Chapter 510: Lady Noir
…Hollow Shade… Villa District…
Loh rode up to the gates of the Noir Manor atop Maximus’ back. Despite the heavy rains and darkness, the guards immediately recognized her and the centaur.
“Open the gates!” shouted one guard. “Welcome back! Young mistress…?” his voice trailed off as he noticed Elzri’s body curled in her arms. The guard paled and his sword fell from his grip. After a stunned moment, he quickly removed his helmet and bowed, as did the other guards, save one who ran off to alert the seneschal.
Maximus trotted around the mansion and headed to the back. The flowers in the gardens were in full bloom. He picked up a few as he walked through the gardens. Beyond the well-cared bushes and trees, at the very end, lay a small plot of grass. It was carefully trimmed and unblemished, save for a few polished stone slabs. Maximus stopped a few paces from the family graveyard and knelt.
Loh slid down off his saddle and her injured knee buckled under her weight. She stumbled forward and pulled her grandfather’s body close in a panic, but Maximus caught her by the shoulders. He lifted her up and made sure she could walk before letting go. She nodded gratefully, then limped onto the wet grass and made her way to her grandmother’s gravestone.
Loh took a deep breath and slowly knelt down. She tried her best to hold her weight with her uninjured leg, but her knee still buckled. This time she was ready and she fell on her knees with a painful thud. Baring the pain in a silent grimace, she gently placed Elzri’s body next to his late wife’s grave.
Tears flowed down Loh’s cheeks. Her insides twisted in a painful burning knot. Her chest felt hollow, save for a throbbing pain. “I’m sorry, Grandfather…” her voice cracked. “I… I wasn’t strong enough… I thought— I thought you didn’t care… about me,” she mumbled. “All you cared about was ‘House Noir.’ You cared more about the honor and prestige of the damn Noir name than you did about any Noir… I hated you for that. You didn’t care about my happiness, you didn’t care what happened to me so long as I lived up to your legacy. So why…? Why did you have to die?”
“Why did you sacrifice yourself for us!?” she screamed and broke down in tears. “...Why did you have to leave me behind?”
Loh buried her face in his chest and gripped his tunic. “You were the only one who cared; even with all my fuckups, you were always there. You were the only real family I had… And now you’re gone. But I’m not like you. I can’t just bear the pain and move on. I can’t carry the weight of the Noir legacy alone. I can’t lead House Noir.”
Loh sat up and stared at Elzri’s still face. It was the first time she had ever seen him seem so relaxed. She smiled bittersweetly at the thought. She wiped her tears and caressed his pale grey cheek. “I’m sorry I could never make you proud, but at the very least I can try and make this right. I won’t let House Noir fall, not tonight, not to these monsters. I swear it.”
She pulled the ring out from her pocket and stared at it in the palm of her hand. She had given its twin to Louise before the battle had begun. She had dreamed of spending a life with the commoner girl. Living in a small home in the Trade District with a baker’s apprentice seemed like a blissful dream. Now all it felt like was a disdainful mockery. A cowardly escape from everything her grandfather had fought for.
…I’m sorry, Louise.
Loh kissed the ring, then slipped it into Elzri’s pocket.
Maximus trotted over silently and offered her the flowers he had picked. She grabbed them and placed them gently on Elzri’s chest.
“I’ll be back…” she whispered and kissed his cheek.
“Elohnoir!” Dolores shouted.
Loh didn’t bother to respond as her mother ran out from the house and into the gardens, barefooted.
Dolores spotted Elzri’s body and slowed to a halt. “Dad…?”
Even from here, Loh could smell the alcohol wafting from her. She was surprised her mother could even recognize him.
“Let’s go, Maximus,” Loh muttered.
The burly centaur nodded and helped her up onto his saddle. She ignored her mother’s cries as Dolores rushed over to her father’s body.
The servants poured out of the manor’s back door, but when they spotted Dolores and Elzri their worst fears were confirmed. Quiet gasps escaped their lips and they looked at one another, fear clear in their eyes.
“Loh! Where are you going?” George called out.
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Loh glanced at her father and an acrid taste filled her mouth. Her father wasn't a powerful archmage, far from it, but he was still an archmage, and yet, here he was, hiding from the war.
“We needed you, Dad,” Loh said in a hollow voice.
George winced at her words. “I needed to stay with your mother, in case something hap—”
“We needed you!” she screamed. “If you’d been there— If you’d been there then maybe none of this would have happened.”
George bowed his head. “Please,” he whispered. “Don’t go back out there. I can’t lose you. Your mother and I… Aizel is gone. And now they took your grandfather. We can’t lose you too, Elohnoir.”
Her lips curled in a faint bitter smile, “Your daughter Elohnoir died with Aizel.”
“Loh, wait—!”
“Loh died with her grandfather. I’m all that’s left.” She turned her back to him and Maximus trotted away.
A cloaked figure waited at the front gate. Her dark blue cowl obscured her face, but the golden band on her pale wrist denoted her as the House’s seneschal. Lily pulled down her cowl and her scarlet hair fell down her shoulders. She bowed deeply as Maximus neared.
Loh narrowed her eyes at the beautiful vampiress, her grandfather’s secretary, right-hand, and occasional lover. “Have you come to stop me as well?”
“No, my lady.” Lily suddenly kneeled on the wet ground. “I am here to wish you fortune in battle.”
“I am not my grandfather. I am not your lord. You owe me nothing, not your allegiance, and certainly not your best wishes.”
Lily kept her head bowed and spoke in her usual calm voice. “...You’re right, you are not Elzri. You are not my lord. You are my lady and I gladly give you my allegiance.”
Loh scoffed, “You won’t win anything by pledging yourself to me. I have nothing to offer.”
“Lord Elzri thought differently. He believed in you.”
“And what do you believe?”
“I believed in Lord Elzri and so I believe in you.”
“You’ll come to regret it, everyone does.”
“I respectfully disagree, my lady.”
“Hmph.” Loh turned to the guards, “Open the gates.”
The man cleared his throat and bowed, “My lady, the guard captain is forming a personal squad to accompany you from among the manor’s best soldiers. If you could only wait a little—”
“I said open the gates, I won’t say it again.”
The guard bowed. “O-Of course, my lady.”
“Loh!”
She froze at the sound of the familiar voice. Loh turned back and saw Louise running towards her from the manor, the golden ring wrapped around her finger.
A fresh pain blossomed in Loh’s chest but it was quickly drowned out by the memory of Elzri lying atop the shade wall.
“Let’s go, Maximus,” she muttered.
Maximus nodded and walked out the gate.
Lily watched her leave with a smile, “You are everything Lord Elzri hoped you would be.” She turned to one of the guards, “Inform the captain to hurry, our Lady has already left without them.”
“Yes, mistress!” the drow guard nodded and ran off.
Louise reached the gate, breathless. She placed her hand over her brow and narrowed her eyes as she searched through the rain, hoping to catch a glimpse of Loh.
“Do not bother, a human’s eyes cannot penetrate the darkness. She is gone,” said Lily.
“Why…? Why did Loh go without saying anything?” Louise mumbled.
“She is not ‘Loh.’ She is Lady Noir and the burden she now carries is great.” Lily glanced at the ring on Louise’s finger, “You must adapt to what that entails. If you cannot, you will only hold her back.”
Louise frowned. “What are you saying?”
“In time you will come to understand.” Lily inclined her head slightly, then left.
~~~
Stryg glanced at Maeve lying in bed one last time then closed the door behind him. He headed back downstairs with a quick pace, his mother right beside him.
“We need to regroup with the War Elect. We’ve already stayed here too long,” said Aurelia.
“I’m aware.” He walked out into the courtyard and spotted Rhian speaking to Blueberry.
“What are you doing?” Stryg asked.
“Ah, boss!” Rhian smiled warmly and waved at him.
Stryg walked over and glanced at Rhian, searching for any injuries. “He didn’t hurt you?”
The frost wolf huffed at the implication and raised his snout in disdain.
“Blueberry? No, not at all,” said Rhian. “He was just telling me about his time with you back in Vulture Woods. He was quite helpful.”
“Blueberry? Helpful?” Stryg stared at the wolf skeptically. “Wait,” he blinked. “You understand him?!”
Rhian cocked her head to the side, “Of course. Can’t you?”
“W-Well, yes but—”
“Stryg!” Aurelia called out sternly.
“Ah, right,” he nodded. “Rhian, take care of Feli and the others while I’m gone.”
“You can count on me,” the centaur grinned.
“You’re leaving already?” asked Feli from the doorway. “You just got here not 10 minutes ago!”
Stryg smiled half-heartedly. “I’ve already stayed too long.”
“But—!”
“Our people are fighting out there. I can’t leave them.” He walked over to Feli and embraced her.
She buried her head in his shoulder and hugged him tightly. “Promise me you’ll come back.”
“Always.”
“AL…WAYS…?” a deep gravelly voice rumbled.
Stryg’s eyes snapped up at the sound. A dragonbane’s head poked out from above the manor’s walls. Xyloth peeled his lips back in a wide smile, revealing a long row of sharp ebon-black fangs.