Chapter Text
The times were growing looser, nothing was out of the ordinary in a big city like this nowadays, and no one came to question the beautiful man with the long, blond hair and elegantly scarred face (as odd as that may sound), who came to the cafe only after dark, with his sketchbook.
They didn’t question him, but they noticed him. He was unusual, true, but if anything, he seemed like a vision from a past era, with an elegance and artistic sense that the world just didn’t have anymore.
He could tell them, the 1890’s were nothing like that. He’d been alive back then, after all. They imagine elegance because that’s what survives in the paintings and novels, but the reality was that between technologies, improvements in cleanliness, changes in attitudes… the present was a lot better.
Of course, where he spent a good amount of his time, nothing much had changed at all — in the past 70 years, or in the past 700. These excursions of his into the outside world always fascinated him. The humans changed so much from decade to decade — the level to which they’d recovered from two great wars, into this brilliant and lively city life… recovered on the surface, at least.
There were still elements, wounds that hadn’t yet healed and might never do so… and people with goals that might make it all happen again… or worse.
He knew that as a vampire, he was expected to stay out of it. But he felt the same now as he had back then — how could he just let people suffer like that? No — he had to do something.
And that was where these excursions were not just fun, but necessary. He needed to do research.
He needed to listen to the language of the places where he wanted to act, get a feel for how it had changed since he had last been there. He needed up-to-date information about places, systems, technologies. He glanced at the small stack of books on the table in front of him, pretended to focus on it as if it were what he was drawing, and not the office building across the street, or the people who came in and out of it.
This was his third night coming to this cafe — not in a row, of course. He would change his places of observation, in some slight hope that it would make him stand out less. If anything, his outlandish appearance made him stand out in ways that no procedure of timing could change. It wasn’t just his scars, or the length of his hair — it was the way he moved, too. It was his clothes, too — there were times when he’d attempted to dress to blend in, but even when he’d bought modern clothes, the way he’d worn them had made him stand out. So he might as well dress as he liked.
His third time at the cafe, and no one had come to talk to him — until tonight. It was close to midnight, and a young man, seemingly about his own age, came and sat across from him at the same table.
He didn’t look up, as if he hadn’t noticed.
“Ultramarine,” the newcomer said. A greeting.
Kurda sighed. “Luca… you really don’t need to call me that. I’m not… I’m not a member there.”
“Of course you aren’t,” Luca replied. “Ultramarine isn’t a flower, is it?”
“True, true…”
At midnight, the lights in front of the building would be turned off, and it would be a lot harder to draw. Not impossible, with a vampire’s vision, but not comfortable. Not something that he could do night after night without giving himself a headache.
Again, Kurda sighed. “I wish there were some way to extend the night, to give me an extra hour to work…” he said this as a mere flight of fancy, but to his surprise, Luca responded with a satisfied slight laugh.
“Oh, there is!”
Kurda shook his head slightly, smiling. “Not one of your invention ideas, I mean something someone could really use.” But it was a ridiculous idea — in line with time travel, really. Odd as it might be for a real vampire, he liked to keep up with human science fiction. He’d read some books about time travel, and watched some movies. Though he knew so much about magical things that really existed, he didn’t believe time travel was possible. It opened up too many strange ideas — and not just in the sense of going back and time and killing your grandfather. If it were possible, would there be a time in the future when everyone could time-travel? Could there be so many people going back and changing the past that there no longer was a stable past? And what about the idea of going back and meeting yourself? Would there be consequences for it? If so, how would those consequences be kicked in — from coexisting with yourself at all, an “only one me allowed at a time” rule? Or would you have to recognize yourself in order for that to happen? Would recognizing yourself simply drive you mad?
No, he didn’t think time travel could really be a possibility — or, he hadn’t. But now, seeing that Luca kept smiling…
“Oh, it’s not mine,” the scientist said. “It’s something Fiona has… I’ve seen her use it a couple of times — she really did freeze time, and get all sorts of things done in an instant.”
“In an instant?” Kurda asked. He blinked. Luca really wasn’t joking — he could tell.
“An instant on the outside. For her, it’s a ‘Hidden Hour’ — that’s what she calls it.” Luca peeked over to Kurda’s drawing, and smiled in approval. “But this is serious magic. It can’t be taken out just to give you another hour to draw.”
“No… no, of course not.” Kurda had been tracing his pencil back and forth over the same detail of the building — he was pretending that his interest lay in architectural details, and that he had no idea what the building was, but it wasn’t difficult to pretend, as he did love the aesthetics of the building. Now, after making a shadow much larger than it should have been, he began to tap his pencil against the paper as he considered what to say next.
“How… how can I ask her… I mean,” he sighed. “There’s… something. Something that I need… that could help me save a lot of people. It’s… I’m not asking this lightly.”
Luca blinked. “Well… this is intriguing,” he said, leaning in closer. “I’ll need more details. Or, Fiona will, at least.”
“Of course,” Kurda said. “But not here.”
———————————
Delphine smiled as he tapped his brush into the lapis blue shade. Ultramarine… he’d been thinking of his friend recently, in a way that made him feel that they’d see each other again soon. Ultramarine did have a habit of turning up out of nowhere, with some bizarre mission that just might work, or some new field of study. Life was always just the right kind of interesting with him.
He tapped the brush lightly just on the outer corner of each eye. Subtle, yet decidedly not. Tonight’s look would be dedicated to him.
A knock on the door — Fiona didn’t wait for a reply before coming in, and he’d known she wouldn’t. He’d known it was her just from the sound of her knock, a depth of familiarity that only came from a relationship of over a century.
She held out three folders of documents. “Here it is — all the information the Temple of Carcossa has on the four that you asked about.”
“The four humans?” Delphine asked, taking the folders.
“Ostensibly human, at least.” Fiona watched as he went over them.
“José Baden… Servais le Roi… Annie Leicester…” he muttered. “And the one known only as ‘Orpheus’…”
After perusing the files, he looked up at Fiona. “Had it occurred to you that it might not be wise to host all four of them at the Fleur de Lis at the same time? If they are what you say they might be…”
“All the better to keep an eye on them,” Fiona said. “You aren’t suggesting we can’t handle it, are you?”