A/N: Upon writing this chapter I've managed to win at NaNoWriMo (which also somehow slowed down the writing of previous chapters just to fulfil a set word quota each day). Now it should be back to normal.
Scrya had never been to the library at the House of Yagami before. Following on from his initiation into the Family only a few hours earlier, he had been familiarised with the general routine that the rest of the staff went through every day. The times at which visiting hours were still valid for the mistress, the strict dress code around the house depending on what role you took on, the location of the servant's quarters where he would be sleeping for the night...There was still so much information to take in, especially with Arisa pressurising him to remember so much.
Under Arisa's instructions, Scrya had initally been overseeing the reception area and dealing with any inquiries that came his way. At such a late hour, however, barely anyone glanced in his direction or even stayed in the main entryway for more than five minutes before rushing out into another part of the mansion again. Everyone here was always so busy, it seemed, regardless of their usefulness. That in itself helped make his job pretty easy, but it also served to make him feel virtually invisible and was not a sensation that Scrya was comfortable with. Then again, it was nothing he wasn't used to already.
Within less than an hour afterwards, however, those two mysterious guests had arrived – the short, fiery girl with her red hair in pigtails, followed by the blind girl with brown hair – Hayate, wasn't it? They had insisted on calling him "Yuuno" again, which served only to make Scrya feel strange. Who was this Yuuno person? Was he a popular friend of theirs?
He remembered seeing Arisa's distracted expression when the head of security caught sight of Hayate, watching in the background as she hastily ushered the two newcomers away to the dining room. Soon after that, Scrya had been advised to make himself scarce because Lady Yagami would soon be arriving downstairs, implying that he wouldn't want to be around when she emerged. It wasn't just him, either – the majority of the lesser members of the household seemed quite keen to get out of the mistress' way. Scrya wasn't sure of the exact reasons for this, but he wasn't about to challenge that view. He had heard enough tales about Lady Yagami herself to want to keep himself out of trouble as much as possible, especially on his first day at work.
Arisa had mentioned before that he would be working tomorrow in the library. Scrya vaguely remembered her saying so whilst introducing him to far too many people at breakneck speed, thus leaving him hard-pressed to process half of the information she was feeding into him at the time. He was also curious about the two visitors and how they had seemed to know him by name, so maybe somebody at the library could help him there. At this kind of hour, it didn't look like anyone would be expecting him to do any more work until the next day; he might as well start settling in.
Thus, instead of heading over to the servant's quarters to retire for the night, Scrya found himself standing in the middle of the eastern wing on the first floor. The brass-bound doors of the library were partially open, and he could already sense the crisp smell of countless books and titles before he had even stepped across the threshold.
Gingerly, he tip-toed inside, his fingers probing the surface of his Yagami Bracelet a little self-consciously. That tiny device was keeping him safe from all kinds of harm, and it comforted him to feel it against his own skin.
So many bookshelves, lining up against one another in a static pattern across the entire library. The majority of the tomes seemed rather dusty and barely touched, but as Scrya continued to wander he found that a great number of the academic textbooks had been used numerous times. All the books seemed to range across virtually every topic imaginable, from the theory of magic to social studies, from geography to texts on the political impact of the Harlaown Program, from psychological issues to rulebooks written especially for the House of Yagami itself...
I've never been in a library like this before, Scrya thought. He had ventured deep enough inside that it was beginning to feel like a maze – but in an exciting and adventurous way. Arisa was serious? I'm going to be working in a place like this tomorrow?
Curiously, he perused a few of the titles that caught his eye...The Rise and Fall of the Time-Space Administration Bureau...Assassination Methods & Practical Applications In The Real World...Abstract Elements And Theories of Time Travel: A Discussion...An End To The Dream Of Space Colonisation...Feeders In A Theoretical Cannibalistic Society...
Scrya shook his head. The last one certainly seemed a little bit out of place here. As he turned round to see if there was anyone in charge here, the boy caught sight of a female figure filing away several books at another shelf. She was the first person Scrya had seen here since entering the library. On the other hand, the lateness of the hour could probably explain why there was nobody else around.
"H...hello?" he called out to her. "I'm Scrya. I'm new here, I'm supposed to be working here tomorro - "
Without speaking, the girl turned to him wordlessly and started making gestures and signs with her hands, none of which he could make any sense of. She was wearing a long black dress which trailed behind her, and bore a fine metal collar around her neck. Two short pigtails came down across the sides of her face as she continued to sign.
She can't speak? Scrya thought, trying in vain to understand. What is she trying to tell me?
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," he said painfully. "I'm just looking for - "
The pig-tailed girl shook her head and pointed across to the main path between the bookcases, holding up three fingers in one hand. Three? The number three? What did that mean?
"Three?" he said in confusion, watching her sign. "Th...third? Third on the left? Third on the...okay, third on the left. Thanks."
With his head spinning a little, Scrya hurried off in the direction she had sent him. For a member of Lady Yagami's household, the girl was certainly dressed in a very unique fashion. He had been given very strict instructions on what he could and could not wear whilst working here, and her character puzzled him. Maybe it was just a different environment here.
Third on the left, third path on the left. The space between the shelves was larger and less confined here, leaving ample row for many desks and tables to be slotted in, no doubt for the use of study or private reading. This part of the library received much more illumination from the chandeliers up above, and the books here were well-used and even dog-eared in some cases.
Scrya might have expected to see many more people here, but instead there was just one individual who had taken up the central table. In fact, she had surrounded herself with a mountain of textbooks and reading material on all sides, overflowing to many of the adjacent desks. It was if she was sitting inside a miniature book fort of her own.
Peering closer through the mass of books surrounding the person, half-expecting it to be a small child who had simply decided to build up a protective castle of literature around her...
"Er...hello?" he said, clearing his throat. "I'm looking for whoever's in charge - "
The person inside gave a high-pitched yelp and the top of the book fort plummeted as she hit her head on one side. Several thick volumes and manuscripts cascaded towards the floor, narrowly missing her. For a moment, Scrya feared that she was badly hurt, but then saw the person ease themselves upright again as books collapsed around her, a warm smile brightening their features.
"Hello, dearie!" the woman said cheerily. "How can I help you? Are you here to browse the Library of Yagami? What kind of book are you after, dear?"
It wasn't a little kid at all, but an ageing woman with silver-grey hair and intelligent yellow eyes. Her skin was a little weathered, but the colour was still strong in her cheeks and the look in her eyes was filled with energy and enthusiasm. An old woman? Scrya thought in surprise. Why was she building a book fort?
"I'm Scrya," he said, looking at the silver-haired woman with uncertainty. "I'm, um, new here in the House of Yagami. I was told that I'm going to be working here tomorrow..."
Her entire face lit up at once, wrinkling with happiness as she beamed at him.
"Yes, yes, Scrya!" she exclaimed. "Yes, Arisa did tell me that we would be having a new assistant at the library here. Why, it's so good to meet you, dear!" She extended her hand in a gesture of welcome. "My name is Lideri, and I am the present librarian in residence here. It's really a delight to meet someone like you, Scrya! I've been needing an assistant here to keep the place running for a long time...too long, now..." The old woman sighed, bowing her head as she clutched one book to her chest. "There used to be so many people coming and going through this library, all the time. And now my staff are down to one..."
"Your staff?" Scrya asked, remembering the strangely-dressed girl who had tried to communicate with him via sign language. "Do you mean..."
"Ah, yes, I do have one other assistant here," Lideri said faintly. "But she can't possibly do everything by herself, and the work can become tiring when there's nobody else to help you." She beamed again. "Lovely girl, she is. Sweet as sugar and cute as pie. She might be mute, but communication isn't too difficult when your hearts are open to each other, isn't that right? Oh, Scyra, I'm sure it'll be wonderful once you get started with us." She laid the book down on top of three other volumes on the nearest table and looked up at the boy hopefully. "How are you finding it so far, Scrya? It's not too scary, is it? I know Arisa can be a little pushy sometimes..."
He remembered how Arisa had slammed her hands on the table at the interview and given him the fright of his life before explaining that she was just testing him. Hastily, he forced the memory away.
"I'm managing all right," he said. Scrya was surprised to find himself warming to the ageing librarian. Her personality and attitude were rather infectious, and it was good to be able to properly talk to someone for the first time in a long while. The only real conversation he'd had in the House of Yagami so far was with Arisa, and she was always too busy to talk. "It's only my first day and I don't start work until tomorrow, so I...thought I'd come and see what it's like here."
Lideri clicked her fingers. "Reasonable. Very resourceful of you, dear. It's really not a bad place to be in once you get settled in." Her eyes closed briefly as she felt underneath a trailing lock of her hair. "Oh, my, I'm getting sleepy already. Must be the late hour – can you believe a woman like me, feeling tired at a time like this?"
She laughed, showing off a surprisingly chatty side of her which belied her age. "I'd love to introduce you to the ropes, Scrya, but it really should wait until tomorrow. Why, I have to prepare everything first! Except..." The librarian turned around, lifting her arms up before her. "You're more than welcome to browse the library first if you want to, dearie! Unless you have any nagging doubts or questions that I could help you with? If there is, just ask, and I'd be glad to help you."
The teenage boy paused with several such questions frozen on his lips. If Lideri really was sleepy, he didn't want to hassle her with any unnecessary queries that might prove to be unanswerable by her. He wanted to ask more about Lady Yagami, for example, but would it be a good idea to ask so early on? Maybe he could keep those ones to himself for now, if only to keep from arousing suspicion. On the other hand...
"I do have a few questions," he confessed in a hushed voice. "But they're not exactly about the library, or even anything in the House of Yagami itself..." Scrya scratched his head, unsure how to put it into words. "I want to ask about something more...abstract, if that makes sense? Would you still be able to help, Lideri?"
"Of course," Lideri said, smiling. "This library is a haven of information to all who dwell within the mansion. And though I like to be modest about it...so am I. I don't believe there's many questions out there in the universe which I couldn't answer, Scrya." She laid one hand against her chin thoughtfully. "Unless you're going to ask me one of those difficult ones, like how many stars and planets were destroyed in the wars before Vivio Harlaown's arrival, or why dragons don't exist, or peculiar stuff like why the secret of immortality is so overrated..."
Scrya took a deep breath. He should be able to ask this one, then.
"I'd like to know more about a certain woman," he said. "She came into the House of Yagami less than an hour ago."
The librarian chuckled wryly. "Now, now, dearie. I may have many talents, but if you think you can just pick out a random person out of the whole of Mid-childa and expect me to know everything about them..."
"Her name is Hayate," the sandy-haired boy said shortly.
The change in Lideri's face was dramatic and quite remarkable. Her yellow eyes shone with a mixture of astonishment and burning curiosity; her body leaned forward eagerly in a motion that suggested she had not been privy to this particular gem of information. Almost standing on tip-toe, the librarian came closer to Scrya, grasping his hands keenly.
"Are you saying, Scrya," she whispered hoarsely, "that Hayate has come here at last? Is it truly her?"
"It's what Arisa called her," Scrya mumbled, trying to shake off her hands uneasily. "Yagami-sama invited her to dinner, and everyone downstairs was told to leave the area until they were finished...Lideri, surely somebody must have told you?"
The old woman shook her head. "I am isolated up here amongst my books and my tomes. I only receive news from Arisa or Noriko if it is truly urgent." She squeezed the boy's hands tightly before letting go. "Tell me again. Was it Hayate? Slim, brown hair, blue eyes, sits in a wheelchair..."
Scrya was confused at this. "She wasn't in a wheelchair or anything like that," he said. "But the rest of it sounds a bit like her."
"Of course. Of course!" Lideri clapped her hands together in a joyous exclamation, starting to sound a little bit eccentric. "Time travel, Scrya! A Yagami-sama from another universe would certainly be altered to some extent. It's fantastic! Oh, how I wish that Grylmark had given me more information on the matter."
Grylmark? Time travel? Hearing all this was no good: Scrya just found his head abuzz with even more questions.
"I really don't understand," he said awkwardly. "What's all this about time travel? Could you...could you explain this to me?" Conscious of the late hour, he quickly added, "If it doesn't take up too much of your time."
Fortunately, the librarian didn't seem to mind at all. Perhaps she genuinely did enjoy his company, though Scrya found it doubtful that such a thing was possible around him considering that the two of them had met only ten minutes ago. Maybe she really was that kind of person, delighting in imparting her own knowledge to every soul who entered her library. A teacher-student kind of relationship, if you will, but on a more general scale.
"Grylmark first visited this house some time ago," Lideri explained. "My memory is hazy on the matter – oh, growing old has its downsides, of course – but I remember that a matter of months have passed since then. He sought an audience with Lady Yagami herself, though I do not know why – perhaps he was here for business purposes only, like many of the mistress' acquaintances. Surprisingly enough, however, Yagami-sama allowed him to meet her. I am not sure how much you know of Yagami-sama, but she is notoriously prejudiced against all men, regardless of their background." She gave a slight smile. "She doesn't seem to mind having Wyvern around, however.
"Now, I do not know what passed between Grylmark herself. That isn't what interested me." Lideri's yellow eyes brightened underneath the chandeliers of the library, seemingly lost in the past as she recounted the past. "What did interest me was that Grylmark was not from our world at all! No HX chip, no evidence of ever joining a Mid-childan House in the past, and upon further investigation with Wyvern it turned out that there was no record of the man's birth upon the entire planet. For a man to grow as old as he was, without leaving any trace of where he had come from..." The librarian shook her head in wonder and began picking up single books off the desks, filing them away into the shelves. "Now really, this would point to Grylmark being classified as an alien, but as you may have guessed, Scrya, not everything is as it seems..."
The sandy-haired boy sat down on one of the free chairs, resting his hands against the spines of the towers of books around him. Though he should have been sceptical to some extent, he had to admit that he was quite intrigued by the whole story. "You mentioned time travel," he reminded her.
"Yes," the librarian said excitedly. "Yes, this was something that Grylmark chose to impart to Yagami-sama herself. He claimed that he had travelled through time and space to this world from another plane of existence entirely! I could not believe his words at first, but soon the scientific evidence began to point to conclusions which were truly extraordinary. He demonstrated skills and techniques that none of us had ever seen before, nor could ever hope to imitate. He could create time portals almost out of nothing and disappear like that as if it were second nature to him. He even had an uncanny knowledge about what the House of Yagami was all about, despite never having stepped foot in here before...
"I began to realise that he was telling the truth, Scrya. Can you imagine what kind of impact that had on me? The existence of time travel, the ability to go back and forth between dimensional and even pre-existing universes..." Lideri interlocked her fingers with each other, breathing harder as she became more intensely wrapped up in what she was saying. "Scrya, I have devoted my entire life to the pursuit of knowledge, for whatever purpose humanity may intend for it. The knowledge of time travel would open up so many new doors for us! Countless possibilities, countless worlds out there just waiting to be explored! Did you know that Vivio Harlaown herself was rumoured to have such time-travelling abilities? Now that she is no longer here, if someone like myself were able to harness such skills again...surely, a new dream would soon be realised..."
The librarian seemed almost obsessed with the idea of time travel, Scrya thought. He could see why, however. The notion of time travel gripped his heart as well, just to know that there was a man who had used such abilities to journey here from another world and another universe...With an effort, he pushed the excitement away from him. He wasn't an academic like Lideri.
"So what this have to do with Hayate?" he said, focusing on his initial question. "Who is Hayate? Is she connected with time travel?"
"Ah, I'm glad you asked me that, Scrya!" Lideri exclaimed, leaning her hands against the edge of the table. "You see, Grylmark shared some knowledge of the basic elements of time travel with me personally once he saw how interested I was in the subject. In my humble opinion, I think we have a lot in common." She sighed fondly before getting back to the subject. "In a parallel universe, Mid-childa could exist in very different circumstances. For example, a Mid-childa which wasn't constantly besieged by wars as we were, whose inhabitants were able to live in peace without the threat of total annihilation...
"And if you think about how the world could be different, then you realise that people can also be different too. For everyone one of us, there is another version of us out there in an alternate universe. Billions of them, in fact, for every universe that could possibly exist! But take heed here – they will probably not be the same as you. Another version of you in another universe, living a completely different life...even you and I, Scrya. There could be another Lideri and another Scrya under very different circumstances."
Another me? Scrya thought in alarm. For some reason, the concept frightened him more than anything else. But I don't want there to be another Scrya out there. I want it to be me alone. Why do there have to be more?
And yet, the thought of other alternate universes out there with millions of Scrya's who hadn't suffered at the hands of the Harlaown Program, who hadn't watched all their loved ones fade away and gradually disappear, but had been able to live a long and fruitful life and enrol into an academic career just like he had started doing before everything had started going wrong...The feeling was strangely comforting.
What kind of life could I be living out there? Free from the restraints of the Harlaown Program, free to live my own life...would I be pursuing an academic career just like I'd dreamed of? Even at school, I always had a keen interest in archaeology. It's too late now for me to think of going back into it, but maybe, somewhere out there...another Scrya could be fulfilling that dream...
"You asked about Hayate," the librarian ventured. "You will not know this, but Hayate was what Yagami-sama used to be known as. However, there were...complications when she was a young girl. An unfortunate string of events transpired which turned her into the woman she is today. I'm afraid that even I would not dare to speak of them, for fear of how the mistress would react." Lideri's eyes were sad for a moment, but she didn't let it bother her and quickly moved on. "What's important is that she threw away the name she was born with. She discarded the name Hayate, and became known instead as Lady Yagami.
"And so, Scrya, believe me when I say that I am very interested in the news you have brought me tonight. A woman comes into our household, bearing almost exactly the same appearance as Yagami-sama, minus the wheelchair. She calls herself the name that Yagami-sama used to be known as."
The sandy-haired boy nodded, understanding at last. "You're saying that the Hayate who is visiting us...is a version of Yagami-sama from another universe?"
Lideri grinned. "Very good. Of course, I believe that Lady Yagami has also worked this out. She is usually very ill-tempered towards any strangers or new guests in her home. For her to actually invite Hayate to dinner suggests that she, too, wants to know more about her." The old woman sighed. "Sadly, of course, there was that mess with Exoria before as well, but I don't suppose you know too much about that, dearie."
"Exoria?" Scrya frowned, not recognising the name.
"Yes., Exoria." Lideri had a distant, troubled look in her soft eyes as she began to recount memories from many years ago. "She used to be one of the most high-ranking members of the House of Yagami, up there with Arisa and Suzuka...before Lady Yagami sent her away. I cannot know the full details of what happened between Exoria and the mistress, but I can guess. You see, Scrya..." The librarian rubbed at her eyes, blinking away sleep. "A woman like our Yagami-sama has suffered great pain across the years, far more than most people have had to endure across their entire lifetime. And yet she has to remain in control of the Family, without breaking down altogether. It's the curse which is bestowed upon her as our mistress." The sadness had come back fully into Lideri's face again. "Why, she would have to pass on her pain to somebody else, someone who was close to her as her own blood, someone who would sacrifice nearly everything just to support her..."
She opened her eyes wide, staring at the boy hard for several seconds. Personally, Scrya hadn't the faintest idea what she was trying to tell him. He didn't know who Exoria was or what these "sacrifices" were...
"But I don't suppose you understand what I mean," the old woman said with a shrug. "Don't worry about it, dear. It's not anything that you'll be involved in. In fact, you should head back to the servant's quarters, Scrya - it's starting to get really late now."
She yawned openly, getting up sleepily to file away more of the books. "Look at me, rambling on about time travel and everything for hours...what am I like? Why, I do believe the dinner between Lady Yagami and her two guests has already started now. It's a shame that I haven't been invited along...I would really cherish the opportunity to find out even more about time travel. In fact, I don't believe Yagami-sama has invited anyone to dinner for a very long time, not since the lady from the House of Testarossa..."
The feast had long since been abandoned now that there was nobody to share it with. With the plates of food now stone-cold and lumped over each other unattractively like piles of rubbish, it would not prove too difficult to dispose of. But it was such a waste, Linith thought sadly. This didn't have to happen. Maybe they could force themselves to eat some of it, but vegetables at that temperature would taste so disgusting inside her mouth and make her want to retch...
A vicious crack appeared down the middle of the table, and the black-haired servant flinched as the entire slab was overturned. Mounds of food were flung to the floor, scattering fruit and broken dishes in all directions at her feet. She closed her eyes quickly, not wishing to see the chaos unfolding before her. Though she had seen this coming, it wasn't something that she wanted to experience in any form, regardless of her allegiance to the House of Testarossa...
Slow, harsh footsteps sounded in front of her, a boot smashing down onto the remains of the table with great force.
"Where," said a woman's voice, barely-suppressed through a tight veil wrapped around her face, "is Fate?"
Her heel came down through the thick wood and shattered it into the floor. With her hair tied up in a strained bun at the back of her head, and the dark veil covering the majority of her face, her only visible features above the neck were the blood-red eyes that glared intently through the dimly-lit hall. The clothes which covered the woman's body were red and violet in colour, seemingly shifting between a blend of metal and magic one second, and then becoming ghostly and incorporeal in the next. If you blinked at the wrong moment, you would probably miss it.
The current mistress of the House of Testarossa. Linith didn't need to raise her head to know that. She didn't want to, either; she didn't want to look into this baleful eyes and see only cruelty and sadism staring back up at her...
"My lady, Fate is no longer here," Linith whispered. "She...she's gone."
The veiled woman reached down towards the end of the table as her clothes turned into metal again. Curved blades extended from her wrist automatically as she turned her arm a certain way, twitching and rotating systematically. She ignored the mechanics as a powerful raw energy flowered out of her fingertips, turning the air around her vile and bitter in appearance from the magical field alone. Her finger stabbed downwards through the wood savagely; with a brief shudder, the end of the table was transformed into splinters without much of a sound at all.
Her clothes turned into a shimmer of silver and white for a moment as the woman jerked her head up, desperation blazing within her features. Two thin letters blazed outwards on the back of her right hand: I.C.
"Where is she?" she thundered.
Linith swallowed, smoothing down the sides of her uniform to calm herself. There were only three members who belonged to the entirety of the House of Testarossa, and she was unfortunate to be one of them. The second member was probably dead by now, and as for the third...well, she was standing right in front of her now. Not for the first time, the servant wondered if Lady Yagami would be willing to take her on instead.
"I don't know, my lady," she said in a small voice. "My lady, please, it wasn't my fault...I called after her, but she was so intent on leaving - "
"Fate? Leave?" The veiled woman's voice softened, but the dangerousness in her tone had not ebbed at all. "She can't leave. She can't leave me, not after the lifetime I waited for her to come back. I visited her grave every single day. I expelled every living member of this House just so I could be alone with her again." Her voice began to increase in volume, becoming tighter and more agitated by every passing second. "I gave her food, a bed, living comforts, invited her down to dinner...and she wants to leave? Where is she going? Where does she think she is going?" The woman's face hardened as her gaze settled fiercely upon the servant. "Where could my beloved Fate possibly be going which is better than what I can give to her?!"
"I, I think..." Linith bowed her head and backed away a few steps. "This is just my honest opinion, my lady, but..."
"What is it?" the mistress snapped angrily, blades hissing up across the length of her shoulders. "What have I done wrong here? Didn't my letter to her send the impact of my message across? Didn't the wedding dress in the wardrobe send some kind of clue? I would do anything for her, Linith. Tell me, Linith!" Her voice descended into a harsh lashing, demanding more. "Didn't I fulfil all of her needs here? What did I do wrong?"
Linith fervently wished there was a curtain for her to hide behind. There wasn't, so she elected to crawl into the shadows instead.
"My lady, she seemed very...frightened by your behaviour," she stammered. "I think she may have seen what you did to the bedroom - "
The veiled woman shook her head in disgust. "So I smashed the place up a bit. Why wouldn't I react like that? I went to check up on her, and she wasn't there. And if she isn't where I want her, then she's somewhere where I don't want her!"
"You also locked her in, my lady," Linith said meekly. "You deprived her of freedom, and if she really did go out into the garden...she may not ever want to come back..."
"I forbid her to go out there," the mistress of the House of Testarossa hissed. "I did so for a very good reason. If she came into contact with the Cult of Neopocalypticon out there...no, there would be too many misunderstandings." She swore under her breath and closed her eyes momentarily, clenching one hand into a hard fist as the metal blades encircled her wrist once more. "Fate probably thinks that that was her statue out there in the garden." Her blood-red eyes snapped open and she lapsed into muttering, almost sounding like she was talking to herself. "Yes, maybe I shouldn't have smashed her room up, but didn't I give her magical device back to her to make up for it? That's what relationships are like, you make mistakes, and then you make up again for it afterwards..."
One gloved hand went to the chair with Fate's name engraved on its head, tracing out the thin letters with her fingers, one by one. A choked whisper escaped her throat, dark curses springing from her lips. In the next instant, the woman had raised the chair above her head and was smashing it onto the ground, splitting it down the middle as crimson energy exploded from her hands. She let out an empty scream, hitting it again and again even after only firewood was left. The letters of Fate's name were left crumbled and torn, gradually turning into ash from the intense heat of her magic.
"Kill," she breathed, her chest rising up and down quickly. "Kill her, it says. But not Fate, not her, not the one I live to see again. What does it mean, then? Kill everyone else? I tried that, didn't I? Didn't I, Linith? The Labinnacs would have such a feast here if I let them in. They say it changes you, alters you, rips you apart, but they were wrong. They were so terribly, absurdly, ignorantly, ashamedly wrong. Murder only does that to the souls of the innocents. But I was like that ever since I was born, wasn't I? Wasn't I?"
The veiled woman grabbed the largest chair then, the one with Alicia's name on it, and proceeded to smash it to pieces as well. The metal embedded into the material creaked and groaned before her vicious onslaught, and then melted away as her magic consumed it all.
"It's not my fault, it's not my fault," she whispered, her hands shaking. "It's always everyone else. You, Linith, Arf..."
She blinked as the world in front of her went fuzzy. For a single second, the woman felt the whole of reality shift in front of her, changing to one which was exactly the same...only without Linith or anyone else in it, leaving her alone...Quickly, she clenched her gloved hand against her lips until she drew blood. The pain gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction as the world snapped back. Linith was still there. She was still there.
"My lady," the black-haired servant said quietly, hopefully withdrawing from the shadows, "please don't blame yourself for this. Fate will return here again, I promise you. She will have no choice..."
The mistress of the House of Testarossa clawed around for something to hold onto. She'd already destroyed everything around her which could possibly give her any support at all. Deprived of all other options, she stalked forward and grabbed hold of Linith's shoulders. The blades extended from her wrists and cut into the other girl's arms, causing her to shriek out in pain, but the veiled woman didn't even seem to notice.
"Tomorrow," she snarled. "Fate must come back to me tomorrow. I have waited a long, long time for her. I'm not going to wait another second after that."
"To-tomorrow?" Linith managed between agonised gasps, as blood streamed down from her arms. "But...my lady, please...I can't possibly...there's not enough time to..." The blades dug in and she fought back another cry of pain. "Please, my lady, you're hurting me - "
The veiled woman released her with one hand, rage mounting in her red eyes as she drew back her arm again to hit her. The powerful energy surged up to her elbow, her emotions lending her strength...
But before she could land the fatal blow, the woman's vision began to turn blurry again so that the world shifted out of focus. With a cry of frustration, she lunged forward blindly even as the form of Limith in front of her shimmered and disappeared completely. The wave of red magic raced out of her control and slammed into the bare wall with an impact which shook the entire house, creating a sizeable hole which was several metres in diameter.
The mistress hit the wall again as her head began to clear. The world soon came back again, but Linith did not.
"Get her back, Linith," she whispered into the silent hall, not caring if anyone could hear her. "If you don't get Fate back...I will. She's mine. She was always, always mine. I have already made all the preparations for her, all the memories that we will make together, and if any of you think that you can allow her to be taken from me..."
Gradually, her temper began to die down again. With nobody around her to receive the brunt of her anger, the storm inside her heart was instead directed inwards. The veiled woman slumped to the floor, a smile contorted across her face as she slowly dragged her hands down the bruised walls, scratching at the surface mildly. She couldn't rely on anyone, she knew. Fate was hers. She could track her down herself and bring her back again for the reunion she had been dreaming of for decades. It could be done within twenty four hours – twelve, even.
Connections, the woman thought. The Bureau weren't around to obstruct her anymore; she could do anything she liked. The executors would stay out of her way, mindful of the reputation of the House of Testarossa, but that didn't mean that they were bidden to assist her. She would probably have to resort to drastic measures, and certainly a number of people would die in the process. But finding Fate again was worth any sacrifice: the killing of others was nothing compared to what she was prepared to give up.
So many girls in this house. I surrounded myself with them, laughing and playing with them as we passed the time so happily. They were all the same, because they all reminded me of Fate. They looked like her, acted like her, even behaved like her, as if she really was alive in my arms again. And then, gradually over the years...they began to leave me, one by one. Why? I didn't mean to hurt them. Couldn't they see that? But I began to realise, too. I realised that they weren't Fate. They were just copies, more clones. In the end, they all died anyway. Isn't that the way of the world? Watching your loved ones die around you until you find adequate replacements?
"I still have one friend left," the mistress of the House of Testarossa said out loud, not addressing anyone in particular, although the violent thoughts continued to whirl around her head in a thunderstorm of words, lashing out at everything at once. "Yagami...she won't turn me away. She has her methods for finding people who don't want to be found, just like I do..."
Without Linith in the vicinity, she found it slightly disorientating to move herself towards the staircase. It wasn't that her body was physically incapable of doing so, but that her heart wanted someone to be in the same room when she did so. Despite this, the veiled woman soon found herself adjusting to the change. She had lived a long time alone, after all. There were sacrifices that had to be made for such isolation.
The phone was upstairs. She didn't know if it was still connected. Hadn't she destroyed it a few months ago, when Fate's last clone had been killed in a fit of anger? Had Linith replaced the phone now? Well, she would find out soon enough. If necessary, she was prepared to go right over to see Yagami in person and get the information herself.
"Fate," the mistress of the House of Testarossa with a smile, crossing over the last step. "You're coming back to me."
A/N: Since I'm doing the events of the story in chronological order, that leaves just Hayate's part for the "first day" in the alternate Mid-childa. That's what will mainly be covered in the next chapter.