Branches - Two Fates. One Tale

Clash of Fates

Pulling the skirt of the dress once more upwards, as it slipped through her fingers a bit, Mayura walked towards the center of the dead silent village. It was true, all the villagers had disappeared. So they were held captive and Mayura knew where to find them. The conditions of this rescue operation were making her quite nervous. But what else could she do? If the villagers were in the mansion, she needed to get in there.

The voluminous skirt threatened to fall off again and she griped more of the cloth into her hand, just above the spot where her sword was dangling off from her hips.

She had been lucky that the girl whom she had saved was able to procure a dress for her before Mayura sent her off to the orphanage. The dress wasn't excessively fancy but it would do. A laced up corsage fastened the dress tightly around her torso to her waist. From there the skirt began, a huge thing thanks to the underskirt. Lots and lots of stitches made it fall in folds.

The boots she was wearing beneath kicked the earth. She was on her way to save Rokuro. But the closer she was to reaching the destination, the more nervous she became. What if an army of bloodsuckers was waiting for her? What if she couldn't just slip into the mayor's mansion like the stranger said?

Mayura huffed when she pictured him. The stranger named Shimon Ikaruga – He had taken her by surprise. In many ways.

After she'd defeated the demon and come back to her senses, she had taken care of the girl lying on the cold floor. Luckily, she had been alive, even if weak from the loss of blood.

And then almost as if she was called out, her gaze turned into the direction of him: A man cloaked in black and covered by shadows.

Her feet had worked on their own and soon she was standing in front of him, trying to make sense of his icy blue eyes, heavy and glued to the floor, and red hair that was so unlike the dull colors of his clothing.

She both startled them out of their trances, when she asked him who he was and it was only him telling her about the prisoners that she remembered common sense. He did not look anything like the bloodsucker. Far from it. Yet, she was wary of him – caught between wonder and caution about this man – until he told her about the ball.

For a split of a second she wondered, where the stranger had gone off to and if she would see him ever again.

Mayura shook her head. She had a mission to concentrate on. She wasn't allowed to think about a stranger, no matter how handsome and interesting he was.

She'd never seen such a man though. In Narukami, only farmers and craftsmen lived. The only other people who'd ever visited were tax gatherers or merchants buying food supplies and selling their goods from the cities. This man had not been a man from Narukami either, yet he seemed different from the people of the cities, she had met before. His eyes they had harbored strength, something superior and intellectual and then there was something that felt more familiar about him than strange.

Turning around the corner of a house, the mayor's mansion filled her sight, towering over the courtyard in front. It was bigger than any other house, filling up more space with its surrounding gardens, the high pillars holding a pediment above a broad stone staircase. It almost looked as it usually did, with the exception of the two guards in front of it and a fire glinting in every room.

Mayura took in a deep breath. Would they just let her in like the stranger said? Even if there were humans who worked for the monster, would they let her in just like that?

Nibbling on her lips, she tried to fight down the tension in her legs. It made her steps more clumsy. Nervously she fingered the handle of her sword through the cloth of the skirt. If they attacked, she needed to swiftly take care of them.