Moonlight Demon - Chapter 272: Vol. 4 - 71

Luvine

“…”

Luvine blinked as she stared up at the night sky. The stone floor felt cold, as she laid on it with her arms spread out. Opah was doing the same next to her, as the two of them just rested there, silent. They’d been running around for a while, but right now, they were just relaxing.

“… ‘M bored,” Opah announced next to her.

As for Luvine, however, she was perfectly fine with this. Even though every now and then, when she closed her eyes, she could see herself sitting on Onyx’s scalding hot streets, by now, she’d largely gotten used to these new surroundings. Running around with Opah all day, spending some time with the other half-demon in the group whenever she could, she liked this. She liked this a lot.

So, as Opah huffed a bit, breathing in and out loudly and dramatically to illustrate how bored she was, Luvine just laid there.

After a few minutes, Opah sat up, looking down at Luvine.

“I’m gonna go to bed,” Opah stated, and just like that, she got up and left. Luvine was left there, alone, as she continued staring up at the moon. She heard a couple of people walk behind her, and soon, she lost track of time.

A little while later, however, she heard the door to the Manor open behind her, and a pair of footsteps walking up to where she was.

Then, a woman with the same sort of white hair and violet eyes that she had appeared in view, looking down at her.

“… A bit late, isn’t it?” Ash asked.

Luvine shrugged.

“You aren’t feeling tired at all or…?”

Luvine just blinked at her, wordlessly.

“Okay then, fair enough.”

As Ash then sat down next to her, Luvine kept her eyes on the older woman, while she put her hands behind her head and looked up at the sky.

Ash caught her staring and smirked at her.

“What, am I not allowed to chill here?”  At that, Luvine just shifted to lay a little closer to her. “Ah, gotcha.”

After that, for a while, neither of them said anything. Before too long, however, Ash said:

“So, Lu, how have you been these days?”

Again, the little girl looked up at Ash and shrugged.

“Hm. I haven’t gotten to check in on you too much lately. Sorry about that,” Ash stated. “At least you and Opah haven’t gotten into any trouble around here, thankfully.”

The older half-demon was all but talking to herself. Luvine just listened, but that was fun enough for her.

“Actually, what the hell do you and Opah do all day?”

“… We play,” Luvine answered.

“Is that it?” Ash asked, turning on her side and resting her head on her elbow.

“Mhm,” Luvine replied.

“Well, at least you’ve been having fun.”

When she heard that, Luvine turned toward Ash. Then, she crawled up and planted her chin on Ash’s abs, remaining there, as Ash chuckled. She hadn’t gotten to see much of Ash lately, due to a bunch of stuff that she didn’t understand. So, to her, she was just glad the other half-demon was here right now.

“… Maybe we could train a little, together,” Ash offered suddenly. “Would you like that?”

Luvine nodded.

“What would you like to train in?” Ash asked. “Does magic seem cool to you? Or, do you want to do swing a sword around like Keiko does?”

“Um… I dunno.”

“Really? I mean, you’ve seen me practicing with the others a few times. Didn’t I ever do something you thought seemed cool?”

As Luvine heard that, she paused, feeling Ash’s lungs rise and fall under her chin.

“Everything.”

“Everything?” Ash laughed, “I guess that’s an answer. Sure. You want me to teach you?”

“Yeah,” Luvine replied.

“Okay, I’ll try, then. Look, I wish I could do regular stuff with you, but, I don’t really know how, so, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,”

“… Actually,” Ash looked down at her. “Sorry if this is a hard question to answer but, what happened with you? I mean, at Onyx, how did you end up like that? You’ve never really talked at all about your parents or whatever.”

If Luvine was understanding the question correctly, she, unfortunately, did not have a good answer for her.

“I dunno.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I don’t remember,” Luvine elaborated.

“Seriously?” Ash raised a brow.

“Mhm… Old guy helped a lot. Don’t remember anythin’ else,” Luvine continued.

She wasn’t lying. As far as Luvine could remember, it was like she’d just appeared one day on Onyx’s streets, with no memories of what had led to that moment. She spent every day nearly starving to death before some people would throw crumbs of food at her out of pity. The city’s thieves didn’t even harass her much because they pitied her too badly.

Luvine, if she even remembered her own birthday correctly, was eleven, and yet, it felt like her life had begun just a couple of years ago.

“Well, fuck, I wish I was in that spot. I remember my family all too well,” Ash put her hands behind her head, as the two fell into a comfortable silence.

Luvine was fine like this. In this position, with the other half-demon next to her, Luvine was the most comfortable she could be.

So comfortable, in fact, that she yawned, as she felt herself getting sleepy.

“Oh? And here, I thought you said you weren’t feeling tired,” Ash smirked down at her.

Luvine shrugged.

“… Okay, come on, let’s get you to bed, kid.”

Then, Ash stood up, carrying Luvine in her arms. She walked into the Manor, holding Luvine as she went to the little girl’s room, and here, she placed her down on her bed, next to Opah who was already asleep.

Ash crouched by the bed, as Luvine’s suddenly tired eyes looked back at her.

“Goodnight, Lu.”

“Mm.”

With that, Ash turned away, and left Luvine there, closing the door behind herself. Luvine closed her eyes then, hoping she’d get to spend time with Ash like this again tomorrow.

—

Ash

After depositing Luvine in her room, the half-demon came back out to the garden. After the passionate session she had with Keiko, she felt like walking a bit. Keiko was inside, asleep as most of the group was, but Ash still had some energy.

Seeing Luvine out here had been a positive little moment, but although it had put Luvine to sleep, it hadn’t done that for her, so now, she was leaning over the railing letting her mind go blank as she tried to take stock of everything she’d be doing soon.

And, just a few minutes into it, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye.

When she turned to look at what had appeared, she let out a deep sigh.

“… So, you’re still alive,” Ash mumbled, as she saw the Arcane’s daughter, approaching her.

The girl was wearing the same white dress that she had been before, and her bright pink hair glowed a little in the dark. Ash was tempted to walk away, but, after learning a little about her circumstances, she just couldn’t will her legs to move away.

She hadn’t experienced this before, or, at least not quite in this way, but she genuinely pitied this girl.

“What do you want?” Ash asked.

The girl was carrying a notebook in her hands. She held it up in front of Ash, and wrote in it:

“I need help.”

“I’m not about to start a war with these people for your sake,” Ash replied. “Sorry.”

Hastily, the girl began writing in her notebook again.

“I do not need much,” she scribbled.

“Yeah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

One more time, the girl began to write in her notebook. However, this time, it wasn’t a short sentence. She kept going, writing out an entire paragraph for Ash to read, and the half-demon was tempted to tell her to keep that thing to herself.

However, as the young girl finished it up, she passed the notebook to Ash, and the half-demon tried to see what was up.

“Firstly,” the girl’s writing began, “I understand that you do not want to fight the Senate. I have no hopes of that. I am not asking for your assistance in retaking the city, or in joining my father’s side and fighting for his beliefs. I only want one thing. I wish for you to help me escape Amber.”

Her writing continued:

“That is it. You do not need to fight anyone. All I wish is for the opportunity to survive, because, soon, that opportunity will be gone.”

“Yeah? Speaking of,” Ash replied, “how are you still alive? Why haven’t they killed you?”

Although the girl flinched when she heard that, she did write down an answer for her.

“Because,” Ash read from the notebook, “they want something from me. They seek something I would give to you as a reward if you save me.”

“And, that is?” Ash asked.

“The Arcane’s Spells,” she replied. “Spells created by the first Arcane passed down from one family member to another. I know them, as I learned them from my father. They wanted to learn them from my father, but he would not give them up, and so… They just killed him. Every day since then, they have tortured me relentlessly, but I have kept the spells to myself.”

“You look fine to me,” Ash replied.

“The things they’ve done to me,” she wrote down, with trembling hands as a sad expression appeared on her face, “they do not show on my skin, unfortunately. Through my Illusion magic,” she added, “I’ve been able to escape for brief moments like I am right now. Eventually, however, I will break, and they will get me to teach these spells to them. If you help me,” she wrote down, “I will give them to you.”

… Fuck.  Ash thought.

The worst possible thing had just happened, and she knew it.

The opportunist in her just became interested.

“… Do you have any Dark or Light spells?”

“Yes,” she quickly wrote down. “I can explain this to you in more detail if you wish, but the point is, the first Arcane created the single most powerful spells known for each category. That includes Dark and Light.. If you aid me, I will teach them to you.”