“Ahem.”

Conrad coughed awkwardly to interrupt the lovey-dovey couple, who quickly burned red and looked away from each other. Elis’s eyes were sparkling while Valeriya wore a wry smile, and Wang Bao chuckled lightly to himself. Sid and Faolán didn’t seem to notice the strange atmosphere, and she tickled the wolf’s fluffy ear as it flicked playfully.

“Now then. Thank you for that, Hibiki. I know it must have been difficult, but we’re here to support you whenever you need it.”

He glanced back towards Aoi, who was quietly watching the group from afar. She gestured for him to continue, clearly content to enjoy the show without needing to take part.

“...Back to the task at hand. Hibiki, with your powers, did you learn anything about what we’re up against?”
“*sniffle* Yes! I don’t know much about the creatures Sid mentioned, but there were lots of little demons floating about inside the school!”
“Lots of them? How many, approximately?”

Wiping her face dry, she fell deep in thought as she tried to recall more details. By the time she had understood what the lights surrounding her really were, the following events had progressed so quickly that she didn’t have much of a chance to fully take in her surroundings.

“I’m sorry… they float through the walls and floor, so they overlapped with each other. Maybe around at least 40 or 50 of them were in the areas we visited?”
“Are you able to tell when they are using their illusion ability?”
“I think so! They glowed and swirled a lot whenever they wanted to do something.”
“Glowed… and swirled…”

Conrad scratched his chin as he desperately tried to maintain his poker face. The girl was trying her best and he had openly said they would accept her for these missions, but her description of how she was perceiving the demons was difficult to understand, and he couldn’t quite tell how confident she’d be at using her powers practically.

“Umm… I think… I think they didn’t want to hurt anybody.”
“...What do you mean?”

Hibiki looked back towards the school with a difficult expression. She couldn’t hear the voiceless whispers from so far away, but knowing that they would be seeking the demons out to exterminate them didn’t sit right with her.

“They had a lot of voices. Some wanted us to play, others wanted us to leave, but I didn’t feel like any of them were trying to hurt us.”
“Didn’t you say the floor started to fall from under your feet?”
“Yes… But it felt like they were having fun. It felt like they were children playing tag.”
“Even if it’s unintentional, we can’t leave them if they’re dangerous.”

Conrad looked across at the others, who clearly didn’t share her opinion. Without being able to experience the same things that Hibiki had, it was difficult to tell how to handle the fairies, but as he mulled it over Yuuji stepped forward.

“...While I didn’t feel any malicious intent during the inspection, I was still injured within my vision. The wounds are gone now, but the pain was real - I can’t say for sure whether or not it could have been deadly.”
“...Me too…”

Even Wang Bao reluctantly admitted to experiencing the same. They didn’t want to speak out against Hibiki’s wishes, but the severity of the issue couldn’t be dismissed.

“Haa… For now, we’ll head back to the library, and look into what we can. Though it seems like everyone living around here knows not to enter, I’ll contact the MOD to ensure that the school is properly closed off while we try to find some more information.”

He dismissed the students and discussed their next step with Aoi as they headed back to the research station at the library. It was time for the field team to get some rest to recover from their expedition, and for everyone else to try and dig up any helpful clues based on what they now knew.

******

“Nnh… As I suspected. This magnificent tome called out to me, and in its bountiful grace, it has bequeathed the very knowledge we sought!”

Akil held his head as his eyebrows furrowed, but he could not hide the satisfied grin plastered on his face. In his hand was an old and dusty book titled ‘Legends and Mythos of Celtic Cultures’, and he had placed his thumb between two pages of the unwieldy stack which bore the heading ‘Aos Sí’.

“Excellent work, Akil. Sorry to make you use your spirit so much - take a break while your headache dies down.”
“Blasphemy! I dare not take a seat while such elusive information inhabits these very pages before me! Gah… My headache can wait!”
“...Sit the hell down. You can read it after you’ve recovered.”
“...Verily…”

Conrad took one look at the book before him and frowned.

“Some of it is in Gaelic… Sid, would you mind confirming these details for me?”
“Mmm. Faolán, come.”

Faolán gave a quiet ‘Arf…’ as he dropped Akil’s pre-prepared ice pack by his side, before following his master to where she and Conrad were sitting. He peeked his curious emerald eyes between them to stare at the worn book that had caught their attention, though it was difficult to tell if the spirit could actually read or if he was just being inquisitive, but the others ignored him either way.

“Ráths… lios… Sid, what are these referring to?”
“Fairy forts… Sacred locations said to be imbued with druid magic. Anyone who destroys them would receive retribution from the fae.”
“What kind of retribution? Does it say?”
“Many kinds… Sometimes death, sometimes kidnapping.”
“Well. Thankfully we’ve not exactly had to deal with that, is there anything else?”
“Mmm. It says not to build on fairy forts.”
“That seems pretty obvious given the warnings.”

Conrad snorted, finding the message ridiculous. Anyone who would build on top of a site considered sacred enough for death to be the price of desecration likely wouldn’t live to tell the tale.

“...”

His smile faded.

“...Ji-Hye. Do you still have access to the school construction records?”
“Yes~. Did you need something looking up?”
“Check to see if there are any news articles related to the building company around the time the construction was taking place.”
“There’s… two or three.”
“Anything related to the school specifically?”
“Hmm… It’s only about some of the builders themselves. Nothing much about the school.”
“What does it say about the builders?”

With Pajeon by her side highlighting and compiling key sections in the articles, she was able to summarise it with exceptional speed.

“First is an obituary for one of the contractors who passed away suddenly during that time, while this other report is about a missing child whose father was also a construction worker for the company. I can’t find any notable jobs the firm was working on other than the school.”
“Well, would you look at that.”

Conrad turned back towards Sidheag, who was still reading through the old tome in front of her.

“Sid, are there any maps showing all of the fairy forts across Ireland?”
“Nnn. There are tens of thousands of them. Lots are unknown or unmarked.”
“Damn it, they couldn’t make it easy, could they?”

He ran his fingers through his hair briefly, before deciding his next move. They had a theory - a solid one, but ironclad evidence would be needed if they were to report this to the MOD properly, and if they truly were correct it would likely affect more than just this single site.

Just decades ago, many of these myths were considered superstition, and any time a real-life occurrence would line up with a folk tale it was often seen as just a coincidence. Of course, many people had always believed in such legends, but in the early twenty-first century, these would be looked down on as unscientific theories at best and archaic nonsense at worst.

Then, everything changed when the Cataclysm occurred.

Monsters that were once contained to bedtime stories could roam the night, preying on any that were unlucky enough to cross their path. If ghosts and vampires were real, what was stopping the Aos Sí from being real, too?

“Mitra.”
“Yessir!”
“You were bellyaching about being stuck talking to, as you said, ‘Some re-animated fossil’ earlier, weren’t you?”
“A-Ah! No, you must have mishea-”
“Find them again, and politely ask if they were aware of a fairy fort being on the original grounds the school was built on.”
“...Yes, sir…”

The young man trudged out the door, his karmic retribution weighing heavily on his back with every step. 

“Hema.”
“Yes, Mr Pierce, sir! I respect my elders, sir!”
“...Are you calling me old?”
“N-No! I was just-!”
“You can go and join him. Make sure you keep the kind resident company for as long as they like, as compensation for their time and assistance.”
“A-aaaaaah!”

She gave a brief salute, before charging out of the room to take out her frustration on her brother, who she believed was surely the cause of her punishment.

Conrad massaged his brows and sighed to himself. As difficult as the duo tended to be, one thing he could absolutely rely on them for was talking. More often than not it was a thorn in his side, but at times like these he knew that if there was information to be got, they would be able to retrieve it and then some.

“...Conrad.”
“Hmm?”

From across the room, he saw Aoi gesture towards him, then call his name. Her face was lined with concern, so he left the students to continue their current research, and headed over to see what the commotion was about.

“It’s the MOD. They’re taking us off this case.”
“...What?”

It had barely been 24 hours since they were first assigned the task, and that was including the travel time to their destination. He certainly hadn’t left on good terms with them, but right now Phoenix were essentially doing free labour - this decision just didn’t make sense.

“They haven’t provided any reason, and aren’t responding anymore.”
“We have to head to the school. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

He had reached out to the MOD to officially close off the premises during their investigation to ensure no bystanders could get hurt. They had confirmed almost immediately but didn’t request any further report about the progress of the extermination, which struck him as odd. At first, he had just assumed they were only doing the bare minimum while leaving the dirty work to Phoenix, but now he had to see what was going on with his own eyes.

Conrad and Aoi rushed out of the door and towards the school. It wasn’t far, and as they approached their fears were confirmed: parked outside the double doors of Glendraig Primary was a giant armoured truck, with several heavily armed soldiers preparing their weapons as they surrounded the building.

The two of them stopped in their tracks, gritting their teeth in frustration.

“Fuck.”

A new complication had arisen.