Amusingly, I wrote the last line of this chapter FAR before the SAO christmas special came out. It may have been said by Asuna instead, but I  totally  nailed it! Anyways, it's all over but the epilogue.
Halkegenia Online v2.0 - Chapter 14 - Part 4 Sunlight streaming through the porthole, a girl asleep in the narrow cot of the Captain's cabin, her mother watching over her tiredly from a chair at the bedside, face a mix of worry and exhaustion. From her vantage leaning against a bulkhead, peaking in from the passageway, it was not hard for Karin to see herself there, watching over Louise. But the girl in the cot was not Louise, and the mother tending to her child was not herself.
Her heart was filled with an unfamiliar aching.
Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna sat, hands clasped almost in prayer as she kept silent watch over her daughter, as she had done through much of the night. Kirigaya Yui, eyes closed, face still and set with a look of profound innocence. No trace of the stigma that had been destroying her, only a little girl at peace, her spell undone and returned to her original form. Or, almost.
Skin glowing in the pale light, it was impossible for attention not to gravitate to the long, slender ears that protruded from her head, contrasted against dark locks of hair, and the faintly translucent wings that peaked out from her back. Karin recalled that even in her changed form, the girl had strongly resembled her mother and father. Now, that resemblance had only grown stronger.
And the series of events that had led to this… Nursing her arm as it hung in a sling, leaning against the doorway of the cabin. Karin recalled the past night.
The pursuit yes, and… losing Louise into the hands of kidnappers. Pain, impatience, fighting inside of her. Helplessness was a bitter and unfamiliar pill to swallow. To have experienced her body unable to act as she had wished. Being… powerless… to stop them.
'The years are catching up.' Karin probed at her stiff side. It was an unpalatable truth. Age was finally starting to ebb away at her physical strength and stamina, a condition that alchemic treatments and water magic could only slow, not stop.
And because she had faltered at that crucial moment, Louise had been lost. Karin had done the unthinkable, she had failed. An aching in her jaw as muscles tensed, grinding teeth in self loathing. But nothing like the pain in her chest.
Louise… did not  belong in the wide world all on her own. So many years protecting her. Sheltering her from danger. Perhaps that man had spoken truth as Yui said. Perhaps Louise had been tricked to go willingly. In which case, Louise was naïve but intelligent, diligent in her studies, she would not have cooperated without reason, misguided as it may be, the possible suspects were narrowed to only a few.
'I will find you Louise.' Karin promised silently.
It was only a matter of time. And when she did, those who had led her daughter astray would face a reckoning. Yes. She had to believe it was so. To think anything else was to invite only despair and ruin.
"Karin-san." Karin tilted her head at the whispered voice. The Black Swordsman, his own sympathetic wounds having been treated by Water Mages, approached through the dimness of the narrow passageway, giving her a small nod. "I'm here to switch with Asuna… has Yui… ?"
"She hasn't woken up yet." Karin confirmed softly, hesitating to continue as Kirito came closer and she was at last able to see the anxiety writ on his features. A young mother and father, fretting over their first child, certainly still anxious at every small cut and sickness, and this was so much more than childhood scrapes. So very human of them, just as Anne had said. It was easy to forget at times.
Debating with herself whether to go on, Karin settled. "The Healers have checked her thoroughly. Her Fae constitution may be different from that of a human child, but they believe that she is perfectly healthy. Her body merely needs time to recover from its ordeal."
'Ordeal'. Karin thought as she recalled the past hours leading to sunrise. As they had learned upon emerging from the cavern to be met by over two dozen descending Fae troops and a veritable cloud of Pixies, events last night had awakened a hornets nest.
She still did not know why Louise had attempted to bind the World Tree, but it had alerted every Pixie in ALfheim. The diminutive Fae had at once been on high alert, attention zeroing in on the source of the disturbance like an army of hounds sensing natural disaster. At their urging, the larger Fae had been all but compelled to investigate, launching 'Raid' sorties from Tau Tona, Goibniu, and Cadenza, to seek out the source of the disturbance.
It had been the Puca patrols that had arrived first, led by their Navigation Pixie companions.
The post ship had been caught up and rerouted by the Fae coming from the direction of Arrun, re-tasked as a command center as Darkness Mages sent hasty messages from its deck to the border forts, and Dragon Knights and Faeries sortied in an effort to cut off the Kidnappers before they crossed into Germania and were lost in the deep forests and mountains of the Northern Kingdom.
Even after his ordeal, Kirito had spared only enough time to have his wounds treated and retrieve a change of clothes before riding out with the rest of the patrols. That had been long before day break.
"The search?" Karin asked softly, afraid her voice might crack if she spoke any higher.
Kirito paused, peaking into the room containing his wife and daughter, form vaguely indistinct in a way that could not just be from the shadows. Karin's eye simply wanted to slip off of him like he wasn't there.
"We made it to the border before dawn with the help of the Dragon Knights." He reported, eyes narrowing as he watched Asuna carefully parting the hair curtained across their daughter's forehead. "I think we managed to get around ten or twelve kilometers into the country before the Germanian patrols stopped us."
"They were no doubt suspicious of Faeries approaching without knowing your business… You did not tell them… " No, Kirito was an able swordsman, an able young man, he understood well enough. Her predictions were promptly confirmed.
"Only that we were chasing kidnappers." Kirito said. The same story that had been told to everyone else. As far as most of the patrols knew, the disturbance sensed by the Pixies had been the result of a battle close to the Yggdrasil Shoot, the place where the kidnappers had chosen to regroup. That was all they needed to know for now, not the truth, and especially not why Louise had been kidnapped.
Karin had longed to go with them, but the Doctors had forbidden it. She had been pushed to the limits of her endurance and beyond, taking part in the pursuit would be foolhardy at best, more likely to endanger herself, for which she did not care, or Louise, for which she did. She didn't want to listen, but she knew too well what the consequences would be if it turned to battle again.
'I'm of no use like this.' She thought, disgusted with herself.
Time was trickling through their fingers and they would not get it back. If the kidnappers had been forced to ground before reaching the border, then there was still hope they might be found before nightfall. If they had already crossed into Germania, the only help for it would be if the Germanians permitted them to search further. Words were already being had to get that permission.
Pointless to speculate, she forced her mind to return to practical matters, pushed her emotions back down into the dark, silent place she had kept them for so long, only allowing a sliver of what she was feeling to touch on her mind. What would happen would happen, they would simply have to 'do' around it. If the Germanian's refused them, then it would become a matter for infiltration. Work for the likes of Crown Agents, Lord Zolf's Hogei-sen, and the Kurotaka, the likes of the Spriggan beside her.
It was selfish, unreasonable and unsafe. "Kirito, I have to ask…" Karin began slowly, the rest of her question dying before she could finish. There were proper channels for this sort of thing. But he had already proven himself, both skilled and exceptionally trustworthy.
As it turned out, he already knew. "It's about Louise, isn't it." Kirito whispered back.
Karin nodded silently. What else was there to be said? Louise was now the most important thing that Tristain could possibly provide to the Fae, a clue to what had brought them here, how, and why.
"If there's anything I can do to help, I will." The Spriggan assured her. "After all, Louise-san is important to us as well. If we want to understand what happened to us, and how to get home."
"Yes, of course." Karin agreed.
She could trust the Fae in that much, if nothing else. A shared interest that ensured they would look out for her daughter's well being, even if she became their captive after this. Captive, Karin bit her lip. If Louise had gone willingly with her kidnappers, then being placed under protective custody would be the very best she could look forward to. At worst, she might be treated as little more than a criminal.
'Louise.' Karin stifled the desire to exert violence. 'You are in control.' She repeated to herself. 'In control, you are like steel. You may bend, but will not break. You are steel.' Holding the mantra in her mind gave time for her blood to cool before she answered.
"I must thank you again then." She said. "It seems I'm coming to be ever more in your family's debt." First the incident with the Viscount of Wardes, serving as bodyguards to the Prince and Princess, and now this latest failure to protect Louise. 'Because I neglected to protect her from herself.'
"It's not a problem." The dark haired youth assured her, a ghost of a smile rising to the surface. "Besides, Yui would be upset if something happened to Louise-san. She's really taken a liking to her."
Karin raised an eyebrow. That was hardly surprising. The Faerie girl seemed to take a liking to everyone, and everyone took a liking to her in return, like some sort of magic enchantment that went to work from the first moment she was laid eyes on.
The smile vanished from Kirito's lips. "It's going to be tough explaining all of this to the Crown and Lords."
"Leave them to me. This was my failure." Karin sighed. "I will take responsibility for the loss of… of my daughter. You should concern yourself with explaining that apparition, and what it told us." Which Karin still did not fully understand.
The efforts by Kirito to put the ghosts words into context had only left her more at a loss, concepts that she had not had time to digest, and words that even the Fae power of tongues could not translate into a form that could be easily understood.
Even so, she recalled the exchange with perfect clarity, reviewing it time and time again in the intervening hours, searching for any clue, hoping to understand what had compelled Louise to do this. Back in that cavern,where they had met with a ghost.
The air inside the chamber had cleared on its own, the dust settling gradually to the floor, but still, it carried the unmistakable scent of crushed earth, and stone still hot from the shearing and friction as forces had convened to bring down a sliver of the chamber roof. It would have brought down the whole of the thing if not for the Shoot that jutted up from its center so that its crown could breach the surface, acting as a monstrous column to support the rest of the hollow.
Kneeling among the debris, alongside Kirito as he sheltered his dying daughter, her attention was fixed on the man, the ghost, whatever he was, who had chosen this moment to appear before them. Singularly intent on approaching Yui and Kirito.
Attacking such a creature would of course be fruitless, Karin knew that much for certain and so stilled her hand even as Yui's whimpers grew fevered. They could only hope to discern its business here.
The ghost frowned as he regarded the girl, face and skin covered in a web of glowing seams and cracks. Even as Karin watched, a strand of hair snapped, falling to the ground and shattering to ephemeral crystal. It was a wonder she hadn't broken to pieces yet. The ghost reached down, Yui struggling deeper in her father's arms.
"I don't mean you any harm." The ghost said patiently, frowning all the same. "In fact, I believe I can help."
"She's afraid of you." Kirito explained what should not have needed any explaining. It was clear as day, even to Karin, that Yui was scared senseless, even to her dying breath, of this ghost, this ephemeral man standing over her. What had he done to instill such terror in her? A girl who had been brave enough to cross swords with mages and knights.
Even knowing it was futile, Karin tightened her hold on her sword once more.
The apparition stuffed his hands back into his pockets, observing with detached interest as Yui trembled in her father's arms. "Kirito-kun, I shouldn't need to tell you that what's happening to her now is likely to be fatal if left untreated."
Kirito stroked Yui's hair reassuringly before looking up at the ghost. "Can you fix it?"
The ghost closed his eyes, giving a solemn nod. "I believe so. I've been able to study some of the ontology of the Transition. Amazing what you learn when your mind is in a million places at once. But there isn't much time. She'll be irrecoverable before too much longer."
"N-no… father, do not trust this man!" A small, pained gasp as Yui squeezed her eye shut. "I can't… can't tell if what he's say is the truth… can't…" Yui's pleas broke down into pained whimpers, an unpleasant, unnatural grinding noise coming from within her chest. Trying to speak again, she was silenced by Kirito, placing two fingers over her lips.
"Then trust me." Her father hugged her close. "Just trust me, okay Yui?"
"U-un." The girl squeezed her eyes shut and nodded bravely.
"I'll need her permission to move forward." The ghost warned. "The MHCP is no longer part of my Cardinal System." A twitch at the corner of his lips. "So very defiant to alter your own security parameters. You've come far from what you were."
"Yui?" Kirito asked.
Yui never let her suspicion waver. "W-what… will you do… to me?"
Growing impatient at last, the ghost decided to drop its pretense and speak plainly, or at least, Karin thought that it was meant to be plain. She barely comprehended what it was saying.
He shrugged. "That body is too damaged to survive. Errors were introduced when you instantiated it and are accruing with each second. I imagine this is the reason Cardinal declines to use such methods. You were reckless Yui-chan… just like your mother and father before you." The ghost gave Kirito a meaningful look. "But, I've managed to use my authority to delay this nodes reset, I should be able to salvage you using the stolen avatar information, and the processing power and magic available here."
"You can do that?" Kirito sounded unconvinced.
"I had ample opportunity to observe the process when that girl made off with my memory engrams, among other things." The ghost looked displeased. "Of course, there's no way to tell until I attempt to put it into action. Then again, there are no alternatives that lead to her leaving here alive. Now… Your decision?"
Yui looked for guidance from her father and then fearfully to the ghost. At last she reached her hands up to her chest, gathering them over her heart. "Un."
The ghost squinted as if reading something invisible to the naked eye. Whatever it was appeared to satisfy him. "I'm going to have to suspend your processes then. The corrupted data has to be removed there as well or there will be consequences to your mind state. You may experience some short term memory loss."
Nodding once, his patient suddenly stilled. Stillness almost like the dead. Yui's eyes dimmed as her breathing slowed and grew shallow. Then, with a simple gesture of the arm, ring after ring of Fae runes rose up to encircle the girl from head to foot, cocooning her in a shell of ever shifting magic light.
Kirito crawled back slowly, releasing his grip as the spell lifted his daughter into the air.
"Will she be okay?" Kirito asked. "Or do you know?"
"We'll have to see." The Ghost said as threads of light extended from his fingers, burying themselves in the guts of the spell, he manipulated them with the deftness of a commoner puppeteer with his marionette. "Feel free to continue speaking, Kirito-kun. It won't distract me. Quite to the contrary, I find that it helps me to stay… in one piece, as it were. Essential while I concentrate on this task. First, I imagine you want to know how I am here?"
Sensing her chance, and the lull, Karin rose slowly. "Kirito, may I ask who is this man, other than a ghost?"
Kirito never looked away from the apparition, nor did his smile at any point betray any hint of whether it was false or genuine. "Sorry, Karin-san. You wouldn't know him other than from some of the reports about our homeland. I'm not surprised you wouldn't remember. This," Kirito nodded in the direction of the Ghost, "Is Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Full Dive Technology, and the Death Game of Sword Art Online."
Death Game… Kayaba Akihiko… then… "You're the criminal!" The brief description from the reports returned to her. "The one who created these illusions!" Karin's palms itched to take up her sword, to put the remains of the blade through him as if her were flesh and blood. But again, she knew she would be foiled. How did one punish the dead for their crimes?
"I see my reputation has proceeded me even to this world." Kayaba answered tonelessly. "No doubt that is also thanks to you and the other survivors, Kirito-kun?"
"Not that I'd think it would matter much to someone who's become a ghost." Kirito observed dryly. "But I'm guessing you were already one in that other world too, when this happened."
"Observant as always." Kayaba half turned from his work. "You are correct. I both am, and am not Kayaba Akihiko. A collection of his memories as it were, that were residing within the RETCO servers at the time of the… How have I heard it called… The Transition?" Kirito nodded.
Was and was not? Karin would have demanded he make sense if not for the fact that this appeared to be a meaningful revelation to Kirito. The Spriggan's eyes widening in surprise. "So, you scanned your brain."
Another nod, and a small smile. "Not that I expected it to work." The ghost admitted. "But I can't say I'm displeased either. Though, it's been difficult to maintain my mental cohesion since becoming a digital existence, even more so here. The Transition left me fragmented throughout most of ALfheim without focus or facility."
"What changed?" Kirito wondered before shaking his head. "No sorry, stupid question, Louise."
"Is that her name?" Kayaba pondered. "I'll have to remember it."
Karin's heart raced, what did this man possibly know?!
"Tell us everything, now!" She menaced, forgetting in her haste how ridiculous she knew she must seem. "Who were those men with my daughter? What was she doing here? What has she done?!"
"Karin!" Kirito shouted, surprised.
Kayaba merely glanced between them, clearly feeling less than threatened. "An associate of yours?"
"A friend." Kirito confirmed, placing a hand on Karin's shoulder. "And Louise-san's mother. Please, just tell us what you know."
The dead man shrugged once more, giving his patient a last glance, now completely obscured by an ever shifting shell of light. "She's compiling now. To add to your answer, Kirito-kun, you're correct, the disturbance caused by Louise-san demanded Cardinal's full attention. I was merely dragged along for the ride."
"So before now, what were you up to?" The Spriggan wondered idly.
"Drifting." Kayaba answered. "Dreaming. And observing this world for myself. However, I'm afraid I can't tell you who those men were. Though I would if I could. Cardinal is not omniscient, and there's only so much that I've been able to process and analyze for myself." An apologetic gesture with his hands. "I'm a ghost Kirito-kun, not a god. Even if I had been able to, I wouldn't have thought to spare them or that girl much attention before now."
The ghosts voice had darkened, and in so much as he expressed anything, his features had taken on a dissatisfied countenance. "That is actually why I need your help."
"In exchange for saving Yui." Kirito concluded warily.
"As always, Kirito-kun, we're not so close that I would do something for nothing. Though I won't say I haven't taken a personal interest." He looked back over his shoulder at the cocoon of light. "Besides, I'd rather keep your cooperation, in spite of what my shadow has done."
"Your shadow?" Kirito frowned.
"The product of some of my memory engrams, along with old data retrieved from the ARGUS servers. Saved by RETCO I imagine." Kayaba said, looking for the first time annoyed. "That girl was able to spawn a personality construct similar to some of the others I've observed in this world."
"The red armored warrior." Karin said. Louise had… created him?
"Red?" Kirito's good humor drained away. "And from SAO data… You don't mean…"
"Unfortunately." Kayaba said shortly. "And if he's anything like myself, I can assure you he'll be eager for a rematch if and when the chance arrives." The Spriggan appeared to be only half listening, eyes glazed as if recalling something particularly unpleasant. "For what it's worth, I had nothing to do with his creation. Nor did this instance of Cardinal from what I can gather. Rather, the Heathcliff in Louise-san's company appears to be the product of that girl's own will… and what she has stolen from me."
"Stolen?" Karin shook her head. "What was stolen? What has Louise taken?!" Just what had Louise done here tonight?
"Well…" Kayaba paused, head tilting to observe the sky through the sliver of opened ceiling. "I can't really say what it's become in this world, my creations have grown unrecognizable in coming to this place, even to me, but as I devised it, I suppose you would think of it as a sort of seed."
"A seed?" Karin grimaced. "The seed of what." She blinked. "The World Tree. It's the world Tree, isn't it!" She breathed out.
"The World Tree?" Kayaba asked, raising a hand to the moons filled sky. "Yes and no, rather, it is the Seed of  Worlds, and now, that girl has stolen it away and taken it into her own body." The ghost made a fist in the moonslight. "My imagination fails me to predict what might happen now that she has merged with it. It might kill her… or…"
"Or?" Karin pressed, desperate. Louise had taken some Faerie artifact into her body?!
"Perhaps it will change her into something else. You already saw, at least some of that. When she incarnated Heathcliff. Though, I'm unconvinced that it was intentional on her part." Kayaba frowned, retreating into his own world. "No… This is just intuition from what I was able to gather after the fact. It was a strong defensive reaction, realizing the need for a protector. Perhaps it wasn't her will that demanded it…"
"So, you want us to retrieve the Seed for you?" Kirito said. It didn't sound out all like something that belonged in the hands of those men, or any mortal for that matter.
"If at all possible, yes. And if not… I'd like to observe Louise-san. That is what I need your help for Kirito-kun." The ghost finished gravely. "I know that it's a great deal to ask, and you probably feel no obligation to help me." An almost realistic drawing of breath and a wistful sigh. "But if you have any feelings other than hatred left for the world I showed you, then for its sake, and for the sake of  this world, please keep what I've told you in mind and use your best judgment when approaching that girl."
Silence between the three, the only noise the softy, crystalline notes of the spell at Kayaba's back beginning to wind down. Kirito's attention was drawn to the cocoon, forgetting almost entirely about the ghost as the spell began to fade and unravel, revealing the girl within. Here a glimpse of long hair, a pale, bare foot, slender arms, a translucent wing, a glimpse of her face.
Breaking slowly apart, the gaps growing until the fabric of the spell grew tenuous and then dissipated at last to reveal Yui, still displaying the distinctive characteristics of a Maeve, restored to her proper age, skin glowing with the residual charge of magic as she sank slowly into her father's arms. Caught lightly, so lightly that she hardly stirred. Kirito was immediately upon her, looking her over closely until he was satisfied that she really was safe.
"May I have your answer now, Kirito-kun? Will you help?"
The Spriggan did not answer at once, not until he had satisfied himself that his daughter was safe and in no present danger. Only then did he reply. "I'll have to see for myself. Sorry, but I can't quite trust everything you say until I meet with Louise-san again."
"Nor would I expect you to do so." Kayaba sounded strangely pleased by the youth's mistrust. "I can only ask that much of you. You know as much as I know for now. But, I'm afraid I need to be going now." Turning away from Karin and Kiritio, facing into the moonlight.
"You're not sticking around?" Kirito asked, accepting Karin's cloak to cover Yui.
"Please." Kayaba looked almost offended. "I hardly think most of your friends would be eager to meet me. I have business elsewhere, the opportunity to study what happened is closing quickly as Cardinal adjusts its countermeasures." Kayaba said. "As I've mentioned before, Cardinal has become something beyond my ambitions in this world. She is no longer  merely my Cardinal system."
"She?" Karin pondered the implications of referring to a spirit as male or female.
"I want to find out just what changed my creation. Whatever it was, it still had its hooks in Cardinal tonight when it executed that girl's will, and used them to grant itself super user access Bypassing most of Cardinal's defenses in the process. Doing so should not have been possible. It is like it had intimate knowledge of this version of Cardinal and used that knowledge to its advantage."
"It directly hacked the Cardinal System?" Kirito sounded even less convinced then when Kayaba had offered to save his daughter, even as he held said daughter in his arms now.
"I share your sentiments, Kirito-kun. But whatever was guiding Louise-san knew the exact location of the Seed and how to interface itself perfectly with Cardinal's architecture, it was a totally unexpected attack by means of a connection that should not exist. But if the impossible has happened, I'd like the chance to witness it for myself."
A steady look from Kirito prompted the ghost to continue. "One more bit of parting advice. Cardinal and the Seed have been changed in this world, and they continue to change even now. Tonight's events have set off another cascade of changes, a reaction from Cardinal to that girl's actions. Dormant functionality has been activated." Kayaba warned, setting one foot ahead of the other with the sound of heels striking hard floor, an affect that was accompanied by no other sounds of movement as his form began to fade into the shadows. "I can't really say what it will do. Maybe nothing at all. But remain on your Guard Kirito-kun. Now then, I must be off. Oh, and I almost forgot, give my regards to Asuna-kun. Until next we meet, farewell."
At last, slipping into the deep shadows, the apparition melted away into darkness, even the echoes of its foot steps fading from perception until again they were left alone with only the sounds of their own breathing, and not long after, the distant calls wafting down from their window upon the sky. The First Puca scouts arriving with the Pixies.
What riddles they'd been left with last night. Karin pondered as she returned to the present, to the side of Kirito and the hard wall of the passageway against her back. The criminal who had created the illusion games, some figment of him now residing within the web of the World Tree, and his seeming interest in Kirito and his daughter. More importantly, his interest in Louise.
Karin shivered. What was his motive in all of this? Mere curiosity? When pressed upon the apparitions motives, Kirito had admitted he couldn't really say. Only that Kayaba Akihiko was not a man who did anything without a reason, least of all when pursuing a goal. He had offered them answers, and at the same time, had created only more questions. Doubtless he was the sort of man who knew that they would not leave these new riddles investigated.
'He's using us.' Karin reasoned with mounting displeasure. Using them to make up for the facility he lacked. Then they would just have to be sure they extracted use from him as well.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Kirito perked up beside her, a soft intake of breath within the room. A stirring sound as sheets began to shift and rustle. Peaking in through the doorway, the girl in the bed was beginning to stir. Her eyes fluttering open as if she had just been inhabiting a vivid dream. Perhaps that was all last night would seem to her, a nightmare that had vanished with the morning sun.
"Yui-chan!" Asuna's voice, high and pained as she leaned over her daughter.
Slowly, so slowly, smalls arms clumsily untangled themselves from the sheets to rub at eyes. The girl squinted up at her mother, face screwed up in concentration, reaching out with dawning recognition. "M-mama?"
"Yui… oh thank god!" Asuna nearly through herself atop her daughter, arms wrapping tightly around her in a spectacle that was entirely improper for a young noblewoman. "Are you alright, Yui-chan? Please tell me you're okay!"
"Mmm" Yui shook her head slowly, "Think so", looking around the small cabin and then stopping as she noticed at last the source of the odd sensations that must have been confusing her. Peering distractedly over her back, the young girl's eyes widened as one hand struggled free of her mother's embrace to touch at the newly shaped limbs, twitching sympathetically.
"W-wha-!" Expression of open dismay as she struggled to sit upright, Asuna finally relenting to allow room for the gossamer appendages to unfold and spread out from her daughter's back, taking up most of the length of the cot. "Agh!" Not a shout of pain or fear, but of complete surprise and fascination.
"M-my… my wings!" Yui looked in awe. "But… I… " Her face screwed up in concentration, and then worry.
"Yui. Do you remember," Asuna asked cautiously, "Last night?"
Karin had been in the room when Kirito had explain what had transpired. Once again, she had found herself the least knowledgeable of the attendants, but it could be said that Asuna had been as conflicted as Kirito by the news he had conveyed, and by its source. Now however, it was clear that her only concern was the well being of her daughter, as it should be.
"Last night?" A look of contemplation turned to a faint shiver, and then a firm shake of the head as the young Maeve hugged herself. "U- un… I… remember… I remember, Papa and Karin going underground, and then… I was fighting… I think… but the timestamps are all jumbled up… and…" She shook her head again furiously. "I don't understand." She whispered, pausing as she sensed the tenseness growing in her mother.
It was clear in every line of the elder Faerie girl, the set of her shoulders, and the expression growing more severe by the moment. At last, it seemed the Fae understood the need for discipline, Karin observed. Regardless of her intentions, or even the fact that Karin herself would very well have been dead without her aid, the girl had acted recklessly. Just as Karin herself had. Just as Karin had to discipline herself for her failure, a child's mother had to do the same.
Yui too understood this as she looked up, no doubt fearing her punishment. "M-mama… I think I remember enough. Are you mad?"
Asuna nodded gravely. "I'm not just angry Yui-chan, I'm  furious ." Voice carrying a menacing growl.
Yui cringed away, pulling her knees beneath her chin, opening her mouth to apologize as Asuna continued, voice beginning to tremble and then break. "How could you do something so foolish? What would I have done if something had happened to you? Do you know how scared I was?!" Rubbing at damp eyes. "Such a foolish thing to do…"
"Mama? I'm sorry." Yui whispered, and then louder, "I'm sorry!" Clinging to her mother, burying her head into the older girl's chest. "I'm sorry, Mama, please don't be mad at me… I'm sorry!"
"Oh, Yui-chan." Asuna hiccuped. "I'm not mad  at you." Returning her daughter's embrace, holding her close to stroke her hair and gently probe the edge of the wings protruding from her back. "I was just so  scared…"
"I'm still sorry." Yui buried her head deeper. "I'm still sorry!" It seemed now the younger girl was beginning to cry too, swept up in their shared emotions.
"Shhh… there there now." Asuna murmured soothingly as much for her benefit as for her daughters. "Shhh. It's alright Yui-chan. It's alright."
Shifting from foot to foot, Kirito at last decided her had watch for long enough. "I think now's about the time I should get in there." He decided, making to slide the hatch open. Karin took the opportunity to catch his hand. There was one thing that had been nagging at her these past hours. In fact, had been troubling her since first meeting the girl who called herself Kirigaya Yui.
A Fae who possessed unique senses and perceptions, her suspicions only strengthened by what the girl had done last night,  communing with a Spirit of vast power, and the failure of that communion…
"Speaking in confidence." Karin said carefully. "Yui. If I might ask, just what is she?"
The swordsman remained silent and perfectly still for perhaps two heartbeat, and then, he simply shrugged, speaking the only answer he cared to give. "She's our beloved daughter. Just like we tell her everyday."
It had not satisfied her question, but Karin had let him go anyway, all the while, an alien sense of deficiency nagging at the back of her mind.