Ballad of the Blue Roses

Chapter Seven
Impulse

Staring was widely considered rude, as Galathea had drilled into them along with a right mass of other etiquette know-how, even if some of it was frilled around the edges where she didn't know either. Frankly, Bud never really cared. Yet, for all his oblique glaring at the woman who draped herself so ostentatiously on Elazul's elbow, Lisa saw it before he did.

He caught on a moment later, and the pair of them dashed behind the couch, out of sight, before their surprise gave them away.

"You see what I see?" Bud hissed. Lisa nodded, then shook her head.

"You keep watch on them," she whispered back, "I'll find Galathea."

They touched fingers briefly before Lisa disappeared into the nearest arched doorway. Rubbing his hands together anxiously, Bud found himself the darkest corner and waited. Part of him wanted to warn Elazul, too, but the more cautious part of him knew better than to draw attention to himself.

Lisa scurried as fast as she could, working her way back outside through the winding passageways. The rooms became brighter and more lived in, prompting her to move faster. Turning the corner between the kitchen and the antechamber, she ran headfirst into the house servant.

"I'm sorry," she curtsied politely, inching around him as deftly as she could, "I didn't mean to, I got a bit lost, you see."

He grabbed a hold of her shoulder. She was already making up answers in her head, but he didn't ask her where she had been or where she was headed; he didn't even point her in the direction he wanted her to go, as she might have expected. He squeezed.

Her scream was short and strangled; the man serenely clenched one hand about her throat. Far from calm, the girl struggled to call to mind the Circle, but her vision swam and her concentration fluttered dangerously. The shadow grew, until the hold loosened, ever slightly, and she managed to jerk free.

The moment she did, her attacker half-turned to face the master of the house, and was neatly cleft in two. His body fell one way, his head the other; her rescuer curled his lip in distaste, different from the sheer revulsion that overtook her. Gagging at the sight, Lisa covered her mouth and fought the urge to throw up.

"Are you all right?" Escad asked. There was a brusqueness to it, but that was to be expected – he never did know how to be properly concerned.

Lisa nodded, swallowing hard. Her throat ached, and her voice rasped when she spoke, "Is Galathea with you?"

"No." He half blinked before he remembered to ask, "Why?"

--

"You really should hurry, you know," Alexandrite told her. Galathea sighed deeply, gazing over the edge of the chasm. The climb had been long, and she had scattered all but her last nerve – she needed the few seconds to recover the rest, anyway.

"Tell me what you know," she replied darkly, "and I'll consider it."

"There was this one man, a human, if it helps you, asking about the Jumi." The man leaned in close, as though confiding a secret... or particularly savory gossip. "Specifically about Jumi cores."

Taking her time to clean out grave dirt from underneath her fingernails while she listened, Galathea waited politely for the rest, until she glanced at Alexandrite and realized he was waiting for an audience, at best. With a huff of admonition, she told him, "I'm listening."

"And I thought I'd... help him out." He shrugged amicably, to no effect.

"You don't say."

"Oh, don't mistake me, Clarus," Alexandrite warned her. "I meant no ill, I wanted to know what he was up to, was all."

"And what was he up to?"

"You mean you haven't got it all figured out?" the man scoffed robustly at her intelligence; she granted as much, even if she did not appreciate the joke. "He wanted a core, of course. One in specific. Mine..." There was a hitch to his voice as he favored his wording, or she imagined it. "Mine simply wouldn't do."

"Cut the act." Standing with the help of her staff, Galathea paced a circle, coming to stand before of the would-be Jumi savior. "Tell me straight, and stop wasting my time."

"No appreciation for a good story, you." Alexandrite wilted, but Galathea nudged him with the tip of her shoe. He stood, slowly, gazing upwards at the vaulted cave ceiling. "Alright, fine. He wanted a specific core..."

"You said."

"... of the Jumi that had fallen into his lap some years back. She was in hiding, he protected her. He was smitten, or whatever you humans are when jealously guarding something you want to keep, no matter what it might think of the situation."

"Hypocrite." Alexandrite crossed his arms, and the woman repented, ever slightly and if only at face value. "Keep talking."

"So when you ever so graciously saved u-... saved them, she wanted to return to her kind. He became bitter and wanted to keep her core if he couldn't at least keep her. Know who she was?"

"Yeah, I do." A Jumi. A girl whose only sin was wanting to live, and turning to the wrong man. Peridot. Galathea closed her eyes, wishing she could get away from the alien glow of the earth. "Where do you come in?"

"I wanted to know what he was up to – decisive planner, he is. He knew you were around, and knew he had to throw you off track somehow if he was ever to get away with it."

"Sandra." Darkness gathered around her hand, trailing along the length of her weapon. Alexandrite took note of it with as much disdain as he might a mosquito; ignoring the warning, he drawled on at his own pace.

"He needed someone to test his magic on. He wanted to make sure a life could be destroyed, and the core remain. I..."

This time she heard it clearly, as his voice hitched again. He sunk to the ground, no longer interested in the conversation.

"I was a convenience."

That was all she was going to get. Having had enough of Alexandrite's self-pity, Galathea measured the distance and the date, although the day eluded her. Being deep in the earth, she failed to get her bearings; she kept thinking it was Gnome's day, though it somehow seemed appropriate enough.

"As I already told you, you should hurry Galathea Galilei."

His voice cut through her meditations, much to her annoyance. Taking no further time, she cut open the rift and stepped through. She hated that method, would have preferred it any other way, but she was out of time.

--

When Escad stormed into the room, his sword bare and still stained from its last kill, Elazul immediately felt for his own blade for reassurance. Escad did not appear to be a man who maltreated his weapons thus, which meant that he likely to be expecting a fight. The temple knight took no notice of him, but stalked to the vanity, where his wife admired herself with all due grandeur.

"How dare you allow into my house a man who-..."

He trailed off as Elene turned to face him, and he fell to staring at her chest. Regarding his appearance, she greeted his arrival with an air of haughty indifference, "Been traipsing about the countryside, playing hero again have you?"

Raising his gaze, Escad asked, dangerously metered, "... what is that thing around your neck?"

"This? It's nothing, just something I picked up in Geo-" She tried to dismiss him, but he caught his fingers under the long chain and slipped it over her head. It was only then that her eyes darkened. "Really, Escad, you can be quite impolite..."

"Elazul..."

"That's mine," Elene snarled. Escad ignored her, tossing the necklace to his guest instead.

"...catch."

The necklace itself was simplistic in design, silver and green mineral beads, with an expertly cut green gemstone pendant. It was less the circumstance, and more the stone that sparked his understanding. Had he been himself, he was certain that he would have felt its resonance. He held the thing half away, too horrified to draw it close, but unable to merely cast it away.

"I thought so," Escad said flatly. Turning back to Elene, he demanded outright, "Where did you get it?"

"Give it back," she snapped in reply. "It's mine."

Elazul finally broke through his trance, and drew his sword. In his offhand, he clutched the fractured Jumi core so tightly that he could feel his pulse beating in place of where the sparkle should have been. Flanking him, each of the twins pulled their eccentric weapons from... somewhere, proving their tutelage nicely.

None of this deterred the woman.

"Suit yourselves," Elene sneered. She turned her back to them, facing the vanity mirror. With a flick of her fingers, the mirror shattered into a thousand tendrils of light.

--

The rift opened into a locked closet, to her complete annoyance. Hoping she was, at the very least, in the right house, Galathea borrowed a small amount of Gnome's power to blast the door open. Stepping out, she brushed herself off, and looked around.

It seemed to be Escad's dwelling... although even if it was, she would still be obligated to apologize for such an indecent and unwelcomed entrance. The more she tried to ignore it in favor of the more pressing matter at hand, the more it prickled her sense of good conduct. Fortunately, there was something else prickling at her senses – a surge of Mana, drawing in and resonating outwards in a circular pattern.

Cautiously, she sent a filament of an idea to Lisa, and was not surprised that it went untouched. After a moment, she sent a second to Bud, but this, too, went unanswered. Following the whirlpool, she stumbled upon the remains of the servant in the kitchen. This was no surprise, not the cause of the disturbance, and answered her nothing, so she continued onwards.

In the heart of the mansion, the disturbance was at its peak. Here, in a sitting room, she found the closest thing to an explanation she knew she ever would – broken glass and scattered green beads.

Here, she sat on the couch facing what remained of the mirror and thought.

They were gone, this was certain.

But at least now there was a trail to follow.

You've been played, she warned herself, You'll be walking into a trap.

"Do I have a choice?" she answered out loud, honestly wishing that she did. Digging into her pouches, she retrieved the half of a mirror that she possessed. It was small, ancient, and reeked of sorcery – it would have to do.


A/N: This space for rent. (I forgot what I was going to say, anyway.)