Page 66 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
“You are nearly an adult.” Another two days should do the trick.
Princess Bring glared at the pawns. “Then why are you locking me up?”
I smiled. “The quickness of your growth is new to us. We have been safeguarding a child, not locking up a young adult. I can see you are quite capable of roaming queendom, but please do stay within the wall of bars for now.”
She switched her glare back to me. “Why? Why can’t I go where I like?”
“Because if you are old enough to venture where you like, then you are old enough to return to your service as lady’s maid to a queen. You are old enough to resume your mantle of queen’s champion to battle back the ruin of the world.”
Uncertainty ran damply over her blobs. “What are those things?”
I tilted my head. “Do you have any memories from before?”
The teen princess considered that, then shook her head. “My first memory is of feeling happy in sand, and then my second is of when you found me.”
She did not recall her union and king? Her previous life spent in so much self-doubt and indifference and pain? “Princess Bring, ancients have given you a wonderful gift.”
“What’s that?” she snapped. “A cage?”
I bit back another smile. “A fresh start.”
I hoped that she remained this defiant and confident forevermore. “Are you drawn to serve me, Princess?”
She roamed over the sand, shivering at intervals at the exfoliation. “There is a little whisper that tells me to do what I can for you. There is a whisper that assures me I will one day be filled with great power to serve you.”
“You are not driven to this yet,” I said. “And that is how you can be sure that fullness awaits you. With how great you already are, I can barely fathom what treat awaits us all. Patience is difficult, Princess, I know. But you have power, and you have purpose, and you are surrounded by monsters who love you.”
She deflated.
“Monsters,” I added, “that were very worried when a princess they loved disappeared.”
Princess Bring’s top blob wobbled and she erupted in wet sobs. “I-I was only going to look out of the g-gate. And then I was only going to l-look at the humans.”
“I know your heart, Princess Bring, and so I know that you never carried malicious intentions. Yet we exist in immortality, and there are not many monsters in existence. Make what apologies feel right in your being, and make amends if they are warranted, and then the matter is done and over and put to rest.”
Princess Bring cried harder, and I left her to be with teenage angst.
I took up a pace on the landing outside.
Princess Take exited the chamber and watched. “You are growing maddened with purpose, my queen. Power fills me to subdue you.”
I stopped and gripped the balustrade as I drew in a large inhale. “Yes, I grow maddened. One thing waits in front of another and another, and all must be unlocked to save the world. I have the tools but none of the circumstances.”
“You refer to Princess Bring’s youth, and to the absence of my king.”
“Those, and more.”
“Sometimes it is best to focus on what we can do. The time to heal ruin will come soon enough and will certainly be unrelenting when it does. What remains to be dealt with?”
An entire list, but nothing but the end of the world felt pressing. “Humans. My romance. Any number of changes.”
“Pick one,” she growled.
I glanced back at her, and my eyes widened at the swirl of ancient power in her gaze.My, but she was not joking. “I shall.”
“That is well. Or I will pick one for you.”
“I will consult with Princess Change.” I summoned her, under careful watch of Princess Take. I had only once experienced this side of my champions, and that had ended with Princess Raise punching me in the face.
