Chapter 104: Abrupt
Resting in the gazebo, I stared into the distance, relaxing as I always did.
There wasn't much to do as a fully paralysed little girl; the persistent pangs of extreme pain flooding my veins around the clock didn't help either. It was a dismal life, but it was my life, and I prepared myself long ago for it.
For Esme and Hilda, I've been ready to do anything.
No matter the cost-
Swish...
Suddenly, at the ends of my vision, waves of chestnut and blue flashed.
The winds slowly calmed to a standstill, revealing my beautiful mother standing mere metres away with a clear smile. She stared down at me, uncaring of the girl whose body I was resting on.
Only I existed in her vision.
"My sweet Alora, my adorable Alora, how are you feeling today?" Our mother's saccharine voice slipped into my ears.
A flash of peace struck through me like thunder, reminding me of that long-lost sensation. Not due to the disappearance of the sensation, but due to the lack of physical contact between my mother and me.
"Fine, as always, mother."
"You've been stable, right? You've been perfecting yourself, right?" Her words came out innocently—curiously—but to my ears, her words sounded different.
She was testing me.
Judging me.
Have I been worthy of my existence as a Perfect Cursed Doll?
"Yes, mother."
Mother raised her fingers to her chin, tapped it twice, spread her smile even wider, and, with a slight tilt to her head, "You look like you've finally decided to tell her. Your perfection will finally be free to the world, how beautiful~"
Grinning, mother pulled both hands behind her back, clasped them together, and stepped towards me.
Within just a few steps, she towered over me—not Hilda, not both of us, me.
Only me.
Hilda didn't even enter her vision.
"I've waited so long~ When will it be? Tomorrow? The day after?"
"Two years, mother."
"...Ah. That is truly unfortunate." Her smile dimmed ever so slightly, "I won't be around to witness that wonderful moment."
Sighing, mother's smile-
It split.
Wide.
To the depths of her ears.
For a moment, for a true and very real, split-second, a visage of a carved face flashed in my eyes.
I recognised it as real.
My Authority cemented it so.
Yet, it immediately dissipated.
Swivelling on her feet, mother waved herself off, "I'll let you be, my sweet Alora, that red bird behind you is about to wet herself. I should go teach that Giliard a lesson or two at child-rearing, it seems he still has too soft a heart."
Coming and leaving like a breath of wind, mother's visage drifted behind the gardens. She disappeared from my vision.
"Little dummy?"
Hilda poked my waist, "Are you okay?"
"Mhm, I'm fine. You should worry about your 'Papa' instead; he's about to get a pay cut."
"Heh. Let him. He deserves it, hmph~" Pouting her lips, Hilda smirked cheekily, lowered her head to my level and peeled my mask off to the side.
Revealing my face, she snuggled her cheek onto mine, "Come on~ Feel better~"
"Mmf! I already said I'm fine!"
"Feel better~ Here you go~ Your favourite snuggles~"
"Stop treating me like a child!"
"Oh? But you are~!" Wrapping her arms around my waist, she pulled me further into her body of soft cushions and pressed her cheeks tight onto my face.
Sighing, I quickly gave up on resisting and let her do whatever she wanted.
This was her way of making me feel better...
"..."
...alright, it does make me feel better.
I admit it.
You happy now?
"My adorable little dummy~" Humming in my ear, Hilda's demeanour slowly softened and mellowed out.
The hands wrapped around me turned into jelly, wrapping me warmly. The voice in my ear lulled me into a peaceful rest, and the sensation of her springy body drew my brain far, far away from the endless torment.
It felt wonderful.
Pursing my lips, I begrudgingly said, "Thank you. You too."
"Hmm...? Me too what~"
"You're also adorable and cute."
"Hehe~ Thank you, my cute little dummy~"
Hilda carefully twirled me to face her; with one hand resting on the back of my head, and the other keeping hold of my waist, she peeled the mask aside, pushed her face onto mine and-
Nuzzle.
-nose to nose, she gave me the best baby treatment imaginable.
And I'm not complaining.
Mumbling through my mouth, "Am I a baby?" My warm breath brushed across Hilda's face.
Hilda giggled and pinched my waist slightly, "Maybe? You're small, fragile, can't move, and rely on me for everything in your day-to-day life."
Playfully smirking, she planted a small kiss on my cheek, "If that's not a baby, then I don't know what is."
I've never thought of it that way.
Pondering curiously, I allowed Hilda to play with me for a couple of minutes more before it was time to leave. I had to deal with the consequences of my Curses and pop a couple of soothing tablets before my body broke out with pustules of Cursed Blood.
It's not pleasant, but that's my life.
-----
Strolling through the open gardens, Nemora's silk-like, wavy brown hair danced with the breeze.
Arriving before an archway, her steps abruptly halted.
Glancing to her left, at the shadows of the archway, a handsome, dark-haired man stared at her with his usual grin, "What do we have here? Nemora and Alora? That's a sight to see."
Nemora rubbed her forehead, sighed, and spoke back to him, "Elden, stop stirring the pot. We both know why I'm not after her anymore."
"Did you finally grow up?"
"...Still stirring?"
"Heh- Joking~ Just joking~"
Stepping out of the shadow, the almost 6-foot-tall Elden, dressed in a clean, long-sleeve white shirt and dark pants, rested his hands in his pockets. "I wasn't expecting the truth to be that ridiculous either. It's almost hard to believe."
Nemora gave him a side-eye, "Almost?"
Shrugging back at her, "Everything makes sense, so, yes, almost."
"I can believe it. And I do."
Suddenly-
"Believe what? That your stupidity almost led you to getting a beatdown by Jill? That would have been a grand fucking spectacle."
-a snickering, lovely voice broke the atmosphere from the side.
Walking between the flowers, she hopped over onto the paved pathway, threw her smooth, black hair backwards, and stared at the two with an amused smile.
"...Vanessa. Really? Again? Can't you stop?" Elden complained, but he received a rolling middle finger in turn.
Staring at her, he shook his head with annoyance and returned his attention to Nemora.
She would likely draw attention from anywhere, but not from him. Her slender, elegantly proportioned body would certainly stir the eyes of many, but Elden and Nemora knew well how atrociously poor her personality was; it was beyond saving.
"Stop? Stop what? Stop pointing out the obvious? That you're all hypocritical fucks who ganged up on a then 5, 9, and now 12-year-old girl while being much older? At least I wasn't as fucking pathetic. I didn't like her fuck face, but I didn't lash out at her like a certain someone."
Vanessa was like poison; poke it, and it would return not just fire, but a whole bomb on you. And now, that same Vanessa, having regained her memories thanks to raised Authority and having witnessed Nemora's hypocrisy in her 'outing' with Alora just now-
She was pissed.
Elden tried to keep his eyes on Nemora, and Nemora tried to keep her eyes off Vanessa.
But Vanessa was not going to relent.
"What? Cat bit your tongue? Feeling embarrassed? Ashamed? Or are you so pathetic that you won't even admit your faults? She's only 12 now, you know? She can't even move for fuck's sake! But look at you, scrounging and having your baby meetings and acting all mysterious and cool~"
Clicking her tongue, "Pathetic."
Vanessa planted her hands on her hips, lifted her chin, and adopted a mocking tone:
" 'Oh, we both know why I'm not after her anymore', and what else did you guys say? 'The truth was more ridiculous than I expected it...' " Vanessa immediately broke into laughter.
"Hahaha! 'Truth!' 'Ridiculous!' "
Waving her hand at their increasingly darkening faces, "You mean how we're trapped? You mean how Hildekar is freeing The Canary, fixing it, and, once the hole leading to the endless, pitch-black waves of the Sunless Skies, we'll leave?"
Word after word, without a care in the world, Vanessa revealed it all without giving two fucks about them.
Their mysteriousness?
Their acts of keeping the truth at bay?
Their pathetic 'protection' against the cruel reality?
Vanessa didn't care.
"Vanessa!" Elden's awestruck mouth spat out that name with exasperation.
"What? Don't like what I'm saying? Good!" Chuckling, "I'll continue then!"
Glancing at the quiet Nemora, "Let me 'guess', the mountain range we see from afar, towards the south, it's the Uclidian Mountain Range. The Land of Cinderblossom resides on the Northern side of the Uclidian Mountain Range, so we must be somewhere in the Land of Cinderblossom~"
Vanessa's sharp, mocking, cheery voice cut off and darkened instantly, "Or so they want you to think."
"We're not on the Northern end of the Uclidian Mountain Range."
"The black wave that the tapestry revealed, the crown, the crosses; the Domain of Light; it all resides in the Southern Edge. The Canary sails upon the Sunless Skies; upon the oceans of endless true Darkness."
"Our South and North have been reversed."
"Whenever we look towards the South, we've in fact always been looking North."
"Once we escape, forget the Land of Cinderblossom."
Vanessa scoffed with smouldering eyes, "We're going to be traversing the mad ocean of the Darkness that is the Sunless Skies. It's hell. We live in hell. The Domain of Light; the Crucible of Light, it has always been on the side of hell."
She stared directly at the downcast Nemora, "Am I right? Or am I right? You retards?"