No one was ever certain how the Earl would react to information. She simply smiled from beneath her large brimmed hat, sitting in the tea room as she stared at the two Bookman sitting with bandaged shoulders on the sofa. Tyki sat in the adjacent chair, a stack of papers on his lap.
Pretending that Eloise hadn't been entwined in the Noah record was certainly impossible. The Earl always learned about information far faster than the redhead ever expected, and asking her the source of information always resulted in a diversion of subjects and a smile. She was as good as he at artfully avoiding offering information, though hers involved a lot of s. You'll know in due time often was the answer.
Lavi had heard some rumors from the waitstaff in the manor, that the Earl had been meandering the halls and acting strangely, but as they sat there, she looked like her usual, smiling, unreadable self. They were simply rumors.
The Earl took a sip of tea before a rather large, inhuman grin twisted her usually soft features. "To think there are two Bookman writing our history~ "
Eloise stared a bit. She hadn't seen this side of her before. "Does she always talk with hearts?"
Lavi nodded. He could say it was a sign of being happy, but he'd heard the previous Earl use this manner of speech aggressively before.
The Earl clapped her hands together cheerfully.
Yup, she was happy. Lavi had no doubt about it.
"To think a Bookman is part of the Illuminati family~ ," she continued. For the Earl, Bookman weren't ordinary humans. It was a way of thinking she'd inherited from her predecessor, but she'd also been part of the Illuminati for much of her life. It was thinking like an Illuminatus that solidified her belief that Bookman were superior to the unenlightened humans, that they were worthy of surviving the end. "However it's probably best you do stay within that family. The Black Order will stop at nothing to ensure that the enlightened are crushed with their hidden history."
Eloise scowled. "So they are tryin' t' erase history. Unenlightened morons." She had become as entranced with the Illuminati as Lavi had with the Noah, becoming the ink on the page as well as the writer. She had fudged her reports as well, writing herself out of the history that she'd become tangled with.
She wanted to know more about this Black Order, why they were erasing history, who they were. It interested and intrigued her, but equally disgusted her. And after that last battle that would've taken her life had she not had the book in her shirt, perhaps it was best to observe these Noah people from an Illuminati perspective. The curiosity would still bug her. "What if they come after us again? What if they try t' harass Red here for info? Maybe even kill him. That archer guy lost his damn marbles."
Lavi couldn't deny that Korbinian had suddenly developed this strangely erratic personality. Even a month ago, at the churchyard with the levitating Innocence cube, that archer seemed incredibly level-headed. What had happened in the last month to change everything? "They prob'ly think you're dead, Eloise."
She paused. "Ya got a point, but what 'bout you then?" Surely the redhead hadn't become complacent with being in constant danger.
"Worry not so much Eloise, just let my Noah and me handle the pesky Black Order~ " the Earl held out a finger to make a point.
Eloise moved to object but paused. There was just something so convincing about this way that the Earl was speaking right now. It was different than how she spoke as the Grand Magus but not by much. Underneath was that same, that melodic, reassuring tone that the Unenlightened would always fall in the end. And after seeing what she did of the Noah battling, they certainly weren't pushovers. They could certainly handle these Order people. "Still gonna worry."
The Earl chuckled lightly. "The Unenlightened always concern us. Their uneducated masses attempting to overtake and lead in places they shouldn't. But do not worry too much, Eloise-pon~ . Crushing the Unenlightened is what we Illuminati do. And as Noah, crushing the Order is what we do best~ ."
But crushing the Order had been at a lull lately. After the assault in the alleyway, the Order had been quiet. Perhaps in the short respite, Lavi's shoulder would actually heal. Well until it got hurt again. What was with Exorcists and shoulders? Funny enough, the only time he'd been attacked by an akuma, it was the shoulder too. Perhaps it was cursed. Not that he believed in curses.
It was night, a clear night finally after the recent rains. Lavi stood in the courtyard, one of the forbidden tomes in hand. He'd covered the cover's runes with cloth, but the book still reeked of black magics which was exactly why he had it.
Lavi had never been one for fighting, even after the attacks the Order had launched against him. Even with his hammer or staff, he rarely fought aggressively. But the book in his hand wasn't aggressive magics; it was defensive. It had ancient, forgotten, and probably forbidden arts from a time before time that was ultimately destroyed in an all-out war that wiped humanity from existence the first time. Though Lavi did ponder how such a book survived unless the Bookman Clan really was that old.
Ponderings aside, Lavi turned back to his book. The Bookman had no talent in magics outside of the standard Mu magics the Clan used. He was still human, probably not even the same as the previous humans from the time before time, but he also wasn't exactly ordinary. That black matter shard embedded in his wrist was still there. It allowed him to use elements but always required some sort of medium to focus.
He'd memorized the book quickly, but he still held onto it as he held his hand out, focusing on the spell he'd read from the beginning of the book. "ŝildo muro," he repeated the words of the spell but nothing happened. Not that he was surprised. Whatever language this was written in was long since dead. His curiosity wanted to know the language, to understand it, to know what they knew, yet without any companion books, there was no way of knowing any of it. That damn fire had consumed most of it.
"Hard at work, Lavi?"
The redhead looked towards the patio to see Ronald walking towards him. The older man was covered in all sorts of odd materials, most of them smearing his larger apron. He'd finally had his glasses fixed, the wire no longer bent like it once was. He pulled his hair back into a low ponytail, no doubt at Rhode's insistence not to cut it. "Ronald! Haven't seen ya in months."
"Been busy creating a new breed of akuma, ones that potentially could surpass Level 4," Ronald added to the small talk. "And from them, I can create a better egg."
Lavi nearly shuttered at the thought of a Level 4. Those things looked like creepy porcelain babydolls possessed by something then mutated into some sort of clay.
"I modeled them after Amanda's dolls," Ronald added.
Of course he did. Now Lavi really didn't want to see them, but there was still that Bookman's curiosity that wanted to see what they could do and how creeped out the Exorcists would be.
The cobbler Noah shrugged. "She wanted to see her dolls come to life and 'defeat the bad guys'."
Lavi stirred from his thoughts. "Amanda's really becomin' part'a the family, yeah. How's Sandy takin' it?" He hadn't really gotten to talk to Sandy, Ronald's wife, lately at all. She and their daughter Amanda, as well as his other kids, primarily stayed at Rhode's estate though they visited the Earl's estate on occasion. Lavi had mostly stayed out of both estates, busy with Noah, Illuminati, and Bookman matters. He never liked to sit still.
"Pretty well," Ronald replied. "They don't quite understand Noah yet, but Amanda's really curious 'bout it and wants me to build things to fight the ones who fight the angels." Sandy and the kids always called the Noah the angels after the time when the Father back in their hometown attempted to have Lavi killed. A lot had happened since then, but they still called the Noah the angels. "Now Sandy ain't much of the thinking sort either, but she caught wind of you getting attacked recently, told me I needed to make you another staff, like the one you used to fight that akuma back home."
He caught the redhead by surprise. Lavi hadn't expected the conversation to turn to the staff, or any staff, but Ronald always seemed to surprise him with his parallels and ability to converse. The cobbler wasn't as unintelligent as he claimed to be. "Did she now?"
Ronald nodded. "And Sandy always gets what she wants." He pulled a small part of a staff from the pocket in his apron, offering it to the redhead. "Works just like your old one, 'cept this ones made of dark matter."
While the black magics in the book had certainly interested the Bookman, this staff felt much more natural in his hand. It was like his first one the previous earl had made, the size-shifting hammer made of dark matter, the same weight, that same unusual metal used to construct it. The same metallic matter that sat embedded in his wrist.
"Thanks! It's perfect, just what I needed. I'll hafta-" he cut himself off suddenly, peering at the windows of the estate. "Is that the Earl? Sleepwalkin'?"
Ronald turned, pushing up his wireframe glasses to look as well. "I'll be damned. Sure looks like her."
Lavi had never seen her sleepwalk before, nor had he actually seen the Earl in her night clothes without a hat. Her features were soft, her hair long and trailing down her back in a loose braid. The two crept closer, slipping in through the patio door and watching her from a distance in the hallway. She turned a corner, and the two peered around it to watch her. Sure enough, she was meandering, possibly asleep, possibly in some sort of daze.
She activated an Ark door, walking into it but not before a word escaped her lips. "Nea."
…
Author's notes
Someone's coming someone's coming someone may be coming.
S O O N.
