Page 18 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Three kings were already shackled and stitched, and in short order, shackles also snapped shut around King Change’s ankles. When I looked at King See, who stood so silently and submissively in his place, his shackles snapped shut too.
At last.
King See avoided my gaze, and for myself, I was relieved that my expectation of feeling very little at the sight of him had proved true. I felt almost nothing. Curiosity, perhaps.
He presented no challenge, whether to my heart or to my rule.
King See was but an annoyance of my past, and I felt such distance and growth from the version of me that he had hurt so well.
He would never hurt me again.
And I would spare him no further thought. Obsession deserved full focus. I released two stitches to bind the shackles of See and Change forevermore.
The mouths of King Take and Raise moved, but I paid their words no mind as I floated a circle between the perimeter of kings and the center of my conservatory. I circled the center. And circled some more.
The wind whipped at my tunic and hair, dislodging the lastgrains of sand. My power howled and shrieked, and my queendom answered with a warping and a squeeze. The world shook, and a distant rumble of monstrous proportions swelled and grated over the terrified shouts of kings.
A rock slid up through my conservatory floor. The rock had once been green, a pulsing green—so referenced in the original poem of kings. As human soldiers, kings had set their left hands to this olden rock only to enter centuries of warping at the hands of ancients.
From where they were shackled, five kings strained to put distance between themselves and the rock, though it no longer pulsed green. King Take shouted for freedom, while King See merely turned his cheek.
I could almost hear the amended chant of fifty mothers.
Up and out
Wove golden fate
Feeling ancient in gifted wisdom.
Five powers grasped
All icy demise
While free from her olden prison.
Grasped.Past tense. Five powers were shackled in my prison, and my prison had been made olden by the very rock that made them kings.
A reversal and a full circle.
There was another detail in the chant to concern myself with before a queen could shift the focus of her mind.
I gathered my power, but paused before letting it explode downward. I should not forget that monsters were the making of me.Allmonsters. I had greeted pawns, princesses, and simple monsters. I would show the same courtesy to kings.
I said, “My kingly obsession is complete. I am returned tosave the world, if saved it can be. I am gladdened to see you all free of plague.”
There was a silence where kings worked to understand my meaning, and I allowed them the time. King See’s gaze drilled into my cheek, and I banished the sensation. He could drill however much he liked.
“And, uh, how exactly do we fit into the saving of the world?” asked King Take.
I had asked them for guidance before, and they had granted it for the price of my power. A tiny amount, but power, nevertheless.
Five kings could advise me, but they could not always and often do so. I must rely on my own connection first and foremost, and for great matters, there was the haze.
For dire need, five kings were shackled to my queendom for a reason.
“You exist to respond to my order,” I replied on the air.
King Raise yelped as my voice rustled his crisp suit.
