letsplayamurder | Week Six

Yes. And...I don't know how much of a role this played, if it did at all, but a couple of weeks later, someone from House Ragara approached me and made a similar offer. It would've been enough income that I wouldn't have to worry about household upkeep for years. My brother could even get an apprenticeship at a Ragara bank if he proved capable. I just had to agree to take commissions from them exclusively.

I didn't agree right away, but I told them I would consider it. And I really was considering it.

It was a few weeks after that when some mercenaries set our workshop and laboratory in the middle of the night. [ She bites her lower lip. ] I found out later they had sacked the town, too. My mother...was still inside at the time, as usual, and I happened to be there to deliver some snacks before going to bed. She...

[ Her voice trails off for a moment, like she isn't sure if she wants to talk about this particular part. Or rather, how much she wants to. ]

She told me to take whatever research I could and run while she fought off the mercenaries outside to cover me. But I don't think either of us realised they weren't there just for the workshop.

Edited 2025-08-17 16:14 (UTC)

[Ferdinand's gaze starts to turn icy as she talks. Goddess... he's heard of similar tales playing out before. Did the first House hear that Ragara had sniped the craftsman they wanted right out from under them? Did they even know it was the daughter? Did they even care? Maybe they did know and knew that all Velvet's mothers techniques were passed down to her. They surely did not see them as different in any way that mattered- just a set of skills they were denied.

That iciness hardens even more when Velvet mentions her mother's command. Maybe the other children were elsewhere. Maybe it isn't how it sounds.

But how it sounds makes him clench his fist regardless]

They could not allow a rival to have something they were denied.

Mm. Sometimes I wonder if what they really wanted was my mother's research, and they couldn't allow a rival to get their hands on it. I don't know all the complicated politics, but I can say that...House Ragara is the Great House most of the others have to deal with, which is also why they are greatly disliked. [ To put it mildly.

She runs a thumb over Ferdinand's clenched fist, like she's trying to get him to let go. The rest of this story would have him drawing blood from his palms otherwise, she's sure. ]

I ran straight back to the main building to grab my siblings, and found that it was set on fire. My sister was calling for help because she was trapped in her room. And I heard my brother telling her to hang on, then...something crashing, and him making the most awful noise I ever heard from him.

[ It is probably familiar to Ferdinand how her gaze is starting to become somewhat unfocused. He's likely seen it before in plenty of other people, himself included. ]

So I went to look for them, but—you know how it is when a building is on fire. Structures start to fail. Support beams and load-bearing pillars collapse. It turns out one can be heavy enough to crush a person's ribs if it falls on them.

[he does let go, but only to clutch at her sleeve instead. He knows that look very well indeed. Can she hear that awful noise? He thinks he can- he's heard men and women crushed and burned before. The undignified yalp like a kicked dog, the squealing. No one is noble sounding in death. It is all live meat.

So this is the death the Lover came to 'save' her from. ]

... you wanted to save them. That's why.

[Because of course she did. His heart breaks and he could not love her more than he does right now]

It's just...I could feel my back getting seared to a crisp and my ribs sticking into my lungs but not my legs. Mizuki was still crying for me and Touya to save her. But I was stuck under that pillar, dying like a dog.

...When I heard the Lover talk to me and told me I could still live, I didn't think twice before saying "yes". Even though she told me outright that I would have to deliver all life to its end in exchange.

[ "Are you sure?" the Lover had asked her back then, when ██████ had answered within seconds of her telling her what the price was.

"Yes, anything! Just let me save them!" ]

So I drew my Last Breath and something terrible and powerful wracked through me, but—

[ Ah, when did she start trembling? ]

—I blacked out like a useless piece of shit.

[The scar on her back, that he felt through her clothing. Saints...]

That... that bitch-

She knew you would not be revived fast enough to do a damned thing- it was all a trick!!

[His rage is palpable]

I don't know if she knew.

[ She says this distantly. Not to protest his anger, per say, but because she knew certain things that robbed her of even that justification. ]

I know...at least some Abyssals have a different experience. Though it just meant one of them went on a rampage and slaughtered everyone in sight.

I was just some girl who hadn't slept well for the past week, didn't go out much besides, and had only moments ago left her mother to die. Would someone like that be able to handle death's power pouring into her?

Edited 2025-08-18 04:33 (UTC)

[ he can't quite buy the idea that this was not some larger conspiracy- maybe he had spent too long digging through cover ups while prosecuting his father and it made him see intent where there was none. Maybe he was just too furious at the injustice of it all.

The crimes purely being greedy, prideful men, the same kind of people that raised him and that were likely long gone from his fury's reach... It was too frustrating to bear.

But his anger is not helpful right now. So even while he is still trembling with it he takes her in his arms. Not as tight as he wants; in case the memory of the crushing beams and choking smoke was too real and she needed to breathe, but enough to offer anchoring in the now.]

Oh Vel... I am so sorry...

[ going right from such horror to the Lover's service... he wonders if she ever had a chance to grieve. He doubts she was encouraged to at the very least- maybe even told some filth to justify it all. Children dying in a fire was surely kinder than the long drawn out horrors of this world! Sothis, he could vomit with the very idea of it.]

Edited 2025-08-18 09:37 (UTC)

[ Some other time, Velvet would appreciate Ferdinand's consideration to not hug her too tightly. At first she seems to just numbly allow herself to be pulled into his arms, like she barely realised it was happening, but gradually relaxes as she leans into him.

(Sometimes, she wondered if things would have gone differently if she had met someone like Ferdinand sooner. Or at least, someone who would have empathised with her anger and grief back then.) ]

...Do you want me to continue?

[ There's more? ]

[ "There's more?" indeed. The nauseated feeling ramps up, and Ferdinand unthinkingly starts to chew on his lip scar, a new habit settling into his repertoire.]

If you want to tell it, yes. If you think I should know.

[ "what does it matter what you know?" his heart scolds, tone as always somewhere between his horde of childhood governesses and Hubert von fucking Vestra "you will not be here to help her with it! Selfish, idiot child that you are, you could at least not cause more damage while you are at it!"

And as always he does not argue it. But maybe if he can help even in this moment, then maybe Velvet can find a little peace. And if she needs someone more worthwhile to hold her through it, she certainly would have no issue finding them. Who could not wish for his place for a woman like this?

(he tries to ignore the way his heart rails and gnashes at the idea. Hates a person he imagined and put here! Truely a ridiculous man)

He strokes her back lightly, waiting for her choice]

[ She turns her head to see the new bad habit Ferdinand's picked up, and one hand reaches up to touch at the lip scar to try and get him to stop that. Don't open up a new wound there.

It takes her a while to continue. Both because she finds that she wants to stay in Ferdinand's arms a while longer and because she has to find the words for what she wants to tell. She's never actually expressed...any of what had happened that night. The incident came and passed, and she just kept all its dark details to herself. Surely no one would want to listen, and no one should have to be burdened by the knowledge.

(And privately a part of her also feared, what if after hearing it all, they would see her for the stupid, short-sighted and awful girl she was? Trading the world away from the sake of two people.) ]

...When I woke up, the fire had died out. I managed to drag myself out from underneath. I could...still walk, somehow, even if it hurt. Maybe they managed to survive, or...if nothing else, I could find their bodies. I heard Kogoro barking, so I thought at least he was safe, but...

Some of the mercenaries had stayed behind to loot through what was left. Of course he'd keep barking at them. He... They...

[ Her voice trails off. She doesn't want to recount that particular scene, but the silence probably says everything. ]

...You know, there's a particular necromancy spell. With a single syllable, you can brand someone and make their skeleton roil and writhe beneath their skin, until it tears itself out.

I did it to all of them.

Edited 2025-08-18 14:35 (UTC)

[her hand stops his gnawing, the scar tissue and the skin around it already red and puffy from his efforts.

He tries to picture what that spell would look like. Worse, what it would feel like. His imagination is happy to supply some possibilities. Horror roils in his guts- of course it does, he is still human.

But he finds he can not muster much disgust at her doing so. The noble thing to do would be to sympathize but not condone such brutality. A noble kills when it's needed with clean efficiency and he certainly does not enjoy it.

Instead all that comes out of his chewed lips is:]

Good.

[ he's not a noble anymore, so to hell what they would find the proper responce]

[ Velvet watches Ferdinand's reaction with an expression that can only be called "complicated". In a way, it is a relief, for many reasons; in other ways, she can't help but worry that this tale will change him for the worse. That it is no different from the poison that will rot society from within. ]

...It had felt good back then, watching them struggle and scream. Like it sated some—terrible desire to hurt someone.

[ Eight years worth of enduring, enduring and enduring finally snapping apart like a toothpick and unleashing itself on deserving victims. ]

I started looking for my siblings after. Touya was...underneath some debris. If he wasn't crushed to death, the fire would have claimed him still.

[ That terrible moment when she realised he had suffered the same death she had just cheated. ]

Edited 2025-08-18 16:56 (UTC)

Mizuki was...

[ Despite pausing to try recomposong herself, to keep herself from shaking, her voice still ends up cracking as she speaks. ]

There was a burned husk curled up in the corner of her room. She...she was only eight. The last thing I remembered was her begging even my useless mother to come get her. I'm sure she thought Touya and I had abandoned her.

I-in the end, I didn't even bury them, or give them any last rites. I just...kept crying. Thinking I should have let myself die with them.

[ That maybe she could still make things right and join them then, if only she would stop being a coward. ]

[ he rocks them both a bit as she talks. Soothing for her and him both, eyes prickling with that rage but also empathetic anguish. He never had siblings- at least none he knew, danm his rake of a father- so this degree of loss is unknown to him. But he can feel it baking off her in waves

His words once again come unbidden and unthought through]

Even so, I am glad you didn't.

[ same she said to him. Even if her choice wasn't selfish like his, he's blessed that she made it]

[ Her breath catches in her throat at what Ferdinand says. Of course he would tell her this; has he not made it clear how much he adores her?

But ever since that night, Velvet has treated her survival as the result of a sin she cannot truly atone for, a decision that cannot ever be taken back. Even when she finally decided she no longer wanted to be miserable, she couldn't find it in herself to be happy she was alive. Not when her siblings who could have had brighter futures had returned to the earth, nor when being alive felt excruciating every step of the way. Any sensible person could see she is tainted and blighted, and even before that, there was nothing lovable about a dreary, gloomy girl who could only think about making it to the next day, next week, next month, and next cycle.

To hear Ferdinand say she is glad she chose to live, even if she hadn't chosen the world—it is more than she deserves. It lets her think she is worth cherishing.

If he feels something wet against his chest, it's only because Velvet has heard something she desperately needed, even if she hadn't realised it. ]

[ and as he has always tended to do, he keeps talking]

I know you do not think so. That what happened made you unworthy of it. But I know in my heart that you are good. What unworthy person would risk their very soul to save their loved ones? And that goodness is still there, I have seen it- when you came to my aid, when you've fought alongside the others, when you made Misane's doll... even though it makes you bleed and the shadows reach for you. If you were not, why would that damned oath need to threaten you so?

[ he presses his face to her crown]

I have been blessed to know you.

[ She doesn't try to move from where she currently is, apparently content to just stay like this. ]

...Sometimes, I wonder if things would've been different if I had met you sooner.

[ Or someone like Ferdinand, but she finds herself reluctant to imagine anyone else, even hypothetically. ]

Different for us both.

[He silently prays, even though Sothis has never answered a single one before now. That Athena would show up tomorrow. That they would uncover the weapon randomly. That Typhon would choke on a chicken bone and die pissing himself. Something. Anything.]

[ But none of those were ever meant to be.

She tries to tilt her head up so she can nuzzle him, much like a kitten. ]

...I wish I could tell you that that night ended with some relief, after everything that had happened.

[He hums deep in his chest at the affection]

Stories like this rarely do.

[But he's listening, regardless. he does so adore his tragedies]

[ Suddenly, she wishes they were in their room instead, and not here. She really has become spoilt, wanting to keep giving and receiving affection like this. ]

Eventually, some people from town came to look for survivors. Or if nothing else, bodies to properly bury.

I'm sure...I looked like I was demon-possessed right then, covered in blood and all. And they had just survived a sacking. I don't blame them for being antsy and not wanting to take chances.

A girl I knew tried to kill me then and there. But for some reason, I fought back enough to run away instead of letting her end me.

Edited 2025-08-18 21:49 (UTC)

[ yeah he can't blame them either]

Some part of you still wanted to live.

[ even if it was just the base animal part]

...Yes.

[ Back then, it felt shameful. ]

Afterwards...I was guided to the Lover's fortress. It wasn't as if I had anywhere else to go. I had to get far enough out of Realm territory before a colleague could retrieve me, so I walked for...I think nearly 2 weeks? Towards the northern shoreline. Long enough that I couldn't stand another moment of living with my legs back then.

[ Ferdinand can probably guess how this led to the prosthetics. ]

...So there you have it. My miserable story.

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