/ Duel Universe
/ Author: The Cowboy of Oklahoma
/ Ch 34: Rivals in Love
/ word count: 2024
Castle of Rulers:
"What did you just say?" Shelly Carson asked, straining not to just rush this monster and strangle her on the spot.
Maiden of the Moonlight looked to the two human females and realized that they knew of this particular human male.
"Uh, I…am…in…love…with…my...Master," She stated
Shelly's eye visibly twitched. "Master!?"
Akiza stepped up to her sister's side and tried to hold her arm, in an attempt to hold her back, but Shelly very forcibly shrugged her off.
"Yes…" Moonlight said a little hesitantly.
Shelly tried to suddenly move forward but found her feet and legs didn't obey her command. Looking sideways toward Dark Magician Girl, she saw a faint glow coming from her staff. The ruler herself didn't bat an eye and instead focused on the new arrival of a potential love rival for this human man.
"Well now, this is an interesting development." She said aloud.
"Interesting!? You think a creature of this world, making moves on the man I love, INTERESTING!?" Shelly screamed.
Dark Magician Girl had a gleam in her eye. "You should be happy it's not one of the ogre clans women asking for this, they would attempt to fight you for him here and now. To kill you for the dominant right to mate with that man." She explained. "Moonlight here is expressing genuine concern for Ka'an and I can feel the love she has radiating off of her."
Shelly was still rooted in place by whatever spell Dark Magician Girl has in place, so she didn't try to approach.
"So now what? We duel to find out who is most suited for this, or do we fight or some other "traditional ritual" to see who here has the right to be with him?" She asked incredulously.
"I believe I need to speak with my subject…alone." Dark Magician Girl stated.
A second later, the spell on Shelly's legs faded, but a small amount of force gently pushed her closer to the door. Akiza also stood next to her and asked her to leave the room for the time being. Shelly just looked at Dark Magician Girl, then the elf, with hate and anger boiling in her blood. She finally turned and walked out at a brisk pace from the throne room, with Akiza following soon after.
Dark Magician Girl then turned to Moonlight and had a soft look in her eyes. "Now, my subject, please tell me all you can of Ka'an and how you've come to know him."
Out in the hallway of the castle, Shelly stormed about muttering to herself, the occasional bit of profanity surfacing and even carrying a little far, gaining the attention of any within earshot to look in her direction. Akiza was following her as best she could, trying to keep pace with her fuming sister, giving apologetic looks to all that noticed Shelly's mood.
"Who does that little tart think she is!? He's mine! And I ain't gonna just give 'em up to some weak pipsqueak of a monster like her!" Shelly ranted loudly.
"Calm down Shelly, people can hear you!" Akiza tried to calm down her sister a bit.
"I don't wanna calm down!! I've been worried sick 'bout Ka'an almost as long as he's been gone and now I find out he's been out there with some hussy and playin' master and servant with her too!" Shelly kicked over a vase of flowers as if to punctuate her point.
Akiza tried to stop her but the base sailed just out of reach, crashing to the floor and shattering to pieces, spilling its contents on the floor. "SHELLY!" Akiza's tone went from worried to mad in a span of a second, catching Shelly off guard. "Get a hold of yourself! Ka'an saved one of their lives, she vowed servitude, not love! It has probably been a while since it happened, and she is just now confessing her feelings for him! And the fact she's telling her ruler this and stating that he may not ever come back, she probably hasn't even told Ka'an any of this yet!" She screamed her words to make sure her sister was paying attention.
Shelly stood there, a little impressed at her sister's outburst she hasn't seen since the Coronado interrogation.
"Aki...I.." she couldn't think of what to say to this sudden display.
"Don't 'Aki' me! I'm tired of this!! You love Ka'an! You two have been an item almost as long as we've been away from Earth! Then he saved us from those fiends and you two suddenly broke up for a reason you've yet to tell me, and I don't want to hear it now!!" Akiza stopped Shelly from talking before she uttered a sound. "Now someone else shows up saying they love him and you blow a gasket because you want to tell him how much you still love him too!!"
Akiza stated the facts she knew to be true and Shelly just stood there looking at her sister. Shelly didn't know what to say, this outburst, these emotions from her dear sister, was surprising, to say the least. Having to have stood here and listened to her sister's words for a moment, let everything sink in deeper than before. She began to shake a bit, her feelings finally having a chance to reveal themselves, everything she'd been denying herself to feel right up to this very moment, came crashing down like a waterfall. Shelly fell to her knees and began to wail uncontrollably. Akiza stooped down and embraced her sister in her arms, cradling her like she did back when she realized she wasn't doing the right things with her father's friends.
"Sh, sh, sh, sh... there now big sis, let it out. I'm here for you. Let it all out now." She said while rocking her gently back and forth.
Sometime later, the two women were walking around the garden outside when a warrior walked up to them.
"Her Majesty requests the return of Miss Shelly Carson and her sister to the throne room as soon as possible." He stated.
The women shared a nod and then walked back to the throne room together. They walked in silence the whole way there, Shelly's head was low, her hand on her chin, she was deep in thought now, more so than she was upset. When they reached the throne room, General Gregory Marcellus was standing before the throne, arms behind his back, and he watched as the women entered the room, more as guests than intruding on an unknown proceeding.
"Lieutenant," he said in a fatherly tone of disapproval.
Shelly went slightly meek at this, Akiza had seen her sister be yelled at before for disobeying direct orders or doing things she wasn't supposed to, but she had never seen her tense up and actually be worried about what was about to happen to her.
"General..Marcellus," she said with some worry in her voice, "what're ya' doin' here sir?"
"I've been informed by Dark Magician Girl that there is a conflict of interests happening here between two females and one male." He said. "And that you demanded something from her majesty before that was even brought to light!" His words pierced deep.
Shelly flinched slightly at the words, true as they were, but gave no excuse for her actions.
"I understand that you and Ka'an have history and that you blamed him for his actions for your rescue from the fiends," Marcellus said, "but," he interrupted her before talking her piece, "I do realize you were frightened from your ordeal and you were scared for your sister, that you found unconscious when returned to the castle. You had a lot of emotions running through your mind at that time, and I suspect the same as when you came here today as well. However, as I cannot condone your actions today, I can sympathize with what's happened before." He said. "I am the one who told Captain Freeman to take an indeterminate leave of absence from duty and training until he could find himself once again." He explained.
Shelly looked to her Commander and was looking for the right words to speak, but all she could come up with was, "why?"
"He told me he didn't like the way he felt when he dueled back then. He had the thought of rescuing you two but then when he finally got there, all his thoughts were to decimate everything in his way. He found Akiza unconscious and in distress from what was apparently some form of torture, and he eliminated that threat completely. Then he fought to save you and found you to be dangling from a chain like a cheap toy. He told me he lost it and didn't care what happened after that. All he could see was death and revenge, and he took both," Marcellus finished.
Shelly and Akiza both stood there thinking about what they could remember about their capture. Akiza saw the haunting face of that sickly-looking Brron and what he had done to her, how he messed with her head and how he had...touched her. A shudder ran down her spine. Shelly had been taunted with words of her sisters disgracing and prodded for information about the humans and the device they and the monsters are creating. Then it wrapped her in chains and dangled her like cheap jewelry from his arm just as Ka'an had found their location. She had tried to scream a warning but was silenced by a meaty gag thrust in her mouth. She could still remember the taste of it, bringing a small bit of bile to her throat, she swallowed it back down.
After some time to think about all that had happened, the two women shuffled in their spot, which gave Dark Magician Girl the opening she needed to start her words. "Moonlight has expressed her feelings and desires for the reason she has fallen in love with a human male. Your human male," she pointed out, "and she accepts that she may never be able to actually confess her true feelings to him directly."
Shelly looked to Akiza, her theory proven true about Moonlight.
"However, if she were to tell him how she feels, I give her my complete blessing to do so. No matter the circumstances, I have never been one to say who could love whomever. I have stayed away from such discussions for they are of a private nature and should not have a ruling authoritarian individual or figure to ever stand in the way of love. And that it holds true even to this very circumstance here and now!" She affirmed. "I cannot and will not go beyond the fact that my subjects occasionally ask if they can be allowed to pursue a relationship with a human counterpart. As there is a conflict of interests, I am unable to interfere in the pursuit of such interests. Therefore, I tell you here and now, if you two have eyes for the same man, it is you two that must come to an understanding. It is you two, who must figure out how and where to go from here," she finished.
Marcellus stood by and watched both Shelly and Moonlight for their reactions. Moonlight stood with her wings slightly drooping and her head was low as she looked to Shelly for her reaction. Shelly was a bit dumbstruck at the words she had just heard, she would get no support from her Commander nor the ruler of this realm. So now it would come down to just her and this elf woman. Shelly turned to Moonlight and stared at her, making the monster flinch a bit at her gaze. The two females just looked at one another for several minutes, not saying a word, though Moonlight did flinch, she did not back down completely. The hall began to grow tense from the lack of words from anyone, and the world outside these moments did not matter right now, then Shelly spoke.
"Take me to him."