Chapter 10- Darkness before dawn
It was always the darkest before dawn
If you want to run away. That's the time to do it.
Except.
The source of her nightmare was standing outside, arms crossed in front of his chest and glaring at her.
It was, of course perfectly normal for Eve to find strange things waiting for her outside her door (random Glastheim monsters, candles, dried fish, weapons left out to be sharpened, Ethrel, cloths and the like). Eve accepted that, if strange things happened outside her door, they happened for a reason.
But still, in times like this, the priestess wished she stayed in bed.
"Come with me." Was the first thing Dante said, in a tone used to address something under the sun that's been dead for a week.
Eve could, of course, have thrown something sharp and metallic in the face of her midnight visitor, which would have at least appeared far more impressive. But all she really did was to adopted her usual crisis role, which was to stand there with her mouth hanging open and let it wash all over her.
Dante's expression was difficult to read. Considering he didn't have any. Truth be told, the assassin cross has always been limited when it came to facial expressions. But at least he still showed something back at Sabre (this usually involves Dante being too busy bullying Eve or pissed off at Raye to realize his omg-scary-assassin-façade had slipped). But ever since they arrived in Glastheim (which was exactly one month ago when he tried to impale her with a pair of daggers), whatever emotions the assassin cross had once show seemed to fade, replaced with something cold and unfeeling.
It seemed almost… inhuman?
"Um." Eve managed. Back to the present, where she was still facing a certain individual outside her door and having to come up with an appropriate response to his request. "Where are you taking me?"
"That is not of your concern." Dante replied blankly.
Eve found that to be very irritating. It was every bit her concern, considering she was going out for a stroll with an assassin cross who's sanity is still in question, and in the middle of Glastheim where she had every potential of becoming mushroom fertilizer long before anyone noticed she went missing. These were times Eve wished she was more like Raye, who would have laughed in the face of it all. But then again, the stalker had way too much confidence for his own good.
Raye, who rarely lost his composure yelped and leapt back in surprise upon opening his bedroom door to find his wizard guild mate standing right at the entrance, still as a statue.
"Shane. What the hell." He said in a tone of forced calmness, recovering from his shock, how long had the wizard been outside his room? And more importantly, what the hell was the wizard doing there all this time?
"Gaven and Vash are outside." Shane said, apparently not having any intention to explain what he was doing outside the stalker's bedroom at six o'clock in the morning.
"Is he?" the stalker replied blankly. His sleep clogged brain had yet to find the link between the knight's arrival at the guild and Shane's presence outside his bedroom door.
"Vash needed your help removing Gaven from the front door."
Gaven looked like something a Wild Rose gagged up upon discovery by the rest of the guild. Raye took one look and reluctantly donated his strongest dagger. It had taken several hours with the guild's combine effort (Vash and Raye's) to carve the knight out his dented armour.
The next few days or so Vash spent chasing down priests in the Prontera church with promises, bribes and occasional blackmail. He failed miserably of course but that was ok because Gaven survived anyway. Knights were in general good at getting themselves mangled very badly and recovering afterwards. The ones that don't tend not to live long enough to pass down their genes.
Then one sunny afternoon, half a week after Gaven's appearance which was entirely random and remained positively Eve and Dante free, the guild gathered in the knight's room.
"Well?" Raye asked as Gaven worked on a large chunk of banana bread.
The knight looked up. Sadly, a look of comprehension failed to cross his face.
Raye raised an eyebrow. Vash fretted. The stalker only ever raised eyebrows when Dante was around, usually at the time when a lot of good furniture turned into fire wood. "How did you get all those injuries?" the champion rephrased in a hurry before things got noisy.
"Oh", Gaven scratched the back of his head. "Abysmal knight got me."
The guild fell silent.
"I told him he ought to stop looking so gloomy." The knight added. "I guess he didn't appreciate it much."
Silence ensured.
"And what's with all that black armour?" Gaven continued, ignorant of incredulous stares generated at his direction. "What's wrong with blue? Or green?" He blinked, looking around the room. "Purple is ok too."
"Where's Evelyn and Dante?" Shane was first to break the silence with his quiet voice.
"I don't know, we got separated."
Eve would have never guess there were so many corridors and hallways in the Glastheim church (but then again the end result would have been the same, with her superior lack of navigation skills). She was struggling to keep up with the assassin cross who seemed to be in a hurry, for reasons she tried not to think about too much as they were most likely associated with her and her sudden demise.
The priestess wish she had more courage to stand up to her abductor, but it was very hard to think when very sharp katars were pressed against one's neck. Their little conversation had ended quickly with the assassin cross loosing his patience and pouncing on Eve before she had time to reach for her own weapon. His final words before dragging her down the corridors were rather encouraging and consisted something of "That was not a request. Come with me quietly you stupid idiot, or I will kill you here and now myself."
Ahead, the darkening path began to slant downward, where the faint sound of dripping water could be heard. Eve squinted at the darkness, without much avail. Suddenly, she collided with something hard. Only when she was stumbling back from the impact, did Eve realize she had walked right into Dante who had stopped all of a sudden.
"I trust you realize you're going the wrong way." A voice drifted from the darkness. Eve almost felt Dante stiffen at the sound. Not far ahead, a ball of blue light suddenly flared up. Eve's eyes watered at the bright flare which appeared surprising like her own Ruwach spell. As light closed, the priestess realized it was being held by a tall figure, whose face was shaded by the hood covering his head.
"This way, then." The man said pleasantly, walking pass Dante who was expressionless once more. "We won't want Miss Evelyn to miss out on her test."
Only Eve could feel the slight tremor in the assassin cross' body as he turned to follow.
End of chapter 10- Darkness before dawn