TRACK 15
So put your best face on everybody
Pretend you know this song, everybody
Come hang, come hang
Let's go out with a bang
Bang! Bang! Bang!
(Bang!- AJR)
********
Claire was quite tense. More than tense, even. The waiting, as usual, could be very stifling and unnerving.
She could only stand there, leaning her back against the wall or sitting on her mattress, which seemed to have become inexplicably hard. She could only try to keep her senses as active as possible, ready to sense the signal on the back of her hand -which she hoped would not come, really- but her almost complete lack of information made her feel even more anxious.
She would have liked to know what was happening. She would have liked to enter the Nest too, but she had no motivation to do so, not at that moment. If she had, she probably would have screwed everything up -or almost. And she didn't want to be the cause of a possible disaster. They had tried to plan far too many things in a couple of hours or so, and it had all been done very seriously. To blow the whole job to hell was something she would have a hard time forgiving herself.
Claire chased the thought away with a small snort and a hasty shake of her head, going to rest her gaze on Blinky, absorbed in reading and already flanked by Aaarrrgh, who was instead looking around carefully, keeping an eye on the outside.
She moved closer to the two and sat down, ignoring how cold the floor was. She took a deep breath and then threw it out, hoping some of her frustration would come out with it, beginning to fiddle nervously first with her cape and then with a few strands of hair.
She glanced at the pages of the volume Blinky was holding after a couple of seconds when she saw the Troll turn the page.
The writing was always illegible, but there was a drawing of a woman with strangely short hair. Strangely because, if she did not remember wrong -she had read it somewhere or someone had told her,she did not remember well- that both women and men kept their hair long in past China. But she had her hair cut very short, in a simple pixie cut, part of the locks covering her left eye.
She was in a traditional Chinese dress -she had no idea how it was called-, of a dull green color. Her hands were barely raised,with a big eye-catching ring adorning the index finger of her right hand and a skull resting in both. An all-white butterfly stood just above the skull.
"That's..." she croaked with difficulty, the beginning of the question escaping her lips even before she realized it -perhaps motivating how her voice came out- failing to complete it anyway.
She could not help but dwell on how young she appeared. She barely looked 20 years old, just like Douxie -although that could have been the fault of the depiction itself, which was quite stylized, albeit in color. It had its charms as a drawing style, she couldn't help but admit that.
'From the story I had imagined her to be aesthetically much older than that, if it is her...' she thought.
"The necromancer witch, Xia," Blinky expounded, thus confirming her hypothesis. He went to look at her after a while. "It seems she was one of the oldest witches. Very famous and loved before she started resurrecting the dead."
Claire bit her lower lip, a certain curiosity rising to the surface. "Does the book say why she did it?"
"Not clearly, no. There are... a few assumptions. That she stumbled upon a volume or scroll of Wugu magic on a quest outside her town and that by touching it she became possessed by it." A pause. "That it was simply her desire for power that drove her to experiment in impure magic. That she feared dying to such an extent that, even in her immortality, she decided to try to cross the boundary of balance... and many other possibilities, though they are quite similar to these."
'Can books and scrolls even possess people?... It's strange to think that. But if Morgana's Skathe-Hrün allowed her to possess me, then... '
"Have you read about the Keeper yet?" She found herself asking, chasing away the previous thought and trying to ignore the discomfort that instantly caused under her skin. A dirty feeling, almost, that had hovered inside her in the first weeks after she had been practically exorcized. A dirty feeling that had made her feel as if she had been the intruder in her own body, not the Mother of Monsters. She felt it less often at times like this, but it was there nonetheless.
"Yes, but he was only mentioned a couple of times. No representation of him drawn in the volume yet." Blinky ran his hand over the pages of the tome. "So far it has talked about the historical situation, about Xia's Lair, which was called the Crucible... About condemnations, perhaps unjust, perhaps not, suffered by a group of witches who practiced black magic, since signs of Alchemical Transmutation of humans or animals had been found."
Claire blinked in confusion. "... Sorry, I didn't understand the last one."
"Alchemical Transmutation," repeated the Troll. "I have no idea how it works, but it was a type of Necromancy in which they used the component materials of the body, studying the doses, to bring corpses back to life."
"So basically they were taking human flesh, bones and...?"Claire shivered, feeling a knot forming in both her throat and the pit of her stomach, accompanied by nausea. She tried to -and struggled to- digress, hoping to chase it all away, but failed miserably. They seemed to have taken root.
"Not really. They were chemical elements, Fair Claire. Iron, fluorine, silicon, and others..." he stared, blinked, stared more, and chuckled. "Several others." Blinky went back through the book, turning back several pages. "Only Xia herself had tried to make an exchange between a living being and a dead one, it seems. And from there, well, came those creatures Mr. Casperan mentioned, the Jiangshis." A particularly long pause. "They are complicated and dangerous spells, with unpredictable results to say the least."
Yes, it was pretty blatant as a thing. Unless Xia had been completely out of her mind -that was still a possibility to consider, especially for the simple fact that she had allowed them to kill entire city populations! And that was not the attitude of sane people- she did not think the woman would expect one of the very creatures she had created to turn on her and then devour her.
Claire nodded a little, leaving Blinky to continue his reading, ending up looking out like Aaarrrgh for several moments before then returning to cast a glance at the rune on her hand and then at the woman's drawing once more.
'I wonder if it is really out of power or possession that she decided to do such a thing,' she found herself thinking, a grimace painting itself on her face, leading her to frown. 'Hopefully, no one else will have a good idea of creating new ones, anyway.'
She really, really hoped not. It would have been unpleasant. More than unpleasant. Gruesome, for sure... and with unimaginable proportions of disaster to say the least. Just like an apocalyptic movie. Or precisely like zombie TV shows.
She had never seen it, but Toby's explanation and scrolling through the Internet pages a bit -when they still had been in America- had been enough for her to get a pretty good idea of what it would be like to find herself in such a situation. There had been various fantasies about how to protect herself and what kind of buildings would be the safest.
Just saying it had been almost fun, a way of chatting and letting one's mind go into disparate hypotheses, the concepts of which seemed light years away, really. But... not in reality. Putting it into practice would not have been at all. Oh, no, definitely not.
********
In Shenyang, it had been 3 a.m. when Douxie and the others had descended into the city to reach the Vampire Nest. In Arcadia Oaks, because of the time zone, it had barely been noon of the previous day.
The weather was warm. Zoe had recently finished her early shift at Magellan's Antique Mall and she had been sweating all morning, disgusted by feeling wet all over. She had walked out of the store at a brisk pace, albeit feeling tired and sore, desperately wanting to satisfy the inhuman grumblings of her stomach, go home, and get a shower. Then to have a very, very long nap.
She didn't know whether to go to Xang's again like the day before or just have two quick Tacos and then sneak off to her apartment. Another option, too, was to order both Japanese and Mexican to go and then decide lazily on the couch.
Before she could figure it out, a hint of a strange and out-of-place smell crossed her nostrils. It seemed to be a mixture of marigold, jasmine, and hydrangea. It was a magical Aura, for it was pinching her nose in a way that only Magic was capable of doing... And...
'They must be a newcomer, a Loner who has just entered the city because this is not an Aura I recognize...'
She couldn't even tell which was their prominent Magic. It was surely something rare, though, especially because of the marigold.
The Technomancer stopped in place, fortunately still standing on the sidewalk and not in the middle of the road or she would have risked getting run over.
She pulled out her cell phone and entered the Lair chat, sending a quick message to communicate the news. She sent it to Vanessa and Kai, too, then considered for a few seconds whether to send it to Douxie and Alice as well. She ended up doing it anyway, not giving herself too much time to mull it over, not wanting to risk losing the trail.
Her gaze soon took to traveling right and left, all the while she was tossing the phone into her pocket, trying to focus hard on where the smell was trying to take her.
She didn't know whether to hope that their perception was already active, to make her job easier, perhaps finding them staring back at her... Or whether to hope for the opposite, so as not to be noticed and have time to study them first, to get an idea of what kind of Mage they were.
The Lair would not have liked to have a troublemaker in town. Being at least partially sure of the latter's type of attitude would have helped her decide whether to approach them or just wait for them to leave.
If they had been a chaotic asshole, some of the Arcadia's Lair would certainly have approached them, but only to push them to change cities as quickly as possible. Or to teach them a good lesson. The second option had always appealed to Zoe and she was not ashamed to admit it. No, she wasn't ashamed at all about it.
She ended up taking her gaze to the GDT between things, almost even without realizing it. The bookstore, inside, was empty -of course, it was. Douxie wasn't in the city and Ace was on his lunch break, too- but in front of it was a girl.
She was tiny and had olive skin and ebony hair, held back by a flowery ribbon. She looked as if she had just come from a fashion parade of eccentric clothes. Not in color-it was a simple pink shade, near to fuchsia- but in shape. What she wore resembled an open umbrella, but with the open end being on the opposite side of her expectation: towards her chest. And her stockings -long and white, connected to garters- had little pockets with small buttons closing them.
It was a surprise that no one was staring at her but Zoe. Maybe it was because, by now, everyone in that town had gotten used to seeing weirdness between the Trolls, Changelings, and the Aliens. So a little chick dressed in absolutely weird clothes must have seemed almost commonplace. Not for the Technomancer, though, counting that the magical Aura came right from her and made her eccentric way of dressing even weirder.
Trying not to stand out too much to humans was literally in the ABC's of a Mage. Why was this little moron walking around like this? Was it because whispers had gotten out to other cities saying that, well, the population in Arcadia knew of the existence of magical creatures? But did this mean that there was a possibility that she wanted to stay?
Her first apparent stop had been the GDT... and the GDT was pulsing with magic. Assuming that hers had not been simple curiosity about books -a common trait of most Mages, hard to find one who did not fall into the pattern, even if Kai kinda did- then there was indeed a high possibility that she was trying to figure out where the Lair was.
When the girl turned, perhaps sensing her Aura, perhaps because she had felt herself being watched, Zoe found herself meeting two almost feline, pitch-black eyes. The unknown witch smiled in a way that reminded her of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland . For unclear reasons, perhaps because of her instinct, perhaps because she was creepy in an absurd way -what the fuck? She usually enjoyed creepy stuff. And she enjoyed Tim Burton's works, so, seriously, what the fuck?- Ashildr felt a chill run down her entire spine.
"Hello," the freaky girl said, approaching with her hand already extended and in small steps, echoing her rainbow-colored heels repeatedly against the asphalt. "My name is Badb Catha. Nice to meet you."
'Badb?... That's almost as weird as Hisirdoux.'
"Same here..." she found herself answering her, a little clipped, frowning and not accepting her hand. She continued squaring her, partly finding the Witch suspicious. "I'm Zoe Ashildr."
"I like that name, it's really pretty," Badb said, perhaps with excessive glee. Or maybe the Technomancer was reading too much into it. Her pessimistic view of things could be quite insistent, especially with people and first impressions. "Sorry to ask, Zoe, but first of all could you point me to a place with a bathroom? The journey to get here has been kind of long."
********
The room was large and elegant in every tiny millimeter of it. Every object in it was almost collectible. Every fabric, always between the colors of burgundy and cream, was precious. It was as if that room was in every way the definition of luxury.
Besides a large crystal table, below an extravagant hanging chandelier made from apparent brass tree branches, was Cold Fury.
He must have been in his mid-twenties or something like that, an appearance that followed his type of voice. The same did a casual-looking, pastel-colored clothing that was not old-fashioned or traditional, but almost too current fashion-like.
His hair was short, in a wolf cut cropped to a scaled-down style. It was mostly white, but from the ears onward, the strands showed shades of gray, dark gray, and black. It was unclear whether they were such because he had recently been Vampirized or because he had previously dyed and cut his hair recently.
His eyes, bright red like embers, gave a stark answer to that.
Only newbies had red eyes. And his own were not even tending toward the palest shades of red.
'Made a Vampire by less than thirty years and already the Leader of the Nest?' Douxie thought, surprised. 'He is probably one of the Transformed by the past Chief, who took Power after him and chose to honor his Family member by taking his title. But as a fact, it is not certain...'
It was strange. It was very strange. Douxie knew how to keep an eye on the news in the Vampire world, but he did not hear any news regarding a novice Shenyang Leader.
Usually, all he had to do was to seek out one of the many messengers who were in the cities, a Skinwalker, most of the time -Shamans, not Wizards, just able to change form into specific animals and who could talk to them as a result. They were viewed very badly by the human community. There were so many negative stories about them on the Internet and in some esoteric volumes that reading about them chilled the blood inside his veins the first time he informed himself. They were accused of cannibalism, necrophilia, infant abduction, cattle mutilation, and in some ways even rape. They were even mistaken for werewolves at times. It was nauseating, to say the least. Humanity did not know what to come up with in some cases- and to offer an exchange -whatever they wanted. Usually, just animal bones to give to the little ones to chew on- to be updated with information.
If he could, Douxie would have used other methods as well, but the Vampire Nests were... complicated. They were impossible to keep track of with Runes or to find with normal Localization. Only Shadow Magic allowed the search for members in it because the shadows had no boundaries unless there were specific Seals against them. And Douxie had not seen them in the Nest... not even in the numerous windows and curtains. But it was quite normal. Shadowmancers were rare, after all. In all his years he had encountered only three of them. Two were dead, too, right now.
Hisirdoux and Archie made a bow once they found themselves infront of the Vampire. Steve did so in turn, though in a slightly more hurried, flustered, and disheveled manner.
"Please seat yourself, Son of the Dragons," asserted Cold Fury, lifting the corners of his mouth only a hint -a smile that seemed more like a mistake of movement than an actual sign of happiness, but counting that they had practically invited themselves into his Nest, it was already a lot- and going to point to the Red velvet armchairs a short distance from the table.
Douxie immediately did as he was told, "Thank you, Xiāngsheng." He said, clear and seemingly calm. As if there was no feeling of anxiety tickling his stomach. As if he didn't feel many hairs standing on the back of his neck at the idea that he had to manage to be concise without exaggerating. He had to entertain him, but be careful to not overdo it.
With Bastian, it had been easy. A little voice in his head told him, however, that the ease with which they had interacted was only due to the experiences they had in common. It told him that the main reason everything had gone so smoothly was because of the feelings the Leader had for him. Cold Fury did not know him. He had only heard a bit of his exploits and could only ever pay attention to the Guarantee Nari had given him.
Wasn't asking him to join his cause a little too pretentious?... It probably was. But at this point, it was too late to have second thoughts and therefore turn around. If he decided at that point to run away, to make up an excuse out of the blue, he doubted that the Leader would take it well.
"Oh, no need for formalities. Just call me Tai-Yang,"said the Vampire, though showing to be pleased by the respect he had provided him as his smile became more natural. He crossed his fingers in front of him, resting his chin on them. Steve, during that, stood behind Douxie, watching carefully where he put his feet, hoping not to trip over the voluminous round carpet of white fur, probably not taken by animals, that covered that specific area of the floor.
"Tai-Yang it is, then," he replied. "It would also please me to be called by name, too, if it is not too rude to request it. If it is, may I be forgiven in advance," a little pause for the effect, while feeling the slight anticipation forming inside the room. Tai-Yang's expression still looked pleased. Douxie took it as a sign to continue, shifting his gaze to Archie, who had gone to sit on his crossed legs -He couldn't even remember when he had put them like that. Ouch. He had to control his movements a bit more.
"Hisirdoux Casperan. My Dragon Familiar, Archibald, and my Bodyguard, Steve."
"Hisirdoux..." Tai-Yang seemed to be testing each letter on his tongue as he pronounced his name. "French?"
Douxie hinted at a smile, still carefully not showing his teeth."Half-blood, but yes."
The Vampire emitted a sound emanating from the back of his throat, low and hoarse. And shortly looked at the blond. He felt Steve's temptation to butt in in some way, but he still did not talk.
"A human being, especially a teen, as a bodyguard for a Wizard? That's actually quite..." The Chief paused, almost trying to find the right word. "...Unusual," he ended up saying.
"Well, yes," he admitted, chuckling. "It's a complicated story, honestly. I don't want to bore you with it."
Tai-Yang looked at him, his smile dropping a little. "I guess you don't mean to stay for long?"
"Sadly, no. Nari of the Eternal Forest is waiting for us. And we're going to move soon."
The Leader nodded, then he stretched forward slightly, going to lift a narrow ceramic pitcher and two cups, also of the same material. Once he filled them, he extended one in his direction, holding the other. "I hope you like Peach tea," he said.
Douxie forced himself to grab it. A part of him roared with anxiety at that. He hoped it was simply what Tai-Yang had announced, without some other substance added before they had entered, but... Still, he couldn't be sure of it.
"To what is this unexpected honor due to, then, Hisirdoux?"
"I wish I could say that the reason is simply the making of your acquaintance," he asserted slowly, weighing the cup, scrutinizing the liquid between red and golden in it, smelling nothing but the normal odor of the drink, but not being able to sniff the tea properly before drinking.
It was true, what he had said. Had it been a simple introduction to each other, making small talk about what the Skinwalkers weren't saying, well, it wouldn't have been so bad.
"But my reasons are different," he murmured, simply pretending he was blowing air just to remove the heat and not as a sign of reluctance. The smoke rising from the liquid, at least, was allowing him to stall without looking like a total moron.
He didn't want to drink. But he had to. He really had to. Or the offense on his part would have been blatant to say the least, especially since the Vampire had only shown good intentions and manners toward him at the moment.
'Well, make it or break it...' he thought, feeling Steve behind him lightly moving an arm, while Archie -still positioned on his legs- knew his body language well, making it obvious to him how he was ready to leap forward in case the result was not appreciated.
Douxie brought the tea to his lips with both hands and sipped it. The fresh flavor of the peach exploded above his tongue. It was intense and not at all watery, fruity, and not too strong. There seemed to be nothing off about it, not even a hint of nuance out of place.
It seemed at least that he was not trying to attempt his life. That was good. Unless he had put thallium sulfate in it, Tai-Yang had not poisoned him.
'Huh, it would be kinda funny. Called a rat, perhaps killed by a rodenticide... But it would work almost immediately with the symptoms, so...' Maybe he could remove that too from the list. 'About sleeping pills or tasteless drugs, however... That's not so defined.'
Seeing Tai-Yang drinking in turn, Douxie relaxed slightly. And resumed speaking, still as cautiously as possible. "I'm here for business matters. They are... Very important,"
The Vampire's gaze seemed to be trying to invite him to speak, to which he hurried on, not wanting to risk spacing him out. Not that he was doing it on purpose to fill the dialogue with pauses, but having to calculate every word to try to avoid possible offense was something he hadn't done in about seventy years. He needed to warm up a bit. It had been all too easy to get used to the attitude of people in the twenty-first century.
"...I have no idea if the rumors have reached you as well, but... There's a Mage Lair these days that are trying to recruit more Magical Creatures around the world," Douxie cast a glance at Steve, nodding to him.
The blond boy, albeit with insecurity and ever-so-slightly nervousness overflowing from the way his hands trembled a bit as he searched, partly hidden -thank goodness, he was letting him speak without commenting- from a serious, perhaps only slightly intimidated expression and pulled out the Sealed Emblem. Then he set it down on the crystal table and returned behind him, still paying attention to where he was walking.
Tai-Yang, the instant he saw the small, square piece of cardboard, seemed to stiffen. His jaw twitched a little, causing a 'click-like' sound. His eyes, then, seemed as if to light up, almost igniting with explosive fury. It was enough to drastically stop the raven-haired boy from saying anything else, almost leading him to bite his own lower lip.
Such a reaction could mean several things, and... honestly, Douxie had no idea what it could be, exactly.
That he was angry, well, that was obvious. But with whom, exactly?With the Lair? With him because maybe he thought he was involved with all of that? Or, opposite side of the view, with him because he was not on the side of the Lair's plan?
It wasn't the last one, right? It couldn't be. It... No, thinking about it, it could. And if it was the latter, it didn't mean anything good.
But it had to be the Lair to which he was angry, right? Maybe he knew them. Maybe...
"I guess you heard about them," he said, gulping down the saliva stuck inside his throat and sipping some more tea.
'Wow, if this situation ends well, I'll ask him where he got it. This is really good.'
If he could have heard Archie, the Dragon would surely have told him to concentrate and to ignore the drink. He would not have been wrong.
"Yes. They're a group of extremists and cold-blooded killers," Tai-Yang answered, his jaw still twitching. The look in his eyes darkened while his gaze raised on him again. "Are you a part of them?" He sounded so bloody menacing while asking it, holy hell.
"No," Douxie answered immediately. Not doing so would have brought him very close to being attacked for a misunderstanding. He felt relieved by it, though. It meant that it was only he who had been overthinking -as always. Bloody hell, his brain- and that the Shenyang Leader's anger had been devoted mostly to the Lair itself.
"I'm not on their side," he said, trying not to sound too dry, though he felt disgusted even at the idea of being so. "I repudiate their will. I understand what they are thinking, and their point of view, but I don't accept how they theoretically want to improve the world. Having humans being exterminated because of fear, rage, racism or selfishness is like returning to the worst history timelines, but even worsening them."
"So you are not here to recruit us Shenyang Vampires?" Tai-Yang asked, gently placing the cup on the table, even though it was still half full. He still seemed angry, but not as much as before.
"I am," he answered honestly. Answering otherwise would have been either a lie or trying to embellish the truth and nothing more. "But not for an army against human beings," a small pause. "Like the phrase engraved on the door of this room, my vision is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. To save lives. To save as many lives as possible. And continue to do so as long as I have breath."
'Because it is the only way I have value as a person. Because there are people who have more value than me and deserve to live more than me. Because it is the only way for me not to be seen as a monster and nothing more.'
He chose to finish his tea as quickly as possible, still enjoying every drop of it, placing his cup on the table, too.
Tai-Yang had fallen silent, then he stood up. Douxie forced every part of his body to remain still where he was, even though a good part of him wanted to imitate him so that he would not be looked down upon, feeling his air lacking and the pressure of gravity suddenly increasing.
The Vampire approached him, looking rather collected, since he held his arms behind his back, which gave him a composed, a bit stiff, posture. His heavy footsteps echoed in the silence.
He stood beside him, so much so that he was face to face with Steve, being at least ten inches taller than the blond -who was very, very near to saying something, if his face testified to it- looking rather imposing and commanding.
He made Douxie feel strongly uneasy, not knowing exactly if it was just because of how near he was or if it was just him, not friendly anymore, but just staring him down, serious and silent.
"That sentence was written by my predecessor," said Tai-Yang. It was very difficult to tell what he was Thinking, especially not being able to keep an eye on him for too long. "The former Cold Fury, Haoyu Wang."
A pause, almost endless. It was as if every second was running in slow motion. His heartbeat was the opposite of that. It was beating hard, fast, and loud like the hits of chopsticks on a drum set.
When the silence ended, Tai-Yang's words caught him off guard.
"You are a truly interesting fellow." He mused, starting to circle them all. "A symbol of unity, even though you disappear so easily, a freer, a... mystery," he paused, "and you want to go against your own species..."
"Yes," he caressed Archie, feeling how rigid he was on his legs, probably not enjoying how the Vampire was moving. Which made sense. It was just like how a predator moved around his prey. Not a reassuring thought. Still, Instinct was not poking at him. It did not seem to him that Tai-Yang was that bad. Not feeling sudden drowsiness or choking on his blood was already a good point to add.
"I already am at war with a few of them. Doesn't matter which race is, if destruction and slaughter are their primary goals, then they are enemies of mine," he paused, "I'm not invincible. And I'm no leader, either. But I'll try to fight them anyway when the time comes, if I'm not able to change their mind first."
Tai-Yang stopped walking and stared at him deeply. He could feel his eyes bore on his face, almost trying to look under his skin. Almost trying to find all his secrets. "Follow me, Hisirdoux," he then ordered quietly.
Douxie did not let him say it twice, getting up, feeling a hint of curiosity stir in his stomach, taking the place of the previous anxiety. And letting the Leader take him where he wanted to go. Hoping that he wasn't trusting him too much.
********
"There is a drawing of the Keeper of Balance now,"Blinky said, making Claire stop staring at her hand and raise her head suddenly.
He looked young, too. And very, very skinny -probably underweight- with a slightly bent posture. He looked peaceful, but kind of sick.
His brown, almost black hair, was long, to the point that, even tied up, they reached his knees. His clothes, similar to those that Xia had been wearing by form, were light yellow.
He had his hands raised, too, but instead of a skull, he was tightening his fingers around a book, with a small Golem on top of its pages. It almost resembled a robot.
Claire stared blankly at him. "He looks... Unique," she said, not knowing exactly how to define him. "Definitely not how I imagined him to be, though," she chuckled a little.
'At least he doesn't seem mean?... He doesn't look cold, uptight, or utterly detached in his know-it-all vibe.'
That was good enough for her, at least for the moment.
"Unique, indeed," Blinky commented. "Not the type of human-looking being that you see around the streets."
Claire giggled a little. "No, he isn't," she said. She remained there for a few more minutes, utterly silent. Then she breathed in and out, returning to get up and to stand beside the window with Aaarrrgh.
There wasn't even a hint of wind, to the point that the garden seemed to be completely still. But it was really beautiful to look at under the light of the moon.