Disclaimer:
All Phantom characters are not mine, though anyone who reads my work knows my feelings about Erik and Gustav owning me.
Author's note:
Forgive us that it took so long to get this updated. We had a third writer that we thought would be doing Erik's letters for us, but there were some difficulties. Thus, I'm taking over writing Erik. So I hope you enjoy. Also, the quote is from S.J. Tucker's Come to the Labyrinth.
Chapter Five:
The labyrinth
"It only takes the tiniest of fires sometimes to light the way you knew was always waiting for you there, and in the heart of matters, it's the journey keeps us warm. The lights that lead us where we are to go. May you raise your eyes and know with every step… you are not alone."
Staring down at the letter resting on the elegantly carved mahogany of the study desk, Erik's practically marble expression would have given away nothing to the average observer, but wasn't that the way he had intended it, he mused sardonically? He had read that same letter over one, if not a hundred times, and still the internal monologue of his response refused to be clear.
His eldest had changed in a matter of months, that much was certain. No longer did the words of the focused and hardened killer sit before him. Now the musings and concerns of a man taken from all he loved filled these letters.
"You have found your weakness at last mon fils," he spoke aloud to the letter.
Half a century ago, when the elder watched his son, his favored student, bring home a young woman, nearly broken, he was convinced the weakness had been found. But, if anything, Gustav's constant doting and retraining of Corin Dubois had only made the months when he killed more vicious.
'So much the same,' Erik breathed quietly. He saw it again flash through his memory. The kill had never been particularly pleasurable for him, simply a matter of necessity, but in the months after he had rescued his beloved Christine from the bastard, he had killed with a vengeance. In a way, he hated Gustav for being the one to finish Raoul in the end, but it was fitting, he thought with a righ smile. Ah so fitting, that the younger Ange du Mort would make his first kill in the form of the family plague.
"Quill to ink and ink to parchment," he scolded himself as he heard his Master's words come back to him.
"You are distracted Erik. Should you ever be found in such a state, you will be killed, or worse. You must never forget this.
His back straightened as the familiar feeling of the quill touching parchment came to him.
…
Gustav,
It is understandable that one should have a time of adjustment after such a long period of written silence. Especially as the bond of sire and childer gives us… extraneous advantages. I suspect that, by now, my information is safely on its way, and you will be nearly home. You will forgive me for forcing you to remain longer than I would have liked to, but as I am certain you are aware by now, Artimus and I are recovering from things taking a rather shocking turn between us.
Ah Solace… she is a mystery, even to me, my pet. I wish that I could offer you more to soothe your thoughts, but while I understand that seduction is necessary, I have never fully cultivated the appreciation for it as a form of information gathering. You know my opinions of keeping a woman in the field. None the less, she is the best at what she does, and I will not reject an offer of skill where it is given. Let it be enough to say that, while it is constantly she who attempts to "Bring you into the light", so to speak, I believe that it will be she who comes to us, in the end. Do not fear for and concern yourself over her, it will only cause you to act as less than what you are.
It is myself that Artimus refers to when she tells you that her father compelled her to write, and as I have just sent her letter to you, I am certain that she has told you why. Have I become so cruel, so inhuman in my years Gustav, that I would be the source of a child's suffering and never realize?
I wish I could tell you that I had moved on from it now that she is safely healed and tended, but I cannot. When I looked at her, looked into those eyes, I remembered times in my own life that I would just assume have forgotten. Times my so-called "Masters" had abused me in much the same way. Yes, I know that she will heal, and I know even that I will forgive myself for what I have caused. Still, it does not ease the pain of the moment.
I learn slowly that she means no harm in her tones and ways of simply making things less than what they are. She has just never known any other way, and in the days when she has, no one has cared to hear the things which concern her. After this most recent incident, I do not think she will view Corin with such indifference again, as without Corin, she may very well have never survived.
There are more matters that warrant discussion, but they are not things I trust to the written word. Thus, we will sit down to briefings when you return. Be safe, my favored.
E.