Chapter Twenty One: Ron's Confusion
Haru was still shaking badly as her brother and sister ran up to her, Makoto being with a babysitter. Hiromi gasped at the long scratches on her sister's arms, and beckoned for Ron to follow the couple out to the family car, where Ron held Haru on his lap as her twin doctored her wounds. The pianist tried to apologize.
"I'm sorry for disrupting the play-"
"Forget the play! Where is that sleaze ball of a magician?!" Tsuge growled angrily, fingering a crowbar between his fists. Ron gestured with one hand, surprisingly calm, now that his fiancée was safe.
"Don't worry; he won't be able to perform any magic tricks for a while."
Haru shuddered uncomfortably.
"Did I kill him?" she asked in a tiny voice. She may have hated the guy now, but death was a little harsh. Her boyfriend squeezed her hard.
"No, but he'll be unconscious for several hours, and I doubt he'll come after you again."
The slim brunette relaxed slightly as Ron continued to squeeze her, letting his warmth flow into her and soothe her spirit. Tsuge grinned proudly at his little sister, certain that she had decked her old fiancée hard.
The slim brunette wondered; just what had happened in that classroom? There was no way that any light in there could have been so intense. Haru had never been a true believer of magic, but there was no other explanation for what had happened.
But… what had made her old engagement ring explode like that? She felt lucky that she didn't get a piece of it in her eye or something. Her mind gave a shudder, sending cold vibes through her body again.
'That tree… it has my ring.' What if she really did engage herself to it? What if whatever magic had happened that night wouldn't allow her to become bound to anyone else?
She snuck a glance at Ron, wondering if she was putting him in danger by seeing him. But she hadn't seen any walking trees come by her house, and if anyone else had seen it, then she would have read about it in the paper, or Yuki would have mentioned reading about it.
But that crow still hung out in her front yard a lot. Why hadn't it put up a fight about her blonde beau? Just what had happened that night?
Her eyes hardened, knowing what she had to do, to keep the tattered remains of her sanity.
Even if, by a sad twist of fate, it meant losing Ron forever.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hiromi had insisted on driving Haru home, since Tsuge hadn't let go of the crowbar yet. As much as the Cat King wanted to go with them and give Haru more comfort, he knew that the sister and her husband would want to take him home after Haru, and he was too distraught to think of a way to dissuade them or explain that they couldn't get to his place by driving alone.
He settled for helping his Haru into a car seat and kissing her goodnight, excusing his strange behavior for wanting to be sure that Machida couldn't get at her again. They bought his story, and left.
Muttering angrily to himself, he walked into a back alley and made his usual portal, praying that some new information had been dug up on Haru's ancestor.
Having previously tasted Machida's magic signature, he knew that the burst of light hadn't come from the magician, and his fiancé had been the only other one in the room. Her protective charm should not have reacted like that.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The clerk looked up as the portal materialized; grabbing a few books he had set aside.
"I was just about to call you, your Majesty! I found the person you had asked after!"
Baron shifted into his true form; pleased that something was going right. He sat down on a couch as the old clerk pulled up a table and slammed his books into it. Grabbing the top one, he coughed, signaling the beginning of a lecture. The monarch suppressed a groan.
"Tell me, your Majesty; do you remember any historical figure that went by the name of the White Witch of Geraldo?"
Baron blinked; the name slightly familiar.
"Please tell me about her."
The librarian excitedly opened his book.
"Well, her personal name was Naomi, she was the greatest witch of her time, and turned the tides of battle more than once in the Fifty Years war. She was immensely lovely, and was courted by your ancestor, King Geraldo IV. She was very well respected for her power and grace. It's a shame that she died in battle before her wedding to your ancestor; her genes were remarkable."
Baron pulled out the family tree Haru had let him take, to track down her ancestor. Although there wasn't a birth date for Naomi, there was a death date.
"When did she die?"
"1702."
Baron looked at the tree, slightly put out that the written date was 1713.
"…when her child was only ten years old."
He shuddered a bit. If one calculated the time it took to carry a child…
"Are you certain that she died in battle?"
"Well, your ancestor was. Naomi apparently did a spell that defeated the enemy, but killed her as well. All they could find of her afterwards was part of her paw."
"Paw? I thought you were talking about a human girl."
The librarian laughed, fishing out a book from the bottom of a pile to flip towards a bookmark in the middle.
"Oh, no. If she were a human, then she wouldn't have been called a white witch." He found the page he was looking for, and gave it to his monarch for examination. Baron stared in amazement.
The white cat painted on the old page was very beautiful, but it was her eyes that the feline monarch couldn't stop staring at.
They were full of pain, of strength, of hope, and an unwavering determination to do what she thought was right. Whoever the painter was, he was a master, to have captured all of her emotions so flawlessly.
Baron knew the interpretation was flawless, because Naomi's chocolate eyes were just like Haru's rich brown ones.
"Two missing fingers…" he whispered, hardly daring to believe what this had to mean.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Your Majesty, what you're suggesting is out of the question! The only cats that can shift into humans are members of your own family!" The library clerk had been desperately trying to get his monarch to calm down, as the orange cat paced madly around the library.
"But it's the only plausible explanation for Haru's unique abilities! There are far too many coincidences to ignore!" The king continued to pace, his mind putting the puzzle together.
If Naomi was the greatest witch of her time, than she surely had enough power to change to a human shape. And she would have needed her great power to reverse the spell that the human brides of the royal family always eventually insisted on, so they could understand what their subjects were saying. But without the natural shifting ability, it would have had to have taken most, if not all her power to do it. But why would she want to be a human badly enough to fake her death before marrying his ancestor?
"…and she said it was very conceited of him to think that she would fall all over him for being a royal."
Baron grinned, remembering Yuki's words. Naomi probably had Haru's independent spirit, and wanted control of her own destiny. Perhaps she had even fallen for a human before his ancestor made his feelings known, and saw faking her death as the only way to be with the one she loved without offending her king, who she may or may not have liked as a friend.
But to cut off part of her paw? She must have had extraordinary willpower. Baron wondered if she regretted her decision right before being hung. No, being Haru's ancestor was enough to say that she wouldn't have regretted the little happiness she was able to find for herself.
Naomi must have still had some feline traits after her transformation. But since the species change wasn't natural or part of his family, the traits would get broken into a pattern similar to what Haru described to him. But shouldn't his people have heard of a family that could talk to them before he became enchanted?
What if… what if with each passing generation, the ones in Haru's family born with the cat ability became better than the last? What if speaking to distant kinsmen wasn't the only cat ability that had been passed on through the centuries?
What if… the white light had been Haru's heritage, helping to defend herself at her worst moment of peril, when she couldn't run and had no one to help her? The magic he had felt just before finding Haru was strong and wild.
That much uncontrolled power could become dangerous to anyone close to his beloved brunette, if she didn't keep control of it and herself. If she didn't know how to control it.