32 • (C): The Gardening Toolbox

The royal guard was struggling. He’d conjured—rather haphazardly—multiple blades and a pistol earlier but they seemed to be serving him no use. The sharp-weapons would simply melt upon contact with the volatile vitae. The bullets from the pistol didn’t fare any better. The guard had good aim alright, but good aim didn’t do much against a being of pure energy. 

Now the guard had been backed into an alleyway and was scanning the walls for footing to escape the branches of vitae reaching out for him. The base of the volatile vitae creature was all the way across the street and yet it still managed to extend its form this far of a distance. Most likely because the guard was the closest living thing within range.

Poor luck.

Claire felt a bit bad for him—especially since he himself had a vantage point crouched on the roof of the building just above him. That and the royal guard had ended up in this predicament because the royal guard had been tailing him this entire time.

Claire looked away and across the rooftops towards the north. The Small Services District was there. Or at least it should have been. There was a distortion there that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around or put into words.

Bang! Bang!

Claire looked down again. The guard was dangling from a fire escape ladder and the volatile vitae was at his feet. He sighed and hopped up to a stand. Taking in a deep breath, he leapt from the roof and gathered vitae at his feet. The wind whipped wildly around him as he came down hard on the branch of vitae. The impact was so great that the branch snapped and then splintered as he passed through it and landed on the ground.

“My Lord!” Felix dropped down from where hung on the ladder.

Claire motioned him back with his hand as the pieces of volatile vitae that had splattered on the walls began to pulse and then become drawn back together in front of him. He stared past it and eyed the barely identifiable body it had bloomed from. He held out his hand as the vitae pulsated and then hurtled towards him—most likely aiming for Felix standing behind him.

Claire welcomed it with a grin. 

The instant the vitae made contact with his skin, he felt his veins light on fire. The heat poured into him scathingly hot and tried to take him with it, but he was familiar with this intensity. This sensation was only a fraction of what it felt like to be baptized.

Images flowed into his mind.

Riding a bike up a cobblestone road to deliver newspapers to waving neighbors.

“—ord…?”

Hearing that dreaded knock at the door and opening the door to see the conscription officer standing at the threshold.

“My Lord!”

Birds on the seaShore on the rokKing chair and blooming into human beings listening to the GrIots—

“Claire!”

Claire blinked and realized Felix was shaking him hard.  The fear and worry in the man’s eyes, the quivering in his lips, the tightness in the man’s grip made Claire feel a bit for him. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Claire reassured him as he held his pounding head. “Just remind me not to do that again. It left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Felix didn’t slacken his grip. “My Lord, it touched you. Everything that light touches becomes consumed by it. You—”

“—I’m made of the same thing that it’s made of,” Claire finished, removing Felix’s hands from his shoulders. 

Felix tensed.

“In fact, there’s a whole lot more of that kind of vitae in me than all of these things.” Claire stepped back and studied his hand and the veins that peeked up from behind his pale skin. They pulsated with a faint glow that was already beginning to ebb away. 

Felix dropped to his knees. “Forgive me, My Lord. You had to put yourself in harm’s way because of my incompetence. I—” 

Claire let out a breath and gave the young man a brief pat on the head. “Let’s save the angst for some other time. You really shouldn’t be following me if you can’t keep up—especially in these conditions and especially if you’re a Conjuror.”

Felix stiffened and looked up at this. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, that volatile vitae is an unstable energy state and wants to reach equilibrium and—” Claire sighed and waved the sentence off. “Nevermind. Too much work to go in depth but basically the way you Conjurors and Transmutationists expel vitae makes it pretty hard to get rid of these things on your own.”

Felix rose to a stand and placed a hand to his chest. “Then please tell me how I can be of use to you.”

“You can’t.”

Felix looked as if he’d been slapped. “If not to you… then to Claire.”

Sagittarius thought of his nephew’s words.

“I guess since you’re a Conjuror and you figured out how to conduct in this place, you could be my porter.”

Felix dipped his head. “If that is what you wish.”

This was kind of sad.

Claire held out his hand, and Felix tentatively accepted it. He kicked them off the ground with a gust of vitae-speckled wind and landed them on the rooftop he’d just been crouching on. He had to shake his hand a bit to get Felix to let go and pointed over the horizon.

“Now what do you see?”

Felix followed his point and his brows furrowed. “Forgive me. My Lord, but I don’t understand what I’m looking at.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Claire hummed. “Well, that’s where we’re goin—”

Felix abruptly stepped forward and pointed to the sky. 

Claire looked up.

 At first he thought the guard was just pointing out an odd looking cloud that was drifting across the sky. Upon closer inspection, however, he realized the object in question was not a cloud but a literal crack in the sky no bigger than his thumb. If the sky was fabric, then crack was a tear in it that allowed him to see what was beyond it. And was beyond it was the sun.

Claire whistled.  “Now that definitely doesn’t make sense—” He paused, squinting up past the glare. 

There were a bunch of black specks falling out from that crack. Soot? Rain?

Claire squinted further.

Ah. Feathers—

Sagittarius’s eyes widened and he kicked off from the ground and launched himself into the sky. He hurtled towards the crack in the sky that was beginning to  close up. Feathers danced wildly around him but they were a nuisance not an attraction. His gaze was focused solely on the largest object that had fallen out from the crack. Not a feather—no. A slim body, slack like a ragdoll.

As he neared the body, he confirmed that it was indeed Shion Myosotis. 

Sagittarius caught her easily and held her bridal style as he descended back onto the rooftop. Felix approached him immediately, but Shion stirred before he could say anything. The woman blinked blearily before her eyes flew open and she gasped—

“Atienna!”

Reality seemed to seep into her as she took in Sagittarius’s face. Surprise, clear as day.

Sagittarius felt the corner of his eyes crinkle. “Usually, you’re supposed to dramatically shout the name of your savior, you know.” 

“Liebling!”

The shout echoed in Nico’s ears just before the tree-like glowing mass swiped at him. Its branching arm stopped short just half a meter away from his face as an indigo line of light bloomed across its abdomen.

A hand wrapped around his wrist and dragged him away just as the bisected being’s top half slid off its bottom half. Nico whipped around to see Werner ahead of him. In the man’s other hand was a baseball bat coated with indigo light. 

Werner dragged Nico through the panicked crowd stampeding around them and towards the edge of the park. He stopped short abruptly, releasing Nico’s hand. Nico barely had the time to register it before Werner charged at a glowing mass of light in a gap in the crowd. The mass was extending out its spindly fingers towards a young boy who sat cowering and unattended in the middle of the chaos.

A sizzling note hit the air as Werner’s weapon sliced through the tendrils and the sound intensified as Werner flipped the bat and swung it hard across the mass’s main form. The bat slipped through like butter, cleaving it in two.

Nico ran up to the child and swept him up in his arms as Werner swung his bat at the thing again and again.

“Werner, come on!”

Werner stopped his onslaught immediately, just barely pulling his weapon out of the thing’s body before it became consumed by it. He scrambled to Nico’s side and the two broke out into a dash again. Nico had only taken a few steps before he collided with a man who took the boy out of his arms with a—

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Nico barely had the chance to even register the encounter before Werner took hold of his hand again and navigated them through the crowd. Nico had no clue where they were heading but he trusted in where Werner was taking them.

Soon, the grass beneath their feet melded into cement pavement as the park fell away behind them. The sidewalk was just as crowded as the park was and filled with people running around in a panic. Several cars dotting the adjacent asphalt road had crashed into one another or into buildings on the opposite side of the street.

“Werner! Nico!” came a shout that became lost in the hysteria of those around them. “Werner!”

Suddenly, Ludwig was in front of them and pulling them across the street. “Quickly. Come on.”

“Wait, wait, Luddy!” Werner resisted when they were half-way across the road. “I need to return this.” He held up his bat. “Some kid let me borrow it, and he probably needs it back to protect himself and his family—”

Nico felt his chest tighten as his mind went to the little girl he couldn’t save. Samantha. It felt different when it was a child.

Ludwig whipped around to face him, briefly sparing Nico a look. He grabbed Werner’s arm and tugged. “Werner, listen to me. Right now we need it to protect ourselves.”

Werner hesitated but relented as Ludwig pulled them into a narrow alleyway with an opening on the opposite end. Viktoria and Ludwig’s wife Gisella were waiting there at the entrance. The worry lines left their face disappeared upon registering them.

“Toria!” Werner brightened, apparently forgetting his woes from earlier. “Gissy!” He embraced the former, lifted her off the ground, and spun her around. “I was really worried about you two!”

As Nico watched their reunion, his mind drifted to Cadence, Francis, Carl, Allen, Fortuna. He knew they could slip out of tight situations if necessary in normal circumstances but in these conditions—

Ludwig began to lead them down the alleyway towards the opposite opening. “We need to regroup and figure out what’s going on.”

“Where are these things even coming from? Maybe it’s a really bad prank.” Werner wondered. “We should go find my mom and your dad, Luddy. Some kids can be really mean and like targeting older people because they think they’re easier targets. That’s what my guidance officer says.”

He didn’t realize what was going on, Nico realized. His mind went to the words Werner had said before this chaos had suddenly erupted. 

As they neared the alley opening, Nico reached out for Werner’s arm and asked, “Werner, do you remember what you said earlier? Right before I went to help that girl?” 

Werner stared at him blankly. “I think I said… my stomach hurt?”

NIco studied him. “No. I mean…” He hesitated. “About the chlorowheat.”

They were at the mouth of the alley now.

Ludwig looked back at them. 

For a moment, Nico swore he could see familiar smoke curling up from the ground around them. When he blinked, however, the apparition disappeared. 

“Huh? Chloro & Wheat? You mean the bar and the roller disco?” Werner wondered. “Did I say something about that?” He chuckled half-heartedly as he headed out of the alleyway ahead of them. “I wish we could be at Chloro & Wheat instead of here—”

Ludwig yanked him back into the alleyway and pointed out the alley. There were several car lanes there, each one backed up with honking vehicles. In the farthest lane, out from an unmoving vehicle, grew a glowing tree-like substance that spilled its roots and branches across the ground and sky. The people in the vehicles that had been occupying the lane and the adjacent one were spilling out of their cars and tearing away in terror.

Werner gasped and started forward but Ludwig grabbed him and pulled him back again. 

“Werner, don’t.” Ludwig looked up the building and eyed the fire escape leading upwards. “We should get to a vantage point and assess our situation.”

“But, shouldn’t we help them?” Werner’s brows furrowed. He looked out again, and Nico could see a familiar blue peeking out from beneath the collar of his blouse. “This prank is going too far. We should stop them—”

“Werner, this is not a prank. This is real.” Ludwig looked into his eyes and gripped him by the arms. “People are dying.”

“Huh…?” Werner paled. “What are you saying, Luddy…?”

“I don’t know what caused this, but at this moment you’re the only one who can use their vitae. If you go out there on your own, I can’t keep you and the others safe, and your safety is important to me.” He shook him. “Do you understand, Werner?”

“I—” Werner’s eyes widened. “We need to get to Mutti and your dad! And Ollie and Caddy and J-man and Mari and Atienna and Kaiser and the guys and—”

“We will, Werner,” Ludwig reassured him, “so just listen to me, okay? Please, Werner. Trust me.”

Werner looked back out the alley before slowly turning back to Ludwig. He nodded slowly. “Okay, Luddy. I trust you.”

Ludwig’s eyes lit up in a way that was all too familiar to Nico. “Okay, good. Thank you, Werner.” He began helping Viktoria up the ladder of the fire escape. “Quickly then. Come on.” He helped his wife up next and turned around to hold out a hand to Werner.

Werner hesitated to accept it. “I feel real bad, Luddy.”

It was odd to see Werner saying out loud the emotions Nico had always seen in his eyes.

“I know,” Ludwig said. “You… have a good heart, Werner.” He ruminated. “The guidance officers will probably take care of things. Don’t worry about it.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Nico knew a lie when he heard one. 

Werner, however, brightened.  “Alrighty, I trust you, Ludwig.” He motioned Nico forward. “You first, Liebling.”

“Besides,” Ludwig continued, tone reassuring and light, “the guidance officers will probably be better at handling and understanding how and why people are turning into those things.” He shared a look with Nico as he helped him up the escape and then said in a more even tone, “Those things: they remind me of what happened during Week of Blindness.”

Nico nodded slowly before freezing as he registered Werner’s stricken expression below him.

Werner stared at the two of them. “Wait—people are turning into those things…? But I…” He looked down at the dimming baseball bat in his hand—his hand which began to tremble familiarly. “I—”

And suddenly the rungs of the ladder disappeared from beneath Nico’s hands and feet and he was in free fall. He braced himself for impact with the ground but instead landed with a soft thud. Werner was sprawled out beneath him, arms and legs stretched out. Gisella and Viktoria had landed beside him, their landings too softened by Werner’s body.

Nico scrambled to his feet and helped Werner back up to his own feet with Viktoria’s help.

Viktoria assessed him worriedly, “Are you okay, Werner?” 

Werner nodded as he brushed himself off. “I—huh? What’s going on? Where are we?”

Nico surveyed his surroundings and froze.

Weeping clouds overhead. Dug out walls made of earth rising just above his head. Walls that stretched endlessly ahead of him and behind him. Mud swimming in puddles at his feet. Rain splattering down into those puddles.

They were no longer standing in an alleyway but instead a—

“We’re in a trench,” Ludwig’s words came out crisp. “We’re in a trench.”

Nico looked at the man. His shoulders were stiff and he was staring off at some far off point in the distance.

Ludwig repeated as if in a trance, “We’re in a trench—”

Gisella shook him lightly and whispered into his ear. That seemed to stir him from the stupor he’d entered. Ludwig looked down the stretch of trench ahead of him and then to the stretch behind him. His eyes widened—

“Run. Now!”

Werner, who stood ahead of Nico, did not look back. Instead, he grabbed a hold of Nico’s hand again as well as Viktoria’s and started a mad dash forward. Ludwig ran ahead of them, dragging along Gisella.

Nico threw a look over his shoulder and felt his heart drop into his stomach. Pouring down the narrow hall of the trench after them was a familiar mass of glowing light.

“Get out of the way!” Ludwig abruptly shouted. “Move! Run!”

Nico faced forward and registered a few men and women dotting the trench ahead of them. They were dressed in the bright floral patterns of Ndoto—stark in contrast to the gray around them.

“W-What’s going on?” a man shouted in horrified confusion as they ran past him. “Where are we—”

“Run!” Nico urged the man, pulling him forward briefly. “Just run!”

The mass of light was closing in on them now, the sizzling of its skin as raindrops hit it becoming louder and louder. Wails of agony resounded behind them.

Nico scanned the walls for a way out, a clue, anything—

They reached a fork in the trench.

Three signs. One pointing left, the other pointing right, and another that read Abschnitt-43.

What…?

They veered left.

Nico pulled ahead of Werner slightly, patting on Ludwig’s shoulder to gain his attention.

The rain was coming down harder now. The muddy ground was now a slog of brown water.

“This is where Werner and I were assigned,” Nico explained, panting, “before we got moved to the capital.” 

Ludwig shook his head. “What? What does that mean?”

Nico’s mind went to the smoke he’d seen rising from the ground earlier and looked back at Werner. Something itched at the back of his mind. A memory he couldn’t quite reach. Before he could dig deeper for what he couldn’t recall, he suddenly collided into Ludwig in front of him. He was knocked backwards but caught by Werner who’d managed to catch Ludwig as well.

In front of them on all fours was a familiar woman with platinum blonde hair.

Ludwig and Viktoria tensed.

“Mutti!” Werner’s eyes lit up as he ran to his mother’s side and helped her to her feet. “Are you okay, Mutti? Where did you come from? I was so worried about you—”

Werner’s mother took him by the shoulder and shook him hard once. “Werner, focus.”

“Huh?”

“Think about the Wibele, Werner,” his mother urged, squeezing his shoulders tight. “Think about the roller disco. Think about Kaiser. Think about Ndoto.”

“Mutti, you’re hurting me—”

“Think about any place but here!”

“Stop it!” Ludwig tore them apart. “Whatever this is, it doesn’t matter. We need to get out here—”

Nico felt it before he saw it. The intense hair-singing heat that nipped at his skin even in the cold rain. He turned.

There it was. The glowing root-like vitae that was bubbling with groaning faces as each raindrop hit. It was only a few meters away now, coming closer, closer—

Werner’s mother lunged at Werner and pulled him into an abrupt and tight embrace. “Werner, please!”

Nico squeezed his eyes shut.

But nothing happened.

He opened his eyes.

A familiar fire escape now stood where the mass of light once was. Supporting it from behind was a familiar brick alley wall. The sky above their heads was a dark blue and there was not a single rain cloud in sight. They were back in the alleyway.

Nico placed his palm against the brick wall surface. He immediately flinched and pulled his hand away. It was burning hot.

He took a step back.

Had the mass of vitae that had been chasing them been confined within the building’s walls…?

But how exactly…?

Something in Nico’s memories stirred again. 

“They’re like leaky channels,” someone had told him. “That’s why when we’re in a place like this, near the threshold, they need to be—”

Eunji kept looking over her shoulder as she glided through the sky. Every time she saw something flit by the corner of her eye, she would whip her head around and expect vines of light to be wrapped around her feet. Constantly feeling the need to be on her toes—she hated it. It was a feeling she associated with the absence of her brother. A feeling that was starting to feel less and less foreign.

Everywhere she looked she saw people running for their lives—running away from those tree-like branches of vitae that bloomed from fallen Ndotoans. She tried once to swoop down to pick up a girl who’d been running with tears streaming down her face away from a branch of light that had chased her down an empty street. She had managed to pick up the girl by the arms but just as they were flying away and the girl was sobbing out her thanks, the strip of light had wrapped around the girl’s leg and consumed her. The girl had released Eunji from her death grip in her last moments—an act of selflessness—before she was swallowed whole.

The brush with death had not stirred the same selflessness in Eunji. Instead, it instilled in her a terror and fear that gripped her stomach. Survival, her brother would say. Instinct. Cowardice, she thought in turn. Whatever it was, it made her unable to attempt another rescue. No, instead, she covered her ears as she scanned the crowds for familiar faces and tried her best to ignore the unfamiliar ones.

She was just passing over an alleyway between two apartment complexes when she spotted a couple of familiar faces. Two Capricornian soldiers and two Ndotoans. General Martin von Spiel and Friedhelm Heimler, if she recalled correctly. The other two were Fritz and Yulia. She’d only met them once before in passing here in Ndoto.

“General!” she called out to them. “General von Spiel!”

The group slowed to a stop as she descended down to them.

It was Fritz who spoke first, looking her up and down. “And who is this little thing?” He was holding an unconscious boy.  A pale boy. A dead boy.

Eunji immediately stiffened upon seeing him.

“Princess Yuseong,” Martin greeted her. “I’m glad to see you safe. What are you doing here?”

Everyone fell silent and stared.

“Everything that’s been happening has been happening because a root has been cut,” Eunji stammered under the attention. She quickly tried to explain everything that had happened before when she’d been with Olive. The deceased and what they became.

Heimler stiffened while Yulia’s eyes narrowed. Martin’s eyes went to the boy in Fritz’s arms.

“Don’t get worked up, Friedhelm, father.” Fritz spared the men a glance. “Like I said, it all depends on time and importance. While Heinrich is not as important as Kovich here in the grand scheme of Ndoto, he’s still more important than those extras. If his fate is to become what this little girl has described then it’ll be a bit of time before that happens to him. It’ll be even longer for Kovich. Although if you keep keeping us here and eating away at our time to find a different root, our extra allotted time will be for naught.”

What…? 

“What do you mean?” Eunji studied him hesitantly. “How do you know so much…?”

Fritz sighed, clearly irritated. 

Eunji felt her cheeks burn again.

The man explained, “Because the root has been cut as you’ve said and the gardener is no longer watching so I can hear myself think. Now if you have nothing else to add then we’ll be on our way.”

Because the gardener was no longer watching…?

Eunji’s mind went to Claire. Was he also back to himself…? Her chest squeezed with a glimmer of hope.

She shook herself from her stupor and turned back to the general. “Olive and I thought it would be good to have a location where we can all meet up and recuperate. We were considering the Wibele or the Foxman’s mansion.”

Martin nodded. “Please deliver this information to Hauptmann Weingartner and the others. They were last at the metropark three kilometers southeast of here. There’s a large statue of a prostrate man at the park’s entrance and a soccer field just behind it. That should be enough for you to go off of.”

Eunji nodded and prepared to take off to the skies again before a flash of light at the corner of her eye gave her pause. She turned and felt her heart fall into her stomach. Her mind screamed at her to take off to the skies and run, but she instead threw her hands out and sent out a gust of wind in all directions. 

The wind knocked her backwards but also sent everyone else flying backwards as well. Backwards and away from the branch of light that had hurtled towards them. 

Eunji immediately scrambled to her feet and followed the branch of light to its origin with her eyes. A lone shape stood there. It looked like a squiggly line at first glance. One that was swaying side to side. Upon closer inspection, she could see a head at the squiggly line’s top and arms and hands protruding awkwardly out from its side. She could barely make out the tatters of a sundress draping it. 

That poor woman, Eunji thought, swallowing bile.

It looked like a large branch had just been shoved straight up the poor woman’s body, breaking skin and cracking bone and deforming her figure. And she was moving. One step at a time. Slowly but surely. Groaning. And the branch of light that was protruding from the woman’s abdomen was growing more branches of light that were reaching out towards Eunji and the others scattered around her.

Eunji didn’t know what to do. She could run away obviously but what about the others…?

She glanced behind her. Fritz was picking himself off the ground with Yulia’s help. He curled around the boy in his arms as Martin and Heimler scrambled to stands behind them. Heimler picked up a stray pipe from the ground.

They hadn’t figured out how to conduct without a conductor yet, had they…? What would Claire do in this situation? 

Eunji felt her legs begin to shake.

“Go, princess,” Martin urged her. “Go inform the others! Now—”

The large branch of light trembled and began to bubble before those bubbles erupted into tendrils of light that shot out at Eunji and the Capricornians. 

Eunji threw out her hand and managed to deflect the tendril of light headed at her, but the others—

A loud series of whines rang through the air as something glinted above their heads. 

Eunji looked up in alarm.

Were those… swords? 

Not ones Eunji had ever seen before. Not like the sleek ones Felix conjured nor the ones wielded by her clan’s bodyguards. No, these were ornate and flashy and archaic-looking. Like they’d been drawn right out of a history textbook. Ornate handle and star-shaped guard. Glinting silver.

There were twelve of them and each had a task. Six cut cleanly through the tendrils that had been targeting the Capricornians while the other six hurtled towards the branch-growing woman. They pierced her through and surged backwards, dragging her back, back, back down the street, away from them, into the distance.

Eunji stared befuddled at the place where the branch-growing woman once stood. The glint of the floating swords in front of her took her attention away, and she immediately brought up her hands—ready to send them away if they came for her. But the six blades did not come at her. Instead, they glided back down the road in the opposite direction the branch-growing being had been sent to.

A tall woman stood there at the center of the street. Her hair was the color of straw and her eyes the color of the ocean. Her toned arms and legs were visible as she had on only a small white robe. A golden circlette adorned her head, giving her an aura of elegance and gallantry despite her simple appearance.

The woman held out her right arm and intercepted one of the blades drifting towards her by the handle. The rest of them fell behind her, floating in mid-air.

A Manipulator, Eunji realized.

The woman walked forward slowly, brushing past Martin and Heimler and stopping a meter in front of Fritz and Yulia. She chuckled to herself and placed a hand over her chest. “Who would think that fate would have our paths cross once more?”  She eyed Kovich and then studied the two of them very carefully. Her eyes widened slightly and she let out a breath. “Ah, I see. It seems you too weren’t able to make it to your beloved ones in the end.”

Fritz took a step back while Yulia took a step forward. 

“Who are you?” Yulia asked thickly.

The woman’s brows rose in surprise before she held out her hands and looked herself over. “Ah, I understand your confusion. The last time we met, I had on a very different face.”  She lifted her hand and traced an S over one half of her face. “Right now I am called Altair but back then you referred to me as Omicron.”

The buildings surrounding them abruptly smudged and smeared. The sky took on a midnight shade as street lamps sprouted from the ground along the road they stood on. The buildings came into focus again, but they drew closer around them, the open street melding into a narrow alleyway. The buildings themselves now looked different. They stretched higher and taller than before—skyscrapers.

The woman standing in front of Fritz and Eunji looked different now as well. She was shorter, her hair was dark, and she had on a crisp suit. It was Charite—the woman Eunji had often seen accompanying Francis Foxman. Glowing in the faint street lights on the left side of Charite’s face was a white snake tattoo.

Eunji felt goosebumps rise on her skin.

“ELPIS,” Martin took in a breath. His gaze flitted to his son. “Fritz…?”

Fritz and Yulia stood frozen in place, staring up at the buildings and the sky. Their appearances had changed as well. Fritz now stood in a crisp black Capricornian military uniform and Yulia a thick brown coat.

“Stop that,” Omicron’s voice cut through. “Snap out of it.”

Both Fritz and Yulia’s attention snapped forward. The surroundings around them became smudged and blurred once again before it sharpened.

Eunji spun around in confusion.

They were now back in-between the apartment complexes. Altair looked like herself again. Fritz and Yulia were back in their blouses and slacks.

“What… just happened?” Heimler scanned the area in confusion. “What was that?”

“The result of this ‘gardener’ no longer looking?” Martin suggested.

“No, wait… this… happened before,” Eunji murmured, still on edge “when I was with Olive.  It’s like we were teleported somewhere else. I thought I was just seeing things but… maybe this has to do with the root being cut.”

“Smart girl.” Altair inclined her head at Eunji. She pointed to the ground. “We stand near the threshold of life and death where vitae continuously enters and leaves in accordance to the cycle. With the vitae comes memories and reminiscence.” She gestured to Fritz and Yulia. “True Conductors are leaky channels. This property becomes especially prominent here, especially when you are in such close proximity. You spill out your vitae and your memories into this abyss—even though you are no longer of this world—more prominently than the average person.” She lowered her hand and placed it on her lip. “I assume the substance you call a ‘root’ acts partially to inhibit this from occurring. The way you have been brought into this place acts as another layer of inhibition. If you have not been able to connect with one another, this is why.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “I assume the one who sits on top of the throne here would find it unpleasant if their carefully crafted gardens were overgrown by the memories of others.”

Fritz frowned. “You’re a lot more talkative than I remember.”

Altair chuckled before eyeing the boy in his arms again. Her smile lessened. “You do know what you seek will not last as long as you wish—even if you continuously repeat these steps. Especially under these conditions.”

Yulia said coldly, “We’ve never asked for your advice or your opinions.”

Altair smiled. “Ah, that may be true. I can’t be one to judge anyways.”

Martin stepped forward. “If I’m understanding this correctly, you were the ELPIS Leader Fritz was working with, correct? Your name is Omicron?”

Altair glanced at him. “So you’re Fritz’s father? My apologies for not introducing myself.” She placed a hand on her chest and dipped into a bow. “I am Altair and I hail from a garden adjacent to Ndoto. I was able to squeeze myself here due to that roof being dismantled. I am here on a quest to free my fellow Mathetes from where they are ensnared here.” She gestured to Eunji, Martin, and Heimler. “May I get to know your names?”

“I am General Martin von Spiel,” Martin introduced himself. He gestured to Heimler. “This is Friedhelm Heimler.” And then he gestured to Eunji. “Princess Yuseong Eunji.”

Altair turned to her. “Yuseong, you say…? I see…”  She turned back to Martin. “Have you seen Francis Foxman or Cadence Morello?”

Martin’s lips drew thin.

Altair smiled. “I understand your reproach. I assure you our goals align surprisingly well.”

“Forgive me for my hesitation,” Martin drew slowly. “But from what little I understand about ELPIS Leaders, you use resistors to pass on your memories but you are incapable of storing new memories. How is it that you can recall meeting my son and those names?”

Altair nodded slowly. “That’s because I am not truly Altair. In the same way that Fritz and Yulia there are not truly Fritz and Yulia.”

Martin’s face became grave. “What… do you mean?”

“When vitae enters the threshold upon death, it becomes dispersed as it exits the threshold. Of course, the use of conductors can elevate vitae to the point where it can no longer leave the threshold. The dispersion factor remains the same. To pick out and piece together a person’s vitae particles from all the others is an impossible task. Sure, if you had the tool, you’d be able to gather some. However, I doubt you’d be able to gather it all and on behalf of so many people..”

Altair gestured to herself. 

“Most likely, I was formed with Charite Haussmann and her own recollections of me serving as the baseline. Certainly that’s not enough to form a full person so other vitae has filled in the gaps.”

“It’s… it’s still parts of them though,” Heimler pressed. “Like you said. It’s still them. Not entirely but still.”

Altair looked him over. “For your sake, I would not consider us the real thing.” She turned her attention back to Fritz and Yulia. “Of course, for us it’s different.” 

Martin stepped in line with Fritz. “I assume you wish to ‘snap’ Francis Foxman out of whatever hold this place has on him in order to use his conducting to create a means of escape.”

Altair nodded. “This is no place for those on the opposite side of the threshold’s line.”

Martin said, “I heard from an acquaintance of Cadence’s—Werner—that she and her family were spending the day at a foster care facility in another district.” He provided her with details and loose directions. “Will that suffice?”

Altair nodded and dipped her head. “Thank you, General von Spiel. In turn, I’d like to provide you with some additional information. Do you know of a man named Gilbert Wolff and a woman named Greta?”

Heimler stiffened. “You know them?”

Altair nodded. “We were stuck together for a little while on account of an encounter with someone you may know as Libra.”

Martin and Heimler paled.

“They’re searching for you and your group right now.” Altair turned away from them and smiled at Eunji. “And you, Miss Yuseong…”

Eunji startled under her attention. The woman had an unnaturally mythical and refined aura about her. Eunji felt out of place.

“You’re Claire’s relative then? An Air Elementalist?”

Eunji hesitated and nodded.

“I’ve worked with your brother in a sense before.” Altair extended her hand. “If we are headed in the same direction, would you mind if I… caught a lift?”

“Stay calm,” Jericho repeated as he directed the nervous crowd down the street. “Don’t push each other. Your group should head to the 22nd precinct. Yours the 24th.”

At the moment he stood at the mouth of the path that led to the beach and was redirecting all the beachgoers inshore. He thought it sensible to have them head to the nearest guidance office but also considered the possibility of overcrowding so he took it upon himself to direct people to different guidance offices. He had suggested to his fellow club members who he’d reunited with earlier at the beachfront to do the same. They were scattered along the beach now most likely, gathering and directing people.

Mass hysteria, one of them had suggested.

Jericho wasn’t too sure about that.

Right before everything had erupted into chaos, he had a sense of dread and tight pain in his stomach. If Talib were here, he would have started rattling off about government conspiracies. That lightheartedness was something Jericho wished was at his side right now.

“This is why we need to have an emergency preparedness commission on the guidance council,” Vincente snapped from beside him as he directed a couple to head to the 34th precinct. “So the guidance officers can handle this fiasco and we’re not held liable for any accidents that happen!”

“That actually sounds like a good idea. I wouldn’t mind not having to do this,” Alwin sighed at Jericho’s right. “Anyway, don’t you think we could just put up signs telling people where they should go?”

“We could do that,” Jericho agreed, pushing his glasses up his nose, “but written word is never as powerful as spoken word.”

“He means that people can’t read,” Sean said as he squeezed himself out of the passing crowd and made his way over to them.  “If you don’t want to help then just say it, Alwin. It’s not like you’re still part of ELPIS anyways. Just go home to your boo.” 

“Hey, hurtful.” Alwin arched a brow. “I may not be a member of ELPIS anymore, but I still value you all as friends. I don’t want to leave you alone dealing with all of this.” He glanced behind Jericho. “Besides, being in the middle of all this can’t be good for them, can it, Jericho? Wouldn’t it be better to send them home or to a guidance office too?”

Jericho glanced over his shoulder. Sitting on pulled out crates and makeshift chairs were his siblings. Sidra was flipping through a magazine with a bored expression on her face while Ahlam had his head buried in his arms and appeared to be taking a nap. Hayal, having carried that stray white cat all the way here from the beach, currently sat with the cat on her lap.

“I’d rather have them with me…” Jericho drew slowly. “They’re directionally challenged, so I’ll take them to the offices myself after this is over.”

“Hey!” Sidra sent him a glare. “I heard that.”

Vincente jabbed a finger at the cat. “You know there are laws against picking up stray animals without a permit.”

Sean rolled his eyes. 

“The cat says that this is what happens when you mess with things ‘on the other side’,”  Hayal said suddenly, stroking the cat’s head. “She said it’ll only get worse from here.”

Sean arched a brow. “What? Now that’s not creepy at all…”

“Cats can’t talk.” Jericho arched a brow. “And they certainly can’t be harbingers of omens.”

“But they can!” Hayal insisted, holding the cat up to Jericho’s face. 

Something about its eyes stirred unease in Jericho’s stomach. Which was ridiculous.

Hayal pulled the cat close to her face and mimed listening in. She nodded, nodded, then frowned.

Jericho arched a brow. “What is it saying now?”

“She’s saying that… you’re a hippo for working together with your clubmates again,” Hayal drew slowly, “but that it makes sense because you have nothing else outside of them…”

Jericho frowned.

Sean crossed his arms. “Well, look at that, Jericho. The talking cat says you’re a hippo.”

“Maybe,” Alwin drew, “she’s trying to say ‘hypocrite’?” He paused in the silence that followed. “Or maybe just ‘hippie’.”

“Well, we’re all hippies here,” Sean muttered. “Not t’much of a surprise on that.” He tapped Jericho on the shoulders. “Anyway, I’m just here to tell you that Ayda and I have cleared out the section of the beach near that one dusty shake shack. She wanted to let y’know that she’s goin’ down the beach more t’make sure there aren’t any stragglers—”

“Now the kitty says she has something to tell all of you,” Hayal interjected, the cat’s face still pressed to her ear. “Wake up, wake up, wake up—”

Sidra clicked her tongue. “Stop messing around, Hayal! It’s not funny.”

Hayal huffed. “I’m not! Don’t attack the messenger—”

“Jericho…?” a voice called out from the crowd. “Jericho!”

Jericho turned away from his friends and siblings and searched the mass of people around him. His eyes immediately became drawn to a head of bubblegum pink hair bobbing up and down in the crowd. It was a familiar color and he had the urge to paint it.

For a moment, he swore heard a train horn in the distance.

“Jericho!” 

Out from the crowd emerged a vaguely familiar young woman with short bubblegum pink hair. Slipping into place beside her was an older-looking woman with ruby red lips and a glint in her eye.

“You’re… Ferris, aren’t you?” Jericho recalled vaguely. Hadn’t they been classmates? Right, they’d been classmates before she was diagnosed with VNW and sent to the Small Services District. “Ferris Hart…”

He recalled Maria mentioning her name. One of the ones who’d disappeared from the holding facility in Small Services after there had been a break out. Why was she here? Was she dangerous?

Jericho glanced over his shoulder at his siblings again. They peered at Ferris and the woman accompanying her with interest.

“There’s no use talking to him,” the one beside Ferris said. “His mind is muddled by this place. Like I said, we should find your other peacekeeping companions. And get away from this crowd. Even with that other man with us, this crowd is probably too much for him to handle.”

Agape, Jericho recalled faintly. Agape Rosario.

Maria had mentioned her name too but he’d never seen her before. So how had he known this woman was her…?

“But we can’t just leave him,” Ferris pressed. “Not with those things crawling around.”

Jericho arched. “Those things?”

Ferris turned to him. “You… haven’t seen them…? But how…?” She searched the crowd before facing him again. “Jericho, you need to get out of here—” Her words caught in her throat as she seemed to register Sidra, Hayal, and Alham.

Jericho put his hand up, holding them back.

Agape grabbed Ferris by the wrist. “Let’s go—”

Thud! 

The man who’d been standing beside Agape dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“How did you end up in this place?” Atienna asked as she cautiously followed Cvetka through the wheat. “Certainly not the way I have, I expect.”

Cvetka hummed ahead of her. “I was invited here.” She glanced back and flushed slightly. “Oh, it’s no big thing. I’ve seen Francis Foxman here a few times, and he’s certainly been invited here more times than I.”

Francis…?

Atienna’s mind went to the time she had suddenly found herself in the middle of a garden after trying to save Francis and Werner from drowning at the beach. She recalled seeing the man sitting at a tea table alongside his Ophiuchian counterpart.

“Ah, by the gardener, I presume?” Atienna eyed the doll in Cvetka’s hand. “That would only make sense.”

Cvetka stopped short and stared at her for a moment. Her lips pulled thin before they curled upwards. “You haven’t received an invitation yourself, I presume? That would only make sense.”

Would it now?

“And you’ve been invited here so many times that you know the way out?”

Cvetka hummed. “It’s more like I’m let out when I’m allowed too. But, at least this once, we do share the goal of getting out of here.”

They continued on in silence for a while until—

“Help!” came a distant shout. “Is anyone out there? Help! Help!”

Cvetka shared a look with Atienna.

“I’m not very interested,” Atienna admitted. “Are you?”

“Not very,” Cvetka agreed, “but I doubt we have a choice in this place.”

“Wait—is someone out there?” the call grew closer. “Hello? Hello?”

The wheat ahead of them parted.

Atienna felt her stomach tighten just slightly as Albertine Echechs stepped out in front of her. She tried to think of a pleasant greeting to say to him in light of their last parting, but her words became caught in her throat as soon as he laid eyes on her. 

“Why are you doing this?” Albertine paled considerably before taking a step back. “What do you want from me?”