I spent the next week plotting our escape.

While my thoughts wandered, I resumed my physical training: sparring with my friend, practicing bladeforms, improving my calisthenics. Though he made no mention of my improvement, Felix seemed pleased with my progress into the second legato. Not that I was able to lay a touch on him. Eight years of experience and honing himself surpassed being able to mimic particular postures.

Since the outcome was inevitable, there was no pride involved in our matches. This made the training invaluable. Felix used our matches to experiment with the way one pose segued into another, or how a certain arrangement was discordant against the flow. Being able to recognize this pleased me. Mimicking his steps felt awkward, but simply exercising helped keep me steady.

Curious and slightly predatory eyes watched us as we sparred. Everyone here had committed grave sins, though that did not make them unreasonable or needlessly violent. Surviving their pasts made them wary. No one was foolish enough to draw attention to themselves. Except for the two teenagers sparring with table legs, or at half-speed with steel blades, their exaggerated dancing almost ludicrous given the somber atmosphere.

I assumed most of the attention was for Felix, though a few passing strangers offered me nods of respect. I returned the gesture and memorized their faces. After a few days of watching us, some of the prisoners started exercising as well. Groups held their own mock battles. In a sense, we were demonstrating how strong we were, which seemed like a dangerous invitation. But at least it stirred something in those other lost souls.

I focused on more than the legato. My awareness sharpened as I spent more time developing it. The mental fatigue was negligible as long as I merely observed. I began using it during my sparring matches with Felix, eyes open, focusing on integrating it with my other senses instead of having to blind myself to experience it. At first I became worse than ever, but after around five days it was no longer distracting to the point it hampered me. The technique provided perfect knowledge of my surroundings but most of it was overwhelmingly useless in a fight.

Meanwhile, all the information I had learned formed a tempest in my mind. I needed to focus on how to escape, but connections sprouted up between seemingly unrelated things, and as I explored them I went down paths of thought that may have been profound or insane. I tried to involve Felix in my musings but his entire life perspective seemed so different from mine that we could never understand each other on that sort of deeply personal level.

As such, my plans to escape did not amount to much. Discovering more about the tesseract remained at the forefront. The better I learned to sense it, the more obvious it became that nothing I could do would affect it in any measurable way. Felix joined me in throwing chairs with all our might against the barrier, though he confessed it no longer brought him much satisfaction. Particularly when they returned to their prior location the next day, exact down to the smallest surface marking.

I insisted the sword was the key. Every time, Felix asked me how I expected to get it, let alone use it. Great questions.

Every night ended the same way. Some drinks, becoming maudlin, making up ridiculous stories about other prisoners, and sleeping on the wooden floor, waiting for the same thing to occur the next day. It was no surprise this routine was driving them to insanity.

On the seventh day I stood in front of the mural Lyra had painted on the second floor, arms crossed. I spent almost all of my time up here---the sick, mad, and dying on the beds downstairs made poor company---but I had been avoiding this particular area until now.

Felix was the one who convinced me to come here, saying it was ridiculous to avoid her painting as if that accomplished something. He had known her much longer than I had, after all, and he still enjoyed the bittersweet sight of her art.

The painting was of a golden skull with black runes along the border. The runes reminded me almost of the Goetia's sigils, though they had no superficial relationship. The sigils were circular and contained geometric shapes, while the runes were angular, individual scratchings that could be inspired by any number of alphabets from around the world. But given the circumstances it seemed almost obvious.

Sensi had told me, after all. The entire philosopher sect of Odena had been corrupted. Even some of the acolytes. How many people had already succumbed to the tesseract? Felix would have some idea.

"How long were you both involved with the Goetia?" I said to my friend..

He ran a hand through his hair, taking his time before responding. "She only started helping them within the past year. They would have never approached her if it wasn't for me. I warned her so many times. I don't know why she would agree, or what exactly she was doing for them."

I swallowed, my mouth dry after his confession. "And when did you join them?"

"I've heard demons ever since I was a kid. After my father damaged my soul or whatever nonsense the infirmary claimed. One spoke to me in my own voice, but in a way I would have never talked. So formal and educated, knowing things I couldn't. Which is the sort of thing an insane person would say, I know. I thought I was crazy, and so did my father. It made sense."

"Astaroth?"

"No. As far as I'm aware you would have to go to Desolada to speak with them. I personally have no way of reaching the moon. But something came to me, and chose me. It told me to learn the sword, so when I saw Asalen, I followed its commands. It told me to join the philosophers, so I listened. And the whole time I was so sure I was mad that it felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then that being came to the Gardens three years ago, not long after my fourteenth birthday."

"What was it?"

Felix stared at his hands. "It wasn't something you could really see. Almost like a shadow, but less material. I could only see how it manipulated the world around it. Like a mirage. Maybe that's a better word for it. That night it revealed itself to many of us. I would prefer not to talk about what the demon said to me. But I didn't refuse it, and here we are."

"Do you know what this tesseract is?" I said.

"No, not really. Only that it is some sort of test. It's not a tournament to see who is strongest. Not in a conventional sense, at least. After everything I have seen, my best guess is that they're trying to see who survives until the end. They don't care about the method."

I smothered a rising fury of emotions. This whole time, he kept this a secret. But what right did I have to be angry at him? He had revealed much more about himself than I volunteered in the past week.

He called me out on it perfectly. "You are awful at hiding how you feel. You could at least look ashamed about it. Take some of that anger out on me with your sword, if it makes you feel any better."

Something about the way he said it drained all my anger and disappointment. I exhaled deeply and drew my sword, an unspoken challenge between us. The way we had started probably a hundred other duels in the last week

Felix drew his sword in response.

We whirled against each other at half-speed. An impractical way of fighting, but it allowed me to focus on the way my body moved. Though a hint of anger remained, the legato provided a welcome distraction. For a few minutes we sparred and all was well.

Then he nicked my forearm after a particularly abysmal parry. I paid no attention to the welling blood until the Captain began to giggle---a horrible, high-pitched sound that gathered strength the longer it went on. Face buried in its hand, shoulders wracking with laughter, the demon stood from the central table. Its mirth came to a crescendo as it approached us until, coming within arms reach, it suddenly stopped. Its face turned serious, unblinking.

"You have spilled blood on sacred ground," it said. "It is my honor to serve as arbiter during this sacrifice."

Felix bowed, a gesture I would have never expected. "Our deepest apologies for the misunderstanding. We were merely practicing and made a slip."

The demon giggled into its hand. "How absurd. Repeating a duel against a foe you should have ended a hundred bouts ago. Such a method fosters nothing but arrogance. Allow me to humble you."

A blur of motion, the Captain seized Felix by the throat with one hand and held him up like a child playing with a doll. It cocked its head to the side as my friend stared in defiance, refusing to make a sound as the pressure at his windpipe intensified. The demon was so tall that Felix's boots drifted near my shoulder.

"Do not waste my time with your pretend games," it said.

It flung him halfway across the second floor.

My friend knew how to take a tumble. He tucked himself into a ball and protected his head with his arms, angling his body to land in a roll against the ground. All this despite the chaos of flying through the air.

Unfortunately, the demon's casual toss sent him into a table. Wood cracked. Chairs flew everywhere.

The demon muttered to itself, staring at the hand it used to throw Felix. Not sparing either of us a glance, the Captain returned to its table in the center of the room. I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and hurried after my friend.

He had managed to haul himself into a sitting positiom. Blood leaked from a wicked abrasion along his right arm. Thick splinters pierced his shirt in several places. From the dazed look on his expression he must have hit his head, though maintaining consciousness was always a good sign. With the ease the Captain threw him around, if it wanted to kill Felix it could have put him through the far wall.

The intent was clear enough. A reminder we were prisoners, completely at the mercy of its whims.

I could not stay here any longer. Not just for myself, but for my friend as well. Whatever death found him here would not be merciful. Though perhaps death would be preferable to his mind slowly fracturing. It seemed a cruel fate, for a boy scared of being crazy to find his nightmares realized.

The demon had returned to writing, its back to us.

I knew what I had to do.

I sliced a clean tablecloth into strips with my sword and wound it around the abrasion. A large chunk of his right forearm was a mass of raw flesh, not deep enough to expose fatty tissue, but enough surface area to ooze a concerning amount of blood. He could not keep himself quiet, a low groan escaping between his clenched teeth.

My urging helped coax him to his feet. I supported him under one shoulder. He was so used to that position his body stumbled through the motions semi-consciously. The walk to Sensi's wall was not far. Though no hint of it remained, in my mind's eyes I could see the perfect outline of the black door in front of me. Feeling a bit ridiculous, I knocked.

The door materialized immediately.

Resigned to my fate, I walked inside.

"I hope you don't think the knocking worked," she said. "I have been watching this whole time."

I had no interest in swapping banter. "Just as safe out there, is it?"

Felix bled next to me. His knees wobbled.

Sensi looked like she wanted to make a smart comment before reconsidering. She helped Felix onto the divan he had slept on before, looking far more motherly now that he wasn't in an opium daze.

"To answer your question, yes, actually," she said. "The Captain can come here as easily as he can go to any other place in Amelie in Yellow. My petty magic only stops other humans from intruding. Even then, there are people out there who could come in here if they truly wanted to press the issue."

"Well, you know why I'm here."

Sensi smiled. "I have waited all week for you to come to your senses. I should not complain, considering how long most of us have spent here already. Thank you."

I laughed at her thanks. "You know, I used to be obsessed with the idea of the guessing game. Which Amelie is real. It seems like such a ridiculous thing to think about now. Is there a way to win?"

"No," she said. "Anyone who can win the challenge has no need to do so. They already have my attention."

I shook my head. "Just teach me how to summon Paimon."