White Flower, Black Feather

 

Interlude 6 – Justice’s Questions

The greatest disaster that struck the noble house Justice, wasn't the death of most of their members, under mysterious circumstances, decades ago…

‘That fucking slut…!’

Nor wasn't the fact that the last remaining lord of the house Justice, wasn't a Battle Capable Heir…

‘Those worthless cockroaches…! How dare they to survive and place me in this situation…?!’

It was his personality…

Lord Justice was walking on the streets of the shield city that was his home, as the farms to the east of it, gave the alarm for an attack

‘I thought that she surviving, meant more fun for me… but that fucking priest! How dare him?! To take one of my toys to a healer, just because the slut got pregnant!’ he was walking the empty cobblestone streets, flaunting his gaudy clothes to no one, stabbing the metallic tip of his cane, with all the force he could muster

But was unable to damage the stones

He looked around the place he was walking, one of the poorer places in the middle class area, but still not too low for anyone to get suspicious, about him walking around the place

It wasn't in his area of control, but the alarm, meant that there wasn't anyone to see him. It also was the place where… they… had meet him before…

‘And that upstarted fossil! Can’t he control his bitches better?!’ he growled under his breath ‘Now that bitch for a wife that I have, took my toy! How am I supposed to get rid of those screeching pieces of shit?! Just because she is… Battle… Capable…’

He moved a hand along his red hair trying to calm down, something that he could do, because he didn’t believed in hats working against birds

“Impossible…” he muttered “She is part of it…” his mind spinning a ridiculous idea…

‘It makes sense… she managed to get an adventurer to pretend to be a submissive whore… that explains how she survived my might… she is an abnormal bitch like her, that thinks that can compare to a real man… then I got her… no… she got herself pregnant with some worthless seed… that’s it! The priests are part of it too! He must be the one that got her preg-!’

“Lord Justice…” a languid, echoing voice interrupted his inane mental ramblings

Years of social training, were the only reason he didn’t scream when the black robbed… thing… appeared to his side, guiding him in a particular direction with a gesture

“Are you the same one…?” he managed to ask, not recognizing the face of the thing under the long hat

“It’s a different Doll, but yes, we have dealt with each other before…” was the answer he got from the echoing voice

“This time, this shit better works…” he used his most threatening voice to get a reaction from the… it was a male “Doll” but he had no idea of what was controlling it

This time it was daytime, so he was alert and ready for the questions… that kind of lies were the things he had told himself on his march to the place

The Doll and the puppeteer didn’t seemed to react to his words, just guiding him along the labyrinth of buildings for a few moments before speaking again

“Let me remind you of the rules… first, any question, spoken or thought, will be answered, but the method only works for three questions…”

“I saw it before…” he grumbled, remembering the sight of the first time he was contacted by… them… only his social training was the reason he managed to avoid getting an erection at the memory

“Second, avoid questions that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ try to word them in a way that makes It talk…”

“I know…” but he hadn't prepared his questions yet…

“Third, remember that all the relevant information related to the questions, will be given to the ones paying the cost… but you will only get the answer to the question, since they are unwilling…”

“Don't expect payment from me if this fails again…” he tried to threaten the puppeteer again

“We will obtain our… payment… from someone else…”

Justice was a curious about that comment and was about to ask what it meant, but the Doll raised a hand and pointed to a house nearby

“This is the place… first door on the left once you are inside, remember that you have a time limit, once you ask the first question…”

Justice cleared his mind and took a deep breath, before nodding

“Lastly…” the Doll moved one of its fingers to an eye and pushed it, dispelling the illusion around that eye socket. Revealing the flame of Grudge burning inside the skull of the Undead “We will contact you again, as soon as we deem appropriate…” the Doll removed the finger from the skull, restoring the illusion “Do. Not. Attempt. To contact us again before that…”

The thing moved away, leaving Justice to get inside the house. Closing the front door he stopped hearing the alarm from the farms and moved to the indicated door. Ignoring the fresh corpses and bloodstains that were nearby

‘Ah…’ he opened the door and licked his lips, taking time to memorize, the image of the woman tied to the back of the room…

She was wearing rags and kneeling, with broken fingers and toes, covered in bruises on her tied legs, torso, arms and face. The dark symbols written all over her body and around her in the floor, seemed to glow purple

Her eyes looked full of hate and fear, as she glared at him, her arms were tied up and to the sides, with two Dark, floating daggers aiming at her wrists, her head held upright by a noose of rope, tied to the roof

‘I can do better… but I can still appreciate this…’ his eyes focused on the bleeding lip of her open mouth for a moment before focused on his questions

“I’m lord Justice…” he started like he always did, which had made everyone to forget what was is given name “One of my maids gave birth to a Battle Capable Child by the name of Arthur, she and the priests of the New Gods insist that the child is mine. I want to know, who is the father? Because-”

“YOU” a dissonant half voice, half roar, came out of the paralyzed open mouth of the woman

A moment later the knife aiming to her right wrist, sunk and removed the hand from that arm

“FUCK!” he screamed in anger, as the face of the woman twisted in soundless agony, both physical and mental, as images of the rape that conceived the children, were nailed in her brain

Her stump stopped bleeding after a few moments, a black fire appeared in the wound, slowly consuming her forearm

“SHIT!” but he didn’t care “Shit! Shit! Shit!” he tried to think about his next question while trembling in anger “I fucked that whore of…!” he struggled to remember the name of another maid of his “The one that escaped…! Hilda! Where is she?!”

“SAINT’S JEWEL” the other hand of the woman was removed after he got his answer, more fire started to consume the remaining arm. Tears were falling from her eyes, but she could do little else…

“Good… even if she got pregnant, to enter there you must abandon anything, tying you to the outside, r-?!” he coughed, stopping himself from nearly making another valid question…

The woman glared at him, struggling against the enormous pain she was feeling, she knew he was about to mess up with his third question, but the spell didn’t trigger

‘The fact that I can’t think about the questions is fucking with me!’ he screamed in his mind desiring to get closer to hit the face of the woman, but by knowing what was coming, he resisted the urge

“Then I want to know the names of my eldest sons! For an heir between me and my wife, to inherit the legacies of our houses! Who are the boys that I need to kill?!” he screamed in the room…

And the woman smiled…

She received the knowledge of every children that he had fathered, their strengths, their affinities, their tastes, their weakness, for how long they could live currently. About how powerful they could become, who protected them, who were their enemies…

And she overcame the visceral pain she was feeling, and the effects of the spell forced on her, with the death of her family as a catalysis for it…

To smile mockingly at him…

“ARTHUR” because he messed up his third question…

The rope around her neck tightened and separated the her head from the rest of her body. The black fire speeding in devouring her body now that she was dead

“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” with every scream that came out of his mouth, he swung his cane at the walls and the door, not really making any damage to the structure. The mocking face of the woman burned into his brain…

Again…

“NOT AGAIN!” the last time he did this, the woman that was trapped in the spell managed to smile at all his questions. Being the first time he did the questioning, was the only thing that protected his frail pride “FUCK!!!” but that smile… shattered it “HOW YOU DARE TO IMPLY THAT I’M WRONG?! THAT I MADE A MISTAKE?!”

He kicked the door to open it, and once he was outside he resumed his attack to the walls of the house, as the fire slowly moved along the surface of the floor towards the other corpses

With one last roar of frustration he got out and looked around, seeing no one in the streets since the alarm was still coming from the farms

‘Fine… I just need to get rid of him… if it’s only one…’ he started to move back to his home ‘But… I won’t be able to do it soon… because those bitches took an interest in them… I need to wait… for them to stop being lazy fucks! And do what they are told!’

He stabbed his cane in the cobblestone, still unable to do damage to it…

“Fuck…!”

‘I’ll have them get rid of the four of them… five, the priest too… six! The healer too, for undoing my art! He must pay! And that bitch…’ he chuckled ‘I’ll have them, chaining both her and her personal bitch… and I’ll turn both of them, into the breeding slaves they are supposed to be!’

His breathing became ragged…

“No one messes with-!”

“The snake will bite you… and you will die a painful death… destroying the plans of the toad…” he was interrupted by what looked to be a one armed old woman with fading red hair, in a black dress with a wide hat. She was also leaning on a cane and from the bottom edge of her dress, a peg leg was visible

There was a young boy to her side with multicolored clothes, under the shade of her hat

‘Snake…? Toad…?’ he looked at her, but was unable to look at her eyes. They were indescribably deep

“It seem that your…” he focused in the young… girl…? But her eyes had the same effect on him “Grandmother has received a Whisper. I, Lord Justice, shall give you this, so you take her to a temple” he looked away while fishing a small bag of coins from his gaudy clothes

And threw it to the face of the child

But faster than he could see, the old woman blocked the bag with her cane, letting it fall to the ground while glaring at him. The… blond? Boy looked bored with him

The human felt a pressure coming from them and pompously walked away, wondered if the boy was blond from the beginning for a moment. Before returning to his plans…

The old woman sighed once he was out of mortal sigh, and with a flicker of her cane she send the bag flying to the other side of the city, were it could actually help someone in need

“But it’s actually possible to get her, to bite him?” she asked the mechanical girl to her side

“Don’t worry Ruby!” De answered as more fingers appeared on his arms, each with a string of probability on it. And she pulled them “If she was, what I think she was…” she reached the point were there were over a hundred strings in each arm “Then I know exactly what to do~”

The floor under his frame cracked loudly

“And I don’t mind paying the price of intervening~”