-Pruning the Roses, Part 2-

Talking down Blondie was actually easier than dealing with all the rest of Airis' little posse.

I wasn't sure if it was a testament to the trust Airis had built with those around her or if she was so unreliable that when an alternate version of her appears, they just accept it and move on.

Whelp, sounds like a problem for her when she wakes up!

"Okay!" I clapped, "Your turn."

Hikita tilted her head.

"Huh?"

"Spill the beans on that woman. You obviously knew each other, yeah? Why would she whisk us away and now leave us all alone with her stuff, unsupervised?"

"Oh…" Hikita pursed her lips.

She turned away, balling her fists.

"Ah," I flailed, "If it's too much—"

My words trailed off. Hikita spun to meet my gaze, a look of transient resolve on her face.

"Renaire. That's her name."

Hikita's arms shook.

"She's the one who kept me sealed within myself. She's responsible for all the Roses. Renault's hidden piece among hidden pieces."

I glanced out toward the bed Hikita had been lying on, finally able to see what lied beyond the doorway now that I'd been freed.

There truly was a proper laboratory.

It looked like Rias' wet dream.

Glassware of every size and shape were neatly arranged on a myriad of desks, shelves, and testing stations.

Some sort of metal pipework ran a maze across the walls; disappearing in the ceiling and floor.

"So, then, you were…" locked in here before.

At Hikita's solemn nod, I left my thoughts as such.

"There's a room for me, it's…" Hikita hesitated, then seemed to change her mind on what she wanted to say. "It's a little way further in. I spent most of my time there or deeper down in the dungeon."

Hikita paused, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"Spending time, as if." She scoffed, "Outside a few brief moments of lucidity, I was just a prisoner here. Well, just as the mistress said, we've got two days to find whatever she wants us to see."

"You trust her? She'll actually just let us go if we satisfy her curiosity?"

"I doubt it's as simple as that. But, I've never known her to lie, and she was one of the few that treated me as more than just a tool."

Huh?

"Didn't you say she sealed your mind away?"

Hikita nodded, "She used magick to keep me suppressed, yes. Renault and the others would hit or abuse me, though."

"That…"

The entire Renaultian Republic seemed irredeemable. Letting the others burn the city down looking for us was sounding like the better plan.

After taking a quick look around to get a basic layout of where we were, we began poking around Renaire's lab aimlessly.

The lab was arranged weirdly, unlike any configuration you'd see for a floor-plan. It was part-lab, part-prison, part-living space.

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The room that Renaire had tied me up in was center-north of what we had access to.

We found two locked doors.

One of which led further in, according to Hikita, toward a pair of rooms. The other, a reinforced metal door, was presumably the way out. It was sealed with a dozen spells and sturdy enough to fully stop a PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT charged kick.

My leg ached, and neither of us knew what to look for, so we just started collecting things that seemed interesting.

- - - - - -LOOTABLES- - - - - -

[SEALED LOCKET]

[Relic]

An ornate locket made of gold.

» STATUS: Sealed with magick.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Gotta be important… right?" I muttered.

As I slipped the locket into my pocket and gave up searching this shelf.

"Find anything?" I called out to Hikita, who'd been digging through an adjacent room.

I peaked my head in, only to find an empty room.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Oi, Blondie?"

The shattering of glass led me to the southwestern-most room. Hikita was standing just past the doorway with a broken vial at her feet.

"You good?" I asked, rounding the corner, "—Shit! What is that?"

A fur-covered figure was suspended within a wall-to-ceiling glass tank. Hikita was frozen in place, staring at…

Is that a person? Haah.

I cursed Renault and the Void with all my heart.

The demi-human had wolf-like features, just like the majority of void-beasts and demonic wolves we fought on the outskirts of the city. The liquid filling the tank made it hard to see its features clearly.

I balled my fists upon taking a closer look, digging my nails into my palms. A fire raged within the collective of egos, I could tell most of the others were none too thrilled at this discovery.

She was a young girl. Appearing younger than Hikita, even maybe younger than the two Petlin kids who'd been assigned as Airis' attendants.

Hikita seemed to have a soft spot for children, and she looked to be dealing with a similar grief to ours. She finally stepped forward and placed a hand on the glass.

"She looks like me. Don't you think?"

I blinked.

My gaze fluttered between Blondie's sorrowful face and the resting girl behind the glass.

Their facial shapes were near identical. Same delicate nose and high cheeks. Even Hikita's long, slender elven ears appeared the same as the girl's.

I agreed with her, "I can… see a resemblance."

She clenched her hand that was pressed to the glass.

"Was I created this way? As an experiment in a lab?"

"What?" I was taken aback, "That's quite a leap. Right?"

Hikita turned to me, tears in her eyes. "But that's what she said to you, wasn't it, Ruin? Renaire was talking about you vanquishing evil. If this isn't evil, then what is? The things I've done, and if I'm the same as this…"

The implication needn't be said.

Hikita was on a downward spiral, equating the victim of evil acts the same as the perpetrating evil itself.

I just wanted fun adventures.

I held back the tremendous desire to sigh, instead placing a hand on Hikita to reassure her.

"I know where that mind of yours is wandering, and it's a slippery slope. We both know who's at fault for the past, same as this. That bastard Renault is our great evil, and just like Renaire said, we've vanquished him. The victims of his abuse aren't responsible for his sins. You and however many others who suffered like this shouldn't have to think such things."

Hikita sobbed, eventually she excused herself to the other room and went to lie down.

I turned inward, intermingling with our group of egos. Colorful figures sat in a semi-circle around the slumped body of Airis, her chest lightly rising and falling in a peaceful sleep.

None of us disagree, right? Hikita is blameless, and so are any others we find subject to the same awful machinations.

Not from me.

INNOCENT.

There is no room for doubt.

AGREED.

With unanimous agreement from the collective, I let myself drift back to consciousness.

If anything was key to Renaire's test, it was the girl suspended in the tank. So I began routing through the room, piling up everything that seemed like it may contain useful details.

Maybe the assortment of liquid-filled vials could be important, but I didn't have the know-how to find out.

Instead, I gathered scraps of loose paper and what appeared to be research journals, taking them out to the common area where Hikita rested.

I moved the rather comfy chair next to her bed and flipped the cover on the journal.

"Huh." I muttered after reading the first few pages.

It was less a research journal and more personal diary.

Renaire seemed strange enough, and factoring in the mess of aethertech and magicks she was involved with wasn't far-fetched for a diary to be necessary.

Especially with mind-altering void magicks, as detailed in the diary's contents.

⌈Jacques' "masters" have been overstepping their reach, no doubt at his request.

I find myself confused. Preparing for events that had already passed and missing memories of entire days. There are dozens of pages I do not recall writing, detailing experiments that make me feel ill.

I have instructed Zieta to keep her own daily journals.

I have also forbidden her from leaving the laboratory.

The doors have been sealed, and none of his rats should be able to breach.⌋

I glanced at the opposite wall, behind which were the magickally sealed doors.

"Yeah? Do you also explain how to open them back up in this diary, though?"

I kept reading.

Page after page was filled with more worrisome entries about Renaire's declining mental state. Her notes imply she may have been cursed by Renault or Gemini.

Then, I found something related to the demi-human girl.

⌈Instability of vâlkinwulf-hybrids continues to plague my experiments.

After the initial success of 'Sable Rose', all future subjects have been failures.

Attempts to splice stable void-altered organics from SR to other subjects all result in complete cellular degradation within six days.

Heightened senses, rapid mental processing, and regenerative abilities are the only consistent traits that are inherited.

I theorize that the key to SR's stability lies in the pure source of Ixian sovereignty that runs in her blood.

If this is correct, it signifies the death of Jacques' dream of a void-infused army.⌋

The diary ended with more horrifying records of tests conducted to create the human-wolf hybrid void-beasts.

"So, in summary, 'She who fights with monsters must herself be a monster'. Or, at the very least, have a few of her own to use when needed?" I mused.

I picked up another journal.

The first dozen pages were either blank or covered in spilled ink. After passing over those, its contents were startling.

⌈I am unable to take my own life.

The curse prevents it.

Zieta, too, seems to be under an external influence as she refuses to comply with my command to kill me.

However, Jacques is a fool.

He has yet to discover that his prized 'Azure Rose' is no longer under his thumb. I can only hope the small chip I've made in his foul curse grows.

I will do whatever I can to save my daughters from this hell.⌋

I nearly dropped the diary and jumped up.

Not only was it the first time mentioning Hikita, but just dropped the explosive bomb that Renaire's daughters were wrapped up in this nightmare.

My skin crawled as the mental image of Renaire's face, her ethereal blue eyes and pointed ears, overlapped with Hikita and the lupine girl.

I sat back down, casting my gaze over the puffy-eyed girl sleeping next to me.

I turned to the next page and was surprised it seemed to address Airis directly.

⌈To the strong-willed and obstinate daughter of Theo.

I am choosing to leave Hikita and Hakaze in your care until I can fully rid myself of Jacques' curse.

Please tell Kity and Kazy that I am sorry. I love them both very much.

It was my own weakness that led to their suffering. If they need somebody to blame, let it be me.

I desperately wished things had turned out differently.⌋

I turned the page to find only a short message scrawled in the corner in rough handwriting. The paper, already covered with droplet-sized stains, began to get wet once more.

⌈O' Great and Honorable Lord of the Wilds, please let me see my girls, healthy and whole again one day.⌋

"Argh! He just makes me wanna kill him all over again, that fucking bastard!"

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