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Hum hum hum screeeeeech…hum hum humhum hum screechscreeeeeeeech…

With every head splitting screech emitting from the living room, a set of tanned hands shook and gripped the edges of the newspaper settled between them tighter. The note of finality was sounded when all that the instrument would produce was a series of painful squeaks and a frustrated hiss hit the air. Ebony slowly lowered the paper in front of her until her silver orbs were just barely peeking over the top of it. As if anticipating it, the woman raised a brow at the sight awaiting her at that precise moment.

A smoke composed ribbon that normally swirled around as effortlessly as curtains in the breeze now snaked around in jerky, agitated movements. The owner of said ribbon was matching the mood perfectly with the sour pout on her dark lips and the etched scowl in her scaled brows. Holding out her glossy, black violin, Cordelia simply said, “It’s broken.”

Sighing, Ebony gently placed her paper down on the dining room table and motioned for her ward to hand over the instrument, of which the Frei did so quite willing and eagerly. Carefully, the woman turned the string around in her hands and even plucked at a few of the cords. Handing it back in a rather dismissive manner, “Seems perfectly fine to me Dove. Exactly how it was when we bought it.”

“It’s broken.” The girl pressed firmly, her looks darkening noticeably. “It doesn’t play like it use to. All it does is squeak.”

Yes, Ebony had heard. It had taken some time, but every day the basilisk had taken her hands to her new beloved toy, the Brit had noticed her ward’s steadily diminishing prowess. Though she’d found it very odd for someone who’d never seen a violin before to be a sudden prodigy at it, Ebony also had to remember that Delia was a Raevan. She was brand new as was her life, but her soul…her soul was older, possibly even older than Ebony herself. And it was that part of the girl that could know a multitude of secrets that the two of them could only imagine thus far. So it wasn’t so far fetched to think that a Raevan could know how to play an instrument without exactly knowing what it was on first sight, just by instinct, much of which the snake seemed to go by these days. But it was even odder that the girl would just as suddenly not be able to play the instrument at all. But who was Ebony to say what was odd and what wasn’t when it came to Raevans? After all, there was still so much about them that remained a mystery.

“Ebby?” Cordelia asked, shaking her guardian back to the present. Somehow the serpent looked even more put out than before. She didn’t appreciate her woman taking a nap while she was trying to tell her something important.

Taking focus to the predicament at hand, “Cordelia, you’re the one who wanted to play the violin. You can’t quit now just because you find it too hard.” With that the violaceous femme picked her previously discarded newspaper back up and began to read it as if nothing had happened.

“But Ebby…” the basilisk tried to counter, but was stopped with a firm snap as her woman readjusted her newspaper as if she too were a bit agitated as well.

“The answer is no Cordelia. You committed yourself to this when you said you wanted to play this instrument instead of the piano back at the store.”

She remembered and fell silent at this most basic of truths. And it wasn’t like she didn’t still want to play it, just that the violin wouldn’t allow her to strum it like she had back then. Every day it had struggled and fought with the girl until today when the music finally evaporated into thin air. It was like this whole amazingly beautiful world had been graciously opened up to her and then just as suddenly the door to it had been rudely slammed shut in her face. The smoke Raevan would give anything to be able to open the door, if only a mere crack, to glimpse that heaven once more.

Though Delia might have thought her guardian to have gone back to reading, Ebony had actually been contemplating the myriad of emotions flickering all over her charge’s scaly face. It was a bit endearing the way her nose and brows wrinkled in deep concentration while the half of a body she possessed would move or position just so in a very telling way. She’d always been far more animated and thus easier to read when it came to her moods, something Ebony was a little thankful for.

Putting her paper down once again, the Brit addressed her floating ward, taking the dark girl’s hand with a gentle pat. “Look, you might not appreciate it now, but you’ll thank me later. I know I don’t know much about the violin, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you Cordelia. If you really enjoyed it like you seemed to then don’t give up just because you’re not an immediate success. Everything comes with time.”

It was hard to continue being upset when her woman used sound logic and reasoning like that. It was so unfair. Delia wanted to continue fuming! She didn’t want to wait to play the violin the same as she had; she wanted to play it the same now! Longingly the Frei traced her fingers across the smooth surface of the string instrument. What sort of cruel fate was this anyway? What had allowed her to play it so effortlessly to begin with? And what had driven it so suddenly away? It just wasn’t fair.

Ebony watched as her Raevan grew silent, hugging the blackened instrument to her half formed chest. Delia looked so lost, so dejected and it broke the British woman’s heart. She had meant it when she said she’d do whatever it took to help the girl, but Ebony wasn’t quite sure where to start.

Once again the lights in the Shade homestead went out one by one and everyone settled their weary heads to rest. Yet it wasn’t long before the stirring came and the familiar muted light of a Raevan’s rune slipped through the front doors. He had to admit that at first glance it seemed to be a disadvantage for Cordelia, being nothing more than a floating torso, yet now it seemed the greatest advantage as she could easily move about soundlessly and not be detected. It was this ability that so greatly aided the girl each time she’d snuck out the house and then back in before her guardian woke. From what he could tell, Ebony was completely oblivious to the girl having been gone at all since every morning when she checked in on her, there was Delia snug as a bug in her bed just as she’d been the night before.

As he followed the serpent girl, yet again on the way to Durem (what was the fascination of that town anyway?), the man wondered how long these excursions would keep up? He still had yet to unravel the reason for them in the first place. Cordelia had never been one to disobey Ebony before and there hadn’t been any gradual building to this sudden need to go off on her own at night. So then what? What was keeping the basilisk from sleep and making her journey to this same city night after night? Perhaps he’d find out tonight and finally put a stop to it once and for all.

At first it seemed Cordelia had a determined destination in mind, yet once she reached the city, the snake became distracted by Durem’s energetic nightlife just like the other times she’d been there. Aimlessly she would float from street to street, district to district, stopping only long enough to inspect something or someone of which had caught her eye. He half wondered if the girl would bump into one of her own again as she had the last couple of nights, or perhaps he hoped she would as trouble was most likely to befall the dark haired youth as she seemed to attract it like a magnetic when Ebony wasn’t around.

Unfortunately there would be no such luck this night as Delia slowly made her way down a dark and desolate alley, the only light coming from her own dimly lit rune and the flickering street light on the far end of the long row. A rustling and skittering in a nearby trash bin made Cordelia stop. Perhaps having sensed her close proximity, the sound had stopped when she did, but as the silver-eyed girl stared the metal container down curiously, again came the sound. This time it was quicker and more frantic in its movement and Cordelia made a cautious move towards it, pressing her delicate ear to the filthy receptacle. Once more the sound stopped dead and this time the girl experimentally drummed her cold fingers against its side. The sound picked up once again and sounded like it was now bumping furiously against the inside wall. Finally tired of this little game, Cordelia floated up and pushed open the lid.

Peering deep into the dark recesses of the trashcan, Delia saw two glowing eyes staring back up at her. What was it? The basilisk couldn’t tell it was too dark. “Ello, are you okay?” she asked the mysterious shadow. Suddenly the eyes mewed and out jumped a black cat, scaring Cordelia so bad she backed quickly into the opposing wall, sending a bunch of boxes and crates to crash down onto themselves. The cat now finally freed took its chance and ran off, not caring what happened of its savior. Clasping a hand tight to her half-formed chest, Delia watched as the feline took off.

Just when she was calming down, enough to even chuckle a bit at having been frightened by something as silly as a little kitty, two strong arms grabbed her from behind. Cordelia gave a startled cry and tried to flare her wings open, but the strength of the arms around her sides and the body pressed tight against her back made it impossible to do. So she did the next best thing and began to hiss and jerk in place, hoping it would help to loosen this stranger’s hold on her. The stranger did as she would have though and only tightened his grip on the dark Frei. Finally Delia did the only thing she could think of and sank her fangs deep into the grimy arm of this being. The foul taste of unwashed skin was enough to make the Frei gag, but she did not let up on her biting, sinking her teeth in as far as they would go.

The response was almost immediate as the man groaned loudly in pain and released his hold on the girl. Finally free, Cordelia made a run for it, but due to the sudden dizziness that came with the release of those arms, the basilisk had trouble moving in a straight line and ended up zigzagging into some smaller trashcans. As she scrambled to get up and away, the recovering man grabbed at whatever he could get of the girl. Finding her trailing ribbon, the man gave it a yank and Cordelia gave a yelp before she hit the concrete ground face first. Dazed momentarily by her fall, the man was upon her before she knew it.

Quickly he turned her over so they were face to face and pinned her so tight to the ground that just the attempt to flex her metallic wings caused them to scrap painfully, both physically and in the sense of sound. The man, if he could be called that, had a foul looking face to match his equally offensive odor and attire. His face was covered in scars and a scraggly beard while his eyes were a dull brown, veiled somewhat by dark, unkempt hair of the same color. Once Cordelia’s head had stopped swimming and she’d regained some focus, the girl yet again struggled against her attacker. Since hissing had done nothing to thwart the man’s efforts, Delia decided to try yelling for help in English this time. Unfortunately, her smoky voice was not created to carry well unto long distances and thus would not make it to the streets of the flickering lamp where someone may hear them over the noise of the city.

Having had quite enough the man shook the girl fiercely before gruffly growling at her, “Stop fighting me you little b***h! You had no right to release my precious and now she’s gone! Gone you hear! Now you’re gonna lay here and take your punishment!”

Grey eyes glazing over completely, Cordelia’s half-body immediately slackened at the man’s commanding words. This sudden obedience seemed to surprise the man, but he didn’t dare get up nor let her go should this be some sort of rouse. He looked her over carefully now that she was still and silent. Because it had been dark he hadn’t realized what exactly it was he was trying so desperately to capture. Slowly he traced a few of the scales near her eyes and whispered, “What the hell are you?”

“I’m Cordelia.” She replied, voice lacking of any sort of emotion, simply answering his inquiry.

Quickly his hand wrapped around her slender neck as if to choke her, “Shut up! I don’t want to hear you talk again you little freak, got it?”

The basilisk nodded her head in understanding. Again his fingers went back to their roaming as he examined her more. They would trace her scales, down her nose and around her dark lips before roughly holding her chin and tilting her head side to side. Awkwardly they pulled through her black hair, undoing her loose hair tie and allowing the strands to splay out naturally. The man took a moment to gawk in wonder at this strange creature. Yes, she was odd in form, but she was also beautiful. He decided then that he would take her in place of his precious.

Slowly he leaned closer to her, his warm stale breath making her nose wrinkle automatically. He did not notice nor care as he drew in to kiss her lush lips, a calloused hand wiggling its way underneath her vest to caress a breast. The whole time Cordelia was aware of what was happening, but had not the will to stop it since the man had told her to not fight him and to keep quiet. Oddly enough there was a moment of déjà vu for the serpent and an image of Lazarus flashed before her eyes, the Sigel having had the same pleased grin upon his face as this crazed human did now. Just as she had then, Cordelia did not fully understand now the reason for the happiness this man took in simply touching her body.

Their lips nearly met when the man suddenly disappeared from her field of vision. Confused more than she already was, Cordelia gave a slow blink before gradually lifting herself from the cold ground. She watched as her attacker was slammed against the brick building by another mysterious shadow, this one more shaped like the male human who was currently being trashed about and was now screaming for his own brand of help.

“You sick b*****d! How DARE you put even a finger on this child?! Let alone subjugate her to such foul and grotesque behavior!” howled the shadow as it punched the grimy man in the gut and then in the face. Not satisfied, the shadow threw the man several feet away into a bunch of crates where he did not emerge again.

It took a few moments to calm down before approaching the girl. Crouching down to be level with her, she saw eyes as deep and blue as the sea. The rest of his face was covered by a mask and did not give her any sense of an identity to place to the man. With an unusual tone of remorse and tenderness in his voice, “My dear…are you all right?”

Delia blinked slowly yet again before she answered with her own question, “Who are you?”

Though she could not see, the man gave a bit of a relieved sigh and smiled. “I’m a friend. Come to help and take you home.”

Suddenly very tired the girl nodded her agreement, “Home sounds good.”

It wasn’t long before the reptilian Raevan was placed back in her room, safe and sound. The shadowed man lovingly tucked her back into bed just as her guardian had earlier that night. Gently he smoothed out her sweeping bangs, tucking them behind her ear and bid the Raevan a good sleep. When he turned to leave, Cordelia sat up and asked, “Can’t you stay?”

Another hidden smile and he walked back over to usher her back to a sleeping position. “No, I can’t. Not tonight. But I’ll make you a deal. If you promise not to sneak out at night anymore, I’ll come back someday. Okay?”

The dark femme looked up into those trusting sapphire eyes and smiled before giving a tired yawn. “…okay...”

He returned her smile too, but Cordelia couldn’t see. Careful not to stir her too much as the Frei began to drift off to sleep, the man pressed something into her hand, closing her fingers tight over it. Slowly he tiptoed towards the window to make his escape. That’s when he saw it, his old metronome. Correction it was Ebony’s old metronome, seeing she’d obviously given it to the girl for her violin lessons. Come to think…it was just around that time that the strangeness over took the basilisk.

Looking back and forth between the sleeping girl and the device a few times, the man wondered. Carefully he made his way back and whispered into Cordelia’s ear. “Tomorrow when you wake, you’ll not remember anything from your nights out alone. Most importantly, metronomes will no longer hold any sort of power over you. From now on, you’ll be able to practice without adverse consequences.” He hoped that his hypothesis was correct and that this would work. They’d know soon enough.

As he slipped back into what was left of the night, Ebony awoke with a start. She wasn’t sure what it was that had awoken her, but she felt this sudden urge to check on Cordelia then. Quickly she slipped out of bed and wrapped a robe around herself before padding out and over to the snake’s room. Slowly she opened the door and peered inside, half expecting to find the girl gone. But nope, there she was, safe and sound, all wrapped up snug in her blankets.

Ebony wanted to go in and perhaps physically make sure she was indeed there, but the smile on Cordelia’s face then was enough to keep the woman from disturbing her slumber. With a smile of her own, the woman quietly shut the door and went back to bed. Cordelia rolled over then and lightly loosened her hold on the object in her hand. Cradled there in the nook was a tiny silver fox.

“Rain rain…go away…” Cordelia half sang, half mumbled as she stared glumly out her bedroom window. The scene before her was positively dreadful. The Isles prided themselves on having some of the best weather around, especially in the summertime, but ever since the freak storm that hit Gambino during the Lab’s beach party it was like the end of days for the residents and its various tourists. Even if the city hadn’t announced a state of emergency and urged people to stay indoors until the weather cleared, people would have been stark raving mad to have even dared stepping out into all that. Every time the harsh winds blew the trees bended so far over that their branches could almost touch the richly saturated ground. Delia was sure if they could they’d flee for cover just as all the squirrels and birds had.

A heavy sigh left her lips as she continued to watch the rain pound and streak down the opposite side of the glass pane like it had for days now. Right then Cordelia remembered something she’d overheard her woman murmuring about. How this storm had picked up so suddenly and without any warning whatsoever, how it seemed to carry this utterly oppressive feeling of mourning with it, like the skies were crying. That’s what it sure looked liked to the basilisk, but then if that were the case, what was the sky so sad about? Smoke colored eyes looked to the dark skies above, silently asking, yet the only answer she received was the howling roar of the wind as it continued its rampage.

As sad as the weather was and as depressed as it had made Delia, after several days of being trapped inside and doing the same things over and over again, the girl was ready for something to change. Thus finally abandoning her unproductive watch, the snake slithered downstairs in search of her guardian. “Ebby!”

“Yes?” Cordelia whirled around and found the purple haired woman leaning against the door to the basement, a place she was told was absolutely off limits to her. She wasn’t sure why, but Ebby had said there was just a lot of old stuff down there and she didn’t want the girl to get hurt. Any further inquires were met with silence, so Delia had simply let it go. She didn’t need any old stuff anyway, not when anything she wanted could be brand spanking new.

“I’m bored.” the Frei whimpered miserably.

Gently twisting the knob she gripped deathly behind her back, Ebony locked the entrance to her secret life before picking up a rather big box of what Cordelia could only describe as junk. Leading the girl to the couch, “What about the homework sheets I had made up for you?”

“I already did them all.”

“And your violin.” Ebony asked as she sifted through the box.
Cordelia gave a heavy sigh, her frustration gradually rising. “My fingers hurt from playing it so much.”

“You could try reading a book. You know we have tons.” She would have suggested the television even though the woman really didn’t want the youth watching it so much, but the storm had already decided that for her earlier by taking the cable out.

“Ebby!” If the girl had feet she’d be stamping them right now in protest. Cordelia had already done all her studies, more than enough since they were stuck in the house. Was it too much to ask that her woman find her something fun to do?

“All right all right! Don’t get your ribbon in a knot.” She replied with a chuckle. “Here.” Ebony pushed the box over so that the basilisk could get a clear look of its contents. “You can help me sort and clean all this.”

With a wary glance, Delia peered into the box. It was full of all kinds of dusty crap. Old books, some oddly shaped metal pieces, some old money, even bits of jewelry, which would have gotten the girl more enthused about this little project if they weren’t dirty and possibly rusting. A gentle push of one of the books standing on its spine sent dust flying and made Cordelia cough slight. “What…what is all this junk?”

“It’s not junk.” Ebony retorted as she turned her nose up at the dark youth’s disrespect. “This was some of my father’s stuff back from the old house in England. I always meant to go through it, but…” the woman trailed off then, a guilty look gracing her tanned features. “Anyway, are you going to help or not?”

The serpent girl look towards the living room window where the wind still threatened to uproot trees and the rain pelted like it was monsoon season in Southeast Asia. Resigning to her fate, Cordelia sighed again and floated to a “sitting” position on the floor. “Okay, I’ll help. Better than being bored I guess.”

Clearing out and cleaning all the items in the box took well over an hour to do, but it was worth it. The girls found some pretty cool stuff in there like Adrian’s old leather-bound journal, which contained all of the man’s scribblings for possible inventions. Of course that wasn’t as interesting to Cordelia as all the jewelry had been. After Ebony had showed her what to use to restore them they were all magnificent and quite exquisite. It really surprised the Brit to see how excited her ward was over such shiny baubles since the girl wasn’t all that girly to begin with, at least not from what Ebony could tell. But it was nice to see the scales on the Raevan’s face wrinkle in delight at her newfound treasures.

“Well, looks like that’s the last of it.” Ebony said as she carefully cleaned the cover of yet another book. It felt good to finally organize some of her father’s things and to share it with Cordelia made the experience less saddening for her. In fact, the woman had to admit it was rather enjoyable.

“I don’t think so Ebby.” The girl cheerfully sang as she reached into the very bottom of the box and pulled out a small wooden box. Its deep cherry surface was etched with a beautiful sun and moon motif. “I think we missed one.” Giving the thing a little shake, Delia could hear something gently rattling around inside. “I wonder what’s in it?”

“Why not open it up and find out?” Ebony said with a smile as she gathered a few items into her arms and went to find some proper places to store or display them.

Cordelia shrugged and turned the box over and over. It had a seam in between the lid and bottom part, so it had to be able to be opened, but the basilisk found no latch. Frowning, the girl wiggled a sharp nail between the space in hopes of popping a latch or something, but alas nothing. She really hated to do it, not wanting to destroy the beauty of the box, but Cordelia just had to know what was inside! Applying a lot of force, the girl tried to pry the container open. Yet for wood, it was surprisingly strong.

When Ebony came back, she found her ward staring the box down with a look like she was about to pop a brain cell or something. Coming up and placing a hand to her shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

Cordelia looked up at her woman with the most pathetic face ever, her dark lips pulled into a deep pout as her silver eyes looked about ready to spring a leak. “It won’t open.”

Sighing because she just couldn’t stand that face, Ebony took up the box and looked it over slowly. It was a few minutes before she said anything. “It’s a puzzle box Dove. See these teeth here in the design?” She stooped down and pointed to the little metallic waves. “It creates a track so you can move these parts. Watch.” Slowly, as if deliberately trying to be dramatic with this demonstration, Ebony popped the moon and sun symbols out and turned them around before moving them to switch their positions on the box. Once they were successfully placed, she easily opened the lid.

“Wow…” Cordelia breathed as she peered into the box.

“Pretty cool huh?” Ebony asked, puffing with pride at her cleverness and at her charge’s obvious awe.

“Huh? Oh yeah that box thing is cool too Ebby, but check out this ring!” the girl exclaimed as she wiggled her slender digits at the lavender haired human. There on her ring finger sat the most gorgeous ring the Brit had ever seen. It sparkled with an inner flame like that of a mini sun, which worked well seeing as it was obviously crafted to look like one.

“Wow is right.” She replied, unable to keep her mouth from hanging wide open in awe of the ring’s dazzling aura.

Slipping the ring off, Delia handed it over to her guardian. “Wanna try it on?”

Ebony nodded before taking the jewelry and placing it on her own finger. A warm tingling seeped from the place where the ring sat and slowly spread down her finger to engulf her hand and continued onto the length of her arm and beyond. “It’s warm.”

“Oh! You feel it too? Good, I thought I was imagining it.” Cordelia giggled and clapped light, happy she could share something so wonderful with her woman.

After admiring it for a bit longer, Ebony sighed and took the ring off, handing it back to her ward. Confused, the basilisk frowned, but took it back all the same. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?”

“Of course I do, but I think you should have it. I think…I think Dad would have wanted you to have it.” She smiled tenderly at the memory of her deceased father. “Besides, I know how much you love the sun and jewelry. It’s perfect for you.”

Ebony gave a slight squeak when the smoky Frei gathered her into a tight hug, but quickly melted into it with what the girl said. “Thanks Ebby. Today was lots of fun.”

Later that night, Cordelia could be found still admiring her new solar ring. Even in the middle of the night, it glowed bright with a soft light that put the snake at ease. Feeling particularly warm and relaxed, the girl would give a small yawn before placing the ring back in its box for safe keeping and going to bed. Though the storm was looking to finally die down outside, things inside were just beginning to brew.