XX
James hadn't felt like his usual self. His outward behaviour hadn't changed a bit, still mocking, still fake, but his emotions were detached, itching under his skin, like he was trapped in his own shell of a body.
He'd stared into the mirror for a long time that morning and he and the reflection were two entirely different people.
?Eris' bite had completely healed by then and every time he looked at his hands he only saw the smooth disfigured skin on his palms, absent of any prints or creases which had long since been burned away.
?Having Eris would make him okay again. He just needed Eris.
?Thomas came and collected him from his room once they were ready to leave.
?James could tell he put everyone on edge just by being in their presence, he supposed it must have been exhausting for them to stay so vigilant in case James became murderous.
James was at an advantage in that way; they had to worry about him whilst he didn't. However, Thomas seemed especially cautious as they made their way to the stables.
?Something was up.
?Alex and Fletcher were already at the wagon when he and Thomas approached. Alex spotted them first, but he quickly bristled and half-turned his body away, repelled by James' being.
?"What's so funny?"
?James felt his cheeks, his smile etched wide. He must have looked psychotic.
?"Just happy to get my friend back." he said, the excuse flowing off his tongue.
?Alex didn't seem convinced, but quickly forgot about it, concentrating on hooking the horses up to the carriage. The smell of hay and fur cooking in the morning sun kept James grounded.
?James wasn't an idiot. The temple wasn't even half a day away, that carriage was there for him. Unlike the rickety thing they had used back in Bullmar, this one was tightly crafted, secure, with a working door in the back, like a prison.
?They were expecting James to run.
?It was tempting, but King William may feel half-inclined to spread the news that Prince Julian was still alive if he succeeded. he couldn't let that happen.
?"You shouldn't have picked me for this job." Thomas grumbled as he inspected their set-up. "I want nothing to do with the Moira temple, I'm a devout Adeia follower."
?"They're not incompatible." Fletcher pointed out to the man. "They're both considered Gods in their own right. The Adeia temple has never disavowed Moira."
?James snorted. "What are you, a theologist?"
?"Yes." Fletcher replied, point blank.
?James had forgotten who he was speaking to.
?"Most people only support Adeia," Thomas went on to say, "unlike Alex; a heathen who believes in neither."
?"Shut up, man."
?Despite his sarcasm, James found Fletcher's interpretation agreeable.
He'd always supported both himself, even though Moira was a very unpopular God.
He was the destroyer where Adeia was the Goddess of birth and creation.
Death always had a negative stigma attached to it, no wonder people like Thomas found Moira distasteful.
?Alex and Fletcher had taken up the bench on the carriage, so he and Thomas took the two lone horses, hauling themselves up onto the saddles. The animal under him swayed, uncertain of him.
?"Moira deserves more respect." Fletcher continued, ignoring the knights' exchange.
"He is just an inevitable force. Things have to die so that their corpses can feed plants which gives life to other beings.
Hell, we eat corpses on the daily. Life can't exist without death in the same way that Adeia can't exist without Moira. "
?Alex whipped the horses into a steady walk, beginning their short journey, leading them out through the stable gate.
?"I actually agree with Fletcher." James said after a few moments of silence.
?Alex snorted, quite loudly. "Of course you do, your career is based off death. Moira is profitable for you."
?"You're about to end my profit streak," James growled back, " I bet your head is hardly worth a penny." Not that he would sell it anyway, it was too pretty to share.
?"Can't believe I'm stuck between two heretics and an atheist." Thomas groused.
?"I reckon you're actually the heretic, Sir Thomas." Fletcher argued.
?James tuned them out, not feeling very sociable.
Instead he looked out at the city as they passed through, mosaiced walls and art carved into the stone of odd buildings, shops with delicately painted hanging signs depicting their goods for those who were illiterate.
He watched as the middle-class people bartered and talked with one another, smiles and grins.
It was probably the only class that James was foreign to, the ones who were probably also the happiest.
?Election candidate posters blew off the walls, children catching the parchment and folding them into animal shapes on the ground. James often judged a city's value on how happy the young looked. Perhaps if this was where he grew up, things might have been better for him?
?No, he only avoided being put to death because of his mentor's help.
That man was probably shouting at him beyond the veil at that moment, at how stupid he was being.
The old man tried his best to beat James' attachment of Eris out of him over a period of years.
He definitely would have disapproved of James' stubbornness to get her back.
If only he'd been more successful in his attempts.
?As their journey progressed, the buildings changing from stone to wood, the wilderness taking over, James thought a lot about how his life would have been if the arson never happened.
How different would he have ended up? Would he have won the succession?
It was never confirmed before Fabian took over.
He wondered if his current self would have been stronger than the alternate Prince Julian who'd grown up in a palace.
?"James, what the fuck?"
?James snapped out of his thoughts and looked to his side, seeing the horrified faces of his companions.
?His mouth tasted odd. "What?"
?"It's not funny." Alex growled, glaring in accusation.
?Fletcher was gaping up at him, whilst Thomas watched him from the side of his eye, half-ready to draw his sword.
?James swallowed the spit in his mouth, his jaw felt worked, his throat warm. He had no idea what was going on, but he hid his confusion and nodded meekly.
?"I'm sorry," James said, "I was just joking around."
?Fletcher and Thomas awkwardly attempted to continue a forced conversation, whilst James just stared ahead in a daze. He could see Alex glancing at him often in his peripheral vision, he had no idea what expression was on the man's face, he didn't fancy looking either.
?What James did notice, however, was screaming in the distance.
?Before he could even think about what to do, he dismounted his horse and ran towards the noise, kicking up dust. He could hear Thomas and Alex calling after him but he ignored it.
?He released his blades, holding the tiny things in his strong hands.
A small group of bandits had two women cornered against a tree, a third being dragged by the hair across the ground.
James stabbed the first one in his face from behind, pulling the blade upwards and blood bursting, he unsheathed the man's sword as he fell to the ground, dead, and felt the weight of it in his palm. The others panicked.
?He was only half aware of what he was doing, systematically killing all of them, one by one, in the midst of their chaos, blood creeping up his arms and sticking to his hands.
His instict guided him. The noise eventually stopped and James stared at the red pooling onto the ground, breathing heavily, in and out.
?The blood was hot on his skin, some dripped off his face, he wiped it with his hand, his cheeks high and tense, only smearing it further. Eris was never so messy.
?"James." a cautious voice spoke.
?James looked up then, Alex creeping towards him with a complicated frown.
?"I was just dealing with an obstacle." he heard himself say, the voice not sounding like his own.
?Alex stared at him for a long moment, there was no sign of Fletcher nor Thomas beyond him.
?"You... have no idea what you said back there, do you?"
?James' eyes snapped back to Alex's, the other man's brows furrowing, his gaze scanning James' face in worry. He didn't understand why Alex was looking at him like that.
?James slowly shook his head. "No. I don't."
?Get a fucking grip.
?Alex nodded and took a few steps closer, hardly sparing a glance at the bloodied carnage.
?"Did you also not know that you were also speaking the whole way here?"
?James' ears throbbed with the pounding of his heart, his blood rushing to his head. His chest tightened, his breathing stuttered. The shock was settling in his body strangely.
?"No." he admitted.
?Alex grimaced. James truly wasn't feeling like himself.
?The man held a hand out, and James stared at it, admiring its lines and ridges.
?"Can I ask you to give me all the weapons you have?" Alex requested delicately, "I won't report it, nor will I throw them away. I'll give them back to you."
?"How did you know I didn't know?" James asked him.
?Alex hesitated and let out a steady breath, something raw and sore behind his eyes.
?"My mother, the duchess, has an illness in her mind. She would often speak without being present, you just... reminded me of that— your confusion."
?"I'm not ill." James insisted.
?"I know."
?After a moment of apprehension, James dropped the sword and surrendered his knives, the blood on James' fingers climbing onto Alex's hand with every brush of skin. James could feel his mind coming back under his control, his body moving under his command.
?"I'm really not ill." James repeated firmly.
?"I know." Alex reaffirmed, genuinely. "You're probably just mentally shocked. But, it's better that I have these for now."
?James didn't argue with that, it didn't feel like Alex was being condescending.
?"Don't tell anyone."
?Alex nodded.
?"Let's go back." Alex prompted, stepping over the bodies. "Oh, also, school your face. You'll scare Fletcher."
?James felt his smiling cheeks and rubbed them aggressively. His mind didn't particularly enjoy killing people, but perhaps his body disagreed, maybe he was more sadistic than he thought.
?He turned to look where the girls were but they had long since fled, unsurprisngly.
?Once he got back to the carriage, Alex was waiting there with a pail of water. James held his hands out and Alex poured it over his arms, letting James wash some of the blood away. There was nothing they could do about the blood on his clothes though.
?"Face too." Alex said, so James cupped some into his hands and rubbed it over his head. The cold wash was a good slap back to reality.
?"You're not hurt, are you?" Fletcher asked, his voice shaky.
?"None of it's mine." James replied. I think.
?"What was it?" Thomas asked from his horse.
?"Bandits." Alex told him, focusing more on James' cleanliness, assessing him. "They've been dealt with."
?"You really weren't joking about them, were you? How did we not know about them?" Thomas sighed, then added; "You didn't need to kill them James, you probably would've known a few of them, your friends, even."
?"I'm not a bandit, I don't steal." James spat, offended by Thomas' attempt to lighten the mood.
?"Yeah 'cause that's just too evil, isn't it?" Alex murmured, humour dancing in his eyes. James smirked.
?"Well, Thomas better stop trying to joke with me because he's going to see just what happens to my 'friends'."
?James gleefully got to witness the horror clamped on Thomas' face once they journeyed up to the carnage. Fletcher gagged at the smell, both disgusted and fascinated by the sight around him.
?"You did all this?" Fletcher croaked.
?James kept his mouth studiously straight.
?The horses weren't too careful as they stomped on anything in their path, the squelching and crunching noises made Fletcher go pale and appear queasy.
?"This is a bit more than 'dealt with'." Thomas suggested, a tense grimace on his mouth. "Looks like you had fun."
?James shrugged.
?"Alex, we need to check him for weapons, how else did he do this?"
?Alex was already shaking his head. "He took one of their swords, I watched him drop it. He doesn't have anything." Alex covered for him.
?The temple wasn't that much further down the path, only the rare house coming into view as they travelled under the shelter of the trees, the leaves splayed out proudly in protecting them from the spring sun.
?James wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the temple was no bigger than a townhouse, rectangular and stacked with dark bricks, the roof held up by black marble pillars. Vines crept up the external walls like nature was trying to devour it.
?Fletcher eagerly jumped off the bench before they'd even stopped and ran up to the double doors.
?"Ino!" he called excitedly, banging on the door.
?James stuck close to Alex as the two knights tethered the horses and provided them with drinking water and food. Fletcher impatiently waited at the door for an answer. Then, he suddenly disappeared through it.
?The three of them cautiously entered, James tried to map out the escape routes but the building was seemingly windowless and dark on the inside. He saw Fletcher reach high with a long stick and the shutters opened, bringing more light in the room.
?James looked around the prayer room, the rows of pews facing a large statue of Moira, his stone body cracking and missing an arm. There were no books in sight, it looked half-deserted.
?A young woman stood in the aisle, she turned to look the men up and down.
?"Guys, this is saintess Ino." Fletcher enthused. "She's a genius, and that's coming from me."
?She was a skinny woman of average height, overtowered by all of them except Fletcher. She didn't seem intimidated, however. She openly watched them.
?"It's nice to meet you." she smiled, her eyes lingering on James specifically, her accent a jumble of different classes and regions.
?What was most interesting was her colouring, her skin was a tan colour, her hair a long straight black, her eyes piercing blue. James wondered if she was mixed-race, perhaps half Ashadi, or something else that was southern.
?Fletcher made himself at home opening a random door behind the altar. "You can ask her anything." Fletcher told them. "There are thousands of documents here and Ino knows an insane number of languages. She's more intelligent than me."
?James considered himself impressed, if it was true.
?"You weren't interested in becoming a scholar?" James asked politely.
?Ino shook her head, her hair lightly flowing with the movement. "I had a different calling, I wished to serve Moira. Besides, the men seem to think they know best, so it's funnier to watch the world burn around them."
?Fletcher went up to Alex and tried to drag him away by his sleeve.
?"Alex, come with me, I'll need help translating some stuff."
?Alex's shoulders tensed. "I don't know Ashadi. Ask the saintess since she knows so much." he snapped.
?Fletcher rolled his eyes. "It's not in Ashadi, it's in the royal language, you grouch"
?Alex retracted his claws, his shoulders relaxing. "Oh, the saintess can't do that?"
?Ino smiled, watching the exchange closely. "I can copy it, but I'm not allowed to know it. I'm the daughter of a runaway slave. The royal language is very exclusive, it exists to classify documents from commoners and low nobles alike, just in case the wrong person tries to read them."
?Alex and Fletcher disappeared through the door and James supposed that was where the supposed library was. It left just him and Thomas with the woman.
?Ino's gaze was latched onto him, a small smile playing on her lips.
?James narrowed his eyes back, unimpressed with her staring.
?"So, you're Eris' boy?" she mused.
?It was weird she was calling him a boy when she looked like a teenager. "That's right."
?Her grin widened. "What an honour. You're very handsome, if you don't mind me saying, like a prince from a fairytale."
?James bristled, that knowing smile, those deliberate words. Ino wasn't to be underestimated.
?"Are you surprised?" James replied carefully. "Did no one tell you ahead of time?"
?He could see Thomas looking between them in confusion, possibly knowing there was more underlining the conversation that he didn't get.
?"Course not. People don't tell me those kinds of things, I see them for myself."
?So, it wasn't the king that told her. How on Earth did she know who he was? Or was he just being paranoid?
?"Actually," she went on, "you have yet to meet the other person here." She pulled a black quill from her dark robe's pocket, holding it up for James to see. "This is Sofus. He's my assistant."
?James took a step closer, intrigued. He hadn't met another relic since Eris, and all the ones he had held before her were weapons; bows, swords, daggers; never a quill.
?Ino held it closer so James could see, he didn't dare attempt to pick it up. He hated it when others touched Eris. The grip was sleek black like the saintess' hair, but its feather was an arrogantly grand gold and red, like it belonged to a proud phoenix.
?"Amazing." James breathed. "What does he do for you?"
?Ino seemed pleased that James had asked. She tapped the quill against her head.
?"Sofus can remember every single piece of information he's ever written and so can I. I can access everything he ever writ."
?James gaped. "All of it?"
?"Every single word."
?"Does he bite?"
?Ino laughed. "Yeah, but not nearly as hard as yours does, Prince Charming."
?A book rested on a pew next to the saintess and she picked it up, passing it to him. James flipped through it, skimming the pages, the information irrelevant. One interesting characteristic was the red ink.
?"You're the ink?" he asked.
?"Yep! It may sound pretty ghoulish but it doesn't actually take that much ink to write stuff, you know? I've only been anaemic a few times because of him."
?"Are all relic holders psychos?" Thomas muttered.
?"Eris is a lot nastier than my Sofus."
?James frowned at the insult. "She's good to me."
?"She's high maintenance."
?"She's mine."
?"You two talk as if they're people." Thomas interrupted, a furrow in his brow.
?Ino tilted her head side to side, contemplating her next words. "Well, that's complicated."
?Now James was interested too. Eris had emotions, that was for sure, but she never once attempted to communicate with James beyond that, no matter how much he tried to get her to talk as a scared lonely child.
?"Complicated how?" he asked.
?"Well, they're not living." Ino clarified. "But they're not dead either, they are souls that exist in a weird medium."
?"How's that possible?" Thomas inquired.
?Ino chuckled to herself, twirling Sofus around her fingers.
"This isn't my theory, this is just something a previous owner had written.
But, supposedly, the souls in relics are ones that have lost their lives and have been abandoned by Adeia, but they're souls that Moira has yet to claim and so they don't decay or die.
They live outside the palms of either God. "
?Thomas didn't seem satisfied with that explanation.
?"So, it's Moira that allows them to exist." James mumbled to himself.
?Ino pointed Sofus' feather at him. "Exactly. That's why my loyalty lies with Him. He's the one that allows relics to remain in this world. That being said, they're both equally important, they're just opposing and collaborating forces."
?"That's just the religious perspective. What's the practical one?"
?Ino giggled. "I'm a religious woman, they're one in the same to me."
?James was about to protest but Ino stopped him with a hand.
?"But I know what you're asking." she went on. "Unfortunately nothing has ever been written about their origins. How does one become a relic? It's completely unknown to me."
?James had only come here to retrieve Eris. When King William told him there was going to be some saintess that could give him information, he thought nothing of it, he didn't care. Ino's words weren't as useless as he had expected them to be.
?Ino turned to look up at the statue of Moira, admiring it. "Do you ever wonder why they pick the people they do?"
?He had. He'd wondered a lot. What made James special compared to anyone else? Why did she never leave him?
?"I have."
?She gave him a long look, a smile tugging at her lips. "Your sword is a pervert." she laughed.
?James scowled at her, which only encouraged her humour.
?"I'm not joking." she got out, her voice shaking, "Eris has been written about a lot, did you know?
She's one destructive bitch. What's interesting about her is her previous owners.
She had a habit of only ever choosing to be wielded by young boys who get inexplicably betrayed not long after.
Most relics avoid children because they're unpredictable.
More interestingly is that she doesn't seem to discriminate against a person's morals like other relics do.
She will stick with her choice until the very end, no matter how evil they turn out. "
?The saintess gave him a long look after she said that. James' palms clenched and he kept his face neutral.
?Ino's smile was slow, wide and malicious. "Tell me, who did you get betrayed by?"
?"I think you already know." he spat.
?She cackled in the face of his anger, unintimidated.
?Thomas seemed very uncomfortable, his body shifting like he wasn't sure if he should attempt to soothe James' frustration.
?"How did you know who I was?" James asked, taking another step closer and towering over her small frame.
?She looked too pleased with herself. "Sofus' old owner liked to keep track of which relic went to whom." she disclosed, her head tilted back as she looked him in the eye. "How's your brother?"
?James lifted his hand, fist clenched, but resisted the urge to hit her. Thomas caught his arm, thinking he was going to do it, holding it back.
?"Stop antagonising him." Thomas stressed. James yanked his limb back to himself, but didn't punish Thomas for touching him without permission, he was too focused on the woman in front of them.
?"I think you were just in more danger than I was." Ino chirped. "Charming wouldn't hit me, not when I have his precious Eris. Let's have a look at your hands."
?Ino grabbed James' hands and held them palm-up, examining them with a wince on her face.
?"Forget biting, she's downright torturing you."
?James snatched them back. "That's my business. Worry about yourself, and don't you dare tell anyone what you know about me or I'll show you Eris' bite first hand."
?Ino shrugged, picked up her book and walked towards the altar. "I'm going to write it down whether you like it or not, you know? I have a duty to. Whether anyone reads it or not is another matter. It's not like many people come down here, they're too scared."
?She bowed her head and muttered something to the statue. James avoided Thomas' investigating gaze, desperately shoving his anxiety down and trying to calm himself before he did something drastic.
?Ino finished her prayer and cocked her head to the door. "You can choose the language if you're so concerned." she called. "Let's go see how the other boys are doing. Oh, and one more thing. You ought to think about how Eris knows about these betrayals, think hard. Relics aren't all-knowing."
?James filed that thought for later and followed. He would endure her mocking attitude if it got him his friend back. He'd endure anything.
A/N: Current word count: 52,952