Chapter Text
Claude returned in a state that was far more disheveled than he had ever shown before. No one was particularly surprised, nor could he be blamed, but it still put frowns on the other travelers’ faces, to see one of their own look so dejected and generally done with the world. Trousseau of all people was the first one to walk over and offer comfort. Of course, he did it in his own strange way - by merely patting Claude on the shoulder. Still, it must have been good enough, because Claude could at least force a weak smile across his face instead of continuing to sulk.
“Come on,” he spoke, barely having enough energy to force up a characteristic chuckle from his dry throat, “Don’t we have better things to do?”
“Well…we do,” agreed Harvey, “But we aren’t going to be doing anything if you’re walking around looking like your family got slaughtered.”
“I wouldn’t mind if my previous family got slaughtered,” Claude replied in a sweet tone.
His words were anything but sweet. The juxtaposition between the subject matter and Claude’s joyful tone made everyone tremble. It seemed like even when he was in a bad mood, the thief’s constant dichotomy never failed to make them feel like they were all traveling with a murderer. None of them actually knew a lot about Claude, after all, he rarely talked about his past and no one ever bothered to bring up the topic in fear that he’d take it the wrong way. Maybe, just maybe, that was for the best, if his response to Harvey was any indication.
“G-great,” Tanzy chimed in while trying (and frankly failing) to hide the fear in her voice, “Anyway, w-we should get some r-rest for now. Claude, you can sleep alone tonight, you look like you need it.”
“Oh? But I was looking forward to resting with dear Trousseau for a change!” Claude playfully bemoaned, “Alas, it seems as if I’ll have to sleep on my own tonight.”
Tanzy rolled her eyes back, walking off towards the inn before anyone could complain. Fortunately, no one did such a thing, everyone having long-since recognized that rest was certainly what they needed when tomorrow was almost assuredly going to be a tough day. Mainly for Harvey; he was the one who wanted Vanstein dead so badly, and it was him that they were worried about above all else. Vanstein had taken his entire life away from him - would Harvey truly be ready to confront him?
They sure hoped so, otherwise they basically came here for nothing that was massively important. Harvey himself was the first one to trudge up into his inn room and collapse onto his bed. Everyone else did the exact same thing, the fight with Sebastian being a tiring ordeal that none of them were eager to repeat. Luckily, they wouldn’t have to ever again, now that he was no longer of this world. Perhaps he’d meet his sweet Marietta again if there was an afterlife (even if Sebastian didn’t really deserve happiness in most of the travelers’ eyes).
It wasn’t out of the question, but it also wasn’t a scenario that anyone cared about enough to ponder on, not even Claude. So, rather than occupying their thoughts with someone who was no longer a threat to them, the eight closed their eyes and allowed a stressful but long slumber to overtake their senses.
Harvey woke up with a start.
A quick look out of the window revealed that the morning had already come. The time to confront Vanstein was nigh, lest they wasted any more time on allowing him to continue roaming free. Granted, Harvey still didn’t know if Stenvar was lying or not. Ideally, he’d find out if he was or not soon. Because if Stenvar had been deceiving him this entire time…well, there was nothing in Harvey’s (admittedly busy) schedule that said he couldn’t pay a brief visit to Conning Creek, was there?
Still, he didn’t really want to think about the possibility of being led on a wild goose chase by the greediest man to quite possibly ever exist. Harvey wearily slid out of bed, rubbing at his sore head. Understandably, the anticipation towards finally confronting Vanstein was already having quite the ill effects on his body. Not to mention that Vanstein just had to be in Montwise specifically. The place where Harvey’s parents had perished so many years ago.
Deep down inside, he was clinging onto hope that maybe, just maybe, they had been watching his journey this entire time. They had perished so many years ago that it probably was foolish of him to believe they were still monitoring his progress through life. Harvey also didn’t want to think about his elders seeing the rather generous amount of crimes he had willingly played accomplice to. For every one of his allies’ misdemeanors that he bothered to protest against, there were at least three more that he willingly turned a blind eye to.
I hope that they won’t be mad at me for all the larceny that I’ve witnessed and let slide… Harvey glumly mused.
“Uh oh. You’ve got that look on your face again, Harvey. What are you thinking about?”
Harvey would never admit that he physically jumped in the air from hearing that familiar voice. When he turned around to face it, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Arcanette standing right there, crossing her arms at him like a mother preparing to scold her child. A frown was quick to find its way on Harvey’s tired face. Of all things that he wanted for this morning, a lecture was definitely not one of them. Sadly, it didn’t seem like he would be getting out of this one, so Harvey merely sighed and decided to be honest with Arcanette.
“...my parents,” he replied in a sad tone that immediately told Arcanette they were no longer of this world.
Arcanette frowned, immediately understanding what Harvey was getting at here. To try and offer him a bit of comfort, she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, trying to let him know that everything was going to be okay. It didn’t work as well as she wanted it to, given that the frown on his face was still there, but he at least acknowledged her efforts with a casual nod. Harvey was a rather closed-off type of person, one that didn’t usually like to share details about his past. This was the first time he had well and truly opened up, albeit rather briefly.
With Harvey’s approval, Arcanette leaned in to give the scholar a big hug. The gesture showed how much she cared for him, and it made him smile, to know that he was blessed with such fortunate allies. Even if he hardly believed that he deserved them at times. Arcanette was the one who had saved him from perishing in a rather embarrassing manner all those months ago. From that moment, their close bond as fast friends was sealed.
“I’m sure that they still speak of you in whatever afterlife they’re resting in,” said Arcanette, “You’ve done so much over these past few months, Harvey. Know that if we’re proud of you, they certainly have no reason not to be.”
“Mm. That is very kind of you to say. My thanks, Arcanette,” Harvey nodded gratefully, slowly leaning into Arcanette’s hug, “I’m happy that you’re here.”
“As am I,” was Arcanette’s instant reply, “Now, shall we meet with the others?”
“We shall.”
Harvey intertwined his hand with Arcanette’s, squeezing it gently. Though she was caught off-guard by the gesture that could easily be misconstrued as one of romantic affection, she reciprocated it as extra reassurance. Together, the two travelers walked out of their room and descended down the stairs, where the rest of their friends were already waiting. Unsurprisingly, it was Claude that looked the most tired of them all this time around. His eyes were reddened and worn, like he had sprinted a marathon prior to getting in bed.
Noting that Harvey and Arcanette were staring at him, Claude spoke: “I’m fine. Last night was…stressful, to say the least,” he added to his words with a long, exasperated sigh, “Please forgive me for still not feeling all too well.”
“Hey! No!” Ori stomped her shoe on the wooden ground, “We’re not mad at you for being hurt that your girlfriend was previously with the man you had to kill, Claude. Stop with that stuff already!”
“Well, I’m afraid that is easier said than done,” countered Claude, “I will try my best to shut up nonetheless.”
Oboro swatted Ori’s arm for daring to use such an abrasive tone towards someone who was clearly tired and hurting. She gave him a side-eye, but said nothing else, at least having the decency to know that she was in the wrong here. The rest of the group didn’t look in a much better state than Claude himself, anyway. No one was expecting the confrontation with Sebastian to be an easy one, yet he still managed to tire them all out for this long. A man truly worthy of his title as Father of the Blacksnakes.
What mattered now was that he was gone. He’d never hurt anyone ever again. That was more than enough to make them all feel good about the trouble they went through to track him down and kill him in the first place. Ideally, Vanstein after today, would follow Sebastian’s example and die once they found out where he was hiding. It was about time that he paid for his crimes against both Harvey and his own family. On this day, Professor Osvald V. Vanstein was going to perish…assuming that he was here at all.
“Where do you think we should start looking first, Harvey?” questioned Tanzy with a scratch of her chin.
“The library seems like the most likely place for him to be, does it not?” Petrichor joined in, a bark from Akalā backing up his master, “I doubt he’d have any qualms about just flaunting himself in public - he seems like just the type of jerk to do such a thing.”
The obvious irony in Petrichor’s side comment elicited laughter from the rest of the travelers. Excluding the obvious Trousseau, yet including her own pet, though Akalā hadn’t ever been exempt from laughing at his master’s expense when she was acting particularly ridiculous. Petrichor, funnily enough, didn’t seem to comprehend what everyone else found so funny. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow underneath her mask, wondering if she was simply missing an inside joke between the rest of the group.
“And just what are you all laughing at?” she demanded, “If it truly is so amusing, then I wish to know at once.”
Trousseau added: “I don’t get it either.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s nothing that you two need to worry about!” Ori half-heartedly assured the confused duo only to then change the subject entirely, “So! Are we going to the library, Harvey?”
“That seems like the best course of action,” confirmed the scholar, “We should make sure to stay careful, however. I don’t think I need to remind you all that a man of Vanstein’s caliber and egocentrism is dangerous for anyone that crosses his path.”
Instantly, the humorous atmosphere was replaced with a tense one, full of apprehension and fear. Everyone already knew that Vanstein wasn’t a man to be trifled with - that was obvious from what he put poor Harvey through - and yet his subtle presence all around Solistia continued to carry an oppressive malefic aura with it. Regardless, they had all come too far to turn tail and give up now. They weren’t going to turn back on Harvey at the moment where he needed assistance more than ever.
Thus, the group nodded, accepting that they were willingly walking headfirst into danger. Harvey nodded back before finally turning to exit the inn for possibly the last time in his life. The innkeeper, oblivious to what the rather large group of travelers were planning, waved to them as politely as they would with any other strangers. A frown spread across their face when they received no such courtesy back. Perhaps they wouldn’t have minded so much if they knew what difficult task this eccentric band of misfits were striving to accomplish.
The confusion of the innkeeper mattered not, naturally. Right now, the top priority for the travelers was finding Vanstein: any (made-up) explanations about their true intentions could come later. Harvey led the way towards the Montwise library, not even fearing the possibility of being recognized when virtually no one up to this point had seen through his obviously effective disguise. One of these days, he’d need to return to Arkar and thank him for his services. Preferably when there was nothing else that needed to be done.
Montwise’s library could be described with many adjectives. Small, though? That certainly wasn’t one of them; quite the opposite, actually. Harvey had been here before, but he was still blindsided by the sheer size of this place the instant that he opened those double doors from his childhood. If it was shocking for him, then it was like being struck by lightning to his companions, who all somehow hadn’t ever seen the most famous collection of knowledge in all of Solistia until now.
“Wow!” Ori exclaimed a bit too loudly for her surrounding environment, “This is so-”
“Quiet!”
The librarian’s strict voice drew everyone’s attention over to them. Ori, now feeling embarrassed that she somehow forgot that libraries are always supposed to be quiet, shrunk down and hid behind Oboro. He gave her a pat on the head, which calmed both her and the librarian down. Rather than risking breaking their own rule by scolding Ori more, the librarian instead beckoned the whole group over with a finger. Since they had no real reason to suspect any ill intentions here, the travelers obeyed their order without much hesitance.
With the exception of Harvey, that is. His walk was filled with suspicion more than the casual trustiness of his allies. After all, there was nothing eliminating this innocent-looking librarian as being a part of Vanstein’s posse. The wicked scholar had already long since proven himself to be several steps ahead in whatever game of chess he had set up for his ex-friend. Checkmate was waiting at the end of the road, and Harvey doubted that he would be the one calling it when he was proving to be nothing more than a pawn to that wretched man thus far.
Perhaps waltzing into this very library was exactly what Vanstein wanted. The probability of that was disturbingly high, and yet Harvey wasn’t apprehensive enough to stop himself from approaching the librarian sitting at her desk. She stared up at him with an expression that she knew entirely too much, making his neutral expression turn into a nervous frown. Harvey quickly began to fear that the librarian was about to break her own rules by hollering for the local guard to come and arrest him. Letting a criminal into a library probably wasn’t good for public relations, if he had to hazard a guess.
“Hm?”
Rather than yelling, the librarian merely let out a noise of confusion, complete with a head-tilt that made her look more like a lost dog.
“Are you going to enter or not?” she followed-up, “You’re all acting quite strange.”
“Sorry,” Ori apologized again. The librarian waved a hand dismissively in response.
Harvey saw this as a good time to speak up: “Forgive us if our behavior seems odd, ma’am. We’re all exhausted from the long journey we took to get here in the first place. I can promise that we’ll be gone by tomorrow.”
“...I see,” came the librarian’s (surprisingly not cautious) reply, “Good to know. You all are free to enter, then. Have a good time here,” she finished, smiling in a cordial-yet-professional manner.
The librarian swerved her head back to face whatever book she had been reading prior to the travelers’ interruption. Harvey breathed a sigh of relief under his breath before moving forward, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow him. Which wasn’t really necessary when they were planning on doing so anyway. Occasionally, their attention was naturally taken up by the many book-filled shelves decorating these quiet halls. Still, Harvey’s allies at least had the decency to try and focus on what they were here for, rather than allow themselves to be distracted so easily.
“Well, we’re certainly in the library now,” whispered Tanzy, as if that fact wasn’t blatantly obvious, “Any suggestions for our next move, Harvey?”
“Not at all!” Harvey responded in a fully truthful tone, “I doubt Vanstein would be foolish enough to loiter in a place where we could easily find him. He must be hiding somewhere here, right?” The scholar made a show out of scanning the premises before continuing, “Plus, he’d have to hide his no-doubt illegal activities from the librarian at the front, so-”
“Can’t we just ask her if she saw him lately?”
Trousseau’s words were pointing out the very obvious. They were still memorable all the same because of the fact they came from his mouth and not literally anyone else’s. It wasn’t like the little apothecary to say something when someone else could simply do it for him. His suggestion was far too clear as a solution for some other person to have not pointed out sooner rather than later. So, to hear him speak up despite the pointlessness of it was surprising, but no less helpful.
“We can,” agreed Harvey, turning back to the librarian. She was too busy paying attention to his book to notice his gaze on her, necessitating him to clear his throat loud enough for her to look up at him. Once Harvey had her focus, he put on the sweetest smile that he could manage to make his next words seem as innocent as possible: “By the way, I forgot to ask. Have you seen Professor Vanstein lately? I’ve heard that he frequents this library quite often.”
“Professor Vanstein, you say? Of course I’ve seen him!” the librarian so helpfully confirmed, “He comes by here plenty, but I’ve never actually seen him leave. Only enter. Curious, is it not?”
The librarian’s friendly, appealing smile was a perfect juxtaposition to the disturbed frowns of Harvey and those that came with him.
“...yes,” Harvey choked out, “I would certainly describe it as curious…”
“Indeed! Now, is that all you wanted to ask me?” A hum came from the librarian’s throat as she rested her elbows on the desk.
“I believe so,” nodded Harvey, “Thank you for your assistance.”
“Anytime. Please feel free to return if you require any other services.”
Now having direct confirmation that Vanstein had come here recently, Harvey finally entered the library proper. He had already seen Montwise’s extensive book collection plenty of times before, but it did nothing to lessen the beautiful sight of so much literature up on those wooden shelves. As much as he wished to stay here and read for the rest of his days, there was important business for Harvey to take care of. So alas, anything that wouldn’t help with his goal of turning Vanstein into a corpse would have to wait for another time.
Predictably, the library was packed to the brim with people from all walks of life. To the surprise of Petrichor and Akalā in particular, there were plenty of beastlings to be found as well! Beastlings that were most likely regulars to this library, considering that no one - not even the head librarian - was batting an eye at their presence. It was a curious sight for sure, but not one that they had much time to ponder on. Until Vanstein was found, this entire building was a crime scene in disguise, and it was best to treat it as such.
Unfortunately, with how massive the library was in terms of its size, it was only natural that it’d also be an absolute pain to look through. Asking the librarian for help was out of the question. She couldn’t know anything of just why exactly they were so interested in finding Vanstein. In an idealistic scenario, she’d merely kick them out for planning murder in her library, whilst her snitching on them to both Vanstein and the city guard was certainly the worst of the potential outcomes. Either way, the risk simply wasn’t worth the potential of adding a singular additional helper to their cause.
The travelers had split up to try and find Vanstein’s whereabouts. For once, the quiet of the library was going to work in their favor. If one of them did end up coming across the man they were looking for, a quick scream would draw the attention of everyone over to them, including the rest of the group. Sure, they’d definitely get kicked out by the librarian for disturbing the peace, but hopefully Vanstein would already be dealt with at that point. Admittedly, this was by no means a foolproof plan; a shame, then, that it was the only one Harvey came up with.
Harvey himself was all the way at the bottom of the library. Arcanette was beside him…and a fluffy tail and soft ears were accompanying her as well. Prior to searching on their lonesome, the travelers had all agreed to put on the beastling-shifting pendants that they received all those months ago from the strange hunter back in Toto’haha. They’d been considered a luxury item more than anything, which was the exact reason why they saw no use up until now. Vanstein was going to be an elusive target to find, so any little help that they could scrounge up would have to do.
“I still don’t get why everyone thinks that I’m a rat,” complained Harvey while combing his way through bookshelves, “My tail doesn’t look rat-like in the slightest!”
To demonstrate, he thumped his tail against the ground, unintentionally making more noise than he initially wanted to. The people nearby (however few of them there were down here) immediately whipped their heads around to shush him. Blushing, Harvey shrunk himself down to look smaller than he actually was, wrapping his decidedly not rat-like tail around himself in embarrassment. Arcanettte giggling and chuckling beside him was no help with his humiliation. Obviously, it only made it worse, but her happiness was enough for Harvey to not comment on her amusem*nt towards his suffering.
“...point taken, I said that a bit too loud,” Harvey admitted in a sheepish tone, “W-well, anyway. Have you picked up on any suspicious scents yet, Arcanette?”
Arcanette shook her head, her perky ears drooped down, “Not yet, I’m afraid. You did say that Vanstein was the crafty sort. I can tell that easily for sure.”
“I do hope that the others are having better luck than us, at least. The last thing we need is to be cooped up in here all day…” Harvey sighed at the possibility, keeping his tail wrapped around himself for a bit of self-comfort.
The library’s patrons paid them no mind. There weren’t many in the lower level of the building to begin with, and those that were here showed too much interest in their books to bother paying attention to their surroundings. It was better for none of them to know what the scholar and cleric were planning. Sadly, Harvey was aware that Vanstein was well-loved around these parts (and the rest of Solistia in general). No one could know that he was planning to kill that man, not when they didn’t know the true story of why he so despised him.
Harvey considered himself to be a rather patient man, but he found it difficult to avoid getting frustrated at this moment. Neither he nor Arcanette had found any trace of Vanstein in this area. Considering that it was the most sheltered of all the library’s corners, it was their best option, and yet it seemed like the mad scholar was still several steps ahead of them all. The realization filled Harvey with fury that he only wasn’t showing because he happened to be very good at hiding his emotions at this point.
“We can agree on that,” came the tired reply from Arcanette. She lifted herself up and sniffed the air, but not even her keen nose could pick up on anything. A frown spread across Arcanette’s face, her arms crossing in snobbish dismay, “Hmph. If nothing else, that professor sure knows how to cover up his scent.”
“I’m surprised that he does at all. Or that he would account for something with a powerful sense of smell trying to track him down in the first place. Strange, isn’t it?” From his own words, Harvey’s expression turned from frustrated to thoughtful. He scratched at his chin, “Too strange, if you ask me.”
“And far too convenient for my tastes!” added Arcanette in the midst of her thorough scent-based examination of every bookshelf on the floor, “I dislike when someone claims that they have a bad feeling about something. That always ends up making things worse. However…” she breathed out an exasperated puff of air from her throat, “...truly, I do have a bad feeling about this, Harvey.”
“Be reassured that the feeling of dread is mutual,” Harvey responded. The tone of his voice was dry, yet playful in the way that only Arcanette could bring from him.
The cleric herself opened her mouth to playfully snark back at him. Oddly enough, she then proceeded to immediately cut herself off and very insistently sniff at the shelf she had been facing normally just a few seconds ago. Arcanette dramatically leaned her head in to press her nose against a few of the books. She completely ignored the understandably confused looks of everyone nearby. Including Harvey himself, who was now scratching at his head rather than his chin.
“Arcanette?” he prodded gently, “What are you-”
Arcanette acted before Harvey could finish the rest of his sentence. Whining, she began to incessantly claw at the bookshelf she’d been sniffing at, not unlike how an actual dog would. The few people nearby were more than happy to back away and just not question what she was planning. Harvey was grateful for that, but he was still confused; that is, until Arcanette’s hand pushed aside a book that looked a bit too loose in its spot to be anything other than suspicious. Sure enough, as soon as the book fell to the ground, the entire shelf that it was hidden within began to move and shift.
To say that Harvey was gobsmacked would be an understatement. He watched Arcanette reveal a remarkably well-hidden undercover passage right in front of his very eyes with a jaw-dropped expression, unable to do much of anything except stare and let the spectacle play out. Arcanette, for her part, didn’t let the nosy gazes of the onlookers nearby slow down her actions. Once she realized that she had likely found where Vanstein was hiding this entire time, she used all of her strength to push the bookshelf faster, forcing it to move over completely.
“Get the others,” Arcanette quite literally barked out, “We don’t have time to waste.”
The rather bossy order instantly snapped Harvey out of his dumbfounded trance. Upon getting his senses together, he quickly nodded before making a beeline for the stairs; and with them, the rest of the library. Arcanette would be perfectly fine on her own, provided that she wasn’t foolish enough to try confronting Vanstein on her lonesome. Not that there was a one-hundred percent chance of the tricky man being home to begin with. Whether Vanstein was currently occupying the hidden passage or not, Harvey moved as fast as he could, knowing that he was definitely about to be greeted with a very grim trap either way.
But what else was there for him to do except walk into it?
Harvey was nearly out of breath by the time that he found just two of his allies. The weary scholar practically wheezed his way over to Ori and Oboro, who both looked back at him like he was as crazy as the man he was hunting. Despite their confusion, they were courteous enough to help him first, using their wings to help him stand upright once more. Something that Harvey thanked them for with a nod, since he didn’t really trust himself to speak when his throat felt like it was burning up.
“Are you alright?” asked Oboro, head tilted. Very bird-like.
“Y-yeah. I’m a-alright,” Harvey assured them. Briefly, he took a break to catch his breath before he dared to speak any further, “Arcanette found a secret entrance, you see. Possibly one belonging to Vanstein.”
“Ooh! Sounds cool…wait, no, Vanstein isn’t cool!” Ori crossed her arms to look disinterested, “A-anyway, Brother and I will get the others. You make sure that Arcanette doesn’t get hurt!”
“Right,” Harvey nodded, and he ran off to do just that.
As he ran off once more, he could hear the flapping of the two adoptive siblings’ wings. They’d be able to alert the rest of his allies far faster than he could himself. Harvey let out a tired sigh, but made sure to keep his feet moving fast. If Vanstein truly was waiting here, then he certainly didn’t want Arcanette to confront him alone, without any help. Only the gods knew what the mad scholar had been planning for this past half-decade.
Unsurprisingly, Arcanette was gone by the time that Harvey made it back to the secret entrance she had found. He didn’t hesitate to immediately sprint into the darkness to follow her. The same people from earlier thankfully already went back to what they were doing, seemingly having no interest in what was happening around them aside from basic curiosity. Given how little pity Vanstein had for the lives of his own family, Harvey doubted that he would care about killing off a couple unneeded bystanders.
Thus, he was actually quite grateful that the onlookers had enough common sense to mind their own business. Perhaps they knew that this was a task for someone else to take on - someone that certainly wasn’t them. But this was no time for interrogating these random people. Instead of doing that, Harvey turned his head towards the yawning void that Arcanette had likely charged into, and sprinted inside before he could possibly begin to get second thoughts about all of this.
“Arcanette?” he called out worriedly, “Where are you?”
No response, aside from the silent ambience of the secret entrance he had so recklessly ran into. Harvey hadn’t been expecting Arcanette to reply to begin with, but the sudden lack of her presence still creeped him out. Swallowing, he accelerated his pace, letting his feet move on autopilot through the hidden passageway that Vanstein had no doubt intentionally set up in a way that would be relatively easy for him to find. Ironic, then, that it was Arcanette’s keen sense of smell that ended up finding this place in the end.
At the end of the tunnel, there was sadly no light. There were a few torches lighting the new area that Harvey had discovered, but they hardly compared to the sunlight from the outside. If anything, the dimly-lit pillars only added to the creepy ambience of this miserable area he had stumbled onto (with Arcanette’s help). Harvey had to squint to see his surroundings fully, and even then he felt like there were a thousand eyes aside from Vanstein’s scouting his every move in the semi-darkness.
Harvey was quick to decipher what this place truly was: a laboratory. Vanstein’s laboratory, to be more specific. No one else that Harvey knew of would have so many papers, files, and other miscellaneous scholarly objects scattered everywhere without a care in the world - not even Regulus. Part of him had a feeling that Vanstein wasn’t actually this messy and had only set all of this up in such a familiar manner to somehow mock him more. That was certainly likely to be the case…that man could only be described as a sad*stic maniac to the very end.
“This place is so dirty. How long do we have to stay here?”
A familiar voice brought Harvey’s attention to his back. Sure enough, all of his allies had already shown up. Every single one of them had their beastling pendants off, now back to their default human forms. Probably because there wasn’t any need to keep wearing them when they had likely already found where Vanstein was hiding. This reminded Harvey to take off his own amulet, where he then proceeded to tuck it safely away into his pocket until its powers were needed again (if they would be at all).
“Not long, Petrichor. Probably?” Harvey shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, “I’m not sure. Who knows how big this laboratory is?”
“Too big, if you ask me,” complained Petrichor. By her side, Akalā let out a miserable bark that told everyone he was already having a very bad time. Everyone frowned, Petrichor lowering a hand to stroke underneath her pet’s fuzzy chin, “Akalā agrees. The smell of rot and decay down here is no help.”
“Rot and decay? From what?” Tanzy prodded, even if she really didn’t want to know what Petrichor was talking about.
“Don’t know,” was Petrichor’s very unhelpful reply, “But I do know that we should stay very, very careful. Where is Arcanette?”
“Noted. I assume that we’ll find Arcanette further in…” Harvey turned to face a nearby door, “We should start getting a move on. The longer that we loiter around here, the more danger that she’ll be in if Vanstein is home.”
With that, the trek through Vanstein’s hidden laboratory had well and truly begun. Despite Harvey just declaring that they should move fast to find Arcanette sooner, the group moved at a rather sluggish pace. Not because they actually wanted to; rather, the hazards here were treacherous enough to where taking their time was necessary to keep their limbs attached. Liquid and chemicals were absolutely everywhere, dirtying the ground and Vanstein’s counters and spilling out of beakers that had been smashed from apparent rage.
Once upon a time, when he and Vanstein were still on cordial terms, Harvey would have found the sight of so many failed experiments endearing. Now, he only thought that it was nothing short of absolutely terrifying. What was Vanstein planning that required breaking so many perfectly good containers out of frustration? Harvey wasn’t sure if his mind was prepared to hear the answer to that question. Yet, he also knew that living in oblivious bliss was exactly what got Rita and Elena killed…
Harvey took another look back to see how his allies were doing. Understandably, they were all doing fine at best and horrible at worst. Oddly enough, the one that seemed to be the most disheveled here was Trousseau. The neutral frown on his face was still there, but his body seemed like it wouldn’t stop shaking. Even with the hands of Claude and Oboro on either side of his shoulders, Trousseau’s body was vibrating like he had sprinted in circles for too long. Why this was the case, Harvey had not a single clue.
And honestly?
He was more than okay with that.
Weird trembling aside, Trousseau kept up with the group just fine. Thus, Harvey decided to not bring up the topic entirely and instead continue to focus on the stony road ahead. Occasionally, he did notice a paper or two that Vanstein had snatched from him, which certainly did fill Harvey with a bit of rage. Rage that he then proceeded to hold down and bottle up until it was truly warranted. He didn’t particularly care that Vanstein was using his own observations - the real issue was the fact that he killed his own family and then pinned the blame on him.
“Seems like we’re close to the end now,” Petrichor said after a while of silence, “Akalā is beginning to relax. I think that he can smell Arcanette.”
“Really? Phew!” Ori wiped a bead of sweat off her eyebrow, “I was really beginning to get worried about her. How long have we been down here?”
“Too long,” commented Oboro.
Ori giggled a bit, but immediately zipped her lips when Akalā ran off. It seemed like he had indeed smelled something that greatly interested him, whether that be Arcanette or some other person they all failed to account for. His genuine excitement told them that it wasn’t Vanstein, at least. Petrichor scrambled to follow her pet, while the rest of the group was quick to follow suit. Including Harvey, no matter how much he wanted to continue investigating this laboratory to see if it held anything actually useful that he could steal. There was nothing wrong with looting from criminals in his book.
All of a sudden, the sounds of Akalā’s paws against the hard floor skidded to a halt entirely. Petrichor, fearing that the worst might have happened, picked up her pace. Fortunately, it didn’t take much longer for her and the others to find Akalā. Right beside the lājackal was Arcanette, who already had her beastling pendant off. She didn’t look to be injured or anything, but her lack of movements suggested that she was shocked into staying still by whatever was in front of her and Akalā.
“Is something wrong?” Petrichor asked, waving a hand in front of the stunned Arcanette’s face, “What are you two looking at?”
In response, Arcanette raised a finger to turn Petrichor’s mask so that it was facing directly forward. The lack of a verbal response only creeped out the usually stalwart Dark Hunter more. Arcanette was typically someone who enjoyed talking the ears off of anyone near her, especially if they had already proven to approve of her presence. Seeing her act so silent and reserved was disturbing, to say the least. Regardless, Petrichor heeded Arcanette’s unspoken order and turned ahead, expecting to see some scholarly nonsense that she had no hope of understanding.
That would have been far more wholesome than what she actually saw.
To start, the layout of the room looked the same as the rest of the laboratory. The same boring and drab dull black color coated the area, the inconspicuousness of it a perfect juxtaposition to the horrors that were within this room in particular. A trio of filled jars scattered on the nearby shelves were the culprits behind transforming an ordinary research station into something much more horrifying. Within the containers: three trophies. Each of which were far more familiar than they had any right to be.
First, a crystal-like feather. Albeit one that was hard to see - there was plenty of frost clouding the glass of the jar. Some of it had even spread to the shelf that it was resting on. The sight would have been beautiful if Petrichor wasn’t certain that she had seen this before. Glacis, the latest and final Creature of Legend that she had recruited, boasted beautiful plumage with a color and sheen identical to this very quill. Vanstein couldn’t have possibly gotten it himself, unless…
…suddenly, Petrichor didn’t feel so good.
That alone would have been disturbing enough, but it was the contents of the second container that gave everyone evidence that Vanstein was worse than they could have ever imagined. Never before had a flickering wisp of flames been so intimidating to see. Most of all for Harvey and Ori, the ones that were the most fond of fire magic amongst the group. Ominously enough, it was somehow staying lit and burning in the jar, radiating immense heat with each pulse. Some of it was even melting the frost from the first jar, though it didn’t impede upon the feather’s beauty one bit.
The third, in comparison, was much more simple; yet, it was no less intimidating to see. A simple blue-greenish scale, shining in the room’s nonexistent light. Once again, Petrichor felt that it looked all too familiar, something that she didn’t like one bit. She took a quick glance down at little Acta, noting that the scale was identical to the ones adorning the baby sea snake’s body. If it looked uncannily similar to Acta, then Petrichor could only assume the worst, even if it made her want to empty her guts here and now.
“The Creatures of Legend…” she murmured fearfully, “What did he do to them?”
“Something unholy, no doubt,” said Akalā, voice filled with equal parts fear and sorrow, “I can understand having Cateracta’s scale. Alpione said that humans flocked to her corpse to sell her skin.”
Petrichor nodded, then turned her gaze over to the remnants of Glacis and Tera, “These two are the ones that don’t make sense. Glacis’ guardians wouldn’t ever let a wretch like Vanstein get close to her, and Tera never seemed like the type to be fond of visitors.”
“Indeed. I don’t know how he got any of these, but it only makes me want to tear him apart more,” Akalā barked out through bared teeth.
Despite not having any idea what Akalā was saying, Petrichor’s words told the travelers (save for Arcanette, who seemed to already know what was going on prior to their arrival) everything that they needed to know. Vanstein had clearly meddled with the Creatures of Legend sometime in the past. Whether it was before or after the Dark Entity attacked them all remained to be seen. It nonetheless only gave the group more motivation to beat the snot out of Vanstein before he could cause more damage than he already had.
“...we should get a move on,” Tanzy spoke over the ominous silence, “The end is in sight. Loitering in a miserable place like this will do us no good.”
“Eh? O-oh, yes,” Petrichor hastily nodded her head, trying to not make her apprehension too obvious, “Keep m-moving.”
Nobody even felt as if they were ready to do such a thing, but it was also literally the only choice that they had. The longer that they stayed here, the higher chance there was for Vanstein to ambush them when they least expected it. Tanzy was correct about the end being near, there was a literal light at the end of this depressing tunnel and they’d all be damned if they failed to reach it. Harvey especially felt more determined than ever to bring an end to whatever Vanstein was planning, now that he knew it hadn’t only harmed Rita and Elena.
The final space within Vanstein’s laboratory was…rather boring, actually. Harvey and his allies looked around the empty space that they stumbled in with confusion and apprehension. After the doozy that was the room where Vanstein was keeping the Creatures of Legend’s body parts, everyone had been fearing the worst. In here, there seemed to be nothing of note, aside from an exit with sunlight bleeding into it from the world outside. For all intents and purposes, it was the most normal thing that the group had seen today.
“Strange. Could this be goodbye?” Harvey questioned aloud.
“For one of you, yes - but not for myself.”
Every single head swerved around from the new voice. Naturally, Harvey was the only one who recognized it immediately. Without any hesitation, he released a duo of lightning spells that he had been charging up for this very moment. The first attack was a successful one, surprisingly enough. Vanstein winced and stumbled back slightly from the blow, though he was swift enough to still evade the second wave of electricity. A characteristically snide smirk spread across his lips at Harvey’s clear rage from merely seeing him in the flesh for the first time in five years.
This was the first time that the rest of the travelers had seen Vanstein. As of now, one of the worst things about him was definitely how orderly and tidy he looked for someone who could follow through with such wicked actions without a hint of remorse. His brown hair was short and well-kept, the vest that he wore showed great dignity, and his blue eyes carried the sea’s waves with them. Such a shame, then, that Vanstein was such a horrible man all-around. They weren’t going to be fooled by the cordial facade he clearly wanted to put on for other people based on his appearance.
“Osvald,” Harvey spat out with venom and malice.
“Hmph. Is that any way to greet an old friend, oh Scholar of Darkness?” Vanstein’s reply was, somehow, filled with just as much spite as the other scholar’s. He paced around Harvey like a predator circling its wounded prey, “You’ve all trespassed onto my precious laboratory - a crime punishable by death. What do the lost animals have to say for themselves, hm?”
Several people opened their mouths to say something, anything. The Dark Hunter, true to form, spoke first.
“Were you the one that killed Cateracta?” Petrichor all but demanded to know, not wanting the real problem here to go unaddressed by Harvey’s vendetta.
“Perhaps,” came the very irritatingly-vague reply. Vanstein was now idly fiddling with a ball of plasma in his palm, clearly not taking this very seriously, “Lightning magic is wonderfully effective against water-based beasts, you know.”
Immediately, a surge of anger consumed both Petrichor and Akalā like none ever had before. Whether or not Vanstein was telling the truth didn’t matter. The thing that annoyed them was how un-seriously he was taking the topic of a deity’s death. Cateracta had done nothing wrong except protect Toto’haha and Conning Creek for eons. Vanstein knew that she defended the town he lived in, yet he was making a mockery of her like her life was nothing more than one big joke for him to laugh over. Petrichor and Akalā were disgusted, to say the least, and the others were as well if their scowls were any indication.
The information on Cateracta’s fate was the final straw. Everyone pulled out their weapons in preparation for the fight that they had waited months on end for. Harvey’s entire body trembled; he had not a clue if it was from excitement or fear, but he did know that there was some weird sense of relief in knowing that he was finally going to be able to fight Vanstein. One of them would indisputably perish today. Ideally, it wouldn’t be Harvey himself, but if it was…he couldn’t say that he failed to try to stand up to Vanstein while he had the chance.
Vanstein didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic about this confrontation as the travelers themselves. He crossed his arms like an immature brat, staring over all of them with an unimpressed expression on his face. That boredom quickly morphed into rage when Petrichor smashed her axe (that she rarely used at all, Vanstein just happened to piss her off enough for her to bother to use it) into his side. Seeing her smirk as if she had won only made Vanstein roll his eyes so hard that it was a surprise they didn’t pop out of their sockets.
“I see that the menagerie is just as beast-like as ever,” huffed the scholar, blood trailing from the purple-and-black cloak hoisted over his back, “Very well, then. Allow me to show you my pet.”
Before the assault against him could begin properly, Vanstein moved across the room swiftly. With the help of quick lightning magic bursts that Harvey and Petrichor could only dream of pulling off. Nearby, there was a door, presumably leading to a room that they hadn’t gotten the opportunity to look at yet. Vanstein did happen to appear out of nowhere right when they were all prepared to dismiss this place as a red herring and leave. It was time for the contents of the final room to be revealed (even if no one was eager to find out what else Vanstein had hidden in this laboratory of misery).
Vanstein forced the door open. Seconds later, a woman emerged.
If Vanstein was eloquent in his presentation, then this woman was the complete opposite. She walked out of the room like she hadn’t been able to move her feet in several years. As opposed to Vanstein’s rather composed appearance, the woman’s facial features were pallid and worn from head to toe - even her hair looked like a raggedy mess. There was no weapon in her hand, either, and she certainly didn’t look strong enough to take them all down on her own. Everyone was quite confused on how this lady was supposed to stop them…
…everyone except Harvey. His mouth was hung open out of terror and terrible surprise. The mere sight of the woman cut off the circulation of air within Harvey’s body. Yet, the fact that he couldn’t breathe was only second fiddle to the horror that seeing this woman instilled within him. Unable to feel as if he could do much of anything else, Harvey stared and stared and stared. Only after entirely too long did his mouth flap open and say one simple word.
“...Rita?”
The woman - Rita - slowly opened her eyes. Not a trace of life was present in them. On the contrary, her eyes were emptier and hollow than Cateracta’s corpse back in Conning Creek, as if they’d never been full of life at all. Rita slowly shook her entire body, initially staring directly at Harvey, then turning over to those by his side. Hearing Harvey claim that this woman was Rita held off the others from attacking for now, but all of them were still very wary, knowing that Vanstein was always someone who planned for every possibility.
For a brief period of time, just a split second, Harvey thought that Rita would remember him. She could still realize that this was horrible, turn against Vanstein, and run away while there was time to do so. Harvey was aware that the scenario was very much an idealistic one. Vanstein had trapped him at the end of the chess board, and now he was the one in control, not Harvey. Yet, there had to be some way that Rita could break free from Vanstein’s hold over her, right?
“…world,” Rita said in response to Harvey’s calling of her name.
“The world?” Tanzy repeated, “What about it?”
“Yes. The world…will be plunged into the Shadow!”
Harvey, knowing what Rita naturally sounded like, went pale in an instant. Rita’s eyes losing their usual shine from five years ago could be brushed past, considering that she had lost her daughter and her husband was a megalomaniac all, but the dead sound of her voice was the final straw. Dismayed, Harvey fell to the ground, tears already stinging his eyes with hot wetness. Arcanette quickly ran over to comfort him, though she kept her eyes focused on Rita in case the woman tried anything.
Rita tried plenty.
The corrupted woman started off the battle with a dark spell that forced the travelers back. Harvey could already tell that this was no ordinary magic. It was the work of something a lot more sinister, possibly the same force that allowed Vanstein to transform a gentle woman into a corrupted monster. More hot tears began to fall from his eyes at the realization that this was what Vanstein had been planning all along. For all of these years, Rita had been kept alive, only to be turned into a puppet for her horrible husband’s desires.
“M-monster,” Harvey managed through tears and gritted teeth, “You’re an a-awful excuse for a h-human being, Osvald.”
“Such a harsh insult. Rita said the same thing. I’m glad you finally noticed, Harvey!” Vanstein let out a sarcastic snort. Backing away, he clasped his hands together, a smirk on his face, “As much as I’d love to watch Rita burn all of your bodies, I’m afraid that I simply lack the time. Gravell awaits,” the scholar said, turning to walk off entirely, “See you on the other side, Scholar of Darkness. You and that ancestor of yours.”
Naturally, no one was willing to let Vanstein escape if they could help it. Despite Rita standing right there in front of him, Petrichor and Akalā immediately perked themselves up to chase after the man before he could disappear. After all of this time chasing Vanstein, they didn’t want to run the risk of him worming his way out of their clutches. They had come so far to find him in the first place - to lose him now would be a shame.
What a shame it was, then, that neither pet nor master was able to get a chance to intercept Vanstein’s exit. Rita was perceptive enough to notice their gaze traveling over to her husband, and so she punished their glaring with yet another deadly wave of dark magic. The duo were able to jump out of the way in time to not get hit, but the damage had already been done. When the dust cleared and they whipped their heads around to face Vanstein once more…nobody was there. He was gone, vanished into the sunlight that they had once looked upon with hope.
“No!” Petrichor practically screeched, Akalā snarling in anger by her side, “Damn it!”
“Resistance is futile. The Shadow will consume everything. You. Me. All of us. It will bring peace to us all.”
Rita’s cryptic-yet-ominous words weren’t helping, either. The situation was a tangled mess all around, one that nobody was very willing to continue engaging in. Sadly, the possibility of Rita punishing them for leaving her alive was very real, so there was only really one thing to do now that Vanstein was gone: put an end to her misery. All eyes turned over to Harvey for his verdict on the situation.
Understandably, Harvey was nothing short of miserable from the realization that he’d likely have to kill Rita. If he let her live, who knew if Vanstein would sic her on the rest of Montwise as punishment? This was still Vanstein’s game of chess, and games never ended until a winner was officially declared. Harvey detested that he was the loser in this case. Most of all, he despised that Vanstein needed to bring in innocent people to his little scheme, including a woman that he thought was long-since dead.
Chances are that Rita would only be put through more torment if she wasn’t dealt with now. Thus, with a heavy heart, Harvey nodded his head in approval for the travelers to get her out of the way before she could cause any further harm to them or herself. It was right at that moment that Rita fired off another dark spell, this time aiming it at Arcanette. Since the cleric in question had been paying attention to Harvey, she was left woefully unprepared for the attack, resulting in it hitting her head-on without her being able to do much of anything about it.
“Ah!” Arcanette cried out, falling to the ground like a petal drifting along the wind.
“A-Arcanette!” Harvey exclaimed as he cradled the cleric’s fallen body, “Are y-you alright?”
She coughed a bit before replying: “Barely. That m-magic is even stronger t-than the one V-Vados used back in C-Canalbrine.”
In the meantime, the fight between Rita and the remorseful travelers was still continuing on strong. No one felt good about having to fight a woman that they thought was dead, but it had already been established that they didn’t have much of a choice here. Tanzy whipped up a powerful gust of wind to distract Rita, hoping to distract her before she could cause harm to anyone else with her deadly dark magic. Although Vanstein’s fallen wife stumbled to stay on her feet initially, she swiftly stabilized her position before her back slammed into the stone wall behind her.
Apparently Rita didn’t really like being blown back, if the malice and anger that filled her eyes was any indication. The next distraction came from Ori, who quickly threw a fireball in her direction. Little hits were better than big ones when none of them knew what they were working with here. Fortunately, Ori’s attack did indeed hit, causing Rita to stumble once again. It was a shame that she perked herself back upright too quickly for the victory to be anything other than a temporary one.
However, there was something that the more keen members of the group - Claude and Oboro - were quick to notice. Rita’s footing was rather uneven, meaning that she was at least affected by the attacks from Tanzy and Ori in some way. Thus, they came to a rather obvious conclusion: Rita was vulnerable. Even if she was doing her best to not show it in her stance, she was vulnerable, and the time to attack was now. Oboro and Claude looked to each other, back to Harvey, then shared a nod.
Claude started off their impromptu plan by lunging at Rita with his usual swift speed. Being attacked so soon after getting struck by Ori’s fireball left the woman with little time to react. Rita fell to her knees from the force of Claude’s ambush, an angry sneer present on her face from how he’d dare to pull such a dirty move on her. She was quick to retaliate with her umpteenth wave of magic; though it was a burst of light this time, Claude was quick and stable enough to dodge all the same. Too focused on her current attacker, Rita failed to notice anything else around her until it was too late.
“Now, Trousseau!”
Rita looked towards Oboro’s voice just in time to see the small apothecary in question charging towards her with just as much speed as Claude had a few seconds ago. Only a few seconds were provided for her to comprehend her incoming doom before it came in the form of an axe smashing into her skull. Immediately, Rita’s eyes rolled back into her head. Blood began to pool from her cracked head down to the stony ground below, coating it in disgusting red. The sight was gruesome, to say the least, Harvey having to physically lurch his head away to stop himself from throwing up.
Sadly, he ended up doing so anyway when the wet squelching sound of Rita collapsing into a pool of her own blood violated his ears. Arcanette tenderly rubbed at his back, knowing that there wasn’t much else she could do to help. Harvey was the one that knew Rita the best out of all of them. To him, she was his friend, but they had only known her as an enemy. Perhaps in another timeline, Rita could have been spared of her ill fate at the indirect hands of Vanstein; alas, this was not the one.
The group quickly recollected themselves now that their enemy was dead. Arcanette and Trousseau walked around to heal anyone that had been hit particularly hard by Rita’s dark magic. How she knew such deadly spells was unknown to everyone, but chances are it was something that Vanstein taught her. It wasn’t like they could ask her or him about it when one was dead and the other was well on his way out of Montwise. Yet another mystery that would remain unsolved, probably.
“So. What now?” questioned Ori, even if she knew this wasn’t the time to.
“...I don’t know,” Harvey admitted in a glum tone, “Vanstein said that he was going to Gravell, but we have too much to do to confront him now.”
“It would be a poor idea,” Tanzy agreed, “And we’d be walking right into his clutches. Does anyone have any other ideas?”
There were still plenty of tasks for the travelers to accomplish. Oboro needed to take Ku back, Claude had an audience with the Blacksnakes’ boss, and so on. Regardless, all of those were for later times. Not to mention that the Grand Gala was soon to boot. Of course, it wasn’t the end of the world if Tanzy completely ignored Agnea’s invitation, but the thought of the little dancer bawling her eyes out over the lack of playwright in the crowd was sad to everyone. Harvey, who had just lost Rita, would still feel bad if Agnea didn’t get to greet the one she personally invited.
Finally, after an awkward period of silence that lasted entirely too long, Ori seemed to have a visible epiphany. The scrivener turned to face Trousseau, whose characteristic blank expression was back on his face. It had twisted into one of horror and shock when he saw Rita, but that was something no one could blame him for. Even people like Trousseau had their limits sometimes!
“Trousseau was planning to visit his family in Healeaks, was he not?”
All eyes turned to the apothecary in question, who shrugged his shoulders but nodded.
“Then there is no harm in letting him do that, hm?” Claude chuckled to try and lighten the mood, “I think that we all need a family reunion after these past few days.”
“We most certainly do,” Arcanette agreed dryly.
Now that they had their next destination in mind, it was about time that they all left this place! Thankfully, that was something the travelers were all more than happy to do. Most of all Harvey, the one that was saddled with the duty of carrying Rita’s corpse to give it a proper burial somewhere nearby. He wasn’t going to let her rot down here, and he certainly didn’t want Vanstein doing anything with her body.
Gravell was the last place that Harvey wanted to visit. In fact, throughout this entire journey, he was counting on it being the one location that he and his allies never needed to go to. A shame that Vanstein seemed hellbent on making his life a living hell until the very end. Harvey sighed, cradling Rita’s body in his arms like she was still alive. While he had no reason to be so gentle with her, it was a reminder that he hadn’t only been pursuing Vanstein for his own vengeance. This had been a matter of justice for moment one - Rita’s death only reaffirmed that.
Vanstein may have called checkmate, but the game wasn’t over yet, merely on pause for round two.
