Chapter 1
Some Catching Up to Do
Vigau, Arielle, Bonaventure
Because of the momentum, Giger and Prissy's teeth banged together, causing them both to recoil and hold their mouths. If any romance was intended by the gesture, it did not survive the collision. Speaking of collisions, the exchange drew about as many stares as a couple carriages crashing in the street.
Giger cancelled Prissy's transformation, restoring her to her feline form. Normally this would annoy Prissy, but she was so happy to see Giger again that she simply proceeded to lick his face.
"Alright, alright," Giger said.
Giger found his attention drawn to all the unfamiliar faces staring at him. Kamellia was looking at him awkwardly as she said, "I, ah, I was sort of meaning to keep that a secret."
"Keep what a secret?"
"You know, the whole familiars transforming thing. I didn't want to startle Perseus or the girls."
The cat was already out of the bag, as it were, so Giger did not see much point in worrying about it. Instead, he asked Kamellia, "Would you kindly explain precisely what the hell is going on here? Who the hell are all these people? How many hands do you need to clean this place?" He glanced at Gally. "I mean, two don't really seem to get the job done..."
Gally used those two hands to present upraised middle fingers. It must have been some manner of obscene gesture back in her time. Giger thought it only fair to return the gesture, which resulted in Mordekai cuffing them both upside the head.
"Behave," he said. "You're setting a bad example for the other children."
"Whaddya mean 'other children'?" Giger growled.
"If you're not going to act like an adult, I'm not going to treat you like one."
"I've got a fair share of questions myself," Kamellia said. "Why don't we all have a seat first?"
"There aren't seats enough in the whole house," Giger said.
"Miss Reis, we can sit here on the couch," a green-haired girl with glasses said. "Why don't you go into the dining room?"
"Thank you, Bernadotte," Kamellia said. "You girls sit tight while I explain things to Master Grummond and Mr. Taus here."
"Come on," a purple-haired girl said, shepherding the three other girls.
The five of them barely fit on the couch together, but they were all fairly skinny young lycéennes, so it worked out.
Kamellia motioned for the white-haired boy to follow her as they went into the dining room to sit at the table. Kamellia had the boy perched on her lap, prompting Mordekai to narrow his eyes a little.
"You certainly seem to have found another child easily enough, Kamellia," he said.
Kamellia gave him a playful smile and replied, "I never thought I'd live to see the day when Mordekai Grummond was jealous."
"I never said anything about being jealous."
"You don't have to say anything. I'm sorry, but you've gotten a little too big to sit on my lap. Though maybe I could sit on yours..."
There are few things more distasteful than watching the woman you love flirt with another man. When the man in question is the infuriatingly handsome younger version of your old teacher who until recently had been parading about in the body of an infuriatingly beautiful woman and before that was an obnoxious child literally birthed by that selfsame woman you love, the unpleasantness is enough to make your skull split open like an overripe melon.
Surprisingly, it was not Giger but Gally who interjected with a comment, saying, "I'm pretty sure this is bad for the children's education."
She got annoyed looks from all parties involved, but she looked rather annoyed herself, so in that sense they were all of one accord.
Mordekai cleared his throat and brought the conversation back on track.
"Let's start with an explanation for the young gentleman with the best seat in the house."
Kamellia blushed a little at the cheap flattery, which added to Giger's annoyance.
"Two months ago, there was a magic pulse," she explained, "and when I went to investigate, I found Perseus here. As near as I can tell, he is an Ancient like Galatea. After the magic pulse, the statues all over town reverted to their human form."
Giger, Gally and Mordekai exchanged glances.
"About that..." Mordekai said. "You have us to thank for it."
"What do you mean?" Kamellia asked.
"You know that we went to Nylos to investigate the stories of the Star Seed."
"Yes."
"Well, we found her... and we ended up waking her."
"'Her'?"
"You going to show her?" Giger asked.
"I would rather not," Mordekai replied.
"Show me what?" Kamellia asked.
Now, the mature and respectful thing to do was to be quiet and let Mordekai explain the situation when and how he saw fit. For some reason, though, Giger was not feeling particularly mature or respectful.
"Let's just say that if went to a public toilet, he might not know which one to use."
"Barz Falkner, I swear—!"
It was a testament to how genuinely angered Mordekai was that he did not call Giger by his assumed name. That was not all. Before Mordekai could finish whatever he was going to say, his body shifted much as it had done when he transformed himself earlier, only he was now back to his female form. Giger would like to imagine his annoyance at Mordekai gave him the focus so that his eyes did not stray down to his old master's now prominent chest, but he would be lying to himself.
Kamellia's eyes were lured into the same trap, as were the eyes of the boy sitting on her lap, but while she could not hide her distraction, she did a better job of concealing her surprise.
"Explanation, please," she said dully.
Mordekai adjusted his glasses, muttering, "It would seem the transformation is not as stable as I would have hoped."
"Explanation, please," Kamellia repeated, this time more forcefully.
"A moment, if you would, Kamellia," Mordekai said.
He closed his eyes and transformed once again into a man. He touched his chest as if to reassure himself before speaking.
"When I awakened the Star Seed, she fused with me. Her mind is undeveloped, so she instinctively sought to compensate for her lack. As hers is the greater power, until recently I was stuck in a form closer to her own."
"Well, that must have made you happy, Barz," Kamellia said. "You always were a breast man."
Both Gally and Prissy self-consciously looked down at their chests. It was particularly ridiculous for Prissy as she was still in her cat form. Giger had to bite his tongue before he said that there was only one set of breasts he was interested in.
"I have noticed that the eyes of a certain pupil of mine tends to stray southward," Mordekai said, "but he is not the only one."
Gally's cheeks flushed and she averted her eyes.
"A beautiful woman doesn't just draw the eyes of men, Mordekai," Kamellia said.
"When it comes to being a beautiful woman, I must bow to your experience," Mordekai replied.
This caused Kamellia to blush anew. Giger did not think he could take much more of this.
"Master Grummond, would it be too much trouble to ask you to stop flirting with your mother?"
Giger immediately regretted his words when he saw the troubled look on Kamellia's face. Mordekai held his temper in check lest he lose control of his transformation again, but even restrained as it was, the anger in his voice was clear.
"I've known you long enough that I can forgive your wagging tongue, Giger, but the malice behind it I cannot. I am going to warn you only once. Say what you will about me, but where it concerns Kamellia, I advise you to keep it to yourself. You do not want to face me as one man defending his woman's honor."
Giger gritted his teeth. The words 'his woman' roiled in his gut, but his own bitterness and anger were wholly defanged when he saw the hurt in Kamellia's eyes. He never did learn how to deal with situations like this. He wanted to be somewhere else. He could almost feel his bones rattling within him, driving him to get up and walk out then and there. He thought of the time Kamellia confronted him and Mordekai about their efforts to mend her split existence. He walked away then and he wanted to do so again right now.
If things were allowed to continue as they were, Giger may well have exploded, but then Gally spoke up.
"We still haven't heard what the deal is with those girls."
"That's right," Prissy chimed in. "You need to tell them about the Witch-hunters, too."
Giger glanced at the two of them. Were they trying to cover for him? Prissy, of course, but Gally as well?
The effort to redirect the conversation was a success as Kamellia ran her fingers through her hair as if she were sweeping away the awkward situation and said, "Um, yes, the girls... Well, they're students at the Lycée Werner Duchamp. They got caught up in that whole mess with the Witch Crystals and their school was one of the places that was attacked during the Grimalkin Incident."
"The Grimalkin Incident?" Giger said. "Is that what they're calling it?"
Prissy buried her face into Giger's shoulder. Giger was not sure if Kamellia knew the feline familiar was the reason for all the chaos in town. She was being controlled by the Black Widow of Arielle, but that did not mean Prissy did not feel any guilt for all the damage she caused. If anything, Giger was as much to blame, but there was no need to get into that now. He simply rubbed Prissy's head to comfort her as Kamellia continued her explanation.
"The Grimalkin Incident painted a target on the girls, so before the Witch-hunters started to round people up, their parents made arrangements with Mr. Duchamp and your apprentice, Giger, Yugo, he brought them here before his father sent him away."
"Is Yugo okay?" Gally asked.
Giger found himself getting annoyed again, but he could not understand why for the life of him. Clumsy as Yugo's courtship of Gally was, unless she was a complete ice queen, it was sure to have left an impression.
"He seemed fine when I last saw him about three weeks ago," Kamellia replied. "I doubt the Witch-hunters have really started to scour the countryside yet."
"What's going on with the Witch-hunters, Kamellia?" Mordekai asked.
"You don't know?"
"We've been rather isolated and ARCANUM doesn't have much freedom of movement in Nylos in any case."
"Then I need to turn back a bit," she said. "After the Ancients started roaming free, the League panicked and ordered ARCANUM to round up all mages and Ancients. That order extends to anyone with magic potential as well. The Witch-hunters already had grounds to arrest the girls because of the Witch Crystals and this new special order just made it easier for them.
"That reminds me. We haven't had proper introductions yet. Girls?"
The girls got up from the couch and the purple-haired one took the lead.
"Yes, Ms. Reis?"
"Introduce yourselves, please."
Somewhat awkwardly, the girl said, "I, ah, I'm Margot Leider. Thank you, thank for having us, sir, Mister..."
Kamellia motioned to Mordekai, saying, "Master Mordekai Grummond." Then to Giger. "Barz Falkner."
"Giger Taus," Giger corrected.
"Oh, yes," Kamellia said, "he likes to be called Giger Taus these days."
Lastly, she motioned to Gally and said, "And Galatea Garmont."
"Garamonde," Giger corrected again.
"Oh, you and your made-up names, Barz..."
Gally gave a little bow from her seat and Margot curtseyed.
The others introduced themselves and curtseyed in turn, starting with the green-haired girl with glasses.
"Bernadotte Ryczer."
"Jeanine Watreau..."
"Mari, Mariangelique Ca-Cabot."
"Ami..."
"Amelie Leene," Margot said, filling in for her spacey blue-haired friend who apparently could not be bothered to say her full name.
"There was a sixth girl, Henrietta," Kamellia said, "but we believe she informed on us to the police."
"Why do you think that?" Mordekai asked.
"She was something of the odd man out in the group," Kamellia said, "the only one without magic potential. There's more to it than that, but I'll spare you the details for now. The point is, she disappeared one day and the next we had six Witch-hunters on our doorstep."
"It was that Inspector... Andress," Giger said.
Kamellia nodded.
"How did you manage?"
Kamellia puffed up her chest a little and said, "You're talking to one of the star pupils of Mordekai Grummond, Barz. A handful of Witch-hunters is nothing I can't handle."
"It was hell, Giger," Prissy said. "There was blood everywhere."
Giger thought he deserved praise for restraining his response to a simple upraised eyebrow.
"I didn't kill anyone, Barz," Kamellia said defensively. "I promise."
"Barely," Prissy said.
"Okay, yes, it was a bit messy, but I was able to fix everything and send them on their way without a single memory of the whole thing."
"And that worked?" Giger asked.
"For the moment," Kamellia said, "but I worry about them coming back. Apparently you're quite near and dear to that Inspector Andress' heart, Barz."
Perhaps he should have been happy to hear her had such a dedicated admirer, but Giger dreaded the prospect of another encounter with Inspector Andress.
"You don't need to worry about the Witch-hunters anymore, Kamellia," Mordekai said.
"Don't tell me you plan on killing them," Giger said.
"That will entirely depend on them," Mordekai replied grimly.
Kamellia, who was not used to hearing Mordekai talk this way, gave him a concerned look.
"Mordekai?"
Mordekai reached across the table and placed his hand on hers, telling her, "It's going to be alright, Kamellia."
Giger wanted to say that it would not be alright for anyone who dared to cross him, as all the dead members of the Cerberus and Orthus Guilds could attest. He kept it to himself, though, lest he renew the tensions from earlier.
"I don't want you to worry," Mordekai continued. "The League has declared war on our kind and I intend to fight back. I want to avoid any unnecessary loss of life, of course, but it's the mundanes who will decide what happens... based on their actions."
"You tell me not to worry, Mordekai," Kamellia said, "but I'm worrying. You're concealing your power, but I can still tell. You've gotten stronger, even stronger than you were before. Power like this, it's..."
"Abomination? Yes, that's what the guilds would say, but we're in control, Kamellia."
"'We'?"
"The Star Seed and I, though by this point there's no meaningful division between us."
Kamellia was quiet. In these past few minutes she was having to come to terms with things Giger had been grappling with the past two months. Either Mordekai did not notice or he just thought it was best to press on.
"Our first priority is to rescue as many of our brethren and the Ancients as we can. From there, we can start reinstituting the Mages' Guilds and working to revive the Lost Technology. We can restore the old mage economy and evolve it through the knowledge of the Ancients. Speaking of which, Kamellia, has that boy awakened yet?"
"I don't think so," Kamellia replied. "I don't even think he can speak, but now that you and Barz are back, we can run a fuller range of experiments."
"And the girls?"
"They have the makings of low to mid-level mages. I've been teaching them the basics so they can better control their powers."
"That's a start," Mordekai said. "They could prove useful."
"Useful for what?" Giger asked. "What are you planning?"
They had come back to Vigau under the premise of coordinating a response to the matter of the Ancients with the remaining masters of the Phoenix Guild, but suddenly the scale had spiraled wildly out of control. Take on ARCANUM? Reinstitute the guilds? Restore the mage economy? Was Kamellia so preoccupied with the questions about the Ancient kid and the witch girls that she had nothing to say? The hell of it was that they were only on the tip of the iceberg.
"The governments of the world have proven themselves to be short-sighted and stupid," Mordekai said. "This is nothing new, but they've gone too far this time. I will not let them hold us back any longer. If they are going to squander the blessings we have been given, then they are unworthy and must be swept away. Kamellia, Giger, as of today, the Mage Ban is over."
"Who died and made you emperor of the world?" Giger asked.
"We'll see," Mordekai replied.
Giger froze for a moment.
"You're serious..."
"The situation has gotten that far out of hand, Giger. We mages have bowed to the mundanes for too long. It's time that changed."
Giger was all too aware of Mordekai's power and the sort of things he could do. He had to choose his words carefully.
"You're going to crush the mundanes under your bootheel then, Mordekai?"
"I would prefer to cooperate with them, Giger. We are all a part of the same world. Mage and mundane alike, we all have our roles. I would have them walk by our side."
"And if they refuse?"
"So long as they renounce any hostility to us, we can grant them sanctuaries where they can live among their own kind in peace. They will not interfere with us and we will not interfere with them."
"What if they choose to fight?"
An unpleasant sort of grin crossed Mordekai's lips.
"Ask the masters of the Cerberus Guild. Ask the Orthus Guild... Ask Central who sent them."
Giger's eyes widened.
"What do you mean, 'Ask Central'?"
"While we were making our way back here, my other half was dealing with them," Mordekai said. "There is still a lot of work to be done, but for all intents and purposes, Nylos is ours now."
Giger could hardly believe it. He thought the copy Mordekai made would be just enough to keep the Cerberus Guild fooled while he was away. The last thing he was expecting was for it to be capable of toppling entire governments.
Still smiling, Mordekai held up a finger and said, "That's one down, eleven more to go."