In The End

Section 2: Chapter 4

Silvana and Lockhart were sitting at the table. Lockhart had hardly looked up from the code during this experiment. Eventually, he turned to Silvana.

"This is a joke, right? You just wrote a bunch of random symbols? Because I've seen something like this before, and it should be broken by now."
Silvana shook her head, "No. Argenta gave it to me. It was my mother's."
Lockhart shook his head, smiling grimly "An Argenta cipher. Now I know why it's familiar. I've been trying to break ciphers like this since before you were born." 

There was a crack.
Silvana looked around, to see Naoki lying on the floor, turning the colour of a bruise. His eyes bulged out of his face and his chest heaved as he struggled to inhale.
"It's okay," said Lockhart, "It's the medicine working." He went back to scribbling something in his notebook, muttering to himself. Silvana stared at Naoki. Even with her lesser medical knowledge, she knew that people who looked like Naoki tended to be dying. The movements of his chest were getting shallower and shallower.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," said Lockhart.
Naoki let out a retching noise and Silvana ran over to him, knocking over a test-tube as she did so. The shatter of glass brought Lockhart out of his reverie, and for the first time, he saw Naoki on the floor.
He leapt to his feet,"Savage! Why didn't you tell me he was dying?"
Silvana shrugged.
Lockhart stepped forward, grabbed a syringe of gold liquid, and injected it into Naoki's spine. He shuddered and stopped jerking, passing from death into sleep."That should sort him out for a little while. Read the diagram properly next time."
Silvana gritted her teeth, trying to suppress the urge to punch Lockhart. Well, the next day, she was going to go find someone else who was more willing to help. Ideally one that didn't nearly kill Naoki every other day. 

"Now. My friends are coming over tonight, and the demons in my kitchen are on strike. When your friend wakes up, which should be soon, you are going to help me with dinner. And then, you are going to get out of our way,"
"I already met one of your friends," said Silvana.
Lockhart sighed,"Oh, yes. Phineas. He sort of got attached to the group. He's not my personal friend, that's for sure. Keep your human out of his way."
Silvana shrugged. She was tempted to help, to trip up in the kitchen and knock death bells into his soup - accidentally of course. He'd have done the same for Naoki. Yet, as she looked at Naoki's sleeping body on the floor, she knew that there were more important things to do. 

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Naoki was out of it for a bit, after Lockhart injected him with the thing. He groaned when he got up off the floor. He was feeling a bit sick, and he felt Silvana's hand on his shoulder. He gratefully accepted her help as she led him to their room. He stumbled up the stairs. Lockhart was looking at him like a burden and at Silvana like an idiot. What happened, and why did it happen? It was Lockhart's fault. If Naoki wasn't weak, he'd have punched the guy.Naoki lay down on their bed, closing his eyes, but not letting go of Silvana's hand.
 "What the hell happened, why is it so hard to get me the right medicine?" he asked. They had magic here, for god's sake. They could teleport themselves from one place to the other, they could create fire or water out of thin air, not to mention they could probably fly or something. Why was it so hard for them to make him breathe? Just his luck. He curled up on the bed, and just tried to rest, his head achy from the shock of what happened, his body hating it. 

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Silvana stayed, holding Naoki's hand. When Lockhart came to ask for her help, she told him to go away, something which was not received well. Eventually, after about half an hour of arguing, he left, cursing. Silvana still wasn't sure she'd won, for the argument tired her more than helping would have. She drifted in and out of sleep. The group meeting downstairs were being very loud indeed, but she was used to sleeping around noise. The forest was not always a quiet place at night.The fifth time, she woke up because someone was shaking her. She opened her eyes, and Lockhart was staring at her through his little glasses.
"Get your human up. We're going."
"What, now?"
"Yes. Now. God, savages are stupid."
Silvana shook Naoki,"Go away..." he muttered, exhausted from the experiments and the loud party.
"Lockhart says we need to go," said Silvana.
"He can go," said Naoki, clutching the blankets closer. Silvana sighed, and pulled Naoki to his feet, forcing him to move. She grabbed their bags, which were always packed. It was a habit forged mainly from military service and partly from travelling in the woods. You never really knew when you would next have to leave.
Lockhart led them downstairs into the front room. The whole place was in disarray, and in the centre of the room were three large sacks. Silvana picked one up, and winced. It felt like it was full of bricks, She fished around in it, and felt a disconcerting amount of metal. Armour? Weapons? She grabbed something that felt a little bit like a knife, and pulled it out into the light. She squinted at it, unable to believe the evidence of her eyes.
"Hey," said Lockhart, "That's my fish fork. What if we catch a fish for dinner? I have to prepare for every eventuality!"
Silvana shook her head. She started emptying the bag. A lot of it was jewels and cutlery. Lockhart had even packed a candlestick, to help them see at night.
 "Lockhart," said Silvana, "Weapons. A couple changes of clothes. Some lab equipment. Food. That's it."
"That's enough for a savage," said Lockhart, drawing himself to his full height, "I'm a gentleman."
"Pack what you want. Good luck carrying that lot, though."
"I'm not carrying it. That's what you're for."
"Like hell."
It took a while, but eventually, they managed to narrow Lockhart's stuff down to one bag. Silvana had tried to ask Lockhart nicely at first, but eventually it had been Naoki that lost patience. He had taken Lockhart's final bag and dumped everything out, stuffed in a few changes of clothes, food, and some pans for cooking. Lockhart added some daggers he claimed were a family heirloom and the equipment he needed for making Naoki's medication. Eventually, Naoki shoved the packed bag into Lockhart's hands. Even this bag was so heavy that when Lockhart put it over his shoulder, it seemed as if the weight would bend him in half. He looked at Naoki pleadingly, but Naoki just smiled.Lockhart grimaced and grabbed a large wooden pole. It looked like a wizard staff of sort. It was carved with intricate geometric patterns, and at the top was a diamond with an eye in the middle. The eye seemed to be looking at Silvana.
"Haven't you seen a walking stick before, savage? What am I saying - course you haven't. Let's go!"