The Fall (3)
From behind them came the sound of Theodore's sword giving out at last — a long, metallic groan as the blade bent.
"Run!"
Roseline grabbed Theodore by the collar and dragged him along.
One of his legs had gone limp, trailing uselessly behind him, and from his mouth spilled an incoherent mix of cursing and screaming.
"My sword — my sword…!"
"That's what matters right now?!"
"Do you have any idea what it cost? A blade the likes of you couldn't even dream of touching!"
Roseline no longer had the energy to argue, so she said nothing.
Behind them, something black was flowing again. Not water, not mud — something that scraped along the ground, dragging its body toward them.
They had to get back to Chloe and Marien, and fast.
Then, the moment she rounded the corner, Roseline stopped dead.
"Marien! Chloe! Are you okay? What in the world hap—"
The words never finished.
Chloe was collapsed in front of a pile of fallen stone. Her nails were cracked, her fingertips shredded — it looked as though she'd been clawing at the rocks without pause.
And beneath her hands, buried under the rubble, lay Marien.
"Marien."
Roseline let go of Theodore's collar and stepped forward.
"Marien, can you hear me?"
She called her name again and again, but there was no answer. She pressed her fingers to Marien's neck, searching for breath, but either it was already too late or — no. No reaction at all. Refusing to believe it, she checked again. Nothing. Still nothing.
"No. Wait. She's just…"
Roseline shoved at the boulders, heaving the big ones aside, clearing away the small ones, trying to reach Marien's shoulders. But her strength was gone. Whatever reserve she'd had left after the battle with that monster refused to answer her call, and the stone didn't budge so much as an inch.
"Move."
Chloe's voice came out cracked.
"I'll do it."
"Chloe, your hands are already torn to pieces."
"I said move."
Chloe gripped the rock again. Blood welled across her palms and stained them crimson, but the stone didn't shift at all.
Roseline caught her hands.
"Stop."
"No."
"Chloe."
"I said NO!"
Chloe's voice broke apart. The echo spread long and thin through the darkness. She couldn't bring herself to look at Marien; she only ground her teeth.
"She was talking just now. Just a moment ago… she was talking. I swear she was."
Roseline couldn't open her mouth.
"She said it wasn't your fault."
Chloe lowered her head.
"Right until the end. She said it wasn't your fault."
The words cut deeper than any blade. Roseline looked down at Marien — the face that had smiled I'm sorry only moments ago floated up behind her eyes.
"Why…."
It escaped her before she knew it, a murmur half-swallowed.
Why would Marien leave behind words like that? Why would a dying person have to say it wasn't your fault? And why was Roseline — the one who survived — the one who had to hear it?
'Why?'
In her hand, the Signal Stone glowed red.
She had gone to fetch it to save everyone. And in the time she'd spent going after it, Marien had died.
If I had stayed in place — would Marien still be alive?
"Don't make me laugh."
Theodore's rough voice came from behind. He'd hauled himself up against the wall, dragging one leg, his face a ruin of tears and dust, every trace of his earlier arrogance wiped clean away.
He didn't look at Marien.
Instead, he groped at the guard plate over his own chest. Empty. His eyes swung to the red Signal Stone in Roseline's hand.
"That… that's mine. That was always mine."
Chloe turned her head.
"Does that matter right now?"
"It matters!"
Theodore's voice shot out sharp as a blade between the ribs. Something black seemed to shift in the corridor behind them, and his throat bobbed hard.
"That thing's going to come after us. You saw it. Stabbing it didn't kill it. Cutting it apart, it just stitched itself back together. We don't have time to stand around here."
"Marien is dead."
Chloe's voice came out low, splintered. Theodore glanced at Marien — and looked away at once, as if lingering too long would make it his to answer for.
"A tragedy. Yes."
Chloe's face went rigid.
"What did you say?"
"But what matters now is staying alive. If that thing comes back, we all die."
He looked at Roseline again. His eyes were trembling, drenched in fear — and the fear was already hardening into thorns, reaching out to stab everything around it.
"Th-this… this isn't my responsibility."
Roseline's hand went stiff.
"I was the injured one. I could barely move, and that monster was dragging me away! In that situation, Beloa followed me. She chose to go after the Signal Stone."
"Are you actually insane?"
Chloe gritted her teeth.
"You were team leader. You led everyone into the central corridor! If you'd just moved safely from the start—"
"That was a judgment call during the drill!"
Theodore's voice was nearly a scream now.
"The central corridor was the official route. It's the path the professors designed! Everything after the fall is the problem — and from that point on, it was Beloa making the decisions. She followed me. She took the Signal Stone. And while she was doing that, this girl died, so—"
He pointed at Roseline.
"That is the result of Beloa's judgment."
Roseline swallowed.
I have to say something. No — that's not true.
Without the Signal Stone, everyone loses their chance of rescue. Following Theodore was the best call for the team. I didn't abandon Marien.
And yet, somehow, the words wouldn't come. Because even if he was lying, in the end it wasn't all that different from the truth.
It was true that she had followed Theodore. True that she'd taken the Signal Stone. True that Marien had died while she did.
"You made the choice. So you take the responsibility."
His voice shook, but underneath it sat a vicious, calculating edge.
Chloe tried to push herself up.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Try it."
Theodore took a step back — but even as he did, his eyes kept darting back to the dark.
"If you've got time to lay hands on me, spend it figuring out how to run. That thing is coming. Any minute now. You all SAW what it did!"
His voice climbed higher and higher.
"And kill me, you say? If I die here, that's on all of you. Every bit of it — stealing the Signal Stone, abandoning your team leader, getting a team member killed. All of it!"
Chloe was breathing hard, ragged with fury.
Roseline looked down at the stone in her palm. She'd brought it back to save every member of the team — brought it so they could be found. But now it looked like nothing so much as a piece of evidence.
Proof that she had left Marien behind.
And then—
"That's enough."
A familiar voice drifted down from above, and Roseline slowly lifted her head.
From above the collapsed corridor, a silver thread descended. It braced itself against the split walls, lashing together the ceiling that threatened to give way — and through it, Serena came down.
The hem of her cloak was torn; stone dust clung to her gloves. She was not, for once, immaculate.
Behind her, the silver threads spread quietly, seizing the rubble and the black after-trace of that thing and drawing them up into a thin veil across the passage.
As if to say: do not disturb us here.
The crystal orb was dead, and the professors had nothing to hold onto but the Signal Stone's coordinates. Serena, it seemed, had come down knowing exactly that.
"Serena…."
Roseline called to her in a low voice, but Serena didn't answer. She only looked around.
Marien, buried under the rubble. Chloe, soaked in blood. Roseline, frozen with the Signal Stone in her grip. And Theodore.
"What did you just say?"
Theodore recognized Serena — and still couldn't stop himself. Fear and self-preservation had tangled into something that had short-circuited his brain entirely.
"Lady Arzen? Perfect timing. This girl — this girl did this to us. She stole the Signal Stone, left that girl behind, tried to get me killed—"
"I asked you a question."
Serena smiled.
"What was it you just said to Roseline?"
Theodore's lips trembled — fear, fury, no telling which — but still he didn't stop.
"I only stated the facts! Lady Beloa made her choice. She followed me. She left that girl behind. So the responsibility—"
Serena's fingertip moved. A single, thread-fine strand of silver drifted down and touched the back of Theodore's neck.
Roseline's eyes went wide.
"Serena."
Serena didn't look at her. She spoke in a voice soft as a lullaby.
"Roseline. Are you going to keep listening to a man who talks like that?"
"S-stop. Stop it."
"Why?"
Only then did Serena's gaze land on Roseline.
"He's only saying the words you can't bring yourself to say."
Roseline's breath caught.
"What are you…."
"You think it too. Don't you?"
Serena's voice was gentle. Silken.
"That it was your choice."
The color drained from Roseline's face. Serena took a slow step toward her.
"But it's all right."
The thread drew tight, quiet and smooth. Only then did Theodore realize something was closing around his throat — and his face locked up.
"L-Lady Arzen…?"
"Whatever you can't do, I'll do for you."
"Don't."
Roseline reached out to stop her — far, far too late. Serena's fingertip curled.
There was a short, sharp crack.
Theodore's body crumpled without a sound.
Silence settled over the cavern. Chloe stood rigid, hardly daring to breathe, and Roseline stared at the place where Theodore had fallen. The voice that had been flinging blame around seconds ago was simply gone.
When Roseline finally raised her eyes to Serena, Serena smiled at her — brighter than she ever had before.
"It's all right, Roseline. You don't need to be afraid."
That voice was uncannily, impossibly gentle.
"I'm the one who killed him."