A/N - Hey, sorry for the way! While I was about a third of the way through this chapter,I realized that I almost certainly wasn't even a sixth of the way done with this fic, and that I had hundreds of thousands of words left to write, because I am a freaking masochist who enjoys tormenting myself or something. And, well, that's a little daunting.
I can't spend the rest of my life on one Soul Eater fanfiction, so I figured out another project that I could work on alongside Tempus Fugit so I didn't burn myself out from too much Soul Eater. It's a more personal project, not a fanfiction and not something I plan on making public. It's mostly just there so I can keep improving my writing without having to do the same story all day every day. And it works. I'm enjoying writing Tempus Fugit a lot more now that it's not the only thing I'm writing.
Also, I've been listening to a lot of "Army of One" by Bon Jovi while writing this fic, and it does sort of fit Alecto, so I guess you could consider that Tempus Fugit's unofficial theme? IDK. *shrug*
I'd like to thank everyone for their patience, and I'd like to thank truesparks and SmolderingBlackRose for reviewing! To truesparks, I say that I'm glad that you like my writing style! I admit, I write by the seat of my pants when it comes to the actual words and stuff, so I'm definitely pleased to hear that my keyboard smashings are well-liked! To SmolderingBlackRose, I say that I've been doing quite well lately, and happy late birthday to your friend! And yeah, I enjoy writing slow-burning relationships the most because of the exact reasons you described. The tension is just so delicious. :3
Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Twenty-Two - Curiosity Claimed the Meisters - Seeking Out the Fabled Sword Excalibur, Part 3
"Our chosen path is truly a cruel one."
"Yes, it's a real Shakespearean tragedy."
If you had told Alecto a week ago that she'd be carrying the son of Lord Death bridal-style into the cave of the holy sword Excalibur because he was afraid of getting his ankles wet, she'd have thought that you were trying to pull a fast one on her. But here she was, doing exactly that, and it was not exactly an easy task. She wasn't used to carrying people around. Tempus, yes, but only when he was in weapon form. Anyone with a glimmer of sense would have just dropped the boy and kept going, but Alecto had promised that she'd carry him, and she'd feel like a real jerk if she went back on that.
Kid either didn't notice or outright ignored her bitter remark and continued to speak. "I'll ward off the water from above, and you can handle the water on the ground, okay? We'll work together," he said.
"How are you- where did that umbrella come from."
"It's a good thing that there's more than one of us. This way would be impassable alone. Quite an obstacle," Kid stated matter-of-factly, and Alecto was starting to find that the option to drop him was looking really tempting. She struggled to grasp what was so grueling about wading through the cave. It was water, and not particularly deep water at that. It wasn't going to kill him. Up ahead, she could heat Black Star snickering to himself, which didn't help her mood any. Spurius.
After a few minutes, Alecto couldn't help but surreptitiously glance over at Kid, whose eyes were locked on the book on Excalibur. She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she had a closer look she realized that his eyes were actually two different shades of yellow. While the outer edges of his irises were a bright, saturated yellow, the inner edges just around his pupils were a darker, slightly warmer shade, almost the same color of the honey that her parents used to get from independent bee farmers.
She was a little surprised. It wasn't as if central heterochromia was some sort of ultra-rare condition (her own mother had eyes that went from blue to hazel), but she'd never seen such a sharp transition in hues. She was also a little surprised to learn that she thought Kid was actually a little good-looking. She stopped that train of thought before it left the station, however, and promptly decided that focusing her attention at literally anything else in the world would be a good thing to do.
So Alecto looked around the inside of the cave, taking in her surroundings. It was very tranquil, almost idyllic, with a faint light from the far end of the cave illuminating each blue stalagmite and teal stalactite and casting a rippling gleam across the stream. The rock formations seemed almost pillar-like, with flat tips and an almost orderly relation to each other. Their bizarre nature emphasized that this cave was most certainly not some random formation of the earth. If it weren't so pretty, Alecto would have found it unnerving.
"Alecto?"
Alecto sharply turned to face Kid again. "Do you think we could go a bit quicker?" the black-haired boy asked. "At this rate, Black Star will reach the sword well before we do."
Alecto was about to say that she could only go so fast with a teenage boy in her arms and that if he didn't like it he could walk the rest of the way himself. Then a small, metaphorical light bulb went off in her head. He was right in that Black Star was a considerable distance ahead of them, and he had displayed an interest in her abilities as a time meister…The corner of her mouth curled up into a wry smirk. "I think I can figure something out," she said. "Brace yourself. I've heard it can be quite jarring for some people."
Kid's brows knitted together in bemusement. "What are you-"
Tick.
Kid jumped in Alecto's arms as the latter took her, well, their personal time bubble and yanked it out of sync. "What was that?" he demanded.
"Not much," Alecto said, taking a bit more pleasure in seeing him baffled than she really should have. "Just me taking the fundamental laws of temporal relativity and shoving them down the nearest flight of stairs, that's all." Kids eyes widened slightly at that, and Alecto quickly clarified. "I desynchronized our time so that we could catch up to Black Star," she said, nodding to their travelling companion up ahead. He was going at an impossibly slow pace, imperceptible to those who weren't time meisters. Or reapers, probably. "That's what you felt, just then. Like I said, I've heard it can bit a little weird for some people, but I've never felt anything like that. It won't be any faster for us, but for our surroundings it'll seem like we'll have moved much quicker."
"That's incredible," Kid murmured reverently.
Alecto's cheeks turned beet-red. "G-gratias tibi," she muttered. "Ūtile est, ita." She wouldn't exactly call her abilities incredible, at least not in the same tone that Kid said it in. But they were definitely something, all right. Tock. Tick. "Er, sorry about that. It's easier to desynchronize and resynchronize time repeatedly than it is to hold it continuously hold a desynchronization.
"Ah," Kid said. "It sounding like the ticking of a clock. Is that intentional on your part?"
Tock. Alecto hadn't realized that he'd heard the ticking. That was something that was usually reserved for Alecto and Tempus's own souls to hear. Then again, he was a reaper. His senses were probably far more acute than those of a human. Tick. "I guess. I don't control it. My partner is officially classified as a clockwork buckler spear, though, so make of that what you will."
"Ah, yes, I believe I caught a glimpse of him while watching your fight with Stein. The two of you have a very unique combat style." He muttered something under his breath that sounded vaguely like "completely asymmetrical" before continuing. "I don't think I've actually properly him yet. I know Liz and Patti did, but…"
Tock. "You met him in the library earlier, didn't you?" Alecto asked.
Tick. "That was hardly a meeting. Not that I blame him for focusing on his task, the way those books were haphazardly piled was completely unsightly."
"Yeah, well..." Alecto shrugged. "Tempus is a unique kind of guy. Wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world, though."
Tock. She'd finally caught up to Black Star, who turned to glance over at them with teal-green eyes. "Oh, hey, you guys!" he said, a goofy, over-confident grin stretching his cheeks. "I almost thought you guys had given up!"
Alecto's mood plummeted as he spoke those last two words, and her voice dropped to a dangerous growl. "I don't give up," she all but snarled, ignoring Kid's startled expression at her sudden change of demeanor. "Certainly not over something like this."
Black Star's grin shifted into a rather taken aback scowl, but before he could comment further, there was a bizarre shift in the air and a fairy fluttered into view.
There was no real way to describe the experience. Alecto knew about fairies. Everyone knew about fairies. Five year olds in the sandboxes knew about fairies. But it was only five year olds in the sandboxes who actually imagined that they'd ever see a fairy. Alecto just hope that this diminutive, glowing winged woman was the nice, playful fairy, and not the kind who'd steal your newborn child and leave a changeling in its place.
"It looks like a fairy," Black Star said, surprised. Your observational skills are stunning, Black Star, truly. "What's something like that doing here?"
"We're hunting after a legendary sword," Kid pointed out. "Finding a fairy or two shouldn't be surprising." The fairy didn't seem to be offended by the two boys speaking about her as though she wasn't there, simply staring at the trio of would-be questants with a curious smile on her face and a cheerful brightness in her cerulean eyes. "Is Excalibur up ahead?" Kid asked of the pixie. "Are we in the right place?"
The fairy somehow managed to freeze in mid-air, her smile remaining but losing all of its charm or emotion. Then her expression fell from playful curiosity to a look that could only be described as the most viscerally disgusted grimace that Alecto had ever seen in her life, which didn't sit well with the pink-haired meister. The fae fluttered away without a single word.
"She's not a very polite fairy, is she?" Black Star said.
"Well, she's a sign that we're on the right track," Alecto said. "Come on. Excalibur can't be far now."
Sure enough, as they continued, the air continued to feel weirder and weirder. Alecto couldn't really place the specific type of weirdness, which bothered her the most. If she were forced to place it, she would say that it was most similar to how it felt to be in Lord Death's death room, with its illusionary environment and unnatural feel. But even then, this cave felt unfamiliarly different. It made the hairs on the back of Alecto's neck stand on end, and she didn't like it. The sooner they found the sword, the better.
Luckily for her, the stream tapered to a small spring and stopped, leaving only dry ground ahead. "Good," Kid said, "the water's stopped. We should be there any minute. You can put me down now, Alecto."
"Certus!" Alecto said, and promptly dropped Kid. "Gratias tibi. Meus brachia dēfessa sunt! Ego non exspectābō quando reperiēmus Excalibur." Ignoring Black Star's snort of mirth at seeing the son of Death unceremoniously dumped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, she stretched out her arms with a small smile, ecstatic that her muscles were not burdened by the weight of another human. She was never carrying someone else again, unless that person was Tempus in weapon form. And he didn't count.
"Yes, well," Kid said, obviously a bit miffed as he got to the feet and brushed off his suit, his umbrella having mysteriously vanished, "I'm not sure I understood anything you just said, but we should be getting to Excalibur soon." He pointed towards the far end of the cave with a thin finger. "Look, there's light. And it looks like the path dead ends not too far up ahead."
Alecto peered ahead, her coal eyes narrowing as she looked. Kid was right. "Oh, good," she said. "I was worrying this cave would go on forever or that it would turn into some sort of weird blue labyrinth."
"Didn't the Romans have a labyrinth or something?" Black Star inquired.
"You're thinking of the Ancient Grecians, Black Star."
"Oh, right!"
The three of them took the last steps of their journey, with each footfall seeming like a century as the metaphorical cloud of anticipation over theirs heads grew darker and heavier. After what felt like a dozen lifetimes but was almost certainly no more than a couple minutes, they stopped.
"Hey!" Black Star exclaimed. "Over there!"
They'd reached the end of the path, and up ahead of them, on a small, perfectly circular mesa of crystalline blue ground, stood the Holy Sword itself. Embedded solidly in the stone, the blade shone brilliantly in a pillar of white light that streamed from a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. If Alecto weren't so awed by the sight, she had found that a bit odd; the sunlight outside had been orange due to it being very late in the afternoon, so where was this light coming from? But at the time, all she could say was "Pro di immortales…"
"Yes," Kid said, "no doubt about it. That's it… the Holy Sword, Excalibur."
Tick. Alecto ran forward, swiftly advancing towards the sword and coming to a halt a few feet away from it. Tock. "It's so incredible," she said under her breath, taking in the gleaming, pristine blade and the stunningly engraved golden hilt. "A capite ad calcem…It's beautiful." She reached out to touch it before jerking her hand away as if even grazing the hilt with her fingertips would wound her. Did she really have the right to handle the legendary sword?
Behind her, Black Star and Death the Kid approached. "Awesome," Black Star said, a reverence in his voice that was rare for the cyan-haired boy.
"The air here is vibrating," Kid said. Alecto could feel a weird sense in the air, but she wasn't sure if she'd call it a "vibration." It was just… weird. Kid continued, looking around with a sharp yellow gaze. "Standing here, I can easily believe what the book says about becoming a hero and earning everlasting fame and glory. This cave certainly seems like a magical place."
Alecto didn't want everlasting glory, and she certainly didn't want everlasting fame. She just wanted to see if she could. She took a step back to get a better view of the sword in its entirety. She wasn't an expert on swordsmanship, but she'd picked up a few things about the weapon type from watching sword meisters and their partners training. The sword looked perfectly balance, and staring at it Alecto could easily imagine it fitting perfectly in the palm of her hand, as light in her grip as a quill pen.
Kid seemed to share her admiration for the weapon. "Just look at the sword," he said. "Such precise, detailed ornamentation on the hilt. And not a single on the blade." A wonder-struck grin had stretched across the thin boy's pale face. "This is indeed deserving of the title 'Holy Sword.' A magnificent sword which can only be pulled out by the chosen hero. By… me."
Black Star pulled the sword out.
Alecto froze like a statue, her brain forcing itself into a hard reboot to process what had just happened. No one in the cavern spoke, just stared at the blade in Black Star's gloved hand. Then Black Star laughed and began to dance about, waving the sword around and turning to face his two still-stunned compatriots. "Yeah! Looks like I'm a hero! A big, big hero!"
"W-what?!" Kid stuttered, stumbling back. "No, it can't be!"
Black Star ignored him and continued his boasting. "Ya-hoooo! King Black Star, the hero! That's me! Ya-hooo!"
Alecto was still frozen in shock, her mouth hanging open but no words coming out. Kid was now kneeling on the ground, doubled over and clutching his head as he tried to make sense of what was going on. "This is some sort of mistake," he reasoned, desperation lining his voice. "I hate to break it to you, but you're no hero!" He struggled to his feet. "How about a do-over?"
"Huh?" Black Star said in disbelief. "Are you saying that didn't count or something?" He scoffed and stuck the sword back in the crevice that its blade had left after centuries of rest. "Fine. But I'm sure it's just gonna be the same every time."
"No," Kid said, "this time I'm going to do it."
"Yeah, right! You wish!" Black Star declared. "The sword chose me to be its hero, Kid! I'm the big fat hero, here, not you!"
"You've got a big fat head, more like," Alecto muttered under her breath, finally snapping out of her state of stunned stillness.
Without saying a word, Kid reached out for Excalibur. His hand froze a couple inches away from its immaculate hilt, and for a second Alecto thought that he was going to back out of it like she'd done a minute prior. Then he knelt down, grabbed a handkerchief out of his back pocket, and ran the soft white cloth over Excalibur's hilt. "Best to be safe," he said. "Who knows who else has touched this sword over the years."
Alecto figured that the holy sword of legend probably managed to keep itself clean enough, but she didn't comment. Black Star, however, granted no such mercy. "Hurry up and do it already, Kid!" he said impatiently.
Seemingly satisfied, Kid tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket and grabbed the hilt firmly. A small part of Alecto expected to see him fail; after all, the sword had seemingly been absolutely bonkers enough to choose Black Star as its great hero, for whatever reason, and Kid was about as similar to Black Star as a thermos of freshly-brewed tea was to a styrofoam cup of lukewarm coffee from Deathbucks.
(Alecto didn't like coffee from Deathbucks.)
To her continuing surprise, however, when Kid pulled the sword it gave way easily, sliding out of the stone like it was a hot knife in butter. Kid stared at it. "It came out!" he exclaimed. Clearly he hadn't been expecting it to come out either.
"Huh?" Black Star said, storming forward with furrow brows. "How come you were able to get it out, too? It must be because I loosened it!"
"Let me try," Alecto said before she could stop herself. "Sīs."
Still slack-jawed, Kid nodded numbly and stuck the sword back into the ground, taking a couple steps back to allow Alecto to step forward. She did so, resisting the urge to yank her ribbon out of her hair and fiddle with it in an attempt to calm her rising worry. All right, Alecto, she told herself. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to grab that soul and you're going to pull it with all your might. Qui audet adipiscitur. Qui audet adipiscitur… She reached out and closed her slim, olive-toned fingers around the hilt, and a jolt of energy shot up through her arm, causing her heartbeat to speed up in her chest a little. Taking a deep breath, she braced herself against the ground and pulled.
She expected to pull a muscle trying to move a magically immobile object. She didn't expect the sword to come out of the stone like it wasn't ever stuck in the first place, the momentum from her movements sending her stumbling back a few feet. "Q-quid?!" she exclaimed, staring at it in her hand. It felt light as a feather in her palm as she'd imagined, but apart from that the whole experience felt far more mundane that she'd imagined.
"You managed to get it out too?!" Black Star cried out. "What the hell is going on here?"
"That shouldn't be possible," Alecto muttered. "What heroic trait would the three of us share that would cause a holy sword to choose us all?"
Before either of the other two could answer, the air shifted again, and another jolt of energy raced up Alecto's arm. The sword began to glow, and a deep voice came out of nowhere, reverberating through the cavern and echoing into Alecto's very soul. "Welcome," the voice said, "Welcome to my cave, young ones."
Alecto yelped and pulled her hand away, staring at the sword as it continued to linger in the air, rotating so that its tip was pointed towards the ceiling. Excalibur floated upwards slightly, the golden glow around its blade only increasing in magnitude.
"It's talking," Black Star said. Alecto figured that the fact that a glowing, floating sword was talking was probably the least weird thing about this whole scenario.
The voice continued, its warm bass tones loud and clear as glass. "Please forgive the belated salutations," the voice said. "I am the holy sword... Excalibur!"
Excalibur began to glow bright and stronger, going from gold to a blinding white that forced Alecto to turn away and shield her eyes from the glare. To her right, she could hear Kid wince and do the same.
After a second, the light faded, revealing a new form in the place of Excalibur. Alecto lowered her arm and balked at the sight in front of her. "Immortales…"
Black Star's eyes were wide as denarii and round as dinner plates as he spoke. "How… incredibly…"
"All right," Tempus said, clapping his hands together and admiring the current state of the library. "That's the last of it! Oh, look at how this place sparkles, each book carefully sorted into its proper place!"
"Not quite, Tempus," Tsubaki said, picking up a book off of the table. "We've still got this one left." She glanced at the cover. "A Complete Reference Guide to Soul Parasites. That goes somewhere over there, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Tempus said. "I think that's the book that Alecto was planning on checking out, before she ran off to go find a great sword of legend." He glanced over at the book. "Dunno why she was interested in soul parasites. Is that going to be on the big test coming up soon or something?"
"I hope not," Tsubaki admitted, shooting him a sheepish smile. "I haven't actually studied soul parasites much this semester. Just the basics that we were taught in class."
Tempus chuckled. "Well, then," he said, "you're still leagues ahead of me. I don't even remember what we were taught in class. I probably should borrow that at some point; I'm not as worried about the test as, say, Maka's probably going to be, but I don't want to fail because I spaced out during class." He shrugged, still smirking, and strolled off to more thoroughly examine his handiwork now that it was all pretty much done.
Before he did, however, he made sure to shoot a dirty look at Dr. Stein. The professor had come down from a higher level of the library with a pile of books and now seemed to be on a mission to read every single one of them before his left. The messy desk he was sitting at, with second-level books scattered on it, was the only spot in the otherwise immaculate room. It was a stain on Tempus's good work.
Still seething a little, he forced himself to wrench his gaze away from the patchwork professor and focus on the better parts of the library. With the help of Tsubaki, he'd placed each and every book exactly where it belonged. If Lord Death were to stroll into the library and ask him where a book on the history of Salem could be found, Tempus would be able to recite its exact location from memory. He looked over the spotless floor and the even bookshelves. He'd done good work.
His self-satisfaction was cut short by the sound of the library door swinging open. He glanced over his shoulder, expecting Alecto (it'd been a while since they left, the two stooges and his meister had to be back by now) but instead saw Sid stick his bluish-face through the door. "Let's see!" the undead teacher said. "Are you still hard at work like a good boy, Black Star?" Tempus bit back a derisive snort, instead choosing to lean against a nearby lectern and watching as Sid ran out into the middle of the clean library and look around, blank eyes wide. "Ooh!" he exclaimed. "See what you can do if you put your mind to it!"
Tsubaki looked up. "Oh, hi, Professor Sid!" she said cheerfully. "After I put this book up we'll be all done!"
"Tsubaki…?" Sid's mood had done a completely one-eighty, and he turned around again. When his gaze fell on Tempus, the latter gave him a curt smile and a wave. "Tempus…?" He could practically see this gears in Sid's head click together through the gaping hole in his skull, and the zombie clenched his hands into fists and ground his teeth together. "So that sneaky little brat dumped his punishment on the two of you and took off, did he? Back when I was still alive, I hated it when dirty tricks like this were pulled."
He looks like he still hates it, recent demise notwithstanding, Tempus thought.
Tsubaki stepped forward, shaking her head. "It's okay, Professor, don't worry about it!" she said. "I enjoy cleaning."
"Yeah, and it wasn't Black Star's idea in the first place," Tempus said. "I actually did it because Alecto asked me to. Tsubaki came and helped out later."
Sid stared at him. "Why would Alecto ask you to do Black Star's remedial lesson?"
Tempus grinned. "Mystery for the ages, ain't it?"
Still sitting at the desk, Dr. Stein spoke. "If you're looking for Black Star, he's not here," he said. "He went with Alecto and Kid to find the holy sword. Why, has he done something wrong?"
Black Star has done a lot of things wrong, Tempus figured. Skipping out on remedial lessons to go chase after Excalibur is probably the least of them.
Sid froze, his hands dropping limply to his sides. "The holy sword?" he asked, lingering on each word. "The same sword that tears the air, and shakes the very ground?"
Silence. Tempus's brows knitted together. Sid didn't sound awed, or excited, or anything like what you'd expect after hearing the words "holy sword." He sounded… disturbed. Yes, "disturbed" was definitely the right word for the emotion that laced Sid's sharp, choked words. He wondered if there was something about the sword that he didn't know. Was it surrounded by some sort of mad traps? Claimed by Kishin Eggs? Sphinxes who asked impossible riddles and ate those who answered incorrectly? Tempus's heart skipped a beat as he thought of Alecto weaponless against such dangerous creatures.
After several more seconds, Stein turned back to his book, twisting the screw in his head into place as he did. "Let's stop talking about it," he suggested, with a strange look in his cold eyes that Tempus had never seen them hold before.
"Yeah," Sid said, hanging his head. "In some ways, this is the ultimate remedial lesson. I'll let this one slide." He turned back to the door. "Okay. I've... got a bunch of tests that need grading." He ambled out of the library, having lost the stern posture he'd previously held.
Tempus shared a nervous glance with Tsubaki. Sid was a tough son of a bitch, and here he was, looking like he'd taken a bad trip down memory lane. Even Stein seemed apprehensive about the matter, choosing to bluntly change the subject. What was it about the sword that caused to of the teachers least likely to get nervous to, well, get nervous?
What had Alecto wandered into?
A/N - Ah, I can practically taste the dramatic irony. Tastes like chicken. :D
Not much to say about this chapter. Shipteasing, cliffhangers, foreshadowing (:3), it's all pretty straightforward. I will say that I hadn't expected it to go on as long as it did. I'd actually expected to end the arc by this point, but the chapter took on a life of its own, and next thing you know I'm at four thousand words and I've got to shift around sections and move stuff I'd intended for this chapter to next chapter. So we've still got one more chapter left to go.
Latin lesson time!
Spurius: "Bastard"
Gratias tibi: "Thank you." Admittedly I'm throwing a wild guess her, but I've seen both "gratias" and "gratias tibi" be stated as valid forms of saying thanks, so I figure that "gratias tibi" is the slightly more formal version. The difference between "thanks" and "thank you," if you will. Of course, this is all just educated speculation, so make of it what you will.
Ūtile est, ita: "It is useful, yes."
Certus! Gratias tibi. Meus brachia dēfessa sunt! Ego non exspectābō quando reperiēmus Excalibur: "Certainly! Thank you. My arms are tired! I cannot wait for when we find Excalibur." Probably the most Latin I've ever strung together, and thus the Latin I'm most scared of messing up grammatically. I think I'm getting more confident about my skill in Latin overall, though. Latin's got a lot of rules to it, which are a lot easier to pin down than English's "let's throw it at the wall and see what sticks" method of grammar.
Pro di immortales…: "By the gods..."
A capite ad calcem: Literally means "from head to heel."
Sīs: "Please"
Chapter twenty-three should hopefully round off this arc, and will be up whenever it's put up. In the mean time, feel free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think! I love hearing your thoughts on my work! :D
- Diana "Nocte"
