Haru didn't need sleep, and Lucia didn't need to do anything important the following day, so the two stayed up late into the night going over the maps the blond had drawn, reviewing the layout and where people who knew changes to the security might be. Lucia also gave his best guess on how security might have been changed, but not all of it matched up with what people had reported seeing, so Haru would still need to go and confirm it.

Around three in the morning Lucia decided to get more involved. Dreading the same boredom as the day before, he left Haru's body with the intent of possessing one of the Demon Card men patrolling the outside of the wall. For his troubles he was rewarded with the painful reminder that his ankle was badly broken. After having spent the past few days enjoying the comforting effect that Haru's body had on him, he could hardly function in a host body where every step brought a fresh wave of agony.

At least he had possessed the good sense not to deposes Haru a distance from his next potential victim. Still, the few steps he'd tried taking in his new host, who ran for it after Lucia left him, were difficult to cover on his own. Haru ended up helping him back to his meat puppet of choice.

"You know," Lucia said as he stretched and readjusted to being in Haru's body, "If you have left me behind, that would have taken care of a serious threat."

"It wouldn't have killed you to crawl five feet, Lucia."

"Yes it would have. You were watching. A king does not crawl before those below him."

"That's nice."

"Also, crawling hurts almost as bad as walking," Lucia confessed. As if to rob his claim of any validity, he chose just then to test placing his weight on his injured side. In Haru's body it still ached, but it felt no worse than putting pressure on a bruise. "I honestly don't get why you would help. You do know we're enemies? Aren't you worried about what I'll do once I have my body back?"

"I don't just worry about you as an enemy," Haru told him. "Don't kill my friends while I'm gone."

"No promises. But it's unlikely I will. Most of those idiots are necessary for me to get my own body back."

Haru squared his shoulders and stepped forward to argue that one, but seeing the amused light in Lucia's eyes, decided not to take the bait. "I suppose the action matters more than the motive, with you."

"I need my body present for me to get my own body back too, so move it."

"Alright. Geeze." Haru threw his hands up in surrender and left Lucia to himself.

In truth, Haru would have liked to have Lucia there. It would have been nice to have someone who knew their way around the castle and, more importantly, could provide conversation. But if Demon Card was on high alert, then seeing Haru('s body) break in wouldn't end well, and Lucia could hardly function with another host. Haru half suspected that once they were returned to normal, Lucia wouldn't be able to function even in his own body.

Well, if it couldn't be helped, it couldn't be helped. All on his lonesome, Haru walked through the walls around the Raregroove Kingdom and, to make the trip a bit more interesting, didn't trouble himself with walking around any of the buildings between him and the castle. It was still early in the morning, and most people were still asleep but it was fascinating to see how normal the insides of most of the buildings were. If Lucia wanted to stop being a terror, maybe secure a bit more land for himself and just make his kingdom a world power rather than a world conqueror, then maybe Raregroove could be a pretty normal place.

The idea of anything involving Lucia being normal made Haru snicker. He was still grinning at the thought when he reached the castle.

More people were lined around it this morning, most trying not to nod off. As he slipped through them, Haru caught one man thinking that Lucia himself was better suited for standing guard at such an ungodly hour. Remembering his mission, Haru stepped back out and spied on the man's thoughts.

He listened for a while, and moved between two or three other guards, but it was no good. They knew their own assignment, and little more. One man knew roughly how many people were around the castle gates, but no one knew the entire plan.

Lucia had said that there was a woman in charge of knowing as much as possible and reporting it all to him, and even if she wasn't involved in security, she would the details learn in case he wanted them when he recovered. From what he'd heard listening to the guards out front, it seemed that Demon Card was still optimistic about the odds of Lucia waking up.

The woman's room was a floor up from Lucia's. Lucia knew the location from having gone to her with questions on occasion. Haru set that as his destination, found the room where Musica had broken in from the other day, and located the stairs from there.

As he passed the fourth floor, it occurred to him that it might be worth knowing for sure if Lucia's body was in his room or not, and if it wasn't, then he could save the others time by finding it first.

He found Lucia's room easily enough. It was both surprisingly lavish and less decorated that Haru had expected. After that whole "blood of kings" thing Lucia had brought up at the Star Vestige, Haru had imagined Lucia as the overly opulent sort, and the castle didn't diminish that image, but having spent some time with Lucia, a number of things in the room seemed less practical than he'd have thought Lucia would prefer. The bed didn't need to be too large. The decorations on the furniture were trivial. The wall paper (or was that pattern painted on?) was unnecessary. It was almost like Lucia was… a contradictory.

Like that was a shock.

Most surprising was how well Haru could see everything. Haru's eyes had adjusted to the dark, but light came into Lucia's room from the balcony. Outside, he could see another tower nearby, well lit even at the early hour, and bright enough for some of the glow to make it to Lucia's room. It was like an obnoxious nightlight you had to walk to another tower to turn off instead of just unplugging the unholy thing from the wall. Idly, Haru wondered if Lucia had attempted to move to a different room, or if it had been too much trouble just to have a dimmer sleeping area.

Before he left, he checked Lucia's body, just in case the universe felt like being fair and letting him possess the blond. It didn't, but Haru considered it a worthwhile effort. He hadn't seen Lucia's sleeping face before, and might never see again. It was a shame he had no spirit camera. The photo would have been fun to try and tease Lucia with. Hopefully, Musica would have the same thought when they recovered Lucia's body.

By that time the sun was rising, which Haru could see perfectly from Lucia's balcony. No wonder the blond hadn't changed rooms.

Better hurry. The faster he got the security plans, the faster they could get Lucia's body, and the faster he and Lucia could return to normal.

Lucia knew how to get to the intel woman's room from his own, so by recalling his directions Haru got their easily. The woman was just waking up, and her mind was hazy. It took some digging for Haru to find security information, and even after locating it, he waited until she was fully awake before he felt satisfied with its accuracy.

On his way down, Haru recalled one last thing that he absolutely wanted to know before reporting back. Let and Julia were still missing. Since they had been operating on the assumption that Lucia would be on the fourth floor, it didn't make sense for them to go any higher. He went back to Lucia's room, then began to systematically inspect each room, focusing on any place were a whole person might be able to hide.

They weren't anywhere on the fourth, or third, second, or first. He started working back up, and found them on the sixth, between a small kitchen and a pool. Neither had been on Lucia's map, so he committed the location and path to memory.

Haru would have traded anything for the chance to tell them help was on the way. Neither was acting terrified, but Let didn't look as calm as normal, and Julia held herself so rigid that a slight breeze might snap her. He took some time to make sure they were okay, as was relieved to see they would be able to survive for at least a little while. When no one was around, one or the other would sneak out and retrieve whatever they could hold in their hands from the kitchen. With their heightened senses, they seemed to have a pretty good sense of when it was safe to sneak out. Haru trusted them to manage until rescuers got there.

They couldn't hear it, but he told them that everything would be fine. As he finished the message, he noticed the walls quivering. Let and Julia both jumped up and looked around, then settled a moment later, one of them commenting that it had been an earthquake.

His friends back on the ship would probably be safe, but there was always the chance that something had gone wrong. Haru hurried back.

-o-

Haru confirmed the location of Lucia's body for everyone, and explained where all security had been enhanced. Everywhere previously under guard was still under guard, and most places not previously under guard were now under guard as well. It took some coaxing to get Lucia to get up and act on the information. When he finally stood to gather paper and pencil, his limp, Haru thought, seemed prominent again. Even with Haru's body negating some of the damage.

After Lucia drew up a new map showing where they would face opposition, everyone decided that stealth could go to hell and started working out plans for a frontal assault. The attack force was largely comprised of magic users, so Miltz insisted that it was his time to lead, and took over planning the attack.

Already familiar with the idea of sitting on the sidelines, Lucia retreated to a meditation room. He had been hoping for some quiet alone time, but Haru followed him. When Lucia got comfortable in a pile of cushions he threw together and tried to close his eyes for a minute, Haru sat down in front of him and started to talk.

"Do you really feel safe sleeping in front of me?"

No. Hearing how hopeful Haru was when he asked that, Lucia almost wanted to admit to his unease just to see if it would disappoint the little pest. "It's not like you can do me any harm in your current condition."

"Maybe not, but the things I learn once I have my body back might come back to haunt you?"

"Like what. The sorcerer already knows about my ankle, and if you can read my thoughts, I have yet to see you try."

Haru tried, but the results came back blank.

"Maybe you don't think."

"Maybe you're too thick to realize your spirit trick doesn't work on another spirit," Lucia snapped. "Leave me alone."

Haru shook his head. "Let me see your ankle."

Lucia lifted his left foot.

"That's my ankle."

With a much suffered sigh, Lucia moved away from the cushions. Haru's body went rigid, then slumped onto the floor as Lucia's spirit left it. He pushed himself back into the cushions with much caution, then showed Haru the injury.

"Better?"

"Much. Hold still."

Lucia cringed when Haru put both hands around the swollen area, but slowly relaxed as he realized it caused no pain. In fact, the gentle circles Haru made around his ankle were unnervingly soothing.

"I don't get how this spirit crap works."

"Me neither, but since using my body helped you, I thought this might too."

"Why?" Lucia asked. "It's better for you in the long run if I can't move."

"I have a favor to ask of you. Now," Haru confessed. "Two of my friends, Let and Julia, are trapped in that castle, deep enough in that everyone else will probably ask you to release them when you have your body back, rather than rescue them now. They're on the sixth floor, near the pool."

"There's a pool?"

"Comforting. Can you use the Ten Powers to save them?"

"If this," Lucia gestured to his ankle, "Isn't an issue by the time they start the attack, then sure. I'm bored enough to give it a shot, and it's not like they'll be any harder to kill outside the castle than in."

"Very comforting, but thanks away," Haru mumbled. "Will your ankle get in the way?"

"Don't know."

"It looks worse than this morning."

"It is."

"What did you do to it?"

"Took over Elie again." When Haru stopped massaging the ankle, and in fact squeezed it while he glared up at Lucia, the blond winced and elaborated. "That idiot sorcerer friend of yours thought it was a good idea to tell everyone that if we didn't get my body any later than tomorrow, than they wouldn't be able to get to the Altar of Birth in time without teleporting. And that if it came to that, they probably wouldn't have the energy to break the curse. Elie panicked and—stop putting pressure there you asshole—she started going nuts. If I hadn't taken over her and let someone give her a sedative, her magic would have ripped the ship apart."

Haru stopped squeezing, mumbled a half-hearted apology, and resumed massaging the injury. "So you got to be the hero today."

"It's not heroic if it's self-serving. I need this hunk of scrap metal to get everyone to the Altar of Birth, and if her magic had gone really wild and destroyed the planet, then I'd prefer that happen while I wasn't on it."

"Thanks for taking one for the team anyway," Haru told him.

"Whatever."

"Really. You ankle—"

"Still hurts like hell, so you can be as grateful as you want, but that stunt might mean I get to sick my men on your friends in a few days if I'm not able to fetch them tomorrow."

Determined not to see that happen, Haru let the topic drop and focused on trying to use whatever weird soothing effect he had to make Lucia's ankle recover. At least somewhat. He didn't track the time, but when he was finally bored enough to try talking again, he realized Lucia wasn't likely to respond.

Spirits didn't need to sleep, but Haru had slept a few times since the curse took effect, when he was calm or bored enough. He wondered which one Lucia would site when he woke up.

No. That was stupid. Lucia already said he would rescue Let and Julia out of boredom. It was obvious which he would use to explain his falling asleep. Haru smiled and made himself comfortable on the other side of Lucia's cushion pile. He wasn't tired, but sleeping sounded nice. With no one else to interact with, keeping Lucia company sounded nice too. They'd rest up, and in the morning, when everyone else attacked, he would follow Lucia as they snuck in through the chaos and rescued his friends.