Lucky Souls
Chapter 16: Sin
"You are sure this will work?" Her king spoke to her in a hopeful tone, shielding his sensitive aged vision from the domineering light expunging from his court mage's able hands.
"Well, I can't be sure anything will work when it comes to souls, this isn't science, and we're dealing with an otherworldly nature we still don't fully understand." The mage responded wearily, grumbling when the current of magic strained throughout her form suddenly dissipated, another failure.
"I don't need to understand it, I need to control it." The king abruptly commanded in an almost acerbated tone, he was surely running out of time, the world would not wait for him and he could not keep it waiting either.
Gloomily the emperor sat upon a musty armchair, crossing a jittery leg across his lap and squeezing his aching eyes, he hadn't slept in days, nor could he if he even wished to. The time foretold was fast approaching, and he could do nothing to stop the end without the proper tools, and these souls, the life force of demons, were exactly the tools he needed to set his plan into motion.
Tinkering at the buzzing mechanical device before her, the court mage laboriously continued her vain task, trying every known method she could imagine to entrap the essence of power, the soul, within a catalyst, but her research bore no fruit. Glancing snidely back upon her king, the mage couldn't help but wish she could say something, anything to pry him from his madness.
"Your daughter fears for your health my lord, she knows how feverishly you pursue this." Woefully she began, removing her dabbling fingers from the gears and wires upon her work bench and meeting her king's gaze outright. "Boletaria does not need this, my lord, you do not need this…there are alternatives. Your daughter comes to me each night begging me to persuade you away from this insanity." Before the words even escaped her mouth she knew she had spoken out of turn, her lord instantly stood from his seated position and brutishly crushed a helpless shelf to the ground in a stewing rage.
"Insanity? And since when did saving the lives of my people file under the division of insanity? I do what I must for those I love, my people! My daughter! Do you think me a madman, mage? Do you truly wish to consider the grotesque possibility that my actions are done only by the account of some mental illness?" The emperor exploded in a fit of anger the likes of which the poor young mage had never seen, she couldn't help but gulp tenderly and coolly glide her soft black curls behind her ear in an effort to calm herself before her lord's grief.
"I am thinking only of you my lord, and your well-being. I do what I can for you because I truly believe you have the power to change this world, but this is not the way! The Old One is-" Her pleas of forgiveness and reason were ended with a crushing back of the hand, begetting a slithering slick of blood from the now silent mages bruised lip.
"Enough. Tamura I chose you for this job because it cannot be accomplished by anyone else, you have a gift, and I will not let you squander it on your foolish crusade of using that dreadful woman's power, she is the cause of this situation in the first place! Were it not for her I wouldn't even need the Old One's power! I will stop her at all costs, I will give my life to protect my kingdom, and I shall not let your foolishness detract from the flow of progress, do we have an understanding?" The king finished coldly, turning to leave without a word, deafening the silence itself with an explosive slam of the double doors as he vanished from sight.
She sat in contemplation for but a moment before she returned tirelessly to her king's crusade, her burnt mind faded quickly, any hope she had of persuading her lord from his depraved path was all but diminished now.
"All is for my lord."
"And how long ago was this? And where has the good king Allant gone since then? It's imperative I track him down." The voice owned by her tormentor spoke plainly, her leathery grip solidly crushing her throat in a fierce hold.
"Years, many…many years. And the king…?" A knowing pause, she couldn't relay any more information than she had already expelled. "Dead probably." Ever cheeky was the reminiscing mage Hiyori's tone, even the threat of death couldn't strike fear into her hardened mind.
A dreary sigh lifted from the interrogator's throat as she reaffirmed herself as the dominant voice within the conversation, if she could not make this woman fear her, she must use reason instead.
"Look, I really don't want to kill you, it's not my style." Docile was the inquisitor's tone despite the situation, she held no anger in her heart nor her voice, to be swayed by emotion was to lose any battle, to remain stoic was to succeed.
Hiyori couldn't help but laugh heartily at the sentiment between her gasps for air. "Oh give me a break Nanako, you're an assassin!" The fact of the matter was true enough, what assassin didn't relish in the hunt, what dull-minded individual would beset upon themselves a profession where killing came with the title alone?
"Well…you've got me there, but we assassins have our codes and morals just like anyone else…just like you magical little creatures…and just like foolish kings who herald the hells themselves to wipe out all mankind." The ever cold and blunt hit-woman, Nanako Kuroi, spoke plainly, releasing her stone grip around the larynx of her victim and allow her to fall carelessly to the hard ground.
Wittily Hiyori scooped up the nearest novella she could find, by chance it happened to be one written by her, an identity she claimed as her own so shamefully embroidered in glossy gold upon its surface, the caring book detailed everything there was to know about the properties of souls, how to use them as catalysts for magic and the like, and everything in between.
"I'm sure one of my books could assist you…as they say, I did literally write the book on demons. Or perhaps I could interest you in one of my romance novels? I wrote them during-" A vicious kick against a nearby table sent the measly crafted piece of furniture into a nearby wall, erupting into an explosion of prickly wood chips in every direction. "Hey, or not, that's fine, lots of people don't like romance, you're more the action type right?" Hiyori breathed carefully, pushing her luck even further as the overbearing assassin approached her once more with a more aggressive stance.
"I didn't come all the way to Boletaria, to this god-forsaken kingdom to read books. I came here for a single purpose, to fulfill my contract. I've already callously wasted so much time because of you, I'm literally losing money every second my blade isn't buried in somebody's back." Kuroi began sharply, tearing her pocketed curved blade from within her torso sheathe and gliding the frosty metal on the mage's neck threateningly. "And right now I've got empty pockets, and an annoying little girl with a dagger-less back, would you like me to put two and two together, or have you so graciously reconsidered your standing on the ambiguous location of King Allant?" She finished emotionlessly, searching the quivering magenta eyes before her for any sense of understanding.
Hiyori considered her options for a moment, assisting a dangerous woman in her campaign of unknown intentions against a missing king was the first and foremost of the awful selection, and she could in no way be the perpetrator of more damage than she already had done, she refused it. She could fight or run, but she was emaciated from exhaustion and hunger from her long stay within the prison, she'd be killed or caught. Lying would work, for anyone but the ever perceptive Nanako Kuroi, master of the poker face and reader of minds.
Yet at the notions of death, capture, assisting in destruction and mayhem, the thoughtful woman couldn't help but be truthful. As much as it pained her, the location of her king, the most wanted man in the entire country or more likely the entire world, was unknown to even her. It had been years since the destruction of Boletaria, and in that time she had been preoccupied with business elsewhere, the annihilation of the kingdom was unknown to her for some time, along with the fate of all who inhabited it.
Within her confusion rested mingled gilt, she wasn't one to get down upon herself or anyone for that matter, but when it concerned Boletaria, when it concerned the gentle King Allant, a man who she once claimed could be a fatherly figure to her, her mind beget naught by stinging grief. Had she not assisted the mad king on his crusade, had she simply refused, so much could've turned out so differently.
"Tick tock Tamura, every second you spend peeling your mind for the answer to an oh so simple question, I'm losing money. Have you reconsidered or not?" Kuroi barked out the question as more of an order, as in, there was no ifs ands or buts, one way or another it seemed it was the mages duty to assist her in any way possible, willingly or otherwise.
Fetching her best air-headed smile she could muster, and roosting her gauzy frames upon the bridge of her nose, Hiyori let out an almost unnerving chuckle, carelessly pressing the pronged blade from her throat and standing to remove niggling dust upon her dirtied form.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll help ya. But I really was being truthful, I have no idea where Allant is." Her comment swung full circle with the assassin's blade being wretched once more at her tendered throat. "But, but! There's a but here, geeze will you let me finish? But I know somewhere we could go to find out." The mage finished mysteriously, snickering to herself at the almost mesmerizing face the assassin gave her, wrinkled with pure disinterest and yet with a gleam of captivation, an odd sight to be sure.
Turning tail to her bewildering pile of novels at her feet, Hiyori couldn't help but gleefully snatch several of the more risqué ones into her clutches, bearing the steamy books before her companion.
"And it'll be a long journey too, those Nexus-teleportation thingies you guys got can't connect to there, it's secluded in a way. So we'll need some entertainment…or at least I will! If you like I could read them to you on the way, some are a little dirty, but some exercise for the libido never hurt anyone!" At her childish and perverted comment the erratic woman couldn't help but pout when the crude things were snatched from her hands post-haste and whipped to some nameless corner of her musty cell.
"No! I can hardly stand you talking period kid, if I have to listen to you running your mouth off about…" Leaning in closer to the title of the crusty book, not even the perpetually aloof assassin could stay the crimson blush that riddled her cheeks. "One-hundred and one lovemaking positions that derive pleasure from pain…what the hell?" Kuroi cheeked woefully, almost ashamed she had even embarrassed herself by reading the title aloud.
The callow snickering from the mage before her did nothing to stay her fuming emotions, she was going against every fiber of her being just by being unnerved by such a thing.
"Yeah the title is a little long-winded but it's a good read, trust me! You can study up for when you run into some handsome rogue or something that you need to seduce, you know, to get a hit-job done?" Hiyori playfully prodded, jubilating at the essence of girlish shyness radiating from the usually ever-calm and collected woman.
"I don't…well…do you really think it could get me a man?" Kuroi considered for a moment, shaking her read to encompass her apparently empty brain with blood flow once more, just what was she thinking giving into this dribble? "Wait, wait, wait, I keep forgetting you're an idiot, not to mention god damn it stop trying to butter me up! I don't exactly want this little team-up to result in a friendship." The hit-woman muttered ever more silently, sheathing her furrowed blade and beckoning for the perverted little magician to follow suit.
"Yes ma'am, but I really have to insist on this one, it's all about the sensitive areas of-" Her sexually-induced babble was cut short by a bellowing grunt, it was almost as if the assassin had absolutely no interest in her writings, but how could such a thing be?
"I'm going to regret not skewering your spine, aren't I?"
"Wait, you're related to that diminutive monster?" The guardswoman spoke to her in an almost astonished tone, but to the questioner, Yui Narumi, it seemed the tiny pink-haired warrior was just as stubby as her missing kin, if not more so.
"Aye, she's my cousin…and from your energetic tone I suspect the two of you have crossed paths?" Yui enquired hopefully, stressfully grasping the bridge of her nose at the seemingly moody air the angry girl seemed to give her at the very mention of her kin, just what had Konata done in her absence?
"Hell yes we did! And it'll be damn unfortunate for the brat if I ever have the displeasure of seeing her again! She and her moronic friend got my subordinate killed!" Akira lashed out violently, retracting her rage only slightly at the noticeable discomfort the comment had caused the quite amiable woman, she had done her no wrong up until this point, there was no reason to be inhospitable. "Well…that's taking it a little too far, I guess. My comrade died due to his own incompetence, that devil of a cousin of yours was just apparently involved somehow." The less than humble knight finished bluntly, only half-listening to their pointless conversation as she directed orders to passing members of her troupe.
"I see, well that's somewhat of a relief…sort of. Did you happen to see where she went?" Yui prodded further, any information regarding her missing kin or her companions was vital in her search, even the most seemingly unorthodox or irrelevant tips could aide her even a little.
"Yeah, she went to the Nexus I think, beyond that she could either be behind that rock over yonder, or a hundred miles away in any direction, look I don't mean to sound rude but are we done? I'm a very busy woman." Akira asked rather boorishly, not even waiting for a response from her conversational partner before she departed wordlessly, back into the crowd of faceless knights at her command.
At the sound of the Nexus, Yui couldn't help but channel her brow confusedly at the odd term, and while she wasn't entirely trustful of the heated warrior she interrogated, she couldn't help but realize her knowledge was stifled just like her own. Beyond the obvious otherworldly demon invasion, there seemed to be something very strange going on in the small northern kingdom of Boletaria, and while the weary guard Yui had no desire to unravel the spiraling mystery, she had an inkling feeling the dark corners would be revealed to her regardless.
She set her fluttering gaze on a hazy mountaintop adjacent to the palace many miles in the distance, a gloomy black smoke loomed hauntingly over its horizon, blotting out any substance within the area. It seemed as suspicious as any, and as far as suspicious areas went she knew her adventurous cousin probably couldn't resist, what better place to begin her frantic search?
"M'lady forgive me in advance but…are you sure this is a wise plan? The shadowed lands are not fit to be tread upon by your grace, the area is beyond salvation." Her caring knight advised with the upmost caution, but it seemed the saint couldn't be dissuaded, when the usually finicky and shy girl made up her mind about something all arguments were in vain.
"Nothing is beyond salvation dear knight of Garland, we of all souls are proof of this. It isn't just the deliverance of the damned souls I wish to correct either…the Storm Beast, I think those warriors we observed will seek to harm it, I cannot allow them to-" The gentle saint's emotional rant was halted by the crushing hold of a sickly cough permeating from her timid frame, she knowingly felt the tender grasp of her knight upon her buckling shoulders to ease her of the ailing.
"M'lady…you are too kind, this poisoned world does nothing but harm you and you still wish to heal it, we are undeserving of your mercy." Her overbearing knight cow-toed herself to the ground before her idol, her very goddess, she would give up herself entirely in both body and soul if it meant the accomplishment of her ladies goals, the curl of a smile beget from doing her ladies whims, the heat that exhausted itself from her blissful disposition, she relished every passing moment with the woman.
A quaking palm was rested carefully upon the minty-green head of her knight, stroking the budding tuft of hair upon the woman's head in a loving praise.
"Rise my knight, you of all people should never bend thy pride to another, especially one such as me. Please, rise." Her knight hung upon every syllable that escaped the captivating woman's throat, every time she spoke it sent heavy pulses throughout her body, how could such a soul like her lady live in a world of hate and sin, and yet live knowingly ignorant to its horrors, seeking only to heal the fracture collapsed within the world's frame, instead of shy away as anyone else would.
Standing from her appraising stance, the knight of Garland could only heatedly smile upon her ladies beauty silently in response, she knew it pained her lady to see her groveling, but to not place herself under such a figure seemed disrespectful in the upmost, and as a woman of appreciation towards such things, this she could not tolerate.
"To the shadowed lands then, the kin of Izumi cannot be allowed to succeed, lest she undo this world. Come m'lady, we have exhausted our period of waiting…we must act." At her brave words the knight offered an armored palm to her much shorter companion, lovingly curling the woman's tiny fingers into her own larger ones and pulling her onward.
They were alone in this world, outcasts for what they had done, and damned for what they will do, but their roles as the observers were shed with their strong convictions taking hold, their goal was clear to them, Konata Izumi and her companions could not be allowed to succeed in their actions of destroying the arch-demons, and to that end, resting the Old One back to slumber.
"How is their progress?" The faceless voice echoed from the darkness before her, to which her subservient ally could only feign a lioness yawn and stretch combo, gingerly shaking her head nonsensically.
"Well, they managed to slay the Dragon God, somehow. One down four to go, I guess. If you consider that progress then I guess they're doing swimmingly." Irritated was Misao's voice as the words escaped her lips, she would be lying if she said she hadn't grown slightly attached to her bumbling group of oddball companions, but she felt nothing save disdain towards her master for leaving her in the dark on nigh every aspect of her scheming ways and underhanded plans.
"Astounding, I knew she was…her daughter, but I never expected young Konata to be able to fell a beast of such raw might, she may have a faint chance after all." The voice spoke once more, to itself more than the servant, to which the muddily minded Misao could only sheepishly roll her eyes at, pressing her jutting fang from her mouth onto her dry and cracked lips harshly to detract her mind from the blemish in her vision representing her mysterious master.
"Yeah, it's real great…so, did you…you know, did you think about doing that favor for me?" The questioning slave asked hopefully, turning the role of interrogator onto herself with a glint of longing in her face, but as stoic as ever, the master gave no indication of any feeling towards her plight.
"I have looked into it, and I shall consider it if you continue to show me results slave, however…" The witch paused dauntingly, leaning from the onyx shadows fading over her body and revealing her twinkling golden mask, clasped tightly across her featureless face. "Another slip up like what happened in the mines and I'll make sure your debt is never repaid, are we clear?" Her voice was solid and left no room for argument, Misao was just happy she hadn't received any reprimands without a word of warning first, how unlike the tired old scow, she must've been in an agreeable mood this day.
"Aye." At her mindless agreement, the grimacing woman watched placidly as her master dissolved from plain sight in a fantastic display of golden sheen, removing herself from the Nexus' plane of existence and out of her sight, which is more than she could ever ask for when it came to her saddling mistress.
Folding her blood-spattered hands behind her bemired head, the unusually grim slave fluttered out a rather un-lady-like sigh of resentment before directing her attention upon the vertically challenged idols of the Nexus, beholding their haunting beauty with an almost bubbling jealousy.
"If the gods themselves can die, why can't I?" Misao grumbled to herself, scratching the thought away from her mind with the biting flea that mercilessly chewed upon her dirtied scalp. "Fantastic, and now I've got fleas…I really am a dog." She groaned once more, collapsing her still body into a running motion and leaping gracefully from her mounted position atop the apex of the Nexus, squeezing her eyes shut peacefully as she fell hundreds upon hundreds of feet downward.
To anyone but her the fall would be fatal, and as she planted the landing in an almost hinged step that bordered on the supernatural, she wished she was anyone but her.
"Oh!" An anxious gasp at her sudden arrival, and the cogent hearing capabilities of the slave recognized it as the younger of the Hiiragi twins, she just had a certain air about her, feeble and noisy, her presence was easily singled out amongst the rest of the flock.
"Little Hiiragi, sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Misao approached almost the jittery girl in an almost motherly fashion, noticing her unnerved behavior nigh instantly, she wondered how much she had seen of what transpired in the altar of the mines.
"It's…fine, I…I just actually wanted to tell you Kona-Chan wishes to speak with everyone." Her voice was noticeably quaky in response, with a diversion of the eyes Tsukasa wordlessly turned her back on the poor slave, leaving her to silently ache over another broken trust. If the opportune moment arrived perhaps she would explain what the hapless girl had seen, but it was a story for another day, there was so much to do and so little time to fritter away on socializing.
"The Monumental says Kagamin is…gone. Not dead, just…gone. Somehow she's evaded its gaze or something, I thought only me and my dad could do that, is Kagamin a super hero or something too?" Konata poignantly explained, trying her best to stay level-headed in such a dreary situation. She had just found her loved ones after days of searching tirelessly, only to lose a most precious soul once more to some continued swathe of terrible luck. Not to mention the brush with death she had was still gently taking its toll upon her recovering body, the humble amount of toxin that remained within her system was less than required to be fatal according to the Monumental, somehow her body had been drained of the overbearing amount of the poison.
"While your status as super hero is certainly still in debate…" A voice chimed in, removing its bearer, the dirtied servant Misao, from the darkness with it. "That is certainly unusual, the clay kid usually knows what it's talking about when it comes to stuff like this." At her own comment Misao couldn't help but dribble her brain for some grasp of knowledge concerning things that fell outside the Monumental's chronically all-seeing eyes. Not even the Old One, the bane of the world and the epitome of all evil, could hope to hide itself from the Monumental, and yet day by day it seemed this cadre of strange individuals she surrounded herself continued to surprise her in this way.
"But she was right there with us, wasn't she? Where could she have gone, and more peculiar still, how the hell did she vanish so quickly?" Patty added in, even the festive air about her was dimmed slightly at the mysterious disappearance of her comrade, and while the collection of her magical sword filled her with glee, she couldn't help but not wish to damper everyone else's spirits with her own happiness in such a time as this.
Mutely mulling the situation over in her head, Miyuki racked her mind at the statement of a place beyond which even the Monumental's gaze can see, a land secluded and barred away from the troubles of existence, a terra incognita to even Boletaria, while it pained her as the despairing thought came to her, she knew her silence had to be broken were her friend's life to be saved.
"I…I may know where Kagami-Chan is." She started in a near whisper, her comment austere enough to deafen the argumentative tones around her. "When I was young, my mother brought me to an isolated dell upon the mountain tops on the edge of Boletaria…she called them…the shadowed lands." With her continued explanation, the worrisome mage couldn't help but catch the gleam of heated interest in the nearby Patricia's eye, it seemed almost angry.
Misao's silence was broken at her comments with a cautious cackle. "The shadowed lands…? Uh, wow. Even my master has never sent me there, that place is bad juju, what the hell did you travel there for?" Her question was legitimate enough to spark an almost nervous fret in the plum eyes of the usually composed mage.
"Training, to become a full-fledged mage…this was many years ago you see, long before the colorless fog enveloped Boletaria. I believe I was three years of age at the time?" Miyuki recalled gently, trying not to overflow her senses with a plethora of memories before she was prepared to analyze them properly, without wavered emotion.
"Yuki-Chan, you underwent those arduous trials at such a young age?" Tsukasa asked nearly taken aback by the revelation, while she wasn't entirely knowledgeable of what the mages trials entailed, she knew that they tested the mind and body to the fullest, many trainees died or dropped out altogether from the sheer difficulty of the tests.
"Yes, my mother wanted to ensure my gift was well taken care of before she departed to unknown lands. The shadowed lands, at the time, were a peaceful place. Complete serenity would be the only way to describe it, it was often known as the most beautiful sanction of Boletaria, for its endless seas of flowers as far as the eye could see." Miyuki recalled thoughtfully, almost choking up at the somewhat afflicting memories, while she recalled many happy times with her dear mother within those forgotten temple walls, behind the sugar-coated dream surged a pathogen of pain, ever growing.
At the mage's tale Misao fiddled curiously with her Nexus-bound medallion, furrowing a brow when she realized the magical token wasn't responding to her touch as per usual, it wasn't her though, it was the location she deemed to travel to.
"No dice, not even my master's emblem can connect to the shadowed lands…guess isolated was the right term to use here." Stuffing the twinkling coin into her pocket, the slave couldn't help but remember one very key detail missing from Miyuki's explanation. "Hey hold up, how do you know Hiiragi is there? Why would she go there?" The slave eyed her carefully, but the sorceress offered a most alien look with her downwardly shaking head.
"I don't know…but what I do is that those lands are special, my mother told me they were a sanctuary for mages, and all those who felt the divines benign touch. A place free of persecution, a place where we might freely use our special talents for the greater good." Miyuki began once more, heaving a gentle sigh of woe from deep within. "This is however, why the entire area was suffocated within a blinding smog, yet it was not ethereal, it was barrier to keep the world out…and we mages in." At her somewhat dreary tale, the thoughtful mage couldn't help but warmly smile as she felt Tsukasa's soft hand glide across her shoulder affectionately.
"Well, I'm glad you didn't stay, our lives would've been a whole lot worse off without you." At Tsukasa's kind words, the amiable meganekko couldn't help but shutter out a rumbling snicker, knowing she agreed in every sense, being a magician was her life, and being surrounded by those who were just like her was always a comfortable environment, but she felt far more at home amongst her friends.
At the sudden silence Konata couldn't help but spring to life with a jolt of fury, her eyes burning with courage as per her usual stance. "All right then! There's no two ways about it, my Kagamin is in trouble and we know where she is, there's no time to lose!" Her daring words trailed off into the distance as she sprinted off towards the arch stones, sword in hand and heart full of love were the only supplies she needed for her adventure.
"Kind of makes you wish she could just be poisoned forever, eh? At least she was quieter." Misao muttered with a rude groan, following in suit as the group readied themselves before the stones to set out upon another dangerous journey. "But regardless this works out, the Monumental said another one of the arch fiends was 'sposed to be skulking around the shadowed highlands, crazy coincidence." The slave noted as she unhinged her spear from its crested casing, twirling it gracefully to make sure she still had that aggressive swing.
As Patty watched her companions jubilate in their quest, minds free of worry, their hearts knowing they would succeed in not only locating their missing companion but defeating yet another overbearingly powerful foe, she couldn't help but brush it all aside in favor of the mage.
She had lied after all, she had been to Boletaria whether she was lax to admit or not, had she forgotten or straight up lied? Did she have any involvement with the murderers who destroyed her entire life in one fell swoop of seemingly aimless chaos and wanton slaughter? She knew she did not, she knew this woman could not be the same as the witch who's lightning-tipped boots fried the soil below her feet, but the resemblance was uncanny.
A relative, the same woman using a magical trick, or perhaps it was the demons she commanded running afoul upon her shattered mind. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who or what this woman was to her, or the relationship she had with the murderers who ruined the poor archer's world, Patty couldn't help but grit her teeth sharply, and grip her blade rancorously.
The song of home she sang in her fuming mind did nothing to crown her rage, but behind her anguish beat a looming sadness, revenge surely was a fickle thing.
Author's Note: All the players are set, and it seems all eyes point to these shadowed lands…this can't end well. Short chapter, very short chapter in fact. But that's only because I didn't want to bust into the new arc half-way through a chapter. Normally I like to wait a week or so before I update with a new chapter, but hey, I was inspired to write, enjoy this crap will you? I tried to remove as much of the stink as possible.