unraveled

deveil eggs

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          A carriage was moving towards them, this one adorned in pearly white and golden carvings. It was painfully in line with where Acelius was standing, looking up at the clouds either in ignorance of the carriage or foolish blindness. Panic seized her. The horses showed no signs of stopping. Oh my Cervaux, he's going to die. That's it. He will get trampled, she thought. She felt more than saw everyone in Esterham freeze, sucking in a breath destined to be exhaled in a world where either Acelius lived or died and it all came down to how fast she moved.

          "You damn, shitheaded pillock with the attention of a pea and the intelligence of a chicken," she muttered.

          With an exasperated sigh, she threw herself onto him with enough force to topple them to the ground just as the horses and the carriage raced by. Esterham let out its breath. The coachman looked back at them in anger, waving his fist. Oh Stealers, she breathed. She was alive. And so was Acelius who was now looking up at her with big eyes. From this close she could see the pure hazel in them, untainted by any other shade. She was instantly aware of her body over his and everywhere they touched and the length of her dress and her hair on his face. Her breath mingled with his and his lips turned into a cruel smile. She grinned back but not in the same amused delight as his. In the unyielding rage she felt burn through her as panic wore off.  A maniacal smile that she saw invoked concern in his face.

          "I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him.

          "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off the dirt from his clothes like a mildly bothered royal. He reached down to pick up his glasses, except now they were slightly crooked so they sat a bit askew on his nose.

          She was glad the boy had wrapped his hands around her because she was more than ready to tear off said 'beautiful face.'

Nia laughed. "Beauty is nothing."

He narrowed his eyes in consideration. "It is something."

"You have a death wish. You want to die," said the boy from behind her.

           Acelius's gaze shifted to the boy. "Perhaps. I figure it is only unfair for just the living to grace in my presence."

          "Of course," said the boy though this time it was more to himself. "The unknown stranger we picked up in the snow is a nuthead. Of course he is."

          "Strangers are unknown," she mumbled, "that's the whole purpose of them being a stranger."

The boy looked at her with a bewildered gaze as if she were the nuthead now.

          Hera walked up, her twin trailing behind, "If we're done with unprofessional evaluations of the psychology of clearly self destructive beings, can we find our way to the Deveil Eggs? My head hurts and I will consider standing here a minute longer than needed as a direct invitation to make my own Deveil Eggs, except with human flesh." Her hands trailed to her knives to perfectly punctuate her threat. Her twin snorted in the back.

          "What in Caraca's crowned jewel is the Deveil Eggs?" asked Skender's daughter who was frowning in the sun with her hands angrily folded.

          "It's the place we're staying in," said the Joker who had been quietly observing the whole ideal.

          "I hope it's better than it sounds," chirped Acelius.

           "What about the tents?" Nia asked the Joker.

            "They remain on the ship."

            Oh. It made sense. She hadn't seen them since the snow plain and they hadn't been on the crate the boy had pulled out on deck. But leaving things behind on the ship meant that they would be going back to it.  It was going to become a constant for the group.

          "So his ship is now just a storage compartment?" asked Nia, carefully.

          "A supplementary mode of transport that can also serve as a storage compartment," replied Acelius though the question had been directed towards the Joker. Atleast now she knew that it was his ship.

          Nia turned on Acelius. "What deal have you striked with him?"

          It could have just been a simple deal for Acelius to help them reach Esterham. But why was he still with them? It was a weak explanation that only provoked other silent questions: What was the Joker giving him in return? Why did they need to have a ship at the go? Were there other performances the Joker hadn't told them about that needed them to travel over water? Was this deal planned or an impulse decision made in the snow? And how was the Joker related to that corpse?  Because there was an obvious connection between him and murders stamped with the Carac symbol, and finding another victim that just happened to be in their path was anything but a coincidence. So many questions unanswered. Nia wondered why she bothered thinking about it. She didn't own anything to the world. Not when it had taken so much from her. So why?Because you are human, said her mother's lost voice. Because when you see people killed, it affects you. Be grateful for that. Be grateful you aren't a monster. Yet.

           The Joker was glaring at her. "Answers are a luxury you cannot afford, Nia." She hated when he said her name.

           He might be right but she always had felt a pull towards the wrong. If the Joker wasn't going to answer, she would target Acelius. In the end, it took two to make a deal. 

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading!! Hope you enjoyed! come back soon for the next part :))