Chapter One: From Those Cloaked In Skin of Night
The two girls sat there silently, finding comfort only in one another's touch. One started at the slightest sound, the other gently patted her hand, trying to reassure her. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it just as quickly, a dull ache forming in her heart as she remembered. She didn't want to remember. She wanted nothing more than to forget. She shuddered and the sisters pulled each other closer. They were twins, though they looked nothing alike, and they shared everything, including the most horrifying experience of their young lives. Their mother and father held each other closely on the other side of the room, watching the old doctor as he paced the floor. He turned at last to address them.
"There's nothing I can do," The Doctor said, rubbing his temples as if to relive a migraine. "They don't seem much different, and it hasn't affected their health at all. But one of your daughters is blind now, and the other has lost the ability to speak."
"What could have made them…" Their mother asked, glancing nervously at her children.
"Fear." The old Doctor replied. "What ever they saw, it frightened them terribly. Sometimes, the body will force a permanent shut down of certain senses, in an attempt to protect itself, or relieve itself of whatever had stressed it so terribly. This is beyond any medicine. I'm sorry, I can not undo what has been done here. But at least your daughters are alive, remember that."
"Thank you doctor." The father said, forcing back the tears that threatened now. He had to be brave, for his family.
The doctor bowed his head slightly as the family rose and slowly made their way out into the town again, the mute twin leading the blind one out into the sun. She blinked as the sunlight entered her eyes. Many Villagers from the small town had gathered, with baskets filled with what their own poor families could spare, to offer the small family. One of the men from the village stepped forward.
"How are they John?" The man asked their father.
"Not well," He replied, glancing back at his daughters. "Ruth is blind, and Sarai can no longer speak."
There was a sad murmuring through out the villagers. It must be horrible to lose such valuable senses. The twins already had enough pain in their minds since their friend, a young man in the village, had died, and now something else was eating at them. They could see it in their uncertainty. Sarai closed her eyes, wishing for nothing more than darkness, to take away those images, those horrible images. How could anyone be that cruel?
"Don't think that way, Sarai," Ruth whispered into her sister's ear. "You don't want darkness, it is not something that can save you."
Sarai felt a slight thrill as Ruth, cocked her head slightly in her direction. How had she known? Ruth smiled and suddenly it seemed so obvious. Ruth was the person who knew her most in the world, her twin sister. Though Ruth could not see, and she could not speak, they shared the same darkness. Ruth could hear her thoughts and speak for her, just as Sarai had to see for them both. Ruth was their voice, just as Sarai was their eyes. Sarai closed her eyes and sent her sister a single thought. Ruth smiled and turned her head towards the voices of the villagers.
"Father," Ruth called. Everyone fell silent and turned to the girls. "Sarai wants you to know that it's not your fault, and that you shouldn't blame yourself."
The villagers looked at the two girls in wonder as Sarai opened her eyes and smiled, shyly and sadly at them, raising her hand towards her father. The stunned man could do nothing more than take his daughter's hand.
"B-but how?" He stammered.
"I can not see," Ruth answered, "so Sarai must do it for us both. She can not speak, so I must. Her thoughts are in my mind father. We know each other better than anyone else."
But the startled villagers could only nod. They hardly understood what the girl was saying. Still, as their father started to lead them home they followed dutifully, and the villagers parted to let them pass.
Sarai and Ruth resembled each other in their faces and their mannerisms, but there the similarities ended. Both had pale skin, but Sarai's eyes were a deep blue, as blue as the sea. Her hair was dark black and hung down to her shoulders, her bangs parted to the side over her right eye, she was also slightly taller than her sister, her chest a little fuller, and she was older by seconds. Ruth's eyes were once a deep storm grey, but now a cloth tied over her eyes hid them from sight. Her hair hung down to her waist, straight and fiery orange. Sarai and Ruth however were inseparable, despite their differences. They were more than sisters, they were best friends. Both girls were small and delicate looking creatures, petite, just like their mother. But many sensed a hidden strength in them, and perhaps, a hidden demon.
All around them voices whispered, glancing at them and nodding sadly when they thought Sarai couldn't see them, but she allowed them to continue. There was no point in trying to stop them. They would continue to follow their own path, just as everyone else followed theirs. But as the crowds dwindled away and their parents continued ahead of them, the two twins stopped. Was there a meaning to their lives? Was their petty existence worth anything? Or was this all meaningless? The twins began to tremble as they thought these things, sheer terror gripping them at the thought, of not existing, or being nothing. Was there a God? Was there such a thing as justice?
A fog seemed to roll in, as if out of the shadows themselves. All of the features of the town around them disappeared, lost in the dark smog. The twins stirred in their despair, nervously looking into the darkened world around them. A man approached out of the smoke and stopped, starring at them, his shape strangely disfigured his form as wispy as the smoke that seemed to have summoned him. Sarai blinked, but no matter how she tired she could not make out his face.
"What is wrong my dears?" Said a strange voice from the shadows, a kind, fatherly voice.
"W-Where are you?" Ruth asked, "Who are you? What do you want?"
"To help you." He replied. "I know what you saw. People are terrible aren't they? But that God is worse. He sits back and lets this happen."
"How do you know what we were thinking?" Ruth asked.
"I can feel your doubts," the man said, gesturing towards the world in general. "And they are just. You wish to change this world? Then our goals are the same."
"Or goals?" Ruth asked, "But we aren't looking for anything."
"Aren't you though?" the man asked, sounding mildly surprised. "You wish for justice, and so do I. You can help me in my mission, to destroy the world, and create it anew. We can overthrow that 'God' and create a better world. You have in you the superior genes of Noah, God's greatest disciple. This gives you power. Now claim it and join my family."
"Your family?" Ruth asked. Sarai started and swung around as the man appeared behind them, still shrouded in shadow.
"The Clan of Noah." He whispered. Both girls felt a thrill of fear run down their spines as he said it. "The most superior human beings to walk the earth. It's the clan of my creation, the true apostles that fight for justice."
"B-But why do we need this power?" Ruth asked, thoroughly frightened now. She wanted nothing more than to run, but an ancient instinct held her in place, some feeling she couldn't place.
"Would you rather stay here?" He asked, "A burden for all time to your family, your poor village? Take my power and you can make everything better."
The two twins glanced in the general direction of each other. Could they trust this man? Could they afford not to? Doubts had clawed their way into their minds, and the twins began to make decisions they usually wouldn't. The smoke around them made their minds reel and spin. They could hear a voice calling their names from somewhere beyond, but they turned their attention back to the strange man before them.
"What do you say?" The man asked, extending both his hands, too large for any man, towards them.
Sarai blinked. Was it just her imagination, or was this man not human, an entirely different species or race? Something that wasn't normal? She shook her head and looked at her sister, sending her a single, questioning thought.
"What would we get in return?" Ruth asked, voicing her sister's question.
"Powers beyond your imagination," The man said, unmoving as a statue. "A new family that would accept you as you are. You would enter into a war as old as time, against fools who fight for that petty 'God' that has allowed all your suffering. Those fools say that their God has a plan for everyone, but then why then are you blind and your sister mute? Was this a part of his righteous plan?"
The two sisters shifted closer together nervously. Some old instinct told them to fear this man, but something in their souls seemed to click, to make sense as he spoke these words. A Clan of Noah? A family? An ancient war? His words were soothing, they seemed to touch the deepest part of their being, the part that had been hurt. The two twins shivered and exhaled slowly, attempting to calm their minds. His offer was tempting to them, they realized, and some how they felt as if they had to join him. Their answer was obvious. Slowly, they reached forward and took one of his large ands in one of theirs.
A bolt of lightning seemed to run up their arms to their brains, his huge hands closing in a tight grip over their own. Their spines tingled and their eyes watered, but this small discomfort was nothing compared to the pain that ran through their skulls. They both let out a tiny whimpering as they fell, held in the air by the man's strong hands. Though their skulls rattled with pain and inside they screamed, they remained limp and silent, a new instinct, but something just as ancient as man kind, told them to remain silent, to remain hidden, to remain a secret. Finally, the pain subsided and the man released them, patiently waiting as they scrambled up onto their feet.
"You are now a part of the Noah Clan, the Sorrow of the Noah." He said. "Remember that."
Suddenly the man and his strange smoke was one. The day was normal again, the sun still sinking. The twins stood trembling, starring into the same alley way they had stopped by, their parent attempting to snap them out of the strange dream they had been entranced in. For a moment, Sarai's sense dulled, and then sharpened to such a clarity that she staggered under it's unfamiliar weight. Every color, scent, sound, was more vivid. Colors wafted through the air, invisible to the normal human eye. Sarai could see further than she ever could before, make out the tiniest cracks on the bricks in the wall, the smallest web in the wings of the butterfly that passed by. They could hear its tiny wing beats, the child crying three blocks the other way. They could smell the heat rising off their own bodies, they could taste the bakers fresh bread laying in a window nearby to cool. They could feel the tiny, ever present shifting of the earth beneath their feet, the stamping hoof of a horse somewhere in town. Their own bodies seemed lighter, much too light, every muscle and bone seemed stronger, too strong for their human constraints. It was as if every molecule of their beings had been split and rearranged into something new and strange, something different, something inhumane.
"Ruth! Sarai!" their father called, shaking their shoulders and finally managing to gain their attention. "Is everything alright?"
The two twins glanced towards each other. Would he believe them? Would he believe that they had seen this man? The same instinct as before told them to remain silent. More than anything else now, the twins feared that their new strange secret would be discovered. Slowly, Sarai shook her head, and Ruth smiled encouragingly at their father.
"We just can't wait to be home again," Ruth lied smoothly, "We just got side tracked, that's all."
Their father didn't look convinced, but he allowed the comment to slide without question, not wanting to startle them any more than they had been when they had arrived. He nodded as if he believed them and then continued on his way, leading his small family towards their home. The twins were each lost in their own thoughts, their mother twisted her hands nervously as she followed them.
It was a comforting sight, seeing their home exactly as they had left it. Sarai led Ruth into the small room they had always shared, and they sat down upon their beds. Starring out the window at the now setting sun, dipping slowly behind the gapping mouth of the horizon where it would be swallowed until morning came. It was suddenly too silent. The sun was oppressive, dying though it was. They longed for darkness, the veiling shadows of night. They longed for quite simply, the complete absence of light. And night was coming.
They let out and inward sigh as the last of the light seemed to drain from the earth. The darkness heightened their senses more than they had already been, and even in the dimming light they found that they could still see. But a strange feeling of foreboding came over Sarai as she sat there, and she reached for the small hand mirror that sat by her bed on the table. She gazed at her reflection in confusion at first, she must be seeing things. The skin of the creature in front of her was gray, dead gray, a gray that blended in perfectly with the darkness surrounding it, the features of its face barley visible to Sarai's keen eyes. But the most startling feature were its eyes, unlike any man or beast's she had seen. Hey were gold, a color that looked sickly against the dark gray of its skin, and there were three brown rings inside of its iris, circling perfectly, one inside another until they reached its pupil, a dark black hole that could suck anything inside of it. Sarai blinked, and the creature did as well. She smiled, and teeth, dazzlingly white against the darkness, appeared, but it never reached the creature's eyes, which held sadness of too many years, ageless but sinister. Sarai shuddered and glanced at Ruth. She looked the same. Sarai sent her a mental image of what they looked like and Ruth sat up and turned to her sister.
"Is this what that man meant when he said we are 'Noah'?" Ruth asked.
Sarai made a soft whimpering noise, unable to answer with words. She continued to gaze at her sister, then back down into the mirror in her hand. She shuddered, but reached for the bottom drawer in the table, moving aside its contents until her long, lean fingers closed on the object she was seeking, an old skinning knife that their father had insisted that they keep in the room for protection. But now they had other intentions for it. An urging in their hearts made them shudder. It was barbaric, what they were about to do, but it was instinct, an instinct they must obey.
"I'll do yours," Ruth said quietly, "If you'll do mine. I trust you more to do it. Twelve crosses, one for each hour of the night before the sun rises."
Sarai liked her lips, sending her sister an affirming thought, and then wrapped her fingers tightly around the hilt of the knife. She brushed aside her sister's bangs and found her trembling. Slowly, she raised the blade to her sister's forehead and touched the tip of the blade to her skin.
"I'm ready." Ruth whispered.
Sarai let out a whimper as she plunged the blade into her sister's skin, through the muscle and deep into the bone itself where the marks would always be evident. She drew the blade sharply down a few centimeters, and then ripped I back out and placed the fine tip against her sister's skin again. With a snarl she shoved it back in, dragging it with the same ferocity as before, dragging it to the right the same number of centimeters as before. Sarai pulled it back out and Ruth let out a tiny whimper and reached up to take the blade from her sister's hand.
Ruth slowly guided the blade to her sister's skin and touched the cool metal to her forehead. Sarai felt herself begin to tremble, fear made her want to toss the blade away, but rage was building inside of her, rage at the unjust world they lived in. It would feel good, this strange branding that was about to take place, a branding both physical and spiritual. It would be crying out against all that was so unjust in the world. The blade that now pierced her flesh made her gasp, it burned, but she dared not cry out. But the pain only increased as the knife struck her skull. Then back out it came. She wanted to run away, to run the other direction. No more, no more! She couldn't stand it, but once again an ancient instinct held her in place. She hissed between her teeth as the icy burning metal sank into her flesh again. And then the blade was pulled free from her, and she was left gasping, her fingers already reaching for the blade again. The cross that now burned in her head was a sign of the deal, the final signing, and Sarai knew that, whatever happened, she could not go back. She felt like she had lost something important at that moment, but never the less, she reached forward to draw the net cross on her sister's flesh.
"One." Ruth said, trembling as the blade touched her skin again, only wishing for it to end, but knowing that they had a long way to go before it was over. "This is going to be a long night."
The Clan of Noah was a secretive group of individuals, each with their own unique powers and their own tastes. There were originally thirteen of them, but every now and then, another Noah would form, a new Noah with new powers. The Noah, you see, reincarnated after every time they died, reappearing with another named at another time. They also did not age. But most peculiar about them was their "Noah's memories". These memories were the combined experiences of every Noah, it told them how to act among normal humans, it told them when a Noah died, and now, it told them of the birth of a new Noah. Those golden eyes flicked around, looking for the source of their discomfort. Seeing nothing, they turned to their master, the Millennium Earl.
"We have some new additions to the family," The Earl announced. "Two girls. A girl named Sarai, and her twin sister Ruth. But one of them can not see, and the other can not speak. It is because of humans. Yes, man. He is a cruel and violent creature. Now you see why we hate humans."
The Noah hissed, an unearthly animalistic sound that should never come from the throat of such humanoid creatures. They moved among themselves with anxiety. Already their Noah memories sensed the pain from the branding. They were ready to be off, to find their new sisters before anyone else discovered their secret.
"It has been nearly a century since we have reappeared," The Earl continued, "But now we must go. Let the world tremble at our passing. Do not hide your true forms, there is not need to. Not even the Black Order can hope to stand against all of us. The Exorcists have had peace with the Akuma long enough, now, let them come and challenge me."
The Noah smiled, evil sinister smiles that were made worse by those golden eyes, their dead skin. Some of them cackled with insane laughter, a laughter that would make skin crawl for those who were not of the Clan. The memories of the Clan of Noah slowly corrupted those who fed on them, some became truly evil, while others maintained some of their human values and were driven to the brink of insanity, not quite insane, but no where near normal. The Earl gestured towards the door, which swung open as if on its own accord, revealing the streets of the will worn town that lay beyond.
The Noah needed no more encouragement. They poured out onto the street, passing the occupants of the town with such speed that few even started at their passing. The Noah's smiles impossibly widened, some even filled with teeth pointed like fangs, as the spotted the black and silver uniform of an Exorcist.
"Ah," The Earl said, landing before him, "What timing!"
The Exorcist's two Finders started to tremble as they caught sight of the Earl and the strange creatures behind him. The Exorcist pulled out his weapon, facing his unpredicted opponents, ready to fight if he had to.
"What do you want Earl?" The man growled.
"Simply to reintroduce my finest creation to the world." He replied.
He motioned and the creatures all stepped forward. The Exorcist and his Finders shifted nervously. The Noah beamed at them, but their eyes held no warmth.
"This is my Clan of Noah," The Earl beamed, "The creatures that have not appeared in a century. Now my children, don't be shy."
The Finders gasped as the Exorcist was lost among a tangle of limbs and blood as every Noah rushed forward. They ripped him limb from limb and snapped his neck all in a span of three seconds, then returned to the Earl's side, lapping at the blood on their fingers as if it were a rare treat. Then the Earl turned to the Finders.
"M-Monsters!" one cried.
"Congratulations," The Earl remarked, "You've been chosen to deliver a message to the Black Order. Tell them that the Noah have returned, and that this war is about to hit its stride. Hurry now, before I change my mind."
The two men turned and fled as fast as they could from the Earl and his mad creations. The Earl watched them for a moment, then glanced at the two Noah by his side.
"How many men does it take to deliver a message?" He asked.
"Just one." They relied in unison, raising their golden colored revolvers and training them on the head of one of the Finders.
There were two cracks of thunder through the still air.
At the Black Order, another kind of initiation was taking place. A young man around the age of fifteen had joined the Exorcists. His hair was white and his eyes were a blue-grey color. Across his left eyes was a scar that curved irregularly until it reached his forehead and formed a star. His left hand was red as a result of the green cross shaped crystal that gave him the power he held. But now he stood in front of a creature unlike any other. This creature was blue and opaque, with a slug like body and many hands hidden under her skin. She had a human head, but no eyes. Where those eyes should have been began the roots of strange tentacles that laid over the back of her head like hair.
An ancient prophecy, written by a Civilization farther advanced than our own, told of the coming of the end of days, and gave specific instructions on how to prevent this. It told of the Millennium Earl, the creator of Akuma, which were living weapons created by having a heart broken human call a deceased soul into its body, trapping the soul and taking on a human disguise. It also told of the Earl's followers, the Noah, that appeared every few generations, and of a crystal that could be used to defeat the Earl. It was defined as the Crystallization of God's power, Innocence, like in the young man's hand.
Innocence could be transformed into two types of weapons, those that took the form of a weapon, called equipment type Innocence, and those that were part of the human's body, like the boy's, known as parasite type Innocence. Those that could use Innocence were called accommodators, or Exorcists. Their job was to defeat the Earl's minions. But as the Akuma and the Noah began to grow stronger and evolve, the Exorcists joined together to create the Black Order. The Exorcists wore black and silver uniforms, while the Order's symbol was a silver rose.
The boy, named Allen Walker, was standing on the platform opposite the blue creature, known as Hevlaska. Watching were hundreds of Exorcists, members of the support staff, all in white and silver uniforms, and Finders in brown uniforms with large radios on their backs. They watched attentively as Hevlaska suddenly swayed and began to speak.
"I sense a great deal of strife surrounding you Allen Walker," She said, "You will be at the center of a great upheaval. Your syncronation rate with your innocence is eighty nine percent, but I sense that it will grow much higher. Your Innocence will provide a great destroyer of time." There is murmuring through the crowd at this. "But listen, there is something else."
Hevlaska swung her head back, as if looking towards the heavens. She was large enough to swallow twenty or so Exorcists at a time, but she was a gentle creature, and would never do such a thing. She began to speak in a cadenced and hypnotic voice, as if reciting poetry.
From those cloaked in skin of night,
Come those whose hearts may still have light.
And though hate sows its wicked seed,
Their pain and anger and loss we need.
From bloody cross whose grief breaks all,
To silver rose whose petals fall,
A treaty must be justly won,
Or hope shall perish, our fight undone.
Six of the lost, reaching for light,
Will come to announce where their loyalties lie.
Six well loved, weighed down by strife,
Must release their anger, or lose sight of life.
Each of the twelve has something to give,
But none of them yet has a reason to live.
Each of them has a haunted past,
Memories that lie in the sorrows that last,
And despair hangs, the blade of a knife,
Until one by one they must leave all behind.
And woe to us if even one should fall,
They stand between destruction and us all.
Breathe in blood's bitter perfume,
For without them man is certainly doomed.
But there is a hope that lies inside,
The memories behind those golden eyes.
It is ancient, a path most rare,
A path that few could travel with care.
It will make no sense until they see,
The reason that they can not flee.
Old bonds, once lost, forged anew,
And enemies most powerful, though few.
This age old war may come to an end,
By the hands of those we would never deem friends.
And with that, Hevlaska disappeared again into the deep dark abyss that she dwelled in, deep in the heart of the Black Order, leaving the speechless spectators behind. For a moment all was silent as they pondered what had just been told to them. They didn't have long to wonder however as a Finder burst into the room, drenched in sweat and blood, his eyes wild.
"It's the Noah!" He cried, "The Noah have returned!"
And the Finder crumpled to the ground.
Sarai let out a quiet sob as Ruth wrenched the blade away for the final time. That was all twelve crosses. Ruth whimpered and threw the blade away. Hot blood poured down their faces, into their eyes. The world was weeping for them, the life blood of their veins mixing with the salty tears on their faces.
"What's going on?" Ruth whispered, "Why did we just do that? Why did we do it? Is this a part of what that man said?"
"Of course," came a voice from the shadows. "You've become a Noah, just like me."
Sarai turned to see a man sitting on the window sill of their bedroom window. His skin was gray, his eyes gold, his hair was black and his bangs were combed back under a top hat, revealing the crosses on his forehead. He wore a suit and tie, with gloves freshly pressed as if her were simply a gentlemen they had run into on the street. Under his left eye was a single mile, a distinguishable feature on his face. He climbed up here, though their window was on the second floor and he had never opened the window.
"Who are you?" Ruth hissed suddenly, "What do you want?"
"Easy," he replied, "I'm a friend. My name is Tyki Mikk, the Pleasure of the Noah. And you are?"
"I am, I mean, we are," Ruth said, glancing at Sarai. "The Sorrow of the Noah?" the word was still unfamiliar to her, "My name is Ruth, and this is my sister Sarai."
"Good." Tyki said, "You can trust me. I am here because of you two."
"Because of us?" Ruth asked.
Tyki slid off of his window sill and sat down on the bed next the Sarai, sighing and pulling off his top hat. He reached up, ignoring his white gloves and wiped the blood away from her brow with his thumb.
"One of the most trying times for a Noah," Tyki said, "is when they are becoming a Noah, like you two are now. Trust me, its not something that any of us would have anyone else go through, and its only going to get worse from here. I'm the only one here now, but I guarantee you any of them would gladly come in here too."
"Why?" Ruth asked, "We don't know any of them."
"It's because we're family now, aren't we?" Tyki asks, still absent mindedly stroking Sarai's cheek. The motion was calming to her, and Ruth began to calm as well. They felt safe with him, stranger though he was. Tyki noticed, and glanced between them. Sarai sent Ruth a mental image of his reaction.
"Oh," Ruth said, "I have a mental connection with Sarai. She sees for me, and I speak for her."
"Really?" Tyki asked, his eyes flicking from twin to twin. "Interesting."
There was the sound of the stairs creaking under the weight of a man, and Tyki glanced towards the door, stepping back towards the widow as he did so.
"Remember that I'm here," Tyki said, "but I have to go now. Don't worry about your appearance, just will yourself to look normal."
And with that he disappeared. The twins did as he commanded and Sarai started as their appearance returned to normal, pale skin, normal eyes. Even the blood and those bloody crosses were gone. But a deep pounding was beginning in their heads, growing stronger and more painful as they sat there. Their father poked his head into the room.
"Are you alright?" He asked, "I thought I heard another voice."
"We're fine father," Ruth said, "Perhaps you were just dreaming."
He didn't seem convinced but disappeared again. The twins glanced at one another. What was going on? Everything was changing so quickly.
"It's begun." Tyki said from the shadows. "By the time the sun rises tomorrow, you will have completed your Noah transformations. I wonder why you have changed so quickly… The transformation usually takes weeks."
Sarai suddenly felt fear, fear at the unknown world that had suddenly begun to revolve around her. Instinctively she reached out and grabbed his jacket sleeve, trying to convince herself that everything was fine. Tyki paused for a moment, and then let out a quiet purr, like that of a cat's, from somewhere deep in his throat. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms, holding her as an older brother would hold a little sister, reunited after a long separation. She buried her head into his chest, wanting more than anything else to know that someone else understood the turmoil she was going through. Ruth sidled over beside Sarai too, and let out the same purring nose, pawing at her to look up. Sarai looked but remained silent, what else was there to do? She couldn't speak, could she communicate using sound?
"Come on," Tyki coaxed her, "We know you can't speak. Try to make the sound."
Sarai looked up at them, searching their eyes. But then she looked away. She didn't remember how to make the sound, she realized. She didn't remember how to make sound, any sound. She didn't know how to laugh, how to cry, how to speak. But Tyki continued to purr and stroked her cheek so that she would look up. She me his eyes.
"Come on," Tyki said, "Just try."
Sarai starred into his eyes, those golden eyes that seemed to stir with a deep and ancient anger. Could she make the sound? She didn't know. Slowly, Sarai concentrated on the passage of air in and out of her throat. Then she began to purr, a quiet hesitant sound at first, but growing in strength and confidence. Tyki smiled, a smile that was gentle, genuine, and touched his eyes, a smile that Noah only reserved for other Noah.
"There," Tyki said, "Now we can tell your mood, even if you can not speak for yourself."
Sarai let the sound slip away, dying in her throat. But she did not despair, and Ruth smiled tentatively. Sarai hesitantly returned her smile. Tyki sighed and sat back, pulling off his hat and running his hand back through his hair.
"You know," he said, "You two aren't the first set of twins in the Clan of Noah family. There's another. They're both guys, one named Jasdero, the other David. You're a lot alike actually, but you're also completely different. I wonder why that is."
Sarai glanced out the window, striving hard to ignore the pain throbbing through her skill. But try though she might she couldn't do it. She shook her head but could still feel the blood from those now invisible crosses streaking down her face. What did all of this mean? Why was she suddenly thrown into a new a frightening reality? What was a Noah? What was their purpose? Sarai rubbed her temples as if to relieve a migraine.
"Eventually," Tyki said quietly, "We won't be able to hide anymore. We will be shoved to the front lines of this war, and we will have to fight. We are no longer human, only phantom images of who we once were. We have no where to go. Honestly, I can't wait for the day that I finally fade from the earth."
"Why?" Ruth asked, "Don't you still have a reason to fight? Don't you care for anything?"
Tyki smiled at her, a sad smile that held ages of heart ache inside of it. He reached forward with one hand and stroked her cheek. Exorcists saw Noah as hateful, evil creatures that deserved only death, when in fact, they were only sad shells of who they used to be, broken by the will of the Millennium Earl.
"You poor child," Tyki replied, "So full of life, so innocent. But will you be able to keep your innocence when the Earl breaks you?"
Sarai looked at him for a moment, still enfolded under one of his arms. His eyes were sad, they held an inner darkness in them, like the one they themselves held. Slowly, she sent Ruth a questioning thought.
"Have you given into the darkness then?" Ruth asked, voicing her sister's thought, "Have you stopped fighting? Why have you given up?"
"The Earl specifically chooses each of the Noah for a darkness in their hearts," Tyki said, still stroking Ruth's cheek sadly, "Something that we could never forget. But out of all the people in the world, he only chooses those whom have darkened thoughts from one ancient bloodline; the bloodline of Noah. Most people today in fact belong to this bloodline, and whatever other method he uses to choose us is a secret to us. We fight his war, for he is out father. For a Noah, there is nothing else."
"Why?" Ruth asked.
"Why?" Tyki laughed, a joyless, despairing sound, "Because we're freaks, monsters! We're just another of the Earl's damned creations!" His voice softened as he stood and left them on their beds. "The sooner you realize that, the better. I'll be close by."
Tyki melted again into the shadows, leaving the two girls alone again. There was too much going on that they did not understand, too much that was a mystery. Still, they shook their heads as if to remove the pain that was steadily increasing and laid down to sleep, curling themselves together to stave off the cold, the fear, the pain. And as they were laying there, a single word creped its way into Sarai's mind.
Sorrow.
