Chapter 468: Chapter 468: The Fifth Legendary Character [II]
When Xavier returned to where he had left them, neither Trafalgar nor Vivienne was there anymore.
He slowed for a second and looked around the hall, expecting to spot them nearby. With how crowded the place was, it was easy enough to think they had simply moved a little to the side to avoid the nobles still trying to approach Trafalgar every few minutes.
At first, he did not give it much importance.
Then a minute passed.
Then another.
Xavier began walking through the nearby groups, glancing from face to face until he finally stopped beside two young nobles he vaguely knew.
"Have either of you seen Trafalgar?"
Both shook their heads. One of them even let out a small laugh.
"If you find him, let us know. We’ve been looking for him too."
That did not help at all.
Xavier moved on and asked again. Then again. Every answer was the sa. No one knew where Trafalgar had gone. So said they had seen him not long ago. Others admitted they had also been hoping to speak with him and had lost sight of him in the crowd.
"Where did he go?" Xavier muttered under his breath.
He tried to think back clearly. Just a mont ago, Trafalgar had been standing there. Xavier had spoken to him, then his mother had called him away. Trafalgar had not been alone either. There had been soone next to him.
A woman.
Xavier frowned.
His mind caught on that detail and then slid strangely around it, as if sothing refused to let the image settle properly. He could rember the space being occupied. He could rember that soone had been there with Trafalgar. But the more he tried to focus on her face, the more blurred the thought beca, like reaching into water and finding his hand empty every ti.
His head suddenly throbbed.
Xavier brought a hand to his temple and shut one eye for a second.
"Argh... my head."
That was when the feeling shifted from mild confusion to sothing else.
Sothing was wrong.
In another part of the Council grounds, far from the noise of the great hall, Trafalgar stood with Vivienne in the gardens.
The place was quieter there. White stone paths curved between trimd hedges and pale flowers, silver lamps cast soft light across the marble, and the distant music from the hall reached them only as a faint murmur. The air felt cooler too, cleaner, free from the heavy perfu and endless voices of the nobles inside.
Trafalgar had brought her there on purpose.
He wanted answers, and he was no longer interested in pretending that anything about her was normal.
Vivienne stood a few steps away from him, her posture composed at first glance, though the tension in her shoulders gave her away if one looked properly.
For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Trafalgar finally said, "You’ve been looking at
too much all night."
Vivienne blinked, caught slightly off guard by how direct he was.
"Sorry," she said. "That wasn’t my intention."
Trafalgar did not believe that for a second.
"It was enough of an intention for
to notice."
Vivienne held his gaze for a mont, then looked away briefly toward the hedges before returning her eyes to him. "You were looking at
too."
"Yes," Trafalgar said. "Because I wanted to talk to you."
That made her go quiet for a second.
He kept watching her.
Her face was calm, but not relaxed. She looked like soone holding a door shut from the other side with both hands, hoping it would not be forced open.
Trafalgar took one step closer.
"Who are you?"
Vivienne did not answer imdiately.
Instead she said, "I already told you."
"No." His voice turned colder. "You gave
a na. That’s not the sa thing."
Still she did not move.
Trafalgar’s eyes narrowed. Maledicta materialized into his hand at once, dark and familiar, its presence alone enough to change the air between them. The mont Vivienne saw it, her expression changed completely. Whatever balance she had been forcing into herself cracked.
Real fear crossed her face.
"I’m Vivienne," she said quickly. "Xavier’s sister."
Trafalgar did not lower the blade.
"That’s not true. Xavier was adopted by Althea. He told
himself. He had one brother, and that brother died." His eyes stayed fixed on her. "He never ntioned a sister. Not once."
Vivienne’s throat tightened.
Trafalgar moved Maledicta a little closer.
"Who are you?"
She swallowed, then tried again.
"I’m Xavier’s sister."
This ti, Trafalgar felt it.
Sothing slid across his mind, subtle and smooth, almost gentle in the way poison could feel gentle when it first entered the blood. For the briefest instant, agreeing with her felt easy. Natural.
Of course she was Xavier’s sister.
Of course that made sense.
Then his Primordial Body reacted.
The foreign pressure broke apart almost instantly, slipping off him before it could settle into anything real. Trafalgar’s gaze sharpened.
So that was her other trick.
His voice dropped lower.
"You used a skill on ."
Vivienne’s face went pale.
Maledicta’s edge touched the skin of her throat.
That was enough. Her knees gave out, and she dropped to the ground in front of him.
"No," she said quickly, panic breaking through at last. "No, I’m not Xavier’s sister."
Trafalgar said nothing.
Vivienne stayed on her knees, breathing unevenly now, both hands pressed against the ground as if that were the only thing keeping her steady.
"I used his na to get close to you," she admitted. "That’s all."
"Why?"
She looked up at him, clearly afraid, but there was sothing else there too. Sothing that did not fit with simple malice.
Desperation.
Vivienne lowered her eyes for a mont before answering.
"Because there was no other way."
Trafalgar’s grip on Maledicta did not change. "Explain."
"I heard too much about you," she said. "At first it was the sa things everyone heard. The war. The Void Creatures. The way your na suddenly started appearing everywhere." Her fingers curled slightly against the stone. "Then I heard other things. Smaller things. Stranger things. The way you move. The people who survive around you. The kind of decisions you make."
Trafalgar remained silent.
Vivienne looked back up at him.
"You keep doing things that shouldn’t be possible."
Trafalgar studied her carefully. She was still scared. That much was real. But she was no longer lying just to save herself. He could feel the difference in the way she spoke.
He asked again, more quietly this ti.
"Why did you need to get close to ?"
Vivienne’s lips pressed together.
Then she said, "Because I need help."
That was not the answer Trafalgar had expected.
His expression did not change, but sothing in his gaze shifted slightly.
Vivienne noticed and continued before she lost the chance.
"And because I was told to find you."
That made Trafalgar’s eyes narrow.
"By who?"
Vivienne hesitated.
"I can’t say everything here," she said.
Maledicta pressed a little more firmly against her throat.
Vivienne shut her eyes for a second and forced the next words out. "It’s about the Void Creatures." Her voice ca out lower now, tighter. "Sothing happened during the war. I got too close to sothing I shouldn’t have, and since then..." She stopped for a mont, then looked up at him again. "I know sothing I shouldn’t. And the one who found
after that told
to co to you."
The gardens stayed quiet around them.
Trafalgar weighed every part of what he had heard. She was a liar, that much was undeniable. She had co to him under a false identity, used Xavier’s na, and tried her skill on him. But fear was difficult to fake at close range, and so was desperation that had already gone past pride.
"If you needed help," he said, "why not go to your own people?"
Vivienne let out a small, humorless breath. "If I had people I could trust, I wouldn’t be kneeling in front of you right now."
That answer landed more cleanly than the others.
Trafalgar looked at her a mont longer. Then Maledicta vanished.
Vivienne did not move from the ground right away, as if she still expected the blade to return the second she breathed wrong.
"No more lies," Trafalgar said.
"Alright."
"And don’t use that skill on
again."
"I won’t."
He still did not know who she really was, or what kind of trouble she had just placed at his feet. But one thing had beco clear enough. She had not approached him on a whim. Sothing connected to the Void Creatures had pushed her into soone else’s hands first, and from there, straight toward him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)