Chapter Two: Aru: Innocent
The castle of Nosfarata was unusually loud with the noises of dozens, eating, drinking, and being merry. The reason was rather simple: it was a celebration. Three years and several days ago the royal family had produced a child. Seeing as how most early deaths would have occurred already her birth's celebration had basically ceased to be a jinx. Naturally, much drinking ensued. It was all they really had. The king, however, was not amused. Sitting around gloomily waiting for an hour when all the noise and people would just
get the hell out of his damn house. As usual he wore a large cloaky, jackety...thing and refused to remove his hands from the pockets. His wife, however, was a totally different story. Her long blond hair, which would look a radiant gold if the sun weren't absent (the three+ foot thick stone walls helped), swayed merrily as she darted about, sharing in many assorted conversations. She wasn't always welcome, putting it mildly, because she foreign. Ignoring this she continued to spark many conversations. A rustle drew the king's eyes from his wife.
"I hope you don't mind if I have some wine. It isn't Sigarthan, of course, so it won't get me drunk any time soon."
The captain of his guard, Gary. One of the few Mage knights left in the country after...something. He forgot what. The man was wearing a dull purple coat that hung to his ankles. It looked impractical and for normal combat it was. But cloth held magic far better than armor so it had saved him from many tight scrapes. His thin, almost feline form leaned back a little bit, blue hair hanging over one of his red eyes.
"Is that...Cain over in the corner?"
Bruteas, the king, turned his head. A hollow shell of a man sat far on the other side of the room, against the wall and practically in the fetal position, staring at a goblet of wine. His hands and eyes shook. Gary sighed.
"It's sad, really. I feel guilty about using what-"
"His comerades died. No input of ours could change that. Better to use their loss than squander it."
Gary squinted angrily. The king's methodical, Machevelian approach to life had lead the two to many debates.
"Even so...!"
Meanwhile, the queen stopped at the table of an aristocratic group.
"Having a good time?"
One of them got up, pulling out a rapier and twirling it.
"Foreign scum, you ought be assassinated already."
She laughed, batting away the tip.
"Oh, you're such a jokester~"
"You *****!"
"Hu-ursgh!"
Before she could finish she was silenced by the warm, thick surge of blood up her throat. Choking as clutched at the crimson flower blossoming across her chest from the wound, she collapsed. Choking, she looses a clump of rich, dark liquid onto the floor. Her body convulsed as she struggled to breathe.
"...DAMNIT!!"
Gary leapt across the room, plunging his sword into the murder's sternum repeatedly. He dropped dead as well, leaving Gary to turn to his employer with a grim visage.
"...sir, that happened and we let it happen."
Neither noticed the clumsy steps or horrified face of the young, blond-haired girl that had wandered over looking for her mother and bolted. Neither noticed that she, who'd been innocent, grimaced or snarled whenever she saw a boar. For her mother's killer wore his family's symbol like everyone else, or that his was a boar. And like the woman he'd murdered, that girl was innocent. She'd lost her mother for no reason. And she wouldn't forget it.
Ten years later, the girl was waiting for the nightfall. Normally it was for the sake of getting to see Crowe, a thief she was starting to develop feelings for, but he'd have to take his own bread today. She drew her sword, custom made (like all of the few swords Nosfarata got through means other than captured enemies) and with her name, Aru, engraved on the hilt. It was a modified longsword made of mithril, a material so
conveniently rare she was unlikely to ever see another piece of equipment made from it. It...wasn't particularly magical, just lighter than steel, a tad bit less breaky, and much rarer. She set out on her mighty quest for epic vengeance.
She was innocent...
Aru gripped her sword until her knuckles turned white.
I'll make them pay
Her entire body shook with a bizarre mix of hatred and excitement.
They'll pay for what they did...!
She was practically snarling.
My mother was innocent!
She ran like that for a long time, getting angrier and angrier.
Innocent...!
She searched, hoping to find where in the palace that family was housed.
My mother was innocent!
Her father once told her that everybody had or would commit some evil eventually. Her mother was the exception to that rule. These...
murderers would die for their action! They deserved death, all of them!
She found a house with a familiar looking boar over the entrance and smiled slyly, her hands shaking in a morbid state of excitement. A macabre smile broke her previously empty face as she contemplated her course of action. There was the legal system to consider and since the actual killer was dead this was technically a crime. How fortunate it was, then, they lived so close to a fake evidence shop?
Normally she considered those who used such establishments scum. This was an exception, though.
And so with questionable resolve she knocked, her sword at the ready. A young boy answered the door. Her face unchanging, she swung. His became shock and he collapsed in a broth of assorted fluid. One down. She stepped over the body and looked around. Two children, a man about twenty, and a woman. A shriek.
It was full of agony and terror. Her expression instantly sunk to horror. She'd just...
Another shriek. This one was of anger. The man had a knife. Instinct took over. She spun in place, dodging and digging the side of her blade into his wrist. Flesh peeled off of bone with a distinct, wet noise, and blood erupted from the point with gusto. She stabbed him in the back, killing him. His body fell to the floor, his pale form no less colorful, except the scarlet areas around his wounds. Again on instinct she leapt, slashing open the woman's throat, leaving her to gasp in futility for air as a red liquid erupted continuously from her neck. Aru's eyes widened in shock, her entire body shaking. She looked at the children emptily, her sword reluctantly raising to a position proceeding use. There were two more swings, two more warm, visceral deaths and many savage, tearful screams of agony before it ended.
They were innocent...
There was a lake nearby. She needed to swim, wash the blood off and hopefully clear the putrid stains from her sword, and maybe clear her head. Shaky, unsteady legs hobbled their way outside in a quasi-drunk fashion, her old resolve having been entirely devoured.
They were innocent...
Her pupils were practically gone.
Just like Mom...they were innocent...
She collapsed, looking at her hands, blood still caked on and seeping into her gloves. She shook, sobbing quietly.
I killed four innocents today...!
She pounded a leg, tears rolling down her face. She heard footsteps and looked up.
"A girl walks up to you and starts dancing and you walk away? What are you, gay, drunk, high...?"
"~~~AA-SEXUAL~~!"
^and that was the greatest exchange of my year.