Taking her place

The swords

"I came with the goods," Mike says as he enters with two men carrying two long boxes and I get up from my seat as I excitedly look at the boxes. For the first time in any of my lives, I feel as if I were a small Anglo child from the movies waiting to open her Christmas presents on Christmas Eve.

"Call for Mother and Lenna," I say without waiting.

My impatience grows as I sit on the small couch in the living room as Lenna enters with mother.

"What’s wrong?" Lenna asks as she looks around the room disoriented by the sight of people visiting. "Oh, your excellency, it is a pleasure to have you visiting us." She says as she bows.

Mike laughs nervously as he puts a hand up. "Please, there is no need to bow, Blair is like a sister to me. I would never expect her family to bow to me, especially not anyone from the Artema household."

"Lenna come!" I pull her as she smiles towards Mike but then she throws a glare in my direction, but I ignore it. ‘there are better things to worry about right now.’

 "Show me the knight’s sword," I command as Lenna looks at me with a shocked expression.

The man on the right side of us steps forward as he puts the box on the table and opens it up with a key. Lenna and I both gasp as we hold each other's hands, this is the last memento that we have of our father.

The last piece of him to still be in this world. Fully intact with no traces of un-repairable damage, it is a bit rusty and old but to us it's perfect.

I let go of Lenna's hand as I step away from her. "You must be the one to have that one," I say as the sound of the door opening resonates behind me and I see Kuro run towards me. "Are you sure?" Lenna asks as she looks at me with tears in her eyes. "This is the last piece of him. Once I make a pact, there’s no going back." She says as tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

"I don't know anyone who would be more worthy of it than you," I say as she wipes her tears slowly and reaches out for it tensely but eventually grabs the handle of the sword with a tight grasp as she cuts the palm of her hand and waits for the glow of the sword to appear but it doesn't. Its dullness lingers as Lenna looks at me stumped with the expression of pure defeat. "What does this mean?" She asks as she puts the sword back down.

We all stand there in the silence as I let go of a breath, I did not know I was holding.

‘This can't be!’

I begin to nervously look at the floor as Kuro holds my hand and tightens his grip, bringing me back to reality.

"That box is glowing!" Kuro screams as he points at the other box and the man quickly sets it down on the table next to our father’s sword and opens it. The red glow begins to turn a baby blue as Lenna’s hand gets closer to it. "These are moms…" She looks at me with tears in her eyes. The small blades shine as she touches the handle of one with a gentle touch, almost as if she were holding something fragile.

Her blood spreads on the blade as she holds one of them in her hand and her hand begins to glow a light blue with the mark of flowers with them marking something in an ancient language. Something that only the owner of the blades can understand. "I Lenna Artema accept to be your contractor." She says as the rest of the blades begin to disappear.

The one that she holds begins to grow larger until it finally turns into a sword. The glow that the blade once held is back and the carvings are the same as they were before but blue instead of the old red it once held.

The sword finally disappears as Lenna turns to look at me and hugs me tightly. "I was so scared that I wouldn't be able to have anything of theirs ever again." She lets go as she pushes me towards the table with the sword of our father laying in the box. "It’s your turn now."

I sigh as I look at her and then at the sword dejected. 'How do I explain to her that I already tried in my previous life and was rejected? Or is it the future. I don’t even know anymore…'

I breathe heavily as she smiles and stares at her arm with the symbols of the weapons acceptance towards her.

I reach for the sword as my fingers begin to tremble. 'f**k, I'm scared.'

My heart begins to pound faster in my ears and I begin to feel sweat building up at the palm of my hands, the longer I look at the sword the hotter that this room gets.

Kuro touches my cape as he looks up at me with a worried expression and I touch his hand gently. 'Thanks.'

I look away for about a minute towards the wall before I grab the rusty sword with my hand and begin to cut my hand with a part of the sword that does not have remains of blood and I wait.

And wait…

The sword remains its old rusty self as it stays in my hand with a lifeless demeanor and I smile gently. 'Guess I was never worthy, to begin with, just how pure was father’s soul?'

I set the sword down as I close the box and sigh softly. 'Guess I’ll just have to survive this war on my own. Like hell, I’ll let this affect me.'

"Blair, I-"

"It’s alright, I didn't have my hopes up on this specific sword, to begin with," I say as Lenna begins to tear up. 'Ugh.'

"I don't understand why the sword won’t accept either of us, is it because we left them?"

She begins to shake as she begins to cry, and I look away. Possibly the sword senses that I no longer have and innocent soul.

"It's fine, for now, we have to focus on winning what is coming towards our way." I tighten my fist as it begins to bleed even more, instead of stopping from the pain in my palm I grip it tighter as my hand goes numb. 'I will protect this place, even if it means giving up my life.'

The box begins to light up as Lenna opens it up numbly as she looks at me. 'What the hell?'

I reach for it once more as I look at the bright white light glow from within the sword and with a timid carefulness I grab it.

The sword recovers the shine it once had as the marks on the blade begins to light up with white light. I turn the sword over as the carvings on that side turn pitch black.

"That's-not how dads looked..." Lenna whispers to herself as the sword begins to change from white to black and I begin to feel the handle of it burn the palm of my hand but before I can let go of it, it disappears and enters my chest as I begin to feel the heat of it pass through my chest and into my back as I begin to scream from the pain. "What the hell is this?!" I scream as I fall into the floor and continue to scream from the pain.

Lenna quickly takes off my cape as she rips my clothes from my back in order to reveal my burning back and she tenses up.

The pain begins to disappear as I begin to relax my body from the sensation and Lenna along with everyone else gasp.

The men in the room close their eyes since looking at a woman's skin is sinful, but their curiosity gets the better of them as their eyes widen.

"This is what they call 'The Wolf' right?" Mike asks as he stares at my back.

Lenna sighs as she hugs me tightly. "You have the mark of the wolf on your back."

I lift my hand as I look at it and I trace over the lines of a wolf in the inner section of my arm. It looks like a tattoo; half of the picture is in black while the other half is in white.

I continue to stare at it with a confused expression, for centuries the mark of the wolf has always been white. Symbolic of the soul of the master, someone praised for having a pure soul that is meant to protect the people of the kingdom they pledge their loyalty to.

It is a sign that they carry the blood from the angel of ashes and yet half of my mark is black which is magic that is completely the opposite of an angel.

'Does this mean it’s taking into consideration my dark side, that part of myself that has already experienced a sea of blood in their hands?'

Kuro touches my hand as he begins to tear up. "Does it hurt?"

Lenna lets go of me as she wipes her tears away and allows Kuro to get closer to me. "No, the pain is gone. Now I cannot feel anything, it’s good as new." I say as he hugs me and puts his face in my neck, and I sigh softly. "I'm fine, don't worry."

He tightens his grip around my neck, and I carry the boy as I begin to walk out of the room with my back still exposed.

Mike signals to his men as they begin to pack up the boxes and begin to walk out with them in their arms.

"Thank you, you have truly helped me," I say turning around as soon as I hear them picking up the boxes and he smiles widely.

"Looks like I have the first half of my part down." He says as he forgets that there are still people in the room.

I stare at him as his smile slowly disappears as he realizes that the expression in my face is woeful, but he cannot tell why.

After all, this young man does not know about the secrets that I hold within me. The fact that I am the reason why he lost the other part of him, he doesn't know that there’s a reason as to why he can’t have what I took from him anytime soon and it hurts.

I begin to tear up, so I look away from him. 'I need to figure out a way to make sure this ends well for the three of us.'

"You won’t regret helping me with this," I say as I walk out of room with Kuro in my arms. His warmth suddenly becomes apparent to me as I begin to wonder how Mike will react when he finds out about what I have done.

'Will he hate me? Will he leave my side? Will I be left alone? -again?'

I feel the warmth of the little boy in arms as his arms wrap around my neck and for the first time in this lifetime, I allow myself to enjoy the warmth of another person’s body against my own.

Forgetting about everything around me, my problems, my life.

"I see you have armed yourself..." Alec says as he looks at my arm and I look at it myself.

My blood rushes up to my head as I swallow hard. ‘it wasn’t a dream…’

I stare at my arm as the symbol of the wolf begins to glow. “I thought it would never accept me. Especially since I have been tainted.”

Alec stares at me as I look at my arm intensely.

 "It's not exactly what I was expecting but I managed to arm myself, somehow." I close my fingers as I open them slowly, observing the tattoo-like marks in my arm again as the glow disappears and I begin to wonder how my back looks.

When I was younger I saw my father’s back once.

The symbol was so beautiful it reminded me of the wings of an angel. He showed it to us just once and told us that someday one of us would inherit his blood, his mission.

“Why do you cover it up?” Lenna asked him as he smiled widely.

“because I only need to show it when it is truly needed.” He says as he looks at the trees swing from side to side and he sits with his legs crossed.

“the only who is allowed to see my back glow is your mother after all.” He says as he laughs loudly while Lenna squeals.

I just laugh as I go along with their antics.

'Maybe it looks like the tattoo of a yakuza?'

"Things are beginning to get wilder around me," I say as I walk towards his window and look out into the moonlight as I sigh softly. "What I can do to help you might come to a halt soon."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asks as he stands up from his bed with a nervous expression, almost as if he is lost all composure and has begun to freak out.

"Don't worry. I will help you as much as I can, but there is a war coming. So, all I am saying is that I will be more focused on that. At least until it's all over." I walk over to the cabinet as I sit down.

"It's alright, as soon as you bring the man that I asked for, my side of things will begin to move smoothly." He says as he leans against the wall and looks at the floor.

I nervously look at him as the uncomfortable silence begins to fill the room.

"I still can't get used to this."

I look away as soon as I realize that I have been staring at him for a while.

"What are your interests?" He asks as he looks at the floor uncomfortable.

"Excuse me?" I ask confused. 'Did he just ask me about myself?'

"There isn't much for me to think about or do right now so it would help to know about anything at this point." He states coldly. "This room isn't as entertaining as you might think."

"Oh, right." I sit up straight as I look at the ceiling "well I don't do much except for attending classes. I practice the sword on a daily basis since there is always something new to learn. I enjoy reading books on my free time but wish they had more entertaining books."

"Books are meant for learning, that's the most entertaining it can get." He says as he sits on his bed while facing me.

"Well there’s a way for them to get even better, but people haven't begun to use them in that way yet."

"What do you mean?" He asks confused.

"Like writing a novel." His confusion begins to increase as I nervously continue "umm, like a fake story about a romance."

"So, kids’ books..." he suggests as he crosses his arms.

I laugh as I pull my hair behind my ears. "No, those are fairytales! I want a book that ends in tragedy, a book that ends realistically."

"I thought I had problems." He says as he smiles slightly.

"I don't exactly have... Major problems, I just have a different taste." I smile as I look at him and then at the door. "I’ll be going now; I have some things to take care of tomorrow."

I get up and begin to walk out but trip on my nightgown as I begin to fall forward but he manages to grab my arm and pull me towards the bed as I land on top of him.

I groan as I feel my wrist burn slightly from the amount of pressure he applied when he pulled me.

"Thanks for that, my face could have suffered if you hadn't..." I stop as I try to pull myself up but I feel something pushing me back down from the back of my waist.

"Stay still." He says as he stares up at me.

My senses begin to go crazy as my thoughts begin to scatter and I am left afraid and confused. 'Is this how I’ll possibly die?'

He touches my cheek as I flinch. 'What the hell?'

“Is there something on my face?” I ask as he just stares.

His expression is completely unreadable, and it makes all my senses go wild. ‘why is he so hard to understand?’

I turn my eyes to look at the door. ‘maybe if I make a run for it-‘

He grabs my chin as he forces my eyes to look at him as he begins to trace my lips gently. “there’s something I'm curious about.”

‘is that so?’

“how do I treat you?”

“what?” I am confused.

“in my other form.”

“indifferently.” I say immediately as he looks at me with a confused expression. “you practically ignore me.”

“I see.” He says as he slowly releases me and I'm finally free from his grasp.

I get up as I walk towards the door. “goodnight, Sir Alec.” I say as I close the door behind me.

The man's green eyes sparkle due to the moonlight as he continues to stare at his hand that touched the maiden’s lips.

The fragrance of her body lingers inside of his room as he tightens his fists.

The man touches his fingertips as the sensation on her skin lingers withing his fingertips and all that he can think of is how he would have enjoyed it if she stayed a bit longer.

Although he knows that if she had stayed any longer that she would probably have been in danger from himself.

He begins to wonder what in the world makes her so intriguing.

‘what does it matter? Once I go back to being duke, I won’t see her again.’

His chest hurts as soon as he thinks of never seeing her again, but the pain goes away as soon as he thinks to himself, ‘well we don’t have to disappear from each other’s lives completely.’

He turns to his side as he crosses his arms across his chest. ‘I think she mentioned something about marriage.’

He smirks wickedly as his green eyes turn dark, perhaps from the dark intentions that he holds within. ‘I just have to make sure she can’t reject my invitation; I am the Duke of Vespers after all.’

He closes his eyes as he is filled with content at his conclusion to his one-sided decision about both of their futures.