Chapter 97 The Other Kind of Fool

"I'm joining the Great Hunt…if you'll have me."

The girl had said the words clearly and evenly, and the words were simple, such that there could be no mistake as to what she meant. I still had no answer for her. There was silence from the others, and so they did not have one either. Even Solara was looking up at Alisa with her head tilted slightly to one side. Then she chirped. It was the first thing anyone had said.

Then Ren stirred. She rose, and pointed a finger squarely at Alisa. "Are you crazy? You want to join the Great Hunt? At Line? Are you bloody mad? What in the hells do you think you're going to do?!"

Edda winced. She reached up and caught Ren by the back of the collar. Ren looked down at her and clicked her tongue. "You know I'm right, Edda. Don't tell me I'm not."

"Well, yes," Edda said, and it sounded as though it pained her, "but…."

Alisa still had not raised her head. What she was waiting for, I could not say. I looked to Ash. She had once claimed to possess "experience." It was time for the Hero to use it.

"Alisa," Ash said, "why do you want to join us, exactly?" The Hero's voice was soft. Almost gentle.

Alisa looked up. She met Ash's gaze, and swallowed. "I- I apologize, but I cannot tell you that. All I can say is that I have a good reason."

"A good reason," I repeated.

I had heard a great many good reasons in my long life. Kings had given me theirs from their knees. A Goddess had given me hers, weeping. Heroes had given me theirs through bloody lips. Some of their reasons had been very good. Not one had ever been good enough to stop a blade.

"Girl, is it glory you seek?" I said. "This Great Hunt is one of the pillars of your religion. I do not know how much glory one finds on it, but-"

"It's nothing like that," Alisa said. Then, in a lower voice, "It's… well, it's nothing like that." She sighed, and at last she raised herself. There was a frown on her face. The light caught her eyes and almost made them shine. It seemed she stood at the very edge of tears, and had not let herself cross it.

"What do you think?" Ash said. "I don't think it's anything stupid."

"I agree. That is precisely the problem," I said. I had seen that look before. It was the look of a man who did not want to do a thing, and knew he had to do it anyway. Whatever her reason truly was, it did not matter. "I once told a serving girl that a Sigil earns my respect, and a Crest earns the right to serve under me."

"Hey!" Ren said.

"You have neither, girl. You are a Line. Only a Line." I tilted my head. "If we must have companions, then we will not take one who cannot carry her own weight." I tried to keep my voice gentle. The way Ash's had been. I was not entirely certain I succeeded.

"You were a Line," Alisa said at once, "when you beat Lena Eckhart." Her chin had risen again.

"So I was," I said. "I am also Lysanthia. You are not."

"I can hold my own weight," Alisa said. "I won't slow you down. I might not be as strong as you, but-"

"Alisa," Ash cut her off. "We don't even know what your mark does."

That was true. In the days before my duel in the Arena, Alisa had trained beside us, and all the while she had said she would not use her mark, and she had certainly kept her word. The girl had been talented enough with her hands, but that was a petty thing next to what Ash or I could do.

The girl nodded slowly. She looked around the yard, at the handful of students still staring at us, and looked back. "My mark is… not something I can show just anyone," she finally said. "But I could use it in the Great Hunt. Even at Line, it won't hold you back. It'll probably help more than most Sigils would."

"Princess, now you've really lost it," Ren said. A trail of orange fire crept up her arm and died at the elbow. "This isn't a bloody game. Come on, be real with me for-"

I ignored them, even as they continued. Or rather, as Ren continued her chiding and Alisa simply listened.

"Edda said a lot of people find their companions in Azareth," Ash murmured. "And you can only have four. That leaves two. I don't think it'd be hard to find someone we know will be useful." She kept her voice low, though with Ren's yelling, perhaps she did not need to.

That surprised me. I had thought this Alisa's plea might have melted the Hero's heart. They were always that kind of fool, after all. "You would reject her?"

"I would keep her from killing herself." Ash looked at Alisa, then back at me. "And from maybe getting us killed with her. Besides, isn't her father a noble? Like that Marquis? I don't think it's going to be as simple as she's making it sound, even if we do take her."

This was true and not something I had considered at all. Alisa's father held the title of… Earl. I believed that was the word. Did the girl even have the right to offer what she was offering? I would not have cared. I was the Demon Queen, and if I willed a thing, all the kings in the world could not say otherwise. But that did not mean I wished to inconvenience myself needlessly. Not when we could simply find someone far stronger in this Azareth.

It was rather vexing. A girl wished to join us somewhere dangerous, for a reason she would not say, with a mark whose power she would not show. And Alisa had not stopped staring at me. All this while, even as Ren barrelled down at her, the girl had not looked anywhere else. There truly was fire there. I had seen it in many who fell to my sword. Their fire had done very little against a blade, or against magic.

There was a chirp. I looked down to see Solara rolling across the grass. She was rolling toward me, black and gold over black and gold. She bumped against my knee and righted herself. Then she started chirping, loudly, and with great enthusiasm. Loud enough that her small body shook with the force of it.

That made everyone pause and look at her. Even Ren.

"Solara?" I checked the bond. Through the bond I felt an odd mixture of determination and resolve. The two sat close to one another, but they were not the same thing.

It had not escaped me that Sol had permitted this girl's hand, though that was less surprising than when she had permitted Ren's. It seemed my familiar had been holding court while I was away. Now she pled for one of her subjects.

Solara flared her wings, craned her neck upward, and chirped again. Softer this time.

"What's wrong with her?" Ren asked.

I leaned down toward her, until my face was level with hers. Strangely, I almost thought I understood what she meant to say. Or what she was trying to say. The words inside her were too big for her chirps, however loud.

"Do you want her to join us, Solara?" I asked. At this, Solara craned her neck further still and let out a small trill.

Ash had leaned down beside me, until her face was level with mine. She reached out and lightly poked one of Sol's golden feathers, until Sol turned to face her. "It'll be dangerous, Sol," Ash said. "Do you still think…?"

Solara turned from us and regarded Alisa, who was staring at the bird with very wide and very confused eyes. Solara let out a chirp. Then another. I believed she was assessing Alisa where she stood. What that assessment actually was, however, was a mystery even to me. Before, it had surprised me to ask a bird for her opinion. Now, I wanted her to give it and give it freely.

Ren took a step toward us and pointed. "Hey, hey, you're not seriously thinking about this now, are you? She's still a Line. And you're going to be convinced by a bir-"

Sol let out a chirp that could only be called angry. Ren looked down at her and raised her hands. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that. But come on, you know I'm right!" Solara let out a small breath of air that sounded remarkably like a huff, and turned back to me. Her golden eyes stared into my own.

I sighed. Then I sat back, and then I stood to my full height. I approached Alisa, who watched me come. I was a good head taller than the girl. To her credit, she stood perfectly in place. I raised my right hand toward her, and the Requiem answered. Black wisps of Ruin danced between my fingers. I concentrated the Essence, and the wisps grew in my palm. They became a ball of black fire, darker than dark.

Edda was on my left. Ren was on my right. They were both reaching for me. They both almost did, before Ash caught them each by an arm.

"Ash, what is she-"

"Hey, she's gone fucking crazy, what are you-"

Ash's voice was quieter than theirs, and yet it cut through them all the same. "Just watch," she said.

It seemed the Hero trusted me. Even when I had said nothing at all. Strange, that it felt so…comforting.

I looked at Alisa. "When we go to this Great Hunt, however strong Ash or I may be, there is a risk of death, and it is not nothing. Even to us. Especially to you. You can die there." I tilted my head. "Tell me, are you prepared to die, girl?"

"I am," Alisa said at once. She stood as straight as her back would allow, and her gaze was as fierce as I had ever seen it.

The ball of the Requiem grew. It drank in the sunlight and gave nothing back. It was an emptiness in the world, and it would leave nothing of this Alisa. "And you are set on this?"

Alisa only nodded. I let the Requiem loose.

The ball of black fire crossed the space between us. Ren let out a cry from somewhere on my right. Edda tried to move. What she meant to do, I did not know. Perhaps she meant to turn that strange mark of hers on the Requiem. Ash held them both in place.

And I saw it, in the breath before the black flame reached her. Alisa's eyes widened. Her knees shook. The resolve she had worn so carefully ground down to nothing, and she was on her knees in an instant, and the black ball of Ruin passed over her head. It thinned in the air four paces past her, exactly where I had decided it would, and was nothing at all by the time it reached the pillar behind her. That was good. There would not have been a pillar.

The girl knelt in the grass, and her knees were still shaking. It was quiet. Ren and Edda simply stared.

I looked back. Ash met my gaze, and she nodded slowly. I looked down at Solara. She let out a small chirp. It seemed my court was in agreement.

I turned back to Alisa. I walked forward, and I went down to my knees in front of her.

Alisa looked up at me. Her hair had fallen across one eye, and she did not push it away. What I saw in her gaze was fear. Naked fear. Much of it was for the death she thought she had just avoided, some of it was for me, who she believed had been about to deliver it. And far more than the fear, there was the disappointment. I had given her a trial, and she believed she had failed it.

"Girl," I said. "Do you still wish to come with us?"

Alisa nodded. It was a shaky thing, but it was a nod.

"And is it something you are going to die for?" I whispered.

Alisa swallowed. Then, slowly, she shook her head. "I- I thought I was," she mumbled. "But-"

I nodded. And I smiled. "Very well, then. You may come with us."

Alisa stared. Her mouth hung open but no words came out. I reached forward, took her by both arms, and helped her rise. Her legs held. She stood on her own feet, and I let go. The Cradle hummed warm on my left. I had not asked it to.

"I-I don't understand," Alisa finally said. "I couldn't- I didn't-"

"Any fool can die for a thing. I have seen many do it better than you. I have no need to see it again." I folded my arms. "I want the other kind of fool. One who would risk a great deal, and who still wants to be alive at the end of it."

Alisa stared at me. Slowly, she nodded. "And this Earl. Your father," I said. "Does he know what you are asking of me?" Alisa shook her head. "And will this be a problem?"

"I…don't know," Alisa finally said. I did not think the girl was lying to me.

I nodded. Now that my decision had been made, it did not matter. "But you will show us the power of your mark before we leave. Or you will not come with us."

Alisa nodded again, more slowly still. I turned. I stepped toward Solara, reached down, and cupped the phoenix in both hands. There was no room left in them. She pressed herself against my stomach with a trill. "And you owe some thanks to Solara," I said, without looking back. "She pled your case well."

"I- I'll remember that," Alisa said behind me.

I met Ash's gaze. The Hero was smiling. I found I was a little relieved. It seemed I had not disappointed her. "You could have just asked her," Ash murmured.

"She would have lied," I said. "She did lie."

Ash's smile did not go anywhere. "She did."

Now we had three of our party of four. Where we would find this fourth, I did not know. Likely this was a matter for this Azareth.

Ren planted herself in front of me. "So what the hell was the plan," she said, "if you hit her?" She did not look angry. Perhaps exasperated was close.

"If I wanted to hit her," I said idly, "I would have."