You all should have seen me. Sitting on my bed, papers with scribbles everywhere, trying to map out and reconcile the routes the two teams took in the videos. Seems I made a slight fumble in the ship's layout last chapter, but not one that would really effect the story at all. But I swear this doesn't match up! Where you stop playing as Yuri's team, and where Karol and the others meet up with him again? I can't figure out how he got his team from point A to point B in that time off screen! They couldn't have back tracked at all, so that couldn't have been the same room, and that stair was broken off, and there couldn't be another level fitted into it... *Trails off into a rant*
So I magicked a room into one of the blank spaces and pretended that room had a door that leads into the room where you find them again. There are still blank spaces on my map that can't possible be filled by any of the rooms either group has access to! This ship is scarier than it seems!
Wheee. And most of that effort was useless anyway. I shall blame the fairies. Stupid Fairies...
Letha: Sylph gained the title of Inept Cartographer...
Sylph: Silence! Or next time I drop you through a hole you'll end up in limbo!
And hey, here's a shocker. Jeanne (from the costume shop) is tied with Nevi for second place in my original character popularity poll. I did not see that coming. You know, maybe I should make a schedule where I close a popularity poll and start a new one at the start of every month.
Angelic:
Well, now, I can't see that, so I suppose you're going to have to draw it for me. *hint hint* Well, joking aside...do we do anything besides joke? Here's a joke, review now and get your own, glow in the dark tattoo today! And now let's go torment the poor girl some more, shall we?
x x x
Chapter 32: Insert Zombie Joke Here
x x x
Unable to see the ground in the dark, I didn't bend my knees soon enough to absorb the shock of landing. The abrupt stop jarred my legs so that I stumbled and fell forwards onto my knees and palms. Cold water splashed up all over my legs and arms. Hissing in pain, I pushed myself upright and nearly fell over again. My legs felt wobbly and couldn't support my weight. But they didn't hurt badly enough to be broken or anything, so in a moment I'd probably be fine.
The clicking and scratching noises from above reminded me that I didn't have that moment to spare. I could imagine the reforming skeletons on the upper floor all getting ready to jump down after me. Groaning with each step, I sloshed forward painfully through the shin deep water. I had to go with my hands out in front of me so I wouldn't bump into anything in the dark.
Orange light was still coming off of my left hand, so once my eyes adjusted I could see somewhat. Just in time to duck my head down to avoid knocking it against a sudden dip in the roof. The blurry shapes I could make out gave me an impression of a very cramped place where the only empty space to move around in stretched darkly ahead of me. What the heck? Just great, I've gotten myself totally lost...
Splashing from behind me prevented me from wallowing in my misery for long. Since I knew I wouldn't like anything back the way I'd come I had to keep moving forward. Stooped over, I continued slogging forward.
"Hiiie!" I squeaked when something slithered around my ankles. Whatever it was lost interest in the warmblooded intruder and slipped away again. I shivered from the cold, mounting fear, and adrenaline that was pumping through my system. Hyper aware of the oncoming splashes behind me, I tried to hurry forward and ignore the occasional brush of something underwater.
I could have cried tears of relief when I noticed a lightening in the darkness a few feet ahead. But when I reached that not-quite-as-dark area my relief swiftly morphed into frustration. The light was filtering down through a grate in the ceiling.
Glancing behind me without expecting to see anything, I felt the blood drain from my face when I realized I could make out pale figures approaching. They were closer than I had thought! Trying not to panic I whipped back around and gave the grate in the ceiling a closer inspection, running my hands over the metal to augment my limited sight.
While at one time it might have been impossible for anyone but the Hulk or Superman to even bend the securely bolted bars, time and water had done their job. The metal was completely rusted through, flakes falling off onto my face and shoulders at the slightest touch.
I wrapped my hands around the bars and pulled hard enough that I even lifted my feet off the floor and out of the water. The metal bars groaned under the pressure of my weight. I grunted a bit and tried to eke out just a little more...
There was a reddish flash of light from just behind my vision and a sudden surge of extra strength through my arms. It caught me by surprise, so when the rusted bars snapped I fell back into the water and the broken grate landed on me. For a moment I just lay in the cold water staring blankly at the hole in the ceiling before the still oncoming splashing footsteps jolted me back upright.
Flinging the grate off to the side to sink beneath the water, I crouched down and then launched myself into the air. Thanks to how low the ceiling was, I was able to get a good grip and pull myself up to brace my weight with my elbows on the lip of the hole. Horribly, my mind filled with images of the skeletons grabbing my legs and waist to drag me back down. This goaded me into swinging my legs around while pulling frantically with my forearms in order to climb up out of that hole as quick as possible. It was probably my imagination but I could have sworn I felt something clip the toe of my boot before I pulled it out of the hole.
Safe for the moment, I sprawled next to the hole and lay panting. "Where's...Captain...Jack Sparrow...when you need him?" I wheezed a laugh. Once I caught my breath and my heart stopped trying to bust its way out of my chest I propped myself up on my elbows to look around.
From the wall behind me I could hear the rhythmic sound of waves, so that was probably the side of the ship. The opposite wall was lined with mirrors, which still struck me as odd and pretty impractical on a ship (what did they do in a storm? What if all the mirrors broke?). Both of the other walls had a single wall each. But what claimed the most of my attention was the stairway in the center of the room.
...Do I actually know where I am? I could remember that there were a few flights of stairs, and at the top was the captain's cabin, the clear ciel crystal (still in its box) and a mirror that ghost themed monsters came out of. Huh. Maybe I'm not as lost as I thought. But the real question is: do I know the fastest way out?
I had three viable choices (back down through the floor was a fourth, but I wasn't mad enough to try that). I could try either of the doors or I could go up the stairs.
Hrrrm, I eyed the stairs, there's only one flight of ascending stairs, none going down, so I'm probably only halfway, maybe even less, through the route the first group takes. I'm pretty sure that got blocked off somehow so that'll be a dead end. That left the doors.
I looked between them for a few moments and eventually decided with a shrug that the fastest way to choose the one likely to lead out would be to look through one. Choosing the closest door, I swung it open and stepped inside.
It was filled with dust covered chests and shelves that sagged under the heavy burden of age. A large mirror was hung on one of the walls (again...) and the floor was covered in a mess of unidentifiable curios that had probably been neatly arranged on the shelves at one point in time. There was no other door.
I sighed in disappointment, but at least the process of elimination meant the other door should lead to the way out. Hmm, while I'm here, maybe I'll take a quick look and see if there's anything that'll appease Kaufman's merchant heart. So thinking I took another step into the room, and came to a faltering stop when I felt a sudden heat in my foot.
"What?" I gasped aloud. I sat on a chest (ignoring the cloud of dust that flew up around me) and yanked my boot off. The piece of the heirloom I had tucked in there dropped out and clattered as it hit the floor, rolling a way before it stopped on its own. I didn't pick it up right away, only able to stare at it.
The vine like tracery around the silver rod was glowing a soft orange, and the polished gems on the ends were glinting as if there were sparks of light captured inside them. Gingerly, I reached out and picked it up with my right hand.
It was warm to the touch, energy thrumming through it like a living pulse. And the light from the tattoo, I noticed for the first time, was shining brighter than it had before, blue and white because I'd brought the piece I'd been keeping closer to it. I experimentally brought the piece in my right hand even closer, but there was no change.
Pausing first to put my boot on again, I stood with heirloom piece cradled in one hand and my other held out where I could see any changes. Slowly I stepped forward, deeper into the room, and both the heirloom and my hand glowed brighter in response. I also bit down on my lip to keep from crying out at the extra surge of heat in my hand beyond what I'd grown used to.
When my hand felt like someone had nailed a still burning coal into it and was shining bright as an LED flashlight, the light from the heirloom turned a corresponding though weaker blue and white. In front of me was a chest with a heavy lock on it. I slipped the heirloom piece back into my boot and drew one of my daggers.
Once I smashed the lock with the pommel of my dagger a few times, it broke and fell to the floor with a heavy clunk. Putting my somewhat battered dagger away, I found myself hesitating before opening it. If there really is another piece inside, what does that mean? The pieces react to each other? So is there a connection to Nevi's mark besides its properties as a radar? And why haven't any of the other pieces glowed before? I pushed the lid open and looked inside.
The chest was filled with folds of cloth. Rolling my eyes a bit at the build up and anticlimax, I started pulling out the material and setting it aside. I'd half emptied the chest when something fell out of a bundle of silk and landed on the ground with a clatter. When I located it I was both excited and troubled to see that it was another piece of the heirloom, and that it was glowing blue and white. The gems on the ends were an egg shaped emerald and a classically cut diamond, both shining as if with an inner fire.
Again I stared at the piece on the floor, my hands idly twisting the silk it had fallen out of. When I realized what I was doing I frowned at it. It was a rich shade of burgundy wine with delicate threads of black and silver weaving patterns like abstract flowers and clouds through it. With a shrug, I wrapped it around my neck like a scarf.
The brief distraction calmed me slightly, and I was able to pick up the heirloom piece (right handed again) without any outward sign that anything was wrong. Just as I held it in my hand, I heard a familiar clicking noise. Dread surged through me, and I wildly spun around to find the source.
It was the mirror, even as I watched skeletons stepped down from the glass surface and approached me menacingly. And unlike in the fight before, I could see their reflections in the mirror. Pale blurs, like dusty smears in the glass, swarmed all over each skeleton. The reflections of some of the skeletons were almost completely obscured by the white things covering them. But these blurs were visible only in the mirrors, the solid skeletons looked entirely alone.
Whatever this meant revelation I knew I was no match for the increasing force of animated dead and ran for the door. But the room beyond had already filled with skeletons without me noticing, and my eyes flew to look at the mirror in horror. Oh God, I thought as I noticed many of the skeletons had smashed ribcages or other familiar damages, are the whatever-they-are are moving them through the mirrors?
I backed into a wall and stared wild eyed around me, searching frantically for an escape. But there was no way open to me. I was cornered and they were only feet away, reaching out for me with their bony hands clawing at the air, the white of their bones exaggerated by the light from my hand.
"No!" Falling into a crouch I threw up my arms to cover my head, forgetting the heirloom piece still in my hand. Everything happened at once
The edge of the diamond scraped across the back of my left hand, and suddenly the light turned orange again. Bare seconds later there was a surprised grunt followed by a clattering and rattling as if someone had knocked over a display of brooms and rakes. Or, it turned out, like over a dozen moving skeletons suddenly all losing their animation and dropping to the floor. I could only stare at the haphazard mess of bones strewn everywhere before raising my gaze to stare incredulously at my savior.
It was Nevi, his back to me so that all I could see was his rigid spine and spread wings. They practically quivered while throwing of angry red and gold sparks.
"This one is mine," he stated coldly, his voice uncompromising. "Interfere again and I shall erase your very existences from the netherworld." I gulped, for once not finding anything remotely funny about the undersized fairy narcissist. He wasn't bluffing.
Looking over at the mirror again, I saw Nevi reflected along with the pale blurs that had been moving the skeletons. He stood with his arms crossed, expression thunderous, and they milled before him on ground level. Or were they...writhing in pain?
"Do I make myself clear?" The air was filled with a hissing noise, which I took to be the blurs answering him. His wings sparked again, and in the mirror's reflection I saw the blurs flattened to the ground, causing the hissing to rise in pitch like a scream. Then it seemed Nevi released them, as they slowly drifted back up in the air before shooting away in all directions. Though they all avoided passing anywhere near the fairy or where I sat weakly on the floor.
Alone now in the room, Nevi turned to look down at me with a sneer. "Pathetic wretch, can you not even handle weaklings like these on your own?"
"They didn't seem all that weak to me!" but the bravado in my voice was empty and he knew it. "What...what were they?"
"Lesser beings," he answered derisively with a flick of a hand. "Weaklings that can only effect this plane of existence when gathered together. Even with all their combined strength, they can only affect objects on the thresholds between worlds." Such as bones of the dead, the remains of something once alive. "Like starved beasts, they prey on the weak willed and isolated."
Which I took to mean that 'they' preferred their victims to be scared witless and less likely to fight back. Just like a school yard bully.
"Now," Nevi glared at me, "you've found more than one."
I blinked with surprise before I realized that since only one of the heirloom pieces had touched my hand, the tattoo was still reacting to the one I'd been carrying around. So after being summoned it would have been simple to surmise that I had more than one piece, and only one had been used to summon him.
I stared at him. "Are you kidding? Those things nearly killed me, and you're just going to take your precious heirloom and leave me here with them?"
"They'll keep their distance if they know what is in their best interests."
"That doesn't mean they can't kill me before you wipe them out or whatever!" I distinctly remembered that the monsters on the ship attack once you get the apatheia. Though the monsters were different, that didn't mean the pale blur things would let us off the hook.
Apparently that made him think a bit. "It is true that they do not possess the sharpest of intelligences... Killing you out of spite for my actions might not be so far-fetched..." Though this didn't seem to overly concern the fairy. I clutched my arms in a tight hug, trying not to jump up and strangle the little bastard. He had just proven that if he wanted to, he could do far worse to me than the skeletons would have.
Nevi's purple eyes were distant, some new thought occurring to him. But when they focused on me again he just held out his hand expectantly. Not feeling up to standing, I handed over the piece with the diamond and emerald. It wasn't glowing as bright as before, but the light hadn't entirely gone out. "And the other?" he pressed.
I wearily reached into my boot to pull out the ruby and sapphire tipped piece. Its light hadn't changed at all. Weird. I dropped it next to the first. "And now your hand."
"What?" I asked dumbly. An overly wrung out and exhausted corner of my brain muttered, later I'll have nightmares about Nevi asking for my hand in marriage...
"Your hand," he reiterated, sounding like he was nearing the end of his patience. That hadn't taken much. I lifted my left hand and held it out to him. Instead of taking it he hissed through his teeth, "Take the glove off first, simpleton."
I peeled off what was left of my ragged glove, and he snatched my hand as soon as I offered it to him. He weighed the heirloom pieces in his one hand for a moment, studying them for a moment. Decisively he stuck the one with the ruby and sapphire into the breast pocket of his gold and crimson trimmed vest. Then before I could react he jabbed the diamond and emerald one into the back of my hand.
It was like he'd taken an iron stake from a fire and stabbed me with it. I howled in pain, trying to pull away. He let go without even trying to stop me. I clutched my hand in close to my chest, curling around it as if that could ease the pain somehow. My vision began to tunnel, black around the edges, and as if from a distance I heard his voice say, "You are only being permitted to borrow that for the time being. I will reclaim it when your work is finished."
I could only whimper in reply. "Hnph," came his distant scoff. "Pathetic creature."
x x x
The pain finally began fade. It didn't go away, but it was a bearable pain after the initial searing fire. It was even like the pain had just diluted itself, so that it was spread all through my body instead of concentrated on one point. The change allowed me to focus on things past the pain. There was the wood I was lying on, its splinters biting into my cheek. And a cool breeze was teasing through my damp hair. I shivered, realizing I was absolutely drenched from the water in the bottom of the ship and my own sweat.
Sitting up, I looked around in confusion. I was sitting on the highest level of the Atherum's deck. I could only guess Nevi had brought me there. Why up there, I hadn't a clue. If he was trying to help me escape the ghost ship, shouldn't he have left me on the main deck so I could return to the Fiertia? As it was I could see no way down there except for a trapdoor leading back into the ship.
I really didn't want to go back inside.
But when I stood up I practically keeled over backwards. There was no way I could climb down to the deck in my condition so I'd have to chance going through the ship. I pulled the trapdoor open, wrestling with the weight it was given by my exhausted and aching arms.
"Aaack! S-something's c-coming down!" Wait a minute. I know that cowardly stutter! I stuck my head down through the opening.
"Hey there!" I said with a peppy cheerfulness I didn't feel.
"Letha?" Was the collective unbelieving reaction. The whole group was together again, and had gathered around a desk where a captain hat wearing skeleton sat slumped over a box. I noted wryly that Karol, Rita, and Raven looked nervous about being so close to it, and even their surprise to have me appear from above didn't keep them from throwing wary glances at it. Not that I blamed them.
"Weren't ya going back to the Fiertia?"
At the same time Raven asked, Karol questioned, "How'd you get up there?"
"Hell, you guys, I don't even know," I groaned. "I just wanna get off this crazy rig." I swung my legs down and climbed down the ladder, trying not to make it obvious how close I was to just falling off.
"You look terrible," Yuri told me.
"And you sure know how to make a girl feel good about herself," I wrinkled my nose while trying to straighten out my clothes. Might as well have not bothered. "Have you figured out why our ship won't move?"
"Not really, but it turns out this ship is a thousand years old. And there's apparently something here that's supposed to repel monsters," the swordsman reported.
"Did you check that box?" I pointed at the red box the skeleton was clutching. I was too tired to play dumb, I just wanted to leave. "It looks like it was pretty important to him." Wandered carelessly over to a less crowded spot behind the desk, and noticed I was standing next to a globe of the world. I spun it idly, and felt my interest stir a bit.
There were the familiar landmasses I recognized from a map Ludwig had shown me, mostly unchanged, but what was really interesting was the ocean. It was huge, covering most of the globe. The continents and the water separating them covered about the same area as both my hands would laid side to side. The rest of Terca Lumireis was all water, though there were stylized sea dragons on the large ocean reminiscent of Earth's 'Beyond this place, there be dragons,' that indicated unexplored areas on maps.
Could it be that this world was much larger than the game had led me to believe? I'd thought the time needed to travel an entire world was disproportionately small, but perhaps we hadn't been covering as much of this world as I had assumed. There could be whole continents that the people of Terca Lumireis didn't even know about, besides that 'unexplored' one you need Ba'ul to get to.
"It would make sense since the journal mentioned a red chest," Estelle said thoughtfully, pulling me out of my musing.
"Hey old man, you go get it...!" Rita commanded, though her voice cracked and betrayed her fear.
"Um, no thank you," he drew back and made an unwilling gesture. "What is it with kids today, always blurting things out like that?"
"Here you go," Judith offered the chest to his still raised hands, the skeleton's arm still hanging on in a death grip.
"Waaah!" Raven's face twisted comically as he jumped back a bit. Then he slowly stepped forward again and reluctantly accepted the box from the beautiful krytian, careful not to touch the bony arm.
She kindly plucked the arm off and playfully began bending the wrist so that it waved its hand a bit. "Do you think it could be cursed?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"Judith darlin', you've got nerves of steel," the archer grimaced in admiration.
"Even I wouldn't have done that," I agreed. Well, maybe I would have, but not without quite a bit of reluctance to touch something dead. She did it without even a second of hesitation.
"This from the person who wanted to keep a skull as a souvenir?" Rita reminded me acerbically.
"Hey, I only thought about it, that's not the same thing!" Yuri and Estelle were giving me weird looks. "In my defense, I wanted it purely for the sake of an accurate reference for my paintings." The weird looks didn't go away. I huffed a bit and turned my back on them, "Fine, be that way."
"Hey, this thing's stuck..." Raven grunted as he tried to pry the lid off the red box. Having already been part of the prior discussion of my interests, he had ignored the exchange.
"Wh-what is that!" At Karol's terrified shout I wearily turned towards the mirror. I guess the little buggers didn't take Nevi's warning seriously enough... I was exhausted and not up to a fight but at least the others were all with me. So I wasn't overly concerned until-
"Holy SHIT is that?" -I saw what was glaring at us with cold burning blue eyes from the mirror.
It was one huge ass skeleton wearing another skeleton! Easily ten, maybe even twelve feet tall, and its size practically doubled again by the heavy armor it wore. Huge pauldrons bulked out his shoulders, a breastplate worked to look like a skull with eyes glowing a sickly blue-green, and his lower abdomen and upper legs were protected by more armor designed to be the skull's ribecage and spinal column. A royal purple cape was draped over his right shoulder to give a final touch of bad ass.
If I were at home playing a game or watching an anime, I would have just gone, "Oh hey, a bit generic but pretty cool." Given that I was actually living this nightmare my sentiments became, "Oh shit, we are so fucked..."
Calmly, Judith placed the captain skeleton's arm back on the desk while musing, "It appears to have the opposite effect."
"What are you talking about?" Karol back pedaled away from the window, as the armored skeleton seemed to look down straight at him for a moment.
"It's drawing the monsters to us."
Or, you know, it could be the little 'weaklings' went to get their big brother to sic on us in order to get even for Nevi trouncing them. It could go either way, considering how the experience on the boat had changed from what I'd been expecting. It doesn't seem like this guy cares how much of us there are or if there are a few who aren't all that scared. Though I belatedly realized I didn't see a single one of those blur things crawling over his reflection.
"Here it comes!" Estelle alerted us. The armored skeleton stepped down from the mirror, cape billowing out to the side as he drew a huge sword with a T-shaped blade from under its cover.
Judith leaped into the fray first, Yuri and Repede close on her heels. The krytian's spear dove for the massive skeleton but skittered off the armor leaving barely a scratch. That must have been some tough armor since I'd seen Judith punch through a giant turtle monster's shell with that spear.
Yuri's sword sliced through the air in sweeping circles. The metal flashed and kicked up sparks each time it clashed with the skull breastplate. But even his Dragon Swarm attack did little more than scrape a few shallow gouges into the armor.
Repede darted around behind while the Boss Skeleton's attention was fixed on its attackers. The dog cut savagely at the back of its legs with the dagger in his jaws, just where a normal flesh and blood opponent would have been hamstrung. He succeeded in chipping the bone-like greaves but that was all.
Unfazed by the nearly simultaneous attacks, the monstrous skeleton swung the massive T-shaped blade across in front of him, leaving a visible wake crackling with purple energy. Yuri and Judith brought their respective weapons up just in time to black, but were staggered and then thrown back by another pass of the sword.
"Dammit!" Yuri hissed, "You guys really weren't kidding. This guy's tough!"
"Photon!" Having observed how little effect physical attacks had, Estelle opted to try for magic. Bright light enveloped the Boss Skeleton, and it gave a rumbling roar of pain. When the light faded, however, it looked more pissed off than hurt.
For this first minute of so of battle, Karol, Rita, Raven and I all held back. Could you blame us? After all that trouble we went through earlier with the bony cronies we already knew a larger version would be a far cry from a cake walk. I especially was reluctant to jump in, the mere thought of having to use my dao and daggers making my arms ache.
But we snapped out of it when the monster shook off Estelle's Photon and took a step forward, floorboards creaking as it raised its sword for another attack.
"Cover me!" Rita started preparing a spell. Raven darted in, spinning around with his bow's blades to at least keep the monster occupied and maybe do some damage. Karol tried his hand at bashing at its legs and knees to cut down on its movement.
I pulled both my daggers and focused aer into them for a Pierce attack just under the 'skull's' left eye, where Judith's spear had left a dent. Repeated attacks in the same area should eventually break through. And my Pierce did take a couple of small chips out of it.
I was in too close for it to bring its sword to bear so it tried to wallop the side of my head with its arm. Ducking under, I scooted to the side just in time to avoid Rita's Freeze Lancer.
One of the giant icicles punched through the spot weakened by Judith and I, another made a slightly larger hole lower on the right where Yuri's Dragon Swarm had landed, and a third broke a chunk off of the right pauldron and took a swatch of the cape with it.
Encouraged by our successes, we continued to take turns like this. Someone would attack, and while the monster tried to retaliate someone else would jump into any openings in its guard for another hit. All the while Rita and Estelle were free to cast spells. If the Skeleton tried to attack either of them the rest of us all rushed it at once and kept hacking away until it left off again.
That's not to say it was an easy fight. Each individual attack, even the magical ones, were shrugged off like irritating bug bites. All together the damage was building up, but we were also wearing out and taking a beating in return. A third of Estelle's spells were either First Aid or Nurse (another third was support magic like Sharpness), while Karol and Raven had to abandon attacking several times to use Nice Aid Smash and Love shot on one of us.
At some point my conscious thought switched off. I was attacking and dodging and eating the occasional gel purely on autopilot. Dimly I was aware of the realization that if I stopped moving I wouldn't be able to start up again. Details about the fight were hazy in my mind, I couldn't remember when I switched out one of my daggers for my dao. I must have done so for the greater versatility in the artes I could use that way.
How long had we been fighting? Rita and Estelle must have nearly exhausted their magical ability... Estelle fell into hand to hand combat, using artes like Pierce Cluster to help wear down a weak spot in the armor... That must have meant she had little left and was trying to conserve it for healing or something... What would Rita do if she ran out?
The T-shaped sword was descending towards me diagonally for a chop to my shoulder and side. Tiredly I lurched out of the way and raised my dao to help deflect it. But my faithful sword took the blow more directly than I had meant it to and the blade shattered.
My entire right arm was numbed and I dropped the dao hilt as my hand fell limply to my side. I stared in shock at the jagged pieces of metal on the floor, deaf to the shouting voices from somewhere across the room as my mind tried to catch up.
Something slammed into my left side and I was flung into the bookshelves standing in cabin's corner. Books and scrolls were dumped on my head, loose pages flying everywhere. I gasped in pain and then coughed. Breathing was painful, both my side and back felt wet. There was noise everywhere, or was it just in my head?
A glowing blue dart flew from somewhere, striking me in the chest. To my relief some of the pain eased and I could breathe more normally. My swimming head cleared enough for me to make some sense from the shouting I had hardly registered before.
"Letha!"
"Move!"
I looked up and saw the Boss Skeleton raising his sword up to cleave me in half. The hole filled skull breastplate gaped at me like the laughing face of death.
And I couldn't will myself to move out of the way.
"Ah!" The sword flashed down. Yuri, Karol, and Judith all leaped forward to try and intercept it, but I could tell they would be too late. Instinctively I shielded my head with my arms and shut my eyes. And my left hand began to burn like it was on fire.
"No!" Estelle screamed.
There was a dull thunk from the bladed edge biting into the wood under me, much like how I'd defeated a skeleton before. Surprisingly I felt no pain other than the seeming fire in my left hand. I cracked my eyes open and looked down at myself.
The T-shaped sword was stuck right through my body, from sternum to hips. But there was no gaping wound and no blood. Wonderingly I reached up a hand and pressed it against the blade, but it just went through. The Skeleton pulled its sword out again, looking about as confused as something without facial muscles and skin can look. It raised its sword to strike at me again.
This time I rolled to the side, barely avoiding the heavy blade that came down beside me. But it didn't cut as deeply into the floor and I saw the Boss Skeleton shift his stance to swing it upwards at me. I swung a foot out so that the roll turned into a kinda spin that brought me back up onto my feet. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap-" I dashed back towards the group and felt one of the tips of the 'T' catch on the end of my coat and tear through it.
The dumbfounded expressions that greeted me clearly told me they all couldn't believe I wasn't dead, but some of them had the presence of mind to leave well enough alone until we were no longer in danger.
"Luna Rise!" Judith found a reserve of energy that was just enough to knock the skeleton into the air and follow it up to complete the somersaulting move. Her control was such that her spear didn't catch in the ceiling, and followed up with, "Dawn Moon!"
Both attacks landed well. The Skeleton was brought down to its knees, where it glared balefully as a massive section of its breastplate finally fell away. No one moved as the piece of armor fell to the floor with a clatter, and we continued to stare back as it remained kneeling. Finally it stood up again, making us all grip our weapons grimly as we expected the fight to continue. But it flipped its cape to the side and turned its back on us very deliberately. With slow, pondering steps, it returned to the mirror and stepped back up into the glass. Once inside, it did not deign to look back at us, but just seemed to vaporize...
It took awhile for it to sink in that the fight was over. "We're-We're done? That's finally it?" Karol asked as if he expected us to be like, "April Fools!" and pull out some other monster to half kill us.
Or three quarters kill some of us? I really wasn't sure why I wasn't dead. I couldn't help pinching at myself just to check.
Raven hung his head wearily, "Jeez, poor Raven's getting' too old for this." For once I didn't think that was an exaggeration. Or at least not as much as usual.
"Should we give it back to him?" Judith nodded at the red chest and then looked over at the captain skeleton in his chair. Er, well, his desk had been knocked into during the fight and that had knocked him over...but he was still in his chair! If I wasn't so goddamn tired and achey I'd have to fight the urge to go over and set him upright again.
Karol nodded enthusiastically. "I think that's what he wants!" No, that's just what you want.
"Letha, are you...are you okay?" Estelle looked as if she was afraid I'd drop over dead at even a look. Her hands were raised hesitantly in the air, and I could tell she would have done one of her full body injury checks if not for that fear.
"What the hell was that?" Yuri asked, sounding not exactly angry, but certainly not happy that he'd seen a friend killed without being killed in front of his eyes. He wanted answers.
"I don't know. I don't fucking know." I slumped back, my shoulders hitting a wall behind me and screaming at me in pain. But I was too tired to give a damn, and just slid down to sit on the floor. "I've had enough of this place..." I wanted to leave it all behind, go back to the Fiertia and sleep for a day, and then pretend it was all just an especially warped nightmare caused by something I ate. If I'd eaten some of that mermen sushi I could blame it all on that.
"I dunno if anyone else noticed, but didn't her hand, like, glow again when she was hit?"
"That's right... I'm sure it did." Rita crossed her arms and bowed her head while thinking hard. Then she looked over at me sharply. "Your tattoo wasn't glowing when you came in here before, right?"
I blinked slowly. "Uhh, no, I don't think it was..." I hadn't actually paid it any attention, but my hand had indeed stopped glowing when Nevi left with the heirloom...
Him stabbing me in the hand with an heirloom piece flashed through my mind again.
"And it isn't glowing right now," Rita was continuing her train of thought, so I must have been too tired to show any outer indication of my epiphany, "so it's probably safe to assume that it was linked with...whatever happened just now. Some sort of side effect that made the weapon go right through you. But how..."
Oh great, I've piqued her scientific interest. Now she's gonna start poking at me and trying to get it to happen again. Though it would probably be useful if it wasn't just a one time fluke.
"You're sure you're alright?" Estelle asked again. I hadn't really given her much of an answer the first time...
"Yeah...I feel like I just got dragged through one of the levels of hell, but its nothing I won't get over," I said wearily. I wasn't the only one who looked like a recent tourist of hell. The others were banged up, cut and bruised all over. I was just the only who'd caught a sword through the chest and gut.
Once she'd ascertained that I wasn't in urgent need of drastic medical measures, Estelle began to quickly assess the group's collective injuries. She made judicious decisions of which wounds to heal immediately and which could wait until we were back on our ship. While healing a gash on Yuri's ribs, she hesitantly spoke up again.
"I...I want to deliver the clear ciel crystal to Yormgen for him." We didn't need to ask who she meant by 'him'.
"You what?" Rita's outburst made me wince, my head was starting to pound as if the Boss Skeleton had rematerialized inside it and was stomping around. I sighed and rested my head back against the wall as the familiar dialogue ensued.
"Would it be possible to add that to the jobs being done by the guild?"
"We can't, Estelle. As a rule, tiny guilds like ours don't take on a new job until they complete the one they're working on."
Raven backed Karol up, "Completin' each job to the letter is the way new guilds have ta build their reputation."
"Hm? Is the guild going to be sent running here and there by another one of this girl's whims?" I involuntarily groaned a bit when Judith said the word 'running'.
"Hey! You don't have to talk to her like that, you know!"
"Rita, wait... Judith, I am sorry." Estelle folded her hands and bowed her head a bit, but then she looked up with a light in her eyes that was determined to make us understand her feelings. "But I want to help him deliver this...to the one who was waiting for him."
"I don't think anyone waits for a thousand years," Yuri pointed out realistically. The captain's bones were a mute testament to just how much time had passed, and the likely fate of whomever had been waiting for his return.
"I'll find them," Rita declared stubbornly.
I started to wonder while listening to Rita defending Estelle. She'd clearly been against it before, but when Judith spoke like 'that' and the others were reluctant to accept the crystal delivery as a new job, she about faces and takes it on herself. Was that really something you would do for a friend you've known for a little over a month?
Hmm, Estelle is kinda Rita's first real friend right? Other than that she started her research at a young age and only trusts blastia, I don't know much about her background. The game made it sound like she'd been really hurt by people before, but if it goes into depth about it I never heard about it. How lonely must Rita have been, if she became so protective of her first friend's happiness? She probably never even realized she was lonely, probably thought the blastia was enough...
But here she was volunteering to track down people from a city that no one even remembered, and must realize she had more friends than she thought when one by one we were all throwing in our lot to go with her and help. Which I supposed they thought meant going with her after we'd taken care of Phaeroh...?
Screw it. Thinking hard is hereby aborted in favor of hardly thinking.
That was when Raven noticed the smoke from Tokunaga's flare.
Yuri studied the signal and the ship from the cabin window, "I wonder if the ceres blastia's working again."
"Why else send up the flare?" I pointed out. Actually...because they're under attack and need us to come save them? Shut up brain.
"Come to mention it, we won't be able to get back the way we came." Rita eyed the stairway that lead back down into the belly of the ship.
Judith clasped her hands behind her back, "We'll just have to see if we can't find a better way out." She looked over at me, "What about up above, where you came down from?"
I shook my head. "No good. Only way down was through this room. I'm not sure how I got up there, I just kinda...woke up there." Most likely Nevi's fault. Probably. I could be wrong. But I was probably right.
Karol's expression fell, "Now what, every other way is either blocked off or locked."
Urrgh, I wanna go! Push plot along! I levered myself up onto my feet again, and walked over to the only actual door in the room. "What about through here?" Before they could tell me that it was locked, I grabbed the knob and turned it. The door opened smoothly and let in the clean sea air.
"Huh? Wasn't this locked earlier?" Karol came up and inspected the lock in astonishment.
"I guess we can go back this way," Yuri stepped out first.
Raven followed him, "...Hmm, the curse was broken, huh?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Rita chased out after him and I heard a smack. Sighing, in relief that we were finally done, I followed her out.
x x x
I was very cruel to Letha this time around. Which, some of you have probably figured out, means I had a lot of fun with this chapter.
Cipher/Cifer/Seifer cameo for the win? I don't have enough material to work with to put Patty in, which is a shame because I think her story sounds great, it really adds to the adventure and helps show just how far Alexei fell in his insanity. So I at least put Cifer in. We can all pretend that Patty is also running around doing her own thing, and its just circumstances that she doesn't meet up with the Brave Vesperia group.
Urgh...this fight...I kinda cut some corners with it. Because there are EIGHT PEOPLE to keep track of and only one enemy. Maybe some holes in it, but I think overall it works out okay...
Now I collapse and sleep. Love you all! *Collapses in bed* Zzzzzzz.