Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/8208157. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage Category: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi Fandom: my_own Character: Mirabelle, Venus, Evelyn, Neko_-_Character, Marie, Singe, Nebula, Violet, Azura, Adam, Ronan, Amilia Additional Tags: OC, O.C._-_Freeform, Evelyn_-_Freeform, neko, nebula_-_Freeform, Violet_- Freeform, Azura_-_Freeform, Adam_-_Freeform, Ronan_-_Freeform, Amilia_- Freeform Series: Part 1 of Book_of_Contention Stats: Published: 2016-10-04 Chapters: 2/? Words: 4851 ****** Hope of a Utopia; Book of Venus ****** by NeyaSaintClaire Summary Venus the Queen of one of the many kingdoms that were originally part of the United Kingdom. She was an old Battle Mage for hire. Now she has been pulled away from her kingdom and is in search for a so- called "Utopia". And Azura wants to resurrect an old friend of Evelyn. Evelyn is a mysterious demon-like girl who brings everyone together. ***** Waters of Hope ***** She sighed, not knowing what else to do. Her head pounded too many meetings according to her. She pushed back her dark purple hair. But who could blame her, the sound of people who spout their problems to a monarch who frankly doesn’t even care, isn’t such a fun job? Though they make it out to be easy, it’s actually extremely draining. So, of course, there was a sharp rap on the door. She looked up her eyes seemingly soulless, but this time, it wasn’t a peasant talking about how their sheep disappeared overnight. But when in reality there it is grazing on their pastures. It was a guard who had a helmet covering the face. Though there was a shadow and she could see the eyes, they were almost frightened. “What’s wrong?” She questioned urgently. Her heart beat quickened the moment she saw him, only her personal guards entered her room and this man was in the garb of a common guard, who guard the castle and the city surrounding it. She rose to her feet, making cautious steps towards the guard. “We don’t know, there is something deathly wrong with the animals. The horses have been killed and the cattle have all fallen ill,” said the guard in a worried tone. Of course, now she knew that the guard was a man. But it made her frightened to hear the trembling in his voice. “Take me to the field that the horses lay dead in,” she demanded in a clearly steady voice. He nodded, she left the room, she almost went unnoticed by her guards, they didn’t pay much attention to what was happening around them. They weren’t very good guards, but she could handle herself. The King didn’t have any heirs to the throne, he left the entire kingdom to her. A woman who was a bodyguard in a sense, she was a battle mage that worked for the most amount of gold they could provide her. Though this time he just kept upping the price for her to stay. Though soon after that, they were hunting in the King’s Woods. They were attacked by a thing that had a body of a lion, a tail of a scorpion, and the head of a beastly man, a manticore. “Queen Venus, where are you going?” Asked one of the private guards. He looked at her with an almost surprised look, she didn’t leave that room until the people that lined all left. Which was late into the night. Everyone wanted to talk to the peasant queen, as she was called in other countries. “There might be a new epidemic in my kingdom,” Venus told the man. She looked over at him with a very tense look resting on her face. They moved quickly towards the field, where the horses lay dead.   -   She stretched out, her eyes getting used to the midnight, moonlight. The moon seemed to smile at her as she moved across the streets. Her dark cinnamon colored hair hid beneath a long flowing cloak. She took each step with a purpose, she knew what she was going to do that night. With every step, she drew closer to whatever awaited her at the location she was walking ever closer to. Her eyes seemed to gleam, they did not seem to have a color, though they did seem to gleam in the blue light. She crossed her arms, the night was cold. That's when her skin began to crawl, the hairs on her neck stood on end, she turned on her heel. A smile almost crossed her lips. For some reason, she could help but smile. She almost had a perfect body and she was in a sense of the word, beautiful. That's when she could hear the footsteps of someone coming towards her. She pulled her hood down, slowly. She had pale skin and sharp features. "Hello?" she said with a worried, but the voice that was like silk. He stepped into the half-light. She could see his lips, his arms were crossed and he was wearing a finely tailored suit. "Who are you?" She questioned again. All she could hear was his slow breathing. She had begun to stare into the darkness. Trying to make out what his face looked like. “Mirabelle,” breathed the man. He spoke the words as if it hurt himself as if she gave him so much pain that he couldn’t hide it anymore. This made her feel uneasy, she wasn’t often cornered in a town square, by who seems to be familiar. That’s when he stepped into the light, it illuminated the so familiar face to her, it was a man from the town over. His eyes bloodshot and her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Her eyes made contact with his. He was covered in blood, though she didn’t know why she knew that he was coming after her for some reason. “Hello, um… Why are you here?” She questioned as she tried to find a possible escape route to the situation she was in. Though it sounded fairly idiotic she couldn’t just turn around and run the other way. There was a row of buildings and no way out from that way. She could try to make it into one, but sadly she felt that was little to none, no one was up at this ungodly hour and he seemed to know that. He was following his gaze, making sure that she could do what he expected her to, and that was run. The silence between the two was deafening. “Oh, just a midnight stroll. It’s so nice when all you can hear is the sound of the night predators, isn’t it?” He hissed. She didn’t understand still. Though her heart seemed like it was going to beat out of her chest, she didn’t show what she was thinking on her face. It continued to be straight, unwilling to give into fright. “I don’t understand, you didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?” She asked her voice no longer shaking. “It’s not safe at night. As you said there are night predators, and don’t you have a wife to get back to?” He began to shake his head, when she spoke about his wife, he was whispering all the while. Though all of what he was saying didn’t make any sense. He closed his eyes, and she moved quietly towards her destination and slipped into an alleyway far way from the man who seemed to be insane. She started into a sprint, Maribelle kept on pushing herself harder and harder towards the house just down the alley and take a right. She sprinted to the doorway. She began to pound on the door, wanting to get in right away. The door opened an elderly woman stood in the doorway, she looked confused. But soon after she laid eyes on Maribelle, the surprise faded, she was ushered inside. The warmth washed over her like the waves. It was heated by the fire lit and crackling and moving freely. The woman closed the door, not caring who could hear that she was. Though she might have if she knew about the man, the man who seemed to chase her because soon thereafter they could hear footsteps passed the doorway. A yell and something dropping to the ground, another yell, Maribelle looked up. The elderly woman closed everything up, knowing that is was long past curfew.   -   The nice cool air of the night brushed against her bare skin. She was running from the people who dressed her up in a sleeveless dress and paraded her through the town as a tamed wolf woman, a tamed animal to put on display. They treat their cattle better than that, and they are slaughtered for their consumption. She wasn’t like them, in fact, she was nothing like it was like the men and woman to call themselves civilized. They are not civilized, they are worse than the animals that they kill for their food. They take too much the woods around had begun to dwindle in numbers of prey for the wolves and other predatory animals that wander, trying to find food their families. There was growl from behind her, she looked back and saw the wolf that she called, sister. “Meine Schwester lauded ins, Wald!” She yelled at her sister. The red wolf ran on before her. Though she couldn’t go that far that fast she was faster than the men who were following her. There was a loud snap, and one of the heels that they put on her feet, she winced. In all of her life, she had never felt something so uncomfortable than when she was stuffed in a dress that was so heavy and these shoes that raised higher, even though she was taller than most men. She clawed at the dress’ skirt, soon she cut half of the heavy skirt. She grabbed the other heel and snapped off the other heel. She smiled as everything was lighter than she expected. Her long strides proved her to be faster, soon she reached the heart of the forest. Her eyes made contact with her sister, but something was wrong. Suddenly she noticed that she was caught in a game of predator and prey. Her sister finally caught a different smell than what she usually did. They had sprayed with her perfume, though it did make her sneeze.   -   “Evelyn you are hereby accused of using witchcraft and trickery. Now you will await trial, if you found guilty you will be burned at sunrise four days from this hour,” said a man. Who called himself a “White Witch”, even if it contradicted what they called being just. Though they were guilty of the same crime that she was going to be murdered for. Their warped sense of justice seemed to infect their brain, though she wouldn’t be put on trial by their logic. She could see what would happen four nights from now and she wasn’t about to die. Not until she met who she was supposed to and complete what she was meant to do. “I don’t suggest that,” she stated as a matter a fact.   “What is that supposed to mean?” He asked about to reach for her. “Did I misspeak? Or maybe it was something I said that made you act in such a way,” she said in a monotone voice. He looked at her, she seemed almost harmless, but none the less she had this blank expression. “No, but you will come with me. It is simply the law, we have guards if you don’t come with us peacefully.” He told her. Her eyes scanned the guards, almost like she was sizing them up. “It won’t work,” she said still in that flat monotone voice. He looked at her like she was absolutely out of her mind. “You are Evelyn, aren’t you?” He asked he was beginning to doubt himself at this point. She seemed more like mentally unstable than a witch. She couldn’t possibly take down four full grown well off men. But this entire situation was just simply insane. “Yes, I am in fact, Evelyn.” She said now staring at him with that blank look. “But I don’t see why it’s any use to you.” He looked at her again, feeling his heart pound against his ribcage. “Guards, she will be going with us. Can you escort her to the cart?” He asked, almost like he was pleading for them to save him from the situation he stood in. “Fine, it’s your own deaths, it’s not on my hands,” she said. She almost seemed to flick out of that tone, but it was just for a second. To a point that it made him feel even more uneasy. In her other voice, it was cold and angry, like ice. She looked straight into his eyes. “You're bothering me. Now fly, fly, fly away.” She added in that monotone voice. She raised her hand up towards him. Her face straight, and in a second there was a crack and he fell to the ground. His neck snapped, she stood there staring at the guards with an almost bored look in her eye. “What are you?” Asked one of them.   “I am everything that you think you see in the dark, while you lay awake. While you stare at your ceiling, your wife next to you, so if you don’t mind I would like to get back to my normal schedule,” she told them in that voice. “I have to go to Germany.” She walked passed the men who seemed dumbfounded, she turned on her heel looking at one of the men. “W-what d-do y-you w-want?” Asked the man. “Oh, and you will die in three days time. I suggest you get your affairs in order,” she said staring blankly into his eyes. “Now isn’t that something new. I haven’t seen that reaction before. I find you funny, you are like a bug that is dying of thirst and that is about a foot from the water. It’s a comedy to me… I guess.” She walked down the road towards the city. Though nobody knew when she came to the town of Salem. But she didn’t seem to mind being accused of being a witch, she seemed to know what was about to happen before it even did. To everyone in town, she was a very strange girl.   -   A small girl wandered around a graveyard touching each gravestone. She was humming a familiar, but at the same time unfamiliar song, it was on the edge of everyone’s collective memory, it was like an old nursery rhyme that no one can never remember. She sat down in front of an ornate gravestone. She had a smile on her face, though it wasn’t childlike in nature, it was more sinister. She sat there looking at the scrubbed name, though she could almost make out the very ornate style name. The man who laid dead six feet under the ground. Though he was decaying, but she didn’t care, she could work with just the skeleton. She’s had less to work with than what was provided for her at this moment in time. She touched the gravestone, she relived the moment of his death. He died of a large gunshot wound in the middle of his chest. She began to dig down to the casket underneath the Earth. His hand twitched as she dug down deeper towards him. “Azura,” he croaked in a hoarse, hushed tone. “Adam,” she said with tears running down her cheeks. Though she was only ten she was strong and happy. Her eyes staring blankly at the coffin that almost stared her down. She moved to the side opening the coffin, soon she was staring her brother in the eyes.   -   “Where are we? I want you to hurry up,” he told the coachman who stared at the dirt road. “I can not, we are nearing the town. So please stay there, my king,” he told him in a plain voice as if he had told him a million times. He was already bored of his own king. Soon they stopped into the town. Though it seemed questionable devoid of people. “Now we are here, get out please, my king.” He added. He jumped out of his carriage and smiling that dumb, forgetful smile that was worn by jesters and other people who make you laugh. Though he did find it rude that none of the villagers came out and greeted their King, the highest station there was. So he reached the town square and what met his eyes when he entered was the most horrid thing he had ever encountered. A sixteen-year-old girl sat hunched over  a bloody dead body of a child. She turned, her face covered in hot sticky blood, in her hands, she held the child’s heart in her hands, a large chunk bit out of it. A smile crossed her face as she stared into his eyes. He was frightened like a child who had a terrible nightmare and who ran for his mother. She stood up slowly her eyes still locked on him. She let the heart drop out of her hands. “Hallo,” she whispered, almost inaudible. He stared at her almost bewildered. He stepped back, she drew closer and closer to him. He continued to step farther and farther away from her, not daring to lose her gaze. She had begun to run, closer and closer, she was faster than he was and she almost tackled him. She dug her fingernails into his neck, blood dripping down his neck from the wounds that were caused by her. She retracted her hand when she was hit by a torch that was thrown at her by the coach. She cocked her head to the side like she was made out of circuits, with nuts and bolts. She grabbed the torch up, it was hot, but it wasn’t unbearable. She took it, pressing the torch to his face, her eyes widened as his skin began to blister and to get a reddish color. She stared him down, she was curious as she watched the life leaves his eyes. She had begun to laugh, and she threw the torch aside, standing up. Soon she was stood in the middle of a large blood spatter. The guard’s bodies laid around her as she stood with a very deranged smile plastered on her face. “Good job,” said Evelyn. Almost a look of disbelief in her eyes, though the rest of her face was still like stone. “Don’t think of attacking me, I know you understand me. I think I’ll call you Singe, that seems very fitting.” She lunged for her, grabbing at some part of her clothing. Evelyn grabbed her arm and flung her backward. She made a clicking sound with her tongue as if she was disappointed in her behavior.   -   “Parles-tu français?” She asked almost expecting him to say no to her. She was multilingual. She didn't want to cause a ruckus but he didn't seem the type to stray much from English-speaking norm in her country at this point. She was taught from birth how to speak French and then from the second grade to speak English. She was very good at speaking English though  she didn't know if she's if he spoke such other languages like German or something like Japanese. there were many people from many other countries who came to her Pub. Though she didn't seem to mind the new meat, they gave her more generous tips and things like that. Thus she didn’t mind that he walked into her pub. “No, do you speak English?” He questioned. She nodded accepting that he was of course from England or Ireland, it was fair to assume one or the other at this point. “That’s great, I would like something that’s good. It doesn’t matter what, just something I can eat.” “Of course, I know just the thing,” she told him in the plain voice, a smile on her face. She didn’t get that request often, once maybe twice a year. She walked back to the kitchen and told the cook that it was his choice and he handed her a plate. She walked over to him setting it down in front of her. Her steps clicked along back to the kitchen. “Wait,” he said grabbing her arm. “I would like you to come with me.” She was shaking, it was crowded Pub, though if she was forced out of there no one would notice. She wasn’t the kind of person to cause a scene, so no matter what would happen he would be in complete control. Though she was well versed in the magic of the mind. She stared into his eyes. “Let go of me,” she told him, strictly as if she were his mother, telling him off. Her eyes searching every inch of his face. “I suggest you let go of my arm.” “Permettez,” says a well-dressed woman. “Voici pour vous.” She added yelling at the owner. “Ah oui. Madame Marie, te voici,” she said speaking quickly. “Merci, Madame. Je ne sais pas ce que je ferais sans toi. Il an essayé de me saisir.” Her voice began to quicken, she was urgent. The man standing right next to them, she was talking quicker than he could understand. He knew little of the French language, though he did know some, but he wouldn’t be able to translate in his head if they talked that fast. The woman almost took offense to what he stood for, though she had never met him. The woman’s eyes looked back at her. “Êtes-vous sûr? Il ressemble à un lâche. Un paysan presque, Madame Amilia,” she asked almost like she was doubting that man that stood next to her. “S'il vous plaît, pouvez-vous me croire?” Amilia said quickly. “Très bien, très been,” she told them. She raised an eyebrow, staring at the man. She nodded and drew the sword that she was holding. She started into his eyes. Her look was enough for him to stop whatever scenario that he was running in his mind.   -   “That’s just wonderful,” Venus exclaimed in a sarcastic and fairly annoyed tone. Her eyes staring at the dead horses that laid there, their eyes staring at the sky. She almost felt sick to her stomach, her silver eyes started to water from the smell that emulated from them. She crossed her arms, clueless about what was happening. She stared as a woman and a younger girl stumbled out of the forest. They looked poor to the untrained eye, but it was, in fact, a ruse. Though she was trained and she could tell. “Venus, there seem to be people below inspecting the horses,” said one of her personal guards and she began to think about how idiotic they were. “You! There!” She called out looking down on them. One of them looked up almost like she had seen something as bright as the sun. The other kept her head down, though she could see her red hair poking out from the hood. She got no response and she was getting angry, people listened to her even when she was a peasant. Why aren’t you looking at me?! She thought angrily as she watched them. Don’t you know that you're trespassing? Venus started down the hill and towards the people who looked over a gray appaloosa. “Hello,” she whispered, “my name is Evelyn and this is my associate Singe.” “You do know that you are trespassing on royal land, right?” She asked cooling herself down. “Yes, in fact, I do,” she answered. “But none the less I would like to talk to you about these dead horses. You see I do have a cure for such an ailment.” She added as if she was sweet talking her. She raised her eyebrow. “Grab them,” Venus told her guards. “How do I know you didn’t cause it?” “You trust me?” “That is the extraordinarily thick-headed person that I have come into contact with,” Venus told her shaking her head. Her eyes scanning her like she was a machine, trying to figure out what was off in her outfit. That’s when her eyes landed on the necklace. It was a choker and a charm swung from the piece of fabric, it was a skull. She searched the other woman and she saw the paw print hanging from her neck. She instinctively touched her two needles hanging in an X, her eyes widened when her blood suddenly run cold. Like she was doused in cold water.   -   “Le, kekkōdesu. Watashi wa mushiro naidarouga, tazunete kurete arigatō!” She said with a wide smile. Though she could tell that the man she was talking to couldn’t get the message. “Mā, jikai.” The large man accepted. “Migi, Hisako?” She shook her head worried about him. She walked down the cobblestone road her eyes staring at everything but said road. She fell down after tripping on a root from a nearby tree. She picked herself up, she dusted off of her white dress. She walked down the already long and winding road to the forest that laid just beyond the city’s limits. It was a dark and mysterious place full of animals, that would love to have you for their lunch. As she walked down the now dimly lit path she could hear the noises of woodland creatures stalking her every move. She hummed and she felt like she had heard this story before. She pulled the book out of her bag, it was written in English, “The Brother’s Grimm” was scrawled across the cover in gold ink. Her favorite fairytale book and she flipped to Little Red Riding Hood. A story about a girl in the forest going to her grandmother’s house. Though she knew there were no wolves that lived in Japan, she still felt a little scared. She had read over those stories so much the spine of the book was broken and cracked. That’s when she smiled, her face getting a little rosy as she got deeper and deeper into the forest. She twirled along the path like she was a flower in the wind. A smile rested on her face, she spun and danced making it ever so closer to the harbor on the other side of the dark forest. She stopped when she heard the sea in the distance, she rummaged through her bag, she pulled the black cloak and pulled it over her body. She quickly rushed to the edge of the forest. “Dakara, ima wa tsugi no yō ni narimasu.” She breathed as she stared at the glistening sea.   - She hummed as she danced around her lonely house. She was dancing to the old Beatles records, though they did skip from the overuse, she walked up the stairs to her large house. She giggled as she put a book with a glossy cover on the shelf. Her eyes passed the window, the ocean was visible, but just before that, there were large tall buildings that sunk below her. Everything seemed too small in this town, though she knew that it would be just her. ***** The Great Mage ***** Chapter Summary The Dust of Snow: The way a crow, Shook down on me, The dust of snow, From the Hemlock Tree, Has given my heart, A change of mood, And a saved some part, Of a day I had rued. -Robert Frost Her heels tapped on the marble floors. She looked up at the large archways, thinking about what would happen to her now. That's when she could hear her heartbeat in her chest, what if she was pulling her in for something that was a fruitless adventure that was for her own gain. Her eyes staring blankly into the space in front of her. She drew closer, the distress in her usually toneless voice was weird, even for Evelyn. Her heart beat faster as her mind made up possibilities. Each one worse than the last she had thought through, the situation seemed to make her move faster and faster. That's when she burst out into a run, and she slide into a locked door, slamming into one of the guards, they both fall over. "What is your name?" The guard demanded of her.  "Tara," she said in her Scottish accent. It rolled off her tongue effortlessly. He looked up at her with a surprised expression and he unlocked the door. He let her in the door and she saw Evelyn sitting there, she was in no danger and no one was getting hurt. She began to get angry at him. She folded her arms, she was already angry about being there, but she wasn't even hurt. Tara walked into the room, she grabbed Evelyn up by the neck.  "How are you, Tara?" Evelyn asked in her monotone voice, just like usual. She was acting like she didn't even call her here, to basically the other half of the world.  "Do not get me wrong, I am happy that you are alive, oh, I am." She said raising her higher. "I don't appreciate you lying to me, I though you were injured or even worse."  "Now, when I have I ever done that to you, I can't die," she dismissed with a flick of her hand. Though her voice didn't change, her attitude did.  "Well, the next time you drag me across the content, I will kill you," Tara told her angrily. She let her hand fall, she smiled.  The tapping of Venus’s fingers was made loud by the sound-repelling walls. It almost echoed, she stared at them. “Is this her?” Venus inquired getting more and more annoyed by the second. Evelyn nodded and smirked. “The best, as I promised.” “I sincerely hope that you are, otherwise I will have to put you on trial and I warn you that the judge doesn’t like you very much.” “Now, now, now, is this any way to talk to someone who is your kingdom’s savior?” “If she saves us, she will be the savior, not your dumbass.” “A queen shouldn’t say something of such things,” Evelyn said in her tone of voice. 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