Kuroshitsuji Fan Fiction ❯ Commodities ❯ Chapter 3: Calling Debts ( Chapter 3 )

Commodities: Chapter 3

The witch stood atop the broken parapet, looking haughty and tall as she gazed down upon him. Her eyes were as dark as his own, but they were not the color of blood. They were brown like tilled Earth, stained with flecks of gold towards the edges of the iris. Beautiful, dangerous eyes he had seen so many times before, in a different time, a different life.

The breeze seemed to greet her of its own accord, swirling around her like an excited puppy happy to see its owner's return after a long day alone. It caught strands of her auburn dark hair, twisting and twirling it out behind her. The raven feathers which had been woven to the ends sang a papery tune as they danced with the breeze too.

As Sebastian looked at her there was a dark thought of breaking her willowy body to pieces. Her slender arms would snap at the slightest pressure from his hands and he could crush her ribs into their own cage to suffocate her. So many violent musings as he watched her, perched like a bird, aloof like a cat. He should not let her interruption go unpunished.

It wasn't until he saw a small hand reach around the edge of her cloak that he stopped his considerations. While the witch deserved everything he could dream up for her, there was one reason he could never touch her; Sinah.

The young girl stepped around the cloak's edge easily, her footing perfectly balanced despite the eroding stone. She was slender like the witch, with the twiggy arms and legs of a child. Her skin was luminous and pale like alabaster, her eyes the color of smoldering rubies, her hair the color of jet. Sinah was every bit as beautiful as he remembered her to be, even though she had grown considerably. However, Sebastian noticed that she shared a second attribute with the witch; the gaze which looked upon him was completely cold. Even for a demon, her look was chilling.

Sebastian felt his stony heart sink as the child's hand reached for the witch's reflexively. It seemed terribly unfair that it should be so. He looked back to the witch, face set in firm neutrality, “I remember my debt to you, witch.”

“Then I ask for you to pay it.” She said, “I have grown tired of waiting for you to return to pay it on your own.”

Sebastian ventured a small smirk, “You didn't think I would?”

The witch looked down at the young girl beside her. How long had it been? How many years had passed without reparations? She had lost so much and gained so little through her sister's foolish contract with the demon below, “Sinah is almost nine years old, demon. If you hadn't come to repay your debt and claim her as your own, I knew you weren't going to.”

“She's better off with you, woman.” He growled and stood, gently resting Ciel's head against the stone as he rose, “Hell is no place for her!”

“Hell is no place for my sister, but that is where you put her!”

“I had no control over that, Relana!” he hissed venomously, surprised that he addressed her by name. The sound of it scared- yes scared him. It wasn't emotional fear, but rather the instinctual plea of self preservation which kept him from speaking it aloud. He knew it gave her power. “Your sister chose her fate when she chose me.”

“You should not have let her do it!” Relana said flatly, refusing to enflame the situation further, “Now give me what you owe me and we can be done with it.”

Relana jumped easily from her perch, landing with near silence at the base of the wall. Sinah dropped after her without a sound, her face unreadable as she kept her gaze fixed on Sebastian. Sebastian bowed his head in an uncharacteristically awkward greeting, “Hello, Sinah.”

The girl did not respond, instead looking to Relana for clarification, “She doesn't know who you are.” Relana said, “And even if she did, her heart beats as cold as her father's.”

“Ah, so that is how it is,” Sebastian sighed, “Then let us settle our account swiftly and we can both be on our way. Though I tell you now, I do not have much other than what you see on me.”

“I know, but this was the only place I could track you to outside a contract,” she explained, “And as you know, I cannot enter Hell.”

“You could have sent Sinah,” he offered politely.

“I don't know if Hell would accept her as a predator or prey,” Relana responded, “It was not a risk I was willing to take.”

From that statement alone, Sebastian knew the witch cared for the young girl at her side. Such a very human connection to one who was seemingly unaffected by its protection. Sebastian wondered how the girl internalized such devotion. But that was a thought for another day, “I don't even know what I can offer you in trade. You know I cannot give you what you really want.”

“I know that,” she admitted. “I knew that the day you took her from me to start with.”

“I didn't take her.”

“You did, demon. Don't argue it now or I will wipe your wretched existence from this world and the next.”

She couldn't do that, he knew. But she could come close enough that he would be very uncomfortable for centuries to come. Witches were very meddlesome when they held true power. This one was one of the most practiced he had come across, though her compassion often limited her otherwise awe inspiring abilities.

Relana looked Sebastian over from head to foot, slowly taking inventory of his person. The clothes were finely made, but nothing she couldn't get easily in the human world. She doubted that he carried any money, though she wouldn't cheapen her sister's memory by settling the debt with something as material as that.

She glanced at the bench, allowing her eyes to wander over the boy, appreciating his beauty even as death's shadowy pallor set heavily on his features, “He made a contract with you?” she said. It was more of a statement than question.

“Ah, he did.” Sebastian said, “Just shy of four years ago.”

“And you upheld your end of it?”

“I did.”

She faced Sebastian squarely, her gold flecked eyes smoldering with hate and remembrance for her sister, “And then you took his soul?”

“Yes, I have. Except the part that belongs to the Realm of Hell,” Sebastian explained, “I cannot claim the part of him to be punished eternally.”

Relana walked over to the bench casually, running her hand gently over the boy's cold cheek, “Why did he make a contract with you?”

“Revenge.”

“What would a child know of revenge?” she asked, combing his hair away from his closed eyes.

“More than you realize,” was his simple reply. Ciel knew more about revenge than many of the adults he had made a pact with. He also knew more about killing than nearly everyone he had made a contract with, his childish tendencies lending swift judgment to anyone who crossed him. To be fair, he had been damaged in a way few people could fathom. With no compassion or respite given to him, how was he expected to give it to others?

“Interesting,” Relana mused, touching two fingers to Ciel's slightly parted lips. “I want him. Give him to me.”

Sebastian stood in shock. Had he heard her correctly? Was it some sort of joke that she should ask for something that was not his to give? No, he thought to himself, it made sense that she should ask for something as convoluted as that, “What is left of him belongs to Hell.”

“I don't care, Demon,” she said, venom evident in her voice, “Hell does not have him yet. He is still in your possession. Give him to me.”

“He's dead already,” Sebastian said, “What more would you have me give you than his corpse?”

“Give me what is left of his soul, give me his life.” She said, quietly, gently, “He gave it to you, after all, in his contract. Just give to me, what he gave to you.”

“I do not deal in bringing people back to life.”

“No, but I know you have connections in other places who can. Just think of it as a repair to something valuable.”

“You should choose something else. This is going to get very complicated and-“

Relana pointed at him accusingly, causing him to take a step back, “Complicated for you, not for me. And don't worry,” she smiled wickedly waggling her finger, “I don't cast spells with this anymore. You are so jumpy, demon.”

“Only around you.”

“I have no idea why that would be,” she mocked. “But in all seriousness, I've decided that he is what I want. You can give me his life, or you can give me yours. I don't really care which, but if you're talking about complications, I think he is the easier of the two options. Your life is your life, but his soul? Well, it's just a commodity.”

Sebastian glared at the witch as he considered his options. He would not lay down his life, obviously. He didn't care how great his debt was, or how giving up what was left of Ciel would affect his standings in Hell, his life was his own. But the other side of the coin was messy at best. The consequences he would bear for returning without Ciel's soul could be very bad and retrieving the pieces of Ciel's soul which he had consumed would be difficult as well. He was stuck and he didn't like it. If he hadn't made that mistake years before . . . No, it was not a mistake. If he hadn't accepted the witch's offer of life in exchange for. . .