31. A Good Way to Die
A warm glow spread through and over her body moving to her left hand, where it gathered briefly and then burst free, and she knew she was there. Her own Magic Realm. When Lucia had first discovered she could do this, she had used it to travel to many make-believe worlds, mostly from storybooks, but also some from her own imagination as well; pearl-walled kingdoms under the sea, mountain aeries where eagles soared. But after that fateful autumn of her fifteenth year, she had only used it to visit one place, the most entrancingly lovely place that had ever existed, Kukuru Mountain.
Ironically, she had almost used this skill there, on Mike. Before Illumi had rescued her, Lucia had planned to conjure up a world filled with hundreds of rabbits, and hopefully confuse Mike long enough to let her get away. She had been able to create animals in her worlds, but she could never do people. She could, however, take people with her if they were close by, and she could alter their appearance somewhat, as when she had turned Karl into a hairy barbarian at Katrina's last birthday party.
Because she had only projected Kukuru Mountain for years, she had been able to extend both the area covered by, and the duration of, her vision. At first it could only hold herself and someone standing right next to her. It now encompassed an area thirty to thirty-five meters in diameter (although it appeared to stretch to the horizon to those inside it) and she could hold it for up to half an hour. Lucia had remembered every detail she could about the place, and probably had embellished it a little if she was honest with herself. Sometimes she would tell herself she would envision someplace else, but when she began to call up her aura to do it, it seemed that since she was putting in all that effort, she might as well see Kukuru Mountain again. There was no place she longed to see more.
Now that she was here again she felt as though fate itself had guided her. If she was to die, this is how she would choose to do it, a beautiful, heroic, piaculum and not just some squalid political victim. It was indeed Mr. Zaoldyeck père who she was facing. Lucia had been a little in awe of him as a child, and she could see that he was truly an impressive, terrifying figure to be locked with in a situation like this, but she didn't have the heart to hate him, as he was only doing another's bidding. So she dressed him magnificently in opalescent black, befitting an epic bringer of Death. She couldn't even hate her father; he thought he was doing the right thing after all. She cast him as King David and hoped he would at least feel sadness at the killing of his rebellious child.
And Illumi...she unabashedly proclaimed her knight. She didn't have time to play coy; soon she would never see him again. She heard his voice addressing his father, it sounded strangely slurred. Taking her eyes off her approaching doom, Lucia saw his normally fair face, now ashen, making his eyes appear even blacker and contrasting horribly with the bright red of his blood coursing down his face from a gash near his hairline. He was hurt!
But she knew that Illumi would be hurting worse inside from baseless self-recrimination. That she had opposed her father, that he had then ordered her killed, that his own father was about to do it, Illumi would blame himself for all these things, utterly and completely beyond his control, because he had not been able to save her in the end.
Lucia was fast burning through her energy; soon she wouldn't be able to sustain this. Then she would never see Kukuru Mountain again, or the reason it was so dear to her. Turning to face Illumi head on, she winced at his obvious suffering, but then schooled her expression. She wanted him to remember her at her best. Oh Illumi! My only regret is that I'll never get to tell you how wonderful you are. But she wouldn't die without at least telling him that she loved him.
After she did, Lucia watched horrified as he pitched forward to the ground, which broke her concentration...and the elaborate, poignant, romantic vignette vanished into the ether.
The illusion having disappeared, Lucia fell to her knees, her eyes never leaving Illumi. Was he dead? She had to go to him now! Why wasn't she dead yet herself? She tried to determine how long it would take her to reach him. She didn't want to look over at Mr. Zaoldyeck and take her eyes off Illumi. Crawling forward on all fours, she decided not to think about it. Unless she was killed, she would go to Illumi.
She reached him and turned him over, putting his head onto her lap. He wasn't dead, but he was injured and bleeding. Surprisingly, she still wasn't dead either. She tore off the hem of her skirt, using it as an impromptu bandage for his head. Probably not very sanitary, but she hoped it might help staunch the bleeding.
Dimly she registered that there had been a beeping sound, and risking looking up and back, determined the source of it to be Mr. Zaoldyeck. It had stopped now that his attention was focused on something he had in his hand. She wasn't going to pass up this chance.
"Illumi," Lucia bent her head down to whisper into his ear, "thank you for everything you've done for me." She tried to keep her voice barely audible, both to not pain Illumi's ears in his concussed condition and also to not draw the attention of his father. "You're amazing, always remember that." She just barely touched her lips to his, afraid to hurt him, and glad that she had her back to his father, so she wouldn't embarrass him. Lucia then took one of Illumi's hands in hers...and waited for the end.
