Re:Zero - The King of Pride

"Come on, Betty! This way! Hurry up!" Mimi whispered, scurrying ahead on her hands and knees through the vent.

Beatrice grumbled. "Hurry up? Let's see how fast you can crawl through a vent in a filly dress, I suppose, " Beatrice growled under her breath.

"Why not just take it off?" Mimi suggested.

Beatrice gave Mimi a look of scandalized horror. "Take off Betty 's dress?! Leave Betty naked? Is Mimi insane? And has Mimi forgotten that Bubby will be coming through here with us later?!"

"What's the big deal?" Mimi asked. "Mimi is a girl and Bubby is a cat. And Mimi is a girl-cat," She added.

"Mimi is not funny," Beatrice growled, trying to catch up with Mimi.

"Seriously, Betty, why don't you just take off the dress?"

"Mother gave Betty this dress! It is a part of Betty, made so when Betty's mother shaped Betty out of the primordial magic. Betty will never abandon it! Betty could not abandon it, in fact. The dress is part of Betty."

Mimi sighed. "Betty, Mimi didn't mean that you had to leave it behind. Just taking it off would let you get through the vent much easier and you could put it back on when we get out."

Beatrice sighed and wiped the sweat from her brow. "How much further are we going in these vents, in fact? Any sign of a way out?"

"Mimi isn't sure," She admitted. "Mimi's not even sure what she should be looking for."

The pair kept scrambling through the vents. But Mimi frequently needed to stop and wait for Beatrice to catch up.

"Betty," Mimi said with a sigh. "We are kind of on the clock here."

Beatrice sighed and tried to hurry up.

"You know, Betty," Mimi mused. "After we get out of here, maybe you should spend some more time practicing moving around on all fours. It can come in handy sometimes. It's just a suggestion. Mimi doesn't mean to hurt your feeling."

Beatrice moaned. "Right now, Betty is more concerned about hurting her knees, shoulders, and back, I suppose."

"Let's keep going! Mimi feels a breeze!" The cat girl scrambled ahead.

"Really?" Beatrice asked excitedly.

"Yes! Maybe we're almost out!"

Mimi crawled ahead with Beatrice close on her heels.

"The breeze is getting stronger! We must be getting close to the outside of the tower!"

Suddenly, Mimi yelped and the floor panel fell out beneath her.

"Ah!" Mimi screamed, barely catching herself on the edge of the vent with one hand.

"Mimi!" Beatrice screamed. Beatrice threw herself forward and managed to grab Mimi's hand just as she lost her grip.

Looking down, Beatrice saw that they were indeed on the outer wall of the tower. This ventilation shaft wrapped around the tower, suspended over empty air and below them, just off of the narrow island that the tower stood on was a black trench so deep as to seem bottomless.

"Betty! Mimi is slipping!" Mimi cried out.

The little cat girl was heavier than she looked and for a moment, Beatrice thought that she might get dragged out of the vent with her. Beatrice threw herself backward with all of her strength, desperately trying to pull Mimi back inside.

"Betty!" Mimi cried out in terror, looking down at the vast, black gorge. "Don't let Mimi fall into nothingness! Mimi won't be happy there!"

Beatrice grit her teeth. "Will Mimi please … stop saying… stupid things… in fact!" She grunted.

Beatrice 's mind whirled, easily conjuring up a thousand different spells that could get them both out of this mess and none of which she could currently cast.

All that Beatrice had to work with were her own underdeveloped muscles which weren 't much use when trying to lift a body as heavy as her own.

For a moment, everything hung in the balance and Beatrice was terrified that Mimi might pull her out of the vent after her. Then slowly, their center of mass began to shift backward. Beatrice 's muscles screamed out for relief but as she pulled and leaned backward with all of her strength, she felt their center of gravity shift away from the pit.

Then Beatrice was falling backward and pulling Mimi up out of the pit.

Beatrice landed on her back, panting for breath with the extremely solid cat girl crashing down on top of her and crying out in relief.

Mimi 's face was exhilarated. "Oh, Betty!" Mimi whispered. "You saved Mimi! How can Mimi ever thank you?!" She bent down and kissed Beatrice on the lips.

Beatrice pushed Mimi to the side, sputtering and frantically wiping off her lips in disgust. "Don't ever kiss Betty again! " She said in a tone of dire warning.

"OK," Mimi said agreeably.

Beatrice rubbed her forehead. She peered down into the pit and then across to the ventilation shaft on the other side. The section of panel that had fallen away from the shaft was at least eight feet long.

"Well, we're not going to get out that way, I suppose," Beatrice murmured.

Mimi made a face. "Maybe… Mimi could jump it?" She said in a dubious tone.

"No. She couldn't," Beatrice said flatly.

Mimi sighed.

Beatrice shook her head. "Enough. Betty and Mimi will just have to find another way out," She said, heading back the way they came.

The next morning as they rode Patrasche through the Crumbly desert, Subaru was swearing sulfurously. The sky was overcast and small sandstorms had blown up several times.

The desert was flat and dotted with hundreds of narrow, chimney rock formations.

"Subaru," Emilia chided. "That isn't helping."

"It's not making anything worse, either!" Subaru grumbled back. "Where the hell is this Caravan Route? Where's the road? Everything around here looks the same!"

We can 't even see the sun through these clouds so I have no idea what direction we're going in!

"Maybe we're still on the Caravan Route," Emilia shrugged.

"Yeah that'd be good but I wouldn't mind some confirmation," Subaru grumbled. "I really don't like the idea of riding around out here in circles."

He thought for a moment. "Mili, can you see any landmarks? The Magolya Plateau or the Jimuna Volcano? We could use them to guide us to Girali."

Emilia looked around but ultimately she shook her head. "Nothing, Subaru. If the plateau or the volcano are visible at this distance they must be hiding behind some of these weird rock formations."

"Super," Subaru sighed. "Alright. Well, let's keep going, I guess. We'll just have to keep our eyes open for some kind of landmark we can steer off of. Or maybe the cloud cover will burn off."

As they rode along, they heard a roar, followed by a shrill scream.

Emilia gave Subaru a sharp look but he was already steering Patrasche toward the sounds.

We shouldn 't be doing this. We should be keeping our heads down until we find the Book.

But we can at least check the situation out. Maybe it 's something that won't put us at risk if we intervene…

The earth dragon surmounted a dusty hill and Subaru reined in.

Below them in a small ravine, they saw a man desperately climbing a dead tree that had been bleached bone-white by the sun.

Below the tree were three enormous black creatures with glowing red eyes. They looked like bears but bears with brightly colored flowers growing out of their arms and backs. Each bear was a little bigger than a Guiltylowe and they all had huge arms and comically short legs. Their faces looked strangely withered and melted.

"What are those?" Subaru asked.

"Mabeasts," Emilia answered shortly.

Subaru glared at her in annoyance. "Care to elaborate ? " He grated.

Emilia almost giggled in spite of herself. "They're called 'Courtesan Bears,'" Emilia explained. "They're common in the Kararagi deserts."

Subaru frowned. "It looks like they can't climb trees at least," He mused, watching the bears rip and tear at the trunk in frustration.

"Maybe not," Emilia replied. "But it looks to me like they're going to uproot that tree before much longer."

Subaru nodded and slid off Patrasche. "Wait here," He told Emilia.

She jumped down beside him. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that, Subaru," She said pointedly.

Subaru sighed and the pair walked down the ravine toward the mabeasts. The trio of slavering monsters didn 't become aware of them until they were just a few yards away. One of the bears whirled on them with a deafening roar and the other two quickly spun around as well.

Emilia fell into a defensive stance. Subaru just crossed his arms and waited.

The first bear raced toward Subaru and Emilia with a shattering roar. It moved with a strange loping gait, walking on its knuckles like a gorilla. The monster braced itself on both massive arms and then it swung its tiny legs forward. Then it would stand on its feet for a moment and put its arms down again before repeating the process. The beast moved quickly despite its bizarre form of locomotion.

The monster charged toward them but then its pace slowed and finally came to a stop a few feet away.

The other two mabeasts slowly came to flank the lead Courtesan Bear.

The mabeasts all glared at Subaru, clearly wanting to kill him but seemingly on edge.

"Subaru, are you going to use it?" Emilia whispered.

"Use what?" Subaru asked.

"Pridebreaker!" Emilia hissed.

"I'd rather not use it unless I have to," Subaru replied. "I can only use Pridebreaker once a day and you never know when we're going to need it. And something tells me that we don't need it right now."

Emilia frowned and then looked back at the three snarling monsters.

Subaru stepped forward. "Alright. You all know what I am," He said bluntly to the bears in a voice too soft for the terrified man clinging to the tree branches to hear. "You can sense what I have. I figured out a while ago that your kind has been sensing it in me all along.

"I hold an Authority, the same power that created you. You can sense it and you're afraid of it. Now, there are a lot of ways that this little encounter could play out but I promise you, none of them are ways that you three would care for. So why don't you just go find somewhere else to play?"

Subaru wasn 't sure if the mabeasts could actually understand him but he thought that the message was pretty clear.

The bears ' wrinkled faces all looked furious and they traded scowls with one another but as the seconds ticked by, it seemed that none of the bears considered this a fight that they could win. One by one, they turned and started moving away.

Now that the mabeasts weren 't 'running' the bears' tiny back legs gave them an unusual gait as they slunk up the sandy hill and over the other side. They seemed to be less walking and more dragging their tiny hind legs through the loose sand.

Emilia stared at him. "How did you know that they would understand you?" She whispered.

"I'm not sure that they did understand anything I actually said," He admitted. "But mabeasts act pretty strange around me. I figured that most mabeasts would probably just back down if I puffed out my chest. At least the weaker ones should. Incidentally, are there any mabeasts around here that are on the same level as a Snow Blight?"

Emilia thought about it for a minute. "I've read that you can sometimes find Shadow Weavers in Kararagi," She offered.

Subaru was about to ask what those were but as he opened his mouth, he heard a loud thud.

The man had fallen out of the tree. He was dressed in a crimson doublet with a thick neck-ruff and a pair of tan leather trousers. He had a weatherbeaten face that fell easily into laugh lines and his black hair and neat beard were speckled with silver.

"Thank the Gods for you!" He shouted, scrambling to his feet. "Thank the Gods! I thought that I was dead! How did you manage to roust those vile mabeasts?!"

"Subaru has… a special power," Emilia said quickly. "He can frighten off mabeasts."

"Truly?" The man said in surprise. "I have never heard of such a Divine Blessing."

"Lucky me, I guess," Subaru said with a sigh.

"Oh yes! Indeed. And lucky for me as well," The man agreed with a broad grin.

He grabbed the startled Subaru 's hand and pumped it vigorously. "My friends! I am eternally in your debt for your gallant rescue!"

"Uh! It was really no big deal! Don't worry about it!" Subaru said desperately, fighting to reclaim his hand from the stranger's iron grip.

"I thought that I was dead!" The man repeated, laughing almost hysterically. "I thought that was the end of me! Me! After all these legendary expeditions, to be ripped to shreds by a few Courtesan Bears in the badlands!"

Emilia looked puzzled by the man 's behavior. "That would have been too bad," Emilia replied.

"How true! Let's see… might I know your names, please?" The man asked.

"I'm Lucas," Subaru said, finally recovering his nearly numb hand from the stranger's vice-like grip. "And this is my wife, Petra."

We really should come up with some new fake names to use. We 're bordering on writing Lucas/Petra fanfiction at this point.

Maybe we should do Reinhard/Felt next.

…Nah. Felt would skin me alive.

"You appear to be Lagunican," The stranger commented.

Subaru and Emilia exchanged a wary glance. "We came from there originally," Subaru said guardedly.

Frederich inspected Emilia closely. "And yet you married an elf with silver hair? You are a very open-minded fellow, Master Lucas, " He said approvingly.

Subaru and Emilia looked at each other in confusion. "…Thank you?" Subaru said awkwardly.

"Excuse me, sir," Emilia said. "But what is your name?"

"Oh! Forgive me. I am so renowned in my own country that I sometimes forget to introduce myself," The man said, laughing good-naturedly. "I am the great Professor Frederic Nimium Eruditionis of the Imperial University of Vollachia!"

The man paused here, seemingly waiting for a reaction to his name but Subaru and Emilia just stared at him.

Frederic appeared somewhat crestfallen. "Did you not read my books?" He asked plaintively.

"Probably not," Emilia admitted gently. "Lucas only learned to read a few months ago. And I didn't have access to many books while I was growing up."

"Oh!" Frederic seemed much reassured by this and his face brightened immediately.

"Congratulations, my boy!" He shouted, grabbing Subaru's hand before he could retreat and vigorously shaking it once again. "Literacy is one of the greatest achievements a man can make! An entire world of adventure and discovery now awaits you!"

"Thanks!" Subaru said, finally yanking his hand away. "It was challenging to learn," Subaru admitted ruefully, rubbing his fingers to try to get some blood back into them. "Luckily my wife and my… little sister helped me."

"Do you require more materials to practice on?" Frederic asked solicitously. "I would be only too glad to offer you some of my works. I would even autograph them for you!"

"Um… It'd be tricky to carry much more weight through the badlands," Subaru equivocated. "My dragon probably wouldn't approve. What is it that you write anyway?"

"Ah! My friend, I am the greatest historian and archaeologist currently alive! I have devoted my entire life to exploring the mysteries and heritage of this remarkable world of ours!"

Subaru nodded. "It is pretty remarkable. " He said honestly. "But what are you doing way out here in the middle of the desert? I can't imagine that anyone ever lived out here so there can't be much for you to study."

Frederic laughed. "Do not be so certain, my young friend. This land was once settled and quite densely at that!"

"What do you mean?" Emilia asked.

Frederic picked up a handful of loose sand. "Look at this. Look at it and tell me what you see, my dear."

Subaru and Emilia studied it carefully for a moment then shared a dubious look. "Dirt?" Subaru guessed sarcastically.

"Exactly! These plains are nothing but dust! Dust as deep as snow! Only the hardiest species can endure here and life in these regions is a constant struggle."

Emilia nodded. "It does look fairly harsh."

"So it does. But! Would either of you believe that, only a few short centuries ago, these prairies were once fertile farmlands?!"

Subaru blinked. He looked out over the barren wasteland, covered with a thin topsoil that blew in the breeze.

"No," Subaru admitted slowly. "I have to say, I'd find that really hard to believe."

"It is true nonetheless! My expeditions have found countless examples of tilled land and farming supplies under all this sand and dust, far too many to be random chance. Not more than five hundred years ago, this land was fertile territory covered with farms!"

Subaru mulled that over. "Why did it change?"

"Exactly! That is the question, my boy," Frederic said, excited as a child in a candy store. "Why did it change? And after years of painstaking research, I believe that I have finally found the answer!"

Subaru waited but Frederic didn 't continue.

Subaru gave a loud sigh. "Would you care to enlighten us? " He growled.

Frederic laughed. "Just a bit of showmanship, my boy! A professor does have his little pleasures!

"You see, I have painstakingly mapped out Kararagi's geography as well as much of the rest of the world for comparison. I have analyzed the slope of the land, the rainfall patterns, and the soil consistency. This led me to one inexorable conclusion: that this region should be a barren desert!"

Subaru stared at the man with a numb expression and then just shook his head.

This conversation is going nowhere. Is it too late for us to pretend to see more mabeasts coming and just run away? Subaru wondered.

Emilia frowned. "So then you're saying that this land… looks just like it's supposed to?" Emilia murmured, trying to follow along.

"That is correct," Frederich replied.

Emilia frowned. "But it didn 't look like this centuries ago … so what's making it change now?"

"Oh!" Frederic looked wounded. "That is not the question, my dear! The question is not why it's happening now but why didn't it happen before?!"

Subaru gave a muted growl. "Alright. Why didn 't it happen before? "

"Exactly!" Frederic crowed. "The shape of the land, the rainfall patterns, the wind, and a thousand other factors establish that this land is a desert and should have always been a desert! So why do records show that it was bountiful farmland just a few centuries ago?"

Subaru looked longingly up at Patrasche who looked down at them from atop the ravine.

Subaru began to ponder a dash toward Patrasche and freedom from this stupid conversation.

I wonder if this is how Emilia feels when I 'm showing off how smart I am.

I really need to apologize to her …

"So?" Subaru demanded, trying to hurry this along.

"Hm?" Frederic asked, thrown off-step from his lecture.

"Why didn't it look like this before?" Subaru said in exasperation.

"Oh! Because of the magic!" Frederic proclaimed.

Subaru and Emilia shared a confused look.

Subaru watched as Emilia slipped her foot out of her shoe and dug her toes into the loose sand. "There… is a lot of mana in this land, " Emilia said in a tone of surprise. "Much more than I would have expected in a desert. But it's…" She trailed off.

"Fading?" Frederic suggested.

Emilia thought a moment and then nodded in agreement.

"Exactly," Frederic said, his voice now grim. "The fertility of this land was based on some manner of enchantment that held back the desert, shaping it into a landscape that humans could tilt and cultivate. Now, for whatever reason, that enchantment is breaking down and the desert is slowly spreading."

Subaru shrugged. "Well, at least nobody lives out in these wastes."

"Not yet," Frederic said pointedly.

"What do you mean?" Emilia asked.

"The same conditions that are turning this area into a desert can be found all along the southern stretch of Kararagi and into much of Vollachia," Frederic said. "The desert that we see here is just the beginning. It will spread in time and it will sweep across most of Kararagi and Vollachia, wiping out millions of acres of farmland."

Subaru frowned.

"I am desperately trying to bring this matter to the attention of the Vollachian Senate and the Emperor," Frederic continued. "If this process continues unchecked, then within a few decades the world will face a famine the likes of which can scarcely be imagined…"

Felt woke up in the middle of the night in the small shack that she was sharing with Garfiel, Koh, and four other people that she didn 't know.

Upon lying down to sleep, Felt rapidly realized that she needed to revise her expectations for Girali downward when she discovered that rather than something like food or blankets, most arguments in the shack were over who got to sleep on the part of the floor with the fewest splinters.

The other four people had already woken up and were leaving the shack.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Breakfast time," One said laconically.

"Breakfast?!" She said. "It's the middle of the night!"

"Welcome to Girali," Another said bitterly. "These days, you'll only see the sun for a few hours."

Garfiel and Koh sat up beside her as the four walked out.

"Now what do we do?" Garfiel asked.

Felt sighed. "Apparently we go get breakfast!" She muttered with mock gusto.

"Oh! Great," Koh sighed in relief. "I'm starved!"

Felt and Garfiel shared a weary look.

Felt sighed. I 'm still not sure about Koh. He seems to go back and forth between acting like a skilled operative and acting like an idiot.

I 'd like to tell him to get lost but if he really can make contact with another agent in town then that could be a huge advantage for us. And honestly, I guess we can't afford to make any enemies right now even if they do seem like a complete moron and a major liability.

Bringing contraband into a city under virtual martial law is bad enough, especially without making any serious effort to prevent them from being found and seized but now we find out that the rebellion in this city was crushed half a decade ago!

How the hell did Sphinx blunder so badly when planning this mission? She didn 't act like a complete fool when we were talking to her.

Or did she mean to double-cross us from the beginning …

The trio left the shack and Felt could see the sun on the horizon but it was a dim, colorless disk that barely pierced the gloom. The morning in Girali was brighter than nighttime but far darker than any stormy day.

"Huh," Garfiel muttered. "This place is like being caught in a dust storm except… no dust."

"Yeah," Felt agreed. "I wonder what's causing the light to get choked off around here…"

The trio walked down the hill and found a long line waiting for food at the tattered mess tent.

"What do you think we're doing today?" Garfiel asked in an aside.

Felt sighed. "Well, even assuming that Xiao is able and willing to help us, he said it would probably be a day or two until he could get us a job up in the city so I guess that we'll be working out in the fields today."

Garfiel frowned. "Is that safe? We saw all those mabeasts out there yesterday-"

"Of course, it's not safe, fleabag," Felt said matter-of-factly. "We apparently need to deal with Guiltylowe, Iotuns, and goddamn exploding rocks!"

"We shouldn't have to deal with Iotuns at least," Koh interjected. "Even with all this… darkness, I don't think that they're willing to come out when the sun is up yet."

"Wonder how much longer that will last," Felt muttered.

Felt reached the mess tent and a fat old woman with a permanent scowl on her face handed Felt what looked like half a baguette with melted cheese smeared across it. "One talent, for breakfast," She snapped. "Hurry up!

"It's our first day here. We don't have any 'talents' yet," Felt said, declining to mention the gold coins that she had safely hidden in a pocket.

The woman snatched the bread back. "No money, no food!" She snapped.

"Helen!" Xiao shouted, hobbling over there. "I told you that I was paying for the newcomers today!" He growled. "I already gave you the money!"

Helen glowered at Xiao and then at Felt. "Fine," She said as if this was a great travesty of justice. "Take it and get lost!"

Felt took the bread and kept moving.

"Sorry about that," Xiao whispered, falling into step beside her. "Helen is sort of…" He groped for a word.

"A bitch," Felt muttered. "The word that you're looking for is bitch."

A smile flickered over Xiao 's face. "Well," He said. "Maybe."

"How many talents do we make in a day?" Felt asked.

"Out in the fields, it will depend on what you find," Xiao explained. "We'll give you a basket and you can wander wherever you want and gather up what you find. The tally-man will go through it at the end of the day and give you talents for each one. There are plenty of valuable minerals out in the field so you'll definitely find something.

"I tell folks to expect to make about four talents a day unless they get lucky. If you find a gold nugget or a quality crystal, the tally-man will give you twenty or thirty talents for them. And if you're lucky enough to get a job in the city," Xiao said meaningfully. "You usually make about ten talents a day. Skilled labor in the city can make much more than that."

"Four talents," Felt grumbled as Garfiel approached, munching on his bread. "And we pay two talents every day for food?"

"Believe it or not, before I got here, it was much worse," Xiao said.

"Worse?" Garfiel asked incredulously.

Xiao nodded. "I was the one who came up with the idea of pooling money to buy food as a group in order to keep the price low. We buy lots of bread and cheese and then we split the cost among ourselves. It's very efficient. Before we created the mess tent, food could be two or three talents a meal."

Felt nodded. "Oh, yeah. This place is going to be lots of fun," She grumbled.

Xiao made a face. "I don't know about 'fun,'" He admitted.

"So what's the plan when we're out in the fields?" Garfiel asked him.

"There isn't much of a plan," Xiao admitted. "A few guards will come down here soon. They'll keep an eye on us while we're out in the fields."

"From up on the Shelf?" Felt asked. "Fat lot of good that'll do us if we get attacked by mabeasts."

Xiao gave her a rueful smile. "Right. Allow me to clarify: They're not watching us to protect us from anything, that part is our problem. They 're just watching us to make sure that we don't try to run away."

"Why? They couldn't stop us from up here anyway," Felt said in confusion. "And it's not like we'd get far with all the Iotuns around!"

"They wouldn't even try to stop us. They'd just report it. Then they'd send out a patrol mounted on ligers to try and run us down if they could. Sonas likes to make examples out of runaway slaves," Xiao said in a grim voice, pointing to a platform on the cliffs high above them. "Tolian Sonas likes to make us watch him burn runaway slaves alive."

Garfiel stared at him in horror.

Xiao waved it off. "Don't worry, it doesn't happen very often. No one is dumb enough to try to run away. Even before the night started lasting forever, we all knew that we'd never get through the pass before sunset. And these collars are some kind of Iotun bait," He plucked at the metal ring around his neck.

"Do we need to worry about mabeasts while we're down in the fields?" Felt asked.

"The Iotuns won't come out during the day. Or at least they haven't so far," Xiao cast a worried look up at the hollow sun. "But I'm worried that it's just a matter of time until the sun gets so faint in the morning that it can't hurt them anymore."

"Maybe it already is and they're just too dumb to check," Garfiel pointed out.

Xiao nodded. "Also a valid possibility. Anyway, we shouldn 't have to deal with the Iotuns but there are still wolgarms, Spotted Kings, and even an occasional Guiltylowe or Courtesan Bear in these parts. If you see one, give a holler and come running back to us. The mabeasts in these parts are solitary and they usually won 't attack if they're outnumbered."

"We got any weapons?" Garfiel asked.

Xiao snorted. "What do you think?"

Garfiel made a face.

"You can go talk to Baagh if you want," Xiao said. "He makes clubs for these kind of situations. That's all that Captain Smite will let us have so that's the best that we've got. Baagh will give you one if you think you can use it."

"A club is a pretty easy weapon to use," Garfiel pointed out, walking over to talk to Baagh.

Xiao bent over and whispered to Felt, "Smite will probably be down here tomorrow to interview people for skilled labor jobs in the city. I can try to pull some strings for you with the city shift bosses but it's probably better if I don't. It'll look less suspicious. Do you have any skills that might be relevant for work in the city?"

Felt snorted. "I'm a world-class pickpocket and I spent the past few months being a political strategist for the future King of Lagunica," She said matter-of-factly.

Xiao snorted with laughter. "Frankly, I wouldn't share either of those facts with Smite! "

Smite and a few of his burly guards arrived on the Shelf soon after that. Colonel Brasca and some of her mercenaries came as well. They rode a large elevator down to the Shelf but this one had a different design than the ones that led to the desert. The windlass controlling the platform was at the top of the cliff.

That 's to stop us from being able to ride the elevator up and reach the city if we decided to try and overpower the guards, Felt thought grimly.

"Front and center, maggots!" Smite bellowed and the slaves responded immediately. Some raced over to the elevators that led to the desert floor and others went only sullenly but they all moved. Everyone picked up a crude wicker basket and they boarded the elevators.

A much smaller group of slaves made their way to the elevator that led up to the city.

Those must be the ones who work in town, Felt thought.

A third group of slaves gathered around Brasca and her men. These slaves looked less morose for some reason.

Felt, Garfiel, and Koh followed Xiao and Baagh onto a platform and were joined by six or seven others.

"Lend us a hand, boy," Baagh said gruffly to Garfiel as he and Xiao took hold of the arms of the windlass.

Garfiel agreeably took hold of another arm. "Free piece of advice, Baagh," Garfiel said coolly. "If you want me to do something, try to use my name. I'm a lot more likely to cooperate."

Baagh stared at him and then the grizzled old man snorted. "You, boy, are arrogant, hot-tempered, and entirely too bold. I like that," He chuckled. "It reminds me of me."

"Gee, thanks a lot," Garfiel grunted as they turned the windlass together.

"Oh… Please, no," Xiao sighed. "I couldn't handle two of you!"

Baagh laughed.

There wasn 't much more space around the windlass so Felt and the others stood back and let the three burly men work it. The elevator reached the edge of the steep slope down to the desert, a slope that bordered on being a cliff and then slowly slid down the sandy path toward the desert floor.

"Are these elevators the only way up and down?" Felt asked.

Xiao grunted. "The slope is climbable, " He admitted. "But I wouldn't want to try it with a basket containing fifty pounds of rock!"

"This already feels pretty heavy!" Garfiel complained. "I figured that going down would be the easy way!"

"No," Baagh grunted. "It's actually much easier than you'd think to go up and much harder than you'd expect to go down."

Their elevator reached the desert floor and Felt and the others stepped off while Garfiel, Baagh, and Xiao panted for breath.

"So now what?" Felt asked. "We just, spread out all over the field looking for interesting rocks?"

"Pretty much," Xiao wheezed. "Be back here by sunset. Err, the real sunset," He amended. "You don't want to be stuck out on the desert floor at night."

Garfiel was still sucking wind after his exertion. "Come on, shrimp," He said, picking up his basket. "Let's go pick rocks."

Mimi was in a lab where several men in robes bustled around. She sat on a bench with one arm chained to the wall. Mimi wasn 't sure what the mages were doing and they seemed to have little interest in her.

Finally, one mage approached her with a small vial.

Mimi made a face.

Everyday. Why do they keep taking Mimi 's blood? They don't even seem to know what they want to do with it once they have it!

Mimi wanted to complain but she kept her mouth shut. Being bled was certainly unpleasant but not nearly as bad as what she knew that Beatrice and Puck had been forced to endure.

"What are we doing with the alley cat?" One man grumbled, pricking Mimi's finger and drawing her blood. "Is there anything worth studying in a demi-human?"

Mimi stuck out her tongue at the mage but he ignored her.

"I don't know," Another admitted. "I don't even know why she was sent here with those spirits at all. But we need to show that we're doing something with her."

"Why?"

"Because if we don't label all of the specimens as under 'active research,' the assembly will cut our budget again next year!"

"Oh no. Not that again…"

The mage finished drawing Mimi 's blood and didn't even bother sealing the vial. He flicked some blood off his finger with an expression of disgust. "Great. Now I need to wash my hands. I hate walking down all those stairs to the bathrooms!"

"Just use the alkahest soap. The Master left some down here earlier."

"That's a solvent for dispelling enchantments!" The first mage protested.

Mimi 's ear twitched.

The other mage shrugged. "It'll still get your hands clean. It's not like it's going to dissolve your skin."

The first mage hesitated. "That stuff is expensive," He worried. "The Master would be pissed if we wasted that."

The other mage snorted. "The Master is probably still trying to figure out where he left the damn stuff! He's always misplacing things."

"Where did he go anyway?" The first mage asked.

"There's a rumor that he…"

Mimi stopped listening. She discretely looked around until she found the small pink bar of soap that they were referring to. It sat on a small shelf nearby.

She waited until both mages had turned their backs and were engrossed in their conversation and then she quietly got up from the bench and moved toward the shelf that held the bar of soap.

Mimi stretched out her hand for the soap but was jerked back with the softest tinkling sound. Her chains wouldn 't let her reach.

Mimi hissed in frustration, she stretched her fingertips to the limit but she couldn 't reach the small soap bar.

She glanced at the mages and saw that they were still talking so she reached out with her tail, trying to pull the bar closer.

Mimi stretched until her skin was raw around his cuff but she managed to gently tap the bar of soap with her tail until it fell off the shelf and into Mimi 's hand. She quickly hid the bar behind her back.

Mimi 's eyes widened as she realized that her tail had also dislodged a set of empty glass vials on the shelf. They toppled over with a clatter.

The mages jumped at the sound and spun around to look at what caused it but all they saw was Mimi sitting calmly on the bench, looking bored.

"Did anything spill?" The first mage asked urgently.

"Nah. These vials things were already clean," The second mage said, picking them up. "Hey. Where's the alkahest soap?"

"What do you mean?"

"The alkahest soap was right here!" The second mage said, sounding increasingly worried. "Now I can't find it!"

"The Master probably took it and you didn't notice," The first mage said indifferently.

"Nah. I saw it here. Just a few minutes ago," The second mage disagreed.

"Maybe it rolled under a cabinet or something," The first mage suggested.

"Yeah, but we can't just leave it in the lab! It could react unpredictably with somebody's spell-work!" The other protested.

The first mage made a face. "That's… a good point actually," He admitted.

"And you know that if something happens, the Master will find a way to blame us for it," The second mage reminded him.

"Alright, alright," The first mage sighed, dropping the unsealed vial of Mimi's blood into the trash without a backward glance.

The two searched the lab for the soap for several minutes.

Mimi did her best to seem invisible, not an easy task for an adorable, little cat-girl.

"Hey," The second mage said to Mimi with a frown. "Did you see anything?"

"Did Mimi see what?" Mimi asked vapidly.

The first mage snorted. "Why are you asking her? We're looking for alchemical regents, not mice," He said, bending down to peak under a cabinet. "Why would she notice a powerful regent falling on the floor unless it was edible?"

"Maybe she stole it!" The second mage grated, looking down at Mimi accusingly.

The first mage burst out laughing. "Yeah! Sure, she did! Demi-humans are all about soap! That 's why the slums smell so fresh and clean!" The first mage shook his head in disgust and got back on his feet. "Look, I can't find it and it's getting late. We'll let the janitorial staff worry about it. Let's just bring the cat back to her cell and then go get dinner."

The second mage glared down at Mimi. "I still say we should search this little kitty before putting her out for the night!"

Mimi looked back up at him with wide eyes, her face a study of perfect innocence even though her heart was pounding.

The first mage sighed. "Alright, alright, fine."

"This is stupid!" Garfiel snapped.

The pair were searching the field a short distance away from the main crowd. Felt and Garfiel 's baskets each held a dozen pyroxene crystals in them but they had no idea how much any of them were worth. The crystals were all purple and they glowed unsettlingly. The glow would brighten and fade at random times and it made them worry about just how unstable the stones really were.

"No argument here, fleabag," Felt said as she picked up a large stone and looked at its underside for anything that glittered.

"Why the hell are we out here, turning over rocks like kids at the beach?!" Garfiel demanded.

"Because they'll kill us if we don't," Felt suggested with a sigh.

"That's not what I mean, shrimp! Why the hell don't they give us some tools? Like a pick-axe! Then, at least, we could crack open these stones and see what's inside!"

Felt sighed. "Garf, do you remember what they said about these crystals being unstable? Do you really want to swing a pick-axe at a stone out in this field, knowing that it has like a one in ten chance to explode in your face?"

Garfiel mulled that over. "I hate this place," He said finally.

"Oh, I'm right there with you, fleabag!" Felt sighed.

Felt turned over another stone. "Hey! Fleabag! I found gold!" She said excitedly.

Garfiel walked over and carefully inspected it. He picked up another rock and scrapped the gold a few times. "Sorry, shrimp. That's pyrite."

"It's what?"

"Pyrite. Fool's gold," Garfiel said as he kept looking for more crystals.

Felt stared at it. "Are you sure? It sure looks like gold! "

"Gold is really soft, shrimp," Garfiel explained. "You should be able to scratch it with an average stone or even just your fingernail. Iron is really hard. When I scraped the 'gold' you found with that rock, the gold scratched it, not the other way around. So it's not gold, shrimp. Sorry."

Felt sighed and dropped the rock. "Garf, when did you get smarter than me?"

Garfiel laughed. "I think I've just read a lot more books than you! There wasn't much else to do in the Sanctuary, you know."

Felt chuckled. "Listen, fleabag, we-"

There was a blinding flash of light and a sound like thunder.

A piercing scream rang out across the field.

Felt and Garfiel turned to see two people lying on the ground a short distance away. One was rolling around and screaming in agony.

Felt and Garfiel both dropped their baskets and raced to the injured gatherers.

Garfiel grabbed the boy that was lying silent and still on the ground.

"Hey! You OK, kid?!" He shook him gently.

Garfiel saw in horror that the boy 's left hand was missing. His arm up to the elbow was just a shredded column of meat and bone.

"Garf! He's dead!" Felt snapped in a deliberately hard voice.

Garfiel 's eyes widened in horror.

He dropped the boy … the corpse and stepped back, desperately rubbing his hands clean on his shirt.

"Garf! Help me out with the one that's still alive!" Felt ordered.

Garfiel leaped to Felt 's side as some of the other slaves came running over to help.

Felt was kneeling beside an older girl with brown hair. The girl was curled up in the fetal position, clutching her bloody stomach.

Garfiel swallowed hard.

"Hold her still, fleabag!" Felt snapped. "Grab her arms!"

Garfiel hurried to obey.

Felt inspected the wounds and the girl howled in pain.

"I don't think that they're serious," Felt whispered. "The wounds aren't that deep."

"What happened to them?" Garfiel demanded as the other slaves arrived.

"Micah must have touched an unstable stone," Xiao muttered as he hobbled over. He looked somberly at the boy. "He got the full force of the blast. Poor kid never had a chance. What about her?"

Felt inspected the wounds closely. "It looks like she got lacerated by shrapnel when the rock blew up. She needs medical attention," Felt told him. "The cuts aren't deep but they need to be cleaned or they'll get infected."

Xiao nodded. "The day's almost over anyway. Why don't you two take her back up to the Shelf and clean those cuts? You'll find some first aid supplies in the mess tent. Clean and bandage those cuts. I'll take care of all your baskets."

Felt thought about it and then nodded. "Garf, pick her up. Be gentle."

"You got it, shrimp," Garfiel gently picked up the sobbing girl and then took off running to the elevators, followed closely by Felt.

Garfiel gingerly put the girl down on the platform.

Felt jumped up on the platform and grabbed the windlass. She gave it an experimental turn with a worried look on her face. It took every ounce of her strength just to move it.

"Garf, you sure that we can lift this thing by ourselves?" Felt asked.

Garfiel grunted with exertion as he turned the windlass, "Yeah, no problem, shrimp. We can always stop in the middle if we need a break. The chain doesn't slip if we let it go."

"Right," Felt gasped as she tried to ignore the crying girl and help Garfiel work the windlass.

By the time they had reached the Shelf, the girl 's wailing had faded to quiet sobs.

Captain Smite was nowhere to be seen and the other guards didn 't even spare the trio a glance, either already knowing what they were doing up here or just not caring.

Felt raced into the mess tent and grabbed a small box full of first aid supplies, ignoring Helen 's bellowed orders to explain herself.

"It'll be OK, kid," Garfiel whispered to the girl in his arms as he jogged back to the mess tent. "Where are you staying?"

The girl took a deep breath. "We usually stay over there," She whimpered, pointing at a shack nice enough to have a door on it and she feebly pulled a key out of her pocket.

"Right," Garfiel said, carrying her over there. "Say what's your name?"

"Willa."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Willa," Garfiel said. "My name's Garf and the little shrimp that you can smell from a mile off is called Felt."

"Eat me, fleabag," Felt sighed as she took the key from Willa and unlocked the door.

Garfiel carried her inside the shack and gingerly placed the girl on a ragged blanket lying on the floor.

Felt bent down to check the wounds again.

Garfiel looked at the girl and raised an eyebrow. Huh. She 's a few years older than me and the shrimp but she's awfully pretty. Or at least she would be if she wasn 't covered in blood and dirt.

"Alright. We need to get these cuts cleaned," Felt murmured. "Garf, go get me some well water."

"On it!" He sprang out the door and quickly gathered a bucket of water from the local well. He raced back to the shack where Felt met him at the door.

"Thanks, fleabag," She said firmly, taking the bucket of water from him. "I'll take it from here."

Garfiel blinked. "You don't want my help?"

"I said that I've got it," She repeated.

Garfiel looked a trifle hurt. "Why don't you want me to help you?"

Felt fumed. "This is girl shit, Garf!" She yelled, slamming the door in his face.

Garfiel looked perplexed as he walked away from the shack.

It took him about three seconds to puzzle it out.

"Oh," Garfiel turned red. "Right. To clean all those cuts, the shrimp would have to… Right."

Unsure of what to do with himself, Garf sat down in front of the shack and waited.

A flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A pretty little girl no older than eight was glaring at him. She had long brown hair and dark blue eyes.

"Hey there, kid," Garfiel said in a friendly tone.

The girl marched right up to him, her face like a thundercloud.

Garfiel shifted uncomfortably. "Something wrong?" He asked awkwardly.

The girl took a deep breath and puffed herself up for a moment.

"You!" She snapped. "Break up with Willa!"

Garfiel squinted at her. "Huh?"

"I saw you!" The girl declared. "I saw you carrying her back to the shack. You had your hands all over her… her butt!"

There was a beat. " What ?! " Garfiel asked incredulously.

"You pervert!" The girl shouted accusingly.

"Uh… Hang on a second there, kid!" Garfiel murmured in shock. "This is all a big misunderstanding!"

The girl trembled with rage and then flung herself at the towering Garfiel who fell backward in surprise, raising his hands to try to ward off an avalanche of tiny fists and feet.

"Break up with her, you jerk! Give her back!" The girl screamed.

Felt had finished cleaning Willa 's wounds and she'd found some bandages in the box to bind them with.

Compared to the crumbling shack that Felt and Garfiel had spent the night in, Willa 's home was much nicer. It was still barely larger than a closet but it looked better maintained and cleaner. The floor didn't have sharp spikes of wood poking up everywhere. There was even a pair of small blankets on the floor.

"Thank you, Felt," Willa sighed after she finished getting her clothes back on.

"Don't mention it," Felt replied. "You feeling any better?"

Willa nodded. "Sore but it hurts a lot less."

"Good," Felt sighed. "So, where are you from?"

"Lagunica," Willa answered. "My sister and I lived with our Mother on a small homestead out in the country northeast of Priestella. When that 'Sanctuary' place was attacked by the Witch Cult, the whole countryside went into an uproar. Mabeasts were roaming all over the place and armies of soldiers and groups of cultists were fighting not far away. We decided that we needed to get out of there and go stay with our Aunt in Orcus. A merchant offered us a ride and since Miko was so small and tired, we took them up on their offer. But they were actually working with slavers and we were all…" She trailed off.

"I'm sorry," Felt murmured. "That's seriously awful. I'm from the capitol myself and Garf is from the Sanctuary. We all got mixed up with the chaos after the Sanctuary fell and one way or another, we ended up here."

"You guys are new down here, right?" Willa asked.

"I guess it shows," Felt made a face. "Yeah. We were arrested last night and thrown down into this hole. How long have you been here?"

"Just a few weeks but it feels like it's been forever," Willa sighed. "My sister and I were lucky enough to stay together when our family was captured by slavers but Girali has to be one of the worst places in the world. The Crimson Hills are a death trap. I desperately tried to get recruited by the mercenaries but I'm just not strong enough."

Felt cocked her head. "Recruited by them? The mercenaries would let you join them?"

"No, not like that. The mercenaries fill work orders on the Shelf every day. They find the biggest and strongest slaves that they think they can trust to follow orders and they bring them to dig out those tunnels."

"What tunnels?"

"The mercenaries are digging out some huge network of tunnels that are buried underneath the Girali Plateau. I managed to work a few shifts there but they don't want me back. I can't dig long enough or fast enough," She looked morosely down at her slender arms. "I doubt that they'd take you either, unfortunately. Your friend might be a candidate but Colonel Brasca apparently despises demi-humans so he's probably off the list."

"Why so interested in working for them?"

"Are you kidding?" Willa asked. "Digging out the tunnels means not going out into the field and dealing with rocks that can poison you when you touch them or explode when you jostle them! They even give us talents for the work."

Felt 's eyes narrowed. "Why dig tunnels under the plateau?"

"That's actually the funny thing. We're not making new tunnels, we're digging out tunnels that have been filled with dirt and rock for God knows how long. They're filthy but you can still see the workmanship under the grime. The tunnels are full of carvings and some kind of weird writing. At some point, these tunnels must have been very important to… well, to somebody."

Felt 's eyes narrowed. "What do these tunnels look like?"

"They're big," Willa emphasized. "And they're long. There seem to be miles and miles of tunnels under the plateau, interspersed with big rooms. But I have no idea what the tunnels are for."

"What's in these rooms?" Felt asked sharply.

"All kinds of things," Willa answered. "Some look like sitting rooms and meeting rooms. A few look like they might be used for some kind of religious ceremony. But I couldn't say exactly. They never let us finish digging them out."

Felt swallowed hard. "Really?" She asked with a sickly expression on her face.

Willa nodded. "They made us spend all day digging out the rooms and just when we're a little more than half finished, they tell us to move on and dig out another one. It's actually quite frustrating."

Felt swallowed hard. "Let's… let's go get some food before the line gets too long…"

Willa nodded and the pair got up and headed for the door.

"Say, what does it cost down here to get a private house?" Felt asked idly.

Willa stopped in her tracks, her hand on the doorknob. Willa took a ragged breath. "They get auctioned off. Usually for a few thousand talents."

"A few thousand?!" Felt exclaimed. "How did you-"

"But there are other ways," Willa said in a dead voice, staring directly at the door. "It's strange. We're all slaves down here. The guards can do whatever they want to us. But I guess, if you act like you want them to do it to you then that makes it better for them or something. In exchange, they're willing to give you some little treats…"

Felt winced. "Oh. I'm sorry."

Willa shook her head. "I never imagined that I would do something like this, you know? I always held hookers in contempt. I thought that I'd rather die than sell myself that way but it gets cold out here at night. Isn't that funny? That's all that it took. It gets cold out here at night. Well, now my sister has someplace safe to sleep and she has a job up in the city where she won't get blown up some morning. She even has a blanket! It's a little scrap of cloth that I would have thrown in the trash back home but she has one. And all it cost me was begging the guards to…" She trailed off.

Felt gently rubbed Willa 's shoulders. She tensed up and then slowly relaxed.

"I'm sorry," Felt said gently. "I grew up in the slums. I knew a lot of girls that had to make choices like this. I was one of the lucky ones."

Willa took a ragged breath. "It's OK. At least now with the mercenaries here, the guards have more important things to do than come down to the Shelf looking for playmates. We… should go get some food," She said in an unsteady voice. "Sometimes they run out if you're late."

Felt nodded and they opened the door and left the shack.

Outside of the shack, Willa and Felt stopped in their tracks.

On the ground in front of them, Garfiel was desperately trying to protect himself from a small girl who was determinedly struggling to put him into an arm lock.

The girl was only about as big as the arm that she was wrestling with. She had no more luck exerting leverage on Garfiel 's limb than she would have had attempting to pull down a tall oak tree with her bare hands.

"You pervert! You freak! You sicko!" The girl shouted, straining at Garfiel's arm. "Give her back!"

Garfiel looked utterly flabbergasted. "Kid! Cut it out!"

"Miko!" Willa gasped. "What are you doing?!" She demanded.

The girl froze and looked up at Willa with a worried expression.

Garfiel looked up at Felt and Willa with shell-shocked eyes. "You know this little human typhoon?! "

Willa sighed, "This is my little sister, Miko," Willa explained.

Garfiel sighed, "Bad news, Willa," He said. "I think that Miko here doesn't approve of our star-crossed romance so I think we'll just have to be friends."

Willa 's jaw dropped and she flushed bright red. "Miko!" She shouted. "What were you doing?!"

Miko flinched back and her eyes started to well up with tears.

Willa winced and looked ashamed of herself. She hurried over to Miko and caught her in a tight hug, "It's OK," She whispered. "I'm sorry, sis. I've just had a very long day."

Willa kept whispering soothingly to Miko as Garfiel got to his feet and walked over to Felt. "That might have just been one of the weirdest experiences of my life," He confessed.

Felt snickered, "One of the funniest too."

"Hey! Bite me, shrimp," Garfiel snorted.

"Mister Garf," Willa called.

The pair turned back to Willa who held a sullen Miko 's hand.

"My sister has something that she'd like to say to you," Willa prompted.

Miko looked mutinous but she bowed her head, "I'm sorry," She said in a nearly inaudible voice.

Willa gave her sister a little shake but Miko didn 't say anything else.

"We're both very sorry," Willa said sincerely. "Miko has been struggling to… adapt to our new circumstances," She sighed.

"Yeah, I get that," Garfiel sighed. "I'm not adapting to them too well either."

"Well, shall we all go get dinner together?" Willa asked.

"I'm starving!" Koh said.

Garfiel and Felt both jumped.

They spun around and found Koh standing behind them, smoking his pipe.

"When the hell did you get here?!" Garfiel demanded.

"Just now," Koh answered calmly. "We all just got back. Xiao has your baskets."

"Come on, Felt," Willa said, leading her sister away. "Let's get into line before it gets too long."

Garfiel started to move but Felt grabbed his arm and held him back. Garfiel gave her a questioning look but Felt shook her head.

Felt glanced at Koh but he didn 't follow. He stood there, calmly smoking his pipe.

Felt sighed. "Koh, I need to talk with Garf."

"That's fine," Koh waved a hand. "Go right ahead."

Koh didn 't move. He stood there, blowing a smoke ring.

Felt took a deep breath and clenched her fists, "In. Private," Felt grated.

"Ooh," Koh chuckled, walking away. "I get it. Sorry, I didn't know that about you two."

Felt 's jaw dropped. "Hang on! We're not-"

"Let it go, shrimp," Garfiel sighed. "Let him think whatever it takes to make him leave us alone."

Felt hesitated. "I guess that's true…" She admitted. "Just… promise me that you won't tell Red about this!" She demanded.

Garfiel bit his cheek to keep a smile off his face, "I promise," He said solemnly. "So, what's the big secret?"

Felt quickly filled Garfiel in on what Willa had told her about the tunnels.

"And that's where the mercenaries are spending all of their time," Felt finished, "So that must be why they're here!"

Garfiel scratched his chin. "I don't get it. Why are they only digging out part of the rooms that they find? It doesn 't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense," Felt said grimly.

Garfiel closed his eyes and sighed, "Alright, I get it. This is supposed to be payback for me lecturing you about the volcano and the pyrite. Fine. 'Garf is stupid' and whatever. So just let me in on whatever you've figured out."

Felt looked at him intently, "Garf, they're only digging out part of the rooms they find because they 're looking for something! Something specific. And they 're only digging out each room far enough to make sure that they haven't found the one thing that they're looking for!"

Garfiel frowned. "But what are they looking for?"

"Well, let's think about this," Felt said darkly. "Whatever it is, Lagunica wants it badly enough to dispatch a whole army of mercenaries to secure it. An army that is in hostile territory and a long way from any supplies or reinforcements. An army that has a very real chance of kicking off a war with one or more nations just by being here! What does that tell you?"

Garfiel 's eyes widened, "A weapon?" He whispered.

"Sounds like it, don't I?" She grated.

"What kind of weapon, Felt?"

"I have no idea," She admitted. "I don't even have any information to guess with. But one thing is for sure, if the kingdom wants this thing so badly, I am freaking terrified of what's going to happen if they get it!"