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Episode 6
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After their 'disagreement' in the park, the rest of Pierre's day proved altogether more sombre.
Upon returning to the townhouse, he found Maka had retreated to her bedroom, choosing not to leave it for the rest of the evening. Indeed, at dinnertime he ate in abject silence, in the now somewhat repaired remains of the dining room.
In the latter hours of the day, he sat quietly in his study on the old leather armchair (which he had partially fixed after Maka destroyed it when she first appeared). Usually she would join him in the study, sitting on a small wooden stool as she read books or made jokes distracting him from his actual work - But tonight the wood-lined room was silent but for the ticking of the wall clock and a rather half-heartedly kept fire in the hearth.
Eventually night drew in, and Pierre made his rounds of the large place, turning off all the lights for the evening - With only thin streams of the exterior street lamps lighting the house's rooms. At that moment, the old building felt immensely empty - As he reached his bedroom, a small enough affair next to his study on the third floor - He couldn't help but feel the walls seemingly swallowing him claustrophobically as he struggled to fall asleep.
"You Can't Go."
Grumbled a truly gravelled, inhuman voice.
"Let go of me Golem! That's a damn order you hear, let me go!" Yelled a man's voice back desperately.
Gem Havler, owner of the voice, struggled restlessly against the large, round and stone-crafted arms of 'the Golem'. The creature was one of many new travelling companions he and the Lady Aardig had gained recently. A hulking almost eight-foot mass of rock and mortar, with two hollow-flaming eyes and strength enough to match its imposing appearance. There were others: the jester-like man, who was a whirlwind of daggers in combat. The young Magi woman who kept claiming to be Aardig's apprentice (although
Aardig herself fiercely denied this).
In all there were ten in Lady Aardig's travelling party now, a far cry from the days when it had just been her and Gem, or even when there had been five of them.
Of those ten companions, seven now lay dead around Gem's feet. Yes, it had definitely been many years since that carefree day when Aardig had thought Gem was conspiring with her father to stop her adventures...
How they had all laughed back then. Now the sword master, legendary archer and loyal manservant who had been there that day, all lay dead alongside their newer party members, here on the field of battle.
It had happened suddenly, word from the King that an invasion force five or even ten thousand strong was on the borders. Aardig's group had arrived to reinforce the battle lines, and for a time it had worked. Around each of Gem's fallen comrades were a few dozen or even hundred corpses of enemy soldiers. Men stabbed with their own spears, others with arrows easily piercing through the cheap armour of frontline footmen - Some burned to a crisp by Magi abilities or slashed in the neck by throwing knives.
But ten people, adventurers or not, can only do so much against an army of thousands.
What is a hero against a military?
And so one by one they had fallen until they were just three: Gem, who stood clutched in the Golem's firm grip, his side bleeding profusely and his left arm at an odd angle from broken bones.
The Golem, missing large chunks of its construction, barely enough left to stay standing upright. And finally, the third member, their great leader and mistress - St Aardig herself.
She stood a little ways ahead of Gem, the golem and the cadavers of the dead. Atop a small, slightly scorched rise in the land, her red cape and brown, shoulder-length hair fluttered in the strong winds, against a backdrop of the setting sun.
In the air, the heavy smell of trodden dirt, the metallic scent of blood and bodily decay.
In front of her two things: A cacophony of screams and a typhoon of gleaming swords.
The swords flew through the air as though being held on marionette strings - Reflecting brightly against the setting sun as lines of light darting all across the skyline, like tiny bolts of white lightning. It was impossible to tell if there were a hundred of these blades or a thousand, as they danced across the battlefield in front of Aardig.
They cut and sliced and maimed and soared and stabbed and struck again and again and again and again. The army before Aardig, thousands of men just below her on the far side of the little hill, fell one after the other. Men desperately grappling over the corpses of their deceased friends, others thumbed backwards, piling the bodies two or three high.
Scream after scream, slice after slice. The swords danced through the sky, mercilessly killing man after hapless man as though the blades had minds of their own. Aardig's power pushed to its greatest extreme as she simply stood there atop the hill watching, willing the swords to fight on her behest. One hand resting against a single stationary blade planted into the ground before her.
"Let me help her, damn it!" Gem roared, trying to break free of the Golem's hold on him.
"Vice-Commander, Your Power Has Been Calculated As Inferior To Those Around Us."
The golem rumbled flatly, almost in monotone.
"Inferior?! Are you saying I'd just get myself killed if I tried to help her!?"
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The golem looked at the other fallen adventurers of the party who lay around it, then down at Gem's wounds, "We Can Not Help Her Now. You Can Not Help Her Now."
Gem eased his struggle, staring up at Aardig's silhouette as tears formed in his eyes. He knew it was true, he was by far the weakest member of the group. If the others were gone, then he could surely do nothing but get in the way. Yet still… Something new caught his eyes amongst the storm of blades in front of Aardig, her hair. At its tips, the brunette was beginning to change colour, to grey out, then whiten.
"Oh God, she's pushed too far! Abused her power too much!" Gem exclaimed, mortified.
Slowly, as the screams of the battle continued rising from the far side of the ridge, the young woman on the hilltop began to change. Her skin grew paler and her hair, all of it now, began to turn.
A few more minutes and at last, it ended as quickly as it had started. Ten thousand or more men lay dead, piled in mounds of their own rotting comrades. Standing above this massacre, like a sentinel atop a hill, was the Lady Aardig. Her hair a mesmerising pure white, her skin alabaster - Her eyes deeper than ever before, an abyssal crimson-red.
"It's Over."
The swords fell lifeless from the air, back to the ground as the chunks of inert metal they began as. Aardig collapsed to her knees, supporting herself with both hands wrapped to the hilt of her final sword, her hair and cape still billowing in the wind. As silence finally settled over the scene.
And then one last scream broke through the air - One more soldier rose from the endless mounds of dead, charging up the hill with a weapon raised overhead and deep, frightening revenge in his eyes.
Gem moved fast, the Golem finally releasing him - He grabbed his own blade, ran straight past Aardig's crouching form and in a single flush movement, cleaved off the final attacker's head.
"Now it's over!"
Glancing around to look for any other enemy survivors, Gem spotted Aardig smile-her thanks for the last minute rescue before falling over completely. He ran to her side before skidding to prop her head against his lap before it could hit the dirt.
Her eyes, her now deep red eyes - Fluttered open.
"Nice save old friend," she grinned.
"Ha, that's rich coming from you. I think my one kill will struggle to match your count for the day!" Gem laughed hoarsely with little mirth, brushing some of the pitch-white hair out of Aardig's eyes, "Don't try to talk. You're injured, that was bloody stupid you know, using your abilities like that."
Aardig smiled again, raising a shaky hand to caress Gem's cheek, "Are the others ok?"
Gem swallowed hard, considering his response but then something else unexpected happened: Aardig's hand fell limply to her side, her eyes rolling shut.
"A-Aardig, what's wrong!? Aardig!!"
Gem looked up, searching for help but there was nothing - Literally. Around him it was all gone: the corpses of friend and foe alike, the Golem, and even that vivid sunset.
He stared down at the girl on his lap and reached for her wrist - Her pulse.
It was gone. “No, no that can’t be?!”
"No, n-no no you can't, you can't die here. Someone! ANYONE!!"
There was no reply. The very ground seemed to have vanished. Gem found himself in an endless void with only Aardig and himself left - A dead Aardig - His anger flared, his hands went to her shoulders, shaking her violently.
“You can’t just die! What did everyone else give their lives for if you die? Why am I still alive if you’re dead?!”
As her hair was tossed and her clothes ruffled by the action, Gem reeled back, ashamed of his rough display, “No, I - Trade with me! Take me instead, you hear?! Take me!”
There was, of course, no response from the endless black void.
"No, no, no, no - No! This isn't how it happened. You abused your powers, but you lived through it, right? You don't die here, Aardig? I remember you living through this battle! Aardig, please!!"
Even his pitiful wails weakened. The corpse of his closest friend slipped from its perch on his knees, rolling onto the ground dully, all life gone from it.
"Please don't leave me all alone, not again....."
And then even the newfound corpse began to fade away, to a place he knew he could not follow.
Pierre juddered awake in his bed, the pale light of the moon outside his curtains. He did not bother trying to write this dream down: he could remember it all vividly and knew it was false.
"Yes, a nightmare. I was there, she survived that day, became the Sword-Dancer or Slayer or whatever 'they' called it - Yes, exactly..."
Pierre suddenly raised his hand to feel his face, wet with an outpouring of tears.
"I-I'm crying? Why the hell would I cry over a… over a silly little dream? Adults don't cry about stupid 'nightmares' I-... I-i... I don't want to be all alone again...."
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