Chapter 352: Chapter 349: A Friend Amongst Tragedy

Chapter 349: A Friend Amongst Tragedy

 

  …57 years ago… Hollow Shade’s Grand Coliseum…

 

  The crowds flinched back and shouted in fear as azure flames erupted around the three Noir siblings and consumed the arena grounds. The flames burned brighter and hotter as they bloomed into the vague shape of a flower, threatening to break through the enchanted arena walls and swallow up the entire coliseum in a blazing inferno.

  Almost like a dream, the azure fire disappeared as quickly as it had ignited. The smoke slowly dissipated and revealed the arena’s scorched blackened grounds. Elzri Noir stood alone, his brother and sister gone.

  Una Noir watched, stunned, from her family’s regal box in the private area of the stands. She tried to comprehend the sight, surely her eyes were playing a trick on her. Perhaps her brother Aiden had cast an illusion spell or maybe their sister Esletha had helped them escape at the last moment with the speed of her agility magic…

  But the longer Una stared at the charred empty arena, the more the feeling of dread tightened around her, squeezing the air from her lungs.

  Elzri stumbled to his feet and slowly glanced around as if searching for someone. And it was at that moment Una knew, Aiden and Esletha were gone.

  A terrible wretched scream of agony pierced the coliseum’s shocked silence.

  Elzri stiffened and looked up at the regal box.

  Ismene stood up from her seat and hugged Una tightly. “Don’t look, don’t look,” she whispered soothingly, though her own voice was breaking in panic.

  Suddenly, Una realized the wretched scream was her own. Her voice abruptly came to a stop, like the strings of a lute being cut short. She gasped for air and her legs buckled underneath her. Her throat felt raw and her eyes burned, but the pain was insignificant to the agony rending her heart.

  As soon as her scream had died, the crowds burst into panicked shouts and yells of their own at the arena’s devastation.

  The Noir handmaids standing in the regal box with Una and Ismene glanced anxiously at one another, unsure of what to do. 

  A small cloaked figure suddenly appeared behind the Noir soldiers guarding the regal box and strode right towards Una.

  Ismene looked up at the stranger and frowned suspiciously, “Who are you? Who let you pass?”

  Without pausing her stride, the stranger’s hand snapped forward in a burst of speed and struck Ismene on her neck. Una barely had time to register Ismene’s eyes roll up and her limp body drop, before the cloaked stranger grabbed Una by the shoulder and yanked her back.

  Una’s world suddenly blurred in a flare of orange light and the regal box melted away. She fell to her knees and hands on an unfamiliar concrete floor. She coughed and vomited her breakfast. Her stomach felt as if it had been ripped apart and stitched back together haphazardly by a drunken apprentice.

  “I know the first time can be hard, but we must move,” the cloaked stranger said and wrapped her arm around Una’s shoulders.

  Una gasped between her retching, “W-wait—!” 

  The world melted away once more in a flash of orange. She was still on the ground, but this time she recognized the worn cobblestone. She was in the street outside the coliseum. The commoners and merchants walking about flinched back at their sudden appearance.

  “Forgive me,” the cloaked stranger whispered into Una’s ear.

  The world blurred. Una’s organs scrunched up and her muscles shivered in a painful spasm. Then the world blurred again and again. Flashes of orange burned through Una’s eyes even when she closed them tightly. She lost sense of time and her body as the pain overtook her.

  The sound of dripping water echoed quietly in her ears as she came to. She was lying on the hard ground. The brick floor was uneven, cold, and damp. One particular brick was jutting into her lower back.

  Una opened her eyes blearily, but she didn’t try to move. Her eyes burned like she had been staring into the sun for too long, but she didn’t close them. She simply stared into the dark damp stone ceiling as water leaked and dripped from its cracks.

  A deep pain had buried itself in her chest and throbbed with each breath. But the pain felt numb as if it wasn’t her own, something distant, not real…

  This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. It was a nightmare.

  “You’re awake,” came the soft voice from behind, though to Una it sounded like a cruel mockery.

  Una didn’t bother to answer nor move, she stayed still, her chest rising ever slowly with each ragged breath.

  “Flicker travel can be difficult to those unaccustomed,” came the voice once more, this time it sounded a little familiar. “Even for me, it took many years to master the strenuous effects of consecutive flickering. For someone like you, I can only imagine the pain… I am sorry.”

  Una’s lips curled in bitterness. If only she knew the pain wracking her body was meaningless to the hopeless despair suffocating her.

  “…Holly,” Una whispered, finally putting a name to the stranger’s voice. 

  The young vampiress lowered her hood and her dark hair fell down over her shoulders in a silky cascade. “Can you stand?”

  Una lolled her head to the side and glared at the vampire, “What have you done to me…?”

  Holly crouched down next to her. “I’ll take that as a no. Don’t worry, you should regain full mobility in a few hours at best.”

  “Why are you doing this?! Where am I?!” Una said angrily, though her exhausted voice made it sound more like a plea.

  Holly stared at her in silence for a moment, then nodded, “Let’s start with the simple. We’re still in Hollow Shade, the outermost region.”

  “This doesn’t like the Commoner District,” Una frowned suspiciously.

  “Quite right, we are underneath the district.”

  “What?”

  “To be precise, we’re in a complex tunnel system that spans throughout most of Hollow Shade’s underground.”

  “That… That doesn’t make sense. Hollow Shade has a sewer system, but we’ve never had any sort of tunnels, let alone one large enough to span an entire Great City!”

  “On maps and schematics, sure. It would appear that Hollow Shade’s underground is quite barren, but those would be lies, like so many others in this world.” Holly leaned in close until her face was hovering a few inches above Una’s. “The time for lies is over. If you are to survive these next few years you should know who your enemy is… our enemy.”

  “What are you talking about, Holly…?” Una muttered slowly. “Who are you really? Why have you kidnapped me!?”

  The vampiress leaned back and stood to her feet, “I didn’t kidnap you, I saved your life. And my name isn’t Holly, it’s Holo.”

  “Holo…?” Una mumbled, “Wait…! The Holo? You’re Holo the Tall!?”

  She smiled, “I am.”

  Una narrowed her eyes in suspicion, “ …I thought you’d be taller.” 

  The vampiress chuckled under her breath, “When I met your House’s founder I had a different appearance, but I am indeed Holo.”

  “…Prove it.”

  Without hesitation, Holo lifted her hand and a small blue flame flickered to life above her open palm.

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  Una’s eyes widened in shock, “The azure flames…! That’s my family’s magic!”

  Only the greatest of Noirs can wield those flames. And suddenly Una was reminded of the horror she had witnessed at the arena. Of her brother’s decimation…

  Holo raised her eyebrow, “Who do you think taught Noir I the ‘Azure Flower’ spell? Or the rest of his magic for that matter?” 

  “If you… if you’re really her… the Holo… then, why are you here?”

  Holo’s smile fell and her expression darkened, “…There is a war brewing in the Ebon Realm. House Thorn and the other Great Houses of Undergrowth have been calling for a large-scale assault on Hollow Shade. Our own city council of lords has been eager to attack the Undergrowthers as well. It is a mistake, one that could cost countless lives on both sides, something which our enemy desires. Your father was one of the few on the council trying to stop an all-out war. When he suddenly died… I came to the city to investigate.”

  “Are you saying you know who killed my father…?” Una asked gravely.

  Holo looked away, “It was your brother Aiden, though I only realized it at the very end.”

  “Aiden…?” Una shook her head vehemently, “No, Aiden would never–!”

  “—The enemy corrupted his mind, your brother stood little chance.”

  “That can’t be… Who is this enemy you keep talking about? Who the fuck has been hurting my family!?”

  “The Monster in the Dark.”

  Una furrowed her brow, “The one from the stories…?”

  “He is not just a story, he is a god and a very dangerous one,” Holo said solemnly.

  Una frowned in disbelief, “God? I’ve never heard of him.” 

  “You have. Many people in the realm worship him. Some are praying to him even as we speak. They call him Caligo, god of the deep earth, The Mystery, Patron of None, and Caretaker of the Realm’s Secrets.”

  “Caligo…?” Una blinked. “The Monster in the Dark is Caligo? Oh, we’re so fucked!” she cried out helplessly.

  “…Perhaps,” Holo sighed. “I will not lie to you, our chances are bleak. Your family has lost so much in the last few days… It is no coincidence most of your ancestors have met terrible ends.”

  “What are you saying…?”

  “The Monster cursed your family long ago and each generation since has paid the price. Now the line of Noir has grown thin.” Holo clenched her fist tight, “But your bloodline is strong and I shall not see it end on this day.”

  “…How are we supposed to protect ourselves against an ebon god?” Una whispered helplessly.

  “The ebon lords and I founded this city for that express reason.”

  “Hollow Shade?” Una muttered. “But wasn’t the city’s Ebon Tower built to honor some sort of promise with the gods? Our city’s festival of the gods is literally the largest one in the realm every year. We have the greatest temples in the realm, including Caligo’s! What part of any of that sounds like protection against the gods!?”

  “Holo’s Shade,” she corrected quietly.

  “What?” Una frowned.

  “The city’s name is not Hollow Shade, it is Holo’s Shade. I created this city as a safe haven, a stalwart shade from the scorching Sun. You speak of the Ebon Tower’s promise? The secret promise the ebon lords and I made has nothing to do with honoring the gods, quite the opposite… But the ebon lords are all gone and the memory of what this city once stood for has slowly but all faded away. And in its wake, Caligo’s influence has seeped behind these walls without my notice.”

  “What do you mean…?” Una whispered.

  “Caligo is unable to personally enter this city, but his powers stretch much farther than his physical reach.” Holo sighed, “Your brother Aiden was not Caligo’s first victim and he will not be the last. I cannot reliably protect you behind these walls, which is why I brought you here; to rest in secret, until we’re ready to leave the city behind us.”

  “Wait? Why me? What about my siblings—!?” Una’s voice caught in her throat. Tears burned in her eyes. For a brief moment, she had almost forgotten. Aiden and Esletha were gone.

  “At the coliseum, although the rest of you only heard the shouts and screams of the crowds, I heard Aiden speaking of his deal with Caligo,” Holo said quietly. “Esletha had no idea… But Elzri killed them both anyway. Now whether that was out of sheer rage and hate against his siblings or because Elzri had his own deal with Caligo, I do not know. Which is why I cannot take the risk of leaving you exposed to that Monster’s influence.”

  Una bit her lip, “Riri saved my father, he would never have made such a deal.”

  Even now Una didn’t want to believe what had happened in that arena. Elzri and her had the same mother, they had grown up closer than any of their siblings. He would not have betrayed her, he couldn’t have.

  “Elzri may have ‘saved’ your father, yet in the end your father died from the poison anyway. Do you find it a coincidence that Alastair lived only long enough to name Elzri his heir? Before that day everyone believed Alastair would name Aiden or Esletha. Instead Alastair named the son who ‘saved’ him his heir.”

  “That’s not how it happened,” Una shook her head.

  “Then tell me, did you or anyone else know of the true extent of Elzri’s powers? That he wasn’t just some weak adept who barely managed to graduate from the academy, but in fact the youngest archmage in the realm?”

  “I… Riri…” Una’s voice came to a halt. 

  “You’re his baby sister, the one person he loved more than anyone in this world. Did you know the truth?”

  “…No, he never told me.”

  Una broke down in tears and turned her face away to hide her shame.

  It was as if speaking the words had dug some final nail into the day’s horrors. Elzri had killed her brother and sister. That wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t a nightmare, it was reality.

  “I thought as much,” Holo sighed. “I don’t yet know if Elzri has been manipulated by Caligo or not, but if there is even a small chance that he hasn’t been, we must take it. A Noir must stand in the city council if we are to have any chance of preventing this war. Unfortunately, there are only two Noirs left, and I cannot leave you here to die and risk your family’s line disappearing altogether.”

  “So you kidnapped me?” Una whispered.

  “I saved you because although you may not realize it, you have more potential than any Noir I have seen in centuries. If anyone is to give your family a fighting chance, it is you, child.”

  “Even more than Riri…?”

  “After what I witnessed Elzri do at the coliseum today? Maybe.” Holo walked over to the tunnel's wall and opened a chest Una hadn’t noticed before, “I retrieved this from your family’s vault, along with a bit of gold for the journey ahead.” Holo lifted up an enormous sword with a black glossy blade. “If anyone in your family has the potential to wield an orichalcum weapon, it is you.”

  “Is this really happening…?” Una muttered weakly. “I have to leave my home, everyone I know…?”

  “For now, until the time is right.” Holo’s expression softened, “I know you’re in pain. I know you never wanted any of this, but the truth is, this realm needs you, Una. There are dangerous forces at play that not even the greatest lords and ladies are aware of. I need your help if we are to save your home… and your brother and mother.” Holo reached down and offered Una her hand, “So, are you with me, heir of Noir?”

 

 

 

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