V. Howling
Cattleya was having one crazy dream. Her little sister´s peach shaped face was in front of her. Her eyes were wide and round, and her breathing was uneven. Uneven, because her fingers were digging into the soft flesh of her thin neck, clenching her fingers into fists. Only part of her mind understood how crazy this was. She had gone to sleep last night, and she didn´t have any recollection of waking up, much less of whatever had lead to this, so I couldn´t possibly be anything else but a dream. And she loved Louise, her little Louise. She loved her more that her other sister, more that her mother, that her father, that her own life itself, because she remind her how herself, because seeing her succeed, overcome her magical difficulties, would be the only thing which would vindicate her situation, being stuck in a bed most of the time, incapable of casting a few spells in quick succession without risking coughing out blood. So, she just couldn´t be about to kill her.
Yet here she was, digging and digging her fingers into her sister´s neck, cutting off her air without mercy even though Louise was begging her with her eyes. Even though that if she didn´t stop, her beloved little sister would die. And there was some part of her mind which enjoyed it that feeling of power over her, a considerable part. Don´t worry Louise, she thought, unaware that she never said it on loud. I won´t do it.
But her hands never left her neck and, in time, even her little sister´s weak struggles stopped. Her body went limp, her mouth was left hanging open, bits of saliva and blood dripping from it. Cattleya was innocent, in a way, despite of the Rule Of Steel, despite living in such a household, since she had never saw a dead person. But she had a lots of animals, and had see a few of them die. That vacant look of hers was the same one that her dead pets had. Dead. She was dead. She had just killed her. And the dead didn´t come back. Cattleya tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Not even a choking noise. She didn´t cry, either.
She struggled to wake up. She couldn´t. All good that did was making her fade out into another dream. In this dream, she was walking between the bushes of a labyrinth. There was no sound but her breathing, the beating of her heart and the wind rustling the bushes. The sky was overcast, so she couldn´t be sure if this was during the day or the night. She only knew where she was going, the center of the labyrinth. She didn´t know how to get there, though. But she had a friend, a special friend, and that friend had marked the way with...
(Moon Balloons)
with... with a balloon that was somehow lighted from within. There was one in each intersection, and, at its side, there was arrow pointing the way she had to take. And it was the right path, of course, because she trusted her friend, her special friend. It wouldn´t never lead her astray. She stepped up the pace, even though she was already breathing unevenly. She soon reached the center, which was beyond an open metal gate. In there, there was altar. Over it rested the body of a jester, a tall man dressed in tattered bright yellow clothing, bald but for a few red tugs of hair. His face was covered in make up, with a big red smile painted over his mouth. And a knife through his chest.
Bob... that name came to her thoughts, but it faded away just as quickly, like a bubble of water. Whoever that person was, he was clearly dead. He couldn´t possible be alive, with all the blood that had come out of the wound. Cattleya gasped, and slapped her hands over her mouth. Her vision blurred with tears of sadness, or fear or maybe both. The blood looked fresh-no, it was fresh- so the culprit couldn't be too far away. It could be literally around the corner, listening, watching her, waiting for its chance while grasping another knife. She looked around frantically, sweating bullets, the corpse of the clown all but forgotten.
She froze. A strange smacking sound had just ended the silence. A footstep, maybe, or the creaking of a branch. She turned towards where she though she had heard the noise, and saw it. The clown was standing up in the altar, with one bloodstained hand over the equally bloodstained knife. It borough back the knife. The sound it made as it went through the flesh once again almost made her puke. It threw the knife aside, and stood up. It went spinning through the floor, and banished inside a nearby bush.
She had to move. She had to, or that thing would catch up to her, but her feet seemed glued to the floor. She just couldn´t move. It dragged itself around, its footsteps uneven, looking like it could fall over at any moment. Blood was for the corner of its mouth, and down its chin slowly. Its mouth was half open, letting in view only rotten teeth. In a vague way, all of it was fascinating. She couldn´t bring herself to look away.
She noticed it only just then, and maybe it was nothing but her imagination, but its footsteps sounded steps. Not like footsteps, but more like... like hits. It stopped. It was now close enough that she could felt its musty breath on her face. She bit back a scream, and turned around, her paralysis broken. There. It was right there in front of her, somehow. She quickly stepped back, tripped on her own feet and feel on her butt. It closed in on her, put its hand around her throat... and tightened its grip.
Cattleya waked up. She felt sick to her stomach, she could even taste the bile on her mouth, and her her vision was spinning constantly. She extended her arms, and gripped the sides of her bed, trying to get some semblance of balance. She breathed in and out, to get herself under control. Little by little, the spinning started to slow down and then stopped completely. She opened her eyes, and saw her surroundings light up by a fain but clear white light. For a moment, she feared she hadn´t waked up still, that it was that light
(the light of the Moon Balloons)
that had guided her way through that labyrinth. It took her a moment to become aware that she was wrong, that what was illuminated her bedroom was just the light drifting through the window. She breathed a sigh of relief, despite herself. Of course it was nothing. Dreams were dreams, and even nightmares were left behind when the dreamer waked up. She had nothing to fear from such things. She should fear the tangible things, that mother never really loved any of them, that Louise was breaking down... any of that, but not a simple, nonsensical nightmare whose details were already fading from her mind.
A knock. There was a knock at the door. She blinked, thinking for a moment that she had imagined it. It didn´t make sense that somebody would knock at her door at this hour. Father wouldn´t have arrived yet, and she was bad enough to need the assistance of the servants to prepared herself. Ah, that´s right. Bob. She had told Bob yesterday to meet her at her room, didn´t see? She stood up. The covers sliding off her.
"Wait just a moment, I have to dress." she said, and got out of bed. She shivered a little when her bare feet touched the cold, hard floor.
"Okay." Bob answered, with that sing-song tone of his.
She stopped in front of her closet, opened and shrugged out of her rather skimpy nighty, leaving herself just in a simply set of pink underwear. Had she locked the door, last night? She couldn´t honestly remember. Oh, well. She grabbed a long, flowing green dress and dressed herself with it. She closed it. Now that she looked at it, in the reflection of the glass of the closet, her hair was a mess, a truly unseemly sight. She clucked her tongue, went to the bathroom and combed her hair. Then, she went to the door and opened it. She was a little surprised to see that Bob had again put on his clown make up, but not that much. He had only took it off yesterday because Louse had asked him too, after all.
"Good morning." Bob said, as he stepped inside her room. She closed the door behind him. Bob looked around disinterestedly, stopped in the middle, put his back against the wall and crossed his arms. "This is a nice room. Really, its very nice. The bed looks as soft as my nose. But I can´t help but wonder why you have called me here."
"I..." she began, trying to collect her thoughts into something coherent. What she had said yesterday had been a mere impulse-nearly a whim, really-so she wasn´t sure what to say now. She approached one of the cages of her room, which held mostly birds. She opened the cage, and let the bird drop down on her finger. She lifted her hand slightly, so that she was at eye level with the bird. "I... This bird right here, was born and it grew here. It doesn´t know anything beyond the walls of this house. Even if I were to throw it away, it would come back pecking at our door. Not because it likes its life, or out any will of its own. Simply because there is nothing else for it. Do you... Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Louise, right?"
"Yeah." she chuckled, somewhat bitterly. "I suppose it was obvious. Bob, to be honest, I can´t help but think about that all the time. About Louise´s life. I wonder if she has any real love for any of us, even myself. I mean... in the end, she likes me so much because I acted like a decent person towards her instead of throwing her mistakes to her face, or openly talking about how a disappointment she is like the rest of my family. Do I deserve such a love, at all? No. I don´t think so. And Louise doesn´t deserve to rot away inside this household. She was such a young, bring little thing before... I still remember... when she was little, Louise made a drawing of mother and showed it to her. It sucked, of course, she was juch a child, but those things shouldn´t even matter because she was doing out of love. And mother took the drawing, and ripped it in two right before her very eyes."
"Oh my..."
"Mother told Louise that, if she had time for such things, she should be working to better herself. Louise ran away crying, and mother went back to her food, like nothing had happened. I saw it all, every last moment. I had fight with mother, on that day. It made me understand the truth, that all mother really cares about is her own damn pride." she sucked in a breath. Her eyes stung with unseen tears. "Please... I see how she looks at you. Is the same way she looks at me, after all. She doesn´t have anybody but me, so you need to keep on supporting her too. Because... Because I am not gonna last long. This... this disease... ah, well. Let´s just say I won´t live to see my little Louise grow into a woman, and leave it at that."
She broke down, at that moment. She let the bird go, closed her eyes, and braced herself. She didn´t even care that Bob was in the room with her, hearing her shrill, piercing sobs. She just couldn´t handle any of it anymore. She grew vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps, and then she felt hands upon her shoulders. She was gently turned around, and then embraced. She gave a great, gasping shock and wrapped her arms around Bob.
Slam. She opened her eyes, startled and saw mother on the doorway, fully garbed in her knight´s armor, her sword-wand raised. The slight embarrassment she felt, as well as the fear of her reaction, banished the moment she saw the wand. What was she doing? She couldn´t possibly be about to... Wind rose, pushing her away from Bod, lifting her slightly from the ground and dropping her right into the bed. From her new angle, she saw mother aim her wand at Bob, muttering a spell. And he standing there, that large grin never leaving his face, without even blinking.
"Mother, don´t...!" Too late. Cutting winds, sharper that any sword, hit Bob all at the same time. He span around, hit the wall and slumped down, knocking a cage on his way. There were large and small cuts all over his body, and a gaping hole on his chest. He was practically covered from head to toe with blood. She screamed. She couldn´t stop herself. She screamed piercingly, mindlessly, feeling like her conciseness was breaking apart. A nightmare. It had to be a nightmare. This couldn´t be happening.
"Calm down, Cattleya."
"Calm down?! You just killed him, you... you bitch! You can´t just kill people when you like!" she screamed. She surprised even herself by those words, but she couldn´t stop. No. More like, she wouldn´t stop.
"Quit your yapping, and listen. You don´t understand? Those killings... The third son of Gramont, the heir of the Montmorency family, and Katie Underwood. All of that happened after my daughter summoned her familiar. A strange event by itself, but is not enough to condemn anybody. I know. But I confirmed my suspicious when I saw how he acted at dinner. The makeup didn´t brother me, I just wanted to see how he reacted. He refused, Cattleya. He didn´t fear the consequences at all. So, I decided to act soon. If I was right, good. If I was wrong, then Louise could still try the summoning again. Nothing would be lost."
"Nothing?! We are talking about a human being´s life?!" she couldn´t believe it. She couldn´t believe mother had just killed Bob, and right in front of her too, but, most of all, she couldn´t believe her words. Bob, a killer? Ridiculous.
"That he died so easily doesn´t absolve him, at all. And even if he was innocent... he was just a commoner. More important people that him have been sacrificed for the sake of the many. As a Valliere, you should understand that."
A croaking laugh suddenly broke the silence. Cattleya moved her head towards the source of the noise and stared, incredulously, at how Bob´s shattered mandible was moving up and down, with blood in between. Nothing could have possibly survived such a hit, but there he was, alive. Barely, but alive. Was this the power of the familiar runes?
And then Bob´s wounds started to close before her very eyes, knitting back together. Bob didn´t even seem to feel it. In a moment, he was fine. The only traces that something happened in this room was the knocked down cage, and the panicked bird inside, chirping constantly. Cattleya didn´t understand how this was possible, even with the power of the familiar runes, but it didn´t matter. It was wonderful.
"Run away, Cattleya." mother said.
"Uh, why?"
"Don´t you get it yet? The familiar summoning ritual summons only creatures; that´s an undeniably fact. This thing is no different."
"Are you saying he is not human? Thats..." she trailed off. It was far for impossible. She had heard about shape sifters, after all.
"Shut up and run already!"
"No." Bob said. "She will not run away. She is mine. Like Louise, you, everybody. Just cattle for me to break."
"What..." his words froze her to the core. She understood the words, but she didn´t want to. He had been supporting Louise like nobody else had, and had smiled at her, listened to her and didn´t dismiss the things she said nor her concerns. For Bob Gray to say that, then...
"We see about that." mother said, calmly and launched a wind spear towards him. It went cleanly through it, hit the wall and made a hole in it. The sound of glass shattering reverberated through the room. Most cages were knocked down by the raging wind and the explosion, and the animals ran through the hole, towards the wild. Towards any safe place. She wished she could do the same as them. Mother clucked her tongue. There was something like real fear in her eyes, as she watched what should have been a fatal wound heal itself in a few moments. "Move, Cattleya."
It was like her words broke her paralysis. She scrambled to get off the bed, fell down on her hands and knees, hurriedly got to her feet and ran towards the door, her heart pounding in her chest out of fear and her lack of physical capability. She got out of the room, stumbled and supported herself against the wall. The sounds of the battle behind her seemed far away, like another world. She tried to get her breath under control, straightened herself and broke into a run again. When she disappeared behind the next corner, she heard her mother scream.
She didn´t turn back, not even once.
Karin frowned. At least, Cattleya was already gone. It was one less thing to worry about. But none of that decreased her current problems. The wind spears created by the Cutting Tornado spell weren´t doing anything to it, whatever it really was. It was a Triangle Level spell, so such a thing should have easily reduced that thing into a pulp. The only hope she had of winning this fight, as things were going, was that whatever caused its regeneration wasn´t limitless. It was far for an improbable assumption, but with all her years of experience, in the real battlefield and in the battlefield of politics, she knew better that to leave anything to chance.
She should back down, lead it to an open area, and use the Heavy Wind spell on it. It would surely destroy it; it hadn´t failed her before, even against a whole army. But her pride keep her stuck on her spot. It wasn´t like she refused to see the differences in their power. No, not something stupid like that. It was just that thing was walking slowly towards him, her attacks casually going through it, what little damage they caused healing back it a second. It was playing with her, and that vexed her, that vexed her a lot. So it had to die here.
"What the hell are you?" she let out her thoughts, her insecurity, despite herself.
"I don´t have a name, nor a face. I exist since before the beginning of the macroverse, of time itself, so such concepts are meaningless to me." Preposterous. Did it really expected her to believe such a thing? "But since you asked so nicely, you may call me It. And what I am? Easy. Your god. The god of this macroverse."
"Shut up." she prepared to cast another spell, and then felt another hang grasp her wand, with so much force that it nearly made her drop it. It was there, right in front of her. Impossible. She hadn´t feel a build up of magical energy, yet here it was. Shit, there was no time to think about this! She tried to get out of its grip, but it was just to strong. The Heavy Wind was her only chance now, but she couldn´t do it. If she did, she would bring the house down and her whole family with it. Damn, dammit. She clenched her free hand into a fist, and hit it right in the head. Its head moved to the side, and it sounded really loud, but its grip didn´t slacked in the slightest.
"You think you were so good, right? That you would end it all here? Well, that was impossible even if you actually fought properly, since you don´t know the truth, the only thing that could possible do me any harm. Yes, a way to hurt me exist, dear. But is far too late for you now. Die a dog´s death. Is punishment time, Karin." It said, and let out another horrible, croaking laugh. "Look. At. Me."
She moved his head up to hold his gaze, not wanting to but suddenly finding herself helpless. Something cracked inside her head, and she saw darkness, endless, expansive darkness that seemed to come from somewhere outside her body, outside this very reality. Karin screamed. That was what she was left, in the end. Not the satisfaction of taking out her killer, nor a noble death, not even some last words. All she had was her own scream ringing in her ears, as her soul was took out, twisted, torn apart, assimilated and Karin Desiree de La Valliere ceased to exist.