It was a month before they finally reached the small town of Ceri that sat a week's ride from their next destination—a city by the name of Agape. Four weeks of petty squabbles. Thirty-one days of Estia's endless flirting. Seven-hundred forty-four hours of Claudia's constant griping. Forty-four-thousand six-hundred and forty minutes of Leo's suddenly stoic silence. And by the time they got there, Takayoshi felt more travel worn than he ever had in his life.
He knew he should stop, order tea, and sit in the dining room to listen to the locals. He knew he should provide some kind of instruction for his small group. But after a month on the road, he did not have it in him. After a month with no time away from people—even people he genuinely found that he liked—he needed to be alone. He did not even bother to have tea or supper sent up to his room, he just slunk away and left the others to fend for themselves.
It was a mistake, Takayoshi would realize a week later when they finally arrived in Agape to find the sprawling city empty of any signs of life. Lily had begun to grow antsy as they crested the hill to look down at the town, but he had pushed her forward, ignoring the warning that it was.
"This is..." Claudia looked around, her hands fisted so tightly on her reins that her knuckles turned white. "What is this?"
"I don't know." Estia's brows had pinched together, scrunching zir forehead up. "It wasn't—" Ze stopped zirself, cleared zir throat and continued on. "It shouldn't be like this. Agape has always been a prosperous city. We've had no reports of it being otherwise."
"But this deep in the valley, you wouldn't." Leo lowered himself to the dry dirt, his scuffed boots quickly gaining a thin layer of dust. "They get snowed in in the winter, and can't get any messages out."
"How do you know that?" Claudia, it seemed, had not stopped being suspicious of Leo, and Takayoshi could not blame her. He was a strange addition to their party, and his presence had only grown stranger the longer they had traveled together. There always seemed to be something Leo was on the verge of saying that he would not let past his lips. And Takayoshi had grown used to people saying exactly as they thought so much so that he did not trust those who did not. Especially someone with a thinly veiled Cytherean accent. Takayoshi was not one to judge people by where they came from, but when they chose to conceal that fact it made him wonder.
"Everyone knows that." Leo shrugged. "Come on, maybe we can find some signs of what happened in some of the buildings."
"Not everyone," Claudia muttered, her dark eyes flicking to Estia who was still watching Leo. Always with awe. As if ze could not believe Leo was even there at all. That too, was strange, and did not sit right with Takayoshi. "Yoshi?"
Takayoshi jerked from his thoughts, and nodded. "Leo is right, we will not know what happened to the inhabitants unless we do some reconnaissance." He slid from Lily, shushing her gently when she reared back a little. "It is all right Lily. You are safe."
"We should split up, we'll cover more ground. You should have your weapons ready." Leo put his hand to the sword on his belt, but he did not pull it from his sheath. His eyes lifted to Estia, who had yet to dismount with the others. "Your Highness?"
"I only have a dagger." Estia shifted uncomfortably in zir saddle.
"Then we will divide into teams of two," Takayoshi said, not waiting for Leo to say anything more. He met Claudia's gaze and she nodded. "I will remain with Estia. Leo and Claudia, you two should stay together."
"Takayooooshi," Estia whined, slumping forward in zir saddle. "Why can't I go with Leo?"
Takayoshi felt his eyebrow twitch in irritation as he resisted the urge to simply answer, because I said so. It would not make his point any more valid.
Still, something in his expression must have portrayed how he was feeling because Estia huffed, and slid from zir saddle. "All right. All right. I'll stay with you, and Claudia can take Leo. Just, don't be too rough on him Claudia. I want him back in one piece, all right?"
Claudia scoffed, and rolled her eyes.
"Leo. My darling. Tell me you'll be all right, and you won't let mean ol' Claudia bully you too much." Estia threw zirself at Leo, making to hang from him like a limpet.
Leo stepped out of the way, making Estia stumble a little, and let out an indignant squawk.
Claudia snickered.
"I look forward to some quiet," Leo said, looking at Claudia.
"I was just thinking the same thing." Claudia bent to pull a dagger from her boot, and held it out to Estia. "Make sure to have Yoshi's back."
Estia huffed, zir breath blowing zir hair away from zir face, but took the dagger and tucked it into zir belt alongside the other.
"We'll leave the horses here. Shout if you find anything," Leo said. Then he tied his horse to a nearby rail, and turned to survey the roads ahead of them, waiting for the others to do the same.
"That seems a terribly inefficient means of communication, doesn't it?" Estia tilted zir head at Takayoshi.
"What was that?" Leo did not even turn, he called over his shoulder. It was arrogant. It was disrespectful. It was rude. Especially to one of royal blood.
But Estia's lips twitched into a knowing smile, and ze called back, "Oh nothing, darling. Nothing at all."
Claudia gave a long suffering sigh, tied her horse alongside the others, and started in the direction Leo was facing, not waiting for him to follow her. They rounded a corner at the end of the block, and then they were gone.
"I guess we'll keep going straight?" Estia asked, zir fingers making quick work of knotting zir horse's reins to the same railing. "Feels strange leaving them behind, doesn't it?"
"It will be easier to search the buildings without the concern of where the horses are." Takayoshi nodded his agreement with the sentiment. He did not like leaving Lily behind. She had been a soothing presence all through their journey thus far. But Leo had a point, the horses made things more difficult. "We should start with these buildings, I think."
"What are we looking for exactly?" Estia moved to the door of the small one floor building they had tied their horses to. It appeared to be a shop, of some sorts. Likely a cobbler or a smithy.
"Any sign of what might have happened to the people who lived here." Takayoshi followed behind zir in through the darkened doorway.
Estia nodded, humming thoughtfully. "I really don't see why we wouldn't have gotten news of Agape's people disappearing in the palace. This just doesn't feel right. This place is a trade hub with Hermes because it's so close to the border. Someone would have noticed if something was amiss."
Takayoshi did not respond. He had learned with Cricket that some people just liked to talk. They did not require constant conversation.
The sight on the other side of the door was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a cobbler, as he had thought. A long work bench lined one wall, cluttered with tools, and one half finished shoe, the sole dangling from it by a few strands of thread. As if the cobbler had merely put everything down thinking they would come right back to it. Takayoshi's skin prickled at the sight. It felt too much like Nishi. But there were no signs of a struggle, or an attack as there had been in Nishi. Just the empty streets, left as if the people had merely walked away with the intent of coming back.
"I don't like it here," Estia said, zir voice unusually soft.
Takayoshi agreed. He did not like it here either. This place felt empty in a way that was wholly different than the manor had felt. Not hollowed out as it had been, but stagnant. Still.
"Is there any magic left behind?"
Takayoshi's feet stopped in the middle of the empty shop, one hand fisted behind his back, the other on the hilt of his sword. He took a breath, closed his eyes, and reached. Let the magic lingering like static under his skin press outward in search of its counterpart. It found it, readily enough. The city was not empty. But where Takayoshi reached, the magic did not react. It did not push back. It did not hum. It just remained, frozen. As if time had stopped, and with it the magic.
"Well?" Estia asked, when ze deemed that Takayoshi had been silent long enough.
Takayoshi's hand tightened behind his back, his nails digging into the soft flesh of his palm. "There is still magic here. It is just... dormant."
"Dormant?"
"Mhm." He thought that was the right word for what he felt. Frozen did not seem correct, although he was not sure why.
"Well, maybe we can wake it up?" Estia had moved to lean against the cobbler's table, one leg crossed over the other in an elegant slump.
"I am not sure that would be wise." Takayoshi shook his head.
"Why not?"
"We do not know why it is dormant, or who made it so. It would be better to try to find that out before we make any attempts to stir it." Still, he did not like how he could feel the staleness of it crawling against his skin. Magic was not supposed to be that way. Living places were not supposed to go into hibernation. Even in the winter, magic ebbed and flowed through the world. But here, here he could not even feel the rise and fall of it in the air as he normally would. It had him gritting his teeth together in a motion that would no doubt have Uncle scolding him.
Estia sighed, shrugging zir shoulders. "All right then, back to investigating. Hopefully the other buildings will give us a little more. This is just... it's like they just didn't come back after walking away to use the loo, or something."
Takayoshi nodded, and headed for the door again. Estia's assessment was apt, far more apt than Takayoshi would have given zir credit for. "Perhaps the city hall might be a better place to start."
"That's a possibility. That'll be in the center of the city. I've been here before, I know how to get there."
Takayoshi's hand brushed the knob, pulling it open to reveal the street outside and the—
"Where are the horses?" Estia asked, zir mouth too close to Takayoshi's ear where ze had leaned over his shoulder.
Takayoshi jerked away from the casual contact, stepping out onto the street to turn and get a better look at the building they had just exited. His brows twitched together. There had been a porch. A porch with a railing. A porch with a railing that they had tied their horses to. And green shutters. And the building had been a single floor.
"This is not the same building."
"What?" Estia's voice came out a squeak as ze stumbled over zirself to get out onto the dusty street beside him. Ze spun, and then let out a choked off noise. "Oh well that... that's not right."
"Mn." Takayoshi agreed, his hand tightening on his sword until the grip dug into his palm, still staring up at the now two story building they had just exited.
"Oh... Styxx." Estia's voice was quiet, strangled, terrified.
"What is it?" Takayoshi turned to zir, hoping that they were not being surrounded by hungry spirits again, while he was not paying attention.
Estia just pointed over his shoulder, off the way they had come into Agape. Takayoshi turned slowly, his hand already moving to pull out his sword, but it stilled when he looked at... at the street in front of them. Not the border where a dirt road lined in small buildings led out into the open valley beyond, full of just greening wire grass and dandelions. But more street. More buildings. More... more of Agape.
"Oh," Takayoshi rasped softly.
"Yeah." Estia raked zir hands through zir short, light hair, and let out a long breath. "A teleportation array? Do you think?"
Ze sounded almost hopeful. Takayoshi shook his head. "We would have felt it. Or at the very least seen signs of it."
He stepped closer to the still open door, peering down at the little stoop that now led up to it. There was nothing. No characters. No carvings. No oddly arranged bricks. Just two normal looking steps, and a normal looking pad made of sun-bleached brick.
"There is nothing."
"We should call for help. Get Leo and Claudia here before... before we find out what it is that cursed this place." The hopeful note had left zir voice, and now ze sounded panicked. Takayoshi looked back to see that Estia's hands had begun to tremble at zir sides.
"Let us try another building first."
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