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"B-bastards!!"

"Just stay still," a toneless voice retorted with flatly. A gloved hand pressed hard into the kindred's face as his head was roughly forced aside, revealing his tender neck. His collar was torn away and dirty, as if his shirt hadn't been washed in days.

"T-the royal guard will have your heads for this!" The captive screamed, trying to writhe out of the tight binds that cut into his straining limbs. "They will have you k-killed!"

Not bothering to give a response, his captor pulled a syringe from his coat pocket and pressed the plunger until the clear red liquid spewed thinly from its hollow tip. The kindred under him tensed considerably. His eyes took in the needle as if it was a knife intent of spilling him open there on the table. In the next instant, it was thrust into the base of his neck with a sharp jolt of pain.

"Gaa'gh...!"

The hand held the kindred's head firmly in place. He strained to break the grip on his head, to bit the hand holding him down, to spit in the face of his pseudo-doctor, but he could do nothing. As soon as the fluid was sufficiently injected, the captor above him removed the needle and withdrew his hand from his head. The kindred glared daggers back the cold, gray eyes he saw burning down on him. They were cold, almost demonically so, and somehow devoid of anything substantial. Yet, they were clear, unnerving, and intelligent beyond measure. It frightened him.

"The royal guard... w-will not..." the kindred tried to speak, finding his lips and tongue growing less responsive. A small trickle of blood oozed from his mouth.

"Eno," the gray-eyed doctor called out indifferently, stepping aside and placing his hands into his coat pockets casually.

Stepping into the dim light, a black female kindred by the name of Eno came forward, her white-tipped tail swaying frantically despite the calm appearance she upheld. Her eyes were pained, looking over her patient with a dark, remorseful look. Eno looked young for the rank she commanded, but something in her eyes betrayed something contrary in nature to her relative youth.

"W-why...?" The patient rasped, his voice losing its fire as his mind drifted towards the Void. "I-I didn't... d-didn't..."

I didn't do anything to deserve this. Something in Eno's eyes flashed, something intense and mournful.

"For the good of all," she answered simply, an almost scornful irony in her voice as she repeated the phrase like she had so many times before.

"For the g-good of-f.... Wha.. -at..."

After taking a moment to look over his features, she turned to the male in the white coat and asked, "how is he doing, Demi?"

"Undesirable," the gray-eyed kindred, Demi, answered. "It seems that his body is rejecting the binding formula. I have tried to introduce a counter-agent, but thus far the results are as you see."

As if planned, he patient sputtered, blood dripping from his jaw and lightly tainting his dirty shirt and the exposed fur on his chest.

"The physical agent is reacting badly with his bodily systems," Demi continued, "and entered into a catalystic state of decay, which is in turn reflected in his own residual aura. There's nothing we can do to repair the damage. His body is falling apart."

The patient coughed weakly, his breathing growing more erratic.

"The formula is a failure."

"I see," Eno answered, a slight drop in her voice.

Disappearing to pull something from the nearby shelves, she began to hum a short, slow tune. It was had an almost painful melody, one wrote out of sorrow rather than joy. As Eno approached her patient, now no longer fully coherent. She pulled out another syringe.

"Run home run home little child run home "The coming night dear it just can't wait"

Delicately, Eno sunk the needle into his shoulder. She noted the way his chest heaved with rapid, irregular breathes, and how his muscles constantly flexed and relaxed. There was no doubt in her mind that they had sacrificed his life for their ultimate cause, and they could never return to him what they had so irreparably damaged.

"I will be there with you, in time "But first I must undo this world's ill fate"

However, as the tranquilizer she had just injected took effect, his body grew more and more still. No trace of consciousness remained. Only his slowly-calming breathing and occasional spasms bore signal of his continued, if now limited life. However, she couldn't get the red stain out of her mind, the iron-heavy scent mixing badly with the faint scent of urine that clung to his fur. The sickening scent of another failure.

"With red hands I will repair this life "For change must come before it's too late"

Subtle rise and fall of the patient's chest told Eno that her patient had slipped peacefully into full unconsciousness. She sadly counted off in her head about how much longer he had before his biological systems shut down as the failed compound worked its way into his body.

"Take him down to observation," she commanded quietly, turning to Demi. "Have a nurse keep an eye on him. Alert me if anything changes."

After seeing Demi bob his head in affirmation, Eno turned to leave.

---

"I'm tellin' yah, it's a conspira-whatsit!"

Blue turned away from the window he was cleaning to give the old kindred an unconvinced look.

"Yeah, I doubt they'd have the money, or the know-how to fund and entire secret war," Blue retorted skeptically. "OR cover up the disappearance of an entire township."

"That's just the thing! No one's heard of it! But dig around!" The old kindred almost fell backwards off the curb of the street if he hadn't managed to brace himself against the short, glowing street pole that rose to hip-height. "The history books in the Grea' Library ment'in a town by thah name o' Drakeshire. Quiet place, off o' where the Old War was fought, but it simply doesn't exist anymore!"

Blue purposely fogged the glass inches from his face with his moist breath before polishing it clean with the white cloth in his hand. He had no idea why he was listening to this inebriate anymore.

"Seriously, I just don't see it..."

"Exactly!" The kindred shouted, "Why, I bet they--"

The rambling kindred was cut off by the sudden approach of a large, wooden cart practically flying down the street. Two large, scaled beasts pulled it from the front in a display of tamed beasthood, each bearing a harness and bipedal rider in shining silver armor. The insidnia of the Royal Guardian Order shined proadly on their shoulders and breastplates. As the wooden cart ground to a halt, the door on its side opened quickly to reveal a similarly clad kindred, though gleaming gold as well as silver, marking him as a captain of the Order. His eyes quickly scanned the front of the store and stopped on Blue and the other kindred.

"Where is Master Aeus?" The captain demanded impatiently, not taking the time for pleasantries in front of the two of them.

"I-Inside, just follow the signs," Blue stammered. "He should be at the end of the second ha--"

"That will be all." The captain said, cutting him off. He brushed his cloak aside and pushed past Blue, unintentionally ramming Blue's shoulder as he moved to open the door to Blue's immediate left.

Blue frowned, looking after the disappearing form.

With a cursory look at the cart, and a glare from the mounted royal guards, Blue's less brave companion mumbled something to the effect of, its getting a wee bit crowded here now, fuggin' royal imps, before taking another swig from the bottle concealed under his jacket and wandering off, leaving Blue to his silence. He studied the guards briefly, a deep frown on their otherwise expressionless face as they returned his gaze intensely. Deciding instead to simply ignore their sudden arrival, Blue continued cleaning the glass display window. His breath once again fogged the dark surface, only to be wiped away cleanly by his rag. Back and forth, he rubbed it with little interest, the action long since been reduced to a simple mechanical gesture.

After only a short time, the twin doors swung open nearby, the same silver-and-gold form moving by in no less of a hurry than before. With a quick "on with it," he once again disappeared inside the wooden wagon before it broke out of its standstill and traveled down the cobblestone road. Blue momentarily stopped his duties to watch it roll down the slope and round the corner, disappearing behind the cake shop that marked the corner.

Blue blinked slowly. What was the captain of the royal guard doing here? In the middle of the night, no less?

He shook his head. The windows looked clean enough. Silently, he picked up his small bundle of cleaning supplies and disappeared inside. He was greeted with the soft glow of the Nightgale's lobby, local upscale inn and his place of gainful employment. Magical lamps, each a soft yet vivid orange, stood proudly on the polished oak reception desk, now abandoned of its daytime attendants. At this time of night, curfew would have prevented any souls from wandering the lobby, though exceptions still had to be made for staff such as himself.

As much as he wanted to seek out Master Aeus, he had other duties to attend to. Namely... polishing the marble floor in the west dining hall. Blue lamented inwardly.

Not able to push it off any longer, he disappeared down the first hall to left, winding his way around several open archways leading elsewhere in the extravagant inn complex. Everything had the look of being freshly painted or sculpted by artisans of impressive ability. Precious metals and extravagant, imported materials could be seen wherever it helped the aesthetic quality of the inn's inner sanctum. It was no large wonder it possessed the type of clientele that it did.

Only the rich would be found here, he told himself, well, and kindred like me, who are forced to serve the rich.

He hummed lightly to himself, for just a moment placing himself in the shoes of someone who would be served, rather than serve. He would wear a black suit and top hat, with platinum cuffs and no tie. He would spend the morning dining with all the ladies and gentlemen, before strolling about the finest stores and parks in the area. In the evening, he would sup with the social elite, discuss the events of their world, and dance to the music of the ballroom. He would have maids and servants tend to his wants and needs, all the while treating them with dignity and tipping them generously on his own account. He would pay for the best magic teachers that could be bothered, and learn to be proficient and skilled through hard work, diligence, and peerless guidance. He would make connections with the most elite that he could find, and even work his way up to meeting the royal diarchs.

Finally, Blue found himself in front of the large, pillared doorway to the west dining hall--one of two extravagant dining rooms to the Nightgale. He walked inside to see the floor had already been prepared for his arrival. All the chairs, tables, and other furniture were moved far to the side, stacked against the wall as if meant for storage. Usually, the largest dining halls were reserved for special occasions, which the inn saw a lot of, depending on the local goings-on. Locating a small closet tucked around the corner of the kitchen's entrance, Blue ducked inside to fetch a pail and mop, as well as some liquid solvents to dissolve in the water. Borrowing the sink momentarily from one of the interior food prep stations, he had his cleaning mixture ready. Setting it on the floor nearest to the closet, he dipped the he head of the mop into the fluid and gradually worked his way outwards on the floor. Tile by tile, he cleaned each square in turn, breaking only occasionally to rest against the wall and stare at his silver pocket watch. He lost track of the hours, working at his quiet task moving slowly from one side of the room to the other, leaving the floor subtly more impressive than it was before. Though, if not for the dim, magical lamps angled just right from where they adorned the walls, he wouldn't have been able to spot any difference at all in their polished surface.

Given that the other side was already well dried by time, Blue returned to the closet to replace his equipment so that he could treat the tile floor once more, this time with polish. By the end of it all, the floor would be... well, about as spotless and perfect as when he started, but it needed to be done.

Blue wondered how the diarchs were as kindred. He had never met the two god-like sisters who stood at the very center of the nation, but he had once seen them. They had visited White Creek for the wintertime festival last year; Blue had been among the kindred celebrating, and had seen them from the crowd. They were relatively small, but still had an unearthly air of authority and power about them, despite their presence that simply exudes peace. Well, he knew well enough they weren't exactly commoners like him, and he'd likely never see them as anything more than a simple spectator, even if he was a noble, but how were they otherwise? Were they as prim and proper as those of higher society, or even more so because they were in fact their betters? Did they have dreams of their own? Do powerful rulers who essentially control the world have things that they want, but cannot have? He did not know.

After what seemed like all night, Blue was done. No more would he have to contend with further tasks either, as his watch confirmed. Not for tonight, anyway. He looked at the silver timepiece chained to his heck, it's Gothic-styled hands marking it to be roughly 6 am. Mentally he gauged how long it had taken him to polish the floors.

I actually did it in record time, he mused with a slight smirk.

Blue quickly set about putting his supplies away in the closet, before wandering off to the nearest restroom to wash his arms. A proper bath would have to wait. Now, he only wanted to climb into bed for the night. Maybe pull one of the few scant books he managed to borrow from the library down the street. Letting his hands find their way to his pockets, Blue wound his way down the halls, past the front lobby, and towards to smaller utility wing. There, he would find his room, among the other ones offered to the Nightgale's employees, if they are inclined to accept housing here at part of their job. The rooms were nowhere near as luxurious as the guest rooms, and came more or less unfurnished, but they were better than half of the rooms he'd get elsewhere in town. He had to pay a cut of his wages for it, but so long as he didn't mind being unable to make any large purchases, he would make due happily enough. Pulling a small iron key from his pocket, he opened the door to the main service lobby. While keeping with the same style and decor of the guest lobby, the room he found himself in now was was much more compact and less lavish in its furniture and adornments. A couple couches and tables, a coffee bar, and a dusty music box that looked like it hadn't been touched in years were the only prominent examples. That, and the two young females sitting on the couch immediately to the left of the music box. One was pulling at the lacing of her maid outfit, while the other sat with her legs crossed, her hand delicately cradling a porcelain tea cup. The latter was already fully dressed and enjoying some downtime before her shift.

Hearing the door swing open and noting the familiar face, the former of the two bounded to her feet, her emerald-green hair swaying slightly as her tan-furred ears perked up.

"Good morning, Blue!" She chimed happily, bowing to him with mock formality despite her friendly tone. Her maid outfit seemed strangely fitting of her overall character, Blue noted.

"Morning, Gemstone," Blue returned, a slight smile on his face.

"Oh dear," Gemstone commented, looking him over with a quick shift in tone, "it looks like you got some dirt in your fur. Here."

Not waiting for his response, she pulled a handkerchief from the nearby table and approached him. In response, Blue quickly held up his hands in a polite no thank you, before proceeding to dust himself off. Giving her a smile, he hoped she wouldn't take any offense at his refusal. Gemstone just pouted in response, but it didn't take her long to recover her normal upbeat attitude.

"So how was your shift?" Gemstone asked cheerfully.

"Looks like it was rough, if your filthy fur and stained shirt is any indicator..." The other female commented, a young kindred with orange-brown fur and shimmering, ruby-colored hair. Her lips were still kissed around her cup, the picture of reserved elegance despite her candid choice of words.

"Cadie..." Gemstone chided.

"It was alright," Blue continued, returning to her original question. "Usual stuff, although... we did have a rather strange visitor tonight." A slight 'humph' sounded from the orange and red 'Cadie', known as Cadence to most.

"Don't tell me it was that dirty drunkard again," Cadence commented from where she sat on the couch.

"No--well yes, I did see him, but--" Blue stumbled.

"--Young men are known by the company they keep."

Blue gave Cadence a questioning look as she paused to take a dramatic sip from her tea.

"You might want to take that to heart," she finished with a sage nod. "I see dark times for you ahead, full of booze and dignity left abandoned on street corners."

"Anyways," Blue continued, ignoring the comment, "no. It was in fact the captain of the Royal Guardians. He came asking for Master Aeus, and seemed to be in a hurry. He couldn't have been inside for more than a five minutes. ...Did either of you see him come by here?"

"We were in our rooms, Darling," Cadence corrected him. "Of course we didn't."

"Cadie, he was just asking," Gemstone returned, her face slightly scrunched. "Anyways, I don't see what the royal guard would want with an innkeeper, even if we're talking about our own Nightgale."

"Except, Master Aeus is also one of the five council members of the Royal Magic Council." Cadence corrected once again.

"Oh yeah..." Blue muttered. "Now that I think about it, he was one of the leaders of exploring the sensory-connection aspect attributed to an individual's natural aura. Supposedly, he was integral for expanding the Clear Sight spell into something that could be held stable for more than a few seconds. But still, the Captain of the Royal Guardians?"

"I forgot our inn master was a part of that..." Gemstone admitted with a sheepish grin. "I'm not quite the scholar, unlike a certain handsome individual in our company that I could name."

With that, she gave him a playful smile. Blue started a little at her comment, a slight blush creeping over his face at the undeserved praise. From afar, he could see a slight smirk on Cadence's face as she caught his reaction.

"Now, Gemstone. Don't tease the poor little child."

"Hey, I'm n--"

"Anyways, we have places to be. If you'll excuse us." Cadence cut him off before Blue could retort.

Together, Gemstone and Cadence, the latter quickly rising from the couch with a small flourish, started off towards the door in a hurry. Gemstone gave Blue a kind, joyous parting smile as she bounded lightly past him on his right side. Following closely behind her was Cadence, crossing him on the left. As Cadence passed him, he felt a light touch on his cheek where her warm lips lightly touched his fur.

"Try to relax, dear. Too much stress will kill you long before you work yourself into your grave at this rate."

After a small laugh sounded in the air, they were gone with the door closed and locked behind them. Blue was left alone in the service lobby, rubbing his cheek with is palm. He shook his head slightly and let out a sigh. He really didn't need to think about his now. All he wanted to do was climb into bed and curl up with a book on magic theory, or Sno Fuhr the Champion. The night was well over, and so was his time outside of the covers of his bed.

Though, I could still use a bath first, he noted, looking down at the dirt that still clung to his fur.