Act I
It had taken him the course of a few weeks to reach Byzantium. It was only to be expected, as he had opted for a cyborg horse instead of an airship, which would have taken him to the Methuselah Capital in the course of a few hours.
Tres Iqus, however, had not felt like taking a practical course of action.
Pulling the dark scarf over his nose and mouth, he reached into his pocket and pulled out, carefully, a folded paper. Holding the reins in one hand, with a deft gesture the Gunslinger unfolded the piece of parchment to observe the contents.
It was a photograph. The colors seemed to be especially vibrant, and save for the creases it acquired from being folded, there was hardly a wrinkle. The subject of the photograph was a young woman, clad in the uniform of a Catholic nun. A slit ran up the left side of the skirt, revealing a leg clad in black, thigh-length socks with embroidered roses, positioned to tease his field of vision.
Otherwise, the photograph's subject appeared modest. Her dark brown hair cascaded down to her hips, accentuated by black highlights that glittered like jet from the sunlight shining down on it. Her gray eyes held a sense of sharp wit and cunning to them, as well as strong intuition with a healthy dose of sarcasm. A fresh scar decorated her left eye.
The background was a garden, filled mostly with trees and bushes. The young woman was sitting on a bench under the shade of a pomegranate tree, a dish containing a split pomegranate by her side. From the looks of the fruit, she had been eating it when the picture was taken.
All these details Tres reviewed in his mind as he folded the photograph again, putting it in his pocket before his passport and traveler's VISA took the place of the photograph in that same hand. At the same time, the Gunslinger's heels dug into the sides of his mount, urging it on towards the gates.
She was dreaming again. In fact, she had been doing that on an almost-daily basis these days. The subject was, unfailingly, the same.
Tres…
Maria bit down hard on her lower lip, forcefully preventing the sigh that wanted to heave itself out of her mouth from leaving her lips. Her teeth caused a small tear on her lip and she licked at it, tasting the blood.
"You seem nervous."
The small voice startled her, causing the Dhampir/Crusnik to jump slightly on her seat. She glanced towards the source of the voice, sitting on the carpeted floor several feet away from her.
Why must you be so receptive…? Maria inquired silently, as she didn't expect the child to answer the question. The little boy merely held her gaze with his for a few minutes before turning back to what dominated his interest at the moment: drawing and painting.
It was to be expected that his works of art were not yet spectacular and awe-inspiring; he was still very much a child, three years old at the least. Still, Maria thought his skill far surpassed hers at that age; she was fairly certain that the people she drew at age three did not have some semblance of a body…
The Dhampir/Crusnik eyed the subject of the boy's drawing. The background appeared to be Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, a large park in Byzantium famous for its cherry trees. In fact, that was in so far the only plant the park had save for the occasional decorative bush or hedge. She roughly estimated that when painted, the crowns of the trees will be light pink.
By contrast, in the middle of all that pink was a dark figure, sitting astride a dark horse. Maria blinked, then refocused her sight on the personage of the drawing. Thus far, he (she was fairly certain it was a he) had been the only colored object in the picture, and even then, the artist had used only black, and nothing else.
Her gray eyes flicked towards an opened book lying by the child's side. He had used Vampire Hunter D as reference for this figure.
Maria still found it ironic that the series was a bestseller in the Methuselah/New Human Empire, particularly when the Empire was the place where it would be most likely to be banned.
After a few seconds, she stood up and went over to the coat hanger, and grabbed a dark blue cloak and a smaller green coat.
"We are going out."
The Gunslinger had been searching for half an hour now. He had not deigned to inquire for her whereabouts; he did not need to. Tres would recognize his target once he came in contact with the aforementioned person.
The cyborg horse shuffled its weight beneath him as it waited for the traffic to clear up, the stallion's breath creating a small mist in the cold air. Once it cleared, the horse paced onwards, not bothering to wait for his rider's signal.
After several minutes, Tres spotted the park.
The park was aptly named, and he could not have arrived at a more opportune moment, when the trees were in full bloom and could be seen even from an airship. The beauty was lost on the Gunslinger, however, and he acknowledged it with a mere nod. He had other priorities on his mind.
All the same, a flash of intuition told him to wait in the park.
And Tres obliged.
Maria walked through the trees, scanning her surroundings as she held the boy's hand. She really had no clue as to why she decided to come here on impulse; she could only recall thinking one thought at the time: that perhaps something might be waiting for her there.
Suddenly an image sprang up in her mind, an image of two lovers meeting in a forest of cherry trees in full bloom.
The Dhampir/Crusnik found it so incredibly cheesy she laughed out loud, startling the child beside her.
She's thinking weird thoughts again… The boy thought resignedly as he stared up at the young woman, who was currently chuckling to herself. Then, rather abruptly, Maria stopped walking, her voice dying off mid-chuckle.
He followed her gaze, and his eyes widened a fraction.
Straight ahead, was the subject of his incomplete drawing. Or rather, as close to that subject as one could get in reality. For one, both man and horse were on the ground, with the man lying against the horse's side, the brim of his hat covering his face. The man appeared to be sleeping, but the boy did not think he was.
Then, rather slowly and with somewhat stiff movements, the man raised his head to glance at the pair.
Maria was rooted to the spot, not realizing how tightly she was gripping the child's hand, though his cry of protest made her quickly loosen her grip. Her gray eyes were fixed on the dark-clad personage, who stood up and walked over to them, not bothering to dust his clothes off.
All too quickly, the stranger was closing the distance.
"Is everything—"
"Yes, Janis." She smiled at him reassuringly.
Finally, the man stood before her, watching her. The minutes stretched on for an eternity before he spoke.
"I finally found you."
Before she registered it in her mind, he was kissing her.
End Act I