Note: The following tale was conceived as a side-story to the title Angelique: Tenkuu no Requiem and became the basis for the game Angelique: Maren no Rokukishi / Maren no Roku Kishi / Six Knights of Dark Love.
About naming: Leviath's blond staff officer was referred to in certain materials released around the time of Requiem as "Kiefar" but is named "Kiefer" in Maren. I've used the seemingly original spelling of "Kiefar" here, but if you want to do a find-and-replace, feel free.
"Elis" almost certainly refers to the mythical Eris, but "Elis" has been in use for so long in the English-speaking fandom that to heck with it.
Translation by R. Capowski, 5/25/13. I can be contacted through the usual channels.

Table of Contents

Book 3: The Flowers That Bloomed in the Desert
1. Last Chance
2. Violet Blaze
3. A Passing Shower
4. Beyond Night

The one for whom I've been waiting has finally arrived.
Tonight's the night, it seems.
He tastes both despair and joy at once,
and even though he knows he's dreaming,
he lets out a scream like a death cry...
Tears in his eyes, he awakens.

1
Last Chance

The bar was dim during the daytime. The air reeked of bodies crammed into close quarters - patrons who weren't exactly what you'd call hygienic in the first place. At the table and its endless hands of cards, even time itself seemed to drift off into a dream.

The major planet of Nog. Long under the Emperor's control, it had thrived as a hub for interstellar travel. Its Eurinia district was a small kingdom, but it was situated at the crossroads of the planet's major thoroughfares, and its capital of Galatea was usually bustling with a host of varied people, wares, and information.

In cities like these, there were always a few undesirable neighborhoods that would crop up off the beaten path. Anyone could stay at the inns these slums housed - if they had the gold, that is - but there was no guarantee that their luggage or lives would survive the night. These establishments as a rule ran bars and gambling dens in their basements, and this one was no exception.

At the corner of the bar - his back turned to the patrons milling about the gambling table - was seated a young man, drinking all alone. He was tall, dressed all in black, with black hair. The figure he cut from the back seemed to exude a dark aura that warned the other patrons away.

But now, there was a young girl flitting about him. She moved like a cat, making not a sound. She was dressed in the style of the tropical folk, a brilliantly-colored stole covering her head, tons of gaudy ornaments jangling about her slim wrists and waist.

"Don't like what you're drinking?" With a smile, the girl pulled up a chair next to the stranger. She was beautiful. Her dewy wide eyes twinkled as if with a sparkling secret; her cheeks were as crimson as ripe fruit. Any ordinary man would be captivated by a mere smile from this creature - but the young man gave her not a glance, simply bringing the dark liquid in his glass to his lips again in silence.

The girl stared at his handsome profile and gave another smile. "Heyy...how about treating me to a drink?"

The man finally, slowly turned his head. When he did, she saw that his right eye was covered with an black eyepatch. The man's gaze was cold as ice, as if to give an unspoken, unmistakable refusal to the girl's overtures.

But the girl didn't budge. She continued staring at his face as if enrapt.

"All right," at last responded the man in a deep voice, his lone emerald eye gleaming with sharp light. The girl merrily ordered sake, strong, straight up, and drank it down in one gulp. She continued her attempts to sweet-talk the young man, undaunted by his lack of response. A scene you'd see often in any bar in the world - but this instance was a little different.

For some reason, the woman wanted the young man to gamble with her. "You've been sitting here drinking by yourself for a while, haven't you? How about picking your spirits up - having some fun? What's the matter - don't you like cards? If you don't know the rules, I can teach them to you."

After a while, the couple moved to the table and took the next hand.

~*~

"Hold on...w-wait, no, I...I don't believe it!!"

The exclamation came from the girl. Her confidence had seemed unshakable - but she now leapt back from the table, her wide eyes opened even wider. Whispers spread among the gathering crowd like wildfire.

The young man's expression was unchanged; he stayed seated, emotionless as ever. But his left eye glimmered like a jewel in this dim den so hungry for light.

The girl suddenly rose from her seat, as if she had just rememberedsomething. "Oh, forgive me. I was just surprised - you're just so good. I don't have my money on me...would you mind if I went upstairs to get it?"

Her words were so sweet they were naturally a lie. The girl had intended to make her way up to the front desk above and slip out the back door there. And she'd thought the new face would be such an easy mark... Her tricks hadn't failed her one time in 10,000...so how did he manage to win?

She still couldn't wrap her head around it. She'd take a moment to mull it over back at her lodgings.

The dry jangle of her ornaments as she walked was a sudden spike into her consciousness.

She ran into two young men who were standing before the front desk - blocking the way. She stopped in her tracks, held her breath, and watched them leave - flooded with the most pervasive premonition of dread as she did so.

When she retraced her steps back to the bar, just as she feared, she found they flanked the man from before.

Both men were tall and slender, the same age as the young man - about in their mid-twenties, perhaps. One had short, dark blond hair smoothly slicked back, a cruel smile ever-present on his lips. The other had long hair of platinum that hung down in back; he seemed the intellectual sort but had a hollow look in his eyes.

The black-haired man seemed to sense the young woman's return and turned around to meet her gaze. That lone emerald eye that seemed to see through everything was filled with scorn and disdain - so it seemed, at least, to the woman.

He stepped forward, and his companions followed - as if planning to walk right past the girl and leave the establishment.

The woman almost threw herself onto his arm in her bid for his attention. "Hey, let's...let's continue our game tomorrow. I'll be waiting right here - please, I promise!" Her voice was shrill, and her eyes wild. But the black-haired man took no heed. He simply looked at her and cracked his first slight smile.

~*~

The next day, the woman stared dumbfounded at the cards that had been thrown in front of her. There were more people in the gallery than yesterday, and a hush had fallen over the spectators.

The black-haired man gave a strange, cold smile and stood. "It's been a pleasure seeing your skills in action. Take back what you've bet. I'll consider it my price of admission."

The woman's face was sheet white. "How generous! Why don't you buy me a summer home in Metamoria while you're at it!?"

Ignoring the snide remark, the young man left the bar.

2
Violet Blaze

He stopped in his tracks in the fourth floor corridor, just in front of his room.

Sure enough, there was the girl. Somehow, she had gotten there before him. Her face was pale, yet ablaze with new rage and agitation; she'd never looked so beautiful.

"I found out in what room you were staying after yesterday!"

The young man didn't answer.

"You're leaving tonight, aren't you!? Don't think I'm going to let you cut and run!!" She wasn't speaking in the voice she'd used before. She threw off her stole and vestments, revealing...the body of a man.

The soft chestnut hair hung disheveled around his forehead; his amber eyes glittered violet-red in his indignant rage. "I'm Giovanni. My name's rather well-known around here. You'd do well to remember it."

He bowed with an exaggerated air of importance. The young man cracked a smirk. "Persistent little thing, aren't you. Upset I didn't buy you your summer home?"

"Hmph! You'd need to buy more than that at this point." He slipped a long, thin dagger out of the sleeve of his white blouse. "You played right along with my tricks, just so you could get to the table and win it all. That's not normal, not possible...not without magic or something, anyway. So who are you...what are you?!"

"No one...not yet," shot back the black-haired man.

"I'll be the judge of that!!" No sooner had Giovanni spoken than he had struck, stabbing with his dagger. His skillful moves belied his delicate appearance.

But he couldn't touch a hair on the young man's head.

"What...?" Giovanni was breathless. He'd never experienced anything like this before. He leapt back, stabbed, swiped, attacked from every angle - but the black figure flitted away them all, as weightless as a shadow.

Finally, Giovanni tripped and tumbled to the floor. "Ahhhh, CURSE YOU!! How can this be......aagh..."

But just then, a dramatic change came over Giovanni. As he caught his breath, his disheveled appearance became cold and calm - and he suddenly burst out in laughter.

"Ha...what am I getting so upset about?" He stopped to clear his throat, but was overcome with gales of laughter. "Ha ha ha ha ha!...Funny, isn't it?!...ha ha...ha ha ha ha ha!" He doubled over, braying like a madman.

And then Giovanni remembered - that this was the first time in a long while that he'd laughed like this. First time he'd been so angry, too - first time in forever, in fact, that he'd felt any real emotion.

He reached out with his long, slender fingers to touch the man's boot...and then latched onto him with both arms in a death grip. He looked up at the young man, no longer laughing.

"I finally found you! And now I'll never let you go!..."

"...What?" Scowling, the black-haired man glared at Giovanni in response. Seeing his confused reaction, however, just made Giovanni shriek with laughter once more.

"Ohhh, I'm so happy! I couldn't be more thrilled!...At your side, I'll never know boredom again!"

The door behind them opened; the two men inside emerged to see what all the commotion was about. They reacted with shock when they saw Giovanni on the floor.

He giggled and shot them a wink. "Oh, come on. Don't gawk at me like that. I know what it looks like, but if I let go, he'll get away!" The blond man knit his eyebrows, as if he'd walked in on something indecent.

The man with the silver hair, meanwhile, looked to the one with the black, as if beseeching a decision. "Lord Leviath..." The name didn't escape Giovanni's ears.

"'Leviath,' hmmm? So that's your name! Sounds lovely. And these two young men are?..." He shot them an blissful smile. "I'm Giovanni. Pleased to meet you."

~*~

When he entered the room the men had rented, Giovanni's eyes flitted hither and yon in deep interest. "Hmmm. The marks on this pillar here are from when Berta's husband was chasing her around that time. And they say that bathroom was where the owner's best friend killed himself after a battle with a long and painful illness. The blood's still there, isn't it? Yeah, this's a nice room. It's got atmosphere."

Giovanni threw himself down on a bed and helped himself to the fruit piled in a nearby ceramic platter, chattering all the while. The room's current tenants, meanwhile, remained stone silent.

At length, the man with the silver hair - Cain - spoke. "...Please go back. This isn't the place for you."

"Hmmm, and why not?"

"It would be best for all parties if we did not get involved with each other."

Giovanni merely gave a cheerful smile at this halting explanation. "That's what you say. But we're already involved with each other. And I've made up my mind - we've leaving together!"

"You've decided?!" The blond man's words were thick with sarcasm.

"It's not like you have a say. How about it, Leviath? I can be a biiiiig help to you!" Giovanni wasted his breath on no one but the man in charge.

Leviath nodded. "All right."

"Hooray! Wait right here; let me get my luggage!" Giovanni flew from the room in utter glee. Leviath's two advisors, meanwhile, could summon no words to respond to this unexpected development.

~*~

"What is the meaning of this, Lord Leviath?" Cain at last turned to the man once the door had closed and he was assured that Leviath's magic barrier had been reformed. "Bringing someone like that along with us will only hinder our plans."

Leviath crossed his arms and stepped to the window. "You think so, Cain?"

"Yes. It's been six years now since we left the house of Ragna. Your devotion to your studies has brought you great accomplishment in magecraft and swordsmanship, and Kiefar and I have gathered considerable funds and manpower for your cause. Is our time not finally at hand?! The time for which we all have long awaited..."

"That man had formidable skill with the blade. If our ranks grow further...it will be difficult for you two alone to command them all. ...Do you not think he would be useful in that respect?"

Cain's eyes widened. "...Is that your objective in this, Lord Leviath?"

The Leviath that faced him in this city was a different man from the one he'd met years before. He'd apprenticed himself to the great sage Vahn several years ago and spent the time perfecting his powers in magecraft; later, he'd spent some time wandering from place to place to hone his skills with the sword. And it paid off, perhaps, for those eyes that saw through everything now shone ever brighter - saw the truth ever clearer. He now blossomed, Cain felt, with the makings of a general.

"And he might indeed be of help in another sense." Kiefar, who had so far been silent on the matter, had opened his mouth. "He's pretending to be common rabble, but he bears himself like nothing less than royalty. It might not be a bad idea to have him at our side - at least until we take Eurinia."

Cain scowled slightly at this. He'd never been able to adjust to Kiefar's willingness to use people and then cast them aside without compunction. Kiefar gave a soft chuckle to himself when he saw Cain's reaction.

Cain turned away - and then realized that Leviath was staring at the door. Leviath crept toward it - and suddenly flung it open.

Giovanni was standing on the other side. He flashed a grin at the dumbstruck Cain. "I'm back! I thought it over, and I realized - I don't have any luggage! So I came back - just now."

Leviath had a strong barrier in place, so even with his ear to the door, there was no danger of Giovanni having heard what was being discussed. Even so...Cain knew in his heart that this young man was an inveterate liar. He observed Leviath wordlessly to attempt to gauge his reaction, but the cheerful face gazing blithely out the window gave no answer.

~*~

Events failed to proceed in a manner that made Kiefar happy.

Giovanni in tow, the men left the inn and headed for a village just beyond the city limits, where about two hundred mercenaries were waiting for them.

"Ohhhh, so you head a mercenary squad. Can't judge by appearances, I suppose!" Giovanni cracked, sauntering over to the encampment. He seemed to shout something at the men, and soon a wall of would-be assailants accosted him.

A storm of unsheathed blades glinted and danced in the sun, and shouts/the cries of the combatants and the sound of clashing steel filled the air. But soon - in the time it would take to down a cup of hot tea - Giovanni had the crowd completely subdued.

The young man flitted back to Leviath and the others like a beautiful butterfly. "You weren't thinking of taking them on your mission, were you?! It'll never work!! You need to ditch them and get a better class of troop."

Kiefar huffed: "And you think you can provide them!?"

Giovanni cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "For the right price. I could find all you need in the bars of Galatea."

Kiefar's gaze was nothing less than murderous.

"But, you knowww..." Giovanni put his hand on his hip and looked again toward the encampment. "The problem is, you can't house this many troops here - they're going to draw attention. I know a better place; I could take you there. It's an abandoned castle - old, falling down - but you won't have to worry about anyone coming around there." And, with perfect dramatic timing, he turned around and said: "Oh, didn't I tell you? My uncle's the lord of Eurinia. My father disinherited me."

Through the trees came a breeze that was invigorating and sweet.

"...I'll do whatever I can to help you. I know...that this is my last chance - to escape from a wretched, joyless existence. ...But I also know that you'll bring me somewhere I can lead a full life. ...Isn't that right?"

3
A Passing Shower

Follow the highway all the way south from Eurinia, and you'd find yourself in the seaside Gaia district. Gaia was widely considered to be a promised land where the ancient Emperors had worked many miracles; it attracted countless pilgrims from far-off star systems. "God's Country," they called it.

According to the plan Cain had masterminded for Leviath, until they had enough troops to oppose the Emperor, their forces would strike economic and military blows in the Emperor's important possessions. Since the planet of Nog was home to many of the sites crucial to the Emperor's reign - the transportation hub of Eurinia; Gaia, heart of the Imperial faith; its manufacturing stronghold of Metamoria - it was chosen as their first target. With the unexpected acquisition of Giovanni, their objectives were accomplished in short order: the routes that would be used to supply the enemy come wartime were cut off, and great and meticulous pains were taken and arrangements made to ensure that their own troops could swiftly establish authority once the time came. Next was Gaia...where Leviath brought under his influence an Imperial lord come archbishop and obtained his promise that he would be upheld as the rightful Emperor when the time came.

He left the training of his troops to his lieutenants and departed on foot alone for the lord's keep - where, as the stars would have it, yet another fateful encounter awaited him.

~*~

For her eighteenth birthday, Amelia received a flowershop's worth of bouquets, a shawl of handmade lace, a tea set of the purest ivory, two books of poetry - and a sparkling platinum engagement ring.

Everyone congratulated her, and Amelia was beside herself with joy.

Her fiance, Eugene, was a childhood friend - a year younger than herself. He had lost his parents in a carriage accident when he was little; the children's fathers had been good friends, and so Amelia's parents took him in and raised him as family. The marriage had been arranged, but Amelia had always adored her darling, beautiful Eugene - and Eugene loved her.

Perhaps a momentary sadness would cloud his face from time to time, and that bothered Amelia - but that was only to be expected, wasn't it, given his tragic past - bereft of family, alone in the world? And he seemed happy enough now, seated beside her at their simple engagement ceremony, smiling with seeming contentment.

Yes, she was satisfied. Their future together gave every indication of being filled with endless hope and promise - of being a neverending sweet dream.

Amelia let out a blissful sigh. She wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

~*~

The moment he closed the door, the fatigue crashed down upon his shoulders like a ton of bricks.

It was exhausting, the mask of the good son he habitually wore in public - and every time he took it off now, the face beneath found itself ever more grotesquely expressionless.

His pale blue eyes stared out the window unfocused. Beyond the balcony lay a gently sloping hill, grassy and sparsely dotted with trees. Against a twilit horizon of fading crimson came into view a mirage - a shadow in black.

...--God, the feeling!! It was like a thunderbolt had rent his body asunder.

Eugene threw open the window and ran outside.

He was here. He'd finally come.

The one he'd been waiting for.

The one he feared.

...He was here!

Eugene no longer felt bound to reality. It was as though his spirit had strayed into a dream.

Over the hill, through the trees, he ran to the lake beyond - a lake whose surface glimmered dull as lead. The temperature had dropped so quickly...

Ahead, a black cape thrashed in a fickle wind.

The black hair, the emerald eye - it was he. He stood still by the lakeside - as if he had been waiting for Eugene. The man was so close Eugene could touch him - but not a word could be mustered from Eugene's lips. He could only crumble before the masterful air the man's whole frame exuded, and there was no escaping that bewitching eye. No, there would be no running - never again, not as long as he lived.

Even though he learned afterward that this sensation was merely an effect of magecraft.

At last, Eugene ground out: "I...I know you. I have for a long, long time."

A smile slowly cut into the shadowed man's cheek.

"And I know you. I've heard you calling ever since I set foot on Nog."

"Really?!" A feeling of awestruck reverence welled up within Eugene that he'd never before felt toward anyone - not even God. It was like a rain falling in a parched desert.

"I...I've been......" Waiting for you, Eugene tried to say, but his throat froze. To do so would mean throwing away the only world he'd ever known and placing his heart at the feet of another master.

He faltered, felt lost, ripped apart with anguish.

"Eugene!"

Amelia's voice returned him to his senses. She was running for him as if her life depended on it. Breathlessly, she clamped onto his arm.

Of course, he remembered. This was his family - the family that had taken him in without complaint and brought him up with his darling, sweet Amelia. Her father had great holdings of land; his power was superseded only by that of the Imperial lord. If Eugene succeeded him, everyone would be happy; no one would be upset.

All he'd have to do was to live a lie, bury his soul, and condemn himself to a half-existence as the walking dead...

Timidly, Eugene turned away.

"Amelia." He mustered all the affection he could in calling her name. A pair of spotless cerulean eyes answered in response. But their sweet blue would never have the effect on his heart of that sharp emerald gleam.

Eugene's heart despaired. He could never love Amelia.

"What's wrong, Eugene!?...I'm scared."

"Ahhh...it's nothing." And, as he had since childhood, he gave the same practiced smile that had always put her at ease.

"But...weren't you talking with someone before?"

Eugene turned back to look for him, but the young man with the black hair was nowhere to be found.

"No, no one..." Eugene mouthed the words, but he knew Amelia had her doubts. She was jealous; her fiance was her property, after all.

Eugene felt ill inside.

~*~

From that night forward, Eugene's dreams began to assume a clear running theme: of him breaking free of Amelia, cheating his family - by some means running away.

Always toward the man in black.

And he would say to him: "Right now, you're a man with half a soul. But I have the other half right here with me--"

~*~

He finally made up his mind on the third night - to leave in pursuit of his soul and stray from the path set before him.

But once it's found water, a desert cannot bear to be dry again. It cannot deny its miracle - to allow the flowers that have blossomed there in its miracle to wilt.

Moved by the voice within him, he opened the door.

4
Beyond Night

Leviath already knew Eugene was coming. He had thoroughly investigated the heir to the great landlord Dalton; the man was young but well known among the locals. He waited at the entrance to the forest that lay a short distance from the manor.

"So, Lord Leviath...you're saying we can leave the matter of the landlord completely in this man's hands?" Kiefar echoed Leviath's earlier words in a deeply cynical tone.

"I've had no reason to doubt your judgment regarding our allies, Lord Leviath...but we have no guarantee of success in this matter, do we not?" Cain, naturally, had his doubts as well.

Leviath responded haltingly: "Of course, we have no guarantee. If he succeeds, we will welcome him as one of us. If he fails, it simply means he was unqualified for the position." The two men grasped their master's cruel intentions and both stayed silent.

"Hey, here he comes, here he comes!! That's him, isn't it!?" Only Giovanni remained untroubled, his voice raised in unbridled glee. Eugene had finally left the manor and was heading straight for Leviath. He didn't even have to call the man; Eugene seemed extraordinarily sensitive to the presence of magecraft. The man walked blindly toward Leviath as if sleepwalking.

"Eugene, are you coming with us?"

"Yes." Eugene nodded, his gaze hollow. The night breeze tousled his hair. His eyes were deeply sad, as if pleading for salvation from the dark depths of loneliness.

Of course someone with such a look would be seduced by Leviath. ...Someone such as himself, he now realized.

"My, my, my!" Giovanni at once assumed a playful tone, his expression that of a child. "How adorable - someone's got a crush on Lord Leviath!"

You've never called him "Lord" before, Cain thought dourly to himself.

Amused by his own joke, Giovanni made to fling his arm around Leviath's neck - but Leviath grabbed his wrist and, annoyed, pulled him off. The look of silent rage upon Eugene's face was satisfaction enough, though, and so Giovanni clapped his hands and burst out in screeching laughter.

"Some days, I don't know..." Kiefar half-sighed under his breath.

"C'mon, it was a joke! ...Hm?" Giovanni stopped laughing as he peered into the darkness. "...I think we have a visitor."

All eyes turned to the newcomer. It was Amelia.

"Eugene! Where are you going with these people?" She was wrapped in her lace shawl, but beneath, she was still in her nightclothes. She seemed to have an instinctive sense of trouble on her property.

"The landlord's daughter...this is no good." Kiefar muttered, his hand ghosting over the silver point of his sword.

Leviath held out a dagger to Eugene. "Can you sever your ties?" he asked quietly.

Eugene slowly nodded. A spark of life - of joy - heretofore unknown to the man was kindled in his eyes. "I no longer have a past. Allow me to demonstrate that to you." Clasping the dagger, Eugene turned toward his approaching fiancee.

"Do...do you think he'll do it?" Cain ground out.

"I think he'll make a splendid comrade." Kiefar smirked, watching events unfold with interest.

Leviath stood an inhuman graven statue that blended into the dark of night. Only the burning blaze of his left eye remained.

Giovanni shrugged his shoulders. "Brrr! Such scary people!...But, hey, I'm having fun. After all, the night is young!"

They looked up and saw no stars, no moon - only blackness.

The bloody dawn that awaited them lay still far ahead.