Sorcerer Stabber Orphen Fan Fiction ❯ It's in the Blood ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: The usual, I don't own any of the characters in SSO.

This is set after Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: Revenge. This is based off the Anime only and the English ADV versions at that. Warning Spoilers!

Chapter 1 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*

Early the following day, Orphen and company arrived in Alenhatan, which had become sort of a home base for their travels. They were planning to spend a few days with Stephanie and her husband, Tim. As they arrived at Stephanie's home, Tim was exiting. He saw them, smiled, and called back in the house, "Stephanie, I've been saved a trip. Guess who just arrived?"

Stephanie came to the door. "Hello, everyone. Come on in." Tim came back in and handed something to Stephanie. "Cleo, this is for you, some mail. The letter was marked urgent, so I asked Tim to ride out to meet you to make sure it got to you quickly."

Cleo looked puzzled as she accepted the letter, marked urgent, from home. Immediately worried, Cleo frantically ripped into the letter, with Majic looking on. Inside, was a letter from her mother, and a sealed envelope from an old schoolmate.

As soon as they arrived at the house, Orphen had taken up his usual brooding position at the window, feigning disinterest. He could tell, from Cleo's body language, that the news from home wasn't bad. However, he wasn't quite expecting what happened next.

Cleo squealed in delight and grabbed her bag, "We're going home. Now!"

"Uh…Miss Cleo." Majic started to glance at Orphen and realized he wasn't going to get any help from there, "Why? We just got here."

"Because I said so, that's why."

"That's no answer. Uh, is everything ok at home?"

"Yes, everything's fine." Cleo answered, distracted by other thoughts, "We've just got to get home for the big day and I've got to get a date …Too bad Hartia's still at the tower but Majic will do. He knows everybody …and a dress …Oh my goodness…. presents! I need to get presents…You know, I probably can do that better here. Come on Majic, we're going shopping."

Majic stared openmouthed, trying to pick up on what Cleo meant with all her raving, until she got to his part in her musing. "Hold it! I'm not agreeing to anything until you tell me what's going on."

"Oh…I thought…well, anyway…Mariabella's getting married next week. That's why Mother marked it as urgent, so the message would get to me quickly, so I could be there. Mariabella wants me to be her bridesmaid." Cleo continued bubbling.

Seeing Majic wilt, Stephanie said "Cleo, maybe you can shop after we've had something to eat. Since Tim doesn't have an errand anymore, I figured I'd fix some food for everyone. Besides, don't you have another letter to open?"

"True." Cleo sat down, dropped her pack, and with much less haste, opened her other letter and started to read. As Majic headed to go wash up, he walked up to Stephanie and whispered "Thanks."

"All this squeaking" Orphen said, "is giving me a headache. I'm going for a walk." As he started to leave, he glanced at Cleo, and he could tell that the second letter had bad news. Very bad news. `Ah…. Oh hell she's going to cry. Where's Majic? He can cope with her hysterics. Wait, there's ….no she's busy with the meal. Damn it.' He sighed and asked harshly, "Now what's wrong? Did one of your boarding school girlfriends break a nail?"

Cleo sniffed and looked up, "Thanks a heap, Mister Sensitivity! As if you care, two of the boys in my school were killed recently. My dad worked and traveled with their fathers. We were friends, good ones. Erin was a couple of years younger than me, about Majic's age, and Devon was older. Devon and I went to our first dance together and he almost gave me my first…" She stopped and blushed. "Anyway, they both had younger brothers who were about the same age. Alik and Bastion, I think were their names. They …ah… would have been about …10. My friend Sarah said everyone in both families was killed."

"How'd it happen? Never mind, if they're anything like you, they probably did something stupid, like stand in front of a sorcerer when he was casting a spell."

"Will you stop reminding me about that. I said I was sorry! I sure didn't expect the thing to backfire on you. I was just trying to help." She wilted again, her sadness returning as she spoke.

"Gah…. If you were really trying to help me you'd go home and stay there."

"I already said we were going home, after I've done some shopping for Mariabella's wedding."

"We?"

"Yes, we. Want to make something out of it, Magic Boy?"

"Yeah…. I never agreed to go to some lousy wedding." Inwardly, Orphen winced. That might have been too much, judging by the look Stephanie was giving him from the kitchen. Suddenly, he realized they had an audience. Majic and Tim were watching too.

"Lousy wedding!! Lousy wedding!! You take that back, you stupid charlatan! Or I'll never forgive you."

"Promises, promises."

Abruptly turning, she grabbed Leki and her pack and shouted, "I'm leaving! I won't stay around and let you insult my sister!"

"Fine, have a nice trip. See you around."

"Fine!"

Cleo stormed out of the house. She walked towards the outskirts of town mouthing and muttering about stupid sorcerers. Something in the window of a shop caught her eye, a blue velvet formal gown. One look and she knew she would look fantastic in that outfit, and make that stupid sorcerer's jaw drop at how pretty she was. `Oh, who are you fooling Cleo, that's never gonna happen. He doesn't care about me. He probably wouldn't even notice. Why do I bother with him?'

She sat down in front of the store and Leki curled up in her lap as she absently stroked him, thinking. `Why? Because every time you think about leaving, he up and does something nice. So don't kid yourself, you stay with him because you love him. Without him, you might as well put a sword through your heart.'

`At least he distracted me from what happened to the boys and their families. Did he actually think to try to make me angry with him to distract me? Nah! He'd have to be sensitive for that.'

She was still sitting there, musing, when Stephanie found her. Stephanie looked from Cleo's long face to the dress. "You know, on a pretty girl, that blue dress would probably turn even the most stubborn sorcerer's head."

"Yeah…. well, go find a pretty girl."

"I see one now. Besides, don't you have some shopping to do before the three of you head for Totokonta?"

"Three?", and a smile crept back on her face.

"Yes."

It had never been in Cleo's nature to stay angry very long, so she got excited and ran into the shop to try on the dress.

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In the dark of a cave, just outside Totokonta, a well-dressed, handsome man of about 25, with sandy brown hair, approached what appeared to be a wall. He placed his hand on the wall and an opening appeared. He stepped into a small labyrinth of tunnels. He proceeded through two passages to a large room with a laboratory set up, a throne like chair, hundreds of knowledge crystals, and a medical examining table. In the far corner of the room, a dark figure stood by a round, glowing orb.

"Yes? Do you have it?"

"Yes." He handed a small vial to the figure.

The cloaked figure took the vial to the laboratory area and performed several tests on the substance from inside. "Useless!" and he threw the vial against the wall, creating a large red splatter as blood flowed down the wall. "I can feel the power, but no one who should have it, does. Even the one who thinks he escaped me."

"Just as well. The one that sample was from is not going to be yours to do anything with. Do we understand each other?"

"I understand the pact created by your freeing me. You and yours are all safe unless they break faith and reveal my location or identity. You do not need to remind me."

"Good. I did find out there is another in the family. I've been in contact with my men and they've informed me that one is traveling with a group along the road from Alenhatan. Do you want to me to have them attack?"

"No, I will check it out personally." He lifted his head and two red glowing eyes peered out from under the cloak.