Page 64 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Though it was uncertain whether we would live more than another few weeks.
“You must rest,” See said low from beside me.
I ignored him and said to the duke, “Take her to the duchy, and care for her as you will. You are under her order now, sir, and youwillrespect the price she has paid for your love.”
The duke bowed his head over his duchess, his wife. Tears dripped onto her cheeks from above. “I will always do that.”
“Take me to my chambers,” I told See.
He took most of my weight, but employed great wisdom in the decision not to swoop me up into his arms. We moved slowly down the stairs, and slowly down the third level.
Toil and Hex hastened to open the doors, and then, quite simply, I was led back to the exact place that I had left in such an agitated flurry.
To my bedroom.
And as Valetise readied me for sleep, the irony in me swelled to the point that when I climbed into bed and nestled into the pillows, I could not help laughing quietly.
To think that I could have escaped my fate and destiny by daring to leave.
From the lounge next door, my quiet laughter was echoed with a deeper rumble.
We shared the small amusement, See and I, for we were right back where we had started.
I closed my eyes.
And slept.
Chapter Twenty
Of pubescent monsters.
“What thoughts occupy you so?”
He asked the question from the lounge, and I arched a brow that he could not see.
I answered, “I had not thought my thinking was so loud.”
“Not to others.”
Just to him.“You place yourself on a pedestal.”
“It is where I belong.”
“I am glad for any monster to be so confident,” I replied.
He laughed low at my rebuff.
We had slept for several nights in the same manner, with me in bed and with him in the lounge. There was an unsettling normalcy to it that disturbed with its quickness. This monster might have betrayed me, and yet in three days, I had allowed him to wiggle back in. Or place himself on a pedestal. At least in the eyes and minds of other monsters, none of whom would have missed that See was sleeping the day away in my private rooms.
Passing the day away was helped by my exhaustion when I returned every dawn, having stitched together another woundedvein of the world, though I had been driven last night to canter Life through the streets of Vitale until my minds calmed.
I exhaled and rolled to my side. “I am thinking many things, as ever. I ponder the reason that ancients gave the Raises their faces back. This could be a cost, or it could be a hint of something more. In line with that, I am considering that monsters formed their systems based on the ideals of five kings, but there are no longer five kings. I must reflect on the cultures, lives, and values of monsters, and consider whether we are existing our best existence. Those are two of my thoughts, amongst others.”
“Weighty thoughts indeed.”
“They are not overly heavy when placed on the scales of the world’s end and ruin.”
There was a pause.
