Slowly she walked through the city. Everything looked strange to her. The buildings, the carriages, even the clothes everybody was wearing. Watching some of the girls who were passing her by, she couldn't help but wonder, how their parents could let them walk around like that. It was one thing seeing women wear pants. She herself and her sister had sometimes worn pants on some of their travels. But girls walking around half naked, showing a lot of cleavage AND half of their behind, not covering their legs at all and not to mention the makeup?
In her time, had she ever walked around like that, she would have been burned alive as a witch, trying to seduce all the noble and faithful men. Well, being burned as a witch she was, but for completely different reasons.
How much time had passed, since she had gone to that cursed realm? How could humanity change so much? This world she had gotten into, it was confusing as hell. Quite literally as confusing as the hell she had been imprisoned in for all this time.
Sure, back in the other realm she got to see glimpses of how the world was changing. But since she tried to stay away from all the other creatures down there, her life had been one of solitude. Seemingly endless solitude. On some day she even thought she was going insane. Having one vision after the other, memories of all the lives passed. Lives of her and her sister, that were doomed to end in misery. Cursed, that's what they were. Cursed by a resentful and hateful man.
But somehow she held on, only one thought on her mind, keeping her as close to sanity as possible. Ginger, she had to live. She had to get at least one single shot at a normal life.
And oh the disappointment she felt, the way her heart was crushed when she finally found her. All she did, everything she had sacrificed to safe her sister, and for what? From the way she was crying, the pain written all over her face it nearly seemed, like her beloved sister was even more miserable without her, that she ever was when they were together.
The loss of a child. Brigitte could remember most of their lives but never has any of them had a child. They did suffer a lot, so many different tragedies, but this was never one of them. Well, it was now.
For a moment she stopped and wondered if her sister could remember any of their previous lives. But then again, she never had been able too. It has always been her, who had the visions, while it was always Ginger who had to be saved. That was their fate, from the moment they were born.
And even if Ginger had been able to remember her, they didn't exactly look the same. Usually they always did. Ginger had her name for a reason, for she always had beautiful red locks on her head, while her own hair was dark brown or raven black. Now she was standing in front of a window, glancing at her own reflection.
Bee barely even recognized herself, with her own hair bright red, her eyes so dark with circles around them, as though she hadn't slept in a very long time. And she was wearing clothes she had taken from a stranger. The jacket was definitely too big for her small frame. But it didn't matter. Any clothes were better than the white dress she wore when coming here. She already felt out of place as it was, the last thing she wanted was people constantly staring at her for looking odd. Better to start fitting in now than later.
But stared at she was. As Bee turned away from the window, there was a man standing not far from her, his gaze running her up and down. He didn't even stop when their eyes met. Oh how she wished for her sister to be here now. It would be fun watching her go all crazy, insulting him or even beating him up for just the simple notion of starring. Ginger had always been like that, doing her best to protect Brigitte, while she herself was the one who needed protection.
He started moving towards her and was about to say something, when she stopped him with a simple "Don't!" He looked at her confused but then again started grinning, as he took another step. Too bad for him, she was faster. So fast in fact, that one moment she was standing in front of him and the next she wasn't. Instead she grabbed his head from behind, her palm already slashed with a knife she had stolen before. And without any witnesses around, the man dropped to the floor, while Brigitte took in everything.
If she wanted to fit in this world, she needed to know as much as possible about it. What better way than to absorb someone elses knowledge?
Understanding this world a little better, she moved away from the still body on the ground. Now she just had to figure out, how to best approach her sister. If she were anything like in her previous lives, it was going to be hard getting inside her head and showing her the truth. But it was necessary for them to finally break that damned curse and get a chance to live normally for once. Or maybe even never again. Maybe she was tired of living and dying and repeating everything. Maybe she just wanted it to end. To finally rest in peace, if that even was possible somehow.
Elizabeth Kepler wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Vera was being quite cooperative on this matter. Of course she knew that woman would do anything for the order. Vera had always been like that. But lately, with everything concerning these wolves, she seemed different. No, she didn't just seem different. Vera had changed for sure, but to what degree and in which direction, Elizabeth wasn't sure.
When she gave her that magical notebook, she didn't actually think Vera would keep her in the loop. What she expected was for that stubborn woman to do her own thing, the lonely warrior type of thing. Going on a hunch, not informing her on things, just fighting every battle on her own, as she always did.
But to her surprise she got that message, telling her to come here. And she did. Sitting there with her old friend, talking about everything. It kind of felt like old times. She knew that what has become of their friendship was partly her own fault. She could have tried to give her some space, to do her thing. Maybe some things would have gone differently. But then again, what vera didn't seem to understand was, that she was merely a spokesman of the council. The decisions were not her own to make but a whole group of people.
And most of those council members were old fashioned, from the old guard. They were used to how things were handled in the old days. it was tru, a lot had changed over the past years. From the moment Edward Coventry became Grand Magus and then again things changed a little more with Vera in that position.
There already were quite some changes in this chapter, with her being temple magus. But all those changes Vera was actually working towards... Bitsy wasn't sure if those were really possible. And if they were, it would take time. Probably much more than a life time.
Elizabeth had just gotten into her car, ready to leave, when something came back to her mind. A picture, or more like a face she had seen in one of her dreams. It had her quite confused back when it had happened and she wanted to talk to her old friend about it. How could she have forgotten to tell her, just a moment ago?
Immediately she got our of her car again and walked back to Veras house, but when she rang the doorbell, the other woman didn't answer. Instead Kepler realized, that the door was not entirely closed. She must have accidentally left it open, so when Vera didn't show up she decided to go inside on her own, only to hear some retching sounds coming from the bathroom.
"Vera? Are you ok?" She asked, clear concern in her voice. But the other woman didn't answer. Instead there was another heaving sound, so Elizabeth decided to enter the bathroom, finding her friend crouched down on the floor, next to the toilet. She was pale as a ghost, shaking almost violently and her face covered in sweat. Tearfilled eyes looking up at her, almost pleading to... To do what exactly? Did she want help? Or would she rather be left alone? Actually it was both, Kepler was sure of that. Vera was always like that, wanting help but stubborn enough not to ask for it.
Immediately Elizabeth sat down next to her, holding her hand up against the other womans forehead. "God, you're burning up. Can you... Do you think you can stand up? You should see a doctor." But Vera only shook her head. Wether it was an answer to her question or her denial of needing a doctor, Kepler didn't know.
There was no chance for her to ask the reason though, because suddenly Vera threw her head above the toilet again, heaving, with nothing coming out of her. Had she eaten anything before? Another swell of memories threatened to overwhelm her, as she remembered times in which Vera had been focused on her studies so hard, that she would forget to eat, sometimes even for days.
In a clear moment of thought she grabbed a towel, drenched it with cold water from the sink and layed it in Veras neck.
After the violent heaving had stopped and even the trembles had lessened, Kepler tried one more time pulling Vera up with her. To her surprise it worked. "So, off to bed now." She helped her, nearly carried her towards her bed, where Kepler decided to stay a little longer. She decided to ask Vera about that specific dream some other time. What the woman needed right now was sleep, lots of liquid and maybe even medication. "I need to go, if I want to be able to finish at least the tinyest part of the work you usually do"
But as she tried to move from the bed, the other woman grabbed her shirt. "Please don't go. I don't wanna be alone right now." Words that Bitsy never thought she would ever hear from the other woman. "I have to, but, wait..." Quickly she pulled out a knife from her pocked and drew some blood from her hand. "Here, this can lesson your symptoms for now." She quickly whispered a couple words and they actually helped. Vera felt a little better, less confused and needy. "I'll come back later today to check up on you."
Her reason to return forgotten again, the only thing on her mind was the way Vera had looked on that bathroom floor, so fragile and small. She had never seen the woman that scared and somehow that frightened Bitsy as well. Why was she this sick? And why didn't she cast en incantation to help with the symptoms herself?
No, she couldn't let her mind go down that spiral right now. She had quite some work to do and only when that was done would she worry again. So that was what she did. Saying good bye one more time and then leaving for the complicated job of handling more then three actual jobs, all in one day. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything." And that was the first time, that Vera Stone had willingly let Elizabeth Kepler take control over the Belgrave Chapter, even if it was for just one or two days.