Oath of Rebellion

by Solid Shark

Tired of spending a life studying to reach an empty future, Asuna enters Sword Art Online, a world of swords and airships, to gain some measure of freedom. When she is trapped, she throws herself into building a new life for herself, as far from what her parents intended as she can. Meeting a dark swordsman sets her on a new course, in Aincrad's skies...

3. Chapter III: The Symbol of Our Victory

Chapter III: "The Symbol of Our Victory"

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November 20th, 2032

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A quiet medley of woodwind instruments played inside Asuna's head, abruptly rousing her from the visions her sleeping brain had inflicted on her. So different from any alarm she'd had in the normal world, it pulled her back to her current world quite easily.

For a few long, quiet moments, she just let herself lie there, taking in the soft sheets and narrow mattress. Breathing in the scent of ebony, listening to the last traces of her alarm, she waited for her heart to slow down. Another dream of her mother, that had been, Yuuki Kyouko harshly scolding her for falling behind in her studies for the sake of a mere game.

It said something, Asuna thought, that her new reality was less frightening than some of her nightmares. Two weeks to the day since Kayaba Akihiko had trapped her and twenty thousand others under the threat of death, and that was still comforting compared to the thought of what her mother would say when it was all over.

But she's not here, she reminded herself, letting her eyes open at last. She isn't. Even if what I do have to put up with is even weirder.

Her first sight was the underside of the bunk above her. As she turned her head to the right, she saw a dusky hand casually hanging from above—and then, across the cabin's too-narrow aisle, the much paler youth who occupied the opposite bunk. Already awake, unsurprisingly, and from the look of it skimming through his menu. When he'd woken up—or for that matter gone to sleep—Asuna wasn't sure. Though she was sure he wasn't sleeping as much as she was.

She was still getting used to that. To having a guy sleeping in the same room as her. But over the course of two weeks in Moonshadow's cramped cabin, she'd at least come to the conclusion Kirito wasn't a perverted creep. An awkward, insufferable know-it-all, maybe, but safe to be around.

A lot safer than the alternative, that's for sure. Asuna shivered, remembering all too vividly some of her nightmares. There were reasons she was so quick in her judgment of Kirito's character. She knew creeps.

There was barely a whisper of sound as she sat up, just her sheets sliding down. It was still enough for Kirito to glance up from his menu and offer a tentative smile, and a second later a face joined the hand hanging from the upper bunk. "Maer arduil, Asuna," the Dark Elf Kizmel said, giving her an upside-smile. "I hope you slept… well enough, at least?"

"Maer arduil, Kizmel," Asuna said, mustering up a smile of her own. "I'm… getting there, anyway." She was, too. She wasn't spending all night in the grip of terror anymore. Which was also kind of frightening, but probably better for her chances of survival.

The greeting helped, in its own way. Kirito had picked it up the first morning, and his pronunciation was better than hers—weird, given his English needed a lot of work—but Asuna had latched onto the Sindarin "good morning" quickly herself. It was one of the little details that helped ground her in Aincrad, making it easier to start each new day.

"Anyway," she said then, shaking off the fading nightmares. "What's on the agenda today? More quests?" Since getting the core crystal, and especially since Moonshadow's repairs had been completed, she and Kirito had been working through the quests closest to the ship's former crash site. They'd been taking it slowly, between Asuna's own neophyte status and having to work around Captain Emlas' patrols, but progress had been steady.

By now, Asuna thought she was really starting to get the hang of things, to the extent that the quests around Horunka Village were honestly feeling too easy. Not that she really disagreed with Kirito's plan to work through all of them anyway, nor was she going to object to Kizmel helping them out.

"We need to talk about that, actually," Kirito said, swiping his menu closed. "We finished the last Horunka quest last night, so we're going to need to go a bit farther afield soon…. But first, Kizmel and I raided the galley earlier."

Asuna made a face at that. It wasn't the continued wariness of Moonshadow's crew that bothered her—most of them were easier to see as NPCs than Kizmel, they had darn good reason to be suspicious, and they really had been easing up lately anyway. No, that wasn't her problem at all—and as Kizmel's wry grimace showed, it wasn't a human problem at all.

Their Royal Guard companion swung down nimbly to the deck then—Kirito quickly glancing away as her thin nightgown rode up—and held up a plate for Asuna. Two bars that resembled thick granola bars, and a round lump. "I'd like to claim the ship's cook was one of the casualties of the crash," Kizmel said, "but truthfully it would take a much better chef than most ships ever have to make something tasteful of airship rations."

Gazing mournfully at the two sticks of alleged bread and serving of what might have once been meat before someone had salted and cooked it into a form of rock, Asuna reflected there was one thing she did miss about reality. The day Kayaba locked them all in, she'd had no idea what would soon be inflicted upon her poor taste buds.

With only a sigh, though, she dug in. According to Kirito, avatars hadn't had to worry about hunger in the beta—though apparently the sensation had still gotten through—but that was yet another of Kayaba's little changes to the release version. And if there was one thing Asuna refused to do, it was die of something as stupidly simple as starvation.

At least teeth are considered Immortal Objects. My real ones would break on this… stuff.

Stomach appeased, however poorly, the three of them turned to preparing for the day. Kizmel had it easiest, simply tapping a spot on her shoulder to trade her nightgown for tights and tunic in a flash of blue light. Kirito, whom as far as Asuna could tell just slept in the under layer of his adventuring gear, only had to bring up his menu and call up a pair of pants and a gray leather jacket.

Asuna didn't even have to give him a pointed look for him to roll to face the bulkhead after that. They'd established boundaries the second morning they'd been aboard; she had to give him credit for being a complete gentleman from the moment she'd first brought it up. She was uncomfortable enough as it was, wearing the not-overly-modest Dark Elf nightgown Kizmel had lent her. Letting a guy watch the very immodest transition from that to her own day wear just wasn't happening.

Kizmel watched the process with clear amusement. "Had I needed further proof of your story, this would certainly have convinced me," she said, shaking her head with a chuckle. "Clearly the two of you have never lived in barracks conditions before."

"Even in the military, this wouldn't be normal for us," Asuna muttered, blushing. "Humans don't usually… oh, never mind." Two weeks she'd known the elven knight, and she still wasn't sure how much was the limitations of an NPC, and how much was the culture Kayaba had put together for the Dark Elves. She knew Kizmel wasn't above trolling. "Anyway! What are we doing today?"

Kirito rolled upright, letting his legs dangle from the bunk. "Well," he said, bringing up his map, "like I said, we've pretty much run out of Horunka quests. I mean, there's a couple of repeatable ones, but we've just about hit the point of diminishing returns on those…."

Asuna nodded. Newbie she might have been, she'd at least gotten a handle on how experience gains worked. Though she couldn't help but wonder how Kizmel took it all. She and Kirito had made an effort at first not to talk about things like that in her hearing for the first few days, but it just hadn't been practical to keep it up for long.

So far, Kizmel seemed to just write it off as Swordmaster weirdness. Asuna only hoped it stayed that way, and they didn't confuse her program somehow. NPC or not, she liked the knight.

"So where to, then?" she asked, pushing her worries away for now. "That other village—Rulid, wasn't it? Or do we take a chance and head back to Origia for now?"

"Rulid wouldn't do us any good now," Kirito answered, quickly shaking his head. "And Captain Emlas still doesn't want to get too close to a big city like that, so we'd have to cross about half Einsla on foot." He frowned, tracing the map with one finger. "…We might have to, though. At least to find out what the situation is. It's been two weeks, we can't just avoid other Swordmasters forever."

Too true. If only for Kizmel's sake, and Moonshadow's, they'd kept their distance from the few other players who'd trickled into the Horunka area. Unfortunately, that meant they still didn't know how the playerbase as a whole was doing, half a month after Kayaba's "tutorial".

And it's not like we can break through the Skywall all by ourselves, let alone reach Centoria….

Kizmel cleared her throat. "Actually," she said, "I spoke with Captain Emlas before the two of you woke this morning. It seems he has a proposal. According to the lookouts, there's been a good deal more movement by Swordmasters outside Origia since last night."

---

This seems to be a time for impulsive decisions on my part, Kizmel thought, as she and her Swordmaster companions walked along the road to the human town of Tolbana. Heh. And I thought Tilnel was the reckless sister. I only hope I've not made a grave error.

Captain Emlas had been forced to concede the Swordmasters might well have been as innocent as Kirito and Asuna claimed, after two weeks of them largely hiding away in Origia. As he'd put it, such was not the behavior one would've expected of warriors knowingly summoned for a purpose. Kizmel was sure the gruff captain was not completely convinced, but it was still a step in what she personally believed was the right direction.

Swordmasters had, however, begun to venture out from Origia, and with so many of those bold ones making for Tolbana, Emlas wanted confirmation of the human champions' intentions. Preferably without involving his ship.

Between exhausting the "quests" in the Horunka region and having their own reasons to gauge their fellows' intentions, Kirito and Asuna had volunteered for the task readily enough. Sooner or later, they would have had no choice regardless; Moonshadow was a sanctuary for them, yet in the long run that mattered little if the Skywall was not brought down.

Kizmel wasn't sure if it had been a whim or some deep-seated feeling even she didn't yet understand that prompted her to volunteer to join them. She was certain, though, that she'd promised to fight with them as long as their paths were crossed, and she intended to keep that promise. The smiles she'd gotten in return—bright from Asuna, hesitant but warm from Kirito—had only reminded her why she'd made that promise to begin with.

The question is, will I regret this? With the hood up, the charms of her Mistmoon Cloak both hid her betraying ears and masked her "cursor"—that strange, ethereal symbol that distinguished those in the world between worlds—with the same color as an ally's, so long as she remained in the same "party". It was unlikely any Swordmaster would notice anything amiss. I must hope magic may also fool magic, however, or this could prove an unpleasant mission indeed.

"How well do you remember Tolbana, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked, as the road beneath their feet turned from bare earth to stone pavement. "We're almost as far south as you can get on Einsla, so this must be close to the Skywall Tower, right?"

"Just about the closest town," Kirito said, nodding. "Technically there's another village even closer to the catacombs leading to the Tower, but this one's better for staging a raid. There'll be blacksmiths and better shops here, not to mention more places to stay."

"Then the Swordmasters may finally be making a push for the Tower," Kizmel mused. They were rounding a bend in the road, and suddenly the town was in sight. "That's welcome news."

"Hopefully, yeah. Though we shouldn't get out hopes up just yet. The Captain said his lookouts confirmed around a hundred Swordmasters around here, and that's barely enough for a good clearing effort…."

Asuna's hood shifted, the fencer probably nodding beneath it. "I suppose you're right…. Well, it looks like we're about to see for ourselves."

They had reached Tolbana's gates, guarded on either side by a local human guardsman. Neither of them paid any heed to the three travelers, to Kizmel's relief—but the real test came moments later. As the three of them approached the gates themselves, she could feel a buzz, unlike anything she'd quite felt before.

Though neither Swordmaster seemed to notice, to her the sensation of magic was unmistakable. She'd grown up in a world where few strong magicks had been seen since generations before her birth. Approaching the "Safe Haven" barriers that protected human settlements from monsters and other interlopers was, to her, akin to walking into bright sunlight after years in near-total darkness.

Kizmel gritted her teeth, hoping her companions didn't notice anything. She had no wish to distress them over what was—hopefully—nothing. I will adjust soon enough—so long as I can pass through at all.

Another step, the feeling was pressing against her skin—and then she was through, the barrier accepting either the deception of her cloak or her mystical alliance with two Swordmasters. The buzz eased to a background hum, and she was free.

To a Swordmaster, Kizmel suspected Tolbana was unremarkable. She'd seen human cities from a distance, in her time as a knight; on Einsla alone, Origia's towers dwarfed the town. In times past, she'd glimpsed the greater cities closer to the heart of the Aincrad Archipelago—and who knew how great the enclaves of the Swordmasters' homeland might be.

Compared to those, Tolbana was surely quaint. Yet to her, brought up in the great underground forests of Lyusula, stepping through the gates of an open-air town was a new and fresh experience. Before coming to this waking dream, she'd not had cause to venture within a human settlement. This was her first chance to mingle among that people.

Even had there not been cursors distinguishing friend from foe, local from summoned Swordmaster, it would still have been easy enough for Kizmel to tell resident from Swordmaster. If nothing else, there were far more of the former, milling through the streets on their own business, with the dull air of routine. Leaving aside the more drab wardrobe of the average local, they had little of the vibrancy she'd come to expect from Swordmasters.

Admittedly, I've known only two so far, yet I cannot imagine any would venture out in Kayaba's trap without a burning will. Not this soon, at any rate.

"Looks like Captain Emlas was right," Kirito mused, a few streets into Tolbana. "Swordmasters must've only just come here in the last day or so." He was looking around with as much interest as Kizmel, though she suspected for a different reason. "It looks like just about everybody who made it is still working out what's here, and what's different from the beta test."

While Kizmel still wasn't entirely clear on what the "beta test" even was, she grasped his point well enough. The closer they got to the center of Tolbana, the more Swordmasters they saw—enough that she was fairly sure most of those who'd ventured out of Origia were in town, rather than adventuring outside it.

"It makes sense," Asuna said quietly. Like Kizmel, she wore her hood up. The knight wasn't really surprised, having gotten the impression over the past two weeks that her new comrades were outsiders of a sort even among their own people. "With the situation as it is, everyone needs to know exactly where they stand. …I'm more surprised players have come this far this soon at all."

"Something had to give," Kirito said, with a too-casual shrug. "Besides, there's twenty thousand Swordmasters. There's bound to be people crazy enough to be having fun here."

"Mad, or bold?" Kizmel put in, raising an eyebrow in his direction. "After all, the two of you ventured out at once."

"Mad," Kirito said at once, turning to give her a wry smile. "And I hate crowds. Risking death from monsters wasn't the scarier option for me."

"For once, I have to agree with you," Asuna said. It was hard to tell with her own hood, but Kizmel thought the fencer was smirking.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised you don't like crowds, either—hey, wait!" Kirito interrupted himself, looking suddenly affronted. "Just which part were you really agreeing with?!"

"Take a guess, Kirito-kun. Even you should be able to figure that one out."

Kizmel couldn't help but chuckle, hiding her smile with her hand. It was good to see the two of them in high spirits, rather than the melancholy into which they both tended to slip when allowed time to think. Not that I can blame either of them, all things considered. I may be as trapped as they, but at least I've the training of a knight.

Though in this case, she admitted to herself that her knowledge was somewhat lacking. Glancing around the ordinary humans, and small clusters of Swordmasters exploring Tolbana's streets, she said, "Kirito. You know both your people and the area best. Where should we begin our scouting?"

They were just entering what seemed to be Tolbana's central square. Kirito paused there, giving the vendors and buildings a slow, careful look. "To be honest, I'm not the best at talking to people," he said. "There is someone I can look up, though… but first, I think we should look into food, and a place to stay."

"Food?" Asuna grimaced. "I hate to say it, but we've got plenty of rations from Moonshadow—and from what I saw back in Origia on launch day, we're not going to find much better here."

"Not in the shops, no. But if things haven't changed too much from the beta…." He closed his eyes in obvious thought. "There's a quest here, [The Heifer Strikes Back], that rewards a cream that can turn basic bread into a real treat."

"Oh?" Kizmel's eyes narrowed with interest. She hadn't had a meal she could call enjoyable since before leaving Sandoria, weeks earlier. "By all means, let us begin with that. I expect we'll all focus on our task much better with sated stomachs."

"…Well, I can't say I disagree." Though Asuna tried to hide it, it was obvious she was excited by the prospect herself. "What about an inn? I'm guessing you know a good place."

"You could say that." Glancing quickly around the square, Kirito's gaze settled on one particular street, and he set off again. "This way for the cow quest…. There's four different inns in Tolbana, but they're all pretty basic. I just happen to know of a farmhouse on the southern end of town, where you can rent the entire second floor. I doubt anybody will have noticed it yet, you really have to know to look for it."

An entire floor to themselves, away from the crowds? Kizmel liked the idea already. As intriguing as she found the human town, she was hardly comfortable there so soon. Nor am I going to complain at having a little room to stretch, she thought, feeling a bit more of a spring in her step as she and Asuna followed Kirito away from Tolbana's center. After weeks in a ship's cabin, that will be a relief indeed.

"The space is only one of the perks, though," Kirito continued, noticeably more animated himself. "The place has fresh milk, which goes great with the cream. There's even a nice, hot bath included in the—urk!"

Quick as her sword thrusts, Asuna's hand had snapped out and grabbed his collar, choking him mid-sentence. "What did you just say?" she demanded. "Fresh milk, and—?"

"A bath?" Kirito got out, gasping for breath. "It's not something you'll find in an inn until at least the Second Island, so it's definitely one of the farmhouse's selling points, but—gah! Would you take it easy?!"

Having let go as suddenly as she'd taken hold of him, Asuna marched on ahead, fast walk quickly turning to a trot. "Well, what are we waiting for?!" she demanded, casting an impatient look over her shoulder. "I haven't had a bath in two weeks! Where is this farmhouse, anyway?"

Shaking her head, Kizmel took a moment to make sure Kirito was all right, and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Never underestimate a girl's appreciation for a good soak, Kirito," she advised him. "Asuna! The quest first! The bath will be the better if we've finished our business for the day, don't you think?"

"…Fine." Asuna's shoulders drooped for a moment, but her pace never slowed. After a few moments, once Kizmel and Kirito had caught up with her, she glanced over at the youth again, eyes narrow. "While we're at it—who's this contact of yours, anyway? And why haven't you looked them up already? The PM system works if you know the player name, right?"

"Well, yeah," Kirito said, tugging at his collar with a wince. "But… well, I kinda didn't want to have to explain to Argo the Rat where I was. Now that we're in a town, it should be safer… I think…."

---

In the end, they took on just about every quest from Tolbana that Kirito could remember off the top of his head. Asuna had to concede it was more efficient to do things that way, and as mind-numbing as the fetch and monster-hunting quests were, they did give a good payout of experience and Cor. As eager as she was to indulge herself, she couldn't just think short-term.

With several of the quests done, another character level under her belt, and a jar of the cream Kirito promised was so good in her inventory, the sky was turning orange. Together with Kizmel, Asuna followed her partner to a farmhouse a bit outside Tolbana's streets, just barely inside the town's safe zone. Absolutely nothing remarkable about it, to her eye; it probably wouldn't have looked out of place in Europe any time in the last three or four hundred years.

Which was probably why her world seemed to tilt, as they approached the two-story, wooden building. She'd spent the first two weeks since Kayaba's horrifying announcement aboard a Dark Elf airship, about as far from "normal" as anything in her life had ever been. It had, in a way, kept the whole situation from feeling real to her.

Spending the night in a perfectly normal human house… suddenly she felt like she wasn't ready for that.

Asuna let Kirito do the talking, when they walked into the house's kitchen. He knew how to talk to the farm wife NPC, and as long as they were in the same party, rental privileges would apply to all of them anyway. She was too busy trying to squash the panic rising for the first time in two weeks.

"What's wrong, Asuna?" Kizmel asked, voice barely a whisper as she leaned in close. "I would think this place would be more comfortable for you than Moonshadow, it being of your own people. Or," the elf girl added thoughtfully, "is it different from what you're accustomed to? I suppose humans of your world might have a culture as different from this as from mine."

"Actually, it's not very different at all," Asuna said, gratefully latching on to the distraction of explaining for the elf. "Which is the problem, honestly. It's… too familiar. Too real."

"…Ah." Following Kirito up the stairs to the floor that would be their home for a little while, Kizmel gave a thoughtful nod. "I'd not thought of that. This is a mirage of the world I know, and I was already a swordswoman when this began. I can scarcely imagine how disorienting it must be, finding the familiar among the strange."

Yeah. That was a good way of putting it. Though Asuna thought there was more to it than that, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

At the door at the top of the stairs, Kirito turned the knob and pushed it open, leading the way in. The way locks rely on permissions instead of keys just makes the whole thing weirder. It's like this is real, except when it isn't. She shivered. …I wonder how many people have gotten—hurt—because of that.

"Well, here we are," Kirito said, when they were in. "It might be a bit cramped with three of us, but it's still better than an airship cabin, right?"

"…Mostly, yeah." There were windows on three walls, letting in the evening sunlight. The floor was mostly bare wood, with a couple of throw rugs by the door on the fourth wall and the beds. A couch sat beneath one window, and a simple desk by another. A low table, with another couch and two chairs, occupied the middle of the room, a pitcher of milk sitting in the center. "But, um…."

"I believe I like it," Kizmel said, pulling back her hood and giving the room an approving look. "It suits me more than anything in Origia would, I suspect. My people may build mostly from stone, but our homes are among the forests." Her gaze flicked to the beds, and she gave a short nod. "Certainly the beds ought to be more comfortable than Moonshadow's bunks."

"Well, yes, but—" Asuna shot Kirito a hard look; at least he had the good grace to redden and look away. "There's only two of them!"

"I'll take one of the couches," he said quickly. "I've slept in worse places, don't worry about me."

On the one hand, at least he recognized the problem. Though she did wonder just how crazy his sleeping habits were, sometimes. On the other hand, Kirito's immediate concession made her bristle. If there was one thing she'd come to hate from growing up—and would get her killed where she was now—it was the idea of special treatment.

Asuna opened her mouth to argue they should at least draw straws or something, but Kizmel beat her to it. Arching one eyebrow, she said, "Why would you need to do that?" She glanced between them, then at the beds. "The beds are clearly large enough for two."

Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Huh. I guess it'll be like a sleepover. I wonder if Dark Elf girls do things like that—

"I've no preference in arrangement," the elf girl continued. "My sister and I have shared often enough, in Her Majesty's service. All the same, Asuna," she added thoughtfully, "as unsettled as you are, perhaps you'd prefer Kirito's company for the night, as you're both human? Or if you'd rather be alone, I have no objection to sharing with him."

Kirito choked, and Asuna goggled. Sharing a cabin with a guy was one thing, there really hadn't been much choice, and by now she was pretty sure he was nothing like—that man. Sharing his bed? I've only known him two weeks! Even if he's not a creep, that's still—that's just—!

Kizmel's blasé attitude toward sharing with him herself only added to the heat rising in Asuna's face. She was sure the elf girl meant it perfectly platonically, but with the way she dressed for the night, in such a cramped bed—did Kizmel have no sense of personal space at all?

If it hadn't been for the slightest trace of a smile playing at the dusky girl's lips, Asuna would've thought she was oblivious to the redness and sputtering of the two players. As it was, she simply shrugged, and turned toward the door leading into the other room. "Well, we can decide that later. For now, I believe I'd welcome a warm bath myself. This way, I take it, Kirito?"

"Uh. Yeah." Kirito visibly shook himself. His face was still glowing, but he managed to haul himself back to a level of composure Asuna honestly envied. "Yeah, it's right through there. Um, I should probably warn you there's no lock, though…."

"No matter." Kizmel touched the clasp of her cloak, banishing it and her armor in a quick flash of light. "As long as the stairway door locks, that's good enough." She pushed open the door, reaching up to tap the corner of her tunic. "You'll be joining us anyway, won't you, Kirito?"

"What?!"

---

The farmhouse was proof positive, to Asuna's eyes, of what Kirito had told her the very first day: the best deals in Aincrad were the ones you went and looked for, not the obvious ones. The bedroom was palatial enough. The bathroom left her amazed at what could be found on the budget of a single player just a couple weeks in.

Hardwood for the walls, just like the bedroom, with more than adequate shelf space. Thick, cushy carpeting covered the changing area at the northern side, perfect for bare feet right out of the bath. The southern side had polished tile, dominated by a tub even bigger than the one in the Yuuki household, with a gargoyle head for a spout. Easily big enough for three, and more than comfortable for two.

Asuna desperately tried to focus her attention on the lavishness of the place, as she unequipped all her gear and slipped into the steaming water. She'd already been concerned enough about bathing with a guy just in the other room. What had happened in the moments before she'd fled to the bathroom….

At least I'm pretty sure Kirito-kun won't be coming in, she thought, remembering the expression on her partner's face. I didn't know the game could literally make steam come out of your ears, but I'm glad it does. If it had been him… ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

"Ahh… now this is wonderful, after so long aboard Moonshadow." Kizmel, having quite inappropriately stripped before safely closing the door behind her, slid into the other end of the tub with a sigh and a smile. "I'd no idea humans valued their baths so much. Between that and all the wood, this would be quite the luxury indeed for my people."

"Pretty luxurious for us, too," Asuna told her, breathing in the warmth of the steam and reveling in the feel of the hot water over her skin. It didn't feel quite right, something was just indefinably off about the texture and the way light reflected off it, but it was still a bath, and it was still warm. "Though the wood's normal enough, at least for a farmhouse."

"Something for which I envy your people, then." The elf girl stretched, the motion making Asuna momentarily envious of her—not to mention convincing a corner of her mind that the designer for Dark Elf character models had definitely been a guy. "Elves, Forest and Dark alike, are forbidden to cut down living trees. Wooden homes are the province of the nobility and the very rich."

"Oh, really? Huh." Asuna made a mental note to ask Kirito—later—if there were any Dark Elf towns in SAO. The more she heard about their culture, the more interested she became. "I guess airships must be tricky for you to build, then. I remember you mentioning you need to be around living wood, too…."

"Indeed. Truthfully, I know little of the craft myself. A closely-guarded secret of the shipwrights," Kizmel noted dryly. "Rumors say the ships are somehow grown, though how that might work even I couldn't venture to guess."

"Interesting." Sinking deeper into the water, letting it wash over her shoulder, Asuna turned to look at the setting sun dipping into view through the west window. As alien as Aincrad's night sky was, at least the sun rose and set like the real one. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Even in the stories back home, different groups of elves often had their own cultures."

"You have stories of my people? I'd like to hear more about that… later." Kizmel arched one eyebrow in her direction. "Speaking of cultural differences, Asuna. Should I take it that in yours, men and women don't usually bathe together?"

The composure Asuna had struggled to regain vanished in an instant, and with an eep she slipped and dropped completely beneath the water. She choked, scrambled to push herself up, and got her head back into the air in a coughing fit. "N-no!" she got out, through a mouthful of water. "No, they don't!"

"Hm. That's a shame." Turning over in the water, revealing a toned back that made for a surprising contrast with her figure, the elf girl draped her arms over the lip of the tub. Resting her chin on her hands, she looked over at the door to the bedroom. "I had thought it would be nice to relax and talk here, just the three of us."

Just for a second, Asuna found herself contemplating the idea. It was true, this was the most comfortable she'd been physically in two weeks, and without armor the whole atmosphere felt more relaxed. A chat in the bath, followed by a good night's sleep in a soft bed—

With a guy?! I mean, sure, Kirito-kun seems like a good guy, but—I've only even known him for two weeks, and—!

She quickly shook her head, long hair dragging through the water. "That's just—it's not done, Kizmel! I mean, that would be completely indecent, and, well—!"

Kizmel rolled over to look at her again, raising a placating hand. "My apologies. Far be it from me to criticize your taboos, especially when I know so little about them. And it's true, such a thing would not be done so casually with total strangers among my people, either. Battlefield standards, however, are more pragmatic. After all, why be so concerned by the presence of those with whom you already trust your life?"

Asuna started to reply sharply, only to bring herself up short. There was, she had to admit, a kind of logic to the NPC's words. If the Dark Elves had a completely integrated military, they probably did have to make concessions. And it was true, whatever doubts she might still have had about Kirito, she did trust him at her back in a fight. He'd had plenty of chances to betray her, and for that matter obviously could've handled himself alone just fine. Still….

Sharing a bath with him—that's just too far! Even the bed wouldn't be this bad! And it's not like we have to be so pragmatic! That's just—no. No, I'm not ready for that yet!

…Yet?

Before she could examine that bizarre slip of the mental tongue, Kizmel sat up in the bath. "Well, that's a discussion we can have another time," she said. Reaching for a low shelf Asuna hadn't noticed hung over one edge of the tub, the elven knight picked up a brush and bottle of soap. "Could I ask you to scrub my back, Asuna? Normally I would ask my sister, but…."

"Huh? Oh, sure!"

The reference to family made Asuna's heart twinge. Still, as she set to work helping Kizmel wash up, it finally made one thing click in her mind. Oh, that's right… how could I have forgotten? Even if it's been years…. Well. With the way Mother is, maybe it isn't so surprising.

"Something on your mind, Asuna?"

She started, only then realizing her scrubbing had slowed. Meeting the concerned gaze Kizmel turned over her shoulder, she said, "Sorry. It's just… I realized why this place feels so familiar to me. My grandparents are farmers, and their house is a lot like this. The bath isn't as nice, but still… it's close."

"Ah." Kizmel turned to look out the window, leaving only half her face in view. "Family… yes, I can understand why you would be bothered. My parents are long gone now, and so long as the Skywall stands between us, I cannot even see my sister." She leaned back into the brush; Asuna noticed with a start that the elf girl's muscles were taut with a tension her manner hadn't shown. "…Perhaps that's part of why I was so quick to join your questing, even when it has little to do with my mission."

"I know the feeling."

There were a lot of reasons Asuna had accepted Klein's suggestion that she go with Kirito, that first night. As she'd told the awkward youth, she needed help learning how to survive SAO. Right then, she'd needed help just figuring out where to spend the night—even if that had ended up very different from what even he'd expected.

But even more than that… I don't think I could've handled being alone. There's no one I know in this world, after all. Maybe I could've gone with Klein, but….

"Kizmel?" she asked, when they'd traded places and it was the elf scrubbing the human's back. "Can I ask you why… you asked us for help, that first night?"

There was a good chance Kizmel couldn't even answer that question. If anything, it had probably been nothing more than a system glitch, which an NPC wouldn't be able to comprehend. But then, an NPC wouldn't normally have been able to make small talk, Asuna was pretty sure. It's worth a shot.

The long pause that followed seemed to confirm that fear. Then, though, it was Kizmel's turn to slow her brushing, and the elf girl sighed. "…Months ago," she said slowly, "before your people or mine came to this world, I had dreams. Dreams of a battle against Forest Elves, in which my comrades fell, and I stood alone. Until a group of Swordmasters came, interfering in the battle."

Asuna drew in a soft breath. "You mean…?"

"Yes. The very battle in which I first met the two of you." When she looked over her shoulder, Kizmel's gaze was distant, looking at something only she could see. "In the dreams, I told the Swordmasters to leave, as my mission was not their business. They always intervened anyway, but too late—and in the end, I always fell, sacrificing myself to repay their kindness."

That sounds like what Kirito said happened in the beta, when he encountered Kizmel. She remembers…?

"I thought those nothing but dreams," the elf girl continued softly, brush slow and steady as it moved up and down Asuna's back. "Until I was given the task of retrieving the Jade Key, and found myself exactly in the straits my dreams had shown." She smiled, a small, sad smile. "Kirito's face, I knew from the dreams. Always the first to come to my aid, and the one whose face I saw as I fell…. When the two of you appeared, I chose to place my trust in you."

There was a lot more Asuna wanted to ask. Like how Kizmel knew Kirito's face, when he would've been using a custom avatar back then, or how she could've had those dreams at all. But even if she'd been as real as she felt in that moment, not an NPC with only programmed knowledge to draw on, it was clear the elf didn't understand it any better than Asuna did.

So, instead, she only reached back, placed her hand on Kizmel's, and smiled. "I'm glad you took the chance, Kizmel. For your sake, and ours."

Kizmel's own smile widened, losing that edge of sadness. "As do I, Asuna."

---

Oh, man. Forget the monsters. Working with two girls all the time is really going to be what kills me. Asuna won't have to hurt me for being a pervert. Kizmel's just going to make me die of shock.

Having very deliberately turned the desk chair to face the wall directly opposite the bathroom door, Kirito waited for his face to cool off. And hoped Asuna would, somehow, forget what had happened by the time she came out. He knew he wasn't going to forget any time soon. The sight of Kizmel's completely bare back, short though the glimpse had been before Asuna had ushered her behind a closed door….

He quickly shook his head, trying to push the screenshot-clear image out of his mind. They were comrades, maybe edging toward friends, and it was just plain rude to think of either of them like that. He absolutely wasn't going to think about what was going on in the other room, even when he heard Asuna's voice rise in shrill surprise.

Not looking at a door was not supposed to require a dice roll on his Willpower stat.

Besides, I'm supposed to be thinking of what we're going to do next. From the look of it, players have only started doing the Tolbana quests, so even with how long we spent with Moonshadow we've got time to catch up. At this rate it'll be a week before anybody even thinks of tackling the Skywall Tower.

Which meant, for the moment, it was probably best to just do what they'd already started: work through the local quests. The trick being that Kirito had pretty much raced through them as fast as he could during the beta, and gotten distracted by the bigger quests on later islands. His memory of the area was a bit fuzzier than he really wanted to admit to his comrades.

So… I'd better try and find out if Argo got the full version. Kirito brought up his menu, navigated to the messaging tab—and paused, fingers poised over the ethereal keyboard. Um. Maybe I should wait until morning? A quick glance out the window showed the sun was falling fast, so it wouldn't be long before Aincrad's twin moons rose. Then I can make sure to meet her somewhere else, maybe without the chance of blackmail material—

There was a knock at the door. Two sharp knocks, a pause, and one heavier.

…No. No way. The timing—that can't possibly be—

The pattern repeated itself. Then again, quicker and harder. Then, "Oi! I know you're in there, Kii-bou! Mind opening up, and not leavin' a girl out in the cold?"

Kirito was torn between two reactions. She really is a girl?! …Oh, no, I am so doomed!

Nowhere to run. Even if tried going out one of the windows, he'd never get away before she noticed. His next thought was to just ignore her, pretend he wasn't there. Except—it was obvious someone was renting the farmhouse, and knowing her she'd track down who easily enough. The questions she'd raise just from that might be even worse than just letting her in.

No time to think of a better option. He'd just have to hope his comrades stayed quiet in the other room, and didn't come out at an awkward moment.

Just as the knocking pattern began again, Kirito steeled himself and pulled open the door. On the other side—well. He didn't recognize the face beneath the hooded cloak, but the height looked about right. And there was absolutely no mistaking the trio of whisker marks on either cheek. "Um… hi?"

The girl didn't even blink. Just peered up at him for a second, grinned, and pushed past him into the bedroom. "Kii-bou! 'Bout time I tracked ya down. Nice digs, by th' way, knew you'd be coming here sooner or later."

Nonplussed, he stared as she dropped into a chair and casually swung her feet up onto the table. "…You recognized me, Argo? Just like that?"

"'Course I did. Kii-bou's Kii-bou, I'd know ya no matter what face you're wearing." She shot him an appraising look. "…Not a bad face, I'll say. Too bad you'd never even notice a girl…. Anyway! What's been up, Kii-bou? I figured you'd be first one outta Origia, but I didn't think you'd disappear completely!"

If there was one thing that convinced him this was really Argo the Rat, it was her whirlwind of an attitude. Buffeted like he'd been in a tornado, Kirito dropped into the couch opposite her chair. "Launch day was kind of crazy, Argo," he pointed out. "And I was barely out of town before I found out the hard way that content's changed from the beta, on top of the death penalty."

"Oh ho?" Argo's eyes narrowed; he thought it was too much to hope for that it was a sign she was getting serious. "Just what did ya run into, Kii-bou, that's kept ya off the grid for two weeks?"

Oh, no. Not that easy, Argo. "You're an info broker, Argo," he said, sparring for time. "Nothing's free with you, give or take." He folded his hands, affecting a narrow-eyed gaze of his own. "How about you tell me how things have been with the other players, and I tell you know what I know in exchange?"

"Hm." She looked at him in silence for a moment, then smiled, showing teeth. "Clever, clever, Kii-bou! Awright, deal. From the rumors I've been hearing, you've prolly got some juicy info yerself, so—"

Click.

That soft sound was the only warning Kirito had, the sound of a doorknob turning, before Doom was upon him. Out of the bathroom came first Asuna, chestnut hair hanging limp over her elven nightgown. "Honestly," she was saying over her shoulder, "just a towel is not enough when you're sharing a room with a guy—eek!"

Kizmel, long legs and far too much of her chest on full display, was indeed wearing only a towel as she followed the fencer out. "I will be glad to make concessions to human customs, Asuna, but I really do not see your problem here. This is hardly any more immodest than my nightgown…. Oh." Long ears twitching, she looked at Argo curiously. "I see we have a guest."

The elf was the picture of calm. Asuna's face was already beginning to steam, and Kirito could feel his own face reaching its ignition point. Argo… Argo was looking from one face to another, eyes wide with what Kirito thought was uncharacteristic surprise.

That surprise turned quickly to a grin, and a low whistle. "Well, well! Kii-bou, I take back what I said earlier. But ya gotta tell me, when'd you get so good with the ladies? Inquiring minds need to know!"

Steam erupted from Asuna's ears, every visible centimeter of skin turned bright red, and her hair frizzed in an emotional expression Kirito had never before seen in-game. "It's not like that!" she burst out, shaking her head fast enough to make her hair even wilder. "I'm—he's just—we're just in the same party to survive! That's all!"

"Kirito is a fine young man," Kizmel said, favoring him with a nod and a small smile. "But to my people, two weeks is a bit soon to begin a courtship." A beat, as her smile took on an edge Kirito didn't trust one bit. "…Perhaps another month, and we might consider it?"

"Kizmel!" Asuna shouted, voice rising into a plaintive wail. "Not! Helping!"

Kirito's resolve broke, and before he could think he was up and running for the door—only to immediately trip as Argo sent a chair skidding into his legs. Before he could hit the floor, Asuna's hand seized his collar, and Kizmel caught his arm. "Now, now," the elf girl murmured, under the fencer's incoherent sputtering. "I believe explanations are owed all around, Kirito."

"Oh, I have got to get this story!" Argo was showing fangs now, in the most dangerous smile he'd ever seen from her. "Kii-bou. Ya two-timin' these nice girls?"

"It's not like that!"

---

"So," Argo said a few minutes later, moonlight streaming in through the east window. "Lemme see if I got this right." She pointed at Asuna, sitting stiffly upright on the couch, as far from Kirito as she could manage. "You met 'im on launch day, a total noob, an' when the samurai-wannabe left, you stuck with Kii-bou to learn the ropes."

"That's exactly it." Asuna's face had resumed something approaching normal color, and her hair had settled, but she still spoke stiffly, and hid her mouth behind a glass of milk. "There was a riot starting, and Kirito-kun was the only one besides Klein I knew."

"Good choice. Kii-bou knows SAO like nobody else—an' unlike yours truly, he won't charge ya for it." The Rat's serious look lasted maybe three seconds, before lapsing back into mock-solemnity. "Then he tried to lead you to Horunka, only to stumble on a Dark Elf fightin' a Forest Elf?"

"Indeed they did, and for that I owe them my life." How Kizmel managed such poise, sitting in that chair while still in a towel, Kirito couldn't fathom. She only gave Argo a calm nod, with another smile at the much more embarrassed humans. "I'm truly fortunate that they appeared when they did, and were so quick to honor the Last Alliance."

"Got that right. Can't imagine many would even remember it, 'specially now." Argo shook her head. "Figured the elves might show up quick, but there was some real luck here… anyway. So you two have been workin' with the Dark Elves for two weeks, huh? Well, that explains some things."

After the pandemonium had settled—a little—Kirito had found himself forced to give his story first after all. If only to keep Argo from selling stories even more compromising than the truth. He counted himself lucky she was quick to accept that truth.

Though he doubted it was going to keep her from teasing him about it. For the rest of his life.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised she's taking Kizmel's weirdly high AI so easily. Argo probably cares more about trolling than logic, here.

Kirito loudly cleared his throat, determinedly focusing on Argo and not the inappropriately-clad elf. "Explains what, Argo? Just what's been going on, while Asuna and I have been out of touch?"

"Well, first? That airship's been raising a lot o' questions, Kii-bou." The info broker shrugged, pausing to take a bite out of the cream-covered piece of bread Kirito had handed over in an open bribe to try and keep the teasing down. "Remember, Kayaba did his little speech with a big airship, an' no player's gonna have one 'til we take down the first Skywall. Then you've got the odd beta player recognizing it as a Dark Elf ship, an' wondering what the heck was goin' on. Honestly? Prolly one of the reasons enough people got together to push through to Tolbana was to find out what was going on."

"Interesting." Kizmel frowned thoughtfully. "Captain Emlas had hoped we would keep a lower profile than that, but I for one can't gainsay the idea that we helped galvanize the Swordmasters…. Pity there are not more of them."

"Give 'em time, Kii-chan. 'Tis a miracle this many are ready to push." Before the elf girl could react to Argo's nickname, the Rat's face turned deadly seriously. "We oughtta be thanking you, Kii-chan. We need the push." She pushed herself to her feet, padding over to look out the west window. After a long pause, staring out at Aincrad's alien sky, she turned to look straight at Kirito and Asuna, and the former felt a sudden, fast-growing dread. "Kii-bou. Aa-chan. Two thousand players are dead."

The numbers were like a punch to the gut. Kirito found himself clutching the couch cushions as the room swayed around him. Asuna slumped against him; a quick glance at her revealed her face had gone a pale gray. Even Kizmel's eyes had gone wide, despite the Knight's backstory of a long war. They'd known there were some deaths, of course—Kayaba had said as much in his "tutorial" that first day, and he'd figured some people would've died fighting mobs before they learned the caution the death game demanded. But….

"Two thousand?" he got out, voice cracking. "H-how…?"

"Don't think you quite know what it was like in Origia, right after Kayaba's announcement, Kii-bou." Argo looked grim—haunted, even. Kirito suddenly wondered how much of her trolling had been her way of coping. "Chaos in the streets. Everybody trapped, the only way out to fight, over four hundred people dead just from people tryin' to help on the outside?

"Some people, the brave or the stupid, snapped and went out to try an' be 'heroes'. Without makin' sure they knew what they were doing. And others…." She closed her eyes. "Kii-bou. I think the cruelest thing Kayaba did was leave so many ledges. It's a long way down—an' you know the Cloud Sea swallows all."

"…They jumped," Asuna whispered, trembling against Kirito's shoulder. "Why? Why would they just…?"

Kirito didn't trust himself to speak. He knew from stories about "trapped in a game" scenarios that dying to exit was sometimes a thing. His own belief, as he'd told Asuna weeks before, was that they'd have been out the first night if that had been true, but he understood the logic. That was probably what some of them had been thinking.

Some. Dammit. Six years ago, I cursed them all for not doing something, but at least that wasn't real. …I thought it wasn't real. But that's how people really are, isn't it? Throw most people into a situation they can't handle, and they just… break.

Never thought I'd consider myself lucky.

"Well." Kizmel's quiet, calm, weary voice dragged Kirito's attention back to her. "If anything is likely to convince Captain Emlas of the truth, I suppose this is it. Not even he will be so suspicious as to think so many of you came here only to kill yourselves."

"If there's any silver lining to come outta this, Kii-chan, I'll take it," Argo told her. "Kii-bou," she continued, looking back at him. "This is kinda why I was lookin' for ya. Right now, we need everybody we can get clearing the dungeons. I know, I know, you're not a leader. Ain't the point. You're doing something. An' you've even got a girl with you."

Asuna pushed herself up, seeming to notice only then where she'd been leaning. "We're just battle partners," she said, indignation bringing some color back to her face. "That's all there is to it!"

Argo raised both hands, some of the familiar humor coming back to her expression. "Didn't say a word otherwise, did I? Point is, Aa-chan, you're a girl, an' you're fighting. That'll get the macho guys going, and might just get some of the other girls moving. Might not be many of us here, but we all count!" She grinned, then sobered again. Mostly. "Better yet, ya got a Dark Elf with ya. I didn't dare to hope you'd run into any of them yet."

"There is little my people can do to help right now, Argo," Kizmel said, somehow managing to look martial in a bath towel. "We have only one ship here, and Captain Emlas looks to his own first. Even when we can regroup with others, Her Majesty Queen Idhrendis would be the one to make any decisions of formal alliance.

"That being said." She sat up in her chair, squaring her shoulders. "For now, our immediate interests align, and I owe much to these two Swordmasters. For as long as our paths are met, they may count on my sword."

Kirito knew she was just an NPC. He knew that even if she wasn't, that was at least half pure pragmatism, her questline blocked as much as the Swordmasters' progress by the Skywall. He tried to hold to that knowledge, to keep his detachment. To keep safe.

But it still felt warm. That declaration, and the smile the elf girl turned on him and his impromptu partner. I… haven't felt like this since….

Hurriedly pushing that memory away, he glanced at Asuna. She had her own demons, he knew, even if he'd never dared ask. The way she'd proclaimed her life over that first night had said volumes, whether he knew the details or not. So really, he wasn't at all surprised to see her smile in response to the elven knight's words.

"Even one sword's a big help, Kii-chan," Argo said, giving Kizmel a nod and fangy smile, and walked back to the table. "An' it sounds like we can count on ya to put a good word in fer us, when the time comes. Right now, I'll take it." She brought up her menu then, flipped through it, and materialized a small book. "Remind me later to ask you how much of our menu stuff—I think elves call it 'Mystic Scribing'?—you can use. In the meantime… here ya go, Kii-bou. Story fer a story, an' everything I got so far 'bout the Tolbana area."

She slid it across the table, and Kirito picked it up with some trepidation. He wasn't sure the local quest info had been part of the initial deal, and it always made him nervous when Argo the Rat seemed generous. "Anything I should know right off?" he asked warily.

"Maybe a couple things." Argo dropped back into her chair and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, bracing her chin on her hands. "First? I'm not the only one who's been lookin' for ya. They've been usin' cut-outs, I think, so the middleman's name prolly won't help ya. Though I'll sell it if ya really want," she added, with another grin. "Second? …There's been an Integrity Knight nosing around. They never get real close to land, an' I don't think anybody but beta testers even know what they are, but they're checking things out. Might wanna keep an eye out."

That put Kirito's hairs right on end. He had no idea why someone would be looking for him, of all people. He hadn't exactly been unknown during the beta, but he couldn't imagine anyone would be that interested in reconnecting with him.

That was more confusing than anything else. The confirmation that he'd really seen an Integrity Knight that first evening was beyond ominous. It was just as likely to mean nothing but Kayaba goading the players on, true. His instincts—his memories—insisted it couldn't be that simple.

Before he could follow that thought very far, though, Argo pushed herself to her feet. "Welp, that's all I really got to tell ya tonight, guys," she said, heading for the door. "Stay safe. And Kii-bou?" she added over her shoulder, grinning. "Have fun tonight—but try to get some sleep, 'kay?"

"Argo!"

---

Asuna had expected to sleep better, in a full-on bed in a human-style farmhouse. The soft mattress was certainly much more comfortable than Moonshadow's bunks, and there was more than room enough for her to stretch. It was, really, not that different from the guest room she'd sometimes slept in at her grandparents' house.

That was probably part of why she wasn't sleeping, just past midnight. Staring up at the hardwood ceiling, she realized this was the first time she'd slept in a proper bed since becoming trapped inside SAO, and it was enough to make her homesick. Even for the home she'd been trying to escape, for just a little while.

But that's not the worst of it. Not really.

"Sleep eludes you, Asuna?"

She tried not to jump. For all she knew, Kirito had managed to get to sleep, and she didn't want to wake him. Taking a steadying breath, Asuna turned to look at her bedmate. "It's a little hard tonight, yeah," she admitted, voice pitched so only elven ears could hear. "I've got a lot to think about, Kizmel."

Kizmel had, in the end, ended up sharing Asuna's bed for the night, Kirito having assured her—with more than a little red in his face—that he'd be fine by himself. Fortunately for the comfort of all involved, or at least the two players, the beds were indeed large enough for two, with a little breathing space between. For all Kizmel's blithe unconcern, the knight was sticking solidly to her own side.

Now the elf girl nodded slowly, plainly unsurprised by Asuna's insomnia. "It is a great deal to take in," she said, voice as soft as the player's. "My own people's losses have been dear enough, since this waking dream began, yet in the end they're but the latest in a war that has lasted a lifetime. For your people…."

"Two thousand dead," Asuna got out, looking back up at the ceiling. "In just two weeks…. My people haven't fought a real war in almost a century, Kizmel. And we're not soldiers." She swallowed. "It… honestly, it doesn't quite feel real."

Some of that sense of unreality, she was sure, was because of SAO's nature. Those two thousand dead wouldn't even have left bodies, even those who hadn't fallen into the Cloud Sea. None of them would've felt any pain, any more than she had when fighting Forest Elves and monsters. There was never blood, just polygons and particle effects.

Even changing clothes was done by menu selections, making for a surreal clash with the intense realism of the world itself. And I'm sharing a bed with a Dark Elf.

"So it always is, with war," Kizmel told her, drawing her gaze back to the elf. There was a sadness in those violet eyes, making it hard to remember in that moment she was only a program. "No one steps onto the battlefield prepared. Not the first time. Those who can adapt learn to live with it, but it's never easy." She paused, a flicker of a darker shadow passing through her eyes. "At least, it should not be. We all must be able to move forward under that burden, but it is a terrible thing to accept it."

Wise words. Asuna didn't really want to think what kind of person she'd be, if she could shrug off so many deaths. She knew she had to change, to survive in this world—but not like that. Not even for the abstract. Those numbers aren't just statistics, to the people who knew them.

At a stray thought, she glanced over at the other bed. To all appearances, under the light of Aincrad's moons, Kirito was sound asleep. Whether that was true, she didn't know. She suspected, though, that he wasn't. He'd taken the news as hard as she had. Besides which….

"I wonder," she found herself murmuring, "if Kirito-kun knew any of them."

"Ah." Kizmel followed her gaze. "He participated in what you call the 'beta test', did he not? It does seem possible. …Certainly, something wounded him deeply, once." The elf girl paused, a frown creasing lilac brows. "And the news of an Integrity Knight clearly troubles him. Has he encountered the Axiom Church's knights before?"

"I don't see how. He told me no one in the beta got far enough to meet one." Still, Asuna found herself frowning, too. "You're right, though. That's really got him spooked, doesn't it? And… whatever it was that happened when he got the Anneal Blade. He still won't give me a straight answer about that…."

"Indeed. Nonetheless…." There was a rustling of sheets, and a hand clasped Asuna's. Startled, she turned to look back at Kizmel, and found the elf girl giving her a gentle smile. "Kirito is hardly the only one bearing a hidden burden, now is he?"

Asuna flinched. I… haven't told either of them, have I? Not about her mother, about her family's expectations. About how stifled she'd felt, before her brother finally introduced her to the concept of the NerveGear, and to Sword Art Online. Not about why her life as she knew it had ended, come what may in Kayaba's death game.

Not why she woke sometimes from nightmares of home, to the comfort of Aincrad.

"Kizmel, I…."

Kizmel shook her head. "You need not say anything, Asuna," she said. "We've known each other a fortnight. Far too soon for any of us to so readily share our secret worries. Whether your fears be great or small, I'll not pry. I believe Kirito deserves the same courtesy."

"…You're right. Thank you, Kizmel." Asuna took a deep breath, letting tension out with it, and turned a small smile on the elf girl. "Still. You have secrets, Kizmel? I'm surprised, with how, um, open you've been."

"Heh. I simply see little reason to hide from comrades, in such privacy. You'd hardly see me walk the streets so indecently." Kizmel squeezed Asuna's hand, turned her face back to the ceiling, and let her eyes fall closed. "Oh, yes, Asuna. Even I have my burdens." A sigh, so quiet Asuna wasn't even sure she'd heard it. "Someday, I hope to share them…."

---

Two thousand dead, in only two weeks.

Kirito had known the moment it became clear that Kayaba was telling the truth that things would be bad. That very, very few players would be remotely prepared to fight for their lives, assuming they could even come to grips with the reality of the situation. He hadn't been sure he'd survive, even with his foreknowledge. Without Kizmel, he wasn't convinced he and Asuna would have made it through those two weeks at all.

But two thousand… in his worst nightmares, he hadn't believed it would be so bad. Hadn't been able to picture so many would snap so hard that they leapt off into the Cloud Sea.

I'm not good with people. That doesn't mean it doesn't make me sick to think of so many dying. …We need to push through. If we can open the sky, even a little, maybe that'll give people hope. If we can bring enough people together, maybe we can even hold off the Integrity Knights.

Kirito kept that thought close, as he and his partners worked their way through Tolbana's quests. He was no leader, but if he could be part of the example that brought someone to the front of the efforts to break through the Skywall, well, he'd do his best.

Out of respect for Kizmel, they abstained from a few quests involving cutting down trees. Otherwise, the three of them took on everything they could find, from gathering small plants to thinning out one type of monster or another. At Asuna's insistence, they repeated [The Heifer Strikes Back] once a day, building up a reserve of cream to make their rations tolerable.

How Kizmel interpreted that quest resetting itself every day, Kirito wasn't quite sure. She'd only muttered once about the oddities of Swordmasters and Kayaba's illusions, and otherwise simply enjoyed the fruits of the quest. Even when it ought to have been clear to her that the other players they encountered from time to time were somehow going through the non-repeatable quests they already had.

Probably, he supposed, it was factored into the way she viewed Aincrad as a magic simulacrum. He found it more than a little disturbing that she was programmed to recognize SAO as fake, while still considering herself real, but it did make it easier to talk with her.

Day by day, they grew stronger—even Kizmel, whom Kirito was surprised to discover didn't have as much of a level advantage over players as her counterpart in the beta. Before long, he and Asuna had caught up to her level of ten.

They also ran out of quests that same day. Fortunately, that night Argo brought news that the Skywall Tower's entrance had been found—and the next morning, Captain Emlas set them on their next task.

---

November 28th, 2032

---

Aincrad's moons had barely set, dawn only beginning to break, when Moonshadow eased down into the hollow of Einsla's southern mountains. So early, chances were good no one had seen the dark ship make the flight from her crash site. Surrounded by tall peaks, only another airship or a particularly dedicated mountaineer could possibly have spied on the ship now.

That was Captain Emlas' preference, and Kirito couldn't say he disagreed. He was expecting enough problems if more players got wind of what he and Asuna had been up to the last few weeks. This, he was more than a little worried could set off another riot.

Which is the last thing any of us need, he thought, crouched along the port railing on Moonshadow's deck. People are just starting to recover from the launch day riot as it is. If any of us are ever going to get out of here, we can't afford any more setbacks.

So far, though, there really was no sign anyone had noticed them, or had the means to follow. That left Kirito's attention free to gauge distances as Moonshadow descended toward the crack in the rocky ground. Too high, and this wouldn't work. Too low, and the ship would crash—again—destroying the goodwill they'd built up with the Dark Elf captain.

After a few moments, he turned to the ship's sterncastle and gave a sharp nod. The helmsman nodded back, and with only the faintest jolt the ship halted in midair, her engines quieting to a whisper.

"So." Captain Emlas offered a nod of his own, with maybe the barest hint of a smile. "At least you've a good grasp of distances, Swordmaster. Perhaps you'll be up to the task ahead of you after all." He turned to the hatch leading back into the ship, adding over his shoulder, "We'll leave as soon as the three of you are down, and return at dusk. Do make good use of your time."

"Can't he ever just say 'good job'?" Asuna muttered, walking to join Kirito by the rail. "I mean, honestly…."

Kizmel chuckled, following her over. "I fear my people's airship captains—and engineers, at that—tend to be a rather stern lot, at least where their ships are concerned. Though given the risks of sailing, they do perhaps have reason." She lifted one eyebrow. "Speaking of risks. You have done this before, I trust, Kirito?"

He really didn't think he deserved the pointed look Asuna was giving him. Still, Kirito's smile was honestly confident. "We made it to the Tenth Island in the beta test. There's a few places even tighter than this out there." Though I never partied with girls for this kind of thing before. Well, except Argo, but she's… different.

Forcing thoughts of the Rat out of his mind, he carefully triggered his wrist-grapnel, just enough to let it swing free. Ramming it into Moonshadow's deck wouldn't be half as bad as a crash, but he was still pretty sure Emlas wouldn't appreciate it. Hooking it onto the rail by hand was much safer for all concerned.

With it ready, he gestured to Asuna, who came closer with a dubious expression. "Don't even think of taking advantage of this, Kirito-kun," she warned. "I'll tell Argo."

Eep. That was probably an empty threat—she couldn't possibly be any more eager to give the Rat incriminating info than he was—but Kirito had no intention of testing that. He was, therefore, very careful of where his hand went as he wrapped his free arm around Asuna's waist. Well, at least this'll be over quickly.

With her arms securely around his back, he stepped up onto the rail. "I'll be right back," he told Kizmel. "This shouldn't take long."

She nodded. "Be careful. …It really should be me going first, however. As strong as you both already are, I am a Knight…."

"And your duty is get that Key to safety," Asuna reminded her. "We'll be fine, Kizmel, I promise." She glanced past the elf girl. "If anything, I'm surprised you're not sending him down first."

"Yip!"

Kizmel glanced back at the wolf sitting behind her, currently acting more like an eager hound, and rolled her eyes. "Leaving aside the fact that it's also my duty to bring Cavall safely home to my sister, I'd not saddle Kirito with trying to carry him. For a hunter, Cavall has considerable difficulty sitting still." She waved a hand. "Go, before I change my mind."

Deciding he didn't really want to know which part she was considering, Kirito let go of the rail, and let himself fall. Asuna managed to mostly stifle her yelp, and only in the second before the grapnel's line went taut did she cling tight enough to make things awkward.

Then they were descending at a more steady pace, down through the crack into the cavern below. "Okay," Asuna said, a few meters down, "this may be the weirdest thing I've done since we've been here. …Is it odd that that makes it easier to take, somehow?"

"Most of the fun of being here is doing things we couldn't back home, right?" Kirito flexed his left hand carefully, adjusting their rate of descent. He had done this before, but it'd been a while, and the grapnel could be tricky with fine motion. Especially when doing down. "Right now, I think we need that more than ever."

"I won't argue with you on that."

Her tone made him wonder, not for the first time, what kind of nightmares Asuna had, especially on the nights when they hadn't worked themselves to exhaustion. He knew he had all too many of his own.

Soon enough, their feet touched the stone ground, and Asuna quickly stepped away. "Dark in here," she said after a moment. "There'd better be some torches around here somewhere."

"There usually are, in places like this. Though I prefer the Nightvision skill, when it becomes available, torches make it too hard to see anything coming outside their radius—shutting up now." Shying away from the glare she sent his way, he coughed and glanced upward. "So, uh, you good here for a minute?"

"Probably. If nothing in the dark tries to eat me." She waved a hand, drawing her rapier with the other and pointedly turning to face the tunnel. "Go."

Kirito went, ascending at a rate just a bit faster than was probably safe. At least it was easier with just his own weight to worry about—and he even managed to avoid bashing his head on Moonshadow's hull, successfully using his momentum to flip up and over.

Kizmel's eyebrows went up at his abrupt arrival. "Did something happen? I heard no sounds of battle…."

"Just fine," he said quickly. "Just, um, I figured we should get moving as quick as we can, so Captain Emlas can get the ship under cover."

"Ah. You irritated Asuna." Shaking her head with a small smile, she stepped in close. "No matter. It's good to see how well the two of you get along."

If provoking Asuna's sharp tongue was "getting along", Kirito hated to think how Kizmel defined arguments. …Which was still safer to think about than the fact that she'd unequipped her metal armor to lighten the load, and unlike Asuna seemed to have no problem at all pressing herself tightly against him the whole way down.

This has got to violate the anti-harassment code. I thought the whole idea was to protect the NPCs from perverted players?

Either that was something else Kayaba had changed, or an NPC initiating the contact wasn't a possibility the system had expected. Either way, Kirito got much more of an idea of Kizmel's figure than he was comfortable with by the time they reached the tunnel floor, and he found himself very grateful Asuna was still facing the other way.

Kizmel unhurriedly untangled herself from him when their feet were on solid ground, and with a flick of his wrist Kirito pulled his grapnel loose. "Well, we're all here," he said, hoping the darkness hid his blush. "Let's go see what the Key to the Lost Grave opens."

There was a flash, and suddenly Asuna was holding a lit torch in her free hand. "Found one!" she said triumphantly. "…So, you don't know what's in here either, Kirito-kun?"

"I don't even know if this was here in the beta test," he said, following in the fencer's wake. "I never noticed it back then—though honestly, once the first Skywall was down and airships became available, there wasn't much reason for me to explore the rest of Einsla." He shrugged. "If it was here, I doubt it had anything to do with the Dark Elves."

Personally, though, Kirito was leaning toward this particular tunnel not having existed in the beta at all. Dark Elven tunnels and caverns had a particular look to them, and this one was no different. Black stone, gleaming in the torchlight, and smoother than any natural cavern. Not quite the disturbing, light-drinking obsidian of another NPC faction he remembered, this darkness somehow felt comforting, in an odd way.

I suppose they could've reskinned this part of the map since the beta, but… somehow it doesn't feel like it.

A few meters down the tunnel, with nothing but more onyx walls yet in sight, Kizmel quietly cleared her throat. "I've been meaning to ask. Just what exactly is this 'beta test' you keep mentioning? I gather it gave you advance knowledge of Aincrad, such that most Swordmasters lack, but so far the context has escaped me."

"Um." Kirito's feet slipped on the smooth stone at that question; he hoped his quick scrabble for balance wasn't too obvious. How in the world do I explain that, anyway? Kizmel was astonishingly intelligent for an NPC, to the point that even he—maybe especially he—sometimes had trouble remembering that was exactly what she was. Kayaba had even written into the lore an explanation for the world—and himself—that allowed NPCs to react naturally to explanations of the Swordmasters in general, and the trap they'd fallen into in particular.

But how to fit the idea of a "preview" of the "transitory world" Kizmel believed SAO to be….

"I'm pretty new to this stuff myself," Asuna said, into the awkward silence. "And I wasn't part of the beta myself. But, um… think of it this way, Kizmel: it was basically a test of the spell that brought us here for real. It wasn't complete, but it gave the people involved at least something of an idea of what the real thing would be like." She glanced back. "Is that about right, Kirito-kun?"

"Y-yeah. More or less." Kirito relaxed, the sudden tension in his shoulders leaving as quick as it had come. It wasn't an exact metaphor—as far as he'd been able to tell, the full archipelago had been in the beta, there just hadn't been time to see all of it—but it was close enough. "It looks like it missed some details, though."

"Ah, I see." Kizmel nodded, looking thoughtful. "Which is why you knew of my people, yet did not expect to encounter us here." She chuckled, the sound echoing off the stone walls around them. "Not surprising, really. Kayaba may have used information gained from us for your 'beta test', but Lyusula does prefer her secrets. Even I knew of neither the Jade Key's resting place nor our current destination before I was given my current mission."

Huh. That's… pretty clever, actually. That was one of the galling things about Kayaba Akihiko, and the death game in which he'd trapped twenty thousand players: his attention to detail was almost impossible not to admire. At least for a gamer. Which still doesn't explain that one NPC in Horunka. Kayaba couldn't have known about that. There's just no way—

"So, you do know what's up ahead, Kizmel?" Asuna looked back again, torchlight dancing over her questioning look. "What is it?"

The elf girl chuckled again. "Oh, now that would be spoiling the surprise, Asuna. Let me just say, it may not be as impressive as it should, but I believe you'll be pleased nonetheless."

Kirito blinked. "…Does it always sound like that when I'm giving out beta info?"

"Yes," Asuna said firmly, turning back to face the path ahead. "Yes, it does. You're impossible. And you, Kizmel, had better not be picking up his bad habits!"

Kizmel's laughter, bright and cheering, was somehow worth the taste of his own medicine. "Asuna, I believe his habits will be the least of your worries, before long… and in any case, you needn't wait much longer for answers."

If he hadn't already gotten used to the light from Asuna's torch, the sudden brightness ahead would've—well, come as close to hurting as SAO ever allowed. Deep blue flames, flanking an onyx door that just barely stood out from the surrounding stone. Almost featureless, except for a keyhole and a carved handle.

It didn't take a beta tester to know what to do from there. Stepping in front, Kirito slipped in the key Captain Emlas had given him, turned it till it clicked, and pulled the door open. On the other side—

"Wow…." Asuna tossed the torch back into the tunnel, letting it crash to the stone and go out, and ran into the cavern beyond. Wide and tall, it must've been two hundred meters across, and fifty high; Kirito realized it was dug up into one of the mountains above. Compared to the tunnel, it was also surprisingly bright, lit by a vast opening on the far side that led out into the sky. So low beneath Einsla's surface, the roiling Cloud Sea lent its own light from below.

Following Asuna in, Kirito found his boots sinking into dried, crumbling soil, not ringing against solid rock. The walls and ceiling were as smooth as the access tunnel, but oddly gray and mottled instead of pure black. And around them, scattered throughout the cavern….

"I suppose this is to be expected," Kizmel mused, looking around at the petrified, long-dead trees that still stood in the dry soil. "None of my people have been been in here since the Sealing, like as not. Hardly a shadow of the grandeur it would once have had. Nonetheless…." She smiled. "It's good to see a little of home. May we soon see this as it would be alive, on the next island."

"Can we use that?" Asuna pointed to the long, lean shape cradled by the cavern's outer edge, battered and wrapped in vines—the only sign of life Kirito had yet seen in the cavern. "She looks to be in bad shape, but…."

Kizmel nodded, walking up to a wooden flank. "Oh, yes," she murmured, laying her fingers against it. "It will take time, time we might otherwise spend charting the Skywall Tower. But there's life here yet." She turned a warm smile on the two players. "Come, my comrades. When the Skywall falls, we shall be ready."

---

December 2nd, 2032

---

Kizmel hadn't seen nearly as much of Tolbana as she'd expected, in the two weeks since first passing through the town's Safe Haven wards. At the time, even after two weeks of sharing a cabin with two humans, she had not quite realized the two of them were nearly as uncomfortable with other Swordmasters as were her people.

Between staying in a house on the very edge of town and spending most of every day dealing with tasks in the surrounding wilderness, she thought she'd seen no more than half of Tolbana. Until the day Argo the Rat brought word that someone had called a meeting, she'd no idea what the far end of the town held.

Certainly she'd not known of the amphitheater dominating the northwest side. Not until she walked through the crumbling gate, Kirito to her right and Asuna beyond him. She found herself immediately wondering what purpose it had originally served, given that its state of disrepair suggested the current residents of Tolbana had no use for it.

Stone, it was, battered and weathered, with seven levels of bench-like tiers descending to a hollow. Dominating that low center was a fountain, at least as dilapidated as the rest of the amphitheater yet still bubbling with fresh water.

At the least, Tolbana's disinterest was apparently convenient for the Swordmasters. When the three of them walked in and found seats on one of the highest tiers, there were already dozens present, all of them with the arms and armor of the summoned warriors.

"So many," Asuna murmured, face hidden in the shadow of her hood. "I'm glad to see it. After everything, I didn't think so many would show up for this, knowing how dangerous it is."

Kizmel nodded, still carefully concealed by her own enchanted hood. Though over one hundred Swordmasters had ventured as far as Tolbana, from what she'd observed—and Argo had, for a price, reported—most of them were still cautiously building up their strength and resources. She could only remember seeing a few parties wandering into the Skywall Tower, while she and her comrades had been exploring it.

Their group had mostly avoided those others, and indeed the Swordmasters in general seemed unfortunately wary of one another. Nonetheless, she recognized a few of the faces now ringing the amphitheater, and a few others stood out from the crowd. A very tall axeman, skin darker than any other Swordmaster she'd seen—were it not for his ears, she might've thought him one of her own people—was the first she noticed, sitting straight and confident a couple of tiers down. He was also bald, the first such she'd seen among the Swordmasters.

Not too far from him sat a swordsman who might've been made as his antithesis: short, pale, and with the oddest hair Kizmel had seen in her entire life. That reminds me of—what was the plant near Castle Galey? A cactus? How very strange. Though it was hard to tell from behind and at a distance, he seemed quite tense.

By contrast, the man who caught her eye on the opposite end of the amphitheater might've been made of stone. Gray-haired, face hidden by a peculiar white mask, he wore a blue robe edged in white triangles. He also carried a curved sword Kirito had once told her was a katana, and he sat with the utter stillness that told Kizmel he knew exactly what he was doing with it.

Down close to the fountain that lay at the center of the amphitheater, her gaze was drawn to someone who could hardly seem to sit still. A girl, looking somewhat younger than Kirito or Asuna, with dark hair and what looked suspiciously like an Anneal Blade slung over her back. In stark contrast to every other Swordmaster Kizmel could see, she was the picture of excited anticipation.

"You think this is a lot?" Kirito said, breaking into her observations. When she looked his way, he was shaking his head. "There's only forty-four people here, counting us and Argo—and don't expect to see Argo in the boss fight. That's four short of a full raid party."

Kizmel perked up, interested. "Forty-eight, for a single foe? You'd hardly so many Knights in one place for anything less than a pitched battle, of a kind my people haven't fought in centuries."

"We're not Knights," he reminded her. "There are some players—Swordmasters—who could do it with fewer, but not many. And that was when this was a game to us. Now, when our lives are really on the line? None of us are that good yet."

"…Ah. Of course." It was too easy to forget, sometimes, just how ill-prepared the Swordmasters had been. Her companions came across as inexperienced, yes, but hardly complete novices. "Put that way, however, I'm more surprised. If the Guardian is expected to be so strong, one would expect few to be so brave."

"Not brave. Scared." When the two girls fixed him with questioning looks, Kirito looked down at the stone bench, frowning. "How do I put it… I'd expect people to be afraid of being left behind. In this world, victory in battle is all that matters. Miss out on a fight this big, and everyone will leave you behind."

It was Kizmel's turn to frown, wondering what nuance of the Swordmasters' newborn society she was missing. Asuna, though, slowly nodded. "…I think I get it," she said softly. "Like falling out of the top ten in class, or below the seventieth percentile on a test?"

He blinked. "Y-yeah. That's… not a bad comparison, really."

Kizmel cleared her throat. "And this means…?"

The two of them looked over at her—Kirito sheepish, Asuna with a shadowed look in her eyes her hood couldn't quite explain. "Where we come from," the fencer said slowly, "education is… well, pretty much everything. If you don't do well enough in school, you might never catch up. Your entire adult life rides on it."

There was a deeper, more personal story there, the elf was sure. But Kirito was nodding, and picked up where Asuna left off. "She's right. Here in Aincrad? With the stat system that governs Swordmaster strength, missing out on the experience and gear from even one boss fight might be crippling. We have to keep up, or the other players will leave us behind—and we might never be strong enough to keep fighting on the front line." He smiled, with little humor. "And you can bet it won't be long before that starts killing a Swordmaster's social life, too."

For a moment, she just turned that over in her mind. "I see." She'd known about the basic concept, she herself was bound to it in this world, after all, but she realized now she'd never properly appreciated the implications. In a real war, after all, the enemy did not adhere to a linear progression.

Which means this is not a war as I know it, she realized. Kirito may be inexperienced, but he may understand this world, and its battles, better than I. She made a mental note to discuss the issue with him later, in much greater detail. And to point it out to Captain Emlas, as well.

This is why my comrades died to the Forest Elf, while two novice humans were enough to save my life.

There was no time to ruminate on her realization just then, though. One more Swordmaster had arrived, walking confidently into the arena, and without breaking stride he leapt onto the lip of the fountain at the amphitheater's center. "Hello, everyone!" he called out, standing straight and tall, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword slung at his side. "Thank you all for coming!"

Tall, this one. Handsome—at least for a human. Shining blue armor, which Kizmel judged to be of about the highest quality to be found on Einsla. With that, his eye-catching blue hair—odd color for a Swordmaster, that—the shield on his back, and the Anneal Blade at his waist, the man was as close to the living ideal of a human knight as she could imagine.

Perhaps some true knights were among the Swordmasters trapped here?

"My name is Diavel," the man continued, smiling at the assembled crowd. "And I like to think my class is 'Knight'!"

She was surprised when Kirito snorted at the introduction; the more so when other Swordmasters outright laughed. "Aw, c'mon!" one of them called out. "SAO doesn't even use a class system! Might as well just call yourself 'Hero', right?"

Kizmel didn't understand the derision, but in any case Diavel didn't seem bothered. "Fair enough—but I'm not so arrogant as to claim a title like that when I haven't done anything yet! But," he added, raising a hand to his chest, "the time is coming that we might all be the heroes Aincrad needs. This morning, my party and I found the way to the final floor of the Skywall Tower!"

The hubbub that provoked, she understood perfectly. Though they'd been busy with their own "sidequest", as Kirito had put it, she and her companions had done their fair share of scouting the Tower. They'd even reached the nineteenth floor, just below the top, but she'd had no idea anyone had explored so much of it. From all appearances, neither had anyone else.

Diavel raised his hand again, quieting the murmurers. It was a measure of his sheer presence that as fractious a group as the Swordmasters seemed to be obeying so readily. "The top floor is smaller than those below," he said. "Therefore, I expect we'll find the boss room early tomorrow. And with it, the key to lowering the first Skywall, and opening the sky itself."

The hush that followed, Kizmel also understood. Though she suspected she didn't grasp the full meaning it had to a people who came from a world without airships, she was just as trapped on Einsla as any of them.

"It's been a long month," Diavel said then, solemnly. "Over two thousand people have died, and only now are we reaching the first milestone in our quest to free ourselves. But!" He swung out his arm, gesturing sharply at the shimmering gold above and behind him, blocking off the sky. "That's because so few have come forward to fight. If we win this, my friends, we'll be an example to every player trapped on this island, in this world! We'll show everyone that it can be done, that we can challenge this world and live! And with every Swordmaster we inspire, every one that joins the fight, we'll be that much stronger, that much quicker to clear the way to Bifrost, and home!"

That brought a cheer, and Kizmel herself wasn't unmoved by the self-proclaimed knight's words. Even so, there was a shadow of melancholy to her feelings—and she couldn't help but notice neither of her companions joined the cheering, either.

To me, it's the understanding that the Swordmasters only seek freedom, not the aid Kayaba promised they'd bring my people. I wonder why Kirito and Asuna might have mixed feelings here?

"Hold on just one second!"

The shout cut right through the cheers. All eyes, including Kizmel's, were suddenly on the source of it: the short, cactus-haired man she'd noticed earlier, who now jumped to his feet. Stalking into the amphitheater's center, he whirled to direct a glare at the assembled Swordmasters.

"Diavel-han's talkin' about 'inspiring' people. Well, y'know what 'inspiration' needs?" The man didn't wait for a reply. "Trust, that's what! An' I'd say there's at least five or ten of ya right here who can't be trusted one bit!"

That started the crowd muttering again, and left Kizmel blinking in confusion. A glance to her right, though, showed her Kirito wincing, hand twitching as if he wanted to cover his face. "I knew this would happen," he muttered, almost too low for even her to hear. "…It's not like he's all wrong…."

"Excuse me, good sir," Diavel broke in, still the picture of a knight. "By all means, let's hear out your grievance. But could you please first introduce yourself?"

"Hmph! Fair 'nough. The name's Kibaou." His voice was much rougher than Diavel's, and if Kizmel wasn't mistaken he wasn't even speaking quite the same dialect as other Swordmasters. Kibaou's indignation, however, came through perfectly clear. "Now, then! I've got the guts to say who I am, so how 'bout the rest of ya show some spine? Own up to who ya are! You know who I mean!"

He thrust out one arm then, jabbing a pointing finger at the gathered Swordmasters. He cannot possibly mean elves, can he? Glancing around as unobtrusively as she could, Kizmel could only see two others wearing hoods at all like hers, and they were Asuna and—almost hidden behind a pillar—Argo. There is also that masked man over there, but his ears are plainly visible.

Diavel cleared his throat. "By 'them', Kibaou-san, I assume you mean the beta testers?"

Oh. Flicking her gaze to her right, she saw Kirito's hands begin to clench. The two thousand "players" who had advance knowledge of this world. …Why should Kibaou distrust them?

"You're damn right!" Kibaou gave Diavel a jerky nod, before turning the full force of his glare back on the audience. Beginning to pace, he said, "The first day we were here, right after Kayaba's damn speech, the beta testers ran right outta town! They knew where to go to find money, gear, the best grindin' spots, an' they didn't share any of it with the rest of us!" He spun on his heel, stalking back the other way. "They coulda stayed in town, told everybody where to find the good stuff, but no! They only cared 'bout themselves, an' by the time the rest of us started goin' out, they'd already taken the best of it!"

There was context Kizmel was sorely missing. She certainly understood the concept of limited hunting grounds, but the rest of it—the emphasis Swordmasters placed on "rare" equipment and "grinding" for experience—she was rapidly realizing was more complex than it seemed.

Whatever the exact implications were, she could see Kibaou's words were striking a nerve with Kirito. Asuna's eyes were narrowing in indignation, but Kirito—

"We're s'posed ta set an example?" Kibaou returned to the center, planted his feet, and glared up at the Swordmasters. "Then start with trust! Start with payin' up! If you want me to even think of trustin' ya in a fight, split your goods with the rest of us who're gonna be fightin' that boss!"

An outrageous demand. Kizmel didn't entirely understand Kibaou's complaint, nor why Kirito seemed to think there was merit to it, but she did understand one thing: the uncouth man's entire argument rested on the assumption that the "beta testers" had not been at risk themselves, and that everything they'd done had been for only their own benefit.

She couldn't speak to most "beta testers". As far as she knew, the only ones she'd met were Kirito and Argo. But she'd first met Kirito doing his best to help Asuna—a complete newcomer to Aincrad—survive and stand on her own. A first meeting that had also saved Kizmel herself, nearly at the cost of Kirito's own life.

And my own sins are blacker than his by far, she thought, and gathered herself to stand. I'll not see him so cruelly slandered—

"Hold up just a minute there, bud."

Only when Kirito abruptly slumped back did Kizmel realize he'd been about to stand and say something himself. Instead, the two of them turned to look at the source of the new voice: the tall, dark axeman she'd noticed earlier. He was raising a hand for attention, and when Diavel nodded to him he stood.

"My name is Agil," he said, walking to stand opposite Kibaou. "For the record, I'm a newbie. Got my start with one of those classes the Fuurinkazan School's running in Origia. I didn't know anything more about this game than anybody else, when I started. So." He turned to Kibaou. "Let me make sure I got this right. You think the three thousand players who've died, died because the beta testers just ran out and took all the good stuff, instead of staying in Origia to train everybody up?"

Kizmel had to give Kibaou some measure of credit. Though he was clearly intimidated by Agil's sheer size, he quickly rallied, spine stiffening. "That's right!" he snapped. "I heard they got all the way to the Tenth Island during the beta! How many more players would still be alive if the betas told us everything they knew, huh?"

In a way, she had to admit that was a fair point. If the illusion those Swordmasters had gone through before Kayaba's true spell had been so accurate, the intelligence gained from it would doubtless have been invaluable. Information, she knew all too well, won more wars than force of arms.

From the murmurs among the other Swordmasters in the amphitheater, she wasn't the only one thinking of that. From the set of his jaw, Kirito was, as well. But Asuna only sat very still, watching. Kizmel wondered if the fencer had realized the same flaws in the argument that she had.

"Well, Kibaou, I'll admit you've got a reasonable point," Agil said, giving the shorter man a nod. "All things being equal, I might even say you're right to want reparations." That drew more murmurs, and a surprised look from Kibaou—one that quickly turned suspicious, even before the axeman continued. "Thing is, Kibaou, things are a whole lot messier than you think."

"And what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, first? You ask me, the death rate's got nothing to do with knowing or not knowing. Speaking for myself, I didn't realize at first just what it meant that we can die here. Tactics are a lot different when you can't eat the death penalty and respawn." Agil shook his head, and even from where she was Kizmel could see a darkness in his eyes. "My bet is, people raced right out, thinking they just had to be a little more careful—and never thought it through, or bothered to learn SAO's rules. Full-dive VR's different, man, and SAO's the biggest game it's got.

"And the word is, an awful lot of the betas who got stuck here with us are dead, too. Supposed to be around twelve hundred of them got the retail version, and supposedly at least five hundred of 'em aren't here anymore."

Kirito let out a breath, like he'd been punched. A quick glance his way showed Kizmel her comrade's face had gone pale, and though he was obviously trying to control himself, his shoulders were shivering. Asuna wondered if he knew any of the dead. I would be surprised, now, if he did not.

As unobtrusively as she could, she rested her hand on his, and was glad to see Asuna subtly shift to bump his shoulder. It was perhaps too soon to say the three of them were friends, but they were at least comrades. Comrades saw to their own.

A hush had come over the amphitheater again, and even Kibaou seemed to have been brought up short. Then his face twisted in a scowl again, and he gestured dismissively. "Big words, if you're right. But how do ya know that, huh? Any betas tell ya that to your face?"

"Head of the Fuurinkazan School did some digging," Agil told him, folding his arms. "Seems he got his start from a beta, and he wanted to know how they were doing. Do I know for sure it's true? No. But I believe it, for the same reason I don't blame the betas for not coming right out and spilling their guts."

"May I ask why you're so forgiving, Agil-san?" Diavel put in, rejoining the conversation. He looked as cool and calm as ever, but there was curiosity in his expression now. "Not that I disagree, by any means, but before I give my reasons I'd like to hear yours in full."

"Why I stood up, Sir Knight." Agil reached into a belt pouch, and pulled out a small, hardbound book. "This here? It's a strategy guide, sold for zero Cor at a shop in town. In every town, I've found one of these waiting. Basic info on local quests and monsters, already there when players arrive. For free."

"Free?" Kizmel heard Kirito mutter. "You made me pay full price, Rat…."

"I've seen those, too," Kibaou said, rolling his eyes. "So?"

"So, who do you think wrote these little books, Kibaou?" Agil shook his head again. "That fast? The author had to have it from the betas. Which gets you wondering, why give it to us in bite-size chunks, not all at once? My bet is, 'cause not everything in the retail version matches the beta test. That's how it is in gaming. So people are out there checking every little detail, make sure it checks out." He paused. "And anybody who didn't, probably isn't here to warn us."

Kizmel nodded, under the cover of her hood. It was a treasure beyond gold to know the paths and the enemy—and a trap deadlier than any sword to blindly trust that information, when some of it was wrong.

Though my life was saved by exactly that, she thought, blackly amused by the irony.

Whether Kibaou had any answer to that, she didn't know. Diavel chose that moment to clap his hands, bringing attention back to him. "Well said, Agil-san!" he said loudly. "Yes, better to be sure, than to walk into what we think is a snake's den only to find a dragon. I did that once myself," he added, smiling ruefully. "Though the information was just from an NPC, and really, it was only a small dragon…."

He's still lucky to be alive. Even small dragons are vicious when their hoards are trespassed…. Hm? Kizmel frowned, a strange feeling tickling the edge of her sixth sense. What is that…?

"That being said, the information is indeed available, my friends," Diavel went on. "And indeed, through the efforts of the beta testers, my party has made strides we never could have otherwise."

The feeling intensified. It was almost familiar, yet—not. She'd felt something akin to it before, but this sense had a peculiar flavor of its own. To be sure, most true magic was gone long before my time, but this—I ought to know this, yet I don't. And what I do recognize—surely it can't be?

There was a humming in the air then, growing stronger. First low enough that only Kizmel's ears could hear it, but soon even the Swordmasters were glancing around, wondering what it was.

"My friends," Diavel said, raising his voice over the sound, "our first task is to defeat the first Barrier Guardian, and bring down the first Skywall. Then we will be free to sail the skies—and this, my friends, is my promise that we'll reach that sky!"

The hum intensified, right along with the sense of strange magic brushing Kizmel's skin—and from the west, above the amphitheater, a hull suddenly leapt into view: the long, lean hull of an airship, keel clad in steel and two great engines mounted on her flanks. Rows of gunports lined those flanks, and as she swung around to port, a young man could seen standing on the deck, waving a sword.

"This, my friends, is the symbol of our coming victory!" Diavel called out. "When the Skywall falls, Liberator shall lead the way!"

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Author's Note:

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Yeah… I'm not going to try to make excuses for how late this chapter is. Except for one genuinely unusual factor: this required more rewrites than any chapter I have ever written before. Getting this just the way I wanted it was much harder than usual. (And I'm still not quite comfortable with the four-thousand-word argument at the end of it.)

So. Rewrites of this extent are unlikely to be a recurring factor. Also the next chapter of Monochrome Duet is closing in on finished, so there won't be quite as much of a delay before the next chapter of Rebellion begins. Which, unlike this chapter, is also planned out almost scene-for-scene, with the only real question being if I can fit all of it into a single chapter.

Chapter IV I can promise will be rather more active than this one. Just for the most obvious, it's going to be covering the Illfang battle; on top of that, at least one more major plot will be kicking off. No spoilers, but I will say the aftermath is not going to be a carbon-copy of anime Episode 2/Aria in the Starless Night.

So. Standard Boilerplate Excuses/Vague Promises out of the way, a couple of specific things to note. One bit of trivia is that the airship name "Liberator" is taken from the web novel version of Progressive Volume 3, where it was the name of the boat the published version labeled "Unleash". The latter I personally consider a dumb name for a ship, but it left the former free to be used as a neat in-joke.

As readers of Duet may recall, my Sindarin is sketchy to put it charitably. If anyone more knowledgeable than I has a correction for the bit used in the first scene, I'm all ears.

Side note: sooner or later, you'll probably be seeing some edits to the names/terminology used for the islands of Aincrad. The system I'm currently using is based on adapting numbers into place names—and only makes any sense if you happen to be able to count in multiple languages. And can figure out which, exactly, is being used, something which is likely to get worse when it gets to the double-digits. Since I don't think even I will be able to keep it straight for long… I think I need a better system. I will be brainstorming about that.

Hm. I think that about covers things here. Let me know how good/bad wading this mostly-world-building chapter was, and I hope you'll stick with me to see the more action-packed next chapter. Stay healthy, comrades, and Happy Easter. -Solid