Page 111 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
I mustered a small smile at his flattery. So secure in my power now, I was not very prone to petulance, but his flattery did play on the small part of petulance that remained in me. “Alas, my power has no clout with this villain.”
“Balance demands such.”
I nodded. “So it does. And saving demands even more.”
See tilted his head at my tone. “You have understood how to fix King Change.”
My smile was genuine this time. “Sir, you are the only one who calls him so, and yes, ’tis so. Cassandra boomed that a change must happen to the Changes.”
“I had fathomed that she meant King Changecouldchange.”
“So I initially interpreted, but his name is well earned. Achange must occur to him and them, and only the battle against the frayed seam of the Brings showed me the way.”
See exhaled. “I can only fathom the change feels very great.”
“Other monsters can be used to fortify a union,” I murmured. “Yet I will not lose more monsters in the process. So they must be strong. Their relationships must be grounded in everything monstrous and right and good.”
See looked at me. “You speak of Valetise and Picket.”
I glanced at him. “I do. And Candor and Huckery too.”
“I had not observed their romance.”
“Their romance is fresh, but begins as companionship grounded in deep respect and truth, obviously given who makes up half of what they share.”
See exhaled again, and I noted the shake of it. He said, “I am greatly relieved to hear there is progress in the healing of the last frayed seam. I had worried, along with most monsters, about what might be possible and right.”
I lingered on his choice of words. “I cannot remark on the rightness of asking two other couples to enter such sickness and evil because a king cannot change.”
“I believe he is capable of change. I believe this strongly.”
I considered my prince consort. “He is your brother king. Was your brother king.”
“Ismy brother. We have never had time to speak of how the five of us came to travel together, returning from war. I was a strategist and worked closely with King Change, who was our general, as you know.”
“As I know,” I agreed.
See peered back to the courtyard, but this time I garnered that he no longer saw minions and humans, but rather gunfire and blood. “He was the only reason that we were able to return home. Our battalion was not expected to survive the front. Indeed, we were up against a mighty alliance, such that we should never have seen another day. Let alone our families.”
I hummed. “You had a family?”
“I had no family. There was a woman who I wished to marry upon my return. Take, Raise, and Change had wives, though Bring did not. Change also had children.”
My heart sank. “To wake up from ancient slumber as though waking from a single night of sleep, only to find that everyone you knew was dead and gone.”
No chance to say goodbye. Just as with six mothers tonight. Yes, I could empathize with King Change.
See said, “We had some awareness of slumber, if you recall. But from remarks uttered by Change in our early reign, I came to understand that thoughts of returning to his family drove him to cling to sanity in that slumber. Rather, I believe that clinging to memories of them achieved the opposite.”
“He went mad from grief,” I whispered.
“I wonder if it is so. Even a king, and a formidable general, could not remain unchanged by the forces of ancients.”
I shook my head. “It was a wonder that they did not remove your human memories.”
“Those memories of brotherhood were important in keeping us as unified as possible in monsterdom,” See answered. “And I wonder if they gave us some awareness in slumber so that we would know of them too.”
My brow cleared. “Of course.”
