Koharu

According to Kirito, Castle Galey is three floors tall, sculpted out of a circular basin six hundred feet across. As they stood on the north side of the castle, they walked through the gate to a C-shaped courtyard running east to west. Elven guards and servants occupy the courtyard, but Koharu and her party's attention is on the large spirit tree that stands at the center. The hardwood spirit tree is the mechanism of transportation both elven sects used to traverse floors. For an area that had no plant life aside from cacti and a lack of water., it was amazing to see the tree filled with green leaves and surrounded by a crystalline spring.

Kirito was explaining the background of the spirit trees, how Castle Galey's had had an abnormally long lifespan in comparison to others when Koharu heard their names called out by a familiar voice. It was a brown-skinned, purple-haired female knight in black-steel armor and a scimitar on her hip. Koharu and Asuna greeted her first, the three women embracing for a couple of seconds, followed by the knight greeting Kizmel and a shy Kirito with hugs of their own. Only Jaymes didn't seem appreciative of the hug, as he awkwardly received the hug but didn't return it.

Kizmel, their beautiful companion in the "Elf War" questline and member of the Pagoda Knights Brigade of Lyusula. "Kizmel, it's good to see you."

"It is indeed, Asuna and Kirito. I'm glad you've come...It must have been difficult to cross this arid land on foot," she said.

Asuna beamed. "It was nothing, knowing we'd see you at the end."

"I'm happy to hear you say that. Please, come inside and clean off the dust of your journey...but only after you've paid your respects to the liege of the castle. I'm sorry to delay your rest..."

"No, if we're going to enjoy the hospitality here, we must show our appreciation,"

"I am of common birth," Kizmel says with relief as the six warriors exit the chambers of Count Melan Gus Galeyon. "Since receiving the duty of recovering the hidden keys, I have had more interactions with nobles, but it is not something one gets used to."

Count Galeyon is the large and hearty master of Castle Galey, but unlike Viscount Yofilis, he was a run-of-the-mill NPC. There's nothing noteworthy about him in Koharu's mind besides the three sub-quests and teh main quest he assigned the humans on. Koharu can't say she shares the same feeling with Kizmel.

"Ha-ha, I'm a commoner too," Kirito replies. "I get nervous around important people. I don't know about Asuna and the others, though."

Mito giggles and points to Asuna. "So she's prim and proper, all right."

"Hey!" Asuna jabs Mito in the side. "I'm an ordinary citizen, just as you are!"

"As ordinary as Mister Red and Black over there. He looked to be in his element."

Jaymes, who Koharu did notice also was extremely calm (and bored) in the talk with Count Galeyon, shrugs and crosses his arms. "Well... I wouldn't say I'm a commoner. Anyway, where to next?"

"Come." Kizmel leads them down the windowless hallway of the castle's third floor to the west wing to a single guest chamber. Upon entry, Asuna and Mito swoon over the elegant furniture, removing their equipment and plopping down on a long, wood-frame curved sofa, sinking into the plush cushions. Kizmel and Koharu join them in a more ladylike manner after removing their weapons. Kirito rids himself of his sword and drops into an armchair across from the couch, while Jaymes lands against the nearby wall, sheathed sword planted on the floor like a terrorizing bodyguard.

Someone's on edge.

"Listen, Kizmel," Kirito starts, his face taking on a serious expression.

"What is it?"

"Well...are there any other humans aside from us at Castle Galey, do you know?"

The smiles of the human girls fade upon the inquiry, but Kizmel isn't affected. She shakes her hed and says, "No, there aren't."

"Oh, I see. Sorry for being weird."

"But I have heard of other human swordsmen assisting the people of Lyusula. Perhaps you will come across them someday." Kirito, who had reached for a star-shaped fruit after his worries were relieved, pauses before his first bite. Asuna, Mito, and Koharu share a glance with each other, then Koharu's eyes dart to her partner. He was the one who said the possibility was unlikely, if not certain, that Morte and "Joe" could enter Castle Galey due to Joe being part of ALS and Morte's affiliation at the time being ALS. But that was before another factor was calculated - Annihilator and Devesta.

Are they part of DKB or solo players who picked up the quests on their own?

Furthermore, Morte slew Lord Cylon without hesitation. The Dark Elves of Castle Galey are a greater task - Koharu has no doubts that her party would make it out of this castle alive in a fight. Morte's little group statistically stands no chance, but Koharu has a athlete's mind. Underdogs do pull through.

"Then answer this, Kizmel." Jaymes walks over and sets one of the throwing picks in front of Kizmel on the table while Kirito sets two more picks and the dagger beside them. Kizmel's face tightens as Jaymes continues. "Last night, four humans attacked us with these weapons -"

"You were attacked?" says an appalled, standing Kizmel. "Was it just attempted robbery, or..."

"No, they wanted us dead," Jaymes says bluntly before anyone else can lessen the blow.

"...My word!" incensed, Kizmel grabs her displaced saber off the side of the outer edge of the couch and shouts, "If I were there, I would have lopped their heads from their shoulders! My friends, you must not return to your human towns! You must stay with me."

"No, no, no, we're fine," Kirito assures Kizmel, getting her to sit down. He points to the weapons again. "We managed to drive them off without suffering much dam...er, any wounds. But they're very persistent, so there's no question they're still out to get us. The problem is the weapons they were using...Especially these, which are poisoned throwing needles. Can you tell us anything about this, Kizmel?"

Receiving one of the picks from Kirito, Kizmel sets her saber aside and holds the pick up in the light from the lattice window of the far wall. "...This isn't steel. It was fashioned from the spike of some living thing."

"The dart comes from the spine of a dragon named Shmargor, who defeated by the Fallen Elf general N'ltzahh," Koharu informs, remembering the text from memory.

"N'ltzahh...Shmargor?!" The color drains from her dark face as she rises up and almost throws the pick out her hand. She regains her composure before doing so, then places the pick back on the table. She gives the humans a look, then begins a story in a dutiful tone.

"...Shmargor is an evil dragon spoken of in elven legend. Long in the past, when the elves and humans and dwarves still lived on the earth, a wicked little snake snuck past the priestess and climbed the black Holy Tree to take a bite of the single fruit that grew at the tip of one of its branches. The snake gained eternal life, but it was cursed so that everything that entered its mouth turned to poison. Every time it ate, the snake suffered and died, only to come back to life through the fruit's holy power. After several centuries, the snake had evolved into a massive, ugly poison dragon that attacked towns and villages. But the human hero Selm defeated it, and it fled to the land of ice far to the distant north..."

As Kizmel's voice fades, Koharu and her friends face each other. Kizmel's voice was rich and pleasant that if the story behind it wasn't a sorrowful tale, she's sure most of them would have stood and applauded her.

"...Hmm, that's kind of a sad story...I doubt the snake wanted to bite the Holy Tree's fruit out of malice."

"The fruit of the Holy Tree is said to give eternal life, and its sap provides invulnerable flesh. Many tragic tales revolve around such fruit. There is this story, for example: At the end of the Month of Holly, which humankind designates as December, there is a holy sage tasked with the duty of giving gifts to children. One year, he learned that the gift he was to give to a sickly little human girl was actually a piece of the Holy Tree's fruit. Unable to stifle his curiosity, he opened the present box and found an unbearably gorgeous crystal. The sage desired this crystal, and of all the thousands of children, he only failed to deliver that one little girl's gift. Without the protection of that crystal, the girl did not live to see the new year as she was meant to, and so the holy sage went mad, cursed to wander forever through a night that never ends..."

"Sounds like the elven basis for evil Santa Claus," Mito murmurs.

"Do the other stories have similar endings?" Asuna asks.

"Most of them do. The gifts of the Holy Tree are not to be coveted."

Kirito nods and cups his chin. "And from what I remember, the Fallen Elves were banished because they tried to harvest the sap of the Holy Tree."

"Which explains why the general has Shmargor's spines."

Asuna nods in agreement with Jaymes, then gasps. "But wait, does that mean General N'ltzahh has been around since before Aincrad was created?"

"Um, in fact...how many years ago did Aincrad come into being?" Kirito asks, caution lacing his tone.

Kizmel had frowned in silence the last few moments, so it took her a moment to answer. "...Actually, we royal knights do not know the details. As I believe Lord Yofilis told you, only Her Royal Majesty possesses all the legends surrounding the Great Separation and the six sacred keys. All we are told is that this floating castle was created long in the past... However, I have heard that Her Majesty and the forest elf king are very long-lived. So perhaps the man who leads the Fallen is equally ancient. Not that he frightens me."

Kizmel is strong, even stronger than Kirito and Jaymes. Yet...the pure, frightening black of N'tlzahh's crystal haunts Koharu to her soul. That was the first time - and so far, the only time - she saw her partner have actual fear on his face. He looked afraid during Kayaba's tutorial and when things were looking bleak against Illfang, and there was an apprehensive face in the moments leading up to Fuscus, but the distant glimpse of the general's black cursor.

While the humans stare silently, Kizmel picks up the Dirk of Agony and looks at it without the same amount of analysis as the picks. As a matter of fact, she speaks on the dagger almost immediately. "Indeed. This is a Fallen weapon."

"You can tell just by looking?" asks a wide-eyed Asuna.

Kizmel points to the blade's base, where it meets the hilt. "Do you see the symbol carved faintly down here?" Unnoticed to the group upon inspection in the morning, there's a fine carving just above the hilt. The design is of three diamonds that touch each other from top to bottom. It's a very different design from the dark elves' scimitar and horns and the forest elves' sword and shield. "It apparently represents ice and lightning."

"Ohhh."

"There are, indeed, weapons of the Fallen." Kizmel returns the dirk to the table and folds her arm. "The same mark was no the blades of those we fought on the third and fifth floors. But I seem to recall that the sigils I saw were not simple carvings, but cast silver."

"Now that you mention it, I think that's right..."

"You're saying...this dagger is cheaper than the weapons of the Fallen we've fought to this point?"

"I would say so, but that is not all of it. I suspect these are weapons given to collaborators of other races...Meaning that those human vagabonds who attacked you did not steal that dagger from a slain Fallen, but they were given them for their assistance."

Silence ensues for a moment. The five discussed that very possibility this morning, and if Kizmel is right, that hypothesis is all but verified truth. Somehow Morte and his friends found a way to join the Fallen Elves that neither Kirito or Mito knew about. Which means they had an endless supply of the Fallen Elve's support. That eliminates the possibility of reducing their access to the weapons, which leaves them to find ways to counteract level-2 paralysis before it's too late.

"Do not worry," Kizmel confidently says while standing up. "As I told you earlier, as long as I am at your side, no vagabonds will threaten you."

"Uh, K-Kizmel, we're not..."

"Why don't we wash off the dust of your travel first? You must have taken on quite a bit of sand during your trip to this castle." The mood swings instantly; Asuna, Mito, and Koharu's eyes light up at the prospect of another bath. They follow Kizmel out of the room, and Kirito is soon right with them.

No Jaymes.

Kirito catches Koharu's confused glance and turns back to the door. "Oh, he said he's not interested and go ahead without him."

"Oh..."

"Something is wrong with him," Mito notes. "He's been different ever since last night...like very different compared to you three. What happened after I left?"

What happened is something only Koharu and maybe Kirito knows. Had Koharu not dispatched her opponent and ran to intercept Jaymes in the nick of time, he would have killed Annihilator willingly in the protection of Koharu. What happened is that the rules for surviving the game has changed dramatically for him now that the PKers have unlimited access to dangerous weapons without a counter. What is happening now...Koharu doesn't want to admit what she believes is swimming through his mind.

"...I'll stay behind, too," she announces.

"A-are you sure," Kirito stammers. "I mean... I don't mind doing so."

"No. I thank you for the offer, but I'm his partner. I'll do it."