Sieg slept like the dead, and when Heidi, a fire sorceress in training, was sent in to tell him the news she'd had to resort to lifting his mattress and rolling him off the bed to wake him. His uncle had done that several times in the past, but Sieg was still startled when he crashed to the floor.
"What…?"
"The Rave Master is dying! Hurry!"
Heidi left then, yelling that Haru had been brought to the hospital, and Sieg scurried to make himself presentable. His hair was a bit more disheveled than normal, one of the cuffs of his jacket was unbuttoned, and his collar was turned the wrong way as he ran from his room and out the door to the hospital, leaving his home unlocked with the door wide open, no less. But he trusted everyone not to rob him, and even if he didn't, this was too important to waste time with silly things like shutting doors.
It was early, and not many people were out yet. Without having to weave through crowds Sieg made it to the hospital, which was clear on the other side of town, in a matter of minutes. Granted, he was too out of breath to ask the receptionist which room Haru was in.
Luckily, the woman at the front desk knew that they had the Rave Master in a coma, and it didn't take much to guess that Sieg was there to see him. She gave directions to his room while it occurred to Sieg that he could have saved time and energy and flown.
He was still panting when he reached Haru's hospital room on the second floor. Haru was the only one to look up at him immediately, but as he was a spirit, the gesture went unnoticed.
"Is he… alright?" Sieg asked, getting everyone's attention. He swallowed, took a deep breath, and added, "I was told he… was dying."
"The doctor said he isn't going to die," Elie said, "But they're worried he might not wake up."
But he wasn't dead. Between gasps for breath, Sieg breathed a sigh of relief.
A doctor, who had been standing over Haru's bed, smiled at Sieg and walked out of the room, gesturing for him to follow. Sieg looked to see if anyone else had noticed, but they were all looking back at Haru's body. He followed without saying anything.
Haru's spirit stepped out of the room as well.
The doctor shut the door before addressing Sieg. "There aren't any signs of injury or illness that may have caused his condition. We can detect magic, but there's no obvious means by which the spell is causing this, or even what exactly it's caused."
"So his odds of recovery are low?"
"He won't recover," the doctor corrected. "He's still breathing, and he still has a pulse, but we can't find any signs of brain activity. I didn't know a person could still breath after their brain shuts down. Even with magic affecting him…" he shook his head.
A quip about Haru having never had brain activity to start with passed through Sieg's mind, but now hardly seemed like the best time.
"We haven't told his friends yet. If you think…"
"They don't need to be told immediately," Sieg said.
Horrible as it was to move past Haru's essential death, Sieg's mind jumped to thoughts of a third Rave Master. Whoever it was, they would need to be located and trained before Lucia could try and capture the last Dark Bring. Or Haru wouldn't be the only death.
Sieg was forming plans for how they might possibly stall Demon Card while finding someone to fight them as he walked back into Haru's room, but noticed something that, maybe, should get priority first. He might be practical enough to think of what needed to happen with Haru out of the picture, but he wasn't so inhuman that he couldn't show consideration for Haru's condition either. He hoped.
"Do all of you have a place to stay?"
Musica shook his head. "The resistance is leaving now to see if they can hold Demon Card off. The hospital isn't charging for Haru, so we can afford a hotel for a while, and I called my gang up so they're on their way. We can squeeze onto the ship once they arrive."
"You can stay at my house until he recovers," Sieg offered.
"There's a lot of us," Shuda pointed out. "We won't fit."
"I assure you, all of you and Musica's friends can fit comfortably." Sieg maintained a straight face as he said it, but inwardly cringed. He hated explaining that one, and if they didn't ask now, they sure would when they saw where he lived.
Shuda and Let, the only two who hadn't gone back to preoccupying themselves with watching Haru, exchanged looks and nodded their approval.
Sieg smiled. "Let me show you the way."
-o-
Haru followed silently behind the others, wishing there was some way he could let them know he wasn't brain dead. Particularly, he wanted to tell Musica first. He could imagine his friend having some witty response to that and hearing Musica mocking him would return some sense of normalcy. It had been over twenty-four hours now that Haru had been trapped outside of his body, and he was beginning to go mad from the loneliness of being a spirit.
Particularly, he was going to stab something—or at least attempt to—if he didn't get new clothes soon. He was still wearing the polka dot pajamas he had fallen asleep in, and spirits didn't get wardrobes.
The temptation to stab, fortunately, did not become overwhelming on the walk to Sieg's. Haru was almost content to listen to the usually serious sorcerer grow increasingly flustered trying to keep a conversation going. The attempt to distract everyone from the situation at hand was obvious, but Haru was grateful to Sieg for trying. The others were too, Haru imagined. Or they would be if they could stop moping long enough to notice Sieg was still talking. He'd almost launched into full monologue.
Everyone following Sieg halted suddenly, Sieg himself coming to a stop a moment later. Haru did not notice until he had walked halfway through Sieg and, drained from worrying about his condition and his friends' state of minds, couldn't bother to take a step forward or backward to remedy that.
"This is it… Welcome." The words 'to my humble abode', or something to that effect, almost slipped out, but that would have been a lie. Sieg turned around to see everyone's reactions.
Sieg's home was anything but humble. Four stories tall and sprawling on either side. And who knew how far back it went? Musica suspected he could have managed to fit five… no… six of his ship into the place. And he'd still have plenty of room left over to maintain them too.
"Are you, um… rich?" Musica asked.
Sieg cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm sure you can all fit in the guest wing."
"H-hold on. Don't ignore my question," Musica insisted.
But Sieg went right along as if it had never been asked. "I'll make sure that the rooms are cleaned out by evening. We'll need to hire a chef too, if more people are coming…"
I'd rather handle the cooking myself…
Haru blinked, as certain he'd heard Sieg say that as he was that the sorcerer's mouth hadn't moved.
"Make yourselves at home. I don't know if you had any luggage with you, but—"
"It's still at the hospital," Shuda told Sieg, which jolted everyone from the shock of seeing such a huge mansion and reminded them of why they were staying in it.
"I'll have them brought here," Sieg said. "Come inside. I'll show you too…" he paused, not sure where exactly to show them with the guest rooms untouched in some time and no other facility in the house not looking extremely pretentious.
Would it look worse to take them to the pool, or the theater?
Mentally, Sieg cursed his family for needing so many add ons, something Haru also heard loud and clear.
"I'll show you in," Sieg settled on. "Feel free to look around."
He was in the middle of a thought about how it would still look like he was showing off if they found all the extravagances on their own when he stepped forward and out of the space Haru occupied. The voice of his thoughts vanished.
Haru stood there, taking a moment to process this discovery. After coming to terms with the fact that Sieg was, in fact, from a disgustingly rich family, he took a moment to acknowledge that he also seemed to be capable of reading people's mind. He then ran to catch up to the others, but didn't make it to Sieg's front door before they closed it.
"Hey!" he grabbed for the doorknob, but his hand passed right through. "Let me in! I can't open the door!"
Of course, no one could hear him.
-o-
For a good six hours, Haru sat on the front steps of Sieg's house, waiting for someone to open the door and forgetting that, as a spirit, he could walk right through it. If he wasn't dead, Haru thought, then he would die of boredom. How unfair that all his friends got to explore Sieg's mansion while he, the one with the condition that landed them there, was stuck outside.
Something interesting happened shortly after noon. A woman in a witches hat and a very… Haru gulped... blush inducing dress ran up. He could really make out the bounce in her steps like that.
She stopped at Sieg's door, grabbing an old brass knocker and banging it against the wood. A fricken butler opened the door to see who was there.
The wood door swung right though Haru, who swore.
"Fetch Sieg! The town is under attack."
The butler left the door open while he hurried to get Sieg. Rather than take the chance to go in without having to walk through anything, Haru took a running head start, moving towards a cloud of dust that was rising over a building several streets down.
Musica ran passed him a moment later, followed by Let and Julia, and Haru could hear Elie in the background, arguing with the witch over whether or not it was a good idea to fight.
Elie never ran after him, so she must have lost the argument. Not that it mattered. Upon reaching town, Haru could see they were hardly needed. The attacking force, which had likely arrived on the large ship with the Demon Card insignia painted on it, consisted almost entirely of small fry, and while the sorcerers of the town weren't all Sieg, they weren't all pushovers either. The stronger sorcerers, along with Musica, had taken on the one enemy who looked even half decent, although if he was a high ranking member than Haru hadn't seen him before. A new member of the Oracion Six? Lucia must have been desperate to fill the positions if he'd let that man take the title. But even if neither Lucia nor his best men were there, it seemed odd that Sieg hadn't joined in the fight to defend his hometown. They had no way of knowing Lucia wasn't about to drop in.
Then Haru spotted him. In the middle of the battlefield with bed hair to match Haru's—there were no brushes for spirits—in a thin white shirt and black pants, looking around blankly at the battle and going oddly ignored by everyone else, stood Lucia.
Lucia's wandering gaze stopped on Haru, and his eyes focused and sharpened into a menacing glare. The blond tensed and sneered, but made no move towards Haru.
Instinctively, Haru tensed as well. Now was not a good time for a faceoff. He didn't even have his sword, and if he did it would probably pass right through Lucia if he tried to swing it. Lucia wouldn't even notice the…
Wouldn't even notice…?
Then it hit Haru that Lucia was making eye contact with him. Real eye contact. Not looking in his direction, but looking at him. If Lucia could see him, and if no one else acted as if they could see Lucia…
Well, that figured. Of course he'd be stranded in some spirit plane with only Lucia for company.
Nothing Haru did so far as a spirit, not tripping through walls or pinching himself or the time he ran off the airship and fell through the boarding platform, had managed to do anything worse than smart for a moment, so Haru was feeling pretty invincible just then. And if he was right, and Lucia was a spirit too, then the worst they could do was annoy one another. Lucia might even know something about what had caused him to be forced from his body.
So Haru stole himself and walked towards the blond, who had yet to do anything worse than glare.
As he got close, Lucia did take a step back, grimacing. Haru hesitated, wondering if Lucia could sense him more than see him, or hadn't figured out yet that they didn't take damage as spirits. Lucia hadn't struck him as an idiot, so he probably knew they were fine… ish. Haru decided that Lucia could only tell something was standing in front of him, but not see what.
"Do you want something, Glory?" Lucia asked.
Scratch that. "What's with that getup?" Haru asked, for lack of a better response. Sure, he could say what he wanted, but for someone as direct and, more importantly, spiteful as Lucia, being direct back wasn't the most tempting method.
Lucia raised an eyebrow, examining Haru's pajamas. "You tell me."
Haru felt his cheeks turn red, and began scanning Lucia for anything he might be able to use as a comeback. There was nothing too odd about his clothes. They were overly casual, especially for someone who usually wore a breastplate wherever they went, but plain fabric and simple cuts didn't leave much room for mockery. Although bare feet did, now that Haru noticed Lucia's lack of shoes of any sort. The loose fabric of his pants barely covered the tops of his feet, and they had no cover beyond that. In fact, the left didn't even have that. The left leg of his pants seemed to be lifted slightly by… huh… that looked awfully swollen.
Haru glanced up to Lucia's face. His eyes had widened in horror when Haru noticed the injury. Just like Haru was in no shape to fight a tangible person, Lucia was in no shape to fight period. Even standing was pushing it, although he didn't have much choice. After over twenty-four hours of possession, he'd finally managed to leave the host he'd accidentally entered through, as far as he could tell, sheer will power, and not a moment too soon. The idiot had been sliced in two by a spell seconds later. That left Lucia without anything to support himself, and he couldn't quite reduce himself to crawling off a battlefield. Since seeing Haru watching him, clearly a spirit as well, Lucia was relieved for that bit of stubbornness. He didn't, wouldn't, couldn't let the enemy see him like that.
But it hurt too much to walk, and if Haru chose to raise a fist now, Lucia would be hard pressed to dodge or fire back. Pissing Haru off insulting his wardrobe choice might not be too wise either, so Lucia did his best not to think about his own words and asked Haru, "Have you noticed how the floor is solid but the walls aren't?"
Haru blinked.
"Don't think about it too hard."
Lucia followed his own advice, but Haru, introduced to the idea, couldn't help but wonder why the ground was no less tangible than the walls.
And then he slipped right through the dirt.
-o-
It was hard to tell how long he fell through the ground, although Haru wouldn't have guessed more than a few seconds. He landed on his back in a large, open cavern somewhere beneath the city. Old, white stone overtaken by moss lined the walls, and a fountain rose from the center of the room. Haru stared at it while he recovered from the jolt of falling what he'd hazard to guess was at least twelve stories, then rolled over and took a closer look around.
It was pretty. Maybe it would be a nice place to sneak off to with Elie and talk in private once he got back to normal. However he was going to get back to normal. He'd need to find his way out first, but if no one knew about the place then… ah. Nevermind.
Sieg sat at the base of the fountain, looking bored beyond all reason. He sure had gotten there fast. It had only been, at best, five minutes since they left the mansion. There must have been some magic shortcut to the place. But why had Sieg hidden himself away during the fight? He was no coward. He'd walked towards a ticking Etherion time bomb twice, targets King, and nearly fought the whole Oracion Six on his own. An attack defending his home alongside the people he'd known since childhood was nothing compared to that.
Well… if Sieg knew the way in, then Sieg knew the way out, which was more than Haru could say. He'd wait for the sorcerer to leave and follow him, and until then he could do a bit of investigating. Lucia was experimenting with their spirit states if he knew some trick to make the ground stop being solid. Haru needed to work out his abilities too.
He sat down beside Sieg, hand reaching into the bluenet's leg, and started listening to Sieg's thoughts, as clear as if the man had spoken the aloud.
Sieg was mostly concerned about how his friends and family were faring without him, occasionally cursing the dark bring. It wasn't until several minutes into Haru's testing how much contact was needed to catch thoughts that he learned why this mattered. Somewhere in this room the last Sinclair Stone was hidden. Sieg was guarding it. And he was embarrassed to have the duty. It seemed not too many people knew he had the stone, and that he'd been hiding was the general accusation he was expecting when the fight ended.
Well, the joke was on Lucia now. He thought he was so great, sending Haru plummeting through the earth? Now Haru knew, more or less, where the final stone Lucia needed was, and if Lucia had some injury that had carried over to his spirit form, then it would be easy for Haru to keep the blond away from anyone he might be able to pry the info out of.
If he could get back before Lucia found anyone else who knew Sieg's secret, that was.
