Emilia gave Subaru a friendly smile and then she vanished. In her place stood a towering, shadowy figure clad in a black shroud.
"This has been most amusing, Subaru Natsuki," The figure intoned in a deep but feminine voice.
"I knew it," Subaru stared up at the faceless entity with flinty hatred. "The whole time! How?!"
Sycorax chuckled. "Very easily, in fact. You never could bring yourself to question your precious 'Emilia,'" It said with clear amusement. "No matter how often she suggested that you separate or how many times she just happened to be gone during my attacks, you refused to even entertain the possibility. Each time that we separated, I just slipped away and killed one of your friends. Now it 's time for you to lay down and make things easy on yourself."
Subaru shook his head. "Never!" He snarled.
Sycorax laughed. "Never is a very long time, Subaru Natsuki. And in this world, a very short one. You 're dying, Subaru Natsuki. Your Authority is maintaining this amusing little dream state for now but it's putting your body under more stress than that fragile bundle of sticks can handle."
"Bullshit," Subaru said flatly.
"I have no need to lie to you, I can simply out-wait you."
Subaru stared at the monster that mocked him, who had impersonated his love and killed the eidolons of his friends.
At that moment, Subaru hated Sycorax more than he 'd ever hated anyone else in his life. "I'm going to find the last page," Subaru promised. "And then I'm leaving this nightmare!"
Using his lacrosse stick as a cane, Subaru limped out of his room and back into the kitchen.
Sycorax followed after him with no great hurry, drifting soundlessly across the floor. "Oh?" It asked, sounding amused.
Subaru stared out the window of the screen door. A river of mist flowed endlessly around the house engulfing it. The ground around the house was gone, replaced by an endless abyss.
He was trapped.
"I'm afraid that you won't be going anywhere," Sycorax taunted. "Now, why don't you make things easy on yourself and give me those pages."
Subaru leaned against the suddenly freezing screen door and thought hard.
He took a few deep breaths and steeled himself.
"Hm. What are the shattered ruins of your little mind planning now?" Sycorax asked with vast amusement.
"Wait," Its tone suddenly shifted. "What are you doing? Don't be foolish-"
Subaru opened the screen door and stepped outside into the devouring mist and the bottomless pit.
For a moment, Subaru actually felt himself plummeting into a dark void and then he realized that it was just his imagination. He couldn 't see the ground but his feet assured him that it was still there. The mist was damp and so icy cold that it burned but Subaru stood engulfed in it with no ill effects.
Subaru turned back to Sycorax which still floated silently in the kitchen.
"I just realized," Subaru said flatly. "That if you really could have trapped me or killed me using that mist, you would have already done it. It would have been easy to pour the mist into Ryuzu's sanctum and kill me there when I had nowhere to escape but you didn't. You only used the mist to make me run away from places. It was all smoke and mirrors, wasn't it?"
Sycorax didn 't reply.
Subaru turned and hobbled his way down the porch steps.
On the third step, his makeshift cane slipped out from under him and he tumbled down head over heels and spilled out on the concrete in a heap.
His whole body throbbed. Subaru slowly fought his way back to his feet.
He tried to subtly look back at the screen door and saw that Sycorax was still watching him.
Subaru resolutely set off again.
He sure wished he knew where he was going.
Subaru hobbled as fast as he could back toward the portal but he only made it halfway before he needed to stop and catch his breath.
So far, Sycorax had shown no indication to come after him.
That worried him.
It must think that I 'm beaten.
No. That 's not it. It's not just going to dismiss me from its mind. It must be staying away for some other reason.
But what?
No, forget that. That 's a puzzle for later. Right now, think. Think as fast as you've ever thought before. You need to find that missing page!
But where is it? You 've searched everywhere that you can think of. Where could Sycorax have hidden it?
God, I wish I had Reason and Judgment right now but apparently, it 's busy holding what's left of this crumbling world together.
OK, stop. Think about it.
Remember, you have a new clue. Emilia was never Emilia. Everything that she said and everything that she did can be interpreted in exactly one way: it was designed to keep you away from the last page.
That 's why Sycorax lured you out here to your old world. To bring you to a metaphorical dead end and to encourage you to give up while it just ran out the clock.
Everything that Emilia … everything that Sycorax said to you was a lie. Find the right lie and you 'll find your answer.
But where does that leave me? Sycorax was playing me like a fiddle since the first moment that I arrived in this nightmare! If it hadn 't been for it, I never would have even…
Subaru 's eyes lit up. Could that be it?! But why would it …
"You're only making this harder for yourself," Sycorax murmured, suddenly appearing out of thin air behind him. "Just give me the pages and we can skip all this."
Subaru stared up at Sycorax for a long time.
Subaru 's eyes narrowed. He took a deep breath as if steeling himself and then he dug around in his bag. "Here," He said, holding the three pages out to Sycorax.
"Excellent," Sycorax hissed. "Now, rip them up," It ordered.
"Here you go," Subaru said again.
Sycorax hesitated for a fraction of a second. "I told you, rip-"
"If you want them," Subaru snarled. "Take them!"
Sycorax didn 't move.
Subaru was swaying on his feet, barely able to avoid collapsing but he gave Sycorax a wild grin. "That's the secret, isn't it? That 's why you 've been playing all these games and why you were trying to stall for time! In this world, you can't touch the pages, you can 't harm them, you can't destroy them! And that means, " Subaru shoved the pages back into his bag and took off hobbling as fast as he could without a second glance at Sycorax.
Subaru emerged in the capitol and he was unsurprised to find that Sycorax was already there waiting for him.
The mist was now omnipresent and it was hard to see more than a few feet away.
I believe Sycorax about one thing, I 'm running out of time.
This world is falling apart. If I don 't get out of here soon, I won't get out at all.
"What are you doing?" Sycorax asked in a bored tone.
Subaru ignored it, hobbling down the street as best he could.
Sycorax drifted along behind him. "Is it really so important for you to save your own miserable skin?" Sycorax asked mockingly. "That doesn't sound like the Subaru Natsuki who made two entire worlds objectively worse just by living in them."
Subaru flinched but he managed to keep walking. He scurried down the empty street and across the now abandoned bridge.
"You are beginning to try my patience," The demon whispered menacingly. "If you don't stop this, I'll-"
Subaru whirled around and stared at the monster in its nonexistent face. "You'll what ?! " He demanded. "Kill me?! Go ahead!" He dared it. "As Emilia, you could have stabbed me in the back whenever you wanted! You've had plenty of opportunities to kill me so far. I don't think that killing me is half as easy for you as you'd like me to think!"
Subaru hurried off down the road and he heard Sycorax muttering behind him. The mist was steadily growing darker.
The road outside town was debilitating. Subaru knew that the road was now far shorter than even the first time that he 'd taken it here but now every step was a struggle.
The lacrosse stick made for a lousy cane and it constantly threatened to slip out from under him.
The skies overhead crackled with blue lightning. Subaru glanced up and saw that the burning fissures stretched across the heavens were growing wider.
I 'm running out of time…
Subaru fought to take each step through the Elior forest. When he entered the forest, it was in the midst of a howling snowstorm. Snow and mist flew in every direction. The wind was nearly enough to knock him off his feet but Subaru kept on walking. It seemed to take forever but he made it back to the village.
Sycorax waited for him just outside of Emilia 's cottage.
"This has gone on long enough," Sycorax whispered, all traces of amusement gone.
Subaru pulled the door to Emilia 's cottage open and made his way inside the dark but very ordinary and unhaunted house.
Subaru looked around and to his horror, he saw a slender form crumpled against the wall. She wasn 't breathing.
Subaru turned to scowl at Sycorax. "You killed her," He hissed. "You killed Puck and then you killed her …"
"Puck," Sycorax seethed in real fury this time. "I tore that wretched beast limb from limb! I killed it slowly and taunted it all the while with all the myriad ways that I would defile its pathetic daughter's body! They both died cursing your name, Subaru Natsuki!"
Subaru flinched and then turned away.
I can 't let it distract me and I don't have time to go fumbling around in the dark. Where did Emilia keep the tinder?
Subaru quickly began to toss grass and kindling onto the fire pit. He found a small stone that Emilia had likely taken as some kind of ornament and took a knife from the kitchen. He struck the rock against the metal and sparks grudgingly flared from the impact. The grass caught the sparks and it slowly began to burn as Subaru blew on it.
Subaru quickly fed the tiny blaze twigs and more fuel as the fire grew steadily. In just moments, the cottage was lit by a cheery blaze that illuminated the house.
Subaru looked up at Sycorax which floated there silently and he suddenly felt moved to laugh. "You want to know something?" He said mockingly. "You don't look half as scary with the lights on! You look like a cheap Halloween decoration! "
Subaru quickly glanced around the cottage and stopped dead in his tracks. "The last page," He whispered, kneeling down to grab it off the floor. This page was just like all the others but this one was marked by an oval symbol. "It really was here all along."
Subaru pulled out the other pages and then held all four together.
The pages suddenly liquefied in his hand and then seemed to reform into a leather-bound tome.
The Book was a slender volume with a leather binding so white that it was nearly incandescent. A black pentagram was emblazoned on the cover.
"Stop this!" Sycorax thundered.
Subaru glanced up at Sycorax with clear amusement. "You really can 't do anything to me at all, can you? All that you can do is try to turn my own mind against me. God, I almost let my own self-doubt and fear bring me down. Felt will think that this was hysterical. "
Subaru heard a clap. He looked at Sycorax which was slowly clapping its fluttering sleeves together. "Very impressive, Subaru Natsuki. Very impressive indeed," Sycorax said in a sneering voice. "Now for my little surprise: You're trapped in here. There is no way out. "
Subaru looked at the demon skeptically. "I've got to tell you, Sykie, your credibility isn't that great right now."
Sycorax laughed. "Then have fun finding your way out. I expect I don't need to tell you that you don't have long…"
Subaru raised the book. "Well, something tells me that this Book probably has something to do with it. "
Sycorax laughed again. "Oh, feel free to read it by all means! The Book of Wisdom is a conduit not only to the World Soul but to the archives of lore contained in the Heart of the Storm beyond! No mortal mind could hope to use that Book without being obliterated."
Subaru thought for a moment then shrugged. "So… what will that do to you, what with you kind of sharing this little dream with me right now?"
Sycorax stiffened. "What?"
Subaru flashed it a grin. "Hey! Let's find out!"
"No!" Sycorax screamed as Subaru calmly opened the cover.
Sycorax flinched back, covering its face with his sleeves.
A moment passed and then two in which nothing happened and Sycorax slowly lowered its arms in confusion.
Subaru glanced at the creature with disdain. "Ah. You truly believed your claim, I see. I had assumed that you were simply a cunning liar. Instead, it appears that you're nothing more than a fool."
Sycorax floated there silently.
"How could the Book of Wisdom be contained within this vision?" Subaru asked pointedly. "I remind you that nothing here is actually real aside from us ourselves. This is nothing more than a representation of the Book. More accurately, it is the representation of the great power that was slowly knitting the Book back to wholeness again from your depredations upon it: My own supreme Authority that has now returned to its rightful master."
Sycorax shook its head in rising fear.
"My business in this place is now concluded. I'm afraid that this is where we say goodbye as I will be leaving now," Subaru said dismissively. "You may not be so fortunate. It occurs to me that you may be permanently trapped here. Alas, I fear that I can not leave you anything to read."
The world around Subaru changed to a brilliant white void.
"No!" Sycorax screamed as the world around it fell apart.
The next thing Subaru knew, he was face down on the floor. It took him a moment to understand what had just happened. Subaru realized that he was back in the library.
He had fallen out of the doorway, face first, and been unable to catch himself before striking the ground. Apparently, Sycorax had not been lying about the stress that the trial had put on his body. His body felt like he 'd pushed it well past its limit. His limbs refused to move.
"Subaru!" Emilia shouted, racing to his side. "Are you alright?"
Subaru struggled to look up at Emilia.
He stared at her in fear for a moment, wondering if this might be just another vision but then he relaxed. He recognized the look of concern in her eyes.
"Am I alright?" Subaru echoed as he took a ragged breath. "Uh… maybe?" He whispered.
Subaru couldn 't recall having ever felt this tired. His muscles simply refused to work and he needed Emilia to help him rise into a sitting posture.
"Subaru, what happened?" Emilia asked. "Why didn't the door send you anywhere? Was it the demon?"
Subaru blinked. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"Why didn't the door work?" She repeated. "Was it because you had an Authority?"
Subaru stared at her for a long moment. "Mili, how long was I gone?"
Emilia looked puzzled. "Um. A minute? Maybe two? I'm not sure. I wasn't really counting yet. You went into the door and then you just… fell out of it again."
Subaru 's eyes widened. "OK…" He said, feeling seriously weirded out. This all happened in less than a minute?
Echidna, I want to kill ya.
Or, is it actually better this way? I mean, Emilia didn 't have time to panic or to try to come in after me which probably would have been a disaster. And Sonas and anyone else below didn't have much time to get into mischief.
Maybe this was all for the best.
"You should rest a while and then we'll try again. Together this time," Emilia said firmly, wrapping Subaru's arm around her neck and lifting Subaru to his feet. She quickly realized that Subaru had no strength at all and that she needed to fully support him.
Subaru was experiencing the unfortunate sensation of being as pliable as a rag-doll but he still chuckled. "We don't need to do that," He whispered.
"What do you mean?"
Subaru chuckled again. He tried to reach into his pocket but his arm just flailed comically. "Reach into my pocket."
Emilia gave him a suspicious look. "Subaru, is this some sort of lewd thing?" She complained.
He sighed. "Just check my pocket."
She still looked suspicious but she dug into his pocket and pulled out a small book with a blinding white cover.
Emilia looked thunderstruck. "Is this…"
"The Lady's Book!" Virgil whispered in awe, just appearing from around the corner. "Restored and whole. What does it say?"
"Don't!" Subaru snapped in a breathless voice before Emilia could open it. "Korë warned me that reading the book would obliterate a mortal mind!"
Emilia flinched back in shock.
"Hm," Virgil murmured, seemingly not all that upset about nearly getting Emilia killed. "I did forget that. Perhaps that's why the Lady never provided me with any rules or instructions for people seeking to borrow it as a matter of fact…"
Subaru and Emilia shared an annoyed glance.
Virgil shook off his reverie. "Well, in any event, I assume that the master and mistress will desire supper and a good night's sleep before departing after their clearly draining experience. I'll see to it at once," Virgil walked off.
Subaru shook his head. "Thanks, Virgil," He whispered. "But we need to go."
"Subaru, are you sure?" Emilia murmured. "You're exhausted! Maybe we should wait until tomorrow morning."
Subaru chuckled. "Lucky us, we don't need to work very hard to fly down. The balloon does all the work!"
Emilia looked dubious. "Are you sure that we shouldn't wait for you to recover?"
Subaru shook his head. We 'll be fine, Mili. But Felt and Garfiel could get into real trouble down there, not to mention they're going to be seriously worried about us. We need to get back down there and tell them that we're OK. Besides, with the demon dead, the beam should finally shut down. And there are barely any books left in the library to go through. We can check and see if there's anything on the Mammon Machine or the Ryuzus in an hour or two."
Emilia thought it over and finally nodded.
Virgil looked stricken. "You're leaving? Already ? "
Subaru 's face twisted in sympathy. He 's been left alone for centuries, hasn't he? He's just like Beatrice , Subaru thought wistfully.
I admit that I feel bad for the guy but I need to focus on getting Beatrice and Puck back. Then I can worry about helping out Virgil. Maybe Beatrice and Puck would want to come and visit their … 'brother?'
Hell, maybe this could be a good place for us to move into. Nobody could possibly reach us up here.
"Of course, we'll come back after we lift the curse," Emilia assured him, handing Subaru the Book. "To return the Book and we'll plan to stay for a few days. You and Puck and Beatrice must have a lot to say to each other."
Virgil 's expression was crushed. "Of course. You… must be in a great hurry as a matter of fact," He murmured in a dead voice. "Is there anything that I can get you before you depart? Some food for the trip? A coat? I could place the book in a bag to ensure that it doesn't open accidentally."
Subaru shrugged. "It's OK, Virgil. We'll just keep it in my satchel." Emilia handed the book back to him along with his satchel.
Virgil bowed his head. "Of course, sir," Virgil replied somberly.
"Alright, Subaru," Emilia said, almost carrying him out of the library. "Let's get you out of here and back to the balloon. It'll take a while to fill it up with air again. Maybe you'll have time to take a nap."
"Alright," Subaru murmured, too tired to argue. "But promise me that you'll wake me up before you try to fly down. I don't want you flying solo yet."
"Subaru," Emilia protested. "By your own admission, we have the same amount of-"
"Ah!" Subaru screamed, jerking and practically throwing himself out of Emilia's arms. Emilia stumbled and she fell onto the floor. The white Book fell out of Subaru's hand and slid across the smooth polished floor to come to rest at Emilia's feet.
Emilia leaped to her feet to find Subaru lying on the ground, blood dripping from a sizable cut in his back. Behind him stood Virgil, holding in his hand a long knife that blazed with energy.
Virgil jerked Subaru 's head back by the hair and the little spirit held the knife to Subaru's throat.
"Give me the book," Virgil hissed.
Emilia glared at Virgil with ice-cold hate. "Subaru," She said, ignoring Virgil. "Get ready to use your power!"
Subaru took a ragged breath and then nodded. Just nodding took almost all of his strength
Emilia spread her hands and sharp ice crystals the size of swords began to form all around Virgil.
Subaru 's eyes widened as he suddenly realized that his Authority was not responding to him. If his muscles felt like wet noodles then his Authority felt like cold stone.
I can 't use Indomitable!
"Back away from my Subaru," Emilia said, her voice hard as ice.
The tiny spirit gasped in sudden fear. Virgil raised his hand and Virgil and Subaru both glowed bright purple, their bodies growing hazy and indistinct.
Virgil and Subaru changed to streaks of light that zoomed out of the library almost too fast to see.
Emilia grabbed the Book and raced after them.
Emilia raced out of the mansion as fast as she could.
To her shock and horror, she watched as the tiny Virgil, who seemed to be manhandling the exhausted Subaru with the greatest of ease, slashed at their deflated balloon over and over again with his knife.
Emilia cried out a challenge and Virgil blanched, backing away quickly. He dragged Subaru to the very edge of the island with Emilia in close pursuit.
"Not another step!" Virgil said shrilly, his hand wrapped around Subaru's throat and the dagger pointed at Subaru's eye. "Remember, my dear. It's a very long way down as a matter of fact!"
Subaru choked and gasped for breath and Emilia came to a halt.
A sudden fear leaped into Emilia 's mind.
Something is wrong with Subaru 's magic! Otherwise, he would have used it by now!
"What do you want?" Emilia said through clenched teeth.
Virgil scowled at her and then he ground his teeth at Subaru.
"I cannot believe that you did it. You found the Book and you reassembled it. Do you have any idea how hard we've worked to tear it apart as a matter of fact?! And now we need to start all over again!" He cried shrilly.
Subaru looked up at Virgil in confusion.
Emilia held the book in one hand and her ice sword in the other. "If you didn't want us to find the Book then why did you send us into the doorway? Why not just tell us it was lost forever?" Emilia demanded.
Emilia wasn 't really expecting an answer, she was just looking to keep Virgil off guard. But the impeccably dressed spirit hissed at her, " You! I wanted you to go into the doorway, not him! Without an Authority, regardless of how much mana you have, you had no chance to balance the twisting power of the Storm long enough to find the Book!
"And even if you did, my sister would have been on hand to finish you off! It was the perfect setup as a matter of fact! I send the strongest one through the doorway and then I kill the weak one left outside! I didn't know that this idiot had an Authority and that he might actually be able to reassemble the Book! I didn't know! How could I have known?!"
"Your sister?" Emilia said, fixating on this.
Virgil scowled and a tall, shadowy figure appeared, literally emerging from Virgil 's body, creeping out of him like smoke from burning logs.
"Sycorax!" Subaru gasped.
"Brother," Sycorax whispered in a mournful voice. "I am… shattered. This witch has broken me…"
"You'll be fine, Poppet," Virgil assured the shadow, his face twisting in concern. "Just rest for now. I'll take care of all of this!"
Sycorax twisted and collapsed in on itself, shrinking and twisting as it climbed up Virgil 's body to perch on his shoulder. It shrank and contorted until it took the form of a tiny black cat. It looked almost as if someone had taken Puck and painted him black.
Subaru bared his teeth. "You're not Beako's brother!" He gasped. "You came here with Sycorax to destroy the Book!"
"Very perceptive, young master," Virgil said sarcastically. "You've solved the riddle as a matter of fact! Tell me, what clue gave it away? Was it when I stabbed you with this dagger?
"Yes, after the Seals were weakened, the Mistress created us and sent us here as a matter of fact. We were to ensure that the Book was destroyed or, failing that, to keep it locked up on the island and ensure that no one ever managed to use it again. My Poppet and I have been working on this for weeks now and it has been very frustrating. And now we need to start all over again!"
Subaru looked at Virgil enraged. Remembering the way that he 'd been tricked and fooled during the magical vision, he wanted nothing more than to tear Virgil and Sycorax limb from limb with his bare hands. But Subaru had no strength and all he could do was flail at the little spirit.
Virgil hissed in fury and redoubled his attempts to choke Subaru. "Yes. You nearly killed my Poppet as a matter of fact!" Virgil hissed. "And nothing would please me more than to kill you in return! But I'll make you both a deal."
He turned his attention back to Emilia. "Elf, you give me the Book and I'll let your witch here go free."
"Don't do it!" Subaru gasped. "It's a trick! He'll kill us-" Virgil squeezed harder and the world swam before Subaru's eyes.
Emilia gasped in horror. "Alright! Alright. You can have the Book! Just don't hurt him!"
Subaru fought to shake his head in negation but he was struggling to breathe and was barely conscious.
Virgil 's eyes brightened. He'd had really no expectation of this gambit working and had acted out of sheer desperation but once he had the Book back, it would be child's play to kill the witch and then finish off the elf at leisure. Or just wait until she starved to death or threw herself off the island in despair.
"That's right!" Virgil cried out in sudden joy. "Excellent! There's no reason that we need to fight as a matter of fact! Just give me the Book and you two can leave safely and find another way to break the curse. It's not impossible! Now just give me the Book."
"Brother," Sycorax warned in its echoing voice.
Emilia took a step forward and Virgil flinched back, his dagger instantly back at Subaru 's throat. "From there! Toss it! Underhanded!"
Emilia nodded and after rocking her hand back and forth a few times she gently threw the Book to Virgil.
Virgil looked up with a beatific expression that slowly turned into horror as he realized that the elf had thrown the Book too high and too far.
It was going to fall off the island.
Virgil summoned his magic and shot a furious gust of wind at the Book, trying to arrest its course but he might as well have used wind to try to shift a boulder. The Book was impervious to all other magics save its own.
"Brother!" Sycorax called out mournfully.
In desperation, Virgil dropped both Subaru and his knife. The spirit reached over the edge and made a mad grab for the Book.
It was almost within reach.
He brushed his fingers against it.
He caught it!
Virgil and Sycorax both sighed in relief.
Then Virgil and Sycorax each screamed in shared pain.
Virgil lost his grip on the Book and the tome fell through the air, falling to the ground so far below.
Virgil stared at the shrinking white Book in horror. As he watched the Book vanish in the distance, he realized that his own iridescent blade was protruding from his chest. The knife had been buried in his back, deep enough to go completely through his body.
"You told me," Emilia whispered from behind him, her voice like ice. "That you needed to keep the Book here. You didn't only care about not letting us have the Book. You couldn't let the Book leave the island at all. This is something that you really shouldn't have shared…"
As Virgil watched, the wound in his chest slowly grew bigger.
Virgil didn 't bleed. Instead, fine motes of sparkling dust fell from the wound as if Virgil was an iridescent sand sculpture and that sculpture had suddenly ceased to hold itself together.
Virgil fell to his knees as the wound spread, his torso slowly dissolving into glittering dust.
"Brother," Sycorax mourned, its deep, female voice sounding incongruous now that it was coming from a tiny, black cat perched on Virgil's shoulder. "We are… shattered…"
Virgil struggled to take a deep, painful breath. "I can hear… The Mistress is so angry! " He whispered in fright.
"Brother," Sycorax murmured in despair. Then its voice grew spiteful. "Let us… let her deal with them."
"No!" Virgil gasped in horror. "The Mistress… does not want her… anywhere… near him! Poppet!" He wailed in despair.
"Broken," Sycorax mourned.
Virgil 's body pitched forward and fell off the island. Emilia watched as Virgil's entire body dissolved into dust and starlight, the small, black cat dissolving alongside him as though they were linked together. "I can hear… The Mistress… angry… So… so angry!" Virgil's final wail echoed off the island and finally grew silent.
Emilia stared down at the spirits who dissolved to nothing long before they ever reached the ground.
Subaru moaned.
Emilia 's head jerked up. "Subaru!" She shouted. She rushed to his side.
He was laying face down on the grass, unable to move.
"Are you OK?! Let me see your wound!" She lifted him onto her lap.
Emilia stared at the slash across Subaru 's back. The cut was large but it did not appear to be too deep.
Emilia pressed down hard on the wound, ignoring Subaru 's whispered hiss of pain.
Subaru took a ragged breath. "Emilia," He gasped. "That…" He flashed her a pained grin. "That was awesome. You really outsmarted them…"
Emilia smiled sadly at him. "I learned from the best," She whispered, stroking his head.
Emilia pulled him onto her lap so that he could rest his head on her shoulder while she kept pressure on the wound.
"Are they… dead?" Subaru whispered.
Emilia didn 't respond right away. "No. I don't think so, Subaru," She murmured.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not certain but… just before they dissolved, I think that I felt something."
"Like what? Healing magic?"
"Like summoning magic," Emilia corrected. "I think that maybe whatever created those two called them back again. I think that maybe their 'Mistress' rescued them."
Subaru burst out into weak chuckles.
"Why is that funny?!" Emilia demanded.
"Mili, did you hear the way that Virgil was talking about his Master? I doubt that whoever-it-is summoned them to save them. I think that they did it to punish them for failing!"
Emilia digested that. "Maybe. But Subaru, they could still come back."
"True," He said easily. "But probably not for a good long while. And in the meanwhile, I think that they're going to be in an awful lot of pain. And that makes me happy!"
Emilia sighed. "And now, we've lost the Book again."
Subaru was quiet for a moment. "I watched it fall. I think… I think I know where the Book fell," He whispered.
Emilia blinked. "Do you think that the Book survived the fall?"
Subaru managed to put a cocky smile on his tired face. "I'm sure of it, " Subaru said confidently. "Those two spent weeks trying to destroy it and they still failed. No way that it's been badly damaged by a fall. We just need to get down there and… I can find where it landed."
I just need to recover enough to trigger Reason and Judgment first.
"Really?!" Emilia said excitedly.
Subaru looked pained. "Well. Within plus or minus a square mile," He admitted. "We might be looking for a few hours."
Emilia looked at the smashed balloon. "But how are we going to get down?" She asked.
Subaru sighed. "That… that is the big question. "
"Do you think we could repair the balloon?"
Subaru glanced at the enormous slash marks made in the balloon. "I… kind of doubt it…"
"Then, how do we…"
"I don't know, Mili," Subaru admitted. "I just don't know…"
Emilia stiffened. "Subaru, look! I think that the beam is fading away."
Subaru sighed, barely able to even muster the energy to look down off the edge. "Wonderful. That's two successes in one day."
Subaru and Emilia watched as the purple light that was boring its way directly into the unnatural dark shell wrapped around Girali, flickered and faded away until it was gone.
There came a rumbling sound from the earth below.
Girali far below became completely engulfed by darkness, the shroud of shadows boiling up and extending further and thicker than ever before. Even the island was now wrapped in unnatural shadows that the sun failed to penetrate.
Emilia gasped. " What just happened?! "
"Huh," Subaru murmured, nearly unconscious from exhaustion. "It looks like Sonas misinterpreted that beam's purpose."
"What are we going to do now?" Emilia whispered.
Subaru sighed. "There's nothing that we can do. But I have a funny feeling that Sonas is going to blame us for this mess. "
Emilia bandaged his wound and Subaru quickly passed out.
Subaru found himself drifting in a nebulous, smoky dreamworld that reminded him of his journey into Echidna 's trial.
His vision sharpened and he found himself hanging in midair. He was sitting in a wooden cage suspended from a large wooden ship over a deep blue ocean.
Subaru 's hands were tied above his head and his feet were connected to several leg irons which were connected to heavy iron balls by chains.
Subaru 's hands were tied to the same rope that held up the cage. This resulted in Subaru not needing to support his own weight while he was hanging but still having no way to free his hands without also dropping the cage into the ocean.
Hm. I can snap these bonds with trivial effort. The problem is that I doubt that I have enough time to break all of these chains before Indomitable times out.
That would then give me thirty seconds without oxygen in a dark, cold ocean before I got another chance to break free.
It seems that I will need to find a better means of escape …
For a moment, Subaru 's own mind asserted itself. Where am I? Who am I? I 'm taller and thinner in this dream.
"Well, well. Awake, I see?" A voice laughed.
Subaru looked at the ship and saw a group of tough-looking sailors. Their clothing was tattered and patched although the leader wore a broad tricorn hat. They were all armed with cutlasses and they looked at Subaru with naked amusement.
Subaru 's exhausted mind was instantly re-assimilated by the dream. "You must be the Captain, I presume?" Subaru called without a hint of concern.
The lead sailor laughed. "Captain Red Raddick at your service," He said, taking off his hat with a flamboyant bow.
"It seems that I have become your captive," Subaru said calmly. "So. Where is all of this leading?"
"Aye. You're our captive, lad," Red Raddick said. "And if you have any desire to escape from that cage before we drop it in the drink, you'll buy your freedom with a hundred gold sovereigns!"
Subaru burst out laughing, much to the pirates ' surprise.
"A hundred gold sovereigns?!" Subaru chortled. "You clearly have no idea who I am!" He shook his head and slowly regained control. "I refuse," He said calmly.
Raddick drew a cutlass and held it against the slender rope that suspended Subaru above the ocean. "This is a limited-time offer, lad," He said menacingly. "If you can't pay then you're naught but dead weight on my ship."
"You misunderstand me," Subaru said with a smile. "I am willing to pay. However, I am not a common hostage and I refuse to be ransomed for pocket change. It would be humiliating."
Subaru took a quick head count of the pirates. "In exchange for my freedom, I will offer you thirty-six bars of gold and nine bars of platinum."
The pirates were speechless.
Finally, the captain burst out laughing. "Very well then! We have an accord! You pay us those bars or you die!"
"Yes, yes," Subaru said with a yawn. "Any chance of getting me down from here? This is not a comfortable place to sit."
"Oh, I think not!" Red Raddick grinned. "We've heard all about your strange powers. I'm not sure if the stories are truth or bunk but you're staying put right where you are. You may be some sort of strange magic man but I doubt that you can breath brine!"
Subaru thought about it. "You know what? I'm not sure," Subaru mused. "I've never tried. Still, what if I offered you my parole?"
"Your… what?" Red Raddick asked.
"My word of honor not to attempt to escape or to attempt hostile actions until my ransom is paid."
The captain frowned.
"Captain!" The mate hissed. "You can't possibly be considering this!"
The captain gave the mate a dark look.
Subaru chimed in. "Think of it this way: How confident are you that this cage can contain me until my people get here? " Subaru asked calmly. "I have quite a reputation you know, both for keeping my word and for breaking my enemies. If I were you, I think that I'd put more faith in my word of honor than in this crude wooden cage made by neophyte craftsmen. After all, even if I try to escape and fail, I 'll still be dragged down to the bottom of the sea and then you won't get paid."
The captain stared up at his captive in the cage.
Subaru smiled back blandly.
"You swear to the Gods?" The captain asked finally.
"Captain!" The mate snapped.
Subaru smiled. "I swear to all the powers in heaven and more: upon my own sacred name, that I shall not offer you threat nor endeavor to escape until my ransom is paid and I have reunited with my men," Subaru said.
The Captain glanced at his men. While several of the mates looked livid, most of the other pirates seemed satisfied.
"Cut him down," The Captain said.
The pirates quickly brought his cage back onto the deck and release him from the cage and unlocked his fetters.
Subaru stretched.
"We'll have your man deliver the ransom demand to your people straightaway, your Majesty," The captain said with a mocking bow. "I hope that you don't take this personally."
"Not at all, this is just business," Subaru said easily. "And I can promise you that it will just business when I have you all crucified."
The pirates all laughed except for the mates and one or two others who looked nervous but Subaru just smiled at them and waited.
The next week or two went by in a blur for the dreaming Subaru but he could tell that they were the most bizarre weeks that the pirates had ever experienced.
This was far from the first time that the pirates had held a valuable prisoner for ransom but it was by far the strangest. There was a standard script that nearly all hostages whose lives were in jeopardy read from: Being frightened, begging for mercy, trying to flee, offering a bounty to sailors if they 'd help the prisoner flee, cringing whenever the pirates threatened him. The script was well-known to all the pirates. But the strange thing here was that Subaru or rather the man that Subaru was dreaming of, steadfastly refused to read his lines.
From the very moment that he arrived in the pirate 's hidden port, he had acted like an honored guest rather than a captive. He spent his days bossing the pirates and their captain around as though he were their commander and then shushing them when he wanted to sleep.
Most of the pirates found this amusing but it made the Captain furious and more than once he openly debated if the prisoner was worth all this trouble despite buying his freedom for literally several times his weight in gold.
Subaru engaged in games and activities with the pirates when the mood took him. When they had practiced their sword fighting, Subaru had grabbed a wooden sword and after disarming an entire crowd of pirates effortlessly, he had castigated them and forced them to learn proper fencing at his hand.
When the pirates played Liar 's Dice, Subaru would occasionally jump in and he took pot after pot. More than one pirate who lost his savings playing with the captive warned darkly that they thought that Subaru's plan was to simply keep gambling until the pirates paid his ransom themselves. Subaru had even been able to catch one of the pirates cheating at dice which earned the man a swift death at the hands of his fellows.
Subaru occasionally asked for the pirates ' opinions on the speeches that he was composing during his unanticipated downtime. The pirates listened to his speeches or ignored them as they fancied. Regardless, they never had anything useful to offer in terms of constructive criticism at which point, in the only overt example of irritation that he ever showed, Subaru dismissed them all as 'philistines,' a word that meant nothing to them.
This continued until finally, the pirates took Subaru out to meet a ship on the open ocean.
The pirates met the small ship out at sea. Subaru saw that the pirates had ordered the gold shipped in a tiny ship with only ten soldiers accompanying the sailors, giving the pirates more than a three-to-one advantage if a fight broke out.
Greyson, a grizzled old veteran who had commanded Subaru 's soldiers this past year was in command. Subaru saw with approval that although Greyson had only been allowed to bring ten men, he had chosen the most elite of their forces, men that Subaru had all decorated at one time or another for courage and valor in battle.
Once the gold and platinum were exchanged, Red Raddick had permitted Subaru to depart which he did easily by leaping over the side and down onto the adjacent boat.
"Much obliged to you, your Majesty!" Red Raddick called mockingly. "Just pray that you never see our faces again!"
Subaru looked up in confusion. "I'm going to see you again. I promised to crucify you, remember? "
The cheering and taunting pirates all fell silent, staring down with unsettled expressions. Red Raddick glared down at Subaru.
Red Raddick spit over the side, a fat loogie that splashed against the other ship 's small hull. "Get us out of here!" Red Raddick snapped, walking away.
The huge pirate ship sailed off.
"My General," Greyson said as soon as the pirates were out of hearing. "Are you alright?"
"A little stiff," Subaru admitted. "But otherwise fine, Commander. And thank you and all your men for your speedy rescue."
Greyson sighed. "It took some time to gather the materials for the exchange. This ransom has put our forces into serious financial jeopardy."
"I'm aware," Subaru replied. "Don't worry. We'll get it all back."
Greyson gave a small smile. "I figured that you had a plan, General. Shall we get back to safe harbor and gather an army?"
Subaru stretched. "No need," He said with a yawn. "We'll take it back ourselves."
Greyson blinked. After the past few months, the old commander was used to his General, the man whom he knew would someday be King of all that he surveyed, issuing bizarre orders that made no sense until viewed in retrospect but this one was particularly strange. "Commander," Greyson said awkwardly. "They outnumber us by more than three to one."
"I know," Subaru said, "But we can handle them without any great difficulty."
Greyson nodded slowly. Over the length of his service, he 'd gotten used to the General coming up with masterful strategic plans that he wouldn't bother to explain in advance. "…So, shall we pursue them?" He asked.
"Not right now, Commander," Subaru said, heading below deck. "I'm actually rather fatigued at the moment. Captain, would you be good enough to drop anchor?"
The soldiers and sailors both just stared at their departing master.
"Commander?" The ship captain asked, sounding confused.
Greyson snorted. "You heard the General! Drop anchor!"
"Sir," A much younger soldier said. "I'm really confused."
"Get used to it, son," Greyson muttered. "The General rarely explains himself in advance."
"Or afterward, I've noticed," A veteran muttered under his breath and Greyson feigned not to hear him.
The next morning, Subaru was up well before sunrise. He not only joined his soldiers and sailors in their daily calisthenics but he did at least an additional hour.
"A beautiful day, Captain, don't you think so?" Subaru asked the ship captain, continuing to stretch.
The captain was clearly baffled by Subaru and wanted him to leave him the hell alone. "Lovely, sir," The captain muttered.
Subaru stretched again. "Well, I feel well-rested now. I think that it's time to go and deal with those pirates."
"Forgive me, master," The Captain said in a nervous voice. "But we have no trail to track them."
"You don't need one. Sail fifteen miles in that direction and you'll find a peninsula. Sail east around the peninsula and in four miles you'll find a hidden cove. Be careful entering the cove, there is a dangerous hidden reef there on the east side just under the waterline so hug the west shore during your approach."
The Captain only stared at him.
Greyson cleared his throat. "General, please forgive me for questioning you-"
"Come now, Commander," Subaru said fondly. "You're here to aid me not to flatter me. I deal with enough of that muck when I have to go to court. What is your concern?"
Greyson took a deep breath. "It's just that, by the time we get there, it'll be noon and the pirates will be awake and ready for us. Wouldn't a night approach be wiser?"
"No need to worry, Greyson," Subaru dismissed. "These pirates are no threat to us."
Greyson looked pained but he nodded as if his concerns had been fully answered. "Aye, sir. Set a course!" Greyson said loudly and the Captain rushed off to do so.
The ship entered the hidden cove as stealthily as the Captain could manage. They saw the huge pirate ship moored at the dock. The cove was as silent as a grave.
Subaru and Greyson stood at the bow, surrounded by soldiers. Every man had his hand on his sword.
Except Subaru who appeared to be mentally revising one of his speeches.
"General," Greyson whispered. "How do we plan to make our assault? Perhaps we could slip ashore here and surprise them by attacking from the land?"
Subaru started. "Huh? The pirates? Oh, right," He said, making no effort to keep his voice down. "Captain, just bring us into the dock and moor us there."
Greyson barely checked a sigh as the Captain did as instructed.
"After all these years," Subaru mused, "Do you know what I've learned about thieves and bandits?"
"What, sir?" Greyson asked.
"They never seem to be born with a surfeit of brains," Subaru sighed.
"General?"
"Oh, don't misunderstand me. There are many exceptions to this rule and most bandits are at least quick enough to pick up the skills that will permit them to thwart the law most effectively. But as a group, I still tend to find them to be terribly naive."
"Naive?"
"Yes. They always seem to be dreadfully shocked when the consequences of their actions catch up with them," Subaru reflected as they neared the dock.
Even as the sailors docked the boat, there was no challenge from the pirate village nor did anyone come out to investigate.
"I don't like this, Commander," One of the soldiers whispered. "Where is everyone? We should have run into trouble by now!"
Greyson 's lips tightened and he nodded in agreement.
When the ship had been secured, Subaru leaped onto the dock. "Come along, gentlemen," He said without a backward glance. "We have work to do."
Wordlessly, Greyson and the soldiers followed him into the village.
The pirate village had been the site of a massacre. Bodies lay everywhere, mostly pirates but all of the camp followers and dock workers were dead as well. The courtyard was flyblown and utterly silent except for the buzzing of flies and the scampering of other scavengers.
Subaru paid the carnage no mind. "Spread out," He told the soldiers who snapped to attention. "Groups of two and stay together. Search the area for survivors. Find me a wagon and also keep your eyes out for any gold or platinum bars."
The ten soldiers scurried off in five different directions, leaving Subaru and Greyson alone.
Subaru knelt down to inspect some wheel tracks in the soft mud.
"General, what happened here?" Greyson asked, sounding baffled.
Subaru shrugged. "The pirates destroyed themselves, Commander," He said matter-of-factly.
"Destroyed themselves?"
Subaru studied the muddy tracks for another moment and then nodded. "Fighting over the ransom," Subaru said, getting back to his feet.
Greyson stared at him. "Did you know that this would happen, General?"
"Of course," Subaru said as if this was self-evident. "I made this happen. I even taught the enlisted sailors how to sword fight in order to be sure that it did. Do you remember how many pirates there were?"
"About forty, I think?"
"Forty-five," Subaru corrected. "And I offered them thirty-six gold bars and nine platinum bars. The fools were so gripped by greed that they never pondered what that would mean when it was time to divvy up the spoils."
"Uh. What would what mean?"
"Platinum is much more valuable than gold, Commander," Subaru said, walking aimlessly through the now-deserted port that was littered with corpses.
"I know that, sir."
"Then you also know that I created a situation where four men in five would be completely aware that they were being short-changed on this deal."
"I don't follow."
"Since there were forty-five pirates, the logical approach was that each pirate would get one bar. But that led to serious disagreements between those who got the platinum ones, the ones who were, in essence, making off with nearly twice as much money, and the pirates who were stuck with the gold bars."
"Why wouldn't they just melt them down, sir?"
Subaru laughed. "Gold has a ludicrously high melting point, Commander, and platinum's melting point is even higher. The pirates had no tools to undertake such a task. I checked on that while I was here."
"Sir, is that the captain?" Greyson asked, pointing at a body that had been nearly ripped to shreds.
Subaru nodded. "It looks that way. My guess is that the senior pirates tried to take the nine platinum bars for themselves and the others got angry. Since there were only nine platinum bars out of forty-five total, I don't think that it would have been possible to allocate the loot in a way that satisfied everybody. So they just kept arguing and arguing and then…" He trailed off with a helpless shrug.
"Why not just… keep all the bars in the hold until they found a place to melt it down?"
"Excellent suggestion, Greyson. This kind of thinking is why you're one of my most trusted commanders. That is exactly the right solution but that solution also means ticking off your senior officers who felt that they had a claim on those platinum bars and don't want to give them up. It takes an experienced commander who has earned his men's trust and loyalty to issue such a divisive order and be confident that it will be obeyed. Mutinies have happened for less."
"You believe that there was a mutiny here?"
Subaru shrugged. "It's hard to say exactly what happened, " He replied carelessly. "During my stay, I could see that the first mate was ambitious and that he had no love for Red Raddick. This might have been just the chance that he was waiting for. So perhaps there was a mutiny. Maybe it was the mate's rebels against the captain's loyalists. Or maybe it was the enlisted sailors against the officers. Maybe the conflict wasn't so easily defined and it rapidly just became everyman for himself."
The soldiers came back at a trot. "No one alive, sir," The first soldier said and the others rapidly nodded. "Didn't see a single bar of metal, either."
"Not surprising," Subaru murmured. "How many bodies? Ignoring the camp followers and the like?"
"Hard to say, sir," One of the soldiers admitted. "I counted at least twelve."
"Fourteen for me, sir," Another said.
"Eight for us."
"Ten here, sir."
Greyson nodded. "So that leaves five survivors," He said.
"As expected," Subaru replied. "Any sign of a wagon?"
One soldier raised his hand. "No wagons, sir. I found a stable where there were dragons and wagons recently but now they're all gone."
"Perfect," Subaru said. "Alright, gentlemen, we're going on a forced march into tough terrain. Leave your packs here. We won't be out long."
The soldiers quickly shed their heavy backpacks containing food and water.
"Come on," Subaru said, leading the march out of the ruined port and up into the mountains.
"You think they made their escape overland," Greyson asked as they marched quickly.
"Had to," Subaru said. "With only five, there's no way that they could have crewed that ship."
"What if they took a smaller ship?" Greyson worried.
Subaru shook his head. "That metal weighs more than some buildings. The gold alone weighs close to a thousand pounds. This was a lot of weight even for the main ship. Imagine trying to carry all that weight on any ship small enough to be crewed by five."
Greyson nodded. "I remember that Captain Mac was worried about the weight of the metal on his ship and he has a crew of twenty."
"Right," Subaru said. "Since there wasn't any metal left behind in the port, that means that they took it all. Their greed refused to consider any other options. So they'd either flounder their small boat trying to escape and we could scoop the metal up out of the bay later or they'd try to take it overland."
"Do you think that they have a long head start," Greyson asked.
Subaru laughed. "I don't think that they've gotten very far at all!"
Subaru led the men on a forced march up into dry, mountainous country. After about an hour, Subaru signaled to the men to stop. They hid behind some leafy bushes up in the dusty hills.
"Sir?" Greyson asked.
Subaru pointed.
Greyson looked and he saw the pirates were on the mountain roads and arguing with one another. Swords had been drawn and one of five was bleeding out by the side of the road. The other four were arguing and not attacking one another so far but it looked like that could change at any moment.
The poor dragons pulling the wagon lay on the ground, looking either dead tired or just plain dead.
"No dragons could hope to drag more than a thousand pounds of heavy metal through these rough mountain roads," Subaru explained. "These men are trapped now. Their only way to escape would be to abandon the gold and they're far too greedy to even consider such a thing."
Subaru turned back to the soldiers. "Alright," Subaru said calmly. "This seems to be your business, Commander, and I leave you to handle it as best you can. Which is always very well."
"You can rely on me, General," Greyson said, quickly mapping out in his mind the potential escape routes for the pirates and how he could best cut them off. "They won't escape."
"Also, Commander, I want them alive," Subaru added.
Greyson blinked in surprise. "Alive, General?"
Subaru nodded. "Of course! I promised them that I'd have them all crucified. I can hardly do that if they're already dead, can I?"
Greyson looked aghast but then slowly nodded.
Subaru shrugged and turned back down the hill, whistling to himself.
From behind him, he heard a soldier whisper. "Commander, sometimes the General is scary ! "
"Just imagine how our enemies feel," Greyson replied.
Subaru smiled as he walked away.
"Subaru, are you alright?"
Subaru bolted upright, finding himself in a bed in the manor. For a moment, he was certain that he was back in Roswaal 's mansion before he remembered where he was.
Emilia knelt on the bed, staring at him with concern. "You were making strange noises in your sleep."
Subaru hesitated and then nodded. Yeah. If I was having another one of those weird visions, I can only imagine what I would have said and done in my sleep.
What triggers them? Do they happen whenever I overuse my Authority?
…Or is something else causing them?