Eyes in the Water

Lips pressed into a thin line, Libitina scrubbed at her arm while Asselin stood there, utterly unrepentant. He was still an impossible man to talk to, though at least her irritation didn't flare quite the way it used to. Was that because he was, technically, the reason she was able to wash at all right now?

Though calling it a favor feels like a stretch…. Still, there was no denying that soaking in the cold water had washed away at least a little of the clammy discomfort clinging to her skin. The pity of it was that the chill did nothing for the heat smoldering inside her.

She had hoped, half-heartedly, that dousing herself might improve her condition even briefly, but the moment proved otherwise. Breathing out hot, heavy air, Libitina simply sank down where she sat. When her head went under completely, her ears went muffled and dull.

Eyes squeezed shut, she was drifting in the sensation of water flowing around her whole body when something made her open them. Beyond the cold, she felt it — an unpleasant trace of demonic energy, creeping closer, slow and insidious.

Well. From the few days she'd spent traveling with them, the knights under Asselin's command seemed well versed in handling demonic beasts. They were keeping watch around the camp even now; they'd deal with it on their own.

…And yet, with Asselin separated from the others like this, maybe she ought to warn him anyway.

With that thought, Libitina eased her head up out of the water. Her soaked, curling hair clung to her cheeks and the back of her neck.

"Excuse me, Vice Commander. There's a demonic beast approaching right now—"

She broke off mid-warning, her raised voice faltering. Blinking in bewilderment, she snapped her head around.

Unless she was badly mistaken, the thing hurtling toward her — that unidentified demonic beast — was closing in on her.

"Hm?"

The beasts' attacks had grown more frequent, to be sure, but never once had the camp itself been raided. That was a testament to how skilled the sentries were. If things had been truly dangerous, she never would have dared slip away to a stream like this to bathe — and Asselin wouldn't have allowed it either.

So why…?

Just as Libitina, startled by the demonic energy rushing toward her at breakneck speed, rose fully out of the water, something came flying and dropped over her head. Her vision went dark, and a moment later came the sound of thrashing water.

Startled by the suddenness of it all, she only belatedly realized what had been thrown over her: a cloak. The cloth was more than generous enough to cover her from the shoulders down, billowing along with the lapping current.

She was flailing to escape the cloak when she felt movement somewhere just out of sight, mere feet away.

"Stay exactly where you are."

The flat voice was followed by a violent surge of water. Libitina, already off-balance under the heavy, sodden cloak, staggered. Balancing was harder still with the water pulling at her — and just as she tipped backward, a hard forearm wrapped around her, cloak and all, and hauled her in. She clung to that body on pure reflex.

Splash! Crash!

Water arcing up and falling back. The sharp slap of an open palm against the surface. The muffled plunge of a body breaking through it…

Blind beneath the cloak, Libitina could only piece together the fight from sound alone. Even so, she kept working at the fabric, struggling to poke her head out somehow. Asselin had dropped the cloak over her with infuriating precision, dead center on the crown of her head — and now that it had drunk its fill of water, escaping its suffocating weight was no small ordeal.

Worse, every time the current whirled around her, the cloak grew heavier, pressing her down. If not for the arm she was clinging to, she'd have gone under long ago.

Asselin twisted his body to dodge attacks, at times holding her nearly in an embrace. Every dull, heavy movement was followed by the sharp crack of water being struck.

Shwaaa! Chwap!

While Libitina wrestled with the cloak, the battle raging invisibly outside seemed to have grown fierce indeed. With one arm occupied steadying her, Asselin was fighting half-handed — which made it all the more clear that, protecting a target in the water while fending off a demonic beast, the man was a formidable fighter.

But what did his skill matter when she commanded holy power!

Libitina wrenched the cloak off at last, and her vision cleared.

The first thing she saw was a head of golden hair, darkened and sinking in the water. Below it, a face gone rigid and cold stared straight ahead. She followed his gaze across the water — and found round things bobbing on the surface. Black things, all of them pivoting in unison, as if by prior agreement, to focus on Libitina.

In other words: eyeballs.

Slightly oversized, slightly numerous — presumably belonging to frogs?

"Augh!"

A visceral revulsion crawled up her skin in gooseflesh. Eyes screwed shut, Libitina clung to Asselin's arm in horror. As if responding to the emotions convulsing through her in that instant, the holy power inside her whipped into a frantic spiral — then burst violently outward.

BANG!

With a concussive pop, a column of water shot skyward. Asselin flinched at the sudden discharge of holy power, snapped back to his senses — and retreated, hauling Libitina in against his chest, cloak and all.

Thud-thud-thud!

As the suspended water came crashing down, it fell together with chunks of flesh and viscera shattered beyond recognition, raining back onto the surface. After all that swinging, dodging, and bracing, it was an ending so clean and simple it was almost embarrassing.

Libitina lifted her head, face drained of color. Blinking through waterlogged lashes, she found herself looking at a man with his brow furrowed — and the moment their eyes met, the crease between Asselin's brows carved itself deeper.

"…As far as I can tell, not a single one is left alive."

It felt oddly like being scolded, so Libitina found herself speaking up in her own defense before she could stop. For an instinctive reaction, her holy power had detonated the beasts and only the beasts — with surgical accuracy.

Asselin stared down at her, face set like stone, then slowly swept his gaze around them. The surroundings were peaceful, every trace of the brief chaos erased as if it had never happened. Nothing else stirred.

His eyes roved over the fragments bobbing on the water with a complicated look — and then dropped back to her.

"Your body is burning up."

Even half-submerged in cold water and wrapped in a cloak besides, he'd somehow noticed the state of her — the fever now raging to a full boil. Libitina muttered an answer that came out half like a lament.

"Of course it is. I used holy power…."

Even after she'd come back to herself, the heat inside her had kept squirming, coiled and ready to rampage at any moment. And when she'd discharged her holy power on instinct a moment ago, that heat had been provoked in turn, scorching through her at a frightening pace.

"I wasn't trying to use it…."

Each breath she exhaled came hotter than the last. Was she about to black out again, the way she had before?

"Vice Commander!"

Libitina turned her head toward the shout — and Asselin swept the cloak up and dropped it unceremoniously over her head. Trapped inside the very cloak she'd barely escaped, Libitina flailed in protest, but the arms wrapped around her might as well have been cast iron for all they budged. Meanwhile, the sound of frantic footsteps was drawing closer through the underbrush.

"Vice Commander, so this is where you were! Over here!"

"Vice Commander — are you unharmed?"

The adjutants came crashing through the thicket, took in the scraps of flesh scattered across the stream, and froze mid-step. The pieces had long since lost their original shapes, but they clearly grasped what the things had been. And, just as clearly, who was responsible for reducing them to this.

Asselin, standing in the middle of the shallows, angled his body just enough to hide Libitina completely behind him. As if to calm her squirming, he pressed a firm hand to her shoulder and answered in an even voice.

"I'm fine."

The adjutants needed no time to work out who the cloaked figure hidden against their commander's body was. After all, the reason for this excursion to the stream had been shared among the senior knights in the first place — it was hardly a difficult deduction.

"Tighten the perimeter… and bring drinking water, dry blankets, and spare clothes. After that, the knights are to stand by at camp."

Ixion and Calman faltered at the order.

"The Saintess's condition is unstable. See that no one comes anywhere near here."

Both adjutants wore puzzled expressions at the sight of their commander showing no intention whatsoever of leaving this place. The stream was hardly far from camp, and for all appearances, the man hadn't taken a single wound. Was it really necessary to rest out in the open, soaked to the bone? Never mind that an unaccounted-for demonic beast might still be lurking somewhere nearby.

Calman, testing the waters, spoke up carefully.

"In that case, wouldn't it be better to escort her back to camp—"

"Once she's settled, I will escort her back myself."