[HH] Dark Times in Dark Waters *FINISHED*

[seraaches]

Shinrai was, unusually enough, out in the gardens. With Ignatius gone, he felt like he was ducking away from his son more and more often. It was stressing him out. He had finally sent Ira off to make sure Se wasn’t getting into anymore trouble and turned his attention towards problems in the Court rather than the personal problems that were so constantly threatening these days.

After just a few moments, however, his mind was straying back to his son and he lost himself in worry over the boy. He wasn’t certain how long he was lost in his thoughts, but the back of his neck suddenly prickled and he realized that he was no longer alone.

”I’m not dealing with anything else right now,” he announced sharply. ”Either go find Ira or leave a write-up on my desk. I’ll look at it this evening.” He so rarely came here; he didn’t want the tentative peace that the gardens offered threatened.

[seraaches]

His feet took him into a garden, evidently, and the canine glanced around with a mixture of disgust—what a waste of space, time, and effort—and awe—for all that the whole area could be put to much better use, it was actually quite beautiful. Roses covered nearly every bush, the trees were tall and proud, and the grass full and green; there was nothing like this in the Lowlands.

He thought it was beautiful until his attention was arrested by the human sitting a short distance away, a notebook on his leather-clad knee and long green hair pulled back into a simple ponytail that swayed slightly when he made his pronouncement over his shoulder.

Zeus snarled under his breath as he recognized the human’s region instinctively. Infidel. He suddenly switched into stalking mode, crouching slightly and beginning to slip silently off to one side. The profile told the tale: a circle of bone made a ring around the right eye. They’d heard the rumours as they’d made their way across the regions, rumours that the Queen of Hearts was missing his left hand, that he had a bone ‘monocle’. ”The Queen.” This pronouncement was made to himself, but it was whispered just loud enough that his ‘shadow’ could hear it.

Shin watched the man go and sneered himself. He floated off the other way to get his first look at The Queen of Hearts that Zeus seemed to hate so very much.

[seraaches]

Rai kept his gaze directed pointedly on the notebook he held, but the feeling of being watched, a feeling that was infused with the prickling along his spine that bespoke deep hatred. He caught a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision, shifting instinctively to give himself a better chance of reacting. He felt his whip waiting in his mind, alert as well.

”Other side,” the weapon warned him and Rai saw a hint of brown to his left. Brown, a dirty, ruddy, poop-coloured Card and he already knew what it was, just not why it was here.

He called Enyo to his hand, notebook in the other, prepared to throw it as needed at whatever that green flash had been. His eyes shot up to see the snarling visage of a Lowlander dog he didn’t recognize. He glanced right and his heart stuttered. It couldn’t be. It. . . it just couldn’t be. His hand clenched tightly on the hilt of his whip, but he couldn’t move.

[seraaches]

When the whip appeared in the stallion’s hand, Zeus pulled his own dagger, ready to gut the jacktard then and there. But though the infidel looked straight at him, and even though there was the immediate flash of hatred and rage—obviously nothing compared to what Zeus felt towards the Marshdweller—the Queen looked the other way and froze, staring at nothing.

Shin was frozen as well, staring at the human . He knew this man. Knew it instinctively at the very bottom of his no longer real heart. He had no idea what the man was staring at, but he knew him. It couldn’t be. Light and Heaven, and an afterlife filled with hatred, regret, and a deep, desperate longing to be somewhere else, it couldn’t be him.

”Rai?” The ghost’s voice was plaintive.

Ha! He knew it! Zeus’d known forever but this was confirmation; the ghost would know his kin. The infidel was the little pispard that had killed his father. For a moment, nothing but rage and a need for vengeance filled him. Zeus lifted his dagger, readying a strike. He was unprepared, therefore, when this ghost flung himself into his face and began to scream.

[seraaches]

Shinrai stared at the ghost of his brother, eyes wide as he could do nothing more than just that. He couldn’t even begin to pinpoint what he was thinking—what he was feeling. There was elation to finally see Shin, relief to finally know, regret—deep regret—that he had so terribly failed his brother, and so much more.

Perhaps deep down he’d been hoarding a hope that Shin was still alive. That somehow his brother had survived as he had, and had escaped to live a better life. To live a life, any life. El had never encouraged that hope and, indeed, after a single time of voicing it, Rai had hidden deep within himself. So deeply, he only now realized he had been hoping it fiercely. And the pain at knowing it wasn’t true was a sharper dagger in his heart than the one the Lowland dog was preparing to try that very action.

”Rai!” the whip snarled a warning at him and he jerked around to see the canine lifting his weapon. He tightened his grip on the whip’s handle then realized that his brother’s ghost was screaming at the Lowlander. Wot the. . .?

[seraaches]

”You will not touch my brother! Wot the *&$$ do you think you’re doing? You’re not even worthy to look at him, you horrible, rotting piece of Lowlander trash!” Shin loomed in the dog’s face, making himself a distraction—an untouchable distraction—and hoping to give Rai time to recover from whatever shock had seized him. Perhaps it was simply that he had a high-ranked Lowlander standing in his Court.

Zeus growled at the ghost, for a moment unable to even see past the wretched shade and keep his eyes on his enemy like he needed to. He recalled himself, however, and grinned darkly, gaze still focused on Shin. ”I almost forgot myself,” he said quietly, as though immediately calm, though his hands still shook slightly with his need for revenge on this pispard. ”I was just going to kill him here and now, but, no. I’d rather take this Court and make him suffer as I bring forth an era of Lowlander might.”

Shin returned with his own snarling mask. The Court didn’t matter to him; Rai did. His brother was alive! He was well! Shin had to be certain that the stallion remained that way. How exactly he would go about that, the ghost didn’t yet know.

[seraaches]

Rai barely heard what his enemy said; the ghost of his brother was talking to the Lowland dog, and the dog was responding. No. It couldn’t be. He seemed to be living in a haze of disbelief suddenly, but that didn’t stop the stallion from rushing the Lowlander. He shook out his whip as he moved so it hung loose at his side, and then he snapped his right hand forward to grab at the dog’s throat.

”Wot did you do? his snarling words began out softly, but swiftly gained in strength as fear and rage reared their twin heads through his breast to swallow his heart. ”Wot did you do to My BROTHER?”

”Calm down, Rai!” his whip snapped deep in his mind, but he refused to acknowledge his weapon. The only part of his mind working with it was the part that told him to not use the whip’s poison; he had to hear the answer from the dog’s own mouth.

[seraaches]

With the ghost looming in his vision, Zeus belatedly realized that the stallion was rushing him. He cursed as the infidel managed to get a hand on him, but even though the pale human fingers tried to dig into his throat, the canine wasn’t too concerned. He towered over the smaller form in his bipedal. He showed more of his teeth at the Queen of Hearts, but it was some mocking semblance of a grin. The words, however, didn’t make any sense at first.

”Your brother?” he said mockingly. ”I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Shin moved to one side only after Rai managed to get his hand across Zeus’ throat, hovering now off to one side. He wasn’t certain why exactly his brother was so upset, but he thought it had to do with his own death, something he certainly didn’t blame Rai for. ”You’re an idiot, Zeus,” the ghost said scathingly, tossing his head. ”He’ll see right through you.”

[seraaches]

Rai bared his teeth right back at the dog, the unimpressed sneer from the canine causing him to shift to his bipedal form so he stood just an inch or so taller than the Lowlander. ”You are an idiot,” he agreed with his brother, voice going soft again. Shin was already dead. He couldn’t save him that way. Cursed Lowlanders! He would kill them all. But he could find a way to free his brother; there was no way Shin would choose to be bound to his killer. The dogs must have done something to tie him to this world. His fingers tightened into the canine’s throat. He already had a preferred method and it was, wonderfully, something the Lowlander would not survive.

”This is the last time I’m going to ask, cur,” he ground out through clenched teeth. ”Wot the h&$$ did you do to my brother? How did you bind him here? You’re going to release him or I’ll do it in a way you won’t live through!” Well, that was a bit of a lie; the dog wasn’t going to survive for long regardless of how it took to free Shin.

[seraaches]

Zeus kept his smiling scorn even when the horse switched forms; he hadn’t realized that these particular equines were so big. It didn’t matter, though; he could kill this beast without even trying. When the stallion repeated the ghost’s statement, the Lowlander hesitated; a strange suspicion wiggled into his mind. The horse didn’t look back towards the ghost again, however, so Zeus rejected the thought. Until the Queen’s next statement bout binding and then the suspicion bloomed into full acceptance, though it was entirely illogical.

”So, you can see the little pispard?” the Lowlander Queen asked almost nonchalantly, the disinterest heavy in his tone. His mind was whirling, trying to accept the fact that someone other than himself and the thrice cursed Trot could see the freakin’ ghost.

Shinjou continued to hover beside his brother, but his eyes couldn’t remain on their joint threat of Zeus. He couldn’t understand what they were talking about, but he was absolutely taken with seeing his brother in bipedal. Human was one thing—a thing of pride— but bipedal. . . he could see all of their resemblances. If he could cry, he would be weeping.