Fate: Do0t. Here ya go. Sorry for the wait. Oh, and everyone read Taikou and Beautiful Oblivion. Especially read Beautiful Oblivion if you like this story. Yes, I shamelessly self-plug. Go me.
Disclaimer: Nothing is ours. Well...okay, the psycho girl is. But eh, you can have her. Just ask first, so we can give you the proper sedatives.
"How many more?" Ryou asks.
I swallow. "Two from the past, then..."
"Then me." He smiles. "Will you tell me what you remember about me, then?"
"I suppose." I sigh. "Our past, though..."
"It has to end with the present," Ryou says practically. "But let's deny the here and now for a little longer. You said there were two more."
I nod. "There were."
He slowly draws his hand through my hair, then rests his head on my shoulder. "Then who was next?"
"A dreamer..." I say haltingly. "A girl who wanted magic so badly she didn't know how to give it up."
...
//Oh wow! Oh my god! Oh wow! Oh my god!//
I was barely flung back into the real world before I was viciously attacked and glomped.
//Oh my god! Are you real? You're real!// A gasp. I opened my eyes hazily to see a girl with blond hair and voluminous clothes sitting on my chest.
I rubbed my forehead. How the hell did all these people seem to be able to screech in my head? It was giving me a migraine. At least I wasn't old anymore. Or the slave of a disgustingly insane man.
"Shut up," I snapped.
The girl kept whimpering in her mind and chattering in some funny language, clutching the Ring around her neck.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then reached out and pushed her off. While going insubstantial would have been much more satisfying, her mental squeals probably would have only intensified.
The girl scrambled to her feet, undaunted, and ran from the room. I slumped to the floor and dropped my head into my hands.
I sighed. Five years with this idiot girl.
Why couldn't anyone interesting ever put the fucking Ring on anymore?
/Dammit, Zane!/ I screamed internally. /You just had to go and die and give me away to Aya, who gave me to that fucking bastard, who gave me to...to this. Dammit! Fuck you for putting me through this hell, Pharaoh!/ I slumped back to the ground, staring at the ceiling. There were candles suspended from the ceiling. /Seshat, great Lady, please...just get me the hell out of here. Don't do this to me. Don't make me wake up and live through hell. I'll be your servant. I'll be your slave. Don't do this.../ I knew it was futile, praying to a goddess who was pulling my strings for her own amusement. But I tried.
Gods, but I tried.
They found me like this, the girl and her family. She said she could understand my mind-speech, and assumed that I understood hers.
//So you'll be married to me! Because you're a magic prince! We have stories about people like you!//
I wanted to slit my throat. Fucking married?! People like me didn't just get married. You had to get divine permission, you had to find the money for the bride-price, you had to have land of your own... /You're kidding. If you're not, I'm going to fucking kill you./ I snarled.
She giggled. //Of course not, silly! Don't be afraid of me! Oh my god, a magic boy! I'm going to be married to a magic boy!//
They told me later that they thought the magic made me go mad, that being held captive gave me seizures. I tried to attack her. I tried to kill everyone. I didn't want to be a pampered whore again. I didn't want to destroy Zane's memory of breathless nights and hazy days. I didn't want to be a pet demon. I didn't want to be a slave.
I didn't want to be anything but dead.
They bonded me to her with metal and marriage, so I followed her everywhere. They collared me and put me on a chain, and if I resisted, they hurt me. They tried to take away the Ring. Every time they saw it, they took it. Her guards didn't understand that I couldn't be parted from it.
They tied me down and broke me.
She was stroking my hair idly one day, combing it out lazily. //Such a pretty color,// she mused. //How did you get it like that?//
I glared at her.
She giggled. Reached over to her vanity table and dumped glitter in my hair. //C'mon, tell!//
/I'm fucking magic,/ I spat.
She brushed glitter along my hair, teasing the tangles out slowly with a comb. //Do you love me?//
/I hate you,/ I said truthfully.
//And why's that?// she demanded poutily.
/Because you made me your pretty little bed slave, your magic toy, your tamed angel. At least the others who captured me recognized that I was pure fucking evil./ I stared at her. /But you don't even do that./
She reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her. I averted my eyes as she studied me slowly.
//You're not evil,// she decided. //You just hate so much you don't know how to do anything else. I want to teach you not to hate.//
/Then you'd better fucking let me go,/ I snapped.
She shrugged. //Papa would never approve.//
/You're a married woman!/ I said, exasperated.
//I'm not so rich that I can live on my own,// she said with a smile. //Besides, you're not really for me. That's just for show. You're for them, just like I am.//
/And you have no pity for me, then?/ I demanded. /No spark of mercy that will let you set me free?/
She shrugged. //No.//
I scowled at her. She wasn't even wearing the Ring. She'd never worn it again after that first day. /And why is that?/
//Because it won't do me any good,// she declared. //Destiny is destiny. You were destined to stay here. I'm not going to let you go.//
/Destiny is a thing of fairy tales,/ I told her.
//So are you,// she replied dreamily, and released me to keep brushing at my hair. //So are you, my angel prince.//
/I have a name,/ I replied.
//Sssh,// she breathed. //Keep the dream real. You're my angel prince.//
I closed my eyes, furious tears pricking at my lids.
Insanity is so much better when you're the one who's mad.
I really didn't know what to do about her. She never knew my name, and didn't tell me hers. She wanted children. I didn't want anything from her at all. I screamed and cried and fought her when she tried.
I hurt her badly, once. She couldn't have children after that. I didn't care. I huddled in a corner of my soul room, clutching the Ring, livid with whip marks and desperate for oblivion. I wanted to die. I wanted them to kill me.
Apparently she had a bad infection and was sick for the better part of a year. No one bothered me then. No one dared come near me without her ability to tame me.
They thought only she could subdue me.
They were right.
I counted. Two years left. They were using the time system that Darien and Aya had used. I'd preferred our own. I didn't get where all the extra moons had come from.
She healed in body, but her mind was even farther gone than normal. She still brushed my hair and caressed my body, her eyes blank, her thoughts half-delirious. She adored magic, adored it so much that she would never let me go.
I never talked back to her. I just slumped, unresponsive to her touch, tears of anger and paralysis coursing down my face.
It was sick and mind-numbing and I threw up whatever food they gave me until I was a wasted, pretty shell, covered in cosmetics and given my every desire – everything but to be let off that wretched chain.
I was like a child.
I didn't understand what had happened to me, and I didn't know that I should have cared. Not anymore. Two thousand years old, and reduced to...this.
//Do you love me, magic prince?// she whispered.
I stared at the floor.
//Do you love me?//
/I hate you beyond your wildest imaginings,/ I breathed, too exhausted to say anything else. /You will never understand just how much I hate you./
//Is it because I didn't die when you killed me?// she inquired, her mental voice a mocking sing-song.
/It's because you won't let a dead thief die,/ I shot back. /I'm dead. Dead!/
//No!// she screamed. //No! You're alive! I'll never let you die! You're alive! You're alive because I say so!//
/And what about you?/ I asked exhaustedly.
//I am alive because you are alive, and without you I am nothing. We were meant for each other.//
Some internally rebellious part of me rolled its eyes at such drivel. /If that's true, why don't you wear my Ring?/
She shrugged and smiled vaguely. //They took it away.//
/Do you know what happens to people like you?/ I finally burst out.
//Tell me a story, magic prince,// she breathes, sitting up in her invalid's bed and clutching my chain tighter.
/Another tamed angel bound to a goddess's whims and wills comes and frees me at the end of my sentence. I am paying for my sins./ I looked over my shoulder and, for the first time in a long time, smiled. /Do you want to know what my sins are?/
//Tell me!// she gasped. //Oh my god! Did you overthrow a cruel government that deprived you of your rightful position?//
My smile intensified.
I told her my story, in full gory detail, talking on relentlessly even when she began to scream and cry. I was still talking when they dragged me away and locked me in a stone chamber under her room, my chain attached to the wall.
I was still talking when a man walked through the door and came to stand in front of me.
"Am I a savior now?" he whispered.
I looked up as he gently covered my mouth. "You..." I whispered against his fingers.
"It has been five years," Kaisei said formally. "You know what happens."
"Five years...already?"
He nodded. "Come."
I stood up, then collapsed under the impossible weight of the collar. I had to be carried, these days.
"Ku," he muttered, his fingers tracing the metal around my neck. "Can't you remember how to get out of this?"
I shook my head weakly. "No..."
"Hm." He pulls me up sharply, and the collar falls to the ground, empty. "Now we go meet the one who wears the Ring."
"She's never worn it after that one day," I said, as though I wanted her to live.
I wanted to make sure that she'd die.
"That's all right," Kaisei reassured me.
"Good," I hissed.
"You don't want her to be the true wearer?" he asked.
I shook my head violently. "I'd rather die. I'd rather have died two thousand years ago rather than been in this hell for five years."
"We don't get that sort of choice," Kaisei said, drawing me into the floor and through a swirling dark haze. "No one has a choice in this matter but the ones who pull our strings," he added with a glance at the ceiling as we materialize in her room.
Kaisei looked at her sadly. "She's quite mad."
"So am I."
She sat up, rubbing her eyes hazily. She seemed about to call out to me, but Kaisei interrupted her.
"Potential pretender who may have desecrated the purity of the Millennium Ring, I now put you on trial. If you are truly the one destined to wear the Ring, as you may well be owing to the fact that you have not been incinerated upon your wearing of this sacred item, you will be granted eternal life and a wealth of power. However, you still may be a pretender and unworthy to continue life. If you are thus, then this servant of Seshat will terminate you immediately following your Judgment," Kaisei said softly. "Are you ready to be put on trial?"
She frowned. //I don't understand...where's your collar, magic prince?// She opened her mouth and pointed at me, crying out in her own tongue. Black fire gouted from her mouth to pool on one of the pans of the Millennium Scales. Kaisei had produced them while talking.
"Will you seal her destiny?" Kaisei inquired.
"If she is a pretender, let her die by my hands," I spat. Blackness ghosted onto the scales and I clutched the knife in my withered hands. "I hope you burn forever," I snarled as I launched myself at her. /Tell me your name!/ I screamed as the knife hit her chest.
//Mana,// she gasped. //Magic – // she began, her eyes dimming. Her eyelids drooped shut as my fingertips began fizzling.
"She's just another in a line of pretenders," Kaisei said softly. "Does that sadden you?"
I hung my head, the boiling feeling oozing up along my limbs. "No...it saddens me that it doesn't."
...
Ryou keeps stroking my hair, his fingers brushing my tears and smearing them across my cheekbones. "Was it all just one long hell, then?"
I close my eyes. "No...no, the girl before you...saved a soul that I didn't know I had."
Ryou's fingers tighten. "Then I thank the gods for her. Tell me...tell me about the one before me."
Fluffy: Whee! Now on to IoV and to get started on Nameless at last! Tra la la la la!
~~
Schizothief: Yay, extra points for evil-guy offing!
higashikaze: Umm...Kleenex?
MeeLee: Hee. ^_^
Liviana: I'm hoping these little vignettes are vivid enough to make y'all happy...
Yami hitokiri: For chyuu, an update! *hides from rocket launcher*
Inktail: Sorrysorry! Here's the new chapter!
SweetMisery: Well, he did die, so...yeah. ^^;;
SilverAndBlackFlames: Thank you! *blushes*
Silver Mirror: Only two chapters to go!
~~
Duel: You know what to do. Now go out and do it. Mwa. Ha. Ha.