Chapter Text
The Isle of Vigils did match its namesake. Its gaze encompasses a sizable portion of the Etrean sea, a sea route less traveled than its counterpart past Etris.
The calm waters of the sea lapped against each and every island that constituted the isle. For its inhabitants, the white noise was merely a calming rhythm by which the warriors within did battle. Here, where war as an artform was honed to a sharp point by adventurers and soldiers of all ages, the Temple of the Blade reigned silently as a fighter’s haven.
Like most storms, it began off the coast, in the deep waters where most did not venture. The ocean stirred from a gale that spiraled up into the sky, splitting the water behind the hull into twin jets. The frigate parted the saltwater with a frothing spray of white, the members of Bury Light scattered above and below the hull. Though they were the ones to initiate battle, the tides shifted against them.
Their guild’s total strength was lacking, to say the least. The Truth Seeker guild hunted bounties by nature, whetting their members through real combat versus skilled and elusive targets. And yet, Audrey Vorgan moved anyway, decisively shifting the guild towards a pitched battle with the enemy they hated so much.
Audrey stood alone on the prow, eyes set on the horizon. Soon they would arrive at the isle, where the Truth Seeker’s guild base resided. The flames of her youth sputtered to a halt in the face of her Frostdraw mantra, leaving a Canor woman pushing into her thirties bearing the expression an elder might have. The weight of the Gran Sudaruska axe slung across her back could not compare to the stone in her gut.
The reaper whispered in her ear the story of a fallen guild, every member gripped and executed and tossed into the ocean, their blood soaking soil far from home. Here… Bury Light had come to die.
“Audrey.”
Her Vow of Mastery let her sense Parhelion Trige’s coming before she even opened her mouth. She turned to see the face of a woman whose joy clung onto dear life.
“I know, Parhelion. I feel your gales whipping the water into a cold spray all around the hull.”
The Ganymede had no weapons, only calloused fists from years of unarmed combat. Her normally cheerful and optimistic demeanor was replaced by the shuddering uncertainty of an anxious woman worried about her best friend.
“We must push inwards into the halls as quickly as possible. We don’t know where they’re keeping March, so we may have to search every room individually.”
“You think we have that much time?” said Audrey.
Parhelion set her jaw, fists clenched. “It doesn’t matter whether we have or have not. We MUST.”
Audrey Vorgan, leader of the Bury Light guild, the shining link that held her group together, whirled around with an outcry.
“And what if we CANNOT, Parhelion? Their guild surpasses ours in power and prestige! How many are you willing to condemn?”
“They knew what they were agreeing to when we got on the ship. We go to WAR, Audrey! All of us understand when it’s time to pick up the sword!”
Behind, Misaka Massi sidled up to the two women, silent as her oath and unreadable from her mask. Rather than speak, she unsheathed her katana and pointed it forward, towards where the Isle of Vigils lay. Cutting the air with a swing, she turned around to face those spread across the deck. She held her blade in front of her, the blunt edge touching her tilted head, which the crew of the frigate matched with their own weapons.
“You see, Audrey?” said Parhelion. “We have made peace with the future. You only have to make peace with yourself.”
“But… not everyone escapes the Depths. This might be the last time we ever speak.”
Cassiopeia Canden, fellow Canor, hefted her flaming anchor in one hand, slipping her blindfold off with the other. Grim-faced but determined, a small smile crept onto her face.
“Then let’s make our last night together something to remember, eh?”
Audrey took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She looked up at Cassiopeia, the hulking six foot pyromancer, and spoke with a measured tone that masked her nervousness.
“Yeah. Thanks, everyone. I’m counting on all of you guys.”
She crossed her arms behind her back and stood ramrod straight, saluting the crew on deck. They saluted her back solemnly, raising a fist at the same time she did.
“No Bury Light member left behind!”
***
The Vow of Mastery Abel tied to March could do a lot of things, but it did not stop her from experiencing the normal kind of insomnia that severe trauma inflicted on a person. Like many a night before, she woke up in the dark, unable to see a thing. She flicked her oil lantern on, rubbing her eyes as she adjusted to the new light level.
Her breath came in labored wheezing, the night time terrors intermingling with the darkness to assail her vulnerable mind with visions of her friends, dead, dying, crushed by the ocean depths. The illusions were starting to blend together with what was real, and she was having trouble telling them apart.
She squeezed her eyes shut and leaned on the headboard of the bed frame. Maybe if she waited a short while, sleep would overtake her, and she’d be free of thought for several more hours.
There would be no rest for her tonight. There was a shout, and then the commotion of Truth Seeker guild members running through the base rushed by in a wave. The pounding of boots on the wood flooring coaxed her to alertness, and curiosity pulled her to the door. Pressing her ear against the wood let her hear a little of the voices outside, talking of some kind of attack.
“Golbor, the scouts report major movement. More than twenty have just landed on the shores. We couldn’t intercept them beforehand from the darkness and the ocean fog.”
Crow Jaegan reported all of this matter-of-factly to the Truth Seeker’s guild leader, Canor ears catching the chaotic sounds of pre-battle preparation happening all around them. Crow Golbor sighed, whistling to call over two more of his guildmembers.
“Artminas, Ixatoki, you’re with me,” he said. “Looks like Bury Light has come to collect.”
Artminas Truad cracked his neck, head swiveling as he looked around.
“Don’t worry captain! I’ll chop them up for you! This’ll be a lot of fun.”
“Control yourself,” said Hunter Ixatoki, “Our goal is to repel their assault. So long as we send them into retreat, we need not fight further.”
Golbor nodded. “Exactly that, Ixatoki. You understand.”
“I strike only where it is needed, sir.”
The guild members scrambled out the door, lining up with weapons ready. Many took a moment’s cover behind the thick trunks of old trees, slowing their breathing and watching every angle for the movements of the enemy.
In the end, the threat did not come suddenly, but as a tightly woven group, barely lit by lantern light. Golbor stepped forward alone to greet the Bury Light guild, though all his guild members seemed prepared to strike at any moment.
“Audrey Vorgan.”
“Crow Golbor.”
He drew his Curved Blade of Winds, letting it rest by his side.
“We don’t take kindly to visitors at this late hour. Especially not an entire guild.”
“Well, we’ve heard you have one of ours. As far as I remember, March Dise doesn’t have a bounty on her. Please, return her to us.”
She withdrew her axe, holding it tight in both hands.
“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
“You’d ruin yourselves over one person?” chortled Golbor. “I would’ve thought you smarter than that…”
Audrey let out a heavy breath, steeling herself. “And I hoped you’d be more reasonable. All, FIGHT!”
The Vows of Mastery she’d been cultivating all this time kicked in simultaneously. All the members of Bury Light glimmered an ominous purple as they sprung into action, sparks flying from the clash of weaponry. Gouts of flame and bolts of lightning collided with walls of ice and pillars of metal, the rush of air pulled every which way propelling others into combat.
Golbor whispered, and his people too gained the violet aura that boosted their battle ferocity. His slicing wind blades covered a Gale Lunge Audrey rolled out of the way of, sliding away on Ice Path. The Ice Spikes she left behind were hewn to bits by his blade followed by a Wind Passage to close distance.
A big swing from her axe slowed his advance. With his speed he danced just beyond her reach, the wind carrying him around her in a fierce gale.
“Soft, Audrey. A shame they have someone so weak as a leader.”
“Big talk for someone who can only dodge!”
Golbor refused to take the bait. While he was confident in his ability to shred her apart in close quarters, if she snared him in frost it would only take a hit or two to send him straight to the depths, what with her massive weapon. He could only hang around the edge of her reach, poking, prodding her to make a mistake. All he needed was one opportunity…
Jaegan howled, a piercing wail that cut through the dark of night to cause everyone in front of him to flinch. That brief moment of hesitation was enough for him to throw himself into the thick of the enemy, a flurry of fists that repelled five Bury Light members at once. He wasn’t the careful and collected bounty hunter Bury Light had come to expect, but a rabid animal. There was no precision or skill in his movement, just raw fury.
The Contractor’s strings that connected him by the arms manipulated him with deft ease, his spiked lantern covering his blindspots as if it had a mind of its own. A ribcage crunched, his leg launching them away just in time for him to swivel on a dime and catch the fists of a fellow fist-style Galebreathe.
“Sorry about this,” said Parhelion. “There are people I want to protect.”
Heretic’s Sutra slowly wore off, Jaegan sneering at her.
“That makes TWO of us.”
He raised his hand, and a spray of tornadoes rose to bleed away the momentum of Parhelion Twister Kicking in his direction. Despite the whiff, she spun and charged him with all the might of a Gale Lunge, and then they were trading blows, knuckle to knuckle. A war of attrition; it was a battle to see who could take the most.
A rising tide of Ice Spikes split the two apart, Hunter Ixatoki tagging her from afar with Ice Beam. It was hard to get a bead on him with his Blindseer’s mask. He rolled forward into his own Ice Path, skating downwards towards his target. Before he could intercept, a scream whipped his neck around just in time to parry Misaka’s katana with his own. His Ice Path brought him out of danger, but she just ran along his path, constantly hunting him.
Ixatoki vented as she got close, pushing her back to create some distance.
“You’d interfere? I’d end this quickly; no more blood needs to be shed.”
“Only innocents. Criminals deserve no mercy,” Misaka intoned.
She slid along his path, low to the ice, nipping at his ankles with her sword. He swore at the Ankle Cutter, conjuring Ice Cubes to halt her advance. To his surprise, she merely dropped down to the ground, disengaging entirely.
“Cowardice? You—”
He was unprepared for the barrage from the forest to take him in the back. A few crossbows and flintlocks fired from the tree cover, most of them missing. But at least a couple found their mark, throwing him from his Ice Path. Before he even hit the ground Misaka executed him with multiple strikes across the neck and limbs, his bloodied body crunching where it landed.
She whipped her blade around to slough off the blood. “One down.”
Misaka parried a sudden bang from her left, deflecting a revolver shot. Lightning sprang forth from the hands of a Capra at the edge of her vision, conducted along her blade to sear her skin. The goat boy charged her with a cry, boney scythe in his right hand.
“Cheater! Try fighting fair!”
“As if you ever have! You’ve killed dozens!”
Artminas Truad practically teleported to her, hitting her with a Radiant Kick hard enough to send her flying a dozen meters. She could barely recover to parry his revolver again.
“So what?” he said. “Bounty’s a bounty. I’ll kill anyone for money.”
The Capra wielded his mantras without care or caution. To a Silentheart like Misaka, it was a grave insult to the Song. And yet she could not break him, or his mantras. His attacks moved at the speed of lightning, one difficult to predict and dodge. Lightning Stream caught her by the arm, reeling her in for a guardbreaking blow that left her dazed.
No chance to exploit her weakness, though; he dashed backward to narrowly avoid a Flame Ballista. His revolver’s bullets clinked off of a giant anchor Cassiopeia was holding, reloading while she helped her guild member up.
“Careful, Misaka. Don’t let him box you in with mantras.”
“Sorry. You take left, I take right?”
“Sure. Let’s send him to the Depths.”
Artminas spun the gun in his off-hand, pointing a scythe at them as a challenge.
“Why not,” he said, “two is a fair fight.”
The corpse of Hunter Ixatoki slowly sunk into the ground, sucked into the Depths. Above him, the Capra dueled both women at once, keeping them at bay by virtue of his luminant oath. Both had to respect his Radiant Kick, lest they be separated by the knockback. Thus he had ample time to rattle off volleys of lead, chipping away at their posture.
The goatboy grinned. “Hope you can make this fun!”
***
Valerie Nemises crept through the halls of the Truth Seeker guild base, where no one was left to see her. Everyone was outside keeping the Bury Light members from getting in, all to protect one person…
Nervousness kept her from running with abandon. She checked every corner, making sure no one would tackle her as she sprinted to the next hallway. Eventually, she came across the room at the far end of the base. She kicked it open with a sharp crack that splintered the wood, torn apart by the natural radiance of her Dawnwalker oath.
March looked up at her from where she sat. A pair of Erisore cuffs kept her wrists together, and she sat hunched over on the bed in a state of exhausted depression. But… a little light came back to her eyes as Valerie dashed inside, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“H-huh? What’re you doing? Abel told me to stay put!”
“I’m Valerie. Your guild, no, your friends are outside. They’re here to get you out.”
Her eyes lit up for the first time in months. Abel had whisked her away without anyone knowing, and she thought no one would ever come to save her.
“But how’d they know I was here? Abel, he—no one should’ve known.”
“I told them, duh. Anyway we have to get you out of here before someone finds out I’m missing!”
Tears began to form as March realized how close she was from escaping Abel’s grasp, the hell she’d been put through for so long she was starting to forget about how it felt to be free. She grabbed Valerie’s hands in her own, misty-eyed.
“T-thank you! Thank you so much, I…”
“It’s okay. You’re safe now—”
Her voice was cut off in an instant. When March blinked, she was outside in the grass, in front of the guild base.
“Huh? Valerie?!”
“I knew it. It was her, wasn’t it?”
She whirled around, and Abel was standing there, arms crossed.
“There was no way anyone could’ve known,” he said, “...so she must’ve been the one to leak your location.”
She shrunk away from him, silent as a mouse. He grabbed her roughly by the collar of her traveler’s robes, keeping her close.
“You wouldn’t leave me. You know how much I love you…”
He could feel her trembling in his arms, but said nothing of it. Thank goodness for the Vow of Mastery allowing him to teleport her, or else he might’ve lost her for good. As much as he wanted to join the battle, he couldn’t leave March alone, lest she be kidnapped. Instead, he kept his eyes on Golbor as the man weaved through a storm of icy needles, adjusting their trajectories with the gale to miss.
Metal erupted from the ground in a wave, forcing Golbor back just enough for him to avoid the sharp points. Audrey was far too cautious an opponent for Golbor to exploit, so they simply danced around the other, chipping at their rival with ranged mantras. When March appeared beside Abel, it drew the eyes of a few, Audrey being no exception.
“Pay attention!”
Golbor launched himself with a critical hit from his curved blade, closing the distance of engagement in a second and scoring an ugly blow down her side. The armor held, but his assault was relentless, quickly drawing blood. Her vent he parried, and she could only stomp with her right foot, encasing herself in an Ice Eruption. Before he could break through it himself, a massive rod of iron slammed into the ice, scattering it in every direction.
He backed up long enough for Audrey to raise more spikes of ice all around herself, a shout on her lips.
“NOW!”
A few members briefly disengaged from their battles to blast her with Fire Palm, turning all the conjured ice into steam. It wasn’t hot enough to burn, but it obscured the vision, especially in the dark of night and with the chaotic battle throwing up dust every which way.
Abel turned to March with a simple command: “March. STAY.”
And then he too entered the fog, fists at the ready. The density of the steam meant he nearly bumped into Golbor trying to find him.
“Abel! Get ready to hit her, I’m gonna clear the fog!”
Abel ducked as something gray was flung past him through the steam. Then a few more. He managed to block one, letting the throwing knife fall to the ground. The benefit of poor visibility was that whatever trick Audrey was trying to pull off, it wasn’t working.
“I got it! Go!”
Ether became shadow in his palms. Golbor lifted his right leg, stomping the ground to summon a huge pillar of air that dispersed the fog in seconds. Immediately Abel caught Audrey in the side with a Shadow Gun as she tried to run by, socking her in the stomach with a critical hit that barraged her with a volley of bubbles all at once. To prevent her from responding he tossed her to Golbor, who grabbed her tight with both arms and put his blade to her throat.
He nodded to Abel, who cupped his hands around his mouth to yell.
“BURY LIGHT, DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR WE GRIP YOUR LEADER!”
Despite how stupid he sounded, the soft glow of swinging lanterns let him see swords and axes and hammers and rapiers of all kinds drop to the grass, one by one. Those who were hurt pulled back to be tended to, the members of Truth Seekers collecting the weapons or taking care of their injured. Abel helped restrain Audrey while Golbor kept her knocked, holding her up so everyone could see.
“You have the audacity to declare war on our own soil and spill our blood into the sea? Look where that gets you!”
The edge of his blade drew a deep crimson from her neck, silencing her struggling immediately. She dared not move a muscle for fear of slicing her own head off.
“I don’t want to see ANY of you here again. You threaten and kill us? We’ll do the same to you. Abel?”
Abel lifted his own lantern, illuminating their faces. He could see the fear and uncertainty in the eyes of Bury Light, and the buoyed confidence of imminent victory in the faces of his men. He stepped away from Audrey, over to where March sat curled up into a ball on the ground, as small as possible.
“March, give me your hands.”
She didn’t move at first, but silently lifted her wrists to him. He unlocked the cuffs, letting them drop into the grass. She didn’t even try to run, curling up again, hands and arms tucked between her legs and stomach. Abel sighed and turned around to face everyone.
“As co-leader of the guild, I will exact punishment upon Bury Light for their crimes against us. We have the mercy to spare your members, but the orchestrator of this tragic event in Truth Seekers history must be purged. Audrey Vorgan, I sentence you to death. Henceforth after being gripped, those of us already fallen will finish you off in the Depths.”
The members of Bury Light did not shout, or scream, or cry in anger at his decision, like he expected. They merely stood by or fell to their hands and knees, unable to say a word. Whatever. It did not matter to him.
He retrieved a small dagger from his coat pocket, seeing his reflection in the metal.
“March, honey?”
She lifted her head enough to look at him.
“You tried to run away, right? With Valerie.”
He held up the dagger, tossing it into the grass by Audrey.
“I’ll forgive you. I won’t even punish you… as long as you prove you won’t try something like this again.”
March fearfully stared into his eyes, filled with a grim resolve, then to Audrey.
“Guildmaster?”
Audrey hung her head, limp in Golbor’s grip.
“It’s okay, March. I’ll be fine.”
“But I…”
“Come on. You’re stronger than this, aren’t you?”
Audrey raised her head to expose her neck. Golbor pulled his sword back enough that March would have a clean shot at her throat.
“March. Do it.”
Those were words that left no room for argument. Abel turned away from her to make eye contact with Audrey.
“It’s a shame, Audrey. You could’ve left well enough alone.”
Abel’s finger pointed not at her head. Bury Light’s guildmaster glared at it defiantly, which made his next words all the more sweet.
“March. KILL.”
Even in spite of the terrible situation, March gave Audrey a small smile as she raised her arms and began to step forward.
“Yes, Abel.”
Golbor looked up, and his mouth opened in a warning he would never receive. Abel caught the briefest glimpse of Golbor’s outstretched arm, reaching for him, lips twisted into a shout. March’s tormenter breathed in to speak to him.
The gray rod, twisted at one end to hold three loops, slammed into Abel’s skull with enough force to shatter the bone and plunge it directly into his brain matter.
The blood fountained from the fatality, spraying all over March. The Idol of Yun’Shul dropped from her hands, stained by the essence of the collapsed body that was already beginning to sink into the Depths.
Golbor‘s face contorted in anger.
“YOU—”
Audrey threw off Golbor with Iceberg. He tumbled to the ground as the ice encased her, healing her injuries. He spluttered with rage, even more so when March pounced on him and started punching him in the face before he could react. He tried to block or parry a hit, but she struck him in the jaw with a Strong Left that snapped his head back and left him unconscious.
All around the members of Bury Light drew their backup weapons, attacking the Truth Seekers with the fervor of those who could see the light at the end of the tunnel. None of their enemies were prepared for Abel’s sudden death and for the moment were quickly repelled by the assault. Even so, people began to die, and the situation was on the precipice of spiraling out of control.
“MARCH!” cried Parhelion, “THIS WAY!”
Parhelion could hardly run, a limp in her step as she waved March over. Jaegan drank a potion and tried to stop them. Audrey’s axe stopped his advance, and he dodged the edge, fleeing out of the way of Firing Line’s barrage. She was basically out of ether at this point, but he dared not press the advantage. A beaten Misaka and Cassiopeia tossed the incapacitated Artminas over their heads, whereupon he crashed into the side of the guild base and did not get up.
“Time to pull back,” said Misaka. “The casualties mount every moment we remain.”
Cassiopeia grimaced, barely able to hold her anchor upright. “Someone has to carry Parhelion. She’s in no state to run.”
Audrey shook her head. “We’ll all run, and I can ask her to return to the boat.”
“No, they might grip her before you bring her back.”
“Fine, whatever, Parhelion, come here.”
A cord of Symbiotic Sustain connected her to the fist-fighter. Audrey’s life drained from the connection, mending the wounds of her subordinate at rapid speed.
“Alright, move! We’ve got to go while we still hold the advantage!”
Parhelion grabbed March by the hand, dragging her along as they fled into the forest, making for the frigate moored at the island’s edge. March spared one last glance behind her, towards her prison. The building shrank in her vision, the sight of friends and foes alike gripped and executed seared into her head as she ran away.
The last few surviving members hauled themselves onto the ship as the sails billowed and the boat sailed away from the island. Even after everything, March could not turn her eyes away from the place she’d been confined to, eyes locked onto the isle as it grew smaller and smaller in her vision. Valerie was still there… Did Golbor know? Would he have her killed? She didn’t know.
Only when enough distance was put between them and the Truth Seekers guild did the fight give out from the Bury Light members. All of them collapsed onto the deck or the railings from exhaustion and the rigors of battle.
“Hell of a plan,” said Cassiopeia.
Audrey lay spread out on the deck of the boat. “It worked. I got the Idol to her.”
Parhelion dragged herself over to March, still brooding by the back up the ship. Without fanfare she wrapped her arms around the woman, joy written across her features.
“March… you’re back.”
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
Misaka helped Audrey up, gesturing Cassiopeia to come over for a group hug. March didn’t move even as her friends surrounded her in one big super hug. A small smile did creep its way onto her lips. Her voice was weak from the shock of it all, but she said:
“Thanks, everyone.”
The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, casting its warm glow over everyone as if to say ‘good job’. Parhelion grinned and tousled her hair, the happiest she had been ever since the day March had been taken. When she spoke, it was through a half-sob of relief.
“Welcome home, March!”
