chapter 5- fairy tale
Ami was alone in the library. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of servants preparing the king's party for their departure, she had managed to slip away. After much creeping about she finally discovered the heavy oaken door, which was nigh identical to every other door in the formidable fortress, that led to the chamber of towering bookshelves stocked with books and manuscripts.
Overwhelmed for the moment, she could do nothing but stare up at the shelves looming above her. The ceiling must have been as tall as the whole castle and she saw that the only way she could reach the topmost shelves was to climb one of several unnervingly tall ladders, leaning precariously against the edge of the bookshelves. Hoping that she would not have to attempt such a feat, she began to look for some sign of organization. She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for but surely she might be inspired as she began to peruse.
She started with the shelf nearest the entrance and reached for a book at eyelevel. As she dislodged it from the surrounding books she was greeted with a thin cloud of dust that accumulates on books when they have sat on the their shelves for a while. She sneezed as the dry particles found their way into her nostrils and she staggered backwards to avoid breathing in any foreign, Earthen bacteria strains that might live amongst the dust.
The first book she opened was nothing of great importance; it was a book of legends that were widely known and popular with children throughout the galaxy. Ami herself vaguely recalled being read tales from it by her nursemaid during that brief period of her childhood when she lived in her father's palace on Mercury. She put the book down on a table in the aisle that ran between the two rows of shelves and continued her perusal.
Perhaps there is something in here that might give me some hint as to how Earthlings power their computers, she thought. Then maybe I could figure out some way to repair our ship.
Content that all of the books in the first section of the library were works on fiction, she moved on to the second set of shelves, and discovered more familiar works, essays on faith and philosophy, written by Moon scholars of ages long past. Of course many of those scholars were actually still alive, since a Moonite's natural lifespan was approximately a thousand years. Ami wasn't entirely sure how old any of her superiors were, due to the fact that they all appeared youthful and healthy, most of them having stopped aging around their middle or late twenties.
She continued on to the next set of shelves and was about to reach for a book when she noticed a giant tome that lay open upon a podium at the end of the room furthest from the entrance. She approached and found that a quill rested beside it, with an inkwell not far off. The exposed page contained a gruesomely detailed drawing of a creature unlike anything Ami had ever seen, yet somehow similar to the creature that had attacked them in the forest just yesterday.
This must be the bestiary of which the king spoke last night, she thought, though she wasn't entirely sure if that really was only last night. For all she knew, she might have been asleep for days. She turned forward one page and found the book to be quite blank. Content that all of the subsequent pages were reserved for new discoveries, she began flipping backwards, her eyes widening as she took in the horrific images inscribed on the yellowish paper.
I cannot believe people have managed to survive here with all of these creatures roaming about. How many people must have died in the early days of Earth colonization…
"Been reading fairy tales have you Mercury?" a voice called, interrupting her thoughts.
She turned around to find Zoisite leaning against the table where she had left the book, the discarded item in hand. Had she forgotten to close the door behind her? Or had she just been so wrapped up in the bestiary that she failed notice the sound of the door creeking open and closed or his feet against the naked wood floor?
"I-" she began to reply, but could think of nothing to say that would not give away the fact that she was searching for something to aid her in her escape.
"You didn't really think no one knew where you were did you?" he asked, opening the book and flipping through the pages.
"Well…no," she admitted, though she had hoped.
"So what are you doing here then?"
"I…I was just looking through your bestiary," Ami replied. "It's quite extensive. The hand renderings are really quite detailed."
"Has drawing gone out of style in the more civilized parts of the galaxy?" he asked, eyes still locked on the open book.
"Not for art's sake. But for scientific records, we of course use image capturers and digital renderings," Ami answered.
"I see," he said simply, and flipped another page.
"What are you doing?" Ami asked.
"Just recalling some of these old children's tales," Zoisite replied. "Don't tell me you're too advanced for bedtime stories?"
"I am not," she declared indignantly.
"Which one is your favorite?" he asked, looking up at her for the firs time since picking up the book. She was surprised to find that she could not answer immediately for being entranced by her newfound discovery that the young prince had very, very green eyes.
"Uh," she murmured ineloquently, "I don't really know. It's been so long since I've heard any of them."
"Oh come now!" Zoisite exclaimed. He walked a few steps towards her. "Surely you must remember one or two."
"But I've not heard any of them since I was a mere babe in my father's kingdom!" she protested. It surprised her. Normally she would have considered before she spoke and rarely would she speak in such loud, impassioned tones.
"You mean to say that you were sent away to live at court right after leaving the nursery?" he pried and continued to close the distance between them.
"No," she replied curtly and then confessed, "I mean, yes. I mean…I am not obligated to discuss my past with the person who is holding me prisoner."
Zoisite laughed. "You don't look much like a prisoner. I see no shackles on you. Aside from those bracers."
"That prevent me from using my powers," Ami reminded him. "If I could cast spells, I might stand a fighting chance at escape. But I can't and your allies far outnumber mine."
He said nothing but went back to skimming the book. For a moment they stood in silence. Ami watched Zoisite read taking note of the subtle changes in his expression. She could not decipher their meaning, only the vague hints of subdued emotion. Suppressed maybe. For the first time she noticed how very young he was. He was certainly no older than she, possibly younger. The other princes had hardened, rugged features, but his were delicate and unspoiled. She wondered if he'd ever even handled a weapon, much less engaged in combat with one of those monsters that seemed to run rampant all about the Earth.
"Which tale is your favorite?" Ami asked finally to break the uncomfortable silence.
"Well it's changed over the years," Zoisite replied. "You see a lot of them are love stories, and as a child I thought all of those were rather dull. I liked the hero stories, though the monsters in them seemed awfully trite and fanciful compared to the ones I had seen in my own life."
He took a few more steps towards her, his hand finally stopping its turning and clenching down and open page. "But now I like this one," he said, handing the book over to Ami.
"The Constant Melody," she read aloud and then continued, "Once upon a time there lived a Great King, and that King had five lovely daughters. As each of them turned sixteen, they were married to the sons of the kings of all the kingdoms far and wide and once the youngest daughter was married the whole of the world would be at peace."
"There are six princesses. Delia the eldest marries Sud, the prince of the southern lands, then the twins Emilia and Ovelia who are a year younger than her marry the princes of the east and west," Zoisite explained. "Then the fourth daughter Cecelia is married to her true love Nord, the prince of the northern lands."
"So all of the princesses get married and the whole world lives in peace and harmony," Ami said, flipping ahead in the book to try to keep up with Zoisite's explanation of the plot.
"Ah no. The youngest daughter Aurelia has not yet been married," Zoisite interjected. "You see wedding preparations for the marriage of the youngest daughter to the son of the king of the dark lands took much longer than those of all the rest. For you see this wedding was not only going to celebrate the marriage of the young couple but also would celebrate the onset of universal peace."
"So what happened?" Ami asked, completely forgetting about her endeavor to follow along with the text.
"Well Aurelia was to wed Shade, the prince of darkness. Now he was not evil, simply the crown prince of the dark lands. Aurelia and all of her sisters were princesses of the light. Their father was king of the light lands," Zoisite explained. "The people of the light were not entirely good, but by their nature did not get along with the people of the dark. The light lands never knew dark and its people thrived on perpetual sunlight. The people of the dark knew only the light of the stars in their eternal perfect night."
"Then the people of the light lands wanted the whole world to be day all the time and the people of the dark wanted a world of only night!" Ami exclaimed.
"So the opposing kingdom thought. The people of the darkness didn't want the whole world to be dark; they merely wanted their world to be left as is. But they were convinced that the people of the light lands wanted to invade their world with daylight."
"Did they?" Ami asked. She was becoming increasingly engrossed in the story.
"No," Zoisite replied. "And they thought that the people of the dark wanted to bring darkness to their kingdom. So the marriage of their children was the most important of any of the treaty-marriages taking place over the years."
"And?"
"Well as the wedding preparations were underway, a noble lady of the dark lands travelled to the light lands in the party that was to bring Princess Aurelia to the dark lands for her wedding," Zoisite continued. "When she beheld the princess she was overcome with jealousy. She had heard tale of her beauty, for she was fabled to be the most beautiful woman in the world, but she never expected to be so overwhelmed by it."
"And then?"
"He jealousy drove her mad," he answered. "She seduced a lord of the kingdom of the light-"
"Seduced him? Really?" Ami interjected.
"Well alright I think the story says she bewitched him or something, but it never mentions her having any sort of magic powers so that's my adult interpretation," Zoisite confessed and Ami involuntarily giggled.
"And she convinced him to admit that the people of the light were planning to invade the dark lands with daytime?" she asked.
"You guessed it," Zoisite admitted.
"I think I may have heard this story before," Ami said, and she meant it. "But I don't recall how it ends. Do go on."
"Of course. Since the people of the dark lands were already so suspicious of those of the light, no one attempted to confirm the veracity of his words. So a war began. And all of the other kingdoms were forced to choose sides. Well, the people of the dark were very persuasive and one by one, all of the kingdoms chose to aid them in their quest to destroy the kingdom of light."
"And what of the princesses and their marriages?"
"Dissolved. None of the princes had yet ascended to the throne and their fathers decided that they could simply annul the marriages," Zoisite answered.
"But that's impossible!" Ami exclaimed. "That could never happen. A marriage of treaty is the same thing as signing a treaty, so they would be breaking the treaty!"
"It's just a story," Zoisite declared, clearly taken aback by her impassioned reaction. "It isn't real."
"I apologize," Ami said, with exaggerated calmness. She could not understand why she was allowing her speech to flow so unthinkingly. "Continue if you please."
"Well the married couples were all deeply in love with one another and could not bare to become mortal enemies, though they were sworn by duty to do so. So risking their lives they ventured deep into the dark lands to seek out the Witch of the Black Woods, who was rumored to have incredible magic powers. They hoped that she might have some spell to help them."
"And she did," Ami concluded. "She did. I remember she had some spell where she could send their souls on to another life where they might be able to be together." Strange, why is this all coming back now?
"Exactly," Zoisite agreed. "But the witch could make no promises that sending them on would not alter their appearances, nor could she be sure where or when they would all end up. She could only guarantee that it would be in the same world, in the same time. The couples wanted to be certain that they would be reunited, that they would know each other in this alternate life, be it in the future or another world entirely. So they all agreed to determine a sign, a symbol, something that would bind them together.
"The eldest couple chose identical rings. The first twin and her husband broke a medallion in two and each wore a half of it around their necks. The younger twin and her husband were wiser. They feared that material possessions would not carry on with them, so they each engraved matching scars onto each other's bodies. But the youngest sister, sweet Cecelia was the wisest by far-"
"She and her husband they, they wrote a song didn't they?" Ami asked cutting him off. "I'm certain they did. A simple melody known only to them that would lead them to each other no matter how time might change them." She could hear her nursemaid's voice reading of the page thirteen years in the past, could hear the woman humming gently as she endeavored to explain this plot point to her even then inquisitive four year old charge.
"Indeed," Zoisite agreed. "And when they passed on into the next life, a thousand years in the future they were all separated, as they feared. Both of the elder sisters had lost their material possessions that were to lead them to their beloveds. The younger twin was quite changed in her appearance and had no scar. But Cecelia still retained the memory of her song. So she sang it for everyone she met and asked if they had encountered a man singing the same. Sadly no one had, but none of them could get the simple, beautiful melody out of their heads. So they went about humming it.
"And then one day a young man overheard a farmer in his fields humming the tune as he plowed. He ran to the old farmer and insisted on knowing where he'd learned that melody. The farmer said it was from a girl who'd been in the town nearby not three days prior. So the young man went to the town and learned that the girl had gone north, in search of her true love. So that is where he went."
"And he kept on going from town to town, following the sound of farmers and craftsmen singing her song," Ami said distantly. "But did her every find her?"
"It doesn't say. The tale would have you believe that they are still out there searching for one another. That people still hum their song and point Nord in the direction of his beloved Cecelia," Zoisite replied. "There you are Sailor Mercury, you do know the story."
"I have a name you know," Ami said, annoyed. Whatever understanding had begun to form between them was rent by his mocking use of her title.
"Of course Ami," he agreed, bowing formally.
Her heart fluttered at the sound of her name in his voice. "And I am also a princess," she added.
"Of course Princess Ami."
She slammed the book closed. "Anyway it's a foolish story. There is nothing scientifically possible nor even probable about it. We can't simply travel forward in time and if we could there is no way that our appearances would be altered-"
"It is said that the Silver Crystal…" Zoisite attempted to say.
"And what about those older girls with their rings and necklaces? " Ami continued, ignoring him. "Did travelling through time make them lose everything on their bodies? Did they show up in some distant, uncertain future entirely naked?" She blushed suddenly at the mention of the naked princesses, realizing that if they were, in fact, naked then so too would their husbands have to be.
"Like I said, a work of fiction," Zoisite declared. "And for children. It doesn't have to explain itself. It can employ whatever devices it wants to, so long as it makes its point."
Ami looked squarely at him, focusing on being angry at the story and putting thoughts of naked men aside. "And that is?"
The library door flew open. "Lord Zoisite!" a flushed and frazzled guard exclaimed as he stumbled down the corridor towards them. "Thank goodness I've found you. The scouting team was attacked by a tyrant. They make camp at a post near Sariel. His majesty wishes to depart and join them at once."
"Straight away," Zoisite said. "You may tell him I will join him with all haste. Take this prisoner and have her outfitted for travel. Be sure she is at least lightly armed. I do not want her completely defenseless should we encounter any trouble ourselves."
"At once, sir," then guard said with a bow. He took Ami by the arm and began to rather forcefully lead her from the room.
"Zoisite!" she called. "Zoiste have him remove my bracers, I will not try to escape. Please! I want to help my friends."
"That is his majesty's decision," Zoisite declared coldly. "Do not trouble me with matters over which I have no control."
Inside she was screaming. Screaming at him for carrying on as if he might be her friend, for making her recall inconsequential childhood. She wanted to be angry, but she didn't know how to be angry. Her practicality always trumped her emotions.
"Were there any losses?" she asked the guard who continued to lead her forcefully off to wherever she was to be armored.
"One of my comrades Miss, a guard of his majesty's house. And Lord Nephrite sustained some injuries," the guard replied. "So says the guard who rode back here to deliver the message."
"Any word on the girls, on my comrades?" Ami almost demanded.
"Only that without them, there's a chance no one would have survived to bring us the message that they did," he said.
They had now reached the anteroom of the great hall where the king's party had assembled for travel. Minako was there, unattended, still in the same day dress she was wearing when they'd seen their comrades off earlier that day. Only her bracers were gone.
"We've no time to waste getting fitted for armor," Minako said. "The king has decided that it would be best to simply give us back our defenses and be on our way." Minako reached triumphantly into the pocket of her dress to reveal a key with which she made short work of the locks on Ami's bracers.
She was glad to be free of them and glad that the king decided to trust that their interest in helping their friends would trump any desire they might have to escape their captivity. But she thought she was not nearly as happy as she ought to be. She couldn't fight the disappointment she felt at Zoisite not suggesting that her bracers be removed, and that it was not him who convinced the king that they ought to be.
She shook her head and willed those thoughts flee from it and never return. "So when do we go?" she asked.
"Now." It was the king's voice.
Ami turned her head to see him standing, fully armed in the doorway, Zoisite by his side. In his armor, the youthful blonde prince did not look nearly so delicate or gentle as she'd imagined him to be. Now he was all metal and chains, and not a child lost in fairy tales. It made her resolve to think of him as only her cold-hearted captor just a little bit easier.
She curtsied formally, respectfully. "Then lead us on, your majesty."
* * *
NOTES: Yeah, I know, it's been FOREVER. I was not feeling particularly inspired over the last few months, as a result of work being particularly stressful. So I played PSP instead of writing, which in turn inspired me to write more videogame fanfiction and brings me back here. So don't give up on me yet!