Chapter17: Loves Not Lost, But Must Start Anew
Fakir then looked to her fist.
It was clenched tight. He meant to hold it when he saw the red glow from beneath.
Her heart. It was still one… Somehow whole. Like a red glass crystal, a ruby cut in the softest of edges.
He gently took it and held it. How long could one heart care for so many other's without breaking? Mytho had destroyed his to seal the Raven, and yet Ahiru's had stayed so strong and sure in the face of all of these demonic villains Drosselmeyer had placed in front of them until they had a happy ending.
He half expected it to disintegrate in his hands like his sword had, although he prayed it didn't. He wondered how one girl could have heart strong enough to save this town three incredible times. It was stronger than Mythos and somehow the Princess had become more than a girl to fight for in admiration or love. She wasn't the damsel, and had turned away now from two potential princes.
Even now when they might truly be free his mind still reverted to storybook like terms.
He returned it over her chest. He had forgotten her smile these last few days...he prayed to see it again.
She opened her blue eyes slowly, as she blinked, they suddenly widened at the sight of Fakir.
"Fakir!" She sat up quickly and latched her arms around him.
"I'm okay now thanks to you." Fakir held her shoulders to pull her face in front of his.
"Is everyone else?" She asked staring, looking around the grey town.
"I think we'll have to explain… how a crazy storm…some lightning…a fire…or something took the town...eventually." He looked distraught, as the people still seemed unconsciously sleeping, likely resting from the energy Nesumir had stolen.
"Is your home alright?" She asked looking at the wreckage.
"I hope so. I think we both could do for a good rest tonight."
"Do you think it's over?" She said meekly.
He looked at her concerned.
"I hoped that, when he destroyed it all, Drosselmeyer's contraption, whatever one was still hidden would collapse. I know the Academy lasted, but I couldn't think to let that burn too. I made a mess by encouraging this destruction." She admitted. "It was selfish. It was because I wanted you back."
"But you saved everyone."
"I couldn't save him." She said.
"But you didn't have to...really. In a sense, he'd died long before, and not by your hand. If anything he died by my sword Ahiru. His life now was a borrowed one, it was not natural to last." He took his hand under the arch of her chin and lifted it. She had tears in her eyes.
"My heart couldn't exist within me to do such a thing...to kill... I don't know how you play the role of knight. You shouldn't question your ability Fakir. It's much harder then anything I have had to do." She looked up at him with a distraught face.
"I truly hope we never have to do this again. If the Academy is the only thing standing, we will search it a final time before the town is rebuilt. Drosselmeyers games need to end now. For good."
She nodded. He kissed her forehead.
"Can we go home now?" She grasped onto his shirt, nuzzling her face in his chest. It was wet, as the rain dulled down, the air was damp now.
"Of course." He took her in his arms and they left towards his home. He happened to see Autor blink his eyes awakening, and questioned whether he saw a nod of approval too dawn his face, as Fakir continued on to where he hoped his home remained.
Luckily for them, in the forest, nothing had been touched.
He placed her on his bed.
"Let me get us some towels."
She nodded and looked out his window. The rain had washed everything anew. Maybe now they could have their freedom and happiness.
She felt the slight shift of the bed when he sat down on the end where she wasn't laying, rubbing his hair with a towel. She took the other and wrapped it around her.
"I should let you rest." He said and rose to go to the other room.
"No!" She leaned forward and took his hand.
He looked back at her with wide eyes.
"I don't know why it seems so gloomy now. I don't know why starting new feels so strange, but I didn't fight Nesumir …I didn't fight for this…just for you to leave me again. Please Fakir! We know Pike, nor anyone else won't remember Nesumir likely… you're all that I have left of everything." Her eyes looked so desperate. "Please stay here."
He nodded. She was right. He lay down beside her in the bed. Her eyes stared at her fingers which scratched absently at the blanket beneath them, like a fidgeting passive motion.
"I thought that, for all I had wished: Once to be human, once to be a Prince's Princess, and Once to just remain Princess Tutu, I never once wished the thing I really wanted. I was always being changed physically, and in that sense I don't know who I am. I don't know what I am anymore, but now I see that all I wanted was to be with you Fakir. I can't explain it. Maybe we were both just secondary characters; but-"
"We are not characters any more. I don't understand why one person is more important than another, in reality or a book. Why does the Prince have to have the Princess? Why is the servant boy in the background not worth more than a passive look over in the text? Why is the villain always a villain and not more? Rue wasn't a villain, she was tormented. I can see that Nesumir too his character was more than pure evil. But now, I think we really are just plain us. I feel like there isn't a gear left in this town. Whatever is left of us is us now... is just us. And I don't think we need to wish to be more or any less anymore. I'm not a Knight, I am Fakir. If I need to be Knight I will be a Knight, but if I need to be a Prince then, by whatever I must be, I will be for a Princess." His eyes softened as she looked up to him.
"You don't need to be a Prince for me Fakir, remember I am just a duck." She said light heartedly.
"No, Ahiru you're a Swan, a Princess Swan." He said and kissed her.