Thank you to my reviewer for making this chapter happen :P You rock!
Now, with that, let us see just what this Alistar knows about what's going on, shall we?
It occurred to me that I completely forgot to mention which Universe this is in. Well, if the mention of the Campania is any indication, this is happening chiefly in the Manga-verse. However, I will probably mention things from the anime from time to time, as a measure of the nature of this fic.
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CH II
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Alistar lead Ciel and Sebastian inside a small pub – Ciel didn't even want to know how the demon was able to walk through the back door, since it was usually only regular customers and the like who were afforded such things. The pub was tiny, but warmly lit, with aged, red-wood walls and a distinctive scent of stale tabacco in the air beneath a heady scent of frying food – a favorite of drunkards. There were not many people around at present, but Ciel could tell that it was a popular place at the right time of day.
"Alright, you've got me in a corner. Ask away what you will, human." Alistar said in a nearly dismissive manner, looking entirely too comfortable sitting down. Those nails must have hurt him worse than he let on.
"I wouldn't say a corner," Ciel smirked. "But I do have you someplace convenient." Ciel drew from his coat a pile of photographs and documents he'd carried here for precisely this purpose. "I am sure you are aware of the series of crucifixions that occurred here just a few days ago?"
"Ah, yes. I do remember hearing about them." He conceded, pawing through the photos. "I went on an investigation of my own once I did, of course." Ciel gave him a strange look. "After all, I know as well as the next that summoning incantations on a dead body rarely mean good things."
"Reviving the dead and whatnot." Ciel filled in.
"Yes, precisely. Though as a doctor, I have my own reasons for searching the bodies."
"You – you searched the bodies? Without a warrant?" Ciel nearly shouted, completely incredulous.
"Hush, now –" Alistar shushed him with an outstretched hand. "And I did have a warrant as a medical practitioner, I'll have you know." The pale man said in a nearly offended tone.
Sebastian shifted beside the Earl, a sign he wished to speak. "Seems like a convenient thing to have these days." he said sarcastically. "In any event, since you reached the bodies before we did –"
"You wish to know what I've found?" Alistar cut off. It would have been rude, had Ciel not been accustomed to such affronts.
"Yes, that would be rather helpful."
"Very well, then." Alistar conceded, his eyes closing in a passive manner. When they opened again, he spoke. "I could find nothing particularly odd about them, aside from the sigil burned into their flesh. The only thing that could be remarked upon was a faint odour of sulphur – a thing which could hardly be considered surprising, given as the bodies were decaying. Additionally, since demons are often conjured with these rituals, rather than human souls, it's hardly worth a mention that there were faint traces of demon energy around the bodies. The only thing this confirms, in your case, is that these sigils are, in fact, effective. Maybe not to their intended purpose, but effective nonetheless."
"I see," Ciel replied, resting his gloved hand on his chin, pondering. "But what purpose would bringing back the dead have? From what I can guess, even if a person's soul does come back, I doubt it would be in one piece." Alistar regarded the young lord in a sort of muted surprise, a smirk coming onto his long, pale face.
"That you are," Alistar affirmed, a bit gleefully. "Once a soul has passed on, it can not come back through whichever gate it might've gone through without suffering a most greuling sort of torment. Human souls reincarnate, see – ripping a soul from it's place in it's stage of reincarnation causes the soul to start all over again once, and if, it returns." Alistar explained far too casually for Ciel to assume a demon ought, if the expression of mild alarm on Sebastian's face was any indication. "Oh? Had you not explained his circumstances to him yet?" Alistar addressed Sebastian's concerned expression. The demon frowned.
"No, I quite told him the fate which awaited him upon signing a contract with me. However, I am of the mind that there are things he is better not knowing – for the sake of his sanity." Sebastian glanced at Ciel then, a cautious sort of expression on his face.
"You fear far too much, brother." Brother? "I am as certain as the air is stagnant that he would be able to handle the truth. Not my fault you ilk are so fond of telling lies and half-truths."
"Are you not the same? You're a demon, aren't you?" Ciel said suddenly, almost as if defending his butler.
" I live here in the human world for a good reason. Gehenna's gates are closed to me – I was banished from there, and ne'er shall I be able to go back." Alistar said, fiddling with a wine glass nearby him. Ciel's brows furrowed, not quite understanding. Sebastian sighed in a dramatic fashion.
"It is one of many names for the world I come from," He explained, his frown deepening.
"I see." Ciel turned back to Alistar, but was interrupted before he could inquire anything.
"How, exactly, did you manage to be banished?" Sebastian asked the other demon incredulously. Alistar smiled softly, though a bitter expression crossed his face.
"I am not like the others." He said simply. "A white, winged demon? How well do you suppose that went on?" Sebastian's expression became more understanding. "Furthermore, I can not control my appearance as other demons can. I can conceal my wings, and remotely change a few other things; but I can do nothing to alter my colour, and further can not completely disguise other features." He indicated with his hand to his pointed ears. "This is not something I can control, no matter the training I receive. I am far older than many demons, yet still I can not handle this seemingly simple task – not for lack of want, but because my unusual biology simply does not permit me to do so." Alistar explained, looking to Sebastian as if imploring silently for him to believe him. It was such a peculiar expression, and the occurrence of the conversation so oddly ordinary for what they were, that Ciel was nearly taken aback. "Still," Alistar continued. "Because of this small slight, I have never been regarded as...particularly valuable, in the eyes of those to whom it matters." A shadow of something that looked almost like sadness passed across the demon's vision, and again Ciel, watching on, was struck by the display. Truly, he hadn't been lying when he said he was not like other demons, for Ciel could never recall seeing his own servant display such features; then again, he was just one demon. "I also am not possessing of a mindset that was deduced as being constructive. So, I was sent here, and the gate closed and locked forever behind me." Sebastian looked...sympathetic? "I see." The butler said, head nodding in understanding.
"But that is hardly of interest to yourselves." Alistar, seeming to realise he'd strayed off topic, brought it back on. "Forgive me. I am normally not so vocal; I can't say what's become of me. Perhaps that lunatic reaper has given me his wagging tongue without my awareness."
"Think nothing of it." Ciel reassured, somehow moved to feel pity for the creature. "Now, have you any ideas of who might be behind this? After all, you were found in the same sort of position."
"Ah, but mine was a coincidental accident. I am confident it was merely the local church following with the trend, that I might disappear with the other bodies when I'd died." He said, fiddling once more with the glass, though Ciel could not recall when he'd stopped.
"And how, exactly, did you wind up on that cross?" Ciel asked, genuinely curious besides.
"Ah, yes – I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. See, though I need not to sleep, I find it most useful for storing up energy I otherwise have no need of using at the time. In order that I might accomplish this, I rather mistakenly fell asleep beneath a church pew." Alistar smiled. "And should you be unaware of it, it is terribly unwise to wake a sleeping demon, for often a demon's facade will fade once they are asleep – which is why so few dare to try it, in this realm especially."
"So why did you?"
"Generally I can get away with it, when the odd human finds me resting. After all, I have feathered wings, which are just as pale as I am."
"They mistake you for an angel. How ironic." The butler remarked.
"Indeed." He smiled in a macabre fashion, flashing terrible fangs, which also were unhidden, to the young Earl. "But it has saved my skin a few times."
"Why, then, didn't it work this time?" Alistar's smile only widened mischievously.
"Alas, we all wake up in a foul mood sometimes, do we not?" Ciel's face went wan when he caught onto the demon's meaning.
"Did you...?"
"No. Just as you are hardly the type I'd enjoy eating, neither were any of them. I had no sensible reason to kill them, either. After all, they could do no real harm to me – or, so it was until they put those bloody nails in me." He examined his wrist with a frown then. Ciel daren't ask what he did prefer, only grateful for the time he wasn't on the menu.
They finished up the questions with a few more, though at that point Ciel knew it was pointless to keep asking. Clearly he wasn't of much help to the investigation, though he was certainly an interesting character besides.
"Well, if there's nothing more you can tell us," Ciel announced, standing. His rump was quite stiff, and the pub mostly empty, signalling that he'd been there far longer than he'd of intended. "I am afraid I have other things to attend." Alistar nodded, standing up with him. The action must have pained him, for he grimaced but only for a second, and his weight on his left leg faltered, causing him to stagger upright.
"Are you quite able to make it back on your own? To wherever it is that you live?" Ciel asked, more out of courtesy than concern, for he knew that demons were, generally, quite adept at healing themselves.
"Ordinarily, I would say yes – however," He clutched his side suddenly, letting out a weak hiss at some pain found there. "I don't think I shall be going back up the mountain for a while yet."
"Up the mountain?" Ciel parroted.
"Yes – see, my home, if you will, was torn apart long ago." He explained, still holding onto the stitch in his side. "I live in the forests some ways from here, up in the highlands. I came down as a...matter of necessity." He glanced between Ciel and Sebastian, and the younger got the sense that his butler understood better than he did, which was all well, since Ciel would much rather not dwell upon such thoughts.
"You live in the forest?" Sebastian inquired as if surprised.
"I don't much fancy company. I've been alone for most my life, and am not well-to-do in human crowds, for though I have lived among humans for centuries now, I am never quite sure how they will respond to me, what with my appearance being what it is." He looked at Ciel. "And what with the way those pesty pastors treated me, I am sure you would understand my caution." Ciel nodded, understanding.
"I see." He stood there a moment, a thought catching him off his wit. Sebastian looked down at him with concern after a moment.
"My Lord?"
"I am likely to regret this..." Ciel muttered, sighing. The demon before them may prove useful in other ways, he told himself. A doctor that was a demon? How often did one come upon that? And since he was always becoming ill, and Sebastian was able to learn things the way he did...
"You would, should you desire it, be welcome to come home with us." He offered. "at least until which time your wounds are healed." Sebastian immediately turned an alarmed and incredulous gaze upon his master, a tinge of ire laden within his chestnut coloured gaze.
"You will say nothing of it." Ciel directed his words to his butler with only his voice, knowing that the demon would likely not appreciate having to share his territory.
"But, young –"
"What did I just say?" Ciel turned on him with an authoritative tone, and the black-clad demon shut right up with an annoyed click of his teeth, his jaw setting hard in wishful defiance.
"Flattered as I am that a human would offer to keep house with an untamed demon," Alistar said with a strange kind of smirk. "I don't believe your butler would be too keen on the idea. Though I'm far from want to hurt you, it is in the nature of our kind to be a bit on the bad side." That strange accent of his, so subtle, became a fraction thicker as he said this.
"You have no idea how well I know what you mean." Ciel glanced at his brooding – for really, there was no other way to describe the look upon his brow just then – servant from the corner of his eye.
A long pause, thick with heavy thoughts and scales of decision making, ensued. "Alright, I'll be with you, as I sense some other purpose behind inviting me besides British hospitality," Alistar said, coming to stand beside the Earl smoothly. "However, I make one request." Butler and Earl exchanged wary glances.
"And what might that be?"
"That I am permitted to sleep, depending on the length of my stay, at some time. It need not be every day, should you wish it, but at least once every so often I need a full day in which I am permitted to rest undisturbed." Ciel smiled, glad in a way it wasn't anything more grave.
"That should work just fine." He said, gathering his coat about him. "Now then, let us be off."
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Once Alistar came into the mansion, Ciel had the mind that the demon quite regretted it, for he had been not moments through the threshold than the Phantomhive servants were upon him as a swarm of bees about honey.
"Who's this?" Finnian asked, disregarding their guest's personal space as he was often apt to do. Ciel could not conceal his amusement when the demon reeled from the childish boy, his expression entirely uncertain for a moment. He regained his composure swiftly, however, and addressed the hovering servants with Sebastian-worthy ease.
"My name is Alistar. I am, for the time, seeking a...refuge, of sorts, within the Phantomhive home. I was injured in an accident, see, and am unable to take my journey home at present, so your Lord kindly offered to let me stay until which time I am more physically capable. This should not take long – no more than a business week, at most, depending on the resources available to me." Alistar made a sidelong glance at Ciel. "But I do hope that you shall treat me kindly in my stay, that I might reciprocate the actions." Ciel did not particularly like the way he said that last bit, but had faith his servants would be of no trouble there.
"Of course, Sir! We always try to be courteous to guests." Finnian, typically oblivious to the undercurrent in the former statement, encouraged. Baldroy followed his lead with a particularly charming smile.
"I promise ya, you'll be as comfortable as ya can be while yer here." Alistar smiled in a strangely genuine way at them, bowing politely.
"Thank you for your kindness. Now, if it is not of too much trouble," Alistar turned an imploring gaze to Sebastian. "Might I be able to get some kind of bandaging for my wounds? They are not bleeding any more, but I fear they will reopen if I move about much more."
"Of course. Come with me." Sebastian assented, leading the other demon up the stairs. Ciel watched with a curious and somewhat concerned expression when Alistar seemed to hesitate at the foot of them, peering up at the top as though the task of climbing them would be daunting.
"Coming?" Sebastian uttered, his tone again too familiar for Ciel's liking.
"Yes. Quite." Alistar began up the steps, and as he did so Ciel got an impression as to why he might have been hesitating, for he had a noticeable limp ascending the stairs, and as a result did so in a far slower fashion than the young Lord was certain he was generally able when in good condition.
"Poor fellow. Looks like he was beat up good, whatever happened to 'im." Baldroy remarked, standing beside his master. "I sure hope he heals up okay. Five days? That's 'ow long a business week is – you sure he'll be okay in that time?"
"Well, he did say he was a doctor." Ciel replied casually. From his periphery, he seen Mey-rin bloom red.
"Doctor?" She inquired, he voice betraying her obvious attraction to their new guest.
"You three are to leave him alone until he recovers. Understood?" Ciel ordered, ascending the stairs as well.
"Yes, Sir!" Came the combined voices.
"Good. Now go back to doing your jobs."
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"My. I suppose you weren't kidding when you said they knew what they were doing. I don't believe I've ever seen a human wound a demon quite as you are." Sebastian remarked as he lead Alistar to a guest room, bandages in hand.
"Clearly you've not had many encounters with the Vatican."
"The Vatican?"
"Yes. Persistent bastards. They've gotten quite serious about combatting demons." Alistar began conversationally, but now his voice grew graver. "The humans are getting smart. They're learning more quickly than even I anticipated how to go about wounding, or even killing, demons such as us."
"Killing?" Sebastian inquired, and it didn't take him saying so for Alistar to know he didn't take him seriously. "I've never heard of a human being able to kill a demon of our calibre. Not on their own."
"No. Not alone." Alistar amended, a bit put off that he was being mocked. "That's where they've gotten smart about it. One ant is hardly worth any concern to a viper." Alistar said. "But a whole swarm of them can kill even the most stubborn of serpents." Sebastian's light mood faltered just a moment as the words sunk into him. Continuing on in a much less cheery silence, the butler halted before a pale whitish door.
"Your room, Sir."
"I already told you to drop the formalities. They make me dreadfully uneasy." Sebastian regarded their guest with mild surprise.
"And why is that, if I may ask?" Silence met him in reply.
"Assist me with the bandages, and perhaps you shall surmise that for yourself." Genuine surprise adorned the butler's face as he approached a bit warily. Injured demons were just like injured animals, after all. He might have been unusually willing to bear his wounds to himself, Sebastian thought, but that did not make him any more predictable – nor any less dangerous, should he feel the slightest bit threatened by Sebastian's presence at any point during the procedure.
"Very well." Sebastian knelt before their guest, who's discomfort was apparent, but not unexpected. Demons like them typically kept to themselves, for the most part, and like the felines the butler so adored, often went out on their own when in pain or dying. It was a difficult instinct to suppress – he ought to know – but to see this level of trust, even between siblings as they were, was unusual to him.
"I shall undo my own dressings. Perhaps a few of your questions might be answered then." Sebastian leaned back on his haunches, curious and also concerned. What precisely did he mean by that?
Alistar gathered the gold buttons of his coat, undoing them one by one. The swirling golden patterns trailing the edges of his garment glistened in the shallow candle-light, the white fabric throwing grey shadows as it fell from his lean shoulders. His under-shirt was a classic white, but also translucent, reflecting the pale, but still somehow warm colours of his skin through the thin material. It was not until this piece, thinly separating his bare skin from the demon's sight, was removed, did Sebastian come to understand what Alistar had meant.
Littering his skin were most unusual things to happen upon a demon's skin, for they often healed so quickly...those wounds must have been agonizing, Sebastian thought, gazing upon the myriad of light shadows that bounced from the other's skin, revealing scars from repeated lacerations. There were maybe a handful adorning his chest and abdomen – but as the demon turned to place his coat further back on the bed, he revealed his back to the light, whereupon Sebastian noticed more, deeper scars, which had become so overlapping that they seemed to weave a pattern upon the other demon's back.
"What happened to you?" Sebastian asked, out of both awe and pity. He'd seen demons with scars – he had some of his own, to be frank – but none like that.
"Our father was displeased with me." Alistar said simply. "I was no son to him. Not worthy of being a Prince, he instead demand I serve those who were." Sebastian did not miss the bitterness in his voice, and could not blame him just then. "They were not always so kind to me. Demons are such hypocrites." Sebastian was taken aback as his guest said this, not because it wasn't true, but because it was one of those truths very few dared to call out on. "They claim to hate humans, yet they are just like them." Feeling moderately stung, the butler wisely kept his comments to himself. This was no time for his pride to be taking a front seat.
"I can not say I completely agree." Sebastian uttered simply. "Though I suppose if we weren't, we would not be able to blend in so well." He admitted begrudgingly.
"Many other demons share your opinion – and I do not blame you for that." Alistar said coolly, gazing out the window. "You are raised with the thought that humans are less than you are." Sebastian frowned, not sure how much he was enjoying this conversation. "But...I suppose that is largely why I was banished from Gehenna. From Hell." Alistar paused, his expression becoming something in the way of saddened, though it was a sobering kind of sorrow. "Because unlike you, I do not share that frame of mind."
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WHOO! Another chapter done! Again, THANK YOU to my reviewer for making this happen. :)
Also, just to note, because it is unlikely you would find this information on your own:
The name "Alistar" is a variant of, of course, "Alester" or "Alistair"; consequently, it has the same meaning. (lit. "Defender of the people") It is also a fun play on words, because as it happens, there's a kind of demon known as an "Alastor", a demon of vengeance and justice, and one which reconciles people who are at odds when it is summoned. Not very scary sounding, is it? The term alastor was also once used as an insult the way "bastard" is today.
"You little alastor!"
SO yes. Do bear that in mind as we continue. :)
Once again, I must say, things get updated faster if I get feedback. ;P Until next time, Aufweidersehen!