Fae stared in horror as Wasuryu and his four Cultist followers slowly walked down to the stage. As they approached, all around them in the empty seats strange, ghostly forms appeared. From the orchestra pit, the sounds of instruments tuning rose in the air.
“You’re not part of the script,” Mercury said, hands on her hips, glaring at Wasuryu. All of the others had emerged from backstage to join Fae and Sonya. “If you’ve got an invitation, you can go ahead and take a seat in the audience.”
“Ah, but you know that isn’t how this works,” Wasuryu said in a cold, menacing voice. His grotesque, reptilian mouth turned up at the corners in a sneer. “Revue told you of the rules.”
And she’s too busy right now to kick him out. Olivia’s voice, speaking to the other girls’ minds through their bond.
That was the real kicker here. If an unwanted challenger arrived to their show, normally, Revue would be able to play judge and jury, and kick them out if desired. But if she stopped her current dual songs for even a moment, the seals on the Keys would be reinstated, and the hope that the world needed would falter.
She couldn’t help them. So then the only path forward was…
“If you know the rules, then you know you must also abide by them,” Toryu said, a hard edge in his voice for the first time Fae had ever heard. He twirled his pipe between his fingers, eyeing Wasuryu with a steely-eyed gaze. “You will be limited in the power you can field here. And I am not a member of the cast.”
“Meaning that neither of us can bring the other to harm,” Wasuryu said, halting at the foot of the steps leading up the stage. He glared up at Toryu, distaste evident in his voice. “Don’t worry, father.” He spoke the word with such mockery. “Your time will come, once I claim victory on the stage, and take the Vessel once and for all as my own.” His sneer returned, and he looked at Fae. “Yes… how will it feel, I wonder? To be killed by someone wearing her face, hmm?”
Fae stood rigid, fighting against the sudden desire to hurl a vicious retort his way. A wave of disgust nearly unbalanced her, made more potent by Sonya, Olivia, Madeline, and the Star sisters all sharing a similar reaction.
But she maintained her control. She wouldn’t let this wicked, disgusting Dragon shake her.
And then, suddenly, she recognized an opportunity.
With him here, forced to face us on our stage, on equal footing, this might be our best chance to end him once and for all. We have the advantage. We have a script, we have a plan, we have dozens of rehearsals under our belts.
It was Sonya who first replied, but she didn’t keep it to herself and the girls. She stepped forward, script in hand, her eyes fixed on the Dragon below, and spoke aloud. “You have no idea what you’ve just walked into. Before the end of the first act, your life will reach its end, and the world will be rid of your filth forever.”
“Oh, Broken Vessel,” Wasuryu purred, a sickening tone full of wicked desire. “Does your failure burn you so deeply? Does the pain I gave you —”
“It is time to introduce tonight’s show,” Sonya said, her voice clear, strong, not addressing Wasuryu but instead the astral crowd gathered for the performance. The instrument turning in the orchestra pit came to a stop, and Sonya walked to the edge of the stage, Fae joining her there. “Our story begins at the end. Through many trials and tribulations, emerging from great pains and sorrows, overcoming great challenges, our heroes have reached their final test. For Fae, Olivia, Madeline, Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter, and even myself, the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher. For those relying on them. For their own hopes and dreams. Standing against the night, our heroines reach towards the break of day. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this, our debut performance, of ‘The Fated Finale.’”
She and Fae led the way backstage, clearing the floor as the orchestra struck up their overture. It was perfectly fitting for the script, grandiose, sweeping, and epic, but not triumphant, not yet. It was too early to know if the story would end in victory or defeat. There was hope, yes, but it was tinged with doubt, uncertainty, and endless questions.
And as Fae and the rest of the heroines returned backstage, a second backstage door appeared on the other side of the stage — a backstage space just for the new arrivals, the villains, Wasuryu and his four allies. They took the stage, strode through the door, and vanished.
“Two minutes,” Sonya said. “Everyone okay?”
“Would anyone be?” Mercury asked, shivering. “What’s the plan now?”
“Be open to improvising,” Sonya said, “but stick to the script as well as you’re able. I’ll look over it and when we get a break after the first two scenes, I’ll have a more concrete plan.”
“Come out swinging,” Olivia said, conjuring her alabaster scythe. “We’ll do just what you said. We’ll make sure he doesn’t live out the first act.”
“I wish I could have that much confidence,” Fae said, adjusting her jacket and hat. She knew her costume looked cool, and fit the role she was playing, but she never had managed to feel comfortable in it. “Let’s just… let’s stay focused. He tried to rattle us. And he’s good at it. But our main goal hasn’t changed — we need to reach the proper conclusion to this show and open up the path to the Key of the World.”
“You’re all set,” Toryu said, joining them. He and Ciel were in charge of the mechanical side of things, giving Fae and her team this chance to discuss while they took care of setting the stage. The tortoise-Dragon puffed at his pipe, resuming his usual amiable cheer. But Fae caught a glint of steel still in those eyes. “I have every confidence in you. Remember the rules, win over the crowd, and gain victory.”
Fae nodded, and turned to Mercury, Neptune, and Jupiter. “We’re up,” she said.
“Let’s knock ‘em dead,” Jupiter said, holding out her hand, palm downward.
“For Fae, Olivia, and Sonya,” Neptune said, placing her hand atop Jupiter’s. “To end Wasuryu once and for all, so that they never need fear being made his Vessels.”
“You said it!” Mercury said, placing her hand atop Neptune’s. The Star sisters looked expectantly at Fae.
Fae found her courage, and a quiet confidence, as she placed her hand atop Mercury’s. “For Delilah,” she said.
The four of them turned, heading out onto the stage together to begin the show.
——
The long walk through the Darkness continued. Marcus stood at the center of the group, the ring-shaped bells atop his staff glowing softly.
Delilah took the lead, Alice right beside her. Their Summons spread out around them, their own various colors adding light to the dark hall. All was quiet and still. The corridor continued on, long and dark, with no branching pathways in sight.
The Fallen Bastion had truly been taken by Darkness. Delilah had seen a Bastion on its way to such a fate in the Library of Solitude, but this showed her what the Library would have turned into, had they not managed to save it.
The Library of Solitude had been full of roaming monsters, pulsing globules of the living Darkness, all parts of a steadily growing and expanding infestation. There had been plenty of moments of quiet, but those had been in halls and rooms not taken by the Darkness. Whenever they’d found the Darkness, a fight had ensued, cacophonic violence had erupted between mages and shadow-Hollows.
But here… no monsters. No grotesqueries, no strange dark hearts, no pulsing seeds of eventual destruction.
There was no reprieve from the dark. All was dark, the very walls, floors, and ceilings infused with a smooth, confident, endless Darkness. It didn’t need monsters to tend to it, no seeds preparing to sprout new growths.
The cultivation was complete. The infestation was pervasive, deep, and endless. What need had such a perfectly conquered Bastion for monsters, for guardians, for Sons of Night?
Even as they walked, the Darkness seemed to pay the intruders no heed. It did not need to reach out and stall them, to lash out and attack them.
It had won. What power did the Light have here?
“Something’s up ahead,” Alice said, peering down the corridor, her eyes pearly white. “Not sure what.”
“Movement?” Maribelle asked.
Alice shook her head. “I think the space opens up,” she said.
A few moments later, Delilah could see it, too. The corridor came to an end, opening out into a larger space. They entered that larger space on their guard, maintaining a circle around Terevalde and Emmeryn to protect them.
There was no telling what this space had once been. A lobby? A library? A meeting hall? Furniture was cleared, and the Darkness did not even slightly change its shape or texture to indicate what might have been. But the more open space didn’t feel freeing after the long, dark corridor. Somehow it felt more frightening. The shape of the room was inconsistent, with sharp angles here and there, dark corners where anything might be lurking. Delilah felt exposed, more vulnerable than in the corridor.
Three new halls branched off from this chamber. All looked the same. There were no stairs, no gradual slope up or down. All ran flat, straight, into deeper darkness.
“Any idea of what this was or where to go?” Delilah asked. She looked to Marcus.
“It is changed since I was here to steal the Key from its pedestal,” he said. “I entered from a different door, walked different paths — or so I think. It is very hard to keep one’s bearings in such nondescript environs.”
“You got that right,” Alice said. Then she looked at Delilah, a puzzled gleam in her eyes for a moment, before that puzzlement turned towards an idea. “What about the Key? It can show us the way, right? It ought to know where it came from, after all. And if it trusts you as the Keybearer, it’ll tell you where to go. Right?”
“I haven’t felt or heard anything,” Delilah said, reaching into her shirt and pulling out the Key on its chain. In truth, she hadn’t been listening for anything from the Key, though. She worried about taking it out, about relying on it at all before the crucial moment.
She feared that even the slightest output of its power would draw the Lingering Will to them in an instant.
“Wait… hold on,” came Deirdre’s voice in Delilah’s ear. “Tock thinks she might know something.” There was a faint click, and then Tock’s voice came through the comm device.
“I can’t be certain,” she said. “I mean, of course not. My memories were sealed when I went to the Farthest Shore, but the point is, lately I’ve been feeling like some of those memories are coming back. Somehow. They’re not supposed to, but maybe it’s because I’ve left while retaining my memories of the Farthest Shore and beyond that…” There was a faint murmur from someone else. “Right. Anyway. I think… I think I’ve been to that place before. The Fallen Bastion. It’s hard to tell since it’s all been emptied and covered in Darkness, but… I think I was there before the Darkness came.”
“You sure about that?” Alice asked. “Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but if you’re wrong, you might steer us way off course.”
“I’m sure,” Tock said. “But I can’t see perfectly where you are. Can you walk around the room? You don’t have to leave, just walk around the perimeter, go to each hall’s entrance, then back to where you came from. It’ll give me a better idea of the space.”
“Sure,” Delilah said. She had Reginald mark the corridor they’d come from with an X that she could see through Divination Magic, ensuring they wouldn’t lose their way. And then she started around the room with everyone else, staying within Marcus’ invisible protective barrier. Past one corridor, then another, and the third, they then returned to where they’d started.
“Okay,” Tock said. She took a deep breath, then let it out. “This is… sorry, sorry. It’s strange, remembering who you were, where you came from, and realizing just how long ago that was, and how much things have changed, and…” There was a faint sniffle, and then Tock continued. “Right. I’ve been there. I know I have, now. The room you’re in used to be a dining hall. The corridor to your right leads to a kitchen, and later some service passages and stairs down to the basement levels. The first hall to the left will take you to the East Wing, while the second to the left eventually meets the Hall of Records, and stairs taking you up to the Middle Level.”
“This was your home?” Isabelle murmured, bowing her head.
“Y-yeah,” Tock said. “Long, long ago.”
“Well, the details are nice and all, but none of that tells us where we should go,” Alice said. “How do we get to the pedestal so we can turn the Key?”
“Don’t be rude to her,” Isabelle said, more sadly than sternly.
“Oh, it’s all right,” Tock said, laughing softly. “Sorry, I was just… getting my bearings. Okay. Key. Pedestal. Right. You’ll want the Hidden Archive. That’s through the East Wing, so you’ll start going that way. With how everything’s been emptied and covered over, I’ll need you to take it slow so I can get my bearings.”
“Thank you,” Delilah said. “So we’ll want that first corridor on the left?”
“Right.”
On they went, down another long hall through the dark. It wasn’t as long as the last one, though, and had numerous branching halls to the left and right. According to Tock, those had once all been behind closed doors, rooms and offices that she’d never been inside.
“But you’re sure you know where the Key’s pedestal is?” Alice asked.
“Why do you have to question her every chance you get?” Isabelle asked, frowning.
“Because it’s been a long time since she ever came here, and it’s totally transformed since then,” Alice said. “I just want to make sure we can rely on her memories.”
“The Key wasn’t a sealed or hidden thing when I was there,” Tock said. “It was locked in place, so no one could turn it unless they were the Keybearer. That meant anyone could go and see it if they wanted to.”
“You must have been here long before it fell to Darkness,” Terevalde murmured reverently. “This is part of the Key of the World’s past that we never knew.”
“I’m sorry that I don’t know the exact time I was there,” Tock said. “Even if Enchanted did keep rigid track of time like Humans do, I still probably wouldn’t remember perfectly. It’s… a lot of it is still hazy. But I do recall the layout. I’ve always had a very good memory for places and spaces and maps.”
“And you’ve been in the Basin of Antiquity’s study and flown it long before I became the Basin’s master,” Maxwell said. “You remembered perfectly how it all works. Don’t worry. Tock’s memory for these sorts of things can be trusted.”
“You have quite the mysterious past, don’t you?” Maribelle asked with a smile.
“I… suppose I do,” Tock said, laughing softly. “I wish I could tell you why I know all of these things. But I think I remember and know enough to get you where you need to go.”
“And we’re grateful for it,” Delilah said as they reached the end of the hall. It opened up into a space about twice the size of the previous room. This one was also round, with no dark corners, no sharp angles. Even with that smoother, more clear shape, there was still a sense of dread, like anything could come out and attack them at any moment. It was so quiet, so still. Every noise Delilah’s group made sounded louder than it should, harsh in the stillness, yet simultaneously and eerily deadened, as if the Darkness served as thick, acoustic paneling, preventing any echo from sounding.
This place is getting to me.
It was good to admit that to herself, Delilah realized. There were no physical dangers — not yet, at any rate. But there was an emotion to the entire place, a feeling of sorrow and loss, of abandonment and emptiness. It threatened to hollow out Delilah’s own heart, to make her give up to despair and sadness. Fear came easily in this place, but not just fear of the unknown, of this place itself, but of herself. Of what she might become if she lingered here too long.
Delilah gripped the Key tighter, reaching to the reserves of her courage and summoning them to the forefront of her heart. This was not the first deep Darkness she had faced. She wasn’t facing it alone.
“Hey,” Alice said, poking her in the cheek. Delilah flinched back, startled, then stared at her. “You were spacing out there. Did you even hear her tell us where to go?”
“No,” Delilah admitted, shaking her head. “Sorry, Tock. Where do we go next?”
“Turn to your right… a little further… that one, straight ahead!” Tock said, as Delilah followed her directions. “The East Wing is a bit complex. Head down that hall, and it should lead to a sort of two-tiered open laboratory. I don’t know if it’ll look like a laboratory now, but… well, we’ll see when you get there.”
Down the hall they went, and it was shorter than the last, soon opening out into a very strange new space. There was a lower and upper area, separated by three different sets of stairs, totally open concept. There were new details here that hadn’t been evident in previous rooms. Large piping covered the high ceiling, a complex maze of intricate tubes and pipes crisscrossing each other, connecting and diverging, vanishing into numerous openings in the ceiling and high on the walls. Furnishings, as in all previous areas, were totally gone, emptied out. But the piping above, and a few elevated platforms on the second tier, helped Delilah paint a clearer mental picture of this space as a laboratory, visualizing what had once been.
“What’s all the piping go to?” Alice asked.
“All sorts of things,” Tock said. “There are four separate laboratories in the East Wing, and those pipes connect them to each other. But some of them also link to the Bastion’s Daybreak Engines.”
“Engines?” Maribelle asked. “There are multiple Daybreak Engines here?”
“Yes. Three Engines, all networked together. One of them was the very first Daybreak Engine. It had some faults, and while those were able to be fixed, they discovered benefits to networking multiple Engines together. Something about coverage, I think, or overlapping fields…”
“Overlapping, hmm?” Maribelle murmured, nodding thoughtfully. “I think I understand. Do you think there’s a way we could reactivate the Engines while we’re here?”
“That’s… hard to say. I’d love it if you could, but even if it’s possible, it would probably be redundant, don’t you think?”
Delilah nodded. “When we turn the Key of the World, the Darkness here should be expelled, shouldn’t it?” she asked.
“That’s right,” Tock said. “And even if it isn’t, it’ll help. It’s best to take care of that first. You’ll want to head up to the upper level and take the passage on the right.”
“Let’s move,” Alice said, starting ahead. Rabanastre loomed beside her, his fierce eyes alert for any danger. Delilah followed right after them, Felix and Reginald staying close to her, while Nekoma and Redmond watched their backs. On the upper level, they found the passage on the right, a winding, ascending staircase.
“Hold on,” Tock said. “That’s not right. There shouldn’t be stairs. Check… um, check the passage to your left.”
Delilah checked it, finding a path that sloped downward towards a dead-end, with two passages branching off to the left and right.
“That’s… no,” Tock said. “I don’t understand. Everything has made sense so long. Unless, are we…?”
“In the wrong place?” asked a chilling voice, icy and cruel. “Yes, you very much are.”
“Oh, I’ve been waiting for you to show up again,” Alice said, turning with Delilah to look down at the lower level of the laboratory, where Jormungand stood sneering up at them. Alice tugged off her sword-shaped pin, and it flashed with light, morphing into a full-sized silver rapier. “Time for you to finally come to an end, scar-face.”
“Oh, I’d rather not,” Jormungand said. “Besides, don’t you want to know why you can’t seem to find your way?”
“What did you do?” Delilah asked. She stepped forward, Felix and Nekoma flanking her, weapons ready, while Reginald crouched in front of her, wary and alert.
“As a scientist, a place like this is endlessly fascinating to me,” Jormungand said. He spread his hands wide, a grandiose gesture at the dark, empty laboratory. “And I have taken the liberties of making some changes to the original layout.”
“He’s… changed things?” Tock asked. “But then… I’m so sorry. I don’t know if I can guide you further.”
“Your memories are still helpful to us,” Delilah said. “Tell us anything you know, whenever it matters. For now, we need to deal with him.”
“You act as if I came here alone,” Jormungand said, raising an eyebrow. “But why would I be so foolish?”
A whisper on the air, a breath of darkness, was all that alerted Delilah to the next arrival. Felix lifted her and leapt away, just as a dark scythe came slashing down, missing her by inches.
“Oh, heck no!” Alice shouted, lunging at the now-revealed Dullan along with Rabanastre. She thrust with her blade, and Rabanastre spin into a devastating kick. Dullan blocked both attacks, but was forced back just a little bit. At a second combined attack, he leapt away, landing in a looming, enshrouded shadow by a passageway.
“Your plan is revealed,” Dullan said in his whispering voice, like a midnight breeze. “You will not reach the pedestal. You will not turn the Key.”
“More than a simple failure such as that,” Jormungand said, “you will all succumb to Darkness.”