Ciel sat next to Ada as she lay in bed, it was dark and misty outside. They both enjoyed each other's company under the warm dim lamps from the street lights outside. Ciel was certain he could see a tiny smile coming from Ada's face; even though she had a fractured soul, there was still a glimmer of it left in her body. He knew it.
The radio was on in the background. International news. Who cares?
"Ada," said Ciel, "I've been working hard, harder than I've ever worked in my entire life, now that this endeavour to make a high powered jet to the upper level reservoirs has grown into such a massive project, I can't say I'm not at least a little impressed with myself," he chuckled,
Ada stayed silent, but her eyes met Ciel's,
"Yeah, did I tell you? We've got at least three hundred people working on this thing now. Don't worry though, I've been spearheading the whole thing, I'm still going to be the first person in that machine," he sat on the bed, "and I'll take you with me. We'll exchange words again, just like the old days."
Ciel looked into Ada's eyes. They were deep, and bright, still lively despite her dying personality. She reminded him that she was still alive and kept his heart beating with a drive to get her back.
"What are you thinking Ada? Are you happy?"
No response, but Ciel could tell she sort of was.
"There's some sort of ceremony going on around the time of our return. An Abram cultural festival I think. You like their noodles right? It'll be a great way to celebrate our journey. I can't wait," it was nice to have something to look forward to.
"And now on to International News," the radio interrupted the moment, "hundreds escaped near death when a rogue creature demolished a Church of Madionzedek with an unnaturally destructive and localised lightning storm. This is one of at least three sightings of this mysterious creature. Some people have claimed to have caught glimpses of the beast, claiming it to look like an Angel rather than anything as fearsome as some may imagine. We talked to Lady Amelia Jeanne of the Royal Council on the subject:
"It hasn't killed anything yet, so I'm not interested. The local armed forces are doing what they can but my Spell Fencer unit are engaged in more immediate matters. For now I'm treating this like a couple of random incidents which people have attached to the supernatural," Amelia's dismissive tone showed a hint of nervousness. Still, she was probably right, assigning a natural anomaly like a lightning storm to some sort of Angel of Death sounded like what superstitious people would do. Fluff news.
Meanwhile the other Ada stood on a steeple on the ruins of a shattered church, the stormy clouds surrounded her and lightning illuminated her figure as jumbled words and images floated around her head. A hellish night in the capital of Abram. Her path of destruction was growing larger and larger.
"Ciel.... Eleanor... Where are you?"
YOU ARE READING
Fragments of Ash Vol. 3 (Urban Fantasy)
FantasyAda seems to have survived. But something weird has happened to her body and she's trapped in the nation of Abram. Whatever Amelia did to her may well be the clue to why Eleanor lost her memories, and the secret of the Spell Fencers. Meanwhile Ciel...
