back to us, sure. Lancers could, too.
We all have incredible abilities now.
By all accounts, we should be capable
of creating a society greater than any
that precedes us. Mist or no mist.
The lancers and the trains could make that happen.
All we need is a few million of them,
and we’ve already got a couple thousand.
—Virgil Clay, Lecture
Violet felt that same guilt again. The guilt of getting carried away and pushing something just a little too far. Again, she knew it wouldn’t last. Caitlyn had made her realize how furious she was. The woman had given her a perfect opportunity. Violet had followed Caitlyn to an isolated building and then listened to the bitch all but confess to trying to kill her. All while she was practically craving blood. Her unique attribute flashed through her head.
Bloodlust.
Its value was more than twice as high as her perception. In fact, it was as high as an orange six’s best attribute. She didn’t quite know what it did. But its name wasn’t a complex and multi-layered mystery, poised to puzzle scholars and theologians for generations to come. Well. Maybe theologians, she thought. In any case, it was a pretty safe bet that it had an effect on her lust for blood.
Bloodlust wasn’t exactly an emotion she had always harbored. She had wanted control over her life. She had wanted to be the one looking down, for once. But she hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. Not until, well, she did. She could acknowledge that the feelings were the same. More intense, depending, but clearly based in the same desires. But the bloodlust itself was new. At the same time, she couldn’t blame the attribute. Most people agreed that calling and unique attributes reflected the soul, rather than informing it. And if that was true, its value was high because she wanted to kill. She didn’t want to kill because it was high.
She couldn’t be certain of that. It would’ve been comforting to have a number to blame. But the reality was… she’d enjoyed killing Derek. It was an intoxicating experience. Once she’d tasted blood, she wanted to try it again. She liked the justice. She liked the revenge. She liked the gratification. She loved the power. She wanted to keep feeling that power.
She felt guilty. She’d killed a woman she’d known all her life. Someone that someone else loved. She felt shame—for the way she’d done it. How long she’d taken to do it. Because it was cruel. She’d let Caitlyn see her death coming. She’d taunted the woman. She’d wrapped a noose around her neck and hoisted her into the air. She’d felt the rope move with every wild movement of her victim’s body. She’d felt the tension as it crushed Caitlyn’s throat. She’d smiled as the light left a human being’s eyes. It was cruel, and it was stupid. They were isolated, but anyone could have shown up. It was rash. Violet needed to be more intentional next time.
And there were those words again. Next time.’She sighed. The truth was, she felt guilty, and she felt ashamed. But she knew there would be a next time anyway, if only Stephanie. Because the guilt and the shame were like the aftermath of a public embarrassment. Powerful, and likely permanent. But only for the moment. Long-term, they were mild enough that she wouldn’t think about them too often after a day or so. And they were eclipsed by a third emotion. One she knew shouldn’t be present at all, much less her primary concern. She was, above all else, disappointed.
When she’d killed Derek, she’d gained enough clarity to advance six full degrees. Possibly almost seven. But, as Caitlyn’s corpse swung gently in a quiet warehouse, Violet’s empathy ring reflected a far less drastic change.
Violet Asher
Category [Red]
Calling
Degree {7}
Attributes
Agility (109)
Constitution (47)
Dexterity (86)
Endurance (53)
Perception (150)
Resistance (67)
Strength (38)
Bloodlust (334)
Talents
Obfuscate
Tools of the Trade
A single degree. Maybe not even that much. It was possible she’d been on the threshold of the seventh degree anyway. Killing Caitlyn had helped. Hell, she’d earned seventh degree a week after sixth. That alone would make most people envy her. Even so. For some reason, it had offered her only a fraction of the growth her first kill had. And that made the risk she’d taken with the act far less rewarding.
So, she was disappointed. More than she was guilty, and more than she was ashamed. That scared her, a little. But only a little.
She’d left Caitlyn hanging, posing the scene to emulate a suicide, and continued to the train. It was later than she’d expected to arrive, but still early. And only her parents would recognize there had been a gap, in the unlikely event anyone asked. Caitlyn had a motive to tie the rope herself, and Roseville lacked a police force which had ever investigated a murder. All in all, she didn’t feel overly anxious as she was led into the passenger car on the train.
The first thing she noticed was Alex. It made sense he’d be there. He likely would have come with Caitlyn. And Caitlyn would have expected Violet to find him easily. Especially if she’d agreed to talk him out of joining her. That was good. If her body wasn’t discovered in the next couple of hours, he wouldn't know about his mother until they made it to Chromatic. Possibly not until long after, considering how sparse communication was for a small town like Roseville.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Before he spotted her, she scanned the other prospective lancers sitting in various spots in the train. The glowing tubes running along the walls were nearly as pervasive inside the train as out, and they cried for her attention. But the people were the ones who mattered.
Chase was chatting with Alex, clearly cheering the terrified man up. Violet wasn’t particularly interested in them, at the moment. She thought perhaps she should have been. Giving Alex extra attention was the least she could do—after her meeting with his mother. It also sounded tedious, however. Chase seemed to have it covered for the time being, and it had been Alex’s fault that Caitlyn had tried to have her killed. Turnabout was, as they said, fair play. She would join him after she got a good look at some of the other students.
She was actually a bit excited about this part. She’d never been on equal footing with anyone her age before, much less a step above them. She didn’t hate people by any means. She had long suspected she would even like them, if she ever met any who were likable. It just so happened that everyone in Roseville looked down on her, and that wasn’t a great first step in making life-long friends.
She didn’t need to connect with all of them, but she was looking forward to trying with at least one. Surveying her options, she saw four people she hadn’t met. Two women and two men. One woman was short, slender, and shrouded with a hostile aura. She was, perhaps, less than pleased with her selection for the Chromatic Academy. Or maybe she just didn’t like people. In either case, Violet decided against approaching her.
One man was sitting on his own with his back turned to Violet. He didn’t have the same “don’t approach me” vibe as the girl, but his shoulders were slumping in a way Violet didn’t like. It indicated the type of missing confidence that would interpret Violet’s approach as some kind of promise. She was perhaps reading into it too much, but he reminded her of Alex, and other options remained.
The other man seemed to have the opposite problem. He was trying to get the attention of the last girl. He wasn’t being rude or pushy, and she didn’t seem to be actively annoyed. But she was obviously more interested in her book than the conversation. Still, she seemed to like him enough not to say anything, and he was just too confident to notice.
The woman he was talking to was the most interesting option by a mile, and not because of any displayed personality traits. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of headphones around her neck, which would clearly not fit on the large, red fox ears growing out of her black hair. Violet’s view was blocked by the back of the seat, but the girl was sitting sideways, and it was pretty obvious that the wide tail sticking over the seat belonged to her.
Violet hadn't seen anything like it outside of cartoons, and she wondered why no one else was even glancing at the strange features. The fur had an edge to each strand, reflecting the thin crystal it was made with. This made it clear that it was an effect of her calling in some way. That, at least, happened enough that she had seen it before, if not often and never in the same way. God, I hope I don’t get any physical changes like that from my calling, Violet thought. She didn’t want to know what kind of changes “Reaper” would have.
The most interesting thing about the woman in question wasn’t actually the extra ears or the tail—although Violet was admittedly curious about the headphones—but the way no one else remarked on them. They were a bit hard to miss, and, in Violet’s experience, people fucking loved pointing out elephants in rooms. It was possible every unfamiliar face on the train already knew the girl, she supposed. Chase would certainly say something, but he did care enough about Alex to comfort his friend first. Alex, of course, was too much of a spineless eel to mention anything strange.
It was worth remembering, in any case. As soon as she had entertained her boyfriend enough to avoid suspicion, she decided the fox girl would be the first person she introduced herself to. Until then, however, she needed to keep Alex company. She didn’t like when Chase did it for too long. Alex always spoke to her strangely for a while after listening to his best friend.
As her disinterested guide returned without a word, she began walking down the aisle of the car. “Oh, hey, new girl!” the more energetic of the men greeted. She hadn’t made it more than a few steps. He and the girl he was chatting with both looked in her direction, followed shortly by Alex and Chase. The remaining occupants of the car seemed uninterested.
Alex’s eyes were red, and he quickly turned away to hide the sign of crying from his girlfriend. Chase followed suit, whispering to Alex while Violet shifted her attention back to the strangers.
“Hi, new guy!” Violet echoed cheerfully. The stranger chuckled at the riposte.
“That’s not how this works!” he complained. “I was on the train first. You just got here. You’re new girl, I’m just Guy.”
“Well, I was in this city first, wasn’t I? You, on the other hand, just got here. New guy. Which makes me just Violet,” she quipped.
“What, ‘cause of your hair?” The fox girl asked. Violet smiled and shrugged.
“My parents are very creative people,” she replied, flipping her purple sidetail theatrically. “And you are?”
“Guy, like I said!” The boy interrupted. It was Violet’s turn to chuckle. His name admittedly made his previous joke marginally funnier.
“Kiera,” the girl answered, rolling her eyes at the boy in the seat in front of her. He leaned over the back of his seat, smiling as if she’d winked instead. Violet tilted her head.
“What, ‘cause of your hair?” she returned. Kiera idly twirled a black curl around one finger and laughed.
“Touché,” she replied. “Surprised you knew what it meant. My parents aren’t creative, just lucky.”
“I just like to read,” Violet answered cheerfully. “I’ve run into the name before. Not ‘Guy’ though. That’s… new.” Guy scoffed at the silly joke, returning with his own in short order.
“So, if we have a Violet recruit, can the rest of us go home? A few reds are hardly worth one Violet, after all,” he poked. Violet rolled her eyes at the familiar joke.
“Sounds like you’re not all red, if you’re too scared to go to a new school. Bit of a yellow belly, huh?” Violet jabbed. Guy grabbed his heart in mock injury. Alex flinched at the same time, but only Violet noticed it.
“You wound me, Violet! I’ll have you know I am no simple coward!” Guy replied. “I am, in fact, a very smart coward! Come on, sit with Kiera and me. We’ll get you caught up on train rules before the lancer escorts join us.” Violet smiled, but shook her head.
“Oh, I’d like that, I’m sure,” Violet laughed. “But I’d better touch base with my boyfriend up there. He’s a bit of a gentle soul, you know?” She watched the disappointment flash in and out of Guy’s eyes like a blink. He was, of course, hoping the attractive new girl on the train was single. But he didn’t dwell on it. This, more than anything, made him less interesting to Violet. He seemed amiable enough, and she could see him being a decent enough friend. But she often grew bored with people of his sort.
“Right, well, we wouldn’t want to distract you from that, would we, Kiera?” he asked, looking back at the girl with the strange ears.
“Trying not to be distracting, now, are you?” Kiera intoned. Violet chuckled and allowed the pair to retreat into their own banter. She finally made it to Alex, who was carefully looking down. Chase greeted her before she could say anything at all.
“There you are,” Chase grunted. “Coulda met us at Alex’s place. Lord knows Miss Jiron would have loved to see you. She’s probably inconsolable about you leaving.”
“She’s hanging in there, I’m certain,” Violet responded flippantly. All three of them knew how Caitlyn had felt about her son’s girlfriend. She didn’t want Alex to leave, but Violet? She would have thrown a fucking party about that.
“No, I’m serious. She’s really switched to Team Violet recently. Makes a guy wonder if her old age is affecting her mind,” Chase sighed.
“That’s not funny,” Alex murmured as he stared at his feet. “She just wants me happy, and she realized Violet does that.”
“Must make you pretty damn happy,” Chase scoffed.
“What do you mean?” Violet asked. There was something in his voice she didn’t like.
“Oh, right, I guess she wouldn’t have said anything. She’s not the type. But she sure baffled Dad at that first council meeting,” he answered.
“What do you mean?” Violet pushed.
“Well, if she didn’t tell you, it would be rude of me to say, wouldn’t it?” Chase dismissed.
Panacea Blue, take a look at the weekend progress toward stretch goal rewards!
It was an excellent weekend, with a huge jump upward. Thanks so much for the support! Violet has made it to 343, as of the update of this post! It's been great seeing people's thoughts so far!
Here are the current goals and rewards, as well as how close we were to each at 10:40 AM CST on the day this chapter was published.
Click Description to learn more about each!
6k - 15k Bonus Chapter – 3,000 Followers
343 / 3,000
Description
Starting at 3,000 followers, I will write a bonus chapter between 6k - 15k in length every 2k followers. This may be a side character, this may be an AU, or anything else. Who decides? You do! When a milestone is reached, I will ask for suggestions and put up a poll of the most popular ones!
Webtoon Chapter – 6,000 Followers
343 / 6,000
Description
This is also a bonus chapter, but I will have it commissioned as a fully illustrated webtoon!
Spin-Off Novel – 15,000 Followers
343 / 15,000
Description
I will write a novel of at least 120k words focusing on Kiera, one of the prominent side characters. This spin off will remain on Royal Road as long as I am, no matter what.
Visual Novel – 20,000 Followers
343 / 20,000
Description
I will commission art for and develop a full length (and free to play) Cruel Violet visual novel. (This is something I know how to do, ftr.)
Panacea Blue! It's so good!