"Velvet, wake up."
The coarsely rough yet soft feeling met her body with its comforting grip, as the voice - sweet as honey - cooed from above. The girl's limbs shifted, rolling over the silky texture with a grumble.
"Just... let me sleep a little more, Celica."
The sensation was light and hollow, a numbness in the movement, while any thoughts were in a disoriented jumble. Words flowed out without command.
The disembodied voice hummed with a restrained chuckle, mature but feminine. "You rascal," it playfully echoed, "Don't you remember the task I entrusted you with?"
"The task...?" Velvet tiredly repeated, a sudden buzz erupting that trickled over the mind, and her head fidgeted across the pressing warmth.
"Yes. I asked you to take care of him."
A gasp slipped out, and the heavy eyelid flicked open with the firm, familiar command; replacing the nostalgic chatter of a beloved sister. The sightless stare of obsidian glass met gold. Seres.
She could feel the beating within rise to eardrums.
Like the crackle of grain, static slowly building with the dream that fell to darkness in a blink: an abrupt rush of air finally filled lungs. Piercing needles waving over skin akin to a bubbling coastline, senses returned. The mind stilled, and then she could think.
Velvet awoke to a world of blinding blue. A glare of ominous, immense light bounding all around in its ethereal hue. The harsh texture of jagged edges and a smooth glossy surface met the brush of a palm, and the world was scentless; just the repetitious flow of breath rising to fall. Blinking away the fatigue, lazed gold scanned the mysterious realm from where she lay, while the sore grip pushed up from the strange rock beneath. Dotted like still clouds, crystalline rock hovered in place among the endless azure void, humming softly in pulsing waves.
"Where... am I? Did they... kill me?"
Another push, and the screech of ground steel came, and Velvet flicked to the weathered leather in hand. She frowned, as the burnt sheen of a three-pronged kunai glanced off in goldish-brown, and only the old trickle of blood stained its poignant edge.
"Sarid..."
With a despairing sigh, the daemoness flipped the blade and sunk it into a pocket - neighbouring the small flower she knowingly kept, and that golden memorial comb. Another one lost, and so did the graveyard of trinkets grow.
"K-Keep him with you, he is of upmost importance, I can tell."
"He's just a stranger, too kind for his own good."
"You must. Please, he is no ordinary malak, one you may be able to figure out."
"...If he gets in my way, or becomes a nuisance, he dies."
Velvet let a self-chidden 'tsk' trail out, the irony of her first accepting words painful to recall. Her eyes fell to the ring bound at her middle finger. "...Guess I couldn't finish your request, Seres..."
A subtle fizzing came from behind. And the senses were stained with dread, the familiar urge rising in her chest at the dangerous sensation.
Laphicet lay motionless, sprawled against the dark crystal floor with an expression of unconscious discomfort; black speckles of miasma buzzing about his still body like flies. Violent shudders flared across the boy as his temperature burned hot. She lunged over, hurriedly swiping away at the crackling darkness zipping about the young malak, and held him close. "Bad fever," she muttered, placing a delicate palm across his forehead.
Until, Laphicet's voice struggled out with an subconscious whimper, and the boy's hand raised ahead as if instinctual, yet no light blossomed from it. "Please..." he tiredly rasped, "Don't die... Velvet."
The glint in those hazel orbs grew with her open expression, until it tightened in relent. Wrapping her arms firm about the malak, Velvet's own head lent against his, and she whispered her own heartfelt thanks. Laphicet's body was frail, and dreadfully warm. "You saved my life." Her teeth firmed, tense as she spared a glance to the gluttonous appendage aside. It stared back with an abrupt spark of bright gold.
"...Both of you."
The softness present over the lady's features vanished in a blink, and the hold placed upon the boy hardened.
"I asked you to take care of him."
She knew what to do.
"Now it's my turn to save you."
With an untroubled heave, Velvet pulled the shaking boy into her arms and stood tall, glaring out across this abyssal world of shining blue and viridescent depths. Before racing off! Sprinting swift and hard across the lanes of dark rock, the second wind of escape letting the daemon pounce in venture of these strange formations.
~~~
Inhale... exhale... inhale... exhale
The stomping run of the woman halted to a stark end, scraping to a stop among an audience of silent crystal, and only an ocean of blinding green below and endless void greeted her. No exit was in sight, and the snaking trails ceased.
"Where's the exit?" she grumbled low, whipping about to scour with only a steadily paling boy in hand. "What the hell is this place?!"
"It's an earthpulse." The cold, stern voice that could only belong to one pirate came from behind.
She turned, not seeking to share a speck of glee or surprise that the powerful earth malak had escaped relatively unharmed. "So you survived," Velvet stated with a dissociated look, a bitter change from how she spoke to the unconscious boy.
"Let's not count our blessings just yet," Eizen said as he stepped forward, a shed of concern unfurling as he glanced to the young man, "It looks like we've been sealed inside." As the daemon listened, she placed Laphicet very carefully down upon the rough structure, still worried for what may become of him. "But, at least we're still alive. Can't say the same would be true if we stayed in that place."
"...Not all of us," Velvet coldly reminded with a shifting glare as she rose from where the boy lay. Her golden irises felt resigned, and the woman's focus still wained. "An earthpulse... so that's what this is."
The reaper bit his tongue at the slip up, having blocked the topic from the forefront of his mind. The icy stare held sorrow yet already acceptance, and focused upon their situation. "It's like a river flowing with nature's life energy. Earthpulses can be found all over the world, but normally you can't see or interact with them."
"Then how'd we end up inside one?" Velvet demanded with a sharp bite, hand on hip and foot already tapping cracks into the skin of rock.
"When Innominat's and Laphicet's powers collided, the shock must have tore it open," Eizen presumed with arms crossed, "If that's the case, it's possible that Laphicet possesses the power to return us home, but..." The young malak groaned once more. "He can't do much in this state. He's liable to turn into a daemon any moment now."
The woman could feel her dark heart stop for but a moment, and the blood rushed hot into a steaming boil; a hefty step forward came next. "Don't talk like that!" she ordered, yet the quiver in her voice bespoke of desperation. Until, she remembered. The malakhim that belonged to Oscar Dragonia had transformed into a dragon, bearing such similar symptoms before his imminent change. Velvet stepped back, and glanced down in thought. "...Is this because he overused his powers?"
"It's not too late to stop it. If a malak occupies a pure vessel, he can be prevented from transforming into a daemon." The glimpse of surprise that ran across the daemon's face was brief, quickly overtaken by a darker tone.
"Even you?"
Ping!
The coin landed flat back within his gloved palm.
"This lucky coin is my vessel. There's a catch to this one, though. It can only serve as a vessel for someone with the reaper's powers."
Velvet stilled, until the hopeful look snapped into one of furrowed brows and a wolfish scowl.
"Then that's no help at all!"
The daemon's mind raced, jolting from place to place without any answer being found. Velvet had just lost that irritable half-breed, reduced to gore from her hunger, and now Laphicet was in danger. Any second now, he could daemonise. Any second now, he could die. Any second now, she could lose him. Lose him again. 'Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again, not again, not again, not again, not again, not again, not again--'
"An exorcist would work."
Her head calmed. Velvet twisted around, and the sight did not relinquish the searing fire inside.
Eleanor Hume; exorcist praetor, stood just a few feet from where the befuddled pair stood. And both their expressions soured at the appearance.
The girl's face was resolute and strong, wearing a mask of reason and calm. "We offer our own bodies as vessels for malakhim so that we can use them for the Abbey's purposes. I volunteer to serve as your malak's vessel."
The daemon's jaw fastened tight, teeth bare with lidded eyes.
"I didn't ask for a volunteer. Especially not you."
Eleanor's expression did not flicker. "You aren't in a position to choose."
Velvet's eyes glanced to the boy that remained motionless, the fire making way for indecision in its embers. "...I see."
"So, then we just need your body with us... Not your legs."
The daemoness took a single step forth, raising her left limb dangerously high with a deathly gleam in both eyes. Until, the spear the exorcist bore was brushed against her own neck, the blinking edge - still stained with droplets of crimson - inches from skin. "Not one step closer!"
"...You wouldn't," the ravenette glowered; apprehensively halting.
"I'll kill myself before you lay a hand on me. The malak will become a daemon and you'll be stuck here forever!"
"You don't mince words, do you?" Velvet coldly observed, simply holding her left arm freely aside; yet warily tensed.
Eleanor was unshaken and confident in the face of their adversity, but still the steel hovered decently away from her flesh. "'Know your foes and strike where they're weak,' the basis of all combat."
"How about gouging out the eye of a turned enemy?" The therion's tone went harshly low, daring the exorcist to respond. Dregs of violet trailed from between worn bandages, and the vestiges of cinders travelled through windless air; Velvet's eyes were alight like candles in the dark.
Eleanor flinched, and the daemon advanced a step.
"As cowardly as I'd expect from a disciple of Artorius."
The praetor suddenly slammed the staff into the ground, voice flaring in denial of the woman's blunt words. "No, this is personal! Once I regain my exorcist powers... I vow to challenge you, daemon Velvet!" The ravenette in question blinked wearily. "If I lose, I'll do whatever you wish! If you want me to die or become a vessel, so be it!"
Eizen watched on with a hum of amusement at the suggestion, while Velvet huffed a contemptuous sigh, before her eyes darted to the mumbling of the boy unconscious.
"Velvet... Don't die..."
A ringing in the ears, despite the words being low and gasping. She stared on, until the appendage went slack.
The daemoness glared out the corner of her vision, and dared breath the possibility. "And if I were to lose...?"
Jutting outward, Eleanor pointed the spear directly towards the woman.
"I kill you, and end your path of chaos."
Velvet's gilded stare fixed upon the faint scarlet splatter already melded to its honed edge. Reflexively, her hands coiled fierce.
"Oh please..."
A breath came from a chest that burned hot; fogged. Only a commanding glance slid to the reaper aside, and Eizen's arms tensed in their cross. The exorcist's green eyes met the therion's own hazel. Cinders.
"You don't deserve another chance."
She had only blinked, and a snap rang the cold, reverberating air. A chain of amber yanked the poised spear down, and the grasp of cloth binding unnatural flesh clasped forth hard. Eleanor could only gasp, muffled by the hand smothering her face in its hold.
And two golden orbs, burning with contempt scowled from the covered view.
Velvet wondered how easy it would be, to tighten the force just enough for the praetor's skull to give; to move a thumb, and press deep into a socket. The girl's feet could barely feel the rock beneath, and the weapon would not shift an inch. No matter how the girl scrambled and pulled. It was what she deserved.
"...take care of , the boy."
The voice echoed in the vastness of the daemon's mind, turning to an unnatural static that made her arm tremble.
"Velvet."
The stern tone caused her vision to flick, and the pirate stood merely feet aside: a firm grip on the wrist of what limb clamped the exorcist's face. She knew the words before he spoke them, and finally relented with a sharp sigh.
"Fine."
Collapsing to her knees with heaves and splutters, Eleanor made out the dark silhouette looming above, and she could not risk a glance towards the blank gaze weighing down. A chill ran across the girl's skin.
"You're lucky. I should tear out one of your own eyes, to make it fair." Velvet's voice rarely sunk so low.
The praetor said nothing, and eventually the shadow ambled away, letting the light be shed upon the uncomfortable young Laphicet.
The praetor made no move to question the therion, who now stared off into the distant revolving void, with a frown of self-reproach. "Get it over with," she growled.
Screech...
And over did the spear slide.
Velvet simply looked upon the twinkling depths, the blue darkening deeper above, while the viridescent ocean of strange green bubbled below. A subconscious finger trailed the scar across her cheek with a youthful nail, and the tense expression relaxed ever slightly, yet the frown deepened. She could hear the exorcist kneel aside the slumbering boy.
"What is its name?"
Silence.
"...Normally it is decided by their masters, but since I do not own him yet, I need to know."
She hated that word, owned.
Her teeth tightened to a slight bare, and while she did not turn, the exorcist could feel the unappreciated words. "He is not a thing to be owned, he is Laphicet."
"Laphicet... I see."
Velvet ignored the actions that took place at her flank, and immersed herself with the energy surrounding this place. It hummed a familiar tune, yet moreso pure to her own vile and crooked blight. Eleanor and Eizen could not see what the daemoness held, but for the ravenette, the soft brittle waves of its golden teeth were unmistakable; as she held the comb tight to her heart.
But the fragile flower of beautiful violet would stay hidden in that dark pocket, for even the therion herself did not know where its place was at her side.
"O child of the fountain of creation, the vows we exchange. May our purpose, resplendent, help purify this cursed world. Remember this true name I bestow unto you."
The sheer glow of the enchantment behind flared even out the corner of her vision. And, as Velvet finally turned, the iridescence coating the praetor's palm dissipated, with Laphicet vanishing into a verdant orb of light. It zipped high, before sinking into the vestige of what an exorcist could hold, and Eleanor's expression morphed into one of shock.
"Such... such power!"
The gleam lingered, until it coated the praetor's entire form, and then suddenly expanded. The daemoness and reaper could do nothing but tense in ready, as this blinding light coated the natural world contained within the earthpulse.