Chapter 8 - Lost


Beta'd by A.O. Talmidge


The screams cut off in an instant. One moment Kaden was frozen, listening for whatever Robin was hearing. The next moment he was caught off guard when Robin and then Anna starting screaming. The next, he had pushed off the wall he was leaning against towards Robin and Anna to help, forcing himself past the initial spike of fear, past the instinctual reaction to run, to hide from the wrongness that radiated off of it all.

A glow of sickly light and they were gone, as if they never been there in the first place.

He stopped just short of where they had been. His eyes darted around as he frantically turned this way and that.

"Robin? Anna?" he called.

No response.

There…there had to be some sort explanation for this, right? They couldn't just be gone, right?

He knelt down and hesitantly extended his finger to where he had last seen them, as if they might still be there, just unseen. His finger poked nothing, just continuing on through normal air. He waved a hand through the area. He tasted the air, just to be sure.

Nothing but their lingering scents. No new scent trails leading off elsewhere.

Nothing.

Kaden stood and backed away, slowly. What was this? It felt too sudden, too abrupt, too painful to be something like teleportation. Hadn't he once overheard scholars debating the topic, at how difficult it was to transport an unwilling target, how it was rarely viable in battle? But then, hadn't Anna said that the safe house was warded? Shouldn't that have protected them?

He shook his head. Too many questions, not enough answers to be gained, especially by just standing around. He dashed around the safe house, poking into every room, calling their names.

Nothing.

He slammed open the hidden door to the safe house. A light spring drizzle greeted him as he dashed around the night and tested the air. The rain mixed with the city air would make it difficult to make anything out, washing away their scents.

He went anyways. Even though he was technically still on the run, he went looking for them. The night dragged on and what felt like hours passed.

Nothing.

Fur and clothing sodden with rainwater, he trudged back to the safe house, only to find that the hidden door didn't budge.

Oh, right. Anna had mentioned the ward was keyed to only open from this side for her and her sisters. He had let it shut behind him without thinking. He slumped down, back leaning against the door, which for him may as well have been a wall.

"So, just like that, huh?" he murmured, voice hitching slightly. He growled, then yelled into the late night air, pounding the wall in frustration. No one was around to hear.

"Neither of you have ever faced something like this before."

Robin was right. All of them were fools. If this was the sort of thing that this dragon, this, Anankos, was capable of, then what chance did their fledgling little group ever really have? Was he next? Would he, too, disappear like Robin and Anna?

"Come on then; do it!" He stood and yelled the challenge into the night to the unseen foe. Rain pounded off his ears, dripping down his face.

Nothing.

His frustration turned into a laugh, even though it wasn't even remotely funny, and he started walking aimlessly through the streets. The rainstorm intensified, but he barely noticed. His stomach churned, but he barely noticed. He wanted to run. He wanted to forget, to leave Izumo and never come back.

Eventually, his feet led him to his hidey-hole, the one he found on initially entering the city, and he crawled into the small, forgotten space underneath an abandoned house. Rainwater pooled on one end, but his stored belongings were still dry.

After retrieving his satchel full of his meager belongings, he made his way into the empty house above the space, exchanged his waterlogged clothes for fresh ones from his satchel, and curled up under a cloak where the roof hadn't caved in. Would he be killed as he slept? He couldn't tell.

Assuming he was still alive come morning, as soon as his debt to Nina was repaid, he would leave. He wouldn't be able to forget, but he could sure try; he had a lot of practice.

Exhausted, he fell into a fitful slumber.


The morning dawned dimly in through the window of the Izumite castle and despite the overcast and wet weather; Leo still flinched at the light, shifting in awkwardly in the unfamiliar seating. Even the dim light was an unsubtle reminder to him of just how late his previous night had been.

"Tired, are we?"

Leo's gaze shifted to the occupant sitting across from him, looking far more comfortable seated on ludicrously frilly cushions at the ridiculously low imported Hoshidan-style table between them. Was he possibly a little bit smug at his discomfort? Or perhaps it was a veiled threat. Either way, it felt petty.

"It won't affect our game if that's what you're asking."

"Quite."

Leo didn't grace that with a response, even as he continued setting up the pieces. None of the remaining soldiers that had come with him were under any sort of illusion. Odin had made sure of that, with his usual...dramatic flair. None seemed to be hiding anything physical either. They seemed entirely unaware of any possible plans, just as confused as he had been. Just soldiers.

Of course, he wasn't naïve; he knew his father, Garon, would have another plan in motion, and though Leo still wouldn't fully trust these soldiers he doubted they would have anything to do with it. It would be through something else. What exactly, he didn't know yet. His father had become hard to read of late.

He finished setting down the last piece. "Have you ever played chess, Prince Takumi?"

The Hoshidan prince nodded. "Once. It's similar enough to shogi."

"Truly? I've tried shogi myself, but it never quite captured my interest."

"Really now? Both are games of strategy. Regardless, I'm quite curious to see how you'll play, Prince Leo."

"As am I," Leo replied, but his eyes narrowed.

There was something in his voice, a tone that hinted at something. Leo glanced about, seeing no one in the room save themselves and two Izumite guards that had metaphorically attached themselves to him this morning, no doubt in retribution for last evening's incident. Despite the archduke's insistence that he was innocent, he didn't blame them for being careful.

When he had stepped out of his room early this morning, Takumi had done the same, dogging his every step like a shadow. But if Takumi wanted to literally 'keep an eye on him', then so be it.

Leo's real pieces were already in motion. And, he had a feeling Takumi's were as well. Whether it was something of worth had yet to be determined, but Leo trusted his retainers to get the job done.

"Well then," Takumi gestured to Leo's side of the board, "white moves first."


Rain pattered off of Niles' hooded cloak as he walked swiftly, dodging around puddles and people alike. The last day of the festival was still in motion, despite the downpour. He heard music echoing out of a building as he passed. Shopkeepers and avid performers still carried on in spite of the rain.

In truth, he couldn't care less about the festival. All that wealth being thrown around without even a thought of where it might be coming from. Like every city Niles had been to, Izumo was rotten under its gilded glamour.

Odin, blessedly silent for now, traveled with him as well. Turning around a corner, the scene of last night's disturbance come into view, and Niles stopped a moment when a passing conversation caught his ear.

"Did you hear about the kitsune that went wild and crashed through one of the library windows last night?"

"I heard that he killed the librarian."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Wasn't there a kitsune at one of the shops in the marketplace?"

"Should we go see?"

The group rushed off, no doubt to the marketplace. Niles made a mental note of their exchange; could be useful, but it was always difficult to tell with gossip.

He turned to the library, where a pair of city guards stood out in front. One of them was currently deterring entry to a pair of people in cloaks, hoods drawn up against the rain like his. Denying them entry was understandable, given the circumstances.

The guards out front would make infiltration slightly more difficult, but only slightly. He moved around out of sight to an alleyway near the back of the library, and Odin followed.

"Odin, if you would be so kind?" Niles gestured to the building with a tilt of his head.

"Operation 'speechless?'"

Niles rolled his eye. "So long as it involves a silencing hex, you can call it whatever you like. Just be quiet about it."

Odin nodded, eyes closing in concentration as he began casting. Niles was about to turn away to watch the surroundings when Odin's eyes snapped open, a frown forming.

"Something wrong?" The hex typically took much longer than that, so yes clearly something was wrong.

"Yes and no. The silencing hex took hold, but it shouldn't have taken hold so quickly…unless there was one recently cast on the same space."

"So our culprits wanted to keep this quiet and either bought or had a dark mage skilled enough to use the hex, at least while the deed was being performed." That likely ruled out a third party with a simple grudge. Mages who could use a hex like that were rare.

"You think it could've been this Spectre group we keep hearing about?" He threw his hand out, clenching it into a fist in front of him. "Once, a band driven by noble intentions; now they fall prey to avarice and lo, darkness consumed their reasoning, driving them to unspeakable deeds."

Niles shook his head. "Hardly. This doesn't have the feel of something that bunch of do-gooders would do, not if they want to lay low and get out of the city. Besides, silencing hexes don't seem like their style."

Odin slumped. "Ah, man. That would've been so cool though."

"Only you would think that. Come, let's not waste any more time standing about. Keep a lookout for me."

"Right."

They treaded towards one of the back windows, and Niles quickly undid the pitiful lock with a quick swipe upwards of his knife. He quietly slipped open the window a crack and peered inside, looking around into the relative darkness. No one there. Nodding in satisfaction, he motioned Odin into the building and followed suit.

Rainwater pooled off of his cloak onto the floor as he lowered the hood. The scene was hard to make out, and he glanced over to Odin, meeting his eyes and nodded. Odin smirked, extending his hand. With a snap of his fingers a small fireball burst to life, and started lazily orbiting about him, casting more light on the scene.

And what a scene it was: chaotic, gruesome. Like a full scale skirmish has taken place. He eyed the fallen shelves which and their spilled contents all over the floor. Books, scrolls, loose paper; possibly the result of a mage using their magic, uncaring of the damage it would do to their surroundings.

He crouched and his hand traced through a pool of nearly dried blood on the floor, rubbing the flecks in between his fingers. It could be where the unfortunate librarian had been slain. Likely, as he was beginning to suspect, as collateral damage, not the true target.

Yes, this definitely was not Spectre's doing, not with no money or fame to be gained. Another party was at play.

Someone in the Izumite underworld with a grudge? Maybe, but if all they wanted was the librarian dead, why trash the surroundings as well? To send some sort of message? No, something from them likely would've been cleaner. At the very least, they wouldn't have just left the body behind.

He turned to Odin, who was examining a large crack in the wooden flooring. His eye traced to slightly further ahead to a hole surrounded by burnt wood. Then to the frame of the door.

While the chaos was scattered throughout the area, by the door the floor was relatively clear in a loose approximation of a semicircle. The origin of a wind spell? He walked up to the doorframe, noting a small bloodstain on the floor nearby. He put his hand on the wood and traced a circle around an incision, just about the right size for a spearhead.

No, there was a fight here. One between two parties: an ambush perhaps? But for who?

He turned, eyeing the surroundings, spotting the wooden planks which covered a broken window, hastily nailed to its frame in an attempted deterrent for both weather and possible looters. Not that there was really anything worth stealing in a library. The real cleanup would begin later after the rain stopped.

The people outside had mentioned a kitsune breaking through the window last night. Assuming it was true, it had been there to help one of the parties no doubt. Though what one was doing in the city was anyone's guess. He crossed his arms, closing his eye.

He was missing something. That he didn't know what he was missing was making his skin crawl.


The game continued, and so far it was a silent, tense affair, broken only by the continued pattering of raindrops outside and the clinking of chess pieces on the board. Takumi moved a piece forward, capturing one of Leo's, putting him in check.

Leo put a hand to his chin pondering his next move. He looked up at his opponent and broke the silence. "You know, for supposedly having played this only once, you're surprisingly good."

"I already said it, didn't I? I've played shogi, and chess may as well just be a variation of that. It's simple."

"Are you perhaps, enjoying yourself?"

Takumi let out a scoff. "Hardly; shogi is far more interesting."

Leo didn't grace that with a response. Unless he was mistaken, Takumi was lying; perhaps he was simply too proud to admit he found a game of Nohrian origin enjoyable.

Silence reigned again as Leo made his next move, capturing Takumi's piece that had put him in check. Takumi deliberated a moment before aggressively moving another piece forward. One of the guards let out a small cough, which echoed loudly through the room.

"Why are you here, Prince Leo?"

Leo looked up, surprised at the sudden question. "Didn't I already tell you? The archduke invited me as a guest."

"That's what I don't get: what reason would he have to do that?"

Leo hesitated. Countless options ran through his head: it was something he had plenty of time to ponder on the trip here. Each one more ridiculous sounding than the last. A small part of him wanted to lie, but in this situation, there was little to gain. Instead he simply settled on the truth.

"I don't know."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"Whether you believe me or not, it is the truth." On an impulse, Leo pulled out his invitation out of a pouch, offering it over the chessboard to Takumi. "Here."

Takumi's eyes narrowed at the proffered piece of ridiculously frilly stationary. "What's this?"

"Simply the invitation I received from the archduke. It's not a trap, I assure you."

Takumi hesitated a moment before carefully accepting the invitation, eyes darting over the words a couple of times.

"Strange," he muttered.

"What is?" Leo asked.

Takumi reached down below the table, assumedly to a pouch or pocket and pulled out an equally frilly invitation.

"Besides the names, it's the same as mine. Ludicrously gaudy and frustratingly…" He paused.

"Vague?" Leo supplied.

Takumi nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

Takumi's eyes darted between the two invitations a moment more before he handed back Leo's invitation, which Leo put away. "Speaking of the archduke, where is he? From his reputation, I would've thought he'd be heading the preparations for that party everyone is going on about, but I haven't seen him anywhere. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Leo let out a 'humph' as the temporary peace was shattered by the veiled threat. "If I did, you would know about it, tailing me through the morning as you have been." He glared at the Hoshidan prince a moment. "But as it so happens, I've already asked around." By which he meant Niles had already reported it to him via leaving a note in his room before he left it this morning. "Archduke Izana is holed up in his study. Doing what, I have no idea."

"Is that the truth?"

A small cough interrupted them and both of the royalty turned to glare at the Izumite guards. "We can confirm Prince Leo's words. We were told recently by the archduke that any questions you have for him will be answered in the evening at a meeting before the party."

So they kept saying.

The one who didn't speak nodded in confirmation, scratching the back of his neck, shifting slightly in a nervous gesture, perhaps unused to the attention.

"Well, that answers that." Leo stated, a tiny smug smirk playing at the corner of his mouth at Takumi's frustration. "Now then." He moved his bishop.

"Check."


"Find anything over there?"

Odin interrupted Niles' thoughts, calling from where he had moved to one of the corners of the library.

"No," Niles called back as he moved to join his companion. "At least nothing that would lead us to the ones responsible for the attack, or the ones who they were ambushing. However, I believe we can be fairly sure it wasn't Nohr."

He stepped around a fallen bookshelf to see Odin crouching near an overturned table, in the midst of picking through a few pieces of parchment. Dozens of books were scattered about. A broken lantern lay on the ground nearby, leaking oil onto a map of the continent.

Odin froze, his mouth open slightly, looking at one of the pieces of parchment.

"Something catch your interest?" Niles asked, moving closer.

Odin startled a little, stuffing the parchment in his pouch under the cloak, though not before Niles caught a glimpse of what looked to be a hand drawn map. Not anywhere he recognized.

"Yes, but I don't believe this is the time or place to study it." Odin straightened, brushing gathered grit off of his cloak. "I think we've found all we can find."

Niles' eye followed him as Odin quickly moved back towards the window they had entered from, dispelling the floating fireball with another snap of his fingers. Was there something Odin didn't want him to see? Well, that wouldn't do at all.

For now he could put that off in favor of letting Lord Leo know of their venture, that at the very least, there wasn't another Nohrian ploy in the works. Not in this at least. He resolved to ask Odin about it later. Among other things.

The door handle rattled on its lock and both he and Odin froze as familiar frustrated voices arguing seep in. Takumi's retainers. Were they the ones he had seen outside talking with the guards earlier? He softly clicked his tongue, berating himself for overlooking the detail.

Thankfully, they were a bit late. Drawing up the hood of his cloak, he dashed to the window, slipping out after reopening the shutter, Odin right behind him. They darted back into the rain-soaked alleyways, unseen.


Twitch.

Something twitched. Was it painful?

Yes, they decided. As it twitched again, they realized it belonged to a hand and flexed stiff fingers, stretching down to an arm filled with pain, which was attached to a body.

Belonged to them? No, belonged to her, she decided.

Who was she?

Joints popped and protested as she shifted, propping her body with her arm, no arms and sat…up? Yes, up. One of the hands, the one not attached to the aching arm, moved to an aching head. And jolted back when it encountered no resistance, moving right through the eyes she meant to rub.

She blinked.

She had eyes.

Her vision resolved to see nothing. It wasn't colorful, light or dark; there was just nothing. The hand that moved through her head itched. She looked down to where she felt it should be and saw memories.

Red hair, finger resting on her chin as she smiled a fake smile. The memory coalesced into her name.

Anna blinked.

She was in a field. She stood. Grass waved lazily at her. She waved back. Smoke and arrows belched out of the grass in response. She stepped forward-

Anna blinked.

-into an empty room. A fox lay on the ground, crying. She moved to ask what was wrong and found she had no voice. Her hand moved to her throat, but stopped when she found that she couldn't see her hand. The fox now lay on the wall in front of her, water seeping through expanding cracks in the wall. She couldn't see herself-

Anna blinked.

-being stabbed repeatedly by a red-eyed woman, surrounded by invisible people like her. Her mind was empty and full of so much noise. The ocean roared.

Anna blinked.

She paused mid-clap, and she looked out of her stall wondering where the customers were. She walked around to the front to find the streets empty. Her dark maroon cloak flapped in the wind.

Anna blinked.

Ah, that was better. The streets were filled with people. Something twinkled on the ground, falling upwards. The back of her head itched. She scratched, before she realized she could see herself. She laughed, and the whole city laughed as one with her in relief.

Anna blinked.

When she looked closer, she realized the people looked like her. All of them looked exactly like her. Annas selling merchandise. Annas shopping. Annas talking. Annas laughing. Annas walking in groups on the streets, on the side of buildings, through walls.

The inside of her head itched. She scratched.

Anna blinked.

She moved to say hello to herself but moved right through with no resistance. Annas played. Annas cried. Gold fell twinkling from the ground into the sky.

Anna blinked.

At once, she couldn't hear anything. She turned to shout to one her passing selves, but she went ignored. She shouted louder and they didn't hear. A throng of Annas moved right through her.

She wasn't there. Swallowed by a crowd of herself.

Anna blinked.

Her foot snagged on nothing and she tripped forwards and fell back. The conversations which she couldn't hear stretched, slowing, as time shifted to a crawl. Above her, another city moved to block out the sun, as thousands on thousands of Annas walked the mirrored streets. Didn't they know they were upside down? Did they even care?

Did she?

He stomach dropped as though she was falling from a great height even though the street was right there. Vertigo set in as she fell.

Into the ground.

She screamed. The noise was immense even as nothing came out. Her throat became raw in the same moment it wasn't. There was nothing to see again.

Anna blinked.

She was standing. The sun beat down coolly overhead into the sand dunes, judging her even as the moon shifted into day. She fell forward to her hands and vomited out the scream from earlier. Sand turned to golden dust to ash. Her shadow stretched out in front of her, but it wasn't her shadow. She turned, standing, unsteady. Nothing was there.

"You're Anna, right?"

Anna blinked.

There was a man in front of her. Did she know him?

Black cloak, purple and gold designs. It looked fresh, unmarred by battle. The six dead eyes stared at her from the sleeves. She backed away fearfully, running into a solid tree that exploded into particles on touch.

"I'm pretty sure you already know me, in a way."

His hair was white.

"Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to help you. Not really."

She found her voice. "Why?"

"I'm already dead, of course."

It was the most obvious thing in the world.

Anna blinked.

She turned towards the graveyard. Bones stuck out of the ground. Her bones? "Then, am I dead as well?"

He shook his head and the world shook with it. "No."

Anna blinked.

She paused, chopsticks frozen in the midst of bringing a clump of rice to her mouth. The fox sat across from her a moment, before she sat across from no one.

Anna blinked.

The mirror in front of her showed her reflection. Her irises were red. She reached out, and the reflection which was and wasn't hers reached out as well to hold her hand.

"We need to get out of here." It was and wasn't the man from before; the voice was the same.

Anna blinked.

She was on the other side of the mirror looking back at herself. Six eyes looked up at her from her right hand, whispering.

"Do you know where we are?" she asked.

She let go of the reflection's hand, and the mirror shattered. Even though it was broken, she could make out her tattered black cloak, purple and gold designs; her own white hair.

The eyes on her hand began glowing with a sickly light. "I'm afraid not. But we have to get back to Izumo. We were going to stop a mad dragon, remember?"

"How do we do that?"

"Do you trust me?"

She nodded.

The inside of her head began to itch. She scratched with the hand with six eyes, even as they protested. Her head burned, her hand burned and she burned.

Anna blinked, and the world shifted.


A/N: Odin finds those notes Robin forgot and it continues to not be Anna's day.

Nothing weird going on there.

Nope.