Speech = ``…..´´
Thoughts = … ….
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….A cult? You look like clowns….
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Claire Kagenou was an eleven-year-old girl, born within the Kagenou family….and the sole inheritor of the barony of her parents given that they had not been able to make another child.
A matter that had saddened her slightly and infuriated her mother with the baldy of her father.
She had not really care much about what they started arguing with one another when that sore point was brought from time to time, nor why her mother called out her father for the limpness and impotence that had taken hold of him, much to the embarrassment and consecutively even greater shine of the bald spots of his head.
But she knew some of the basis when her mother had promised her to give her a brother as for her birthday. Which meant that having more than one descendant would not only solidify the position and safety of her household, but also prevent the bloodline from expiring completely if tragedy struck.
She knew that the world outside could be dangerous, but the thought of having someone else to play and speak with rather than the servants and her parents who were most of them time busy doing other things had always mitigated that reality, pushed it out of the way…
Which she thought was pretty normal, she may have a lot of duty's and exigences to uphold, but as a child she was free to pursue any dream she had.
…
She was not mad at her parents for failing to give her what she mostly desired, nor she loathed the role she had to follow as the scion of house Kagenou. She was just...disappointed that things were not as cut and dry like the fairy-tales that her mother used to tell her when she was three years old before she got bored and decided to entrust such task to a maid.
She touched the windowsill...and stared wistfully at the sky.
The wind of morning brushing against her face, playing softly against the raven black strands of her hair, and act that would have been nice had the air not been a little more warm up that she would have wanted. She could also hear some clamor from the outside, cromson eyes peering into the bright fields and then into the main door of her home where she spotted the form of a carriage waiting.
The guards guarding the entrance quickly made their way to open the carriage and led the people from the vehicle into the building. She ignored them, probably more friends of her mother and father..
For some reason they had gotten in their heads to host parties here and then. She did not mind much though, but she would have preferred if she did not have to deal with all the people her mother pushed her to talk with while her father made a fool of himself as expected when a bottle of wine made its way into his hands.
Or perhaps it had to do with the way that viscount looked at her...
She sighed. Walking away from the window and back into her room. Her pyjamas had long been tossed aside over the chair that was settled before the mirror of her room.
Young, a fair skin yet the shadow of the muscles she had started to develop with her training started to be noticed.
Her mother had made at first a fuss whether that would made a mess of her figure when she grew older, but in time she was convinced that some times a lady needs to not depend in a man's strength all the time.
Her fathers opinion was of course, as always….ignored.
``Well, it seems that is going to happen again..I better get ready before they start-´´
Her words died out in her throat, a gasp of pain coming out in their place as something started to burn her in her right hand.
She shifted on her feet, holding the aching hand with her other arm. Clenching her jaw and closing her eyes to a half lid as she did, unknowingly she had taken a few steps back, almost reaching the window-frame.
She did not know what pushed her to do it, but she turned around. Freeing her hand that was failing even then to quell the pain coursing through her hand and look away into the horizon.
Not realizing her eyes had taken a small purple shade or the symbols appearing on her hand.
She could only remain still, dumbstruck and not really believing what her eyes had grown to focus at. The sight of a...
Of a…
A man...? A flying black clothed man...?
She shook her head, that could not be. She blinked a few times.., trying to wipe away whatever dirt had made their way into her eyes
By the time she did and rose her head towards the figure she had spotted there was nowhere to be found. Neither to the left and right or beyond in the blue sky.
It was just gone…
And with it the pain that she had felt too, as if they never happened in the first place.
``How strange…..what was just that?´´
She mumbled, her voice still sounding weak not really sure whether she had just imagined she had said it or not as the breathing in her chest heaved up and down. The speed of her beating heart slowing down to a more manageable pace from the one she had been pushed by surprise.
Had she imagined it? She would normally refuse such idea, but after what she had seen she was a bit more reluctant to.
Still, what was left to explain it if not that? When you are given no may options and most of them where out of the realm of possibility and reason what was left had to be the answer.
Yes, that must probably be it...she was just a bit sleepy since she had been training far into the night, trying to surpass and push her body to her limits.
But such lucid illusions?
Luckily, her thoughts would be have to be postpone when the voice of her mother reached her room through the door.
``Claire, dear... come down and greet our visitors. They have come from a far and you wouldn't want them to wonder where you are, right dear?´´
She sighed, as expected of her mother….
``Right away mum…just getting ready here´´
``You need some help? I can sent some of the-...´´
``No, there is no need...I will be down there in a moment´´
She replied curtly. She heard no response from her mother, but given the way the sound of her footsteps were growing weaker and weaker she must have just accepted her words and left to return to the mess hall.
She leaned against the door with a tired sigh. Looking back at the empty balcony almost by need than any thought. A look of apprehension appeared in her eyes for a few seconds before it was washed away.
Well, whatever it was... it probably wasn't anything serious she told herself. Something that she found herself having to repeat herself two more times before she rose her head with some semblance of confidence.
Perhaps hoping to put this strange and picturesque scene at the back burner of her mind and possibly forgotten for good. Something that she would have appreciated and welcome... had she not looked at her hand when she tried to open the door that led outside her room.
Her eyes fixated on the symbols that had appeared over the skin, firmly imprinted at the back of her hand.
Symbols that she remembered had not been there before.
``What the-what is this!?´´
She muttered with surprise only to stop herself from speaking any more louder and draw unwanted attention, graving her hand and trying to clean it up, thinking that her father or a servant had played a bad prank on her, but no matter how much she tried to clean it up..it just wouldn't bulge.
In the end after a few minutes of fruitless endeavour she gave up.
``Oh well…,shit. This is going to be a problem, I just know it..´´
Unbeknown to her, someone far away was chuckling at those words...
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The kingdom of Midgar was a powerful kingdom, believed to possess some of the most powerful humans in the world, led from time immemorial by the royal family the kingdom grew and expanded its borders. Developing technology and martial power as the community grew and became capable of self-sustainability.
Becoming one of the bastions of a world filled with beasts and other races fighting for their place in the world.
Legends tell that the kingdom once possessed another capital, older and more beautiful than the capital city that many have lived in all their lives, but it was only stories and no one, not even the royal family had ever found the supposed land of origin.
And though over the generations the kingdom has lost some of its lustre with the emergence of rival nations, the rise of crime and the attacks of magical creatures on the roads and lands surrounding the capital. Today the ordinary citizen within the walls of the capital has no need to worry about such things.
No, not all….
The weather was beautiful, with clear skies and sunshine illuminating the soft blue horizon, people strolling through the streets, men chatting with each other while ladies strolled under umbrellas to shelter themselves from the touch of the sun who shone a bit more brightly than other times given the fact that a heat wave was passing through..
The bustle of merchants hawking their wares along with the voices of children wandering the streets, dressed in a multitude of garments and colours combined well with the simple, yet calid tones and forms of the buildings that had been erected through the city.
It may not have held the strength resilience and fortitude feeling of the Velgata empire, or the elegance of the Oriana kingdom, but it held a sensation of familiarity and comfort that even outsiders could come to appreciate.
One that invited to relax and forget the hurries of ones own life...
Save for one…
A dark, towering man that trod through the street, glowing eyes darting from side to the other...not watching at the people per-say...
Though if the common folk were terrified for such terrific visage they did not show signs of it, in fact they strolled past without a worry in the world, though they could not help but shiver a little as a wave of cold brushed against them from nowhere, but quickly dismissed it as nothing that a sporadic brush of cool air from what in others words would have been a very warm day...
They cold not see him nor touch him, only feel a very small part of his presence as they walked by…
The reason why they never collided with him or took notice of him was not because he was invisible, but rather had changed their perception of reality, every time anyone in a radius of a few thousand meters looked towards him they would see merely an empty spot, while another, more silent touch merely convinced them, though without them knowing to not walk and bump on him.
As if he had wrapped around a bubble...
The smell had grown stronger.
He could feel it in the air, in the soil, in the water….
Like the veins around a massive and invisible organ that had grown under the foundations of this civilization, they carried the stench and scent that only he could detect all around the city almost simultaneously.
What was left to do now was follow the stream towards the source, towards that dark, throbbing heart that laid on its centre.
And so he did, ignoring the endless voices of the local residents and the thoughts that plagued their minds.
Only focusing on the matter at hand.
The skies turning black and cold around him, as if a thick curtain of steel had fallen from the heavens and obscured the sun that had been prevalent until then.
Rain slowly starting to fall down all around him…., prompting those who had not been ready to scramble for the safety of their homes or shops until it passed away.
And yet, as the water started to became more heavier and it wiped away the scents of the mundane. He smelled blood.
Fresh blood….
He sprinted, dashing through the street and causing a whirling to follow him, wreaking havoc and tearing asunder chunks of stone from the buildings while glass flew down the street. The cold having turned into a full time blizzard.
The world for anyone else would have become nothing but a blur, yet for him it slowed down as entire streets disappeared from his sight in the blink of an eye, people falling down to the ground by the wind slamming against their guts, taking sharp turns...
And so he reached a dark spot away from sight...
Only when he saw those men clothed with robes like some cultist wannabes, hiding most of their faces with cheap face masks, yet the way they smelled of blood and the darkness dripping from their hearts he could only grin in delight as the corruption brought him gifts.
He would be happy to oblige and return some of that love in kind….
Something that was not shared by the men at the other end of the alleyway as they finally regarded the presence of someone that had not been there a moment ago. Dull eyes flaring up with life as a primal instinct that had been taken away from their minds after the brutal training they had been forced to resurfaced and numbed them by the its suddenness..
He had either unknowingly deactivated his invisibility... or the bloodlust had grown far too large to just be blocked by mere perception warping...
Something that he would have chastised himself for, having it not being by the effect it had on his prey. Most where shivering…, afraid or disturbed. Their blood was freezing inside their veins, their breaths had hitched and became haggard and slow as the very air they drew clawed at their throats...
Yes, such lack of attention did not matter, nothing mattered but the lingering taste of the hunt in his veins. The smell of fear felt good.
And it was about to get better...
He started walking towards them, one of his hands extended and scratching the wall to his left, leaving five, sharp deep marks on the cool surface while the other pulled out the psyche.
The rain growing stronger by the second, the winds howling while lightning struck through the heavens. The storm raging stronger above their heads. The pools of water under his feet now stained with that slick shade of crimson reflecting his visage like an apparition.
``At last...´´
The chains started to heat up, exited by the future prospect of blood..he had barely taken notice of the two men that they had been murdering in the alleyway...nor the only nameless fool without a hood to cover his face who walked forward, calling him out.
``Let it be carnage..´´