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Ryunosuke is entirely prepared to admit that he is really quite lost now. His sense of direction has in fact failed him quite some time ago so now all he can do is hurry along behind Barok and keep as close as he can. He doesn’t even know how long they’ve been walking, at a brisk pace, down yet more of the secret passages that seem to make up the van Zieks estate. And now almost inexplicably Ryunosuke is certain that they are steadily descending, and they only started off one floor above ground level. He’s frowning about that fact so doesn’t notice that Barok has stopped in his tracks until Ryunosuke finds himself squashed up against the other man’s back.
“Is this it?”
He asks cautiously as he peers around Barok. In front of them the hallway stretches off into complete darkness.
“Not yet.”
Barok takes hold of Ryunosuke’s hand.
“Wait! We’re not going in there are we? I can’t see a thing!”
“That’s the point.”
The last thing that Ryunosuke sees clearly before he’s pulled into the darkness is Barok’s amused expression.
Ryunosuke doesn’t know how long they walk in the pitch black, following some route that Barok seems to know by heart. All he knows is that it’s more than a little terrifying and that he squeezes Barok’s hand tightly as he follows.
When Ryunosuke finally spies light it turns out to be a stone staircase that leads them gently upwards in a lazy spiral, until there is glass overhead, and Ryunosuke thinks he can see the sky. But the steps carry on, taking them past the view of the outside world until they reach a tightly wound iron staircase, which takes them steeply upwards until they both seem a little out of breath. The central column of the staircase is adorned with carefully sculpted metal roses as far as Ryunosuke can tell.
Then, at last, they emerge into a vast room lined with paintings and statues. Ryunosuke can just make out the shapes of them in the shaft of light that runs down the length of the room. He squints and then much to his amazement the panelling? Cover? Whatever it was is sliding back to reveal a glass roof that allows the sunlight to stream in. He hears what must be a mechanism of some kind grind to a halt but he just can’t stop staring in awe at the sight that’s been revealed.
There are so many paintings and each one seems to feature some individual with a strangely familiar face. The statues depict things like a woman in some primitive garb on a hunt, a knight on horseback with huge hounds around him, a woman with the wings of a bird seemingly calling out from the sandy shore on which she lays. These are all strange to him but Ryunosuke supposes they may well be grand things from Western myth. And he has done a little reading up on the topic lately.
He’s following the line of statues and only realises that he’s actually left Barok behind somewhere when he finds himself facing the one painting of Klint van Zieks that he had previously been told was the one that mattered. Here a skilled craftsman has rendered an image in oils, of a smiling man, with a spark of delight in his eyes, apparently at being outdoors, with slight colour in his cheeks from the wind, and one hand resting on the head of the hound that looks up at him adoringly. They are framed by parting trees, behind which, an open field is shown with the sun beginning its climb into the sky.
“The golden hour.”
Barok says it softly. Ryunosuke turns and looks up at him questioningly.
“That time, just after sunrise, when the world seems warmer and the light softer.”
It sounds lovely but Ryunosuke now finds himself distracted by the gentleness of Barok’s expression. Barok notices his gaze and that soft smile takes on a teasing edge. Ryunosuke blushes and quickly turns back to the paintings on the wall.
And this time his eyes fall on the next one, for beside the painting of the elder brother, there is also one of the younger. The Barok in the painting is perched on the edge of a desk looking down at a piece of paper he holds in one hand. His other hand rests on the leg he has stretched out which must be where he has his foot on the floor. Behind him a large window provides a view of open grass and a cluster of trees, that seem like the edge of a forest. It’s all bathed in the deep blue of the sky as if the sun has already sunk beneath the horizon.
“L'heure bleue.”
“Oh?”
Ryunosuke looks up at Barok and leans back into his embrace.
“The blue hour. When the sun has dipped behind the horizon and shadows soften.”
“It suits you.”
“I suppose it does.”
“The golden hour for the hunter and the blue hour for the scholar.”
“That’s very poetic.”
“It suits both of you.”
“One can choose to serve Artemis or Athena, hmm?”
“I… suppose so but that doesn’t really fit.”
“No?”
“No. More like… what’s the one Kazuma mentioned?”
“I have no idea.”
“The one who delivers justice to the evil-doer?”
“Nemesis?”
“That’s it.”
“Ah.”
“Nemesis and what’s the other one? The one with the apple?”
“Eris?”
“Yes. Nemesis and Eris.”
And then Barok starts laughing. Ryunosuke blinks up at him.
“My dear, insightful, Ryunosuke….”
“Oh?”
“I’ll have you know that Klint had at least one admirer who liked to call him ‘sweet Discordia’.”
“They might not have been wrong about that.”
“Apparently not.”
Ryunosuke grins and takes Barok’s hand to pull him towards the next painting.
“Tell me about the rest of them.”
“Of course.”
“And… if we’re still here by nightfall, do you think we’ll be able to see the stars. That is unless we need to get back before then and-“
Ryunosuke shudders thinking about that dark, lightless, route they had taken.
“We can go back down in the lift instead.”
Barok notes soothingly.
“Wait! There’s a lift here as well!”