Evelyn XVIIIWally's Jewelry turned out to be a jewelry shop. Smackdown in the middle of Toyhara Shopping Center, one of the largest malls in Pluto. It wasn't a chain store, but privately owned. Despite that, it was one of the most successful jewelry stores in the city.Toyhara was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, but Wally's Jewelry closed at seven. By the time we arrived, the store had long since closed. Bars covered the windows, with a Linker scan required to enter."As you can see, the store is closed. The last employees left last night at nine, after transferring credits and cleaning up the store," the security guard said. He knocked on the glass, his reflection grime. "I'm sorry, but no one has come in or out since that final employee. All stores are monitored at all times. If anyone tried to get inside, we would have been alerted.""Thank you, officer."The security guard grunted. "What I'm saying, ma'am, is you don't need to be here. None of you do."His eyes f
Well today was supposed to be a very important chapter regarding Miyuki, Kobayashi, and Evelyn, but since the program I used to write it decided NOT TO SAVE IT, I have no chapter. I'm going to have to rewrite it, after I write the next three Alaric chapters. I have a twelve hour shift today and I'm going to be leaving in twenty minutes, I can't exactly rewrite it. So I'm going to post this from the original draft of Wandering Wolves instead. It's not canon to the current story.When I get home, maybe I'll invest in Microsoft Word or something. Then I'll work on that rewrite.Chapter IV: FightWe spent the next few days working on mana control. This was a process Buer said and it was going to take time to learn the right control. It was more than turning a valve on and off like that first day. On would be a full blast of water, so to speak, while off was nothing.Buer taught us how to adjust the pressure. How to turn on the valve and get a stream of mana, or a river, or even an ocean.
Interlude: The WatcherThe Watcher had served Alice for decades since the Progenitor saved the Watcher's life. The Watcher was a titan with a power that allowed her to record everything she witnessed. Others could view her recordings in the form of dreams.That was why Alice gave her the title of Watcher.The Watcher hid in the ceiling, staring down at the scene unfolding in the jewelry store. Alice's need for needless cruelty had always eluded her, but it was not The Watcher's place to question her master. Alice had given her everything. She saved her life, so what if recording these little cruelties made The Watcher uncomfortable?The Watcher made sure to capture Evelyn as the strix removed his hat. That was the moment Alice wanted to capture. The moment when her actions would destroy someone else.Alice was a progenitor and she had the power to inflict pain and suffering physically, but she went out of her way to avoid torture. She admitted that such torment had its place, but she
Alaric XIX"Delaney is an alias she used before," Mireille said, staring out the window at the trees. "She's a progenitor who has used so many names. Right now we've confirmed that she's using the name, Alice. Though we're not sure if she's blending in with the humans or not. She'd have taken a family name if she was."So Delaney or Alice, whatever she called herself, was like me. She was a progenitor with knights and her own court. Damien went through a lot of pain to make sure he was hidden. Or I was hidden. We. To make sure we were hidden.And Delaney or Alice had found us. Not only did she find us, but she also declared open war on my court.Mireille, Kaya, Yayoi, and Nanase were in the room with me. Because Alice declared war on me, each of them was in danger. I had a whole court of strix and the other strains working for me, apparently, and now all of them were in just as much danger.Kaya sighed. "Should we start looking into everyone with the name Alice in Neptune?"Mireille s
Alaric XXThe streets of Neptune were bustling with people. From the small, cozy street where little cars drove, to the crowded sidewalks. Neptune was unique when it was planned, in the vein that cars weren't given a huge amount of thought. The rest of Aquroya was far more accommodating, so I've heard. It wasn't like I had seen the rest of the country. Maybe Damien had.The sidewalks were filled with people laughing. They tried to give each other as much space as they could, but in a crowd, that was impossible. It was a little claustrophobic, but I blended in with the crowd well.This was done in a vain attempt to hide from my watchers. It was a Sunday, so I didn't have any school, but Mireille met me before I left. Nanase and Kaya were going to watch me. Mireille and Yayoi had something important to do, so I was stuck with the former.Kaya and Nanase were less serious than Mireille or Yayoi, so it wasn't bad. No, it was bad, but they weren't the ones who made it bad. Mireille was the
Alaric XXIThe mall was huge, five stories tall, and it took up a huge lot of space in the center of the city. It was one of the few places with an above-ground parking lot, so it could add even more space. Of course, every parking space on the above-ground lot was filled, but we weren't driving today.The neon sign emblazoned on the top of the building was dull in the day, but at night it was supposed to be something to look at. There was a thick crowd of people coming in and out of the building, talking so loudly that you had to raise your voice if you wanted to be heard.If you had human hearing. My senses were a razor's edge and I could pick out Kaya's normal voice just fine.We were going on the mall crawl, according to Kaya. Something straight out of every teen movie and TV show you could think of. Kaya just wanted to shop. I guess girls will be girls, even if they are alien-influenced vampires.The crowd of people was so thick we had to push our way through in a few places. I w
"Henri, have you finished your homework?" his mother called.She smiled back down at the woman and nodded. "Yes, mom. I'm just going to go relax before dinner!""Alright. Make sure you remember to come down this time.""I don't forget!"As soon as the door was closed behind her, Henri's form melted away. Alice stetched. "It's such a pain hoing to kill."Why did she have to take the form of a student? Because he was Alaric's friend, that's why. Still, she should have taken the form of a teacher.Before she could yawn, the screen in Henri's room flickered to life. It was connected to the camera that would look out on Evelyn's despair.
Interlude: The Acting Director of PlutoMiyuki had lived a very long life. The casual observer never would have known by just looking at her. Despite her very long life, she didn't appear a day over twenty-five. If one were to look at her files, one would see that Sword recorded her age to be twenty-four.That was a lie, but the truth would never pass through her lips. If one knew the truth, then one might assume she was a strix. If Miyuki didn't work in Sword, she could have well been.Sword was charged with the protection and defense of humanity against the strains. While this entailed all of them, Sword singled the strixes out to be their greatest enemy. The scanners they developed were specifically calibrated to detect and reveal strix. If she was one of the vampiric monsters, then she would have been exposed.Factoring that into the equation, one might assume she underwent the rebirth project that Kobayashi headed, but the truth lies elsewhere. She had never set foot inside the l