CHAPTER 14

“Kendal!” Tobias called to the man loudly, taking two quick steps forward as he raced away.

Seth’s pistol was still smoking, his arm still outstretched.

Nadia was silent on the ground, the area between her brows having a deep gash where his bullet hit. Her eyes were open, her arm still in the air as though she were cupping Kendal’s cheek. The vampiress’s skin continued to decay, the muscles beneath nearly melting away as her body crumbled.


Tobias had a sad expression on his face, his mouth parted slightly as he stared after Kendal, beginning to shrink in the distance as he ran.

Vincent closed his eyes as Seth lowered his pistol, spinning it in his index finger before sliding the nose of it into the holster on his thigh.

The Valkyrie then cringed, raising the sleeve of his uniform to his face as the stench of Nadia’s slow decay began to overwhelm them.

“Egh…Who smells like a mangy mutt now?” Vincent growled at the stench, his mouth grimacing in his disgust.




Tobias was preoccupied watching Kendal in the distance, his head tilted to the side, his hands clasped together in front of him.

The Harpie suddenly took off running in the same direction Kendal had, his wings shrinking behind him so that his pace was faster.

“Hey, Toby, wait!” Seth called from behind him, the Valkyrie’s eyebrows lowering in his slight confusion after his brother.

When Tobias continued to run, sprinting into the distance of tree stumps behind Kendal, Vincent sighed heavily, a hand on his hip, shaking his head a little as he lowered it again.

“Just let them be,” Vincent responded to the Valkyrie’s call-out, raising his head to watch Tobias’s white body blending in with the snow, before fading into the tree stumps.


Some distance away…

I failed you!

I failed you like I failed Gerraint!

Kendal’s breaths came out in harsh pants as he ran, his eyes squeezed shut, his fists clenched tight.


I’m going to fail Bedivere!
Fail my father!

Kendal finally stopped his run, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

I can’t do this!
I just can’t!

He dropped to his knees before falling forward onto his hands, his teeth still clench.

Within Kendal’s mind, a fond memory suddenly surfaced, clouding out the world around him.

“I can’t do it…I just can’t…” Kendal whispered, clutching a silky material in his hand, a golden sash. The blonde man’s head was lowered, staring at the floor in shame. He was standing in the middle of a lavished room, with large tapestries and unnaturally large portraits of a royal family around him.

“Can’t do what, sire?” a man’s voice asked him gently, and Kendal slowly raised his head, turning it to look over his shoulder. His eyes were wide, frightened, not knowing anyone else was in the room with him.
Behind him, Gerraint had his smirk of a smile, his hand resting against the doorframe of the room Kendal stood in. The knight was not in his normal attire of metal skin, but instead, he wore the Bedivere’s uniform of blue and gold.

“I…I wasn’t aware of your presence, Sir Gerraint,” Kendal said formally, turning to face the knight. Whatever weakness Kendal had shown was now gone, standing like a proud king in front of the knight.

“Forgive me, my Lord… Your father requested I escort you to the ceremony,” Gerraint replied, the hand on the doorway moving to cup over his stomach, bowing forward to Kendal.

“Did he?” Kendal chuckled lightly, now smiling at the knight, who in turn, raised his head, his smirk returning, nodding his head once in response.

Kendal shook his head, turning to face the portraits of the royal family before him.

“…Sir Gerraint… I am to be crowned Prince within the hour…officially stating that I shall inherit my father’s right as king,” Kendal said quietly, his blue eyes moving slowly over the different shades of skin in the portraits.

Gerraint remained silent, like a soldier would when spoken to by his superior.

“Speak with me…Man to man,” Kendal continued quietly, urged on by the gentle nod from the knight. “Will I succeed in my reign as king?”

Kendal’s eyes lowered to the floor, his eyes growing taut as he said the words, not sure if he should be embarrassed by sharing his personal struggle.

There was a silence, before he heard a low chuckle.

Kendal raised his head, nearly glaring at the knight that laughed at the door, smiling at him even more.

“Do you mock me?” the Prince asked timidly.
“Not at all, your Majesty,” the knight replied, slowly taking a few steps towards the blonde man within the room.

“In all honesty…” Gerraint said quietly, raising his hand to pull the golden sash from Kendal’s hand.

Kendal was surprised, his mouth parting as he watched the knight take the cloth from him, wondering why the knight was unafraid of repercussions.

“… if you remain as strong and brave as the soldier I’ve seen in you…” the knight said to him, beginning to unravel the golden sash.
“…or as honorable and virtuous as the man I know…” he continued, slipping his arms around Kendal’s waist.

Kendal was surprised, his mouth opening as though to object, but when he noticed the knight was simply pulling the sash around his back and hips, he closed his mouth, blushing at himself.

“… then you shall have a glorious reign as king,” Gerraint said as he began to knot the sash on the corner of Kendal’s belt.

After the initial surprise of the near-intimate touching, Gerraint’s words began to sink into Kendal, his self-doubt fading with each passing second.

“Do you truly believe that, Sir Gerraint, or is there some sort of evil scheme behind your words?” Kendal teased, not wanting to admit that the knight’s words had helped him.

Gerraint’s face was barren of emotion for a moment, before a small smile came to his lips.

“I have my reasons,” he smiled with a slight giggle, and Kendal was unable to resist, chuckling along with him.

“And what are they, may I ask?” he replied, enjoying the short bonding time they had.

At his questioning, Gerraint remained silent with his smile, his eyes lowering to the floor as he stepped back to examine Kendal and his uniform.

“…It must be a frightening thing… to have the responsibility of a kingdom upon your shoulders,” Gerraint said in an understanding voice, placing his hand on his hip as he tilted his head at the shorter man admiringly.

For once in his life, Kendal felt smaller than a man as Gerraint’s gaze remained on him. He ducked his head slightly, trying to hide his face behind his hair.

“It is…and I… I don’t know if…” Kendal whispered lightly to him, breaking off as his face flushed.

There was a moment of silence, before he saw Gerraint’s shined boots appear on the floor just before him.

Gerraint’s finger then cupped his chin, raising his head slowly to face him again. Kendal’s cheeks had not yet fully drained of his blush, and he nearly bit his lip in his overwhelming embarrassment, no doubt reddening his cheeks further.

The knight saw it, but did not comment, merely smiling as he always did.

“You can do it, Valerian… I’ve seen the king in you many times before,” Gerraint consoled, resting his hand on Kendal’s shoulder, giving it a sturdy shake.

Kendal paused a moment, his blue eyes dropping to see Gerraint’s hand on his shoulder. The knight saw the look, quickly beginning to remove his hand, when Kendal suddenly reached out, grabbing Gerraint’s wrist before the hand was completely removed.

He quickly raised Gerraint’s hand, placing it against his cheek, laying his own hand flat on top of his to hold it firmly there.

For once, the knight had a surprised look on his face as Kendal held his hand to his cheek. Kendal’s eyes were closed, not able to look Gerraint directly in the eye as he expressed his feelings towards him.

“My Lord?” Gerraint whispered to him in question.

“Val…Please, just call me Val…” Kendal whispered in return, his eyes finally opening as he removed Gerraint’s hand from his cheek, but continued holding it between their bodies with both of his own hands.

Gerraint paused another moment, his eyes softening, squinting a little as he tilted his head at him, before his parted lips closed, smiling at him almost sadly.

“Yes, Val…” Gerraint whispered to him, not pulling away from the hold Kendal had on his hand.

This comforted Kendal in his advances, and an crushing feeling shot through his body. The blonde, soon-to-be Prince stepped forward, throwing himself into Gerraint’s arm, hugging the man around his ribs.

When Gerraint’s arms returned the desperate hug, Kendal began to sob uncontrollably.

“I can’t do it! I can’t! I just can’t!” Kendal cried into his uniform, clutching the knight’s blue jacket from the back. Kendal’s entire body shook in his fright, and warm, salty tears escaped his eyes.

“Yes…you can,” Gerraint whispered in return, and Kendal sniffed, before leaning back enough to look up into his eyes.

“How?” Kendal whispered, the salty trail of tears still evident on his cheeks.

“Because…” Gerraint replied quietly, his eyelids blinking twice real quick, as though he wasn’t sure what to say…or how to say it.

“Because…I’ll be here for you…” the knight whispered, a soft smile to his lips.





Kendal remained on his hands and knees, his hands gripping the snow tightly.

But you’re not here for me now!

I can’t do it without you, Gerraint!

A warm tear dripped from Kendal’s eye, sinking into the snow, becoming one with the ice.

Kendal pushed himself onto his knees, resting his hands on the top of his thighs.

And it’s all my fault…

The blonde man continued to weep, tear after tear rolling down his cheeks, before he let his head fall back, staring up into the sky as he cried.

“Gerraint…I miss you so much,” he whispered to the soft, puffy clouds overhead.




Behind Kendal, Tobias took slow steps forward, the crunch of his boots muffled in the snow as he stopped a few feet behind the crying man.

Tobias’s head was tilted to the side, his eyes as sad as Kendal’s, his wings curved in his sympathy.

The Harpie then ran forward quickly, dropping to his own knees as he threw his arms around Kendal’s neck from behind, hugging the man’s back tightly against his chest as he rested the corner of his head against Kendal’s hair.

Kendal gasped quietly, surprised at the Harpie’s sudden embrace.

Tobias’s hold became tighter as he continued to hug the man, squeezing his own eyes shut tightly as though to hold in his own tears.

Kendal sobbed even harder now, resting his hands against Tobias’s wrist, taking short breaths between his long moans of emotional pain.

The Prince’s cries continued as the Harpie held him in the snow, the white forest quiet, his cries loud against its silence.



Back at Nadia’s grave…


Nadia’s body erupted into flames, the flesh, or what was left of it, quickly igniting, the vampiress’s body becoming engulfed in them.

Vincent brought the blazing ends of his fingertips to his mouth, blowing out the little campfires upon each nail like candles on a cake. The skin of his fingers smoked slightly after he did, floating up into the sky, disappearing into a breeze.

Seth’s hands were on his hips, his green eyes on the flames as they devoured what was left of Nadia’s body.

Vincent’s gray eyes glistened against the crackling fire, shining brightly as he watched them with a hint of a smile while they burnt the flesh into cinders. He narrowly blinked, as though he didn’t want to miss a second of the fire doing its work on the corpse.

The Valkyrie frowned, at the sight, watching as the flickering flames began to fade into the air like smoke, leaving only a pile of ash in the spot where Nadia’s body once lay.

The two Pariah remained silent, merely staring at the gray ash, before Seth glanced over his shoulder in the direction that Kendal and Tobias had run off in.





“Afternoon, gentleman,” a young voice suddenly said out of blue sky, and Seth and Vincent instantly became alert, their eyes quickly searching for the voice’s owner.

Seth’s hand quickly whipped the guns from his holsters, raising them up at the tree stumps in a circle, before looking up, searching the sky.

Vincent’s gray eyes slowly moved from one side of the site, to the other, when gradually, something moved from behind a tree to his left.

“Seth,” Vincent husked to the Valkyrie, and Seth instantly turned his guns in the direction.



From behind the tree, a short man, or boy, stepped out, calmly standing near a tree stump with his arms at his sides.

He wore a white cloak tied around his throat, but from within the opening of the cloak, Vincent could see the boy was armed with two pistols and a strange looking blade strapped to the front of his thigh. His uniform’s pants were a dark color of blue or black, his buttoned-coat above a matching color.

Vincent couldn’t see the man’s face, as it was covered by the cloak’s heavy white hood, but his hair was slightly visible, curving out of the hood in sharp, straight strands.

The hair was as dark brown as the stumps around him, and beneath the dark cloak, eyes pierced out, as white as the cloak around his head.

Seth’s index fingers twitched near the triggers of his guns as he examined the man, with Vincent’s eyes locked on the boy, prepared for anything.

After a moment of silence, the man, eerily raised his hands slowly to head, his thin fingers grasping the hood, pushing it back with a light wisp of air, resting the hood down around his neck.

As the soft ruffles of the hood quieted around his neck, Vincent and Seth could see that the man was not actually a man, but a teenager. His piercing white eyes were now a light shade of blue, still watching them in his silence now.



Something about the boy seemed quite similar to Vincent, his mind racing over three hundred and twelve years of faces, trying to remember where he had seen this boy’s face before.



After a moment of examining Seth, the teenage boy’s frost eyes shifted over to Vincent, and a smile came to his lips.

When he did, Vincent nearly let his guard down, his jaw dropping a little, some of his calmness leaving him. Vincent’s pouty bottom lip began to shiver, about to whisper something, when the boy spoke.



“It’s so good to see you, Vin…Awake, atleast,” the boy said in a heavy, posh accent, his smile fading as he crossed his arms over his chest, a dark brown brow rising.

“Ro…Roarke?” Vincent managed out in his husky voice, Seth’s wings perking a little as he too, began to recognize the boy that stood before them.

The teenage boy paused a moment, his mouth closing into a firm line, his jaw growing taut.



“Who is this Roarke you speak of? Are you cheating me, Vin?” the teenage boy now said, hissing the last few words at Vincent in an extremely growl-like voice.

“Roarke…” Vincent whispered, taking one step forward, raising his hand in the direction of the boy. “You’re…alive?” the elf finished, his mouth remaining open as he stared into the boy’s ice-like eyes.

“I don’t believe this! Here I was, waiting nearly a millennia for you, and as soon as you wake, you go and cheat me!” the boy huffed in his adult-like chatter, turning his back to Seth and Vincent sharply, as though he were deeply upset with them.

Seth still had his pistols steady on the Roarke-figure, but the boy didn’t seem to mind, or even take notice to the weapons.



“Vincent… Is this some kind of magic?” Seth asked the elf, unsure of what to do as the boy slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder at them.

“If this is magic…it is one I have never studied before,” Vincent replied to him, his ash eyes still staring at the boy, who in return, stared at him.

“Magic!? What the hell are you blabbering about?” the Roarke-figure growled at him, glaring at Vincent almost furiously.

Vincent and Seth remained silent, staring at what seemed like an exact clone of Roarke, still not knowing how to handle the situation.

“It’s your call…What should we do?” Seth asked the elf.

Vincent’s pointed ears lowered flat against his head, returning a dark glare to the Roarke that continued to glare at him.

After a moment of this, a small smile came to the Roarke’s lips, slowly turning to face them again.

“Mm…Now there’s my Vin,” he said happily, raising his arms quickly to clap his hands together.

Seth misunderstood the action about to take place, thinking that the boy was about to withdraw one of the pistols on his thighs, so he fired a round at the boy, aiming directly for his head.

As soon as the bullet fired, the Roarke clone disappeared from the spot beside the tree stump, suddenly appearing on top of the tree stump just to the left of Vincent.

Vincent and Seth quickly turned, backing up a little as the boy popped from one spot to the next in less than second.

“Oy, what the hell was that for!?” he yelled at Seth, raising a hand to point a finger at the Valkyrie.

“Shoot at me again, and I’ll cut your bloody fingers off!” he then growled, his finger pointed directly at the Valkyrie.

Seth was unafraid of the threat, keeping his guns raised at the boy if he decided to attack.

“We have to find Kendal,” Vincent said to Seth, his mind trying to formulate a plan on how to escape from the Roarke clone.

“Kendal? You mean the Prince of Bedivere?” the Roarke clone commented as though he was all-knowing, a brow raised at Vincent.

“Why would you think such an absurd thing?” Vincent asked, hoping that maybe he could throw the Roarke clone off.

The boy began to chuckle, before taking a step forward, dropping off the stump and landing on his booted feet just a few yards from Vincent and Seth.

“Aye, always thinking so low of me. You haven’t changed a bit,” the Roarke clone laughed, his scarily white-blue eyes squinted in his humor.

“…If you’re not Roarke…then who are you?” Vincent asked, taking a step back from the boy, his cloak over his arms, hiding the fact that his fingers were already forming a magical attack.

The icy-eyed Roarke seemed to have froze, his eyes on Vincent in silence, his body unnaturally, inhumanly, still.

“…You…don’t remember me?” the boy whispered then in a sad tone, as though he were extremely hurt.

“You…You’re Roarke…” Vincent said, shaking his head a little.

A few feet away, Seth glanced over at the elf, becoming a little worried that he seemed to not know what was happening.

“Vincent, what magic is this? Roarke is dead,” Seth said, and before Vincent could reply, the boy snapped again.

“For Aurel’s sake, my name isn’t Roarke, and I am not magic!” he yelled at them, losing his temper once again. As though to recover, he cleared his throat, jerking his head to a tilt, cracking his neck loudly.

“Now…if you would let me ex-,” the Roarke clone began, when suddenly two large spheres of fire shot at him from beneath Vincent’s cloak.

Seth began firing his pistols non-stop, aiming for the boy as he stood there.

In the blink of an eye, the boy disappeared from his spot, Vincent’s fireballs hitting a stump of a tree in the far distance, Seth’s bullets splintering the stumps around where the boy’s body had once been.

In a flash, the boy appeared just before Seth in a mid-roundhouse kick, which successfully knocked the guns from Seth’s hand with a strong force. The pistols went flying several feet away from Seth, and the Valkyrie nearly growled as the boy landed his flying kick in the snow just before him.

Just as he appeared, Vincent’s purple wall of fire-like magic shot from his body, flying directly at the Roarke clone, who merely disappeared in a flicker once again.



The elf and the Valkyrie remained still, their eyes darting all around them, waiting for the boy to reappear.

Seth was about to run towards his guns, when Vincent called to him.

“No! That’s what he’ll be expecting…” the elf whispered the Valkyrie, and Seth paused again, his eyes glancing over his shoulder at the elf.

As he did, Seth’s green eyes grew wide with alert, turning to face Vincent sharply.

“Behind you!” Seth cried to him quickly, and Vincent was about to turn, his body already forming more magic, when he felt cold metal pressed against the scarf around his neck, the sharp end of it pressed into the skin just beneath his chin.

“…You’re both really starting to irk me,” the boy growled from behind Vincent as he held the knife to his throat.

The Roarke’s piercing blue eyes now looked at Seth over Vincent’s shoulder, and Seth watched as one corner of the boy’s lips twitched, revealing a sharp fang.

When the Valkyrie saw this, he was about to drop to his knee to grab his pistols, but the growling of the boy stopped him.

“Don’t move an inch, Nero ala,” he hissed at Seth, pressing the knife a little more threateningly against Vincent’s throat.

“…Nero ala? You speak the Old language?” Seth asked timidly, and the Roarke clone, tilted his head a little.

“Correct, but that is not what’s important right now,” the boy said then, calmer than he was before. He continued to hold the knife to Vincent’s throat as his other hand slowly moved before the elf, gently pressing his hand flat against Vincent’s chest.

Vincent glared at the boy from the corner of his eye, but didn’t reply to the boy’s unwanted touch.

The elf’s body began to vibrate as his hands emitted the purple aura around them, readying an attack silently.

In a split second, Vincent tilted to the side, moving with a force so quickly, he turned to face the boy, his boots sliding against the snow.

The boy wasn’t surprised by how fast the elf had moved, merely stood there with his long knife in his hand.

Vincent raised his hands, about to shoot off a bolt of lightning at him, when the boy appeared before him in a flash, shoving his knife through both of Vincent’s hands, impaling them on the metal blade like a shish kabob.

In the meantime, Seth went for his guns in the snow, dropping to one knee as he lifted to aim them, but the Roarke clone was quicker, withdrawing one of the pistols on his thigh, raising it just as Seth raised his.

The elf clenched his teeth, trying dissipate his spell before he conjured it on himself, a repeat of Roarke’s initiative on the battlefield. With a zap, the purple aura faded from Vincent’s hands, and he let out an irritated sigh, glaring at the Roarke evilly as his hands remained impaled together on the knife.

The Roarke clone was pointing his gun at Seth, while Seth, on one knee, pointing both of his pistols at him.

“You’re quick…for a Nero ala,” the Roarke complimented in his posh accent, speaking the Old language clearly.

“…What do you want with us, mostro?” Seth asked, speaking the Old language himself.

The boy smirked, a brow rising on his face, a teasing smile to his lips.

“…I was hoping this’d be without violence…but your dear Nero ala seems to be a bit trigger happy, Vin, and you know above all I respond well to…threatening behavior,” the Roarke said with a glare, his white-blue eyes piercing into Seth’s green as he spoke to the elf.

“Then what is it you want?” Vincent asked, his hands still caught on the blade.

“…I came to see you, Vin,” the Roarke clone responded in a light tone.

Deeper in the forest…

Kendal’s breathing came and went in harsh pants, his eyelids shaking once as he fought back his tears, his hands still resting on Tobias’s wrist, the Harpie still hugging his neck from behind.

Tobias had not said a word, merely holding the human in a comforting hug, his cheek and nose buried in the hair behind Kendal’s ear.

The blonde man blinked heavy lids, a tear sticking heavily to his eyelashes as he began to control his cries.

“…I’m meant to be some… hero… that I am not. I cannot save my kingdom…I can’t even save my friends… I couldn’t save Gerraint…nor Nadia…I’m no hero,” Kendal whispered helplessly to the Harpie, choking on his own voice, his eyes lowered to the snow before his knees.

“…But you’re my hero, Kendal,” Tobias whispered to him, still hugging him tightly.

Kendal’s back tensed at his words, and he turned his head to look over his shoulder. As he did, Tobias raised his head, smiling at him lightly, his eyes nearly shut as he did.

“How?” Kendal asked skeptically, light of breath.

“Because!” he began excitedly. “You showed Vincent, Seth and I mercy, even though we were at the lowest of the low. You treated us like people, like friends, even though we are only mere Pariah… You’ve done everything you can to help us, and…” Tobias said, breaking off a little as he began to loosen his tight hold a little on Kendal. “And you’ve been a great friend to me… I’ve never met anybody like you,” he said quietly, before raising his eyes, smiling at Kendal again.

Kendal blinked twice at the Harpie who was smiling so big, his eyes were closed. The human smiled slightly through his sadness, before it quickly left his face, sniffing once as his eyes lowered to the snow at their side.

“But… what if I can’t always be there for you? What if… I can’t save you?” Kendal whispered, his eyes still on the snow.

Tobias’s smile weakened as he tilted his head, his eyes looking into the distance at their side, before he quickly leapt to his feet, running around Kendal, plopping down into the snow before him. The Harpie’s bottom touched the snow between his bent knees, showing his flexibility as well as childish antics.

His hands were pressed into the snow between him and Kendal, and he smiled grandly again, his head still tilted as though he adored Kendal.

Kendal slowly turned his head toward him, looking at the Harpie in wonder. His eyes were still rimmed red, his eyelashes still wet.

“Then I can be your hero!” Tobias exclaimed once Kendal’s sight was on him.

“What…?” Kendal asked, and Tobias clapped his hands together, resting them against his own chest.

“I’ll be your hero! I’ll save you when you need to be saved, and be there for you when nobody else will!” Tobias said happily, smiling at Kendal with his mouth closed, his lips pressed together almost tightly as though he were about to burst in his adoration.

“…You will?” Kendal asked in a low, shaking voice, a tear escaping his eye.

It wasn’t a tear of sadness, but a tear of another kind.

“Yes! It’ll be swell! Think of all the adventures we’ll have,” Tobias said, clapping his hands together again. “I’ll be your knight, ready to draw sword and slay a dragon in your name! You know I would, too! The dragon will be all, “I’m a big, scary dragon!” and I’ll be like, “Oh, I don’t think so!” and I’ll jump at him with my swor-,” Tobias was explaining happily, when he was broken off.

Kendal had suddenly leapt forward, his hands on Tobias’s cheeks as he pulled the man to him, pressing his lips to the Harpie’s in a swift movement.

Tobias was surprised, muffled in mid-story by Kendal’s lips, the white feathers of his wings spreading, curving upward in surprise.

The kiss did not end quickly, with the human continuing to hold onto the Harpie’s cheeks gently with his fingertips, Tobias resting his own fingers on Kendal’s wrists that held him.

When the Prince finally lowered back onto his shins, leaning away from Tobias, he saw the surprised expression on the Harpie’s face, in his upturned wings, his lowered jaw.

“K-Kendal,” Tobias managed in his astonishment as the blonde man blinked at him, not at all embarrassed by the intimate kiss they had just shared.

His fingers were still on Tobias’s cheeks, Tobias’s fingertips still on his wrists.

“Kendal, I…” Tobias attempted to reply with a heavy tinge of pink to his cheeks, when they heard a gunshot in the distance.

Both of their heads snapped to their lefts at the gunshot, their hands dropping from each other, the sweet moment ending abruptly.

Tobias suddenly jumped to his feet, his wings arching.

“That was Seth!” he said in worry.

Kendal was quick to his feet after him, both their eyebrows curving in what seemed like anger.

“We should hurry back,” Kendal stated firmly, shooting off at a steady sprint in the direction of Seth and Vincent.

Tobias’s baby blue eyes looked to Kendal’s back, blinking his eyelids quickly in his surprise at the kiss they had just shared.

Suddenly, there was another round of heavy gunshots, and Tobias took off after Kendal, his pace speedy in his worry for his brother and his elfin friend.

Nadia’s grave…

“…I came to see you, Vin,” the Roarke clone responded in a light tone.

“It’s Vincent,” Vincent grumbled, extremely annoyed at the clone.

The elf slowly began to slide one hand off the blade, freeing it from it’s trap. He grabbed the handle, yanking the knife of this other hand with a low grunt, his hands instantly healing with a low glow of purple light.

The elf then threw the knife at the Roarke clone sharply, but he merely caught the sharpened end between two fingers, beginning to twirl it about playfully.

“Well…Vincent, I’ve come to bring your leader news on his vampire friend, and to check on my beloved. So tell me… does he treat you nice? If I hear otherwise, he shall lose his head,” the Roarke clone asked the question in his gentle tone, before saying the last sentence in monotone. His spun his curvy knife between his fingers, unafraid of the deathly sharp blade.

Before Vincent could answer, Kendal and Tobias came to screeching halts in the snow, both of their eyes wide on the Roarke clone.

In return, the clone’s knife became still in his fingertips, his scarily white-blue eyes shifting over to them.

“Ah! You decide to honor us with your presence, Prince,” he said, before his eyes roamed back and forth between him and Tobias. He raised a brow, before shrugging, sliding his knife back into the thick-leather sheath on the front of his thigh.

“I’ve come to bring you news on the whereabouts of the vampire you seek,” the Roarke clone stated formally to Kendal, bowing forward a little to him.

Kendal and Tobias had the expression that was once on Vincent and Seth’s faces.

“Ro-Roarke!?” Kendal exclaimed in his surprise, both he and Tobias’s eyes wide.

The Roarke’s clone face shifted quickly into his face of anger, his mouth opening to retort, when Vincent interrupted him.

“Oh, don’t get him started. He’s not Roarke, just some vagabond who looks like him,” Vincent said indifferently, his eyes closing during after the first sentence.

“Va-vagabond!?” the Roarke clone yelled, obviously furious with Vincent. “How dare you! If it hadn’t been for me, your happy, little arse would be dead by now! If I hadn’t found you in the battlefield, you would be dead with the rest of them!” he growled at the elf.

Vincent’s gray eyes flashed open, his irritation with the clone seeming to fade. Instead his face was with slight question.

“You…It was yo-,” Vincent began asking, but the clone interrupted him now.

“I grow weary of your ignorance, Vincerius! Here,” the Roarke clone quickly said, reaching into his white cloak.

As he did, Seth’s pistol clicked, and so did Kendal’s as he withdrew his, and they cocked them, aiming them at the boy in case it was an attack.

Instead of withdrawing any hidden weapons, the boy merely retrieved a battered looking book. Its cover was a muddy brown, torn in some places, revealing the yellowed pages within.

“I want you to read this. Perhaps then you will remember,” the clone said, tossing the book to the snow before Vincent’s boots.

“As for you,” he then said, turning to look at Kendal. “Domitian has been seen entering the town of Anivere, just north of here. If you wish to find him, I suggest you not dally on minor events, “ the clone scolded, and all the men knew he was speaking of Nadia’s death.

Kendal now glared at him, his eyebrows curving in his sudden rage at the clone.

However, the boy didn’t even seem to care, something of a reminiscent of how Vincent responded to anger.

“For now, I take my leave of you. It seems Vin has not regained his memories, so for now, he is useless. Read what I have given to you, and you shall see me again soon after,” the clone said with a quick nod of his head, before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

“Whoa!” Tobias exclaimed in amazement at the sudden disappearing act, staring at the spot for several seconds.

Seth and Kendal continued to aim their guns, before slowly lowering their arms to their sides.

Vincent’s eyes were on the book in the snow a foot before him, staring at it uncertainly.

After a moment of silence, the three other men began to take interest in the book.

The elf knelt to one knee, lifting the book from the snow carefully, before standing straight again.  

There were strange symbols on one side, stamped hard into the leather binding of the front of the book, as though it were a title.

Seth took a step towards Vincent as the elf’s eyes stared at the symbols.

As he did, Seth’s green eyes scanned over the symbols, before his eyebrows rose, his green eyes snapping to Vincent uncertainly.

“Vincent…” Seth said in extreme confusion, taking a step back from the elf cautiously, a shocked expression in his eyes.

At this, Vincent’s eyes rose, turning his head to the Valkyrie.

“What is it? What does it say?” Vincent asked, knowing that the Valkyrie had understood what the symbols meant.

“Vincerius, Le vi Principe di le Cecchia Regno de Cieli,” Seth whispered, his green eyes still wide, his guns at his sides.

Near Kendal, Tobias gasped, turning to face Vincent sharply.

Kendal glanced about in confusion to the brother’s sudden shock, or fear, at these words.

“What does that mean?” Kendal asked as he watched Seth and Tobias stare at the elf.

“Vincent, The lost Prince of the Old Heavenly Kingdom,” Tobias whispered, his blue eyes remaining wide at the elf.

What?

Vincent!

A prince!?

Vincent blinked once at the Harpie, before his eyes lowered back to the symbols on the book, running a fingertip across the embedded title.

“Me? A lost prince?” the elf whispered, his ash eyes staring down at the symbols.

For the first time, Kendal saw what seemed like confusion enter the elf’s dark eyes.