Page 86 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
I continued, “I had counted forty-nine major areas requiring my stitch and champions. The damage in the lesser veins did not feel like it would require the same power and sacrifice to heal. Last night, this was proved correct. A vast area of lesser veins surrounding the Raises’ seam are flowing with life.”
I pulled my power to form a picture of the map in my mind. The map of broken sickness in the world. But it had altered.
“Here?” Princess Change gasped, walking closer.
A quarter of the world was mostly covered in lush growth. Pockets of thick black still marred that quarter in places. These were the veins that remained in need of healing. “There.”
I stared with my champions at the tangible proof of our work. The green of the world that could be seen by the stars and moon.
“If our unions are each a quarter of the world, then where is your romance with Prince See?” asked Duke Raise.
Should I reveal the whole?
I would.
I peeled back the lush growth of the Raise’s quarter of the world to reveal the sickness below. I peeled more and more until the sick, putrid core of the world was exposed. “We are the center of the world. There is no point to healing the surface if we do not heal what lays beneath. The world will simply rot again.”
“But we are surely buying time with what we do,” whispered Princess Change.
My stomach churned. “The opposite, I have just recently connected. More and more I have considered the natural role of monsters in the world. The purpose of kings was always to grow their power—mistakenly against one another—in an attempt to either save, ruin, or do nothing. But each monster is so uniquely equipped and designed. I believe there must be a greater purpose for monsters. That has been proven since the loss of Duchess Raise.”
Duke Raise whipped to look at me.
I said, “Humans clamor at my picket and wall of bars. Fear does not drive them, but fate. For there has always been one monster whom I depended on for translation of human behavior. How coincidental that now she is lost, humans have abandoned all semblance of self.”
The princesses erupted into questions, but I did not shift my focus from the raising duke, who had reigned for centuries as a raising king.
The duke licked his lips. “There is nothing raising them, as there is nothing raising me.”
“You believe this is the greater purpose of a raising monster?”
“I have wondered from decade to decade, my queen. A king can only raise so many hundreds of thousands of stairsfrom contracts before he sees the solution to conventional downfalls. A person cannot feel spiteful and resentful for long if that person is sound in self-esteem and confident in their values. What if these qualities wereraised? Hopes, integrity, honesty, wellness.” He cut off, remembering the company of princesses.
The duke swallowed.
“Duke Raise, your connection is great indeed,” I told him. “You have molded more shape to the ponderings of a queen.”
He cleared his throat. “That is what a human liaison is for. I may not use a radio, my queen, but I will fulfill my role to offer guidance on matters of humans in my own way.”
I walked to the duke and rested a hand on his arm. “Of that I never had a doubt, sir, and truth be told, I will be glad to be rid of that radio that plays day and night and day again.”
“We dance in talks of the future to avoid talking of the now,” muttered Marchioness Take darkly, who stared at the map. Her fists clenched by her sides, and she looked up to deliver a challenging look. “Who is next to lose their loved one?” Her tone dripped in sarcasm. “Surely not the Changes who cannotchange.Surely not the Brings who have not met again. Ask what you must ask of me, my queen, but do not dance in merrier topics to avoid it.”
I tilted my head and considered defending myself before quashing that. There was no need. She wished to be joined in anger, and that did not serve my queendom. “Marchioness Take, you have just been reunited with your marquis. So fresh are your promises of what you will be for each other. So I give you tonight to say goodbye for a time or forever. We will heal your seam next because there is no other choice.”
“There is the choice to do yours,” she hissed.
“The heart must be last.”
She snapped, “Why?”
“Because I cannot be sure of my state after,” I replied.
The princess rolled her eyes. “Will you fill your chamber with bottles too? Will you be rendered unwilling to go on?”
She spoke hastily for a champion who had not yet lost her loved one. The thought of crumbling in a heap had not occurred to me. “No such thing, Princess. I cannot be sure of the toll on my power, and I cannot be sure whether healing the heart must occur once every other part is healed. Regardless, such an encounter will surely demand all I have, and so I wish to give over to that with certainty that I will not be required to face more battles after. That is why I will go last.”
The princess deflated before my logic. “I just got him back. For the first time I have all of him.”
