Page 102 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
She nodded eagerly. “That is the only word I can think of to describe my fantasies of your body, sir. That you shall plug up all the spaces between my blobs withyourblobs. I wish to be like two gelatinous puzzle pieces slotting together.”
Goodness.
The earl secreted slime. His breaths came quicker.
“What is happening?” he gargled.
The countess slimed forward, then purred damply, “You’re getting wet for me, my earl. You are priming for your sliding passage through my gaps.”
He started panting, and when his countess slipped past him, the earl hastened after her. To the only semblance of privacy in this place that was not the sacred tower top—the opposite side of the tower.
The pawns who had been chatting to mothers in that direction appeared shortly after. At a run. Moments later, squelching and suction sounds arose.
A wet wobbling sound vibrated in the air.
Apparently the Brings did not consider my stitched mothers as a proper audience, though I seemed to recollect that I rode See’s face at a ball recently, so who was I to judge?
When would they get to the gelatinous puzzle piece part?
Cassandra’s voice floated over sliming slides and soggy pops. “The vigil of monsters is upon us, Daughter.”
I whipped my head to look at her. “All monsters?”
She boomed, “A ball to Bring,
A reversal to Raise,
A trip to Take,
A change to Change,
A forgiveness for her fate.”
I considered her chant while walking to sit by my tower. Cassandra warned of vigil, which meant that soon I would be sitting, whether having decided to or not. “You speak of theactions I have taken, Mother. I switched the Raises about, so a princess became duchess. The Takes took a trip into the haze to discover all they were not. The Brings were reunited at the ball. My forgiveness has restored the possibility of my fate with See.”
A change to Change.
My chest rose with sudden hope. King Change would change?My,how greatly reassuring. I pressed a hand against my cheek as my smile spread wide. “Thank you, Mother.”
See was the only monster wise enough to copy my position on the ground.
My mother rasped, “Your champion and countess is right, you cannot delay healing the ruin that the Brings represent. But you are also right, Daughter. Their union is not strong enough, and it will not be strong enough by the time it is needed without help. Their history has been lost to one, and the other wishes to forget all that has been. Their shared memories are too few. Their union is fresh and untested by millennia, and so their union is fragile and easily broken.”
They had not built resilience. I could immediately fathom what Cassandra meant.
She continued, “Only vigil might heighten all that the Brings share. A vigil with us might ready them, might be enough. Might.”
Might.I stared into her blue eyes—my eyes, and like only a mother and daughter could, I read her unstated message.
Time is too short.That was what she warned of.Might.She was warning that despite our best vigil intervention, the frayed seam would be difficult to mend.
I was golden fate. I had already deemed this union fit to mend.
Tuning out the sensations and distractions of body, I allowed my mind to connect all that it uniquely and exquisitely could. A wisp arose, but it had naught to do with this matter.
Which was to say that my connection on the Brings and vigil was already sound.
My connection on another matter had not been. King Change would not change. A change would occurtohim, tothem, which assumedly would arise from my actions.
