Chapter 12
Reunions

"There's a fox in our halls! There's someone here!" Perere shrieked as he tore down the hallway, practically ricocheting off the doorframe as he tried to fly into The Peculiar Hall at top speed. "Is it time to run? What do we dooooooo?" he screamed as he tumbled headlong into Balthazar, who'd previously been floating quite peaceably at the table talking with the other Angels.

"Ugh." Balthazar moaned, face-down on the table as his head spun from the impact. His head felt heavy, and it was because Perere was now crumpled right on top of it, still wailing. "There's someone scary looking here and I dunno what to do! HELP!"

Tomislava had put her hands to the sides of her head in a reflexive attempt to cover her ears, only to find herself very annoyed at how little it changed anything. "Oh, shut it Perere," she snapped as the others looked at the sudden scene. "If you've got something important to tell us, try doing that instead of being such a menace.

Perere, sitting up now but still quite oblivious as to the nature of his cushion, sniffled. "I was mindin' my own business and the elevator door opened, and some person with a fox's head came out. I never saw someone so vicious!"

Juangshi made a sound like a laugh and a scoff. "Pretty sure that's just Master Ava. She's not going to hurt you."

"Are you su—" Perere was cut off, as Balthazar had regained his senses and lifted himself up, sending Perere sliding down his back and onto the floor. Perere turned around and looked up to see him. "Balfazar you sneak, why'd you do that for?"

Balthazar shook his head, still in a bit of a daze. "What are you talking about?"

"THE EVIL MURDER FOX!" Perere shouted, just in time for the Angels to see Master Ava appear in the doorway. Perere saw the others turn their attention that way, and after turning to see what had their attention he yelped in fear and promptly hid behind Juangshi.

"I didn't mean to startle you, Perere," Ava said with an apologetic bow.

Juangshi rolled her eyes as Perere tugged at her wing, hoping to hide behind it. "Hey Ava, nice to meet you."

Balthazar blinked a bit, and turned towards her. "Oh, hello Master Ava. Uh, can I help you?"

Ava shook her head. "No, I was just escorting your friends back to you," she said, stepping aside and motioning to someone in the hall.

One by one, Bi`nh, Farah, Areshmin, and the new Angel Khosrow came in. An excited clamor broke out among the group as Ava watched them happily reunite.

Farah spoke up proudly after a moment. "Everyone, this is Khosrow. He's the newest of us."

"Ah, good to meet you, Khosrow," Hadrianus greeted. "You'll find yourself in quite warm company here."

There was a bustle of agreement through the group as each introduced themselves. Khosrow bowed gently. "Thanks for the welcome, everyone. Farah and Areshmin told me a lot about you all, it's good to put some faces to the names."

Juangshi took a quick look across the visually homogenous group. "Huh, I don't know if that's really an applicable expression there, pal."

"Intent's the same," Khosrow said with a shrug.

Balthazar turned towards Ava. "So, what brings you in here today?"

Ava folded her hands low in front of her. "The Master has asked me to escort your friends back and let you know that there are changes coming soon." She turned towards Bi`nh. "One of the things he asked me to specify is that there will be no more travels outside of the tower until the next step of his plan begins."

Bi`nh nodded. "I hope I do not have to wait too long, but I will be content to stay here for the time being."

"Do we know when this next step begins?" Balthazar asked curiously.

Ava shook her head. "I do not. I suspect it will be soon."

Balthazar pondered for a moment, before shaking his head. "Well, we'll just wait then. Thank you for letting us know, Master Ava."

She nodded happily. "Of course. I'll take my leave now, you all have a good time reacquainting yourselves."

The Angels waved goodbye as Ava turned to leave, and Perere began to tug on Juangshi's wing. "Hon-shee, hon-shee," he repeated insistently.

"Wait a minute, kid," Juangshi said with a dismissive wave. "Let's welcome these guys back."

"Oh, it's so good to be back!" Farah cried out in relief.

Areshmin nodded. "It is such a joy to be with you again, my friends."

The group turned towards Areshmin, surprised at the energy in his voice. "Why, Areshmin, you're practically a new Angel!" Spyridon proclaimed, coming in closer as if to inspect him.

"I feel quite rejuvenated," Areshmin said with a happy nod. "I owe a great debt to The Master and our new friend, Khosrow."

"Indeed? In what way has this new beacon of light among us assisted in your fortuitous recovery?" Spyridon asked, now turning towards Khosrow.

"It's nothing I did, really," Khosrow said. "Areshmin saved me just as much as I did anything for him."

Hadrianus stroked the lower aspect of his hood thoughtfully. "Intriguing. Does this have anything to do with the balancing that Balthazar told us of?"

Khosrow turned towards Hadrianus with a curious look in his eyes. "Yeah, something like that. How would Balthazar know anything about it?"

"Balthazar appears to find ways to know very many things," Meresankh said, glancing over towards him. "How much of it he sees fit to share is to be determined."

Farah glanced over at Meresankh distastefully. "Well I'll tell you, Balthazar knows that because I told him so. It was in letters I wrote to him, so if there are certain details he's chosen to omit, they weren't your business to begin with."

Meresankh's eyes met Farah's and the two stared at each other for a few silent seconds. "Very well," Meresankh said with a disinterested shrug.

Farah leaned over towards Balthazar. "Has she been like this the whole time?" she asked in a low tone, but not so low as to be inaudible.

"We're uh… figuring each other out still. You don't need to worry about it," Balthazar told her.

Tomislava, who'd had quite enough of this, turned to Khosrow. "So you and Areshmin helped each other out, huh? Tell us about that."

"There's not much to tell you. The darkness that creates this form," he paused, tugging at the sides of the scaly shroud demonstratively, "was too weak compared to the light inside. I was disintegrating. Areshmin here had the opposite problem, so The Master found some sort of magic to tether us to each other."

Areshmin nodded. "My excess darkness is leached into Khosrow to sustain his body, and in turn his incredible light is shared to strengthen my Heart. It is fortuitous."

Tomislava whistled, crossing her arms. "Niiiice! Khosrow, you must be something else then, huh?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. If it weren't for Areshmin it'd just be trouble for me."

Farah spoke up. "The light in Khosrow's heart is far stronger than any of ours. The Master was hoping that it would be strong enough that he would be able to perform conversions on his own, without even The Master's help—" The Angels looked to each other in excitement, wings rustling, until Farah continued, "—but after all our attempts, it just doesn't seem to be possible."

Hadrianus snapped his fingers. "Ah, shame, that. So you tried your hand at conversions, did you?"

Khosrow sighed. "Yeah, a few. None of them worked out. Given the circumstances, I'm not really sure if I'm disappointed by that."

Perere, who'd been practically hanging from Juangshi's wing, took no notice of the tension that underlined the following silence and piped up again. "Hon-shee, hon-shee, pay attention to me!"

Juangshi groaned and shook her wing, causing Perere to lose his hold and fall softly to the floor, where he crumpled up dramatically and began whispering naughty words in disappointment.

Juangshi turned back to Khosrow. "Yeah, we heard a bit about that. Sucks that he did that to you."

Khosrow shrugged as the other Angels voiced their disappointment in The Master. "I've been dealt bad hands before. I'll make the best of this. If nothing else, I'm glad to be able to help out Areshmin here."

"I am quite pleased to call you my friend," Areshmin said with a nod.

"So what have you all been doing?" Farah asked, turning towards the group.

Meresankh spoke up first. "Our appointed leader has been organizing us in preparation for an escape, should it be necessary."

"An escape? Have The Master's actions been such a cause for concern?" Areshmin asked in surprise.

Balthazar tilted his head a bit. "Well, yes and no. Some of us, uh, thought that we should get ready for something a lot more drastic, but we haven't really known what to expect. Seemed best to prepare for anything, you know?"

"More drastic? Like what?" Farah asked curiously.

"I won't name names," Tomislava spoke up, looking conspicuously towards Meresankh, "But SOMEONE floated the idea that we should plan an uprising."

Areshmin almost seemed to pale as he faltered momentarily. "That would be a grave mistake—!" he cried out.

"Yeah, well I shot that down immediately," Balthazar said reassuringly. "What we've actually been doing is finding and creating paths for potential escape routes, and learning to use our magic more effectively. Not—" he gave a pointed look to Meresankh, who rolled her head dismissively, "—with the intention of fighting The Master, but to help aid our escape should we need it, and give us a fighting chance to survive in the outside world. If, IF, it comes to that."

"That sounds like the right plan to me," Khosrow said with a nod. "Prepare for the worst, but know your limits. Sounds like your praise is well-earned, Balthazar."

Tomislava glanced over towards Meresankh with a triumphant humph, and Meresankh simply bowed in return.

Bi`nh, who'd been quiet up until now, shook her head. "I didn't realize there was such a tension here now."

Balthazar looked over to her, speaking up quickly to intercept the conversation. "Like I said, we're still learning and figuring things out. It's not a big deal."

"If you say so…" Bi`nh said with a resigned sigh. "Well, if you all end up going outside the same way as I have, you shouldn't need to worry too much about fighting."

"That's what I'm hoping, but I'd rather we have the best chances either way. Speaking of, you four should probably spend some time learning everything we've been doing," Balthazar said, looking over to the others. "Tomi and Spyridon, can you guys show them all the new magic stuff we've been learning? And then tonight Tadataka and I can show them the passages."

Tomislava nodded. "Yeah, it should be easy. Even Perere's managed to learn it all, so you guys shouldn't have any problem."

Perere, hearing his name, perked up. "Eh? My turn?"

Juangshi turned towards him. "Is it important?"

"Is to me," he told her with a nod.

"Will it be important to Balthazar?" She asked in a hushed whisper.

"Feh, who cares?" Perere said, growling a bit at the sight of Juangshi turning back away from him with a roll of her eyes. He jumped up onto her back and was quickly thrown off with a deft shake.

Bi`nh shook her head at the sight of this. "I wondered why I didn't seem to feel too nostalgic about being back here. Now I remember," she muttered under her breath.

Farah glanced over to Balthazar. "You've been working with Tadataka? So has he been fitting in well here?"

"Yeah, more or less. He doesn't interact with us directly, but he's surprisingly involved," Balthazar told her.

"He got me a hat, but not a cat!" Perere cried out from the new heap he'd made of himself on the floor.

Farah looked at Balthazar questioningly, and he just chuckled. "Uh, yeah, some of us have been getting interested in wearing things. Perere started with a hat, then it sort of caught on. Tadataka's been finding them for us."

She looked towards the others as several of them happily showed their small gifts from Tadataka. "Huh, I guess he's finding a way to join in with everyone after all. That's good."

"Yeah, it is. Huh, speaking of which!" Balthazar reached down and grabbed a small pocket watch that had somehow escaped Farah's notice. It was gold, at the end of a chain that appeared to be clipped onto one of the scales on Balthazar's cloak. It was shiny indeed, but so were the scales. Balthazar opened the watch and looked at the time. "Uh oh. I was actually supposed to go meet Tadataka in one of the far tunnels," he lifted his head towards Bi`nh. "We think we found one that goes out pretty close to that flower hill."

Bi`nh bowed. "Well, you go make your meeting, then, and come see me in my room when you return. I'll tell you everything I know about the hill."

"Thanks, Bi`nh," Balthazar said, turning now to Khosrow and Areshmin. "I'm sorry I have to leave so quickly. I'll make sure to say hello later when I get back."

"No worries, my friend," Areshmin said happily.

Khosrow nodded. "Yeah, sounds like we'll be busy anyways. See you later, Balthazar."

With this, Balthazar scurried out of the room. As the Angels began to talk to each other once more, Perere picked himself up off the floor and flew over to Juangshi, spinning her around quite to her surprise, and placing his hands on either side of her head. "It is Perere time right now," he demanded.

Juangshi slapped his hands away with a chuckle. "Alright, alright, what's the big deal?"

"You better not let that fox come back," he told her gravely. "She scares me."

It was late at night, and Balthazar was out on the Angel's main balcony overlooking Daybreak town. The bright light of the moon the streets below well, something the Wielders seemed to be taking advantage of as they roamed about. There'd been more of them lately, the Angels had noticed, but none of them really could tell where they'd come from.

Flashes of light could be seen bursting out from the dark alleyways below as the Wielders battled Heartless for their lux, and some of the larger beasts could be seen scuttling around the larger moon-lit paths. The darkness, too, had seemed to grow in scope.

Balthazar could feel Meresankh slowly coming up behind him and sighed gently, waiting to see what she would say this time but still looking out towards the town.

She floated beside him and gestured towards the railing. "If I may?"

Balthazar was certain he'd heard these words from her individually, but this particular combination caught him off guard. "Uh, yes, of course. I'm just looking out at Daybreak Town, seeing how busy it's become at night."

Meresankh looked out across the glowing, bustling city. "It is much more active than I recall," she mused.

"Yeah, it's been getting busier." Balthazar paused, waiting a moment for her to continue. He'd grown well accustomed to her abrasive mannerisms, and the fact that she wasn't immediately trying to press him for some reason or another left him rather lost on how he should proceed. He glanced over at her again, before speaking up uneasily. "Is… Is there something I can help you with?"

She shook her head. "Not this time, Balthazar. My tests for you are over, and I trust whatever happens next will go as smoothly as it can."

"Tests?" he repeated in surprise.

"I understand how I've come across, and it has been by design, of course. You have satisfied my curiosity, and more than that, you have earned my trust. I don't know what the coming week has in store for us, Balthazar, but whatever may come I will follow your lead without question," Meresankh told him, bowing respectfully.

Balthazar crossed his arms. "What, just like that?"

"Indeed. I do not trust The Master, Balthazar. He is subtle, conniving, and manipulative. His cause may have some core of righteousness, but the ends do not always justify the means, and his means are repugnant to me. When a man like that tells me who else to obey and trust, I shall always be skeptical," Meresankh told him.

Balthazar thought about this. "I see. That explains a lot, actually."

"I was a member of the Royal Family on my world. I have seen many despots and those craven for power and control wriggle their way through the political structures; I have watched too many betrayals from treacherous fools who came bearing olive leaves. A man like The Master, who I trust so little, being so insistent that you were the one in charge… I trust you understand my hesitancy," she said, looking back down to the town below. "I understand my methods were grating. On my world, I may well have been imprisoned or executed for such behavior — but this life seems fleeting, and I needed to know for sure what sort of a man you were before our lives depended on you."

"Yeah, that… that makes sense. I hope you know, I wasn't exactly happy that he was shoving me into the spotlight like that," Balthazar said with a sigh.

"I was keenly aware of that fact in short order, and it made me suspect you were meant as nothing more than a puppet to prevent us from organizing effectively," she told him plainly, resting her hands on the railing and ignoring his subtle wince. "I see now that your hesitancy was not cowardice or weakness. You truly have no interest in leadership, but you fill the role well because you understand it is necessary. This softness of yours… I have observed that it has let you tie connections to the hearts of each of the Angels in a way that none of the rest, bar perhaps Farah, would be able to."

Balthazar sighed. "If I wasn't a Heartless, you'd be making me blush, Meresankh."

"Shallow flattery is not my intention," Meresankh replied. "You have earned my trust, and I would need you to understand that your trust will not be misplaced in me going forward. As I said, I do not know what the future holds. Whatever is to come, I believe I can trust in you to lead us through it — and you should know that you can trust in me to do whatever is needed to support our endeavors. For the good of all of us."

"Thank you… Thank you, Meresankh. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does… I think we may just be able to pull through."

Meresankh bowed gently, and looked back out at the city.

Balthazar chuckled. "Juangshi's going to flip out tomorrow."

"This is not a difficult thing to predict," Meresankh replied softly.

"I mean about this. She already hassles me enough about changing everyone's minds. When she sees the change in our dynamic…" he chuckled again.

"She is superstitious and dramatic," Meresankh said dryly, before chuckling softly herself after a short pause. "Though she can be quite amusing. Still, such events should only help to further encourage her to stay in line."

"If Juangshi ever acted in a way that resembled 'staying in line' I'd think it was some sort of prank," Balthazar laughed. "I like her the way she is."

"Of course. It is of benefit to all of us that you do," Meresankh said, turning around back towards the tower. "Now, if you will excuse me, I shall take my leave."

"Sure. Thanks for the visit, Meresankh. Have a good night." Balthazar waved as she left, then turned back towards the town to continue watching.

As he did, he felt a presence nearby. It was a looming darkness, though subtle and well-hidden. He felt a chill wash over him, and turned around to look. There was nothing anywhere that he could see, and his gaze grew a little more frantic as he found himself fixating more and more on the feeling.

Looking over across the wall towards one of the other balconies, he couldn't help but find himself staring into the shadows. It felt almost too dark, though it was just as black as any other balcony around. His wings shuddered as he blinked and looked again. "I must be going crazy," he said out loud.

"You are not crazy at all, Master Balthazar," Tadataka's voice called out from below the balcony.

Balthazar jumped in surprise and turned back towards the railing as Tadataka floated slowly up. "Dammit, Tadataka, was that you?"

Tadataka bowed softly. "You have always been able to sense my approach despite my best efforts. I did not expect to startle you so tonight."

Balthazar glanced back up towards the other balcony. "Yeah… Well, you really got me good," he said with a sigh, shaking his head and turning back towards his friend. "What brings you by?"

"I have important news for you. Tomorrow we are going to be visited by Master Ava, who has been tasked with bringing us to a meeting with The Master."

"Wait, 'us'? Which us?" Balthazar asked in surprise.

"All of us, Master Balthazar. Each Angel is expected to be there for the meeting. Master Ava has been tasked with caring for us and helping us to transition to a life outside the tower."

Balthazar raised a hand to his face thoughtfully. "How do you know about this? Did you listen in on them?"

"Of course. I came directly after their conversation concluded," Tadataka told him.

"You listened in on a conversation between Master Ava and The Master of Masters without being noticed at all?" Balthazar asked skeptically.

"One can never be certain about The Master of Masters, but if either of them were aware of my presence they did not make it known," Tadataka said. "Regardless, it seemed prudent to share this information with you."

"Right… Either way, I guess it'll be best for everyone to be together and ready either way tomorrow. I know it's a lot to ask of you, Tadataka, but it'll probably be best if you don't go wandering off tomorrow."

"My presence shall be conspicuous," Tadataka said with another bow.

"That's… that's good. Uh, thanks. I guess I better go double check on everyone tonight to make sure we're all on the same page," Balthazar said with a flutter.

"I shall leave you to your work, Master Balthazar," Tadataka said, slinking away once more into the night.

Balthazar watched him go, feeling his heart move further away into the building. He sighed an anxious sigh, and glanced back up towards the other balcony. "Whoever you are, up there… I better keep a careful eye out for you," he whispered under his breath, shaking his head and heading back inside.