#the mantle of your legacy is so large and so heavy that it swallows you up entirely

[s-aint-elmo]

no thoughts head empty the oppressive stagnancy of legacy in ever after high dragging me round the block yet again

it's such a shame that we get so little explanation about the actual mechanics of destiny, which is the entire premise of the show, bc it's so juicy. like what power does destiny hold when you rip away milton's lies and centuries of assumptions and traditions. esp bc despite raven signing herself as the evil queen in the real storybook of legends, when the snow white fairytale actually happens in dragon games she's playing one of the seven dwarves and her mother has reprised her role. like how much of that was because of the characters' actions and how much was destiny pulling on old, familiar threads. keeps me up at night.

a lot of this is probably just like, plot holes and writer hot potato but i like making it that deep, that's half of the fun. my personal interpretation is that fate is a wild thing that desires repetition and they developed the system of fairytale legacy bloodlines to keep those repetitions predictable and contained, instead of wreaking havoc whenever and wherever they please. 

which lends itself to some really juicy exploration of how legacy is a duty as much as it is a privilege, and how to be a princess or a witch or a hero or a dragon is to be the same thing in the end: the lamb destiny slaughters on the altar to sate the ever-ravenous narrative. to keep the flock safe. keep the unknown that prowls beyond the beaten path at bay. because if a there is always a mother who will be cruel, or a maiden who will fall into a sleep like death, or a child who will become a bird, isn’t it better to know who, and how, and when? isn’t better if it’s you, who has known your whole life that you must be eaten, be poisoned, be stripped of your humanity, rather than anybody else, who wasn’t raised to see it as an honour instead of a great and terrible injustice?

[whatdoyouexpectthistime]

Blood Spatter - Part 9

Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 : Part 4: Part 5 : Part 6 : Part 7 : Part 8

________________________________

Angrily, Miho growled at her aggressor as she was shoved into the next room. Her confusion, fear and ire suddenly paused, however, when her eyes fell upon two figures also present. They were on their knees, their hands bound behind their backs, one with bruises all over his face – left eye swollen – the other’s face torn by bloody tears.

Sebastian.

Selina.

“What the hell is this?” Miho barked as her abductor closed the door behind him.

For a moment there was a weighty silence, with Miho seeking answers from her friends, though in their beleaguered state they were the least likely to provide them.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t do this in a gentler manner,” the man behind her declared, looking over Miho’s shoulder at his two compatriots.

“Do what?” Miho spat. “Because kidnapping and assault aren’t exactly synonymous with gentleness.”

“Whatever they say…” Sebastian began, but his sentence was broken when he was thumped on the back of the head with the grip of a gun.

Both Miho and Selina let out cries of protest, the former starting forward, but her arm was seized once more.

“Whatever we say, ultimately you’ll have a choice,” the man told her, his gravelly voice rough against her ear. “You have a purpose far and beyond the paltry existence you’re floating aimlessly through, and we’re going to make you face it.”

“My life is mine,” Miho grated, “and it has nothing to do with them. You need to let them go, let us all go.”

The response to this statement, was the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of Sebastian’s head.

Miho’s trembling increased, and Selina let out a thick sob.

“Please,” she begged, blood dripping from the tip of her chin.

“Why?” Miho gasped. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because Vérrún’s legacy vanished hundreds of years ago in a line of impotent male children,” the woman holding the gun to Sebastian’s head answered.

Sebastian’s eyes grew wide.

“Vérrún?” he blurted, his good eye flickering to Miho. “It’s not possible. That line was cursed.”

“Freya is incapable of forgiveness?” the man sneered. “She has no sense of irony giving his gifts to the child he murdered?”

A bitter, incredulous chuckle, crackled out from between his broken lips.

“You think she’s a reincarnation?”

“Reincarnation, curse broken, it matters not,” the man asserted.  “She’s going to awaken and take up her ancestor’s mantle.”

It was clear Sebastian knew what it all meant now, as with a grimace, his focus turned to his sister.

“You can’t,” he snarled, and despite the threat of a bullet to his brain, he lunged sideways.

The force with which he was restrained should have fractured his cheekbone, his face slammed into the concrete floor and held there.

“Stop, stop it!” Miho barked, her face a snarl of viciousness. “You’re going to get nothing from me acting like savages.”

“We require your awakening regardless,” the man told her frankly, picking up a large knife from a tray behind him - a knife, perhaps closer to a machete. “Vérrún’s line has remained dormant since the beginning, but now the curse is lifted, you have the potential to be all that he was and more.”

“Still a shitty sale’s pitch,” Miho grated, teeth bared as the blade was offered to her.

“The choice before you is simple,” he told her, disregarding her commentary. “Kill the vampire and awaken, or decline, and we kill them both.”

Miho’s lungs seized up.

“Vampire?” she repeated, a cold sweat finally breaking out.

It couldn’t be Sebastian, he couldn’t have been turned or his wounds would have healed… which meant…

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Miho’s eyes fell upon Selina.

“Oh God,” she murmured, her head snapping back as the man put the knife hilt against her palm. “I will not be killing anyone.”

“Even if you do not apply the killing blow, you will still be responsible,” he pointed out. “Two, instead of one, and a fellow hunter - that would be tragic.”

“You fucking bastards!” she roared, gripping the blade, white-knuckled.

She could swing at them, but bullets moved faster.

It was impossible.

Impossible.

“I can’t kill Selina, I can’t, I can’t…”

Sebastian pleaded with her silently to do something, Selina too, but it was…

Impossible.

“You… you want me to kill a vampire? Where is the one who turned her?” she rushed desperately.

“We…”

“I’ll gladly kill that creature!” Miho declared vehemently.

How long had she been at the hospital? Selina was not a vampire when she left the club with Jazz; she could not have been turned that long ago, and it boggled Miho’s mind how quickly the world had yet again been turned on its head.

“That is not the choice before you,” the man said sternly.

“Why? Why them? You don’t need them to awaken me!” she protested, heart galloping a thunderous cadence.

The sound of gun hammers clicking caused the stampede to stumble.

“You’ll let him go?” she forced out, but the first reaction came from Sebastian, despite the cold streel against his head.

“No!” he shrieked, and on reflex Miho snapped back.

“The hell do you want me to do?” she fired, eyes burning, throat burning. "What can I do?”

“This one cannot be saved now,” the man pointed out, gesturing to Selina. “The question is only one of lesser evils.”

“The only evils here are you!” Sebastian snarled, and copped a heavy knee in the spine for his trouble. “You’re not hunters, you’re monsters!”

“Is this the moment I become a killer?” Miho wondered, as Sebastian’s shouting and Selina’s crying faded out, drowned, suffocated by gravity drawing the blade toward Selina’s neck.

“No… please…” she begs, held down by two, the man taking a handful of hair and forcing her head down. “Miho, please!”

“No matter what I do, I lose. No matter what, any innocence I have remaining will be demolished.”

“Miho, please!”

“And I’m selfish for thinking about how this will affect me. A murderer.”

Sebastian sounds like an angry bear as I ready my blade. They’ve ceased holding him at gunpoint, focusing instead on just keeping him prone, preventing him from intervening.

“I’m sorry,” Miho muttered, but it has to sound hollow to the condemned. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Again Selina howled.

Then stopped.

The blade was impossibly sharp.

The thud of a head hitting concrete, grotesque.

It rolled to the side.

Looked up at Miho in horror.

Selina’s flesh did not burst into flame or crumble to ash like she thought a dead vampire’s might; it was like any other corpse.

A corpse because Miho made her one.

There’s blood on my hands – I can’t see it, but it is most definitely there.

Why they let me go, I don’t know; maybe they wanted to see what I’d do, where I’d go, who I’d call.

My feet are moving but they have no sense of direction or destination: invisible footprints in the asphalt as deep and dark as my sin.

They released Sebastian too, but on the dark roadside before dawn, he wouldn’t meet my eyes, couldn’t.

I can’t blame him.

I killed his sister.

He told me to leave, to walk, but never said where; and I know he’s angry, and in pain, and I shouldn’t feel angry at him for responding that way - but now what?

“Do you feel different now?”

All that talk about a cursed bloodline I’m supposed to be descended from, but the only curse I know now is my reality. 

I cannot seek refuge with my best friend, a vampire who like Selina was turned. The shame alone is heavier than anything I’ve ever experienced.

I cannot run to Kiril, who made it clear the only thing that bound us was the witch’s spell now broken, regardless of whatever lingering emotions may still dwell within me.

And I cannot pretend I’m still me, or rather, I’m a different me who was - how could I not be with a conscience as stained as this?

Some part of me hopes Narumi finds me, so I can tell her everything and have it done with. Perhaps she would drag me before Kiril’s father and that would be the end of that. But I’m too stubborn to hand up my head on a silver platter, my drive to survive too strong to just roll over.

“Fuck,” I whimper, flopping down onto a park bench.

That word, however, just doesn’t cover it.

At least my head doesn’t hurt anymore.

“Ha!” I laugh aloud, alone with morning approaching.

“Caw!” a nearby crow echoes, hopping comically along the path toward him.

“Yeah?” I huff, watching as it tilts its head, observing. “If you’ve any advice… I’m…”

Thinking is one thing, but the moment I attempt to vocalise a proper sentence the words get caught up in my abject distress.

“What… SOB... do I do?”

“CAW!” the crow responds, much as I expect.

The voice that follows, I do not.

“Why might you be out here all by yourself?” Narumi asks from behind.

I might have flinched, but I’m too deep in my misery.

The bird hops up beside me, then onto Narumi’s shoulder, burrowing its beak into her hair while she moves around to face me.

“Has something happened, Miss Fujiwara?” she probes, leaning a little to study my face.

Even through the watery glaze across my eyes, I see her as different, different than the last time.

There is a bright glow in her eyes, like a cat caught in torchlight, and her hair is shiny: fine threads of polished metal.

“Are you… are you asking as a cop?” I managed, quiet and thick. “Or as Kiril’s cousin?”

Scrubbing my eyes makes room for more tears, but the lethargy of my body, the heaviness of a falling blade, has for some reason lightened. I’m on edge, furtive, noticing everything around me, and Narumi is at the centre of it all.

“For now, Kiril’s cousin,” she responds, sitting down beside me. “What has the idiot done now?”

My trembling lips betray a most inelegant splutter, a wet chortle.

“Not him,” I tell her, but I dare not reveal too  much.

So I ask a question instead.

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“Yes,” she answers, no hesitation at all. “Sometimes, criminals give you no choice.”

Maybe she knows I’m not talking about her career, maybe not.

“No choice,” I repeat, face twitching to hold back another torrent. “Sometimes, there is no right, just evil and evil and the one who perpetrates it.”

“Have you killed someone, Miho?” she inquires more gently, and I close my eyes.

“I am lost, so, so, so lost,” I weep, shaking my head. “Can’t change what I’ve done, who I’ve hurt. I’ve nowhere to go now.”

“Against my better judgement, I’m going to call Kiril,” she tells me, then flinches when I suddenly get up.

“No, no, it’s broken now and he doesn’t want me.”

“What’s broken?”

“No! I can’t tell you that, none of it,” I bark, and she rises carefully with her hands before her.

“You have Kiril’s protection,” she assures me.

“Not anymore.”

The urge to run is overwhelming, and I haven’t the will to defy it.

My dart to the left gives me several second’s head-start, but Narumi nearly dislocates my shoulder snatching my wrist.

It’s a reflex, the way I round on her and shove with my free hand, but this instinct not only breaks Narumi’s hold, but throws her violently back, cartwheeling across the park until she tumbles into a manky pond.

And I blink at how easy that was.

Sopping wet and stunned, Narumi drags herself from the shallow water and sizes me up.

“That should not have been possible,” she points out, and even through my own surprise I hear the new edge to her voice.

This time, it’s my hands that go up.

“I know,” I admit shakily. “But it is, and it’s not my fault, it’s not - I had no choice!”

“No choice in what?” she very nearly growls.

She must have been going gently, gently, for Kiril’s sake, and vaguely it reminds me of when Kiril said he’d hate to have to kill Narumi because she was a threat to me.

“But that was when we were bound by magic.”

In my moment’s reverie, Narumi has swept in behind me, but she keeps her hands to herself - her tone, however, is full of warning and restraint.

“I… think you should call Kiril now,” I exhale weakly, despite my show of physical strength.

“After that, I know I shouldn’t,” she contradicts, and several small black shapes drift from the sky and perch nearby.

A murder.

Liana, Kai and Kiril all arrived at the same time, in a cab, not the Jag. As they entered, slivers of glass sparkled in Liana’s hair, and there was a little blood on Kevin’s yellow body.  Miho might have commented on the state of Liana and Kai’s slight dishevelment, but she was trembling, twitching, preoccupied by the incessant bouncing of her right foot - up down up down up down.

Anything but look over at where Kiril stood on the other side of the room where Narumi had moved to greet him.

“Looking ravishing as always,” he noted, looking his muddy cousin up and down.

“You can thank your little pet for that,” Narumi grunted irritably. “Threw me good on twenty metres.”

“Is she hurt?” he asked, and Narumi put her hands on her hips, glaring.

“She bloody well should be sprawled at Konrad’s feet right now, Kiril!” she exclaimed, pointing over her shoulder. “And you too. Protecting a hunter? Are you fucking insane?”

“No doubt,” he agreed calmly, stepping around Narumi and approaching Miho with significant caution.

He too had felt the spell break, a searing slash across his consciousness distracting enough to not hear the ring of his phone until Jazz had called for the third time; Miho was missing from the hospital and no one had seen where she went.

“Miho,” he said cautiously, and her head lifted: neck muscles taut and jaw clenched.

“Here to kill me I suppose,” she said plainly, and Kiril’s brows twitched.

“If had wanted that, Narumi would have done it for me,” he pointed out, then paused.

She did not fill the silence.

“Tell me what happened,” he prompted, sitting down beside her, not crowding, but not lifting his attentive gaze.

Immediately, Miho’s eyes began to burn. With flushed face and dribbling nose, she jumped up and  began to pace.

“I left the hospital, then… I passed out, and when I woke up I was inside, somewhere, and there were hunters…”

Kiril nodded, but made no comment.

“They said they’d been looking for me, and insisted I…”

That is as far as she got before crouching on the carpet, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her face against them.

“I killed her!” she sobbed into her kneecaps.

“Who, Sparrow?” Kiril urged, with a gentleness that surprised Narumi who was definitely eavesdropping.

“Selina,” Miho gasped, choking on her shame.

“The stoned girl from Pale,” he nodded, moving over to her once more. “Ross’ sister?”

She couldn’t answer, could barely breathe.

“This may not work at all, but if you allow it in,” he said, finally placing his hand against hers. “Let me ease your panic and pain.”

Blearily, she looked up, but did not recoil.

Kiril could feel the natural resistance of her hunter blood now, blocking his influence of power over her emotions.

“Come on, Sparrow,” he urged softly. “Let me in.”

Lips quivering, Miho managed a slight nod, and the fortifications dissolved.

After a few long sighs, her sobbing began to subside, and Kiril was able to ease her to her feet and shuffle her back  to the sofa.

“Better?”

Weakly, she inclined her head.

“They turned her, forced a vampire to turn her,” she expounded. “Then they said if I didn’t kill Selina, they would kill her and Sebastian.”

Kiril took this in, thought it over before voicing a response.

“I can understand why the hunters would want to awaken you - their numbers have dwindled in the last half century -  but it makes no sense to make you their enemy in the process. Why Ross’ sister and not the one who turned her?”

“What am I supposed to do now?” she asked meekly, staring across the room at the wall. “Two vampires dead, a hunter woken and… Sebastian… must hate me now.”’

“If you were forced to do this or else see him killed also,” Kiril reasoned, “he will see as much, when the dust settles.”

A tap at the window drew the attention of Narumi only, and she opened it to allow a raven entry.

“We now know who they took to turn the Ross girl,” she announced, petting the bird’s glossy black feathers. “He was young, but his mother is Lady Elzebethe Archdall.”

Reflexively, Kiril cringed.

A noble.

“Konrad is going to learn of this,” Narumi warned.

Scowling, it was Kiril’s turn to pace.

“Liana,” his voice snapped. “Find me Sebastian Ross.”

With a curt nod, Liana assented and exited with Kai in tow.

“I do not like this,” Kiril  muttered, stroking his chin.

“What’s to like?” Narumi laughed. “You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t order me to stake you, then myself for what we’ve already hidden.”

“No,” Kiril snapped. “This is politics, this is contrivance; hunters do not awaken their own like this, and I have doubts our involvement in this is a coincidence.”

“Your involvement,” Narumi corrected.

“Oh no,” he sniffed. “You made your choice, so you might as well help.”

“Help a hunter?” she chortled. “Why wait for Konrad to order it, I may as well stake myself now.”

“Use your legion to find the hunters that did this,” Kiril growled, glaring at his cousin until his head snapped to where Miho had begun moving toward the door. “And where are you going?”

“Away,” she dropped. “From her and you and this.”

“Like hell you are,” Narumi retorted, in a blink barring the exit.

“There is nowhere far enough you can run that Konrad won’t hunt you down,” Kiril affirmed.

“So far he doesn’t even know, and if he did what? I should just wait here for him to find me?” she frowned, spreading her hands, then pointed at Narumi. “For her to lose her nerve and turn me in?”

“That’s my job,” Narumi countered irritably. “One I will no doubt lose, along with my head, thanks to you.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” Miho barked, cutting the air with her fingertips. “You! You and yours in my club messing with people’s hearts and minds.”

“I’m about to mess with more than that,” Narumi warned, already stepping in Miho’s direction again, before Kiril’s arm dropped between them.

“Enough! The both of you,” he shouted. “I forbid you from harming her.”

Narumi balked, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“You forbid me?” she repeated slowly, threat creeping into her voice. “Oh, I called you out of familial courtesy, but that is obviously not, nor has it ever been,  high on your agenda.”

She tried to dodge around him, reached for Miho who did not move, but swiftly found herself slammed against the wall a foot off the ground, with Kiril’s grip tightly around her throat.

“I will  end you,” he hissed up at her, eyes blazing.

“You’ve lost it!” Narumi croaked, digging her fingernails into his wrists, through the flesh, against the bone.

He was older than her, stronger than her, and her inherited powers would not help her against him.

“Maybe so,” he snarled. “But this is the way things will be, and if you double-cross me - Konrad or no - I. Will. End. You.”

There was no time for her to respond before he pitched her across the chamber, and though she turned in the air to make a more graceful landing than Miho might have managed, it still ended with the crash of splintering wood and torn upholstery.

“Time to leave,” Kiril prompted, reaching for Miho’s hand, but she was swift to recoil.

Still, when he narrowed his eyes at her, she inhaled deeply, set her jaw, then headed out the door.

With Kiril’s resources at her disposal, Liana made her way to the registered address of Sebastian Ross. Even though she thought it unlikely the traumatised hunter would return to his primary abode, it was a place to begin.

“What are we going to do when we find him?” Kai asked, carrying Kevin from the car with him. “He’s a hunter, so…”

“We shall be careful,” Liana responded. “I imagine he will be much like a wounded animal - he may snap.”

“You’re stronger than him though, right?”

At the front door, Liana paused to consider this. In her travels with Kiril she had encountered hunters not bound by the treaty in effect across the U.K., but she had always been apart from the fray.

“I would sooner we didn’t have to test this,” Liana replied. “Master Kiril wishes him unharmed.”

”If he attacks you, I won’t hold back,” Kai stated, puffing up. “Neither shall Kevin.”

“And you’re both very brave,” she smiled fondly. “But let’s first aim for diplomacy.”

“I don’t care who you are,” a gravelly voice snarled through a nearby intercom. “Fuck off.”

“Well, that is a surprise,” Liana mused, allowing herself a small smile. “It would seem he’s home.”

“And rude.”

“Well,” Liana chided, “a close friend did just murder his sister in front of him, so we might give him a pass on foul language for now.”

She then lifted her voice and pressed down on the intercom.

“Mr. Ross,” she began, and Kai recognised this as the tone of voice she used when she was attempting to convince him of something he most adamantly did not want to do. “My name is Liana Starling and my companion is Kai. We have come on a matter of great importance and to offer assistance.”

Silence followed as she paused, and Liana gave him some time to process what she said and respond.

But he did not, so she forged on.

“I understand you have suffered terribly this evening. You have been caught up in dealings beyond your control, and largely beyond the control of Miss Fujiwara.”

That got a reaction.

The inner door opened violently, and a rather intimidating looking firearm preceded the apartment’s resident, though both remained behind the security door.

Kai, though a child in appearance and quite short even for his apparent age, slid instantly in front of Liana with his arms outstretched. Liana, however, remained perfectly composed.

“Your emotions are raw,” she said gently, nodding her head a little. “But there is unfortunately more to this tragedy than what you witnessed this evening, and now you are a part of it.”

“Why are you here, vampire?” he spat, his aim not wavering.

Though several feet away, Liana could smell the alcohol on his breath; he’d imbibed so much, in fact, she was sure she could smell it in his blood.

“Miho Fujiwara was the victim of a spell cast by as yet unknown parties,” she answered. “This led to her involvement with Kiril Lambert who…”

“Bullshit!” Sebastian spat, the muzzle of his weapon slamming loudly into the taut lattice weave that separated them. “She went chasing Konstantin Lambert…”

“Yes,” Liana agreed, and continued before he could. “In order to locate your mutual friend, Miss Mann, and while you may not have agreed with or appreciated Mr. Lambert’s help, surely you hoped for Miss Mann’s safe return.”

“I’m only going to ask this one more time,” Sebastian grated through clenched teeth, “then I’m going to destroy you both, treaty be damned. Why are you here?”

“I was told by Mr. Lambert to locate you,” Liana answered calmly, even as Kai shifted his meager weight nervously from foot to foot. “Implicit in his instruction was the directive to inform you of details you could not yet be privy to, and accompany you to his estate.”

Exhausted by distress and fury, the laugh that shook from Sebastian’s chest was at best sardonic.

“You have ten seconds to get off my doorstep,” he chuckled, waving his gun around, “before I kill you, oh, and send whatever’s left behind back to Mr. Lambert.”

“You will not,” Kai growled. “Magic forced Miss Fujiwara and Kiril together, and those hunters kidnapped her and made her choose - she didn’t want to kill you,  it’s not her fault!”

“Six seconds,” Sebastian sneered.

“The vampire used to turn your sister was the son of a powerful noble, so that in and of itself will come to haunt the hunters of this city, you included, whether you’re independent or not,” Liana picked up, though she still remained unruffled. “The ones who forced Miss Fujiwara’s hand have an agenda here far and beyond the awakening of another hunter, and it may very well cause blood to run in the streets of London as it once did.”

“You want to talk about blood?” Sebastian snarled.

“I want to talk about all the other innocent lives that may be lost if the vampire nobility decide what befell their kin was an act of war,” Liana clarified. “It will reach far and beyond your fledgling friend Jazz, whose position is already  precarious; people who have nothing to do with any of this, and certainly have no knowledge of it, will be caught helplessly in the crossfire.”

When Sebastian slammed his bare fist into the wire door, it punched all the way through, causing Kai to flinch against Liana, who placed her hands lightly on his shoulders.

“I just lost the only family I have left!” Sebastian roared, following his punch with a kick that launched the door outward at speed.

Had Liana not sidestepped, dragging Kai with her, it would have collected them both.

“You want me to give a fuck about anyone else right now?”

“What I want is irrelevant,” she pointed out, fingers tightening on  a little as she felt him tensing to move. “What is necessary to avert a major catastrophe, however, is your co-operation. You do not have to like it, me, or anyone else involved, but it is what it is. Beneath your pain, you know this to be true.”

“Fucking, manipulative vampires!” he cursed, enraged but somehow his eye reflected at least some acceptance of what she had said.

“I don’t care if you hate me!” Kai muttered under his breath, then glared up at Sebastian. “But Liana is trying to help you and your friends, so you should stop being so mean.”

“Keep your minion out of my way,” Sebastian growled, eyes flashing before he stalked past them down the path.

PART 10 - Coming EVENTUALLY!