Page 115 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
“You will see, brother,” sneered the king. “She will fail.”
“See,” I announced. “You have had your chance. There is much to do. Kindly await below.”
See hesitated, glancing between me and the king. “My queen, I would stay if you would allow it.”
The air was charged, which meant See was deep in feeling. Frustration at his brother? Fear of what may occur to his brother now? “You may not. I transfer some of a king’s power to Huckery, See. King No Change.” My lips torsioned. “Will change after all, and exist lesser in power.”
See swept a bow. “I am sorry for the change, and you are right, I should not remain to see it.”
“You did not worry so over the change between Raise and his princess,” I felt curious to say.
See gazed at his brother. “There is something in me that mourns the change of a king who has always been himself, my darkness. I cannot pretend otherwise. Whereas King Raise was ever something he was not really.”
That was true enough. “Leave us now.”
See bowed again and left.
I stood before King No Change. “And so it will be that you have no choice in matters, sir, and how I wished that you had.”
He answered, “I had choice in matters, but my choice was not one that you liked.”
His answer struck me. “You are right, of course, and I feel the coldness of my actions because I will act in accordance with my soul, and you have acted in accordance with yours. You will remain in monsterdom, sir, though less, and I cannot rightly say how you may serve my queendom, for there is little use to a monster set on ruin aside from the reminder never to relax in regard to it. I require the stitch shackling you to this panel. You cannot remain locked here, yet I cannot trust you with such power. But another is most deserving, and so you will remain in a saved world, sir, but too weak to ever do a thing to reverse such saving. And perhaps you will change after all.”
“I thought you understood me,Queen,” he said.
I did. This monster would never change.
“Stand beside him, Huckery,” I ordered.
The pawn obeyed, and I cast my power forth, with more idea as to how the transfer would go after doing something similar to the Raises. But the answer provided by ancients was unexpected. Most unexpected.
“Princess Change.” I summoned.
She appeared, panting. Of all monsters, I tended to jerk her around the most. “My… Queen?”
I murmured without looking at her. “You are part of this equation. Kindly stand on your husband’s right side.”
Princess Change walked to do so, pausing to say to her king, “How much of what we shared has been rewritten, sir? For every experience and memory where I believed you a tower of strength must be revised to describe you as the weakest and most breakable monster to exist. I am ashamed to have agreed to union with you. Though mostly, I still wish—in the depths of my heart—that you had just been capable of change. For with that, I might have been able to rewrite our history again to something worthy of immortality.”
The unchanging king felt her words. He did love her, I knew, but not as much as ruin.Neveras much as ruin.
Princess Change faced me. “What do you require of me, my queen?”
Mostly in my power, I still could not be sure of what I saw. All would be revealed in the throes of transfer, and by then, gaining her informed permission would be impossible. “My champion, I believe that you will be rather different after what I must do. The matter is not so simple as making a baron of a pawn. You will be more than a princess, but more of what I cannot say nor tell. I cannot say what your purpose might be.”
“Will my reason for being alter?” she asked after a beat.
I probed forward with my power. “No, only ancients hold that power. Or I would simply alter King No Change and be done.”
She answered, “If my fate involves my hands in soil, then I am willing.”
I hoped that fate did not betray her, because I imagined her heartbreak wished for punishment, and that was behind the rashness of her choice. “As you say.”
Unleashing my power, I flooded three monsters to freeze their very souls. A surgery of purpose was about to begin, a cutting of ancient design, and a suture of fate.
Monstersmustlive.
Chapter Thirty-Two
