Ch 20: A Second Truth, Chains of Sorrow and a Strand of Hope

5 years after Agnes' death, with no where else to turn, Alastor arrives at the home of his brother Alexander. Here, he first learns of his brother's wife Amelia and her children.

            Arriving to answer the doorbell, wondering who could have come, as Amelia looked through the bars of the gate at Alastor, she asked, “Hello? Who is it?” Wondering who she was as well, and worried he had the wrong place, Alastor responded, “My apologies, but is this the home of Alexander Bastille?” Smiling at him hospitably, Amelia said, “My husband is out right now. Do you know him?” In surprise, Alastor said, “Husband?! Alex married?!” Giggling a bit, Amelia said, “We even have kids!” Staring for a moment in shock, Alastor finally pulled himself together and said, “I see, it’s good to hear he’s doing well. Do you know where he is right now? I must speak with him.” Thinking a bit, Amelia moved to open the gate as she replied, “Well he went into town for a bit, but I’m sure he’ll be back soon. You seem like you know him, so why don’t you wait inside? I’d love to hear more about you. You haven’t even told me your name yet…” In realization, Alastor quickly said, “Oh, you’re right. I am Alastor Bastille, your husband’s younger brother.”

            Quickly opening the gate, Amelia approached Alastor with a stunned expression. Noticing her reaction, Alastor did not meet her gaze as he said, “Ah, you must have heard about me. I assure you, I came here with no ill intentions.” Amelia simply whispered, “Really?” Trying to put any worries she might have at ease, Alastor started to say, “Yes, I’m…” Getting right up in his face, Amelia demanded, “You’re really Alexander’s brother Alastor?!” A bit taken aback, Alastor simply replied, “Yes.” Taking hold of his hands, Amelia beamed at him as she said, “Amazing! I’d heard you’d been sealed away forever with the Nameless One! Please come inside, I’m sure Alexander will be so happy to see you!” As she started to drag him along, Alastor reluctantly let himself be led inside, thinking to himself, “I truly hope so…”

            Following Amelia to the house, Alastor soon found himself seated in the living room. Amelia expressed her desire that he meet with her two children, once they had woken up from their afternoon nap. For a while the two sat and talked, Alastor explaining the heartbreaking events leading up from his escape from the seal, as well as his need for Alexander’s aid in protecting himself from the Hand of Fate. Looking at Alastor with great sympathy as she sat next to him upon the couch, Amelia said, “This is all so horrible… It’s great that you’ve made it here in one piece. Don’t worry, if anyone can think of a way to help you, I’m sure Alexander can.” Nodding in agreement, Alastor said, “Yes, I can think of no one else to depend on. However… I feel I’m imposing on you greatly, especially now that I’m risking involving not only him, but you and your children as well. Also…” Placing a hand upon his in an attempt to reassure him, Amelia looked at him with a stern expression and said, “It’s not like that at all! I know both Alexander and I would agree, having you come to us for help when you’re in trouble is just another part of what it means to be family!” Unable to look her in the eyes, Alastor’s gaze was instead fixed on the picture of his brother together with the other members of Angelorum Lux upon the fireplace mantle. After everything he had done, he feared forgiveness might not come so easily.

            Realizing she had, in her excitement, neglected to offer anything to eat or drink, Amelia quickly got up to rush to the kitchen and get something together for Alastor, despite his objections. Yet as she was about to go, her halman ears suddenly perked up and she seemed to stare off into space. Noticing her behavior, Alastor questioned, “Is something wrong?” Glancing at him with a confused look, Amelia replied, “The hum of the barrier around the house is gone… It’s usually always running to keep out foreign things like pests and spores, but it’s suddenly stopped…” Alastor quickly rose to his feet as an alarming thought entered his mind, and he muttered, “They couldn’t have…?” The bad feeling in the pit of his stomach only grew worse as he began to notice faint traces of EDE outside. Looking to Amelia, he said with urgency, “Gather your children and get yourselves out of here immediately!” Alarmed, as Alastor rushed off to distract the enemy, Amelia called after him, “Wait, what about you?!” Pausing only briefly, Alastor glanced back and said, “I must buy time for you to escape. Just get as far away as you can!”

            With that, he bolted out of the room, and unsure what to do, Amelia grit her teeth as she thought, “Hurry Alexander! Your brother needs you!” Rushing through the entry hall and back out of the house, as Alastor stepped out the door and laid eyes on the humanoid anomalies gathered before him in the garden, he stared in surprise for a moment as he wondered aloud, “What are these creatures doing here?! Even the Hand of Fate employs these twisted creations?!” The anomalies fixing their glowing red eyes upon him, he had no time to ponder further, quickly forming his swords and defending himself as they rushed at him with their blades. Cutting them down one by one, using blades of wind here and there as the opportunity presented itself, Alastor was having little trouble holding his own. Suddenly sensing it though, he quickly knocked the anomaly that was clashing with him aside and turned as a sphere of radioactive energy shot out at him, deflecting it aside into the air and sending it sailing over the walls around Alexander’s house into the surrounding forest. Standing there in a high tech armored suit and a strange cape with a glowing inner lining, a man with a single black wing, short brown hair, and cold blue eyes held his smoking arm cannon aimed in Alastor’s direction as he called out, “Surrender or be destroyed.”

            Charging up for another attack should Alastor refuse, the winged man did not even receive Alastor’s answer. A powerful arrow of wind shooting out through the air and into the barrel of his arm cannon, its piercing wind tore through the side of it as the arrow deflected off something inside and severely damaged it. Stepping back in surprise, as the energies of his arm cannon began to go out of control and it exploded, the winged man was blown backwards and landed sprawled out on his back. Turning back in surprise, Alastor laid eyes on Amelia standing in the doorway of the house holding a compact elven bow. Calling out to him, Amelia said, “Alastor, lead them into the forest! I’ll take the children out the side exit and hide them nearby, then I’ll come find you!” Shaking his head, Alastor tried to object as he called back, “No! Amelia, just stay with them and hide yourself as well!” Yet she had already hurried back inside for the children, and he had no idea if she’d even heard him. Turning back to the winged man laying on the ground before him, wondering what he should do, as Alastor saw signs that his unknown opponent was starting to come around, he grit his teeth and hurried past him to the gate, calling out to him, “Let’s see if you can keep up!” Sitting up and looking back to see Alastor exit the gate and turn off the road into the forest itself, the winged man then looked back at the house as he held up his arm cannon and said, “Target sighted. Damage incurred, initiating emergency repairs and proceeding with pursuit.”

            Making his way through the silver leafed trees of the forest, Alastor slowed down a bit and looked back. Continuing at the same slower pace and continuing to look back, as it became apparent he had not been followed, Alastor stopped and thought, “Did I lose him? That seemed rather easy…” Standing there in the middle of the forest, he merely waited there for a while, the sounds of the forest the only thing that reached his ears. A bad feeling beginning to grow in the pit of his stomach, Alastor thought to himself, “Something seems wrong about this. The Hand of Fate has gone to far more persistent lengths to chase after me in the past.” A wave of terror rolling over him as he realized it, Alastor burst off into the forest towards the wall, planning to find the side exit and search the area around it. Pouring on all the speed he could, he thought, “If they’re not after me at all, then it can only be Amelia and her children! Those creatures, the Nameless One combined our knowledge with his and used it to create them in order to bolster our armies! If the Hand of Fate were to use them to slaughter his family, Alexander would surely blame me! It would turn the only friend and ally I have left in this world against me forever!”

            Finding the side exit after following the wall around the grounds for a while, Alastor quickly headed out from it and began to search, ignoring the danger to himself and calling out loudly, “Amelia! Where are you?!” Wandering through the trees, he suddenly came upon a very young boy with brown hair and red eyes just standing there in front of a tree with a hole in the bottom. Drawing near, he noticed another child, a young girl with halman ears and pink hair, staring out from the hole in the tree with a bit of fear in her red eyes, the tree itself apparently having been hollowed out by some form of creature. Realizing they must be Alexander’s children, and swelling with a bit of pride as he also realized this made him their uncle, Alastor slowly approached the boy standing before the tree. The boy began to back away cautiously as he came near, but kneeling down to look him in the eyes, Alastor tried to calm him as he said, “Don’t be afraid. You’re my brother’s children, I’ll be sure to keep you safe. Can you speak yet? What happened to your mother?”

            At that moment though, a chill ran up Alastor’s spine as an all too familiar voice called out to him, “We meet again, my Lord…” Whirling around to see Barinus walking through the forest towards them, Alastor quickly moved between him and his nephew and formed his swords again, glaring at his old foe as he said, “Barinus…” Forming a mass of EDE as well, Barinus said, “It’s a shame, but this is the end of the line. I’m not letting you slip away again.” As Barinus formed his Auram Cavea, Alastor glanced back at his nephew for a moment, knowing he had to keep the same fate that had befallen Agnes from happening to these two children as well. Turning back to Barinus, Alastor said, “I won’t let you harm them. Whatever fate you and your organization are trying to bring about ends here.” Raising his hand, Barinus channeled EDE into Auram Cavea, and a flash of light erupted from it and blinded Alastor. Unable to see anything, Alastor felt a brief pain stab through his chest as though something had impaled him, and then felt an all consuming pain and emptiness spreading through every inch of his being. Unable to bear the torment, Alastor cried out in agony, and though he was no longer very aware of anything going on around him, he thought he heard Barinus call out, “No you little worm… This is only the beginning…”

            Drowning in doubt, reget, and fear, as pain burned within him, all of these feelings, though he could still sense them around and inside him, seemed to dull to the point of nonexistence as the growing emptiness consumed him. Nothing of who he was felt real anymore, nothing that had once been important mattered. Everything was dull and gray, just like his memories of that house. Yet despite feeling no desire to ever even move again, Alastor suddenly felt as though his body had gotten up, and feeling his eyes open, he saw a blurred image before him as he heard what resembled his own voice say, “What did you do with it…?” Suddenly feeling a rush of movement as though he were lunging forward wildly, still unable to even tell what was happening from the warped and twisted view he was seeing, Alastor heard the voice cry out, “What have you done with it?! Answer me!” Having felt as though he held a weapon, Alastor felt certain he’d been correct as he felt the shock of a strike through his hands, and then he felt something else as he released the weapon with one hand and grabbed hold of something. Whatever it was seemed to break in his grip. Feeling his body rush off again, all of the feelings he’d felt, that he was feeling, none of it really mattered. Alastor wasn’t even slightly curious as to what was going on, merely aware as his body seemed to be barreling along at high speed while the blurred world shifted before him.

            Continuing to speed along for a while, he finally felt himself leap into the air and come down on something warm. He heard a pained cry as he landed, and still able to feel the weapon in one hand, he felt himself reach out with the other and grab hold of what felt like a head of hair, gripping it tightly and pushing down on it forcefully. His voice from before said, “Did you think I couldn’t sense you through that pathetic camouflage?! You will tell me where this fool’s heart is right now, you wretch!” Feeling himself look up from whatever he was staring at, Alastor felt himself lash out with his weapon, striking something and making a breaking sound. His gaze shifting back in the same direction, his voice said, “Such pitiful resistance! Now talk! Or do I have to break you like I broke that piece of trash you call a weapon?!” It was all meaningless noise. The feeling of a person’s weight as they’re lifted with one hand, someone’s pleas for mercy, all of it was of no concern.

            Finding himself standing in endless darkness now, Alastor heard someone’s voice call out, “Do you really believe it’s all meaningless?” Hanging suspended from black chains that reached up and disappeared into the darkness, a figure wearing a white hood and coat stared at him from behind and added, “If so, I’ve truly misjudged you…” Alastor did not turn to face him. Standing there lethargically, he did not move or show any sign that he cared. Staring at him a moment longer, the hooded figure said, “I see… So much for those lofty dreams of yours, that unbridled admiration for your idealistic brother… Now you’ll simply stand by and allow yourself to be controlled again, wasting the great lengths the two of us went to in order to perform a contract and protect the All Heart. Innocent lives will fall again at your hands, and your brother’s family, the woman who so quickly and eagerly accepted you, the niece and nephew you felt such pride in just moments ago, all of them will meet their end thanks to the Hand of Fate, their deaths all to be blamed on you. None of that matters to you any longer, Alastor Bastille?”

            Alastor still remained unmoving and silent, and growing aggravated, the hooded figure struggled against his chains as he shouted, “Answer me, curse you! I know it will be hard, but you must use that same will that overpowered Malum Vanitas and bring yourself back! Your life has been hard, there are few you have been given to cherish, few who have cherished you in return, but that is all the more reason to hold them close and protect them with everything you have! Don’t take the easy way out, don’t lose yourself in this emptiness merely to forget the pain of reality, it’s not worth it! I should know!” Seeing there was still no response, the hooded figure continued to struggle, muttering a curse as his left eye glowed red beneath his hood and he cried out, “YOU PROMISED HER YOU WOULDN’T GIVE UP, ALASTOR!” Struggling with all his might to free himself, bent on smacking Alastor around if nothing else, the hooded figure suddenly went still as he heard Alastor quietly say, “Agnes…” A thin string of light flickering in and out of existence, it seemed to be attached to Alastor’s chest, stretching out into the darkness beyond.

            Coming to his senses, Alastor found himself within the Silver Forest standing over Barinus, who laid upon the ground before him looking as though he’d been beaten to a pulp. Staring down at him as he lay there twitching and whimpering, Alastor put aside his confusion at the situation and the strange sense that whatever had been off about his state of mind since he escaped the seal had worsened, eyeing Barinus in disgust a moment longer before reaching down and pulling him up by his collar. Letting out a panicked cry as Alastor grabbed hold of him, as Barinus was forced to meet his gaze, he stared at Alastor in terror as he pleaded, “Please, I give up! I don’t even have it, it’s gone! I have no idea what happened to it, I swear!” Looking at him strangely, Alastor replied, “I neither know nor really care what you’re going on about right now Barinus. Since it seems someone has saved me the trouble of softening you up, why don’t you go ahead and tell me exactly what you’re trying to accomplish here?”

            Blinking in surprise, Barinus seemed to stare at Alastor for a moment, sounding confused as he finally asked, “Alastor? That can’t be you, can it?” Wondering if he’d suffered injury to his head as well, Alastor replied, “Of course it’s me, who did you think I was? Enough stalling, tell me what you’re plotting to do by coming here! If you’ve harmed Amelia…” Feeling Alastor’s grip on his collar tighten as his voice became cold, Barinus quickly said, “C-calm yourself Alastor, I’ll admit that eliminating Alexander’s wife to isolate you was part of this operation, but she’s completely eluded our agents. I was tailing you out of the house under the cover of my stealth field, but the agents who went inside the house couldn’t find the woman anywhere. With as little time as we had to prepare this plan, we completely overlooked the side exit of the grounds. I decided to follow you in secret a bit longer to see if you met up with her, but I gave up when you only found the children. We have no interest in harming them, we actually had very important reasons to take every precaution to ensure they remain unharmed.”

            The wheels in his head turning, Alastor glared at Barinus disbelievingly as he said, “What reasons? You’re not planning on involving my niece and nephew in whatever senseless fate you and your minions are striving towards as well, are you?” As Barinus turned his gaze away evasively with a rather guilty expression, Alastor narrowed his eyes and coldly said, “Just what ARE you people after? Who are you really? What is the Hand of Fate, what on earth do you want from me?” Refusing to look at him, Barinus cracked a wry smile as he said, “You’ll find out soon enough…” Anger flashing red in his eyes, Alastor whirled Barinus around and flung him hard into the side of one of the silver leafed trees of the forest, Barinus crashing into it with a sickening thud and sliding down the side of the tree to lie there with his back propped up against it. Striding over to him as he formed one of his swords, as Alastor loomed over him, Barinus looked up at him slowly as Alastor held his sword up and said, “I’m through with your games Barinus! Talk, NOW!”

            Watching the dark energy that began to crackle around his blade, Barinus quickly looked around for some chance of escape, but realizing he was too weak to even move, he finally sighed and said, “Enough, I submit… I’ll tell you…” Ceasing to channel his energies, Alastor did not remove his blade, merely waiting expectantly. Closing his eyes as he leaned back against the side of the tree, Barinus explained, “Our organization, the Hand of Fate, has been working for over 4000 years to fulfill a prophecy laid out by the Old God known as Fortuna the Wise, who whispers her words through the pathways of fate itself so that soothsayers with powerful abilities can hear her and convey her words to the world. We’re hardly a righteous organization, although there are those among our ranks that delude themselves into believing that. We’ve already used various methods to ensure no one but our organization’s High Soothsayer can even hear the prophecy, and we’ve done scores of shady and underhanded things to direct the prophecy’s flow, as you well know. Even much of the disparity and discrimination that exists in the world has been sparked and aggravated towards our ends, since the gates of Last Remote will never open until the world is steeped in chaos.” Opening his eyes to look at Alastor, the complete lack of remorse on his face made his words quite convincing as Barinus added, “I’m not really one to quibble, our organization and it’s leaders, the Council of Fate, secretly rule over even the mautauians and the Church of Light, meaning we hold a great deal of power. If we can control the Throne of the Inanimate Dream along with the one Fortuna speaks of, who supposedly will be capable of rewriting existence in a way that even fate cannot limit or restrict, we stand to gain quite a bit more power as well…”

            Feeling a strong urge to slay him on the spot, Alastor could barely keep from shaking in rage as he said, “That’s what all this nonsense is about? You’ve gone to all these lengths, ruined all these lives, all so you could have somewhere higher to go than the top?! You’re telling me Agnes died just because trash like you wanted to be more important?! What broken logic makes you think I’ll ever help you with such a goal after all the things you’ve done?!” Smiling sinisterly to himself as he laughed quietly, Barinus said, “You were set to be the key to everything, but the way things are looking, I doubt you’ll end up being anything more than a minor character now…” Seriously considering using his blade to wipe the smile from his face, Alastor dropped the thought as he heard Amelia’s voice call out from behind him, “Alastor! Are you here?!” Turning about, both relieved to know she was unharmed and somewhat anxious that she would draw attention to herself, Alastor quickly spotted her through the trees and waved her over, trying to keep from shouting too loudly as he called out, “Amelia!” Rushing over to him as she spotted him as well, Amelia was only a few meters away as she started to say, “I’ve been looking all over, why did you-” Alastor sensed it far too late, having let his guard down out of relief, and he barely saw the sphere of radioactive energy before it struck Amelia from the side and blew her sailing into the side of a tree.

            Turning slowly in shock and disbelief to stare in horror at Amelia slumped against the tree, her side bleeding and badly burned, Alastor then clenched his teeth in fury and turned to look in the direction the sphere had come from. Jumping down from the lowest branch of a tree, the winged man from before landed on the ground, and stepping out from behind the same tree, a deceivingly young looking mautauian woman with very long and incredibly stylized black hair decorated with white roses briefly met Alastor’s gaze with her orange, snake-like eyes before turning to the winged man and saying, “So that was Amelia Spes, the one who would be the Hand of Fate’s downfall? How disappointing. Mission accomplished Scathe, very well done. Escort me a bit longer if you would, this won’t take long…” Her face had mautauian tattoos upon it, but instead of black they glowed orange, and her lipstick was a shade of orange as well. Wearing a long black and white dress decorated with white roses that emphasized her figure, she had long black gloves and long white arm capes trailing down her arms like sleeves. Strange black crystals clumped together like wings of black feathers floated around her shoulders almost like some form of shoulderguards, possibly held there by the strange, glowing white runic symbol etched onto each of the badges that adorned both her shoulders. There was also a ring with a white rose shaped design on it upon the middle finger of her right hand, and in that hand she held a twisted looking black and white staff with a white orb floating in the middle of an opening created in it’s design, which looked like whoever made it was trying to bend the top of the staff back over itself.

            Raising his sword at them as they approached, it crackled with dark energy as Alastor shouted, “Whoever you are and whatever you have to say, I don’t want to hear ANY of it!” Raising her free hand up as Alastor poured out as much power as he could muster as a storm of dark energy orbs, the woman created a small mass of EDE and some small, circular object seemed to form from it just in front of her palm, growing to gigantic size in an instant and blocking the orbs as they exploded harmlessly against a psychic field of glowing white energy that appeared around it’s surface. As the aftermath cleared, the object was revealed to be some form of circular wheel, made of metal and designed with seven small rune circles engraved on gold plates and gear-like teeth in intervals along the outside of it, as well as three spokes attached to a hub in it’s hollow center. It quickly shrank back down, and taking hold of it in her hand as she and Scathe continued towards him, the woman waved it mockingly as she smiled at him and called out, “My name is Lady Ziva Ulvia Ba'alzebul, High Soothsayer of Mautau and Executive Member of the Council of Fate. I’m just here to give you a bit of advice, Alastor Bastille…”