Chapter 12: Like Father…
"You're back." Autor looked up beside Fakir, whose status hadn't seemed to change. His left leg was almost entirely wood.
"Did…Did you fix it?" Ahiru asked.
"I hate to say it, but theres no way he can mimic Drosselmeyer's writing to awaken his ability again – look…"
Ahiru looked down to see that Fakir's writing was practically illegible.
"He couldn't draw a straight line to save his life."
Ahiru looked to Fakir with sad eyes. He was still in pain. So much so his jaw hadn't unclenched since she'd came in.
"…or any other kind of line for that matter. Plus, to reverse a spell, Fakir told me you have to …trade. A story can't take a left turn for no reason, so that rule, it makes sense. " Autor sighed. "What happened with Nesumir…that didn't take very long…"
"Nesumir knows. He even referred to a memory on the lake of a Swan..uhm dancing..." Ahiru saw Fakir's jaw loosen as his eyes met hers in a confused stare.
"So he knows about your past?" Autor speculated.
"And…and his last words were '…return to your toy prince, soon a knight with no armor'…or something like that."
"He did it." Fakir grumbled out.
"It seems that way. But unless we figure out who- and even if we do- I mean we can't fix much with Fakir like this-"
"That's another thing." Ahiru looked nervously to them. "He said he's willing to make a deal. But first he wants the Knight's sword."
"Your sword?" Autor looked to Fakir.
"It's the only thing- I have-" Fakir's words broke in cringes and sweat. "To protect-Ahiru-"
"Fakir its not me that needs protecting…not now anyway-"
"But he said he knows-"
"He knows she's Princess Tutu doesn't he?" Autor's eyes opened.
Ahiru looked to the ground. "I think so. But that doesn't matter; if we need to give him it…then we can get you back to normal and fix it all. Maybe if you make me into Princess Tutu again I can-"
"Last time I did that I nearly got you killed."
"But I helped."
"It's really out only choice. We can always pretend to give it up and then take it back before the deal is set." Autor looked hard, as if he was decoding a puzzle.
"This is weak." Fakir sighed.
Ahiru was happy to see him speak, but noticed his hands clenching again, so hard that his palms almost bled.
"It's all we have. Why don't we at least amuse the idea to find out who and what he wants…and who he is since that one remains a complex mystery." Autor said, in a way that made Ahiru and Fakir wonder if it was a jab at them for their inability to remember this "loose end" or his own disdain for his ability to figure it out.
Ahiru swallowed. She knew, they wouldn't go if they knew how much Nesumir had seemed interested in her… Fakir came first this time. She'd do what she had to to fix this.
"…can you even walk Fakir?" Ahiru asked concernedly, closing the silence.
"I can hobble or something- maybe." He said as beads of sweat rolled down his head.
Autor nodded. "I'm unimpressed though."
"Why?" They asked.
"I'm ending up as a better crutch then any kind of decoder of Drosselmeyer's web, its kind of a let down."
They sighed at his comment. Autor will be Autor.
"Can we just get this over with?" Fakir took out the sword. Ahiru noticed that the space that had held the heart shard that had only appeared during the Sorcerer's fight was still there. Autor was right. This was all linked to what happened last time. Somehow.
They nodded. Autor helped Fakir up. Fakir used the sword as another aid. Ahiru wondered if Fakir noticed how his sword was now more like a walking stick, although she decided not to say anything at the chance of it making him more insecure about his Knight character or predicament.
She hated that he wouldn't let her support her. She followed the two along; praying that whatever happened next wouldn't end badly.
"Ah so you did come."
They all saw Nesumir in the center of the courtyard between the area of the forest and the grounds for the school.
"Why-why did you – do this?" Fakir yelled at him.
"Still as oblivious as ever. Even with you, the president of Drosselmeyer's little fan club? I'm really not impressed."
Autor looked peeved. "You know too much."
"I know more then I should for a boy who only just entered the school don't you think?"
"Nesumir just tell us what you want!" Ahiru was sick of the games too.
"Ah, ah, not very becoming for the calm Princess of the Lake, all that yelling." Nesumir taunted. "But I see you brought the sword."
"So keep your end, and lets finish this deal." Fakir demanded.
"Ah, ah, didn't Ahiru clarify? I wanted the sword…as more of a safety net, the deal? Well that's a different story."
"Undo this. Can't you see its hurting him!" Ahiru demanded.
"If that's what you want. Scared the pain will slowly kill him? If you want to the pain to end as quick as it came, I only want one thing."
"First-" Fakir interrupted. "Tell us who you are."
"And why…or how you're aware of Drosselmeyer…" Autor fixed his glasses with the hand that was free.
Ahiru didn't know why Fakir would prolong his suffering, but Autor was right, he seemed well aware of their predicament within the story.
"So, process of elimination didn't work for you? That's fine. If that's what you want-" Nesumir looked smug to Fakir who was clearly still in pain. Fakir didn't flinch to change his mind though. If he did get his legs back to normal, the first thing he had to do was write. Write to reverse this. Reverse Nesumir's presence, and so he needed to know who he was.
"Well then, I guess you never learned to read between the lines did you? Drosselmeyer's prologue…our past…I guess you two really didn't know anything at the time before it was too late…but how could you, we were all written that way-"
"Our? We? I think you need to stop dragging out the suspense and-" Autor lectured.
"Coming from a secondary character, I wouldn't worry about it." Nesumir smirked. Autor glared back.
"There wasn't anyone else. It was Mytho—Rue, Princess Tutu, myself –the sorcerer and-"
"But you don't remember. While the Knight kept eye on the Princess, The Sorcerer kept an eye on the Prince, but the Prince was with a young girl." Nesumir had begun to pace around them. "Now the Sorcerer could get rid of the girl, but the Knight was never far. The Knight was the problem, the first priority. This Knight who could be so easily done in by the blind eye of an infatuated lover. At the same time, though, the apprentice was the one, who kept an eye on this Knight, while the Sorcerer plotted all this. While the Sorcerer decided that the best weakness was to exploit all that was set in a star-crossed triangle, to get to the Prince one step at a time."
"We know most of this. What are you saying?" Ahiru saw that Fakir's right leg…was getting worse.
"The Knight wasn't the only one who was watching then was he?" Autor intervened again.
Ahiru swallowed. His words earlier. Seeing a Swan on the Lake. He was there at that same lake at the same time as the Knight had been. At the same time she'd first fallen for Mytho, blind of her own one-sided love.
"The apprentice too had watched the Princess, and every night recalled what had happened, while the Sorcerer planned out his schemes. What happens in a book, doesn't just happen over one day, no. This happened day in and out for a long while before the sword struck, blindly."
"The apprentice fell for Princess Tutu too then." Autor deduced, as he wavered under Fakir's increasing lean and need for his support.
"Your deduction skills are impeccable." Nesumir said with a bite of sarcasm to Autor.
"The apprentice- was the son, he died…by this…so he can't-" Fakir held out the sword, wobbling more without it's support.
Nesumir held out his hand and the sword came to him. They all watched wide eyed.
"Magic?" Ahiru asked.
"I remember this sword vividly. I remember for a moment, hating myself for being so blinded by the Princess too that I had barely caught that moment and been able to stop if from hitting it's intended target. I simply couldn't let that happen."
"It can't be." Fakir coughed out before he fell to a kneel as his legs were giving out.
"I am." Nesumir grabbed his shirt collar and opened it to reveal a large scar over his heart.