Chapter 9: At Long Last
The only thing left to do was put out the fire and pack their bedding since they opted to eat on the road. Once they were on their way, the twins listened attentively as she told them the truth about the kidnapping.
The grass was wet with delicate beads of dew and the birds sang cheerful melodies while the sun cast the east into glorious colors of gold and pink before it rose. Every so often along the rolling path they would catch sight of Izoold ahead.
"I still can't believe he's been hating for your family for years and years," Leo said after she was done. "He's worked side-by-side with Emil dozens of times and never given even the ghost of a hint that he didn't like the guy."
"He must have excellent self-control," Marille said somewhat sarcastically.
"Wait, I remember now! Mom and Dad were really confused about how Genji said he was unable to see your memories. He studied the Munin arte for over ten years from Old Kioku, and he was her only student aside from Wasureru. They trusted him to know his business and he'd virtually mastered the arte, which means having Kioku or Wasureru use it on you too would be a serious insult to him."
"Yup. Sounds like his cover was watertight. No one else would check your memories after him," his brother agreed.
Marille shook her head. "But he said he couldn't see them anyway. Why would it matter if anyone else tried?"
"Because they would know he messed with your mind. Even if they can't see what happened, they can still sense the handiwork," Geo explained. "But what about all that weird stuff you saw with the lights?"
The girl slowed to a stop, staring at the distant horizon where the sea met the sky in a haze of blue. "I sort of remember it apart from the kidnapping. After I got home, it happened whenever I wasn't around Dad. I think maybe that's why he took me to the Temple of Darkness; it didn't bother me after that."
"Why? What could Tenebrae do for you?"
She resumed walking, telling them what she remembered from her dream the previous morning. Unconsciously she rubbed her side.
Leo placed his hand on her arm. "Don't fret over it. Chances are good that it's the reason you aren't as strong as you ought to be."
Marille dropped her gaze, allowing her blonde tresses to hide the growing redness in her cheeks. "You guys knew?"
Geo nodded. "Ever since that encounter we all had with some basilisks last year. You used an attack that completely wiped you out even though you learned it a couple years before that. The way you tried to hide how much it weakened you tipped us off."
"And if your mana is somehow restricted, then it could cause a stagnating effect which might be responsible for it," the other boy pointed out. "Still, there's some other solution, isn't there?"
"It didn't seem like my dad or Tenebrae knew for sure back then, but what if there isn't one? What does that mean for me?"
She didn't appear so much distraught as confused. Not knowing everything was probably good in its own way. Had she known, she most likely would have trained with less of a sense of failure haunting her, but at the same time she would have also been much less carefree.
She couldn't deny that knowing she was responsible for damage done to the door in the Ginnungagap was difficult to come to terms with—after all, it was still novel information. But there was now a feeling of wariness she couldn't quite ignore. It wasn't pleasant to be afraid of herself, even in the smallest sense of the word. The last thing she wanted was to think about something like that when she had no confirmation of what was true, so it was a great relief to her when they topped the last rise and found Izoold a matter of minutes away, the busy fairgrounds directly in front of them.
Booths were still in the process of being set up, most of the spots only having been staked out earlier that morning. Hammers banged and piles of wooden planks were being whittled away as men made frames. Several groups of women were busy sewing together large sheets of colored cloth which would eventually be tents. Carts full of supplies choked what ought to have been open paths between the rows of slowly-forming vendor stalls, and groups of children darted under and over everything in games of chase while their parents worked.
They were just squeezing past another stack of crates filled with dried jerky and fresh vegetables when Leo's face brightened and he tugged Marille's sleeve. She looked up and immediately caught sight of the source of his interest.
"Now?"
"Oh, come on!" he begged. "It'll just take one minute. I'll be really quick and we'll get to the outpost hardly any later."
Knowing the amount of time it wasted didn't make her any less reluctant, but knowing how much Leo wanted to try it made more of an impression. Her resigned expression was all that was needed to send him trotting over to one of the only open booths in the entire place.
"I am the king of ring-tossing!" he gloated, setting down a couple gald and receiving three rings in return.
Half a minute later, with his rings neatly snagged on two ducks and an orange conch shell, Leo stood staring at his prize with more than a little distaste. The bag full of lemon gels sat there, untouched.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Well," his brother said, looking over, "you know what they say: when life gives you lemons, make lemon gels."
A half-crazed glint appeared in his eyes and the vein in his forehead was nearly popping out at the insidious notion that he settle for this unforgivable insult.
"Oooooohhhh no! I don't want to make lemon gels. If life gives me lemons, I'm making life take them back. I don't want your stupid lemons! What am I supposed to do with those? I'm going to make life rue the day it thought it could give Leonard Irving lemons. Life, do you you know who I am?! I'm the guy who's gonna burn your house down—with the lemons! I'm going to get Genis to attach an Eruption spell your crummy lemons so that I can burn your house to the ground!" he finished with sadistic glee.
Marille and Geo had backed off several steps and everyone else in the vicinity had stopped working to stare. The man at the ring-tossing booth was looking a little nervous, understandably. He pulled a toy from beneath the counter and held it out.
"Would you rather have a stuffed lusca?"
Leo blinked, a little confused, then shrugged. "Sure."
He accepted the new prize with more grace and they started back toward Izoold proper.
Not long afterward, though, Geo pulled up short. "I didn't think about it before, but we may not be allowed to show our outpost to you. We need express permission from Mom or Dad to share their locations."
"Why? I won't blab about them," she said with a trace of irritation.
"Do you know where the one in Luin is?"
Marille looked surprised. "You have one in my hometown?"
Knowing where it was might have prevented her from wasting so much time going to Craosolt. She might have even been able to stay home with her mother if she'd known there was a local agent communicating with Sheena.
Leo agreed with his brother. "See? You weren't entrusted with that information, so we can't be sure if it's alright now. Why don't you just stay here for now and we'll pass on the message ourselves? Don't worry, we know what to say. She'll probably get it sometime tonight and she can be here by morning if she leaves immediately. She always keeps the swiftest mounts reserved for herself and Dad in case of emergencies like this."
Geo picked up a stray board and placed it on two empty crates for a makeshift bench then he pulled the blanket out of his pack, padding the seat. "Look. You can wait for us in style."
"If this is what you consider 'style' then I'm very underwhelmed."
A second later the stuffed lusca was there too and Marille couldn't hold back the smile. "Okay, okay. I'll wait until you come back. But don't take long."
She took a seat beside the crowned mollusk and watched the twins hurry off.
Leo has gained the title Lemon Hater
You like your house? Then you know what not to do if you want it to stay standing.
A ninja entered a store and made some smalltalk with the owner, in the process tapping a certain shelf several times. The shopkeeper gave an almost indiscernible nod and went over to distract his other customer, allowing the man to slip behind a curtain unnoticed. He went into the back room and opened a near-invisible door into a lower area where another member of Mizuho sat at a writing desk.
"Genji, what brings you to Izoold?"
"Relief job. Sheena-sama felt my skill might be useful here in case of trouble during the celebration."
The other man nodded, no suspicion touching his thoughts. "I can understand that. I haven't been home in ages as it is. See you sometime soon, I hope."
Genji was only there an hour or less when the Irving twins entered. For a moment they just stared, then they tried to run back the way they'd come. But all Mizuho outposts have safeguards in case of discovery. The door swung shut and locks secured it the second Genji hit the switch and the boys spun back to face him, blades drawn.
"I respect your parents too much to harm you two," he said in a low voice, "but I will not hesitate to fight if I am forced into it. Now, where is that demon's child?"
"Emil is a summon spirit, not a demon," Leo said, crossing his swords the way he always did before a battle.
"And who is it that taught you the difference? What proof did they have that demons and summon spirits are not the same? Even if there is a distinction, the fact remains that they are more similar to one another than to us. For that creature to pretend to be human..." Genji's eyes grew hard and his hands clenched into fists as the thought made him livid with rage.
Meanwhile Geo had stepped apart from his brother so that they could have enough room to fight without hindering each other. "You tried to hurt Marille before. We're going to protect her this time."
Genji refocused on them, sliding his fingers lightly along the hilt of the katana on his back. "You can try."
An unseen signal passed between the boys and they darted forward simultaneously. The ninja let the hint of a smirk touch his lips just before he drew his weapon.
%*%
So the Castagnier girl sat on the bench just thinking now that she didn't have the luxury of distraction.
What point was there in Genji kidnapping her only to pretend to rescue her? It seemed like he was already well into the confidence of Sheena and Lloyd, but he had deliberately chosen that time to restore her to her parents. Something convinced him to change his original plan. The only thing that had happened was that she called monsters without meaning to, but how would that make any difference to Genji?
He'd called her 'that creature's spawn with a human form'... Even if she could do strange things, that didn't mean she wasn't human. But his real complaint must be with her father, otherwise he wouldn't call him a demon.
"So you know," the voice came from directly behind her.
Marille leaped up and twisted around, every muscle tense. Genji stood there, arms crossed and appearing fairly unconcerned. His mask had been pulled down so that she recognized him beyond the shadow of a doubt as the same man from eight years ago.
"But you don't know everything. On the other hand, I do. You made it so convenient for me by telling those boys all about your memories. They won't be in a position to interfere with us for quite some time. Now I have a better idea of what I need to do—and another reason to hate him."
"You're the one who poisoned Mom," she rasped. She could hardly speak any louder because her mouth had gone completely dry. "Why? What did she ever do to you?"
"It is a far kinder fate than having to suffer through the deaths of her husband and daughter. Even if his affections are a pretense, I knew from the first moment I saw them together that hers were sincere."
"So you want to kill me," she said, swallowing hard. "Can I at least ask why?"
"I suppose if anyone deserves an explanation it's you since you are a victim in your own right," he admitted, though she saw no visible sign of sympathy. "Half-elves are creatures of two different worlds, but demons and humans are from different planes of existence. What does that make you?"
A slap in the face couldn't have shocked her more and would have hurt less. Not once had Marille ever considered the true implications of her parents' differing natures. She'd always felt human because she'd been raised as though she were a human, and although occasionally she noticed some differences between herself and others, they didn't seem to matter much. But Verius had said some part of Ratatosk was in her... What did that really mean?
"Immortal creatures don't see things the way humans do. They don't even experience emotions the same way. There is only one reason your father," he spat the word with contempt, "would marry any human, and that is so he could have a child. What use would some half-human demon be? Trust me. Whatever his plans, you have only ever been an experiment to him."
Anger flashed in her ice blue eyes and she drew the Black Sword. "You almost had me fooled there. But I know my father well enough that I can never doubt his love for me or Mom. Whatever beef you have with my family, it's all based on a lie."
"That's more true than you know, but he's the liar."
Marille saw the telltale glow along the edge of his hand and instantly slashed out, forcing him back a couple steps. "Don't touch me!"
A confident half-smile crossed his face as the glow faded. "All right fine, but I don't have to use Munin to defeat a little brat like you. The alternative might just be a little more interesting."
He let out three notes of an ear-piercing whistle and Marille caught the noise of screams along the edge of the fairgrounds. People started rushing past, all calling out that monsters were attacking. She continued to face the ninja, not wanting to turn her back on him for a second, so she didn't see them approaching until they slowed to a stop about ten yards away.
"Is that Duchess?!" she gasped.
The old scar on the orion's foreleg was unmistakable, but the way it snarled at her without a hint of recognition was startling. Roxy was there too with another fenrir, nothing affectionate in its black face. The other dozen monsters were all vipers, red ogres and treants.
"I found them this morning making their way towards Izoold. They came to see my mount, Darkcrest there, and I decided to use Munin to make them into my personal attack dogs. They remember nothing except me. I've been collecting these others over the past few weeks as a sort of preparation for today."
Genji stood there arrogantly, waiting to see what she would do. It was amazing how quickly everyone had fled; everything had been abandoned and she stood alone against fifteen hostile monsters and their puppeteer. Unwilling to try running but also afraid to make the first move, Marille could only think of one thing that might work, but she'd never tried it herself; only observed her mother using it. Could she do the attack at all? Losing now meant her death. She was desperate.
The ninja abruptly made a quick hand signal and every monster converged on her at once. Left with no choice, she began to chant the words Marta had used countless times and was rewarded with a flash of heat in every limb along with an intense burning in her side. Raising her sword high and feeling an incredible lightness in her feet, she leaped, the arte encircling her with invisible threads of mana as Marille connected with the element of Light.
Radiant Roar turned the sun's rays into a deadly weapon and the monsters bellowed, hissed or howled with pain. Those that didn't collapse slunk back warily, with the exception of Duchess who hardly seemed bothered at all. Genji himself had dropped to one knee during the attack, but he didn't appear incapacitated.
As she landed back on her feet Marille stumbled, dropping the sword as she tried to keep her balance. The realization that she had just used magic dawned on her for a split second before the orion that had once been so friendly bowled her over. She lay face-down in the dirt with no strength to resist, the growling wolf pressing one huge paw on her back.
"That might have actually succeeded if you could've withstood the toll an arte like that takes on the body. You should not have been able to do that, though. I can't help wondering what exactly it is that's been holding you back."
His dark boots came closer, crunching on the gravel, and she could hear the scrape of his katana being drawn. He knelt down beside her and she gave an involuntary "Hey!" as he ripped the bottom of her shirt, but then she stiffened as the tip of his blade pressed against her side.
"Genji, please don't!" she begged, hoping he would listen.
"Well, why not find out? I hate for anyone to die with a burning question on their mind."
Before she could point out that it was a poor excuse for torturing a helpless girl, he stabbed. Pain gripped her side with red talons and if Duchess hadn't been pinning her to the ground, Marille would have doubled over. As it was, all she could do was lie there, digging her fingers into the soil and uttering short, pain-soaked moans with what little breath she had.
"I never would have expected this."
Every muscle was taut as stretched wire so that the Castagnier girl had to force her tear-filled eyes open. Genji had stepped away, his hand bloody as he held up something to the light, turning it slightly to see it from every angle. For a few seconds she had no clue what it could be, but then the ninja rubbed it with his thumb and a glint of gold became visible through the red.
It was a Sorcerer's Ring.
A/N: If anyone knows where I stole Leo's rant about lemon gels, I'll officially give you a platoon of dancing cyber-mice.