Subaru fought his way through knee-deep snowdrifts, a freezing cold wind howling at his back. Angry black clouds boiled overhead but Subaru dealt with nothing but flurries.

He’d walked through Emilia’s village without really seeing it. Subaru had been walking through the frigid, silent woods for well over a mile fueled by sheer resentment.

She told me to leave. After everything that we’ve been through together, she fucking told me to leave! I almost started to believe that Emilia wouldn’t eventually say that we were just a mistake and that we should break up but then she told me to-

Subaru shook his head violently, trying to shake off the poisonous thoughts.

She wants to get rid of me… She wants me gone…

A cold voice whispered to Subaru from the depths of his mind. It’s not really a surprise. You always knew this would happen eventually. She’s started to see you as you really are. Not as a hero or a genius but simply as an inept bumbler who briefly had a lucky streak. The dragon blood is gone. You can’t save the forest for Emilia. You can’t make everyone remember her. You have nothing to offer her. In fact, you’re doing nothing but putting her in danger. Normally, rumors of a witch hiding in a forest would be beneath Reinhard’s notice but do you think that he’ll ever get tired of hunting the woman he blames for his friend’s bewitchment? He’ll hunt Emilia down and-

“Fuck” He roared, triggering Indomitable and smashing his fist into a nearby tree.

The trees in the forest were practically ice sculptures themselves and his punch shattered the tree into billions of tiny snow particles.

Subaru grabbed at his hair as if to rip it out. “All I wanted to do was to keep my family safe! Is that really so much to ask?!” He howled.

Subaru crouched down in the snow and buried his face in his hands. “Oh my God, I suck. Beako, I promised you that we’d be together forever. I lost you after less than a month!”

Come on, Subaru! Pull yourself back together! Beako needs you! This isn’t the time to be feeling sorry for yourself. This is the time to come up with a plan to get her back!

Subaru stood up and took several deep breaths.

“OK. One step at time. That’s how I’ll do it. I will get Beatrice back!” Subaru promised. He took a deep breath, “I need a plan.”

Subaru triggered Reason and Judgment.

The snowflakes blowing across the snowdrifts slowed down briefly and then the wind sped up and they all blew away.

Subaru coughed and spat out a mouthful of black crud that tasted like ashes.

Fuck! What’s wrong with my power?!

The cold voice whispered, In all candor, Reason and Judgment wouldn’t help you very much right now. Your intelligence may surge in that mode but this alone will not solve your problem. Your issue is not lack of intelligence but rather lack of information. You can not concoct a plan to rescue Beatrice because you have no idea where she is. This is the most important piece of information to acquire. Unfortunately, it will almost certainly be the most difficult.

The place where Beatrice and Puck are being held wouldn’t be bandied about in casual conversation in some bar. Nobody else would care enough about the information to even pass it on. Beyond that, their location might even be classified. They might be considered enemies of the kingdom because of their association with a suspected witch. The kingdom might even-

Subaru’s fear and fury rose up to engulf him like some great wave. No! That is not what happened! Felt and Reinhard won’t blame the spirits for what Emilia and I did! They’ll make sure that they’re well taken care of.

The cold voice continued. This is always assuming that Reinhard and Felt actually have custody of the spirits. Crusch might have ordered them to be turned over to her or to the sage’s council. Either one is likely to be much less kind to the spirits, both in general and in extracting any useful information…

Subaru’s face contorted in horror. “Fuck!” He screamed. He fell to his knees in the deep snow, burying his face in his hands and crying helplessly.

Emilia sat in the cottage, her face buried in her hands. What have I done?! I didn’t mean… Subaru! All I wanted was for you to be happy! Why can’t you understand?! I love you so much that I can’t bear to have you with me because all I do is hurt you! I hate having to see you in pain!

What sort of life could you have here?! A fugitive, hiding away in a cursed forest? Subaru, you could be a King! You could spend every day surrounded by people who love you and think that you’re a hero! How could I possibly let you spend the rest of your life in hiding with me? What’s even worse is, I know that you’re kind enough to throw away everything in your life just for my sake but I can’t let you do that! I can’t let myself be that selfish!

It’s become clear to me that I’m the one who’s putting you in danger. Anyone who sees us together will think that you’re a Witch Cultist! They won’t look at you and see a wonderful person who should be loved and admired by the whole world, they see someone that they think deserves to die! All I can do is put you in danger. Your life would be ten times harder just because I was in it! That is why you need to leave me!

Emilia swallowed hard and looked around the tiny cottage. Somehow, now that Subaru had left, the small house felt even smaller. A set of four walls that now contained the shattered remnants of her meaningless life.

She buried her face in her hands with a wail of despair.

Subaru marched north. He knew that it was irrational to just walk through the forest at random but he wasn’t sure what else to do. He wasn’t ready to go back to Emilia just yet.

Fuck me. What the hell was I doing, talking to Emilia like that? I’m a fucking asshole. I took all of my frustrations out on her just because… she suggested that we separate.

Subaru stopped and took a deep breath. The chill wind whistled through the empty forest. Subaru was suddenly struck by the loneliness of the place.

He shook his head and kept walking.

Alright, look: I’ll freely admit that I completely overreacted and that what I said to her was… seriously not OK but why would she ever tell me something like that? Doesn’t she know how much the very idea of never seeing her again kills me?

I’m not lying. I’d rather die at Emilia’s side than go on living without her.

I know that Beatrice and Puck need me, need both of us. I get that. But… I’m not going to trade Emilia for them. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.

The clouds overhead boiled angrily, threatening a violent storm but Subaru only dealt with flurries as he wandered the forest trails.

OK. It’s time that I finally faced reality. I’ve lost all of my friends, most of my family has been captured, and my fiancee is a suspected witch who will be killed on sight. The only thing I’ve got left to work with is my Authority.

Fuck. All I ever had to work with was my Authority. That’s why Beatrice chose me, why Reinhard and Felt followed me, and… it’s probably why Emilia fell in love with me…

Fuck me. I almost wish that there was a cliff handy that I could throw myself off of…

Alright, whatever. OK, so there’s absolutely nothing good or admirable about me except for my witchcraft… which actually kind of means that there’s nothing good about me whatsoever.

…God, I suck.

Subaru left the trees and began walking across a wide meadow.

Come on! Knock it off! You have the Authority of Pride! The strongest Authority imaginable and you need to master it! That is the only way to get Beatrice and Puck back and it’s the only way that you can keep Emilia safe. You are going to master the Authority, period.

Yeah but how? And is the Authority even working anymore? Reason and Judgment seems… jammed. I keep throwing up when I try to harness the power. I can still use Indomitable and Pridebreaker but what’s wrong with Reason and Judgment? Am I overusing the Authority? How do I make it stronger?

Beatrice told me that the Authority would get stronger as I gave into my pride. Sounds simple enough. The only problem with that plan is that I am Subaru Natsuki, the most worthless, pathetic waste of space on two different worlds. I let Beatrice and Puck get kidnapped, my fiancee has been cursed, my friends all turned against me, and the entire world is hunting me down.

Jeez, Roswaal even flat out told me that the Authority seeks out the most pathetic people that it can find. The Authority must be really satisfied with how things have worked out so far. Selecting pathetic people seems a little counterproductive for Pride but I guess I just still don’t understand how magic works.

Subaru, still deep in thought, found himself climbing a tall hill in the middle of the meadow.

God, I keep acting like something brought me to this world for a reason. Maybe I’ve got this whole thing backwards. Maybe the Earth was just so embarrassed to have me around that it flung me somewhere and didn’t give a shit where I wound up as long as it was far away. Maybe I should just be grateful that this planet even has oxygen.

Subaru reached the top of the hill and saw something out of the corner of his eyes. He looked up and saw the hill was covered in crude snowmen, dozens and dozens of snowmen.

Huh? Do little kids come way out here to play? Why would they?

Subaru examined one snow man more closely and noticed that there was ice under the coating of snow. Subaru delicately brushed the snow away revealing the figure of a woman with pointed ears. Her clothes and terrified expression were captured in perfect relief in the ice.

“Holy shit,” Subaru whispered, looking around in shock, “This must be… where it happened…”

Emilia sat at the table, staring at the wall. She found that she had no interest in moving, eating or sleeping.

She just sat there.

“I did only what was best for him,” Emilia murmured to herself in a dead voice. “That’s all that that matters. Nobody in this world even remembers me. Nobody cares about me. What happens to me doesn’t matter. I need to be thinking about Subaru. Subaru deserves the world. Now that I’m no longer holding him back, he can have a happy, wonderful life. I should be happy for him. I will be happy for him.”

She heard a faint knock on the door.

Emilia’s heart leaped into her throat. “Subaru?” She breathed. She took a deep breath. “Come in!”

The door opened a crack and Emilia’s face fell.

“Good morning!” Anri said cheerfully. “Are you guys ready to go?”

“Go?” Emilia asked in confusion.

Anri looked awkward. “You know, to Iruk?” Anri reminded her. “I already fed and saddled Patrasche and everything! We can head out any time,” She hinted.

“Is Patrasche still here?” Emilia asked sharply.

Anri frowned in confusion. “Well, yeah, why wouldn’t she be? She’s right here,” Anri replied, opening the cottage door a little wider and revealing the riding dragon standing just outside.

If Subaru didn’t take Patrasche then he hasn’t left the forest! He’ll never get out of the forest on foot! Maybe that means that he’ll… come back?

Or was he just too angry to think straight when he left and when he calms down, he’ll come back for Patrasche and then leave me alone forever?

…He wouldn’t even need to see me. He could just take the dragon and leave. I’d walk outside, find that Patrasche is gone, and realize that Subaru has left and that he’s never coming back…

…Which is good. This is what I want, remember? It means that Subaru will be happy and safe.

I need to stop being so selfish…

“Where’s Subaru?” Anri asked, stepping inside the cottage and closing the door behind her.

Emilia bit her lip and her face fell.

Subaru was surrounded by dozens and dozens of ice statues. He knew that they must all have been Emilia’s friends and family.

God. I knew that this happened in the forest but… somehow I never really thought that I might end up here. I never imagined that I’d be out walking and just run into all the ice statues that Emilia made the people of the forest into.

The statues were frozen in poses of frantic flight. Their faces were contorted in fear. Many looked behind them, clearly terrified of whatever had been chasing them.

Shit. It’s no wonder that Emilia is so desperate to help them. She once told me that she came out here every day to clean them off. I guess they all look like snowmen because of the daily snowfall in the forest coupled with a few months of nobody tending to them.

Subaru bit his lip. He rummaged around in his satchel and pulled out Petra’s handkerchief. He cleaned off most of the snow with his bare hands and then used the handkerchief to remove the finer bits.

I doubt that the elves care if their bodies are covered in snow. Hell, I doubt that they’re are even aware of it but… I don’t know what else to do here. Besides, maybe Emilia will appreciate my efforts if she comes out this way.

…Or maybe she’ll just be mad that I was sneaking around the forest and looking into her affairs…

Subaru kept brushing the snow off the statutes. Each was face was different but they were all terrified.

With every statue I clean off, I feel like I’m uncovering the scene of some ancient tragedy. Or the evidence of a crime scene. All of these statues used to be people. They used to be Emilia’s friends and family.

It took hours but Subaru cleaned off all of the ice statues. He noticed a strange frozen blob near the middle of the assembled statues that had been partially melted.

That must have been where Puck thawed Emilia out of the ice.

Subaru looked around at the frozen elves. He was surrounded by dozens, hundreds of frozen bodies like the world’s strangest cemetery. The weight of Emilia’s guilt and self-loathing hit him like a truck.

Their faces are the real killer. These people were terrified and running for their lives before Emilia cursed them. Their faces are all contorted in fear. They’re panicking but they’re still all running away together. No one is breaking away from the group or trying to save themselves at someone else’s expense. I can see lovers holding hands, families desperately trying to help the younger kids keep up. The elderly and infirm being carried on the backs of the young and strong. These were good people.

And all of their lives were cut short by Emilia’s curse.

Subaru shook his head.

Emilia came here everyday to keep them free of snow and to confront her own mistake.

Fuck me. I told Emilia that she had to get over her guilt. Now that I’m actually standing here, I’m amazed that she isn’t suicidal. I probably would be. Of course she’s desperate to save them. Who wouldn’t be? But now that the dragon blood is all gone, we have only one hope for saving them: the Authority of Pride.

Subaru brushed the bits of snow off of Petra’s handkerchief and put it back in the satchel. The frozen elves standing around him were at least free from snow now.

He sighed. “Maybe it’s time that I finally go back to Emilia and begged for forgiveness,” He murmured to himself, slinking down the enormous hill.

Subaru kept moving at a brisk pace trying to make for Emilia’s cottage. He’d been out here for hours. The sun was already starting to descend and the cold was deepening. His thoughts about Emilia’s unspeakable burden and what the kingdom might do to Beatrice and Puck kept racing through his mind, despite how hard he tried to suppress them.

He just needed to keep moving. He felt like if he ever stopped moving, his despair would catch up with him and he’d be unable to move at all.

“Emilia,” Anri asked in disbelief. “Why the hell would you do that?!”

Emilia didn’t answer.

Anri shook her head. “Come on, Mili! You know that this isn’t what you really want!”

Emilia sighed. “I’m afraid that this is bigger than what I want, Anri. Since the day that we met, Subaru has ignored his own interests. He’s done nothing but think about me and how to make me happy. How long can I possibly let him keep doing all of this? Could I really just let him waste his entire life on me?”

Anri looked skeptical. “If you asked him, do you think that he’d say a life spent with you would be a ‘waste?’”

Emilia sighed and bowed her head. “Anri, if you could be a King, if you could spend your days surrounded by people who admire and adore you, would you really be willing to hide in a forest for the rest of your life with some loathsome witch?”

Anri gave Emilia a steady gaze. “Couple of things, Mili. First of all, you’re not a witch. Very important point. Secondly, and you can take my word for this, power and prestige are seriously overrated. And as far as I can tell, if he stayed with you, Subaru would be spending his life with someone who admires and adores him. Why would that be a mistake?”

Emilia sighed and wrapped her arms around her chest as if she was trying to hold herself together. “I’m just… I’m just worried that one day he’ll wake up some morning and realize that… we were just a huge mistake…”

Anri thought about it. “I suppose in the end, all marriages are mistakes,” She admitted. “At least in the sense that a more suitable partner could have theoretically been found. But it’s the people who willingly stand by us, who choose to endure whatever life throws at us, who are our true soul mates.”

Emilia was crying. “That’s… that’s very wise, Anri,” She sniffed. “It sounds like something that Subaru would say.”

Anri gave Emilia half a smile. “Well, I can’t really take any credit for it, Mili. It’s a quote from one of my favorite romance novels,” She chuckled.

Before Emilia could respond she heard a thunderous noise echo across the forest. A great rumbling cry, less a roar than a strangled cough that rattled the rafters and then faded in the distance.

Emilia looked at Anri in shock.

Anri looked terrified. “Um. Whatever made that noise, I don’t think that I want to meet it.”

Subaru froze in his tracks as he was walking in the forest. The thunderous sound shook the trees like a great wind.

“Emilia!” He whispered and then took off for the village at a run.

“Where are we going?!” Anri screamed, desperately trying to keep up with Emilia who raced through the forest, following Subaru’s tracks in the deep snow. “What was that thing?!”

The pair sprinted across a small meadow.

Emilia, for her part, was utterly indifferent to if Anri followed her or not. Emilia’s thoughts were fixated on one thing: Subaru. Got to find Subaru!

What could have made that noise? Whatever it was must be enormous! I would have guessed the White Whale but Subaru and Reinhard killed it. Could it…

Could it be the Black Snake?

Oh Gods. Please, not again!

“Emilia!” Subaru shouted as he ran out of the trees.

“Subaru!” She shouted, grabbing him in her arms.

“Are you alright?” He demanded.

She nodded. “I’m fine! Subaru, are you-”

“I’m alright. Emilia, what the hell was that?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Um,” Anri muttered, startling both of them as they had forgotten that she was even there. “What is… that?”

Emilia and Subaru both turned where she pointed. There was a massive Guiltylowe standing in the trees on a small hill.

Then he realized that the Guiltylowe was backing away and snarling at something else.

Subaru looked past the Guiltylowe and saw that something was moving through the forest. A vast, creeping pool of viscous black sludge was flowing up the hill toward the mabeast.

The Guiltylowe stood its ground and roared at the oozing muck. The beast raised one great paw and smashed the sludge. This had no more effect than stomping on a mud puddle.

The creeping muck, suddenly quick as a striking snake, formed long strings and enveloped the beast’s paw, then flowed up and over the thrashing mabeast.

The Guiltylowe tried to leap away but it couldn’t break free, struggling against the strangling, black tendrils of sludge that were crawling all over its body as if the beast were being buried in black spiderwebs.

The blob’s tendrils were like clutching fingers as they pulled the pool of sludge up and over the beast’s body and engulfed the Guiltylowe. The muck piled more and more of itself onto the struggling mabeast and then contracted until every muscle and sinew of the beast was starkly outlined under the black murk. The Guiltylowe’s roar of pain trailed off into a gurgling wheeze.

Then the blob suddenly collapsed in on itself, falling back to the earth and becoming a flat puddle once again.

The sludge began to flow away. There was no sign left of the Guiltylowe except for tiny scraps of fur and a few small bones.

“Emilia,” Subaru said as he and Emilia clung to each other trembling. “What the hell is that thing?!”

“I don’t know!” Emilia whispered, her face white.

“It’s the Black Water!” Anri gasped.

They both looked at the girl whose face was contorted in horror. “I’ve read about it in books!” She said in a strangled whisper. “When the Black Snake roams the world, sometimes it leaves behind pools of its venom. Its venom is alive and has the same desire to kill as its creator. The Black Water is much more deadly in Gusteko than in the other nations because of the cold. The Black Water can lay dormant in frozen lakes for years or even decades before a break in the ice frees it.”

“Frozen lake?” Subaru whispered to himself.

Oh no. What the fuck did I do now?!

“I don’t think that it sees us,” Emilia whispered.

“I’m not sure that it even has eyes!” Subaru hissed. He watched it. “At least it’s… flowing away from us.”

“We need to get the hell out of here!” Anri breathed in a shrill voice. “We have no chance against this monster! Absolutely none! The Holy King would immediately send out all of his Acolyte Knights if the Black Water was spotted! We need to get out of here and sound the alarm!”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Subaru muttered. “At least it’s not heading toward the village.”

Emilia nodded but then she stiffened. “Oh, Gods! It’s headed right toward the hill of the villagers!” She screamed out loud.

Emilia tore herself free of Subaru’s arms and raced after the monster.

“Emilia!” He screamed, racing after her but Emilia easily outpaced him.

“No!” Anri screamed. “You can’t! There’s no way that you can fight that thing!”

Emilia raced toward the monster. Her mind was blank. Her only thought was to protect the helpless villagers that stood frozen on top of the hill.

I can’t let it reach them! If this monster devours the villagers then there is no hope, no hope at all! I have to protect them!

The Black Water slowly inched up the hill with the villagers’ statues at its summit.

Emilia flew toward the hill and scrambled up after the Black Water. Emilia reached deep down into herself, summoning all the magic that she could muster and flung a wave of absolute cold at the beast.

Emilia panted for breath as the magic, like a vast pale blue wind, tore after the monster. In the magic’s wake, the snow on the ground froze to solid ice which then cracked and shattered from the sheer cold.

The magic struck the monster full on. The creature twisted and boiled, making a thunderous ‘coughing’ sound. The flat puddle grew long tentacles of sludge that rolled and writhed until the creature resembled a gnarled, black thorn bush of immense proportions.

The monster’s black skin began to grow patches of white frost that steadily crept along its body. The beast slowed its thrashing, its tendrils growing stiff under the spreading frost.

The magic began to crystallize the monster. More and more of it froze solid until the Black Water was nothing but a twisted, eldritch ice statue of flailing tentacles the size of a house.

Emilia fell forward onto her hands and knees, gasping for breath.

I don’t think that I’ve ever used that much magic in my entire life…

It’s all that I can do not to pass out just from kneeling here.

But my people are safe. That’s what’s important. Now I can go home and rest to my heart’s content.

She heard Subaru racing up behind her.

“Mili! Are you OK?”

She nodded, having no breath to speak as Subaru knelt down beside her and put his arms around her.

Subaru stared in amazement at the enormous ice sculpture that looked like a forest of brier shrubs.

He shook his head. “Mili, let’s get you home,” He whispered.

There was a rumbling sound. Subaru and Emilia both looked up in horror as the frozen Black Water shivered. Fissures spread up and down its frozen tentacles as the ice began to crack. The Black Water squirmed and shuddered. The frozen statue trembled.

Then the Black Water shattered its bonds.

The nightmarish creature rose up before them like a standing wave, twenty feet tall. It grew gnashing tendrils in profusion from its inky black body.

The beast’s whip like tentacles lashed out at Emilia and Subaru threw himself in front of her.

A tendril, blacker than pitch wrapped around his arm.

Subaru’s mind screamed in agony. He had triggered Indomitable a second too late. He look down at his arm and nearly passed out. Between the places where the monster’s tentacle had wrapped around his forearm, his limb looked like meat that had been dunked into a deep fat fryer. The skin had turned a yellowy brown and his flesh steamed where the monster had grabbed it. It looked like the skin was dissolving and the muscles underneath were starting to come loose off the bone.

Subaru desperately shoved Emilia away from the creature and she went skidding across the snow. Anri raced to her side.

Subaru gave the monster an Indomitable punch but it felt like punching Jello. The monster quivered a bit but the force just flowed through the beast and his blow did no damage.

This thing’s grip is like iron! I can’t break loose! I can’t even trigger Reason and Judgment! Indomitable is preventing that thing from dissolving my arm but once it times out my body is going to melt like butter on a skillet!

I can’t even punch the thing! It’s a gelatin!

Five seconds.

What the hell do I do?! I need to save Emilia but she’s too tired to run right now and all of her magic is used up!

Four seconds.

I need the real power! The kind that manifested at the slaver camp! But how do I do it? What triggered it?!

Three seconds.

Pride. I need to harness my Pride. Give me the power! It’s mine! I deserve it! I need it. I want it! Give it to me!

Two seconds.

Let’s make a deal! I’ll give you whatever you want just help me! Help me save Emilia!

One second.

Subaru’s mind began to thrash in desperation. I’m not going to let everything end this way! This is my story! Mine! I’m not going to die in these accursed woods! I am going to protect Emilia and rescue Beatrice. And God help anyone who gets in my way! This sludge has threatened my wife and I’m going to show it what a terrible decision that was!

Indomitable timed out and Subaru tried to sustain it on pure will. But instead of the heart-squeezing pain that he usually felt, this time he felt a terrible tearing sensation deep within his chest, as if something inside of him had ripped wide open or ruptured.

Then the power started to flow and Subaru stopped worrying about it.

“Pridebreaker,” He whispered.

“Subaru!” Emilia screamed. She tried to get to her feet but her knees buckled under her.

The Black Water engulfed Subaru like a breaking wave, burying him under gnashing tentacles and thick black sludge.

“No!” She screamed, reaching for her magic but she was well and truly drained. She tried to crawl forward but Anri grabbed her shoulders and held her back.

There was a thunderous detonation that shook the earth.

Emilia and Anri were both thrown backwards by the force and the Black Water exploded out into a great dome thirty feet across. The previously opaque black sludge now looked filmy and translucent, as if the monster had been stretched to its very limits.

The monster staggered, slowly unpeeling itself from around its prey. Then it collapsed to the ground stunned, like a starfish that had been flung up on the beach, its huge tendrils sprawling in every direction, wisps of steam were rising from its body.

Emilia looked feverishly for some sign of Subaru but she was forced to avert her gaze as a great gush of steam struck her eyes when the monster withdrew itself from around him. The heat billowing out from under the Black Water’s dome melted the snow for yards around it.

Emilia looked up and her jaw dropped. Subaru stood there calmly, one tendril still clutching his arm, but he had changed.

When Subaru had been at the slaver camp, Emilia had been too far away to sense him. She hadn’t understood what the spirits had been so concerned about.

She understood now.

Looking at Subaru was like looking at the sun. The power radiating off him was enough to make Emilia want to shield her eyes, instinctively knowing that her frail body was never designed to stand this close to such power and that it could reduce her to ashes without effort or even ever noticing her presence.

Mana poured out of Subaru like heat flowed from a bonfire but this mana was strange and unnatural. Emilia sensed the spirits, the forest, and indeed the whole world recoil from it.

“You dare?” Subaru asked the Black Water quietly.

The Black Water reverted from a thick sludge to a more viscous liquid and began to flow away.

The monster made it less than a yard before it jerked to a halt.

Emilia realized that, despite being a liquid, Subaru had somehow managed to grab the creature by its tendril and was holding it fast.

“Filthy wretch,” Subaru murmured. “Misbegotten by accident and toil. You dare to challenge me?”

The creature fought to get free, flowing away, stretching itself into a long slender rope but it could not seem to shake off Subaru’s grip.

“You are a mindless abomination,” Subaru said, sounding as if he’d found a cockroach in his cupboard. “A beast bereft of heart or mind. Pathetic wretch. I am the principal aspect of this world and in your unthinking assault against me you have dared to lay hands upon the world itself. Did you think that I would ignore your trespass? Think you that, because the winter storm lacks agency, its offenses against me should go unacknowledged? Madness! Be you agent or be you principle I know the terrible malice that animates you! Think not that clemency nor mercy shall be afforded to you for your presumption, you lifeless thing! I would strike the sun if she offended me!”

In desperation, the Black Water turned and fought. It attempted to envelope Subaru again but its withing tentacles… slowed.

The creature rose up and tried to engulf Subaru but it was moving as if in slow motion.

Steam was pouring from every inch of the creature’s body. Water was dripping from every tentacle as if the monster was sweating from unimaginable heat. The tentacles were shrinking, growing stiff as its sludgy body dried out.

“Fie on you, you filthy, aborted thing,” He whispered. “This world has been given into my hand. I am the rightful master of all that I survey and it is by right and by duty that I shall impose my order on this realm.” Subaru shook his head in contempt.

The monster’s entire body was shrinking. It’s coloring was steadily growing darker and more opaque as the Black Water concealed and curdled.

It’s tentacles were shrinking, retracting, becoming nothing but stiff stubs.

The waves of steam were thinning and the water flowing out of the monster diminished to a slow trickle.

The creature finally stopped moving. It looked like a stiff, gnarled thorn bush.

Subaru gave it a look of deep contempt for a long moment.

Then he punched the desiccated corpse.

It shattered into dust.

Emilia stared at Subaru with her jaw hanging open.

Emilia jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Anri.

“Emilia! What the hell just happened here?” Anri whispered in disbelief as she helped Emilia climb to her feet. “I’ve never seen magic like that. I’ve never even heard of magic this strong! What was that?! Yin magic?”

Emilia turned to Anri, her mind racing for plausible explanations for Subaru’s power. “Yes!” She agreed immediately. “Subaru is an extremely powerful wielder of Yin magic. He was even contracted to the Great Spirit of Yin!” She said proudly.

“Wow!” Anri breathed.

“Emilia,” A voice croaked.

Emilia turned back to Subaru and saw his eyes roll up in his head. Subaru collapsed limply into the half melted slush.

“Subaru!” Emilia screamed, staggering over to him.

She fell to her knees in front of him and gathered his limp body onto her lap.

Subaru moaned, shaking his head. Emilia stared down at his arm in horror.

Emilia could sense the vicious curse that the beast’s touch had imposed. The skin on Subaru’s left forearm was bubbling like bacon grease over a hot fire. The bubbles popped and left open sores and painful looking lesions in their wake.

“Subaru!” Emilia screamed.

Subaru moaned. “Emilia,” He whimpered with his eyes closed. He seemed barely conscious.

Emilia spun around to stare at Anri. “Anri! You said that you were a healer! Please, can you help Subaru?! There has to be an antidote for this poison, right?!” She begged.

Anri stared down at them and bit her lip. She seemed to be thinking about something. Behind Anri, Emilia saw Patrasche racing across the meadow, attracted by her partner’s cries.

Finally Anri nodded. “Yes. There’s an antidote.”

“Please! You have to make it! You have to help him!” Emilia cried. “I can’t lose him like this! I can’t! There’s so much that I still need to say! So many things I still have to make right!”

“Don’t worry, Mili. We’ll help him,” Anri said seriously. “But we need ingredients. We need to get to Iruk.”

“Iruk?!” Emilia objected. “Anri, this is no time-”

“I don’t have time to argue, Emilia!” Anri said flatly. “I need the ingredients to make the cure and the only place nearby that we might find them is in Iruk. We need to go now.”

Even in her terror, Emilia couldn’t help but notice the change that had come over Anri.

She’s gone from a smiley, bubbly girl to someone who’s all business and clearly accustomed to giving orders.

Patrasche raced up, to nuzzle at her master with a cry of dismay.

“Patrasche!” Anri shouted. “Perfect timing.”

Anri quickly went to mount the dragon.

Patrasche gave the girl a sharp look and for a moment it seemed like the dragon might throw her off or even attack her. But Patrasche looked down at her wounded master and seemed to decide to tolerate this for now.

“Emilia! Come on!” Anri barked as she sat down in the saddle.

Emilia picked up Subaru’s limp and trembling body. His arm burned against her skin with the heat of an oven. “Anri, how are we going to keep Subaru on Patrasche?” Emilia shouted as she stumbled over to the riding dragon.

“You climb up in front of me. I’ll control the dragon, you hold on tight to Subaru,” She said matter-of-fact. “Also, remember to give me directions because I have no idea where I’m going!”

Anri reached down and helped Emilia climb onto the dragon with Subaru in her arms.

Emilia struggled to get settled in front of Anri while still holding Subaru tight. Anri tried to hold onto Emilia.

“Emilia!” Anri shouted. “Which way?!”

“That way!” Emilia shouted, pointing across the meadow.

Anri kicked Patrasche’s ribs and the dragon took off like an arrow shot from the string.

“Anri! Why are we going to Iruk?!” Emilia demanded.

Anri was digging something out of her bag, seemingly leaving their direction to Patrasche. “Because… there’s someplace in Iruk that I think I can get medicine…”

“Anri! There is nothing in Iruk!” Emilia protested. “I’ve seen it. It’s a tiny one road town! I don’t think that there was even a store there!”

“Emilia!” Anri shouted back. “Listen! I…” She hesitated and then sighed. “Look, I’ve already told you more than I should have!” She said, sounding as she was reproaching herself. “You’re just going to have to trust me!”

Emilia bit her lip and slowly nodded.

Anri pulled something out of her bag and handed it to Emilia. “Here. Put this on Subaru,” She said, shifting her attention back to the dragon’s frantic passage through the forest.

Emilia took it and looked at it. “A belt?!” She asked incredulously.

“Put it on his arm!” Anri said impatiently. “Tie it on his arm above where the poison is and make it tight! Make it as tight as you possibly can!”

Emilia nodded and frantically slipped the belt around his upper arm and clinched it tight.

Subaru flinched and moaned.

“Anri! The belt is hurting him!” Emilia protested.

Anri sighed. “Not as much as that poison flowing into his organs will! Make the belt tight!”

Emilia hesitated and then pulled the belt as tight as she could.

Subaru flinched and started to fumble for the belt in his sleep, trying to loosen it.

“No!” Emilia said, taking his hands and holding them tight.

Subaru whimpered.

“Just… try to be calm, Subaru!” Emilia said desperately. “We’re going to get you medicine and you’re going to be all better. You have to be all better…” She whispered.

She shook her head. “Subaru! Just hang in there and we’ll fix this and then we can go back to the forest or… I don’t know where we’ll go but we’ll go somewhere, Subaru. We’ll be fine as long as we’re together. We were meant to be together…”

Patrasche thundered through the forest and Anri and Emilia could do nothing but hang on. The sky had opened and great clumps of wet snow fell onto them as they went.

“We’re almost there!” Emilia shouted.

“Good,” Anri muttered as she reached around Emilia to peel back one of Subaru’s eyelids.

Emilia gasped. Subaru’s eye had a network of strange black veins running through it.

The trees began to thin around them as they reached the forest edge. Patrasche burst through the last of the underbrush and raced across a wide open field that shifted from winter to summer in a single stride.

The heavy snow instantly changed to pouring rain.

“Hey, Emilia,” Anri shouted. “I’ve never actually been here before. We need to find the church. Do you have any idea where that is?”

“I don’t even know what a church looks like!” Emilia said in dismay.

Anri shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It should be easy to find. Churches are big and they have a lot of decorations outside. We should find it pretty easy.”

“And that’s where the medicine is?” Emilia asked desperately.

Anri bit her lip. “I sure hope so,” She murmured.

Patrasche raced into the village.

I’ve never been this close to Iruk, Emilia thought, but it looks like what I told to Anri was correct. This town is terribly poor.

There are only a few houses here and they’re all small and poorly maintained.

On the bright side, the rain seems to be keeping everyone inside this afternoon so at least nobody is seeing us come into town.

“There’s the church!” Anri shouted, steering Patrasche toward the largest building in the village. It looked like nothing more than a slightly larger house with a small, squat tower on top.

“We’re almost there, Subaru,” Emilia whispered to him.

His sallow face twitched but he didn’t respond.

Anri reined Patrasche to a halt in front of the church. She helped Emilia climb down with Subaru in her arms.

Then Anri sprang down off the dragon and threw herself at the church door, pounding at the stout wood.

“Who is it?” A low voice asked from the other side.

“Natalie!” Anri said in a great voice that trailed off. She bit her lip and cursed under her breath, looking as if she had just realized that she should have said this more quietly.

The door quickly opened and a beautiful woman with short blond hair emerged. She wore black pants that were probably leather of some kind, a tight white shirt, and a red beret.

“Princess!” She said in delight. “Man! Make me worry some more next time, why don’t you?! I’ve been going out of my fucking mind just sitting here with my thumb stuck up my ass, wondering if you were safe or not. I was debating if I should go out and search the whole fucking road between here and Pardochel looking for you! What the hell happened? Where are…” The woman trailed off as she stared at Emilia in astonishment.

Emilia flushed and realized that she’d forgotten to pull up her hood.

All wet and bedraggled by the rain, I must look like more of a witch than usual.

“What the fuck,” The woman said in a hard voice. “Is that limp-dick cock-sucker doing here?!”

Anri froze in place. “Victoire, you… recognize him?” She asked slowly.

Victoire looked offended. “…Of course I recognize him!”

Anri nodded looking sheepish. “Right. You’ve been working in Lagunica. I forgot.” Anri hesitated for a moment. “Look, apparently the incident at Arlem was almost all lies! I assure you, Subaru is not a butcher or a mass murderer. Besides, he may be an enemy of House Voivode but that doesn’t make him our enemy! Vlad an Voivode is just Prince Malcolm’s attack dog anyway,” Anri said dismissively.

“What is he doing here?!” Victoire repeated.

“They’re friends of mine, Victoire. Subaru was badly poisoned fighting the Black Water,” Anri said, pushing past the woman and gesturing for Emilia to follow.

“Fighting the what?” Victoire said in disbelief as Emilia swept past her with Subaru in her arms.

Emilia tried to ignore the looks of abject loathing that the woman was giving her.

The door led them into a cluttered kitchen. It wasn’t very clean or well organized but the enormous spice rack that dominated one wall was fully stocked with oils and herbs of all kinds.

“Don’t worry,” Anri muttered as she studied the spice rack. “He managed to kill it.”

Victoire’s jaw dropped. “He did what?!” She exclaimed. “Are you telling me that this scrawny, little-”

“Look, Victoire, it’s a long story and we’ve got no time to discuss it,” Anri said dismissively as she pulled down several bags of dried herbs. “Where is everybody?”

Victoire, who was staring at Subaru with loathing, blinked as she finally realized that she’d been asked a question. She bit her lip and flushed. “Uh. I’m not sure if there’s a way to break this gently, Princess,” She said awkwardly. “But… I think I’m the only one who made it…”

Anri stared at Victoire in horror. “What?!” She gasped.

Victoire sighed. “We kept splitting up, trying to throw off pursuit and… I guess those freaks just kept… picking us off, one by one. I got here and waited for the others to show up but it’s been three days now and no word. The others are either dead, or hiding somewhere and unable to help us.”

Anri nodded slowly. “Yes… let’s hope for that,” Anri whispered.

“Anri!” Emilia whispered urgently, Subaru in her arms.

Anri jumped. “Oh! Victoire, is there a bed nearby? Somewhere that he can lay down?”

Victoire nodded but her face was still twisted in disgust when she looked at Subaru. “Sure. There are beds down the hall,” She said reluctantly, pointing to a hallway next to the kitchen.

“Great. Emilia, why don’t you lay Subaru down there. Victoire, I need a pot,” Anri continued to gather herbs.

“Princess,” Victoire said with an edge in her voice. “Forgive me for questioning your ‘wise and puissant judgment’ and all that garbage, but do you know what’s going to happen when people find out about this?”

“Find out about what?”

Victoire fumed for a long moment. “Princess, think about it. If you’re seen in the company of that little piss-ant, all the other Houses are going to think that you’ve made an alliance with Lagunica! Plus everyone thinks that he’s a mass-murderer!”

Anri hesitated.

“Yeah! Picture it!” Victoire said pointedly. “So far the other Great Houses have sat out of this mess. I know you’d like them to take your side but if they think that you’re dragging the southern lizard-worshipers into Gustekan affairs, they might join House Griest in fighting against you!”

Anri bit her lip and thought for a long moment. Finally she sighed. “Subaru has been poisoned by the Black Water and I’m going to mix up a cure,” Anri replied firmly, continuing to gather ingredients.

Victoire grumbled as she started to rummage through cabinets looking for a pot. “And you… know how to do that?” Victoire asked skeptically as she handed Anri a pot.

Anri just nodded. “I was studying medicine as a child so I could help my brother with his… Look, I’ve been required to study fencing for most of my life. I decided to study medicine as well. A good commander will keep her troops alive for the next battle and that means knowing how to tend to their wounds.”

Emilia just stared at Anri in shock, barely able to follow the conversation.

Anri noticed Emilia’s baffled gaze and shifted awkwardly. “Look, Emilia,” She sighed. “I’m sure that you have plenty of questions right now but first you need to put Subaru to bed. Make sure that he stays warm. We rode through a freezing storm to get here and the last thing we need is for Subaru to come down with pneumonia.”

I don’t know what that is but it sounds bad, Emilia nodded and carried Subaru down the dark hall.

“Hey, Princess!” Victoire said in a strangled whisper, not realizing how good Emilia’s hearing really was. “This place is supposed to be a secret! House Griest already has us by the balls and they’re picking us off one by one. More people knowing about our safe-houses is the absolute last fucking thing that we need!”

“They saved my life, Victoire,” Anri said patiently. “I need to help them in return.”

Emilia walked slower, listening carefully.

“Yeah well, forgive me, Princess, that’s really fucking noble of you and everything but don’t we already have enough frigging problems without you dragging a she-elf and that… prick, into it?!”

“He’s going to die if I don’t heal him,” Anri said firmly. “So I’m going to heal him! Period. If you want them to be gone faster then build up the fire and help me get the medicine ready. I’m sure that they both want to be gone just as badly as you want them gone!”

“Princess! Do you know what your Uncle and Grandfather are going to say?! These two know about the safe-house and we’re just going to let them walk away? We usually kill people just to-”

“Enough, Victoire!” Anri’s voice crackled.

Victoire fumed. “Princess, when your Uncle and Grandfather find out about this, it’s going to be my ass!”

“And you’ll tell them that you were following my orders,” Anri said in a tone of finality.

Victoire didn’t reply and Emilia heard Anri gathering more ingredients.

Emilia opened a door down the hall and found a big, cozy bed with a heavy fur blanket lying on top.

She gently took off Subaru’s clothes and laid him under the covers.

Subaru didn’t stir.

Emilia checked his arm and saw that thin veins of black were beginning to creep up past the belt. The flesh below the belt looked yellowed, shriveled, and dessicated. It looked like the limb of a person long dead.

Emilia, in desperation, tried to tighten the belt a little more.

Subaru whimpered in his sleep.

“It’s going to be OK, Subaru,” Emilia whispered.

I’m not going to cry! You only cry when there’s nothing else to do! Anri is making medicine and Subaru is going to be all better so I won’t cry!

Emilia forced a smile on her face that looked like a grimace. She took one last lingering look at Subaru and then returned to the kitchen.

Emilia walked silently down the hall. Even from outside the room she could hear Anri and Victoire’s whispered conversation.

Anri sighed. “By the Gods. I… I just can’t believe that things have gotten so bad in just a few weeks…”

Victoire nodded. “Yeah. Things are pretty fucking shit back home.”

“I can’t believe how badly the war is going!” Anri said incredulously.

“It’s weird,” Victoire growled. “It’s almost like Malcolm an Griest knows what we’re going to do before we do it! I think he may be using some kind of strange magic…”

“What kind of magic could do that?” Anri asked in a worried tone.

“Dunno. I’m not a mage. But something is weird here. I’ve met Malcolm an Griest. He is not this clever.”

“Maybe he just has a new adviser,” Anri suggested.

“Maybe,” Victoire admitted. “But the last I heard, he doesn’t listen to his advisers. Prince Malcolm is not a smart man and like most stupid people he thinks he’s absolutely fucking brilliant and that he doesn’t need any advice.”

“My Uncle once said that a stupid enemy is a gift from the Gods,” Anri said.

“Normally yeah but for whatever reason, this war isn’t going well for us. Siros is under attack. The city isn’t surrounded yet but the armies are choking off all the trade routes. What’s even worse is that something is eating the entire Shadow organization bite by bite. Your Uncle and Grandpa are in a desperate situation.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Did they sent any advice or instructions for me?” Anri asked desperately.

Victoire shook her head. “Nah. Things are bad though. I think they were probably expecting you to run to Lagunica and take shelter there-”

“I can’t do that!” Anri protested indignantly. “My people are in danger! I can’t just run away and do nothing!”

Victoire sounded guilty. “Hey, Princess? Sorry, but I’ve got to be pretty fucking blunt here.”

“Well gee, that’s a shocker,” Anri rolled her eyes. “I’ve never known you Shadows to speak any other way.”

Victoire snickered. “Look, I’m just saying, reading between the lines of your Grandpa’s last note, I think that they’re standing out in the woods with their breeches down-”

“Wow. That’s an image,” Anri murmured.

Victoire continued. “The trade routes have all been blockaded and supplies in Siros are running short. Worse, your grandfather wrote that the other Shadows have learned of a second column of soldiers scheduled to depart from Sanshi to assault Siros within the next few days.”

“Another column?!” Anri said incredulously. “How many soldiers does that madman have?!”

Victoire snorted. “Hey, Sanshi has a lot of people. You know what those sluts are like. Buy a Sanshi girl a beer and her thighs are open before she finishes it. The point is, I’ve got to tell you, Princess, I think it might be time for you to consider some… drastic action…”

“What kind of drastic action?”

Victoire hesitated. “Well… there’s always the thing in the Vault below the Grand Archives…” She murmured awkwardly.

Emilia stepped into the kitchen and found Anri and Victoire sitting at the table. A cauldron of something with the consistency of mud bubbled over the fire.

Anri was silent for a long moment. Her voice was strangled, “How did you-”

Victoire sighed. “Please, Princess. The Shadows have served your family for centuries. We’re spies. We’re supposed to know things that we’re not supposed to know.”

Anri closed her eyes. “Victoire, I think that sentence almost broke my brain,” She moaned.

“What I’m saying is that finding out stuff that we’re not supposed to know about is kind of our whole deal. It’s what we do. You don’t just fucking turn that on out in the field and then forget about it when you’re back home. My boys and I are… aware of a lot of stuff that folks might prefer that we aren’t. But we need to know about it if we’re going to give you good advice, right?”

Anri’s voice was hard. “No one is supposed to know about this, Victoire. If Grandfather even suspected that you knew, he’d order the Shadows to kill you!”

Victoire had a grim look on her face. “Yeah, Princess, believe me I am well-fucking-aware of the fact that owning up to what I know is putting my head on the block! That’s why I never brought it up until we were absolutely-fucking-desperate.

“On a related note, your Grandpa might want to think twice before ordering the execution of any Shadow who knows something that they shouldn’t. The service would end up pretty fucking empty by the time he was finished. Anyway, I told your Highness what I know and why I know it. What you do with that information is up to you. I could give you vows and assurances of my loyalty and all that crap but hey, if you trust me then you don’t need those assurances and if you don’t trust me, why would you listen to any of the bullshit that fell out of my mouth?” Victoire finished matter-of-fact.

Anri made a face at Victoire, then covered her eyes with her hand. “Gods, I just love dealing with you Shadows,” She sighed.

Victoire laughed. “Yeah, I’ve heard your Grandpa make similar comments, Princess.”

Emilia deliberately stepped on a squeaky floorboard.

Anri jumped and Victoire looked darkly at Emilia.

“Oh!” Anri said. “Emilia! How’s Subaru?”

For a moment, Emilia thought that she would burst into tears but she fought them back and managed to dry her eyes. “Where is the medicine, Anri?” She asked plaintively.

“It’s cooking right now,” Anri said, pointing at the cauldron.

“Cooking?” Emilia asked in surprise.

Anri nodded. “The ‘Draught of Unquenchable Flame’ is a potion that can curse many kinds of witchcraft poisoning but it spoils in a matter of hours. It needs to be made fresh for each use.”

“But how long will that take?!”

Anri shook her head. “Not long. It will be ready soon, Emilia. I promise.”

Victoire cleared her throat. “Hey, Princess, maybe the elf should go and keep an eye on her… man. We, uh, do have a couple of… private things to discuss.”

Victoire glared at Emilia with contempt. Emilia endured her gaze without blinking, having seen far worse.

“Look, her name is Emilia, not ‘the elf’,” Anri’s voice crackled with suppressed fury. “She saved my life.” Anri took a deep breath. “Victoire, I realize that lots of people in Gusteko have a low opinion of demi-humans,” Anri said in a more composed voice. “But Emilia and Subaru have been my rescuers and my friends when I was in a desperate situation. They offered me aid and shelter when I had nothing to offer them but my thanks. I see no reason not to trust-”

“It’s fine, Anri,” Emilia sighed. “We all have secrets that we’d rather keep hidden. While I certainly would be willing to keep your confidences, you don’t know me very well and for me to be elsewhere while you have a private discussion would give you one less thing to worry about.”

Anri looked guilty. “I mean, I don’t want to kick you out, Emilia…”

“Please don’t worry about it, Anri,” Emilia forced herself to smile. “Frankly, I’d rather be with Subaru right now anyway.”

Anri nodded. “Of course. I’ll be in to check on him shortly. The medicine will take a while to cook but we can at least make him more comfortable in the meantime.”

Emilia took a deep breath and sank into a curtsy. “I am truly grateful… Princess.”

“Hey! It’s ‘Anri!’ And please, skip the bowing! I get so sick of all that formality back home!” Anri said with a chuckle. Her expression grew more serious. “Don’t worry about it, Mili. Helping Subaru is the least that I can do. You two saved my life after all.”

Emilia nodded and left the kitchen to return to Subaru’s bedside.

She wasn’t trying to listen to their conversation as she walked back down the hall but she couldn’t help it.

“Do you have any letters from Grandfather?” Anri asked.

“Well, I did, Princess. But I ate them.”

“…You ate them?!”

“Hey! It’s standard protocol! Get a message, read it, memorize it, destroy it. You know how this fucking works.”

“Couldn’t you have just… burned them?” Anri asked in distaste.

“Princess, I’m a fucking spy! I don’t usually carry lit torches around with me when I go to check drop-boxes. They make it pretty fucking hard to blend in.”

“Never mind,” Anri sighed. She paused a moment. “Hey, Victoire, did you know… Hunnicutt?”

“Not very well. I only met him for the first time when I met you in Pardochel. Uh, Princess? You used the past tense. Did he…?”

“He died trying to get my away from the assassins,” Anri said quietly. “We were attacked by mabeasts but he managed to save my life and get me safely up a tree before he died.”

Victoire sighed. “Yeah, that really bites, Princess. But speaking as a Shadow, I can tell you with absolute-fucking-certainty that he would be frigging stoked to see that you got here alive and in one piece.”

Anri sighed. “Maybe. But I’m not really looking forward to trying to explain to his family why their loved one had to die…”

“He died saving his Princess,” Victoire said bluntly. “Most Shadows I’ve met would consider that a high achievement.”

Anri sighed. “Victoire, did Grandfather… mention the Grand Archives in his missives?”

“Nah,” Victoire replied. “Not that those notes would be a smart place to discuss these kind of secrets anyway. Messages can always be snatched and intercepted, even when they’re being guarded by Shadows. I’m just bringing up the Vault because frankly, we’re running real fucking short on any halfway decent options…”

Emilia opened Subaru’s door.

Anri took a deep breath. “I’m not ready to discuss that… yet, at least. The Vault was sealed for a reason. We should pursue other options first.”

“Whatever, Princess. I’m totally at your command and all that stuff,” Victoire yawned. “So my only other idea is to get over the border for a while. I know some places in Lagunica where you could hide out until the dust settles. I don’t think that Griest wants you badly enough to risk a war with the dragon kingdom to get you.”

“I can’t do that!” Anri protested.

“Damn. Just keep shooting down my ideas, why don’t you?”

Anri gave an exasperated sigh. “Victoire, our people are fighting in a war. I can’t just… run away!”

“Well, we need to do something pretty fucking soon, you know?” Victoire said quietly. “Your Grandpa’s last note said that he thinks that Griest might know about our network of safe-houses.”

“I… I just don’t know… what to do…” Anri whimpered.

Victoire sighed. “Look, Princess,” Victoire said in a kind voice. “I know that we were never as close as you were to some of your other bodyguards-”

“That’s not true, Victoire,” Anri said reassuringly. “We had lots of fun in Pardochel. Remember when you sneaked me out that night so we could visit that dance hall?”

Victoire snorted. “I thought you needed a break after all those boring conferences. I mean, sure you’re a fucking Princess but you’re still a kid. You need to have some fun in your life!”

“When we finally got back, Vera looked she was going to have a stroke!” Anri giggled. She sighed. “I hope that Vera is OK…”

“She’s the most experienced Shadow around, Princess,” Victoire said firmly. “If I had to put my money on just one of us surviving, it would be her. I refuse to believe that someone like me, who is obviously just devastatingly beautiful but not the most experienced Shadow, fucking lived through this disaster and Vera didn’t!”

Anri laughed.

“Look, Princess, what I meant to say,” Victoire continued in a soothing voice. “Is that I’m still here and I’m not leaving you. I’ll take care of you. This magnificent lady is going to get you home again safely, no matter what it takes. I know that we weren’t especially close compared to you and Vera, but… so long as I’m the only one you have left, I’ll do whatever I fucking have to. I’ll keep you safe.”

Emilia closed the bedroom door behind her.

She quietly sat down on the bed beside Subaru, trying not to disturb him.

Subaru was moaning and squirming under the covers.

Emilia began to stroke his forehead until he settled down slightly.

She peaked under the covers and saw that the thin streaks of yellowy brown that had been creeping up Subaru’s arm were beginning to surmount his shoulder.

Emilia took a deep breath and bit her lip so that she wouldn’t burst into tears.

Subaru saved me again and now he’s lying here in pain and we don’t know if he’ll even live!

This is just like Elsa all over again! Subaru saved my life that night and all I could do afterward was sit there, hold his hand, and cry!

He saved me… and I could do nothing for him…

Roswaal and Reinhard summoned the best healers in the capitol. They told me all about Elsa’s poison and how it prevented the wounds from clotting. They didn’t know how to close the wounds.

The healers were kind but they all said that there wasn’t much that they could do and that I should ready myself for the worst.

That night was one of the most miserable nights of my life. Almost as bad as the night that I cursed the forest.

I’m always so helpless. I can never protect the people I love.

That night, I told Puck that we should go back to the forest. If I couldn’t even protect Subaru then I didn’t want to be King. I didn’t deserve to be King. How could I lead a nation if I couldn’t even keep my only friend safe?

I was about to tell Roswaal that I would be leaving the next morning to return to Elior when the healers told me that Subaru’s wounds had stopped bleeding. They called it a miracle.

I was ecstatic. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be right there when Subaru woke up so that I could tell him how grateful I was.

Roswaal convinced me to go back to the manor with him since it might be days before Subaru woke up. He promised that he’d invite Subaru to come visit straightaway and he reminded me that so long as I was in the Royal Selection, I had responsibilities.

Reinhard assured me that Subaru would have the best care possible and I agreed to go home with Roswaal but I begged Reinhard to tell Subaru how grateful I was and that I wanted to see him again so that I could thank him personally.

And now, here we are again. It’s been two months but we’ve finally come full circle. Subaru has saved my life one more time and now he’s lying here terribly wounded and I don’t know if he’s going to live or not…

And once again, I can do nothing. I don’t know if Anri’s potion will work. It could be vegetable broth for all I know!

Why am I always so useless…

Subaru coughed weakly.

Emilia laid down beside him and wrapped her arms around him.

Don’t die, Subaru. Please don’t die. You’re all that I have left in this world.

Puck has disowned me. Our friends want me dead. Without you, I have nothing!

I am very selfish, Subaru. I need you to be alive in order to be happy. If you died, I’d want to…

Emilia lay there, crying.

Sometime later, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Emilia murmured.

The door opened and Anri crept inside. “Hey, Mili,” She said gently. “How are you holding up?”

Emilia took a deep breath. “I’m doing better than Subaru is, I suppose,” She said in a broken voice.

Anri grimaced as she sat down down on the bed beside her. “Let’s take a look.”

Anri peeled back the blanket and inspected Subaru’s body. Emilia clapped a hand over her mouth to hold back a scream. The yellowy color had crept up his collar bone and his entire left arm looked like fried meat.

To Emilia’s shock, Anri’s face brightened. “This is great!”

“What?!” Emilia gasped.

“This is outstanding, Emilia!” Anri said excitedly.

“How can you even say that?!” Emilia demanded.

Anri looked at her and winced. “Oh. Sorry, Mili. I guess that was a pretty tactless thing for me to say,” Anri said shamefaced. “What I meant is that the venom is progressing very slowly,” Anri explained. “His arm is pretty bad but that can be healed. It might take a bit of magic but you can always heal a ruined limb. Ruined organs, not so much. The tourniquet that you put on his arm is really doing it’s job. The venom still hasn’t reached any vital organs. All we need to do is give him the medicine and it should neutralize the poison. Really, his condition looks very good,” Anri said, trying to be reassuring.

Anri doesn’t sound like she’s lying but how can anyone say that this looks good?!

Anri made a face and coughed. “So… You must have a lot of questions about… me and Victoire and what we’re doing and… everything else,” She said awkwardly.

“No, not really,” Emilia sighed.

Anri looked at her in surprise.

Emilia smiled sadly. “No offense, Anri, but at the moment I wouldn’t care if you and Victoire were plotting to release the Witch of Envy. All I want is to get that medicine for Subaru and make him better.”

Anri nodded. “I understand. He’s going to be fine, Mili,” She promised.

They sat in silence for a time.

“Are you really a princess?” Emilia asked, mostly just to end the silence.

Anri grinned. “Yeah but don’t get too excited. The title is a lot less impressive in Gusteko.”

“What do you mean?”

“How much do you know about Gusteko?”

“Almost nothing,” Emilia sighed.

Anri chuckled. “Well, Gusteko is a clannish society. There are six Great Houses and hundreds of minor ones. Each Great House controls its own province and they’re all fiercely independent. The country is only united by the Church; by the Hierocracy of Patriarchs led by the Holy King. The current Holy King is dying and all the great Houses are starting to maneuver for his replacement to be selected. The Great Spirit, Odglass, is the one who has the right to choose the Holy King.”

Emilia nodded. “I’ve read that she occupies a role similar to the Divine Dragon in Lagunica.”

“Yeah, something like that. The Kingship of Gusteko isn’t inherited. Each House will present the scions it views as worthy to inherit the throne. The Hierocracy will vet them and the ones approved will be presented to Odglass for her choice. Each Great House is ruled by a Prince or Princess. So it would be roughly analogous to a Lagunican Duke.”

“Strange system,” Emilia murmured in disinterest.

Anri shrugged. “It’s sort of a throwback to the old days. Two hundred years back, Gusteko was just a collection of tiny independent kingdoms and each was ruled by a King. Then when the country was technically unified, calling oneself ‘King’ became taboo. It’s provocative to the other Princes. Calling yourself ‘King’ makes people think that you have expansionist urges.”

Emilia didn’t respond.

They sat in silence for a bit.

“My real name,” Anri continued, “Is Kairei vas Sirosse an Ithil.”

Emilia took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Honestly, I don’t want to talk right now. I could care less about Gusteko politics or even Anri right now. But if the conversation stops then all I’ll be able to hear is my own miserable thoughts.

Finally, Emilia mustered the energy to continue the conversation. “Why did you pick ‘Anri’ for an alias?” Emilia muttered.

“I didn’t. ‘Anri’ is a real nickname for ‘Kairei.’”

Emilia looked at her. “How do you get Anri from Kairei?” Emilia asked in a barely curious tone.

Anri chuckled. “Foreigners usually find Gusteko nicknames very complicated. Every given name has a bunch of nicknames associated with it. Beyond that, it’s common to refer to someone by their baptized name or their matronymic names, both of which outsiders have a hard time keeping straight. I even read that a popular Gusteko novel was published in Lagunica and Kararagi but that they needed to add a spreadsheet of what nicknames referred to what characters just so that readers could follow the story!”

Emilia didn’t respond.

Anri stared at her for a time and then sighed. “Emilia, he’s going to be alright,” She said.

Emilia gave her a look of absolute misery. “You can’t know that,” She whispered.

Anri hesitated. “I am ninety nine percent sure,” She admitted. “Look, Emilia, you’re doing no good sitting in here like this. You’re just making yourself crazy.”

Emilia shook her head. “Anri, why do I keep doing this to Subaru?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is all my fault,” Emilia whimpered.

Anri stared at her. “What?! How can you even say that?! This was in no way your fault!”

“I attacked the Black Water, Anri,” Emilia hissed at herself, her voice venomous. “Subaru wanted to run but I raced after the Black Water to try to fight it. If I hadn’t dragged Subaru into this fight, he’d be fine right now! I’m killing Subaru just by being around him…”

Anri looked at her incredulously. “That’s not even close to what happened!”

Emilia gave her a tired, skeptical look.

Anri shook her head firmly. “Hey, Mili, I was there, remember? You didn’t drag Subaru into the fight. You ran after the monster and left him behind. He ran after you. This wasn’t your fault.”

Emilia sighed. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them.

Anri continued. “And while we’re on the subject, let’s not forget how freaking amazing what Subaru did actually was. I never imagined that one person could even survive fighting the Black Water, much less be able to kill it! This was an act of incredible heroism, Emilia!”

Emilia looked up at Anri incredulously. “So what?!” She snapped. “Who cares if what Subaru did was heroic?! I want a live husband, Anri, not a dead martyr!”

Emilia belatedly realized that she was shouting at Anri.

Anri flinched and bowed her head. “Right. I know, I know,” She said, her voice chastened. “I’m sorry.”

Emilia buried her face back in her knees.

Anri sighed. “How long have the two of you been together?” Anri asked.

Emilia lifted her head and mentally added it up and then frowned. She counted again. Impossible. Have I really know Subaru for less than two months? It just… It doesn’t seem real. The time before I knew Subaru, before I saw his smile everyday and held his hand and leaned on his determination, those days belong to the distant past.

The old Emilia was a pitiable creature. A girl, lonely and shamed, who never realized how much happiness life could offer her…

Anri watched Emilia get lost in her own thoughts and she frowned at her in concern. “…You said that he was from Vollachia originally?” Anri prompted.

Emilia shook her head. “No. Subaru is from beyond the Great Waterfall.”

“What?!” Anri gasped.

Emilia was unable to completely hide her amusement at the expression of shock on Anri’s face.

Subaru must be rubbing off on me. Now I’m the one telling someone earth-shattering news as if it was no big deal. Subaru always thought that it was funny to do that to me. This is the first time that I ever had a chance to do it myself. It is pretty amusing, honestly.

…I just wish that he’d stop doing it to me.

“Are you… serious?!” Anri demanded.

Emilia nodded. “Entirely,” She said a little smugly.

Anri’s eyes darted all over the room, she seemed deep in thought. Finally she cleared her throat and got to her feet. “Look, Emilia, Victoire is making some food. Let’s go check on the medicine and have a bite to eat. Sitting here and brooding is doing you absolutely no good.”

Emilia didn’t answer.

Anri reached out and took Emilia’s hand. She gently tugged on her arm until Emilia begrudgingly got to her feet. Emilia seemed to have no strength left to resist. Anri led Emilia out of the room, Emilia looking back plaintively at Subaru’s body which was still writhing in pain. She stretched out a hand to him helplessly.

“Holy King Gillecomgain is suffering from a serious disease,” Anri said sadly, as she checked on the bubbling medicine over the fire. “He’s still pretty young but the healers claim that he doesn’t have much time left. This means that the Houses are starting to lobby to become the next Holy King.”

Emilia bit into the sandwich that Victoire had made. She ate without tasting it. Victoire sat with her feet up on the table, looking at Emilia darkly. When she got tired of glowering at Emilia, the woman shifting to playing a game of throwing her beret into the air and then catching it.

Anri returned to the table and sat down next to Emilia.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Emilia said in a dead voice, continuing the conversation mostly out of a sense of obligation. “If Odglass selects the Holy King then what is there to lobby for or fight about?”

Anri looked pained. “The Houses… ‘lobby’ for one of their candidates to be made king by bribing Church Patriarchs to vote against their enemies so they won’t even be presented to Odglass. Less wealthy Houses try to narrow the field more directly, by killing other candidates. Each rival killed is less competition. I recently met with the Hierocracy at Pardochel to declare my candidacy for the Holy Throne,” She said in a dour voice that suggested this hadn’t been done entirely willingly. “And my retinue was attacked on the way home by assassins, probably sent by House Griest. Except for Victoire, I… was the only survivor of my party, as far as I know,” Anri finished, her voice becoming somber.

“I’m… so sorry,” Emilia said.

Victoire rolled her eyes. “Come on, Princess!” She urged. “There was nothing that you could have done! When the odds are stacked against you, you either beat feet or you become dead meat. That’s what they taught me during training. Those assassins were barely human! Face it, if you’d stayed to fight them, you would have died too and the others’ sacrifices would have been for nothing! Be happy that you’re still alive and fighting for your people. They would be!”

Anri sighed. “Honestly, Victoire, I don’t know if I can say with a straight face that they did die for anything. They just died to save some underage princess who can’t even do anything to protect herself, much less her people…”

“I have to agree with Victoire,” Emilia said sadly. “I know what it’s like to be placed in an impossible situation that you have no hope of handling successfully. And I know the guilt of knowing that you’re responsible for the tragic outcome. You need to measure your actions according to what Anri could have reasonably done, not what some mythical ‘perfect person’ could have done in your place.”

Anri stared at Emilia for a long moment and then slowly nodded.

Victoire glowered at Emilia, seemingly not assuaged by Emilia taking her side.

Emilia sighed. “Is House Griest your enemy?” Emilia asked.

Anri nodded. “House Griest is the most powerful of the Houses. They’re heavy favorites to regain the throne after unexpectedly losing it to a lesser House, House Ulgo, thirty years ago. That said, it’s rumored that Odglass does not favor them so Prince Malcolm is taking advantage of the Holy King’s incapacitation to attack his enemies.”

“What about the Hierocracy?” Emilia asked.

Anri shook her head. “The Hierocracy will follow the Holy King’s lead. Without a King to unify them, they tend to fall into internecine bickering so that nothing gets done. If House Griest attacked more Houses or stirred up enough trouble then the Hierocracy might intervene but as long as the only House affected by this is House Ithil, it won’t earn the Hierocracy’s immediate attention.”

“What makes House Ithil so special? Why are you being targeted?”

Anri sighed. “House Ithil is… an upstart, I suppose you’d call us. The other Houses don’t like us very much. We only recovered our status as a Great House during my parents’ time.”

“Recovered it?” Emilia asked.

Anri thought for a moment and then bowed her head with a sigh. “See, life in Gusteko revolves around two things: the House and the Church. To be a person without a House is to be an ‘unperson.’ A person who belongs to no House has barely any legal rights, although exceptions are sometimes made for foreign merchants. Centuries ago, before the modern Hierocracy and Holy King had even come into being, there was a great war between Lagunica and Gusteko. The Dragon appeared to defend Lagunica and Gusteko lost the war terribly. Trying to salvage the situation, the King of Gusteko ordered my ancestors to do… something,” Anri said ominously.

Anri shook her head. “They refused. In a fit of rage, the King declared that House Ithil had been excommunicated and removed from the roll of Houses of Gusteko,” Anri said gravely.

Emilia screwed her face up in confusion. “What… does that mean?”

Anri sighed. “It means that we were considered a House accursed and had barely any protection under the law. My family, our servants, the people who simply lived in our domain, all of them were shunned. They were refused admission to shops and thrown out of taverns. If one of us was assaulted, the courts denied that we had any right to seek justice. This lasted for centuries until my parents fell in battle, protecting the Holy King from assassins. The Holy King praised their courage and in recognition, he raised House Ithil back to its former status.”

“That must be reassuring,” Emilia murmured.

Anri’s face twisted. “If I’m being honest, I’d rather just have my parents back. For me, the restoration has just caused more problems.”

“How? Shouldn’t that have ended them?”

“The Holy King may have restored my family’s standing but most of the other Houses still don’t like us very much. Some of them even still blame us for the loss of that dumb war two hundred years ago! Besides that, when my House was not ‘accredited’ it survived by focusing on trade and commerce. My parents made our fortune back by brokering deals with the merchants in Kararagi and cutting roads through the southern mountains to open trade routes between Kararagi and Gusteko. This was not an altogether popular decision,” She muttered.

“What do you mean?” Emilia asked.

Anri gave a humorless laugh. “Most people in Gusteko are violently isolationist and strongly prejudiced against demi-humans. All of this gave House Griest an opening to try and organize the other Houses against us. Now Prince Malcolm is trying to kill me and he’s sent an army to Siros to try to seize our lands.”

Emilia shook her head sadly. “And this is all just because House Griest hates demi-humans?” Emilia sighed.

Anri looked awkward. “No. I mean, yes but that’s not really what this is all about.”

“I don’t understand.”

Anri gave a humorless laugh. “The truth is that this is all about money! Sanshi territory is just north of Lagunica. The southern mountains that wall off Gusteko from Kararagi and Lagunica are impassable for the most part, especially in the winter. Since House Griest controlled the only safe way through the mountains into Gusteko for centuries, all northern commerce originally had to pass through Sanshi and pay exorbitant tariffs to House Griest in order to bring their wares to market. This made House Griest fantastically wealthy. However, when my House opened the other trade routes to Kararagi, that revenue dwindled. Prince Malcolm has been trying to use xenophobia and racism to rally the other Houses against House Ithil so that Griest will control the trade routes again.”

Emilia was confused. “I don’t understand. What does isolation and demi-humans have to do with tariffs?”

Anri snorted. “Marketing! Prince Malcolm can’t walk around to the other houses and say: ‘House Ithil is costing me money, I want you to send your soldiers to fight and die against House Ithil so that I can be wealthier.’ He’s claiming that the influx of Kararagi merchants are diluting the racial purity of Gusteko since those merchants are often demi-human. Most Lagunican merchants tend to be human so they’re easier for the reactionary faction in Gusteko to tolerate. Honestly, as far as propaganda campaigns go, it’s not that bad a strategy.”

Emilia puzzled her way through that. “And nobody else is challenging this?”

Anri shrugged. “The Hierocracy is too fragmented to do much of anything right now and the Holy King is too sick. Most of the other Houses are maintaining that this isn’t their problem. Prince Malcolm is hoping that his son Canmore will gain the Holy King’s throne,” Anri continued. “So he’s also waging war to demonstrate his House’s strength and to try to force the other Houses into line. If he succeeds in crushing his opposition and killing most of the other candidates before Holy King Gillecomgain dies, his odds of taking the throne will increase.”

Emilia stared at her. “Then, you’re a candidate for the throne?”

Anri snorted dismissively. “One of hundreds! Every House submits at least one candidate, no matter how remote their odds of taking the throne actually are! Or there were hundreds of candidates anyway, I have no idea how many of us are left at this point. I doubt those assassins were just coming after me. Of course, the other reason Prince Malcolm wants to kill me is just to destroy my House,” She said bitterly.

Emilia’s face twisted in sympathy. “I’m very sorry to hear that. Subaru and I were once candidates for the Lagunican throne as well,” Emilia said without thinking. “But I’m afraid that we may not be candidates for much longer, given… given everything that we’ve gone through recently. Truthfully, I think that I’d be altogether happier if we weren’t involved in the royal selection anymore. Dealing with the nobility’s prejudices as well as all the ceremonies and glad-handing was making me miserable…”

Anri nodded enthusiastically. “I so get what you mean. In some ways, the past few weeks of being free from the restrictions of the nobility is a blessing from the gods, even if everybody is trying to kill me. For once, there aren’t hundreds of people evaluating how I chew my food and suggesting that my great-great-grandmother would have taken smaller, more lady-like bites! Or telling me that my second cousin twice-removed words her thoughts more eloquently,” Anri rolled her eyes.

Emilia actually laughed.

Anri thought for a moment. “I’d heard that Lagunica was choosing a new King but I don’t know any of the details. Were there hundreds of candidates there too?”

Emilia shook her head. “Very few,” She said with a sigh.

Anri looked at Emilia strangely. “Emilia, I knew that Subaru Natsuki was considered the forerunner for the Lagunican throne but I’d never heard that an elf was involved. Honestly, I would have thought that would have been bigger news. All kinds of small-minded idiots in Gusteko would have liked to make hay out of that.”

Emilia, you are such a dummy! Why did you say that?! You know that nobody remembers you!

“It’s… I…” Emilia struggled to put what had happened to her into words and finally gave up. “Never mind. You’d never believe me anyway…”

Anri gave her a speculative look. “No? Well, maybe you should tell us anyway. We’d like to hear the story. Right, Victoire?”

Victoire was still playing a game of catch with her beret and clearly not listening to this conversation. “Oh yeah, I’m just so fucking stoked to hear all about this,” Victoire said in a bored tone, her feet resting on the table.

Anri shot Victoire a look of annoyance then got up to check the bubbling medicine. “Come on, Mili. We have a while before the medicine is going to be ready. It’ll make the time go by quicker. Besides, after all this, I’m really curious how the upstart prince of Lagunica wound up falling in love with an elven woman and a suspected witch. I mean, I love reading romance novels but if someone recommended a book to me and told me that this was the plot to the story, I’d tell them that the book went way beyond believability,” Anri said teasingly.

Emilia sighed. I suppose I could use the distraction… And really, who cares if they believe me? I’ve been called a liar so many times since we left the Sanctuary. One more won’t kill me.

Emilia took a deep breath. “I became a candidate for the royal throne of Lagunica several months ago. Lord Roswaal found me living in the Elior Forest and explained to me that by the magic of an ancient insignia, he knew that I was qualified to stand for election as King. My people in the forest lay under a terrible curse. They were all frozen solid long ago. My… father and I had lived alone in the forest for years. Roswaal convinced me that the sacred dragon blood, which only the King of Lagunica has access to, could break the curse. So I left the forest and tried to become King. For months, I… really accomplished nothing. Most people laughed at the thought of any demi-human sitting on the throne, much less a silver haired half-elf. In my weaker moments, I sometimes wondered if Roswaal had recruited me as secretly just some kind of cruel joke…”

Emilia glanced at Anri who stood stirring the medicine with a considering look on her face.

She continued, “Then I met Subaru. My insignia had been stolen by a pickpocket and this removed my right to stand for election. I had to get the insignia back if I was going to have any chance of saving my people. Subaru helped me locate the insignia. He almost… died helping me get it back. Subaru had held my insignia and it reacted to him so we knew that he was qualified to become King as well. Because my insignia had left my possession, I was about to be disqualified from the election. I thought that I’d failed and that my people would be frozen forever. But Subaru offered to marry me to keep me in the election so that I could save my people…”

“He offered to marry you?” Anri said in shock. “Just like that?!”

Emilia nodded. “Subaru told the sages’ council that we’d gotten engaged before he touched my insignia. Because as a married couple, our interests would be joined under the law, it let us both stay in the election. It was the only way that he could think of to keep me in the royal selection.”

Anri whistled. “That’s amazing! It is just like the plot from a romance novel!”

Emilia squinted at her, uncertain of how to respond to that. “My Subaru is very kind,” She said finally. “Subaru took the lead in our quest for the throne and for a time it seemed that we were nearly unstoppable. It felt like everyone wanted Subaru on the throne. Even if that meant… taking me too…”

Emilia bowed her head and took a deep breath. “Then… everything went wrong. I made a foolish mistake and once again, I ruined so many lives…”

“What do you mean?” Anri asked in concern.

Emilia sighed. “I was determined to prove to Subaru that I was worthy to stand beside him as an equal. That I wasn’t just… some girl that he’d always have to rescue and take care of. I wanted to be someone who could take care of him as well. I… I wanted to make Subaru proud of me…” She whispered.

“Of course you did!” Anri encouraged. “Who wouldn’t? That’s a very noble objective! It shows bravery, determination, and empathy! I’m sure that Subaru approved.”

Emilia shook her head. “No. Subaru tried to talk me out of it,” She whispered dejectedly. “He didn’t want us to be separated but I insisted. Subaru went to slay the White Whale and I went with Roswaal to attend a gathering of village chiefs so that I could campaign for our election. Unfortunately, Roswaal had betrayed us and we were attacked by a monster, the Sin Archbishop Peteleguese. He chased us away from the village and Roswaal led us to the Sanctuary without telling us that once we were inside, we would be trapped. Only pure blooded individuals can pass through the Sanctuary barrier without dying. That meant that everyone was trapped inside the Sanctuary and I was the only one who was qualified to take the trials that would get us out.”

“Trials?” Anri asked in confusion.

She sighed. “Three magical tests that needed to be passed in order to lower the barrier. I attempted to take the trials everyday for two weeks and I failed constantly. I never even got past the first trial. I always collapsed wailing and screaming every time I tried.” She shook her head and scowled. “And then I had to be carried back to my bed,” Emilia said in a tone of deep disgust.

“What were these trials?” Anri asked.

Emilia sighed. “They were magical visions. The first trial was my past. It forced me to confront the worst mistake of my life. I just… couldn’t get past it. I couldn’t endure watching it happen again. Even knowing that it was only a vision, all I could do was throw every drop of magic I had at the image of that little monster, trying to obliterate my younger self. I did this everyday for weeks.”

Anri looked at her sympathetically.

“This was all part of Roswaal’s plan, you see,” Emilia continued. “He planned to grind me down and break me. He wanted to make it impossible for me to ever pass the trials. Then he somehow manipulated the Sin Archbishops of the Witch Cult to come to the Sanctuary to kill everyone while we were still trapped there.

Anri gasped.

“We only had a few hours before the Sin Archbishops arrived and I was no closer to passing the trials than I had been my first day in the Sanctuary but I was the only one who could take them!”

“How did you realize that Roswaal was tricking you?” Anri asked.

Emilia hung her head in shame. “I didn’t,” She growled at herself. “I never realized it. I was completely oblivious to it! Subaru managed to figure it out after being in the Sanctuary for less than a day. He confronted Roswaal and he admitted to it. Roswaal thought that he had Subaru trapped somewhere that he couldn’t escape from.”

Emilia sighed. “Actually, that’s a lie. Subaru knew that he could pass through the barrier because he was pure blooded. But Roswaal knew that Subaru wouldn’t do it. He knew that Subaru… would never… abandon me…”

Emilia was silent for a long moment. “Roswaal told Subaru that he’d grant him the power to take the trials in my place and free the Sanctuary if he signed a magical slave contract that would forever bind him to Roswaal’s will.”

Anri’s eyes were big as hen’s eggs. “He… didn’t sign it, did he?!”

Emilia shook her head. “No. I… I couldn’t let that happen. I would have died before I let that happen!” She almost shouted. “I promised Subaru that I would pass the trials this time and we would get everyone out of the Sanctuary. And Subaru, for some reason, gambled that I could do it…”

“Did you pass?” Anri asked excitedly.

Emilia nodded. “Yes, again thanks to Subaru. Subaru showed me how to pass the trial. I saw my past again but he taught me how I could see it with new eyes. Instead of despising that girl, I… I suddenly pitied her for all the pain that she had been forced to endure.”

“What were the other trials like?” Anri asked.

Emilia sighed. “The second trial was a vision of a life that I would have sold my soul to have. All of my loved ones were alive, Subaru and I were safe and free to do nothing except love each other. We even had a baby,” Emilia whispered with a sad smile.

Anri smiled, poking at the bubbling potion. “That sounds wonderful, Emilia.”

Emilia nodded. “I wanted to stay there forever but Subaru… the real Subaru, needed me so I left,” Emilia took a deep breath and shook her head. “The last trial was my worst fear.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘your worst fear?’” Victoire asked sharply.

Emilia stared off into the distance with haunted eyes. “The magic brought to life the worst thing I could possibly imagine. A horror that made me want to lose my mind. The magic reached into my soul and dug out my absolute worst nightmare and made me face it. I barely got through that trial with my sanity intact…”

“I don’t get it,” Victoire said, shaking her head.

Emilia put up her hands. “Please, I… I don’t want to get into the details,” She murmured.

“Sure!” Anri said quickly, casting a reproachful look at Victoire.

Victoire sighed and rolled her eyes, tossing her beret into the air and catching it.

“But you did manage to pass the trials in the end, right?” Anri asked.

Emilia nodded. “We barely escaped ahead of the Sin Archbishops but we did get away.”

“Wow! That’s an amazing story, Emilia!” Anri said excitedly. “You must have been thrilled! You really were a hero! You proved everything to Subaru that you wanted to prove!”

Emilia didn’t answer right away. Finally, she sighed. “Then we discovered that somehow, inexplicably, our lives had gotten even worse.”

“Worse?! How could things have gotten worse?!” Anri asked in shock.

Emilia sighed. “After we left the Sanctuary, I discovered that I had been cursed and nobody could remember who I was.”

“…What?” Anri replied.

“No one could remember who I was,” Emilia repeated. “My father. Subaru’s adopted sister. All of our friends. Everyone acted like they’d never met me before. Subaru was the only person who even remembered who I was. Everyone else simply assumed that I had put an enchantment on Subaru to trick him into thinking that he knew me. Everyone’s memories had been edited so that they only remembered Subaru as a candidate for the throne.

“Because everyone thought that I was a witch, Subaru and I had to run for our lives. We traveled with my father and his sister for a time,” Emilia said sadly. “But my father now despised me for putting Subaru in danger by my mere presence. Finally, our friends tracked us down and were ready to kill me. Subaru and I got away but Beatrice and Daddy… they didn’t…”

Emilia stared sadly down at the floor.

Anri scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Hey, Emilia, you say that you were cursed and that nobody can remember you?”

Emilia nodded. “Even my own father doesn’t remember who I am. All his memories of me were either erased or the magic changed them so that Subaru was inserted into my place.”

Anri shook her head. “I’ve never even heard of a curse like that.”

Emilia sighed. “Neither had I. We think that the Witch Cult might have placed the curse on me.”

Anri thought for a moment. “Victoire, have you ever heard of something like this?”

Victoire shook her head. “Nah. But I never wasted my time studying curses. Or the Witch Cult. I’m guessing that your Grandpa would be the best person to ask.”

“Your grandfather?” Emilia asked.

Anri nodded. “Yeah, my grandfather is a Patriarch of the Gusteko Holy Church. He serves as the caretaker of the Grand Archives. When my parents died, he told me that he considered becoming the regent since my brother and I were too young to ascend the throne and he could easily gain the approval of all the nobles to land the job. But it would have meant giving up his seat in the Hierocracy. Luckily, my Uncle agreed to become regent so my Grandfather didn’t have to.”

“What are the Grand Archives?” Emilia asked.

Anri smirked. “They’re the collective knowledge of the Holy Church! It’s by far the largest repository of books anywhere in the world. We’ve even got books on the Old Kingdom!” Anri said in a proud voice. “My family has guarded and protected the Archives since long before anyone can remember.”

“Old Kingdom?” Emilia asked.

“Yeah! The Grand Archives contains lots of books and other materials dating from the Old Kingdom. They’re all considered to be treasured artifacts by my family. My Grandfather has spent his entire life studying these relics.”

“I’m sorry, Anri, but what is the Old Kingdom?” Emilia asked awkwardly.

Anri gave her a strange look.

Emilia blushed. “I’m afraid that I’m not very well educated,” Emilia admitted. “I’ve never heard this term before.”

“Hm,” Anri thought for a moment. “That’s probably not your fault, Mili. I don’t think that Lagunica likes to discuss the Old Kingdom very much. From what I’ve heard, Lagunica likes to pretend that it’s a kingdom that has endured for thousands of years,” She said mockingly.

Emilia frowned. “Hasn’t it? I thought that the records of the Lion Kings go back fifteen hundred years before the Great Calamity.”

Anri snickered. “Well yeah, I heard that they do but I don’t have much faith in those writings as historical records. I remember reading a little about the early Lion Kings of Lagunica during my studies. Aker son of Atum and the rest seem more like mythological fables than actual history. I sort of have my doubts that the first Lion King actually fought a river with his bare hands or that he trapped the four winds in a bag until they agreed to serve him.”

“Perhaps he was a great sorcerer,” Emilia suggested.

“Maybe,” Anri allowed. “But it seems more likely that the story is intended to be read as an allegory. Like the legends that claim that the ancient Sun King carved the Great Dragons from mountains and smokeless fire. We lost a great deal of knowledge of our history during the Great Calamity. We only have scattered remnants to pick over and it’s not really clear how much of it we should take literally.”

“Why would we lose all that knowledge?” Emilia asked.

Anri looked at her Emilia. Her usually cheerful demeanor had grown somber. “Emilia, how much do you know about the Great Calamity?”

“It’s when the Witch of Envy destroyed most of the world,” Emilia said promptly.

Anri chuckled. “Very good, Emilia. You get a gold star! But what do you think that catastrophe was like?”

Emilia thought for a moment and then answered, “Scary?”

“Yeah, that’s not quite what I meant, Mili,” Anri chuckled. “My grandfather told me that the Witch of Envy’s campaign against the world lasted for years. Even a witch takes a very long time to destroy a whole world.”

“And then she was sealed away?” Emilia asked.

“Yup. The Sword Saint, the Sage, and the Divine Dragon joined forces to seal the Witch away after they discovered that they couldn’t kill her. They gathered the greatest army this world had ever seen to fight off the witch’s abominations and monsters while they finally sealed away the witch. But what do you think happened after the battle?”

Emilia frowned. “They… threw a party?”

Anri shook her head. “They cared for their wounded and buried their dead. The death toll of that battle is believed to have been in the hundreds of thousands and we can’t even guest how many might have been injured. Then the survivors left to face a far greater emergency.”

“Greater than the witch?” Emilia asked skeptically.

“Yes. They’d stripped the lands of every able bodied man and woman to fight the war and they’d left the fields untended. Winter was coming and there was no food. They managed to eke their way through that terrible winter but only by emptying every storehouse on the continent. After that, they discovered that they had lost so many people during the war that when springtime came around, there weren’t enough young and healthy people left to plant new crops. The majority of people who hadn’t participated in that great battle were mostly cripples, the elderly or the very young. In other words, the people who couldn’t help grow and harvest crops far outnumbered the remaining people who could. The result was famine and plague. For a full century, the only concern on the continent was food. The swords were exchanged for shovels and the proud war steeds were hitched to plows. Worse, most of the lands that the armies had been drawn from had been destroyed or forced under the sea by the witch. The world was a fraction of the size that it had been before her rampage. These men had nowhere to return to and had to find new places for themselves. They tried to seek help from the rulers of the remaining lands but those potentates didn’t have enough food for their own people! They couldn’t take in refugees. The armies broke down and many formed roaming bands of brigands desperately searching for places to live and food to eat.”

Emilia shook her head in disbelief. “Nothing like that ever happened in any of the other fairy tales that I’ve read,” Emilia commented.

Anri chuckled. “Yeah, because those were only stories, Mili,” Anri murmured. “This really happened. My grandfather told me that during the chaos following the sealing of the witch, all kinds of knowledge was lost. Elders starved or took sick or were killed in the fighting. Whole libraries were burned.”

“So… what was the Old Kingdom like?” Emilia asked.

“We don’t know.”

“Huh?” Emilia replied.

Anri shrugged. “We don’t know what the old world was like, not really. Was there really a Kingdom called Lagunica before the Great Calamity? Did the line of the Lion Kings actually extend for a thousand years? Or is all of this just myth? We have barely any records of what kingdoms existed before the Great Calamity or what they were like. We use the term ‘Old Kingdom’ as a catch-all for whatever existed before the Great Calamity. My grandfather is one of the world’s foremost experts on the Old Kingdom and he would be the first to tell you that the little knowledge we do have of the old world is vague and often contradicted by other works.”

Emilia thought for a moment. “Anri, you said that the Grand Archives has books on this subject?”

“Of course! The Grand Archives has books on almost every subject you can imagine and probably dozens that you can’t!” Anri said proudly. “They’re the treasure hoard of my family! They have books on everything from medicine to battle strategies to hair dressing! They even have books from the days when the witches still walked the land!”

Emilia took a deep breath. “Anri, do you think I might be able to find more information about my curse in the Archives? Maybe even a cure?”

Anri hesitated. “Well, I can’t say for sure but I do know that if you could find information on it anywhere in the world then I’m sure that you could find it there,” She admitted slowly. “I could give you access on my authority as Princess but getting back to Siros right now would be… complicated.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our lands are under attack,” Anri said somberly. “I’m not even sure how I’m going to get home.”

Victoire scoffed. “I’ll get you home, Princess! You just trust this amazingly beautiful lady to steer you around the corners!” She boasted.

Anri sighed. “I really admire your confidence, Victoire,” She said with a faint smile.

Emilia looked at Anri sympathetically. “Maybe Subaru can help. If he thinks that we might learn how to lift my curse, I’m sure that he’d be happy to help you get back home.”

Anri smiled at her. “Now that’s a deal! You guys get me back to Siros and you can browse around in the Archives to your heart’s content. If there’s any reference to your curse in the Archives, Emilia, my grandfather will know about it.”

Anri paused in stirring the potion. “Come to think of it, I wish that Hunnicutt was here right now,” She murmured.

“That was your friend, right?” Emilia asked.

Anri sighed. “He wasn’t my friend. He was one of my House’s Shadows. I barely knew him, unfortunately. But I liked him. And he told me that his area of study had included the Witch Cult. He might have been able to answer some of your questions, Emilia.”

“What is a ‘Shadow?’” Emilia asked.

“The Shadows, like Victoire,” Anri gestured toward the bored woman sitting at the table, “Are my family’s secret service. They’re trained in stealth, information gathering, and infiltration. They also keep my families secrets and some work as our bodyguards,” Anri explained.

“And Hunnicutt was infiltrating the Witch Cult?” Emilia asked in disbelief.

Anri chuckled. “No. I’m not sure that the Witch Cult has ever been infiltrated successfully. He studied them. Or his study included them anyway. In addition to their field training, each Shadow spends years studying in the Grand Archives. It’s a tradition and it’s believed to increase their intelligence and insight, right, Victoire?”

Victoire looked pained. “Please, don’t bring me back there. I’m a field operative not a bookworm. All that studying made me want to fucking scream,” Victoire said flatly.

Anri snickered. “Why? What was your area of study?”

“The Lagunican royal family, Princess,” Victoire rolled her eyes. “I spent years learning every stupid ancestor’s name and every stupid thing that they ever did in their stupid fucking lives. And now they’re all gone and all that studying is fucking useless!”

Anri burst out laughing. “Yeah I guess that would be pretty frustrating. I needed to study all of the Ithil family history myself. Most of it was pretty boring,” She admitted. “But at least they were my relatives so that made it a bit more interesting.”

“What was Hunnicutt studying?” Emilia asked.

“Prospective Shadows spend years studying in the Grand Archives. They can’t become real Shadows until they achieve mastery over at least one subject. Hunnicutt spent close to three years studying tiny and obscure scraps of Old Kingdom knowledge, attempting to glean new insight from them. He wrote his dissertation on the small fragments that we have of three different plays written in the Old Kingdom just before the Great Calamity.”

“They were about the Witch Cult?” Emilia asked in surprise.

“Oh no. They had nothing to do with the Witch Cult.”

“Anri, I thought you said-”

“The three plays each have a soliloquy where a character is compared to a Witch Cultist, usually in the context expounding on the character’s betrayal of the main character. Each play has nothing to do with the Witch Cult other than that analogy. Hunnicutt spend three years writing a dissertation on their meaning,” Anri replied.

Emilia looked confused. “Anri, I don’t understand. Why would it be noteworthy that the villain of a play is compared to a Witch Cultist?”

“Well, the plays don’t compare the villain to the Witch Cult. In each case, it’s a flawed friend of the protagonist who’s being compared to the Witch Cult. Someone who, through accident or character flaw, has betrayed the hero and now the hero must suffer for it.”

Emilia thought for a moment and then shook her head. “I still don’t understand.”

Anri chuckled. “Yeah, honestly I didn’t understand it either at first. But Hunnicutt talked a lot about it while we were fleeing. Looking back on it, I think he just wanted to distract me so I wouldn’t be scared. Hunnicutt’s big insight dealt with the concept of ‘betrayal.’ The fact that these plays, which were written about different topics and by different people all associated the Witch Cult with betrayal suggests that the connection between the two was fairly prevalent in society at that time. Hunnicutt’s dissertation essentially boiled down to: ‘You can’t be double-crossed by an enemy.’ The fact that people viewed the Witch Cult’s actions during the Great Calamity as a ‘betrayal,’ strongly suggested to him that the relationship between society and the Witch Cult at that time must have been different than what we think of today.”

“Yeah, that’s all really fascinating,” Victoire sighed, sounding bored.

Anri gave her an annoyed look before continuing. “Hunnicutt went so far as to speculate that the Witch Cult was openly tolerated in the Old Kingdom or perhaps even admired,” Anri’s voice was fond as she recalled her fallen companion. “He told me that the chairman of his dissertation committee was my Grandfather. Hunnicutt told me that Grandfather told him that his conclusion was mad. But Grandfather admitted that Hunnicutt had made several cogent points even if his conclusion was bonkers. Grandfather said that it was common knowledge that the Witch Cult before the time of the Great Calamity would have been far more powerful than the dregs that we see today. He said that as a result of this, the Witch Cult must have been far more feared at the time and likely far more influential. So Grandfather accepted his dissertation and voted for him to become a Shadow.”

“Dregs?!” Victoire said incredulously. “Do you know what they’re doing to Lagunica right now? Do you know what will happen to this kingdom if they turn north when they’re finished?!”

“Anri,” Emilia said in a similar tone. “Have you ever met a Sin Archbishop? They are terrifyingly powerful! Subaru barely escaped from combat with them with his life!”

Anri shrugged. “Well, I don’t know much about them, Mili. I’m just repeating what I’ve been told. My Grandfather is an expert though. He once told me that the power of the Archbishops in no way compares to the power of the Witches. He said that if the seven Witches of Sin walked the land today then the Witch Cult would control this entire world.”

Victoire threw her beret into the air and caught it. “Hey, any chance that we could talk about something else? Like literally anything more pleasant?” Victoire grumbled. “I realize that we’re currently squatting in an abandoned dump in the ass-end of Sanshi territory but there still must be something nicer to talk about than the motherfucking Witches of Sin!”

Anri pulled the pot off the fire. “Actually, I think that we’re done talking for the moment. Emilia, I believe that your medicine is ready.”

Emilia sprang up. “Really?”

Anri brought the pot over to the table and set it down. Emilia looked inside the pot where the medicine seemed to have boiled down to a dry, gray powder.

Anri bustled over to the enormous spice rack and pulled out a bottle of some vibrant green oil.

“Everyone brace yourselves!” Anri warned as she brought the bottle to the pot.

“For what?” Emilia asked as Anri poured the oil over the powder.

The dust started to steam intensely. Huge clouds of white steam filled the room.

Emilia jumped back gagging and trying not to vomit at the intensely foul odor.

Victoire bent double, coughing and hacking. “Oh my fucking god, that smells vile! That smells worse than the time I had to escape a town by crawling through a fucking sewage tunnel!” She staggered slowly out of the kitchen and went outside of the church where she was noisily sick.

“Gah!” Anri cringed, desperately fanning the air and trying to clear the clouds of steam. “I swear that this potion smells worse every single time I make it!”

“Anri, what is this?!” Emilia asked as the steam slowly began to clear the room.

“The medicine,” Anri said, choking and trying not to throw up.

Anri grabbed a small measuring glass and carefully poured some of the medicine into it.

Emilia looked into the pot. The formally gray powder had combined with the green oil to produce a yellowy-green concoction with the consistency of melted butter and a powerful odor. “Anri, are you sure that this won’t kill him?” She asked dubiously.

Anri gave her an amused glance as she handed Emilia the glass. “Here. Give this to Subaru. It won’t taste very good but make sure that he drinks it all. If he’s still unconscious, you may need to help him sit up and drink it.”

Emilia’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you so much!”

Anri waved her gratitude aside then grabbed her stomach as she almost threw up. She gave Emilia a weak smile. “Hey, it’s the least that I owe you! I hope that he feels better soon. This medicine will force the Black Water’s witchcraft out of him. The purification is a very traumatic process for the body. He’ll likely sleep for several hours. Encourage him to do that. The less he’s conscious through the process the better!”

Force out the witchcraft? What will that do to Subaru’s Authority?

Might the potion get rid of it? That… isn’t necessarily a bad thing but what if the potion reacts violently with Subaru because he has so much witchcraft in him? Could it damage him or put him into shock?

…I have to take the chance. That poison will absolutely kill Subaru. If there’s any chance that this medicine will save him, I have to take it.

Anri looked out the door to where they could hear Victoire still coughing and throwing up. “I think I better check on Victoire,” Anri said somberly. “And maybe do a little throwing up myself… When Grandfather taught me and a few other students how to make this potion, we all threw up so much that we almost passed out!” Anri walked to the door, looking nauseous and dry-heaving repeatedly.

Emilia nodded and started to leave the kitchen, walking slowly to avoid spilling a drop.

She had to pause repeatedly during her walk as her stomach did somersaults because of the foul aroma.

Emilia walked back into Subaru’s bedroom. The sun was just setting. She saw Subaru lying there unconscious, his face drawn and miserable.

“Subaru, the medicine is ready,” She whispered, putting the glass on a nearby night table. She sat down on the bed beside him. “Let me help you up.”

Subaru whimpered as she gently pulled him upright. Emilia could feel the heat of the venom through the sheets, burning like a furnace. It appeared to have started to spread through the left side of his torso.

She picked up the glass. “Here, Subaru. Drink,” She whispered, holding the glass up to his lips.

She poured extremely slowly so that Subaru only got a few drops at a time.

Each sip made Subaru gag and his body spasmed.

Emilia bit her lip. “I know that it tastes bad, Subaru, but it’s medicine. Please drink it,” She urged.

Subaru made no sign that he was even aware of her presence.

It seemed to take forever. The unconscious Subaru struggled to swallow it and keep it down. Twice he almost threw up but barely managed to force it back. Finally, the medicine was all gone and Subaru lay crumpled against Emilia’s shoulder, looking absolutely spent.

Emilia helped him lie down. He was panting for breath.

Emilia gently kissed his forehead. “Try to sleep, Subaru. Anri says that you need your rest, alright?”

Subaru sighed but Emilia wasn’t sure if he had heard her.

“You’re safe, Subaru. Nothing can hurt you as long as I’m here,” She soothed. “I promise that I’ll take good care of you. Promises are important and I must keep my promises.”

Emilia just sat beside his bed for a time, watching him sleep. He was dreaming but he flinched and writhed in his dreams.

Oh, please get better Subaru…

She laid down beside him and went to sleep.

Emilia woke up hours later. She glanced out the bedroom window and realized that the sun would rise soon.

Subaru was fast asleep.

Emilia climbed off the bed and tucked Subaru in. He was still moaning but he wasn’t writhing around as much.

Emilia lifted the covers and looked at Subaru’s body. The yellowish brown color that had been spreading through his body hadn’t moved much during the night. It had also darkened to a more orange hue.

I hope that’s a good sign… At least he seems to be breathing easier.

Emilia kissed him gently and then went back to the kitchen.

“Hey, Princess,” Victoire said, sitting at the table. “Look, I hate to be a nag but we gotta get the fuck out of here, today. If there’s any chance that Malcolm an Griest knows about the safe-houses then he’s going to be knocking them over one by one until he sees you come crawling out from under one!”

“Yeah, leave and go where?” Anri sighed. “If this safe-house is compromised, shouldn’t we assume that all the others aren’t safe either?”

“Yeah, probably,” She admitted. “Look, maybe we should just return to Siros. Your people fucking need you!”

Anri hesitated. “Look, I agree that we should probably go home but how can we even get there? There’s an entire army between us! We even have assassins and bounty hunters trying to catch us on the road.”

“I can handle that, Princess, don’t you worry,” Victoire said confidently. “The Shadows take roads that nobody else knows about. This amazing lady will get you home safe and sound. Just don’t expect it to be a fun fucking trip. When we get back to Siros, you-”

Victoire stopped talking as Emilia entered the kitchen. She gave the elf a chill look.

“Oh!” Anri said turning to look at Emilia with a broad smile. “Good morning, Emilia! We made some toast for you if you’re hungry.”

Emilia nodded. “Thank you,” She said sitting down at the table. She spread some butter on a slice of toasted bread and ate it.

Ironically, this is the best meal that I’ve had all week.

I just wish that Subaru could share it with me…

“How’s our patient?” Anri asked.

Emilia hesitated. “I… don’t know,” She admitted. “He… doesn’t seem to be any worse at least.”

Anri nodded. “You might not think it but that’s a very good sign that the medicine is working. If the medicine hadn’t taken effect, he never would have made it through the night.”

Emilia stared at her in horror.

Anri flushed and chuckled nervously. “Oh, right. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that. But the point is that Subaru is almost certainly recovering. I’ll go take a look at him.”

Anri got up from the table and went back toward the bedroom.

Emilia wolfed down her bread and followed Anri.

Victoire didn’t move but Emilia felt the woman’s eyes boring into her back.

Anri knelt on the bed next to the unconscious Subaru.

“Morning, Subaru,” Anri murmured. “How are we feeling?”

She peeled back one of his eye lids.

The eye seemed to focus on her momentarily and then rolled away.

“Alright!” Anri approved. “Those black veins from yesterday are all gone. He’s definitely on the mend.”

Anri pulled up the covers to inspect his body. “The venom doesn’t seem to be spreading any further,” She said. “His arm is still in bad shape but that just needs some healing magic to repair the muscle and the damaged flesh.”

“Can you do that?” Emilia asked intently.

Anri nodded. “Yeah it will just take a day or two. I know that his arm looks really bad but trust me, the damage looks a lot worse than it actually is. Subaru doesn’t need a master healer. Just a competent one. So I’ll try to pretend that I qualify,” Anri said in a tone of self-mockery.

Emilia looked at her. “Anri, you saved his life. You’re a wonderful healer. I am… forever in your debt,” She bowed her head.

Anri chuckled. “Let’s just call it even, shall we? You did save my life after all. Hell, you probably both saved my life. The Black Water would have devastated the entire region before it was stopped.”

Anri and Emilia tucked Subaru back into bed.

They both sat on the edge of the bed for a moment. Anri looked at her. “I hope that you’re feeling better, Mili. I can’t imagine what you went through last night.”

Emilia took a deep breath and let it out. “I thought that I was going to lose him. I thought that he was going to die and that it would be all my fault. Subaru got hurt protecting me. Again.”

“But he isn’t dying,” Anri said with a reassuring smile. “He’s going to be just fine.”

Emilia sighed. “We had a screaming argument before we met the Black Water.”

Anri coughed. “Yeah, I heard. Not the specifics, I mean. But I could hear the shouting. I’m guessing that most of the forest could.”

Emilia flinched. “I said… terrible things to him.”

“Emilia, why did you tell him to leave?”

Emilia didn’t answer right away. Finally she bowed her head and sighed. “Anri,” Emilia said patiently. “Subaru was devastated by the loss of Beatrice and Puck. His friends even turned against him and it was all because of me. If he left me behind and just went back to the capitol… he could get everything back. It’s just… the right thing to do. It’s best for Subaru, for his friends, it’s even the best thing to do for the world. You know what kind of man Subaru is. He could be a King! He could literally change this entire world. How can I ask him to abandon all that and run away with me? How can I ask him to waste his life hiding with me in a tiny cottage in a cursed forest?” She murmured.

Anri seemed to weigh her answer carefully. “Emilia, you didn’t ask him to run away with you. He just did it.”

“So?” Emilia muttered.

“Emilia, listen, there is a very big difference between asking someone to sacrifice for you and letting them sacrifice for you. They aren’t even close to the same thing.”

“I don’t know, Anri,” Emilia said. “They come to the same thing in the end, don’t they?”

“Shouldn’t Subaru get a choice in this?” Anri asked gently. “It’s his life after all. How does he want to spend it? Did you ever ask him?”

Emilia shook her head. “You don’t understand, Anri. I can’t just… ask him how he feels about this.”

“Why not?”

Emilia sighed. “Anri… Subaru is so kind and caring. He would never tell me that he regretted meeting me. I know that Subaru would never abandon me… no matter… how much he might want to…”

“You think that he wants to abandon you?” Anri asked incredulously. “If you’re worried about that, why didn’t you ever talk to him about it?”

Emilia wept silently. “I’m just… I’m afraid that someday he’ll wake up and realize that being with me could never make up for everything that he gave up for the sake of being with me. That he’ll hate me for holding him back.”

Anri chuckled.

Emilia looked at her in shock.

“Look, I’m real sorry, Mili,” Anri said with a knowing smile. “But I just can’t take these kind of fears seriously. I’ve known Subaru for about three days and he’s been unconscious for at least one of them. And even I know Subaru well enough to say that he’ll never give up on you. I can’t promise you that your love is going to be eternal and that everything will work out. Nobody can promise that. Love is difficult and even with both people trying as hard as they can, sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d like. But I am certain that he’d never regret trying to make it work or regret the time he spent with you.”

Emilia’s mouth moved but she didn’t say anything.

“That boy loves you, Emilia,” Anri said confidently. “He loves you as truly as anyone I’ve ever met. And for the sake of that love alone, I’d follow you two into the dragon’s den.”

Emilia blinked. “Dragon’s den?” Emilia said in confusion.

Anri flinched. “Oh, right. That… doesn’t make sense in this context,” She mumbled.

“I don’t understand.”

Anri looked pained. “Um. So, it’s just possible I was quoting some lines from one of my favorite romance novels…”

Emilia covered her face and sighed.

“Hey! It’s still good advice!” Anri protested.

Emilia shook her head in resignation.

“Look,” Anri urged. “Let’s go finish breakfast. Subaru should wake up in a couple of hours. Then we can all plan our next moves.”

“Next moves?” Emilia asked.

Anri shrugged, standing up. “Yeah. Victoire and me need to find our way back to Siros. I’m not sure what you and Subaru want to do next but I’ll try to help you as far as I’m able. I certainly owe you that much.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” Emilia said, following Anri out of the room. “We’re in debt to you, Anri. Whatever struggles that you’re facing, if there’s any way that we can assist you, I’ll do whatever I can to help and I’m sure that Subaru will feel the same way.”

The pair returned to the kitchen and found Victoire sitting there like a statue.

She glowered at Emilia.

Anri quickly noticed the tension between the women and sighed. “Victoire, do we have any more toast? I’m sure that Emilia is still hungry after the week she’s had.”

There was a knock at the door.

Anri gave Victoire a confused look. “Could it be another Shadow?!”

Victoire shrugged as she got to her feet with a confused expression on her face. “I don’t know! Maybe?”

Anri approached the door and put her ear to it. “Who is it?” She asked slowly.

“Natalie,” A voice replied.

Anri looked at Victoire with excitement. She slowly opened the door and then gasped.

Emilia watched Anri quickly scramble away from the door, her face pale and her eyes wide with horror.

A figure stepped through the doorway.

Emilia’s mind went blank and then filled with countless images of Subaru lying helplessly on the ground like a broken doll. A huge pool of blood spreading out around his shattered body as everyone desperately tried to staunch the bleeding. His pale face drawn and twisted in pain as he struggled to hold onto his fading life while Emilia stood by helplessly.

“Why hello there, Kairei,” Elsa said pleasantly. “It’s lovely to see you again. I’ve been looking for you.”