Arc 4 | Chapter 129: Read This World (give it a try, at least)

“I want you to read the universe and try to find the entrance to the other labyrinth,” Emilia said, smiling down at Caro with as much confidence as she could muster.

Realistically, she didn’t need them to look for the entrance—not when her map more or less told her exactly where the entrance was located, anyways—but the child needed something to occupy themself with, and as much as they seemed to be recovering from their run in with the other visitor, Emilia could still see them struggling. Then needed their confidence back, and even if they couldn’t find the labyrinth entrance, just

trying

would be enough.

Given the way Caro hesitated, their eyes flickering about as though searching for a reason why they couldn’t, Emilia was right: they needed this. Where previously, Caro had been a child ready and willing to try anything, that confident, adventurous spirit was now tucked away under fear. During the last labyrinth, the Caro of

before

had popped out often enough that Emilia wasn’t too concerned, and if she couldn’t convince them to try this, she wouldn’t force it or worry they had completely broken under their trauma.

It wouldn’t be the end of the world.

It wouldn’t signal the complete erasure of the child they had been before that night.

The thing that worried her was how everything they had done in the labyrinth were things they had—more or less—been confident in before the stampede. They ran and jumped and threw themself into games and physical activities. They succeeded where they tried. They had succeeded with those things in the past and would continue to do so in the future.

When it came to this, however—to this thing that they had seemingly brought ruin on they and their friends during what might well have been their first attempt? Emilia didn’t think they’d try it again, not without a push, and that would be a shame. Caro had loved the idea of the universe—of the aether—speaking to them, guiding them. For them to lose that love—to fear the universe and its path, even…

No, Emilia was going to fight against that reality as hard as she dared.

⸂I can’t read the universe,⸃ Caro whispered.

“No? I heard you were having a grand ole time running around the city, following the universe.”

⸂How did you know I was trying to read the universe then?⸃ Caro asked, their eyes growing into round balls of black shock as they shot up to her.

“Ally had a hunch,” she told them as she gently nudged the group into moving back down the corridor.

The corridor they had found themselves in wasn’t like any she had seen before. It was neither a tunnel within the caverns, formed of dark stones run through with lines of glittering red veins and stalactites dripping down above them in silent threat, nor was it a corridor like those found in the library, marked with magic across the floor and lined with books. It wasn’t like those first halls she had wandered down, either, the memory of their dust and sticky floors folding over with the halls of the Risen Guard complex.

Instead, it was like an amalgamation of every hall she had seen in this world and a thousand more. With one step, the floor squeaked, her bare feet sticking. Another step, and the pads of her feet were hissing in complaint as rocks dug into them. Then heat hit her, burning up through already burnt skin and forcing her to step a little faster, landing on blank pages of books toppling from shelves built into slim shelves of shifting flesh.

It was strange, and in hindsight, perhaps she should have realized sooner that a labyrinth was affecting the world, bending it a little strangely as people grew near. Then again, none of the previous labyrinths had been surrounded by a world quite this strange. The closest had actually been the first one, sealed up as it was: Emilia couldn’t imagine the otherworldly cavern, where the local teens had been partying, was there by chance.

⸂I didn’t really think it was working…⸃ Caro mumbled.

“Maybe, maybe not. I can’t read the universe, so what do I know.”

⸂It’s not that hard,⸃ Caro said before they realized their mistake. ⸂Uh…⸃

Emilia cocked an eyebrow at them. “You can’t do something that

isn’t that hard?

” she cooed, petty teasing that Caro couldn’t even hear oozing through her voice. Luckily, Astra understood to translate tone as much as meaning, the little girl’s voice coming out just as taunting as Emilia had intended her words to be. Caro was just the sort of child to be egged on by such words, and she wasn’t ashamed to be leveraging that fact against them.

Caro grumbled, muttering something under their breath. Emilia asked them to repeat themself, their volume barely increasing and forcing her to ask again, again, again—

⸂I SAID, MAYBE I SHOULDN’T BE READING IT IF THINGS END UP LIKE THAT!⸃ Caro screamed into the world, their voice somehow managing to echo over the walls. It vibrated, coming back in strange patches as it collided with one section that echoed one way, another that echoed another.

The group pulled to a halt to stare at Caro, each of them grimacing as the sound slowly dissipated.

“Caro,” Emilia sighed, kneeling down in front of them. They looked about ready to cry, and the last time they’d done that, they’d bolted. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but I heard you.

I know

you believe in this stuff—I know you believe the universe will guide you right.”

⸂It guided me right to that man.⸃

“Yes, but he would have found you eventually. For all we know, you finding him first meant things worked out better than they otherwise would have,” Emilia said, mind swirling through the things she had heard people of her own world say when they spoke about the will of the aethernet. “Just because it still ended badly doesn’t mean it wasn’t the best possible outcome.”

Caro’s foot scuffed the ground. They looked like they didn’t want to agree, but also knew she was right—unless they were all wrong about the universe, anyways. Maybe there was no will, or perhaps it was just a fucking bitch. Impossible to tell, and it didn’t matter anyways.

What mattered was Caro slowly—uncomfortably—reaching out and trying to touch the aethernet. Their small core wobbled, brushing against the mutilated corridor and beginning to search for signs of something—of anything.

Caro actually finding the hidden door wasn’t a necessary part of the plan, but when they did find it, their energy brushing over the anomaly hidden away in the patchwork wall, Emilia was relieved. When they turned to her, eyes bright and excited, Emilia was even more relieved.

⸂I don’t think it was the universe that guided me here,⸃ they admitted, and Emilia had to agree: the entrance was pretty fucking obvious once you knew to look for it.

“You tried, is what matters, and you found it. Could you find things with your energy before?”

Caro shook their head.

“Then you learned something new! New skills are great. I love learning.”

Caro nodded, ⸂Me too.⸃

Emilia patted them on the head, turning towards the hidden door.

⸂Now what?⸃ Gale asked. She’d been quiet as Caro searched, probably because she didn’t believe in this stuff, regardless of what had happened to Carne and what he believed—what information he had potentially passed onto her about what the Risen Guard believed.

“Now… I go in.”

⸂You can’t be serious,⸃ Gale practically snarled at her, stepping forward until they were practically nose to nose.

⸂What did you think we were coming this way for?⸃ Astra asked flatly. She had also come to stand in front of the hidden door, her energy gently prodding at it.

⸂I thought we were just running the kid out of energy,⸃ Gale whispered hissed into each of them, her eyes turning towards a very sleepy looking Caro. ⸂We just got out of a labyrinth.⸃

“I know,” Emilia said, hands signing along with her. She could rely on Astra to translate for her now, but she didn’t really think Gale would appreciate that. Plus, she liked signing—she

missed

signing. “You don’t have to come with me, but I

need

the ability to speak to locals. We can leave here and hope we end up somewhere safe, where the people will help us, but what if we don’t? What if we get separated?”

The teenager did not look particularly convinced by her argument, and Emilia threw Astra a look, silently apologizing to the girl as she added, “What if I have to leave you and Caro somewhere safe—somewhere where they’ll help you, but not me and Astra? We’d leave, and I’d be left relying on Astra to translate—to

stay

with me. Do you really want me to trust her so much that I don’t take this chance?”

Astra did

not

look happy to translate for her, the girl’s words coming out tight and unimpressed as she allowed Emilia to leverage her lies. Her words had the desired effect, however: Gale no longer trusted Astra, and locking Emilia into a relationship with her wasn’t something she wanted to do.

⸂Fine,⸃ the teenager snapped. She glared between Emilia and Astra, jaw clenching as she searched for words. ⸂She has to stay here, with me and Caro.⸃

Out of all the things Emilia had expected, it wasn’t for the local to demand Astra stay. “Why?” she asked, somewhat dumbstruck. Given how long it took for Astra to translate for her and the way her voice came out without inflection, the girl was shocked as well.

⸂I don’t trust her, but I also trust that if she does anything to us, you’ll hunt her down and make her regret it,⸃ Gale said, shrugging like she hadn’t just admitted she thought Astra killing them was a possibility. ⸂If she wants to kill all of us and goes with you, then you’ll be dead, and she’ll come out and kill us too. This way, she doesn’t get more power and will suffer if she betrays us.⸃

⸂I won’t betray Emilia,⸃ Astra hissed, which wasn’t exactly the most useful thing to say. ⸂Emilia doesn’t want you hurt, so I won’t hurt you.⸃

Talk about just making things worse.

“How about we just avoid hurting the locals in general?” Emilia sighed, tugging Astra back a few steps. The girl had always been a little threatening, glaring down the Risen Guards who tried to separate them, and facing the challenges and killers who came for them with barely a blink. That had been when she’d been hiding her visitor status. Now, without her secrets holding her back, energy rippled out of her, rending through the aethernet with enough viciousness that Emilia was a little concerned she might actually start a fight.

“No fighting,” she said firmly, pushing Astra’s shoulder until she relented and sat, Caro coming to sit beside her. They leaned against her, eyes fluttering shut, although Emilia doubted they would actually sleep.

“Caro will keep you company. You will let Gale exist over there and not bother her. If someone comes along and

threatens

you, you may fight them, but do try to make nice with them first, please?” Emilia said, voice as firm and unbending as she’d often heard her mother’s—or better yet, Rafe’s mothers’.

⸂Fine,⸃ Astra grumbled, not bothering to translate her words. Apparently, the girl drew the line at informing everyone that she was being treated like the temperamental teenager she apparently was.

“Good girl,” Emilia sighed, squatting down to press a kiss to Astra and Caro’s foreheads.

Caro smiled and swayed back and forth, like they had just been bestowed with a great gift. Astra was still pouting, but as she pulled away, the girl looked slightly less upset.

“I’ll be back,” she said as she pushed up, and after a moment’s hesitation, surged forward to give Gale a forehead kiss as well.

The teenager groaned and wiped ineffectually at her forehead when Emilia pulled away, but she had a feeling the local girl would have been more upset to be the only one left out.

“Take care of them,”

Emilia signed, handing over her {Blood Dagger} to Gale and pulling out her notebook.

“Astra may be a bit older than you, but our worlds are very different. She is closer to Caro in her understanding of the world than you.”

Gale glowered down at the note before a grumble about that being terrifying slipped through Emilia—a private message that she rather agreed with. The fact that the government let

children

enter raids like this was terrifying. The fact that the government allowed them to experience the trauma of something like this was wrong. As much as Astra claimed her mother didn’t love her, someone clearly did—someone had tried to keep her from experiencing this place, even if they hadn’t succeeded.

⸂Be careful,⸃ Gale added as Emilia turned and pressed her hands to the place the map indicated the labyrinth entrance would be—a little hidden door that she could only see because of the map Boundary had bestowed upon her. Oddly, while it had taken a while for it to appear after they exited the labyrinth, it hadn’t disappeared as they walked back towards it. Residual effect of the labyrinth, or touching the heartcore, perhaps?

Emilia supposed she’d find out when she got out of this one.

Her energy lit up, sliding through her and the invisible door. It crackled and popped, and a moment before she vanished into it, a message popped up over her vision.

[

Honey:

Someone is coming for you.

]

[

Honey:

They said they were your friend, but they could be lying.

]

[

Honey:

Be careful.

]

Emilia tried to pull her energy back—tried to stop her descent into the labyrinth, but it was too late. She was gone, and someone was coming for them.

All they would find was the children.

Hopefully, when she found her way out of the labyrinth, the children would still be there to greet her.