“She’s around that corner.”
Should he speed up at the lord’s words or pause and take time to compose himself?
Which was the correct option—the least unnatural? That was the first thing that came to Orphen’s mind. In the end, he did neither, instead continuing forward at the same pace as before. He went down the unchanging halls of the sanctuary and turned corner after corner at the same pace. One more corner wouldn’t change anything.
He turned.
Yet another corridor awaited him. It branched to the left and right, but curved as if going around some sort of pillar. There was a white door directly ahead of him, shut.
Just as Almagest had told him, Claiomh was there, her back facing him.
She was headed for the door. Her hand was reached out toward it, but she noticed his presence then and turned around. It was definitely Claiomh—she almost looked like she’d lost weight somehow since the last time he’d seen her, but perhaps that was simply the expression on her face.
“Orphen...” Her surprised voice echoed off the white walls of the sanctuary.
“Claiomh.” Orphen stepped forward, calling her name. He waited for a response, and when there was none, he continued, “What’s going on? Why are you doing...err...this?”
It was a vague question, but it was enough for her. She looked down and turned halfway back to the door as if attempting to flee. Still, she answered. “I thought about talking to you...at first. But you had a lot on your mind, and I knew talking about it wouldn’t change anything, and it was my fault in the first place...”
“What are you talking about? Haven’t you always forced your feelings on me before even when I had a lot on my mind or when talking about it wouldn’t do anything or when it was your fault?”
“Well, things are a little different this time.”
“Different?” They didn’t seem to be quite on the same page, so Orphen forced himself to smile. “There’s pretty much nothing for us to do anymore at this point. All we can do now is leave things up to other people. Frankly, our odds aren’t great, but—”
“We’re going to lose,” Claiomh said suddenly. Her tone wasn’t strong, but she spoke swiftly enough that Orphen didn’t have any time to think. “Any plan is bound to fail, and Leki and the other dragons can’t beat the goddess. The world is going to end and we’re going to lose everything.”
“...Why do you think that?”
“Leki’s sure of it.” Claiomh pressed a hand to her forehead like she was enduring a headache and said, stressing the negative in every phrase, “We can’t erase this enemy, we can’t beat this enemy, we can’t win, we can’t survive this. That’s what Leki’s telling me!”
“Typical symptoms of a familiar,” the lord whispered into his ear. After confirming that Orphen had heard him, he explained, “The familiar manufactures a sense of self for the Deep Dragon, who doesn’t originally have one—”
“You’re wrong!” Claiomh shouted, trembling with the effort. Her hair bristled as she shouted at the lord, “I realized after talking to him these last few days—Leki’s already dead. You said it was a miracle back at your mansion, but it wasn’t. Leki separated from his pack and attached himself to something else. Neither is dominant, and it’s not the same as what happened in Urbanrama... We merged together and became the exact same thing!” Claiomh shouted with a sob and spun around, throwing open the door.
Before Orphen could see inside the room, Claiomh, the door, and the hall all disappeared together.
“Claiomh?!” Orphen ran over and pounded on the wall, but nothing happened. He whirled on the lord and shouted, “What was that door?!”
“This is bad. It’ll take time to catch up to her using another route...”
“Where is Claiomh going?” Orphen asked after giving the wall another good smack.
The lord narrowed his eyes, thinking. “If she’s able to move freely through the sanctuary, then she’s definitely making use of a Deep Dragon’s mental abilities. In which case, what she said isn’t necessarily false. As for where she’s headed, there are only two locations left in the sanctuary that still have value.”
“Where and where?”
“The Second World-Seeing Tower and the Ayrmankar burial chamber. We can’t get into the Ayrmankar burial chamber no matter what we do.”
Orphen finally stepped away from the wall and caught his breath. He was more panicked than he thought he’d be. Everything that Claiomh had said was raising Orphen’s hackles.
He waited until he could reasonably call himself calm and asked, “And the Second World-Seeing Tower?”
“It will be difficult, but there should still be a way there. This is actually one of the pathways I planned on using to get there.”
“Are there others?!”
“We’ll have to take the long way and there’s a good chance of Yuis apprehending us—”
“I don’t care!” Orphen cut him off. He gave the lord a look before considering which way to go, and the other man pointed.
“This way.”
“Dammit, what’s going on?” Orphen cursed as he started heading in the direction the lord had pointed out to him. There’s pretty much nothing for us to do anymore at this point. All we can do now is leave things up to other people. Of course, he didn’t actually believe that from the bottom of his heart. Orphen’s irritation grew now that he’d told another stupid lie. He was getting antsy, worn down by his injuries and fatigue.
“Do you feel the same way as Claiomh?”
“In what way?”
Orphen was hurrying, but the lord was keeping up with him with rather languid steps somehow.
When the other man responded calmly, Orphen sighed and asked, “Are we gonna lose in the end?”
“You said yourself that our odds aren’t great.”
“I guess I did...” Orphen couldn’t argue with that, so he proceeded silently from there.
He knew their odds were bad, but they had to believe they could win and bet anyway. That was what he’d prepared himself for when he’d come here.
But why does Claiomh feel that way? Is it Leki’s influence?