A Melting of a Heart Chapter 7
Coping
By Key Mima
Magus stood firmly in front of the queen and Dalton, staring at each of them
unwaveringly and without fear. He wasn't exactly sure what they were saying
though, because for all the might with which he was looking at them, he wasn't
paying any attention. What Sunev had told him earlier had totally shattered
his dreams, and deeply hurt his ego. Before, he had been proud and sure of
himself, confident to the extreme. But now, he had doubts about his power,
doubts about his entire ability. Sunev's delivery of the news hadn't helped
to soften the blow, either. She could have said "You're a pathetic weakling"
and shot him, and it would have had the same effect. He sighed softly and
tuned in partly to the conversation.
"...So the construction is finally done? Then we can begin within the week!
Zeal will have its immortality, just as it deserves. So, where are your
evildoers, prophet?" The queen focused her blazing glare on him. He felt
sort of... apprehensive with her looking at him like that. He guessed it
was the same sadistic look little boys gave bugs as they burnt them to death
with their magnifying glasses.
Magus had no answer to this. He had absolutely no idea where Glenn and Crono
were, but he expected them to come soon. Sunev had confirmed that they would
be there, it was only a matter of when. And they really needed to step on
it.
"Your Majesty, the evildoers have not arrived yet, but I expect they will...
Very soon."
"You remember what I said I would do to you if your predictions were incorrect,
yes?"
"Of course, Your Majesty." Magus said, smiling defiantly at her. She stared
at him a moment, then brought herself down to stand in front of him, still
looking. It was then that Magus started worrying.
She reached her hand up, the hand he had remember as helping him clean his
hair when he was young, the hand that played catch with him as a boy, and
pulled off his hood. Second time today, Magus thought, grimacing irritably.
She let the hood drop to the floor, then brought her hand up a second time
to slap him across the face. Dalton burst into smothered laughter and the
queen took her seat at the throne once more.
"That's for letting your predictions take too long, prophet."
Magus, who hadn't flinched when she had slapped him, nodded curtly and put
his hood back over his head.
The door made a whirring sound and disappeared, letting his older sister
come through its opening. Schala stepped in, and froze when she saw him there.
"Come in, Schala! I've been expecting you. You're... late, as a matter of
fact."
"Sorry, Mother. I was with Janus."
"And you consider that an excuse? That boy has nothing to offer Zeal. For
all I care, they could lock him up and throw away the key."
Magus and Schala both frowned at the queen, but said nothing.
"Well since you're late, I'll have Dalton update you since I don't want to
waste my energy going over a subject that we've already made clear."
Magus frowned more deeply. Schala nodded to Dalton who took off on a speech
about how the Ocean Palace was finally finished and how she would have to
work everything out with the Mammon Machine to give them their overdue
immortality. Schala seemed to have all the life sucked out of her as she
heard this news, and looked considerably older in a bad way. He watched her
sympathetically, and decided to have a talk with her after this brief meeting.
As they all got up to go to dinner, Magus put a hand on his older sister's
shoulder. She tensed at the touch and turned to look up at him.
He opened his mouth to speak, expecting to tell her how everything would
be alright. How they would all be fine. How Zeal was in no trouble. He opened
his mouth to speak, and nothing came out. He looked into her frightened eyes
and felt the same fright creep up on him. Since no words could be said to
make the situation better, he embraced her tightly.
Hesitating for a moment, Schala nearly pulled away. But this was her brother,
no matter how different he may have seemed. This was her brother, and she
hugged him back with all her might.
Sunev made her way back to the palace after her encounter with Frog and hurried
to the dining room, where dinner was already served. Upon her entrance, nearly
everyone in the room looked up.
"Dear apprentice," Queen Zeal began, a glint of anger in her eye. Sunev sighed
and waited for the lecture. "Do you not enjoy dinner?"
"I enjoy dinner, Your Majesty."
"Then why do you insist on being late to it?" Sunev frowned and Janus caught
her eye. He watched her with sympathy and nodded to her when their eyes met.
"I didn't mean to be late, I just..."
"Shut up." Queen Zeal closed her eyes and started whispering something. A
spell! Sunev had enough time to gasp and turn around when a huge force slammed
her in the back, knocking the wind out of her and making blood spurt from
her nose. She fell to her knees and cupped her hand beneath her nose to catch
the blood. She started to cry softly, and heard Zeal's mocking laugh.
"That should teach you not to disapprove of the cooking in my country, girl.
Go to your room."
Sunev nodded into her hand and staggered to her feet, looking back at the
horrified faces on Janus and Schala. Then, she pushed the door open and ran
out.
After changing her bloodstained dress and washing her face, Sunev felt well
enough to leave her room again. She didn't feel scared or meek and she did
not, by any means, feel fear toward the queen. She was pissed.
She left the palace then, going to the woods on the edge of the main continent.
After brooding there for a while and listening to the night insects chirp
and sing, she began to excercise her powers.
She picked a flower from the ground with her mind and pulled the petals off
of it, one by one. She was tempted to chant "He loves me; he loves me not",
but instead changed the words to "Hurt the queen; hurt her not".
"Hurt the queen; hurt her not. Hurt the queen; hurt her not. Hurt the queen..."
She pulled off the last petal. "Hurt the queen, eh? I'd be delighted."
Sunev let out a loud battle cry. It echoed through the night, making her
shiver with anticipation. Feeling excitement pulse through her veins, she
let her powers reach through the trees and flow off the side of the land.
"You stupid bitch!" she cried, laughter pulling at her insides. "You think
that you can just treat everyone like they're some sort of animal! Some kind
of... freak! But there's no way you're getting past me, you damned mummy!
Immortality will merely make you more of a seasoned douchebag!" Sunev giggled
at herself and started to lift with her mind. Feeling a crazy rush of
exhileration, she jerked her head violently, pulling every tree in the forest
out of the ground and letting them float around her. After looking at them,
their bare roots dropping clumps of earth into the holes they had once occupied,
Sunev again moved her head and threw them all off the side of the continent.
Clapping her hands together a few times, Sunev looked around at the now barren
forest. She smiled to herself calmly, and with that, started back to her
room.
Schala rubbed her temples and talked with Janus after the horrible ordeal
with Sunev at dinner. From what she was gathering, her brother hated their
mother. And she was starting to wonder if she did too. She walked to Janus,
who looked equally disturbed, and bent down to talk to him, eye to eye.
"I have something to give you, Janus. It's an amulet. It will protect you
if I'm ever gone."
"You'll never be gone, Schala. I won't let you be." Schala smiled and hugged
him. "And if you're gone, then Sunev can protect me, right?"
"Sunev is an apprentice, Janus. We don't know how long she'll be around."
"Well..." Janus sniffled and looked up at the ceiling. He had nothing more
to say. Schala forced a smile and hugged him once more. But a voice from
the door snapped her back to reality. Her grim reality.
"Miss Schala, the queen wishes to see you."
"I'll be right along..." Schala looked down once more at her brother and
smiled. Her smiled back, and she turned away. As she walked to the top of
the stairwell, she saw three other people.
"Oh! And who might you be?" she asked, smiling politely.
"Please, Miss Schala. If we're late, I'd end up like that apprentice girl."
Schala grimaced, and followed along.
As she entered the throne room, the queen looked up.
"Hello Schala, I see you've started to practice the art of being on time."
Schala had no reply to this. "Well, in any case, the Ocean Palace is ready
to use now, and we're going to do so as soon as possible. I hope you're ready
to-"
The door opened again, and the three people she had seen in her room appeared.
Janus -the older Janus- looked up and smiled victoriously.
"Your Majesty, these are the evildoers I warned you about."
The three looked surprised, and Schala tried to judge their character. The
one at the front, the one with spiky red hair, didn't seem to look too
threatening to her. He looked more confused than anything. The green one
seemed a little... odd. He looked like a giant frog. And his expression was
one of confusion as well. The other one just looked like a normal girl who
couldn't pose a threat to anything.
The queen raised her head slowly and studied them mercilessly for a few moments.
The room was completely silent. Then, she spoke, loud and clear.
"Are they, prophet? How interesting." She stared the spiky one straight in
the eye. "Do you come to stop my Ocean Palace? Well, you're too late. Dalton,
give them someone to play with."
Dalton smiled, raised his arm, and called "Golem!"
Schala disappeared then, and the newcomers were left to deal with their
enemy.
Part 8 to Come When I Get my Lazy Ass Around to It!
.
Go To Chapter 8
Return To CT Fanfic