IV.

A multi-colored storm of petals blew past Louise, obscuring her vision momentarily, as windmills on unnaturally tilted axes spun lazily in the warm spring air. Once again the world fell away in all directions on an exaggerated curvature, and once again Louise, in the unfamiliar dress, felt a strange sense of longing and nostalgia for the place. She knew the flowers, and loved their colors and their fragrance, and something in her mind harbored a sense of dread for what was to become of them. As she wandered through the field, enjoying the scenery as long as she could before the impending nightmare, she found that the expected pattern did not come. The black tulip, in all its monstrous and blighted grandeur, did not suddenly appear to fill her view.

Not far off, Louise thought she heard the faint sound of someone singing. No longer afraid of the appearance of the vile interloper that was the black flower, Louise let her curiosity take hold, and found herself lazily wandering in the general direction of the tune. As she closed in on its source, Louise realized it was less a song being sung, and more just a simple tune being hummed. The voice was untrained, but soft and lifting in its pitch, so delicate it felt as if the wind could pick it up and carry it far away from Louise's ears.

A few more steps, a few more turns of the world beneath her feet, and Louise could see the owner of the soothing voice. Rosa sat in and amongst the tulips, the flowering spectrum of color intertwined with her form, softly humming a nameless tune. She wore a dress identical to the one Louise had on, though it looked more natural on Rosa, it being her own garment. Louise was entranced by the peace she felt upon perceiving Rosa's form, a feeling she could not possibly associate with the Rosa of the waking world. A single step found her crossing the meters between them, and Louise let herself settle down behind the other young woman, the nearness further comforting some unknown sadness.

Rosa stopped singing and looked over to where Louise was seated next to her. An expression of pity and regret crossed Rosa's face as she observed Louise's missing eye. Rosa's own features by contrast were pristine, the characteristic spiral scar being absent. Seeing her this close again, Louise remembered that, even despite the scar, she was quite beautiful.

"It's a lovely tune." Louise said. "Simple, but beautiful in that. I find it suits this place quite well."

"He loved when I sang it. And he loved coming here. It was always his favorite." Rosa spoke without her broken and stuttering tone, without the dry scraping grain to her voice, not here was her throat torn and wounded from so many years of screaming. "Do you know me?"

"I thought I did." Louise replied.

"But you know him, don't you?" Rosa asked, her face somehow both hopeful and despairing, afraid of some impending event.

"I'm not sure I know who you're referring to." Louise was becoming uneasy. Something in Rosa's features seemed off.

"Cornelius. He gave it to me. It was his greatest treasure."

"Gave what to you?" Louise did not see the sky darken. She did not see the flowers, drained of their color, wilt and crumble to dust around her. She did not see the windmills tilt further and collapse into rubble as they collided with the earth. She could not see the shadow of a man standing right behind her.

"The Tulip. His creation." Rosa's entire back was now horribly mutated, a twisted mass of flesh and bone had risen up into a macabre sort of stem, the bodies of so many other sacrifices buoyed upon it, their mass melting together into the profane imitation of the tulip's petals, its sickly green aura once again pouring into the world.

Louise wanted to look away, to turn and run from the monster before her. But her eyes were locked upon the woman whose beauty she had moments before been admiring, who now stood before her as something else completely.

"He gave it to me. It meant so much to him." Rosa, with pained and faltering steps, the weight of the thing too much for her, approached the stunned Louise as she spoke. "But, if I'm being honest, despite how much I loved him, and how much he loved it," Rosa collapsed to her knees in front of the other woman and pulled her into a tight, desperate embrace. "I don't want this."

"Help."

Louise's eye shot open, the view of the sterile ceiling greeted her as it had for the past several nights. For days now she had dreamed of the tulip field, and of Rosa, but this was the first time the dream had changed so radically. Some of the details had already fled her memory, as dreams so often do, but Louise at least remembered one major thing that had changed.

"The dream again, Master?" Rider materialized from spirit form, still manning his self-imposed post at the door.

"Yes. But it was different this time." Louise was still groggy, but wanted to give Rider as many details as she could before they disappeared. "She spoke this time. I spoke with her. She was coherent. Almost normal."

"It was that woman? Rosa?"

"Yes. I... I think so."

"And-"

"The same cry for help, yes." Louise looked down at her burnt hand. Though much of it had recovered due to the combination of Ali's and her own healing magics, there were still splotchy burn scars dotting her skin. Louise contemplated the wound, the source of the momentary magic connection she had shared with Rosa that night. It was clear now the connection was more than momentary. It was also becoming clear there was more to Rosa's madness than Louise had initially thought.

"We need to leave here soon, Rider." Louise couldn't help but try to keep her right side turned away from her Servant as she addressed him. She didn't have her eye patch on at the moment, but even with the wound covered she still felt ashamed of what it represented for them.

"How are your injuries? How are your magic-circuits? Your mana?" Rider was very much in favor of getting out from under Ali's surveillance, but did not want to leave until they were fully prepared for it.

"My circuits are fine. I don't think they were damaged at all, my mana was just running low."

"Are you sure? It is my understanding that a mage's magic circuits may as well be treated as their lifeblood, the stronger those are, the better you can operate. And if your magic can operate at higher levels, I will be able to take more mana for myself." Though it was not his specialty to understand mages and magic, Rider was at least able to understand the parts that pertained directly to himself as a Servant.

"Perfectly. I'm going to try going back to sleep for the rest of the night. We will speak to Ali about leaving in the morning."

"As you wish, my Master."

Maria Badeaux had always preferred working away from the office, her car generally served as her desk more than anything else did. She was poring over some files she had printed out, the left over filter of a burnt out cigarette in her mouth, when something unprecedented happened: the nondescript phone rang. She had always only used it to make calls to her arcane benefactors. Though she had met with them in person a few times, including the night previous, it was still unheard of for them to call her.

"Well this is something special." Maria answered the phone with a surprising curtness despite the extraordinary circumstances. "What's the occasion?"

An older male voice, one of extreme self-assurance, though lacking any tone of condescension, and sounding as though it were passing through a metal slit, answered Maria's question. "We have procured some information we thought you may be interested in."

"Oh yeah?" Maria betrayed a note of curiosity as she spoke. "This finally have something to do with what you were supposed to be helping me with?"

"It does, in fact."

"Well, tell your Master thanks again for the dinner and company last night, but I think for once you've finally got my attention more than she usually does."

"You flatter me." If he actually felt flattered, his tone did not betray it. "It perhaps should have seemed obvious before, so I do apologize for the delay in confirming it, but my sources indicate that the phenomenon is originating from somewhere within the catacombs."

Maria was disappointed by his answer. "That seems unlikely as the catacombs are frequently filled with tourists. The level of activity we suspect, and the number of people that we believe are regularly involved, they just wouldn't be able to operate unseen."

"The ossuary is not toured at night." The note of confidence never left the speaker's voice.

"If the police can find a movie theater down there, they would be able to find a mage's workshop." Maria had to admit that she was still getting used to saying things like that.

"You are thinking about this too simply. They can emerge from the catacombs without operating within them."

"Oh, cut the cryptic crap and just tell me already." Maria, though she was quite taken with the Master, had no patience for the Servant.

"Were not some sections of the catacombs walled off to prevent access to the mines beyond? It would be a simple matter for a mage to move unnoticed through a single wall."

"Well I guess I'm checking out the catacombs. You know, you're not half bad once you cut through the bullshit."

"Again you flatter me. I ask however that you not go on this expedition."

"I've got no choice now that I have the info, government business. Besides, what am I supposed to do?" Maria found his concern oddly out of character.

The Juge swore she could hear the man smile over the phone as he spoke. "You know someone else who is quite embroiled in all this. Give her the information. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to go play investigator herself."