Emilia couldn’t tell much of what was going on. One minute her body was compelled by an invisible force to pull the lever, then she was running, then she was being carried by Mister Zora, and then they were all flung out the window by the kind old lady who’d picked her up three months ago.

Her eyes didn’t work. She couldn’t see her environment, but she could ‘see’, mid-fall, that they were about to plummet straight into the big garden they’d found Mister Julius in.

Even she couldn’t survive a hundred-metre fall.

Cold slithered through her gut, and her singular valve of a heart beat rapidly as panic shot her into fight-or-flight mode. She couldn’t fly. Her wings were oversized compared to the rest of her body, and she couldn’t even twitch a muscle in them. Something else, then! There had to be something else she could do. Maybe she could bite her nails and pull out a bunch of threads and wrap herself in a bouncy cocoon, but she didn’t have nearly enough time for that. Eighty metres. Sixty metres. Forty metres–

And she felt Mister Zora yanking all five of them together with a loud ‘to me’, both him and Miss Cecilia fanning out their cicada wings as they tried to slow them down.

The rainshower in her ears became a howling torrent. She felt an intense nausea rising in her as they neared the ceiling of the big garden, and then—impact.

Mister Marcus and Mister Julius were beneath her, so they smashed through the glass and reinforced steel beams first, opening a hole for the rest of them. Mister Zora and Miss Cecelia both were grabbing onto one of her arms each, and together, they slammed into the sharp-leafed canopy. Branches rustled. Trees creaked and groaned. She hissed and squeezed braced her remaining arms before her face as the ground rose quickly, but by the time the soles of her feet actually hit the earth, it was soft, gentle, and painless.

She skipped a few steps forward with her arms flailing, still retaining a bit of that forward falling momentum, but the teachers around her hadn’t landed nearly as gracefully. Mister Marcus and Mister Julius were curled up in balls, surrounded by glass shards curled up and groaning in pain. Miss Cecilia had definitely broken a leg judging by how tightly she clutched her knee, and Mister Zora was… half-conscious. Fading in and out. He stumbled a few steps behind Emilia, hobbled a few more, and then collapsed with his head in his hands. He must’ve hit something on the way down.

And she was the only one still on her feet, sporting only light cuts and tears across her skin, all of which would heal in a matter of minutes.

…

One look at them told Emilia they weren’t getting up anytime soon—not even for Mister Julius to roll around and cast ‘heal’ on everyone—so she clenched her teeth and pumped her fists, picking up a teacher in each hand before bolting for the exit in the south. It wasn’t that far away, and she was strong. She had to be strong.

Back to the dorm!

Far, far above her, the Magicicada Witch screeched and screamed at them, and the cicada’s voice rumbled the entire academy. The canopy quivered, and a storm of spells shot down at her: angry, fast-spoken, almost musical in its insults. There were ‘strikes’ and ‘throws’, ‘falls’ and ‘tumbles’. All spells she’d heard Mister Zora cast before, but the magnitude was completely different. The Magicicada Witch’s spells slammed into the garden from a hundred metres above, demolishing swathes of trees, clearings, and rivers with ear-shattering booms; they may not be half as accurate as Mister Zora’s spells, but who needed precision when they had overwhelming might?

The teachers groaned as she flung herself across fallen logs, cracks in the earth, and dragged all of them to the southern gate. There was only cold in her arms. Her muscles were numb. Her breaths were gone. She felt like she was freezing up from the inside, and she felt her skin hardening into chitin shards—the more she forced herself to become stronger, the more her mutations took over. She knew that, yes. She’d lose her humanity along with them. But she couldn’t possibly stop herself from getting stronger now.

It’s… for Mister Zora!

It’s my turn to help!

Tears came to her eyes as she reached the clearing before the southern gate, and just as she managed to cross it, hurtling herself down the first flight of stairs, the entire garden shattered behind her. A mountain-shaking thump resounded in her chest. She glanced around for a brief moment, fearful, and her antennae painted an image in her head: Nona had jumped and landed, and the Witch was on her way, carving through the collapsing artificial forest.

“My wand, you bugs!” she screamed, and the sound made Emilia stumble, pain stabbing through her ears and into her brain. “Where is my wand that is worth a thousand human lives?”

Emilia didn’t know. She didn’t know anything. Desperately, she dragged the teachers down the first flight of stairs, around the first bend, and tried to ignore the destruction being wrought overhead. For every five flights she cleared, three were caved-in, ravaged, and ripped to shreds by the Witch’s spells. She half-slid around the tenth bend, saw the northern dorm gate at the very bottom of the final flight of stairs, and a panicked smile rose onto her face. It was right there.

Go!

Throw them down if you have to!

The others wouldn’t be able to take it, but she apologised first before kicking Mister Marcus down the stairs, letting him slam into the northern gate with a heavy bang. Having one less person to carry meant she practically flew down the stairs, and as she neared the gate, her antennae tingled. There were people waiting behind it. Children. She sniffed, wracked her brain, and her face lit up again—Titus and the others.

She didn’t even have to scream out loud for them to open the gate. They did it on their own volition, and the moment there was a gap just wide enough for her to chuck the remaining three teachers through, she did.

Then she whirled, bit twenty threads from twenty nails, and wove a thread shield in front of her as fast as she could—because the ‘strike’ spell that slammed into it half a second later was still too powerful, and she had to kneel as she cried out in pain, holding the shield in front of her.

She couldn’t drop the shield now.

She was the only thing standing between the Magicicada Witch and the exposed dormitory.

“Emilia!” Titus shouted, rushing out of the gate with a dozen children, half of them already pulling the groggy teachers into the foyer. The boy himself was about to charge at her, but she noticed. She snarled at him. Whipping a single thread at him, she lashed his forearms and made him fly back, baring her fangs as she did.

“Close the gate!” she snapped. “Hurry!”

“N-No! Jump to us! Leave your shield there and–”

A second ‘strike’ fired in Titus’ direction, and she split her shield in half to stab it into the ground, blocking that spell, too. The impact still created a violent gust of wind that knocked every child back, but not her. Her toes became claws, ripping through her pretty leather shoes, and she had them stab into the ground. Anchoring her. Binding her. Spikes grew from every armoured joint on her body, and she drew on more strength from the monster inside her.

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She barely even managed to growl at Titus again.

“Go,” she breathed. “You’re… you’re in the way.”

“...”

Titus scrambled to his feet and half-ran as fast as he could, dragging Mister Zora into the foyer by the collar. The lever was pulled, gears were turned, and as she intercepted half a dozen more ‘strikes’ that would’ve flown right into the foyer to decimate everyone, child and adult, the gate finally closed. Hinges locked. Pistons slammed in place.

Finally, she gasped for breath and let her shields unwind into simple threads again, falling onto all sixes. Her heart was thumping down into her gut. Her limbs had the strength of jelly and her mind the clarity of sticky candy. It was all she could do just to stop herself from hissing and crying as more spikes ripped out of her skin, her body going past the point of no-return–

And then the Magicicada Witch stopped right in front of her, standing over her with two arms folded behind her back.

Nona!

Die–

She didn’t get to finish her thought. The Witch batted her lunging claws away and grabbed her throat in the same motion, lifting her a whole metre into the air.

“... What’s a bug doing siding with humans, anyways?” Nona said, lips curling in displeasure as Emilia kicked out, jamming her claws between chitin plates; she got a few good grasps, but she had no real shot at actually prying them off Nona’s chest. “Look at you! You’re a bug, so act like one! You and your oversized wings and bright red nails and… and…”

Nona trailed off, her little cicada antennae nubs tingling from the top to bottom.

A second later, the Witch’s irritation gave way to a cheerful, exuberant face, and Emilia choked as she was drawn closer to Nona’s fangs.

“A Kin of the Black Witch!” Nona laughed, her whole body shuddering with the motion. “In this castle? A silkmoth-human? I didn’t realise you had the abilities of the Black Witch! Hey, hey, where’d you get the silkmoths from? Where’d you eat them? I wanna eat, too!”

Emilia may be able to answer if her throat weren’t being crushed in an iron claw, but Nona asked only to fill the silence—the Witch had an allergy to a world without sounds, noises, and voices. Even Emilia could tell that much just from looking at her.

So, with a casual flick of her hand, she flung Emilia into the gate and ‘struck’ just an inch to the left. The spell rattled the hinges and threatened to cave in the entire side of the dorm, but the gate itself didn’t budge. Neither would the rest of the dorm, in actuality. Emilia had been told time and time again that the dorm was the perfect shelter; once the gate was locked, there’d be no going in and out unless someone on the inside pulled the lever.

She’d done it.

Mister Zora…

Miss Sarius…

I–

“I could bash the gate in eventually, but even I get tired too, you know?”

Emilia gurgled as Nona picked her up again, pressing her against the cold metal gate. There was no lie in the Witch’s voice, either—a Lesser Insect God wasn’t just any bug. She could very well demolish the dorm if she spent just a little bit of time shaving away at the gate, but… was she not going to do that?

Before Emilia could finish that line of thought, Nona leaned in close and smiled. “You’re all annoying,” she whispered, half-growling in her ear, half-cackling to herself, “but I’m lucky you’re so tough. If you’d died when I threw you into the gate, I wouldn’t have a hostage to lure those humans out of there.”

Emilia’s urges got the better of her. She snapped at Nona’s neck, trying to rip something out, but Nona was much stronger. Physically and magically. She was pulled away from the gate before she was slammed into it again, and this time her skull bounced off the hard metal, making her cry out in pain.

No!

Mister Zora! Don’t–

“You guys are listening to me inside, aren’t you?”

----------------------------------------

… Huh?

What’s going on?

Where… am I?

Zora awoke with a throbbing ache in his head, eyes fluttering open and close. He was in a dark place. No, maybe dimly lit. Lying on his back, staring at the arched ceiling overhead—he was back in the dorm foyer.

When had he gotten back?

I was… we were in the northern building, facing Nona.

Then, mom… threw us out?

He winced as panicked voices overlapped each other around him, his hands moving slowly over his face. His memories were hazy, but they were coming back bit by bit. They’d fought Nona, they’d lost, and the Headmaster threw them out the window to protect them. He immediately bit his lips and let himself feel the pain, the anguish; the Headmaster stayed behind for them, because they were weak, and now…

He couldn’t hear the Headmaster’s voice amidst the foyer.

He heard Marcus sitting up groggily to the left, shouting at the kids to calm down. He heard Julius muttering “heal” over and over to the right, tending to Cecilia with a broken leg. Half a dozen kids—Titus being one of them—were surrounding him, shaking his shoulders, and now he remembered what’d happened after they were thrown out the window.

They’d all been knocked out for a good five or so minutes after crash-landing in the botanical garden, and Emilia had single-handedly carried them back here.

Emilia.

Where’s Emilia–

Someone banged on the gate outside, and the children screamed, a harsh, discordant sound. Zora immediately snapped upright and glared straight at the gate, his ears not failing him, his gut not churning for no good reason.

He heard two people outside the gate, and one of them was one of his.

“... It’s me, Mister Fabre!” a voice shouted, faint and muffled, and every last human listening in the foyer froze. “Please, please, please open the door, Mister Fabre! She’s coming! She’s–”

“Fuck off,” he whispered, crawling to his feet, pushing Titus and his friends aside. His mind was still hazy, his body still bleeding and aching all over from the fall, but he staggered forward with his wand in hand—and he slammed the gate with a clenched fist, snarling at the bug. “Let go of her. Leave her alone. I swear, you touch even a hair on her body, and I will rip out your tongue–”

“Give me my wand back, then!” Nona said, banging Emilia’s head against the gate once again, making her cry out sharply. “Open the gate! I promise I’ll let everyone live! I’m just about full of children for the next year or two, anyways!”

He didn't answer.

He couldn't answer.

“What’s the matter, Mister Fabre?” Nona cooed, her voice small, scornful. “She’s your child, isn’t she? Don’t you want her back? I don’t wanna hold onto her, either, but… it’s just so, so cold.” A layer of frost started forming on the inside of the gate, spreading across the wooden floorboards, and the children behind Zora screamed as they scrambled back. Zora didn’t move. “It’s so cold, Mister Fabre. She’s so cold. She’s a moth, and she needs to be warmed up–”

“I’m okay, Mister Zora!” Emilia shouted. ‘She won’t eat me! She says I’m some important–”

Nona snapped, slamming Emilia’s head into the gate and making everyone flinch again. “Midnight! Forty minutes! Bring my wand to the courtyard downstairs, at the southwestern entrance of the academy, and I promise I’ll let everyone live! You do have my wand, don’t you?”

...

“You know what to do, Fabre,” Nona breathed, and her voice passed through the gate, moving so slowly and softly it felt like she was speaking right in his ear. “You have until midnight to make a decision, but I’ll get my wand back no matter what. The only thing you get to decide is whether or not you’ll make me work for it, but if you do force my words, I will make all of you suffer.”

With that, Nona retreated from the gate outside, dragging Emilia along with her—and Zora kept his bloody fist against the gate as the dorm became deathly quiet.

.And in the heavy silence, every heartbeat felt like a countdown to dawn.