#kibagami

Edge ran his hand along the stone monuments in the Sentinels’ lair as he made his way to the back of the open hall. All of these people… It was making him dizzy. But not many people were standing around where the Medium was healing those afflicted with the Titan’s Curse, and Edge thought that he had seen a large door over that way, so he wearily made his way over there.

Even though the cave was positively frigid now, and even though he’d removed his heavy coat and scarf, Edge was still sweltering. Once he was far enough away from the throng of Sentinels and humans and even Vessels, he leaned up against one of the stone monuments and sighed heavily. He never had liked crowds, and he wasn’t feeling great anyways. He pressed an arm to his forehead and sighed again before glancing over at the door.

It was similar to the other stone doors scattered throughout the labyrinth, but this one had paintings on it from the Sentinels, marking the room beyond as part of their territory and a place where monsters wouldn’t attack anyone.

Edge pushed himself off of the monument; his vision went blurry for a moment and he stumbled as he approached the door and pushed it open.

The small cave inside was littered and lined with monuments; various offerings, such as flowers and liquor bottles, were left in front of the markers. In a far corner of the room, one marker stood out from the rest. An inhumanly large sword was stuck up in the stone floor of the cave; its blade was rusted, and one side of it seemed to have complex machinery inside of it. The wide hilt had chipped golden foil layering it and dirty, frayed tassels hanging off of it.

Whirlwind was standing in front of this grave, idly toying with the locket that the guild had returned to him in the Old Forest Mine. At the sound of the door opening, he looked up in surprise. His face was streaked with tears, and his cheeks were red with embarrassment. He gripped the locket tighter in his hand, but when he saw who had come in, his face relaxed considerably.

“Oh… Havardr. Hello.”

Edge stumbled back and leaned on the wall in shock as the door slowly swung closed behind him. He stared at Whirlwind with a mixture of relief and terror as he tried to steady his breathing, tried to make the world stop spinning. His mouth twitched frantically as he tried to find the right words to say.

“What… Did you not think I’d remember you? Come over here.”

Whirlwind beckoned the blond with a relaxed smile that was yet tinged with melancholy. Edge ran a hand through his hair and sighed before he stood up straight, slowly, and came over to stand by Whirlwind.

“So… This is…”

“Yeah.”

Whirlwind put a firm hand on Edge’s shoulder; Edge glanced over in surprise.

“You and I both know why I’m here… And to be honest, that’s probably one of your reasons for being here too, even if you do care about the Sentinels,” the gray-haired man said quietly.

Edge blushed and stared down at the floor.

“To be entirely honest… I can see why Alfodr wanted to avoid sacrificing them,” Whirlwind continued. “There’s no difference between them and humans at all. They comfort the wounded and mourn when they die. And they comforted His Imperial Highness in his last moments, and even left a memorial for a complete stranger. I can only hope that Prince Baldur feels the same way; it pains me to think of having to serve him if he didn’t.”

The blond at his side coughed conspicuously and reached forward to hold the sword standing proudly out of the ground. He gripped the hilt tightly and rubbed it with his thumb; flakes of gold foil rubbed off onto his hand, sparkling against the ice-encrusted walls of the Golden Lair.

“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t help you, commander…” he whispered hoarsely, tears pinpricking the corners of his eyes.

“There was nothing you could have done… Know that.”

Whirlwind sighed and flipped the locket open, sadly examining each bright face in the faded photograph within.

“...To be honest, I should have gone back and searched for your ship, but I didn’t want to risk the life of my liege… I don’t imagine there’s much I could have done, given the state of the wreckage when I did arrive, but at least then I could say that I tried my best.”

Edge shrugged. “You had your duties, and I had mine,” he said in a dead tone. “You fulfilled yours to the very end, but because I wasn’t there to fulfill mine, His Imperial Highness died…” Tears slowly began to roll down his flushed cheeks, and he looked over at the wall of the cave.

Whirlwind wrapped his arm around Edge’s trembling shoulders. “We’ll get home soon…” he said softly. “And I’ll make sure that Prince Baldur understands the situation fully. Don’t worry about that.”

Edge sighed. “Of course…” he replied, his voice shaking. “Thank you, sir… You always have wanted what’s best for your subordinates.”

Whirlwind flashed a weak smile. “I’m not your commander anymore… Please, until we reach the Empire… Think of me as your equal. And then we’ll proceed from there.”

“Of course, s-- L-Logre…”

Edge sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair again, a pained expression on his face.

“Are you hot…?”

“N-no… Why---?”

“N-never mind. I should...go back out there.”

Edge whirled around quite suddenly and began heading for the door back to the main hall, his stance unsteady and his breathing growing more ragged by the second. But when he got to the door, he gasped in surprise and leaned against the door for support.

“Havardr…?!”

As Whirlwind rushed over to Edge’s side, he saw that the blond was slowly sliding down the door.

“I’m...alright…” Edge wheezed.

His legs buckled underneath him and he collapsed onto the ground.

“Havardr!”

Whirlwind ran over to Edge and kneeled down next to him.

“Are you… Can you hear me?”

Edge groaned weakly. Whirlwind scooped him up and leaned him against his knee. He pressed a calloused hand to the other man’s forehead.

“Shit, he’s burning up…!”

Whirlwind took Edge in his arms and pushed the door open with his shoulder. He rushed out into the main hall, where the festivities to send off those who were going to face the Boiling Lizard were still going strong.

“Where is Marianne…?”

Whirlwind’s eyes scanned the crowd carefully yet quickly; his demeanor had become almost militant.

“Kibagami… Where is Kibagami…”

A Sentinel nearby glanced over at the silver-haired man and gasped.

“That young man… He is with the humans that arrived first, is he not?”

“He is. I need to see his leader. Have you seen a human woman with short blonde hair?”

“She’s over there with Master Kibagami.”

The horse-headed Sentinel nodded over at the other end of the room; Whirlwind could see Kibagami and Marianne having a serious discussion at one of the tables.

“Thank you.”

Whirlwind began pushing his way through the crowd, holding the unconscious Edge close to him.

“Excuse me! I need to see Kibagami!”

Whirlwind’s shouts began to part the crowd like a blade cutting through the throngs of people. It seemed that name-dropping was quite effective in these parts…

“Excuse me… Excuse me. Kibagami! Marianne!”

Marianne and Kibagami looked up to see who was calling them, and when Marianne saw the state of her Landsknecht comrade, she stood up in horror, the table clattering as her knees hit the underside.

“Lis! Miku! Mia!” she shouted over her shoulder. She rushed over to Whirlwind.

“What happened?!” she asked frantically as she took the blond into her own arms.

“He came into that side cave and I was in there. We were talking when he suddenly collapsed,” Whirlwind explained as he helped adjust Edge in the Fortress’s arms. The other members of Guild Muninn came up behind Marianne all together and peered over her shoulders curiously.

“Bloody hell, what happened…?” Lis muttered.

“Miku, get the Ariadne Thread please.”

“Of course.”

As Miku began rummaging in her bag, Marianne turned to the ox-headed Sentinel still sitting at the table behind her and smiled apologetically.

“I’m so sorry to leave so suddenly. But as you can see…”

“No, it’s quite alright,” Kibagami replied.

“We’ll make sure to give the Twinfang Scroll to our master…”

Kibagami nodded firmly.

“Ms. Marianne.”

Miku held up a long, white thread.

“Thank you, truly, Whirlwind,” Marianne said as she turned to Miku and let the Vessel wrap the thread around her arm.

Whirlwind shrugged nonchalantly. “Honestly, you kids are way too trusting… What have I told you?”

He watched the guild as they each made physical contact with the Ariadne Thread and Miku quietly recited a spell. Once they had warped safely back to their airship, he sighed.