“The scariest monsters are the one that lurk within our souls” – Edgar Allen Poe

In a place removed from all the maps of the world, a woman frolicked on the sandy shore of the island on which she now lived. Dressed in a white sundress, holding onto a hat made of straws on her head as the wind gently blew, she smiled as she hopped to and fro, dodging the small waves that caressed the white sands at her feet.

Occasionally, a giggle would escape her lips as sand crabs crawled over her feet, tickling her skin. Walking under the morning sun, enjoying the ocean breeze, and listening to the sound of the waves as it crashed against the cliff’s rock became a part of her morning routine for about a month now. When she saw a figure sitting within an opening carved into the cliff surface observing her, she gave a small wave and continued her morning walk along the island’s shore.

Watching his mother from out of the window of his office on the island, Isaiah could only sigh in resignation while smiling.

“There’s a war going on in the world outside and she’s acting like it’s just like any other day,” he muttered to himself.

“Mistress Emily has always been strong at heart young master,” an old man dressed in a butler outfit standing at the side of Isaiah’s desk spoke up.

“I guess that’s one of her good points,” Isaiah replied. Turning his attention back to the stack of papers on his desk he asked, “How’s our situation on the mainland?”

“A little bit worse than expected I’m afraid,” his butler answered.

“That bad huh?”

“Yes,” the butler confirmed. “Lily Silverlake mobilized their forces faster than we anticipated. Most of our logistic routes had been moved underground but that also makes it harder for us to transport goods and supplies. Financially, we still have access to most of our physical assets that we can convert any time, but our immediate liquidity is a bit of a concern.”

“What about personnel?”

“We currently maintain the advantage in term of the quality of our personnel, but fatigue and morale are becoming a problem as our supply chain is becoming more strain.”

“What about this island?”

“There are no issues currently even if we take all the staffs into consideration. Based on our current supply, we should be able to remain in isolation for at least the next decade or so without any major issues.”

“My old man really planned most of this out didn’t he,” said Isaiah as he leaned back in his chair, looking up at his ceiling.

“Master Marcus had always been meticulous about placing your and mistress Emily safety and comfort as his priority,” the butler told him.

“What about you Klaus?” Isaiah asked, glancing over at the old man. “You don’t mind being stuck here for a decade?”

“Surely you jest young master,” Klaus said, understanding Isaiah’s intention. “I’ve been serving the Toiracsi family for my entire life, nothing about this situation would change that.”

“Thank you for that but, if that ever happens, make sure you stab me from the front,” Isaiah said, smiling at Klaus.

Putting his hand over his heart, Klaus bowed and replied. “I understand young master.”

Surprised by Klaus’ response, Isaiah burst out in laughter with Klaus joining in shortly after with a few chuckles of his own.

“You were supposed to deny that”, Isaiah told him.

“If I had, it would’ve made me look a lot more suspicious,” Klaus replied, regaining his prior composure just as a knock could be heard on the office door.

“Come in,” Isaiah said.

Opening the door, a maid pushed in a tea cart filled with different types of sweets as well as a newly brewed pot of tea. After placing the sweets and a cup of tea beside it on Isaiah’s desk, she bowed again before promptly leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

Waiting until they were alone again, Isaiah turned his attention back to Klaus.

“Did my old man ever tell you why he did it?” He asked.

“Unfortunately, no. I was not privy to his thinking regarding this matter.” Klaus answered. “What about you, young master?”

“No. He never told me,” Isaiah responded. “But, if I was in his shoes at the time, I would’ve probably done the same.”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked.

Standing up, Isaiah walked over to the bookshelf where he removed a small, leather bound, aged looking book, kept hidden behind the voluminous research that the Toiracsi compiled over the years regarding their various adversaries.

“Give it a read later when you have time,” Isaiah instructed as he handed the book over to Klaus.

“What is this?”

“My father’s memoir,” Isaiah told him.

Hearing the answer, Klaus immediately objected. “Young master, I couldn’t possibly…”

“It’s fine, I’m the head now and I’m giving you permission to read it.” Isaiah interjected.

“I understand.” Klaus replied.

“I don’t think what my old man did was wrong,” Isaiah explained. “After being around Janus for so long, I do agree with his assessment that Janus is dangerous. That much is true. However, I think that after obsessing about it alone, my father lost sight of the forest for the trees.”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked.

“He saw the danger that is Janus, but, if left alone, Janus is mostly harmless. He did not want to harm anyone, nor did he have any intention to. On the other hand, his assassination of Janus triggered a much more dangerous outcome. There were always two monsters living inside that household. He planned for one but there were always two. The first is Janus and the second is, his younger sister Lily.”

“I see.” Klaus nodded. “We simply didn’t allocate enough resources to deal with both threats at once.”

“Correct,” Isaiah confirmed Klaus’ statement. “I believe father thought that Jacob would be the one to reorganize the Silverlake after the assassination and seek some form of justice. I think he counted on Jacob, despite the fact that we attempted to kill Janus, would still be far more restrained in his response. Ruthless he may be, but Jacob does not kill unnecessarily. Instead, Jacob, for some reason, disappeared, and Lily took that position instead.”

“You believe Miss Lily is more capable than Sir Jacob?”

“Not more capable, more dangerous, far more so,” Isaiah corrected him. “Without either Jacob or Janus around, there’s no one that can stop her. She won’t stop chasing us until she eliminates all of us. At this point, she has one singular purpose, revenge for her brother and nothing else.”

“That certainly is a problem.”

“Jacob hid her well…even I only became aware of her when Janus invited me over to play.”

“How do you plan on handling her?”

Sensing an incoming headache, Isaiah rubbed his fingers against both sides of his temple.

“At this point, we can’t stay here forever. If we do, by the time we get back, all of our territories would’ve been ripped apart by her.”

Walking back to his chair and sitting down, Isaiah leaned back against the backrest and closed his eyes.

“No choice huh,” he muttered. “I really didn’t want to do this.”

“Klaus, please contact the Caedia family,” Isaiah instructed. “Tell them I want to talk about the current situation.”

“Understood,” Klaus nodded. “What should I do if they turn down our invitation?”

“Just tell them I’ll leave them alone for the next decade,” Janus added.

“Understood. I’ll contact them right away,” Klaus said as he left the room.

Now alone, Janus turned around in his chair and looked out the window, the ocean breeze helping to calm his mind from the chaotic events of the past few weeks. He allowed his mind to wander, dreaming about things that could have been before pulling himself back to reality, stopping himself before he began to yearn for a future that will never come to pass.

Janus knew that by now, that future that he wanted no longer existed. Too many things had happened, too much blood had been shed, too many lives had been lost to simply brush it all way. He was now the leader of the Toiracsi family and with it came new responsibilities. He could feel the responsibility for the many lives of the Toiracsi family weighing on his shoulders. The Toiracsi now live or die based on the decisions that he made.

Getting up from his chair, he walked over to the bookshelf where he began to rearrange certain books in a specific order. After he was finished with his rearrangement, the bookshelf slid to one side to reveal an entrance to a cave and a series of wooden steps leading downward. Lighting up a torch hanging at the entrance to the cave, Isaiah descended into the depth.

Gradually, the wooden stairs were replaced by stone steps jutting out from the wall that continued downward in a spiral, into the deepest depth of the cavern. Step-by-step, Isaiah descended in silence, stopping for a brief rest when his legs became too tired before resuming his journey. When he got closer to his destination, he could see specks of light shining from the bottom, becoming brighter as he got closer.

Eventually, Isaiah found himself standing on the final step of the stairway, gazing through a stone entrance into a room where various colors of lights were spilling out. Taking the final step onto the floor below, Isaiah walked toward the entrance and reached out his hand only for it to be repel by a barely visible barrier, blocking his entry into the room.

With a smile full of regret, Isaiah turned around and walked back to the stair, putting his torch into the holder on the wall, and sat down on the last step, gazing into the room.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to do,” Isaiah said straightforwardly as if he was waiting for a response from beyond the door.

“I hope you don’t expect me to clean up your mess,” Isaiah said again to no response. “I’ll tell you now, I don’t have the ability to do it. I have my hands full just protecting my family. I can’t clean up the mess you made as well.”

Again, silence.

“Tell me what you want from me!” Isaiah demanded. “You remade the world and for what? You wanted to erase all memories of yourself from it? Then why let me keep mine? You should’ve seen it through to the end.”

Still no response.

“Listen,” Isaiah said softly, trying to persuade his unknown audience. “I promise I’ll help you with what you want, but you must tell me what you want. I’m not a mind reader.”

Seemingly persuaded by Isaiah’s performance, the curtain of light faded as the barrier disappeared, allowing for entry inside the room. Pushing himself up from his seat, Isaiah went inside.

There, inside the stone chamber, he found two large crystals floating in the center of the room, suspended by chains extended from the four walls. Surrounding the crystals were seven smaller ones, rotating in a circular pattern around the two larger crystals, each one with a sword protruding from its top.

Speechless at the sight, Isaiah pinched himself to make sure that he was not dreaming. Feeling the pain from his cheeks he murmured, “who said magic isn’t real”, before walking closer to examine the rotating crystals.

However, when Isaiah came within arm’s reach of the floating crystals, they began to give off a red glow before a curtain of light descended and surrounded the crystals.

“Fine fine, I get it,” Isaiah said, stepping back and raising his hands in a sign of surrender.

Once he was a sufficient distance away, the surrounding environment returned to what they were previously while the surface of each crystal grew more translucent, revealing what was hidden inside.

Suspended inside each of the two large crystals was a woman in a fetal position, their body was wrapped in a pair of large wings that protruded from their back, save for their face. Their eyes were closed, as if sleeping, but Isaiah had a feeling they were still conscious, watching his every movement.

By and large, the appearance of these two women were nearly identical. They both had the same facial appearance of someone he knew well. After spending four years together in school, there was zero chance he could mistake her for someone else. However, what set them apart from each other were the color of the wings protruding from their back.

On his left were wings that were pure white, untainted from any speck of dirt, giving its owner the divine appearance of an angel. The girl on his right however had wings dyed in absolute black, as if absorbing all the colors of the world.

“So, what do you want after showing me all this?” Isaiah asked.

Two of the small crystals, as if answering his question, began to pulsate as they detached from their rotation and floated in front of him, revealing the image of two women he had never seen before.

Displayed on one crystal was a tall woman with blond hair as bright as the morning sun and eyes as blue as the cloudless sky dressed in white armor. She sat cross-legged on a throne, with her head leaning to one side as it rested in her hand, perched on top of a white pillar that towered over the world, a look of contempt showing on her face, as if she considered the whole world to be beneath her feet.

In contrast, the other crystal displayed a woman dressed in pure white, her face hidden beneath her long hair that’s as white as the freshly fallen snow. She stood on the surface of water dyed in crimson as an eye that peeked out from beneath her hair stared into the horizon.

Isaiah studied the appearance of the two women, searching his deepest memories for any hint as to who they were to no avail. Confused, he continued to watch as the remaining five crystals spread themselves out around the room, lighting up the surrounding four walls and replaying a scene much like a projector in a movie theatre.

He watched as the two women he just saw in that reflection do battle against one another, neither one gaining any advantage. However, a figure in the corner of the scene caught his eyes. Despite the blurry images, he could make out the figure of Janus standing to the side, observing the fight.

“I see.” Isaiah said out loud as a look of realization appeared in his eyes. “You’re the reason Janus won’t wake up.”

“What’s your end game?” he asked only to be answered by the sound of absolutely silence.

Just then, the crystals all began to glow once more as they showered the room in a blinding brilliance. Isaiah, shocked by the sudden change, reflexively closed his eyes to shield them from the light, as a strange feeling of weightlessness engulfed his body. Helpless, he could only remain still, allowing that feeling to overwhelm his five senses before it suddenly disappeared.

After reopening his eyes, Isaiah found himself back inside his office, his body relaxing in his chair as he looked out into the horizon, the sun slowly setting in the distance. Surprised by what just happened, Isaiah pinched himself again on his arm to make sure that everything he just saw was not a dream, the slight pain in his arm made him winced.

Walking over to the bookshelf, Isaiah began to rearrange the books according to his memory but, after moving the final book, nothing happened. Once more, he tried to rearrange the book in a different order only to receive the same result again. Frustrated, he used all his strength to pull back the bookshelf only to find a solid stone wall behind it.

Feeling slightly exasperated, he repeatedly banged his head softly against the wall, muttering to himself, “I must be going crazy from the stress.”

Cleaning up the bookshelf and moving it back to its place, he returned to his desk and lay his head on the table. A few inches from his eyes, he noticed two pieces of crystals and that he was sure were never there before. Reaching out his hand to pick them up and observe them, a series of images flashed through his head, forcing him to drop the crystal onto the ground as he grabbed his head in pain.

Once the pain subsided, beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, dripping freely onto the ground. In a hurried, he rushed to pick up the two pieces of crystal again to find that each of them was now engraved with an image of a different flower. On one crystal appeared the image of a rose and the other, an iris.

Realizing that what he saw was not a dream, Isaiah gripped the crystals in his hand, positioned himself at the window of his office, and took a deep breath.

“GOD DAMN IT!!!!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs and punched the windowsill as hard as he can in a fit of rage.

Hearing the commotion, Klaus and a group of maids rushed inside the room, fearing that something dangerous happened to their young master, only to find Isaiah rolling on the floor, gripping his hand, and crying in pain.

After fixing up the minor injury, Klaus excused the maid from the room to go and resume their chores.

Looking at Isaiah, Klaus simply said. “The Caedia family accepted your offer for a discussion.”

“When and where?” Isaiah asked.

“Two weeks from now, 10:00 A.M. on July 31st, at their main abode.”

“Those bastards,” Isaiah cursed. “So much for staying neutral. Prepare some personnel, this is not going to be a simple picnic in the park.”

“Understood, young master. I’ll make the preparations.”