Fowlhunter [GL]

“Sorry, I don’t think I really understand,” Sabira said. “You’re working with whom???!?”

At long last, dawn had broken upon the undercloud.

Ennanis had finally accepted Sabira’s incoming communication charm. It had started nagging in her brain almost the minute the sun rose, so she told the Beasts to stay put at an inn in Jadestone while she took her call.

Now her comrade was here on the Palace bridges, changed out of her chiton and back in her regular uniform, her tangerine hair back in twintails. They stood side-by-side on the bridge, watching as angel Knights repaired the broken bridges and cleaned up the debris-strewn lake. And as the Beasts had said it would, the carcass of the big, black duck had faded with the morning sunlight, until it was no more than a shimmer of silver dust. Fortunately, based on the reports, no civilians had been gravely hurt in the confrontation. They had all been evacuated. Ennanis guessed that Walden and Garnet were among them, as she did not see them.

She hoped that she hadn’t blown up the Vabolts’ reputation too much, in that spar with Ulysses… but right now, she had other things to worry about.

“You heard me,” Ennanis affirmed. “I’ll be working with a squad of deserter Beasts.”

Sabira stood in stupefied silence. Slowly, she leaned herself on the railing and shook her head. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time.”

Despite the gravity of the situation, Ennanis smiled thinly. “Sorry for making you the eternal witness to my poor decisions.”

“Surely you know they can’t be trusted.” Sabira looked less amused than her. “No matter who they claim to be or claim to want, detractors from the Beasts or whatever, it’s super weird that they would want to team up with an angel. Especially team up with you, who’s killed so many of their kind. This whole thing just screams suspicious. And don’t forget how many angels they’ve killed, too!”

Ennanis sobered. And then she said, carefully, “Many of those deaths are deaths on the battlefield, Sabira. The Graveyard Division and the Beast army—we’re all soldiers. This war is between Emperor Prometheus and the Queen Medusa.”

“But it’s still under your hands that they fall,” Sabira glanced downward. “You couldn’t possibly watch your comrade die and feel nothing after.” Here her voice broke its levelness, trailing into a soft tremble. “You know… like Kikko.”

Kikko was a mutual friend of theirs, one of Ennanis’ very first friends. She had been enlisted into the Graveyard Division, and passed away soon after.

“Yes. I know,” Ennanis said, and she meant it. She paused, giving Sabira a second to compose herself. “But now Mount Casca is at stake, as well as the rest of the world. I simply can’t let personal grievances stand in the way. Even if they turn out to be traitors, these Beasts are the best lead we have. We could always refuse and look for our own clues, but we really don’t have the luxury of time; not while the Kraken could awaken anyday. Now, there’s an opportunity on our doorstep. So if it means working with Beasts…”

“...You’d do it.” Sabira completed. And then her eyes widened, remembering an earlier conversation during the Ball. “But no… this was your intention all along.”

Ennanis nodded.

“You had wanted to lure Beasts to the ball by spreading the word you’d be there, knowing at least one would try to attack you,” Sabira pondered. “But how did you know an offer of help would just drop into your lap?”

“Ah… I didn’t actually know that,” Ennanis admitted. “I was going to do more, like take them in for questioning.”

“Wow. Rather convenient for you.”

“Like you said, it was a gambit,” she shrugged. “You could say that I got lucky.”

“Ennanis,” Sabira said slowly, “you are quite possibly the unluckiest person I have ever met.”

“It’ll only be upward from here.”

“That’s not how it works.”

Ennanis merely smiled again. Sabira sighed, staring out over the lake. “You mentioned there was a human among them, too.”

“Yeah,” Ennanis answered. The human woman who had named herself as Jemi. The last of the Beast squad to make her appearance, by throwing herself at the angel out of the blue. She had the violet eyes of a sunblood—a human with the power of Soleki—and yet armed herself with only knife and bow. And she had also seen the fury in those eyes when Ennanis had held that makara hostage… that had not seemed faked.

These Beasts weren’t just her slaver, employer, or ally. They were something personal to this human.

“I want to know what a human sees in the Beasts. I need to know how a human could trust them so much,” she said. As she said that, her gaze was faraway, as if deep in thought.

It was a strange justification… far from perfectly sound, or reasonable. But it seemed to be the only one Ennanis would offer.

“......” Sabira stared at her mutely. “How about the Cockatrice? The one you were so doggedly chasing? You said she was the one who would be able to lead you to the Kraken…”

“The Cockatrice will show in her own time,” Ennanis said simply. “For now, what I need to do is follow this group. If I do, I’m sure it will lead me in the right direction; and so long as the direction is right, we’re bound to run into her along the way.”

“...Alright then.”

“What, no objections this time?”

Sabira rolled her eyes. “Well, for someone who always makes me your witness, you’ve never let me actually stop you from doing anything.”

Ennanis chuckled. “Right.”

“Yeah. But… what about Truwing’s squadron? What should we do? Should we come along too?”

“No,” Ennanis said. “The Beasts came looking for me specifically. I don’t think they’d want to work with other angels. Plus, I… don’t really want to put more angels in harm’s way.”

Sabira sighed again. “At this rate, we might as well disband the company.”

“Go ahead, if you ask me. They’re better off doing things more useful than waiting for instruction that never comes,” Ennanis said. “Just don’t tell Truwing.”

“I’m going to tell him.”

“You won’t.”

“You,” Sabira informed her, “are actually insufferable. Let’s hope that the Beasts take better care of you than I do.” Then she turned away and stormed off. Ennanis watched her go, for a while, then turned away herself.