Darkness in the Heart

"Must you really learn something so dreadful with your own hands? His Grace will keep you and the young master safe."

Evelynn smiled, and the smile was bitter.

"No one can protect us."

That is what these two years in this place have taught me... She swallowed the rest. For an instant the wounds those exhausting years had left showed through the softness of her still-youthful face. Renee wiped every last trace of mischief from her own. A cold voice rang through the room.

"You may have to kill."

"I hope it never comes to that. But if it does, then it can't be helped."

Looking into eyes that shone, bright with a will that would not bend, Renee felt a flicker of admiration.

"Then I, Renee, will lend my aid to a brave lady."

She rose and came to Evelynn's side.

"Would you stand for a moment?"

Evelynn did as she was asked. Renee set a hand over the place where her heart beat, and in the next instant that hand seemed to drive in beneath the skin, as if it meant to tear the heart out of her while she still lived.

"Nnngh—ahhhh!"

A cry of pain tore from Evelynn's mouth. Renee paid it no mind and only bore down harder. White smoke curled up from beneath her palm. Evelynn seized the arm of the chair and endured with everything she had, cold sweat streaming down her blanched face.

How long it lasted, she could not have said. At last Renee drew her hand away and settled her back into the chair. Evelynn went limp where she sat. Brushing aside the hair plastered to her brow, Renee whispered.

"You already carry dark mana in your heart. My lady, you were born a dark mage."

At those unbelievable words, Evelynn's eyes went wide.

"There must have been a time when that mana burst out of you."

"What... do you mean?"

The question left her in a voice gone hoarse. There's no way I could do something like that. There isn't.

"My lady, dark mages are very few. Do you know why?"

"No. I don't."

Renee's mouth curved in a small smile.

"Most of them die at their parents' hands before they ever awaken. Innate dark mana stirs an instinctive revulsion."

"My parents never..."

Evelynn closed her mouth. Your father never tried to kill you? Have you forgotten that night? Already?

Evelynn wrapped both arms around herself and trembled. In that moment the trees that had been flaunting their green were gone. The crisp scent of the forest was gone, and so was the chatter of the birds.

"Did my answer satisfy you, my lady?"

Renee smiled brightly at Evelynn, who had gone white to the lips.

All the way back in the carriage, Evelynn's face stayed bloodless.

"Miss, did something happen with Lady Renee?"

Sophie, patting the sleeping Liber, asked it with worry written plain across her face.

"Nothing happened. I'm only tired. It's been a long time since I went out."

The carriage stopped without warning, and both of them opened their eyes wide.

"Hm? Are we there already? We're still at the gate."

Outside, there was a commotion. Wondering what it could be, Evelynn opened the carriage window, and Bellina came toward them.

"My lady, a guest has arrived. It is His Grace's aunt, the Countess of Glen."

A noblewoman in splendid dress recognized the carriage Evelynn rode in and approached. Maids crowded after her in a rush. The knights ringing the carriage went rigid, and the cause of it was an order Naz had given.

The knights could only watch and wait. From inside the carriage came a voice as still as water.

"I'll get down. It would be poor manners to receive my aunt from in here."

The moment Evelynn stepped from the carriage, Celis came straight to her. Evelynn met her with a calm face.

"It has been a long time, Aunt."

"I stopped by because it was my brother's memorial day, only to find no one here, so I'm on my way back empty-handed. I must be getting old. Even a single visit to a grave isn't easy anymore."

Celis complained in a theatrical tone. Evelynn took one step closer and spoke with warmth.

"Welcome. Please, come inside."

They walked together from the entrance of the Annex. Celis, keeping pace at Evelynn's side, stopped all at once. She pointed at a sunken hollow in the ground and snapped.

"Does this place not even have a gardener? And look at the state of that pond."

"There's no one to tend the water. It costs a great deal as well."

The pond is a pretext. What she wants is to plant her own people in the Annex. Watching Celis frown, Evelynn thought how very consistent the woman was. She hid the tangle of her thoughts and went on in a wilted voice.

"As you know, Aunt, my position being what it is... it's a little difficult to bring even this up with the head maid."

She let the words trail off, her expression troubled.

"You should have told me, at least! You really are hopeless. I'll have a word with the head maid."

"Thank you for your concern, Aunt."

Bellina and Arthurs, following quietly behind, met each other's eyes. The air was warmer than either of them had expected, and both looked faintly bewildered.

When the walk was done and the two of them reached the drawing room, they sat facing one another. Celis's face was full of smiles.

"We'll use the tea I brought. Just have hot water prepared, and something to take with it."

One of Celis's maids poured steaming water in a thin stream into Evelynn's cup. The heart Renee had touched seemed to throb again, and Evelynn pressed a hand hard against her chest.

"Is something the matter?"

Celis, who had been studying her closely, asked it.

"I feel a little unwell inside."

Celis's eyes narrowed.

"You aren't... with child again, are you?"

Evelynn nearly burst out laughing. I did spend the night with him. It wouldn't be so strange if people misunderstood.

"No. Nothing like that."

The maid poured off the hot water that had warmed the cup, then filled it with a tea as red as blood. Bellina and Arthurs stared at the cup as if they meant to bore a hole straight through it.

"You'll simply have to be careful, won't you?"

Celis smiled with the gentleness of a mother fretting over her daughter.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

When Celis took out a cigarette, the maid at her side lit it. She drew the smoke in deep, and then she spoke.

"He is my nephew, but he really is a heartless man. They say he has never once held the child you bore. I saw the boy earlier. He's grown quite a bit."

Evelynn's face went white. Memories of that night, which she had tried so hard to bury, came surging in like a tide.

Tears threatened. She bit down hard on her lip.

"He treats even the child already born that way, and you mean to have another? You really were born unlucky. How pitiful."

Celis clicked her tongue. At a discourtesy that had crossed the line, cracks ran through Bellina's expression, and through Arthurs's. A long moment passed before Evelynn spoke.

"That isn't so, Aunt. Whatever else may be true, if I can only remain at his side, I am content."

"Ha! What a magnificent love. Tell me, are all you women of the central plains like that?"

Evelynn tilted her head, unable to tell what she meant.

"Whispering of a love to last a thousand years to a man's face, and meeting another man behind his back."

Arthurs was only an apprentice knight and did not know the affairs of the archducal castle well, but Bellina, a senior knight, was different. The other man Celis meant was the former archduke, Nasser Azantis. From the day Evelynn had arrived at the castle with a newborn in her arms, rumors that he coveted his younger brother's wife had swept the archduchy. They had reached even Bellina, who did nothing but swing a sword in the training yard day after day; there could not have been a soul in the domain who had not heard the scandal.

Bellina, who had seen both the former archduke and Evelynn with her own eyes, could have staked her sword on the rumor being nonsense. She glared at Celis as if she might carve the woman up alive on the spot. Sensing that Bellina's temper had turned dangerous, Evelynn spoke.

"I don't know who did something so insolent. But there is only one man for me. It was so in the past, and it will be so from now on."

The eyes that spoke of a love meant to last forever were utterly empty. Celis drew on her cigarette once more, long and deep, and sneered.

"I do hope His Grace comes to appreciate that magnificent love of yours."

She glanced at Evelynn's cup and pressed her.

"The tea is getting cold. Drink."

Evelynn slowly lifted the cup and took in the scent. Behind her, Bellina shook her head, her face set hard. Celis snorted.

"What, do you think I've put poison in it?"

Even at the anger edging that voice, Evelynn did not flinch. She kept her composure.

"How could you? May I know the name of this tea?"

"It was a gift, so even I don't know the name very well. But it ought to be exactly the tea you need right now."

Without hesitation Evelynn raised the cup and drained it in a single swallow. Bellina and Arthurs watched in stricken silence. When it was empty, she slowly parted her lips.

"A precious tea. The taste and the fragrance are both... unusual."

"I'm glad it pleases you."

Celis laughed heartily, then leaned forward in her seat.

"Talking with you after so long was so pleasant I nearly forgot the business that brought me."

"Please, speak, Aunt."

"You know I spend every spring here."

Even after her marriage, Celis had gone on using the archducal princess's chambers she had occupied in her maiden days. Nasser had been unmarried, and Ilya had no daughter either, so those rooms stood empty. Every spring, on the pretext of a rest cure, Celis would stay for months in the archducal princess's chambers before she left again. Because she carried on as if she were the archduchess herself, the servants and maids of the castle were run ragged every spring.

"Yes. I know."

"Each time, they do see to the main house, of course. But it never satisfies me. With the archduchess's seat left empty all this while, I suppose it can't be helped."

Evelynn lowered her eyes. Watching her, Celis's own eyes lit with a gleam.