Unfulfilled

Almost as if to save her from having to speak again Master Hovels voice cut into the conversation suddenly severing her next sentence into silence.

“Jacob leave my Novice alone.” Hovel suddenly barked in an amused voice. Then Hovel grumbled as if he couldn’t see Ann’s world crumbling beneath her feet. Motioning to her with an impatient air the Master snapped. “Here Ann, help me! NOW!”

Help yourself!

She almost snapped back, but instead she crossed the floor dutifully and took his arm into her grasp. She pulled him from the chair, and grasped his forearm as he rose from his seat with the agonized pop of his knees and a tremble of frailty across his body. She swallowed a dark sneer. His frailty repulsed and angered her where before, merely days ago, it had saddened her and made her feel protective.

What sickness had her in hand, that she felt so darkly towards the man that would lead them? A man she now was Second in command to?

Once he was on his feet Hovel walked around the desk, and came before Jacob. Ann stayed at his side, only breaking away to stand by the door way, behind the Lion.

“Jacob...” Hovel sighed as he rounded on the Lion. A parlor of frustration sapping what little color still remained in his cheeks.

Jacob cut him off by marching right up to him, and leaning into his face with a wide feral smirk. “Yes, Hovel you bastard you?” he softly goaded with a flash of yellow in his eyes.

“Go retrieve the boy and stop making an ass of yourself for one! ” Hovel spat, adjusting his glasses and swiping at his hair, the Alchemists shook his head. “Damn it!! You act like a child, instead of a decades old King. It’s ridiculous how much I have to chase after you!!”

Jacob scoffed and glanced over his shoulder at Ann. “Again, whose the Superior One I ask you? The chaser or the chaise?”

Then he spun on his heel, completely ignoring the Grand Master as he made his way towards the door. Marching as if he didn’t care if Ann moved out of his way or not.

“Jacob! GOD’s Jacob! I need that boy returned! I will not continue to have you defy me!” Hovel snapped.

Jacob smirked, and shoved right past Ann, before he walked towards the door and threw it open.

“You know what? How I see it? I’ve been doing your dirty work for almost thirty years and you lied to me the entire time. So fuck you! You can go get him yourself! I hope the boy makes you work for it too!” Jacob roared back, over his shoulder. Then he was gone.

Ann fought to hide her amusement as her eyes tried to widen at the Lions abrupt departure.

I’m going insane

She thought privately.

Hovel sighed deeply behind her. She turned to face him only once she was sure her face was neutral. The Grand Master moved back to his seat, with a fatigued sigh and a frustrated snarl of anger.

“Damn him! Once upon I could have bounced back from such sickness easily.” Hovel glanced about with haunted blue eyes, seeing nothing, not even her. “Age is catching up with me Novice.”

Ann didn’t respond. Hovel was the Savior, a being that spoke for GOD and had lived for countless centuries in their favor and with the blessing of the Scion. He was thousands of years her senior. So She had nothing to offer to the ill of mortal flesh. Once upon a time she would have urged the man to seek peace in the promise of the Bane, and to push past the pain with conviction that Blah Blah blah....

Ann simply saved her voice for words she believed. Because the latter no longer seemed to require her belief, just her servitude.

Hovel sighed. “Well, it would I need that boy retrieved and put back in to the Training Rooms, but it is clear that I have another day or two of recovery ahead of me before it would be wise to place myself in a position where I will have to use Mana.” Hovel scoffed as he raised a trembling hand before his glasses and sneered at it. “Creating those Portals the other day, nearly undid me.”

“Master Hovel? You still have need of me?” She quietly asked, reminding the man of her presence, which he seemed to have forgotten.

“Obviously I have need of you, Child!” Hovel hissed. Then he folded his hands at his chest and softly cast his eyes about the room, as he murmured at her sternly. “The loss of your predecessor pains me deeply Ann, and has forced upon us both the unfortunate reality that things are changing rapidly in the days to come.” Hovel caught her eyes. “I require a dutiful Second! Do you understand? Someone whom I can rely upon. There was a time when Eric could offer me his services without me having need to ask him. He was quick to offer me his support and I expect nothing less from you. Do I make myself clear Sister Ann!?”

The sting of his tone should have wounded her. Made her feel shameful and stupid and hungry for the chance to do better.

But she found no such motivations in her at this time. She just felt aggravated.

The Savior. The Grand Master. Powerful and wise. The mouth piece of the Scion of Darkness. The flesh that the Bane moves through.

Once in Ann’s eyes this was all she could see in Hovel. All she cared to know about Hovel. All she needed to be loyal to Hovel. But over the years she had come to a sharp realization about her faith in the Savior.

She realized then and now that the driving force behind much of her devotion and awe and desire to please the man had come from her fervor to remain close at Erics side. Nothing else. Hovel was a harsh man, devoid of any thing that would have warmed her heart towards him as her leader. Or friend.

But If Eric was at Hovels side, then she would be there too. She had been frightened years ago, when Hovel had appointed Eric as his Second-Hand and she had made it her mission to become the Grand Masters Third-Hand.

She had been terrified of being left behind by her friend. Terrified of falling beneath him. So she had adopted his loyalties, mimicked his behaviors and desires to please Hovel diligently, because she had only wanted to be at Eric’s side....and now there was no Eric. She had no one to copy. No one to impress. No reason to fight for the favor of the Savior, because his favor was only a cheap prize compared to the treasure she had hoped to attain.

She cared nothing for the Grand Master....and she was starting to quietly realize that she never really did. And it seemed Hovel was no less burdened by her presence then he had always been.

The Grand Master had only appointed Ann to his confidence at the urging of Eric and Brother Memphis, in their earlier years, back before the darkness had hardened them.

Even then the Grand Master had only obliged after Ann agreed to undergo Awakening Training for a second time. At Hovels own hands. He seemed not to care at the time that he was breaking the sacrament of the Brother Hood concerning the Awakening. Pacifically that only Brothers trained Brothers and Sisters trained Sisters. But no one had spoken against him. No one had dared. And besides many had seen his attentions as flattering towards the young Novice.

So had Sister Ann.

The lashes she had received on her second go of Awakening Training, had left her convalescing in a bed for two weeks. But in the end she had been taken into Hovels confidences. She had been given a spot beside the most powerful man in the Brotherhood. Or so it would have seemed to an outsider.

For the most part Ann was not unaware that she was deeply disliked by Hovel, simply because she was an Alchmists of lesser skill...and a woman besides. The Savior harbored a deep hatred for women, no matter their species.

And over the years she had constantly seen the swift derision in Hovels eyes when he beheld her. He had never held a woman in much high regard and she knew he never would. No matter how hard she worked. How hard she wanted to be elevated in his eyes and conversely in Eric’s she was still despised.

And there wasn’t even the prize of Eric’s respect waiting for her at the end of her labors. How cruel.

Inclining her head, and swiping out her arm, Ann bowed low to the Grand Master and supplied the only answer she could.

“I understand Master Hovel....Please, how can I be of service?”

Hovel stared at her, she felt his eyes considering her, and then he sat back.

“In three days’ time I will be back on my feet. I will have the energy to take the stone from the abomination and finally gift it to our Lord Bane.” Hovel explained. “For now I must rest, but in three days I want the boy taken and placed in the Sanctum.” Hovel rapped his knuckle on the wooden desk. “Do NOT try to accomplish this alone. The last thing I need is that boy getting free again. Take additional hands with you to subdue the boy with Wards if he tries anything!”

Hovel stopped and sneered. “Also be aware that I have not fed the beast for nearly a week...he may be mad with hunger. Reavers are sickly beast, liable to go insane and blood crazy if put in compromising positions, so be warned! The Beast is likely half dead and could snap and I doubt you could pull the boy out of there without a fight if that Reaver is too far gone....”

Hovel sighed a weary sigh and pinched his nose above the bridge of his glasses. “For now I have advised everyone in the Base to stay far away from the Reaver. So if that is where the boy is? We can be sure that they are fairly isolated. In three days I expect the boy to be where I need him to be. Let me know now if you have any confusion about what I am asking you to do.”

Ann paused and privately asked herself just who was she going to find to help her subdue the Abomination and the Reaver....when almost all the other Alchemists wanted to drive a blade into her back. She didn’t trust a single one of her Brothers and Sisters, because they were all on Davis side, watching her every move, waiting to see her fall.

She debated on whether or not to express her dilemma to the Savior, but she quickly dismissed the idea. 

What would the Alchemists care if others in the Brother Hood despised her? To Hovel she deserved nothing but derision because she was a lowly woman. She couldent fathom who he had ever brought himself to have one son with a woman , even if she was a Druid, because he seemed to despise anything to do with the oppisite sex.

Swallowing bitterness Ann inclined her head, swept out her arms and simply replied. “Yes Master Hovel. It will be done.”

Hovel sniffed and shifted in his chair. “You may leave.”

Ann didn’t protest the dismissal.