As the Rayshift took effect, da Vinci's faint satisfied smile flickered as her brow furrowed. Her fingers twitched, as if around a pencil. Then she looked around. When she spotted Holmes standing behind her with a distracted expression, she stalked over to him, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him into the little Director's Ready Room.
"Da Vinci—" began Holmes, but she cut him off.
"I am a genius, Holmes," she said, picking up a pencil. "As a result, sometimes—often—I do things that surprise, even astound those around me! However…" She frowned. "I rarely astound myself. And yet I have. Can you, perhaps, tell me why I sent Kaiya and Arjuna on this mission?"
Holmes raised one eyebrow. "Kaiya Hisau, psychologically damaged, with hair-trigger mood swings, and her emotionally unstable and fixated Servant Arjuna, suspected of recently wiping out most of the population of a small Singularity because they offended him? Yes, I've been wondering about that too."
The pencil snapped in da Vinci's fingers as she stared at him. "Why did you not say something earlier?"
"Eheheh," said Holmes, with a little smile that suggested he was intrigued rather than distressed. "I'm afraid we've both been subjected to some form of mental interference. I didn't consider it until after they were gone. I was in the midst of analyzing my recent decisions when you pulled me aside." His gaze once again went far away as he consulted his memory.
Da Vinci picked up the broken pencil and sat at the desk, pulling out a sheet of paper and doodling as she thought ferociously.
Meditatively, Holmes said, "I believe my decision to support their partnership is still valid in the context of some of the forecasts I've discussed with you. However—" He touched his eyes lightly, "—I feel as if I have been… dreaming? The context weighting has shifted."
Hopelessly, da Vinci said, "I'll send for Jack, soon. She's always resisted such effects before."
"So have I," pointed out Holmes. "Still, a necessary step. I shall prepare to adjust for her own mental pollution."
"I'm trying to imagine who would do this," complained da Vinci bitterly. "Has that Demon Pillar reached all the way into Chaldea? If so, why would it want Arjuna there?" She stared down at her self-portrait with only half the features drawn in. "Or is there something else at work?"
The newly named Atlas Theatricals troupe from Chaldea landed in the Salem Singularity in pitch darkness, on ground that crunched underfoot. The smell of earth and old trees surrounded them.
"But at least we didn't fall this time!" chirped Ritsuka. "I didn't expect it to be this dark inside too, though."
"It's night, Master," said Robin Hood dryly. "Just stay still for a few moments and let your eyes adapt."
Kaiya exhaled slowly, every nerve quivering as she listened for movement near her. Once again the voice of her mother was loud in the back of her mind, pushing her into survival mode.
"Kaiya," breathed Arjuna near her. Too near her; she hadn't heard him. He didn't touch her, though.
"All right, is everybody here? Time for roll-call," announced Ritsuka, with her usual cheer. "I think we're in a forest!"
One by one, the servants responded to Ritsuka's roll-call. Shakespeare was the official leader of the troupe, while Mata Hari, Hector, David and Ritsuka served as his actors. Robin Hood had been assigned the role of stage hand and general understudy. ("Yes, for the actresses, too, Robin. Why, in my time—") Lord El-Melloi II, tapped for his magical expertise when Medea refused to come, was the technical advisor, and Mash, elated at once again finding a place on a mission after a long convalescence, was the stage manager.
Arjuna responded to Ritsuka calmly, his voice coming from just behind Kaiya as he stood in his usual place. Shakespeare hadn't been kidding when he'd discussed casting Arjuna as a guard. The playwright had rambled on about how sometimes enthusiastic audience members wanted to join a performance, especially with such beautiful actresses on display—and apparently the threat of robbers was very real. ("For some reason, people always think actors had money, ahahahaha, if only…")
"Kaiya?" finished Ritsuka.
"Yeah, I'm here," Kaiya said. Like Robin Hood, she was a general understudy. Except her role was to sit in the audience during rehearsals and watch. Shakespeare had almost managed to convince her that it was a crucial position, which said more about his powers of persuasion than anything else.
"Great! Robin, are you sure it's just night? It's really dark."
"Shh. I hear something—" Robin's voice faded as he moved away.
Despite the darkness, Kaiya closed her eyes to further concentrate on listening, and then stepped toward Arjuna's warmth until she bumped into him. His long hand slid around her waist.
Although she'd never attended Clocktower, Kaiya's mother had trained her in minor magecraft, just as her father had trained her mother. She could do a little bit of healing, she could create familiars, and she could work with Bounded Fields. It was a very small amount of magecraft—and yet it was more than Ritsuka could do without the aid of her Mystic Codes.
Kaiya flushed, her concentration thrown off by the raw envy in the thought.
Arjuna responded to the ripple of tension that passed through her by leaning his cheek against her hair. "Shh."
"This place is bad," she muttered. "I can feel it in the air."
"You can say that again," said Robin grimly, from a different direction than he'd faded out. "What's moving around in the woods isn't friendly."
"Animals?" asked Mata Hari uneasily. Her forte was people.
Robin snorted. "Yeah, there's some animals, too. It's not going to be dawn for hours yet, so we might as well start moving toward the village."
"I can't see yet, but Mash will hold my hand," said Ritsuka. "Right, Mash?"
"Of course, senpai," said Mash, and Kaiya could hear the blush in her voice. "I can at least see dimly now. Is anybody else having problems. Kaiya? Lord El-Melloi II? Shakespeare?"
Kaiya opened her eyes and stoically regarded the dark shapes moving against darkness around her. She was pretty sure that was a tree, and that was David—or was it Hector?
"My dear young lady," said Shakespeare. "I'm at a loss as to why you placed me with Kaiya and Lord El-Melloi II, who both have mortal bodies. I am a proper Servant!"
Dryly, Lord El-Melloi II said, "And I'm a pseudo-Servant. I'm not going to break a leg, Mash."
Kaiya ground her teeth. "And I'm a useless human. But Arjuna won't let me fall."
"Correct," said Arjuna softly, sweetly, and she tilted her head back against his chest. He didn't make her feel any better than the banter between the Servants did, but the solidity of his presence at her back promised both survival now and an emotional escape later.
"Let's get a move on," she said, lifting her head. She laced her fingers through Arjuna's and stepped forward.
"Kaiya!" said Ritsuka, her cheer vanishing. "Don't go ahead this time!"
Once again, Kaiya flushed, recalling her bout of temper in the werewolves' micro-Singularity. "I'm not."
"Thank god," muttered Robin Hood.
"Careful, poacher," said Arjuna in his sweetest voice.
"Oh, learn a new song, will you?" snapped Robin. "This way, people."
They walked for about ten minutes, with Robin Hood and Hector in the lead, Ritsuka and Mash in the middle, Kaiya and Arjuna in the back, and everybody else strung out between them. They all had packs full of theatrical supplies (save for Robin Hood and Arjuna, who as the designated scout and stabber-in-chief were privileged with freedom of movement), and good-natured complaining about the load made up most of the conversation.
"I do like this dress, though," said Mata Hari. "I know it's just another costume, but it's comfy. The sewing crew did a good job."
Kaiya slid her hands into the pockets of her skirt. She, Mata Hari and Ritsuka all wore skirts with aprons, chemises and bodices—but they'd been improved past their historical models, both with mundane elements such as pockets, and a protective Mystic Code woven into the chemise.
"I see a fire ahead," said Robin softly, his voice barely carrying to the back of the procession. "We're nowhere near the village yet, though. Let's see if we can get a look without being noticed."
"Easy enough for you," mumbled Kaiya, as Robin pulled his cloak around himself and vanished. But she too could see the glow of firelight and realized that whoever was at the fire wouldn't be able to see anything beyond the circle of light. As long as nobody started shouting, the crackle of the flames would obscure the sound of their approach, too.
Besides, they were talking. Multiple piping girls' voices rose over the snap of the fire, both together and individually.
"Chanting and dancing," said Lord El-Melloi grimly. "Well, I suppose it had to start somewhere."
"They're making wishes." Mata Hari was amused. "For such innocent things. New dresses, better hair, to see their true love's face."
"And yet," said Lord El-Melloi. "Of such innocent games tragedies are born."
Mata Hari's eyes gleamed as she glanced at the tall Caster. "You can't blame the children for the bad choices of the adults."
Lord El-Melloi shifted forward. "At least I can't detect any… oh."
Arjuna's grip on Kaiya's hand tightened painfully. "What is this, Caster?"
Weakly, Lord El-Melloi said, "Well, we knew we'd be entering a region prepared to receive us."
"A trap," said Kaiya bitterly. "What's going on?"
Lord El-Melloi turned to the others. "Can any of you turn into spirit form?"
"Eh?" said Hector, and then, "Odd. No."
"Neither can I," added David. "This is an adventure."
"Something presses against us," said Arjuna, an unusual thrum of anger under his voice. "Like a giant hand, holding us to these bodies."
"It's affecting my magical perceptions, too," admitted Lord El-Melloi. "Kaiya, you have some magecraft training, do you not?"
Startled at Lord El-Melloi knowing anything about her, as she'd barely ever spoken to the Servant, Kaiya said, "A little."
"She can do more than I can, for sure," said Ritsuka, with a cheerfulness that Kaiya was starting to suspect was a form of insanity.
"Well, come forward," said the Caster testily. "Tell me what you can sense about these girls."
"Wait!" said Robin, re-appearing with his bow out and an arrow notched. "Somebody—"
A young girl with white hair appeared, ghostlike, from behind a tree near Kaiya. "Outsiders…"
"Robin, put down your bow," said Ritsuka sharply. "Hi! Are you friends with those girls over there?"
The girl tilted her head. She had strange, pale eyes and a thin face that made Kaiya uncomfortable without knowing why. "Friends…? That's wrong. I just… live here, I guess." Her eyes narrowed. "But you don't. You were… talking about magecraft."
"Dammit," muttered Robin Hood.
"Ah, young lady," Shakespeare began, bowing with a flourish. "We're actors. We were rehearsing some lines. Can you tell us if we're near your fine township?"
"Fine township?" The girl made a choking sound that might have been a laugh. "You're… liars of some kind, all right." Her eyes strayed to Kaiya and Arjuna and then widened as she focused on Arjuna's tall, dark form and then their linked hands.
She stepped back, gabbling suddenly, "I have to go, I have to go!" and then she turned and ran into the forest, vanishing so easily that Kaiya suspected magecraft was involved.
Ritsuka sounded puzzled as she said, "What was that about?"
"I have no idea," said Robin Hood blankly, with similar murmurs from most of the others. But Mata Hari moved to where the girl had stood, looked back at Kaiya, and said, "Hmm, I see."
"What?" said Kaiya sharply.
"Prejudice, my dear," said Mata Hari sadly. "Though I would have expected—"
Mash cut in, "Something's wrong at the fire, senpai!"
A high young voice screamed, another voice tried to hush her, both against a backdrop of rumbling growls.
"Dammit!" repeated Robin Hood and swung around, pulling his bow out again. "Come on, Prince!"
Kaiya let go of Arjuna's hand, or at least tried to. But he just slid his grip up her wrist and hauled her to the front behind him. Gaunt four-legged beasts, too big to be dogs, the wrong shape to be bears, menaced the figures huddled around the bonfire.
Only there did Arjuna release Kaiya, manifesting his bow and picking off one of the beasts lunging for the little girls who had been dancing.
"Ritsuka, Mash," said Mata Hari firmly. "Let's get the children out of here."
"I'll go with them," said David. "Hector—?"
"I'll stay," said Hector laconically.
Shakespeare strode forward, straight into the pack of animals toward the kids. The beasts seemed as shocked by his effrontery as Kaiya was. But Robin and Arjuna made sure none touched him. "Young ladies, you are out far too late. Come this way! Do not be afraid of our brave archers. They never miss."
Most of the girls obeyed the Caster instantly, following the direction he indicated to where Mata Hari waited to direct them toward Ritsuka. As they did, the strange wolves twisted and lunged, yipping and bringing more and more of them out of the woods.
"We'll get them to the village!" called Ritsuka, throwing out her hand to send a blue sparkle of magic at a beast that got too close.
Kaiya frowned. Her vision was still inconsistent in the firelight, but it seemed like some of the wolves were injured as they arrived—and some of the injuries looked like they ought to have been found on corpses, not slavering, snapping living things.
"The fire," squeaked the remaining recalcitrant girl, a blond child in a black dress. "We can't leave it—"
"Go now," commanded Arjuna, in an awful voice that sent chills down Kaiya's spine.
"Shit," muttered Robin Hood. "Shakespeare, grab her and get out of the line of fire!"
Shakespeare grimaced and scooped up the panicking child before loping after the other girls. The beasts surged after them.
His mouth a thin line, Arjuna drew back his bowstring. As he released, the glowing missile that manifested burst into flame. It struck the center of the pack with a thunderclap. A sheet of blue-white fire exploded in the night, leaving an impression on Kaiya's retinas of the animals as silhouettes of seared skeletons before her eyes squeezed shut in self-defense.
Curiously, the heat from such an impact barely registered for Kaiya. She was far more aware of Arjuna's cool hand moving to the back of her neck. Once again, he was angry, as he'd been the night before. But it was like his anger at Karna, not at her.
"Weak," he said coldly, and Kaiya cautiously opened her eyes. The bonfire had been put out and beast corpses littered a new clearing in the forest.
"Oh, excellent," said Lord El-Melloi sarcastically. "Let's hope there wasn't any useful information to be gained from studying the site. Kaiya, I don't suppose you learned anything before your pet monster obliterated everything?"
Kaiya shook her head but before she could speak, Arjuna said, "What useful information do you need? We know a demon pillar is here. This is a tiny Singularity. It can hardly hide unless we play its game. And I dislike its petty attempt to limit my power."
Robin Hood smacked Arjuna on the shoulder as he said, "Well done, then! You've shown it just how much power you still have!"
Arjuna ignored Robin, although his cool fingers on Kaiya's neck moved into her hair and tightened, not painfully. "Master, please order me to immediately find this demon pillar so we can end this farce."
Completely off-balance by the realization she'd been left with half the Servants under her nominal Mastership—and it was the stubborn Servants, too—Kaiya cast her gaze around frantically until she met Hector's calm, thoughtful eyes. He shook his head very slightly, and Kaiya remembered the context of their mission.
"Not until we find something about the fifty thousand missing people."
Arjuna's fingers twisted in her hair. "Ah, I see. You wish to keep me with you. Well, I can appreciate that as well."
Hector scratched his cheek. "Let's catch up with the others. David's the only one there I'd trust in a fight and we don't actually know what this village will contain."
"Yes, lets," said Kaiya hurriedly. She pulled her head away from his hand, and in response he slid his hand back down her neck and back to curl around her hip. For a moment she thought he was going to press her against him, pick her up rather than let her walk freely.
Then he pushed her away. "Don't worry, Master. I won't leave you."
Shaking her head, Kaiya started trudging in the direction Shakespeare had vanished. She could still barely hear the alarmed chatter of the little girls and the ongoing rumble of Shakespeare's voice. They weren't moving quickly and her own group gained ground.
"Abby!" came a new male raised voice. "Abby, what have you been doing?"
"Uncle!" said Abby. "These people saved us! They're actors!"
"Are they?" Abby's uncle sounded doubtful.
"Oh yes," said Shakespeare. "The rest of our troupe were delayed dealing with the savage beasts lured to young Abby's fire. They should be here—"
Kaiya pushed past a bush and stepped onto the rough track where Ritsuka's group had paused. An ordinary-looking man of middle years studied them with a remarkably keen gaze.
"So I see. Hmm…" said the man. "Well, I'm Randolph Carter. Thank you for saving my foolish niece and her friends from her mania. I would speak with you more at my house, if you please."
Two hours later, Kaiya peered out of the tiny window in the servant's room she'd been given to share with Mata Hari. Ritsuka and Mash had been placed with Abby, while Randolph Carter's only 'proper guest room' had been offered to Shakespeare and Lord El-Melloi II, as the purported leaders of the troupe. Everybody else had been placed in the Carter barn.
Their host had been unexpectedly firm about the rooming assignments, too. Kaiya had tried to stay in the barn as well, and Carter had flat out refused to allow it.
"I will say nothing of the sleeping arrangements you make on the road, for I know an actor's life can be hard. But while you are in Salem, if you wish to be treated with respect and allowed to perform, you will permit no hint of impropriety to taint the reputation of your young ladies."
Arjuna leaned against the outside of the barn, observing the Carter house. He didn't seem the least inclined to sleep, although all of the other Servants had accepted it as a good way to conserve energy expenditure. Knowing he was keeping watch didn't reassure Kaiya as much as it had seemed to reassure Ritsuka and Mash, though.
"These beds are softer than I expected!" said Mata Hari, sitting down on one of the narrow little beds Carter had at some point provided for visiting servants. "Come on, Kaiya. You do need sleep."
"I only woke up a few hours ago," Kaiya pointed out. "We left in the Chaldea morning and arrived in Salem midnight."
"Yes, I understand that overcoming 'jet lag' is a challenge," agreed Mata Hari. "But the book I read said a nap would help." She looked around at the tiny room, which had two beds, two chests, and a small table with a lamp. "Besides, there's not much else to do."
Kaiya looked out the window again at Arjuna. It was hard to tell through the glass and distance, but she thought he was looking directly at her. She wanted to go out to him, but she didn't understand why. All she knew was that she was nervous and uncomfortable in the vast Bounded Field that comprised the Salem singularity. And Arjuna's hands on her had frighteningly quickly come to mean normalcy to Kaiya.
Dangerously irrational, whispered her mother in the back of her head. She remembered his fingers stroking her throat as he promised her that only he was allowed to kill her. Shivering, she climbed into her own bed, still dressed except for her shoes. Mata Hari sat brushing her hair for a while, humming softly, and despite feeling strange and out of place, watching the Servant soothed her into closing her eyes for just a few minutes.
When she opened them again, morning sunlight was streaming through the window, and Arjuna crouched beside her bed. He had a finger on her cheekbone and a faint smile curving his mouth. "There's porridge for your breakfast, but they insist you must come downstairs for it."
Blinking, confused at how much time had passed, Kaiya pressed her fingers against Arjuna's mouth. He enjoyed waking her up far too much.
He caught her hand with his and then he was kissing her. His tongue slipped into her mouth and his hand was burrowing into her loosened bodice before she could do more than blink. Her nipple hardened against his palm even as she pushed against his chest.
Laughing, he lifted his head and freed her. "Porridge. Other things later, my light."
Adjusting her bodice and sitting up, Kaiya grumbled, "You seem to be in a better mood."
"Oh no," he assured her, and she saw the glitter in his eyes. "I'm still looking forward to punishing the creator of this singularity, as well as having you beneath me."
"Of course," Kaiya said gloomily.
Downstairs, a bright, spacious kitchen was crowded with most of the Servants, along with Ritsuka. Only Robin Hood and Hector were gone. A mostly empty pot of porridge studded with dried apples stood on a broad table, with a few wooden bowls and spoons. Ritsuka and Mata Hari stood in front of pans of water at a sideboard, washing out other bowls.
Shakespeare rose from a bench as Kaiya entered. "My lady, be seated and break your fast. I should be on my way. We needs must find a suitable place to ply our trade, after all." With another flourishing bow, Shakespeare went through an outside door.
With his usual half-smile, David rose as well. "I think he forgets why we're here. I'll go with him."
Kaiya took a bowl of porridge and sat down, watching as Mash doodled on a chalk slate she'd found somewhere: what looked like a very rough map. "We ought to all explore today. Set out in all directions, but in pairs." She hesitated. "I can stay here with Lord El-Melloi to work on setting up…" she glanced around and then lowered her voice, "the communication device."
Lord El-Melloi snorted. "As if I need your help. No, I need Ritsuka, and I know very well you two want to walk in the sunshine together. I'll release her to you after some experiments."
Mash turned pink, but Ritsuka said, without her usual cheer, "Thank you, Lord. Maybe we can bring Abby with us."
"Senpai—"
"What's wrong?" interrupted Kaiya. She'd met Abby briefly in the middle of the night, but the blond leader of the children had been dejected and worried by the arrival of her uncle and guardian.
"She wasn't allowed to have breakfast!" burst out Ritsuka, a wooden bowl clattering. "And she only gets water for lunch."
"She's being punished," said Mata Hari apologetically. "For last night. Her uncle—"
"Uncle, no," came Abby's anguished voice from outside. Inside the kitchen, everybody fell silent. Mata Hari and Ritsuka both looked out the unshuttered window, while Kaiya went to the door.
A small, dark-skinned woman stood quietly beside a pump, her head down, with Carter and Abby beside her. Abby seemed on the verge of tears, while Carter's mouth was a thin, angry line.
"Don't punish Tituba, Uncle! It wasn't her! It was…" Abby hesitated, guilt and fear transparent on her face. "It was me."
Tituba lifted her head halfway and Kaiya realized abruptly there was something… odd about her. She knew that technically the woman was a slave, but for some reason the word Servant kept ringing in her head. Yet her sense of presence was barely more than a mouse.
"Don't be a fool, Abigail," said Carter coldly, his eyes glittering. "I've spoken to the parents of the other girls and they all say Tituba taught you a chant intended to invoke dark spirits."
"Nonono, it wasn't her! I promise!" Abby wiped her eyes. "It was all me. I led the girls into temptation and… and you should punish me."
"No," said Tituba softly. "It was not you, Miss Abby."
Abby gave Tituba a pleading look. "It was. Just me. Nobody else."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Carter," said Tituba, her voice firm. "I told the children stories about my birthplace and how I grew up. I shouldn't have done that."
"No, you shouldn't have," snapped Carter. "I've sworn an oath with the other parents to seal our lips about this, but you must never speak with the children again, and you will be heavily punished. It's the only way." As Abigail wailed again, he added, "As for you, young lady, you are forbidden from seeing the troupe's performance, and if you do not regulate your emotions, you will be forbidden from speaking to them as well."
Abigail's eyes widened and she shoved her hands into her mouth, biting down on her knuckle. After a moment, she lowered her hands and said, "Yes sir. I'll… I'll do what you say. May I go?"
Tightly, Carter nodded, and watched as his niece turned and stumbled around the side of the house. When she was gone, he sighed and turned his attention to Kaiya, and the two faces peeping out the shutters. "I'm sorry. I'd taken last night's adventure for mere mischief, but it turns out the girls were engaged in something far more dangerous."
"More dangerous than going among the wild beasts of the wood?" asked Mata Hari gently.
"Yes," said Carter grimly. "That risk, your troupe averted. This new danger goes deeper."
Kaiya rocked back and forth on her heels, still staring at Tituba in puzzlement. The slave shivered, raising her gaze briefly to Kaiya's and then dropping it again.
"Where are you from?" Kaiya asked.
Tituba cast a speaking glance at Carter, who waved a hand wearily, giving her permission to speak. "Barbados, miss."
Kaiya frowned. There'd been the same tone in her voice as when she'd accepted blame for Abby's forest ritual: the tone of somebody stating a truth they knew reality denied.
But before she could probe further into this, Ritsuka said hurriedly, "Kaiya, if you're done with breakfast, you should go explore with Arjuna, just like everybody else!"
Kaiya's hackles rose momentarily and then she forcibly calmed herself. Whatever was happening in this version of Salem was odd, but not immediately dangerous—at least not to Ritsuka. She wasn't as certain when it came to Tituba and Abigail, who were both names she recalled from her research on Salem before they set out.
"Wait—oh, never mind—" came Lord El-Melloi's voice from within. "She might as well. I don't actually need her."
Of course you don't, thought Kaiya bitterly, and stepped out of the doorway to allow Arjuna to follow her.
"We'll meet up in the village square in the afternoon, all right?" called Ritsuka, that note of manic cheer back in her voice again. Kaiya waved acknowledgement without looking back, and stalked down the path away from the large house.
Arjuna ghosted along behind her. "You barely touched your porridge, my light."
"It takes days to starve, you know," she muttered.
"Ah, yes, I can see you tell yourself that often. Where are we going?" His hand brushed the small of her back.
Kaiya swallowed down her bad mood, swallowed her desire to stop and let Arjuna take over, and tried to focus. She'd worked in tech support for far longer than she'd been a Chaldean Master. This place felt like a piece of software that was running wrong. She didn't like it, but she didn't know how to reboot everything either. Other means of diagnosis would be required.
"Where the people are, first. And then… when the sun is higher, the forest again."
"Very good, Master. I will be behind you."
And he insisted on being behind her, too, even though she'd thought they'd finally moved past that the day before. At first, it confused and irritated her, but as they moved through the village she realized that in terms of fitting in, he had the right of it. Everybody assumed he was her ordinary servant—or her slave. They looked at him like he was an accessory, before smiling at or greeting her.
She visited the few shops in the center of town before making her way to the wharf she was pretty sure wasn't in historical Salem. There was a large and boisterous tavern at the waterfront, which she decided to avoid as soon as she heard Robin Hood's raised voice from within. Instead, she widened the circuit of her wanderings, walking along rough roads around the farms at the edge of the village.
"Whatever's going on here, they haven't made it any easier on the inhabitants," she commented eventually to Arjuna. "The farms really seem to be suffering, and those shopkeepers were so excited at the idea that I might buy something that I can't imagine anyone has very much money."
"They're very frightened of Indians, too," said the demon behind her.
She glanced back at him. "Different Indians, though."
"My light, do you really think they can tell the difference?" Once again he touched her back. "Do not worry. My presence only adds to your stature, as it should." Then his hand twisted in her dress, pulling her to a halt. "A moment."
She stopped and then heard the raised voices in the distance. Peering down a side lane, she saw two solid-looking farmers arguing, with a withered woman in a dark dress and an apron looking on in apparent horror. Instinctively, Kaiya stepped in that direction, only to be hauled back against Arjuna's chest.
"No, no. We will watch only. So much easier to see the truth from outside."
One of the farmers waved his hands in the air, his voice getting louder. The other seemed to be trying to calm him down, but was barely calmer himself. The woman backed away.
"He is shouting about his cow," said the demon pleasantly, with his better hearing. "He believes a black devil has dried its milk." Arjuna cocked his head. "And he believes the black devil has been consorting with the woman. How… fascinating." His hands slid from Kaiya's back to her hips.
Suddenly the woman said something, and pointed down the lane at Kaiya and Arjuna. The two men swung around to look. Then the cow-owner started shouting incoherently, while his companion began to stalk down the lane, looking angry.
"What do you think, my light?" said the demon into her ear. "Shall I kill them? Or shall we continue our stroll?"
A leaden weight in her stomach, Kaiya said, "Let's keep walking. Hands off! We're just here as performers, remember?"
Somewhat to her surprise, Arjuna lifted his hands from her hips and she started walking swiftly the direction they'd been going before, hoping the farmer wouldn't actually chase them down. After a few moments, she risked a look back, and saw nobody except Arjuna on the road or lanes. The three people had vanished so utterly it was like she'd imagined them.
"Did you…?" she asked Arjuna.
He raised his eyebrows and followed her gaze. "No, I did nothing. I have no idea what's become of them. I could return and look…?"
"Absolutely not!" She returned to her swift walk. Her feet and legs were starting to ache from the sustained effort as they passed through a small and smelly cluster of houses, where hides were tanned and many, many chickens pecked the dust in a large wire pen.
Several women were huddled around a smaller figure, who was sobbing as one of the women berated her about the chickens and their lack of eggs. They all stopped talking as Kaiya approached and one of them muttered about them actors. The child's sobbing sounded heartbroken and Kaiya had a hunch it was one of the little girls from the night before.
Once again, she slowed, and once again, Arjuna's hands slid against her back to keep her moving. She heard the hissing intake of breath from the women and then with a slapping sound, the child's sobs were muffled while the women started whispering to each other.
Kaiya's shoulders hunched as she obeyed the pressure from Arjuna's fingers. Her head low, she kept walking. She'd seen nothing that didn't seem like it would fit in the era this Singularity recreated. Nothing that suggested that 50,000 citizens of the twenty-first century had ever existed in this space. The feeling that there was something terribly wrong lingered—but was that just the feeling of her modern sensibilities being exposed to the society of a past time?
This place reminded her of a sick animal, staggering, on the verge of death, and attacking itself. But life had been hard in the seventeenth century, especially for colonists. Was it madness, or just life?
They'd almost completed their circuit of the village perimeter. Ahead loomed a house similar in size and outbuildings to the Carter residence: the home of somebody else educated and well-off. Just after they walked past, the front door slammed open and a scuffling sound made Kaiya turn around.
A well-dressed and well-built man with a bald head dragged an equally well-dressed woman out by her hair and threw her to the ground. Then he looked up and down the road. He scowled when he saw Kaiya and Arjuna, looking away until he saw several other Salem residents nearby.
Then he began to berate the woman loudly. "D'ya think I didn't see you lusting after that red-headed actor in the square, Elizabeth? You wicked woman! I've been so good to you, too!" He hauled her up and slapped her, the sound of flesh against flesh echoing off the house behind him.
The woman sobbed, denying the accusation in broken words, and a tired look flickered across the man's face. "It's not the first time, Elizabeth, you know it's not. We'll pray together about it later, but we've got to drive the sin from your body now." He hit her again, with an exaggerated motion like it was a performance he wanted all to see. But the blood welling from the woman's mouth was no actor's trick.
A third time, Arjuna's arm curled around Kaiya to stop her from throwing herself into the fray. She struggled for a moment until the eyes of the man and the woman both turned to her. Then, the hatred in the face of the woman made her go limp. Her feet touched the ground and she turned away, back toward the Carter residence.
"Let's go into the woods," she whispered. "It can't be any worse than here."
Once again, Arjuna followed behind her silently as she went past the Carter residence and struck out on the path they'd tramped down the night before. She walked until she reached the blast zone from Arjuna's attack the night before, and then stared helplessly at the blackened ground and splintered trees. Whatever had been happening here had truly been erased. Even the bodies of the beasts had melted away.
She kept thinking of the scenes she'd witnessed on her perimeter exploration. Arjuna could have done what he'd done here again. She couldn't decide if she was glad he hadn't or not.
No, of course she was glad he'd restrained himself. Most likely these people were some of the citizens of modern Salem, with a veil laid over their thoughts and memories. Killing them for being victims of the demon pillar would be a crime.
Arjuna's hands slid around her hips and suddenly she didn't want to think about the citizens of Salem anymore. She turned against him, stood on her toes, put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him hard.
In response, his light touch engulfed her as he pulled her against him. He kissed her savagely, his hands stroking her back. She bit his lower lip and inhaled his spicy scent. He began gathering up her skirt and she whimpered and panted and encouraged him with little whimpers. She wanted him to take her, here and now, wanted to be exactly what she was, to prove she wasn't part of this horrible place despite the strange, awful wrongness pressing against her.
Then he let her skirt drop and his kissing took on a more leisurely pace. After a moment, he brought his hands up and began to once again loosen her bodice, spending the time to free her breasts. When the bodice hung loose and open and only her thin chemise hid them from sight, he kissed his way down her throat to her chest.
Her eyes slitted, she looked over his bent head and saw the unnatural whiteness in the shadow of a tree. Kaiya's fingers twisted in her hair as she developed a theory as to why he'd slowed down what had promised to be a quick and savage fuck.
That demon's goddamned sense of humor,Kaiya thought sourly, and pushed him away as she said, "You might as well come out, kid."
She said it, but she had no expectation that the little white-haired girl from the night before would obey her. And yet she did, edging fully around the tree and staring at them with wide eyes.
Arjuna, meanwhile, accepted his rejection with that demon's smile, turning as well to face the girl and then crouching down near Kaiya's feet.
"He… he's special," said the pale girl, staring at Arjuna in fascination. "And you were… were…" She waved her hands back and forth in a way that somehow accurately indicated what they'd been about to do.
"We're actors," said Kaiya, concentrating hard on the child. It didn't take much to see she wasn't quite a part of the Salem they'd observed that morning. Her clothing was styled differently, with a shorter black skirt and a knitted sweater, and she had an aura none of the rest had.
She snorted at Kaiya's words, too. "Not likely. Liars, though." The girl stared at Arjuna for another moment. "You were… I'm supposed to… too."
Kaiya's moment of curiosity evaporated, replaced by the black mood she'd been working out with Arjuna a few minutes earlier. "Says who?" she demanded.
"My grandfather," said the girl matter of factly. "Except… maybe not now… I'm not good enough."
"What's your name, child?" asked Arjuna, his voice so smooth and sweet that Kaiya wasn't surprised when the girl jumped and smoothed her skirt.
"Lavinia Whately, sir," she breathed.
"And what is it your grandfather expects you to do?"
Kaiya stared down at Arjuna, amazed he hadn't understood the meaning under the girl's words.
"Be… be the vessel for… somebody special like you." Lavinia's eyes lowered. "Except he doesn't need that anymore."
"Why not?" demanded Kaiya.
A look of defiance flashed over Lavinia's face. "Can't say." She studied Kaiya. "But… Miss Liar? I was wondering… are you his? He acts like he's yours, but that can't be right, can it?"
"I'm hers," said Arjuna in a silky voice. "She called me and made me hers."
Lavinia's eyes, when she looked back at Kaiya, were filled with a respect bordering an awe. "You… you don't look like a great magus… but maybe you are?"
Kaiya frowned. "What do you know about magi?"
Lavinia shrugged and a cunning look passed over her face. "I'm the same as you, that's all."
"Why are you telling us that?" Kaiya asked sharply. "That isn't the kind of thing you share with strangers, even if you think you have something in common with them."
Lavinia gave her a half-smile. "Won't matter if you tell folks in Salem about us. They already hate us. But you're supposedly actors. I could tell everybody about you two and they'd chase you out of town. Or… you could help me."
"Or I could end you, child," said Arjuna sweetly. "Do you really hope to control the likes of me with words?"
Lavinia's eyes widened. "But we could help you too! Or I could, anyhow. My grandfather won't—he's—there's…" She fell silent, biting her lip. "Oh, what am I thinking? I can't trust you!" And with that, she turned and fled into the forest.
Kaiya stared after her as she said absently, "Arjuna? Don't threaten to kill any more children."
Arjuna reached up and caught her around the waist, tugging her to the ground as he said, "Ah, you too think you can control me with words." He straddled her hips and finished pulling her bodice off her as she tilted her head, looking in the direction Lavinia had vanished. "Don't worry, my light. I will tell you if we acquire any more observers."
"That was so very strange, though," murmured Kaiya. "She said so much it was like she was… enticing us."
As Arjuna loosened the lace at the neckline of her shift and pulled it down to fully expose her breasts to the cool spring air, he said, "She did a poor job of it."
He bent and took one of her breasts in his warm mouth, sweeping his tongue over her nipple until she gasped and arched her back. Then he released her and said smugly, "This filthy village is full of wickedness, my light, and that child was a part of it. If I were to use Pashupata here, it would be a blessing for those who remain innocent."
Kaiya scowled and pushed at him as he bent for her other breast. "You're more wicked than any of them, because you enjoy it."
He caught her hands and pressed them beside her head as he teased her nipple. Little jolts of pleasure trembled through her and she squirmed under him, panting, "I hate you."
"And oh, you sounded like you did earlier," he murmured against her soft skin. "You said, Oh, Arjuna, please, yes, like that… and now that I carry out your will, you hate me?" He freed her wrists to instead massage her breasts as he kissed her neck. The heat of his hands danced through her body as he circled her nipples with his thumbs.
She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled. He nipped at her neck, licked his way up to her ear and bit her there, too. "I did lie to her. You're mine, of course. Mine, mine, mine, my delicate, sensitive Master." With each repetition, he bit her again.
Kaiya scratched at his clothed back and his clothes melted away, leaving his skin bare for her to rake. She dug her nails in and he squeezed her breasts harder, even as he whispered stifling sweetness in her ear. Then he kissed her mouth again, his tongue dominating hers, in turns soft and hard.
Already emotionally worn from the day, she realized she wanted to lose herself in what he was doing to her, to let him bend her to his will. She shifted under him, softening her body in surrender.
"Ah, but the way they looked at what was mine, my light," he said as he broke away. "I think I will end up killing them all by the end."
Her temper flared once more and Kaiya growled, jerking herself up toward him, angry he was still talking about the awful villagers and his own demonic urges rather than taking what she offered him.
He captured her mouth again and then pulled her head back by her hair, baring her neck to him. Licking her throat, he dragged his tongue down to the hollow and kissed the bones there. "I dislike them, yes. Even my noble brother would dislike them, which troubles me to no end."
Irritation surged through Kaiya, before the extent of Arjuna's words filtered through her hazed mind. She realized that in his own way he was as bothered by their tour of Salem as she had been.
"Monster," she murmured, running her fingers down his chest and abdomen. "Demon in a prince's skin."
He lifted his head so she could see his eyes. Something dark and possessive flared within them. "Your devil." He sounded satisfied as he added, "Using your own lusts against you, tempting you into greater sin. Tsk, tsk."
"You don't hate me," she whispered, inching her hands lower as she remembered him telling her to make him hate her more, right before he'd fucked her the first time.
His teeth flashed. "You're far too adorable to hate. Sweet, delicate, vulnerable." With a twitch of his hips and a slow thrust, his cock gradually slid into her. "Mine to defile."
Kaiya inhaled slowly as he filled her, closing her eyes again as sensation that tasted of a dream quivered through her. It felt like they'd fused together, like his movement changed her own parameters.
"So precious, so cherished, but they'll never have you like this," he whispered in her ear. "Never feast on your moans, never sink into your heat." He rocked back and forth, remaining mostly sheathed within her and using his weight to send bursts of pleasure blossoming through her.
Eventually she wasn't sure if he'd stopped talking or she'd stopped being able to process his words. All she was aware of was his warmth and how he stretched her core as he rocked against that node of pleasure. And when the blooms of ecstasy merged into each other and she started to gasp and whine, he moved faster, faster, withdrawing and shoving into her again as he took his own pleasure.
As her orgasm swept over her, she clutched at him, riding the wave of bliss and drifting on the heights. A stray thought crossed her semi-conscious mind: that he had wanted to hate her, in the beginning. Was it worse that he didn't?
Then the thought vanished as he bit her shoulder and shuddered in his own orgasm. She squirmed against him and bit back a howl until he kissed her again.
Slowly, slowly, they both came down together. He lay draped over her, apparently content not to move until she insisted. As her mind cleared of the sexual haze, it also cleared of her immediate distress at what she'd seen in Salem. Without pushing Arjuna away, she looked at what she could see of the blasted clearing in the fading light of the afternoon.
Now that she was able to focus—skirts around her hips, her lover still between her legs—she realized that the clearing was on the edge of something. The edge of the spiritual entity that made up Salem, perhaps. They'd arrived beyond that boundary and walked in.
It wasn't much, but it was information that left her with new questions. Why had Abigail picked that location for her little play ritual? What did the boundary mean? Why had Lavinia returned to the location?
She shifted against Arjuna's weight, but he didn't respond. Sharply, she said, "Are you asleep?"
"Mmm," he said lazily. "Dozing, perhaps. The weakening pressure of this place is draining."
Shoving at him, she said, "Maybe next time try sleeping at night like the other Servants!"
He lifted himself from her. "How could I, without you beneath me? Ah, I know. Defy our host and join me this evening."
Kaiya hesitated, thinking of Carter. "I want to stay in the same building as Ritsuka for now."
Arjuna rose to his knees, his eyes narrowing. "Ritsuka, Ritsuka. I already told you that you will not die for her, my light. Don't test me on this."
She would, maybe, someday. But not today. "Even if I don't soak an arrow for her, I seem to have the best magic senses of our entire group now. It isn't worth jeopardizing lines of communication and our welcome from Carter just so you can use me as furniture." Rising to her feet, she brushed herself off and tried hopelessly to smooth down her hair.
Arjuna rematerialized his own spotless clothing and took over finger combing her hair. "The afternoon dies. I believe we have missed the appointed hour to meet Ritsuka and her Servants."
She noticed how smug he sounded about that, but let it pass. "Then we'll go back to the Carter residence for now. I want to talk to Abby anyhow."
The house was very quiet and still as they approached from the forest side, so still that Kaiya instantly knew the entire troupe was still in town—or somewhere worse. She indulged in a brief moment of panic before Abby came around the corner from the front, spotted them and picked up her previously sedate pace.
"I'm not supposed to talk to the guests," she said shyly, her eyes darting between Kaiya and Arjuna before lowering. "But I'm sure you're wondering where your friends are?"
"I won't tell anybody," said Kaiya. "And I am, very much. I'm a little worried I'm going to get in trouble."
"Oh, I hope not!" burst out Abby. "They went to do a trial performance for the town elders, in order to earn permission to perform for everybody else. I wanted to go see it, but I'm being punished." She kicked at the ground. "Will the performance be alright without you?"
Kaiya swallowed a bitter feeling that didn't even make sense. "Yes. We're not on the stage ourselves."
"Oh," said Abby, brightening. "Maybe you could tell me stories of some of your adventures, instead? I love hearing about faraway places."
"Have you ever left Salem?" asked Arjuna, while Kaiya struggled with the idea that she'd ever had any adventures worthy of telling a child.
Abby gave him a nervous look. "N..no. My uncle goes to Boston sometimes, but I'm not allowed to leave Salem. That's why I like hearing stories so much. My uncle tells me some and then I tell Lavinia, but I think she's gotten tired of my stories lately because she won't come see me anymore."
Ah, thought Kaiya. Two questions answered, and more unlocked. Casually, she said, "I met a girl named Lavinia last night before we met you."
"What? She came? Oh my goodness!" Abby bounced on her toes before a frown creased her brow. "Maybe I shouldn't have invited the other girls, then. But I thought Lavinia didn't like me anymore." She gnawed on a knuckle, her gaze dropping again. To herself, she said, "Oh no. I think I have to apologize to her. And Tituba's in trouble too. I really messed up."
Footsteps marched up the front walk of the house and somebody knocked on the door. Kaiya moved past the distracted Abby and peeked around the corner of the house. Several men in what might have been uniforms stood importantly on the stoop, with several other men in more ordinary garb stood with them uneasily.
Tituba opened the door, and the lead man said, "Tituba. You'll be coming with us now for questioning."
"Sir?" said Tituba in confusion.
"We found the wicked little doll you used against the children of Salem, Tituba!"
Suddenly Abby scrambled past Kaiya, calling, "No, no! Tituba didn't give it to anyone! Anne stole that doll from Tituba!" She sounded genuinely outraged.
"Abigail Williams!" said one of the farmers. "You're in enough trouble. You stay out of this."
"Miss Abby," began Tituba, before the officer in charge put a heavy hand on his shoulder. Abby started crying, as Tituba tried to calm her through her own rising fear. Whatever odd and possibly magical lies were contained within the woman's person, her concern for Abigail was clearly genuine.
Kaiya's arms and legs felt far away as she too stepped around the house, Arjuna at her back. She retained just enough situational awareness to glance back at him, to notice he remained unarmed, and to see his expressionless mask slide into place.
She turned back to the officers and asked casually. "What's going on?"
"Pfah, one of the performers," said the farmer.
The officer gave Kaiya a look so haughty she worried he was going to set Arjuna off. "None of your business, woman. Why are you apart from your troupe? Your reputation is already perilous in Salem. You'd best not be—"
The other farmer whispered something to the officer and his expression solidified. Very stiffly, he said, "Oh." Then he pointedly turned back to Tituba. "Come along, Tituba."
"Miss Kaiya," said Tituba, in a broken little voice. "Take care of Miss Abby until I get back?"
Abigail stomped her foot. "No! This isn't right! And you can't take her! You're not allowed!"
Kaiya noticed how Tituba flinched, closing her eyes as if expecting a blow. Suddenly the sense of power—and not Arjuna's power—rippled through the air. Everything seemed to twist around her.
Her mother's voice whispered in her memories, teaching her the fundamentals of magecraft. "We start with being where we are."
She felt the ground under her feet and the Command Seals writhing on her hand, knew something was wrong, and then lost her understanding of it.
But Abigail was upset. She could do something about that.
Placing her hand on Abigail's hair, Kaiya said, "That's true, isn't it? Let's go find your uncle. He should have some say in this."
Looking up at her, Abigail's eyes widened as her pupils dilated. "Yes, yes. This is important. Uncle won't be angry at me for telling him about this!"
She hadn't thought it was possible for the chief officer to get even stiffer but somehow it happened. "Very good. I must notify him of what his servant is accused of in any case."
Kaiya's head whirled as the little parade walked down the road into the center of town. She felt like she suddenly had too many variables to track and not enough information to understand how they all linked together. Her breathing quickened as she tried, until Abigail gave her an anxious glance.
Then she remembered that she'd arrived with Lord El-Melloi II, who understood the theories of magic like few others, and forced herself to calm down. When they came to the town hall, it looked like the trial performance was still in progress. But when she and Abigail looked in the door, they saw many villagers standing around an exultant Ritsuka, praising the play.
Lord El-Melloi, leaning against the back wall, saw Kaiya immediately. He saw Abigail, too, and called, "Mr. Carter…" before joining them at the entrance. "What is going on?"
"Too much," said Kaiya breathlessly.
"Uncle! Uncle!" called Abigail, and this time she was uncowed by his frown of disapproval as he too joined them. "They took Tituba!" She pointed out the door.
"What?!" said Randolph Carter and immediately hurried out.
Kaiya let Abigail dash after him, but pulled Lord El-Melloi to where he could get a view on the exterior proceedings as well. Arjuna leaned against the wall just outside.
Very quickly and quietly, Kaiya began to explain to Lord El-Melloi what she'd detected about the boundary region, about Tituba's odd not-exactly-lies, about some of the strange elements she'd noticed in Abigail, and most of all, about Lavinia. As she did so, Ritsuka and a few other members of the troupe joined Carter and Ritsuka earnestly got involved with the growing argument.
"Miss Hisau," said Lord El-Melloi tersely. "Please do not get distracted."
Kaiya dragged her gaze away from Ritsuka and back to the magecraft scholar. Pleadingly, she said, "Surely you've been able to detect some of this?"
Lord El-Melloi grimaced. "Perhaps under normal circumstances. However, the pressure limiting Servant strength does no favors for the shoddy magic circuits of my host. But as long as yours are functioning properly, it should make no difference."
Shrugging uneasily, Kaiya said, "This place is bad. I don't know exactly how it's different from the original Salem, but there's something… under the surface."
"Our enemy, presumably," said Lord El-Melloi dryly. Then he looked over Kaiya's head and said, "And what's this approaching?"
As Kaiya turned to look, she flinched as an ethereal blade sliced through her mind. For a moment, the night was darker, darker, and lightning played at the edges of her vision. Then she felt the scratch of Arjuna's sharp edges against her thoughts and the darkness coalesced into a well-dressed bearded man approaching from the direction of the wharf.
"The doll is a tool used by hexing," he announced as he stopped at the group around Tituba. "That woman is under arrest for heresy. Good evening. I am Matthew Hopkins, and as of now I will be regulating the extermination of heresy in Salem."
"Not yet," Ritsuka said, flinging a hand back to stop Kaiya mid-step. "We're going to try to solve this without anybody getting hurt."
She'd said that, and all through the long, cold night, Kaiya had marveled that Ritsuka had apparently believed it, too. Not that it might not yet be solved without further violence-it might-but all that her confidence also implied: that nobody had yet been hurt. That Kaiya hadn't walked away from one beating, maybe two. That Abby wasn't haunted by secrets she couldn't share. That Tituba wasn't suffering under arrest.
Kaiya marveled and yet she didn't. Ritsuka was hope in a dead world. She believed in the impossible. And sometimes by believing in it, she gave it a path to reality. Chaldea had contracted with multiple Servants who wouldn't have existed outside their Singularity save for the path Ritsuka made. Kaiya's sparring partner Yan Qing was one of them.
But that belief couldn't change the past. It couldn't dwell on what had already happened. That was for Kaiya to do instead.
As a result of instructions from Mash and Ritsuka, she spent the next morning resentfully tramping through the forest with Arjuna and Lord El-Melloi, serving as a sort of living spectacles for the Caster so he could develop theories about the magic underlying the field suppressing the Servant's power. As the morning wore on, she felt more and more that she was being tested and judged, like El-Melloi didn't believe her, like she was imagining things.
He didn't act like he was patronizing her or doubting her, but somehow that made it worse, not better, when he rubbed the bridge of his nose and admitted he felt like he was missing something. Then he hauled her back to the Carter residence midday because he knew she "wouldn't want to miss another team meeting." Technically true but she was eager to try to do something more useful and after all, what did they have to report?
About as much as everybody else, it turned out. Ritsuka, David and Shakespeare had attended Carter into town to talk to the officials about Tituba, while Robin, Hector and Mata Hari had further investigated the Whateley land, based on intelligence both David and Kaiya had gathered the day before. Meanwhile, Mash had remained with Abby, who would have otherwise been left alone in the large house. While she was certainly old enough for that to normally be reasonable, both Mash and Ritsuka had felt bad for the isolated kid.
And what had they discovered? The Whateley team had found a mage's workshop under the Whateley home—but not one they'd dared penetrate into without explicit approval, given the aggressive protections magi could place. Ritsuka and her companions had watched a powerful legal defense mounted by Carter in favor of releasing 'his property' back to him—but the defense had been toppled by Matthew Hopkins' government papers giving him absolute authority over the investigation of any heresy in Salem.
Only two positive steps had come from the morning's effort: David had won the approval of some of the town elders through the peacefulness of his harp playing, while Ritsuka had arranged for a meeting with Matthew Hopkins that afternoon.
"So this afternoon, Lord El-Melloi and Kaiya should go to the Whateley house while—"
Kaiya blurted, "I'd rather go see Tituba, if they'll let us in. She and Matthew Hopkins are both… like shadows under water to me. I wouldn't be any help at trying to break into a mage's Workshop, even with my circuits, but if I can see them again, maybe I can understand."
Ritsuka blinked and then gave Kaiya a dazzling smile. "Sure, you can come with me. If we can get you in to see Tituba, I'm sure you'd be able to help her feel better. That would make Abby feel better, too."
Kaiya and Arjuna went with Ritsuka to the town square after a midday meal prepared by Robin Hood. Once again they left Mash with Abby but also left Robin cleaning after his cookery, while Hector, Mata Hari and Lord El-Melloi were dispatched back to the Whateley land.
Matthew Hopkins met them outside the underground gaol where Tituba was being kept, along with the town militia members he'd co-opted. The bright sunshine of the spring morning faded when he approached, but no cloud marred the sky. Kaiya put a hand to her forehead, but changing the contrast didn't help. There was something unreal about Hopkins, like he was a finger puppet on a giant, nearly-invisible hand.
"—and thus, I entreat you, let Tituba be returned to her master so that once again Salem may meditate on higher things. You arrived too late last night to appreciate our treatise on Solomon—"
"I will not change my mind about this, Mr…. Shakespeare, was it?" The witch finder gave the playwright a flat look. "I can't say I approve of your bad taste in choice of a stage name, man. You could hardly compare to the real Shakespeare. But I suppose it helps you take advantage of hard-working, serious people like the citizens of Salem."
Kaiya had never seen Shakespeare taken aback before. For a moment he looked like he'd swallowed his pen.
Ritsuka darted into the opening, turning the full force of her persuasive charm on Hopkins. While she lacked Mata Hari's supernatural ability to earn trust, she made up for it by being forceful in a way Mata Hari's own power prevented her from being. She was so compelling that it took a moment before Kaiya realized that the other Master was still arguing for Tituba to be freed.
Her anxiety grew—this wasn't what they'd discussed, and the witch finder was clearly growing more impatient with making repeated refusals. Finally, Kaiya cut in with, "If you won't release her, at least allow me to see her? I looked down there earlier and it's cold and awful. You'd be better able to discover the truth if she wasn't desperate."
Hopkins' gaze flicked to her. "Is that so? She has yet to be tried. Would you comfort a guilty woman?"
Kaiya stared at him in astonishment. "Yes! Surely you know that's the right thing to do?"
The pale eyes of the witch finder focused sharply on her, before his gaze moved over her shoulder to where Arjuna always stood. "Ah. You. I've heard about you as well." He glanced at Shakespeare. "This woman and her servant are members of your troupe?" As Shakespeare, still apparently shocked, agreed with this, Hopkins said, "Hm. Well, you will be observed and we will see what the woman has to say. Soldiers—"
"You fool," hissed Robin Hood's disembodied voice near Kaiya. They'd left him at the Carter residence but he'd joined them after all, wrapped in his cloak of stealth.
"—arrest the black-haired woman—"
"Kaiya, run!" Robin whispered.
"—and her servant—"
All the hair on Kaiya's arms stood on end as she finally realized that the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins was arresting her as a heretical witch too.
"So be careful, my light. I will burn the entire Singularity before I let you die."
She felt an almost joyful draw of power from Arjuna, like a vast inhale before a song, and all she could think was that she'd made everything worse—
—and if she didn't do something, it would get even worse as once again Arjuna took matters into his own grasp.
The invisible hands of Robin Hood grabbed Kaiya by the arm and flung her hard away from Hopkins and his moving soldiers. She stumbled past Arjuna with his unholy smile, and then caught her stride and ran, believing with all her heart that Arjuna would follow her instead of striking the witchfinder dead.
Once she had her bearings, she headed by the most direct path to the nearest edge of the forest. Shouts rose behind her, including from Ritsuka, but she didn't stop pounding her feet against the forest floor. She aimed for the boundary she'd spent all morning sensing but not finding, hoping that in this moment of distress, what had failed her before would now work.
Arjuna ran behind her, moving swiftly, without any evidence of her own degree of effort. Only when she came to a rocky slope that ended abruptly in a sheer stone face did she finally stop running and bend to catch her breath, her hands on her knees.
"Tricky Master," said Arjuna conversationally as he stopped beside her. "And here I'd prepared for you to once again seek war."
Panting, Kaiya said, "Citizens of Salem. Prison can be healed from. Dead usually can't be."
"Do you really think he is from modern Salem?" asked Arjuna in clear skepticism.
"Doesn't matter if the soldiers all are, does it?" She dropped to her knees on the forest floor and reached out for a twisted and withered fallen leaf. After inspecting it, she dropped it and found another, looking at it from several angles before she said, "Give me your knife for a moment."
Arjuna crouched down next to her, frowning. "Why?"
She gave him an exasperated look even as she appreciated the statue-like beauty of his frown. "So I can use my blood to make some familiars. I want to know what's going on. I'm not as good as my mother, but I can at least do this." When he just stared at her broodingly, she sighed and held out her hand. "Just prick my third finger."
Still frowning, he took her hand and inspected it closely.
"Do you want me to gnaw myself?" she demanded, her voice suddenly shaking. "Stab myself on a sharp stick? That'll hurt more but I already ran away; let me find out what I've left behind, Arjuna!"
His mouth twisting, he brought out his white knife and sliced open the tip of her finger. She picked up first one leaf and then the other, dripping her blood onto them while muttering the nonsense rhyme she'd learned from her mother and pushing her will through the words.
After several moments, both leaves began to twitch and move even as they whitened. Another moment later and two white moths fluttered before her before flitting away toward the village.
"There we go," she mumbled. "They're not fast but they'll get there and then I can see what's going on."
Arjuna sat against the cliff face and pulled her into his lap. "You didn't sleep last night. You should have come to me after all." His voice was cold with disapproval. "Rest a little now."
"I'm fine," Kaiya muttered, but leaned her head against his shoulder rather than struggling. Her body remained as stiff as a board though.
He stroked her hair and back. "You're alive. It is not the same, my light. Rest, close your eyes, or I will believe you led me to the woods for different reasons."
Kaiya closed her eyes, her body softening against the rhythm of his hand. When his long fingers curled around her neck and stroked along her shoulders, she melted into semi-consciousness.
A white moth, barely visible in the afternoon sunlight, drifted on the breeze around Ritsuka and her Servants as they sorted out costumes in front of the Carter barn under the suspicious gaze of one of the town milita.
"I don't care what Shakespeare says, this is weird," said Robin Hood quietly. "Making us put on a play to prove we're not heretics like Kaiya is weird."
"You'd rather we were all arrested?" asked Lord El-Melloi testily and then dodged Mash as she came at him with a kingly outfit. "I came along on the strict understanding nobody would try to put me on a stage and—"
"Oh, leave him," said Robin crossly. "I'll do it."
"My colleague was wise to provide us with a play so fitting Hopkins' desires," said Shakespeare. "Though I anticipate he will be surprised all the same by The Three Jeannes."
Hector, holding his arms out as Mata Hari pinned a costume to him, said, "As would Miss Jeanne Alter. I think we ought to all swear a pact to never speak of this to her."
Ritsuka, smoothing a piece of fake armor, said distractedly, "Mash, do you think Kaiya's all right?"
Robin Hood gave Ritsuka a disgusted look. "C'mon. Of course she's all right. The sun's still in the sky, yeah? We'd know if something happened. Archers don't just evaporate as soon as their Masters are down."
With a shiver, Ritsuka said, "But what if he did something to her?"
Robin hesitated. "She's got her Command Seals."
"Don't worry about this, Master," said David, strumming his harp lightly. He sat closest to the militia guard. "Kaiya did what she had to, and now we do what we have to as well." He raised his head to look at the white moth fluttering nearby. "We should have a little time to sort this out."
After more preparation and some extremely unfocused rehearsal, the troupe moved to the town hall again, where the village was already gathering in anticipation of the play. The white moths followed along. One of them managed to make it inside the town hall to float among the rafters. The other flitted through the village, listening to the occasional murmurs of villagers. But most of the adults of the town had attended the play.
That made it all the more notable when a cluster of men entered the gaol in the fading twilight. Twenty minutes later they emerged once more, surrounding a hooded figure.
This was bad.
Kaiya tried to awaken herself from the familiar trance, but the warmth of Arjuna's arms around her made it harder for her to snap awake as she usually could. Nothing could hurt her like this, after all. Arjuna would protect her.
Matthew Hopkins, his men, and his prisoner all moved through the darkened village and the white moth struggled to follow along. But the blood-powered familiar only had so much strength and the men outpaced it. It wasn't until they vanished over a low hill near the sea that Kaiya finally managed to pull herself from the trance. The last thing she saw before she opened her eyes was a gallows.
With a cry, she tried to wrench herself away from Arjuna and failed as his arms tightened around her. Panic exploded through her body, followed by a burst of light as she fought back instinctively against Arjuna's embrace. She scratched his face, kicked at his stomach, and writhed wildly.
His hold on her tightened painfully and then his mouth was on hers. She bit him savagely, shoving at him, but her struggles only seemed to inflame him. He pinned her to the ground.
Kaiya's mind wasn't functioning right. The gallows, the gallows, it was very bad. Something was happening that shouldn't be happening.
But Arjuna moved against her, his mouth invading hers, and she remembered him promising her that she could lay all responsibility on him. Even in her panic, he felt good against her. He would take her and drain the edge off her emotions and she'd be able to think again—
He was kissing her with a frantic savagery that only slowed as she stilled. A thought flickered like lightning across her mind: that he had simply reacted as she'd panicked. Then he moved his mouth up her face, licked a tear from her cheek and lifted his head to look down at her, his eyes wide and his pupils constricted.
"Please," Kaiya croaked through a dry throat. "They took Tituba… let me go!"
For a long moment, he didn't move, staring down at her as his eyes slowly narrowed.
"Please," she repeated. "They took her to the gallows, Arjuna!"
He rolled off her and yanked her to her feet. As soon as his weight lifted from her, the panic rose again and she stumbled away from him, scrambling through the woods toward the sea. The Command Seals on her hand burned, but she couldn't think clearly enough to come up with the right command. All she could do was try to get there and do whatever she had to—if she surrendered herself, would they stop? Would they listen?
Branches thwacked her face as she ran through the dark forest, but she couldn't stop. She kept seeing the hooded figure that had been Tituba, stumbling between the larger figures, kept hearing Tituba ask her to care for Abby. Whatever magic afflicted the woman, she was a kind soul, as Romani had been kind—
Her vision blurring, Kaiya careened off a tree. Arjuna caught her as she tumbled forward and swung her into his arms. His dark eyes flashed as he turned his head and his path, carrying her toward something he could see far better than her.
They emerged from the forest onto the Salem Commons, and ran across the grassland to a distant square shape silhouetted against the cloudy night sky. For a moment, everything seemed dreamlike to Kaiya. She was distantly aware through her other familiar of The Three Jeannes reaching its climax. The moonlight through the clouds made everything pale and strange. Arjuna ran silently and so smoothly she almost felt like she was floating.
The snap of a trapdoor and the muffled grunt of breath leaving flesh broke the silence like a scream. Kaiya moaned, clutching at Arjuna. Only a few heartbeats later, he knelt down, letting her slip from his arms as he looked at the gallows. A body dangled as the figures of Matthew Hopkins and his men moved around it, murmuring.
Kaiya stared at Tituba's waif-like form. One of the men cut the rope and she vanished bonelessly through the trap into the space underneath.
How had this happened? They should have had time. There should have been a proper trial—
Was it because Kaiya had run away? How could it be that Tituba had been hung, and while Kaiya had slept in the forest? She should have done something. She should have been there.
"My light," said the demon in his sweetest voice. "Command me, I beg you."
Darkness flickered across Kaya's vision, a darkness streaked with red. The whole world seemed to stutter.
Matthew Hopkins looked in her direction. A wave crashed against the shore beyond the gallows and then Matthew Hopkins and his men vanished. Had they run away, or simply disappeared? Kaiya couldn't tell. She'd been seeing things the last twenty four hours that nobody else could see when it came to Matthew Hopkins, Tituba, and the Singularity itself.
Hopkins thought she was a witch, and so she was. Dizzily, she wondered if she was exactly what they were afraid of: not just a magic-worker, but a threat to all that was good in humanity. A corruption, a source of evil.
She didn't know. But she could unleash Arjuna. He'd asked her to. He could release his Noble Phantasm and the likes of Matthew Hopkins and his gallows squad would be obliterated. Perhaps most of Salem would, too.
Kaiya thought of what she'd seen while walking, thought of Ritsuka and her foolish dreams of peace and friendship. Ritsuka would forgive anything, anyone, even Kaiya.
"Kaiya," whispered Arjuna. He stood in front of her. "I can't kill them until you come back, my light. And I'll enjoy it, oh yes. But you can't tell me that makes me more wicked than them. Murder without pleasure is surely the greater sin, is it not?"
She barely heard him through the red and black rage streaking across her mind. She felt like all she had was a hammer and suddenly everything looked like a nail.
Inhaling, she opened her mouth to say—something. She didn't know what. Something she'd want to die for later, and something that would feel so good right now. Something so wrong and so right, like Arjuna holding her against a wall as he bent her to his desire.
Then, all at once, everything stopped: the brush of the wind, the movement of the sea. Arjuna's voice stopped, too, and then he vanished completely. The only thing left in the world was Kaiya, an expanse of grass, and a gallows.
She blinked, shock and bewilderment chasing the rage from her mind. "Arjuna?"
No answer.
"Arjuna?!" she shouted.
The only response was a clattering from the gallows. The trap door had closed again, but something was bumping at it from below.
Kaiya felt herself pulled across the still grass like she was floating, drawn inexorably closer to the gallows. As she approached, the bumping underneath the trapdoor grew more forceful, until it finally burst open. The trap door, which should have opened down, flew up.
A dark head looked over the edge and then climbed out with jerky, inhuman movements, like a puppet with its strings tangled. The tattooed figure glanced at her and smiled, before leaning down into the pit under the gallows again.
Kaiya chewed on a knuckle, staring at the figure. He looked familiar. She knew him. She'd seen him before.
At Chaldea?
Yes, at Chaldea, although not often. He kept to himself, talked to himself, and almost never went on missions.
A moment later, Angra Mainyu lifted Tituba's body from below the gallows, hopped down and laid her in the grass.
"You can't end this yet," he said conversationally, as he inspected Tituba's body. Carefully, he adjusted the bend of her neck, and then glanced up at Kaiya. Only then did she realize he'd been talking to her.
"What… what are you doing here?" she asked numbly.
He gave her another devilish smile. "Everybody's looking for somebody to blame. The land called me. It's just like old times."
"Shouldn't I end it, then? Why are we playing this game?" she demanded, in a rush of emotion.
Angra shook his head and bent over Tituba again. "If it ends too early, Abigail brings the tree of pain. That's what we're here to stop. He keeps failing, though." He looked up again. "We're running out of second chances."
Kaiya had no idea what to say. She watched as Angra began to lightly pat Tituba's face, although the woman seemed very definitely dead.
"Come on, you. Your part's over this time. Time to wake up and get off stage properly, Miss."
"What is going on?" Kaiya whispered.
Instead of answering her, Angra said, "Wakey wakey. Come on, stop playing possum."
And Tituba opened eyes that glowed white, gasping for breath. Angra sat back on his heels, looking satisfied.
Kaiya repeated, "What's going on?"
"We're not alone," said Angra. "Not here. Not anywhere, really. But especially not here. He made this place to trap the other one. To trap Abby. But the other one's the worst of Salem, and now we're all trapped here together."
Tituba sat, stood, and then, shedding white radiance, turned to look at Kaiya.
"Take care of Miss Abby," said the woman, who was Tituba no longer. "We'll need her in the end. The wizard was right about that, at least."
"What is going on?!" wailed Kaiya. But Angra Mainyu only stood up and waggled his fingers at her in a gesture of farewell.
And then everything was as it had been before. She stood further from the gallows, with Arjuna directly in front of her, his hands on her shoulders. The wind blew and the surf crashed. The trap door was open as it had been when Tituba's body fell underneath. She was certain the corpse was still there too.
She focused on her Servant, dazed now instead of enraged. What had she just seen? Had it been real? A hallucination or a trick? Nothing made sense anymore.
Not yet. You can't end this yet.
We'll need her in the end.
Nothing made sense, not even sending out Arjuna as the instrument of justice.
Kaiya sighed and leaned her head against him for a moment. Then, as she heard worried voices approaching from the village, she said, "Let's go recover Tituba's body. Abby doesn't need to see her like this."
Arjuna's arms closed around her—but only for a moment. Then he released her and turned to walk beside her to the gallows, to do what she'd decided had to be done.
Author's Note:
This Salem is different from canon in more than just the casting. I'm hoping to get through it in two more chapters, but sometimes these things streeeetch. I'll be alternating them with The Star and the Darkness, which has also erupted in Plot back in Chaldea.