Chapter Text
Agnès blinked past the blood trailing into her right eye and stared up at the snake that had encircled Luxendarc, feeling numb. So this was the ruin she had brought on the world. All the teachings about the crystals, lies: they had brought damnation instead of salvation. All of Airy’s promises, lies: the fairy had changed into a twisted monster and attacked them at the Holy Pillar. Tiz and Edea had forced her to retreat into the pillar–into another world, the fairy had claimed–but now Tiz lay dead, and Edea had vanished with Airy in the light, and it was all her fault…!
And now a snake darkened the world’s horizon, as if ready to swallow it up. After the difficult fight with Airy, Agnès already knew there was no way she could face this monster. Not on her own.
Not on her own…she touched her pendant for one last reassurance, and then had a wild hope. Sometimes the pendant had brought help–from other worlds? Or times? Whatever they were, they had been help. They had not been false.
The snake lazily circling the world cracked open one eye that must have been as long as an island. Agnès brought up her hands to pray one final time, clutching the pendant tightly.
“Whoever you are, wherever you are…”
Perhaps she could summon an echo of Tiz. Perhaps she could bring back Edea.
Something in the air shifted; Agnès could feel a pressure bearing down on her. As though the circle had closed somewhat. She shook…it was such a powerful presence.
The pendant had only ever brought one person at a time. It had been enough before. It would not be now.
She would have to make it enough. She would have to make it bring more.
“Please…hear my prayer…” The pressure was increasing. She poured all her energy into the pendant. Urging it to awaken, not knowing if it even could. It was not one of the four crystals, after all. She knew not why it possessed the strange ability it did. But if there was even the smallest possibility that it could bring enough help, she would make it so.
“I am Agnès Oblige, vestal to the crystals, and I have failed, but this world does not deserve destruction!”
She would have given her life to save it. She still would. Her heart was pounding as the pressure bore down on her even more, a distant but huge roar growing closer. The snake was coming. The snake was coming to devour the world, and she would be one small morsel on its tongue. She opened her eyes to stare up at the impossible sight of a snake as big as the world bearing down on her, its mouth gaping open.
“Bring this world its warriors of light!” she screamed, barely hearing herself above the deafening roar of the world’s end.
Beneath the roar, beneath her scream, there was a third sound she sensed more than heard. Her hands suddenly pulsated with pain as a blue light shot out from between her folded fingers, splitting the sky. Steel, gleaming and curved and huge, suddenly blocked her view of the snake’s maw.
And after that…Agnès could not say. The pressure and blood loss grew too much, and she blacked out.
She wasn’t dead.
That was the first thing she knew.
She wasn’t dead, and someone was dabbing her hands with potion. It was the mushroom smell that tipped her off, one that had always been peculiar to the medicine.
She sobbed before she could even think to stop herself. The snake had been stopped. Help had come. She hadn’t damned Luxendarc. Against all odds, someone strong enough had appeared.
But her crying must have alarmed the person nursing her wounds, because the light touches suddenly stopped, even as they cradled her hand more firmly. "Agnès? I’m not hurting you, am I?“
Her eyes flew open at the voice. "Tiz?” In the next moment, her heart broke and she was ready to apologize–the coloring of his hair and the eye she could see was right, but the fringe was too long and he looked strangely older–but then he smiled at her, and it was so much Tiz that she was certain. “Tiz!” She sat up to hug him; her head was left spinning at the suddenness of the movement, but that only made her more determined to hold on. She didn’t want to let go. "You’re alive… Thank goodness, thank… I thought you had died.“
Tiz hugged her in return, rubbing her back. "Agnès… listen. Luxendarc is safe now. Airy’s master is dead. You did great.”
Relieving as the news was, Agnès had to protest. "I was the reason it was in danger.“
"Because that damned fairy tricked you,” Tiz argued, and Agnès was so surprised to hear the anger in his voice that she withdrew a little, thinking it aimed at her. But Tiz’s face immediately softened when he saw her fear, and he lifted a hand to pat her hair. "If it hadn’t been you she tricked, it would have been someone else. That Airy was an ageless creature. She would have simply bided her time until there was another vestal or vestaling. Don’t blame yourself. It was all her. And you persisted, even when everything seemed lost.“
"All I did was pray.”
Tiz scoffed, pulling back a little and turning her hands toward herself. "All you did was charge a crystalline core so strongly that you overloaded and shattered it. The readings were apparently going wild when you drew us in.“
Agnès blinked at her hands and the slivers of her blue pendant embedded in her palms. Some had already been removed, leaving marks of skin still red and angry after the potion, but others seemed to be too deep to get out easily. Now she understood why her hands had been hurting. Though Tiz’s words, she did not understand as much. "Drew ‘us’ in…?” She looked around for the others he was referring to…her confusion only grew. They were alone in this room, but the room itself was filled with medical equipment seeming more advanced than even Eternia’s Central Healing Tower. Besides the soft gray walls and the comfortable beds for patients, everything seemed to be gleaming steel, and she immediately thought of the metallic mass she had seen right before blacking out. "Tiz, where are we?“
"This is the battleship of the planeswardens,” he explained, though he seemed to realize instantly that it was not the most helpful explanation. "Um… I don’t know if Airy told you, but her plan involved linking different worlds, you know? Now that they are linked, the planeswardens help to protect all the worlds, across time and space.“
"Of course she told us,” Agnès said. How could Tiz have forgotten that? He had been so angry and distressed when Airy taunted him about another Norende having been destroyed. "She was gloating about it. To hurt you…“
Tiz opened his mouth for an instant and then closed it, apparently second guessing whatever he had been ready to say. "Agnès… what’s most important is that you don’t blame yourself for her evil.”
It was hers, too, for having been a fool. Agnès didn’t say that, knowing Tiz would be upset by it, and she was not sure what else to say when he was withholding something from her. Tiz was not a liar by nature, and she felt like she should know what the issue was, but her head was still too muddled to tease out what was wrong.
After an awkward silence, Tiz fiddled with a small ring on his finger and talked into it, instantly gaining Agnès’ curiosity as she realized he was talking to someone. "Agnès is awake. Limited visitors, let’s not overwhelm her, please.“
”Dibs! I have dibs!“ a girl’s voice tinnily shouted from the ring. ”And ha, that’s rich of you, Tiz.“
”Indeed, Edea,“ a man’s voice cut in. ”Tiz has been keeping Agnès all to himself while she’s been sleeping, and now he wants to do it when she’s awake, too?“
"I was treating her,” Tiz ground out, but he was starting to blush hard enough to reach the tips of his ears. Agnès was fascinated by the sight he made, but didn’t really note the accusation that had been made against him. Her mind had stopped processing anything after the confirmation that Edea was present on the ship as well. "…I suppose the two of you should be fine. But seriously, take it easy? We need to explain everything to her.“
"Edea’s here…” Agnès sighed. Her heart felt full enough to burst, knowing both her friends had been saved from harm.
There was that strange look on Tiz’s face again, like he wanted to say something, but he eased into a smile. "Mm,“ he said. "I was really happy the first time I saw her here, too.”
And that didn’t sound right either–he sounded genuine, but it wasn’t the emotion that was the problem, it was the phrasing, as if “the first time” might have been a while ago–but Agnès wasn’t allowed much time to think longer on it. There was a thunderous pounding down the hallway running alongside the healing room, and a glimpse of Edea’s blonde hair was all the warning Agnès got before the younger girl jumped on top of her.
“Agnès! Agnès, Agnès, Agnès!”
“…What part of 'don’t overwhelm’…”
Edea did not even pause in affectionately nuzzling her friend as she answered Tiz indignantly. "It’s not overwhelming, it’s making up for lost time, blockhead! You don’t mind, do you Agnès?“
"How long have I been out?” Agnès asked; while she didn’t mind the affection, per se, Edea’s boisterous delight was frazzling. And unexpected in its intensity. "'Lost time’…how much time did I lose?“
"Oh, uh….” Edea hesitating set off alarms in the vestal’s head. Edea was not known for being hesitant. “It’s not just you, you know? Mrgrgr… Tiz, I thought you would have explained this part at least!”
“…Sorry.” Tiz looked aside.
“Perhaps I could explain?” the newcomer at the door was a stranger to Agnès for a few moments, but then she placed his white blond hair and hazel eyes and gasped out loud.
“Alternis Dim!”
He bowed. "At your service, dear Agnès, though I’d prefer you call me 'Ringabel’. You see,“ he continued when she stared at him blankly. "I am Alternis, but considering I’m from a world where Alternis is infinitely more lovable, I’ve had need of a different name to distinguish me from the less adorable dark knights.”
“He’s from bizarro world,” Edea told Agnès. "Don’t worry if you don’t understand him, he doesn’t make sense by default.“
"He’s from some world, anyway,” Tiz said as 'Ringabel’ pouted. "And that’s the thing, Agnès. All the Dimensional Officers are from different worlds. We’ve just happened to be brought together. The worlds have many things in common, and we’ve all known you as a friend, but…“
It still took Agnès a moment to piece it together after Tiz’s words lapsed awkwardly. "Don’t blame yourself for her evil.” Tiz and Edea both looking different from as she’d just seen them, older. Why it had been a long time since they had seen her. They weren’t… "… My friends are dead and gone.“
”…We gave the Tiz of your world a proper burial. He’s resting in peace with his loved ones,“ said the Tiz that wasn’t her friend, while the Alternis who wasn’t Alternis gave him a long side glance. "We didn’t see Edea at all. Did she fall in the Pillar?”
“Yes…”
“Then she may have survived after all,” 'Ringabel’ said, focusing on Agnès again. "After all, that’s how I got my start as Ringabel. Fell through the Holy Pillar into another world, and survived perfectly whole. With, perhaps, a touch of amnesia–but that only helped my mysterious charm!“
"Ugh, Ringabel, you didn’t need to add that part, you’re worrying her,” Edea said grumpily. "Look, Agnès, I’m a lot tougher than him, okay? I’m sure your Edea made it just fine.“
"Is there a way to look for her?” All well and good to think Edea had pulled through with nary a scratch, but Airy had been right beside her. Agnès could not simply take it for granted that–
“Ringabel!! Where did you go?”
It was such a tiny, unthreatening voice, not even calling for her, but Agnès’ heart plummeted so fast and so far, it was like she had been dropped into an icy lake.
Airy.
Tiz was instantly furious. "She is not okay,“ he hissed at Ringabel. "You know that, she should know that–”
“I know, I know,” Ringabel said instantly, raising his hands placatingly. “She must have thought Agnès was asleep still–Agnès, it’s fine, she’s not the one you knew. ” He didn’t waste a second more in turning out of the room, his hand reaching up to scoop a terribly familiar fairy out of view just as she appeared in the doorway. "AIRY–you have an abominable sense of timing–“
"What is she doing here.” Agnès’ voice was too flat to turn it into a question.
“She’s a planeswarden too,” Edea said, holding onto Agnès’ hands. It no longer felt like a comfort, but a restraint. "Even though some of us don’t really like it. But she really is a different Airy, Agnès–“
”–She’s lying.“
"No, we know she’s different–Airy died, Agnès, Ringabel is one of the Warriors of Light that saw her die–”
“He’s lying. You’re lying.” That was how Airy worked, after all, tricks and lies, and she was still alive and fully capable of manipulating people. Agnès’ mind was spinning wildly now that she realized how complacent she had been. Letting herself think these were her friends, when she had known she’d brought her friends to their dooms. Letting herself think Luxendarc was safe–how could she know? Perhaps it was still in danger, perhaps it was already gone, she kept letting herself be tricked. Her throat choked up with unshed tears, and she tried to yank her hands away from Edea. The girl only held on tighter. "Let go of me!“
"J-just calm down first, all right–?”
“Agnès, please,” Tiz said, reaching out to her. "Airy isn’t going to do anything to you, we’ll make sure–“
"Stop!” She flinched away before his hand could touch her shoulder. "Stop pretending to be my friend!“
His hand stilled instantly, but Edea’s hold on her was firm. Agnès’ struggling grew more desperate and intense as she tried to get away, wanting to be anywhere but here, and then–
She yanked both hands toward her chest, and this time she was strong enough to pull Edea slightly off balance. Her hands touched.
She hissed in pain as the shards of the pendant scraped against her hands and each other.
A blue light appeared, and she was gone.
She was aware of a period in which she did not have physical form.
She couldn’t speak, or blink, or talk, or move. She couldn’t even see or hear, really. She just was, a loose collection of thoughts that had once been a fool of a vestal.
…
The existential terror kept her frightened for a while, but then she decided that things had been constantly going wrong around her for a long time, even before reaching the Holy Pillar, and if she was the common factor, perhaps it was better she couldn’t be "around”. She would just be. Or not be. Whichever was the case.
…
She had long become bored of not just frightening thoughts, but all her thoughts and herself entirely, when a sudden jerk anchored her back into reality.
“Trés magnifique, Yew! It worked!”
“Ah! Your Holiness! Hands apart, please. You’ve got some very unstable crystal material that can manipulate time-space on you, and we don’t want to lose you again.”
Agnès stared at the two speakers, a beautiful young woman with silver hair and a boy with brown hair and a pair of reading glasses resting on his nose, absolutely lost as to who they were, or how she was flesh and blood again, for that matter. Though the gleaming metallic sheen of the room gave her some idea where they all were, at least.
The boy blinked at her confusion, and then stammered. "O-oh, right, you haven’t been the pope. Sorry, Lady Agnès. Force of habit. I’m Yew Geneolgia.“
"Magnolia Arch!” the woman called out with a smile.
“…Planeswardens?” Agnès asked faintly. She had no idea why the heir of the Geneolgia family of all people would be out on a ship like this, but clearly life was just not going to make sense anymore.
“Exactement!” Magnolia nodded. "We’ll make sure to explain everything properly this time, Agnès. All we ask is that you stay calm, okay? If you disappear again, the entire ship will be in an uproar. Again.“
"I suppose I don’t want to disappear again, either,” Agnès allowed. And having nothing but her thoughts for that time had given her some opportunity to process them, the initial panic long over. "But I am going to need a very detailed explanation on how Airy is not a lying monster.“
"Of course. Yew, why don’t you take her to the break room to have a seat? And while you start explaining, I’ll make us some tea.”