Chapter 28: A Night for the Seraphim
Edna sat down at the edge of Rose's bed while the other seraphim, including Zenrus stood. Dezel started walking out.
"Getting some air." He said. Shortly after Mikleo started walking out.
"Now where are you going Meebo?" As Edna in a mock concerned tone.
"Air." Said Mikleo before heading out leaving Zenrus and Edna in the room with the sleeping humans.
"You seemed awfully fond of that human." Edna remarked.
"I could say the same for you." Said Zenrus.
"That's ridiculous." Said Edna. "I'm just stuck with this idiot. I don't really care for humans like my brother does."
"I doubt that is the case. I mean before Glennwood closed itself off from Northfell I heard that you had something if Flamestone and even after the boarder closing you went to Flamestone every decade or so." Said Zenrus. "I wouldn't call that not really caring for humans."
"I made friends with the seraphim there." Edna denied. "If I didn't have these purification powers I would be with them."
"Is that what you call it." Zenrus said under his breath.
"What was that?" Edna asked.
"Nothing, nothing." Said Zenrus. They were quiet for a little while.
"So … how long have you been hanging with Muse?" Edna asked trying to make small talk.
"About … seventeen … eighteen years." Zenrus shrugged. The two were quiet again.
"So … Lafarga's running Elysia all right." Said Edna.
"That's good. I wish I could say the same about the Shepherd he brought up." Said Zenrus.
"Yeah … and I wish I could say that I'm not a clueless idiot when Lailah left me her job." Said Edna.
"I was wondering about that. How is she anyway?" Zenrus asked.
"She's fine, wandering around with one of Zavied's things." Said Edna.
"Which of Zavied's things? The pendulums? Sigfried? His alcohol? …" Zenrus listed off.
"The gun … Sigfried." Said Edna.
"Strange, I don't know him as well as you might know him but I hear rumors that he always has Sigfried around him." Said Zenrus.
"Seems that way." Shrugged Edna. "While traveling with the Sparks did you see any guns being sold in Rolance?"
"As in Sigfried looking weapons or the big thing that the Shepherd has?" Zenrus asked.
"Both." Said Edna. Zenrus let out a breath.
"I'm afraid those are the only two I've seen." Said Zenrus.
"Have you been getting trades from Flamestone?" Edna asked.
"I don't keep track of the goods the Sparks habe been selling but I haven't seen anything that would indicate that it was from Flamestone." Said Zenrus.
"They should be easy to identify as goods from Flamestone would come with a particular crest." Said Edna taking off her left glove "It should look something like this." She showed Zenrus the back of her hand revealing a tattoo that looked like an abstracted sun two cresent moons facing away from each other intersecting the main circle. His eyes widened.
"I'm afraid I haven't." Said Zenrus.
"So that means Glennwood is still isolated … there should be no way that weapon should be here, much less functioning." Edna muttered to herself.
"Is that weapon … the gun something exclusive to Flamestone?" Zenrus asked. Edna nodded slowly. "How did they get there?"
"That's what I wanna know because by all accounts most of these got destroyed along with plans to make them when the creator died." Said Edna. "And Flamestone law dictates that if you were to try to get the disigns for the guns or try to get a gun from there you would be instantly executed."
"You know the creator could've taken in an apprentice." Said Zenrus.
"Way too unlikely, I remember the creator, an arrogant ass that was good with words and tinkering, he'd never take in an apprentice." Said Edna. "Plus he wanted to take the secret of making and using guns to his grave. And he's the one who put in that law."
"I have a theory it was one of the S.H.I.T.S." Said Zenrus.
"But I'm pretty sure all of them are dead except for Muse, Lailah, Zavied, and Eizen." Said Edna. "Wait … you don't mean …? It can't be I mean the Lord of Calamity mistook Rose for someone working for him it can't be one of the ones we know! And how the hell will they get the idea of creating guns?"
"Sigfried." Said Zenrus. "Think about it it gives us seraphim a method outside of purification to deal with malevolence and hellions, and with the age of chaos and the lack of a Shepherd until now people can get desperate on how to deal with malevolence so you need to make something that could aid a seraph would be worth trying to copy."
"Then why would any of them, especially the seraphim, distribute them to Rolance as a weapon to use against Hyland?" Edna asked. Zenrus shrugged.
"It's just a theory." Said Zenrus. "We're gonna have to look for clues and try to look for anyone the Shepherd looks like and try to question them about their motives and what they're doing with the Lord of Calamity." He said. Just as he said that Muse walked in and Edna looked at her.
"Oh don't mind me I just need to try to wash that cape." She said removing Rose's cloak while she slept. "But know that I don't have an interest in recreating Sigfried, I have enough on my plate to think about between the Light Sparks and the Scattered Bones.
"We probably should drop Muse from our list of suspects." Said Zenrus.
"Really?" Sighed Edna. Muse left the room when she ran into her estranged son.
"Hello Mikleo." She said.
"Hello M-…Muse." He replied. She smiled not letting her disappointment of him not calling her "mom" get to her.
"How are you dealing with all this?" She asked.
"I don't know …" He said. "Maybe better than Dezel but all I really know is that he went outside."
"Hey." She said, he turned to her. "Would you like something to eat?"
"Um …" Said Mikleo.
"I haven't eaten anything either but I need to take care of this first." She said.
"You could use lemons for that, if you have any." Said Mikleo.
"Hm?"
"To get rid of bloodstains you could use lemons but you need to let it out to dry afterwards." Said Mikleo.
"All right. There's food in the back if you want any." Said Muse walking off with the cloak. Mikleo went to the back of the hideout to find booze, likely for selling, and various dried foods tucked away in crates and mostly gone fresh fruits and vegetables as they would spoil if the guild didn't eat them, and a bag of rice. He grabbed whatever's left of the fresh stuff went to where he assumed the guild was cooking stuff as there was a fire running and a disaster zone of kitchen equipment. He put down the ingredients went to cleaning up the pigsty of a makeshift kitchen.
"You know you don't have to do that." He heard someone say when he was in the middle of organizing knives. He looked up to see Muse, this time not holding the bloodied cloak.
"… Sorry." He said.
"No no, it's nice of you to do that but, it's not required for you, we would've cleaned it up ourselves … or at least I would be the only one cleaning." Said Muse.
"Cleaning um …" Mikleo started but he bit his lip. Muse's eyes widened realizing that her son had developed nervous habits while growing up as he seemed to show themselves more and more with every word he tried to sputter out. She tried to reach for his shoulder but he backed away from her and suddenly his current actions and his words back at Marlind started to make sense to her. She put her hand down, looked at him and gave him a gentle smile.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Okay?" She said. Mikleo nodded. She then looked over his shoulder to see what he managed to pick out from the back. "Any ideas on what to do with those?"
"… No …" Said Mikleo. "…You?"
"Wait here." She said, but Mikleo went back to cleaning the kitchen when Muse came back with some spices and rice. "I think we can make a curry. Can you help me with the rice?" Some time after the two were sitting in the kitchen eating the curry. "How is it?"
"All right …" He said.
"You know if you don't like it you can tell me." Said Muse.
"It's not that I don't like it, it's just that it feels like this curry has too much of some of the spices and it also needs something more … substantive like … maybe an egg or some meat?" Said Mikleo.
"Oh all right." Said Muse. "If we have the budget for it we'll gets some eggs."
"Otherwise … I like it." Said Mikleo.
"Aw, thank you!" Said Muse reaching around Mikleo to give him a one armed hug. He stiffened and Muse stopped. "Sorry." Mikleo just simply nodded. "By the way, are you still unsure what to feel?"
"Kind of … if anything I'm just scared about what happened and if it'll happen again." Said Mikleo.
"Mikleo, it'll be all right." She said Mikleo sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, we'll find a way to get Rose and Sorey back to normal. And if you're worried about something talk to me okay? I'll listen and keep it between us."
"… All right." Said Mikleo. At the same time as the other events Dezel stood outside staring in a direction that he doesn't know. He sighed. More minutes passed and he sighed again. This continued on until the horse he stole walked up to him.
"I thought you would've left." He said. The horse huffed. "Okay fair." They were silent. The horse then nudged him. "What?" The horse nudged him again. "Do you want me to talk?" The horse huffed. "All right fine. We ran into the Lord of Calamity, he did something that blocked off Rose's resonance … and Sorey's, so nobody but you, some other people … I guess, and Muse can see us much less interact with us, we almost died because Sorey rode us off a cliff, and to top it all off Rose can't use her Shepherd powers making her a useless stabby idiot, and no one knows how to fix it! You know I just … it's just … Rose is my first and closest friend and I'd do anything to protect her. And I mean it. I left her in Lady Lake and briefly traveled with Lailah because I started to feel useless when she became the Shepherd and now this … this happens and I feel like a liability again." The horse huffed again. "What do you think I'm bullshitting here? I really want to be useful to her! It's not like I want her to see me again and give me shit on the animals I keep …"He said with his voice shaking. "I-it's not that I want to talk to her again and give her tons of shit for every dumbass thing she does … and-and I don't get a thrill everytime we armatize and I don't like just talking to her about random meaningless shit." Tears fell out of his eyes at that point. "It's not like I care about her more than a friend and just want to always be by her side." At that point his words turned into unintelligible blubbering with the horse looking at him. "Shut up!" He snapped at the horse. The horse didn't make any other sounds or gestures, just licked him in the face. He then just hugged the horse pressing his face into its mane and stayed there for a long while. When he stopped crying he looked back to the horse. "Thanks. And don't tell anyone about what happened okay?" The horse huffed. "What do you mean you don't make any promises? No one is gonna understand you!" He snapped. "Oh forget it."
"Yeah it's not like the horse could see anyone watching you crying over not being able to interact with your best friend even though in hind sight you should've sensed us." He heard Edna say.
"H-How long have you been here?" He snapped.
"A while." She shrugged "Meebo and his mother were here for a moment to pick up that cloak Muse washed and left out to dry."
"Don't tell anyone about this got that. I'll never hear the end of it if Rose knew I had ever cried." Said Dezel.
"I'm not making any promises." Said Edna.
"Do it and I'll cut you." Dezel threatened.
"Wow you're so secure about your masculinity." Said Edna. "And I would like to see you try." She then jabbed him in the side with her umbrella.
"Ow! Hey!" Dezel shouted.
"I was only going to keep your little crush on Rose a secret but since you insist on being a bit of a brat. I suppose I should tell you everything you said to the horse." Said Edna.
"What the hell do you want?" Dezel growled.
"Meebo is spending time with his mom and Rose is asleep I have to be an ass to somebody or I'll cease to exist." Said Edna.
"You just miss your punching bags don't you?" Said Dezel. Edna jabbed him in the sides again. "Ow!"
"Quiet punching bag and let me throw sarcasm at you." Said Edna. Dezel groaned thinking that this will be a very long night.
Yeah there's gonna be a bit more filler before we get to anything plot related.