Chapter Text
“August...”
She blinked. The light from out the window hardly registered. How long had she been here..?
“Sweetheart?”
She lurched, unfurling from the ball she was curled in on the armchair, “Yes?”
“The other children have gone home,” Beelzebub was knelt in front of her. Had she been ignoring him? “Did you have fun today?”
God, Fortuna was so eclectic in what the public did and did not know, and how much of the information that was accessible was still fairly censored. She had quite a bit of work to do for these people, even with local matters.
Her three nephews had surprised her ahead of her lesson. She had prepared as riveting a lecture as she could on the naval war between Fortuna and Venice following the fall of the Roman Empire. It seemed like a good starting place for material they would hopefully have passing familiarity with... She had even drawn up maps of the Venetian and Fortunan lagoons where some of the fighting had taken place. (Miss Nico had told her that she was ‘a pretty damn good cartographer,’) It had helped with the emphasis of each nation’s strategy to navigating their respective waters. She had enlisted Bubby’s assistance in illustrating the ships themselves. Lord knew, she couldn’t draw something that complicated from scratch. Her thing was replicas. The whole affair was mostly aimed at Julio, who she promised to tutor, but she had left things in simple enough terms where Kyle and Carlo could follow along. (Or they could draw pictures the entire time, whatever they preferred. She wasn’t grading them. She just wanted them to understand broad strokes. Major concepts, that it was a religious and territorial conflict; that Fortuna had trouble returning fire against Venice because of how shallow the waters became near them; and that Fortuna was primarily on the defensive the whole time.)
August had not anticipated two additional boys, and one little girl. Friends from day school! Little Lana, a child that lived in the orphanage Miss Kyrie spent much of her day at, who Carlo seemed to treasure; Matthias, a dear friend of Julio’s; and James. The boy walked in holding onto Kyle’s hand, and only let go of him to hug Miss Kyrie when he saw her briefly. The exorcist steeled her nerves for her increased audience size, and did the best she could.
“They were all very well-behaved,” She hadn’t intended to fade into a daze afterward. Certainly not when she was doing well for once… But goodness, she was so… comfortable.
It was the blouse she was wearing. Something Miss Kyrie had lent her. If she had to guess, this was probably her great-grandmothers. The blue silk was in an Edwardian cut, British in origin, based on the way the sleeves were shaped. (How in the world they had gotten it imported was beyond her. Given the cultural standards, it was seldom used.) August was wearing it tucked into the skirt of her gown, but even that made all the difference. It was so light. She was having an easier time breathing outdoors wearing it, instead of full habit. The Mediterranean sun could not stop her now.
“James didn’t seem to want to leave.”
“He asked me about botany. Kyle must have told him about the...” August trailed off, which seemed to be a bad habit she was developing. She had to do everything in her power not to let it appear during lecture! James was a soft-spoken boy. It seemed he had as much trouble with eye contact as she did. He had mostly communicated any questions he had through Kyle. It was only after class that he had mumbled some curiosities about plants... She should put together a lesson on environmental science... Maybe she could start with photosynthesis, or if she could find some material on it, edible plants native to the island. That was probably more interesting to children, right? She wouldn’t really know...
“Is it time for my lesson now, sweetheart?” Bubby smirked, resting his head in her lap.
“Right... We were picking up the Iliad again today. I need to go tend to the flowers first.” It was a miracle she had actually found a decent English translation at the library here, what with the aforementioned media censorship nightmare. They probably wouldn’t have even let her check the book out, if it weren’t for Mister Nero standing over her shoulder. She wished he wouldn’t glare at people on her behalf, but as long as she could have her books, she would not lecture him.
He grunted, “Right now?”
“I would have forgotten entirely if we weren’t speaking.” She stroked his hair, giving his horns a slight scritch. His odd rumble left him. Did he know that humans didn’t normally purr? How was he supposed to blend in like this..? Oh well. She could let it slide, when they were alone.
“This looks very cute on you...” August could not stand unless he moved. The Prince did not seem like he intended to do so, however. Beelzebub was much too busy twirling the ends of her braids in his fingers. He lifted the plaits up against her sleeves, comparing the blue and yellow. “It matches nicely,”
August did not reply. She never knew what to say to things like that. “I’m going to the garden now.”
The Prince let out an audible groan, slumping to the ground dramatically. “I’m losing to plants...”
“No, you’re not.” August stepped over him, and made her way to the back door, passing Miss Nico, who had just entered. The exorcist quickly diverted her gaze to the floor.
“Cheer up, hot stuff! Me and Nero need an extra set a’ hands in the garage anyway,” The mechanic nudged him with her boot.
Bubby let out a protracted sigh, “But that wretched thing is so loud..!”
“That’s too damn bad~! Get up!” When the van needed fixing, there was no other choice. And good heavens did it need fixing. August just so happened to be at a nearby payphone, and bore witness to Miss Nico running down a gaggle of Scarecrows earlier that morning. There was straw in the grill still, and probably demon blood too...
She had finally mustered the courage to make another call to Mother Rose. That was the whole reason she had left the house.
It wasn’t a long phone call. They still couldn’t risk that. August was able to get across the main points. She was safe. She had a brother (‘A sibling?! Child, how-’ ‘Half brother... Yes, he’s human!’) and a roof over her head. The abbess did not have the time to give her an update on the traitors. August barely managed to request a copy of her transcript, and her research notes (“I cannot send it directly to you, they could find you!,’ ‘Would you be willing to send them to Mère Matier?’) It would have been incredibly suspicious for a dead woman’s life’s work to go missing, but if she was lucky, the Sisterhood would ignore her, just as they did when they believed that she lived and breathed.
She got to say hello to Fenny at least.
Bubby humored her, or was simply patient with her, when she had stopped to pet every single canine they passed in the way home.
She missed her dog so much, even on her good days, it made her eyes water.
August let out a tsk-ing sound. She had forgotten the straw hat. She had left it upstairs when she was fumbling with the planter box outside the window of her and Bubby’s room. (Bubby had to be the one to actually hang it. She was struck by sudden vertigo.)
Biting back any further expression from herself, August rolled up her sleeves as she knelt at the edge of the furrows. With that, she nudged the gauze off of her fingertips. The soil was scratchy. She nodded to herself. This one needed to be watered again.
The exorcist got back to her feet with a slight wheeze. She had been still for too long... She quietly crept over to the back wall of the house, where the spigot and watering can were. They sat on the ground next to the window peaking into the garage, and a side door. She hadn’t intended to eavesdrop...
“Damn it...” Her brother hissed, before lightening up quickly. “Hey, Bub? Grab me some rags from the linen closet. The blood got through the grill...”
“Oh, thank the Gods!” August heard the devil stumbling for the door.
Miss Nico snorted, “Fuckin’ crazy how scared he is of this thing. I haven’t even tried to hit im’ with it yet!”
“How about we stop hitting shit with the van so we don’t have to clean demon guts out of the engine every other day?”
There was a pause. August’s hand hovered over the spigot. “You used to love hittin’ shit with the van...”
“Yeah, fuckin’ loved it until you ran me over with it..!” The Hunter sighed, “Dude... Fixing this shit is expensive. We’ve got two more mouths to feed, I can’t just run monsters down in the street.”
“Dawww... You a carin’ big bro now?”
“Will you shut up-”
August turned the water on, and drowned out their conversation. Goodness, she was glad that Beelzebub was holding onto Cavaliere... Cavi would have loved grinding things to a bloody paste in the lane... How does one even perform maintenance on a sentient motorbike?
With the tin filled, August went back to her garden as the rumble of an engine approached.
“Hell yeah!” Nico exclaimed, loud enough to be heard as it cut. “Ain’t you two a sight for sore eyes!”
Visitors. August would stay back, and out of the way.
“Have you met Augie? She’s round back!”
... Oh, for goodness’ sake, Nicoletta...
The exorcist started walking faster. Perhaps they wouldn’t bother if she looked busy... She returned to the snapdragons and tomatoes, and only barely tilted the can, fully intent on making this task take as long as humanly possible.
She managed to last a good minute and a half doing that, when she heard footsteps approaching her. Two sets. Normal walking pace.
“So,” One of them, a woman, started, “You’re Dante’s niece, huh?”
“Oh my,” August straightened her posture, “Please excuse me, just one more moment.”
“Just as quiet as the Broker said she was,” Another of them spoke. Two ladies?
She could no longer tend to the plants at a glacial pace without appearing exceedingly rude to people who knew exactly who she was. With the dirt around the final stalks sufficiently dampened, the exorcist turned. “I am terribly sorry. My name is August. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
She had worked very hard on introducing herself lately. The delivery was a triumph, tragically short-lived. It was a good thing she had finished her thought before her eyes landed on the blonde woman.
“That's cute~!” The short haired brunette peered at her over a pair of pointed sunglasses, “She speaks like a princess,” This one had two different colored eyes. August didn’t know which one to focus on, so her gaze darted to the other woman.
Any and all decorum she had mustered from stalling was completely gone. The watering can fell from her hands. It rang out, hollow, as it tumbled into the grass. August took a step back. “... You- you’re-”
“I’m not the one you’re thinking of, princess,”
It was like she was looking in a mirror. Almost. There were little differences. Height, of course. August was diminutive. The golden hair fell just past the woman’s shoulders instead of a silver mane, and she lacked August’s scar. But their nose, and their cheeks, and the lids of their eyes, “No... No, you’re not Lady Eva.” That would have been impossible. This person was much too young. But she looked so similar to the woman from the portraits. “Are you an aunt, or a cousin..?”
“Something like that,” The blonde gave her a thin smirk, “We’re family enough to be here,”
The brunette, closer to August in stature, slung an arm over her shoulder, “The Broker told us all about you.”
“M-Mister Morrison..?” August asked. What could the older man possibly have to say about her?!
“Yup. He told us you were really funny.”
If this was about how she explained her blood-ties to the Legendary Devil Hunter-!
August’s racing thoughts were halted as the blonde closed in on her as well. This woman was taller. Her boots were a good few inches raised at the heel. Her expression had switched back to something more neutral as she stared down at the petrified exorcist. Without another word, she reached out, and pinched the girl’s cheek.
August truly had to ask, as she stared back, wide-eyed at her reflection, ‘Why do people keep doing this to me?’
“Sweetheart? Do you know where-?” Beelzebub had begun to call, as he appeared from the back door of the home. He stopped dead in his tracks, raising a finger to point at the blonde woman, “- Who the hell are-?!”
The pivoted question was also stopped, as the stranger had drawn a pistol in the time it took August to blink.
BANG!
In that same second, Bubby fell backwards, and his body hit the kitchen floor behind him with a thud.
August did not scream. She did not cry out. But she did take the arm of the brunette holding her, and she lifted the woman off the grass, chucking her at the shooter, as hard as she could. The girl let the momentum carry her. She slammed the two into the ground, before bursting past them. The girl tore across the yard, another boom reverberating as she hit the sound barrier.
“B-bub-Beelzebub?!” She stammered. The exorcist clambered through the doorway, diving on top of the Prince. They could have fired again-! She looked back over her shoulder, finding the pair recovered already, and with more guns in hand. They had quick reflexes. Too quick! Devil hunters!
“What-?!” The demon beneath her growled, both of his hands covering his eyes and his forehead, “WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“Stay down..!” She rasped to him, holding his body against the floor. They didn’t need to give the shooters an easy target. Right on cue, a flurry of gunfire was stopped by August’s summon swords.
“I- I can’t see..!” He hissed, venom in his voice. He returned the grasp with one arm, holding her to him in response to the sound, “Is this metal..?”
“Jesus Christ, I forgot to tell you about guns...!” She knew they weren’t bared at her, but with his fangs full out, the direness of the situation was clear. The bullet must have hit at least one of his eyes. Likely the third hidden under his bangs. His blood was seeping through his fingers. She needed to shield him, but she couldn’t fight like this. The space was too narrow, and the boys were somewhere in the house- “Brother!” A genuine shriek finally left August’s throat.
The back door from the garage had been kicked off its hinges entirely. She watched it careen across the yard when she turned. Kneeling, she willed Candle-Styx into her grasp. The exorcist took a slow breath. Her body braced, expecting another hail of bullets. Instead, she was met with a brilliant storm of blue sparks.
Something put itself between August, and the two women, but it did not look like her elder sibling.
The figure was humanoid. Taller than most humans naturally were. Scales of black and grey crystallized around their legs, before splitting apart and yielding to a blue and copper torso. A vibrant blue flame cut through the plates like veins. The same light, brighter than the sky itself, settled over their shoulders in a winged mantle, outstretched to block anything from getting past. Crowning the whole of this strange form was a flowing mane of silver hair, and horns in the shape of bundled and calcified feathers. She could not see their face from her defensive position in the doorway.
The tips of the wings, she realized, held an extra set of clawed hands. Those were currently holding the gunwomens’ shooting hands in the air. “Trish, cut the shit! What part of ‘No guns in the yard’ did you two not understand?”
“Let go, Nero.” Unperturbed at being lifted off the ground, the blonde told the creature sternly. “Do you have any idea who that is?”
“That’s my little sister’s boyfriend, now calm down before Kyrie comes out here and sees you two shooting holes in our walls!”
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait! That was Nero?!
“That,” The woman, presumably Trish, pointed a sharp nailed finger, a spark of electricity bursting out, “Is the Prince of Shade. Son of the Almighty Mundus.” Her expression stayed level, but incredible disdain was laced through her voice. She had uttered the epithets with nothing short of a spat.
“Agh-!” With a grunt, Beelzebub lurched an arm forward. August darted her gaze back down at him, and bit back a gasp. There was a bullet shell crushed between his bloody fingers. His chest heaved as crimson dripped down his face. With another stunted roar, he launched himself to at least sit upright, in spite of August’s warning. He paused again, his darkened eyes softening as they landed on her, “... It’s alright, sweetheart...” His gaze went past her, landing on the warped form of her brother, “Let them go, Nero. This is just how some of my siblings say hello.”
The other woman, the one with heterochromia, whipped her head toward the blonde, as she was released, and back on her own to feet. “What’d he just call you?”
“Peace, sist-” The prince tossed the casing over August’s shoulder. “-Am I permitted to refer to you as ‘sister’?”
“Absolutely not,” The blonde huffed. At the very least, she had re-holstered her firearm. August realized that she had a second hanging at her side.
“Ah, pity that. I never liked being the youngest.” Her devil’s visible eyes twitched, trying to blink away the blood, “It seems to me that you hate Father about as much as I do. I think we’ll get along just fine.” He appeared to find one eye able to stay open longer than the other, “... As long as you keep those things pointed away from me, anyhow.”
“Thanks for not shooting me too, Lady. I know you were thinking about it,” Finally this apparition with her brother’s voice turned around, and met August with glowing yellow eyes.
August was able to stay still as he approached. (Though every fibre of her being was willing her to recoil.) “... Brother..?” She asked tentatively. Her summon swords, still surrounding herself and Bubby, leveled at the creature.
“Oh, shit. Sorry.” In a burst of more blue embers, Mr. Nero was standing before her once more, “I forgot to mention I can do that. You can put the pitchfork away, kid.” He pat her on the head, as she lowered Styx and let the glowing blades fade. “Anyway, you alright Bub?”
“Stay where you are,” A brief hiss left the Prince. He seemed to correct himself to speaking through gritted teeth, “I am pain. But, I don’t want to lash out at you.” His open eye flicked from Mr. Nero to her, “You too, Sweetheart. I wouldn’t want to get blood on your new shirt...”
She may have put the weapon down, but August was absolutely reeling. Her brother could transform into a demonic form and back at will. Beelzebub could as well, but she was aware of his talent for illusion. Her sibling on the other hand, as far as she had seen thus far, had been normal enough! How could he have ‘forgotten’ to mention this? Why did this woman with her face just try to kill Bubby, and then immediately back down?! Who were these people?
Why was no one stopping to explain themselves?
“Uh-Uncle Bubby..?” Kyle, the poor boy, was much too young to understand how dreadful his timing was. He had appeared at the foot of the stairs at the end of the hall. “Wh-what happened to you..?”
The Prince’s body lurched away from the boy, hiding his face, “Don’t fret now, Kyle. I just walked into a door frame,”
“You- but you’re- you’re bleeding!”
“You know how it is. I walked into it very quickly,”
“What was that sound then-”
Bubby cut the boy off, rising to his knees. “It made a loud sound because of how fast I was going! But lucky for me, I heal quickly, just like Nero,” Who he was subtly gesturing to, silently begging for intervention, “So don’t you worry a bit,”
“Like Ne-” The child came barreling forward, stopped only by the Hunter scooping him off the ground. “You didn’t get hurt like Nero did, right?!”
“He’s gonna be fine, Kyle. Give ‘im some room,”
The sudden paleness in the child’s face did not go unnoticed by any of them. He wiggled desperately, trying and failing to escape his foster father’s grasp.
“Nero,” The one with heterochromia had stepped in the doorway.
“No guns in the house either, Lady.”
Trish, and Lady. Those were their names. “We’re not just here to see your sister.”
“Morrison got a phone call last week,” Trish stood behind her companion, arms crossed. “From Vie de Marli,”
That caught August’s attention.
“Apparently your Uncle is back, but he’s not coming home for a while.”