Emilia knelt in the shadow of the carriage with Peter's head resting on her legs. She had gotten used to being close to him; weeks spent in Peter's company saw them starring into each others faces.

By this point, she was sure that she would have noticed the smallest variation in Peter's face. Seeing him so pale and streaked with sweat with the muscles in his neck tensed was already too much for her. She kept swallowing, trying to avert her eyes from the others around them, to do anything but look at May.

When the thought of glancing to May crossed Emilia's mind she could just feel the tears coming on. Peter was going to shake this off. She had seen him be stabbed and keep on fighting for her and others the first day that she knew him—he would bounce back from this. He had just to.

"I don't understand. What's happening to him?" May demanded of someone, Emilia hoped that it wasn't directed at her.

A strong, heavy hand touched Emilia on the shoulder and she look back over her shoulder to see Steve standing over her, his blue eyes regarding her with what felt like sympathy.

"Let's get him up, Miss Emilia," Steve said. She heard the words, but they didn't quite make sense to her ears. "We need to get Peter into a bed so he's at least more comfortable."

Steve lifted Peter off of her, carefully cradling him to carry him back into the manor closely followed by Emilia and May.

No one was saying it yet, but she couldn't shake the thought that this was all her fault. The moment that she kissed him on the cheek his whole demeanor had changed, albeit briefly, before this happened.

Emilia didn't know all that much about curses, her only experience with them had been only a few weeks ago in Irlam Village. In that instance everything had been handled by Miss Beatrice.

Puck floated past her face and she contemplated asking him if this could be her fault. Could you deliver a curse to someone or trigger one through touch? Could someone have made her kiss into a death sentence.

When they turned to head up the stairs to the second floor of the house she could see Peter's face again; his partially parted lips and his hair clinging to his wet forehead from all of the sweat.

The inside of the house seemed to pressurize and tighten with the commotion of what ever was happening to Peter. There was a cacophony of voices, shouting, the door slamming behind them, Crusch was yelling for Ferris to hurry.

All of it threatened to crush Emilia, her legs trembled and at the top of the stairs she was forced to pause and grab hold of the handrail to rest her weight on it.

This was all her fault. She didn't know how, but someone caused her to kill Peter.

Some kind of witch's curse, Emilia thought.

"Lia? Lia? What's going on?"

Emilia nodded her head, trying to speak but while her lips were moving she could tell that there was no words actually coming out of her own mouth.

An arm wrapped around her waist, threaded between her body and forearm help support her weight. She glanced to her side to see May standing close to her.

"Emilia?" It was May's voice, distressed at what was going on for sure but there was not a hint of anger toward her. "Are you okay to walk? You're not going to pass out, are you?"

While Emilia was looking at her she noticed Roswaal pacing the hall at the top of the stairs as if he was waiting for her. How long had she been stopped?

"I'll be fine. I'm just..." Emilia let her voice trail off as she didn't want to lead anyone else to the path that her thoughts had taken her down.

"Come on, Peter's going to want you in there too," May said.

A dizzying, sinking feeling settled in the pit of Emilia's stomach as she stood at Peter's bedside. She didn't think she had let go of his hand for more than a minute since he had been moved up to his room. May sat on the opposite side of the bed with her hands pressed into her lap while she waited for Ferris to finish his work.

Emilia didn't want to look at Peter's face, but she couldn't help but keep watch over him waiting for his eyes to open or move or do anything to indicate that everything was going to be okay. There were moments where he muttered recognizable names and phrases.

And then he would say other things that didn't quite make sense. For a while before he met her Peter had been living a double life, at least that was how he described it. He was a normal, everyday man in high school and then he was this Spider-Man. From what she had gleamed from Steve and Peter and also what she had seen on the few stories that she had watched with Peter, powers of any kind were very rare in his world.

Peter himself admitted to not even knowing magic was a thing until the day that he got to Lugnica, literally hours before he entered a world where magic was relatively commonplace.

There were so many things that could have been going through Peter's head that caused him to say these odd things and call out to these people who he had never told her about. They had only known each other a month and somehow it felt like a much longer time.

"I-I'm sorry," Ferris started. "As far as I can tell there isn't anything wrong with him…other than the fact that he seems to be in some kind of trance."

"He's tightening his body like that," said May. "Won't he hurt himself eventually?"

"Meow May, it might seem like he's straining hard, but in relative to how strong he seems to be it's not that much—also the longer he lays there the more he relaxes," Ferris explained, turning to rest his hands on May's shoulders.

"Is there any chance this is a curse?" Emilia said.

"A curse?" Ferris said. "Heavens no, if it were a curse I wouldn't even be this positive about it because he'd already be dead basically. This is something I've never seen, but I don't think it's something that is going to kill him—well as long as he doesn't vomit in his own mouth or swallow his own tongue and choke I suppose."

"You're quite the ray of sunshine as always, Ferris," said May.

The light spilling in through the windows shifted as footfalls moved closer to the bed. Roswaal stopped at Emilia's side. She could feel his eyes burrowing into her. Did he suspect that she had done something.

That didn't seem at all like the Roswaal she knew.

"Miss Emilia, if I may remind you, though I know that the situation here has changed, we still are slated to return to the manor. I am sure that whatever malady has befallen Peter he will be well cared for, what with the best healer in the entire kingdom right under this very roof," Roswaal said.

Emilia nodded. "I know that we need to get back to your domain, especially now that it's even less safe here without Peter being active, but if he is like this for too long he won't be accompanying Crusch and the others on the White Whale hunt and if that's the case there is no reason that I can't stay here with him," Emilia said.

"It is highly unnecessary as it stands," Roswaal said, elongating the word stands in the most awkward of ways until it was almost unrecognizable. "Miss May here will be right by his side, I am very sure of it."

Emilia hummed to herself for a split second. "May needs rest too," she said. "If she were to be left here by herself to look after Peter while everyone else planned the attack I am sure that she would just exhaust herself more."

Roswaal looked to May. "She is a grown woman, who despite her peculiarly youthful appearance, is even my senior. I trust that she can take care of the boy herself without endangering her own health."

"I can't leave Peter here in this state," Emilia said.

"Leaders must make tough choices and as a woman in the running for Dragon Priestess…"

May cut him off. "Could we give her a little time to come to grips with the situation? We don't know if this will just pass in a few hours," she said.

"If it passes quickly, then I can follow along in another carriage with May. Between Puck and I, she will be fine," said Emilia.

"Miss Emilia, I must implore you…"

"I'm not leaving here until we know what is wrong with Peter," Emilia said cutting him off. "And if he awakens and is not fully well, I am still not leaving until he is back to normal." Her voice was forceful now, to the point that even Puck was staring at her.

"It is just that I worry about the fact that if Peter was the target of some attack it might be in an effort to get you," Roswaal said.

Emilia got to her full height next to the bed, letting go of Peter's hand in the process. "Look you—you weirdo. I am not leaving the capital city or this house until Peter is back to normal. You're welcome to try and pick me up and carry me to that carriage by yourself, but I would remind you that the only person within these walls to have felled an attack from one of the Three Great Demon Beasts and survived is me. I will not hesitate to answer violence with violence and I will not ask Puck to back down this time. So I would implore you to take the carriage back to your manor without me and await my return. Please."

The room grew colder as Emilia spoke and there was a subtle, frigid wind emanating from the area of her body.

"Miss Emilia," Ferris called out as he reached out to try and take the silver haired half elf by the arm. He was a little too far off, but his words caused Emilia to blink, perhaps giving her enough pause to rethink her words.

May was frozen, stunned into silence.

Roswaal had a strange reaction, at least, it was the last way that Emilia expected of the Margrave. A close lipped smile spread across Roswaal's face. It had been there since her rant started, but it only had grown as she continued and it did so until she stopped.

"As you wish, Miss Emilia," Roswaal said giving her a graceful bow. "When you are ready to return to the manor, tell them to simply bill me."

Roswaal walked toward the door of the bedroom and, it seemed that completely out of nowhere, he was holding a top hat that he flipped up onto his head.

"Miss May, Lady Ferris—I bid you farewell. And Emilia." He opened the door and looked back one more time. "And Peter, do feel better soon."

The moment that he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him Emilia dropped back into her chair, hand to her breast as she started to breath very quickly.

Puck zipped around in front of her face, little legs spread out around him in shock. "What are you doing, Lia?" He asked.

"I don't know…"

"I can't believe you talked to Roswaal like that, though I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't enjoy seeing it," Puck said.

Ferris had his finger to his lips. "Wait, Miss Emilia, did you mention that you faced down one of the Great Demon Beasts?"

Emilia buried her face in her hands. "Yes, but not really, I just destroyed some of The Black Serpent's Black Water sometime ago—I mentioned it before," Emilia said as she glanced up, peeking out from behind her palms.

A stillness fell over the room. She couldn't believe that she had spoken to him like that either. Roswaal wasn't the kind of hold grudges or resort to violence right away. It had been her to openly threaten him when he refused to listen to her, something that must have shocked even Roswaal though she couldn't figure out why he had smiled about it.

There was a knock at the door a few moments later and Ferris opened it for Steve to step through. He surveyed the room before he gaze settled on Peter. "Roswaal is having them remove your bags from the carriage, he says that e has to get back but you're staying here?" Steve asked.

Emilia nodded. "That was what agreed upon," she said.

"Right," Steve said. "Any change with Peter?"

Ferris shook his head. "None since the seizure stopped. It looks like he's sleeping, but he doesn't wake up. He mutters things from time to time though," Ferris said. "Most of it makes no sense though," he added.

"Captain Rogers," Emilia began. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"What is it?"

"Can you continue working with the others on the White Whale situation, I would like to fulfill my part of the bargain that was agreed to with Miss Crusch, especially since we are utilizing her manor and the services of her knight to see to Peter," Emilia said.

"I can do that, but I think the kid is going to be in fighting shape before I have to do all of this alone," Steve said.

"You think so?" Emilia asked, her excitement and interest clearly rising.

Steve gave her a small nod.

"Miss May," Emilia said.

"It's just May."

"May, would you mind if I helped you look over Peter. As I said before you can't neglect all of your sleep and I would hate for Peter to awaken and no one to be awake with him," Emilia said.

May smiled. "I doubt Peter would want it any other way," she said.

"We had been working on his reading—I thought that maybe I could read to him a bit," Emilia suggested and got a nod from May.

"I really wanted to drop by and check on him, we were actually going to discuss some more planning here in a bit. I think Lady Crusch had meant for all afternoon to kind of be planning, but we'll adapt," Steve said.

Emilia wasn't sure if it would be easy for them to adapt. The Whale was up in the air and from what she had seen Peter handled being in the air and reacting fast better than most. If he isn't able to help them it would be a huge blow to the effort. She didn't want to say this and discourage Captain Rogers though.

"We'll be right here when you're done," May said.

Ferris moved for the door, following Steve. "I better get going too," he said. "They might need me on this planning session, but I will come back by when everything is done."

The door to the room closed and they were alone with Peter. Emilia reached up onto the bed and took his hand, curling it between both of hers. At her touch, his eyelids fluttered and his head jerked slightly as he said a name that he previously hadn't.

"Satella…" the word was barely audible, but clearly there.

May watched Emilia, waiting for some kind of reaction and just the fact that there were eyes on her made it that much harder for her to contain everything built up inside of her and ready to burst. She reached up, letting go of Peter's hand with one hand, and brushed the tear away from the corner of her eye.

"Captain Rogers is right," she said. "Peter is going to wake up soon."

The first several minutes of the strategy meeting was dedicated to Peter's condition with Ferris taking the lead to answer questions on the subject. Then there were the questions about who exactly was Peter—there were several new faces at the meeting. Many of them were on loan from Anastasia Hoshin. It seemed that small mercenary company she owned was large enough to have multiple commanders and an in-depth structure for who was in charge of what.

Steve was happy to draw comparisons in his head between the militaries he had seen on Earth and the different groups here. There was a pretty remarkable overlap from what he had picked up so far and it made this world all the more strange for it. Things like ranks and their order at least had some analogue back in his world, but also some of the customs that came with service did too.

When he and Peter had arrived it had kind of been invisible, the way that the culture here and some of the ones on Earth were so similar. But the more he thought about it the less that he could make sense of what was going on, like why would two worlds that developed separately have bowing to show honor or even hand salutes?

Around him there was some discussion going on about the tentative plan of the attack was underway.

"We could try and pick two of the posts and situate the army between them." It was Ricardo that spoke. He was massive, even to Steve. He was some kind of canine Demi-human and he stood tall enough that he had to hunch just to get through some of the doors in the manor.

A red eyed cat Demi-human hissed. "This one talking about waiting until the fog shows up and then trying to pierce through and attack," Chloe said.

Steve thought for a moment, on the one hand if they could count on the whale being somewhere they could surprise it. Catching an enemy off guard could grant them and unparalleled upper hand, but if the attack needs to happen now while the resources are available then splitting up might be the only way to assure it does.

"The fog's going to lower visibility and make it a lot harder for us to keep sight of one another—then there's the fact that you said some of it makes people vanish or lose their mind," he added the last part, this wasn't just regular fog that they were talking about going into.

Crusch was about to say something, but then Wade Wilson, who had decided to join the days meeting piped up. "Is this magical special fog or just regular fog?"

Crusch glared at him.

"For once it's not a joke, I'm just wondering will it react if we blow it?" Wade said.

"Blow it, like if we fail?" Asked Steve.

Crusch pressed her hand to her chin and that was when Steve realized it had been him that misinterpreted Wade's words. "I see what he's saying, if the fog reacts like fog I can push it back with my wind attacks."

"And I can push it back with one of these," Wade said before lifting his leg and letting out a loud fart.

"Mister Wilson, I would ask that you conduct yourself in a manner befitting someone in the presence of several upstanding ladies and people who don't want to have to smell that and wander about your questionable dietary issues," Wilhelm said, his face sculpted into a stern mask as he stopped speaking.

Stillness overtook the room for a beat and then Steve started to speak. "This creature has been around for four hundred years, right?" He said pointing toward the map with the models of their forces laid out on the table.

"In that time how many different types of attack do you think it has survived? We need to do the one thing that no one has before."

"Sure, but Mimi couldn't really tell you what that is," the voice was small and a little bit too chipper to be discussing killing a flying whale demon. She was a tiny Demi-humans with light orange hair braided into pigtails and big fluffy ears raised at the sides of her head. She couldn't seem to quit hopping at the opposite side of the table from Steven, so he only ever saw her in short blips as she crested over the top of the table.

"We surprise it," Steve said. "In the past when someone went looking for it they had to find a place where it had already dug itself in and began the attack, the only advantage we have this time is that. I imagine that the fog would allow this thing to fight rather sizable armies. There will still be limitations to what we can do," he added.

"Correct, we're supplied for an all out assault on the White Whale, if we're splitting into fourths or even half to catch it then it negates a huge component of the plan," Crusch said.

"Hmm, everything that we have so far says that the big boy is going to make its appearance here in the next few days, so we solve the puzzle or we kiss our chance goodbye," Ricardo said.

"And our ace in the hole is gone," Steve mused. "Peter was the one who kind of cracked the beginnings of the whole thing." There was a good reason that Tony had first seen Peter and noticed something special in him and other than just the powers his mind worked in a way that Steve assumed was similar to Tony's.

Ferris sighed. "I don't know what this whole 'ace in the hole' thing means, but I would say that we realistically can't count on Peter being back on his feet since I don't know what is going on with him."

"Can we rule out some kind of attack by the Witch Cult?" Asked Crusch.

"Is anyone having a kind of soft déjà vu sensation?" Wade asked as he wrapped his arms around his torso and began to scratch himself.

Wilhelm stared at him, sneering.

"Oh, yeah, we definitely already did this scene—what day is it?" Wade said.

The others ignored him, resolving themselves to his constant strangeness being a fixture of everything going on.

"I have been thinking, this is a pretty incomplete picture of the Whale's movements, even in recent years. They were gathered mostly by me working alone. If we could go out and check for references again," said Wilhelm.

"We did recheck them after you brought all of this to me," Crusch said.

"True, but there might be something else that we can unearth with more of us—a member of House Astrea and Lady Crusch going out into the city to question people will illicit different answers than if we were to send him for instance," Wilhelm said acknowledging Ricardo.

"Or me," said Wade.

"It's already late," Crusch started. "But we know what we do tomorrow, we check back on the reports of the Whale sightings for any missed details." she explained.

"Does everyone understand?" Crusch asked.

There was a general sound of people agreeing all around the room. The mood was beginning to improve with just that one idea. As everyone was exiting the room and gathering up their things to head out, Wilhelm caught Steve by the shoulder.

"May I speak to you for a moment, Captain Rogers?" He asked.

Steve followed him out into the hallway. "Sir?"

"I just wanted to ask, without everyone else around to hear the outcome. How is the boy's outlook?"

Steve sighed. "I'm no doctor, but the way that Ferris says he can't really tell what the issue is, but it is obvious there is one," Steve said.

"And how is young Miss Emilia?" Asked Wilhelm.

"Heartbroken, but she is trying to remain strong," Steve explained.

"I heard that Master Roswaal did not come away unscathed from an altercation with her," Wilhelm said.

"Miss Emilia didn't mention it to me, but I would imagine that this is all kind of difficult for her," Steve said.

Wilhelm nodded. "There are not many elves left out there, though they are said to be a resilient and magical people—while it appears that she might need less help protecting herself from external violence she is a soft hearted girl," he said.

"Kind of reminds me of my Theresia," Wilhelm added.

"You'll have to tell me about her sometime. If you're interested," Steve said.

"She was a powerful woman, very open to the ides of others and she was fearful of how easily her powers could just take a life. She never wanted to be what she was or to do the things war forced her to—it feels that Emilia is also being made to act in a way that she would not choose for herself. Perhaps it is Peter who is meant to help her shoulder that burden."

Wilhelm touched his side, though he wasn't wearing his scabbard, he had absently put his hand where his sword would have been. Steve hadn't pieced together the whole of what happened with Wilhelm's wife.

"You know, I think you should stop by and just see Emilia and May," Steve said.

Wilhelm looked to the ground, his blue eyes distant. "Perhaps I will, Captain Rogers. Will you train with me tomorrow morning before we set out on our hunt?"

Steve chuckled. "I was going to ask you if you were willing to take a fledgling sword student under your wing one more time," Steve asked.

"I will see you then," Wilhelm said as he turned and headed off down the hallway.

The carriage slowed as it pulled up to a squat house at the edge of the slums with boarded up windows. The door was shambles, half sunken in with a divot near the knob where something heavy had hit it trying to batter it down.

Roswaal opened the door and stepped out with a knowing glance to the driver. He could have tried to conceal his intentions here, but he knew that soon it wouldn't matter what he did in this world. His secrets and designs would be washed away.

"Wait here," Roswaal said over his shoulder.

The future was Roswaal's. His beloved teacher had seen to it that time lay most of her secrets bare to him. Sure, he didn't know everything that everyone got up to, but the larger players were all there as were the things that needed to happen to assure the desired outcome.

The Margrave walked around behind the carriage and moved down through the darkened space beside the old house was almost a room unto itself, the roofs on either side jutted out enough that they obscured most of the sky.

When he had walked until he was completely obscured from the light and it seemed that there was nothing around him but the blackness, Roswaal held his hand up beside him and conjured a small, swirling ball of flame into existence to illuminate the space he stood in.

Before the light filled the area he knew she was standing there, the woman with her black, northern hair and pale skin. She was standing in the corner with her arms crossed over her waist.

Elsa smiled, but it was the kind of smile that one would imagine on the face of a predator when wounded prey wanders into its den. "I didn't expect to see you so soon again."

"Come to dole out my punishment for the previous failure," she asked, there was the glint of something metallic in her hand. She moved fast enough that it seemed to appear there, but she was fully prepared to defend herself, as if she could.

"I would not have spent half a day searching to find you were I only after revenge," Roswaal said. This part wasn't in his future, but he fate had dealt him a bad start to this attempt and there was no reason to see it out to its intended end.

"Circumstances have changed," Roswaal said. The coins jingled inside of the coat as he extracted them.

"Another contract, for half-elf girl?" she asked. "I've never seen the inside of a half-elf before, it might be intriguing."

Roswaal knew it wouldn't matter, she would remember none of it anyway.

"In the manor of Crusch Karsten there is a boy in an upstairs bedroom, you've actually fought him before. Peter Parker?" Roswaal said.

Elsa's cheeks reddened. "I'm just to kill him? Any special instructions?"

"It doesn't matter how, just get it done," Roswaal said. "It would be best if you attacked after night fall. Oh and avoid direct confrontation with Steve Rogers at all cost."

This world had lost its usefulness for him. Everything was in the hands of another Roswaal now.