Luciform

by TheRoseShadow21

This is a year that, for Kawaakari Academy, should be brighter than most. But the threads of change have been woven in the background for a long time, and the tapestry is almost complete. Here is the story of some of the students caught up in it, and how they face the resulting darkness. Fic combining various KACB entries. AU, rated M for difficult themes. Cross-posted to AO3.

21. 3-2

Once they had all gathered in the common room, acquired snacks, all the curtains had been pulled and enough lights switched on, the entire group looked to Sado. Despite his solid, steady exterior, Quiet knew that he too was feeling grief. One way or another, everybody was, the waves of emotion so strong that he had to block some of it just to carry on. Usually, he could manage to juggle his emotions and others, but not ever in a situation like this.

Then again, it was not as if he had been in a situation like this before. None of them really had.

"Right, well," Sado cleared his throat. "I don't think we need to rehash the exact ins and outs of what happened in the forest since we've all heard it by now. We do need to know as much as we can about this…Icicle?"

"Frost." Cookie corrected.

Quiet gave her a sideways look-her emotions were all over the place, he could barely pick out one from the swirling mess he was sensing from her. She sat up straight in the armchair that had been pulled out for her, surrounded by cushions and tightly holding onto a plate piled high with snacks that she was steadily working through. The clothes she wore were unfamiliar, and made her look as if she had stepped out of another time. And of course, there was the glow of her skin, unearthly and unsettling.

"Right," Sado said after a beat of emotion. "This Frost. Then we need to know more about what happened with you, and then finally we need to know about how all of you came back."

With this he gestured over at the six students clustered together in the corner, though they did not seem particularly together. The exception to this was perhaps Delilah and Eve, though more on the side of the former than the latter. Still, looking at them now, he got none of that sense of a unit that he'd been led to believe was a part of who they had been. He could see why they may have once been described as frecht, but looking as pale and hollowed out as they did, dressed in the mismatch of clothes that many of the other people in the room had donated to them, they looked more lost than anything.

"Two of those things are the same thing." Cookie objected around a mouthful of apple.

"Then why don't you start, Cookie?" Julka said hurriedly, in the way of someone trying to prevent an argument.

Cookie swallowed, then spoke:

"Gladly. But first, one thing. You don't need to call me Cookie anymore, I have a name I want to be remembered by when I'm gone. That name is Elly De Aranka."

A swelling of sadness, and then a flash of pride, only for both to settle into something that was more simmering. Quiet studied her carefully, from the unusual clothes to the bandaged feet right to the few specks of dirt still under her fingernails. It took him a moment to place the simmering as regret.

"Okay, so I need to explain," Cookie (or Elly?) said without anyone asking. "Robyn, this is important for you to know."

Robyn's eyes widened as her head jerked towards Cookie. Quiet wondered why Cookie had not addressed Sasi, before it occurred to him that she probably didn't know-it had really only been moments ago that Sasi had come back in carrying her, after all.

"Frost's knife was enchanted with something that's called a Death Enchantment." Cookie continued.

"I wasn't given a specific explanation, but essentially that knife was meant to kill as long as it struck, no matter what. I'm assuming that it's as long as it broke the skin, but I suspect it's possible that it would have worked as long as it touched. Either way that's a moot point considering she stabbed me right in the chest but anyway. Anyway.

"I'm intact, as you have noticed…or maybe not noticed, since this tunic is red, but whatever. I'm not healed though, I've just been bought time. I wasn't given a specific explanation of that, either, but basically the knife wound's going to kill me, just not now. Unless we manage to find out a way to reverse it. Until then, or until my bought time runs out though, I'm here to try and sort out this mess, I guess. Oh, yeah, that's why I'm all glowy, by the way. I think.

"And that's why I have a new name now as well. I won't be able to change it as I would have if I was able to grow up, so when I'm buried and sent to the Other Side it will be with the name I was given at birth. My parents may even deign to mention my nickname at the funeral rites. But I want to be remembered by the name I have chosen."

"And that's Elly De Aranka?" Robyn asked. "Not Cookie anymore, but Elly."

"Exactly."

"Good."

Julka's reaction was immediate and unexpected, and she blushed slightly at the attention it garnered her even as she added:

"Just, I have known you as Cookie for a long time, so forgive me if I mess up from time to time."

"Why 'Elly De Aranka', though?" Ezra asked curiously.

"That's not important, I'll explain that later." Elly said dismissively. "Anyway, Robyn, the relation to you is that you couldn't have done anything about it, so don't feel bad about this situation."

"I…um, sure."

Quiet suspected that Elly could tell that this was easier said than done. Robyn looked better than she had before, but she too was pale and hollowed out and Quiet had seen how Jun and some of the other Gardening Club members had surrounded her with cushions, too.

"If that girl's knife had this Death Enchantment thing then we had a lucky escape then, didn't we?" Aerin said.

"Yes, we did. Damn, dammit. That explains why she was really trying to get at us with the knife." Ruby said.

Elly gave them a sharp look, frowning.

"She tried to kill you, too?"

"She succeeded."

Elly's frown only turned deeper at Sasi's words, but after a moment or so something seemed to click and she sat up straight.

"That's…that's why the sword, why you were there…..oh. Oh."

Elly's eyes widened. Sasi stared at her, and then looked away. After staring at the older girl for a little while longer, confusion bubbling in her, Elly shook her head and steeled herself.

"So, Frost. She's an enchanter, and she's working to try and bring Kagami back into the world. She and someone else. One person, a group? I don't know, but she's trying to do that and additionally she is using necromantic magic to do that."

More than a few of them gasped by how freely Elly uttered the Forgotten Goddess's name, but this seemed to have sparked something in a few others, including Robyn who sat up slightly.

"The flowers!" she exclaimed.

"The flowers." Elly confirmed.

She then went on to briefly explain that Frost was apparently using flowers grown from the missing girls in order to try and bring her back to life. Specifically, to bring her 'back to full power' so that she could 'take the revenge due to her'. Frost was, apparently, also responsible for the exposure of Sasi's and her friends' statuses as mirror sisters, though this did not seem as immediately relevant as general loitering and the likelihood that she had taken things from the greenhouse and shed.

"Now I'm thinking about it, we have been short on compost and stuff that we shouldn't have been short on…" Jun said thoughtfully. "So you think she's using it to maintain the plants she's been growing off of the girls?"

"That's about the sum of it, yeah."

"Okay, but I have a question," Angela said. "Why is this Frost-sempai trying to bring back the Forgotten Goddess?"

"Revenge. She believes that it was not Kagami who was ever evil, but Akari who betrayed her and then sealed her away to die. So now she wants to bring her back to 'usher in a new era' which is basically shorthand for 'end the world' but yeah."

For a long time, nobody had anything to say to that. All of them looked at each other, fear and horror skittering across the room. Eventually though, Theo put his hand up as though they were in class.

"Which one do you think is true?"

"Neither," Elly snorted. "I don't think either of them are real at all. But I've been told that the answer isn't so 'simple' as one or the other being true, which leads me to suspect that if the Goddesses did exist the truth is somewhere in between what we have always been told and what Frost herself believes."

It suddenly occurred to Quiet that Elly had not told them where she had been for the past day or so, nor who it was she had been with, who it was who had bought her time. However, before he could ask this, the PA system suddenly came to life, while a number of phones started to ping or blare:

"Attention all students, attention all students. Now that the eclipse has cleared and we have had a chance to review the situation, we can confirm that we will now be moving into a Stage 1 lockdown. You may move freely between buildings and on the grounds but will not currently be able to leave the school. The balance is still fragile and we are doing all we are able to in order to contain the situation and ensure that the effects do not ripple out into the wider world. To do this, we will be asking for your help and cooperation further down the line, as the fate of the world is at stake. Professor Rynacel has sent around an important letter which will explain some of the vital details that you need to know.

"We appreciate that this will be unsettling to the majority of you, but we ask for you to exercise your discretion and make sure that the situation is not discussed with anybody outside the walls of the school. Your families and loved ones are being updated about the circumstances, and we can assure you that Kawaakari Academy is currently the safest place for all of you to be until the situation is contained. In the meantime we ask you to be prepared and vigilant as the coming days are likely to test everything you have learnt in your time here. However, if we did not think that you were capable we would not be asking this of you."

The announcement ended there, and everyone in the room just stared at each other. A few people gathered reached out across the table to acquire snacks. Ani, after grabbing a bunch of various meaty things, retreated to a corner and swiftly transformed into a dragon to enjoy them while Ezra added what looked like the fifth or sixth cheese sandwich to his own plate, only for Haze to snatch one. Quiet vaguely considered picking something up himself, but decided instead to start reading the letter. With every line, he felt everything becoming more and more uncertain.

"Oh, you cannot be bloody serious!"

Quiet startled as he looked up to see Elly glaring at her phone.

"You're seriously, seriously, seriously trying to tell me that our headmaster was the Goddess Akari all along? I…what?"

The annoyance that radiated off of the small glowing girl was practically making her vibrate, her scowl comical. Quiet had to hold back from laughing, though looking back down at the copy of the letter on his phone was enough to sober him.

"But the Goddesses are meant to be dead, right?" Kay spoke up. "I mean, that's what has always been said."

"Yes, and that's a lie, which is the entire point of this letter!" Elly said.

"It sounds like they've not been dead so much as they've lost a body….or a base, at least." Robyn said thoughtfully.

"No, the Goddess Akari has a body." Quiet corrected. "That of our headmaster. It is Goddess Kagami that didn't."

"So Frost is trying to make a body for the Goddess Kagami to return into to match her?" Mist asked. "With dead students? That doesn't seem right."

"No, it doesn't, because they say that her presence coming back into the world shouldn't be a problem…then again, that itself doesn't make any sense either." Theo mused. "I mean, it is clear that our world history is not what we've been told it has been all this time, and the Headmaster has been partially responsible for that, assuming he's been the Goddess all this time. But this is…interesting. I mean it's also confusing, but it's interesting to think about what truth there might be amongst the lies, and what's just a fabrication altogether."

"Of course it's interesting to you." Ezra teased affectionately. "You're really going to get your teeth stuck into figuring all this out."

"That might be worth you doing once you leave here, actually," Aerin said. "Further research on the stuff in this letter so that we've got a better understanding of the background and how it fits in with all this mess. We'd be here all day if we tried to hash every little detail out now, we've still got the other stuff to talk about."

"Yes, that makes sense!" Julka exclaimed. "We'll have to meet up more anyway, so perhaps Theo-kouhai could find out more about the historical sides and present the information to us another time."

"We'll do it together." A said immediately.

She gestured to herself, Theo, Ezra and Haze as a group. Quiet studied them, the way they were sitting so closely together with Ezra on a beanbag right by Theo's feet, the way Haze and A flanked Theo. Something about their formation gave him pause, but he couldn't say what it was that worried him, or even why. Right from the beginning they had always been a unit, and they had been anxious about separation for a while, but this was…just something different.

But also, probably not the most worrying thing right now…

"Hmmmm," Elly was still glaring at her phone. "I suppose that this stuff about the entity kinda explains why Headmaster Cher looked so bad there."

Ah, there's my cue.

"Cookie-no, sorry, Elly-where were you after you got hurt?"

Elly looked up sharply at Quiet, and then slowly put down her phone.

"I don't know where exactly, but I was in a bedroom somewhere. I think it was theirs. The Headmaster and Headmistress. They were the ones who bought me up there-"

"Which fits, considering she was the one who carried you away." Ruby remarked.

Elly narrowed her eyes at the interruption and then continued:

"The Headmaster looked like….well, I don't know how to explain it, really. He looked really, really ill. Sort of like a fever but more. The Headmistress didn't explain what was happening with him-she didn't explain much of anything, really. You know how really old immortal beings are, always have to be stupidly cryptic. But she did indicate that there was stuff going on with the balance of magic in the world, and that she thought that we would be the key to sorting that. Or that we'd be able to help, at least and that was why she has bought me time."

"But only you."

Elly looked over at Sasi.

"She didn't say as much, but I suspect that if she had thought it even slightly possible to save him too, then she would have."

Quiet wondered what Tricker would have thought about what was happening, how he would have felt to be saved but only temporarily. Quiet would have been glad just to be able to hold onto his brave and vulnerable friend for that little bit longer, but part of him wondered if Tricker didn't prefer things this way, to have either died outright or lived outright rather than being somewhere in between. In a similar way, he didn't know whether it was better that there had been no chance, or worse.

"So, did she say anything else?" Quiet decided to ask.

Something flickered in Elly, again utterly inscrutable.

"No, not really. Like I said, cryptic crap."

"Then I suppose now might be a good time to move onto what happened with Ariadne's black and gold people. Howl, did you want to talk now?" Sado asked.

Howl, sitting cross-legged on the floor near an old bookshelf, looked up at Sado and everyone clustered around the table and stared silently before shaking his head. Disappointment pulsed from around the room, but Quiet doubted that anybody was really surprised. Apart from when they'd first come down the mountain and he'd hoarsely said 'ask them', Howl hadn't said a word since returning.

"Right, well…"

"You want to know how it was we got there, what we were doing there and how Ariadne fits into this, right?" Eve asked briskly. "Well…"

Eve told the story, speaking fast and barely pausing for breath and yet somehow managing to sound austere and dispassionate. She didn't flinch from some of the more horrible details, but did not embellish them either. It was almost as if she didn't really care about what had happened. The intent that rose off of her told Quiet a different story though-her mind was churning and rumbling, just like storm clouds. Sorrow like lightening when she talked about Ariadne, and how she'd claimed that she was sacrificing herself not because she had loved them but because she could have loved them, how she'd apparently wanted them to have a second chance. Eventually though, Eve ran out of words and she stopped, stepping forward to get a glass of water from the table, and Maria approached Ariadne's friends with a bag.

"We…well, she asked us to give you all her things. The ones that she took with her to try and charm Oura-san under the assumption that they are the mountain spirit."

"I highly doubt they are." Elly muttered, going ignored.

"She also said…." Maria had to stop and take a breath. "She said that she wanted you to know that she loved you, and still would while she breathed and that she was sorry about this. She wanted to know if you'd forgive her and she also asked us to…to remember her. I suppose that would be a request for you, too. To remember her."

"How could we forget?" Kura asked. "Oh man, oh Addie. Addie."

Kura was the one to grab the bag, and after Char and Wendy pushed aside their collection of snacks he spilled out an assortment of sparkly objects, which the friends immediately started to sort through. Everybody else watched, breath held as if this was a last rite of some sort. At first, the students were almost silent as they lifted up objects and examined them, but then Angela grabbed ahold of a bottle of nail-polish.

"Oh, look at this!" she exclaimed. "I was wondering where this had gone!"

Almost as soon as she had said this, her face crumpled and she began to cry, her sobs loud and inelegant. Kay and Rena put down the things they had been holding and hugged her tightly, both of them looking close to tears as well, and then the rest clustered around those three. Kura, who had put on the pair of bright pink deely-boppers and then charm bracelet that had been amongst the items, turned and stared at Howl.

"Howl, man, please. What happened? How come you didn't manage to reach there with her?" he pleaded. "It wouldn't have happened if you were with her, right?"

Howl blinked, dead-eyed. Quiet scrutinised him, sensing only cold hollowness, and not in the way of mint. A hard coldness, overlaying other feelings well enough that Quiet couldn't get any sense of them. He wasn't expecting that Howl would answer at all, but he did:

"Perhaps if you had pressed a little harder, then none of this would have happened."

His voice's tone was as dead as his gaze, and yet there was something about it that made everyone flinch, Kura worse of all. Indeed, the poor boy seemed to have gone grey as he gave Howl an owl-in-the-daylight type of stare.

"I…that's….that is….actually, you know what, I think I'm just gonna go somewhere that's, um. Not here."

And before anybody could stop him, that was exactly what Kura did. His friends stared at each other for a moment, before Rena peeled away from Angela, beckoned to Mikelz and then went to (presumably) chase after him. Howl didn't react to this, but before anybody could address this Angela, still weeping, asked:

"Could we…could we not go there and get her back, somehow?"

"And what would you do, if this Oura creature demanded you stay in order to free her?" Asuka demanded. "Don't you see that it would be a stupid thing to do?!"

"It would not be safe," Will jumped in soothingly. "And we do not want to lose more of you, you're important to us. Right?"

Will looked at his friends, who chimed in with agreement. As others questioned the former Elite Chess Club more about their situation, Quiet let his gaze linger on them, particularly upon Hiraga.

"We're sorry," he heard Delilah say. "We're really, really sorry."

"I think they were separated involuntarily-probably by a fog or something," Eve said. "I highly doubt that Howl could be considered culpable."

"I don't think anybody really is," Starri added. "Not once you put aside the, um, game thing. Let's not blame each other, alright? Let's just think about what we're going to do now."

"Well, I'm going to get my team and some of the Plant and Earth kids to help me figure out something relating to necromantic plant magic. " Elly said grandly. "What Frost is doing may not be the first instance of it."

"M-my team?" Mist spluttered.

"What do you mean?" Julka asked at the same time.

"Just a quick summary," Aerin interrupted. "Then like with those four, you lot can go off and figure it out and then come back."

"You really want this meeting to be over, huh?" Sado remarked.

"It's a complete information overload!" Aerin snapped.

This, Quiet could sympathise with.

"Who else is coming with us, Elly?" Robyn asked quickly.

"Well, your plant boy can come, and like, the other co-re-founders of the Gardening Club. Too many people will be too many people."

"Co-re-founders?" Mist asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's the most accurate description!" Elly protested. "Anyway, all I'll tell you for now is that it has something to do with the Angel Tree."

Murmurs went around the room, but Sado and Aerin cut it short, essentially instructing everyone else to keep their eyes and ears peeled for anything that could be of any use to their situation. Then, though some stayed behind in order to tidy up, they were dismissed.

…

Once they'd completely finished tidying, Hiraga decided that, just for a little moment at least, he could leave his friends. There was someone else he needed to see after all.

"Quiet, wait!"

Quiet looked over his shoulder and then turned around fully.

"Hira."

"Hi, um….hi."

Saying I missed you sounded silly even in his own head, even though it was true. After all, he could have done this at any time, and he'd tried yesterday, hadn't he? Even so, as he stuck his hands in his pockets and waited, that was the only thing he could think.

And apparently, he was thinking it hard enough for Quiet to pick up on because his curious expression softened out, and he pointed to a window seat nearby before going to sit in it. Hiraga went over and squished up in the other end. With both of them being fairly tall, their feet touched and their knees almost touched.

"Did you manage in the eclipse alright?" Quiet asked.

"As well as I could have. I…"

He stopped, unable to say anymore. Not just because it didn't feel right to share what had happened with someone else, even if that someone else was Quiet, but because he just couldn't. Just thinking about the odd feeling that had made him wake up only to see that the bed opposite him was empty. He hadn't even been able to feel relieved when they'd all found Will in Room 777, and not even when he'd given the promised scolding that morning. All he could think of was that feeling, that loss of breath as if he'd been hit right in the center of his chest, the realisation that one day he could wake up in a world where his important people no longer existed.

"I'm sorry," he apologised eventually. "I can't…it's not so much I don't want to tell you it's just…"

Quiet nodded, apparently considering this:

"It's alright. I think I get it. I could tell that something had happened."

"Yeah, of course you could. But yeah…yesterday was cut short so I just wanted to see you. That's all. And I wanted to properly ask-are you alright?"

"I….me?"

Hiraga rolled his eyes.

"Yes, you."

"Well now, I mean…"

Quiet paused to study him before briefly looking out of the window.

"It's the same as you, really. I'm as well as I can be. It's a strange situation but I'm managing."

"Don't do that."

Hiraga wasn't sure who it was that was more surprised by him saying this, Quiet turning back to stare with wide eyes or himself, suddenly imagining the state their room had been in when they'd finally found Will. And the look of him-Hiraga had realised when he'd seen it that this, this was it. This was what one of his closest friends felt finally displayed on the outside, but it shouldn't have been like that at all.

I don't want someone else important to me to break.

"Don't do that, please. We all get that often enough with Will, this brush off. For crying out loud, your best friend, your roommate, just died. Don't go bottling it up for my sake. I want to know what you're feeling."

Quiet's eyes widened and he scrutinised him for a moment. Hiraga thought that he wouldn't answer at all, but then eventually he said:

"To be honest, it's all like soup."

"I….wait, like soup?"

"Yeah, you know," Quiet made a stirring gesture. "Everything all mixed up together and sort of swirling around. Confusing."

Hiraga blinked, still not entirely sure that he understood:

"Are you saying soup is confusing?"

"It can be, especially when it's got like…you know, things in it. Dumplings, cubes of vegetable or whatever."

"If it's got things in it, that's a stew-no wonder you're confused."

Unexpectedly, Quiet laughed and Hiraga narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion. Quiet chuckled again, but his expression quickly became pensive as he looked away, leaning his head against the window and looking at the sky. Hiraga did not look at it-it was bad enough knowing that things were getting worse and only going to carry on that way without having to stare at that unnatural colour.

That, and he'd rather be looking at Quiet any day.

"Your mind is the most fascinating place, it really is."

Quiet glanced back at him thoughtfully and then gave a soft, sad smile.

"Thanks. I am alright, though. Well, I mean, mostly alright. I….like I said, it's all really confusing. And we're just stuck and waiting for the next thing to happen, aren't we? The professors may have said that they'll be relying on us but if anything, we're at their mercy. And at the mercy of whatever all of this really is."

"Yeah."

This wasn't enough, Hiraga knew. He needed to at least say something and not just rely on the things that Quiet could pick up. I have to try though…

"It's terrifying. I'm terrified."

Well, that was articulate of me. But Quiet didn't seem to mind.

"You don't have to talk, if you don't want to. Maybe a distraction could work, at least for a little while?"

"Hmmm…"

Hiraga pretended to consider this, and then smiled wickedly.

"What sort of distraction…?"

"Well…"

"How about I intend it at you and you can tell me what you think? And then…then we can take it from there?"

…

Later, in Quiet's room, Hiraga shared a little of what had happened. Not every little detail, not anything that would leave Will more fragile than he was already. But he did mention the cranes that Will had been looking for. So, as if they were children they sat cross-legged on the floor, squinting at videos on Hiraga's phone and cutting bits of paper into squares before figuring out how to make the 'circle of friends'.

The end result was clumsy-looking and a bit crumpled, but they took it up to Room 777. The door didn't reveal itself to Quiet so he couldn't go in, but after making agreements to meet for breakfast the next day Hiraga went in on his own and then went straight around the counter, ignoring the questions from the others. It took him a while, but he eventually found a hook on a shelf and hung it from there before turning around and smiling at them all.

And when Will smiled back, he knew that this had been the right thing to do.

…

If Sasi could not visit the burial mound, then she thought that the tree would be the next best thing. Asuka had tried to catch her again once the meeting had been finished but she'd been faster and had managed to evade her. Her phone kept vibrating annoyingly in her jeans pocket but just as she had been doing all this time, she ignored it. The tree was out in the open, after all. They could just come and see her if they were that worried.

Now that the eclipse was over, some students had come out to mess around in the snow, most of them either making snow-sculptures or having snowball fights, such as Ariadne's friends (minus the three who had left the meeting early). Snowballs whizzed by her and some came close to hitting, but she just ignored those and kept going until she reached the area of the school grounds where that tree was. Here, there was a proper snowball fight going on, with the involved students seeming to be in teams if their yelling was anything to go by, directing each other to go up into trees and try and aim at unsuspecting rivals from there. Even this wasn't important to Sasi though, not something about the direction of a particular snowball whizzing past made her look up and see who it was that had thrown it.

There was someone in her tree.

No, there was someone in their tree. Some random kid, grinning underneath a stupid hat as they scraped snow off of the branches and made more snowballs, throwing them down rapidly. Smiling and laughing, as if this was just any other tree, as if it wasn't their tree.

"Get out from there!" she called up.

"H-huh?"

"Get out of this tree, now!"

"What? Why?"

"Get out," Sasi growled. "Or I'm coming and pulling you out."

"But I'm-heeeeey!"

The student spluttered as a snowball hit them in the face. Coughing, they made a rude gesture towards another tree and then glared down at Sasi.

"Yooo, what's going on?"

Sasi didn't look away from the interloper in the tree, but did note that some of the snowball fighters on the ground had come to see what was going on.

"Wait, she's one of them, one of the mirror sisters!" one of these new arrivals said.

"Woah, wait, really?"

"Ooooh, what're you gonna do then? Strike us down?" the one in the tree teased.

Sasi simply launched herself at the tree and began to climb up, heedless of the snow and how it made everything colder and wetter, harder to hold onto as she climbed. Feeling someone grab her legs she kicked out until she connected with bone, hearing cries of pain but not caring about them as she got further up into the branches, closer to the student whose sneers turned into horror as they attempted to scramble down. She didn't look at them or listen to them, simply climbing up further and further until she was in the spot where she had always sat.

"Oh, what's all this?"

Surprised by this new voice and how it stopped the noise down below, Sasi looked down to see Cain approaching the tree and the group of students looking up at them.

"Sh-she kicked us! She was gonna pull Renzo out of the tree!" one kid with a bleeding nose complained.

"Oh? How come?"

"How would we know? She's a mirror sister, they're all crazy!"

"Crazy never bothered me." Cain said, shrugging.

"You should get away, quickly, before she comes and tries to….bury you or something!"

"I'll take my chances, thanks."

The group of students looked at Cain suspiciously. The one who had been in the tree shot a glare up at Sasi, who stared back impassively until they flinched and turned away.

"C'mon, let's go."

Grumbling, the group did indeed go away, heading back across the snow. Cain seemed to be watching them go, but then he turned to look up at Sasi.

"Were you following me?" Sasi demanded before Cain could ask anything.

"Maybe."

Sasi narrowed her eyes at him and he just stared up at her, unflinching. She stared back, waiting for him to back down, but he didn't. Instead, after a moment he asked:

"What's so special about that tree?"

"That's none of your buisness."

"But…?"

"…"

She didn't know how he knew, but he was right. She had been about to say something else, though she wasn't even sure why she had been going to. It was not as if this person meant anything to her. But then again, his world and that of his group had also been ripped out from under their feet, hadn't it?

"Climb up into another tree and you'll see. It's quiet."

Cain raised an eyebrow at her, and she turned away, settling back into the branches and looking out at the sky. There, now I've said it, hopefully now I can be left alone. The sheer vast blackness of the sky was intimidating, but it looked how she felt and there was something comforting about that too.

The main thing though was that it was quiet.

Time seemed to disappear for her as she sat there, surrounded only by the unnatural sky and the whistle of the wind. Sometimes, memories flitted through her mind but otherwise she did not think at all. Not even a sudden burst of rain, brief and light, shook her. Eventually though, she started to feel stiff and she had to adjust her position briefly. As she did, she glanced over to another nearby tree and saw that Cain was sitting there, also staring out into the distance. Although he was gripping tightly to the branch, clearly unused to sitting in a tree, he too looked far away. As if he was in the middle of pain himself.

I wonder, is that how I look right now, too?

A sudden wetness on her cheeks made her think it had started to rain again, but when she held her hand out there was no wetness. She put her hand to her face, touched her eyes, and then realised that actually, she was weeping. She sucked in a breath, as though the tears would return to inside of her too, but they insisted on rolling down her face, dropping off onto her cloak. They kept rolling and rolling and rolling as she looked away from Cain, back into the sky. The tears were not going away, no matter what she tried to do.

And so eventually, she gave into them.

…

Their new meeting place was Elly's room for no other reason apart from the fact she missed the cat. Indeed, it seemed like Milo had missed her too, for the moment Elly burst through the door the cat looked up from where he was sitting on the pillow and immediately jumped down, allowing Elly to scoop him up and hug him and babble words of adoration. Watching them, Mist found her mind replaying memory upon memory of Negi doing the same and it made something sour churn deep in her centre.

I'm looking for you Negi, I promise. I am. Mist looked around, wondering where to sit. Julka sat on the edge of Elly's bed, watching the small girl and the cat with a mixture of affection and grief. Eventually though, she cleared her throat.

"Elly, where are the others sitting?"

Elly looked up, then put the cat down momentarily before getting up, scrutinising them all. When she got to Robyn she rolled her eyes heavily.

"You look closer to death than I am, take my desk chair." She ordered. "Do you need my blanket or anything?"

"No, no, I'm alright, really."

Admittedly, Mist didn't think that Robyn looked anywhere as near to death as Elly actually was, but she had to admit that the pretty necromancer did still look slightly ill, although she was overall steadier on her feet with some colour returned to her. Still, she clearly needed the (relative) comfort of the chair rather than the floor.

"Good. Julka, you're fine there….I guess Mist can sit there too if you really want, and I'm sure the rest of you can handle the floor."

"Thanks…"

Mist raised an eyebrow as Elly then went to grab A's desk chair and drag it to her own, pushing her desk chair away for Robyn. Mist decided to stay on the floor, but near to Elly's bed while the rest of them settled closer to the middle of the room, with Seraph and Jenna arranging the snacks they'd pilfered from the meeting while Yara took her hedgehog out from the pocket of her cardigan. Hold on a minute, when did she go to get that? Mist blinked, and found herself even more confused when Milo caught sight of the little hedgehog sitting on the carpet and plodded over. Yara watched protectively as the cat scrutinised the hedgehog before unexpectedly curling up around it.

"Oh!" Yara exclaimed. "They're gonna be friends!"

"Oooooh, they are! Hooray!" Seraph said cheerfully.

Mist rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile for a moment. Still, she was pleased when finally everyone had settled and Elly went straight into it.

"The Angel Tree was not grown from a seed or anything, it was grown from ashes. And those ashes came from a woman called Rielle, though sometimes she was known as Elly. She fought with our Headmaster and Headmistress and all of them in the Great War, and that was where she died. But the more significant thing is this: she was a mirror sister. And more than that, she was Professor Arianna's twin sister-and they grew up together. She was even engaged to Professor Kenta before she died."

The silence that followed was a pin-drop type of silence. One of the female Professors, having a twin sister that she lived with? And that many years ago? Mist couldn't wrap her head around it, but at the same time she realised that this provided a very neat answer as to why Professor Arianna had been particularly angry that day in the cafeteria.

"Um…Cookie, how do you know this anyway?" Julka asked eventually.

"Oh, I broke into Professor Shippa's personal library." Elly said almost cheerily.

"Professor Shippa's what now?" Jae asked.

"He has like a room that you can access from his classroom. Well not you as in us, but generally speaking. It's his own library with records of everything that's happened since Kawaakari, personal documents, all sorts of old books. But the door was sealed off with magic this year, to conceal it…except the non-magical students heard about it. Then I heard about it from them, visited the first time with a couple of them and then went once on my own. I…haven't been back since then."

"Why not?" Kyouki asked.

Yes, why not indeed? Mist was sure that Elly would never pass up any possible opportunity to explore any kind of secret library. Indeed, everybody was looking at her in surprise, but Elly didn't respond. Instead she briefly got off her chair to pick Milo up and pat him. The cat allowed this for a few seconds before vehemently protesting. Elly sighed, reluctantly let Milo go back to his prickly new friend and went to sit back down. Suddenly, she looked as if she was made of glass once again as she tucked her knees to her chest and looked out at them.

"The second and last time I went there was the same day that Lunar's body was left on the school grounds."

"Ohhh….oh damn." Seraph whistled.

"That, and when I tried again someone'd clearly put a stronger charm on the door so."

Elly shrugged, but the defiant gesture did nothing to mask her frailty.

"Anyway, anyway. They were close, Rielle and her sister, from what I could tell. They didn't have the same type of magic specialism-Rielle was a Plant and Earth magician. I'm not sure if she knew Professor Yanovi prior to their recruitment into the war efforts but it's fairly reasonable to assume they worked together closely. I don't know how, precisely, she met Professor Kenta either but they were serious. Like I said, they wanted to get married as soon as the war ended. I read love letters."

"You read love letters?" Jenna asked, raising an eyebrow. "This surprises me."

Elly pulled a face and was about to continue when Seraph suddenly gasped and pointed to Robyn and Jun. She garbled something through a mouthful of food, realised nobody could understand her and then swallowed before repeating:

"Oh my goodness it's you two!"

"I…what?" Jun looked utterly confused.

"You two are a plant and necromancy pair who are wildly in love, and so were they!"

"Um…."

"One of them ended up as a dead tree, Raffy, I don't think that's what they should be aspiring to." Jenna pointed out.

Seraph simply pulled a face at this, and Elly waved a hand exasperatedly at them.

"Oh, forget that! They had other comrades who died-I don't know much about them, beyond the fact that their names were Eita and Lowen. But what I do know is that Eita's ashes are actually in the river because he had an affinity with water while Lowen's are in the concrete of the central courtyard. As for Rielle, her ashes weren't meant to form the tree, they were meant to be scattered in the garden. Either way, the goal of all this wasn't just to commemorate them, but to make use of their magic in the creation of the school. Specifically, protecting. And I have a lot of notes about that which I managed to take that second time, which we can dig up because there's something there, something I know that's really important to this whole mess, something about the immortality, though they had a weird way of putting it-"

"Let's just focus on the tree now."

Mist was fascinated by all this, she really was. But they needed answers, they needed to find a way to get closer to saving Negi.

"Yes, fair. So, The Angel Tree has apparently proven to be a stronger protection than the ashes and the river, in an unexpected way. The tree isn't any particular existing species but seems to have some of the properties of others in combination with each other. They've never taken cuttings until now, but they've used fallen leaves in charms and things. And the South Wing has always had slightly less damage from Storm Moons because of her.

In any case, it's also been noted that the tree has and displays emotions, and that it seems to recognise the Professors and others. It…it likes music, it responds well to music."

"That fits," Jun said. "When we first took cuttings, the Angel Tree really didn't like it, but it's only humming to it that keeps it calm."

"Wait, should we be saying it or she?" Seraph wondered.

"Does the tree understand when you talk, then?" Julka asked, not answering Seraph's question.

"I…"

A few of the Gardening Club members looked at each other and eventually Yara answered.

"We…think so? Maybe? It's hard to tell, really. But we're fairly certain that it recognises us now, too."

"We get strong impressions in our mind of the emotions-pain, even," Jenna said. "Sometimes it's like sounds and sometimes it's just…feelings? Right through my skin, I feel it."

"Yeah, it's really, really unsettling," Jae said. "But it's also kinda nice when you sing or hum to it or the cuttings and it, she, whatever likes the song?"

"It is rather lovely," Robyn said. "And she likes it if you tell her about your day. I always felt like the tree was listening and found it all really interesting, and I had some suspicions about the tree but I assumed….well, not this, essentially."

"Rielle was outgoing and liked music, and she'd probably have been a counsellor if she had survived the Great War. Oh, and she wanted to be a mother."

Everybody glanced at Elly, surprised at how abruptly she said this. Indeed, the way she stared them all down following this statement made it quite hard for any of them to even respond. After a moment though, Mist decided to clear her throat and ask:

"Alright so that means we're pretty certain that this tree is…Rielle? Does that mean you can divine from her, Elly?"

Elly's face was a picture.

"You're asking me if I can divine from a tree? A tree?"

"I would not get her started on what you can and cannot divine from," Jun advised wryly. "It was bad enough when she was divining from Milo."

Elly whipped around to glare at him, and then turned back to Mist.

"And even if you get past that, the reason that she's a tree is because she's dead!"

"Right, yes."

Mist pretended not to be embarrassed by this oversight by turning to specifically look at Robyn:

"Then, Robyn, can you communicate with her?"

Robyn had sat up straighter in Elly's chair, looking a little healthier. She had taken a chocolate bar at some point, and she carefully finished chewing her mouthful before replying:

"I've been thinking about that while Coo-I mean, Elly, was telling us about Rielle. I think I might be able to, but it will be difficult. In the first place, it is safe to assume that it has been long enough that most of what remains of her is safely on the Other Side, and after more than three centuries it's not going to come back. But the parts of her within the tree, they don't have the same communicative capabilities as a human. Otherwise I think we would have noticed something other than what we've already done. Right?"

Jun and some of the other Gardening Club members nodded in agreement.

"And I think that if we were to directly try and communicate, we'd get…pictures, I guess? Sensations, things like that? And though I am sure she can understand us when we talk, I'm not sure to what extent."

"If it's sensations she communicates in, maybe we could use sensations to communicate with her? Or you could?" Julka suggested.

"Like what, though?" Robyn wondered.

"Emojis, maybe?" Seraph suggested.

Everybody turned to stare at her.

"And how, exactly," Elly asked after a long moment. "Do you suggest we teach the tree the concept of emojis?"

"We don't have time to teach the tree, do we? So that rules it out anyway, right?" Mist pointed out, sensing that this was a sure-fire way to lead Elly off on another tangent.

"Perhaps there is something that the two of you could do together?" Julka asked, pointing to both Elly and Robyn. "Robyn could use her ability to communicate with the dead to reach Rielle, then Cookie could divine from that? After all, her essence is that of a person even if she is in tree form, right?"

Robyn and Elly looked at each other.

"I think that could work, potentially-when you do a proper divination, what methods do you use?" Robyn asked.

"Various things, depending. When it's from an individual person, or being, I can use spells to pick up surface thoughts and direct them towards the questions I want answered. In Milo's case I had to probe further, and interpret his behaviour and…a whole bunch of stuff that there's no point getting into. I mean, I can also divine via flower petals-I use them like runes and tea-leaves, more or less. But I'm not sure that will apply here."

"We can discuss the specifics, but I think I'd be able to do something with that," Robyn said. "If you stay behind afterwards so we can figure it out, and maybe for now we can think about the practical details. Because I think we'll have to do it at the original tree for the best results, but well, the original Angel Tree is….where it is."

"It'll have to be at night then, won't it?" Jae asked. "Hardly anyone's gonna be wandering around at night…well, apart from all us, I mean."

"Yes, and the rest of us can keep watch along the corridor and stuff." Jun said.

"Yes, I'm fine with doing that." Mist said. "Are you, Julka?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Yeah."

"There we go then."

"I just have a question."

Yara looked a little bit concerned, and so Mist nodded encouragingly at her.

"Go on."

"I just…it seemed like the Professors didn't actually know until recently, about Headmaster Cher being the Goddess-"

"Allegedly being the Goddess." Elly interrupted, her expression even more comically annoyed than it had been before.

"So, um, how would Rielle know?" Yara asked after a pause. "They wouldn't have known in the war, right?"

"Huh….that's a good point. " Kyouki agreed. "Cookie, why are we trying to obtain information from a tree anyway?"

"The immortality pact is something that happened as a result of the war, but Rielle and Eita and Lowen were involved in that too. Then, think about the reasons for the Great War in the first place."

"'The only option left to Emperor Toshiaki in the efforts to stamp out the heresy'." Julka quoted.

Elly flashed a grin at her briefly before becoming contemplative:

"But what was that heresy? Mostly, what we hear is that people bought into the 'dark is evil' crap from both sides. But what that means isn't that those who believed in the dark were inherently evil but that they too believed that dark was evil and they were happy to use that as justification for the things they wanted to do. Something to believe in that fit their values."

Mist wasn't entirely sure that she understood this, but Elly didn't seem particularly concerned as she went on:

"But I am willing to bet that the story of Kagami actually being the victim was also one that circulated then, and that as many of those heretics were people trying to redress the balance. Trying to make things right. But of course they were stamped out as indiscriminately as the actually evil ones. "

"So…you think that Rielle might know more about that story?" Robyn checked.

"Exactly. She was on the frontlines, but not in any army but the most elite team. No matter what secrets Headmaster Cher as been keeping and what lies he told in the war efforts, she'll have learnt something. Plus, she was a mirror sister. No matter how unusual her acceptance amongst her family and friends was, she was still a threat and an outsider to the world. Such things give you an interesting perspective, right?"

Elly stopped then, but she clearly hadn't finished. Sighing, she looked down at her glowing hands for a moment before continuing in a lower voice:

"I know that we might not be able to gain that much from her, considering what's become of her. But we need to try. And she deserves to be heard. I want to hear her. So even if you think it's completely pointless, can we do it anyway?"

Nobody said anything for a moment, and then Julka got up and went over to Elly, kneeling in front of her and squeezing her hands.

"Of course we can…Elly."

Elly looked up at her and gave a brief smile. Julka squeezed again and then returned to the bed. Mist caught her eye and nodded and Julka smiled back before all of a sudden she frowned, clearly worried about something.

"What is it?" Mist asked her.

"I…um…."

Julka took a breath and looked over to the others.

"I…I didn't want to say this in the big meeting in front of everyone, because I really could be mistaken but…in the forest, when I was with Elly and we heard someone singing the Nymph's Requiem before I fainted."

"Yes…?"

Julka hesitated, wringing her hands as her gaze drifted over to Robyn for some reason.

"Before everything went black, I was sure that I recognised the voice, and I've been thinking about it now…and I'm still sure."

"Well, who is it then?" Jae asked.

"Yeah, spill!" Seraph said.

Julka took a breath, still staring at Robyn:

"I'm pretty sure it was Yoyo."

Okay, well that I was not expecting. Any colour that Robyn had gained seemed to drain away as she returned Julka's worried gaze.

"I…you think Yoyo-sempai was there? But…that can't be."

"Are you saying that Yoyo was potentially working with Frost?" Mist asked.

"I-I don't know, but I'm sure that she was the one singing and…well, the song immobilised the both of us. "

"Yes, the song certainly made it easier for Frost to use the Sleep Enchantment on you." Elly agreed.

"That's not…" Robyn trailed off, pressing a hand to her heart.

"There's the disappearing book as well-when we went to apologise, she claimed not to know what we were talking about because she already had it. That was a strange conversation." Jun said.

"It was, rather, but it's good that it found its way back to her, right? And the infirmary was really busy when you came over on that particular day-"

"Come to think of it, it was strange, that entire conversation we had with her about borrowing it? And the book disappeared just as you two found something useful." Julka said.

"Isn't Yoyo-sempai the kinda weird one? She's got dolls and crap?" Jenna asked.

"But that's…that's….that doesn't mean she did anything wrong!"

Robyn stood up and looked around at all of them, distraught.

"I know the dolls are a little strange, but they don't harm anyone and she keeps them in the back room so they don't unsettle anyone who may be genuinely scared! There's nothing wrong with it, it helps her and besides…shouldn't we all know better than to suspect anyone just because they're a little different to the rest of us? With Asuka-sempai's group and Ruby-sempai's group, even Ariadne's friends, shouldn't we know better?

"Besides, Yoyo-sempai is good. She started off in the infirmary as a volunteer before she found out about work placements! Even if she hadn't found out about that she'd have stayed and with everything that's been happening we've been carrying the infirmary's duties almost all by ourselves! And she's always been happy about covering for us with Night Patrol and whenever I've been helping you! And she's been trying hard to help-I've seen, with my own eyes. We've been working together and she…."

Robyn's voice shook and she tried a number of times to get it under control but only stuttered more, eventually having to give up, just standing there and staring at them, biting her lip and breathing heavily.

"Well," Elly said with a nonchalant shrug. "In all fairness anything against her is a great deal less solid than what we have against Frost."

"But you still think there's something wrong about her." Robyn murmured in a strained voice.

"I have a feeling, yes," Jun spoke up. "But it's only a feeling, so…"

When Robyn looked over at him, he reddened slightly, but then stood up and went over to take her hands.

"I'll give her a chance, because you admire her but also…just be careful. Please?"

Robyn bit her lip again, but then nodded before leaning into him. Jun let go of Robyn's hands and wrapped his arms around her instead. Mist was fine to just let them be for a moment, and the others seemed like they were too, but Elly just went on:

"Okay, once you two have finished your sappy moment, Robyn you stay so we can figure out our plan for tree communion and then….how's tonight after curfew for everyone to keep watch in the South Wing?"

"I…yeah, fine, I guess?" Kyouki said.

"Fine by me." Mist said.

"In that case, that's settled. You two, finish the sappy moment, and then the rest of you minus Robyn skedaddle."

…

Robyn felt exhaustion seep into her as she finally returned to her room. She thought about making sure she had everything already gathered, but as she sat in her chair to check her desk drawers, exhaustion swamped her. She definitely felt better than she had done the day before, but she still didn't feel fully herself.

She looked outside at the sky, noted how even the colours of the setting sun seemed darker as a result. Even the wind, when she'd been going from one building to another, even that had felt colder than before. The plants would surely be in trouble soon enough, if they weren't already. The Gardening Club were going to have their work cut out for them, and there was no question of her not pitching in, but she was weighed down by knowing that sooner or later she would have to be the necromancer on duty.

Especially if they're all right about Yoyo-sempai…

But that was a thought she just couldn't accept, not yet. She just couldn't. Yawning, she tried to push the thought out of her mind and reach for a bottle of water that was sitting on her desk but felt her eyelids become heavy and her body loose as she drifted into sleep.

And as she dozed, a part of her found herself back in the forest, under a night sky that sparkled as if in defiance of the horrors playing out beneath it. Even though the air was thick and cold, she walked and walked until she had crossed the line between the older trees and Aeternum proper, instinctively knowing that she was about to meet another dead girl, but not who. Well, if we are going in order of who disappeared then…

"Robyn! Oh, good, I did manage to reach you!"

"Hibi?"

Robyn stopped in her tracks and just stared at Hibi, too startled at the sight of her to even care about the heaviness of the atmosphere, the way it pressed down on her skin. Hibi was dressed in the same clothes that she had been in the evening that she'd gone missing, the rings still bright on her fingers. Her hair was mussed, with little leaves stuck in it and her throat…

Hibi laughed self-consciously and touched the vivid wound that slashed across, raising an eyebrow when her fingers came away sticky.

"Oh, yeah. This. I can't see what it looks like, of course, but…well. I knew you were a necromancer, but it took me a while to figure out how to find you. I'm not so used to being dead."

"Hibi," Robyn choked. "It's…you're not supposed to be used to it."

"Guess not, huh?" Hibi laughed. "Anyway, are you and Jun still together? On canoodling terms, I mean?"

"H-Hibi!"

"Sorry, sorry. What I really wanted to know though was, have any of the others come to you yet? Jan or Risu or Rain or Juu?"

Robyn shook her head.

"I was going to ask you about them."

"I don't know. They ran away, you see, when we saw the girl with that other one, but I was stupid and I went forward to try and help and…"

"I…Hibi, I'm sorry. Can you start from the beginning? Quickly, I don't know how much time we'll have."

"Wait, I can't just keep you here? I mean, not like that but-right, right, sorry. Let me…"

Hibi shuddered, sitting down on the ground. After a moment, Robyn decided to do the same and then Hibi started.

"I dropped my purse somewhere on the path, so we went back to get it and then it went dark…completely dark. And when we used magic to light our way again we weren't in the forest itself anymore. It was just darkness around us. We thought, maybe we stumbled too far, right? So we decided to start walking and then…well, the dark cleared but it was night so that wasn't much help. And we were here, more or less."

Hibi paused to gesture around her.

"And we saw that girl, the first one that went missing last year? We saw her on the ground and she was being hurt by another girl. It was really weird, it was like the girl was trying to grow flowers out of the hurt one? But she was in pain, you could tell. And she was trying to hold on, but she saw us. We hid behind a tree, but she saw us and looked right at us and the girl…I mean, the one who was hurting her, she looked at us and damn, she was terrifying. Not because she was holding a blood-stained knife or whatever but her face it was blank. Like, so blank. She was really pale too, and had white hair-"

"Frost?" Robyn interrupted.

"You know who she is? I guess Frost is fitting, she looked kinda wintery, all white and blue you know? Anyway, not the point. I told the others to run away but then I ran towards them, I guess I was going to try and fight the wintery girl and help the other one? But, well, you can see that didn't work."

Hibi looked down at her lap.

"I remember her looking at me, and some sort of spell…it made me feel tingly. But then she was disappointed because she said that I 'don't have flowers within' me or something. I don't think she was talking to me though. I don't know. My body's under the ground somewhere, but I don't know where? Am I supposed to know where? I don't really, it's just somewhere here and…"

"Shhh, shhh. It's okay, you don't need to know. We can find you, we'll get you sent over."

"But my friends-I can't sense them here, I don't know if I'm supposed to. But the other three from last year are here, I know. I can tell. I guess now I am dead, I can also sense other dead things. Fun perk, huh?"

Robyn sucked in a breath at this revelation:

"You can sense them? Have you been able to communicate with them at all?"

Hibi shook her head.

"I hear one of them…I don't know which one…she keeps trying to find someone called Mist. She just wants this Mist, keeps crying for her so she's not listening to anything else. Whoever she is, she must be precious to this one. The other two…like I said, haven't quite figured out the whole dead thing yet so I think they know I'm here too but we can't reach each other. But you need to find them, or find that Frost girl. They're dead but their bodies are still…I think their bodies are still not fully used yet. You need…."

Hibi's paused and she looked over her shoulder cautiously. Robyn tensed, not understanding at first until she sensed a presence. A few seconds later, another figure appeared from the trees. Small with huge eyes and multiple love-in-a-mist flowers threaded all through her dark hair. Angelically adorable, but the moment she laid eyes on Robyn and Hibi something mischievous sparkled briefly before it faded out.

"Are you two dead, too?" Amuri asked.

"I am, she isn't." Hibi answered.

"Ohhhh, you must be a necromancer!" Amuri exclaimed. "Say, do you know who I am?"

Robyn was not used to being able to speak to more than one dead person at a time, so all she could do was nod. Amuri grinned briefly.

"Good to know I'm still remembered. You're not the one who's been tugging at my edges though, have you?"

"No, that was me." Hibi said sheepishly. "I'm Hibi. You're my sempai. You're hers, too, actually. Her name is Robyn."

Amuri considered her for a moment, then turned back to Robyn, leaning forward. Any traces of the cheekiness she'd had in life were gone, her face was completely grim as she stared at Robyn intently.

"Do you know Julka? If you don't, you need to find her and make sure she stops looking for me. I know she wouldn't have listened before but she needs to stop. The one who did this to me-"

"Frost killed you too, right? That's what I told Robyn."

Amuri raised an eyebrow at the interruption from Hibi but then continued:

"You need to tell her to stop because Frost is dangerous, really dangerous. She's…she's got it wrong. Frost is right about the way things started in the Ancient Times but she's got the rest wrong and…that's worse. That's…"

"What do you mean, Amuri-sempai?"

"I…listen to the song of the forest. Really listen to it, the memories of it. Frost has got it wrong, she's taken it the wrong way, this….it's…."

A wind started to whip up, shrieking and wailing, a sign Robyn recognised as the end. Hibi gasped, clung to Amuri and tried to reach out to Robyn. Terrified.

"It's time already? I…I wanted….I wanted…I just…don't go yet!"

"It's okay, you can reach me again. You know how now and now you two can stay together, okay? You can stay-"

Robyn did not get to see if Amuri particularly objected to staying with Hibi, for it was there the dream ended. Hibi, Amuri and the forest all disappeared with the wind continually rising and then Robyn woke up so violently she fell out of the chair, landing on her knees. Shaking, she curled herself up into a ball for a moment as she tried to still her body. Apart from this though, she could barely move at the thought of this, even though she knew that she had to tell. She had to tell the others. Had to tell Mist.

Oh, Goddess, what is that news going to do to her though? Mist would want to reach out for Negi but wouldn't be able to, just as Negi seemed only to want Mist. Robyn knew that there were ways to allow the dead to have brief communications with those who weren't necromancers, but that had never been her speciality, she had never yet learnt how. Professor Kenta would probably know how, and she still had to see him about the honey water anyway, but surely she couldn't bother him with this, too? Not with everything else going on.

And then there's the tree. With that thought, Robyn finally managed to get herself up, dusting down her clothes carefully and actually managing to open the bottle and drink some water. She needed to make sure she had what she needed, then get some food in her before waiting for curfew to fall. That first, she told herself, see what we can find out from Rielle first.

Then, she would have to decide when and how to break the news she'd just been given.

…

Once curfew fell, Robyn quickly changed into her ceremonial robes, the fabric feeling far too new against her skin. She'd never imagined the first time she'd use them was for something like this. She'd imagined something more conventional, more supervised. Still, as she looked at herself in the mirror she found herself liking what she saw. The off-white cotton of her dress, to symbolise that as a necromancer she was still affiliated with the light while also acknowledging how close to darkness her power skirted. The accents and clasps in mourning silver-blue and blood red, the woven belt in black, all of these to signify what she was. To emphasise her connection with the dead. After adjusting the neckline and the way the skirts fell below her belt, she then clipped the protective charms she had prepared to her belt, tucked the others into pouches that also went on her belt. The others had already gone in her bag. Then, she rubbed her eyelids, her chest and the insides of her wrists with some of her purslane oil before misting the rest of her body. After that she had to adjust her dress again but then she regarded herself once more.

One more thing is missing, she thought, one more anchor to the living. She reached into her drawer and pulled out the flower crown from the Midsummer Dances. She lifted it up and placed it on her head carefully, making sure it was secured before then smiling despite herself.

There. Now I'm ready. I can do this, I can do this.

The knock on the door came just in time, and she scooped up her bag and tried to stop herself from shivering as she opened the door. Elly stood there, cleaned and anointed but still wearing the same clothes she had been found in, though she'd added a brown belt that was weighed down with charms. She had extra charms too, in comparison to Robyn, in an oversized chain around her neck and didn't seem too happy about it. Robyn had insisted on them though-after all, this was a communion with the death and Elly herself was close to it.

"Now I know," Elly grumbled. "what it feels like to be a Winterlight branch. Anyway, I have the candles. I take it you're ready? The others are getting in position."

"Yeah, I'm ready."

Heading down the corridor, Robyn started to think that there was some value in having lights out or at least less lights on, because she didn't know how she would feel if anyone was to come by and see her like this. Luckily, they somehow managed to make it to the South Wing without encountering anyone.

Jenna was waiting at the start of the corridor which would lead them to the Angel Tree and she grinned at them.

"Looking very ceremonial, I see," she said. "Anyway, everyone's ready to go, particularly Mist-sempai and Jae for the candles. Julka-sempai and Kyouki are the ones upstairs. So, um, is 'good luck' the right thing to say for this kind of thing?"

Robyn smiled.

"Yes, it is."

"Well then, good luck!"

Robyn thanked her and they continued on. Once they got to the Angel Tree, Robyn set her bag down by the base and took out what she needed. First, she scattered the consecrated salt and sage to create the outer circle with Elly setting down a white candle and a light blue candle at the two points that were in easy reach of Jae and Mist to put out (and to make sure that they stayed upright), before she then started to make the inner circle of mandrake, aloe, hemlock and saffron powder. Elly lit the candles of the outer circle and then entered the inner circle. Robyn paused to allow her to set the candle pairs needed for the inner circle, these ones to be in the direct reach of two of them, while she herself set up the bowl of absinthe and other powdered herbs that would hopefully facilitate the communications between them and Rielle. Once Elly was done she came and sat in positon while Robyn closed the circle.

Almost immediately, they could feel the beginnings of the magic draw over them, almost like a bubble. Indeed, if Robyn concentrated she could see the faint soapy iridescence bubbles usually carried slightly above them, curving in a dome. Holding in her breath, she carefully went to light the last two candles and sat down. She and Elly silently anointed their foreheads with another protective oil that Robyn had prepared, and then, as clearly and calmly as she could, Robyn said:

"Rielle. We know that your spirit is as peace now, and we do not come to disrupt that peace. But we know that you and your wisdom continue on in the form of this tree and we wish to speak to you. We wish to listen to you. Can you hear us?"

At first, there was nothing. Then, the air began to grow thicker and the tree started to glow softly, an opalescent white like the tree's leaves. The glow spread through the branches and across the soap-bubble dome, making the world beyond blurry. Her hands started to tingle and that was how she knew that it had started.

"I am Robyn, and this girl here, she is Elly. She named herself for you. Do you recognise us?"

The glow flared brighter, briefly and then suddenly a picture entered Robyn's mind. Blurred black at the edges, the way the world looked when emerging from a long sleep, Robyn saw a dark haired girl as if she was viewing her from a height and heard a deep, soothing humming that sounded vaguely familiar. She felt a strange sensation she somehow instinctively understood to be the sensation of people climbing her though she'd never felt it herself. The humming distracted, but did not completely obliterate sharp tugs of pain that felt like having hair pulled out from her head. The humming sounded familiar, especially when a second voice joined in, but Robyn didn't realise what she was seeing until the dark haired girl looked up and she recognised herself, staring up into the tree and blushing.

The glowing sparkled and bubbled for a moment before the image changed. It was still blurry-edged, but this time it was quieter, the quality of the lighting different. There was a sensation of a small hand pressing against her and then Robyn was able to see that the girl whose hand was doing this was one other than Elly herself, wearing the skirt and blouse she had been wearing on the night of the festival. She glanced over and saw that Elly was wide-eyed for a moment, looking haunted as she had done leading up to that day before she shook her head briefly and went into the basic series of yes-no questions to establish a baseline of responses. They soon figured out that the glow brightened for yes, that it dimmed for no. Anything else was probably an indicator for emotion, such as the sparking and bubbling in combination being laughter of some sort, gentle shimmering for joy and so on.

"Alright then, we shall get started. Rielle, how did you meet everybody? Can you show us?"

The glow brightened, and then there was a pause before a series of images and sensations filled her head. Sitting around a small wooden table and laughing at a serious-eyed girl who was clearly a younger Professor Arianna and two older people who were clearly their parents, the sensation of soil in her hands as she sowed strawberries and then looked up at the blue sky. Cowering behind her sister as other children teased them with unkind words. Robyn could not actually understand the words herself, since they were spoken in a different language, but through Rielle's memory she instinctively knew what they were and cringed from them, just as she found herself touched when the younger Professor Arianna turned to Rielle afterwards and told her fiercely that those kids were stupid and they would always be together, forever. Rielle then showed another scene where she was apparently on her own, and the same village children threw stones only for another girl to step out and chase them away. There was something about this girl and her big eyes and long plaits but Robyn couldn't place it.

"Is that Professor Yanovi?" Elly asked.

The glow went brighter, and then the images continued, showing Rielle and her sister growing up, the two of them becoming better at their magic as unrest went on around them. How not even sharing the crops they were able to grow with staving neighbours stopped them from being persecuted. Rielle showed how she became handy with weapons to defend herself, suffering many close shaves, the family's shrine loaded with mizuko jizo and then she showed how she, her sister and the younger Professor Yanovi all came of age and then set off to make their fortunes elsewhere, so that their parents would not be harassed so much. Robyn felt a tightness in her chest, the unbearable homesickness that Rielle had felt upon leaving that sweet farm and warmth-filled cottage. But her heart soon lightened when on her travels they met a young man.

"Professor Kenta." Robyn breathed.

The glow went bright again, and Rielle showed them a different memory, sitting in a field with Professor Kenta as he held out two wooden rings that locked together. The bubbling of joy was overwhelming as Robyn felt Rielle laugh and laugh, taking one ring and sliding it onto Professor Kenta's finger before he slid the other onto hers. They stood up but before he could reach to take her hand she launched herself at him and squeezed tightly before he laughed back and spun her in a circle. It felt like it was happening to Robyn herself, the firm hands around her waist and the breeze in her hair. When she was set down and they held hands to walk back, the rings shapes fitted together neatly that way as well.

This image faded away and there was quiet.

"Rielle? How did you meet our headmaster and headmistress? Cher and Hades? Was it through Professor Kenta?"

The glow darkened.

"Then?"

There was a hesitation and then slowly, another memory was shown, unfurling slowly. A tavern in the evening, the smell of burning clinging to skin and clothes. Robyn felt Rielle curling up, leaning heavily against Professor Kenta and looking right at her sister, Yanovi and somebody else. The lights flickered and cast shadows and it was not until the person stood up and Robyn could see that they were Professor Keno. She watched as he called out to someone from across the tavern and then felt her breath being sucked in as two figures walked over, seeming to carry a glow of their own even with their tattered clothes and the smell of blood coming from them. Their eyes gleamed and their smiles-one with a practised charm and the other slightly taunting made everyone in the tavern fall silent.

It is them, she heard Rielle think, the legendary warriors. Robyn was taken aback by hearing Rielle's voice-bright and bell-like, just a breath away from laughter even with such a serious thought.

In this memory, Professor Keno made the introductions, and after Cher and Hades had swept their scrutinising gazes over all of them, Hades beckoned them out. Naturally, despite misgivings, Rielle followed everyone else. More memories followed, showing the group getting together, all the other Professors, both teaching and faculty, plus three more. A polished, attractive man who had clearly been in a romantic relationship with Professor Keno, another more earnest looking one who was particularly close friends with Professors Shippa and Cinnabuns. And a young woman with gold hair and white eyes.

"Her photograph isn't in the library." Elly demanded. "Who is she?"

The memory Rielle gave them did not reveal the woman's name, but instead showed Rielle staring in horror as the woman, with a face so blank it was almost like Frost's, standing in what looked like a town square, summoning up what could only be described as a storm of some sort, a tunnel of cloud twisting and turning, almost crackling as it tore buildings apart and threw people to their deaths before barrelling right at an apparently unaware Professor Keno. Robyn couldn't see or sense where the others were, though from Rielle's feelings she knew that they were there, but as she stepped forward and tried to scream she felt rough hands clamp around her mouth and pin her arms behind her.

Robyn gasped, and tried to ask Rielle a different question, but then came another memory. But this one was a blur of shouts and screams and cries and warmth licking at her feet and rising up, up, up and the pain-

The pain, the pain, the pain.

Stop, she thought. Please, please stop. But it went on and on, and Robyn suddenly realised that Rielle was reliving her death now, that this young woman, whoever she was, had once been a comrade but had then turned on them to devastating consequence. Frantically, Robyn tried to recite the spell that would stop Rielle from continuing this memory and becoming distressed but the sensation of burning; the smell of her flesh (feeling like her own, now) just kept going and going-

"Rielle, stop. It's over. You're safe. You're at peace and you're safe."

Elly's voice trembled, it was a miracle that she managed to get the words out at all where Robyn was concerned but it worked. As Elly uncapped a vial of protective oil and smeared it against Rielle's trunk and then her own forehead before reaching over and doing the same to Robyn the images faded.

"We are sorry, Rielle. We are sorry." Robyn apologised. "I…there are still a few more things to ask but if you want, show us something happy. Something that made you happy in your life or even afterwards."

Initially there was a silence, before the dome and tree glowed in a slightly wet way. Then, a brighter glow and a series of memories, from childhood and beyond, to seeing generations of students passing the Angel Tree, even climbing up and down it. Students singing or humming to the tree, or even playing music aloud on phones, CD players or other older devices. There was even a memory of a student orchestra setting up in front of the tree to perform to it specifically, though Robyn couldn't tell how long ago this was. Clearly, she, Jun and the rest of the current Gardening Club had not been the first to pick up on Rielle's love of music.

Then there were some memories Rielle shared with Professor Kenta, some of which made Robyn blush to see. The glow sparkled and bubbled with each of Robyn's blushes before she showed them memories of the entire of their elite team laughing together, sitting together in taverns or camps, washing by riversides and splashing water at each other or strategizing in opulent rooms that Robyn assumed were part of the palace. In some of these scenes she caught reflections and saw what Rielle would have looked like-identical to Arianna, except with a face more predisposed to laughter and a fondness for flowers in her hair. She could glean enough of what they were saying to understand a little of the progression of the war, and indeed Elly mouthed some of these things as she heard them as if committing them to memory. But the memories also gave a picture of who they had been together. What they had all meant to each other. The strong bond they'd had, made up of small clusters of many different loves all tied together by something purer and deeper. How the fame that circulated around them only strengthened this bond.

"Thank you, Rielle," Elly said when the last memory faded. "There is something else we need to know. I have heard that you and the team formed a…immortality pact? What was it? Is there something you can show us about it?"

The tree glowed yes and a memory unfurled of everyone in the forest. The headmaster and headmistress, all the professors. Rielle, of course and Eita, Lowen and the unidentified woman who later betrayed them. A fire burned, white rather than the usual orange-gold and then….

Robyn didn't know what to make of what she saw, couldn't even begin to comprehend and yet when the memory faded she knew that this was a key component to what was happening now. The forest that the team had gathered in so long ago and the ritual they had performed was the key.

"That was the Immortal Lotus our headmaster was holding, wasn't it?"

The tree and the dome glowed brighter.

"And that weapon…that was Shi-shoku. It's real."

Another glow.

"Did you not wonder how it was those two were able to wield that weapon?"

Another glow, but somehow more cautious.

"You did, but you weren't sure?" Robyn guessed.

A brighter glow confirmed this.

"What about the magic poured into the Lotus in order to gain from it?" Elly asked, clearly having comprehended more. "Where is it now?"

Rielle simply showed them the view of the South Wing from her perspective, from earlier in the year.

"The magic is…in the school?"

A bright glow.

"Where in the school?"

There was no glow at all and Robyn and Elly looked at each other, both wondering what to ask.

"Is it only in this area?"

The tree went dimmer and Robyn nodded.

"So…across the school?"

A bright glow.

"The whole school?"

Another less-bright glow.

"How do you know this?"

The glow did not change at all, and Robyn realised that Rielle must not have understood or else didn't know how to communicate it. She glanced over at Elly, who nodded and asked:

"Can you feel this magic?"

Another bright glow.

"Do you feel it connected to you?"

Connected? Robyn raised a confused eyebrow at Elly, but was surprised to see that another bright glow came in response. Then, she noticed that the candles were getting close to completely burning out.

"Alright, now we shall let you go and leave you in peace. Please, forgive our intrusion into your rest."

Robyn reached to blow out the inner-circle candle nearest to her and knew that Elly did the same. Then, she reached over to slash the inner circle before crawling out to then do the same with the outer circle. She heard Jae and Mist go over to blow the candles from the outer circle and a few moments later Mist passed over what remained of them. Robyn thanked her and placed them by her bag as she swept up the outer circle and put it in the correct sachet for disposal. As she did, Robyn felt the connection fade away, her hands no longer tingling and the glowing dome around them slowly diminishing. Starting on the inner circle looked up at the Angel Tree as if seeing it anew, as if it had become something completely different. And perhaps in a way, it had.

"Thank you, Rielle." She murmured, briefly pausing to reach out and pat the trunk.

The tree shimmered a little brighter, as it always did whenever it seemed to be happy, and then settled back into its usual iridescence. Robyn sighed, exhausting hitting her, although it was not nearly as bad it had been on that night when she had tried and failed to save Tricker and Elly.

Elly…?

Suddenly worried, Robyn turned to Elly, but nothing had happened. She was still sitting there, cross-legged, blinking rapidly as she recovered from the spell, her skin still emanating that ghastly glow that signalled her soon-impending death. But apart from that, she would have seemed fine if not for the fact she was crying. She was making no noise, her shoulders were barely even shaking, but her mouth was twisted and tears coursed steadily down her face without any attempt to wipe them away as they rolled down her chin, plopping onto her skirt.

"Elly? What is it?"

Elly didn't respond, but a slightly quicker blinking showed that she had heard.

"Elly? Come, let's clean up the rest, let's…"

She was interrupted as Elly shook her head. Uncertain of what it was she should do next, she simply tilted her head and regarded the girl for a few moments. Elly continued her silent weeping, apparently oblivious to Robyn staring.

"Is everything okay there?" Jun called across.

"I…um…I think so?"

Robyn wondered whether she should hug Elly, or maybe get Julka over. Julka-sempai knows her better anyway, right? She looked up into the tree branches, through to where they broke into the higher floors when suddenly, the tree started to hum almost inaudibly. Elly looked up at it, and then leaned against the trunk, curling up. The hum didn't get louder but instead increased in intensity as the tree started to sparkle again but differently this time. A softer, hazy type of sparkling rather than the bright, scattered sparkles of before and most of it clustering around Elly rather than being evenly distributed across the tree.

Shhh, shhh, she heard. Shhh, shhh. It sounded a little like wind rustling leaves, but of course there was no wind here. Nonetheless it carried on, slow and oddly soothing. Shhh, shhh. Shhh, shh. Still keeping a tentative eye on Elly, Robyn slowly started to clear the rest of their mess away, and when the others started to make their way over she caught their eyes and held a finger to their lip and soon they were all watching.

As Robyn finally put the last bottle away in her bag, Elly started to sit up, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. Tears still clung to her eyelashes but she looked resolute now and no new tears fell. She turned to the tree and patted the trunk, and the sparkling, humming and shhh, shhh all slowly faded away until there was silence once more. Elly gazed thoughtfully at the Angel Tree for a few moments more and then turned to them.

"What? What're you all looking at me like that for?"

Robyn shook her head and laughed. Rielle, you were comforting her, weren't you? She thought. I know you can't hear me like this….but thank you again.

"Nothing, nothing. Come on, let's go somewhere so we can compare notes."

…

Aerin liked to watch Ruby at work. She enjoyed watching her flit around the room looking at samples of fabric, her existing works, images from magazines and online and putting them altogether in one big idea. She enjoyed watching the furious motion of Ruby's pencil across paper as she sketched those ideas and scribbled notes, and enjoyed watching her carefully bring those ideas to life a stitch at a time. After finding out that the scarf she'd made for Ariadne had served as encouragement for the younger girl to put herself in danger, Ruby had not designed anything new. Oh, she'd worked her magic (in all senses of the word) on existing projects, she'd continued making the plans for what she called her 'connections for the unconnected' her scheme for giving chances to outcasts like they'd all once been.

But here, right now, was the first time in a long time that Ruby had thought of designing anything new. So even thought right about now Aerin would have been contemplating sleep she was more than content to just sit in a beanbag and pretend to listen to music while watching Ruby alternate between sketching and looking at sources of inspiration on her tablet.

"Oh man, Aerin, get this-that cloak that Elly had, it was probably completely bespoke." Ruby said suddenly, looking up with her eyes gleaming. "As in, despite the features probably being Mid-Forgotten Era, this specific style of cloak with this combination of features was not prevalent at all amongst any class or specific region! And the material-"

Ruby's rhapsodising was cut off by an urgent sounding knock at the door. Ruby pulled a face and Aerin laughed at her before pushing herself up from the beanbag and going to open the door.

"Samu!"

"Aerin-sempai!"

"What is it? Are you alright?"

"I…."

Samu's pocket was furiously buzzing, and she pointed to it:

"Maybe you should answer that?"

"It's not a phone though, 's your key!"

The key. Oh. She'd almost forgotten about that, that curious relic from her first family that she'd managed to hold onto during her time in orphanages, that she'd still held onto even when she'd finally found her current family. It wasn't a special key-she'd quickly discovered it was of the type called a 'skeleton key', but unusually pretty for such a functional type of key. All intricate curlicue patterns and carvings with a small hole for a ribbon to be threaded through. Perhaps one of her first parents had worn it as a necklace or something. She didn't know, hadn't cared, but all the same she'd held onto it as a reminder of who she was. It hadn't really meant much to her beyond that though, not until she'd given it to Samu.

She was not someone who wanted children by any means, but she did also want a family of her own to continue into. Ruby had started that for her, and the rest of the VYPERs both past and present had expanded it but for reasons even she didn't understand Samu was the one who had completed it. He was the one who had really made it all click into place for her, the sense that this was truly her family. She wanted him to be the leader of the VYPERs here at Kawaakari once she and Ruby graduated, to be the one to carry it all on. And it was for all those reasons that she'd given him that key, not just to link them together but so that she could have the type of family that continued on and on into the future.

She hadn't known there was anything more to the key than the meanings she'd given it herself.

Yet now, here it was, furiously buzzing and now, as Samu took it out, glowing an unusually bright gold. Quickly, she ushered him into the room and to the beanbag she had just vacated and then shutting the door. Leaning against it, she watched as Samu held out his hand, the key dancing about with the fury of its vibrations.

"How long has it been doing that?"

"Only a few minutes, maybe more. I thought it was some weird dream, and I was trying not to wake Kanau up and I kind of just stared at it for a moment before it hit me that this was real. Then I had to really make sure not to wake Kanau up while sneaking here. I…did you know it could do this?"

"I legit just thought it was a pretty skeleton key." Aerin said.

"Yeah, I thought so too."

"Did it try to move or go anywhere?" Ruby asked. "It sounds intense enough to just take off flying."

"N-no, nothing like that." Samu replied, looking more than slightly alarmed at the possibility of the key taking off.

"May I?" Aerin gestured to the key.

"I-I…it's yours?"

"Don't be silly Samu, it's yours, remember? Yours."

She ruffled his hair as she squeezed onto the beanbag next to him and plucked the key from his hand, pulling a face at how it made her fingers vibrate-it really did feel like a phone or something. The glow, too, was almost as bright as a lamp, and a proper pure gold.

"The glow it's giving off is the same colour as Elly's cloak. Gimme."

Before Aerin could protest, Ruby had leaned over and taken it, and now she scrutinised it for a moment before suddenly leaving her desk and coming to sit with them.

"Look, it's glowing brighter here."

They all had to squint as they bent their heads and leaned in over Ruby's outstretched palm to look at the part she was indicating with her finger. Aerin had to squint to really see it but she soon saw the particular set of swirls and curls that Ruby was pointing to, glowing brighter, almost white-hot. The glowing area seemed like it was surrounded by a circle, as if it were a distinct section of the pattern rather than just a random-

"Oh Goddess."

"What is it, Aerin-sempai?"

"I've seen this design before! That specific design, I've seen it!"

"What, you have? Where?"

Aerin took a deep breath, and then looked at the two of them:

"I've seen it somewhere here."