The atmosphere of the island was still the same as the time her master had brought her here. The moment you set foot on the soil it made your hair stand on end. This was a place of death, truly, in the times of the plague thousands of people had died here, and before that the island served as a bloody site for several other ghastly occurrences.
It’s little wonder why there are spirits here. Kat dodged a piece of think undergrowth and pressed on, towards the vineyards where the tall grass grew. The perfect place to practice unseen movement, even the slightest sway could give away your position.
“Kat are you sure this is sanitary?” The Earl frowned as a spider scurried passed his shoe. He had insisted to come along even after she had warned him of the dangers. If the crumbling buildings they would be sleeping in didn’t crush them there were other dangers, natural and supernatural alike. There was a reason the locals kept their distance from these shores.
“Well, I’m not entirely positive about that. But I can guarantee that once Sebastian is done cleaning that spot I showed you will be satisfactory.” Taking thin wooden poles from her pack she tied a string and a bell to each and set them at different points in the grass, careful to put them in the thinnest spots, where the least amount of grass grew. “There, now we can start.”
“What exactly are you doing?”
Kat back tracked and dropped her pack at the base of the bridge that connected the two parts of the island. “It’s to help with unseen movement. See how short the grass is? I have to move through it without anyone seeing me, steal the bells, and not make a noise or let you see me. Now,” she draped a necklace of bells around her own neck, “we can start.”
“You are quite out of your mind, there is no possible way for you to do that.”
“Maybe.” Kat waded into the thigh high grass, “But this is how I was taught.”
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“What is she doing?” Sebastian looked over the field from the crest of the bridge, watching Kat disappear once more into the grass to try and retrieve the bells without making a sound or alerting them to her presence. He knew what she was doing, but the why was effectively eluding him, at the faintest jingle of a bell, and he could only hear it because of his heightened senses, she would go back and start over.
The Young Master sat in an old iron work chair the butler had found in the rubble during his…remodeling, watching as well with no little interest. He had insisted on following Kat even though this was definitely not a place that Sebastian would recommend for a holiday. There were no people but them, no places to visit and absolutely nothing to do, but explore.
Ciel had wanted to explore, but the butler had refused, he knew how dangerous this place could be for a demon, much less a human.
This is why I am very curious as to why her master would bring her here to train. I wonder what kind of man he was…
There was a faint jingle and a loud curse as Kat restarted. Her legs have to be aching. She moved through the grass fluidly in a half crouch position the bells around her own neck not making a sound. I wonder what she’ll be like once she’s done.
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Kat massaged her aching legs as she sat before the fire out in front of the old chapel building, a small pot of coffee sitting beside her, cooling. The flames sputtered and hissed, crackled and popped, casting shadows over the landscape.
“You should be asleep you know, it’s close to dawn.”
Patting the ground beside her Kat motioned for him to sit down, “I know, but that’s another reason why I chose this island, there’s just something about it that makes me stay on edge. How’s the young master?”
Sebastian took the offered seat, “I believe putting a cross around his neck before going to bed may have been a bit overboard, but otherwise he is fine.” Kat stopped massaging her legs long enough to poor him a cup of coffee, which he accepted, “What kind of man was your master? You already told me how you met him but was he kind?”
A sad smile passed over her face at the mention of her master, “I don’t know if I would say kind, he was gruffer than anything. He would give me a task and if I didn’t do it, I was punished, but when I did something well he would praise me.” Actually, that may not be right…“He never beat me or anything, so I guess you could say he was kind, especially based on the circumstance in which we met.”
“Did he have a name?”
“Of course, he did, silly,” she chuckled and shoved his shoulder playfully, “what kind of person doesn’t have a name? He told me to call him Rhose, I’m sure he had another name but he never told me and I never asked...”
She could hear the sarcasm dripping in the butler’s voice, “A man names Rose? I don’t believe that would inspire much fear.”
“It’s spelled differently for your information and in the assassin world he was greatly respected.”
He took a sip of the coffee, “So what happened to this…Rhose?”
Done with the massage Kat poked at the dwindling fire, “I’m not sure, once I passed my test he was sent on a mission and I had to leave before he came back. I haven’t seen him since.”
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“And just what are you doing today? Yesterday it was holding your breath underwater for nearly five minutes and finding things in the dead of night, and the day before it was more of that silly grass and bell nonsense.” Ciel’s temper was running short; Sebastian could tell by his tone that the boy was extremely irritated.
Who wouldn’t be though, there’s been absolutely nothing to do, for the past few days except keeping the young master from becoming possessed by the spirit demons that inhabit this place. And that had been a full time job on the butler’s part; in just the three days they had been there he had stopped at least four possession attempts and several physical attacks.
The spirits of Poveglia remembered him it seemed and were out for revenge, a major reason he had been hesitant in coming here. During the time of the plague he had killed hundreds of souls, a few on this island in fact.
And they weren’t even worth it, their souls tasted terrible, hardly satisfying.
“Today, I was actually wondering if you wouldn’t mind going to the mainland, I’m going to be practicing some things that may be a bit more dangerous for you to be here for.” She dropped her back pack at the base of the bridge; it seemed to migrate there no matter when she began her training.
“What are you going to be doing?”
“Well,” she pulled out a white paper mask, in the shape of a long bird’s beak, “I’m going to antagonize the spirits, just a little bit. The purpose of that is to get them to attack me, this is a practice for dodging, if I can practice blows and things thrown at me from invisible attackers its ten times as easy to dodge attacks I can see.” She tied the mask on, “What do you think?”
Sebastian recognized the mask; it was one that Italian medicine practitioners had worn at the time, in an attempt to scare away the sicknesses that affected their patient’s bodies. “I think you are insane.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, “Not asking you what you think of my sanity, I already know what you think of that.”
“Enough” Ciel said tiredly, “I believe a chance to get off this island for a while would be very nice, this atmosphere is stifling.”
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Kat flipped backward as the spirit through the stone, sensing it as the cold air made bumps rise on her skin, oddly happy. It had been ages since she had done this, plus she didn’t have to worry about Ciel or Sebastian. Sometimes she angered the wrong spirits…
The stone bounced harmlessly off the ground behind Kat only to be picked up and thrown by another.
Truth be told this was one of the hardest skills to learn; it had taken her a full month and a half on the island to dodge an attack, much longer to avoid every attack thrown at her. Thank goodness I’ve improved since then, or at least held onto those skills.
It was so hard because the person had to put themselves into a trance of sorts to where they were sensitive to the energy that surrounded them, the heat and the cold, the breeze, and so on. A simple change in any of these could and most often did signal an attack.
Pulling the mask off she stuffed it down into her bag, and stood again, stretching the kinks out of her spine. “All done,” she glanced up at the sun, “And still early to. I wonder what I should do until the others get back?”
A shiver went down her spine, making Kat look up. There’s something here… and I don’t think its friendly…
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“I believe that this should be more than enough to convince Kat that she has trained enough don’t you sir?” Sebastian spoke from behind a large stack of food, consisting of vegetables, fruits, and assorted other things.
“I’m not bribing her, it’s this simple, she is my servant and obeys me, and I say it is time to go home.”
“Yes, sir.”Go ahead and lie, master….I know exactly how you are. I… Sebastian looked out over the wharf towards the island, deftly avoiding the pickpockets and other pathway hazards as they made their way back to the boat they had rented to get to the island. A dark cloud seemed to loom from it, even worse than before. What did that girl raise?
But somewhere Sebastian knew that this wasn’t something that Kat had angered, this presence was strong, almost demonic in nature. Should I perhaps leave the young master here, while I investigate?A pickpocket reached to pull the young noble into an abandoned alley, a glare from Sebastian stopped him, on second thought that may not be a good idea.
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Hey Everyone, another chapter updated as promised! Just so everyone knows Poveglia is a real island and is really haunted. Other than that not much else to say about this chapter. Next Chapter Overview! We finally meet Kat's master!!
-Shadowquill