I asked, “Are Caelum and Caprice really helping the Academy? Does that mean we’re at threat from Crimson Crescent?”
The Countess stopped moving. She straightened smoothly. “Yes, but it’s not a direct threat to the student body.”
I felt my heart jump and my stomach grow heavy. “What does that mean?”
“It means that Cee Cee has an interest in our Academy, but it doesn’t affect the students in a direct way. In other words, the students are out of the line of fire.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“To keep you safe. And so that you don’t think badly of Caelum and Caprice should they distance themselves from you.”
The Countess glanced in the direction of the sports field where the medical buses continued to process the students.
I asked her, “But you said the students weren’t in danger.”
“The students…no. But, Cee Cee know of Caelum Desanto. They certainly know of me and the Princess.” She glanced again at the sports field, then once more.
When her eyes narrowed, I paid the sports field another look.
Galatea Academy had two sports fields, side-by-side, one to the west and one to the east. There was a girl standing on the grassy rise bordering the western sports field, and she was looking in the direction of the buses to the east. She was dressed in a Galatea uniform befitting a high-schooler but not a senior. She wore the midnight blue jacket, not the white jacket.
The Countess muttered, “What is she doing there?”
I didn’t think the girl was doing anything wrong, though I did find it a little odd to be just standing there all alone.
“Maybe she’s waiting for someone?”
The Countess began walking toward her, apparently forgetting about the box at her feet.
“Ah, Countess?”
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and began walking a little faster toward the sports field. I decided to hurry after her. I had to jog to catch up to her. How could she walk so fast wearing heels like those?
The Countess called out to the girl. “You there. What are you doing here on the field? Are you with the Track-and-Field club? If so, your club will resume field practice next week.”
The girl half turned to face us, however she offered no reply.
The Countess asked, “What are you doing here?”
The two of us stopped a few meters away from the girl. I didn’t recognize her. Was she a transfer student to the Academy this year?
She had long, messy auburn hair, and large brown eyes that gave her a doe-eyed appearance. She was cute, rather than pretty, with definite curves under her uniform. I guessed her to be roughly my height of five foot five.
She smiled at us, but I noticed the smile was anything but friendly.
No, I would describe it as predatory.
My heart began to beat a little nervously.
There was tension in the Countess’s voice. “You….”
The girl pointed at herself. “Me?”
“Yes, you. I remember you. You were outside the restaurant. You looked at me and smiled that same smile when I walked by. I was surprised Caelum didn’t notice you, but then I realized you’d turned away in a hurry.”
The girl cocked her head. “I wondered if you’d forgotten. After all, you did hit your head pretty hard when the floor caved down.”
The Countess inhaled sharply. “You murderous bitch,” she hissed.
The girl’s predatory look intensified. “Oh, that’s rather lame coming from the sister of the Raynar Witch.”
“What?” the Countess blurted.
“Didn’t the Familiar give you the message?” The girl laughed and then looked disappointed. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell you. I made it very clear to him.” She shook her head, and her shoulders rose and fell as she took a deep breath. “What a pity. Well it doesn’t matter now. He probably just forgot.”
“No. He gave me the message.” The Countess clenched her hands. “Why are you here?”
The girl pointed at the distant medical buses. “I’m here for them.”
“What?”
I heard a popular pop song play in the air, and realized it was coming from the Countess’s skirt. Was that her palm-slate?
“You should answer that,” the girl said. “It could be ‘really’ important.”
The Countess glared at her with a mixture of anger and fear. She pulled out the palm-slate, thumbed the screen and held it up to her ear. “This is Simone…what…when…is it still happening?”
The girl held up six fingers. “Six down. One more to go.”
The Countess lowered the palm-slate away from her ear. “So there’s more than one of you.”
“What a stupid thing to say. Of course there’s more than one of us. Really, how much of an air head are you?”
I saw the Countess swallow. “Very well. You’ve reached the final layer. That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
The girl looked puzzled. “Layer? What do you mean layer? They’re not layers at all. They’re seals.”
The Countess repeated her question. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to ensure my comrades finish the job.” She wagged an index finger at the Countess. “No interference. We can’t hide where or when the breach takes place, but we can stop you from making a move on my comrades.”
The Countess nodded at the medical buses. “If you want the medical data on our students, you’ll have to wait until it’s collected.”
“Is that what you think? You believe we want the medical data?”
“There’s nothing else of value in our Academy’s network. Aren’t you looking for Familiars to subjugate into your cause?”
“Familiars for the cause? Nothing else of value?” The girl tipped her head from one side to the other. “So you really don’t know what’s hidden deep underground.” She laughed for a handful of heartbeats. “You mean the Raynar Witch didn’t tell you about the Vault? Her little sister has no idea about the treasure trove hidden under her beloved Academy?”
I wasn’t following the conversation that well, but I could tell that this girl wasn’t here for fun and games. The Countess was taking her seriously – very, very seriously.
“This is just an Academy for Aventis,” the Countess stated with forced calm.
“And the perfect and most obvious place to hide an Artifact.”
An Artifact? Was she talking about a complete Fragment?
The girl kicked at the ground playfully. “In saying that, it’s not just any old Artifact. It’s a very special one. After all, there are a lot of Artifacts out there already in use. We have them, and so do you. But this one is really, really special. And that’s why they put it very deep underground.”
I felt my mouth fall open.
The Countess said, “Yes, I know that Crescent and the Prides have a number of Artifacts already out in the field. But do you seriously believe the Prides would place something dangerous under the Academy. There are two thousand students here. Two thousand Aventis, the future leaders of the Prides here in Pharos, and possibly elsewhere.”
The girl nodded. “A monumental risk, right? But depending on who’s attacking the Academy, those students are either a human shield, or a liability.”
The Countess shook her again. “No, that isn’t true at all.”
“Oh, but it is. In fact, the Raynar Witch suggested putting the ‘dangerous’ Artifact here, and precisely for that reason. Because who would ever consider putting something so dangerous under so many Aventis? It’s just ludicrous right? Totally insane, right? But it’s also the last place anyone would look if you didn’t know where to look.”
I glanced at the Countess. Who did this girl mean by the Raynar Witch?
The Countess had a frown on her face. “What are you saying?”
The girl looked annoyed. “I said, the Raynar Witch suggested that ‘she’ put the Artifact into the Vault buried under the school and the Primogens all agreed.”
The frown on the Countess’s face deepened. “She? Who put the Artifact under the school?”
The girl quickly smiled without mirth. “Isn’t it ironic, that her little brother would awaken as a Familiar and attend the same school she sent us to break into.”
Suddenly the Countess dropped her palm-slate. Rather, it fell from her limp fingers. “No. No…that can’t be.”
“She was the best of them.”
The Countess was shaking her head slowly like those plastic heads at an amusement park, the ones you throw small balls into their open mouths.
“You’re lying,” she said. “She’s dead. I was told she was dead. The records state she is dead!”
“Not dead. Just indefinitely away without leave.” The girl smiled maliciously. “And she’s been watching over him from time to time.”
The words left my lips before I realized it. “…Celica Desanto….”
The girl looked at me as though seeing me for the first time. “That’s right. You must be Haruka. She remembers you quite well.”
I was starting to feel cold and more than a little sick. “Celica disappeared more than a year and a half ago.”
“Yes. Disappeared, went into hiding—that sort of thing. She had no choice. The moment the Powers-that-be chose to purge the Artemis and Paladins suspected of treachery, Mistress Celica and all the girls that were part of her crew were as good as dead, and simply because they carried out the mission they were given.” The girl leaned forward and wagged a finger at us. “In fact, almost a third of the Sanctum’s Artemis ranks were considered liabilities and marked for incarceration or termination. And the job to kill the Mistress was carried out by the very person the Mistress held most dear to her heart.”
The Countess took a step back. “What did you say?”
The girl frowned. “Are you claiming you don’t understand? Claiming you don’t know any of this?”
The Countess shook her head. “No. I’ve never heard of this. Never.”
The girl planted a hand on her hip. “Around nineteen or twenty months ago, the Sanctum decreed that a number Artemis—and some Paladins—were tainted by the treacherous actions committed by members of their ranks who supported Crimson Crescent’s ideals. The Sanctum ordered the Artemis and Paladins they trusted to hunt down their treacherous comrades, and that included the Mistress and the girls of her Interdiction squad who had broken out of a detention facility and were on the run.”
The Countess fell to her knees, her ash grey hair veiling her face.
“No…no, that can’t be.”
“Mistress Celica was the best of them. You could describe her as a war goddess. She was the last member of her squad still standing when Crimson Crescent arrived and whisked her to safety. She was the only one Crescent could save.” The girl grimaced unpleasantly. “Well, there was one other they saved, but due to her injuries she continues to live in a different way.”
I didn’t understand what this girl was talking about. Celica was a Regular. Why would she have something to do with the Prides and Primogens? Who are these Artemis the girl’s talking about?
The girl tipped her head again. “Tell me, Simone Alucard Raynar. When the Sanctum gave the order to cleanse the Artemis, who did they send to kill Celica Desanto? Who do you think accepted the task of killing the girl she was responsible for nurturing and training—the girl who helped elevate her status amongst the Prides when she took the credit for Celica’s accomplishments?”
The breeze blew aside the Countess’s hair and I saw her face.
Simone stared aghast at the girl. “No. You can’t mean…you can’t mean that. She believed in Celica. She trusted her. She loved her.”
“And that made her a risk. The Sanctum viewed her as a person of interest in their efforts to purge the ranks of anyone that could be a liability. Even though she wasn’t part of the Sanctum, and had her own Intervention Team—her own Kill Crew—and was part of Public Security, she was still someone close to Celica. So what did she do when she came under the scrutiny of the Sanctum?”
The girl glared at the Countess who continued to kneel.
Then she pointed an accusing finger at the Countess.
“To save her own skin she volunteered to lead a Judgment Crew and terminate Celica and her girls.”
“You’re lying,” Simone gasped.
The girl grew angry. “Are you ignorant or just stupid?”
I took a step toward the Countess. “Vice-President, what is she talking about? How does she know Caelum’s sister? How can she claim that Celica is alive?”
“Tell her,” the girl said. “Tell her, Simone Alucard Raynar.”
Simone hung her head.
I lost sight of her face when her hair veiled it once more.
But I heard her reply quite clearly.
“Celica…Celica Desanto was a Familiar.”
My eyes widened slowly in disbelief and I blinked slowly at the Countess.
The Countess spoke softly. “Celica awakened to her fate shortly before the explosion that killed her parents. Her body’s awakening was triggered by Raynar blood, so she was bonded to the Raynar Pride.”
I found my voice. “A Familiar? Celica was a Familiar? Caelum never told me. Celica never told me.”
The Countess gently shook her head. “She kept it a secret from him. She wanted to protect him. The Avenirs took care of their needs as a family, but it was my Pride, the Raynars, that held Celica’s leash. Unlike Caelum, she was inducted into the Artemis training program for Familiars gifted with an Artifact. She served with Public Security before the Sanctum took her in. She was exceptional, better than all the rest. At least, that’s what my sister has always said.”
I stared aghast at her. “Does Caelum know this? Does he know?”
“He knows. Arisa told him Celica was a Familiar who was part of the Artemis that served the Sanctum. But that’s all he knows. That’s all I knew as well. And that’s all Arisa knew.”
With a lost look in her eyes, the Countess looked up at the girl.
The girl smiled like a wolf about to eat the little lost lamb.
She announced with delight, “The one who carried out the Sanctum’s order to kill the Mistress was the Raynar Witch—Silia Alucard Raynar. And though she didn’t succeed, she was spared and kept her position in Public Security as the head of Section Three.”
At the familiar sounding name, I looked at Simone.
At first, Simone said nothing. She just continued to kneel on the grass bordering the sports field.
Then the Countess whispered hoarsely, “Silia…is my elder sister.”
Reflections – 12.
I need to describe something of a technical marvel.
I’ll describe it in simple layman’s terms because I don’t know all of its workings.
It’s called, the Skinsuit.
As the name implies, it’s a suit you wear over your birthday suit. It acts like a second skin and is a mere four to five millimeters thick. Thousands upon thousands of nerve contact points on the inside of the suit make contact with the surface of your skin. For that reason, you have to wear it while buck naked underneath.
The skinsuit is fitted with fibers that behave like artificial muscles. These complement the wearer’s muscles, enhancing their strength by as much as forty percent. It might not sound like much, but that forty percent can translate to a big difference in the case of an Aventis or a Familiar.
In order to make use of the skinsuit, it has to be tuned to the wearer, making it their personal skinsuit. This takes anywhere from six to ten hours. The tuning process allows the skinsuit to react in harmony with the wearer’s body. An un-tuned suit can injure the wearer if it works against the body’s movements rather than with it. The whole point is to complement the individual inside the skinsuit, not impair them.
All four of us, Maya, Rina, Caprice, and I, were given skinsuits that were quickly customized and tuned to our bodies. We trained in them too to get a fe
el for what we could achieve with them.
Mine was a little different from theirs. The right arm sleeve was a little shorter to compensate for the Gauntlet which sometimes tore up the sleeves of the clothes I was wearing. It wasn’t supposed to, and in truth, it didn’t do so all the time. But in those days I had trouble manifesting it properly or teaching it to manifest over my clothes rather than under them.
To be honest, the fact my Fragment ate up my clothes more often than not tended to piss me off. Thankfully, on the occasion when I first encountered Crimson Crescent at the restaurant, my Gauntlet didn’t eat up my shirt and jacket. That would have ruined my new outfit.
I would like to point out that Caprice didn’t have this issue.
She could manifest her Valkyrie Legs without the need to bare skin.
I decided I would persevere and master my Fragment.
In short, I chose not to lose to Caprice, or to any other Familiar for that matter.
Chapter 15.
(Caelum)
I knew something was wrong the moment I saw Kaleb Deneve stride across the cafeteria, and walk toward Caprice and I who were disposing of our trays.
He carried a large canvas travel bag with its straps slung over his neck and across his body.
He completely ignored the looks of surprise and confusion the students gave him, and stopped a couple of feet away from us.
“Come with me.”
I asked quickly, “Why are you here? What’s going on?”
“The worst possible outcome.”
It was then I felt it, the tingle from my Fragment. Caprice must have felt something too, because she shifted on her feet in a surprised manner.
I looked at her and whispered, “Killing intent?”
Kaleb’s voice cut through low and harsh. “Damn it. Gods damn it.”
He almost ran to the panoramic cafeteria window and stared outside. I followed him with Caprice at my side.
Out on the edge of the sports field, almost blocked by the edge of a building, I saw three girls on the grass. One was standing beside a second girl on her knees. The third girl was aiming her right arm out toward the sports field. But her right arm resembled the barrel of a cannon, and it was aimed squarely at the medical buses and the hundred or so students lined up before them.
Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) Page 28
