Chapter 15: Fille
(Chapter 15: Girl)
"Did you--"
"No!"
"And yet, I did not--"
"Are you sure?"
Belle and Misrak were speaking, but their words seemed to offer no relief to their questions. Belle was the first to complete a thought.
"Is it possible that neither you nor I killed him?"
Misrak approached the prone form, almost afraid of it. It was his father laying there, and he found that it hurt him to be so close, to feel the vessel where the life had just been. His eyes narrowed when he examined him.
"There is no mark on him."
"But look, there is blood!" Belle crossed her arms and ventured closer to where Misrak stood.
"It is as though…"
"It was unnatural. Magic."
"Then it could not have been either of us." Misrak regarded Belle warily. Her forward was crinkled, and she was leaning forward slightly.
"But how…there is no way that it could have been someone else, because I would have seen them! You would have!"
"I am not so sure of that." Misrak sighed and laid down on the floor, all energy drained from him, "He had me unconscious. Like Alitash did to you, do you remember?"
Belle ran a hand through her hair uncomfortably.
"Of course I do." she began to eye him with concern, as though wondering whether or not she should enlist the help of Amara or one of the other lions. Misrak looked away from her, also uncomfortable. Instead, he looked up to stare at the ceiling, and watched absently as a fly flew rather drowsily around the room. He did not know whether to feel upset at it for being calm at a time like this or jealous that it was. Though his appearance was blasé, his own heart was beating rapidly.
"It is retribution, I think, for not having helped you then. Did I ever apologize?"
"It does not matter." Belle said quickly, "I mean, of course it did then, but I know it, whether you said it or not." She took a step closer to him and put a hand on his head. This caused him to look up at her, and she smiled at him, and though the smile was rather crooked, Misrak thought it was lovely.
"I feel terrible." Belle began, "Because your father has died. And yet I cannot really, because he has hurt you."
"You have no reason to feel terrible." Misrak said, "It is I who should be mourning him. He is my father, my blood." Belle looked into his eyes for a long moment, then pressed her lips together thoughtfully.
"Blood…I have found that blood connections have been rather useless as of late." Belle said softly, "For you, you have a father that, it seems, you could not love and any love he had for you was so…warped that it was not real love at all." She began to pet him absently. "As for me, well…I can never go home. There is a life there, but it is one of misery. I would feel lost among my own family as they are now."
"And there is not misery here?"
"Sometimes I think Alitash wishes that there was more for me." Belle said lightly, "But there is hope here. I know it."
"I will not allow Alitash to make your life here miserable. You will come to love it. More than we do." He added the end because he knew that there were many in the castle who hated everything about it. But the words he spoke were true-- he wanted Belle to be completely happy in the Chateau.
"I think that I have already started learning to love it." Her crooked smile, which had faded from her face, blossomed into a real one. Misrak felt a curious speeding of his heart, and he could not think what about loving the Chateau could translate into such a feeling. He could hear the drowsy fly buzzing near his ear, but it zoomed out of the room once he tossed his head in annoyance. Belle took this as a sign to end the conversation.
"It would probably be best if we did something, fetched someone." she said, pointing at Samson's body. "I--oh goodness, he's dead." Her face contorted, as though she would have liked to cry, but no tears came. Misrak watched this, bewildered, and she explained quickly,
"It had not sunk in before. It is still as I said, I do not mourn him, but I cannot--it's still terrible." She withdrew her hand from his hair, and said,
"Would you like to tell Amara and Alitash, or shall I?"
"I can do it. You could go to your room, perhaps. To avoid them. It would probably make you uncomfortable…" He actually found himself pleased that he was guessing her emotions right as an expression of relief came over her.
"Thank you." she said, and she hurried off with a last look in his direction. Misrak sighed heavily and cast his father another glance.
"I should be sorry that you are dead, Father." he said softly, "But I am not. I hope only that Alitash is not as cruel a ruler as you were." he shook his head, then hurried to fetch Amara and Alitash before the evening arrived.
The next day, the whispers of what had happened to Samson had circulated the castle, throwing everything into chaos as all of the inhabitants tried, desperately, to come to terms with the death of their leader and whether or not to mourn him. In a dark room, with crimson papering and dark wood floors, a boy sat with a lion.
"So you know the truth, Yeshi?" the lion asked.
Yeshi stiffened.
"Amara, I have asked that you not call me by that name."
Amara's eyes glowed brightly.
"You would still have me use that ridiculous name? Wagaye?"
Yeshi, or Wagaye, stretched.
"Would you prefer me to use Marie?"
"But you are not Marie. Marie is dead."
"And so is Yeshi." Yeshi began to grin, but Amara's golden face clouded.
"Do not say that."
"I am simply saying that I am neither one or the other. Half and half, you might say."
"You look like Yeshi. I would suggest, for the sake of everyone, to adopt that name when you admit the truth. Unless you do not plan to…?"
"Indeed, I do intend to reveal myself. Very soon, in fact."
"Why? Is it…" the lioness trailed off, her giant eyes going wider and shifting her long body so that she could examine the boy more closely.
"Did you kill Samson?"
The boy laughed so long and hard that it was quite clear that Amara believed that he had. She began to pull away from him.
"I would have the inhabitants of this castle think so." Amara's outline became less tense, though not completely relaxed, as she realized that he hadn't.
"But who really did?" The boy scratched his head and examined his nails, as though bored with the conversation already.
"It will hurt you to hear, Amara, but you do not know them."
"I know everyone in this castle." Amara said, drawing herself up, "Who do you suggest that I do not know?"
"She does not live here."
"She!"
"It was a woman."
"I assumed that when you said 'she' that it was a woman." This caused the boy to smile and stand up.
"So testy, Amara. You have indeed grown bitter in your old age."
"If you are Marie, then you are not so young."
"I'm half and half, as I said."
"I still do not completely understand it." Amara said to herself. To Yeshi, she said,
"If she does not live here, how did she come to murder Samson?"
"She is a shape changer. She could have been no larger than a fly when she entered the Chateau."
Amara thought for a long time. Yeshi, finally, made a move for the door, and Amara did not try to stop him. She did, however, say as he pulled the door open,
"So you will say that it was you who did it?"
"For the time being."
"And I suppose it does not matter because…"
"…my mother is now the queen."
"Is she your mother or your daughter?"
Yeshi thought for a long while, then shook his head.
"I have resolved to call her mother, but choose not to think of it." He walked through the door.
"Yesh- Wagaye!"
He paused again.
"Will you grieve for losing him?"
"Will you?"
"I shall." Amara said this with conviction, and Yeshi turned away.
"I…I think I did that long ago."
"Misrak! Misrak!" Bibi called his name loudly and nearly tripped over herself trying to run after him. He turned to her, his face impassive. He supposed, by the sad expression on her face, that she intended to try comforting him for losing his father as countless others had.
"Yes, Bibi?"
"I'm sorry." she said, and he began to turn away, trying to think of a way to escape her. He liked Bibi, but he didn't want to hear it now.
"Well, I am very sad, but it shall be alright."
"I would be sad too, if my sister got to be queen instead of me." she shook her head mournfully, and Misrak turned back to look at her curiously.
"What?"
"Well, I understand that you must be sad that you don't get to be king." Misrak raised an eyebrow. He had not even thought about who would inherit the throne now.
"Bibi," he began gently, but she interrupted him.
"And I'm sad too," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "because I want Belle to be queen. She's nicer to me than Alitash is."
Misrak felt an odd knot in his stomach, and he frowned.
"Bibi, Belle would not be queen."
"Of course she would! You would marry her and--" she stopped, then looked up at him worriedly.
"I am sorry." she said again, "I am not to speak of it. I forgot."
Misrak felt bad for her, because it seemed clear that she knew very much but was unable to discuss it with anyone.
"It is fine." Misrak sighed, "I simply do not want Belle to hear."
"Why?" Bibi asked, cocking her head, "You both already love each other, so if you know that you shall get married, why not do it?"
"Because we do not know anything." Misrak said uncomfortably.
"You love each other more than many people do when they marry." Bibi said, "My older sister is married, but she is not in love. She and her husband are still happy."
"It-- I do not think Belle would like that." Something in him knew that, and also knew that he felt the same way. Otherwise, he would have been married by the time Belle had came. The thought of being married to someone else made his insides squirm. Whatever this was with Belle, he was glad that he was able to pursue it in peace.
"Well, you had better hurry, then." Bibi said, sighing, "What will you do if someone else makes her fall in love with them?"
"That will not happen."
"I think it will. I have already heard my brothers call her the 'pretty ghost girl.' She is pretty, isn't she?"
"Yes." Misrak said, and his stomach knotted even more, "She is." The thought that other men might consider pursuing Belle was unthinkable. They did not know her, they had not been through with her what he had…
He rubbed a hand through Bibi's hair, then said,
"I have to go now. Thank you." he began to walk away, then turned back towards her.
"Alitash will be a good queen." he said firmly. Bibi nodded.
"That's what mother said, too." she said. From her tone, Misrak could tell she was unconvinced.
Once Misrak had gone, Wagaye came out from behind one of the giant pillars.
"Well done, Bibi." he said with a smile. She smiled back at him, and Wagaye was reminded, once again, why he liked the girl so much.
Sorry that it took so long! I've been very busy. So anyway, here is chapter 15, and because Phillipa of the Phoenix pointed out that the french chapter titles can makethings confusing, I added an english translation underneath (oh gosh, I dread doing this for every chapter because then I'll have to reveal how uncreative I am with chapter titles. Oh well.) And I KNOW there will be at least one person confused by the whole Marie-Yeshi-both dead, but he's still walking around-wtf thing, but please do not worry. As I've said to pretty much everything, things will happen later.I have an explanation to everything.
Thank you very much to mistyqueen, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (lol), ash vault rose garden, v (It pretty much was to get into Misrak's room and bug him, yeah. He wasn't planning on trying to kill him, it just sort of...happened. Well, okay, he was sort of planning to, but he was going to go about it in a much more twisted calculated way. One of those things that'll probably never be really revealed.), Phillipa of the Phoenix (lol! Thank you! I hope that by adding english underneath it'll make the story easier to navigate around...I'll probably add the englishto all of them soon), ShadowFiction (thank you very much!), Philippa (It's alright. Thank you very much for your review; details are what I have the most trouble with. That's why I used pictures to help me get a clearer idea of how I needed to describe everything! Well, you got a little information on who did it, but we won't find out more about her until later... But yeah, malicious is a good word ;D), Narev (OMG, you do not want my muse. My muse is a spastic little wierdo who only visits me every month or so and laughs at me while I sit crying in front of a blank screen. Okay, so it's not that bad, but you don't want her. I was laughing when I saw Samson was your favorite character- it's fun to write about someone who's so derangedly evil.But lucky you, there's still plenty of evil to be had. The one who killed Samson is pretty bad, not to mention the Rachets will make an appearance later on...But it was Samson's time, I'm afraid.), Gred and Forge's Swamp (First off, I love your penname. Also, I hope that you and your loved ones, as well as your home, were unhurtby Rita.), and Dreaming One (All of yourabsolutely FANTASTICreviews were what pushed me to finish this chapter, so thank you very much.Lol, I've never been told my writing is 'cute'. I've always worried that it sounded really immature, which may or may not mean the same thing. Colette and Pierre...well, we'll see more of them later, so that's when you'll find out more about them and how they're doing. And I'm glad you like my characterization! I hate when a story is filled with perfect people. As for Wagaye's age...would it make sense if I said that he's sort of ageless? I mean, since he's both Marie and Yeshi, he pretty much had a choice how he looked. And oh man, you thought it was done? Boy, I feel really bad for you, and I honestly mean that. This is gonna be a long one.)