@anticutes replied to your post:

will makoto wear a maid dress to commemorate this special occasion. asking for a friend (junko)

Huh--?! Immediately, his face is red for a reason other than admiring others on this event.

“ I-I’m not— No! I'm not going to be putting on a maid costume! Wh-Why would I?! "

Shadows of the Moon

word count: 4.6k

summary: Prince Eugene of the Dark Kingdom never had anyone there for him growing up. When one of the knights has a child, he takes it upon himself to always be there for him. The two of them grow up like brothers, and they find a connection to a "normal" life through each other.

note: for Eugene Appreciation Week 🥰

AO3

When Prince Eugene first heard that one of the Brotherhood Knights was going to be a father, he was far from excited. Having a baby in the castle didn’t seem ideal to him. All it meant was that there was going to be some snotty little blob crying and making messes all the time.

But when Quirin introduced baby Varian to him, Eugene immediately felt a connection to the child. As crazy as the kingdom was sometimes, he felt calm knowing that there was someone he could connect with. They weren’t technically related, but the Prince immediately saw the child as a little brother, and silently swore he would do everything in his power to make him feel safe.

Of course, there wasn’t much a ten-year-old could do to help an infant. Eugene decided he would leave the protection to Varian’s parents, and he and Varian could just be each other’s connection to normalcy.

When Eugene was bored, he liked to go into Varian’s nursery and read him Flynnigan Rider stories. He was pretty sure the baby didn’t understand a word he was saying, but he still liked the audience. Besides, Varian would babble along when Eugene got to an exciting part of the story, so maybe he was entertained by it.

“The monster tried to sniff out Rider’s scent among the forest, hunting for his next catch. The rogue was unphased, of course, and ducked into a cave to hide from the beast,” Eugene read, adding in dramatic movements as he read. Varian gurgled from his crib, and Eugene smiled.

“That’s not even the best part!” he said. “Once the terrifying monster left, Rider ventured deeper into the cave to find more gold than he had ever seen!”

Varian gasped and flailed his arms. Eugene grinned. He stood up and leaned in closer to the crib. “And of course, there was the time Flynn ran from the ferocious mob! He launched himself up and onto a dragon... . ” He lifted Varian up and onto his shoulders. He made sure to hold the kid tightly so he wouldn’t fall, then ran around the room as he squealed in delight. “And he rode the dragon for miles until he was back home!” Varian babbled and stuck his arms up from his place on Eugene’s shoulders. Eugene spun around, then lifted him off his shoulders and back into the crib. Varian was bouncing excitedly, babbling nonsense with a smile on his face.

Eugene beamed down at him. Even though Varian was only 6 months old, spending time with him was the best part of the day. The kid was a bright light in the middle of the Dark Kingdom.

~

By the time Varian turned 1, everyone in the castle had all but accepted that he and Eugene had a connection. Eugene had spent years growing up with no other kids in the castle, but now he finally felt like he had a little brother. The two were inseparable, much to the annoyance of some.

“Your Highness,” Hector grumbled. “You can’t continue to do things like this. You’re royalty, you can’t constantly be up to these… things.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the young prince said. Hector pointed at the child on Eugene’s shoulders, who was tugging on his hair and causing it to skew in every direction. “Oh him? He’s just my new advisor, he has to be with me at all times.”

Hector ran his hand down his face. “He’s a one-year-old, he’s not your advisor.’

“Oh yeah? Let’s see what my advisor has to say about that. Varian?”

Varian yelped and kicked his legs, making noises for a few seconds while Eugene listened intently, nodding along as if he was reciting important proverbs. “Go!” Varian said, reaching his arms forward.

“Well, you heard my advisor,” Eugene shrugged. “Maybe next time, Hector.” He grabbed onto Varian’s legs and dashed down the hallway, leaving Hector to regret his career choice. He heard the knight mutter something under his breath about how he couldn’t wait until the prince grew tired of spending all his time with a child, but Eugene ignored him.

~

Once Varian learned to walk and talk in full sentences, Eugene thought it was even more fun to spend time with him. He was full of energy, unlike everyone else he had to interact with in the kingdom. Everyone always acted like life was a burden they were forced to bear, but Eugene wanted to stay young and full of life forever.

The only problem was that once Eugene was 14, there were even more expectations put on him as the prince. He was told to conduct himself properly at all times, and he couldn’t get away with the excuse of being a kid anymore. He was called into his father’s office one day and was met with his usual cold gaze.

“The King and Queen of Corona will be visiting today, so I expect you to be on your best behavior,” Edmund said. He was sitting at his desk, his back straightened and his chin held high. Eugene stood on the other side of the desk, feeling uncomfortably still.

Eugene nodded. “Got it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to embarrass us in front of our visitors?”

“No.”

Edmund looked his son up and down. “Good. They’ll be here in two hours, make sure you’re ready.”

Eugene nodded again, then turned around and left his father’s office. He sighed quietly after shutting the door, glancing back at the room. Ever since Eugene’s mom died, Edmund was never sure how to talk to his son, and every conversation made that clear. He felt like he had been raised by knights and maids, and every interaction with his father was like a formal business transaction.

He had barely taken 2 steps away from the room before Varian, ever the bundle of energy, ran up to him with a huge grin on his face. “Eugene!” he called out. “Wanna play Flynnigan Rider?”

The prince frowned. “I can’t, we have guests coming in a couple of hours and I just told my father I would be on my best behavior.”

Varian blinked. “Well, the guests aren’t here yet.” Eugene hesitated, and Varian stepped closer and gave his best “kicked puppy” eyes. “ Pleeeeease?”

“Fine,” he said with a grin. “But only for a bit, okay?”

“Okay!” the boy said brightly, then dashed away, gesturing for Eugene to follow him.

They grabbed wooden swords and started reenacting their favorite scenes from the Flynn Rider books. Time started to get away from them; it could have been 10 minutes or 10 hours and they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“I’ve got you surrounded, Rider!” Eugene bellowed, pointing his sword at Varian as they chased each other down the halls of the castle.

“Ah, I see your point ,” Varian said. "But you'll have to try harder than that!" He ducked under the sword and slid under Eugene’s legs, making his escape.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” he yelled. He chased after the kid, and Varian screeched happily as he ran away.

“Get back, foul beast!” he yelled. Eugene grabbed him by the torso and lifted him up as both of them dissolved into giggles.

“I’ve got you now, Flynnigan!” Eugene said.

“That’s what you think!” Varian replied, trying to squirm out of the older boy’s grasp and knocking them both onto the floor. They wrestled on the ground between giggles until Varian managed to slip out and dash away.

Eugene lifted himself to his feet and tried to chase after the boy before almost colliding with someone else. His entire body tensed as he met eyes with the Queen of Corona, who had been there and had seen him playing with a 5-year-old.

“Your Majesty, hi, um, sorry,” he mumbled, dusting himself off. He was pretty sure his father would have a heart attack if he had seen the way Eugene was conducting himself. “Uh, welcome to the kingdom?”

Much to Eugene’s surprise, the Queen just smiled warmly at him. “Your hair got a little messed up,” she said simply, reaching out to fix it.

“Uh…”

“No need to make your father think there’s a problem here, right?” she added with a wink. Eugene chuckled nervously.

If he had learned one thing from his father, it was how to read someone from their eyes. The Queen had an amused look on her face, but her eyes looked sad. “Are you alright?” he asked carefully.

She smiled again and looked down, waving her arms dismissively. “I’m fine, I just… I’ve always wanted a kid. And seeing you two made me think...” she trailed off, then cleared her throat uncomfortably.

His heart sunk. He remembered hearing about what happened to the Princess of Corona years ago. The Queen had lost a daughter, he couldn’t blame her for being sad. “I-I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I know how you feel, my mom…”

The Queen shook her head and put her hand on his shoulders. “It’s okay, there’s no need for all that.”

He looked up and smiled at her. The sound of quick footsteps broke their moment, and Varian appeared beside them seconds later. “Eugene- oh. Hi,” he said, looking up at the Queen with wide eyes.

“Varian, this is Queen Arianna of Corona,” Eugene said. The Queen waved down at him, and Varian waved back.

“Hi, Varian, you’re Quirin’s son, right?” she said. Eugene was a little surprised that she knew the names of the knights of the Dark Kingdom, but it made sense that she would be kind and attentive enough to know everyone. “I’m about to go see him, would you like to come with me?”

Varian nodded, and the Queen bent down to pick him up. Varian welcomed it, wrapping his arms around her neck as she rested him against her hip. “Bye, Eugene!” Varian waved. Eugene waved back.

The Queen met Eugene’s eye and smiled softly. “I’m supposed to be seeing the royal family of the Dark Kingdom for the first time today in five minutes, I will see you then,” she said with a short nod. Eugene smiled back at her, and she turned to walk away.

~

Eugene knew that not everyone would be as understanding of his and Varian’s games as Queen Arianna was. Over the next few years, the two of them would make sure to only pull their dumb shenanigans when no one important was around.

Besides, everyone was saying Eugene was too old to be doing that kind of thing. What they didn’t understand was that he was doing his best to give Varian a normal childhood. Neither of them got to experience true “normal,” but the least Eugene could do was make sure the kid was happy despite everything.

As Eugene grew up, he was expected to learn more about the kingdom. By the time he was 18 years old, he had gotten sick of hearing about the history of kingdom tragedies, mostly regarding the Moonstone.

“One of these days, you’re going to be king. You have to be prepared for whatever the Moonstone will do,” Edmund told him. Eugene glanced at the perpetually-closed door of the chamber holding the Moonstone.

“Why don’t we just destroy it?” he asked. His father narrowed his eyes, and he swore he could hear the Moonstone buzzing louder than it was before.

“Generations of your ancestors have tried and failed to destroy it. Now we simply leave it alone and smooth over the disasters as best we can. That’s all we can do, end of discussion.”

Eugene watched Edmund walk away, holding his head high like a king. Once he was out of earshot, he groaned to himself and kicked the door. Stupid Moonstone, causing problems all over the kingdom. And his father wouldn’t even think about finding a solution to the problem. Why did he insist on ignoring it?

“Eugene!” Varian yelled as he scurried toward him, snapping Eugene out of his thoughts. “Check this out!”

The boy had gotten a chemistry kit for his ninth birthday and was spending all his time with it. He had a new fascination with everything about science, and Eugene couldn’t believe he was having trouble keeping up with a nine-year-old.

Varian poured one chemical into another, and it fizzled then turned blue. Eugene watched it carefully, waiting for something to happen, but nothing else came. He looked up at Varian, who had a huge grin on his face and was looking expectantly at Eugene. “Oh, uh, cool! Your experiments are really coming along, Var.”

He beamed, practically bouncing up and down with excitement over his chemicals. “Adding one compound into another completely changes the components of the element! Isn’t that cool?”

“Sure!”

Varian rambled about his chemicals for a bit longer as Eugene tried his best to listen, then the kid suddenly stopped himself. “What’s that buzzing sound?”

“I think it’s the Moonstone,” Eugene shrugged. “It just got louder while I was talking to my dad.”

Varian’s eyes widened excitedly. “Let’s check it out!” He strutted towards the door and put his hand on the handle, almost opening it before Eugene grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

“Hold it, kiddo. We can’t go in there, it’s dangerous, remember?”

“All the Moonstone ever does is sit there, why is it so dangerous to go in?”

Eugene paused, then shrugged. “It just is, I don’t know. Either way, there’s probably nothing interesting in there.”

Varian scrunched up his face at the door. Eugene could tell he wanted to go in, and honestly, he wanted to too. But he knew that it wasn’t worth the trouble they would get in if they went in. “Hey, how about we check out some more of your chemicals? I’m sure there’s plenty of things you haven’t combined yet, right?” he suggested.

Varian brightened back up and nodded. “Yeah! You’re right, there’s a lot more science to discover!” he said, taking Eugene’s arm and dragging him towards the door, the Moonstone completely forgotten about.

If the Moonstone was as dangerous as his father suggested, there was no way Eugene was letting Varian anywhere near it. It was not worth the risk of him getting hurt. He had sworn to himself years ago that he would protect the kid with everything he had, and no magic rock was going to change that.

~

Eugene was 24 when the rocks started appearing everywhere. Black rocks had been common his whole life, but it was getting much worse. Homes were being destroyed left and right, and no one could stop them.

He didn’t know if he could sit through another meeting where everyone’s only solution was to relocate civilians. He wanted to scream that these were all temporary solutions, and they needed to find a way to stop the rocks instead of relocating people every other day.

“You’re relocating people again ?” Eugene yelled as he threw open the door of his father’s office.

Edmund’s hardened gaze fell on him. “I know you want to find another way, but I’ve told you there is no other way. These are the kind of decisions you’ll have to make when you’re king,” he said simply.

“But there has to be something else to do! Why aren’t we finding the root of the problem?”

“We already know that the root of the problem is the Moonstone, but there’s just nothing to do about it.”

“‘Nothing to do about it’?” he shouted, slamming his hand on the desk in front of him. “You won’t even try to do anything about it!”

“There’s nothing to be done!” Edmund shouted back, standing up to meet his son’s eye level. “I’ve told you time and time again that the Moonstone cannot be destroyed!”

“How could you possibly know that? You won’t even let me get close to it!”

“Because I won’t lose you the same way I lost your mother!”

Eugene’s mouth immediately snapped shut. He stared into his father’s eyes. He looked… lost. But that didn’t stop Eugene’s heart from racing as thoughts ran back and forth in his head. His face felt numb, and he couldn’t form the words that were on the tip of his tongue. Edmund sighed to break the silence and sat back down. “I just want to protect us, son.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked quietly when he found his voice. “You said she died of a sickness.”

Edmund shook his head. “She didn’t. She tried to destroy the Moonstone, and… the Moonstone had other ideas.”

“The Moonstone killed her,” Eugene whispered. His hands tightened into fists and his eyes were trained on the floor. His nails were digging into the palm of his hand, but he didn’t even notice.

“Yes,” Edmund said weakly.

“And you never told me? You didn’t think I would want to know how my mother died?” he spat, his voice slowly rising.

“I couldn’t tell you the truth about the Moonstone, I just needed you to know it’s dangerous . ”

“You couldn’t tell me the truth. You let me believe a lie for years because you ‘couldn’t tell me the truth.’”

“Son, I’m not the bad guy in this story, you know that.”

“Don’t call me son,” Eugene said coldly. “What have you ever done to be able to call me your son?”

He didn’t bother letting him answer. He practically ran out of the room and stormed as far away as he could from the king. He didn’t know where his feet were taking him, he just knew he had to get as far from that office as possible.

He slowly came up with an idea as he marched down the hallways of the castle. He threw open the door to the room he had gone to countless times and walked in. Varian jumped as the door to his lab was slammed open. “Hey, Eugene. You look… unhappy.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “You want to go see the Moonstone?”

Varian blinked in surprise. “Really? What about your dad?”

“I don’t care what he thinks. Are you in or not?”

Varian bit his lip, waiting for some kind of explanation. Eugene was breathing heavily, and he had anger etched into every corner of his face. Varian wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew from his expression that Eugene was about to do something dumb, and Varian took it upon himself to make sure he didn’t. “Okay, I’m in.”

“Good.” Eugene grabbed the boy’s arm and practically dragged him away from the lab. Varian tripped over his feet to try to keep up with the determined prince, but Eugene paid no attention to him. His only focus was getting to the Moonstone.

“So, uh, why the change of heart?” Varian asked.

“He’s been lying to me about everything. Now I don’t care what he wants for me, I’m seeing this Stone even if it kills me.”

Varian frowned. “...is it going to kill you?”

“Maybe. Probably not, though.”

Varian was about to object when they arrived at the door of the Moonstone Chamber. Eugene looked at the door with a sense of determination he had never felt before. Without another word, he threw open the doors and came face to face with the Moonstone. He stepped in, not checking to see if Varian was still behind him.

He was still behind, of course. He didn’t want Eugene to go in alone. Not to mention, he had wanted to see the Moonstone for years, too. It had always been forbidden for them to go into the Moonstone Chamber alone, so neither of them ever got the chance to get a good look at it. He looked at the rock in question, glowing softly from its black cage.

Now that they were in the Chamber, they had no idea what they were doing anymore. They had heard the horror stories about the Moonstone, but it didn’t look that scary. It was just floating there. Varian had half-expected it to be a giant murder machine, but it was just a tiny gem.

Eugene took a step closer, and the light it was emitting got subtly brighter. He stopped in his tracks, looking at the Stone.

This was the last thing his mom ever saw. He wondered if the Moonstone was glowing as softly and quietly as it was now, or if it was more… dramatic . It just seemed sad now. He stood still for a moment and watched the Moonstone floating alone in the cage.

“Eugene?” Varian said softly. Eugene turned around and looked back at Varian.

“That’s all I needed,” he said, walking back to the door. He pushed it open and walked out of the Moonstone Chamber.

Varian trailed behind him, his eyebrows knit together as he watched the prince. “Are you okay?”

Eugene paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get back to your lab, you said you’re working on something cool, right? Flynnoleum?”

“Yeah,” Varian said slowly, not wanting to change the subject so quickly. But clearly, his friend didn’t want to talk about this now. “Yeah, if it works right, I can get hot running water to the whole kingdom.”

“Cool,” Eugene responded, his voice barely steady. “Let’s go check it out.”

~

Ever since that day, everything was the same, but nothing was the same.

They both went back to their lives like usual. Eugene continued to go to meetings to learn about the problems in the kingdom, and Varian continued to work on his experiments. Eugene still spent all his free time in Varian’s lab, watching the kid performing experiments that Eugene didn’t entirely understand. All he did to make himself useful was pass beakers when he was told to. Just like before.

But there was still a weight on both of their shoulders as if something had changed. They learned more about the tragedies of the Moonstone, and they finally understood the burdens their kingdom had borne for centuries. They were each other’s lifeboats in the chaos of what Eugene not-so-lovingly called “The Disaster Kingdom.”

It had been 2 years since they had first visited the Moonstone together, and things had only gotten worse in the kingdom. More rocks were devastating the citizens’ lives every day and no one could stop it. Eugene stopped trying to find solutions, and instead went out and helped as many people as he could in the relocations.

He stayed distant from his father. They talked when they had to, but never more than that. He didn’t mind, though. He had never had a close relationship with Edmund before, at least now they both finally had an excuse.

But one day, everything changed.

Varian knew something was wrong when Eugene didn’t come to visit his lab at the end of the day. He searched through the castle to look for some sign of where the prince went.

His heart dropped when he saw the door of the Moonstone Chamber was standing ajar. He poked his head in to see Eugene standing on the walkway. He was staring at the stone with Adira’s Shadowblade gripped tightly in his right hand.

“Eugene?”

He didn’t turn around to face Varian. He didn’t move at all. “Someone died today.”

“What?”

“Someone died today,” he said again. “A rock shot up into their home and killed her.”

“Oh,” Varian said quietly. “Was it someone you knew?”

“No, but it was someone with a home and a family. And now she’s gone, and her family doesn’t have her anymore. All because of the Moonstone.”

Varian fell silent and looked at the Moonstone. He could have sworn it was glowing brighter than it was last time he saw it.

“I’m going to destroy it.”

Varian’s eyes widened. “You can’t! It’ll kill you!”

Eugene made a noise that sounded like a half-laugh, half-scoff. “It’ll kill me? Just like it’s done to everyone else for the entire history of the kingdom?” he said bitterly. The Moonstone began to hum louder at his words. “It’s already killing people. I’m done just sitting back and hoping it’ll stop.”

“Eugene, there’s got to be a better way to help everyone than walking into death!”

“If you know a better way, I’m all ears! But as far as I can tell, no one can do anything. And apparently, I’m the only one that cares.”

“I care too! I just don’t want to lose you like this.”

Eugene’s shoulders tensed for a moment then fell back down. “That’s not my problem.” He took a step closer to the Moonstone, and it started to shine even brighter.

“Isn’t this the exact same thing that killed your mom?” Varian shouted.

That made him stop. Eugene finally turned around, his eyes narrowed and his hands shaking. He raised the sword at his side and pointed it directly at Varian. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother,” he hissed. Behind him, the Moonstone shot out a burst of light. “You don’t know anything about her.”

“I know enough to know that this could kill you!”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as I can destroy this stupid rock.”

He turned back around and continued his walk towards the Moonstone. It glowed harsher with every step he took, the light almost blinding by the time he was right next to it. Varian’s lip quivered as he watched the closest thing he ever had to a brother drawing his sword and holding it above his head.

“Eugene, wait!” he cried out. Eugene snapped his head to glare at Varian. The kid cleared his throat and took a hesitant step forward. “I… I love you. You’ve always been like family to me, and I- I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Eugene’s face softened, and so did the light emitting from the Moonstone. He slowly lowered the sword to give his full attention to Varian. “Kid, I’m-”

Before he could finish the thought, the Moonstone shot up from the cage like an arrow and floated in midair for a split second. The next thing he knew, it flew to Eugene’s chest, causing him to gasp and fall backward.

“Eugene!”

“Stay back!”

He clutched his chest and tried to claw it away to no avail. It dug deeper in his chest, and he folded in on himself. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly to distract from the burning the Stone was causing as it embedded itself into his skin. He felt Varian’s hand on his shoulder, but he pushed him away. He held his hand out to force the kid to keep a distance. He had no idea what was about to happen, and he didn’t know what he would do if Varian got hurt.

He felt extremely dizzy and his ears were rushing. His eyes were still shut and he couldn’t hear a thing, all he knew was that the Moonstone was searing his chest. He had no idea what was going on around him or to him. It felt like hours, but it couldn’t have been much longer than a minute.

Is this what his mom felt like right before she died?

A rock shot up right next to him, and he reached out to lean on it, desperately trying to catch his breath. The pain was starting to subside and he opened his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times as Varian came into focus in front of him. The kid’s face looked horror-stricken, but thankfully he seemed unscathed. “Kid?”

“You- your- you look-” Varian stuttered.

Eugene looked down and saw that the clothes he had been wearing had been replaced with pitch-black armor made from the rocks, with spikes protruding from the shoulders. The Moonstone had settled into place on his chest. His hair was pitch black, too, the same color as the black rocks across the kingdom.

“Well, that’s… new.”

Touhou Randfic #3

Patchouli + Lyrica, ‘Protector’

“A half-tone higher, if you would,” Patchouli said, leafing through a grimoire that looked nearly as large as she was.

“Do I have to?” Lyrica grumbled, watching with disinterest as page after page of arcane sigils flipped past.

“Strictly speaking, no, but per the stipulations of our agreement-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” The poltergeist pressed a note on her keyboard and a doleful wail echoed through the library, like the dying gasp of a laryngitic leviathan.

Patchouli frowned thoughtfully. “A quarter-tone lower.”

Things being Merlin's fault was nothing new, of course; the girl's unfettered enthusiasm and shocking lack of forethought should have sent her to an early grave by now if she weren't already technically dead. No, the unusual part was that she was the one cleaning up after her.

The day had started off on such a high note, too. The three of them had been at the Scarlet Devil's new recital hall, doing a dress rehearsal in preparation for a major concert they'd been hired to perform on Hunter's Moon. Swanky didn't even begin to describe the place. Whatever choice words one might reserve about the vampire's attitude, at least she wasn't afraid to throw money in the direction of artists who pleased her and that list was apparently going to include them now; they were going to make bank on this one.

Or at least they were until a particularly spirited trumpet solo from Merlin had turned the delicate crystalline nose of a bust of Remilia Scarlet herself into explosive shrapnel. They'd been on lunch break and Merlin had decided to tour the art galleries and if one had thought she might know better than to blast 120 decibels while standing two feet away from a priceless statuette, then one had never actually met her.

The girl at least had the good grace to look actually alarmed by the outcome and tried to disguise the damage as best as she could – which is to say that even a drunken fairy wouldn't have been fooled for a second.

Under ordinarily circumstances, Lyrica would have just kept on walking past the doorway and left the cleanup to Lunasa – she was the 'responsible sister', after all. But she was also honest to a fault and absolutely certain to begin by confessing everything to Remilia's face. The mansion's dungeons had a fearsome reputation that Lyrica was in no hurry to test out on her sister and even if Remilia merely settled for monetary damages, this was undoubtedly more cash than they'd make in a whole year – to say nothing of never being hired again.

No, there was a better solution: blame the disaster on one of the mansion's many incompetent maids; there were certainly plenty to choose from. And so she'd selflessly applied herself to bribing the only other witness to the disaster into silence. Everyone knew that succubi were hopelessly weak to flirting, after all, and hell – she was pretty hot.

How was I supposed to know she was so bloody loyal? Lyrica rolled her eyes and produced another unearthly wail from her keyboard. A succubus too selfless to just fuck somebody and call it a day; what a concept.

And this was how she'd somehow found herself helping said succubus's mistress to reproduce an unspeakable language that had been lost for tens of thousands of years.

“Are you sure this will even do anything?” she asked as the last strains of her note faded into the distance.

“It will if you keep quiet and follow my instructions. Now oscillate the second subharmonic again and then repeat the first stanza at double speed.”

Lyrica bit her tongue and did as she was told.

By rights, the chance to jam with so many novel and alien sounds ought to have been right up her alley, but Patchouli's constant overbearing micromanagement sapped any bit of enjoyment she might have gotten out of the exercise – like some kind of purple-haired vampire of joy.

Patchouli stared at her tuning fork as the eldritch melody echoed through the room. At least she'd called it a tuning fork, though to Lyrica's eyes it looked more like some implement of torture; that was definitely a drop of blood quivering on the end of it, at the very least.

“According to the Hajjar Papyrus,” she mumbled – more to herself than anyone else, “The tertiary abjuration is analogous to a 5th circle canticle, which might suggest an upper mordent on the third aethereal rebuke.”

“In words I can understand, please?”

Shaking her head, the magician penned an addition to the sheet music in front of her, then handed it over.

“If this works, Merlin's off the hook, right?” Lyrica asked as she reviewed the changes.

“Reassembling a silicate matrix based on structural sympathy is elementary earth magic,” Patchouli replied, gesturing absently at the damaged bust at her side. “Remilia will be none the wiser, I assure you.”

“And you, uh... won't tell Merlin I did this for her, will ya?” She'd hate to be expected to ever do it again, after all.

Patchouli sighed heavily. “In case I have somehow given you misapprehensions, I have precisely zero interest in interposing myself in your... familial squabbles. How you wish to explain this affair to your sister is your own concern. Now, if you could just stick to the task at hand?”

“Right, right.”

Another hour passed in the most peculiar jam session of Lyrica's career. By now, her melody resembled nothing less than a parade of mournful alpacas being swallowed by a thundercloud and then strangled by a sequence of kraken. Patchouli insisted they were getting close.

“I hope you appreciate what a rare opportunity you've been given here,” she said, and sounded as though she actually believed that might be true.

“Oh. Totally.”

“This magic was thought lost with the continent of Mu – after all, how can one incant a spell in a language which even yamabiko vocal chords cannot emulate? But what need has one to speak a language when the affinity of a simple poltergeist can summon sounds from beyond memory? Now raise the third trill by one octave and play the whole thing over from the beginning.”

'Simple poltergeist', my butt. Lyrica grumbled, but she did it anyway.

At first it seemed that nothing in particular was going to happen – and why should it? Unlike her sisters, her music had no supernatural effects of its own – well, if one could even call this 'music' anymore. Patchouli insisted what she was actually playing was an incantation in a forgotten language – an echo of vocalizations made by inhuman tongues in a time before civilization. And as they reached the fourth stanza, the air in the room had grown so heavy that even Lyrica could not deny that something was happening. Patchouli's eyes widened, and for the very first time, Lyrica saw a glimmer of something vaguely approaching genuine excitement in them; it was a little eerie.

And then all at once, every single article of glass within the room disintegrated – light fixtures, ornaments, alchemical retorts that then proceeded to spill their contents all over the floor, and yes – a certain nose-less bust of Remilia Scarlet.

Patchouli blinked.

“It wasn't my fault!” Lyrica cried, but the magician ignored her and buried her face in the papyrus for several seconds before finally muttering:

“'Render the ice of molten earth unto dust of gold'”

Lyrica stared at the pile of yellow dust beside her feet – and on the table and atop the bookshelves and-

“Sand?”

“Sand.”

Lyrica considered the difficulty of reassembling a statue that was shattered this comprehensively and laughed nervously. “Um, 'elementary earth magic', right?”

Patchouli sighed, though this time with the sort of bitterness that made Lyrica instinctively reach for her spellcards. The magician shook her head. “Just... go. You have fulfilled your end of the bargain... adequately. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe there is a translator out there whom I need to murder.”

Random scene from untitled novel

Elisabeth stared out the stained window. Rain fell from a clear sky, a bad sign in her opinion. Nothing was the way it should be. Men laughed out in the hall, drunk on Starlight Wine. It was expensive, only found in the finest distilleries. The wine was easy on the stomach and didn’t burn as it slid down the throat. But, oh, the sensation was amazing. Almost better than the climax of a night in bed with a dirty noble. The guards should be at their post, attempting to restore some order. Elisabeth smiled a sad smile. She didn’t blame them. If she wasn’t his sister, Elisabeth would have been out there with them, challenging them to a game of Shot Roulette. She sighed. Elisabeth longed for the days when her father was in charge. She couldn’t remember having a mother and none of the tutors could ever get her to listen. Her father may not have always been pleased with her, but at least she listened to him. Elisabeth had always felt at ease with men. They didn’t pressure her to behave like a lady, all manners and courtesies. She had gained a reputation among the nobles as the Wit of the parties. Elisabeth had a way with words that sent the most reserved ladies snorting into their cups. She could make any man embarrassed over anything, even the color of their eyes. It had been ten long years since she bedded a man. Ten years since she had had time for drinking and parties. Elisabeth shuffled in the chair. The damn dress was annoying. She missed her shirt and trousers, the comfortable snug of boots. When her father died everything changed. Eland had been claimed as the long lost prince of Andile by Elisabeth’s brother, Eric, when she was just a girl. She rarely ever saw him outside of meals, but they shared a sort of connection Elisabeth hadn’t felt with anyone but her late husband. They were different, not mentally bound by the life of a royal. Eland had been raised in a pawn shop by a crippled old man and had spent most of his time stealing from gangs and petty nobles. Seeing him now, asleep on the large bed, bandages covering his bare torso showed her a side of Eland she hadn’t seen in twenty-six years. He was vulnerable, lying in white sheets stained with dried blood. Eland would find that puncture wound in his neck to be annoying. Elisabeth frowned. She was tired. At first, she didn’t mind stepping up and taking charge, but it soon began to become a stressor. She was not as beautiful as she once was, even if she had been boyish. Ten years of trying to keep a breaking Empire together had taken its toll on Elisabeth. Her mind was always in several places at once and it had taken twelve maids to persuade her to go to her brother. This was the first time she had been able to think about something other than politics, and it had her anxious. He used to be a great soldier, a general. But, when their father was killed, Eland had spent one week as emperor before disappearing for a year. He came back a different man. Everyone knew that something had happened to his men in battle and the general public figured that his absence was a way to deal with his guilt. But there was more. He had fear written all over his face when he abandoned the throne. When he returned, Eland became carefree and neglected even the simplest of duties. The council could do nothing. As written in law, the emperor could only be replaced when he died; and it was hard for an emperor to die. When an emperor accepted the throne they were granted Immortal Youth. The only way for Eland to die was by the hands of another man. Eland spent most nights out in the city, breaking the law, chasing gangs, and disrupting society. He usually slept during the day. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to what he did, Eland just did it. It was his addiction. This left Elisabeth to take care of things, and it was harder for her than it would be for her brother. Technically, she had no real authority. Everything she did in court was evaluated by the Council. If they thought she was overstepping herself she had to withdraw her proposal. The Council was made up of fat nobles who cared only for preserving their status in society. Crime was spreading. More and more people were disappearing. The jails could hardly hold the thieves found every day in the street. And her brother’s nightly escapades weren’t helping. More lived in poverty than ever before. Gangs fought in the open air. Rumors of rebellion were heard even by the Council. Andile was dying. Eland coughed. Elisabeth sat up slowly as he opened his eyes. “I haven’t known you to sit still for more than five seconds. What did it take to get you to wait on me?” Eland coughed as he chuckled. “Did they drug you?” Elisabeth frowned. Eland needed to work on his humor. Her frown deepened. Elisabeth was disappointed. “What’s wrong?” Eland asked. “Oh, nothing. I’ve just been balancing a broken empire on my shoulders for ten years.” “That’s not fair.” Eland sat up quickly in protest. He cried out in pain. “Easy,” Elisabeth said. “You’ve broken six ribs.” “Damn. That’s two more than last week,” Eland said leaning back. “This isn’t funny. You’re not invincible, you can still be killed.” “I know. I know. Things didn’t go as planned. That’s all, I swear.” Elizabeth wasn’t convinced. “What happened?” she asked. “You have a puncture wound in your neck. A little bit to the left and you would be dead.” “It’s a long story. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Elisabeth gave him a cold look that made Eland wince. When the emperor didn’t respond, Elizabeth continued. “Fine, don’t tell. It probably doesn’t matter. There are more important things for me to worry about.” The emperor nodded in lazy agreement and closed his eyes. Elizabeth sighed. Eland could be infuriating. He was like a child sometimes, ignorant and selfish, regardless of his emotion. She was worried for him and the empire. He would end up dead trying to steal a noble’s dick. Eland didn’t have an heir. When he was killed the dynasty would end. The fighting in the streets would turn into a war, if not before. Parties would be formed and Andile would fall, likely consumed by the neighboring powerhouse, Yuldar. Andrians would be sold into slavery and the nobles would face an option, death, or loyalty to the unforgiving Yuldran Kingdom. The emperor needed to grow up. He wasn’t the child of the roughs anymore, the child he pretended to be. The empire needed him. “You’re pathetic,” Elisabeth said softly. Eland stared into the light overhead, his mind in a different place. “I know,” Eland replied with a faraway look. “I can’t help it. I need this. I wish I cared. I wish I actually knew what was happening in my own damn Royal Cabal. But…I don’t. I can’t. It hurts…” “Your empire needs you. Andile is breaking, before long it will crumble and fall into slavery. Hell, Andile is hardly an empire anymore. It’s more like a small country with warring city-states.” “That wouldn’t be so bad.” “What the hell is wrong with you?” Elisabeth said. “How can you be such an ignorant bastard?” Her brother winced, he didn’t like to be reminded of what he was. “What?” Eland said. “I spend most of my time in the slums. For the love of the gods, I was a general. I am not oblivious to what is going on. I know more than most. Slavery wouldn’t be much worse than the way the nobles are treating the poor. I’ve seen children beaten to death in broad daylight by passing lords. Society has cracked.” Elizabeth looked down at her hands. Eland was smarter than she gave him credit for, he just did not care. “Then you know that there are whispers of rebellion?” “I’ve heard a thing or two,” Eland said. “Something about the High Order and the Rose Thorn. I don’t really pay attention to politics, just the fighting.” He visibly tensed, preparing for the retort. He did this all the time. He played that card even when both of them knew he did care, he just was too afraid to do anything about it. “Eland. You are the godsdamned emperor,” Elisabeth said, her voice raised. “If anyone should be worried about politics, it’s you! Those children wouldn’t be dead if they had a law protecting them. But you allow your council to drink their lives away while you run off to steal something, chasing a high!” “Do you think I asked for this?” Eland shot back. “I had a good life before your brother found out I was some lost prince. I didn’t have to watch people die, people I cared about.” “Eric was not the best man,” Elisabeth said. “He didn’t know when to stop.” She paused. “He was a lot like you. At least he tried. And don’t tell me you didn’t like war, you loved it.” “Then you know I cannot just leave the only thing that keeps me grounded, much less rule an entire fucking empire.” He coughed. “Some people are born rulers, some people can be made rulers. I’m neither. Most don’t understand that they would have a much happier life if they worried about the things they cared about. Spend less time plotting and more time trying to keep their damn men alive.” “We both know you don’t care about anyone, not anymore,” Elisabeth interjected. Eland’s excuse was dumb. It bore no weight and only echoed the thoughts of a broken mind. “What does it matter to you?” “People don’t like me, Elisabeth,” Eland said, a tear ran down the cuts on his face. “Look at you, you can hardly look at me without feeling sorry for my useless life. I make your job harder by going out every night, pissing everyone off to get a fix. My own wife died because of me.” “I’m sorry,” Elisabeth said. What else could she say? Helein had died a year before Eland became ruler. Eland had never loved anyone else, not even the man who raised him, not even the soldiers who died for him on the battlefield. “No. I’m sorry. I want to save Andile but I don’t know how. And I know that if I don’t do something about it this troubled empire will burn.” Eland’s eyes looked past Elisabeth, past the chair with his cold breakfast, past the walls of the chambers, and into some place, far away and distant. Elisabeth saw fear in those eyes, a calculating fear. What had happened last night? This was not the man who sought only a thrill, this was a man who was genuinely worried about saving his people. And the only way he knew how was to let them escape whatever fate he envisioned for them. “Being slaves would be better than what is coming. They would still be alive and if we’re lucky, Yuldar will prove nobler than we had perceived,” the emperor said, his eyes still in that deep place. Elisabeth remained silent. She had no idea what her brother was talking about. He spoke as if he knew the future. As if the gods had given him sight. God didn’t bother with people, they were too wild, too unruly. Only the lesser gods interacted with the world and on such a small level that it was hardly noticeable. If the sun, the moon, and the stars stopped moving, then everyone would cease to believe in a god. Eland needed rest. “I have seen it. I lived it. I breathed in the smoke that rose to the clouds of ash, colored with the blood of thousands. I watched as men were gutted and women drowned in the river. I heard the ground tremor as the palace toppled to the ground, the nine towers raining down on the city. I smelled the burning of flesh. I felt the heat of the flames as clear as day.” He cried. “It was so real Elisabeth. This empire will burn and I can’t help but think that it will be me who causes it.” “And so you hide among murderers and thieves.” Eland nodded. “Eland, you know this sounds ridiculous. People don’t see the future.” “No. They don’t. And people aren’t immortal yet here we are.” And he told her, everything. Elisabeth listened with a mix of disbelief and curiosity. He told her of the rebels at the inn and the creature that attacked him. He told her of the dreams that began in his year of absence. Dreams he saw in every shadow and the eyes of every innocent child. “I would wander forever among endless ruins and rubble. A fire that never went out burned through the empire. I have walked that road hundreds of times before, fearing the truth. It is the future. I never wanted to acknowledge the truth I knew and so I ran from it. Bet then he showed me. He showed me everything. It begins here with the burning of the palace. He showed me. It is coming. I saw him, sister. I spoke with God.” The emperor wept. “Then stop running. Save your empire from whatever fate you see.” “I can’t. He told me. The empire cannot be saved and it’s my fault. It is inevitable.” “Maybe it is. But you were a general, a great leader, a war hero. Fight even if it is in vain. It shouldn’t matter to you.” “Have you ever thought that the reason I don’t lead anymore has at least a little bit to do with what happened in war. I watched my men die. I failed them. If I failed an entire Empire like I did them…I am lost Elisabeth. I don’t know what I am running from or where I am running to. How can a man stop running when he is barreling down a cliffside?”