Chapter 13: Crows in the Moon

Phantom looked down at the glowing island of Ereve below him, still, silent, and uncharacteristically stoic as he watched the commotion that his actions had caused. A few mesos thrown into the air and bang he detonated them with a skill that he had stolen from a bandit.

"If you're going to go Captain, now's the time. I'll only be able to keep this ship up in the air for so long before the knights come raining down on it."

And older man spoke in a deep timbre from behind him.

"...Of course Renault. If things get a little too hairy, pull out, I'll be fine."

It was true, already the knights on the ground were becoming aware of their presence in the sky. Phantom didn't doubt that the Lumiere was well in range of their archers, and once they got around to stationing guards, not even he would be able to sneak into the place unnoticed.

"Oh yes, and Gaston wanted me to give you this; said he would be too busy making preparations to clean up your mess to hand it to you personally."

Phantom took the card that his pilot was holding out with a curious look on his face. What he saw made him laugh. "Oh of all the ways you could have told me Gaston."

Another card formed in the his hand in a small shower of light as the mirth fell away from his face. "It's only fitting that I make these a pair after all the effort Gaston went to."

A small smile made it's way onto his face, both for what he was seeing and for what lay ahead.

The thrill of a successful heist, the adrenaline of possibly being caught: this was what he lived for. As his navigator and pilot nodded and began heading into the ship, the infamous thief dissolved into a storm of cards, rapidly making his way towards the Empress' Palace.

~~~~~On the Ground~~~~~

'Damn it Phantom, what are you thinking?!' Freud stood in the courtyard alongside the Empress, Mercedes, and Gilehart, all staring in surprise at the floating ship. Only the highly trained magus among them however, took the care to locate the lightly glowing trail of cards heading towards the palace. The glowing moon largely obscured the feeble light that was given off.

"That is... the ship of that thief!"

Freud felt his heart almost stop when the voice of Mercedes pierced through the almost serene silence that had pervaded the night around them. Immediately, the elf turned around and began to run towards the courtyard entrance in order to get back to her room, her footsteps deafening in the otherwise silent hallways.

"Wait!" Without meaning to, Freud shouted after her. It was however, a fruitless endeavor as Mercedes was already inside the palace. Cursing his luck, Freud dashed off with a quick apology to the Empress and her aide, leaving the two rooted in place. If Phantom had been willing to go this far tonight, it meant that he was playing for keeps.

He could only hope that the casualties could be kept to a minimum. At this point any fighting amongst themselves wouldn't help anyone, only to further the Black Mage's ambitions by weakening them. The best case scenario, unfortunately, was that Mercedes didn't get a chance to attack Phantom and that the thief got away without a hitch.

The only thing was, what could Phantom be hoping to gain from this? What precious treasure could he have his eye on today. Whatever it was it must be important to the thief because no matter what, even the Maple World's greatest thief has morals.

As Freud rushed towards where he had seen the flurry of cards land: the main courtyard; his thoughts a whirl of unorganized ideas. What could Phantom have to gain from coming to Ereve? How could he prevent either of his friends from getting hurt? How would he keep is friendship with Phantom a secret? What if they were found out?

He couldn't let anything happen to them lest they end up seriously hurt, or worse, dead. Knowing those two they probably wouldn't be able to control their power while fighting one another because of how evenly matched they were at the moment.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Freud was greeted by exactly what he dreaded in the courtyard.

The Elven Queen had somehow managed to make it all the way back to her room and obtain her weapon and was currently raining hell on her enemy; ephemeral arrows soaring through the air as they honed in on their target as if by magic. Fortunately for the Maple World's greatest thief, he was well prepared to weather the assault with Magic Guard, as well as counterattack with his own skills.

"Mille Carte" Because of her position in the air, Mercedes was unable to prevent the torrent of cards from pushing her back, making it ever more difficult to finally land a hit on Phantom.

Either way, it didn't stop her from trying. Arrows and cards flew through the air as the fight continued; stray attacks managing to trash whatever they struck. Already it looked as if a tornado had touched down in the courtyard; what with a chunk of the fountain lying in the bushes that had been brutally sliced in two by Phantom's cards.

It seemed as if the thief hadn't planned on the two heroes being in Ereve. For one he was attacking very sparsely which, at least Freud knew, was completely different from his usual aggressive stance.

To make things all the worse, the mage, in all his rush, had not taken the time to grab his staff which was currently sitting in his room. At this point all he had was the clothes on his back! Then, as if answering some sort of silent prayer, the Empress seemed to magically appear by his side, her aide following right behind her.

Aria had a strange look in her eye as she grabbed Freud's hand and stuffed something she was holding into it: the deck of cards he had left on the table. All at once he wanted to hug her and smack himself for forgetting these on the table.

"Sir Freud, stop them. By any means possible." She had the same steely look in her eyes, as if guarding herself from being read like a book. Unfortunately, the fight wouldn't allow for a lengthy conversation about it.

After a particularly fierce clash by the two combatants, a spray of both attacks came flying at him, forcing him to dive for cover, at the same time bringing the Empress with him as he let out an extremely unmanly yelp.

"Freud?!"

Phantom shouted in surprise as he saw perhaps his closest friend nearly be impaled by a storm of arrows and cards. Certainly when he saw the livid elf closing in on his position he had expected the mage to be close by; just not right in the middle of a battle that could be fatal if he messed up.

Mercedes, in all her murderous fury, was still paying attention to what her opponent was saying. Not completely understanding how this thief could know her partner's name, she launched another attack, this one stronger than any she had shown so far.

"Gust Dive!"

Crashing down from her place in the air, Mercedes unleashed 5 bright spears of light to plunge into her enemy while he was somehow distracted by Freud. She had expected him to try to block, she knew he wouldn't make it. What she didn't expect was her own ally, Freud, to throw out a card of his own, a powerful mana barrier being erected around Phantom and blocking her attack.

A terrific amount of noise and light ensued as the attack struck the barrier, sparks of yellow and blue forcing everyone to look away from the point of impact. As the attack finished, the card floated down, drained of magic, and landed right in front of the Elven Queen.

Aria was being assisted by Gileheart; and while the former looked relieved, the latter was rather open in his disappointment that Phantom had survived the attack. Speaking of which, the thief was currently standing on his feet, as if he was still surprised over what had happened. Freud however, only had eyes for one person at the moment.

Freud had a terrible feeling of premonition come upon him as he saw the archer's reaction. Looking back and forth between the card that lay in front of her and the cards that had been attacking her, she finally put two and two together, making the connection that Freud had tried so hard to keep hidden.

When she looked up at him with that face, there wasn't much he could say. How did you even begin to explain something like this, much less in the current situation. He was petrified, standing there in his stupor as the previously cacophonous courtyard filled with a deafening silence.

Mercedes could only manage one word as she stared at him with an utterly despondent look.

"Why?"

~~~~~End~~~~~

A/N

After not updating for half a year, expecting some old readers to still be around would be slightly ludicrous. If any of you are still reading however, then thank you for performing that little miracle. Long story made short, reading the positive comments that you all have left has given me some motivation to write.

Hope you enjoy,

-Lunarfeather