Hi guys! I'm back. Summer work has not left much time for writing, but I've got a little break ahead of me, so hopefully I can get some more chapters out this month. I'm probably late to the party, but I just found out that they're making a new Kuroshitsuji anime, one that follows the plot of the manga. SO EXCITING! News like this just warms my little fan heart. I hope an intriguing new chapter will warm yours. :)

The day had only just begun, and already the morning was worn thin by a cover of grey clouds which seemed to scour the sky of any brightness. Lydia trudged slowly toward the stone body of Sapphire Owl House, thinking to herself that while she hadn't exactly wanted to come to Weston College in the first place, she never could have imagined leaving it like this. Yet in the face of what Ciel had done, remaining here would be tantamount to condoning his methods, and that was something she could not do. Last night she had dreamed again about the fire which had overtaken the tenement she had once worked in. The screams of the people trapped on the higher floors were as fresh and raw as those of the schoolboys from just a few days ago. No, she could never condone any justification which purposely inflicted that kind of horror onto human beings. Ciel was her brother, but if he was going to do these kinds of things, she had to leave. She would seek to solve this complex case on her own.

Perhaps, Lydia mused wearily as she began to climb the steps of Blue House, perhaps part of the problem was that Ciel had almost no experience with receiving consequences for anything he did. As the only male, legitimate heir of the illustrious Phantomhive name, he had always led a pampered life, while Lydia had been treated as more of a nursemaid than an actual member of the family. While Rachel was alive, their mother had at least tried to raise Ciel practically while at the same time attempting to hold onto her illegitimate daughter, who became more and more alienated as she grew older and the demon dug its claws further into her heart. Really, it was a miracle her mother had not suffered a nervous breakdown in the midst of all that awfulness, Lydia figured humorlessly. But after her death, there had been no one to direct the siblings, to teach them wrong from right, only a demon with a heart full of darkness. It was no wonder her brother behaved the way he did.

And perhaps that was the reason-

There was something going on in the courtyard. Lydia paused in her musings and turned her head toward the side of the building, where a flurry of commotion was taking place. She couldn't tell exactly what was happening, but she could see the top of the Herman Greenhill's head moving rapidly above the crowd. He seemed to be questioning Sapphire Owl students about something. What business did Green Lion have with Sapphire Owl so early in the morning, Lydia wondered as she stepped hesitantly toward the gathering of students. Surely there hadn't been another incident-?

From the peripheral of her vision, another blur of motion caught her eye. Lydia turned toward Sapphire Owl's main steps and nearly shouted in shock, the words cramming painfully in her throat. Atop the steps stood a tall, black figure which she knew too well. It was angled downward, and though she still could not discern any signs of a face, she was sure it was looking directly at her. Once again it slowly raised an arm, a hand, a finger. The specter beckoned to her.

Heart pounding like a steam pump, Lydia glanced hurriedly to either side. Either she was the only one who could see it, or everyone else was too distracted by the scene Greenhill was making, his voice rising in volume and urgency. However, his presence suddenly seemed less important to Lydia. She drew her school robe's hood over her head and quickly began to ascend the steps, passing directly over Greenhill as she heard him thunder something about "a threat to Weston's security!" The spectral figure ghosted backward as she approached, although it did not seem to be moving. It drifted right through the dormitory's giant entrance doors, and Lydia shoved them open and rushed in after it. She turned in a full circle before she spotted it already at the top of the stairwell, leaning over the edge as if waiting for her. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Lydia strode briskly up the steps, forcing herself not to run. When she reached the top, she followed the specter down several hallways, surrounded by students who apparently noticed nothing strange. The specter was like dark fog, melting out of sight when she approached and reappearing further away, still beckoning with that skeletal finger. It wanted her to keep following. Lydia wished Sebastian would walk by so she could surreptitiously alert him to the situation, but the demon was strangely absent from the halls of his house dormitory.

Eventually, the specter led her into the library. Lydia was almost afraid to breathe as she stepped carefully into its hushed chambers, trying to look as though she were doing nothing more suspicious than browsing esoteric knowledge, as were the groups of Sapphire Owl students crowding the tables even at this early hour. She found it highly unnerving that no one else appeared to see the towering shadow, even as they strolled within inches of it. It led her into the maze of bookshelves in the center of the room, through periodicals and texts, biographies and classics, until she found herself amidst a series of giant bookcases packed with dense, antiquated tomes. The specter stopped, and Lydia was able to approach it directly, trembling with uncertainty. The closer she came, the darker and more imposing it seemed, and she leaped back a few steps when it unexpectedly raised its thin finger and laid it upon the spine of one of the books.

It was a full-fledged Latin dictionary.

Lydia started again, hesitating for a long moment before reaching out to take the book from the shelf. As she did, her hand brushed against the ridge of the specter's finger, and she was amazed to find that it was solid, very cold, and heavy as a stone. Lydia swallowed and indicated to the weighty book in her hands. "Is this for the other book I took from Violet Wolf House? Summa Theologica?"

The specter nodded, and Lydia tucked the book in close to her chest. It seemed ridiculous to be asking this question to a menacing shadow of indeterminate origins, but as she knew of no one else to ask, she softly inquired, "Would you be able to tell me, um, what exactly it is I'm looking for in that book? It's got thousands of pages, and I don't know which ones…."

The young girl trailed off as the specter raised its hand again. It pointed its long, cold finger inexplicably toward itself. Lydia glanced at the dictionary and then back at the silent figure. "What….what exactly does that-"

"ALL OF YOU, CLEAR OUT!" Lydia gasped as a sudden roar ripped through the library, precipitated by the thunderous banging of doors. She poked her head around the corner and observed Herman Greenhill glaring furiously around the library as Blue House students scrambled to follow his orders. Thinking perhaps the building was on fire, Lydia nearly moved toward the prefect herself. An iron force upon her shoulder held her in place, and she turned her head to see several pale, spindly fingers squeezing her shoulderblade. From behind the door, Edward hurried in after Greenhill, looking pale and panicked. Something was very wrong, and if so, why weren't the leaders of Blue House doing the intervening?

"Midford, you take the pathway on the left!" Greenhill snarled, striding toward the bookcases with his cricket bat clenched in his fist. "I'll get the right. She definitely came in here, so do not lose her!"

Lydia veins were suddenly made of icy pinpricks. Greenhill had said she. There were no women in here, no servants or housemothers, and it seemed impossible he would go after one of them with such a vengeance. No, he meant her. He knew. Somehow, the prefects had found her out.

Lydia spun away from his advancing figure and realized the specter had left her side. It was down at the end of the row of bookshelves, beckoning to her once again. She was split by a moment of indecision before slinging the dictionary under her arm and fleeing toward the shadow, barely breathing. It led her down several narrow aisles before it made a sudden turn and disappeared. Trying to follow it, Lydia rounded the corner and collided with a very human body. The frantic, shaded eyes of Gregory Violet stared into hers as his slender hands closed around her arms. "You! Give me my books back!"

Lydia had moved to shove him off, but the urgency in his whispered voice startled her into stillness. She pulled them both out of sight as Greenhill thundered by several yards away, and hissed, "What the bloody hell are you up to with them?!"

Violet's fingers were shaking. He was obviously terrified, but desperation forced him to grit his teeth, casting a glance toward the area Greenhill was rampaging through. "Return my books, and give back the key you stole from my belongings! If you don't, I'll call out to him. I'll let him know exactly where you are, and then you'll-!"

"Where is Derrick Arden?" Lydia cut across his threats in a brusque whisper, staring directly into his eyes. His pupils dilated, and she could see the tremor of his breath seizing up in his chest. He suddenly looked ten times more terrified than before. He actually tried to back away, but this time she seized him and held him in place. "I've seen your drawing in the back of The Tell-Tale Heart. I saw the painting in your room. I know he and his friends are not in Purple House, even though you claim they are. What happened to them at this school? If you tell me that, I will return your possessions."

Violet whimpered, tugging uselessly against her grip on his cloak. "N-n-noooo….no, please," he sputtered, seemingly speaking more to himself than to her. "Please, don't….don't let this be happening…."

"What are you-" Lydia cut short suddenly, her ears detecting a sudden lack of background noise in the room. Greenhill had stopped rampaging and barking orders to Edward. With all the other students ejected from the library, the room was menacingly silent. Perhaps he had heard their whispers. Perhaps he was listening for them to give away their position. Lydia did not know why, but something in Greenhill's face, his eyes, made her certain that stepping out and trying to explain herself calmly was not the right course of action. Violet was barely breathing, still stunned into silence, and Lydia wondered whether she ought to try to haul him off with her or lose him and escape alone. She could easily overpower him in a fight, but a fight would draw everyone's attention…. Glancing over Violet's shoulder, Lydia's breath hitched as she observed the sudden reappearance of the spectral figure. Its hand was raised, but now it was not beckoning. It was pointing. It was pointing at something behind her, above her head.

Lydia turned to look just as the towering bookcase began to fall.

Violet screamed as the world they were standing in tilted. The top of the heavy bookcase fell like a log, slamming the one on the opposite side and trapping them within a triangle of chaos. Lydia was bludgeoned by falling books, her head struck repeatedly before she threw up her right arm to ward them off. The other bookcase gave way as Violet collapsed to the floor. A sickening snap told her she had less than three seconds to vanish before the falling behemoth crushed her. Lydia gave up her hold on the dictionary to lunge at Violet, seizing him around the waist and reaching through blind air to find her bandaged arm. She swore the thunderous crash from the bookcase's impact followed them through the blurry, illuminated world, to the first place to cross Lydia's mind. They landed on a hard surface, red brick warmed by the sun. The brunette felt wind in her hair and opened her eyes to see the terraced roof of the administration building. Force of habit compelled her to stumble to her feet as she re-covered her arm, glancing frantically in every direction. The rooftop was empty.

Violet was still cowering on the ground beside her, expecting to be hit by a bookcase at any second. When it did not happen, the cloaked prefect slowly opened his eyes, cried out in shock, and closed them again. He opened and closed his eyes three times, as if expecting to find a different scene when he looked again. Lydia bit her lip in frightened frustration. It might be best to quickly leap away before he noticed her, but she doubted he was in a proper state of mind to get down on his own. Her suspicions were confirmed when he began to hyperventilate, pulling his hood low to cover his panicked face.

"You're not going mad," she told him softly, eliciting a choked cry as a pair of wide eyes stared up at her.

"Are you- did you? How….up here?" he whispered inarticulately.

Lydia crossed her arms and glanced at the building below them. "How did Greenhill find out about me?"

She waited, then repeated the question when the shivering prefect did not speak. "How did Greenhill know? And how many did he tell?"

Violet seemed to decide it was not a good idea to refuse someone who had just pulled him through space and time. "I….I drew a picture. Of you, the way I saw you before. Cheslock recognized it and a-asked me to draw you in a Weston uniform. Then we knew. All the prefects and their fags." The skittish boy flinched backward when Lydia took a step toward him.

"I will not hurt you," she reassured soothingly. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have just let the bookcase do it for me. I only want to know…." The brunette reached into her suit pocket and removed the slender volume she had stolen from Violet's room. He made an instinctive move toward it, but stopped when she opened the last page and showed the grotesque drawing. "….Why did you draw this?"

The prefect trembled and shrank back from her. He looked like he wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. He burrowed into his cloak and mutely shook his head, his large, miserable eyes fixed on the paper in her hand.

Lydia furrowed her brow, deciding to try to make a connection with him. "I've seen him too," she confessed, holding out the picture of Derrick Arden. "I've seen him like this. It's not how he appears in his school pictures, smiling like a normal student….but since I came here, I've only ever seen him the way you draw him, as some sort of ghoulish creature. He always comes at night." Lydia tilted her head and stared directly at Violet. "Why is that?"

"What are you?!" Violet burst suddenly from his hood, the shadows rising prominently on his face. "How do you know- how could you? Are you a human, or- something else?" His eyes flew to her bandaged arm as if she might suddenly latch it around his throat. A terrible, heavy foreboding settled over his eyes. "Have you come to punish me?"

Lydia winced at his traumatized expression. "Violet, I just said I don't want to hurt you. I can help you. But you must tell me where Derrick Arden and his friends are, all right? Finding them is the reason-"

"Finding them won't help anyone! It's too late! It was always too late!" the hooded prefect shrieked, seeming to lose his control entirely as he backed toward the edge of the roof. Lydia leaped forward and seized him, forcing him away from the precipice just as another sound registered in her ears. A horrible grating noise from below, moving quickly up the side of the building….she only just had time to grasp the top of Violet's hood and yank it down over his face so he could not see the figure leaping into view. Sebastian was at her side in an instant, his claws extended and eyes a demonic red. She signaled frantically for him to be silent; Sebastian was currently the housemaster of Sapphire Owl, but it was nevertheless possible that Violet had heard his voice before. They could not let Sebastian's disguise be compromised as well.

The demon wrapped his arms around her, checking her vital points for injuries. Then he indicated questioningly toward the squirming prefect in her arms. Lydia sighed and glanced toward the deserted remains of Violet Wolf House. There was nothing for it. Even if he had been willing, Violet was not in a calm enough mental state to be asked to provide information. They would return him to the school grounds and regroup with Ciel as quickly as possible. Lydia jerked her head toward their destination, then signaled for the demon to step back while she awkwardly eased the bandages off her arm.

This time she stayed a little longer in the light, and when they re-emerged on the other side, Violet seemed to have calmed. He was limp in her arms as she lowered him to the charred grass of his dormitory's lawn. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Sebastian peering out from behind a tree. He pointed across the grounds to the Swan Gazebo, and she nodded to show she understood the message. Gently, she knelt down and lifted the hood from Violet's head. "I'm sorry I frightened you," she murmured quietly, replacing The Tell-Tale Heart inside her pocket and stepping back. "I will speak with you another time."

As she began to stride away, she heard the prefect stagger weakly to his feet. "Wait! Please come back! You can't look for him! Please-!"

Gritting her teeth in determination, Lydia turned her wrist to open the bandages. His sorrowful cries pursued her to the shore of the lightning world.

/

"We need a new plan of action. Now."

The faces around Sebastian's desk were grave and ashen. The three conspirators had barricaded themselves inside the demon's private room while the rest of the campus ran about in disarray, most of it caused by Greenhill as he continued his relentless search to find Lydia. Ciel and his sister were currently seated on opposite ends of Sebastian's bed, uncertainty thick in the air between them. They had not spoken since their row in the tower, yet the circumstances necessitating their cooperation were now too urgent to ignore. The demon was perched on the surface of his desk, his eyes still harboring an unsettling gleam. Ciel had just explained everything that had taken place in the gazebo, up to the point where he had sent Sebastian to protect Lydia. The demon had raced around campus, been alerted to some commotion in Blue House's library, and arrived to find Edward and Cheslock frantically digging through the ruins of a row of collapsed bookcases. He had been able to determine quickly that the ones they sought were not there, then continued his search around campus until he heard Lydia's voice speaking faintly from above him. The demon was tense, staring between his two masters with shadowed eyes. It seemed everyone had shadowed eyes nowadays, Lydia thought vaguely. It made it difficult to determine where their hearts were.

"You two need to continue your investigation here. There's no way we can let it go, not after what we've seen today. Your disguises are still intact, so you should be all right." The young girl rubbed her forehead painfully, feeling a bruise rising where a large book had struck her. "I'm scrapped, though. Completely bungled. I tried hiding out of sight, and it didn't work. I tried hiding in plain sight, and now everyone is on the lookout for my face. There's nothing for it. I'm going to have to leave Weston." Lydia tried to keep the dark irony out of her voice, seeing as leaving Weston was what she had been doing even before her disguise had been so suddenly torn from her.

"Master, you cannot go out there without protection!" Sebastian exclaimed, while Ciel nodded quietly. "Those people who attacked you at the manor and in London are still at large."

"Yes, but their leader might also return here once more to try to find me." Lydia glanced out the window toward the distant gates. "At the end of the day, no place can really be said to be 'safe' anymore. Someone tried to crush me with a giant bookcase just now, only a floor below us. We will not be safe until we settle these cases."

"Where would you go?" Ciel asked, taking the opportunity to remove his eyepatch and gaze at her with both eyes.

Lydia closed her eyes and thought. "I reckon I ought to move around quite a bit, so anyone following me won't be able to pin me down in one location. I can stay a few hours in Camden Town, then move into greater London, then go to the townhouse. Perhaps I could even leap back to the manor and spend the nights there. No one else will be present, so…."

"I do not think you ought to stay away at night," Sebastian interjected firmly. "Nighttime is when you are most vulnerable to attack. To be safe, master should continue to stay with me."

"But-"

"You could appear directly into this room after the final bell has tolled," the demon persisted, leaning toward her. "I will make sure I am alone and available to greet you. I will keep watch over you while you sleep. In the mornings, you could leap back to London before Weston's day begins. It would seem to all as though you had vanished from this school. Meanwhile, each night we would be able to clandestinely verify that you are still….alive."

There was a parturient silence in the room at this statement. Lydia felt her head begin to ache with a vengeance, and she knew that she must not be unreasonable at this point. Even though she was displeased with him, Lydia knew without a doubt that Sebastian would guard her through the night as he said. Beside her, Ciel nodded, his sharp eyes flickering toward the demon in displeasure. "It's not ideal, but I agree it is the safest option available. There is no longer any way for you to stay at Weston during the day. While you are in London, Sebastian and I will focus on preparing for the Fourth of June. If I can secure a seat at the midnight tea party, we will finally be able to unravel this façade of a school. And I will secure a seat."

Lydia gazed at her little brother, his heeled shoes dangling far off the floor. His cobalt eyes glinted like steel, and he twisted the Phantomhive ring painfully around his thumb. She remembered the order she had given to Sebastian. Wrapping her arms around herself, she intoned quietly, "You mustn't hurt anyone to win, Ciel."

The young heir snapped his eyes up to meet hers. "I-! That was not my plan!" he protested defensively, stiffening like an angry cat. There was another long, rolling silence in the room before Sebastian rose and briefly touched her shoulder.

"Master, I must report to the administrative building to discuss this latest disturbance with the other housemasters. I shall wait for your arrival here tonight, so please…." His eyes seemed to bloom a darker red as he stared down at her before striding over to his closet and ducking inside.

Lydia stood, feeling the weight of the day's events press down upon her shoulders. It was hardly past noon, but she already felt as though she wanted to curl up in the bed and sleep for weeks. That would have to wait, though. Her purpose had been redirected, and now she had to step into the world once more. She took the satchel Sebastian offered her, a change of clothes packed inside, and began to clumsily unwind the bandages upon her arm. "I understand. Please let Edward know I am all right." The young girl bit her lip and paused for a moment, afflicted by a rush of memories and emotions that made her feel like a stranger to herself. She heard an intake of breath behind her, but her fingers broke the gauze and she closed her eyes and vanished before her brother's voice could reach her.