When Alice drifted back to wakefulness, she saw the spectre of some long-dead demon, reflected in blue with eyes like bright embers. When she rubbed her eyes, however, she saw it was only Louise, as calm as ever and standing stock still with her hands behind her back.
"Louise?" She seated herself more upright against the tree. Only belatedly did she remember she was holding the grimoire, and it took a moment longer to remember why she had it in the first place. "Is something wrong?"
"Not as such." Louise's voice was always soft, like she was drifting somewhere far away. "Did you sleep well?"
"I..." Once the question was put to her, Alice felt a sudden unease. Her slumber had been peaceful, but there was something that had taken residence at the back of her mind that cursed at the lingering relaxation and wished to be made itself heard. "I had some strange dreams."
"You should ignore them." Louise only barely cracked her eyes open, which meant she wasn't overtly concerned yet, but also suggested she knew more about Alice's dreams than Alice herself.
She clutched the grimoire against her chest. "What has happened?"
She half expected Louise to brush the question aside, but apparently her tone had been strident enough to give her pause. "There was an intruder. She's gone now."
Alice stared at her, her unease growing. If she focused her magic, she could almost make out a shape next to her, faint like the shadow of fog, with soft contours and feathery wings.
"Mai," she said.
If Louise was surprised, she didn't show it. "Yes, Mai. She claimed she wanted to say goodbye to you."
Alice drew up her knees and reflected. She had never been especially close to either Mai or Yuki: they were far older than her and had each other, anyway, but they had always been friendly towards her. She could envision Mai's smile right then, so gentle and unassuming.
"I still don't understand. How could someone like her—" She cut herself off, unsure how to progress.
"Lady Shinki didn't explain the situation to you."
She wasn't sure if Louise's words had been a question or a statement, so she answered them just in case. "I asked Mother, but she said she wouldn't speak of it. That it was over and that was all that mattered."
Louise smiled and sat down on the grass before her, carefully folding her legs to avoid creasing her long skirt. "As it happens, that is why I'm here. Since the subject is so painful to her, she has authorised me to explain the entirety of the rebellion to you. All she asks in return is that you won't speak of it afterwards."
Alice was now paying rapt attention. First the grimoire, and now this? Perhaps Mother did understand some of the secrets that dwelt in her heart, after all.
Or perhaps... there was a kind of rare sombreness to Louise's demeanour. Something was going on, and she wasn't sure she liked it.
Still, she unfurled her legs and sat down more comfortably. "I'll keep quiet."
"Thank you." Louise took a deep breath. "It began as soon as the last of the fires had been quelled. For some reason, Mai had gotten it into her head that she had the right to defy Lady Shinki's rule, and was trying to trick others into supporting her cause..."
The building that the curious demons had gathered in was in a sorry state. It had been a common hall, with food and games and usually at least one demon showing off their musical talents at all times, sometimes resulting in light-hearted duels when two or more wished to play at once. The walls had withstood the misfired attacks from those, but they had melted away before the fire: one of the walls and half the roof were entirely gone, and only the back wall had survived with only light burn marks. It was a miracle the hall still stood, literally — Lady Shinki had used her powers to stabilise all damaged buildings after she had regained control of the fire and seen what it had done.
Despite the building's teetering condition, an entire throng of demons had packed into it, so many that several didn't even fit inside what had once been the walls and stood in the open air next to it, many flying upwards to better see the two small figures, one clad in white, the other in black, standing on the raised platform against the back wall.
Louise didn't bother with flying. She had already found herself a comfortable spot on a nearby roof from which she could follow the figures' every movement with a knit brow. What could Yuki and Mai possibly have to say to a gathering this big? It could be it was as Lady Shinki had suggested when she had sent her over to observe, that Yuki's temper had gotten the better of her and that she was was trying to agitate the demons into a counter-attack.
However, she had noticed something strange. Lady Shinki had created her with excellent hearing and sight beyond what any eyes could see to best fulfill her purpose as an observer, and so she had no trouble seeing the exact expression on Yuki's face. It wasn't the expression of an agitator. She looked nervous, even troubled, her eyes constantly flitting towards Mai and then back to the crowd. She fidgeted with her fingers and kept shifting her balance from one foot to the other.
Mai, meanwhile, stared at the clamouring crowd with a passive expression, as still as an ice sculpture. There was something about her usually soft, innocent face that gave Louise pause, and after a moment's consideration she realised it was the eyes: there was a strange gleam to them, almost a radiance, bright but harsh.
Yuki stepped forward and raised up both her hands to silence the crowd. Her arms were shaking.
"Everyone!" Her voice was thin, a far cry from her usual brazen tones, but thanks to the general silence still perfectly audible. "We've asked you to come here because there's something very important Mai wants to say."
She backed into the wall, the shaking spreading to her entire body. Mai stepped forward.
"My friends." Her voice was barely any louder than her usual speaking voice, but it resonated over the entire crowd. "I've known you all since birth. We all call Makai our home. We all fought together to protect it. And," here, she raised her chin with a kind of decisive jab. "We have all been betrayed."
A wave of hushed confusion rushed through the audience.
"Our leader," Mai raised her voice to be audible over the growing murmurs, "has presented herself as our omnipotent creator and expected our absolute obedience. We have defended her rule without question. But if she is all-powerful, why are we currently standing in a building destroyed by her powers? Why did we even have to fight the invaders if we are ruled by an infinite being who can shape reality at will? And if she has lied to us, why should we accept our subjugation?"
As one, the crowd began to shout. Despite her sharp hearing, Louise could make out little more than the general emotions: confusion, outrage, and a curious undercurrent of fear.
"She has claimed the right to rule over us on account of being our creator, but what do we want with a creator who cannot even protect her creations!" Mai's feet had left the ground. Her wings, usually short and stubby, more ornamental than practical, were growing and stretching outwards. The feathers glowed. "We are powerful and have been pushed down for long enough! Let us take Makai and rule it for ourselves!"
The crowd grew wild. To her great alarm, Louise saw that while many jeered at Mai's ridiculous plot for treachery, just as many or more were cheering for her, buying her rhetoric wholesale and denouncing their own creator.
Mai gestured the crowd silent and began speaking anew, but Louise was already allowing her essence to drift into mist and reform in another place out of view. Lady Shinki would have to be warned as swiftly as possible. This could well mean war.
"And war it was," said Louise, straightening imaginary wrinkles from her skirt. "I think she had been planning it all for far longer than she let on." A grim sort of smile briefly crossed her lips. "She has always thought herself more powerful than she is. She may have even deluded herself into thinking she was truly a match to Lady Shinki."
Alice shook her head. From the vague understanding of the events she had gathered before Louise's explanation, she hadn't for the life of her been able to understand why Mai could possibly wish to rebel. Now she saw she was simply mad.
Louise closed her eyes. "By the time I made my report to Lady Shinki, they had already taken up arms. They came storming towards the palace with all the ferocity of an unthinking mob, drunk on Mai's words, certain they would win the right to rule."
Alice frowned. "I never saw them."
"That is because we met them before they ever reached the walls of the Palace. You were likely asleep by then."
Alice still found it odd she hadn't been woken by the clamour. Had Mother cast a spell on her to keep her asleep? It sounded exactly like the kind of thing she'd do to keep her "out of harm's way". "But you got to fight."
Louise was silent for along while, again preoccupied by her dress. "Yes, I had to fight," she finally said. "I was there."
The tumult was such that Louise could scarcely think, let alone listen to a single voice. She tried closing her ears, but to no avail: the sound was already in her, rattling her bones.
She had escaped to a nearby roof after an errant spell had almost sliced her arm off, allowing the rest of her body to dissolve before the follow-up blow and finding a nook created by rubble where she could knit herself back together before joining the fray.
No small part of her hoped it would be over before then. She hadn't been created for open war. Very few of the residents of Makai were. Lady Shinki had never anticipated a concentrated campaign against Makai, let alone that one should come from its own ranks.
And yet, here they were. Several hundred demons had risen up led by the triumphant figure of Mai. The parley had been short, with Mai haughtily rebuffing the defenders' warnings, and from there on there had been no words but cries of war, subsumed by the sounds of crystals crashing against crystals and spells crackling against flesh.
Even now, Mai rose higher than any other combatant. She was dazzling in full aspect, so different from her usual childlike appearance, sporting a hungry, anticipatory grin as she unleashed her spells at full blast at Lady Shinki's defenders, shooting down anyone who dared challenge her in her lofty heights. In fact, despite their superior numbers, the defenders were melting away, too startled by their ferocity of the rebels after only just surviving the previous invasion. Above all, they fled before Yuki's fireballs, which she was lobbing indiscriminately around with a pained grimace on her face.
Mai's grin widened as yet another demon cast down her spear and ran for cover. She truly thought she could win. And for a fleeting moment, Louise thought she might, too.
Just then, someone appeared in the air between Mai and the palace with the suddenness of thunder. Mai halted in her flight and hovered in place, smiling at the newcomer.
Yumeko didn't smile back. In fact, she wasn't even looking at Mai. Her eyes were cast towards the ground, cold and deadly, much like the gleaming swords in her hands. The light of the spells whirring in the air made her hair shine like spun gold.
Then, she raised her gaze. Without any preamble, she launched one of the swords at Mai's chest.
Mai acted at once, deflecting the sword with a sudden shield of ice. The blade cut through, but the shield lasted long enough for Mai to fly out of the way, the sword missing her upper arm by a hair's breath.
Louise forgot about the pain in her arm and the chaos around her as she watched the two demons lunge towards each other. Each moved like quicksilver, using their abilities so fast even Louise's trained eye could barely follow each summoned blade and shard of ice, their attacks clashing again and again. The other fighters didn't halt, exactly, but the battle below abated as more and more eyes turned skywards to witness their commanders' duel.
Louise squinted. Magnificent though it was, it was becoming clear the pair of them were not equally matched. Mai fought with the self-assurance of a fanatic, but she responded to each of Yumeko's strikes just a fraction more slowly, with just a hint more ungainliness. Even her spells were lacking some of the lustre they had had the moment before.
And then, it happened. Mai raised both her hands to block a ferocious upwards blow, creating a shield of spiky ice which spread and grew and trapped Yumeko's blade within it. She grinned.
Yumeko's other blade pierced her right side.
The grin froze on Mai's face, soon replaces by wide-eyed agony. The ice shattered into a thousand shards as she wobbled back, flagging all the while, then began drifting downwards.
Yuki exclaimed something that could have equally well been Mai's name or a wordless shout, then flew upwards, catching Mai in her arms before she fell on the still raging battle. Mai barely reacted to her rescue: dreamily, she reached to touch the gaping wound beneath her ribs, then marvelled at the iridescent liquid sticking to her fingers.
Yumeko re-materialised before them.
"Retreat!" cried Yuki, narrowly dodging a slung sword and already flying towards the outskirts of Makai. The vast majority of the rebel troops soon followed. Only a few hapless demons who had either not heard the orders or didn't acknowledge Yuki's authority kept fighting, their ferocity swiftly losing to the overwhelming forces now against them.
Before the rebels could make their full escape, a new figure rose to the skies.
Louise stood up, clutching her arm. Lady Shinki stretched all three pairs of wings to their full span, their purple brighter than ever, their red glowing as if fuelled by the distant sun.
Several of the rebels fell on their knees, their eyes widening as they finally understood the folly they had committed by defying their creator. The foolhardier ones instead took this as a sign that it was time for a final push and with redoubled effort threw themselves at those loyal to their god. And Mai...
Mai had stirred in Yuki arms, turning her gaze up towards Lady Shinki. The shock of injury had ebbed away, her dwindling strength still carrying her. Her face twisted into such an ugly, hateful grimace that it was nigh impossible to believe this was the same creature Louise had seen gently following the happily skipping Yuki all around Pandemonium a mere three days before.
She shoved at Yuki's chest and launched herself back upwards, spreading her wings to better carry herself. With a furious snarl, she thrust her palm towards Lady Shinki. An orb of freezing energy began gathering in it, creating wide waves of frost lashing over everything around the nexus of the attack.
Lady Shinki closed her eyes.
When Louise next opened hers between blinks, the entire rebel force was gone.
"Where did they go?" Alice asked.
Louise shrugged. "Lady Shinki deposited them in the underworld beyond Makai. There they will remain, or else scatter in the four directions. That is their punishment." She smiled. "Still, Lady Shinki is merciful. She'd rather let those who don't wish to live under her rule to live elsewhere than force them to obey. They are still her beloved creations, after all."
"Hmm." Was it really a kindness? Alice wasn't sure which was worse: dying, or having to live out the rest of your life outside of Makai after having dwelt there once?
"Do you have any questions?"
"Just one. Why couldn't Mother tell me this herself? Why would it hurt so much?"
Louise reached out to stroke Alice's hair. "Perhaps you'll understand one day."
Alice didn't see how. She was unlikely to have creations of her own, not when everything in Makai was created by Mother and Mother alone. Furthermore, none of this explained why Mother had let the invaders from Gensokyo flee without repercussions.
"You shouldn't concern yourself with it." From the frown on her face, Louise could tell she wasn't as satisfied with the story as she ought to have been. "Mai won't be returning here. You're quite safe."
"I'm not afraid of her," Alice snapped. Why did everyone insist on treating her like a child?
Louise nodded, then stood up and curtseyed. "I will see you later."
She left Alice alone with her thoughts, and a lingering anxiety which she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried.