Private Tales The Kindest Devils

[Vittoria Larrainth]

"Honestly, I prefer that they stuck us both with the runts." Vittoria leaned back into her seat, blue-green eyes watching Initiate Eliza Wylls and Initiate Koen Reynard smile and laugh as they both held tankards of drinks for their table. The Dreadlords told the four Initiates to take up the table in the corner, keeping them out of their hairs as they drank, danced, and sang with the rest of the tavern. "It is embarrassing to watch them make such spectacle." After all, the mission was a success, but it wasn't on the highest of achievements both Vittoria and King shared.

"Remember that mission in the Falwood? The creatures that feasted on magic? If we did that again today, I would not be stuck at this table with Wylls of all people." There was a slight grumble to her words, a faintest of narrowed eyes as Eliza placed a tankard before Vittoria, and Koen doing the same for King. They both had began drinking as soon as they had sat down, and Vittoria had to fight for the attention for the barmaid to take their order for meals with the celebration going on. Crowds like this left her unsettled, and perhaps a rare scowl found home upon her facade as Wylls smiled at the Initiate she often butted heads with.

"Lighten up, Larrainth. Your food will be here any moment." Her words made Koen breath a laugh through his nose, already sipping from his tankard which was now a third finished.

Vittoria simply stared at the girl, at her pretty blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to capture Reynard's attention this evening.

Sickening, Vittoria thought to herself.

Fabien 'King' D'Amour

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

"No decorum whatsoever," King agreed, sneering at their so-called "superiors" while they made fools of themselves amidst the common Anirian rabble. "It's sad, really."

The D'Amour boy took up the mug as though it was owed to him, without so much as acknowledging Koen's existence.
"Mmm, clever beasts. So clever that they choked on their wit and popped, as I recall."
Overfeeding was a hell of a way to die, but certainly they had not expected to be force-fed more than their bodies could ever handle. It was an ingenious maneuver that the two of them had pulled against the creatures, but recognition was often hard to come by.
"Shame the proctors missed it."

King let out a scoff at Eliza's little comment. He spoke loud enough that she'd be able to hear, but didn't give her the dignity of addressing her directly.
"'Lighten up,' she says. Like she wasn't actively dragging down everyone involved from square one. That's cute."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

"Yes, how inconsiderate of her." Vittoria was still looking to Eliza, who's pale cheeks turned red.

But their food did arrive, placed before the Initiates in the middle of the table. Roast potatoes and roast pork wafted before them, and Vittoria lifted her fork and stabbed the closest steaming hot roasted vegetable. "Honestly, Eliza Wylls, not many in our class would have made a fumble as bad as the one you did today." Vittoria did not blow on the food to cool it before baring her teeth and taking a bite of it. It seared the inside of her mouth, promptly blistering, but she gave no hint that it bothered her. She learned to pick apart her reflexes, to hold it separate from her true self she projected. "At least you made Reynard look good for once."

Eliza's mistake had almost cost them their lives if it had not been for Koen Reynard using his air magic to stop Eliza's failure to keep hold of the stone floor above them that began to crumble down over the Initiates. Telekinesis was truly wasted on some.

"Lay off her, Larrainth." Koen attempted to defend the other girl, but Eliza simply stared at Vittoria oddly biting into her food once again. Such strangeness kept Vittoria in a different light to the other girls in their class. Some even thought it was her way of detaching herself from the figure of beauty she naturally was given. Not to be loved, but to be feared.

It worked.

"And still, she needs someone to protect her." Vittoria put on a drawl and turned to look at King. "She would make a great Fourth Level Dreadlord."

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Vittoria had such a way with being unsettling. King so loved that about her. King, meanwhile, was much more meticulous with his food. He took up the knife that had been delivered alongside his meal and made clean, precise cuts through the pork, reducing it to perfect, even slices. He began to repeat the process with his potatoes.

Now Koen stepped out of place. King's knife screeched across his plate. That wouldn't do.
"You surprise me, Reynard. I would think that you'd want the spotlight on little Eliza. You know, to take the attention off of how staggeringly mediocre your track record is," he stared the initiate down, looking more bored than angry. Koen opened his mouth to snap something back, but King cut him off. "But I suppose when you're so desperate to get inside of someone there really isn't any place too low to stoop."

Eliza flushed brightly at the crude statement, placed so bluntly, and Koen seemed like the Anirian language had suddenly vacated his skull. The D'Amour boy put a perfectly cut piece of meat and vegetable into his mouth, meeting Vittoria's glance with a wry grin.
"They're positively made for each other."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria smiled, even managing a light chuckle of amusement. It was oddly sweet of sound, but the empty stare of her eyes was just that touch of different that she was known for. If there was any true classmate that Vittoria loved to taunt, it was Eliza Wylls. The girl had been trying to compete with Vittoria since they were young, and even now, she had gone the easy way and became liked.

In Vittoria's eyes, being liked was a weakness, something to fill that void in oneself.

"Oh, like you two aren't fucking around." Reynard shot back. Of course, it was not the first time or an original thought many have had of Vittoria and King. The two were inseparable at times, and she could see the reason as to why they would assume that of the two Initiates. Vitt looked at King, pouting at him.

"Shut up, Koen." Eliza shot him a look. She knew Vittoria well enough to know the signs of when the cat would begin playing with the mouse.

Vittoria's lips twitched, now cutting into the roast pork. "It seems our table has reached a majority vote for you to no longer speak, Reynard."

"You can't do shit to us with those cuffs on. And this guy? Going to amplify her being a bitch?"

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Koen's comeback earned an exaggerated eyeroll from King. Yes, yes, that was always the assumption, wasn't it? He and Vittoria had been the best of friends for quite some time, so clearly she must have been fucking him to keep his loyalty. Like two people couldn't just platonically enjoy each other's company, and have mutual interest in being better than everyone else.

The rolling of his eyes turned into an amused shake of his head when he caught sight of Vitt's insincere pout.

Despite Vittoria's most polite suggestions to the contrary, Koen kept running his mouth.
"Ooo, I do love these sorts of theories," King jested, leaning in and placing another measured bite into his mouth. "'Surely the best duelist at the Academy since his older sister attended won't gut me like a fish!' Or wait, let me guess: 'amplification magic? That sounds useless!' Tch."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Eliza was notably quiet. She had looked between Vittoria and King before finding her tankard quite fascinating.

"You're both dicks." Reynard huffed.

Vittoria let her gaze fall onto him, lips skewing in a way to look like an odd pout. She was annoyed.

"You think the cuffs do much to stifle my magic, Koen?" Vittoria had continued to eat her meal, imitating the way King had gone about cutting into the cooked pork, and loaded her fork before continuing. "You never heard of those rumours that my magic is so potent, it can undo runes after a while getting acquainted?"

"I was there when she shattered her cuffs once..." Eliza mumbled into her tankard, and took a swig.

With her mouth full, Vittoria nodded as if they were having a discussion. A hand covered her mouth, as she waited to finish eating before continuing. "It is very good fun doing so. Sometimes they add on extra runes to confuse me, but I always find a way." She spoke cheerfully, fully aware that Koen was now staring at the silver cuffs dangling from her wrists. The Proctors wanted her magic controlled, to be used when they deemed it right.

They just did not know Vittoria had learned how to squeeze her hand through the cuffs to escape them sometimes.

"I am unsure if your sudden hostility and poor choice of insults is due to the fact I turned you down last week when you found me in the library. Did my rejection make you wonder if I have someone else? Perhaps, your ego is not all that strong if you crumble so easily..." She took another bite of a perfectly cute cube of roasted potato, smiling sweetly to both Eliza and Koen opposite the table from them. "You two ought to know me by now. I liked the old ways, and I liked the idea of fraternising with one another being prohibited."

Koen snorted, shaking his head, but glanced at those cuffs again. He folded his arms across his chest.

Eliza stared a hole into the table, flinching subtly when Vittoria accidentally dropped her fork with a clatter against her plate.

"There, quiet at last." She turned to King with a true smile. "Now, I had a thought. Did you see the bounty board on our way in? I think the Dreadlords are going to drink themselves to sleep, leaving us quite some time to so as we please. Fancy going on a hunt after dinner?" After all, in a town an hour out from Vel Zrada, they would likely be successful tonight. A win for the Terrible Two.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

"Oh, I'm so wounded, really," King deadpanned. Reynard was proving himself to be the same as he'd always been: boring. Boring to spar with, boring to talk with, just boring. The boy didn't have a creative thought in that skull of his, as full of air as his magic. At least Eliza knew her place.

Thankfully Vittoria was as capable of putting a smile on King's face as ever. "Once," Eliza had said, but King knew well that the cuffs were never going to be substantial enough. She'd break them whenever she felt the need, and fun would always follow. Though the verbal spears that Vitt was presently driving into the other two initiates' hearts were quite entertaining to watch go sailing.

"Aww, Vittoriaaa, you didn't have to let poor Eliza find out she's Reynard's rebound attempt like that. I'm sure she's beating herself up for all her mediocrity already." He did so love to rub salt in a wound.

Leave it to Vittoria Larrainth to figure a way to spice up a night!
"Ahhh, now we're talking. But why bother including the peons? They'll just hold us back again."

Icy, D'Amour eyes cast a knowing glance down his nose at their so-called peers, a sneer of malice, contempt, and conceit working its way over his mien.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

The two Initiates before the Terrible Two found attentions in their tankards, not more bite to come away victorious against Vittoria or King.

Smiling, strangely still, Vitt resumes her odd way of eating the roast potato. When her mouth was clear, she turned to her friend and spoke. "I doubt they will tag along to embarrass themselves again, after all, the work we are capable of is much out of their league."

Having heard enough coming from her, Reynard stood up and left, finding reprieve in the crowd.

Eliza tried to stop herself from watching after him, but her pathetic action did not go unnoticed by Vittoria.

"You are much too good for someone of his like. If a boy like that is what you are after, then... well... you would have lost your purpose at the Academy. Your Aunt is an Archon, is she not? Yes... I believe I do recall..." She cut and cut and cut her food, until they were in small pieces for her to stab onto her fork to eat.

"Have you ever fawned over someone, King? Lost sight on the true purpose an Initiate should be dedicated to?"

Vittoria and Eliza had been equals in strength and determination when they were young, but the latter soon became aware what her darling looks afforded her. She had preened and gave careful thought on how to dress and look, how to act around the rest of their classmates. Proving herself to be popular and liked, whereas Vittoria stayed the same. She, too, was pretty, but Vittoria only cared enough to keep herself groomed per the requirements set by the Academy.

That was where their differences were, that Vittoria did not care what her classmates thought of her, except for the only friend she could trust.

"You have never made yourself beneath your worth for another?" She asked King the final question before stabbing three pieces of the pork and dragging her teeth over the prongs to her fork to eat them.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

"So right as always, Vitt. Trying to keep up with us is an exercise in futility," he mocked their comrades, taking in another perfectly even slice of food in the primmest manner possible.

His smug boredom quickly shifted to wild amusement at the thought of someone so mediocre sharing blood with the pinnacle of Dreadlord hierarchy. Surely she could only be related through marriage.
"Wylls is related to an Archon? Ha, I can hardly believe it! Wait, her aunt isn't that Galleus woman, is she? That would certainly explain a few things!"

King leaned to one side, resting his jaw on his knuckles and his elbow on the table in turn. He chewed a moment longer, giving an exaggerated act as though he didn't already have an immediate answer to Vittoria's question.

"Hmm...no. Quite the opposite, in fact," he replied. While Vittoria had her natural beauty and did the minimum to accentuate that fact, King's appearance was measured, purposeful, and exceedingly well-manicured. He put countless hours of effort into complimenting his remarkable genetics with the finest grooming he could muster. The difference was that it wasn't to farm for the attention of his peers; no, it was to ensure that everyone else knew just how superior he was to them.

He was a D'Amour, after all. Anything less than perfection simply would not do.
"I keep having to turn grovelers down. I know my worth."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria smiled, lips pressed together and her cheeks only shifting muscles in little effort as she did not commit to the dangerous appearance.

"That will always be the difference between you and us, Initiate Wylls." Vittoria would not think to chase after someone, no matter how pretty they were or sweet, and kind. It was not in her cards to find such a thing. She stabbed at another roughly cut piece of pork, and another, holding it up tilted towards her mouth. "You chose the easiest way out of the suffering. If you truly wish to even be standing at the level King and I are... then you need to change your thinking."

"I wasn't born a killer like you." Eliza scowled.

"No, I suppose with your parentage, you were not." She hummed, taking a bite of her food. "But weapons are made. Why else be sent to the Academy?" Vittoria questioned, a hand muffling the appearance of her chewing. Years before, King had started to tell her to cover her mouth if she wanted to talk through her chewing, knowing he would be unsuccessful in getting his friend to not wait until her mouth was clear of food.

"In fact... it matters not about parentage. That much is obvious when you look at the other Initiates. It is those that apply themselves better that will be seen and rewarded. If King and I do not graduate as Second Rank... well, we would not count it as a loss, only to prove ourselves to be worthy. That is a stark difference, Eliza Wylls. Take a page out of King's book and... know your worth."

She had seen it for years, how the potential went to waste in their class alone. Too weak minded, too coddled by the revolution and ease of shaping Initiates to become weapons. Many had lost all sense of the history of Vel Anir and what made them great.

"Now, King," Vittoria leaned into her friend and lowered her voice. "Is this not a perfect opportunity to teach Wylls an important lesson? Remind her of the power she wields?" Mischief veiled in her words, or Vittoria's lesson was not as simple as she made it seem. What other opportunity would they have to play with Eliza's magic than bolstering it? Allow her to experience the feel of true power.