One could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed Margaret's question. Velvet had no idea where it came from for but one moment, followed by a horrible suspicion. Yet all she got out was a soft "What?", eyes still glued to her distraught student.
Margaret reached forward and clasped her hands around Velvet's arm, actually begging her. "Please tell me," she whispered. "Why do birds fly, Velvet? I need to know your answer!" There was an urgency to her actions and words that confused and scared Velvet.
It took several seconds of staring before she managed to push back the shock; Velvet took a deep breath and gently put her hand over Margaret's. "Birds fly because they want to fly. Wherever they wish, however long they want, even if their wings are broken in the process. They fly because they want to, out of their own free will." Her answer had not changed from when she last gave it. To Arthur.
Margaret shuddered but said nothing, instead turning her head to Laphi. The question remained unasked this time, but he answered without further prompting: "Birds fly because they must. My answer hasn't changed, sister," he added when Velvet threw him a look. "Birds were given wings to embrace the sky, and thus they must fly."
His attention then went to Margaret, who let go of Velvet and was hugging herself, shaking. Laphi asked the question his sister dreaded: "What is your answer?"
Margaret's wide eyes went back to them, her shaking intensified and it broke Velvet's heart to have this scared child right in front of her without being able to do anything. She wanted to reach out, yet the unconcious realisation kept her bound in place. Before her eyes, Margaret took a deep breath much like Velvet herself had; the girl's shaking calmed and faded, yet her eyes remained wide. "Birds fly," she began but hesitated, then forced the words out: "Birds fly because their wings are strong."
Each word was like a punch to the face; the same words he had once given. She looked at this quivering child, a girl a good bit shorter than herself, years younger. A girl who soaked up the style she tought her, his style, whose heart was bigger than she herself knew, and who took responsibility for her own actions; a girl whose resonance was strong.
They overlooked the most obvious of them all.
Laphi kept a calmer head than she did in these moments. "Just to make absolutely sure," he opened with a glance to his sister, "you did not tell her about this before, Velvet?"
"No. Did you?" Her voice was so weak, almost begging him to say it was him. The cruel prank would be kinder than reality.
The answer she did not want came from Margaret: "You didn't." The girl almost collapsed into herself as she continued: "Neither of you. I, I just..." She trailed off, mouth opening and closing a few times as words failed her. Velvet had none either, just stared in indecision about what to do now. Then Margaret slumped to the ground, fresh tears quivering in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she gurgled, "for everything I did to you! I remember it so clearly and-"
"Stop."
Velvet had enough. She stepped forward and reached for the broken girl in front of her after all. Her feelings were roiling, roaring nonsencial actions in succession. Break down crying, tear her limb from limb, embrace her, comfort her, hate her, love her, despise her, turn her, break her. She ignored them all and put a hand on Margaret's head, nothing more.
"But-" "Stop."
The girl fell silent, staring up at her out of wide eyes. She was tense, obviously expecting to be struck. The sight made Velvet shudder again, to even consider hurting a child. She did not believe the words she knew she should speak, perhaps just not yet, but she would speak them anyway. Just like she told Seres so long ago. But first, she had to make sure. "You remember a life as Artorius Collbrande?" A nod, nothing more. Velvet nodded back.
"Then this means you inherited his soul, but it doesn't mean you are still him. You are you, Margaret Randgriz, and no one else." Her words, final as they were in judgement and hollow in sincerity, merely made the girl cry again; Margaret hid her face and sobbed into her hands, a pitiful sight so unlike the man she once was. Velvet sighed; she could not bring herself to hug her, not just yet. She had worked things out with Laphi, figured out so many things, but the wrath still burned in her throbbing heart.
Her brother carefully sidled up next to Margaret and pulled the girl into an embrace of his own, accepted her clutching him without much thought. His eyes were on Velvet, though. "I imagine that she needs time; right now, she was flooded in memories of a life several times longer than her own." He had a point, but she still stood uncertain. Some time passed like this; in the end, Velvet slowly stepped back and slumped onto her bed. Her thoughts went in circles for a while as she allowed emotions to surge through herself, hands clenching and unclenching. Laphi had Margaret in hand; she cried on his shoulder while he stroked her back.
How long it was until she stopped crying, no one knew. They were not interrupted.
After one last hiccup, Margaret fell silent. It was then that Laphi slowly dislodged the girl and held her at an arm's length. "You are not Artorius Collbrande," he began softly. "Yet you were once him, that is also a fact. Do not let this deter you from your own path, but use the knowledge it grants you. Arthur was a great man, not even Velvet is going to deny that." He cast a glance to his sister, who shook her head no. No one could deny it.
Margaret simply stared a little longer, just breathing. Seeing her like this, eyes puffy and red, the snot her brother was just in the process of wiping off, pushed Velvet into making a choice for now. "You're going to take the today off after this shock. No work, no practice."
"A-Actually, could I, could I do some training?" Margaret ducked her head under Velvet's sharp glare. "That, um, always helps me clear my head, is all." She was hesitant and broke eye contact within moments. But Velvet understood. She took in the girl's shaken expression and her current state, heaving a sigh.
"Alright, but only a little. And only after you cleaned up properly."
"Yes, Velvet."
She accepted the decision easily enough before rising. The siblings both went along, waited as she washed her face, and finally led her down to the teleportation chamber. Or rather, to its back room, where the seventh and final portal was set down. The only connection to the Bloodwings' hidden base. Velvet felt numb all the way, trying not to let it sink in too much just yet. Margaret studied the gate with forced calm while Laphi powered it up. She glanced at Velvet then, but said nothing; they all knew where it led, what that place meant to them.
Their transition was silent, Margaret's face empty as she stepped onto the solid stone of Innominat's lowest ring; she stood there and stared on without any visible emotion, took in the gaggle of seraphim going this way and that. Ever since they decided to turn Innominat's body into a base, Laphicet added rainbow roads connecting the various structures arrested in mid-air, their only other physical connection to Innominat the spires reaching up to his body.
The three began to walk, up one of the gently oscillating bridges and to the administration; a cathedral in size, its dark blue walls stood almost ominous as seraphim entered or left alone or in pairs. Waves and smiles were exchanged between them, though no one asked about the mood they brought along. An upward stream of mana carried them onto the roof in a single minute, from where the procession carried on. Innominat had lost all wonder from when they first showed the place to Margaret and Cynthia; they just moved through the structures in use without really taking in their surroundings.
To some relief for Velvet, the training facilities were deserted; a free-floating courtyard with an adjacent temple had been taken aside for them, the distance from Desolation and sturdy structures allowing to test even destructive artes without concern for damages or attention. Velvet had held combat practice for new recruits a few times, teaching them how to fight; Laphicet and some of the older seraphim held workshops on arte-weaving or the teaching of complicated artes from time to time.
Right now, she would much prefer teaching others over trying not to stare a hole into Margaret's back. Perhaps she was onto something after all, wanting to practice. If Velvet did not suddenly feel like she had to keep an eye on her, she might leave to do that herself.
The moment they returned to solid ground, Margaret stepped forward and went to her basic stance; shoulders tensed slightly, center of gravity lowered. The girl took deep breaths and drew her sword, then flowed into motion. Motion which, they quickly realised, was off. Velvet needed to watch a few iterations of the same spinning sidestep before she realised what happened, what tripped Margaret up; it only made her gut churn harder. "She's adjusting for Arthur's memories."
"Who was noticeably taller than she is," Laphi finished her musings solemnly. His face did not give away what he thought of this entire matter. "I am not surprised that he internalised this style to the point he knew exactly how far which motion carried him."
"Me neither. Do you think she got his muscle memory as well?"
"Muscle memory is part of the muscles, Velvet. We burned those last year, so she can't. This is her own muscle memory working with and against her concious memories."
The idle conversation helped Velvet keep herself grounded. She watched the girl who was, no, used to be her student with a sense of blissful numbness. The rage had faded into a faint simmer, allowing her to ponder. "I can't teach her anything anymore," Velvet told Laphi quietly, "now she has all of his knowledge." Then another thought followed: "How do we explain this to Cynthia?"
She received a helpless shrug from Laphi. "I don't think we can, really. Unless she wants her mother to know and explains it herself." He fell quiet for a moment and chuckled humourlessly. "And I even said another reincarnate would make a big mess of things, just last week. I really didn't expect it to be like this." His next words were barely a whisper, but Velvet heard them: "I didn't expect Arthur."
Neither did she.
Shigure, Oscar, Teresa, she would have even taken Melchior over this. It would have been so much easier. Yet, Velvet admitted to herself, life had a habit of not being easy. She watched how, slowly over the minutes yet with surprising swiftness in total, Margaret's motions adjusted, became more fluid again. Her diminished height and reach in comparison to her time as Artorius were accounted for and the experience of a thousand battles let her adjust the stances even further. They were slight changes, almost imperceptible to anyone else; to Velvet who knew this style better than anyone bar Claudin and Artorius himself, each one caused yet more whiplash. Margaret's blade sung as it cut through the very air in precise motions.
Her usual serene expression was amiss, however; Margaret frowned near-constantly as memorised distances failed to add up, strikes and parries against imaginary enemies finding her not where she intended to be. On they watched as she slowly began to mitigate this; Velvet could tell that she would need a while to get used to these changes in particular.
An hour passed like this; none of the seraphim passing by came near, but most of them stopped to watch the practice for a spell. In the end, Margaret sighed and stood normally again. She made to sheathe her weapon without looking, but slipped up and missed the scabbard when it did not line up with the length of the blade she remembered wielding. The girl closed her quivering eyes for a moment before turning back to the two siblings, any indicator of her feelings wiped away as she approached them.
"I will need a while to get used to this, I feel. But... thank you, for being considerate despite it all. Heavens know I do not deserve it."
Something about her words was odd, but Velvet could not say what. She merely shook her head in response, still numb. "Think nothing of it." Glancing around and finding no one nearby to overhear, she allowed herself a deep sigh. "Just know that I never stopped loving Arthur, even after everything." Margaret stiffened under her gaze, but Velvet was mostly just trying to get the words out. "It's the same with Laphi. Both of them got punished long ago."
This earned her a thoughtful frown, followed by a faint smile. "Your perception is unusual indeed. Just as well that you are already a Hellion."
"I'll say."
It was then that Laphi injected himself into the conversation: "Say, how does it feel like to be a girl?" When both women cast flabbergasted looks in his direction, he pointed at Margaret. "I mean, she remembers having been a man now, yes? I wonder how different it-" "Laphi, shut uuuup!"
A furiously blushing Margaret then proceeded to cover his mouth, wide eyes directed right at him. "Why did you have to say it? I don't want to remember this, it's, it's..." She trailed off and almost burst into embarassed tears.
This scene drew a laugh from Velvet, despite it all. "What," she asked lightly, "is it that different now?"
Margaret glowered at the two of them and answered almost sardonically. "It's not the differences, it's the memories. I never even kissed a boy before and now, now I remember making Celica pregnant! Vividly!"
And suddenly, the blush made sense. Velvet's grin fell at being reminded of her late sister, as did Laphi's. Thinking of Celica however, she remembered something else. Something she had held onto yet never wore, as it was not hers. She reached into her inventory and rummaged around for it, which gave Margaret time to get a grip. Huffing, the younger girl's face finally returned to a more normal colour. "That aside, well, all of my most recent memories are of being a woman. I miss the height I had as a man and I feel weaker in general, but I think I am more nimble like this." She moved her hips this way and that as if in consideration, then shrugged.
"Might work better if you didn't take to wearing pants instead of skirts," Velvet quipped. A liability the fluttering cloth might have been, but it also allowed for splits that most pants would either impede or tear from. She then decided to ignore her conundrum a little longer and poke some more fun at Margaret. "Besides, you're missing out on the full experience with your boobs that small."
This netted her a roll of the eyes and a shrug. "Meh, don't think I don't remember how much you complained about fighting when yours started growing. I'm quite happy with my modest bust, thank you very much." She thumped her chest for emphasis while Velvet chuckled.
"That's fair. Being an Empyrean does have its perks though, I don't need to bother about that any longer." And good riddance, truly.
"Or about them sagging when you get older."
Any comment Margaret was in the process of making was drowned out by sudden, hearty laughter while Velvet mock-glared at her grinning brother. She was not even that annoyed, mostly just grateful for him cheering the girl up and trying to hide it, but the moment of levity did not last. She found it and pulled it out.
"Margaret."
The laughter ceased and made way for worried curiousity; Velvet's hand returned from the pocket dimension she carried around at all times, the keepsake hidden in her palm. She was careful not to crush it and made doubly sure no one was watching them right now. "When we woke up," she started slowly, "your... his body was still there. Preserved, somehow." Her meaning was caught and she had Margaret's full attention immediately. This time it was Velvet who could not hold her gaze. "We incinerated it and spread the ashes onto Desolation." A soft nod, acceptance. "But I kept this."
She held out her hand and revealed the pendant she took from her brother's blade a year ago. Two artfully, if somewhat clumsily, carved white feathers on a dark, circular background. Margaret's breath hitched the moment she saw it, eyes growing wide and starting to quiver once more. She looked up at Velvet and then back at the offered trinket. Looked up and back at it. Slowly, hesitantly, she reached out; her motion paused more than once, as if expecting Velvet to pull it back. Laphi watched in silence.
Velvet waited, her gut churning once more but any outward responses suppressed by her will. She waited until, ever so slowly, Margaret's hands closed around the pendant. Her fingers scraped over the older woman's palm, revealing that the younger one was shaking ever so slightly. She took the pendant with reverence, held it in her open palm to look at it. Then back up at Velvet, asking permission.
Velvet nodded.
Margaret shakily hugged the small thing to her chest, eyes closing. A trickle of silent tears ran down her cheeks. She stood like this for a bit, then expelled her breath in a deep sigh and pushed it into her pocket. "I would wear it at once," she mumbled sadly, "but it needs a new clasp first." Then her gaze turned back to Velvet. "Thank you, for letting me have this. From the bottom of my heart."
Her earnest words almost made Velvet's own heart break once again. She felt a sting in her eyes as tears threatened to erupt once more, but Laphi chimed in and thankfully turned the conversation elsewhere: "I was wrong." He waited until he had both of their attention, then spoke to Margaret. "You inherited Arthur's resonance, which means I could form a pact with you."
At least that kind of idea was easily answered; namely, with a firm look at her brother. "But you won't. After the last time you two went off on your own, I'm not going to allow it."
Margaret lowered her eyes in shame, but immediately looked back up in horror when Laphi answered in a playful grumble: "There you go trying to suppress free will forever just once and she never lets you hear the end of it."
"That, and the mental torture, and the religious indoctrination. Should I continue?"
"H-How can you be so casual about this?" Now Margaret sounded positively scandalised, wide eyes wandering between the two. "So many people died, so many lives ruined, how..." She made a vague motion toward them without finishing the sentence. Laphi shrugged and Velvet did the same.
"It's just... what's done is done, we can't change it anymore. I still love both of my brothers, I don't want to just look at the past and keep hating them for it." She tilted her head slightly at Margaret, unsure if her reasoning made sense.
Laphi chimed in there. "Perhaps ascending into divinity helped, but we basically decided to let the past lie."
"But that doesn't mean you can just make jokes about it!... Wait, divinity? 'We'?"
Both of them shrugged and Margaret threw up her hands. "I can not... ugh, Crowes!" And she marched away, leaving behind a pair of somewhat befuddled siblings. At the border of the training area however, her previous annoyance had evaporated and she turned around once more. "I'd like to have some time for myself, to sort things out. That is alright, yes?"
Velvet just nodded. "Sure, take all the time you need."
Once Margaret was out of sight, she turned to Laphicet; all tension was gone from her form and she almost slumped. He felt he understood his sister in this moment, though his own mixed feelings were likely different from hers. "You were trying not to let it sink in just yet, weren't you?"
"...yes. Excuse me for a moment." She fell still and he could almost hear Minkkubi's roar of primal rage, deep below in the earthpulses. He could definitely feel it, from the arte the other Empyreans taught him to connect with his sister's body.
. .
. .
It originated from below Pendrago and sent minor earthquakes through the entire country, all the way to Ladylake. The entire continent Glenwood shook almost imperceptibly in these moments. Deep below the sibling gods, Malevolence suddenly jerked and began to boil everywhere, if just for a few seconds. Seraphim panicked, humans stumbled, old buildings and ruins fell where their structures finally gave.
Van Aifread grumbled about half his crew taking a nosedive from the land's sudden lurch. Alisha Diphda took a knee to pray to the seraphim while Shepherd Sorey next to her asked Lailah what it could mean, to no conclusive response. His brother Mikleo, far away and exploring a different ruin, merely dove below a sturdy stone bench to not get hit by rubble.
On her mountain, Edna felt it as well, a dark grasp on the land that let loose landslides as it shook the stone. She was perfectly safe on her perch up high... and yet, an actually audible roar from even higher dispersed the foreign presence on their home. Eizen circled above her, an everlasting guardian; were him being a danger for her not so ingrained, he would have shielded her from the unseen colossus with his body.
A man steeped in darkness felt his very being contort for an instant, as something far greater than himself stirred in the distance. He could not tell what or where, just that it definitely existed. Maotelus did not react, likely having missed it in his final years. Heldalf took it as proof that his precautions had been correct, and to go even slower lest he draw the unknown leviathan's eye.
The only ones who truly understood were a woman of the faith, who interrupted her prayer to listen to her goddess' rage, and an old woman in a cozy house, who laughed about her adopted seraph girl's sudden confusion.
And Zaveid who paid it no mind, figuring that it was a woman-thing.
The phenomenon did not repeat, and thus no one but the elder and the amused gods would remember more than the quakes beyond this day.
. .
. .
Laphicet chuckled while his sister spent a few seconds screaming out her frustrations. "We can probably pretend this was some kind of natural occurence," he told Velvet once she finished. It was not even too far from the truth, anger was natural. "Just don't do that again in the next hundred years or so, yes?"
The glare he got in response almost made him wilt; it definitely would have before his death. Velvet sighed and massaged her temples. "Just why did this have to happen right now?" She complained out loud. "I don't know what to think!"
With many years of experience in understanding his sister, Laphicet went to respond to what she meant instead of what she said. "I'm happy we have Arthur back, too. In a way, at least." Then he became thoughtful, his eyes going toward the rainbow bridge Margaret left on. "Hm. Considering they both died within a few weeks of each other... this might be a hint for how the cycle of reincarnation works."
His attempt to distract his sister was successful, too. Velvet blinked and turned back to Laphicet with a frown. "I thought you know how that works?"
However she got that idea. He shook his head. "Not at all. I know to return the souls sacrificed to me after waking up, but that's all. The others can not even do that, I can't say whether being a sacrifice has any influence on the process, and we do not know how it actually works; where does the soul stay in the interim? No one knows."
Some excitement actually stole its way into his voice as he explained, much to Velvet's confusion. Then again, she never really understood the joy of a great mystery to unravel; he did not explain it to her and carried on instead: "Either way, two are far too small a number to assume a rule. It doesn't help that most people who reincarnate as humans wouldn't actually remember anything. But if this pattern holds, we might see your friend Eleanor in, uh, about sixty years, give or take a few? Assuming that her memories awaken."
Velvet just rolled her eyes at him even while he still spoke. "That's so unlikely we might as well ignore it," she answered once Laphicet finished. Yet he could see the faint smile the idea brought to her face. She even admitted it, with no one but him there: "But it would be nice. We argued a lot, but we always had each other's backs." She spent a few more seconds reminiscing, then shook it off and resumed their conversation. "Actually, how do human sacrifices work then? The way people make it out, you would consume their souls for energy... but how can you reincarnate them?"
Laphicet blinked at her in confusion, then he let out a disappointed 'tsk' and shook his head. "Velvet, Velvet, Velvet." He prepared something behind his back as he spoke, chiding his sister a little bit. "A single human soul, or even two in my case; do you really think there is enough energy in one to give a god the strength to awaken?"
She raised a finger as if to respond, then lowered it and considered the question. There was his chance! A swift motion followed and Velvet did not even see the glowing sphere coming before it slapped her in the face, dispersing into motes of light. This left her with a decidedly unamused look, eyes narrowed and arms close to being crossed. She definitely noticed the other, not glowing sphere he still held. "What was that for?"
"That, dear sister, is basically what a human sacrifice does. There is a reason the texts specify a pure soul of strong resonance; the resonance is what it needs to actually be noticed." He then threw the dark sphere at her, which simply bounced off her chest and dissipated. "And free of Malevolence so the Empyrean does not crush everything near the sacrifice on instinct. Imagine someone setting you on fire while you sleep, how would you react?"
"Point taken. So the souls are not food but rather a wake-up call."
"Exactly!"
He was glad that she understood so well. The metaphor was not completely accurate, but he felt it had been close enough. Velvet mulled the whole matter over for a moment, then she turned around. "I'll think about all this later. For now I'm taking a walk." She did not wait for his response, merely hopped over the floating platform's edge and flew away; Laphicet had no idea where to, but he figured his sister would know her own needs best. In a way, it gave him time to come to terms with the return of Artorius as well.
He soon turned his attention upward on his solidified body. Access to the upper rings was restricted, mainly because the lower ring had enough space for the Bloodwings' needs. He considered floating up there to meditate for a while, but finally decided against it. Laphicet turned back toward the administration area and slowly began to walk, wondering what Edna would think of this entire affair. Or Symonne, for that matter. He was certain both were alive during Shepherd Artorius' time and Edna knew at least parts of the true story. Symonne might have insight about one of the greatest men who ever lived walking the earth again.
Then again, he chided himself, he could not really talk to either of them about this. It irked Laphicet to keep secrets from friends, but there was too much at stake... too much that could go wrong if they found out.
"Laphicet?"
He became aware of his surroundings again, finding Margaret almost right in front of him. She still appeared distraught, if a lot more together than before. Yet she must have turned around while on the way back for some reason. "Yes? Is something the matter?"
She fidgeted a little at first, but soon raised her eyes to meet his own. "I just tried to order my thoughts and remembered something. What happened to the Caelix?"
He needed a moment to think about that. Though the pause was mostly out of embarassment. "I, uh, completely forgot it existed. Do you think it's still there?"
"It was supposed to last for a small eternity," Margaret lectured softly. "Even unmaintained, there is a good chance for it to have remained operational." And he once again noticed how her speech pattern shifted, more in line with Arthur's now. Not exactly the same, but closer.
Meanwhile, Laphicet considered the matter. If the Caelix had passed the test of time, they had to take a look posthaste and make sure everything was alright there. "Then we will go and check, right now if possible." He waved her to follow and sped up a little, then hopped off the road and onto a building it ran over without connecting. Margaret jumped right after him before realising she lacked a seraph's bond to make the ten metres uninjured; Laphi caught her halfway and lowered her to the ground gently.
"Thank you. I... still need to order my thoughts, later."
He said nothing and placed down another teleportation arte, then sensed outward for others to attune with. This new gate linked up with one far distant without any issue, much to his surprise. "The route to Hexen Island is still open," he mused out loud. "Convenient, that saves time."
He channeled mana from his hand into the arte, then held onto Margaret with the other; they strolled through the gate a moment after it had finished forming. The transition was different, though. Not a quick leap as normal, but several nauseating lurches that ended with both of them being spat out into a small heap on black grass.
"Oww..."
He blindly patted Margaret's shoulder as she groaned and made to push himself up. Then his senses adjusted and he paused, unsure if he wanted to see what was around them. Going by how still the girl on top of him got, she had already gone ahead and opened her eyes. Sighing, Laphicet pushed off the ground and brought Margaret up by extension. Then he finally looked, to find the hellscape he already expected.
An almost physical wall of black fog surrounded them, Malevolence thicker than he ever saw before. The grass had turned dark, what few trees there might have been on the island earlier were warped or gone. The land sloped into unnatural forms where darkness contorted it, the most outstanding being a looping slope closer to the isle's edge. He could not sense any hellions, but the fog may as well be hiding them.
He was so morbidly fascinated that he completely forgot he could just eat it all.
What saved Margaret's life a moment later was their peripheral vision. It made her step back in an attempt to dodge the lunging creature, and made him turn to interpose himself. Just in time, as something five times his size barrelled into Laphicet before being stopped dead. Several ugly crunching noises told of one of the 'hound's' many spines cracking, its seven paws making to grasp and scratch at them before a sloppy haymaker from Laphicet sent it flying.
He could not see much detail with how fast it happened, but the grey fur and three heads did not inspire confidence. None of them were canine despite its wolf-like body structure. Moreover, he felt a stinging burn right in his front; Margaret gasped at the sight while he blinked downward. A hand slowly rose to tap the small hole in his clothes, scoop up a trace of golden blood as it trickled from where the central head pierced him with its short horn.
"We have to leave," she told him while the 'hound' began to circle them. A moment passed, then a quiet "Oh". Laphicet turned to where she was looking, only to find the teleportation arte splintered; chances were it was already breaking down, the fact it remained functional for so long a miracle in itself.
Thinking quickly, he picked Margaret up in a princess carry and took to the air. Her surprised "eep" went ignored as he tried to see through the fog, then sped off to where he figured the beach might be. A few minutes of fast, unsteady flight later, they touched down on sand as bleached as bone, with waves more Malevolence than water licking at it. Margaret shivered and hugged herself after being set down, looking around warily while Laphicet set up a few protective barriers around them; soft, golden light soon thrummed and illuminated their wide eyes.
"We need to tell Velvet about this," he told her, to an immediate nod. Then he began the arduous task of setting up a new teleportation arte in a new location. At least they remained undisturbed.