Chapter Text
Your meetings in the beginning are few and far inbetween. You had known The Fool, of course, for He was one of the ones your Brother would speak about. You had seen Him before, trailing after the Evernight, a lofty Angel without a Uniqueness.
He had quickly proven all involved parties wrong and ascended at a speed even your Brother seemed confused by.
But that was no matter! The interesting part came after The Fool’s slumber in the form of an Angel named Merlin Hermes.
You wonder if He chose that name Himself or if His God had named Him.
You wonder if He would be insulted if you ask.
You do not know; therefore, you laugh and go ask Him.
“My Lord gave me my name, of course.” Merlin Hermes says, a charming smile on His face.
His face was ordinary in an unusual way– perfectly bland. Like a mask.
He is like you! He does not know how to fit in; how adorable. Because His face was ordinary. So unsettlingly ordinary it was no longer ordinary.
You wonder if He knows.
It wouldn’t matter anyway; things few and far between could catch a Miracle Invoker off guard.
You lick your lips.
Hm. Perhaps this would be a worthwhile endeavor.
You are Amon, and the fickleness of humanity is unable to catch up to you. You wander, learn, absorb, and you understand how their brains work and yet for as much as you can emulate it you do not get it.
Boo. How frustrating.
At least it appears that–
“You don’t get it either, do you?” You ask, nudging the monocle on your eye as you peer at the creature named Merlin Hermes.
“I do not.” He replies, His voice pleasant.
“Why is it that your God did not teach you?” You ask, uncaring of how rude or sacrilegious that question was when you wanted to see His reaction.
He laughs.
“My Lord would give me neigh anything in this world,” He says, voice soft. “He would give me all the options that are available. And yet He will never decide anything for me.”
You wonder why He is telling you so much.
You lean down, perched upon his shoulders as you are and stare into His eyes.
They are, as always, blank in a way that mortal’s are not.
You fly away as He collapses into a pile of worms.
Rather unfortunate, really, that He did not stand still and let you Eat Him.
But then that would not be fun, would it?
You fly off to ask Brother about the interesting new toy you’ve found.
Your Brother only smiles genially at you when you Steal your way into his orchard, that Zealot.
You ask about the Miracle Invoker named Merlin Hermes.
Your Brother looks at you in that way which means He is analysing you again and tells you to ask Antigonus.
Perhaps you’d be able to get a rise out of Him with that name, then?
Shaking off a few burnt feathers, you reconsider.
You laugh. It is the crowing of a raven, of joy and interest.
How amusing! You were the only one to consider the creature named Merlin Hermes an entity.
It appeared the remaining Angels considered Him an extension of the Fool.
Fools.
He would only be an extension of the Fool’s will at most; for the Fool cared too much about humanity.
Far too much to be Merlin Hermes with his blank eyes and laughter of bells.
Your heart pounds.
How fun. Something within you preens and your grin is wide as you nudge your monocle.
You needed to talk with Him again. Perhaps He would prove to be continuously amusing!
He is slightly different the next time you see Him, half a century later. He is slightly older now, looking about the same age you did. His face was ordinary– in the truly mortal way, this time. A forgettable face. Was this the nature of a Faceless?
He speaks first, this time.
“You’ve never given me your name.” He says, placidly.
“Did you not divine it, Seer?” You ask, an artificial emotion you name curiosity lacing your voice.
“My Lord told me it was rude,” He pouts, His scarf swaying softly even in the nonexistent wind.
You beam at Him, nudging the monocle on your right eye.
“I’m not telling you my name.” You say, casually, Stealing some candy apples from a stall as you stride past it.
He laughs, the sharp jingling of bells filling the air.
“Let’s see~” He hums. “Since you stole candy from a child, should I assume you have no money, Money?”
“You are going to call me that?” You ask Him, not in surprise.
He laughs.
“Of course not. ‘Monny’ fits much better, doesn’t it?”
His gaze is perfectly inhuman.
After all, the Seer pathway had some of the best Spiritual Intuition.
“Alright then, Merly.” You say, pleasantly.
His face twists in confusion for a moment, before settling.
You wonder why.
You wonder why, why He would show emotion for such a small thing when He doesn’t process them.
You resist the urge to dig into His brain right then and there and eat Him whole.
Your monocle gleams.
He laughs at you, not a hint of fear detectable.
Approaching the crying child, He lifts up his cloak to show another candy apple, and offers it to the child you stole it from.
The child is confused, looking up and then seemingly forgetting what had transpired.
You sit on a fencepost as the child runs away, off to its parents most likely.
“Do you love them?” You ask.
“No.” He replies, tone as pleasant as yours is. “I do not know love.”
He smiles at you, and his teeth are not pointed and yet you feel as though they should be.
Wonderful!
You laugh, a mass of feathers taking into the night sky.
Far below you, Merlin Hermes bows, slipping into the Spirit World like the Fool’s proxy that He is.
Your meetings only happen more frequently from then. You see him next after the Comet named Bethel Abraham had taken his place and made the Abrahams a House.
He has a hat this time, smelling of dandelions and flower fields even with all the blood covering Him.
“Can you not wish yourself clean?” You ask, as the road cleans itself before your boot sets on the floor.
“There is no point.” He says, and for perhaps the first time you feel Him assessing you as an enemy.
Perhaps He will fight you, this time.
He does not. Instead, He cleans the house and burns the bodies, wishing the air to smell cleaner once He is done.
You watch, as He dances through the steps of resolving a murder scene. How strange. Why would He not simply turn them into marionettes and drown them in a river?
“Have you gotten any closer to understanding humanity?” You ask.
“As much as you have.” He says, which is a non answer as much as it is one.
You laugh.
You press yourself against Him, watching the way his eyes glew slightly in the darkness. It would have been imperceptible, had you not been an Angel.
“Would you like to work with me?” You purr, and your delight when you fail to see His thoughts is visible.
The aura of Sephirah Castle, the fog and taste of power fills the area.
“My Lord says not yet.” He says, and you are only mildly disappointed as you leave the area before His god does something rash, like say, blowing the town up with you in it because He didn’t like you for some reason.
You are Amon. You do not strive to be liked, but surely you had not insulted Him on such a grand scale? You rarely interacted with Him, after all. Father had been the one to host banquets and drape Himself over the Fool with a smile on His face.
Hm.
You wonder how the Fool tasted like. Just a bite, of course. Just a tiny nibble; you had no desire to Eat Him. Merlin Hermes seemed to promise a much more unique flavor in that regard.
You wonder what He is doing now.
A short excursion with your beloved Mr Door later, you have your answer.
“Did your Lord command you?” You ask, curiously, as Merlin Hermes slowly reformed on the ground. You wonder what could have killed Him; what could have possibly gotten past a Miracle Invoker’s many ways of preventing death.
“He does not order me.” He says, placidly, tearing off His arm and shaking it until it resembled His usual scarf, “I choose to follow Him.”
How amusing, that this was said by the man who was only an extension of the Fool.
Such a shame that you had not found Him earlier! Perhaps then you would understand why He calls Himself such.
He prepares to leave into the Spirit World yet again. It was only natural for Him; the aura of Sephirah Castle yet lingering on him would prevent hostility.
You pluck a Spirit Worm from his body. He watches you, not an ounce of fear in His body, because He understood you, somehow, in a way that no one else did. That you would not eat Him.
You wanted to prove him wrong, yearned to, but alas! How unfortunate the truth. You would not eat Him until He stopped being fun, until the looming threat of the Fool’s careful yet sleepy watch left.
You eat the Spirit Worm.
It tasted like nothing– how unfortunate. Its texture did not leave much to be desired as well, rough glass against your tongue, until your mouth was bloody.
You swallow your own blood, tilting your head at Him.
“Try a train.” You say, before Stealing away the distance. It was about time you started collecting all the Marauder characteristics, anyway.
Merlin Hermes watches you, and there is something so refreshingly inhuman about Him that even the likes of Antigonus or Eggers could not compare.
Because He was the one who was closest to you. One made from a god that was so clearly divine yet had not sacrificed Their humanity.
You should know it. You do not, the same way He should and does not.
What a matching pair you make! Perhaps you should make those things called “friendship bracelets” for Him as well.
“I took a train.” He says, the next time you meet Him. “I do not understand what the significance of it is.”
And perhaps that is the reason why neither of you understand humanity.
You laugh at Him; not in a mocking way, of course.
You nudge your monocle, peering at Him.
You wonder what His anchor is.
He regards you with that same charming smile He always wields, and you caw in laughter as a mass of feathers descend from the sky.
Of course His anchor was His Lord.
He does not say anything else, and yet His eyes gleam the same.
Perhaps you had underestimated Him from the start.
“Say, Merly.” You chirp. “Would you like to go kill Antigonus? Brother told me He was looking to disrupt your Lord’s sleep.”
“I was waiting for you to ask.” He says, like the Seer Angel He is. “And unfortunately, my Lord disapproves.”
‘But He did not order you not to?” You ask.
“My Lord disapproves.” He says, the same placid tone underlied with the chiming of bells.
How strange, that this small Angel in front of you was one of the few people who made you feel danger.
“Disapproves of you killing Antigonus, or disapproves of you inconveniencing Antigonus?” You ask, because it was an important distinction for mischief.
He paused.
“Is there a difference?” He asks, and it is no wonder that the both of you do not understand humanity.
You laugh in delight.
“There is so much I will have to teach you, Merly, as you will have to teach me.” You whisper, and it is not a promise but He agrees to it silently all the same.
And if Antigonus finds all His puppets gone when He wakes up from an unnatural sleep then it is no one’s business, especially not yours.
Perhaps you skip a bit of the process, but at one point after the Fool awakens a bit further and Merlin Hermes had spread His tales a bit further He changes in a mild and barely identifiable way.
“Your eyes are no longer glowing.” You comment, splayed across His lap as you are.
He hums, his voice now carrying the notes of music alongside the chiming of bells.
“Are they?” He asks, gently plucking the feathers of one of your crow avatars.
“Have you managed to learn?” You ask, because you know neither of you understand.
“Perhaps.” He says, lightly, and you go back to only mildly vindictively thinking of what you should say to Medici as He died.
Hm.
Vindictively?
Perhaps you were becoming more human as well.
Brother comments on it the next time you see Him, playing a tune on the piano which you could not identify.
“You’ve changed.” He comments, mildly, and you do not say that He has, as well.
You would, once you understood what the change was. It had been about two centuries since it happened, after all.
You shrug.
You watch as He starts a new tune, a small smile on His face.
You tilt your head, listening as He pressed the keys.
E- D A F. Like a knockoff love song from Intis.
You scrutinize your Brother again.
How annoying. He was just as inhuman as you, and could not, would not allow Himself to emulate emotions and feel them in the subconscious way you did.
And yet, He understood emotions, understood humanity best. Understood it in a way you could not.
You go bother Merlin instead, because clearly your discussion here had ended.
And if there is slight joy at seeing Him even when nothing interesting had been going on then you do not linger on it, enraptured by the way His usually placid voice gave way to a more mischievous tone, the sound of bells echoing alongside His words.
Ah. He had changed, again.
How wonderful.
And you still wanted to Eat Him whole.