As he approached the central tower Fai vaguely recalled being told, most likely by one of his defeated tutors, that it was a decalage illusion. Now he understood what they had meant. From the outside, the central tower was just that: a tall, spindly tower that extended from the center of the palace. On the inside, however, it was completely different. Fai stood at the foot of a wide staircase that went forward almost as much as it went up, with about fifty steps that were all about half the size of a normal stair.
At the top, a path encircled the lower floor. It had single, continuous silver handrail, like a balcony. The circular hallway had doors lining the outside, including a pair of massive double doors centered in front of the top of the stair case. They reminded Fai of the doors to King Ashura's throne room, so he decided to start there.
Fai pushed open the heavy doors and stepped inside. It did seem to be a throne room of sorts. Large and windowless it was devoid of furniture except for an ornate throne, inset with sapphires, sitting in the center of the rear wall.
Then he saw who he was looking for. She wasn't sitting on the throne, but in front of it. Really, she wasn't sitting at all; she was lounging on the floor with a huge, elegant white tiger. Fai thought back to when he first saw her and suddenly remembered the tiger, then only a cub, scampering between her legs as she pulled along.
Fai forced himself to forget about the tiger and focus on the girl. Since the vicious weather was supposedly the product of her mood he had expected her to seem angry or sad, but she just looked bored. Her round face, with its perfect, symmetrical features, was pressing into her fist and her elbow was resting on the back of the equally jaded tiger.
She was wearing a corseted gown with a full skirt. It was all white with silver detailing on the bodice and no sleeves. Fai couldn't help but think that she had to be freezing; this room in particular seemed colder than the rest of the palace. She didn't look cold though.
Her hair was put up in three smooth buns set atop a tiara and skewered by a silver wand with a ribbon trailing from each end. They twitched as she looked up and blinked, seeming to notice him for the first time. She immediately dropped her blasé demeanor and jumped from her spot on the floor, face alight.
"UGHH, finally someone to talk to! I'm so bored and none of them-"She gestured to the slightly frightened serving maids around the room,-"will talk to me!"
She took a step closer to him and screwed up her face.
"You look kind of like a girl. Did anyone ever tell you that?" She looked at him expectantly but Fai was reeling. Those few sentences had flown out of her mouth so fast he'd barely understood them. Then that last bit had thrown him off completely. No, no one had ever told him that. Who in their right mind would just say something like that?
It didn't matter, though, because she stopped waiting and simply continued talking.
"You look really familiar, what's your name?"
Fai collected himself and smiled. He was really beginning to enjoy the sensation.
"Yu…" He started and then stopped himself. A fresh wave of despair washed over him, but he kept the smile fixed in place.
"Fai." He corrected. "Fai D. Flourite.
The girl frowned deeply.
"Don't do that, it's creepy."
Instinctively, Fai frowned.
"Do what?"
She made a face.
"Just now, for some reason you were really unhappy, but you kept smiling anyway. Seriously, it's strange."
Fai's eyebrows knotted.
"How did you know…?"
"I can see auras. More to the point, I can read them. Incidentally, your natural color is a sort of frosted amethyst purple. But even when you first came in, it had these sad little blue splotches. Well, not splotches really… more like… CLOUDS! Sad, misty little blue clouds. Anyway, just now when you went to tell me your name, it turned absolutely black. Black is, like, pure devastation."
"O-Okay," Fai stuttered "Can I smile now?" He was afraid to lose the sensation.
"Um…" She squinted, apparently examining his aura. Then she giggled slightly.
"Yeah. Now you're just confused."
So Fai did smile. Then, even though he already new it, he asked her name.
"Mangetsu" She answered "Mangetsu Yue Seether. 'Mangetsu' means 'Full Moon'. It's my first name but it's also sort of a title. The other two are just my family names."
Alright, Fai thought, this isn't so bad. She talks a lot, so I won't have to and she doesn't really seem to mind. King Ashura wants us to be friends, so I might as well try.
He thought about what the Royal Guards, the ones who were friends, did when they were off duty. They play-fought, joked and called each other by nick-names. That seemed like a good enough place to start.
"Mangetsu's a bit of a mouthful; can I give you a nick-name?"
She shrugged.
"Yeah, sure."
He marveled at the casual way she spoke. His entire life, before, and now, after, the tower, Fai had lived in a palace. As a result, he'd grown up used to the stilted talk of royalty, Court Magicians and even peasants, desperate to follow a protocol that had never really been explained to them in the first place. It was refreshing to hear someone speak as though they weren't afraid of insulting someone and, judging by her comment about his femininity earlier, she wasn't.
"Alright, how about 'Mang-mang?" He offered.
Mangetsu screwed up her face.
"I like it, but isn't the point of a nick-name to be shorter than your real name?"
"It's shorter!" Fai said, indignant.
Mangetsu rolled her eyes.
"By, like, ONE syllable."
"That counts!"
They glared at each other for a spell before dissolving into laughter. With tears in his eyes, Fai tried to remember ever laughing like this before, but couldn't.
They spent several minuets trying to collect themselves enough to talk. When they did, Mangetsu simply plopped down on the floor, beating down the heavy skirts that ballooned around her before slouching back on her ever present tiger. Fai carefully situated himself so that he was facing her, but leaning toward the rear end of the intimidating cat; the end that didn't bite.
"You know," Mangetsu said easily. Fai noticed that she wasn't out of breath at all. She was probably just more used to this sort of thing than he was.
"I'd give you a nick-name too except 'Fai' is pretty short to begin with."
He was just thinking that 'Fai' was really only a nick-name anyway when Mangetsu smacked him upside the head.
"Owww!" He whined, clutching at his feathery hair "What was that for?" He glared at her and then stopped, seeing that her face didn't match her actions. She wore an extremely apologetic expression of concern.
"Oh shit! I am so sorry!"
Fai hadn't expected her to curse, but stayed silent.
"This happens sometimes. I'll get angry or annoyed with someone and before I know what I'm doing I hit them or stab them, hurt them in some way. It used to happen before, but since he brought me here," She spat the word 'he' "It's gotten worse."
Well, Fai thought, that explains the terrified maids.
"Are you okay? You're not mad at me, are you?"
Fai felt so bad for her, with the way she was ringing her hands like a worried mother. He shook his head no.
"No, I'm not mad at you, I'm fine."
Her relief was visible as she heaved a sigh and gave a breathy 'That's good'. Then Fai remembered her flustered explanation as to why she hit him in the first place.
"Mang-mang, why were you annoyed with me?"
Seeming to forget about Fai's grievous injury (Boy, that girl could hit!) Mangetsu narrowed her eyes and twisted her mouth to the side.
"I was annoyed because you did again! You were unhappy but kept smiling anyway! They're right, you are weird!"
"Who's right?"
"The serving maids!" Exclaimed Mangetsu, Fai saw several of them blanch.
"They gossip all the time." She continued, "They think that I can't hear them, but I have heightened senses; Hearing, vision, that sort of thing. Anyways, I always hear them talk about 'That boy King Ashura brought back'. 'He's sad' 'He's depressing' 'He's probably scarred for life from all the horrible things that happened to him before he came here.' None of which, by the way, anyone knows anything about!"
She looked at him pointedly.
"Absolutely no one knows anything about your past, other than it had to be awful for you to be the way you are."
Fai dropped his gaze to his lap. This conversation was quickly gliding into familiar but unbearable territory. The questions were coming next.
"I want to know. Your country, your family if you had one and whatever it was that was so terrible. I want to know."
At the mention of family, Fai felt tears well in his eyes. He'd been grilled about his past before; He knew that with some people you could dodge questions and quickly change the subject, but could tell that this girl was just too pushy for that. He stood to leave.
"Hey!" Mangetsu said and grabbed his sleeve. She did it so forcefully that Fai was forced to face her and their gaze met. She looked at his glassy eyes for a moment before rolling her own. Behind the eye-roll though, Fai saw something akin to concern. She stood to face him, hands on her hips, leaning on one leg with the other bent.
"You don't have to cry about it! I'm not gonna force you to tell me!"
That surprised him. His eyes were still damp but he no longer wanted to leave.
"Will you stop crying? You're making me feel bad and I didn't even do anything!"
"I'm not crying." Fai lied, poorly though, because his voice cracked.
Mangetsu huphed at him then broke into a huge grin.
"Oh, I know what you need, SWEETS!"
"Sweets?" Fai said weakly.
"Yeah, cakes, cookies, pastries, chocolates; Sweets! They always make me feel better and they're really good here. Better than in my home world. That's Ruskia by the way. I was a goddess there. I still am here; I'm just not treated like one!"
The last part was said considerably louder than the rest; Fai assumed it was for the benefit of her maids. The longer he spent with Mangetsu the more he pitied them.
"I have my own kitchens here since I'm 'forbidden' to leave this floor."
"Why?" Fai interjected, tears forgotten.
"No idea. Anyway the kitchens are just down the hall. I could send for pastries, but it's more fun to go and watch the chef make them."
She took a step forward and tripped on her heavy skirts. Without thinking, Fai reached out to keep her from falling, but the tiger, who he'd somehow managed to forget was there, launched its self forward, growling viciously at him and catching Mangetsu on its back. Fai in turn launched himself backwards about ten feet to land on his butt. Slowly, he stood up, his breathing coming in quick, panicked gulps.
Mangetsu's, however, was coming in gasps because, much to Fai's annoyance, she was seated on the beasts back with her face buried in its neck laughing hysterically.
"What are you laughing at?!"
"Your face! It was a riot!"
"Well when your little pet turns on you, I'm sure your face will be funny too!"
"Oooh, that rhymed, that was pretty good. Anyways, no, she won't 'turn on me'. I've had her since she was a kitten…err… a cub, I guess. She only did that 'cause she thought you hurt me."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she's very protective. She saw me falling and you were the person closest to me. That and you were reaching towards me. She saw all that and she assumed that you pushed me.
"Except, she didn't see you push me. If she had, she would have attacked you and probably killed you. Since she didn't see it though, she only gave you a warning. She only attacks people if they hurt me or I tell her to. She's a good girl."
"Uh-huh" Fai nodded, unconvinced.
"Her name's Natalia," Mangetsu offered "You can pet her if you want."
"That's okay."
Mangetsu looked slightly put off, but let it drop. She jumped off Natalia's back and landed lightly on the floor.
"Now, as for this…"
She looked down at the offending skirts and stretched her arm up over her head, then bent her elbow and extended her index finger to back down at her dress. Glittering, silver sparks shot out of her finger tip and swirled around the lower half of her dress, enveloping it.
The eldest of the serving maids, a woman in her late thirties, stepped forward with an outstretched hand, ready to plead with the girl not to alter the dress. Mangetsu shot her a look that could have silenced King Ashura himself, and the woman stepped back.
When the sparks dissipated, mere seconds later, the dress ended in a ragged edge four inches above her knees. She wasn't wearing shoes.
"Aren't you cold?" Fai stared in disbelief.
"Not cold, just uncomfortable. Well, I was uncomfortable, but this," She gestured to the modified gown, "is much more like what I used to wear at home."
"Ruskia is warm then?"
"No, it's much colder than here. I'm the Full Moon goddess though, so I don't feel the cold. It's the heat that bothers me."
It struck Fai as somewhat odd to see someone dressed like that standing amongst ice, but his quiet musings were cut short by Mangetsu.
"C'mon, let's go! Now I'm actually hungry." Then she smirked. "I'll even walk between you and Natalia."
Fai was grateful for this. It would help if the animal seemed at all embarrassed about its mistake, but it just looked smug to Fai. He glared at it and it drew back its upper lip in a silent snarl that vanished when Mangetsu looked at it.
On their way to the door, the serving made who had tried to stop Mangetsu before fell in step beside them. Mangetsu put on a snakes smile, something she was far too good at for her age, and turned an icy gaze on the woman.
"That's alright, Sylvia, you don't need to come."
The woman smiled thinly.
"Actually, Maitresse, I'm afraid I must accompany you, so as to follow His Highnesses instructions."
She was clearly enjoying overruling the tyrannical girl's thinly veiled order. Mangetsu, though, was having none of it.
"His instructions…they were that I must always have an escort of either a member of the palace staff or a Royal Guard, correct?"
"Yes." The woman replied, wondering where this was going.
"Fai" He flinched "You've done stuff for Ashura, yes?"
Fai balked at the use of King Ashura's name without his title.
"I mean," She rephrased the question before he could answer. "He's asked you to use your magic to go help remote villages and people, right?"
Fai nodded and Mangetsu addressed Sylvia again. Her eyes had never left her.
"Well there you go!" She exclaimed with sarcastic enthusiasm. "He's palace staff and he uses magic, so he could be a guard too. It's like sending me with two escorts or following his instructions twice. That's good, right? You like to follow orders."
The woman looked at the floor.
"C'mon, Fai."
She grabbed his arm and led him to the door. As they were passing through, Mangetsu turned to face the belittled staff, which would all remain there.
"Incidentally, as well as hearing you call him a strange, I also hear you call me a brat. But believe me, if you were being held captive by a bunch of morons such as yourselves, you'd be cranky too."
Then she slammed the door, which, due to her petite stature and the enormous weight of the door, she shouldn't have been able to do.
When she turned back to Fai, the cold anger had completely melted off her face to be replaced by the excited, mischievous smile that reeked of a small attention span. It made him uneasy that her mood, her personality even, could change so abruptly and without warning. She hadn't just covered her anger with a forced smile, the way Fai was learning to (Only with sadness and definitely not in front of Mangetsu); she'd really performed an emotional one-eighty. He began wondering if she always behaved a certain way towards certain people or if she could turn on anyone at any time. He had a feeling it was the latter and it unnerved him.
He didn't have time to dwell on it, though, because Mangetsu grabbed his hand and led him down the left side of the balcony/hallway, all the way to the end where there was a set of loose swinging double doors. She pushed through them easily, revealing a gleaming kitchen.
"Hey!" She called, but not rudely "umm… Chef!"
A smiling man in his early thirties poked his head out of a walk in pantry and bowed slightly.
"Hello, Maitresse Seether" Then his eyes skipped to Fai and his smile deepened.
"Monsieur Flourite as well, such a pleasure to see you… both."
For reasons he could not name, this man made Fai extremely uncomfortable. Mangetsu seemed okay with him but, Fai reasoned, he was also supplying her with sugar. He got the impression that her opinion was quite moldable, depending on how useful you were to her.
Fai followed her to sit at a long island counter fitted with bar stools and surrounded
By other counters, water basins, cutting surfaces and ovens.
"We are in dire need of sweets" Mangetsu thought for a moment "specifically pastries."
"Alright Maitresse, what did you have in mind?"
Despite the fact that the man was making steady eye-contact with Mangetsu, Fai couldn't shake the feeling that he was paying more attention to him. He chalked it up to paranoia, although, why he would be paranoid, he couldn't say.
Mangetsu blinked at him.
"Fai what are your favorites?"
He shook his head. Before he and his brother had been locked away, Fai hadn't really paid attention to what he ate. After King Ashura had rescued him, he'd just been happy to have food. That had been one of the many strange things about the tower: He was always unbearably hungry, but he never starved.
All in all, the outcome was that he cared so little about what he ate, he never developed favored flavors.
"I don't have any favorites."
Mangetsu stared at him.
"There's something really wrong with you, you know that?"
Fai started to apologize but Mangetsu cut him off with an eye-roll and a long index finger pointed at his face.
"Do Not Say Sorry, I Will Hit You."
He started to apologize again but caught himself and nodded obediently.
She tossed her head, happy once more.
"This is actually good. It means I can order all the best things and we can figure out your favorite, okay?"
Fai nodded brightly and she turned her attention back to the chef.
"Okay, we want some cream puffs, some éclairs, two of those little chocolate cakes with the melt-y chocolate center, lemon chiffon cake, two chocolate raspberry tarts, ooooh, crème brulee, galaktoboureko, diples, pizzels, chocolate mousse, cinnamon-sugar crepes, some vanilla bean ice cream over cake or something and some assorted chocolates."
The man chuckled.
"That's a lot more than 'specifically pastries'.
Mangetsu glared.
"You keep most of them on hand so what's the problem?"
"Nothing, nothing." He shook his head and set to work.
Fai braced himself for another onslaught of exited chatter but was surprised when Mangetsu remained silent; watching intently as the chef hurriedly piped frostings, burnt sugar and layered pastries. Fai almost laughed at how suddenly focused she'd become.
When the first platter arrived, the spell was broken and she began pumping Fai full of sweets along with brief explanations of what exactly made each one delicious. That was how they spent the rest of the afternoon.
Not long after the parade of sugar had ended, a servant came to tell Mangetsu that she had ten minutes to get to her lessons. As he departed, she groaned.
"I hate my lessons! The only things I'm good at are magic and languages!"
Fai laughed.
"Me too."
She smiled then frowned.
"You'll come see me tomorrow, right?"
Fai nodded brightly. He was actually looking forward to it.
"Hey, Mang-mang," he asked "do you really not know why you're not allowed to leave your rooms?"
She pursed her lips and leaned in conspiratorially.
"Well… I'm pretty sure Ashura thinks I would run."
"Would you?" Fai raised his eye-brows.
"Uh-huh." She said, without any hesitation. Fai's mouth dropped open.
"Y-You don't like it here?"
Mangetsu shook her head bitterly.
"I hate it here." She spat.
"B-But King Ashura, he saved you, didn't he? He brought you here from another world."
"I hated my home world too, or, at least, my life there. He did save me from something, but he took me from one prison to another. There's a second reason he's keeping me confined to these rooms. You have a powerful magical aura; I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yet."
Slightly insulted, Fai mentally scanned his surroundings for any magical abnormalities but found none. Except… this whole area had a muted, heavy feel to it, like a fog. It was concealment, a spell desighned to mask the presence of other spells. While obviously made with powerful magic, the concealment itself was paltry and, once he knew it was there, Fai by-passed it easily. What he uncovered was a magical suppression spell so dense and complex that he felt dizzy. He put a hand to his head and, off in the distance, he heard Mangetsu murmur: 'So you can see it too.'
He was too busy thinking to listen though. He was thinking about her stunt with the dress earlier. Within these constraints it should have been impossible for anyone to produce the magical charge needed to perform that particular style of magic, (Producing and Manipulating Matter: Pulling an object out of thin air, levitating small items, drawing things towards oneself or making the bottom half of a dress evaporate into nothing.) a style he himself had never gotten the hang of.
When he asked her about it, the girl smirked.
"In case you haven't picked up on this, I'm extremely powerful. I've got more raw magical power than you or Ashura. I might have to focus a little more, but other than that it doesn't affect simple spells. It does, however, shut down any attack magic or mind manipulation."
Fai asked why King Ashura would target attack magic and mind manipulation, but as the words left his mouth he realized the answer. Remembering earlier, how quick she'd been to hit him, he thought of how, if she'd used magic he'd be dead. Also, he thought about how easily she dominated he'd seen her interact with (And, to a much lesser extent, him.). If someone could be that manipulative without hypnotic rhythms (Hypnotic rhythms: Mesmerizing patterns of movement, speech or vocal tones that are enhanced with magic to create a calming, soporific atmosphere that draws one in and opens them up to suggestion.) Fai could only imagine what they would be capable of with them.
Her reason, while obviously taking his thoughts into account, related more too how all that directly affected King Ashura.
"'Cause he knows I don't trust him."
"Why don't you trust him?"
She sighed.
"Every time he comes near me his aura turns orange-ish. He wants something from me. He's using me, but I don't know how…"
She trailed off, staring at nothing.
Fai didn't like where this was going. There was no way King Ashura would ever use someone, much less a child! He was just too good! Fai was about to change the subject when another servant materialized at the door.
"Maitresse, your studies?"
Shaken from her paranoid reveries, Mangetsu groaned.
"Oh I'm coming!"
She stood to leave then turned to Fai.
"Promise to come see me tomorrow, otherwise I'll get bored."
Fai smiled.
"Promise."
She returned the smile and left. Fai grabbed a chocolate truffle (Okay, Mang-mang was right about sweets. He'd have to figure out how to make these." and left for his own studies."