Saya walked briskly the wide sidewalk just out side the airport and stopped at the curb, her two Chevaliers standing on either side of her, Haji's arm extended upwards, in an attempt to hail a cab.
As they stood waiting, they seemed to attract an untold number of inquisitive gawks from the passers by. Fortunately, all three of them were used to being stared at.
Saya had always been stared at, as a young girl, Joel's associates were always very curious about her, and she attracted stares when she left the zoo, as it was considered to be extremely inappropriate for a young unmarried lady to travel alone with a man who was not her father or brother. She also got disapproving gawks whenever she played cello in public, back then, it was considered obscene for a woman to play that particular instrument, since it rested between the legs. In the early twentieth century, she attracted stares because she wore men's clothing and her hair short. Now days, it seemed that it was the company she kept that attracted the attention. A casually dressed young girl who seemed to be in her mid-teens, with two sharply dressed men, presumably in their mid twenties, constantly standing in her shadow.
Haji had always attracted some attention. He always assumed that this was because of his unique style of dress, and his coffin shaped cello case. In truth, it was also due to his exotic good looks as well as the otherworldly air he had about him that just seemed to scream that he was from a different age, or possibly a different plane of existence.
The closest Haji and Saya ever came to fitting in was during the early sixties, when people just assumed that they were beatniks.
Solomon too was used to being stared at. He had once been considered an extraordinarily attractive man, and as much as it irritated him, he was aware of it. Things had changed since his injury, but it wasn't really due to his physical appearance, such unique hairstyles were not uncommon by that time. Though people's eyes did often seem to fix on his facial scar, the main thing that made him stick out was his attire. He still wore his now signature black suits, but the ensemble had been joined by a pair of black silk gloves and an old fashioned fedora hat, both for the purpose of shielding him from the sun. He always carried a black umbrella as well, and would unfurl it whenever he had to walk out in the outside during the day, creating an odd sight – a man with an umbrella, regardless of the weather.
Haji finally succeeded in getting them a cab, and the three of them climbed into the back seat, Saya once again in the middle.
"You should put on your seatbelt," Haji suggested.
Saya ignored the request. What was the worst that could happen? It's not like something as trivial as a car crash could kill her.
Solomon turned toward her. "Haji is right, you should be wearing a seatbelt."
Saya opened her mouth to protest being ganged up upon, but was silenced when the two men looked at her simultaneously, their expressions stern yet concerned – almost parental.
She reached under her rear and dug for the seatbelt.
The breeze carried the familiar sweet, earthy smell of her childhood home.
It was an hour after dusk and unseasonably chilly, and they had already searched the area where the mansion had once stood, and found no one. There was only one other logical place he might be – the old castle ruins, perhaps reminiscing about Diva.
The Queen and her knights stood at the foot of the stairs, all three of them glanced upwards towards the keep, Diva's old prison.
Saya climbed the first step. "You two should go search the rest of the ruins, I'll check out the tower." She climbed a few more steps, only to find that both of them were still standing at her heels.
She glared at them for their disobedience. "You don't think I can handle this by my self? I'm not that fragile!" Her voice was raised, expressing more anger toward herself than toward her companions, and the subtle waiver in her tone made it clear that her emotions were getting the best of her.
"It isn't that we think you cant handle the memories," Solomon said, not entirely truthfully. "We simply don't know what Nathan is up to, and we don't want to risk having you face him alone." To his surprise, Haji nodded in agreement.
"Fine." Saya climbed a few stairs, but felt tears beginning to form, as her mind flashed back to the previous times she had climbed those steps. Frustrated with her emotions, she abruptly crouched down and with a sudden burst of energy, sent her self flying up toward the tower's zenith, soon followed by her faithful Chevaliers.
As if she might be able to outrun the memories, she virtually sprinted toward the end of the vine encrusted stone hallway, until she reached the cursed cell that still haunted her dreams, sometimes even when she was awake.
She had not been in that room since the day that she had made Riku a Chevalier.
Her gaze slowly moved across the cell. The large breach in the wall allowed the moonlight to glare into the room, shining through the rusted and crooked prison bars and creating a warped checker like pattern on the floor. The roses were in the midst of their full summer flush and the dim light made half of the blooms appear an almost violet shade of cobalt, while the other half were a deep sanguine red that bordered on black. The scent of old garden damask hung heavy in the air.
Saya began to tremble as guilt-ridden images began to assault her mind. She heard at least one of her companions step forward, no doubt to comfort her.
But she spoke before any hand reached her shoulder. "No one's here. Let's go."
The mantra had begun in her mind, the one she had developed the last time she was awake.
She unintentionally whispered it out loud. "I can't think about that now. I have things I must do. People I must protect. I can't think about that now."
It was a desperate prayer that allowed her to trudge through the mire of her past in order to continue toward her goal. It was as if the memories were quicksand, she would be fine as long as she stepped lightly and kept moving, but the moment she stopped, she would begin to sink down into the abyss. In some way, it was that feeling that had once prevented her from having second thoughts on ending her life after her crusade had finished.
She repeated that phrase over and over in her mind during her descent back towards the ground.
By the time her feet hit the floor at the base of the tower, she had managed to ram the memories into a far corner of her mind.
She took a few steps out side of the tower, and let out a startled yelp as she felt the ball of her foot teeter on the edge of an unexpected precipice. Her two companions nearly ran into each other when they jumped forward to her rescue, each grabbing one arm and pulling her back.
She examined the large, deep, hollow shaft in the stone pavement. "Where did that big hole come from?" she sighed exasperatedly, as the adrenaline began to subside.
"I believe it was you," Solomon said with a slight smile. "It was the second time we met, do you not remember?"
Saya crouched down at the edge of the chasm. "Yes, you're right. Diva pushed me out of the tower, and I fell through the floor here."
"Come to think of it, I can think of a reason why Nathan might go down there."
"Why?"
"I once heard that Amshel kept a lab of his own directly beneath Diva's tower. Nathan could have gone there. I cannot imagine why he would, but it is a definite possibility."
"Then we should check it out," said Saya, as she leapt into the chasm, once again, followed closely by her two Chevaliers.
She hit the bottom with a splash, and felt that she was ankle deep in water. The three comrades stood silent and still as their chiropteran eyes began to adjust to what would have been pitch darkness to a human. These passages were clearly once the grand hallways of a majestic castle, but years of neglect and decay had made them appear more like catacombs.
Solomon raised his nose in the air, trying to smell something beyond the filth of the stagnant water. It was then that he caught the scent of old formaldehyde and fresh blood. A chill ran up his spine. It, combined with the damp, moldy smell of the underground ruins, was almost identical to the scent he had taken in along with his last breath as a human.
"This way." He led his cohorts down through the south passage.
After walking several yards, Saya stopped suddenly, and her two Chevaliers turned to her. She stood still for several seconds, peering in an open doorway. The room must have had ground level windows, because a considerable amount of moonlight filled the room, glinting off of several suits of armor, and a varied arsenal of medieval weaponry.
She had been there before. It was in the armory that Solomon had confronted her. She could still see the impish grin on her sister's face as Solomon reluctantly declared that he had no choice but to kill her to protect Diva. Another image flashed in her mind, one she had not thought of in a long time, but nevertheless, it had been burned into her memory. It was the image of Solomon in a blood stained white suit, standing a few paces away on the green outside, watching as Diva prepared to kill her, his expression as serene as ever, albeit a bit more solemn.
To Solomon, her reason for stopping there was no mystery. She had been there before, he remembered that day well. The day he went to the zoo to convert her. It was in the armory that he had reluctantly crossed swords with her.
Even at the time, she was aware that every one of his moves was entirely defensive.
It wasn't long after that when Diva nearly killed her, while Solomon looked on, believing himself to be powerless to stop her at the time.
He had actually prayed. He had stopped believing in God after witnessing the atrocities of World War I, but in that moment, he actually prayed. It was all he felt he could do and whether by divine will or not, she was indeed saved by Haji at the last moment.
He had been captivated by Saya ever since he had met her in Lycee, but he had convinced himself that it was simply a boyish infatuation, that however intense, it was only an attraction of the senses. But it was after seeing her at the zoo that day, he truly couldn't get her out of his head.
At the ball, all that had passed between them was a dance and some small talk, but at the zoo, it was different. In an attempt at fostering peace, he had teased out some of her deepest feelings, desires and inner conflicts, and because of that, he had gotten to know her better in one afternoon, than most people could get to know someone in several years.
She was a chiropteran, but thought and behaved like a human. She was completely devoted to her adopted family, but hell bent on destroying her blood relatives. Those dichotomies had fascinated him, but more than anything he was completely beguiled by the traits she revealed that day. He saw that she was strong, resolute, brave and determined, but at the same time, he could see that she was extremely fragile, that underneath that will of iron was a beautiful spirit that was on the brink of shattering. He wasn't sure why, but somehow, it was her vulnerability that had most captivated him. He saw her frailty and from then on he had wanted to be her source of strength. He had seen her sadness and from then on, wanted to make her smile just as he did in Lycee.
He had realized that it wasn't pity that he was feeling. It was empathy, perhaps the most human of all emotions.
It was then that the word 'love' began to bounce around in his head.
His mind had wandered back to all of these things, and by the time he returned to the present, Saya had already begun walking again.
Solomon took his place in front of his companions, following the increasingly strong and oddly menacing scent, until they arrived at a large, thick and obviously very old oak door that hung slightly ajar, a faint, flickering light shining just behind it. Lying on the floor in front of it was a large, oddly more modern lock, possibly from the twenties or thirties. The lock had been cleanly cut in half, and the now broken cobwebs that had once guarded the edges of the doorframe clearly indicated that that this door had not been opened until very recently.
The rusted hinges could no longer support the weight of the heavy solid oak, so the bottom of the door ground against the stone floor as he pushed it open.