Chapter 364: Arrivals (2/2)
The grapes upon Aubert’s form began to change with the addition of moonlight. The amethyst fruit were suddenly covered in a thin film of hoarfrost, and were no longer transparent. But what was this? Some sort of Discipline metamorphosis?
Lan Jue’s expression revealed his confusion. He stepped forward, but the Wine Master quickly grabbed him by the shoulder. There was still so much unknown, the old man couldn’t let Lan Jue risk his safety.
In the silence of the unnatural night, suddenly they heard a faint sigh. It stretched on for a long time, quiet and sad. After perhaps half a minute, it faded in to silence.
It washed across all of them. The Wine Master’s face once more adopted it’s regal façade, for he knew now that they were safe. Who ever this person was, she was on their side.
“Why? Was it worth it?” The elderly female voice hung in the air as moonlight coalesced beside the body of Aubert de Villaine. The skies cleared, and were revealed to have changed from that angry purple to a soothing lavender. What’s more, the entire town felt… lacking, as though something had gone.
Lan Jue looked out toward the fields where he spied the farmers. They stood like statues, with tendrils of black escaping from the top of their heads. The poison energy would rise a few meters, then dissipate in to the air. Their expressionless faces remained blank, though now it was clearly due to confusion. Even Gates, the strongest of them, seemed as though he were just waking from a nightmare. The dark power over him had been the most powerful.
Once the gathering moonlight waned to reveal a human figure, Lan Jue couldn’t help but gasp. “Granny Bess.”
Indeed, this stranger – this woman who stopped Aubert’s mad rampage – was none other than Granny Bess. It was she who’d attacked them on Skyfire, and caused the strange bond between he and Qianlin.
He’d known it when he first her her voice, but nonetheless Lan Jue was shocked when he saw her standing before him. What was she doing here? He couldn’t tell whether this woman was friend or foe.
The Wine Master, upon hearing Lan Jue’s surprised cry, turned to look at him. Shock was in his eyes expression. “Granny Bess? Could it be… Bess, an anglicised version of Bize? 1 She is another of the three gods of wine – that’s the only explanation!”
Lan Jue looked like he’d been hit by a verticar. His mind went back to the times he’d come across this old woman. Suddenly, a detail swam up at him from the images. It was after he finished the Cros Parantoux with the others, and went to save Qianlin in the hospital. During the course of their struggle he’d coughed up blood, and it was then ‘Bess’ mentioned the vintage. She’d reacted to the news. 2
It must, it had to be. This woman was the one who had been partner, lover and betrayer to Aubert de Villain: Lilou Bize-Leroy.
How could this be, though? Three hundred years after they should have died, two of the three greatest vintners in history were here. Bize, as she was apparently called, was not like Aubert – she hadn’t needed to become a plant. But how? It made no sense, and that cause unease. Questions still remained, the foremost being whether or not Bize had followed Aubert in to darkness.
Bize didn’t pay them any mind. In fact, it was like she’d forgotten about them entirely. She sat at Aubert’s side, with eyes only for him.
“Why go through this again, Aubert?” Her voice trembled with pain and sorrow.
Aubert, the vines composing his body limp and just barely clinging together, lay on the ground. The flora of his face spread in to a bitter frown. “Indeed… why? Ever since I let that poison jealousy in it has eaten away at me. I forgot everything that made this life beautiful. In my heart, there was only envy, anger, price and greed. Those toxic seeds grew, until they consumed me. Thank you, Bize… thank you for helping me see.”
Lan Jue and the Wine Master furtively listened in on their conversation. It appeared as though their conjectures were correct. This was indeed the Leroy successor.
She heaved a quavering sigh. “They are sins we all suffer – but the strongest of yours was pride. It ate at you that you were inferior to someone else. From that poison soil those seeds of envy, anger and greed sprouted. Eventually the illness reached your heart, and that’s when you chose to win by any means necessary. That was when you were lost.”
1. *Cough*
2. Good call andrewl11!