Page 23 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Kings to kingdoms.
No.
Thrones had become seats, and kings did not sit on seats. They must be reduced. I could see how this might go, but fate would sound its trumpets soon enough. I would not steal its fanfare. “Of pawns, Princess Take. Tell me of them.”
She pouted. “Pawns do not stray from their allegiance to you.”
My lips curve. “Do you pout for the yearning of punishment?”
“I had assumed they would need reminders sometimes.”
My bloodthirsty princess. The most ancient of her kind, though not the most capable in connection. “I am heartened that you did not punish them unnecessarily. That will not be tolerated in my queendom.”
The black around her eyes flooded outward into a semblance of a masquerade mask. A blush of sheepishness?Indeed.Did she have a dungeon room prepared and stocked with all manner of gleaming device? Or had she dealt out small punishments as marshal that was not earned? I must keep aware of her.
I fixed my sights on Princess Raise. “Pulse leaders are contained?”
“Yes, my queen. Presidents around the globe are locked away. Most humans scatter and fear and die. They turn on each other as they are prone to.”
That was inevitable in this turbulent time, but I would notlike them extinct. In the chant of fifty mothers, humans were the skull. A body without a skull was a decapitated sort of thing, and my instincts warned against headlessness. There existed a curious relationship between monsters and humans that was not yet understood. Monsters could affect humans, but I wondered if humans could affect us in return. They were necessary in some way. “What of the humans in Vitale?”
“Your thatched village won the war against all odds, my queen, as you would assume from your rise to power. Now that you have completed kingly obsession, the humans already appear less tumultuous—no doubt this new calm reflects the last challenge of kings dying away.”
Her connection was kingly indeed.
Princess Raise held up her radio, which she liked to play day and night to listen to human affairs. In this way, she was able to connect the movements of kings and queens. “There is a pattern, from what I can tell. The pulses closest to Vitale suffer least, and those farthest from Vitale suffer most. I imagine that proximity to your power is the difference. Otherwise, I have noted during walks through the city that humans copulate more than ever. They take no safeties in their bodily unions, which is a far cry from the careful breeding programs of the last many centuries.”
Intriguing. They must be coupling out of fear of survival. “What of the mythical Mistress Stitch? How has she stuck in the minds of humans since our haunt?”
Princess Raise snorted. “You are well ingrained. Symbols of you exist everywhere. Most thatched homes include a small shrine dedicated to you, and in fear of you. Your arrival has been linked to the demise of humankind, and this has worked greatly in your favor to solidify your presence. Children speak in hushed voices of Mistress Stitch. Only the clever or foolish adults speak their disbelief in you, and even that is sparing. The influence of kings is truly eradicated, and as the older humans die away, you will become forevermore ingrained in human culture.”
Good.I had needed to conquer humans just like princes and princesses and kings, but the battle was not over. Now I had to keep humans from extincting themselves until the beginning or end of the world. “You both sense the boil in me,” I said softly so as not to blast them across Vitale. “The reckoning of the world is upon us, and more sand fills the tunnel to the center of the world with each second of each night and each day. I must consider the end of the world without delay. What do your champion instincts say?”
The princesses were quiet.
Princess Take crossed her long legs, revealing porcelain skin through the high slit in her dress. “There is something in the idea that all monsters had to be won and conquered for you to become queen and face the reckoning of the world,” she murmured. “Do monsters play a role in this reckoning? Yes, they must.”
Princess Raise hummed. “Humans are ever the sign of unrest. If they are to survive in a queenly world, then how does that look? How does their society come together again?”
They both settled into quiet, and I imagined that if Princess Bring was more than a baby, and if Princess Change was not locked in the coldest agony of soul, then their musings would fill the current silence.
“How will you save the world?” blurted Princess Take.
The faceless princess shook her head. “More likewhydoes the world need saving? Why did it reach this point of ruin?”
They had sparked my deeper thoughts, and that was what champions were for. “How is one matter, and why is another.Whycould very well reveal the how, so where to discover a why?” An ancient “why” never understood by humans.
Princesses did not answer my ramblings, because asking questions of reckoning was the limit of them.
I tilted my head when dust floated from the stone ceiling.
We all paused to note the shaking of my queendom. Not ashaking from the heart of it, as only I could do such a thing. This was a physical shaking by a powerful monster.
A king from above.
Did someone seek to free themselves?
I swept toward the door, princesses quick in my wake.
