Torque

*The woman with the blue hair started crying. She sat against the altar with her face in her hands. Her face started to focus a bit. She was suddenly picture perfect. It was...*

An alarm clock started going off. Eleven beeps. That was the longest that Torque had slept in ages. Violet burst through the door and dived on him.

"Good Morning!" She said to him giggling.

Torque just moaned, hugged her and rolled over, dragging her underneath him. He hugged her like a teddy bear, nestling his head against her neck and going back to sleep. Violet just giggled again.

"Get off me you lazy git." She tried tickling him but failed as he tickled her back. Then she tried pushing him off but he just held on. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and gave up.

Torque opened an eye to look at her. "Hi." He said and smiled. He rolled off her only to have her roll on him again and pin him. "Cheeky devil."

Aria was at the door. She watched with an amused expression. The two obviously not having noticed her yet.

Violet hugged him again. "I like being cheeky." She nipped his neck. She wanted to kiss him but instead just continued hugging him.

"I noticed." He bit her ear gently before noticing Aria. "Hi Aria." He said. He used Violet as cover to hide his embarrassed smile.

"Don't mind me you two." She teased. "Are you guys going to be ready to go within the next hour? Or do I need to give you some time alone?"

Torque snarled at her. "Be quiet. We'll be ready soon." He pushed Violet off him, a little more forcefully then he wanted. She rolled onto the other half of the bed and stared at him as he got up. Aria noticed the way she was staring at him and took pity on her.

Torque pushed his way out of the room and went down to the kitchen. He grabbed some toast that was on the side as the girls came in.

"Hurry up, the sooner you finish, the sooner we get to get this done." Torque just threw the last of the toast into his mouth. Aria held back a scowl and opened a portal. The three stepped through.

They were suddenly hit by the vision of a silvery blue room. It was more like the entrance hall of a luxurious hotel. The floor was made of white marble. There were various desks with people like Aria at them, a few larger tables with things on them had gatherings of maybe as many as ten people. Aria led them down a centre strip of a deeper blue up to a screen at the end. Aria sat down at the screen and opened a window. She touched something on the screen and a hologram came up in front of them.

"That's what you fought yesterday. Torth, an ice daemon from the eastern stretches of the daemon plain." She turned on the chair. "I think you should know a little more about The Keepers do."

Torque nodded. His vague picture of it needed a little more to it.

"The Keepers are a select species, my species, where some of the smartest come together and work to support you. We don't just clean up after the damage of fights. That's just janitorial. We also heal the wounded, take the bodies of the dead to their family, dress and carry out the funerals expenses free to save the loved ones the money. We only do this for daemon killings so it's a privilege really. We use the information from your fights to make your stats, measure your strength and the like. Some people in our group also dedicate time to measure the time scale between fights to guess when the next important fight will be, help give you an edge."

"Anything else?"

"Do you think our weapons are just for show? We also help when we're definately needed. We've also got a group out their fighting for you, on your shift." She looked at him, more glared, almost a tint of anger in her eyes. Torque felt suddenly uncomfortable. It was like... Torque looked at her for a moment. It finally struck him, the woman from the dream was Aria. The stare was like that of a mother.

He thought for a moment. "Mum?" Was all that he could think to say. He saw the expression on Aria's face change to a mix of shock, panic and repentance.

"I was wondering when you would figure it out. Those dreams weren't random, they must have been ther for a reason." Aria looked at her feet. Violet looked from Torque to Aria, trying to make some type of connection. The detail of their faces was the only one she could figure, then she realised he had a slightly darker complexion as well. Only by a shade maybe. She suddenly felt awkward.

Torque dropped to his knees and hugged Aria. She returned it. "Why didn't you tell me?" He asked.

"I didn't think it'd matter. I thought you'd blaim me for Jin." She looked away.

"Of course I wouldn't." Violet joined the hug.

"Sorry, spur of the moment." She said, but Torque was glad she'd joined, it'd made him feel better.