Castle Hydra: Next Generation

[lycrawaterz14]

Kenan just supported her more, carrying her almost completely now. "Would you like to go back to my castle?" He asked, worring for her sake now. "I suppose... I could lift the bounty off Skulni's head."

[frostmourne]

"No, I'm...fine." Aza said stubbornly, trying to stand on her own. She gave up and nestled against Kenan. "Now would be the time she says something terribly cheesy. Possibly along the lines of 'your arms are my castle'." Skulni snickered, saying the line in a voice that was all but identical to Aza's. She glared daggers at him. "Now, about that demon, what-" she started to say. "STOP TALKING AND GO TO BED. You're acting like a whiny six year old." Skulni barked. He threw a blanket over Aza's head that was followed by a pillow. "Says the one throwing pillows around." Aza muttered. "I can't sleep right now. Adrian's in pieces, I just found out one of my familiars is dead, I still have no idea where to start with Kenan's problem and to top it off, Jared may or may not be killed. How do you expect me to take a break?" she snapped. She grabbed the necklace that held the chip in place and held it. Nothing happened to signal it was working. "Fantastic. Jasper has been disabled." Aza blinked away tears of frustration and seemed to slam her walls up. Her face became masklike, calculating and cold. She moved away from Kenan and started to restart Jasper.

Edited October 2, 2012 by frostmourne

[lycrawaterz14]

Kenan locked up around her, pulling her back in. "Aza, sleep. You really need to. I'll hold you and nothign will happen. I'll make sure of it. You aren't going to be of as much help if you're tired." He picked her back up again.

[frostmourne]

Aza was reaching for her necklace when Kenan wrapped his arms around her again. There was a quiet beep as the computer whirred to life. Aza was still trying to insert the chip when she noticed a little red dot on her forehead. She ducked to avoid whatever was going to be shot towards her and had a shadow jab the chip in. The red dot was gone and hurried footsteps headed towards them. "Madam, I am so sorry! My memory-" "Was wiped. I know." Aza said, her voice flinty. The figure lowered its head a little and moved off as it was dismissed with a wave. She glanced back at Kenan and her icy stare seemed to thaw a little. "You shouldn't have interrupted me." she mumbled, kissing his neck lightly.

 

Jared arched his back as the pain wracked through him, biting back a scream. He knew she was close enough to hear if he did. He would not let her hear him die. As the pain subsided temporarily, he managed to put the pen back on the paper. He sang the tune quietly as he resumed writing, ignoring the blood dripping on the paper.

"I'll raise my roses to your lips,

Hide my bloodied fingertips,

Stay although my heart cries flee,

Won't you look up and smile at me?"

 

It had been months of wasted efforts. He started at the emotionless face of the girl he had been reading to. "What do I have to do to get you to trust me?!?" he asked, looking troubled. Aza smirked, her smile icy as a winter blizzard. "Bring me a dozen natural blue roses by...dawn." she challenged, confident that he wouldn't be able to. She climbed the steps down his tower. Jared grabbed the bouquet of red roses that someone had sent up and concentrated. Slowly, one of the roses turned a dull purple. About half an hour later, he held up a single blue rose. He was exhausted and eleven roses still lay scarlet red on the table. It was a sleepless night.

Aza wrenched her door open, annoyed. She was surprised to see her tutor holding out twelve ocean blue roses. She scrambled for an excuse or a flaw. "I don't want those. They have thorns." she snapped haughtily. Jared held out one for her to examine. The stem was glass smooth. Aza noticed he was wearing gloves and tore one off. She caught a glimpse of raw skin covered with countless cuts before he hid it behind his back. She seemed to be struggling with herself before managing to bark out a 'thank you', taking the roses and all but slamming the door shut in his face. Jared peeked through the door. Aza placed the roses on the vanity and came back with a white vase. She placed the roses in the vase. She tugged off the blue ribbon that had been holding her hair in place, allowing it to cascade down to her waist. She tied the ribbon in a bow around the neck of the vase. She smiled as she watched the play of light over the roses as the sun rose. Jared sighed softly, all of the pain and exhaustion melting away. He was quite sure he had just seen the loveliest smile in the world. Aza found her tutor dead asleep in the hallway when she left her room. He probably didn't even notice the blanket she half draped over him.

[lycrawaterz14]

He picked her up and held her closer, gently petting her hair. She easily fit into one of his arms, carrying her like a child. "You are not to worry. Understand?" He teased, though one could tell he was at least a little serious. He really only wanted the best for her, it was a tragedy she made it so hard. "What is happening? You never tell me anything..." He pouted. "I try to tell what you can understand... I really do. But you never tell me anything."

[frostmourne]

Aza looked rather apologetic as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry if it seems like I'm hiding things, but I thought you had enough problems with adding mine to the pile. Besides, my problems always seem so much pettier compared to yours." said hesitantly. "I'm pretty sure she just rattled off a list of her problems a few seconds ago." Skulni muttered, hiding a grin. "Aren't you scared of ruling a kingdom too?" Aza shifted to glare at him. "I'm terrified. I can't even remember to feed the cat and I'm going to govern these cutthroat politicians?" Aza mumbled mostly to herself. "You don't have a cat." Skulni snickered. "See? You can't even remember you don't have a cat." Aza turned her head away. "I just made you smile didn't I?" Skulni cackled. "Maybe a little." Aza said in a rather muffled voice. "Planck's constant, giggles, impending doom. My work here is done. Away!" Skulni said with utmost seriousness. He turned back into a white snake a slithered under the crack in the door. "Remind me to find him a psychiatrist." Aza muttered, a faint smile lingering on her lips.

Edited October 10, 2012 by frostmourne

[lycrawaterz14]

He hugged her. "Aza, your problems are my problems. No matter how petty you may think they are. If you aren't entirely happy, then it's my job to help you. And why are you scared of running a kingdom? You already run mine, whatever you say would go, and I would hope to do the same with your people. I could help you, Aza. You wouldn't be alone. Ever." he pet her back gently. "You don't have to be afraid anymore. Except Skulni and Adrian. They both need a damn psychiatric facility."

[frostmourne]

"Why am I scared? When I was six, I picked up a boy's hat that had blown away and gave I to him. A day later, his mother comes to me, sobing and holding a bloody hat. They killed him. Just because I handed him a hat." Aza mumbled. She looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks. Adrian would always say that I had monophobia. I think I'm starting to believe him." She seemed a bit happier now, despite being still rather edgy. "Speaking of running kingdoms, what did Arachne say? And don't your people still believe I-" The sound of approaching footsteps silenced her. "I do believe that the latter has been resolved. Jared is resigning and heading back to the Academy to resume his teaching position. Also, he asked me to return this." Arlex stated emotionlessly. He handed back a tiny vial. It looked like Kenan's blood, but it was hard to tell. "Aza, you will be hosting a ball in a week to announce your engagement." Aza tensed and opened her mouth. "Would you rather the suitors keep coming? I thought not. Adrian is outside and he will not recall the recent events." With that, Aza's father abruptly vanished.

[lycrawaterz14]

"I'm supposing this engagement is to me." Kenan nodded. "And yes. My people still think you as a harlotte. But you aren't it's just what happens when you keep a good thing hidden for too long. We can fix that easy." he rubbed her shoulders a bit. "Arachne is working with Judeao on the diplomatics with the fates, making sure you're going to keep breathing. There's still... Technicalities to be resolved." he kissed her forehead. "You're really going to be engaged to me? Not just a joke, or just pretend...? I mean you don't have to if you aren't ready but-" he stopped. He didn't need to blubber.

[frostmourne]

Aza looked lost in thought for a moment before she responded. "Almost everything they do at Court is pretend, but yes, the engagement will be real." she said, smiling wryly. "Do either of you notice something wrong? Something very, very wrong?" Adrian snapped, heading towards them. "You're right. Jared would never go back to the Academy. He hates it there and why and how did he just give back immortality?" Aza thought out loud. "Not him you dummy! There is something wrong that is blindingly obvious. As in, reeeeaaaaally wrong. Y'know as in what normal people do before they're engaged?" Adrian was glaring at Kenan. "What's wrong with Kenan?" Aza asked, looking over him. Adrian looked like he wanted to slap her. He walked away muttering something about stupidity. Aza looked puzzled as she turned to Kenan. "Do you have any idea what that was about?" she asked, feeling rather idiotic. "Jasper, could you call the staff and begin preparations?" "My pleasure, madam." Aza visibly flinched at the AI's voice. "Is something the matter?" Aza shook her head slightly, the movement making her feel oddly dizzy.

[lycrawaterz14]

"I suppose he means a ring..." he took her hand, touching it. "I told you to put my mother's ring on when you decided you wanted me back. What happened to it...?!" he sounded worried. "Aza... Did you lose it?"

[frostmourne]

"I am mildly offended that you would suspect me of losing it." Aza muttered under her breath. She held out her hand, a few black strings flying out and returning wrapped around the ring. She hadn't moved it from where Kenan had placed it on a pillow. She felt disoriented, putting a hand against the wall to steady herself. The white snake peeked out from under the door. "Did you call?" Skulni asked, sticking out his forked tongue in a rather comical fashion. "N-" Aza began. "Of course you did! Drink this." Aza suspiciously picked up the delicate champagne flute the snake was pushing towards her. She looked at it and then let a drop fall on the floor. "Jasper, readings?" she asked. "Twelve percent alchol, two hundred milligrams morphine, one hundred milligrams diazepam which you may know as Valium. Also-" "Are you trying to kill me?" Aza interrupted, glaring at Skulni. "Hey, I could give you the lethal dose and you would only be asleep for a few minutes." he said defensively. "This is ten times the lethal dose, bean head." Aza snapped. She placed the odd liquid on a table with enough force to almost break the glass.

[lycrawaterz14]

Kenan crushed it in his hand, clearly seething. "Why." He barked, uncomfortably close. He seemed to be restraining himself from murdering Skulni on the spot. "Don't ever give her anything of the sort. Do you understand me? You are not to give her anything... anything." He had a bony hand under his jaw now, and there was clearly enough strength to crack his neck in half.

[frostmourne]

The snake simply remained limp in Kenan's grasp, not bothering to struggle. A few black ribbons coiled themselves around Kenan's arm, gently tugging on it. The snake shrunk a bit more, slipping out of Kenan's grip and immediately raced towards Aza. She bent down to offer an arm and it made its way up until it was coiled around her neck. "You aren't allowed to kill my pets, Kenan. Familiars aren't capable of malice towards their masters, so you must have always had good intentions, right, Skulni?" Aza cooed. Skulni didn't utter a squeak, but nodded obediently. He knew whenever she started being nice, she was likely on the verge of a rampage. "Wonderful!" she chirped. She turned to look at Kenan and giggled. The ribbons had tied themselves into bows while she hadn't been watching. They vanished with a wave of her hand. "So remind me again what were we discussing?"

[lycrawaterz14]

He still snarled at him, on the verge of a rampage himself. "Of course." He growled at Aza, the only aggression he had ever really shown. "We were just discussing how you nearly lost the only thing I have of my mother." he seethed, curling in on himself emotionally.

Edited October 14, 2012 by lycrawaterz14

[frostmourne]

Her smile vanished like the sun behind a cloud. Skulni zipped away to wait out the storm. He waited, expecting an outburst of some sort, but she remained utterly silent. "Skulni." He hesitated, not willing to leave where he was cowering. Involuntarily his body moved forward. "Yes, madam?" Aza seized the snake and abruptly ripped its head off, her expression not changing in the slightest as she did. She didn't seem to care that the bathrobe was stained wih blood. "Happy?" she said quietly, showing none of the cheer that she had shown before. The strands supporting the ring moved forward, all but shoving the ring into Kenan's hands. Another white snake slid fluidly out of the reflective surface of a nearby pitcher. It glanced at Kenan before offering another glass to Aza. She accepted it, swirling the liquid around the glass before taking a tentative sip. She made a face and set the glass down. She was asleep within minutes and Skulni set about cleaning up the broken glass. He never as so much as looked at Kenan as he worked, hissing something under his breath that sounded like some twisted cursing. The snake coiled protectively in front of Aza as soon as the floor was clean.

[lycrawaterz14]

He just glared. "It isn't just this. How many times have you chosen Adrian, Jared, Skulni, your father, over me? Yes, its selfish, but perhaps I'm tired of taking hits for you while you stick your neck out for everyone who even has a small debt to you." He grumbled, leaving the room. There was no need to be hateful to her, and he felt horrid that he had. He wasn't going to admit to it though. Kenan wasn't even angry at her.

 

Adele pat his shoulder, always in his shadow. "I'm sorry." She whispered. Kenan wrenched off her hand. "She deserved it. Inherently and utterly deserved it. She chose wrong, and she died because of it. Her sins echo!" He said, volume increasing until he was yelling. He composed himself. "Keep the child in our custody. Thantos is never to even look upon its face." He spat.

[frostmourne]

Skulni started as he heard a choked sob. He turned around to look at Aza, tears escaping her eyes. "It's always one step forward two steps back with you isn't it?" he sighed, brushing a tear off her cheek. Adrian came back and then stopped at the sight of her curled up on the ground. "For heaven's sakes, what now?!? Where's the happy couple act?" Adrian snapped, yanking her to her feet. Aza staggered, the sedatives not completely worn off yet. "I can't." Aza mumbled, causing Adrian to halt. "Can't what?" he said irritably. "Keep pretending I'm fine." she muttered. "You are not giving up now. We're so close Aza! A few more days. You've waited for three centuries, so a few more days is nothing." Adrian almost sounded pleading. "She is the same as the ones who came before her, little boy. Only able to act as a valve for so long. Why are you hesitating? You'll have to kill her to imprison me within another body. You've done this fifteen times. What is so different with this girl?" the shadow chuckled. "She's not even really your family. You shouldn't wait longer. She's almost gone and if I'm free, then the sacrifice of those fifteen people will have been for nothing." Adrian slowly drew out a gleaming white blade, his hands shaking as he did. Something knocked the sword out his hand, snarling angrily as it did. "You aren't going to touch her." Skulni snapped.

Edited October 14, 2012 by frostmourne

[lycrawaterz14]

Kenan heard the blade clatter to the ground. "What's going on here?!" His anger suddenly turned toward Adrian. "What's over in a few more days?"

[frostmourne]

Both of them turned to glare daggers at Kenan and neither deigned to answer for several moments. "Nothing at concerns you." Adrian said coldly. Aza laughed, the sound like the howl of wind in a winter blizzard. "I need more time." Adrian murmured, fiddling with the necklace around his neck. "You are hardly in the position to negotiate, little boy. What could I value more than my freedom? Nothing you can give me." she snickered. "Let me be the judge of that." "Anything at all? Hmm...let's give you something just out of reach...I want...Jared." she said smugly. Adrian was giving her a strange look. "Not that way, bean head! He has a gift that he doesn't know he has yet. One that cannot be taken by force. The affinity for it is passed from parent to child, but it is completely up to him to discover it. I want it." "Aww, now that just ain't fair." Skulni complained. A shadow shot up and slammed him against the wall. "No whining or the deal is off. The fairytale is over when the clock strikes midnight. Have fun with Cinderella, little boy." Aza blinked a little, noticing the people staring at her. "What happened? I was mad at Skulni for spiking a drink and then everything goes black." Aza asked, feeling like she had a horrible headache. "Nothing at all, Cindy." Skulni muttered. "Cindy?" Aza queried. "What's wrong? Do you prefer Ella?" Adrian was ignoring them both, headed for the door.

[lycrawaterz14]

Kenan grabbed Adrian's shoulder. "Spill." He demanded. "Something's been going on for a while. Tell me. I deserve to know. That's what's been driving us apart. No more secrets." He sighed.

 

A baby's cries could be heard and Kenan tensed. "Not now Adele." He sighed in frustration. She didn't come to him though. "Aza, please help him. This child has no mother, Kenan's not allowing him to have a father, and I don't know what to do." SHe said panicked. Kenan's wrath turned towards her. "Aza, he's going to kill it if you don't help." Adele handed the baby to Aza, its soft wails seeming not to bother Kenan. The poor thing couldn't be more than a few hours old.

[frostmourne]

Aza stared down at it as if entranced. She reached to stroke its cheek. "Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird don't sing,..." she started to croon. Each of the items in the song wove in and out of existence with the strands of shadow. Adrian just stared rather blankly as she reached the last lines of the song. "...So hush little baby, don't you cry. Daddy loves you and so do I." "That's just sick...Why does she always jump at the chance to play mommy?" Adrian muttered. "Perhaps because she does not have anything to prove she wasn't born in a test tube?" Skulni muttered under his breath. Adrian didn't seem to hear his comment, trying to pull free of Kenan's grip. "No more secrets. Skulni is right. I don't even know for sure who my parents are. I was always meant to be a tool. A container to hold the darkness like so many others before. Of course, the container will always break eventually. So before that, the container is killed and the darkness contained inside another. I realized a long time ago that you weren't my family, Adrian. You were an assassin that was meant to get close to me. I would be docile around you, easy to dispose of." Aza said quietly, never looking up from the face of the infant. Adrian closed his eyes, struggling to ignore the flow of emotion he sensed from her and himself. "I'm sorry." "Don't be. You've given me more joy than I deserve. I'm a tool, and I am disposable. I was meant to be thrown away." Aza said cheerfully. She seemed to have resigned herself to her fate centuries ago. "Is that why it called you Cinderella? Garbage Princess?" Skulni asked. Aza didn't reply, humming quietly to the baby.

[lycrawaterz14]

The child stopped crying, and Kenan seemed to be calmed by it too. "Aza. You are not a tool, nor a container. And if you were, it wouldn't matter." He took her shoulders. "You won't be thrown away. Cinderella wasn't. You know the story as well as I do. I've made you immortal. You may break, but you'll always reform. And I'm sorry I did that to you. But I can't be without you. There isn't any other way. At the mention of you b-being taken away..." He gently touched the baby, his hands trembling at the memory of mass murder. "Perhaps... we could raise it as ours. I'll fix you. Don't you give up just yet." He kissed her forehead.

[frostmourne]

"I thought I wouldn't have to tell you. You sealed the cracks so wonderfully, but I suppose I'm too flawed to really ever be 'perfect'. It doesn't matter if I physically cannot die. As soon as my self control breaks, I have ruined my task. I'm not Cinderella. My dream ends at midnight and never continues." Aza murmured. She withdrew her hand from the infant. "And I cannot steal away the joy of being a mother, as much as I want to." "Do you want me to fetch Jared?" "There is no point. You can just 'kill' me. As much as a I hate it, you can find someone else to contain it." Aza said tiredly. "I've decided." Aza looked around, expecting to see the source of the voice. "I want this warmth." Aza squirmed with discomfort as an odd icy chill ran up her spine. "I'll let you off the hook, little girl. Do you agree to my condition? I promise the child will be well cared for." "It isn't mine to give away." Aza said, confused on why it would be willing to trade its freedom for a child.

[lycrawaterz14]

"It wants to be held in the child...? Like it was with you?" Kenan blinked. "Or does it want to kill him...?" In truth he didn't want to kill the child. He just wanted it out of his life.

 

"Aza, you aren't stealing anything. This baby has no one. If anything, he's stealing you, the little murderer." He huffed.