The Vacuous Heart of Blood
Author: MoonStarDutchess
Chapter 45: Escape: Pt 2
Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist and all its characters are the property of Hiromu Arakawa. No profit was made from this fanfiction. The only things that I do own are the OC's. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of original characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to the overall course of the plot. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Berthold, Amelia, and Pinako moved all the furniture in his study to the sides of the room so that Pinako had space to make the necessary preparations to transport herself out of there and to her allies. A few days ago, she'd gotten a psychic connection with a fellow witch who was on a mission within the village. The population of werewolves in the nearby country—a revelation that nearly gave him a heart attack upon hearing –were getting sick along the borders. Though a few witches were growing ill, the majority was well enough to assist their allies in finding a cure for whatever ailed them. They blamed the Patarin and, if he were a betting man, Hawkeye would place money on their accuracy.
She was going to escape with one of her allies that very night, an assistance Pinako described as being a godsend. He didn't even know that witches believed in gods.
"Lord Hawkeye," Pinako said. He turned to her. "I owe you my life. Witches always pay debts. I shall find a way to repay you."
"If you see my daughter, find a way to send me word of her state. That is all I ask as repayment."
"Of course. I'll send word if I can. I assume you and your wife will be leaving the village."
"Yes. We're taking the front road away from the Patarin so they don't spot us leaving. Amelia will stay with relatives as I go to the capital to get permission to banish the Patarin from my village. Archer will take care of things here until then." His face wrinkled. If there had been anyone better than Archer to take care of the place, he would've chosen them, but regardless of what he'd done and trouble he'd caused, he knew how to run the village to top efficiency and knew how to deal with trouble when it came knocking on his door.
Pinako walked to the middle of the room. "You two should get going now before I transport. I wish you the luck of the moon goddess on your way to your destination."
Hawkeye led his wife from the room and they rushed down the stairs. Jeremy was waiting at the coach, ready to drive it. He did not hesitate when Hawkeye gave him the orders to get the coach ready. His only hesitation was sending Marianna off for cooking ingredients, knocking her out, then locking her in the cellar, but he asked no questions and offered to drive them—being an excellent transport coach driver in his youth. Hawkeye took him up on the offer.
He helped Amelia get into the carriage and stepped up on the step. "Drive as fast as you can without arousing suspicion Jeremy."
"Yes, sir."
As soon as he shut the door, the carriage sped off down the roadway. When they made it to the road outside the city, he saw a flash of light spark from the window of his study and knew Pinako had gotten out of the house.
-/-/-
"I've brought Nina's body back to be burned, Lord Compel," Tucker said after he carried "Nina" into the tent. He tried not to grin at the hysteria going on within the camp. Some people were yelling and screaming like the end of the world was coming. Some were on their knees praying for protection, crying as if being burned by the fire and incense usually reserved for the evil ones. He was expecting a few suicides, and would've reveled in seeing it, but nothing happened yet. Even though these people were warped, they were cowards.
Marianna, Hawkeye's traitorous maid, held a bag of ice on her head, nursing a lump on her crown. Whoever gave it to her was a weakling when it came to violent acts. He wouldn't have settled for anything less than decollating her.
Compel paced the tent while muttering the occasional prayer under his breath. The man's cheeks grew more flushed the longer he did so. He finally stopped and smiled, not sincere like it'd been before, but sincerely forced sincerity.
"I shall get a gathering together as respect for your daughter. Excuse me," he said and walked out of the tent. Tucker turned to Marianna, resisting the urge to kill the woman. Maids were supposed to take care of their bosses, not betray them.
"What happened?" he asked, deciding to play ignorant.
"The witch is gone. Search the forest," he heard someone yell and had to swallow a snicker. Pinako and Nina were probably on their way to the vampire city. Way out of their range.
"Witch?" he asked.
"Lord Hawkeye was interrogating a witch to find out where his daughter was and the witch escaped. They've found signs that she killed them. Scorch marks of bodies on the floor and ashes that are likely human remains. Compel warned him but he didn't listen and caused the death of everyone in the household."
Marianna looked away, tears on her face. "My friend was also killed."
"The witch hit you on the head?"
"No, I think she pushed me in the cellar. I can't remember much. The bump is from the fall. I'm lucky that Patarin protected me enough that she didn't kill me."
That was a lie. Pinako didn't hit her. If Pinako struck her, she wouldn't be waking up from it that soon.
Marianna looked at him so kindly he had to push down bile. It was pitiful that someone who held such a strong kindness could be so fucking dumb. It came down to hypocrisy. They were hypocrites. All of them. They could look at someone with kindness, yet massacre innocent people based on skewed logic of what this Pathar wanted. A god that hadn't even been around long when compared to other gods.
Sure, a few supernatural-as humans called them- beings did harm to humans for fun, but they were no more numerous than human murderers, rapists, and robbers.
She motioned toward the body he held. "Your daughter?"
He put on his good father act. "Yes."
"I am sorry, but she is with Pathar now."
Tucker bowed his head. He couldn't wait to get away from these people and back to normal beings like witches, vampires, and werewolves. "Praise be," he muttered. And if he's real, may the moon goddess shove a pineapple up his ass until he vomits fruit juice.
-/-/-
As soon as Riza and Roy stepped outside of their bedroom, a group of maids, all dressed in fluffy white and black dresses, converged upon it, rushing through the door like a bunch of ducks waddling to the edge of a lake. One maid stopped in front of them, folded her hands on her lap, right hand over left, and gave a slight bow at the waist. "The king told us to have your bags prepared, Lord Mustang."
"Prepared for what?" Riza asked.
"We're supposed to choose where our permanent residence in the castle will be," Roy said.
Even though she knew they wouldn't be living anywhere other than the castle for a long period, the word permanent sent a fear of finality through her that was on par with the way she felt while she drifted in and out of consciousness after Ivan bit her. "I thought this was our room."
"We get a suite of rooms, like a house within a house. This room here is where I stayed in the very few times I've visited. Now that we're living here permanently, we get our own area of the castle, and our own staff."
There was that word again. She lifted her arms to hug herself when a chill hit her. She didn't know if it was because of the word, the cool morning, or both. She grew warmer when Roy's arm made its way around her and pulled her close.
"You okay?"
She nodded and looked up at him. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He leaned down, not having to bend very low because he wasn't much taller than she was. His nose barely tipped hers. "You wouldn't lie to me would you?"
She had little doubt that if he stared enough, he could drain the truth right out of her. She'd never told him, and never would tell him, how intimidating he was. Besides, it wasn't that he wasn't aware of it. She turned her head away just enough that their gazes weren't in direct contact. "Of course not."
"Very well then." Just from his tone, she could tell he wasn't convinced. He turned on his heel, walked away, and for a moment, she thought she might've hurt his feelings. She placed her hands behind her back and walked at a faster pace than normal for just a few seconds until she got to his side.
"You don't have to lie to me," he said.
She remained silent, unsure if he wanted a reply or if she wanted to respond. She would give him another lie to cover up the fact she was lying. Then she'd have to lie again to deny the next lie. It was an unending chain that would grow so long that once she forgot the initial lie, the chain would unravel, and all deceptions revealed at once. It was like hitting the bottom of out of glass bottle full of liquid instead of pouring bit by bit.
"Just say honestly if something is bothering you and tell me if you don't want to talk about it. I'm not pushy and know you'll tell me in time."
Riza nearly stopped in shock but forced her legs to keep walking. "That's not the average response of a husband when this situation comes up."
He grinned but didn't look at her. "I'm not the average husband."
"That's true, and you don't know how glad I am of that."
He stopped, turned to her, and reached up and moved a loose strand of her hair back to its proper place. "You can trust me."
"I wouldn't have let you get so far with me if I didn't. I think I trusted you from the very beginning even though I wouldn't have acknowledged it. Trust issues toward you have nothing to do with my thoughts. I swear."
"Okay then," he said. He leaned in to kiss her but quickly pulled away when they heard footsteps.
Maes came around the corner with Gracia, his face borderline beatific.
"Good morning! Isn't it a great morning to be alive?"
In a surprising move, Gracia moved close to Riza and whispered, "He's been like this since he met me at my room this morning. I've seen him happy but not this happy."
Riza jerked out of the way when Maes wrapped an arm around Roy's shoulders the way she saw teens do when they were walking home from school or just goofing off. Roy appeared uncomfortable with the close contact, but she felt no negativity in him. His outward expression was ambivalent.
"What's wrong with you?" Roy asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Roy reached up and tapped his hand. Maes, probably thinking he'd crossed a line —he did—removed his arm. "Breakfast?" Maes showed no regret or nervousness for his previous show of affection. He whistled as he strolled down the hall.
Roy looked over at them.
"I have no idea what's gotten into him, Lord Mustang. He said was that he got news from Grumman. That's all."
Roy adjusted his gloves and she saw the muscles in his jaw tense, but that was nothing compared to the onslaught of emotions hitting her one after the other like buckshot. "You'll know soon enough."
He left the two women in the hallway alone. One of the two confused. Riza looked at her and pulled a smile out from the box of tension in her mind. "Things are going to get stressful for Roy and me, and Maes knows the cause."
"And he's happy because of that?"
"Evidently."
Gracia shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to these vampires."
"Yes you will. We both don't seem to have much of a choice other than decapitating ourselves or giving ourselves over to the Patarin."
"I think I'll take my chances with the vampires."
-/-/-
When they arrived at the dining hall, Riza opened the door and instantly wanted to go in another direction when she saw all eyes were on her, and Roy's hand was rubbing the bridge of his nose. She connected with his emotions, felt anger, and heard him say mentally, "Prepare for it."
"You caused this. We should cull you out of the bunch," a woman yelled, pointing at Riza. Roy pulled Riza half behind him and narrowed his eyes. She felt Gracia place a hand on her shoulder. It was comforting to know that maybe they could be friends through their common confusion of vampire customs and the permanence of everything around them, but she also found it off-putting that she was comfortable with Roy protecting her. She'd depended only on herself for so long that it was a relief having someone take care of her out of genuine care, yet her independent streak protested at the same time. She hoped in time that the two feelings would meld into something she could comfortably deal with.
"Grumman told everyone."
"The king told you all not to make a scene," Maes snapped before Roy could respond. She didn't understand why Maes wasn't more upset. He worked his entire life for the throne.
"But he took the throne right out from under you," yet another person at the dining table said. She recognized a few faces, the ones she knew not saying anything while the strangers were running off at the mouth.
"No, he didn't. You guys just assumed Maes was going to get it," Colleen said. She stood and walked to Riza, taking her arm. "Come have some breakfast, you must be hungry and distressed with all the events taking place. It's a lot for a new vampire."
She was going to move toward the table, but Roy's hand grabbed her wrist, halting her movements. Roy darted his gaze from Maes' mother, father, and finally at the former heir. "You aren't angry about it?"
"We're thrilled," Colleen said.
"It's them that are having conniptions about it," Morgan Hughes said. He punctuated his sights on each vampire complaining about Grumman's decision.
"You never wanted it?" he asked Maes.
"It wasn't at the top of my most desirable list." He chuckled. "If anything I'm most amused at the situation. I see it as my own personal revenge."
"I knew it!" Riza thought to Roy. She saw him give her a glance out of the corner of his eyes. Did he honestly not catch on to what Maes meant?
"Revenge for what?" Roy asked.
"For nearly killing me. Can't wait to see you become King and have to put up with all the things you hate."
"Maes!" his mother scolded.
Riza couldn't help but let a giggle pass through her.
"This isn't funny Riza."
"If the positions were reversed you'd say the same thing."
"Backstabber," he said but without the hostility that usually accompanied such a word. Then something occurred to her. She pushed it down, but Roy caught wind of the mischievousness and inquired about the repression.
"You have an idea for something."
I am your wife and you're future king, so we very well can't let him win right?"
"You're learning."
"Well in novels, a king sort of needs a second in command right? A hard working, stressful job from what I've seen."
"Yeah, it's almost as bad as becoming king. I'll have to assign one of those within the next few. . . Oh you're devilishly brilliant."
"It's fine. I'd say the same thing." The vampires in the room wore expressions they'd possess if the world was going to end and the ending was barreling toward them. He patted Maes' shoulder. "Sorry about nearly killing you."
Maes grabbed the chair next to him. "What did you say?"
"Where's Grumman?" he asked. Riza grinned. In the rare times he apologized, Roy never repeated them.
"He has some work to do," Colleen said and moved back over to sit down at her seat. "He's having breakfast in his study."
Roy nodded and twined his fingers through Riza's, leading her past a maid coming with food for the two of them. "We're eating out on the balcony, Riza needs the fresh air," he said then looked at her. "Right?"
She nodded. It wasn't even that she needed it; he knew she felt tense around the family from the moment she walked into the room. Her focus on him was merely a distraction from the thick dismay floating around the area. Dismay that she'd have to get used to someday.
"Yes, Lord Mustang," the maid said and directed the girl behind her to go outside.
He placed a hand on Riza's lower back and guided her out the door.
"I'll be with you in a little bit," Roy said.
She was hesitant to leave but did so anyway. She trusted him. She nodded and closed the door behind her.
He turned toward the people at the table. He glared at the ones who made the big commotion when they first entered the room. A moment later, the flame on each candle grew so hot it melted the candles halfway. They all scooted back, one leaping up from his chair. "If you address my wife the way you did again, you'll be like those candles. Now, I'm going to set a few of you straight so you won't disrespect her again."
