So this is what I promised. Because of the change of time for fall, its one in the am where I am but I feel like it's two and I'm tired -w- but I don't want to go to sleep cx So here I am :)
Let's head right into the chapter then :D
Chapter Thirty-One
The Banished Ones Return
Lacrimosa fidgeted around in her nervousness in the middle of a hallway. Chronos had already gone out of his way to accompany Sharon to her grandmother's and hadn't met back with her.
And it was of utter importance for them to speak about the me—
"Lacrimosa!"
The Chain, startled, spun on her heels and was shocked to see Claire coming her way. Full of live and of vigor. It surprised her so much that it left her speechless. It wasn't until Claire reached her that she noticed the flush on her face from running around.
"C-Claire?"
"Finally found one of you," Claire voiced a bit out of air. "I've been all around Pandora and couldn't find Sharon, or Oz, or Gilbert. No one. Have you seen them?"
"U-Um, I believe that Sharon was summoned by Duchess Rainsworth."
"Duchess, all right. Got it." Before Lacrimosa could say another word, Claire sprinted away towards the general direction of Cheryl's office.
Lacrimosa breathed a momentary sigh of relief before her nervousness returned tenfold. "Oh boy, if Claire finds out about what we did, we'll be royally—"
"She won't find out, Mosa." Lacrimosa turned to find Chronos nonchalantly scratching the back of his neck. "Now stop jinxing us before something worse happens."
"Oh but Chronos, what if the rumors are true," she cried out her hands fumbling with the ribbon of her shirt. "Oh what if she confronts them and—"
"Pipe it down, will ya?" Chronos called, covering her mouth with his hand.
She groaned and took his hand away from her mouth. "Well, did you find out?"
Chronos sighed before replying. "They're true."
The news only made Lacrimosa more nervous than before, and asked another question. "W-Who were the ones who ordered it."
"The Barma and Rainsworth Dukedoms," he replied and then groaned again out of the stress. "Man, the Court ain't gonna be happy about them keeping her here."
"T-The Court? How does the Court..." Lacrimosa stopped mid sentence trying to made sense of Chronos' perplexed expression. "You alerted them!?"
"It's not like I had a choice!"
"We all have a choice!" she growled in her throat, very threateningly.
"Look, I'm sure I made the right call here. And damn me, if it won't be them that give her what she needs."
"What she needs?"
"Her people." A sudden singing took away their attention from their conversation and towards the opposite direction of the hall. Down the hall, two little girls of no older than nine walked hand-in-hand while humming out the tune. Soon they stopped before the two Chains with a smile on their faces. Red locks spilled around their shoulders and two pairs of red eyes peering up at them.
"Hello," they chorused in unison. "We're lost. Do you know where Angele-sama is?"
Once I was in front of Duchess Rainsworth's office, I took a deep breath before knocking. When I heard 'come in', I opened the door and stepped in to find Oz and co. standing before the duchess and Barma.
"I apologize for the interruption."
"Not to worry," she answered with a sigh. "This concerns you as well."
Then she continued where she had left off. About finding Duke Nightray dead: beheaded. It was Gil who spoke the suspicion I had: if Duke Nightray had died recently then Elliot wouldn't have been responsible. Barma had that answer; it wasn't so much that Elliot wasn't the Headhunter but more like it had become a copy-cat of the actual Queen.
Humpty Dumpty had mimicked the Queen of Hearts.
"In short," I call out with my arms crossed. "Someone made fools out of us."
"Indeed, Florence." He tapped his shoulder with his fan as if thinking. "I was waiting for the Vessalius boy to speak out of term. But your interruption was also suspected; I'm not surprised." Right...
Three knocks on the door broke the fluent conversation we were having. "Duchess Rainsworth!"
The Duchess sighed and placed her chin on her hands, looking a little more than annoyed. "What is it now?" Looks like I'm not the only one getting on her nerves today. A Pandora agent burst through the door with a panicked look on his face.
"I-It's terrible! The boy that we were interrogating, he was abducted by Vincent Nightray!"
"What?" I hissed out the word. My anger was boiling by the second knowing the details of Vincent's kidnapping of Leo. "How's that even possible!" I had turned to face Sharon but before they heard me, her and Gil had already left towards the crime scene. Great. So instead, I turned to the one other person who was in charge and I hated, to boot. "He was supposed to be safe here!" I snarled at Barma and glaring daggers at him. Yet nothing of that seemed to faze him.
"Believe me," Duchess Rainsworth spoke taking my attention to her. "We made sure that he would."
"Not hard enough." But before I can step forth to continue the fight, Oz stops me with a hand on my shoulder. "Why are you stopping me?" I snarl through gritted teeth.
"We can't be worrying about could haves or should haves. We need to focus on the incident at present," he explained and that calmed me somewhat. He was right after all. No use crying over spilled milk.
When clapping resounded throughout the room, we spun around to find the source at the threshold of the door. "Well said, Oz Vessalius-kun." And at the threshold there stood a woman. One of the most beautiful I had ever seen, I might add.
A slender woman, with long, misty silver hair with shades of lavender up to her waist. Her bangs were cut straight across leaving a clear view of her violet eyes but somehow the haircut curved around her porcelain face. She wore a very odd long tunic that came to her ankles and a long-sleeved jacket that came up to the middle of her abdomen and was halfway buttoned up. On her waist, she wore a belt with a scabbard latched on it and slip on shoes.
I shook my head out of its trance before calling out to her. "W-Who are you?"
"My, what a snappy tongue you posses, Miss Dawn."
Dawn?
"Could it be?" Both Oz and I turned towards the other end of the room to catch the duchess' perplexed expression. "Is that you, Ang-chan?"
"My dear Cheryl, how nice to see you again," the woman called, joyous of some apparent reunion, and began heading towards her desk. But at seeing this, Barma stepped aside and impeded her way. She chuckled and rose her hands in mock surrender. "Nice to see you too, Rufus."
"Why are you here, you bastard!" the Duke growled and glared at the woman.
"To visit my childhood friends isn't enough of a reason?" she inquired with a singsong tone that only irritated Barma more. Finally, she lowered her hands and her face lost all semblance of ridicule. "I came as a response unit to the call of our leader."
"Then as I suspected—" He turned his glare suddenly my way, "You are pulling the strings here, Florence."
"What?!" I called out baffled, angered but mostly the latter at how he was accusing me so blindly. "Don't you try putting this on me, ahoge duke! I don't even know who this lady is!?" Oz tapped my shoulder just then and made me turn towards him, still fuming. "What?!"
He cleared his throat a bit. "I think you've got it a little wrong, Claire."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well..." he leaned in to whisper to me what he meant. And I listen intently until the one word makes my eyes widen.
It can't be—
"You're a guy!" I shout completely shocked.
"Oh, I thought it would be obvious," he replied with a nonchalant smile.
"Obvious my ass! Y-You look nothing like a guy!"
"Well, my body did go through some changes while in training," she—I mean—he called out as if the matter didn't really surprise him.
"W-Well," my stuttering stops when I remember something else. "Who are you, anyways?"
"Angele Apostles," he answered with a slight bow and bringing his arm across his chest. He rose then to smile at us. "Humbly at your service."
"Ruf please calm down," the duchess petitioned out of Barma. Seeing as she was the one asking him, he lowered his fan but kept glaring daggers at the wo—man. The man. Shit, this was hard. "It's evidently clear that Claire had nothing to do with Ang-chan's arrival."
"Actually, Cheryl-chan, as I said before, I am here to respond to our Mistress' calling."
"And was it the Court to which this call was sent?" Barma asked with terms I was completely not understanding.
"Hence my hasty, unannounced, arrival," Angele replied without hesitation.
"It had to be Florence then, Cheryl!" Barma blamed me like a child snitching on another.
"I don't even know the guy! How could I have called him!?"
"Indeed," Angele agreed and I was surprised he had backed me up. "The call was concerning our Mistress—" Why does he keep calling me that? "But it was not made by her. Somebody else alerted us."
"Who?" I hissed in anger.
"It was—" he suddenly stopped mid sentence when his gaze came behind us. A smile crept to his lips before continuing. "Actually, the ones you are looking for appear to have caught my attendants."
Oz and I turned around to find Lacrimosa and Chronos entering the room with two little redheaded girls. Standing at the entrance, I meet them there. "Have you anything to say in your defense?"
"W-Wait!" Chronos never stuttered. Only when he was scared of me did he do that. "I had to! With you unlocking your powers after the incident at Yura's, I was obligated to!"
"Obligated my ass." I turn towards Lacrimosa only to catch her flinching, her doe-like strands of hair perking up as if they were real. "Is this true?"
Her shoulders and ears slump before she answers me in a timid voice. "Yes..."
"Whatever their intentions, they were right at calling for us," Angele announced getting my undivided attention.
"Angele-sama!" The two little girls burst out with a cheerful voice and left the Chains to bump onto the man's legs. "We got lost!"
"I can see that," he answered with a chuckle. He patted their heads lovingly. "Be more careful from now on."
"Yes~" they said in a chorus.
Red hair. Red eyes. Where have I seen those before?
Leaning over Oz, I inquired that same thing of him. "Don't they seem, I don't know, kind of familiar to you?" He stood there in thought for a second before he knelt down in front of the two.
"Hello, my name's Oz. What are your names?" he said with a playful smile and nonchalant voice.
"Ooh!" one of the two—the one with the green ribbon on her hair—raised her hand expectantly. "I'm Victoria!"
"I'm Veronica," the other who wore a blue ribbon reciprocated shyly.
"Are you two twins?" he asked them.
"Yes!" they called in unison.
Oz finally stood back up and asked the question that had started this whole conversation. "And where do you two come from?"
"From a place outside of here," Veronica answered shyly while grabbing her hair. "It's another country. Pandora doesn't go there!"
"A country outside of here?" Oz repeated formulating the answer I had in mind.
"And somewhere Pandora doesn't reach." My eyes instantly landed on Barma. "They're from your home country, aren't they? Duke Barma..."
"Shh!" Victoria shushed her vigorously. "We're not supposed to say anything about that! We're outcasts, remember?" At her sister's warning, Veronica slapped her mouth shut.
"They were exiled from your country?" I burst out even more annoyed by what I kept hearing.
"I have nothing to say to you," he countered.
"I do." Chronos seemed adamant about voicing whatever he wanted to say. "They are just a pair of the exiles among the many that were exiled of Claire's kind. The eradication meant that for any exitium."
"Exitium?"
"The name of those who belong to what used to be known as Court of Crows," Lacrimosa explained with a sullen face. "They were the direct descendants of the first Sage."
"Are you one of them as well?" I inquired from Angele, his smile gone and replaced with a somber expression.
"It's not only mine but also these children's legacy." His hands landed on the top of the two girls' head while they giggled. His voice suddenly became lower; a sweet, low baritone lilt that sounded oh so damn familiar. "Do not disrespect it before me. Specially when I am one of the Court's Lords."
"The Court?" I repeat confused to the core.
"So my research was correct." We all turned to face Barma with his smug grin. "After your banishment you were recruited as a Lord of the Court of Miracles."
"The Court of Miracles," Oz murmured while deep in thought. "Isn't that the safe haven for thieves in this country?"
"That's what the public was told," Duchess Rainsworth explained.
"Let's digress to what actually matters," Chronos called with a sneer on his face. "You're the reason why no one found survivors after the banishment. Many were killed after the eradication was enacted and the little population that was left went into hiding when Pandora was established. They're the reason why you've found no trace of the White Sage or of the tribe it once was."
I turned with utter disbelief towards the duchess. "Is this true?" I didn't want to believe it. Not from the woman that had accepted me here after I had left the Nightray's.
A sullen expression comes over her features and that is all the answer I needed. "I'm sorry, dear. I didn't know of your ancestry until after you visited Ruf. He contacted me later on the matter."
No...
"H-How could you!?" My rage mounted faster than I could keep it in reigns. "All this time when I searched you never told me!" Oz stopped me once more when I tried approaching her and saved me the trouble of dirtying my hands.
"It is true that she withheld that information about us," Angele agreed. "But have you asked yourself the question of why you are still alive?"
"What...?" When I turned to glance at her a small but sincere smile was on her features.
Barma heaved a long sigh before saying, "I insisted Cheryl get rid of you the moment I found out about your origins. Several times, actually. But she kept on refuse each time."
"Her intentions only concurred with Rufus' because, at that time, Pandora hadn't been establish for very long," Angele explained even further in her behalf. "Maintaining status quo was critical in keeping the four Dukedoms as pillars of the organization. A political debate would have shattered that. Now, that doesn't matter much to her as before." He smiled at her before turning back to face me, "Now, I would love to get better acquainted with Miss Clarice and—" he turned towards Oz briefly before continuing. "Perhaps Oz-kun as well." He turned towards the door and motioned it with his hand, "Shall we?"
I turned over to Oz to get his thoughts on this. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Let's hear what he has to say, all right?" Heaving a sigh, I nod and we both follow him outside. Before closing the door behind, Angele speaks to them. "I suppose it is quite obvious that since our Mistress is here that I'll be taking a few days of leave to remain here as well."
"Go right ahead," Duchess Rainsworth agreed to happily.
"Thank you, dear Cheryl-chan!" he called before closing the door behind him. Behind the closed doors, we hear the muffled voices.
"B-But Cheryl—" The sudden snapping noises cut Barma's voice right in mid sentence.
"Now Ruf, shall I remind you how well we three used to get along~" Her sweet voice was followed by the snapping of what was most likely were her famous fans. Oz and I couldn't help the chuckles that invaded us.
"Well," Angele whispered clearly having heard the same scene we had. "Rufus always got on her bad side rather quickly. Now, if you would." He began walking off and without missing a step, we followed behind him.
Ooooooohhh! New Character introduced! :D You guys excited? Cuz I am?! Next week we'll get to know who exactly is Angele Apostles and what the Court wants with Claire! :D
So hoped you liked it and stayed tuned :D
