Hour of Specter II.
21st of February, 117th of the NDE. Martial City of Larvag, Skalafell Heimrad.
The Black Rose research department’s building was located in the central western district of Larvag. A large, seventeen floor building of rectangle building with an inner courtyard. At its center a statue was erected of a beautiful stygian maiden who established this branch several hundreds of years ago when the Order became a proper military host to the kingdom. Around it numerous marble tables and benches with padded, warm seating were placed where the various staff members – vordriars, sloegriirs and so on – spent their lunch time talking about their recent discoveries, or starting up various rumors.
Freydul, an orii elven vordriar with a delicate, yet well-honed body, perfectly fair skin tone, an alluring visage typical to her kin and deep, vibrant auburn hair bundled into a low bun above her nape, and a horizontal fringe cut perfectly straight. While she was eating her lunch – smoked sausage with smashed potatoes – a soratanse Sister of hers appeared with a wide smile.
“Have you heard?” The dark haired beauty with slight elvish features on her exotic eastern face asked as she sat down with her own bowl of ramen.
“Nope. But I guess you will tell me now.” Freydul said faking interest with an affable smile and her sapphire eyes brimming with excitement.
“Rude.” Her cheeks puffed out than she continued when she leaned closer to Freydul. “But one of the sloegriirs got taken by the Raven Eyes. Allegedly she may be a rat.”
“Do you know who it was?” Freydul asked as she carefully grabbed one of the sausages, placed it between her alabaster teeth, luscious elven lips with an eerie luster and softness, and let it rich juices flow down towards her sharp jawline.
“Nope. Heard it from Ira while we were patrolling at the western wing.” The Soratanese Vordriar said as her gaze focused on the events unfolding in front of her, her arcane blue collars rustled as she gulped.
“Told you already.” Freydul sighed after she cleaned off the sausage juice from her jawline and lips. “Only relay these rumors to me when you know more than just someone got grabbed. For all we know she may have just been taken to work on something important. Or to just fix one of their gadgets. Afterall, most Raven Eyes are like us, not craft savvies.”
“Sorry. Will keep it in mind. Anyway, wanna join us tonight at the bar? I heard they will serve shrunken gryphon wings?” After looking at Freydul like an apologetic puppy, she asked and the two continued their lunch peacefully after Freydul said she may join as she really loved roasted or grilled gryphon legs and wings.
**
“It’s just you and me once again.” Freydul said excited as she zipped open her Vigrieth Type-V coat’s neck that reached high towards her jawline, walling around her neck and blouse collars. A relaxed smile widened across her face as she entered the seventeenth floor’s library. One of the reasons she enjoyed this job and was patient enough to not hasten her promotion or ask to be redesignated as a drengriar.
According to northern intellectuals, every institute dedicated to the elevation of society, the world needs at least four vast and two small libraries at least. The seventeenth floor one – near to Ainumil’s office – was one such library which place was extended by spatial enchantments. There were at least seventeen rows of shelves filled with books on the nature of magic, its history, grimoires of long past sorcerers or sorceresses and so on. While the center was filled with tables and chairs as that was the designated area for study.
As the door closed behind her Freydul stretched her arms which made her smile widen as her soft silken collars tickled her cheeks and jaw before she dropped her arms back to her sides and started her rounds. Her usual pattern was to make five rounds for an hour, keeping vigilant while also picking out a book to read.
But, this time around it was different. She knew the moment she reached the window looking out at the busy street covered in snow except for the middle of the road where it melted thanks to the enchantments woven into the asphalt. A simple, thud echoed softly in the library to her right.
“Nellian? Is that you?” Freydul yelled out still somewhat calm and sure that it was the fogherith sloegriir Sister of hers that accidentally dropped one of the books onto the thick, faux fur covered floor. “I guess not.” She murmured next while reaching for her wand pistol resting in its holster down at her waist.
“Probably just the wind.” Reaching where the sound came, she noticed the window slightly opened behind the transparent curtain that filtered the incoming light into a white hue. On the floor she noticed a book on the study of magical restraints and after looking around, confirming with enchanted eyes no one was inside beside her, she reached down to put the book back to its place.
Suddenly, she let out a muffled yelp as she noticed the dark, leather clad hand approaching from the edge of her vision with a wet looking rag that swiftly gut pushed against her lips, and small nostrils. “Nrrnnr!” Another arm wrapped around her torso where the utility belt looped around, and quickly pressed the air out from her. Gasping for air, she took a deep breath and picked up on the familiar sweet scent emanating from the dosed rag.
“Calm down. It will be over soon.” Claraste’s hot breath made her feel conflicted as it breezed her sharp ears poking through her opaque hair. For a moment the seeds of panic planted themselves in her heart that pounded like never before, and with all her might she tried to struggle. Claraste quickly noticed Freydul’s legs moving towards the shelves and wrapped her owns’ around them while forcing themselves onto the ground.
There they rolled back and forth as the orii elven vordriar tried her best to break free from the seemingly impenetrable pinching of the dark elven spy. Then as the seconds passed and the poison took its effects, Freydul’s eyes gradually lost their light and her expanded elven irises slid up behind the corners while her body went completely limp in Claraste’s sturdy embrace.
“Rest soldier. You may have earned it.” Claraste whispered as she remained in the same position, clutching the doll like corpse in her embrace before she gently pushed it away. Without wasting anymore time, she flipped the coat’s Veiling Strap away and zipped it open and continued opening the deeper layers of the uniform – the corset vest and the aetherna satin blouse surrounded by the snow silvery lining of the coat – until she reached the perfectly smooth, fair body under them.
She looked up once more, her eyes lit up with an arcane light as the shelves, walls all became transparent. When she was sure no one was near, she quickly relieved the corpse from its belongings and put them on over her simple, full-body suit that tightened onto her own slender, athletic body. She took a strand from the corpse and placed it into the disk – The Faux Visage – and attached it back under her jaw on the left.
Then she reached into her pocket void and took out a vial that at first glance seemed to be filled with a glistening scarlet mass. A mass that dispersed at a simple shake. “Still creepy.” Claraste said with grimace as she looked at the Scarlet Ants trying to crawl on each other.
“Okay, let’s do this.” She said while holding her breath for a moment, then popped open the vial and let the myriad or even thousands of ants crawl out and towards the naked corpse of Freydul laid in front of her. In the span of a blink, the ants devoured the corpse, leaving not even a drop of blood behind before they crawled back into the vial without a word.
“I hate her.” She said as she practically hurled the vial back into the pocket space and left the library resembling Freydul.
**
“That will do.” Adelia said, her eyes narrowed in satisfaction as she watched the dark cheeks of the sraudornian sloegriir puffing out, her striking lips sealed behind the wide strip of gleaming black sealing tape. Glistening sweet sweat zig zagged down her forehead, its starting point located somewhere under her tousled, voluminous ocean blue hair. Her tired aquamarine eyes glared down at the floor and she slowly started to spin left and right as Adelia and Zoryne released their grip off of her body that hung in the air with rope knotted exceptionally well around her wrists with a second coil stretching up towards the gloomy ceiling.
Both Raven Eye agents were clad in their own fashioned outfits gifted to them. For Adelia it was a simple dragonid leather jacket with a draped neck that formed loose folds parted by the contrasting zipper that went up and sealed her equally high dark bluish aetherna satin blouse’s collars brightened by the snow silvery lining of the jacket. On the bottom the leathery high heels that reached up to her muscle-bound thighs coalesced with her thick, glossy dragonid leather trousers with the belt slithering around her waist.
For Zoryne it was a dragonid leather coat with clear dark elven motifs and curves, including the angular, funnel-like neck with asymmetrical curves and measures, the sleeve ends that resembled inverted crescents that were as stiff as metal as their tips pointed towards the ceiling. Unlike her superior, she wore a pearl white aetherna satin blouse that paired quite well with her deep mauve bluish skin and matched with her lustrous, luxuriant hair bundled into a bun sitting at her nape, on the top edges of her blouse’s triangular collar.
Adelia crossed her arms as she glared coldly at the mole hanging in front of her. “What should we do with her?” Just as Zoryne asked the door opened and the two swiftly turned around and saluted in unison. Standing in the doorway was Hersith Haldoreen Dhordotthiir in all her glory and exquisiteness, The Hersith of Skies and Beyond.
As expected from the primes of the Black Rose Order, she possessed an exceptionally enchanting visage that could not be ruined, even by the burnt mark on her left cheek that made it slightly transparent, exposing soft muscle and sinew.
Serene, graceful almond contoured eyes of bright mauve hues, shapely arched brows tenderly rested above them with soft, refined curves. A nose with a thin, long bridge and a dainty end over her firm and tightly stretched dark, glossy lips. Her raven black voluminous hair bundled into a high, elegant bun with a few thick tresses hanging over her enchanting snow white visage, framing them perfectly.
“Ease Sisters!” Her deep, melodious feminine voice echoed through the small interrogation room as she firmly planted her high heeled feet onto the floor. Like the other Hersiths, she wore her own, preferred outfit that consisted of an elongated aviator coat with snow white braided trims. On the top, an open asymmetrical, but angular neck swirled around her own’s encasing her raven black blouse collars while reaching above them towards her cheeks.
Haldoreen shot a disappointed look at the mole with an empty gaze “How disappointing. Do you have no honor, no loyalty towards Myelia and the disciples of her sweet Daughter Sister?” With her gloved hand, she grasped the cheeks of the bound and gagged mole, their breaths intertwined while her tone revealed her disappointment.
As Adelia watched with calm, cold eyes Haldoreen released her grip as answers came in weak muffled moans while the file written by the two agents hovered towards her stretched out right arm. “Exalted Sister, this one was working with the Albionians.”
Haldoreen uttered a soft sigh of surprise at those words. “So she not just betrayed our Divine Mother but even our beloved Queen?” Adelia nodded three times softly as she met the piercing gaze of Haldoreen. “One of my former comrades, the dark elf I once told you about is in the city.”
The snaelven hersith sighed reading the documents and took one last look at the mole dangling in the air. Then suddenly a spear of pristine, transparent ice appeared impaling her through the heart. Her snow silvery blood gently slithered out from her wound, down her perfectly smooth, creaseless rouge pink surface of her blouse while her head slumped down for the last time.
“Find and eliminate her.” Haldoreen ordered the two who stood by coldly as their former Sister departed to the realm of Myelia. As they bowed Haldoreen disappeared in a burst of icy mist and snow-flakes before they left the interrogation room.
**
“We should have handed our relocation papers in already.” Lorenaith said as she could no longer bear the silence that sat between them for the past two hours. Lorenaith who still sported the same angular bob styled, bright violet hair with snow blonde ends and Yeva who tucked her vibrant scarlet red hair in a low bun stood vigilant at the office of Ainumil on the seventeenth floor.
“We will by the end of the week I promise.” Yeva said in a soft whisper as they were aware of the slightly agitated Ainumil as she was going through the maddening mountains of papers that piled up – some from her fellow Sisters with a keen interest in the furthering of magicraft technologies, some written by Adelia on the rats and moles.
Before the two Skjaldmeriors could continue, their attention turned to the soft thuds signaling the approaching figure who slinked out from the soft shadows between the curtained windows. An orii elven vordriar with dark hair, Freydul – or more like disguised Claraste – appeared with stacks of documents pressed against her chest.
“More papers? Your funeral Sister.” Lorenaith said jokingly, while carefully sniffing the overpowering sweet scent that felt familiar to her, and to Yeva. Before they could tie it to a not too distant memory, they both now stood with expression similar to zombies – exceptionally gorgeous zombies.
“Wouldn’t be sure about that.” Claraste said as she snapped her fingers and ordered the two new slaves of hers to remain on standby until further notice. “Come in!” The two slightly nodded and with two knocks, a frustrated and tired Ainumil approved her entrance.
**
After sending Zoryne and two more Sisters of hers to the apartment that appeared in the memories of the mole, Adelia hurried to the research department’s building to inform Ainumil of Haldoreen’s arrival. Just as she put one foot inside, a chilling, familiar sensation coursed through her quivering body, so much so that her stiff collars caressed her neck and jawline for a short moment.
Her lips with perfect contours resembling a heart curled into a smile. “Claraste.” Mana coursed through the arcane veins of her legs as she sprinted across the hallways, corridors of the building, evading the sloegriirs and vordriars who only seen a blurry dark shadow pass by with a familiar presence.
She reached the seventeenth floor within five minutes and hurried towards the office where she noticed the two Skjaldmaeriors standing vigilantly still. Yet she felt something wasn’t right with them, and noticed the pink energies left by the mind controlling inscriptions dance within their souls, wrapping around their arcane points.
“Hmm, what happened?” Yeva asked confusedly when Adelia snapped her fingers, emitting a wave of arcane inscriptions that broke the charming. “Follow me inside.” At those words, the two tensed up and reached for their weapons while standing beside Adelia who has already drawn her silenced wand pistol.
She kicked the door open and stared confused at the sight unfolding in front of her. “Should have knocked at least.” Ainumil said annoyingly as she sighed tiredly while sitting beside Claraste clad in the vordriar uniform all bound and gagged with her own favored silver sealing tape with her back leaning against the desk.
Noticing their surprise, Ainumil sighed once more and spoke after collecting her breath. “Told you already, my bodyguards are just for show.” She stated coldly as she looked at Yeva and Lorenaith.
“I know that. But…” As Adelia walked near the former comrade of hers knocked out and bruised slightly, Ainumil shushed her. “This ain’t my first rodeo as they say in Eoran.” A smile bathed in respect dawned on Adelia’s alluring half elvish visage.
Adelia helped Ainumil onto her feet then ordered the two Skjaldmaeriors to grab the trussed up Claraste. “I’ll keep that in mind from now on. Come on, let’s show her around.”
“Now if you don’t mind I have still some paperwork.” Ainumil stopped for a moment as she looked dejected at her desk. “A lot to be precise.” Another tired sigh followed, this one for a different reason.
“We won’t disturb you. But at least check yourself out before leaping back to work.” Adelia said with a cold expression, and disproportionately caring tone as she closed the door to the office.