Chapter 2:
Haunting Pasts
The sky seemed set ablaze as the setting sun slowly hid behind the tips of the century-old trees in Hartcroft’s central park. Whatever warmth there was during the day was swiftly getting swept away by the howling wind. It somehow managed to penetrate even the warmest of clothes, giving you a taste of the vicious winter that was to come. But even though night was just about to descend, in the quick and sudden away it engulfed the world during the autumn and winter months, many people still strolled up and down the alleys. Young couples walking hand in hand, cuddling with each other to keep themselves warm, families with their kids out on a late stroll or just the rare lonely traveler- everybody refused to go before it was absolutely necessary, too stubborn to waste any of the precious time they could spend here before the freezing winter took hold of the city.
And the leaves just kept on falling like a rain of gold, bronze and rubies, hiding the ground under a widespread blanked that looked to be made entirely of autumn-colored patches sewn together. Gone were the birds that had claimed these very trees as their kingdom during the spring and summer and now only the occasional late squirrel darted from one branch to another in search of leftover chestnuts. And even though there were so many people around, it was a lonely picture. It was a masterpiece, that was certain, but the hidden bleakness behind the warm colors was merely a façade. Every year around this time, the world was slowly dying in its endless cycle of reincarnation. It was a slow and probably painful death and Ayaka felt disgusted when she caught herself admiring the dreadful masterpiece of nature along with everybody else. The girl hated bearing witness to such soundless agony. Death should be quick and sudden and painless. Better yet, one must never even realize it has happened. At least that was the opinion of the bespectacled girl.
A faint sigh escaped her lips as she cast her black eyes up. The heavy clouds had lied to her, tricking her with their false promise for rain while they just lazily made their way through the sky while doing nothing. To top it off, they had been waiting for almost an hour now, her back was getting stiff from sitting on the cold wooden bench for so long and Jed had talked her ears off with his usual delusional tales.
“…And after I got back, I was too scared to even look at a short-haired girl in the eye or drink any orange juice for six months straight!”
Ayaka stubbornly refused to comment, partially because of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation and partially because she was scared of hurting her only friend’s feelings. Jed usually just started another story or got lost thinking about something equally crazy so the situation was probably going to get solved by itself pretty soon. Having nothing else to do, the bespectacled girl straightened the hem of her plaid skirt for the umpteenth time and sneaked a look at her handbag, safely tucked between the two of them in case her mysterious contact tried to steal it. She considered her peculiar purchase a bargain. The strange shop’s owner had been somehow both reluctant and willing to sell it and after a small session of haggling, Ayaka had managed to officially get hold of the card for a fairly reasonable price. Of course, if she was lucky, that very card was going to turn out to be priceless.
Tired after the hour-long battle with boredom, her wandering gaze settled on another teenage couple sitting next to the fountain. Only those two were a couple in the literal sense and their positions somewhat mirrored those of the marble statues behind them. The grim Hades lying in the Goddess of Spring’s lap, his chosen one feeding him grapes with her tender fingers. Only the modern live-version depiction of the statue included an overly-cheerful jeans-wearing Hades and a less than serious, constantly giggling Persephone prone to playing with her boyfriend’s hair.
The sound of creaking bones brought her back to reality. Jed seemed on the verge of falling asleep from boredom and apparently trying to manually rearrange his bone structure by stretching was his way of dealing with the problem. What’s more, his silverfish eyes seemed to be looking in the direction of the happy couple as well. The blonde teen’s wide yawn, more akin to a snake detaching its lower jaw than anything else, enlightened Ayaka to a horrible dilemma.
What if Jed expected her to propose something similar? Was that why he was constantly following her around like a lost puppy while no one else wanted to even speak to the creepy quiet girl in school? True, Jed had never shown any sign of a crush before, nor had he shown any attraction to the opposite sex. Or his own. Indeed, Jed was a riddle covered in a mystery wrapped inside an enigma and to think he’d have such… ordinary human interests was nigh unthinkable. And Ayaka just didn’t like her friend in that way.
Jed was just that… Jed. Fun, caring, goofy and always there when she needed him- and many times she didn’t and actually wanted some peace and quiet. But the bespectacled girl had never thought of him as someone male she could date. He was a like whole other species entirely to her. A very strange kind of friend species. But if she told him that and he got offended… Jed’s attention had never been one to be kept by a single thing for so long. If his only reason to be with her was that and Ayaka shot him down, there was a very good chance of Jed leaving her life for good.
Forever.
Ayaka frankly didn’t know why she even cared. After all, she had decided long ago that she was better off on her own- none could get hurt because of her that way. From a certain point of view, that was maybe the chance for the teenage girl to set her friend free. And yet she didn’t want to. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, humans were social creatures by origin. It was their nature, after all. Even if all they did was get hurt when they neared each other, they would still do it again and again because for a human… for a human solitude equals death.
The girl’s lithe fingers crumpled her skirt, not even aware they were clutching it tightly. Ayaka hoped Jed hadn’t heard her audible gulp and hid her eyes behind the veil of her black shoulder-length hair to make sure her expression didn’t reveal her intentions. She just couldn’t let Jed go. He was her sole outlet and if deceiving him for a bit and feeding the boy delusions about a possible future together meant keeping him around, she would do it. She would lie and shoulder this evil because if she ended up alone again, like that time surrounded by the raging fire, she would never survive. Her faked affectionate voice was barely a whisper when she spoke.
“Hey, Jed… uhm, would you like to-“
“Why, for heaven’s sake, why?!” cut her off Jed and waved his hands at the directions of the couple, angry for reasons unknown. Ayaka blinked in confusion. “Who in their right mind would put that statue there instead of, say, a four-hundred feet tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings? Preposterous, I tell you. People nowadays have no sense of taste.”
So he had just been watching the… statue? A sense of relief washed over Ayaka and yet there was some strange tinge of… regret mixed into it as well. Thankfully, it seemed that her grandiose self-centered friend had never even noticed her speaking up. And so the two were back to their silent watch, twilight turning quickly into impregnable darkness. The park finally emptied out. The only illumination was coming from the lamppost lining up along the numerous alleys. And while the brave electrical wardens provided a seemingly safe area of brightness around them, the patches of darkness in-between somehow only got scarier. To Ayaka’s overreacting imagination it seemed that all kinds of nightmarish creatures were hiding inside the pockets of darkness, lying in wait for the lampposts to flicker out so they could lunge at their harmless prey.
The eerie combination of the chilling wind and the never-ending sound of falling water coming from the fountain wasn’t helping her nerves much either. She tried to reason with herself that she was getting scared of things she didn’t even pay attention to during the day but her mind refused to listen. Maybe there really was something or someone watching them from afar. Or maybe the bespectacled girl’s instincts really were just on the level of a normal human and she was getting scared of being relatively alone in the park in the middle of the night. Like any sensible girl her age would react. Ayaka unconsciously moved closer to Jed.
“You wanna go home yet?” asked the blonde boy, his eyes kept close as he tried to catch some shuteye while sitting on the uncomfortable wooden bench.
“No,” was Ayaka’s simple reply. She couldn’t go yet. Not until she learned what she had come here for in the first place. “You can go if you want, tho,” added the girl with an even voice, even though she wanted anything but being left alone out there.
A loud boyish laugh was the answer she got.
“You kiddin’, Aya? I promised you I’ll wait with you ‘till the end, right? So it doesn’t matter if it’s sunny or cold or day or night. If you say we wait, we wait. I might have to knit us a tent of dead leaves or something soon, tho, it’s getting pretty chilly.”
The bespectacled girl easily noticed how real Jed’s exaggerated shudder actually was. Honestly, who in their right mind would go out in such a weather wearing just a plain old T-shirt? Without saying a word, Ayaka removed her jacket and handed it to her friend without even looking. Even though the whole thing went completely against the established rules of etiquette, the ‘gentleman’ immediately grabbed the warm piece of clothing and just thanked the girl with a hearty laugh. Soon the steady, almost comical sound of exaggerated snoring filled the freezing air. Finally daring to glance to her side, Ayaka saw that Jed had draped her jacket like a blanket over himself and was currently fast asleep. And he somehow managed to look and act ridiculous even while being unconscious.
Barely a minute later her phone started ringing, scaring the life out of its owner as its otherwise cheerful melody chased away the silence suddenly enough to make Ayaka jump up slightly. She quickly answered the call without even looking at the caller’s ID, too concerned about not waking Jed to care.
“Listen, dearest, when doing serious business like ours it’s considered polite to do it alone.”
The unknown female voice on the other end of the line chased away whatever doubts she had had of someone watching them from the darkness. The bespectacled girl frantically looked around but the veil of the night was too impenetrable for her to notice even a silhouette.
“Are you talking about Jed? He’s just a friend, he’s not-“
“Regardless,” cut her off the woman. “It was hurtful you know, being forced to wait so much just because of your selfishness. And here I was actually honoring our deal…”
Even though she didn’t know how the caller looked, the tone made Ayaka picture an almost perfect fake pout. This Juliet surely was a strange one but at least she wasn’t a creepy middle-aged man. Or at least it seemed so for now.
“Wait, I…” the girl paused, unsure what to say in such situation. “I didn’t mean to be… disrespectful.”
“Oh, drop the formalities, kitten, we are business partners, aren’t we?”
“Uhm… yes. We are,” finally agreed the black-haired girl, deciding that playing along with the other woman was the best course of action for now.
“Okay then. See, we are getting along fine from the get-go! Now go down the alley to your left. I’ll be waiting at the sixth lamppost.”
The call had been canceled before Ayaka could even realize what the other person had said. Once again doubts clouded her mind and the darkness around the girl seemed ready to suffocate her at any given moment. But she had made her choice even before coming here. It was her first and possibly last chance and even though she was grasping at straws, she knew of no other way. Ayaka glanced one last time at Jed, sleeping as soundly as ever, before taking her handbag and heading out.
The imaginary beasts hidden under the veil of the night leered at the girl as she slowly made her way down the empty alley, counting the lampposts as she walked. After what seemed like eternity, she finally reached the sixth. But there was no one there. Ayaka Millsbury was the sole person standing under the flickering light of the lamppost.
The girl’s blood stopped in her veins when she felt the cold blade run across the skin on her neck.
“I wonder, little bunny, are you really that stupid or are you just too idealistic for your own good?”
The woman’s voice hadn’t changed in the least, remaining somewhat cheerful even as she held the sharpened blade to Ayaka’s neck. The girl felt a hand seemingly embracing her from behind, both to keep her still and to search through the contents of her handbag. The assailant found what she had been looking for soon enough. Brain running solely on instincts, the girl’s hand grasped the wrist of the other woman. It wasn’t a tight grip, nor was it some kind of sudden movement. Ayaka had just taken hold of it, the little girl inside her hoping to save her precious treasure that way. Her assailant didn’t seem fazed by her actions in the least. Instead, the other woman just embraced her fully from behind. Ayaka even felt a pair of breasts pressing against her back through her sweater.
“I don’t think that’s the wisest move, Aya,” sing-sang the older woman and tried to wrestle her hand free from the girl’s grip.
Not even saying a word, the bespectacled teen just kept on clutching the hand which had stolen her little treasure. Even if she had to hang from the other woman’s hand like a ragdoll or get her throat slit, she wasn’t going to let go. She just couldn’t.
“Don’t take it,” Ayaka muttered almost inaudibly.
“And why, precisely, shouldn’t I? Do you even know why do you need it?”
“I just… know,” replied the girl simply. The knife moved down from her throat to the hand holding her assailant one’s captive. But instead of the feeling of the blade biting deep into her flesh, the knife only pulled up her sleeve a bit with its tip and pressed itself to her pale skin. And even though the blade was as cold as ice, all Ayaka felt was pain like fire shooting out from the wound that had opened on her arm earlier that day.
“Still bleeding ruby tears from the wounds, huh?” rhetorically asked the woman and lifted the blade to the girl’s eyelevel. The tiny crimson droplets fell down from the tip of the blade like clockwork. Ayaka could almost swear she could hear them as they hit the cold pavement, one after another with each strike of the imaginary clock’s hand. “You don’t even know it, darling, and still you crave it strongly enough to be chosen. Somewhat ironic, isn’t it? Why don’t we speak eye to eye for a bit?”
Ayaka found herself getting yanked around and coming face to face with her assailant. The woman was a head taller than her, seemingly in her early twenties. Her whole image contrasted with the fact that she was currently pressing the tip of her switch blade to Ayaka’s pale neck. Even under the fur-rimmed jacket it was noticeable that the woman had quite the curvaceous figure. Her blond ponytail billowed slightly due to the night wind and the smile on her face was the kind of smile someone like her should have when gossiping with her fellow models.
That was the image of the ones that got attacked, not the ones attacking. And Ayaka’s brain had trouble processing the ridiculousness of the situation.
“I did promise you I’d tell you about the War if you find the card, didn’t I?”
Ayaka could only nod ever so slightly, weary of the blade pressed against her neck.
“The concept is quite simple, you know. Seven mages enter the contest by controlling exceptionally strong familiars. Whoever’s the last one standing, gets the Grail. And the Grail, dearest-“
The woman’s voice turned into a whisper as she leaned closer and buried her face in the girl’s black hair, whispering into her ear.
“-is the power to turn you greatest, wildest wish come true.”
Pulling back, the blonde flashed Ayaka yet another innocent smile, knife still pressed to the younger girl‘s neck.
“But it’s a dangerous contest after all. Kill or be killed… but you already know it, don’t you? Instinctively. And whatever part of you was responsible for your self-preservation… it’s dead now, darling. You’re neither idealistic nor stupid. I can see it in those cold emotionless eyes of yours… you aren’t scared of dying. Tell me, can you be called human if one of the things that marks you as human the most is taken away from you? You’re soulless, Aya. A monster. What kind of a wish can a monster like you have?”
The minutes passed in silence until the girl finally dared to answer.
“You are right to think I’m a monster… but I’m a monster precisely because I want to live so much.”
The total lack of emotion in those words could’ve made the skin of anyone who managed to hear them crawl.
“But I can’t stand this way of living anymore. And I need the power of magic, I need a miracle. And I would do anything-“
“Would you?” cut her off the blonde and once again leaned closer, close enough for Ayaka to see her reflection in the other woman’s deep blue eyes. “Would you really do anything?”
The moments passed in silence, the younger girl the epitome of a marble statue frozen in time and the older one just idly twirling the hair of her younger counterpart around her finger.
When Ayaka finally spoke, her voice was once again devoid of even a tinge of emotion.
“I would.”
The blonde’s lips curled into a smile that almost split her face in half. The knife was suddenly gone from Ayaka’s throat and she felt the other woman intertwine her fingers with the girl’s own. The bespectacled girl lost her balance when she was hastily yanked forward.
“Okay then. Kill me.”
The façade finally cracking down, Ayaka’s eyes widened when she realized what the blonde had said. The knife, having been forced into Ayaka’s hand, was now pressed against the slender throat of the older woman. Her hands were now gripping Ayaka’s tightly, making sure she could only move her hand forward.
“You said you would do anything for that miracle, didn’t you? Then do it! Prove you are willing to kill for this miracle of yours, darling, because if you aren’t, you are better off slitting your own throat here and now compared to entering the War unprepared.”
The black-haired girl’s hand started to tremble as she tried to break free, all her efforts in vain. She had to kill? But precisely because she was a murderer she wanted to change things! She needed this miracle to erase her own sins once and for all… but was it worth it to add even more deaths to her account along the way? What if she just wished for them to be alive and well in the end? It didn’t matter who she killed if she won and, besides, it wasn’t like there wasn’t enough blood on her hands already…
The eyes of the two women met, locking into each other as both refused to look away. Even though her hand was shaking hard enough for the other woman’s hands to tremble along with it, the tip of the knife pushed harder against the blonde’s throat, a thin stream of crimson now trickling down her slender neck.
Just one more push and it was going to be all over.
Just a little bit more and she could take back the card.
Just one little movement of her hand and the blonde’s whole life was going to be erased in the matter of seconds.
It was the shriek of a broken person that echoed in the stillness of the night. Ayaka fell to her knees like a marionette with its string severed, her hand still forced to clutch the blade as the blonde kept on holding her arm tightly. Hot tears ran down the girl’s cheeks as she finally broke down after so many years and her voice lost its usual emotionless, turning into broken sobs instead.
“Don’t make me do it, please, just don’t make me kill anyone again! I don’t want to become a murderer again, don’t want to, don’t want to, I DON’T WANT TO!”
“The choice is yours then,” was the blonde’s answer, her voice still as calm as ever. Ayaka looked up in surprise with bloodshot eyes when she felt the knife getting taken from her and she felt the tight grip on her hand finally loosen. “Enter this War and win without taking anyone’s life or just forget about it and spend your whole life asking yourself ‘what if’.”
The worn-out card was now extended to Ayaka, the picture of the knight in shining armor clearly visible under the light stemming from above. A blank check was in the blonde’s other hand.
“You can fill in any sum you wish,” clarified the blonde and winked at the kneeling girl. “But if you choose the money, the easy life filled with parties, drinking and trips round the world, you lose your chance at the War. Pick the card, you get a shot at the War and you’ll be able to witness it in all its gruesome glory but you just might be able to win yourself that miracle you want so much.”
Ayaka could only stare at the two slips of paper offered to her in astonishment. The blonde didn’t seem surprised by her reaction. Once again, an impish smirk played on her lips.
“Think carefully, Aya, your whole future depends on this one choice, here and now. Your choice will decide whether you are going to spend the rest of your living days in regret and drowning in ignorance to your potential or you’re going to open your eyes to the bigger picture, to the world you rightfully belong to but remains hidden behind the scenes. Just make the right choice, little bunny, and I promise-“
The blonde leaned down to the girl with the bloodshot eyes, once again whispering tenderly into her ear.
“-I’ll show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
With a trembling hand, without even daring to look up, Ayaka pulled out the Saber card from between the blonde’s fingers.
“Good girl,” congratulated the blonde with a bright smile and helped the younger woman get back on her wobbling feet. Ayaka found herself with a phone and a memory stick pushed into her hands.
“Now, of course, every contact comes with a certain price. Tonight you’re going to perform the ritual explained here. Tomorrow, you will go to St. Patroclus’s Cathedral and search for Father Luciano. Tell him you are a participant in the War and he is going to explain everything to you, it’s his job. Aside from the summoning ritual, I’m not going to give you any information on the War because you are probably going to end up letting slip that you know those things with your reactions. You are going to visit him as much as you could and keep an eye on him. You’ll also take notice of all the details about the other Masters you meet. If you don’t want to kill, then don’t. Information on someone alive is worth more either way. All in all, handle this however you want and you get to keep the miracle if you win it. All I want is information, okay? You can do that, right?”
Ayaka just nodded weakly, still clutching tightly the Saber card in her hands as if afraid it would melt into the darkness. The blonde just shook her head and, with a smirk plastered on her face, silently walked away…
“Oh, and one last thing-“
The bespectacled teen’s heart sunk when she found the hated blade once again pushed into her hand.
“-Keep the souvenir. You might need it.”
***
He hated autumn. Hated it with a passion comparable to that of the might of a thousand exploding suns.
It was not a hatred without reason. Autumn just reminded him of himself so much that it made him sick on the inside. It was like a constant reminder of how desperate his situation really was and what the inevitable result was going to be. Everything- from the wilting flowers to the visage of the dead scrunched-up leaves littering the ground- was like some twisted visual representation of his inevitable fate. The trees fought bravely for every leaf and even the lifeless flowers tried to retain their beauty until their final moments- but winter… winter always came. And he knew well enough that if his winter ever came, there was never going to be a new spring for him.
A life stuck in a never-ending autumn, dying even while still being alive. That was the life of the one named Glen Grimaldi.
And for every day of this half a life, Glen had lost one tiny bit of himself after another. The pain of his own body devouring itself from the inside out, the foreign flesh and blood dripping like acid inside his own veins- it had been too much to bear for all these years. And so, after so many sleepless nights of biting through his own veins in hope of stopping the pain, he had chosen to deaden his own feelings. And while Glen could no longer feel the breeze of the morning wind, the pain was pushed back in the background of his screaming mind.
He was a Grimaldi after all- he had to endure.
It was a more than a decade already. A decade since he had been given the greatest honor of them all- to be the next head of the family, to be the Crest-bearer, to be the one true scion of those who bore the name Grimaldi. His was indeed the greatest honor of all, an honor for which any other member of his family would have gladly given his own heart. And give his heart Glen did- and embraced the Crest as his new one, embraced the lifeless flesh and blackened blood, embraced the darkest prana that bore the history of a whole millennia as his new heart.
He was a Grimaldi after all- no sacrifice was too great for the family.
The first few months after receiving the Crest were a blur of endless torture to him. All he remembered were the screams, the never-ending screams that he could hear coming out of his own throat. And the sense of the foreign flesh spreading through him, muscles and tissue dying and reviving again and again as his body tried to fight off the corruption. There was no blood in his veins- only fire, both red and black, his own and not at the same time. But Glen, even when insanity had nested deeply itself into his brain- his only way to cope with the eternal pain- had fought. Endlessly.
He was a Grimaldi after all- it would have been dishonorable to give up.
But, in the end, it hadn’t been his own strength that had saved his life. The one he had once called his brother, the one that had been supposed to bear all that pain, had finally come back. A knight in shining armor, rushing in to help the helpless victim. But Glen knew his brother well enough to recognize the guilt in his eyes, even through the misty veil of pain and madness. And, true to himself, the elder one had disappeared soon after. The rescue had been done and a new life had been bargained for Glen. A parody of a life which both Grimaldis recognized well enough.
The sole thing keeping Glen alive was the one thing that was killing him- a black heart both his own and not. The heart that embodied the whole millennia of his family’s bloody history. And so there had been no hatred in his voice when Glen had bid his brother goodbye. The younger one was a lost cause, living nothing but a borrowed live. His brother had done his duty to regain the honor lost and had left him to his own devices. Glen understood his decision to leave him again afterwards. Or, at least, he fooled himself that he did.
He was a Grimaldi after all- and a Grimaldi always took the rational decision.
So in the name of his one single goal, he rationalized each and every loss. Prana was the one thing that sped up his Crest’s corruption- so he gave up his magecraft. The pain had forced him into madness- so he had killed off his senses to keep his sanity. He had found himself forced to brave the whole cruel world and the curse inside his veins alone- and so he had discarded the human inside him.
Glen’s existence truly was a sorry one- but he would have killed anyone to retain it even for just a bit more.
Still, no life was worth living without a bit of fun. And being stuck on the verge of death for the majority of his life, Glen had learned to appreciate the smallest of pleasures that the Fate which seemed to hate him so much was willing to give him. As mushy as it sounded, Glen loved looking over the city at night. It was somewhat like a hobby of his, spending the sleepless nights just observing the city that never slept- the city of a thousand tales- instead of bothering himself with the nightmares that still haunted him. Maybe it was just because he had been born and raised in a rather rural area but the skyline of Hartcroft had always seemed so… majestic to him. In Glen’s opinion there was no better masterpiece.
An enormous, seemingly never-ending city veiled by the darkness and yet illuminating the night with its dazzling lights, mirroring the stars in the skies above. And Glen was part of his mental masterpiece as well- perching on the terrace’s edge with one leg dangly idly just like now, a lone figure stuck between the moon and New York City.
“You do realize that if you fall all my hard work will be in vain, right?” suddenly asked an all-too-familiar female voice that yanked Glen back to reality. “Seriously, Glenny, you are so selfish!”
“The hypocrisy in that statement is so much that I won’t even bother to comment,” replied the teen with an even voice and threw a condemning look at the newcomer with his tired eyes, colored an eerie green hue.
The blonde was certainly stunning that night. Not that she usually wasn’t- but the tight-fitting black dress with the high slit really brought out her finer… assets. The lacey stockings were quite the addition as well, gathering many a man’s looks if the leers thrown at the blonde by the ‘gentlemen’ who were still inside the ballroom were any indication. Apparently she was supposed to be a vampire, judging by the amount of make-up she had put on to get the pale look and by the dark mascara smeared around her eyes. Glen admitted that she couldn’t have picked a better beast to dress up like- the blonde was widely known for being one hell of a leech when someone needed her services.
As she always said, information was power. And power didn’t come cheap.
“And why aren’t you dressed up, Glenny?” drawled out the blonde and pointed at him accusingly with a finger clad in elbow-long satin gloves. “Meissa would be furious if you don’t follow the dress code for her own birthday party! And, besides, do you even realize how much time she spent setting this whole gig up and persuading all those rich snobs that were forced on her guest list to dress up as well?”
“We already ‘talked’,” said Glen and made air-apostrophes for emphasis. “I told her I was going as myself this year. A zombie infectee.”
“Oh, come on,” protested the blonde and waved him off dismissively, flashing her signature cheerful smile all the while. “It’s not that ba-“
Glen lifted his left hand for her to see. The sleeve of his shirt was rolled up but the teen showed no concern for the biting cold- after all, he could barely notice it with his senses deadened as they were. All the way down to his elbow, pale ghastly flesh had replaced his own and even under the dim light coming from the inside, the black pulsations of the web of veins under the corrupted flesh were clearly visible. Glen didn’t wait for the blonde to comment.
“It started acting up this morning… I can’t contain it to the chest area anymore. He’s here, Nia, grandfather’s here and the Crest is trying to set up the host body for him.”
To her credit, the one called Nia didn’t look fazed by the news at all. Instead, she just started digging through her rather miniature handbag. The somewhat cocky smile never left her face.
“While I appreciate your sense for dramatics, little Hamlet, you insult me by implying that I of all people don’t already know that.”
Glen’s eyebrow hid in his dark red hair when he recognized the small figurine being offered to him. Inside Nia’s extended palm lay an ordinary chess piece- a black knight. The red-haired teen picked up the figurine and held it at eye level.
“I guess now’s the moment when you admit you’ve officially gone stark raving mad?” finally said Glen and threw an aside glance to his long-time acquaintance. Nia just leaned closely to him, her exaggeratedly ruby lips curling into a vicious smirk. Those false fangs almost looked real on her, as if she was getting ready to pounce on him and drain him of his blood.
“Or maybe this is the moment when you get on your knees and thank me for getting you this.”
Rather theatrically, Nia swiftly took out something else out of her handbag- a worn-out brownish card. She held it up for Glen to see clearly- both the armored man riding a chariot and the bold text under the picture.
“Rider,” whispered Glen, almost in awe, as his perpetual mask of boredom finally cracked. “So it’s really true, isn’t it? There’s going to be a War here in Hartcroft?”
“It seems so,” replied Nia but pulled back her hand when her red-haired friend tried to seize the card off her grip. “And I really am offering you to join the game board- hence the knight piece- but before that, Glenny… we’ve to make sure you really want it.”
The blonde extended her hand over the railing, ready to drop the card at any given moment. Or at least she would have if Glen hadn’t stopped her in mid-motion. His face was now back to its usual disinterested expression.
“I’m not one to let you play your little mind games, Nia. Stop it.”
“Oh, you’re no fun, Glenny,” replied the blonde and pouted, an expression both so fake and so realistic. “Here then, just take it! Consider it my early wedding present for you. And tell Meissa you won’t be getting another one.”
The redhead took the offered card without bothering to answer. But the moment his fingers touched the surface of the worn-out paper, pain shot through his hand as if his flesh had suddenly been ripped open. And, in reality, it seemed that precisely that was the case. Small droplets fell off his bloodstained shirt and onto the knight piece as Glen kept on holding to the Rider card, his magic circuits being forced open after so many years. The crest picked up on it as well and his blackened heart started beating faster than ever. But it all died down quickly enough when Glen forcedly dammed all the prana in his body, leaving his circuits empty and lifeless once again.
He rolled up his stained sleeve and inspected his new wound under the light stemming from the ballroom. Even though it had bled profusely mere seconds ago, the wound seemed to have closed up on its own. It would have looked like any old scar if not for its peculiar form. A sword-like symbol encircled by the familiar broken circle which represented the snake chasing its tail depicted on the Grimaldi coat of arms. But instead of the sun that always accompanied the snake as background on the family crest, the third symbol of Glen’s seals was a moon. An ordinary full moon like the one he liked to watch during the sleepless nights. It suited him, he thought.
“It seems to like you,” teased Nia and leaned closer to inspect the wound. The expression on her face was like that of a little girl exploring the outside world for the first time. “I couldn’t get a good look of the one that Saber’s Master had, tho. I wonder if they are similar in some way?”
“I honestly don’t know if I should be happy that you seem so willing to discuss other competitors or if I should be scared that you’re probably treating my personal info the same way,” said Glen and threw an unamused look at the blonde.
“Easy now, dear Glenny, you know I’d charge triple for any info on you,” shot back Nia and waved off the redhead’s comment with a dismissive hand.
“I can sleep soundly now, thank you. I’m just flattered, given how concerned you are about my well-being,” replied Glen with a look that could convey how positively not-flattered he was even to someone blind.
A minute passed in silence, the teen inspecting the card and the young woman just gazing at the skyscraper-ridden horizon.
“So why didn’t you keep a card for yourself if you had two?” suddenly asked Glen and his eerie green eyes shifted to the side so he could observe the blonde’s reaction. “Surely you must have some big wish for the Grail to grant you. Or do you just want to play chessmaster by controlling the participants?”
“I actually had three cards, mind you. Well, technically had.” Nia replied casually and puffed her buxom chest up a bit in a display of pride. “But my initial contact fell off the radar completely. Somehow. So instead of bothering with him I had that girl go buy the Saber card from that old coot in Chinatown. He would’ve never sold it to me. Whatever wishes I have, I need no miracle to achieve them. And why should I bother playing chessmaster? That’s no fun at all!”
“But yanking the pieces around, messing whoever’s the guy in charge’s plans- that’s what I love! No game’s fun without me derailing it!” proclaimed the blonde and threw her hands up in the air. She looked like a little girl stuck in a grown-up’s body.
“So how did the meeting with this other Master go?” asked Glen in an attempt to steer the conversation away from any future grandiose theatrics on Nia’s part.
“Oh, I think we got along swimmingly!” replied the blonde with a meaningful smirk. “I even got her to cry for a little bit.”
“What did you do again?” asked the redhead after letting out a tired sigh at Nia’s usual antics.
“I made her hold a knife to my throat and tried to force her to kill me,” blurted out the blonde in a single breath. A cheerful smile danced on her face, eerily contrasting with the contents of her statement. Glen’s eyebrow once again nearly got lost in his hair.
“What?” protested Nia. “It makes sense in context!”
Glen didn’t seem to be impressed by her defense. The blonde let out a sigh of her own and turned to go back inside.
“Aren’t you coming?” she asked and threw a teasing look at the red-haired teen. “Meissa said she’s taking her real guests to the Starlight to celebrate her birthday proper.”
“As strange as it sounds, I’ll pass up this opportunity to spend even more of my precious time with her,” answered Glen and shook his head. Makes you wonder why, huh? Given her sunny disposition and all that.”
“The arranged marriage is hard on her as well, y’know,” chastised him the blonde, her voice being a bit more serious this time.
“Well, that makes two of us then,” shot back Glen and turned his back to Nia, ending the conversation.
The blonde left soon enough, leaving behind the red-haired teen finally alone at his favorite place on Earth. High in the air, stuck between the city and the moon. But this time there was someone else there to keep him company- the bloodstained figurine of a now crimson knight.
Originally Posted by I3uster
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