Noch
Relaying all the information and theories over to Ferina had taken more out of me than all the battles we've had so far combined. It was times like these that made me extremely happy that I didn't accept the Council's Head Seat when it was offered to me. If I were stuck behind a desk all day long, sorting out other people's problems and trying to come up with solutions while also taking into consideration the employees under my direct order and the opinions of the other council members, I would have lost my mind within a week...
Then probably demanded that they hand the seat over to someone else in a very flashy manner. Preferably with Arasule's help.
I fell backwards into my bed and heaved a sigh as I took in my little cave of a room. After Merianna had nearly succeeded in killing me in my sleep one night I had opted to create a space for myself within the castle walls that only I would be able to enter. Accessing it was basically the same as melding through the castle's floors, horizontally. While looking around at my mounds of books, weapons and clothing scattered about the place it made me think that I actually much preferred this room to my old one.
A sudden light blinded me, and with a surprised yell I went rolling over the bed to the opposite side to take cover from the brightness. After a second or two the light faded enough for me to chance opening my eyes again.
Peeking over the edge of my bed I saw that it was none other than Merianna's self-proclaimed guardian. "What on earth are you doing in my room?! And how the hell did you manage to slip past my wards in the first place?!" I yelled.
"I apologize for the intrusion Nochtandriel, and yes your wards are very impressive, they gave me some trouble getting in."
"They were supposed to fry you to a crisp! Not merely give you trouble!!!"
"Regardless Nochtandriel," Hezerial went on, completely ignoring my statement "I have need of your help."
This made me pause for a second. "My help? Did the Demon Spawn get herself into trouble or something."
"No, nothing like that. She had requested me to take her to her old home in the woods earlier."
I frowned at this. Never once had Merianna shown any interest at all in going back to the place she had grown up in. Especially after we had managed to find her sister and chase off the Wraith. "What did she want there?"
"I am not sure, but after she had gathered some items and told me to bring her back, she has not spoken to me once. She refused to even acknowledge Jasnine who tried to speak to her as she marched straight to her room. My Lady had closed the door in my face and locked herself in her room since then." The poor angelic looked absolutely heartbroken and worried out of his mind.
I smirked. "She'll be fine if you leave her be. She's young after all. Emotions run high and tantrums run rampant when you're that age. Maybe she just decided she needed some time to herself, especially with you hovering so close by every day." I said with a shrug as I clambered back onto my bed to make myself comfortable again.
"If that was what she wished then she needn't shut me out like this. Something is wrong, I'm truly worried for her." He said and started pacing in front of my bed. "After she came out of the structure, it was almost as if she wasn't registering anything around her anymore. She seemed completely unaffected by whatever was around her. To me at this time, she feels dead. Usually I am able to pick up on her feelings and some whispers of her thoughts, but now, I feel nothing..."
This made me frown. The way he was describing her, it sounded like she had found something, or seen something that might have been too much for her emotions to handle. And that was so very unlike her.
"And you decided to come to me about her emotional problems because?" I asked him as he finally stopped pacing to look at me.
"You seem to be the one she is closest with. She might be able to speak to you if you went to her."
"Me?! She hates me!" I said incredulously.
"Even if it is so, I see that she trusts you the most." Hezerial said without any wavering. He was dead serious.
Heaving a heavy sigh I rolled back off of my bed and walked straight to the wall on my right. "You better be right about that feather butt. If I walk in there and she decides to skewer me with the nearest blade she can find, I'll pluck out all your feathers and stuff them into a pillow."
"She won't do that, so I think your threat has no grounds." He snipped back as he followed.
I grunted my doubt at that statement and lazily walked through the wall and out into the ground floor's corridor that led to the kitchen. Hezerial stayed on my heels as I made my way up the staircases.
Once I reached her room the angelic disappeared into the ether. Why did he even bother following me? I thought, only to realise that he probably wanted to make sure that I was indeed going to the Demon Spawn. That realization only ticked me off.
Shrugging my shoulders I knocked on her door. "Hey, Demon Spawn, are you in there? Your guardian is worried sick about you and asked me to come check up on you. I'm coming in." I announced.
I leaked my energy into the lock of her room and twisted it until I heard a satisfying click. As I opened the door I saw her silently sitting on her bed. "Well it doesn't look like you got hurt on your little excursion, so what is the problem? Usually you would be flinging knives at my head right now."
Merianna didn't say anything. All she did was hold something out to me. With a frown I moved closer and noticed that it looked like an old belt. After taking it from her I noticed that it was decayed beyond repair. "If you want me to fix this old thing it's not going to happen. Not even Fog would be able to fix this."
"The buckle..." Merianna said softly.
Running the leather through my hands I gripped the buckle and froze. The Hunter's insignia glinted up at me as I stared down at it. This was definitely unexpected.
"Where did you find this?" I asked as I sat down next to her.
"Buried underneath the stone flooring, in a box. This was in there too." She said as she unfolded a rotten rag that I hadn't noticed was on her lap. As the material fell open, another Hunter's symbol glared at me from the inside of what looked like an old cloak.
"You found both of these in the box?" I asked.
She nodded and picked up two daggers that were on her left. "And these too."
"Did you know that they were there?"
Merianna shook her head and tears pooled in her eyes. "No, I didn't know. I don't know why they were there. How they got there. Or where they came from. But, the buckle has my mother's name on it, so it must have been her's at some point, right?"
I didn't like this. Could this mean that her mother was a Hunter spy? Did this mean that she had tried to infiltrate a witch's coven by meeting and settling down with her father? Could it be that this might have been related to the events that were currently in motion?
"Noch..." Merianna said softly. "Was my mother really a Hunter?" she tilted her face up to me and I could see how hard she was trying not to cry. Her eyes were brimming at the edges and slightly swollen while she gritted her teeth to try and keep it all in.
With a sigh I told the truth. "It could very well be possible. I don't know what a Hunter would be doing living with a witch in the middle of the forest, but I think we should bring this question to Fog. He might know something since he has been around much longer. Maybe he would have an answer."
Merianna looked back down at the cloak and daggers she had lain back on her lap and nodded. I felt bad for her, for all we knew, her mother could have been a calculated Hunter that was willing to take any and all risks for the extermination of witches. The Hunters were all trained from very young ages after all, and completely indoctrinated by their twelfth birthdays. Besides all the brainwashing, if a Hunter were to leave the sect, there were severe consequences.
There was never a time in all of history that I had heard of a Hunter willingly leaving the sect, or leaving at all for that matter. The only rational option that was left, was that her mother might have been sent on a mission to infiltrate the world of the witches. Especially since witches tended to marry humans seeing as our numbers were few.
If witch children are born to these couples, they tend to send them to the Order once they are old enough. Older newbloods that usually waltz in without knowing their lineage always hear of us from other covens and then decide themselves to seek us out.
If Merianna's parents weren't killed by that Wraith, it would have been possible that her father would have sent her and Nelia to us once they were the age they are now. In doing that, their mother would have gotten the location of the Order, and probably sent an army of Hunters straight to our doorstep.
I feel bad about expecting the worst possible situation out of their mother, but I can't help but wonder if maybe, the Wraith did us a favor...
My thoughts were whirling about in my head faster than I could focus on a single one. Looking back down at Merianna I noticed her hands gripping the bundle on her lap so tightly that they were shaking. Placing my palm on her head I sighed.
"Come on Demon Spawn. Let's go see if Fog can't help give us some information on this." I said while stroking her head.
She sniffed loudly, took a deep breath and nodded.
I smiled sadly at her and ruffled her hair a little. "I'll show you how to make the dye for your hair tomorrow. You will need to apply it to the roots every once in a while if you want to keep your hair black."
She peeked up at me and gave a small smile. "What is this? Nochtandriel is genuinely being nice to me? It must be snowing." she mumbled.
"Bah! Nonsense, it's the middle of summer! Of course it won't snow! And I AM a nice person, it's just you that likes to push your luck all the time!"
She gave a small chuckle which I smiled at. A Merianna that was causing trouble and laughing was better than a Merianna that was sad and crying. It felt strange to actually want her to cause trouble, but I much preferred it that way.