Chapter XXIX

"But, the murmurers-!" Drake felt something in his chest, and his fingers clenched around her wrist so slightly, but he could tell that she didn't even know what she was talking about. The girl, that in a heated moment he was quite sure he had proposed to (among other things; great offers of money he did not have); Alesia, her name.. But he'd nearly called her Will. This was Will. Trying to reach for Caleb, he supposed - superstition reached even the Metaworld, but he couldn't deny whatever Will was. Whatever Caleb was; what they became together. Because Caleb kept making mistakes, and Will..

"You don't want to go in there, Will.." She didn't need to, if Caleb walked away and someone was smart enough to stop her from following him as she did. But burnished eyes told him before she looked away. He couldn't do anything, because she was going to push the door open anyway.

...

Repulsion begged to be felt, as Elyon stared down at the hard ground, and people moved around her. A boy; she'd seen him before, kept stuttering things in attempt to move her away, but she could not. Her chest was sore; the corset had been digging in, until Caleb had picked her from her state on the floor, but she didn't need to change. "You look like our mother."

"Is that why you killed me." It wasn't even a question, because Elyon didn't want to know, but she could feel the boy behind her squirming slightly whenever Phobos' steely gaze flickered to him. It was more and less than she knew herself capable, that tears welled in her eyes and Cornelia had been so elated and worried, to kiss both cheeks and hug her so tightly, and if she hadn't looked back to some place that Will had been taken, maybe Elyon would've kept their hands clasped together for support. There was something terribly sickening; as her chest hurt slightly, about the fact that it took strength not to bow her head and rest it on the bars between them. There was something terribly disgusting, that the bars were trapping her as much as him. "..tried to kill me."

"I did kill you." And his voice was so cold, but it hadn't changed at all; it had only changed for a moment, when he'd thrown her to the floor in disgust. And then that was just him playing her anyway; a theatrical to describe how she'd thrown anything of herself to the floor by her actions. Prince Phobos wouldn't know, and neither would anyone here; how much wiser her brain thought like his - only a little, but she saw more than just her best friend and her dreaming. "And I would kill you again, but do me this.."

And she knew that people were watching her; that that slightly older boy was watching, but he beckoned and Elyon bent to hear his whisper. She was so close that she could breath in his warm breaths, with only bars to part them. Bars and his evils and his crimes... Not that she was so undeserving to be sentenced in there with him, but she had only sobbed into Cornelia's chest, if only because she hated that Cornelia was thinking as much of Will. And what was she to do, to tell her? Silence was only deadly when whispered into.

Prince Phobos smirked before he whispered, "Tell Will, Nunc te cognoviet ego tunc impressa."

So that was it then, she was just his messenger to Will. Everyone was just some messenger, or someone reaching for Will. "You were never my brother."

Elyon knew that in his grin, only he could understand the sentiment. Elyon knew that in his grin, he was cackling at her, because she was a fool, and a pig,and a Queen. Elyon scowled at his grin and felt hatred. If only at that he could laugh.

...

"M-Maybe we should go.. Y-you were.." But Will wasn't listening, to the voice that was more her conscious, than her mind was. And Drake grew silent, once he realized that, and when a quirk of a smile had reached her lips. She'd met them once before.. They weren't trying to tear away souls.

Yet, even still Drake's face was framed with tense fears, as one faced her, and she let eyes of powerful green tendency study her; that was, if they could see at all.. Her own russet having flashed over the tender viney form; delicacy embedded, like a fine work of art, the beautiful natural forms seemed so calm, and her smile only fell at the passing thought of how Caleb might like it here. And then she had turned to Drake. "What are they?"

His brows quirked; she supposed at the awe, as just the question, and the rustle around her provoked the little smile, and she angled her head slightly away as it reached for her as gently as it looked - and Drake looked so worried despite their slowness, he looked so worried like they were stealing from a great flower shop. But he reached out tentatively, as though he might try to take her away, and her grin only grew because she felt so terrible inside. And they had felt so terrible; they were children.. She couldn't feel what they thought, and maybe it was why she liked them... But they weren't crying anymore and she only squirmed a little, as she felt another's closeness. They didn't have breath, but the breeze seemed to follow them; brushing past her, wherever they grew closer. And Drake had resigned; he finally stepped past the doorway, though she laughed he pushed it as far open as he could, and put himself between her and them. And they did; they were murmuring, she supposed, but they seemed far more sensitive than a murmur. They should've been called whisperers. "The Prince Ph-"

"What, afraid of flowers?" There was something tragic that she couldn't quite reach, but Will pushed it away as she grinned with her outer-mirth; pushing a flower to him by the stalk, and it seemed to only grow rather than break. "Isn't this wonderful?"

"Prince Phobos crushed his soul." Will turned to face him, at that, and Drake only nodded, because he meant it. "The Prince Phobos crushed his soul; a hundred pieces and one. One half, a hundred pieces. One half, the prince Phobos kept. I wouldn't lie to you Will."

She didn't even know why, but a slender arm brushed past him and he pushed it away, and suddenly she wish that he would lie.


Everyone confused - swallow up everything Drake says.. Because 'brother' is such a strong term for Caleb.. ;)

Nunc te cognoviet ego tunc impressa. - I know you now, and I am impressed then.