'Skuld and Brain search the Clock Tower for clues on their missing friends.'

Chapter Ten: Investigations

Brain was starting to wish that they'd decided on a time to meet as well as a place. As it was, he was pacing back and forth in the shadow of the Clock Tower, as far away from prying eyes as he could get. Should've asked about that 'intern drama,' he thought, running a hand over his face and trying to ignore his growing anxiety.

He caught the sound of footsteps eventually, and he tried to stuff down his anxiety and relief. "Hey—"

Oh.

Skuld looked significantly more exhausted than she had when he'd last seen her. She didn't stop, like he'd half expected her to; she crossed the distance and tiredly rested her head on his shoulder, breath coming out in a shuddering sigh.

He wrapped her in a hesitant hug. "Everything alright?"

Another shaky breath. "It's just…been a day."

His hug tightened a bit. "You want to talk about it?"

"It's—" She broke off, and then didn't continue.

"You don't have to, if you're not feeling up to it."

Skuld shook her head slowly. "I just—memories."

Brain stayed quiet.

"…I hurt Mimir."

"Mimir?"

"The person who went with us. To explore that new world."

"They're still following you around, huh."

"It's not like that, Brain." A touch of annoyance entered her voice, but it faded with her next words. "Or I guess it kind of is. Frigga wants them to spy, but they—they don't want to."

Don't think that matters to Frigga. He had the sense not to say it—not right now, at least. "So…?"

Skuld didn't say anything for several long, long moments. Eventually she gave a shallow shrug. "It's—they startled me."

He got the feeling that wasn't all it was, but she didn't offer any further information, and he wasn't sure he wanted to press.

Skuld took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, it sounded like she'd tried to force some levity into her voice. "I hope your day's gone better than mine."

("Neither of them need to worry about the possibility of losing another home.")

"About normal." I can tell her about it…later.

"So council problems?"

Brain snorted. "More or less."

Skuld pushed away from him finally, but she braced her hands against his arms, looking almost ready to fall over. "So. Where did you want to look first?"

The exhausted expression on her face made his chest tighten. "We don't have to do this now, if you don't want to." (You can't afford to put this off. What if something happens and you lose your chance?)

(I can't lose my friends again I can't I can't—)

"I'm fine."

You aren't, a part of him said, but he couldn't get the words off his tongue.

(He hated the part of him that was relieved she still wanted to look.)

"We could poke around near the offices," he said, trying not to stare too hard at her exhausted expression. "Frigga's specifically." And then, almost as an afterthought, "Where was the room Frigga was going to show you?"

Skuld turned away without a word, leading him through the hallways. Brain trailed after her. The silence felt uncomfortable, wrapping around his chest as they slipped near-silently back into the Clock Tower. (He wished these halls were different; he wished he was back home, where talking to his friends was as easy as breathing. He wished Ven was here to offer a friendly comment, or Lauriam to gently ask about what was wrong, or Ephemer—

But they weren't. It was just him, and he had to say something.)

"Doubt it was your fault, you know."

Skuld breathed out slowly through her nose. "Brain."

"You said you were startled, right? It's just—"

"Brain."

The words died, and he rubbed the back of his neck, glancing awkwardly away. "Just saying you don't need to beat yourself up over it."

Skuld clenched and unclenched her fists, face twisting like it couldn't decide on an expression. "I know you're trying to help," she said, voice carefully measured, "but I don't want to talk about it right now."

What could he do but honor that?

It felt like their footsteps echoed too loudly in the hallways. It made the silence louder—and despite that, Brain still found himself trying to force down his anxiety. Anyone could come and find us, he thought. If they see us wandering around, they could figure out what we're doing, and—and we can't afford that. But he didn't want to say that—not now, not when his friend was still obviously on-edge, so he bit back the words.

Skuld eventually took them deeper into the Clock Tower—deep enough that it seemed out of the way for most everyday wanderings, but not so deep that Brain hadn't been down here before.

(He'd paced the Clock Tower halls at night, sometimes, before Skuld had given him any sort of reason to leave the place. He'd tried to press the foreign corridors into his memory, but still found himself making wrong turns sometimes. It was…disorienting.)

"This is it," Skuld said, quiet, standing in front of a large door.

Brain took a couple of steps closer, bracing his hand against it with a frown. Intricate carvings wound around the side, curling around what looked to be a large keyhole. Starlight came to his hand with an easy flick of the wrist, and he pointed it at the lock. Light flickered at the end of his blade—but the keyhole didn't react at all.

He couldn't help the sting of disappointment. It wasn't that he hadn't believed Skuld, it was just—well, he'd wielded Master's Defender, once. A part of him had almost hoped that that would resonate somehow.

(It was…a silly hope, really.)

(You were never supposed to wield it in the first place.)

Brain lowered his hand, Starlight disappearing. "So."

"So."

A couple of quiet moments passed, and Brain's shoulders slumped. He ran a tired hand over his face. "We're really going to have to swipe Master's Defender from her, huh? Or at least win over her trust enough to open it." He gave the door a cursory look. "Least we know where it is."

(A small, bitter part of him wondered if maybe this could've all been avoided, if he'd gone along with what Frigga wanted. Maybe he could've had his friends back sooner, and they could've left and not had to—to worry about another end of the world.

It felt like a weight had landed on his shoulders. It might crush him, if he let it.)

"Where's Frigga's office?"

Brain started.

Skuld wasn't looking at him; she was looking at the door, expression unreadable. "That's where we were going next, right?"

Brain watched her a moment, then turned his eyes back to the door. "Yeah," he agreed. "Not much we can do here." He turned, gesturing for Skuld to follow. "Come on."

(Just a little longer. He just had to keep going a little bit longer. Then maybe he could rest.)

-Brain wasn't telling her something.

He'd always had a tendency to keep things to himself. Skuld knew that—he'd been cagey in the beginning, keeping his cards close to his chest. Even up until the end, he'd been dodgy about what he'd known. He'd had the Book of Prophecies the whole time. He'd had it the whole time, and he hadn't—

But the end wasn't his fault, and she knew that.

It didn't mean that the reluctance to talk to her wasn't a problem. It worried her at the best of times, but now it rubbed at fresh wounds. She didn't want to have to worry about him, too; she just wanted to have her friend be present with her. (She missed Ephemer, and felt guilty for it. It was…easier, sometimes, with Ephemer.

But then again, he'd left her behind, again and again and again. Left her permanently, this time. Maybe it wouldn't be any better.)

(What was the point of finding her friends if they just kept leaving her?)

Skuld breathed out slowly, trying to release some of the tension. It didn't help when she glanced at Brain again, noting his stiff shoulders, the way he tried to subtly glance around the corridors, the almost forced casualness of his hands shoved in his pockets. (He's forgetting that I know him, some bitter part of her said. He hasn't changed enough that I can't tell when something's wrong.)

A part of her wanted to stop right here—to corner him and just ask what was wrong. To ask more about what had happened before she'd gotten here—because while she knew he'd had problems with the council, he still hadn't volunteered much of anything about what they were.

It felt a little like everyone was trying to manipulate her, in some ways. That's not fair, she told herself. Brain went through—he lost people, too.

But I wish he'd talk to me about it.

(You aren't talking to him about Mimir, some part of her whispered, and she shoved it roughly down.)

"Going to have to be quiet," Brain murmured, and Skuld wanted to point out that they had been quiet, but she didn't. "We're getting close."

Skuld nodded tightly.

Sneaking through the Clock Tower brought back a strange sense of déjà vu. It was a with a different person, this time, but for similar reasons—trying to hunt down her missing friend. (Or friends, in this case.) It made the whole Clock Tower feel like it had rocked sideways, the halls painted in purple, not gold, and filled her chest with a sense of urgency.

(But it's not the same, some part of her whispered.

It's similar. We didn't know if we'd find Ephemer then. We don't know if we'll find Lauriam and Ven now. We just have to hope.)

This Clock Tower wasn't as empty as the one in Daybreak Town had been, though. Only the Foretellers had been in the Clock Tower before them; it was off-limits to everyone else. Here, the two of them would brush past countless people she didn't know—people who might've worked with the council, or who might've been here for other business. In one room, she saw some people filling out paperwork with help from an unfamiliar face; in another, someone was sorting through filing cabinets, shouting requests for financial reports. Some people walked the hall, sorting through documents, and others carried crates of things she didn't recognize.

She was forced to acknowledge Brain might have a point to his worry when people occasionally stopped to stare; they weren't doing anything in particular to make themselves stand out, but they were still Union Leaders, and apparently that was enough to attract attention, so long as people knew who they were.

(I'm not any different than you. I'm not any better. I don't feel like a legend at all.)

They headed up a set of stairs, and the crowd thinned. Skuld wondered how often Frigga actually got visitors; she wasn't entirely sure what the Head of the Council did, besides oversee the other council members and spy on them. She thought about asking Brain—but he'd said to be quiet. It made her irritation spike briefly, and she stuff it down, because that's not fair he didn't do anything you're just stressed—

Brain slowed, and Skuld slowed with him. They'd entered a long hallway, a door at the far end. Brain moved towards it cautiously, head tilted; after a beat he summoned his Keyblade, pointing it towards the door.

(Starlight. Another thing he hadn't talked much about, beyond the fact that he didn't seem like he wanted Master's Defender back at all. Or maybe he did, but there was some reason that he was reluctant to claim it. Stop, stop, it's not helping to think about that right now—)

The lock clicked, forcing Skuld out of her thoughts. "Didn't think she'd be here," Brain murmured. "But wanted to check."

"How'd you know?"

Brain nudged the office door open lightly and slipped inside. "She spends a while out in the garden," he murmured. "Not that I know why."

She almost brushed it off as something he'd just observed, but there was a bitter sort of undertone that said that maybe he knew for other reasons. It made her skin itch, and she shoved her way into the room to try and ignore it.

Parts of the room were what she'd expected. A large collection of books lined shelves all along one wall. A desk sat nearby, papers neatly organized across the top. Another desk sat in the center of the room, lamp turned off.

Other parts were…different. A Keyblade hung on the wall behind the desk—not one that Skuld recognized, but one that had clearly been used, covered in nicks and scratches, several deep dents in the hilt. A small painting had been pushed nearly out of sight behind some books, but was still lovingly preserved in a frame, depicting what looked like a large family. An old book of legends sat on the far desk, nearly hidden behind the papers, its spine so worn from use Skuld almost worried that it would fall apart in her hands.

She picked it up, anyways, her throat tightening. Carefully she paged through yellowing pages, fingers tracing along underlined sections and scribbled notes.

She froze at the sight of her name, hand hovering above it delicately. The word had been underlined, excited notes written beside it in a child's scrawl, and a distant part of her thought, Oh. When she told me I was her favorite—that wasn't a lie.

Her eyes trailed down the page slowly, drawn in despite herself, something in her chest catching at the sight of her friends' names, too, hanging near hers like ghosts:

'"You do not define our destiny."

("You're saying that because it was written in the Book of Prophecies, it was meant to be? Well, I don't care.")

The Darkness had grown, pulling in bits and pieces of itself from between the cracks in the world. "You cannot escape me," it said, in a voice that was both there and not. "I have followed you through the end of the world, snuffing out your lights one by one. I can hide in the deepest corners of any heart—even in the greatest of lights. I am a part of you, and I demand acknowledgement."

Lauriam, anger not yet spent, stood from the place where his brother had fallen. "Is that why you chose Ventus? Because we wouldn't notice you beneath his light?"

("So…Ven didn't attack Strelitzia. You did. Is that right?")

"Yes. Light is blinding. It can obscure even the harshest shadows, if you choose not to look away from it."

"Darkness obscures things, too." The voice came from nowhere, and everywhere—an illusion, brought by magic nearly forgotten. Its owner had long since disappeared, but the others knew: this was Brain, with one last plan to help them escape.

("You seem pretty desperate to get in our way, showing up like this. I don't know if it's pride or fear, but there's a reason you're still here.")

"You have no plans left, little trickster. You are running on fumes from our chase across the world. And now that I have caught you, I will consume you. Go; I will grant you peace, after a lifetime of terror."

Ephemer—worn and wounded, brave and cunning—stood, Keyblade dragging against the ground. He lifted it as if it weighed as much as the world, but his determination never faltered. "We may be all that's left of the world—and perhaps we'll fall here. But we will fall fighting, if that's what it takes to keep the last Light alive."'

A hand landed on Skuld's shoulder, and she started.

Brain stared at her, something grieved in his expression. He glanced at the book in her hands. "Don't," he said quietly. "It's just going to drive you crazy."

"I—right." Her voice came out broken and reedy, and she scrubbed at her face. Her palms came away wet; she hadn't even realized she was crying. She closed the book, delicately placing it back where she'd found it. "Where do you…?"

Brain still looked a little worried, but he turned away, scanning the room. "The desk probably has something. Or at least, one of them should."

Skuld nodded, hands trailing across the stacks of paper. "I guess I'm already over here."

Brain squeezed her shoulder, looking like he wanted to say something. He didn't, breath leaving in a heavy exhale, expression shifting to something a little more closed-off. He let go of her shoulder and moved to Frigga's other desk, bending down to rummage through the drawers.

Skuld reached for the papers, but it felt like she couldn't really see them; she sorted through them without really looking at the words, her mind still caught on the book. "When did you first realize? About the stories."

Brain was silent, and for a moment, she thought he might not answer. It came as something of a relief when he said, "Some people were performing in the streets. Can't even remember what it was about—just that it took a while to sink in what I was actually seeing." He shrugged, not quite looking at her. "I shouldn't have been surprised, given what the council told me when I got here. Still was."

"What did the council say?"

Brain went quiet.

Skuld set the papers aside, giving up any pretense of trying to look at them. "Brain—"

"About what you'd expect. That they were thrilled I'd finally come back." He shrugged, smiling bitterly. "I was predicted to return around this time. So. I guess they had time to prepare."

And I wasn't, Skuld thought, and the idea still felt strangely jarring, like she'd been left unmoored.

"Find anything over there?"

She wanted to scream at the change in topic, but she bit it back. (We were so close to actually talking about it.) "Not yet," she answered, scooping the papers back into her hands.

Brain hummed an acknowledgement, then made a surprised noise.

"Brain?"

He frowned, working at something underneath the desk. "There's a locked drawer here."

Skuld was there in an instant, Starlight already sparking at her fingertips. "Do you think it's something that'd help us?"

"Don't know. It's something that Frigga doesn't want people to know about, at least." He stood, Keyblade appearing with a flick of his wrist. He pointed the weapon at the drawer—

And then the door opened.

Skuld reacted before she'd really had time to think, shoving Brain down and ignoring his muffled noise of surprise, then stepping in front of the desk.

Frigga looked momentarily surprised to see her there—but only momentarily, the expression quickly smothered by a carefully-calculating smile. "Master Skuld. I didn't think you were the type to sneak around places you shouldn't."

"Then you didn't listen to the stories very well," she snapped, almost without thinking, and if she wasn't looking so closely she wouldn't have caught the slight flinch. She took a deep breath. We need to get out. We can't let her know why we were actually in here. And Brain—I hope she didn't see him. "I wanted to talk to you about something. You weren't here."

"So you unlocked my office door to wait?" Frigga's voice remained light, but her eyes were narrowed in thought. She walked calmly around the room, heading towards her desk, and Skuld's stomach clenched as she stepped in front of her path.

"Mimir." She blurted the word without really thinking about what she was doing, but once it was out, it brought back the same flash of anger she'd felt this morning.

It was enough to give Frigga pause. "Who?"

The anger burned a little hotter. "The new intern for the Exploration Department. You didn't even know their name?"

"Osmin was in charge of them. He recommended them highly, though he neglected to mention what they were called." Frigga eyed her curiously, and Skuld couldn't tell if she was relieved that she wasn't still heading towards her desk or frustrated that she seemed so unconcerned. "I heard you had…a bit of a disagreement."

It felt like she'd been punched. "That's not—I didn't—" The words caught in her throat, drowning behind something sticky and uncomfortable. I didn't mean to. (For a moment, she thought she could see the specter of someone else, shadows trailing across them, and some part of her asked, Didn't you?)

"I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in that," Frigga continued. "I would've hoped that a Union Leader would have more tact."

That stoked something in her chest, the stunned, horrified feeling flaring into something hot and furious. "You only know us from stories," she snapped, shoulders rising with tension. "You don't know anything about what we're like or what we've been through. You didn't have to watch your world end or watch people die or—"

(I left them I left them what was saving them worth—)

"I didn't mean what happened to Mimir." Her anger steeled into something cooler, voice brittle. "It was a reaction. They reminded me of something. But they wouldn't have been in that situation if you hadn't sent them to spy on me." (Wouldn't they? some part of her wondered. You agreed to that spar on your own. They might've still been there.)

A hand brushed hers, wrapping around it and squeezing lightly, and she forced herself not to start. Brain. She couldn't see him; some spell, she guessed, though it wasn't one she was familiar with. Skuld squeezed back, trying to ignore how hard she was shaking.

Frigga was studying her with an expression she couldn't quite identify. It looked, almost, like it might've been angry, or hurt, or something in-between, buried beneath a carefully-curated mask. "Is that what you think?" Frigga asked, but her voice sounded almost off-kilter, like it wasn't the question she really wanted to ask. "That I haven't—" She cut herself off, and with a careful breath her expression became more composed, even if the anger in her eyes hadn't faded. "I wouldn't send someone to spy on you, Master Skuld. I understand—"

"Don't lie to me." (You're ruining your plan, some part of her whispered. You're supposed to make her like you.) "If you're not going to be honest with me, then don't say anything."

Frigga studied her a moment. Skuld didn't know why she was still waiting; Brain wasn't hiding anymore, and they could both get out of here, and then she wouldn't have to deal with this conversation anymore and they could just go back to—to trying to find their friends, maybe, or at least figure out where they could look for them.

"I wouldn't call it spying, exactly. But I did request they report to me about you, yes."

Skuld started.

Brain gripped her hand a little bit tighter.

Frigga studied her, that same unreadable expression still on her face. "I'm not certain how much you've learned about our familial situation, but things are…delicate at the moment. Your presence disrupts things, however much I may not want it to, and I need to know it what ways."

"Then why not just ask me?"

Frigga seemed to take a moment to consider that answer, and Skuld wanted to scream at her for it, but before she could protest the older wielder said, "I know that Master Brain is not fond of me. Nor the rest of the council. I was uncertain what ideas he might be putting in your head."

The anger flared back up. (Brain was gripping her hand so tightly she was surprised Frigga couldn't see it.) "He hasn't said much about you," she said, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice. (Brain's grip loosened, just a little; if she listened, she thought she could catch a shaky exhale.) "He just acts like he's scared of you."

Frigga's eyebrows raised.

Skuld breathed out slowly to try and stem her anger, but even then, her voice shook as she said, "And I think I can guess why. I want to work with you. I don't want to cause problems. You're the one who's been trying to spy on and manipulate us."

Frigga's expression didn't shift. "Your friend has been relatively inflexible regarding his ideas. I can't exactly trust that you won't be the same—and there's much about Scala ad Caelum that neither of you know."

Skuld thought about the book, sitting abandoned on the desk in the corner, and she found herself saying, "I was your favorite, right? Prove that means something."

There—a reaction, Frigga starting, her eyes widening just slightly.

The fight was draining out of her, leaving behind just exhaustion. "Mimir doesn't want to spy, either. Just so you know."

She couldn't—she couldn't be in this room anymore. It felt like the shadows were moving; if she looked at the corners, she thought she could see bits of darkness dripping from the walls. It made the room feel too small, something inside her twisting with the terrified need to leave. She turned and headed towards the door, tugging an invisible Brain behind her.

Frigga didn't say anything to try and stop her.

-Brain…wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. He let Skuld drag him along, silent, invisibility spell still carefully in place, eyes glued to her back like that could help him figure out the complicated emotions flitting through his chest.

Frigga…had been honest with her. At least, as far as he could tell. Why couldn't she have just been honest with me? some part of him hissed, and a bitter, more cynical part answered, Because you weren't her favorite. Apparently.

He stuffed the bitter thought down as far as it would go, and it left room for a different one: If you hadn't been here, maybe Skuld wouldn't have had to deal with Frigga the same way you did.

(You just keep failing your friends, don't you?)

The invisibility spell dropped without Brain really thinking about it; he didn't realize he'd stopped until Skuld came to an abrupt halt, nearly stumbling, despite still holding onto his hand. She didn't say anything; just took a steadying breath, like she was trying to keep from screaming, and half-glanced back towards him.

He should—say something, he thought. But he stood there, struggling to figure out what, and what came out was: "Maybe we shouldn't be seen together. If we want Frigga to trust you."

Skuld stiffened. Her grip on his hand tightened. "Brain—"

It felt like once he'd started he couldn't stop, the steady pounding of guilt buried beneath something colder and more logical. (It's your fault, it's your fault, it was always your fault—) "She doesn't trust me—but she might trust you. You got an honest answer, and you probably won't get that again if she thinks you're allied with me."

"Allied with—"

"It wouldn't be hard to engineer something to make her think we'd had a falling out. She'd probably try to worm her way in immediately. It'd only be until we find—"

Skuld released his hand—and then a moment later, she'd grabbed the lapels of his jacket, dragging him closer and cutting him off. "No, Brain. I don't—who do you think that's helping?"

Brain…thought he should have a response to that, probably, but it got lodged somewhere in his throat, drowning behind an apology.

"I don't want to lose another friend." Her voice broke and her face contorted. "But I feel like I am because you won't tell me anything."

"Skuld—"

"What happened with the council? Why don't you want to take Master's Defender back? What is—why aren't you—" She broke off, shaking her head furiously.

Cautiously he rested a hand against her shoulder. "Okay," he agreed, feeling slightly dazed. "Okay. We'll think of something else." He swallowed thickly, and it did nothing to drown out the guilt that felt like it was going to smother him. "I'm sorry."

Skuld breathed out a shaky breath, leaning her forehead against his shoulder. "I just want to go home."

It struck something in his chest, the grief pulsing like an open wound. He hugged her carefully, swallowing it back. Not yet, not yet, you still have things to do, you don't have time— "We can't yet," he said, voice hollow. "But we will. We'll find them."

Skuld sighed; he got the impression that wasn't quite what she was looking for, but she didn't protest. She pulled away, hesitating like there was something more she wanted to say. Finally she turned, heading down the Clock Tower hallways.

Brain started to follow, but—paused. Something that felt a little like a warning nudged the back of his mind, his Keyblade humming at the ready, a hiss almost whisper-like trickling through his ears. But when he looked around, he saw nothing; the only thing out of the ordinary was what looked like discolored water, trickling down a pillar. Still, it left him feeling on-edge, and he hurried to catch up with Skuld and tried to ignore his worry.

I really like thinking about different legends about the Union Leaders and how things might've changed over the years, but when it comes time to actually write them, it's surprisingly difficult. (Partly because I keep trying to make sure the style works…) I'm usually happy with the result, but still.