Awakening of the Soul - 2
It's been awhile, I know. Sorry about that, but I had to get the plot straight. I've also created a one-shot with Rigaldo's backstory (my version of it anyway) called, First Sunset, which is relevant to this story. And if you've read it before you'll recognize some of the names in this chapter and the one following it; though it's not necessary to have read it to understand what's happening here. Further down the line for this series I'll create a companion piece, probably another one-shot; you'll have to wait to see what it's going to be about though ;)
Her boots let out a dull clang as she walked on the stone path, growing closer to a town she could see just over the ridge, but her eyes weren't focused on what was in front of her.
Miria's mind was hardly concerned with yoma and the few that would soon be dead once she reached her destination and completed her job. No, she was focusing back on that day, when she had met the scholar, trying to piece together who he was; just how he knew about that village, why he had done those... things to her. Though, he had done quite a bit of talking he had never spoken about himself. He hadn't even given her his name when she did think to ask. He had just said,
"It's not important."
No, not his own name, but he had mentioned one... Sister Crina. A person of the church. If she could find that person, then maybe she could figure out just who that man was. Beyond his occupation as a scholar that is.
Her gaze focused back onto the town, searching the skyline until she found what she was looking for; a cross standing above the rest of the buildings, clearly marking the location of the church for all in the town that wished to pray. She could start there, right after she was done with her current job. If she was lucky they would have records on the current brothers and -much more importantly - sisters of the faith, scattered throughout the town and villages.
Miria reached for her sword, having no intention of delaying her job any longer and rushed forward.
The land blurred around her as her eyes shifted to gold, muscles straining against the cloth as her yoma power surged through her. With each step her feet cracked the stone beneath her as she ran towards the town, reaching out with her yoki to pinpoint the yoma within.
Seconds after crossing the walls surrounding the city she swung her blade in an arc, blood flying through the air when she struck her target, hitting stone and onlookers alike. Screams filled the air as a man's body appeared to be cut in two so suddenly, the perpetrator only a blur; seen only for a second - if that - and then gone the next.
She took one step forward, spinning on her toes to launch herself through a side alley and into a neighboring street to create another spray of purple blood shortly after. More screams followed and those from the first 'murder' scene were now shouting in confusion as they probably took a better look at the man's body, to realize he had been a yoma disguised as that man.
The crowd around the second scene would soon follow that formula.
Miria turned, eyes stopping on a building as she felt a burst of yoki energy from beyond it. The last yoma had just come out of his disguise.
She gathered her own yoki energy, sending it to her feet just before she jumped over the building, blade raised above her, eyes narrowed and centered in on the yoki energy of the yoma. Her blade came crashing down onto the stone path, a pool of blood staining the ground where a limb from the yoma now laid.
His last remaining arm came at her even as the yoma screamed in pain and rage, hurling insults at her kind as if it would stop his own impending demise. With a swing of her blade the stump of his wrist crashed into her chest, the yoma's hand now laying next to his detached arm. Miria glanced down as the purple blood from his stump soaked into the cloth of her uniform, staining the white fabric. She could feel the warm liquid through the thin barrier, making the cloth stick to her own skin.
She raised her gaze to see the yoma staring at her, horrified at how fast his limbs had become amputated. With a flick of her wrist she cut his expression in half, her blade sliding clean through his skull, his face frozen in that one last moment before death.
Miria slashed her blade through the air to rid it of the purple liquid that had been running down the metal after her most recent kill.
One. Two. Three.
She checked the amount of yoma she had killed with those she had sensed. It was the same; her job here was finished. Miria slid her blade into a slot in the back of her armor, letting her limbs loosen, the fabric no longer stretched thin over her muscle. Her eyes no longer the color of gold she walked away from the dead yoma and through the twisting streets, gaze never leaving the cross that stood alone against the sky.
Miria stopped at the door of the church, pushing it open after a moment and stepping inside the house of worship.
A few faces turned to her, surprised gasps making the other half dozen occupants turn to look at her. At least she wasn't interrupting a sermon then, these people were just here for their own personal reasons, not a public gathering.
The priest standing at the podium was the first to speak, clearly surprised to see one of her kind in a place like this. "You're the one that was hired to kill those yoma."
"Yes." Miria confirmed, walking down the aisle to stop just a few feet from the priest. She didn't want to give the people here fuel to spread rumors, let them say whatever they want besides the truth of the matter. "I came here to ask a favor of you, if it's not too much trouble." She inclined her head as she spoke, indicating her wish to talk elsewhere.
"If I can help in anyway, I will." The priest assured her, motioning with a hand for her to follow him as he led her from the main room and into a hallway, entering a room that must be where he planned events for the church. "What can I do for you?" He didn't bother taking a seat, but she could see her presence here bothered him.
His hands were trembling, probably the reason why he was now busying them by opening a drawer and absently going through the papers within.
She drew her gaze away to look directly into his eyes. "I'm seeking a sister of your order, Sister Crina. Have you heard the name before?"
His hands stopped moving when she spoke, blinking for a moment. She was about to ask the question again when he shook his head, clearly drawing himself out of some state of terror at being looked at so directly by a Claymore. "Sister Crina, you said?" She nodded her head. "Do you know how her name is spelled?"
Miria hesitated, as the priest was already grabbing a quill and some paper. She wasn't sure how the name was spelled, but she figured it was safer to assume it was spelled exactly as it sounded. "C-r-i-n-a."
She listened to the scratching of his quill that followed, glancing down at the paper. It looked right to her, but it still left her uncertain that she would find anything. It was such a small piece of information. What if the name didn't lead her to anything significant?
"Hmm, I've seen this name somewhere before. I have some records in the back if you have the time to go through them with me." He looked like he wanted her to say no, but at the same time he seemed confused by the name in front of him.
"I have the time," Miria told him, assuring the man that his fears had just been confirmed.
His adam's apple bobbed when he gulped, but the priest nodded his head a second later. "Right this way then." He took the paper with him as he exited the room, murmuring to a local sister to go and check on those in the front room before moving further down the hall. Miria shadowed his every step as he used a key to open a room in the back, scurrying inside like a mouse and towards the back, where the layer of dust was thickest.
Miria frowned at this, but moved into the room anyway. "Shouldn't you be looking at more recent records?"
"No, no," he murmured in reply, running a thumb over the bindings of papers that had been threaded together with what appeared to be yarn. "My memory isn't too bad even for my age, and I recall seeing this name in the back when I had been tasked with keeping the place clean in my earlier days. Our recent records aren't completely up-to-date with some of these yoma attacks, but if there is another sister with this name out there your best bet would be to go to Rabona-" he stopped mid-sentence, finger freezing on the stack of papers they were currently pressed against. "I'm sorry for even mentioning their directory. I forgot Claymores aren't allowed in the Holy City."
"It's fine."
At her words he seemed to gather his courage once more, thumbing through the records before pulling one from the shelf. "Right here." He opened the booklet, licking his thumb before flickering through the pages to stop and point at the name written in small hand-written text.
Si ter Crina. Fi st stat on d in Librum. Mo ed to Dh a j .
Miria leaned over to look at it, glancing from the priest's earlier spelling and the one on the page. They were the same, but... it couldn't be right. There was visible wear on the page from the elements, some words and letters completely faded from records; even so it was short like many other surrounding it. There was no significance to this person who...
Her eyes widened.
Who had died nearly two hundred and sixteen years ago, at the age of fifty something - according to the records. This couldn't be right. That scholar couldn't be referring to this woman when he had spoken the name. There was nothing here to imply she was a historical figure and he had said the name like he was familiar with it; familiar with the person that held it. He couldn't have known this woman.
"Have you seen a different spelling of the name before?"
"Urm." The priest tapped at his chin, before picking up a quill, dipping the dull tip into a ink well and writing on the paper he had brought with him. It took a few minutes before he stopped scrawling on the page completely, staring down at the handful of incarnations of the name he had come up with.
Miria read them out loud, but they sounded... wrong. No, she was certain she had gotten the spelling correct. So why... how could he have possibly known this woman? It was the only hint she had to that scholar's whereabouts, his name.
She pointed at the city in the records that Sister Crina had been moved to. "What's the name of this city? Do you know if it still exists today? And do you have records that state what happened to Librum? I can't make sense of the letters in the third paragraph pertaining to Sister Crina."
"I don't know about Librum, but the city she was last stationed at was called, Dhaaljk. It's spelled, d-h-a-a-l-j-k. I have some recent records about those stationed there as I'm sure they have records about our own people here. Our church tries to keep every branch up-to-date. Rabona is the only city with a complete collection since the yoma have never taken it down. As I'm sure you know, sometimes we lose whole towns to the threat of yoma. So all branches of the church keep records in case this happens. We don't want to lose our history again, much was destroyed in the past by yoma. I don't believe even Rabona has records extending beyond three hundred years."
Ah, the timeline I didn't mention before. I find it difficult to believe the Organization has only been on the island for almost a hundred years or so like most fics seem to tell. My head canon is that Dae and some other members of the Organization extended their lives through experimentation or the lifespans of those on the mainland are longer than those on the island. Like the Dragon-Kin likely are since the yoma parasite originally came from one of their "Awakened" forms, and Claymores stop aging once the yoma flesh is inside them, they just grow to a point. Which puts them coming to the island in this series at roughly a little over two hundred and a half years (269-278, pick a number). And the Era of Men was likely short due to their inevitable Awakening, so it's safe to say it would have lasted for a maximum of thirty(-odd) years, which is the number I'm using here. (Riglado would have Awakened near the end of this era, closely followed by Isley in a few months, which would have ended it since he was the last male Claymore to Awaken; supposedly to kill the other ones) So that's the explanation for that.
If you like the fic please leave a review to let me know.