Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Edelstein perched at the fringe of twilight, sunfire fading to more grays than blues. It was the age of the place, Ferdi had once said- time leached the color from anything. Broken streetlights and reducing power left little reprieve from the dense shadow cover.

Claudine was heading home. Another late shift; a ‘real’ one this time. Some young idiot of an adventurer had thought to poach around the mines. It was a ‘guard robot malfunction’ according to Bavan. Privately, Claudine had counseled the girl to accept the story, but to steer clear in the future.

Steer clear. Like that was a problem. No one came to Edelstein. Prospective adventurers left. Once it was bled to the breaking point, what would the Black Wings do? Would they care? The taxes were an important resource. They might just start keeping hostages. Brainwashing, if they had the technology to do that all along… 

A flood of golden light burst into view. Bavan staggered out, round face flushed scarlet. Leonore was giggling on his arm, grimacing when he wasn’t looking. As one four-legged beast they swayed in the moonlight, faded to the distance past her without even looking. Bavan flung an empty bottle to break shrilly on the flagstones. 

They turned out of sight down Sprocket Way, where, from the sound of things, Bavan hailed a taxi.

Incrementally, Claudine loosened her grip on her briefcase.

Someone whistled in the dark. Far enough to be out of reach, but not far enough for them to have been hidden for natural reasons before. Brighton stepped into view, dropped his dustpan and started sweeping up the bottle fragments.

“Looks like the watchmen are paying for your night shift.”

“Well, they got a raise and I didn’t, so, fair’s fair.” This late, he wasn’t making the effort to put on his ‘happy civilian’ face. She could wait for him to get to his point- and it wasn’t for long. “Claudine, answer me honestly. Do you think we’re going to last?”

“We’ve been through worse.”

“I want the actual answer, not the morale one.”

She guessed there wasn’t going to be a better time to have this conversation.

“If J hadn’t caught the side effects when he did, we’d have lost all our field agents. As it is, we’re going to be completely dependent on Surl for supplies for the time being. No covert shipments until they recover.”

“So, just the guy that we can’t put too much pressure on.” Brighton crouched over the pan. Shadows curled around his fingers like leaping snakes- instantly, the glass was ground to sand, which he tipped dismissively into a nearby bin. “Great. And half of the ones down are our juniors.”

“We have been counting on them a bit too much lately.” It wasn’t like Brighton to catch her streetside like this, even late at night. “Worried about your star student?”

“I think him being my student was a mistake.”

“ What ? You’ve said yourself he’s got immense potential. He’s been doing well on missions-”

“And that’s the problem .” Brighton’s broom came down. “That kid and his sister were a godsend. Between them and Lottie we blazed ahead with all these projects and ideas. If we’d slowed down, we’d have had time to notice.”

He wasn’t looking at her. He was staring down a cracked brick in the road.

“We were that desperate. And now we’re worse, because we dragged kids into it.”

And now Lottie was recovering in a hospital on Victoria because her ‘adventurer’ career meant she couldn’t suddenly return to Edelstein after having collapsed in the field. And Vita was…

“You said yourself. We’ve been counting on them. They should be counting on us.” Straightened in the gloom, Brighton slung his broom across his shoulder. In that moment, regardless of his ordinary clothes, the battlemage was apparent. 

“So what now?” When he glanced at her, she folded her arms. “You aren’t the kind of person to come to me without an actionable plan.”

“No, Claudine, I don’t actually have one . Luca’s not in a state to be doing missions. He’s not in a state to hear it . And he’s absolutely not in a shape to be doing any kind of work with his familiar.”

“Koku?” Claudine thought of the little wraith, almost inseparable from Luca’s mundane shadow. “What’s Koku got to do with it?”

“You mean you can’t-” Brighton let out a breath. His grip on the broom had been starting to kick out black sparks. “No. You can’t tell. Right. How do I put this. Claudine? I have no idea where Luca got that thing . I guided him through the rites. Usually that sort of thing binds natural spirits, ‘demons’ but without a particular goal. Restless ghosts. We’ve got loads in Edelstein- it’s why battle magic is so viable here.”

Claudine took in the darkened street. A particular unlit house caught her eye, wedged at the end of the row, nearly consumed by the Free Market entrance. She guessed it could be haunted.

Brighton didn’t notice her gaze. Waving his free hand, “I couldn't tell it wasn’t that until the last time I advanced him. Whatever that thing is, it followed Luca to us. It’s the reason he’s been developing so fast- its own power, and that I’ve been training him to pieces so it doesn’t eat him, if that’s what it wants. I have no idea. And I don’t want him doing anything with that power when he’s at a low point and might let it in more than it should be trusted.”

From her gaze on the empty house, she could see the new camera that had been affixed to its doorframe slowly turning to face them.

“Brighton, let’s talk later. Right now, I think we both need to get home and sleep it off. Losing Vita shook all of us. We,”

A hopeful, pale face. Dull eyes. A quiet child, very intelligent… 

“We all took a nasty shock. I think you’re projecting that anxiety onto Koku.” Brighton looked unconvinced. Claudine tilted her head. “I mean. It cries when Luca’s not paying enough attention to it. I don’t mean to besmirch your demonological expertise,”

“Then let me share some.” A quick double-spin, snapped the broom to a ready grip at his side. “Vita was like a demon in some ways. They don’t have to want to hurt you before they can .”

Don’t, Claudine wanted to say. I’m tired of this. Everything already wants to hurt me. Don’t tell me how our friends, our allies, can hurt us with wide eyes and good intentions and I can’t see it coming. We’re surrounded by enemies, is that your point? We always were. I can’t keep doing this. Maybe that girl would’ve lived if I hadn’t locked her up- if I’d checked her over more carefully, been able to find out how to undo… 

“Look,” she said, to all of it. “Ulrika’s supposed to already be in bed but knowing her she isn’t. I don’t want to make her worry.”

“Hm.” Brighton put his head down. Went back to sweeping. Conversation was over. She wouldn’t know how he felt until later.

Fine. Claudine put her head down and walked the rest of the way home, trying not to imagine Ulrika among the list of hopeful, vulnerable faces she’d let down.

“Ugh.”

Tap tap. Click click click.

“ Ughhh. ”

Clickclick. Tap.

“Cora-”

A marble hit him between the eyes with pinpoint accuracy. “ OW! ” It dropped as Luca scrambled up, catching in the hollow of his scarf on the way to his lap. “What was that for?!”

Cora wasn’t even facing him. Rude! Acknowledge your crimes hurting your brother! “You’re moping so loud I can’t do my homework.”

Luca rubbed the red divot, and rued the day Checky taught his dumb sister to shoot a gun. She used to miss when she threw stuff at him. “Homework? You’re doing homework now?”

“Yeah it’s due tomorrow.” Cora kept typing. “Y’know, like you’d know, if you’d actually gone to class.”

Luca threw himself back on the top bunk’s thin mattress. “I’ve got stuff to do.”

“Oh yeah like practicing which you haven’t been doing, missions like you haven’t been taking-”

“It’s not my fault Brighton’s suddenly giving me the cold shoulder okay! It’s like I don’t exist to him suddenly!” Under his breath, “and we know why…”

“Cause your friend poisoned half the resistance and then blew up?”

He rolled away from her. “Y’know okay forget it Cora I don’t wanna talk.”

The second marble bounced off the back of his head. He didn’t dignify it with a response.

Because he didn’t ask, that time Cora explained for real. “Because you’re being stupid. Vita saved your life. She had one choice and she made it.”

“And she shouldn’t have!” Facing the wall was a bad idea too. It put him a nose-length away from all the dumb explorer posters he’d put up when he was ten, like a baby idiot who just wanted to ditch Edelstein and go punch slimes or something. Visit Perion, home of the warrior tradition! Uncover Sleepywood! “I’ve used up so many stupid town scrolls, I should’ve had another one! I should’ve grabbed her!”

“Yeah and if you’d waited for me I probably could’ve disarmed the bomb.”

“That’s low !”

“Vita was my friend too, you know.”

He twisted to look at her. The back of her head was an impenetrable wall of frizzy pale hair, leaning on the orphanage’s cheap chair. Everything was cheap here; Edelstein barely wanted the people who had families; brats with no relatives got ‘charity’ which was mostly trash. The computer was one of those pieces of junk where the rue practically leaked through the monitor- a buzzing turquoise beacon when all the other lights in their room were off.

Luca flicked his hand. Koku appeared over by the lamp. It gave him a look, like, you’ve been ignoring me for days and you summon me to turn a light on? He wasn’t taking sass from it right now anyway- reluctantly, it hooked the pull chain with its scythe and tugged. Click. “If you fry your eyes like that, Ferdi's gonna have to get you glasses.”

“So I can not wear them like you do?”

Luca threw one of her marbles back at her. It clattered harmlessly under the chair. “Seriously Cora what the hell, why are you so mad all of the sudden?”

Tap tap tap. Click. She’d made it to the mandatory black wings propaganda section, Identify the Suspicious Person in this crowd!, so she definitely wasn’t ignoring him because it was hard. 

Like he hadn’t heard her the first time, “Vita was my friend too.”

Luca grabbed the second marble to throw it. In the moment he hesitated, Koku had floated up to the bed, turned once, and settled into his lap. Like a cat. 

“...yeah. And she’s dead now.”

And it’s my fault.

“And you’re acting like you’re the only one who could be sad about it.” Cora clicked on Bavan’s face five times. ‘WRONG’ flashed on the screen. She sighed, and moused over to the obviously shady, stereotypical criminal they’d put handing out fliers. ‘CORRECT!’ “And it’s stupid, and I’m talking more than you and that’s wrong.”

“Gee, thanks.” Koku was a lot heavier than a cat. Which was weird, for a floating thing. Luca lay back, his thumb making circles on the back of its head. Yeah okay Koku. I guess I’ve been a garbage friend to you too. 

“...Cora, do you think I blew it?”

“Yeah probably.”

He ignored her. “I was the one to test Vita’s medicine. I delivered it to J. I encouraged her- she even asked me if it was a bad idea, and-”

Koku sprawled out, its manacle sliding as it got comfy. For a powerful dark spirit, it sure did look and act like such a helpless little baby. And it was his, and Brighton just let him summon it and bind themselves together like-

“What if it’s my fault she’s gone?”

Cora kicked away from the computer and over to the ladder. He didn’t have to watch- he could hear her heavy, slightly clumsy steps on the rungs. Her face appeared at the top- deep bags under both red eyes.

“Then what. You gonna die about it?” When he didn’t answer, she pushed: “People die Luca! That’s what happens! That’s what was gonna happen to Vita anyway if she stayed in that lab like all the other kids you saw that weren’t awake and couldn’t get out in time. This wasn’t a stupid game about being a hero and punching all the bad guys in the first place! People-”

She choked up, which was worse than yelling at him. Luca’s guts twisted- Cora actually lost her parents. Not like him, who was just someone nobody wanted from the start.

“-people just die sometimes, okay. And they’ll say a bunch of garbage about how they need you to keep living for them. So go be stupid and selfish and live about it.”

You couldn’t say what you felt when she was making that kind of face at you. Your sister was supposed to be invincible. Sure it was her dumb crutches and doctor visit reminders and pills that cluttered up their shared space, but she drove a tank around. She wasn’t sad and small and hopeless like Vita. At least she wasn’t supposed to be.

Luca scooted over and put his arm around her. The top of the ladder dug into his elbow. Koku slid off his stomach like a drop of mercury, another thing the grownups all told you not to play with in the first place. Bony black arms curled around both of them, pulled them close.

Koku never really talked , but it hummed a little. It made you feel safe. Luca guessed this was what a mom hug felt like, except from a weird monster you’d pulled out of a book. 

It made him feel safe enough to cry himself: “What are we gonna do?”

I wish that I had done more to hurt you. 

Not even to kill. Just to write an emotion on your face; you implacable angry god, creature that never made itself known to any of us.

On some reasoned, measured level I understand the order was not exclusively yours. It was something he twisted to take everything he could from me, over petty glory I did not want. 

But you did not care, and to me, that is the greater betrayal.

The terms of our agreement. The ways I handed myself over to you, body and soul, meant nothing to you by the end.

Now, I suppose I am dead. I want to imagine I saw fear in your eyes briefly; that is all I want. 

I want you to consider what it feels like to know you have something to lose. Let it grip you in the throat.

I will have to content myself with that. 

It isn’t as if I have anything more to-

To…

Dead men are not known to think.

Am I… alive?

Chapter Text

“My mission… is to take a nature walk.”

Koku stared at him. It was not a judgmental stare. Insofar as you could read blank creepy ghost faces- and Luca was getting pretty good- it was more of a ‘yes, where are we going?’ stare. Sometimes he had to wonder if Koku actually understood what he was saying. It had to, right? He’d gotten it from a book. It’d suck to be some kind of book ghost and not be able to read. 

“It’s in occupied territory. This isn’t a field trip,” Brighton pointed out. 

“Then why do I have a chaperone?”

Brighton didn’t rise to barbs like Cora did. It made him harder to communicate with. Luca used to think that was because he was nice. Now, watching his teacher pace through the canyon, a weighted battle staff in hand, ‘nice’ was pretty clearly not the word.

Luca gestured. “I mean- there’s nothing out here, right? Some kind of alarm went off and…? Maybe the Black Wings plugged something into the wrong outlet. I do that all the time.”

“J’s been doing some local recon while he’s on the mend.” If he noticed Luca wince at that mention, he didn’t indicate. “Following up on what you found before you joined us. It seems like Gelimer’s got a bunch of little satellite labs out here. Private projects he doesn’t want accessible through the main mine.”

That caught Luca’s attention. “...So, if the alarm was out here…”

“It wasn’t from a location we were familiar with. It could point to one of Gelimer’s labs.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go bust that creep!” Luca ran forwards.

It was a testament to combat training that a luckless, formerly uncoordinated boy could tumble out of the way of Brighton’s extended staff. It still forced him to stop, though not by directly tripping him- the reflex to spin around and face the attacker put him exactly where his teacher wanted him. 

“First: you don’t know which direction the alarm was. I have that intel. Second: we are not ‘busting that creep’.” At Luca’s reaction, “don’t give me that look. I handed you Schiller on a plate, didn’t I? Gelimer himself is a tougher nut to crack. The stunt he just pulled makes that obvious. At this point, we have no idea what the scope of his operation is or what he’s capable of. Going after him directly is suicide.”

“...So, we’re out here to take a nature walk because…”

“If we ever want to ‘bust that creep’, we have to find out what he’s capable of. So, long term, indirectly, we are in fact ‘busting that creep.’”

That made sense. Luca conceded: “Okay can you stop saying ‘bust’ because that sounds weird from an old guy.”

“Luca, I’m thirty.”

“Yeah, like ancient.” 

“On your nineteenth birthday I’m putting you in a retirement home.”

Okay. So maybe you could get Brighton a little bit. “How far is this signal again?”

“Well, by now, the Black Wings should have silenced the alarm and-”

Suddenly, Luca was taking a forearm to the chest. 

“Get down stay quiet shut up,” Brighton hissed, about the same time Luca realized he’d been bodily hauled behind a bush.

Silence. The wind whistled lonely through the canyon. Dry scrub scraped against sun-baked limestone. 

This place always gave him the creeps, honestly. Old folks talked about how the Verne Mine used to bring fortune and prosperity and half the folks worked there; Bonjaski at the weapon shop had been a security guard, Mrs. Min from down the street had been a miner… but it was hard to imagine it as anything other than where the evil was.

Vita had lived, and then died out here. 

Finally though, he saw something coming around the corner. It was one of those funny rabbit goons- only this one didn’t look so funny. Its fists were the size of your head and it looked like it wanted to use ‘em. It was alert, too- looking back and forth, sniffing the air. 

“...hey Brighton,” Luca strained out of the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t pay attention in science. How good are rabbits at smelling,”

“They’re not rabbits, they’re magical familiars that are shaped like rabbits,” Brighton muttered back. “Their properties could be anything. Shut up.”

That had to be true, because for a guy with big legs, the goon was moving at a snail’s pace- turning over every little rock and brush and twig like he expected to find something underneath.

And he was gonna, Luca realized- he was only about eight paces from where they were piled up behind some loose rocks. Moving way, way too slowly. 

This was… bad, Luca realized. He hadn’t fought one of the ones that big before. It wasn’t carrying a bamboo tube- its big hands were wrapped in leather gloves and the knuckles had metal spikes. You could imagine that connecting with your face- every grownup that had ever said, put the scissors down, you’ll poke your eye out!

Brighton was still as a statue. No- mouth moving. He was thinking about it. That twisted Luca’s guts up even worse- what’s there to think about , you’re mr. master battlemage, the boss resistance guy ! The big scary isn’t supposed to scare you , you’re supposed to be taking him down and being like, ‘Luca, this is why you’re dumb and don’t study, you should have known to hit him in the left kneecap and make him cry like a baby.’

Koku was squirming underneath him. Yeah, little guy, I don’t think we can do that. I don’t care if he has a really yummy-looking soul to you, or whatever’s got you worked up, I-

It went black. Like a power outage black- in broad daylight outside with the sun, there was just nothing and the moment Luca’s eyes widened to try to find where the light had gone it was back and blinding and the big guy was just… gone . Something the size of a key dropped to the ground, and cracked, and spit out a wisp of smoke.

A solitary vulture cawed somewhere up in the atmosphere. Canyon was back to normal, back to being super empty and creepy.

“Whuh,” Luca said, and then ate dirt because Brighton pushed him down.

“Stay hidden.” He stalked out, and… Luca realized he’d never seen Brighton summon a spirit. But the shadows around him pulled in a weird way. Something was following him… it wasn’t like Koku. Maybe there was more than one.

He looked left. He looked right. There was a weird noise as whatever was in his shadow crawled over through the cracks in the stone.

At the end all he did was crouch and pick up the weird thing.

“You can come out. Ge tells me there’s no life forces around here.”

Luca climbed off Koku, finally. Yeah! I’m sure it was uncomfy for you mr. ghost that can disappear whenever! Your stupid scythe butt was sticking in my face the whole time! “Your spirit’s name is ‘Ge’?”

“There’s three of them and this is not the time.” A flick in the air- Luca caught the talisman. “Tell me what you make of that.”

It was smaller than an imported cellphone. A piece of weird black rock that had been whittled into shape, and then the gouges fit with really tiny pieces of rue.

“…how did they even get the little crystals in there? That’s like… the size of my nose hairs-”

“Focus.”

“Okay yeah sorry.” Luca juggled it in the air. “It’s totally broken. Bunny guy’s dea- hey, Koku!” Mid-arc, a darting shadow snapped it clean out of the air and was…Rolling on the ground mouthing it? Wiggling and kicking? “Koku, c’mon, give me that thing back, it’s got Black Wing germs on it.” He crouched and tugged, but no avail.

“...Interesting.” Brighton didn’t sound like ‘you blew it’. More like ‘you accidentally did science while being dumb’. “Whatever took out that guard just now was using an energy your spirit recognizes. Ge might be wrong about someone else being around here.”

“Someone… friendly? If they just helped us?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Brighton finally freed the tablet with a tug. Koku retreated to Luca’s scarf to sulk. “Lots of people hate the Black Wings. Not all of them are our friends.”

Something else got tossed Luca’s way. When he caught it, it was… an actual phone. A real one! Sure it was kinda old and had buttons and stuff but still !

“Get somewhere high and call Belle. We need tracking out here.”

“On it!” The walls were steep, but there… yeah! A little platform was sticking out, and from there a handhold, you could stick an elbow there to brace and pull up-

“Luca?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember you can teleport.”

He blinked, three feet off the ground. “Oh, yeah.” A brief trip through the weird dark place that Brighton said you weren’t supposed to keep your eyes open in, and he was blinking at the top of the canyon.  Even up here, fingers of rock stretched in wayward stacks up towards the sun. Was this high enough? Should he get on top of one of those? He’d never used a cell phone before… Something was rustling in the wind and it was distracting. He hoped it was another stupid black wing goon, he needed to blow off some stress-

Huh. It was a scrap of black-and-gold fabric alright, but it was so old it was almost gray. Stuck out between two rocks… maybe one of the bunny guys like, totally ate it compared to the superior climbing skills of an Edelstein brat who got places he wasn’t supposed to, but…

There was blood next to it. And a smeary, drag-y trail that lead off from another ledge. A hand- a human hand, not a weird rabbit’s- with pallid skin…

The fingers twitched. A raspy breath.

“Brighton!”

He looked up from where he’d been drawing some kind of scribble down there.  “That was quick. What did Belle say?”

“Forget that! I found someone! Someone hurt bad!”

In a moment, Brighton flicked to his side. “No more shouting. Where are they?”

The fabric had moved. There was more blood. Luca had to swallow his heart, rounding the corner to… no, they were still there. Just passed out cold, looking… bad. Really bad. But still breathing. There was a tear in the sleeve, with an angry wound underneath like something had been attached.

“I think it’s another test subject.”

“Well, I can see one thing that’d lend credence to that.”

“Huh?”

Brighton pointed. “Your injured stranger has wings.”

Vague dreams. An unpleasantly sterile odor. Bright lights. Ugly metal shapes in the ceiling swimming into view. Steam and engine oil, under the sterile reek.

Valfar Androsyne, once-general, once-traitor, once-brother-and-son, had a headache that roared louder than most dread beasts he’d slain. Sitting up to take pressure off his wing joints just made it worse- the room spun and wavered before his eyes. 

Measured breaths. Inhale and exhale. Eyes closed, open again… the sensation didn’t clear. When he moved his arm, a clear plastic tube moved with it.

More damned games. Whose idea was this, Arkarium’s? Chemistry wasn’t usually his inclination… his fingers moved to the site first, before traveling up to the bag that was attached. It had a spigot attached to the base- a twist, and the flow of liquid stopped.

This prompted a cacophony of noises- a gear in the ceiling ticked over one, steam pressurized and sighed, and what must have been a genuine metal bell somewhere else echoed dimly. Valfar was left to nurse his migraine before he could do anything else. No, not Arkarium. The man had, if absolutely nothing else in his favor, a sense for theatrics.

Take stock. The situation has evolved. You were in an unknown location, inside of a rock. (Petrification not typical methodology of your erstwhile colleagues; put that aside for later). You exited the rock. You killed a large number of familiars (recognizable; Orchid doesn’t change her tastes). In poor health. Blood loss. Dizziness. Sunlight… an ‘outdoors’. And…

…

He was about to conclude with ‘now I am here’, but the following point of interest appeared to have no mercy for him. Someone was outside, fiddling audibly with the latch on a large, reinforced door.

At painful length, a blonde head appeared, burdened down by two absurd metallic ornaments. The head’s owner squinted fretfully through inch-thick glasses that were apparently not doing their job. “O-oh,” she said, in a diminutive falsetto of a voice. “Hi! Hi there, we, um, weren’t… expecting you, quite yet.”

Valfar felt his eyebrow rising and put it back down. “I don’t appreciate being sedated.”

This prompted a terrified squeak. Perhaps the woman really did have the exclusive vocal capabilities of a Jr. Lioner. “OH! Oh, ha-hahha, silly me, yes, let’s, um…” shuffling the rest of the way into the room, “I-I can switch out your IV bag! Since you, um, you really shouldn’t… just have that off, you, uh, s-sir, are you aware that most of your blood was outside of your body..?”

“Quite.”

“H-haha! They say that having a sense of humor is a, a good sign…” 

He hadn’t thought he’d said anything particularly funny, but pressing would be a poor idea until the young woman finished her approach and did as promised. She didn’t seem terribly dangerous; whoever had put her up to this remained in doubt, but she herself appeared to lack the candor to obstruct him directly.

It seemed to take her eternity to do two simple tasks. But finally, the valve was turned, a clearer fluid was released, and he felt safe to venture, “Who is ‘we’?”

“H-huh?”

“You mentioned that ‘we’ were not expecting my awakening.” Presumably because of drugging him into a stupor. “Who do you represent?”

She squeaked again. “We’re just… friendly concerned citizens! That found you, outside, on the ground, and… you don’t have to be afraid, we-we’re very friendly,”

Comical to hear from someone who flinched three full steps back when he twitched a wing.

“I’ll! Just, let Her tell you, she should want to know that you’re awake, and, um, doing good, making jokes, and… p-please continue to rest! Not because we’re, still drugging you, we stopped that, I promise, it’s a big misunderstanding,” and so on and so forth until she had stammered and apologized her way clean out of the room.

And then locked the door with no less than three distinct deadbolts.

Valfar contemplated pulling the IV out then and there. Unfortunately, the one verifiable truth from that entire disgrace of a conversation was that he was missing a great deal of blood. Even looking at his own arms- the IV had been inserted in the elbow, above a bandaged wound in the forearm, which was mirrored on the other side. Parting his hands through his hair, he found a tender knot.

(Dimly; one of Orchid’s familiars had cracked him on the back of the head. Dizziness explained, then, as not just something slipped in an IV.)

He was down to clean trousers that weren’t his own. It revealed a detailed marbling of bruises, styptic gel, and above it all, a cobweb of linen bandage. His left wing was folded and splinted with a thin metal rod, one of the phalanges likely broken. 

Pitiful.

Although considering what he’d attempted, he was lucky to be alive. Luck was not always dignified.

The ceiling apparatus ticked irksomely at him, and he wondered as to its function. Was it all an alarm? Multiple mechanisms? Something with the steam gauges in the walls. Life in Leafre had been pleasantly quiet, but it meant they’d been far away from new technological advances. And the Black Mage’s armies had… 

…well. Taken things traditionally for the most part. But that raised further questions. It was a machine he’d been attached to, machines now crowded this place here-

The latch on the door released, more surely than before, and a different woman stood silhouetted in the frame.

The moment light spilled on their patient, Claudine tensed. This was not a shivering child- as awful as it’d be to see another of those. The man in the bed held himself like a temporarily disgraced sovereign- his head lofted, wine-colored eyes met hers after lingering for a second on her main knife holster, and then the second one in her boot.

Not bad from someone who, according to Wendelline, had come to all of three minutes ago. And the wings… they were enormous, but moreover, they were active , shifting and flicking with small movements of his body. Now that she had his attention, he leaned in, folded the uninjured one as casually as breathing.

It felt like sitting in a room with Black Jack, before she’d gotten used to him- being stared down by a predatory animal.

“How are you feeling?” 

“As one might expect.” He didn’t have a predator’s snarl; his accent was foreign, his tones educated and calm. “Who do you represent?”

Straight to the point. Not who ‘are you’. Striking higher. “Friendly concerned citizens,” she told him. “Who do you represent?”

Visible hesitation for the first time. His hand wandered to the base of his throat, searching for an ornament that wasn’t there. “None but myself, now.”

“I hope you can understand that’s a dangerous answer,” Claudine shifted her weight, and then eyed the visitation chair before taking a seat. 

“The concerned citizens have enemies.” He didn’t sound surprised.

“No, I’m really wearing this mask because it’s that comfortable.” She sighed. “I’ll be honest; I don’t want to do this. We have no choice but to watch our backs. I’m sure you can understand, considering the state you were in.”

“I do,” he admitted. Then, “I’m sure you can understand in turn that gives me little reason to trust you.”

“Well, we could’ve left you for dead out in the canyon.”

“All that proves is you want something from me. Charitably, that could be my health. Most likely, some form of retaliation.”

Interesting assumption. Claudine dug in her pocket and handed over what they’d retrieved from his coat. “Does that have something to do with this?”

He took it from her hand with a neutral face, spreading the faded satin ribbon between his fingers. Cracked gilt caught the light- fragments of gold on a steel base. Deep lacquer cast shadows over the furled and straightened wings. 

“It’s mine,” he said. “What of it?”

Claudine’s knife settled into her hand, a ready friend. However strange, everyone’s neck had its arteries in the same place, and the edge could lean against them all the same. “That would make you our enemy.”

He did not flinch. Thick lashes swept over his eyes, and he smiled, with only the slightest flash of sharpened teeth. “That’s quite brave of you.”

“Don’t mock me, Black Wing.” Give me an excuse. A reason.

He tipped his hand, dropping the medallion on the bed. “And now?”

“What?”

“If I command no loyalty to that symbol any longer, would I remain your enemy?” This close, his eyes did not even look particularly human. Too bright, too sharp… and without anger. Looking down at her, as if to taunt, we are not on the same level…

“Explain,” she dared him. 

“It bears power to you. It’s clear you fear it. I can taste it on you- though you wear it better than your trembling subordinate.”

His gaze hardened. Still smiling. “The man that gave it to me- the ruler whose symbol that is, I want him dead .”

Claudine moved her knife. Eyeing the thin line it left behind, she saw his blood- violet-black, not red- bead up around the point. “Do you.”

“Is it hard to believe?”

Because it’s too good to be true. “I’m not an idiot. That medal isn’t given to just any member of the Black Wings.”

“Because it wasn’t.” He watched her levelly. “It was given to one of the Black Mage’s commanders. It was mine, until he betrayed me.”

Claudine holstered her knife. “Well, now you sound insane.” The curious, calculating look he gave her was anything but. “The Black Mage is a bedtime story about a centuries-old warlord that got beat up by heroes, which also disappeared from the record entirely, leaving no trace or successors, if anything like them ever existed. The Black Wings are real, and proven, and they use those insignias.”

He hummed thoughtfully, picking up the medallion again. “These exactly?”

“None as sophisticated as yours.”

“But you’d like to find them.” A hand raised to the cut on his throat, and he smiled again. “Or rather, you’d like to get your hands on them. And from the sound of things, your bedtime story left a successor after all. Our interest is mutual.”

Enemy of my enemy… it was such an easy bait. Just like Vita had been easy bait, a helpless, vulnerable child, so obviously wronged…

At the same time, though, who’d send such an obvious monster to be a spy? In that state?

“Think it over,” he told her. “I’m in no particular state to leave; you’ll have time to decide. Once I recover, I will be happy to part ways. If that’s unsatisfactory, we’ll find some form of arrangement. I would offer to pay for my treatment, but,”

“You don’t have two mesos to rub together,” Claudine said dryly. There was something absurdist, comical about that- some Black Wing Elite, flat broke. “We searched your coat.”

“Hm.” He looked away from her again. Then, in an oddly restrained voice, “did you find a locket?”

“No,” Claudine lied. 

Something about the look on his face…

“Look. I have people to talk to, and you… well, you said yourself. Do you feel up to walking?”

Another too-human face from a terrible person. “If you’re about to suggest the alternative is a bedpan, yes.”

“Good.” She pointed. “Bathroom’s through there. We’re not locking you out of that.”

And then she put the door between herself and the enemy, before anything else could complicate itself.

“Wendelline,” she called.

“Oh-! Uh!” 

“It’s fine. It’s me, you don’t have to squirm like that.” Claudine sighed. How could someone that intelligent be that terrified? At least Belle was mostly putting it on. “You’ve got steady hands, I need to ask a favor.”

Wendelline’s face blanked. “Please don’t ask me to operate on him,” she said in a quiet voice.

“From how chatty he is, I don’t think he’ll need that. No… that odd, coin looking thing that was with him? See if you can’t get it open. It might tell us more.”

“Oh- he didn’t, his memory..?”

Wendelline, maybe being optimistic is worse for you. “Oh I think he knows exactly who he is. Right now, I need to touch base with everyone. And… hope we haven’t already made a mistake.”

Chapter Text

Cora liked being a mechanic. Luca was really in it for the cause- he was the one who wandered off playing and found Vita in the first place, and that lit a fire in you, probably. If you’d lived in a hole before. 

People were a mess. Physically and mentally. Anything could happen. Yeah sorry your baby drank too much dissolved rue in the water. Sorry, your bones just hurt all the time. Sorry, your parents weren’t model citizens enough and your uncle doesn’t make enough to take care of you. Tough breaks kiddo. Bad luck.

You couldn’t bad luck a machine. Well, you could, but between her, her tools, and this corner of the resistance plaza, she was gonna change all the rules.

Even if that, too, was kind of a pain. Ugh. Arm casing jammed. Go chase a giant croc around Kerning swamp, we gotta pay the Dark Lord back for the antidotes. Even though he sold us out to the Cygnus Knights. And they wanted to help us. And we didn’t take it. 

She switched the grip on her hammer and pried the bolts out one by one, not caring if they couldn’t be reused. Dammit, she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about people. 

Someone walked past. Cool. Ferdi’s over there, storage is in the other way, I’m not blocking anybody’s door.

They stopped. 

Cora reached behind her for the six inch spanner and scooted it forward. You can walk around it but whatever, sure, I’ll get out of the space, it’s everybody’s stuffy resistance basement.

Stupid crocodile. Stupid Luca. Stupid… everything honestly. It was rotten that a resistance needed the human component. People weren’t gears. They didn’t mesh together and just fit, no matter how the resistance used that particular crest as… 

“Missed a spot,” Checky pointed.

Cora growled at him.

“Good morning to you too.” Impassive dumb bear face stared at her, impassively. Smartest guy you know and he always looked like that. It made him impossible to read. Even more than usual.

“What do you want,” she had to ask.

He picked across her spread of tools to sit cross-legged on the other side of her, brushing his jacket aside to not end up sitting on the tails of it. “Well, I noticed you didn’t eavesdrop on our meeting like usual, and I thought you’d appreciate the highlights.”

She could be stubborn and quiet. That gave her time to process that, because-

“I didn’t even know you noticed.” No, don’t blurt stupid things out! Ugh! Turning into Luca!

“We’re training a bunch of known problem children in stealth, espionage, and gathering information. Frankly, the fact that Luca doesn’t eavesdrop is remarkable. Lottie I guess just expects to get it all from Elex anyway, since they’re… I’m getting off topic. My point is,”  he poked her with the butt of a screwdriver. She grabbed it from him, checked- it was actually the next tool she needed. “The guy Luca and Brighton brought back.”

“He’s a freaky mutant Gelimer experiment and gonna kill us all?”

“No and maybe.”

“What do you mean-” She pulled a little too hard on the bent casing, and it came off, dropping her on her back. Cracked her head on the edge of the suitcase, and said some words she wasn’t supposed to know yet. “Ouch…” 

It was nice that Checky didn’t say anything about that. He didn’t treat her like she was fragile. Claudine and Wendelline were on her butt all the time, oh, wear your brace, sit down more… “What do you mean no ? He’s got wings ?”

“Well according to him he’s older than Gelimer.”

Checky didn’t seem like the kind of guy that bought any kind of story. Still rubbing the back of her head, “and we believe that?”

“He doesn’t seem to know about the Black Wings, but claims there was another, older organization before them. One tied back to the Black Mage, if you believe that.”

“So they’re groupies about a legend?”

“Well, their takeover of Edelstein was fast . We know they’re taking a lot- money, water, energy, rue- but before they had any of those tendrils planted they were able to grab the town almost overnight. If they’d moved slower, Cygnus wouldn’t have stood for it. We’re a minor battleground, sure, but not one she’d just hand over to her enemies. It would make sense if they were built on some foundations, but to imagine those foundations are that old…”

Cora gave up trying to read Checky’s face and focused on thinking instead. “He could be lying to save his butt. If he doesn’t know anything about the Black Wings we won’t press him for intel.”

“Sure, but wouldn’t you pick an easier cover story? It’s esoteric, but not so esoteric that we can't check it.”

Cora squinted. “...For real?”

“Yep! We just need someone young and unattached to go rendezvous with Lottie in Victoria.”

The squint hardened. “This sounds like an assignment.”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun, get your diseased body out of Edelstein’s basements for a while. See the sights, get a postcard, mow down 300 orange mushrooms or whatever the kids are doing these days.” He gestured. “Your mech’s already half fixed,”

“I was just in Victoria and a wannabe dinosaur tried to eat my di-”

“No crocodiles this time, you’re going to Henesys.”

That caught her between the eyes. “... huh ? Isn’t Henesys like… the boring nowhereville they send babies who are too scared to hit things?”

“Technically it’s an agricultural powerhouse, but that’s not why you’re going there. You know the leader of Henesys is a fairy, right?”

“Uh…”

“Don’t answer that, right, Black Wings approved school curriculum… Point is, Athena Pierce is one of the only people alive who’s old enough to know if something’s older than the Black Wings.”

“...Annd we’re gonna tell her we have a guy in our basement? Right after Mr. tight lips criminal empire sold us out to the Cygnus Knights?”

“No, you are gonna tell her that we dug up this medal in a totally legitimate mining survey by a small company trying to compete with the Black Wings and want to know the potential history.”

That made sense. “...Isn’t she gonna notice that small company doesn’t exist?”

“Well, that’d require her coming to Edelstein but c’mon , what’re the odds of that? She’s a world leader! She’s busy with all those babies who are too scared to hit things.”

Cora sighed.

She looked at her mech.

She shoved her screwdriver at Checky. “If I’m doing this you gotta fix the rest of this for me while I get ready.”

As she hobbled to the elevator, Checky called after her, too-pleased-with-himself, “Pack a lunch! Remember to make that face that tells the watchmen you aren’t having any fun out there!”

One-two, one-two, and…!

You had to stay in shape to be a real warrior. Sure, Lottie might’ve gotten a little behind with the unplanned hospital stay, but she had to get back to it, back in shape! Can’t have cousin Elex worrying about you when he’s got a whole rebellion to help run and a kindergarten to teach. Six year olds can smell fear.

Sure, right now, her workout routine was looking a lot like the choreography to the latest Angelic Buster song, but hey! I’m Gonna Beat Your Heart was good motivation. And AB got it- her world was under siege all the time too, right? And she still had a fun idol career, and great hair, and…

Oops, Lottie! She’d gotten way too into it and backed up into someone. It was super nice of Ms. Pierce to let her practice in the bowman school despite not being an archer, but the space wasn’t really for martial arts. Most of it was for shooting targets, and they locked the door when they were doing that so nobody got an arrow in the eye just trying to come through the door. But then they did come through when people weren’t supposed to be shooting arrows, and she hadn’t heard with her headphones on and- ack! “Sorry, sorry! Are you okay?”

“It’s fine. You only startled me.” Ack! Double ack ! She’d backed into a total bombshell. Waist-length platinum blonde hair, perfect eyes, spotless white outfit all down to the boots… she even had this gossamer half-skirt thing. Not a speck of dirt on any of it, but her crossbow… guns? holstered at her hips, the metal part of the trigger was polished smooth. And while she was standing there with her mouth open, Ms. Gorgeous sized her up and down. “You don’t… look like a prospective archer.”

“Me? Haha, no, no I’m actually a warrior!” Lottie waved her hands. “I know I don’t look it right now, I’m trying to get my edge back…”

“Oh really?” The stranger curled her delicate-looking hands under her own chin. Man, she was so light , slight-built, and… Lottie realized- she had pointy ears! Of course she was so cool, so good, so pretty, she was a fairy! “From your clothes… you’d be from Edelstein, wouldn’t you? I’d only heard of the place recently…”

“H-ha, yeah, Edelstein! It’s, um, it’s great! Not that it’s super good for a visit right now with uh, all the stuff going on… but anyway, that’s not really important.”

“Quite. You said something about ‘getting your edge back’? What did you mean by that?”

No, pretty lady, don’t ask me for secrets! “Oh, it’s… it’s super embarrassing honestly, I kinda overdid it on some meds? Like those booster potions they sell, we don’t get those in Edelstein and I didn’t realize they expired…” 

That was easy enough to lie about. She already felt super scummy for what happened to that kid, even if it’d ended up with Lottie barfing in a hospital for days.

Gorgeous Fairy Woman put a hand on her shoulder. “I understand. I’ve been set back quite a bit myself. Few things are more frustrating than building back strength you lost, rather than moving forwards. Stay strong.”

What did you even say to that?! “Thanks, uh… you too..?” Lottie played with a stray sprig of hair near her face.

“Mercedes.” 

“Nice to meet you! I’m Charlotte- Lottie, everybody calls me Lottie, ‘Charlotte’ just makes me feel old…”

“Lottie, then.” She pronounced it so elegantly. “I won’t interrupt your training any longer; I have to go speak to Athena.”

“Oh- uh, Ms. Pierce? She should be upstairs, I..” annnd she was gone. Lottie heaved a massive sigh. Why were people in Victoria so pretty? The girls in Kerning Square made it hard enough to just focus on shopping . Was this what it was like when you had time to just do things for yourself? Lottie already felt like garbage just for getting a hair appointment with her adventuring money. You don’t need that, what about Edelstein? But it was tough.

She shook herself. C’mon, no more moping. You did your cardio, now it was time to get the gauntlets on and back to punching! She’d unloaded all the charges, so as not to destroy the targets, but…

“Hey.”

“GAH! Cora! Don’t scare me like that!” How did somebody on crutches sneak up on you? “...Wait, Cora? What are you doing here?”

Cora squinted at her. She was trying to be menacing, but it wasn’t very successful with how short Cora was, and the giant floppy sunhat someone must’ve forced her to wear. “Underground. Didn’t you get the order?”

Oh. Ohh, shit, there had been a thing in her mail this morning… “I was gonna check it after exercise?”

“Wow.”

“I’ve been stressed! Anyway, it’s not important. It’s been ages! C’mere!” She couldn’t help it, she had to pinch those cheeks!

Cora swatted her off. “Don’t grandma me. You’re not that old.”

Fourteen and eighteen was a pretty big difference. “How’s it been?”

“Bad,” Cora said. Lottie helped her to a chair so she didn’t have to stay standing. “Luca’s moping. Adults aren’t talking to us. Vita’s…”

Lottie pulled a breath through her teeth. “Yeah. Yeah…” Elex still didn’t like to talk about that one friend he used to have. Cora and Luca were new to this. She did a wall sit over next to Cora, so she could still get some training in. “...want to talk about it?”

“No,” Cora said.

Lottie waited.

“It’s just stupid. Did you even hear we got more of the antidote than got sent out?”

“No, I didn’t.” They’d sent her enough… what more had there been?

“Guy from Ereve showed up. Wanted to give us more. Claudine sent it back.”

“What? That’s so unlike her! I know there’s bad blood between us and the Knights, but you’d think if they’re trying to make things better…”

“You’d think,” Cora muttered. 

Sounds on the staircase- the gorgeous woman from before, arm in arm with… Ms. Pierce? It was weird. She seemed totally different- the normally serious bowman instructor was stifling a laugh, leaning on her like they were schoolgirl buddies. The moment she noticed them, though, it was all business again- stonefaced old lady. “Ah. Miss Charlotte. Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, this is Cora, she’s starting out on the adventurer thing and-” Cora nearly hit her with her crutches getting up. She brandished a box at Ms. Pierce like it was a sword. 

“Dig in Edelstein found this. Think it’s old. You know about old stuff.”

“Cora!!! Can you try to grow some manners?”

“It’s alright,” Ms. Pierce sighed, glancing over at the lady. “This shouldn’t take long… it’s probably another piece of pottery, or..”

The moment she opened the box, the color drained out of her face. She turned to her friend- Lottie barely caught the murmur. “Mercedes, what do you think of this..?”

Mercedes actually picked it up. It looked like a beat up Black Wings medal… a really, really fancy one. Lottie shot Cora a look- I really should’ve read my mail today!

“Where did you find this?” Her voice was like a brewing thunderstorm.

“Dig. I said. What does it mean to you?” 

“You should tell those people to clear out of that area as quickly as possible. And I’ll be along soon.”

“No-!” Lottie closed like the topic was a monster about to bear down on Cora. “That is-! I mean! Knowing our friends, we uhh…” 

Two perfect fairy faces were staring her down. Lottie felt her blood sugar tick up for non-gay reasons. She steepled her fingers, leaning in. “Look it’s really likely we weren’t supposed to do this dig at all, with the way the Black Wings are like, suuuper possessive of the mine, so making any sort of noise, especially big outside stuff… it could get innocent people in trouble. And we can’t do that.”

“I see.” The woman nodded seriously. Even her scowl was too pretty to be real. “In that case, will you be in Henesys for a while?”

No, Cora was clearly about to say. 

“Absolutely!” Lottie hooked her by the shoulders and pulled her in. “If it’s okay with Ms. Pierce, I mean! We’ll make ourselves useful, I know a place like this can always use young muscle around…”

The woman nodded, and closed her fingers over the medal. “That may be for the best. There’s someone I have to consult with about this. I promise I’ll return as soon as I can. If I’m delayed, I’ll send word through Athena.”

“It’s no difficulty,” Ms. Pierce waved her hand. “Besides, I was rather interested in Miss Charlotte’s technique; I won’t hold you down with the details now, but she uses a sort of close-range propulsion device, it’s very interesting to consider from an archery perspective…” She shook her head. “Oh, I’m carrying on. Be safe, please, Mercedes?” 

They kissed each other on the cheek, and then the woman was gone. Lottie, Cora and Ms. Pierce stood in a circle, and two of them probably didn’t feel as dumb as Lottie did.

“So if you really meant it about being handy muscle-”

“Bathroom!” Lottie squeaked out. Oh, bad timing. No time to recalculate, just go for it- “That is! I’ll be sure to help you in a minute, I just- gotta go! Y’know! With Cora!” And she hiked Cora up and hauled her into the next room.

“ CORA ,” she hissed. “ Cora do you know who that was?! ”

Cora dangled like a cat you’d just yanked off a table. “Athena Pierce?”

“ THE OTHER ONE, CORA! ”

“Dunno. Looked like a cash shop addict.”

“ CORA! ” Lottie shook her a little. “ Cora that was MERCEDES! THE Mercedes! Like, supposed to be dead and ancient history Mercedes! ”

Cora stared blankly. 

“Did you never hear about the five heroes? Saviors of Maple World, renown champions, destroyed the Black Mage, ended the epoch of destruction-”

“Oh yeah those old dead guys.” Cora stuck a pinky in her ear and dug some wax out. “Can you put me down,”

Lottie juggled her to grip by the shoulders. “ Cora you just handed some kind of secret mission evidence to a living legend! ” shaking harder, “ And she’s going to come back and talk to us a second time! ”

Cora kicked her in the shin. It didn’t hurt, but it did leave a muddy bootprint on her stocking. She got the message and let her down. With her hands free, Lottie could grab her own hair. “This is huge! This is massive! This is-! I don’t even know what the implications are! What is this about?”

“I’d also like to know that,” Ms. Pierce said, leaning on the door.

“Wow, private conversations not allowed in Henesys much?” Cora said, never burdened by the need to think about her words.

Lottie gesticulated in the air because Dear Sweet Cora was fourteen and you could not strangle your junior. 

“Well, first I was trying to make sure you didn’t actually relieve yourself in the storage closet,” Ms. Pierce ticked off on her fingers, agonizingly. “Besides that, though, if you really didn’t want me to hear it, I’d recommend talking outside the bowman’s school.” With a slow smile, “my ears are not for decoration.” The smile dropped immediately, back to severeness. You could believe she really was centuries old, when she made that face. “We are well aware of the Edelstein Resistance. I’m aware relations are strained, but I would hope you trust us to help, if you wanted to consult me about that artifact.”

Great. Lottie grimaced. “Ms. Pierce, I’m so sorry. We don’t mean to cloak and dagger, it’s just… things have been really rough for us lately.”

“Come up to my office,” Ms. Pierce beckoned. “Unless you actually need to pee, then do so before you come. I plan to make both of you tea, and I don’t want a serious conversation interrupted over something trivial.”

“...So that’s what you needed the Feather Plants for.” Athena sighed. “I’m… sorry to hear that. Is everyone at least recovering from the poison?”

Cora, staring at her MapleBoy, spoke up: “Y’know for the secret master of all thieves, that Dark Lord guy really doesn’t keep his mouth shut.”

Lottie kicked her under the table. It was a dumb baby kick, when Lottie’s actual kicks could break metal, so Cora didn’t care.

“It’s been a long time since Kerning City has actually done much crime.” A gesture with a quill pen. “Three generations ago their embezzlement and other activities made them so highly successful they ran into all the problems a legitimate governing body would have, with none of the benefits. As a result, the previous Dark Lord- Jin’s predecessor- brought the shadows into the light so to speak. And that means, yes, he has to tell his other immediate diplomatic allies if someone is dying of poisoning. I wasn’t aware the Resistance would rather keep its dignity than its lives, but-”

“I promise it’s not like that.” Lottie sighed. “We’re- trusting anybody is a huge gamble. We know people in Victoria and Ereve want to help. But the whole situation is really complicated. And if things go wrong…”

“It’s our town that gets nuked by the Black Wings,” Cora said, since Lottie was too nice to. No kick or elbow- she knew that too, even if she pretended otherwise.

Athena sighed. The face she made pulled wrinkles around her eyes and she actually looked old, rather than just, people said she was old. “I understand that. But it pains us to sit idle. Jin did not share your situation carelessly, or without thought to your wishes. What little news escapes Edelstein on a daily basis gets worse and worse. One of my own students was critically injured in an ‘accident’ there recently.” She raised her hand over a protest from Lottie. “I understand this is not Edelstein’s fault. It was an Edelstinian doctor that treated Olive. The Black Wings are to blame.”

“What can you tell us about them? The Black Wings, I mean.” Lottie was a quick reader. She must’ve gone through the entire mission brief when Cora was in the bathroom. “We came here to ask you about that medal because we’d heard some rumor about an organization older than the Black Wings… one connected back to the hero legend. I hadn’t believed it, but well…”

“You met Mercedes.”

Lottie turned a bit pink. Cora rolled her eyes. Why did Lottie have to get weird around girls all the time? If this was what growing up did to you, Cora thought she’d do better staying fourteen. “Yeah. She’s…”

“She leaves an impression.” Athena said warmly, familiarly. Ugh. She sounded like Ferdi. All friendly patient teacher-people. How much of that was real?

“She’s real . And that’s kind of huge for what we’re asking about. How much else is real? Is the Black Mage…?”

Immediate scowl. THere went the warm-friendly. Right underneath it was… that. “Yes. He is- or was real. And I’m sorry to say, he’s not gone for good.”

Lottie’s chair hit the floor hard enough to make the cups on the table bounce slightly. “ What ?”

“It’s a very, very long story, and truth be told, not fully mine to tell. We didn’t feel the need to disseminate because as far as we could tell, there were no survivors of the event in the Temple of Time. The Heroes were able to limp their separate ways, I and a few others went on to found a larger settlement on Victoria Island… and then nothing. For centuries, there’s been no trace of any of his commanders… or the people who fought against them.”

“That changed,” Cora guessed, while Lottie was picking her chair back up.

“It started as stray rumors. Uniquely skilled individuals making trouble here and there. Recruiting quietly. We suspected a bandit guild- cautioned our students away from that sort of thing, to travel in groups, be wary of strangers…”

“Look both ways before crossing the street?”

“Standard advice, yes. But it became abruptly clear the Black Wings were much larger and more coordinated than we’d had any indication of. Somehow, beneath everyone’s noses, they’d been growing… most likely, ever since the Black Mage himself was sealed.” Athena looked between them. “It is a very, very durable seal that some of the greatest minds of a generation took incredible pains to erect. He is not in any kind of imminent danger of return.”

“But…” Lottie frowned. “This is crazy. Ms. Pierce, I- nobody thought this was anything but a legend. And you didn’t tell anybody?”

“I thought everyone involved in the conflict was dead and gone. There was nothing to tell. Human lives are short. People forget. Memorials were erected, tended… and then they crumbled. They became an abstract notion- a whisper on others’ lips. It hurt, but I didn’t want to drag the past forwards. What they did, they didn’t do for glory.”

This needed a direction. “Yeah yeah yeah okay that’s really cool and all but Edelstein’s in the crapper now , the Black Wings are here now - what’s that got to do with us and some fairy lady that Lottie’s hardcore crushing on?” (“ CORA ,”)

“That the Black Wings are almost certainly formed by, or around, one or more surviving generals of the Black Mage. And they may believe - realistic or not- that they can revive him.” Athena folded her fingers, leaned her mouth against them. “Some of the most dangerous people of an era fell in behind the Black Mage. If you happened to unearth the resting place of one… maybe they really are dead and gone. But at minimum, anything they left behind would be a huge risk. Whether or not it harms you on its own… or whether someone else comes back to claim it.”

“Cool,” Cora reached for her crutches. “Then I can go catch the one o’clock back to Edelstein and tell them right now, nobody has to wait for whats-her-pants Mercy to get back from whatever-”

“The Resistance has a reason to be nosing around where it is, doesn’t it?”

Cora looked at Athena. Looked at Lottie, who was frowning.

“You don’t strike me as the types to just back down. I’d advise waiting for Mercedes’ assessment. If she’s consulting with who I think she is, then you have a good chance of knowing who the medal belonged to- which should tell you a lot about the hazards involved.” Athena tried soft teacher-face on them again. “Although it’d help if you told me a bit more of what you found.”

“...I understand,” Lottie said. “Please respect we can’t do that.”

Athena nodded. Soft teacher-face went to sad teacher-face. Not mad, just disappointed . Cora looked back at her MapleBoy. She’d only packed Inventory Creatures for this trip. Ugh. Didn’t want to keep staring at that guy she couldn’t beat, but the alternative was looking at real people around her she couldn’t figure out either.

“...I hope someday we can persuade you.”

Stop it. Stop talking,

“...So if you were sincere about your volunteer to help, a few buildings were hit by recent storm damage and we could really use some new mushroom cap shingles,”

Okay never mind can we go back to you grilling us for intel-

Chapter Text

“That’s it! I’ve had it! The constant obstructions, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, everything just comes back to this! These same monsters are always trying to find their way back in here! You foul invaders, now you’re gonna pay for it!”

Luca’s adversary cowered before his might.

“That’s right! You’ll rue the day you messed with me!” Five point strike combo! The staff danced in his hand! No chance of survival! Its base destroyed, the hapless monster fell, and tried to flee. Lunging thrust! Shadow-step teleport! Just try me!

“Hey champ, some people work this early,” Elex called from across the plaza. “You wanna hunt spiders quieter, I ain’t got my coffee yet.” 

“I’m- waiting- for news!” Luca hopped, trying to get the next web. It was just out of reach of his broom. “Brighton- said- I could clean at the same time! And I just cleaned last week and there’s still spiders all over! Where are they coming from? ”

“Hate to tell you this, kiddo, but we’re in a refurbished basement, that used to be a refurbished ore refinery, that used to be a refurbished… man I don’t even know. Point is the only reason we got this place is nobody else wanted it for so long it disappeared off the city plans. Bugs are what you get.”

“THE RESISTANCE NEVER SURRENDERS!” Luca took a running jump, and finally got that next web. “It’s also staff form practice.”

Elex’s shelflike brows climbed far enough to reveal his eyes. They disappeared again. “...I mean. If you’re fightin’ stuff that’s smaller than a pin.”

“When you guys have to fight the ultra Black Wings evil master of all spiders, don’t come crying to me.”

“...That’s not a thing.” Elex scratched his head, knocking his hat askew. “Alright. Y’know what? Knock yourself out. I’m going back to my apartment and changing. Gotta clean, too… Leonore’s coming over.”

Luca gagged. “You guys are still a thing ?”

“Gonna be a thing as long as I can get away with it. Kinda the point of pumping someone for intel. Seeya.”

And then there was only Luca, and his eternal vigil… which sucked. The base wasn’t supposed to be quiet. Sure, they were secretive , he guessed, but thick reinforced walls and ceilings made street-level eavesdropping impossible. That was the point of having a secret cool underground base that was so stuffy the dust made Cora choke if you got behind on cleaning. Back in the day, Wendelline was almost always here, because Vita was… 

It’d been weeks. He was supposed to be… over it, or wiser, or something. Every time he came back to it, it was a brand new kick in the, you-dummy-why-didn’t-you-listen, why-didn’t-you-have-a-plan, even if you never saw her again she could’ve disappeared and been okay and your stupid self…

There weren’t any cobwebs left in the main plaza. Luca took the stairs down.

There was the training elevator- here the floor was pretty free of dust, everybody came and went a lot here. Splash of oil in the corner, he’d come back with the cleaner for that, not a lot to do until… 

Well, until you got to the end of the hallway, and then there was no avoiding it. He stuck his head into Vita’s old room.

Nobody’d been in here to clean. Things were still where they were left. Gray sheets. Clothes, neatly folded. A laundry hamper half-full of bandages waiting to be washed and changed out. A shelf on eye-level with little bits of rock, and feather, and snail shell. A child-sized dent where someone had stayed in bed too much.

A book on medicine.

I’m going to help everyone so much! I won’t be a burden on you.

Luca shut the door on a place that was too much a shrine to be breached.

Where was he… cleaner. He needed the spray cleaner. Right, yeah, because the garage was down this way, and…

He walked straight into a body like a brick wall.

“Ouch! Jeez, watch where you’re going, it’s a big empty hallway, did you not…?”

It was the guy with wings. Standing there, like he hadn’t been barely alive the last time Luca had seen him. The whole point of Cora’s mission was that he’d woken up, but…?

“Hm,” the guy said.

“A-anyway, you shouldn’t sneak up on people either. Folks are jumpy around here.” He walked around mr. statue and went back toward the storage cabinet. 

He was five paces clear before an accented voice sounded, “So the pattern seems to be. But you’re the only one I’ve encountered thus far.”

Uh, Luca thought, mid-stride, staring at the stairs.

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be some kind of super dangerous Black Wing?

And… locked in his room?

And too beat up to be up and around like nothing was wrong? 

Oh crap, Luca realized. I’m alone with THAT guy.

He pivoted hard, spinning his broom and slinging it over his shoulders. “Yeah whatever, everybody’s upstairs, I just got assigned to watch you for now.” He pointed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you snuck out.”

Barely a response. Why does that guy also have to be impossible to talk to? He could feel Koku, unsummoned, tugging at the back of his brain like Hey, Hey! Yeah I GET it Koku, my turkey’s roasted, if you come roaring out of whatever-space all big and spooky he’s gonna know I’m nervous! He might already know!

Interesting, Valfar thought. It was faint, and his senses yet clouded, but within this youth there was a kindred power. A tangled little ball of darkness sparking and bouncing off his own. It writhed unconstrained throughout his skin, and however bothered he obviously was by the demon’s presence, he was not bothered by his own power.

“Am I owed the name of my current jailor?”

“Nah!” The child crossed his arms, lofting a sunburnt and once-broken stub of a nose in a farce of hauteur. “We don’t owe you beans .” A golden eye cracked open. “But you can ask .”

“...I was of the impression that was what I just did.”

“Huh? I mean… I guess? You said it all weird though.”

This again. “I speak perfectly ordinarily. And regardless, you understood me.”

“Sure…”

He would take further prompting, it seemed. 

“My name is Valfar Androsyne,” hand to chest, then extended courteously. “ May I know your name, as we are, it seems, inevitably acquainted?”

“I dunno, can you-” It seemed to catch him a second later. “Dangit. It’s Luca. What kinda name is Valfar?”

“Traditional.” Granted, it was a traditional name for a foreigner’s child- long-diluted strain of vale-far, from distant valley. Those who were from beyond the end of the world, as imagined by early tribes of Leafre who had not yet crossed the dangerous mountains. Optimistically, in his mother’s eyes, it had been the name of ‘a traveler’- one she hoped who would find more acceptance afield than what lay before him.

The child attempted to condense the totality of his face into a squint. “Seriously?”

“You have as much reason to believe I’m telling the truth as anything else that I’m saying.” Sensing an accusation brewing: “yes, ‘seriously’.” And then before they could be diverted down further inanities: “If you are tasked with keeping me for the day, am I permitted to seek a meal?”

“Permitted to- aww crap. Yeah, yeah, okay that makes sense.” Bravado negated, the child turned and wandered down the hall, forsaking any martial impression. Three strides past, he twisted to look over his own shoulder. “You eat… normal food, right?”

What sort of question… “Yes.”

“Cool that makes it easier.” Four strides. A second pivot, this time with an authoritatively jabbed finger. “Wait here.”

And he disappeared up the stairs, an ascent worthy of any saint or hero of old. There was dust clinging to the heels of his boots, to match the cloud of it powdering his hair.

Valfar took a deep breath once the footfalls disappeared and permitted himself to lean against the wall for support. Inhale and exhale. No- conquer the pain. Acknowledge the vulnerabilities it points out in you, but do not yield. Hold fast- inhale and exhale- and remain. You have endured worse. A dragon’s jaw once closed on your arm, and you gazed into its eyes and bequeathed it futility.

Inhale and exhale. The world collapsed to animal instinct. He braced his arm against the side of the wall and pushed.

“H-hey whoa!” The child- Luca- had returned. Valfar wedged an eye open to look down. “Shoot I didn’t- a-are you even sure you should be out of bed?”

“Do not patronize me.” He warned the young impudent.

Luca stared at him, expression shifting- disquiet, fear. Some indescribable melancholy. It settled on anger.

A broom head promptly rammed him in the stomach.

There was no time to react; air wheezed out and he fell to his knees. The world swam in brightly colored sparks. 

“I-I didn’t! Augh, uh- uh! Somebody- anybody-” 

Muscles spasmed. Wind knocked out; force down on the animal instinct to panic when it cannot breathe, ride out, wait- try- reach- inhale, and- sharp coughs.

“ Koku! ”

He hadn’t heard another coming. But it was two sets of arms that lifted, carried him.

Inhale, and exhale. Master yourself. Control. Self-control is all you have left, is all-

He lapsed to unconsciousness.

It was probably good that the lock on the hospital door was all messed up and broken, because it meant Luca could just plant his foot on it and kick it open, without having to shift the guy’s weight between himself and Koku any further. People were already hard enough to carry and this guy was even more limb than normal people . A wing was dangling down in his face. Luca pushed at it, trying to figure out how it folded. Was it gonna hurt, dragging on the ground like that? At the end of it all the best you could do was hit your shin on the dumb platform they put the beds up on, and then just sort of toss the guy facedown onto the mattress. And then panic because, was he gonna choke? No, a grunt- he shifted a little. Cool. So you didn’t break everything forever.

You just… punched an injured guy in the guts, because he was spooky.

And might have hurt him way more seriously than you’d thought because how would you even tell, if he was hiding that much in the first place!

“Claudine…! Uhh, Koku, stay with him! Make sure he doesn't die or something!”

Sustained unconsciousness of a period longer than a few seconds was actually very uncommon. It could be more common if you were already in a state colloquially described by most as ‘going through it’, but it was also less common if you were someone whose physiology, training, and overall capabilities prevented you from being easily defeated by a child with a dry mop.

This was, however, a low point for Valfar Androsyne, former Commander of Dark Armies. His eyes cracked open to the same room, albeit less secured than before as the yet-broken door was creaking unpleasantly in the still air. 

Are You Dying,

He looked upward and beheld a great marquis of hell.

Your Soul Isn’t Leaking, it reasoned. But You Have Too Much Meat. I Can’t Tell.

“Whuh,” Valfar inquired intelligently. He could not process further than that before other, more earthly voices interrupted. 

“-Doubt you would’ve ruptured something, but just in case,”

A voice both sunnier and harsher, “Look on the bright side, you’ve defeated your first high-ranking Black Wing,”

And the child again, agonized, “ That doesn’t count! ”

A powder-blue sweater swam in his vision. Shoulder-length brown hair. 

“Well, you’re awake. I’d ask how you’re feeling, but I’m told my junior incapacitated you a minute ago.”

“Lucky blow,” Valfar creaked, hating the fragility of his own voice.

“Unlikely,” the woman told him with the serenity of disdain. “I’m going to put you on your side. It’s about time I changed your bandages anyway.” Implicitly, an order- cooperate . 

There was nothing to say to that. He submitted to the unpleasant reality of being a patient in another’s hands. Hers already reeked of antiseptic, the nails pruned down until no contagion could linger under them. A dedicated healer.

The child squeaked. The brash voice, chastising him, “it’s a body, squirt. If you’re getting excited just look the other way.”

Valfar glanced down. His breasts, like the rest of him, had seen better days.

“ I didn’t know that was a girl! Did you just- and you didn’t, I dunno, kick me out or something?”

“I’m not particularly maidenly,” Valfar argued. It had been enough of an age since anyone had called her a woman really. Even in her own thoughts, the notion seemed… petty. Vain. Stupid. Lost to the haze of a moment. A woman in Leafre had two sons. It was easier.

“And very chatty for someone with a cracked rib.” The doctor’s hand applied gentle pressure, and her callous eyes evaluated his response. “Which was broken the last time I did all this up.”

Valfar focused on what was important. “You aren’t wearing a mask.”

“Congratulations,” the doctor said, “you caught me at my day job. I wouldn’t be breathing on you if you had any open wounds left, but it seems like you’ve taken care of that, too. Caloric load must be a nightmare… Luca, while you’re being modest over there, could you go get some actual food? I don’t think a bottle of soda and snack cakes will cut it.”

The boy ran off, and, in further surprise, the now-silent dark spirit politely folded itself up and followed after him, bobbing along in his wake like a balloon on a string.

“Listen,” the doctor said. “I’m trying to be open-minded. Trusting. The last time I let paranoia win went badly for me. You broke a door, introduced yourself to the first person you met, and overexerted yourself. That’s not the behavior of a mastermind.”

A true professional, she would not look up from what she was doing as she said: “If you make me regret it, I’m sending your pieces back to the Black Wings personally, and I don’t think you can walk that off.”

The steel in her voice was appealing. “I find those agreeable terms.”

“Wow,” said the second voice, who’d remained out of his line of sight, “we’re all chummy in here now. Are you feeling honest?”

“I have not lied to you yet. Given the circumstances, I’ve been quite plain-dealing.”

The second woman was an autumnal redhead, half her face shaded beneath a dark green cap. More interesting was the creature in her shadow- a full-sized panther with two-inch sabers and unmistakably canny eyes.

“Good,” she said simply. “Let’s test that.”

The doctor had finished cleaning and re-wrapping his injuries. She sat back now. “That story you told us, about the Black Mage. Do you realize that would make you several centuries old?”

Centuries.

Even if they hadn’t been killed, Mother and Damien would have…

“I’m aware of that now,” he replied, eyeing the contraptions around the room with more interest. Easy to be indifferent to them, having formerly stood among some of the greatest of a generation… even if those ‘greatest’ had been committed to doing the worst. But this was ‘the future’ then. “I sustained these injuries fighting the Black Mage. Beyond that, I seem to have been kept in a form of stasis.”

Former comrades had evidently had the time to punish him for his betrayal. 

The panther rumbled thoughtfully. Its tail twitched, but it made no further move or indication. Valfar eyed it, wondering if its presence was there to be a threat. No ordinary beast, clearly, and not one he recognized.

“The name you gave Luca was…”

“My own. I’ve no reason to invent. Personal details do not matter to me the way they might to you.” With a thin smile, “You’re welcome to try to find any lingering connections, but…”

“You’ve got nothing to lose,” the panther-handler surmised. “Explains why you took getting beat up by a thirteen year old with a mop so well.”

As if conjured, child in question rematerialized foot-first, kicking open the door which impacted the far wall with the sound of splintering wooden veneer. “Nobody’s allowed to die, okay, I think Carl thought I was robbing him but I promise I didn’t anyway here.”

And Valfar was promptly the recipient of various pieces of paper and plastic, which, upon secondary appraisal, contained food. After an expectant pause from all parties, he picked at the thin plastic covering what was advertised as a ham sandwich. It made good on that promise once it hit the air; a bit odd, clearly not fresh but not yet stale. 

Unfortunately the moment it hit his mouth he could no longer ignore that he was ravenous.

“Don’t choke,” the doctor said dryly.

“Don’t patronize me,” he returned, wiping his mouth on the back of one hand. 

Unwelcome commentary continued above his head- he forced himself to a pace, trying to balance raw cravings for protein, fats with what he could gather from the selection- pieces of fruit, dried and preserved; a sparse handful of root vegetables. The prattle drifted, and gradually doctor, panther, handler, and mop-wielding child had drifted out of the room- the beleaguered door shut, and then wedged the last inch or so awkwardly into its now-crooked frame, and it occurred to Valfar he had let his guard down in a dangerous way. Not in that the food might have been poisoned- they’d be disappointed in that case- but that he’d toned out what they were saying. Without the edge of hunger, exhaustion invaded.

I’ll accomplish nothing in this state either way, he reasoned to himself, and lay back to rest.

Chapter Text

“So,” Lottie said into the pregnant silence, “how are you liking Henesys so far?”

“If I see another mushroom house in my life I’m going to drop artillery shells on it until they make the roof out of something less stupid,” Cora declared from flat on her back on the bed.

One day, Lottie thought, Cora would learn not to talk so harshly all the time. She really was a sweet kid- just prickly about it. They’d fixed the last broken roof, and sent off a letter with their findings, and Ms. Pierce had even put them up in a local inn for the time being. Now all they had to do was sleep it off, wait for the reply to make it back to them, and… 

Cora snored softly. 

Aww! Lottie had to suppress a giggle. Of course Cora got tired easily, with her health the way it was, but it was still hard not to find it a little funny. Cora and Luca, they really were just kids. Even Lottie’d been older when she’d started really looking into where Cousin Elex was going after work. Carefully, she tiptoed over, balanced Cora’s limp body up on one hand and untucked the cute arrow-print quilt until she could ease her back down. She hadn’t even taken her shoes off… or her leg brace. There- blanket up to your chin. Tomorrow, the nice inn lady will make you breakfast, and we can face whatever’s new there bright and early. You’ll learn! Fieldwork doesn’t always have to be a drag.

Lottie’s face fell.

It was always easier outside of Edelstein. Henesys could just… afford to be nice to everybody. Lots of rookie adventurers came through there. People Cora’s age, but their parents were still alive and they weren’t polluted with mine runoff, and every third person on the street had a big smile for them and a silly little errand instead of asking them, ‘should I move out of town?’ or ‘can you help me take this job from the same awful people who ruined everything?’

It was…

No, c’mon, Lottie. You couldn’t hate people for stuff out of their control. She shook herself, and picked up her jacket from where she’d tossed it over the vanity chair. A little jog before bed would clear her mind.

Downstairs, the proprietress was juggling a basket of laundry; the bartender, who was her nephew, was scrubbing tables in the now-empty saloon. Lottie smiled and waved at both of them and made her way out the door. Outside the weather was nice; southern Victoria was still warm this far into autumn. Evening was dyed a warm, sleepy color by the pleasant gold of hanging lanterns, their lightstones recently charged and letting off their soft glow. Lottie drank it in for a moment, closing her eyes. The wind had just a note of brisk coolness to it.

It was nice.

And then somebody screamed.

Right away heads were turning; a light in the neighboring house clicked on. Lottie was halfway over already- it was a pretty good scream, all the way from the edge of town. They also weren’t hard to follow, since they were still crying and shouting. 

Lottie’s hands balled tighter. Henesys was peaceful, so why…?

She pivoted at a corner, and finally saw what looked like a couple of rookie adventurers. One of them had fallen down, baseball cap flying free of cheaply-cut orange hair. The other skidded to grab him, ponytail half-undone and falling in her face. She was a bowman, from the classic skirt and blouse setup- Ms. Pierce was a little old-fashioned- but her bow was nowhere to be found, and both of them were covered in mud and scrapes. 

“Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine!” the girl yelled, trying to haul her friend up.

“No it’s not! I hurt my leg! It’s gonna eat me!”

“Don’t be stupid, golems don’t eat anything- ”

“It’s okay, I’ve gotcha.” Lottie turned the poor boy over. That ankle… oof, even just at a glance she could tell he’d sprained it. “What’s your name?”

“Rocus,” he said, trying to be brave, suppressing a sniffle. “This was Liz’s idea!”

“Shut up!” yelled the archer, presumably Liz. “You were the one who said you could totally take a golem-”

“-I didn’t wanna go to the temple !”

Lottie bit her tongue and let them argue. It hurt a little to splint up a leg, but it was better if he wasn’t dreading it. He still let out an “ ow ow ow ow OW -” when she got it ready. “You’re doing good,” she told him while he whimpered. “You’re tough. Did you train in Iron Body at all?”

“Mm-mm,” he shook his head.

“Ooh, you should ask your trainer about that one the next time you’re in Perion. Makes it a little harder to lose your footing. Even if you’re really good at blocking enemy blows, not everything comes at you predictably-”

A rumble.

Lottie looked between Rocus and Liz. Both of them looked like they’d seen a ghost.

“Uh…” said Liz. “Monsters… don’t come into town, right? Like- like Athena doesn’t let them, they’re scared of that many people…”

Not ordinarily, Lottie thought, but anything can happen if you really stir one up. “Did something… chase you out of the golem temple?”

“It was Liz’s idea!” Rocus wailed.

The rumbling was getting louder. More consistent.

“I thought we lost them!” Liz yelled. By now, all the shouting was drawing a couple of people over- some townsfolk, a crossbowman squinting in the gloom, holding up a lamp to make out the shadows that were approaching the eastern gate. “Nobody said golems gang up on you!”

“Nobody should’ve told you anything about golems,” the crossbowman was coming over now, “neither of you have even ranked, what were you doing near the temple-”

The first creature stumbled into the light. It walked with an uneven, plodding gait, shedding pebbles and dirt as it went. There was even a flower sprouting from the bed of moss taken root on its squarish head, making it look kind of funny and harmless.

It was… bigger, than golems were supposed to be. Spiderwebbed with dark cracks, like something inside was trying to force its way out. And it wasn’t moving funny and harmless.

With a silent apology, Lottie scooped up Rocus and handed him off to the crossbowman. “Please take him to a doctor, I splinted his ankle but someone should make sure it isn’t broken.”

A second golem was forcing its way through. “Wh- But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine. Um, Liz?”

The girl looked at her, wide-eyed.

“Room 3 of the Honeyshroom Inn, there’s a medium-sized metal box in there? Not the big-sized one. Could you get it for me? I’ll give you my key.”

Liz took the key, and stared at it, and stared at Lottie. By now, the golems were getting pretty close.

“Pretty please?” Lottie tried.

Liz startled and bolted. There was more shouting now.

The first golem closed enough distance it decided to bring its hand back and punch.

It was a good punch; palming it barehanded pushed Lottie back a bit. Definitely more sauce than a normal golem had. Lottie passed to the inside and gave it a right straight to the face that popped its rocky head clean off. That should stop a-

Oh, huh. It just kinda kept coming. Okay, new plan! Roundhouse to the waist segment, dance under another blow and uppercut to the chest. It tipped over straight into the second one. But there was a third!

“This is definitely fishy,” she muttered. But oh well! Today’s late-night jog was just gonna have to be a different kind of workout instead. Because I’m not letting you trash those houses we just fixed up. Third guy was climbing over the two-golem pileup, stepping right on its hurt buddy who hissed (?!) without a care in the world. Lottie strafed, kicked off to the side, and its head swung around to face her.

Target tracking. Cool. Lottie swiped her nose and crooked her hand. C’mon, c’mon! I’m so much trouble. Pay attention to me, and not the town!

They took their time getting up. Tangled together, like they were having a hard time navigating. All that grinding was cracking them further, forcing them into each other… 

Oh, no, Lottie realized as they started to stand up. First and third guy were fastened together by big strings of black ooze that were spreading, crawling further up the bodies and where they touched the moss was rotting away. The second golem started backing into them from behind, cracking further as it added to the mess.

“Hey!” That was the crossbowman. “Crazy lady! Catch!”

He had a good swing for a non-warrior. The case sailed toward her, and she could get it clean out of the air. In the time he ran up to her, he was already loading his crossbow, clicking the lever back. “Please tell me that’s a weapon in there and you’re not one of those .”

“Edelstein doesn’t have brawlers!” She told him, pulling the first of her gauntlets out. “I don’t think we should touch that goo that’s coming out of them, it looks-”

They had to dodge in opposite directions- a big piece of rubble shot out of the melting golem-fusion and sprayed black with it. Eww, Lottie thought, looking at what was left of her carry-case. Glad I grabbed my other gauntlet in time. 

The crossbowman shot a flurry of bolts at the mess. They clattered off the stone, but stuck in the gaps- the thing hissed like it hurt, but the arrowheads also started melting. The multi-golem started turning towards him, and goo was bubbling out of the slot where its eyes were supposed to be.

How rude, Lottie thought, and dropped a .44 magnum slug directly into its melty back. The ensuing spray was easy to dodge- this time it screeched instead of hissed. An arm dislocated from its usual orbit and came down with a slam, spraying flagstone shrapnel- she danced but not quick enough, some of it clipping her legs and stabbing holes in her skirt. It swung around to chase her pretty fast, too; her next shot was straight at the ground, oversize on purpose with a mental apology for Ms. Pierce and her nice streets. The impact shot her up above the hands it swung together to try and grab her, while its gross back arm swung up and grasped at thin air, trying to reach her.

Alright, mister, you’ve lost your arm privileges! She aimed for the base, and caught the crossbowman’s eye. He nodded, and lined up his own shot- planted three bolts in the base of the shoulder in the time Lottie came down and landed a left cross to the weakened point. Further from center mass, it seemed like the goop spray was less extreme- it arced away from her and hit the ground in front, where it… slithered.

“Eww. What is this stuff?”

The crossbowman reached out and yanked her away from it. Which was gentlemanly of him, sure, but she was really fine, and he clearly puffed to do so. “Gotta keep clear. Don’t wanna find out what it does.”

“Right.” Lottie pivoted fast on her heel to come around and face the golem-glob. Down an arm, it was… swelling up a big dark bubble from the wound. “Uhh!” Now it was her turn to grab the crossbowman and run, as fast as she could as a sheer shower of black slime exploded, hissing all around them. They dove under an eave just in time- oof, good thing we just fixed those shingles! It looked like the… stuff, was having a harder time eating through the mushroom roof. Hadn’t she heard somewhere mushrooms were great for engineering? Oh, yeah, that Chief Stan guy, he’d talked her ear off about it- she was getting distracted. “Do we have a plan?”

“Lady, my plan as of ten minutes ago was to get drunk and forget my girlfriend broke up with me, some kind of super monster wearing golems like a costume was not on it.”

“Oh! Sorry for your loss?”

“We weren’t working out,” he said morosely. Then, “ statue! ”

It had, in fact, picked up a statue to throw at them. Lottie winced at the sound of splintering wood as it hit the doorway behind them. The spray of dark slime had gathered back together into… some kind of new arm, though it was more like a tentacle, writhing and squirming around, making it hard to get close. Bobbing and weaving, it kept turning to put its attention on her. It seemed… really angry, in a way golems didn’t really do . Like before, she could hold its attention, force it to keep circling her… It turned one of its heads to try and look for the crossbowman. No you don’t! Lottie shot it right in that second, crumbling head. The last one swung to face her with feeling this time. Oh yeah.

Then it barreled towards her way faster than it’d been going before. Augh! “Nope nope nope nope!” Another rocket boost, the metal starting to feel warm against her insulating gloves. It actually crashed into one of the pillars of the town wall, scrabbling and picking itself up. 

“Seems to be doing a great job pissing it off, not sure if that’s damaging it any!” the crossbowman called. He’d- oh, he’d climbed a roof. Great idea! Get out of where it can reach you. “You got any tricks up your sleeve?”

“Only two shots left in the chamber, actually!” she called back. “If I was warmed up, then we’d have something!”

“Oh let me buy you time to do a couple of stretches!” The multi-golem turned towards him, and reached for the gutter of the roof. He scooted back with a shout. 

“Not me , my gear ! It’s- ugh, whatever!” It was a bad time to explain the nuances. For now , she targeted the arms it was using to climb up with. Her attacks could knife through that slimy stuff pretty easily, but then she’d get it on her… there were already a few cuts and scrapes stinging like they’d been submerged in acid. She dug out a healing potion and slammed it into her thigh- no time to go for the nice drinkable ones. It shook a little more energy into her, that she used to punch straight for the creature’s cobbled-together waist. That was still the narrowest part…!

Uh-oh, she realized, as that made its upper half start tipping towards her. Lottie bolted backward, but even clear of the rubble, a wave of the goop was coming toward her-

And suddenly she was somewhere else, with a rustle of what sounded like paper.

“It’d be a terrible shame if something happened to that face of yours. You’re nowhere near your prime yet,” said a low, smooth voice in her ear.

From a distance, she could watch a hail of glowing lights spike down into the golem. A rain of arrows impossibly dense, as if the person who shot them didn’t even need to waste a second on reloading. 

Mercedes hovered, silhouetted in the moonlight for a moment before she folded her nearly transparent fairy wings and plunged- heel first, a perfect form kick to the center of its body. The last of its bulk cracked open fully. 

“Ah-!” Lottie reached out. “Watch out! The stuff inside it-”

“Acha, looks like I’m up,” said the man who’d pulled her to safety. He swept forth, glowing cards materializing in his hand before they flew with pinpoint precision, striking the dark bubbles. With a final, nearly human-sounding shriek, it dissolved into gas, and then nothing, leaving behind the two Heroes standing glorious.

“Wow,” Lottie said. Then she shook herself. “Ms. Mercedes! Are you alright? I have no idea what was wrong with that thing, I should’ve been more ready for trouble but Henesys is usually so nice and peaceful I-”

With a beautiful laugh, Mercedes waved her off. “I’m fine. A panicking child happened across me and told me where you were. Although I’d appreciate a calmer explanation, all things considered.”

“What am I, yesterday’s mushroom skewer?” The man brandished a hand to his chest as if orating for a play. His blonde hair had a distinct untameable curl to it, insofar as it could be discerned hidden as it was under a beaked mask, which was on top of a trailing blue wrap, on top of a white hat. 

“Oh… uh… hang on! I know you,” Lottie snapped her fingers. “You’re…” White clothes, hero that wields a staff… “Luminous, right? It’s an honor to meet you!”

The man looked as if he’d just been suggested to eat kittens for breakfast. Mercedes coughed unconvincingly. “Phantom,” she ventured, “this is the adventurer from Edelstein I mentioned. She-”

The ground shook.

“Oh no, not again,” the crossbowman said, in the tones of one pronouncing his own funeral. 

Cora’s walker cleared a low fence with remarkable agility considering its tiny legs. “ I’m here where is it I’m gonna rip it to pieces- ”

Lottie waved. “Hi Cora! It’s okay, it’s already dead!”

Cora took in the scene with bleary eyes. Her hair was even wilder than usual, giving her the impression of a bewildered sheep driving a power-loader frame.

“Uh,” she said, and thumped her mech to a sitting position on the flagstones. 

“I think we’re getting away from the important topic here, which is my honor, which has just been horribly besmirched,” the man Phantom said. At the look Mercedes gave him, “-no, Luminous is our dear, possibly departed friend and I shan’t badmouth his memory but - oh, alright, yes, a heretofore unknown monster attacked an unknown city in broad,” another grand gesture, “moonlight I suppose. Very alarming and suspicious, mysteries and horrors afoot, this- definitely was not what I had in mind when you contacted me.” A declaratory raised finger, “Read as: when you boarded the Lumiere like the second coming of the Crimson Balrog. Which did needlessly antagonize my captain and make one of my maids faint. But given the circumstances I guess I understand the urgency.”

Before anyone else had any opportunity to speak, he clapped his hands. “Right then. I hate repetitive, confused conversations so what say we all convene at dear Athena’s so we can get all of the ‘huh, what, why, oh goddess it is a monster in town’ out of the way all at once?”

“This is troubling,” Athena mused, with all the decorum of someone who had just been snatched from late-night reading to be told a monster had rampaged into their town. “I had heard reports of unknown monsters scattered around a few areas- some sort of wolf roaming the depths of the subway, reports of strange insects in the Burning Lands… but it’s another to know that even formerly safe areas are getting worse. We’re lucky as it is that Bruce wasn’t out there; I don’t have the manpower to arrange a search-and-rescue on short notice since I sent most of my best archers to Kerning and Perion for the problems there.”

“It may be for the best if the cities pull back for the time being,” Mercedes said. “If the situation is developing the way it is, no one should be caught off-guard. There’s too many civilians at stake.”

Phantom let them settle those particular logistics. They were leaders for a reason- and it was the same reason Phantom paid people to manage those sorts of things for him. It had been an early disappointment in his illustrious career to realize that wealth was mostly very boring and required all sorts of things like managing investments and currency speculation and even more things that made his eyes glaze over. Instead, he put his attention where it was now useful: sizing up these Resistance people.

They didn’t look like much. Phantom supposed if they’d been obvious, he would have wasted less time lurking around in Edelstein, but still… the young adventuress with her mechanical gauntlets was interesting. He’d pocketed a few of her techniques for later review- but she was very young, especially young to be practicing a unique fighting style with proficiency that suggested at least a few technique advancements. The second one was even younger- a chubby, sickly-complected girl wadded in an overstuffed armchair and clearly barely awake at this point. It made more sense for her to be piloting some type of machine- she wouldn’t be up to adventuring on foot for very long.

Considering the Resistance was at least mildly notorious for its closed-off, intense nature, Phantom wondered how many of them were children. He’d started younger himself- he knew better than to underestimate- but that was where the rub lay: he’d ‘started’ because the alternative was starving to death. And he’d listened to enough prattle in Ereve to know that the Knights wanted to help, but had been openly spurned recently. Not a good look for what cautious ‘alliance’ could be strung between Victoria’s leaders and Ereve itself.

“-it’s like herding cats to try and keep them in line,” Athena surmised, talking about adventurers, and then, without looking in his direction, “Phantom could you please stop tapping your cane while I’m talking.”

He hadn’t even realized. “Goodness, you’ve become quite a grumpy spinster these days. This is why I don’t do this sort of thing- if you weren’t an elf this would ruin your complexion.”

“I obviously want the Explorers to be okay,” this was ‘Lottie’, the gauntlet-wielder, “but there’s bigger questions about this. That may be a one-off incident, but it could also be linked to the Black Wings. We’ve been putting pretty good pressure on them lately- Lu- uh, one of my friends was able to break their power siphon and they’ve been focusing on keeping power to their lab since then. So they might be testing something new afield.”

Yes, the tried-and-true Resistance paranoia, ‘if anything happens in Edelstein the Black Wings will immediately retaliate’. “Or it could be an unrelated phenomenon,” he pointed out. “Not all of the former Commanders are playing to the Black Wings’ tune. Hilla remains in her particular corner of Ariant, for example; and we don’t know the full scale of who’s still alive.”

He dug the old medal out of his pocket and cast it onto the table. “Particularly considering this .”

“I don’t think it’s connected to that,” Lottie said a little too quickly. She flushed to realize how much attention it commanded. “I- I mean, look at this, right?” She picked it up, and put it against her breast. “The Black Wings wear their medals on their chest. This one has a big slash through it- whoever was wearing it must’ve been hurt badly. So I doubt they’re in a state to be whipping up monsters, i-if they’re even alive, right?” She put it back down like it had burned her. 

Mercedes frowned. “That’s… optimistic of you, Lottie, but the Black Mages’ Commanders are very exceptional people. Few of them are human- those that are have drastically enhanced their capabilities. Even if they were gravely injured, any commander would still be quite dangerous.”

Something turned in Phantom’s stomach. Lotus was bad enough. And he still had his medal on his body; this was a new threat. Of the ones who weren’t yet accounted for… none of the options were good.

“You aren’t exactly normal people yourself,” piped up the half-awake one. “Can’t you handle it? You did before.”

No we didn’t.

Mercedes sighed heavily, clearly feeling the same. “It’s not that simple. I hate to say it- I as much as anyone am committed to this battle. But we… well, I’m sure you can put simple things together. There’s a reason that we were presumed dead for so long, and it’s related to the fact that, well, Phantom is very human and quite mortal and hasn’t aged…”

“You were in pickle jars?” guessed Half-Awake.

“Astonishingly, something like that!” Phantom snapped his fingers. “Also, never say that to me again.”

Lottie reached out and tousled the barely-visible tumbleweed of whitish hair. “Cora, please don’t antagonize the legendary heroes.”

So Half-Awake was ‘Cora’, not the ‘Lu-’ who disabled the power plant. At least three people. Good for them. If there’s five of you, you can be a hopelessly outgunned band of martyrs, just like uncle Phantom and his mostly-dead friends.

Cora, for her part, only grunted. 

“Don’t mind her, her meds wear off this late,” Lottie apologized. “Anyway, I never assumed you’d just be some kind of lucky charm one-hit kill. If you were, then everything bad happening would just be… okay with you, right? And that’s not like a Hero at all.”

“I’m not sure if I should find that comforting or be highly insulted,” Phantom replied.

Lottie waved her hands desperately. “I mean it positively! I mean. Like- of course you get tired and vulnerable, and fighting the Black Mage must have been a huge effort even for amazing people. I can’t imagine what that took from you… and with only two of you back…”

“We don’t know that we’re the only Heroes that made it. After the battle, we were scattered and in a blind panic. Aran, Freud, Luminous… I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. They’re strong people.”

Ever the diplomat, Mercedes. Lying to a girl’s earnest face… are you sure I’m the thief? You thought there were no survivors until you found me.

Either way, Lottie took it. She reached to pick up the medal. “...Maybe it’s better if we keep this to ourselves. We don’t want to burden you if this turned out to be a bad time.”

Athena put her hand over Lottie’s callused one. “Please. We want to help; Phantom is right that this could all be related. If that’s the case, working separately is just going to slow us all down.”

If nothing else, the young lady was practical. She nodded at that. “Alright then. If you insist, Cora and I can stay here a little longer.”

Good.

Give me time to figure out what you’re hiding.

Chapter Text

“So what do you make of the guy?”

Black Jack huffed dismissively. “You’ve asked me that already. That’s not like you.”

Belle shrugged, knowing he wasn’t looking at her. He felt the motion through the saddle anyway. “Call it nerves. Antsy for some real action.”

“He’s in our base. We’re already holding him to some kind of trust. Even if that’s just the trust that we can’t stop him if he wanted to hurt us.”

She wanted to argue. But they hadn’t bothered to fix the door for a reason. It looked like a cart bear had hit it full speed, and that was with cracked ribs. Belle remembered losing a fight with a fridge door the last time she’d cracked a rib.

“Paranoia can be a privilege too, you know,” he pointed out to her silence. “Look where turning up our nose at the Cygnus Knights got us.”

He was right. “Can you answer the question, though? Unless the guard patrol’s about to cycle. We’ve been waiting a bit.”

“...He is very flippant.”

“Yeah, something I almost respect in him.”

“No, Belle, he is flippant the same way you are.” Black Jack’s heavy head lifted. A gold eye lined up with hers. “Claudine has a sister. Elex, a family. Even Checky and Brighton have their students. All you have is me. You are flippant in the face of danger because the worst they can do is kill you. Our stranger is the same way- he does not bother to argue with us, even about matters as trivially personal as gender.”

“Yeah. You’d think if he was that much of a big shot, he’d be used to getting his way.”

Sounds. Black Jack’s hackles rose, and Belle hunkered down.

Well, we’ll have to see just what the lab tells us. If J was right…

Only rabbit guards. No automated ones. Interesting. The one that slunk past didn’t look like the big bastard Luca and Brighton had encountered- she seemed bored, scratching the fluff of one cheek before wandering onward, whistling and swinging her baton.

Black Jack touched down soundlessly the moment she turned the corner. They had only so much time to work with; take out any guards if the site itself was occupied, without raising alarms. Time it, and get back out before the guard came back around. Simple! That kind of hairpin turn inquisition was what they kept her around for.

Well, that, and that Claudine would sooner misplace an arm than someone she’d known that long. They all cared- they pretended otherwise. That was the one place Black Jack was wrong- Belle cut corners because someone killing her wasn’t the worst thing they could do. It’d be coming back to base and finding it empty.

This station was little more than a crack in the wall- somewhere that must’ve been a collapsed shaft, or an ore muncher nest. She had to dismount to wedge through, single-file, with a panther’s breath on the back of her neck. Popping out the other side, she realized the cause of the squeeze- this wasn’t the proper entrance. The normal one had a huge piece of equipment blocking it like a steel tree trunk that’d come down in a storm. 

It was also still, silent, and barely cleaned of the chalky dust that had settled. “Yeesh,” Belle coughed into her respirator. “Did that guy do all this?”

She picked her way through the rubble. Black Jack sneezed lightly behind her- yeah, sorry, they don’t make these in kitty sizes. Most of it was standard- the kind of equipment they’d seen before. The shattered husk of an energy collector, just like the one Luca had disabled for his ‘test’. But there was no generator here, only…

Her foot hit something. A shield-shaped fragment of stone. The outside of it was unnaturally smooth, not even polished by tools but feeling almost skinlike to the touch. 

She turned it over.

A feeling of dread crawled up her spine. “Jack, take a look at this.”

He came over. Sniffed. “...Has his scent. Even this old, I can tell.”

“Blood, right?”

Silence. She turned to look at him- his head was away, ears perked, twitching.

Shuffling, scratching noises. Little sounds.

Maybe it was a raccoon, Belle thought, unslinging her crossbow. They’d reinforced the stock last time something got the drop on her; it was better than the piece-of-shit glorified stick the watchmen handed out as a billy club. Whatever-it-was was lurking down in one of the gloomy corners of the lab… 

“Come out,” she challenged the dark.

It obliged slowly. The thin light glinted off a sharpened edge.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Belle hissed.

It’s a simple job , Ears, Le Tierre had said, with that lingering sneer of contempt. Even you can’t bungle this one. You won’t even have to bother to try to stay hidden. Not all in those words, sure, but he knew, he knew that’s what was under the surface. Fancy cloaking spells, kicking him downriver here into the actual town full of stinking humans. He’d rather face Lady Orchid again and get threatened to put in the stew over that failed airport heist, but unfortunately he was out of second chances. 

Humans. They took spirits for granted- oh, sure, I can be a thousand years old but just because I’ve incidentally spent most of that time as an unformed vapor, you think you can just stuff me in corporeal form and it’s fine ! Beat me to pieces, summon me back again in a new vessel, like it’s so easy, like I don’t know we’re expendable and that’s the reason we’re the backbone of this place doing all the real work. Even Lady Orchid… she’d been bound up in that body of hers too long. She forgot what it was really like. These days he wondered if she wasn’t really better than any other mortal.

But Ears was loyal. Mostly out of a lack of other options- he couldn’t make his being a huge brute like Large, and Buck Teeth barely spoke to him after that one failed mission. But sneaking around, gathering intel, passing fleet-footed through the town- that was still his disgusting organic slop that mortal lifeforms put in their faces. What was the term? ‘Bread and butter’? Point was, he was Ears for a reason.

He just had to go find some whoever of a traitor who’d limped away from Lady Orchid’s clutches, disrupted a few guards on the way out, and vanished into thin air. Combing the surrounding areas was no luck, and other people were searching all the outbound shipments (not hard, there was one pilot in his mediocre little zeppelin) so that left the town. Hide a tree, use a forest, he guessed. Even if it was supposed to be some kind of weird-looking tree. Probably one of the brass that people like Ears barely interacted with.

But luck was on Ears’ side for once. He’d been cloaked under a streetlight, cursing his lack of leads, when that stupid-looking mascot hung up his last flier for the day and beat it. That would be a boring sort of windfall, except the mascot proceeded to beat it… straight down a broken sewer main. Ears had followed him in, mostly wanting to see if he’d hurt himself on the way down, but instead there was a side-door, labeled with a grimy old ‘maintenance’ sign, and past that?

Ears could’ve laughed to himself if it wouldn’t have given the jig away. A meeting room with a slide projector set up, schematics and plans… he should’ve brought a camera. He’d found what had to be a den for those Resistance rats. There were those walker-mechs that had caused them so much grief. A straw bed for a large animal- panthers, no doubt. The deeper he walked, the more of a goldmine it was. A hangar with small airships and yet more technological weapons. An elevator leading deeper into the complex. Forget ‘a’ den, this was the den! This would make sure everything was forgiven. All Ears had to do was get this intel back to headquarters and Lady Orchid could finally pluck that thorn from their sides once and for all. They wouldn’t stand a chance…

Or so he thought, until he took one step too far and set off some kind of contraption. Klaxons blared, flooding the room with red light. It was agonizing for someone whose namesake was as sensitive as it was- but more importantly he had to get out of here.

Just as he was turning to the entrance, though, someone barreled in- the local kindergarten teacher, he’d recognize that dim-looking shelf of a face anywhere. Apron flying, he was yanking a gauntlet on mid-stride. A ‘Blaster’, they called themselves. Ugh. Ears wanted to punish that man immediately, but a better idea came to him.

Instead, he slunk towards the elevator, still nestled in his dark magic. Sure. I’ll let you scour the place, find nothing, and in the meanwhile, I’ll head down… oh, what’s this? Secondary flight of stairs? Don’t mind if I do.

By the time the brute had even reached Ears’ previous position, he was long gone, without so much as a whisper of rusty machinery to tell the vermin that the exterminator was in. Down here the air was stuffy and still, so apparently cheap that they hadn’t installed alarms down here and just made the ones above louder. A medic was milling around in a panicked haze, fumbling her equipment to gather up some sort of weaponized defibrillator. Oh, aren’t you cute. A single strike to the back of her head dropped her to the floor, scattering her pitiful armament, and he was past. 

A faint, cold wind. That perked his ears up- did this facility go deeper? Deep enough and they wouldn't even have to bother with the formality of a raid, just dig from the basement up… yes, that would be a nice surprise. He followed the sensation, only for it to lead him to a dead end in a storeroom. It was definitely colder in here, though… a second hidden entrance, better covered than the last? Ears plied his shoulder against a rusty cabinet, but the wall behind it was barren of any obvious secrets.

The door to the room closed and latched neatly.

Calm down, Ears reminded himself, and backed away from the cabinet. No one can see you. Not a hair, not a trace… the shadow cloak is Lady Orchid’s own magic. It can’t be-

There was an unsound. An absence of noise slithering through the ambience of the room and before Ears could react it had settled around his throat. Like a bramble, its barbs pressed just gently enough against his skin, holding him perfectly still like no grip of pure strength could. It was a different kind of dark- a seething, vindictive dark. He was no creature that could bleed, but beneath the skin was him and the lash around his neck wanted in , felt as if every inch of it was rasping his surface, tasting him, looking for an opening.

The bramble turned him around. Ears came face to face with…

Hair and eyes the color of wine. Skin like the statue of a forgotten curse spirit and expression about as forgiving. The only thing that caught the dim light was a smile too cultured to show more but the very tips of its fangs.

“This is a disappointment,” the creature admonished in a rolling contralto. A bandaged fingertip reached out and tilted Ears’ chin to a better angle. “Orchid could not attend to me personally?”

They hadn’t mentioned that about the traitor, Ears thought, in a futile panic. “H-how can you- nothing is supposed to be able to see me!”

“Because of your shadow?” Just like Le Tierre, it didn’t have to be stated for the rest of the implications to gather like stormclouds. The thing around his neck was a pure shadow in and of itself. To a practitioner of that caliber, the cloak would make him more obvious, not less.

The tendril unwound and dropped him, coiling around the traitor’s hand like a loyal hound. Ears wheezed from the floor, feeling humiliatingly mortal.

“You are to relay a message.”

Despite himself, Ears’ namesake perked slightly. Yes- yes! In their arrogance, if the traitor would let him run back… he had seen enough to ruin the Resistance now. And if this was where that was hiding!

“Oh, I must clarify.” The traitor raised their palm, and then turned it over flat to the ground. “Your silence will relay it for me.”

The room’s shadows opened, and devoured him.

“Shit shit SHIT -” Wendelline blinked the haze from her eyes. Elex was standing over her. “ Talk to me, Wen!”

“Oh, um,” she said, “Do you have the time?”

“It’s 6:42,” Brighton clarified at her elbow. Something cold rested against the throbbing back of her head. Wendelline went to adjust her glasses, only for her to realize they’d fallen off.

“Oh… I… wasn’t looking at a clock when I passed out. I might have a concussion,” she reasoned. “Did- the alarm was-”

“First things first,” Elex hoisted her up, her entire body weight on one of his arms alone. “We gotta get you to Claudine. Base’s locked down, nobody’s getting in or out, so we can take our good time hunting that little cockroach down and wringin’ their neck for-”

“Elex,” Brighton raised a hand.

“What? Some Black Wings bastard breaks in here of all places and puts their hands on our medic, I’m allowed to be mad-”

“Elex, shut up for a second,” Brighton said in the certain quietly precise warning tone that few people in the Resistance were willing to argue with.

A light flickered. It buzzed back to life unsteadily.

“Oh I knew I should have replaced that,” Wendelline said faintly. Someone was approaching down the hallway, making no particular efforts to be hidden. It was-

Elex took a menacing step forward. “What, so we help you get back on your feet, and you thank us by going after us? I’ll re-break all those bones Claudine just set, bub, you try me-”

The stranger, ‘Valfar Androsyne’, tossed a small object to the ground at their feet. Wendelline squinted, fumbled for her glasses, and had just managed to get them settled when Brighton picked it up, turning it over.

A black wings familiar tablet- the thing those henchmen reverted to and from.

“...It’s empty,” he concluded, faintly incredulous. “I’ve never seen any amount of damage actually destroy the spirit attached to these things before. You… killed it?”

“There was a dust bunny in your storeroom,” Valfar said with a thin smile. “I felt unusually revitalized today, and thought I would do a bit of cleaning.”

“I’m going to have to ask some questions on your technique later, but…” there was a calculating glint in Brighton’s eye. “You’ve just effectively silenced a witness to our base of operations- if that thing was defeated any normal way, it would’ve been-”

“Simply recalled by its master and questioned for what it knew, yes. I’ve used spirits of this type myself.” Valfar’s wings fluttered and folded lazily, the injured one with a bit of stiffness. He was definitely hiding how much that hurt, Wendelline thought. Besides just the bones, the lower edge of the patagium was ragged nearly to tatters on both sides. It was only now starting to look less raw. 

But still, what an incredible person… to think their worst nightmare had come true, and been averted so casually… 

“We haven’t even really been trusting you,” she muttered, before she could catch herself. “I-! I mean! On behalf of everyone, I think it’s fair to say the Resistance is in your debt!”

Brighton passed her the ice pack he’d been using on her head. “Don’t make any drastic promises on a concussion.”

“She has a bit of a point, though,” Elex stuck out a gauntleted hand. “Stuck up a pretty big middle finger to the Black Wings with that. Enemy of my enemy’s decent company. Put’er here.”

If there was any hesitation in returning such a menacing grip, Valfar didn’t show it. “A pleasure.” His gaze tracked downward, and then blinked. “...Your apron says ‘Happy Sprouts Kindergarten’.”

“S’my day job,” Elex said gruffly. Wendelline stifled an anxious laugh.

The brisk click of heeled boots alerted them to Claudine’s arrival. “Oh, good, if you’re all standing around chatting, I’ll presume the lockdown crisis has been handled.” Her expression was stony serious. “Because Belle just called in. From what she said, she hasn’t been discovered yet , but isn’t in a position to fight her way out. We need an extraction team.”

Brighton hummed thoughtfully. Eyeing Valfar, “Feeling up for a hike?”

Chapter Text

“Any questions?”

“Yeah, am I ever gonna go back to Verne Mine without a babysitter?”

“ We don’t usually go to the Mine without a babysitter, kid, it’s called the buddy system and how ya don’t die.” 

Claudine wore an expression of withering serenity. “Thank you, Elex. Does anyone besides Luca have a question?”

Luca ignored his exclusion. “Are we really bringing the weird lady?”

“Yep,” Elex said.

Checky wore the same expression he always did, which was that of a teddy bear mascot head. “So, no, Claudine, no questions.”

“Good. You’re going in on a two-team spotter system. Elex and Checky will make the breach and keep it open. Luca, you’re taking Valfar and finding Belle. We have a narrow window to do this- once we start making any kind of noise the place is going to be on high alert. Valfar- that’s where you’re coming in. Show us you’re not all talk, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know.” Claudine faced the projector screen, and tapped. “Belle’s a master hunter for a reason. Assume she’s going to be hard to find. She called in from the northeast quadrant of the mountains, where there’s less development we know of. Expect more boulder munchers than sentries, but prep for anything. Our intel on the area is limited and we know how much the Black Wings love surprises.”

“Interesting,” Valfar mused. “They may have more imagination than in my day.”

“Oh most of that you can chalk up to Gelimer. He’s old, but he’s not that old.” There was something really creepy about watching that goofy mascot head tilted stoically while Checky was doing maintenance checks on a gun. “He’s creative in some unpleasant ways. I’m sure he’d love to get an interesting specimen like yourself on the table.”

“Ah, that type.”

Luca swung to stare at her. “There’s a type ? Ugh, don’t answer that. I don’t want to think about multiple Gelimers.”

A dismissive wave. “There are technically several types that come out to the same result. I will need more information to determine which this ‘Gelimer’ is, but that’s a topic for another time. I believe we are burning daylight- what preparations need to be made?”

Elex jerked a thumb at the exit. “I already talked to Ace. Checky can fly the thing, so that’ll cover for him. Airdrop’s not my favorite style, admittedly, but it’s what we got. Worst come to worst the ship’s a burner so we can scrap it and bail on foot.”

“Wait, walk down from the mountains?” Luca grimaced. “Not even take the cable car?”

“Cable car’s Black Wings owned and operated.” Brighton ruffled Luca’s hair in almost the same cheerful way he used to do it, before Luca knew about the rebellion and Brighton stopped pretending nearly as much. “Welcome to mine ops, Luca, the base level of Verne’s security is that it’s a pain in the ass to get to and from. Aren’t you so glad you made second rank?”

“Thrilled,” Luca grumbled.

Claudine was ignoring him yet again. “If there’s any other preparations you need to make, we’ve got an hour. Valfar, that includes you- we do want you to succeed, so our armor is your armory, within reason.”

Valfar considered. Luca tried to imagine what sort of weapon she would use- a great big sword? A scythe, like Koku’s? He could imagine a scythe. 

“If you have access to a mace, that would be ideal.”

…Huh?!

“Phantom.”

A book bounced sharply off the back of his head. “ Excuse me, Gaston? I’m being assaulted in my own airship.” 

“Answer me faster next time,” Mercedes replied mercilessly. 

“Gaston, as your employer, I am deeply affronted. My delicate constitution is in clear and immediate danger, and you are buttering a croissant over there.”

Gaston, for his part, did not move from the tea trolley. “I find Lady Mercedes’ terms to be completely reasonable, sir. It is unbecoming to ignore a guest.”

“Oh, fine then,” Phantom tossed the papers on his desk, “ what ? What’s so worth disrupting my working peace and my cranium that you can’t wait a single minute for me to not be in the middle of a paragraph? I’m going to have to start from the beginning.”

Mercedes regarded him chillingly, but put down the ornamental statuette she’d picked up. “I noticed that you’d finished your report and started reading a romance novel, for one thing.”

“Flaunting elven superiority?” Phantom evaded.

“The ability to read upside-down is no trait inherently barred from humanity.” Despite herself, she favored a haughty smile. “It’s not my fault if a longer lifespan gives one more time to pick up different languages.”

“Yes, yes, rub it in, while I’ve spent the last three hundred years fading into decrepitude.” Sensing the end of useful bush to beat around, “what’s the other thing?”

The proud Mercedes he could usually count on faded a little too quickly for comfort. “You have a theory about our prospective commander.”

“Well, it can’t be Orchid, Lotus, or Hilla, as they’re all active,” under his breath, “ unfortunately . That doesn’t narrow it down that much , though.”

“I think it does.”

“Oh?” Phantom waved the dossier he’d set aside for The Tumult of Summertime . “By all means, let’s compare your wit against my agents.”

She glared at him for a moment, but did not pick up anything else to throw. What relented was dangerously melancholy, nothing he could work with. “A commander of the Black Mage, struck down within the Black Wings’ territory, and consigned to a shallow grave? If they were a loyalist, they would have been retrieved. If not…”

Ah. The unavoidable topic reared its head. “You think it’s the Demon.”

“She would be difficult to cut down, even by the Black Mage. We saw her body, but…”

“And if she’s dead, we can acknowledge her memory and sacrifice without complication or wondering what she was thinking. If she’s alive, it’s naive to think we’ll all just be friends after everything she did, isn’t it? We don’t even know why she turned on the Black Mage. It could just have been to serve her own petty ambitions.”

“Right, it would be foolish to trust someone who only opposed the Black Mage for selfish reasons.”

“Exactly,” Phantom snapped his fingers. “That kind of thinking might have appealed back when the world was burning down around our ears, but now with the effort to build an alliance, careless action can’t cut it. We have to be careful.”

Gaston emitted a very careful and dignified cough. Mercedes, too, had raised a gloved hand to her mouth, though the curl of a dry smile escaped the corner.

“And I am being bullied in my own airship for sharing honest and true feelings. Remarkable. I’ll be crying about this alone, if you’ll need me.”

“I hope you all went potty before you left!” Elex bellowed over the roaring wind. “Cause there’s no toilets where we’re going!”

“I am beginning to understand your day job!” Valfar returned, at the same volume. For someone so effortlessly cool-guy vibes, she sounded almost funny shouting, like her voice wasn’t meant to be raised. Even then, she was still standing up on the deck like nothing could blow her over. 

Luca, for his part, was crammed in the front next to Checky, with goggles pulled over his eyes and scarf dragged all the way up over his nose to try not to choke on the thin, fast-moving air. This high up it felt like being slapped with a bag full of ice cubes over and over again. And the ice cubes were knife-shaped. Ice knives? Man, that sounded so much cooler. Koku clearly didn’t like it either- he was poking at Luca, bugging him through their connection. You don’t even have nerves, you jerk!

“Regretting not wearing a coat?” Checky didn’t shout, his position was relatively insulated.

Luca glowered at him. Sometimes you forgot the Resistance was full of a bunch of dumb adults. “You’re only warm ‘cause you’ve got a mask on!”

“I’m also wearing a coat, which both of us had control over. One day those naked arms are gonna get you in trouble, mr. melee class.” Raising his voice, “Almost to the site!”

“Do you anticipate them shooting you down?” Valfar asked.

“We’re taking a broad approach to avoid just that! Staying away from their watchtowers.”

There was some kind of whistling noise over the wind, and the ship bucked suddenly. Luca looked up at the balloon- Ace said this was kind of a garbage ship, right? Was it falling apart? He couldn’t get a good look before he had to wrestle Koku- the little spirit was practically digging its claws into him. He just said we’ll land soon!

“Oh,” Checky said. “Guess they updated their security.”

GO GO GO GO GO NOW , Koku screamed in Luca’s mind, and the world turned to fire before darkness.

Luca woke up flat on his back. A new dusting of bruises sounded off as he opened his eyes to black. Weird, his goggles were supposed to have a feature for that- he made to sat up, and the darkness moved off him.

Valfar folded back one wing and motioned for him to ‘shush’. 

“Wh-” the gesture was repeated, insistently. Okay! Screw you and your secrets, guess I just took a nap under your wing like a weird blanket and we’re in some cave all of the sudden and-

“Man, I swear,” said a stranger’s voice. “This crap’s gonna give me hives. Staff bulletin, some freaky thing or another got out! Yeah we’ve got loads of ‘em, not even the ones we tell you about! Oh, the lights flickered, go check the security systems Cory, it’s fine , not like we have a bunch of homicidal malfunctioning androids down here and fuck knows what else.”

Footsteps. Luca looked around; Valfar caught his eye with a quick motion, and instead of shushing him again, pointed down by their feet. A metal grate and a reinforced hallway- a mess of brown hair atop a white coat as whoever-it-was shuffled past without even looking up. Eventually, the sound of them faded.

“It seems there are a number of natural vents bringing air to the lower labs. We struck lucky on one of them, but I doubt we can simply escape down into that hallway without triggering more alarms.”

“Wait wait wait. What happened ? We were on the ship and…”

“It was shot down. Some sort of fast-moving projectile; we were separated from the others.” Valfar stood, and actually brushed dust from her pants. Luca guessed she was a girl- she had prissy kind of clothes anyway, sort of like Anthony. So maybe she cared about that. Regardless, she practically picked up Luca’s entire body by one hand just helping him up. 

And then she literally picked up his body. “Whoa-hey! I can walk!”

“I’m sure you can, but you don’t appear capable of flying.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “The vent we fell into is a vertical hole. It isn’t designed for accessibility.”

Luca squirmed. “Isn’t your wing still hurt?” He didn’t have too much experience with… wing people. Some adventurers wore fake wings to look cool, but they didn’t sell them in Edelstein. And fairies didn’t ever seem like they could carry people. Valfar was bigger than a fairy, Luca guessed. 

A thin smile. “A bit of light exercise will do it well.” Luca would have said more in response, but then she spread her wings out , and man, just when you thought you were used to it, you realized those things were huge actually . And very not fake or made of magic- muscles moved in the chest and back to bring them up and then a snap down and the whole world lurched and they were out in the blinding sunlight. Those same wings caught like a parachute, a few lazy flaps and she was thermalling like a canyon vulture, a broad turn before coming right down on a strut of rock they could both stand on.

“That’s,” Luca struggled to yank his goggles off, the night-vision was now blinding. “ THAT’S SO COOL. Can we do that again? Do you do that all the time? Does it hurt that you did that? Could you fly when you were a baby or was it like a bird thing where you were all stumpy and ugly first-” He coughed.

Valfar rested a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe carefully. There’s a lot of ambient dust here.” 

Luca wiped his mouth and wished he’d brought that canteen that Wendelline had pestered him about. “Yeah it sucks. I don’t even know why we want the stupid mine back so bad, besides kicking the Black Wings out of here. Only Ulrika and Von think it’s cool to play out here.” A thought caught up with him. “How are we gonna find Elex and Checky? Can you like, fly up and look around-”

“If I did, I’d likely be attacked by whatever defense system shot down the aircraft. Staying below a certain altitude seems to be for the best.” With a huff, “I’d be more confident to engage opponents in the sky once my wings are fully healed.”

The idea of dogfighting something with no aircraft sounded like the coolest thing Luca could imagine, but Valfar said it like it was boring. Maybe it would be if you had just had freaking wings your entire life but Luca didn’t think he’d ever be over that. “Man, I wish I had wings.”

Valfar made a sound almost like a laugh. “We should continue.” Pointing, she traced a path along the canyons to point to a flat-topped rise. “If we can reach high ground, we might be able to see the wreckage.”

“Alright, cool! I can’t fly, but watch this -” Flick, flick, flick. A little shortcut through the dark place and he was over to the first reach, waving back at Valfar with a big grin. Teleportation’s pretty cool, right?

She hopped down from the rise, and for a moment it looked like she was going to hit her wings on the canyon but at the last minute she folded and dove, sliding along until she could stick her feet out precisely and catch, right next to him. “I have been wondering,” she admitted. “Demonological magic is uncommonly used.”

They could walk and talk. That was fine, it’d make things less boring. “Yeah Brighton said he had to drop out of college overseas to come back to Edelstein. A lot of it’s kind of our own thing, y’know? Before the Black Wings took over we were a major tech name, made a lot of stuff that got shipped to Magatia and other places that need… I dunno, fiddly science stuff. Anyway, because we can’t export any of that thanks to the Black Wings, there’s a lot lying around and Brighton’s crazy smart so he figured out a way to make it work with the magic. So I’ve got Koku, but I’ve also got my staff and this weird marble thing that works like a battery-”

“Andras?”

“Huh?”

“The- your spirit. You call it ‘Koku’?”

“Yeah there was something about ‘Ankou’ in the book but that sounds weird for such a little guy. He gets bigger sometimes but I mean, look at him, does he look that scary?”

Valfar went on a little face journey. Luca hated it when grownups did that; it really was like they were leaving off into their thoughts without telling you what any of that meant.

“I mean, Koku seems to like you, for what it’s worth,” Luca tried. “He gets weirdly happy when you’re around.”

“My father was a demon. It is likely he responds to a kindred presence.”

Luca, walking backward to keep watching Valfar, nearly tripped. “Huh? So like- I mean, your mom-”

“-was human. I’m told I take after my father, but I did not spend terribly much time with him.” As if this was a normal thing to say, she verbally brushed past it, “How exactly did you come across ‘Koku’?”

It was really weird how interested she sounded. That was way less cool than your dad being a demon. “Uh, it’s a dumb story.”

“...pardon?”

“Look I dunno what the other guys told you. Before I had the Resistance I just did dumb kid stuff all the time. One time I broke into this ‘haunted’ house and found this weird old book. Koku was in there, and I let him out, but I didn’t really know what happened or that he’d attached to me. It just felt like a lot of bad luck and weird stuff, until Brighton taught me how to actually summon him. So now it’s cool and he’s my buddy and I don’t trip on random rocks anymore.”

A pebble in the trail nearly spited him. Nope! Not today!

Valfar was quiet about that. “I told you it was a dumb story,” Luca complained. At least they were nearly to the ‘high ground’ she’d pointed out. He didn’t want to hear that the cool person thought he was stupid now- so he skipped ahead, blink-blink-blink. How’s that Brighton, remembering I can teleport . It was even a pretty cool view from up here. Luca wondered what would’ve happened if Ulrika and the rest had actually gotten this far out in the mines. If they hadn’t picked that one spot, Vita never would’ve gotten out… she might’ve still been alive. But never knowing anybody, would that be worse? She’d talked about it like it was a nightmare. 

A rush of warm air let him know Valfar had caught up. He didn’t even have to turn around- which was good, because his eye caught a bit of smoke on the horizon. That had to be the ship. He fumbled to put his goggles back on, set them to distance and rotate the dials until it came into…

Focus?

“What do you see?”

“Think there’s junk on my goggles, or…” Luca wiped them on his shirt, put them back on. “Yeah it’s gone now. Weird.”

Valfar was silent. When Luca looked at her, she tilted her head, prompting. Seriously?

“It looked like a person, but above the rocks. Just floating or something. Like I said, dirt on my goggles or-”

“I saw it.”

“ HUH ?”

“Not in any sort of detail, but it flew away at high speed.”

Luca stared back at the empty canyon. “...What does that mean?”

“It means we should hurry.”

Chapter Text

“This is garbage, man. We came out here to rescue Belle, now we got a kid and an invalid in the middle of nowhere.”

“Elex, we’re alone out here, you can swear.”

He contemplated that, then faced the cave entrance and belted an admittedly-resonant “ FUCK. ” Turning back, “Yeah that didn’t help nothin’. What’re you doing, that doesn’t look like your walker.”

Checky made the last adjustments. He really needed to put some actual dials on this thing, tuning it with his screwdriver was getting annoying. Hindsight only did so much- he was missing his favorite second opinion. At least she was safe in Victoria right now, instead of out here. “We’re not up to the gills in guards yet. I’m going to try to get a better map of our surroundings and look for our missing people at the same time.”

“...Huh. That’s thoughtful.”

“Well, I have an ulterior motive. Did you get a good look at the thing that hit us?”

Elex mulled it over, stroking his stray handful of chin hairs with a gauntleted finger. “...Huh. Can’t say I did, but now that I’m thinkin’ about it, didn’t smell or sound like a rocket. New propulsion system?”

“Well, we weren’t shot . Whatever it was attacked us midair.”

The color drained out of Elex’s face. “You think Belle went missing ‘cause she-”

“We assumed security would be looser because as far as we can tell there’s nothing out here. Pretty clearly, there’s something out here , and they’re protecting it with some pretty advanced stuff. That’s why I think we ought to tiptoe.”

“Shit,” Elex hissed. “And we got Luca and Val out there. I don’t care if he heals quick, Brighton and Luca practically had to scrape him off the floor.”

Already attached enough to get protective? That’s interesting. Checky didn’t say that, though; Elex’s mushy sentimental side was one of the things he enjoyed about the guy. “I wouldn’t worry too bad about Luca. Kid’s tough. You gotta be, to be living on the streets in a place like this. I know Edelstein is home to you guys, but it’s a pretty brutal one these days.” 

Elex checked the caliber on his gauntlets, and routed more to the mufflers. It was amazing to think ‘explosive demolition fist-shotgun’ and ‘quiet’ could occur in the same breath. “Check, I think it’s fair to say the place is home for you, too, considerin’.”

“Aww, that’s sweet.” He put the earpiece of the sonar in, and picked up his gun. “I mean it, Elex, I’d be blushing if I was capable of it.”

“Y’fight for Edelstein, it fights for you. One of these days I’m gonna have enough holiday time to visit Ludibrium proper, so we can return the favor.”

That was a fun little Resistance tradition. People made points to make plans for the future. Things they were going to do together. Nobody said ‘if we make it’. It was even sincere; Elex probably would like Ludibrium, big softie that he was. The place was a little too bright for Checky.

“Alright, put a pin in the hug session, I’ve got to listen.” He set off down the tunnel, and Elex fell into step behind. His first impression was to do a double-take- there couldn’t be that much echo, unless they were on top of…

“The good news is we know this is here now,” he said under his breath.

“Bad news is..?”

“We wouldn’t in a million years have the resources to raid this place. We’re on top of a mile-deep shaft. Reaches out in three directions further than I can hear. From the depth, might even be underneath the parts of Verne we know about . This might be older than the schematics Surl gave us.”

“...That’s nuts, Check. You-” Elex was pale in the gloom. “-I mean. Surl was here before the Black Wings were. You think that Gelimer bastard was here this whole time ?”

“Only other record we have is him getting kicked out of Magatia some… what, 30 years ago? Presumably this is where he went. Or always was.” Something was wrong. It took more than this to scare Elex. “...What’s eating you?”

Elex was looking off at nothing. It was a look some people got after they’d done a solo shift in the depths of the clocktower. “...that was around when…” He caught himself, looked at Checky. Seemed like he was reconsidering, closing off. 

But then, “You know how far back me, Brighton, Belle and Claudine go, right?”

“I do my best not to be jealous,” Checky said, with a half-smile. “...Where’s this going?”

“Well, it wasn’t just the four of us. We knew another kid.”

Past-tense.

“She went missing. Little less than thirty years ago.”

“Man, this sucks, can more guys jump us or something?”

Valfar ‘hmmed’. “The lack of resistance is noteworthy.”

Luca nearly tripped on a rock. “...Huh. I was expecting you to be like ‘no it’s good when the bad thing doesn’t happen’.”

“They shot down an airship. Logically, they would be crawling for survivors, especially since they did not find bodies at the site. Either they were overconfident that the strike would kill us, or they’re waiting for us to move into a certain position.”

That was. So many words, wrapped around a ‘you’re right for being nervous for once, Luca.’ It also wasn’t a good thing to be right about. “So, what do we do about it?”

“Unfortunately, about the same thing we’re currently doing.” Valfar peered around a corner, still holding the secondhand mace the resistance had loaned her. Glancing back at Luca, she raised her eyebrows. “Seeing a trap coming doesn’t always mean you can launch a counter-trap.” 

Luca leaned past her to see what she was seeing. What a surprise! It was more canyon. “Then what’s the point of seeing it coming?”

A hand hooked around his waist and swung him backward. A moment later there was a smoking hole in the ground about where Luca’s face had been.

“That,” Valfar said. Huge, crablike machines were climbing the cliffs, each crowned with a small piece of crystal. Lottie had mentioned these- they were the automated deep-mine security systems. She’d said something about the rocks in the open, something about-

Luca got a running start and kicked off the ground to ram his staff into the mounting on one of them just as it started to build steam to fire. The charge dissipated, and the gun crackled- and immediately another one swung around to open with its smaller, boring black-powder guns, forcing him to teleport to the other side of the downed one and kick off to get height. It tumbled down into the chasm below, end-over-end. “Heads up!”

Valfar stuck a hand out and caught the downed mech, long-end up. A moment later she folded her wings and ducked behind it- Luca realized she was using it as a shield. Not only did the shots bounce off, but they didn’t recognize each other as valid targets, so they lost lock. 

Unfortunately this just meant more of them locked on Luca. “Oh come on..!” He stuck his thumb in his mouth and pushed an incisor into it. Wendelline told him to stop doing that, but there weren’t a lot of easier ways to get blood in a hurry. He traced a streak across his staff. “Alright, Koku! Dunno if these creeps have souls, but I’ll buy you ice cream later if they don’t!”

They swung together, black wind surging as Koku unfurled to his full size. The scythe ripped through the robots like they were taffy. And through the connection, he could feel a surge of power, life… robots counted as alive? Huh. That was kind of creepy. At least it saved him ice cream money. A bigger, meaner-looking security system crested the gorge now- its gun looked practically the size of his head.

And then it toppled over with an anticlimactic clunk - the shell of one of the other robots bouncing off it like someone had just thrown a baseball. Valfar twisted in midair, shifted grip on the glorified-club, and let loose with a jagged shadow seething with red. It tore a gouge up the cliff, not only striking the machine directly in its path but throwing spiky shrapnel into the ones on either side, who tumbled into the ones near it…

Hey Brighton, can you teach me how to do that? All I got is chains, and they’re cool and all, but- Koku let him know someone was about to shoot at him, and he teleported again, nearly backing straight into Valfar as she landed.

“We need to run.”

“Aren’t we doing good?”

“The smaller machines aren’t there to stop us. They’re a distraction.” A blue-white comet shot right in front of them. As Luca blinked stars from his eyes, “that sniper is going to kill us unless we lure them closer.”

They took off. That, at least, was clearly something the bad guys didn’t want them to do, as there was a whole lot more shooting from the surviving security systems following after them. Left, right, left… it sounded like they were losing the slower robots. Shows you, I’m the fastest kid in Edelstein!

Then they came around to a straight path in the canyon with no exits. The walls were so far overhead they almost touched. 

At the far end, there was a… girl. Bangs in a smart bob-cut, the rest of her hair tied back. She was wearing a white suit. Didn’t look like a Black Wing, but she didn’t look happy to see them either. Held out her hand like ‘hey, stop’. There was some glinting, bright piece there, one getting brighter and-

Valfar swung the mace straight into the wall of the canyon. A crumble of dry stones came down, right before a flash and they were simply gone. Glass ringed the slowly cooling crater.

Oh. Good. That was the sniper. And she was already aiming a second time. 

Valfar pushed Luca’s shoulder. “Split up! Don’t let her target you!”

Luca dove, tucked and rolled away from the second flash. Valfar took upward to the air; the sniper woman raised her arm to attack, and Valfar shot out the pointed shadow again. They met with a blast that nearly knocked Luca off his feet, but vanished almost instantaneously- and the sniper fired again almost immediately. Valfar banked free of it, but clipped one wing on the canyon and stumbled in the air. 

Shit shit shit- she couldn’t fly in a space this narrow. If she got shot while falling… Luca swung his staff forward, and shot a burst of dark chains. That caught the sniper off-guard- it dragged her about a foot closer before she broke free. More importantly, though, it got her to target him instead, and in that time he could trace a circle and the cardinal runes it needed. He could feel his heartbeat catch , almost like an engine when it caught, and the warming feeling that spread to the rest of his blood.

Brighton warned him this stuff was addictive, that you had to get used to doing stuff unenhanced or you’d waste all your mana doing it all the time. But right now, he needed to cheat. And cheat he did- a two-step sprint up the wall and then kicking off that, another roll to a forward spring and he was close enough for a five-hit staff combo. The sniper had a weapon, too- they clashed handle-to-handle in rapidfire before she brought it up and swung it down and he realized there was a mean-looking electric blade on that thing. He had to backstep, and then compensate with a lunge. Their weapons crossed again. She barely even flinched, while his arms were already shaking from the force. Her eyes looked lit from within, or like they were made of glass- the effect was creepy this close.

“Intruders to Father’s laboratory will be executed without exception,” she said, in the tone of someone at a desk telling you that you couldn’t fill the form out that way. 

“Huh?”

In that moment of hesitation she sunk her free hand directly into his guts. Luca wheezed, and then again when he felt himself hit the rock wall. No, c’mon, get up, she’s gonna-

A fast-moving shadow. Valfar’s wing, fanned in front of him. He heard metal-on-metal- a conflict while Luca’s head swam and he tried to catch his breath. It was like watching a dance- or those drill routines when he got to see Brighton and Elex practice against each other. Each step and blow interlocked at incredible speed. The sniper tried the low-punch trick and glanced off of a shield in Valfar’s other hand. Valfar tried to open with a spinning kick and the sniper caught it, gripped the leg hard as if to break it before getting hit in the back of the head with one wing, staggering her enough to let go. 

Luca drove the butt of his staff into the ground and used it to lever himself up. Shaky on his feet, he pointed. This time, aiming down at her feet. The sniper didn’t have time to react before the dark chains sprang out of her shadow, tangling her, slowing her down. Despite that, they couldn’t pull her down- she was struggling against it, eyes blinking from blue to red. She hauled her scythe up-

Valfar, with a thin smile, raised her shield arm and just stood there. Helpless, Luca had to watch as the blade came right down on her raised arm-

And with a burst of dark green light, the sniper gasped and staggered back, clutching her own shoulder. She hacked the rest of the chains off, and shot straight up into the sky and was gone.

Luca collapsed, face-first in the dust. Koku was buzzing over his head, making nervous sort of not-sounds in his mind. As Valfar’s shadow fell over him, “tell me she’s not coming back.”

“Neither of us appear in a state to injure her, but I was able to reflect her own attack back onto her. Difficult to say if that will keep her down.” One arm propped him up easily, despite the spreading stain on her prissy shirtsleeve turning it from white to pink. A bottle of orange potion was held to his lips. “Drink.”

Luca managed it. “Ugh. I hate the taste of these…” He wiped his mouth, but the pounding in his head subsided enough he could stand. “Can they invent potions that don’t taste like butt?”

“Medicine usually isn’t selected for taste,” Valfar said, but Luca was vindicated to note she grimaced too uncorking her own potion. “We should keep moving.”

“Yeah,” Luca reminded himself, “since we’re eventually gonna have to walk home.”

Why was he excited to go to the mines again?

Chapter Text

“Why do these guys exist?”

“Ah, one of the mysteries of the ages!” Phantom flaunted his arms brightly. “Why does anything exist, anywhere? Why am I what I am, and you what you are?”

Cora stared at the back of his head with a force that, in any just world, would have set him on fire. “I mean golems. They’re like. Rocks. Rocks aren’t supposed to wanna punch you.”

She proceeded to defy one particular encroaching golem by demonstrating her own, superior rocks, in the form of refined bronze-alloy delivered by mining drill directly through its stupid rock chest. Dumb legendary hero guy. Dumb day. Dumb Lottie getting to hang out with the elf chick because she was too gay to realize she was leaving Cora alone with the bird wannabe .

“Oh. that’s easy enough.” Phantom poked a bit of the rubble aside with his cane. “The first settlers in this area had escaped religious persecution, so they weren’t keen on unauthorized visitors. Hence, built a temple, carved a large number of arcane guardians to draw power from the moon via local flora, and animated them with instructions to defend the site.” He did another annoying shrug. “And then they died out or resettled or, no one’s really sure, but now they’re just running wild and self-proliferating because no one knows how to communicate with them.”

“So they’re pincushions for rookie archers.”

“Exactly! Or, really, for anyone else. Like us. Or more, like you, really. I haven’t had to kill a single thing since we left Henesys. I think we should do this more often.”

Cora looked up from beating a former sacred guardian to inert-ness with its own arm. “I don’t.”

“You are such a critic. You’re going to have wrinkles before you’re twenty scowling at everything.”

“Listen dude, crystals are trying to grow in my bones, we got distracted from getting actual answers about the thing we came to ask about because now there’s a dumb blob at large, and I am gonna have to scrub mud out of every inch of my walker, and the rate things are going, I’m gonna use your toothbrush for it.”

Annoyingly, Phantom just looked interested at this. “Natal rue parasitism, if I’m correct?”

Cora blinked. “...Weren’t you in a jar for hundreds of years?”

“I hate being uninformed,” he said smoothly, climbing a low rise so they were almost on eye level. “So I study things. Medicine’s moved interestingly. Chronic pain would explain a bit of your temper. Although I’m a bit surprised you didn’t pursue a magical occupation- I’m told using up the excess mana stored in the rue assuages the discomfort.”

Huh. Cora hadn’t heard that. “We shoot from mana instead of bullets. It’s how the magnum works.”

“A fascinating innovation. Who developed that?”

“Che-” she stopped, and then swung the mech’s whole body around to face him. “Dude what part of ‘the Resistance dies if people blab about us’ do you not get ?”

Phantom had actually sat down cross-legged on the little hilltop. He flicked his wrist disdainfully and embedded a luminous card in another golem’s abdomen. As it crumbled down to nothing, “the part where you refuse lifesaving aid from the Cygnus Knights and even now won’t elaborate on the nature of your problem to people who will help , and not leak information to the Black Wings.”

Cora looked away from him with a scowl. It didn’t matter if she was still mad at Claudine about that; he wasn’t getting that from her.

He didn’t push. She’d chalk that up to luck instead of him having tact.

“...So where are we going?”

He pointed ahead. “There is- or rather was - a dingy little Black Wing hideout in the Golem’s Temple. I had the luxury of interrogating its occupant once. If their hands are in this, then we have a probable staging ground.”

“...I guess that makes sense.” Cora shifted to a higher gear to stomp up a muddy rise. “Even if it’s been breached, they aren’t gonna go through the trouble of building a brand new place.” 

“Hm?” Phantom was eyeing her. “Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just admiring that this is the first time you’ve agreed with me.”

“Shut up,” Cora grumbled. “It just makes sense. Black Wings are greedy bastards who take everything they can. It’s easy to think they’re just wasting it- cause they don’t deserve any of it- but they’ve been working super hard to gather stuff up. If they were that dumb we’d’ve beaten them by now.”

She didn’t like how quiet he was in response. It felt like she was missing something obvious. What are you doing? I didn’t tell you anybody’s names…

“Interesting,” Phantom was peering at a pile of not-moving, not-violent rocks. “This is the place… some recent shakeup seems to have blocked the door. If you wouldn’t mind?”

“Nah I wanna see you haul rocks.” His expensive-looking boots had mud on them, but his blue cape and white suit were spotless. 

“I’m hundreds of years old, dear, little Cora, and I know you’re thirteen-”

“Fourteen.”

“-and think you’re invincible, but age comes for us all in due time. I’m practically decrepit. And you’re driving a piece of heavy industrial equipment.”

She stared at him.

He stared back.

Then, reached out, pinched a single pebble from the top of the pile, and held it up in his gloved hands like he was inspecting a jewel. “There. I moved one.”

Annoyingly, it turned out he had some kind of flash-step, so Cora couldn’t even get dirt on him by drilling right next to him. He balanced back on the hilltop, looking like the subject of an ancient portrait. 

Cora steered back a pace, and squinted. “...Hey. This is mostly shale and limestone, right? Like, the volcanism’s off in Perion, not this side of Victoria, yeah?”

“Not an expert on rocks that don’t glitter.”

She scoffed. “You would be that type.” Picking up a piece of the rubble that came loose, she juggled it in hand, while eyeing the drill on the other arm. “This stuff’s tougher than it should be. This is a mining suit; they used to use ‘em in Verne. I should cut this stuff like butter. But it’s fighting me.”

Phantom alighted on the suit’s raised arm. He really did look like a parrot, squatting like that. “Fighting you, you say…” He brushed back the curtain of bangs covering his right eye. There was something glittery in the depths- a magic circle? In his eye? “...Hmm. Yes, I do believe we’ve found where our mysterious slime came from. Back up, I’ve decided I should dig after all.”

She put it two steps in reverse, and let him down. He gave the head of his cane a single neat twist, and displayed a sword from its interior. It didn’t wobble, for how thin the material was- and sharpened on both ends. 

Huh, Cora thought, digging a pack of gummies out of her pocket. Maybe Mr. Legend isn’t all talk.

He did something way too fast to watch; she tracked the pull-backs of his elbow, rather than the flashing tip. Sort of like Luca’s staff combos, only this was even quicker. When he was done was obvious- a big flourish, turn and sheathe. Didn’t seem like it’d done anything, but he was proud of himself, taking a step to the side, raising his fingers, and- snap !

The rocks slid apart with a groaning sigh, revealing paper-thin cuts at no less than fifteen places.

Cora grunted through a mouthful of snacks.

“Thank you, I’ll accept your veneration now.” Spotless hand lifted again, “or one fruit snack.”

She passed him her least favorite flavor, but her heart wasn’t in it. “What’s with your eye?”

“Well, I use it to see.”

“I mean the circle. I thought you couldn’t put magic in people.”

He led the way into the darkened room, where Cora had to make her mech ‘kneel’ and coast along on the auxiliary wheels to get in. “Short version: you can, it’s not wise without a medium, as there are a lot of complicated factors ruling over magic and it’s sort of like the disadvantages of an organ transplant. Shorter version: I’m cheating.” He grinned, looking back at her, and tapped the surface of his usually hidden eye. “It’s glass.”

“So you can see out it because-”

“Because it’s enchanted, and I made it to do that. Did a rather good job, if I say so myself. And then I got bored and thought, well, just sight is boring, most people have two eyes naturally .”

She could look past the insufferableness and see the point. “So… detecting magic?”

“And pressure points, fault lines… a few other niceties. I know I’m a trendsetter, but don’t you go running with scissors to imitate me. It has drawbacks.”

Never mind, the insufferableness was in the way again. “Can we just get what we came for?”

Phantom crouched, ghosting his fingertips over the stones. “...Dust has been disrupted,” he concluded. “Someone’s been through here after I sent dear Francis off in tears. Recently, I’d say, but not within the day.” Hefting his cane, “So optimistically they’re waiting for us with some kind of cunning trap, but more likely, they’ve sauntered off to the annual Black Wings potluck.”

“Potluck?”

“All evil organizations have one.” Phantom stared at her. “No, of course they don't, that'd be ridiculous.”

Cora threw her fruit snacks wrapper at him. He watched it drift mournfully to the floor and didn’t even try to pretend it was close to hitting him.

“Okay,” she said reluctantly. “ Why is it good if they’re gonna attack us?”

“Well, we’re here for information. You might be a rocks expert, but I’m a bit more interested in people. We can hold whoever it is down and you can make that face, and I’ll say, do watch out, dear henchperson, my friend is in a terrible mood! And they’ll spill their guts in terror, because otherwise you’ll bombard them with plastic scraps.”

She didn’t have anything to throw at him less lethal than a bullet. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“By all means, lead the way.” She could hear him fall into step behind her- and then she couldn’t. Twisting in her seat, she saw him right at the same place, just walking without any noise.

Ugh. That was so creepy. Cora looked ahead, into the gloom, and brought up the headlights. Fluorescent tubes set behind shatterproof glass flooded the chamber, revealing a winding, narrowing hallway that seemed to be a dead end.

“There’s a drop, hard to tell from this angle.”

The stalactite-heavy ceiling loomed closer and closer. Cora sunk as low into her seat as she could with a grimace. “I thought the Black Wings elites were all freaks,” she grumbled. “Don’t they have a 12-foot man or something?”

“Well, their Giant is a bit shorter than your machine,” Phantom said lightly. “At least according to Mercedes, and who am I to question an elf’s recall?” He paused, thoughtfully. “You stopped walking.”

“You’ve seen them ? Like- you know them?”

Phantom’s face shifted fractionally in the gloom. Cora seriously debated swinging the light around to illuminate him head on, but it wouldn’t help or be vindicating to blind him now.

“Ah,” he said, five seconds disturbingly late. “I suppose I made some assumptions about the Resistance’s intelligence.”

“Most people don’t get to come back out of the pickle jar when they die. ‘Keeping people alive’ means we haven’t been able to just walk into the mine and look around whenever we want to.” Cora steered to the edge and stared down. Even with the high beams, she couldn’t see the bottom of the pit. Ugh. Alright… compress the pistons in the legs, open hydraulics at the last minute to buck it upward in a lurching ‘jump’, and immediately fire the thrusters. It was still a jarring landing- one of the legs creaked dangerously when correcting its stance. 

Phantom flicked back into existence, a flutter of cards. Cora stuck out her machine’s arm for him to land on again. “Unfortunately, the going gets worse, not better. This is a root tunnel.”

“A what?”

A gloved hand punctuated the low light. “Victoria Island, historically, had a gigantic tree in the center of it. I didn’t exactly get to see it myself- this island wasn’t settled back in my day. But its roots dug throughout everything, radiating out from Sleepywood. Tunnels of this type are most common there- it’s essentially a bunch of runoff and water deposition following the silhouette of an ancient root structure that used to be here. They’re not common further from the Crossway, but there’s a few here and there.”

Cora had seen the Six Paths Crossway once in her life. “...Bigger than that tree?”

“Oh that one’s just a sapling, absolutely diminutive compared to the ancient one. Have you ever seen a mangrove? Current geological estimates are that Victoria isn’t really even an island in the traditional sense, just what’s left of that tree’s roots holding it all together like a big clump of dirt.”

Despite the sand and dirt in Cora’s hair from the low ceiling, she’d never felt smaller in her life.

“Some people are worried about the Ellin Forest, that it was originally formed from symbiosis with that tree and it may not be able to last forever without it. I remember reading something from some egghead or another in the Ellinia Consortiu-”

“Okay stop talking stop talking stop.” Cora pointed ahead. “I’ve gotta navigate these dumb little outcrops and if I do that while you’re telling me the scariest thing I’ve ever heard we’re gonna break every bone we’ve got between us.”

“Scary? I find it refreshing,” Phantom said, but lay all the way back on her mech’s elbow like it was a sun lounger. She’d accept how annoying that was over the alternative.

That, unfortunately, left her alone with the outcrops. Now that Phantom had said it, she was tormented to realize it really was the shape of a root- a zigzagging ‘S’ through the earth. The walls were mostly packed dirt, with the sandstone relatively recent. And more recent still, someone had put spears- cheap iron and wood, but sharp enough- at different places in the floor to catch anyone who didn’t make the jumps.

The narrow platforms shuddered, shedding a fine curtain of sand under her weight. The joint in the right leg jarred slightly with each step. Cora’s hands felt clammy, sweat making the controls slick. 

It felt like a year before finally, finally, she could step onto the far landing, a landing that blissfully had just solid rock under it instead of open air and booby traps. Cora flung herself back in her seat and caught her breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Phantom sit up, and clamber down to the floor. 

Then he started to disappear into the floor.

“Wait!”

His head poked back up, above the attachments for a rope ladder. “You can stay here. I’ll just nip ahead and see what it is.”

He’s a hero, Cora reasoned. And he’s annoying. And you’re tired. Let him.

“I’m coming,” she said, in spite of herself.  The hole was too narrow for her walker at a glance- the ropes looked old. Cora collapsed the mech back to storage mode, powered it down, and then grabbed her crutches and a flashlight from her toolkit. The ground was horribly uneven; she was lucky she had orthotics that could keep her from twisting an ankle down here. She hung the flashlight on the front pocket of her overalls, and lit it. “Let’s go.”

Phantom watched her in silence the whole way down the ladder after him. He waited while she unslung her crutches, and however she stared at him, he was completely blank-faced back. Even when he made to continue, it was just a tilt of the head, a flick of the eyes before he turned and led the way.

Ahead, the cavern expanded beyond the beam of Cora’s flashlight. The looming shape of a massive stone plinth cast an even larger shadow, its solitary handful of extinguished candles stretching like a dead man’s fingers.

“...I don’t see a trap,” Cora said breathlessly. “Don’t tell me we did all that for nothing.”

There were some smooth, dark lumps near the base of the altar. Their surface was broken up by rivets, and a fading, scratched insignia on their bodies- the black wings’ insignia.

Phantom’s hand shot out in front of her. “Wait.”

One of the tanks was empty- laying on its side, it had been split open, the teeth of the torn edge facing outward. Breached from inside… one of the rivets was forced out hard enough to have landed in a corner. Cora leaned down to pick it up. 

Something whizzed over her head. She froze, mid-crouch.

The world flipped her butt-over-teakettle, and then some really fast stuff was happening again as she rolled to a stop. Broken glass fell from her flashlight as she pushed up. Oh, screw you.

‘You’ in this case was a huge… thing. It was hard to make it out, lit as it was only by flashes of cards. Phantom was doing a good job holding ‘its’ attention, at least. But his flashy swordsmanship wasn’t doing him much good- it’d split, and splatter, and then just crawl back to itself. It was more afraid of the cards, it seemed…

Cora stopped trying to stand. From on her belly, she got her gun out and lined it up. A single shot wouldn’t do much good… getting to her walker from here would be a joke. The thing in the dark was reshaping, reaching around Phantom from multiple sides. He forced it back- it redoubled the number of points it was going at him from.

Cora spun the dial on her gun all the way to the little painted skull, yelled “HEY!” and chucked it straight into the thing’s curved, goopy back. It sunk in with a ‘blub’ and the creature paused, swung multiple points of itself around like ‘hey yourself, I don’t like being thrown at.’

It flowed forward. Cora scrambled up onto her knees, down a weapon, and groped for her crutches. A tendril shot out of it, grabbing her wrist- immediately it burned. She heard herself scream.

Tink, went a shiny card, sticking on something solid in the creature’s body.

Sizzle- BANG , went the world.