Jeanette could barely contain her excitement as she told Althena that Mireille was willing to become a part of Noir.
Althena, for her part, was a bit more pensive. “I see. So I take it she responded to your view of Noir better than mine?”
Jeanette blushed heavily. “Uh, well, you see….”
But Althena had been well aware of the difference of opinion between herself and her assistant for quite some time. “I see. I thought that might be the case; that’s why I wanted you to speak with her. Ah, well. Between Mireille and Chloe, this could be good for Noir—sometimes, I have the feeling that the truth lies somewhere between our points of view.” The leader of the Manor paused, and then added a tongue-in-cheek clarification: “Of course, then I come to my senses and realize that I’m the one who’s right.”
Jeanette, of course, was used to such banter by now, so she didn’t take offense. “Well, your Rightness, I’d better check on our guest to see if she needs any assistance.”
As the bespectacled woman left to help Mireille with her preparations, Althena smiled to herself. Now that the Hand had agreed to cooperate, her plan seemed more and more certain to succeed—
“Althena!”
—though not all of the obstacles had been appropriately dealt with yet. “Is something the matter, Borne?”
“Is it true that the Corsican is here?”
“Her name is Mireille,” corrected Althena. “And yes, she is here.”
“What?! Then the rumors are true? Then why are you just standing around! We need to do something!”
“Like what?”
“Kill her, obviously!”
“Why should we do that?”
“Because she’s a threat to our plan! At the very least, she could make Noir impossible to control—”
“You needn’t worry. I have already spoken to her, and I’ve just received word that she has agreed to cooperate.”
“Then she won’t interfere with the ceremony?”
“On the contrary, she’s going to take part in it.”
“What? What do you mean? Did something happen to one of the others?”
“No.”
“Then why would she need to be at the ceremony?”
“Because to properly execute it, all three candidates must be present. I had originally planned to split the ceremony into two parts, but fortunately Mireille arrived in time for us to perform it as it was originally intended.”
“And how do you know that this isn’t just a ruse to lull us into a false sense of security?”
“I don’t.”
“But why—”
“Borne, there comes a time when you must simply have faith in matters beyond your control. By your reasoning, we have no reason to trust Kirika either, and if you carried it far enough, even Chloe would come under suspicion!”
“But our plan…”
“Have you never heard of planning for contingency? Believe me, I have thought this out very carefully, and I believe that Noir will be much more cohesive as a result of Mireille’s presence here today. Now, I believe that you must get ready yourself—you did offer to be a witness to the ceremony, after all.”
“Very well,” Borne replied grudgingly. She skulked off towards her own chambers, clearly dissatisfied with the conversation.
“Chloe?”
The girl in question was glad to hear Kirika’s voice again; perhaps she’d finally shaken off the specter of the Corsican interloper. “Yes?”
“Do you think Althena’s right?”
“What do you mean?”
“About love and hate—how love can kill, so hate can save.”
“Oh. Well, of course she’s right—it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“I’m… I’m not so sure anymore.”
“What?! Kirika, how can you say something like that?”
“Just think about it, Chloe—does the fact that love can be twisted into something horrible really mean that hate can bring salvation?”
“Of course!”
“But when does that ever happen? From what I’ve seen, hate usually ends up bringing about more hate, which causes even more destruction. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be protecting people from?”
Chloe sighed—the Corsican’s influence was obviously stronger than she thought. “Look, that may be true for most cases, but we’re the True Noir—there’s a completely different set of rules at work.”
Kirika answered this with an unconvinced stare.
Chloe tried again: “Alright, I’ll admit that you may be right about what you’ve seen—but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, especially for people like us. If it was possible for ordinary people, don’t you think Althena would have done it herself rather than take such massive risks to re-establish Noir?”
“But what if it’s impossible for us, as well?”
“It can’t be impossible.”
“Why?”
“It just… can’t.” This wasn’t good—Chloe had to convince Kirika to go forth, or Althena’s dream might never be fulfilled. Noir was two people, and if Kirika bailed out, that meant someone would have to convince the Corsican to join, which would likely be next to impossible. (And besides, the thought of having to enter into a union with the woman who’d nearly poisoned her best friend commitment was not something she wanted to contemplate.) Fortunately, inspiration struck her quickly. “Look, why not go through with the ceremony, and if it turns out that you are right, and we can’t protect humanity with hate, we can just stop.” Chloe knew that wouldn’t happen, of course; once Kirika was able properly to view things through the lens of Noir (and away from the corrupting influence of the Corsican), all of her doubts would soon melt away.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well, all right. I’ll do it.”
Kirika hugged her friend tightly. “Don’t worry. You’ve made the right choice. I’m sure of it.”
Unfortunately, Chloe disliked the next turn the conversation took even more than the last: “What do you think they’ll do with Mireille?”
Chloe couldn’t hold back a sigh of frustration as Kirika again brought up the Corsican. Why did she have to come here? Why couldn’t she just stay in Paris, where she belongs? But as Kirika clearly expected some sort of answer, Chloe tried to accommodate her as best she could. “Althena probably took her somewhere private where she could explain things to her.” Or just shoot her, preferably. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about her.”
“If you say so.” Kirika abruptly let the subject drop and continued with her preparations, leaving her companion bewildered to try and figure out just what was going on.
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(Posted Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:18)
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