Thief of Time

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“In other news, there’s been an upsurge in Distortion cases,” Schwarz announced, slicing sausages and delivering it to Her Highness, Beth. “Quite a few in Licencia, but what’s new, eh?”

“Buh.”

“Right? There’s some odd stuff going on around these things too…wait, right. I forgot.” Schwarz patted Beth’s head, and Dia found herself smiling at the oddly doting Schwarz. There was a part of her that felt a bit angry, though, but it was all in good fun…probably. “Anyway, we’ve lost contact with Claud and Lily. Not sure what’s up with that, but it’s probably the Trading Board’s problem. It might not be able to transmit across the sea or a certain range. Who knows?”

“Where are they now?” Risti asked.

“Presumably sitting on a boat and paddling to Nihal,” Schwarz replied.

“They can’t have gotten this far, then,” Risti replied. “Why not send a few more messages to their Trading Board and see if we can get anything?”

“I already did that. I’m just waiting at this point,” Schwarz replied. “Anyway, we’ll have to ignore them for a bit. Also, it seems that the Moons are eyeing the two lovebirds that are holed up in Claud’s house, so it’s probably not a good idea to go visiting anytime. Even though the two sides are supposedly in a truce right now, I can’t rule out the possibility that one of them will attempt to backstab the other.”

“We can assume that the backstabbing is going to start eventually, but the Dark must be hopping mad. After all, their Bearer of Destiny is staying very close to Moon territory,” Farah replied. “I bet the Dark’s hidden a bunch of hidden cards at Nero and Kemata’s location, waiting to ambush them. And if I can think of something like that…”

“The Moons definitely can to.”

“Which means that the Dark will definitely have backup plans,” Farah replied.

“But if we can think of that,” Risti replied, “the Moons definitely will.”

“We can stop talking at this point now,” Dia replied. “We’ll just keep using iterations of the same damn thing, so let’s just assume that both sides have piled up massive gambits. It’ll be one of those novels where every page, either the antagonist or the protagonist go ‘No, you!’ until the book runs dry or the author has no more ideas, and then we can watch everything explode with each other.”

“That sums it up nicely, I suppose.”

“Excellent,” Dia replied. “So, you were saying something about Distortion cases?”

“Well, they’ve grown in number.” Schwarz paused. “And well, you know those purple spheres? They’ve shrunk too. The cases all over the continent and presumably the world over the past two days have seen surges in Distortions, but each Distortion is now a person tall. The sphere has turned into an oddly shaped egg or something.”

“Huh.” Farah folded her arms. “What’s the cause?”

“Beats me.” Schwarz squished Beth’s cheeks gently, and then said, “But fortunately for us, we’re going to get a certain bigshot here to clarify our questions. Two more idiot lovebirds are fluttering our way here today for breakfast.”

“Which is why you cooked extra?” Dia asked. “What, they can’t cook for themselves?”

“Well, they like bar fare, apparently.” Schwarz shrugged. “Who knows?”

A soft chime resounded through the house, and he got up. “I’ll be right back.”

Beth tottered over to Dia immediately afterwards, and the others glared at Dia as she picked up the adorable little kid.

“Hungry.”

“Still hungry?” Dia shook her head, and then pointed at the plates. “What do you want?”

“This! Dat!”

Beth was chewing on toasted bread when Schwarz returned with Count Nightfall and Caroline, both of which had serious expressions on their face.

“Princess Dia.” Count Nightfall inclined his head. “I apologise for imposing on you this early in the—”

“Screw the formalities and sit down,” Dia replied, using language that would have made her father rub his ears a few times. “What’s wrong with the city? Did something big happen?”

“Was it that obvious?” Nightfall asked.

“It’s written on your face,” Farah replied. “Also, morning.”

The count looked at the countess, and then rolled his eyes. “We’re equals, but aren’t you being a bit too casual about this? What are we going to do if we meet in an official capacity? Sheesh.”

“You’re not a young noble, so wouldn’t you know what to do?” Farah retorted.

“I’m referring to you!” The count shook his head. “Whatever. As long as you don’t start doing funny stuff, that’s fine…I suppose we crossed this line of separate duties long ago, when you started sitting in my city as Farah and not Countess Farah. Whew. This is hard.”

“Heh.” The countess touched her chin. “But you know why I didn’t come clean until Dia did, right? Or are you going to hold it against me anyway?”

“Yes, I fully understand. Since I knew you on a personal level by then, it’s not that hard to accept that you’re actually the countess and all,” Nightfall replied, his voice tired. “Right. I understand. Yes. I’m just a bit…well. Bummed, I suppose? Not sure what to think of it. I mean, my underworld is somewhat owned by you now.”

“You can have it back…”

“I’m just kidding, okay?” Nightfall shook his head. “And it’s not like the underworld is under your control anyway. It’s…not even an underworld anymore. It’s a competing economy or something. You figure it out. Right. The Emperor also sent me a message regarding you, Farah.”

“Me?” Farah asked. “What, he can’t tell me his message directly?”

“Seems like it. I mean, he’s asking about your marriage and everything. He wants to informally encourage you to seek out a partner or something, since, according to the Emperor, ‘these are trying times, and the countess needs to have a heir soon. I recall your fiancé has a few eligible men in her family. Introduce a few of them to her’.”

“What does my heir have to do with the Emperor?” Farah asked.

“If I had to hazard a guess?” Nightfall grinned. “Your parents, naturally. If you die, they’ll have a claim on a semi-prospering county, ready to be exploited and driven into the ground again. I bet they’re all praying for you to die or something. Maybe they’ve even hired assassins.”

“Eh…”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“Well, I think I can defeat the two of you,” Farah replied. “You know. I’m rising rapidly through the ranks of a folder. Just so you know.”

“Sure, but you don’t have combat experience, do you?” Nightfall replied. “And you don’t have lethal artefacts either. In fact, of your number, you’re probably the lowest in terms of pure combat ability.”

Dia bobbed her head, while Schwarz nodded fervently. Beth, who was watching Schwarz on the other side, smacked the table twice and said, “Ya!”

“See?” Nightfall added. “Even the baby agrees. By the way, I’m Nightfall. How do you do, tiny little one?”

“Bet!”

“Bet?”

“Bet!”

This amusing little conversation in which Beth tried to correct Nightfall’s wrong utterance with a mispronounced one of her own continued on for around a minute, before Schwarz finally stepped in and informed the confused Nightfall about Beth’s name.

“Why does she correct me with the wrong pronunciation, then? I mean, is she even aware of it being wrong?”

“Probably. Why?” Schwarz folded his arms. “That’s how it is, I guess. Anyway, this amusing interlude aside, the Emperor has a very good point. You need an heir, Farah.”

“How troublesome. Isn’t this world slated to be thrown aside soon in favour of the new one?” Farah asked. “You know, Cosmic Egg, yada yada? Why in the name of the Moons do I need to find a husband and a son when this world is coming to an end and we’re all moving to the next?”

“Presumably because the new world is a copy of the old one, geographically speaking,” Risti replied.

“Eh?”

“What?”

“Bet?”

Dia glanced at the baby on her lap, and then fiddled with her cheeks. “Wait, we’re literally just moving on to a copy of our current world?”

“I won’t go so far as to call it a copy of our current world,” Risti replied. “Rather, it’s an improved iteration…apparently. I don’t know. You guys go figure.”

“Meh.” Caroline walked over to Farah. “Anyway, for that reason or something similar, my husband has bugged me to introduce someone to you. What kind of husband do you want?”

“None,” Farah replied. “I’m what, twenty-six? You guys are three hundred. Your brothers are likely to be ten times my age or something. No. Just no.”

“Actually, I think my dad recently had a child, around twenty-four years ago.”

“How is that recent?” Schwarz replied. “Twenty-four years ago! That’s not recent.”

“Bleh. I shall marry for love, not for political expediency,” Farah replied.

“Then get someone to move your heart and sweep you up already,” Count Nightfall replied. “I don’t know what to say to Emperor Grandis. What, you’re not interested? Gah. He’ll flay me.”

“I’ll be impressed if he can actually flay you from so far,” Dia quipped. “Did he say anything about me?”

“No.”

Dia looked at Beth, and then patted the kid’s head to console herself.