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“But we know how to get rid of the Chasm!” Airy protested. “Why do we need to know anything else about it?”
“Because according to what we know, the last three attempts should have rid Luxendarc of the Great Chasm, yet they didn’t. Obviously we are missing something,” Ringabel answered, looking at her closely. Pffft, please. She’d been pulling this con for millions of years; even if he pegged her, it’d simply make his death swifter. Like this obnoxious little idea was threatening to.
“I must agree with Ringabel, Airy,” and oh, were those depressing words, coming out of Agnès’ mouth, even if the next ones were somewhat amusing. “You hold the knowledge of thousands of vestals, but you are also a creature of light. It is only natural that such a great darkness may be able to hold secrets, even from you.”
Again: hilarious. But frustrating, in that she didn’t know how to dissuade them from investigating the Dark Aurora! Argh. This bunch had been so good at the beginning! Agnès and Tiz stayed on task, and though Ringabel and Edea were more apt to fall into distractions, they provided the extra firepower needed to get her dear little fool of a vestal through the Duchy’s lines. Besides, the drama surrounding Edea’s betrayal could be so entertaining. They’d repaired the airship, and they’d avoided having conversations with the templar or dark knight that were too substantial. For the increased speed in subsequent worlds, Airy could accept, if begrudgingly, Agnès coming to prioritize Tiz’s companionship over hers. The shepherd without a flock was just as much in her pocket, after all. But Agnès trusting Ringabel’s judgment over hers? That looked like a clear sign that she needed to start over with a fresh group. There were only two worlds left to chain together, and she’d hoped to get through them as quickly as possible… but now that the idiot casanova had gotten the bright idea of descending into the Great Chasm with the airship to examine its makings, the remains of varying Grandships littering the Dark Aurora would raise too many suspicions. She had strained her credibility too far with the warriors of light once before, and though she’d swiftly killed them, the pests had managed to set her plan back by thousands of years by destroying a crystal, forcing her to find a new crystal core, wait for it to grow, and then navigate a Luxendarc quite changed from the time period she was most accustomed in order to find a suitable vestal. No. Far better to kill this group and start over again, able to stick more closely to the circumstances she knew how to manipulate the best.
At least the Dark Aurora would be the perfect setting for their deaths–she might not even have to do much. All she would need to do was cause the airship to crash, and she could watch from above and enjoy the screaming as they were torn apart by monsters. Then she would find their counterparts, or perhaps she would search out Olivia? It was always Agnès who came to her, if any vestal came to investigate the chasm, and for that the girl was her dearest fool, but Olivia was not that much different. Either vestal, as soon as they were told it was their duty to save Luxendarc, could be suitably compliant. And Olivia didn’t have the obnoxious two-for-one deal with Tiz that Agnès seemed to, an important consideration when Tiz seemed to have gotten himself killed in this world as well. For being her second most reliable pawn, Tiz was… honestly, not all that reliable. She reckoned he let himself die in Norende’s collapse about every one out of three times, which either left Til to become the “miracle man” (“maybe ‘boy’”, she’d correct herself, pretending to be sheepish), or resulted in Agnès allowing herself to be sacrificed for the sake of peace. All because Tiz couldn’t just move out of the way when she was busy linking worlds.
As she brooded over this and fumed over her mission’s momentum, soon to be lost, Airy glared absently at the shepherd…and pursed her lips when she realized how quiet he had been. It wasn’t unusual for Tiz to allow others to lead at times; it was why the group was comfortable with calling him the leader. This had seemed paradoxical to Airy in early worlds, but after more rounds of trial and error, the fairy had come to see some wisdom in the shepherd’s approach: it was too exhausting to nag every time they got distracted, and if she got too overbearing, Edea would rebel, leading to a fragmented and unproductive group. The worlds had begun to pass more smoothly when she took a page from Tiz’s book, sweetening her words and trying to play nice to people besides her vestal of the moment. And, while she still made sure to emphasize the crystals over everything else (she was a cryst-fairy, she was supposed to do that!), she saved the serious lectures for their biggest slip-ups. Still, she was never completely silent, and rarely was Tiz, unless he was moping about his brother. Except he didn’t look sad; he looked tense.
Airy’s lips curved into a smile. Of course… he wouldn’t want to admit it, not if he thought Ringabel’s idea was sound, but the thought of descending into the pit his village had disappeared into had to be absolutely terrifying for him. She wanted to play on that fear. Maybe she could still salvage this group, but even failing that, it’d be quite satisfying if he ended up disappointing Agnès because he was paralyzed by fright.
But first she would try to defuse this situation. “Tiz, is everything all right?” she gasped. “It’s not like you to be so quiet. This is where Norende used to be. Will you be okay?” Everyone loved their little sleepy-eyed shepherd. Surely they’d reconsider for his comfort?
Indeed, Ringabel turned toward Tiz, frowning. “You haven’t said anything for a while now–”
“I’m fine!” Tiz said quickly, his brow furrowing. Ugh. Airy could already tell this attempt was going to fail, just from that stupid brow. “I won’t pretend it doesn’t scare me a little. But Norende has been swallowed up four times now. I want to know why.”
And the others actually accepted that. Sure, they looked more worried now, but they apparently thought it was okay to let Tiz terrify himself if it meant getting closer to the truth. Things were definitely going wrong when Airy had to act like the most empathetic one.
She kept an eye on him, but though his lips pressed into a thinner and thinner line as they discussed the plans for entering the chasm and attempting to survey it and possibly even land, his voice stayed steady and his opinion never seemed to waver. Until he gave a bigger tell, it’d be too suspicious to keep pressing him on his discomfort, so by Agnès’ side she stayed as the group broke up to ready themselves and Ringabel piloted them toward the Grand Chasm. The cryst-fairy watched and fought to not sneer as her wind vestal prepared herself with white and time magic to stave off any monsters within the chasm that might try to attack Grandship. Magic that would never save her if she pressed on with this foolishness. Ringabel was definitely playing at being the hero with that templar garb, while Edea seemed to want to go toe-to-toe with any potential threat with her pirate’s ax. Well, she could try.
Tiz had chosen knight and spell-fencer, obviously intending to protect Agnès with his shield should the monsters get too close. It was as good an excuse as any to try getting a reaction from him again, the fairy thought impatiently as Grandship came to a stop above the Dark Aurora. If she didn’t stop them soon, she really was going to have to slaughter them all. “T-tiz?” she squeaked as she fluttered to him. “You’ll protect Agnès, won’t you? I don’t–I don’t like this, it’s really too dangerous! Can’t you feel the dark energy brimming beneath us? What if something happens?”
“We won’t let it. Please trust us,” Tiz said, and his tone was stiff. He didn’t even turn his head to look at her! Was he being short with her? What a brat. She was trying to spare his life. But his gaze was fixed on the broken earth rising up toward them, and Airy considered how tightly his gauntlets were gripped about both sword and shield. He was just trying so hard to be strong, wasn’t he? She could hardly expect anything else of him. Tiz Arrior was a lost little boy who had stuffed himself full of platitudes about friendship, hope, bravery, and other such nonsense to pretend he still had some reason to live besides a fear of dying. It was time for her to knock a little of that stuffing out.
“Swear to me,” she insisted, darting in front of his face, both satisfied and surprised to see him flinch. He should be scared of her. But not quite yet. “You’re the one I trust to protect Agnès if she’s really in trouble. Promise me she won’t be harmed by whatever creatures may lurk down there!”
“Airy,” he said, and he was biting his lip–-there! He was uncertain. The nervousness on his face was illuminated only by her own luminescence as the last light of the sun slid past Grandship and they entered a deep darkness, broken only by the few lights Ringabel had gotten the Shieldbearers to help him put on Grandship. Though there were still numerous shadows and the airship’s interior itself was pitch black, the search lights worked better than she wished. The pieces of former Grandships would definitely be spotted if they went low enough.
“If you can’t promise me, I have to insist we go back up!” she hissed at him. “We must protect Agnès! What would we do without her?”
“Airy!” his voice was a bit louder this time; she couldn’t tell if he’d meant it to be, but now Edea was looking over at them from her own post, and the girl was sure to try telling Airy off if she kept up this way. “We will protect Agnès,” he said. “She’s important to us, just as she is to you. I would rather die than let her come to harm.”
Well. Yes. Airy did have to agree that he did a lot more screaming and sobbing whenever she killed Agnès before him. That wasn’t exactly helpful though, now was it? She huffed and zipped away to the nearby corner of the cabin in aggravation. Ringabel had entirely ruined things with this idea! The fairy stewed, brooding over how she would begin taunting this set of warriors but too annoyed to even enjoy that much. Tiz’s eyes kept darting to her now, and she became aware that she was radiating dark energy. The glamor that kept her real form hidden from the world was starting to unravel in her temper. Not that he’d be able to see it, nearly blind in the darkness with his weak human eyes, but it must be unsettling. He tried to focus again on the darkness outside but seemed to be failing somewhat, blinking too fast as his breath turned shallow and quick. Good. She hoped he choked on his fear. The others hadn’t seemed to notice his state yet; his precious Agnès was too busy talking to Ringabel, asking if their descent was still steady. Ringabel seemed confident still, foolishly so considering he was practically digging their graves with this. Airy glanced outside once more, her temper spiking as she saw the first bit of wreckage come into view. She was going to absolutely murder them all, and she’d find a way to murder them a second time if her new crew was a slow one–
Except the first bit of wreckage didn’t belong to an airship. It was wrecked fencing, something that would have been used in Norende to hold in some livestock. Likely sheep, considering Tiz’s trade.
Airy’s lips curled into a gleeful smirk all at once. One last chance. Just one more shot at this crew taking her straight through to the end. “Tiz! Tiz!” she called. “There’s something down there, come see!” Just a little closer…they needed to not find anything that was undeniably Grandship, but there was one kind of debris that the wreckage of Grandship and Norende had in common, and if she was really lucky they’d find that first.
Tiz swallowed, but he obediently came over, just as he should. Because, after all, she was just being a helpful scout right now! “What’s the matter, Airy? Is it a monster?”
There. She’d found it, so helpfully swathed in a bright, eye-catching blue that otherwise didn’t belong in the Dark Aurora. “No, I think it used to be part of a building–maybe we’re close to where everything landed?” And she pointed directly at the fencing, and specifically just a few feet to the left of where there just happened to be a broken human skeleton in the spotlights’ range, where she was sure Tiz would still catch it and realize it was the corpse of another person who’d lived in Norende. A woman, judging by the ruined dress. And just as his eyes followed her finger, and then strayed from it, she let out another spike of dark energy to wear on his already taxed nerves.
She wasn’t sure how she’d expected Tiz to react: a gasp of terror, a cry of surprise, she just wanted something that would change the others’ minds about coming down here, where he would obviously be sensitive to some of the horrors. Tiz surpassed those vague expectations when his eyes bulged in horror and then rolled back. The moment he fell backwards and hit the floor in a dead faint? Everyone sure realized they had made a bad decision then, and his name was shouted in a chorus.
Airy busied herself with hovering over Tiz and seeming a-flutter with worry for him. “Wake up, wake up! What’s happened to you?!”
Agnès had cried out his name, and the wind vestal was quickly underneath Airy’s keen eyes as she propped her friend’s head up in her arms, patting his cheek gently but urgently. “Tiz? Oh please, be all right…”
Ringabel had also yelled, and seemed at a loss whether to stay at the wheel or rush to his friend’s side–a dilemma Edea quickly solved for him. “Ringabel, take us back up, now!” It was the girl who pushed herself over the railing, bypassing the staircase and jumping down to join the small group forming around Tiz.
“Right!”
Airy had to fight very, very hard not to grin as the airship slowed, reversed direction and began to ascend. She couldn't smirk when her too-trusting vestal was looking to her. “Airy, did you see what happened?”
“I’m so sorry, Agnès, I didn’t mean to startle him!” the fairy said, feigning panic. “All I did was show him some wreckage I found. I thought we were getting near where everyone wanted to search!”
Fortunately, Agnès didn’t pester her too much more about it, because Tiz shifted in her arms. “M, ma…”
Oh? Now that was interesting. Had he just said…? Airy almost wanted to peek at the skeleton again, but that wouldn’t really tell her anything. Humans were a lot harder to recognize with the flesh gone. Instead she flitted in lower to get close to the shepherd’s face as his eyes blinked open, wide and wet. “You gave me a fright, Tiz! What happened?”
“Are you all right?” Agnès asked him.
“Sh-she…the body…startled me.”
“A body?” Airy made sure to echo in incredulous surprise. Though she still felt a glare her way, even if Ringabel had looked away by the time she turned her head. Hmph! He’d been so stupidly suspicious lately. It was his fault Tiz had been made to see the corpse of someone he’d known, really.
Agnès and Edea exchanged a look over Tiz; they’d caught that he’d started referring to the body as if a living person as well. And they knew just as well as Airy did that he’d kept fairly cool when dealing with ghosts and skeletons before. Edea was quickly moving to the window as Agnès stroked Tiz’s thick hair back from his forehead. She didn't comment when the boy needed to blink back tears. “I am sorry,” the vestal offered hesitantly, as though this was somehow her fault. …Which, she had decided to agree with Ringabel, rather than listen to her cryst-fairy’s warnings.
“No, I should be… We’re ascending, aren’t we?” the boy asked.
“Yes,” Edea said, tight-lipped as she came back from the window and giving Agnès a very significant look. She’d managed to spot it too, then.
“We didn’t get to search…”
“No.” Agnès shook her head. “It’s no matter. Don’t worry about it, Tiz.”
The other three dragged Tiz out into the bright sunshine as soon as Ringabel could land the airship and got the shepherd boy to take off his armor and lay down with them, quickly rooting him with arms and legs tangling over him in hugs and heads being rested on top of his stomach. Airy watched in bemusement as they kept shifting until all four were comfortable. Tiz only made a little protest about being fussed over; by his standards he was being downright clingy, obviously shaken, and quickly caved to the warmth he was being offered.
Humans were so weird, Airy thought, but she was in a better mood now that she’d gotten her way, and she decided to offer Tiz her own company. His thick brown hair always got so warm from the sun and was nice and soft to rest against.
“Airy?” he said, drowsily, and he tensed a little. Hm… was he expecting her to say something about how he’d collapsed, just after claiming he’d protect Agnès? Maybe she should let him off the hook, this time.
“I know you’re upset over getting scared like that,” she said. “But I understand, Tiz! The Chasm is a place of pure darkness. Any human would be right to be frightened. I think it’s a good instinct to have. I don’t know what might have happened if we’d gone much farther.”
“…Yes,” Tiz said slowly. “I’m glad nothing happened.”
Airy smiled, playing idly with his hair as he drifted into a nap. It was fun, sometimes. To pluck on the strands and pretend she was really pulling his strings.