"She'll live," Alice grunted. "My healing is some of the best around. I repaired what I could and patched up the rest. She just needs a good night's rest."
Davi quietly stared past the one-way glass. He was back in the hospital now, watching as doctors worked on Hannah. Alice stood next to him, also watching with fake disinterest, while Suits was seated and playing some game on his phone.
"And Susie Nyx?" Davi asked quietly. "Did they say anything about what would happen to her?"
"She was thrown into their best cell." Alice yawned. "It's what she gets for attacking you. She nearly got several of her own people killed as well. I was there and watched it all on the sidelines. If not for you, Daisy would be down at least a few dozen civilians. I figure some other Knights will come out here to properly transport her, and she'll likely be thrown into Nightshade, the greatest mage prison in the world." Alice's eyes sharpened slightly when she saw his shoulders sag. "What? You sad now?"
"Not really." Davi hummed. He glanced down at his hand. The one who had swung the sword that sliced through Hannah. "Sometimes, I can't help but wonder, why am I here?"
"In Daisy? You wanted to come here."
"No. Not Daisy. Just here in general. I don't really belong here, I think." Davi mused. "Oh well, what's done is done, and what I did is what I did."
Alice rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you're actually blaming yourself for what happened? It isn't your fault. That girl was insane. I read the report about what happened to Daisy. I even did one of my own when I learned about the town, as all good reporters do."
"You're not really a good reporter though…" Davi pointed out.
Alice's eye twitched at his remark, but she ignored it. "The death of Garon was a tragic one, but everyone who looked into it all agrees that he was killed by a monster and not by the savior of the town. His daughter is the only one who says differently. The thing is, she has a Trait that allows her to tell the truth or not. Did you know someone else with that Trait also looked into what Susie was saying?"
"I didn't?"
"They questioned Susie Nyx and asked her if she thought you killed her dad. Apparently, what she said came back as a lie."
"It did?" Davi frowned at that. Susie should have believed herself at the very least. Even if there was some grey there, her own words should have been valid, especially back then, as she'd have truly believed he murdered Garon.
"When word about this got out, it was one of the events that led to all of Daisy believing you really didn't kill Garon. Before that event, some people held doubts, but even his own daughter secretly believed you were innocent, and the person who gave this final report, the one who had the same trait as Susie, also proclaimed your innocence." Alice explained. "Susie Nyx is a confused girl. Her mind couldn't handle the death of her father, and she is just lashing out at you because you saved everyone else, and she likely doesn't think that is fair. None of what has happened is your fault."
Davi's hand balled up. "That person who had the same trait as her? Who were they?"
"I forget their name, but they were someone who held a connection to a few of the guilds, and they came out here around the time of the exams." Alice hummed. "If I recall correctly, the reason I took notice was that this person was hired by a big-shot Knight. Ever heard of the Lance of Victory?"
Davi closed his eyes and nearly let out a sigh. "Yeah. I heard of her."
It all made a little more sense now. Susie believed he killed her father and likely began to scream about it after he left. While he was taking the exam, he knew Tori had taken a keen interest in him, and he constantly felt her sickening gaze on him. If word got out that he killed Garon, it likely wouldn't end well for him, and he'd be kicked out of the Knights, so Tori sent someone here to clean it all up.
Even if the person had a trait that could tell fact from fiction, there was nothing that would simply stop them from lying. They 'listened' to Susie's words and then would say the girl was insane and lying, and thus, 'Davi Hawker' was innocent.
This really was all his fault.
Power…
He just needed more power.
"You look even more bummed." Alice frowned. "I thought you would have been excited."
Davi gave another awkward shrug. "I dunno. Part of me just wishes things had played out differently. Maybe there were other ways things could go."
"Don't go thinking about what-ifs, otherwise you'll be bummed all night." Alice shook her head. "You said it yourself, what is done is done. Nothing can change the past."
"That's true." Davi turned to look at Alice, and he raised an eyebrow. "So, why exactly are you here again?"
Alice turned away from him and let out a huff. "I decided that you had no right refusing to finish the work you agreed to, so I told Suits to take me back here so I could drag you by your ear to the next town. We still have work to do, you know."
Davi let out a snort and was about to follow Alice, who was about to leave the room, but he stopped and glanced back at Hannah. The girl was still unconscious, lying on the bed, with her mom next to her. His arm felt strangely heavy.
"I'm sorry."
Davi left the hospital.
Alice walked through the streets of Daisy, followed by Suits, while Davi lagged a bit behind. He watched the people pass by, and a few glanced toward him. He had gotten healed up thanks to Alice and no longer wore his armor, but the air around him seemed to have shifted, and the people could tell because they no longer approached or smiled at him.
Saving them from a monster made it easy for them to view him as a hero. He was the ultimate warrior who defeated the snake. Saving them from Susie was different, though. They saw a member of their own community who was suffering. What she did was bad and would have been worse, but it was still hard to look past the conflict, and seeing her yell and cry about how evil he was… Even if people didn't believe her, that idea would at least appear in their minds.
"Oy," Alice called back to him, snapping him out of his thoughts. She stood at the entrance to the metal carriage Suits created. "You coming or not?"
"Yeah." Davi jogged forward to catch up. "Sorry. I'm ready to leave, too."
"Good." Alice stepped back, making room for him to enter. "We still have a few places to hit, so cheer up. There are plenty of people who need your help."
"Yeah." Davi stepped into the carriage, and he glanced back at Daisy. One day, he'd be able to save this town. Until then, though… Davi sighed. "Goodbye, Daisy-"
His scar suddenly erupted in pain, and he was forced to clutch the side of his face. Suits also went still, a shiver going down his back, and it caused his focus to snap, the metal carriage coming undone as it melted and broke apart, dropping the three of them to the ground.
Alice landed on her knees, and her face went pale. Every hair on her body stood up, and her Mana Sensing began to go haywire. The people in Daisy Town weren't in any better condition. Many of them froze mid-step or collapsed to the ground as they all felt the exact same thing.
A powerful, overwhelming aura. One that filled every inch of the town square. Davi was the first to look up, and he stared into the sky in shock.
It had been daytime, but now the sky was black, as if a curtain was blotting out the sun. In that curtain of darkness that hung above them, something rippled and began to tear. It twisted open, and in the black, pure white appeared, and Davi realized he was staring up into an eyeball. It lacked an iris and was massive and jagged, but it stared down at the people of Daisy, so big that it might as well be the moon.
The rippling grew, and a powerful energy began to blast out. Beams of rippling red and black lightning that poured from the eye stabbed into the ground or the sides of buildings, sending showers of debris in all directions.
The twisting kept growing as the air groaned and more tears formed along the strange new sky, revealing more eyes and a few mouths that lacked teeth but managed to smile. And from their openings, something began to fall out.
Davi saw a flash of metal, and he managed to yell before anyone else. "Get down! It's a bomb-"
Daisy erupted.
***
Ink…
The white page was coated in ink as a quill dipped and began to write. Words were created from nothingness, forged over and over again in an endless dance as sentences were born, and a tale was told.
Seven. There had been seven.
Six. There are still six.
Six lives that must be taken. Six lives that must be snuffed out. Six people whose very existence stops the story that is being told.
The quill picked up pace, writing faster and faster, spinning a narrative of death and sorrow and failure.
Five. Five would be the number after today.
One of the six was going to die. Threads weaved that narrative became foretold, and so the plot was set into motion. The quill pronounced someone's death.
***
Davi groaned, and slowly his eyes opened. He pushed himself up, feeling weak and tired as he adjusted to the dark. What he saw snapped him awake.
Daisy was in trouble.
Ash rained from the sky, the buildings were on fire, the streets were torn apart, and craters were scattered in various places. The dungeon above, or the spatial rift, or whatever the hell it was, had simply opened up and dropped dozens of small bombs across the city, leveling the street and collapsing homes and buildings. Who knew how many lives had already been stolen, and it wasn't even close to being done.
The rift twisted again, and something else dropped from the sky. This one was made of wood, and he crashed down into the middle of the road. Its body unfolded and came undone, revealing limbs and a head. It looked like some sort of wooden doll that was made to be in the image of a person. It lacked all features, and various weapons, such as claws and even guns, had been molded and built into its body.
The strange creature moved in a jerky, unnatural way, as if it were a puppet on strings. It took a shaking step forward and rattled, and then a large barrel on its shoulder took aim, and a blast of pure mana was unleashed, scorching the air and destroying more of the street and buildings.
Dozens of other puppets began to fall from the sky, descending on Daisy, each just as deadly as the last.
"S-Shit." Alice also managed to get back onto her feet. She was covered in ash and grime and bleeding from a wound to her side, but she ignored it and focused on the puppets. "Those are creations from the Lord of Thread! W-What the hell is he doing here?"
"Row Shadow Armor." Davi created his armor and, in the same instant, opened his vault and drew Storymaker. "I don't know who that is, but that thing above is a dungeon. We need to get these people out of here. Suits can create that carriage, right? Think the two of you can find civilians and start loading them up?"
"Sure, but what are you going to do?"
"Buy you all some time!" Davi took off, and he charged directly into the fray. Several of the puppets all turned toward him, and he swung his sword, tearing one in half. "I'm your opponent." He announced. "All of you are going to face me."
The wooden dolls all turned to face him. Each one was tall and lanky, with arms and legs that were slightly off, and random blades or guns poked out of sections of their body. They all made a rattling sound, and dozens of them floated toward him, all dragged across the ground. The grip on his sword grew tighter, and he began to slice them to bits.
While there were a lot, each one was slow and weak. They didn't even come close to hitting him, and he easily took them out with a single attack.
As this was going on, Alice did what Davi suggested and began to gather up the civilians who were still alive. She used her magic to create various barriers of solid white light, which scooped people up and took them to an injured Suits, who produced dozens of metal carriages. The guards also helped her, and they began to rapidly clear out the buildings, but even as this was happening, the attack on Daisy wasn't letting up, and more of those dolls kept pouring out of the sky.
"I can't get ahold of the outside world." One of the guards cursed. "Whatever is going on has cut off the phones and any other communication."
"That's okay," Alice called back. "After the last attack, they set up fail-safes for something like this. Every town has to send a signal out every hour, and if they fail to send one, then the Knights will instantly be sent out. We just have to survive until then."
"Well, with him on our side, we might be able to do that." The guard muttered, and he watched Davi work.
A sea of swords jutted out of Davi's shadow, impaling dozens of the puppets, and he began to tear through them, moving even quicker. The air was filled with their limbs as he hacked them to bits faster than the horde could even fall. Hundreds of them descended, and hundreds of them were destroyed. Every swipe of his blade, every twitch of his muscle, Davi was entirely in his element, letting all his frustration and anger out. He just kept cutting.
Suddenly, from above, the city shook as a massive puppet landed. It was made of wood, just like the others, and shaped like a person, but it was over one hundred feet tall and had six arms, each ending in a deadly bladed weapon.
Davi stared up at the massive thing. "You're a big guy, aren't you?"
The puppet responded by opening its shoulders, which unlatched, and then it fired out a series of rockets. Using his Shadow Vault, he absorbed all the missiles before they could blow up, and he dodged to the side as the doll's limbs tore through all the buildings around him, tearing the street to bits as it tried to hit him.
"Stop thrashing the city." Davi leapt into the air, and he raised his sword above him, pointing it toward the sky. The puppet seemed to sense the danger, and its six arms all pulled back, getting ready to block, but Davi didn't slow down and brought his arms in a downward motion, unleashing the Way of the Sky Cutting Sword!
His sword struck out, and a perfect line appeared through the massive doll. Its weapons shattered, its arms snapped, and it was perfectly split in two. He landed on the ground and watched its broken remains fall.
Before he even had a chance to react, two more of the massive constructs dropped down from the eye, and both swung toward him.
"Row Light Barrier!" A shimmering white wall of energy appeared just in time to block the strikes.
"Thanks for the save," Davi muttered as Alice stood behind him now. "I can handle it from here, though. Get to safety."
Alice shook her head. "Most of the town either died in the first wave of the attack or is already gone. I'm pretty ticked off, so I think I'll get involved as well. Row Light Cloak." Alice raised her arm, and her entire body ignited in a wave of light. The glow twisted around her and molded over her coat, clinging to it like a second layer. When it was all done, she now wore a jacket forged from pure light. "I'm not really good at attack magic, but I'm a pro when it comes to casting defensive and restoration spells. I'm also far stronger and faster when I'm wearing this cloak."
As if to prove her point, Alice shimmered and vanished. She reappeared in front of one of the massive dolls, standing on the air, and struck it with her fist, hard enough to blow its chest apart, sending it flying. Before the second one could attack her, she shimmered again and reappeared next to Davi.
"That's quite the trick," Davi noted.
Alice smirked. "It's pretty handy." Her smile then faded. "While I was in the air, I saw something concerning."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." Alice nodded. "The majority of the dolls, and the bigger ones, are all near the center of the city. They seem to be swarming one building in particular."
"Which building?"
"The closest thing this city has to a prison."
Further in Daisy, near the jail cells, hundreds of the puppets all stood outside of the building. Most of it had been torn down by the wave of bombs, and only a single person remained inside.
The walls were gone, yet she didn't budge. Susie sat on the jail's bed, able to escape if she wanted to, but she didn't move. She stared blankly into space, not even processing the dolls that were around her.
A quiet 'clicking' sound filled the air as a figure walked forward. Unlike the other dolls, this figure was made out of a brass metal, and he wore a long black cloak. His arms and legs were still a little too long, and he wobbled in the way a puppet on strings would, but he also walked with confidence, carrying a long scythe.
When he neared Susie, she blankly stared up, finding herself looking into a skull-like mask. "Seven." A mechanical voice spilled out from behind the mask. "You are one of the seven—you, who have inherited the Core. My master, the Lord of Threads, has ordered your death, and so has Adam written." The doll lifted its scythe. "Die, Susie Nyx, one of the seven who stand in our way."
It brought its scythe down.
The fire mage, whom the Lord of Threads had been assigned to kill, was, in fact, Susie Nyx.