Hm so picked up a few more people. Right on! I am feeling the muses take me now, so lets hope I can get another chapter out of myself. Right read and review!
The discussion with Lilitu and Palti was exhausting. Not so much because of the concept of a week-long trip into hostile lands but more so the topic of the ball. I wasted over an hour having them bicker about who should wear what color. Honestly it's such a bother. I only have one set of formal clothes and it's all I have needed for centuries.
The stress of the girls has given me a head ache and I head down to the kitchen in search of the tea garden. I am never surprised, it is an emotion that stipulates you must be expecting a different outcome than the one you have received and I expect nothing. However I am a bit… curious at the sight in front of me.
I choose to avoid the large restaurant style kitchen and instead take the quicker way to my personal parlor. It's decorated in a simple 16th century style with modernized attachments imported form the different kingdoms. Connected to it is a green house filled with every strain of tea plants. They are meticulously watered and cared for by me to ensure proper, symmetrical growth.
However, I am unable to venture into the garden as I find my path semi blocked by two bodies chatting happily at the simple oak table. Our new human resident is sitting across from my personal guard, a cup of tea in one hand as the other nimbly fiddles with something on the table. It is odd to find her smilingly; when I had last left her she seemed so distraught.
My guard quickly notices my presence and stands at attention as the girl stops giggling to look at me. Her hand emerges from behind a tea pot with a little baby fox resting in her palm. It's the fire demon that heats the oven whenever I cook, but right now it seems to be acting as a personal hand warmer.
"Sir, I thought you had retired for the night, Sir!" he bows and Maka is quick to follow suit with a curtsy as well as she can with only one hand. The fox rolls over in its sleep its furry tail sliding off her palm.
"I just came down for some tea. At ease." He visibly relaxes and sits but not nearly as unguarded as he was a moment ago. How odd, I have never seen him with such ease; perhaps he needs a day off.
"I just made some if you would like, there's plenty." She motions for the tea pot with her free hand and smiles. Normally I cannot drink any tea not from my garden or prepared by me but seeing as she is now a guest and not a prisoner I must show proper etiquette.
"How very kind of you Miss Albarn. I would very much appreciate that." She smiles sweetly as she moves to grab another seat and cup. Before she can move Morphus is on his feet offering his chair to me.
"No need to get up Miss Albarn. I shall get the young Master his things. I have business to tend to anyway." He looks at me with a knowing smirk and a wink before turning to grab a fresh cup off the counter. I say nothing not wanting to convey the message he means to tell me in front of our guest. As he sets the cup down he turns to the girl.
"I must go but if you find yourself in need of anything, just press this stone." He tosses her his message stone and bows before exiting the room. She smiles and waves until he is out of sight before staring at the red stone in her hand. Her eyes drift up to mine and the black pupils dilate, spilling out into the green.
"I am very sorry, um… young master. I will heat up your tea right away!" In a slightly flustered manner she pokes at the little fox in her hand. It rolls over sleepily before opening its eyes. Sensing me it immediately jumps up, awaiting orders. "Mr. Fox could you please heat up the tea? The young master would like some."
It jumps from her hand and onto the table. The fox makes growling sound before opening its mouth and forcing out a small blue flame. Running around the pot it builds a whirlwind of fire, only stopping when the tea is steaming. It looks as Maka awaiting the next order.
"Thank you Mr. Fox." It barks before jumping away quickly into its oven home. Maka stares after it a little confused before looking at me again.
"Oh uh, let me pour that for you, um sir?" She stumbles over her chair and reaches for the hot tea. My hand shoots out instinctively and grabs her wrist before she can reach the china. Her hand is floating in midair as her eyes meet mine with a questioning look.
"It's still far too hot for you to touch. I see you have already forgotten that lesson." She slowly withdraws her hand trying to hide the burn marks on her fingertips. "Did Morphus not warn you?"
"No it's not that. He poured it for me and I just picked up the cup before it cooled. I thought it would be fine since he had picked it up bare handed but…it burned me." She smiles sheepishly as she rubs her hand behind her head.
"He is much more resilient than you are. You are merely human, while he is of a strong demon clan. I would not recommend imitating any form of behavior you see here." I take a sip of the warm tea. The pounding headache slowly retreats back into a dull and ever present ache. It actually taste good, not amazing, I can easily tell it had been dried long ago but still pleasing none the less.
"I'm sorry, sir. I will remember that advice." She stares down at her own tea. I notice she had set the stone on the table and it rest beside her cup.
"Cease the formalities. I see no need for them. You are a guest here and considered to be equal to me. You may call me what you wish but formalities are not required." I take another sip of the girl's tea, finding that the second was even more flavorful than the first.
"Yes sir- I mean… sorry I just…" She looks up only to trail off and shift her gaze to the flicker of the fire in the hearth.
"I do not see why you hold any issue with this. When we had first met you had no such difficulty speaking to me." The tea is decidedly delicious and I pour another cup for myself as I await her response.
"Yeah but I didn't know you were a freakin' prince!" Her eyes widen in horror and her burnt hand shoots to cover her mouth. She winces as the injured skin is touched and I raise my hand before she can stutter out an apology.
"This is not your world so our customs do not apply to you. In the eyes of others you are a god. You have breached the world of the living and blessed the dead with your being. It would seem to me you are perfectly qualified to call me by my name." She shifts her eyes to the side a few times and waits in an awkward manner. Finally she clears her throat and I glance up at her. I raise an eyebrow and she sigh.
"And uhhh, what exactly would your name be?" She shifts uncomfortably before darting her eyes up to mine.
"That was terribly rude of me, forgive me. I am Death the Kid, son of the Shinigami Lord Death and heir to the Death Kingdom." She was mid sip in her tea when I state this and nearly drops the boiling hot liquid onto her lap. She is saved only by the small fox jumping out of the oven and catching the handle in its teeth. It lands gracefully on the table before bowing and returning to its home.
"S-shinigami? As in the Death God, Grim Reaper, who judges the living and steals away life?" She has frozen and stutters amusingly. I lean forward folding my hands together and resting my chin upon them.
"Of course, how else could it deserve to be titled as The Death Kingdom if the God of Death did not reside here? Although you are misinformed about judging the living, we only judge the dead." She is shaking a bit and I can't help but chuckle to me, humans can be so emotional.
"Judge the dead? Like, damn them? Oh god!" she jumps back out of her chair in an alarmed fashion and slams back into the wall.
"Yes?" She stares at me a moment before she begins to laugh. I am confused by this sudden change in emotion and tilt my head.
"Hey that was pretty funny actually. I didn't think you had a sense of humor." She is still giggling when I discover the cause of her mirth. I must have accidently made one of the jokes the humans and demons are so fond of.
When she calms I speak again. "Well as I had stated you are a guest here and shall be treated no differently than I. In most demons eyes you too are a god and they will leave you be until you request something of them. If something off putting happens, inform me and I will have the situation handled. You may go wherever you like as long as you report to us where you are." I rise filling my glass once more before I leave.
"Wait, so I can leave?" She questions with an unbelieving look on her face.
"Of course, we may be the home of death but we are not animals. You may leave whenever you so choose as long as you will eventually return. Even if it is hundreds of years later. However I do recommend taking a guard with you. Morphus will probably be best."
Again she laughs and I search for the joke but find none in my previous statement. I continue to watch her laugh until her eyes meet mine and her giggles subside.
"Well that would be great and all but I would never be gone that long. Unlike you I can't live an eternity. I got maybe 60 to 70 years then I'm done." She smiles happily at me and for some strange reason I find myself wanting to return the gesture. Instead I choose to report the truth, just as I always do.
"Miss Albarn. You are in the kingdom of death? If you died, just where else do you think you would go?" That seemed to remove the smile. It seems that it is upsetting to remind her of her mortality. Or, the absence of it. The room becomes draped in a suffocating silence I can't seem to force myself to break.
"You know, I always thought if I died I would have been happy with my life. I had friends a loving, although slightly drunk father," She chuckles at this point and I again see no humor in this. Every interaction I have had with alcoholism is deathly tragic. "But he loved me anyway, and I had a home and even at one time a mother. It's so much and more people have gotten far less than that. I should be happy I lived long enough to have what I did, but I can't. I'm going to miss so much in life and I can't even see the people I love until they die. It's bittersweet and it makes me feel so selfish."
"That is understandable." I cough awkwardly not quite sure how to handle the situation. The girl is so full of emotions and seems to be able to switch between them quickly and seamlessly. It's fascinating they way the human's brain works. I may have to study her further if I ever get the chance.
It is at this time I realize that she had been staring at me waiting for me to finish. "You are right; in the large view of human history you have far exceeded the average life span. Most children would die before birth and even after that most never made it to adulthood. In addition to that you were place in a situation where you had food on the table and a shelter over your head. You are indeed selfish to want more of life; there are many souls who would beg to be born into a situation less fulfilling than that."
She nods her head slowly looking down at her tea. By now the steam has disappeared and the lukewarm tea remains untouched. The oven door creaks open and the fire fox pokes his head out. He retreats when he sees me but a shaky intake of breath from the girl and he darts through the open door and onto the girl shoulder. He rubs against her cheek in a comforting manner completely ignoring my presence in the room. It's only when he pulls away I notice the wet fur.
"So this is what the humans call crying? A random out pour of emotion triggering a non-emotional response normally conditioned to pain. Did you know, there is no scientific reason why humans cry when they are sad?" She only sniffels again and my attempt at comfort had failed miserably. What exactly was it that had made her cry? I don't understand. I analyze the conversation before the unexpected outcome. She was talking about her life and then I labeled her as selfish for wanting more… is it possible I did this?
"But," She actually looks up this time and I can see what can only be described as the emotion hope glowing in her eyes. At that moment I forgot the words I had planned to say, finding the lightly watering eyes stunningly similar to the life stones pulled from the earth. Something pulls at my insides, akin to the feel of the strings that hold on desperately to their life, except not as wretched.
I place my hand over my chest gripping at the strange sensation. I wish I could lie to her and tell her she will see them again, that I could send her back. But I am a shinigami and I cannot lie on the topic of death. "Um, your family and friends are bonds that humans form and they remain deeply intact. It may be years before you see them again but if they are judged as exalted then you may see them for a while before they are reborn."
My awkward attempt at consoling the girl seems to have worked a bit, if only by stimulating her curiosity. "Judged? Reborn?"
"Well of course, you yourself said it. Shinigami judge the lives of the living and bring punishment or reward upon their soul at death. When a soul has served it's time it shall be given a new chance at life. A new start. It will be born into a new body and give life to a new person." Her tears dry up and her eyes widen, I fear I have said something that I shouldn't have but there is no taking it back.
"You mean, one day I can go back?" Her eyes again hold that beautiful hope that this time, I cannot indulge. I take a stride closer to the girl resting my hand on her shoulder in an uncomfortable manner.
"You can never go back Maka. Your soul is trapped here but you are still living and as long as you are here you can never die of sickness or old age. The only way to leave is for you to not want to live anymore, but your spirit is strong. Human's souls cling to life for as long as they can. Even after the body fails a soul will still sustain life until the body can no longer repair itself. With your passing through the gate you disconnected your soul from your body, you will live here forever." The hope shatters and I can almost feel the tiny shards digging into my heart. Her head again falls, her hair drifting in front of her eyes. I had never noticed before but it is the color of beach sand. Not the bleached white found on earth but the natural sand found here, fresh from the ground and untainted by dyes.
My hand still rest on her shoulder and I am shocked when I feel her jerk. Not away from me as I expected but just back as she inhales sharply. Still she does not move my hand and I cannot bring myself to pull it away.
"I- I do not understand? Why don't you pull away from me? Why don't you hate me for telling this to you? For condemning your fate?" I hear my own voice full of confusion and it sounds so very strange to me.
"It's not your fault. I'm sure you would help me if you could. But, you are a Shinigami and can only take life; you are under no authority to give it. I understand." She rests her cheek on my hand searching for a bit of comfort. I jump a bit and she pulls away some of her tears still wetting the skin on the back of my hand. "I'm sorry; you shouldn't have to be dealing with this. You barely know me, let alone have any reason to deal with my crying."
The shining emerald eyes capture me again in the amount of emotion present there. Most of it was sadness, tinged with some denial, but underneath it all was acceptance and a little bit of happiness that never seemed to have left, even if she was unaware of it.
I take another step forward moving closer to her than I have most people in this world. She is less than a foot away and yet I have no control of my body or my worlds. All I can see is those emerald eyes and all I want is to take away that pain. Leaning over I lift my hand and rest it against her cheek, brushing away a large tear. It sticks to my fingertip glittering as it catches the light.
"I said there is no scientific reason why humans cry with great bouts of emotion. However, crying shows no weakness and is nothing to be ashamed of. For it just proves that those emotions exist inside you, that your humanity is still intact. Many demons envy the humans for their ability to love and in turn experience loss. It is a gift not given to us. Everything we feel is learned and imitated. None of it can truly be us for it is a trait given only to the perfect beings on this earth." I am still staring at the tear when she begins to speak.
"But sadness is so ugly. It rips at our souls and tears us down into a darkness that we cannot escape. How can you call it a gift?"
I turn and back away from the girl heading towards the door to prepare for tomorrows trip. I will not sleep but there is still much to do. However I do pause, slipping the droplet of water into a small vial used for testing the ripeness of tea leaves. It slides down the side and rest in a perfect circle on the bottom, akin to that of a dew drop after a summer night before the sun had burned it away.
I call out one last thing before shutting the door behind me, still finding myself under her trance. "How could something so beautiful, not be a gift from the heavens?"
AHHHHH So pretty. Poor Kid, he's so awkward. Okay well there you are folks, Review yeah?