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The heavy wooden doors to her office slammed open and a harried young witch skid past the antechamber and almost into her meticulously messy desk.
Jeanne did not bother to look up from her parchment, knowing full well that Tzipora needed at least a minute to catch her breath. She was their fastest courier by a long stretch and while Jeanne fully appreciated her service, the young girl sounded and moved like a stampede of draft horses.
She had heard her climbing up the stairs a long while before she barreled through the doors in a flurry of huffing breaths and sweat.
“Elder, el-” Her heavy intakes of air kept cutting off what seemed to be an important message she wanted to hear in full, all at once.
“Take your time, Tzipora, I doubt the message will expire in the time it takes for you to catch your breath.”
Nodding, the girl bent down and leaned on her thighs with a heave that left her somewhat concerned she was going to throw up on her nice rug.
“The Left Eye has returned, mistress, and she requests you meet her without delay.” Jeanne’s eyes turned hard and the courier straightened her back in response. If she was asking her to meet up when she hadn’t even crossed the valley into Vigrid proper then she could only bring grave news.
“Tell my wife to meet me by the waterfall grove, I’ll be waiting.” Tzipora looked at her with a measure of uncertainty, unsure if that was all the information she was required to carry.
Jeanne, with a long practiced patience she had acquired through her decades of teaching and ruling, leveled a smooth reply towards her even though her anxiety was twisting itself into harsh knots. “Go, Cereza will know what to do with that information worry not.”
She bobbed her head up and down with vigor, her black hair shaking about and she spun around like Jubileus herself was on her heels. In the antechamber, a purple and golden leopard materialized into existence that knocked the priceless coat hanger her sisters across the Atlantic had gifted to her on her last trip.
Rubbing her forehead in frustration, the esteemed Elder of the Umbra Witches sat down her report on the relief efforts coming from the imperial centers in Ubinu. The witches hailing from Edo were among their most affluent members but they had been quick to coordinate and assist in a large part of the rebuilding efforts post Clan Wars.
Much was still to be done and now, she was sure to be on the cusp of receiving news that she would not like to hear.
With a resolute sigh, she fished Angel Slayer from its lofty perch on the wall and walked out of her inner sanctum.
“Impeccably late as always, Cereza” She commented when she heard the rustle of foliage from behind her comfortable seat on the sandy bank of the waterfall.
“I’ve heard it called fashionably late, dearest, I much prefer that.”
Cereza sat down next to her and offered her a small smile that didn’t quite reach the expressive blue eyes with bags Jeanne hadn’t seen so dark or so pronounced since the wars.
Since the fateful day the previous Left Eye of Darkness had sacrificed herself to stop a storm of summoned Auditio from crashing into the youth halls. Rosa had died to protect the future of those who had denied her a present and the Umbra hadn’t deserved her. And most of all, Cereza hadn’t deserved to see it.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”
She set her mouth in a grim line and shook her head, stretching her left hand towards Jeanne.
The other witch quickly entwined her hand with Cereza’s and even after all of these years, the glimpse of the simple gold band made her heart lighter. They had fought harder than most for the right to be together, to be accepted as the Elder and as the Left Eye of Darkness and to be able to ride off together into the sunset.
However, in joy forever after resided in children’s tales and reality rarely matched up with such a fanciful notion.
“There’s something brewing that’s bigger than the Clan Wars ever were. I’ve chased after reports and local leaders, they are all saying the same thing and they all stand by it.”
Witches missing, smaller compounds raided and attacks too deliberate to be random. It wasn’t the first time such things had crossed her desk and Jeanne had sent the person best suited to find out what was happening.
Now she had. Fuck.
“What is your take on it?” She demanded, immediately regretting the bite in her words but to her luck her wife took it in stride, a routine honed by nearly half a century of companionship.
“I’ve not a singular doubt about it, there is a disturbance so large looming on the horizon the treasured left eye feels like it’s going to burn right out of my skull.” Said eye obliged their conversation by pulsing with a near blinding intensity and Cereza flinched like she’d been stabbed. “There it is, if you had any doubts.”
Banging her hand over her eye socket like she was trying to keep no more than an ornery headache at bay, she continued.
“Beyond that, the scope is massive. Humans have been spurred into a frenzy, nothing has gone dark yet but we’ve suffered loses.” She had received those reports with a heavy heart as well. Two girls had gone missing in the kingdom of Joseon and at least five torture devices had been found scattered around Mu'a. Enough for concerns but not enough for certainty, their relationship with mortals had always been respectful coldness at best but things were changing. “Small, for now. But I know, deep in my bones it’s a giant wave travelling towards the coast.”
It was certainly not the Lumen working against them but then the question remained. Why now and how were humans all over the world getting the same idea?
Cereza’s impressions were more or less always spot on and if she was worried like this, then it meant they could not afford to stand idle.
“We have to call the Umbra to the ancient grounds and ready ourselves to go to war”
Cereza frowned and twisted her torso to look at her wife straight on. “You cannot go to war with all of the world, Jeanne, it’s folly.”
She punched the sand in frustration and growled, primal and loud. Her beast within was a thin breadth away from her skin and for a moment she entertained the thought of freeing herself into the mindlessness of her beast form. “All of the world has already gone to war on us! What do you want me to do? Continue with diplomatic overtures that have been consistently failing for the 30 years I’ve been the Elder?”
She glared right back with righteous fury, teeth bared in a show of frustrated, spinless aggression. “To delay action is to let our sisters be murdered and I will not stand for that as long as I draw breath.”
They stared at each other, gazes hard and closed off. It wasn’t usual that they disagreed on diplomatic matters, they were a terrifyingly united and powerful front and, as such, were routinely accused of less than savory political associations. If Cereza was being honest, she didn’t disagree with Jeanne, at least not entirely.
There was something wrong, something utterly and unstoppably vicious was looming on the horizon and Cereza had every singular feeling attuned to wrong about this. This wasn’t just a temporary hiccup, there was a balance shifting that was akin to the rumble of snow before a deadly avalanche.
She bit her lower lip in worry and yielded to Jeanne, looking away for a moment. The Left Eye bit like a bolt of thunder and lit her iris with an otherworldly red glow, making Jeanne’s easily provoked temper melt away in caring concern.
“Be careful, please. The Clan Wars were too close, for all of us. How many times did you evade death by sheer, dumb luck?”
Too many times to count. “I can’t lose you Jeanne. To either war, politics or just to your own bull-headed protective instinct. Tread lightly and treat this as if Jubileus themself is trying to come down for a not so friendly conversation.”
Silence descended like an oppressive blanket, cloying all other feelings in a haze of fear. The sun was starting to set on their little meeting spot, the secluded beach at the base of a small waterfall. It was an ancient haunt of theirs when they could not been seen with each other and running away to kiss was still a vital requirement.
In the grand span of an Umbran lifetime, it had been yesterday but Jeanne felt their wedding, an event so extravagant and elaborate it had installed a party that had lasted half of a month, had been an insurmountable time ago.
Were the years of strife taking such a toll on her? They had inherited a broken world and it was up to them to patch it as best as they could but did that really mean all good things were eroding away and she was powerless to stop them?
Cereza was staring off into the streaming water with a slightly pinched face, most likely trying to fight off the lancing pain in her head or digesting what had to be done.
Getting up, she settled herself behind Cereza, entwining their legs and letting her lean back into her front.
She poked the side of her neck which caused her to look back a bit before removing the neck and shoulder portion of her Umbran formal. Jeanne yanked her gloves off and rolled the dense muscles in her hands with precise yet soothing motions, causing her to draw out a long, low moan.
“Cereza, can I ask you something?” At this point, she was essentially letting the weight of her upper body rest on Jeanne’s strong hands and she managed a nod.
“If it’s for my hand in matrimony, you are quite late. I fear I am taken, darling.” she replied, wiggling her left hand and the nondescript gold band with it. Jeanne chuckled, exhausted and high strung still but just getting something out of her put a smile on her face.
“Do you regret”, she paused, taken with a sudden hesitation her public and political persona never, ever showed. “Do you regret not having any daughters?”
Cereza stilled, suddenly going back to supporting her own weight with her torso and she nearly backtracked all of her words.
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t, Sheba willing, centuries to have a whole legion of kids to dote on but there was something inside her chest that triggered an uncomfortable sense of finality. And she knew Cereza had to be feeling that times a hundred, her tuning to the finer workings of the Trinity was unparalleled.
“I don’t know… there was never a right time for it, was there? I suppose that people find ways to make time but our situation has been so uncertain. A little girl would most likely grow up with us lurking on the edges of her life.”
They had discussed children, of course, several times over the years and they had both agreed that the number one condition was that she would grow up with both of them there, present and accounted for. Such a time had never quite come to pass.
“Though I think that some version of us, out there in the great existence of things, has managed such a thing and they are probably very happy about it.”
To anyone else and from anyone else, it would have sounded like an empty comfort. However, Jeanne found herself smiling at those unlikely words. If Cereza, the powerful Left Eye Of Creation, thought so, then she would entertain the notion.
“Though, we did get close a couple of times.” Jeanne remarked, kissing along her broad shoulders with the occasional stop for a teasing bite. Cereza leaned back again, melting into her caresses.
Not due to any will on their part, mind, but such things were bound to happen with two magical powerhouses. All that was needed was a strong full moon, physiological processes that bypassed magic control and a pinch of the literal dark powers of the god of their realm made Umbra.
For something that usually needed a concerted effort and a more or less complex ritual, they had accidentally started (and more than started…) it enough times to know it was easier than it looked.
Cereza moved her head to the side to give her better access, moaning softly at the nips that were turning harder. “It’s the new moon now, I think we are more or less in the clear.”
She got up and turned to Jeanne, hips cocking with a swagger she often used to great effect. “I think we could have some fun, before the sky crashes on our heads.”
Jeanne blinked and looked around at the thick forest around them, stopping to look back at her wife. She was staring at her like she was good enough to eat and there they were.
Alone.
Responsibilities, chores, work were leagues away on Luna.
She laughed, clear and loud like she was still a young, unworried princess and Cereza winked at her. “How about you join me?”
She started walking backwards into the water, her formal disappearing with each step.
Jeanne got up, intent on stopping her from pulling one of her usual stunts like getting buck naked and swimming where certainly other young witches were lurking about. “This isn’t nearly as secluded as you think it is!”
Cereza reached forward and pulled her close, continuing her walk towards the crystalline pond. “Pretend we are twenty.” She kissed her, long and unhurriedly and Jeanne had not realized how starving she was for this, for a break. “And that for tonight, it’s just you and me.”
The water was warm like the encroaching Iberian night around them and they had progressed far enough it was level with their ribs.
Cereza’s formal was long gone, instead she exposed her tan skin and well defined muscles to the relative darkness of the new moon. Jeanne found herself slowly calling her own robe out of existence as her breaths grew heavier at the sight before her.
“I think…I think there are still Umbran matters you haven’t been taught, Cereza.”
The witch in question grinned at her successful gambit and at the returning shine in Jeanne’s beautiful eyes, letting her mouth be taken with an intensity she too had been longing for far longer than she had realized.
If any other Umbra was watching, well they’d show them how it was done.
Jeanne had never believed she’d see the day where an Auditio flew directly from Laguna not encased in shimmering peacock feathers but in their full, unchained and monstrous glory.
As Fortitudo ripped the clocktower to pieces, taking one of the most precious symbols of Umbran power with it, she desperately wished she had remained ignorant.
It had been like an earthquake, a terrible stillness that had given way to an upset so large they hadn’t even managed to scramble a counter-offensive.
And now came the insurmountable wave that would wash away the remains of the Umbran.
72 hours since the first report landed on her desk. First Mēxihco-Tenōchtitlan, then Marka, Samarkand, Vijayanagara, followed by all of their other compounds, enclaves and communities far and wide.
In less than a week, the ancient and powerful network of the Umbra Witches had been reduced to nothing. Jeanne didn’t know if there was anyone left alive outside of Crescent Valley but having read the news of swift calamity that the reports had transmitted…
She didn’t hold much faith.
Angels poured from every corner of Luna, a defile so great she hardly believed she was bearing witness to it and she knew the humans were just barely being held at bay by their fortifications. Every single battle had been lost and now the axe was about to swing one final time.
The chaos was unsalvageable and her sisters had since decided unilaterally, as was expected by a Clan of strong willed and independent individuals, that Luna was their home and all but ordered her to let them choose to defend it.
“So be it.” She had declared to a forum of bedraggled witches all trying to talk over each other. “Then we fight to write in the annals of history that when Paradiso descended on us.” It had probably been her last rousing speech, all things considered.
“The Umbra Witches fought to the last for their home!” She had pulled her sabre from its sheath, raising it as high as she could and the crowd had erupted in cheers and gunshots.
She would have usually considered it hollow populism, barren of solutions and nothing more than empty words but this was their last stand. The least she could do was given them all a poetic ending.
The density of Laguna was becoming impossible to navigate the further she progressed into the compound but she, herself, was now on a single minded mission to find Cereza in the middle of all the chaos.
The children and those who could not fight had left Luna at the first sign of trouble but Sheba knew what their fate had been. Had she sent them all like lambs to slaughter or had she afforded them the chance to hide.
An Affinity jumped up from the growing mass of flames and angels and had nearly torn off her head and she forced herself to focus on the now rather then her mounting regrets. She had to get to Cereza, nothing else mattered.
After all was said and done, the Elder lived to protect her Clan and that meant being the highest protector of the Left Eye. She had done all she could for her sisters, for her friends and acolytes and students. Now it was time to undertake her ultimate responsibility.
Where could she be…they had separated after the clock exploded but Cereza had to be in the compound proper still. Wrangling away from fights, she kept to the edges of the hallowed grounds and ghosted through long forgotten passages she and Cereza had explored in their youth.
Jeanne managed to drag her way near the throne room with no new clues as to where she could be when a bright light shone through the heavy doors. She kicked them open with a bang and her heart sighed in flooding relief.
Cereza looked like a vengeful demon as a mass of bullets and summons accosted the two pairs of Gracious and Glorious that had clearly been sent after her.
The ground was littered with corpses and the commotion beyond the gate of rabid humans was nearly deafening but Jeanne pressed on.
No doubt that she was keeping them at bay but they were wearing her down enough her exertion was noticed. Before they had time to realize she had entered, she summoned Madama Styx right into the fray.
Cereza looked at her in clear surprise but also renewed purpose as she joined up with Jeanne in a deadly battle formation perfected through decades of fights.
Her most beloved was tired and hurt and Jeanne was as well but they soon strangled the First Sphere Angels back to Paradiso.
Panting harshly, Cereza looked at her with worried eyes. “Jeanne…Jeanne! Are you ok, why are you here?!”
“I’m here for you, I’m here to keep you safe.” Jeanne responded and she opened her mouth to protest but she grabbed her face and kissed her, tasting the soot and sweat on her lips but effectively cutting her off. “ Don’t argue, it’s my duty as the Elder and as your wife to keep you safe.”
Cereza chafed under the protection, under her immense importance, under the need for every Umbra from here to the literal moon to keep her safe. “And as your wife, it’s my duty to keep you safe!”
Jeanne shook her head and opened her mouth to disagree right back but she was forced to swallow some of her own medicine when Cereza planted a searing kissing on her lips. “Besides that, I know why they are here now and what the moon’s blessing they want.”
She frowned despite the tangible relief at having found Cereza more or less safe and sound. And then it hit her like a ton of rocks.
“They want the Left Eye! They want you…”
Cereza nodded, grinding her teeth together. Her sisters were dead because of her, because the feathered fucks wanted to use her for something.
“Those people out there are collaterals! They are fodder for Laguna to throw at-”
The crowd outside roared louder than ever before and a loud bang sounded against the sturdy outer door. Jeanne cursed loudly and steeled herself. Their time was running out and running out fast.
“Cereza, I l-”
“Jeanne, listen to me! They want the Left Eye to resurrect Jubileus! We have to stop them, stop this madness, do something!”
At her words, she halted and stared at Cereza with abject surprise.
The Festival of Resurrection, that’s what the angels wanted and consequently why they seemed bent on retrieving her beloved Cereza.
Frenzied humans would be inside within the day and she was sure they’d never leave anyone alive. Mankind was a feeble rod but even weak sticks could be unbreakable given enough numbers.
“Yes, we do.” She accepted what she needed to do with an uncharacteristic calm, like the world had been blanketed in silence and only the correct path remained dead ahead.
Cereza cocked her head at her and frowned. “What has gotten into you?”
She was still for a long moment, trying to commit to memory her truest friend, her lover, her wife, her Umbran gem. Fate hadn’t been kind to them, right from the start but they had managed their place in the grand scheme of things.
“Jeanne? You’re worrying me, we’re running out of time. We need to do something.”
Jeanne approached her slowly, steps reverent and deliberate. Cereza stayed in place, worry increasing with each clack of the gun heels on the ancient stone floor and, finally, a gloved hand cupped her face softly.
“Cereza, there is nothing to be done but make sure they won’t find you.” It sounded sensible, reasonable.
And utterly fucking wrong.
“What?! If you think you’re going to squirrel me away in some…what, some far off hole somewhere or shove me in stasis while all of my sisters, all of my world collapses again”, she roared at Jeanne’s calm demeanour and small, resigned smile. “You are dead wrong!”
The crashing of a battering ram intensified for a moment and they both looked in it’s direction. How long did they still have?
“Our treasured Left Eye…” She broke her placid composure, her voice laden with regret and a bitter finality that was impossible to hide as she got close enough to touch their foreheads.“My treasured Left eye shall never fall into the hands of another.”
The gem in the middle of Cereza’s watch glowed like fire in the faint light of the room, a symbol of commitment among their people, as good as any modern ring. It was a powerful charm, a rare stone that became more powerful the longer it was in contact with the witch.
It was sacrosanct and to taint it, a sacrilege.
“Jeanne n-”
The dagger was upon the charm with the strength of a bullet and her world turned to black.
FATHER
The feathered flock was dealt with, leaving a mess of gore behind that mingled with the remains of whoever had woken her up and had swiftly been torn to pieces by her previous attackers.
A young child was knocked out nearby, she picked him up and was relieved to not see any injuries.
She looked around but there were no clues to be found, to her location, identity or even purpose. A sort of structure peeked from behind the trees.Well, that direction was as good as any.
She walked.
“Someone left something for your here, Bayonetta.”
The small plastic bag clinked on the counter and she picked it up, curiosity getting the better of her. After all, who would find Rodin and leave something for her to fetch?
“A couple of years topside and you’ve already admirers asking for your hand.” The sound of the ice slushing inside the shaker accompanied his joke as she inspected the small parcel closer.
A ring. Gold and worn, it looked positively ancient in Rodin’s shitty overhead lights. She frowned and turned her gaze to the mysterious proprietor, whose only response was a nearly imperceptible smirk.
Whoever had put the band on her left hand, had just handed her its pair.