AN: Exactly, Nix. Vespers is extremely excitable, and tends to speak very quickly when she's flurried---originally, back in Out Of The Dark Change when she popped in on Stella tending Emil's wound, I put dashes in between each word to note the speed at which she was speaking. I've since just refrained from using any punctuation whatsoever, since it doesn't distract the eye as much…if you feel differently, or have any comments on that, please let me know!
injoke Yes, Reala. A circle. You get a biscuit. /injoke XD
Aaaaaaaaand…here it is, one of the most important chapters of the whole ripping story. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Just don't lynch me.
Disclaimer: Of course, if I forget to say I don't own any of Sega's property, I will immediately be attacked by screaming lawyers who have parachuted into my living room by the hundreds, most of them having already filed lawsuits before they hit the ground. Therefore, I own nothing that belongs to Sega. Nothing at all. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Shoo.
We never know we go. When we are going
We jest and shut the door;
Fate following behind us bolts it,
And we accost no more.
We Never Know We Go, by Emily Dickinson
Chapter Eleven:
Alea Jacta Est
'My maren!'
The mental summon echoed through the entire Dream World, calling to every nightmaren alive. Everywhere maren lifted their heads and waited. Amaranth and Apathy, tired after a long night's work, looked up from the forge they were bent over; Chaotica and Crecy, busy in the morning rush, paused where they stood in the kitchens; Stella, sponging Hist's forehead, paused and listened closely, Nyct's never-ceasing moans already being tuned out; bent studiously over Emirgast's diary, Vespers and Tessa looked up with a start, broken out of their focus on the past; Aster and Luna, silently sitting side by side in the Dining Hall after a night of crying, paused and waited; Corbeau, Hadrian, and Dysdane, recovering from their mad dash yesterday, waited patiently; in his bedroom, bundled tight under the covers, Jackle awoke with a start; in the garden, Reala's conversation with RagDoll ceased. All activity was suddenly frozen in immobility.
Wizeman's orders were calm and clear. 'The castle must be evacuated immediately. Every nightmaren alive is to gather what they want at hand and leave for the southward plains as fast as is possible. All wounded and young must be brought with. No one is to be left behind. Leave now.'
He said no more.
The after-effect of this mental notice was worse than any other had ever been. Instantly there was a clamor in the Dining Hall, maren asking their neighbors what it was this time. Several advocated staying put. Silent in the middle of the chaos, Luna put her head in her hands.
Out in the garden, Reala started up in surprise. "What's happened?"
"It's begun." RagDoll stood unhurriedly, calm and quiet as ever. "You will not be going, I expect."
"What are you talking about?"
"For another time." She turned away. "Remember that hope's a frail plant, but is often the only one that holds strong in a storm. I'm afraid I have to leave now."
Reala watched silently as she moved down the path, some small part of his mind pointing out that there was something wrong about her walk, although it was not until after she'd gone inside that he was able to put his finger on it.
She wasn't staggering.
Another mental message curled into his mind, making him jump once more; this, however, was apparently a private one. 'Reala. Come to me.'
'Now, my lord?' he questioned, even while he was rising into the air to coast for the door. 'But the evacuation---'
'You are needed by my side. Come.'
Following his master's orders, Reala found himself feeling as if he were very much losing control over the situation.
"Master wants to see me?"
AC shuffled a bit on his perch, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Jackle was sitting upright in bed, eyes wide, cape a rumpled mess about his shoulders; his voice was more like a child's than anything else. "But…leaving…why's he want to see me?"
AC stopped his shuffling and hopped to Jackle's shoulder, giving him an encouraging nudge and a caw. Jackle got up slowly, still slightly dazed. "But…I didn't do anything…"
He gathered his cape tighter about his shoulders and absently put AC back onto the bedpost. "No, no, you stay here. I'll see you in a bit, m'kay?"
AC cawed doubtfully. Jackle tapped him on the beak, a small sign they shared. "Promise I'll be back soon, don't worry."
AC cawed once and gave his version of Jackle's bow; the demi-maren smiled and returned it, sans the caw. Feeling a bit strengthened by the small exchange with his friend, he went out the door.
AC watched him go, worried.
Tessa was shoving her way through the crowd, a shuddering Vespers at her side, still clutching the diary. The archery teacher kept one hand firmly about the girl's shoulders, knowing that the library worker was easily made hysterical; at the same time, she was continually scanning the crowds for a sign of her brother. Where was Terrance?
"You look a bit flustered," announced a cheerful voice, as a smiling face framed by black and yellow peered over her shoulder.
Tessa showed no surprise. "You don't look so calm yourself."
"True." He, seeing that she had taken Vespers under her wing, placed a hand on top of his sister's to create a small, protective group about the girl as they made their way towards the courtyard. "What the Ideya is going on?"
"How would I know? But I'm certainly getting annoyed by the evacuation tendencies our ruler seems to be acquiring."
"Tell me about it," mumbled a voice by her side, and she looked to find Luna keeping step with them, her fingers locked tightly in those of Aster. The sparring instructor nodded at Vespers. "I see you're a chaperone, too."
"Uh-huh." Terrance briefly broke contact with them to dodge around Chaotica, who was ordering the cooking staff out with particular burdens of food as if she owned the kitchens. "Seems to be the happening thing!"
Apathy and Amaranth passed by, heading in the other direction; Corbeau gave them a tight-lipped smile as he and another scout maneuvered through the jam of nightmaren with a stretcher. Hist lay on it, moaning. Behind them, Strix and Varia were struggling to follow at their heels with another stretcher, this one carrying a sobbing Nyct.
Finally they were able to get out of the castle and into the courtyard; unfortunately, this was just as crowded. Several of the guards along the walltop were working to help confused nightmaren over the walls or through the gates and towards the southern plains. Chink and Chank, recognizable from quite a distance by their twin black outfits and shaggy green hair, were directing people through the gates. Chank helped Corbeau shift his grip on the stretcher's handles and gave Hist a quick guard's salute. Each of the guards created their own unique salute to use when they were awarded a post; Hist, with a weary grin, returned with his own personal sign.
"Miss Luna?" managed Aster, once they were finally out of the gates where space was in larger supply. "Why the south plains?"
"I have no idea, Aster." The sparring teacher rose into the air, still keeping a tight grip on the girl's hand; Aster seemed glad for the contact, and followed willingly. "But Wizeman has ordered it, so…"
"We hafta do it, at least until we figure out how to depose him and elect a new leader," inserted Terrance dryly. Luna shot him a look, but he returned it with a stare of independence. "What? Shouldn't we be allowed to complain?"
"Yes, actually," sighed Luna. "I quite honestly believe that our world is going to pot."
"Oh, really? That's good," said Terrance cheerfully. "Now I know I'm not the only one."
Inside the kitchens, nightmaren were hurrying to get out, most sure that some great disaster was impending, but many of them still had unfinished tasks to see to. Chaotica, her feet planted firmly on the countertop, was yelling orders and directing people as if she were the Seeker General himself.
"Crecy, douse the oven! You, yeah you with the brown hair---you're done, get out of here and take that basket of meat pies with you! Keric, drop the basket, y'don't need it, shove that pile of apples into a bag and take that instead! Hey, drop that---you've got something on the stove behind ya, take it off and get going! Take that basket of bread with you!"
"Having fun?" asked a wry voice by her ankle. She glanced down at Heckler, who was leaning calmly against the counter.
"Absolutely. I've always wanted to do this."
"I guessed. But are you going to stand there and yell all day? You need to get out---"
"Hey, YOU! Where d'you think YOU'RE going?! Back up and take something with you! Grab that mince pie, over to the left!"
"---you think that all these other people need directions, 'cause most---"
"I TOLD you to---oh, forget you! YOU! By the turnovers! Grab some of tho---no, not those! Those are the cherry ones!"
"What's wrong with 'em?" called the other nightmaren.
"---then you, and y'know they can get out on their---"
"They taste like old shoe leather! With little beady things in it!"
"They taste like what?"
"---not sure what's wrong, but if the entire castle has to be evacuated, then there's probably a very good---"
"Old shoe leather! With LITTLE BEADY THINGS IN IT!"
"Oh. Okay."
"---and you know…well…I'd feel awful if you got hurt, so I think you'd better go, huh?"
She looked back down at Heckler. "There. Now wha'd you say?"
He reached up a hand to help her down, stepping back to give her room as she climbed to the floor. "Will you come away with me?"
"Yeah. No, those are cherry too---the ones on the left! Yes! Those!"
"You mean it?" He began guiding her towards the door.
"Of course I mean it." She kissed him quickly, on the cheek, and added over her shoulder, "And grab a tablecloth while you're at it!"
"I mean it, too," he said, and kissed her hand.
"You too?"
Reala, upon coming to Wizeman's chamber, was slightly surprised to find all of the other High Seekers already gathered there. They seemed surprised to find each other present as well; apparently Wizeman had contacted them all privately.
None of them looked well. Puffy was nervous and ill at ease; she had spent the past few days holed up in the Great Hall, trying to ignore the chaos that had become their lives outside.
Gillwing was silent, his dull eyes not showing his normal eagerness to please; he was incredibly confused with what was happening to his life. As the days had gone by, he'd withdrawn into himself. He rarely spoke any more.
Clawz was sitting upright, red eyes darting to those around him, trying to guess what they were thinking and what would be a proper response; he's lost all confidence in himself, it seemed. He was hesitant to express any opinion in public until he knew where the ground lay.
Jackle was now, to put it simply, the wild card. Reala was never sure how the demi-maren would react to any given statement; one moment he seemed incredibly confident and cheerful, the next he was despondent and frightened. The Seeker General was beginning to ponder whether Jackle would be able to hold his position of leadership much longer.
Gulpo was---still Gulpo.
Their master loomed over them, the shadowy room about them erasing all sense of size and ratio, making Wizeman all they could focus on. For the first time in awhile, Reala found himself feeling slightly on guard around his master.
"Master, if I c'n ask, what's with the evacuation?" Jackle. The demi-maren was fiddling with a card, showing that he was nervous, but his voice was calm enough.
"You will know soon enough."
"Um…then, what'cha need us here for?"
"For a future project."
"A future---"
He never got any further. Even as he spoke, their master's hands stretched out, one facing each maren; the eyes in their palms were open, but dark with a strange mist. Reala barely had time to throw a hand in front of his face before the mist became a reality, swirling out about every one of them.
Wizeman watched in satisfaction as the High Seekers, one by one, fell asleep under the powerful fog. With a small nudge he'd moved them aside, into the shadows where they would rest dreamlessly until he had need of them again; he would have kept them awake, but he did not want to be distracted while he worked on his masterpiece.
Soon.
"How far out in the southern plains did he mean, I wonder?" asked Chaotica to the air.
"I don't know, but I'm personally not going a step further than I have to," said Lunatic. "I can't believe this is actually happening. The entire castle just up and walking out."
"And where are our leaders?" Insomnia moved to his side, several blankets in his arms. "I don't see his highness Reala tromping out along with the rest of us common folk."
"He's filing his nails," snickered Emil.
"Claws, you mean," added Aniline wryly.
"Now, now." Corbeau scolded the younger scout gently. "Speak nicely of your elders."
"I would if he were out her stomping along with us."
"He may have something very important to do."
"That's what I said!" complained Emil. "He has to file his nails!"
Luna glanced over at the group of younger maren gathered around a stretcher. "I wonder what they're all laughing about so suddenly."
"Don't look at me. I certainly can't find anything funny about our current situation, apart from perhaps the sheer absurdity of it all."
"I still want to know why we're doing this." Terrance kicked aside a small rock, raising up a puff of dust. "If he's going to have us tramp all the way through Stick Canyon to the South Plains, he should at least tell us why!"
"I'm sure a lot of nightmaren want to know." Tessa stopped briefly to look back at the giant, rippling dark form that was the populace of Nightmare Castle. Many of the nightmaren were carrying bundles of food or blankets, thinking ahead to the possibility of staying out for some time.
Dysdane pulled up next to her, following her gaze. "It's rather amazing, I suppose," she murmured.
"Very much so."
"How many of us there truly are."
"I was thinking more along the lines of, 'that Wizeman can just say the word, and all these poor maren have to go trudging through the canyon for him'."
She smirked. "That too."
"Yo, Tess, don't get left behind!"
"Shut up, Terrance," she returned as she joined him once more. Next to him, Vespers smiled up at her weakly. The diary was still safely pressed against her heart.
Nightmare Castle lay perfectly silent under the midday sun. Inside its spacious rooms, plates and food lay abandoned on the tables; sunbeams shining through windows streaked across the floor un-disturbed. The halls were empty of all life.
All life, that is, excepting one solitary crow that was flying from room to room, searching desperately for any other life form. Not being a nightmaren, the crow had not heard Wizeman's general message, and the evacuation had badly flustered him. He would have gone with, but as he watched every maren leave the gates, often with food or belongings, he scanned their faces for a certain half-visible one---and never found who he was looking for. His friend was still somewhere in Nightmare Castle, probably in Wizeman's chamber; and, as he could not gain access into the room until someone opened the door for him, he was involved with flying through the castle in a rabid search for someone else to be with.
The person he was looking for was currently lying on the floor of Wizeman's chamber, stretched out on his side, his hand pressed to his mouth like a child. Around him five other creatures lay, all of them asleep as well. The noise of the evacuation and the subsequent deafening silence went unnoticed by the six sleepers.
Their master was nearby, but his attention was focused on something other than they. One hand held out for the others to see, he had willed the eye in its center to show him the fringes of Stick Canyon, where the last evacuees were straggling out of the dust and onto the beginnings of the grassy plains that lay beyond southward. He was waiting for Stick Canyon to be abandoned of all life.
When the last nightmaren seemed to have left it, he commanded his vision to slowly begin moving back towards Nightmare Castle, searching for any stragglers. A short way through the canyon he found a small group of younger maren who had moved out slower than the rest, and these he followed on their way towards the southern plains. They took some time getting out, but he could wait.
When they'd finally reached the others, who were now settling down across the plains, he once again began scanning back; this time, he found no more stragglers, and made it all the way to Nightmare's gates. Once he was convinced that the entire population was beyond a certain point, he closed off the vision.
'Finally, it is time.' He held out all six hands. The glowing orb, his masterpiece, hovered silently into them; surrounded by the stone hands, it seemed almost like a nightmare creature itself, many-armed and a center of power.
Each eye closed, and together they circled the orb closer, drawing on its strength, nearly touching it as they began to sap its power. Concentrating solely on his work alone, Wizeman began.
"Well, we're here---now what do we do?"
"Don't ask me," said Terrance. "I just came along for the pretzels."
"Shaddup," was Tessa's kind-hearted reply, as she surveyed the vast group of nightmaren about them. "For the love of the fifth energy, what are we doing here?"
"I was just asking that myself." Lunatic put down the bucket he'd been carrying and began helping Insomnia set out the blankets the bandanna-wearing nightmaren had brought, making a place for Hist and Nyct to be set down. "It's times like this I wish we had a Customer Complaint Hotline."
"To who?" retorted Insomnia. "Wizeman? He'd whop you a mental one and yell, 'get back to work'!"
"Actually, I thought that was your boss," corrected Lunatic.
"Same thing. We can't connect with him anyway…unless you've got a computer stashed in a bag that I didn't know about."
"Lemme check. No."
"We could always try thinking really hard in his direction."
"What?"
"Hey, it works for him."
Multiple groans. "Shaddap, Som!"
The arrival of Strix and Varia, Nyct stretched out between them, made the younger boys quit joking and hurry to finish layering the blankets out in a cushion for the stretchers. The siblings were careful not to jar as they set Nyct down, but the girl was still moaning. "So hot so hot so hot so hot…"
Insomnia moved back uncomfortably, nearly bumping into Corbeau as the scout, working with a friend, managed to set Hist down next to Nyct. The guard was tight-lipped and silent, unlike his fellow wounded.
Stella shoved her way through the maren that had gathered about the stretchers and knelt by Hist's side, ranting to herself as she began checking to see how his bandages had held up during the ride. "Once I get back, I'm havin' a good stiff talk with Wizeman, yi' see if I don't! What's he think, yi c'n just brush off a Serin infection or a' Equs attack like tha'? The brute! It'll be no wonder if these two take an extra week just t' pull through…"
She gave Hist a pat on the shoulder and moved to Nyct's side, beginning to fuss with the girl's hand. "Strix, who'd yi get t' bring the water?"
Strix gestured to Lunatic, who staggered over with the bucket of water and dropped it by her side. Stella had already pulled a cloth out of the medic's bag slung over her shoulder and began dipping it in the water and wringing it out, still ranting. "Just out a' nowhere, up an' drag 'em out! Yi'd think th' brute would at least have the decency t' warn us, but no, it's just up and pull 'em out by their shoulders if yi have to! I tell yi, Stella, it's---"
Nyct moaned and then shrieked as Stella began patting the infection-crusted wound. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow hot coooool…"
"---an' she's not even halfway through!" raged Stella. "The great brute! Who does he think he is?"
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow…"
"Now just hold tight, Nyct, this'll cool it down in a sec…the monster, he could have at least seen t' it that we had a proper way t' carry 'em, but no, we had to drag 'em in stretchers!"
Nyct's eyes opened wide suddenly, and Stella realized that they were no longer filled with pain, but fear. "What is it, Nyct?"
"Those." Her voice was hoarse. "Those…who are they?"
"Who?"
"Those…the people…" Her hand was trembling as she pointed over Stella's shoulder. "Those…horrible…white…people…behind you…who are they?!"
Stella, unnerved by the girl's feverish whisper when she knew Nyct was not delusional, looked behind herself.
Vespers stood there, alone, silent, eyes wide as she stared at the distressed nightmaren on the ground. A red book was pressed tightly to her chest.
"I don't know," she whispered.
Now.
The energy that he had gathered, collected over ages, purified and melded into his masterpiece---now it was time to use it. It glowed in his hands, seeping into his being, filling him with a power that he had never before known, could never have expected.
'So this is what it feels like to be a god.'
And the power exploded from his hands, soaring out in an eruption of change.
It shot upwards in a giant wave of power, spreading out from the orb, a shimmering tsunami of revolution. It spread over the sleeping maren near him, covering them in its power. It rippled through the earth like a colossal tumor, never breaking the surface, making the ground tremble. It spread through the air, reaching up to the very top of the sky, making the sunlight waver. In a giant bubble of soundlessness it coated the land.
Now.
NiGHTS felt it happen.
The wave passed over him in a terrific shock, and for a moment he could not move under the backwash of the great wave. He lay against the cold floor of his prison, staring as the wave continued on across the land and out of his sight. Tuck, clinging to one of the Ideya Palace's posts, breathed out a sigh.
"What the Ideya was that?"
NiGHTS continued staring the way the wave had gone, eyes wide. "I have no idea, Tuck. But how much you want to bet that it was something major?"
Tuck let go of the pillar and landed with a babyish 'oomph' on the ground. "But what was it?"
"I told you, I don't know." He shook his head wearily, still feeling slightly woozy from the sudden onslaught of power. "My head hurts."
The nightmaren amassed on the southern plains saw it happen
Together they watched as a massive wave swallowed their home, rushing out across the land in a great and shining wall of power, flooding over everything and swallowing it all in its oscillating depths. It reached for them, coming closer at an incredible pace, consuming the canyon, reaching the edge of the plains…
And it stopped.
With a massive, soundless, horrible heave, it ripped itself away from them and sealed itself off, shimmering round pearls of its power bounding away as it cracked and shuddered into a shield.
Later, when asked to describe it, most of them would be unable to find the words. The massive wave had inexplicably turned itself into a bubble of power. Its surface was almost unable to be seen, for it was delicate and mirror-like, reflecting back the scenery around it and yet allowing a faint, ghost-like shadow of its contents to show through. It looked like some giant crystal globe.
Luna slumped against her lance, staring. "We've been shut out."
No one was able to answer her.