Mana Soul: Chapter 64 - The Decision - Lena

German - Blue French - Green English - Red Gaeilge - Orange Japanese - Purple Mesopotamian - Grey

Lena could only stare at the hologram of her dead brother in shock. There was no other fitting response for the request he had just made of her. After a decade of absence and finally finding themselves reunited, Mark wanted her to help him die.

As angry as she had been, Lena had never contemplated seriously harming her brother, let alone killing him. Worse still, now that she understood why Mark had been absent, Lena felt intense shame for every curse she had ever uttered in the darkest hours of the nights spent crying herself to sleep.

“No...” Lena croaked, fighting to keep the roiling bile down at the very thought of ending what remained of her brother’s life.

“Lena...I can’t stay like this,” Mark explained with a note of pain in his voice, “It’s not his fault, but when Markus created me, separated my-our memories...I can’t feel things Lena...and I don’t know how long I will have until...” He hung his head in shame, “I’m slipping, I know it.” Mark was quiet for a few moments before raising his head, distinct signs of distress in his eyes, “I can’t eat, I can’t breathe, I can’t sleep, all...all I can do is remember...” He hugged his arms around himself and shivered, “I’m sorry Lena...but I can’t...”

“So you want me to kill you?!” Lena demanded angrily, “You’re just going to give up die?!”

“Lena...” Hector gently yet firmly rested its hand on her shoulder. Supposedly, the golem contained all of Mark’s memories of their father, Lena still couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

“There is something you are not telling us,” The chimaera, Aela, observed quietly, “You said WE had a choice to make, but you have only asked her. What have you not told us?”

Lena realised that the chimaera was right and did her best to push back her anger.

Mark was quiet for a long time before allowing his arms to settle at his sides. This time, instead of addressing Lena, he turned to Aela, “You’re right,” he agreed quietly with painfully evident fragility in his voice. “I want to try and become part of the whole again, to fuse with Markus.”

Aela scowled, “This has risks,” she stated bluntly, “That’s why you are telling us to choose.” Aela still hadn’t recanted her earlier decision, she was just pressing for more answers.

Mark slowly nodded, “There is a chance that Markus would become like me. A chance that my personality will overwrite his, a chance that nothing would happen at all, or a chance that we would both die...”

Aela didn’t seem like she fully understood what Mark was saying, but Lena felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.

“Markus would change...he wouldn’t be himself anymore, would he?” Aela asked slowly, surprising Lena with how well she had followed Mark’s previous answer. There was a depressing acceptance in her expression and voice that chilled Lena.

“Ideally...for me, yes,” Mark replied apologetically.

“He...you...would remember everything?” Aela asked quietly.

Mark nodded, “In the optimal scenario, yes.”

Aela hung her head and tears began welling in the corners of her eyes, “Do it,” she croaked, her voice breaking as she began to cry.

Lena could only stare at the chimaera in confusion. She had thought Aela had feelings for the imposter, Markus, so agreeing to Mark’s request didn’t make sense. From what Lena could tell, if the experimental procedure worked, Markus would functionally cease to exist. Unless she was hoping that Markus’s personality would subsume Mark’s entirely. “Why?!” Lena demanded, refusing to make a choice until she better understood the situation. If the chimaera knew something Lena didn’t, then she wasn’t going to risk what was left of her brother on a bad bet.

With tears continuing to run down her cheeks, Aela looked at Lena with an expression of bitterness and despair, “Because Markus has never stopped doubting himself! Because he believes he did something monstrous that caused his family to abandon him! Because that pain eats away at him on the inside...I love Markus...and I don’t want him to be in pain anymore...” Her voice began to break, “Because I would rather Markus be happy and lose him than to see him continue to suffer...”

Lena staggered and would have fallen if not for Hector’s support. The chimaera's justification for her decision was not what Lena had expected. There was no secret plan, no hidden knowledge that would turn things to her advantage. She was giving up. Aela was giving up because it was in Markus’s best interest for her to do so.

Lena felt a hot wave of shame at her own selfishness and looked away.

“Lena, we cannot proceed without a unanimous decision,” Mark said quietly, “And the window where we can act is closing...”

“Why?!” Lena glared at the holographic projection of her dead brother with accusing eyes, “Why do I have to make this decision?! If you are so desperate to not exist, why can't you make the decision yourself?!”

Mark seemed to shrink in reaction to her outburst, becoming somehow less than he already was. “Because I am already dead Lena...I had my chance. The two of you represent those with the most vested interest...and most qualified in making this decision without interference from the golems.”

“Markus’s list...” Aela whispered hoarsely.

“The very same,” Mark agreed sympathetically.

“It’s why the golems didn’t toss her out...that damned list...” Aela slumped back against the wall and slid to the floor, burying her face in her arms and tucking her knees tight against her chest.

“What list?” Lena demanded, having only just realised that she had taken the golems’ collective inaction for granted.

“The list of people Markus swore to protect,” Mark replied quietly and somewhat evasively.

“There are more people on this list?!” Lena pressed, feeling a sudden sense of relief that she wouldn’t need to be the one to make the choice to snuff out what remained of her brother.

Mark stared back at her for a handful of seconds before slowly nodding his head, “Several chimaera and humans,” he said quietly.

“Then make one of them choose!” Lena demanded, “Because I am not going to fucking kill what is left of you Mark!”

Mark said nothing and a long silence passed between them.

“Dolly where are we going?” A small child’s voice asked from the hall outside, “Wait! We aren’t allowed in there! We will get in trouble!”

The small golem wearing a crude facsimile of Akane’s own cosplay outfit briskly jogged into the room and leapt onto the table before making its way towards the hidden ruby in the drawer.

“Dolly come back!” Cried the same child’s voice, and a moment later, the small girl with the prosthetic arm came running into the room, chasing after the golem.

With dark reddish brown hair, and the same baby fat all children seemed to have, the little girl eerily reminded Lena of herself when she was younger. Before she lost her voice...

Suddenly realising she was not alone in the room, the young girl did her best to try and quickly hide behind a chair.

“Arlee, it’s okay, you can come out,” Mark told her gently, “No one is going to hurt you, and you are not in trouble.”

The little girl, Arlee cautiously peeked out from behind her hiding place, ”Not thupothed to be in here,” she lisped guiltily, “Thorry.”

“It’s okay Arlee, you’re not in trouble,” Mark repeated.

Lena felt as if the floor had suddenly disappeared from beneath her feet as she realised why the little girl had suddenly arrived in the room. Mark was going to make her choose instead. Lena felt ill.

“Hi Arlee, I'm Mark, I don’t think we have met before,” Mark gave Arlee a small wave in greeting.

“Um, hello Mark,” Arlee came out from behind the chair and pulled herself up onto the seat, “You look a lot like Mithter.”

Mark smiled, “We are brothers, I guess you could say,” he replied gently. “Arlee, I need to tell you something important and then ask you a tough question,” Mark explained with profound reluctance.

“What ith it?” Arlee asked innocently, “I haven’t broken thomthing thith week, honetht!”

Lena wanted to say something, anything to make Mark stop, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“I know Arlee, you have been very good,” Mark replied with a small smile, “Arlee, Markus is very sick...He’s dying,” Mark explained gently, “We have medicine, and we are confident it will make him better, but...I am sick too-”

Arlee frowned, “Then why not thare it? Ith there not enough?” She interrupted.

“I am sure Markus would be happy to hear your first thought was to share, Arlee,” Mark said proudly, “But it’s a little more complicated. Arlee, you know how Dolly’s mind is inside of the pretty jewels on her face?”

Arlee nodded, surprising Lena that a child would not only be entrusted with that information but readily recall it.

“I am like Dolly,” Mark explained, walking his hologram to the edge of the table and then pointing to the ruby inside of the desk, “Everything I am, is inside of that Ruby. This is a little complicated, but Markus and I are like twins. For the medicine to help us both, we would need to share one body. But there is a chance one of us might just disappear. Or, we could just give the medicine to Markus, and he will be fine.”

Arlee scrunched up her face as if deeply considering the issue before nodding to make a show of understanding what he was talking about. But Lena knew there was no way a girl so young would be able to grasp the enormity of what was going on.

“My sister, Lena-” Mark motioned to Lena and then to the chimaera, Aela, “-and Aela have been trying to decide what to do. But we are running out of time, Arlee. I know this isn’t fair, or right that I ask this of you, but I need you to make a choice on what we should do.”

Arlee fidgetted on her chair and looked down at the floor. Arlee’s attention drifted to her prosthetic arm and she slowly moved her fingers to intertwine them with those from her real hand, “Mithter would want to help you too,” Arlee said quietly, “Even if he doethen’t have much, he thares it...”

“Thank you Arlee,” Mark looked towards the door expectantly.

Lena couldn’t help herself and look towards the door as well.

The imposter, Markus, was carried into the room by another golem and was followed by a female-bodied golem with four arms carrying what looked like an old western coffin.

Markus was set down on one side of the table and the box on the other.

Stripped to only his underclothes, Markus looked every bit as ill as Lena had imagined he would be. Partially emaciated, pale and sickly, Markus was Mark’s deathly reflection personified. The almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest was the only sign that he was even still alive.

Without ceremony, the four-armed golem took apart the wooden case to reveal a complete skeleton made of crystal. Piece by piece the golem transferred the crystal bones onto the tiled surface of the table. Stepping away once its task was complete, the golem approached Aela and knelt down beside her before whispering something Lena couldn’t quite make out.

At first, Aela didn’t react, but with the assistance of the golem, she rose to her feet and made her way around the table to Markus. Her eyes were bloodshot and her eyelids were puffy from crying, but it was the emptiness in the chimaera’s eyes that unsettled Lena the most. She ran her hand through Markus’s hair and kissed his forehead before stepping away from the table.

The four-armed golem remained at Aela’s side and spoke softly in a placating and soothing tone.

“Lena...I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you...” Mark apologised quietly.

Markus’s body grew deathly still and the crystal bones began to glow with an inner light. Sinews, tendons and muscles slowly began to materialise from the bones amidst silvery projections of light, knitting themselves together and drawing the bones into proper alignment.

Mark’s hologram approached the crystal skull and knelt down beside it. He looked back at Lena and opened his mouth to speak, closed it again and wore an expression of profound regret as he turned his attention towards the crystal skull. With visible reluctance, Mark reached out his incorporeal hand and rested it against the top of the skull. Then he was gone.

The genesis of flesh grew in intensity, replicating organs and veins in the span of mere seconds.

The golem, Hector, removed its cloak and laid it across the lower half of the body, and in that small space of time, skin and hair had begun to race across the body’s surface.

Lena should have known what to expect already, but the sight of her brother’s restful face laying on the table made her heart skip a beat. A part of her had wanted to let Mark go. After what he had shown her, Lena found it incredibly selfish to demand that he continue persisting in his state of unlife. However, Mark was her brother, and the guilt Lena felt as a result of all her undeserved anger towards him NEEDED him to exist so she could make things right.

Mark had said there was a chance that he would continue to exist, but Lena had no idea what those odds were. For all Lena knew, there would be as much chance of the imposter taking Mark’s place entirely, or their two minds melding into someone different entirely.

Lena glanced at the imposter and recoiled in disgust. Whatever magic was occurring in front of her, it was taking a severe toll on the already sickly body of the imposter. Reduced to little more than sinew and bone, the body looked like it had been drained from the inside out, leaving a desiccated husk.

All the same, Lena’s finely honed sense of danger was telling her that things were not nearly as simple as they appeared. Recalling what she had witnessed earlier, Lena activated her powers and heightened her senses to the utmost limits, bringing events around her to an almost complete stop. Pushing her reinforced body to move beyond human limits, Lena snatched the sword hanging from Hector’s hip and began to slowly charge towards the table.

With impossible slowness, the withered corpse began to rise off the table, its eyelids drawn wide to reveal inky black orbs of hateful malevolence.

Leaping off the floor, Lena felt the thick blocks of stone fracture beneath her foot and she launched herself forwards.

Despite her speed, somehow the corpse had realised its danger and had now focused its entire attention on her. However, its attempt to lurch to the side and avoid her strike would be too slow by far. Or would have been if that was its intent.

Eyes darting to the distraught chimaera, Lena flinched as she realised the creature wasn’t trying to evade her at all, it was seeking out a victim. Still a few feet from driving her blade through the creature’s skull, Lena knew she would be too late to stop whatever it was the creature intended to do.

Without warning, the four-armed golem snapped its arms around the chimaera with blurring speed, its head snapping upwards to focus on the creature that was now only inches away. Pivoting on the spot, the golem cast the chimaera away and towards the corner of the room.

The creature’s clawed at empty air, its bony claw-like fingers breaking under the force of its own desperation.

Lena barely registered the impact as her blade drove through the side of the creature’s skull and ran along the length of the blade before catching on the crossguard. Maintaining her momentum, Lena continued onward towards the opposing wall. A normal blade would have bent and broken upon impact with the heavy stones, but the golem’s sword scraped against the bare surface until finding a seam and allowing Lena to drive the blade home.

With the creature’s skull half crushed by the impact between the wall and the crossguard, Lena kicked off the wall and narrowly dodged the creature’s more intact claw. Scaling her mana consumption downward, Lena began taking deep breaths to steady her nerves.

In spite of the sword now impaled through its brain, the creature wasn’t dead, only pinned.

Hector rushed past Lena with impossible speed, its hands clenched into fists as it soared towards the creature. A wordless primal cry of rage, distorted further by Lena’s perception of time, erupted from beneath its helmet and echoed through the room. With savage fury, the golem bludgeoned the creature over and over, breaking bones and pulping flesh with every strike.

In under a handful of seconds, the creature was reduced to a bloody pile of mangled meat.

Convinced that it was over, Lena watched on in surprise as Hector removed a clay jar from its belt and threw it to the ground beside the central mass of the carnage.

A thick gelatinous liquid spilled out of the broken jar and sent tendrils of nearly imperceptible smoke towards the ceiling as it made contact with the grisly remains of the creature. Within moments, the liquid began to move of its own accord, aggressively expanding to encompass as much of the mangled corpse as possible.

Still not quite dead, the creature quivered as the liquid dissolved it into nothingness, piece by piece.

After only a few seconds of real-time, the creature was gone.

Now holding the gelatinous liquid in its hands, defying the very laws of physics, the bloody remnants were cleaned from the golem as well, eliminating all traces of the creature. Then, without warning, the liquid lost its cohesion and fell to the floor with a wet splash, sending clear water splashing outward in just about every direction.

With the creature well and truly destroyed, Lena still felt a pang of fear at the prospect of switching off her use of mana entirely. The golems were far stronger and faster than she had initially expected. If they had a mind to, or had been ordered to do so, Lena knew that her fight against the chimaera in the throne room would have gone very differently.

Reminded of the chimaera, Lena’s eyes grew wide as she noticed the large cracks surrounding the chimaera’s point of impact against the wall. The golem that had thrown her out of harm's way seemed to have a very loose interpretation of the phrase if it had been its intention. However, despite the damage to the wall, the chimaera was rising to her feet and seemed to be barely hurt at all.

Lena knew that chimaera could become incredibly strong and durable from clearing high-level dungeons, but it was exceptionally rare. Akane had only grown so powerful because Lena cleared the way for her and her clan through the dungeons that appeared in their province. It made no sense that Aela was able to be so strong at such a young age.

Even if the golems were doing the clearing, she would have still had to compete against the established nobility. Unless...

Lena glanced at the cloned body of her brother lying on the table.

The spies had reported a number of rumours about the imposter. Miracle fertility treatments for chimaeras were the most prominent. However, if he had been capable of such a feat, then it wouldn’t be impossible for him to strengthen chimaera without the need for dungeons. The fact that the two processes were inherently linked only served to reinforce this theory further.

“The servant of the enemy is terminated,” Hector growled, his gravelly voice rich with grim satisfaction.

“The awakening is almost complete,” the four-armed golem replied, its attention fixed on the body lying on the table. “Projections of complete integration holding at ninety-seven percent. Risk of psychosis, negligible. Initiating Lazarus protocol.”

The tiled surface of the table flashed with pulsing silver light for several moments before it dimmed to its earlier pale ambient illumination.

After several seconds of intense silence, the body on the table began to move. Arching its back, veins and tendons pressed hard against its skin before the body fell limp onto the table again. This process was repeated several times in relatively short succession.

“Gahhh!” Its eyes and mouth snapped open as it gasped for air.

Despite wearing the face of her brother, Lena’s feelings towards the now-living clone were decidedly conflicted. For all she knew, there was every chance that the imposter would be the one given a second chance at life and that Mark would be gone forever.

For whatever reason, that thought made Lena feel profoundly guilty. Searching her thoughts, Lena realised that this was precisely why her brother’s hologram had shown her everything it had earlier. No matter who came out the other side, they had fought and suffered for her sake, never faltering in their desire to protect her. Even the imposter, no, even Markus, had been striving to fill the role her brother no longer could.

Lena felt sickened and disgusted by her own selfishness. For all his faults, Markus had managed what Mark couldn’t and had given Lena a second chance, and more besides. She glanced at the golem Hector and realised that she knew so little about her own father. Lena had been young when he had died, but even before that, she had just taken his presence for granted. If what Mark had said was true, Lena realised that she might have the opportunity to learn more about him. Even if it was through Mark’s eyes, she would rather have those memories of their father than just what little she had.

Having arrived at that realisation, Lena’s sense of guilt only intensified upon recognition of the double standard she had held for Markus. He had been everything left of her brother, and she had treated him like garbage.

As Lena continued to stare at the clone, she knew that she would rather have whatever her brother had become, than not have him at all.

The chimaera, Aela continued to stand listlessly by the wall, staring at the clone with irreconcilable despair.

Lena felt a fresh pang of guilt and shame. Markus had clearly meant a great deal to Aela, but she had given him up because it was what she thought would be best for him. To make him whole again, even though that meant losing him forever.

As the clo-Mark, Lena corrected herself, began to stir, Lena decided that no matter what shape the memories decided to take, she would treat them as her brother.

Mark was now staring at the ceiling, his unnaturally silver eyes slowly moving to and fro in response to something Lena couldn’t see. Apparently quite tired, Mark struggled slightly as he turned his head to the side and towards her. He took a small breath and was about to say something but stopped at the last moment, becoming distracted. Mark’s eyes grew unfocused and he worked his jaw for a few moments as if whispering to himself.

Mark’s silver-blue eyes came into focus again and stared at Lena for a few moments before returning to a regular intensity again. He looked past her and towards the chimaera with a profound expression of pain and guilt on his face, “Aela...” Mark croaked weakly, his voice little more than a wheezing gasp.

In spite of her decision, Lena felt a sense of profound loss. Her brother, as she had known him, was gone.

“Lena...” Mark’s voice spoke quietly in her ear.

Unable to help herself, Lena looked over her shoulder but found no one was there.

“Lena,” Mark’s voice repeated and this time Lena recognised that it was coming from the bluetooth device on her ear, “Can you hear me?”

Too confused to speak, Lena nodded before she realised that it probably wouldn’t do any good.

“Oh, good...” Mark’s disembodied voice stated with obvious relief, “Things have not gone as I expected...”

Lena tried to clear her dry throat so she could speak. “What do you mean?”

“In the simplest terms?” Mark’s voice asked with mild nervous amusement, “Some of our memories and personality traits weren’t as compatible as I thought they were...We are trying to figure out a roommate agreement...”

Lena furrowed her brow and glanced at the Mark laying on the table. He was struggling to speak with the chimaera and young girl, but Lena realised she was still in his line of sight. “You’re sharing a body?” She asked timidly.

“It’s more complicated than that,” there was a tiredness in Mark’s voice, but there was also a profound sense of relief, “But essentially, yes. And no, we cannot truly separate, we are bound together now, for better or worse.”

“But how?-” Lena began to ask but was abruptly interrupted.

“Intuitive artificing,” Mark replied somewhat smugly, “Markus’ methods are...strange...but they make sense. As constructs of mana, we can skip so many intermediary steps and just enchant a thing to do what we want it to. His primary limitation has been agency and imagination, but he overcame that by taking in another Artificer. He’s really quite clever...”

“You know you’re basically just complimenting yourself, right?” Lena joked somewhat awkwardly, trying to establish a degree of normalcy and reclaim the time they had lost.

“Hrm? Oh, yeah, I guess I am,” Mark agreed distractedly with a tone of embarrassment.

Lena noticed that Aela was fiercely kissing the Mark that was still lying on the table and realised why Mark had reacted so strangely, “You are sharing experiences,” Lena stated boldly, feeling a strange medley of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, she was relieved that Mark’s self-diagnosed descent into sensory deprivation-induced psychosis was no longer an imminent danger. On the other hand, Mark would be subjected to the sensory input of his other self. “Can he, the other you, hear us?” Lena asked self-consciously.

Mark was silent for a while. “That’s another complicated question,” he replied, “And I don’t have a simple answer I can give you. He can hear you already, and I think on some level Markus is generally aware of what I am saying and thinking, but it isn’t...this is hard to explain and I feel tired...sorry.”

“No,” Lena shook her head and was surprised to find that she was smiling in spite of everything that had happened, “We can talk later...So long as you promise that there will be a later?”

Mark was silent for a long handful of seconds. “Yes, there will be a later,” he replied with a sense of profound relief and confidence.

The other Mark, Markus, was now bundled up in Hector’s cloak and resting in Aela’s arms as she headed for the door.

Lena expected the chimaera to snub her and just leave, but Aela surprised her when she stopped at the threshold of the hallway beyond, “Markus would like to speak with you later when he has the strength...If you are going to disappoint him, you might as well leave now,” Aela stated flatly and then left.

Lena flinched, The criticism was not wholly undeserved. Only a few minutes prior, she had been convinced that having no brother at all was better than Markus, and she hadn’t been particularly subtle about it either.

“Time will see things right,” Hector promised reassuringly, “Now that there is time to be had.”

Lena was about to say something in response but was suddenly distracted as the little girl, Arlee, and her doll-like golem went running after the chimaera.

Hector escorted Lena back to the throne room while the four-armed golem set about cleaning up the pieces of broken jar from the floor.

Akane had obediently remained in the throne room throughout the whole ordeal, her ears twitching nervously as she eyed Hector up and down warily.

“I’m okay Akane,” Lena insisted, “And Hector isn’t a threat...he...He’s my dad,” it felt both incredibly strange, yet profoundly right as she said it aloud, and Lena noticed a slight change in Hector’s bearing.

Akane’s eyes widened slightly in surprise and curiosity.

“Or, what’s left of my dad,” Lena corrected, “My brother’s memories of him...”

“It is an honour to meet you,” Akane bowed her head to Hector without signs of malice.

“And to meet you as well,” Hector replied fluently.

“What was Lena like as a kid?” Akane asked curiously with a hint of mischief in her eyes, “Was she always so serious?”

Hector looked at Lena for a few moments and then shook his head, “No, not always. We used to dress up like princesses and have high tea with her stuffed toys on the weekends.”

Lena’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment and a small measure of confusion as she realised she had no concrete memories of doing any such thing. However, she did have vague recollections of having tea with her toys.

“Mostly, she liked to read, disappearing into her own little world,” Hector recalled wistfully, “Sometimes I would pretend I didn’t know where she was hiding so she would have more time to read,” a measure of regret entered his voice, “Of course, that meant that Mark would have to train that much longer with Brida on his own...Even knowing the difference it has made...I still think she was too hard on-”

“Nonsense!” A confident and cold voice declared, drawing Lena and Akane’s attention to a tall female bodied golem that had been quietly observing them from beside the throne. The golem’s voice was familiar to Lena in the same way as Hector’s had been and she quickly realised that there was only one possible explanation for it. “My training is what has kept Lena alive! If Mark had simply comitted himself, trained harder-”

“YOU SENT HIM TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM EVERY OTHER WEEK!” Hector roared, his fists trembling.

“He had to learn that mistakes have consequences,” the other golem replied coldly, “Our occupation is not for the weak.”

Lena felt physically ill. A host of fragmented memories from her childhood was knocked loose by the golems arguing. Memories of brutal spartan training sessions with her mother, Mark being covered in bruises and adults pretending not to see. Mark lying about falling out trees or down the stairs...

Lena had run away from it all as often as she could. Finding solace and escape in a book while her brother suffered. Lena had only been a child, but she realised that Mark’s covering for their parents because Hector was no saint in all of it either, it was why she had hated Mark so fiercely throughout her adolescence. At the time, Lena recalled thinking of Mark as a coward. It was only years after living in a completely different world that Lena felt shame at having thought of him in such a way.

The golems were staring one another down in a way entirely unique to their kind, neither giving ground and seemingly prepared to wait out the eventual death of the universe itself before admitting defeat.

Lena backed away and headed for the exit. She felt emotionally exhausted and needed to recharge before speaking with Mark again. Just the thought of being able to speak with her brother again gave Lena an immeasurable degree of comfort.

Taking Lena’s lead, Akane quickly joined her and once they were outside pointed to one of the nearby buildings, “It’s the one the ambassador used while he was here,” she explained, “So I don’t think they will mind if we use it. Assuming we aren’t being thrown out?”

Lena nodded tiredly and began walking towards the building Akane had indicated.

The door was unlocked, but the presence of a golem standing in the entry hall dispelled Lena’s assumptions that the building would not be secure.

As Akane made herself a home on a lounge in the sitting room, more golems began to appear. Some of them carried fresh linens up the stairs, others presented drinks and snacks on polished wooden platters. Lena instinctively knew that each of the golems had the same capacity for violence as Hector.

Too worn out to even attempt the stairs, Lena followed Akane’s lead and collapsed onto a lounge.

Lena woke up feeling only marginally better than when she had fallen asleep. A quick glance toward the window revealed why. Less than a few hours seemed to have passed at most.

Akane was still resting on her own lounge, but she was quietly strumming away on her shamisen.

It took Lena a few moments before she realised what was wrong. “Akane?” Lena asked warily.

“Mmm?” Akana glanced over at Lena curiously.

“I thought they broke your Shamisen?” Lena was actually fairly certain that a golem that in fact shattered it to pieces. Yet there it was in Akane’s hands, none the worse for wear.

“Oh, they did,” Akane agreed with a bitter sigh, “But they made me a new one. I had to spend a few minutes tuning it, but it’s almost the same as my old one.”

Lena didn’t think it was all that strange. The golems were only a couple of steps removed from being robots, and certainly qualified as A.I. Recreating a simple stringed instrument from memory would be incredibly easy.

“Lena?” There was a degree of hesitation in Akane’s voice that was otherwise so unlike her that it immediately drew Lena’s attention,

“Yeah?” Lena replied somewhat concerned by what could be bothering her best friend and travelling companion.

“Are you doing alright? It’s just, I know he isn’t who you were expecting...” Akane noted sympathetically, “But if it counts for anything, I couldn’t find a single chimaera that had anything bad to say about him. I don’t need to tell you how insanely rare that is. Even if he isn’t quite as you remember, your brother seems to have done right by a lot of people.”

Lena nodded. “Mark kept insisting that I give Markus credit,” she knew Akane wouldn’t really understand what she was talking about until she had a chance to express things more fully, but Lena needed to express her thoughts aloud, to make them real. “He kept saying that Markus had done the best he could with no real memories of who he was. That he was the one that brought us here in the first place-”

Akane was giving Lena her full attention, and the way her bushy tail was slowly curling back and forth made it obvious that Akane had questions. However, the look in her eyes suggested that Akane had already been aware of Lena’s revelation of who had been seeking out whom.

“-I thought he abandoned me, Akane,” Lena blinked back tears and hugged her arms against her chest, “But he didn’t, Mark was tortured for years in the dark while I played at being a hero and cursed him...”

“I did warn you not to do that,” Akane interjected with a nonjudgmental tone, “Celestial karma is a bitch.”

Lena couldn’t help herself and let out an exhausted laugh, “You did,” Lena agreed, “So many times...”

Akane was silent for a while, continuing to lightly strum the strings of her shamisen.

“He died, Akane, trying to escape,” Lena hugged her arms tighter, digging her fingers into her arms, “Markus was a sort of copy, a desperate attempt at trying to find me, to keep me safe...”

“I thought he smelled strange,” Akane muttered curiously to herself, “I just thought it was because he was so sickly...”

“You don’t even know the half of it...” Lena laughed bitterly, “Everything was so much more fucked up and complicated than I thought it would be...I had this whole speech-”

“Mhm,” Akane was very much aware. She had listened to different renditions dozens or perhaps even hundreds of times over the years.

“But now...” Lena just shook her head. She closed her eyes to try and gather her thoughts but drifted off to sleep instead.

Lena woke in a slight daze. She found herself lying beneath a soft blanket on a bed in a room she didn’t recognise. If it weren’t for Akane dozing on the bed next to her, Lena would have been sorely tempted to destroy the room in anticipation of an ambush.

Rivals and enemies alike had attempted to discredit Lena a number of times by compromising her with drugs or poison before they declared formal duels in front of witnesses. The majority of those attempts had been preceded by Lena finding herself in a bedroom she didn’t recognise. Lena didn’t consider herself an alcoholic, but sometimes she preferred to self-medicate to make her feelings more manageable.

Besides, a handsome bartender always made it more difficult to say no.

Lena found a number of different outfits laid out on top of the dresser at the end of the bed. With her armour destroyed, Lena had no reason to continue wearing her more formal combat attire. Passing over a scandalous kimono that matched Akane’s, Lena opted for a simple pair of trousers and an admittedly cute blouse just for the sheer novelty of it. She briefly considered wearing a pair of the boots provided but elected to continue wearing her sandals instead.

Akane joined her just as Lena was headed outside, “Couldn’t have spared a few minutes for breakfast?” She asked with amusement, “The food is strange but perfectly edible.”

“I am sure there will be food in the castle,” Lena replied somewhat glibly. In truth, she had deliberately avoided breakfast because of how nervous she was feeling.

Akane seemed distracted and very abruptly pointed down towards what looked like a training ground, “Hey! It’s those giant golems I was telling you about!” She cried excitedly as two golems, each the size of a house, came lumbering out of a storage warehouse near the training grounds, “Do you think your brother would let us go inside of them?!”

Lena frowned, “You can go inside of them?” She asked in surprise.

Akane nodded excitedly, “You control them from inside! Or that’s what the other chimaeras told me! Even that little girl has one!”

So far as Lena remembered, Mark had never been into mecha. So it was strange to see fully realised magical mecha so casually on display. It was even stranger to consider that Mark very likely had no input on their creation at all and that Markus was in fact the one responsible. Which made him both a scalie and a mecha fanboy. Then again, there was still the possibility that she didn’t know Mark as well as she thought she did.

“I could arrange it,” Mark’s disembodied voice chimed in, nearly giving Lena a heart attack in the process. Instead of being localised to the vicinity of her ear, Mark’s voice carried well enough that Akane heard it. “We are testing to see whether we can give one another a semblance of privacy,” Mark admitted somewhat sheepishly, “We can talk about things, and catch up, while you and your friend go through the synchronisation process?” He offered somewhat nervously, proving that Lena wasn’t the only one struggling with nerves.

Akane gave Lena a desperate pleading look.

“Ah, sure, fine,” Lena agreed, deciding that it might be for the best to give herself something to do if she couldn’t speak with him face to face.

“Yes!” Akane began running towards the storage warehouse while Lena trailed behind.

“Is this going to be our new normal?” Lena asked hesitantly, unsure of how well she would handle it long-term, which raised another painful topic, “What about when we go back home?...” Lena asked reluctantly.

Mark was silent for a while, but Lena was prepared to give him as long as he needed since she had dropped a heavy question on him without warning. “I...that is to say, we, think it would be better to stay,” Mark replied diplomatically, “But there are some good reasons why I think it is worth considering.”

“Like what? And how can we stay? I thought that wasn’t possible?” Lena asked neutrally, in no particular hurry to return to Earth and leave the life she had built for herself behind.

“Besides mom, what do we have to go back to?” Mark asked rhetorically, “We have been gone for a decade. While I miss some modern amenities, I can replace those with magical equivalents if I have a mind to, and Markus already has, thanks in no small part to picking Tina’s brain.”

“I suppose,” Lena agreed thoughtfully.

“Also, those portals you used to get here? They can do more than just allow fast and easy travel across the continent Lena,” Mark explained with a hint of barely suppressed excitement, “They can cross stars! Every planet in the universe, except Earth, is at our fingertips!”

Lena staggered at the enormity of what she had just heard, “Wh-what?”

“I told you, Markus is fucking smart,” Mark chuckled with no small measure of pride, “He reverse engineered the dungeons’ portal technology and has been refining it. He saved an entire people from extinction and resettled them on another planet!”

Lena’s head began to spin, “But what about the firm? What about the brokers? Aren’t we going to get in trouble? There’s no way this can be legal...”

“Oh it’s legal,” Mark replied, his tone suddenly deadly serious, “And even if it wasn’t, the kid gloves are off Lena. The firm betrayed us, betrayed all of us! They were the ones who helped set up that ambush!”

Lena felt sick.

“Peabody has defected. Markus’s golems were able to snatch him out of a...well...spaceship. Peabody was fairly certain they were going to interrogate and then execute him once they delivered him to their base,” Mark explained in a flustered rush.

“Peabody? Spaceship? Who was taking him prisoner? What are you talking about?” Lena demanded weakly.

“The Tiamites!” Mark replied somewhat manically.

Lena’s blood ran cold, “You don’t mean...”

“Yes!” Mark insisted, “Those Tiamites! The psychos trying to purge the universe!”

“Then we need to return to Earth!” Lena began to panic as half-remembered stories told to them by their parents began filtering back into her conscious mind. “We need to-”

“We aren’t running,” Mark replied flatly, “Markus and I are staying.”

Lena leaned on the wall of the warehouse for support and tried to stop her knees from shaking, “Why?” She croaked, “We can’t fight off a full-scale invasion! Everyone who ever tried is dead! You said those portals can take us to other planets?! So let's go!”

“No,” Mark replied firmly, “The tide turns here. If we run now, then we will never stop running. The Tiamites will whittle us down and then wipe us out. Lena, I don’t think you understand just how bad things are. They are about to win, and that means they will be able to take Earth too. There are only a handful of planets left and time is running out.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Lena demanded weakly. Then rather abruptly, she looked over at the rows of mediaeval mechas lined up in the warehouse.

“We are going to fight them, Lena, tooth and bloody nail!” Mark snarled vindictively, “We are going to show those fanatics what they get when they fuck with our family!”

Men and women in combat uniforms began filing into the warehouse and making their way to their assigned mechas. Each and every one of them bore a steely resolve in their eyes as they strapped themselves into their mecha’s cockpit and sealed the hatch.

Lena now realised that the exotic magical armaments of Markus’s nation were not intended for its neighbours at all. They had always been intended for the Tiamites and a final bloody showdown that would determine the fate of the universe.