LTSV - Lost & Found 46 (Patreon)

“Adra!” Mira gasped, once they’d hit the street and he showed no signs of slowing down. “Darling, wait!”

“We need to go!” he insisted, sounding grim and not even pretending to be winded. He turned a sharp corner and took them down a narrow alley between the Temple of Blood and one of its adjacent annex buildings.  “I’m sorry, I will explain when we’re away and safe. That girl isn’t who you thought she was.”

“She’s exactly who I thought she was!” Mira grunted as he hopped over a barrier and briefly drove the air out of her lungs when he landed. He must have been looking for a hidden place to use his shadow matter to transport them away. She had to stop him before he managed to. “Adra, stop!”

Adra finally seemed willing to pause, but possibly only because of the way she was wheezing when she shouted at him. This was not a dignified or comfortable mode of transportation and the air got forced out of her every time his feet hit the pavement. He set her down on her feet, back to a wall. He bracketed her in with his body, forearms braced against the wall behind her as he glared down, barely keeping his shadow matter in check. 

‘I should honestly be surprised that it took him this long to put me in a kabedon’ Mira reflected, trying to find the humor in her situation. In the game, Cecily was constantly being backed up against a wall by boys caught up in the grip of their feelings. Was it just Mira’s turn now? Or was this a narrative rule of the universe?

“I should have known it would be her,” Adra growled, but it was to Mira rather than at her so that was progress. “I thought she’d been incarnated as the one following the Prince around and cleaning up his messes. I should have realized it was her when I saw those other two buzzing around.”

Mira caught his face between her palms because it always seemed to calm him down when she squished his cheeks. “Adra, did you not realize that Cecily was Melody’s reincarnation?” she asked, gently.

It had seemed obvious to her from ‘go’, not to mention that she had never known Melody’s soul to incarnate as a man. The gender dynamics of their cast stayed consistent. There were two women and five men, not counting Adra, and they were all cisgendered. She had a sense that he was male-presenting out of preference rather than having a gender in the way that she and the others did, since he wasn’t the sort of being that needed to reproduce. 

His gaze, which had been drifting off into the middle distance as he spiralled, snapped to meet hers. “You knew?” he rasped.

Mira nodded. “You thought she was Bryn? Really?”

“She is always the False Hero’s shadow,” Adra countered, looking her up and down. “She takes his orders and cleans up his messes. Sometimes humans change their gender and I thought that she had this time.”

“I’m certain that Bryn Harvard was Lasol the Bulwark. He’s always quiet like that and loyal,” Mira replied. “We must have had very different experiences with the same souls.”

That was true, though, wasn’t it?

Mira had been thrown hard by seeing Melody’s face again and had forgotten, for a moment, what she’d come to understand about the woman’s intrinsic nature. The Melody that Mira had known in life was Peleon’s subordinate, yes, but in later lives Mira learned that ‘Peleon’ could only be arrogant, opinionated, and mean in front of ‘Melody’ for so long before she’d leave him. Wasn’t that what had happened in this life when Andrei slapped Mira? Cecily had cut ties with him on the spot.

It was only when Adra caught Mira by the wrists that she realized that she’d been rubbing her arms again. He held her hands up between them. “Don’t try to tell me you aren’t upset.”

“She didn’t do that,” Mira insisted because Melody—or, drat, Cecily hadn’t. She was starting to confuse even herself. “The Veiled Goddess pulled me into a conversation when the light flashed. I was in my old body for a moment and the spellpaint was on me. She brought Cecily there too, but as Melody. I think I was part of the vision the Veiled Goddess was showing to her.”

Adra’s expression blanked and as well it should. Mira hardly knew what to think either, much less of the fact that Cecily might have recognized her as Alanamira for a brief moment. What would even be the point of that, after all this time? Melody’s experiences wouldn’t be useful for Cecily in this setting and Cecily had only just barely come into her own as a protagonist and future leader. Mira wasn’t sure Melody had ever learned how to not be Peleon’s subordinate. Freedom was just too new to her and it wasn’t like the culture of that world would have encouraged her to learn independence. At least, she hadn’t managed to do it before Mira’s ‘death.’ Had Melody managed to pull away from Peleon after Mira was gone? 

As if summoned by Mira’s thoughts, a familiar voice called out from the street, “MIRA!” 

When they turned, Cecily had caught up to them. She was still in her peplos gown and had her new hair looped over her forearm to keep it off the floor. She was carrying her new sword awkwardly by the hilt with her other hand because the Veiled Goddess had not included a sheathe to go with it. The thing radiated divine power, stronger even than Peleon’s Sunblade had back in the day; strong enough to make the back of Mira’s teeth hurt even at this distance. 

Cecily drew up short at the sight of Adra, who still had Mira in a half-kabedon with both her wrists caught up in one hand between them. His eyes were glowing hot and had bypassed his normal ruby-citrine color to resemble something closer to molten lava. The alley way was crawling with flame-flecked shadow matter and he barely looked human. This was not the best state for the heroine to catch them in. 

“Cecily, dear…” Mira started to ask her to please give them a moment and maybe keep Bertram and Vesper out of the alleyway, but Cecily’s jaw firmed as she dropped her hair and flipped the sword in her grip with an expertise that she really should not have had. Cecily didn’t have any weapons training and, even assuming the Veiled Goddess had granted her a share of her past life’s battle experience, Melody had been a quarterstaff specialist and support magician; a literal Staff Girl! Where was this coming from?

“Adramalak,” she greeted him with tension simmering in her voice. She pointed her blade at Adra’s face and said, “Step away from my sister.”

Well, that answered the question of what all Cecily remembered from her vision.

Adra released Mira’s wrists and held his hand out to one side. Shadow matter swelled up from the ground and enveloped his entire arm before dripping back down to the cobblestone to reveal the same black rapier he’d used before in the altercation at the townhouse; the Noctis Blade. His weapon also had a powerful mana radiation, different from Cecily’s weapon. The air was a little darker and hotter when he flicked the tip of his weapon up to greet Cecily with a mocking salute.

“The Godslave knows my name,” he purred and put an arm around Mira’s waist to hold her closer. “It is my honor.”

“I knew there was something wrong with you,” Cecily said as she carefully advanced in a high guard. Engaging someone with a sword when they had a hostage was a tricky business for both opponents, but she didn’t look like she was being careless about it, which was at least something. “Now I know what that something is. You’re the Dark Lord Adramalak.”

“Who am I talking to?” Adra asked, slowly easing backwards to the darker end of the alley where his shadow matter had more naturally congregated. Mira didn’t know how much of it he needed to transport both their bodies, but it had been very dark in the study during the last time she’d seen him use that trick. The sun was high, so there wasn’t a lot of natural shade even in the alley. “Is this Cecily or—Melody, was it?”

Cecily’s expression faltered. “I’m Cecily,” she said quietly. “I remember being Melody, but I’m not her. Whatever you have planned for my sister, I won’t let it happen. You may have kidnapped Melody’s princess, but you can’t have my sister.”

“Such a brave liar,” Adra mocked her lightly, still using the banter to cover his retreat towards the shadows. “As I recall it, you and your merry band were the ones who hounded my bride to her death, not me. Did your Goddess let you remember that part or was it just the glorious bits, when you could still believe that you were a hero?”

Cecily stopped and shook herself. “That’s not what happened,” she said, sounding like she didn’t fully believe it. The tip of her blade started to quiver as her gaze turned inward. Mira recognized the glassy tinge that was overtaking Cecily’s gaze. She’d experienced it herself plenty of times. Unlike Mira, though, Cecily didn’t have the luxury of laying around in bed with Anna to wait on her while she grappled with a new set of memories. She must have gotten the whole thing in one go and had had no time to digest it all before being confronted with the prime enemy of her past life. Who knew how much of Melody’s life that she’d actually processed into usable memory?

“Isn’t it?” Adra pressed his advantage and would have increased his pace backwards, except Mira planted her feet and refused to be moved further. “Darling?” he asked, surprised.

“If the two of you don’t put those swords up and stop this nonsense…” Mira rasped, finally in control of herself again. “...then I will take them away from you.”

Neither Cecily nor Adra obeyed immediately, and instead chose to side-eye each other. 

“Mira, he’ll take you away if I drop my guard,” Cecily stage-whispered at her.

Adra scoffed. “How observant of you,” he sneered, but added to Mira, “My love, if you think I trust this catspaw of the Gods…”

Right, so neither of them were going to drop their guard first. They were on too high an alert and there was no sense in trying to talk them down until they were disarmed. 

“Alright,” Mira decided out loud as purple lightning surrounded her hands. “You chose the hard way.” 

By the time Bertram and Vesper caught up to them, seconds later, Mira had Cecily and Adra both on their knees, side by side in front of her with their arms held up overhead and their weapons on the ground at her feet—or, at least, Cecily’s was. Shadow matter had welled up from underneath Adra’s folded knees and eaten the Noctis blade again as soon as it hit the floor. The two combatants were being held in place by bands of crackling violet lightning as Mira glared down at them.

“Did I,” she purred, too pissed off to mind her language, “or did I not tell you to drop your fucking weapons?”

“Mira!” 

Cecily gasped at her swearing, but Adra was nothing if not a seasoned spouse. He had his gaze pointed down in what was at least a reasonable facsimile of contrition. Would he learn anything from this? Probably not, but he at least knew how to fake it when he was in trouble. 

“Yes, dear,” he replied, not even fighting his bonds. In fact he seemed a little too comfortable like that. “I’m sorry, dear.”

Vesper was the first to reach them and slowed to a stunned jog as she took in the scene taking place in the alley. “Mira, what am I looking at?”

“Two hot-headed fools,” Mira grumbled and glared at her prisoners. “I think you both understand now what will happen if you try to fight in front of me again.”

“Yes, miss,” Adra repeated, but left off the ‘dear’ now that Bertram was within earshot.

“Mira!” Cecily complained, but seemed a bit wary now of Bertram and Vesper’s presence. She had the right transmigrator's instinct, it seemed, and kept her mouth shut about the memories she shouldn’t have. She still had plenty to say, though. “He carried you off! He pushed you against the wall! He was going to–to DO things to you!!”

“It was Colvin’s job to take me out of the Temple if something upsetting happened,” Mira replied coolly. There was no way in hell that she planned to explain, in front of Bertram Coventry, that Adra already had blanket permission to do things to her or that sometimes she liked being pushed against a wall. “That’s what he did.”

“That is not what I saw!” Cecily countered, hotly. 

“I think it’s clear, in this moment…,” Vesper said with great caution as she interposed her body between Mira and her two penitents. “...that Mira will not put up with any behavior from Mr. Adelram that she does not approve of. Mira, would you let them go?”

Mira released her spell with a loose gesture and looked away from both Cecily and Adra, with her nose in the air, just in case either of them had any delusions about their odds of being forgiven anytime soon. Really, brawling in the street like common thugs; where had she gone wrong with these two?

She heard them getting to their feet and allowed Adra to offer her his arm once again. She was pleased to realize that she wasn’t feeling at all bad from the spellcasting. The priestess had been right. She really was feeling better.

Bertram side stepped the group and secured Cecily’s blade by getting the toe of his boot under the blade and flipping it up into the air, where he caught it by the hilt. “This will need a scabbard,” he commented before turning a look on Cecily. “You will need some saber training if you were disarmed that easily.”

“There was nothing ‘easy’ about that,” Cecily grumbled, but looked contrite in front of her father’s well-deserved critique. She turned to Mira, head still bowed. “I’m sorry for not listening,” she said quietly. 

Mira limited her reply to a nod. She didn’t trust anything good to come out of her mouth just now so she decided to not say anything.

-

Glossary of Terms:Kabedon: (lit) 'wall-slam'. It's that thing where the boy has a girl backed against a wall with his hand or arm resting against the wall over her head. It's less violent than it sounds.