Falling Feathers Chapter 19

Falling Feathers
Chapter Nineteen: Toward Truth
HWF

"Vi aspettiamo! Volete qualcosa di fantasia, da indossare con il tuo ragazzo?!" exclaimed a man standing behind one of the vending counters of the marketplace along the canals of Venice as muscular men in gondolas pushed their boats along while listening to the chattering of the tourist, whether they be young lovers, small children, or old married couples. The sun was not all that high in the sky, leading Crovix to believe it was about six in the evening even though she wore no watch, and she could hardly see the man who had addressed her because of the glare coming off the teal water.
"I-I'm sorry?" Crovix murmured as the man held out an assortment of masks dressed in bright colors, rhinestones, and feathers, they were made of what seemed to be glass and each had a black ribbon on each side so one could wear them.
"Verde sarebbe meglio per voi! O forse un arancio per abbinare gli occhi del tuo ragazzo!" the man continued, still smiling as if she had understood what he had just yelled at her.
Hace stepped up and put his arm around Crovix saying, "Non adesso, grazie. Ma io credo che il verde starebbe bene su di lei."
"No? Va bene, ma fermarsi prima del festival! Tu non vuoi che lei sia senza."
"Grazie," Hace smiled as Crovix politely waved to the man and they walked away.
"When were you going to tell me that?" Crovix asked pinching the skin on his hand so he removed his arm from around her shoulder.
"What?" he asked rubbing his hand, but still smiling.
"That you were bilingual? That's was freaken awesome," she laughed.
Hace scratched the back of his head saying, "I guess I never really thought about it much. Legion just speaks it because this is where it was formed."
"Well I think it's cool," she said happily, her chest rising and falling with an overjoyed presence filling it.
"Score one for team Hace," he grinned placing a hand on his chin.
Crovix laughed, "Yeah right, but I am realizing how little we actually know about each other."
"How much time do we have," Hace joked looking up at a large clock tower they were walking toward.
"As long as it takes for Helena to see that doctor," she replied thinking of this morning when, upon arriving, Helena had immediately gotten sick and thrown up several times before Sterling insisted she should see a doctor. Karsh had tagged along, choosing to stay with Helena and Sterling rather than his quirky and overly bold godchild.
Hace rubbed his hands together, "What do you want to know?"
She shrugged, "Anything, something that could happen to anyone, then something interesting that I don't know about."
"Okay, my mother left when I was a kid apparently, and I'm a part of Legion's growing army but I don't know why we need an army. Your turn."
"I wish people would listen to me more, and when I was ten my mother sent Niu and I away to find potential… mates."
"You know Legion and the witches really aren't too different," Hace said stretching his arms over his head.
"I think we're so similar that we don't agree a lot," Crovix added, "Well, that, and you're out to kill us, but who isn't?"
"You still think of yourself as a witch?" Hace asked slowly.
"Well, yeah. Even without magic I was still raised by them. What else would I be?"
"A meister," he grinned.
"I don't think you took all the magic out of me though," she said looking away.
Hace turned his head to one side and Crovix held her palms down so a few black feathers fell to the ground.
"It doesn't hurt me anymore though," she said smiling to cover up her slight distress.
Hace leaned over and picked up a feather, looking like he was going to begin speaking again, but stopped while looking down the street at someone.
Crovix turned and looked in the same direction to see a tall girl about a year older than them with brown hair that passed her shoulder a bit and waved very slightly, it was pulled back into a ponytail to keep out of her dark brown eyes. She was very thin and held her head high as if grateful for the day while walking happily toward them, but not exactly to them.
"Kris?" Hace asked as she passed and she stopped abruptly, spinning back to look at him with a confused look on her face.
"Hace!" she exclaimed happily, her voice light and kind on one's ears. "What are you doing back?! I haven't seen you in years!"
"I've been away," he replied putting his arm around Crovix, who leaned into him protectively.
"Yeah! Where's Sterling?!" she asked looking around eagerly, at this Crovix moved away from Hace seeing that she was obviously not interested in him.
"He went with Karsh and Helena to the hospital."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing with him, Helena was just feeling sick," Hace said gesturing to Crovix, "This is Crovix, she's my meister."
"Uh… yeah, sorta," Crovix said extending a hand toward Kris.
"I'm a weapon," Kris grinned shaking her hand, "I didn't know Hace was a weapon."
"Neither did I," Hace added.
"Yeah, I didn't know I was a meister either," Crovix shrugged.
"That's alright, you bring out the best in each other," Kris said happily.
Crovix chuckled trying to cover up her embarrassment and Hace nodded, still grinning widely.
"So, um, the hospital right?" he asked taking a step backward.
Hace nodded.
"Alright, I'll go find him," she said spinning around and walking away.
Hace and Crovix watched her for a moment before turning in the opposite direction and continuing on their way toward Legion.
"So how do you know her?" Crovix asked looking to Hace while still smiling.
"Sterling knew her when we were kids," Hace replied looking above them into the blue sky. "She's a really nice person, I think you'd like her."
"Okay, how'd Sterling meet her?"
"I don't really know how they met… she's not a part of Legion and Sterling must have seen her when he was out in the city, he was about seven."
"And they've been friend since?" she finished, but Hace was not quite done.
"Well sort of, everyone was fine with him hanging around with her as long as she didn't know too much about Legion, but after Sterling helped her get her first keshin soul my dad started worrying about him leaving Legion to be her meister."
"Can you leave Legion when you want?"
"Uh, no. You can run, get kicked out, or… die. That's pretty much it. I think he really did consider becoming a meister though, that's when we were sent on the witch hunt to find you."
Crovix grinned widely.
"What?"
"It's just like a love story," she sighed.
"Yeah, except it's Sterling," he laughed.
The two continued on their way through the shops and across bridges that stood over the blue green water the shimmered brightly with the sun, laying its glossy layers of light across it. Smells of every wonderful aroma filled the air as flowers were propped upright in vases in home above the streets and people ate in restaurants on the sidewalks. Crovix couldn't think of a better place to be and Hace couldn't believe he was back, it seemed like he'd never left.
"Nothing's changed," he grinned as they turned down another corner into the darker alleys where clothing lines hung between buildings and cast fluttering shadows that danced across their faces. Occasionally someone above would open their window and lean out to smoke a cigarette or just water a flower box beneath the window.
"No?" Crovix asked absentmindedly as they turned another corner, this time leading to a fork in the roads.
"This way," he beamed taking her by the arm and walking with a specific type of skip in his step as she smiled and caught up with him so they ran laughing through the alleys.
"I feel like an idiot!" she exclaimed, her voice echoing into the space in front of them as well as carrying to the open windows above them and into the house, causing a few homeowners to look after them with a grin.
"That's good then!" Hace replied as they ran past a wall covered in vines, both reached to the side and ran their hands along the leaves, "what better place to feel stupid than somewhere where no one knows you?!"
"Point taken," she grinned pulling a flower off vine and someone shouted something in Italian to them. Hace apologized, still running, took the flower from Crovix and threw it up to him.
"Sorry, sir!" she called, getting the idea of what had just happened.
"See what I mean?" he said laughing and jerking her in another direction.
Crovix was too happy to care about anything that she was told not to do at this point and picked up speed so she and Hace were running at the same pace.
"Where are we going?" she asked as they took another sharp turn.
"To Legion, I think," he replied as their path opened from a small courtyard, the stone walls covered in blankets of flowers and decorative drains ran around the base of the walls so that the water that spilled from the fountain in the center of the courtyard could flow easily across the ground and out.
Hace and Crovix, still hand in hand, stepped down and the water came up their shoes about half an inch, just enough to make small splashes as they walked forward.
"This is really neat," she said taking her hand from Hace's and rubbing them together in the water of the fountain to cool her body.
"Wait, check this out," he said turning the nozzle of the fountain, then leaning down and pushing its base to the left about a foot. The fountain jolted and began to sink into the ground. "Jump on," Hace said stepping down onto the piece of stone that was now moving to the center of the Earth  as water from the ground flowed down onto the sinking level.
Crovix grabbed the top of the fountain and stepped to Hace. The two traveled down about six feet and both breathed deeply looking back up at the shrinking sky, becoming slightly claustrophobic, but with another three feet down they could see light to the left of them and a hallway appeared.
"Here we are," Hace said as they stepped off and the fountain stopped spewing water, but remained behind them instead of rising.
"It's under the city?" she asked cautiously looking around at the white marble halls.
"Yep, witch magic helped, but for the most part Legion did it all when the city was still in its early stages."
"How long has it been around then?"
"… A long time…."
"But you haven't done anything… big."
"It's coming," he laughed nervously, "can't you feel it?"
Crovix hesitated and looked around at the empty space; even though there was no one there Hace was still right, she could definitely feel a heaviness in the air that seemed to crush her spirits.
"… So, uh," Hace said scratching his head, "you want to join?"
"What?" Crovix asked, unsure she had heard him correctly, there was no possible way that he had just asked her to join Legion.
"W-well since my dad's dead and we're back I'd be in charge since Sterling isn't really related to us. I could run Legion and you could be one of us since you're not a witch anymore, I promise we'd stay away from your family."
Crovix eyes narrowed in thought, but there was an obvious answer on her face that Hace could not ignore.
"W-what I meant to say is, uh, I-I would like… to m-m-…. Would you consider… becoming m-my wife?" Hace stuttered looking blindly at the floor.
"… N-no, Hace, I couldn't do that. I know you marry young here but isn't there more you want out of life than me?" she replied with a large and steadying sigh. "I do li-…" she began again but her sentence trailed off into nowhere as she looked beyond a crestfallen Hace and down the hallway to see Pike, who had just come around the corner. He was staring at them intently and without warning raised a hand and pointed it at Hace's back.
"G-get down!" she screamed tackling Hace to the ground as magic shot from Pike, raced down the hall, and struck the fountain.
Hace rolled over to get a look at his attacker and could not form words as he watched the person that should be dead draw his cutlass from his belt and point it at them.
"Run! Run! Run!" he exclaimed pushing her onto the fountain and looking back at Pike, whose eyes were beginning narrow with a combination of anger and regret. "She's not a witch anymore!" Hace shouted, but Pike did not respond more than pointing the sword at his brother as he approached.
"H-Hace," Crovix said grabbing his shoulder and pulling him into the fountain that was rising to the surface.
"Leave her alone!" he exclaimed fighting against her to try to intimidate Pike, but he only swung his sword upward so he cut off a large gold button on Hace's cloak. "What the hell!"
"S-sorry," Pike murmured raising the sword again and slashing down. Hace's arm shot up to block him and the clang of metal hitting metal reverberated through the hall.
Crovix smiled as she saw that Hace had turned his arm into the blade of his bow form and blocked it easily. Pike gasped, but not with shock, it was more of a gasp of realization. Hace took advantage of this moment and jumped onto the rising platform just before the hallway disappeared from sight and they were growing closer to the surface.
"Change," Crovix ordered holding out her hand, "If you're a weapon you're harder to hurt."
Hace nodded and transformed into a bow completely; Crovix then took off the belt Helena had given her, threw it over her shoulder like a sash, and pinned Hace to her back as they reach the courtyard.
"Where do I go?" she asked running back the way they had come.
"Back toward the hospital, to get the others," he replied, his voice distorted by his weapon form.
"He's just after you, because we know his secret! Like a conspiracy!"
"It would seem that way, wouldn't it," he said with a sour frown as she rounded another corner and came face to face with wide, teal eyes and immediately jumped back so her nose was no longer touching Sterling's. He looked like he was just strolling the streets casually with Kris, but Helena and Karsh where nowhere to be seen.
"Sterling!" Crovix said grinning nervously, "What do ya know, a double date."
"W-what's that?" he asked looking at Hace, strapped to her back.
"… What's up?" Hace said in a guilty tone, his face appearing on the side of the blade so Kris and Sterling could see him, both gasped.
"See he's a weapon too!" Kris beamed.
"Hey, listen," Crovix said nervously, "Something's definitely wrong with Pike. Hace killed him by accident in Death City, and now he's trying to kill him, so we need to get out of here."
Sterling opened his mouth but Hace cut him off.
"Don't argue. We don't need it right now, thank you."
Sterling shut his mouth and Kris opened hers, "What can we do?"
"I'm going to get Hace out of here as quickly as possible, and you guys go find Karsh and Helena," Crovix said strongly and Kris turned to Sterling.
"Has your soul wavelength changed much?" she asked.
He shook his head, "No, I don't think so."
Kris smiled and transformed into a long curved sword with a decorative handle from which golden tassels hung. Sterling caught her and fastened her to his belt.
"Now we just-" he began but Crovix looked up and gasped, on the roofs above them stood four or five members of Legion, Pike and Anna among them.
"Run!" Hace exclaimed angrily and the meisters took off through the streets gripping their weapons anxiously.