Bambi and the Duke

Seeing Leonard leave for the council room, Vivian stood in her place staring at nothing in particular as she thought about what the woman said earlier about the markings. The lost materials must have been a threat for the council as it was already hard to handle the black witches if there were was one more who would be ready to create havoc there was no telling how much trouble the lands might have been in.

Night pulled itself fast on the sky as it turned dark, snowflakes falling from the sky one after another. Out stretching her arms, she waited for a snowflake fall to fall on her palm. Catching it, she closed her fist and then opened to see it vanish as it dissolved itself to the state of water which felt colder on her hand than the flake.

Like many other times, Vivian had often wondered how life could have turned out. If her parents hadn’t abandoned her but kept her by their side as their human daughter. It was obvious that they would have been ashamed and maybe even treated her poorly for being the black sheep of the family. Everything turned out for the best in the end to the point where she had almost come in terms that it didn’t matter to know about her neglectful parents. Yet, there was a small part of her who wished she could know who they were.

She saw a few of the councilmen who exited from the main building, retiring for the day. With no court meetings as well as no council judgments, there was nothing much to do by sitting around here.

With the case that had been handed to them, it seemed apparent that the little boy was innocent and though the man might have no hand in the murderings of the Walter’s, he had broken the law by beating the boy as an outlet to his loss and anger. He would be punished for it.

After having Dutan and Hueren who had put the man in one of the cell rooms, they had gone to back to the council building for another councilman, Abel to come out and go to the cell room. Her brows furrowed at the sight of the man. He was the man whom Leonard didn’t get along with. To think that his related family had sided with the black witches, she shook her head. No matter where the black witches came from, it was taken that they were not only deceitful but also creatures who were ever to be trusted. There was a reason why no one mingled with them. They brought nothing but bad luck around them and others who associated themselves with them.

Councilman Abel had pushed forth the case today hoping it to end but thankfully Leonard had arrived on time to stop the judgment.

Curious, on seeing him disappear in the place where experiments and outlaws were held, she followed his trail. Leonard was speaking to the vampire doctor when Vivian stealthily crossed the room, to catch up with the councilman who went to see Henry who had been imprisoned.

Coming to stand at the end of the wall while not revealing herself, she heard the councilman speak,

”What did I say about keeping yourself low? One advice and you couldn’t follow but beat the boy,” she heard Abel speak, carefully she sneaked a glance where she saw the councilman standing in front of the bars speaking to the man who stood with his hands holding the rusted iron rods.

”I was only talking to the boy and his words made me rage. That piece of little shit needs to be hanged for putting me through this. Take me out of here!” Mr Senielton exclaimed, his voice a little uneven due to the place he now stood in.

”Tch, that’s not how it works,” responded back the councilman, ”I removed the evidence from the reports which were rewritten so that the team who is handling it wouldn’t pick on your trail yet you got yourself in trouble. Do you know how much hassle I and others had to go through? Did you find the parchment books on the spells?” asked Abel, waiting for the man to give him the good news.

”The family must have buried it somewhere or burnt it. I got some of my men to look and find the entire house but I couldn’t find it. I need to get out of this place to search it myself,” said Henry clutching the bars of iron which separated him from the outside free world now.

”We gave you one week, Mr Senielton,” said Abel taking a step back to fetch something from his pocket which was a cigar, ”One whole week by pushing the case before it reached to the next team by sacrificing my own team’s efforts. The higher man isn’t pleased that you couldn’t get the information we asked for,” the councilman lit his cigar with a matchbox that he held in his hand before extinguishing it, ”Do you know what that means?” he asked through his teeth, ”You have been incapable in upholding your words. You married the woman to get information but why I do I feel that you left your initial responsibility. Love was it?” mocked the councilman.

Mr Senielton didn’t speak a word but stared at the man who smoked from the cigar, ”She was my wife,” said the prisoner, ”I know the boy has something to do with it.”

”Please, Henry. You’re making me doubt my decision in picking you to complete a mere task of fetching the parchment filled with spells. You sound absolutely ridiculous right now,” Abel spat the smoke, taking a puff from it, he looked to his right, his eyes staring at the wall where Vivian stood behind it, ”The boy has nothing to do, a child cannot come to harm the family so easily. Someone slit their throats and it was done by a professional. Unless you want to tell me that the boy was brought up to fulfill such demands.”

Abel then sighed, ”I cannot do much from my end,” he threw the cigar on the ground with his feet trampling it.

”No, you cannot do that to me!”

”You brought it on yourself, Mr Senielton and please be mindful of what you speak here and how much you scream. The guards here don’t take rudeness well and will have you silence for life.”

Hearing this, Vivian decided not to stay around any longer and at the same time, Abel’s eyes fell on the wall again, this time he walked towards it. Reaching the wall he stared at the space where Vivian once stood as she had already walked out of the building.

Vivian hurried, walking out of the cell room to meet Leonard who looked surprised at her, ”Where were you?” he asked her.

”We need to find something,” she said in a rushed whisper while walking next to him. Turning around she made sure no one was following them or could hear them speak, ”It’s the case.”

”What about it?” he asked.

”I think the council members are involved in it. They are looking for a parchment that has spells in it. Spells that a human can use and the same spells that will increase the probability of success when used by a black witch. Earlier when Dutan and I went to the town. We met a couple. But did you know that the same town was once where witches of both kinds were killed, it was a burial ground on which the town now lives? The woman said that some of the families whose ancestors lived had passed down the spells and I am guessing Walter’s family had these spells.”

”Is it Mr Senielton who killed them?”

Vivian shook her head, ”I don’t know about it but he married the woman to get those papers but on the way, he fell in love with his wife,” it would be hard not to fall in love with someone so beautiful, thought Vivian to herself, ”Abel, he’s in on it to.”

”That isn’t surprising. Where did you find this out?”

”...in the cell room...” she trailed her words, ”And it must not be just him as he referred to someone else as if he were working for someone,” it was obvious that there were some people in this council who were involved in illegal activities and without letting it come out in front of anyone’s notice they were trying to get hold of things which was burnt.

”I will have Heuren and Dutan keep a close eye on him and see what he is up to. Don’t worry about the boy. I will make sure he will be sent to a better household who will be treated right,” Leo assured her. Once today’s matter would come to light, the boy would be sent to a safer home than to live with his brother-in-law.

When the time of morning arrived, there was a lot of bustle around the council room. Leonard’s didn’t have to come in to visit the council but as the matter of the boy was still hanging in the air where he was innocent and needed home, they arrived to find Maxmillian standing near the cell room.

”Why is there a crowd here?” asked Leonard looking around them to see some of the councilmen and a woman hovering around speaking to each other.

”One of the prisoners died,” replied the blue-eyed man. Prisoners dying in the cell room wasn’t uncommon to which Leo found it strange that for the first time they were worried that someone had passed away in there.

”Suicide?”

Maybe the man had killed himself over his reputation, thought Vivian to herself.

”No,” answered Maximillian and under Leo’s questionable gaze, he went on to speak, ”You should go take a look yourself. It is quite interesting. Let me accompany you,” with furrowed brows, Leonard walked inside and towards the cell room where Heuren had locked the man yesterday. On his way, he met Lionel who stood at the front of the bar where the strong stench of blood wafted up to his nose.

Vivian followed behind Leonard, his frame hiding the scene in front of her when he stood blocking her view at the cell. She could smell the faint scent of the blood coming from the cell and when Leonard was called by Lionel to speak he moved aside letting her eyes finally see the blood that covered every inch of the three walls of the cell room. There was blood covered on the ground with only bones remaining which was coated maroon in color. No wonder there were people hovering around the cell room. She doubted anything like this had ever taken place in the history of the council cell.

She heard Maximilian whisper next to her, ”Would make one think if a regular human has this much amount of blood.”

True. The cell room was small but to have every part of it covered in blood, it would mean the body had burst within itself, to explode in a state that they now saw the current room to be in. Not even the iron rods had been spared by the blood.

From her left side, she heard Lionel speak, ”I got the local priest here to check but the man had no clue what went down here.”

”You need a white witch to look into it. A normal priest won’t help,” Leo retorted back at his senior’s negligence. Witches were not entertained in the council and it was something she had learned after she had joined the council. The people in here though took the white witches help, they didn’t trust them enough to be asked to come anywhere close in the surroundings. It was a rule that was set years ago which hadn’t been changed yet.

Seeing that no one knew what happened. Vivian decided to go see the boy. Leonard turned his head to see Vivian leave and when his eyes met Maximillian’s the man gave him a crooked smile to leave the scene to follow the woman.