Seeking Kali

Chapter Two

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The subject of a homunculus’ supposedly nonexistent soul wasn’t the only thing that we had to watch ourselves for. In following the Master, we were expected to follow her commandments.

Usually we simply did as told, without pushing to see just what the consequences were. I myself had only went against her once, years and decades and centuries ago, when I was still relatively young.

It never happened again, let me tell you. Very rarely was a mistake made twice in Dante’s presence. The first Lust found that out the hard way, inadvertently reinforcing the notion that crossing the Master was a “bad, bad, BAD thing,” as Gluttony so eloquently put it.

My own mistake, however, was a little more troublesome, considering what it resulted in. It was a good fifty odd years after I had been born and we had begun our move across the country to a fresh city. We would move around quite a bit, mostly whenever Dante would begin to get antsy, her stolen body beginning to age.

Wealth amassed over the years meant that she was assured of a very comfortable lifestyle, though I did find the occasional job in order to keep up appearances, pretending to be the ever-doting son taking care of his mother. I think she secretly loathed it, being considered old enough to be anyone’s mother, but she let it pass if only because it was a convenience.

Another convenience she tolerated were a slew of lovers and husbands. She never cared for a single one of them, of course, simply taking them if only to keep up appearances. How quickly the world was changing was another factor, and we needed a way to better keep up with it.

I suppose I should have realized my mistake the instant I met the Master’s first beau, the man far too… well. Attentive to an aging lover that he thought the Master to be. It certainly had me suspicious, the way he’d come to the house with flowers-- and once he found she just put them in a vase and let them rot, gifts-- for her, or how much he seemed to concentrate on her. It all rang of something false, but I didn’t say a word.

After all, Dante didn’t need a subhuman stepping into her affairs.

Compared to later lovers, she kept him for far longer. It was a good few years that we stayed where we were, despite the fact that the Master would be wanting for a new body very soon. Jakob became such a frequency that I hardly took note of when he came and went, simply playing my own part. The most I found myself doing was either retreating to what was designated as my own room or the garden whenever he arrived particularly late.

I mean, hell. She might not technically have been my mother in any sense of the word, but no one wanted to see THAT if they could help it. So I found myself in the back garden one evening, matches held to light the lanterns lining the path, sighing a bit and settling down on a bench. I had brought a few books with me, mostly to keep up the Master’s research while she was “busy,” but I didn’t feel like really reading any of them that night.

Just when I was about to go back inside, I realized I wasn’t alone. I mentally cursed myself for letting anything larger than a chipmunk get within a hundred feet of me without my notice, getting to my feet and turning to face my company.

It was Jakob standing there, the fucker, smiling away at the world and holding a pipe in one hand, the bowl giving off a faint glow as the tobacco burned, though he wasn’t taking in any of it. My nose wrinkled at the combined stench of smoke and sweat and something hideous, moving to take up the research and get the hell inside, the night air spoiled. He just let me pass, still grinning like the stupid shit he was, turning to take over the bench I had just vacated.

It wouldn’t be the last time he purposely sought me out once the Master was done with him, as a matter of fact, it seemed to happen more and more frequently, though I rarely stayed in his company for more than a moment.

Rather than deter him, it just seemed to make him all the more hell-bent, which should’ve been flattering, but only seemed that much more irritating. I suppose I should’ve thrown the man a bone of some kind if only to get him to leave me be. After all, considering the length of time he’d been going in and out of the house, it was only natural to try and get on the “son’s” good side as well. He was trying to build up trust, I knew, and doing it rather well, if I didn’t say so myself. He had already won over half the servants long ago, keeping up this God-awful cheerful attitude to anyone he wasn’t capable of wooing to the bed.

Oh, did he woo, if how the maids blushed whenever they found out he was to be paying the Master a visit. Not that it was ever hard for him, because even I had to admit to how handsome he was, even if he did irritate the living CRAP out of me. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes straight out of my head at all the giggling, though the servants were careful to keep their mouths shut in mine and Dante’s presence. As always, there were the occasional slip-ups, but luckily enough for the stupid girls, it always seemed to be me who overheard. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen to the whole lot of them if it were the Master, the thought alone enough to make me grin ear to ear.

It was a dangerous game he was playing, and I was all too happy to sit back and watch him get burnt.

I finally found a bit of peace and quiet one day, knowing that the Master was out, leaving no reason for any visitors. Or at least, I thought there was no reason. I heard the servants before they even got close, a rather unwelcome talent at times, though their tone was different enough to warrant curiosity. Still pretending to read in my little space in the garden, I tilted my head to better catch what was being said.

“--calling on her, but you know--”

“Flowers, really. She’s never even been around her own garden, he knows that--”

“Think they’re really for her?”

The noise stopped the second they caught sight of me, a pair of black dresses hurrying along the stone path to where I was seated. I pretended the sound of their shoes on stone alerted me, and looked up, snapping the book shut at the same time.

“What is it,” more of a statement than any question, frowning a bit when I spotted the younger of the two servant girls grinning away. She seemed to notice I was staring right at her, her expression blanking almost instantly. It was the older girl that spoke, though from the way her eyebrows knit, I knew the younger was going to catch hell for the little insubordination.

“Mister Senner is here, sir.”

“And my mother is not. Tell him to go home.”

“Well, sir, we did. But he said--”

“He said, ‘Oh, well, that’s fine then. Go and get Ein instead.’” The younger girl cowered at the look she was given by both myself and her superior, the taller girl certainly much more a danger to her than I was at the moment. I almost felt sorry for the impulsive creature, so I raised a hand and stood with a sigh.

“Fine, I’ll go chase him off, seeing as you’re incapable of doing it.”

True to their word, the bastard himself was sitting in the parlor, the man grinning and rising to his feet once he spotted me. My stomach did a nasty flip at that, which I attributed to utter disgust, arms folded over my chest if only to make clear that I was hostile to whatever he wanted.

“She isn’t here, you can leave now.”

“So I’ve been told, but that’s not why I’m here.” He seemed completely unfazed with how I was acting, which either meant the man was very brave or incredibly stupid. Maybe a little bit of both.

“Then what do you want?”

“You sure cut to the chase, don’t you? Alright, alright. How would you like dinner?”

“I can get dinner by walking downstairs.” Again, he didn’t even blink at the obvious rejection, only smiled more.

“I realize that, but I wanted to treat, and I can’t very well do that in your own house. And considering you disappear any other time I’m around, it’d be a good bonding session or whatever the crap you want to call it.”

Bonding session. The only bonding I wanted him to do at that moment was bond his head to the window via a heavy application of force. My lip curled a fraction more when I caught wind of whispers and giggles, head snapping in the maids’ direction and shooting them a look that could kill. For a moment I thought it had actually worked, their faces draining of colour and their hearts skipping a beat in sheer terror when I made a motion as if to lunge at them. It was all I could do not to laugh as they ran off, mouth twisting to fight my grin and losing.

“Besides,” I turned back to see Jakob staring at me with one dark eyebrow raised, “I think those poor girls need a break from you, if you do that as often as I think you do.”