Thirteen
Chapter Seven: First
I'm not asking to be your first thought.
-Megan Marie
xxXxx
Night Eleven
"Just remember," Haru cautioned her ladies in waiting again as she made herself comfortable on the bed. "Only disturb me or make noise if it's important."
"Are you sure you'd rather not be alone to do this, my lady?" Red asked again as she grabbed a pillow and fluffed it out of nerves.
Haru nodded firmly. "Things always seem to happen when I'm alone in the castle. If all it takes to keep them from happening is a little company, then I really appreciate the three of you staying with me."
Agnes offered her a nervous smile before she went back to her mending. "Have fun with… whatever it is you're doing."
"Oh, I will," Haru assured the frog monster before sitting cross-legged on the bed. To be sure that her servants would know that she wasn't secretly just getting some extra sleep, she leaned forward, rested her head on her hands, and began a rhythmic breathing as she closed her eyes.
It took a while for her mind to bring to life what she wanted to see, but when Haru saw the full moon shining on her through the trees, she knew it was worth the effort.
She looked down at her attire, gleeful that she was once more in the plain homespun she had worn since she was a child. She wrapped herself up a bit more in the warm shawl resting around her shoulders as she deeply inhaled the sweet and crisp night air that was tinged with the scent of pine and a distant stove cooking something delicious.
It was a good night. Not very late yet, but nice and quiet. She only needed one more thing to make it perfect.
The silver moon's light seemed to solidify into a being at her side. It was about a head taller than her, and broad enough of shoulder to give the impression of being a male.
He tipped a little hat at her, the blank face bunching up on the sides as if in a grin. Haru felt her heart grow unsteady just at seeing someone smile at her like that.
He gave a half-sweeping motion to the distinct forest path in front of them, suspiciously clear of all roots and loose stones with just enough moonlight so that they could see.
'Will you walk with me' wasn't asked as much as it was implied, but Haru nodded yes all the same as her heart beat with excitement.
He offered her an arm that she gladly took. As one, they simply walked down the straight and narrow path. There was no talking by either of them, and that was just fine by Haru. When it came to a boy she honestly felt for, the right words had never been able to come out.
She didn't even know what the right words were. But for now, it was more than enough to just walk by someone's side and not feel the least bit like she was in danger.
… Why would she ever feel like she was in danger? This was her home, and this silent being was the only man to pay her any worthy attention since her father was broken by her mother's death. Tsuge didn't count; he was Hiromi's love. The elders didn't count; they always spoke warmly to her and noticed her little efforts to make the village a better place to live, but none of them really recognized her as a woman.
Haru needed to be seen as a woman. As long as she stayed here with her new friend, she would have just that.
The path didn't turn or twist, and it stayed unusually flat so that they could only focus on being together, for as long as they felt like walking. Haru could have walked like that forever…
"My lady," Red prodded her while shaking her lady's shoulder gently.
Haru's head slipped off her hands, making her snap back to the real world in mid-dream stride. "Yes?" she asked while trying not to get too annoyed.
Lord Maliss had arranged to have bread and water sent up to her room instead of calling her for dinner, so Haru thought it was safe to assume that she was supposed to remain there the rest of the evening.
Blondie was giving her a nervous smile. "It's not our idea, my lady, and try to keep your voice down. Looking Glass wants to see you again."
Haru's eyebrows raised in shock. "You know about that?" she nearly whispered.
"He managed to catch a passing guard's attention, and he passed it onto us. Lord Maliss is still… recovering in his room," Red clarified with a nervous smile.
Haru couldn't resist a wicked grin of accomplishment.
Agnes shivered at such a smile, but pointedly placed Haru's black slippers onto her feet after rotating the girl enough so that her feet were hanging over the edge of the bed. "We're trying to say that as long as you don't try to use the Looking Glass, the master will never know. I know it's forbidden, we could all get in huge trouble if he finds out-"
"If I got him half as well as I know I did, he'll need more than twenty-four hours to recover, even with magic," Haru responded with a devilish smirk, hopping out of bed and marching to the door. On an impulse, she grabbed the now-polished poker as Red and Blondie opened the door for her. "If Maliss notices I'm gone and asks questions, tell him I acted on my own. No sense in all of us dying." Giving the three of them a warm smile, she marched out into the hallway.
After the purple bird closed the door, Red sighed sadly and turned to her sister as their mistress's steps faded away. "I have to agree that I'll miss this one, though."
Blondie and Agnes nodded in complete misery.
ooOoo
That silver face lit up when the door swung open to reveal the latest bride, looking around the room warily just in case.
"I am so pleased!
"You've returned to me!"
Haru smiled up at the mirror before closing the door behind her. "Sorry for taking a while. I was lost yesterday when I found you the first time." Satisfied that they were alone, she almost sat on the high back chair facing the mirror but stopped as she realized who the usual occupant probably was.
Her flesh shuddered in revulsion at even sitting where he once sat.
Acting like nothing was wrong, she walked up to the mirror and leaned against the same wall it was hanging on, still keeping her poker in one hand. "So, what did you want to talk about?" she asked while giving Mirror another polite smile.
He smiled just as easily at her.
"I was hoping to know
"If you have a means to overthrow."
"Lord Maliss?" Haru asked before laughing scornfully. "I wish. But unfortunately, I think he's got me. Did you like how I made him regret it yesterday?" she asked with an evil grin.
Mirror smiled beatifically.
"I wish anguish and pain
"Was all from brides he gained
"You bring him nothing but trouble,
"Which I was hoping would be doubled."
Haru shrugged while lifting her arms in a helpless gesture, even though one hand was still gripping the poker. "This isn't easy for me to say, but he's bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter than I am. When he decides that isn't enough advantages, he uses his magic on me. Believe me, if I thought I had a single prayer of taking him down myself… you can't read thoughts?" she asked in surprise.
"I've tried, but all for naught."
Haru rubbed the side of her head while resting the back of her head on the wall. "Can Lord Maliss?"
Mirror actually took a second to try to find a rhyme that would suit the question, but finally shook his head with a sheepish expression.
"I know he wants your thought
"Ever since you tied the knot
"But your mind is a mystery
"Which he regrets, bitterly."
She almost argued that point, but then remembered the previous evening. If Lord Maliss had known ahead of time what happened to her dance partners, he'd also have known about all the men that had been trying to steal her from him. Not that he deserved her, but none of those men necessarily deserved death for being annoying.
"I'm pretty sure I'm not the only bride that prefers thinking to talking," she offered instead.
"Your mind, do you share
"With those who look after your care?" Mirror asked pointedly.
Haru scoffed at the stupidity. "Of course not! Even if they hate Lord Maliss even more than I do for all the friends of theirs that have gotten killed, they'd probably tell him anything he wanted to know if he offered the right torture! I still like them," she clarified while standing proud and away from the wall. "I just understand it's too risky to trust them or anyone as long as Lord Maliss is in charge here. Even you, really," Haru apologized as gently as she could. "I know it's not likely that Lord Maliss will ask if you've ever spoken to me, but I doubt I've lived this long by taking chances." At that, she deflated helplessly.
"My time's drawing close. I bet Lord Maliss is usually in the sky by now for his next victim. I could die any day, any time."
"And you, still in your prime.
"So many wishes and dreams
"Never to be fulfilled, it seems."
"Thanks for reminding me," Haru griped at him while almost throwing her own back against the wall again. "I had to retreat into my imagination tonight just to get my first genuinely romantic moment. Heaven knows I'm not going to get anything that precious from the 'heroes' that think all they have to do is throw me over one shoulder and carry me off like a stolen rug. Lord Maliss probably doesn't even understand the first thing about romance, since he enjoys skipping the parts that make a relationship worth the work to maintain it."
Mirror laughed at that.
"I've been telling him that for years
"But my advice, he never hears
"All he sees is what he wants
"So to naysayers, he can flaunt."
"What, flaunt the fact that he failed at marriage one hundred and thirteen times?" Haru retorted angrily. "The only type of person that would be proud of a record like that should never bother with marriage. He could be like any other pig and take care of his needs in one of those questionable establishments I hear bigger towns and probably cities have, and not have to worry about feeding and clothing someone he isn't expecting to stick around and couldn't care less about if he tried."
"That's been pointed out
"Don't you have any doubts.
"But he thinks it gives him power
"To trample on helpless flowers."
Haru's temper flared angrily. "So now he's complaining because this flower has thorns? Poor baby."
Mirror grinned wickedly in approval, but then seemed to get distracted by an unwanted thought.
"You are adventurous, strange, and wild
"You've made other brides seem mild.
"Are you truly ready to lay down to rest
"Before your own wants have been addressed?"
Haru held up her hands in another helpless gesture. "Look, what I want, I can never have thanks to that creep. It was over before it had a chance to begin because people like Machida refuse to tell me in a timely manner if I'm waiting in vain. That's why I've been sulking since I was brought here!" She set her forehead against his cool glass and closed her eyes in pain.
"I feel like I've been waiting my whole life. Waiting for Mother and Father to have another baby like they promised. Waiting for Mother to get better from the fever. Waiting for Father to wake up and realize I'm still around and need attention. Waiting for Machida to speak to me for real. Waiting for the courage to speak to him myself before losing him to Sakura. Waiting, waiting, waiting… Now I'm only waiting to die. We both know Maliss isn't going to go out of his way to make it painless, either. Especially after what I did to him in the ball room."
Although Mirror didn't say a thing for the longest time, Haru got the impression that he would have put arms around her shoulders if he only had some. She forced herself to settle for setting the poker against the wall and wrapping her own arms around herself and pretending it was him.
She'd had plenty of experience with doing that. She just wished that she could experience something like that when it was for her alone, and not from Maliss.
"… Your heart may be tired and weary,
"But there is still something you can do, dearie."
Haru tiredly lifted her eyes enough to see what he wanted.
"You've accepted your death
"With more grace than most
"But before your last breath,
"Why not something that deserves a toast?"
"I'm not following your logic," Haru confessed while wiping repressed tears out of her eyes with a handkerchief before blowing her nose.
"Though thoughts I cannot see,
"There are things considered beneath one's dignity.
"If death is the only escape
"Let your inner wish take shape."
"I already explained-" Haru tried to remind him, but he kept going.
"Be honest, little Haru.
"Is there no secret desire
"You would like to do?"
Haru stopped short. Almost against her own will, she vividly remembered something her mother told her about what rich children used to use their beds for. Her own bed back at the village had been completely unsuited for such a thing, and the disdain in her mother's tone had been enough to keep her from trying it anyway.
She giggled a little nervously while rubbing the back of her neck in the same manner. "Well… there was one thing that I used to think about doing all the time. But it might be a little too naughty."
Mirror flinched but acted like nothing was wrong.
"A little too naughty?
"With the master of the castle
"This haughty?"
That was a very fair point. It didn't help that Haru's heart was now beating faster, and not from fear this time!
She was really excited about doing this. Her mother would probably start rolling in her grave if she did it, but chances were good that Naoko Yoshioka had started rolling as soon as Lord Maliss had snatched her child away. What could it really hurt?
"What could it really hurt?" Haru repeated out loud with an excited smile, hardly believing that she was seriously considering the impropriety. But even she knew that her mother would prefer her doing such a horrible thing than even be on the same continent as Lord Maliss.
"With death so certain,
"Why not some fun
"Before the curtain?" Mirror asked while trying to keep the misery out of his face and tone.
That was the last straw.
Haru beamed up at him and pressed both of her gloved hands to his silver cheeks in gratitude. "If on the off-chance what I'm about to do doesn't get me killed, and I get to see you again, I'll let you know if it's as fun as it looks," she promised, remembering to grab her poker before running for the door.
ooOoo
'At last!' Maliss couldn't resist thinking as he ended the eavesdropping spell, standing tall and proud in his latest disguise; a general from one of the Southern Kingdoms. Princes and peasants seemed to have no effect on his pretty little wife, so he was feeling confident that a general would be worth more than another rude dismissal. Especially since the Mirror had all but giftwrapped her for his intentions, as per his orders for once.
Twisting the staff disguised as a sheathed sword at his side, he relaxed the maze spell that held Haru where he wanted her and waited for her footsteps to get just close enough for another collusion.
When the timing was just right, he stepped into the hallway with seeming inattention until laying eyes on her.
Haru didn't even say sorry when she bumped straight into him. Her large brown eyes, sparkling with more life and happiness than he had ever seen before, didn't even latch onto him as she simply sidestepped and kept running down the hall in the direction of her bedroom; still gripping that infernal poker in one hand in case trouble came.
He hadn't registered as trouble this time. He could have been a corner of the wall or a coatrack for all the acknowledgement she had given him.
That was beyond intolerable! Even getting thrown off her balcony and landing on a large thorn bush he had planted for real rescuers was better than being ignored!
Fighting not to start screaming, he marched to the Mirror's room, letting his disguise fall away from him until no one could mistake him as anything but 'the worst wizard in a century' as his current wife had put it when he had tried approaching her in the throne room.
Lord Maliss slammed the door shut behind him and stomped toward the scared mirror with a murderous expression. "Show me Haru," he hissed between his teeth. "I deserve to see what can make her ignore my very existence."
For once, the Looking Glass didn't offer any banter. That was at least one good side effect to his little bride putting him in a murderous mood instead of an amorous one.
The glass that had been black cleared until Haru could be seen rushing through the door of her room and slamming it behind her. "You three might want to leave," she announced with a wide grin as she headed straight for the bed and began untying the canopy while balancing one foot on the bed and the other on her bedside table, leaving her poker by one bedpost for now. "I'm about to do something bad!"
"You, my lady?" one of the heads on the purple bird laughed, hopping over and flying just high enough to help undo the ties with their beaks on the opposite side of his wife. "You don't have it in you to be bad."
"Please prove her wrong," Lord Maliss groaned under his breath while trying to figure out what Haru was up to and trying not to let himself get excited again.
Why was that his main obsession anymore? Tonight and last night had been dedicated to forcing the Mirror to get her to talk more than she would to the monsters or himself, and even that had limited success! It had seemed at first that Haru had been played right into his embrace where she was meant to be, but it was clear that Haru didn't think of 'bad' the same way the evil wizard did. He leaned even closer to the glass, trying to figure out what she would want with the canopy.
"No need to untie those two, Agnes," Haru told the other servant when she tried to help as well, pulling the canopy to the lower side of the bed with the purple bird's help before leaving it there. "We'll be tying it back into place when I'm done being a bad girl." She sat on the bed and slipped the delicate black slippers from her even more delicate feet.
Even her bare feet made his knees go weak. He leaned even closer to the glass and prayed that he'd at least get a show worth watching if he couldn't talk his wife into having some real fun.
But as soon as Haru stood up in the middle of the bed in those beautiful bare feet, he knew exactly what she was up to.
Lord Maliss covered his face with a groan as the Mirror began laughing fit to kill.
She was jumping on the bed and squealing with delight like a little girl. "I've! Never! Felt! So! Alive!" she cried out, screaming one word at a time when her jump reached its best height, with her shoulders just reaching above where the canopy's bars were.
"I need a drink," Lord Maliss growled in defeat, tiredly using his dragon staff to help him on the long trek down to the wine cellar as the Looking Glass continued to roar with laughter. 'I have married a child!'
ooOoo
Once she had run out of energy, Haru collapsed on the bed while laughing breathlessly. "So… worth it!" she wheezed, even though she now ached from head to toe. She hadn't had such a workout since forced to leave her village.
"Um, my lady?" Agnes asked nervously before sparing a glance at Red and Blondie.
Haru thought for sure that she was going to get told that what she did wasn't ladylike, or wasn't as bad as she seemed to think, but she should have guessed the real truth.
"Can we have a turn?"
That made Haru laugh even harder, but she started doing her best to crawl to one side of the bed. "O…One… at a… time!" she was able to gasp before sliding off and resting against the bedside table to give her poor legs some time to recover. 'That was the best workout I've had since coming here!'
"I want to go first!" Agnes protested as she struggled with Red and Blondie to be the first one on the bed.
"Girls! Come here!" Haru ordered before any serious blows could be exchanged.
"It was your fault," Red muttered when the bird and frog monsters hobbled over enough to look at her expectantly.
Haru quickly balled up one fist and lay the other over it while flat. "Paper beats rock," she explained before switching the 'rock' hand to two extended fingers that snipped at her paper hand. "Scissors beats paper." She finished with turning the paper hand into a rock and pretending to smash the scissor hand. "Rock beats scissors. Pick one with your hands at the count of three, winner gets the bed first."
The three heads looked at each other with bafflement. "What if we all pick the same one?"
"You play again until someone wins. One, two, three!"
Agnes had a rock and Blondie had scissors. Cackling with triumph, the blue frog monster climbed onto the bed and started hopping. But thanks to her genes, she had to be careful not to hit her head on the ceiling far above the bed.
"Should have let me do it," Red griped, in a sulky enough mood to just sit next to their mistress on the floor instead of transferring her to her favorite chair or tend to another task. "Was this what the Looking Glass wanted to talk about?"
"… Kind of, yes," Haru admitted now that her breath was under control. "He pretty much hinted that if I'm going to die anyway, I should try enjoying life while I'm still breathing." She inched a little away from the bed in case Agnes broke it. "Good advice," she commented with a slightly delirious smile. "I think I'll take him up on it a bit more if Lord Maliss doesn't kill me for this."
"He won't," Blondie responded, beaming happily at the fact while affectionately running her beak against Haru's head. "He only kills a wife when-"
Red's hand blurred as it grabbed her sister's beak and clamped it shut. "Will you stop trying to get us killed!" she demanded as Agnes stopped jumping out of sheer terror, ruining the happy relaxed mood that had been there only a moment before.
But Haru still caught on to what hadn't been said. "It's not about breaking the rules, is it? It's about breaking the rule."
"My lady!" Agnes pleaded as she got off the bed to hold her white gloved hands in front of her in a pleading gesture. "It could be our lives if he found out!"
But there was no stopping Haru's line of thinking now. She forced herself to get to her feet and begin pacing the room, her thoughts running faster than ever before. "How am I holding out when compared to the other brides?" she nearly demanded.
Blondie finished sneaking her and her sister's body onto the bed before Agnes saw what they were up to. "We all thought for sure you would be dead by now, my lady," Blondie managed in an apologetic tone, merely holding their claim in place until the mood to play had returned. "We're glad that you're still with us, because you're really nice and it's very nerve-wracking when we don't know what our next mistress will be like, or how long it will take the master to find the next one-"
"That's enough!" Red snapped, but Haru held up a hand to calm all of them, including Agnes who just now realized that her spot on the bed had been stolen.
"That should be plenty for me to work with. Enjoy yourselves," she ordered sweetly before sitting in her favorite chair to think. 'He wants me to break a special rule even more than he wants to kill me without it.'
That was it. The missing thing that she had that highborn women didn't. Whatever the one rule was, it obviously had no meaning to her, or she wouldn't have lasted this long so easily.
The name of the game Lord Maliss was playing was 'Patience'. He had placed all of his hopes on her doing one thing wrong, and that's why he was becoming increasingly short with her, even turning down chances to sneak in unwanted touches, or even leer at her. He'd punish her for not following his plan, of course, but the thought had lost its edge since she was just going to end up dead anyway.
Haru's lips twisted themselves into an evil grin without her conscious thought. The fool. He finally picked the wrong girl to play his little game. She sat up straighter, and kept her head held high as if she really were the lady of this castle.
He wanted to beat his record this year? Haru's was eight years of waiting. For the sake of all the women that would probably follow her no matter the outcome, she was now more determined than ever to break her own record.
There was only one thing that made her discovery all the more precious.
It meant that she could literally do anything she wanted. As long as it wasn't something a highborn lady would even dream of doing.
"My lady?" Agnes asked in a low, terrified whisper.
Haru broke free from her thoughts long enough to give her lady in waiting the desired attention.
The blue frog seemed to suck in more than air before saying in one breath, "You're really scary when you smile like that."
Trying not to change her expression, Haru felt her face with one hand.
An evil smirk. For some reason, that smirk only deepened as she thought of all the new ways she could make Lord Maliss regret ever even hearing the word 'wife'.
"Good."
