L opened his eyes. They glanced around, observing their surroundings. Finding nothing, he lifted himself up. He flexed his hands, feeling each different finger. Then he stood up, fetched his sword, spear, and bow. He tied the sword to his side, throw the bowstring over his chest, and carried the spear in his left hand, its head glimmering against the stray moonlight entering through the open window. His footsteps were dim and stifled, the fragile wood underneath his soles retaining their slumber as he gently slid across them. All the doors were gone in yesterday's raid, saving him the trouble of opening it. The cool late night breeze brushed L’s lips gently as he walked in the bright shade of the moon.
“Going somewhere, L?” a woman’s voice called from the top of his house, just to his left.
L turned and backflipped a couple of times, putting a safe distance between him and the familiar voice. The figure was hooded, her skin covered in rags.
“Good evening, Hound, dear O love,” L said, his voice cold. Almost robotic. He did not reveal his customarily given smirk.
“What are you up to?” Hound said, landing on her toes.
“A midnight stroll. It would be a sin not to enjoy the fresh air,” he said curtly, nodding.
She looked long at him, her eyes a yellow luminescence below the cover of her hood. “Give him back to me,” she said simply.
“Who are you referring to?” L said, raising an eyebrow.
“Give my Jack back to me. Stop torturing him with your games,” she said, taking a step forward.
“Ah. Playing the hero? We’ve been over this, Hound, dear. That which you speak of does not exist. A Jack does not exist. He never did. Never will. But We do. You’re mistaking the conduct puppet for the strings,” he said, sighing, “as always. Would you like me, me, and me to expla-”
“I know all about it,” she cut him off with a snort. “You three, can’t adequately control a single body, so you take a little bit of each of you, combine it together in whichever order the situation calls for it, and you make that one conscious to do it for you. A Separate, live, changing conscious from the rest of you, altering and killing him as you see fit--and the one I want,”
L raised both his eyebrows. “Interesting. The dog is now able to utilize her brain. How people change so quickly,” he said, scratching his chin. “I would ask how you knew of this, as not even Raven knew until that fool told her, but I am afraid that the answer does not interest me,” he said. “Or me,” he said twice again.
Under the rags, Hound bared her teeth. “You’re off to wreak havoc and create mayhem in some place, aren’t you?”
“Afraid so,” L wallowed. “This place is far too comforting, and just not enough fun. You see, this creation process is imperfect. No matter what type of Jack we create, and we have made many, he always seems chases after this thing called-”
“Love,” she said, rubbing her temple.
“Yes...that,” L said, raising his nose in disgust. “One of life’s mysteries, really. But alas, a mystery I, I, and I, couldn’t give two pigs and a Hound for. I take it that you’re not going to let me go, dear?”
“No.”
“What about me?”
“No.”
“And me, possibly?”
“That was four times, not three. You all can go to hell.”
L chuckled. “I can see why he ends up being attracted to you, but you do realize that, in a way, you’re asking me, me, and me, to create a person for your comfort, correct?”
“No, I am not. I am telling you to not kill the consciousness you create.”
“Which one?”
“All three of you bastards,” Hound said, her distaste unconcealed.
L rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. “I and I do not understand why you are doing this. I do, but he does not wish to indulge the rest of us. You’ve had many lovers, and Jack is one of many. You’ve gotten with other men, and woman, I and I, but not I, believe, in his absence, so we two ask of you: why the effort in this vainless task? Why not do the same, and go about in your life as you humans, dogs, fools, usually do? Why do you prove to be a throne in our back, especially when your relationship was of no consequence? When it only proved to lick each other’s lonely wounds? Hound The Bloodthirsty does not do kindness, if I, I, and I recall each other’s memories correctly.”
Hound glanced to the ground, thinking deeply. Her eyes flicked back up, unchanged. “I’ve thought long of this, before coming here from all the way down the Dulriam…”
L sighed twice this time. He threw his hands up, folded them, and then scratched his head. “I can already tell that this night will be full of nonsense. Go ahead, you’re unsatisfactory answer will be…?”
“Because I want to. Both he and I can fuck as many people as went, for as much as we want, for however long as we want, but in the end, while we might not be lovers, we will still be two people that care for each other,” she said, somewhat awkwardly, changing her weight from toe to toe. She felt blood rushing to her cheeks. She was the one that always made fun of people that spoke like this.
“Blah, figures your answer is freakish, but I did not take you for this type of fool. Jack would be very displeased by your...sugary nature.”
“He would, and that is why I said it to you, and not to him. But that’s not the answer you want, is it? Fine. Here is one that you three will like: It doesn’t matter what you think, because if I was in Jack’s situation, he would have done the same for me, and that’s all the reason that I need. It’s called caring; something you’re incapable of.”
L did not frown. His lips simply became a thin, stoic line. “It is, unfortunately, as you say. Your answer, however, remains unsatisfactory. You can not retreat to love whenever you are at a loss for-”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“It’s because no one can ever love you? Isn't it? Without loving the two others? Three souls trapped within one body. Anyone crazy enough to accept you would have to make love to the three of you, and that’s not a fancy idea, is it? You bicker like pubescent children eyeing the school sweetheart, fighting for her love, and then once you get it, you begin to say No! She loves me, not you! And then the other says-”
“Silence,” L growled, deeply, his fists tightening up.
“Jealous of Nealon, are you? Jealous of Jack, are you? Seeing that a person can love him, and him alone? That he can have sex without it being an automatic threesome? So you hate on what you can't have, devaluing it, dirting it. Typical of a human. So very typical of a human. It almost feels like you're one of us."
“You failed to mention how you would persuade us into letting Jack stay here; against our self-interest. You are not doing a very good job of this. Are you going to kiss us at some point, and have Jack awaken and banish us through with the power of love and friendship?”
Hound laughed, quietly at first, and then loud enough to begin to attract some stray eyes. The House Of Luck was awake from the very start, but now even the densest of them began to watch with interest. “Persuade? Me? You forget who I am, dear L, for Hound does persuade. Hound will simply beat you into a messy pulp, and then some more, and then you’ll start to behave.”
L cackled, chuckled, and then giggled. “Assuming you can beat us, Mother Of Hounds-can I call you by that? It seems appropriate-how would that even force us into heeding you? We can always leave, you know. Go to a different world, even. You have no-
“You see,” Hound said, stepping towards L, “Jack always does that when he’s cornered. He starts talking. He starts jesting. He starts bluffing.”
L grinned. “You think we bluff? You think we-”
“Pride, that’s why, L, or Ls, or however the fuck you want it to be. Pride won’t allow you to do that, now that I called you on it, now that I caught you trying to whisk L away from friendship, from companionship, from love, as you always do. Pride will force you to accept your defeat. Pride will set my...friend free from your torturous grasps!" she said, getting more and more into the mood. She quite liked this. It felt different.
He sneered. “That diction does not befit a blind dog,” he said, lifting his spear towards Hound. “You can’t see in the dark. How could you possibly defeat me? Oh my, that was a very evil thing to say. I guess I am the villain in this chapter of ours. Damn it, now that he said that, It does feel like it would be appropriate of us to-”
“Luck is on my side, as well as the moon,” she said, beginning to unbind the rags which covered her skin.
“I can fix that,” he said in a cheerful manner. He lifted his spear high up in the air with his left hand, turning it in small circles above him. The darkness then began to swell and bend above him, following the edge of the spear and thickening.
Hound stopped and stared.
“You’re going to let me cast magic as I seem fit?” L said, surprised.
Hound shrugged. “Beating you at your best will drive the point home better.”
“Not sure whether you are foolish, foolish, simply foolish,” L said with a snort. He activated Masked Pride. Then they did something which they were ever so avarice too: they began to think at the same time.
Your Intelligence has broken the safe threshold and reached 67.5
You’re Wisdom has broken the safe threshold and reached 40.5
You’re Will has broken the safe threshold and reached 56.25
This has changed your determined evolution.
The air paused, for a moment. A crack was heard. A shimmer. And then everything moved. The darkness turned into a thick fog, following the edge of L’s spear as he swung it around. The air blew fiercely, ruffling Hound’s clothes. The fog gathered and swung, condescended, and festered into a dark cloud. It floated up in an oval, blocking the moon’s light from falling on the village.
“Yeah, that’s some boss raid shit right there,” Hound said. She lifted her head up, groaning. There is always some light, reflecting off of some object. And then there is true darkness, where the world is a motionless, empty black. That was where Hound found herself.
“You’re a Lightling, I assume? A half-Lightling, we all are halves, I guess but who is menacing words anymore?” L said, stepping closer, his spear cutting the wind as he twisted it in his palms. “I do, I do. You think you would surprise me if you hid within these rags? You surprised me, but the other two are much too bright to be-”
“God damn it you talk so fucking much. Do you ever shut up?” she said, sticking her pinkie into one of her ears. "I'm surprised you're this sane after spending so much time with yourself."
“We are a handful, you know. Three times the fun!” He said, and then went quiet for a few moments. “Are you going to find us through our voice, maybe? Some cool martial arts skill, like they do in the virtual movies? Or will you see the ki or something and-”
“I wasn’t planning on doing that, but if you keep talking, then I don’t see a reason not to.”
“True. I’ll quit now. I can’t promise that for the other two, though. For a bit. And then I’ll stab you and then he can leave. And then the other guy can quite,” he said, and then truly went quite. For a few more seconds. “...Goodness, this is hard!”
Hound rubbed her eyes. “How can someone so smart be so fucking stupid?”
“It feels like I've heard that before. Ok, ok! Just sit still and let me stab you. Through the heart or through the head? The two of us are split between which is more appropriately symbolic, while the third really just wants to sleep.”
“Are you this lonely? You’re embarrassing Jack, please stop it. It’s pitiful.”
Hound seemed to have struck a nerve. L went quite, and even his footsteps vanished. He was close, however. Just a few meters off now, nearly in striking range. She couldn’t see him, but she felt him there. She threw her cloak off then, and let her rags unwind. Then, out of instincts, she ducked. She heard an arrow brush a couple of her hairs.
“It was the head. Did you really think I would get close to you? But oh heavens, you do look angelic,” L said, and then giggled.
Hound stood up, feeling terribly out of place. Even with shorts and a plain shirt, she did look angelic; embarrassingly so. Her hair blazed brightly in a mixture of red and white, floating in its own gravity. Every lock of hair was rich, as if a few strands of hair combined into one, and were glimmering in their own way, pulsing and twinkling at constantly changing rhymes. They rested at her shoulders while a few stray ones covered her eyes. She tried to puff them aside, and when that did not work she flicked them aside with fluorescent fingers. Her eyebrows were thin and white, but her eyelashes were long and white. They blinked like a butterflies wings, closing and revealing two bright red irises. “It looks much better on Gaia,” she said, puffing her cheeks and tilting her head to the side.
Another arrow passed by her head.
“So even your skin radiates light. A weak light. But you’re no mage, and there is no light for you to wield. What now?” L said, firing another arrow.
Hound did not duck, but rather casually crotched to the floor, going through her cloak as the arrow passed above her. She stood up holding two objects with her palms. She tried to think of something to say, something witty or catchy, but nothing came to her. She decided to go for it, anyway. Then, like a pyre, she suddenly lit up, banishing the darkness. For a few moments she beamed like a white sun, nearly reaching all the way from where L had stood. It dazzled his eyes, ringing them in his sockets painfully.
Then the light’s reach dwindled, its flare dimed, and returned to reside within her.
“Brilliant. Ravishing. Exorbitant, but-” L caught his tongue as soon as his sight returned to him, knocking and firing another arrow, but by then it was too late. The two objects she had held in her hands were now two small stars, their rainbow light quivering stray beams. She tossed one at L’s general direction, and the other above, towards the dark cloud. The arrow arrived late, piercing her shoulders and nudging itself below her collarbone, just barely missing her heart.
The crystals, overcharged with light mana, exploded above and below L’s feet. The night vanished instantaneously, waking the world to the brightest morning that ever was. A rainbow of colors penetrated every knack of every corner. It was as if a bucket of a hundred different paints was dropped on the village, turning it’s dim gray and dirty brown into a wonderland of obnoxiously cheerful colors.
L stood with his teeth clenched, struggling to find his breath. His body, so highly infused with dark mana, now stood paralyzed and weak from its sudden disappearance. Hound, on the other side, somehow glistened even brighter than anything. There was bright, and then there was true brightness, one that stood out even in the flares of the light crystals. She took one small step, then a longer one, and then she leaped the rest of the distance, her light-infused fist swinging behind her.
She could have easily crushed his head, if her fist had connected with his nose, but though she very much wanted to, and she did want to, sense had proved over at the last moment, allowing her to take mercy on him. Instead, her fist connected with the middle of his chest. It sent him sprawling through the air like a ragdoll, bouncing wide a couple of times and then crashing and tumbling and dragging the muddy ground for a few more dozens meters after it, his limbs flying all over the place in no particular fashion or order. Water and dirt and stone followed him closely, causing his flight to end in a large mound of limbs, broken bones, groans and mud. A lot of mud.
Hound stood panting, wispy smoke ascending from her tight fists. “Cocky ass pricks,” she said, spitting to the side. She gathered her stuff and marched away, jumping on her horse and galloping back home.