Darkbloom

Chapter 1

It was raining by the time Jaune made it home. A crack of lightning arced across the sky just as he pushed his way inside, shivering the entire time. He shrugged off his jacket and hung it up next to the door, before kicking off his muddy shoes as he ran through the house.

Ordinarily, his mother would have chastised him for running in the house, but not tonight. Not when the Matron of the Arc household was all too busy with his older sister, Vermilion. Tonight, he was alone.

Jaune made his way up to his room, then slammed the door shut and locked it behind him. Only when he was sure it was safe did he chance a look down at the package in his arms, a nondescript bundle of cardboard paper and twine.

When his grandfather had died all those years ago, his parents had been careful to bury all traces of what he had done. Try as they might, however, they couldn't take his memories from him, flawed and fading as they were. Jaune still remembered that day when he'd visited his grandfather in the hospital, on his deathbed, and how the elder Arc had stared at him for a moment, his failing vision struggling to make him out before his eyes had suddenly widened in recognition. He still remembered the words his grandfather had spoken to him, through the haze of dementia and painkillers.

"The day may yet come when tragedy befalls this family. When it does… seek the Book of the Sealed. You'll know where to find it – I left it buried in the one place nobody would dare to dig up."

Jaune had known, then, what his grandfather had meant. They all would have known what it meant. There was only once place that the Arc children knew better than to risk disturbing, for fear of attracting their grandfather's wrath. Jaune himself had his doubts about what he was doing, but that hadn't stopped him.

That night, as the stormclouds gathered overhead and the full moon cast its light down over him, Jaune had defiled his own grandmother's grave.

He hadn't had to dig up the grave completely, thankfully – the package had been three feet down rather than six. The act had left him feeling dirty, of course, but these were desperate times. At this point, he was willing to try anything if it meant saving his sister.

Carefully, Jaune pulled on the dirt-encrusted twine, steadily loosening it from around the old, yellowed cardboard paper. The twine finally came undone, and the paper predictably fell apart, revealing what lay within.

True to his grandfather's word, it was a book, and an old-looking one at that. It was bound in black lather and sealed with a lock, and past that, it had nothing on it that could identify it – no title, no author, and no picture on the cover. Yet, despite that, Jaune couldn't help but feel the room darken as the last of the cardboard fell from around it. It was as if the mere act of unwrapping the book had caused some of the light to be sucked out of the room. Jaune suppressed a shiver, instead reaching for the necklace around his throat and pulling it up over his head. At the end was a key – the same one his grandfather had pressed into his palm that day at the hospital with a promise that he would keep it secret moments before his grandfather had passed. Jaune hadn't known what to do with it at the time, so he had fashioned it into a necklace – a memento with which to remember his beloved grandfather. But now, staring at the lock on the book, he knew what it was for.

No turning back now.

With shaking hands, Jaune slipped the key into the lock, and it popped open with a click. Jaune slipped the necklace back into its proper place around his throat, then hesitantly opened the book and looked inside. The moment he did, he winced as his vision blurred and he felt a migraine begin to build up behind his eyes. There was something else there, too – whispers in the back of his mind, chanting words in an alien tongue. His legs began to shake with fear, but still, he persisted despite all of that.

He was messing with forces far beyond his comprehension, he knew, and yet, he wasn't about to stop anytime soon. Not until he had his answers.

For Vermilion.

With that thought in mind, he turned his attention back to the book, and began to read.

There were no words inside the book, or at least none he recognized. Rather, the only thing inside it was a series of strange-looking symbols that should have been unintelligible to him, and yet, he found that he could understand them relatively clearly. His eyes widened at the revelation. Whatever this book was supposed to be, somehow, against all odds, he could read it.

"'I conjure thee, o ruler of the damned,'" he read automatically, the words escaping from his mouth completely involuntarily, no matter how hard he tried to stop himself from reciting them. "'I summon thee, queen of darkness, by the words of darkness. I summon thee, shepherd of loss, by the words of loss. I call upon thee, ruler of oblivion, by the words of oblivion. I conjure thee forth from thy abode of hatred and despair. I conjure thee from thy prison in the bowels of the Otherworld. For as above, so below; as above, so below; as above, so below…'"

Lightning suddenly cracked outside, splitting through the air with an ear-piercing crash. The lights flickered and then faded. Jaune looked around in a panic, the book slipping from his grasp. He heard it hit the floor, causing him to jump in surprise. He blinked for just a moment, and when his eyes opened again, a light began to form in the center of the room. Jaune stared at it, wide-eyed as it cast a red glow across the entire room. Without warning, he turned and ran for the door, trying to throw it open, only to find it locked. Jaune's balance was lost as a cold, heavy black chain wrapped around his wrist. Jaune screamed in fear and fell to the floor, backing up against the door, his heart hammering against his ribcage and his breath coming out ragged as he stared at the red light.

It had expanded in the few seconds he'd had his back turned, and was now big enough to almost touch the ceiling. He stared into it, and he saw nothing – it was indescribable; it wasn't even blackness, it was simply sheer nothingness made form.

Then, as he stared, a set of amber eyes opened from within the nothingness, and fixated on him. He felt his heart just about stop when its gaze met his, and then narrowed.

"The ritual has been completed."

The voice came out as that of a legion – thousands of voices, coalescing into one. The sound of the voice reverberated through his head, making his already-agonizing migraine even worse. It sounded like despair made manifest to him. Jaune nodded, his entire body shaking.

"I-I did it…"

"Why."

"Because… I need your help. My grandfather, he said to seek the Book of the Sealed, and-"

The eyes suddenly narrowed. "You meddle with forces beyond your control."

The chain wrapped around his wrist suddenly went taught, and Jaune let out a surprised yelp.

"Mortal… do you understand the gravity of what you have done?"

Jaune swallowed nervously. "I understand that my sister is going to die, and there's nothing on Remnant that can help her. Please..."

The eyes blinked, then stared at him with surprise. "You would call upon me to save another?"

Jaune nodded. "I would. Can you help her?"

The eyes blinked again, then affixed him with a penetrating stare. "Free me. Then we can discuss."

"Free you?" Jaune asked. "How would I-"

"Blood," the voice explained. "Blood of the one who sealed me."

"What? But I didn't-"

"You carry his blood in your veins, however diluted it may be. It will suffice."

Jaune froze. "You want me to cut myself?"

"Blood for blood," the voice said. "Equivalent exchange."

Again, Jaune swallowed nervously, then looked around. There was an old pocketknife on his desk – one of the few weapon-like objects his parents actually let him use. He reached out for it and took it in his shaking hands, then unfolded the blade and held it against his wrist. He took a breath, and then made a shallow cut, just enough to draw blood. A wince escaped him. His blood felt like it was burning under his skin. Sickeningly, Jaune only felt sweet relief as it was released in a hot red spatter.

For a moment, nothing happened, and he thought it had failed. That all changed in the blink of an eye – the red light suddenly intensified, and then it expanded outwards in a silent, pressure-less explosion of force. Jaune felt the wind be knocked out of him, and doubled over, gasping for breath. After a few seconds, he lifted his head up, and was stunned at what he saw.

A woman was standing in the middle of the room. She looked to be in her early twenties, if he had to wager a guess. She was dressed in a red dress, and had on black heels. Her black hair fell across her face, completely covering one of her yellow eyes. She eyed him with curiosity.

"You who have summoned me," she said, her voice coming out normal now. "Speak. Who are you, and what is it you desire?"

"J-Jaune," he ventured, still panicked after everything that had happened. "Jaune Arc. And… I summoned you to help my sister, Vermilion."

"With what do you require my assistance, mortal?"

"She was attacked," Jaune emphasized. "By a Grimm. It got her really bad – she's on life support right now. Doctors said that there's nothing they can do; they're just waiting for her to die."

The woman brought a hand up to her chin in thought. "I can heal her," she offered. "However, you must do something for me in exchange."

Jaune's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't hesitate. "Name it."

"You must form a contract with me," she implored. "In exchange for your sister's life being saved, you shall serve me for eternity. You shall go where I go, and do as I command, even after you have died."

Jaune's face fell. "An eternity…?"

"A soul for a soul," she explained. "That is my price. Do you accept the terms of the contract?"

Jaune thought for a moment. It was a heavy price indeed, but he knew that going into it. He had already summoned her, and freed her from her prison; he was in too deep to back out now. Besides, if he refused, Vermilion was going to die, and he was not going to let that happen.

And so, Jaune looked back towards the woman, and nodded.

"I accept."

For the first time, she cracked a smile. "Very well."

The chain around his wrist suddenly dissipated. Jaune stared at his hand for a second, but then, from out of nowhere, he felt his left hand begin to burn. It was a searing, yet ethereal pain – there was no physical damage being done, and yet, it was agonizing all the same. Jaune clutched at his hand, a scream forcing its way past his lips as he thrashed in torment, tears stinging at his eyes.

"I am Cinder Fall, Demon Queen of hell," the woman said. "And you, Jaune Arc, shall be my right hand from this day until the end of time. So it is dictated, so it is done."

When Jaune awoke, it was to the sun spilling in through his window. He blinked, then brought a hand up to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he picked himself off the floor with a groan. The events of the previous night came flooding back into his mind, and he looked around in a frenzy, searching for Cinder, but she was nowhere to be found.

Through the tears in his eyes, Jaune was able to make out something creeping along the back of his left hand. It was a black symbol of some kind, steadily etching its way into his skin. He stared at it, an anguished scream erupting out from his throat.

It was the last thing he saw before he passed out.

His brow furrowed. Had it all been a dream, then? It had seemed so real – he could still feel the phantom pain of that symbol burning itself into his hand, for example. As that thought came back, he chanced a look at the back of his left hand, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the mark wasn't there.

The mark was missing, as was the book. Cinder was gone. The room was exactly the same as it always was, with no signs of any kind of disturbance. It had to have been a dream, then.

From downstairs, Jaune heard the front door open, followed by a chorus of excited voices. Thoughts of Vermilion filled his mind, and he braced himself as he opened the door, preparing himself for the worst as he marched down the stairs and towards the front door.

The worst never came, however – instead, he found his other sisters there with his mother and father, all of them talking excitedly with each other, big smiles on their faces. Even his father was smiling, which was saying a lot.

"Uh," Jaune announced from his spot down the hall, getting their attention. "Did I miss something?"

His mother flashed him a grin, then ran towards him and pulled him into her embrace.

"Vermilion is going to be fine," she said, choking up.

Jaune froze. "She is?"

"Mhm. The surgeons said it was nothing short of a miracle. She was all set to pass on, but then something happened. They're not sure what, but whatever it was, it made her wake up and start breathing on her own again. They were dumbfounded – said they'd never seen anything like it before in their careers." His mother flashed him a grin. "That's our Vermilion, though – she never did know when to quit."

"Uh-huh…" Jaune ventured. He pulled from his mother, much to her confusion. "Excuse me for a moment, I just… I need a minute."

Ignoring the cries of protest from his sisters, Jaune pushed his way out of the house, not even bothering to put his shoes on before stepping out into the freshly-made mud from the night before. The ground squelched underfoot as he ran, uncaring of how he was getting his feet dirty. Finally, after several minutes of running, Jaune arrived at the old cemetery. With great trepidation, he approached his grandmother's grave, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the earth above it had been freshly disturbed, then hastily replaced.

"Looking for something?"

The sudden voice took him by surprise, making him jump. Jaune whirled around, raising his fists, and didn't relax for a moment when he saw it was Cinder standing there, smirking at him.

"You…" Jaune ventured. "Last night… did we-"

"Form a contract?" Cinder finished. She nodded. "We did. You recall what the terms were, yes?"

"You save my sister, and I serve you for eternity?"

"Correct," Cinder answered.

Jaune continued to stare at her, keeping his fists raised. "Why should I serve you, exactly?"

"A foolish question," Cinder said as she examined her nails. "I have already demonstrated I have power over your sister's life. If you leave, it is fully within my power to rescind the gift I have given her, and after that… well, I am sure you can fill in the blanks."

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "So you're holding her hostage?"

"Nothing of the sort," Cinder told him evenly. "A contract is only valid if both parties agree to uphold it. If one party is incapable of fulfilling the terms of the contract, then it will fall apart. Your sister's survival is contingent on you serving me; should you refuse to serve me, her life is forfeit."

"And when she does die of natural causes? If I refuse to continue serving you after that?"

"There are ways of enforcing the contract after that," Cinder said. "I will not explain them now, but know that it is fully within my power to compel you to uphold your end of the bargain."

Jaune's brow furrowed. "So, what happens now? If I remember right, you told me I was your right hand last night. What does that mean?"

"It means you are now my servant," Cinder explained. "Anything I need you to do, you shall do."

"So I'm your slave?"

"If that bothers you, then you should not have made the contract."

Jaune sighed, finally lowering his fists. He brought a hand up to run it through his hair. "So, my soul is now yours. That's great; I sold my soul to… who did you say you were, again?"

"Cinder Fall, Demon Queen of hell."

Jaune stared at her in surprise. "Demon Queen of hell…? I've never heard of you."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "I am not surprised," she explained. "The old man certainly did everything in his power to erase any mention of my name from the history books."

"Old man…? You mean my grandfather?"

"An ancient ancestor of yours," Cinder told him. "His blood runs through your veins, diluted as it may be. He sealed me thousands of years ago; if he'd been smart, he would have kept the keys to my prison buried where nobody could hope to find them, yet I suppose the allure of having the Demon Queen herself at his beck and call was simply too great to resist in the end. Of course, that was just the first of many mistakes he made when it came to keeping me imprisoned."

"Hold on, pause," Jaune said. "Why wouldn't my ancient ancestor keep you imprisoned, if you were so bad he needed to seal you in the first place?"

"A contract with a demon is a powerful thing," Cinder said, crossing his arms. "A contract with the Queen is even more powerful. I was initially summoned to help seal away an even greater evil than I, with the terms of the contract being that I would be set free afterwards. Of course, that did not happen – the old man turned around and sealed me, as well, not understanding what would happen if he did so. The fool did not realize what the terms of his contract meant." Cinder turned towards him and saw the unspoken question in his eyes, and said, "The terms were simple: I was to help him with the seal. In return, my freedom from the Underworld was to be granted, and his life would be used to fuel the spell that finally broke my chains. He sealed me before the spell that would grant me my freedom could be cast, not understanding what that meant. The fool damned himself to a life of immortality, all because he could not fulfill a simple contract."

"Immortality…?" Jaune echoed.

"Not true immortality, mind you," Cinder remarked. "His body still withers and dies all the same. But when it does, his soul simply transfers to yet another unwilling host, like a parasite. It will continue doing so until he fulfills his end of the deal."

"And that's damning to you?"

"For a mortal, nothing is more damning than immortality," Cinder emphasized. "Should you ever run into the old man, he would tell you as much himself. Now, enough of this talk – you agreed to serve me in exchange for your sister's life."

"I did," Jaune confirmed, his expression grim. "What is your demand?"

Cinder smirked. "I have been imprisoned for thousands of years. I think it is time I explore the world around me and note its changes."

"...That's it? You just want to wander around?"

"Is that truly such an odd desire? I have spent untold amounts of time locked away in sheer nothingness, with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. It is only a testament to my sheer hatred for the old man and his betrayal that I did not lose my mind. I wish to embark and take in the sights and sounds the world has to offer before seeking my revenge."

Jaune shivered involuntarily. "Alright… so I take it you want me to show you around?"

"You are my right hand, and therefore my escort," Cinder emphasized. "Of course, I expect you to travel with me."

A scowl crossed his face, one thought coming to mind.

Mom's not gonna like that.

Naturally, the only way out of the Arc family home was at night, when everyone else was asleep. Jaune stayed awake, waiting for the last light to go out, before finally throwing the sheets off himself. He stood up out of bed, quietly threw on some clothes, and grabbed his packed bag. Then, he made his way for the front of the house.

As he passed by the mantle in the living room, however, something caught his eye – his grandfather's sword, still mounted in its usual spot above the fireplace. Jaune hesitated, then stepped over to the fireplace and reached for the sword.

Well, if he was going to be wandering across Remnant, he would need some way of defending himself…

That was the only motivation he needed to actually do this. Jaune took the sword and hooked it to his belt, a faint grin etching its way across his face. The sword and scabbard seemed to fit him like a glove – it was heavy, of course, but it felt natural at his side.

"You are truly his heir."

Jaune jumped in surprise, then turned around and leveled a glare at Cinder. "Don't do that!" he hissed. "And keep your voice down, I don't want to wake any of the others."

"Very well," Cinder said, uncaring. "Shall we embark?"

Jaune took one last look at the mantle, his gaze settling on the various family photos splayed out across it. One of them caught his eye – it was an old picture of him surrounded by all his sisters, when they were all little. He focused on it for a moment, then tore his gaze away.

It wasn't like he was leaving forever, but with his soul firmly in Cinder's grasp, it certainly felt that way.

And so, Jaune stepped through the front door, and together with Cinder, the two of them set off.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the new story! Truthfully, I never really intended to write this story, but I had a few people ask me about doing a serious rendition of the whole Jaune-summons-demon-Cinder thing after Cinders and Sins came out, so I decided, hell, why not?

Before I go on, I do have to thank someone for their help with this one: I'd like to shout-out Ickbard, who's been instrumental not just in the formation of this fic, but in a lot of my writing. If you're reading this, bro, I owe you big time, and I just want to say that I appreciate the absolute hell out of you for everything you'd done for me to help me with my writing.

As for the story itself… honestly, I don't have too much to say. Maybe that will change when I've got a few more chapters down and I'm not in such a rush. For now, though, I think I'll leave things here.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. See you all next time!