Lucia was midstride early the next morning when the ship landed. The sudden jerk as they touched down sent a wave of pain through his leg and made him stumble. He didn't know who snickered, but he'd already determined that there would be no survivors when he came back to Mildea for the Last Physic stone Haja had lost. Whoever it was, they would be punished in due time.
Insisting he make himself in some way useful, Lucia had been tasked with helping guard the ship. The inside of it. With him apt to stumbling, particularly when something agitated his wounded ankle, no one had thought it a good idea to set him in a wide open battle ground, and everyone had agreed that asking him to break into Demon Card and fight his own best men was a terrible idea. Also, something about Haru's body being an obvious target, but Lucia hadn't paid much attention to that part. He was placed by the main entrance to the ship and asked to knock out anyone who might get past the sorcerers standing guard outside.
It was going to be a boring day. And it was just his luck that this was the one day of his life where everyone agreed with him that you could start your morning any time after midnight. He glanced up at the clock. Four a.m. Hopefully Haru's friends didn't take too long.
-o-
It was going to be an exciting day.
Musica tapped his spear on the dirt, waiting for the people of Mildea to finish prepping the Rune Wings. Once the small aircrafts were up and running, the mission could begin. Sure the lack of ceiling walls or even a seatbelt on the vehicles made them look a little dangerous, not to mention that you needed magic to fly one, so he was screwed if he ended up on his own, but he trusted whoever he was assigned to be able to fly it.
After a near miss where someone tried assigning him Ruby, and a near score where he almost got to ride with a hot sorceress, he ended up on a Rune Wing with Miltz.
"You're not going to fall asleep flying this thing, are you?" Musica asked.
"Not on your life."
Musica looked around at the other sorcerers. Twenty Rune Wings had been lined up, Julia, Let, and Shuda having been paired with the men who would be flying them. Belnika had her own, and Elie wouldn't be coming. She'd wanted to do whatever she could to help Haru, but even Lucia had been unable to point out the stupidity of letting her walk into Demon Card headquarters.
"Hold on," Miltz warned. "It will be time for takeoff any second now."
Hold on to what? Miltz was short and thick. Musica wasn't sure he could comfortable lean over and wrap his arms around the man. He looked old too. If he squeezed too tight, could he bruise the geezer?
"Hold on!" Miltz ordered.
"Just gimme a—"
They took off.
Musica yelled as the Rune Wing almost flew out from under him. As it was, he nearly fell off completely. When the vehicle shot out he flipped over and had to grab the seat before it was too far out of reach, clinging for dear life as he dangled off the end. As everyone flew down past the ledge they would use sneak up on the Demon Card castle and turned in the direction of their target, he struggled to keep his grip.
"Hey old man! Can't you slow down?"
"We can't waste any time. According to Lucia's schedule, patrols should be starting soon."
Musica grunted and fought the force of the wind rushing past to pull himself back onto the seat. As he got one foot back on the Rune Wing, they turned sharply up. Musica slipped and resigned himself to riding without his butt in the chair for the rest of the trip. He could see the wall approaching, and at the speed Miltz was taking him, it couldn't be too long.
Maybe he would have been better off going with Ruby.
-o-
While Musica was off having his little brush with death, Haru broke into the castle ground in a much more low effort way. He walked through the walls.
Upon getting inside, he immediately noticed that Lucia's map had left out a few important details, like all the other buildings between the castle and the wall. Demon Card's headquarters looked like a… it was a kingdom. Lucia had made himself a kingdom to run.
No. Haru corrected himself. Lucia didn't run a kingdom. There was no way he could find the attention to devote to the ins and outs of that. Lucia led an army. An army that someone had decided to make a kingdom for after noticing that they had royal blood in their midst. Someone else in Demon Card handled domestic upkeep while Lucia was off campaigning for world domination or whatever his end goal was.
Did that make Lucia a figurehead? Probably not. Only to whatever degree he allowed it. For as completely apathetic as he'd been to nearly everything the past few days, Haru was willing to bet that Lucia had a lot more drive when he was mobile. A lot more. Just look at what he'd done since finding he could take over Haru's body, not to mention the change he'd brought to Demon Card since taking over.
Lucia didn't run a kingdom, but he did own one, and they'd have to navigate through it to get his body.
Everyone who still had a body crossed over the wall and landed several minutes later, cursing under their breath as they made the same discovery that Haru had. There was no concise layout to the buildings. No easy rows to sneak up to reach the castle. It almost looked unplanned, but things got progressively taller towards the castle, so it was always more defensible than what territory invaders had passed.
"Split up," Shuda decided. "We'll meet at the north end of the castle like we planned, but if there's no easy path there, then it's best we not all hit the same roadblock."
Without forming any particular groups, people began running around buildings, weaving towards the castle. Haru followed after Musica, Let, and a sorcerer he didn't recognize, figuring they'd be among the fastest to reach the castle. Julia was waiting for them when they arrived, but no one else had obviously gone through yet.
"I got it open," she gestured to one of the windows that, from Lucia's plans, had sounded easiest to take out the guards near. "The man in here's asleep. Be careful as you come in."
She crawled through, then Let, the sorcerer, and Musica. While the first three quickly filed out of the room, Musica stayed behind a moment to bind and gag the man.
The entry route as secured as it could be, Musica, followed by Haru, peered out into the halls and saw that the other three were already out of sight. Cursing, Musica tried to recall Lucia's maps. They'd come in from the north, so the closest set of stairs was…
Left, but Musica turned right, and found himself in the throne room before he remembered the proper direction.
The second floor patrol was passing as he reached the top step, and both he and Haru held their breath and pressed against the wall of the stairway as the men went by. The first man passed without so much as a glance, but the second paused and looked their way.
"We're only supposed to keep the stairs by the front doors unlocked. Someone left this door open all night."
"Best time to do it. If Lucia were awake, he'd flay anyone who made a mistake like that." The guard chuckled. "He'd be waking up right about now too, most days."
"That's the one blessing in this. Someone must have left it on purpose. Having just one path open during the night is such a pain. I don't know why he insists on the security. Only an idiot would break into a building with Lucia Raregroove in it."
"Or someone who heard he's sick."
"Best follow procedure, then, huh?"
The second guard walked towards the door. Musica sucked in his gut—just in case it made him any flatter—and slowly dragged his hand up his side so he'd be able to grab his silver fast.
The guard reached out past Musica, gaze locked on the door as he grabbed it and swung it shut.
Musica breathed a sigh of relief and pressed his ear to the door, waiting for the sound of the guards to fade away. For good measure, he even counted to fifty afterward before grabbing the handle and finding that it was indeed locked. Not a problem. He bent down and grabbed in silver, molding it into a basic key and wiggling it into the keyhole to get a feel for the exact shape he needed.
The door clicked, and Musica's stomach dropped. He hadn't gotten the right key shape yet. If the door was clicking—
It swung open, smacking him in the face and sending him tumbling down the stairs.
"Aw, fuck. Sorry, sir, I didn't realize… you…"
Musica was too disoriented to notice, but Haru could clearly see the look of realization on the young evil soldier's face as he realized he hadn't hit a comrade. "Intruder! We have an intruder!"
Musica swore and tried to get to his feet, but he'd hit his head harder than he thought, and the room tilted when he tried to hurry up the stairs to stop the man. Morphing his spear, he tried to stretch it out to hit the idiot before he could alert too many people, but he missed twice before the man realized to move further out of reach.
Whether Lucia was giving orders or not, Musica was pretty sure of what would happen to him if he were caught. As soon as he felt pretty steady, he ran back downstairs. He had to get out. But he couldn't ruin it for everyone else, if he already hadn't. No revealing how he got in or leading Demon Card back to the Rune Wings.
Recalling Lucia's crummy maps as best he could, he ran for the front doors. They were impractically large and heavy, and he cursed Lucia and Julius and everyone else involved in their making as he threw his weight against them and slowly pushed them open. The cries of intruder were echoing down the halls, and though he was refusing to look back, he could hear people not far behind.
He raced out as soon as the doors were open wide enough, running through the buildings around the castle and towards the wall. Lucia had mentioned where the gates for the wall were when Sieg pressed him, but since they were flying over it, Musica hadn't memorized that detail.
Looked like they'd have he'd have to go over again.
A siren went off. People began peeking out of the buildings. Some stepping out already prepared to fight, like Lucia expected them to be. Damn him. Damn him for making this so hard, and damn him for making them come in the first place.
Turning his silver into a grappling hook, he tossed it to a roof and pulled himself up. The men on his heels and the men prepared to block him both shouted as he dodged both groups and began vaulting from rooftop to rooftop, still aiming for the wall.
When he got close enough, he extended the silver as long and thin as he dared and leapt over. If his shoulder clipped the edge of the wall while he sailed over it, then fine. At least he hadn't gone splat on the side of the wall. On the other side, he tried to use his silver claiming to slow his fall, but still landed hard and needed a moment to stead himself.
"Open the gates! Fire! Stop him!"
No time to get his footing. He had to run.
-o-
It was a bittersweet moment for Lucia. On the one hand, his guards had successfully stopped a team of intruders. He had grossly underestimated them and their ability to succeed period, and it was nice to know there was more competence than he'd hoped in the castle. On the other, this was the one time he'd needed them to be incompetent.
"Eight of us are missing," Shuda said to conclude his report. "Lucia, if we get you back to normal, you are to let those men free."
Once he had his body back, there was nothing to negotiate, or hold him to old promises. And missing didn't mean they were still alive. Lucia made a noncommittal noise.
"I'm sorry," Musica muttered.
"If it had to happen, then it was best it did before too many people were trapped inside," Shuda told him. "As it is, we'll have to hope that Julia, Let, and the others escape detection and break out tonight."
"Assuming they don't tighten security," Lucia pointed out. "If the silver claimer tied a man up then they know where you got in from, and after everyone ran back to the Rune Wings they would have figured out you took advantage of the spot where everyone else insisted no one would try to break in from."
"I'm sure you feel validated knowing the spot you thought needed to be strengthened was a weak point, but it's one you thought to exploit, not us," Shuda snapped. Not that Lucia hadn't made a good point, but he wanted the brat to shut up already. "Unless you know what changes they'd make to security, then stay out of this."
"I don't even know who's in charge right now."
"Then stay out of this."
"What about Haru?" Lucia asked.
Sieg cleared his throat. "Unless you want to release his body for us—"
"Like hell." Lucia gestured to where Haru's spirit stood. "If the castle has wards against spirits I've never heard of it. If he wants to see what the security looks like, he can tell me and we work out a new plan."
"But if he misses something important because he came at the wrong time in the guards' schedule—"
"Not an issue." Haru read minds.
"Wait," Musica said. "You can just tell us what Haru is saying?"
"No. I offered to do something I'm not capable of."
"You can tell us. Why hasn't Haru tried to communicate at all?" Musica asked.
"Actually, he hasn't shut up since this meeting started. If he doesn't stop telling me things he wants said soon, I'll go deaf. That it's his own ears he's talking off has done nothing to stop him."
For everyone but Lucia, who could hear Haru threatening to really make him go deaf, the ensuing silence was horribly awkward.
Someone coughed.
"Will Haru survey the castle?" Sieg asked
Lucia nodded.
More silence.
"Shut up!" Lucia snapped suddenly, looking to his right. "If it bothers you so fucking much, then go look already. The sooner this is over, the sooner you can tell them yourself."
