Page 89 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
The haze
The joy
The rewards
Of Hellebores.
Iunderstood the poetry of the ballgown immediately. “Valetise, I am stunned.”
“You see the healing of the world in the pouring red?” she murmured, pins in her mouth.
I saw that potential. I saw everything that we stood to win or lose.
The skirt of the white dress was in tatters. Flowers of the deepest red formed the strap over my left shoulder—signifying a union yet to be healed. More dark red flowers dripped from the bottom of my right shoulder, though no strap was there. This signified the Raises’ already healed seam.
A thick waterfall of the crimson flowers pouredfrom one hip and across the other, and then to the floor in a long train of blood. Both of the other union seams that were yet to be healed.
I swallowed. “’Tis a dress of fate.”
“It is, my queen,” whispered Valetise. “And you are our monster of fate and the only monster deserving to wear it.”
My blonde hair was twisted high around my copper crown that was thankfully more oxidized than not these nights, displaying the ancientness of me. “Picket will be robbed of words at the sight of you.”
Valetise flushed and curtsied in her revealing black gown of lace and laces. “I hope. There is that in the dusk air that warns me to revel in love.”
In love. There was that in me that warned to revel in monsters.
I left my chambers and swept to the dining hall on the second level. Monsters were already in attendance, but for Huckery and Candor who watched the clamor of humans.
I called to them, “I can fortify the walls so that you might both join us.”
Humans were mostly beyond the barrier, though a few had astoundingly managed to get past. Huckery battered an old woman off the wall.
Candor replied, “Thank you, my queen. We are happy in each other’s company under the moon.”
Another romance, and I could not have been happier for Huckery. Theirs was a monstrously perfect match. Respect. Honesty. Companionship. I had rarely seen its like in monsterdom. Those qualities had been hard won forme.“Candor, what are your instincts on the matter of love?”
Huckery stilled as she replied, “My queen, love is but smoke that shrouds the truth of a person’s self and relationships. Love obscures what really is, and so I cannot feel love because I am a monster of truth.”
“You are an unexpected gift from ancients, dear Candor,” Isaid, startled by her answer. “I had thought myself alone from female company in the matter of love.”
Candor’s teeth spread further in a skeletal smile. “I am happy for you and us, my queen.”
Companionship. Something to cherish.
Though perhaps Huckery would have a tougher time understanding Candor’s sentiments on love, as I had struggled to do the same with See. As I walked on, however, I pondered that Huckery was prone to inner misery, and if this romance supplied that for him, then he need not be miserable in self.
They were a great match indeed.
I entered the hall that Mother had transformed into an incredible ballroom. Black organza covered the ceiling, pulling in around the middle chandelier. The same material spanned the walls, only parting to allow for flaming torches.
The large table that enabled all monsters to sit and feast was gone, and a black violin floated in the air at the center. Soft music started as I floated into the hall. No one stopped their conversations to curtsey and bow. Pawns stumbled here and there. In fact, the smiles on the faces of monsters were decidedly enormous and lingering.
I had never seen monsters so languid and relaxed. How unexpected while so near the ruin of the world and when such tensions in romance still existed.
Black hellebore petals softened the stone floors. They covered the ceiling and walls too.Ah.
The hellebores were drugging them.
