Speech = ``...´´
Thoughts = [... ]
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It had been a few weeks already since the day Rose had left their side…., the more he thought about it, the more it felt like yesterday since the young princess had taken her departure back to her family.
He could still remember the way her lips had tried to speak out without words the intent that had remained veiled to all but her. The way her heart throbbed and stopped for a moment, the way her eyes glimmered with bright and kind thoughts plagued with a hint of selfishness...
Hmmm, surprisingly….the little girl had fallen in his good graces, despite the odds against her.
The last time a human princess had ever got close to him, she had tried to open his skull with a hammer.
He almost snorted at the memory…, those really were the times, werent they? And yet, bitterness started to crawl down his back at the realization that he no longer could remember that woman's face at all.
Not the way of her cheekbones, the color of her hair, only the eyes...those glowing ponds of raw, unhinged distaste and madness were all that had remained unchanged.
He shook his head, he really did not know why thinking about Rose would make a connection with the ghosts of his past.
Right now, he had far more pressing matters than to ponder what was already and truly dead.
He cocked his head to the side, fake eyes of a meat puppet moving and following the commands of his mind. Glancing at the sultry and opulence that laid in the entirety of the library of the mansion.
Marble, gold, silver, ruby's, emeralds covered the walls, floors, ceilings and even furniture of the entire room. Swords and shields hanged from the walls, covering and protecting emblems and flags of past actions of conquest and war against their fellow noble neighbors...or foes from afar like the Velgata empire.
And that was without adding the towering walls of books that encompassed most of the room in the massive bookshelves that seemed to try to scratch the very ceiling above his head. Tons of tomes, ancient or new laid in waiting all neatly compiled, waiting for a pair of eyes wanting to digest some hidden knowledge.
The Pendragons were as proud as they were filthy rich...
They had made war a business and they had thrived in it like crows feasting over the leftovers of a battle field.. He could relate to that..if there had not been another hand pushing their agendas as-well.
However, this grandiose...though meek in comparison with what he already seen location had not been his first choice in settling his fake self.
In fact, it was not even the third one when he had considered a place to lay low in the public eye when he tried to find the myriad of connections that a child would have been able to approach unlike his true self…
Indeed…, his first target had actually been a secluded and not very important noble family in the outer edges of the Midgard kingdom. Away from prying eyes and scheming men from breathing down his neck with their petty dreams and worthless lives.
One not known for their wealth or political power, one which was rather outrageous in its unimportance in the world of nobles and their games, and actual little thing in the board which could have been considered the background set up of a nameless and unimportant individual...if one were to ignore the rumors that their bloodline was able to produce strong warriors..
Still, even that would suit him nonetheless as he could have passed his… "skills" for just good genetics. And so, the Kagenou family had been the household that had caught his eyes the most.
The appearance of his disguise as Koldarrd was fairly similar to them, especially in the male side of the family rather than the female one, the way both the matriarch and the only daughter of the marriage bore red eyes was certainly interesting. It reminded him of someone...
But it didn't matter.
He only had to warp their perception and he would sneak on the family as one of their own..after all, hadn't the Kagenou family wanted to produce a male heir as-well? A male to accompany their already present heir a….Claire Kagenou if his memory was not wrong.
Their desires and wishes would make the meld rather strong, in fact, he was almost sure that the suggestion would not even have to take hold completely for it to even work unlike in other cases when such wishes or desires were none existent and a more diligent touch was necessary.
Not like that would have meant much at all…., but there was a difference between pushing an already open door and using a key for it.
Now that he thought about it, hadn't they come up with a name for the boy that never came once the patriarch of the family failed to... "procure" the material into the oven? What was the name again?
Prid..?
Tick..?
His eyes frowned in contemplation, his hand lowering to rest over his lap. No, that was not it. It was more like...like Cid.
…
…
Yes, that was it...Cid Kagenou.
A rather simple name if there was one…, and clearly one made to pair up or at least try somehow to rhyme with the name of their already existing daughter Claire.
Cid and Claire...
If he was honest, for a family that had wanted so much for a male heir to their bloodline…, the name felt rather lackluster and unfulfilling…, as if they had ran out of options..or worse, had not even tried to give a more….remarkable name.
In fact, for some reason he could not understand, he had found himself thinking on better names. Why? He didn't know, by the time he questioned what madness had drove him to it he had already come across with a few choices, Clive being the last of them..
It was short and simple to remember, but held a lot more strength to it and would pair up with Claires if that was their goal..
He brought the cup of tea to his lips, the bitterness of it sliding down the meat puppets throat, leaving an almost imperceptible sting behind..
Alas...that was a waste of time given that Cid had never...been born. Still, the name they had chosen for the child that never was strange in more ways than one….as it seemed to give him pause to his thoughts the more and more his thoughts dwelt on it.
Silver eyes started to glint with a dangerous light, his eyes now turned into red thin slits as something, a dark thought started to rear its ugly head at the back of mind. Slowly at first, but it had started to gain weight as it pushed and pushed...
He put down the cup, its frame almost shattering once it landed on the table, but he did not notice.
The name…
That bloody name….
Where had he heard it? Not from the Kagenou household, no, he was damn sure he had heard it before…but where?
Where had such thing took place in the first place...?
His hands started to close tightly around the armrests…, the wood creaking in protest before slowly giving in under the pressure.
Where, where had he heard that name...and why did the uttering of that name brought him a seemingly never ending wave of anger and disdain come by and brush against him with such ease..?
Why did his cold, unfeeling soul became victim of old passions...like a shark who had smelled blood in the water..?
…
…
He stared at the cup of tea that now laid forgotten in the table. Looking at the flimsy reflection that it projected of him.
Dark and murky...like a pond that was been stirred by an invisible hand. His face became ridden with lines, his eyes narrowed, the skin paled as more and more of his true self showed through the meat puppet...
Why…..?
Why did it feel like he had forgotten something, or in this case, SOMEONE who had held that name before..?
º
….In another universe strangely close by….
º
In the depths of the Kagenou family home, leaning against a sofa neatly placed facing the nearest window where the sun beamed down onto the floor beneath, yet never touching the fabric of the coach inside the library stood a young black haired boy.
His face and demeanor could not have been anything else but from the most of simplest of characters which would normally fade in the background. Simple, lacking, and unworthy of praise or interest. Not even his clothes, stating the rank he bore in the Kagenou household as the only male son of the marriage granting him the relevance than any other child in his position would…
And yet..that was not the case at present.
He was so uncharacteristically unimportant, so boringly plain, so completely lacking in appearance and the capacity to draw interest into his person...that the word background character could not even be applied to him...
His eyes listless, and lacking of any sort of emotion as he flipped the pages of a book with no apparent interest whatsoever while his free hand twirled with a blackish, slimy sharp thing that was changing its form constantly.
Something that he would have continued to do so for a while longer…, until something shook his attention away from what he was doing.
A blank expression still in his face even though it was more of a disguise to suppress from prying eyes the cold shudder than had come without warning and was crawling over his back while his eyes scanned the room.
It was then that he placed a hand below his chin, and stared at an empty spot in the room. Leaning against the chair he was sitting in the position 34# of a mob: Pretending to be thinking sitting stile!.
``I feel a disturbance in the air…, as if the very air itself was cursing my name with a thousand vile swords…´´
He muttered through stiff lips, his voice cal yet cold, filled with a certainty that would have made many to quiver in wherever they stood.
Something that would have made many question whether he was serious or not..
However, internally, something far different was taking place as excitement rose inside the bottomless depths of those eyes.
[Ha! Hell yeah, I had always wanted to say something like that.]
It always sounded so cool, to stand there in the lonesome of a dim lit room with his features obscured mostly by the shadows of reflection as he stared at the direction of the disturbance without actually seeing it.
After all, it was certainly not possible that someone would be cursing his name, let alone the wind.
Satisfied with himself he rose from his seat, only for a voice to put on hold whatever he was about to do, like cold water thrown down one owns shoulder.
``Ciiiiiiiiid, is time to practice… I want to test a new trick with you.´´
``Oh no…´´
``Where are youuuu..?´´
The sole male child of the Kagenou family started to sweat, taking a step back from where he had deduced the sound was coming from.
Of course it had to be her..
`` Don't hide or you know that the punishment will be severe, my poor lazy excuse of a brother.. ´´
The words of her sister sounded innocent, almost sweet through the corridors, yet the cold shudder intensified a thousand fold as Cid felt his blood ran cold at the sound of her sisters steps approaching down the corridor right towards him.
Fast, like usual…
Sadly for his pedantic and annoyingly obsessed sister this was not the first time she had tried to do this.
``Its time to tactically withdrawal….´´
And before the doorknob of the room fully turned down and a certain red eye girl stormed inside he was already gone.
And by that he meant that he was actually hanging from the ceiling like a particular humanoid like insect with a rather simple and plain name and color pallet.
But that...will be a tale for another day.
º
…..Back to our universe…..
º
Well, that was it….
But, if one ignored the irrational way his body reacted to that name..., there was another problem on the matter to choose his public persona.
This one….far more serious than the latter. And it was not the fact that he LOATHED every single second of having to pretend to be something else. To make this make belief play of a child instead of wandering on the wilds and reaping this world asunder with the swing of his scythe.
But for better or for worse..., this was...necessary.
Back in the war, back before the end crashed onto the soil and the Destroyer came to say hello…., when it was a matter of mortals fighting against one another for their beliefs or their petty grudges under the amused glares of the divine he had learn an important lesson from both the "twelve" and his own failure.
The best way to win against an entire world raised against him….was to control both sides of the board instead of slamming himself against it like the waves of the ocean on the sturdy, sandy beaches.
Strength alone...would not bring victory, but it would certainly be a useful tool for to reach it.
He closed his eyes for a moment, finding the need to take a deep, slow breath before he glanced down at the map that had just materialize in the table in the blink of an eye.
Silver eyes landing on the black shaped forms of figures that at first appeared to be chess pieces, yet in truth, if one were to take a better look would realize they resembled a woman in an extremely detailed long, black dress…
Eerily similar to Aurora in every single way with the manner the stone had been masterfully crafted, but it was by design rather than mistake or any personal preference. The map showed him what he wanted to see and adapted itself to it…
There was nothing he could not see in this world as long as there was not any particular strong block or be located in another reality. The figures merely represented it in a far more grand scale rather than names or black spots that could be missed if one were not to look carefully…
The map itself was flowing with power, its form convulsing and moving on its own, emulating as-well the forms of the surroundings areas. Buildings, mountains, rivers, the humming and direction of the winds and even the slow humming of the waves crashing ashore. Diminutive as they were..,.the map showed in real time everything he wanted.
His eyes followed the locations they had been placed, regarding the importance that such information would entail on his future planing to bring that foolish woman back together...and if necessary, kill her.
One was in Velgata, another in Orianna...while the last remaining two were in a town called Laugus and...the one that had disturbed his plans was ….in the Kagenou household.
His eyes narrowing with silent contempt at the way the statue seemed to smirk back at him. The haughtiness of the figure blossoming with a life of its own under his gaze.
As if it was challenging him to do something about it.
He didn't know if those were the only ones he could sense for now, or if they were the strongest among all of the shards...or mere merely that many at all in the entire world.
A larger, more profound probing would have….made a few ripples. In the still weak Aether of this world, but even if he did, a certain truth could not be denied: There was a shard of Aurora in the Kagenou Household…
And that had thrown that idea of sneaking into it down the drain, this time, literally...
It was not like he could not fight her and if needed, destroy her…, that in a sense would be rather easy. The thing was that he actually had no desire to do so…
He had a promise to keep….and he would be damned if he didn't. Not again.., especially when there was nothing at all that would force him to take said brazen and direct choice.
And so..he had contemplated his choices.
If he were to infiltrate the family, he would linger too close to the witch and given that she had taken hold of a vessel in the form of Claire...then it could lead to a bunch of ugly things.
First, he didn't know why the shard had taken shape or attached to the girl which would make him be more cautious of it. Two, he didn't know what kind of memories or attitude that shard carried, it could be playful, it could be naive...but it also could be insane or violent.
Third, given that his had begged him to help her commit suicide by blade it was not that strange to think that most of the shards could share a rather pessimistic way to see their own lives...or in this case, unlife.
Fourth, Claires soul may be corroded if not entirely destroyed if the shard decided to either eat her essence if it felt threatened or just self destruct for the laughs.
Fifth and at the worst case scenario, was the Kagenou family were to be obliterated if the shard took hold and manifested its powers through the vessel before said thing died out or blew up into smithereens by the overcharge of energy forced through an unprepared vessel…
And all of that would force him to clean up what was left...which would have been a waste of his time and efforts. Especially since he could not allow anyone, cult or not to wander close to whatever magical residue would be left. One never knew if there was actually a brain in that bunch of psychopaths that could actually siphon the raw, pure essence of Aurora like that…
He had done it before…, why wouldn't other mortals do it...?
He graved the piece and stare into it, his fingers holding onto its apparent fragile form...and like that, he dropped it into the table. Bouncing off its smooth surface and drawn towards its original spot in the process..
And so, like dealing with a dangerous stray animal who had been pushed into a corner, the best way to approach it was not to approach it at all.
Besides, not everything was bad.
Having that shard there, meant that he didn't have to look far for her...he could leave her for last while he dealt with the others, or he decided to take care of it at a later date, which eve came first...
And so, he worked in reversed.
Instead of finding a noble household that had nothing to it so he could be taken for a nobody, he chose one that controlled the Kagenous lands through the disparity of their ranks…
That way he was far enough away for the Shard not to get any funny ideas while also been close enough to watch over it in a daily basis if he so wanted to. Although, here he could also work with more resources and the connections in time would led her to the higher echelons of the kingdom.
Perhaps, in a sense...he would meet both Rose and the daughter of the blood once more this way.
It was probable…., though he would not bet on it. Not yet anyway, there were still things to d-
``Rat! Are you here Rat...!?´´
A young, petty, childish voice echoed through the ample wings of the library. The quick, brief, yet erratic sound of footsteps moving over the wooden floor speaking a rather detailed story of who was trailing him before she even reached the corner he was in..
In fact, he was sure he could hear the grinding of her teeth before she even turned around the corner and became visible. Though given that he had made a newspaper appear in front of him would have made many question how he knew that..
The map had disappeared as-well. He had neither the patience and desire to waste his time explaining things to that piece of wasted space.
The sound grew louder as the speed of her steps grew more rapid.
``Ah, there you are.…, hiding again in the library? Ah, I should have known after the first five times….´´
Walking towards him in quick, short, stumping thuds into the floor that would have been more akin to a cow or a horse rather than a living, breathing human was the owner of the voice. A girl who by all means was a midget who could barely reach his chest. That, and with how diminutive she was she kinda looked like a doll..., but that would not hide away the bratty midget that she was...
Dressed in a lithe blueish/purple dress with a summer floral pattern engraved into the silky cloth. Gold and red straps filled with gems were attached to the side of her sleeves and chest, white, blueish hair hanging over her shoulders like misty rain was the actual, blood descendant of the family he had chosen.
By the strictly sense of this world and the laws that bonded the social structure of those who lived in this miserable little seeding in the universe…, the little thing with legs that was standing before him, was for the better meaning of the word... her step-sister.
Sarisha Pendragon..though he had decided to label her as "extravagance noisy bitch".
And she hated him.
Well, it was not like he cared.
Grey eyes filled with distaste met cold, uncaring silver ones...
``Hmm, not a word? Nothing at all..? Bah, I don't care, the shadows truly suit you, like the rodent you are...´´
Had he said that she was silver spoon fed and rotten to the core? No..? Well...he pitied the bastard who married her.
``What do you want..?´´
He muttered, not even looking over the newspaper, finding more interest in the blank pages...making him miss the obvious rapture of anger that marred the girls little face.
``You know what I want..! Don't pretend you don't..!´´
…
...
He placed the newspaper over his lap for just a moment, leaning a little bit forward as he went to grab the cup of teat once again. Drinking to what was going to be a rather annoying day, basking in the embers of what had once been the peace of his own company which he had enjoyed so far…
At least it could have been worse.
Aurora could be here.
….
….
[Oh no….]
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A/N
Here comes another chapter, I hope you like it and leave a comment down below to share your opinion if you want. I want to thank all those who have follow here so far, without you I may not have bothered to go this far. Truly, I am thankful..