Family Matters

[Lloyd]

“Verrrryyy good…” Lloyd said licking his lips as he sat hunched over a large crystal protruding arbitrarily out of the cold stone floor. Solitary echoes of moister falling from the stalagmites hanging all around the young Orlouge sounded as he stared eyes wide into the resonating violet gem. It hasn't been even a week since the Ciato had informed his son of his cousin Kyla’s tombstone in the Chateau Drantrak graveyard, yet here in this very moment Lloyd was already plotting his next experiment. Lloyd shivered with excitement at the very thought of seeing her, touching her cold dead flesh. It was not Ciato’s intent to stir any commotion among his estranged family, but Lloyd could care less.

Within the beautiful purple crystal were blurring images, glimpses of people and places. Lloyd watched each intently as if he were living vicariously through the movie. He brought his right index finger to his face and bit down on his knuckle fighting back the excitement. Finally his minion had arrived in the Mystic Village of Shadows, the final resting place of the passed Orlouge. Lloyd watched everything through his eyes, controlled his every move as if he were operating a puppet with pure mastery. His newest monstrosity disguised as a man resembled him in a way. They shared the same hair color and style, even the same body frame. Yet there was something different, but from underneath his black hood his face was hidden with only the tips of his white hair dangling in full view. Anyone who knew him would have to look twice to tell the difference.

The Village kept to its namesake, a dark and almost depressing scene upon first entering. The streets of the village were nearly empty Lloyd noted as Kamile, the puppet he used for public affairs, made his way up to the graveyard. The crescent moon was high in the sky as Kamile walked up the unkempt road to Kyla’s tomb shovel in hand. A thin layer of fog covered the ground, moving gracefully for each of Kamile’s steps.

“There it is…” Lloyd hissed when he saw the view of the tombstone he was looking for flashed upon his monitor. Kamile had made it to Kyla’s resting place, and by the shroud of night he planned to unearth her remains. Lloyd bit down hard on his knuckle letting a small amount of azure blood drizzling down his white teeth. His jitters were beginning to get the best of him as he controlled his puppet. Kamile dropped his bag down on the ground by Kyla’s tombstone. The zombie gripped its shovel with both hands and immediately stuck it in the soil of her grave.

"You did very well son." Lloyd said to himself trying to sound as close to his father as possible. "I always knew you would impress me. I never should have spent more time with your sister. You were always my favorite and I just love you present." Lloyd finished before breaking out in chaotic cynical laughter. "Yes... Yeeeeesssss. That's what he will say you'll see, oh yeah you'll see."

[Silence Sei]

Chateau Drantrak was home to the Shadow Magic Trials of the Mystic race and as such, reflected the potential for the arts that roughly half the race yearned for. While the Trials were held in their own building the first test was surviving the quiet of the village in order to make it to the large, black, crystalline structure. Chateau Drantrak did not have the average sounds of a town at night; no crickets that sang their songs, no awkward wind to break the stillness of sound, not even the gentle pops of fires as they burned within the houses that dotted the area.

Chateau Drantrak only recently started to rebuild from the various disasters that befell it. First, there was an incident between one of the townships chosen sons, Terry Rouge, and his best friend, Steppenwolf Orlouge that made most of the latter’s family relatively unwelcomed in the shadow village. Next, the Knights of Dawn discovered the location of the Mystic home and raided the place, leaving most of the magically enhanced humanoids without a life or home. Kylan Orlouge’s quest for power did nothing for the town after she depowered most of the Mystic race and turned their blue blood red. If not for her son, the widely regarded savior of the Mystic Massacre known as Akiv Orlouge, they would have been a people holding on to the last vestiges of hope.

The final tragedy came from the death of Kyla Orlouge. The young girl’s brash decisions lead her to her doom, her body too far gone to be regenerated by way of magic or technology. Her biological and adoptive fathers, Niche and Sei Orlouge, both agreed with one another that Chateau Drantrak would be the home of her final resting spot. It was the home she had been taken away from, and it was where her mother, brothers, and cousins were buried. The Ixian Knights already made a ‘grave’ for their beloved daughter in the garden where she would spend most of her free time, so her true plot held a deeper significance for family.

Every few days, Sei Orlouge would come and visit the tomb of the girl he spent so much time with. The golden ring on Sei’s right finger was the only thing that kept the strategist from the ill effects of the shadow town. He would give her new flowers and remove the old once, polish the marble headstone and just sit and talk to the former warrior as though she were still here. The quiet calm of Chateau Drantrak now helped the vigilante find peace and counsel, and the time to reflect ‘with’ Kyla was starting to lead to better decision making from the youngest Orlouge brother.

Niche had opted not to join his baby brother today and his focus was instead upon his bedchambers. Sei had chosen a late hour to visit today, where most people would be safely tucked away in their beds. Each of his steps upon the grass seemed to carry through the air as he moved. Gray marble headstones lined the grass, each one kept as polished and smoothed as the next. The Mystic looked down at the bouquet of purple and white flowers he decided to gift his deceased daughter with today, a smile upon his face as he pondered on whether she would have liked the arrangement or not. His eyes gazed upwards to see another form at Kyla’s grave, several feet away.

An eyebrow perked up as Sei paused and watched this figure. None of his family told him they also had plans to visit Kyla today. He watched as the person stood for a few minutes, the occasional glimpse of pale skin reflected in the moonlight. Ciato, Sei’s brother, had an alabaster exterior about him, a trait he passed on to his dozens of children. Why would one of the litter—

Sei’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as the moon reflected the steel of a shovel’s spade. The tip of the tool was already buried in the dirt where Kyla laid several feet below. His body trembled at the sight before him, his hands balled into fists so tight the thorns of the flowers he held pierced his flesh and ran streams of blue out of his palms. He threw the flowers down and darted straight towards the figure in the night, his hands already deep into his robes as he withdrew his Gemini Blades and sought to cleave the intruder with the weapons from the waist up.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Sei screamed with all the rage of a true father.

[Lloyd]

Kamile, Lloyd’s body double, began shoveling at the soil of Kyla’s grave. The dirt was still loose even after sitting for a month so it was easy enough to get large shovels full. The young shadow mystic was completely content in his hidden space controlled Kamile as if he worked a puppet on strings. Everything seemed like it was going to go seamlessly until Kamile heard the most world shattering phrase. Telecommunicated directly to Lloyd through thought, the son of Ciato the Alabaster Bastard knew who was here.

Lloyd shivered with utter excitement as he recognized his dear old uncle. Kamile turned quickly in mid shovel, and threw a spade full at Sei’s face before retreating a few feet back. His long gray cloak dancing around him as the thrall spun his spade like a spear. Kamile was the best work Lloyd had done since he and his father had come to their understanding. In order to be the best weapon he could the young mystic took it upon himself to not only bring this body back to live, but to also restore it as best he could to appear normal.

“It’s been a long time.” Lloyd’s corpse gawked at his most powerful of family. Kamile planted his spade into the ground beside him, and began to clap his hands. This was just one of the psychotic spawn of Ciato’s mannerisms. “Yes yes yeeeesssss…” he said softly getting louder with each word. “Oh lucky day, lucky day. I mean night!” The spruced up corpse clapped in perfect meter to his words.

Sei appeared confused, but not disoriented in the slightest. He was strong warrior, god, and even if Kamile was up to it Llyod wouldn't be able to compete with him. It seemed to just be bad luck that he of all people would come to ruin Lloyd’s fun time. Oh well, I guess I can always just spruce him up again. Lloyd thought to himself as he slowly caressed the Violet gem he watched intently on.

Quickly and without warning Kamile gripped his spade, ripping it from the ground and walk up to Sei as he finished rubbing the dirt from his face. “Why would you attack me? Don’t you know who I am?” Lloyd said through his corpse. “I was just here to pay my respects.” he billowed out laughter and grew quiet again. There was no pattern, no rhythm that Lloyd fallowed. “I know you wouldn’t want to hurt you nephew would you." Kamile planted his spade once more and began to pace back and forth behind it. Sei stood proud in front of his daughter’s grave, protecting it firmly from Kamile.

[Silence Sei]

The way the would-be stranger talked to himself easily gave away his identity. Sei growled as he wiped away the dirt from his eyes and Lloyd began to explain his intentions here. The nephew of Sei Orlouge was not known as a being of compassion. In fact, Ciato's progeny was more often than not demons that hid behind a face of angelic wings and halos just before they stabbed their targets in the back. Sei's blades sheathed as what he thought was his kin began to pace around the planted spade between them.

"Then pay your respects, Lloyd Orlouge," Sei's 'tone' remained serious, devoid of the gentleness that came with his reputation, "but you will do so with me standing watch over you. Forgive me if I don't find your intentions here less than devious." His eyebrow twitched at the thought of what could have happened had the Avatar of Alerar not come to visit his deceased adoptive daughter. A chill ran down his back as he thought about what Niche, Sei's brother and Kyla's biological father, would have done in this situation.

The thought of this poor boy being ripped to shreds by the bare hands of the ninja-like Orlouge made Sei shudder. Though his trust of Lloyd was quite fragile, the mute Mystic would not have condoned such actions. The smell of fresh dirt dared to give away the motive of the maniac mortician. Sei crossed his arms as Lloyd stood before him and suddenly stopped and turned his head towards his uncle. As Sei looked the boy in the eyes, something flashed in the mind of the telepath.

This man, whomever he was, did not have cat-like slits in his eyes. Every single one of the Litter gave away their demon heritage thanks to the cat-like pupils gifted to them by their mother. This man looked remarkably liked Lloyd Orlouge, but looks in this instance were quite deceiving. Sei reached for the dual chakrams on either side of his hip as his eyebrows furrowed downwards once again. "You have about three seconds to tell me who you are and how you are related to Kyla before I alleviate your empty head from your shoulders."

[Lloyd]

Lloyd bit his lip as he slowly dragged his forefinger across the purple shard lodge in front of him. Sure he imagined running into some interference whilst he was on his mission, but running into his bloody uncle was not what he had in minded. He let out a light wince of pain as his sharp teeth pieced his own lip. He raised a hand and covered his mouth as he intently looked on through the eyes of his minion.

“Really?” Kamile asked, clearly gesturing that his uncle was correct with his first assumption. He slowly removed his top hat and pushed back his hair only to reveal a large scar ran along the full length of his forehead. It seemed to outline his face farther down but less visible compared to that which he was showing. “Can’t you recognize you nephew’s work when you see it?” Letting his hair fall back down Kamile reached for his spade, not in any threatening manor yet deliberately enough to warrant a Sei eyeing his closely.

Back in his secret location Lloyd hissed at his uncle for interrupting his meeting with the dead. After the stories his father had drilled into his head about his Uncle, Lloyd knew that he had a better shot of just wrapping this up and leaving only to return at a later date. He was a busy man after all, Sei can just babysit Kyla’s grave forever. And when he did leave then Lloyd would get what he came here for. There was something about his cousin that the young mystic couldn’t stop obsessing about. In life Kyla always had the most beautiful eyes, like two azure crystals gleaming with energy.

He wanted them…

Gripping tightly Kamile raised his spade up and rested it on his shoulder. “If this wasn’t as clear as I thought, even to you Uncle, this is my body double. He is much like all my other works, dead and lifeless, yet he does bear a striking resemblance to me doesn’t he.” Coming from Kamile, this might have sounded like rambling nonsense. But Lloyd was sure that Sei, the mighty, had figured out what was going on. “And as far as far as I’m concerned we are done here, I’ll just come back when you and your brothers are indisposed. You can’t guard her forever.” With these last word Kamile turned to leave the grave site. Assured that his Sei wouldn’t act to hastily and attack while his back was turned. “And besides, wouldn’t you like to you beloved daughter again? In time weather you around or not she will be mine.”