EYE OF THE STORM
CHAPTER V: THE LULL BEFORE THE TEMPEST
PAIRING(S) - Dion Agriche x (Fem.) Reader
DISCLAIMERS - Same as the first chapter.
CONTENT WARNINGS (CONTENT MAY CHANGE OVERTIME) - Same as the first chapter.
BEFORE YOU READ - Here is a link to the masterlist.
NOTES - I AM ALIVE 💀💀💀.
Apologies for the unannounced hiatus! A lot of things happened to me during the first week or so of September and it was difficult to stay motivated afterwards.
Updates should be consistent again! And shout out to my lovely lovely beta reader– @the-d3vils-do11
Is beta reader even the right word anymore…? You got spoiled so badly about so many things 😟
“Spare some sympathy in your heart for me, would you Sierra?”
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You let out a huff of annoyance as you look back and forth between two books. On your right lays a book listing different types of poisons, and on your left lays a book listing various types of antidotes. You have already burned through multiple volumes of the series– who knew there were this many types of poisons in this world? And to think that the Agriche grows most of them in their gardens…
You relaxed your posture and leaned back against your chair, looking up at the high ceiling. It has been one week since your arrival at the manor and you believe you finally found a place where you felt at peace. The Agriche library is quite the marvel; there were a plethora of books on the finely carved dark shelves, and the engravings on the dome-shaped ceiling were as intricate as the ones on a cathedral’s. You were never one to appreciate a place such as a library, but it was your momentary sanctuary. The calm environment almost makes you forget that you live under the same roof as psychopathic criminals. That you are married to one.
The thought of your situation causes you to sit straight and refocus on the books again; you weren't here to leisurely read, you were here to learn to protect yourself if you happen to find yourself in a dangerous scenario. You learned a lot of things after the night you reached out to Sierra for help, and you refuse to have your attention divided now.
It was a dangerous game that you played that night, begging and demanding someone who was practically a stranger to tell you crucial information. But you took the risk, it was not hard to figure out the type of person Sierra was and you were confident that your bold display of desperation would have moved her in some way, and it did.
“When I first married Lante… I was overwhelmed and nervous as well… It’s alright, I understand.”
Ocean blue eyes looked at you with a certain softness, and a smile full of nothing but sympathy. However, the way the woman slumped her shoulders was a little bit sorrowful. Like she’s reminiscing, like she sees herself in your situation and feels everything she felt back in those days all over again.
You were glad that your daring stunt worked, it would have not ended well if word gets out that you had a bad confrontation with Sierra; getting on the foul side of Roxana Agriche’s mother is not something that you need to occur. No matter. It worked out in the end, you can’t focus on what could’ve happened, you need to focus on what did and where it lead you to.
Apparently, Sierra was no expert in political or business affairs, but she provided you with enough information and house rules so that you have solid leads to figure out things for yourself. Without Sierra’s information, you would surely still be lost, not knowing what to do while playing dress-up with Maria. Logic tells you that you should be grateful, but you know that you truly never will be. Sierra lent you a helping hand and offered you gentle kindness, but a space in your heart does not exist for her. She is someone who is convenient for your survival and that is all– she offers nothing else to you. All you need is to live and to love, what can Sierra do? Offer maternal love? As if you would ever consider anyone your mother. Not after how the woman who gave birth to you showed you how thin and fickle a mother’s love is.
You slammed the book on your left shut, another volume finished. You got up to put it back in its original place, only to grab the next volume. As you sat back down, you can feel a headache building up. The past few days have been spent reading about proper cauterization, self-made tourniquets, herbal antidotes, and more– you need some skills before attempting anything that might put your body in danger. Becoming someone that Lante Agriche favors will most likely be the hardest thing you’ll have to do in your life, you must avoid blunders if you want him to view you positively; so before doing anything that will catch his eye… you want to familiarize yourself with the Agriche. You need to know every trick up their sleeve, you need to know all of the nooks and crannies before confidently stepping into the spotlight for Lante to see.
The back of your mind whispers to you, saying that reading a couple more volumes about antidotes and poisons won’t help you much and you were purposefully avoiding the advancement of your plan. Your mind is correct, but your nerves tell you to read more, not wanting to proceed to something so daunting. Sierra informed you about the general layout of the mansion and basic information about members of the Agriche family, you’ve spent the past few days studying basic techniques that could help you avoid death, and now the next step is to learn about the Agriches' operations and arsenal. Though the execution is difficult, the way to dig up such information is simple enough– financial records. Access to the Agriche financial history means you’ll be able to see everything; imports of weaponry, drug trades, land contracts, and most importantly taxes. Each of the six ruling families tax smaller noble houses and peasants living in their duchy for the tradeoff of protection. If you were to see the tax records, you will be able to find out what sort of creations the Agriche is selling and taxing without having to track them down physically.
The issue is how you will access such files. All Sierra knew about the family’s financial affairs is that Lante has personal accountants and assessors to take care of the paperwork before he checks and signs it off. That must mean the documents are kept in a separate room somewhere before being brought to Lante, right? Where is it located? Is it heavily locked? Does Lante have guards patrolling around such an important area?
The library double doors suddenly slammed open and the peaceful quiet was ruined by a boy with a stack of books in his arms. He hurriedly made his way to drop all of them on a table nearby the library’s entrance before coming up to a shelf searching for something, the profanities escaping from his mouth did not go unnoticed by you.
“Stupid educators, why bother making a list if you’re not going to include everything in it?!”
He was young, in his early teens perhaps. You relaxed a bit, someone around his age normally does not have the power to make important decisions– killing a Vespertine is off the table, so your life is safe from his hands. The boy had short dark hair with sharp deep blue eyes. If Sierra’s descriptions were accurate, this must be Jeremy Agriche. She told you that he got along with Roxana, so you expected someone who was more-
“Tsk, where is it?!”
…Maybe you caught him at a bad time.
It seemed like whatever he was doing preoccupied his mind enough to not even notice you were in the room, something that you don’t really mind. You tore your eyes away from him and back to your book. Unfortunately, before you could finish another paragraph, you heard footsteps growing louder until you look up and see Jeremy Agriche in front of you.
“Hey you, I need that. Why are you…” The boy's voice was stern but it got quieter as his sentence trailed and his eyes widens as realization dawned upon him, “... You’re the Vespertine girl who married that bastard Dion!”
If you were an outsider, you would find it almost comical that so many members of Dion’s family despise him. But as Dion Agriche’s wife, his younger half-brother’s comment made you frown— being married to a man with many enemies is going to bring unwanted obstacles.
“…Yes. What is it that you need?“
“This,” the book was snatched out of your hands as the boy looked at you up and down, “You don’t look terrible for being poisoned, I thought I wouldn’t run into you for a while if you were bedridden but I guess not.”
The smirk on his face was half condescending, half impressed. You would have been offended if you weren’t so focused on the fact that he recalled your poisoning. You expected gossip, but you genuinely thought there were only a few people who would even bother to find out and remember. This means that you’re a topic of interest in the household… this is no good.
“It was a minor accident, I made a full recovery in a few days. Being sick all week seems a bit extreme, yes?”
You leaned back on your chair and crossed your legs as you spoke to him, eyes never leaving his. You want to seem relaxed and unbothered so Jeremy can’t get the impression that you’re a punching bag for Agriche schemes.
“Tsk, minor or not, it was a stupid accident. Getting poisoned your first morning here? That’s to be expected from you Vesptertines, your brains know nothing besides money and aesthetics!”
Did he seriously stick his tongue out at you after saying that? If you were a few years younger, you would surely stoop down to his level of immaturity.
“Who knew there was an expectation to know all about you Agriches and where you place poisonous flowers in your gothic manor the second upon my arrival. My apologies, I suppose.”
Perhaps you were stooping down a little bit. The sarcastic tone of your comment made the boy in front of you scowl.
“Each of our servants memorized everything in the span of a couple of hours, you know. Please, even a lowly housekeeper can do it while you can’t.”
You doubt the word ‘lowly’ is an accurate description. Staff members belonging to one of the big six families are all highly trained and exceptional individuals; rumor has it that the Agriche even hires those who worked in the underworld. Seeing how every rumor was confirmed true so far during your stay here, this one was most likely true as well.
Besides the point, something caught your attention in the middle of his insult.
“Everything, you say?”
“That’s right. Every single room, every single rule, and every single one of their responsibilities was memorized in less than one night. I doubt you can even remember where the nearest restroom is from here!”
The sneer on Jeremy’s face and his words were laced with venom, but exhilaration starts coursing through your veins.
Jackpot.
“I see, that sure is impressive,” You said, voice lacking any enthusiasm. You rose from your seat to stand in front of Jeremy. You stood taller than him thanks to your heels, and he looked up at you in irritation, “Now if you’ll excuse me, my state of serenity was disturbed. I’ll go find my peace someplace else now.”
The response made the boy scoff. You nodded your head a quick farewell before walking out of the library’s double doors, feeling the young teenager’s eyes full of judgment scanning your figure with each step.
“Go find peace in the hallucination rooms!”
You pause right before stepping out. With your back still facing him, you turned your head to the side and slightly cocked your chin up to reveal a curt smile.
“I’ll keep that suggestion in mind.”
You wasted no time to close the double doors and began walking at a swift pace. It was unusual that household servants were required to know so much, so the thought of using a maid or butler hadn’t crossed your mind once during the week, but with a certain loudmouth Agriche son confirming the knowledge of the servants… Yes, this is coming together nicely. Your only concern now is picking who your source of information will be. This will be difficult compared to your little ploy towards Sierra and will take much more time than one day to carry out. These men and women are highly intelligent and well trained; you need to meticulously pick a target and slowly gain their trust and goodwill, the second you cannot convince them, you will be reported. You need to be fortunate enough to select the right person on your first try, and you need to make sure they are foolish enough to be seduced by you.
This will limit the pool of targets– you’ll need to go for a butler, one who’s still relatively an amateur; someone who is less calculating and bold is ideal, but where would you look for one? The servants are scattered all across the manor attending different chores, there is no single spot where they gather… you’ll have to start looking at the main lounge. It is located near the main entrance of the mansion and there are dozens of stairways and halls that connect it to different wings of the manor, a servant passing by there must be a common sight.
Your walking pace increases and you made a sharp turn to a door leading outside. Going outdoors and reentering the mansion from the front will get you to the main lounge much quicker than trying to navigate through the twisting hallways. You walk on a stone path under an archway that shields you from the sunlight, and as you walk along the outer side of the mansion, you realized that right next to the archway path was not grass, but dirt. It was a large flat open area, you can see racks of weapons and armor set up. It was a training area, you concluded, and suddenly figures from a distance enters your field of vision. Two of them were sword fighting while the rest watched close by. As you continue walking on the pathway, the figures became closer and you finally see what was going on.
Lante Agriche was watching the fight with two butlers standing near. One was holding his coat, and the other was holding a tray with a glass of what looked to be an alcoholic drink on top. Disappointed was painted on his face, but he didn't show surprise at the outcome of the fight. You were glad you weren’t noticed thanks to the eye-catching conclusion of the battle.
In the center of the battlegrounds were two tall men. The one that was just knocked down was a muscular man with dark brown hair, his appearance wasn’t anything special, if it weren’t for the quality of his clothes you would’ve assumed he was another foot soldier. The look on his scarred face was filled with loathing and hatred, a look like that would make anyone fear for their life. It’s a pity that such a look had no effect on the victor of the fight.
There the victor stands, clad in a black sleeveless turtle neck that hugs his form, showing off every edge of his muscles. There was blood all over him, but you know better than to assume any of it were his.
“Pathetic. After all these years you still can’t win one sparring match against Dion?”
Lante’s voice was deep and bitter, his eyes narrowed as he exhaled a puff of smoke, the gleam in his eyes tells you that he was slowly growing sick of the man on the ground, enough to the point of considering to discard him.
“No father! Please, let me demonstrate my strength with a rematch,” the brunette was desperate. The strain in his voice indicates not only wanting to avoid further disappointment from Lante, but that his pride was wounded as well,” I can surely win this time!”
Lante barked out in malicious laughter and the color of the man’s scarred face faded.
“Who are you trying to convince, boy?”
Even though you were from a decent distance, you can still see the young man’s figure trembling. Whether it was out of anger or fear, you didn’t know. But you did know the man, you realized. You have met him before at a ball many years ago, Fontaine was his name. He was introduced to you as the oldest son of Agriche, but nothing about him was memorable to you other than him eyeing you with perversion the whole night.
“You have failed this evaluation and I already have a punishment in mind for you,” Lante smirks, “but I’m feeling generous today. I’ll give you a chance to lessen the punishment if you can put up a show this time.”
“I thank you for your kindness, father!”
Fontaine gets up and grips tightly on his sword, he whips his body around to face the man who he has never beaten before. Fontaine grits his teeth and prepare his body in an offensive stance and immediately pounced.
Dion, who was quiet and wore a dead-like expression the whole time didn’t move, and as Fontaine swung his blade down, Dion easily parried it with his own and the impact caused the older brother to bounce back with a clenched jaw. Your husband still stands there, not even in a fighting position.
Was he bored?
You blink and suddenly he was not there anymore, your ears heard the clanging of metal before your eyes could find Dion. He is now on the offense, striking Fontaine who was struggling to block each hit. You felt your blood turn cold; you’ve seen your siblings trained before and are no stranger to inhuman speed, but to witness it to such a capacity… Dion Agriche being dangerous and formidable on the battlefield is old news, but seeing this one-sided fight fully convinced you that you married a demon rather than a human.
You wanted to get going, staying in such close proximity to not one but three Agriches would do you no good, but your eyes could not tear themselves away from the battle. Your eyes could not tear themselves away from your husband. His stance, his form, his footwork– his movements in combat were all perfectly executed, as if the art of war was woven into his brain at birth; and despite your husband’s towering lean body, he moves with terrifying agility.
Before you know it, you started to study Dion’s physical features rather than his movements. The tightness of the shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide his torso muscles and his long gloves made you look at the part of his arms that weren’t covered– his deltoids… perhaps fearing that he could break your spine with one hand when you were panicked on your wedding day was not an exaggeration; the more you looked at his physique the more worried you got. Ending your life would be as easy as breathing to him.
You decide to look away from his body and your eyes land on his face. Even in battle, his expression is the same as ever, face disinterested and eyes lifeless. Besides the eeriness… his face has more flattering features than you initially thought. You had a good look at Dion twice before but not as long as this, you’re now able to note physical characteristics you didn’t bother remembering the last two times. It was difficult to see with all the movement, but you caught the dark circles under your spouse’s eyes… no sleep for the wicked you suppose.
You shift your attention to Fontaine, his desperate attempts at slashing Dion as well as his struggle to block and parry every attack caused clear frustration on his face, his teeth were gritted and his eyebrows were deeply furrowed. Though you are below an amateur when it comes to combat, you could tell that Fontaine isn’t weak.
He was just a man fighting a devil.
The oldest Agriche child was slowly getting clumsy with his moves throughout the fight, and now his panic translates into his movements. Fontaine's strikes are starting to get erratic and uncalculated... any moment would result in a defeat. All it takes is a single opening and-
“Augh!”
Fontaine let out an ugly groan as he fell down with the tip of his younger brother’s blade pointed at his neck. The man panted heavily while glaring up at Dion, who returned the vile look with a blank stare.
“Fa-father!” Fontaine turns to look at Lante, full of distress, “My performance is better as you can see, I am still able to improve! I assure you, one day I will...”
You have seen enough.
A sigh passes through your nose and you began walking down the archway once more. You doubt Lante would make Fontaine’s punishment less severe, no matter how his performance was, it was not good enough to lay a scratch on Dion.
You look back one last time to see Lante telling Fontaine something, it was difficult to hear now that you are walking away but from the eldest son’s facial reaction– it was nothing positive. Your eyes shift over at the battle’s victor only for your heart to drop.
Dion was staring directly at you.
How long did he know that you were there? This whole time? He felt you scrutinizing him, didn’t he?
You pursed your lips and whip your head around. Though your body didn’t falter, the alarms ringing inside your head are deafeningly loud. It doesn’t help that you can still feel his stare burning a hole through your back.
And possibly right through your very soul.
