XLII.
"We need to talk."
Hestor eyed the blonde more wary than he cared to admit. The last few days after the brief confrontation had been more than a little humbling as he started to piece together more and more of the puzzle surrounding Lucy. Looking at Lucy from a strictly clinical point of view showed him exactly the sort of woman he'd been expecting to see initially only cleverly hidden. He also realized that she'd been aware of being watched so had likely kept up the act to be safe. That she had acted the featherhead instead of choosing any number of other covers had been unfortunate but it wasn't until she had unwittingly insulted him by not actively seeking him out as the resident celestial summoner that he'd started obsessing and looking for reasons to hate her.
It was…frustrating to realize he'd been so petty. He was half tempted to shut the door in her face as the instigator of his self-reflection but there was something in her eye, something he often saw reflected back at him when he looked in the mirror that stayed his hand.
Saying nothing he eventually opened his door further to let the woman in curiosity finally winning out.
He watched silently as Lucy circled his room muttering softly and it wasn't until the walls shinned with the brief flash of purple of a magical seal that he realized what she had done.
"Where the hell did you learn that seal from?" He tried to keep his voice even. That magic was protected by priests and priestesses of the Temple of Mehturt.
"You."
"And your shit smells like sprinkles too I bet."
Lucy paused. That was something she'd have expected Erik to say but this wasn't her caustic friend. This guy had a side of arrogant entitlement with his sarcasm she didn't care to be subjected to. "Gemini."
"…Well shit." Hestor slumped onto his sofa remembering his brief venture into insanity that led to physically touching Lucy and her apparent ability to directly channel her spirits' magic. Oddly enough he wasn't upset by the fact that she had essentially stolen all his prized, hard earned, knowledge it had taken him years to learn in less than a minute directly from him. He really should be. She knew all his secrets, his past… everything.
Then it hit. She'd known everything there was to know about him for a week now and nothing had changed. No one looked at him with pity or disgust which had to mean no one else knew. That meant she hadn't gabbed to anyone like most women were want to do which was a nice surprise. Even her own behavior to him hadn't changed besides this random encounter but there was a purpose behind her approach this time that was not misplaced sympathy or something else just as ridiculous. His gut churned warning him not to trust, not to hope for more from this woman.
"What do you have to say that you don't even want our spirits to overhear?" he asked warily.
"I think I should start with a bit of an explanation. A sort of peace offering, if you will, to level the playing fields. Do I have your word you will not share the details of this conversation with anyone who is not currently involved until it is publically known?"
"Given any extenuating circumstances do not risk my life or the lives of those I care for by keeping silent; you have my word." Hestor conceded with a slight nod.
Lucy nodded and took a deep breath. "What you need to know is that there is a strange connection between Vander Pradesh, Freed Justine and myself. We are unsure how it formed and having a chance to research through the Citadel's Archive was part of the reason I agreed to join the Pradesh brothers in White Sea. I adopted my earlier behavior as a ruse. Part of it was to ensure people underestimated me but it was mostly to prevent anyone gaining leverage over Vander putting him into more danger. Clear?" Lucy didn't like getting personal or owning up to her own limitations but it seemed only fair since she knew far more about Hestor.
Hestor merely nodded. Most he'd figured out on his own over the past week. The connection portion was admittedly new news but hardly surprising if half the stories surrounding this woman were true. Odd things happened around her so it should be expected. That this strange bond also seemed to be the reason Zen was more freely able to interact with him as long as Lucy was somewhere in the building as her magic buffered the effects of his own on Zen had been the only thing he'd enjoyed about the woman so far.
"It ended up not helping. Grendance already knew way too much about my history to fall for that ploy but fortunately he thought I was after Zen. In his mind, Zen, as a Boscan male from a politically powerful family would treat me as an equal unlike the aristocratic Fioren men I was used to. That he assumes I'd want to recover my prior status in the first circles of society wasn't even a question. Grendance also figured the temptation of the power boost and magical stability Zen would also provide me as an Archangel mage would be too much to pass up.
"If I were the kind of woman Grendance thinks I am it would be quite a prudent match but since I'm not…" Lucy shrugged. "After discussing things over with Zen we decided to let Grendance continue thinking that until after we had Vander secured from his influence just in case. Though, it was surprising to find out just how clean Grendance kept his hands."
At Hestor's incredulous glare Lucy continued. "Oh, he threatened his men but often that was all he did. The actions other members took against their own subordinates and the leniency Grendance allowed his agents in the execution of their orders were enough to prevent any "behavioral" issues I believe he refers to them. The man is an opportunist and a consummate politician but at the heart of it all he's very loyal to Bosco and all its laws even if only barely."
"What did he want with you?"
"Queen Hisui considers me a close friend." Lucy wrinkled her nose at that. She didn't mind the woman, not really. Her engineering mind was quite brilliant if looked at objectively but she really wasn't the sort of woman Lucy wanted at the head of her home. "It was her previous work with key creation that helped inspired me to try and create the anchoring keys for my spirits you saw last week. Took a lot of trial and error since that brand of magic doesn't come naturally to me but they work beautifully now."
"He wants you to spy on Fiore's queen?"
"He wants me to make sure she meets and marries the type of husband that would be sympathetic to Boscan's economy and culture."
Hestor chuckled shaking his head. "Ballsy move."
"Like I said, an opportunist and quite the accomplished politician. What he gave me to only consider helping him is what brought me here today. I don't think he knew what it was just that it referenced Archangel mages and that I might find it useful towards securing Zen."
Lucy laid the journal down on the table and opened it to the appropriate page and watched as Hestor's eyes widened in recognition before grabbing the journal. The handwriting was distinctive, especially the way Lucian wrote his Q.
"But the Priests said this was lost in a fire." Hestor's voice was horse as his eyes froze on one line. The spell worked and now my dear Archangel Gabriel and I are one!
"You better than anyone else would know. Is the language used in the spell work Lucian outlined from the Sisters of Ammit used anywhere else save the books stored by your family or the temple? Is there anyone on Earthland outside of you and me even capable of understanding what the spell even means outside of possibly Dean Kalperdean?"
Lucy watched as Hestor turned pale green then fled to the bathroom to be sick. It was one thing for Lucy to learn what started all the stellar summoner killings and Archangel huntings towards the end of the Holy War. It was an entirely different thing to learn that your entire family built up a now widely practiced religion as a means to hide their secret shame.
Lucien Kedanza back in the height of the Holy Wars, in a lust fueled craze asked the Sisters of Ammit for a way to make Gabriel, an Archangel mage that was courting a young woman at the time, to submit to him instead. The spirits, bloodthirsty as they are took Cassiopeia's idea to help propagate more Archangel births and twisted so that Archangel Mages completely lot their free will to the more powerful celestial mage. It didn't matter if the Archangel mage was currently bonded as long as their partner was killed the new mage could force a new bond.
"Why? Why tell me this? Did you want to see me suffer?" Lucy's heart broke seeing the man before her. He'd looked close to some edge when she'd entered his apartment earlier but she'd brushed it off more nervous about having to discuss her personal life with a literal stranger at the time. Now though he look well and truly lost.
"What? No! Don't you see? What the bitches started the Brothers of Ma'at can end. They balance them in all things. I placed the seal around us so the Sisters couldn't try and interfere with you like they usually do until you decided what you wanted to do. I think we both know the only reason they weren't banned from Earthland with their keys destroyed completely long ago is because they resent being tied to serving a mortal. It would have been seen as a gift to them being released. I bet that's why they always try and destroy their keyholder. Oh it must really chuff them that you now have Ma'at, Abraxis, Eshaq, Naguib and Sef to keep your soul safe from them." She grinned darkly. "Oh and don't listen to their shit about the 'One' nonsense."
"Nonsense! The 'One' is sacred!"
"And I would spend more time picking apart the origin of that belief before to continue on with your righteous indignation. Who benefits from you keeping this knowledge you've been told to keep secret from everyone except your 'One'? And who does it hurt?"
Hestor sat quietly in thought shutting out his chaotic emotions so he could make sense of his world again. He was acting like a child recently which was not at all like him and he didn't like it. He needed to focus, make a list, write things down, do research, pull the original spell equation to pieces and consult Ma'at to see if what Lucy proposed was even possible. If it was it wasn't even a question in his mind as to whether or not he'd do it. He'd free Zen from all those grasping, greedy assholes and once and for all prove to himself he was better than his fucked up family. Hestor didn't fool himself into believing everything would be rainbows and sunshine after that but it was a start toward the type of person he wanted to be.
"The best way to control people is by controlling what the people know." He muttered to himself.
"Exactly."
End of Chapter
