The Paradox of Balance
Chapter 3: Under the Fallen Rain
"Why does she always have to be so… so…"
"Impulsive?"
"That's a more polite term then what I had in mind."
Salade, Sister Olive, Culotte, and the survivors of the attack were rummaging through the ruins of the church. They would often find the corpses of their fellow members and friends. At first, most of the members would breakdown after the discovery of one of the bodies, but after the tenth, they simply didn't care anymore… no more tears or sadness could be seen. Psychological fatigue just badly hit them. And when the rain started to fall, well the morale of the cleanup crew sunk even lower.
Many citizens of Peu au Feu also helped to pitch in, though most simply stood back, trying to contain their anger towards the monsters who could have done such a terrible deed.
Queen Crepine also sent help. The incident of Cresson Castle had been forgotten rather quickly as the church got destroyed. The Queen sent most of her guard to help out with the cleaning and the protection of Peu au Feu. Although doubt about the Church of the Holy Maiden had sadly crept into her heart, she couldn't just leave them after this disaster. She also couldn't prevent her daughter to run off with the guards towards town. When news of the explosion reached them, Eclair almost dashed out of the castle. Fortunately, she had managed to keep her mandatory royalty dignity.
"Hmm Culotte," the princess laughed softly, "since when do you use those kind of words?"
"Ever since I got hurt more by Prier then the people who did this," he concluded, gesticulating towards the ruins.
After Prier spontaneously decided to run off to find Croix, Culotte tried to catch up with her and talk some sense into her. How could she ever find him if she simply ran off into the continent just like that? Of course, as he tried to stop her, Prier jammed her fist into his face, giving him a very visible black eye.
At least this made Prier go back and actually get supplies for a long trip. The director gave Prier enough money and vital supplies for at least one month. When an outrage one-eyed Culotte asked her why she had helped Prier, the director simply muffled something about reaching puberty and love under her laughs as she handed him a piece of Mooboo meat for his eye.
"But," started Eclair, "why would Prier go off to find Croix anyway?"
"Oh, well, we believe that he might be in danger," Culotte answered rather coldly, although she couldn't figure out whom this coldness was directed at: Prier or Croix.
"Why would he be in danger?" she said a few seconds before remembering the messenger from before.
"Well, a bunch of people from the Church of the Goddess Poitreene showed up and…"
"Culotte," she interrupted, "get mister Salade, we have a big problem!" She understood everything now.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Great, this is just great…"
Prier still couldn't figure out why she had decided to follow her stupid impulsive mind to go on a stupid spontaneous trip over Paprica to find her stupid boyfriend… And then she had to stop as she just realized that she had just called him "her boyfriend".
"Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb…" she kept repeating to herself as she just continued down the forest path she was following, not noticing that she was gradually turning red. At least this made her stop ranting on the fact that she had managed to get lost, while she was already lost…
"Last time I ever let my spontaneous mind control me," she said, later realizing that she had made that deal with herself about a million times before.
She was rather pissed. She had no idea where she was or where she was supposed to go. She had been walking aimlessly for the past five days, bored stiff. Not only was it bad enough that she had no clue what to do, she had absolutely nothing to do! There were no demons, no monsters, nothing, nada, zilch! You would have thought that monsters would be waiting to make a tasty meal out of her, but no, this place was barren of lifeforms, except for Prier and the occasion animal.
It wasn't that Prier's only idea of something to do was beating random things up, it was just that recently, she has had no work. It was like if the demons and even the monsters were taking a permanent vacation. She was a woman of action, she hated having nothing to do, and sadly, walking around the country was considered doing nothing.
Although the demon population had increased during the matter with Noir, the overall population shouldn't have decreased this dramatically. And from what she could remember, it wasn't that other people were hunting the demons: there had been almost no reports of any random attacks, the only small exceptions had all looked like the Moutarde Road "attacks".
Something wasn't right…
She kept on walking as night fell over the already rather darkened forest. She had already walked for about two hours and she was getting rather tired. She slid down the side of a tree, resting her head and closing her eyes. She allowed the night to get the best of her.
But still… something wasn't right…
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"How could I let such a young child win? Is the power of Calamity this strong?"
Corail was in her own private section of her church. It was her own worship place, only she could access this special place. This is where she, and her predecessors, had received important revelations about the world. This is how her followers had managed to escape the "witch" hunt that killed so many about two hundred years ago.
"No," she said, "the power of light is stronger then anything in this world. This poor child, it is sad that she must be destroyed, but, her salvation is impossible."
She simply stood there for a long time, nodding her head as if she was in agreement with herself.
"Do not worry Corail," said a voice that came out of nowhere.
Corail's eyes snapped open as she noticed a brilliant mist forming over the altar. She immediately threw herself on her knees, bowing down so low that her entire upper body kissed the ground, no matter the pain that position brought her.
"Corail… you must complete your mission… rid the world of darkness…"
"Do not worry mistress, we will soon destroy the Dark Prince and those who permitted his rebirth."
"Do not forget," said the voice, although it seemed sadder, "do not be deceived by the others, they have brought disgrace to the name of the Maiden of Light by confusing her."
"We will not fall for these tricks mistress," she concluded as the mist evaporated into nothingness.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So… they are really going around saying that we resurrected the Dark Prince?"
"Yes, more or less that mister Salade…" Eclair answered sadly. "They only told my mother, the guards present, and me. But you can be sure that the word will spread…"
"What are we going to do?" Culotte asked.
It was official now. The Church of the Goddess Poitreene had a personal vendetta against them on the grounds that they had permitted the Dark Prince to live. And the worst part was that they couldn't deny it. The enemy was partly right.
"Maybe," Eclair risked, "we should tell the truth?"
"And say what Eclair?" cried out Culotte, visibly angry. "Oh yes, the ultimate evil is alive because somebody fell in love with him! And then, our only savior had to sacrifice her life just to make somebody happy! The Maiden killed herself for Prier's happiness! Is that what you want us to say to the public! And damn it… is she even happy? Alouette… she did everything for… nothing! For nothing damn it!"
Culotte stormed off, leaving a stunned duo of Eclair and Salade. Although Eclair had seen Culotte angry before, he had never acted like this. He was seeing red… She knew that after Alouette's death, Culotte had some resentment towards Croix… It was understandable, he did have feelings towards her. And she could understand that it was because of him that his, and everyone's, entire life changed.
"Does he really think that Mister Salade? Oh… Culotte…"
"Culotte… maybe the stress of the incident finally hit him…"
Eclair just stood there, her hand facing upright, catching some of the rain as it fell lightly. She had no idea what to do.
"Well Eclair, first thing is first. We should go out there and find Prier and Croix."
"But… they could be anywhere! And, they already have a head start and it's not like we can reach Homard this easily, and… and…"
"Don't worry," he said, looking over his glasses with a suspicious look, "I got it covered."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Prier woke up from her small nap. It was still nighttime, as least that's what she thought; it was rather hard to see the sky in the forest. The air was rather humid and she felt a little damp.
"Great, it's going to rain…" she thought as she decided that she should find better shelter then trees. If heavy rain was in the forecast, she would still end up wet, no matter how many trees there were. She restarted her trek through the woods, hurrying more then usual.
Through pure luck, she actually found the exit, or rather an exit. Not only was she finally out of the woods, but she had landed next to a village.
"This is great," she thought, and sincerely this time. When there is a village, food, shelter, and heat could be found. Happier then she had been in days, she walked along what she thought was the village's main road. Of course, being in the middle of the night, no lights could be seen from inside the houses. She had had her hopes up for an inn of some sort, but first of all, she didn't know her way around the village and even if she did, this place didn't seem to have anything opened late at night. It was either very late at night, if not to say very early in the morning or this place was barren of inns, and even a bar. She would have gone to a tavern, knowing that these things are usually opened at night, but none could be seen, or heard, for she knew that she could always get directions from echoes of badly sung drunken folkloric chants.
Finally, tired and discouraged, she found her way to what she imagined was the town square. The last thing she wanted was to use a piece of wood used as a bench to double as her bed for the night. Ticked at the town, but mostly herself, she wondered around in circles, keeping her noise level at a low. Hey, maybe she had a reputation around Pot au Feu of being a loud self-centered brat, but she did know how to behave, something that she sometimes thinks her entourage forgets.
"Miss?"
She turned around to find a rather confused man staring at her. Finally, someone was awake in this village.
"Umm… I just arrived in town and…"
But her sentence was cut short as she heard two small detonations from behind her. Her reflexes, never failing her, made her slightly turn sideways, dodging whatever went flying pass her. Keeping her turning motion, she plunged her fist into another man's gut, making him double over.
As she retracted her hand, she saw the fallen man in pain, a shotgun next to him, a rather primitive shotgun, but one that could still do its damage.
"You harmed a human you foul woman! You shall pay, you demon!" was the last thing she heard before a powerful pain echoed in her head as hard wood connected from behind.
.-.-
"A demon child?"
Mmm…"No, just a witch."
Ugh…"Kill her quick, before she destroys us!"
Huh?"Get the hunter and prepare the fire!"
Fire…?Prier managed to open her eyes. She was still in the town square, but it was now populated by about twenty or more people armed with everything from pitchforks to more shotguns. The square was now lighted by about an incredible amount of torches but it was still dark in the sky, so she hasn't been unconscious for a long time.
"The witch is awake," cried out a female voice, "quick, where's the killer?"
Strangely, although Prier was still confused, half-awake, unfocused, and most importantly, greatly outnumbered, the villagers weren't making a move. It was almost as if they were afraid of her. She tried to make out what the villagers were saying, only catching random bits of insults like "Kill the witch" or "Get the demon killer" until she finally heard: "Calamity's servant."
"Oh no," she thought, "I've fallen on more of these freaks."
And this time, she didn't know how to get out of it. She was weak and her head still hadn't stopped spinning. Plus, her blurry vision lied to her: the entire adult population of the village was present, not just a few. The only reason she was still alive was due to the fact that they were just too scared of her to kill her. They wanted to leave it to a professional demon killer, convinced that only these people could resist her. Either that or they felt as if a curse was to hit the one who kills the witch, let it be a demon killer, not them.
All of this made would have made Prier laugh, if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. Even if she would have been in top shape, she would have had trouble escaping an entire village. These people could kill her in an instant, yet they were scared of her.
Lightning ripped up the sky as the storm finally unleashed its rain. "The witch is using her magic!" cried out someone. "Where is he?"
"Oh please," Prier finally blurted out, not believing how naive these people could be, "it's just the passing of a storm!"
Not sure if it was the coldness of the rain that woke her up or if her energy just finally came back, Prier managed to get on her knees. Her sudden movement caused the mass to jump away from her. "Not bad," she thought, "if I can scare them, I might get out of this one." But just as she thought that, she felt a cold barrel against her forehead.
"Finally, that took long enough. Kill her, we beg you."
Prier felt the gun leave her forehead and she followed it as it slowly aimed at her chest. She heard three shots and she felt unimaginable pain in her chest as her breath got cut short. But, nothing could compare to the pain her last vision, before the dark claimed her sight, brought her.
The villagers and the shooter watched as the girl fell backwards, completely immobile, her body drenched by the rain.
"You took your sweet time there!" said the village elder, turning to the killer, visibly annoyed.
"Sorry, I had stuff to do…"
"Sometimes I wonder what we pay you for Mister Croix Raoul…"
Ok, I really think I just signed my death wish…