The Pagemasters Vol 2 Chapter 18
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Author: Literataku
Chapter 18:
Truth Wavers In Falsehoods
Darkness, blackness, and silence permeated the space around me as I floated in the void. I tried not to panic as I sat (floated?) quietly trying to get my bearings. As I adjusted to the quiet and darkness I heard the sound of someone crying. I tried to move and surprisingly found it quite easy to, only just thinking about moving seemed to be working versus trying to make any physical efforts.
Floating through the void I sought out the noise, the voice sounded familiar to me. Trying to move faster I bumped into them before I even saw them in the blackness. I could barely make out the outline of them, but I could perceive who it was immediately as I realized she was curled up sobbing before me.
“Save me… Please save me, Blue… I don’t want him to.. I don’t want to… I can’t”
She didn’t seem to realize I was there, but I couldn’t just not do anything for her, even if she had attacked me. My heart heavy with pity and pain. I wrapped my presence around her, she stiffened in fear before she recognized me and turned to cry against me.
“Oh god… Blue. This is why you shouldn’t have come. The stories are pulling to close together. He’s back… He’s going to kill you again.. He’s going to kill all of you and then… He’ll… He’ll…”
I held her tightly and let her cry while we floated in the darkness, gently stroking her back and trying to make reassuring sounds into her ear. Had we shared a moment of remembrance? Had hers gone beyond that and she had been.. I could feel something igniting inside me, but I immediately tamped it down. I had just been shown that he was out of my league and I was stronger then I am now.
“We’ll find another way. We’ve got others to help us this time.”
“It’s no use… We’ve never beat him before rank four. Never! That’s why I did all this alone because he only showed up when we were together. It was the only way to keep his story from being drawn out before we were ready.”
I sighed and held her close, letting her cry against me until her tears ran out. She rested in my arms after, the two of us floating in this silent darkness. Not saying anything.
“That was the first time I…. I couldn’t go on after that… I couldn’t lose you, and I knew that if we were both dead we could then use that… So I took the first chance I had to use his sword to…”
She trailed off and I pulled her in tightly. “I’m sorry… If I could take it away…”
“You COULD have, Blue! You could have done the same thing to me as you did to yourself! You left me! You left me alone with all those memories! All those horrors that I have to see every day! You decided you couldn’t handle them anymore and so you… you… I sacrificed everything for you…”
“How do you know I was the one who did this to myself?”
She stopped and even in the darkness I could feel her incredulous stare piercing into me. Her hand gripped onto me slightly and then relaxed. I had no way of knowing what had happened. At least not yet, but I don’t think she did either.
“I… Who else could it be? No one else has this power we do… Unless… That demon messed up something the last time you used *****.”
“Do you think he could do it?”
“It’s not impossible. His power is ignorance and forgetfulness among others. He’s never done it before unless you really were on the right track to beating him this last time.”
She shivered and clung to me. “I’m being called back to the land of the wakeful. I can’t stay much longer.”
“I’ll be there. And we’ll figure out a way through this.”
“You aren’t my Blue anymore, but… You still are. And maybe you can be again…. I know this is probably something that you aren’t expecting but-”
I felt a brush of something against my lips, soft at first and getting harder as she pressed her lips to mine. My hands wrapping around her instinctively as we kissed, the rush flowing through me as we shared this quiet intimate moment together. I don’t know how long it lasted but she parted regretfully and laid her head against my shoulder.
“I’m still mad at you until we know one way or another. But I need to go now or they’ll think I’ve fallen into a coma and I don’t think Red needs to be publically thrown in jail for assault.”
“Umm, what? What the heck is going on over there?”
“I attacked him, I had a bad episode after hearing about his return again and he subdued me. Don’t worry, Blue. I’m still all yours… No one else can have me…”
“That wasn’t I was worried about… Are you okay?”
She smiled as her body seemed to begin fading away. I clutched to her arms tightly not wanting to let go of her. I could hear the smile on her lips as she spoke.
“We’ll talk after the christening, Blue. The three of us can have a good talk about what to do in the afternoon.”
I tried to hold on just a few moments longer, some part of me aching to not let her leave me….
*****************************
“Maitre! Please… wake up! Your starting to hurt me!”
I opened my eyes, not really sure where I was at first. The first sight I was welcomed with was the soft pale skin of a pair of breasts sitting in my view and hovering rather close, not as close as before but taking up most of my vision. The second thing I noticed was I was laying down on something quite soft and comfy. A bed? Wasn’t I laying dead on a battlefield?
Was this heaven? I’m not going to complain about my welcoming angel, but I don’t think this is really good at all. I don’t know if Red or Violet would take over since I’m dead… No, wait… Violet was captured by that guy and-
“Maitre!”
I realized third that my hands were gripping tight around a pair of arms and squeezing tightly, I let go suddenly as the Dark Queen fell back and clutched herself tightly looking at me with a mix of fear and worry. Her modesty seeming forgotten once again as she made no attempt to cover herself.
“Sorry… What happened? Did I hurt you?”
Rubbing her arms she shook her head slightly and stood up, walking away from the bed as I noticed that we were quite possibly in her room at the castle. It was surprisingly better maintained than the rest of the castle. A scattering of decorations and furniture here and there. A lot of it actually quite girly and frilly. It certainly fits with her personality, I was trying to puzzle myself on how anyone ever attributed her to being this evil creature of darkness.
“I might have your handprints on my arms for a little while, but I am not really hurt. You seemed to have fainted on the stairs I couldn’t get you to wake up so I brought you here to rest and hope you would recover soon.”
My memories were starting to organize themselves properly as I smiled quietly and nodded trying to sit up but giving up on that idea as I started to feel dizzy. I laid back down and sighed, I guess the day’s events are finally catching up to me. She poured out a cup of water and brought it over to me, letting me drink for a moment.
“How long do we have until morning?” I asked her after I had handed her back the cup.
“We’ve got a couple of hours before sunrise. And then we will have a few hours after that before we need to leave. The christening will likely take several hours of just the peasantry delivering their gifts before. It’s probably best if we are among the last to arrive, for many reasons.”
“We should probably get some sleep then. Can’t even move right now.”
She nodded and thought it over, while she went to put down the cup before moving back over to the bed, and walking around to the other side. I followed her with my gaze right up until she reached up and undid her cape, letting it fall to the floor. I looked away feeling that I probably shouldn’t be staring at her right now. Even if I wasn’t able to remember most of it I was already in a relationship with someone, and that someone was actually real.
.I could feel the bed shifting as she climbed in, thankfully the bed was bigger than a king-size so there wasn’t any danger of us touching. I took a glance after things had settled down, our eyes catching each other as she lay down and curled the blanket around her.
“Is Maitre comfortable? So much clothing no doubt feels so hot in this weather.”
I was about to reply when she moved her hand and cast magic to undo most of my clothing, leaving me only in my underwear as my clothing floated off and settled on a nearby dresser. I could feel my cheeks getting hot enough to set fire to something.
“Thank you…” I managed to say amid my near morbid level of embarrassment.
She smiled slightly and settled in on her side of the bed. “It’s kind of nice to have company to sleep with. I have been so alone since the others abandoned me. The ones that didn’t try to kill me of course. I haven’t shared a bed since my sister left so many years ago. It feels kind of nice… Good night, Maitre”
“Umm good night…” Oh my god, this girl is way too innocent! I look at her, watching her close her eyes and falling asleep. A lower part of my body was awake and active right now from her actions. I don’t know if I want to protect that kind of beauty or corrupt the hell out of it.
I swallow and turn myself away from her. No. I am not going to do something like that. I can control myself. I don’t want to cause any more trouble in what kind of relationship I was in with Violet. She said she was mine, and that was still putting parts of myself in shock. Even if I don’t know what all we had, but we had something together. Something forged from surviving countless hells together. Now if only we can get past them all alive this time. I tried to think about what had been revealed in the memories, wondering how we could stop a monster noble from invading this kingdom.
Taking a moment before actually falling asleep, I sent a quick message to Master explaining where I was, minus a couple of details, letting him know what was going on. His reply was curt and quick. (Be careful and watch out for any traps from Hook). I wasn’t sure what to say about the noble thing at all, but since Master hadn’t said anything it probably wasn’t an immediate threat anyways.
I don’t even recall exactly when I fell asleep while thinking those thoughts, only that I began to have nightmares of fighting him and watching everyone die over and over. I could feel a presence nearby, closing in close to me as the nightmares began to fade away. I knew who it was in an instant, the two of us connected in our dreams as we recreated the black void and simply sat in the dark and silence of our minds comforting each other until we had to wake.
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