extract it and place the power of the Chaos Dragon into anyone we desire. We will now be able to interfere with the Outrealm portals and bring ruin to the land. We must take great caution that the recipient of the blood experiment survives. This plan will be for naught if she dies."

Caspar loudly gasped. "AHA!"

Caeldori hastened over to where he was. "Goodness! How did the plaster collapse?"

Caspar brushed that off. "I don't know; I just rested against it and it gave way. Anyway, look at this! I know how we can defeat them once and for all!"

Caeldori ripped the paper from his hands and read it herself. "So we just need to find out who had the blood transfusion!"

Caspar scratched his head. "I don't know . . . I still think we should get rid all the Twilighter bases. It would make for a better outcome, you know."

Sophie heard the commotion and jogged over. "What's this about?" She read the notes herself and thought about it. "We need to think logically. Who would get the transfusion?"

Caeldori stated, "Someone high up in the organization?"

Khalid joined them. "That's some pretty solid detective work, Caspar. I have to admit, I didn't think you had it in you."

Caspar grinned. "Thanks! I didn't think falling was a detective power, but I guess I'll hone it to the best of my ability!"

Sophie changed the subject. "We need to go to Garreg Mach and tell everyone what happened. Then we can go back to my world and get Owain to copy the apparatus magic and pinpoint all the lairs for my world."

Caeldori added, "If we get all of the hideouts, we're bound to meet the person who has Velezark's blood!"

Caspar cheered, "Alright! We have a solid lead! Let's get back to Garreg Mach and tell everyone all the good news!"

Sophie crossed her arms. "We can't. We need to go back to Adrestia so Owain can look at the apparatus and figure out how to eradicate my world from these pests."

While Caspar raised everyone's spirits, Caeldori passed around the note. The heroes buzzed with excitement: it seemed as though they were truly getting somewhere in the battle against the Twilighters.

They journeyed back to the Adrestian palace with triumph in every step. Dimitri took Mary aside. "I'm grateful with everything you've done. I can't wait until we go to Fhirdiad and restore Faerghus back to glory."

Mary agreed, "I can't wait to help my country! Soon we'll have the best scouts in all the land."

Dimitri cleared his throat. "And when we come back, we can share meals together. The chef at the castle is truly a mastermind of culinary arts."

Mary inquired, "Cheesy verona stew?"

Dimitri nodded. "Yes, and delightful fish sandwiches. Well, that's just my favorite. He's really wonderful with any food."

Mary's jaw tightened, impressed by how animated he was. "That's nice. I bet all the commanders and generals share a meal with you."

Dimitri frowned. "No. They don't."

Mary's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Then why me?"

Dimitri hastily backpedaled, "You don't have to accept, of course. It was just an offer."

All the way to Adrestia, she wondered what he meant by that. Once they arrived, Owain scuttled past Advisor Crebbin, almost whacking him into the wall accidentally, and into the apparatus room.

When Advisor Crebbin recovered but clearly taken aback, Ferdinand shared his expression, but Dorothea gave him a small smile. "I don't seem so bad now, do I?"

Advisor Crebbin dusted off his robes and huffed as he left. Ferdinand sighed. "He is going to have to get used to you. It is not like you are leaving anytime soon. Besides, you might even move in here permanently and he will have to serve you."

Dorothea snorted. "Yeah. Right. That'll be ironic."

Bernadetta wasn't convinced. "He'll just pawn off that duty to someone else."

They followed Owain into the apparatus room, who was savoring his time with the object. "So exciting!" He turned the machine on, but, predictably, since the Twilighters were banished from the realm, no results were found. Owain snapped his fingers and a purple miasma shot out of his fingertips. He speedily snapped over until a huge cloud of miasma flooded the room.

Shiro clapped. "Whoa! He can do a killer floor show!"

The machine lit up wildly as it detected the magical phenomena. Owain caught its magic and inspected it more closely. "Huh." He shot a lightning bolt at it, but the spell simply went through it. He formed a light spell in one hand and an ice in the other, and fused them together into one. It formed the same color as the machine's magic and was met with limited success. The color matched, but the consistency was a little off.

Owain hopped right in front of the machine and toggled with the controls. Linhardt lazily called out, "Do be careful not to break it."

Owain didn't acknowledge the request and continued fiddling until he found the code that powered the magic. He copied it and automatically replicated it. "That was quick."

Linhardt shrugged. "Not bad. You have the makings of a true genius under all that fluff. I was wrong about you."

Owain defended, "Genius dressed in fluff is better than naked genius!"