Paradiso: Chapter Three-To Make a Paradise
"How do you intend to attempt such a madness?" D had adopted the pose he only used when Leon had completely flustered him, hands on his hips, glaring in shocked disbelief.
"You did it once before. You said it yourself. You made me what I am now, remember?" Leon said calmly, persuasively.
"I did not change your entire nature." D protested. "You remain at the heart, human. Only your body is not."
"My body and the powers that came with it." Leon muttered wryly. He had not ever had cause to regret the choices he made or the bargain he struck, but it was still a little unnerving to hear it spoken aloud. "And you wouldn't be changing her nature, either. She would still remain who she is."
"My people were human once. It wasn't such a leap." D shook his head. "Her nature is completely opposed to what you propose."
"Is it?" Leon challenged. "She wouldn't say so. Wake her and ask her for yourself."
D glared at him in confusion. "Even if I could, what would it accomplish? I might do more harm than good."
Leon caught his hand and pulled him over to the tiny white flower. "Ask her. Ask her if she would like a dream of paradise to an eternity of pain without those she loves. Ask her whether it would harm things!"
D looked at him and tentatively put out a trembling hand toward the small bloom. His fingers touched it and suddenly, it was no longer a blossom but a fragile human-seeming figure curled on the grass. Strange, reddish eyes fluttered open and the flower maiden blinked at D in confusion. "This one does not know you. You are strange to this one. Not wolf, not human, not like this one. What are you?"
"I am called Count D, my lady." D managed, shooting an unsettled glance at Leon. "I am a guardian of all the kingdom as my kind has been for time out of mind."
She uncoiled, rising to her feet to stare at him with her unnerving eyes. "This one understands." She stretched pale fingers toward D, stopping just short of touching him. "This one has the memories of you from many of the ones who came before. But it was long ago, the last time one like this one set eyes on you. It has been a very long time since you have moved among the peoples of the world. The dying weakened you, then?"
D bowed his head in shame and nodded gravely. "I fled before it killed me and the last chance of the kingdom. Here I wait and will continue to wait."
She offered him a sudden, dazzling smile. "This one is glad you still live. Do you still guard the peoples?"
"As many as I could save."
"That is all this one could ask of you." Her strange eyes turned to Leon. "This one is confused by you. Are you guardian or human?"
"A little something of both." Leon said frankly, not flinching from her gaze for the single reason that he could not. He was frozen in place by her unnerving stare. "I was human."
Delighted laughter bubbled from her. "This one understands. He chose you and you him. This one did not expect that, but it is a good thing. No one should be alone."
For the first time in a long time, Leon blushed.
The flower maiden turned her attention back to D. "The world still sleeps beneath the snow. This one can feel the cold. Why have you awakened this one?"
D glanced at Leon and sighed. "You have stretched yourself thin, my lady. It will be a very long time before the world awakens from its icy slumber. More years than you know."
"But it will awaken. It has told this one so."
"Yes." D sighed again. "You understand that all will not be as it was before? We felt your pain as you slept."
Her voice filled with sadness. "Yes. This one has always known that to open paradise would be the last time this one could run with them. To run with them in paradise is not for one such as this." Her gaze turned to the sleeping wolves, and Leon could see the fierce love and devotion that filled her expressive face.
He turned to meet D's gaze and found that D's eyes were already searching for his. D's gaze was troubled, but not for the same reasons as before. He understood why Leon had proposed what he had.
"This is no paradise, lady," Leon spoke up. "But it can be a temporary refuge."
He froze as her reddish eyes turned to him again. Now he truly understood the deer-in-headlights feeling. He got it every time the strange flower girl looked his way. "This one does not understand. Temporary refuge?"
Leon sighed. "It's hard to explain. Can you be awake while the world mends?"
"The world sleeps yet. This one is awake. What do you mean?"
"Leon, let me." D put a slender hand on Leon's arm and smiled at him, a private and warm expression. Leon blushed again and stepped back.
D turned his attention to the flower maiden, waiting expectantly for him to go on. "What he is asking, my lady, is if you can divide your attention from the earth for a long time? Or should you return to sleep while the winter lasts?"
Her wide eyes turned inward for a long moment before she answered. "The world sleeps now and must sleep for a while yet. It tells this one such. It sleeps and rests for the return of warmth. It does not need this one yet." She returned her attention to D. "Why?"
D sighed and gestured at the pack that slumbered in the moonlight of this special room in the pet shop. "Would you run with the pack until the earth needs you once again? Would you like that respite from your labors, my lady?"
For the first time, Leon thought, she looked completely human. Her mouth fell open and her oddly-colored eyes widened. She was completely at a loss. "This-this one does not understand!"
"We can give you that." Leon stepped in. "As long as the winter lasts, we can let you rest here, with the pack you love. You can run with them until the earth wakes."
Her eyes brimmed with tears. "This one withers when the moonlight fades. This one cannot run so long, no matter how much she would wish to."
D stepped forward and dared to touch her for the first time since he had awakened her. He tilted her chin up to look her in the eyes. "Here, you will not. We will do something for you, something like the nobles did not dare. It might be painful, but it will allow you to run with the pack as you have desired."
Her smile was like the dawning of a new day, so bright and full of joy. "If it can be done, this one will endure any pain."
Leon looked down at D with a grin. "Does that answer your questions?"
"Indeed." D offered his hand. The flower maiden smiled radiantly and put her hand in his.
D led them to a flat stretch of stone where the full moon glowed brilliantly down on them. "Sit here, please, my lady."
Puzzled but obedient, she sat in the middle of the expanse. D offered his hand to Leon, who took it without hesitation. "The moon I understand." Leon said, sotto voce. "But why the stone?"
"She is by nature, a plant. When we do this, she might instinctively reach for the ground to anchor herself and that will undo the working. Until she is fully absorbed in the power, we must isolate her from the dirt. The rock will do that effectively." D replied.
"Oh."
D smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "I will do the work, just lend me your power."
"All you have to do is ask." Leon replied with a smile.
"You do realize this will take almost all of your energy? You will be exhausted for days to come." D told him seriously as he maneuvered them into position over where the flower maiden sat. They stood, facing each other above her, both hands clasped to form a small circle that enclosed her.
"Strict bed-rest, huh?" Leon asked with a mischievous grin. "Doesn't sound so bad to me."
D scowled at him for a moment before he had to laugh. "Behave yourself."
Leon's grin was full of impish humor. "I always behave. Even when I'm behaving badly, I am behaving."
D freed a hand long enough to swat him lightly over the head.
Leon only grinned at him, taking D's hand back into his own. D frowned at him for a moment before closing his eyes and breathing deeply. "Prepare yourself," He told the maiden. "We begin."
She smiled at them and raised her hands to the full moon hanging overhead, singing sweetly for a moment. Leon closed his eyes in enjoyment of her song. Abruptly, she stopped singing and Leon felt the tingle of the power D raised shivering over his skin. He fed the power with his own, keeping his eyes tightly closed. Seeing the power (Oh, for gods sake, Orcot, call it what it is-magic) always made him faintly queasy.
He felt more than heard the anguished cry of the flower maiden. It made his head ache and he longed to clamp his hands over his ears, but D's nails bit into his skin and he knew better than to break the circle. Her voice scaled up into the unbearable, and then just as suddenly, cut off. But it hadn't stopped. He could still feel her scream vibrating in his bones and rattling his clenched teeth, but it had scaled beyond the range of his hearing. Grimacing at the pain they were causing her, Leon nevertheless continued to feed his power to D through their linked hands.
All at once the scream ended, leaving his bones aching in sympathy. A second later the power faded and he went to his knees, stunned. He felt like he had run a marathon and then swum a river, followed by another marathon. He had never been so tired in his entire life. Even when D had…
He shook his head to clear it. That had hurt more, but he hadn't been this exhausted. Slowly, he pried his eyes open to find D supporting him. "D-did it work?" He croaked.
D offered him a nod and a smile. "Better, even, than you hoped. Look!" He helped Leon raise his head. There, where the flower maiden had sat, was a slim, pale form stretched out on the rock.
Leon stared and laughed weakly. "It did, didn't it?" He let his head slump on D's shoulder.
De frowned at him in concern. "Yes. And now I think I should get you to bed. I didn't realized how much of your power we expended."
Leon would have shaken him off but there was no strength left in his arms. "No!" At D's startled look, he softened his tone. "No. I want to see. Let me stay when you wake the pack."
D's stern expression weakened and he nodded. "But afterward, you rest!" He warned as sternly as he could manage with a gentle smile that would not go away.
"Yes, mother."