Page 95 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
I drew forth the map of the sick world in my mind’s eye, then touched a hand to the stitch connecting leg to torso. Partway around the world, the frayed seam wiggled weakly. This seam was closer than that of the Raises, but the brief glimpse of what lay in store for us was terrifying indeed.
I hissed from the grip of madness, “Marquis Take, I will take you.”
“My queen, I can manage him,” replied his marchioness in a voice that lacked her usual challenge and huff. “I w-would hold him for as long as possible.”
I nodded. “Do not fall behind.”
I shot into the air and let reckoning take hold. To clear my mind. To hone my thoughts and power and body to a single point and reason.Heal.
My laughter filled the sky, and my madness was echoed back by my cackle of champions.
“You’re all insane!” shouted Marquis Take.
And yes, perhaps we were insane. Just enough to fly to our possible doom. Just enough to numb fear so that a champion or queen would not turn from reckoning and purpose.
I did not land.
We hovered in the air before a sky of black flame. There was no visible way through, even with a queen’s eyes. I might need to travel a quarter of the world before finding a way around. No wonder Duchess Raise had felt the calling to use her staircase to get to the opposite side of the world.
I hovered in the air, and my champions flocked either side of me. Marquis Take was on his princess’s back.
“Why fire?” hushed Princess Change. Understandably, she was not eager to awaken our nemesis before the time was right.
Marquis Take answered, “Because fire claims life, as I do.”
I considered that, then said, “And the sea connects the world, as a stairway might. It seems that each union seam will be as unique as their monsters.”
Marchioness Take’s breath shuddered in and out of her. Not in fear of the black, but in fear of loss and pain and uncertainty. To have a loved one torn away in a blink was one thing. To walk toward that fate required choice.
In short, my monsters believed utterly in me and my ability to save.
Such pressure on a queen, and I would give everything I had to live up to their beliefs. “My dear Takes, the time has come for a farewell.”
“I cannot,” whispered the marchioness.
“My love,” her marquis replied. He could not have kept up with our flight here, but he could hover himself in the sky. He did so now to cup his marchioness’s face. “’Tis a temporary state.”
Tears squeezed from her eyes. She was a lost monster. Though soil was Princess Change’s reason for being, Marchioness Take’s reason was her marquis, her husband. I could only feel awe that the princess had found the strength to leave him and live in my queendom for a time. That was an incredible feat.
“But what if we never see each other again?” she blurted, a note of hysteria edging in.
Marquis Take’s stubbled face grew serious. “Then we have a gift more than most, for we shall part truly believing in seeing one another again. And if that is not to be, then we shall not know before a great fist wipes us out in a blink. We will part in hope and love of a grand immortality shared, my marchioness.”
She was nodding with him, not in belief per se, but in desperation. “This will go as you say. We part in hope and love.”
“There is my strong princess,” he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers.
The marchioness’s exhale shook. “She is here. She will be here until our reunion. She will not rest until that time.”
The other champions witnessed the exchange with varying emotions. Duke Raise with some bitterness because he never got time for a heartfelt goodbye. Though, in hindsight, Duke Raise could not have managed foreknowledge of losing his duchess. If Marquis Take was the one remaining behind, then he may nothave gone so easily either. But the marquis was prone to strong morals and self-punishment when morals could not be upheld. I had to agree with See on this… a queen and her champions were never meant to fathom the sacrifice of healing a seam before first living it.
Princess Change, of course, looked on in trepidation of never managing to reach this point of goodbye. I imagined the goodbye part would be the easiest chapter in the book for the Changes.
Princess Bring perhaps felt robbed at the idea of being in this predicament, for she had only met King Bring one time and not had time to even know her true heart on the matter of love.
“Ready yourselves.” My voice floated in the dawn sky—for the time here was vastly different to the night we had left. The black flames closest twitched at my presence. Soon they would spread their warning to the heart of whatever force controlled them.
There was a roar of flame in the distance, the awakening of the beast.
