Card Sixteen: Seven of Swords

Lavimo watched as Kallan took a hesitant step closer towards the pod, glancing at all the black tubes that were connected to the wall, seemingly heading somewhere past it. It made him frown, and he quickly waved over Lavimo before handing him the single book that had been mysteriously left on the table. 

“You can read through that if you want. Tell me if you find anything that sticks out to you,” his leader instructed, before he gestured to Vivienne and pointed towards the wall. “Please break this as cleanly as possible. Keep the damage to as much of a minimum as you can.”

And Vivienne gave a deep nod before she moved to the wall with the thick tubes, which looked to have been pumping black blood. She widened her stance ever so slightly and took a deep, centering breath, before her wind began moving with her arms, slivers of rain droplets building together to create weapons akin to whips before she slashed the wall into twelve equally sized rocks, Lavimo thinking quickly as he used his concept of telekinesis to slowly float them to the ground. 

“Good improvising, Lavimo. That was a good catch,” Kallan complimented him in turn, Lavimo perking up at the praise while he held the book tight to his chest atop his sketchpad, before following Kal to the edge of the new hole to see where the tubes led. Although, it was very much a dud, because the next room they saw was merely a large glass tank with only black smears remaining, all of the black blood that had once been stored there having been completely depleted. 

“Just… just how many hidden rooms are there?” Kimith wavered fearfully, looking around with anxiety controlling his mind as he instinctively held onto whoever was closest, which just happened to be Lavimo. 

But he decided he didn’t care and merely shrugged, not willing to coddle him like Vivienne, but also not feeling so mean as to push him off like Kal had. Instead, he pretended like nothing was happening, and merely offered his own insight. “This is turning out to be a pretty big place, and it’s under Viscendant’s royal castle, which already used to take up a very large area. But I think it’s safe to assume that this laboratory has been officially abandoned at this time, and that we probably won’t find much else here even if we do discover more rooms.”

“Hm, I think I agree,” Kallan nodded with grounded sense, taking a hand out to lightly tug at the tube that was connected to the empty glass tank, finding it awfully malleable as he gave it a squeeze, black blood pouring into the pod as it dripped out onto all the open suction cups where the leeches were no longer there to feed from. “The best we’ll be able to find here are leftovers like this, that will only tell us what they were doing to an extent. But at least it's better than nothing.”

Do you think those leeches are what almost turned Prince Cirrus into a monster? Vivienne signed when Kal glanced at her, and their leader gave a grand sigh at the question before he moved to brush his shaggy dark bangs out of his pale face.

“I think that’s likely. We need to figure out what exactly those leeches are and how they work, so we need to make sure we get these specimens back to Lilino in one piece. But for now, spread out a little and see what you can find. Look for any visible clues or anything of note, but if you see another location that might lead somewhere we haven’t been yet, come get me immediately, and all four of us will go together. And... Kimith, just stick with Vivienne,” he ordered swiftly, before he began assigning everyone their roles with pristine precision. “I’ll stay in this room, here. Vivienne, go to the room with the pods and see if you can figure out anything about them, or maybe how they work. They looked almost alive, so see if you can figure out anything about that. Lavimo, head back to the original room and look for anything else we may have overlooked.”

“What? But we already know everything about that room,” he tried to protest, before his mouth clamped shut at the sight of Kallan’s disgusted glare brushing over him. 

“If you truly think that, then you are arrogant and have a lot to learn. Now get to work,” he ordered instead of fully addressing Lavimo’s complaint, and the younger man forced himself to give a respectful nod before backing his way out of the room with the emptied blood tank, away from all of the pods filled with dead leeches that had been exploded by Kimith, and all the way back to the original room where they had first entered, book in hand.

He really wanted to explore something that would give him more information. What was he even supposed to find in here? All that was there were the desk and the cages, and he’d already found the stamp that the cages had, so what else could he possibly find? He’d much prefer to examine the pods with Vivienne... that would make him feel much more useful, like he was actually doing something of substance instead of merely sitting around. 

Well, maybe he could look through the book the mastermind behind all of this had left behind. Kallan and Vivienne had looked awfully grim staring at it earlier, so maybe it had some sort of message from the culprit. And if the culprit had been willing to leave them a message, it could lead them right to them, right? Or so he’d hoped. But the book that had been placed on the table merely read, “The Concept of Anything,” with nothing else of note. And opening it further, the first few pages were just explaining how the taboo and illegal concept worked, and which famous people had died using it to save their kingdoms and homes, which… uh, why had this been left behind? At first glance, it just seemed to have been left because it was useless to whoever the perpetrator was. Maybe it was actually only here to throw them off the scent or to confuse them. But then why had Kallan looked so grim when he flipped through it? Maybe Lavimo was missing something. 

He couldn’t help but frown in his increasing confusion as he flipped deeper through the pages, not really understanding where this was going. The first chapter was all about explaining what the lethal concept was and who had famously used it while turning themselves into selfless martyrs, and the second chapter was just a list of data of every person to have ever used it in all worlds as far back as they had knowledge. He ended up skimming through the list for any names or planets he recognized, but none of it seemed particularly interesting… well, until he reached the very last name on the list at the very end of the second chapter, the most recent person said to have died from using the concept of anything...

Arcadia Canasettia, first and only princess of Salaven and the only daughter of King Cadence Canasettia, former leader of the Central Domain Alliance. Died on Avaris 13th in the year xx1300 at age one hundred and twelve after attempting to use the concept of anything to fly, which caused her to explode and kill two of her guards. 

Arcadia Canasettia… died on Avaris 13th in the year xx1300.

Avaris 13th in the year xx1300… the same day the first crack in reality had appeared and Viscendant was corrupted, killing nearly his entire family. 

And on that day, Princess Arcadia had died because she used the concept of anything. 

He didn’t like the way these pieces were clicking together so smoothly in his mind. In fact, it made him feel sick. Because Lavimo wasn’t blind to who Princess Arcadia was. He knew who she was all too well, even though he’d never met her. She was the girl his cousin Cirrus was supposed to fall in love with, the very same girl that was supposed to help him lead and help to carry all of his burdens, before she’d died and left him to grieve and suffer all by himself. 

Lavimo had never blamed her before. After all, she was said to be sickly and ill, and her official death statement had been because she succumbed to her disease which no healer could mend, just like her mother. It had been known as a tragedy, and he remembered Cirrus not being quite the same afterwards. Beforehand, whenever his older cousin would visit him on Viscendant, he used to be a lot fuller of life and vigor, like he was genuinely excited and proud to carry his prophecy. He used to come visit and brag about how Arcadia had talked to him a little more than usual recently, or that she hadn’t insulted him at all during one of their dates, which was apparently rare. Cirrus had always claimed not to be in love with her, and Lavimo thought that was true, but it did seem like he was genuinely excited to eventually fall in love with Arcadia. It seemed like he really wanted to, because he was comforted by the idea of having a destined companion to carry his prophecy with him. But all of that was taken away when she died. 

Lavimo had never blamed her before. But if Arcadia had only died because she’d tried using a concept that was taboo for a reason… because of how lethal it was… he felt that would be unforgivable. And with the way things were lining up, didn’t it seem like it was the concept of anything that had broken reality in the first place?

He immediately started reading more diligently, flipping through the pages with wide, hungry eyes. He always liked to think he was close with Cirrus, even if they didn’t talk as often as they used to. Lavimo knew that he himself could act very irrational, and would often isolate himself and act aggressive if he was in a bad mood. But he’d had a very good relationship with Cirrus for a while, and they were often mistaken for brothers because of how much they looked alike. They both had smooth, dark skin the color of milky chocolate, with vibrant amber eyes that were round and wide. Their hair was both smooth and silky, its black color elegant and easy to handle. Cirrus had been growing his hair out for a while, so he would braid it to make it look shorter before throwing it over his shoulder, but Lavimo had always shaved the sides of his head before throwing the rest of it up in a short ponytail that just barely brushed his neck. Their biggest differences were their heights and builds. Cirrus was exceptionally tall with a wide, yet elegant shape, while Lavimo was shorter and a bit sturdier with more brawn to him. But ever since Viscendant had been corrupted and he’d been taken in by his aunt on his father's side, Queen Nadia, he was often referred to as Cirrus’ adopted younger brother. 

Maybe it was his own sense of possessiveness for his family, because while he didn’t like to admit it, Kallan had been right. Osiris didn’t show up often. He hadn’t seen him in over twenty years now, and whenever he did pop up, it was just to chat about useless things for three or four days before he disappeared again. But Cirrus had always been right there, always extending his hand out and willing to listen… the only family he had left who still actively tried to care about him. He didn’t want Cirrus, the kindhearted and sincere Cirrus who people called his brother, to have to suffer any more by knowing the truth of Princess Arcadia’s death. If she really had been the cause of reality’s collapse, then he resented the fact she was dead, because it removed the prime object he could project his anger onto. 

The third chapter of the book was talking more about Princess Arcadia and what her life had been like. She’d been a beloved princess with a doting father who loved her more than anything and who gave her whatever she asked for the moment she asked for it, but who had suffered the loss of her mother when she was thirty-four years old. Her illness was really a farce, because the true reason she was sick and always had guards surrounding her was because she kept trying to harness the concept of anything without permission. Her father had feared for her life, and therefore always made sure she had someone watching over her to make sure she didn’t try to use it again. And of course, there was stuff he already knew that was mentioned as well, about her being a tactical and strategic genius who could often control war room meetings with little effort if she so wished. 

Why would a girl like that… with so much clear talent, purpose, and potential… defer to using the concept of anything of all things? That’s what Lavimo didn’t understand. The book said it was because of her arrogance and need for power, but surely she would have known she would die if she used it. Everyone died using it, there were no exceptions. There never had been before, and she certainly hadn’t been either. Surely she hadn’t thought she could’ve gotten around that before she did what she did… that would be absurd. 

And yet when Lavimo got to the very end of the book, the handwriting suddenly shifted from the blue ink it had been using to black, and he recognized the look of black blood on paper as he felt the color drain from his face. There at the very end, on the final page, something unusual was written… something that made him feel intense emotions he didn’t know how to place…

Princess Arcadia might have died, but people learned from her failure. There is another man out there who is able to wield the concept of anything without permanently dying. If you’re reading this, then you should know that he is the real cause of the apocalypse, and that Arcadia’s death is on his hands. I admit my dealings are shady, but in the end, I’m only looking to stop this apocalypse just like you are, so I want you to be aware of who your true enemy is. Good luck, and I hope the leftovers of my lab are interesting for you. I’ve left some clues scattered around if you’re interested in finding me. I hope to see you soon, my friends.