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petit-etoile · 1 year ago

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i need you when i'm falling apart

pairing . ⊱ astarion x tav wordcount . ⊱ 3,489 part one . ⊱ here . content warnings . ⊱ mentions of canon compliant temporary character death, spoilers for act iii endgame other tags . ⊱ canon compliant, character study, introspection, p.orn with plot, pwp, vignette, re-establishing relationship, blood drinking, m.issionary position, tav is gender neutral archiveofourown . ⊱ here .

taglist . ⊱ @azrielshadows1nger, @pandimoostuff, @faevi, @microskies, @foreverthemaraudersera, @queenofthespacesquids, @claryvoyantfray, @6doodlaang14, @anne-isnotokay, @itshimbotime, @yeeteth-the-raven, @sessils,@8-opossums, @worryknotdear, @abirdaboxandachippedcup, @ghosts-and-ink, @b4um3pfl4um3, @gunslingerorchid, @hypopxia, @m0ssytrees, @erysione, @odette-attackattack, @catching-fire-in-the-wind, @ashrio20, @wills-mental-illness, @queenofcarrotflowers-s, @kirahlene, @lavenderslemonade, @candyladycry, @chonkercatto, @foxxyhun, @nyxmainex, @angelmawss2, @godoffuckedupcats, @raviolixxx be added . ⊱ here .

summary . ⊱ You have learned to be good. It's time Astarion learns to be forgiven.

During the heart of spring, Astarion spends more time trying to avoid you than he does trying to catch up with you. You’re not even sure why he agreed to travel alongside you — but you do not ask. You press your lips together and push on anyway.

His eyes are cold, and red.

The first night when you set up camp in an abandoned temple, Astarion moves his tent to the other side of the sanctuary as if he cannot bear to be around you. Like you smell. You’ve never cared much for the thoughts or opinions of others, but an inkling of self-doubt creeps back into the depths of your mind. What is the cost of being good if no one treats you kindly?

Every interaction you have with him is like pulling teeth. You want to fight for the tieflings, and Astarion wants to leave them behind. You want to help Wyll find his father, and Astarion snorts. Any good deed you suggest, he finds the need to punish.

When the cambion Raphael reaches and touches your cheek with a promise of opulence and salubrity, you're reminded of a night two hundred years ago. You stumble out of the House of Hope as fast as you can.

You don’t stop walking until daybreak. One night, you explode on Astarion. Your feelings bubble up like bile in your throat.

‘I tried to look for you!’ you snap at him. ‘You can sit here, and you can be bitter, but if I had known, I would have looked for you! But I didn’t know — I didn’t know and it isn’t a crime!’

Astarion’s look of surprise is one thing. He furrows his eyebrows as if properly scandalized, and his frustrated scowl turns to ash when you throw his old cravat at him. You had kept it tied around your neck for two hundred years. You wouldn’t keep it a day longer.

It’s a horrifying mistake to go wandering off in the Underdark by yourself with nothing but a hunting knife at your side, but you never really gave much thought to how you would cope with the gravity of the situation. The fact that you knew Cazador only made matters worse. You stumble past the ruins of the Selûnite Outpost in hopes of running away from your past.

You don’t run into your past in the dark, but you do run into a Spectator.

You’re immediately thrown into darkness and narrowly avoid being petrified, but you have no idea what you’re going to do about this situation besides hide beyond some poor stoned soul. You might should have considered thinking it through. You might should have thought anything through but you didn’t, and that’s the only crime you’ve committed in quite some time. It isn’t a crime is something you’ve begun to repeat to yourself often.

You manage to defend yourself for quite a while in the darkness, but by the end, you’re nursing a nasty wound and bite from the Spectator that will take some time to heal. You’re tucked under some petrified Drow bastard when you hear Karlac’s battle cry and see Gale’s ice spell come from the cliffs. The one that catches you off-guard, the one that will always catch you off-guard, is Astarion flipping through the air with nothing but an elven bow like a prince from your dreams.

Defeating the Spectator is easier with allies, and even the Drow protecting it goes down without much of a fight. You nurse your wounds as best you can, sitting against the cliffs with a bleeding thigh, and try not to frown when Astarion approaches.

‘Give me that,’ he says quietly, snatching one of Halsin’s potions from your fingers. ‘Even after all these years, it seems like you still need protecting.’

You frown and pick at your torn breeches. ‘I know how much you hate that, your honor.’

Astarion looks at you for the first time in several tendays, eyes rimmed with red. ‘I never hated it,’ he says. He dresses your wound like it pains him to see it. ‘I don’t hate it even now.’ Astarion crashes into you full force the night you arrive at the Last Light Inn after you’ve talked to Jaheira but before you’ve talked to anyone else. You’re in your room, and the next thing you know, you’re not alone.

Two hundred years of loneliness are erased at that moment.

His teeth clack painfully against yours as he shoves you into the wall, too uncaring or too pent up to care about the force. He cradles the back of your head to keep you from cracking it on the wall, but other than that, Astarion doesn’t care about hiding the full force of his strength. He kisses you until your mouth is swollen and then he’s tearing your night shirt open with both hands like he can’t get enough.

‘Astarion — ’ you try to say, startled.

But you would be lying if you said you didn’t miss him too. You let Astarion push you around, until you’re both stripped of your clothes and he’s lying flat on his back on the hard wooden floor with you pulled into his lap, his cock pushed deep inside you, and his hands unable to stop wandering the planes of your body. Astarion all but sobs into your mouth as he fucks you. He holds your cheeks in his hands like you’re the most precious thing he’s ever seen.

When you’re both finished, no one moves from the wood floor despite there being a bed. You lie on your side next to him, memorizing the slope of his nose while you still shiver with little twinges of pleasure still racing up your spine and between your legs. Astarion’s eyes are closed. He’s pretending to sleep, or pretending to be dead so you don’t have to talk about what’s happened, but you’re curious anyway.

You reach across the distance and touch his chest. You know there’s no heartbeat beneath his ribs, but you like to pretend. You close your eyes and dream it has been nothing but two hundred years of happiness and bliss in Astarion’s home.

‘When I first saw you,’ you say quietly, ‘I thought you were a ghost come back to haunt me.’

‘Are you often haunted by ghosts?’ Astarion asks. He still doesn’t look.

‘I’ve been properly reformed while you were away,’ you tell him. You stare at his neck. ‘There was only one ghost I was running from.’

He smiles. ‘And now you’ve found him. What do you think about this haunting?’

‘I am happily haunted,’ you say honestly. He opens his eyes then and turns toward you, lips pressed into a firm line. ‘But you are not happily haunting.’

Astarion sits up then and you follow him, legs sticky and wet. You reach for his hands and pull them into your lap. You watch as he struggles to accept a kind touch. In a way, you understand that. You remember how kindly he treated you when you didn’t deserve it. You hold his hands even when he tries to run away.

‘I was ashamed for you to see me like this,’ Astarion explains. He looks away, hesitant. ‘My condition isn’t one that I’m proud of. It isn’t fair to say I was tricked, but — ’

‘Wanting to live doesn’t make you a bad person,’ you say.

‘Perhaps not,’ he says. ‘But I became what I often chastised you for. I am greedy. I am prone to lying and bouts of theatrics. I’ve killed. It was embarrassing to fall so low.’

‘And now you rescue orphans,’ you say, shrugging. ‘You helped the gnomes. You helped the tieflings. You’re going to help the gnomes and tieflings again. There’s still good in you, your honor, beneath all that vampiric avarice you despair over.’

Astarion laughs and turns away from you. He’s looking for his clothes, and your heart squeezes so tightly in your chest that you move before you can stop yourself. You drape yourself over Astarion’s back and pull his arms away from his smallclothes. You can tell by the musculature of his arms that you only succeed because he lets you.

‘Please don’t leave me alone again,’ you whisper against his shoulder. Your wet eyelashes tickle the nape of his neck. ‘I waited for you that night and… I don’t want to be alone anymore.’

Astarion stays that night.

He stays every night after that too. For what it’s worth, your third visit to Baldur’s Gate is hardly better than the first two.

Between fighting cultists, saving children, and trying to convince most of your party that they’re not going to become mindflayers, you’re beginning to run a little thin. You feel like you’re going to shrivel up and die. You feel like the world is spinning and falling apart. You’ve killed Gortash and you’ve killed Orin and you killed Ketheric ages ago, but now you’re trying to keep the Emperor from betraying you and sacrificing Orpheus, and Cazador’s invitation is sitting pretty in your hands, and —

Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? Cazador’s invitation is in your hands, and you don’t have the heart to show Astarion. You’re afraid of showing Astarion. You know that as soon as you show him the invitation, he’ll lose his mind. You’ve only just recovered him and you’re already worried about losing him again.

You bury the invitation in the garden behind the inn like you’re a dog with a bone. You shovel the dirt with your hands until they’re cracked and raw and bleeding and the invitation is buried six feet in the ground. It should scare you that Cazador knows who you are, but it doesn’t. You aren’t stupid enough to run headfirst into his trap. And Astarion isn’t stupid either, but he’s scared, and being scared makes you do stupid things. Astarion almost does a very stupid thing like you predicted he would.

The Rite of Ascension was right there in his hands, and he had almost consumed it. You aren’t sure what changed his mind at the last minute but you’re thankful. Astarion crawls into your arms that night and sobs for hours. ‘What are we going to do about tomorrow?’ Astarion asks you softly.

He’s been tracing patterns into your spine all evening. If he moves his hands now, you’d still feel his fingertips against your skin. You’re hiding your face in your arms so you don’t have to think about it. You can’t stop thinking about it.

‘We’re going to fight the Absolute,’ you say.

‘Like it’s that simple?’

‘I am going to look another god in the face,’ you say, ‘and I am going to tell it to fuck off back to Avernus.’

‘Do Netherbrains come from Avernus?’

You don’t know. You’re too worried to think too hard about the simplest details. So far, you’re every plan has been to go in, stab whoever is the loudest, and then leave before things get worse. It’s hard to keep your head above the waves as they keep crashing down on you.

You don’t want to talk about tomorrow. If things don’t go well, you’re all going to die anyway and all that planning will have been for nothing. You turn on your side and appraise Astarion’s expression. He’s looking at you with muted disbelief. You choose to ignore it.

‘What are we going to do after tomorrow?’ you ask.

Astarion opens his mouth to chastise you for changing the subject, but he closes it almost immediately. He doesn’t want to talk about it either. It’s a scary thing to walk into the end of the world with a sword and a dagger. At least Dame Aylin will be there. You hope she can just stomp the Netherbrain to death and then it’ll all be over.

‘I could always go back to being a magistrate,’ Astarion says conversationally.

He picks at a thread coming loose on his blanket.

‘If you go back to that, I’ll go back to being a criminal,’ you muse. ‘We can have nasty sex on your desk again. You always did look damn good in a cassock.’

Astarion laughs. He laughs like the sunlight that peeks through the window on a sunny morning. He laughs like the moonlight that splays on the cobblestone of Baldur’s Gate long after everyone else has already gone to bed. It’s hideous — it’s melodic and intoxicating, and you reach across the distance and touch his cheek without thinking.

You slide your finger across to his nose. You press your finger against the wrinkle between his brow, and Astarion starts laughing again so you do too. You kiss him while he laughs, and then he holds you and you both laugh together. He will never be a judge again. Your connections with the Zhentarim will die out.

Astarion brushes his fingers against your hip bone. He rolls out of bed like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do, and you miss him. Already without him, the bed is much colder. You dramatically crawl across to his side and press your nose into his pillowcase to smell the faint traces of whiskey that are left.

When he returns, he presents you with his old cravat which has been neatly restored almost to perfection. He had sewn it back together himself. You had worn it for two hundred years as a good luck charm against evil, and the wear and tear had nearly torn it to shreds. You’d never had the heart to try to tailor it yourself. Sewing wasn’t your strong suit, and you had never cried over Astarion’s death until the day you thought you had lost it.

Astarion neatly ties the cravat around your wrist like a promise. He kisses your skin and inhales as though in a dream, nose brushing against the fabric, like the touch of a ghost against your veins. Your throat tightens.

‘Wherever this takes us,’ Astarion says, eyes burning. ‘I want to be there with you in the end.’

You tuck inside your bed with Astarion that night and watch the moon disappear through the window. It’s barely daylight when you’re finally too exhausted to stay awake, and Astarion almost lets you both miss the final showdown. Lae’zel, however, doesn’t. ‘I don’t mind what we do,’ Astarion is saying, ‘once we get to the — ’

You watch with muted horror as Astarion’s skin begins to glimmer in the sunlight. The fire begins cracking under his skin, brimming against his cheekbones and nose and throat and hair much like Karlach when she overheats. You watch as the tips of his ears ignite, and then he’s searching for you frantically between all of your friends.

‘I have to go,’ he chokes out. ‘I have to — ’

There is a world where you let Astarion run alone, where you both get separated on the docks and never find one another again. He runs from the sun as he bursts with radiant energy and as stars pour from his skin, you forget what Wyll is saying, and you run after him.

Astarion finds sanctuary in melting shade beneath a set of boxes. He’s curled up into himself when you arrive, and you drop next to him, pulling your cloak over your heads. He looks up at you, bewildered.

But you have lived through losing Astarion once, and it has haunted you for two hundred years. You had known loneliness and fear and anger, and the thought of surviving it for even a day more makes your stomach roll. You press your forehead to Astarion’s and stand as tall as you can so the sun can’t touch him ever again.

‘Won’t your arms get tired?’ Astarion asks you faintly.

He watches you with a sense of wonder. His skin slowly returns to normal, no more flickering stardust and ash, and you grin. He slowly smiles too, nervous but you shake your head and keep your cloaked raised.

‘Never,’ you say. ‘Not when it’s you.’

‘My reform worked, then?’ he says.

‘I’ve learned about your stuck-up decorum,’ you say. ‘It’s true. I can confirm.’

‘A sense of propriety?’ Astarion asks, and if his voice goes any softer, you’ll melt too.

‘Let me carry the weight of your sins,’ you tell him sincerely, laughing a little. ‘And if we need to find another desk then we will. But I’ll be your knight in shining armor, your honor, and carry a parasol above your head as a proper chamberlain would.’

Astarion snorts. ‘That isn’t quite the job of a chamberlain.’

You hold the cloak up for two hours at least while Astarion recovers from the damage. You can’t help but notice that he looks happy and content even in the shadows. It must be because you’re there, although you’re hesitant to take credit for all his happiness. When you let down the cloak, the sun has set. When Astarion rises, he kisses your cheek sweetly. ‘The silence stretches on — I’m all alone,’ you muse, ‘Please, can I hold your hands, just for a while?’

Bernard’s arms wrap around you gently, and you wrap your arms around his steel ribs. You’ve taken up residence in the old Arcane Tower in the Underdark. You appreciate the permanent nighttime, and if you admitted you only did it because Astarion wanted to be close to his family, it wouldn’t be entirely true. With a bit of help from Gale, you’ve managed to turn the tower into a comfortable fortress. Sometimes Omeluum comes to visit you. Occasionally, there’s word from Shadowheart from the Selûnite Outpost. She’s hoping to restore it. She wants you to come visit.

‘Are you still playing with that dusty old thing, my love?’ Astarion hums from the doorway.

‘You be kind to Bernard,’ you warn him. ‘He’s my friend.’

‘Of course, of course,’ Astarion says, holding his hands up. ‘I’ll be kind to the scrap metal.’

You roll your eyes and step away, touching Bernard’s chest briefly. Astarion has just arrived back from a trip. There are spawn all over the Underdark now, and they treat Astarion as though he’s some sort of prince. They heed your word too, but none so much as his. Their eldest brother, their favorite. They tolerate you if it means getting to see Astarion.

You’re a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none now. You leave your handiwork for the day or night or whatever it is to go down to your bedroom and recline in bed. Astarion lights each candle one by one until the room is illuminated. You smile and watch as he works.

‘Having responsibility suits you well,’ you say, resting your cheek on your palm. ‘Although it’s funny how our positions have changed somewhat.’

‘I’m the contracted killer,’ Astarion says with a laugh. ‘Are you a magistrate now?’

‘I have at least four hundred years of life left,’ you snort. ‘I, Magistrate Judge Stick-Up-My-Ass, sentence thee to fifty years of community service!’

Astarion rolls his eyes at you dramatically and throws himself into bed, kicking off his boots as he does so. He smells of fresh oils and mist. You bury your nose in his hair. You practically burrow yourself into him, wrapping your arms and legs around him like a mindflayer. You squeeze him tightly in your arms.

‘We have a sprawling manse and all you can think of to do all day is mock me for a position I have not occupied in two hundred years?’ Astarion pouts.

You kiss his hair. ‘What else should I do?’

‘Well,’ Astarion says, tone turning conspiratorial. ‘There are a certain amount of fuckable places here. Several desks, I’ve counted them all, and couches.’

You contemplate it, but after several tendays on the road and a wiggling visitor in your head, you think the bed is the best place. You pull Astarion up to kiss him, arms wrapping around his neck so he can’t leave you. You never want him to go again. You bump your nose against his and hide a smile in his coiffed hair when he melts against your chest.

You sigh prettily when Astarion takes you in your velvet sheets that you float as though in a dream. Your troubles are long over, and that person you thought you lost — your immortal soul — has returned to you as beautiful as the day you lost him. When you shudder, Astarion brushes hair out of your eyes adoringly and tastes your pulse at your jaw. You dig your fingers into the small of his back.

It’s like you’ve found a family. A very bitey, very competitive family. Still, you wouldn’t change any of it for the world. You hold Astarion’s face in your hands and see the man you knew and the man he’s become. Slowly, you pull his mouth towards your neck and feel your heartbeat jump in your chest.

He bites you for the first time that night.

#astarion #astarion ancunin #astarion bg3 #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #astarion x you #astarion x oc #astarion smut #bg3 smut #from ，carcosa .#my fic #YOU GUYS CAN STOP MANIFESTING SNAKES IN MY HOUSE NOW #I LAID DOWN TO SLEEP & ALL I COULD DREAM ABOUT WAS CRAVATS #honestly patch 5 inspired a lot too #learning about astarion becoming A Dad to a bunch of vampire spawn really like........................... fired up the brain

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marrziy · 5 months ago

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Michael Myers x Male Reader

"Pobre Michael"

• Filme: Halloween (escrevi com o de 2018 em mente)

• Gênero: terror

• Sinopse: você caiu na mira do bicho papão, e agora ele te segue na penumbra. Como a sombra que imita seus passos, ele te faz companhia e entra na sua casa, buscando por saciedade, sem saber que você não pensa e nem age como vítima.

• Palavras: 3k

3° pessoa - passado

Quatro cabeças foram encontradas em uma pracinha, fincadas do pescoço ao crânio nos postes que iluminavam as calçadas. O interior delas estava oco, com os olhos, línguas, dentes e miolos espalhados pela grama aparada do lugar bem cuidado. As lâmpadas emitiam luz através dos orifícios vazios. Uma recriação sinistra das abóboras nas calçadas das casas.

A polícia nunca esteve tão ativa quanto naquele halloween.

Pessoas diziam ter visto o assassino, a maioria de relance. Poderia ser julgado como um simples vulto, consequência da paranóia coletiva, mas a sanguinolência nos interiores da cidade anunciava que estar paranóico era algo positivo naquele 31 de outubro.

A movimentação distante talvez significasse algo.

A sua sombra, muito provavelmente, não era sua.

Não eram pequenas as chances de a silhueta que te acompanha ser, na verdade, do bicho-papão.

Apelido dado a Michael Myers pelas crianças apavoradas, que deixavam de pedir doces para correr para o colo dos pais e chorar após testemunharem ou ouvirem falar das cenas macabras que tingiam o chão e as paredes de Haddonfield.

A noite começou agitada, cheia de vampiros, múmias, fantasmas, bruxas e lobisomens de um metro e meio circulando, famintos por açúcar.

Mas durou tão pouco…

A única época do ano em que era divertido comemorar nas trevas teve seu significado obsoleto ressaltado quando o mal despertou, sedento para espalhar carnificina; terrificar os salubres e entreter os insalubres.

A notícia sobre os assassinatos chegou até você durante uma pausa no percurso do trabalho para casa. O cheiro fresco dos grãos moídos seduziu suas narinas e você não resistiu, teve que entrar no estabelecimento e pedir um expresso. O plano era relaxar nos assentos acolchoados do lugar, degustar com calma a bebida quente e sair revigorado devido à cafeína no organismo. Porém, a televisão suspensa exibia uma reportagem local, ao vivo, noticiando o crime bárbaro nas redondezas.

As imagens, mesmo que borradas, juntamente com a descrição explícita do texto da repórter, deixaram você aflito. As pessoas ao redor, sentadas paralelamente nas mesas dispostas, compartilhavam do pânico.

O clima descontraído foi esmagado pelo silêncio imediato. Só se ouvia as vozes chiadas da tv.

A presença do delegado na tela, recomendando o isolamento das pessoas em suas residências, foi o tiro de largada. A maioria se locomoveu, tomando rumo. A movimentação te influenciou. Você bebeu a metade que restava do café em um gole, ingerindo com uma careta antes de se levantar e sair da cafeteria.

Enquanto atravessava o centro, resquícios de calmaria ainda o mantinham tranquilo.

No entanto, quanto mais perto de casa, mais apressados eram seus passos e maior era a ansiedade acumulada no peito.

Mesmo em uma rua mal iluminada, longe do movimento caótico, a sensação de não estar sozinho era constante. Seu andar nervoso estava prestes a se transformar em correria.

Felizmente, era possível avistar sua morada.

Mas à distância, a sombra o seguia.

Michael viu você sozinho e sentiu-se extremamente atraído pela sua aventura solo no breu daquele lado esmarrido da cidade.

Entre as esquinas, afastado o suficiente para não ser visto, Myers o acompanhava, sendo ele a presença que você sentiu nas costas.

O puro mal condensado no corpo de um homem viu você como a vítima perfeita para o que ele considerava uma brincadeira divertida.

Largado na cama, com o rosto iluminado pelas cores vibrantes do celular, despojada era sua condição. O desconforto nos olhos era meramente aliviado graças ao abajur ligado, que mesclava a luz amarela com a luz azul da tela.

Na calçada do outro lado da rua, em frente à sua casa, Myers parecia inanimado, quase como uma extensão do pedregulho urbano onde seus pés estavam estagnados. Ele olhava para cima, captando a sua silhueta alumiada através dos buracos da máscara. A janela nua, com as cortinas arreganhadas, cotejava Michael com sua cabeça, praticamente servida numa bandeja.

No segundo andar da residência, sua mente se perdia no instigante mistério da história que lia enquanto música inundava seus ouvidos. Com o som dos fones mais alto que seus pensamentos, você deslizava a tela para cima, ritmado com a aproximação soturna do bicho-papão.

As botas pretas fizeram a madeira ranger. Michael atravessou a varanda, evitando a porta da frente. Enquanto rodeava o jardim, o rosto mascarado se refletia em cada uma das vidraças do primeiro andar.

Os passos eram firmes. A sombra queria estar ali; era sua vontade e apetite mais voraz. E, mesmo decidido, o caminhar era calmo, sem pressa, porque a força que residia naquele corpo era imparável e agia como tal.

Michael só andava para frente, indiferente às pegadas que deixava na terra úmida do quintal. Quando alguém encontrasse os vestígios, ele já teria desaparecido, deixando apenas elas de piada... inúteis e engraçadas pegadas.

Chegando nos fundos, Myers encontrou a porta que dava acesso à cozinha e girou a maçaneta.

Estava destrancada, e ele entrou.

Com a lama nas solas, o assassino carimbava a cerâmica do chão e os tapetes que surgiam pelo caminho.

O trajeto até a breve saciedade, que pausaria o roncar monstruoso sob a carcaça do bicho-papão, tardou no instante em que ele se deparou com o brilho na ponta do aço.

A faca estava ao lado do faqueiro, escanteada e meio úmida. A torneira da pia, mal torcida, pingava, e Myers se perguntava qual carne a lâmina havia fatiado. A peça o seduziu; era maior que a ensanguentada que ele carregava, e a luz da lua, atravessando a janela, banhava o utensílio, fazia-o puro e tentava Michael a profanar com o gume afiado.

Ele largou a velha companheira na mesa e rodeou os dedos calejados no cabo da nova.

Pretendia degolar você com ela.

Iria raspar a ponta nos ossinhos frágeis da sua clavícula.

Rasgaria seu intestino sem dó.

Mas, antes, precisava ver o que tinha na geladeira.

Existia uma fresta pequena, mas aberta o suficiente para acionar a luz fria que vinha de dentro. Aquela luminância não devia brilhar; era forte, contrastava com a claridade natural da lua e incomodava Michael, levando-o a questionamentos, assim como a faca lavada, antes no mármore e agora em sua posse.

Parecia errado, como se o caminho tradicional do monstro estivesse sendo apontado por setas.

O corpulento pisava sem denotar presença, marchando até a porta da geladeira, ignorando a alça e puxando-a pela borracha das bordas laterais.

O cheiro podre alastrou-se pelo cômodo.

O que Michael viu não o assustou; a imagem era conhecida, saturada na memória assassina, mas ele não ser o responsável pelo feito era novidade, quase o fez esboçar surpresa por debaixo da máscara.

A geladeira era pequena; as prateleiras não eram largas o suficiente para acomodar as seis cabeças. Elas exigiam espaço e, por isso, a porta não fechava. As que tinham olhos expressavam horror, um último semblante antes de um machado, facão ou seja lá o que for, separá-las do que algum dia foi vivo.

O sangue pingava e escorria, quase ultrapassando os limites e alcançando o chão. A luz branca que vinha do interior gelado tornou-se vermelha no instante em que uma cascata desceu do congelador e dominou todo o cenário selvagem. As luzes refletiam aquela cor hipnotizante, e o bicho-papão, tal como um inseto, sentiu-se atraído. Havia mais na parte de cima; mais daquela brutalidade existia no congelador.

Brutalidade que Michael não era dono, não assassinou, não assinou.

O verdadeiro artista espreitava logo atrás.

Fora do campo de visão do assassino, você, outro amante da morte, esgueirava-se sorrateiramente, aproximando-se com duas seringas nas mãos.

Para alcançar a região propícia do corpo à frente, você ficou na ponta dos pés e abriu os braços, tomando impulso antes de descê-los ferozmente contra a estrutura que, mesmo de costas e vulnerável, intimidava. Seus punhos encontraram os ombros de Michael e foi como um soco. Você precisou acumular forças nos pulsos para penetrar o material da máscara, que se estendia até a nuca, antes de, enfim, perfurar o pescoço.

Seus dedões alongaram-se para pressionar a base do êmbolo, impulsionando o sedativo para o organismo do ser.

Mas, mesmo veloz e cheio de adrenalina, não foi rápido o suficiente.

Quando sentiu a picada, Michael jogou o cotovelo para trás, acertando suas costelas. Ele se virou na sua direção e, como se não fosse nada, desgrudou as agulhas da carne. Ambas estavam cheias até a metade, e parte do líquido, misturado com sangue, escorria pelos furos na pele.

Myers tacou as seringas no chão e deixou a faca na mesa; ele queria te estraçalhar usando apenas as mãos.

Você nunca teve o controle, mas ele também nunca esteve tão distante.

Deu errado, e apesar da face neutra, você suava frio, engolia seco e respirava pesado, apavorado. O coração acelerado batia com tanta força que você sentia a pulsação na ponta da língua.

Quando o cérebro desparalisou e deu ordem aos membros, você só teve tempo de dar meia-volta antes de uma mão agarrar seu cabelo por trás e obrigá-lo a encarar o olhar profundo do rosto pálido.

O olhar do diabo.

Michael notou algo recíproco nas íris, mas nada que despertasse empatia; o bicho-papão era incapaz de sentir certas coisas.

Ele rodeou os dedos pelo seu pescoço, a mão tão grande que quase cobria toda a circunferência. Sem esforço, ergueu sua estrutura menor.

Você chutava o ar, desesperado por não sentir mais os pés no chão. A pressão na sua garganta inibia a ventilação dos pulmões e avermelhava a pele. — Me põe no chão… – a voz falhou, mas soou clara, pena que de nada adiantou. Suas mãos trêmulas alcançaram os pulsos de Michael, arranhando, batendo, puxando, fazendo de tudo para afastá-lo.

Você foi arremessado, suas costas colidiram contra o mármore da bancada divisória. Seus esforços foram inúteis, e doeu nos nervos constatar isso.

O estralo da musculatura ecoou, os joelhos fraquejaram e você deslizou a coluna nas gavetas brancas, pousando na cerâmica. Não houve tempo para recuperar o fôlego ou sequer sentir a dor; seus instintos berravam para que você corresse.

Mas você não conseguia ficar de pé.

Então, rastejou.

Pobrezinho.

Michael puxou você pelo tornozelo com tanta brusquidão que sua cabeça bateu no chão, produzindo um som nauseante, de prensar os sentidos e turvar a visão. Pontinhos brilhantes invadiram os globos, flutuando no ar paralelamente.

Myers afastou suas pernas com as coxas e posicionou-se em cima da sua constituição abalada, voltando a esmagar seu pescoço, usando ambas as mãos dessa vez.

Era o fim?

Não devia ser uma pergunta.

Com os lábios entreabertos, você encarava o rosto mascarado, se perguntando o porquê de ainda estar respirando.

Michael era uma parede em cima de você, te cobria facilmente e tinha as duas mãos na sua garganta; a força devia separar sua cabeça do pescoço, mas não aconteceu. Os dedos tremiam e estavam cada vez mais frouxos ao seu redor.

Seus sentidos retornavam aos poucos e, quando compreendeu o que estava acontecendo, você levou as palmas abertas ao peitoral do Myers, amenizando o impacto quando o corpo maior caiu sobre o seu.

Sua preocupação migrou da incerteza sobre ter um amanhã para como iria sair debaixo do brutamontes adormecido.

Um suspiro aliviado escapou de seus lábios trêmulos. — Feliz Halloween, Michael. – a frase subiu queimando a garganta machucada.

E na cozinha, prevaleceu o silêncio dos monstros.

Sem norte.

As pálpebras levantavam e abaixavam várias vezes, acostumando os olhos à claridade e, aos poucos, tornando a visão nítida.

As íris correspondiam à reflexividade obscura das pupilas com o máximo de perfeição que a natureza defeituosa tolerava, e, dentro daquele círculo fúnebre, habitava o ser que havia abatido o bicho-papão.

Lá estava você, agachado sobre as pernas de Michael, quase sentado em suas coxas. — O soninho tava gostoso? – olhos e boca esticados; meia-lua e gengival eram seus sorrisos.

Como esperado, além do peito subindo e descendo e da respiração audível, Myers não expressou nada. O homem sentiu os pulsos contidos por gélidas algemas, os antebraços unidos ao dorso e correntes rodeando seu abdômen, mantendo-o preso a um pilar de pedras naquele porão vasto e estranhamente organizado. Ele sequer deu chance à tentativa, conhecia a si mesmo e sabia que insistir na fuga naquelas circunstâncias seria em vão.

Mas matar você era uma certeza que Michael fantasiava.

Sua mão direita dirigiu-se aos fios secos da máscara que simulavam cabelo, puxando-a para si com força e aproximando as faces. — Tão tagarela... – você revirou os olhos e levou os joelhos ao chão, montando no colo do assassino. — Ótimo. Significa que é um bom ouvinte.

Até então, Michael acompanhava seus olhos, fisgando cada microexpressão sua, mas permitiu-se desviar e memorizar o ambiente desconhecido.

A luz branca no teto de madeira cegava; alguns insetos circulavam a claridade, os mais ousados colidiam contra a lâmpada e tinham suas antenas dobradas, semelhante aos pássaros que se chocavam contra vidraças e tinham seus pescoços frágeis quebrados no impacto.

Ao fundo, sua voz ecoava. — De que abismo você saiu? — você pensava em voz alta, tentando chegar a uma conclusão sozinho. — Circulando por aí, tão silencioso, quase invisível… o ser mais próximo de um fantasma que eu já topei. É realmente um homem? É mesmo feito de carne e osso? — você o apalpava, apertava os ombros e os braços. Seu toque migrou para o peitoral firme, e você sentiu a maciez da pele por debaixo do macacão.

À esquerda e à direita havia mais pilares, um de cada lado, e encostadas nas paredes, pilhas de caixas vazias. O piso arranhava; era basicamente cimento e brita. O lugar havia sido lavado recentemente; o chão meio úmido ligava-se ao forte cheiro de produtos de limpeza. Isso irritava o nariz de Michael; ele preferia o pútrido.

Seus dedos roçaram o pescoço de Michael, adentrando a carne sob a máscara. Ele imediatamente redirecionou o foco, voltando a encarar suas pupilas. Você riu baixinho. — Relaxa, não vou tirar sua máscara. A graça está no mistério. – você se curvou, rente à orelha coberta do assassino. — Tenho certeza que você é muito mais interessante com ela.

Você retribuiu o encarar, e sentiu-se possuído. Fitar as orbes profundas de Michael assemelhava-se a cair de um abismo infinito.

E atrás da borracha gasta, Myers também estava em queda; caía do topo da cadeia nefasta e, pela primeira vez, via-se estampando o outro lado da moeda.

Sussurrando, você revelava seu segredinho sangrento. — Viu o que eu fiz? Viu as cabeças? – suas mãos agarraram os dois lados do rosto de Michael, apertando frouxamente com os dedos trêmulos. — Digno, não é? Com certeza algo que você faria... – o sorriso alargava-se e a postura ficava cada vez mais trêmula conforme você falava. — Nesse halloween, qualquer mísera gota de sangue derramada recairá sobre o bicho-papão… Eu me segurei tanto pra não sujar as mãos antes da hora. Você ter escapado do sanatório onde definhava foi a oportunidade perfeita! – você mordia o lábio, arrepiava da cabeça aos pés e se contorcia com o frio que sentia no estômago.

A respiração abafada de Michael cessou, calou-se o único som que ele emitia.

Você grudou as pálpebras, sentindo os cílios úmidos. Encheu os pulmões e liberou o ar serenamente. — Tô empolgado, desculpa. É bom demais contar isso pra alguém, especialmente pra você! – limpou o canto dos olhos com o antebraço e arrastou o quadril para frente, em atrito com as coxas do Myers até pousar na virilha dele, acomodando-se ali. — Eu acompanhei você, refiz seus passos e estive em cada lugar que você marcou. Assisti você esfaquear, degolar, estrangular, perfurar corpos e amassar crânios, e sequer fui notado! Estou tão orgulhoso de mim mesmo.

Seus lábios chocaram-se contra a boca de borracha; você beijou brevemente a máscara com tanta intensidade que a cabeça de Michael pendeu para trás.

Quando se afastou, você revelou um semblante fechado, contrário ao vigor que demonstrara anteriormente. Saliva acumulou-se na ponta da língua e você cuspiu no rosto mascarado. — Mas eu não sou mau. Não sou igual a você. – segurando firmemente a nuca de Michael, você o puxou para si outra vez, unindo as testas. — No primeiro poste, um colega de trabalho; assediava a mim e outros funcionários da empresa. No segundo poste, minha vizinha; eu tinha um cachorro, o nome dele era Totó, e ele morreu porque a puta jogou um pedaço envenenado de bife no meu quintal. No terceiro poste, um nazista; andava por aí sem camisa, exibindo aquela tatuagem nojenta nas costas. No quarto poste, um psicopata mirim; pisou na cabeça de um gato e abriu o estômago do bichinho com um galho.

As palavras vazaram pela boca sem travas, emitidas com naturalidade. A face seguiu serena, pausa a pausa. Você contava a história por trás de cada decapitação com frieza, e naquele cenário, nada pesava; para você, um refresco tardio, para Michael, nostalgia e anseio por reprise.

Você aprendeu tanto sendo apenas a sombra do bicho-papão, nutriu curiosidade e fascínio ao ponto de precisar extrair algo dele. — O mal é um ponto de vista, e do meu, você é maligno, Michael, de um jeito que eu não consigo entender. Isso me deixa maluco. — você bufou. As pálpebras contraídas te impediram de notar Michael absorver para si o ar gasto que você expeliu. — Talvez eu seja mau também… Não pelo que eu faço, mas sim por desejar que monstros existam e que eles façam monstruosidades. — suas mãos vagavam pelo corpo de Michael, adorando-o. — Assim eu consigo sustentar uma desculpa… posso acalmar essa vontade perversa dentro de mim sem peso na consciência.

E, de repente, o silêncio incomodava.

Você engatinhou de costas sobre o corpo contido, parando rente aos pés calçados de Michael. Sentado sobre os calcanhares, você apertou o bico sólido da bota preta, não encontrando os dedos. — Mas você não tem desculpa. Você é puro mal. — você permitiu-se alucinar no olhar do diabo uma última vez antes de prosseguir. — Eu me pergunto pra onde você iria caso morresse… céu não é uma opção e creio que o inferno não aceitaria criatura como você. – e esse último olhar foi maníaco. — Porra, eu quero saber… preciso saber se seria divertido para Satã torturar Michael Myers.

Com uma mão, você retirava a bota preta de Michael, e com a outra, buscava algo no bolso traseiro da calça.

Os dedos retornaram rodeando uma ferramenta.

Um alicate.

— Infelizmente o bicho-papão não fala... mas será que ele grita?

Relevem qualquer errinho, tô com dor de cabeça 😩

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quietlotus · 12 days ago

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“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea,

Drink the wild air's salubrity.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#quotes #ralph waldo emerson #sea #nature #sun #inspiration #dailyinspiration

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pettirosso1959 · 3 months ago

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Quando CHI DEVE non fa il proprio dovere (non faccio nomi, altrimenti i suoi "piccoli fans" si offendono e mi danno del kompagno) , allora può capitare che il GIUSTIZIERE DELLA NOTTE che si può annidare nel nostro subconscio , quello di ognuno di noi, salta fuori all'improvviso, cappello e giubbotto nero, baffetto e pistola in tasca, e reagisce, si riprende il suo con gli interessi e si vendica.

Oggi Viareggio è migliore.

I residenti respireranno senz'altro un'aria più pulita, più salubre, perché un sacchetto della spazzatura è finito finalmente in un inceneritore , liberando la città dal suo disgustoso olezzo.

E questo è quanto, senza emotività, senza pietà, perché la spazzatura non ne merita.

Cinzia dal Pino è apparentemente passata e ripassata su quel sacchetto per schiacciarlo ben bene, prima che finisse nell'inceneritore.

Poi è semplicemente scesa dall'auto , si è ripresa la sua borsa che il rifiuto solido urbano le aveva scippato, e se ne è andata.

E poi, solo poi, forse, mentre guidava per tornare a casa, il Charles Bronson/Dottor Paul Kersey che era in lei se ne è tornato a cuccia, è rientrato, finalmente appagato, nei labirintici meandri della mente umana, e la Signora si è resa conto di cosa avesse fatto.

Ma era sconvolta.

Era fuori di sé, arrabbiata, umiliata , spaventata.

Magari, dopo aver investito il sacchetto, invece di ingranare la retromarcia ha ingranato più volte la prima, che non ci capiva più nulla, presa da quel RAPTUS di cui i giornali tanto hanno parlato, per tentare di giustificare l'assassino pigmentato di Sharon Verzeni.

"Momentaneamente incapace di intendere e volere", insomma, a causa del TRAUMA che il Tale e Quale le aveva cagionato.

Mi sembra di poter affermare che la Signora quindi è assolutamente innocente , immacolata direi, per le nostre coscienze di vittime sacrificali dell'altrui tradimento ed infamità, perché solo degli infami e dei traditori, possono consentire, governando una Nazione, che essa venga continuamente riempita di spazzatura senza muovere un dito, né mai svuotare il cestino.

Ma a Viareggio , oggi, grazie a lei, si cammina un po' più tranquilli per strada.

Buona Fortuna , Signora Cinzia, siamo tutti con Lei!

#immigrati immondizia #negri di merda #criminalità diffusa #senso di impotenza #magistratura sinistra

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crazy-so-na-sega · 4 months ago

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Lettera aperta - Olimpiadi

La cerimonia inaugurale delle Olimpiadi di Parigi è la rappresentazione plastica di come certi eventi di caratura internazionale siano un’operazione di indottrinamento delle masse, volta ad attuare una riformattazione dei costumi, se non antropologica, delle cosiddette società occidentali.

Malgrado il dietro front di chi lancia il sasso per poi nascondere la mano con l’incalzare delle polemiche, alludendo a margine delle scuse ufficiali che la disposizione attorno a un tavolo di transessuali agghindati ad arte per l’occasione, manco le Olimpiadi siano il Carnevale di Rio de Janeiro, non sia una caricatura blasfema dell’Ultima Cena rappresentata dal Da Vinci, ma secondo la direttrice della comunicazione delle Olimpiadi Anne Descamps e Thomas Jolly, il direttore artistico (se così possiamo definirlo) della cerimonia, si voleva invece educare alla tolleranza e alla comunione.

Le Olimpiadi quali giochi che si svolgevano in Grecia iniziavano con celebrazioni religiose in favore di Zeus e si concludevano con la premiazione degli atleti vincitori, vennero riprese in epoca moderna a fine ‘800, ma sempre hanno conservato un universo estetico e simbolico arcaico proprio di quella civiltà ellenica che ha permeato l’Europa: dalla fiamma olimpica alla traslazione in altre nazioni a testimoniarne l’universalità.

E con la competizione insita nella natura dell’essere umano di confrontarsi con avversari al proprio pari, si veicolava un’immagine di sé salubre, forte ed atletica. E quindi indiscutibilmente bella. Perché nonostante le infezioni culturali contemporanee che propinano un relativismo tout court, esiste un canone oggettivo della bellezza, che la classicità ci suggerisce da tempi immemori che è rappresentato dall’armonia delle forme e da un ordine che è sintesi dell’unità che domina la diversità.

Bellezza, ordine, sostanza e FORMA. Ciò che abbiamo interpretato e riprodotto in tutti gli ambiti e in ogni epoca. Fino ad oggi. Perché noi siamo europei e proveniamo da una Civiltà.

Di contro, ciò che più di ogni altra cosa mina l’esistenza di una civiltà è l’informe. Perché l’assenza di Forma genera una sostanza malata. E là dove la sostanza è malata, la bellezza non può trovare posto e si finisce inesorabilmente per imbruttirsi. Prima nel singolo, poi nella moltitudine e infine nella società. E quindi si avvia il declino di una civiltà in decadenza.

E quando una società è decadente si può arrivare ad assistere all’esibizione della cerimonia inaugurale delle Olimpiadi con un personaggio come Barbara Butch investita dal ruolo di frontman.

Conferitole recentemente il premio di personalità LGBT dell’anno per via della moltitudine di battaglie coraggiosissime a difesa delle minoranze arcobaleno condotte temerariamente al fianco di pressoché tutte le multinazionali, dei magnati della finanza e del mainstream globale. Allora comprendiamo perfettamente che il concetto di Forma quale riflesso di bellezza e di un ordine superiore suggeritoci dalla classicità dei greci, quegli europei che hanno dato vita alle Olimpiadi nel 776 a.C., difficilmente possa attecchire su chi come Barbara Butch conduce audacemente crociate in difesa de “l’accettazione dei grassi”.

Perché l’immagine della cerimonia inaugurale in salsa woke è la più fulgida rappresentazione di come sia ripugnante l’esaltazione delle devianze promosse da chi essendo informe per natura, ha in spregio tutto ciò che essendo bello e giusto secondo natura, costituisce saldezza e ancoraggio: la famiglia e la Nazione, la Cultura e l’identità.

L’agenda cosmopolita della società aperta in fase di consolidamento mira alla distruzione di questi cardini e opera attraverso il condizionamento sociale di una propaganda che si fa sempre più spinta e pervasiva.

Nell’industria dell’intrattenimento, quella cinematografica, musicale o sportiva come in questo caso, ormai è prassi ordinaria rendere espliciti aspetti occulti di un certo misticismo sinistro: dall’ostentazione di modelli devianti per giungere all’esposizione di immagini sempre più spesso esplicitamente sataniste.

Ci chiediamo se eventi come Eurovision, Berlin Fashion Show e Super Bowl ad esempio attraverso performance altamente simboliche, non siano rivelatrici di un retroterra “esclusivo” che rappresenta egregiamente Sodoma e Gomorra: costumi BDSM, ballerini vestiti da donna in perizoma, cantanti che si esibiscono nudi, sesso omosessuale di gruppo praticato in un bagno sporco, croci rovesciate, streghe e demoni che si accoppiano al centro di un pentagramma, adulti che posano davanti alle cineprese con genitali esposti in presenza di bambini.

Vorremmo esimerci anche solo dal pronunciare certe oscenità per via della natura scabrosa di certi contenuti, se non fosse che vengono trasmesse in mondovisione sintonizzando centinaia di milioni di ascoltatori, sdoganando e normalizzando un passo alla volta le più infime degenerazioni dell’uomo mascherate da creatività, arte e inclusività.

Una poderosa macchina di propaganda mondiale che aspira a cancellare le identità nazionali e sovvertendo le religioni, i costumi e le tradizioni dei popoli, mira a scalzare ciò a cui siamo profondamente legati con lo squallore di una “cultura” globale indifferenziata che si esibisce in tutta la sua ripugnanza.

Ferocemente

-Kulturaeuropa

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cynical-tuba · 6 months ago

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Salubr x Shifter BEST EVER!

Yaaaaaaaas (⁠｡⁠♡⁠‿⁠♡⁠｡⁠)

My Salubri Natanel and his Garou Boyfriend, Hector met session 0 on a party boat on the River Thames. Hector was investigating the murder of his pack brother brother Jamie, a fellow Bone Gnawer.

Natanel had just popped out of a lettuce crate, having snuck into London from the United states (originally hailing from Nashville TN) and while getting out he and the other cotarie members found another dead body on the ship. Hector and the group teamed up to find some clues.

Nat, not sure if he was a Gangrel or nothing (Hector was strangely quiet) gave him a bag of skittles thinking his Blush of life was just a bit to convincing and to his horror the Werewolf ate them.

Glad you're also a fan of this dynamic. (Could honestly rant about them all day)

#oc: natanel #oc: hector #wta #vtm #vampire the masquerade #world of darkness #vtm: one step down #vtm: over the precipice #wod #salubri #vtm salubri #werewolf #garou

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major-x-blog · 11 months ago

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Non ho molte cose da dire in particolare di questo 2023, ma forse un paio, a riguardo di questi ultimi 3 anni,

la prima è:Non so quanti si sono accorti che l'Umanità sta scorrendo nella Fogna, oggi più che mai, e che presto si arriverà al culmine dell'intollerabile, quindi credo che sta a noi invertire l'assurda "direzione" che è stata presa.

la seconda è: che tutte le Persone Oneste Intellettualmente e Moralmente, riconoscano la realtà dei fatti, Agendo di conseguenza, anche con piccoli gesti per contrastare la Follia dilagante, ed è a questi Ultimi che Auguro un Buon 2024, Un Ricco, Salubre, Soddisfacente e Quieto Anno Nuovo. ❤️❤️❤️

Con Rispettoso Affetto.

(l'Etrusco)

#2024 #no agenda 2030 #W l'Italia #no europa #No BCE #no vax #no vaccino covid 19 #no lockdown

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nemo-of-house-hamartia · 2 years ago

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In The Heat of the Moment Chapter 4 - Homeward Bound

Ch.1, Ch.2, Ch.3

Words Count: 7981

Warning: None

Dorothea

January 1868, London

The first thing that hit Dorothea was the smell: abhorrent, a stinging stench, almost choking in its miasmic pungency.

Phillip had warned her that it would have been a shockful amalgamation of foul odors, but at first, the young woman had deemed her cousin, with his penchant for the dramatic, exaggerated in his assertion.

Now, as she wrinkled her nose with barely masked revulsion painted on her otherwise delicate features, she found herself thinking that, mayhaps, her cousin hadn’t been dramatic at all.

Her sensitive nose had grown so accustomed to the fresh clean air of the surrounding forest of Sturefors, in Sweden -her mother’s ancestral home- that breathing the less-than-salubre air of London felt like a slap to her face and an execrable invasion of her nostrils.

Making sure no one would hear her, Dorothea allowed herself to let out a sigh, barely audible, yet lingering like haze in the cold winter air.

She had known she would miss Sturefors Slott the moment she had set foot in the carriage her mother’s family had prepared for her to bring her to the southern part of the country, where she had taken the ship that had brought her back to London.

Sturefors Slott -despite its name- wasn’t truly a castle as they intended them back in her beloved England, with their towering stone walls and turrets, built during the early middle age to protect the Lords and their people from the barbaric invasion; rather, it was a Hall, elegant and refined if modest in its appearance, nestled within the soft embrace of an endless vastness of evergreens and a clear lake, just outside the door.

Closing her eyes, she wished she could fool herself that it was not smog what she was breathing, but the fresh tingly scent of crushed pine needles and musk and balmy resin.

As she allowed herself to glide through her most recent memories, all she could see was the residence’s walls painted in a soft pale shade of yellow and white, in a way that made them resemble one of those Austrian pastries her father had always been fond of ever since she could remember; she could see the small artificial pond, sitting right in the middle of the small baroque garden, where waterlilies grew aplenty and birds would come and swim at their leisure; the orangery and hothouse, where she had spent countless afternoons reading during those chill summers, surrounded as she was by the delicate perfume of the flowers in bloom.

The complete peace that place provided was one of the reason why it was always guaranteed that she would be found there; but alongside that motive, also the fickle hope that, somehow, being surrounded by all those familiar scents might help quell the melancholy and yearning, she oftentimes felt in her young heart, to see her family soon.

As she raised her eyes to glance at a ferry passing by them- one belonging to her father’s commercial fleet, judging by the men clad in red that shouted on the decks, and the wolf painted on the funnel spewing out a dark, choking smoke- she wondered at what price that melancholy was finally about to be abated.

In Sturefors, she had known a freedom she never felt while in London, with her mother’s protective wings always looming over her and her father’s ever watchful gaze constantly following her, even while not being physically there; like Eva with the Apple in the Garden of Eden, she had tasted the fruit of a far greater independence she had ever dared to dream, a complete sovereignty of her own self she had never experienced ever since she had memory.

“Those days are long over, Dora. You are back home, now,” she thought to herself, sighing again, before straightening her back and tilting her chin up, as she gazed upon the industrial city opening up in front of her, studying at it with uncertain eyes.

Her home.

London, the Centre of the World.

The city had changed ever since she had left it in 1865, almost three years prior: cluster upon cluster of new factories had been built in the industrial neighbours, and even from the river she could see the enormous luminous signs bearing her family’s name or her father’s own wolf crest black on the walls of red bricks, the eyeless predator towering over the buildings that faced the Thames, its watchful gaze the same her sire’s.

So many changes.

So much to get used to once again.

As she let her eyes wander, she felt a small leap of reassurance in her heart when she caught a glimpse of the city’s historical landmarks, the towering height of Big Ben, his belfry raising high against the late afternoon sky, a familiar sight amidst all that chaotic maze of buildings veiled by a haze of smog.

This was indeed her home.

“And yet,” she thought, calling upon all her considerable will not to let the tears that prickled her eyes run free on her cheeks, “It does not feel like it any longer.”

With a subtle gesture of her hand, she tried to brush away the tears away, before anyone could notice, and trying to compose herself, she let her gaze wander around some more and touch the buildings at the side of the river.

She looked at the tiles and doors and windows, bringing her eyes up where the roofs and chimneys sat and let out their nauseous smoke that rendered the air impossible to breathe.

All of sudden, she stopped in her wandering, feeling that her gaze had been returned.

And it had been.

Someone - at that distance a mere silhouette- had moved with switf movement from behind the cover of red bricks, and without hesitation, had jumped from a chimney to the other, graceful and secure in their movement like a cat.

She narrowed her eyes, bringing one gloved hand to her forehead to shield herself from the last rays of setting sun, trying to make sense of what she thought she saw.

Could it have been a trick of the light or the fatigue of the journey that was finally starting to take over her mind?

No.

She was sure of that.

“Ditte, vad hände? Det ser nästan ut som om du har sett ett spöke!”(Ditte, what happened?It almost looks as if you have seen a ghost!)

Dorothea kept looking up the roofs, half hearing what the woman that was approaching her was saying.

“Sassa, såg du det?”(Sassa, did you see that?) she blurted out, pointing with her finger.

“Vad såg du, min kära?”(What did you see, my dear?) Astrid, a cousin from her mother’s family, that had took upon herself to chaperone Dorothea safe and sound to London, looked intently and raised an eyebrow when she saw nothing.

Dorothea looked again, but whoever was jumping around like a miscreant was clearly gone.

“Någon... som hoppade runt? Jag svär, jag vet vad jag såg, eller så heter jag inte Dorothea Marianne Starrick!”(Someone...who jumped around the roof? I swear, I know what I saw, or my name is not Dorothea Marianne Starrick!)

The woman gave her a long look, her lips pursed together in a thin, austere line.

“Herre Gud, Ditte, det är inte så en ung dam i din ställning ska tala! Jag visste att Minna var benägen till fantasiflygningar, men jag trodde aldrig att du också var det!” (Dear God, Ditte, this is not how a young lady in your position should speak! I knew Minna was prone to flights of fancy, but I never thought you were too!”)

“But I know..what I saw…” she murmured back in English, lowering her head in shame at her cousin’s words.

“Där, där, min kära, ta dig samman! Denna smutsiga luft måste ha spelat dina ögon ett spratt.”(There, there, my dear, pull yourself together! The dirty air must have played a trick on your eyes) The woman said with a condescending tone, caressing a wayward strand of silvery blond hair away from Dorothea’s cheek. Then, she turned to look at the houses built parallel to the river with barely contained disdain. “Säg, Ditte, hur kan man bo på ett sånt här ställe undrar jag?”(Say, Dora, how can you live in a place like this, I wonder?)

Shaking her silvery blond ringlets, Dorothea tried with all her might not to sigh in exasperation, her jaw tensing as she turned to look away from the woman that had just spoken to her.

There was no use trying to reason with her.

But she knew what she saw.

“I can live in a place like this because I was born here, min kära. But pray tell me: what happened to all the good propositions of speaking only English from the moment we left Gothenburg?” she answered, putting an emphasis on the English name of the city.

Astrid brought her perfumed handkerchief to her nose, as her periwinkle eyes filled with tears from the disgust the vile air was causing to her poor nose. She stared at Dorothea for a moment longer than necessary, a wrinkle appearing on her brow, as if she was fighting the natural impulse to rebuke in her native language out of spite.

“Very well, Ditte,” she finally conceded, switching to an heavily accented English. “I am going to be here only for a few weeks anyway, I can afford to do that. For your sake, if anything else,”

“Your effort is oh so deeply appreciated, Sassa,” Dorothea pursed her lips, trying to drown her annoyance in a sweet, if tense, smile of gratitude.

However, much as ever, she had to contain the impulse to roll her eyes at Astrid’s tone and words; if caught, it would have earned her a reprimand and a tirade once in front of Mother and Father, and the last thing Dorothea desired was to have her return to London being soured by the constant complaining and nitpicking her older cousin was known for.

Deciding that she had given the woman far more attention than she deserved, Dorothea took a few step away from Astrid, leaning against the handrail that faced the side of the city where the Clock Tower was and tried to distract herself by looking at the busy stream of ferries in front of her.

But melancholy crept again into her heart. If only Minna, Astrid’s own younger sister and Dorothea’s closest companion in Sturefors, had been the one to be allowed to accompany her back home, maybe the journey would have been less grievous, if anything because she could have retained with her some of the happiness she had felt in Sweden.

“My my, isn’t Astrid a charming choice for a chaperone? Are my ears deceiving me or is the Lady Ankarcrona complaining yet again, Dora?” she heard a young gentleman addressing her thoughts, as if on an invisible cue.

The tone was conspiratorial, yet affable in cadence, and the velvety quality of his timber did nothing to hide the sharpness of his silver tongue.

“With extreme passion, I dare say,” she giggled, for the first time since leaving Sturefors.

Dorothea turned to to face the tall, handsome blond man that was approaching her with an imperious gait that well suited his authoritative appearance.

Philip Edmund Starrick, her first cousin on her father’s side, older than her by only a handful of years, was doing nothing to hide the condescension from beaming in his deep eyes, but when he turned to look at Dorothea, his gaze melted into a mischievous look, as a warm smile stretched on his lips.

Dorothea reciprocated with an impish smirk of her own.

“If you were to ask me,” he said, doing nothing to lower his voice,”If she applied all that passionate effort into something other than making everyone else’s ears miserable with her constant twaddling, her husband would not go looking for a nicer company among the valets of the house,”

Gaping in disbelief, Dorothea leaned over to glance behind his shoulder, to make sure that Astrid hadn’t heard his words.

“Mind your words, Pip! How could you possibly even know about that?” she muttered.

He winked at her, his smirk widening even more.

“It is my job to know what is going on around me,”

“In London, maybe,” she chuckled, poking his ribs with her elbow. “But not in Sweden,”

“Sometimes it is indeed hard not to perform one’s job, especially if that someone is considerable remarkable at doing it ,” he chuckled, leaning in so that he would be able to whisper without anyone hearing them.

“Ever the paragon of humbleness, I see,”

“False modesty is for mingling peons and the church ministers who have time at their hands. I have little patience for it, and much more interest in the fruits my job brings; Speaking of, my darling cousin, I couldn’t help but hear voices about how eager young Master Daae was to instruct you in the art of the violin, during your sojourn in that desolated farm they dare to call a Hall. “

Dorothea gaped once more, opening and closing her mouth as a look of profound abashment found its way on her face. She wished she could stop the blushing that prickled her cheeks at the insinuation Philip had purposely left hanging in the air, founding herself unable to.

She gave him a piercing gaze, tilting her chin up in a silent challenge of wills.

“ I haven’t even set foot in London, and you are already enquiring about businesses that are none of yours. Gustave was my teacher, and nothing more than that,” she whispered, glaring at him. “And you might insinuate all you wish, but my conscience is at peace. My conduct at Sturefors has been nothing less than impeccable.”

Phillip raised an eyebrow, giving her a look that spoke aplenty.

“Not even for a moment has the thought crossed my mind. I am well aware you are a paragon of virtue, cousin dearest. He did fancy you, however, or so I had been told,” he added. “He indeed had the insolence to send you letters with flowers, as well as paying constant calls to you, and invited you for frequent walk together, sometime…unchaperoned?”

Dorothea narrowed her eyes, not liking for a moment that last insinuation.

A realization came to her mind, and irritation found a way in her voice.

“I have nothing to hide nor to apologize for. Who spied on me while I was at Sturefors, Phillip? Was it Father that told you to follow my every step? Or Mother, Heaven forbids?”

Chuckling, he took a step closer, leaning against the railing.

“No need to fret or get yourself into a state, cousin. Neither Uncle Crawford nor the Countess had their hands in this. I am at liberty to say it was in fact my own doing.”

“What for, may I ask? Do you think me so inept that I am incapable of properly take care of myself?” She furrowed her eyebrows and gave him a stern look, crossing her arms against her chest.

The young man gave her a long look, as silence hung between them, a silence Dorothea couldn’t truly decipher. All it did was rendering her more aggravated with each passing moment. Wasn’t she at liberty to have companionship but the one approved by her family?

“As your spies have most likely already reported to you, my good flibbertigibbet, all that Gustave sent me -all he ever did - was to politely express his respect and devotion toward a friend and fellow connoisseur of the art of the violin and singing. It was done in perfect accordance to all rules of propriety and decency, as my Lady Mother has instructed me to,” Composing herself, she wrinkled her nose as her face morphed into a mask or haughty disdain. “As for what you refer as “fancying me”, Mr. Daaé fancied my competence in playing and composing melodies, and in my voice when I found appropriate to accompany his violin. I assure you, he did not want-“ She faltered for a moment, a sting in her chest where her heart was. She cleared her throat from the lump that had formed there, before regaining her word.“-whatever interest he might have shown toward me, it was not personal at all, but merely connected to all that I had to offer as an artist in my own right.”

Phillip didn’t answer immediately, keeping his thoughts to himself as he observed his cousin with an intense look in his eyes.

“Do I hear a certain vein of disappointment in your voice, Dora? Did you wish for him to acknowledge you in a more,how to say…womanly fashion?”

“I-“ the young woman’s face flushed, her cheeks turning a scalding hue of red that could rival the one of the garment she was wearing. “This is not the place nor time to discuss such matters, Phillip. On my word, your boldness had grown bigger than your ego, and that in itself is an accomplishment. I have no idea what you are insinuating, and I surely hope you did not report a single words of this postulation of yours to Mother and Father? Because I shall not accept any besmirching of my own reputation from no one, yourself included, cousin,”

Dorothea felt her heart thundering against her chest, where contempt and mortification took turn in mocking her.

When she saw him still standing, still observing her with those piercing eyes that had nothing to envy to the winter tundra in the North, with no intention to utter a single word, Dorothea felt dejected.

“It matters not,” she murmured, turning again to face the river. “Not now, not ever, because nothing more than friendship dwelled in Gustave’s heart. He did not know who I was -what I am- and even if he had, nothing would have changed. At all.”

How to explain that the companionship Gustave had offered her had proved to be both the greatest of comfort and the bitterest of yearning, and not reciprocated in the slightest? Her young heart knew all to well what her fate was, where it lead her.

A nightingale in a golden cage, that’s how she felt.

Unable to soar against the dark vaults of the sky, forever locked in the maze that was her reality.

“I could very well have hoped to have Brave Lancelot coming at my window and whisk me away to Camelot, and my chances to find a companion worthy of Mother and Father’s approval would have been the same,”

Phillip let out a small chuckle.

“Now now, you are being rather unjust toward our Mr. Daae. Sir Lancelot would always have an unfair advantage compared to any suitor that might end up asking for your hand. He can very well be considered family at this point,”

Dorothea allowed herself to let out a giggle, her aggravation slowly subduing, as it always did with Phillip.

“I might have driven my father out of his mind with all my jibber-jabbering about the Knights of the Round Table and their quest.”

“Him and everyone else in the Order. All the letters you had the Old Bear write for you, asking noble Lancelot to come and rescue us all from the dragons that were threatening your Father,”

He chuckled at the memory, before speaking again, this time, reciting some verses.

“His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;

On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;

From underneath his helmet flow'd

His coal-black curls as on he rode,

As he rode down from Camelot.

From the bank and from the river

He flash'd into the crystal mirror,

'Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:' by the river

Sang Sir Lancelot.”

“The Lady of Shalott,” Dorothea murmured, her smile growing wider. “Have you perchance seen reason and read the poem, finally giving our good Lord Tennyson the praise he deserves ?”

Phillip adverted his eyes, his mustache quivering as he held back a contemptuous snort.

“Well?”

“Mayhaps.”He conceded.

She kept her eyes fixated on him, cocking an eyebrow as her smirk widened the more he avoided her gaze.

“Fine. I’ll admit to it, you impertinent pest! This past winter, Cip and I might have spent the evenings perusing some of your books because we missed hearing your voice reading story to us, and Charlie was adamant we went through “The Lady Of Shalott” at least once per week because he knew it’s your favourite. I swear to all the Heavens, he was more punctual about this reading than he was to attend Mass,”

“Let us always be thankful for Charlie and his sensitive decisions. If we wereto be left to your devices, you would have us read something that would make my father’s hair turn white and my mother’s poor heart fail,”

Phillip rolled his eyes, but cannot hid his smile. “Preposterous. I do not know where you get all these ideas.”

Then, all of sudden, Dorothea felt Phillip taking her hand in his in a gentle gesture, and brought her palm against his cheek. Gone was that quick moment of mirth, to leave place to a far somberer one. The calculating light had all but disappeared from the young man’s eyes, leaving place for a warm compassion she had not seen in many years.

“Forgive me for my actions and words earlier, cousin dearest. I..might have been in the wrong with my own conjectures. I did not mean to bring any harms nor sullying to your conduct while away.”

Dorothea gave him a small smile that did nothing to hide the sadness in her eyes.

“Did Charlie agree with your vision? Did he support this decision? And be honest with me, Phillip: I cannot abide any falsehood to be thrown to my face. Not from you.”

The young man shook his head with a smile.

“Cip was adamantly against me intervening. He knew you would have not approved, and that I had no right to do something like this without you being in the known,”

“At least someone in our family still retains some trust in me and my endevours, I am glad to see,”

And yet she knew in her bones that, if Charlie was aware of Phillip’s intentions, so would her father. She knew that Phillip alone couldn’t have the authority to order her to be followed in Sweden. Not without the giveaway of someone higher than him in authority.

And only two people had that kind of prerogative within the Order.

But which of them, she could not fathom.

“Do I have your forgiveness, cousin? I cannot bear to know you are aggravated with me,” She heard Phillip ask her, his voice now warmer.

She raised her eyes to look at him, and saw the same honest glint he always had as a child when he knew one of his prank had taken things too far and he would be in trouble.

She let out a sigh, giving him a tiny smile.

“ I cannot bear to be mad at you for too long either, you know that, Pip,”

“All I did, I did with the best intention and your well being in mind. I was worried about you,” He continued. “The Swedish Rite does not act as your father would, as the British Rite would, and it was only concern that had moved my hand to extend my authority in Sturefors. And after all that happened at the Manor that year, I-”

Dorothea brought her fingers to his lips, in a delicate but firm gesture, her gray eyes silently pleading.

“Say no more, I beg of you, Phillip. For the love you say to bear me, do not open this door. Let me keep the peace I found in Sturefors for just a little longer.”

The man did as he was told, and stopped talking, not without feeling his own heart growing heavy at the seriousness painted all over her face. So much had changed since the day she had been sent away, loaded on that ship, away from her family, alone in the darkness of the north.

And he couldn’t help to think that, while having changed in appeareance, while having become even comelier than she was when she sailed away, Dorothea had not regained any of the innocence that she had lost that godforsaken night. Where once warmth and good cheer dwelt in her silvery eyes, now an hollowness remained, a desolation that made his blood boil.

The spectre of fear still lingered all over her, attached to her like a tick to the coat of one of his hunting dogs, sucking away at all the joy she once had as a child.

His heart broke at the memories of what once was, but kept his silence, as promised.

“There you were, you two,” a squeaky voice took them away from their conversation, and both cousins turned to look at Astrid, strutting toward them with small, rapid steps.

“I dare say, Mr. Starrick, is this the way to welcome a foreigner in this country? I was under the impression that the Starrick were amiable people, from what I gathered from my cousin here and her behaviour, but now I have to assume that it was my Aunt’s teaching to her daughter rather than the staple of her father’s family education.”

Dorothea had to silence the chuckle raising in her throat at the sight of her cousin rolling his eyes so much, she was sure he could see the back of his own head.

Not much could faze Phillip or break his composure, for he was known to be one of the most bewitching men, but being around Astrid had been proving quite the trial on his nerves ever since they had crossed the border where the Thames met the North Sea.

Nevertheless, the Master Templar’s expression morphed from aggravated in a mask of charming gallantry, with an easiness that came from constant practice. He took a few steps away from Dorothea and reached for the Swedish woman, looking straight into her violet eyes.

“Why, dear Astrid, you hurt my heart with your unjust words. What can I do to prove to your genteel spirit the extent of my family’s “amiability”?” he said, taking her hand in his with delicate touch, allowing his thumb to caress the back of her gloved hand. Astrid held her breath, too stunned by the young man’s boldness. “I assure you, us Starricks can be most…cordial, when given the chance,”his voice now a sultry husked murmur, almost a caress to the ears. “Just say the word, My Lady, and I will make sure to show you to what great extent us Starricks know how to make a respectable woman such as yourself feel…welcomed”

Dorothea’s eyes bulged as she silently put a greater distance from them, reaching the opposite side of the deck and making sure not to be within earshot.

She had heard enough, and she had no intention to bear witness to her cousin’s own trifling, even less so with that trifling being directed to Astrid. She was not one to admire demonstration of affection in public, preferring to read about it in her books: if one were to look upon two lovers exchanging their deeds of love, she would find herself blushing and wishing to be as visible as a spectre. Modesty and propriety lead her actions, and while being a young woman yearning to find love of her own - or, affection at the very least - she dreaded the idea of showing that love to anyone but her proper husband.

How could Phillip behave in such manner with so little concern of who might be bearing witness to his action, she could never understand.

Trying to distance herself from that lingering feeling of uneasiness, she raised her eyes once more, hoping to be able to see again a glimpse of the jumping figure she had seen earlier.

She knew what she saw.

Byron, so dear to her heart, oftentimes praised her for her grounded intellect and her propensity to not let her emotions drive her best judgment.

She allowed herself to gather strength from that, when she decided that she had indeed saw a figure looking back at her, before disappearing in front of her very eyes.

But what was it?

Or rather.

Who?

**************

The moment the ferry’s gangplank touched the dock, was the moment that truly marked the end of Dorothea’s journey from the North.

But all melancholy and sadness at the lost liberty seemed to melt away, like snow in summer, the moment her eyes found the blond man that was awaiting for her close to the pier, his face almost a mirror of her own.

Charles Magnus Starrick was standing tall and straight as an arrow, waiting for her, his round playful face just as amiable as she remembered, and his smile as warm as the gentle summer sun. She couldn’t help but think how much it contrasted with the much soberer faces of the flock of Templar agents surrounding him. He had always looked out of place among the Templars, almost as if he did not belong, and yet, his authority, while not as great as Phillip’s, was never disputed.

“Charlie! Charlie!” she called at high voice, waving her hand at her cousin.

“Ditte, show a little restraint! This is not how a Lady should behave,” she heard Astrid’s reproach in her ear.

Dorothea tried as much as she could to maintain the elegant composure of her usual pace, but the child-like joy at seeing her cousin’s sweet kindhearted smile was so great, she couldn’t help herself from hasten and almost fly in her cousin’s open arms and hug him as tight as her own strength allowed.

“Darling Dora, welcome back home,” Charles whispered against her hair, reciprocating the tight embrace.

“I missed you so much, Cip!” she whispered back as joyful warmth spread in her whole chest. “All your letters kept me so much company in those long winter nights where I could not be with you and Pip!”

“You were equally missed, Dora, I assure you! Oh, but do I dare say: did you become taller since the last time we saw one another? Or maybe my darling cousin has been lured by the Erlking and the one in front of me is but one of his elven vassals? Wait! Let me see for myself, I have an infallible method to know if it is indeed my darling Dora!”

Dorothea giggled, shaking her ringlets as Charlie started to count the freckles on her cheeks.

“Ah,Yes! They are all there! It is indeed you, cousin dearest!” and before she could answer, she was wrapped in another bear hug.

She had to call upon all her strength not to shed tears of joy at the relief that she felt back in arms that had hold her ever since she was a toddler.

She was home.

She was truly home now.

“Here she is, brother of mine. Delivered safe and sound, as I promised, “ they heard Phillip’s voice come from behind them, as he strutted down the gangplank while carrying one of Astrid’s luggage.

Charles took a timepiece out of his pocket, and cocked an eyebrow, as a smile appeared on his face.

“And with only fifteen minutes of delay from the advised time. I daresay I am almost impressed by your efficiency, Pip, albeit your delay cost me a whole round of beers with the men.”

“The nerves you got there, brother! I thought that by now you knew that when I say something, I deliver my promise. And it is not as if I had a way to make that godforsaken piece of scraped metal go any faster, even if I wanted to,”

“I wouldn’t have been surprised if you decided to commandeer it and cause mayhem across the Thames. You surely would have made it on the evening papers, I can already hear the titles echoing in the streets: “Gentleman of dubious background causes an halt to the viability of the river to deliver precious cargo unscathed,”

“Do not even jest on this, brother: the Old Bear and Uncle Crawford would have had me hanging by my breeches, if I dared doing such mischief,”

“Oh, to be sure. But I have a feeling that our Dora here would have had her fun,” he said, winking at the young woman and causing her to giggle.

She was ready to answer with a jape of her own, but once she felt the gaze of the small flock of Master Templars on herself, she quickly tried to regain her natural decorum.

She would never forgive herself if she were to stain her father’s reputation with a less than impeccable conduct, especially in front of all his subordinates.

All of them were wearing dark garments in the finest cut and on their short capelets, the red Templar Cross stood almost flamboyant against white fabric.

Even Charles, not one to showcase his appurtenance to the Order, was sporting the formal attire, and Dorothea could have not felt more honoured to know that he had done so just to welcome her.

She brought a hand to the cross tied around her neck by a silken red sash, caressing the engraved enamel with tender affection. It had been the last gift her father had given to her before she left.

She thanked her forethought for having decided to wear it during her journey back home: what kind of impression would have she given to the other Master Templars, if she, the Grand Master’s own daughter, were not to wear the symbol of the Order itself?

But, despite all intention of propriety being on her side, she couldn’t stop herself from tiptoeing to have a better look around her, trying to find other familiar faces among the much soberer ones that were standing guard around them.

“Where is Father? And Byron?” Dorothea asked, her lips forming a small pout of disappointment when she couldn’t catch a glimpse of Byron’s caring eyes or her father’s solemn face.

“The Grand Master and Lord Harrison have been….held up by an unexpected nuisance that needed to be dealt at once, I am afraid,” said Charles, sharing a knowledgeable glance with Phillip.

Dorothea’s own features turned to ashen, all colour leaving her face when looked in her eldest cousin’s eyes.

Even without a word being said, she knew precisely what the nuisance was.

“Assassins? In our dear London?” she whispered in disbelief . “Has our beloved City of Light become an abode of chaos and ruffians in the three years I have been away?”

“You needn’t to concern yourself, Dora.” she heard Phillip murmur, his lips twisted in a disgusted grimace.

She narrowed her eyes, not entirely reassured by Phillip’s word, before turning to face Charles.

“Is it true?” she asked, a tinge of authority in her normally soft voice.

He hesitated for a moment, his eyes running from her face to his brother’s, and more than ever, he looked like a tiny mouse trapped between affection and duty.

"I am afraid…I am afraid to admit that in the last few months there might have been more…”chaos” than foreseen,"

Dorothea shook her silvery ringlets, a look of incredulity on her face.

“Impossible. Father has held the reins of London since before I was born, and no assassins has ever dared to even cross the threshold of the city. He never mentioned anything in his letters to me. Byron never did, either.”

“I told you already, Dorothea: you needn’t concern yourself with this. It is being taken care of.” Phillip said, his tone final as he shared another glance with his brother, a silent command written all over his hardened face.

Dorothea felt her heart sink, just for a moment, before determination found a way through her bones.

“Be as it may, Pip. Keep your secrets and I will keep mine. Two can play this game. But I swear they won’t be yours much longer,” she thought, letting her features to settle back in an expression of neutral calm.

“Very well, cousin. I shall probe no longer. I will not lie that I am saddened in not finding my sire and Byron here,” she murmured with polite courtesy, folding her hands together. “But if it is true that disruption has reached our fair city, I am most reassured that the Grand Master is taking the due steps to ensure that no Assassin will dare to ruin his work.”

Charles let out a nervous laughter of relief as Dorothea stirred the conversation.

“Cousin dearest, allow me to say that none is more disappointed than them in being unable to welcome you in person after your long absence. Nevertheless, they wanted to be sure that their presence would be with you, despite everything.”

With a small nod of his head, Charles beckoned one of the henchmen standing behind them to come forward.

Dorothea turned and exchanged a glance with him, and for a moment she found herself wondering where she had seen him before.

His face seemed familiar, with the neatly stilled whiskers and short trimmed beard framing his face and a lock of dark, unruly hair brushing over one of his temples.

He was very pleasant to the sight, to be sure, but what caught Dorothea's attention was the subtle glint of mischievousness in his grey eyes, hidden just beneath an apparent playfulness.

Before she could ask any questions, the man did as he had been told and produced a small box and a bouquet of pink soft roses.

She smiled to herself at the sight of those gifts: she knew the flowers were from her mother’s own hothouse and the small box was from Byron himself. With a small thank you, she took them with gentle hand, promising herself to open the box once alone in the privacy of her own rooms.

"I took upon myself to make sure they were to be delivered to you in person, Lady Starrick"

Dorothea raised an eyebrow.

"That is very kind of you, Mister..."

"Markus Barclay, My Lady," he murmured with a bow. “I work underneath Lord Harrison the Eldest himself, and I was given order to attend to all your needs in his absence. I am yours to command,”

Squaring her shoulder and straightening her back, she nodded with solemnity.

“Very well, Markus. I want you to oversee that the Lady Astrid Ankarcrona is to be brought safely to the Grand Master’s residence and that she is settled in the most comfortable of the rooms within the Manor. She is an esteemed guest, and she will be treated with all the honours due to her station.”

“Consider it done, My Lady,” he answered, raising his face and looking straight at her without hiding the smirk that touched his lips.

Something about his demeanor caused an uneasiness to stir within Dorothea’s chest and this, along her inability to focalize why she thought she had seen him before, left her in complete diquiet.

When the Master Templar left to do as he was ordered, Dorothea turned to face Charles, a tired smile on her face.

“Will you accompany me home, Cip?” she asked, trying to hide a small yawn. “I think the journey might have taken its toll on me, afterall,”

Charles took her hand in his and brought it his lips with gentleness.

“It will be my honour to pick up from where Pip has left off,” and with a swift gesture, he beckoned for the other Master Templars to take care of Dorothea and help her to her carriage.

Waiting for his cousin to be far enough from where he stood, Charles approached Phillip, careful to lower his voice.

“Have you told her anything about what Uncle Crawford has in plan for her?”

Phillip shook his head at his brother, as they both stayed behind, looking as Dorothea was giving directions to the ones helping her.

“No. I-“ He hold his silence just a moment longer than necessary, weighting the word he was about to say. “I didn’t have the heart to see her smile wane. She had found some peace while in Sturefors. I let her keep it. But I will not lie to you, Charles: I wish I could offer her the same peace here,” he murmured.

Charles raised an eyebrow.

“Now I undestand your need for secrecy. But I never thought you as a sentimental, brother,”

Phillip shook his head with impatience.

“This has nothing to do with me being sentimental. But after all that happened that night, I was afraid she would not smile ever again,”

“The Assassins have paid aplenty for that,”

Phillip cocked his eyebrow, his face now severe, a quiet question in his eyes.

His brother return his question with a smile so cold, so devoid of any of his usual kind warmth, it left Phillip with a feeling of uneasiness in the pit of his stomach.

“Frye is dead.”

“The perpetrator?”

“The Leviathan, of course. He has left nothing in his wake, not even a body for his children to cry on,” Charles said, his voice grave.

Phillip stood silent for a moment, with the loud chattering of people filling his ears. But nothing could deafen the thumping of his accelerated heartbeat.

Finally, he spoke.

“That’s not enough,“ murmured Phillip. “Not nearly enough. Not after what he had done. The ripples of that bastard’s actions have left more than one broken. His death alone is not enough. Is the Leviathan satisfied and his revenge finally accomplished?”

Charles let a small smile appear again on his lips, just as cold as the one before.

“No.”

At that answer, Phillip's own lips stretched in a vindictive smile, a reflection of his own brother’s.

“Good. Then we know what to do next.”

“Pip! Cip! It is time we go!” Charles and Phillip turned their head as they heard their cousin calling them from the carriage window. “ Are you are not coming with us, Pip?”

“I wish I could, cousin dearest, but alas, we need to part ways here, for my services are needed elsewhere.” He smiled, as he approached the carriage and took his cousin’s hand in his, bringing it to his lips in a parting gesture.

“Will you be attending to the Lady Astrid, cousin?” she teased.

Phillip rolled his eyes, shaking his golden ringlets.

“God forbids I have to spend another minute with that woman. If I wanted to hear someone nagging in my ear all day, I would have asked Father for his services. He has years of experience and a disdain that rivals no other’s. No, dearest, I am bound toward other purposes. Duty calls, as it always does for me,”

Dorothea’s smile couldn’t be but a melancholic one at those words.

“So soon? The time has flown much faster than I wanted to. What will I do without your pestering chatters, I wonder?”

Phillip’s face turned into a mask of disdained, but his eyes were smiling at her.

“Preposterous. I daresay, you have grown far too bold for your own good, cousin dearest. No, you will have to do with Cip’s own chattering, I am afraid. But,” he added, as he smiled to both her brother and Dorothea, “ I leave you in good hands,”

“Oh, I know. The best hands indeed,” she replied, returning the smile and holding Charles’ hand in hers.

“Now go, before your Lady Mother starts worrying for your late return. I shall call on you tomorrow, first thing in the morning,”

“ I count on that, cousin,” she murmured, not truly wanting to let go of his hand.

Not after three years without her family.

He squeezed her hand three times, a silent gesture she understood immediately.

A promise.

And Phillip had never failed to keep his promises.

**************

The pub was loud, messy, chaotic with its patrons busy gulping down pints after pints of what could be considered the foulest beer available on the market.

And yet, its despicable taste seemed to do nothing on the one gurgling it down as if it was water, as the rowdiest of songs accompanied their time sitting at those squalid tables.

Among those people, two men sat in front of one another, barely looking at each other in the eyes. The oldest one, built like an ox, with a sour face and brutish hands that could snap an arm in two without any effort, was busying himself with the food served in front of him, while the youngest one, leaner in his figure and more elegant in his demeanor, could barely keep his own meal down.

“The little Countess has returned, at long last” he murmured, trying to distract himself from the queasiness in his stomach.

“So it seems, my friend. Ain’t so little anymore, though, I’ve been told. All grown up.”

The youngest of the two pursed his lips, an uncomfortable light in his eyes.

He didn't want to be there. At all.

“Come on, eat somethin’, will ya? You look like you’re goin’ to faint, if you so much dare to stand up. Eat. It’s on me, this time.”

“No, thank you,” the youngest murmured through gritted teeth.”This...grub does not sit well on my stomach,”

“What a sissy. Well, suits yourself, mollycoddle. I, for once, have never been one to love wasting a good meal,” and without ceremonies, he took the plate sitting in front of the youngest man and started to scarf it down as if it was his last meal.

“Hasn’t anyone taught you any manners?”said the young man, barely concealing the disgust on his face.

“Aye, me mom. She tried when I was a younglin’. Didn’t quite work out, my brother was much better material for her to work with. But what good are manners anyway? No need for them durin’ a brawl in the street.”

“If you say so…”

“Let’s talk about more important things, shall we? Is the Grand Master still set on his plan? Is she to succeed him, when the time comes?”

“How should I know? I am not in Starrick’s mind.”

“Indulge me, lad,”

The young man sighed, crossing his arms against his chest.

“There might be this possibility, yes. Nothing has been decided as of yet.”

“Bollocks.” said the other, curling his lips in disgust.

“Facts.”

The oldest of the two spit on the ground.

“Don’t fuck around with me, you ninny. I can’t believe Crawford Starrick would do somethin’ so stupid. He has enough foresight to know that it would be a catastrophe for the Order.”

“He might be in possess of knowledge about her that we cannot foresee. When he comes to his daughter, the Grand Master is most secretive,”

“Horse’s shite!” he said, slamming his hand on the table. A few people turned to look at them but hastily ignored them when the older one glared at them, his mouth the snarl of a bulldog.

“Would you care to lower your bloody voice?” said the youngest one."Mind my words, you are the paragon of discretion. It's a miracle all of London did not hear you!"

The young man grabbed the pint in front of him, and chugged down the alcohol, hoping it would wash away his nervousness. His eyes darted all across the room, hoping to not meet anyone familiar. The trouble he would be in, if he were to be found in such company, would be beyond repair.

“That’s an absolute pile of shite right there! “See somethin’ in her”? There is nothin’ to see there! All I’m seein’ is a father too blinded by his love for his child and his own desire to create a dynasty through her!”

“Maybe so. But you forget her father has personally overseen her initiation in the Templars ever since she was but a babe in arms and her mentor is none other than the Leviathan himself. She is a Starrick. I would not do the mistake to discount her on the account of her sex. And young she might be, but she resembles her sire more than you can imagine: there is steel hiding underneath that silk. Do not let yourself be fooled by anything else.”

The other grinded his teeth as he leaned closer to the young man, his face splotched by red stains of seething rage.

“Bah! All you have are conjectures and hyphothesis, nothing more than that! It can’t happen. The Order won’t accept her, just because she's his daughter. She's a woman! She belongs to the house, opening her legs for her husband as he sees fits and whelping as many little bastards as possible. She can’t be made anything else than what she is! We need someone strong at the helm of this ship.”

The younger one looked at the elder man, an inquisitive look in his cat-like eyes.

“And what do you propose we do to stop this? Kill her? Kill HIM?”

The brute hesitated, long enough for the younger man to know that, even blinded by rage, he would not act in haste. They needed a valid reason to justify any action taken, lest they were to become a target like the one they were set to control.

“That’s what I thought,” the youngest one finally said, after the long pause. “You will find that patience, my friend, is a virtue not to be discarded in favour of a hasty approach. We shall wait in the shadow, as we have always done, and seize the moment when the right window of opportunity opens. London is already in chaos as it is, with the Assassins rearing those bloody heads of theirs and causing ruckus all around the city. Those blasted Frye twins are an annoyance we need to take care of now, before this annoyance starts veering into dangerous territories.”

“Ethan Frye's bastards?” said the eldest one. “Had they learned nothing from their father’s death? Are they trying to meet the same end he did?”

“Mayhaps.”

“Wasn’t aware those assassins were a family of suicidals,”

“More like children playing with fire. But a fire that need to be quelled at all costs, nevertheless,”

"The challenge is that they’re unorganized. Chaotic. There's no plan or pattern behind their action and this makes them dangerous. Rumors have it that the Frye lad’ve been fightin' at the pits: the lad packs a mean punch.”

“Nothing that will worry you, I assume?”

“Are you jokin’,? Me and my brother will make a pulp of him, as soon as our paths cross. And trust me on this, ninny, they will cross. Wish I could do the same with the Starrick girl. Hell, I’m a gentleman myself, and would be gentle with the little poppet,” he murmured, leaving the promise hanging between the two of them. “That little neck of hers can’t be too hard to snap. A twig in my hands.”

The younger man’s mouth curled in an expression of disgust.

“You will do nothing of this sort. We have to let the Grand Master take care of this, before striking." The young man took the moment before speaking again, weightung his words with moderation. "Kill the young lady, and you will kill Crawford too, in spirit if not in body, and we do not want that. Not now, anyway. The assassins need to be dealt with first, and for that, we need the Grand Master. We need to destroy the Brotherhood, or what remains of it. Then, we shall take care of Crawford Starrick and his daughter."

The eldest one gulped down his entire pint of beer, slamming it against the table once done. He smiled, but there was no warmth in his light eyes.

"What are we waiting for then?"

[PREVIOUS CHAPTER - “Confrontation”]

[NEXT CHAPTER - “Awakening of the Hunter” ]

omg, could it be true??? THE 4TH CHAPTER IS FINALLY DONE AND UP??

Seriously, I don’t know what possessed me to finish this, but I just sort of did?

I missed working with my Starrick family, and so I started to read again the chapter, and before you knew it, I basically added 3k words to it today, and just finished it.

Well, as said in the previous chapter, we are finally back in 1868, so finally we have the chance to move around through London with Dorothea :D

I hope you will like this, I know I will be needing a long nap lol

also, a huge thanks to my dear @susann- noir for being my beta reader and helping me through! you have been immensely kind, I appreciated your help so much <3.

Hope you will like it!

--Nemo

#Assassin's Creed #Assassin's Creed Syndicate #Jacob Frye #Crawford Starrick #Dorothea Starrick #Phillip Starrick #Charles Starrick #In The Heat Of The Moment #my ocs #Nemo Writes #ocfairygodmother

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