Reaper

"What are you doing here, Blyke? Have you sniffed up the wrong tree, little puppy?" Asha asked, leaning against the door frame, a cocky smile stretched across her lips.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay. That was the first time I've ever seen you collapse like that." Blyke peeked over her shoulder before rounding on her in a fierce and almost protective tone. "You didn't eat the soup I made! Hurry up now, get in the room. Eat it. Now."

Asha's brows raised. "Ok, Nanny Blyke."

His lips curled up in a snarl. "Just because I'm not as cold as you are doesn't mean I'm any less of a fighter. It just makes me a better person."

Asha's brow fell and her face turned cold. She stalked into the room, grabbing the bowl of soup. But instead of bringing it to her lips, she threw it as hard and as fast as she could at Blyke's head. As the broth dripped from his brown locks into the floor, she snarled, "Get the hell out of my room, Hagani."

"This just proves I'm the better person."

"I don't care! I don't give an eyelash if you're a better person than me. I don't need you to tell me that, either! Now, get out. I already know I'm a selfish, cold-hearted bitch." Asha sent a blast of wind at him, knocking him through the door, slamming it shut so hard that the windows on either side shattered, sending shards of glass everywhere.

Asha sucked in a sharp breath as one of the shards slit deep into her cheek, teeth bared, eyes blazing.

When her mind could no longer take the emotions rushing through her, Asha summoned Quetzalcoatl, his shriek covering her own scream as she unleashed her emotions and her magic on the house.

The great flash of light could be seen all the way from the Baron's Castle, and the debris managed to smash into the walls of the school.

When the students had gone running to find the source of the destruction, all that was left were a few pieces of wood and metal, and the bowl that had contained the soup, miraculously intact.

~

"I don't care what you have to do!" Headmaster Randolph shouted, dark skin and hair and eyes standing out as he stood on the raised platform in the courtyard. "Find her! Find the Queen of Luminine!"

"Yes, Sir!" the cadre answered.

They raced in different directions, all shouting.

"Where in the name of hell did you go, Asha?" Blyke hissed. He was barely a mile from that house, running as fast as Shadower's second form allowed, when the one-story house exploded. And the first thought that popped into his mind was the argument they'd had not even minutes before.

Was this whole thing his fault?

Asha had a bad history of disappearing suddenly for even weeks at a time, but she'd never blown something up before, and this time there was a provocation. What could she do in the time before the cadre found her?

Blyke had to admit: Asha was by far the most powerful of the cadre, and he had no idea how.

None of the Cadre knew anything of Asha's life before moving to Luminine, only that she had come in through the gates looking like an abused animal, and when the Headmaster tried to put a hand on her shoulder, she fought him exactly like one.

Blyke froze. When Headmaster Randolph had tried to touch her, she fought back. He'd forgotten about Asha's touch aversion.

Even as guilt coursed through his veins, he had to wonder: what had happened to Asha to make her react like that?

Blyke rounded the cobbled path to the main dormitory. The members of the Disciplinary Committee and Student Council and the top of the Hierarchy all had separate rooms, while everyone else slept two-to-five per room. Depending on their breeding lines, they could get fewer people or more. The daughter of a Baron shared her room with the daughter of a Viscount. Both were high-standing children of the aristocracy.

This world was run by the high-bred and powerful. If you were not born into a high, rich family, or if you did not have the power to destroy the people who stand in your way, you would be trampled upon.

Blyke grit his teeth. "Dammit, Asha. You can't just run away like this! Explain yourself!"

Then Blyke heard something. It sounded almost like a bell tinkling in the distance. He slowed his sprint to a faltering walk, torn between investigating and finding Asha.

Blyke had always been a curious person, so he turned sixty degrees and started running again. He was tracking the sound with his hearing alone, and a human's hearing was quite weak, but he followed, ears straining.

He found a maze, tucked far into the backgrounds of the school. The bell was coming from the center; he was sure of it!

Blyke started into the maze, using his Shadower's second form to catch the sound and judge the distance.

It was a high, gentle ringing, almost like a bird's call, and something about it was intoxicating.

Blyke was completely fixated on it, forgetting all about Asha, focusing only on that sweet ringing. He cheated, jumping over a few hedges, but he managed to find the center of the maze.

A tall, majestic waterfall sat in the middle of the square, benches lining the hedge walls. But the water made no noise as it fell into the pool. A silent torrent of continuous water.

Blyke's eyes scanned around for the source of the ringing, and he passed the figure once before realizing there was a person on the other side of the curtain of water.

A person dressed all in black, sitting on the ledge to the pool that collected the water as it poured from the top of the fountain. In the figure's hands, pinched between the thumb and forefinger, was a shining silver bell.

Blyke took another step forward, and the figure turned to face him. Even from that far away, Blyke could see the gray-silver eyes. It was as if Death was staring him straight in the face.

The figure's brows drew together, the same dark black color as its hair, and stood. "You aren't who was supposed to hear the bell. But now that you've seen me, I have no choice but to kill you, now, do I?"

Blyke gaped. This person was beautiful, and he saw a scrap of fabric on the ground that looked as if it could be a veil. The features changed suddenly, turning more angled, colder, losing its softness.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, voice soft, like a breeze rustling leaves of a tree. "Do you realize the grave sin of looking at the face of a Reaper?"

"A reaper? Like Death?"

"We take the souls of the unworthy and destroy them. We steal the souls of the damned and cast them into Hell. We smother the unclean, the sinful, and each transgression has its own punishment. But we also carry and escort the souls of the people to the gates of Heaven."

Blyke laughed, but the noise died in his throat when a very cold pair of eyes glared at him. The eyes were so cold, Blyke could swear the temperature dropped forty degrees, and the pressure radiating from her threatened to pull him under.

Was this how the low tiers felt around the cadre?

No. This wasn't just radiating power, but every touch of that aura was a cold, oppressive caress of Death. If he stayed here too long, that aura might just cause his heart to stop.

"Who- who are you?" he breathed, taking a step back.

"Our name is Azrael. My name… you can call me Azir. Now, Blyke Hagani, last of the Hagani line, prepare to die today!"

Blyke stumbled back as the girl, Azir, lunged for him. He bent backwards, narrowly avoiding the black-gloved hand reaching out to grab him by the throat. Then he reacted. "Shadower!"

His cat ears and tail and claws vanished before the shadows on the ground collected and rose to form the huge black panther with bright purple eyes. "If you claim yourself as Death, then why have there been no rumors about you?" Blyke demanded.

Azir covered her eyes with her fingers. The laugh that came from her was cold, dark, and more than a bit mad. "You want to know why nobody talks about me? Though I go around reaping the souls of the dead?" The laughing stopped. "Well, Young Lord Hagani, that answer would have to be…" Her fingers parted, and a pair of silver glowing eyes stared at him through them. "Dead men tell no tales, do they?"

Azir pulled her left glove off, showing Blyke the top of her hand. A crest appeared, one of a raven with its wings outstretched behind a silver lance with a crossguard just below the blade shaped like a pair of raven wings.

Ravens, the symbol of death, Blyke realized.

"Spirit Spear Synaisthia!" Azir's crest glowed before shattering, and a long lance appeared in her hands. The shaft was easily seven feet, the blade another foot.

Blyke was barely under six feet, and Azir was easily the same height, but it seemed to him that Azir was looking down on him.

Blyke dodged the first stab of the lance, jumping back. Shadower lunged forward, claws and teeth aiming for Azir.

But Azir moved fast, dodging gracefully. The crossguard of the lance hit him hard in the shoulder, sending him tumbling over himself from the force of the blow. Blyke realized very suddenly that this was the first time he'd felt the dark, angry bloodlust he felt then. Not even Asha, when she was in a bad mood, had ever radiated this kind of feeling.

"Prepare to die, Last Lord Hagani!" Azir was above him, the lance aimed for his heart.

Blyke realized it then. He was going to die. He was going to die, and nobody would find his body for a long time. He was going to die, and his parents' death would be for nothing. He was going to die and leave his parents' murderers intact.

A blue-green sword knocked the lance out of the way, the tip of the long spear blade burying itself in the grass barely half an inch from his throat.

"You're a disgrace, Blyke. I can't believe such a weak attack nearly killed you. My attacks are at least twice as strong."

"At full power, Young Phantomhive, you still can't beat me."

Asha grinned from above Blyke. "I can still try, now, can't I?" Asha swiped at the lance again, knocking it out of the ground, stepping in front of Blyke. She smiled over her shoulder, but something about the way she held herself, the tone of her voice, the look in her eyes, was off. "Now you just stay behind me."

Blyke gaped. "W- wait, Asha--"

The two lunged at each other, Azir's veil somehow back into place. Asha locked her blade with the shaft of Azir's lance.

Blyke stumbled back, still on the ground. That same rage and bloodlust that had gathered around Azir was perfectly copied around Asha. Was this her true emotion? Her true strength?

The dance of black and turquoise was deadly, fast, and startling. It was over before it had begun, the two jumping apart, Asha pressing a hand to a wound in her side.

"Damn, you're too good. You've always been too good, Azir," Asha said, hand pressing harder like she could shove the blood back into her body.

"Azir, you can't kill people that are not on the list."

Blyke's eyes widened as another figure dressed in all black appeared beside Azir.

"You'll be punished if you kill them. It's not time for them to die, yet."

Azir sighed, and the spear vanished. The seal on her hand appeared before being covered by the black fabric of her glove. "Whatever. It looks like fate changed today. I recommend you use this time the best you can. Looking at Death in the face is never good news. Farwell, Lord Hagani, Mistress Phantomhive."

The two figures turned, their forms just vanishing as they did.

Asha turned to Blyke, smiling. "So, how are you?"

Blyke glared. "You have a lot of explaining to do."