— Freldearnan Vestirgil, A History of Ageria: Post Rupture, page 69
Of all the things Emily had expected to find fun, wood carving was not one of them.
It had always sounded like the kind of hobby older men would pick up, but here she was, sitting at Mina’s kitchen table with a few blocks of wood, a small pile of cedar wood shavings, and some chisels and gouges. Granted, she wasn’t very good at it, but it was fun nonetheless, and it was certainly better than training till her body gave out.
Violet was far better at it. She was working far more efficiently at carving her wooden block into something resembling a torso, and watching her was like watching a master at work. She never made mistakes, and her movements were always so very precise and calculated that it was like she was planning six steps ahead before even putting pressure against her gouge. Emily envied her precision and wished she could match it in other fields. Then again, Violet has had way more time to practice than most. It was probably why she was so excited to show her how to carve dolls. She hadn’t had anyone to do it with before. Emily couldn’t complain, though. It was fun, even if she was terrible. And the smile beneath Violet’s mask was surprisingly cute.
Mina had left them alone with a half-warning not to ruin the table, but Emily was more worried about looking like a complete amateur in front of Violet. She had kept at it, following Violet’s instructions, but the torso she was supposed to be carving had come out as more blocky than she had expected.
Emily turned the block, and her hand slipped. The gouge caught awkwardly on a corner, shaving off too much wood. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Why is this so hard? I’ve seen children do it.”
Violet’s eyes peered up through the holes of her mask. Her book, which had been lying flat against the table, floated into the air and flipped to a fresh page. Her pen zipped from beneath the sleeve of her robe and began scribbling. ‘Are you calling me a child?’
“Maybe I am,” she teased.
‘I am no more a child than you.’
“Oh really?”
Violet nodded. ‘If anything, I would say I am more of an adult than you.’
“Aren’t you shorter than me?”
Violet let out a quiet giggle. ‘Perhaps. However, I possess two things that make me distinctly more adult than you.’
“And what’s that, hmm?” Emily folded her arms over her chest, only to then realize that’s precisely what Violet meant. “Oh, shut up!” she laughed. Violet laughed with her, and the sound came across as oddly strange. Violet could talk, but she chose not to. Hearing a hint of what her voice might sound like tantalized Emily.
‘Regardless of your age, you are doing quite fine,’ her pen scribbled. ‘You are just in need of some practice.’
“It’s not that bad, as it?” Emily held up the blocky torso.
Violet’s grin kept as she nodded. ‘If the person you wished to create was a rectangle, then it is exceptional.’
“Don’t you make fun of me! I’m trying!”
Violet nodded again, teasingly.
Emily sat up straighter and pointed her gouge at Violet. “Just you wait, when I’m done with this, it’ll be better than any doll on your shelf. You’ll be so impressed you’ll have to carve me a little crown to proclaim me as the best.”
Violet tilted her head slowly. ‘Is that so?’
“You better believe it! I’ll make an army of these dolls so big you’ll never be able to overthrow me. I’ll become the Queen of the Dolls, ruler of wood-people, and your peasants will have to bow to me.”
Violet set her tools down carefully and fully turned in her chair to face Emily. She crossed her arms. ‘Then I shall declare myself Regent of the Carved, and wage war on your monarchy.’
“You’d never win,” Emily shot back. “My dolls will outnumber yours, and you’ll have no choice but to surrender.”
‘And yet, you hardly possess one. There isn’t much to stop me from conquering you here and now.’
“I’m pretty confident that I could kick your army’s ass.”
‘You should not underestimate my dolls. You would be surprised by what they are capable of.’
“Then tell me, Regent of the Carved, what makes yours so special?”
‘Mine don’t look like they lost a bar fight with a spoon.’
“Alright, you know what?” Emily tossed down her gouge and stood, “We don’t need armies, we’re settling this here and now.”
Before Violet could even react, Emily lunged, practically tackling her out of her chair. Violet squealed as Emily pinned her to the floor and tickled her sides.
“Surrender, Regent, or face further wrath from the Doll Queen!” Emily laughed, taking in the sweet sounds of Violet’s voice as she kicked at her playfully, trying to knock Emily off her. Her notebook clattered to the table as her concentration broke.
Then, a knock sounded from the door.
Emily relented, and Violet managed to roll free, taking a moment to catch her breath. “Count yourself lucky,” Emily said as she made for the door. When she opened it, she was greeted by Lord Elric Dainford. The well-dressed man towered over her with his arms folded, and his eyes narrowed.
“Where is Miss Grimshaw?” he asked sharply.
Emily blinked. “Uh… not here right now?”
“I need to speak with her. Immediately.”
Emily leaned sideways and peered over her shoulder. Violet had the same irritated expression. “Okay, well… she’s kind of preoccupied,” she said, turning back to him.
He exhaled sharply through his nose. “I’m certain whatever it is she is doing does not weigh in importance to this urgent matter.”
Emily let out a long, bothered sigh. “Right… hang on.” She shut the door on his face, turned the bronze dial, and opened the door again. The world beyond the threshold shifted sideways. Narrow brick alleys passed by, and the air stank of metal and coal. “Mina!” she yelled as she leaned over the side of the stagecoach.
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“What?” Mina called from the driver's box.
“It’s Dainford! He says he needs to talk to you!”
“Tell him I’m busy!”
“He said it’s important!”
“Tell him to take care of it himself!”
“He doesn’t look like he’s going to take that well!”
Mina paused, and Emily could feel the irritation radiating up front like heat from a campfire. “Fine. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Emily closed the door and waited. A few moments later, Mina stepped through with narrowed eyes. She adjusted the dial again and opened the door to face Dainford.
“There you are,” he said. “Finally.”
Mina leaned against the frame. “Here I am…”
“They’re back,” he said bluntly.
A low growl escaped from her throat. “Again?”
“Yes. Again. Perhaps because you haven’t been doing your job correctly.”
“I have been doing my job. You just don’t like how I’m doing it.”
“No,” Dainford said, trying to step inside, but Mina didn’t budge, causing him to bump into her and stumble back. He paused, glaring at her. “I don’t like that you’ve turned this place into a sanctuary for sentiment. You’ve allowed yourself to be distracted.” He glanced past her with disdain toward Emily.
She's not a distraction.”
“She is beyond a distraction,” Dainford said sharply. “She is a project, a hobby, and one that could cost our town lives.”
Emily stood a few steps back, watching them like a child caught between two arguing parents. Violet had wandered closer now and stood beside Emily with her hands clasped in front of her.
“You know, you can be an insufferable, arrogant asshole sometimes,” Mina growled. “She is my priority. I am training her to keep this town safe. To keep everyone in Ageria safe.”
“No. Your priority is keeping this town safe,” Dainford snapped. “If you care so much about the girl, then deal with her in your own time, but do not put aside your job for her.”
“She is my job! And if you want to get technical, I do more for this town than just keeping monsters out.”
“Oh yes. Your ‘special deliveries,’” Dainford said, rolling his eyes. “How quaint. Smuggling herbs and trinkets from across Ageria in the blink of an eye. Useful as it may be for the few who use your service, it is not worth the cost of harboring a vampire.”
“Do you just want me gone? Have you forgotten that I own this house?”
“Your husband owned this house, Miss Grimshaw. But that amateur of a cobbler is no longer with us, is he?”
Mina’s entire body tensed, and she bared her fangs.
Dainford took half a step back.
“Talk about him like that again, and I’ll put you through the door myself.”
“And yet I still allow you to remain here,” Dainford said, trying to recover his composure, “under the clause that you fulfill your duty to protect this town. The Salvation were sworn to defend Ageria from beasts and vermin.”
“I’m not with The Salvation anymore.”
“Then pretend for a moment that you still have your fangs in something besides grief.”
Mina stepped forward. “Say that again.”
“Wait!” Emily said, moving closer toward the door. “What’s going on?”
Dainford glared at her, then back at Mina. “You haven’t even informed her?”
Mina took a calming breath. “It doesn’t concern her.”
He scoffed. “Well, considering you are putting all your time into her, I think it would.”
Emily groaned. “Can one of you just please tell me what the problem is?”
“The Sangrevoros are back,” Mina said under her breath.
In an instant, Emily’s stomach knotted. She hadn’t been sure what she was expecting to hear from Mina, but that certainly wasn’t it. A faint remembrance of pain surged through Emily’s left forearm, and she grabbed at it. “W-Wait? They’re here again?”
“Yes,” Dainford said. “They have returned several times now since you first burned my barn to the ground.”
Emily glanced away. “But I thought… Didn’t we kill them? All of them?”
“I did,” Mina said. “Every last one I found.”
“And yet,” Dainford added, “they return. Over and over. Each time you promise to finish it, and each time they come back stronger and in more numbers.”
“I’ve tracked them,” Mina snapped. “They’re not nesting anywhere consistently. I find one, I follow it, and it leads me to a different place every time. They’re scattered, they’re clever, and they’re not acting like they're supposed to.”
“Or perhaps you’ve simply lost your edge.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“And yet,” he repeated, “you’ve chosen to spend more and more time here with your apprentice rather than solving the very issue that threatens our borders.”
Mina turned her head slightly, glancing at Emily. “Everything I know, everything I’ve done, I’m teaching her so she doesn’t have to live through it the same way I did.”
“Nobility doesn’t keep people alive.”
Mina exhaled slowly. “Fine,” she said. “We’ll look again today.”
“Wait… we?” Emily said nervously.
“Good,” Dainford said sharply. “I’ll have you know they came for the pasture again. We’ve lost nearly all our sheep.
“Then buy more,” Mina snapped.
Dainford met her stare, then turned to leave. He paused at the door. “If they return, Miss Grimshaw… we will have to reevaluate whether you are still fit for this role. Perhaps it is time the town found someone less… conflicted. Controversial, even.”
The door shut behind him, and after a minute of silence, Mina groaned. “Fucking prick.”
The phantom pain in Emily’s left arm throbbed. It was such a strange sensation, like she could still feel the monster’s teeth sinking into her flesh, the way it thrashed her arm around in an attempt to rip it off. Emily took a deep breath, trying to push those memories aside, but they shone beneath her eyelids. The fire, the blood, all of it.
“T-They’re back?” Emily mumbled.
Mina took a few calming breaths before nodding. “They’ve been back for some time now. I didn’t want to tell you because of what happened last time. That was on me. You weren’t ready.”
“But—” Emily’s throat tightened as she tried to force the words out. “I didn’t listen to you.”
“And you wouldn’t have had the chance if I hadn’t brought you along,” Mina said firmly. “It doesn’t matter now. It happened, and you got hurt.”
Emily squeezed her forearm a little harder. “They’ve been coming back this whole time?”
“Every other night. It’s usually five or six of them. Every time they attempt to get into the pasture, and every time I manage to kill them before they do. One might get away, but it never leads me back to their nest. Hell, I haven’t even seen the Alpha of the pack yet.”
“How… how many are out there?”
“I don’t know,” Mina said quietly. “At this rate, there have to be hundreds lurking somewhere around Cresthill. I’ve killed fifty of them already, but they keep coming. Most of the time, I’m able to deal with them before Dainford realizes, but they’ve been coming at such odd intervals recently that it is hard to tell when they’ll attack. I guess last night was one of those times.”
“So he doesn’t even know about all the attacks?”
“And we’re going to keep it that way. If he knew they were coming every other night, I’d never hear the end of it.” Mina paused. “I should have been able to find their den by now…”
Emily was surprised by that. With how Mina was, she was sure she’d have found and destroyed the nest by now.
“I’ve searched the fields and pastures and forests around the mountain range, but I haven’t found the nest. I haven’t had much time to search.”
Emily chuckled nervously. “Maybe I am distracting you.”
“Admittedly, you are,” she said bluntly, and marched past Emily and Violet to her weapons room. “It’s my fault, though.” She grabbed a few things from the walls and handed them to Emily: a revolver in its holster and a sheathed silver sword. “Put these on.”
Emily hesitated. “I… I don’t know if I—”
“You are ready now,” she said and proceeded to the kitchen.
“No, I mean—what if I freeze again? What if I make it worse? I’m not like you.”
Mina gently set her hand on Emily’s shoulder. “Listen to me. You’ve been training for months now. You’ve learned how to fight. You’ve learned how to move, how to think. You know what these things are, and you’ve already survived them once. You. Are. Ready.”
Emily looked down. Even if she had gotten better over the last few months, it didn’t help boost her confidence. She wasn’t going to be able to argue her way out of this either. She would have to face these creatures again at some point. Hell, she was going to have to face vampires one day. If she couldn’t find the courage to face a mangy hound, how will she ever face Queen Lockhart?
“Alright…” she whispered, and strapped her equipment on.
Mina nodded and started for the kitchen. “Violet, I need you to go home for now. Emily and I have business.”
Violet nodded, but before she went to gather her wood carving supplies, she turned to face Emily and pulled her into a hug. Emily hadn’t expected it, and her arms were caught at her sides, making it difficult to hug Violet back. ‘We shall continue our war another day.’
She knew she was going to be okay this time. She was stronger now, and she was going to have Mina by her side this time. But still, what if she screwed this up again?
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