Chapter 81: Commotion

In the veil of night, Lumière met the familiar novel's heroine with honey-brown hair and tourmaline eyes. Lumière sat perched atop a stone wall, one leg hanging off the side.

"Ms. Yuran, it's a pleasure to see you once again." Lumière smiled genially.

She wore a red overcoat with black trim, and ornate runic markings along its surface. Underneath, she wore a white shirt with a variety of belt loops strapped over it, obviously concealing a firearm.

"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Croft. Thank you for meeting me once more. I'm truly thankful." Cecilia bowed slightly to Lumière. 

'She's so formal all of a sudden. What changed?' Lumière felt a slight nervousness, uncharacteristic of him.

"So, you have a plan to kill Nameless? Do you know where they reside? Who they pretend to be? How do you plan to kill them?"

"There are several of those vile creatures hiding out on the eighteenth floor of Etten-Leur, in the lower borough."

"That's the floor that's been abandoned the longest, due to structural failure, I believe. Now, even the criminal groups fear using it for warfare. But for the Nameless, who love to hide in groups of people, it doesn't make sense to stay there. Are you sure it was the eighteenth floor?"

Cecilia nodded her head. "I'm certain. I've been watching them for several weeks now, observing their patterns of behaviour. They act out their days like people normally would. However, they don't eat or drink, or at least pretend to as they usually would. I'm certain that's because they're not around people. They're quite interesting, despite their horrid existence."

As he was about to respond with another inquiry, Lumière watched as a flash of silver shot by in the distance. It hopped on four legs, with long ears that bounced with each movement. 'The repeating rabbit…? Is there danger in the area, for there to be an inconsistency?'

Lumière's brows furrowed slightly, and he looked back at Cecilia.

"Before, why did you say that Heaven's Roses wants to kill you as well?"

Cecilia's expression changed from seriousness to dejection and shock, sighing. "If I told you, you would believe this plan of mine is a trap."

"Try me."

"Are you sure?"

Lumière nodded his head.

Hesitantly, Cecilia put a hand to her face. Between her fingers, her flesh began to writhe. Like tendrils, her skin turned into a thick blackish-red miasma, revealing the intricacies of the layers of her tissues one-by-one. Muscle, sinew, and fat bubbled against her hand, constantly reforming themselves until she removed her hand, revealing half of her skull through the skin that had fallen away, dripping onto the ground in a liquid puddle.

"You're right. That does make me think your plan is a trap." Lumière reached into his jacket pocket, procuring Cerces and pointing the pistol at Cecilia. She raised her hands in surrender, sighing, the puddle of flesh underneath her slowly crawling up her leg to 'reset' the state of her face. 

"I told you as much. So, will you shoot me?" Cecilia asked in a calm, unworried tone. "You've already seen how that works out. Don't you remember your battle against the Named, Asmodeus?

Lumière's eyebrow twitched, gesturing the gun in his hand to remind her of the threat. "How do you know of that?"

She smiled genially, tilting her head in deference. "I'm your stalker, Lumière Croft. Of course, there were many places I wasn't able to follow you- a strange peculiarity that seems to pertain only to you, which interested me a lot. Are you saying you don't remember me at all? We've met once before, although we never spoke to each other."

Lumière looked deeper at her, trying to sift through his countless memories, but he couldn't recall her in the slightest. "Give me a hint."

"You saved the lives of me and my daughter. We enjoyed your performance, both as a magician and our hero." 

His gaze trembled. Suddenly, he recognised the woman precisely. She was the mother of the child he had felt guilt over, the one who had partially convinced him to take the Sinner's contract for their sake. She was the one he had saved, the one he had never seen since. "That was you?" He bit at his lip. 

Cecilia nodded her head. "It was."

"Where is your daughter now? Can you afford to leave her while you try to kill these beasts?"

Cecilia let out a curt laugh, almost scoffing. "She's dead."

Lumière's eyes widened. His heart churned with guilt. "How?"

"One of those monsters first tried to parasitise my daughter. However, her body was too weak and frail to host it. She was always sickly. The only time we would take her out into the world was to see your performances… when I discovered her, lying on the floor, mangled and forgotten, I saw it. It was horrifying. It wasn't like that beast you fought for our sakes. It was empty, nothingness, its only remnant form like a web of sinew and blood… a parasite without its shell…" Cecilia grimaced, grasping incessantly at the writhing flesh trying to paste itself back onto her face. "It attacked me, trying to take me as its host… I was able to kill that beast before it fully manifested within me, strangling it to death, and my mind remained. But my flesh is no longer my own. My heart is fake, writhing like worms within my body. I can feel all of my organs- false, disgusting, profane… the only thing that remains truly me is my mind. Not even my emotions remain. I don't even hate those creatures, it's only the remnant idea of hatred that I once knew."

"So why try to avenge your daughter?"

"Even if I don't feel that I should, I know that I should."

"Why seek me out?"

"I thought you necessary."

"Why do you imagine I will comply?"

"I'll reveal all of your secrets if you don't."

"But what if I kill you?"

"Will you?"

Lumière stared at Cecilia for a moment, contemplative, before smiling. He lowered his gun, sighing. "So, how do you imagine the two of us will be able to survive against so many Nameless?"

Cecilia shook her head. "I spoke of many, but they amount only to five."

"Five bloodthirsty, powerful magical creatures." Lumière nodded his head, speaking sarcastically. "Of course, that's a small amount."

His eyebrow twitched, his expression growing angered as he voiced his true thoughts. "Are you serious? Five of them? How can you consider that a small task? Did your sanity leave with your emotions!?"

"But aren't you quite adept at fighting them?" Cecilia questioned, annoyed. "Can't you kill them like you did when you fought Asmodeus?"

Lumière shook his head. "That was only partially my doing. And that tactic would only leave us in more danger. It's also not something I can tell you about. Just the knowledge of it leaves me in constant danger." Lumière tilted his head, curious. "However, considering you're devoid of emotion, maybe telling you isn't such a curse."

Lumière proceeded to tell Cecilia of the monsters that lurked within the shadows of all people, and how they would attack those who know of them, given that the person who had the knowledge allowed their emotions to rampage. Cecilia nodded her head as Lumière spoke, unperturbed. Lumière hadn't expected any adverse reaction from her. It was expected that someone with no emotions would not feel too much shock. 

"So, just like the Nameless, they hide amongst people. How hilarious. Is that what killed all of those Nameless when you fought the one known as Asmodeus?"

Lumière nodded his head. "I had an associate of mine in the White Roses, a black mage, control the shadows in a certain way that would alert those monsters. This caused them to rampage, tearing the Nameless to pieces. You can see how this won't work with just the two of us."

Cecilia nodded her head, racking through her mind for another idea.

Then, Lumière spoke up. "However, I have a plan that might benefit us both. In fact, I think it would benefit all of Leiden."

"How can you think of such a plan? Do you plan on killing all the Nameless in Leiden?" Cecilia's brows furrowed.

"Not at all. I was merely thinking- don't you imagine that the biggest problem is that the general public isn't aware of the existence of the Nameless? They know there's a threat, sure. But they haven't been told exactly what it is, and that is the scariest part."

Cecilia nodded her head. "Yes, I'm aware. Heaven's Roses, the Peacekeepers, and the Charred Sentinels from the church of the Eternal Blueprint work hard to suppress that information. Are you saying you want to demean the efforts of your comrades and cause commotion amongst the people?"

Lumière shrugged. "The people cannot protect themselves against what they don't know exists."

"Then, what is it you're really proposing?"

"Why don't we put on a show?" Lumière grinned.