H.A.S.E

PROLOGUE (II)

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"It was an average Qualesh. Where did it all go wrong?"
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"YOUR HIGHNESS?!".

The boy paused and so did his movements.

He was no  forced into a state of stillness from the shrill, shocked cry as well as the sounds of a falling platter that reverberated throughout his bedroom.

He paused, and the bloody knife he held just a few shid above the gaping hole in his right hand paused as well.

For a few seconds an almost tangible silence fell in the room, until sounds rang out again. This time, confused, scared sobs that made him grit his teeth in irritation.

Didn't he leave specific instructions not to be bothered?

In his peripheral vision, he could see the outline who had interrupted him; a woman (one of his 'nannies' no doubt), fall dramatically onto the ground.

He sighed, annoyed, then with a quick glance at the bloody knife at his rather grotesque appearance, he placed the knife on the dead crow before him then stood up.

While walking to trembling heap that was his au pair he made sure not to step on the glowing, bloody smears on the black marble floor.

He didn't want to destroy the blood array he had worked so hard on for the past hour after all.

He made small, steady steps, all the while wondering what to do with this... unexpected nuisance.

Should he cut of their tongue? Or maybe kill them as a whole? Pretend it was assassination attempt?

Hmm. How about feeding them to his darling pet fish? Yes. The only meat they probably didn't eat was his. He had gotten rid of a few bodies that way.

The boy paused in front of the shadowed interrupter, then pursed his lips in indignation.

Of course. It was Nightingale.

Olive (or as he had nicknamed her, 'nightingale') was his chubby faced, strawberry blond, grey eyed 'nanny' with a miraculously pleasing voice.

She was so good that her voice could calm him down whenever he woke up from many a nightmare in the middle of the night, sweating and foggy-minded.

Nitidus probably tolerated her the most out of all his caretakers. As she was also half Ordnish and Amangondian- like him.

Hell, he even planned to free her when he came of age...

Why did it have to be Olive?

"Y-Y-Your... Prince- hic... prince...", Olive was a mess. She shrinked back when he made to touch her chin. There was a visible fear in her downturned, round eyes.

It was a bit ridiculous for her to be scared of him, after all he was only seven.

But she had good reason to fear. Olive might be naive but she was still smart. She knew a necromancer when she saw one.

"Oh Olive. Olive. Olive. Olive. You curious, inquisitive fool. Why did you have to come in? Didn't I tell everyone not to?", Nitidus chastised calmly; very much unlike the spoilt brat he pretended to be, while gently caressing Olive's forehead.

"I-I'm s-sorry. I- You had been i-in your room for so...so long I thought you were thirsty", Olive stammered nervously.

Nitidus glanced at the fallen platter and cup, and trailed the spilled liquid that snaked it way on the floor.

Oh, Olive. Sweet, considerate Olive. How could he kill her?

So he smiled, then using the blood that was still dripping from his wound, he drew a very illegal and very forced soul bonding talisman, using her left eyeball as the parchment.

If she ever spoke a word of what happened... she would drop dead. Or whenever he wanted her to in fact.

Walking back to his unfinished blood array, he ignored Olive's shrill screams at the excruciating pain of the soul bond. No doubt her body's mana was trying to reject it.

It was no use. He was way stronger now than she would ever be.

She would lose function of that eyeball.
But it didn't matter to Nitidus.

He finally recited the last of the enchantment and watched indifferently as his blood flowed unaturally out of the wound completing the geometric array.

He watched as the dead crow rose up, and stared at him for a moment with blank eyes, before coyly hopping into his outstretched hands.

And he watched as his wound began to heal by itself at an astonishing rate, without even leaving a scar, courtesy of being a light original.

Then he smiled, got up and began to clean up the array with his mana.
It would be bad if anyone else found out.