lost

The forest outside of the College is freezing with a deep blanket of snow cast over the trees and forest floor. She shivers as she walks into its density. She has purchased a giant jacket made with wolf fur covering the inside but even that isn't enough to keep her completely comfortable. She takes her time walking through the forest trying to fully understand its trees and complexity but that is still impossible for her. So she just keeps walking in a straight line, just like last time, but it isn't that easy as she soon finds out.

The normal track took her an hour last time but as the sun falls and the twilight begins to peek through the trees she becomes worried she will never make it back, or to, her destination. So she sits by a tree and thinks and in a moment of realization, she screams. The sound echoing off the trees. "I could climb to see where I am!" The girl throws off her jacket, her limbs freezing in the cold. She grabs at the hem of her dress and tucks it into her bloomers, folding its length in half. Her boots only go about mid-calf but her stockings keep what little warmth there is left for her.

She grabs at the branches of the oak and attempts to leverage her way up. Digging her feet into the tree. She gets about midway up and is exhausted as she rests on a thick branch. She looks around and all she can see is a mass of trees, a gap to one side with the very top of the college poking out of the forest's horizon, and to the right just near her, there is smoke, billowing out of the trees. Venus nearly falls as she screams hurling herself forward, trying to reach for the far off smoke like it's going to vanish.

"YES!" She tumbles down the tree not really caring when her skirt catches on a branch and tears it. She throws her coat over her shoulders and runs as fast as she can to the cottage, the book in her coat pocket hitting her side at every other movement.

Once she's at the door, she thinks. She contemplates any reason why she would leave. Anything that she could fathom her brother or these men would do to upset her. However, nothing more shocking than what she's already experienced could come to mind. So she knocks on the door, remembering the odd pattern her brother used.

"Wait a minute!" She hears a deep voice below from the other side. "Damned cauldron can't keep its heat. You better not have a deer!" Just as that is said the door is open and all rambling is stopped. The man named Kai stands before Venus, watching her with an annoyed gaze. "Never thought I would lose a bet to Asmodeus." The girl cringes at the name knowing full well what that title entails. Kai rudely shuts the door in the girl's face and soon she hears bashing footsteps at the floorboards and a man hitting a wall. After a cussing fit incurs the door is once again thrown open. Luca is standing there trying to seem nonchalant as he rests himself on the frame of the door. "Oh pretty little thing, what a lovely surprise. What brings you back here?"

The girl summons all the courage she can, taking in a deep breath and speaking as firm as she can, pulling out a book from her coat. "Read this to me."

Luca stairs back at her with a smirk. As he processes what she just said and after reading the title he falls short of a laugh, scoffing at her. "Darling is that it? Well make your way inside, you look drag. Hurry, hurry you don't want the wolves to get you." Venus is taken aback by the man's kindness and hospitality. Something she sure did not show to them. He walks her to the living room and pauses remembering what had transpired when she was there last. "Come now, your brother isn't home. He's out hunting and the rest of the men have retired to give us some privacy."

Venus takes a seat making a palatable space between her and him. "We don't need privacy. I just need one of you to read this to me." She hands him the book. He takes it, glancing at it, and setting it aside. "Your brother was right, you are stupid." the girl is about to speak up, deeply hurt about what she has just heard but is cut off. "Child I could tell you that book said anything I wanted it to. I'm assuming you want to know what it says to disprove what you've heard from your brother but it isn't that simple and it never will be. Reading grovel such as this is like listening to a poor man preaching of how to become rich as he fumbles homeless in an alley. If you really wish to know what this book says don't take the word of others because that would be like intentionally listening to that poor man and following his word. Or worse listening to what I would want you to hear and you wouldn't want to do that, now would you?"

The girl sighs, crumbling like burning aluminum in a fire. "Then what do you purpose I do? I was kicked out of my classes and I tried reading the book. I looked over and thought about every word for the past two weeks and nothing came of it but vocabulary I don't know the meaning of." Luca hums to himself, thinking. "Venus, do you know the best way to take hold of an empire and rule it as your own?" Venus looks at Luca, confused, and shakes her head hesitantly. "Through knowledge. If you control what the people hear and get to learn then you can control the world. It takes a person who has learned by himself through experience to fully understand what something means. If you wish to know what this book says go back to your school and learn the Catholic way. Read it's manipulated words and go by only what they wish you to know." She sighs, extremely frustrated by the man's blasphemous words. "How can you say that when all the church has ever taught me is how to be a good person?"

Luca chuckles. "They have taught you how to be a good person in their society. Do you think people of other places do not view things differently? Why would their way be any more wrong or right than yours? They grew up in a world the same as your ancestors and the same as you. The only difference is man found a way to manipulate what you think is right or wrong and that, darling, is through God. A being who will never show himself to you in body and speak upon your ear to disprove what they say because the way they have told you to contact him is wrong. Your ties to any real answers have been severed and all you have is word of mouth and that can be very deceiving."

She is full of anger and confusion and the anger clouds her judgment as she yells at the man. "What do you mean word of mouth? They have books! They have century-old temples! How could they manipulate what that means!" Luca sighs, taking a patient footing with the frustrating girl. "You stupid girl, even when I tell you the formula you refuse to reuse it in the same equation. All you have to do is fill in the blanks. What I'm telling you didn't just pop out of thin air. It didn't happen just the other day or even in your lifetime. What these men have done has been repeated over centuries, to make it more believable for the next generation to come and even make it seem as though that is what remained of the holy word. So I will tell you again. You will never know what is true through word of mouth, book, or stone alone. You will just know what they wanted you to know. It takes experience for you to truly understand what actually happened or what anything truly means." The girl calms down. She listens to what he says. "Well then by that right what my brother told me could be just him trying to manipulate me." Luca smiles nodding his head.

"Now you're getting it. Here is another piece of wisdom. Most of the time if not all the reason these men have done what I've described is to gain power over the people they were told they have no power over. If you create a false hierarchy and put worth in things like gold coins you gain the chance of becoming the holder of the most valuable thing among these men, who also scour to be at the top of this false hierarchy, and the holder of these precious metals. Now here comes what your brother did. I don't know if you were shocked and everything he said is now a blur but, to sum it up, in his monologue he said that you are his everything. He would squabble at your feet given the chance and wishes only for you to remember yourself such as we have. To prove the relationship he holds so dear to him he told you of his past which I assure you was not an easy task. However, you will come to learn everyone has a hidden agenda whether you choose to view that agenda as good or bad is how you view the outcome of what that agenda made. He has no wish to gain power over you as those sinful men do. So the way I see it, listening to him is a way to become more knowing of your brother. Even if you are not what he so wishes you to be. He asks you for nothing but an ear, your ear."

Venus becomes conflicted as she hears this. To blindly follow what he has said is to do exactly what he has told her not to and to oppose him would be foolish as he, most likely, will prove himself right again in her acts of opposing him. "I just want you to read me the book. Or teach me how to read it, I don't care. I just want to know what it says." Luca sighs, grabbing the book and turning it to page one. He, over the period of an hour, explains the first chapter of vocabulary to her. Meticulously going over every detail as she lusts for more and more information.

Soon their session is interrupted by a knock at the door which makes Luca jump to his feet. "Oh, this oughta be interesting." He leaves, opening the door and letting a person Venus is completely ignorant of, in. That is until she sees him and she's flushed with embarrassment as she does. Her brother has a deer lugging behind him and a musket at his side. He groans as he sees his sister and makes his way away from the living room taking the deer to what she can only assume is to skin it.

"Venus, do you wish to continue or flee seeing as your brother has now arrived." She shakes her head at Luca. "This is his home and I came here knowing full well he might be the one who would answer that door. So, I'll stay until he wants me to leave." Luca hums at her, pleasantly surprised. "Okay then let's continue, I'm sure Lucifer will interrupt us once he needs your attention."