I woke up early the next morning, earlier than Illy even, and sat up in bed, running my hands through my disheveled short hair to smooth it, before collapsing back onto Illy, who groaned under my weight. "It's sunset," I whispered, letting my hands trace out her hips. The sun wavered it's rosy light through the big windows around us, and the big room, mostly empty save for the bed, sparkled in it's glow, like the embers of a dying fire. "Come on, Illy," I whined, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing, but she darted up and flipped me over, landing atop me with her arms caging me in.
"What if I don't want to?" She leaned down and caught my lips in a kiss before I could answer. But a moment later I knew I didn't need to, because she rolled off of me and slipped out of the bed. She spread out her limps and stretched out tall in the dissipating sunlight, her lacy black underwear her only clothing.
"What are we doing today?" I slipped out to stand next to her, letting the white sheets fall off me and the cool evening air wrap around my skin, "Waiting game?"
"We'll ask Rosetta," She responded, looking me up and down before slipping her hand behind my back and pulling me forward into a kiss. "When did you get so pretty?"
"Pretty?" I asked, feeling my cheeks heat at the compliment. "What I want to know is when you got so sexy."
"Was I not like this before?"
"No, you always were," I let her trace the line in my back with her hands, shuttering as she drew her nails up my back lightly. "But you're even more so now." I watched her cheeks redden slightly, but she slipped away out of my grasp, pulling a shirt she had brought over her head. A couple moment later we were both dressed and downstairs, but instead of finding Mother as I had expected, we instead found a note on the coffee table.
Dear Illy and Elly,
I have gone out, proceed to the library immediately, and be quiet about it.
Sincerely,
Rosetta
"I should have known she'd do it," Illy ran her hands through her hair, slamming the note back onto the table.
"Do what?" I asked, "Where did she go?"
"She's gone and ran off again, probably right back into Mother's arms. Where else would she have gone."
"Again, why in the world would she do that, she just pressured us to stay in hiding."
"Of course she did, she wants us in hiding because if I'm in hiding, I'm with you, and therefore you're safe. Mother would never kill Rosetta by her own bare hands, or even before her eyes for that matter, but the girl's still stupid." Illy stalked up to the window, peering out as if she might be able to see her from there, but seeing nothing, she spun around and grabbed her cloak off the couch.
"Wait a moment," I said, "Explain to me what you want to do, and also why you think Rosetta would do this. You don't know the Rosetta I know, and I don't know the one you did, and if we're going to succeed in not getting anyone killed we need a plan before you storm out of here and rip someone's guts out." She stopped and I watched her shoulders drop, before she flung the cloak back onto the couch and turned around.
"You're right," She sighed, plopping down on the couch, "But I don't like it any."
"I don't either." It was getting to me how desperate our situation was now, my limbs felt jittery as I sat down, and my head scrambled like deck of cards that was dropped on the floor.
"Rosetta always used to do this, Mother and I nicknamed her Houdini for it after one time she tied her to a bed post and turned around to catch her dancing in the courtyard through the window. You couldn't keep that girl in place if you had her at gunpoint. Every-time you turn around she's either somewhere new or gone completely. I should have known she'd do it now too, Rosetta is ruled by her impulses, and it's no surprise she ran off the moment we left her alone. Except this time I know she won't be back, because if she left Mother now she'd never get forgiven."
"But the mother I knew was not ruled by impulses, if there's one thing I know she learned when we were hidden it's that. I know this time she isn't just running off, she's making a move of some sort. Illy even you know how smart she is, she wouldn't go if there was no reason besides feeling in it. She's doing something strategic, I know it." I grabbed the note and flipped it over in my hand, examining it's yellow paper carefully, but besides the inked words, there was nothing. "See look, she's telling us to go to the library, that's got to be something."
"Do you think," Illy said, stopping short and standing up. She slipped off her dress and threw her cloak over her shoulders, the hood up. "I know what she's doing, and if we expect to get anything back from it we need to go now, get that dress off, it won't transform with you if you need to."
"But," I protested, but slipped the dress over my head anyway, maneuvering the chain out of the way.
"I'll explain on the way." She started down the staircase before I even managed to button up my cloak, slipping the pocket watch into my cloak pocket. We raced down the staircase like our lives depended on it, and hoped that they didn't. My heart beating a mile a minute by the time we reached the bottom and slowed. "She didn't just make an impulse, rosetta made a sacrifice. There won't be a ball to celebrate the Queen's awaking, because no one will announce that, the kingdom will stay oblivious for as long as we can keep them that way. She wanted to see mother, and we wanted an opportunity to get in that library."
"Then she went because it meant we had ears on the other side, she's going to keep Mortemine out of that library as best she can, so we can get in." I silenced as we slipped through the door to the active part of the castle, passing by servants as they scurried in groups down the halls. "How are we going to get in?" I whispered, staying close to Illy as we walked.
"I'll find a crack, seep through as fog, and open the door for you on the other side." Illy walked fast, her strides long and quick, as we neared the more deserted area of the castle near the Queen's tower. "I don't think we're lucky enough to have the doors open today, but the servant's door should have a crack beneath."
"We'll see soon enough," I replied as we slipped into a narrow door in the hallway, scurrying down the narrow undecorated servant's hall. When we finally reached the door, located in a small room at the end of a hallway, Illy found it locked as expected, but we were not so well predicted in the other department. She stooped to the floor and pressed her face to the hardwood floor, squinting down the crack.
"Nothing," She rose and got on her tiptoes, but found the same results on the top of the door.
"Let me see," I said, pushing her aside to pear through, but there were no cracks. I got and idea and gripped the doornob harshly, and lining up my hands, gave the wooden door a hard punch. It snapped back under the force, the metal mechanism of the knob and lock cutting cleanly through the wood, the door swinging free on it's hinges.
"How did you?" Illy stared, "but won't people notice?"
"You tell me." I stepped through and chunked the door back into placed, hearing a muted sound of approval through the door before pulling it open again to let Illy through.
"You cut it so clean I dare say it'll work the same, and looks identical." She said, as I pushed it closed again, turning to the slaves hallway before me.
"Do you think they heard?" I surveyed the rows of still doors, each with a number.
"Oh, there aren't many, and she eats them up so quickly the ones that are here are new and too afraid to talk to her without prompting. They probably heard, but I doubt they have the guts to come check it out." Illy walked right through, pushing open the door at the end.
"That's horrible," I followed, peering out into the large hallway. It was as tall as a cathedral, the giant glass windows spanning the length of the long hall, displaying a vibrant courtyard contained completely in the walls of the castle. The ceiling was gold, and all of it was eerily empty. "Is this whole hallway her's?"
"More than that, the whole complex is. Each of the four towers in the corners, the four hallways that connect them, and the courtyard are all Mother's private quarters."
"What?" I looked about me in disbelieve, stepping out into the hallway, overwhelmed by the number of giant doorway that spanned it. In the center was a large cathedral like doorway below a giant gold roof, which I supposed was the church with the Queen's tomb, and shuttered at the thought. "Then how do we hide?"
"We don't," Illy stepped out and shut the door behind us, beginning to run away from the cathedral, down the hall, her footsteps clanking on the stone flooring. "We hope, library's this way."
"Great," I said sarcastically, running after her, catching her hand. Out footsteps matched as we ran down the hall, turning the corner to find another hall of the same length. I peered out over the courtyard as we ran surveying the patches of trees, cultivated paths and flower beds, meadows, and in the center, a giant stone fountain carved like a family. The three figures stood close, a little curly haired girl with big smiling eyes, who stood before a tall man in a fancy suit, chains carved from the shoulder pads to the buttoned top. Beside him, a hand on the girl's shoulder, stood a tall youthful woman with wavy hair, her eyes streaked in stone and kindness, wearing a long slimming dress, a ruby necklace around her neck.
I recognized it was the royal family, but it looked nothing like the people I knew. I knew a cold hardened woman who drained a body a day and decapitated anyone who even thought to disobey. Illy looked so small, so helpless, her skinny little arms hanging beside her, her hair done up in ponytails and wearing a fluffy dress and knee high socks above her flats. "Is that you?" I asked as we ran, turning to her.
"Of course," She replied, "My father too." I studied his face, his benevolent eyes and slicked back short hair, a big smile on his face, I could see the little girl inside him. They were one and the same, and as wonderful as the carved woman looked, she looked nothing like her child not that I thought about it. We rounded another corner and reached a large oak door in the center of the farthest hallway, slowing to a stop at the center of it's locked double doors.
"Why did you thing my mother is ruled by her emotions?" I fumbled with the pocket watch, breaking it open and handing the key to Illy.
"Well she defiantly was when I met her, running off every other second, she wore her emotions on her wrists." She turned the key, hearing a satisfying clunk before handing it back to me.
"Really?"
"Yes, why don't you think so? Is there something she did?"
"No," I answered too quickly, my words coming out as defensive. Illy turned to me, questioning my gaze.
"What makes you think that way?" She asked, in tune to me now.
"It's just, we hid for so long and I'm sure that wasn't to her emotional benefit." I lied.
"No, that's not it. She wanted to keep you safe, that's why she did that, I understand that, but you're hiding something." She slid the door open, handing me back the key. I tried to be distracted by the size of the library, biding my time with the answer. To be honest the library was impressive, the walls lined so high with disorangized bookshelves that multiple wooden ladders lay around so you could get to higher shelves. It was an impressive collection of old looking books, but it didn't help my confidence in our search any.
"We should have left a note for Ebony, we're going to be here a while." I changed the subject, but I wasn't getting away with it.
"What is it?" She pressed me, "Do you not trust me? What could it be?"
"I, I just don't want to talk about it okay," I shuffled in my place. "It's not important anyway, I trust you, it's just not important."
"Yes it is, you said yourself that we both know different versions of the same person, and we need to know who we're dealing with if we plan to fix this. You've got to tell me."
I took a deep breath, my heart pounding, and realized I had never told anyone this before, and had certainly never planned to. But everything Illy said made sense, I couldn't deny her, no matter how much I wanted to. "You need to promise not to look at what we already know any differently though, because I know things that you don't."
"Of course." Illy had her eyes on me fully now, their mismatched colors drilling into my soul like gold diggers.
"When I was little, it didn't happen, we had money left over from when she fled, although she told me it was my father's money." I began, "But when I got to about four or five, around when I began to go to school, we ran out of money. You know what humans do when they run out of money. She didn't have a choice, since we were in hiding she could hardly leave the house to get food, let alone on a regular basis to work." I tried to avoid the idea, drill it into Illy's head without speaking it, but it wasn't working, her questioning eyes fixed on me.
"Then what did she do?" She asked.
"You know," My words fell out from under me, I didn't want to say it. "She was pretty." I scrambled for some recognition in Illy's eyes, but she only looked more confused, her brows slightly furrowed. "People would pay."
"For what?" She asked again.
"She, had to sell herself, Illy, to pay for us to live." My words came out slow and controlled, as though I was speaking now for the first time, her face contorted in recognition.
"She, oh god," Illy groaned, turning away to look at the ground. "And you?"
"I came home from school everyday Illy, of course I knew. I hated it." My voice went dead and hollow like a shell. "It wasn't pretty, and it sure as hell didn't make me feel like a pretty child, like a loved child, to feel her hands on me after the grunts and groans were gone. For is she didn't even know their names, and touched them with the same hands she touched me with, how could I be loved? And beyond all that, how could I be so selfish as to pity myself when she was the one suffering, and I was the one who she was suffering for."
"No it wasn't," Illy raised her voice, stepping closer and looking me in the eyes. "It wasn't your fault, it was your's less than anyone's, don't you get it, it wan't your fault it was our fault, we're the kingdom that threw her out. God, she didn't even do anything wrong," I could tell she was a little exhausted as she took hold of my shoulders, dropping her head low in the air, her white neck stretched so it appeared in a triangle where it was freed from her hair. "I should have..."
"No, you weren't the one who should have noticed, no one is," I interrupted, lifting her head in my hands, "It doesn't matter Illy, what matters is now." Her expression softened as she slipped forward to hug me, her arms around my waist.
"You're right," She flew out from me and began looking at the books on the shelves.
"Any idea where it would be?"
"No clue, there aren't categories here, Mother just knows where stuff is."
"Then we've got to sort through all the blue ones?" I asked, "Two indents on the cover, blue, and old, that's what we're looking for."
"Unfortunately, yes, but there is another clue." She walked to the right and looked the nearest sectioned bookcase up and down. "Mother stores them by how often she uses them, so she doesn't have to go far back for things she's using frequently, so there should be a section from the time where Rosetta lived, we just have to find it." Illy walked up to the shelf and took a couple out, surveying their titles before putting them back and moving on to the next section.
"So the closer to the right, the more recent, and the higher, the older."
"Correct, She was dead for most of the time before Rosetta, so there must be a moment where the time period changes dramatically, marking her waking. After Rosetta I suspect the book choice is more distressful than during, so we just have to find that place and then locate the time in which she had access to the library." Illy continued looking through books as I slipped past her, comparing the books in opposing shelves to see their time difference, but it was no quick work, and it was already pretty late in the night before I found the spot.
"I think it's here," I was on the second level of the shelves, and finally I had found a large difference in times that was pretty uniform throughout the books. "Nothing on this bookshelf is less than a sixty years old, but that's too long ago isn't it?"
"No, that's perfect," Illy dragged a ladder over and came up to the second level, taking out a couple of books and checking their dates just to be sure. "Rosetta was introduced at ten, engaged at thirty, and then kept as a fiancé for twenty years before she fled, and after that there were twenty years of you growing up. I woke mother when she was first introduced, so sixty years is perfect."
"But I'm not twenty Illy, I'm seventeen."
"Rauzire pregnancies and early development are longer than human. You're twenty."
"No one thought to mention this to me?" I scoffed.
"Sorry, I didn't think of it," Illy pulled a couple books halfway out to mark the starting point. "Can you find the time when Rosetta fled?"⨠"Sure," I got off my ladder and started at the left side of the doorway, but finding it too late had to get back on and search the second level again. When I found it I began going through the blue double indented ones, talking as I searched. "How in the world does she keep these books on the shelves, with that system and new books coming in all the time? You'd have to reorganize about every years." I looked up to the top as I spoke, surveying the couple rows of shelves that lay empty at the top.
"She keeps every years new books on the tables until she cleans, and then she just pushes everything back a shelf or two." Illy was progressing quicker than me, but both of us had gotten a substantial way by then, and I realized as I watched her that she was pulling out more than two books at once, lining up about four in the air, her eyes focused and hands emaciated.
"There's no rush."
"If we don't find it soon we'll have to sleep here." She said. I slipped the pocket watch from my cloak and seeing it was indeed already almost sunrise. "Found it," Illy exclaimed, and I ran over with the ladder to see it, finding a blue leather book coated in swirling sold or silver details around the two ridges of the book. It was so old the corners of the leather had worn through on the corners appearing in brown, scratched coating it's blue shiny cover. The indents were worn, and when Illy popped it open the yellow paper had begun to disintegrate in it's frames, it's corners thin and sometimes cracked, the faded calligraphy adorn the front paper and read simply: The Fables of The People: Aparicita Janiman. adorn with not even a name to distract from the text.
Illy flipped to the table of contents, and tracing down with her finger landed upon a title, linked to be on page two hundred thirty seven. It read: The Legacy of Pharaoh Menkaure, the last of the sole blooded peoples who have saved our earth from dismay. Illy flipped quickly to the page, finding it coated in an elaborate art piece, and flipping it to see the beginning of the story, handwritten. We read almost frantically:
Oh greatest beloved leader, oh Menkaure, how we shall worship your name long after your death, and savor slowly the fruit you have bid us eat. We shall resight you story until the death of time, and how we shall be grateful that you, our world's savior, shall be it's last sole blood, it's final successor, and the last bringer of peace to the nile and beyond.
Born son of the great Khafra, grandson of Khufu, but truly only the child of Khamerernebty I, a virgin woman at that time. As Pharaoh Menkaure is of sole origin, and belongs to no man or woman than himself. Oh great leader Menkaure was of peculiar birth of the most holy nature, and glowed with swimming lights as he walked, his dark figure of a cat tracing the streets of our great capital. He held the greatest powers of all, able to break anything, among that that could be broken by no other, and lift the work off it's base if he pleased. But Menkaure did not please for such things, he wished only for appraisal, and the joyus shouts of his people, made happy and rich by his reign.
Unmatched by any other, unrivaled by no sole, he kept only two women for himself, although even together they were unable to satisfy the great leader, as his power made him insatiable. Oh great Pharaoh Menkaure, with your last words: "Oh, great metropolis, a leader with power as unmatched as mine, shall only drain our wonderful rivers of their red life, and so I must retire for eternity, to death by my choice, for the good of you." you have blessed our heart eternally with your kindness, even as you make us moan with your absence. With your knife you staked yourself, leaving behind a world of mended cracks that you stitched, and we shall pray upon as our temples, our homes, and our gardens.
Oh great leader, we shall tell you're story for eternity, sing it for the birds and people you loved so much, for your sacrifice, we shall double our toils. Oh great pharaoh of Egypt, you are the last of your kind, and we shall never allow anyone to deny you that wondrous right. We vow on your behalf, to keep your story close in our hearts, forever sung to the river as it flows, forever undoubted in it's glory.
The words preached like they were directed toward a god, but confirmed our suspicions wholeheartedly. "He was a anirline, lift worlds, break worlds, born to only one, a virgin being. It's got everything." I said, taking the book from Illy to examine it's cracked pages once more.
"That was about five hundred years before Caedis was formed, when most creatures were integrated cleanly into human society. It all makes sense, the woman was a vampire, probably married a human, and he did the same, leaving no trace on the population once he was gone." Illy slipped down from the ladder, me following, "Then you really think?"
"What else do we have to go by?" I asked, watching as Illy let the book fall closed, slipping into a chain beside the table.
"God, all these years," Her eyes looked distant and glassy. She had lived for millenniums, and to now find out that one of the most fundamental aspects of her own self she believed in was wrong, I recognized it must be quite the shock. "How can it be?" She asked no one in particular, staring down at the book like it might fly open and reveal to her the answers.
"They thought he had fixed the world well enough another sole blood would never be needed, how wrong they were. It was only five hundred years before the next one arose to mend the cracks."
"But I didn't do anything. I could have stopped that war in it's tracks, I could have saved my father, saved the millions that fought that war, if only I had known."
"No Illy, you couldn't of. Your eye was replaced the moment you were full grown, and you did save a lot of people, think, if Mortemine had not had you, what would she have done? You're probably the sole reason this kingdom has prospered so long, without you I seriously doubt it would have been able to rule for four thousand years."
"That's ridiculous, I wasn't even awake for a thousand, I've done nothing."
"And how did that thousand go?" I asked.
"Horribly actually, everyone suffered so much the Queen temporarily relinquished her position to me and refused life until Rosetta came along. The people wouldn't even look at her for a hundred or so years after."
"See, you do make a difference."
"But even if that is the case I'm the reason a new sole blood had to be created, because I was going to ruin the world with my own powers."
"So you're not happy to have me here?" I asked, letting my head drop slightly, anger welling up in my heart. Illy jumped up, setting the book aside to pull me in.
"No, no that's not what I meant. If I'm being honest you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, I just don't think I deserve you." She let her arms fall around my waist, looking me in the eyes, but I turned away.
"But you don't even call me by my name, at this rate I could just be a replacement for some other girl, Louis or god knows who you've roped up in all those years I've not been here."
"Of course not, you're at least a thousand times better than any of them, they might have been pretty, clever even, but you are prettier, and I honestly can't understand how you always manage to understand so quick. In half a day you've got the whole of the kingdom's nobility ingrained in your head, in a couple hours you've got anyone you want wrapped around your fingers, and in moments I regretted knowing that there was no way I was going to be able to stop myself from laying my hands on you." She said. I felt my cheeks go red, turning back to her.
"That's got to be flattery," I replied.
"No, it's not. I didn't use your name because I wasn't sure you wanted it used. I didn't know if you wanted to become Sapphire, or to stay Elizabeth, or to become Eleutheria."
"Elly," I said quickly, "Elly is fine."
"It scares me how much I care for you. I just don't know how to go about it, Elly. There's never been anyone I honestly don't believe I would be capable of losing before. I'm scared shitless I'm gonna mess it all up, and you're going to leave." She tilted her head, leaning forward into a kiss, my eyes closed as our lips met, her sweet and soft kiss cleared my head like a wave of peace.
"I'm not going to leave." I replied, going back in for a second kiss. I don't know how long we just stood there kissing, or care for that matter. But by the time we stopped I could see the dim morning light seeping in through the windows in the roof of the library. "Oh no," I pulled out my pocket watch to check the time. "At this rate we're not going to be able to make it back to the tower easy at all."
"We'll have to sleep here," Illy replied, stepping over to a ladder. "Come on, the shelves are a lot deeper than they look, Mother keeps secret scrolls and stuff behind the books so each shelf is actually around four feet deep and six across."
"No blankets?" I asked, following her up the ladder, a yawn over taking my face.
"Sorry, it's the best hiding spot we've got. Even if Mother comes in by the morning, she won't check the empty shelves." Illy spoke as she slipped onto the top section of empty shelves. I turned around to look down and immediately regretted it, shivered at how high we were before crawling on beside her. It was set up so the side dividers of the shelf went all the way up to the curved roof, but the actual slates we only placed a couple higher than where they were needed, so there was nothing above us until the roof. I slipped into the corner and laid down, winching at the hard wood under my back.
"Isn't this comfortable?" I said sarcastically, gasping in surprise as Illy laid down and pulled me sideways to her, so my back pressed into her, her legs tangled with mine.
"It's alright, with you here." She replied, but as the real light of the morning invaded the windows I felt myself quickly doze off, letting my body fall limp against her.