An acidic burn ground at the back of his throat. His mind shifted like a light switch with each step toward the corpse before him. Shirou stopped right next to Viktora's body. Blood, it oozed from a head wound. The corner of her forehead was caving him. Her eye was mush in the socket. It's fluids mixing with the crimson.
Shirou reached down. The heat in his hand was stolen by the stone-cold carcass. Blood spilled and trickled through her wounds, yet it was long devoid of life. Would it continue until her body was drained of blood?
He pulled his hand away, standing all the way back up. His foot accidentally hit Viktoria's limp arm, causing it to swivel like a pool noodle.
What happened? Who killed her? Could he have… helped her?
Shirou shivered. His head hurt, pain radiating. Nail after Nail piercing it. He should've been there to help, to heal and protect her. He wasn't. He'd failed again and again. This was always the result. Failure. Failure. Failure!
Shirou's eyes chilled, drying against the snow forced against them. His body shivered, eyes closed themselves to the world, wings stiffened.
A chaotic storm waltzed within. His shifting mind starting to settle. Fatalism took the reigns in his mind. His soul quivering, emotions twisting. The pain of knowing he kept failing to help people dulled, and a wrong joy sharpened. Wrong became right. Nails shattered chains. Light swallowed by darkness.
Shirou opened his eyes. His expression was empty. Devoid of hope. The awful endings of all sinful life were already pinned by fate. What was the point of hope in such a world?
The changeling blinked a few times, cold eyes chilling his eyelids. His mind settled completely as he instinctively grasped his change. His light leaned on the dark too much. Failed too often. The death of Viktoria was the last big push for his Unseelie side to become dominant.
How odd it felt to be Unseelie. His face felt so heavy. Smiling would be so hard. If he somehow found something worth smiling about. Any outward extroversion he might've had was chained inside him. Replacing it with… well, he wouldn't call it viciousness. That sounds evil. Mischievous at worst. Even if nothing matters, wicked people should still pay for hurting the weak. The righteous anger burned cold but intense.
Shirou looked down at the corpse of Viktoria, then at the open door. He may not have done it, but it wouldn't look good standing over the corpse with blood on your hands. His lighter side still mourned inside his chest, guilt at the failure reaching him. Ignoring it, he turned around and walked away without saying anything. A corpse didn't need words. It'd just be self-satisfaction.
He closed the door behind him, making his way to his room. Even as an Unseelie fae, his eyes kept away from the ceiling. However, the tower felt friendlier now. He reached his bedroom in record time, moving to his bed and reaching under it to pull out the small knife. The shive he'd found earlier and hid under his bed. Looks like that turned out to be a good idea. Placing it in his pants pocket, he left his room.
Rene. Goffred. Vaiva.
Who else but those three could kill Viktoria. Someone could've snuck in, but what were the odds of that? Low to none.
Goffred didn't do it. The murder was brutal and cruel, neither of which described Goffred. The other Seelie boy was too naïve and self-righteous to bash someone's skull in.
Vaiva would've eaten Viktoria to hide the evidence or just because she was hungry. The room would've been more damaged, too.
That left one. He knew the oldest of their group was with Viktoria last. Rene's size and strength were more than enough to crush a small girl. There was a motive to… one he gave him. Would that make it his fault… even if it wasn't, it would still be his fault for not saving her.
Rene was the most likely culprit. Thus, guilty until proven innocent.
Getting the other two unlikely suspects to help investigate would be best. Once they see the crime scene, they will naturally agree with Rene's guilt. Killing the older teen quickly before he fights back will require them to work together. It'd be best to set up a way to communicate beforehand as well since they wouldn't be able to once Rene is dead.
He stopped in front of the kitchen door. Gathering himself, crushing down the trusting part of himself that didn't want to hurt anybody and just wanted to help. It was odd how holding back the dark part of his mind never hurt, but chaining his light did – Like choking out the breath that gives one life.
Shirou opened the door and found Vaiva still standing there, stuffing her face. The girl turned to look at him, freezing as she met his eyes. Her jaw fell slightly, letting food drip out of it. "What?"
What was the matter with her? He hadn't said anything about the murder yet…
Glancing to the side, he looked at the reflection of his eyes in a bottle. They'd changed. The brilliant, vibrant blue inverted to its opposite. A dark, dull red. Not the brightness of fire or the red of blood but the shade of the despair of all those who tried to reach their dreams but failed. The lack of pupils made it hard to focus on the middle and not get lost in their depths. Their color must've changed with the turning of his mind to darkness. Would his wings be tainted as well? The thought grated against him.
"Viktoria is dead. Murdered to death," Shirou coldly explained, blinking as he turned back to look Vaiva. The other changeling's lips turned up by the smallest margins, grinding against her tusks. Eyes as pointed as an arrow.
"Sure, she is," Vaiva snorted, spraying food out of her mouth. The scraps landed on the table, half chewed. Disgusting. It made him almost want to puke.
"I'm not joking. Her head is bashed in, and her body is in her room," Shirou dryly explained, walking closer to Vaiva. A bit of bite into his voice. "And stop spitting your food on the table!"
"Does it really matter? I'm gonna eat it later," Vaiva waved him off. "If ya want me to go see Viktoria for some reason, just say it. I'll go once I'm done in a few."
Shirou frowned, deciding to focus on the more pressing matter first. "It's disgusting, Vaiva. No one wants to eat on something covered in your drool."
"Ya know I clean up after myself," she grumbled before changing the subject. "Ya never answer what happened to ya eyes. They look better now, huh. Ya also acten and sound a little off…"
"When I discovered Viktoria's body, my mind swapped to Unseelie," Shirou sighed in frustration. Did this really matter? There's a killer on the loose they need to punish and disgusting eating habits to deal with.
"No wonder ya eyes look better," Vaiva said, walking toward him to get a better look at his eyes. "I hate it when people pity me. Before, it was like ya were looking down on me, thinkin' I need help or somethin'. Now, ya don't give a fish's ass. Ya aren't pitying me. Ya ain't think about me as another other than what I am. Thank god."
The changeling barely repressed a desire to lash out. Holding himself from saying he does care. He wouldn't have gone Unseelie if he didn't care beyond anything else. Nothing hurt more than the inevitable death of those around him. "Then you believe me?"
"Maybe I'll go check when I'm done," Vaiva answered, unconcerned, as she went back to the table.
"You better," Shirou muttered, leaving the room to find Goffred. His sense of honor and self-importance might make him treat this more seriously. Or he could end up being an annoyance that only gets in the way –Like a noble who curses a plan for not being to their satisfaction but being unable to come up with anything else.
The fairy stopped in front of the door to the bath. Goffred liked to take one after eating every morning. He'd have to either go in or wait for him to be done with his hours-long soaks - that keep getting longer and longer. There was neither the time nor the patience to wait for him.
Walking into the room, the Unseelie childling swallowed once or twice at the thought of having to drag the younger boy out of the water with force. He wouldn't do that. He would leave or assume Goffred is the killer in that case.
Said boy was bathing, the water's steam filling the air. Clouding his sight. His focus sharpened to make sure he didn't stop too close to the water. The person he needed was facing away from him. "Goffred?"
The Sidhe noble jumped, squicking in fright. The water splashed and waved. A second passed before he stopped, sinking into the water as if to hide. "Is there something the matter? Have you finally decided to bathe yourself?!"
Shirou glared into the back of the boy's head. Goffred only did it because he enjoyed it since not bathing in the Dreaming didn't cause you to stink. It was pointless for fairies to do it… but it was human. More than one person would wack him if they found out how long it'd been since he'd last bathed. They'd have to hunt him down first, and he had wings. Shirou did his best to keep his annoyance from his voice. "No. Viktoria has been murdered. Her body is in her room –"
"Wh – What did you say?" Goffred said, his body freezing as the temperature in the room chilled. It was impossible to see what expression he was making from where Shirou was standing.
"Viktoria is dead," Shirou dryly snapped back. Frustration, on the level of accidentally burning your toast, forced him to narrow his eyes. "Get out and meet in her room – get dressed first."
"I – I – what? – How –" Goffred stuttered repeatedly, disbelief and anguish singing below the words.
The Unseelie fae blinked, staring at the back of the other boy's head. His angry expression was unchanged by the disbelief before him. He wasn't going to comfort Goffred's naivety or delusion.
He turned around, departing for Viktoria's room. The icy steel of his heart undented.
Shirou reached his destination. The door to the room lying open. The smell of shadows decaying lingered in the afterglow of light. Entering, he found Vaiva looking over the corpse of their dead companion. Her gaze fliched over to him as he approached. "Looks like ya weren't kidding, were ya?"
"No," Shirou said, looking around the room. He'd only briefly looked around earlier, but he'd notice if Vaiva disturbed anything important. Upon closer inspection, nothing seemed out of place from last time. He'd expect one or two things to be messed with by Vaiva when she was alone in the room. "You haven't eaten anything?"
"What'd ya think?" She said, looking up at him. Her mouth was clean and tusk white. "Blah, not now. Anyway, where's the fancypants chiven?"
"He's coming. Sometime soon, after he finishes getting dressed," Shirou answered, tilting his head ever so slightly. "Why? Do you suspect him?"
Vaiva's eyes blinked two before she started laughing, much to Shirou's chagrin. He was just fishing for any unknown information. That's not worthy of such mocking laughter. "Nah, I didn't think that up, but it's hilarious. He has that art, remember? Let him look into the past? He just gotta get him to use it to tell who the killer is."
…
That was right. Solving this case would be easy with his art. One tap and they'd know everything. Super convenient… What was going to go wrong?
He'd put the stuff-going-wrong-meter capping out at 50% but wouldn't be surprised if it reached 90%.
"Is there something we're supposed to do with the body?"
"Ya know as much as me," Vaiva answered, glancing back down at Viktoria. "Vik's dead, I'd say her afterlife would be as good as we bury her, but she's going to be reborn, so what's the point?"
"Respecting the dead," Shirou muttered, looking over the body of the girl. She was younger than him, but she'd never get to live her life. Because someone stole it from her. "Rene was the last person to see her."
"Ya trying to imply somethin'?"
"Rene is strong enough and had a reason to," Shirou bitterly spoke as his eyes lingered on Viktoria's eye. "Obviously, he's guilty."
"Nah. Ya need evidence to call someone guilty. Without that, we could say anybody is the killer. It could've been ya. Or that raccoon back for revenge!"
Shirou didn't acknowledge the idea he could've done it. That was blatantly ridiculous. He wouldn't kill an innocent unless it was necessary to help people or themselves.
The suggestion of the tanuki led to him looking up at Viktoria's caved-in head. The flesh was broken into multiple slips of skin that ran back to her body. Their ends dipped into her body through the hole. Very little of her smushed eye was outside the socket. Rather, it looked like it'd been pushed in.
The tanuki used a knife. The wounds didn't match.
"No, the tanuki didn't do it," Shirou rebuked her right as they heard steps approaching them.
"She truly is… deceased," Goffred weakly said. His eyes were wide, and his right hand covered his mouth. The neck of his clothing was damp from his still-wet hair. "How could this tragedy have happened?"
"Killing. Murder."
"Yeah, and don't ya act like ya care. Ya barely talked to her."
"Do not dare say I lack care for my fellows! A noble always cares about those under him," Goffred shouted back, losing control of his emotions. He paused as his eyes met Shirou's. "What happened to your eyes?"
"My Seelie half is taking a backseat. Viktoria's killer must be tracked down and punished."
"What?" Goffred uttered. The color draining from his body, and his hands shaking. "How could you fall to depravity and darkness?!"
"Depravity?" Shirou slowly repeated the word. His wings were as still as a frozen lake. The accusation about darkness might be true, but depravity? That makes it sound like he was chasing base desires rather than ideals. "I'm mostly the same as always, only with a few differences."
"Few?! Unseelie are reckless fools intent on destroying everything and pursuing their wants! It isn't like putting on a differently colored shirt!"
"I don't want to destroy good things," Shirou contemplated his wants. Childish excitement beat in his heart. "Only bad things. If I destroy everything bad in the world, only good will be left. Everyone will be happy and smiling."
"Makes sense to me," Vaiva chimed in.
"You have only proven my point!" Goffred rudely ignored Vaiva.
"I see. I don't care," Shirou dryly stated. "Use your arts on Viktoria to see who killed her."
"I… I shall," Goffred said, but he kept his eyes on Shirou. It seems that being Unseelie means being suspect in the Sidhe's eyes. As long as the problems were held until after they caught Viktoria's killer. The noble seemed to be thinking something along the same lines, but Shirou could only guess. "I will need to use a bunk to ensure the spell works and allows me to see far enough back."
Goffred's art was chronos, relating to time. He seemed to use an incantation to cast it, 'singing' a song three times in a row. Repeating. And repeating. The Sidhe's song was perfectly the same.
Words, Tone, Timing, Body language.
They never changed – like the first rendition was cut out of time and replayed after it ended. The current moment identical to the past when the past should never be the 'present'.
Goffred finished the second past in the third present. He reached out and placed his hand on Viktoria's head. There was the scent of a clock burning as it failed to tick backward. Shirou could see its steam as the other boy removed his hand from the past.
"The spell, it failed," Goffred said with a shocked expression. His eyes were on the hand he tried to use to look into the past. "I know my bunk was perfect, yet it did naught. Something blocked my path, making the art more difficult."
"Just use more POWEEERR!" Vaiva ordered, raising her hands with the word. "It'll make the spell easier."
"No," Goffred denied, giving her a look of disgust. "That would be an inelegant waste."
"So, ya wouldn't do it because of ya pride."
Shirou frowned, his annoyance showing bright as day. If Goffred was going to get super noble on him, then there was nothing he could do to force him to act pragmatically. They'd just have to solve this some other way.
"Logically, the murderer has to be one of us," Shirou started, crossing his arms. "Rene was the last one to be with her, and he was angry. He is strong enough to murder Viktoria without getting injured, too."
"Are you really accusing Rene, one of our own?!" Goffred shouted aghast.
"He already went through this shrick earlier," Vaiva told him. The noble childling didn't take that well either.
"Why are you trying so hard to paint one of our friends as a murderer of another?!" Goffred said while moving closer to Shirou. "That would never happen!"
"Yeah, and ya know, Shirou doesn't got much proof either. He only has his word. For all we know, he could've murdered her and is using Rene as a scapegoat. Now I think about it, he didn't deny being the killer earlier."
"Because thinking I did it is stupid," Shirou defended himself. Those two were wasting so much time with their accusations when they should be catching the killer.
"Proclaims the Unseelie changeling," Goffred rebuked him. "Only a fool could trust a single utterance out of your mouth."
Shirou's fists shook as he uncurled his arms. Icy Anger bubbled up before chilling and sharpening. Getting mad at these two was useless. Unless something changes, they won't get anything done.
"What are you guys doing here?" Rene's voice suddenly came up from behind. He entered the room without looking shocked at what he found.
"It's truly awful, Rene! Viktoria has met her untimely demise!" Goffred's mood shifted from the accusations he was launching at Shirou to sorrow as he ran up to Rene. He hugged the older teen, placing his face into him. "Shirou's trying to accuse you of doing it!"
Snitch.
Shirou's teeth grinded together. Since when were they that close? Or was this just because he was sympathetic enough to whatever was going through Goffred's head?
"Hmm… that's all right," Rene said, placing his hand on Goffred's head. Shirou could see it was tight and rough rather than comforting. The older teen pulled the younger boy's head back. Rene's eyes briefly flickered to Viktoria's body before turning back to meet Goffred's. "It's great you're willing to come to me with these problems."
Goffred sniffled and nodded, hugging Rene tightly again.
"Ya didn't tell Rene?" Vaiva asked Shirou.
"He's most likely the killer," the winged fairy justified himself.
"Sure he is," Vaiva sarcastically said under her breath.
Shirou waited for Rene to do something. Ready to stop him when he inevitably tried to kill Goffred, but it never happened. Eventually, Goffred let go of Rene and did his best to calm down while the older teen walked over to them. Standing right next to the body.
"The three of you haven't disturbed the body?" Rene asked them, looking over Viktoria with an appraising eye. Somehow – or for some reason – he was skipping over Shirou's accusations rather than trying to fight them.
It was infuriating. What was Shirou supposed to do when he'd done the same thing?! Pointing it out was just asking the other two to jump on him for that. He couldn't ask Rene point blank either.
"Nope, I didn't. Goffred almost passed out just trying to touch it," Vaiva explained, with a smile fitting for someone remembering a previous memory, not investigating a corpse. "He's fancypants past-looken art failed cuz he ain't good enough. I'm thinken the raccoon did it as revenge."
"It must have survived and is here for its vengeance!" Goffred shouted with fright, his body shaking.
"That doesn't make sense," Shirou pointed out, gesturing at Viktoria's headwound.
"It makes more sense than anything else. When you eliminate the impossible, what remains must be the truth!" Goffred countered.
Shirou felt a weight gain on his shoulders. One of them murdering Viktoria was impossible in his mind. Nothing would convince him otherwise. Shirou could see it in his eyes.
"Then why don't we spit up and search for it?" Rene suggested.
The now red-eyed fairy nearly felt the ground drop from under him at the suggestion. Splitting up was an awful idea! It made them easy targets for the killer.
"No! We stick together!" Shirou rejected the idea before the others could get a word in. His spine chilled at the way Rene's rage-filled eyes briefly narrowed before returning to normal.
"Why? Ya know it'll make things easier?" Vaiva was the first to speak. Her stomach rumbled. "We'll cover more ground and be done by lunch."
"You wouldn't get lunch if you're dead."
"If we work together, that monster will undoubtedly fail to take another life," Goffred sided with Rene's idea without a second thought. Sounding cheesy while he did it, too. Seelie fairies were the worst.
"If one of us is the killer and we split up, one of us would be alone against a murderer," Shirou protested, yet felt it would do anything.
"Shirou, we are doing what I said," Rene said coldly, walking to the side and blocking the doorway. "Either cooperate, or you will be locked in your room."
Shirou took a step back, eyes glancing at the others. Neither jumped to support him. He was by himself.
"You'll have to drag me there," Shirou spoke lowly. He could only see the worst happening either way. The result of either decision was death, and in his Unseelie eyes, there were no alternatives.
There was only one logical conclusion he could come to.
Fight. Fight as hard as he possibly can.
He took a step back, ready to fight. They couldn't kill him. All he needed to do was escape the room and then think of what to do ne-
Shirou's eyes widen. His sight saw glamour being spun in Rene's hands, a hint of a glow appearing around them. Did he use some kind of magic? What did it do?!
Before he could react, he felt a fist in his gut. Then another. And another. And another in a different spot. Moving faster than he could see.
Pain. Each blow hurt his insides. It was like the iron bar going through his chest all over again.
He let out a shout of pain, and the world went dark.
Shifting. Rearranging. Fixing. Pain. Pain in each step.
The winged fairy's consciousness slowly returned. The pained sensations within awakened him as he healed. His mind slowly, step by step, broke away from the comfort of nothingness. Shirou opened his eyes, rubbing them once before trying to stand up. Failing twice. Barely succeeded on the third.
Shirou was in his room. Rene hadn't lied about that, at least. He forced himself up, moving to the door. Trying to force it open did nothing. Even throwing his body against it only caused it to shake a little. He was stuck in the room.
Biting his lip, he glared at the door. Would it even matter if he escaped? Everyone was probably already dead, killed while he was unconscious. He'd only find their corpses.
Shirou stopped biting his lip and sighed, shaking his head. If he stayed in here, then he may just be signing his death warrant. He needed to escape to beat the killer.
Turning around, he returned to the table and sat down. He was going to think of a plan… if his attention wasn't immediately broken. The hourglass was almost empty, with only two grains of sand left on the top.
One fell. Now, there was one left.
The movements of strings between the doll and the hourglass. They were almost broken, fraying into pieces. Barely held together by the last few strains. What would happen when they broke? Could it help him escape?
Or would it cause another threat?
Watching it carefully for the last sand to drop, he considered what to do if he did escape.
Rene was stronger and faster than he looked. His fist was glowing, too. There must be some magic involved. What was the bunk he used to activate it, and how did it work? The punches felt less like punches and more like taking damage. The source, the punches, didn't matter. It was the art causing the pain. The punch's force didn't matter. Being tapped might have done the same amount of damage. He can't let Rene touch him, no matter what.
What could he do? A physical fight was futile unless he somehow hindered Rene. Rene's overall abilities were unknown, and he may have to fight the other two if they get in his way.
Reaching down, he found his small blade in his pocket. They must not have noticed it. He didn't know any fancy super moves, but he could cut with it. If he kept his distance and stayed alert, he possibly could dodge Rene's attacks.
If he stabbed Rene in the eye or one of those tendons, that'd stop him from using his feet... That'd require him to get close.
He had the power of spring. His arts.
There were four things he could remember how to do. Awaken something. Cause tons of plants to grow. Healing. And a protective ring. How did he exploit them?
The protective ring. The details of it ran through his mind. Creating a barrier none could cross without being punished for their folly. It could strip Rene of his powers if done well enough and make Shirou harder to harm. He'd need to set up a circle first and cast the spell, but it would pay off.
Trick Rene into chasing him into the circle and then swallow him with plants. It was a sound plan Kiritsugu would approve of. He was sure of it.
He nodded to himself, feeling satisfied.
His eyes returned to the hourglass, his full attention given to it as the final sand was slowly pushed to the bottom. Flowing as if blown by a wind. There was no grand reveal. The hourglass didn't start glowing or break into pieces. A simple and quiet snap accompanied the breaking of the strands as the only sign of an occurrence.
Shirou froze, a sound below rising above. A gulp of sorrow laced with pain came from right in front of him. The doll. It moved. Porcelain eyes blinked as life was given to them. Became more real. Once suppressed and hidden glass emotions revealed themselves. An illusion of tears running down its face.
The Unseelie changeling struggled for a moment. The light Seelie part of him trying to come to the forefront, demanding he comfort her, but he smothered it. Now wasn't the time for compassion.
Seeing the tears made it so much harder.
"Who are you?" Shirou asked the crying doll. He leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table. His head ended up resting in his hands. Waiting for a few minutes as the doll cried to itself.
"I am… sniff… Alice. Do you know… sniff… where Alice is?" Alice asked him. Her head tilted to the side.
"You're in my room, in this tower," Shirou answered, gesturing around him. "The same one you must've been in before whatever happened to you."
"Alice is asking – sniff – for Alice, not Alice. Where is Alice?" Alice repeated, barely making sense between her cries.
"Are there two Alices?" Shirou barely managed to guess. The doll nodded, moving her arm to rub away tears. A small, high-pitched squeak of agreement. "I don't know. You're the only one I've found here."
Alice's crying doubled, but she held herself together enough to talk. "Can you help me find Alice?"
Shirou flinched, struggling with being asked for help again. "I need to track down a killer. One of the people I was traveling with was killed."
"I'm sorry," Alice tried, her voice breaking. Her voice was nowhere near as interested or full of emotion as it was with Alice. "That sounds bad..."
"A little bit," Shirou agreed with the Alice doll. "I think one of the other guys did it, but now I'm locked in here."
"Why are you here? Did you encounter Alice outside of here?" Alice asked about the other Alice again.
Shirou quickly went over how he got into the Dreaming and ended up joining the group. He denied ever encountering anyone named Alice or who looked like Alice at any point. He briefly mentioned their plans to open up the roads and leave.
"Why would you want to open the trods back up?" Alice questioned, to Shirou's confusion. A hint of horror in her voice. Fear covered up her sorrow.
"It'll make getting back to the waking world easier."
"But… those aren't meant for us. They're dark – dark roads," the doll pulled her legs to her chest.
"Dark roads? How is a road dark?"
Roads connect people and their hearts. Allowing for the transfer of information and the forging of new bonds while making travel faster. How could they be dark? Who would dare corrupt them for nefarious purposes?
"This place is made by the enemies of dreams. They hurt Alice and Alice," Alice started to explain in a hurry. "If the paths open… they shall return to this place... Nightmares none should face. Alice never should've been hurt by them."
Nightmares.
The way Alice said it. His breathing hitched, and his hand clenched. He couldn't help but feel a flare of hatred. Disgust at something unseen.
"What'd they do to you and the other Alice," Shirou struggled to ask, suppressing his boiling malice. Alice wasn't its cause or target. She shouldn't have to bear it.
"…" Alice didn't respond. Sobbing instead.
"Can you at least tell me how long ago it was?" Shirou didn't press the doll to answer the original question, but he needed to know this.
"I was left alone in the dark for… sniff… so long… it hurt so much," Alice spoke of her own experiences first. "Alice entered our world, walking back to the start of the story rather than living at the end. She made me, and I took a form of her to play with her. Our neverending fairy tale… but the bullies tore it until they were killed."
"Bullies are the worst," Shirou said, getting a nod of agreement in turn. He felt slightly bad, but they needed to get out of this room. "Listen, do you know any way out of this room or open the door? Rene claimed he was going to open the trods, and I know he's the murderer. I need to stop him before things really go to hell."
"I… sniff… can make a small chimera slip under the door and open it from the other side," She answered him despite what she was going through.
"Will you do it?"
"… Are you a friend of fairy tales and happy endings?" Alice asked him, her eyes looking for any lies or tells through the tears.
The Unseelie fairy had trouble believing in happy endings, but he did want them. Everyone deserves a happy ending, except bad people. They should be punished.
"Yep," Shirou said. The smallest smidgeons of joy in his voice.
"Really? You have scary eyes… will you pinky promise?"
Pinky promise?
"If I have too," Shirou agreed with a slight sigh. He held out his pinky. The doll stared before reaching out and putting her pinky around his. They shook.
"I'm Nursery Rhyme, a friend to happy ends and fairy tales. I'll help… sniff… to stop a bad ending… and bad guys... Can you please carry me? I'm not strong enough," Alice questioned, reaching out.
Shirou nodded and picked up the doll. She was surprisingly heavy now that she was alive, but he thought better than to say that. Going over to the door, Alice, or was it Nursery Rhyme, put her hands together. When you pulled them apart, there was a small mouse in it. Only big enough to fit in the doll's hands.
"Here, please bend down so Mr. Mouse can help," Alice told him, rubbing her eyes with her arm. He did as she said, the mouse hopping from her hands to the ground. It ran down through the slit under the door, managing to squeeze through it despite it being smaller. "I used to be able to make so many fun stories for Alice to play in. Now I can only write a sentence."
"Hopefully, the sentence is well written," Shirou murmured. He was relieved when the door creaked open. The apparent lock on the door opened. "I didn't know this door locked."
"I think it was to keep slaves in their quarters," Alice hesitantly explained. Her hand was brought to her mouth. He opened the door but stopped in his tracks. The mouse was hanging on the doorknob. "Please be careful, Mr. Mouse."
The mouse jumped into the doll's free hand before disappearing back into her as glamour. Its energy merged as it returned to once it came.
Slaves?!
He placed that thought to the side, leaving it for later. It was a distraction.
Glancing around, there was nobody in sight. The lights were dimming as it was turning to night. Nursery Rhyme's eyes were looking up, leading to Shirou reluctantly following to see the sea of darkness further away than before – like looking up at the bottom of an elevator that was now on the 7th floor rather than the 3rd.
He had a plan to deal with everyone, but… he'd forgotten to figure out how to enact it. Not getting caught was the first step, but the second and third? He didn't know.
The first step would give him time to think. Where were the others? Assuming they're alive?
He closed his bedro – the slave quarter's – door. He shifted Alice's position in his arms, holding her against his chest. The doll made some sounds of shock. "I'm going to fly to avoid leaving a trail."
Nursery Rhyme nodded, her hands gripping his arms like a lap bar on a roller coaster. He took flight, thankful for how far away the darkness had gone up. Staying low, he quickly flew to the front door and opened it.
There was mud up to the doorstep. Where there was once a forest was now a muddy plane, the tops of trees barely visible. There were still some drops of water from those that remained, but it was almost time.
Shirou flew out, closing the door behind him. None of them would go outside or be capable of movement like he was.
"The forest was once so beautiful," Alice spoke sadly as she looked at it. The two of them flew higher as he flew around the tower, far enough to not be in few from the doorsteps. They stopped two stories up, Shirou sitting on the edge of a window sill. The doll's body shrank as she pulled in on herself.
"It was?" Shirou asked, trying to reconcile that with the forest he'd seen and the mudland before him.
"Alice and Alice played here a lot. It was so full of dreams and fun and no worries. The nightmares came and corrupted it," Nursery Rhyme talked about the past, yet there was no nostalgia in her voice. Nostalgia required joy or longing, but her voice held only sorrow. "We were taken by them. Alice was hurt and hurt and then disappeared... sob… their leader hurt me for fun… … I was frozen in my pain, forgotten since dreams rose up and struck down nightmares but never knew me."
The Unseelie fairy barely stopped themselves from hugging Alice tighter upon hearing more of her pain. His resistance to his innate desire to help was almost gone. His Seelie half clawing its way through the darkness.
"I see. I'm sorry to hear that," Shirou told her, comforting the doll as he grasped what he was told. The bad guys came in and destroyed everything to create their road systems – or this particular node – but they were then killed by the good guys. They must've been the ones who sealed the trods. That must've been why a Sidhe was needed to unseal it…
But if Rene knew that, then he must've known everything else. The Unseelie changeling didn't have enough faith in Rene to give him the smallest slice of doubt. The possibility of him getting that one detail right without figuring anything else out was too low, as was knowing about and how to lock his door. Then, he 'discovered' something like this by himself but had to rely on a childling to open it. If he could do all that, couldn't he get an older, more experienced Sidhe to help him rather than someone without their name?
Considering that Shirou felt more assured of his assumption that Rene is the evil murderer, even without proof.
"These trods, do you know where they connect? We need to see if there's a way to stop them from opening," Shirou asked, preparing himself to stop something much worse than he originally expected.
"I think they were on the top of the tower… sniff… Alice remembers hearing talks of people crossing there," Nursery Rhyme looked up, drying her tears once again.
Shirou slid off the wind sill before taking flight, going to the top of the tower. However, after rising above the third floor and going above the building, he didn't see a castle roof. Instead, he found a canopy of pure darkness that blocked his sight. The way it flowed into itself, going down, almost made it seem like there was no third floor.
Looking closer, the windows on the third floor were bigger and less numerous than on the other floors. They were more like doorways than windows…
Shirou's fairy eyes peered into the space around it, taking in the building blocks of the place. Their presence grows more defined by the moment. He could see stands of light dancing this high up in the sky, but they were tired and in need of rebirth. Some died and fluttered down into the mud to be swallowed.
Darkness grew in the third-story windows, as if just waiting to be allowed to charge through the light, yet was held back from ever doing so.
Having gotten a few of what was going on, Shirou flew back down to the second-floor window to take a break and think.
"We could tell the others of your playgroup," Nursery Rhyme suggested.
"No, they probably wouldn't believe us, assuming they're alive," Shirou fatalistically assumed to worst. Goffred may be alive to undo this spell, but Vaiva must be dead.
His eyes stared down into the murky ocean below. His bare feet clenched.
The first priority was stopping the trods from being open. Second was beating Rene.
What could he do to advance either or, better yet, both?
"That might work," Shirou muttered to the doll. His eyes focused on the seemingly metal spikes that still poked through the ground in places. They'd fallen off the roof either due to ravages of time or whatever fight happened. Either way, Shirou didn't think he'd be able to pull any more from the edge of the top and castle. And he wasn't going to risk touching the darkness on the other side of them. "Can I leave you here while I go make a circle?"
"I guess… If you promise not to take too long," Nursery Rhyme agreed. He didn't give her his thanks but appreciated her help. Promising to get it down quickly was the least he could do. Setting her down on the window sill, she got as far away from the edge as she could, gripping onto a protruding part of the window for support. When she was secure and ready, Shirou slid off the sill and fell toward the mud. He took flight and flew so he was right above one of the spikes.
He struggled to pull it out of the ground, doing his best to not touch the mud. Once he got it out of the ground, he moved toward the tower and flew away for five seconds before throwing it back into the mud so it was standing straight up.
He flew to the next one and did the same thing again and again. His palms sweating when he got too close to the mud. Chills ran down his spine when his foot got briefly stuck in it. It was easy to get out, but for a brief moment, he felt like it was going to swallow him. After that, he started to stay a bit more above the mud.
By the time Shirou was done, he'd created a circle around the tower with the spikes. From his eyes, he could see some faults in the shape of the circle. He briefly sat on a window sill to take a break before going to fix them, adjusting them to make a perfect circle – or as close as he could manage.
Seeing it made him feel inspired, the glamour within clamoring to cast a spell upon it.
"I'm back," Shirou said to Alice as he approached her, flying just outside the window. Without asking, he picked her up and then sat back down on the window sill. His wings had to be held to his side and pointed forward for him to fit.
"You took several paragraphs to get back," Nursery Rhyme murmured. Her voice wasn't angry but somber. "Alice was alone again. Alice was never meant to be alone. Please hurry back faster."
"At least you're not alone right now."
The dry words did little to help Nursery Rhyme, but they did get her to relax a little in Shirou's arms. "What are you planning?"
"A magic circle," Shirou explained his plan. He slightly nodded to himself as he explained his genius plan. The setting sun before him and Alice nearly swallowed by the horizon. "I've positioned the spikes before the magic keeping the trods locked. Any magic used within can't escape it – meaning anything from within the tower wouldn't be able to affect our side's magic."
"Really? What if they move?"
"I made sure to get them in the ground good."
"What about time? Wouldn't it fade?"
"At dawn," Shirou answered after reflecting on his knowledge of the cantrip. The spell would die when the next sun rose.
"Then this flag will have a time limit unless you make it renew," Alice took a sip from a tiny teacup she was suddenly holding. She must've made it. A pleasant aroma came from the cup.
"Yeah… but it's not like I can make it last longer, right?" Shirou asked. It'd be useful if he could make it last longer than a day.
"Alice hasn't a clue," Nursery Rhyme told him, putting that thought on the shelf for now. Accepting that, he prepared to cast the spell. His hands rose, and his glamour was happily woven into a web or rope. Excited to give form to magic. The creation of the circle counted as the bunk as a faerie ring was given shape. The spell was perfect as it took effect. The radiance of safety filled them. "The spell… who did you allow to cross into the playground.
"Good fairies," Shirou half explained. He understood how his magic worked and how to select who could be allowed in the circle. The default was 'not allowed.' He had to know how to allow people to appear. He let in 'good fairies' and 'good chimera.' Everyone else would be cursed when they cross the circle's threshold.
"That's good! It'll keep all those bad vibes out," Alice spoke almost cheerfully. It sounded far better than when sorrow danced upon her tongue. She placed her teacup on a small tray she was holding with her other hand.
"It should," Shirou confirmed with a single nod. It also means that they couldn't affect things outside the barrier either.
"What's next then?"
"The trods can't be open till sunrise, even if the water stops dripping from the trees," Shirou commented, looking down at them with sharp red eyes. If he had to guess now that he'd been observing the number of trees not sunken into the mud and the water dripping off them… the period to open these nightmare roads started before sunrise. Maybe in a few hours, though he thought it should take longer… I'll need to fight the bad guy tonight."
"Fighting is no fun," Alice murmured. "Tea parties and games are more fun."
"Now isn't the time for fun," the winged fairy shifted on the window sill. It was way too hard to be comfortable. "It's time for serious business."
"Fufufu, then you should finish work quickly! Work fast, play more!" Nursery Rhyme's little giggle sounded more than slightly evil. Slight villainy was better than pain, however. "This story shouldn't take too many more pages, or it'll get boring."
Shirou took flight, moving down back to the front door. When he reached it, he continued to hover above the mush. The mud was slightly transparent. Cold air blew off it, coercing Shirou's bare feet and wings.
"Alice, can Mr. Mouse survey the room for us?" Shirou inquired with a straight expression.
"Yes, but he has small legs. Small steps make long journies."
"That's fine," Shirou acknowledged. "They don't have to search everywhere. He needs to look for Rene or anything suspicious."'
"If I write in small font, Ms. Mouse can come help too," Alice added after a nod. Her expression furrowed as she summoned two cute mice. The new Ms. Mouse had a pink bow on her head.
"Mr. Mouse is married?"
"Shhshh!" Nursery Rhyme told him to quiet down. The two mice shared glares, sparks flying between them. Shirou would've tried to back away if they hadn't been held by the doll he was holding. He didn't want to be shocked.
Alice gestured at Shirou to quickly let them into the tower, which he did. He only cracked the door the tiniest bit to do so and then immediately closed it.
"What was that about?"
"Mr. Mouse and Ms. Mouse had a very bad divorce. They haven't been the same since."
"Sad to see it," the fairy shook his head, his lips curling downward.
"Yeah, but Mr. Mouse deserved it for stealing his wi… former wife's cake during tea time," Alice exclaimed, explaining everything Shirou needed to know. This was an issue that could never be solved. Even his Seelie side would declare this a lost cause. "Too bad she was trained by MI6."
Shirou nodded along with that tidbit without a second thought. Satisfied knowing someone competent was on the job. "I see."
Time passed. The pair took one or two breaks to the window sill so Shirou could rest. His wings were getting tired from constant use but way less than when they originally emerged. Maybe due to that being so long ago or being away from the influence of the cold world?
Eventually, the little mice came back. After returning from a sitting break, they'd found them swimming in the mud outside the door. The pair jumped into Nursery Rhyme's hands when they flew close to pick them up.
"Did you learn anything interesting?" Alice asked the two rodents. She didn't seem to mind the mud splashing onto her clothing. They squeaked a couple times in response. Mr and Ms Mouse kept trying to talk over one another.
"One at a time," Shirou told them.
"You can understand them?" Nursery Rhyme tilted her head back to peer into his eyes.
"Nope, but it's rude to yell over each other."
The two mice loudly squeaked at him, probably telling him to shut up.
"Now, you two, where's your manners," she scolded. "If you continue to misbehave, I'll have to punish you during the next tea party."
The mice whined but eventually started to speak one at a time.
"They say a big man went up a flight of steps. Everything else was as empty as a plate of cakes."
"Stairs? But Rene said they were sealed, I think?" Shirou wings fluttered a bit. More confirmation of Rene's guilt. "We need to go in and check the second floor."
"Mmmhun," Nursery Rhyme hummed. "You both did really, really good."
The mice turned back into nothingness and entered Nursery Rhyme again.
Shirou opened the door and reentered the tower. He stayed in the air right above the floor.
"Should we head straight to the second floor?" the doll asked.
"Do you know anything about it?"
"Not that I can remember," she answered sadly.
"It's fine," Shirou told her, cautiously flying toward the faraway stairway. "No one remembers everything."
"Wait!" She exclaimed as they passed by the statues in the center of the space. She pointed at the depiction of the man… that was now missing its head. "I… think there might've been something with the second floor and the statue's… hmmm… head."
"It was there before when the second floor was supposed to be inaccessible. Maybe removing it opens up the second floor?" Shirou guessed. It could be like a key or something. He didn't have any better ideas.
With nothing else to do, they continued toward the stairs. Landing right in front of the stone steps that ascended into darkness. Cracks lining them, zigging and zagging.
"I don't want to send the mouse squad up there without checking it out first," Shirou told Nursery Rhyme. He'd feel bad if he got them instantly killed because they walked right into a lava pit or something. Anything could be up there.
"Thus, we must lead the charge."
"I was thinking about leaving you here," Shirou told the doll. The worst possible outcome played in his mind. "If you come, you'll more than likely die."
"Rude, I need not your worry or concern," Nursery Rhyme denied with a tiny shake of her head. "Not being able to do anything is worse than anything else."
Shirou tisked his tongue. "I need my hands, and you can't walk on your own."
"Please be gentle when you throw me. I can handle the landing," Nursery Rhyme commented, completely alright with him tossing her to the side if he needed to. There wasn't any hesitation or doubt in her eyes.
"Why are you willing to risk your own life to help me?" Shirou's eyes sharpened in suspicion, not trusting such kindness.
"I told you… I couldn't do anything before… I wish to be able to do something now," her voice broke.
Shirou wasn't able to say anything. His red eyes stared down into the frozen sorrow in the small doll's eyes. So ancient was it that it'd been engraved within the glass.
"Alice… you became yourself for her?"
"… Yes…"
The changeling gripped Nursery Rhyme harder. A stab to his heart with a jagged dagger. Nursery Rhyme's pain resonated with his own.
He sighed. His Seelie side rose up to make the decision. It was too strong right now for him to reject its judgment.
"You'll stay here on the first floor," Shirou decided, protecting the doll from danger. Her help would be nice, but he refused to let her risk herself. To be hurt anymore.
"No, you mustn't! What if you need help?!"
"Then I'll overcome the obstacle myself," the winged fairy told Nursery Rhyme as he sat her down on the ground, leaning her against the wall beside the stairs. "I get why you want to help – and I'm not leaving you behind because you're weak or a burden. It is my own selfish nature."
"Nature?" She questioned, biting her lip.
"Yep, even as my dark self, I can't risk someone so hurt suffering more," Shirou explained casually.
Nursery Rhyme's eyes glanced down before looking up at him. Her clenched fist softened and released. "If it is your nature, arguing would never change it."
Shirou nodded, glad to have someone accept that fact. Though, he guessed he was gonna have to apologize later. "Thanks. Are you comfortable?"
"As I can be, being left behind," she answered with a dark chuckle. Yeah… he'd pissed her off. He'd probably need to cook her a nice meal as an apology once this was all over.
Shirou nodded and waved goodbye, moving to the steps. He ascended them, his hands now feeling cold and light without the doll. Each step sent him higher and higher. The light became further and further away until he was trapped in total darkness. An absolute darkness that somehow grew worse with each step. Trying to rip from him his memories of light and sight. Yet, the darkness didn't feel hostile to him. More consuming…
He had to climb a hundred steps before any light started to return, faint and distant. It took a hundred more to breach it and arrive at the second floor. Pupiless red eyes take mere moments to adjust to the reintroduction of brightness.
It was another floor – just as big as the first – but even more torn up. In places, Shirou could see where there should been stone; only darkness remained. The smell of crimson liquid undercut the air. He could see various doors lining the wall.
Rene and the others could be in any room. He'd have to be careful. There was the option of going back to get the mice to search now that he knew it was safe to walk up the stairs, but he didn't know what was behind the doors. And it'd be awkward.
Looking up, he saw the ocean of darkness they called a ceiling. His eyes were barely able to look at it, even when it was several stories above him.
He'd just keep his eyes away from it and at the ground.
Glancing around once more to make sure nobody was in sight, Shirou fluttered his wings and flew up toward the ceiling. His eyes were ever vigilant in case someone came into view.
There was so much lying around and the space so big that searching from above made way more sense than trying it from the ground. The best part was how safe it was. He looked up because this was a new space for him. What were the chances Rene would look all the way up to spot Shirou in a space he'd already gone through at least once?
It's way lower than the chances of seeing him on the ground.
If only he didn't hear the faint echoes of the sea's currents. Course and rough beach sand rattled on his tongue. Anger and fear danced in his heart.
Someone would pay for making him go through this.
Looking around from above, flying as quietly as possible, he didn't see anyone. But there was another flight of stairs. They were on the right side of the wall and were identical to the previous flight, only less damaged.
Rene and the others might have climbed them or been in any room on this floor. Which changed what he needed to do.
Logically, either way, Rene would come back through this floor before the barrier around the tower fell. Either he would leave a room to go to another, change floors, or need something from another one. If he had everything he needed, the mice wouldn't have seen him going to the second floor from the first one. Rene might have needed to grab something… something small because the mice would have noticed it if it was big.
Shirou glanced around, looking at the crumbling walls and stone littering the floor. He flew to one particularly broken part. Tapping it once, he could feel how loosely held the stone was. Pulling a piece of it off, be careful not to pull a part of the wall down. He could see the darkness that had been hidden behind the wall.
It was heavy and hard. Jagged and sharp at points. His human half identified it as a safety hazard. Something that should get a building closed down, less someone is killed or hurt.
He never missed. From this high up, he only has to get a large enough rock to drop on Rene's head. And perhaps a second to finish the job if the old teen was still conscious.
His light half shifted in the back of his mind. Hating the idea of hurting anybody, much less somebody he knows. Someone, they still had a game to finish. What if Rene was innocent, and they were jumping to conclusions? And if Rene was guilty, should he try to save the others and not do this.
The Unseelie fairy sighed as he put down such tempting compassions. He was sure that Rene was responsible. Knocking Rene out would help the others if they were still alive. If they were dead, then that's all the more reason to do it. He could get justice for them.
The boy's feet shifted back and forth in excitement. His frozen expression took on a cruel but childlike light. Punishing evildoers was a part of being a hero and making a world free of pain. What could be better?
Nothing. Which is why he wouldn't stray.
He flew to a particularly large hole in the upper part of the wall. It was close to the stairs, where Rene would have to look up and to the side to notice him if he came down them. He barely managed to sit in the space, the wall thick enough for him to sit on. His back would hurt if he had to wait too long, as he was not letting his wings touch the darkness, much less lean against it. But it was worth it for his plan to succeed.
Shirou pulled the small knife out of his pocket and used it to slowly chip away at the already cracked stone. Doing his best to carve out a rock big enough to injure but small enough to carry while flying.
The dark changeling cared more about the former than the latter.
Shirou looked over the two stones he'd made over the last few hours. He'd had to fly out and pull them out of the wall, placing them next to where he had been sitting. One he could comfortably carry and could use as a backup, while the other was larger and jagged. Carrying it while flying was much harder. It kept trying to drag him down. Adjusting to it forced him to flap his wings way harder than normal. One, maybe two, minutes was how long he could carry it in the air before he was too tired to keep it.
His crimson eyes widened.
Rene!
The older teen just walked into view from the third-floor stairs. The best possible outcome.
Shirou quietly leaned off the stone wall and fell off, giving himself enough room to flap his wings. With the same caution, he turned back around with the grace of a butterfly and picked up the heavy rock.
Its weight caused him to descend several centimeters as he flew back from the wall before turning around.
The fairy swiftly flew over Rene. His wings and arms took the brunt of the exhaustion as he positioned himself above the still-unaware teen.
A bit of doubt filled Shirou as he considered what he was about to do, but it was mercilessly cut down. His hands and arms fully exerted themselves to throw the rock down. Aiding gravity.
Shirou thought he saw Rene try to look up right before the stone struck him. A deep, echoing thud filled the air. Followed by a body hitting the floor. The stone fell beside the fallen teen's head. The sounds filled the air, perfectly bouncing off the broken walls. Yet, all at once, they cut off as if by design.
Looking over his work, the Unseelie changeling noticed Rene's hand twitch. He could just be faking it. Best not to chance it. Safe is better than dead.
Shirou flew over and picked up the other rock. Returning, he launched it at Rene's head again, taking full advantage of its reduced weight to put more force into the throw. This time, he could see blood pouring from a head wound and no twitching.
Satisfied, he flew down to Rene, landing right next to his left shoulder. His feet got some of the older teen's warm blood on them. The wound was deep enough that Shirou swore he could see parts of Rene's skull. It was enough to make most people queasy.
Shirou didn't think he had the right to feel that way, being the one to cause it and all. His iron heart did not feel a single thing as he tried to step away from the blood. Blood that seemed to taint his feet, covering them. It's smell assaulting his nose, so he'd never forget it. Ever. Always reminding him of what he did.
The now dulled and slightly deformed shive in his pocket weighed heavily. If he wanted to be extra sure Rene would get back up, he could use it to make sure the older teen couldn't get back up. He didn't know where the tendons you could cut to stop people from walking were, so he'd have to stab in a bunch of places and hope for the best…
There wasn't anything wrong with it anyway; he could just heal Rene if the need be. So, no harm, no foul. He should do it since; otherwise, the worst possible thing would happen…
But it wasn't what a hero would do. Kiritsugu would never do something like that to someone who couldn't defend themselves. A hero never causes unnecessary harm. They beat the bad guys and stop the worse possibilities without doing something… something… that felt so wrong…
The Unseelie fairy struggled, realizing his Seelie half was influencing him again. Why was it so persistent? His dark side wasn't like this when his light side was dominant.
The knife slid from his mind.
His father wouldn't want him to do something like that, so he wouldn't. Doing it would mean he let Kiritsugu down, and Shirou never wanted to do that. He wanted to make Kiritsugu proud!
Puffing his cheeks slightly, he looked away from Rene and toward where he'd been heading. A door he had been seemingly looking at before being… indisposed.
He walked over to check it out. If Rene was going to it, then there was something in there he needed – possibly for whatever was on the third floor.
As he stopped before it, butterflies with wings as big as his own danced within his stomach. The door was eerie up close. The dark velvet coloration sent chills down his spine. There were splashes of something at the bottom. His nose picked up the smell of ominousness.
He reached forward to open the door, recoiling slightly at its slightly warm dampness as he pushed open the door. The wood moved with barely any effort.
Inside… inside…
He gagged. The smell choked him. Dull, emotionless eyes involuntarily watered to cool a burning. Aided by the chilly wind flowing from the room.
It was like looking into a meat locker or a butchery. Viktoria and Vaiva. They were laid on two parallel tables. Vaiva wasn't breathing. She was dead now, too.
Ahh…
There was hanging meat. They were around his size or smaller. Skinned and prepared.
Shirou slammed the door shut, nearly crushing his fingers with his haste. His head was light, the world swirling. The wooden obstacle protecting him from the horrors beyond it became his support. He had to swallow the disgusting bile burning in his throat.
He'd seen something so wrong. Vaiva being dead barely registered in his mind compared to everything else. His mind put together the few details he saw – allowed himself to see. A tremor in his core, shaking in revulsion. Unseelie or Seelie, no changeling could stand such a sight. None could accept it.
The fairy's breathing was deep and heavy. With an adagio pace, he did his best to stabilize his breathing. He turned his eyes toward Rene. Rage filled his chest, but he had to control it. He hurried past the teen, rushing to the third floor. Needing to see what was there.
Climbing up the stairs, being swallowed by the darkness once again. It's weight heavy. Grinding.
He thought he was prepared for Vaiva and Goffred's death. Yet, that turned out to be a lie. Maybe if he hadn't fought back and been knocked out, he could've saved her…
The light of the third floor came into view as he entered it. Unlike the other floors, the walls weren't lined with doors but glass in its shape. All painted with dark colors and swirling patterns like typhoons. Before each of them was a path of glass matching each door that fed into the center of the room. A raised altar, purple with black fabric draping it, stood at the convergence point. A dark glisten to the glass.
Lying horizontally across it was Goffred.
Was he alive or dead? Telling from this angle was impossible.
Help him.
His light demanded of him. Ignoring all caution, he flapped his wings, taking to the air to rush toward the Sidhe.
It was all in vain, however.
For the dead have no need of urgent care.
Shirou tumbled to the ground in front of the room's centerpiece.
Goffred. His body was pale. His ribs and other bones were visible through his skin. Blood was draining into the altar, swallowed by it. Life was stolen from him.
Once again, Shirou was too late. If he hadn't waited on the second floor, would he have been able to save him? Was this all his fault?
The Unseelie fairy looked into the altar. The glamour stolen from Goffred was absorbed and stored by the drunken blood. Light, pleasant glamour converted into something darker. Filled with terror and pain.
If Goffred is dead, then Rene doesn't need him for the ritual. He needed his body or powers to break it.
Why did he start now?
The energy from Goffred was getting stored. When the Sidhe was sacrificed may not have mattered, but the act and what it wrought did. Then, some further ritual was needed to release it and break the seal.
Shirou stopped right next to Goffred's body. He could bring himself to meet the other boy's still-open eyes as he pulled him off the altar to stop it from eating any more of Goffred's energy. The corpse was light. Its dehydrated skin felt oddly weird.
He gently placed Goffred down next to the stone platform.
The energy stored in the glass wasn't perfectly held. The tiniest portions could barely be seen escaping their bounds. Given enough time, it would dissipate. That would handle the issue for now, but someone could always come and sacrifice another Sidhe. To stop this from happening again, he'd have to destroy the entire tower. If such a thing was possible for him by himself, then the old fairies would've done it rather than seal the trods.
Shirou left Goffred's body and hurried toward the stairway. He needed to deal with Rene.
The Unseelie fairy approached the still-downed Rene. Stopping several steps behind his feet. The small shiv in his hand. His hands were still. Red eyes looked down on the older teen. He closed his eyes and took one more steady breath.
Walking to Rene's side, he knelt next to him. Placing himself on the downed teen's side. The cold blade moved in his hand. He prepared to eliminate Rene's evil. His chest felt empty when he should be happy defeating evil. His Seelie-half was quiet, not attempting to stop him but withholding support as well.
Holding the small knife with both hands, he brought it down. It broke skin. Shirou pushed harder and harder and harder until his hands were against Rene's cold skin. The blood that slowly oozed and poured onto his hands lacked the warmth of life. Almost as if Rene was already dead before he'd stabbed him.
Shirou struggled to pull the knife out of Rene's body, its dull blade catching on something, but once he did, he stabbed again and again. Each time, he made sure the shiv went as far as he could. Tearing into the flesh dozens of times until he was sure Rene was gone. His cold expression didn't waver throughout or after.
Pulling the blade out for the last time, he cleaned it with a dry part of Rene's clothing… Ah…
The changeling looked down at his own clothing. Had they belonged to one of those hanging within that most disgusting room?
Since he couldn't ask Rene now, he assumed they did.
Even with his steady hands, he couldn't get all the blood of his knife. Stains still remained.
He'd killed someone.
Someone he knew but was a monster.
Victory shouldn't feel so hollow.
The blood stuck to his hands, drops of it splattered on his sleeves.
He swallowed.
It wasn't killing someone that bothered him. Looking at Rene's body didn't fill him with guilt for what he'd done. It was that it came to this in the first place.
Was there anything he could've done to save everyone, maybe even Rene? Was it right to focus on defeating evil, or did his decisions not matter?
He felt a bit of naivety, of innocence, withering in his heart. Threatening to parish in moments.
Shirou stood up from kneeling and walked toward the stairs to the first floor. He needed to tell Nursery Rhyme what happened.
The changeling found Alice right where he left her. She was as still as a doll, her head slowly turning to look at him. There was a hint of relief in her eyes, but the anger at being left behind was still there.
Shirou plopped down right next to her. "Rene killed the other changelings. I've made sure he can't hurt anyone again."
"That's great!" Nursery Rhyme cheered, causing Shirou's expression to sour slightly. The doll pulled out a square of fabric from her nonexistent pocket. "Do you need a handkerchief to clean yourself?"
"Thank you," Shirou said, taking it despite his mood. He began to clean his hands. "How are you so cheerful about this?"
"Good triumphed. It's a classic fairy tale ending!" Nursery Rhyme nodded her head. Her expression then became mixed with pity as she brought her hand to her mouth. "Though, you're stewing in darkness. We gotta fix that first to get the perfect end."
"Perfect end?!" Shirou scoffed. His eyes searched for something they could when dressed in red. "There's no such thing."
"There it is! A fairy shouldn't be so dark and brooding," Nursery Rhyme explained. Her hand pointed at the changeling's chest. "They should be nice and cheerful! Bringing joy to other children everywhere!"
"I'm not brooding. Besides, isn't being Unseelie just as natural as Seelie?"
"Nope! Nope! Nope! Wrong! Darkness is the path of nightmares, not dreams! We walk the path of light and hope! To be shrouded in darkness is to give in to our opposites and how they want the world to be. Look into your darkness. Tell me that is what you want for humans."
The Unseelie changeling paused for a moment before looking inward at himself.
His darkness was vast. Spreading as wide as the night sky. Filled with cold, seething rage at injustice and sin. Other beings had the choice between right and wrong, knowing the difference yet not caring. Hurting all those around them for their selfishness. It was revolting.
His desire for them was small. He wanted everything for everyone. That was all. Yet, they actively refused what was best for them and others. Exploiting the poor and vulnerable, kicking them rather than helping. Countless humans sit idly by, refusing to do anything or strive for utopia as it would require them to break away from their stagnant lives. Letting the world and their souls fall to ruin. Nothing he did would ever change that. Humanity will always destroy that which is good or beautiful in time.
Shirou blinked as he realized something within himself.
He really loved humanity, but he hated what he loved.
Why did he love them?
The fairy's Seelie half rose to answer that question.
The smile of precious humans rose up into his mind. Their joy was his own, and let him forgive all their cruelty and evil.
Thinking about it, Shirou felt it give his already barely contained Seelie half more strength. Almost enough to become dominant.
Which was better for humanity? Seelie or Unseelie?
Killing Rene didn't help any of the others. His actions caused their deaths. Bringing this future into being because his fatalistic Unseelie self saw it as the only possibility.
The dark changeling blinked once as he felt his light side taking over. A pleasant sensation in his eyes forced him to close them. His cold, neutral expression thawed as he felt like he could smile once again.
Having fallen to and tried his Unseelie side, he knew it wasn't better for himself or others.
"I want humans to be alive and happy," Shirou answered Nursery Rhyme's question. He shifted in place as his mind finished the transition. His Unseelie half buried itself deeper than ever before. His eyes opened to reveal a brilliant blue.
"That's the spirit! See how much better you feel!" Alice giggled, her eyes staring into his own.
"Maybe a little – slightest – bit… but there is still what happened and so many questions I'm left with."
"Such as?"
"How did Rene know he needed a Sidhe to break the seal? – don't worry, that's taken care of – Why did he gather multiple changelings when they'd just get in his way? Why was there a room full of changeling bodies prepared like food? Why did Rene side with the nightmares? What did he hope to gain from making it easier for them to move around? Just who are they anyway?" the Seelie fairy asked in an increasingly frustrated voice.
"I don't know anything about a room, but might there be an obvious answer to your question? Rene may have been the big bad wolf! Or maybe a wolf in a sheep's cuddly wool?!"
Technically, he didn't think that Rene ever said he was a fairy or changeling. They'd only ever referred to the kithain in a separate way, and there was always something slightly off about him.
Maybe Nursery Rhyme was right… but the idea a malevolent being could hide its true nature so well was unsettling.
"Rene wasn't cuddly."
"Wolves never are. That's why they gotta steal fluffness from cuter sheep!"
"I've heard some have really soft and thick fur. Those wouldn't need to steal anything."
"You think that till they or one of their packmates take offense to you trying to hug one of their cute pups and take them away for a bit of play. They get all mad about that! Standing on two feet and gaining opposable thumbs! And they never let anyone else be it when playing tag! They end the game if they catch you!"
Shirou nodded, deciding not to argue against the doll's rant. His shoulders loosen slightly. He knew he still had several things to do before he could leave this behind him, but this little moment was something he needed. Briefly taking his mind off everything.
AN:
Hello, welcome to another chapter of another episode of another fate fanfic released on another day of the same year.
This is the final 'climax' of this arc… albeit Shirou misses almost everything. I didn't originally plan for things to go like that, but when I was writing, I ended up hating how it had gone. So, I restarted. Ended up having to do that twice.
Showing Shirou when he's Unseelie? Speeding up the story? Also, showing Shirou bring about a certain outcome through his expectations for the future… blah blah blah… its 3AM while I'm typing this.
Also, for the sake of the story, I tend to show the cantrip's rules bend slightly to reflect the user. Shirou's Faerie circle keeps out all magic stuff being from Avalon in canon, even if people can cross it. Or Rene's use of the (og) Autumn Way art only working within a group. (This is the art he used to let everyone talk. The one he used to attack Shirou was one of them from the Discord art. Also, the bunk used for Rene to cast it was the situation itself and the discord between the group.) This is done to make them slightly more personalized ass befitting changeling while having benefits and drawbacks. Though, I think there was something about the magic I meant to fix in editing, but I don't remember. Something to do with the order of operations or placement.
The thing about Unseelie vs Seelie for those who haven't read Changeling the Dream is that half the time, what Unseelie even seems to change depends on the author. In my personal analysis, as someone who has read a lot of CTD, is that this issue stemmed from the increased focus on politics, specifically commoner vs nobility, as CTD went on versus the other focus of dreams themselves and the Glamour vs Banality dynamic.
When the focus was on the latter, it made sense for the noble light dreams to be the 'good' guys – even if they did a lot of horrible stuff, like a lot – while the Unseelie were those who fall into darkness but refuse to give up their dreams and thus take it out on the world. It also makes their whole anarchy thing and evilness make sense their link to banality through their methods of gaining glamour and surviving the winter. (Trying not to write a whole paper here.)
The issue with this is that later on, the focus was squarely on noble vs commoner/politics, and having the anarchist Unseelie be the unanimous bad guy for fighting the monarchist nobles… isn't a good message. Thus, they slowly warped into their modern incarnation, with the shadow court being strangely linked with BLM and other activist organizations despite being puppy-kicking evil originally. At the same time, a lot of what made Unnseelie evil, like their legacies, wasn't changed, resulting in this weird disconnect between the two. As well as there being only a few Seelie bad guys since they were originally 'good' guys, though there is one that I really like from OG Changeling that I got to use since they happen to have the same legacies as those I assigned Shirou and make a perfect enemy.
Since this fic is based more on the Glamour and trying to achieve one's dreams/keep them alive and believe in them rather than politics, I am leaning toward using that presentation more than the other.
At the same time, I've made sure in this little arc to show that the Seelie aren't exactly saints and will do bad things – by our standards – without a second thought, all while being hardheaded beyond belief. And showing Unseelie as pretty messed up. He assumed Rene was the bad guy based on a guess and would hear nothing to the contrary. Guilty until proven 100% innocent. Not even doing much searching before jumping to cracking a skull. If Rene had been innocent – or if he went Unseelie during something else and got caught defeating the wrong evil – and it'd be bad. Among other beats about Unseelie.
I guess I should point out a bit about Rene since it might not be clear. He ain't a changeling. He hasn't claimed to be kithain. An event called the Week of Nightmares let some dark, evil 'fairies' get out and be basically unsealed. Rene exists to make groups of lost childling changelings/fairies, then get them to fight/implode. He'd then use their corpses, chimerical and full of more glamour than almost anything else, as dross to power his language spells for the next group, taking pleasure in the dark glamour generated at the moment of their death. With the return of certain dark denizens, he was able to move away from the tower, and if he'd opened it – he'd have been able to gather changelings from all around rather than trek long distances or wait.
Also, to clarify, he used the delusion art to help hide his crime. Specifically, innocence - which protects people from attempts to divine information and makes them seem innocent unless people manage to see through it. Shirou really didn't do. He was still affected by it. He was just assured of Rene's guilt enough for it not to matter.
Goffred and Vaiva also fought each other, Rene getting the pair to do that while he was knocked out – to which Rene was unsure of how to deal with Shirou killing or preparing wise – making it easier for him to capture.
I did my best to foreshadow a lot of stuff and set up pieces for people to draw their own conclusions, so I should probably stop needlessly and awfully explaining stuff. But I thought a little Rene explanation was necessary, given he's not written like the other characters, his motives contradictory, nonhuman, wrapped heavily in changeling lore, hints through things like him strugglingly to remember a word close to pitiful being really easy to miss and come off as bad writing… and I'm just honestly nervous and not trusting in my ability to get it across well, as it's my first time writing a character like this and ending a storyline so unorthodoxly, I worried. But confident it came out at least passable and that this ending is the best way to do it.
Anyway! Have a great day, y'all! And merry Fall, y'all!