Althena sighed as she sat down and massaged her temples. She was so close to achieving her goal—if all went as planned, within hours, Noir would rise once again to quench the darkness that had consumed the world. Borne and Marennes had been nearly ecstatic in their earlier congratulations; they were clearly eager to see Althena solidify her power within Soldats. If they only knew…. It was kind of sad, really. Like so many others, they seemed to think that Noir’s purpose was to carry out the will of Soldats—which was absurd. If anything, the opposite was true: Soldats existed to assist Noir, not to order them, nor even to question how their judgment was meted out. Yet here they were, on the cusp of restoring order to a world that had been plunged into chaos by a neglect that could only be described as criminal, and the members of Althena’s inner circle still thought this was nothing more than power play—as if Noir was a mere pawn to be exploited for political gain!
The Manor’s de facto ruler stared out the window at the scenic countryside. She didn’t have a very good view of the vineyard from this vantage point, but that didn’t matter; she knew that Kirika and Chloe were in the midst of their preparations, and it wasn’t her place to disturb them. She also had a strong suspicion that the third candidate for Noir, Mireille Bouquet, was making her way towards the Manor as well, no doubt in a misguided effort to “save” Kirika from her destiny. That was another thing that troubled her about her subordinates—in the last few days, they had been continually speaking of the Corsican assassin as though she were irrelevant, a rusted knife that had served its purpose but should now be discarded in a trash pile. Marennes had actually had the gall to make that comparison in front of the other two candidates—the dressing down that Althena had immediately given her hadn’t been pretty. Regardless of the way things had turned out, Mireille was still one of the candidates for Noir, and furthermore, she was still one of the most skilled assassins in the world—they owed her their respect, if nothing else.
But soon, their opinions wouldn’t matter. Soon, Noir would be reestablished, and then, Althena was going to set them free, whether or not Borne and Marennes, or anyone else for that matter, approved. Soon—
“Althena?”
The erstwhile nun turned and saw a mousey, bespectacled woman standing timidly in the doorway. In addition to being Althena’s personal assistant, Jeanette was the only other person at the Manor who truly knew and appreciated what was really going on. Of course, Chloe knew some of the details, but Althena had been forced to withhold a great deal of information from her charge. “What is it, Jeanette?”
“Mireille Bouquet has reached the Manor.”
This brought a wistful smile to Althena’s face—to her way of thinking, this was really the way it should be done. “Thank you, Jeanette. I trust you will keep me informed.”
But the woman refused to accept her superior’s dismissal. “You don’t understand—she’s already been spotted entering the vineyard.”
“What?!”
“She is currently moving directly towards the other two candidates.”
“How long ago was this?”
“I got here as fast as I could—”
“Answer the question, Jeanette.”
“About five minutes.”
Five minutes… will she be able to— But that thought was cut short by a sudden burst of gunfire. Althena didn’t say anything; she simply bolted past her assistant and began running as fast as she could towards the place where the three candidates were no doubt in the midst of a deadly confrontation. I have to stop them!
Althena had never been a particularly athletic person, but one wouldn’t know that from the way she dashed through the Manor’s halls in an effort to avert the impending disaster. As she exited the building and approached the pool where Kirika and Chloe had been undergoing their purification, she could still hear gunfire. This was good, as it meant that at least two of the candidates were still alive—neither Mireille nor Kirika would be so foolish as to waste bullets when there wasn’t any threat that warranted their use. The fact that there was a pause in the otherwise continuous noise as she got nearer only encouraged her to run faster.
As the purification area came into view, Althena could identify three human shapes, but by that point, her adrenaline was keeping her from attaching names to those shapes. Instead, she did what she had made up her mind to do the moment the gunfire had first reached her ears—she inhaled deeply, opened her mouth, and shouted: “STOP!”
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(Posted Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:17)
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