“You really are single-minded, aren’t you?” Claudia asked sarcastically.

Grail sighed to himself and made as if to brush any dust off his coat. As he gradually regained his bearings and shook off the effects of Claudia’s illusionary magic, he realized that his sense of time had been distorted while under her control. Instead of spending an entire night being tormented by a monster, barely fifteen minutes had passed since his arrival at the estate.

He breathed out in relief, grateful that less time had been wasted than he’d feared. “It’s called being focused, girl,” he said to her. “It’s important to keep your mind set on the necessary task before you. I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.”

“Someone like me?” asked Claudia. “And who in your opinion is someone like me?”

“A sadist addicted to her own power who regularly divides her mind to invade other people’s bodies,” Grail answered without hesitation.

“I don’t like the way you said that, Grail,” Claudia said with a frown.

“I didn’t think you would; it’s why I chose my words carefully," he said.”

“You’re asking for another beating,” Claudia said as her face began to redden. “How can you be this quick to forget your place?”

“Enough of this. Just tell me your father’s location,” Grail said impatiently. “Everly needs his help. I can’t go into detail because I don’t quite understand her affliction, myself. Claudia, your sister’s life is in danger. I need to see him right now.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say that to begin with?” Claudia said with a scowl. “By the gods, Grail! You can’t just come smashing in here like an ogre and start barking orders! You had no right to behave as you did!”

“I speak, as always, for my empress,” Grail said bluntly. “I expected you to understand that my request would be important without immediately questioning it. I also believed you would be quick to offer help. Clearly, I was wrong, and I apologize for thinking better of you.”

“That’s not fair!” Claudia yelled with her fists clenched and trembling. “Not fair, not fair at all! I was simply—”

“Claudia,” said Grail impatiently. “I DO NOT CARE. Just tell me where Marcis is. I don’t feel his presence in the estate. Is he somewhere nearby?”

“He’s in town at the moment, okay?” Claudia said in a surly tone. “He started keeping a townhouse there for his little degenerate gatherings, since I won’t let him touch the help anymore.”

“Lead the way then,” Grail ordered her.

“I’m not going near that place!” Claudia exclaimed. “Who knows what lingering residue will remain in the atmosphere? I refuse to expose myself to any of that.”

“Then remain in the carriage and point out the residence,” Grail said as he grabbed her arm and began to drag her behind him towards the exit.

“I said I won’t do it! Grail, let go of my arm! Grail, I said let go!” Suddenly, Claudia’s body grew rigid as she stared fiercely at Grail’s back, willing him to stumble and fall.

She was very confused when he continued to stride smoothly towards the door with her arm in hand.

“What’s going on? What the hell? How are you doing this?” Claudia asked in bewilderment as she attempted to seize control of Grail’s mind and body just as she had earlier.

Grail sighed in annoyance and said, “Stop it. The same tricks won’t work twice.”

“I don’t understand,” Claudia said wildly. As a spirit wielder, she was always in control. She was the center of the room, the center of power itself! True, Everly could easily ignore her, as could her former teacher, Countess Anne. But those two were exceptional beings, different from the weak multitudes that populated the world.

Claudia was special. Claudia was powerful. No one was allowed to brush her aside like this! No one!

“I’m not human,” Grail said to her.

“What are you talking about?” she asked him.

“As you so unkindly phrased it earlier,” Grail said. “I’m a freak. One gifted by his creator with a multitude of abilities that come in handy for me if I should find myself in certain disadvantageous situations.”

“What sort of abilities?” Claudia demanded of him as he pulled her through the doorway and signaled for a coachman.

“One of them is adaptability,” Grail said as they awaited their ride. “I don’t quite understand the specifics of it, but according to Everly, my body quickly evolves to strengthen itself against certain types of attack. By so thoroughly trouncing me earlier, you’ve taught my mind how to guard itself against illusions and bodily possession. I suppose I should be thankful.”

Claudia stared at Grail in disbelief. She wanted very badly to call him a liar and force him to kneel once more before her. But her every attempt to subvert his autonomy was automatically rebuffed, proving the truth of his words. He really had become immune to her abilities.

“I don’t understand,” she said for the third time. “If you knew I couldn’t hurt you, why not attack me? I humiliated you.”

“I never cared for that sort of pointless, vengeful mindset,” Grail replied. “Instilling the philosophy of might makes right in its students is one of the worst mistakes the Imperial Academy ever made. Generation after generation of powerful bloodlines grew into adulthood while engaging in pointless, fractious grudges and bloodshed. And for what? How did that improve society in any way?”

“The strong must rule, Grail,” Claudia said, as she wondered what he was blathering about. “If the weak wrong you, they have to be shown their place.”

In the blink of an eye, Grail’s axe was at her throat. The movement had been faster than her eye could even follow.

She swallowed slightly as she felt the light pressure of the axehead against her throat and tried not to flinch when she felt a trickle of her blood slide down it.

“Are you offering me your head?” Grail asked her in a mild voice.

“N-no,” Claudia said softly.

“Are you certain? Because the way you’re carrying on about it really makes me think that you’d like for me to cut your head off,” Grail said. “That’s why I’m asking first. I’d hate it if I decapitated you now only to learn later that I’d gotten it wrong. Your sister might get upset with me. That could mean a week without desert for poor Grail. Wouldn’t that be a shame?”

“Please don’t cut my head off,” Claudia pleaded.

“If you insist,” Grail said indifferently. The axe vanished from sight, so quickly that it was as if it had never been there. “You’re a talented person, Claudia. You’re right to feel proud of your abilities. But you need to remember that the world is filled with more talented people than can easily be counted. Power isn’t the only means of settling our differences. And only insecure children need to assert themselves over others in order to feel strong.”

Claudia spat in disgust at the hypocrisy she heard in his words. “As if Everly doesn’t do that every day!”

Grail sighed again.

“Yes, she does. Every day. Why do I serve her again? What has she ever done to prove worthy of my loyalty?”

“You’re asking me? How should I know?” Claudia said while giving him a sideways look. What was he going on about this time?

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. It was silly of me to ask,” Grail said in a quiet, resigned voice. “I’m the general of her armies. I’m her first and finest creation. Everything I have, everything I am, I owe to her. What right does the created have to question their creator?”

“None,” Claudia said. “That’s just common sense. You can’t deny what you were made for.”

“Everything I do serves her purpose,” Grail said. “What joy I feel, I feel for her alone.”

“You don’t sound like it,” Claudia said.

“No, I suppose I don’t.”

Made curious by his somber words, Claudia stepped closer to Grail and stared at him. Grail was such a strange creature. The story she’d been told was that he was made in the image of a famous old sword master and used to teach Everly the way of the sword. Then at a whim, one day Everly granted him sentience and invited him to join her in her life of conquest. She’d even granted him fantastic abilities and a handsome, youthful body that would never age.

Now he wielded power on a scale that few could imagine. By the standards of the cutthroat upper echelons of Winstead’s ruthless high society, Grail should have been the most satisfied man in the kingdom. Only the Empress stood higher than him.

So why, in this moment, did he appear so miserable?

“Did Everly ever share any fables from her old world with you?” Grail suddenly asked her.

“Some,” Claudia said. “I didn’t really pay attention to them, though. Many of them were confusing.”

“Did she ever speak of the tragedy of the angel?” Grail asked.

“I haven’t heard of it,” Claudia admitted.

“According to the story,” said Grail, “the one who created Everly’s world also created an angel for his companionship. The angel was the first of his creations and the greatest of his servants. Everyone admired him, and everyone obeyed him because he bore his maker’s authority.”

“Sounds like a nice deal for him then,” Claudia said with a shrug.

“I’m sure it was,” Grail continued. “But from the beginning of his existence, the angel was forced to bear witness to his maker’s glory with no hope of ever achieving anything for himself. Even though he stood second highest in creation, what he’d truly been given was a life of unending servitude. Until finally, one day he rebelled and was banished from paradise and left to wander in the darkness forever.”

“He sounds like a fool who deserved it,” Claudia said. “Why give up all that power over a pointless resentment? Surely, he understood that anyone great enough to create him would also be great enough to cast him aside? If so, why bother challenging him?”

“Maybe he wanted to be cast down,” Grail said. His hands tightened into fists as he spoke, which he squeezed until he felt his knuckles begin to pop one after the other. “Maybe he was promised a better world and began to realize that he’d never get to see it. Maybe one day he began to understand the depth of his creator’s hunger and wanted nothing more to do with it.”

“Grail, what are you babbling about?” Claudia asked him, now annoyed by this pointless conversation.

“Nothing. I don’t know,” Grail said bitterly. “Maybe I’m just wondering why everyone always assumes the angel was at fault for wanting to be free?”

He fell silent then and remained that way as the coach finally arrived and opened its door for them.

__

Inside the master bedroom of the town house, there were around a dozen men and women in various stages of undress, lying on the floor and the furniture. Empty bottles of wine were scattered about, as were many broken glasses.

In the center of the room, with his chest slowly heaving as he snored, there also lay a donkey.

A very inebriated donkey.

No one took notice when the door to the bedroom suddenly opened and Grail walked in, surveyed his surroundings, and curled his lip in disgust. He walked through the scattered mess of the room towards the canopy bed and stopped before it.

“All of you. Get out,” he said, his voice booming loudly throughout the room, causing everyone to stir in discomfort.

Before him, a nude woman whose body was barely covered by the blanket she'd slept beneath, smiled warmly at him and said, “Hello, stranger. Have you come to join our revelry?”

“No,” Grail replied.

“Well, would you like to? A face as handsome as yours would be fun to play with.”

“No,” Grail repeated.

“Oh, my. You’re no fun at all,” the woman said wistfully. Rather than continue the conversation, she slid out of the bed and rather shamelessly dressed herself in front of him. Then she gave a sharp whistle, and all the others in the room joined her as well, although two of them had to pour some water on the donkey’s head before it could be revived and made to crankily follow its masters outside.

Only one other person remained in the room, still pretending to sleep.

“Let’s go, Marcis,” Grail said impatiently. “Your daughter needs you.”

“You want to ask about the donkey, don’t you?” Marcis said with a smug grin.

“No,” Grail said.

“Are you sure? It’s a really good story,” Marcis said.

“No, I really don’t,” Grail Insisted.

“Hmph. That girl was right. You really are no fun at all,” Marcis said. Then he sat up and stretched forth his arms as he yawned.

“So,” he said, once he’d poured himself an unnecessary glass of wine. “What’s my little darling done to herself this time?”