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Guilty Heaven

Night 5-Classmates

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Noir shifted nervously from foot to foot as he and Evlan stood outside of the small courtyard that was to be the meeting place for their class. Evlan turned back to notice his friend looking at the ground anxiously and looking all around uncomfortable.

“Noir?” He asked, and raised an eyebrow. The black-haired boy’s head shot up and he tried to wipe the absolutely dreading look off his face, but failed miserably at it.

“I-I’m fine, Evlan! Really…” He looked back down at the white marble floor. This was it- the moment where he would meet his classmates for the first time. He had never been around a lot of people his own age before, and the only times he had been out in crowds he had been under the protection of his white sheet. Now he was out in the open, dressed as plainly as he could be-white shirt, baggy black pants with chains-around people who would probably be all fancy in their costumes and with their weapons. If they couldn’t tell that Noir didn’t have a costume, then certainly their instructor could. The instructor was supposedly a high level knight-so even if Ankh and Dezmiel didn’t notice Noir’s state, certainly, the instructor would.

“There’s nothing to be shy about, Noir! Just stick close to me and everything will be fine! I’ve met some of these guys already and they’re nothing special. So let’s go in and meet everyone, okay?” Evlan said, giving his hand out. Noir sighed.

“You’re right. Let’s go.” He finally agreed. And the two boys went in together. The courtyard was small and irregularly shaped. There wasn’t much there- a couple of round bushes stuck in the ground, and up higher, an open promenade for people walking by to look down at the trainees. The sun dimly shone down from the sky just like any other normal day, but Noir was petrified, because in front of him was not a pleasantly empty courtyard. It was filled with all different kinds of people that he had never seen, nor imagined possible to exist in the world. He looked briefly to Evlan, but then turned back to the view before him. A sudden terror rose up in him-how would he talk to these people? He had a hard time talking to anything that wasn’t a tombstone with his mother’s name on it! Evlan left his side to make his way through the crowd, and Noir scrambled like a frightened kitten to stay beside him. AT least there was one friendly face.

There were some truly bizarre looking kids in their class, Noir had to admit. One boy had a completely white face and a hood that draped over his head, who was talking to a boy with glasses and flittering robes that seemed to float on their own. Then there were, what he counted, no less than eight kids of both genders who looked all identical and all had varying sizes of bat wings on their backs. He noticed that Evlan, a little ways up ahead of him, was making his way towards a less crowded area next to a kid dressed in all black and looking as terrified as he felt. Noir decided to go over that way too-just as Evlan had said, if they stuck together everything would be fine.

Just as Noir and Evlan got settled, a very tall man with wolf ears entered the courtyard and called for silence. All the kids hushed and turned to look towards this newcomer with interest and quiet uneasiness. The man’s tall wolf ears were a silver grey that faded to black at the tips. His hair was a short and bushy silver, just like wolf’s fur, and he wore many various robes that hung off his shoulders, looking as though they were barely clinging on for dear life. His eyes were a dark gold color and narrow, and Noir noticed when he brought his hand up that he had small, yet sharp, black claws.

“Quiet!! Quiet all you little pages!!” The man commanded with a rough sounding voice. All of the students looked at him as he began. “I am your group instructor, Harick. That’s Captain Harick to all you kiddies, though. I will be teaching you basic combat strategies and principles of knighthood.” Noir was already intimidated by Captain Harick, especially since it was easy to see his diamond hard fangs when he talked. “Now I want you all to introduce yerselves and tell me what your weapon and costume are, understand? And keep it short-none of this fancy hodgepodge! We’ll start with white-face boy over here.” He pointed to the boy in the hood that Noir had noticed before. The boy smirked and stepped forward, addressing both Captain Harick and the class.

“I’m Regenak Dumsdy. I call my costume a ’gravedigger,’ and my weapon-“ He pulled out from behind him a massive jackhammer and rested it on his shoulders, draping his arm over each end, “is this baby. I call it Grave Wrecker.” The boy explained. He had a very thin scar on the left side of his jaw with tiny stitches across it and his eyes were a misty gray. Captain Harick nodded and pointed to the next kid. Regenak took his place back in the crowd, a look of extreme satisfaction on his face. Next up was the boy with the flowing robes.

“My name is Sage Lorely.” The boy said with an air of politeness. Noir noticed that his robes seemed to be ever changing their color in the light and were very sparkly. “I don’t really have a way to describe what my costume is. Perhaps it might be ‘wizard.’ Anyway, I also don’t exactly have a weapon. The technique I use I like to call ‘pointillism’ because of these little fellows.” He lifted his hang and the whole crowd made small noises of awe. Little, tiny sparkles were flying about and gathering around his hand. They flew out of his sleeve and seemingly out from under his clothes and his very dark, silver streaked hair. He smiled as the class admired the flying dots and then continued. “These little beings are sort of like familiars-they stay near me always and work in groups to do what I wish. They are very good at manipulating light, as you can tell by their appearance and the way they stick to my clothes. In fact-“

“Didn’t I tell you to keep it short!!” Captain Harick suddenly bellowed, causing Sage to become startled and sending his little familiars scampering all over the place.

“Well, yes...dreadfully sorry.” And the boy staggered to his place in the crowd, his glasses fogged with embarrassment.

“Alright, next,” The instructor called. “How about you bats…?” He pointed to the group directly in front of him. They started making sounds of delight, and tumbled their way in front of the instructor.

“We’re the Midori family octuplets!!!” The eldest, a girl with blond hair, announced in a high pitched voice.

“O-o-octuplets!?” The captain’s voice stammered. They all nodded.

“I’m the eldest-Selesca!” The blond girl declared. She was dressed in a red top with a small back shirt over it and a black cape. Two little bat wings protruded from her back.

“I’m the second-Domino!” A boy with dark chestnut hair said after his sister. He was almost her height, and wore a torn up, dark scarlet shirt with many bands tied around the shredded sleeves and his pants legs. He too had little wings.

“I’m the third! My name’s Mikhail!” Another boy said. He was slightly shorter than Domino, and if his clothes weren’t in such better repair than Domino’s, Noir would’ve thought they’d be exactly the same.

“I’m fourth! Introducing to you, Kirya!” A brown haired girl called. Her wings were bigger than the previous three, and she wore an assortment of browns and greens. Her wings were brown too, instead of black. Another brown winged child came forward too-this one a boy.

“I’m…f-f-f-f….fifth.” He said was some difficulty. “My name is…Solider…” He said. He was blonde, like Selesca, and his hair was the same length all around his head. Due to this, his bangs hung in his face, making it hard for him to see. He seemed like the oft forgotten one of the group.

“I’m sixth!” The next one, another boy said. His wings were black, and so tiny that Noir was almost certain it would be impossible for him to fly. His hair was a mixture between the bright blonde and dark chestnut of his siblings. “Rikki is my name.”

“Seventh is me, Toshi!” Another boy with black wings declared with a thuggish tone. He was the second shortest of the siblings. His hair was also blonde.

“And finally is me at number eight-Tasha!!” A little girl, the shortest of them all announced. Her wings were black and her hair was blonde.

“Our costumes are all the same thing-‘bats!’ And our weapon is our super-sonic screaming! With it, we can also do a variety of other things!” Selesca explained for them all. “We’re gonna be the greatest knight team ever in history!” And they all agreed. Captain Harick looked at a loss for words as he looked at the eight children.

“Octuplets…well, the Midori family is known for having multiple births but…this is the most I’ve seen yet.”

“We pride ourselves on being the biggest litter ever born to the Midori family!” Rikki boasted.

“I…well…get out of the way!” Captain Harick yelled at last. The eight of them scrambled back into place as the next student came forward. He was a very serious looking boy-he was easily taller than the rest of the group. His costume was irregular too- a long elegant coat of many colors and a fancy looking shirt underneath with ornate white pants. Along at his side he carried a rather large but thin book. He propped it in the ground and then looked directly at Captain Harick.

“I’m simply known as Terror. My weapon is my book here. I call it ‘Heavy smasher.’ That’s all you need to know about me.” He turned and walked back to a secluded spot in the group, and everyone around him scooted away. He had shoulder-length purple-silver hair, and wore half-sunglasses that sunk halfway down his nose.

Evlan took his turn next.

“I’m Evlan Yulgar. I’m a dog, obviously, and my weapon is my claws. That’s about it about me!” He said cheerfully. He came back to his spot next to Noir and gave him a big smile. Noir returned it half-heartedly, and then heard the captain yelling at him.

“You-black hair and white shirt; get up here and introduce yourself!” He hollered. Noir was now perfectly aware that everyone-except for Terror, who was plainly uninterested in all of this- was looking at him and waiting for him to introduce himself. He made his way up to the front and stood in front of them all. He took a deep breath and then looked back up at the instructor, who was staring him down ruthlessly.

‘He can see through me, I know it. He knows about the Frost Witch, and how I don’t have a costume, and how I tricked my way in here and, and, and…..’

“Are you going to just stand there all day and waste my time or are you going to speak?” The captain asked harshly. Noir took a deep breath and prepared an answer for the captain.

“My name is Noir. It’s just Noir…and my weapon is a katana called Frost Edge.” He replied quietly.

“Frost Edge? That’s a very interesting name. Can you take it out right now?” Noir’s breath caught in his throat. Taking it out now would mean wasting a piece of his soul.

“No…” He replied simply and dumbly.

“I see. Next!” Noir numbly walked back to his spot by Evlan and noticed that the boy in all black that had been standing next to him was now going up. The boy had wild black hair that stood up in back and flopped down near the right side of his face in front. His eyes were red and sharp, but he looked nervous. He had a high collar all around his neck that partially hid his mouth. His jacket that he was wear was very fancy, and he even had a black scarf tucked in, in the front. When he opened his mouth to speak, Noir noticed that he had very tiny little fangs.

“My name is Kage.” The boy said, almost as quietly as Noir. “I’m a vampire from the Selane family. My weapon…” He brought his arm out in a swift motion and then pulled it back into his chest, brandishing a large gold cross, a little longer than the length of his forearm. At each end of the cross were little blades that curled out. “I really don’t have a name for it, but it’s a pretty useful thing. It’s like a shield and a blade at the same time…” He trailed off, as if he finally realized that he was in front of a crowd of people. He went silent and bowed his head down.

“The Selane family…I haven’t seen them in the Knight’s Academy for some time. No doubt your grandfather was the last one?”

“Yes…he was…” Kage answered.

“Very good,” Was the response. Kage dismissed his weapon and walked back to the back of the crowd next to Noir. Noir looked at him for a moment-it seemed that Kage was just as shy and nervous as he was. He leaned over and whispered to him.

“So you’re really a vampire?” Noir asked. Kage looked surprised, as if a ghost had snuck up on him. He turned and noticed Noir, who gave him a half smile. Kage gave a small smile in return.

“Yeah,”

“Do you really drink blood?” Noir asked again. He had read a book once about vampires, and it had said that they did that.

“No-it’s just a costume.” Kage explained quietly. The two boys smiled with each other.

“Is that everyone here? Funny, I thought we had one more student.” Captain Harick remarked, looking down at his clipboard. “Let’s see here…Regenak Dumsdy, Terror Clain, Selesca Midori… all the Midoris…”

“There is one more.” A new voice said. All of them turned to the doorway of the courtyard and saw an old man in the bishop’s garb standing there with a girl their age. Noir noticed her immediately-she was dressed in a tight white dress that went to her mid-thigh, and had long white boots that started just below that. Her blonde hair was thick and brushed back from her face. It was very long-it went all the way to her hips. Noir blinked; he felt something very strange looking at this girl.

“I thought there was one more. What brings the delay, Grand Bishop Rocheland?” The girl looked up at the bishop uncertainly, but he urged her forward. She took a few steps into the courtyard.

“Nothing of importance, Captain. Pardon me for interrupting your first day of class.” The man turned and hobbled back into the hallway, while the girl moved forward towards the group. All eyes were on her now, but she didn’t seem perturbed by it.

“And what is your name?” Captain Harick asked.

“I am Angel.” She replied strongly. Even Terror looked up and seemed mildly interested as he looked over the top of his green sunglasses. “I get my name from my costume.” He explained, and Noir noticed the two, little decorative white wings sewn on the back of her dress, right on her shoulder blades.

“And do you have a weapon?” He asked as she stopped in front of him.

“No, but…but the Bishops believe that I can wield the power of God.” She answered. Everyone seemed knocked off their feet. Even Terror let his eyes grow wide. Noir had only one thought-what could that possibly mean?

‘The power…of God?’ He thought in wonder.

“I see. Have you been able to-“The captain began, completely at a loss.

“No…not completely. I’ve only tapped into some sort of power once, but I haven’t been able to do it again.” All was silent once again in the courtyard. After a long while, the instructor spoke again.

“Well, Angel, why don’t you join the class and I’ll begin. Everyone, please have a seat and I’ll begin my introductory lesson, and afterwards I’ll tell you who your personal instructor will be and when you will meet with them, understood? Good, now keep quiet and pay attention!” Noir watched as Angel took a seat in the front of the group. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

‘Who is she?’ He asked himself. He would have to try and catch up with her later.

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“Midori, Solider!!!” Captain Harick shouted out. After his introductory lesson, in which he talked a lot about the things they would be accomplishing in their class, he had lined them up and started calling them up one by one to assign them their personal instructors. Since each of them had their own different kind of weapon, it would be near impossible to teach them all together. Working one on one with a teacher was the only way they could be taught better specific battle skills. The young Midori sibling who had been called out had just received his assignment and was shooed off, only to be followed by his sister “Midori, Tasha!”

“So Noir,” Evlan started whispering to him, “Do you want to try and run down to the dining hall for lunch before we have to meet with our geography teacher?”

“Do you think we have time?” He asked quietly.

“Oh, I’m sure we can make it. It’s fifteen minutes before the class starts, unless they hold us around here longer.”

“We won’t get in trouble if we’re late, will we?”

“I doubt it. We can always say we got lost.”

“Okay. Hold on,” Noir leaned forward and whispered to Kage “Evlan and I are going down to the dining hall after this. Do you want to come too, Kage?” The little vampire seemed surprised, but answered after a short pause.

“Sure, I guess…thanks Noir.” And to Noir’s surprise, he smiled. Noir smiled back before turning back to Evlan.

“Kage is going to come with us.”

“That’s cool. He’ll just have to keep up.”

“I’m sure he’ll-“

“Selane, Kage!!” Captain Harick yelled. Kage made his way up to the instructor before getting handed a piece of paper and being told something.

“Yulgar, Evlan!” He called. Evlan bounded up to the captain, who looked down on him disapprovingly before he yelled out “Noir!”

Noir walked up to the captain, and his breath almost caught in his throat. He thought of himself as pathetic at that moment. How could he be frightened of his own teacher? He was going to have to learn how to be braver if he wanted any chance at becoming a knight.

“Do you have a last name, Noir? I don’t see one listed for you.” Captain Harick asked. Noir almost had a panic attack right there, until he remembered something.

“Well sir, just yesterday I was adopted into the Yulgar family.” He responded. Evlan, who was standing nearby, had a big grin spread itself across his face and came up right next to his friend.

“It’s true, Captain. I adopted Noir as my brother!” He declared and slung an arm around the other boy’s neck. Captain Harick looked down at the two boys with a sour face.

“Well then, I guess I’ll just stick with Noir. Anyway, your instructor will be….Trawny?! Ha, what a load! He’s never taken on any students before, that impossible little…huh; well you’re his only student he’s taking on this year. Good luck kid….you’re gonna need it.” He handed Noir a slip of paper with his instructor’s name on it and the days when he would go to see him. He noticed that he would have his first lesson with him tomorrow.

“Come on Noir!” Evlan said, tugging him along. They gathered up Kage too and ran down to the dining hall as quick as they could.

Once they were there and went through the food line, they began eating and exchanging their teachers’ names.

“I’m with someone named Angailus, but I don’t see them till the day after tomorrow.” Evlan said. “What about you guys?”

“I have Wester. I see him this afternoon after geography.” Kage shared.

“Wow, you’re lucky. I really want to see who this Angailus person is. I’ve never heard of that name before, and I have heard of a lot of different families that live in Guilty Heaven. Like Sage-I knew his family before I entered the academy. The Lorelys are okay-they’re all really smart though. His dad’s weapon is a giant compass-not the one navigate with, but the one you draw circles with. He’s not a knight, but I’ve seen him fight. It’s really amazing. He should’ve been a knight. His mom…I don’t know what his weapon is. And he and Terror are actually related! Did you guys know that?”

“No.” They both responded. Evlan continued without skipping a beat.

“Well, it’s through some kind of marriage or something. The two families don’t really get along though. The whole Clain family is exactly like Terror-they think they’re better than anyone else. They’ve been in the knights a long time. Anyway, I think it was one of Sage’s cousins that married Terror’s older brother. Of course both families were against it, but they did it anyway. By the way, those little sparkly thinks that Sage controls-those are pretty cool. And it seemed like he had millions of them!”

“I’m sure not millions, Evlan. Maybe thousands,” Noir remarked. Then again, Sage had said something about how they clung to his clothes, so maybe the whole surface of his robes was actually those little tiny familiars.

“Okay, maybe thousands-but close to a million I bet. They must be pretty useful too. I bet they can move stuff around and get things for Sage so he never has to get up and get it himself! I bet they go in the food line for him too. Now that would be cool. By the way, Noir, who is your teacher?”

“Trawny. Captain Harick says he’s never taught before.” Noir said. “I get to meet him tomorrow.”

“The both of you are so lucky! I really want to meet my teacher. Is he so lazy that he can’t get off his butt to teach me until then? I’m not getting any younger!”

“And isn’t it getting close to class time?” Kage asked innocently. Evlan looked up at the clock that was on the wall.

“Whoa, you’re right! We better finish up quick and make a break for it!” Evlan said. The three boys finished up their meal and then ran all the way back up by the courtyard for group classes and then down the hall to another class room where the rest of their classmates were gathering. As they were finding seats, Noir couldn’t help but notice that Sage and Terror sat on opposite sides of the room.

Shortly after they arrived, their teacher came in. He was an older woman who wore a cloth draped over her shoulder, which stood out against the rest of her costume- a long, sweeping, black gown. She wore round glasses to help her failing eyesight, and her once raven colored hair was starting to fade to gray. She tapped on the desk with a rod that seemed to be her weapon.

“Sit down all of you and pay attention, for the love of God!” She demanded, and sounded as if she was a little drunk. “I’m going to be your geography teacher for your time as pages. My name is Majoria Grenbaum. I’m a retired knight.”

“Why are you retired?” Regenak asked from the second row. She grinned slyly at him.

“Because of this.” She pulled off the cloth and everyone in the room gasped. The cloth, which had been covering her right shoulder, revealed that her right arm from halfway between the elbow and the shoulder was gone. Regenak shuttered back into his seat, but Majoria Grenbaum strode towards him, her steps surprisingly elegant. “I was a sorceress in the knights, and during battle I lost this arm. Not very pretty, is it? Well, that was a long time ago when I was young and didn’t need these blasted glasses. But this could very well happen to you someday. Any one of you could end up like me. Or you may just die.” When she was satisfied with the terrified looks of the class, she strode back to her place behind the desk. “Now, you may wonder why a knight needs to know anything about geography. What a foolish thing to think-of course you need to know where things are!! How else were you know where you are going? When you get much later in your page training and then become squires, you will be sent on missions to places all over the land. That is why knowledge of geography is indispensible. It may even save the lives of your fellow knights, should you be travelling together. I used to be a geography expert back when I was one of Heaven’s Knights. There was this one time when we were trying to head off an entire fleet of feints sent by Lord Winter, and we had to get down to Southern Reef right past the Lofty Vail Valley. Thanks to my quick thinking of taking a more eastern route through the river valley instead of the northern route through the mountains, we were able to ambush the enemy and spare many lives! There will be times when you have to do this as soon as you get out in the field. Don’t you dare think that becoming a knight means you just get to lay around the castle all day!”

She turned her back to the group and pulled down a map that showed the land on it. Noir was very surprised-he’d never seen a map before. He didn’t really know about any other places besides Guilty Heaven, though he had always assumed that there were other town out there. He wondered if they had their own knights too.

“Today we’re going to learn some basic geography-where the five knight cities are, some other major cities, and the like. Now first, you can notice that the five knight cities-Guilty Heaven, Heavy Corpus, Late Surprise, Blue Moon, and Rue de la Vie, are arranged so that when connected in such a way they form a star. It’s very easy-“She turned and noticed that Sage had his hand raised. “Yes, Mr. Lorely?” If Noir had turned to look, he would have seen Terror’s head twitch in just the slightest way.

“But isn’t Heavy Corpus just a pile of ruins now?” He asked. Noir’s head was swimming. He’d never heard of any of these places before.

“Yes, Heavy Corpus was destroyed about…my God has it really been ten years already? You were all little children when it happened, so of course you don’t remember, but yes, Heavy Corpus is a big ruin site, but it is still considered an important place. And as we may not know, Blue Moon’s Academy was only started twenty years ago. This is where we get some of the history portion of our lesson-it wouldn’t do any good to have you all walking around like complete idiots. For the love of God, kids today don’t know ANY history!

“So, the first knights were organized here in Guilty Heaven a very long time ago. No one knows for sure when, but it happened right here. In fact there have been a few ancient relics dug up that are thought to be the weapons of the first knights. The first knights fought a great enemy, but the name of that enemy has yet to be found-it is supposed that it was some sort of ancestor of Lord Winter. The next city to establish an academy was Heavy Corpus. At one time, their academy was the biggest of all-it was easily double the size of our academy today. Then Rue du la Vie made their own academy because they were at war with us. Late Surprise made their own small militia after that, and that eventually became an academy. It was many, many years before Blue Moon decided to make their academy. Blue Moon’s is the smallest as of now, but they may change in the future.

“As for the destruction of Heavy Corpus…well, that was one of the largest cities in the land as well. They were going through a golden era back then…well, no one is really sure what happened that day ten years ago. There was chaos everywhere-knights were fighting and dying, buildings were being ripped apart…we got the distress call and of course we sent help. They didn’t make it till the next day and by then it was too late. The whole city was already reduced to rubble. With no survivors from that day we have no accounts of what happened, so it is hard to say exactly. Feints are a probably cause but they would’ve had to been the most powerful the world has yet seen…”

----

Dezmiel looked out from the balustrade down at the town, the wind blowing his hair and his robes. Behind him, Ankh and Shinnosuke sat on the lounging couch; both just newly arrived back from their mission from yesterday. They had just finished reporting to the bishops and were taking a chance to relax. Shinnosuke sat quietly, his closed, though Dezmiel could tell he wasn’t asleep. Ankh, however, was quite the opposite, complaining loudly and going on and on about everything.

“And those stupid a-hole feints! These were the toughest I’ve ever seen, Dezmiel, I tell ya. They were all gianormus-“

“Is that even a word?” Dezmiel asked.

“Whatever, they were all HUGE. They were even bigger than that wolf in the graveyard the other night. Have we ever even seen anything like this before?”

“The bishops have been looking back through the records as far back as we can go, and it is true-Lord Winter seems to be growing in power. We may have an even more serious problem than the Heavy Corpus incident on our hands.” Dezmiel replied, a worried tone starting to work its way into his voice.

“Do you think another city might fall?” Ankh asked, worried as well.

“Something even worse might happen, if this is bigger.” Shinnosuke finally chirped in. The two looked at him briefly before going back to their conversation.

“If only we could find where Lord Winter was. There have been sightings and we know he’s out there…we just can’t figure out where.” Ankh said, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hands.

“The last sighting was over twenty years ago. That’s not really something solid to go on.” Dezmiel remarked.

“Even if we could find him, what would we do then? Send all of Heaven’s Knights after him?” Shinnosuke asked. “By the time we did find him, he would already know that we knew where he was and just move again. It’s a viscous cycle. The only thing we can do is wait for his move.”

“That’s exactly what he wants.” Ankh said.

“The Grand Bishops are going to start calling all of the councils together with the king and queen. Only Queen Mnesmonye can bring some resolve to this issue.” Dezmiel said.

“Hopefully; that is why she was chosen to be queen. “ Shinnosuke added. “By the way, is it true what I heard? There’s some girl the bishops have taken an interest in…” Dezmiel seemed surprised at first, but then sighed.

“I haven’t gotten to seen her yet, but she just got into the academy with the newest class.”

“That class with the Clain boy in it? Grrr, I don’t like the Clain Family! They’re creepy and have that shut up house on the edge of town that they never come out of! I hear it’s all full of books-books are everywhere in that stupid mansion of theirs. And then they supposedly pluck people right off the street and make them fight like some sort of sub-human sport!” Ankh shivered, rubbing her arms as if she were cold.

“You don’t know that.” Shinnosuke chided.

“Do you know the contrary? What, did they invite you inside for tea and biscuits, Shinnosuke!?” She yelled.

“Would you calm down Ankh?” Dezmiel pleaded, looking as if he was getting a headache. “Yes, she is in the same class as Terror Clain. And also the same class as that boy you brought to me, Ankh.” Ankh’s head shot up.

“What boy?” Shinnosuke asked.

“You mean Noir? Well, that will give me an excuse to pop in, won’t it? I have to see this girl for myself. What is so special about her anyway?”

“Apparently, though I can’t say for certain that this is true…she can tap into some sort of Divine power. They’re calling it the power of God, but I don’t really know if it’s that…but it’s something strange.” Dezmiel explained gravely.

“The power of God? There’s no such thing. And even if there was, there’s no way any of us could tap into it.” Ankh remarked, unconvinced of the whole thing.

“That’s what I thought at first. But the Grand Bishops seem to think differently. And they have seen her up close. They’ve been having her appear before them a lot recently. And there is the matter of her costume-it is that of an angel. Using that reasoning, it might be possible. It would certainly make sense.” Dezmiel continued. Ankh and Shinnosuke remained silent for awhile, brewing the information in their heads.

“What family is she from?” Shinnosuke asked quietly.

“Not one that I’d ever heard of. They’re middle class, and they haven’t been in the academy until now. The girl’s name is Angel Entoil.”

“Appropriate enough.” Ankh commented.

“Indeed; and no one else in the family has a similar costume to her. Not that every costume is passed on to offspring. But it is odd-an all white costume…I’ve never seen that before. Not in Guilty Heaven.” Dezmiel said.

“Well, something like that is more common in Blue Moon, since it’s in the dessert. Can’t be cloaked in all black all day in that kind of weather, can you?” Shinnosuke replied. “Then again, it’s a totally different place from here.”

“Shinnosuke, it’s pure white. I’m telling you that this has never been seen before. The girl, Angel…she may really be gifted with something.”

“Regardless of whether she’s gifted or not, isn’t it a lot of hype over just one person? We’ve got a lot of bigger problems on our hands.” Ankh said with a sigh. “Don’t you wish things could go back to how they were when we were kids?”

“It’s not like we’re that old, Ankh.” Shinnosuke grunted. “We’ve all got to grow up sometime.”

“Sometimes it still feels like I’m a kid. I’m the butt of all of the department’s jokes still.” Dezmiel sighed.

“Poor Dezmiel,” Ankh replied.

“And Vodka won’t leave me alone about all the feint reports I have to go through. If she wasn’t so lazy herself and maybe looked through some of them herself, then I wouldn’t have to do it for her!” Shinnosuke and Ankh looked at each other knowingly. They often heard Dezmiel complain of his female bishop colleague, and with good reason. She was a few steps above him on the promotional ladder, and often used that to her advantage, letting Dezmiel do all of the work.

“Still haven’t caved in and told the Grand Bishops?” Ankh asked.

“Like they would believe anything I say. I can’t believe after all my hard work, I’m still only a couple of steps above the trainees coming in now. Isn’t that pathetic? In that time the both of you have completed your knight training!”

“But it’s a totally different system of promotion, Dezmiel. We’re warriors out on the battle field, taking down those stupid a-hole feints. It’s not that hard to learn how to do. Bishops on the other hand, you have to learn how to read people, how to test them, learn about interpreting things, taking down the records of Guilty Heaven, keeping the families straight, then going out to visit them and looking at their kids to see if they’re good candidates, then there’s the appointing of kings and queens, keeping an eye on feint activity, hearing the reports back form missions, taking down that information, going back through the records to find things, solving mysteries of the past, taking down death records, performing funerals rites…it just goes on and on for you! That’s a lot more stuff to learn in such a short time. Remember what they say-Knight’s are the town’s fist, and Bishops’ are the town’s brain.”

“Regardless, I should’ve been promoted to third capture now. I know what I’m doing. For god’s sake, I brought you to the academy, Ankh! And that was when I was twelve! TWLEVE!!! What kind of kid has that kind of talent for finding good candidates at that age?” Dezmiel complained.

“He’s just frustrated. It’s probably because of Vodka, right?” Shinnosuke supplied, hoping to end this conversation.

“She has been particularly annoying lately.” Dezmiel admitted. “It’s too bad I’m not cut out to be a knight. Then I could’ve avoided this whole situation.”

“You make a better bishop anyway.” Ankh told him, trying to cheer him up.

“Well, I suppose I have to get going. No doubt more records have appeared on my desk and I have to scan them to see if I can find anything of use in the current situation.” Dezmiel explained half-heartedly.

“This sucks! We never have any time to spend together like we used to!” Ankh whined.

“It’s part of growing up, I guess. We’ve all got our own jobs to do.” Shinnosuke supplied. Dezmiel nodded in agreement.

“See you guys later.” Dezmiel said, making for the exit of the room. The two knights said goodbye and when he left it was silent in the room.

“Shinnosuke,” Ankh began questioningly, “did you know that Noir reminds me of someone?”

“I’m not a mind reader.” He replied, annoyed. There was a very long pause. “Who does he remind you of?”

“That person I told you about.”

“The one that died?”

“He was murder. I know he was.”

“It’s been how long, Ankh? Ten years? You’re never going to find the guy who murdered him and his family.” There was another long pause.

“I know. But…I can’t help thinking…that there must be something someone can do still. That murder was never solved.”

“It’s not your burden anymore, Ankh.” Shinnosuke said, turning to her and looked at her with stoic blue eyes. “Let it go and live your life the way you want to. After all, isn’t that why you wanted to join the knights? We’ve got it pretty good, Ankh, you’ve got to admit. We can fight as much as we want, and feel free.”

“That is true.” She replied, looking back with her single, violet eye. “I’m lucky-this wasn’t the life I was supposed to have.”

“Forget the past. It’s stupid to think like that. And you sound stupid when you get nostalgic.”

“I do not!” Ankh yelled back, highly insulted.

“Keep getting like this and I’ll ask for a new partner.”

“You will not! You never do.”

“Just watch, I’ll do it.”

“No, no, no! We’re the Dice Pair!! You can’t separate us!”

“Watch me…” He got up and started to walk away.

“You get back here!” Ankh called, jumping over the couch.

----

6H: Time for more great notes! This one’s got a lot of them!!!

Captain Harick-I wanted to make an imposing figure; someone who was going to get these rag-tag kids into shape! But at the same time, he’s someone respectable. He’s been a knight for a long time and he knows what he’s doing. His robes are very Native American like, because to me, it just seems like something connected- wolves and Native Americans.

Regenak Dumsdy- This was a character I always wanted from the beginning to be a background character. When thinking of “weird objects” to make into weapons, the jackhammer kind of fit in right alongside Ankh’s key. The name came towards the end, because I was really stuck on what to call him though. I like his costume a lot. It fits in more with the “Halloween” theme of Guilty Heaven, unlike most of the others.

Sage Lorely- Originally, Sage and Terror were one character. Sage’s weapon was a book. But then I thought that that was just too cliché for the smart looking kid with the glasses to have a book weapon, so I changed his to his little familiars. They are very unique compared to everyone else.

The Midori “octuplets”- If three are triplets, four are quadruplets, and five are quintuplets, what would be eight? This is the answer I came up with. The Midori kids are fun loving and always tumbling about. They do seem a lot younger than the rest of the group, now that I think about it. They are loud and hyper-the comic relief of this tale, if you will. I made up most of their names as I went, but I like what I picked.

-Selesca- she’s the eldest, and so she’s got to take responsibility for everyone. She takes great pride in herself, and her siblings, which is important.

-Domino- He’s a little more relaxed than Selesca, but still follows her lead. As the eldest son, there is some pressure put on him by his parents, but he deals with it well enough.

-Mikhail- I don’t have really much to say about Mikhail. The poor kid probably won’t be mentioned much more.

-Kirya- Kirya is refreshing. She looks different from the rest of her siblings and knows it, but she flaunts it. She is a very individualistic kind of person.

-Solider-He’s the middle child that is often ignored because either the young ones or the older ones need attention. He can get on fine by himself, but he seems to have some sort of speech impediment. Solider is a very bizarre name for a kid like this, don’t you think?

-Rikki-An outspoken and arrogant boy, more so than the rest. His search for personal glory may get him into trouble.

-Toshi- He and Tasha are probably closest out of all the siblings. They’re both the youngest, and sometimes when he others are too busy for them, they have to stick together.

-Tasha-Umm….I’ve run out of things to say. She looks up to Selesca, and tries to imitate her, but maybe she’ll learn about how to be herself.

Terror Clain- He’s a very quiet, arrogant person. He’s only into himself and only cares about himself. It’s not that he hates everyone else though-he just doesn’t see them. The little feud between him and Sage was something I made up on the fly, but it’s something I’m happy with. I want to go into this plot point a little later on in the story. But Terror…his name fits him-he makes other people afraid. Are the rumors about his family true? I don’t know…

Angel- She’s been around from when I was thinking of who Noir’s friends would be. She obviously stands out in the crowd. Just for fun, I did one of those online “Mary Sue” tests with some of the characters, and I thought for sure Angel would score high, but she actually got the second lowest score out of Noir, Ankh, Evlan, and herself. I want her to be a character that people will get annoyed with sometimes. Really, that’s what I want for her. You’ll see why later, I hope. (By the way, Evlan got the lowest score of a 1)

Kage- In my original thinking of the characters, Kage’s personality was quite different. He, not Evlan, was going to be Noir’s best friend, but more like a rival. He was going to be very much the haughty, emo guy. But then I started thinking “why would I write about a character like that-that’s the kind of character I hate!” So I made him shy and quiet, like Noir, but worse. I want to bring up difficulties between Kage and Noir over things, because I think it would be interesting to see. Kage’s weapon was originally going to be Shinnosuke’s, but then I accidently gave it to him forgetting I had already given it to another character! So that’s how Kage ended up with a cool cross shield and Shinnosuke got his lame little daggers.

Vodka-Though she was only mentioned in this chapter, she’ll appear later and I’d like to talk about her a bit. Vodka is like an older cousin to Dezmiel-someone he knows well but doesn’t necessarily have to like. As you can see, it is obvious he doesn’t like her at all.

Majoria Grenbaum- Her name sounds like it belongs to a sorceress, doesn’t it? I needed something more for the kids to do other than combat training, so logically they would have to know the lay of the land pretty well. She’s a drunk, but she isn’t staggering all over the place and slurring her words. She just gets a buzz on. She holds her alcohol pretty well. I wanted her to be much older-she’s older than Harick- so that I could give a different perspective of the knights. Now I have each stage of knighthood covered-training, actually being a knight, and after being a knight. Losing your arm is a good reason to be retired. I suppose she’s a little disgruntled about that. She likes scaring kids and messing with them, but otherwise their ignorance annoys her.

The Five knight cities- At first I thought Guilty Heaven would be the only place with knights and such, but that’s so limited and makes the world so small. So I decided to come up with some others. They all have bizarre names, which I like.

-Heavy Corpus- It’s pretty appropriate to call a ruined city “Corpse.”

-Late Surprise-

-Blue Moon-It was mentioned in the foruth chapter. The city of the dessert, it’s a pretty small place.

-Rue de la Vie- French for “Road/Street of Life.”

I hope to see you all back for the next exciting chapter! Things are really going to start to pick up for Noir and his friends.