Chapter 38: The Rescue Plan (Part 2)
A Glimmer Named Valerie
The corridors of the Agares Family Archive were unnaturally silent—warded for secrecy and reinforced against magical scrying. Deep beneath the main estate, behind runic vaults only the heir could open, Volundr moved alone with a conjured orb of cold blue light hovering beside him.
Ancient scrolls, tomes, and shadow-records floated mid-air in complex formation, the entire chamber a swirling constellation of information hidden from the world above.
Volundr's gloved hand hovered over an aged scroll wrapped in silver-threaded seals. A whisper of ancient magic brushed his fingertips as he unraveled it, revealing a lineage chart of Tepes nobility. His eyes scanned it quickly until one name stood out, inked in red among black script.
Valerie Tepes.
His breath hitched. He remembered.
Not from this life—but from the one before. Back then, he'd been just another human, addicted to fantasy worlds and stories of tragic heroines locked away for the powers they never asked for. In this world, she was real. Caged. Hunted. Broken. And possibly the bearer of one of the most terrifying Sacred Gears in existence.
Sephiroth Graal—the Holy Grail.
A Sacred Gear that could grant eternal life, restore limbs, reverse death. But also one that ate at the sanity of its wielder if not properly trained or balanced.
The reports didn't say its name, but the hints were enough: regenerative miracles, altered soul resonance, memory fragmentation. There was no doubt.
He summoned another file. This one was newer. Obtained through devil-merchant informants who once dealt with vampire lords in shadow ports near Romania.
"...A girl with pale gold hair, kept in the lowest wing of the Tepes Citadel... referred to as The Sleeping Saint. Doesn't speak. Doesn't scream. Eyes don't always focus. Unnaturally calm. Rumors claim she healed a guard's fatal wounds with a touch. He later went mad."
Volundr closed the scroll, pulse quickening. He leaned back against the stone wall behind him, hand brushing over his chest.
Not pity. Not guilt.
Conviction.
"She's going on the list," he murmured aloud.
From within his cloak, he pulled a narrow black book: The Rescue Ledger. A self-charmed artifact, bound in dragon hide, sealed to his soul.
It contained names, coordinates, timelines, and notes on every individual he sought to free or protect.
He flipped past Kuroka, Shuri Himejima, Gasper Vladi.
He wrote:
Name: Valerie Tepes
Race: Dhampir (Half-Vampire, Human)
Status: Mentally unstable. Confined. High surveillance.
Estimated Sacred Gear: Sephiroth Graal
Potential Role: Bishop (High Priority)
Personality Note: Empathy-triggered protective instinct. Subject may respond to gentle presence and consistent emotional anchors.
Warning: Rescue may trigger attention from Church, Grigori, Old Satan Faction, or Ajuka.
He let the ink fade into the paper. The book shimmered faintly and then sealed itself.
He took one final scroll—an illustrated profile drawn by a devil spy artist who escaped Tepes lands two years ago. It wasn't much: a girl with a slim build, long pale hair, vacant red eyes, and an expression that sent a chill down his spine—not because of horror. Because of emptiness.
"Valerie…"
He whispered her name as if tasting it. Not ownership. Not desire.
Just a promise.
A flick of his hand dismissed the light. He turned toward the exit tunnel, already forming the beginnings of two strategies in his mind—one for Gasper. One for her.
He couldn't rescue them both at once.
But he would rescue them both.
Even if it meant moving through shadows that would burn lesser men.