The 12th Day of Resplendent Wood, 602 in the Year of Our Empress.
Elated Fury woke up with a hell of a headache. Probably from that star-witch's fist, he thought. For such a little thing, she hit like a yeddim.
He climbed to his feet, shaking off the effects of the fight. There was a little lingering soreness but not much else. Elated Fury's hands were covered with blood, though. That was weird. He hadn't killed Da'nashay and he hadn't touched that green-eyed witch either.
That's when he saw the bodies.
Da'nashay was unconscious on the bed where his lover had left him. The other two hadn't been there when he'd blacked out but they sure were now. He didn't know the man with his chest caved in but there was no mistaking the girl. How many Dragon-Blooded wore the scarlet with no House sigil? That was Iriszy, a daughter of the Scarlet Empress. She was hugely pregnant and now as dead as the man was. Then he noticed the star-witch. Why hadn't he seen her sooner? She was kneeling next to the dead girl and carefully opening the corpse's stomach with a knife. Sure enough, small movements inside suggested the unborn infant was still alive. Elated Fury couldn't help watching with a certain morbid fascination. It was a thing he would have never thought to do.
The green-eyed witch turned and looked him right in the eyes.
"Isn't it time for you to run? You just killed the daughter of the Scarlet Empress and one of her most trusted advisors. If I were you, I would already be out that window."
Just like that, Elated Fury turned and jumped through the window. A few seconds later, as glass rained down with him, he realized that he was thirty stories off the ground. Shit.
And that was the second time she'd done that to him. Fucking star-witches. For all he knew, she'd set him up. It made a lot more sense than killing two people in his sleep.
Elated Fury plummeted down and down. It gave him time to secure his knives and think things over. He'd traveled to the Imperial Manse tonight for one reason alone: he went to kill Captain Da'nashay, a Dragon-Blooded officer of the Legions who was responsible for breaking up one of his operations and murdering his men. Not even the son of the Scarlet empress got away with that sort of conduct, not in Elated Fury's book.
Only it turned out to be a setup by Iriszy, Da'nashay's younger sister and the most likely Dragon-Blooded to build a new House in the next few decades. He grinned ruefully as the wind beat at him. It really was perfect. He should have been more careful.
"This is what happens when you get bored," he said aloud, facing the ground flying up toward him. "You get reckless."
Then he hit.
Elated Fury knew a blinding moment of pain but at least he wasn't falling anymore. With effort, he pulled himself out of the cracked rubble his heavily-muscled body had made of the street. Yeah, broken arm, broken ribs, probably a broken leg there and more internal bleeding than a surgeon would believe. He'd live.
Grunting, Elated Fury lurched forward, grateful that the strange lack of a moon was keeping people indoors tonight. Lunar eclipses weren't common, especially not two in a row, and it made him feel funny as it was. He didn't need witnesses to point and scream "Anathema!" at him too. They'd probably be doing that soon enough, no need to hurry it.
He made it two blocks over before he found a bolthole. The silversmith who owned the shop was part of his fencing operations, a convenient place for people to 'repair' valuable objects that they'd never previously owned. The hatch in the back of his workshop would lead down into the tunnels and, presumably, freedom.
Elated Fury's Anima smoked into a hazy life about him as he shut the door, illuminating the interior. He could have changed his eyes but it would have been more effort and he was tired. Really tired.
"You have been better," the Scripture of Crimson Silver said at his side. He glanced at her, unsurprised that she was there. The Scripture was the closest thing he had to a girlfriend or wife and they'd been lovers for several hundred years now. She put her arm around his waist and he gratefully leaned on her a bit. "You look like a caravan ran you over."
"I picked a fight with a street and lost," he said.
"Unwise."
"No shit, Scarlet." He pulled the hatch open with some effort and clambered down the bars before closing it again, trusting it would remain discreetly concealed. She was waiting for him at the bottom. Of course. "How's Keen Tide?"
"Sleeping," the Scripture said without emotion. His youngest daughter was only a year old so that wasn't surprising. What did surprise Elated Fury was how good the Scripture was with caring for children...when none of them were hers.
"Fine. I think I'm going to have to go to ground again, Scarlet. No help for it. I got set up like I was some kind of amateur. Maybe I am these days." He started down the tunnel, navigating his way through memory.
"Decentralizing your operations does not make you an amateur," the Scripture said firmly. "Nor does trusting your sons to handle administrative matters. Even if they are Dragon-Blooded." The last was said with a bit of an affected sneer.
"Give it a fucking rest, bitch," Elated Fury said, rolling his eyes and looking away from her. It helped him concentrate on where to put his feet in the dark. The underground tunnel system was extensive and sometimes made use of old ruins but this set was all handmade and the ground was rough. "I told you decades ago that you were right. I just don't like Dragon-Bloods, pure and simple. If I'd known those women had Breeding...well, now I stick to peasants."
"Your own blood has mingled with that of the Dragons and you still do not trust the Terrestrial Exalts, even though a dozen number among your children." The Scripture was watching him. He couldn't see her but the weight of her gaze pressed on his skin.
"It's different," he insisted. "They're my boys. I've known them since they were kids. I know their loyalty. You're right, I don't trust the blood of the Dragons. But I trust in mine. And I trust yours."
"Please do not start that again." The Scripture of Crimson Silver voice was sharp. "My answer remains the same. I will not bear you a child."
"Luna fuck me, did it sound like I was asking?" Elated Fury really did roll his eyes this time and his exasperation was not remotely feigned. "I'm over it. I let it drop. What more do you want from me?"
"Your love forever."
Elated Fury stopped. He kept his back to her but he knew how she looked, even in the darkness. The memory of his latest daughter cradled in her arms crept forward. There was something oddly right about it. She always looked that way when holding his children.
For the first time, he thought about it, really thought about it. Another woman might have been uncomfortable with the significant number of other women's offspring in her life over the centuries. But the Scripture of Crimson Silver was...not like other women. At least, he'd always assumed that. Maybe it was time he stopped assuming.
"I can't give you that," he said at last.
"I know."
"You know I care for you, Scarlet."
"I do know," she replied quietly. "Your feelings for me have always been consistent. I know."
"Alright, you know why I can't make you that promise?"
"I know better than you do," the Scripture said. He turned around to look at her but she was indistinguishable from the darkness. That was a choice, of course. When she didn't think about it, the Scripture emitted a very faint rainbow only noticeable in darkness like this. She was refusing to right now.
"Whatever." Elated Fury slowly exhaled and started walking again. "There's this...restlessness in me, Scarlet. Children are great, I love children. I love my boys and my girls have made me proud too. Women, though...it's not the same. Or maybe it's too much the same."
"You do not have a deep, abiding drive to love one to the exclusion of the others," she answered for him. "Much like your children. You do not play favorites with them because you care for them all. As you care for me, as you have cared for most of the woman who bore you offspring."
"Luna's eyes, do you have to be so blunt about it?" Elated Fury said, wincing at how the truth made him look. It was a truth they both tolerated for many years but it didn't make him any more comfortable to hear it spoken.
"I want from you what you cannot give me, Elated Fury. I want that deep, abiding drive. I want your exclusive commitment."
"Then why haven't you left me?" he demanded. "Why stick around with a guy who can't give it to you?"
"Because it is not your choice and it is not your fault." Her words surprised him. Elated Fury half-expected her to be crying like any one else would after saying something like that. She was as tearless as ever, though. "I love you in that way. It is enough for me that you give me what you can, for as long as we both can stand it."
"Women," Elated Fury muttered.
"You are still unsettled," the Scripture said at last, ending the quiet that had grown between them. Elated Fury took a last turn and pulled open a secret door to one of his hidden rooms. The interior wasn't exceptional but it had a bed, clothes, food and all the basic necessities for a man on the run. "Your concerns are broader than Dynastic retribution. Or me. It is time, lover. Tell me what you encountered."
"There was a...witch there," Elated Fury said, reluctantly, sitting on the bed. "A witch like Lingering Whisper. Her eyes were green, not purple, but she had every trick that Faceless Fuck had and then some."
"She defeated you," the Scripture said, making it an observation and not a question. The Scripture of Crimson Silver didn't ask questions, seeming to know everything. In this, Elated thought she was a splendidly typical woman.
"Yeah, she kicked my ass. I'm over it, though. The Wyld Hunt will be after me again and that's what worries me more."
"Tomorrow you may worry about it. Tonight, I want you to come to bed." The Scripture's eyes gleamed beneath her veils and Elated Fury suddenly realized she was tense. She was only tense under one circumstance. "I can taste the glory on your skin, lover. I would drink from it."
"Sure, what the hell." Elated Fury spread his arms and the Scripture of Crimson Silver came to him. One by one, her veils and silks fell from her, laying bare the most perfect body in Creation. The Revealed Scripture kissed him and kissed him again until all concern was gone. Until there was only Her.