I woke up curled at the bast of the stairs after failing to make it back to our rooms yesterday morning, Illy beside me. Her eyes were open as I stared at her, the soft purple iris surrounding her pupil, and then the other. Each day it seemed less content in it's position, the red streaks swam, the dead pupil looked faded on the sides, like it was under attack, and it lay behind that monocle like a dog in a cage.
"Should I take it out?" She asked, stretching her cheek so the monocle fell into her hand.
"I don't know. Mortemine wouldn't like it if you did, but how else should we convince her, do we want to convince her? Should we run away? It all seemed to go so well last night, I almost feel like we're a kink in the gears now."
"We can't do that, as nice as it might be to do so. She'd hunt us down if we ran, and there would be no rest until we were back? Plus, the kingdom is bad off enough as it is, if we disappear and then they see a major change in mother, they might even think she killed us. It's going to take enough explaining as it is when we need to go public about all this." She reached forward and slipped my hair behind my ear, away from my face.
"I suppose I knew that. I just feel like we're sort of going fast now that I see them like that. It makes me want to run away and learn all I can about you, so no one in this world knows you better."
"You'll have plenty of time for that, I promise. But right now we've got to get back, and send for Silver so I can get this eye out of my head." Illy stood up and brushed off, holding out a hand to help me stand.
"It'll be strange, but perhaps I'll miss that eye. Yet I'm sure I'll like you with your own eyes better." I laughed, taking hold of her hand as we walked.
"I'll save the eye for you if you want."
"Ewww," I said as she laughed.
"I'm just kidding, I'll give it to Mother, I'm sure she'd like to have it."
* * *
It must have been the first time I woke up to a setting sun in a decade, but it felt like it had been much longer. I felt like standing was no longer the motion of a precarious statue, but a perching bird, effortlessly hung from the wire almost as though gravity had forgotten it, and I could tell in Rosetta's step as she approached that she thought the same, although it was as timid as it had ever been. "You don't have to be so scared of me." I teased, turning around to see her holding out my favorite suit on her arm.
"I'm not scared per say, I just." She began, but didn't say anything further, because it was much more trouble to explain than was necessary in thought. I took the suit and slipped the blazer over my bare skin, not caring for the white shirt she had brought with her. It's red handkerchief was folded artfully in the pocket, the pocket watch chain hung just right, and as I slipped on the pants I felt the hidden dagger on the waist and the piece of gum in the left pocket. It was little things like this I had missed, things like not needing to tell anyone what I wanted.
"I know." I replied, slipping my arm around her waist before she could stop me and pointing towards the setting sun. "What happened to my bride? I recall a love of dance in the rain, a skirt that never got the chance to settle on the knees, and someone I could take aside and give what you will give me regardless of my deserving it. You've become timid, and I'm all for timid, but in a bride, it is boring, and on you, it is just tense, for I know of so much more simmering beneath."
"I told you, she's gone." She muttered, chewing her cheek with discomfort. I just laughed.
"Don't kid me, you just don't want me to go through with this. I'm not asking what happened to her, because I know all that, and I know exactly where she is now. I'm asking what I've got to do to get her back." I didn't wait for an answer, but instead took her face in my hand and pressed a kiss to her lips, before slipping away and starting out the door. "I'll be back for dinner at five, do whatever you please as long as you're here tonight."
I walked through the mound of sawdust and began down the stairs before turning back to glance at her, but she had not even turned around to watch me go, but instead stood still, her hands clasped before her, staring out the window, like she had lost something in the garden expanse, and looking hard enough would get it back. The halls and rooms were vacant as I made my way to the door, though now it was just a blasted smattering of rubble. My feet felt light as I walked through the halls, people before me changed their paths to accommodate, hugged their books to their chests, but they also smiled. They smiled like they sensed something in me different, like some incredible change had taken me from the paper coated metal bed to the lobby of the hospital.
And I felt like it too, the moon outside shone on the carpet white on the marble floors, and the clank of my black heels southed my ears as I walked. I hit the gong and swung open the doors to the office hallway, watching as the shocked white collar shirts and black slacks scrambled to their doorways, hands clasped before them, eyes straight ahead. "Some changes around here." I said, starting my way down the hallway to the white door at the end. "I know you've all gotten used to having Ilustra and that cat's husband manage you, and many of you may have taken this job solely because I was reported to be dead for the next century or so, but you're going to have to deal with it. From this day forward, you report anything said to you by Ilustra or any of her pets straight to me, and respond to her only to inform her that I am now your boss.
"This country is about to undertake the biggest thing that's happened here in a while, I can sense it in the air, but it's been left out of the newspapers. Tell the press there's a reform going on in the Palace." I leaned against the white door at the end of the hall, staring down their shaded faces. I saw lumps traverse their throats, and eyes wander nervously from their targets. "But most of all, tell them they've got a Queen back." I smiled. I think it was the tone of voice that spoke the spell, as a couple heads turned, their shocked eyes wide, the corners of their lips turned up in surprise.
"Now get to work." I yelled, and they ran through their doors like horses in a storm. I swung the white door of the Minister's office, it's hinges still loose from the last time I kicked it in. He jumped up like a thief convicted of robbery, backing against the wall as I started forward, plopping down into a chair and leaning forward to click a message into the telegraph on his desk, calling all head members of staff to the office.
"I swear to god on my mother's life my Queen, I haven't seen any slaves, not of your's, not imposer, and I" He began, but I cut him off.
"Shut up Josh, you make me wonder why I hired such a puny boy a minister. Stand your ground for once. You're not in trouble. I've addressed your staff already so you can ask them about it, but right now, all you've got to do is shut your yap." I said, hearing the door swing open behind me. I twirled around in the chair to see the head maid, butler, slave manager, constructer, chief, guest manager, press, foreign affairs head, the court system attorney, and living conditions manager.
"From now on, you take orders from me and my officials, not Ilustra, and that goes for all of you. Rebuild my doors and clear the rubble. I need someone to have Eleven manage a dinner for me tonight, wine, no blood, no poison. See if some of my ambiguous slaves could be dismissed, let them make more social connections in preparation for release. I want the press on high alert, report on palace reforms, tell the public I'm back, and not like I'm just another corpse wandering the halls of the place. Give some live in staff a little more free time and better pillows so the populations seems happier. Also, discharge that rat of a Clementia for me, I don't believe there's much damage he can do now, but threaten him anyway." I said, addressing each in their turn before shooing them away with the brush of my hand.
"I hope you do not take this in offense your Majesty, as it was mean as the highest of complements, and you did tell me a moment ago that I should be more forward, but you seem to have more energy." The minister rambled, his words jumbled about like a loose bolt in the wheel of a carriage.
"Well, it looks like there might be a brain in that big head of your's after all." I turned and left. I felt an odd desire to host guests in one of my drawing rooms, or call together a small exclusive ball, but I had no one to call upon until I caught sight of Count Clock in the halls, his slave talking by his side.
"You're up?" He said, stepping close to me as though fighting some desire to take my temperature.
"Don't you have a country to run Clock? In fact, last time I checked you got Thailand caught under you're belt too, yet all you seem to do is waltz around the halls with you're pretty boy on leash. He laughed, taking his slaves hand as the boy began to step back.
"His name is Venastras, and there's not leash here. I left in in our tower." He changed directions to walk beside me as he spoke.
"Sweetheart, you know I'll never remember his name. There's more luck that I'll remember my last meal than the name of whatever pet you're dragging about."
"Well, what happened to prompt such a change as this?"
"Too many ears Count, loose you're dog and I'll talk."
"The last time I left him alone he was ball gaged and handcuffed, this boy'll never say a word I don't hear."
"True." I sighed, letting my head drop. "Are you happy Count? You were right, and I'm still rather unsure what in the world I'm to do about it."⨠"Right about what?"
"She let me drink, Count. If she really cheated, it wouldn't of been possible for her to do all this. And I can't explain that child any other way, though I'm more worried about the child than any of it. If that girl's a demon, which she must be at this point, that throws a wrench in everything."
"What?" the boy said, shocked out of his fear by the statement. "I've known Elly since we were little, she's not demon. She might not be human but there is no one I've met more empathic than Elly."
"Known her as a kid?" I glared at the Count as he shook his hands unconvincingly in innocence.
"I bought the boy from his previous owner when his name was Clifford, and it turns out he grew up with Elly. I didn't mention it because I doubted it was of any importance at the time, since you were kind of dying."
"I was fine." I retorted.
"If fine is a synonym for circling the drain."
"Get back to the kid Clock, else I call you by your real name."
"No need to get finicky with me." He said quickly. "Unfortunately the story stops right around there. Elly was a normal kid in childhood, right?"
"Yeah. She might of liked to carry books on her head sometimes and talked about a lot of dreams where she flew like a raven, but there was never anything all that unusual about her. She always loved to help people, and once stayed by me when I was sick for an entire day, just reading, not saying a word."
"But you're a human empath, you never realize how easy it is to lie. All of that could well have been part of her game."
"It doesn't really matter anyway, childhood has little to do with our situation now."
"I know, but I've got little go on, and more information of any sort can't hurt." I turned away from them, waving my hand to signal goodbye.
"Write me with what happens Mortemine."
"I won't." I said, spinning around with a smirk on my face.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, what is his real name? He refuses to tell me." The slave said. The Count's mouth opened to protest, but I got there first.
"Todd," I snickered, "Todd Willerbie. It doesn't necessarily have that grandiose sound he was looking for, does it?" The slave laughed, bucking over on his master's arm as I walked away.
* * *
"Mother," I whispered, pressing my face to the hole I had cut into the glass. She whipped around like a ghost had called her.
"What are you doing here?" She said in a hushed tone, walking over to me as I hoisted myself further up into the hole. "Where's Illy?"
"She's not my guardian Mother, calm down, she's back in the tower. If anything, you're the one in danger. I just came to talk, is it safe?"
"She might as well me. You need to take this serious Elly, you've never been here before, you've got a Queen looking for you. You can't afford to race off any other second just to speak with me. Mine might be gone now but she might as well of been here, and what would you have done then."
"Give me some credit mom, I'm perfectly capable. Don't worry. I came here to talk to you, not hear you dote on me." I said. She looked around, glancing back at the door uneasily.
"Alright, move over then." She said.
"Why?"
"I've got to get out of here."
"Out of here? What are you talking about? You're going to leave?"
"If I can, yes." She replied, moving the piece of intact glass I cut out to the side.
"Why?" I demanded, hoisting myself up further with my elbows to block the opening. Her brow furrowed.
"I can't do this Elly, not with her. You might be content here, but I can't, I've gone too far down the drain. I'm old, have a child, stayed in hiding for years, was convicted of treason. I can't let her soil her reputation like that, I just needed my name cleared so I could get you in a good position and clear out, left as another victory of history. I was supposed to be perfect, I can't face her now that I'm not."
"Mother, I can't let you run away from this for something as petty as that. I would love to pull you out of there, you've no idea how much it shocks me to see a chain around your waist and that practical demigogon with the key, but I've got no other options. If you left, where would you go. Don't lie to me, you're plan was always to die, and I can't have that happen when there's a legitimate, possibly happy ending available. The pressure isn't necessary, let your guard down, and if it all goes sour for any legitimate reason, in fact for any fault of her's, I'll be the first to get you out of here, no matter the cost."
"You shouldn't have to." She buckled, standing up and glancing behind her, "I'm you're mother, I'm supposed to be the strong one, the one who takes care of everyone, it's not in my place to have asked you that..."
"Thinks are different when we're dealing with the safety of a kingdom mother. I've got to go, but I will visit again, whether you like it or not." I interrupted. I dragged the piece of glass forward and letting my feet drop onto the ledge so I could secure it in place, brushing the corners smooth with my finger. It didn't look quite like it had before, but it would probably evade attention for at least a week, and I prayed that was all we needed as I flew back, my wings gliding through the cold air of the black night, landing me upon the open window ledge of the tower.
"Welcome home." Illy said jokingly, turning as I transformed back, my bare feet contacting the fuzzy carpet as she spoke.
"You're up, I expected an eye to take them longer. Can I see?" I walked over but she closed it quick, hiding it from my view. The monocle still sat upon her cheek.
"Alright, but I've left he monocle on, it's too much change for one day. With it off, it's almost as if my whole body is out of whack." She said, slowly opening it. Her crisp purple eyes were glossy, their violet and deep purple hugues mixed like cream in coffee, irises pure black and calm like islands. I bit my lip, stepping forward and settling on her lap just to look at her.
"Damn," I sighed, leaning forward and kissing her. "If I knew I would snag someone this pretty, I don't know what I would have done."
"You like it?" She asked, her crimson lips shifting to a smile, the points of her white teeth baring through it.
"Much more than I imagined I would."