From five stories above ground, the city of Agape sprawled out around them. None of them had wanted to stray too far from the relative safety of the house where they had found the silkworm. Takayoshi felt as if they were being drawn to something, tugged along by an invisible thread. So they had chosen the tallest building in the vicinity. It was not the tallest building in Agape, Takayoshi realized as he looked out over the rooftops. Some were a fair bit taller. But that was not what dropped Takayoshi's stomach to his knees. No. It was that—
"It just goes on forever," Claudia whispered half in awe, half in terror.
"It can't go on forever." Estia's hands gripped Leo's cloak so tightly that zir knuckles turned white. "It can't. Agape isn't this big. Leo..."
"It has to be an illusion." Leo's lips were pressed into a hard line, his eyes squinting at the horizon. "A trick of the light."
"Or it's part of whatever spell is making the buildings move around." Claudia turned slowly on her heel to look all around them. Takayoshi knew what she would see, it was the same thing he had seen as they were climbing, buildings upon buildings. Not a tree in sight. No end. No beginning. No border.
"The buildings are not moving," Takayoshi noted. But he felt detached from that fact. What did it matter if the buildings were not in fact moving? Either way, they were not getting out of Agape. Not so long as whatever spell had been cast on the place was intact. And if they could not get out, then no one could get in. "We should see if we can send a message to anyone on the outside."
"What?" Leo turned to look at Takayoshi with dark brows raised into his shaggy bangs. "Why would we do that?"
Takayoshi shrugged. He did not have a good answer for that outside of idle curiosity. And he did not lie.
"Yoshi's right." Claudia headed back towards the ladder on the side of the building they had used to climb up. "If for no other reason than to see if it'll work."
"So for research purposes," Leo said, unimpressed. "You scholars, always wanting to do something to see if it's possible. Never mind if it should be done or not."
"I do not see what harm it would do." Takayoshi's fist tightened behind his back, his shoulders straightening more.
"It wouldn't. And besides, maybe someone has heard something from Agape. Maybe there was a survivor who got out, and they can tell us something about it. It can't hurt to check. We should check in with Estia's Cytherea contacts first." Claudia descended toward the ground, her voice loud enough to carry back up to them.
"If that does not yield any results, I can ask my sister if she has ever heard of any such curse. Perhaps one of the scholars back home will have some information." Takayoshi looked back to see Estia glance up at Leo, then frown, before ze released Leo's cloak and followed them down. "If the buildings are not moving..."
"Then that means it's the interiors somehow," Claudia agreed with a nod.
"We would have felt it."
"Would we have?"
"Perhaps it is the doors themselves?"
"That would make more s—"
"What does it matter?" Leo growled, his boots landing hard on the ground, kicking up dust. "It doesn't matter how it's happening, it just matters that it's happening."
"That's not true." Claudia frowned at him. "The how is just as important as anything else. It could tell us what kind of curse it is."
"Well fine. You three sit here, and try to sort out what's causing the doors to move, or the buildings to move, or just the interiors to move. I'm going to find some stuff we can use as firewood. It'll be dark soon." Leo spun toward the entrance of the alley, his cloak billowing out behind him.
"Don't go far," Estia called after him, and when Leo looked over his shoulder to shoot zir a glare, Estia smiled. "Like you said, it'll be getting dark soon."
Leo huffed, and disappeared around the side of the building.
"He'll be all right," Claudia said, patting Estia's shoulder. "He can take care of himself."
"I know." Estia nodded, then returned to where ze had crouched to dig through zir bag for a small compact. Ze popped it open to reveal two pieces of glass. "Ah. There you are."
"Will that allow us to contact King Craven?" Takayoshi knelt beside zir, ignoring the way the dirt sullied his white trousers. It would not matter, if they continued on as they were his clothing would be long past the point of normal wear and tear. He supposed he could stop and have a new set made to replace this, and the ones he carried in his pouch, but stopping for that long seemed senseless when Sunil was already waging war against Lunette.
Estia snorted. "No. Craven is much too busy. This will put us in touch with my other older brother. Prince Euclid. He'll know if any communications have come from Agape. I just need to..." Estia tapped on the glass three times, then bent to blow zir breath against it, fogging it up. Zir finger squeaked as it traced a character into the fog, and then ze waited, holding the compact up to zir face. Estia waited one count of ten, and then another, zir face slowly falling as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. "Well. Maybe he's just too busy to answer. Takayoshi, why don't you try your sister?"
Takayoshi nodded, retrieving the mirror from his pouch. It was a plain wooden thing, with no ornamentation other than the crest of Helio carved into the back. Atsuko had tried to convince him to have a more fashionable one made, but Takayoshi did not see the purpose of that. The mirror was strictly for communication, nothing more.
Pressing a fingertip to the mirror, he leaned in toward the glass until he could only see his own eyes staring back at himself, and said, "Atsuko" in a level tone.
The glass rippled for a moment, like water in the breeze, and Takayoshi heard his sister start to reply. Her voice soft, and worried. "Taka—"
Then it stilled, and without any ambient noise from life beyond their alley, the voice seemed to echo.
"That's not good." Estia's voice came out more squeak than words. Zir hands had gone to fiddle nervously with the ends of zir tunic. "That's not good at all."
"Let's not panic." Claudia took a calming breath, meeting Estia's eyes, and encouraging zir to do the same. "Good. Now. That just means we'll have to figure this out on our own. But we are four reasonably intelligent people, I'm sure we can do that. Right, Yoshi?"
"Yes, of course." Takayoshi nodded. It was not quite a lie, they were four reasonably intelligent people, there was no reason they could not figure this out. It was also not quite the truth, he was not so sure that they could. Not being able to contact his sister had unsettled him in a way he did not like. They had not spoken much throughout this journey, but the ability to reach out to her should he need it had always been there. A small source of comfort when he was so far from home. But now... now he did not even have that.
"Right. Well, like Leo said, it'll be getting dark soon. We should find something to eat, and perhaps some bedding if we can since most of our camping supplies are with the horses." Claudia stood from where she had been crouched before them, tucking her hands behind her back quickly. But not before Takayoshi could see how they trembled just the slightest. She was frightened too. That did not bode well.
"Let us not separate. We will go in together, and leave the door open as we did before so that we can stay where Leo left us." Takayoshi tucked the mirror back into his travel pouch, and headed for the mouth of the alley without another word or backward glance.
"Right." Estia's voice sounded thick, as if ze were on the verge of tears, but Takayoshi heard zir footsteps fall into step with his and Claudia's not a moment later. Good. That was good. So long as they all remained calm, they might just get out of this alive.
"He's not back yet," Estia said for perhaps the tenth time since Leo had disappeared in search of firewood. Night had well and truly fallen. They had eaten a meal of stale bread and canned beans, and Takayoshi had managed to build them a meager fire from the dining room chairs of the house they had searched. "He should have been back."
"He can take care of himself," Claudia reminded zir for the tenth time, but Takayoshi could hear the lie underneath it. Yes, Leo could take care of himself. But he should have been back, they all knew it. Just as they all knew that at this point it was unlikely that he would be coming back. He had been swallowed up by the maze, and perhaps whatever beasts lurked within it.
"We should have stayed inside." Estia huddled in closer to Claudia as if seeking warmth, or protection. Likely both. The temperature was steadily dropping, even in the valley as winter turned to spring, the nights were chilled.
"We can't be sure where we'd wake up. And we want to be where Leo left us, for when he comes back."
Takayoshi wondered where Claudia had learned to lie. It seemed to come so easily to her. Far easier than it had ever come to him. Although, he supposed this was the right kind of lie. A lie in service of another. He could not hold that against her.
"He should have been back by now." Estia sniffed, rubbing zir hands together to warm them in front of their slowly dwindling fire. Takayoshi should have gotten up to search for more wood, but he did not think that wise in the dark.
"At first light, we will search for him," Takayoshi promised. Estia and Claudia looked over at him, twin expressions of surprise. "We cannot leave him behind..." He let the words trail off for a moment, and then channeling Cricket and what he would do in this situation, he added, "He is too pretty."
Estia laughed, zir eyes bright. "Prince Takayoshi, why didn't you tell me you could joke?!"
Claudia's shoulders relaxed and she let out her own soft chortle. It was good to see them relax, even if they were far from out of danger. It was worth the cringing, uncomfortable feeling of his spine bunching itself up, and threatening to ruin his posture.
"You did not ask."
Claudia and Estia laughed again, leaning heavily against one another in the dark, going from loud, full belly laughs that could wake the dead to soft chortles. Eventually they petered off, and calm settled over their encampment. It was temporary, but it was nice, Takayoshi decided. A reprieve.
"You should get some sleep." He pushed at the fire with the long broom handle they had scavenged from the kitchen. "I will take first watch, and ensure the fire does not go out."
Estia opened zir mouth as if to argue.
"We will leave to find Leo at first light," Takayoshi said before Estia could voice zir thoughts. "It would not do for us to be too weighed down by exhaustion in case he is in fact in trouble. Would it?"
Estia sighed, zir shoulders slumping, and nodded.
"Good. Then I will take first watch. After a couple of hours, I will wake Estia, and get some rest myself. Then Claudia, you will take the final watch. Is that satisfactory?"
"Yeah. Good night, Yoshi." Claudia yawned loudly, curling up on her makeshift bed roll. "Estia, if you want, we can sleep back to back, share the body heat with the blankets."
"Thank you." Estia mumbled. Ze rolled over so zir back was pressed to Claudia's, and soon after their breathing had settled into the gentle pattern of sleep.
Takayoshi nodded to himself, and sat up straighter so he would not fall asleep. It would be a long evening, but it would not be the first he had spent this way. All he could hope was that in the morning they would find Leo, as well as some answers.
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