Chapter 17: Last Stand

I.

Nico stepped into the courtyard. Time had slowed to a crawl. At last, he saw her. The lost child that he wanted to connect with. That he wanted to see again. She was right there. Rinzai had stopped the child from killing Luria. She stood there, a hand up against the little girl’s. He walked, a hand on his eyepatch. He was scared. Of course he was scared. He had never done this before. He could die. It wasn’t a joke. He didn’t treat it like one. Rinzai said he acted the fool; Ezia said he was reckless. Maybe they were right. Nico’s head might not be in the right place. It was always in the clouds, but he grew up on a havencrop isle, so that was a given. A boy with his head in the clouds. That’s who he was. He always thought of others, and only considered himself a target, never a victim. Any weakness he had was his fault, and any strength he had was borrowed. It was never his own.

He ripped it off, the black cloth drifting through the air. Nico would see her with both eyes.

Then, a faint itch on his scalp.

Pain assaulted his body.

“Nico!” Ezia yelled.

Something snapped.

Nico glanced overhead. A thread glimmered with a gold light. A spider flew freely through the air, desperately trying to snap back to the thread it had dropped from. He narrowed his eyes. What was that?

The thread was outlined with a malignant darkness. The same as the inky trail he had followed to the girl. The same murk that drifted off of the girl’s body. For her, it coalesced into the form of a multi-armed giant. Its form was imposing, standing much taller than the girl it was attached to. Nico’s head hurt just observing her form. The migraine pounded. He grit his teeth.

“That’s bothersome.” Rinzai peered above the girl as she pushed back the shaded fist.

“Nico, are you okay?” Ezia yelled, leaping over the dark goliath and to Rinzai’s side.

“I-I’m fine! Don’t worry about me!”

The string felt familiar.

The sphere-sealed lost one came to mind. The legs, the eyes, the nausea—they all came back. He looked to the sky, then to the girl. The threads gradually came down like rain. Nico thought they would go after other people, not eidolons and lost ones. If that was the case, neither the girl nor Rinzai was safe.

“Rinzai, you should pull back!” Nico ran forward. He had to get to the girl.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Luria stopped Nico in his tracks.

“Luria, let me go!”

“So you can die? I don’t think so.”

Nico looked up. Threads rained down with spiders at the end.

“Get back!” Nico pushed with all of his strength. His palms dug into Luria’s shoulders. She lost her balance and fell rear-first onto the ground. The spiders’ legs felt for the ground as they finished their descent.

“What is that?” Luria mumbled.

“Something you don’t want to touch!” Nico turned around and ran toward the girl.

“Interesting.” Rinzai peered up and reached a hand to the sky. A tiny spider crawled on Rinzai’s fingers. It crawled from finger to finger until finding itself in her palm.

Then, she crushed it in her hand.

“Steer clear of the thread, Ezia.” Rinzai flicked her hand free of the spider’s innards.

Nico sighed as it became apparent that eidolons resisted the threads. All of a sudden he felt stupid for being concerned. Rinzai’s flippant attitude was lost on Nico. The world could be burning down and it would be little more than an inconvenience to her.

“Please, leave me alone!” The girl had covered her face. The wounds on her body slowly ebbed away. It wasn’t the blessing of Serya, but something more malevolent. A force that Nico couldn’t hope to understand. “I just want to see Mr. Nico! I just want to—”

“I’ve been looking for you.” Nico hugged her. “You’ve caused me a lot of trouble.”

“Mr. Nico!” Her hands pulled free from her head. No one understood her. He knew that now. “T-these fish are hitting me. And that devil woman! She’s hitting me!”

“Devil woman?” Rinzai frowned, the snakes in her hair lashing out at the threads raining down. They devoured the spiders before they had a chance to hit the ground.

“Nico, get back!” Ezia shouted as she moved back toward Nico. “That girl, she’s responsible for the—”

“I know.”

“You know?” Ezia mumbled.

The moment he touched her, memories flowed forth like rushing river rapids. Wandering the island alone. Yearning to see the sun. The ‘fish’ she saw, the lingering lights that she feasted upon. The truth. All of it. He saw it. There were no secrets between them. It was the same as when he made contact with the spider-like lost one in the sphere. It was as if he was connecting to them. Seeing the world through their eyes. Their joy, the pain, the agony—all of it.

She was finally in front of him. So, he would accept both parts of her. The girl he had embraced, and the monster that hovered overhead. Whatever crimes she had committed were his. A crime that might never have happened had he been more watchful. He didn’t understand her, but now, he wanted to start.

“You’ve been a bad girl, you know?”

“I have?”

“You hurt someone.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“S-so, the fish. They weren’t…”

“No.”

“But that means—”

Nico hugged her tight.

“It’s not something you can take back. When someone is gone, they’re gone.”

“But—” The girl sobbed. “I was hungry. I was so hungry.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want this!”

“It doesn’t have to keep going like this.”

“I can’t stop!”

The strings connected to the shadow. They crawled down its shoulders, binding the girl’s arms and neck.

The shadow lifted its arms. It clenched its palm before slamming straight down on Nico.

A flash of white.

Two arms pierced the fog. Transparent limbs adorned with prayer beads. The ghostly limbs gripped the giant’s palm, halting it in place.

“Mr. Nico!” The girl hugged him tight as the threads tightened. “I don’t want to go! I don’t want to do bad things anymore!”

“You don’t have to.”

“I-I don’t?”

“No,” Nico sighed. “Because I’ll protect you.”

“Huh?”

Nico reached up toward the thread, grasping it tight in his hand. It squirmed, trying to pull away as if it were a living thing.

The world was distorted. It stretched forward as if the girl was falling away from his embrace. He turned his head to see Rinzai, Ezia, and Luria vanishing into the darkness. The thread, unable to escape, bound to Nico’s flesh. The spider ran down his arm and onto his scalp.

He was cold. Nico looked down. His legs were submerged in blood. He trudged forward toward the familiar porch and through the sliding doorway. Rain pelted his face. A gray mist rolled into view. He stood over the girl, his hands around her throat.

She had killed someone. It was because of him that she devoured them. He had seen her memories. He knew her hunger. The deep, maddening hunger that drove her. It was in her nature for she was a monster.

That made Nico a murderer. He turned his gaze back. Rinzai, Luria and Ezia faded into the mist. Their eyes narrowed in contempt and disgust.

They didn’t want anything to do with him, did they?

Not that he blamed them.

He was a burden. He didn’t offer anything. He didn’t have a right to exist.

Nico’s eyes widened.

He tried to move his arms.

He tried to move his legs.

They didn’t respond. Strings pulled his hand up.

Not just his hand, but his arm. Both arms rose to the sky. His feet felt for the ground.

The world was a canvas. A canvas painted by those who could make choices. Those who could make their mark in the world. People like Thaleo. Thaleo could do everything he couldn’t. Thaleo had walked in the Underworld, suffering with the people there. Nico had sat in his manor, stagnant. Complacent. He was the very thing wrong with Serya; he was everything wrong with himself.

Weakness. A terminal weakness that would eat itself. His body faltered.

This was his fault. All of it was his fault. Taizu’s blood was on his hands. The child she devoured. If he had never helped that girl. If he had just stayed in his room and let his weakness fester.

The world blurred. The color faded. The whites became black. The trees became blurred white lines. It was fine.

“Nico!” He heard his name. It was distorted as if he was underwater. Someone yelled it, but he couldn’t tell who. His vision blurred.

He was sleepy. Tired.

He was drowning.

Drowning in his own weakness. But that was all he had ever been: weak. Nico grasped something in his hands. He tightened the grip.

“M-Mr. Nico.”

He held something frail.

A familiar voice.

“I knew it. You were mad, weren’t you?”

A voice he had been pursuing. She was finally there, right in front of him. The trouble she had caused him. The suffering he had to endure because of her. He tightened the grasp.

“I’m sorry.”

Her voice wasn’t distorted. He heard her clear as day.

“I’m sorry Lorelai was a bad girl.”

Lorelai. Her name was Lorelai. She wasn’t a nameless girl. A name, a history, a purpose.

The nightmare was more than a nightmare. It was real. Everything happening right now was real. He would do the unthinkable. She was in his hands, and he was going to—

A bright light obscured Nico’s vision. Thoughts played unbidden in Nico’s mind. A warmth spread from his eye through his body.

*The words I’ve spoken remain true, but I could have communicated them better. For that, I apologize. *

Thaleo was always self-righteous, but he meant well. They fought, but that’s what brothers do. He was concerned for Nico because he had worth. Worth he hadn’t seen in himself.

I may be overstepping my station, but I’d like to ask you to wait here for me. Please.

Liz’s letter. An unspoken promise he couldn’t keep. He felt bad, but he had a good reason. He had to look for her—the girl named Lorelai. The girl he now held in his hands. The girl who couldn’t follow directions, who was a picky eater, who was quiet. He hadn’t known her name, yet he had still persisted. Even if she was a lost one, even if she was a monster—she was still a child. A child who deserved choice. Who deserved a second chance.

He wasn’t going to let Rinzai kill her.

Not Ezia, not Luria, not anyone.

“I want to see the sun again.”

He heard her voice. It entered his mind and lingered. It wasn’t something he heard; it was something he felt. A prayer for the one thing she wanted above all else.

Nico clenched his palms. He pulled against the strings. He clenched his feet, rolled his shoulders, fighting against the binds.

Are you at your limit?

The doll mocked him.

And just like back then, he would answer the same way.

“Not even close.”

The warmth spread.

It flowed through his body like a flood.

The string was connected to the spider’s weave. Through the weave, Nico’s awareness expanded out.

He saw Liz running with some other people he didn’t know. The girl that asked him to stay safe. A promise that he felt bad that he couldn’t keep. He was already in danger. That wasn’t going to change.

He saw a wagon’s wheels tear at the ground with Baqus lashing the reins. The cook kind enough to give him a meal that he never had the chance to eat. Nico still felt bad that he couldn’t keep that promise. There were kids in the back of the wagon. An elderly couple hugged each other. The people of Serya were fighting to survive, running away. The Pathfinders lit the way with lightning and fire. A white-haired man batted away the shadows. A deft girl leaped through the air, trying to desperately cut the threads. They were giving it their all.

So, he had to do the same.

The shadows that cried for mercy, devoured by their own weakness, their own grief. That’s what this creature was. The strings were meant to manipulate, to destroy. He felt it. He wanted to help, and he wasn’t sure what his limit was. His body was weak. If his previous effort had knocked him out, then this would kill him.

But he couldn’t die.

If he died, that meant he couldn’t protect Lorelai.

“You’re content just sitting up there and making your problem everyone else’s.” Nico held the girl close as the arms reached into the sky. They clasped around the strings threatening Lorelai’s autonomy. The ghostly arms pulled the strings taut. “I’m dragging you out of the sky.”

Rinzai’s eyes widened. “You’re going that far?”

“Stay there, Rinzai! Protect Luria and Ezia.”

“Can do!” Rinzai said.

The shaded goliath raised its hands up. They gripped the strings that bound Lorelai. “I’ll help, Mr. Nico. Whoever's doing this is a bad guy!”

“Right.”

“Nico, what are you—”

Nico breathed deeply, reaching up to grasp the threads.

His eye glowed a bright gold.

Nico pulled with all of the strength his spirit allowed. Lorelai’s shadow joined in, three arms on the strings. Their feet dug into the painted floor. The threads tried to snap. They couldn’t. A gold glimmer shined from the ghostly hands’ grasp. Then, at last. They heard it.

The sound of paper tearing.

The red of the evening sky poked through the canvas world. The dam had burst. Translucent water poured in through the new crevice. The paper that comprised the mountains began to crumple. The flattened trees darkened as the water flooded through the Verconis estate.

II.

Alex stood on an overlook, peering out at the back of the Verconis manor. She stood in awe. A remnant and another person working together. Her eyes glanced down at the dog at her side. He cast another glance back toward Persal. It wasn’t that unbelievable after all. One miracle was one thing, but two in two days? She sighed, shaking her head. Witnessing this was making her believe that anything was possible.

“If you want to go back to Persal, go. I won’t stop you.”

The hound narrowed its eyes.

“I already said it was alright, didn’t I?” Alex grinned. “I’ll handle things here. You go to Persal. The real fight’s just starting.”

She looked up to the sky as the form of the remnant revealed itself. The flood pulled more than just water. A large spider cast a shadow on the ground. Part of its body was encased in a silver sphere lined with glowing fluid. It wasn’t fully unsealed from whatever was containing it. It was as good of a time as any to strike back.

“Alex, are you ready?” the sword asked.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

She gripped the hilt of the sword as she leaped over the hill and into the courtyard below.