Deception
By SMYGO4EVA
In the dimension that contained the darkest of colors, it was impossible for a light to break the darkness not even in times of rising humanity within otherwise creatures of the dark. It just couldn't be so in the realm that stood between the rift of time and space; it was impossible to break.
She just couldn't understand it – the place were they currently resided in was where time stops flowing and what was beautiful or threaded in the tapestry stayed that way. Did it mean that if they left the place, time would stop no more, and that beauty will decay? That all the ugliness in the truth would be revealed? She didn't understand at all.
"Back here again, Xing Huo?"
Momentarily startled, she turned around upon hearing her name, facing the man who possessed the voice, belonging to one named Kyle Rondart. His voice was smooth, mellifluous, and dripping with a subtle malice. He had long dark hair that was kept in a white ribbon, with bangs that were off to the right, cobalt eyes that pierced whatever he looked upon, a tall, slim build draped by a black uniform with a shield upon the right shoulder and red markings decorating the charcoal uniform.
"I could say the same for you, Kyle Rondart. You've been wandering the place as well as I have." The woman remarked, glaring at the once false doctor with the dark eyes of hers.
"Our minds think alike, don't they? You were pondering about something just now, were you not?" The false doctor said as he pressed a finger to the bridge of his glasses, pushing them closer so to be focus with his eyes once more.
"Why yes, as a matter of fact, I was." Xing Huo replied, a tiny smirk growing upon her features, looking back at the tapestry before them.
"It is beautiful, isn't it? The tapestry….being threaded by fate, destiny, the matter of inevitability, as they call it." She reflected as she gazed upon the woven piece hanging above them, black thread dripping in the crimson of thousands, almost sparkling like diamonds, like stars in the night sky.
"Yes it is. It's almost as beautiful as the princess of cherry blossoms herself." Kyle breathed, a small contemplative smile on his face.
Xing Huo turned her head to look over her shoulder, almost surprised by the comparison.
Almost.
"The princess - you mean princess Sakura, the one that our Master seeks out for the wish?" She implied, although she knew the answer.
"Yes I do mean her." Kyle replied. For a moment his eyes carried a wistful quality as Xing Huo noticed, twinkling at the very mention of the princess.
But then his normal, scheming look returned as he said, "You would know about infatuation more than anyone, wouldn't you?"
She felt her breath get caught in her throat upon hearing his words.
Did he mean-?
Xing Huo turned from Kyle, her back facing him, clenching her gloved fists and lowering her head, her face turning crimson. "I have no idea what you mean by that."
Kyle grinned, very pleased with the woman's fear of getting caught with such human feelings.
"Oh come now, Xing Huo. The magician, Fai D. Fluorite, as he is called; admit it, you are infatuated with the mage ever since you first laid eyes on him, just as I was when I first saw the princess. Admit it."
The woman narrowed her eyes in realization, cursing herself with feeling what the pitiful humans would feel if they were besotted, fooling themselves to believe that it was actual love.
He was spot-on with that notion.
From the times she had beckoned the magician, she had been thinking about the one sapphire eye he possessed, the blonde hair that perfectly framed his porcelain face, and the slim build he carried from all the tribulations he was put through. It was fact – she was fixated by him.
She smiled.
"It's true, Rondart. I am infatuated with the magician, as you are with the princess."
Xing Huo let herself turning round to fully face Kyle with a satisfied smile onto his face, a hand on his hip and his head tilted to the left.
"The magician is as lovely as this very tapestry, beautiful to the eyes, silk to the touch, but tainted and black as sin. Almost untouchable but irresistible to behold." Her dark eyes sparkled with delight with the words she uttered from her lips, as she began unclenching her fists and regaining her composure.
Kyle placed a hand on Xing Huo's shoulder and pulled her to his side. "Ah yes – you and I both have someone in mind that is our own weakness. I have princess Sakura and you have the magician Fai; it is almost consuming. They are both fragile, easy to break and very easy to manipulate if you pulled the right strings."
His grasp on the woman's shoulder grew tighter.
"It's almost poetic…deceptive even."
Kyle pulled Xing Huo even closer, another hand on her opposite shoulder, pulling even closer, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear as he whispered,
"A shroud, one might say…"
Without another word, Kyle took his hands off of Xing Huo's shoulders, walking away from the momentarily shocked woman.
She blinked, but then smiled once more. It was true; the two assistants of the Master were more alike than they cared to admit, as they were infatuated with two of the travelers, two who were human no doubt, and they were both perfectionists in the art of deception.
There was one fact that the two didn't know yet: the two pawns of the Master have perfected the art of illusion.