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She was in Misthallery with Crow and her children when she got the news. Specifically from Marilyn, who had come to their door knocking frantically.
“He’s back!” She had cried, before realizing how vague that sentence was, “Luke’s back! He’s home!”
She and Crow had rushed to see if it was true, and lo and behold, there he was, swarmed with people and affection. She couldn’t believe how much younger he looked compared to the time that had passed. He was eagerly talking, apparently telling the story of his adventures in America. When he noticed Arianna, he cut himself off and dismissed the people around him, rushing to hug his childhood friend.
“Crow! Arianna!” He exclaimed.
“Luke, you old bastard, welcome home,” she giggled, “Where have you been ?”
Luke suddenly pulled away, taking her hands with concern, “Where have I been? Where have you been!? You were quiet longer than me- 23 years!”
“And you for 13!” She sighed and crossed her arms, “I suppose we both need to properly give our explanations, don’t we?”
He nodded, going back to finish telling his stories to the other residents.
They all met- the Black Ravens, the Bardes and Luke- later that night for a drink.
“Well, this brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Arianna had chuckled, “Drinking in the living room of the Barde estate.” She playfully hit her little brother’s shoulder, “Though I suppose, seeing as I live with Crow now, it’s your estate.”
“And we’re all of legal drinking age now!” Marilyn beamed.
“And I’m actually here to join you all!” Tony chimed.
They laughed a bit before an uneasy silence settled over the room, a collective sigh being held by all.
“So…” Wren was the first to break the ice, “Which one of you wants to go first?”
Luke raised his hand, “I’ll go.”
He explained it all to them: Rufus and the Relic stones, the cultists and the priests, the cryogenic sleep they’d been forced into after being captured- an event he had casually mentioned his wife in, which may have been a mistake judging by a few smirks from the others. He went on to speak about Azradila, the Akbadain princesses and Guardians that had been awakened, and the appearance of the mysterious Desmadame.
“Holy shit,” Scraps gave a short laugh after, “I hear you, I hear all that you went through that’s a lot to unpack- but you married an American girl while you were gone? Damn, we missed more than just your batshit insane adventures!”
Luke laughed, “Of course that’s the biggest surprise to you, Scraps. Yes, although I didn’t bring her with me this time, perhaps I can once I settle down.”
“God…” Socket slapped his knee, “I’m gonna tell you again, go get therapy, you absolute dumbass. Please! ”
“Socket, I’m fine!”
“ No-hoh you’re not! ” he burst out laughing, “First it was the Specter, then you came to tell us about a life and death game, some deadly pranks with a cursed mask, then the fact that you died! And then you found a robot village, got high with an old man, and watched someone else die via a time wormhole! And then this weirder shit!!”
“Listen, I survived, and that’s therapy enough-”
“No, sir!”
“Alright, you two, as much as I agree with Socket,” Wren chuckled, “I think it’s someone else’s turn to explain their disappearance off the face of the Earth?”
All attention was suddenly on Arianna, who sighed.
“Yes… Well-”
“Mam?”
They all lifted their heads to see Lucas standing sleepily in the stairwell, “Wod’s wi’ o th’ people?”
“Evening, Sleeping Beauty,” Arianna smiled, “Just talking about our disappearances, love. Do you want to join us for a few drinks?”
Lucas gave a sleepy thumbs up, stretching as Louis handed him a glass and showed him what they all had. He chose a bourbon and sat next to his mother. “Sir, ya’re starin’ at mo,” he pointed out to Luke, who was, indeed, staring at him.
“S-Sorry-” he stammered, “It’s just… Do you have a twin?”
“Aw’m a triplet, sir. Mi sisters are Luna and Lucille.”
A look of realization dawned on Luke’s face, “Lucille Barde?”
“Aye- Oh, art Luke Triton? Hoo cod yesterday an’ sed hoo met ya durin’ her adventure.”
“Oh, you’ve met my little Lu, Luke?” Arianna smiled, “She reminds me so much of you, you know.”
He didn’t respond for a while, simply staring for a bit before he finally opened his mouth.
“I… I didn’t realize she was your kid… I remember hearing about the triplets, but I never saw them. Or Lucien, for that matter.”
Arianna wrung her hands, “Yes… And you also never heard about Loosha. A lot happened after I sent that letter about the triplets…”
Wren rubbed her friend’s shoulder, “Yeah. What was all that about, Ari? You never explained that, even after coming home.”
Her bottom lip trembled, and she gulped, “He started getting more… aggravated once the triplets were born. Very insistent upon how they couldn’t be his because they were born with red eyes, but I knew I hadn’t slept with anyone, I knew I’d been faithful, so I was as confused as he was. He started acting like a child- tantrums and refusals to cooperate nearly every day, he wouldn’t take a goddamn test to prove me right, either.”
She downed the rest of her drink and signaled Louis to pour her a little more, “I thought he was getting better… I really thought he was. When the kids went missing-”
“Missing?” Luke gasped, some of the other Ravens sharing the sentiment, “God, Arianna…”
“So that’s what those missing posters were…” Nabby muttered, “I saw them back in a few towns I visited, and they looked familiar. But whenever I contacted you, you never answered.”
“Lucius’s fault, I would imagine- just like the letters, he was probably blocking me from them,” Arianna brooded, “He kept saying it was probably some prankster because it was quiet on the other end. Though, with the events that happened later, I suppose those were lies. Anyways, continuing- when the kids went missing, he acted like such a concerned father. I felt like he was getting better: he tolerated the triplets more and said he was doing better at his new job. He started being sweet again. Then, of course… the seven years passed. And we had to ‘bury’ them. Then…”
She gripped her glass tightly, her lips pursed, “After the funeral he sort of… detached himself. And I don’t know why, but something in my gut told me it wasn’t because of their proclaimed deaths. He started being away from home more often. He started not caring about my state of mind, discouraging me from continuing to look for my own children when I just… I knew they were still alive.” She smiled at Lucas and rubbed his head, “And I’m glad I kept looking. But Lucius… when I left to go look for them and didn’t come home, when I left my ring on the dining room table, I think he knew as well as I did that I was done with… whatever we’d become- glorified roommates, people tolerating each others’ presence, a cold marriage ready to shatter. I don’t know if that’s what made him into what he was or if he was already like that before, but he started following me. I didn’t know what he was going to do until much later.”
“What do you mean?” Tweeds cocked his head. Arianna shrugged.
“Well,” She breathed, “Did you all hear about the kidnappings that happened a year ago? Luke, you’re exempt from answering that- I know you weren’t.” When they all nodded, she put a hand over her chest, “I got nabbed. My mistake, really, I was out late at night. But he caught up with me, and- um… he put me back in Mollisville. In a large and filthy castle dungeon.”
She suddenly got deathly quiet, her shoulders trembling.
“I wasn’t even down there a full day,” she said, “But the things I saw him do to others based on delusions was horrific.” She hugged her son close to her, “I can only imagine what you and your siblings all went through.”
They noticed the tears that began forming in her eyes as she gripped him tighter, almost as if she were afraid of him disappearing into thin air.
“Ari, you’re getting really teary,” Badger commented, “I don’t doubt what you say, quite the opposite, but maybe you’ve also had too much to-”
“There were children down there,” Arianna choked out a sob, “Loosha was three when she went missing, and when I went down there, there were children younger than her. There were two year olds , just sitting , left to rot in remnants of vomit and shit and piss, and he would beat them singing hymns until they were dead , Badger. He’d burn the fucking bodies .”
She started shaking, Crow, Lucas, and Tony gently hugging her from either side to try and calm her a bit.
“There were children ripped from their mothers, elderly who could barely move, young women and men who had years of their lives beaten from them and were burned alive for simply existing… I saw him- he’d sew their mouths shut and cut them so deeply, whip them with the strength of a god, abuse them to a point that they finally screamed so hard they ripped the threads out of their lips… It was horrific to watch.”
“So…” They turned to Luke, whose fists had clenched tightly, and his face shifting into both a furious glare and a horrified stare, “All the ‘funny’ shit I thought he was doing…”
“Crow was right,” Louis shuddered, “He wasn’t being funny, he was being fucking serious. He actually planned to ‘send you to hell’.”
“Oh god,” Tony croaked before turning to Lucas, “How long were you down there?”
Lucas fidgeted a bit, sipping his drink and playing with his hair, “Um… Abeawt 11 years. Maybe 12. A con probably ceawnt mi scars to ged-”
“Your what? ” Arianna held her son’s face, “Lucas, what? ”
“Um…” he frowned, “Scars… reight. Aw hevn’d shown ya mi scars.”
He rolled his sleeves, exposing burns and silvery remnants of lashes and bites; he lifted his shirt up to the middle of his ribcage and his shorts down just enough for his hip to peek out. There wasn’t just uneven patches of color where he’d had chunks of flesh torn out, there wasn’t just burn marks and peeling scars from branding burns, but also words. Thick, black thread that had been sewn into him to spell insults like ‘Beast’ and ‘Hellhound’; his skin was fucked up from the scabs and lasting scars of flesh trying to grow over the thread- which he had evidently scratched and torn at to try and pull the strings out- with varying levels of success.
Arianna let out a heaving gasp, swallowing air as her hands reached out to both touch the wounds and hold her son. Lucas frowned harder, his bottom lip poking out.
“Id were a lot,” he mumbled, “Loosha geet id bad too- Uz o think id’ a miracle hoo survived,” he dropped the shirt as his mother sobbed into his shoulder. He noticed the horrified, gaping mouths of the Black Ravens, but more importantly…
He noticed the dead, wide eyed stare Luke had on his face. Despite the lack of visible emotion, he knew. He knew Luke wanted nothing more than to kill at that very moment.
“I don’t care about being a gentleman right now,” he growled, a sneer creeping onto his face, “The one time I want London to have it’s death penalty back so long as I get to hold the goddamn gun and pull the trigger. He had no right to cut you off from us to begin with; the fact that he neglected and abused you and your kids after doing so makes it so much fucking worse! I’m going to fucking rip him to pieces and feed the scraps to the dogs, I swear to God-”
“He’s already dead, Mr. Triton,” Lucas piped up, “Lucille killed him.”
He immediately covered his mouth, “Aw mean-!”
Tony took his nephew’s hand, “I-It’s okay. That secret’s safe with us,” he turned to the others, “What’s said in the Black Ravens?”
All the older adults in the room put their wrists together, raising all of their fingers to look like wings.
“Stays in the Black Ravens,” They said in unison.
“Besides, he deserved it for hurting so many people…” Luke muttered under his breath, the words not unnoticed by Lucas, “Would kill him again myself if he rose from the dead.”
“I see now why you kept saying he was ‘adequately punished’,” Marilyn said, raising her glass, “May Lucius burn in hell where he belongs.” A small smirk crossed her lips, “Amen?” She asked with amusement at the irony. The others, with smiles, followed suit.
“Amen.”
They continued drinking, discussions having moved on to lighter topics like Nabby’s business and Wren and Badger discussing parenthood. Luke noticed Lucas get up after finishing his second drink, softly telling his mother goodnight and heading back to bed. Feeling a slight pull to the younger man, he followed.
He had gotten to the bottom of the stairs with Lucas before he tapped the younger man’s shoulder.
“Your sister…” he started, “She seemed to be doing much better. I don’t know if she really is, but if she is, then I believe you will do better too, after… all he did.”
“Dorn’d hev kittens over id, Mr. Triton,” Lucas smiled, “Lulu sez we’re healin’ moor, an’ Aw believe her. Id hesn’d bin thad lang, bod uz already feel better. Ta for yer concern.”
Luke patted his head, and offered a hug of which Lucas took. He looked up the stairs, and he saw three other figures- one looking like Lucius, one looking like a darker version of Lucy, and the other looking like Arianna. As Lucas headed up the stairs, he waved at them with a soft smile; they waved back after a beat, taking their brother by the hand and going back to sleep.
They were safe, he knew this. The roaring fire in his chest calmed down just a little, and even though it was not entirely gone…
The glowing embers left in its wake were easier to manage.