Of Shadows and Darkness

Chapter 22

The jeep beeped when Cin locked it. We entered the manor from the garage and the world around us vanished for a second, flickering black, white, then we flickered back into reality. Earl Alfred was sitting behind a large ebony desk covered in files and bundles of paper. The earl sighed and leaned back in his leather chair.

"Where were the two of you?" asked the earl. His voice echoed through the room, walls covered in maps and mounted with weapons. There was a black shield mounted on the wall behind him, a fractal pattern etched into the metal surface and engraved with silver.

"Um...we were on a field trip..." muttered Cin looking down.

"Where?" The air felt heavy as his glare bore into us.

"To the white mountain," replied Cin. She had her arms behind her back and her head bent down.

I was too scared to move a muscle. I didn't want to look him in the eyes but I couldn't look away either. After a long minute the earl waved his hand.

"Fine, but don't do it again. You're only here for a couple more days so you need to behave Tristan," said the earl.

I nodded.

"And Cinnabar, don't get distracted with your field trips and side quests."

"Yes boss," she said softly.

"Leave now." Earl waved his hand and the door behind us opened with a click.

Cin grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. I caught my reflection in a cracked mirror as we left. It looked similar to the cracked mirror in the nightmare realm, the frame was the same but not the crack. Cin exhaled deeply, still holding onto my arm when we left his office.

"Was he angry?" I asked taking my arm back from her grip.

"What gave you that idea?" said Cin sarcastically.

"I'm serious," I huffed. I could breathe easier but I still felt a pressure on my shoulders like gravity had gotten stronger.

Cin chuckled. "He'll get over it. But we probably should stay inside for the moment, he seems to be stressed out by other things."

"What other things? Like the artefact?" I gripped the straps of my bag and pulled them to ease the weight off my back.

"No, other things probably. Let's go back to the library. I have some coding to do and besides I promised to help you with the VPN," said Cin and walked down the hallway. Unlike where we were before this section of the manor was made of grey stone with an arched roof. Large coloured rectangles of fabric were hung on the wall. They had crests, animals and plants on them, many painted with gold.

"What are those flags for?" I asked as I hurried behind her. She was walking in a faster pace than usually.

"Oh?" said Cin looking at the flags. She was probably so used to seeing them she didn't notice them anymore. "These are the family crests and flags for the main magic families."

Cin stopped and pointed as a flag with a pointed end. "This is our one, the Aleman flag."

A trident pierced the head of a serpent which curled around the handle. White roses growing around and from the serpent. The pattern was all in white with the outline embroidered in gold thread on a blood red background.

"It's very...violent," I replied.

"Yeah," grinned Cin, "it's a references the old rivalry between Pyropolis royal family. The flag is just there."

The Pyropolis flag was green with a silver two headed winged snake, curled into a circle so the heads faced each other. A yellow sun was painted above the head on the left and a the right head had a blacked out eye. The left head crushed a white rose in its fangs.

"I thought Pyropolis didn't have a royal family," I said staring at the pattern. It seemed oddly familiar, where had I seen it before.

Cin crossed her arms. "Their royal family doesn't have any authority. they're civilians now but they still have the same soul weapon from a thousand years ago when they had kings so they are still considered the royal family. Boss has an complex because his soul weapon is only half the age of the Pyropolis one."

"Do only royal families have soul weapons?" I asked, for a moment wondering if Gregor was secretly royalty.

"Some regular magic families have soul weapons. It's not rare but they aren't especially strong," said Cin studying the red flag.

"Oh, okay..." I looked down the hallway at the other flags. A bright blue flag with a white mountain and two black horses facing each other.

Cin turned to me and flashed a mischievous grin. "Do you want to see something cool?"

"Um...sure," I said.

Cin ran to the Aleman flag and touched the pattern with her hand before running back to me. The gold embroidery glowed. Cin snickered in anticipation. The flag flashed and burst into flames.

"What?!" I cried. "What did you do?"

"Keep looking," giggled Cin.

The flames slowly went out, showing the unmarked flag beneath. A black shape beneath the red grew darker. A circle with two diagonal lines forming a cross in the centre. There were more symbols but the pattern started to fade and vanished beneath the red fabric.

I exhaled. "I thought you burned the flag."

"No of course not," Cin laughed. "It's cool right? The symbol underneath represents the giants we descend from." She continued to walk down the hallway away from the flag display.

I blinked at her. "Actual giants or were they only really tall." The stone hallway abruptly ended and continued as a wooden hallway.

"Actual giants. They were only a few feet taller than people at the time but they weren't technically human either. But we've out-bred so we're pretty much human now."

I paused before answering. "What?"

"You haven't heard the story of our world yet huh? My favourite one is about the princess who got kidnapped and trapped in a tower, freed a dragon from the basement and burned the tower down before escaping."

"Are these stories historically accurate or just fairytales?" I didn't know much about the demon world but I knew there weren't any dragons. I was half certain Cin was just messing with me.

Cin slipped her hands into the pockets of hergrey pinafore. "A mix of both. It's hard to tell what is and is notpossible in our world. What do you want to eat for lunch?"

***

Author's Note

I'm writing a short story where Cinnabar and her girlfriend are the main characters. It's a little red riding hood retelling with zombies. Yes I am writing a lots of stories. 

My CP asked why Cinnabar was acting so weird and working for the bad guy while he does so many terrible things lol.