Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 10] Ch. 7 Waking Up

??? years earlier

Sebas

They were dying! Demon beasts were loose, and they were slaughtering everybody. I had to do something.

The fires in the night cast everything in a crimson light between the patches of black.

Screaming, so much screaming.

But nothing was worse than when those screams abruptly stopped. Crowds that had gathered for the events, crowds that were supposed to be celebrating peace were being massacred.

In this once beautiful city of Marsanth, I could no longer tell which red was from the fire and which was from blood.

The sounds of battle were far away, and the sounds of the screams were close. The buildings stretched higher and higher and the space on the street became smaller and smaller. Somebody had caused this, and as I ran, I searched for the source of the screaming.

Corpses began to pile in the streets, and I had to climb over men, monsters, women, and children. Every once in a while, a monster would sprout from the shadows and lunge at me.

I cut down each one and continued running, running and killing. Then I realized some of the monsters lunging at me were men, my men. The Nightclaw were here and they were attacking me, but not the monsters. I parried swords, blasted monsters, and cut down more and more as I reached the source of the screaming.

I reached the end of the city, out of breath and out of magic. A man wearing black with the new blood red emblem of the Nightclaw emblazoned on his chest stood ten yards away as if he had been waiting for me. He was between me and caged carriages full of innocent people being taken away. Hundreds of people had been kidnapped tonight under the distraction of demon beast outbreak.

He smiled. And dropped his torch on the ground in front of him. It lit something like gasoline that stretched from him to the city walls creating a wall of fire between me and him. A fire that only made the buildings behind me light up as quickly as kindling.

Fury built inside me. The flames turned blue and Foxgate sprouted from the ground shaking off the dirt until it settled.

I reached forward. I was going to use its power to stop them. With a little more power, I could kill them, all of them. Just one attack and I could grant those slaves death before they were subjected to the hell that awaited them. Just one attack and I could wipe away the smile on the face of those that dared betray me and cause this tragedy.

But Foxgate wouldn't open.

"No. The death of innocents does not amuse me." Blue words of fire appeared in front of me and my heart sank as I realized the implication of my intentions. They turned into hands and reached around to four ethereal tails growing from me. The hands left my other five tails alone and gripped the remain four ghost tails. As if plucking petals from a rose, the fiery hands tore those four tails from me and pulled them into the doors of Foxgate that opened long enough to steal my tails.

For a split second as the doors opened, I saw a pair of glowing red eyes inside Foxgate. They were attached to a creature that was black as the starry night as it fought the chains that bound it. For only a moment, when those eyes met mine, they turned from mindless fury to something familiar that recognized me. That second seemed to slow as the creature turned into my mother, Helen Jackson.

"Help me?" She whispered as if she knew it was fruitless. As if despair had wracked her for so long, she didn't expect anybody could help her anymore. It's pitifulness was only punctuated as the door slammed shut and disappeared into ash.

Someone stumbled toward me through the ash. He dropped his sword the moment I recognized him, and he fell toward. It was Revein, Nerinin's childhood friend.

"Only you Sebas, you have to protect her now that I can't." Revein fell into my arms. His body was heavy and held no life. My hand felt slick on his back when I caught him. I pulled it away and it was wet with blood. His back was filled with arrows and when I looked for the source, I found the bandit who had started the fire a moment ago.

The bandit lowered his bow as if he had just finished firing the last arrow. His throat had been ripped out by Revein's claws, but still he smiled as he collapsed onto a pile of corpses left by Revein, who had protected me. Indescribable horror pulsated as I realized I had been the cause of his death.

"Only you Benny, you have to protect her now that I can't." I turned my attention back to Revein who was now someone else. He had long white hair, and his clothes had changed into a white hakama with red trousers. His back was clean, and he pulled away from me. The person looking back at me was me!

It was Sebas!

"What happened here?" a girl's voice turned my attention away from the copy of myself. It was a young Nerinin with horror in her eyes.

"What Happened here?" a grown-up Nerinin asked from behind her with fury in her eyes.

"What Happened here?" was repeated, over and over again. By Julie, my mothers, my fathers, and everyone I had left behind. They appeared from the shadows and asked the same question. I turned back to the other me for help.

He looked down at his hands which were turning into chains. They floated up and began wrapping around me.

"Sebas." He said with the same pitiful resignation of knowing nothing could be done. But he still felt the need to reach out as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I can't help you anymore. You already have the key, your noble blood."

He completed his transformation to chains, and I felt them binding me, pulling me beneath the ground.

"Sebas."

"Sebas."

"Sebas."

The corpses around me turned into the hollow-eyed corpses of my family and friends, as they clawed and grabbed at my legs and pulled me further and further underneath them.

I screamed but no sound came out.

*

Sebas

Present day

Everything hurts. When I opened my eyes, I was on the floor of a small room. It was a small single bedroom of an inn no bigger than a closet. I had decided against returning to the hotel where Hyde was staying. My offshoot was returned by Sable to Minerva last night and it immediately snuck out and disappeared, so the magic returned to me. It was around that time the other one running interference did the same.

I was back to five tails, and I was still tired. The morning sunlight streamed through the window and I pulled myself to my feet.

"I guess I'll just sleep when I'm dead." I said as I stretched. I changed into my Hyde disguise and wind shifted out the window.

I decide that this morning is a good day for a jog, so I made my way to the beach.

When I get there, I discovered that I wasn't the only one that decided to go for a run this morning. Minerva was getting quite a bit of attention as she jogged faster than a squad of magic knight recruits in a sprint. I took a deep breath since she hasn't noticed me yet.

But I also decided I was going to give her a fair chance and I can't honestly say that I've done that yet. I'd gone on a date with her yesterday but... my heart wasn't really in it, since it was more or less staged.

I used a little magic and made my move.

I needed to retire my Hyde disguise now that Julie knew. But I had a few things to do first.