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And Yet They Shine
Chapter 9: Fragments
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Bella allowed Edward to lead her forward. They stepped into the banquet hall and he led her past the tables laden with food.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
"No, but thank you."
The array of food was tempting, but her head and heart churned, and she felt like she didn't have enough time to make a decision. Edward's world was appealing, no doubt. It was beautiful, but filled with frightening things, and really, wasn't that an apt description of life?
Bella wondered if she could be useful, there in the Underworld. Would her days be spent in idyll, with no real responsibility, or would she have tasks, duties to perform, responsibilities? She longed for the latter, but didn't know if it was possible.
Edward watched her, wary, as she sorted things in her head. He longed to force his way into her mind, to learn where she was, what she thought. He longed for more than she gave, but then, wasn't that the problem?
"I know this is a lot for you," he said. "How can I help?"
Isabella shook her head. "It's not…it's just…what would I do all day? What do you do?"
And so Edward tried to walk her though his day: he sat on his throne and heard the pleas of the dead. He righted petty wrongs between the shades, and he determined where each shade would reside for eternity.
It was not nearly as glamourous as she had imagined.
"So then, in your vision of the future, what would I do all day?"
It was a question Edward was ill-prepared to answer, so he said the words that first came to him.
"Why, be my queen, of course."
Isabella dropped his hand and looked around the sumptuous room. Serving Edward would be a great honor, she knew. She would sit upon his gold throne, perhaps with a golden crown. She would wear magnificent robes, and…and hold his hand? Look down upon the newly dead with superiority, or compassion?
True, his halls were filled with beautiful things: toys and mysteries, and riches untold. But would that be enough?
As she thought, her life came back to her in fragments:
The warm summer day when her father taught her to ride a bicycle. Indian Summer and her birthday, with buttercream icing melting in the heat, as her mother insisted on just one more photo. Carousel rides at the zoo, and her absolute wonder at seeing Disneyland for the first, and only, time.
Jacob Black, her first kiss, came rushing to her mind. The tallness of him, as he'd shot up over that summer, and how warm he was, always. She remembered sitting in his lap on cool nights beside a bonfire, listening to the stories of his tribal elders. The things they didn't know….
Would it be enough, to be his queen?
She thought about what she was giving up: infrequent phone calls from a father she no longer knew, and more infrequent calls from her mother, who had remarried and seemingly forgotten about her only child, her best friend.
"Would I be allowed to go up, into the world? Or would I have to stay here with you?"
If she'd understood how frightening her question was to him, she never would have asked it. Because instead of her simple, reasonable question, what Edward heard was this: Will I be trapped here, with you? Forever?"
"It is generally not acceptable for one who lives here to leave."
"So if I stay with you, it would be…for the rest of my life?"
"It would be forever, Isabella. If you are my queen, it would be forever."
Isabella knew she had to make a decision, and for the life of her, she didn't know what it should be. Should she stay with Edward, with his dark green eyes and mercurial ways? Or should she return to her own life, lonely and alone, waiting, always, for something to shake the doldrums from her days?
And perhaps, while she was there, underneath the world and captive to his enchantments, she was not well prepared to make any decision at all. Perhaps she should decide from the comfort of her bed, the quiet solitude of her rooms.
Perhaps she should decide after Edward, in all of his godly glory, offered her his mouth. Was that too much to ask?
Isabella thought not.
"I think…do I have to decide right now?"
Edward wanted to scream yes. He wanted to catch her mouth with his, catch her body in his hands and hold it up against him while he kissed her, while he tasted her, while he loved her.
Instead, he fought his grimace.
"Of course not, Isabella." He reached for the butterfly that was fluttering just over her head. "Perhaps you'd like to come watch me work, and perhaps have a snack while you…make your decision."
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AN:
Review replies are still effed. I'm sorry.
This will be 25 chapters, and the story based on the outline I created for the original Twilight 25 prompts. This story also loosely follows the original myth of Persephone and Hades. Wiki that shit if you don't know what's coming, or don't, if you'd like to be surprised.
Thank you for reading.