A House Filled With Night

“Were you looking for fruit?” Torin asked.

“No,” answered Fiske.

“Soap? Rosemary? A hammer? A belt?”

“We weren’t shopping.”

“Oh. I see.”

Torin stayed silent for barely a second longer before asking, “Were you looking for a place to eat lunch?”

“No.”

“Then—”

“Leave me alone, it’s none of your business.”

After Fiske and Runa wondered around for a while, they finally ran into Torin and Niko, who had been looking everywhere for them. Now that they were reunited, Torin was barraging them with endless questions about their disappearance. He grew more and more jittery as the conversation went on. Fiske looked serious enough, but Runa could tell the edges of his mouth had started twitching upwards, just slightly.

“It’s not as if I really care…” said Torin. “Or at least, it’s not that I care where you went. I’m just a little worried about other things, you know, like, what you did…or what you talked about…or…or things like that. And, well…”

“We talked about all sorts of things.”

Torin’s jaw tightened. He stopped walking. Fiske and Niko didn’t wait for him, but Runa stopped to look back.

“Hey, are you okay?”

He looked up as she approached, then came closer; then so close, that she felt compelled to take a step back.

“Runa,” he murmured, reaching for her hand and stroking it once with his thumb. “Why won’t you tell me where you went? Can’t you tell me?”

“I—I—”

She found it increasingly difficult to stand at such a close proximity to Torin. His head tilted just a little down and sideways, so that his eyes looked up at hers through silvery, glittering strands of hair. Why was it so hard to look at him? Why was it so hard to look away? Her face felt hot, her head, tight. Was he doing this on purpose?

“Runa…”

“W-Well, we were just—”

“Hey, Torin! Leave Runa alone!!”

Torin pulled his gaze from Runa’s eyes, just in time to see Fiske grab her by the arm and drag her away.

“Let’s go find the others. They’ll beat us up if we don’t meet them on time.”

Torin was once again forced into silence, but he sped up so that he could walk alongside Runa. They followed Fiske, who seemed to know where he was going. He made his way through the streets of Eidar easily, taking all sorts of shortcuts, weaving in and out of stalls, stopping occasionally to greet random people on the streets who seemed to know him. Of all the brothers, he seemed most comfortable in the city.

This did not escape Runa’s attention. However, what distracted her more was Niko. He couldn’t stop looking over his shoulder.

She reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. “Are you okay?”

He shook his head. “I think someone’s following us.”

Fiske reached over to ruffle Niko’s hair affectionately.

“Look at you, trying taking care of us! Don’t worry, Niko, no one’s following us.”

Niko swatted Fiske’s arm away, a little harder than he had intended, and Fiske stumbled backwards. “I’m telling you, someone’s following us. Pay attention if you don’t believe me.”

They continued walking, but now Runa couldn’t help glancing back as well. Not far behind them, a tall woman matched their pace, her velvety cloak casting a shadow over her brow. She couldn’t be an ordinary citizen. The collar and hood of her cloak were lined with rich fur.

Torin’s eyes followed Runa’s.

“Niko was right…” he muttered to himself. He looked up at Fiske and said more clearly, “Fiske, I think Niko was right about someone following us. Look at that woman back—hang on, don’t be so obvious about it!”

Fiske was trying his best to surreptitiously glance over his shoulder and completely failing. He clucked his tongue. “Oh my…I guess he was right after all. Let’s make a run for it!”

“Wait! Wait, Fiske—”

Fiske bolted, and everyone had no choice but to follow. They had only been running for a few seconds before they ran smack into their brothers. Niko, who had bumped into Casimir, looked up at him in surprise.

“Don’t mind me,” Casimir grunted.

“Somebody’s following—”

Before Niko could finish, the woman ran past him, directly toward Sylvain. She threw off her hood and clasped his arms, trembling.

“Sons of Midnight,” she gasped. “You must flee.”

“What?”

“You must leave, now!”

Sylvain pried the woman’s hands off his arms and stepped away from her.

“Madam, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Distressed, the woman clutched her hands together at her chest. Runa strained to catch a glimpse of her face.

“Lord Cargan has gone to your home with soldiers.”

Casimir snorted. “Ridiculous. There’s no way that fool could ever find us.”

“No, but you must believe me! He plans to destroy everything there, then upon your return—then, to—to kill you!”

The young woman’s eyes were wet with tears. Sylvain cocked his head to the side.

“Wait a moment, aren’t you Lord Cargan’s daughter?”

Runa finally recognized her. Lady Sabia.

“I—yes, I confess that I am.”

“Then why would you tell us such a thing? Is this a trick?”

Her hands shook still more and she grabbed Sylvain’s hand.

“Please! Please, you have to believe me. I begged him not to go. But they’ll be there any moment.”

He turned away from her, taking his hand with him.

“Let’s get back to the House. Now.”

—

Lady Sabia hadn’t lied. Upon their return, they found a small army surrounding the entire front wall, furiously shouting for the Sons of Midnight to come out. At their head, Lord Cargan sat on a horse, looking for any signs of the brothers.

“They just had to block the front door,” grumbled Casimir.

“At least they’re quieter this time.”

“You think so? I don’t.”

Fiske leaned toward Runa. “Sometimes an angry group of woodsmen or farmers manage to find the House. It only happens once in a blue moon, and it’s a bit of a headache, but it’s nothing to worry about. Just do as we say, got it?”

He smiled at her, but she didn’t feel very reassured.

“Quiet down, everyone,” Sylvain was saying. “They’ve caught us unawares, so we’ll need to come up with a plan to make it inside safely. Fiske may be able to fly us over, but he can probably only handle one of us at a time. I’ll do my best to conceal him as he does so. Fiske?”

“I can do it. What about the horses?”

“We’ll just have to tie them down somewhere in the woods. Niko, will you take care of that?”

He nodded.

“Good. Casimir, try and see if you can’t do something about the groceries so they’ll be easier to transport. Torin, I just need you to do your best to stay calm right now, at least until we’re inside. Runa, you go with Fiske first.”

Fiske had already ripped off his shirt and was hunched over to let his wings sprout free. Runa’s eyes widened as she watched them push through the skin of his back and flutter open.

“That looks…painful.”

A satisfied gasp, and Fiske stood, his wings fully unfurled. Without a word, he approached Runa, bent over, caught her knees, and scooped her up into his arms. She scrambled to grab onto anything—skin, ears, hair.

“Ow, ow, ow! Hey, be careful!”

“You didn’t warn me! And there’s not much to hold onto, I might add.”

“Just put your arms around my neck and hold tight. Don’t grab my hair again, okay?”

She did so, locking her arms so rigidly that Fiske had to ask her to hold on less tightly. Torin watched them with hands clenched at his sides, feeling unusually tense but finding no reasonable excuse to intervene.

One by one, Fiske flew everyone over the wall of the House. They stayed quiet, and Cargan’s army stayed oblivious. When Fiske landed inside the courtyard with Sylvain, the last to be flown over, everyone seemed to breathe a little easier (except for Fiske, who was panting a good deal after having flown five full-grown adults over a wall).

“Good grief, Niko,” he huffed. “What are you made of, rocks?”

Sylvain was pointing from person to person, counting them. “Everyone’s here. Good. Well, I’m afraid we don’t know how they found us, nor what they want from us. But we’ve had to deal with this before, and we’ll do so once again. Now, I know none of us want any violence—”

“Pretty sure that’s just you,” said Casimir.

“None of us want any violence,” Sylvain enunciated again, “And we have never had to resort to it in the past. We just bought enough food to last a while, so we’ll just wait it out. They will all grow weary and leave eventually, especially when nothing interesting happens.”

“We’ve never had this many people come after the House,” Niko said.

“Yes, well, we’ve never had a lord come after us, have we?”

“What if they break down the door?” asked Runa.

The brothers smiled. Some chuckled. Fiske gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulders.

“Nothing to worry about! The House isn’t like other places. No one has even put a dent in it before.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

Sylvain nodded. “The House always protects us.”

The clamor outside suddenly died down. Beyond the walls, they could hear one, clear voice shouting at them. The brothers moved closer to hear it.

“…and we know you monsters are in there!” Lord Cargan’s roaring voice boomed beyond the wall. “We will no longer endure your devilish trickery. We cannot allow such a perverse threat to live so close to our homes. You creatures do not deserve to exist on this earth! You think you are immortal, but we will show you that you are not! Be warned, we will destroy you on this day!”

Casimir smirked.

“They sound pretty serious,” Runa said softly.

“Don’t worry,” Torin reassured her.

The Sons of Midnight had all turned to go into the main house when the sound of musket fire exploded in the air. A moment later, the piercing sound of shattered glass reached their ears. They all turned. The glass of one of the iron-barred windows along the wall had broken into hundreds of pieces. Sylvain looked up at the jagged edge of the broken glass, his eyes growing massive.

“It can’t be…” he whispered.

All the brothers looked at him. Fear was setting in quickly.

“Sylvain, is—is that okay for the window to break? Is that normal?”

Sylvain met his brothers’ anxious gazes. “Something is wrong with the House. I don’t know if we can just wait this one out.”

A boom sounded against the wood of the gate door. It trembled. They were going to break it down.

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~ A/N ~

Yeah! Break it down! Break it down! Down with doors! Hate those things.

Love and ice cream and hugs to all my new readers (and old ones, and middle-aged ones, and tweens) <3

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