"And here we are, sir," Uma said about a half hour later.
Subaru stepped out of the carriage and looked up in absolute shock. "A pagoda ?! " He exclaimed.
Emilia stepped out behind him. "A what?"
"This building is a pagoda!" He said in disbelief.
Emilia looked up with a frown. "It looks just like a really funny-looking tower to me."
"Yup, that's pretty much what it is," Subaru shook his head.
The restaurant was a fairly traditional Japanese-style pagoda, essentially a series of boxes layered one on top of the other, each one slightly smaller than the one below it. This pagoda had seven full tiers. The lower ones that Subaru could see were absolutely packed with people sitting at tables.
"Sir, will you want a pick up later?" Uma asked.
Subaru glanced at Uma and handed him one of the transport vouchers and a silver coin for a sizable tip. "That would be good."
"Splendid. I'll be here once the festival ends," He promised.
Uma bowed to them cheerfully and rode off in his carriage.
Subaru shrugged. "Well, at least we can get a good meal tonight. I'm pretty hungry," He admitted.
Emilia nodded. "I'm dying for some real food. We've had nothing but travel rations for weeks. Even counting the food that I cooked the other night."
"That food was delicious," Subaru said at once.
Emilia gave him an amused look. "Subaru, don't patronize me," She said.
"Yes, dear," He said at once.
Subaru held the door for Emilia and they stepped into the restaurant which looked even busier from the inside.
A beautiful demi-human woman whose red hair was matched by her red fox tail and fox ears stood behind a counter. She wore a black slave collar around her neck.
Waitresses, who at least did not appear to be slaves, constantly raced up to her with questions and she sent them off again just as rapidly. She looked as if she was barely keeping her head above water tonight.
"Do you have a reservation?" The kitsune asked without preamble.
Subaru hesitated. "We do," He said, handing her the ticket.
She studied it. "Ah. You've been signed up for a special service tonight," The fox woman said.
"Oh?" Subaru asked cautiously.
The woman nodded. "The top three floors have a special gourmet offer during the festival. There are no menus. Our chefs will be bringing delicacies from floor to floor. It's a great opportunity to sample gourmet foods from across the world in one sitting."
Subaru shrugged. "OK, sounds good."
"Thank you, sir. Gretchen will take you to your table," The fox woman pointed to a young girl with short brown hair who was standing nearby.
The girl bowed to them formally.
"Enjoy the gourmet dining," The woman said, turning to speak to another waitress.
"Wait a second!" Subaru said suddenly.
The kitsune snapped her attention back to Subaru, looking confused.
Subaru took a deep breath. "By any chance, do you happen to know a funny little guy? A kid with long, brown, greasy hair and a mouth full of sharp teeth?" He asked intently.
"You mean Lye?" She said at once.
Emilia 's eyes widened.
Subaru sighed and closed his eyes. "Is he here?" He asked in resignation.
The woman frowned and shook her head. "No. He was a regular for a few weeks this season but I haven't seen him lately. Frankly, I'm grateful for his absence since he's the absolute last thing that I need tonight. He 's almost impossible to please. He complains about everything! The food, the service, the ambiance. The boy spends gold like water but it 's still not worth it. No matter how much he spends, it doesn't change the fact that he still treats the staff like garbage. The last time that I saw him, three of our best servers left without a word."
"They 'left?'" Subaru echoed.
The woman nodded with an angry look on her face. "They just up and vanished. I never saw them again. They must have been so angry at the way Lye treated them that they quit that night and found jobs somewhere else."
Subaru digested that. "I suppose that's… one possibility," He said in a weak voice.
The waitress, Gretchen, led Subaru and Emilia up to the very top of the pagoda. The top layer of the tower was about the size of a large room. The area was fairly open with nothing but a small table occupying the center. The table had no chairs but rather cushions to sit on. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, shedding a soft light. The outer walls were only about waist high and the ceiling was supported by pillars, providing an unobstructed view of the entire city.
There was a balcony at one side of the room that had a large wooden porch swing on it.
Subaru and Emilia had the entire floor to themselves.
"The food will be along shortly," Gretchen said as Subaru and Emilia sat down at the table. "There aren't any menus, the cooks will be sending up lots of dishes for you to sample. Can I get you anything to drink?"
Subaru thought about it.
Emilia watched as his eyes went vague for a second and then he smirked and ordered a specific bottle of wine.
Gretchen nodded and left.
"Why did you order that wine, Subaru?" Emilia asked curiously. "I didn't even know that you were interested enough in wine to remember any of them by name."
Subaru smiled at her. "It's the same wine that we were drinking at the picnic after you told me that you loved me for the first time."
Emilia turned bright red. "Subaru!" She complained. "Stop making me feel all… squishy inside!"
Subaru laughed.
Emilia thought for a moment. "Of course, that's also the picnic that we had our first fight, too."
Subaru shrugged. "But I think we learned from it," He reminded her. He shook his head ruefully. "I was terrified that night. Honestly, I was positive that if you knew what a loser I 'd been back home, you would walk away from me and never look back."
"Don't be foolish, Subaru," Emilia said firmly. "I wouldn't leave you any more than you would leave me."
Subaru smiled at her.
Emilia shook her head. "I can't believe that you still remember what we were drinking all those months ago," Emilia murmured.
"Well, I cheated," Subaru shrugged.
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it. Let's just celebrate tonight."
Emilia looked at him curiously and then let the comment pass. She looked out over the brightly-lit city with a thoughtful expression. "Subaru, is this city really like your world?" She asked.
Subaru rocked his hand back and forth. "Well… sort of. Some of the clothing and some of the buildings are the same. "
"People really dress like this?" Emilia asked skeptically. "These clothes feel like they'd be very difficult to do anything in."
Subaru chuckled. "Well, people dress like this for special occasions. They're like the gowns that noblewomen wear to grand balls. They're not really designed to do anything but stand still and look pretty."
Subaru thought for a moment. "This pagoda is pretty similar to what we have back home too but they're mostly used for temples where I'm from. I'm not sure who thought of making one into a restaurant. So… it's kind of like my home but it 's also kind of like someone just read about my home in a book and was trying to copy it without ever actually being there."
Emilia looked at him strangely. "Home?"
"Huh?"
"You called it 'home,'" Emilia pointed out.
Subaru thought about it and then shrugged. "Well, yeah! I mean, it's where I come from."
Emilia looked out over the city. She thought hard, her face solemn. "Subaru, do you miss your world?"
Subaru took a deep breath and then let it out. "I'm happy here," He replied simply.
"That's not what I'm asking," Emilia said.
Subaru hesitated.
Emilia looked at him patiently. "Subaru, missing your family back in your world doesn't mean that you love me any less."
Subaru sighed. "My family…"
"Do you ever think about them? They must be frantic, worrying about you."
Subaru shook his head. "I… I don't know, Mili. I mean… home… wasn't that… great before I left."
"You told me that you spent all your time in your room," Emilia remembered. "I always thought that was very strange. I hated being locked in my room as a girl. I always tied to find a way to get out. Why were you so determined to stay there?"
Subaru sighed. "It's… complicated," He said evasively.
Emilia gestured to the empty room that they had completely to themselves. "I'm not going anywhere," Emilia said flatly. "I thought that you said that being on a date meant learning more about each other."
Subaru shot her an annoyed look but Emilia 's face was resolute. "Subaru, you won't tell me anything about your life before you came here, " Emilia reminded him. "Why?"
Subaru snorted. "Because there's nothing to tell, OK?!"
Subaru took a deep breath. "Look, Mili, my parents are… well, they're two… really impressive people. "
Emilia smiled fondly at him. "I can believe that," Emilia replied.
Subaru didn 't even seem to hear her. "Everyone loved them and looked up to them. They were like… community heroes. Dad could talk anyone into anything. He barely made it through college and still got a really important job at a major company. He was good looking too. Dad was in his forties and he regularly still had to turn down phone numbers from high-school girls."
Emilia frowned, not really understanding what this meant but Subaru was continuing the story.
"Mom was more of a homebody but the entire community would ask for her advice. Everybody considered her a close friend and they would always ask me how she was doing. She spent a lot of her time learning, writing, and coming up with new do-it-yourself projects that she'd try and teach other people to try. She was always getting into new things. She made a whole business around teaching people new skills and new interests."
"She sounds a little like Mother Fortuna," Emilia offered. "But what made you start spending all your time in your room?"
Subaru didn 't answer right away. He stared out across the city for a long time.
Finally, he sighed. "When I was fourteen or so… I… well, we … had a really bad year …"
Emilia waited patiently.
"My mother got pregnant again," Subaru said. "After trying for more than a decade, they were finally going to have another baby."
"I didn't know that you had a little brother!" Emilia said in shock.
"I don't."
"A little sister," Emilia corrected herself.
Subaru 's face was stony. "Mom had a miscarriage. A bad one. The doctors said that she could never have any more children."
Emilia 's face was horrified. "Oh no," Emilia whispered.
Subaru sighed. "After that… See, my parents always wanted… someone who could live up to their example, who could carry on the family legacy. They planned to have a bunch of kids but after this… well, I was all that they had to work with. So… the pressure started to build…"
Emilia mulled that over for a moment. "Where they unkind to you?" Emilia demanded.
"No!" Subaru shouted in shock. "No," He continued in a quieter voice. "No, nothing like that. It was… it was just this… kind of invisible pressure that what I'd been doing all along just wasn't good enough anymore, now that I was the only child that they'd ever have."
Subaru sat there, silently thinking for a moment. "That was a really bad year," He recalled. "After they lost the baby… for months, Mom would just… randomly burst into tears and Dad would go from laughing and joking to furious or crying at the drop of a hat.
"I was desperate to try to fix things. I tried to convince them that I really could be enough for them. That, even though there wouldn't be any more children, we'd still be OK. I started to throw myself into everything. I was determined to be the best student, the best athlete, the most popular kid at school…"
"What happened?" Emilia asked.
Subaru chuckled ruefully. "It didn't work out very well," He admitted. "I was working myself into the ground but I found out that I didn't exactly have the natural aptitude to be a genius or a superstar athlete."
Emilia looked confused. "But Subaru, you're brilliant! Remember the engine that you made?"
Subaru hesitated, looking pained and then he powered forward, ignoring her question. "The only thing that I made real improvements at was socially. I was pretty good at convincing people to like… well, to like somebody , but that somebody wasn 't me."
"What do you mean?"
Subaru sighed. "I spent every day in a kind of performance. I was trying to act like my Father, charming everybody and convincing everyone that they wanted to be around me. And it worked. Kind of. Everyone enjoyed being with me but I didn't make many friends. They found me… entertaining but I feel like they subconsciously knew that it was all just an act and that they wouldn 't want to be around me when the mask finally came off."
Emilia could only stare at Subaru in concern. She didn 't really understand what he was saying but she knew that whatever it was, it had hurt him deeply.
"I was always exhausted," He admitted. "Classes, after-school programs, and even when I was just hanging around with my classmates, I was working as hard as I could to charm them. I felt like my entire life was a combination of performance art and marathon but one that never had any end. I was getting so mixed up that I was struggling to figure out where my public persona ended and I began.
"Then one night, my parents had a fight… a really, really bad fight…"
"What were they fighting about?"
Subaru shrugged. "Nothing. Everything. We were sitting down for dinner and it… just blew up out of nowhere. They both started screaming at each other, accusing one another of affairs, drug addictions, stealing money, all kinds of things with no basis in reality. It was almost kind of funny in a really dark way.
"My parents were both in a fantastic amount of pain but they'd been taught to…" Subaru struggled to put his thoughts into words. "They'd been taught that proper people don't show that kind of pain and sorrow outside of the house so they went about their days the same way that they always did but that meant that things… tended to erupt when they came home since they'd been suppressing it all day.
"That night was especially bad. It was like they'd suddenly become different people. I could barely recognize them. I don't even really know what they were arguing about, the fight made so little sense. But it was like a dam had burst and all the rage came pouring out.
"I tried to stop them but I didn't have much luck. Finally, I just tried to make them mad at me rather than each other. That worked. It turned out that they didn't really care what the target was for their rage as long as it had an outlet.
"They said… terrible things to me that night," He remembered, flinching. "I …I ran out of the house."
Emilia reached out and took Subaru 's hand.
He gave her a faint smile. "I went wandering that night," Subaru continued. "I found out later that my parents freaked out the moment that I left and they went looking for me but, of course, I didn 't know that at the time. I felt miserable and hopeless. Honestly, after what they 'd said to me, I wasn't really sure if I could even go back to my house at all or if they would just send me away again. I couldn't handle the pressure that I was living with. I wanted to make everything better for my folks but I couldn't. I couldn't even measure up to them. I felt useless. Hopeless.
"There was a huge bridge not far from my home. I used to walk across it a lot, going back and forth from school. But that night I found myself just… standing on the bridge and looking down at the water, far, far below. I climbed outside of the walkway and sat down on the edge of the bridge. I found myself wondering what it would feel like to hit the water. If it would hurt or if it would… just be a release."
Emilia 's mouth hung open. "Subaru!" Emilia whispered in shock.
Subaru didn 't even seem to hear her. "I sat there for a long time. Finally, I decided that… I just didn't care anymore and I got ready to jump. That's when I met Anise," He said ruefully.
"Anise?" Emilia frowned. "You mentioned them before."
Subaru started and looked at Emilia with a strangely frightened look on his face. "Anise was… a friend of mine."
Emilia cocked her head. "A friend?" Emilia asked, noting the strange way he'd phrased this.
Subaru sighed. "Anise was… my first girlfriend," He admitted.
Emilia 's eyes grew huge. "You were with another woman before me?" She whispered in shock.
"Mili, I was like fourteen! I think that she might have been even younger!" Subaru protested. "We never even kissed! All we did was hold hands a few times."
Emilia looked livid. "Why didn't you ever tell me about this?! "
"I didn't think that you'd care," Subaru said, not very convincingly.
Emilia folded her arms across her chest, looking livid.
Subaru sighed. "Fine!" He gave up. "I don't like thinking about that year. It… really fucked me up…" He hung his head.
Emilia 's expression softened, concern breaking through her annoyance. "What happened?"
Subaru shook his head. "I was about to jump but then I heard a voice behind me. It said 'I'm not sure what's wrong but I think that there's probably a better way to handle it.'
"I looked up and I saw a strange girl behind me."
"Strange?" Emilia asked.
"I'd never seen her before," Subaru explained. "I thought that I knew just about everyone my age in town but she was a stranger. Also, she was a foreigner so that really made her stand out in my town."
"A foreigner?"
"She had blond hair," Subaru continued. "Since everyone in my country had dark hair, she stood out of the crowd. Apparently, her family had come to the area on business or something, I never really got all the details," He sighed.
"Anyway, so we talked. We actually talked for a couple of hours. She gave me a chance to vent and then she asked if I'd be nice enough to show her around town someday."
"So, you came back away from the edge?" Emilia asked.
He sighed. "Not exactly. I probably would have done that eventually but the police showed up instead. "
"Police?" Emilia asked in confusion.
Subaru frowned. "Um. The… city guards," He said finally. "Anyway, I guess that somebody saw me standing out on the edge and called them. I realized that if I jumped, Anise would probably get blamed for it somehow so I came back from the edge …" He said, his face flushed with shame.
Emilia gave him a sad smile. "You are just so responsible, Subaru," She teased, squeezing his hand.
He shrugged. "I guess. Anyway, the police brought me home and my parents were absolutely frantic. They didn't fight with each other much after that," Subaru recalled. "Stuff like this is kind of… well, it's considered… shameful back home so it mostly got hushed up. Nobody found out that I almost jumped. I don 't think that anyone except for my parents and Anise ever knew about it.
"I tried to get on with my life. I kept pushing myself to make up for the shadow of all those children that my parents would never have. Trying to absorb all of their talents."
"How could you know?" Emilia asked logically. "Those other children might not have been nearly as smart or talented as you. You might really have been the golden child anyway."
Subaru sighed. "Yeah. Well, you can't know that. I imagined all my siblings as genius-level students and athletic stars. Oh, and handsome. I was sure they'd all be much better looking too."
"Subaru," Emilia murmured sympathetically.
He shrugged. "So life went on and I redoubled my efforts. Everything felt like it was held together with spit and chewing gum so I didn't dare relax or slow down. My best friend Koushiro recovered from his most recent accident and he was released from the hospital around then, so that was a perk but deep down I knew that I was still a boiling kettle just waiting to burst."
Emilia considered asking what a 'hospital' was then decided she probably had a clear enough idea for the purposes of this conversation. "Did you ever try telling your parents how you felt?"
"…Not really. They had their own problems, I didn't want to burden them with mine. Besides, what could I possibly say? 'I don't feel good enough to be a part of this family? You're all so amazing and I'm not?' How stupid would that sound?"
Emilia smiled sadly. "Not as stupid as you might think," She murmured. "But keep going. Then what happened?"
Subaru sighed. "A week or so after the bridge incident, I had… well, I had a really lousy day. I'd stayed up all night studying for an exam and I'd still only managed a passing grade. Koushiro aced it without any real effort so that was annoying as hell, " He added. "I felt like shit and I was stumping along home when I felt someone grab my shoulder from behind. I looked and it was Anise. She'd seen me walking down the street and come after me. She reminded me that I hadn't fulfilled my promise to show her around town and that this would be as good a time as any."
Emilia didn 't seem happy that Anise had reentered the story but she sighed, "Promises are important," She admitted.
"Well, I didn't actually promise her anything but I decided to show her around. I took her to all my favorite haunts and introduced her to everyone. The other kids were immediately smitten with her."
"She was pretty?" Emilia asked in a clipped tone.
Subaru winced as if realizing that he had just made a mistake. "She was pretty but it was more that. She just seemed exotic to everybody. Her skin and hair colors made her stand out. She was also much more … extroverted than most of the kids in my town and her family seemed to have a lot of money so she impressed everyone pretty quickly."
Subaru thought a moment. "Funnily enough, she saw through my performance right away. She realized that I was putting on a show for the other kids."
"Did she tell you to stop?"
"Just the opposite," Subaru snorted. "She was impressed. She told me that I was a natural actor."
Emilia looked incredulous. "That's… not what I think you should say to someone in that situation."
Subaru shrugged. "Anyway, we spent the rest of the day together and I told her that I needed to get home for dinner or I'd be in trouble. Anise seemed to be a little confused about the concept of dinner having a particular time. She said that she'd be eating alone since everyone else was so busy and that she'd find something to eat whenever she felt like it. I felt kind of bad about her being all alone so I invited her home for dinner."
"She accepted?" Emilia said, trying and failing to keep the irritation out of her voice.
"Yeah. She was really excited about it actually. She held my hand the whole way home and teased me that this meant we were dating now."
Emilia 's face darkened. "And what did you say? " Emilia asked accusingly.
"Nothing," Subaru admitted. "I didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever said anything like that to me before. I just assumed that it was some kind of weird joke and ignored it.
"Anyway, we got home and she met my parents but… they didn't seem to like her too much," He recalled. "I guess that she rubbed them the wrong way. I think part of it might just be an ingrained distrust of foreigners in my country. And her proclaiming herself 'my girlfriend' certainly didn't help matters either. Beyond that, Anise didn't know the cultural rules or customs in my country and she didn't seem interested in learning them. She just… did whatever she felt like, I suppose."
"Sounds like a lovely girl," Emilia murmured sarcastically.
"In retrospect, I think that she was acting out on purpose," Subaru mused. "I think… maybe that was the only way she could get any attention from her folks."
"And you were in love with her?" Emilia asked with an edge in her voice.
Subaru sighed. "Mili, we were together for about six months. I never saw her again after that and I love you like a million times more than I ever loved her. Does that make you feel better?"
Emilia mulled that over. "Slightly," She admitted as Gretchen returned, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. Another server came up right behind her, carrying a serving tray covered with a domed metal lid.
"Your wine, sir," Gretchen said, putting down the glasses and uncorking the bottle. "And your first course: omurice."
Subaru grinned at her. "Really?" He asked eagerly.
The other server put the tray down in between them and removed the lid.
Emilia looked at it, perplexed. "An… omelet?" She asked falteringly.
"Sort of," Subaru replied before Gretchen could open her mouth. "It's fried rice and scrambled eggs in an omelet skin with ketchup on top."
"You've… had this before?" Gretchen asked, sounding confused.
Subaru chuckled. "Not for a long time."
Gretchen looked confused. "The chef will be intrigued. He got this dish out of an ancient book of recipes. He thought that it hadn't been prepared for generations."
Subaru winced. "Well. Um… I… get around," He said lamely.
Gretchen nodded, looking impressed. "I'm sure," Gretchen replied. "Your next course will be served in twenty minutes. Enjoy."
Emilia was looking with confusion at the chopsticks that Gretchen had provided. "What are these?" She asked her.
Gretchen smiled at Emilia. "Oh. Those are chopsticks. They're a common eating utensil in Kararagi but foreigners often find them challenging. Would you like me to bring you some cutlery?"
"Would you?" Emilia asked.
"Of course," Gretchen said. "Be right back."
The servers scampered downstairs.
Emilia fiddled with the chopsticks. "I have no idea how to eat with these."
Subaru chuckled. "Like this," He took his chopsticks, picked up a tiny bite of food and held it out for Emilia to sample.
Emilia looked worried at the small pinch of food, remembering the starting flavors of the takoyaki at the festival but she obligingly ate the offered food.
Her face brightened. "This tastes good!"
Subaru chuckled and quickly offered her another bite which she accepted.
"Subaru," She said through a mouthful of omurice. "How do you use those? I think that I'd break my fingers holding the sticks like that."
"Practice," Subaru said deprecatingly. "But they'll bring us other utensils soon."
Subaru held out his glass to Emilia. She took her own and they tapped them together.
"Cheers," Subaru whispered, drinking the wine.
This wine actually tastes better than I remember. I never had much of a taste for wine before. I guess after all the parties and formal events, I 've developed a more educated palette.
"What are we toasting?" Emilia asked.
Subaru smiled. "Us, of course. This can be our anniversary."
"Our anniversary of what?" Emilia asked in confusion. "It's not the anniversary of our meeting or… getting engaged…"
Subaru shrugged. "Every night is our anniversary of something ! " He said in a jocular tone.
Subaru triggered Reason and Judgment for a moment and then stepped back out of it. "Tonight is exactly our three-month anniversary of that annoying party at the Corlis' estate," He said in a much less enthused voice.
Emilia frowned and thought hard. "Refresh my memory?" She asked finally.
Subaru made a face. "It's the party where we met Julius," Subaru said in a flat voice.
Emilia 's face lit up. "Oh! I remember now!"
Subaru 's face briefly scowled. "Yeah, I'm sure. He spent most of that evening fawning all over you. "
Emilia looked puzzled. "He was very polite, Subaru. His manners were flawless. I can understand why they call him 'the Finest Knight.'"
"Yeah. I know," Subaru growled, glaring off into the distance. "You told me over and over again on our way back to the mansion that night all about how good his manners were…"
Emilia 's eyebrows climbed to her hairline. "Subaru Natsuki," She breathed in astonishment. "Are you jealous ? "
Subaru snorted. "Why would I ever be jealous of that jackass? If anything, I just wanted to squash him! Teach him a lesson about fawning all over my wife," Subaru's voice dropped to a whisper. "And I would have if Red hadn't stopped me…"
Emilia burst out laughing. "You are jealous! "
"No, I'm not!" Subaru protested, well aware of the fact that his face was turning bright red with embarrassment.
Emilia clapped her hands, laughing out loud. "That's extraordinary! Is that why you disliked Julius so much?"
Subaru muttered something noncommittal.
Emilia laughed for a full minute before finally settling down. "Well, it's nice to know that you finally got a taste of your own medicine, Subaru," Emilia said with a broad smile.
"Huh?" Subaru asked in confusion. "When the hell did I ever make you jealous?"
Emilia slumped, looking annoyed. "Let's… talk about something happier."
Subaru was about to press the issue but Gretchen reappeared with the forks and knives. "Enjoy," She said, slipping away back downstairs.
The pair dug into the food.
"This is really good," Emilia approved.
"Yeah," Subaru mused. "My mother used to make it for me all the time…"
Emilia looked curious. "Subaru, about your home. You told me about… Anise… and your parents. But what does any of that have to do with you refusing to leave your room?"
Subaru sighed. "Alright. So, I told you about Koushiro, right?"
"He was your best friend?"
Subaru thought for a moment and then shrugged. "Yeah. Honestly, I guess he was really my only friend at that point. "
"What was he like?"
"Smart," Subaru answered at once. "He was really, really smart. Always reading, he especially liked Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. He was into learning how to do things with his own hands. He really liked building machines with me too. That was how we bonded."
Subaru paused for a moment. "Anyway… mid-year, not too long after my birthday party, Koushiro just… vanished," Subaru sighed.
Emilia frowned. "What do you mean?"
Subaru shook his head. "I mean what I said. He just dropped out of my life. I was heartbroken. I sent him a hundred messages online asking why he wouldn't talk to me anymore and asking what I'd done but he never answered me. I asked my parents to help me find him so that I could try to go talk to him again but they refused."
"Why?!" Emilia demanded.
Subaru closed his eyes. "My parents told me that he'd moved away and that he probably wasn't answering me because he was too busy with his new life but I… I don't believe that anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Subaru didn 't answer right away. "Koushiro was having… serious problems at home. I didn 't recognize the signs back then but I do now," He said regretfully. "Koushiro was always in and out of the hospital with weird injuries. He would laugh them off, blaming himself for being clumsy but…" Subaru shook his head and growled, "Clumsiness wouldn't cause those kinds of injuries. It couldn 't . Somebody at home was hurting him. And he never told anyone, or at least he never told me or anyone else who would try to help him. "
Subaru scowled. "I knew that his father was a drunken brute. I was afraid of him even back then but…" He trailed off with a sigh. "Anyway, I don't think that Koushiro really moved away without saying goodbye. I think maybe those 'serious problems' finally caught up with him… I think… I think that his father just went too far one day. I think that he probably… killed Koushiro and my parents were trying to spare me from having to deal with it, given how fragile I 'd been lately."
"Oh, Subaru," Emilia whispered, her face stricken. "Well, at least they were trying to help you."
"It was stupid," Subaru said flatly.
Emilia blinked.
Subaru 's face was black as a thundercloud. "Instead of telling me what happened to my only friend and helping me to deal with it, they let me think that Koushiro just didn 't like me anymore and was refusing to speak to me. It was an incredibly stupid decision on their part! " Subaru all but shouted.
Subaru took a deep breath before continuing in a more composed voice. "With Koushiro gone, Anise was all that I had left and… well, I got pretty clingy," He admitted. "I was terrified that she would start to see me for the loser that I really was and leave me too."
He paused. "I think that even back then, I knew that I was much more… invested in Anise than she was in me. That she viewed me as a temporary diversion rather than an important part of her life. The signs were all there but … I ignored them. I tried to convince myself that I was imagining them. I kept making her reassure me that she really loved me and that she wouldn't disappear on me."
Subaru sighed. "And then, she did."
Emilia 's face was shocked. "What?"
Subaru made a face. "So, Anise and I were spending a lot of time together. We had all kinds of fun. And… we got into more than our fair share of trouble. And then, one day, she left. "
"She just left?" Emilia echoed.
"Not a word of goodbye," Subaru replied. "After not hearing from her for a few days, I went to the place where she'd been staying. I'd never been there before. It was a very restrictive apartment building and Anise didn't want her parents to know about me. But I managed to sneak in and reach the penthouse and it was completely empty. I guess her father finished whatever he was doing in this country and they just left."
"Without even saying goodbye?!" Emilia asked incredulously.
Subaru nodded. "I was heartbroken. I felt like the people closest to me couldn't wait to get rid of me. Koushiro had been my only friend for years. And Anise pulled me out of my funk and stopped me from jumping off a bridge. But neither of these people thought that I was even worth saying goodbye to. Much less keeping in touch with…" Subaru shook his head.
"You never heard from Anise either?" Emilia asked indignantly.
Subaru shook his head. "I didn't even know how to get in touch with her after she left. That … probably should have been a real tip-off that she saw me as nothing more than a short-term fling and that she had no intention of keeping in touch once she went home. She never gave me a phone number or an email address."
Emilia frowned and started to ask a question but Subaru kept talking.
"I mean… I kind of knew all along that… I was much more invested in her than she was in me but I kept trying to convince myself that I was imagining it," Subaru said, sounding disgusted with himself. "So… anyway, she went home and I never heard from her again."
Emilia hesitated. "Subaru, do you think that maybe… something bad might have happened to her too?"
Subaru blinked. "Huh?" He asked in surprise. "Why would you think that?"
"I mean if something bad happened to Koushiro…," Emilia said.
Subaru stared at her incredulously and then shook his head. "No, Mili," He sighed. "I think that something bad happened to Koushiro because bad things had been happening to him all along. I know for a fact that he was living with someone that had been hurting him for years. I don 't know for sure that Koushiro died but it fits the facts and … maybe I just honestly like that theory better than the idea that he just got sick of me," Subaru admitted. "I never met Anise's parents but there were no signs that Anise was abused. Neglected maybe but not abused. I think that her family just finished whatever they were doing there and then they left and she just… put me out of mind," He shrugged.
"My parents were absolutely thrilled that Anise had finally gone home. They tried to hide it but they didn't succeed very well. They were obviously completely stoked to be rid of her and that made me feel even worse. By now I was an absolute emotional wreck. Everyone close to me had vanished all at once. I didn't have any other friends worth mentioning. All of the other kids liked my 'persona' but they evaporated instantly when I tried to become my real self.
"Anyway, I went into a sharp depression that year and my schoolwork suffered. I failed my exams. I just turned in blank sheets of paper for all of them. I just… couldn't seem to do anything. I was supposed to make the exams up during summer school but… I just didn't go. It didn't seem to matter anymore. Nothing did. Things started to change. At first, I just missed a day of school here and a day there. Then a few months later I was missing a day almost every week. Finally, I was out of school more than I was in it.
"My folks tried to talk to me about it at first but then they sort of… pulled away. It's weird but… I think they were almost afraid of how much despair I was living in. As if they were afraid that they could catch it or something. My parents and I started to ignore each other. We'd go for days without speaking to each other. I spent about two years in that room and I only left it once in a while to go shopping or something and… well, then I came here and got my second chance."
Emilia was silent, digesting all of that. "That's a really awful story, Subaru," Emilia said finally.
Subaru took a deep breath and forced a smile across his face. "Not my favorite thing to think about, no. But life is looking much better for me now, don't you think?" Subaru raised his glass. "I have the most wonderful bride in the world and as soon as we break the curse on you, we're going to settle down and have a long, happy life together!"
Emilia smiled at him and raised her own. "That sounds wonderful to me."
They clinked their glasses and drank.
A few hours later, Subaru and Emilia were completely stuffed. They 'd lost track of how many dishes they'd eaten, not to mention the two bottles of wine.
The courses kept coming and finally, Subaru and Emilia began to politely decline any offers of more food from Gretchen. They asked Gretchen if she could alert their driver that they were ready to go back.
The pair sat on the porch swing on the pagoda balcony. They stared out over the city which was still alive with activity even this late at night due to the festival.
They could hear excited sounds from below and they saw the people wandering in every direction, illuminated by lantern light.
Now, however, the city was starting to close down. It was midnight and the festival was nearly over.
"This view is so beautiful," Emilia murmured in a sleepy voice, resting her head against Subaru's shoulder. "It's not as small as the People's Tree in the forest but there's much more to look at here." She suddenly giggled. "And it's not as cold!"
Subaru frowned. "'Small?'" He echoed in confusion.
Emilia frowned, her face twisted in a visage of intense concentration. "No… not 'small,'" Emilia corrected herself, thinking hard. "What's the word that I'm thinking of? Oh. Tall . "
Subaru chuckled. "Mili, I think that you're drunk."
Emilia lifted her head indignantly. She swayed a bit. "I am not!" She said primly. "And so what if I was? You said that we were celebrating… celebrating… celebrating something," She said dismissively. "So what's wrong with being… whatever you said that I was…"
Subaru bit his tongue to keep from laughing and wrapped his arms around Emilia. Before Subaru could reply, the was a shrill rushing sound in the distance and the night exploded in flashes of color.
Wow. Fireworks, Subaru thought with a smile. Something else that I haven 't seen in forever.
"Subaru," Emilia whispered. "What is that? Are we under attack?!" Emilia said, fighting to shake the cobwebs from her head.
Subaru kissed her temple. "They're just fireworks. People set them off to celebrate. You've never seen them before?"
She shook her head. "No… What are they?"
"They're…" Subaru hesitated, trying to figure out how to explain the concept as more rockets shot overhead. "They're something people used back home to celebrate special occasions. I guess they use them here too."
"They're beautiful," Emilia breathed.
Subaru smiled, seeing the wonder reflected in Emilia 's wide eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, they really are, aren't they?"
It was well after midnight. A guard marched through the high-security area in Torgon Tower.
He briefly glanced at Beatrice and Mimi who were sleeping in their cell but he kept walking without breaking stride.
As soon as the guard turned the corner, Beatrice and Mimi both opened their eyes.
"Alright, we have fifteen minutes before he comes back if the pattern holds!" Mimi whispered hissed.
"Let's hurry!" Beatrice said.
Mimi and Beatrice fluffed up the blankets on their cots to resemble sleeping bodies.
Mimi pulled the twisted and curved key out from underneath her pillow and the duo darted over to the cell door.
Beatrice lifted the twisted, golden tool and stabbed it at the lock as if it were a knife.
There was a shower of sparks and the tool vibrated violently as Beatrice fought to hold on.
Mimi grabbed Beatrice 's hands to steady them.
A moment later there was a sound of protesting metal and a loud click as the cell unlocked and the door swung open.
Mimi started to move forward but Beatrice held her back and listened carefully for a moment. "No alarm so far," She whispered.
Mimi nodded. "Leave the door open until we're sure that we can get into the vent!" She whispered. "Betty and Mimi might need to get back inside the cell quickly."
Beatrice dashed forward and worked on the grate. The Multikey 's sharp edge made a crude but effective screwdriver as Beatrice removed the two bottom screws and then the top one.
Mimi made a mad grab for the grate just as it fell off to prevent it from crashing to the floor with a noisy clatter.
Mimi gingerly set the grate aside. "Now what?" Mimi asked. "We can't just leave the grate off, Betty. The guards will see."
Beatrice bit her lip and nodded. "Close the cell door," She whispered which Mimi did as quietly as she could.
Beatrice quickly replaced the top screw so that the grate was firmly attached to the wall but could now rotate freely around the screw.
Beatrice swung the grate away from the vent. "You go first," She said.
Mimi crawled inside and Beatrice followed, carefully repositioning the grate so that it completely covered the vent.
The guards would have to look closely to see the grate has been disturbed, I suppose, Beatrice worried as they crept into the passage. It 's unlikely but not impossible.
"Now what?" Mimi asked. The cat-girl spoke in a whisper but to the nervous Beatrice, the echoes in the ventilation shafts could have been heard in Vollachia.
"Just pick a direction and go!" Beatrice ordered. "We only have until morning to be back in our cells for the inmate check, in fact! We need to find a way to reach the seventh level and find Bubby!"
When the fireworks ended, a clearly exhausted Gretchen appeared to tell them that their carriage had arrived.
Subaru helped the very tipsy Emilia down the long flights of stairs to the street where they found Uma waiting for them.
"Where to now?" Uma asked.
"Um. The apartment building where you picked us up, I guess," Subaru said.
"No problem. But it'll be a few minutes. There's a lot of traffic right now," Uma said, snapping the reins and sending his liger into a trot.
Emilia burrowed into Subaru 's arms as the carriage rode off. She seemed half asleep.
The city was winding down by now. Everyone seemed to be on their way home and ready for bed.
Uma pulled the carriage up in front of the apartment building. Lights gleaming inside the windows proved that at least some of the residents were still up.
"Come on, Mili," Subaru shook her gently.
Emilia just smiled and nestled closer against him.
Rolling his eyes, Subaru picked her up and carried her out of the carriage, remembering to give Uma another silver coin and the voucher for his services.
"Thank you, young master!" Uma said cheerfully as he rode off.
Subaru had to coax Emilia into putting her feet down and leaning on him as they climbed the stairs. He finally gave up and just carried her up to their floor.
Subaru was about to open the apartment door but he jumped as he felt Emilia reach up and touch his lips. "Subaru," She said in a sleepy voice. "I'm tired. Can we go home and go to bed?"
Subaru snorted as he opened the door.
Subaru helped Emilia sit down on the bed.
Emilia yawned. "Subaru, could you help unwrap me?"
Subaru chortled. " Unwrap you? " He repeated.
Emilia fussed with her kimono for a moment and then threw down her arms in a childlike expression of frustration. "I can't figure out how to get out of this thing!" She pouted.
Subaru shook his head. "It's really not that hard, Mili," Subaru said, calmly helping Emilia get undressed.
"It feels pretty hard," Emilia disagreed, lying down on the bed.
Subaru snorted. "That's because you're drunk ! " He reminded her.
"You drank as much as I did," Emilia complained.
Subaru chuckled. "And yet, I'm not falling down," He pointed out.
Emilia moaned. "That's not fair!" She complained. "Subaru, is this more black magic?"
Subaru snorted as he undressed. "I doubt it. But hey, why not? Let's just start blaming everything that goes wrong for us on witchcraft. Everybody else on this goddamn world does anyway."
Subaru slid into bed beside Emilia and she wrapped herself around him.
"Hm. So this was our first date, huh?" Emilia murmured, sounding on the verge of sleep.
"Yeah. So how did I do?" Subaru whispered. "What would you say if I asked you out again?"
Emilia giggled. "I don't know. It depends on what else I was doing that night. I might get a better offer," She teased. "What's Julius up to these days?" She laughed.
Subaru gave her a cold look. "You're drunk," Subaru grumbled.
Emilia kept giggling.
Subaru raised an eyebrow. "Hm," He mused. "Would this be a bad time to remind you that apparently Priscilla and Crusch are planning marriages with me?" Subaru asked archly.
Emilia immediately stopped laughing. "I wouldn 't remind me of that if you value your continued good health, " Emilia grumbled.
"Well, if you don't want me shopping around then you had better say 'yes' the next time that I ask you out," Subaru smirked.
"Oh, fine!" Emilia said with exaggerated exasperation.
The pair snuggled closer together.
"Subaru," Emilia said, sounding on the verge of sleep. "I love you."
Subaru kissed her brow. "I love you too."
"Betty," Mimi whispered. "I found a passage that goes up."
"That must lead to the fifth level, I suppose," Beatrice whispered, craning her head to see around Mimi's body. "Can we climb it?"
"Um," Mimi whispered. "Maybe," She said doubtfully.
"Maybe?"
"The sides are absolutely smooth," Mimi muttered. "But maybe Mimi could scale it by pressing against both sides…"
"Huh?"
"Betty, come here and climb up on Mimi's back!"
"Do what, in fact?!"
"Just do it!"
Beatrice muttered to herself as she climbed onto Mimi 's back. Beatrice was virtually the same size as Mimi but the demi-human girl didn't even seem to feel the extra weight.
Mimi put both her hands against the ventilation shaft wall and then carefully placed her feet firmly against the opposing wall.
Moving one limb at a time, Mimi slowly began to walk up the shaft with Betty clinging to her back.
"This is weird in fact," Beatrice muttered.
"But it's working!" Mimi said brightly as they neared the next level.
Mimi abruptly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Beatrice asked.
"These walls are further apart up here! Mimi is stuck!" Mimi said.
Beatrice looked around. Mimi was bracing herself against the wall on her tiptoes and her limbs were trembling.
"Perfect!" Betty spat, looking down at Mimi. "And what do we do now, I suppose?!"
Mimi panted. "Maybe Betty could try and do something useful instead of just always complaining, I suppose ! " She snapped.
Beatrice blinked in surprise and then flushed.
The little spirit sheepishly looked around, searching for ideas.
We 're almost at the top. Maybe if Betty can stretch…
"Hang on, Mimi," Beatrice said as she carefully stood up on Mimi's back.
Mimi sighed. "What else can Mimi do?"
Beatrice reached the top of the shaft and carefully pulled herself over the edge.
"Nice work!" Mimi cheered.
"Yes but now what?" Beatrice asked.
"Just be ready to catch Mimi," She said.
"Catch you?!"
Mimi shoved back hard with her arms. For the moment before gravity took over, Mimi pointed directly up to the next level and her knees were bent against the opposing wall. Then Mimi sprang off the vent wall and up to the next level.
She nearly missed the ledge but Beatrice managed to grab her and drag her over the side.
The pair panted.
"Well, Betty and Mimi made it to the fifth level," Mimi said.
"And now Betty and Mimi just need to do this two more times," Beatrice sighed plaintively.
"Don't worry. Going down might be easier," Mimi said cheerfully.
Beatrice rubbed her forehead with a moan.
As Subaru regained consciousness, he found himself in a very strange place. He was walking through what looked like an endless tunnel buried in the earth. The floor was a strange chain mesh and unimaginably far below, he could see rivers of fire burning in the dark.
He saw that there were three women with him, also wandering the tunnel.
One was a beautiful young woman with long white hair and dark eyes. She wore a black dress and her face was smooth and even, her expression as placid as a lake.
Beside her was a girl of about fourteen who had short white hair. She was dressed stylishly in a pleated skirt and a white blouse.
The girl was grumbling to herself and Subaru saw that her mouth was full of sharp teeth.
The third woman had a blond ponytail. She wore a short blue dress with tights underneath. Her eyes were large and bright and her every movement was extremely animated. She reminded Subaru of the girls he 'd known in school who had tried out for the Pep squad.
The trio was hesitantly walking down the tunnels, inspecting the branching tunnels as they passed them as if they weren 't entirely certain which way to go.
Subaru followed the women but he found that he was making a game of it, jumping over the cracks in the floor and singing a little song to himself.
A moment later, Subaru realized that he was tiny and wearing a dress.
Oh, come on! His mind howled. We 're really doing this again?! Wasn 't once enough? I don't want to be a little girl!
His protest vanished unspoken and he felt his mind absorbed by his host, once again sharing her thoughts and emotions.
"Are we sure this is a good idea?" The blond asked.
"What do you mean?" The girl with sharp teeth asked.
"Are we sure that she didn't plan for us doing this? It just seems like no matter what we choose, she wins and we lose!"
"Well, unless you have a better idea," The girl grumbled.
"Hey!" Subaru chirped. "Are we almost there yet?"
The girl gave Subaru a cold glance. Subaru noticed that she had very pretty green eyes.
"Why is that thing here?" The girl asked the blond woman.
The blond sighed. "Daphne," She said reprovingly.
"No. Really, explain it to me," Daphne grumbled. "We told everyone that this was an emergency. A threat not only to us but to the whole goddamn world. So where the hell are Sekhmet and Carmilla?"
The blond sighed. "Well… Sekhmet agreed that this was an extremely dire situation but… she said that she was feeling… a little tired," She said in a small voice.
"Seriously?!" Daphne demanded.
"The Witch of Sloth was too tired to take action even to save her own life?" The white-haired woman murmured. Her voice was almost as inflectionless as Ryuzu Alpha's. "Apparently, there is such a thing as connecting too deeply with one's Authority."
"Funny, Dona," Daphne grumbled.
Subaru wasn 't sure what was going on but he sensed that the others were angry with Mother. "It's OK! Mother sent me here to help!" He reminded them.
"And the funny keeps right on coming," Daphne groused.
Subaru wasn 't sure he understood what was going on. He looked at the white-haired woman. "Dona, what-"
"My name is Echidna, if you must address me," The white-haired woman corrected at once.
Echidna?! This is Echidna?! That was enough to make Subaru shake loose of his 'dream' for a moment before it swiftly re-assimilated him.
Subaru flushed. "Echidna, I-"
"But I would prefer that you not address me at all," Echidna concluded indifferently.
"Dona!" The blond woman hissed, looking angry. "She's a child!"
"She's a mistake," Echidna disagreed.
Subaru 's face fell and his eyes filled with tears.
The blond fumed and her cheeks puffed out in an oddly childlike expression of frustration. "Dona! It's not her fault! Typhon didn't ask to be put in this situation! "
Echidna cocked her head. "I don't understand, Minerva," She said reasonably. " No one gets a say in how their life turns out. There are tens of thousands of factors at work beyond their control, " She said. "Why is this any different?"
"It's different because an evil witch selected her at random for an experiment that she only barely survived!" Minerva shot back. "We should be trying to help her! Blame the person who performed the experiment, not the test subject!"
"She is beyond our help," Echidna said matter-of-factly. "And I fail to understand your concern for her. Eliminating her is simply a matter of risk management."
"What possible risk could she be?!" Minerva demanded.
"Minerva," Echidna replied. "I wonder if you fail the grasp the sheer magnitude of what she possesses."
"She's barely compatible with it!" Minerva shot back. "She never would have been chosen naturally!"
"Yes. She is barely compatible with it and yet she's already one of the most powerful among us," Echidna replied. "What do you think might happen if, as she grows up, Typhon becomes more compatible with it? You don't see the possibility of her being used by a certain someone?"
"That's why Sekhmet is watching her!" Minerva reminded her.
Subaru watched the argument with confusion. He sensed that the discussion had something to do with him but he wasn 't sure exactly what.
Daphne sighed. "Nerva, why isn't Carmilla here?" She grumbled, clearly desiring to just change the subject.
Minerva sighed. "Well, it took a lot of effort but I finally did manage to get in to see her. "
"How?" Echidna asked, curiosity putting interest into her voice for the first time.
"I climbed in through a window," Minerva admitted. "Anyway, I managed to meet up with Carmilla and explain what was going on. Carmilla understood the problem immediately and wanted to help but-"
"Bringing her along would be more trouble than it was worth," Daphne grumbled. "And give us about a dozen more problems to deal with along the way."
"Yeah," Minerva sighed.
Daphne shook her head. "We're a much smaller group than I would have preferred for this kind of job, Nerva."
Minerva shook her head. "I still say that you let me try to talk to him. To explain what 's going on and ask for help."
Echidna raised an eyebrow. "Minerva, I do hate to remind you of this but after his attack on the Sanctuary, I think that he's made it really quite clear where his loyalties lie."
"And a serious blow to us it is," Daphne admitted.
"Huh?" Minerva stared at them both in confusion. Then her eyes widened in understanding. "No! Not Hector!" She shouted. "Flugel! Let me talk to Flugel and get him to help us!"
Daphne and Echidna both groaned.
Minerva looked back and forth between them, her face turning red. "What is with you guys?!" She demanded, her hands on her hips. "All Flugel has ever done is try to help you. He's been extremely kind to all of us and you always treat him like dirt! Flugel has done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment from you and you still give him nothing but contempt! That makes me angry ! "
Minerva stomped her foot and it struck the floor like a lightning bolt.
The whole tunnel trembled, dust falling from the ceiling, and Subaru felt his feet bounce up into the air for a moment due to the shock wave.
He nearly fell before catching himself.
The white-haired girls also needed a moment to regain their balance.
"Nerva!" Daphne hissed. "Maybe don't collapse the tunnel while we're standing inside it!"
Minerva seemed completely unconcerned by this possibility. "You girls are always so darn mean to him! " She raged.
"If I may," Echidna murmured, seemingly untroubled by the raging witch, "Perhaps we should focus on finding this artifact quickly rather than re-litigating all of the factors and missteps that got us into this mess in the first place."
Minerva fumed but she finally turned on her heel and resumed walking down the tunnel, closely followed by the others.
Subaru followed, humming a little song to himself.
"Nerva?" Subaru called out.
Minerva sighed. "Yes, child?" Minerva she asked, clearly trying not to sound annoyed.
"Are we almost there yet?"
Priscilla sat in the back of a wagon in a rundown caravan headed east out of the desert. She hadn 't said anything during the whole trip. She just stared out at the horizon.
"Priscilla?" Al said with a stretch. "We're about to stop at that trading post. You want anything?"
Priscilla sighed. "Get me some water and leave me in peace," She said without looking at him.
"Sure thing," Al said, climbing out of the wagon.
Priscilla stared at the horizon, unseeing.
Vincent, She thought, her expression softer than most people would ever see. I haven 't seen or spoken to you in nearly six years. When Father was dying, you managed to get me out of the Battle for Succession but you were forced to stay behind yourself… I know that you wanted to save me but the truth is… I wanted to stay with you, Brother. Ever since our mothers were killed in the crossfire, we were all that we had.
Those days feel like so long ago. For a time, I thought that we … we truly could escape Father's shadow. You were so brilliant… No matter what traps and ambushes they set for us, you found the holes in their plans and you got us out. With your brains and my luck, we were invincible. Or so I thought…
I remember that night. We 'd gathered all the resources we needed. We'd made all the necessary preparations. The next morning, I would beg you to come pick flowers with me in the forest and then we'd just disappear into the woods. Six different merchants had all been arranged to meet us at precise times and locations and they would smuggle us out of Vollachia and to freedom. We'd change trade caravans every eight hours to make it hard for anyone who suspected our escape to track us. We'd be in Lagunica in two days and from there, we'd make a life for ourselves.
But that night, Father demanded that we attend him …
I barely recognized Father. He 'd gone from a powerful, terrifying figure to a man holding onto his life by his fingernails. He lay in that enormous bed, all skin and bones, struggling to breathe.
Father 's attention had always been terrifying to us, Priscilla remembered, barely repressing a shudder. The Emperor of Vollachia accepted nothing but perfection from any of his servants. Certainly nothing less from his children. Lapses were always dealt with harshly. Being called upon to attend Father always meant only one thing: We had gained his attention and that in and of itself was enough to earn his annoyance. He took no pride in anything we did. A Prince of the Empire who underperformed was unworthy of their title and birthright: an embarrassment. And embarrassments were killed.
A Prince of the Empire who performed exceptionally was nothing short of a threat to Father. Any Prince with ability and opportunity wouldn 't blink at killing his own Father to gain the throne. A Prince who would blanch at that had already proved himself unworthy of his birthright and, as such, his life.
Father told us that the Empire demands everything from us. No Emperor can be permitted to have any love save that for the throne. He told us, 'Only power itself is worthy of reverence…'
When Father called us, Vincent and I never even considered refusing. Refusing Father 's command would be unthinkable and fatal but just in case, he sent a full regiment of his Praetorian guard to ensure that we did as he instructed.
I trembled as we were marched to Father 's sickbed. I desperately wanted to take Vincent's hand but I knew that Father would never forgive such an expression of weakness. If we held hands, we might both lose them…
"Welcome, my children," Father wheezed, flashing us a twisted grin. "Does the visage of your Father's dying body disturb you?"
"No," Vincent said flatly and honestly. "All men die. Your death affects me no more than the deaths of the slaves that I've seen executed in the Coliseum."
"Well said," Father chuckled but the laughter did not reach his eyes. "I'd hoped that you had learned your lessons properly. One of you at least," Father fixed an icy glare on me. I fought to lift my chin and freeze my face in a mask of imperious disdain. Even as a girl, I knew that if I blanched or showed any form of fear, I would never leave that room alive.
Father had chuckled at my defiance but I saw from the glint in his eyes that he knew I was afraid.
Father had said nothing more and the silence grew protracted, oppressive.
Vincent thinned his lips, refusing to speak first.
The minutes ticked by in total silence.
Finally, giving into his youthful frustration, Vincent had snapped, "Did you want to see us for a reason, Father? Or are we simply here to commiserate on our forthcoming loss?" He demanded sarcastically.
Father chuckled again, his breath rattling in his dying lungs like leaves in autumn. "So impatient," He chided gently. "A flaw of youth. Or, is it the virtue of hunger? Perhaps we'll see."
Vincent did not reply.
"Planning to gather flowers in the morning?" Father asked.
Vincent 's face had remained expressionless but I knew that my face had turned white in spite of my best efforts to stop it.
"Flowers?" Vincent asked vaguely.
"How are the two of you faring in the Battle for Succession?" Father asked in an oily voice. "I hope that you're making some headway against your siblings. You know the law. To ensure the stability of the empire, for each child of the Emperor, the choice is either the throne or the grave."
"I'm managing just fine," Vincent murmured.
"Prepared to kill your younger sister then?" Father asked with an insinuating smirk.
"You have always taught us that the Emperor can have anything he wants," Vincent said smoothly. "If I wish to keep my own sister as one of my concubines and I kill any man who objects, what of it?"
I didn 't react. This polite fiction had been discussed between us before. Vincent already had a reputation as a siscon due to our closeness and he had no compunctions about exploiting his ostensible perversion to keep me safe.
Father 's face twisted in disgust. " You are a coward and a liar, my son, " Father snarled. "I know all about your plan to flee the Empire and live in exile."
Vincent cocked his head, his expression a study of confused surprise.
Father used what remained of his strength to pull his wasted body upright on the bed. Neither I nor Vincent made any move to help him. Such an act would be an insult at best and besides, neither one of us felt any desire to ease his suffering.
"I forbid it," Father snapped bursting into a sharp coughing fit that left him swaying on the bed. When Father had recovered his breath, his purple lips speckled with phlegm, he glared at us. "The law of the Crown is sacred. For each of you, each of you," He emphasized. "There is only one choice: the throne or the grave. Neither of you will be permitted to flee. I will squander every last coin in the treasure, every last Imperial Legion, every last drop of Vollachian blood to hunt you down and slay you cruelly if you attempt to flee. Even in death, neither of you shall defy my will," He whispered.
Father slowly laid back down on the bed. His gaze was cold with contempt as he studied two of his legion of children. "You will not escape," He said simply. "You will die. You have no purpose except to be my legacy. The Emperor is all. Never forget that."
Father slowly closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Vincent led me from the bedroom, his face hard as ice.
I remember … I told Vincent that we just needed to change our plans. Vincent was the most clever of my siblings but he'd carefully spent years training the others to underestimate him. He had painstakingly cultivated the image of a lazy, poorly-educated, lolicon with a perverse desire for his own sister. We could find a way to be the last two standing in the coming battle. Vincent had been a strategist and schemer since the day he could walk. We'd hunt down and kill the others from the shadows. My luck could tilt the balance and when Father was dead and all of our other siblings were dead, Vincent would take the throne. So what if he was forced to call me a 'concubine' in public? It wouldn't mean anything, it wouldn't change anything. Both of our mothers had been concubines after all. We'd both live lives of comfort in the palace while watching each other's backs.
Vincent was quiet that night. I kept trying to convince him that we 'd be alright but the dark expression on his face never flickered. The next morning, Vincent suggested that we go pick flowers anyway. To cheer ourselves up before we needed to start working toward the throne. I agreed without thinking anything of it. I would never have suspected Vincent of deceiving me.
Vincent and I went into the forest and we were quickly surrounded by soldiers as well as a horde of bandits.
I looked at Vincent 's icy face and realized that Vincent, my brother, my only real friend, had betrayed me. I ran into the forest as fast as I could, frantically trying to outrun the bandits and soldiers.
While fleeing, I had a chance encounter with my bodyguard Anne who agreed to help smuggle me out of the country. The merchants we 'd paid off were still waiting for us. I knew that Vincent would never guess that I'd use the same plan that we'd devised together, it was too obvious. I took refuge in audacity and working together, Anne and I escaped into Lagunica and into an uncertain future.
I was so naive. I didn 't find out until years later that Vincent had arranged for me to meet Anne in the forest and that both the bandits in the forest and the soldiers were there by Vincent 's arrangement. The soldiers slaughtered the bandits and they provided the body of a blond girl about my age, her face mutilated beyond all recognition.
In one deft move, Prisca Vollachia was dead.
I took a new name and disappeared into Lagunica, fearing that Vincent would come after me to make himself and his claim to the throne secure. It was years before I realized that … Vincent had done all this to let me escape… He had no confidence that he could win the Battle for Succession, with or without me. Father would never have believed that we both had died but if Vincent took credit for my death…
As if by a miracle, our older siblings fought each other to a standstill while Father yet lived and Vincent saw his chance. He gathered his forces and, while our siblings ' soldiers were exhausted from a long battle, he brought in his own fresh troops and eradicated all of them.
Then, rumors say that he came to Father on his deathbed, sword in hand, and announced to him that Vincent was his final surviving child.
Then he ended Father and took his crown.
I remained in hiding in Picoutatte. Anne became sick with a fever and she died within months. I was all alone and not yet thirteen. My situation grew desperate.
To my disgust and fury, I caught the eye of a powerful criminal, the son of an underboss of the Black Silver Coins who apparently had a penchant for twelve-year-old girls.
He sent a small army after me. I killed several of them but I was too young and weak to control the Yang Sword for long and luck can only take you so far against astronomical odds.
They seized me and brought me to the villa where I met the underboss, a cruel man named Thestius, and his disgusting son Castor who was easily in his thirties. I 'd seen lust in men's eyes before but I'd never seen anything so naked as when he looked at me.
Thestius welcomed me to the family in terms that assured me I had no say in the matter. He suggested that I prepare myself to become Castor 's wife in the next few days.
I also met Cynthia, Thestius 's youngest daughter who was several years older than me. We got along reasonably well since she also held her brother in contempt but I had no luck in escaping. The only thing preventing Castor from getting his hands on me was his father's insistence that the traditions and formalities be followed. Thestius declared without irony that it was necessary that I become a wife before Castor could take his pleasure from me. In other words, Thestius wanted my rape to be nice and legal…
I tried to escape but Thesitus had me watched too closely. The day of the wedding arrived and, when I would not cooperate, I attended my wedding banquet chained to the chair with that thuggish pig seated beside me, celebrating his own good fortune.
There were only a few hours left before Castor would drag me off to the bedchamber and I counted each second as does a condemned man waiting for execution. But Castor took a massive bite of food and choked on a chicken bone.
He died at the table in spite of anything that anyone could do.
I was beside myself with joy and made no effort to hide it! I was a twelve-year-old widow but I 'd avoided being assaulted!
I was kept in seclusion for a few days to avoid 'ruining' the funeral but I was in high spirits. Now that the disgusting Castor was dead, surely they would let me go.
Until Thesitus decided that I must marry Castor 's older brother Pollux.
Pollux, to whatever credit a thuggish ill-bred man like him deserves, objected long and loud at this turn of events. Not out of any concern for me but simply because he lacked his brother 's predilections and had no wish to share his bed with a literal child.
Thesitus was adamant, however. As Castor 's widow, I was entitled to a share of property from my late 'husband,' property which Thesitus did not wish to part with. A traditionalist, Thesitus also rejected the simplest option of having me killed since I was now technically 'family.' So marrying me to the reluctant Pollux was his solution.
This farce proceeded much as before but where Castor never lost an opportunity to drool over me and describe in lurid detail his plans for me once I was legally his chattel, Pollux was dismissive. He wanted nothing to do with me at all and made it very clear that as soon as the ceremony was complete, he planned to spend his wedding night at a local brothel.
I earnestly assured Pollux that no turn of events could please me more.
I was still determined to escape but the close watch everyone had placed upon me made it simply impossible so I resigned to bid my time until after the ceremony. With Pollux clearly and militantly disgusted by my underage body, there was no longer urgency in my escape.
Unfortunately, during the wedding banquet, Thesitus weighed in again and reminded his son that he was expected to do his duty and get a child on me as quickly as possible to avoid any possible questions about the legitimacy of the marriage.
I immediately interrupted and reminded Thesitus that this was impossible as I had not yet 'flowered' and was incapable of bearing a child.
Thesitus gave me the look of mingled annoyance and incomprehension that I 've come to expect from men who have never bothered to learn anything about women's bodies beyond how to take their own pleasure from them. Thesitus dismissively told me to do whatever I needed to do to be prepared to conceive a child after the wedding as though I could arrange this by my own will.
Pollux was furious at his father but Thesitus was adamant. Pollux walked away, cursing his own father over his shoulder. Pollux stepped down a tiny set of stairs but in his fury, he was not watching where he was going. He slipped and fell, breaking his neck instantly.
The wedding banquet was brought to an immediate halt as Thesitus mourned the loss of his oldest and favored son.
Thesitus drew a dagger from his belt and lunged at me, swearing to kill the murderess of his children. Accusing me of bewitching them and luring his sons to their deaths.
He seemed to truly think that I had somehow forced them to kidnap me, keep me captive, and plot to assault me.
I drew the Yang sword and fought back but I had small chance against a room full of grown men who were trained fighters. Moreover, my small body could not long sustain the Yang Sword and it quickly vanished back into the ether, leaving me drained and panting at Thesitus 's feet.
Thesitus drew himself up for a final blow, his face bright red and the veins in his neck pulsing with rage but he suddenly grabbed his chest with a comical look of pain and surprise on his face. The dagger fell from nerveless fingers and Thesitus fell backward, his face pale as chalk, dead of a heart attack.
The banquet quickly broke up, Thesitus 's allies more interested in discussing who would be taking his place as underboss than in punishing me.
Having nearly wiped out the Barielle family, my situation was precarious but Cynthia, ten years my senior, was a sensible woman who wished no further conflict between us. She hated me for killing her father and brothers but conceded that she couldn 't fault my actions, given the situation that I'd found myself in. We'd made an agreement for an equitable split of property between us as long as I fore-swore any interest in the Black Silver Coins, something which I was happy to do. We then parted on more or less amicable terms.
Now a minor noble in southern Lagunica, I dedicated myself to increasing my influence and power so as to protect myself when Vincent inevitably learned that I was still alive. I began to personally order and manage my new lands and holdings although privately, I must admit that I had not the faintest idea what I was doing. But my luck saved me. One way or the other my decisions always turned out well in the end. I took a barony on the verge of economic ruin and collapse and made it vibrant and prosperous again. My subjects adored me.
Only in retrospect did I realize what a problem this would prove to be …
Word reached me that Vincent had become aware of my survival and that he had expressed his outrage to the court. He immediately placed a price on my head but oddly enough, a price too small to lure anyone truly dangerous into taking action against me. This was my first hint that perhaps I 'd misinterpreted things between us.
A few years later, I received an invitation from Duke Montefort to view a great tournament in Garkla as a visiting dignitary. I considered the matter gravely, worried that it might be a trap but I still greatly desired to see my homeland again and so I attended the tournament with the Lagunican delegation, trusting diplomatic considerations to prevent my arrest or execution.
There were one or two assassination attempts but I was well prepared for them and they were scarcely worthy of mention.
I had another objective in mind for my journey. Anne had been dead for several years at this point and I desired to find a new henchwoman, someone capable of doing violence on my foes while leaving me out of it. The previous candidates I had considered had all proved unsatisfactory. I decided that a Vollachian gladiator was just the sort of woman I needed.
I was not even considering a man for the job. The position would require long hours spent at my side. Now well into my teens, my beauty had yet to reach its full flower but I was not unaware of the irresistible and devastating effect that I had on men. I had no desire to deal with a bodyguard who had fallen in love with me and who would doubtless attempt to persuade me into all manner of foolish behavior that I had no patience for.
This tournament was where I met Aldebaran. He was fighting in the coliseum as a slave gladiator. He fought well although he didn 't come even close to winning and yet he caught my attention with his skill and strength. After the tournament, I approached him with an offer of freedom and employment and he accepted.
We returned home and I extended my thanks to Duke Montefort for his invitation but strangely, the Duke had no idea what I was talking about. I never discovered who sent the forged invitation and arranged for my presence in the delegation. For a time, I considered that it might even have been Vincent but-
"Here you go, Priscilla," Al said, handing her a large wooden cup full of cool well water.
Priscilla started out of her reverie. She glared at Al but simply took the cup. "Thank you, Al," She muttered.