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Chapter Text

Chapter XIII: “These Annoying Humans”

December 15^th, 2032

“Trees.” Agil descended the ferry's gangplank, looked out across Sandoria Port Aerodrome, and shook his head. “Damn, but that is a lot of trees.”

Einsla had certainly had its share of forests, as had Niian. From what he'd heard from Kirito and the Fuurinkazan School, there'd been a fair few quests squirreled away in those forests, which the casual Swordmaster might never have noticed. But those forests, especially on Niian, had been a minority of the islands' surfaces. Einsla was a mishmash of forests, plains, lakes, and mountains, while Niian was mostly plains with a few scattered woodlands and one mountain range on the edge.

The Third Island, Sandoria, was practically nothing but trees. During the flight in on the NPC ferry, Agil had spotted one major river winding through, and a few clearings for towns, but otherwise the place seemed to be just one gigantic forest. Hell, I think that trio of huge trees on the northeastern edge were a town themselves. …I hope SAO doesn't simulate forest fires.

Following him down to the aerodrome's stone pavement, Wolfgang tossed a grimace back at the ferry. The shaggy two-handed swordsman had come out of the recent boss fight with a profound distrust of airships. “On the bright side,” he rumbled, taking a few pointed steps on solid ground, “clearing this one should be mostly using our feet. Can't say I mind.”

“You do know we're still going to have to fly to reach the next island, right?” Lowbacca sauntered off the ferry, balancing his two-handed axe across his shoulders, and shot Wolfgang a wry grin. “And who knows, there might be another airship boss. No way that flaming piece of junk was the last one we'll see.”

“Far from it.” Naijan, with his heavy armor and enormous hammer, clanked his way down, and surveyed the new island with obvious interest. “Airships are one of the big selling points of SAO, right? I remember one of the trailers even showed one really big aerial battle. At least a couple of dozen ships.”

Agil nodded. He remembered that one. It'd honestly reminded him of old EVE Online videos he'd seen, especially when the narration promised even bigger battles would be possible. Lots of flashy magic effects, clouds of smoke from conventional cannons, ships going down in flames to be swallowed by the Cloud Sea…. He had to admit, Argus knew how to do spectacle in their promos.

“Yeah?” Wolfgang snorted. “Well, 'scuse me if I leave that stuff to people who like risking falling out of the sky and being eaten by clouds. Like Agil's buddy in the elf ship. Or those guys—if they ever get smart enough not to sequence-break with no intel.”

Following the shaggy swordsman's derisive eye-roll, Agil couldn't help a snort of his own. Liberator's shiny steel hull was sitting in the aerodrome's biggest cradle, flaunting herself just by existing. From the look of her, she was still undergoing repairs, which considering the hammering Icarus' Lament had given her didn't really surprise him. SAO was a game, but Kayaba was nothing if not a stickler for immersion. Even if repairing an airship was faster than strictly realistic, it wasn't instant.

Probably needs mats, too. From what Kirito said, that ship shouldn't even be here yet; wouldn't surprise me if some of the mats aren't even on the first two islands. If they're not here, either, Coper might be in a pickle.

Which might've explained why Kibaou and Lind were standing by the hull, with a few of their respective guild members, bickering as usual, instead of out exploring. Both the Aincrad Liberation Front and the Dragon Knights Brigade still wanted the ship, after all, and no doubt wanted her in fighting trim.

“Gotta get more airships up,” Agil muttered, turning away from the clashing guilds. “Relying on a scout ship, an armed luxury yacht, and one cruiser run by idiots ain't great for our long-term survival.”

“No argument from me,” Lowbacca said, smirking at Wolfgang's sour look. “Question is, where? I know there were some big ships back at Origia's aerodrome, but the price tags on 'em were nuts. Way things are going, it'll be at least another island before anybody but big guilds can afford them.” He glanced around the aerodrome, apparently looking for something. “And where can I find a cup of coffee? I'm still blitzed from that battle.”

“Follow the crowd, guys,” Naijan said, gesturing toward the other players who'd taken the same ferry flight. Most of them were heading toward the small port town's downtown, or what passed for it. “We can find a vendor, pick up the latest Rat Guide—you know she'll have a basic one out by now—and find a cafe from there.” Following his own advice, he set off for town, and tossed over his shoulder, “As for ships, why not ask where the guy in all the black got his? You've got an in with him, don't ya, Agil?”

“I do,” Agil admitted, hurrying to catch up with his friend. “But Moondancer's a one-off. From what Kirito's said, we won't find much to do with the Dark Elves until the Fifth Island, and then we'll probably have to build rep with 'em before we can—”

BOOM!

The four of them reflexively ducked, most of the crowd hit the ground or started running screaming, and Agil distinctly heard Kibaou yell an expletive. Another boom sounded, followed by several more, and two huge shadows darkened the aerodrome.

Looking up, the axeman quickly saw the source of the shadows and the noise: two airships, light cruiser size at least, flying overhead. One of them built of something like walnut or teak, the other a rather familiar ebony, they were exchanging bolts of green cannon fire. Seemingly oblivious to the players below, the two ships sailed right on by, fixated on blasting the stuffing out of each other.

…Isn't that Moonshadow, the ship Kirito and his girls were tight with? What the hell?

The battle was past almost as quickly as it arrived, and soon players were picking themselves up and slowing from their mad dashes. Excited babbling replaced the screaming, and Wolfgang turned a very wary look on Agil. “Okay, buddy. What the hell was that about? Does SAO have random battles between NPCs or something?”

“I got no clue, man,” Agil admitted. “Something else I'll ask Kirito, I guess. I asked for a meet later, so if he shows, I'll poke him about it. …C'mon, it's got nothing to do with us right now. Let's get some coffee and chow, and hit the forest. Hell, we might be able to build a ship, if we cut down enough trees.”

He couldn't help a chuckle at Wolfgang's affronted look. Still, as they resumed course into town, he couldn't help but glance back at the aerodrome.

Kibaou and Lind had scrambled halfway back aboard Liberator. On the airship's deck, he saw Coper looking into the sky, watching the ongoing battle as it continued farther over Sandoria. It was hard to tell at his distance, but Agil thought there was an odd frown on the captain's face.

After a minute, there was another boom, distant but louder than the others, suggesting one of the battling ships had taken a particularly bad hit. Then Coper, frown deepening, turned and walked to the hatch leading to his bridge. Completely ignoring, Agil noticed, both squabbling guildmasters, who had only then gotten all the way up on deck.

Oh, brother. Now what?

“So everyone was betrayed.” Commander Savrak, seated on a stool in the healers' tent, stared down at the potion bottle he'd just emptied, pensive. “Even the Forest Elves, and the Axiom Church? Kayaba Akihiko… what's the sorcerer's game, playing all sides?”

“'Playing' may be exactly it,” Kizmel replied grimly, holding onto Tilnel's shoulder to support her. Her sister's leg wound, more severe than the Commander's burns, was taking longer to heal. The wound to her heart was worse. “From what Kirito and Asuna have told me, Kayaba set everything up as a game. Though there is obviously more to it than that, it may well be the heart of the matter.”

Tilnel stifled a sob, and Kizmel tightened her grip. That Tilnel's husband had very possibly died as part of a human sorcerer's sick amusements made his death, if anything, even harder to bear.

Kizmel had never liked Valak. She had always considered him a rough, vulgar man, unworthy of her sister. Yet he had proven himself capable of defending her, as any Dark Elf husband needed to be able to protect his family. And Tilnel loved him. In the end, I would never have stood in the way of that. She was happy. That was all that mattered.

That Valak had died ignominiously, killed when Moonshadow was set upon by the Kalessian ship, only made it worse. He'd never even had the chance to face his killers in battle.

Telling the tale had been hard, knowing how much it would hurt Tilnel. But she deserved to know, and while Savrak was not in Kizmel's chain of command, the camp was his. He had a right and responsibility to be informed of what had just come into that camp.

So Kizmel had asked Kirito and Asuna to return to Moondancer for the time being, repaired to the healers' tent, and told the story of the past month. Tilnel had been silent for most of it, clearly only barely holding herself together; Savrak was almost as quiet, only asking for clarification of certain points. Through it all, he wore a frown, and kept casting suspicious glances at the airship parked at the camp's edge.

“According to a pair of humans,” Savrak said dubiously, still frowning. “Dame Kizmel. We were betrayed a century ago and more by the Administrator. The sorcerer Kayaba offered us aid, and betrayed us—and, by your account, everyone else imaginable—as well. Excuse me if I find it somewhat difficult to trust two human children now.”

Kizmel was honestly surprised how much she bristled at the insinuation, and forced herself not to snap back. He's only just met them, after a month of believing the Swordmasters just as twisted as Kayaba, she reminded herself. He hasn't seen—felt—what I have.

After a breath to calm herself—ironically, perhaps, drawing on the phantom heartbeats in her right chest—she met Savrak's gaze coolly. “They are not 'children', Commander,” she said evenly. “The Human Empire would call them adults, and from what I understand their own homeland nearly so. And believe me,” she added, casting a look of her own at Moondancer, “the Swordmasters are every bit the victims of Kayaba that we are. Perhaps more so.”

Every Dark Elf in the transitory world had volunteered, after all, knowing the stakes. They had known how real it was. Kirito, Asuna, Argo, the thousands of other Swordmasters…. She knew it wasn't merely his history with the Integrity Knights that gave Kirito nightmares. Her friends were both suffering from being thrown into a “game” turned deadly.

“I cannot guarantee the moral standing of the Swordmasters at large,” Kizmel continued quietly. “But Kirito and Asuna saved my life. They avenged Valak by my side.” She squeezed Tilnel's shoulder, letting her sister bury her face in her chest. “And they stood by me in the face of the Wild Hunt itself. Knowing that death would be the kinder fate, if Kysarah pressed her attack.”

Even Savrak winced at that. Hardened veteran of the Trifoliate Knights Brigade he may have been, yet Kizmel doubted there was a single Knight of Lyusula who didn't falter at the thought of what the Wild Hunt did to those they did not kill.

All he allowed himself was that wince, however. Tossing aside the empty potion bottle, letting it shatter in the still-disconcerting way of the transitory world, Savrak stood and began to pace. “Did they know, though? Truly?” He arched an eyebrow in Kizmel's direction. “You say they believe this to be a game, however deadly. Did they truly understand what the Wild Hunt might do?”

“I gather that, put to the purposes Kayaba did, their machines could reasonably approximate the effect. Yes, Commander, they knew.” She thought back to those terrifying minutes, facing no less than Kysarah the Ransacker. And to a time before, when Kirito had faced down another implacable foe in a way that had surprised even her. “And Kirito half-believes this to be real already. Whether he chooses to face it or not, deep down he is quite terrified of our world's dangers. Yet he faced them anyway.”

“Hm.” Savrak paused by the tent's entrance, peering again at the ebony airship. “…Perhaps,” he murmured. “Perhaps…. And what does Captain Emlas have to say about them?”

“They stole a core crystal from the Forest Elves for him,” Kizmel replied, wincing at the muffled sob from Tilnel. “They answered his call to chase and destroy two of the ships attacking this camp—saving your life in the process, I might add. Captain Emlas is… accepting.”

“Hmph. About the highest praise anyone ever gets from that curmudgeon.” The reminder that Moondancer had destroyed the scout ship that had bombarded his camp—and Kirito had then personally killed the surviving Forest Elf that had tried to kill him directly—prompted some of the tension to ease out of Savrak's shoulders. “Still… even if they are as much victims of Kayaba as we are….”

“…They saved Kizmel's life.” Tilnel finally raised her head, eyes wet but clear. “Without her, I'd have nothing left, Commander,” she said thickly. “And they saved her mission. I… trust my sister's judgment. Besides….” She swallowed, and then gently laid a hand on Kizmel's chest. “They awakened a core crystal together. Two of them. If these humans were so treacherous, Kizmel would know.”

Catching her sister's hand in her own, Kizmel blinked at Tilnel. “You know about crystal awakening, Sister?” To be sure, as an herbalist, her younger twin had always delved more into the matters of body and soul, as opposed to Kizmel's focus on history. Even so, it hadn't occurred to her that Tilnel might know much about core crystals, a province more of sailors and sages.

“Only a little,” Tilnel admitted, with a wan smile. “It… came up when I was looking into old marriage customs, actually.” Her breath hitched, and more tears fell, but she pushed on. “A very old tradition, in marriages aboard ship. It involved core crystals, and….” She trailed off, shaking her head. “The touch of souls was mentioned. If you're bound by two awakenings, you would have sensed such deceit. I'm sure of it.”

Kizmel thought back to the core crystal awakenings she'd performed with Kirito and Asuna. The first time had merely been a brief sharing of heartbeats, which had faded shortly thereafter. The second…. I felt them. Their souls, their feelings. And while I do not still feel that much, their hearts are with me still.

She opened her mouth to say as much, and then paused, eyes widened, as she registered the fuller context of her sister's words. …I believe I'll keep the connection with marriages to myself, for now. That would be a bit much, even for teasing.

Tilnel saw the look on her face, and a brief smile flitted across her lips. Then, sobering, her sister said quietly, “You said you've taken this… Asuna?… as your squire. You know others may not take well to that, Sister. No human has been granted apprenticeship in the Royal Guard in centuries, not since Quinella took power in the Human Empire. After Kayaba's betrayal….”

“They saved my life, and yours, Tilnel,” Kizmel told her, gently but firmly. One hand over the phantom beats in her chest, she brushed the other through her sister's hair. “They have more than earned my trust, and I would have no one other than Asuna for my squire. If anyone objects, they may take it up with Lord Commander Stask. No one else has the right to gainsay my choice.”

That, she half-directed at Savrak, an unspoken reminder that as one of the Trifoliate Knights, he had no authority over her or her mission outside his camp. He could order her to leave, no more.

Savrak stared back at her for a long moment, before finally cracking just the faintest of smiles. “Very well, Dame Kizmel,” he said, inclining his head. “You've made your point. I will give these Swordmasters a chance, if even Captain Emlas has been so generous. As you say, they did save my life, and my men.” The smile faded. “Most of them. Would that you'd arrived a few moments sooner… but even I am not so skeptical of humans to attribute your timing to anything but the fortunes of war.”

Kizmel let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Though Savrak's cooperation wasn't necessary—she was sure Moondancer could've made do with only local human and Swordmaster support, for the time being—it was welcome. And I would hate to be separated from Tilnel again. She needs me… and I need her.

“That being said.” Savrak gestured outside the tent, where men-at-arms were still running around, working to set things right from the Forest Elf attack. “If your mission can stand a small delay, I'd appreciate your help putting the camp in order. It seems my men could use a calm face right now to remind them what a warrior of Lyusula is supposed to be like in the face of danger. They've been slacking off in camp too long.”

She couldn't help a smile at his grousing, and nodded. “Of course, Commander,” she said. “Kirito and Asuna can handle things without me for a day, I'm sure. And….” Kizmel turned, gathering Tilnel in her arms again, as her sister's composure broke once more. “Tilnel needs me. They'll understand.” She thought back to some things they'd said to her the first night, closed her eyes, and pulled Tilnel closer. “They will understand.”

“Then perhaps they'll also be amenable to doing us a favor.” Savrak's grousing had lost what lighthearted edge it had. “I had a scout out before the attack. I'm concerned that he hasn't returned….”

Aohana swooped in, flared his wings, and settled on the lowered door into Centoria Cathedral. Alice gratefully slid down from the dragon's back, not waiting for Eugeo to dismount to assist her, and breathed a discreet sigh of relief. An unexpected storm had forced a trip that would normally have taken half a day to pause overnight, leaving her even wearier than the preceding battle had.

It also seemed as if the distance was greater than just a couple of weeks ago, she thought, stretching the kinks out of her limbs. Not much, but a little. Is Kayaba's spell progressing?

She glanced briefly over her shoulder at Eugeo, and relaxed a hair. Though he'd been the model of a proper Knight when they'd camped for the night, his bearing had—as usual—left her vaguely uneasy. Now, he was focusing his attention on his dragon, making sure Aohana himself was none the worse for wear from the close encounter with a thunderstorm. Say what she might about the blue Knight, she couldn't gainsay his attention to his mount.

Satisfied, Alice hurried into the Cathedral's aerie, and was quickly greeted by a happy croon from Amayori. Walking quickly to her dragon's side, she smiled and rubbed at his head. “Yes, yes, Amayori,” she whispered. “I am home. …I missed you, as well.”

Leave aside the madness of Kayaba's designs. Traveling for days aboard Icarus' Lament had convinced her quite thoroughly that no airship would ever be better than riding on the back of her own dragon.

“Heya, Alice! I didn't know you were coming back today!”

Alice jumped, while Amayori let out another happy croon. How does that girl appear so suddenly, despite being so loud? Firmly ordering her heart to slow down, only when she'd mastered her expression did she turn to face the newcomer. A cheerful young woman with lavender hair, purple armor, and an improbably large sword, the other Integrity Knight positively bounced over, smiling widely.

“Hello, Strea,” Alice said, when she was sure she wouldn't squeak. “It's… agreeable to see you, too. I trust all was well while I was gone?”

Strea Synthesis Thirty-Three nodded brightly. “All quiet around here,” she said, moving in to nuzzle the dragon, who reciprocated readily. “Eldrie and I made sure to take good care of Amayori, too. Kept him nice and clean, and fed—and we didn't even let him have too many treats, even when he begged!”

There was a faint sound of exasperation from Aohana's direction. Alice, on the other hand, couldn't quite suppress a smile, even as she shook her head. Strea was, to put it mildly, not the model of a proper Knight. Which, if anything, made her easier for Alice to deal with than Eugeo, even leaving aside the fact that her swordsmanship was quite good. The recently-summoned Integrity Knight wasn't yet ready to sortie on her own, but she was looking promising.

“Thank you, Strea. I appreciate it.” Reluctantly parting from Amayori, she patted her dragon's flank and headed for the door into the Cathedral proper. “I'll convey my thanks to Eldrie as well, when time allows. For now, I should report to Sir Bercouli.” She paused, halfway into the hall. “If he's here, that is?”

The Swordmasters weren't the only concern facing the Axiom Church, after all. The Forest and Dark Elves were making trouble, and she'd seen the Wild Hunt out and about. It wouldn't have been too surprising if other Integrity Knights, even their leader, had been dispatched for one brush fire or another.

“Nah, Uncle's here,” Strea assured her, trotting in her wake. “Eldrie's out for… um, something, and so's Sir Deusolbert, but Uncle and most of the others are around.”

“Indeed we are.” Bercouli Synthesis One himself stepped around the next corner. Dressed in his usual casual wear rather than his armor, reassuring Alice that things had indeed been peaceful in her absence, he gave a nod and a small smile. “Good to see you back in one piece, Alice. I know we took a risk, sending you out there alone.”

Alice nodded ruefully, thinking back on the insane turns her mission had taken. “Yes, Uncle. I'm fine. Shall I give my report?”

“Now is as good a time as any.” Bercouli gestured back down the hall. “Let's take this to my office. I can tell from the look in your eyes that you have a lot to tell me, and it's better to make it all official.”

Eugeo quickly walked out of the eyrie to join them. “Will you be needing me, as well, Sir Bercouli?” he asked earnestly.. “I was involved at the very end of the battle, after all, and may have picked up on some details Alice couldn't, from aboard Lament.”

She tried not to bristle. He did have a valid point, after all. Bercouli only observed him for a moment, before briefly shaking his head. “I'll speak with you afterward, Eugeo. Right now I'd like to get Alice's own impressions, and then let her get some rest. The past week must've been exhausting.”

“Yes, Uncle,” Alice said fervently, pretending not to notice Eugeo's brief hesitation before he nodded and stepped back. “I believe we should be very wary of any other 'gifts' Kayaba may have left us….”

Seated behind his large but simple desk, Bercouli listened to Alice's account of the battle with the Chrome Disaster with sober intent. When she got to the part about Icarus' Lament bursting into flames in what was plainly something prearranged by Kayaba, he laughed ruefully.

“I'm not laughing at you, Alice,” he quickly reassured her. “Just the madness that we seem to be caught up in. All this because one sorcerer wanted to play a game on the grandest scale in history.”

“It is certainly absurd,” she agreed. “That ship was designed for sport, not to destroy the enemy outright.”

Normally, she would've preferred to stand through official business. Exhausted as she was, Alice was grateful to be seated, her armor stacked nearby. Telling the tale was nearly as tiring as living it the first time had been.

“Well, as dangerous as it was, at least we learned something,” Bercouli mused. “About the merits of Kayaba's 'gifts', and the rules under which his spell-world operates. Though putting the knowledge into practice may be another matter.” He sighed. “Well, we'll manage. I take it Eugeo arrived right after that, and spirited you to safety.”

For a long moment, Alice hesitated. She hadn't mentioned her encounter when capturing Diavel, as it had been so odd she'd wanted to investigate herself before bringing it up. After the more recent incident, aboard the burning Lament….

“Actually… no,” she said finally. “Before Sir Eugeo arrived… a Swordmaster jumped aboard. Not to fight,” she added, when Bercouli straightened and leaned over his desk, eyes sharp. “He wanted to talk. I'm not certain about what. It was… confusing.”

Finally, Alice laid out her encounter with Kirito during her mission to retrieve Diavel, and then his mad boarding action. How he'd apparently expected her to recognize him somehow, yet clearly didn't want to engage her in battle. How his odd pleading had turned to sheer rage, the moment Eugeo arrived.

“According to Sir Eugeo, this 'Kirito' is a Lost Child of Vector,” she said. “Who committed a crime severe enough, six years ago, to be banished.”

“Well, we do generally banish the Lost Children when we can,” Bercouli said thoughtfully. He was leaning his elbows on his desk by then, chin resting on clasped hands. “They don't belong here. But you say 'Kirito' recognized Eugeo? And wasn't happy about it?”

“That would be an understatement, Uncle.” Kirito had gone from trying to convince her—his sworn enemy—to trust him enough to escape Lament together to a rage hotter than the burning ship in an instant. She'd never seen anything like it. “Also, Sir Eugeo addressed him by name. The one Kirito said he'd gone by before, 'Kazuto'. Apparently Sir Eugeo was involved in banishing him the first time?”

Bercouli's gaze grew more intent, and he was quiet for a long moment. Long enough to make Alice more than a little uneasy. Her uncle was normally very nearly as easygoing as Strea, after all; she'd only seen him so serious when sparring.

Finally, the elder Integrity Knight let out a long, slow breath. “Interesting,” he said thoughtfully. “Very interesting…. It seems there's something more afoot than we'd known. Very well, Alice. I agree this is too strange to ignore. It so happens we keep a record of every Lost Child we hear about, whether we succeed in banishing them ourselves or not. I'll have the Archives searched.”

Alice pushed herself to her feet, despite her weariness. “I'll do it myself, Uncle,” she offered. “I'd like to know more about what's going on. If that's acceptable, of course,” she added hastily, realizing she might've overstepped. Parts of the Archives were very much restricted, after all, and for all she knew the records of Lost Children were among them.

Bercouli shook his head. “Others are better suited to sifting through dusty old books, Alice,” he said, smiling to soften the rejection. “You need rest. I doubt you've slept properly since you left, a week ago. Besides, I have another task for you, when you're back on your feet.”

“You do?” She felt an odd thrill of excitement—perhaps the first she'd had, since being summoned as an Integrity Knight. She would never gainsay the Highest Administrator's orders, but the truth was she'd never considered any assignment very interesting—at least, not until after the fact.

“Oh, yes.” Bercouli stood, came around the desk, and patted her lightly on the shoulder. “It seems the summoning spell has protections against Her Excellency's usual methods, so interrogation of Diavel has been going poorly. Therefore, all we really know about the Swordmasters thus far is from your observations. Observations taken under combat conditions.”

And not much of those, Alice knew. The sum total of her direct interactions with Swordmasters had been a few of them foolishly attacking her, Kirito spouting off riddles, and then Kirito bizarrely confronting her aboard a burning airship. She'd observed from a distance how the Swordmasters had behaved in the days after the summoning, but all she'd gleaned from that was that they had panicked soon after arrival and some of them had been deranged enough to hurl themselves to their doom in the Cloud Sea.

“So,” Bercouli continued, “this is your next assignment, Alice: to go to the islands thus far occupied by the Swordmasters, and observe. Not engage, unless you're discovered. Try and blend in, if you can.” He smiled wryly. “From the sound of it, if we can fool their Mystic Scribing—and I have an idea or two about that—you should be able to manage. They do seem to be an eccentric group, don't they?”

“Understatement,” Alice muttered. And blushed, realizing she'd said it aloud. Bercouli, though, only chuckled.

“Rest, Alice. Rest, then go see what you can find out about these strange people when not fighting them.” He was still smiling, yet there was also an odd glint in his eye, one she couldn't interpret. “Something odd is going on, Alice. Very odd. And you may be our best bet to find out what.”

Standing on Moondancer's deck, resting her elbows on the railing, Asuna warily looked out over the Dark Elf camp. Enclosed by a wooden perimeter wall that wouldn't have looked out of place in some periods of European history, it consisted mostly of a series of tents of various sizes. Though a couple of stone structures stood out, they were definitely in the minority, and one of them, to her untrained eye, looked like some kind of forge.

Parts of the camp were still burning, with some of the elves scrambling to put out the fires. A large section of wall was missing—Moondancer had in fact landed in part of the gap, not having had time to find a better spot. Only now, grounded, did Asuna spot a clearing that was probably meant for exactly that on the far end of the camp; from the size, Moonshadow had likely been parked there at one time.

Watching the hustle and bustle below, she couldn't help raising a hand to touch the leaf-shaped clasp of her cloak, the insignia that marked her as technically being a member of the same chivalric order as those elves. No, she corrected herself, not quite the same. I'm an apprentice of the Pagoda Knights Brigade. From what Kizmel said, those are probably with the Trifoliate Knights.

Which reminded her of the driving question about it all. Glancing to her left, Asuna asked quietly, “How many of them do you think are… how did you put it, Turing-class? It can't be all of them, right?”

Leaning backward against the rail, Kirito glanced up from examining the broken remains of his grapnel to look over his shoulder at the camp. “Hard to say,” he admitted. “I know the official specs of both SAO's servers and the NerveGear, and going by those, there shouldn't be any. Even if we knew how to make true AI, which as far as I know—well, knew before all this—we don't.”

Asuna waved a hand. “I know all that. And you know as well as I do that either those specs were made up, or Kizmel's right and this is really magic. Whichever. You know games way better than I do.” She swallowed, looking from the men-at-arms putting out a fire by the remains of a tent in the camp's center to the tent Kizmel had disappeared into. “…How many 'real' people died here?”

Kirito was silent for a long moment. Long enough she wasn't sure he was going to answer. Then she noticed his eyes were glowing, as he looked over the camp with his Search skill. “…The ones moving in predictable patterns are NPCs. Normal ones, I mean. NPC AI has come a long way over the years, but it still just makes sense to use a relatively limited animation set for generics. So that's most of the men-at-arms down there. Same for a few of the ones standing guard. But those ones at the gates over there?”

He pointed, and Asuna followed his gaze. Standing by the still-standing main gates were a couple of Dark Elves wearing proper armor and capes. Knights, if she was any judge, and though it was hard to tell from her distance, she was pretty sure they wore a different emblem from hers. She made a mental note to memorize it when she got a closer look; even if her status as a squire was possibly temporary, she thought it was her duty to keep track of such things.

She saw his point quickly. The two knights were visibly more alert than the men-at-arms, holding a conversation that wasn't audible from so far but clearly wasn't just repeating soundbites. They also kept glancing at Moondancer, one of them briefly meeting her eyes with an uncomfortably intense stare.

“Chatbots and their NPC equivalent have come a long way,” Kirito said, when she looked away from the knight. “But not that far. Trust me, I spent a lot of time talking to NPCs in the beta. The knights are… different. Like Kizmel, and Captain Emlas.”

“And Tilnel, and the camp commander?” Asuna hazarded.

“Probably,” he said, nodding. Turning away from the camp with a deliberately casual air, he continued, “I didn't get much of a look at them. But Kizmel knows the difference.”

That did settle it, really. They knew, beyond a doubt, that Kizmel was real. Maybe an incredible AI, maybe a living person from another world, but real. Real, and fully aware that the world around her wasn't. If her sister had been nothing more than an automaton, Kizmel would've known. And Asuna didn't think their elven friend could've hidden it. Not from them.

We saved her sister, at least. I hope we saved everyone here, but I don't know if I could've taken it if Kizmel had lost her sister.

That brought to mind things Asuna really didn't want to think about, so she deliberately turned away from the camp and started pacing Moondancer's deck. If nothing else, it was probably a good idea to check if their brief battle with the Forest Elf scout ships had done any damage the ship couldn't just heal from.

At length, as she was examining a scorched plank, she broke the silence again. “So, Kirito-kun… do you know anything about what happens from here? In the Elf War quest, I mean.”

The question was as much to distract Kirito as anything else; she could tell something was eating at him as much as her. It was still partly genuine. He'd made it clear to the Tenth Island in the beta test, he might've known something she didn't.

“Nothing about the quest, no,” he admitted with a shrug. “Like I said earlier, the first thing I did here during the beta was meet Kizmel. By now, pretty much everything I did with the Elf War on Sandoria is already done. Except maybe searching for a scout in a giant spider's nest, I guess. Everything else is totally off the rails. And before you ask about the Axiom Church, if you'll remember, I never got near them in the beta at all.” He smiled, without much humor. “So far, I haven't been able to predict them at all.”

Too true. Alice certainly had a way of popping up at the most inconvenient moments. Asuna took a break from checking the hull to look over the deck gun, and make sure it was still ready to go. Forest-sinking charm or not, she would not have been surprised if that Integrity Knight had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

While she was at it, she said over her shoulder, “What do you still know about Sandoria, then? The Elf War wasn't the only thing you were up to, right?”

“Not the only thing, no. Not even most, really.” Kirito finally pushed himself away from the railing, starting to pace the deck as he stroked his chin in thought. “Well, the Third Island was where guilds really started to come together in the beta, plus—”

“Kirito! Asuna!”

They both dropped what they were doing and darted back to the railing, to find Kizmel waving up at them. “Kizmel!” Asuna called back, relieved to see a smile on her friend's face. She'd been worried, just a little, that the local commander wouldn't be as reasonable as Emlas had been. “What's the word?”

“Command Savrak has granted us all permission to use the camp,” the elf girl replied—in Sindarin, Asuna realized, which she supposed made sense under the circumstances. This was a Dark Elf camp, after all. “I don't believe he trusts you quite yet, but he is willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.”

“Thank goodness for small favors,” Kirito muttered under his breath, in Japanese. When Asuna elbowed his ribs, he coughed, and continued in Sindarin, “That's good news. …So, um, what now?”

The question of the hour. Asuna had noticed, after the fighting, that her quest log had included a new objective: [Emergency Quest: Defend Dark Elf Camp], which by the time she saw it was already listed as completed. Afterward, her current objective simply read as: [Await Further Word From Local Contact].

“About that.” Kizmel's smile dimmed, and she glanced back at the tent from which she'd emerged. The camp's commander had just emerged, given Moondancer a considering look, and then headed off barking orders; now, Asuna could just barely see a face like Kizmel's peeking out. “Kirito, Asuna… I know Agil and Argo both asked that we meet. Could I ask you to go without me, for now? My sister… she needs me.”

“Of course,” Kirito answered immediately—so quickly Asuna glanced at him in some surprise, only to be met with a melancholy smile on his face. “Take all the time you need, Kizmel.”

“That's right,” Asuna agreed, putting aside the puzzle of his reaction for later. “We'll go take care of business in town, and meet back here tonight. Is there anything else?”

“Ah, yes, actually.” Kizmel pulled a rolled-up paper from her belt. “If you have the time, Commander Savrak has a request. It seems a scout has gone missing….”

Catching the paper, Asuna didn't have to even look at Kirito to know what their decision would be. “We'll handle it, Kizmel. We don't have anything planned after meeting Argo, anyway—and this kind of thing is my duty now, right?” Raising her fist to her chest in a Royal Guard salute, she added, “Call us if you need us, and we'll come right back!”

Kizmel's smile brightened again, and she returned the salute. “Thank you, both of you. I will see you this evening, then. And hopefully properly introduce you to Tilnel. …Until then.”

When the elf girl had turned back to the tent, and the two humans headed for Moondancer's pilot house, Asuna abruptly remembered one possible complication. “Um, Kirito-kun?” she whispered. “That Forest-sinking charm… do you have any idea how to get through it?”

“Nope,” he said blithely, and pulled open the hatch. “We'll just have to call Kizmel when we're ready to come back.”

Sighing, she couldn't help a facepalm. “That's what I thought.”

The first word to come to mind for Kirito, walking down the streets of Koriki, was “rustic”. The street was lined with pine trees, and most of the buildings were made out of logs. The aerodrome at the outermost edge of town was mostly hidden from view by a screen of more—bigger—trees, making it easy to forget SAO's steampunk side entirely. It was, he thought, just about the most down-to-earth place he'd been in Aincrad.

One thing that did remind him of the aerodrome's presence, though, was the sheer number of players wandering Koriki. The local NPCs in furs and homespun clothing were easily outnumbered by the Swordmasters in clanking armor and flourishing cloaks, chatting excitedly. He and Asuna had to keep far to one side of the street, trying not to be caught up in it.

Or, Kirito thought sourly, recognized. Most of these guys probably have no idea who we are, but we do kinda stand out in a crowd.

There probably wasn't even one other player in the game who wore the black-and-purple armor of the Pagoda Knights, after all. And even if he was only a shadow in her wake, he wouldn't have been at all surprised if tales of the Beater in black had already spread.

As they passed on particularly loud group of Swordmasters gathered around a fountain—admittedly a unique sight; Kirito had never seen one carved out of an otherwise intact tree trunk—Asuna winced and covered her ears. “Is it me,” she muttered, “or are there more players around here than back at Urbus? I don't think I've seen a crowd like this since we got out of Origia.”

“You're probably right.” Kirito hurriedly sidestepped to avoid running into a pigtailed girl who was rushing by, munching… peanuts? He shrugged it off, and found himself wishing for a hood like Asuna's. Being openly around so many people was starting to make him antsy. “We've cleared two boss raids now with no fatalities, and most people don't really seem to have noticed Diavel's kidnapping.”

Which was just a crime, in his view. The self-styled knight had turned out to have feet of clay, but he'd still been exactly the leader the raid needed. Bad enough for his would-be successors to be squabbling among themselves. Worse for most people outside the clearing group not to have even noticed he was gone.

He couldn't deny that ignorance's benefit to morale, though. Watching other players strolling about Koriki with none of the angst he remembered from Origia, he continued, “At this point, the clearing group is proving we can do something to help ourselves. There's hope here, now. Even if most of these people will never join the fight themselves, they feel safe enough to explore.”

“Hm.” Asuna lowered her hands, taking a moment to take in the sights herself. “…This is what SAO was supposed to be, isn't it?” she said softly, gaze trailing across a log-walled church. “What the… tourists, I guess you'd call them… are doing.”

“Part of it, yeah. Argus' previews made a big deal about how deep the world was, not just the combat. A lot of people got into SAO for the environment as much as anything else, and that's what they're doing now.” Kirito glanced at his partner sidelong. “…You wish you were one of them?”

She was silent for a long moment, the clomping of their boots on rough stone pavement the only sound cutting through the babble of other players. He didn't push. One thing he'd found that they had in common was a need to gather their thoughts, especially at times like this.

“No,” she said finally, hood shifting as she gave a slight head-shake. “Even when I first logged in, before… everything went wrong. I wanted to see another world, but I wanted to prove I had the right to see it, with my own sword. The only thing that's changed is that it's even more important.”

What she meant by that, Kirito wasn't quite sure, and wasn't going to ask. They were friends, now, but that made it all the more important to let her deal things in her own time. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. I know I've got my own baggage I haven't talked about yet. I won't push her.

He shied away from the odd conviction that she would tell him, sooner or later—and the trust that implied—and simply said, “I get it. Now, then… where did Agil say he wanted to meet…?”

“Over here.” Asuna tugged at his sleeve, directing him to a building off to one side of the street. Bearing the truly atrocious pun Log Inn, it looked like a classic log cabin if someone had used an art program to stretch it in all directions.

Inside were more Swordmasters, with a corresponding hubbub. Mercifully, it seemed the rustic setting had an effect on the mood; the other players were at least quieter than the crowds outside. There was no sign of Agil yet, though, nor Argo, so with nothing else to do the two of them drifted over to a bulletin board on the cafe's east wall.

Kirito had encountered such in the beta a few times. Players could rent space on them to advertise, and some NPC quests were also listed. Pretty classic setup, really, and this one was no different. One thing that caught his eye in particular, though, was a giant poster that took up nearly half its space. It featured a man with spiky blonde hair, wearing surprisingly fancy purple-trimmed white, Anneal Blade gleaming in one hand while the other stretched out, beckoning to the viewer.

[Alberich Wants YOU To Join The Eisenritter And Liberate Aincrad!]

“…A recruiting poster?” Asuna said dubiously, turning to exchange a nonplussed look with Kirito. “And what does 'Eisenritter' mean? I know 'ritter' is 'knight', like the Wolkenritter, but….”

“Iron Knights,” Kirito translated after a moment's thought. “I think.”

Asuna shook her head. “Kizmel wouldn't approve.”

The absurdly over-the-top poster had him on the verge of laughing already. Asuna's first thought being their elven friend's reaction broke him, forcing out a chortle he couldn't contain. At first she tried to look stern, but it took only a couple of seconds before she broke down into laughter, too.

“Yo, Kirito, Asuna! What's got the two of you in stitches?”

Turning, they found Agil had entered at some point, with Argo in tow. When swordsman and squire could only point to the poster, still laughing, the new arrivals ambled over to see for themselves. Agil took one look and snorted; Argo burst into snickers. As they had every reason to. Kirito had seen plenty of guild advertisements in his time, but this one was just ridiculous.

“Who does this Alberich guy think he is,” Agil muttered, shaking his head, “Uncle Sam? That's the cheesiest thing I've seen in years.”

“Ya don't know the half of it, Agil,” Argo told him, still snickering. “He's got those posters all over town. They started popping up last night—he's quick, I'll give 'im that.” She took a breath to get herself under control; took another look at the poster, and immediately started up again. “But hey, you never know. Might grab the guys put off by Lind an' Kibaou's bickering.”

“It might,” Kirito agreed, after a moment's thought. “Do those two even have time to go recruiting, with all the time they spend sniping at each other?”

“Good question.” Agil snorted again. “I hope somebody gets their head on straight soon. I don't want a repeat of the last boss fight.” Shaking his head, he turned his back to the poster. “Whatever. We're here to talk 'bout more important things. Up for some grub, or do y'all want to get away from the competing egos around here?”

The four of them collectively glanced around the restaurant. Aside maybe from Agil, Kirito knew, none of them did want to hang around the other players there—especially not with a party each of the DKB and ALS occupying tables and glaring at each other. Worse, he spotted a gaggle of players in very shiny armor by the bar, which he was pretty sure included the idiot who'd hit on Asuna and Kizmel back in Urbus.

The last thing I want is to deal with that again. Asuna's scary when she's mad.

Kirito quietly cleared his throat. “As a matter of fact, Asuna and I have a quest from the local Dark Elf camp to take care of. If you two have some time, maybe we should take care of that while we talk?”

Agil shrugged. “Works for me. My buddies are out buying supplies and getting the lay of the land. I've got a little free time; might as well spend it learning what the monsters are like with some good backup.”

“I'm game,” Argo agreed, grinning. Cracking her knuckles, she added, “This'll practically be free info fer me, anyway. Escort for part of my monster guide, and an in on the latest Elf War developments?” She snickered. “Think maybe I'm getting' the better deal here, Kii-bou!”

Asuna took another glance around the room, and grimaced. “It'll be worth it if it means getting away from these annoying humans a little sooner.”

With all agreed, they formed a temporary party and made as discreet an exit as they could. Slipping back outside, though, Kirito couldn't help but give the squire a bemused look. You do remember you're not actually an elf yourself, right, Asuna…?

After a quick detour for Kirito and Asuna to stock up on basic supplies from an NPC vendor, they quickly made their way out of Koriki and into the surrounding forest. Once they were well into the trees and away from any prying eyes—or ears—Agil opened the discussion. “'Scuse me for going first, but the guys really want an answer to this, and I'm kinda spooked, too. You know anything about Moonshadow tangling with another ship this morning?” He frowned, seeming to suddenly notice something. “Speaking of, where's Kizmel? She okay?”

The genuine concern in the big axeman's voice surprised and gratified Kirito. Agil had none of his context for suspecting SAO was a lot more than it seemed, but he still accepted Kizmel as something “real” already. “She's fine,” Kirito said quickly, advancing at a quick but cautious pace along what he had an unpleasant suspicion was a game trail. “She's just staying at the local Dark Elf camp right now. Her sister Tilnel's there, and her brother-in-law died when Moonshadow crashed, so… Tilnel needs support right now.”

Even Argo turned somber at that, the Rat silently wincing. Agil closed his eyes and sighed. “Damn,” he muttered. “That's gotta be rough. If I had….”

He trailed off, leaving Kirito and Asuna to exchange a worried look. “Is something wrong, Agil?” the musketeer asked gently.

Agil waved a dismissive hand. “Nah, it's nothing. Just thinking 'bout… real world stuff. I tried to get my wife a copy of SAO, but they sold out before I could.” He sighed again, gazing wistfully around the brilliantly-rendered forest. “I should be glad. At least she's safe. Still, I can't help thinking….”

This time, Kirito didn't think any of them needed clarification. Good to know a loved one wasn't caught up in the death game, sure. Still lonely to be without family. Even family you're estranged from.

The silence was turning gloomy—only to be abruptly shattered by a shriek that sounded like something from a wood instrument. Agil let out a yelp, Asuna a squeak, and Kirito a sound that he had no intention of ever admitting to—all while Argo cackled in the background—and they collectively whirled just in time to draw weapons and block a whirling mass of branches. “Treant!” Kirito spat like a curse, his Anneal Blade carving deep into homicidal wood. “Can't believe I let that sneak up on me—!”

“That's what I get for not asking about the monsters before going into the woods!” Throwing an English curse at the Treant Sapling, Agil spun his heavy axe in a Whirlwind, chopping an entire branch off. “Think maybe this is what got that scout you're looking for?!”

“As if a warrior of Lyusula would fall to a tree!” Asuna snapped back. Skipping back a step, she suddenly drove in between Kirito and Agil, elven-made rapier stabbing into the Treant Sapling's “mouth” with the white flash of a Linear. “And Argo! Aren't you going to help out?!”

“Aw, c'mon, Aa-chan,” the Rat said from somewhere behind them; Kirito didn't have time to look, busy as he was hacking away at a root that was trying to wrap around his legs. “I'd just get in yer way! 'Sides, my claws ain't really the best weapon for these things.”

The annoying part was that she was probably right. Kirito wanted to ask what she'd have done if she'd been alone in the forest, but he knew the answer: she'd have just run away. Her AGI let her evade anything she couldn't fight head-on.

Between the three Swordmasters with proper blades, the fight was over soon enough anyway. As was the one that came after, attracted by the commotion, and then the four of them took off at a faster pace. They'd likely aggroed more yet, and the better part of valor was definitely escape this time.

A few dozen meters deeper into the forest, Asuna warily cleared her throat. “So anyway, about this morning….” She launched into a quick summary of the morning's events, concluding with, “We saved the day. But Kizmel's sister only just got the news about her husband, so that's… rough. And we don't know yet how things went with Moonshadow, but if they'd lost the fight, we'd probably have already gotten a call from Kizmel to hurry back.”

“The Dark Elf ship's fine,” Argo told her, gazing warily around the edges of the trail. Kirito noticed her eyes were glowing with Searching; apparently, as funny as she'd found the fighting, she wasn't really in a hurry for more, either. “I saw 'er go to ground a couple kilometers outta town, after blasting the Forest Elf cruiser ta dust bunnies. She took a few nasty hits, so she'll prolly be under repair a couple days. Nothin' like what you guys said 'bout how she was last month.”

Tension eased out of Kirito's shoulders at that. Emlas was a crusty old fellow, but he and Asuna owed the man a lot. No surprise he didn't call us, knowing him. Figures we'd have to rely on Argo for… wait a second. He looked up at the Rat, eyes narrow. “…Did you just give us non-critical info for free, Argo?”

“Hey, I wouldn't charge for that, Kii-bou!” Argo protested. Her grin made the protest hard to take seriously, fangy as it was. “'Sides, I got juicier stuff ta sell ya. With a discount, fer the debrief ya gave me… and maybe Agil might chip in? You wanna know about the quest I got from Master Ganryu, I bet, an' trust me, Agil, this'll be good fer you, too.”

After the obligatory payment—and the collective sigh at their respective coffers being left that much emptier—Argo laid out the basics as they delved deeper into the forest. Kirito noticed Asuna listening with particular intent; though the concept of gaining “reputation” with in-game factions was old hat to any veteran MMO player, it was all completely new to her.

He mostly tuned it out, himself, focusing on not being ambushed by a walking tree again. Or worse. While Argo chattered on about getting gear, quests, and various other benefits from doing things for specific NPC groups, and how it tied in with part of Kayaba's “tutorial”, he watched the deepening shadows. He remembered the Third Island from the beta, and knew that Treants and their Saplings weren't the only foes in this region, and arguably weren't the worst.

Shortly after taking out their first group of meter-long spiders, Argo segued into something that did get his attention. “Ya look a right proper squire now, Aa-chan,” the Rat said approvingly, flicking nonexistent spider guts off her claws. “Which brings me to what makes SAO different from usual, and from its own beta: joining NPC factions wasn't a thing before.”

Kirito bristled for a moment at their connection with Kizmel and her people being discussed in gameplay terms. Then he caught himself, and couldn't suppress a brief, wry grin. Whatever else was happening, they were technically in a game world, after all.

“I've seen it in other games,” Agil remarked, turning a nervous eye on the forest even as they got back into motion. From the look of it, he didn't do well with spiders, though to Kirito's surprise they didn't seem to bother Asuna at all. “Never really went deep, though. Probably because writing ongoing storylines for that wouldn't be practical.”

“Right. And that's where SAO's goin' off the rails.” Argo reached over to tap the Pagoda Knights' insignia clasping Asuna's cloak. “The Elf War questline is a lot deeper than it was in the beta, an' from that I started noticing something else: retail SAO's turning out to be persistent world. Like, all over the place.”

Agil blinked. Kirito nodded, slowly and grimly. And Asuna looked at the Rat blankly. “'Persistent world'?” she repeated. “I don't think I've heard that one yet.”

“It means events in the game don't reset,” Kirito explained, finding some comfort in the familiarity of explaining game mechanics. “Now, SAO always had some of that, when a Skywall was cleared it stayed cleared, even for players who didn't participate in clearing. Now….”

“Now, everything is persistent.” Even Argo was taking the subject seriously, which set Kirito right back on edge. “In the beta, if one party did the Elf War quests, another could do the same ones and get a different result. So far, it's looking like that ain't how it works in the retail release. What you guys had with the Dark Elf port on Niian, what we all saw with the Fuuma in Wolkenfelder… I've been checking around, and darn near everything is like that now.”

That jerked Agil's attention back from his examination of a faint shimmer just off the path, one that looked uncomfortably like a large web glittering in the light filtering down through the forest canopy. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you seriously telling me we're in an MMO with no repeatable quests? 'Cause, uh… that'd be bad. Like, really bad.”

“Not every quest,” Argo clarified, a shade of her usual grin coming back. “The really basic ones—y'know, kill ten rats, gather five herbs, that kinda thing—still reset. The big ones, though? Anything to do with the Elf War is persistent. Some others, too. I'm tryin' ta put together a big list, something that'll convince the other clearers that we all gotta be real careful how we handle these things.” Her expression turned grim again. “And how not ta wreck each other with 'em.”

In the corner of his eye, Kirito saw Asuna shiver, and suspected she was thinking of the same thing he was. The Dark Elf port had been ransacked by the Fuuma—and the dying Portmaster's adjutant had blamed Moondancer's crew.

“It's got good points, though,” Argo pointed out, some of her good cheer coming back. “Stick with these guys, Agil, and you oughtta have a head start with the Dark Elves yerself. Just be careful with that axe, yeah? Treants aside, elves aren't s'posed to cut down living wood.”

“I'll try to remember that,” the axeman said dryly. “Which reminds me… where are we going, exactly?”

“Big cave,” Kirito told him, thinking back to the—very different—version of the quest from the beta. “A spider's nest, actually, but nothing we can't handle by ourselves. Shouldn't be too far now.”

He was about to explain about the Field Boss inside it—a really big spider, if he remembered right—when a faint drone caught his ears. Is that an airship? Who'd be flying around here? The forest is too thick to fly to most quests….

The others didn't seem to notice, though, and while he was still straining his ears, Argo continued. “Now, this is where we get to th' part Kii-bou an' Aa-chan really wanna know. Short version—they can give you the long one later, Agil—is that Aincrad used to have its very own group of knights errant, called the Wolkenritter. Axiom Church wiped 'em all out a long time back… and Master Ganryu's given little 'ol me the job of putting 'em back together.”

“…Is that normal?” Asuna asked, glancing around at the veteran gamers. “It sounds like an ordinary quest to me.”

“Any other game, sure,” Agil rumbled. “Could be just a quest for starting a guild. 'Cept we already know SAO doesn't do that.” He shook his head. “Weird stuff, guys. Really weird. Not sure I like it.”

Conversation lapsed after that—until, just a couple of minutes later, the mouth of a cave descending into the ground came into view. And through a gap in the trees, Kirito caught sight of a small airship just departing. “Was that Durendal?”

“Sure looked like it,” Argo confirmed, watching the ship go through narrowed eyes. “Huh…. Well, some of the mats dropped in that cave are good for airship parts. An' I hear tell there's an airship engineer already settin' up shop in Koriki Aerodrome. The Braves' have got good personal gear already, maybe they're working on their ship before tackling regular quests.”

“Free info again, Argo? You're scaring me.” Kirito's heart wasn't really in the jibe, though, more focused on the second thing she'd said. Something about it was making his hair stand on end, just a little. “There's already a player engineer around? How? The only Swordmaster airships before the last couple of days were Moondancer and Liberator.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Consider the first part my contribution to the questing, Kii-bou. Yer question, now, that I gotta charge for.”

That was normal enough that he was almost relieved by it, but before he could produce the Cor, Agil raised a hand. “Uh-uh, this one's on me. Got a feeling my squad's gonna need that more than you, with that living ship you got.” He dug out a small coin bag and tossed it to the smugly-smiling rat. “Awright, Rat, give it to us straight. How can somebody have leveled their Engineering skill enough to be making money off it this early?”

“By paying attention to detail,” Argo replied, pocketing the coins. “You remember the big aerodrome at Origia? All those shiny airships sittin' there, waiting for somebody to take down the Skywall?”

“I do.” Asuna had a faraway look in her eyes, along with a faint smile; Kirito wondered if she was remembering launch day, in the hours before Kayaba revealed the terrors he had in store for them. “I also remember they looked really expensive. Now that I think about it, it did seem kind of strange to have expensive ships on the First Island. Who'd come back for them by the time they could afford them?”

“An' that's the question, ain't it, Aa-chan?” Argo nodded, doing her best—mocking—impression of a school teacher. “So I did some digging. You're right, those ships are too rich for anybody's blood this early. But. Turns out there's a questline there: 'Apprentice Engineer'. Follow that to the end, you got a leg up the Engineering skill. Enough to be better than low-level NPC engineers, anyway. Anybody getting in on that biz this early is gonna make a nice profit.”

Kirito found himself settling down a little at that. Just a little. It wasn't anything he'd heard of before, but then he'd mostly ignored airships during the beta except as a means to get from one island to the next. Just because the Fuuma and the Legend Braves have gotten mixed up with the Forest Elves doesn't mean everybody else is causing trouble, he reminded himself. Heck, even Lind and Kibaou are just being garden variety idiots.

“Well, that's good then, right?” When Kirito looked at her, Asuna shrugged, as if her meaning should've been obvious. “We've got the Dark Elves to fall back on, but most Swordmasters won't. The sooner we have good engineers around, the better. Especially with how Coper's been blundering with Liberator.” She made a face. “Forget about that for now. We've got a scout to find, don't we? What's down in that cave, anyway? Just more spiders?”

“Mostly,” Kirito told her, pushing the matter of the Legend Braves to the back of his mind. “A few other mobs that wander in—or get dragged in; I guess the lore is that the spiders need to be eating something, that's the kind of detail Kayaba likes…. Oh, and one really big spider for a dungeon boss.”

He hurried to lead the way into the cave, if only to avoid the expression he just knew Asuna was sending his way. “And just how big are we talking about?” she demanded of his back, as both Argo and Agil began laughing. “I don't mind spiders, but if you're leading us into a nasty boss without talking to me about it first—again—we need to have a talk!”

My first official mission as an apprentice of the Pagoda Knights! I have to get this one right!

Granted, spelunking in a cave full of spiders wasn't quite what Asuna had expected for that first mission, but she could live with it. Giant spiders weren't really that different from other monsters, and the smaller ones skittering around—Kirito called them “critters”, just there for the atmosphere—were nice enough not to try and crawl on her. She was free to focus on her duty. At least, once Argo promised her the spider boss Kirito had mentioned wouldn't be too much trouble for them.

“Say, Kirito-kun,” she began, as the four of them made their way into the dank tunnels, grateful for the Night Vision skill that let her see as if the cave were lit in sourceless blue, “was this quest in the beta, at least? I remember you saying something about it before we left the camp this morning….”

“Something like it, yeah,” he confirmed. Leading the way, slowly and carefully, his own eyes glowing green while he kept his hand on the sheathed Anneal Blade, he seemed oddly distracted. On edge. “In the beta, I met Kizmel in the Forest of Wavering Mists, not too far out from the port. After she… died… I took the Jade Key to the Dark Elf camp, where the commander took it and sent me on here. Something about how the scout was looking for the camp the Forest Elves Kizmel fought came from… I think.” He shrugged, causing his shadow cast by Agil's torch to flicker strangely along the damp cave walls. “Honestly, the story wasn't half as deep as what we've seen.”

“I'll buy that.” Agil clumped along, taking up the rear, looking very uneasy. Asuna wondered if he had a problem with spiders, or was just uncomfortable having to carry a torch. Unlike the rest of them, if they got in a fight he'd have to drop it to use his weapon. For her part, looking too closely at his torch made her vision go strange. “Just what I've seen you guys do has been crazy. I'm willing to bet I haven't seen the half of it.”

“No need to bet,” Argo said, turning a fangy grin on them. “Ya want the story, it's fer sale. 'Cept a few things Kii-chan paid me to redact fer confidentiality, o' course….”

Of course. Asuna couldn't help but shake her head, and wonder if she should be offended. At that moment, Lyusula's secrets were her secrets, after all, and the idea that Argo—a friend, more or less—had to be bribed not to spill those secrets kind of rankled. Which… I'm not sure I should be feeling. Kizmel's real, but this is just a game world… maybe. Ooh, I'm going to go crazy trying to figure it out!

So she pushed all that aside, and focused on the dungeon crawling. Dungeon crawling was safe, and getting to be comfortingly familiar. Whether this world was a magic facsimile of reality or just VR, the essential points of scouring a dungeon for monsters, treasure, and quests was the same in the end.

Except, as they wound their way through the dank, damp tunnels, things proved to be unusually quiet and oddly empty. Disquieting. The others didn't seem too concerned, though, and when they hit the fourth straight empty treasure chest after five tunnels of no enemies, it finally hit her. “The Legend Braves just cleared this place out, didn't they?” she said, slamming the chest's lid with a petulance she fully realized was unbecoming a squire.

“Yep,” Kirito told her, already walking from the dead-end tunnel back to the central passageway. “If it's like the beta, it'll be at least an hour before they respawn. If it's not like the beta… for all we know, they might not respawn at all.”

Right. They'd talked about it before, now that she remembered it, back on the Second Island. When they were trying to figure out what the Fuuma and Forest Elves were up to. She shivered, remembering how that mess had turned out.

“Nyaha! Not used to being a step behind others, are ya, Aa-chan?” As they resumed going deeper into the cave network, Argo tossed her another grin. “Well, now ya know what it's like to be dealing with public maps when you're not following a quest to places nobody else knows about.”

“Yep, it's like this all the time,” Agil agreed. “Usually thanks to the bozos in the ALS and DKB… well, okay, 'bozos' is probably unfair. Lind and Kibaou's squabbling aside, they're good at what they do.” He was frowning, though, and his fingers tapped uneasily against his torch. “What bugs me is that mobs respawn lots faster than treasure, usually. The Braves must've just left when we got here, and they must've been thorough.”

“Very.” Kirito's frown seemed to get deeper with every step. “It's like they just charged on through, looted the place, and left. I mean, their gear probably lets them do that, but still….”

Still. Asuna had to agree it felt weird. But it's probably not, she told herself, stepping carefully around a patch of some kind of glowing moss she had a feeling wasn't as benign as it looked. Not everything is part of a nefarious plot. Isn't that exactly what Kirito-kun and I were doing, that first night? If we hadn't blundered into Kizmel, we'd probably be doing exactly the same thing. Kirito-kun's always been the full-speed-ahead type when we're not in the middle of a story quest.

One thing they had in common, honestly, though in her case she suspected had SAO been a normal game, she just would've been in a hurry to get to the next story quest. Death game or no, its lore was absolutely fascinating. If it had all been the trappings of a normal game, she'd have been over the moon exploring it anyway.

And if I'm as suspicious about all this as he is, it's probably because I've gotten so used to working with the Dark Elves. I have to remember, most players wouldn't think anything wrong with working for the “enemy” on this. Whatever's really going on, I have to remember that… or I might do something we'd all regret.

Before Asuna could follow that train of thought too far, Agil abruptly paused. “Hey, hold up. Kirito, didn't you say there was a really big spider in here? Shouldn't we have seen it by now?”

“That's what's really bothering me,” the swordsman in black said quietly, stopping to peer around one more turn in the tunnel. “I think I heard Durendal not too long before we got here. Arriving, I mean. I'm sure the Braves could've handled the boss—we could, if we had to—but that fast?” He drew the Anneal Blade, its dark edge gleaming oddly to Asuna's Night Vision. “But that was in the beta. Things might be different now.”

Following his lead, Asuna drew her elven-forged Squire's Rapier. Things being different from the beta test had sometimes been good—she'd never give up her friendship with Kizmel, not for anything—but often had been very, very bad. “Hurry?”

“Hurry carefully,” Argo said, suddenly all business. Her claws clinked, echoing in the tunnel, and she lowered her body into a primal—almost catlike—stance.

“Hurry carefully, sure, but hurry.” The torch in Agil's hand audibly creaked as his grip tightened on it; when Asuna glanced at him, she saw his jaw was unusually tight. “This is really starting to give me the creeps, guys. Let's find that scout and get the hell outta here.”

They hurried. Carefully. The floor of the cave had turned oddly slick, and Asuna remembered all too well her stumble into dark water on the way to Master Ganryu's Hermitage. It would do none of them any good to have a repeat of that, especially with Agil at a relative disadvantage.

The cave system was deeper than Asuna expected, but before too long, flickering light appeared at the far end of the tunnel—accompanied by the sound of Sword Skills. They slowed down just long enough to get a glimpse, before throwing caution to the wind and charging in.

The deepest chamber of the cave was lit by torches ringing the walls, bright enough to automatically cancel Asuna's Night Vision. In the center of it, a battle was going on: a lone Dark Elf, wearing the increasingly-tattered gear of a Trifoliate Knight, wildly swinging a one-handed sword against half a dozen spiders. Even in the middle of desperate battle, he managed to spare a glance in their direction, and his eyes widened. “Humans, here?! Wait—Sigils of Lyusula, and the armor of a squire—?”

“No time for that!” Asuna snapped, already driving in with a Linear. “Commander Savrak sent us!” Her new silver sword struck true, and one of the meter-wide spiders took its point directly between its mandibles. Screeching indignantly, it recoiled, then lunged—only to explode into a thousand blue shards when she whipped out her pistol and shot it right in its cluster of eyes.

Another leapt for her back while she was distracted, only to be swatted into the wall by Kirito's Horizontal. Roaring, Agil spun his axe to crush two more, while Argo darted in to finish the one Kirito had hit. As much trouble as they'd been giving the Dark Elf scout, it was quickly clear that numbers were their primary advantage.

Asuna let herself feel relief at that, when the swarm of spiders was soon smashed, sliced, and stabbed into submission. That relief was short-lived, though. When she holstered her pistol and sheathed her rapier, she turned back to the scout, only to find him slumping against the wall. Breath ragged as his cloak, she was horrified to see a dozen bite marks glowing through his tattered tunic, all of them seeping sickly green.

Injuries in SAO were usually fairly abstract. Poison was anything but subtle.

When she rushed to his side, frantically checking her inventory for antidotes, the scout shook his head. “Too… too late,” he coughed. “And it would take… a stronger remedy than can be found, this far out…. You. You're human, yet you wear the armor of one of our squires. You… and the boy… you have… Sigils….”

“We're working with Pagoda Knight Kizmel,” Kirito told him, crouching down beside Asuna. When she glanced at him, he grimaced and gave a slight shake of his head, and her heart sank. “Commander Savrak sent us to find you.”

“…I will have to trust… that you tell the truth. The Sigils… are proof enough.” The scout coughed again, a thick, wet sound that made Asuna''s skin crawl. “Savrak still lives…? Good. Then the camp… no. No time.” He reached up to grip Asuna's forearm. “Was trying… to find a Kalessian camp. Failed. But… I did find… signs of another of ours. Camp to the north. Spirit Tree.” His grip faltered, and his eyes began to droop. “Tell Savrak. With more Knights, we… we can….”

The scout's hand fell away. A breath of a pause, and even as Asuna reached for him, he shattered, leaving only the clasp of his cloak—the emblem of a Trifoliate Knight—to fall into her outstretched hand.

The trip back to Koriki was mostly silent, apart from fighting mobs along the way. Though they'd begun to respawn, leaving them to fight all too many spiders on the way out of cave, none of them were truly difficult for their group. Which, Kirito reflected, was fortunate, given that all of them were clearly preoccupied with what had happened in the depths of that cave.

He suspected that even had SAO been an ordinary game, it would've hit hard—NPCs or not, Full-dive VR made everything more immersive, more immediate, than old-style games. With the ambiguity he and Asuna had begun to see in the nature of the world around them, it was worse. Even Agil, who had much less reason to question things than the two of them, was still obviously feeling it, and Argo, whatever she had going on, was unusually lost in thought.

Returning to what passed for civilization on Sandoria, the four of them passed through the crowds of NPCs, tourists, and frontline Swordmasters with little care. Originally, they'd planned to discuss the outcome of the quest at a local restaurant; instead, by silent agreement, they kept going until they reached the aerodrome, and climbed aboard Moondancer.

After Kirito made a quick side trip to the airship's hold to retrieve a small table and chairs, they gathered on deck. It was Agil who first broke the silence, folding his arms and looking down at the table with a frown. “So, uh… I'm kinda clueless here. Do you guys have any idea what that was all about? Meaning you, Kirito,” he added, tossing a sardonic look at the Rat. “I'll buy the info if I have to, but I'm really not in the mood for that just now.”

The levity was welcome, but faded quickly, leaving only a tiny smirk on Argo's face in its wake. “I honestly don't know,” Kirito admitted, raising his hands helplessly. “In the beta, the scout was already dead by the time players arrived. All we found was the emblem he dropped. There was a Forest Elf camp on the island, though. Two, in fact. One was the Forest Elf equivalent of the Dark Elf quest we left Kizmel at. There other was a target for players running the Dark Elf side of the Elf War, and a defense mission location for the Forest Elf side.”

“Makes sense,” Asuna murmured. Her eyes were downcast, fixated on the Trifoliate Knight emblem she was rolling between her fingers, clearly reliving the scout's final moments. “…What about that talk of another Dark Elf camp? And the… did he mentioned a Spirit Tree, didn't he?”

“There were no other Dark Elf camps on Sandoria in the beta. At least, none that I ever came across,” he amended. “Definitely not around the Spirit Tree. There is one on Sandoria, but we had to fight our way through Forest Elves to reach it, escorting a Dark Elf Courier with the Jade Key.”

Which, he remembered with a wince, had been a nasty mission. Escort missions were the bane of all gamers, and that one had been no exception. That the courier had been a snide, xenophobic, ungrateful grouch had not made it any better.

Agil glanced from one of them to the other, seeing Kirito's bemusement and Asuna's thoughtful nod, and finally sighed. “Okay, I'll bite: what's a 'Spirit Tree'?”

“Old magic elf tree,” Argo told him. Frowning, she brought up her menu, and while perusing something Kirito couldn't see, she gave the big axeman more or less the same explanation Kizmel had laid out at Wolkenfelder Castle. “One other thing,” she added absently, “which I won't even charge ya for, 'cause I know Kii-bou will just tell ya in a minute anyway, is that they're teleporters. Only people with elven blood can use 'em, but they can teleport straight through Skywalls. Or at least they could in the beta.”

Kirito nodded. There was no way to know if that still held true. On the one hand, he was reasonably sure Dark Elf ships hadn't been bound by the Skywalls in the beta, yet they were in the full release. On the other, Spirit Trees were on a completely different level of magic from the core crystals of airships. With what he'd felt from the one in Wolkenfelder Cathedral, it wouldn't have surprised him at all if even the “strengthened” Skywalls couldn't impede them.

“…Uh-huh.” Agil leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “So, the long and the short of it is that we came out of this quest with more questions than answers, right? Oh, joy. No offense, Kirito, Asuna, but I think right now I'm just as glad not to be neck-deep in the Elf War like you guys. Something fishy's going on, and I don't like it.” He sighed again. “Though at least it looks like the Legend Braves being there was just a coincidence, not something like what you said the Fuuma did at that Dark Elf port. The scout was done in by mobs, not players.”

“…Probably,” Kirito said slowly, an ugly suspicion pricking at the back of his mind. “But there's always the chance of an M—”

A sudden rumble interrupted him, and four pairs of eyes whipped around to look. The sound of airship engines was unmistakable, and at this point only one airship around made that kind of noise. Unless something like Icarus' Lament showed up again, but that's not likely… I think.

It wasn't. A couple of dozen meters away, Liberator was beginning to rise from her landing cradle—still bearing the scars from the battle with Lament, yet airworthy. About a dozen people stood on the deck, all of them clad mostly in green, led by a short man with hair like a mace, or a cactus.

“Kibaou and the ALF,” Asuna said, with a groan of mixed confusion and exasperation. “What in the world are they up to this time?”

Kirito didn't have an answer, but before he could even try to speculate, an outraged bellow rang out, resounding even over the rumble of Liberator's engines. “Kibaou! Just where do you think you're going?! We still haven't settled ownership of that ship!”

Lind, accompanied by his usual personal party. They'd been speaking with a short man in full armor, complete with face-concealing helmet—judging from his green cursor, a Swordmaster; judging from the airship parts around him, he was the engineer Argo had mentioned—but had reacted immediately to Liberator's liftoff. Immediately, and with the flare of temper Kirito had come to associate with both guildmasters. Though in this case, Lind might actually have a point.

“Aw, chill, Lind!” Kibaou shouted back. “Cap'n Coper's just givin' us a lift, and then he's coming right back! Hell, when you find out what we're up to, y'all will be thankin' me!”

That obviously didn't mollify Lind even slightly, but whatever furthering shouting he directed at his rival was both drowned out by Liberator's engines revving higher and made pointless by the airship quickly flying out of range. All he could do was shake a fist in rage, as Liberator swiftly soared away.

Asuna blinked. “Okay… does anybody know where they're going?”

For once, even Argo looked like she was at a loss. “Aa-chan, ya could pay me a million Cor, an' I couldn't answer that. I got no clue where they might be going. I mean, unless they're stupid enough to pull a repeat of the last Skywall Tower raid, an' I don't think Kibaou is quite that stupid….”

“Nah, probably not.” Agil quirked one eyebrow. “But now you've got me curious. If they were trying a raid, what would they into? Field Boss, right?”

“That, or the wyvern nest toward the center of the island,” Kirito confirmed, eyes falling half-closed as he dredged up the relevant beta test memories. “Probably not the wyverns, though; if they're using beta info at all, they know not to do that…. But taking on Birunam?” He couldn't help a chuckle. “Oh, I'd pay good Cor to see Kibaou's reaction to that. We'd better not miss it when the raid does launch.”

“'Birunam'?” Asuna repeated, glancing from him to the suddenly-snickering Argo. “Do I want to know?”

“Birunam the Vengeful Forest,” Kirito clarified, torn between amusement and remembered horror at how the raid had gone in the beta. “The section of forest toward the northwest edge of Sandoria is the Field Boss. Oh, you should've seen it, Asuna. In the beta, we put together a raid based on clues from quests, figuring it'd just be a really big Treant. Then we got there, and the whole freaking forest suddenly started moving. In about thirty seconds, dozens of trees merged into this giant tree-golem-thing. Must've been thirty or forty meters tall, at least.”

She frowned, finally properly distracted from the Trifoliate Knight's emblem. “Thirty or forty meters…?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. That… how many times did you wipe?”

Part of him took note of how casually she used the term “wipe”, despite never having played a game where a wipe was anything but a death sentence. Clearly, she was getting used to it all. “Three times,” he admitted, trying to ignore Argo's chortle. “Three times, before we figured out the trick to it.”

He still remembered being stomped on. Even without true death, it had not been a fun way to go.

“Three times, Kii-bou?” Argo was grinning, in a way he didn't like. “Nyaha! I only knew about two!”

“The second time was in the middle of the night. We hoped it would be slower without direct sunlight.” Kirito shrugged, trying to play it off and not admit how embarrassing the outcome had been. “It wasn't. Afterward, we figured the two extra-large moons probably had something to do with it, lore-wise.”

“Could be,” Agil mused, stroking his chin. “One thing's for sure, SAO doesn't skimp on the lore. …So what was the trick?”

Asuna spoke up before Kirito go, nodding to herself. “Thirty to forty meters tall… it was supposed to be an airship battle, wasn't it?”

“That's what we figured in the end, yeah.” He spared a glance back at Moondancer's deck gun, small but more powerful than anything a ship her size had any business carrying. “The problem was, it was still so early that practically nobody had any airships yet, and nobody really wanted to take the time to get them. The beta test only lasted two months, remember, so everybody was in a hurry to get as far as we could as fast as we could.”

“Uh-huh.” It was Asuna's turn to raise an eyebrow. “So, how did you kill a boss that big without airships?”

“We set the whole forest on fire.” Squirming under her sudden, flat stare—not to mention Agil and Argo's chortles—he raised his hands defensively. “Hey, I barely knew the Dark Elves back then, okay? And if it's any consolation, we did fry ourselves in the process…. But it worked!”

Asuna stared at him a moment longer. Opened her mouth to say something, and stopped. Finally, “You. Are. Impossible.”

I can't believe I'm doing this. I really really hope I remember right. This doesn't make sense, but everything's matched up so far, so….

The deck shivered under the short, brown-haired girl's feet, as Liberator swung around in a leisurely curve around Sandoria's perimeter. The airship was carefully avoiding the interior, where wyverns and a giant Field Boss would've been stirred up, and probably been far too powerful for one cruiser to handle alone. Someone else had apparently warned Captain Coper about that, to the girl's relief. Just giving her guildmaster the information she already had had been bad enough for her nerves.

She was still surprised that Guildmaster Kibaou had gone for it in the first place. During the recruitment meeting on Niian, he'd come across as dead set against anything like her idea. More, he'd been temperamental to the point that if it hadn't been for his more kindhearted recruiter Okotan, she wasn't sure she'd have joined the Aincrad Liberation Front at all. Even as desperate as I was to move on. To see more of… what shouldn't have been real at all.

Something had changed in Kibaou after the battle with the airship boss, though, and on arrival at Sandoria he'd openly—if grumpily—asked if anyone had any relevant info. And when she timidly spoke up, he'd listened, even cracking a small smile. Followed by bellowing orders, and getting the entire guild moving in a big hurry.

Which was why the ALF stood on Liberator's deck, Captain Coper having agreed to give them a lift. Though it looked like not everyone was quite so sure of things. Halfway through the journey, another member of the guild, wearing a leather mask over his head—Joe, she thought his name was—walked up to the guildmaster and hissed, “Are you sure about this, Kibaou? Nobody's been that far on Sandoria yet, this could be all screwed up, just like the bosses!”

She winced, Joe's screechy voice grating on her ears as much as his skepticism gnawed at her nerves. Kibaou, though, only snorted. “Th' beta testers have gotten boss stuff wrong, sure,” he muttered back, folding his arms. “Most everything else has been about right, though, an' Blackie had a point 'bout some things. Time to step up our game, even if it means takin' some chances.”

On the one hand, she was relieved by the show of support. She was a fourteen-year-old kid, who just happened to be good enough with a knife for the ALF to scout her, and nothing else to make her stand out. Except… it's not from the beta test. I hate lying to him, but he wouldn't believe the truth, anyway. I'm not sure I believe it.

But she kept silent, even as Joe grumbled and retreated back into the crowd of ALF members. So far, her dreams had been true, and the info they'd bought from a daredevil scout supported it. In a world where the only escape was winning through to the Central Island, chances had to be taken. Other players already had, and even with what had happened to the Fuuma, it'd mostly paid off so far.

After a long, careful flight, Liberator neared the northeastern edge of Sandoria. Some distance to the east of a tree-based town beta info called Zumfut, another tree rose into view: one with black bark and metallic silver leaves. Just like the dreams… and do I see tents around it?

Kibaou grunted at the sight, wheeled around, and stalked back to Liberator's bridge. “Oi!” he barked through the open hatch. “Better put us down 'round here, Cap'n. Word is these guys don't like 'cold iron', an' I don't wanna screw up the quest before we even get started.”

“Understood,” Coper called back. “There's a break in the forest large enough for us to get you close to the ground near here. We'll drop you off now, and come back when you signal, as agreed.” He paused. “Be careful. After what happened to the Fuumaningun, and Captain Kirito's warning—”

“I know that,” Kibaou interrupted, already turning away. “That's why we're here, an' not chasin' the Braves. You do yer job, Cap'n, I'll do mine.” Stomping back toward the bow, he paused, turning a smile he probably meant to be friendly on the girl. “Awright, kid. You're up.”

Heart beginning to hammer, she could only nod, not trusting her voice not to betray the fact that she wasn't half as confident as she was pretending to be.

Within a couple of minutes, Liberator had descended through a gap in the forest canopy, low enough for Swordmasters to safely jump down. Getting back aboard later worried her, but Kibaou had assured them all that Liberator's crew knew how to handle that. As much trust as he was putting in her, she could only trust his reassurances in return.

Soon enough, the dozen best Swordmasters of the ALF were on the ground and heading for what the dreams had told her was called a Spirit Tree. They clomped noisily through the forest, with none of the grace or ease her dreams had told her the natives had with woodlands; even the dumbest of mobs would've noticed them long before they got anywhere near the clearing surrounding the Tree.

The armored Dark Elves would've noticed the airship passing over regardless. She wasn't at all surprised to see a vanguard of armsmen blocking the way to the camp well before they arrived, led by a Knight Commander in full armor. “Halt!” he shouted harshly, brandishing a shining mythril saber. “This place is not for the children of Man—certainly not after your sorcerer Kayaba betrayed us! Begone, or face the consequences!”

Most of the other ALF members cringed back. Kibaou only clicked his teeth and gestured to her. “We ain't here to fight!” he called. “We heard you could use a hand, that's all. Just hear us out, an' if you don't like it, we'll be on our way. No fuss. Ya got my word.”

She fought an urge to giggle hysterically, as the Knight Commander frowned, his men murmuring and exchanging confused looks. Kibaou's Kansai dialect was hard enough for her to understand, sometimes; she wouldn't have been surprised if the elves couldn't make it out at all.

But there was the exclamation point of a quest NPC over his head, not the red cursor of a hostile mob, so they still had a chance. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, cleared her throat, and hoped she remembered the words. “We are not with Kayaba,” she called out, in her rusty Sindarin. “He betrayed us, too, trapping us here with false promises. Warriors of Lyusula, we call upon the Last Alliance—favor for favor, aid for aid!”

Formal words she'd learned in a dream, years before. Words she wasn't at all sure would have meaning in the world of Sword Art Online. But the Knight Commander flinched in obvious surprise, saber lowering just a hair. “The Last Alliance?” he replied, in the same language. “In this age, what human would even remember—?”

He was interrupted by a commotion behind him; she glimpsed someone else pushing their way through the small crowd of armsmen blocking the way to the Spirit Tree. “Wait, Commander!”

It was hard to judge ages among any of the elves, as long-lived as they were, and even harder when all she had to rely on were faded memories of dreams. Yet the sharp face above the squire's armor looked young, compared to the others. Young, and—she drew in a sharp breath, realizing that face was also familiar. “…Larasa?”

“That I am,” the Dark Elf youth replied, with a smirk that warred with his odd air of dignity. “It seems but the blink of an eye to me, but I suppose to you it's been quite some time. Hello, Silica. It seems we have much to discuss.”