Past the large stone doors, buzzing within the air made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.
The circular room itself was large, reminiscent of a large cavern opening rather than something like a building interior. Statues sat beneath ivory columns, which at the edges of the room amidst torn and shredded curtains, far enough that I couldn’t make out any of the designs on them. The columns stretched up and up, connected to a domed ceiling composed entirely of glass. The design reminded me of grand cathedrals, with towering ceilings and stained glass mosaics. At the end, past a large ascent of stairs, sat a large marble throne, with a distant figure settled atop— the former Emperor, presumably.
He also seemed to be handily winning the fight with the five people he sat overlooking.
Lightning screamed through the air, generated by multiple rapidly flashing and fading circles lining the wall behind the throne. It fell upon the group like hail— shrieking as it tore past shields both arcane and physical before dissipating along the ground. The ground shook, rumbling and fracturing with spiderweb cracks as blocks of stone broke from the ground and were flung at them. It seemed that the Emperor also had a penchant for fire— as there were several streams of fire tracking the group as they attempted to ascend the steps to the throne. Behind the Emperor, I could see a multitude of glyphs fizzling out as they were used, with many more generating effects I couldn’t see. A glyph would flash, and a chunk of stone would be torn out behind one of the group, or would suddenly kick one of them back as they got too close.
My description doesn’t truly do the scene justice— it was more fitting to call the scene I saw an alliance between multiple full-blown natural disasters, agreeing to bear down on five people, with the Emperor leisurely in its center.
Though, none of the five looked to be extensively hurt— on the contrary, all of them were holding their own remarkably well, and worked together as if they’d been fighting for years.
They probably have, Estelle— Silver Flower Company, remember?
Even as the brunt of spells that could’ve leveled building in isolation rained down upon them, they found the ability to cover for each other, then use that opportunity to counterattack or advance on the Emperor. It was captivating to watch them fight— when they weren’t being engulfed in some manner of fire, rubble, or lightning that obscured my view.
It was also, very obviously, very far out of my league. Not that I considered joining the fight— I owed nothing to things little more than memories, and my intervention here would change nothing at the end of the day. A part of me was very glad I wasn’t fighting.
This view is awful, though. I frowned. While this was a— seemingly— completely safe distance, if I made a marble encapsulating my memories from this point of view, there’d be no guarantee that the clients would be happy. You couldn’t plead that you tried your best either, standing around at least a hundred feet away.
I peeked my head further in, reasoning that the main conflict was far enough way for me to look around the room for a better vantage point. Soon, I found something promising: elevated far above the ground as to— probably— be safe, was a secondary level reminiscent of private theater booths set high into the wall, with the columns acting as dividers. The booths continued along the entirety of the room, only terminating when they approached the space above where the throne sat.
I glanced at the thickness of the door, then at the hinges that the door sat upon, gauging the rough width of the wall. I checked my pocket watch before casting the same divination spell as earlier, which let me see that the wards around the room were in a similarly destroyed state, meaning there’d be no wards that would block any Transmutation attempts.
I glanced again at the fight, reasoning that it probably wouldn’t finish in the time it took me to get to my next vantage point— though I knew it was simple reassurance. Professor Talon had always stressed how fast a fight could end if one side made a mistake. I noted a booth that wasn’t close enough to endanger me, but close enough to get a good view, and turned to hurry down the curve of the hallway, leaving the roaring sounds of the fight behind me.
When I reached the bend that should’ve held the booth I wanted to climb into, I did the same thing I’d done to get onto the floor— folding away the stone into stairs, then folding away slices of the wall until I found where the booth had been set into the wall, and where the sounds of fighting intensified. Immediately, I ducked in, keeping my head low as the sounds of fighting passed overhead.
Seems you didn’t miss the event, at least.
I passed a glance towards my pocket watch— finding it’d crossed to ten in the time I’d spent to get here— before scanning the booth. The booth itself was a minimalistic little room, the marble floor dusted with stone detritus, with thick stone tables and benches for whoever sat there. The railing I was ducked under was hip-height, and I cautiously peeked over.
I blinked, then squinted into the roaring gouts of flame.
I had expected my mother, as well as my father— and to some degree— Penelope, as I hadn’t seen her on my way here, but I saw two extra candidates that had me questioning the validity of this memory.
Interposing her shield between my mother and a font of ruby flames, was Maple Bell— Arthur’s mother. Farther away, hacking at a thick marble root that had wound around my father’s ankle with familiar hooked blades, was Professor Talon— or, at least someone who looked eerily similar to the man. He had the same bird mask I’d known him to have, and was dressed in the same, large, all-covering cloak that trailed to the floor, though the cloak was singed and stained gray with ash in some places.
The Emperor spoke, his tone oily, but I couldn’t make them out over the roaring flames. He lifted a hand, before a column of lightning blocked my vision of the two. With his other hand stretched towards Penelope and Maple— who, despite bearing a sword and a shield, looked the same— he flicked his wrist and flames flared from multiple points, forcing them back.
In the brief respite he had, he said something else that seemed to enrage… Talon, oddly enough, who then… roared and charged? My brow furrowed. He had always impressed upon us that if we had ‘the effort to scream, then you had the effort to swing your sword harder.’ Still, he ran forward, even when my father called out for him, his swords swiping out to bat away at something I couldn’t see.
I felt a jarring amount of dissonance watching Talon— I couldn’t reconcile the modern image of him: stern, taciturn, and harsh, but preaching adaptability, caution, and calm in any and all situations, against the current him I was seeing.
As the wards behind the Emperor holding off the rest of his group, Talon charged up the steps, making it farther than he had before— though a portion of my attention recognized the trap for what it was: As Talon breached the thin veil of marble warding off my mother’s spells and raised his blade, the Emperor already had a hand outstretched towards him, a whirling ball of flame ready. Just as it were about to burst, my father dropped onto the platform— seemingly having been propelled by my mother’s spell a moment earlier— and knocked the outstretched hand away with his shield. The Emperor swept his other hand as the glyphs surrounding the platform flared to life, and both Talon and my father was thrown back to the bottom of the steps.
I pushed down the urge to continue watching— instead fishing for the jagged sphere of glass within my pocket. I placed it on the ground, and began feeding it ether, sparing it a single glance as it jagged spikes began to soften and flatten, and a spark of dim blue and pink had begun expanding from its center. I set my open pocket watch beside it.
Meanwhile, I retrieved a stick of chalk and began drawing even circles surrounding me. I kept an eye between the fight itself, which continued to rage, and the ritual circle I was drawing. It was a simple defensive ward that all students at Belfaust were taught, meant to catch and neutralize a wide array of possible elements, and while it wasn’t particularly powerful, the base array could be added to in order to increase its strength given time.
Down by the steps of the throne, the Silver Flower Company was once more engaged with dodging and blocking the Emperor’s onslaught, only occasionally being able to attempt an attack on the man himself. Though, it didn’t seem as if either side was making more progress than the other, as any attacks that did get through the Emperor’s unending storm of spells was blocked by another defensive spell.
My father had seemingly recovered from his fall first, and with Talon covering him, leapt up the steps towards the throne, slipping between gaps of flame and crumbling rubble, and raised his blade towards the Emperor. He held up a single hand as he approached, and a spear of light shot forward, too close for him to outright dodge. My father twisted, aborting his overhead swing into a swipe that only caught the Emperor in the cheek as the light caught him in the shoulder and exploded, ripping his shield off him before the momentum threw him and Talon back down the steps. In the next moment, a cascade of lightning rained down on his prone form, kicking up a cloud of dust.
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I scowled, my hand clenching at my side. My nails dug into my palm.
Restrain yourself, Estelle. This is a memory, nothing more. Penelope— as well as everyone else— will not actually be harmed. No unnecessary risks. I let out a slow breath, ignoring the little voice in the back of my head that said I was about to find out where my father went years ago. You’re here on a job— nothing more. Stay professional.
Despite the fact that I knew none of these people were actually real— every time one of them got hurt, or screamed, I felt myself flinch. It didn’t help that I knew most of these people. I tore my gaze away to glance back down at the glass bead and my pocket watch, the former of which had begun to resemble an oblong pebble rather than an angry spiked stone, and the latter which told me the marble would finish before my time here ran out.
The Emperor jerked to face Penelope, wreathed in a sphere of soft gold, as she broke through a diminishing column of flame, her longword shimmering and held low for a thrust. Talon whistled through the cloud my father had vanished in, his blades poised to decapitate the Emperor.
The Emperor flicked a hand towards Penelope, and a sharp pillar of marble shot out from the throne, sending Penelope skidding and tumbling against the broken flooring until she reached my mother, who looked to be frantically weaving together spells and protective wards to throw over Penelope and Joseph— who had suddenly appeared in the place Penelope had just been beside the Emperor, looking hurt, but not grievously injured.
Talon’s blades became locked on a pillar of conjured stone, but before the Emperor could cast another spell to ward off Joseph, a lance of ice shot out from my mother, shattering the mans hand. He began casting with his other hand, but it was too late— my father’s blade sank in the Emperor’s neck, only to stop as the Emperor finished his spell and blasted him away. Talon’s second blade— one that hadn’t been caught by the stone shield— bit into the Emperor’s clavicle, before he too, was knocked away in harsh gust of wind.
None of it had been a decisive killing blow, but my father’s attack had been enough.
The Emperor stood as the wards finally depleted; whirlwinds of flame petered out into dim embers, spheres of lightning crackled uselessly to nothing, spheres and shields of marble crumbled and shattered across the floor, and no new spells took their place. The dust clouds slowly cleared, and the Silver Flower Company gathered back together, readying for another salvo. The Emperor took a single step forward, a hand holding onto the gaping gash nearly severing his head, a look of wordless wrath on his face, blood bubbling past his lips, before another javelin of ice shot forward and pierced his head, launched by my mother.
His body tilted back and collapsed to the ground, devoid of movement. I let out a slow breath and reached to scoop up my pocket watch, before I paused.
You still haven’t found the source of the Enchantment pulse.
The five stood a distance away from the Emperor’s corpse, looking haggard and wary. Penelope braced her head against her blade, panting as her cloak hung around her like burnt autumn leaves while Maple patted her on the back, looking just as weary. Talon seemed to be the least tired, and from his posture I could tell he was deciding between reprimanding Penelope for how she was treating her blade or ignoring it. My father and my mother sagged against one another, holding hands. A part of me wondered if I’d followed the wrong hunch— if the Enchantment pulse those years ago didn’t come from the audience chamber. Cautiously I glanced around, recasting the divination spell after another moment to watch for anything out of the ordinary.
My gaze briefly paused on the domed roof, of which ether still clung to like cobwebs. Something about how it lingered sat wrong with me, but I tore my gaze away to continue examining the rest of the room. The audience chamber had been torn to shreds— large, deep gashes sat alongside piles of mountainous rubble upon the floor, accompanied by enough scorch marks that I doubted the floor would ever look clean again—
The edges of the room lit up, and I flinched. A bright pink, it flashed along the length of the room and up the walls, before vanishing again. The Company members shot looks of alarm around the room, but all I could identify was that it was drawing ether from the pool lingering above the roof. The source, I couldn’t determine.
Or, well, I couldn’t until the Emperor’s corpse smoothly shambled to its feet, its crown glowing the same color that had enveloped the room moments earlier. A heartbeat later, with an arm outstretched, my mother’s shard of ice shattering across the disk of marble the corpse had conjured.
Then, as fast as it ended, the fight began once more.
Immediately, my mother took a couple steps back, shouting something to the other four, who launched forward towards the undead Emperor, who flicked a hand towards them. Immediately, a jagged crown of marble rose like a wall of spears to meet them. Penelope let out a harsh shout, before flicking her blade. In the next instant, the four of them easily jumped over the wall, though I suspected it was from whatever Penelope did than their Shrouds.
Then, the Emperor’s crown glowed, and halfway to him, Penelope and Talon both swung their blades at Maple and Joseph. Maple still had her shield, and was able to bring it up in time, but was still pushed back and away. Joseph wasn’t as lucky, as Penelope had caught him on his forearm. Shouts of confusion rang out from both, but neither Penelope or Talon showed any signs of stopping as they pressed their sudden attack on the two.
The reanimated Emperor chose then to begin moving again, flinging a volley of sharp marble towards my mother, who aborted the spell she was casting and ducked out of the way. She called out a harsh note, before I lost sigh of her as a cloud of dust kicked to life. The corpse turned its attention back to Maple and my father, the former of which was holding her own, but the latter was being pushed back.
I watched as the Emperor’s corpse sent a spiral of flame towards Maple, forcing her farther back, before sending a volley of lightning towards my father, which opened him to another strike from Penelope. He hadn’t taken any fatal blows yet, but was beginning to drip a concerning amount of blood as he was forced backwards.
My mother still hadn’t emerged from the dust cloud she’d conjured, and when I looked back, I found that it had actually begun expanding, before enveloping both Penelope and Joseph, and obscured my view of Maple and Talon. Seconds later, Penelope shot out from the dust, forcing the Emperor’s corpse back up the steps towards the throne. The dust cloud stopped growing, and I saw my mother’s hand on my father’s back, her humming in a low voice as his wounds slowly closed.
In the distance, Maple still held her ground, but had transitioned to a more defensive pace, intent on keeping Talon from advancing on anyone else. Penelope seemed reinvigorated, and successfully pushing back the Emperor’s reanimated corpse. My father joined her a moment later, pushing the corpse off-balance as it tripped and fell while my mother moved to assist Maple. She shouted something towards her, and a moment later Maple rammed Talon with her shield and he tripped over a ledge of stone that wasn’t there a moment before. As he fell, Maple’s blade flicked out, knocking the hooked blades from his grasp. A moment later, my mother placed a hand upon his mask, whistling a note as Talon jerked, then scrambled to his feet.
Maple nodded to my mother and traded some words, before both her and Talon darted back towards the Emperor’s reanimated corpse as my mother retreated a couple paces.
Meanwhile, Penelope and my father were pressing the attack, the latter creating an opening for the former that let them take one of the corpse’s arm. With its free hand, my father was blown backwards, but Penelope used the opening to cast, drawing a large, bisecting gash across the corpse’s chest that threw it to the ground. Penelope raised her blade, but paused as the crown flashed pink once more. A moment later, Penelope broke free from whatever trance she fell into, but the corpse had already scrambled away.
The instant the Emperor’s reanimated corpse stood, though, both Maple and Talon barreled into it, sending it tumbling to the ground where my father now stood, sword raised. The corpse’s hand flung out for another spell, but my father’s blade took it in the neck and split the head from the body. It collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
But, farther away, for some reason my mother continued whatever spell she was casting— something tremendous— given from how her ether had started coalescing into visible ribbons of light surrounding her.
I saw the reason moments later, when, just like earlier, the room pulsed pink, before the crown on the corpse flashed once more. It stood once more, immediately launching a gout of flames towards where Penelope, Joseph, Talon, and Maple stood. Maple easily slid in front of the group, who sheltered behind her as Penelope cast a spell upon her shield. The flames routed, dispersed to the sides. But, the flames didn’t stop, instead growing in intensity until the marble flooring surrounding them seemed to glow. Even though I was far away, and partially ducked behind something, the resulting heat made me wince and hiss. The flames steadily grew, until I couldn’t see the group within the flames, having been completely swallowed by a maelstrom of roaring flames. At that point, I began feeding ether to the protective ward surrounding me, which abated the heat to barely manageable levels.
Then, amidst the roaring of flames, my mother sang a note that rang like shrieking glass, and the light surrounding her winked out. A moment later, the sound had been replaced by a crack like thunder as the light reformed into an eye-watering sliver above the Emperor’s reanimated corpse. Then, it soundlessly plunged down like a streak of lightning into the crown.
It shattered like glass, and a moment later the flames guttered out and the corpse collapsed alongside the blackened crown. After a bated breath, it didn’t rise a third time. Penelope and my father broke off to check the corpse, while Talon and Maple moved towards my mother, who seemed to be swaying on her feet.
I let go of the breath I’d been holding. It seemed that this wouldn’t be where my father met his end, which, while wouldn’t change the future, did a fair bit in alleviating the tension I felt.
Then, it felt as if the sky tilted and swayed and funnel, like the atmosphere itself had begun being swept along the tides of a whirlpool. I blinked, bracing a hand against the floor.
The next instant I heard my mother screaming for Penelope and my father to run, her hand outstretched. Penelope and my father immediately turned, charging back towards the three as the atmosphere got heavier and nearly unbreathable. A shimmering blue dome surrounded Maple, Talon, and my mother, and I heard her curse at the same time I felt a feeling like spiders crawling down my spine.
The spiky bead had nearly smoothed down to a marble in my palm— unfinished— but I grabbed it, and prepared to make my exit. Whatever was about to happen— which I suspected was the Enchantment pulse— I certainly did not want to stick around for. I spun towards a door, which sat at the end of the booth and sprinted towards it, letting out a harsh breath as I let my ether spool out into the memory surrounding me.
I— through senses beyond myself— felt the world begin to shift, and I knew moments later, the door I was running towards wouldn’t lead out to the doorway, but out.
Moments later, just as a prickling like a thousand ice-cold spiders dancing along my skin spread across the back of my ankle, I crashed through the door, and tumbled out and down into a black, weightless abyss, and out of the Memoir.