Disclaimer: Sorcerer Hunters is not mine; Ari, Reven, and any other original characters are. The Sorcerer Hunters might be OOC; bear with me.
Wrong Turns
Part 7: Mille Feuille (2)
"Um…is the Gate supposed to be here?" Gateau asked.
Ari stepped forward, reaching out to touch the rock. "It is here," she replied, frustration evident in her tone. "It's in the rock."
"How are we supposed to get to it, then?" Chocolate asked, a faint note of barely suppressed hysteria in her voice. Tira touched her arm comfortingly, but the elder Misu did not seem to notice.
"I-I don't know." Ari sounded close to tears. Her hand came up to rub at her chest as if it pained her, and Mille thought he heard her gasp.
"Do you have to call it out?" Marron asked.
"The Gate opens directly onto the Paths. I'd have to call the Paths themselves, and they won't move for me," Ari replied softly, almost distractedly. "Reven-sensei or Talikhan could do it, but not me."
"A minor setback," Gateau said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "What we need here is a little brute strength. Marron can keep the ceiling from falling down on our heads while I smash this boulder." He shrugged, inspecting the fingernails of one of his hands smugly. "Piece of cake."
"I can't believe I didn't think of that," Tira said, abashed.
The big man just grinned. "It's not often that I get to show off my rock-breaking abilities," he said arrogantly, cracking his knuckles.
"Sounds good to me," Mille said cheerfully. "Smash away, Gateau!"
"What are you waiting for?" Chocolate demanded. "Let's go get Darling!"
Marron smiled and pulled out an ofuda. "Ready," he said as it began to glow.
Once again, a shield formed around the group, and Mille breathed just a little bit easier. It was too bad that Marron couldn't hold a shield over them while they were walking. That would have been one less worry.
"There's just...one little problem," Ari gasped, sinking to her knees.
"What's that?" Mille asked warily. He pushed his way through the group and knelt at her side, cupping her chin in one slim hand, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes held a disturbing mixture of pain and guilt. "And am I going to like hearing it?"
"The binding oath…has a time limit."
"What did you say?" Marron asked dangerously, his golden eyes flashing. "Isn't the blue lightning going to kill you if you don't keep the oath?"
Ari had the grace to flinch. "Well, yes."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Tira inquired in exasperation.
"I didn't think it mattered."
"That's stupid," Chocolate said flatly. "Of course it matters. I would never have let you do that if I'd known."
"You should have said something," Marron added sternly. "We could have helped you."
"You remind me of my sensei when you talk like that," Ari muttered, frowning up at the mage.
"Ari, you idiot," Mille said in disgust. "You need a keeper, child."
Now if only Reven would step forward and take that role, Ari would be in good hands. Mille privately thought that it was a pity that his matchmaking techniques wouldn't really work in her situation. He didn't want to risk life and limb by hitting on the silver-haired mage, however pretty he was. That could get dangerous. Not to mention, messy.
Ari winced and doubled over. The glow of crackling lightning seeped out from between her fingers. Mille reached out and touched her shoulders, but she jerked away from him.
"Funny," she wheezed. "Solano said the same thing."
"That's probably why he adopted you," Mille retorted. "How much time do you have?"
"A few minutes, maybe," was the breathy answer.
"Oh, great," Chocolate muttered.
"Gateau, hurry," Mille said, hauling Ari sharply to her feet and out of the big man's way.
"Right," Gateau said, eyeing the large stone. "I'll do it in one punch." He drew his big fist back, and quicker than thought slammed it into the rock. It shattered, and the pieces tumbled to the ground, revealing a deep blue, pulsating oval-shaped wound.
The only good thing about the rocks bouncing off the shield was that it overpowered the annoying and normally quite loud hum of the Gate. Now that it was released from its imprisonment in the rock, it was probably much happier, and thus several times louder than the Haz Knight had ever heard a Gate-song get. Mille was quite happy that he couldn't hear it.
He stared at the Gate, trying to ignore the horrible earthquake bringing literally tons of rubble down around their ears, so to speak. Marron's shield held strong, protecting them from being crushed like ants.
The Gate looked like someone had thrown a bucket of liquid sapphire light onto the rocks. Ripples like those in a pond disturbed by a pebble slowly shifted through the azure depths. It was quite peaceful, or would have been if not for the rapidly diminishing tunnel on the other side of Marron's shield.
"It's open!" Gateau shouted over the din. "Now what?"
"Now we go through it before Ari dies, or I lose control over the shield," Marron replied somewhat dryly. As if to punctuate his statement, the translucent sphere around them sputtered a little, and the mage gasped, his brow furrowing in concentration. "Neither of us has much time, I think."
That was more than enough to spur Mille into action. The mere thought of the shield flickering into nonexistence and several tons of rock crushing them all into a bloody pulp…well, let's just say that it wasn't pretty, and Mille preferred not to think about it.
"Tira, Chocolate, you first," the Haz Knight yelled, gesturing to the Gate. "Quickly!" he barked when they hesitated.
The Misu sisters exchanged a glance, and moved as one toward the Gate, but they paused again in front of it.
"It won't hurt you," Ari said, glancing back at Marron pointedly.
Tira took a depth breath, grabbed Chocolate's hand, and the two sisters vanished into the Gate. Gateau swore under his breath, his eyes very wide.
"Gateau, you next," Mille said.
The big man looked like he really wanted to argue, but he gritted his teeth and stepped up to the Gate. "The things I do for love," he muttered, and was gone.
"Mille, take Ari. I will follow," Marron said, slowly moving toward them so he wouldn't disrupt his concentration on holding the shield.
"You'd better," Mille retorted. "I don't want to have to come back here to save your butt too!"
Marron smiled but did not answer.
Mille pushed Ari into the Gate, ducking in after her. He didn't really need to duck, as the opening was more than high enough to accommodate his height, but he'd always hated the sensation of…probing that he felt when he walked through these things.
It was almost like water sliding over his skin, not unpleasant, but weird. Except that the sensation didn't just stay on his skin. It went deeper, into his mind, as if something was rummaging through everything, absorbing everything about him in an instant. Even the really, really private stuff.
"Is everyone okay?" Mille asked once they were on the other side. Then he blinked.
Tira, Chocolate, and Gateau were standing in a small huddle on the Silver Path. All of them were shivering uncontrollably, their eyes shut tight.
Oh, yeah. Mille had forgotten that it took quite a bit of time to get used to seeing this end of the universe. He still got the chills, looking at it.
The Gate was a blazing scarlet from this side, a blotch of color on an immense black background of nothingness. The Path beneath them was a span of metallic silver, gleaming in the darkness around it, seemingly supported by absolutely nothing. Mille could see other Paths above, below, and to the sides of the one they stood on, but they were distressingly far away.
Ari's description of a cobweb only applied in the maps they made of the Paths. The real Paths were infinitely huge; they were so enormous that in some places you could only see the one you were on.
Morbid curiosity made Mille lean over the side of the Path to look at the one beneath it. He guessed that it was at least several miles down through the blackness. At the very least, it was a very long way to fall…
"Mille, don't do that!" Gateau hissed. "It makes me nervous."
"Sorry." Mille backed away from the edge, looking at Ari.
The girl was kneeling, her left arm straight, and her hand resting palm down on the Path. The deadly blue lightning from her spell-oath arced down her arm, and was harmlessly absorbed into the Path. She sighed deeply, and stood just as Marron threw himself out of the Gate.
Ari yelped, and jumped out of Gateau's way as he leapt to catch the mage in deceptively gentle hands.
"You all right?" the big man asked softly, supporting the slender mage with ease.
Marron slowly pushed himself upright, gasping. "I think so." He swayed a bit, and Gateau steadied him. "Well, maybe not."
"N-now what?" Chocolate stammered, still clinging to Tira even though the pink-haired girl was just as terrified as she was.
"Now I need a volunteer," Ari said.
"To do what?" Gateau asked warily.
"To check to see if I have the timing right when I reset the Gate," Ari replied. "All you'd have to do is stick your head through and look around. When I get to the right time, you'll know."
Mille shuddered. There was no way that he was going to volunteer to do something like that. But if no one else did…
"Why can't you do it?" Tira asked shakily.
"Because I wasn't there. I don't know what to look for."
"I'll do it," Marron said, stepping away from Gateau. His face was ashen in the glow of the Silver Path, but his voice sounded steady enough.
Gateau frowned, but one glare from Marron cut him off. "Never mind," he said hastily. The big man raised his hands in surrender, backing up a few paces.
Ari nodded, and stepped over to the angrily blazing Gate. As soon as her hand touched it, it glowed green, subsiding into the calm ripple pattern from the other side. She smiled and closed her eyes.
The Gate froze in place for a moment, then flashed purple, orange, and gray in three rapid bursts. The ripple pattern continued as if the color did not matter to the Gate. Ari took her hand away and looked at Marron.
The mage stuck his head in the gray, rippling blob. It seemed like an eternity before he came back out, and his face was slightly green.
"What was it?" Gateau asked worriedly.
Marron swallowed. "A plaque commemorating our deaths," he said faintly. "A very old, weathered plaque."
Ari grimaced. "I'm sorry. I guess I went forward instead of back. Let me try again."
"Just hurry!" Chocolate whimpered. "I really hate this place…"
The Gate flashed red, yellow, white, and then pale blue before it stilled again.
Marron looked. He shook his head. "I saw the foundations of the castle. I think it was just being built."
"Okay, a bit too far back. How old is the castle?"
"Two, three hundred years?" Mille guessed.
"That's not very precise," Ari complained. The Gate flashed pink, black, and brown. "Try now."
Marron's entire lower body tensed just before he reemerged this time. "This is it," he announced. "We don't have much time. Carrot just turned into a snake."
Ari touched the Gate again. "I can pause it for you." It froze in place, half-extended ripples and all. "Before you go, there is something important that I need to tell you."
"Which is?" Chocolate said impatiently.
"When you go through the Gate, you will see yourselves fighting Peach Sorbet and her demons. It is important that you not allow yourselves to be distracted by this."
"I thought you said that it's impossible to be in two places at once," Marron argued.
"Not when you're dealing with time," Ari replied. "You will see your past selves, but you must not let them see you."
"Why?" Tira asked.
"How would you react if you felt a tap on your shoulder and came face to face with your double from the future?" Ari countered.
"Good point," Chocolate conceded, looking slightly ill.
"Okay, then what?" Gateau asked.
Ari turned to him. "You will go up behind them and take their places by stepping through them. They will be absorbed into you, and you will effectively be drawn back to that moment in time."
"Uh…won't that hurt?"
"It'll feel weird, but you won't remember it in a minute or two. Don't worry about it."
"Where will you be?" Mille asked.
"I will stand in front of the Gate until the point where my past self falls through it," Ari answered. "That will eliminate my interference, and Marron can save Carrot."
"How much will we remember?" Marron asked.
"Very little. But you will have a stronger sense of urgency to save Carrot."
Marron blanched. "Then we won't remember you?"
"No," Ari replied calmly. "Believe me, it's better this way." She pointed up toward another Path far, far above them. "That was where I fell from. That is where I must go to retrace my steps and find my home."
"It must be very far away," Chocolate said softly, almost sympathetically.
"Further than you could ever imagine," Ari murmured longingly, her eyes still on the Path above them.
"You can get there, right?" Mille frowned at her in concern.
Ari nodded. "I studied the map. I know the way now."
Tira was looking at her oddly. "Have you always been wearing that?"
"Wearing what?" Ari, puzzled, glanced down at her clothes. Her long white robes were immaculate, and belted at the waist with a golden chain. "Is there something wrong with my clothes?"
"No, no, it's just that you look like a priestess." Tira flushed, embarrassed. "And the tunnel was so dusty, but you aren't dirty at all like the rest of us."
"Minor spell," Ari replied delicately. "And I was a priestess, once. A very long time ago. Besides, if I wear these when I walk the Paths, fewer things will bother me since I sort of look like a Guardian."
"Things?" Gateau repeated uneasily.
A long, rumbling howl echoed down the silent Path. It made the hairs on Mille's neck stand up in alarm. The Sorcerer Hunters paused, glancing around nervously.
Ari turned to look in the direction it came from. "That was probably a skoltan," she said, something akin to panic in her tone when the eerie cry rang out again. "I think we should get going before it gets here."
"What's a skoltan?" Chocolate asked as the Hunters converged on the Gate.
"You don't want to know," Ari replied, gesturing to the Gate. She touched it, and it started moving again. "Okay, it's ready."
One by one, everyone walked through it. Mille was the last person to leave.
After the silence of the Path, the chaos the Haz Knight stepped into was overwhelming. There were demons everywhere, horrible black shadowy things, misty gray wraiths, and all too solid misshapen lumps of melted black wax. It seemed like each and every one of them was screaming and clawing at something, whether Sorcerer Hunter or one of their own, tearing and rending flesh indiscriminately.
The metallic tang of blood filled Mille's nostrils; an all too familiar stench. He could hear Tira's whip and Chocolate's wire garrote whizzing through the air, and the sickening impacts they made on demon hides. He could hear Gateau shouting something, and he caught a glimpse of Marron jumping into himself, followed by a flash of white light.
A horribly mangled demon that smelled of something rotting chose that moment to jump at the Haz Knight. Mille yelped in surprise, dodging its clumsy efforts with agility. It shrieked at him in rage, clawing at him again so that he nearly fell into Ari, who was unlucky enough to be standing behind him, protecting the open Gate.
"Sorry, Ari - catch you later!" he managed to yell as he readied one of his feathers to fight the hideous thing with. He never heard her response, if she even made one.
Mille fought the urge to laugh hysterically when he stepped up behind his past self. He wasn't sure if he could stop if he started, and he was certain that he would call unnecessary attention to himself if he did. Taking a deep breath, he waited until the other him was occupied with staring at the newly transformed Carrot-serpent, and jumped into his past self.
It was definitely a very odd sensation. How could one describe it, he wondered dazedly amidst the rushing sound in his ears. It was utterly unlike anything he'd ever felt.
The universe split apart, diverged from the course set in motion by previous events and unknown deities, and then came back together in a sharp smack. Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Mille landed on his feet. "What the - yikes!" He leaped out of the way of something with more arms than it probably should have been allowed, aiming a feather at what he thought was its head with reflexive ease. "Where did all these things come from?!"
He stared around for a moment, confused.
Suddenly, Tira screamed, "Carrot!" The demon coiled in her whip shook itself free and reached for her with foul, clawed hands. Mille quickly threw one of his feathers into the thing's forehead, and it fell back with an unearthly cry of agony.
"Darling!" came Chocolate's horrified echo a moment later.
"This is absolutely fascinating," Peach was saying as she pointed an odd-looking crystal at the Carrot-serpent. "Now, what would this do?"
Peach Sorbet, he thought abstractedly, smacking down another demon without really noticing it. Wasn't she dead?
Mille sucked in a surprised breath. Carrot, he remembered. Peach had turned him into a serpent with that crystal, and now she was feeding his Aranju more magic to make him change more until his body gave out. He had to stop her somehow, but the only thing that could destroy that crystal and save Carrot was Marron's fire magic. He had to find Marron.
Blast it, where was the bloody mage when you needed him? Mille turned around in frustration, and nearly leaped on the younger Glace brother when he finally found him.
Marron, evidently frozen with shock, was gaping at Carrot's serpentine body. He did not see the demon bearing down on him with some sort of heavy club.
"Marron!" Mille screamed, dispatching the demon with ease. "Marron, you have to stop her!" He grabbed the mage's arm, shaking him until those bewildered golden eyes fixed on him. "Carrot's body can't take much more of this. She's trying to burn him out by making him absorb way more magic than he can handle."
Carrot screamed again with his next shift. Mille saw cloven hooves and a spiral horn emerge from a white horse's forehead before turned his head away from the terrible image, unable to look. His hand crept to the reassuring weight of the gold bracelet on his wrist.
Carrot will be okay, he repeated to himself like a mantra. She promised that he would be okay…
Wait…who had promised? What was he even thinking?
"Hmm," Peach murmured, interrupting Mille's thoughts. "As interesting as it would be to see what you turn into next, I think I must cut our little experiment short. So let's see how you handle this." And she threw the crystal at the Carrot-unicorn's head.
Tira and Chocolate both screamed something incoherent, forgetting that there were still a few demons waiting for the perfect time to attack them. They suddenly found themselves distracted by several black, squirming bodies with sharp teeth and claws even as they both reached for Carrot.
"Kuso!" Gateau hissed and leaped to help them.
Mille Feuille was right behind him, leaving Marron to save his brother.
He'll do it this time…
Now where had that thought come from? What other time was there?
"Phoenix Inferno!" Marron cried, and Mille couldn't help turning around to look as the fire spell raced the crystal as it inexorably arced toward the charging Carrot-unicorn.
"Come on," Mille muttered. "Please make it…"
To be continued…
So, do you suppose it worked? ^_^
By the way, if you notice any errors, whether grammar, plot, spelling, contradictions, or whatever, let me know, please!
And please leave a review. I thrive on your feedback!
~ Lady Cianyin ~