Vitkus Twins

Chapter Sixteen

Azuloas hugged Aldona, before he went into the kitchen to wash the dishes from dinner. Jakoba grinned as Aldona sat down next to her on the couch; an elemental sealing book in her hands, while Jakoba showed her the Storage seal in her hand. She had found the storage seal to be useful; she could have years’ worth of supplies on her without them going off on her. Which was a good thing, since missions could go wrong in a heartbeat.

Aldona blinked as Montgomery sat down next to her with a thick book in his hands; the front cover was blank. Opening the cover, Aldona spotted Viktorija’s handwriting and her seals in the corner of the page. The option to hide what was written on the pages, to hide the information away from prying eyes.

Azuloas had told Viktorija that Jakoba didn’t know about their little curse. The information that Viktorija had sent made her blink, she had found information from Nýtt tungl. From that group and Aldona didn’t know if she could piece together their plan.

“Aldona, are you okay?” Jakoba asked her. Azuloas walking into the living room after he finished washing the dishes.

“Torija, just sent us something,” Aldona told them, taking the book from Montgomery’s hand before quickly scanning the first few pages. Azuloas wouldn’t be surprised if he had a copy in his own apartment, Viktorija was a bit on the paranoid side, but if what he had gathered from her upbringing; he couldn’t bring himself to blame her for it.

“What did she send?” Jakoba asked them.

“Information,” Aldona told her, flipping through the pages; this was something that she would have to take notes. Some of it was written by an Etienne Atspoguļo and she doubted it was Launce’s cousin; since most of them were dated before he was born. “Jakoba, how much do you understand about sealing?”

“Depends on the seal,” Jakoba told her.

“Storage seals,” Aldona told her, closing the book.

“Are you sure?” Azuloas asked her.

“Are you?”

“It was bound to happen. What about the others?”

“Let’s get through this one first.”

Azuloas and Aldona knew that Montgomery knew about it. The only person who didn’t know was Jakoba; but that was something they agreed to be careful about; some people would never understand and that something they had come to terms.

The only person who didn’t know about it; in this room at least, Jakoba was the only one that didn’t know. Dvesma, Bellerophon, Bednar or Lodoiska didn’t know about it; Launce, Clarice and Apoloniusz didn’t know about it.

“They want to destroy everything,” Aldona admitted, putting the book on the coffee table and standing up, walking around her apartment, while Azuloas leaned against one of her bookshelves and tapping his foot against the ground. “Or this person wants to destroy everything, who knows if the rest of them know about it.”

“She found it then, I’m impressed,” Montgomery muttered looking back at the book on the coffee table; only those who knows about Atspoguļo illusion technique would be able to find that Compound. “She copied everything perfectly; some of its information that the Atspoguļo Clan has lost.”

“Knowing Torija; she grabbed everything she got her hand on and is now slowly going through everything,” Aldona told him, that’s what she had gathered from the notes they’ve sent each other anyway. “She’ll send more, we can send her notes back. Maybe between the four of us, we’ll be able to figure out what’s going on.”

“Viktorija’s found an old Atspoguļo Compound?” Jakoba asked them.

“To explain that, we need to tell what happened sixteen years ago,” Aldona and Azuloas told her, Montgomery nodding his head. He knew some details about what happened that night, since Etienne had gloated about them.

“The Sin of Wrath and the Sin of Greed attacked the village,” Jakoba told them; her eyes darting between them. “Rajmund Kowalski was able to get rid of them with his wife; Vitalija Kowalski. Grandpa would tell me about a blinding white light, but he never got past that.”

“Storage seals?” Azuloas asked her.

“They store objects in things; such as pieces of paper, cards and books. Their used to carry more around with food going off, or delicate objects breaking,” Jakoba told them looking at their bracelets, neither Aldona nor Azuloas brought bags with them, since they didn’t need to. “You two use bracelets to store things; but those who have completely mastered Storage Seals can seal things into living beings.”

“And do you think happens when someone uses something living?” Azuloas asked her.

“I knew someone who had to seal something into the neck of a cat; a book she didn’t want anyone getting their hands on,” Montgomery told her; Rozalija said something about people misusing it and causing a never-ending war. While cursing a member of her clan while she did so, Montgomery never got the full story out of her.

“The cat didn’t become the book,” Jakoba told him. “Sealing something into something, doesn’t turn that thing into what’s been sealed into it.”

“Say; someone sealed a Deadly Sin into a baby; that baby wouldn’t become the Sin?” Aldona asked her.

“Does this have something to do with what happened that night?” Jakoba asked her. “What our parents and the Academy told us?”

Aldona nodded; all it would take was reading one book on any of the Seven Deadly Sins to know what their generation had been told was a complete and utter lie. None of the Deadly Sins could be killed, they were pure energy and were over twenty feet tall.

“They weren’t killed, were they?” Jakoba asked them.

“They told you two of the seven Deadly Sins had been killed?” Montgomery asked her. “None of them can be killed, humanity would need to be wiped out first.”

“Happened fifteen years ago in Nestanha,” Azuloas admitted.

“Nestanha was attacked?” Jakoba asked.

“Sort of, not like we were,” Aldona admitted, Viktorija had told them what happened. Laughing as she thought about her own classes’ naivety; how they had used believed everything their teacher told them.

“The Snake of Envy was stopped before it got anywhere near the village,” Azuloas told her.

“For the Dragon of Wrath and Fox of Greed; both were sealed away into two newborns; born only minutes before the attack,” Aldona told her.

“Demon lover? The babies were you, weren’t they?” Jakoba asked them.

“I’m the Holder of the Dragon of Wrath,” Azuloas told her, taking off his leather bracelet’s and showing the dragon birth marks he had on his wrist. He used to have one, but in the last week; he had developed another.

“I’m the Holder of the Fox of Greed,” Aldona said shortly afterwards, also showing her the two foxes on her wrists.

“I’m over a hundred years old,” Montgomery told her, if Aldona and Azuloas were admitting things; that meant they trusted Jakoba. He might as well just tell her now, before she found out later and was heartbroken that they didn’t trust her. “I used to be the head to be head of the Atspoguļo Clan in Sashan before taking half of the clan with me to Nestanha during the Major War happening at the time.”

“Why?” Jakoba asked him.

“My people where being left for dead during battle,” Montgomery told her. “By those who wanted to get into the current Paslėpta liepsna’s favour.”

“Yes, the fourth Paslėpta liepsna was an asshole,” Azuloas admitted.

“Or was in the council?” Aldona asked them.

“I believe Montgomery the least,” Jakoba told them before they could continue talking about the fourth Paslėpta liepsna. “If you’re over a hundred how to do you look sixteen?”

“Deaging seal,” Aldona told her. “Something created or recorded by one Rozalija Meža nee Vitkus.”

“The second Paslėpta liepsna’s wife?” Jakoba asked them, when the three nodded their heads; Jakoba just looked at them.

“Sealing is only limited by someone’s imagination,” Aldona told her.

“Torija uses a chakra draining seal, which is attached to a chakra storing seal,” Azuloas added.

“He’s not lying?” Jakoba asked them, Montgomery just looked at her; highly offended. Like he could make something like that up; his imagination was not that wild.

“He’s not,” Aldona and Azuloas told her.

Jakoba just looked at them, she was horrified by what they told her about Viktorija; she could only hope that she never had to fight her in a life or death battle. As Jakoba wouldn’t be surprised if Viktorija used it in most of her battles, Jakoba could use something like then; she knew that she would as it would give her an advantage.

Shaking her head; she thought back to everything that her parents had said about Aldona and Azuloas when she was in the Academy, everything her grandfather had told her. Now they made sense to her, everything her Mama had hissed and everything her Grandfather had scoffed at.

Now she understood the reason that Aldona and Azuloas had been worried about telling her; she wondered how many people they had told. It didn’t seem like news anyone would share with just anyone.

Ignorance was bliss; until you were the one being hurt by it.

“My parents are idiots,” Jakoba told them huffing as she looked the locked bookshelf hidden in the corner of the room. She had always wondered about that, but she guessed that she knew now had her answer of what was locked in it. “You’ve got information about the Deadly Sins; it’s locked in that bookshelf.”

“It is, Jakoba, you can’t tell anyone; it’s an SS-ranked secret,” Aldona told her, it was always a SS-ranked secret; it had been for her Mama and for whoever was the holder before she was. “Only Azuloas and I can tell anyone; people have been arrested by the Apsauga, Sekti and Kareivis for trying to tell their children or grandchildren. Torija can tell people as well, but Grandfather can’t do anything about her; since she lives in Nestanha.”

“Viktorija’s fifteen, isn’t she?” Jakoba asked them, when Aldona and Azuloas looked at each other before nodding. “She’s a Holder of a Sin, isn’t she? The Snake of Envy.”

“She is,” Aldona told her, Viktorija had them they could tell any they trusted, and they told Viktorija she could do the same. Even if Azuloas had a feeling that she would only tell other Holders about them.

She had warned them about Tau of Kumha, the Holder of the Boar of Gluttony. Viktorija said he had tried to impression her when she got to close to Kumha two years ago; something about a rebellion getting her out before anything could happen to her.

“There are Seven of us, when we return from Nestanha,” Azuloas told her, most of the books about the Deadly Sins were in his apartment. Since no one visited, everyone went to Aldona’s since she was the one who cooked and had food in her apartment. “We can let you read one of the books we have on the subject; we’ve had to leave the village to get most of them. Merchants aren’t allowed into the village if they have anything about the Deadly Sins.”

“It’ll make the official story fall apart at the seams overwise,” Aldona added. “One chapter and everyone will know that Grandfather was lying about what happened that night.”

“And my parents’ generation already know about it,” Jakoba guessed.

“That they do,” Aldona told her, she wondered how Jakoba would react once the news had time to sink in. She could only hope that Jakoba didn’t hate them for it; Launcelot and Page didn’t, and it didn’t sound like Jakoba was going to confuse them for creatures they were forced to carry around.

“We’re leaving for Nestanha after lunch tomorrow,” Aldona told Jakoba and Montgomery, as she nodded and went into the kitchen to do something.

“You know I don’t hate you and Aldona, right?” Jakoba asked Azuloas, who just gave her a sterned smile.

“You can’t tell Launce,” Azuloas told her, before pointing at Montgomery; who just narrowed his eyes at him. “About anything said today, including what Montgomery had told you. We don’t want Nestanha finding out.”

“Don’t anyone anything about today,” Jakoba told them.

“You can tell Torija,” Azuloas told her, Viktorija already knew everything that they had told Jakoba, since she had been there.

“So, I’ll tell her that Aldona snores in her sleep,” Jakoba bluntly told him.

“I don’t snore!” Aldona told them as she walked out with a pot of tea in her hands; an annoyed expression on her face.

“You do! And we used to scare a bed,” Azuloas told her.

“And you kick,” Aldona snapped back.

“So that’s why I had to move to another apartment,” Azuloas blankly said as Aldona put the kettle on the table.

“We’re too old to be sleeping in the same bed,” Aldona told him. “I think thirteen’s pushing it, not when we own an entire apartment complex.”

“How long have you lived here?” Jakoba asked.

“Someone used to live with us when we were two, but they died when we were three,” Aldona told her.

“Grandma Adelajda was never replaced,” Azuloas mused.

“We need to wash her grave,” Aldona reminded him. Grandma Adelajda was a sweet woman; Aldona and Azuloas was saddened when she had passed away in her sleep, since she hadn’t had any children or grandchildren to go to her funeral. “And bring her some flowers; she always did love violets.”

Jakoba just looked at the two; she had a feeling that it might take awhile for them to get comfortable with the fact that she knew their secret; even if they had been the ones that told her about it. She’ll just have to show them that she wasn’t bothered by it; continue like nothing had changed.

Action spoke louder then words; nothing was going to rid of her. Not fury or Deadly Sins.

“What did Viktorija find?” Jakoba asked them, thinking back to the book on the coffee table, Aldona laughing as she went over to the seal that they used to send Viktorija messages. “You said you’d tell me!”

“Someone’s hunting the Holders of the Seven Deadly Sins,” Azuloas told her as Aldona wrote something and sent it to Viktorija.

“We don’t know why,” Aldona admitted, she could only hope that what Viktorija found helped them find that reason. But they would have to give some of the information she found to Julia, as it did belong to her clan. “Maybe Torija has found something.”

Jakoba just looked at them, if someone was hunting them down. Then that just meant she had to train harder; she didn’t care about the reason; someone was after her friends and she wasn’t going to sit there and do nothing!

They could have Aldona and Azuloas over her dead body!

“Then we’ll have to train,” Jakoba told them, not just train, but they would need to find as much information about this group as possible. “And research, find as much information as possible.”

“Torija said she’ll make a copy for you as well,” Aldona told her as she gave her another piece of paper, one with Viktorija’s handwriting. Telling them that she could make another copy of that first book, along with make sure she had three copies of anything else she found.

“We’re in this together,” Jakoba told them. “Until the end of the line.”

“Until the end of the line,” Aldona and Azuloas agreed.