Chapter Two
Fuck!
Ina awoke in the Infirmary to the interesting discovery that she was back to her usual shape, and also, stark naked. She also discovered that she had a splitting headache. She sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest, and discovered that Fade was in the bed next to her, still unconscious. Despite that fact, her cheeks heated up, and she looked around frantically for the infirmary keeper, Lady Dolor, or clothes, since she'd settle for either.
She laid back down upon not finding either, and had apparently laid down just in time too. Slade walked in a moment later, and she quickly shut her eyes. He didn't notice the quick flash of motion, she hoped, but she heard his footsteps coming towards her bed, and did her best to pretend to be asleep.
"Ina," Slade murmured. "Ina, wake up." There was something almost compelling about his voice, but Ina knew why. The boy had been studying under Lust for the past two years, learning her tricks of manipulation.
I talk in my sleep normally, she thought frantically. What do I even say? Oh right, doom and the like!
"Wanna doombunny," she mumbled, shifting slightly. Conveniently, that shift made her figure far less distinct.
"...what the heaven is a doombunny?" Slade mumbled
"Who knows," Fade said. Ina heard him sit up. "What are you doing in here?"
"Checking on her," Slade said. "Only makes sense to do for the girl you like. Of course, you wouldn't know about that, would you?" Ina could only imagine the spectacular sneer on his face. "You, after all, fight pretty girls."
"Pretty? I've seen better looking," Fade said, monotone intact. "However, I do know more about hormones than you believe, including involving her."
"What would you know?" Slade spat.
"Well for one, I know she's not on her period right now," Fade said. "Werewolves have a fantastic sense of smell. For another, she visits my family during break." He sounded smug, actually.
"She visits her adopted mother," Slade scoffed. "I know that you don't have a mother."
"Her adopted mother and my father are in love, and clueless about it," Fade said, returned to his monotone.
"So you'd become siblings if they married," Slade said.
"Not really. Crest never formally adopted her, after all," Fade said.
"So what, you think you've got an in, roommate?" Slade snapped. "My family's powerful here in Hell."
"My family runs an entire kingdom," Fade said. "But of course, you don't even know where Lycanth is, do you?" Ina had already known that Fade was from Lycanth, and that he was a prince of some sort, but now, she realized with something close to surprise, he was the prince of her adopted country, and the one Crest had also nearly attempted to set her up with earlier this year.
"I'm not half as stupid as you think I am!" Slade snarled. "You're just pretending you like her to try and piss me off, aren't you? Always trying to show me up, trying to be better and put on airs!"
"Pretending?" Fade asked, and there was a sudden stiffness about his voice that made him sound almost angry. "Unlike you, I don't lie. Ever." Ina heard him stand, and wondered whether or not he'd also been stripped down, and found herself shifting again so that her sudden blush wouldn't be visible. It took her a moment more to process that this meant both of them liked her.
"Really?" Slade demanded. "In that case, where's my history book?"
"Up your ass, of course," Fade said, no doubt sneering. "Where else would it be? Unless you actually bother reading it, of course, which I doubt." His tone returned to his monotone. "If it actually is up your ass, I'll be extremely impressed. I really don't know where it is."
From the sound of things, it looked like Slade had actually been about to check, because there was a subdued "Oh" from his direction.
Silence reigned for several minutes, before Slade spoke again. "I'm not an idiot, you know." It was oddly quiet, coming from him, and his voice was cold.
"Yes, I'm sure," Fade said, deadpan. "Mind leaving yet?"
"You'll see," Slade said. "You'll see, Prince Fade. And you won't live to regret it." He was out of the room before Fade could do anything, evidently.
Silence persisted, as Ina heard Fade pacing. Then she felt a surprisingly gentle touch on her shoulder. "How long have you been awake?" he asked.
She stopped a shriek before her mouth had fully opened by biting the pillow. "What?" she managed to say, after a moment of getting herself under control.
"What was the first thing you heard?" Fade asked, evidently tense.
"Something about a history book and Slade's butt," Ina lied. She wasn't about to admit to what she'd heard until she actually figured out what she thought.
"Oh, you just heard us debating where Slade actually keeps his books," Fade said, monotone slipping back into place. "You can get up you know."
Ina turned over slightly and cracked one eye open. Fade's clothes had been left on. "They weren't nice enough to leave me clothed," she drawled, and watched him turn red. She hadn't known he could blush.
He turned around. "Summon some. I won't look," he said, voice oddly rough.
"So, what's the deal with wanting to fight me?" Ina asked as she summoned some clothing to begin dressing under the sheets - an occasionally uncomfortable or awkward phenomenon. She could see Fade's continued blush from the way his ears were red, before she got the shirt over her head and began wriggling through. She almost missed his answer.
"Been bored."
"Why me? The last time you talked to me before today was...back when I first started, actually. That's five years ago. And all you did was say I wouldn't get it easy just because of my family." Ina had to actually get out from under the sheets to get her skirt on, and then blazer. She summoned another pair of socks, and then discovered the pleasant surprise that her boots were under her bed. "I'm dressed now."
Fade turned around, his features surprisingly composed, despite the red across them. "Why not? It's obvious even to Pride, with all her lack of brains, that we're the two best fighters in our Form. If Lucky and Koru weren't here, I'd probably bet on us being the best in school."
"So, you wanted to know who's stronger." Ina couldn't help it as she started snickering, then full-out laughing. "That's the stupidest reason I've ever heard!"
"Why?" Fade asked, his monotone closing back in.
"Why does stronger matter?" Ina demanded, managing to check her laughter.
"It's what proves who's in charge." Now he sounded like he thought she was stupid, and Ina's temper was, unluckily, a quick thing.
"Really? Clearly you've never been to Dragonia. Or ever thought about Gwen Tennyson." Ina felt herself sneering at him slightly, and also realized that she knew his mother, even though he didn't, and felt a strong temptation to tell him, just to piss him off. "Gwen Tennyson can't lift much more than fifty pounds with her bare hands, but she's the most powerful mage ever known."
"You've met her?" Fade asked, evidently curious, by his still-unusual ability to use inflection.
"She's friends with my adoptive mother." Ina considered that for a moment. "Not best friends...but they do seem to meet up in the middle of crazy stuff happening, and then they laugh at everyone else involved sometime in between running for their lives and kicking ass."
Fade couldn't quite summon up anything to say to that.
"Anyhow, when do you think they'll let us out? Lady Dolor's usually on duty here, but nobody seems to be today." Ina paced forward towards the desk area. "It's kind of strange."
"I'm glad she wasn't. Do you know what kind of medicine she usually gives out? Disgusting." Fade's monotone had returned with a vengeance.
"Your mistake for taking it and not telling her to just heal you," Ina said cheerfully, leafing through a pad of paper on the desk. "Huh. She has...three notes from Slade saying that she has a hot body." She snorted. "Oh yeah, they definitely put him in the right position with Lust. He'd be more dangerous without her."
"If he didn't have her, he wouldn't know what to do with his voice, and he'd have someone harder to escape," Fade pointed out.
"He can't accidentally kill someone now. He actually has to work at it," Ina said, still leafing through. "And he's not as good as she is."
"Yet."
"Gloombutt," she drawled. "Well, didn't need to see that." She set the pad back down. "Ugh. As if grandfather didn't have his hands full with six out of seven Sins, he's also got her."
"Only six? Who doesn't he have?" Fade's monotone didn't break, but his eyebrows did rise towards his hairline.
"Wrath. She and Osiris apparently have this thing together, or something. All I know is that I've caught them in his office once, but I've never found her and Grandfather together." Ina shook her head. "You'd think people would lock their closets, but apparently not."
"Speaking of closets, I'm hearing interesting noises from this one." Fade tugged open the door to the "Medicine Closet" where potions were occasionally stored. More often, it housed broken glass and desperate couples. At the moment, it appeared to be home to the rather corpulent body of Lady Dolor, who was tied-up and irate.
Ina pulled the ropes apart and helped the Lady into her chair to dispose of the gag as well. "Old-fashioned way of putting you up," she murmured. "Who the heaven was bored enough?"
"I don't know," Lady Dolor said, after a few minutes of hacking, and a glass of summoned water. "I woke up there." She helped herself to one of her smaller potions kept in her desk, and drank it without flinching. "My keys are gone, it seems," she said after a moment, and shoved white curls from her eyes. "I'd best inform Lord Satan of this matter."
Ina was about to ask why, before she remembered the one location that only two people had keys to. "Ohhh. You're worried someone might use the key to the Pit?"
"Of course. Jumping in is dangerous enough to safety, but at least people know they won't survive that way," Dolor said, at work on transforming her clothing to be more presentable than a pink floral nightgown. "They'd just age until they shriveled up and hit the ground and explode. But if they went in the ground entrance, they'd be under the spell cloud, and be quite able to do harm." She shoved herself out of the chair as part of the floor peeled away into shoes, which she stepped into. "You two had best get along to...fifth period, is it?"
"Yes ma'am," they chorused, both reluctant (though only Ina's voice reflected it).
They made a somewhat rapid dash to Avarice's class, where the russet-haired demon had been just about to shut the door. She gracefully allowed them in before closing it. Slade was nowhere to be found, curiously enough, and the other students were still standing.
"I'm rearranging your seating for the year," she announced, once the two had joined the throng. "Boy with a girl, and all that jazz. Ladies, pick a boy from the hat now." To the ensuing silence, she shrugged and said: "What? I'm bored as all get out. Now give me some drama, children."
Mihi sighed. "Well, that's one thing I'm good at." After she chose Slade's name, the other girls were rather less hesitant about picking a boy. Ina went seventh, and ended up with, of course, Fade, and flopped into a random seat at a desk near Mihi's, conveniently located for talking.
Fade slunk over only after it was clear Ina was not going to move despite his sulking, and then he did his best to create an air of gloom around the desk.
"Mihi," Ina finally said, loudly. "I think I need to borrow your pink blanket and smother Fade with it. Maybe then he'll smile."
There were several snorts among the other students, and Fade scowled further.
"He's such a spoiled royal brat," Mihi murmured to Ina. "It's quite impressive."
"You're telling me." Ina rolled her eyes.
Avarice perched on the desk that Jolie had ended up sharing with Kamen, a slightly flamboyant boy in their Form. No one had figured out if it was an act he put on, or his genuine personality, but either way, most people figured he was flaming in one way or another. Ina thought he was under the delusion that pretending to be gay made him cool (she didn't buy that he was gay, as she'd once caught him staring at Lindhal's chest, which, unless he was simply shocked that it could get that big, meant he was straight), and wasn't likely to relieve him of that impression, as he was a useful source of entertainment, and gossip about the other boys.
"Poor Jolie," Mihi snickered.
"Poor Kamen, if Chaud figures out he isn't gay," Ina giggled.
Fade whacked his head on the desk and then groaned.
"Of course hitting your head on the desk hurts," Ina muttered. "It isn't like these things are made out of solid stone. Not at all."
"And here I thought you might not be intelligent," Fade grumbled. This time, when his head hit the desk, it had the push of Ina's hand behind it.
"Jerk," she grumbled, and put her long hair as a curtain between them.
"Oh good, we've already got some gooood places for entertainment this year," Avarice said, beaming at the two. "Let's start, kids."
When the class had finally finished, the students made their way towards lunch. The Hall (which had been called many a thing, including, one memorable time, the Vomit Yard) was accessable by two points. It could be easily accessed from the front of the school, by visitors and new arrivals, or, by those already in the building, over a narrow causeway across the Pit. No one was sure just why the Pit was part of the school, but those who longed for a more mature appearance would often use it to attain that dream. The protective cloud over whatever it was that was trapped down there had the unique property of aging those under forty, and youthing those over forty. They'd had to invent the term youthing after the first time they'd seen an old person jump in, about three years ago.
The Hall was abuzz with noise from other Forms, which had evidently been let out quicker than the Fifth Form. Ina, Jolie, Gossamer, and Mihi, after forcing their way through the lunch line, set about transfiguring their 'food' into something edible. For Ina, that meant rabbit. She had a serious love for the taste of rabbit. Most werewolves had a similar love for, say, stag, or perhaps horse, but she couldn't get enough of rabbit. It was occasionally disturbing for Mihi to share a room with her, as she'd come back to their room at night on the full moon to find rabbit bones and pelt crunched up on the floor, and Ina happily sprawled in between the room halves, waving her tail cheerfully. Sometimes it wouldn't even be the full moon, but Mihi would still find rabbit bones and pelt, though the perpetrator would be nowhere in sight.
"Rabbit again?" Jolie sighed.
"It is less than three days until the full moon," Gossamer pointed out, delicately spearing an oversized piece of melon. She crunched on it happily. She usually took on a larger shape at the school than her normal sized one, and that required far more energy than her normal one. Fruit provided the sugar that she needed. Her brother had to do the same, though in the Hall, his wings were less visible, since Gluttony had evidently taken it upon herself to redecorate.
"What do you girls think of the new decor?"
Think of the nut and she appears, Ina thought, as her three friends stated approval for the pink. She sighed. It was, at least, better than the scheme that had earned the nickname 'the Vomit Yard', but that was hardly saying much.
Gluttony twirled off without even noticing that Ina hadn't stated an opinion. It was just as well, because she was already thinking of it as pink puke.
Jolie tapped a finger on her lip, a smirk slowly growing on her face. She turned and whispered something to Gossamer, who started giggling, and relayed it to Mihi, who fell off the bench. "That's brilliant!" she exclaimed, and clambered back onto the bench.
"What is?" Ina demanded, and scowled as the three began to laugh. "Well, thanks. Lovely to know it's something incredibly stupid and involving me." She stabbed her rabbit viciously. It always irritated her when her friends came up with something. Invariably, their schemes involved her, a boy, and a closet. When she'd arrived at ten, and been put into the Third Form, their welcome present had been to shove her in a closet with Kamen. In the four years since, she'd been shoved in closets with thirty different boys in the Academy by her friends. She'd been hoping to escape that this year. She set her silverware down, as they continued giggling. "Oh, go die in a bloody hole," she growled, and walked off.
Jolie stopped giggling until she noticed, abruptly, who was following Ina out, with a similar scowl on his face. She nudged the other two, and their laughter only increased.
Ina was halfway across the causeway when Fade bumped into her. She kept her balance, barely, and managed to turn. "Idiot," she snapped.
"It's not my fault you're slow," he growled.
"It won't be my fault if I knock you off," Ina said, growling back. "It'll even solve a few problems."
"Won't be my fault if I drag you off then," Fade drawled.
They stood there a minute, scowling at each other, before Ina spotted a flicker of red coming towards them. She shoved Fade down onto the ground, landing on top of them, as an oversized hand just missed them.
"Heavens!" Ina yelped, and blasted the hand with as much lightning as she could drag up. Her hair began to curl from the static. More lightning filled her hand, as she saw the blast leave a mark. A sudden sucking noise grew, and the hand found itself attached to the wall. One of Fade's hands was outstretched near Ina's.
"Could you get off of me now?" Fade asked dryly. "It'll be easier to hold it when I've got a clear view."
Ina lifted herself off her awkward sprawl. "Sorry." She kept the lightning flickering, now in two hands, with both her sets of eyes open. It was the other set that caught another hand coming from the cloud towards them. She blasted it with the lightning held in both hands. They left small craters in the massive thumb. It was also pinned to the wall shortly.
"The heaven are these hands coming from?" Fade demanded, panting slightly.
"I think someone's woken the thing in the Pit up," Ina said, targeting a third hand with a massive lightning strike. No one in the Hall appeared to have heard so as to come to their aid.
"Wonderful. Absolutely bloody wonderful," Fade growled, pinning the third one. "Can we get some help down here, you think?"
"You're still alive?" That sounded suspiciously like Slade, who also sounded suspiciously older. A fourth hand had swooped up to set him next to the pair. It was also pinned to the wall, but Fade was visibly strained now.
Ina knocked Slade to the ground with a swift punch, and aimed lightning at his throat. "Give me one reason to let you live." She growled, kneeling on his chest. "Maybe killing you will stop it."
"Beautiful, you're too kind," Slade said, smirking. He batted her hand away, and she stopped the lightning from hitting Fade. With her attention distracted, he grabbed her face and forced her to kiss him. She tugged him up and shoved his head back into the stone, a low rumble emitting from her throat.
Fade dragged her off Slade before she could commence murder, and just in time as a fifth hand appeared to rescue its master. The other four hands were beginning to twitch against whatever it was Fade had done.
"I'm going to rule Hell," Slade snarled, from his perch. "And I'm going to have you." A sixth hand made a grab for Ina, but she threw up a barrier of lightning, and it recoiled. "You don't have unending power," he said. "Give up."
Ina answered him with a snarl.
"He's completely nuts," Fade muttered behind her.
"I want to know why nobody else has heard and come to help," Ina grumbled.
"Oh, they're occupied with other...things," Slade said, sneering. "You see, dear, now that I've unlocked this being from its slumber, I can do anything."
"Anything? Really." Ina scowled. "Clearly you can't think."
Fade, behind her, actually started laughing, much to the surprise of both Ina and Slade.
"I didn't know you could laugh," Ina said, watching him through her other set of eyes. "I'm...impressed, Mr. Monotone."
"Oh shut up," Fade muttered, blushing as he stopped laughing.
"Now, give up." Slade had already forgotten Ina's accusation.
"He's an idiot, alright. Not that there was any doubt in the first place," Ina sighed.
"Not as dumb as you might think," Fade said. "I'm feeling him starting to set up wards of some sort." His arms, which she now noticed had circled her waist, tightened, and they disappeared, reappearing in the Hall.
The Hall was nearly empty. Many students had fled the strange stone creatures that were currently dismantling the room. Ina caught sight of a flash of gold, and then Lucky landed next to her, braid uncurling and dropping part of a large stone head.
"Know what's going on?" she asked, whirling her head to wind her braid around the outstretched arm of another of the creatures. She shifted, and swung braid, and somehow creature, above her head to smash into the ground. Her braid slowly unwound and she swung it back. "Those chains were useful."
Ina was staring at Lucky's braid, so Fade answered. "Slade's gone nuts, and apparently released the monster or whatever that was in the Pit. It seems to have something to do with an obsessive crush on Ina, and he wants to kill me. Not sure why."
"It might be the way you're holding her right now. Just maybe," Lucky suggested. "I'd suggest you two getting out of here. Koru, Chaud and I are staying until everyone else is out." She caught a flash of pink and whirled. "And watch out for the Sins!"
Gluttony giggled. "Well, hello Lucille darling!" Lucky's braid knocked her off her feet.
"Get out," the blonde giantess ordered.
Fade dragged Ina for a few seconds before she had quite caught up. "It'd be easier to move if you'd let go of my waist," she said.
He flushed, but let go, and they ran for the exit. Suddenly, an interesting scene rose in front of them. Lust, Pride, and Satan had been surrounded by a group of the stone creatures, and had evidently been fighting them for a while. As Ina and Fade were about to go to help them instead, Pride, in a sudden burst of something, swung her battleaxe to her side. It bit through Lust's waist, and she was dead even before she'd fallen.
"Pride!" Satan's voice boomed.
"She always was your favorite," Pride said, sneering. "Even though I bore your heir. Little tramp." She advanced on Satan, who lifted his cane. It shimmered into a small trident-staff.
"So you'll betray not only me, but your sisters as well?" he asked, sad.
"Who said I'm betraying all of them?" Pride retorted. Avarice appeared behind her, to stand calmly as Envy and Sloth also appeared, while flashes of pink and gold whirled in the background. "The only ones I'm flipping off are Wrath and you. She," she gestured at the corpse of Lust, "isn't even worthy of betrayal."
Somehow, that made Satan lose his temper, and he leaped at her. He too, ended his life on the stained axe.
Fade didn't really think before he grabbed Ina around the waist again, and disappeared.