C.Y. Lens, eight in the morning.
Raven was bored after worrying too much about what happened to Ismael. Upon coming close to the knowledge of the aftermath, she decided to investigate herself the Uncharted Territory. She arrived faster than those before her, actually possessing the necessary means of transportations required for a quick trip. But there was no clean comeback on her part, for she arrived at the scene alone, unarmed against the terrible view, the corpse of Genova, the one and only Genova she sought so much. A corpse. No victory, no closure.
"I'm truly sorry for the death of your friend."
"What's your name, kid?"
"Lisa. If there is anything we can do to help, just tell us."
"You can start by telling me who did this and why."
"Right, so...Ismael came in through the coffin and Genova stabbed him in the eye, he already had an eye pierced, so now he's blind. Except Ismael got lucky. An angel came to him and now he sees through him, through his eyes."
"Interesting. So then he shoots her and leaves like the coward he is, right? Funny. I take away his wife, he takes away mine. Eye for an eye. I blind him, he blinds me. Well if this is the beginning of a great rivalry, let it begin. Let it be glorious and grandiose. Let it shine!"
"Are you okay, Raven?"
"I'm doing so fine! I had no purpose up until now. Everything fits so perfectly I can't even begin to transcribe how ecstatic I feel right now. Anybody knows where he could have been?"
Pride moves forward, sensing match next to fuel.
"No way to tell. Listen, Raven. People like him are dead. Dead already. You can't kill him. Sure you can wound him, but I wouldn't recommend it. He was ressurected via hatred, that was his fuel. Meaning he'll never be able to turn back to who he was. He'll live on this planet killing and hiding. I can tell you think you have a shot at revenge with this, but it's not worth it."
"Who the hell are you?"
"Pride, I speak for these kids."
"Disgraceful how you little ones think you can roam around like that, saying everything you want. You have no context, you don't know who I am and what we all did together, me and my friends. You people need structure, leadership. You shouldn't rot in this desert."
"We...we are looking for a leader, we have been for a while, now. This is an actual thing, we need a leader or we will never be able to leave this forsaken place."
"Fine", she says, stepping forward, kneeling on one leg and advancing her right arm to them. "I'll be your leader."
The kids had cried on that day and were happy enough to partake on an adventure, far away. And they did. And for some time it was heaven on earth for Raven to be taking care of all those kids in a village with so many welcoming families. For some of which couldn't have kids of heir own for genetic reasons or wanted to just adopt. They had different parents but everyone felt like belonging to one enormous family.
One day an innocent young woman, blond of hair, showed up and presented herself to the entire village during a local celebration. On the stage, a high wooden plateform, she bowed a little holding the fabric of her dress on each side.
"Thank you all for welcoming me as a member of your community. My name is Capucine. I am a humble girl from an honest family to the east side of the Rotten Cliffs. I was forced to endure exile as to find a suitable place to live. I can help with manual work in the fields. I can read and write, count and organize. I'll do whatever it takes to blend in and be an active member of this society."
She was met with applause. "Great vocabulary for a girl of her age", Raven heard. She was first smiling in bliss and then looked at the smile on her face. "Maybe too good of a vocabulary for her age. I've seen this before. I've talked with Basil, I've seen his arrogance, his mischief. In the gang, we accepted it. We knew it and we laughed about it. This. This, is not normal. No need for psychoanalyzing a kid right now."
Raven met her in a large isolated barn, around twenty minutes after the girl's speech.
"Hi, I wanted to personally greet you in person!"
"Thank you again, Raven Perma! I can finally feel safe and sound."
"You're perfectly welcome, I take care of kids, that's what I do." She holds her hands and asks. "But I don't remember telling you my last name."
"You're right, you didn't. I made my research."
"In such a short amount of time?"
"Oh, no. Heavens, no. I've been watching you all for a while now. The only real thing I've said today was my name. The rest is pure bullcrap."
"I don't understand."
"You're Raven Perma, the leader of C.Y. Lens. You were involved in the Killing of Nara."
"Who are you really?" Raven asks, filled with goosebumps.
"Like I said, my name is Capucine. And you will be perfect for the plan I've been constructing for years now. You will be one fo the seven of destruction. You will be wrath."
"I have no idea what you are so excited about, but I need you to leave this place forever and never come back."
Raven pulls a gun on her, a small, silent one.
"There you are again, with that dead, empty look on your face. What the hell is even that? What are you?"
"Now, you're asking the right question. I will change the world in its' most pure and basic fondamentals and I will bring it to a new age of evolution. And I need you for it."
"This is stressing me out. She has no soul, nothing inside of her body. At this point I'm questionning if she even has functionning internal organs or if this is a remote plastic body. A soul is like a passeport of personality. It shows you are human, even stray dogs have a soul."
"You don't need to do any of that useless thinking, Raven. Just use your brain. Think. The things of this world are unthinkable. So you'll have to trust me to bring you to clarity. As of now, I cannot explain to you in details what this entails."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Let me guide you to my own place. A castle."
"Fine", she agrees, putting the gun in her clothes. "But you try anything weird and I slaughter you."
Raven sees in Capucine's eyes a sense of excitement despite the tragic void they express. She still feels highly uncomfortable but she resigns to let it go for now. Together they find excuses to leave the village for a while, grab some food for the trip and depart on a stagecoach to the castle.
On the road, they barely even talk, making Raven even more anxious. After two hours of silence she breaks and stops the two horses.
"Are you human?"
Capucine smiles at her with eyes filled with satisfaction and joy. But she could tell, as alarmed as she was, that it was all meant for some evil goal. Luckily for her they almost arrived, and as the scenery was rapidly changing, she manifested a sudden interest for the environnement and asked a few questions about it.
"Perfect lair for the actual beast itself. Or its' daughter."
"Just walk."
Capucine opens the gates and while the entrance looks as rich and beautiful as she could have expected considering the outside design, she couldn't help but notice the absurd absence of noise. Not a cat, not a television, not a family, no friends, not a butler. In silence she follows, and when the last door was finally opened and then shut behind them, she stares at Capucine who gets on the ground and starts to act like a cat.
Abnormally tall furnitures, colorful toys and walls, and she climbs up all of the boxes of color and Raven walks to the main table at the center of the room.
"You see, Raven. I am Capucine, greed personified. And you are wrath. And these", as she claps her hands twice, "are the rest". A group of people chained by their neck enters the room and sit around a low table with small chairs. "This, is envy. She wanted to be the perfect woman, pretty and smart, but she failed because I exist. She took the chance to see an end to her misery and despair and now she's just the way she needs to be. Her name is Ariane. This, is Gloria, she died in horrible conditions, didn't she, Raven? And yet, reborn of hatred, she found no duty to apply revenge. She didn't forgive, she simply found a better way to live her life, or should I say her death. Resting in her grave. Actually resting in peace, and yet, there I was, ready to defile her tomb and check her sleep to know if she was truly at peace or not. She is sloth incarnate because she could have executed a perfect plan to retreive your body, your life, and slice your throat the way you sliced hers. But she refused. She found solace in her gave, abandonning her duties."
"This is...too much. You have my friends here all tied up and half dead, talking about sins or whatever."
"I guess you will share my vision once I've cleared out everything for you. This, is Basil Morgan. He escaped Ambroise Ler's lair to experience gluttony outside of horrifying experiments. He started to enjoy the chemicals in his body. Alice, the lust. Insatiable, infinite. So fascinating. I'm still trying to understand her. And Pride. As his name suggests. Now let me explain. I wish to find Ismael. For he is the key. The key to entering Heaven by using the Way of Hell. Ismael is the eight sin, torment, that will guide us to Heaven. And you will bring him to me. To us. And we will rejoice in paradise."