The Tower of Tattle

Rustle, rustle.

However the tome makes me feel, though, ends up being a secondary point. Because, to the surprise of me and Shiori, The Codex starts rustling. How the heck are we gonna get a stone tablet in there? And won't everyone be mad that it's missing?

That's when two snitches fly out of The Codex. Rather than fly straight to the tablet, they actually start ripping a page out of The Codex, the page wriggling in dismay as it's torn out. That loud ripping sound makes me wince. The whole sequence looks like something out of a cruel nature documentary.

It doesn't end with the ripping either. Now the two dextrous snitches are taking the paper, still wriggling, onto the tome and sort of trying to peck the imprint of the carved edifice into it. Soon enough, the ripped paper starts taking on a new shape, and I could swear the paper itself was changing into something thicker. By the time they're done pecking a new identity into it, the new snitch looks something like a hawk.

And it snatches its two tormentors and violently whisks them back into The Codex. Which, honestly, those two bullies had it coming.

"Why can't they just all be friends?" Shiori asks sadly.

The Netabare family again? Just how central are they to the mysteries of Sussurokawa?

Shiori and I mull it over as we go to find Al, who went ahead to 'grab some seats and rest his old knees.' Shiori is absolutely lost in thought. I can't help but think that her inner magus is turning the gears and connecting the dots.

"From whence we came, to wither we are headed..." Shiori repeats. "Isn't that... Isn't that like Cotton Eyed Joe?"

"...What? Are you serious? I was just fawning over you," I say.

"No, seriously! It's just like the lyrics! 'Where did you come from, where did you go?'" Shiori starts.

"'...Where did you come from, Cotton Eyed Joe?'" I finish. "Boy. If Arcani could hear you now, he'd probably smack you."

"He wouldn't! It's a modern version of his writing!"

Suddenly, the hairs stand on the back of my neck. Not from Cotton Eyed Joe, but from the feeling that people are talking about us. I can hear their whispering. No... they're not talking about us.

They're talking about Shiori.

...heard her talking to herself...

...I saw it! Those shadows gathered around her...

For her part, Shiori doesn't seem to notice. In fact, she just keeps humming away the chorus of Cotton Eyed Joe over and over. Thank god she can't hear them. But then again... that's trouble in its own way.

And speak of the devil, a shady looking young guy comes up to us. Unkempt, long hair, sweats. I don't wanna judge a book by its cover, but...

"You have some business with us, son?" Al asks, voice still friendly, with just a hint of caution and warning. Looks like he's got some awareness of what's in the air too. "You're making these two young ladies nervous."

Then he does just about the worst thing he could.

He actually goes and wordlessly genuflects to Shiori, and she turns her head every which way confused, before she realizes he's really kneeling to her. She starts absolutely shaking, and Yorick gets really riled up. He's almost trying to jump out of her hands to get at the guy.

But that's the creepiest part. It's almost like the guy's... looking right at Yorick.

Before long, though, a nicely dressed lady comes and grabs him by the scruff of his hoodie. The difference between them, appearance-wise, is enormous. She's in a lilac, knee length dress, the kind you could wear to both a PTO meeting or a gala. He's... looking like he could be homeless, honestly.

"Goodness, we're so sorry about that," the lady says with the most saccharine tone I've ever heard.

"R-right... v-verily. It's okay. G-graces." Shiori stutters out. I guess she's trying to calm herself by acting like her adult self?

"Go," Al growls. And the lady needs no further prompting. With a dainty wave, and a plastered on smile she pulls her companion along and away.

"Here, Shiori," I say as soothingly as possible. "I picked up a program for the... it's a seance, actually. You were excited for it, right?"

"Y-yeah!" We open up to the first page, and she actually gives a small squeal of delight. "Oh! Oh oh oh! I remember! This seance... I was interested because they were gonna talk about the twilight maiden!"

Who?

Kurakira(暗キラ), the twilight maiden.

Today we establish the fact. She is no myth. She is real. And she is watching.

"The local boogieman," Al says with a strangely somber voice and sighs. "Can't say it's a legend I like to hear. But I suppose it's all harmless fun."

"Why's Al sighing?" I ask Shiori.

"Because so many people in town believe "Kurakira" stole the children away. You know, all those kids some people believe existed. Kurakira... The name means like, 'dark light?' Or 'sparkle in the dark.' Kurakira can only be seen at the exact moment of twilight, when the last flicker of sun gets in your eyes. That's why she's the twilight maiden. So a lot of people think, during one moment of twilight, she took all the children like the Pied Piper!" Shiori says breathlessly. "Oh! Oh! But there's a creepy part!

Was kidnapping children into the twilight not the creepy part?

"No matter who you are... they say that she 'persuades' people to join her into the twilight. But! But! Unlike the kids! Who go into a mountain or something! The others..." Shiori makes a little cutting motion at her neck. "So she gets blamed for... you know! Around here!"

Al sighs and still looks a bit bothered by it all. But he just pats Shiori's head comfortingly, I think to make sure she knows he's not bothered by her.

As Shiori starts rambling about an entirely different set of cryptids, I notice that the program's been rustling all the while. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that this one's a snitch. This time it actually turns itself into a little bat, and when it goes into The Codex it hangs itself upside down from the top edge and squeezes in as the book shuts.

Wow, I really hate this girl.

My ears perk up. It's a subtle thing, the way the chatter changes. It gets louder for a minute, as if people are subconsciously aware something's about to happen. And all of a sudden, a hush, consensus of the crowd. The lights go out.

Looks like the seance is beginning.

---

---

And of course, just like any respectable seance should, it begins with a man in some quasi-religious robe wheeling out a cabinet on tall rolling legs. You know. So you know there's no trap door. Al was right. This really is just a dumb magic show.

Slowly, slowly he opens it, with as much drama as possible. Even with a sliver you can see 'there's nothing inside', but even so he makes us wait through an agonizing half-minute of shocking non-reveal.

Then boom! He slams it shut. And boom! He throws it open so violently the cabinet's hinges squeal. Amazing. Shocker. There she is! A masked woman appears in the cabinet from seemingly thin air!

Looks like she does this every single time because the whole town hall can barely come together to muster a polite clap. Erm. Except for Shiori, actually, who's clapping so excitedly you'd never know that she's the one who can actually use magic.

"Welcome! Welcome! Children of the Order of Light!"

In the dark room, the spotlight turns on and centers itself right on the stage. A masked figure walks onto the stage. Just... walks. Not that I was interested in the 'performance,' but there's something completely anticlimactic about the fact that this masked woman is just your regular old huckster.

The whole town hall claps politely, while Shiori gets on her tip toes clapping with excitement she can't contain.

"You there!" the masked woman points to a heavyset man in the back. "You ate a meal this morning... no, perhaps noonish. It was tasty, but also mediocre!"

"I did have a tasty but mediocre meal around 10AM," the man says awed.

"And you!" She points to a younger woman. "You feel that you deserve more from life... but you also appreciate what you have!"

"My husband's a putz!"

"Well, I hope he's not in attendance," the masked woman says, to polite chuckles. "Now let us begin. Children of the Order of Light. I greet thee on the doorstep."

"We are glad to arrive."

Hm? Something feels a bit off here. The staid call and response echoes through the town hall.

"I welcome you into my home."

"We are honored to be guests."

I start to feel very nervous about us being the only ones in the room who don't know the proper responses. Is everyone else watching us? Just how much are we standing out?

"I nourish you as if you were my own child."

"We were famished, but now we are full. We were motherless, but now we are cared for."

A chill runs down my spine. The call and response doesn't sound much different from what you'd hear in a church. Have these meetings been going on a long time? The entire room keeps answering in unison, in a tone so practiced it almost sounded bored. There's a different kind of reverence that comes with something becoming so internalized it's routine.

"Do you step out of the dark?" the masked woman asks.

"We step into light."

I'm not really sure how much of this subtext Shiori is catching. She looks a little bored and uncomfortable, and she's just looking around rocking back and forth on her heels. Meanwhile, I can see Al is gripping his legs pretty hard.

There's something subtly terrifying about it. The way the masked woman minces around like an obvious fraud, and the people respond to it like it's the most mundane thing in the world. It's like... believing your toothbrush is gonna be there tomorrow morning.

"Excellent, excellent," the woman calls out theatrically. "Please, everyone. Greet our new friends. This is their first time coming."

"We welcome you into our house."

"Obliged," Al says gruffly.

"T-thank you?" Shiori says.

I just stay silent and shift uncomfortably.

"On this wonderful day," the masked woman says. "We are honored to have the vicereine's daughter, and her friend Shiori. Shiori, we do hope you feel welcome. It is a shame that in this town, the store doesn't stock your favorite cereal. Trix, was it?"

"H-huh? Yeah! Yeah that's my favorite cereal!" Shiori still looks scared, but her eyes are shining a bit. She's completely pulled into her past self right now.

"We want nothing more than for you to feel like you belong. You do not need to feel so alone that you'd play by yourself at the creek whenever the vicereine's daughter is not there. It is not wise to be a child alone in this world. You never know who is watching. You never know who sees what deeds or miracles you may do."

Shiori's eyes go wide. This is getting out of hand. But I don't know what to do.

"I don't think I want to be here... anymore..." Shiori says quiet as a mouse.

The whole congregation just looks at us silently, and it's suffocating. Shiori tugs at Al's sleeve, and he pulls us both into his sides protectively.

"Let's go, then," Al says as calmly as he can. He grabs the both of us and scans the room. But he never had a chance. Almost immediately, we're roughly pulled away from him and brought to the masked woman, while Al yells obscenities at the men holding him back.

"Fear nothing, for I am only here to speak the truth that will soon be," the masked woman says. All Shiori and I can do is stare silently at the ground in response, while Yorick thrashes around violently in her hands like he wants to square up and fight. Then, incredibly, the masked woman just outright grabs one of Shiori's hands and violently tugs her. I try to do something, but a strong grip keeps me in place.

Yorick actually falls to the ground in the struggle and I think the fall actually knocks him out.

Yorick...

And without him there, Shiori's mental state clearly starts deteriorating way past panic. If she was shaking before, it's worse now. And I can hear her breaths get quicker and shallower.

"The future of Sussurokawa lies within this wonderful, giving hand. Do you know Shiori? You've been gifted with Keijo Soku. You who can feel the tremors of others' hearts, have been tasked with rebuilding this broken town."

Huh? Keijo Soku? Didn't I just read that in The Codex?

"The fault lies with... you." The masked woman points toward Al, who snorts in response. "You and the others on Rumeuri Hill who have misused thine gifts. Those who have dared to ask for more, who have begged for more light than their neighbor, shall be denied it. Just as she dragged the children of this town into the light, you shall be dragged into darkness. One by one, Kurakira will take back Sophia's gifts."

"I've seen her! Kurakira! I've seen her at the moment of twilight!" a congregation member yells.

Whispers move throughout the congregation, and the masked women simply lets them percolate through the crowd and hang in the air.

"Look here!" the masked woman says, framing Shiori's face with her hands. "The proof is in her hair, split perfectly between light and dark! The proof is in the gold of her eyes, the perfect shine at that moment of twilight!"

The whispers raise to a fever pitch.

...on the banks of creeks... playing with the shadows...

...she DOES have weird hair...

The masked woman raises Shiori's hand in the air.

"For this girl has a more wonderful gift than you on Rumeuri could imagine. Soon, by her very hand, she shall intercede. And you, of the eye, will be forced to see only darkness as you are returned to the twilight!" The masked woman continues to berate Al, who laughs loudly and sardonically in response.

"And you... the vicereine's daughter. You hear what others do not, yes? The gift of Keijō Chō" (経常聴)." I feel myself freezing up and trembling as the masked woman raises her hand to my face.

Suddenly, a loud siren can be heard outside, and the blue and red flash of a police car streams in from a doorway swung loudly open.

"Don't touch her. Don't you dare."

...Mom?

The masked woman who had no problem antagonizing us earlier freezes at the sound of my mom's voice.

A single officer walks in, but it seems it seems to be enough to part the crowd of the congregation. Oddly, close behind him is a woman in a sunny dress.

"This gathering is over," my mom says flatly.

"Tyrant!"

"Soccer mom!"

A few boos ring out from the audience, but not much else. My mom comes marching over and snatches me away from the masked woman, who just backs off silently. I'm definitely not blinking back tears or anything. But it was a little scary.

"Thank god you guys came," Al sighs. The tension leaves his body all at once and he looks exhausted.

"What were you thinking, Al?! How could you bring these two here?" my mom asks in a rage.

Al looks absolutely flustered. "Now Lessia, I don't think it's fair to blame me. This event was being held in our very own town hall. How could I know it'd turn out like this?"

"Sure, Al. You've convinced me," my mom spits out. "Why not give the kids those excuses?"

Al groans, knowing she's right, and just brings himself eye level to me and Shiori. "I've really gone and done it, huh?"

Shiori just shakes her head. "It's okay... it wasn't your fault. I wanted to go."

To be honest, I do think it was kind of his fault and I'm a little mad still. And I turn my face away because I don't want him to see that I am actually still blinking back tears. "I forgive you," I say quietly. It's gonna take a little time though.

"Muto, keep the soothsayer aside for questioning. She can think it over in a jailcell tonight. Maybe longer."

The masked woman seems frantic and surprised, somehow. "Seriously?"

I can't help but feel resentful. It feels like she's getting off light. But I don't know how Sussurokawa does things exactly. I'm sure Shiori feels the same way, though maybe more than anything she's just trying to move on from it.

Still, trembling as we are, when the masked lady walks past us, we do the only thing we can as kids and make faces at her.

---

---

I think I would've felt better if Shiori had been crying.

Instead, she's just been silent for a good long while, and the last spark of energy or life I saw in her was when she was finally able to grab Yorick back into her arms and squeeze him tight, while he let off a happy and comforting glow for her."

And for a little bit, I think the pure relief kept her spirits okay. But it wasn't long until her expression started clouding over again, and she hasn't said a word since. Which brings us to now, the two of us silently eating outside by the town hall. It makes me kinda squeamish, but we're sitting on the raised steps the altar's placed on because it's the closest thing to a bench that's right here.

We've been sitting here forever while the adults settle things inside. So, we decided to go ahead and eat.

In my head I'd sort of imagined this to be a little happier of a moment. I would've looked over at Shiori and said 'Is it really alright to eat this?' And her eyes would glitter and she'd say 'Free food!' But instead it's been a sad silence, and my heart hurts. The only sound is crickets and the buzz of a sodium streetlight.

Sort of.

Sometimes when it's quiet enough, I feel like I can hear something shrill in the distance. Or something. But... it's like hearing the blood rushing around in your ears. Or hearing that piiiiiiiing noise when it's finally silent enough, and you wonder if everybody else hears it. I hear that means you've got tinnitus.

Maybe I've got tinnitus.

I don't know. It's off-putting, and yet it almost feels like I've heard it all my life. Does that make sense? I doubt it. All I know is that one time I thought I heard a woman screaming, and it ended up being a bobcat. So that's what I tell myself when I hear it. Must be a bobcat. Must be tinnitus. Must be blood going around my ears. What would I even be able to do about it? No one else hears.

That's why I've decided to distract myself with my other senses when I can. Senses like taste. There's one that never failed me. Nick's sandwiches are the best sensory experience I've had... ever, maybe? It's literally my first food. Oh wait. We had marshmallows when we camped. That doesn't count.

I didn't think I liked tomatoes, but I do now. They're sweet, in a way vegetables have no right to be. Bursting with cool juice on a cold night, splashing into soft, fluffy, somehow warm bread. Maybe Nick's some kind of magical chef.

And well... some kind of magical cookery is going on. Because the note Nick left us saying 'take all the sandwiches' -- that was never in question, really -- turned into a snitch. It actually turned into more of a... fish. Swimming through the air. An awful move, because like, immediately, a swarm of other snitches came out of The Codex and pecked at it madly before returning home with their prey.

Honestly? I didn't have much to make of this one. On one hand, an amnesia potion sounds like a horrible thing to make. On the other hand, it's not very surprising for a magic world; when it comes to horrible magic things, magic amnesia potions won't even break the top five hundred. I'll have to ask Shiori what the chances are that I forgot everything because I drank one of those.

Shiori seemed to sink deep into concentration when she saw it. I think... it was a good thing. She stayed just as quiet as before, but she seemed to leave from her darkest possible place to one that maybe, just maybe, opened up the curtains a bit. She still looks sad and... broken. But there's a little light in her eyes right now, even if that light is just the intelligent flicker of her iris.

"...Why didn't I remember?" Shiori says, finally.

That's... a good question actually.

"Are you saying you think you drank one of these potions?" I ask.

She nods her head slowly. "I-it must be. There's no way I'd forget something like this. B-because... Did you notice, Mu? She... The masked woman called out the murders. A-Al was the first to die. N-no, even more than that. The murders have been outlined here the whole time."

Shiori points a shaky finger at the tablet, though the way her arm stays close and hugged to herself, it's like she's afraid to even stretch it out and offend the air.

"The murders... matched the tablet. Al died first. The week before he died, he went blind. Hannah... died of ap-aphasia...? Dyslexia..."

"Um, asphyxia?"

"Y-yeah. She... Hannah suffocated." Shiori says quietly. "And the rest of them too..."

We're both silent for a second, and I feel the dread start to sink into the pit of my stomach. It's been hanging in the air, the fear that maybe we'd have to re-experience something awful. And so we didn't talk about the murders. They were the elephant in the room that had been brutalized and chopped into pieces. Try ignoring that, huh?

I'd... probably been hoping, just like Shiori, that this relive the past, rollercoaster experience would end before the bad stuff. But I guess that's like a kid hoping the coaster car never drops. The second we saw the date, we should've known there was no way to avoid the past.

But Shiori... no... not just her. I didn't want to face it. But now we have to.

"There's only one reason someone would declare their murders ahead of time. O-or, at least that I can think of, from the perspective of a magus..." Shiori stutters. "I might just be grasping at straws."

Below the sadness and fear, I can hear something else in her voice. For some reason... there's an unmistakeable desperation underneath. But why?

"Well, what is it?"

"Sacrifice rituals are... a common way to generate mana. R-ritualistic death is one of the most reliable sources there is. And if you tell people they're going to die, and tell them how... and they can't stop it, anyway. I-it's kinda like Mahjong. You get more points. You squeeze more mana out of the universe." Shiori says.

Huh? That really doesn't make sense to me.

"Who? Who's giving the points out? Why would that happen?"

"N-nobody knows!" Shiori stammers. "Mystery is intrinsic to the power of magi. It's just a property of mana that there's... an implicit observer. There's something... a perspective that reads the symbols you've crafted, and recognizes the efforts of those magi who have a sense of literary flour..."

"Flourish."

"Yeah, flourish."

"So, whoever murdered everyone was... writing some kind of magical story?" I say, still trying to grasp it.

"K-kind of. It's like... the better you are at keeping secrets, the more powerful it gets. Like a magic t-trick! Where the more p-people you fool, the more dangl ..frazzled ...dazzled the audience gets."

I tilt my head and close my eyes, feeling a headache coming on. "Someone's trying to impress us with a big magic trick."

"It m-might be more correct to say... they're mocking us," Shiori says her voice just a weak mumble now. "I-it's like a grand prank... The more elaborate and grand, the more mana bestowed."

"And that makes us..."

"... the punchline."

"That's awful." What can I even do? I just stare up at the air, trying to process it all. I don't even know if I have any anger left in me today.

I've got plenty of fear left, though, and the chills I'm feeling aren't just from the cold air. But in a way I already knew. I felt it before I went into the town hall. There's someone... something out there just laughing at our misery. And the more misery it heaps on, the more mana it gets.

Or got. Now that I think about it. Because it's clear they'd already won, so many years ago, when Shiori and I were actually kids.

If there's anything I'm feeling right now, it's my emotions quietly dying. It's something that already started when I got closer to The Heart. But now that I know the only way I'll get through all this... the only way I can get Shiori through this is to just let it happen. Let them die. Just... let them decay and rot away, like they were meant to.

Al? He's going to die. Hannah? Her too. And Nick. And three more people I don't even remember, who once upon a time might've been oases in my life.

My mother? It's time for me to stop playing pretend. She... she's not here. She probably disappeared with the rest of the town.

At the end of the day, this 'town' is just a walking corpse. This dream we've been living is just a nightmare waiting for the chance to grab us and swallow us whole. And... for Shiori's sake, one of us has to make sure that doesn't happen.

Speak of the devil, one of those yet unmet murder victims is walking toward us right now. It isn't until I see her authentic and concerned face that I remember her: Kyrie Stodakis.

---

Someone who really cares. That's the first phrase that echoes through my memory when I see her.

I'd idly seen her talking to members of the congregation, seemingly seeing if they were alright too. It rubbed me the wrong way at first, and I kept thinking, "Them? Why bother with them?"

But she works some kind of magic of patience and tenderness, because more than a few congregation members seemed to break down into tears. Maybe they felt sorry for what they did. Maybe they were more like bystanders caught up in it all. All the while, though, even as she's taking care of people I see her jotting away on a notepad.

She's got jet black hair, which somehow pairs perfectly and horribly at the same time with her yellow sundress.

"Shiori... Mu." Kyrie gets down on one knee so she's eye to eye with us. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I say listlessly.

Shiori just nods without saying a word.

"Shiori." Kyrie raises her hand gently near Shiori's face, but doesn't quite touch. As if she's asking for implicit permission.

"No... I'm not okay." Shiori says quietly, just stepping into a hug, accepting Kyrie softly stroking her hair.

I sigh in relief internally. Right now, where her mental state is... Shiori needs the support of an adult. And she seems to trust Kyrie a lot.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get to you two. I kept thinking and thinking about both you kids, but I just..." She hesitates.

"Are you investigating something Kyrie?" I ask the quiet thing out loud. And her eyes seem to shake a bit.

"Mu, why are you asking that? Did someone in that congregation say something to you?" She sounds alarmed.

"No, but... I saw you taking notes," I say honestly. "It's weird. Everyone there was weird. They weren't normal."

I'm trying my best to frame my inquiry as just a kid's uncanny intuition. I realize I'm never going to learn anything about this town if I don't just straight up ask.

"There's a lot going on in this town," Kyrie says uncomfortably. "It's not something you kids need to worry about."

"Kyrie. Did children go missing from this town?" I ask.

"Mu."

This time Kyrie looks me in the eye. Her hand hovers next to my face now. Without realizing it, I lean into her hand just like Shiori did. Her hand actually feels cool against my face.

I thought her eyes were as dark as her hair, but looking at them close I realize they're actually brown. Somehow in the orange, sodium light, they look like coals lit up into embers.

"Sometimes smart precocious kids take on more than they should," she says, haltingly. "And sometimes... they try to do something beyond their capability. As a coping mechanism for fear."

"I'm not doing that."

"I didn't say you were. But I want you to ask yourself honestly if you are, okay? I know that... adults seem like we just push you kids around wherever we want." She speaks with a cadence that's measured but soft.

I blink a bit, feeling awkward at how candid she's being while looking right at me. But I stay quiet while she keeps talking.

"I want you to trust me," she says. "So, I'll answer your question. There's no proof that any children ever went missing from this town. I've tried to look into it myself. But the perception... of missing children. It's so pervasive. So many of my patients believe it. Some of my friends believe it. People who I've never thought of as delusional. But I've never, ever found any proof of missing children."

"Then how can so many people believe it?"

"I don't know." She says honestly. "There's been cases in history of mass delusion. Like people who dance themselves to death in a hysterical crowd. Or even people who go to watch a hypnotist and all convince themselves that they're being controlled."

She gestures backward to the town hall as if to say "You've seen how crazy people get."

"Is that what you think this is?" I ask.

"...I don't know." She sighs and pulls me and the silent Shiori into a hug. "That's enough of that conversation. Your mom's just about finished in there. You two need to go home and get some rest. I'll come talk to both of you tomorrow, okay?"

"...Okay."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Almost like they were cued in by Kyrie herself, my mom, Al, and the officer walk out of the building and toward us. Kyrie pulls the officer aside and says a few words to him, before waving to us and setting off for her own home.

"Let's go home," my mom sighs.

"Are we walking all the way back?" I ask. Suddenly I feel exhausted at the prospect.

"No," my mom says pointing at the police cruiser parked up on the cobblestone. "We'll be riding that.

---