Hello, and I'm back with another chapter of Not her first Auction.
I don't own Ancient Magus Bride.
Enjoy!
The next year was pretty awesome, in Chise's opinion. Eden was really nice to her, and he made sure that, if anything was bothering her, he knew about it-although he seemed to know exactly what was going on, no matter what. That was probably done with a little help from his familiar-her name was Promise, although she insisted everyone called her Lilac. Lilac made plenty of deals with people in exchange for something else-she never really did a favor for anyone, but instead what she did always had something done for her in return, and vice versa.
Eden had told Chise that he was a mage, but apparently she was too young to be his apprentice, so instead, he treated her like she was his daughter-he even adopted her, so now her name was legally Chise Dumont.
Lilac had made a deal with Chise, which was how she always knew just what was on Chise's mind. In exchange for allowing Lilac to read her mind, Lilac helped Chise with her schoolwork, and was sometimes like Chise's older sister-which made the deal pretty fair, in Chise's opinion.
Anyway, it was a year since Eden had brought Chise back to his home, and tonight, he was heading to town...for some reason. And Lilac wasn't coming with him, either.
"Why are you heading out so late?" Chise asked, fighting back a yawn.
"I'll be back soon-I promise," Eden said.
"But I wanna come with you," Chise said, then yawned.
Eden smiled, a strangely sad look in his eye. "You're too tired, Chise. I promise, you'll be alright. I'll even be back by morning, you'll see."
"I wanna come with you," Chise said softly, her eyes closing slightly as she fell forward a little bit. Eden stepped forward and caught her as she slumped forward.
"You need to sleep," Eden said. "I promise, I'll tell you about it tomorrow."
"You promise?" Chise demanded sleepily.
Eden hesitated, then looked away. "I-I promise."
Before Chise could question him anymore, Lilac picked her up. "It's time for bed, Chise."
"B-But-" Chise started, but Lilac nodded her head at Chise, and she fell asleep instantly.
Eden smiled sadly, then looked Lilac in the eye. "You know what tonight is, correct?"
Lilac gave him a sad look. "I don't want to see you go, Eden. I doubt that Chise wants to see you go, either."
"You know as well as anybody that a promise is a promise," Eden said. "After all, it is your real name."
Lilac sighed. "I know. But I don't like this promise."
"I'm well aware," Eden said. "Now, you know what I'm about to say."
"Please, don't," Lilac said, but Eden grabbed her hand and drew a symbol on it.
"With this, you are no longer my familiar," Eden said. "However, due to the deal we made, you are not allowed to leave Chise's side until after she already knows of what's going to happen to me, and she's being picked up to leave for the auction house again. Understand?"
"I don't want this," Lilac said.
"However, that's our deal," Eden said. "Do you understand?"
"But-" Lilac started.
"Do. You. Understand?" Eden said sharply-sharper than he had ever spoken to anyone before.
Lilac took a step back, then nodded. "Fine. I understand."
"Good," Eden said. "Now, tuck Chise into bed, then wait until news about what's going on reaches the ears of everyone here, then follow my instructions without hesitation."
"Yes, Eden," Lilac said sadly. "I guess."
"Good," Eden said, then left.
Lilac stood there, still holding Chise, for a few minutes, then brought Chise to her room. She tucked Chise in, then left to a large room with a fireplace...then she began to cry.
Two days later…
"Please, Lilac, he's never been gone this long!" Chise said desperately, clinging onto Eden's former familiar. "Where's Eden?"
Lilac looked at her sadly. "I-I'm sure that he'll be back soon."
"He promised that he'd be back yesterday!" Chise said. "Why isn't he back yet?!"
"I-I don't know," Lilac said.
"You always know!" Chise said, near tears, not noticing that Lilac was stopping herself from crying. "You're his familiar, right?! He promised that he'd be back-why isn't he back!? Why don't you know?!"
Lilac sighed, then leaned down so she was eye-to-eye with Chise. "Chise...sometimes, there are truths that we don't know. Stuff happens, and we have no control on what's going on around us."
"What are you saying?" Chise asked, her eyes wide as tears started to pour out of her eyes.
"I'm saying that...well...life's not fair-you know that, right?" Lilac asked.
"What does that have to do with any of this?" Chise demanded.
A small, sad smile came to Lilac's lips just as someone burst into the room.
"Promise!" the person-a man wearing a formal-looking suit-exclaimed. "I have horrible news!"
Lilac stood and looked at the person, her expression growing dull. "Yes?"
"I-It's Eden!" the person exclaimed, then his eyes grew wide as he noticed Chise, who was clinging to Lilac's dress. "W-What's that little girl doing here?"
"She has every right to be here-she lives here," Lilac said, holding one hand out protectively. "Now, what about Eden?"
"T-The girl shouldn't-" the person started.
"She has every single right to hear what you have to say," Lilac said sharply, still holding back tears. "Now, what about Eden?"
"H-He was found...oh, Promise, I'm so sorry," the person said. "H-He's...gone."
"When will he be coming back?" Chise asked, but from the edge in her voice, everyone could understand that she knew what was really going on.
"He won't be," the person said.
"B-But he promised!" Chise blurted. "He promised that he'd be back and he'd tell me all about why he wasn't here! He promised!"
"Promises are meant to be broken," Lilac whispered.
Chise looked at her, her eyes wide in fear. "You knew."
Lilac looked at her. "Chise...listen. I was his familiar."
"Was?" Chise asked, shaking her head. "You are his familiar."
"No," Lilac said. "I used to be...but when he left, he broke our contract."
"I didn't know that could be done," the person said.
"That's a...separate story," Lilac said. "But that doesn't matter. Since he's...gone, I guess that it means you'll have to go back to the auction house, Chise."
"I don't want to," Chise said stubbornly.
"Chise, Eden's...gone, which means that the rest of us need to go our separate ways," Lilac said. "However...I'm prepared to make a deal with you."
"I don't know if that's a good idea," the person said warningly.
"Oh, hush," Lilac said, waving a hand at him. "So, Chise, are you willing to make this deal?"
"What's the deal?" Chise asked.
"You know that Eden has plenty of friends," Lilac said. "And I'm able to contact a few of them. I'm sure that one of them will be able to go to the auction house and purchase you. In fact, I'm willing to make sure for certain that one of them does...but I don't do favors, you know."
"What do you want me to do?" Chise asked boldly.
"Now, you and I can discuss that in a little while-when there's nobody else around," Lilac said. "For now…" She turned to the person. "I would like for you to tell me more about what's going on, including what's going to happen to the house, as well as everything else-including when the funeral is going to be."
Funeral. It was the last word that Chise wanted to hear, but she stayed silent, as much as she wanted to scream and cry instead.
Later that night…
"So, what do you want me to do?" Chise asked, looking at Lilac. The two of them were sitting at a small table, drinking tea and eating sweets-Eden would surely have insisted that it wasn't alright to be eating sweets this late at night, but neither of them seemed bothered.
"Well, that depends," Lilac said. "There's a whole list of things that I traditionally do. I've taken someone's first born before in exchange for spinning a large pile of straw into gold-they got out of it by guessing my friend's name-in their defense, I had been pretending to be him at the time, so I let it slide that time-they didn't know the other price I had taken, a few stands of their hair. Let's see...I once took a small ring in exchange for a wish to see a ball-old time, of course. Granted someone sleep for one hundred years instead of death because I couldn't think of a better gift, and her parents had invited me to her party-I love parties! What else have I done?"
"Those sound like Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty," Chise said.
"Did you really think that they weren't based on real events?" Lilac asked. "But that's not the point. What do you offer to me in exchange for the deal?"
Chise thought for a few seconds. "I, um...what do you think I can offer?"
"Do you need more modern ideas?" Lilac asked. "Ooh! How about this?" She reached across the table, grabbing a small section of Chise's hair. "Your hair is the shade of sunset-a beautiful shade, too. I want a small section of your hair...and for you to sing for the fae once every month."
"Sing for the fae?" Chise asked, confused.
Lilac nodded. "One night every month for as long as you are able to, I want you to take a night to sing three songs for the fae-dance, too, although the singing part is more important-but only if you're able. If, for some reason, you can't sing one night, sing three more songs the next month."
"Sounds like a reasonable request," Chise said. "And you'll make sure I have someone nice buy me at the auction house?"
"And, should you ever find me again while you're in need to get away from whatever, I'll be able to take care of you and help you out," Lilac said. "For three songs a month, and a small bit of your hair. Sounds reasonable, right?"
"Yeah," Chise said. "I'll do it."
With a smile, Lilac grabbed out a pair of scissors and cut the small section of Chise's hair, then pat Chise on the head. "And so the deal is settled. Seth has already been contacted about what happened-he'll be here in three days to pick you up. In that time, I'll make arrangements. The singing and dancing part of the deal begins as soon as I've upheld my part of the deal. Plan?"
"Plan," Chise said, and the two shook hands.
And that's it for this chapter! What did you think?
I should be updating before too long-although no "Promise"s if I get writer's block, or need to update a few of my other stories first.
Until next time!
Lunetheart out.