Nobody's Girl; [Ask First]

Liseran squeaked at the sudden mention of her name, a very uncharacteristic, mousey squeak. She tugged on her hood to lower it more and cleared her throat.

"Err...yes," she said stiffly. "Not that it's of any importance at the moment."

The two crossed the street where the other alley laid. Liseran quickly went over the cloth that said explicitly not to go over it, and pulled out her bells. It was a little darker here since the light was facing the opposite direction, so she quickly called out a Cartic mark of illumination and placed one over her head and another at her feet.

"We'll be able to see better with these," she said as she raised another Cartic mark and made it hover over Valen. "She must not be too far off. That poor thing..."

Indeed, they could hear the girl's cries up ahead. There were a couple of turns, but it shouldn't have been too hard.

"So do you have a name?" she asked as she walked forward. "And what brings a Cantus-user all the way to heavily-guarded festival?"

"And how pray tell could you tell I'm a cantus user?" he questioned back. "If you must know, I came here to gain some perspective. It's not like I was planning on putting on a show."

"Easy," Liseran said. "It was your construct of magic. Being a little familiar with both kinds, I can determine it a little more clearly than others. For one, there was an absence of Cartic marks. Two, your method. Cantus is often willed or spoken rather. Cartic marks are a little different. It's a bit like graphing something out of the dots and aligning them. Well...in my opinion, anyways. Three, I was taught to detect Cantic activity."

Liseran made a left turn and looked as far as she could down the path ahead of them.

"My, well, father wanted to make sure I knew a Walpurgis when I see one," she said. "I won't go into detail about it, but such spells exist: Cantus-detection. N-not that I'm against Walpurgis!"

The last part had been added a little hastily and clumsily. She paused for a moment and cleared her throat again, which was now apparently a sign of her trying to gain her composure again.

"You see, I am one," she said. "...was."

Her voice quieted down. She took in a deep breath and looked like she was going to explain what she meant, but she stopped herself. The sobbing became more apparent. Liseran gestured for the stranger with her to follow her.

"Now, now, little girl, you don't have to be afraid," a low, courteous male voice said. "If you want, I can make all your troubles disappear. You can find your mummy. You can have your daddy brought back. All I ask in exchange is..a little bit of yourself."

Liseran stiffened and bit her lip.

"That bastard!" Liseran said. She fled off.

If Valen caught up with her, the two of them would stop to see Remi crying at a dead end and a large black winged-panther like being standing there cornering her. Intricate golden and white marks ran along his paws and tail, his eyes were a golden yellow.

"What do you say? Want to make a contract?"

"That's enough!" Valen's voice suddenly rang out, sounding dark and cruel as he approached the scene. His right arm was outstretched threateningly, as if beckoning the beast with his commanding tone. "I will not allow you to take advantage of a child!"

The Incantus turned around, its tail swishing behind it and its body blocking the little girl with any means of escape.

"Oh, my, my, what do we have here?" the Incantus said. "Stay out of this, mortal. This is none of your business."

"Mephis," Liseran said loudly, albeit she almost sounded scared, but obviously trying not to let it show. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?"

Liseran gritted her teeth and stepped forward, her hands clutching her silver bells tightly.

"Where's your collar?"

The Incantus mused for a moment and then shrugged its shoulders in a swift, elegant motion.

"I asked her to take it off. I thought I'd return the favor by granting her a wish."

Liseran bit her lip but said nothing. Instead, she raised her bell and made a quick 7 motion. Three Cartic marks appeared and as she outstretched her arm, they shot like strings of light at the beast only to be batted away by its wings.

"Fool!" the Incantus roared loudly, electricity sparking from its feet as it did. "You've kept me contained long enough! Little girl, get on my back. We can talk about your mummy elsewhere."

Remi looked at the beast reluctantly and shook her head. The beast sighed.

"Fine, I'll deal with these two first."

The Incantus glared at Valen before opening its mouth to create a ball of bright light. It spoke a word of some ancient language before it shot out at him.

"Look out!"

An explosion rang out, kicking up the dust and dirt in a cloud of debris, yet as it cleared, a shield floated in front of Valen, protecting him from the force of the blast. The construct and three duplicates continued to circle around him.

"You'll have to deal with three of us actually."

The hollow voice spoke as a phantasmic figure emerge from the ground, red runes etched along its body, a shield mounted on its right arm and a pendant twined around its left hand.

"How exactly do you know this one?" Valen questioned Liseran to the side, keeping his eyes on the winged-panther, waiting for an opening to attack without hurting the child.

"It's about time for you to chill," the hollow-voiced familiar rasped as it waved its pendant in the direction of the incantus. Under the creature's feet, a glacier of ice started to form to encase it.

Liseran's eyes widened upon seeing the new figure emerge.

"You're...you're in a contract?" Liseran murmured in surprise.

But her attention went back to Mephis as he smugly laughed.

"So this is how it's going to be," the Incantus murmured.

It raised its tail, which revealed to have two golden rings, and lashed it at the ground, shattering the ice as it batted its wings and went up in the air.

"Why go against me, old one?" the Incantus asked the figure. "I'm only doing what's part of our nature."

While Mephis was up in the air, Liseran glanced at Remi and decided to take the opportunity. She used her bells and rang them, making a two glyphs appear, one below Remi and one behind her. Remi yelped in surprise but was soon being dragged across the alley towards her.

The Incantus snarled, but its attention was still on Valen and his companion. This time, the Incantus swiped one of its wings, making three glowing vertical slashes in the air charging at Valen. It then turned its attention to Liseran.

"Give her back!" it demanded.

"Forget it!"

The floating shields took the blow of the attack, shattering apart along with the attack, kicking up more dirt and debris in a thick cloud. The sound of nonchalant applause sounded from where Valen was standing, his hands clapping sarcastically at the attempt.

"Wow, did you really mistaken a mere familiar as another incantus? I guess that's how showy my power is. But you're looking the wrong way buddy."

As the dusk cleared, it looked as though Valen was shrouded in the shadows of the dim alley, but it was actually a pitch-black figure shaped like the young man, clapping its hands in playful sarcasm.

"Yeah. When you live as long as us, you end up getting bored with the world. I don't really care about contracts and all this hoo-ha. I'm just here to watch the show."

In a sudden flash of blinding speed, the real Valen appeared above Mephis, his hand clasping an ethereal long blade, already wound back before he slashed at the incantus.

"Mind if we end this quick?" Fable shrugged mockingly. "I was really looking forward to getting a good sausage."

"I must be rusty," the Incantus said. "That's what I get for being held for so long."

When he looked down, Valen indeed wasn't there and the Incantus growled in both surprise and pain as Valen struck him. Its large body shrunk into that of a bright light that zipped onto the roof as a black cat.

"Pests," he mumbled. He glanced down at Liseran who was clutching onto Remi protectively. His eyes shimmered. "Don't worry, sweet child. I'll be back for you. And you, Liseran."

He was about to run away for good, but he paused.

"And good luck to getting her back to her dead mother."

The black cat ran off and jumped into another alleyway. Remi gasped in surprise.

"D-dead?" she said. "Sh-she can't be...!"

Liseran stroked the girl's head. "Now, now, we don't know that..." she said.

Liseran's hood had fallen off and it was obvious she was a little taken aback by everything. She glanced at Fable for a moment, a little wary, and then at Valen.

"I don't think it's safe to let her spend the night alone," she said. "Meph might come back. He's stubborn. When he has a target, he has a target."

Valen watched as the creature made its escape, too fast for him to react. Even if otherwise, it wasn't easy catching an Incantus without being prepared in advance. He didn't even want to use magic during the fair better yet than capture a millennia old creature.

"My my, what a dramatic twist. I wonder how the second act will go. I do hate it when they end a chapter on a cliffhanger. You can never bring yourself to put down the book for the night," Fable kept rattling on in such an aloof and carefree manner, completely opposite of the person whose shape it's mimicking. The familiar faded away as Valen canceled his magic.

"Is the girl alright?" Valen asked as he shook his hand to loosen his clenched knuckles. "First off, I want to know who you are and what that Incantus was."

He looked around warily while Fable approached the warlock nonchalantly until it stepped into his shadow and seemed to flatten and submerge itself until it blended into Valen's shadow without a trace, and yet the shadow seemed to move on its own with Valen doing anything.

"We should get moving too, before people come after noticing that ruckus," Valen muttered tiredly. "I just wanted to enjoy a simple meal."