Queen's Gambit Chapter 20

Chapter Index:
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Previous Chapters:
Draconic Fortune (Noelle)
1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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Draconic Fortune

Chapter 08

A link to the past

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In the deepest, darkest recesses far beneath where anyone sane or ordinary dared tread, so deep, so endless, one could not gaze through the depths beyond where the last safe plateau ended, one person, as old as most of the life in this realm, wandered along the ledge. She had spent a long time wandering. With no means of measuring how long she had been down here for. With no-one to ask to fetch her one either.

There was no howling of winds, no dropping of water off a stalactite to its neighbour below. Just the several times reverberating aftermath of her own steps against the cold rock. Other than that, the cave was in complete silence. She was alone. She was alone here despite her standing, because she was venturing down here, at risk of losing her way, all in search of something that may not even be here, anywhere, to begin with.

She had searched and searched and long ceased to believe it was anywhere, or that she would find it. She only kept on because she had grown tired, and the thought of calling it off and turning back felt like a chore of its own.

Perhaps it was chance. Perhaps fate. Or perhaps, if she was to ever find it, it was most likely to happen on the stage of her search that covered most of the ground by multitudes. But she did spot something. A faint glow, far along the way. When she came around, she realized to her dismay, that this glow came not from a spot further along the cliff, but from a slope down on the wall opposite from where she was. With an endlessly deep, black pit separating her from it.

What surprised her more, albeit less unlikely than finding what she sought, was that now that she had possibly discovered what she was looking for, she was not alone any longer. Mere metres away from the most convenient spot settle and attempt to reach her target from, two strangers sat at the edge of the cliff.

With their feet dangling off the edge over the abyss. Gazing off onto the wall on the other side and holding hands, but with empty, absent-minded expressions on their faces, as if they were either not fully aware of it, or as innocent as they were young. And they were very young. Budding youths, at most. About half-way through their adolescence. Perhaps less.

One was a dragon like herself, but an addition of some blue separated the colour of the unaware stranger's scales from her own mauve tone. And where other dragons, the dragons of old, prided themselves with the span of their wings, the strength of their horns or the length of their tails, this one was as unlucky as most of the more recently emerged dragons, and was gifted with none of those things. And her rounded, clumsy-looking face only made this sight more bizarre to her than it already was.

But that was not what confounded her, what did, was the appearance of the other one. It was a little boy, about the girl's age, with smooth skin like that of the angels sealed away when the lightners abandoned the Kingdom of Heaven. But the light blue of his skin within the darkness could have deceived the untrained eye into thinking he was glowing. His face looked so soft, so - it was devoid of the tells of someone used to danger.

It instead had those of a very sensitive person. Very easy to break, very easy to injure. What would someone like that see in as ferocious and wild a creature as a dragon? Let alone an ugly morsel like that? She chuckled, gazing at them from afar. At least their hair matched in some way. Unkempt in both cases, left to grow wildly, so that you couldn't see half their faces.

Contrary to the impression his face made, it appeared he usually wore armor, but he had taken off the plates and dropped them around himself and the girl, leaving him only in a smooth, pitch-black garment wrapped skin-tight around his body, exempting his hands. And the girl he was with, had done similar to him, and taken off her coat, to sit there with her upper half dressed in nothing but a shirt. In both cases, an inappropriate way to dress considering how cold it was down here.

She felt bad about interrupting this baffling moment between them, staring at a stone wall together, but that spot next to them was too perfect to fit her purpose to pass up. And the opportunity too enticing. Even when coming closer, the light on the slope glittered in many colours, and at its core, emanated the light blue glow she had read about. The better a look she had of it, the more it looked like it was exactly the thing she was searching.

She felt bad about interrupting them, but if they enjoyed staring at a wall this much, they could make do with a different wall if needed. Even so, she didn't have to barge in on them, stomping them into shock on every step. She slowed down. Moved closer with very careful steps.

It was something she always took pleasure in doing. Sneaking up on her visitors to test their perception. See how close she could get without getting spotted. But on her way, mid-step, she was startled by the sudden impression that she was being attacked with a wave of sorts, surrounding her. She almost stumbled because of it. But when this fraction-of-a-second-long shock wore off, the truth proved more bizarre than a sudden attack by unwitting youths.

Her surroundings had changed, completely. The darkness she was used to all her life was gone, she now saw the red of the dust and the rocks that made up this plateau. In the distance, where previously there was only rock, pine trees had appeared. The ceiling and the wall beyond the cliff were gone. Replaced with a sky. An actual sky down here, and not pitch black like the sky she knew.

Right above her, when she glanced straight up, a circle of mild blue shone down, but it was littered with thinned-out clouds that reflected the bright red light that filled the sky to all sides. The source of the bright orange light all around them, was a singular object in the distance, far, far beyond where the wall, and thus the end of the cave, should have been, and had been, only moments ago. A blinding, round light, exactly where the youths were staring.

It was so low, a part of it had already vanished behind the mountains, far off in the distance. What had happened? What kind of magic was this? Was this a portal? Was she transported to a vastly different location? No, that couldn't be. The young ones were still there, and their strewn armor plates and jacket were still there as well. It was everything other than herself and those two, that had changed.

It was so sudden and so much, she tripped and nearly fell over. She was lucky to catch herself just in time not to. "What was that?"

To ere further confusion, both youths took a few moments to even register her question. "Hm?" And when she found herself getting stared at by a pair of mops, who didn't appear to understand what she was talking about, it dawned on her that perhaps they were not aware that localized illusions such as this one weren't that common. Or that it was there at all.

"Pardon me." She kept her distance and proceeded on to where she was planning on going. "Forget that I said anything. Don't mind me." Right where she took off and dropped her backpack just as planned, a lone oak tree stood, only feet away from the edge of the cliff. A lonely tree, but with a solid foundation. She couldn't have asked for something more convenient.

It was almost too convenient, so she felt up the bark a few times and even pulled at it in a few directions to make sure the tree was really there. It wasn't here before, so it must have been part of the illusion. What was strange to her though, was that even here, where everything around them looked entirely different from just before or outside what 'this' was, the light was still visible.

The fragment she didn't believe she would ever find, was still there, lying on that same ledge below a second cliff right opposite from the one they were on. And that ledge, albeit much further away from the two at the centre of what this was, was changed in the same way, complete with a little tree on the side.

All the less of a reason to let any of these oddities get between her and the still not processed, unfathomable luck she was having. Out of the various tools and contraptions she had brought along for her journey, she took out a long, and strong rope. Strong enough to hold her weight with ease, even under duress, and bound to its end, a steel grappling hook. Custom-made to lodge itself into rock well enough to hold even someone her size.

She secured and bound it to the tree on this side. Now she just had to toss it with enough force and in the right angle. With everything ready, without further ado, she took the rope, began spinning the hook in the air to gather momentum and eventually broke its circular motion to launch it to its destination. It hit the plateau, so the rope was long enough. She just had to get it to actually bore itself into the rock surface.

She tried launching it with more momentum. And she got it far enough to take the rope to its limit, but it just wound up lying on the surface with its pointy ends all looking upwards, not inside the ground where they were supposed to. She tried again, but varied a little in her movements from the previous attempt. Nothing, again. It didn't strike the ground with the pointy ends and thus slid along with no sign of friction when she pulled it back for her next attempt.

She tried again, and failed. And another time, and failed again. This couldn't be happening. She had a case of luck normally comparable to winning the lottery on your first ticket and now that her chance was so close she could see it taunting her with its sparkling light, she failed at grasping it in spite of her preparations. She wouldn't let it wear on her resolve.

She had come down here so many times, perhaps out of boredom, perhaps out of hope that one day she would get lucky. Now it was here. She had come too far to back out now.

She tried telling herself that in her mind. But with each attempt, she had the creeping suspicion that it wasn't supposed to happen. She had grown so desperate, both to succeed here, as well as to convince herself that she could, that she didn't even notice she was being watched until that had been the case for quite some time.

Both the human and the welp he was with, were staring at her. Both with equally obscured faces, both in complete silence. She tried ignoring them, but a few attempts after she decided to, she noticed they wouldn't stop. They were staring at her and not in a way she would have liked. Eventually, she couldn't keep herself from breaking the silence between them. "You two appear rather attentive, is it that entertaining to you?"

The staring continued. For lightners knew how long. It took a while until the dragon girl answered. "What are you even doing?"

The confusion on the younger dragon's part was actually a breath of fresh air to her. Of course she wouldn't know, seeing as an illusionary sun captivated the two of them for so long. "Don't bother yourself with me. I'm just trying to reach that light over there."

She pointed at it, and for the first time, the two actually paid attention to it. Its bright blue shade within the glitters was all the more visible against the sandy rock, coated in the red light of an evening sun. "As soon as I can reach it, I'll be on my way. Don't worry about me. I'm sure I'll make it eventually." She wasn't convinced that she was telling the truth here.

And from how measly her next few attempts were, with the hook not even reaching the opposite surface before sagging into the cliff half the time, she was lying indeed. And she was so focused on her growing embarrassment, she barely noticed when the boy had gotten up until he stood right beside her. "I told you not to worry, you just stay over there with your friend."

He looked up at her, he had to look upwards quite a bit just to be able to see face to face. He was barely half her height. Even when she knelt down to level with him, he still had to raise his head to face her. And he held out his hand, with his open palm facing up. "Oh my, so eager to help?" Now, the attention didn't feel half as bad. It actually put her in a rather playful mood. "Well how can a lady say no to that?"

In a smooth motion, she wrapped her hands around the shoulders of his little nigh-bare form and moved in a little closer while slowly turning him. "All right, if you want to show us what a helpful little boy you are, I need this.." She showed him the pointy ends of her grappling hook and continued whispering in his ear. "...to be lodged in the rock on that plateau over there. It has to penetrate the rock, and it's not done unless it's deep inside."

The moment she touched poor boy even with only one hand, his body turned stiff as a lamp post. For having sat over there with that welp for so long, completely relaxed and without any issues, this human sure was very uncomfortable with physical contact. "No reason to be nervous. It's okay if you're not experienced. I failed so many times. It doesn't mean much if you can't do it either." From the way he stirred when he faced the light after that, she almost thought he had never noticed it was there until now.

Luckily when she let go of the boy, he relaxed again. Once ready, he stepped a little closer to the edge of the cliff and examined the platform on the other side a little more closely. She was waiting for him to swing it around like she did. She didn't expect him to make it, what were these tiny blue arms going to accomplish that her own couldn't? But he didn't. His head only tipped up and down ever so slightly, as he spent an enormous amount of time examining the cliff and both ends of it.

To her surprise though, he turned around and walked back away from the cliff. With the hook still in his hand. "Where are you going?" Silent as always, he simply adjusted the hook to be safely in a solid grip with his hand not holding the end of it, but the base, so he was most sure to not let it go. He didn't stop walking away until he was quite a bit away, a few metres behind the tree even.

When he did though, one last time, he made sure he had a solid grip on the hook, and took up a stance that implied he was going to come back fast. And he did. He began running. Straight towards her, past her, to the edge of the cliff, and then with quite a stretch for an approach before reaching it, leaped over the cliff towards the other edge.

She wasn't quite a ware what he was planning on doing until it was already too late, and when she realized it, her heart skipped a beat. The realization shook up the girl enough for her to get up and run to where she stood as well. The boy soared straight across the cliff. Apparently with a force she certainly didn't expect from small and frail legs like his own, as he actually made a lot of headway.

Then, counter to her fears, he actually made it. Almost. He reached the platform on the other side. Just enough to grasp and hang onto its edge with his left hand and to use the hook in his right hand to help him gain some hold. He made it. Somehow, this crazy boy made it across. Now all he had to do, was pull himself up to get some safe footing.

But that was exactly the part he seemed to struggle with. His grip wasn't enough to hold on. His hand slipped off the edge. The hook helped him leverage himself back up to pull himself up, reach to the surface and onto as much of said surface as he could grab. His hand swung right over and through the light she was doing all this to get to. But after that, what little rock he had managed to dig the hook into, gave in, crumbled off and left him with nothing to hold onto.

He slid right off the edge of the cliff. The two dragons quickly tried pulling in as much of the rope as they could to soften up his fall, but it was too little, too late. The boy fell down, into the depths, and when he reached the end of the rope, his fall already put too much force on his hand for him to hold onto the hook.

They were too slow to save him. She could feel the moment when the boy reached the end of the rope and had his hand forcibly pulled off of it. She couldn't see it happening, but she could feel it with her hands.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no..." The young one, after a few moments of denial, fell silent again, and soon began staring into the abyss, sniffing from time to time to keep her nose from running. And moments after the boy was gone, slowly but surely, the bright light that filled the illusion that surrounded them, shrank together towards its epicenter, which lay over at that platform on the other side, where the boy had fallen down.

He was the one creating this illusion. Whether he was aware of it or not. And now, he was gone and the fantasy they shared, with him. He was gone. Not only was he gone, but the light, the reason she was here, was gone as well. He apparently grasped it and claimed it for himself, just before falling into the abyss. Possibly without a clue of what he was tapping into.

Both inside and outside the mirage of a sunset at the edge of a forest, the cliff was so deep, you couldn't see the bottom of it, if it even had one. There was no way for him to make it out of there and find something to eat, or water. It was too deep to survive. He must have died. Besides, what else could she think? She never saw the boy again after that. Never. Not once.

That was, until tonight.

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"So what is it?" The prince had led Kris into the castle, up the stairs and to the exact same place at the exact same table they had settled down, the last time they were here. And he didn't give him nearly as much time to take in and examine all the details of his home. "So?"

"Oh, right." Apparently, he had zoned out for a second, staring at his guest with his hands put together, but when woken up from it, he went right to the kitchen and came back not long after. "Here it is! Ta-da!" What he put down in front of Kris's plate, was something strongly resembling the 'Ralsei cakes' from last time. Except on this one, all the colours were swapped for different tones of beige, brown and black.

In particular, 'Ralsei's face, usually pitch black, came in brown here. And when Kris peeled a tiny piece of it off to taste, he vocalized his delight when he realized that it was milk chocolate. Going by that, it followed that the glasses, eyes, mouth and scarf were made of white chocolate and the hat, black as night was made of plain chocolate. It was better than just your every-day Ralsei cake. It was a chocolate Ralsei cake. "So you like it?"

"Yes." A single word evoked a bright smile on the prince's face. And without further ado, his visitor took his spoon and started digging into it at a rate unlike when he ate anything in the light world. In no time, it was all gone, and the prince had to rush back to the kitchen to fetch the next one.

And his eyes widened quite a bit when he saw how quickly that one vanished as well. "Goodness, Kris." He pulled out a handkerchief to wipe some left-over chocolate from the side of Kris' mouth. "I'm flattered, I really am, but could you please try to savor them?" Once he had brought along the third cake, when Kris was already about to bury his spoon in it to shuffle out an exorbitant amount of it, he pulled it back.

It only then dawned on Ralsei, that Berdly had understated how much Kris liked chocolate. He couldn't control himself around it. He figured that he had to ration it to make sure Kris would savor it. He didn't have as many of the chocolate ones as he had regular cakes.

So instead of giving him the entire next cake, he scooped out one spoonful and placed the spoon on Kris' plate. "So, do you really like it?"

And now that he only had a spoon of it, his guest took his sweet time to put the spoon back clean of any bit of chocolate. "A lot." They took their time, unwinding and recovering after their long trips, but by now, Kris felt it was time to get up and get going again. "How much chocolate cake can you bring along?"

The prince smiled and fumbled around his robe. From within, he pulled a bag. It was similar to the one Kris had, both on the outside, and the inside. It had separated compartments, 'inventory slots' as Ralsei called them, within it. "I can put an extra cake in each one of those." A thumbs up from his guest was all he needede to rush to the kitchen to stuff cakes into his bag and then come along for the two of them to get ready and head downstairs again.

Down, past the courtyard with the intimidating fountain in the middle, and back outside, they stopped for Ralsei to lock the front doors with a swing of his hand. I one hand, the prince carried an extra cake on a plate, in the other, he had a spoon to feed some of it to Kris on the way. And he could tell that something about him changed. Kris was stepping forwards faster, with stronger steps. Overall, with more energy.

Down the road they marched, to the house they left the others at. Inside the house, when he arrived, it was quiet. Headbanger looked as mysterious as ever, taking a swig from the second bottle. Noelle was staring at the empty table, and until a second ago, Dasher had been staring at her with the inner corners of his eyebrows raised. "So." With a single clap, Kris put his hands together and had another bite of Ralsei's cake spoonfed to him. With a full mouth, he went on. "What did I miss?"

Noelle took some time before she looked his way and the corners of her mouth pulled themselves up. "It's nothing." When she realized he was just staring at her, she tried to reassure him. "I'm fine." He didn't really get this impression, but if she said so, he trusted her to be honest with him.

More determined than before, Kris pulled out the map the Journeyman had given to him. "I now know what order we visit these places in. Let's go." But before he turned around, he froze up and opened his mouth for another bit of cake. When he realized that Noelle wasn't following, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up until she stood on her legs, and then led the way outside and down the road.

Once she caught up with the others, Noelle half-stumbled up to Ralsei while Kris waited in front of the great door with the map open. "What's gotten into him? What did you do?"

The still flustered prince shrugged. "I don't know."

"Ralsei! Chocolate!" Kris immediately called for him to follow and keep feeding him while he went on. "Our first stop is the blacksmith. We leave you there with Dasher and Headbanger, so you can look after her and she has plenty of time to choose a weapon. Me and Noelle go to the temple, and then we all go to Sinwielder's Den together."

With an invocation from the prince, the door opened. They all marched right outside and waited for Ralsei to close it again and to make it disappear before they got into trouble over it. "Wait!" When they stood before the vanishing great door, the shorter human turned to Noelle. "This is actually a good opportunity."

"Opportunity? What for?"

"Summon your weapon." She couldn't discern anything particular that she expected in his expression. He just plain said that like it was self-understanding. "We're now on our own. Just try." She stared at him with no idea what to do. "Just do it. I don't know. Imagine the weapon. Maybe imagine fighting? Susie just sort of had hers when Lancer showed up and Berdly - wait that's it."

Out of nowhere, he summoned his sword, raised it and stood right in front of Noelle, and had the sharp blade surge straight down her way. She shrieked, and stepped backwards with her mouth agape. She didn't defend herself, but what she suddenly had in her hand put a smile on the human's face.

She was supporting herself on a wooden rod, a five foot long staff, with little twigs and the rings left behind by pruned-off smaller branches along all its length. Its top was covered in thorny brambles that were wrapped around the tip several times over. It took her a few moments to realize she even had it. Would you look at that, all it took was a little scare. Of course, a staff wasn't really going to hurt anyone too much, but it was at least something. "Where did - how did I do that?"

He wasted little time to explain it. "At least you have a weapon now." And to his positive surprise, on their way outside and through the streets, her staff didn't disappear either. She just kept it with her like that. Which was probably a good idea, since she might have had trouble summoning it again on the fly.

Venturing through the stone streets, in-between the pentagram banners at every crossing, with a regular supply of chocolate, he marched through Bedrock with much more conviction. He now had it all figured out. And granted, there were some troubles. Especially the two whole bottles of wine Headbanger had been downing gradually taking effect as they navigated through the convoluted layout of the city.

He was a bit worried that they were going to get into trouble, seeing as they were in a city where everyone already was a bit on edge regarding dragons. And before they arrived at the blacksmith, they had a noticeably drunk dragon girl on their hands, roaring and bellowing "WHEEERE'S THE BLAAACKSMITH?" at random strangers with the full force of her vocal cords.

Both humans held her by her elbows to prevent her from getting too close to any of the often bizarre commoners of the city. One group of golden women with golden corsets and petticoats, almost had one feint before they drew away, from the conspicuous group of adventurers, hiding their faces behind their handheld-fans as they did. Even the younger of the two was upset enough to pout at her. "If you keep screaming about the blacksmith, we're going to skip him, okay?"

Banger was just laughing at how riled up she got them with her behavior and tried waving off their concern. "It's cool dude, don't worry, I'll stop." But as soon as they stopped paying attention to her, and they got close to another stranger, she started right again. "WHEEEEEE..."

They were running out of patience with her, so both Kris and Dasher reached for her snout with both hands each and pushed it shut by force. He continued leading them to the blacksmith. He was so glad over the short break from Banger's antics. He gave Noelle a questioning look. Waited until he had her attention, and then glanced at Banger and she understood what he wanted to know. "She had about two and a half litres practically all at once, it's a bit much. But she's pretty big. It can't last forever." Here was to hoping.

It wasn't that far any more anyway. Soon enough, they arrived at a big stone complex, built into a wall of the city, with a big neon sign like that on the Journeyman's tower reading 'The Blacksmith' Kris was sort of expecting a normal forge with a blacksmith, not a stone shopping center entitled 'The Blacksmith'.

But in spite of the impression the front made, on the inside, far behind halls lined with broad assortments of melee weapons as well as bows and crossbows, there was an actual forge with someone hammering at a glowing piece of hot iron. The actual person at the forge was a grizzly bear monster wearing a leather apron, busy with forging what looked like a two-handed sword going by the length of the blank he was holding. "Well ain't that a colorful bunch?"

He had a hoarse voice and spoke up enough to be sure to speak over the sounds of his forge, while putting the iron to he back where no-one could run into the still hot end of it. Then he took off his gloves and came around to reach them before they got too close to the forge. "So what can I get you guys?"

The smiling dragon inhaled and already began anew. "THE BLA-" This time, Kris and Dasher reached over to her and held her snout shut fast enough for her to not do this again.

Once the leader of the party was sure that she wasn't going to roar any more, he turned to the blacksmith and answered. "We're going to fight the leader of the succubi. And she needs a weapon for it."

The grizzly's eyes merely darted back and forth between Kris and Headbanger. "You sure? Doesn't look like she's in much of a state to fight anyone."

"We're going to make it work somehow."

Perhaps out of habit, his classmate stepped closer to 'translate' the blacksmith's expression for Kris. "I don't think he's convinced."

"I'm not. But okay. If you guys can pay for whatever you're buying, who am I to complain? Come on, let's take a look what we can get ya. So a weapon for a succubus. You thinking brass knuckles? Broadsword? A whip?" The blacksmith continued to lead Headbanger along the racks that lined the walls, filled to the brim with weapons of all kinds.

When he did, the remaining four formed a circle. "So." Kris raised his finger to draw their attention. "Chocolate." One last time, the trembling prince stuck a spoonful in Kris' mouth. "You two stay here with her."

He assured himself that Dasher and Ralsei knew they were being referred to before going on. "Just make sure she doesn't break anything and don't get anything too crazy. The real Susie had an axe in the dark world, so - you know - that's a safe bet." Before they separated from the darkners, he had Ralsei give him one extra cake and a spoon.

He trusted Ralsei to take care of Headbanger, even though the prince was very hesitant to let Kris walk away without him following him. But it was better that way. Despite everything, Headbanger was likely as strong as Susie, so it would take two to keep her under control if something happened. And without her, there were much less distractions. And there was much less need to look out for cars here than anywhere in the light world, as there were no cars. Only chariots, and those moved a lot more slowly.

Off to the side, when they were so close they could already see the tall, weirdly coloured pillars of an enormous temple stick out of the grey of the city like a sore thumb, Kris spotted something that caught his attention. "What's wrong?", Noelle asked. A reasonable way to react given that he didn't just stop like this for no reason before. It was one of the lights. He had passed, and purposefully ignored and skipped several of them since that first one.

Now that he knew more about the dark world in his and Asriel's room, and how things would go for the two of them, he had second thoughts about his previous idea to skip all of them. With how they were everywhere, he wouldn't be able to keep Noelle from seeing the Susies, regardless of what steps he took to try to do so.

And now that he knew where Ralsei was, he had a much better point to go back to if something happened later on. Not to mention the fact that he was in a pretty tight spot when fighting the Mistresses. He was tempted, and he acted on that temptation to approach it. "Where are you going? The temple is right there." In spite of her actually pulling at his shoulder on his way, he marched straight to the light. "What's gotten into you?"

He packed away Ralsei's cake before turning to Noelle. There was no compartment left, so it was dangling loosely outside of them. He hung as much of his hair over his ears as he could, grabbed Noelle by both wrists and looked her right in the eyes. "All right, this is important."

Of course, she couldn't see the light, so she had little idea why he went this way, stopped where he stopped and suddenly addressed her after ignoring her just before. "O - okay?"

"We are going to make it back home, I promise you. At some point, we're going to be back home, we're going to go to school and it's all going to be like nothing happened."

She was just all the more confused at where he was going with this. "All right?"

"We're going to go to school and Susie is going to be there - probably - as usual. Can I trust you?"

For a moment, she tried pulling his right hand off of her arm, but after glancing at it, looked back up at him without doing so. She could tell that he was being very serious. This wasn't the setup to a prank, she knew him well enough to be able to tell if it was at this point. "Of course. Why wouldn't you?"

"If she finds out about the Susies, I don't know what she's going to do. And I don't want to know. She can't know, okay? This is important."

She shook her head slightly. "Of course. How would she know?"

She wasn't taking this seriously enough for his taste. "I mean it, okay? She can't know. I already know she's somehow going to find out we were in the dark world, and the dark world is very important to her." He was worried that Noelle was getting the notion that he was only saying this to avoid getting embarrassed, but he was concerned about his life.

About Susie finding out, flipping out, catching him unawares and actually killing him after all. "She is going to ask a lot of questions, and you have to be ready to answer them." She just occasionally looked back and forth between him and the hand she was holding. "And you can't talk about any of this. No Grunts, no Homemakers, no Berserkers, Axes and no Mistresses. None. I mean none."

She stared down at that same hand. She could feel his hands tremble. "Gosh." She only gradually got an idea how much more important than some possible embarrassment this was to him.

"'Trying a bit' to keep it a secret isn't enough. I have to be sure that you will do anything it takes to keep Susie from finding out. You can't tell Berdly about any of this, your Dad, Jocks, Catti, Mrs. Alphys, you can't tell anyone. Because if you do, sooner or later, Susie will find out."

The motionless face, the wide-open stare, the agitated breathing in spite of standing still for an extended period of time, she was growing worried, he seemed like he was about to suffer a panic attack or some kind of mental breakdown. She witnessed impending 'episodes' with him, but never actually reaching them, and this was unlike any of those times as well.

But comparing it to that gave her an idea of what he needed. What he needed wasn't a hug. He wasn't a fan of hugs anyway, he was generally not fond of physical contact. What he needed, was: "Chocolate. You should have some again." He obliged and had another spoonful of Ralsei's delicious cake. "Feel better?"

He nodded. His shoulders dropped and his arms eased up a bit. "But seriously."

"It's all right. We can just tell her they looked like random people. Fictional people. If we have to, we'll say that they're dragons and leave it at that." She could tell that he still wasn't quite sure. "Aw, stop worrying so much. It will be all right." He let go of her, stood up right. With his mouth tense and shut and his eyes closed, he took a breath as deep was was possible, exhaled, and most of his body was relaxed again. "Is everything alright now?"

Slowly, he raised his hand to move it towards the light they were standing next to. But before he touched it, he faced her one more time. "I trust you, okay? Please, don't break it."

She chuckled at his unusual hesitancy. "I promise." After this, he did it. He stepped closer to the light and touched it. Noelle had no idea what he was doing, but she humoured him. And once she could read from his movements that he was about to march back to the street and towards the temple, she joined him - so that they could make their way to the wide, out-of-place structure together.