Louise
fumed with every new student that took the stage with their familiar. And with every new name that was called that wasn't hers, more eyes turned towards her. More voices were raised in mocking whispers behind her back.
I had expected this. Thus, why I had put my plan into motion. Already, I could see my schemes beginning to spring into motion, the maids under my control moving into place, the Lady Inverna nervously pacing back and forth at the very rear of the crowd with her familiar. I had done my best to boost her confidence, and ensure that her path would be smooth, but even so, Dominate, Presence, and the many courses on motivational speaking I had taken could only bring her so far. Her sense of self-preservation was screaming at her, and it was up to her to push past it, or failing that, discard the plan, and fall into line like her herd animal instincts bid her to.
But I was not worried. It was not for nothing that Lady Elanor de la Inverna had summoned a lion for her familiar. She would bear through.
And where was I to witness all this? On the second floor of the school, overlooking the ceremony in Siesta's body.
It had taken very little to convince Siesta to allow me to possess her for the day. It was risky perhaps, and hardly fair to my dear little ghoul, but I found that I could not bear to simply sleep the day away, unable to see the plan I had so thoroughly invested myself in come to fruition. Her will was easily overpowered, and now, for one day only, I walked the day once more.
I held out my hand and felt the sun play over it, relishing its soothing warmth, delighting in all the glorious sensations Siesta's body had to offer me. The soft, pleasant friction of her clothing against her skin, the smooth stone of the windowsill as I rested my arms against it, the breeze that rustled her hair…. I was awash in sensation, in the feelings that I had lost and longed for, and those I had never even realized I was missing. How dull had my Fortitude made my sense of touch, I wondered? How many little things had the dark blessings of vampirism taken away from me? Even with the unpleasant dangling weights upon her chest, and the equally unpleasant
lack of a certain dangling weight between her legs, I felt happier and more alive then and there than I had in years. It would be easy, I thought to myself, to become addicted to this.
It was then, of course, that I heard the name "Elanor de la Inverna" called, and realized that, once more, my attention had slipped, caught by the sheer, unrelenting
ecstasy of existing as a living human being. I would definitely be rewarding my sweet Siesta with vitae for letting me do this.
The Lady Inverna walked up to the stage, the dress she was wearing prepared with tear-away seams, the bag hanging on her shoulder containing the accessory that would prove the piece de resistance of her coming performance. Her lion, a great red-maned brute, trotted besides her.
Taking the stage she addressed her audience. "My friends. Shortly, myself and my lion will be doing tricks to entertain. But firstly, I would like to say a few words in advance."
"'In advance' is redundant when paired with 'firstly,'" I muttered, as her untrained diction triggered my inner grammarian. I noticed that her father, who lived close by to the academy, enough that he could attend the ceremony today, was frowning. He knew his daughter well enough to realize that her nervousness was a bit more than simple stage fright.
"My friends, tell me, are there not some limits to what a noblewoman can do?" said Elanor, beginning to really warm up, as passion infused her voice. "Can she marry who she truly loves? Can she pursue her own ambitions? Can she live her life free of society's call to play the subservient homemaker?"
The audience began to mumble and murmur. Whatever they expected when the lady decided to use her time on the stage for a speech, a proto-feminist thinkpiece was definitely not it. I could see her father's face begin to turn an interesting shade of purple, as his daughter rejected everything he'd ever taught her.
"Because I believe the answer is no," Elanor de la Inverna said, her wind magic carrying her voice to everyone. "And so, I REJECT MY NOBILITY, FATHER!" She grabbed the corner of the dress she was wearing, and ripped it away, revealing the outfit beneath.
It was
masterfully garish and tasteless, if I dared say so myself. I had designed it with utmost care to be that way. The canary yellow shoes led into the purple, sequined trousers, which led up to the bright red shirt I had gotten off Guiche when I asked him for the single most ridiculous article of clothing he owned. Over top of that red shirt was a flashy purple overcoat, verging on turquoise, because color-coordination was a definite no-no when designing this crime against fashion. Drawing out a bright green top hat from her satchel, she put it on, even as absolute chaos swept the crowd. And so, her outfit complete, Elanor, just Elanor,
stated her intent, "I! WILL JOIN! THE CIRCUS!"
It was
glorious. The chaos and confusion that swept the crowd, as Elanor jumped onto her lion and dashed away, the look on her father's face, and the flawless, coordinated efficiency with which my agents "accidentally" hindered pursuit.
It would be the talk of the school for months to come, easily eclipsing any attention that Louise may have garnered through her non-performance in the Familiar Festival. And most importantly….
"Keikaku dori! Keikaku dori!" I muttered to myself, awash with the glow of victory, staggering about as I scarcely restrained my urge to
dance, biting down on Siesta's finger to restrain some very un-Siesta-like cackles that threatened to break free. It was wonderful! It was mad! IT WAS ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN! Every last detail, perfect! Every last angle, covered! No deviations, and no last-minute surprises! The entire academy, puppets, dancing in lockstep upon my strings! So, THIS was what it felt like to be GOD!
I dashed back to the windowsill, seized by the urge to see how Louise would react to my plan.
She wasn't in the audience. In fact, I realized that Louise was nowhere that I could see. She must have wandered away before Elanor took the stage, must have been unable to bear the stares and the whispers. She had fled before I could deliver her.
I needed to find her, offer a consoling ear. She would need it, and I would be remiss in my service to her if I failed to comfort her. Hopefully, I would be able to find her. Now where would she…
I heard a loud thumping noise, coming from the other side of the school. Down in the chaos of the courtyard, though, it seems no one else did.
An ill feeling curdling in my gut, I raced towards it, emphatically shoving down the part of me that screamed I should be running
away from danger. Because there was every likelihood that Louise was at the epicenter of whatever the hell was going on. And I couldn't leave the young girl to face it alone.
I rounded a corner, and came into sight of a titan, an enormous creature that put me in mind of Guiche's golems, if made of earth instead of bronze. And, on the ground, facing the golem, was Louise de la Valliere, casting explosions (the only sort of spell I'd ever seen her cast) at the golem. Honestly, I was rather heartened to see that she'd found a situation in which her particular breed of magic was best suited for the task at hand. I was also rather disheartened to see that she had picked a fight with an earth monster the size of a building.
"Lady Louise!" I called out. "What in the world is going on?"
"Siesta?" she shouted back, turning to look at me and leaving herself open to the titanic golem's counterstrike. "What are you…"
There was no helping it. Apologizing to Siesta within the confines of my head, I leapt from the second story window, kicking off the wall with all the strength her body could muster (considerably more than my own, especially thanks to Potence) to tackle Louise out of the way of the golem's fist. Siesta's natural athleticism and coordination managed to compensate for my mind's woeful lack of athletic training, and I bowled Louise out of the way, even as the golem's fist slammed into where she was standing before.
Unfortunately, while Siesta had a command of Fortitude (a rudimentary but existent one), Louise didn't. Being tackled by a hundred and twenty-odd pounds of maid launched at high speeds from a second-story window had, it seemed, done almost as much damage as the golem's fist would have.
"Siesta?" she muttered, clutching a clearly broken arm. "What're… Wha're…. heh, whirrrrrrr…"
All right, clearly the shock was making her loopy. And-
A dragon flew in. A literal, honest to God
dragon flew in and a small figure on its back began tossing lighting at the golem.
"Louise?" a woman said behind me, and I turned to see von Zerbst. "Dear God, what
happened to her?"
"I tackled her out of the way of the golem's fist," I said, trying my absolute best to sound like Siesta. "But I shouldn't have done that, I think. The impact broke her arm."
"You're a commoner," von Zerbst said, looking perplexed, even as the golem, having apparently gotten whatever it wanted from the smashed open side of the tower it was next to, lumbered away. "Why would you go to that much risk? Expose yourself to that much danger?"
Because I was actually her familiar possessing a commoner's body, and I had royally failed to look after her. But I couldn't actually say that, so instead, I went with, "Because it was the right thing to do."
That was a sufficiently Siesta-ish thing to say, wasn't it? God, I wished that I had paid more attention to those late-night acting courses I took two years ago.
It seemed to fool Kirche at least. "How… noble of you," she said after a short pause.
"Thank you, milady," I said, trying not to let the terror she inspired in me show through.
The closure of that particular fight took some time. But, at the end of it, after Louise had been treated in the infirmary, I (that is to say Siesta) was told that I should come to the headmaster's office tomorrow, to help give my account of what happened.
Which meant that I was either going to have to coach Siesta on how to answer an interrogation on events that she
wasn't conscious or present for, or I would have to expend my willpower to possess her again tomorrow. Either way,
fuck.
---
That night, I looked down on myself through Siesta's eyes, and released her.
I opened my eyes to find her slumped over, having fallen onto the bed, shaking.
"Siesta," I said, and she looked at me.
"Master, I… it was so much. So much longer than you said, so many things, and you were in my body, and I couldn't… I couldn't…" She gave a keening wail, as I rose and wrapped my arms around her, feeling her warmth, and being painfully aware of how much colder and deader I now felt in comparison to the glorious warmth that was wearing her flesh. But it was
her flesh, and by using it, even for a day, I had hurt her. I had taken what was fundamentally hers. And so, I wrapped my arms around her, and whispered my apologies in her ear, and comforted her as best as I could.
In time, she stopped shaking, and I took the opportunity to speak. "I am sorry, dear Siesta. It was selfish of me to ask that of you when you didn't know what it entailed. You were magnificent. Being a part of you was magnificent. But I will not ask that of you again. The Headmaster, Osmond, will call you up to his office tomorrow. He will ask you what happened. Do you remember what happened, when I used your body to save Louise from the golem?"
"Yes… no…" she looked at me, confused. "It all feels like I was dreaming. I… sort of remember doing things, pushing Lady Louise out of the way, but… it all feels distant. Like watching someone else do things."
"Well, then," I said. "Here's what you can tell them. Tell them that. Tell them that it all feels like a dream, like you were watching someone else do all those things. Tell them that your body moved on its own, without thinking. They won't think you were possessed, they'll think you're just shell-shocked. As long as you don't mention me at all, they'll simply think of you as a hero who intervened even though she was scared, behaving so bravely she couldn't even believe it was her doing it in hindsight."
"A hero? Me? But… I didn't even do anything!" she looked honestly flustered.
"Modesty! Good! Use that!" I said, with a reassuring smile. "But if they offer you a raise, don't turn it down."
"Well of course not," she said, once more reestablishing her position as my
favorite ghoul. "What sort of lunatic willingly turns down a raise?"
"You'd be surprised," I said with a chuckle, pricking my own thumb with my fang. "Speaking of, I have something to give you."
She stared at the blood welling from my thumb with naked desire, scarcely even breathing.
"Go on, you've earned it," I said.
She wrapped her lips about my thumb, giving a muffled moan as she suckled from it. I stroked her hair, holding her close as she shuddered with pleasure.
"That's my girl," I whispered in her ear, and she
groaned.
I left her there, passed out in Louise's bed, a shivering, blood-drunk mess, and set out into the halls, deciding to check my burgeoning network for information.
I had confirmed that it was in fact Foquet who had robbed the tower, a mage-thief who apparently robbed from the rich and gave to herself, to hear rumor tell of it, before I spotted something… interesting.
A green-haired woman, in a dress, furtively making her way back towards the school. Curious, and recognizing her from description as the Headmaster's secretary, Miss Longueville, I decided to interrogate her myself.
I waited for her behind a corner, having figured out her route in advance, and where I could ambush her with the least chance of witnesses.
"Hello there, Miss Longueville," I said as she came into view, making her jump. "Fancy meeting you here at this time of night."
"You're… you're the de la Valliere girl's familiar," Longueville said. "What are you doing here?"
"I fancied the night air," I said with a smile. "You felt much the same, I imagine. Why else would you be out at this hour?
Stay. Talk with me. The night's more pleasant with company, wouldn't you agree?"
I struck out at her with a combination of Dominate and Presence. She nodded. "I suppose that's all right."
I
had her. "Have you heard of what happened during the Familiar Festival?"
"No, not really," she said.
"Ah. Were you out of the school today?" I asked, my mind seizing upon that. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but perhaps…
"I… well, yes. I decided to take some time off and go shopping in the city," she said.
"An unsuccessful trip, I should imagine," I said with a nod. "Since you aren't carrying anything back with you."
"Er…" she's starting to panic, I can see. "Yes. Very unsucsessful."
I turn up the presence, even as I continue to look into her eyes. "
C'mon, you can tell me the truth. Was it a lover? Family? Something… scandalous?"
"I'm Fouquet," she says, and she flinches, terrified at her own mouth for betraying her.
"Really?" I said, eyes wide, deciding to break out the big guns of Presence. "I'm a fan of your work, actually.
Would you like to talk about this somewhere no one can overhear us?"
She nodded, and we soon found a suitable broom closet. And by the time she left that closet, she was my creature, body and soul, my second ghoul in this world after Siesta, completely bound to my will.
Now, what to do with her, was the question. I could have kept her for my personal use, as a thief of Fouquet's caliber was definitely someone worth having in my employ. But I could see a greater purpose for her.
My Lady Louise had been deeply injured this day, both in body and in pride. But what better way to soothe her, and turn her fortunes, than to, by the daring recapture of a stolen relic, and the thwarting of a dangerous thief, turn the Zero into a Hero?