eureka! part 5.

[igiko]

▶ Part 4

Walter stops when he catches sight of Ene, seemingly glowing in the darkness of the shed. Tiir leaps in then and grabs him by the neck, and even Walter's speed is unable to worm him out of being shoved against the wall adjacent to the broken door.

"You really have awful timing," says Tiir, his grip threatening to tighten.

Walter's eyes narrow as he presses Tiir's wrists down with his hands.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Guriko hops forward, shrugging herself out of Minato's grasp.

"Mistake has made another mistake," she states with a pitiful shake of her head. "Truly, a mistake that can only paint him as the unfeeling villain of this story!"

"What she means," Tiir interjects, "is that you should stop charging in mindlessly. Even you must be able to rationalize once in a while."

Perturbed, Walter's glare intensifies. However, shortly thereafter, he loosens his hold on Tiir—the favor is returned.

"Explain," he demands, pointing to Ene. "Who is she?"

It wouldn't be so odd to see Tiir with a lady. It hadn't been odd to see him with anyone, thus there should be no reason to doubt. But one look at her, and Walter knows it: Tiir's attitude has changed, grown more overtly aggressive, and that girl is dying.

What a horrific pallor.

Minato steps up, his voice as soft and agreeable as it has always been: "This is Ene." He glances over at her. "Ene, this is Walter."

Ene inclines her head. Despite the milky quality of her eyes, she looks directly into the face of the newcomer—then smiles her trademark smile, the smile that prompts a different kind of frown from Walter as she nods.

"Tiir must have worked hard for you."

Looking over his shoulder, Tiir protests, "Ene . . . "

Sensing Walter's growing impatience, Minato continues with a curt nod of his own. He explains it as succinctly as he can—that Ene is an old friend of Tiir, and whom they have undergone numerous expeditions in hopes of recovering her terminal illness.

Walter folds his arms. Any desire for violence, they sense, has left by this point.

"Don't bother with that stone."

Guriko huffs.

"What does Mistake know! The beauteous Ene has endured years of physiological torment—is he proposing that she suffer for even another second, when she can at last be cured and free of this curse?"

Stepping toward her, Tiir bids her—amiably—to quiet. Ene pipes up that it's fine.

"So," starts Walter, aiming his words at Tiir, "you'd spill her blood in order to cure her?"

This time, it's Tiir who scowls. "What are you going on about?"

"You've never used that stone before. But it was once used on me by that troublesome girl."

Guriko stares at him with beady eyes—

"—And the price of its power is blood."

There's a long pause before Tiir, with an unreadable expression, straightens. The tips of his lips curl into a smirk.

"So that's how you survived."

Walter neither responds nor reacts.

All heads turn to the darkest part of the shed as a light shift sounds—the sound of Ene standing despite her unhealthily skinny legs, supporting her equally unhealthy weight. The stance of a dead girl.

"It's all right, Tiir," she starts, though her tone reaches to all within the rundown shed. "The blood can be anyone's, but none will spill for me."

As the implications sink in, Tiir shakes his head almost vehemently.

"No—what are you saying? If it's just blood, I can give you mine. However much you need, I'll give it."

Guriko speaks quietly.

"Then the rock captain would not survive."

Ene agrees.

Minato says nothing, observing the scene with his usual quietude.

Tiir lowers his head and grits his teeth.

------

Tiir, Minato, and Walter had met some four month ago under less than ideal circumstances, when the former two's infiltration of the Fennes Manor had gone awry with the heinously meticulous watch of the family's servants—or rather, servant, as Walter had singlehandedly driven them away with two fists, two feet, and what Tiir has since then remembered as a horrible, horrible personality.

Minato has always held to the belief that Walter is "just admirably dedicated."

(At the very least, Tiir knows that he'd given Walter a fair concussion that day.)

In the shed, Tiir relinquishes the truth to an uncharacteristically cooperative Walter, who would only be so under that condition.

Minato begins.

"The story of Lady Shirley's miraculous recovery in her childhood is almost legendary. Even though every doctor thought she would pass, she recovered within a day without any repercussions to her future health."

Waving absently, Tiir continues.

"We'd thought that she might have gotten hold of a potent medicine. She is wealthy, after all. But we'd found nothing." He levels his gaze at Walter. "Even now, we don't know what it is that had saved her from a sure death."

At first, Walter is unresponsive to the accusatory tone.

Eventually, he unfolds his arms—and focusing on Tiir, says with firm certainty, "Her survival wasn't due to the effect of medicine. It was another stone."

▶ Part 6