Obscene Symphony

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

“Really?!” Ueno jumped to her feet after Hinari, but while he seemed alarmed, she was ecstatic. “That’s Mineri-chan’s house! Oh, this has to be a sign!”

Her cheerfulness was a shock even to her own senses, a stark contrast to the mood of the rest of the room. And despite the foreboding concept, Emi was no less excited for Hinari’s mention of getting dragged into the mirror. “Do you think so? Excellent!” she exclaimed in delight. She wouldn’t say fights with Shadows were fun, but she had enough experience that they no longer felt like the death sentence they made themselves out to be – especially not now that she had new companions to stand beside her.

I’ll find you yet! she thought to herself, wondering if William and Mineri, through whatever weird dream magic they were using, could hear her.

Hoshino spoke up then, further confirming her suspicions. Emi couldn’t believe what she was hearing; at long last, finally some concrete proof that she wasn’t crazy! She had been getting signs from her friends, they were still out there somewhere. And now she had a solid lead!

"Ueno-senpai," Hinari’s voice sounded from a little farther away, his somber tone cutting through Emi’s haze of blind optimism. "What- What's the point of all this? Persona. What is it?"

Emi’s excitement fled her then, the tone of Hinari’s voice and the vibe emanating from him making her feel a little guilty. She hadn’t noticed how nervous he got. Maybe it was insensitive to celebrate so soon. After all her time searching and all her experience with this crazy parallel world, she didn’t consider just how scary this all must be for him.

She sighed, twining her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry, Hinari-kun. I wish I could tell you. When it was me and my friends, we thought it was to root out corruption wherever we found it. We felt like characters in a show, vanquishing evil and bringing light to the shadows – we even called ourselves the Torch Bearers.” She chuckled darkly, the irony of their childish notions not lost on her. “But clearly, we were wrong. And now… I don’t know. All this stuff with William is as new to me as it is to you. I don’t know anything about contracts or butterflies or the Velvet—”

Emi’s eyes went wide. “The Velvet Room! I forgot!” she exclaimed, reaching out for whoever was closest. “If you’re dreaming of William, you must be dreaming of the Velvet Room too. And the music that plays there – that was Mineri’s song! She used to hum it all the time, and she'd only ever say that she heard it in a dream.”

Of course! She’d thought of this before, but now she was certain! Mineri must be connected to all this Velvet Room contract nonsense – and if ‘Mira’ frequented the place too, then she must know something!

Suddenly the door creaked, and Emi felt another living presence in the room. It was strange; small but insistent, she didn’t think it was a person, but it announced itself too loudly to be some common pest. A meow identified the presence as a cat. Was that the one Hoshino mentioned? It must be – no normal animal had a presence that screamed Persona.

Emi couldn’t follow its movements by sound, but she didn’t have to. As soon as the mirror was permeated, it was like someone opened a door leading out to a typhoon, the new passage in the room unmistakable to Euryphaessa’s lingering senses. Emi’s heart jumped into her throat, and when nothing came from the mirror to grab her, she approached on her own, reaching out an exploratory hand.

It passed through the mirror unimpeded.

“Ha—!” an astounded sound, like a laugh mixed with a gasp, escaped her throat, and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. Finally!

She turned back to the boys, smiling. “Come on then, I’ll protect you!”

---

_{@Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

Emi listened hungrily as the boys explained themselves, slowly sinking onto the bench Hinari had tripped over. It was a bizarre experience, their descriptions of events being at once intensely familiar and strangely foreign. Shadows popping out of mirrors and dragging people in she was familiar with, but all this butterfly stuff, the cats, and William were all as new to her as they seemed to be to the boys.

When “Hoshino”, as Mori referred to him, finished his piece, Emi was silent for a moment, gripping her knees as she thought through all they’d told her. How much should she disclose? Her initial thought was everything – maybe they’d have some idea what happened to her friends if they had all the information. But did spilling it all risk scaring them away? Surely not; they’d seen the horrors on the Other Side and still came back for more, they could handle it. Right?

Not wanting to wait too long to find out, Emi decided to err on the side of more information. But for all her enthusiasm, her tone started out measured, almost somber.

“Thank you for telling me all this,” she began. “And let me be the first to say that… I’m sorry. I know firsthand how awful it is to be faced with Shadow, and now all this responsibility has been heaped on you that you never asked for. You probably feel like freaks, or like you’re crazy – at least, that’s how I felt before I found others like me.” She sighed.

“I should explain. You’ve probably guessed it by now, but I’m like you – Awakened. I have a Persona, and I’ve also fought Shadows on the other side of the mirror. In fact, my friends and I used to make a habit of it.” Emi chuckled, though the sound was weighed down with melancholy. “And I think I should take some responsibility here, too. That ‘demon woman’ you mentioned – she sounds familiar to me. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I know she was important. I think… I think my friends and I were trying to… track something down…?”

Suddenly, Emi pitched forward, hands clutching the sides of her head in evident distress. “But I can’t— remember!” She spat, frustrated. “It’s so important, but I try and I try and it’s all just a blur…”

She drew a shaky breath, blinking back tears as she regained her composure. She hugged herself, her wounds freshly opened now that there was finally someone to whom she could tell the full story.

“I’m sorry. I should start from the beginning.” Emi took a slow, deep breath, stretching out the tension in her chest before launching into her explanation. “Like I said, I have a Persona. But I wasn’t the only person at Hinotori who had one – or even the first. There were five others – Mineri-chan, Makoto-kun, Hanami-chan, Reiji-san, and Kudan-kun. Maybe you knew some of them; Reiji-san is Nakano-san’s older brother, and Hanami-chan was going to be the student council president this year. Anyway, we all had Personae, and together we spent most of last summer rooting out corruption and slaying Shadows as a team. But then… well, you all heard about the fires.”

Emi’s hands twisted the hem of her uniform skirt as memories of the wreckage came rushing back, the smell of smoke and soot as clear as if she were standing right in front of it. She shook her head. “Everyone insists they’re dead, but that can’t be the case. Some lousy fire isn’t enough to kill a single one of them, mark my words. But that leaves the question: what happened to them? And why did whatever it was let me escape?”

She shook her head, reaching to massage her temple. “My memory of that night is hazy – I know we were on the Other Side, and I think we’d finally found something important. I think there was a fight… but then the next thing I knew, I was in my house and my parents were telling me my friends were dead.”

Emi looked up at last, fixing a look of unexpected optimism in the boys’ direction. “And that’s why what you’ve told me is so important. You say you met William in the flesh, in what used to be a burned out house? Can you tell me which street that house is on?” The question was aimed at Hoshino (or at least, in his general direction), and then she turned where she thought the others were. “See – notwithstanding exceptional circumstances – we always accessed the Other Side through a mirror in Mineri-chan’s house on Akaitori, not super far from here. Obviously, hers was one of the houses that burned down. Ever since, I haven’t been able to cross over into the Other Side at all. But then William’s dreams came, and I swear I saw – well, ‘saw’,” she made air quotes, “I don’t know how to explain it but trust me – I saw Mineri on the stage. Then William comes back and tells me ‘the previous denizen of the stage’ has ‘returned to my world’, and I’m inclined to believe him. If your mystery cat woman is familiar with William and the Other Side, maybe she knows something about my friends’ whereabouts.”

Emi blinked a few times, not sure if anything she said sounded remotely sane or if these boys, even with all their knowledge, would write her off as crazy like everyone else and back out of there, never to be found again. And there was still so much more to say, and so much she felt she needed to tell the boys – about Shadows, about Personae, about everything – but she figured it was best to let them catch their breath. “Am I making sense? Forgive me – I didn't think I'd ever find somebody I could tell all of this to.”

---

_{@Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

Emi wanted to shout more, to demand the wretched little creature give up William’s game and show her to her friends already, no matter how crazy it would make her sound. And she probably would have, too, if she hadn’t been startled by a sudden voice behind her.

"Y-you can see it too?!"

Head whipping around to the sound, she clutched her cane like a weapon in defence, frozen in place as a series of fleshy thumps from a few feet away signified her mystery visitor falling to the floor. She didn’t bother remembering that it was dark and they probably tripped or even noticing that the voice was suspiciously male – now that she was pulled out of her single-minded chase, she finally had the chance to notice something nagging at her Euryphaessa sense. Or rather, assaulting it. It was hauntingly familiar, much louder than the presence of any normal person, calling out to something inside her that rose its voice to answer...

The Persona user!

Emi dropped her cane altogether, a sharp gasp escaping her as it clattered to the floor. There was no mistaking it – this was one of the boys from the Cooking Club, one of the ones whose presence felt so similar to her friends’. The ones she dared to hope were fellow Persona users, even though it boggled the mind to think there were any left beside herself. Seconds later, the door banged, the sound echoing off the tiled walls as another person barrelled in – another person with the same screaming presence. And another one she recognized – the other one from the Cooking Club!

"Is there a shad-"

Emi caught the newcomer’s words faster that time, and her face split into a wide, disbelieving grin. “A Shadow?” she questioned, excitement rising in her stomach. Not bothering to retrieve her cane, she carefully stepped toward the duo, groping out until her hand found the top of one of their heads – probably the one who’d fallen down.

“‘Can I see it too’ – you mean the butterfly? You can see the butterfly?!” Giddiness snuck into her voice, and Emi knelt next to the person she’d found and felt around for his shoulders, unable to help herself. It was like she wanted to confirm that he really was… well, real.

“I can’t believe it..!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth in amazement before turning her head toward the door when it opened once again. A third person strode in, and again they bore a presence that screamed out Persona. This one, though, Emi didn’t recognize, and he added his two cents to the mix, more condescending than the others.

Emi paid no mind. “I can’t believe it!” she repeated, getting to her feet once again. The line of questioning went in one ear and out the other, the pink-haired girl too occupied with the amazing discovery before her. “I knew it! You’re the two boys from the Cooking Club – Hinari and Mori! I knew it!”

She turned her head in the third boy’s direction, furrowing her brow. “I don’t know you, but – ah, it doesn’t matter!” It took all Emi had not to bounce on her feet, although her words came out a mile a minute. “So you’ve Awakened, then? Have you been seeing William too— have you seen Mineri?! Wait—”

Emi interrupted herself, clutching her chest. “If you’ve Awakened, how did you get to the Other Side? Did the mirror let you through? Did someone help you? Tell me everything!”

---

_{@Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

Emi only paused a moment when Nakano startled her rushing past, but then picked up her own pace as well, sensing that the butterfly was moving. With trembling fingers – from fear or anticipation she couldn’t tell – she flicked open her cane, listening as it clicked out to its full length before pushing her way through the gym door, hot on the butterfly’s trail. The cane was mostly to make sure she didn’t trip over anything; the butterfly’s path was as clear as a bell to her, and she didn’t need any help following it.

Moving with singular purpose, Emi followed the butterfly as it took a left, then another left, heading down what must have been a side hall she wasn’t so familiar with since the renovations. That was no matter; Emi would have followed it off a cliff if it meant finding her friends at the bottom. As she followed, her cane bumped into something slightly to her right, and when her sidestep didn’t prove wide enough to avoid bumping into an arm, she realized it was a person.

“Excuse me,” she apologized hastily, pushing past them brusquely. Next she was met with a door, and the newly-attached braille sign on the doorpost told her it was the girls’ locker room. Excellent, there would be mirrors in there – maybe the appearance of the butterfly meant she could finally go back inside the mirror and begin her search in earnest. Maybe it was leading her there!

Or maybe it was leading her into the maw of some god awful Shadow.

That thought made her pause, her hand still on the nameplate, but she forced herself to take a breath. The thought wasn't without merit; she knew from experience that diving into these things with no idea as to what she was facing was just asking for trouble. Not to mention that while it was usually her guiding her friends through the world inside the mirror, she didn’t have nearly that much awareness in the real world, and this time, no sighted friends to back her up. If something malevolent awaited her in there, she’d be powerless.

Then the facade falls away like so much dust.

The memory sent a chill up Emi’s spine, that foreign yet familiar voice that she’d come to know so well ringing through her mind once again. She knew the speech by heart, having retraced it so many times in the past months, and she knew where it was going. And it was right. With that in mind, she straightened, determination in her sightless eyes as she stared unseeing at the door before her. So she was alone, so what? When things got difficult, it was her her friends would look to for guidance. She’d find a way back to them if it took her to hell and back, and no locker room Shadow was going to stand in the way of that.

All of that reasoning took place in the space of a breath, and for better or worse, Emi used the shot of confidence to push through the locker room door before she had time to chicken out again.

She held her breath.

And to her surprise, nothing lashed out immediately to eat her.

Emi took a single step into the locker room, letting the door swing closed behind her with a barely audible thump. Beyond the door, everything was quiet; her heightened awareness told her that no one else was in there, and the only sounds were muffled conversation from the gym and her own careful breathing. Almost afraid to disturb the silence, Emi swung out her cane in an exploratory arc without letting it touch the floor, and took a cautious step into the room. Then another.

A third step brought her within cane range of something that sounded like metal; probably lockers. Reaching out, she made contact and walked along them until she came to a corner. The butterfly’s signature, having momentarily faded behind the door and the walls, became clearer as she neared, and turning the corner Emi found it again, seemingly on the far end of the room, unmoving. She followed cautiously, dread building with every step, until she found the opposite wall.

Reaching out, her fingers touched smooth glass – a mirror! Instinctively, she pushed, but scowled when she found that the mirror was still as unyielding as ever.

Sliding her hand along toward where she knew the butterfly was, Emi tried to reach out for it, but found only cool glass, the butterfly staying in its spot despite her groping hands. After a few unsuccessful attempts to grab the thing – her hand just went right through – a surge of frustration seized her, and she pounded the mirror with the meat of her fist. After all that buildup, all that ominous shit from William, the power outage, the clear signs of corruption all around the school, and what, she was still no further? She was practically touching the very butterfly from that stupid dream and nothing?!

“What do you want, then?!” she demanded, desperately fearing that she wouldn’t get an answer.

---

_{@Hero @Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Fire Emblem: The Slumbering Goddess

_@Hero

Honestly, could this day get any worse?

Jorah lurched into the cathedral with the rest of the crowd, their curiosity struggling to permeate his own sulking. It was like the Goddess rolled out of her bed of stars that morning and made it her mission to ruin his day. First, Clarissa abandoned him for some crusty Archbishop on her birthday, and now their school day was being made longer by an assembly called by the aforementioned crusty Archbishop? The dour faces on all the guards seemed a little ill at ease for an assembly, but Jorah took solace in the fact that if he was having a bad day, so was everyone else.

He unceremoniously plopped into a seat along the same pew as the rest of the Deer, making sure Clarissa noticed his refusal to look her way. How could she! The one year they were guaranteed able to spend her birthday together, and she just tossed him aside for a tea party. With some stuffy church official and Auberon of all people. Jorah hadn’t been so insulted since that year she spent her birthday in Derdriu for the official opening of the new garment district. He sold one of his father’s signet rings to hire that male courtesan for her, but did she appreciate it? Of course not! Instead, it was all “Jorah, that’s obscene!” this, and “Jorah, I’m only sixteen!” that. Didn’t even bother to thank him for the man-sized cake the fellow popped out of. It was like she didn’t even appreciate the gesture.

He huffed at the memory, crossing his arms. Sure, he didn’t have any grand plans today, but sneaking out for a ride in the nearby forest could have been nice, right? Not as nice as tea with Stick-In-Ass Auberon and Archbishop Ioannis, Snoozefest in Chief, apparently.

Like a cold wind, a dark shift in the emotional tone of the room alerted Jorah to something important going on, and he reluctantly lent the Archbishop his ear just in time to hear his warning about disappearances. Hm, yep, that’d do it. Jorah was curious why the Archbishop would go so far as to request support from the Northern Church for the sake of some rumours, but then, that was all the evidence he needed, wasn’t it? You don’t take that kind of action unless your “rumours” are substantiated, and if they’re substantiated… well, then they aren’t really rumours at all.

Jorah had a nagging feeling (egged on by the growing nervousness in the room) that he wasn’t as concerned about this announcement as he should be. He wasn’t close enough to the Archbishop to plumb his emotions for hints (and even if he was, the interference of the rest of the room would have made it difficult) but he didn’t think he needed to. The Monastery’s actions alone proved there was something behind the rumours, and yet he still wasn’t really all that nervous. On the contrary, the first thought that came to mind was that once word reached Derdriu of these disappearances, he might be able to use them as cover to get out of dodge. He could fake his own kidnapping; House Riegan would sadly lose its eldest and Delia would take the Dukedom and the Lordship, and the poor late Jorah von Riegan could live his days as Torah, common man roaming and adventuring to his heart’s content. Jorah smirked at the thought, though it soon went cold. The Duke would probably be happy about that in secret, if his lack of concern over the Luin incident was anything to go by.

The Archbishop dismissed the crowd, and Clarissa wasted no time looking on the bright side. Jorah, meanwhile, made a great show out of ignoring her, only to be disappointed when she was pulled away with nary a glance in his direction. Whatever; in a few hours she’d realize the error of her ways and be consumed by guilt for having snubbed her closest friend. Or she’d tell him to stop whining and then gush about having tea with the Archbishop, one or the other. He’d cross that bridge when he got to it.

Standing from the pew and stretching, Jorah noticed that while the whole crowd was starting to file out, the quiet blonde girl whose name he wasn’t entirely sure on looked like she had no intention of getting up. Crap, he was House Leader, he should know her name… she was from that disgraced House Ordelia, was it… Isadora? Isolde! Yes, Isolde, that was it. The one who went up against that giant in Luin with nothing but her fists. Jorah was surprised to find she looked a little rattled; she seemed mousy, sure, but this was a girl who ran up to punch a giant without hesitating – it seemed odd for a few kidnappers to give her pause.

“Not nervous, are you?” Jorah decided to ask, sitting back down next to the girl. As he did so, he realized that his confusion was at least partly correct. She still wore that blank stare, but now that he could single out her aura, he didn’t feel much fear. Just a sort of… tired dejectedness, maybe. She was very subdued, but at least she wasn’t afraid.

Jorah leaned back in the pew, satisfied with his evaluation. Suddenly he felt a little bad for misjudging her as a shrinking violet. “Yeah, curfew’s no big deal anyway. But if you’re ever trying to get around it and want some company, I’m pretty experienced in that area.”

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

“Really, really, it’s—guys, it’s fine!” Emi couldn’t help but giggle as a commotion of basketball club members buzzed around her, trying to make sure she didn’t feel excluded on the sidelines of the gym. They meant well, but it really wasn’t necessary – she was perfectly happy “observing”. In fact, she could have done without the extra noise; the myriad slams of basketballs, barks of coaches and squeaks of sneakers were more than enough to overwhelm the senses without several people trying to talk to her at once.

At long last she managed to convince the club members that she didn’t need accommodating, and was finally left alone to her relief. Gym class was entertaining for her in its own way; she usually didn’t have to attend, but often did anyway. She could read something braille if she wanted, but listening was fun in its own right – and she couldn’t deny a certain smug satisfaction that she got to sit comfortably while the rest of her class had to run or whatever. As if to prove a point, she soon heard a muffled thump-thump-thump nearby accompanied by an annoyed grunt, and had to stifle a giggle when she realized it must have been somebody falling.

Yes, the gym was a nice distraction, but now that she wasn’t being badgered, her mind soon returned to the dream she’d had a few nights past – the one that had dominated her thoughts ever since, and had barely given her a moment to breathe today. What started out as hope had gradually morphed into dread; William told her she had until “the day after next” to find “his door in her world”, and that was on the eleventh. Today was the thirteenth – the last day, according to his cryptic message.

And her searching had been fruitless. The school, however suspicious she thought it was, was behaving irritatingly normal. Emi suspected that “a place consumed by flames that should be no more” might have referred to the wreckages of her friends’ burned-down houses, but given so much of their adventure together revolved around fire, she couldn’t be certain. And regardless, she couldn’t even pay them a visit to check – ever since her breakdown after the fires, her parents were excessively careful to keep her away from the fire sites. Something about “tormenting herself” when she paid so many visits to the sites after the fires occurred. She would have snuck out under some other pretense to investigate, but her parents were smart enough to keep closer tabs on her now that she’d gone back to school. And it wasn’t like she could tell them that her friends’ potential freedom from the Other Side depended on it.

Ugh. She knew they meant well, but she wished they’d be a little less invested.

Suddenly, darkness fell across Emi’s very limited vision. She initially assumed it was someone passing in front of her, but a chorus of frightened exclamations throughout the gym told her the power must have gone out. Weird, last she checked the weather was calm.

Emi gasped – was this her sign? Was this the start of whatever awful thing was supposed to happen today?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a sudden shot of critical awareness struck her, stopping her mid-breath.

There’s a butterfly on the door.

Emi didn’t need to see or hear or touch the thing to know it was there; her Euryphaessa sense made it as obvious as if the insect itself had slapped her across the face. She rose from her seat before even realizing she was moving, making her way along the gym walls as if pulled by some unseen wire around her chest. Fear and hope surged in equal measure, fighting for supremacy over her. Hope seemed to be winning, pulling her toward the butterfly, but fear was close on her heels, telling her to slow down, to wait, that she’d never dealt with something like this by herself before.

There’s a first time for everything, she told herself as she neared the door, banishing the burgeoning cowardice from her mind. Besides, any one of them would do the same for me.

---

_{@Hero @Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Of Blood and Magic

It wasn’t long before Lilie emerged from the crowd, looking to Aaron like a dove among pigeons as she strode toward him, smiling. He smiled too at the sight of her, heart fluttering as she drew near, remembering with disbelief that the feelings they shared, their kiss, everything really did happen. The past few weeks were so wild he wasn’t sure until now that it wasn’t just a dream.

Despite his delight, his heart jumped into his throat when he felt Lilie twine her fingers in his. Something ingrained and instinctive sounded in the back of his head, some alarm bell he didn’t even have the time to name, and by reflex he pulled away, glancing around to make sure nobody had seen. That was risky, right? Who knew who was watching, what might spark rumours – who knew what Count Benjamin might think, let alone Varis! The smart part of his brain told Aaron his reaction was perfectly logical, but even still, his hand felt intolerably empty the second Lilie’s left it.

It all shot through his mind in the space of a second, and realizing Lilie might be offended, Aaron recovered by placing his hand appropriately on her back, moving with an apologetic smile to guide her to a seat.

“I just got here,” he reassured her as they walked, eager to move past his awkwardness. In any case, even as much as leading Lilie to a seat, however chaste and proper, was enough to make his heart flutter. “How were your classes?”

The sudden movement spooked Lilie for a second, her eyes wide as she looked up at Aaron. About half a dozen questions popped into her head: Was that too forward? Did her nails accidentally scratch him? Were her hands dry? Did it feel weird? Did she do something wrong? Maybe there was some sort of mage etiquette that she had missed—Ben wanted her covered from elbow to knee but then continuously walked in on her, so she was shaky on the rules.

Lilie semi-recovered once she sat down, though her hands were a little more fidgety than she would have liked. “Um, they were okay,” She replied. “Though the Dowsing class I just had with Max is gonna be a little rough, the teacher is scary. I think anything that isn’t pure affinity is going to need a lot of attention on my part.”

“Dowsing?” Aaron asked, noticing Lilie’s discomfort and feeling like a monster for it. Maybe that was uncalled for, it was such a simple gesture after all – and not to mention how badly he realized he wanted it now that he’d pushed it away. Goodness, it almost felt like his first day at the Academy again. Not that his first experience with Varis was anything close to this exciting new path he was tiptoeing, but he felt the same sense of insecurity, not knowing whether he was stepping on solid ground.

At least this round of nerves made him giddy instead of sick!

“I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of ‘dowsing’ before; I haven’t the slightest idea what that means,” he chuckled, very interested in moving the subject on. “But you don’t need to give me a lesson. You must be tired I’m sure.”

He knew he was. And hungry – maybe they should continue this conversation after getting some food. But he just sat them down, would it be weird to get up again so fast?

At long last, Aaron had to laugh at his own awkwardness, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, I must seem a wreck,” he finally confessed, looking bashfully over to Lilie. His eyes were doubtlessly bloodshot and rimmed with dark circles that even concealer couldn’t cover, and he had no idea what he was doing. Why pretend he was anything but a total mess? It was Lilie who wanted him to lean on her, after all.

“I’m just so glad to see you,” he finally said. His jaw worked for a second, thinking he had something else to say, but eventually he closed his mouth, realizing that was the only coherent phrase he could utter at the moment.

If Aaron thought she was tired, she wasn’t sure what he would use to describe himself. It had been noticeable enough for her to notice when they first met up, but now that they were on semi-even level, it was obvious the poor guy was ragged. Lilie wanted to ask, but now she hesitated; he already withdrew from her once, what if he reacted poorly to her asking? He did say he'd explain later, and it was later, so it was probably better not to. Right?

His apology poked at her already bubbling guilt, though it wasn’t until he admitted he was glad to see her that Lilie finally gave him a much more genuine smile. Ah, there were the butterflies! Maybe she really was overthinking things.

"I'm happy you're here with me, too," She replied cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "I think any hard class will be easy so long as I get to see you."

As she finished talking, she felt her stomach grumble. Oh, right, lunch! She got up and placed her bag on her chair, turning to Aaron. "Let's leave our bags here and get something to eat first, though," She patted her stomach. "My cycle's all messed up again. I tried to be good, but my inner clock gets so wacky when I go back home. I guess you never have to worry about that at the castle, huh?"

It was such a small thing, but even just that little comment made all of the unpleasantness buzzing in Aaron’s head melt away. He didn’t dream it the first time; Lilie was happy just to see him! He stood up dreamily as she did, still floating in the giddy warmth that spread over him at something so small.

“Good idea,” he agreed, following Lilie. He grinned at her comment about her day-night cycle. “Nah, I guess not. Although they do try to get me to sleep in when I go home, I always end up getting up at the normal time anyway. Old habits I suppose.”

An unusually quiet sense of melancholy tried to speak up in the back of Aaron’s head, remembering how miserable he’d secretly been at the realization that they wanted him to sleep in because they now had someone else to do all his old tasks. As painful as that had been to swallow, Aaron had a sudden thought that Noila castle seemed awfully dreary compared to the dining hall this evening – and present company.

Hm. Maybe with Lilie around, a year away from the Noilas might not be so hard to survive.

“But aside from that, you must have enjoyed your break, seeing your family,” he continued, filling a plate with a hearty, balanced meal. “They must be proud of you.”

Lilie followed suit, not being too picky with her choices. Admittedly she wasn’t completely paying attention to the food as she was hanging onto Aaron’s every word. As he mentioned her family, however, she couldn’t stop her frown.

"I don't know, they were a little weird this time," She ended up admitting. "I mean, the first few days were fine, and I guess my brother was the same as always, but they were...um, how do I describe it?"

How did she describe her mom's sudden distance? Her dad said it wasn't related to Lilie at all, but it happened from one day to the next! She kept staring at the pictures in the hallway looking depressed, too, and she usually only did that around the anniversary of Lilie’s grandmother’s death.

“...I don’t know how to describe it,” Lilie ended up admitting, shaking her head. “But it’s not just them that are acting differently. Everyone in town kept staring and whispering, and some of them were taking pictures of me! I mean, it’s better than getting glares, but this was just as weird!”

Letting out a sigh, Lilie felt like she was complaining too much. “It was good to be home. But there’s a lot of stuff that’s changing for everyone, and I guess I just need more time to get used to it, you know?” She tried to spin it as a positive, not wanting to drag down the conversation. “How about your family? I bet your mom was happy to see you.”

Aaron’s brow furrowed at the sudden sadness in Lilie’s voice. Things were chilly at home? And he’d just ignored her for weeks on top of that! He wanted to reach out and hug her, but that annoying little alarm bell in his head wouldn’t let him.

“They’re probably not used to having noble mages like yourself visit their town,” he offered, trying, like Lilie, to lighten the mood. As for his own family…

“She was, yeah. She always is,” he ended up murmuring the last part, remembering the pain he was about to inflict on the poor woman by cutting ties for a year. A year! Stars above, he’d been so wrapped up in how he would be affected by the distance that he hadn’t even spared a thought for his poor mother! Could she handle it? He knew nobody stronger in the world, but she was ill – it was hard enough on her when he left the household, how would she manage complete silence for a year?

Aaron felt sick to his stomach as the two of them returned to their seats, and his food was suddenly a lot less appealing. But he tried to push the thought away. She always insisted she was stronger than she looked, and she had Dora and Clara and Princess Ryner to look after her. And if he told her why he was doing this, surely she’d at least understand, if not forgive him for it. They’d all made sacrifices for their charges; it was time for him to make his.

“Of course, I kinda stressed them out the past few weeks,” he added delicately, doing his best to tease out an uneasy grin. “But luckily that’s over now, and we— I shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“That’s good!” Lilie was happy to hear that at least he was better. She picked up her fork as she looked down at her food, deciding now was a good time to get in a bite before continuing the conversation. As she did, she chewed slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face. She let out a small noise of discontent, inhaling sharply as she held her hand out to stop Aaron from continuing.

“Wait,” Her muffled word came out, though she took a second to swallow before giving Aaron a serious look. “What do you think of the food here?”

Aaron did a bit of a double take when Lilie spoke up, thinking for a moment that she was about to spit out her food. At her question, he simply stared for a moment, feeling immediately self conscious.

“Uh, it’s… fine, I guess? Good?” he answered slowly, not sure if he should admit that food was food to him and the food here nourished him as much as the food at home did.

Making direct eye contact with the blond, Lilie slowly shook her head. “Fine. Just fine,” She repeated his words before using her free hand to point to her plate. “Exactly. I cook way, way better than this. So when are you coming over so I can show you how much better I am than these cooks here?”

The laugh escaped before Aaron could catch it, the blond hunching over the table as his shoulders shook in silent laughter. “Don’t let Her Highness hear you say that, I think she hired these cooks herself,” he joked, composing himself enough to take a bite of his food as he considered her question.

When could he go over? The logical part of his brain said never, it was a ridiculous idea to start with and he would be a fool to attend. Come on, a visit, most likely unannounced, to another Count’s dorm just so he could have dinner with his mage? Ha! Anyone else and he’d have laughed the idea out of the room. What a ridiculous risk, and what a flagrant disregard for his own master’s confidence, especially since his sneaking around was the very thing that got him into the present mess.

But the logical part of Aaron’s brain was uncharacteristically quiet for the moment, and drowned out by a newer and significantly louder part that told him he’d be a fool not to do it. He was about to wilfully cut himself off from everyone he knew and loved for a year to cleanse himself of his sneaky, lying, untrustworthy sins – what was one more to finish it all off? It was just like in movies, when a character goes on one last binge before quitting drinking. If anything, it’d be smart to purge his last few rebellious urges before committing himself to Varis, right?

He almost chuckled again – the very thought of him, of all people, having a rebellious streak would be funny if it wasn’t apparently true – but his mind was already made up, and some deep part of him feared that if he reneged on his decision now, he’d never find the courage to make it again.

“I’ll have to get back to you on the time, but tonight would be lovely. I’d have to be done by six regardless, but I bet we can make it work.” He took a drink of water before he could take the promise back. Goodness, what on earth got into him? He wasn’t sure, but he was surprisingly steadfast in wanting to ride with it for as long as he could. Besides, tonight was prime for something like this; ironically, Varis’ annoyance would work in his favour, and Aaron predicted he’d want the dorm to himself for the morning. Plus, there was the fact that it was now or never – once he walked back through that door, he’d have to give up on sneaking for good.

Somehow, Lilie didn’t think she could possibly be any happier, but on Aaron’s answer, her face lit up considerably. For some reason she thought that he would say no, but she was delighted to see that he kept to his word. She couldn’t really stop her smile even as she ate, completely satisfied that he finally made the commitment. Sorta. But that was good enough for her! In the back of her mind, though, she figured at least she didn’t have to worry too much about impressing him—she meant no offense to Her Highness, but her skills in the kitchen were way better—and started mentally considering what she could make. Oh, she’d have to make sure Ben wouldn’t stick around, she wanted some private time for just the two of them to make up for the lack of communication. And maybe for something else that was better kept behind closed doors.

Lilie couldn’t keep her eyes off Aaron despite the tiny blush building up on her cheeks. “Then it’s a date,” She wanted to say it confidently, but her giddiness got the better of her, and it came out as the words of a lovestruck, shy girl as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Seeing Lilie light up further reassured Aaron that he made the right decision, and hearing the word date filled his stomach with butterflies. He busied himself with his food, hoping Lilie wouldn’t notice the red flush in his ears, though he did pause long enough to say, smiling, “Can’t wait.”

_@Hero

Of Blood and Magic

Aaron could feel fatigue creeping in as he worked, but he was so accustomed to it that it only served to encourage him, letting him know he was accomplishing something. Much like learning a new technique with Lucan, each attempt felt a little more controlled than the last, and recognizing his mistakes and how to fix them ratcheted up his confidence a little each time. He didn’t even notice the time passing until Professor Daun spoke up to tell him class was over.

With a deep breath he hadn’t noticed he needed, Aaron straightened from the hunch he’d sunk into while he worked, cracking his back and looking around like he’d forgotten what room he was in. In a way he had; even now his mind was swarmed with butterflies as his concentration reluctantly faded away. Aaron would have preferred to practice longer, but Daun’s praise was welcome, and his stomach complained almost on cue at the mention of eating.

“Yes sir,” he muttered amicably, giving the professor a smile with his thanks as he gathered up his things.

Out in the brisk winter air, the snap of cold helped Aaron shake off the fog of intense focus completely – of course, with the unwelcome side effect of remembering all the things other than magic that demanded his attention tonight. A glance at his phone for his schedule reminded him about Varis’ proposal; one that, if he was smart, he’d spend every spare moment weighing. Not that there was much to weigh – in every sense he’d already basically accepted. What choice did he have? It wasn’t like he could refuse. Even if Varis kept him around and didn’t dispose of him outright, there was no way he could serve a master who couldn’t trust him. The very thought brought back a wave of the intense shame he’d felt when Varis told him so. He meant what he said; whoever he was, it wasn’t right to force a vampire to live with a mage he couldn’t trust. And how could Aaron live with himself knowing he was nothing but an untrustworthy burden, rather than an asset? That would be a fate worse than expulsion from service altogether.

No, he wasn’t so much considering his choice as he was dreading what it meant. As much as he tried to convince himself that his old life didn’t matter, he couldn’t just shake off twenty-one years of utter devotion. And Starag or not, any mage would be daunted by the complete loss of contact with his family for a whole year, not to mention being banned from seeking Princess Ryner’s counsel. He knew this was the only respectable choice, but that didn’t stop him from agonizing over it.

It took Aaron a moment to realize he’d just been standing in the snow, but an insistent nudge from his stomach reminded him that he only had half the usual lunch period to eat and get going. Trying to leave his dark thoughts outside, he rushed to the dining hall, letting the warmth and the hum of conversation distract him for the moment. There was something else demanding his attention too – Lilie!

Just the name in his head lifted Aaron’s spirits.. Right, he’d promised her they’d meet at lunch, and talk about that lovely little date she wanted to treat him to! A giddy warmth replaced the growing knot in his chest at the thought, and his eyes brightened as he looked around the dining hall, searching for a streak of white among the heads of the students.

_@Hero

Fire Emblem: The Slumbering Goddess

_{@Scribe of Thoth}

Fingers of dread had been twisting Lienna’s stomach ever since they were summoned to the Cathedral. Her nerves never had calmed since that ill-fated conversation with the pegasus woman, and she swore that the feeling of being watched had only grown more intense since that day after training, but it only got worse as the eyes of staff and saints bore into her while they waited for the address to begin. She’d tried to remind herself that anyone watching her should be either the wall-top guards or her fiancé’s faceless chaperone and not to start seeing faces in the shadows, but nothing worked; there was nothing she could do to quell the deep-seated feeling of wrongness that she now realized had been haunting her, in one way or another, since her first day here.

And to make matters worse, the Archbishop validated her concerns.

Lienna’s fingers twisted the heavy fabric of her skirt into knots to stop them shaking, holding on for dear life as though a storm were coming to blow her away. So it was true. As ready as she usually was to expect the worst, there’d been some small, silent part of her hoping that woman had been lying, hitting her with some tried-and-true ghost story to get troublesome students in line. But she wasn’t so lucky. It sickened her further to think that all this time, that creeping feeling of dread that always seemed to nag at her was actually right. She brushed it off as a remnant of a lifetime of looking in the shadows for raiders and wolves, overactive instincts from years of having to take care of herself. But she was wrong; maybe danger just seemed to follow her, all the way from the borders of Sreng to the peaks of Garreg Mach.

Was nowhere in this saints-forsaken country safe?

She wanted to stand up and leave, send a letter to her fiancé – surely he’d take her back to his fortress in a heartbeat if she forgave his end of their deal. Her time at the Monastery was supposed to make her safer, help her build a network of powerful friends to call upon if she needed to; no one would fault her for opting out if the very venture meant to ensure her safety was the thing putting her most at risk.

But she stayed in her seat, glancing suspiciously around the Cathedral as her classmates filtered out. She’d need someone to write the letter for her, and to read the Count’s reply. Would Auberon do it? No, she didn’t need a lecture on cowardice from the likes of him in these circumstances. Kellen? He might be thinking of going home himself, unless whatever waited for him back there scared him more than the possibility of being snatched in the night, dragged away by dark-clad strangers, screaming into a gag as they recounted their horrible plans…

“Mmh.” Lienna squeezed her eyes shut, pressing a palm to her forehead as if to physically push the image from her mind. Maybe she shouldn’t bother her Housemates with this. Maybe… no, Professor Michail was out, he’d probably shrug off her concerns as silly under the supposedly watchful eye of the all-powerful Knights of Seiros. Professor Tomai would probably do his best to get her to stay, too, given their little “mystery”... Ugh, and that was another problem! Goddess above, didn’t she have enough to worry about?! At this rate she’d have been better off in Hima!

That got her out of her seat, striding to the aisle with hopes of leaving that train of thought behind in the pew. Maybe Clarissa could help her; she seemed put-together enough to keep her judgements to herself, and by the looks of her grinning to her Housemates, she wasn’t too frightened – or at least, she was savvy enough not to show it. Lienna made a beeline to the redhead, but tripped on the way, having to catch herself on a nearby pew.

Glaring back to find whatever she tripped over, she found it was actually another student, that small red-eyed boy from target practice with the weird Adrestian magic. Weird, she hadn’t even noticed him.

“Sorry,” she murmured, looking eager to escape as she straightened her skirt.

Of Blood and Magic

Aaron listened intently to Daun’s critique until Varis stood, at which point the Count got his full attention. He stood almost a little too straight as Varis spoke, and bowed a little too quickly, but he couldn’t help it; after the emotional roller coaster of this evening so far, hearing something positive from Varis had him strangely on edge, like there was another, much less pleasant shoe just waiting to fall. But aside from a brisk reminder about his conduct, none did; he bowed his affirmation and Varis quit the place, leaving both Aaron and the Professor intact. At the risk of getting too confident, Aaron would call that a success.

Daun’s joke brought a guilty smile to his lips, but the very concept of invisibility snapped his mind back to the lesson – it would take diligent work on the fundamentals for him to manage those kinds of feats, and he was all too eager to get started.

Turning his attention to the butterfly in the Professor’s hand, Aaron tried to do as he was instructed, studying the form and gentle movement of the butterfly until he thought he had a pretty good idea of the key features. Two overlapping wings on each side, six long legs, a strangely mechanical way of moving, and of course that iconic pattern… It would take a long time to memorize all the details, but he had a suspicion that if he captured the gist, he could probably convince most people it was real, even if the fine details were wrong.

“Should I consider my audience?” Aaron asked absently, eyes still locked on the butterfly. “Say, there’s probably less room for error if the person who’s supposed to be convinced by my illusion has more knowledge of the model, right?” The questions were almost rhetorical, the wheels in his mind turning as he looked over the model. What if he needed to replicate a person? He’d probably need to be near-perfect to fool someone who knew that person well, but could probably get away with some mistakes to fool strangers. And he’d probably have more room for error if he was trying to fool something like a camera system over human eyes, right? Not to mention vampire eyes – it beggared belief any mage could possibly fool them, but there must be a way. The possibilities stretched out endlessly before him, growing exponentially with every new variable and situation that came to mind. How on earth could anyone perfect illusions with that much to consider, let alone move on to the myriad more complicated applications of Light magic?

Ah, but he was thinking too big. Right now, he needed to think small – about the size of a butterfly. Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and tried the exercise again, making sure to stay more conscious of the process. When his magic tried to go its own way, he reigned it in. Guiding the process “manually” was more difficult, but soon enough he had an orange and black butterfly perched in his hand, moving its wings up and down like clockwork.

It certainly wasn't perfect, but at least it wasn't glowing. “A few more tries…”

_@Achronum