riverview | Video; @cphantom

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Video; @cphantom | memory share

[The video starts in a faintly dimmed room, all the light coming from candles spread about. It's a large room, all made of shining white marble, a chandelier of gold hanging above and holding several of those candles. It's clear it must have cost a fortune.

Pillars make a circle around the room, behind them are stone seats for an audience, there are several cages filled with children in various conditions and all of them chains to the bars by their ankles. In the center is an altar, the floor around it painted with a pentagram, and around that are a couple dozen adults dressed in dark robes and masked as if it were a masquerade. They're all laughing, ignoring the caged children until one cage door is opened and a young boy is pulled out, no more than ten years old.

He's screaming and reaching back to the cage.]

"No! Don't take me away!"

"Ciel!"

[They lay him on the altar, hold him there, and one man holds up a dagger, a wild grin on his face, and brings it down into the child's chest. Blood spills everywhere, from his chest, from his mouth, there's a scream. Two screams. One from the boy on the altar as he dies, one from the boy in the cage.

They look alike, even while one lives and one dies. Like mirror images of one another.]

"There is no such thing as God!"

[And a black smoke filled the room, the candles are snuffed out, the cultists fly into a panic. And then red eyes appear and several of their panicked faces turn to delight, demanding riches, eternal life, petty desires one has every day but the eyes instead settle on the boy in the cage as he reaches out between the bars.]

"Oh. What a tiny master... You have summoned me, that fact will not change for an eternity. The payment to cross has already been made. Now... choose..."

"I... I want-"

"Shut him up!"

"I want power! The power to take revenge on the ones who did this to us! Demon! I'll make a contract with you!"

"So you're abandoning the light for the path to hell? Fine. Well then, let's mark our bodies with the contract seal. The more visible the place where your seal is, the stronger it's power. So, where do you want-"

[The child in the cage, Ciel, doesn't hesitate.]

"Anywhere is fine. I want a power stronger than anyone else!!"

[Through his tears, the smokey figure reaches out a clawed hand, wiping away a tear slipping from his right eye.]

"You're quite greedy, despite your small body. Well then, I shall put the seal on that big eye of yours, filled with despair."

[He grabs his face, another scream being torn from his lungs, and when he draws his hand away, one blue eye had turned purple, an inverted pentagram replacing any features his eye once had. Even his pupil is gone, and blood pours down his cheek.]

"Kill them all!!" [And all... goes dark...]

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[Once the tea had finished its course, he took the bag aside and pressed out the water that he could and added his own honey and gave it a stir. When it had dissolved, he took the cup to his face again and gave it a good smell. Really, he did love chamomile.]

Today is a free day for me. I had planned on spending it with a walk around the city, but given the circumstances, I think I can put that off.

We could still go on a walk, it would be relaxing too.

[Ciel put everything back and then settled down, just wrapping his hands around the cup for a moment to savor the heat. And then slowly sips at it, smiling into the cup at the taste.]

And then just... lounge, I guess, when we get back.

[That's a little more of the boy he knows. He'd wondered if the Earl would be too nervous to show his face in public again after what had just been broadcast for the world at large to see, but he'd been wrong, and glad for it.]

It is, it certainly is. The air is starting to cool off and it's been a lovely day out. Sounds of the wind in the leaves would do us both good. How about taking a stop by the deli on the way home to pick up a sandwich for lunch when we get back and let laziness take us?

[He isn't exactly excited about being seen but hiding away wouldn't be fair. To him or to Undertaker, he doesn't want to ruin his day.]

I'll be sure to wear a jacket then. [To avoid his getting sick again but the suggest keeps a smile on Ciel's face.] That's perfect. And we don't have to worry then about making lunch ourselves.

[He tilts his head, sips from his tea and savors the scent once more.] Ah, it's not quite cold yet, milord. You may not need it, but I'll leave that to your judgement. Less to sort out once we return, but that'll be the idea. I plan on being as useless as possible when I next set foot in this place until the morning. In fact, I may very well sleep on the couch tonight.

Better safe than sorry.

[He could also duck his head into his jacket if he felt too uncomfortable at any point.]

Are you sure you'd be comfortable there? We could play chess or something until you get tired.

[He made a small gesture with his hand.] Fair enough. Wouldn't want to see you back in the hospital any time soon.

[One more small sip. This tea, oh he loved it.] Depends on how lazy I am when we return. Might be I don't feel like getting up and going to the room, and I think I'm hardly a match for you in chess at my best. You'd take advantage of an old man like that and kick him when he's down, would you? [The grin turned decidedly teasing. They needed the humor.]

[That made two of them.

Ciel can't help an almost impish grin.] Take advantage? Would I do something like that? Especially in a friendly game of chess.

[He's absolutely do it with the other Aristocrats and with billiards, most of them willing to think him cocky instead of just clever enough to pull off multiple sinks.] Besides, aren't you old enough to know a few tricks I don't?

[This is nice, having the boy's snark back.] Oh, you've done it well enough. I might have let you win a time or two, but milord is a cunning one. I've been the victim of your killer streak time and again. [He pointed a finger at the boy in mock accusation.]

Shall I put you on trial to prove it?

Have you? [How had he not realized?] I never did like losing. So I had to get better.

[He manages a little pout, eyes still filled with laughter.] And how would you do that?

Oh, imagine that. You, not liking losing. I never would have guessed. [Lies.]

[He hums and gestures to the counter in the kitchen.] Might make that the judge's bench. It needs a little remodeling though. We could put the benches for the jury over there, and your podium here.

I'm a very good actor. [No, he isn't.

He rests his chin on his hand, watching and grinning.]

You need evidence for a trial though.

[Scratching at his chin with a fingernail.] Never seen you act before, so I'll have to take your word for it. Speaking of, we do have evidence. I'd stand as a witness to the horrors, and there's all the proof I need. [He's pointing now at the chess set, packed neatly away on a shelf.]

[That he believes Ciel is probably his best evidence towards 'acting' skills.]

I'm sure that's considered bias. I could be my own witness then. [He glances at the set and grins.] You could still beat me.

[It's half hearted at best.]

Well, I suppose you could, but then you'd pull rank on me and I'd be thrown in jail as a heretic. Still, I've not lied to you once. [That's a lie.] You've lied to me a time or two. The chess set never lied, though it has disappointed. Not quite so trustworthy. [He frowns.] Might be I need to rethink my case, or hand pick the jury.

I can't though, not here. You're older than me, children are supposed to respect their elders.

[His smile falters a little.] I've lied to a lot of people. Although, I haven't really lied to you here.

[He saw that. None of it. He reaches out and gently taps the underside of the boy's chin with the back of two fingers.] There, see? Proving my case already. This'll be an easier than I thought. And since when did you ever respect me anyway, outside of here? I'm just a mortician, no one special.

[Good question but when had Ciel given anyone any real respect since he'd come home?]

Outside of here doesn't much matter anymore though, does it? I'm just the spare.

[His own smile faltered, then faded entirely. He set his cup down after a moment and reached out to the boy, palm up in invitation.] Why do you say that like you do?

[His grip tightens on the cup for a moment and then he sets it down, taking the offered hand.]

I did, I do. Maybe not as much as I should have, but no one will care who I do or don't respect. Ciel is the heir.

[He curls his fingers loosely around the boy's, years older now but still so small and the skin smoother compared to his, nails not included.] Does it really bother you so much that you weren't intended to be the next head of the Phantomhive household?

[To be honest, no. It hadn't. He'd always believed in Ciel but-] It stung to be called a spare.

[As if it was all he was good for.] To hear father say that they'd give up the estate to the crown if I was forced to become head of the family.

[Of course, he'd been seven then, and if his father had been joking, he hadn't picked up on it.]

[That was it, then. When had he been called a 'spare?' Certainly not by his father, and Undertaker couldn't imagine the boy's mother would say such a thing. Yet Ciel had heard it and more. And perhaps misinterpreted.]

[He gave the hand a gentle squeeze, voice softening with it.] Listen to me, my lord. Listen well. Your father loved you with everything he had, no matter that you had a twin brother. Now, I wasn't there to hear what you heard, but I believe when he said that he would give up his estate if you'd become head, he'd do it to protect you because he loved you, not because he thought to belittle you. You're old enough now, you've been in the business. Do you understand what it means to give up something like that, to just walk away?

[In conversations he'd never been meant to overhear, while he should have been in his kingscraft lesson. They'd left the door ajar though, how could he have resisted?]

I know he did... [Their parents had loved them both, they'd never let either child doubt that. It had been upsetting though, not being able to play outside with everyone, family outings being cancelled for the sake of his health.]

I remember. Twenty thousand acres of land and the people who call the estate home, relying on the earl to keep everything running smoothly. I've been keeping them as happy as I can.

That's right. The disappointment those people would know, the uncertainty, the confusion they would experience while another Earl was chosen. And the servants themselves within the manor, who knows if they would even keep their jobs or if the new Earl would keep them? Not to mention the loss of his nobility on a more personal note. He would have to rely on friends or family to keep him and you and your mother until he found a place in his new world. Surely he'd have made no friends among the lower society, but maybe some would pity him for the loss of his one son.

[He gave the hand another gentle squeeze, curling his fingers a little more about the Earl's smaller ones. Then he released the hand to reach for the boy's face, cupping his chin.] But he would have given it up for you, he said, didn't he? He would have given it up. Don't forget that. Don't take it badly that you are a twin in your father's house. Your place in the world would have to be different, thanks to the way that rank and file works, but you mean no less to your parents because of it.

[With his thumb, he gave the boy's chin a few light strokes, and it was as much a tender gesture as he had ever given the Earl, but it was needed.] Please. Do try.

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