"Take Yui and Lily along with you." Sayuri instructed. "Have Lily placed with the new Little Sisters. Ayame and I will escort the beings back for questioning ." The Knight nodded to Kigiku's uninjured subordinate.

"No! I want to stay with Euphrasie!" Lily shouted, stamping her foot determinedly.

"You will do no such thing!" Sayuri turned on the girl, looming over her. Bullying Yui thought, Sayuri could be kind like Botan thought, but she was also all too happy to resort to intimidation to get what she wanted.

"Go with your sisters, Lily." Euphrasie said from her place beside Antoine. The girl had busied herself dressing her friend's wound. "We'll be along soon.

"Promise?" The girl asked anxiously.

"I promise." Euphrasie said, prodding a sullen looking Antoine to nod in agreement.

The return journey to the nest felt longer even though Yui's internal timer insisted it took must less time. At Hinagiku's urging, Kigiku had prodded her wasp to top speed and flown above the tree tops. Almost as soon as they arrived, Hinagiku had slid from the side of the Wasp, carrying Botan in her arms while other Shamans hurried to tend to Ajisai. Yui followed closely behind but was barred as soon as she reached Hinagiku's chambers.

"Please Yui-san, wait here for now." Hinagiku instructed. "Botan will need all of my attention."

Yui nodded slowly, a distinct sense of Resignation Developing within her. She was allowed to sit outside of the chamber, hanging her legs off of the side of the narrow lip that ringed the chimney from the hearth below. It wasn't long before other little sisters had gathered to try and catch a glimpse of Botan. Gossip and rumors traveled among the Pixies like information in a network. They were all eager to see a Blossoming for themselves.

Finally, after around eighteen hundred seconds had passed, Hinagiku stepped out for a moment to shoo the girl's away. "What is this? You all have things you should be doing or can ask your Elder Sisters for more work! Outside with you!" The Shaman said sternly. The girls scattered with groans and glum expressions.

"Hinagiku?" Yui asked.

The shaman's stern expression softened. "Botan is doing just fine Yui, in fact, do you want to see her?"

Yui nodded quickly.

The shaman led her back into her chamber and Yui almost choked as she was confronted by a sickly sweet smell coming from the pots and grinding stones that Hinagiku had laid out across the floor. The room was dim. Shades had been placed above the windows to darken the chamber without restricting airflow.

When Yui saw Botan in the darkness, she stepped back in horror. What was happening to her? Hinagiku had stripped the girl down to the waist and laid her on her side. Botan's skin seemed stretched tight across her whole body, as if there was too much of her for it to hold, and as she moved, Yui could see the muscle and bone standing out and something beginning to bulge at the base of her wings. The wing stems continued to flex in a slow, steady, rhythm, almost like a heartbeat. Involuntary Hinagiku sat down beside Botan, trying to keep the girl cool with with a nutshell full of water and a piece of spongy plant matter taken from one of the herb's in the Garden. As Yui watched, Botan turned over feebly.

Hinagiku looked up at Yui and smiled reassuringly. "It's alright Yui-san."

"Y-yui?" Botan panted, eyes fluttering open in a daze.

"Mmm." Hinagiku nodded and went back to wiping the stricken girl's forehead. "I asked Yui-san to come here and visit. You saved her you know, Botan-san. " Botan's eyes drifted to Yui and some of the tension drained from her face. Yui didn't understand why her presence seemed to help, but she was relieved that it did. "Your fever has broken for now, but it will be back very soon, and it will only get worse."

"Worse?" Botan rasped. "What's . . . wrong with me? My head hurts. And the song is all . . . jumbled up." Even as weak as she was, the distress in the small girl was as clear as day.

"There's nothing wrong with you Botan-san." Hinagiku reassured the girl softly, stroking Botan's hair like a mother tending to her child. "In fact nothing can be more right with you. You know that in the language of flowers your name means bravery? You are simply blossoming into the brave, beautiful Knight that you were always meant to be. The Little Sisters will be lucky to have a protector like you."

"A . . . Knight?" Botan said dully, shaking her head, "I'm not a Knight . . ." The girl shook her head slowly, "Not brave enough."

"You're plenty brave Little Sister. You protected Yui-san and I like a true Knight of the Garden. Even Yggdrasil-sama could see that." Hinagiku insisted softly.

Botan didn't seem to hear the words, instead looking passed the shaman to Yui. "Yui." She rasped.

"Y-yes?" Yui replied anxiously.

Botan smiled, "I'm sorry I got mad at you . . . Euphrasie was nice . . . Is she okay too?"

Yui nodded quickly. For now at least.

"I'm glad." Botan said tiredly.

As Hinagiku had promised, the fever returned not long after and Botan was left in a state of delirium, barely able to recognize who or where she was. Botan needed Hinagiku's full attention more than ever and Yui had made her way back down to the common area. A pair of Vespid Knights had been waiting for her and had immediately bound her wings to her back with a silk thread before taking her to speak with Sayuri.

The Knight hadn't been waiting at the top of the nest. This time, she was seated among the branches of the tree at the center of the Garden, looking down at the Nest like a village in miniature.

"Sayuri-sama." The Knights both bowed. The Vespid Knight gestured for her subordinates to bring Yui forward.

"S-Sayuri-sama." Yui repeated. "Where are the children?" She asked. She didn't think Sayuri would brake Hinagiku's promise without speaking with the Shaman first, but she couldn't be sure.

"They're under guard on the far edge of the garden. I've done nothing to them yet." The Knight said quietly. "There is no time to question them now about the whereabouts of the other little sister. I must return to my mission. I've been away for long enough."

"Your mission?" Yui asked.

"Yes. We've been struggling against the beings so far." The Knight grimaced angrily. "Truthfully, Pixies simply lack the power to fight creatures as large as beings. But I have found a power that can destroy them for us."

Yui reviewed the fight with the Archeopterror and the way the Vespid Knight had used the spiders to defeat a monster beyond her own strength. Query Was that what Sayuri meant? Was she going to use some sort of mob against the village? Something larger than the Dagger Dogs and Wasps? Yui bit her lip. This was terrible!

"However, the Fae have decided to involve themselves. I suppose this proves which side they are on." The Knight tugged angrily at her bangs. "They can simply die or flee with the beings when Lhamthanc shows his true form."

Query Lhamthanc? The name didn't sound like a portmanteau like normal ALO mob names. A boss? Yui wondered. She hoped Aunt Sugu and the others would run rather than fight it. Klein was with them so the chance was good they wouldn't do anything too dangerous.

"Now, for your punishment . . ." Sayuri began.

"Sayuri-sama!" A Little Sister flitted up into the tree branches. The girl was breathing hard as if she had flown a short distance with all of her might and looked near panic.

"What is it?" The Knight asked, rising quickly.

"Please come quickly it's terrible." The girl panted. "To the west. Beings! They caught Shirayuri and are coming this way!"

Alarm! Yui thought, beings, but no Faeries. If they were mages then they might be able to protect themselves, but what if they were just farmers who had come looking for the children?

"What?!" Sayuri shouted, almost instantly her wings were extended and raked back aggressively, as if she were about to fly off into battle. "How did they find the Garden? We've always been cautious." The Knight said to herself before looking up. "You two, bring that errant Little Sister along. She may know these beings." The Knight glanced back to the the Little Sister."You, Little Sister, your name?"

"A-Asagao." The girl stuttered.

"Asagao, you did well coming to me." Sayuri reassured the girl in a tone so soothing it might have belong to Hinagiku. "Now go find Kigiku and tell her to to alert all of the Knights and Shamans, we don't know how dangerous these beings are. I've spoken with Kigiku about what to do if something like this happened, she will know what I want done." With that, Sayuri took flight, Yui tagging along with her guards.

Yui sensed the approaching humans before she heard them and heard them before she saw them, though the warning was not as great as the one with the children. These humans knew how to move in a forest and made much less noise. They came out of the trees and bush following an animal path. By the time Sayuri had been alerted, they had almost been on top of the Garden.

The nearest Little Sisters who had been tending to the western side of the garden and the herbs that grew there, fled in fear as soon as they realized what was happening. Knights and Shamans were rushing towards the disturbance, though there were fewer than Yui had expected. The others must have been involved with the mission that Sayuri had mentioned.

Three giants stumbled into the clearing before coming to a quick halt. The one at the lead extending an arm to prevent his companions from trampling on the flowers. Yui recognized Kirche, the Germanian fire mage, but she didn't know the other two. Both were older men, approximately aged Fifty, one taller and lean, the other shorter with a soft face and a small pair of glasses.

Sayuri was already drawing her sword when she saw the trio of Pixies sitting on the shoulders of the bespectacled man. She came to a halt in midair. Starring.

"Oh, oh my." The man mumbled. Carefully reaching into his shirt pocket, he removed a Little Sister who had been carefully tied up with twine. "I suppose this is the place then?" The man asked the girl in his hand.

"Let me go!" The girl snapped, squirming about. Though angry, she appeared unhurt.

Yui wondered if she was experiencing some sort of glitch when the small pendant worn around the man's neck suddenly sprouted a head and made small gurgling cry as it pointed its nose into the garden. "Well, Marco seems to think this is the right place." The man decided before tugging at a knot in the twine and allowing the Pixie to go free.

"There you go, unhurt just like I said, now run along." The man said.

The girl fled as soon as she could spread her wings and raced up to the safety of the gathering cloud of Knights. Sayuri grabbed hold of her as she neared. "You, Shirayuri? Did the beings hurt you?!"

"Oh Sayuri-sama!" The girl buried her head against the Knight's chest. "I was so scared! The one there caught me with a spell that made it so I was smashed down against the ground! And then they tied me up and tried to make me tell them where the garden was!" She pointed a hand to the turtle hung around the bespectacled man's neck. "But that turtle was following a scent that brought them here."

"The . . . Children." Sayuri whispered darkly.

Sayuri was still starring, unable to understand what she was seeing. "E-excuse me, hello?" The man called.

"Arthur." The man at his side muttered. "I think it would be best if you stand back." The second man gestured as more Pixies rose from among the flowers, not the frightened little sisters, but more Elder Sisters. Yui counted at least forty Knights and Shamans, probably all of the ones currently in the Garden. The hovered about like a cloud of autumn leaves.