1

Izumi stepped in the sorceress’s wake through a narrow corridor of metal. Small panels embedded into the sides near the floor lit up with a colorless glow at Carmelia’s passage, showing their way. The two came into a wide, round chamber with a high ceiling and Izumi paused at the threshold to take in the unusual view.

Everything was made of a strange material that looked like a mix of steel and stone, and all over the stripped interior were incised thin, curving patterns of no apparent meaning. An array of flat windows on the front side wall provided a panoramic view along the ship’s long bow, but the darkness of the cavern beyond made the windshield reflect back only the lights inside. Towards the stern on the right rose a short, two-sided stairway, at the top of which opened a circular portal deeper into the craft.

In the middle of the otherwise empty chamber lay a great, slanted seat, like one from a dentist’s reception, but meant for a figure of greater proportions than the average man. From the ceiling protruded an enormous device, an elaborate control scheme, which hovered in an exceedingly risky-looking arrangement above the pilot’s chair. The place seemed as much a nautical bridge as the exterior resembled a frigate, which is to say not at all.

While a thrilling discovery on its own, the craft made Izumi remember her visit to Alderia in too much detail for comfort, and she reflexively shuddered.

Meanwhile, Carmelia had mostly regained her usual aloof self after the initial surprise.

“Auxiliary power is on,” the magician observed, as she strode on across the chamber. She approached the grand seat and lay down on it without a second thought, and seemed right at home in it. She took hold of the controllers and the ancient device came to life at her touch. Numerous small lights ran across the metal in a reversed, steampunk recreation of the Christmas tree. Holographic display screens projected around the seat, encasing the cirelo’s figure in a cocoon of azure squares.

“It still has battery left, after all this time?” Izumi pondered in wonder.

“The basic systems consume little power,” Carmelia explained while her hands worked. “Even without once activating the reactor, it would take close to 4,000 years for the charge to be depleted. If the ship’s engine can be restarted, the battery will be recharged on the side. These crafts were meant to be everlasting.”

“Oh. Nice.” Izumi was convinced nothing could surprise her anymore. “I hope it still works.”

“Currently running diagnostics.”

Restlessly waiting, Izumi went to peer out of the front side windows, trying to see their companions on the dock. They had opted to stay outside, “to keep watch”. The contrived nature of the excuse was obvious.

Why they would refuse the trip to such an amusement park of futuristic technology—Izumi could somewhat understand their feelings. They were only more or less ordinary people of the land, without artistic movies or speculative literature to prepare them for the wonder that went so far beyond everything they thought possible. Millanueve had seen elven ships before, but in her case, the experience itself was more than enough reason to keep at a distance.

“In their eyes, it’s a horror like no other, huh…?”

“And in your eyes?” the sorceress asked. Apparently, she had heard Izumi’s mumbling.

“What?” The woman turned back to reply with a wide smile. “Do you even need to ask? It’s amazing, isn’t it? So much better than any treasure! Seems we got ourselves an airship, after all! How nice is that? More importantly, if it still works, we can all get out of here. They didn’t squeeze this thing down here through that tiny tunnel. I spotted something like a cargo lift in the back of the hall. There must be a larger opening in the cliffs, through which we can fly out without being seen by the monsters.”

“Then, for this once, let us have hope.”

Carmelia continued to operate the foreign machine. Izumi returned to her and stood by the pilot seat, waiting for the results with bated breath. The sorceress continued to manipulate the various odd buttons and switches with accustomed mannerisms.

“You actually know how to use this thing?” the champion observed. “I thought you were a princess?”

“I’ve been many things over the six millennia I’ve lived,” Carmelia answered. “’Princess’ was not consider an occupation by my people. And learning the basics of operating a transport was not much of a challenge. They are made intuitive.”

“Says a genius. Well, I don’t even have a drivers’ license. Bicycle is about the best I can manage, so I’m going to have to leave this one to you.”

“Even possessed of the necessary experience, you would have no choice in the matter. Like our roads and other technology, the controls respond only to those with emiri blood in them. Moreover, this is the High King’s personal craft. It can only be piloted by authorized personnel. Fortunately for us...as a direct heir, I am qualified.”

“Lucky us…” Izumi muttered with a grimace.

An essential character—Aiwesh had been able to predict the future this far. But rescue was still only a possibility, not inevitability. Had the spirit told them anything that ensured success, the knowledge would’ve come with a cost she was not willing to pay. They had to walk the rest of the perilous road on their own and maintained the freedom to fail.

It would’ve been a lie to say the thought wasn’t unnerving.

“The ship…” Carmelia’s hands abruptly stopped.

“Huh?” Izumi looked up with alarm.

“...It is intact,” the sorceress said with visible confusion. “It was never wrecked in a storm, as the stories said. It went through standard landing sequence and was set on standby.”

Izumi reached out and put her hand on the cirelo’s arm. “Uh, you should drop the logs for now. Let’s only look at tomorrow, okay?”

“...”

Her face unreadable as ever, Carmelia returned to work. The scan was soon completed, but the look she gave the woman wasn’t that of relief.

“The Solveig is operational. But there is a problem.”

2

The explorers’ return from the depths alive was surely enough cause for celebration on its own, but they had barely any time for a smile. As soon as the party was back on the ground level in the late afternoon, they gathered with the other confidants for an emergency session to discuss what they had found. The discovery of the salvaged ship of the elven king was received with great awe, as expected—save on Margitte’s part, who insisted the find was perfectly within expectations, based on the Langorian records. No one felt like calling her out on the obvious lie.

They’d been given the means to survive. A gift from the Heavens.

They’d found hope where previously was none.

“Let us hear your opinions,” General Monterey said. “Should we then give up our prior plan of stalling the enemy and seek escape instead?”

“There is still a week left before agent Aurlemeyr can reach here,” Master Laukan said. “Due to the losses we’ve suffered, we can no longer maintain any credible defense. Our end in the daemons’ hands could come at any given moment. I doubt a soul out there would hold it against us, were we to choose to save ourselves now that we have the chance, instead of waiting till the bitter end—and perhaps to no avail.”

“For what it’s worth, I share my Master’s opinion,” Margitte added.

“I will defer to her majesty on this,” the Prince said.

“As will I, naturally,” Arnwahl said.

“I think it would be better if we left here too,” Millanueve said.

“The enemy isn’t going to love it if we give them the slip,” Izumi told Yuliana. “But this was never meant to be our endgame, right? Our real goal is still way ahead of us. We know the way to save not only our people, but all the people in the world, humans and others. Then the choice should go without saying.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Yuliana said and nodded. “Living means to fight on. With the elven vessel, we can now cross the sea and seek the Heaven’s Pillar. Our true hope is in the power of the Old Gods. The only real hope we have left.”

“It would be easy to agree,” Miragrave spoke, ever the pessimist, and then turned her sharp gaze to Carmelia. “But you said something about a problem…?”

“Alas,” the sorceress nodded. “The ship is intact and capable of flight—but is missing a singular component. A power regulator has been removed from the central reactor. More advanced cruise modes and long-distance flight are unavailable without it. We would be forced to travel at low altitudes; crossing the sea in time will not be possible. I have not the tools to craft a replacement for such an elaborate part either.”

The listeners’ hopeful looks were transformed at once into breathless stupefaction.

“So this changes nothing?” the Prince exclaimed. “We cannot leave Noertia, but must stay and watch as our lands are one by one overwhelmed by those beasts?”

“Why were we even talking about this?” the Marshal sighed and rubbed her eyes.

“Because there may still be a way,” the sorceress told them. “A hope, albeit a frail one, to reclaim what is missing.”

Carmelia raised her hand and conjured above the table a spectral miniature model of the city.

“All classical era technology is interconnected,” she explained. “I used the ship’s sensors to conduct a scan of the surroundings and came up with a distinct response. The regulator is still in the city. The corresponding signal comes from a building in the south-western district—here.”

The magician marked the location in question with an orange-glowing dot.

“That’s...the Midia district’s bell tower,” Yuliana said. “It was once built as a watch tower to warn the citizens of approaching bandits, but nowadays it’s—was used to summon citizens to service in the nearby church. Why would the missing part be in such a place?”

“…Smells awfully lot like a trap, doesn’t it?” Izumi noted with a cringe.

“Undoubtedly, it’s a trap,” the Marshal said.

“How could that be?” Millanueve argued. “The ship was sealed far underground, that’s impossible! And how would the daemons know how the thing works?”

“There could be other ways down there that we don’t know,” the Prince replied with unease.

“And they are intimately familiar with elven constructs by history,” the Marshal added.

“But if that’s the case, then why weren’t they waiting for us, to kill us then and there?”

No one was able to answer.

They had no way to know. Was the part randomly taken by people long ago, or another sadistic game? Granting the strugglers hope, only to snuff it out in the last moment...

“Yet,” Court Wizard Laukan’s voice returned the crew to the moment, “a trap or not, we have no choice but to step into it, if we wish to live.”

“But how are we to get the part from such a place?” Yuliana asked.

“Perhaps Master Carmelia could conjure one of her shadowy doorways directly to the site,” Arnwahl suggested with a smile. “The building is within range, is it not?”

“Possible, perhaps,” the sorceress commented, “but I’d like to once again remind you that the enemy is sensitive to magical phenomena. Were I to open a Gate to the location, hostiles would soon convene there, and searching for the component would become extremely difficult. Moreover, the Gate works both ways. There would be nothing keeping the enemy from entering the castle while the portal remains open.”

“So there’s no choice but to go all that way on foot?” Millanueve asked with a stunned look. The mere idea made the audience shudder with loathing.

“That place is over two miles from the castle!” the Prince exclaimed as he stared at the illusory map. “Even further than the food stores! We’d never make it!”

“We cannot part a very strong force without crippling the castle’s defenses,” General Monterey added. “Even if the search team manages to recover the part, we’d trade away our home base in exchange. As well as the ship. So it would have to be a small team, less than ten people. Less than five.”

“It is a lot asked of anyone,” Master Laukan said. “The whole company is at its limits. Being ordered to go out to almost certain death—can any mortal's spirit be a match to such a challenge?”

“Let me try,” the Prince offered, though his nervousness was apparent on his hardened face. “I’ve done it once before, I might still—”

“—‘Might’ is not good enough!” Miragrave interrupted him outright. “Should your daredevil luck fail and the enemy destroys the component, it really will be the end for all of us. If we are to undertake such an absurd quest, we need some guarantee of success.”

“No such guarantee exists!” he retorted.

“It just might.” The Marshal turned her eyes across the table to Margitte, and continued, “Whether the enemy sees it coming or not, we are not going to manage this job without magic, as much is clear. Sending Caalan is out of the question; she is the only one here able to put the part back in its place. But Master Beuhler, as our barrier expert—you could do it. Can you not?”

Everyone turned to look at Margitte, wondering what the Marshal was talking about. She might have been the youngest Court Wizard in the history of the Empire, and gifted in many ways, but sending such a young girl on a mission as dangerous...

Certainly, Margitte’s face didn’t suggest great self-confidence at the moment.

“...You’re talking about my Fairy Sphere,” she answered the Marshal. “True enough, it should be able to ward off the enemy, if greatly condensed. It’s less intense than a Gate too, harder to detect. I understand. There’s no other choice, is there? As a magician—as a Court Wizard, I will do my duty. If it’s her majesty’s will.”

Margitte looked at Yuliana. Yuliana stared back at the girl without a word for a lengthy time, her reluctance clear on her face. She didn’t want to send anyone, but there was simply no way around it.

“Can you go?” she finally asked.

Margitte proudly straightened her posture, though her face remained unhealthily bloodless, and replied, “I will.”

“Then, who shall go with her?” Monterey asked, scanning the faces around.

“The smaller I make the barrier, the denser it will be,” Margitte explained. “To maximize the effect, I can only leave enough room for maybe one or two other people. Larger groups will not be possible. In fact, I think it might be better if I go alone…”

“No chance,” Miragrave vetoed the idea. “You so much as twist your ankle on the way and our hope dies with you. You will have an escort and if there can only be one other person, then the choice becomes easy enough. After all, there is one free hand here who has faced daemons in single combat before and lived. Well? Will you do it?”

The one the Marshal was looking at was, of course, Izumi.

“Eh?” Izumi regained her self-awareness with a jump. “Me?”

Going out into the city crawling with nigh-invincible monsters was the last thing she wanted to do. But how could she even think about refusing, when a girl less than half her age was putting on a brave face?

“Well, it can’t be helped,” she said. “Let’s go and get that part, So-chan.”

“—Just a moment!” Millanueve suddenly bounced up from her seat. “I can’t agree to this! Sending only the two of them, so far away, it’s much too dangerous! No matter how you look at it, it’s suicide! Did we really think this through? Is there truly no other, better way!?”

“Hey, Nue, it’s fine…” Izumi began to say.

“—You be quiet!” Millanueve brushed off the woman, turning her gaze to the Empress. “Yuliana! Your friends may be willing to die for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to make them! We should think about this more! There might still be something else, something we’ve overlooked…”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Like what?” the Marshal dryly inquired.

“I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking everyone to think with me! Just a little more...! We’ve solved so many puzzles before, we mustn’t give up now!”

“Time is not on our side,” Laukan said. “No one is terribly pleased with the plan, but we have to make our move soon. Nightfall is quickly upon us.”

Millanueve shook her head, exasperated. “I know that, but—Is this honestly all right? What if they both die out there? What will we do then? Try again? How many more people are we going to sacrifice to the darkness before we admit it’s a bad idea?”

“As many as it takes to succeed,” Miragrave readily answered.

“Sometimes a few must be sacrificed to save the many,” General Monterey concurred. “We are not doing this only for ourselves, but for the survival of the human race as a whole.”

“And how will the survivors feel about that?” the girl retorted. “Knowing their future was bought with so much blood and grief...What sense does it make to throw away lives to save lives? If we start killing each other only to survive, then how are we any different from beasts!? Aren’t we just doing the monsters’ job for them? Maybe this is exactly what they want?”

A heavy silence fell in the room. Millanueve leaned on the table, her face downcast, tear drops landing on the glassy surface between her hands. Pat, pat.

“You are not the one making the decisions in this room, De Guillon,” Miragrave grunted at the girl. “Sit down!”

The knight maiden dropped down on her chair, flushed, and wiped her face on her sleeves.

“—No,” Yuliana suddenly spoke. She looked up with wide eyes, as if woken up from a long dream. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

The others turned perplexed looks at her majesty, while she continued with a somber face,

“How could I forget? The very reason why I left this castle and set out on my journey...Somewhere along the way, that feeling had vanished from me. Before I even realized, I’d adopted the mindset of a pragmatist, thinking we people only have ugly choices to make in life. That instead of who we save, we can only choose who we let go. But that’s all wrong! That whole way of thinking lacks humanity! It wasn’t logic that made the decisions, but only fear and weakness. So long as we are alive, we must keep on seeking the best possible outcome, no matter how foolish it seems. That is also a trait that defines who we are; the wish for better. And we can be better than this! Have to be. It’s not only flesh and blood we’re trying to save, but our very souls and nature. There is always a way. If none can be seen, then we must come up with a new one ourselves, using every measure at our disposal!”

Yuliana looked at the others and the glint of determination was in her gaze again.

“With that in mind, I propose a revision to the plan. Izumi, Master Beuhler—can I entrust recovering the missing component to you?”

“It’s still the same plan as before!” Millanueve pointed out.

“No,” Yuliana replied with a mysterious smile, “because I won’t be sending them alone.”

The others had no idea what she was talking about, save perhaps Izumi. Instead of immediately elaborating, her majesty stood up, closed her eyes, and drew a deep breath, as if to muster her courage. The audience followed her odd behavior with confused frowns, unsure of what was to come.

Then, she opened her eyes again.

“I have something important I need to tell you all,” she announced. “For all this time, I’ve been keeping a great secret from you, although some of you already know it. I apologize for hiding it for so long, even as I call you my friends, but I assure, I didn’t do it because I didn't believe in you. I will tell everything now. It may sound incredible—unbelievable—but I swear every word true. And the truth is, inside me—inside this body of mine dwells the soul of a grand spirit; the guardian deity of my people, the Divine Lord of Light; Aiwesh!”

The listeners received the disclosure about as well as anyone with a modicum of common sense would; under a heavy silence, making very awkward faces.

“...Yuliana?” Miragrave asked with a concerned frown. “Are you quite all right…?”

“Yes,” Yuliana assured. “Master Carmelia and Izumi can testify that I haven’t lost my mind just yet. I hope the rest of you can take my word for it, until the time comes. Before that, let us return to the main topic. My amendment to the plan is as follows: daemons can sense magic, they are drawn to sources of power. Therefore, when the operation begins, I will call upon my Lord to possess me, and have her create a diversion on the opposing side of the city. The emission of mana will lure the main force of the enemy away from our friends’ position. They’ll be able to recover the component and get back without having to face the full force of the enemy. Lord Aiwesh is capable of flight, the enemy should have no way to reach her either. This way, we can clear the job while keeping the danger reasonable for all.”

The proposal received a mixed response. Arnwahl’s smile was particularly grating. The officers turned their confused looks to Carmelia, like the family of a mortally ill patient expecting the doctor’s opinion.

“It is a viable plan,” the sorceress gave her estimate without a hint of comedy, to their bottomless astonishment.

“But,” Laukan spoke to the Empress, “assuming this is...technically possible, how can you be sure that the grand spirit is willing to aid us? As far as I can tell, it has not been very protective of us thus far in our predicament...”

“She will help,” Yuliana insisted with a smile, not letting the skepticism get to her. “Because I will ask her nicely.”

3

The operation was put into motion without delay, on that same day. The winter sun was far along its descent towards the eastern mountains, but the castle courtyard stayed busy. Their numbers so drastically reduced, not one man or a woman could afford to take time off anymore.

The last grains in their hourglass were being spent.

Either this final gamble would pay off, or else death would take them all.

Izumi and Margitte awaited their turn at the bonfire in the middle of the yard. Both had donned dark cloaks crafted by Carmelia, similar to the ones worn by the Prince and his retinue, meant to obfuscate their vital signs. Otherwise they carried nothing extra, only a bit of water. Additional supplies would’ve been a pointless burden. They wouldn’t be out there for longer than an hour or two, or then they would be dead.

The commander came to have final words with them.

“We’ve moved the civilians to the chapel,” Miragrave said. “After an hour, we will withdraw from the perimeter wall and leave the gate open for you. As soon as you’re back and the ship mended, we’ll begin the evacuation in earnest. That will be the beginning of the end. So do me a favor and don’t stop to pick flowers on the way.”

“Roger,” Izumi said with a salute. Margitte didn’t speak, only nodded.

The Marshal gave them both a look.

“A daemon researcher and a slayer of such—I doubt I need to tell you what you will face out there. Yes. Not even Divines could know. Do not let your guard down for one moment. Nonetheless, though your chances may be abysmal, I won’t say goodbye. Neither of you is permitted to die. Get that part and come back. That is all.”

“We’ve got this, right?” Izumi said, turning to her small companion. “So-chan?”

“Y-yes,” Margitte replied, biting her lip, her small fists firmly clenched. “Of course.”

“Then go,” Miragrave said. She raised her face at the gatehouse and called, “Captain?”

“All clear!” The officer waved down. “No hostiles in sight!”

“Open the gate.”

The knights got to work. Levers were operated, wheels turned, great chains tightened.

The vast portal gave out a metallic groan and began to split.

“Are you sure?” Margitte discreetly inquired the champion next to her. “Not saying anything to your friends? You might never see them again.”

Izumi replied with a wry smile, “I think they all feel the same as Mira-rin. It’s still too early for goodbyes. None of us wants to believe this could be the end. Besides…”

“What?”

“Getting all sentimental before a mission is a big death flag.”

The gate was opened only by enough for the two to wriggle through, and then closed again. And then they were on the narrow, blackened bridge, the deadly burg before them, outside all safety.

It was too late for regrets. They spared no thought to any, but left jogging along the cobbled lane across the moat, which brought them to the city entrance and there Margitte paused.

“All right.” She drew a breath and raised her hands. “I will cast the—”

“—We’re still safe, leave it,” Izumi interrupted her.

“What?”

Izumi took the girl’s hand and led her along. They departed from the gate and ran along the left hand path, away from the main Castle Street. The road followed along the city wall, around the residential apartments, and they kept on it to avoid being trapped in the tight alleys strange to them, even though shortcuts might have made the trip faster.

Margitte wasn’t accustomed to marathons and soon grew short of breath. She also felt the woman was being much too reckless, charging ahead while paying hardly any attention to the dark gaps between the houses, or the front yards that overgrown bushes and oaks with their low-hanging branches shrouded. You could’ve hidden a full tribe of barbarians there, never mind beings that excelled at stealth.

But Izumi wouldn’t rely on magic. Not using their primary defense when they could fall under attack at any given moment—what was the woman thinking?

“Don’t you think we’re going too fast…?” Margitte questioned Izumi, struggling to keep up with her.

“We can slow down a little if you want,” Izumi said. “But we shouldn’t tarry too much.”

“Are you out of your mind? We’ll be safe, if only I cast the barrier. There’s no need to run ourselves ragged like this!”

“I may not be a mage, but I do know holding up big spells for long is not good for you. You’re still a growing girl too. Trust me. I’ll tell you when the time comes.”

“And when is that?”

“We’re still safe, for now.”

“And you know this because…?”

“A woman’s intuition?”

“Are you messing with me?”

“Not at all. But don’t waste your breath chatting now. The radio works both ways. I’m afraid Lia’s hoodie doesn’t help with that. We need to get as far as we can before they come say hi. Save your juice ‘til we really need it.”

Margitte swallowed her complaints and kept running.

Why, of all the people in the world, did I have to get paired with this deviant? Was this really such a good idea?

Did Izumi even plan to succeed? What if she had struck a bargain with the enemy, somehow, and was luring her into a trap to save herself? No, it was useless. Margitte had magic. If it looked like the woman would betray her, she could kill her and complete the mission alone. There was no need to be afraid. But she was afraid and there was nothing she could do about it.

They followed the street south.

It curved right and turned down along a long slope, framed by close-built little bungalows with their sharp roofs, and walls paneled with red boards, yellow, and green, like the huts of an Alpine village. They ran past the dark, empty windows fixed in clean white cross frames and skittered down the slope, where past rainy seasons had wrestled off the cobbles and rendered the path muddy and slippery in places.

A distance from the bottom of the slope on, they arrived at a wide T-junction.

A major lane departed thence to the west, but they hesitated to proceed. Their goal was in that direction and the avenue easy to run on, but it took them deep into the heart of the southern city, amid the jungle of taller apartment buildings, where untold threats lurked behind a thousand corners.

Accustomed to navigating virtual maps, Izumi had the city layout memorized, and she took a moment to think of a better path. But no path was safe and sticking to the wall took them already too far south. The sinister presences up ahead seemed to blend into vague clouds that occupied wide areas and could not be entirely avoided by any means.

Instead of safety, they could only prioritize the travel time. The sun was already beyond the Skaelje and they were losing light fast.

No choice.

She pulled Margitte along and proceeded directly west in the middle of the street, walking at a more cautious pace. Eyes in the deepening blue, they kept away from the doors and windows and unclear corners, which would’ve seemed counter-intuitive for anyone trying to avoid being seen. They strode on for a few blocks’ length in silence, before Izumi abruptly stopped and held the girl back.

“Now might be a good spot for a magic trick,” she said.

“Why?” Margitte asked and glanced nervously around. “Do you see them?”

“No. But I’m pretty sure they see us. And there’s kind of many of them.”

Asking no more questions, Margitte raised her palms before her and chanted the litany under her breath. Finally. Glowing tiles emerged from the night, drawing a circle around the two. Like a honeycomb made up of mellow light, it wrapped around them in a tight hemisphere, leaving a distance of roughly three feet to the sides and less than that above. The shielding didn’t look terribly strong, thin as paper. Moreover, because of the glow and the darkening background, it made seeing the surroundings harder too.

“So, what makes this so special compared to other barriers?” Izumi asked.

“Good grief, you truly are an ignoramus,” Margitte replied with a sigh, momentarily regaining her usual haughty air. “Most isolation fields of this type are static, locked to specific, predefined coordinates. My Fairy Sphere’s advantage is that it’s entirely mobile, one of the rare few spells of this type ever recorded. It uses the caster herself as a reference point, constantly redefining itself relative to changes in my position. Moreover, it’s unusually cost-efficient for such a heavy defense, with abnormally quick casting speed, and—”

“—Eh, okay, cool, can we go on now?”

They walked on under the cover of the magic field.

It was more awkward than Izumi had imagined. Rather than well-protected, it made her feel like a Christmas turkey in a shop window. She could see hardly anything through the cracks between the tiles of light, and the uncertainty was driving her crazy. She couldn’t sense the enemy’s presence through the shield either. The spell isolated not only her body but also her mind.

But they kept on going and nothing seemed to be happening.

Margitte, on the other hand, was greatly comforted by her own magic, as well as the more relaxed pace. Instead of watching out for an ambush, she kept trying to see the bell tower ahead. No sign of it could be seen past the high rooftops yet. They had come no more than three quarters of a mile from the gate.

“There really is nothing left,” she said as she gazed at the twilight township. “How eerie.”

Houses deserted, streets barren, yet none of it broken. It was not a war zone they were looking at, not the site of an earthly catastrophe. A disaster entirely unnatural and wrong, even by the scale of disasters. Fate, life, nature, every aspect of existence bent out of alignment.

And then, what little could be seen of the darkening city vanished.

As if all stars and heat had been extinguished from the cosmos with a snap of fingers, the city about their small bubble became obfuscated by an impenetrable, black veil. The next thing she knew, Margitte found herself staring at a row of long teeth. Across the semi-opaque wall of magic hovered a horrid face devoid of features, save for a wide, lipless mouth pressed against the barrier in a ceaseless grimace. She stopped, horrified, and turned away. But left and right and everywhere she turned, that same, eyeless face awaited her, more of them continuously emerging from the darkness. More and more. The whole world seemed covered in teeth and claws. Great dark hands pressed against the thin tile film, pushing it, clawing it, trying to pull it out of the way, tear it apart, and reach the two people inside. Margitte saw the barrier begin to bend and screamed out. She crouched low, covered her head with her arms, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut to escape her violent end.

“—So-chan!” Izumi called her and tried to pull the girl back up. “Hey, focus! Stay with me!”

“No, no, no, no…” The girl squirmed and fretted, swatting the woman’s hands away. “Get away, get away from me...!”

“Come on!” Izumi knelt and took the mage’s head in her hands and forced Margitte to look up at her. “You have to focus!”

“There are too many…!” the girl sobbed, evading her, “there are too many of them, I can’t...! I can’t, I can’t…!”

“You can! Don’t look at them! Look only at me! We’re fine! They can’t get in, you’re still holding them back! You can do this!”

“I can’t, they’re too strong, there are too many…We’re not even there yet and they’ve got us! We’re never going to get back again! We should never have come, it’s impossible—I knew it was impossible…!”

“Listen to me!” Izumi shouted, stronger. “It’s going to be okay! It’s going to be okay—and you know why? Because I believe in you! I’ll always believe in you, So-chan, whatever happens! So it’s okay if you don’t believe in yourself. You don’t need to—you can just believe in me, who believes in you!”

Margitte paused and looked slowly back up at Izumi. “…What?”

“Like that?” the woman asked with a faint smile. “I learned that from an old anime. So cool, isn’t it? Makes your spirit burn, doesn’t it? As if you could do anything.”

“...You’re not making any sense,” Margitte told her, but couldn’t keep her lips from twisting into a crooked smile in kind.

“That’s more like it.” Izumi patted her. “Come on, ginger. They’re all waiting for us back home. We have to keep moving. One step at a time.”

Izumi helped the mage up and they walked on, step by step, the woman holding the girl’s small hand in her gentle grip. The shield moved along with them, forcing the horde of daemons to make way.

The force pushing against them was heavy, but Margitte endured. Still the beasts hung on, endlessly seeking a way over or under the bubble, clawing at the street at its base like frenzied hounds, scratching the tiles of light, trying to locate even the slightest weakness or an opening…

“Eh...?” Margitte glanced to her side and paused.

The fiends were all of a sudden gone.

Instead, they walked surrounded by a crowd of people. Men in farmer’s clothes, pullovers and chequered cotton shirts; women in linen skirts and well-used aprons, one with hands still floured, as if she had been baking bread till a sudden desire to run out to the street had met her; children in patched shorts, skinny and glum, big eyes sunken in their dark sockets; grayed elders, cheeks hollowed and mouths toothless, their eyes cruel. Like escorting a hoarse, the mob stepped slowly on by the magic sphere, their gazes all fixed at the magician.

“Hey! Hey, you!” A fat man came banging at the barrier with his fist, obnoxiously hollering. “Hey, whore! Let me in! Hey whore! Whore! Let me in! Let me in there, right now! I know you can hear me, you trashy little bitch!?”

“Hii…!” Margitte staggered with revulsion and clung tightly to Izumi’s arm.

“Come on,” Izumi told her and walked on. “All they have is words.”

On the other side, a woman looking like a middle-aged grade school teacher, scrawny and wrinkled, began yelling in a shrill voice,

“What do you think you’re doing, young lady!? You put this thing down right this instant! Are you listening to me? Huh!? You put this thing down now, or I will find where you live! I will find where you live and I will come and cut your throat in the dead of the night as you sleep! Yes, that’s what I’ll do, you better believe it!! Like I did to ALL MY CHILDREN!”

“Don’t look at them,” Izumi said, pulling Margitte closer. “Just keep walking, one step at a time.”

“I know…” Margitte said, her voice barely a whisper. She gritted her teeth and walked.

An old wizard in dignified blue robes strode next to her on the other side.

“You call that magic?” He said with a spiteful glance. “I’ve seen love potions more potent! How many babies do you think they burned in their heretical rites to uncover the principles for such a sham, those miserable pagans in their mud huts? The raving lunatics and their hashish dreams! Your mind is crammed full of the ideas of savages and cannibals, girl! Do you think greatness will come out of that filth? Or maybe you’re the same? Another ape who denies her nature? Just an inbred idiot! You never had it in you to be a true magician. Your inferior woman’s brain is unable to process the Art, too busy thinking how you bleed between your legs. See? You’ve miscalculated the Z-axis modifier, the schema is already starting to come apart. Failure!”

“No, it’s not!” Margitte screamed and covered her ears.

“Don’t listen to them!” Izumi shouted.

Then, at once, black was replaced by white.

As if the day had returned early, a bright light exploded in the sky, along with a celestial boom that washed over the rooftops, and drowned out the chaotic noise of the mob. They all stopped and turned to look up at it, at the wondrous shining that had appeared high above the north side city. It dangled only a bit above the buildings in the black sky, more powerfully luminous than anything, a mid-winter miracle, their very own star of Bethlehem.

The horde of daemons forgot about the adventurers and vanished in a storm of black smoke, scattered in their feverish pursuit of the strange heavenly body.

The two humans were left to stand in the middle of the deserted lane, alone once again.

Izumi looked at the light and exhaled a long sigh.

“Not a moment too soon, show-off.”