7th interlude: The Last Memory

Nick:

With tears welling in his eyes, Jacob stares at Samantha, touched by her concern, but nevertheless overwhelmed with emotion. When the group unanimously decides to check the secret passage, he wipes the tears away with his sleeves and follows quietly.

The group runs into the forest along a beaten path until they reach a small clearing located nearly 500 meters away from the manor. There, Marcus finds the trap hidden under a patch of grass and puts his hand on the handle.

"It's me, Marcus!" he shouts. "Don't attack us!"

He opens the trap, revealing two familiar faces: Evrard Lavoie and Rémi Cormier. Both of them look injured, Rémi even more so. Despite their wounds, they stand ready to fight, weapons pointed toward the entrance.

"Please, weapons down. It's us. May we come down?"

Evrard looks at the people above intently, then puts his weapons away. He calls back to the survivors over his shoulder, "It's Edward and the gang, they're back."

Rémi raises his halberd from the ready position and starts using it to prop himself up. When he sees his old boss among you a look of relief passes over his face.  "Ingeburg, I'm glad you made it. I wanted to go back but it wasn't possible. I'm so sorry I couldn't do both. If only I was a little stronger." He hangs his head in shame.

"I know you would have," Ingeburg replies.

The two former ISA agents move out of the way to let everyone else climb down into the cellar. The room is small and lighted by a single lantern hanging from the ceiling, but it provides enough light to see who the survivors are: three servants who worked at the manor, Evrard's wife among them; Nick's mother, Everly; and the baby Triston, who Everly is holding in her arms.

There's no one else.

As Sam looks around the room, she registers the missing faces. She fights back tears and goes to Everly. "Triston! Oh, my sweet boy."

"This is all who made through the day alive. Except whoever took the fairies and left with their lives. Had to fight a few familiar faces. Think I might dream about them, too." Evrard looks between Ingeburg, Sam and Edward, and finally Berenice.  "What a shit day," he mumbles.

Nick squeezes Anne's hand while Sam sees to her baby. Then he goes to his mom and embraces her tightly.

Remi looks stoically on, silently vowing revenge against all those who perpetuated this massacre.

May respectfully keeps her distance, even though she too wants to hug Sam and her family. Instead she wipes the tears from her face with the back of her sleeve.

Triston has been agitated ever since the group opened the trap door to the secret cellar, but the instant Everly gives him to his mother, he quiets down and starts to coo instead. Edward walks up to the both of them and holds them in a tight embrace, then looks up at Everly to say, "Thank you."

The woman nods back at him before she turns her attention to her son. It doesn't take long before the first sob escapes her throat.

Anne slowly sits down against the earthy wall and holds her head in her hands, devastated by the realization that her parents are dead. Jacob stays next to her does his best to comfort her by caressing her cheek. The servants dare not say anything to disturb the silence.

After a long moment, Jacob asks Ingeburg, "Do you know where my family is?"

The middle-aged woman nods at the fairy and says, "I heard Finlay Howe tell the men to bring the fairies to the Core."

"You mean the Shield's reactor?"

"Yes."

Every squad member here knows that the Core is located right in the middle of Medial. It's what is supposed to power the Shield that will envelop the Archipelago in a protective barrier that will destroy every Elemental within.

Still cradling her child, Sam turns and looks at Ingeburg, her makeup beginning to smear. "The reactor? But that's where... No way, he'll... that monster."

"Not if we rescue them," says May. She looks at all the others but it's clear she's going with or without them.

At first, Anne is too distressed to consider anything else but the present, but once Samantha shares her horrifying realization of what Howe plans to do to the fairies, she stands up and dry her tears.

"May is right," she says to Jacob. "We won't let him get away with this."

"Damn right," Marcus adds.

Sam nods, and hands her baby back to Everly. "I'll go with you. I doubt any of us could keep up with May."

"Leave that to me, Princess. Yellow Mage, remember?" Evrard says.

"Wait," Ingeburg says. "It's about Finlay. The way he spoke, it sounded like he wanted to activate the Shield as soon as possible."

Edward, who's been staring at his son for a while now, suddenly looks up at the old spy and frowns. "Arthur is the one who gave the order."

"I believe so," she replies.

Samantha takes this moment to wipe her face with a cloth. "So, it's now or never?" She looks at Edward. "We have to look for survivors. And then we'll sail for Medial as fast as the Happy Frog can take us."

Edward pinches his lips, but nods at Sam.

"We can help," one of the two male servants says. His companion agrees.

"Me too," Ingeburg adds.

"The strongest should go first so that they can save anyone who's trapped. Go ahead, Evrard."

Evrard nods. He exchanges a look with Remi, then intones a spell, and flicks his wrist. "There ya go. Better beat feet, now."

Remi, Marcus, and Edward now feel the effects of Haste. As everyone gets moving, Evrard stalls just a moment longer to hug Berenice before leaving the tunnel.

Haste 6 Maximized
Targets: Remi/Marcus/Edward

"Lets go then," says May. She sets a fast pace, but one that will let everyone travel together. She wants to help, but doesn't want to face the carnage of the village alone.

"Right behind you," says Rémi, quickly falling behind to last even with the Haste spell.

Before he goes, Edwards casts Haste on Anne, Nick and Evrard as well, they goes on ahead while the rest of the group follows after them at a slower pace—except for May, who is exceptionally fast because of her particular brand of magic.

The first squad members who arrive at the burning village begin to sift through the debris as fast as they can while Anne checks the bodies of the villagers who fell into the streets. By the time the rest of the group shows up, the truth has become painfully obvious: whoever burned down the settlement did so after gathering the villagers under false pretense, lined them up in the streets, then cut them down without mercy.

They can't find anyone alive.

After one corpse too many, Jacob flies away towards the shore and sits down on the dock, unable to even look at the village anymore.

Evrard closes the eyes of a few folks he met here. Mere acquaintances, but good people he cared about. Samantha sheds tears for the innocent, and has to push herself to keep going. By the time she's done, she walks away with a haunted look, keeping a brave face, but can't wait to get to her private room on the ship.

Evrard decides that it would be better to find the dog a new home, and approaches it to comfort and try and get it to follow.

"Hey boy, easy boy... Yer a boy, right?" He offers it some dried meat from his ration pack. "C'mere. It's alright, it's gonna be alright."

Handle Animal 26

The dog, a young Border Collie whose fur is smeared by ashes, carefully approaches Evrard to smell the piece of meat. But after some consideration, the dog ignores the meat and lies down on the ground instead, whimpering as it stares into space.

"There are no survivors," Anne finally declares, dejected. "They... they just killed everyone."

"They pretended they weren't going to hurt them," Marcus adds before pursing his lips. "That's how they got them all."

"We should leave," Edward says. "The Lorinthians will eventually send scouts to find out what happened. We don't want to be here when they arrive."

Evrard takes a knee next to the dog and strokes its fur. "Let's get out of here. I'll find ya a new home, away from all this. I got a woman, she's sweet and kind. I think you'd love her."

He spends that time stroking its fur, letting it listen to the sound of his voice, and then gets up and tries to call it. "Let's go, boy, c'mon."