20 Leader

The group huddled together and whimpered. Some people cried, others trembled, while others still hustled and blockaded the door with furniture. And then, in the midst of it all:

"Honey!"

Astrid pushed through them and swept up Ereth, staring at the screen. "That's my hubby!" she wailed. "What did they do to him?" She hiccupped through her tears.

While Hana wanted Zagiha to win, she saw this coming. He was already in rough shape when he went out, and those weapons they had… no one could've predicted they had a power like that.

"We have to send out Ereth," she said.

"Without the God to keep her in control?" Astrid turned sharply. "I'm very familiar with this thing, and chances are she'll just make things worse!" She rubbed at her eyelids.

"It's the only chance we have… wait." Hana took the Angel from her. "They're retreating!"

"Eh?"

The group clambered around her for a look. Sure enough, the Unforgivables split into several groups and took off in different directions, leaving only a single girl. Her face was covered up with a mask, and she approached Zagiha, leaning down. She whispered in his ear, and weakly, he lifted his head.

He was alive!

She said something else to him and he nodded. She pulled out her weapon and pressed it against his head while he pulled out a special Message Crystal, activating it.

"What did she say to him?" whispered a person.

"Why isn't he attacking her?" asked another.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of chimes, and everyone's Message Crystal opened, projecting a screen. The girl spoke into it.

"I am calling you all today over the Magical Emergency Broadcast System to send a message on behalf of Leader."

She sounded young, younger than Hana, even. What was a child doing out there?

"We, the Unforgivables of Gesmaura, have united against a common menace: the Sorcerers. Throughout the years, we have endured countless abuses against our humanity, and we're not taking it any longer! We want equal rights, effective immediately! At noon tomorrow, we expect the Prime Minister to make an appearance outside the entrance of the Unforgivable ghetto and meet our demands. Do not attempt to bring security. Do not pursue us. Do not attack the ghetto. Do you see this item in my hand?" She pressed it further into Zagiha's skin. "This is called a gun. It works much faster than any Sorcerer's mantra, and has the power to kill. These guns are only a taste of the technology we have. If any Sorcerer or bootlicking Worker attempts to retaliate, we will not hesitate to destroy the entire city.

"For the rest of Gesmaura: we have units in every corner of the country. These conditions also apply to you. Leader does not wish us to kill any more people, but we will take over this nation by force if necessary. For now, we're permitting emergency services to provide care to the injured, and won't interfere with hospitals as long as you cooperate. His Holiness has verified we are being honest. As you are the safer the fewer advantages you have, your God has agreed to the destruction of his physical form to spare your lives. Please watch."

The girl pressed down on the trigger, and…

A bright flash of light came out of nowhere and knocked her to the ground. Several more flashes erupted around them and the feed cut off.

"What is it now?"

"Can someone please explain what's going on?"

"What's going on is a hostage situation!"

"Darling!" Astrid cried. Her voice grew more and more panicked by the second. "Where is he? What did she do?" She grabbed Ereth back, but the projection image was obscured with light and fog. Slowly, it cleared out, and by the time they got a good look at the picture, both Zagiha and the girl were gone. Zagiha's physical form was likely dissipated by now, but Hana didn't know where the masked girl might have gone. She looked at the little monkey once more and shook her head, air hissing between her teeth. She really didn't want to be responsible for this thing.

"That's enough," said Hana quietly, and the projector shut off.

"Now what?" a hider asked.

A few women came to Astrid's aid and comforted her. Hana couldn't answer that question, though.

"I guess we stay here," said someone else.

"In a room this small? What about food? Water?"

A man started pushing the couch away from the door. "I'm going to check outside."

"Are you mad?" snapped another.

"I don't hear those explosions anymore," he answered.

Everyone went silent, listening to their surroundings. Sure enough, it was quiet.

"Do you really trust those Unforgivable scum to keep their word?"

"No," said the man, "but we can't stay here forever."

"Nobody can get a lie past Zagiha." Astrid sniffled and wiped her nose. "If he verified it, they were telling the truth."

"I'll be back in just a second. If it's not clear, I'm running back in." The man closed the door behind him.

What could Hana do? It's not like she was the adult in this situation, but she didn't want to be useless. She remembered she had her staff on her. It was only a small travel staff, but the few stones it had in it could support at least one healing spell.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked. She looked at her staff, taking a note of which types of enchanted gemstones she had. "All I can do with this is close small cuts. If anyone else has their staffs, I think it's a good idea to do first aid magic. We should help with the less serious injuries while the doctors treat the bad ones."

Everyone voiced their agreement. Only one other person had his staff, sans Astrid, whose staff was stuck in the office, but he had the stones available to treat swelling, small lacerations, and pulled muscles. Luckily, nobody was harmed to the point they were in danger, and Hana and the man busied themselves healing the victims.

The man who went to check outside reemerged a few seconds later.

"How is it?" someone asked.

"Clear," he said. "Other people are starting to venture out now."

A few people, including Hana and Astrid, decided to leave. Astrid got her staff and went outside. The street was a mess. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, Hana saw the great extent of damage done to the storefronts.

"What a cluster," said someone. Some others emerged moments later.

"Water's out!" somebody shouted.

Figures.

"My home is only a few blocks away," said a person. He shook Hana's hand. "I don't know what we're going to do, period, but it seems we're alright for now. Thank you for your help. You really saved us, young lady."

Others expressed similar sentiments. Some people decided to chance heading home, some headed to the closest fire station, and others, like the greedy shopkeeper, stayed to protect their turf.

No word came from the Broadcast System. The people were left to fend for themselves.

"What are you going to do?" asked Hana to Astrid.

"I'm going to find my hubby, that's what!" she snapped.

"But if his form's been destroyed…"

She broke down into tears again.

"Ah… um! Don't cry!" Hana wasn't very good at the whole consolation thing. "He'll be back in a few weeks!"

"I know," Astrid sobbed. "I just didn't want him to suffer like that! But what will happen to us before then? Those gun things brought a God to heel, and if we use Ereth, we could be killed."

Hana couldn't reply. This was too much.

"I guess I'll stay in the break room overnight." Astrid pulled herself together the best she could. "How about you?"

"I have nowhere to go except my apartment," she said, "but I don't know where we are, and I can't teleport with this little staff."

"Oh." Astrid studied her staff. "I can teleport you home. What's your address?"

Hana told it to her. Reciting the incantation, the familiar aura glowed around them, and they arrived at the apartment front. It wasn't in as bad shape as the other street. Some of the windows were cracked and the streets were almost dead, but there weren't any signs of a great struggle. They entered and walked up the flights of stairs to Hana's room.

"Do you want to stay over at my place tonight, Fru Astrid?" asked Hana. "I think if we're high up like this, the guns can't get us. At any rate, since it's not on the first floor, shady people are less likely to come up here."

Astrid sighed. "Maybe I'll take you up on that," she said. "I have to commute outside the city to get home, and my teleportation's not good enough for that."

Hana unlocked her door.

And dropped her keys as soon as she walked inside.

Because right in front of her was her estranged uncle, Ignatius Crowe, boarding up the window.

"Uncle Crowe?" Hana stammered. "What are you… how did you…?" She grit her teeth. "I told you I never wanted to talk to you again! Get out of my apartment, right now!"

"Hana!" Crowe dropped his hammer. "Thank goodness you're alright!" He approached her.

"He doesn't live here?" Astrid mouthed. "Are you sure this place is safer?"

"No!" Hana put her hands in front of her, pushing him away. "Did mom and dad send you up here to take me home? I'm not leaving, especially not with you!"

"Hana… please, hear me out!"

"No! Leave!"

"You're as stubborn as your mother sometimes! Look!" He marched to the bathroom and flung it open. Hana craned her neck, gasping at what she saw. Zagiha was laid out in the tub, unconscious. "Is this yours?" he asked.

"Darling!" Astrid ran up to him, shaking him. He didn't respond. A trail of blood just leaked down the drain, and she recoiled.

"I… wasn't in the city to bother you," said Crowe. He wrung his hands together. "I… understand why you're angry with me. I was here to pick up new textbooks for the school year when the attack happened. I saw that the God was going to be shot, so I intervened and brought him here."

"That was you?" Hana remembered the fog and lights. "Did you catch that girl?"

He shook his head. "No. I just grabbed him and teleported away."

Hana supposed that made sense. If Isaana was in the city, that meant he was, too. And she wouldn't put it past the woman to excuse herself from a simple shopping trip to go after Zagiha. But…

"How did you know I live here, then?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Don't be so paranoid, child! He told me!" He pointed at Zagiha. "He lost consciousness shortly after we got here."

"And you put my ex-husband's critically injured body in the bathtub?" Astrid said drily.

"Th-Th-There was a lot of blood, so…"

Astrid stroked Zagiha's hair. "Oh, why is he like this? He should either be awake or turned into dust. Gods don't get knocked out cold. That's not how they work!"

"I don't know," said Crowe. "But if he hasn't lost his physical form, that must be a good sign. I… I'll leave you alone now, Hana. Please take care."

He started for the door.

"Wait!"

He turned around, raising an eyebrow at his niece's cry. "What?" he asked.

"Did Isaana tell you not to help Zagiha?"

"Yes," he answered.

"And you helped him anyway?"

"Yes."

"… So you directly disobeyed her orders?"

Crowe paused. "… Yes."

"Actually, I changed my mind. Can you stay for a bit? I need to ask you some things."

"All right."

"I'm just going to…" Astrid shut the bathroom door, leaving Hana and Crowe to their own devices.

Crowe took a seat on the couch. "You've changed a lot in three years," he said.

Hana didn't answer that. She took out a couple mugs and went to the sink to pour water for tea. The water here worked. Sort of. It dripped out of the faucet, making distinctive plip-plops against the polished ceramic cup. The stifling heaviness of the atmosphere only amplified the sound.

"I don't forgive you," said Hana.

Crowe held his head low like a scolded dog.

"Three years," she continued, "I've been searching for Silvio for three years."

"Isaana-sa had no choice but to turn him into an Unforgivable," Crowe said.

"I know. But she tried to kill him. I saw it. You saw it. But you did nothing. Actually, you held me back. You wouldn't let me go to him."

"Hana…"

"You chose someone willing to murder your own nephew over your family."

"Do you think I don't regret that?" Crowe's shoulders tensed, expression set ablaze with anger. "I've been thinking about Silvio every day since then!"

"Well, Isaana is still hunting him down. What do you say to that?"

"I don't want that…"

"Then what are you going to do about it?" She slammed the cups on the coffee table and torched them with a heating spell. "You say one thing, but then you do another. If you're serious about making this right, you're going to have to work yourself to the bone. Maybe we can have a relationship then."

"I see." Crowe didn't touch the tea. "I AM serious. I really messed up. Can I help you find Silvio?"

"I don't trust you. You're still working for her. But." She folded her hands. "You went against her today. But you'll have to prove you care for us."

"Okay. I…"

"Please help!" Astrid swung the bathroom door back open. Both Hana and Crowe sprang from their seats.

"What's wrong?" asked Crowe.

"H-He won't wake up." She shook her head in distress. "No matter what I do, he won't respond!"

"Let me take a look." Crowe knelt down by Zagiha's body. He turned on the bath spout and splashed some cold water on him. But still, the God didn't stir. "It's like he's in a deep sleep!" he exclaimed.

"Are you saying he's in a COMA?" Astrid hissed. "Fix him! I don't care how you do it!"

"Do I look like a God doctor to you?"

"Do you people ever SHUT THE HELL UP?" Zagiha's eyes snapped wide open and set themselves in their typical glower. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"Darling!"

But the moment Astrid lunged toward him, Zagiha shut them again and smacked his head against the bathtub floor, going limp.

"What? He never communicates what he's doing!" Astrid folded her arms.

Hana thought he communicated what he was doing quite well.

"He's always like this," she continued ranting. "Always so unaffectionate and obtuse! He just does what he wants without running it through with me, and then he acts like I'M the difficult one!"

"Well, you ARE!" Zagiha sat up in the tub, bonking his head against the faucet. "If you weren't so controlling all the time, you'd be a lot happier! That's not on me!"

I… Incredible.

He came out of his coma just to argue with his ex-wife.

"And what's this about not communicating? I make myself loud and clear. You just don't choose to listen. For example, I said that we MIGHT adopt an older child, and you agreed, but then you went back on that and decided you needed a damn baby right now! What's so special about your uterus, Astrid? And then you ignore my wishes and have the gall to ask me to sleep with other men because I can't knock you up! Wow! But I'm the bad guy because I work late at my actual JOB!"

"You never spend any time with me! Taking one night off in eight hundred years to go out for dinner won't kill you!"

Hana and Crowe looked at each other and slowly backed away. They shared a mutual understanding: at least our relationship's not that bad! Once again, Hana heard details about Zagiha's love life she didn't care about. (All right, maybe she cared about it a bit, in the way she cared about train wrecks.) But at least it woke him up. So they had that going for them.

"Why are you, you know, yourself?" hollered Zagiha. "I try turning my physical avatar off for five minutes to speed up its regeneration, and then you ruin it! Again! Like you ruined my life!"

"Stop it!" cried Hana. "If you're going to fight, go outside, but I don't want to hear it!"

"I'm going back to my apartment," snorted Zagiha. "It's a strict no-Astrid-zone." He rose up, but no sooner had he stepped on his own two feet, he yelped in pain and fell down.

"Darling!" Astrid's demeanor changed. "Your leg is bleeding!"

He winced. "They shot me in it."

"Let me see." Crowe unfolded Zagiha's leg from under his body and rolled up his trouser leg. It peeled off, saturated in blood. "It looks like there's something embedded in the injury."

"Of course there is." Zagiha unbuttoned the tattered remains of his shirt, revealing an armored vest underneath. It was riddled with holes, and stuck in one was a little metal pellet. "People try to stab me all the time," was the only explanation he offered in regards to why he wore armor in the first place. It did explain how he survived both Isaana's and the Unforgivables' onslaught, though.

"This little thing did this much damage?" Crowe folded his arms. "Hana, do you have tweezers?"

"I do. Uh, let me go get them. And there's bandages in the bathroom cupboard." Hana dutifully did as told, coming back with the requested tweezers. Crowe took them from her and carefully removed the ball from Zagiha's leg.

"Ow! Gods!" he shouted. "Be more careful! This body still feels pain, you knowwwEEE!"

Crowe yanked it out in one swoop and wrapped the wound with gauze. "You're pale as a ghost. Let's get you in bed."

"I can't rest! I'm healed up enough now. I need to go to the Prime Minister!" But when Zagiha tried to get up, he fell over once more, gasping weakly. Crowe supported him and laid him on his bed. Winston and Buttercup, the corgis, jumped onto the bed with him. "Thank you… who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Ignatius Crowe, Your Holiness," said Crowe. "Hana's uncle."

"Really?" Zagiha looked from him to Hana. "Where's the family resemblance, Hana? He's too handsome. Or did the doctors beat you with the ugly stick the moment you popped out?"

"Throw him back to the Unforgivables," said Hana.

"Well, Ignatius." Zagiha turned up his nose. "Thanks to you intervening, the deal is off. I can't fight anymore, anyway. Look." He raised a hand and tried to cast his divine magic, but nothing happened. "I only have enough power left to maintain my form. Sacrificing myself was the only way I could protect the people, but in the end, I couldn't even do that. I can never do anything right."

"Idiot!" Astrid cried. She leaned over him. "You're the symbol of the peoples' hope! If you were killed in front of everyone, they'd go into a mass panic and the Unforgivables would retaliate!"

"'Killed' isn't the right word for it," said Zagiha. He wrapped himself in his blanket. "I need to turn myself in."

"And how do you plan to do that? You can't even walk!"

"Oh, ma Cherie," he squeezed her hand, "I must. I'd do anything to keep you safe."

Astrid blushed.

Smooth. He actually did something smooth for once.

"Will your power come back?" asked Hana.

"Eventually," said Zagiha.

"How long?"

"Who knows?" He cricked his neck. "Could be a few weeks. Maybe a few months. The point is, I overspent my power and now I'm paying the price!"

"Months? We don't have months!" Hana gasped.

"Thank you, captain obvious!"

"I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself," said Astrid. "And that's final!"

Zagiha pointed a shaky finger at his desk. "My Message Crystal," he said. He was fading out.

Crowe brought it to him, and he activated it, calling the Prime Minister. And this time, he picked up.

"… Yes, I survived, but I'm very injured," he spoke into it. Nobody else could hear the person on the other end. "Has anything else happened? The Unforgivables haven't made another move? Good. Yes, I figured the hospitals would be chaos. What are you going to do about this? We're up a creek here." He listened to the Prime Minister's reply and nearly dropped his Crystal. "What? Are you serious? You're certain? That's very risky. I-If you say so." He turned it off, perturbed.

"What's wrong?" asked Hana.

"Do you know what he plans to do?" Zagiha's voice turned up a notch. "He's locking down the city borders and plans to keep the Unforgivables in a stalemate during negotiations until reinforcements arrive!"

"Reinforcements?" asked Crowe. "We don't have a military, and neither do Eskana or Shiuma."

"Exactly! He's appealing to countries way down south! It could take weeks for them to arrive! What if we run out of food and water before then? I can't believe it!"

"Can't we assemble a force of our own citizens?" asked Hana.

Zagiha gave a nervous chuckle.

"What?" Hana frowned. "What did you do?"

The God twiddled his thumbs. "Eheheh… you know how five hundred years ago after the Continental War, Gesmaura, Eskana, and Shiuma agreed to dissolve their forces? I, uh, I was there, and, uh…"

"What."

"M-My magic is the ability to make any contract mortally binding. When the treaty was ratified, I used my power to make it so that if anyone from these three countries were to assemble a military from here on out, uh…"

"WHAT."

"Acursewouldactivateandeveryonewouldinstantlydie," he muttered under his breath.

"Are you being real right now?" Hana slumped down.

"How was I supposed to know this would happen five hundred years ago? I can't predict the future!"

"Then just undo the curse!" Hana shouted.

"Uh…"

"Don't tell me you don't know how."

"… I'm not going to say anything."

"Great." She smacked her hand against her forehead.

"I-I've never had to do anything of the sort before!" he said. "I don't know if it can be done!"

"Shouting won't get us anywhere," said Crowe. He looked out the window.

Hana bit her tongue. "Find a way to undo the curse," she said.

Zagiha nodded.

"We need to look out for ourselves first." Crowe summoned a few wooden boards, nails, and his hammer to Zagiha's apartment. "I'm boarding up the windows. If any of those metal balls break through them, we could be killed."

Astrid nodded. "I'm going to make us some food."

"You can use my kitchen," said Hana. She glowered at Zagiha's. "Don't use his. Seriously. Don't."

Astrid nodded and made her way through the bathroom to Hana's apartment.

"I need to ask you some questions," said Hana once Crowe and Astrid were out of earshot.

"About what?" asked Zagiha.

Hana leaned in. "It's about the False One. Heard of him?"