Mariwa: An Ivian Tale

Holly felt a pressure against her chest.

Looking down, she saw Aleh pushing her with all his strength, failing to budge her even a little.

"Holly!" he said. "You need to get back, now! Stay away from the window!"

"W-what, but I-"

"You fucking bastard, don't just sit there shaking, help me out!" Aleh said, not to her.

Wordless, another force joined his, trembling limbs intertwining with her own and awkwardly dragging her away. Furfu whimpered softly by her ear, casting looks over her shoulder at Blades, who stood in place searching out the Oke's front. Holly heard hurried steps above her, rushing towards the cabin and ending as a foot descended into the ladder.

And then the unknown voice spoke again.

"I said halt! Yanna!"

The foot froze. From the edges of the long skirt flowing down the hatch, she knew that was Almalilly trying to get down, but the situation confused her. The voice came of as feminine to Holly, strong and youthful, and yet disturbing, on measure of the effect it was having on those around her.

"A-aleh, what is happening?!" she whispered, swiftly ignored.

"It's coming from the back, south or southeast!" Aleh pulled another baton from his sleeve, letting go of Holly to press it against the Oke's far door, the window created so small it was almost like he was afraid of being caught, as if somebody could actually see from the other side. Holly held Furfu against her shoulder, fear slowly infecting her.

"I recognized you!" The voice said, closer now, "Yanna, from Wheatbarony's Archival and Gathering Section, am I correct?! I thought you had died with your master, that your body had been found and your role replaced, so answer: how come I am seeing you here?"

"M-ma'am!" Almalilly said. "I'm grateful you r-remembered me! Right now, I'm-"

"No, there is something more pertinent. Why are you not showing in the Receptacle of Eligor? What have you done with your Sigil?"

"N-no, this is a mistake, I-"

"And you! I don't remember your name, but recognize you as a Face as well. What happened to your Sigil?!"

"Ma'am!" Rosen belowed, the most severe tone she had ever heard in his voice, "We are under strict orders not to release information, so please-"

"Do you think I would believe that?!"

Blades turned in a whirl and rushed to the back, her hand quickly ungloved and almost reaching for the mechanism separating both sides of the door before Aleh intervened, his silhouette briefly enveloped by squirming multi-hued shapes.

"Are you insane?!" he said. "Revealing Holly just like that?! Now?!"

"I need to get out," Blades said.

"Go out the front! Don't fuck us over a stupid impulse!"

The thin sword flashed, its tip nearly touching Aleh's left eye, who only stared back defiantly. "If I leave through the cabin, she will react. Lilly and I will die."

"If you leave through here and she catches a glimpse of Holly, we might all die regardless!"

"Out of my way."

"Over my dead body."

"S-stop!" Holly said, pushing Blades arm away while placing herself in between them. "What is even happening to you all?! Y-you wanted me to ask questions, didn't you Blades? So I'm asking now! Who is out there?!"

This time, even Blades hesitated to answer. Holly looked at Furfu, at Aleh, each turning away from her.

It was right at that moment, when she peered out the one-sided window, that she realized who was out there, and why her comrades refused to speak.

She stood atop the farthest edge of the hole, not sparing the Oke below so much as a glance as she fixated on those above. Tall and gaunt, she had a strange stance to her, her left kept back with her right fully facing them, holding a double edged axe, one side of its head nicked steel while the other black and opaque. Gaps in her light brown leather armor and its padded underside stained her in rust reds and nearly black liquids.

Her head had been wrapped with a protective sheet, nothing but cloth wrapped round and round into the loose appearance of a cowl, no magic to it to obscure what laid under.

She finally understood their dread. Holly crawled back from the group, throat suddenly gone dry.

"W-why," she said, fighting through hesitation, "why are we hiding from another Faceless? I-isn't she an ally?"

Again, nobody wanted to answer her.

The Faceless continued."Answer quickly and concisely: what are unaccompanied, supposedly dead Faces without Sigils doing openly crawling through enemy territory? Don't give me any of that shit about permissions, I'm the one who says what you can or can't say now."

"Ma'am!" She could hear Rosen step gingerly step forward, until the Faceless' axe twitched. "We are part ofthe Greenroses Unit, sent in to help retrieve an Heir's body obstained during recent covert operations. We apologize for out lack of manners, we were caught unaware by your presence!"

"...There are no Heir bodies."

"Ma'am?" Rosen said.

The axe rose, the Faceless' arm tensing as her fists clenched. "There are no Heir bodies to retrieve. If you know about the current operations, you should know that. Then again, information was kept secret to avoid distress among the ranks, so I can't blame the leak for being imprecise. No, I commend you for catching wind of it in the first place, and for taking such a daring opportunity."

"M-ma'am, please listen to me." Rosen said, voice dripping with worry. "Our business here is official and permitted under the gaze of Region Commander Moar II, if you only allow me the time to find-"

"Aleh, now!" Blades said, sweating, "She already judged us guilty!"

Aleh didn't give way, only kept watching the Faceless through the window with a vicious glare. "No, wait a little more."

"I swear I'll-"

"Motherfucker, wait! Don't you realize there must be a reason he hasn't made a move yet?!"

"No!" the Faceless shouted, unaware of the conversation below. "I will not allow a Face to lie to me in such a shameless manner. If you insist in this undutiful behavior, then I see no choice but to correct you lot!"

With no more difficulty than a lad stepping over a root, the Faceless flew with a jump, landing above with a soundless impact, softer than a pebble crashing against the Oke's roof even as the entire transport's back lowered with the weight.

"You will be honest with me now: how many of you are there? I saw signs of movement inside this machine, but are there any others outside? Are there any-"

"Stop."

The order was so total even Holly's heart stopped for a beat. The trio besides her stiffened, Aleh in particular having to close his eyes and breath in to control the deepening scowl of his countenance. Blades, however, relaxed a smidge, though her blade kept pointed to the back door.

"You, a mere Face, dares hold one of-"

"Shut it!" Agare voice both sent shivers down her spine yet was a balm for her fear. It wasn't too loud, but the silence of the forest made it into a shout "You, a mere scout, dares question the commands and threaten the subordinates of a true agent?"

The Faceless suddenly became mute.

"My name is Beliar III," Agare said. "I am under orders from Sir Moar himself to recover sensitive material from the Tyrian territory of Bellfort, material which I'm under no rights to reveal to my Faces and thus relayed a similar albeit wrongful story. Do you comprehend now the mistake you almost made?"

"... Yes, sir. I apologize, the weeks have left me on edge."

"Identify yourself. Name, unit, and why you are alone."

"A-Aleh!" Holly urged, of half a mind to physically drag him off the door as he carefully shuffled away, eyes firmly placed on Blades who eventually relented with a gesture. The Oke's ceiling was thankfully short enough he could reach with ease, allowing them to keep with the unfolding incident.

The window opened, larger than before, revealing a pair of booted feet from beneath, the Faceless she supposed. Holly couldn't help but gasp when she realized Agare was pointing something right at the interloper's neck, something sharp and straight, short though oddly contoured like a spiral. She kept silent for a few seconds, then relented by releasing her axe to clatter and become a sad blindspot to their observation.

"... I am Foroca II," she said, and Aleh sighed with relief for some reason. "My unit is Brownthorns, sent to aid with the retrieval of... you know."

"I do. And you thought it would be merrily carried away by Oke?"

"No sir. I intended to take means of transportation and possible nutrition to myself."

"Why?"

"We were ambushed, sir." Foroca II said. "Withing less than a week on the field, my unit was massacred."

"What?" Agare retracted the spiral blade from Foroca's neck, inserting it back into the darkness of his hood with the tip outwards. "Explain yourself. Were you discovered by the Bellfort Royal Corps? By a Len?"

"Neither, sir." She glanced over her shoulder. "If I may ask..."

"You may not."

"Why do your Faceless not bear Sigils?" she asked anyway, "And are you the only Faceless here?"

"Reasons beyond your rank, and no I am not. Are you the sole survivor? What exactly ambushed you?"

"No. A few of us survived, though this endeavor has been of my undertaking alone. Why are openly riding through enemy roads? Shouldn't you have taken the Tunnels instead?"

"Reasons beyond your rank. Why do you keep asking when I said you may not?" Agare said, sidestepping Foroca and putting himself between her and the other two stuck outside.

"I'm just trying to make sense of the situation, sir." Foroca retreated, axe forgotten.

"Meanwhile, neglecting the sense of your own. If there are other survivors, why are you trying to ambush our transport alone?"

"as I said, sir, I-"

"Intended to take the goods for yourself, you said as much," Agare said, his tone devoid of emotion. "Which needless to say, is against the tenets of the Remnants. Either none of your superiors survived and you're ignoring the needs of your equals, or some of they did and you're committing an offense worthy of death. Which now?"

They had kept track of Foroca as she stopped. Either moved by their collective anxiety or some unseen order, the pulsing lights inside had turned purple and urgent, ready to act should any violence break under its protective reach. Though Foroca had kept her voice level, her body was being held taught and at an odd angle, which Holly was sure was her way of signalling equal readiness, and no amount of dropped weapons would convince her of othewise.

And then she spoke, voice as impassive as Agare's. "We were captured."

"... Captured? By the ones who massacred your unity?" Agare said.

"No. Another force, one we hadn't expected."

"No more questions and misdirections, explain yourself this instant: who? how?"

"This may sound dishonest, sir, but I did not see," Foroca said with a rueful shake of head. "The trap sprung from right under us, and I was blinded before I could react. They kept me in a small container for a few days, which I only managed to break free from last night. At that point, I found no further signs of my captors."

"You take me for a fool?" Agare's voice had the slightest tinge of anger to it, all it took for Holly to hold Furfu harder. "An unknown party captures a group of Faceless, leaving them armed, just for the pleasure to set them free in the woods? Let's take your story from another angle then: look around you. How have you managed to create a trap of this magnitude entirely by yourself in less than one full day? Even a Faceless couldn't manage something like this!"

"I did not dig this trap, sir, I merely spotted a weakness of the road and took advantage of it."

"... You found this?" Agare said.

"Yes, sir."

And to that, Agare had no further answer. He stared down, the path of his sight in Holly's mind coming uncannily close to meeting her own, but didn't try and interact with those inside in any way. Instead, he turned in a rush, heading almost out of sight and crouching close to where Lilly still stood with a leg on the ladder, shocked frozen. What happened then, they weren't privy to.

"Yes, sir!" Lilly suddenly screamed, another leg reaching through the hatch.

"Foroca, I'm going to hand my weapon to my subordinate as a sign of trust," Agare said. "I want you to bring me to your comrades."

"The way there is long and perilous sir, I think it would be better-"

"This is not a request, this is an order. Bring me to your comrades no matter how far you're camping or how deep is the den you're hiding in, I need to speak to them myself."

"Then think of your subordinates, sir," Foroca said, taking another step back, one she probably didn't even notice, "If they are found by the enemy-"

"They know how to handle themselves. Now, let's hurry."

Holly had no gods anymore. Ever since her sickness and seclusion, Elder Seneschal had kept her mostly separate from the worship of the Father Celestial, which was soon to descend into the twilight from the glimpses she could catch through the labyrinth of canopies upwards.

Yet, seeing Foroca standing there, mute and ready to bolt, reminded her of the times she would watch people pray from the bushes, heads on the floor and hands clenched above, wishes sometimes whispered and oftentimes screamed into the moss. She had prayed some, and never gotten anything from it.

That hope that moved her to the wet soil so long ago resurged.

Run! Get away from them! Father, disappear her from this island!

Of course, such wishes would go unheard. The outside world had no place for a God like that, and a God like that had no place for outsiders like her.

And so, Foroca gave a slight nod, not a molecule of tension leaving her body. "Very well. It's a fair distance East and South, but we should get there in less than an hour unbidden."

If she screamed for him not to go, would Agare listen? No, they had been trying to keep her existence from Foroca, what would happen to everyone if she just revealed herself like that? There was something coming, something bad, she couldn't rationalize why but she knew it all the same, and yet she didn't know what to do about it.

And so, she stood there and watched as Agare and Foroca hopped down and away from their window, vanishing into the dark jungle beyond.

As the people around her shrunk from sheer relief, Holly fell back, crestfallen. Couldn't they see?

With some force, Furfu extracted herself from her arms, fanning her hands out with a bizarre gurgling noise. "T-thank you, H-Holly, but maybe you s-should bath a little before next time? H-heheheh... A-a-anyway, a-are they gone now?"

"... For now, it seems so." Aleh frowned as he sat opposite from her, baton disappearing into the sleeves of his robe. "However, considering we ran into one..."

"I have to bring Lilly inside, now." Blades said, slowly sheathing her namesake back.

"...No."

Blades looked at Holly, confused, and so she pointed.

None of them had heard her descending back into the safety of the Oke, but Almalilly had stood there at the door to the cabin, pale and sweat ridden, panting as if suffocating as she leaned against the threshold.

"Lilly!" Blades said, rushing to her aid. "Did she hurt you?!"

"N-no, that doesn't matter." Lilly lifted a hand, gently reposing it against Blades' arm as she gave a weak smile. That smile didn't last five seconds, her face turning serious as she looked Holly. "Did you guys hear everything?"

"You bet we did," Aleh said. "So? What are his commands?"

"Holly, you don't look to good, but this time I don't think we can do this without you." Lilly approached, extending a hand her way. "Would you mind helping us?"

Couldn't she see it either? Holly felt disappointed.

It was happening all over again.

Still, Marquise's words echoed in her mind, so she only briefly hesitated in reaching back, resting the blunt part of her nails on Lilly's palms. This time, she wouldn't be alone, right?