Rift
Another conspiracy was in the works. For the first time in weeks, Ike slept through an entire night undisturbed. Meaning Cordelia had forgotten to wake him for his watch. A suspicious and very much uncharacteristic forgetfulness to say the least. He appreciated the extra hours of sleep as much as the next guy, and Ares hadn't fallen into another sword-induced fit, so that was a plus, but Ike could still kick himself for oversleeping.
When a dry throat finally did chase him from the coat he had folded into a pillow, Lucina had already pulled one of her usual stunts. She had befriended a village Ike didn't even know existed, had learned the right path through the tunnels, and handed him the reins of his fully saddled horse before he could even yawn a "good morning".
Damn her.
Lucina took over Ares' lamp and the lead, and they made steady progress despite the uneasiness of their horses. Only one stretch proved tricky. Here the tunnel ground had fallen away into a natural cave below, where rocks spiraled into the most ridiculous pillars, dozens of feet tall. Another nasty magic trick like with the tree from Serenes' great hall. Narrow wooden planks bridged the gap in the tunnel, just wide enough for one horse led by the reins. The planks held, but Ike still urged the others to hurry up. Like a forest of Pheraen spearheads, the rock spirals seemed to only wait for him to lose his footing and stake himself on them.
And then, finally, a glimpse of sunlight. Crazy to think he would miss the overwhelming smell of the spruce trees and even the sky above in all its cracked absurdity.
The lines tearing through the blue had deepened. Only Ike refused to see them.
Validar's mages were busy somewhere else and allowed the four of them to rest at a stone pavilion standing forgotten between ivies and juniper bushes, a short ride away from Serenes' tunnels. Ike would have preferred a straight charge against Validar's tower. Sitting around gave him too much time to listen for the rattle of armor amidst the rustle of leaves. Ares earned himself more than one glare from Ike just for existing – and for keeping his one hand so close to Mystletainn at all times. He discussed something with Cordelia about a pond by some lightning-struck pine that would be their last stop before Validar's tower.
With little success, Ike tried to roll the tension out of his shoulders. If the Black Knight was out there… But that was the great question, wasn't it?
The pavilion offered little in terms of cover. Bad choice for a rest spot. The basalt roof had either caved in at some point or had never been intended, and ivy had conquered the pillars as it had conquered the surrounding trees. Of the gray stone, little peeked through, but two pedestals where once statues had sat still rose from the moss-eaten tiles.
Lucina wandered between the pillars, and the patchwork of branches serving as the pavilion's roof cast ethereal patterns over her face. She seemed to belong here, a beautiful statue made flesh for a short while. Ike gritted his teeth at the thought.
"It's so different from Naga's shrines," Lucina said.
"For Dualism," Ike said. "Most of the ones I've seen use fast-growing trees and bend them into the shape of these pillars. I guess the tree in Serenes worked like that too."
"So a place where Naga and Grima are held in balance…"
"It's just a bunch of stone."
"Yes, I'm sure you're right." The carvings on the pillars captured Lucina's attention for a moment longer before she turned back to Ike. "Was your father religious?"
"Don't know. He never talked about gods or prayers, so I guess not."
"Then he probably never told you about Naga's champion either. Or what he turned into." She lowered her eyes, hesitated before she continued. "Did you know?"
Ike kicked a pebble into the juniper bushes crouching at the pavilion's foot. "We should cross off a few miles between us and Validar while it's still bright."
He thought that settled the debate, but Lucina rushed past him before he managed more than a step and locked his eyes with hers. "During the ball on my birthday, I asked you for honesty as my present. You wanted to tell me something on the balcony. What was it?"
Ike took an involuntary step back. How could she still remember that? And for how long had she planned to confront him about this?
"It's silly now," Ike said. "Nothing important."
"It's important to me."
He could tell her. Gods, the look in her eyes could convince him to lay out everything he was at her feet, all the deepest thoughts that tossed him around at night, all the murders he had committed, and all the dreams he pocketed close to his chest. He could tell her that he had honestly and seriously wanted to ask her for a dance. Even though he had never learned the steps. Even though she had had a platoon of suitors lined up for her and had probably despised the shape of her dancing shoes by then.
Ike could tell her all that.
A flock of birds dashed for the sky. The forest fell silent. And through that silence, all too clearly, rang the sound of twigs snapping.
Ike's first look went to Ares. Mystletainn's bare steel shone in his hand, but his movements lacked all traces of madness. Lucina's hand shot not towards Falchion but the clothed package with the Binding Shield. Ike drew Ragnell and shifted in front of her. Whatever had scared the birds was coming their way.
Then it broke through the thicket. Not the Black Knight but rather a girl too thin for the poorly made bow on her shoulder. She squinted as though blinded by the cloudy sky, ran without looking until she made out Lucina. If not for Ike blocking her path with Ragnell, she would have dropped at Lucina's feet and cling to her cape.
"Astrid," Lucina said, but the girl didn't give her a chance to ask questions.
"You have to help us. Please! It's the village. It's been found."
"What happened?" Cordelia asked. Ike thought to hear a genuine sliver of concern in her voice.
"I don't know." Tears dropped down the girl's cheeks. "It all happened so fast. I was just practicing, and then there was screaming, and the rocks hiding the village entrance were gone. I saw one of the tailor's children fall. We're being attacked."
Ike increased his grip on Ragnell. "By who?"
"I don't know. I ran after you as fast as I could. I didn't see… There was a shadow with a sword."
Ares glared in the direction from which the girl had come. "The Black Knight."
The blood roared in Ike's ears. A spruce twig snapped somewhere.
"Please, you have to do something." Since she couldn't get to Lucina, the girl flung herself at Ares' cape. "You all have swords, you can save us."
"Serenes lies behind us," Ares said. "We would give up all the distance we managed today and end up no closer to Validar's tower. If the Black Knight is attacking the village, there would be nothing left for us to save."
Ike remembered Serenes from his father's map, better than he remembered the empty halls from last night. On the yellowed parchment nailed to his study wall, the dot with the nametag had seemed tiny. Ike's own village hadn't even earned itself a dot. But his father had marched against the Black Knight to save the dusty huts from his armored fist all the same.
"Easy enough for you to say." Ike marched forward to face Ares. "Weren't you the one who said you wanted to free Tellius from the Black Knight? This is your perfect shot."
"Not without the mythical weapon."
"Oh, come on, this again? We have Naga's spheres. We can make use of their powers. And why not? We have four of them, one for each of us. We can destroy him, once and for all."
"You can't use them," Lucina said.
"Says who?" Ike asked. Couldn't she see that this was their way to win, his way to finally rid himself of the image of his dead father in the dust of the road?
"Their power is divine. It isn't meant for mortals."
"Did Naga tell you that?"
"Hector paid with his life and those of his family for his attempt to control one of the spheres. You saw what happened to Ursula. You yourself used one of the spheres…"
"And you know what? It felt good. I could have reduced Linus to ashes. The whole Black Fang wiped out by a thought, and Clarisse wouldn't have lost her hand. If we could use that against the Black Knight—"
"The spheres are meant for Naga."
Ike made a step towards Lucina. As an answer, she clutched the Binding Shield closer to her chest.
"Naga, Naga, Naga," he said. "With you, it's always about Naga. When will you finally start making your own decisions?"
"Every decision I'm making is for the wellbeing of Archanea's people."
"People who don't care about you. A whole bunch of people who don't care much about your goddess either. How can you be their queen when you're always running around on the orders of some obscure goddess who whispers into your ear once in a double moon when it suits her? This is about the wellbeing of Archanea's people? Well, there's one of your people, and she's asking for your help." Ike pointed at the girl.
Lucina shook her head. "This isn't right."
"You were at their village. You talked with these people last night! Does this matter nothing?"
"Naga—"
"I'm not talking to Naga!"
Ike lunged for the package in Lucina's arms. She was too startled to put up a fight, the cloth sailed to the ground, and the golden Binding Shield shone in Ike's hand. Something about it was wrong, but the blood thumped too angrily in his veins to give it another thought.
"You can't use it," Lucina said.
"You can't order me around."
Ike spun around and headed for his horse, but Mystletainn blocked his way. Ares raised the sword just high enough to prove his point.
"I cannot let you leave with the spheres either," he said. "How long you endure matters little, in the end you would only hand the spheres to Zelgius. And then he will be truly undefeatable. I won't let that happen."
Empty threats. Ike marched forward with the intention to shove Ares out of his way, but Mystletainn came down fast. Ike raised Ragnell at the last moment, the draft of his opponent's sword slapped his face. Bare steel, black and gold met.
Alright. If Ares wanted a fight, Ike would deliver.
He pushed forward, hammered Ragnell against Mystletainn. Everyone always stood against him. And he would answer like he always did, with steel.
A fast swing from Ares; Ike held up the Binding Shield. A clang like a hundred bells almost rendered him deaf, and if a lightning bolt had struck down into the shield, the shockwave rippling up his arm could not have been worse, it nearly ripped him from his body, clawing with massive fangs. For a moment the pavilion and the forest all basked in unnatural light.
Then Ike recovered his senses and pounced at Ares. Again and again and again for good measure, he hacked at his opponent. And he was winning. Ares took a step backwards. Then another one. And it felt good.
"Stop, both of you!"
Ike didn't want to hear. Even if it was Lucina's voice.
"Ike, please!"
Why, why, why? Why was it so easy for her to direct his hand? Three letters, only his name, and Ike felt himself stepping away from Ares. Ragnell pointed towards the ground. But someone else had to have moved it there because Ike had never given a conscious order. His heart still pounded in his throat with battle-thirst. Then why did he stand unmoving as one of her thousand attentive soldiers while Lucina plucked the Binding Shield from his hand?
Their eyes met, and her gaze spelled sorry, but it was all wrong.
"I've made my choice," she said. Was her voice soft or stern? Ike couldn't even tell. "This path leads to Validar's tower. I have to unite the spheres, you know that."
Ike shook his head. "What's wrong with you? That village needs your help now!"
"If I don't hurry, Sothis might die. This is my only—"
"What does it matter when these villagers are being slaughtered?" he yelled.
He wanted to shake her. Even as he stood right in front of her, she was slipping away from him, into herself or some other hell, while he argued with an empty husk. "I turned a blind eye when you went after the Lightsphere instead of the firewall," he said. "I turned another blind eye when you let Ares slice through that village because of how essential he is to get you to that last sphere. I'm sick of this blindness. I'm done. You can do whatever it is your goddess whispers into your ear at night. I'll fight the Black Knight, without the spheres if I have to."
Lucina broke back through the husk; her eyes widened. Stumbling, she reached for Ike's arm, but he marched towards his horse all the same.
"Please, Ike." She caught his sleeve, tried again when he shook her off. "What if he defeats you like he defeated your father? What if you die? I can't—"
"You can't what? You can't allow me go? You can't allow me to throw my life away? No, everything is always yours to command. Life or death, you get to decide."
"I'm trying to do what's best—"
"Did you tell that to Frederick too?"
That had hit deep. Lucina's face crumbled. She gave up on her attempts to hold Ike back.
He in turn didn't waste a second look at anyone else. Cordelia called after him, the first time in months she used his name with an emotion other than detached cold. It convinced him no better to stay than the rustle of spruce trees, rubbing their hands at the fight to come. He shoved the girl onto his horse, ignored her yelp, only snarled, "Show me the way back."
The dense forest air pressed against him, and he mounted. If Lucina called his name one more time, he would stop the whole act. If she reached out for him one more time, he would drop the reins, tell her about the dance they had never shared, and forget all about the Black Knight.
But she didn't reach out, her transformation back into a statue was complete, so Ike didn't pause either. His horse dashed the way they had come. The clangs of the Black Knight's sword already echoed in his ears, louder with every stride. Half of his thoughts he left behind, with her.
It was okay. He wouldn't need them for this fight. And afterwards… there probably wouldn't be an afterwards.
Notes: A shorter chapter this time, but again, I think it works better by itself. As for an update to the email alert and view count issue, all I can say is that there is no update. Oh well. Don't hate the player, hate the universe.
Next time, Lucina and Ares will make a foray into the belly of the beast, better known as Validar's tower.