*Sylph shakes head and makes an irritated noise* This chapter is a bit weird. Obviously, the talk with Alexei is important, but I didn't want to unload the whole thing on you guys at once. That could probably take up a whole chapter on its own. So I, uh, messed around with the chapter a bit to try and make the pacing better, and tried to condense the next week or so of Letha's life into something more manageable. Which still took up more than I thought it would...
Angelic:
*Bows* I accept your words with pride. After all~
"It's so easy when you're evil
This is the life, you see
The Devil tips his hat to me
I do it all because I'm evil
And I do it all for free
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!"
(With compliments to Voltaire!) ;D
x x x
Chapter 58: Take a Leap
x x x
The ladder made metallic clang noises as I climbed up it rung by rung. Feeling the way my new footwear arced around the steps, as if I were wearing mere slippers, made me frown. After wearing heavier boots for months, it was disconcerting to be able to feel the ground with each step again. But my "shoes" were at least comfortable, with a few layered pieces of leather affixed to the bottom to protect the soles of my feet. And, while I usually had a fairly light and quiet tread when I walked, these shoes made me silent as a ghost.
Which was in keeping with the first thing out of my mouth when Verte had presented me with the new clothes. "What am I supposed to be, a ninja masquerading as a challenger in a martial arts tournament?" The fairy was not amused.
The shoes had wide yellow ribbons, laces, whatever, that wrapped around my ankles and up my legs. To spare myself some embarrassment, I related them to being like the taped boots from the Soul Calibur character creation program. It felt less silly than calling them ballet slippers. Ballet slippers for ninjas. Ballerina ninjas. CHANGE line of thought NOW.
The taped boots wrapped around outside of the black slacks I wore. Their straight cut pushed them over the indefinable line I had drawn between pants and dress slacks. But around the waist they were oddly like Japanese hakama. Simply put, the traditional Japanese wear that has the openings on either hips, anime fans likely would notice this at some point as I had. But the slacks didn't billow around the legs like true hakama, instead tapering in near the ankle. There was just enough room under them for the greaves I wore, pieces of toughened leather to protect my shins.
So far, that would have been enough to make me feel like a shinobi wannabe. On top...well...over everything I wore something that looked like it had been styled off of a martial arts gi (and let's set aside what I wore under that for now). It was less like the functional-purposes-only one I had trained in way back when, and more like a fashion designer had a hand in the planning. Rich yellow-gold in color with a dark interior lining, the cut was a bit more elegant and flattering. The sleeves were a bit narrower in the upper arm, but flared in a bell shape around the hands. And the bottom hem had a weird zig zag thing going on that reminded me of how children would cut triangles out of paper and tape the ends together to make a crown.
Still, wearing it felt reassuring. I knew firsthand that a gi was durable, capable of holding up to the roughest treatment, without hampering one's movements. And the one I was wearing...
"What is this made of?" I had asked curiously, one hand sliding down a smooth sleeve before pulling on it hard. It was more elastic than your run-of-the-mill gi, stretching under the pressure.
Verte blinked, "Spider silk." I raised a brow at her, wondering if she was pulling my leg. She crossed her arms and caved. "I speak the truth. Even on your Earth, it is recognized as a highly desirable textile, with strength comparable to steel and," a beat as her slender finger tapped her arm, searching for a word, "kevlar, I believe it is called."
Needless to say, I decided I really liked my kevlar spider silk gi.
I snorted a laugh as I topped the ladder, climbing onto the stone and straightening. I looked back over my shoulder, down at the ground I'd come from.
Deidon Hold was situated in a bottleneck where two mountain ranges nearly merged. Sheer cliffs rose to the east and west of the fortress, sheer walls closed it off from the north and south. To my uneducated eye it looked nicely defensible. As long as nobody came from the top of those cliffs with either grappling hooks, ladders, or nasty big rocks to throw in on people's heads. That would, however, require an exhausting trek through the mountain ranges themselves. And the idea seemed more along the lines of establishing protection from monsters.
The hold was manned by knights wearing dull earthen colors, predominately brown (Schwann's brigade, right?), who went about their work efficiently. I'd been apprehensive at the idea of just waltzing into a place crawling with knights considering my previous encounters, but I was given no more than the same cursory examination on the way in as the other travelers. After that I was no big deal as long as I refrained from knifing people with my daggers Tonberry style.
Yet, even with the impression that this place could put up a hell of a fight at the drop of a hat, the feeling in the air wasn't one of tense nerves or the anticipation before a battle. People-knights, merchants, and travelers merely passing through-all went about their business in a relaxed manner. For a militaristic establishment, this place almost had a feeling of community.
Maybe it's the trees, I mused to myself. Any place that has flourishing trees, growing wherever the trees damn well please, thank you very much, always gets into my good books until further notice. Smirking privately at my own expense, I turned away from my spot overseeing the inner workings of the fortress and crossed the rampart walkway to look out over the plains.
They were...plain. A smooth patchwork of brown earth and yellow green grass. Oh, and teeming with monsters that looked like giant gray swinub. Or, to be more accurate, like whatever the evolved form of that pokemon was... They were Big Hairy Boars, okay? I couldn't believe they were still here from the time Yuri and Estelle had tried passing through (they hadn't told us that story, but if they had Karol tagging along then they should have been forced to take the route through the Quoi Woods), so they must have left and just recently come back. Without any humans out there to trample, the monsters were killing time butting heads and trying to run down any smaller monster stupid enough to come near.
While this had many of the other people held up inside Deidon Hold grumbling about setbacks to their schedules, I wasn't all that bothered. My plans were only to take a quick look around while playing "Hot, Cold, Fetch!" for Verte. Since her vines strangling Nevys mark seemed to make it less sensitive, I had to pay particular close attention to any reactions given off by my left hand.
Which I frowned at, eyes tracing the dark lines that were no longer hidden under the protection of a glove. If I wanted to be all deep and philosophical about it, the gloves were probably more to protect myself so I wouldn't think about my predicament. So I could deny and forget that I had very limited control anymore. Now I needed to heighten my awareness of the mark so I wouldn't miss any future light shows, so there was no getting a new pair for me. It still bugged me that Alexei had noticed before I had back in Zaphias.
Even so, I had been sorely tempted earlier when I passed a stall down in the Hold's courtyard that was selling gloves.
To back up a bit, after Verte's grand entrance and hijacking of the spot light from Alexei, I had become little more than an extra piece of furniture in the room. Since I had so utterly failed at keeping myself in any semblance of control over the situation, I had settled for watching the exchange between the two and scrutinizing every thing said and not said.
"While I've no doubts that your promises are not made lightly, Miss Ivalyn," the Commandant had responded diplomatically, "you must understand that at times it can be...difficult, one would say, to trust that you've been entirely candid with me."
Verte had flashed a friendly smile, or tried to. Her acting skills didn't cover making facial expressions naturally, they were too obviously artificial when there wasn't honest feeling behind them. "No need to concern yourself, Commandant. With so many other claims to your attention, I simply did not want to burden you with trivial details."
Alexei had started pacing (prowling really) across the room and, not a second after he started moving, Verte had begun pacing herself. Her skirt-sash swept across the floor as she moved, keeping a constant amount of distance between her and the man. And he had definitely noticed. "Appreciated as such consideration is, I would still like to be kept informed as to your movements at the very least. How else can I expect to contact you when you're needed?"
A slight breeze lifted the hair from the back of my neck, and I narrowed my eyes in pleasure. It was shortlived, as I considered my memories. Much of the encounter had been like that. I'd sensed, underneath all the civility, a rather intense sparring match. While on the surface Verte was all for letting Alexei have his way, she was still holding something back. And he knew it.
Probably expects it, really, he'd be stupid not to. I wondered if he knew Verte was a fairy...even if he did, she probably hadn't let him in on the whole Iron is BAD for Fairies detail. Which was why they'd spent half the time circling each other around the office. The Commandant had been wearing armor, and Verte hadn't wanted to get any closer than necessary. Usually her avoidance wasn't so blatantly obvious as that first time, but it was like watching a pair of dogs chasing each other's tail.
Well, she certainly hasn't placed herself at his beck and call, and our dear Commandant clearly doesn't like being limited in his control. He has to trust her, and who the hell would willingly do that?
He had only one advantage going for him, or so he thought.
Verte had by that point positioned herself by my chair, where I had slumped and pretended an intense interest in examining my nails. "As much as I'd love to continue this chat, I'm afraid it will have to wait for a latter date. I have some rather pressing work that needs to be attended to, and need this one in order to do it." Her hand rested on the back of my chair, possessive.
Alexei had returned to the other side of his desk but had yet to reclaim his seat. "This 'pressing work' of yours..."
"Has no bearing on your own goals," the fairy interrupted smoothly, inserting her words into a natural pause in his speech. It made the head of the knights frown slightly before he continued.
"Then I presume it is related to the young lady's," a bare scoff to his tone at those last two words, "intriguingly marked hand?" With no further prompt I held up my left hand so Verte could see how the orange light flickered from Nevys' part of the tattoo. "My sources inform me that she is, and by extension, you are, searching for an unspecified object. I would be correct in thinking that this would be connected?"
I couldn't see Verte's reaction, and she didn't say anything at first. Alexei, however, I could see just fine. He was looking a bit smug now, as if he believed he'd one upped her and seized the upper hand. "You would be correct," the fairy admitted grudgingly. I blinked, surprised that she made no attempt to deny or mislead him, and grew even more confused with each word following. "This one's duty is in locating objects considered highly precious by our people. Perhaps...you have seen it?" And then she even went as far as to provide a brief description of the jeweled tipped rod pieces.
The Commandant considered the question, taking his time as if thinking back. His eyes were measuring us and our reactions to the silence. "I cannot say that I have, for certain," he finally allowed. I couldn't tell if that was truth or falsehood. "But if it is here, then I can say with confidence that I can have it located for you, while you pursue your other work."
A rustle of movement from behind me, I imagined Verte making another shallow bow or dip of her head. "Then I may rest assured, sir, knowing that it is in good hands." Then the hiss of her skirt-sash retreated across the carpet. "Come, child, we musn't tarry."
"W-wait!" I cried, bouncing up out of my seat. I scrambled around to follow her out the door, instinctively not wanting to be left behind.
"Miss Vitae," Alexei called. I stopped with my hand on the open door. Slightly, I turned my head to show attentiveness, but did not face him. "I hope we can also continue our talk from before soon. I'll be looking forward to it."
"...I won't be," was all I said before slipping out and shutting the door behind me. I had to trot down the halls to catch up to the green fairy. "Verte! Verte, what was that all about?" I asked breathlessly when I drew up next to her. "What happened to all the cloak and dagger type mystery around the-"
"Hush," she admonished me with a cold look. "Even in the mundane buildings of humanity, the walls have ears." I pressed my lips together tightly, though wondered why now she bothered with being cautious. Satisfied, she picked up her brisk pace down the hallways. Glum and brooding, I dogged her steps in silence. After a moment of this, she murmured, "Whether or not Alexei has the heirloom in his possession at this moment, he will believe that its presence in his castle makes it a card in his favor. We want it, he has it."
"Extra leverage for him, besides whatever else you've already promised," I clarified, not trying to disguise the implied accusation.
She ignored it in favor of the literal. "Precisely. He is incapable of using it for anything else, and we can easily reclaim it at our own convenience. Until then, it will serve beyond its intended purpose by making the Commandant an even more predictable pawn." She volunteered no more information at the time, silently leading the way out of the castle while I tagged along behind.
The fairy was playing Alexei. Like they were all playing me. He just hadn't realized yet that they were manipulating him.
"Gald piece for your thoughts?" The unwelcome familiar cool voice made me tense.
"You don't really think I'd sell those, do you?" I asked sarcastically. "It's one of the few things you fairies have left alone." I glanced sideways at the petite fairy in green that had, without my notice, joined me on the wall. For the first time I noticed that she was actually about my height, though definitely a bit shorter. Still, a spiteful part of me felt a bit gleeful to confirm that Nevys was a good chunk shorter than even her.
"Not that I particularly care what your thoughts on any matter are," she dismissed, "but in this case I wished to know if there is any good news."
I shifted my hand so that she could see the stubbornly dark lines. "Combed this place top to bottom, twice, and still nothing." The second time around I'd been more thorough, acting as if during my first tour I had dropped something and couldn't remember where. A few kind souls even offered to help me look, which was nice even if I had turned them down.
Verte sighed, a brief moment of weariness passing through her features. "It was a long shot, but I suppose it is to be expected. On to the Quoi Woods next, then." She made a move towards the ladder down to the ground, meaning to exit town first again before fairy poofing us across the continent. We'd barely gotten out the main gate of Zaphias before we'd done just that, after all, and reappeared about a mile from this fortress.
"Can I ask," I quickly put in before she could start her descent, "Why are you working with Alexei anyway?" Her jade eyes fell on me, brow rising just so, but hardly at all, in one of the small facial gestures I was learning to look for. "Your goals are far from the top of his priority list, and you all make it seem like I'm the easiest way to find those damned heirloom pieces. So what gives?"
With a slightly more audible breath of air, her version of a derisive snort, I got the impression that she was now viewing me with some contempt. "I believe I already told you as much once before. The show must go on, and the actors must recieve their cues. Why ruin a perfectly good script that already leads towards the outcome I desire?"
"But, helping Alexei," I frowned, "what about his plans helps you in any way...?" Trailing off, I ran through a quick list of everything the Commandant accomplishes before- "He dies in the end. Well before the end, actually. If you want events to follow the story..."
"My goal," she informed me stiffly, "is and has always been to recover what was stolen from us. It takes priority over all else, even," she hissed, eyes narrowing, "wringing the neck of that foul wretch."
Since her hatred for Nevys couldn't be made clearer if she'd written "NEVYS HATE" on a two by four and smacked me with it, I could guess that said a lot about how important this recovery job was to her. So if that was why she was cooperating with Alexei...and Alexei wanted to open the way to Zaude in his mistaken pursuit of power...
I drew in a sharp breath, "You want to get into Zaude. You think there are pieces there."
"Clever pawn is catching on," she mocked. "It hasn't been easy, Alastor and Sybelle's little human has been up to funny business on his own, and then you started trying to meddle back in Nordopolica. At least that was easily remedied. All I needed to do was disguise myself as a concerned neutral party and warn that overeager knight that his princess needed rescuing."
My blood turned to ice. "You told...Belius' death is completely your fault!" It wasn't enough for her to stab Belius with her vines, she manipulated Flynn into killing her too! But, if everyone thinks the Duce's death is the Empire's doing-wait, "And you made sure the blame would still fall on the Union, didn't you?" I growled in my throat, taking a threatening step towards her.
"Of course, it would waste time if I were to lead a war to the Commandant's doorstep." Not the least intimidated by my approach, Verte actually stepped forward to meet me. "Now, here's your reward for figuring out so much on your own," she said, and then pushed me. I felt a surge of the energy I'd come to associate with fairy magic just as a greater force than I expected from that little shove thrust me back. My back bumped against the crenelations on the edge of the wall, and Verte was in front of me again. "Take the long way to the woods and work on your survival skills," she ordered before giving me another magic powered shove and sending me falling back into space.
"Shi-!" I twisted in the air so that I could see the ground coming up to meet me. Without taking time to really process the thought, I reflexively tried to save myself the way it always works in animes and other fictional role models. I snatched up whatever wind element aer I could and flung it down ahead of me. Dust and dirt blew up into a cloud, making my eyes water, but there was also a cushioning affect from the barely formed mass of wind aer.
Air whooshed out of my lungs with an "Oomf!" as I belly flopped in the dirt. Groaning, I took a moment to be thankful that the aer slowed me enough so that hitting the ground didn't snap my ribs. I wasn't keen on cracking or breaking them again any time soon. Pushing myself up on all fours, I brushed at the silk of my gi and slacks to knock the dirt off.
Something made a porcine snort and pawed at the ground. Already knowing this wouldn't be pretty, I slowly looked up from myself. Two of the evolved swinub boars were squaring off, maybe twenty feet away from me. They'd probably been about to fight each other, over dominance or something, but seemed to be getting the idea that I might be more fun to step on. I got that feeling from the way they reared up, forelegs kicking, and when they came back down they were both facing me instead of each other.
"Crap stick," I cursed, snatching up my daggers from under the hem of my gi. Phoenix, the red spined one, fit comfortably in my right hand while Simurgh went to my left. "I hate you so hard right now, Verte." Both swinub boars charged towards me.
Kicking off hard from the ground, I scrambled to the side out of their paths. They tore past, unable to correct themselves in time to catch me under their stumpy hooved legs. While it would have been a good opportunity to attack them from behind, I elected instead to jump on my feet and pump my legs like crazy in an escape. If I took the time to fight those two monsters, I'd find myself in the middle of four times that many by the time I'd finished.
"Gate gate gate gate gate gate-" I chanted as I ran along the wall. Deidon Hold's gate was, of course, closed. I banged on the lowered portcullis and hollered, "Open the gate, open the gate, open the GATE!" Verte's green haired head appeared above me as she looked down.
"The long way, child," she reiterated. "Better get started."
Desperate, I shot a look over my shoulder. The two boars I'd dodged had gotten themselves turned around again and nearly had me in their sights, and the attention of several others in the area (up to about fifty or sixty feet away?) was on me. So much hate for green fairies...
Stand my ground and fight? Stupidly suicidal. Run like hell? Probably still stupidly suicidal, animal instincts is to chase the running quarry, but felt like my better option.
"Running, running, ruuunniiing!" My feet pounded against the ground as I lit out towards the west, hoping some miracle would get me to the shelter of the forests at the foot of the mountain range before I became a bloody smear on the plains. At least they don't have tusks or anything they could gore me with!
x x x
Simurgh chopped through the neck of a yellow turkey with an axe for a beak, nearly beheading the monster. Jerking it back out, I used the momentum in a spin away from the collapsing body and lash out with Phoenix. Water whip swished through the air and clipped the thin wing of the monstrous wasp monster, knocking it out of the air. Snapping my right wrist, I brought the whip down on the wasp hard before letting the water go from my control.
Panting, I wobbled over to the bug and made sure of it with a quick stab of a dagger before allowing myself a break. Brushing the hair out of my eyes with the back of my hand, I glanced around to reassure myself that there were no more monsters hiding among the trees or bushes.
In the Rules of Video Games, monsters that live so close to where your low level character starts adventuring are low level themselves. That didn't entirely hold true, but the monsters actually weren't too bad an ordeal. They were anatomically smaller than what I'd gotten used to around Dahngrest, Nordopolica, and Mantaic, and none of the bug variety had that exoskeletal armor thing going on. But those failings were made up for by the monsters having an agility bonus their less imposing size gave them. Darwin's laws about evolution and what not. They've evolved according to what works in this environment, and what traits are in the genetic pool. That last thought was maybe a bit of a nod to Mendel. Biology class had been a couple of years ago.
In any case, the monsters in the Quoi Woods were much preferable to the Giant Hairy Boars that had chased me. Verte must have been watching from somewhere the whole time, she didn't want me to outright die. Just suffer a little. Like the time when I fought Nevys' dogs, she'd kept me from getting killed but didn't have any problems with me being severely injured. In the plains the majority of saving my ass was on my shoulders, but I know once or twice I saw grass wrap around the legs of a boar and trip it up before it got near me.
Even if she had been helping, I just knew she probably laughed her ass off (or the ice woman equivalent thereof) when the Lord of the Plains joined in on the sport. Friggen' thing was more like a bull than a boar. He had run over me at one point, not a pleasant experience, but the permeability had kicked back in and saved my life again. So it hadn't been permanently busted, maybe just...had a limited number of uses per day?
Groaning at the memory, I forced my feet to start moving again. I'd already learned not to linger overlong where dead monsters lay. The smell of blood would attract other monsters, scavengers looking for an easy meal. And while not dead, I may still register as easy pickings to some.
As if summoned by my very thoughts, a growl rose from behind me. I froze, momentarily panic stricken as my mind latched onto the memory of the fairy dogs growling while they surrounded me. With a surge of terror I spun around, daggers flashing up in front of me.
Yellow eyes glared at me from the brush before leaping out with a snarl. I yelped as a dark canine form lunged towards me, right arm shooting out to force Phoenix down the gaping maw. Choking, teeth clamping on my arm once in its death throes, the monster slid off and fell dead. Just a normal wolf, like many others I'd seen and fought before. Smaller even than wolves back on Earth, more like Repede's size.
Gasping as the rush faded from my system, I held up my arm for inspection. The spider silk held up to its reputation, not the least damaged other than drool and blood smeared across the yellow. And even if it hadn't been able to hold up, under its sleeves I was further protected by light leather bracers laced tight to my forearms. There was further protection given by the shoulder guards I wore, strapped to the fitting black leotard I wore under the gi.
A leotard. Damn Ballerina Ninja images again. What Verte was thinking, I had not a clue, but the leotard even lacked a proper left sleeve. The collar instead dipped down under the left arm, still covering what decency demanded, but looking oddly mismatched. If I took the gi off there'd be nothing on my left arm or shoulder besides the simple leather pauldron and bracer.
Shaking my head, I looked around for the trail I'd been following. Weird style or not, the light armor additions are helping. I can't even complain about these pauldrons much. They're not the level of ridiculous you see in stereotypical fantasy designs, and I do have a bad habit of getting gnawed, slashed, and pierced in that area.
My train of thought died, though, as I looked back at the mess of monsters I'd left. Particularly the wolf. "I thought it was..." with another shake of my head, I resolutely turned away and forged on. Understandable. It was a bad experience. But you can get over it.
"Do or die," I muttered. "Get stronger, lose the unneeded emotional baggage, and take some chances." That was the strategy I'd come up with to upgrade myself from fairy pawn to a qualified player in their mind games. I went with the flow way to easily, even in Nordopolica, and that was why it never seemed like my efforts were enough.
My new mantra was "Leap before you look." Better that then get blasted off another wall by a fairy while I was busy looking.
x x x
Nothing of interest turned up in the Quoi Woods, not so much as a flicker of light. Verte didn't come to pick me up, though, so I set up a rough camp with the few supplies I'd left Zaphias with. It rankled to know that I was using Alexei's charity, but I was practical about it. So the Commandant had given me equipment, in keeping with the odd cooperation between him and Verte, what could I do besides use it? Boycotting it and then starving for the sake of pride was stupid, getting eaten by a monster while I slept even worse. Using a tent with a scent barrier and eating the army trail rations solved both those problems.
I'd even gotten a small purse of gald, enough to last me for a week, maybe two if I was careful. Again, not spending it because it was Alexei's wouldn't help me any. If I found some other source of income to shore up my reserves, then I could assuage my pride and turn up my nose at his goodwill gift. Until I ran out.
Face it, I chided myself, if you needed something, bad, and had the money to buy it, considerations like "but it came from my enemy!" wouldn't count for much. Just how you are.
I didn't voice any of these thoughts to Verte when she showed up in the morning. Seeing as she regularly tried to make people dance like puppets on a string, I could very well guess what her take on the matter would be.
She skipped me across the continent again, us popping out of existence to reappear in Ehmead Hill. First off I noticed the barrier blastia Judith had trashed (...Heheh, Ekaterine, wasn't it, Rita?) had at least been moved to the side of the road out of the way. The wreckage was still there as an unintended monument to the Dragon Rider's mission. My sour expression (I'd been dealing with Verte, of course I was sour) softened as I thought of my krityan friend.
Judith... I wonder how you're doing now? Other than knowing the gang meets up with her at Mount Temza, there is little information provided about what Judith does on her own. Could she already be guarding Ba'ul as he goes through his evolution? Or was it yet too early for that?
For a moment, it occurred to me that there was a possibility that she hadn't left the group. I hadn't seen it happen after all. There could be a number of small reasons, small changes, that could have altered that. That would be nice...I want to talk to them, though the thought frightens me. And I've always just felt that, even if Judith found out the truth, it wouldn't change much between us at all. Even if the others accepted the whole story and still counted me as a friend, it was unavoidable that the dynamic would still change. But maybe not with Judith...
Shaking myself out of my wistful thoughts, I looked over at Verte. "I doubt there's anything here. We took the detour route last time, and covered most of the hill that way."
The fairy returned my look before surveying our surroundings herself, eyes eventually settling on the ruined blastia. "I suppose you would have. Very well, next destination." I braced myself for the magical warp, but suddenly she uttered a soft, "Oh!" Verte then hiked up her skirt-sash to her hips so that it no longer dragged across the ground, and hustled off into the underbrush along the side of the road. The wicker basket of flowers that hung on her arm bounced up and down in her haste. I stood, slack jawed, staring after her. I half expected that if I were to look next to me at where she'd just been standing, I would see the dignity she'd just left behind.
"Verte?" I called, loping off after her. I managed to pick through the interlocking bushes easily enough and found myself on the game trail we had all followed when bypassing the knights. A sarcastic voice in my head mimicked Leblanc's voice yelling "Yuuuri!" and I sniggered to myself. Following the trail with silent footsteps, hands hovering near my daggers, I tried to find where Verte had run off to.
I didn't have to go very far. A short ways up the trail I found her kneeling by a cluster of long stemmed flowers. Lilies, I realized, but fire red. She was gently stroking the petals of one, crooning to it in a low voice. "Cyrtanthus bloom," the fairy murmured, then vigorously buried her hands in the dirt, uprooting three of the flowers.
"Souvenir?" I questioned. "Is there some kind of magic trick you can use them for?" I was remembering the tawny colored lily she'd used to mess with my short term memory after the True Naming stunt.
Verte lifted the flowers, roots, dirt and all, and gently tucked them into the basket that practically lived on her elbow. "These are the flowers your game labeled as 'fire lily'," she told me. "I have not had any opportunity before to discover its uses, or if its nativity to this world gives it unique properties. But I know exactly the spot in my garden where I may transplant them..." Levering herself back onto her feet, she pulled up her skirts again and was off.
Ready for it this time, I managed to follow closer on her heels. But when I saw she was making a beeline to the billybally leaf plants (that I still thought had a suspiciously carnivorous look to them) I came to an abrupt stop. The fairy approached the flowers without fear, crooning again, and somehow got close to them without getting a face full of pollen. "Great," I muttered, "Now she'll be able to throw that stuff around too."
It wasn't long before Verte finished her "harvesting" of the local flora. Samples stored away in her basket, she swept her way over me with her skirts gathered up in one hand. "On we go, then," she said, cool as if she'd just finished a minor side errand during a larger shopping trip. The fairy reached out with her free hand and took my arm in hers.
"Wait, can't we take a-"
A current of fairy magic, abrupt change in the lighting, and a feeling of difference in the air, myriad small changes in various stimuli that my senses could only acknowledge on a basic level.
"-break?" I grimaced.
"What were you saying?" Verte asked levelly as she dropped my arm, "I'm afraid we left your words behind, and I didn't hear them."
"Left my..." my mouth worked silently as I failed to find words. "God, don't say it like that. You make it sound like we broke the sound barrier or something."
She just gave me one of those blank looks, one green brow rising up minutely. "I would suppose that, by the standards of you Earth humans; with the amount of ground we covered within the second we traveled, we technically did." I groaned, pressing one hand against my forehead. A full ten seconds, and then I lowered my hand again and looked around more carefully. No place I recognized, seemed like some random section of wilderness, a forest not too far off in the distance...
"Wait," my head snapped around back to the empty face that watched me patiently. "Did you make a joke?"
Only a blink and, "Why would I?"
x x x
"This is Caer Bocram."
Verte's declaration was largely unnecessary. Yeah, this looks familiar... There was the ruins of the town; stone walls crumbling under the slow but sure grip of roots, grass sprouting up through the streets' remains, forcing cracks in the pavement open wide. I found it, oddly, both sad and satisfactory. Sad; humanity could not leave a mark that would speak of us when we were gone, that wouldn't be erased in the march of time. Satisfied; to see how, given the time, the natural order could repair itself and the world would restore the balance of life.
I always did get where characters like Duke were coming from...
Not that I agreed with them.
"Why are we here?" I asked. "Sure, the mark kept reacting when I was here last, but that was because of Alastor." That thought gave me pause. "Or...I'm pretty sure it was because of him..." Though maybe one of those times, it hadn't?
The green fairy woman nodded as if guessing my train of thought. "It won't hurt to look." Without waiting for any response from me she turned away and strode off down the street, vanishing around the corner of a dilapidated two story building. While I watched her walk away it struck me that she didn't really need to personally look around. She could stay in one place and leave me to my own search, even leave for wherever the fairies went on their downtime.
Deciding it didn't matter much at the moment, I chose a different street and took off in my own direction.
x x x
It really must have been because of Alastor's monitoring before, all those times when my left hand had burned with orange. It didn't react in the slightest this time.
Finding the underground room where we'd seen Ent, the Entelexeia who's name I couldn't recall, had reminded me of what else had been unusual about that visit. During the fight, a red fletched arrow shot by an unseen helper had done just enough to save me from getting stepped on. Arrows that I now knew went to a bow Alastor had. The one he'd used in Mantaic.
So, that led me to wonder, just how long...and how often has he been monitoring me anyway? There was the time after the Red-eyes had kidnapped me, red arrows had immediately preceded Chase's appearance. Maybe it wasn't by chance that he was the one that found me...
Like back in the Quoi Woods, Verte didn't come to meet up with me again even once I was finished. It was getting dark anyway, so I had just set up a tent again. But I was reusing the one from before, the only one I had, and no longer had a scent barrier to drive away the monsters with. I had to sleep lightly, always on alert for some monster trying to raid my camp while I slept. It was possible, a sleep deprived and cranky part of my mind decided bitterly after I dispatched a pair of owls and an umbrella (part of me wondered if I had dreamed that fight), that it was part of Verte's plan for toughening me up.
When she did show up in the morning I probably would have snapped at her, demanding to know what she'd been up to. Before I got even one word out I happened to get a glimpse inside her basket. Was it just me, or did it look...fuller, than before?
...She's plant hunting! I realized with a grin. That garden must be quite the hobby. A green thumb wasn't one of my skills, but it did seem to me that gardening required regular attention and a lot of it. Maybe that was why she kept vanishing for prolonged periods? Though what excuse do the rest of the fairies have?
Thinking it was far too likely that Verte would start jumping us around the continent before I even finished dismantling the tent, I sought to delay her while I finish packing up.
"So," I started conversationally, "Ivalyn, is it? Alexei called you that a few times." With a twist I dismantled one of the tent poles.
Three poles later I stopped to look over at her, wondering at the lack of any answer. Verte was watching, expression odd. If I didn't know better, I'd say, baffled?
"Ivalyn Verte," she finally said. "Many of my kin adopt multiple names. Some, only to adapt to human customs and conceal themselves, others, for personal reasons."
That piqued my curiosity, when the question had originally just been a bid for time. "What about you?"
"A title, that came with my duties," she said shortly. "I am Ivalyn, and I am the Verte. As Sybelle is the Bianca, and there is the Schwarz..."
"Your titles," I couldn't mask my disbelief, "are colors?"
Her gaze was cool and more derisive than it had been for awhile. "I don't believe you are in any position to judge."
"A-ah," Go go, power rangers... "Can't argue with that."
x x x
It was official. I did not like Ghasfarost, the Tower of Gears. Place needed a bloody elevator installed! Heights didn't normally bother me. Look down into the Grand Canyon? Neat! Stand on top of the Empire State building? Fine! I had even been curious about what riding Ba'ul would be like. But climbing stair way after stair way, with only a railing between me and a long way down? There were so many reasons, from stupidity to legitimate accident, why I could be leaning on one only to discover it was shoddily made.
Verte had "suggested" I investigate the lower levels first, paying particular attention for any basement levels that might have gone unnoticed. The tower was built on ruins, after all, and those ruins seemed to be where she held most of her expectations. That had been in the morning, not long after dawn, but noon had me making my way back down after reaching the top of the tower.
The monsters that had established residence in the abandoned structure, or that had remained after it was abandoned, were mostly not too bad an issue. Bandits infested the ground floors, and they must have kept the numbers thinned. I hadn't wanted to fight with any humans, so I disregarded Verte's orders and sneaked passed them. Ninja outfit had a use after all. The gi was even reversible, I discovered, turning it inside out and wearing the black silk lining on the outside.
Climbing the tower, I did have to do some fighting. Flying monsters, the oddest of which resembled pelicans while the others were more raptor like, and a few functional robots. Robots that looked like they'd been modeled on body builders, and some engineer had gotten the bright idea to install wheels into their hands. WHAT FOR? Figures, even on another world I didn't get the point behind some technology.
"-We let the blind man lead the way too long,
easy to see where we went wrong.
"No one to turn to,
nowhere to run to."
I was singing, under my breath, the same damned song I'd let slip while playing "opera" with Lia. The Alan Parson's Project, "Children of the Moon." But, after all, I wasn't going to give a damn about that anymore, right? Leap before looking and all that.
"Too late to save us, but try to understand
the seas were empty, there was hunger in the land.
We let the wise man beat the drums too soon.
We were just Children of the Moon.
"Nothing to live for
nothing to die for"
Hiding wasn't going to help anymore.
Verte and I had only gone down a few halls before we crossed paths with someone I'd never expected to see there, even if her presence could have been expected. A krityan woman, dressed in purple overcoat (that still managed to be almost revealing as Judith's top), crimson skirt, and long white stockings and gloves. Her long teal hair fell from the top of her head in a tail and green leaf green eyes gave us piercing look as she stopped.
Khroma. Right, she was one of Alexei's advisors, or aide, or some position like that. She was even carrying one of those metal cases the knights used for delivering orders.
She worked with Alexei...that was why I'd always had a problem with her. I could never figure out why she never did anything to stop him from fulfilling his plans. She was in a position so close to him, she must've known he was aiming for Zaude! She must have realized what would happen when he got there!
But, in this form at least, she had done very little. And in her other form...
Well, I debated with myself, she was giving Duke help here and there, and trying to deal with the aer on her own. Maybe she was away so often the Commandant somehow hid things from her?
Still, Khroma couldn't be blind and daft. So why didn't she do something? Anything? SO many of the people or Entelexeia had knowledge that could have kept things from going so far, but did nothing and left it to Brave Vesperia to bumble through on half formed plans and ideas!
I whispered, "Just like I am," and stopped in my tracks. Khroma's eyes, sharp and knowing, felt like they were forcing me to take a good look at myself. If I were to judge her as guilty, was I any less than her?
"What are you doing?" Verte had continued walking but looked back when she realized she'd lost me. Khroma's eyes flicked towards the fairy, just for a second, and then she brushed past me, heels clicking on the stone.
Clasping my suddenly trembling hands over my chest, I could feel Sophia's blastia where it lay hidden under my blouse. She wasn't family. Ludwig wasn't family. Ludwig had lied to me, had taken orders to kill me. I shouldn't owe them anything.
But it had felt good, thinking that they might have been proud to think of me as family.
Spinning on the heel of my borrowed boots, I dashed down the hall back the way I'd just come. I bypassed Khroma in seconds, and before long was slamming the door of Alexei's office open. He'd been standing by the world map again, but my rude entrance had him on guard in an instant. If he'd had a sword on him, it likely would be pointing at my throat already.
"Back so soon, Miss Vitae?" he was smooth, but couldn't entirely hide the surprise in his voice and eyes. "I had hardly hoped. All the same, I would appreciate it if you would refrain from taking my door off its hinges."
"Leave Raven alone," I blurted. The Commandant did a better job at it this time, but still failed to completely hide his shock. I knew to look for it, having pressed a matter I knew he believed was secret.
He therefor played dumb. "I'm afraid I do not understand. I am not acquainted with anyone by that name."
"Bull," I spat, "Don't pretend, it doesn't fool me! I'm telling you to leave Raven, to leave Schwann alone!"
Eyes narrowed, cold and hard as flint, Alexei approached until he stood directly in front of me. There he stared down at me, making full use of the weight of his greater authority, presence, experience, his natural damned height to intimidate and cow me. "And why, pray tell, should I listen to you?"
"He's my friend," I hissed, feeling like my throat was being squeezed shut. "And he doesn't need the crap you're putting him through."
The man smirked condescendingly at me. "Doesn't need it? It's the only reason he's alive. Ten years ago, Damuron Atomais died in the war. Even with the blastia I saved his life with, he was a broken man. No one could mistake that for living.
"But as Schwann he has reason to live," he asserted grandly. "He has new purpose. And if that purpose ever fails him, he has it within his own power to end it! Schwann hardly needs some child to make his decisions for him."
"Having a choice between serving a mad man and turning off your own heart isn't the best of options," I growled. "No middle ground? Well that's where I'm coming in!"
"And what can you do?" Alexei asked with a laugh.
"I can take his place," I said grimly. "You want someone under your thumb to keep close to the Child of the Full Moon? I can be that person, just as easily as he can. And I know things he doesn't."
My hand lifted to clasp the blastia clip again. It still hung on the ragged strip around my neck, tucked under the collar of my gi. It still worked just fine when worn that way, and somehow I was reluctant to wear it openly. The details of the crafted wings felt rough under the caress of my thumb.
"Follow the pilgrim to the temple of the dawn
The altar's empty and the sacrifice is gone
We let the mad man write the golden rules
We were no more than mortal fools..."
Leaping without looking indeed. If I'd tried to stop Alexei from using Estelle, Verte wouldn't have let that rest. But Raven, surely she wouldn't mind if he was spared? If his key role in the story was still fulfilled and all, there should be no problem. Alexei hadn't liked the idea, not really, but I knew the allusion to what I knew made it hard for him to turn me down. In the end, he'd made the not entirely committed decision that yes, he'd agree, but if Schwann continued to report to him then Alexei would continue to use the knight captain..
Best I could hope for on that front. Next I would have to talk with Raven himself.
The brief scuffle of feet punctuating the stillness was what alerted me. My attention snapped back to the here and now. There were no allies in Ghasfarost, and whoever that was had been trying not to be heard. I must have been closer to the bandit filled levels than I thought.
As if I hadn't noticed, I continued towards the next stair case down. I even started humming a new song, betting the sound of the previous one was what had given me away. I was a tempting target, almost literally asking for it.
My own humming covered the sounds of any betraying footsteps, but in my new awareness I was watching the shadows around me. And so I saw the one being cast from behind me, but stretching before, as someone tried to jump me from behind.
As I stepped forward my back foot slid so that I was facing the other way, lead foot falling back to join it. Angling my body to present less of a target, I let his kris knife slide by harmlessly and caught his arm to keep him from pulling it back. The bandit didn't have time to recover as my right hand snapped up under his chin and lifted. His momentum forward backfired, sending him toppling back. Two more were in step right behind him, but had to dodge him or get knocked over. One tried to back up, the other darted around his fallen comrade to rush me.
Snatching Phoenix and Simurgh from their places under my gi, I shouted the next part of the song I'd been humming aloud.
"Accursed the hanged one!"
Catching the assailant's own plain dagger on the spines of Phoenix, I twisted my own blade to wrench it from his hand.
"Divine love for free!"
Bewildered by the sudden loss of his weapon, the man settled for trying to punch me. He shrieked in pain as his fist met Phoenix's crested red spines the way his dagger had. I jerked my weapon back, withdrawing it from the crippling wound, and then slashed him across the face with the tips of the spines.
"What a fateful night
And a grateful life
The choir echoes
'Every man his price'!"
The wound to his face wasn't serious, but the scratches had the effect of shocking and partly blinding him as blood from the topmost one ran into his eyes. He stumbled backwards and I prepared to meet the others.
In his fall, the first to attack must have clonked his head against the floor pretty badly. He'd been very slow in getting up, and had one hand pressed to the back of his bandanna wrapped head. The other had gone around him and had been trying to flank me while I was preoccupied. Seeing that I was watching him, he stopped short of throwing himself at me and started circling just out of my reach.
I frowned, he wasn't overly cocky. In a moment at least one of his friends should recover enough and then they would double team me. Or...
My left hand warmed. My eyes flashed down to it before zipping back up to watch the three men I was fighting. It didn't register fast enough when I looked at it, but in my mind I could digest that the black lines on my hand had been giving of fragmented light. Of all times it could-
A broad grin of crooked teeth on the wary man's face. He was looking at something behind me.
That was all the forewarning I had, but in a flash of insight I put it together. There was a fourth bandit sneak attacking from behind.
As I realized that, there was a spike in the heat of my left hand. I hissed as it tingled needles, tried to ignore it as I desperately spun away to the side. I had to deal with whoever was behind me, but turning my back on my known attackers wasn't safe at all. I didn't move fast enough. A cutlass arced in a sideways blow, meant to take me across the shoulders (if not behead me entirely), and it cut deep into my upper left chest instead.
Too deeply, a startled part of my mind realized, and entirely unhindered by spider silk or leather guard. It passed through painlessly, and I realized I'd avoided a nasty wound thanks to my permeability again. The spike of heat had passed, but it still warmed and glowed in response to something. Damn thing, working whenever I don't expect it! I snarled, both at the unpredictability of fairy given abilities and at the men trying to kill and rob me.
For their part, they were all astounded that I wasn't dead or terribly injured. The wary one even looked like he was debating the merits of abandoning the others and running, judging by the few backward steps he was taking.
With a vicious smile, I spread both my arms wide and sang out;
"ONCE upon a time,
no more words to say!
Find me in the circle,
Find me in the end!
"I am the soul collector
Dressed in ebony
There are no rules
But only one!"
And then I laughed, "Who wants to join me in the circle?" Whatever the hell they'd take that to mean, I hadn't the foggiest, but it made the wary one take off for real. His scratched face friend stumbled off after him, nearly running into an iron beam as he tried to wipe the free running blood from his eyes with his unmangled hand.
"Idiots!" the newest comer shouted at them as they ran. "Fine, we don' need ya! Don' come crying when there's no cut in the spoils for ya!"
The one with the kris and the headache had shaken off the damage from his trip. He and the cutlass man seperated, putting distance between them before they both advanced on me. Trying to work together without getting in each other's way.
Frustrated, I shouted wordlessly and grabbed for aer. Wind and water, I snatched both and wove them together in a sloppy pattern. I'd chanced across it when trying to recreate Rita's Freeze Lancer on my own. "Sting them! Ice Needles!"
The threads of aer wove together, creating thin shards of ice the length of my hand in a fanning formation in front of me. At once they all shot forward in front of me. Both men threw up their arms reflexively to protect their faces as the frozen darts sprayed across them. Less damaging then Rita's icicle lances, yes, but it wasn't as easily avoided as her more linear attack.
Taking the opening, I lunged forward and drove the spines of Phoenix into the cutlass man's right side. As he grunted in pain, arms trying to snap down in another reflex to do something about the sharp objects stabbing him, I let go of Phoenix in order to grab his sword arm by the wrist and keep it extended up high where it was harmless. My left hand grabbed him by the shoulder, wrenching him around so that he was in front of me and faced towards his remaining comrade, and then laid Simurgh across his neck.
Kris man stopped and seethed at me.
I didn't try to appeal to his morality or anything with something like, "no closer or your friend dies!" Instead, I smirked at him. "I'm more trouble than I'm worth," I promised. "You could cut through this man to get me, and I still won't get hurt." Banking on the reminder of me not getting cut when I was cut before to freak him out. "So piss off while I'm still willing to let this go!"
"Ya don' 'ave the guts!" the cutlass man gritted. "Or ye'd kill me now!" It felt like a kick in the stomach, realizing that he was right. Like this? I couldn't kill him like this. And the Kris man must have picked that up from my expression as he tentatively began edging forward.
What now? I thought frantically, and as my heart thundered with adrenaline...the warmth in my hand spiked and tingled again. ...REALLY?
"Kill you now?" Shrugging, I said, "Okay," and sawed my blade through his neck. He gargled and went limp in my arms, I almost dropped him. Kris man swore and bolted the other way.
Grunting with the effort, I lowered the man to the floor and looked him over. "Sleeping like a baby," I cooed, touching his unmarked neck. Tough as he'd acted, he'd fainted at the shock of his "death." Simurgh, under the influence of the permeability, had gone through his neck without leaving even a mark. It had worked twice in one fight this time...could the ability have leveled up? The second time was especially peculiar. I hadn't been in any danger of immediate physical harm, but had still managed to use it. Maybe, rather than leveling up, I was gaining more control.
The wound Phoenix had put in the man's side was bleeding more than I thought safe. If he was unconscious and presumed dead, who would take care of it in time? Fishing into one of the pockets hidden in the dark lining of the gi (yes, pockets inside my sleeves when I wear it normally, the novelty delighted me) I found an apple gel.
I pulled the gummie into smaller pieces with my fingers and then forced them into the unconscious man's mouth. If he swallowed it in his sleep (like I had with cough drops and gum in my childhood) then great. If not, then it should still do something for him as the enzymes in his saliva broke down the medication in his mouth so that his body absorbed it anyway.
Satisfied with my good deed of the day I then began rifling through the man's pockets. Robbing the robber? Why of course! Since it was when he appeared that my hand started glowing, then somewhere on him-
-the light on my hand turned blue white as I found a pouch worn under his shirt-
-yep! Inside that pouch was a delicate silver rod capped in a ruby and a sapphire at either end.
I hesitated, wondering if it was a good idea to go ahead with it, as I almost picked up the piece with my left, fairy marked hand.
Leap.
My hand closed on it, and I waited for Nevys.
The light from my hand faded, but there was no sign of the monarch themed fairy.
x x x
HO-kay! Was hoping I'd get further along in the events I've planned, but at least I've gotten this far! Everyone who keeps asking how long till the group is back? NEXT CHAPTER. Was hoping to get at least the set up for that finished this chapter, but Verte and those robbers had other ideas.
Damuron Atomais, and the bit of background Alexei mentioned about him, was written based on the summary I've read of The Empty Mask, a book about Raven and his history in the war. I would very much like to read the actual book.
And spider silk is true stuff. I was talking with a coworker about how I couldn't decide how to dress Letha next and he brought it up. When I got home I looked it up on the net, just to be sure he had his facts straight. REALLY hard to make a large quantity of the silk, unlike with regular silk worms, and it doesn't help that the female spiders have a habit of eating each other.
"Children of the Moon" is by The Alan Parson's Project, as mentioned.
"The Edge" and "This Will Never End" are both by Blind Guardian.