Beginning of the end

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No one can recall dates any longer. Help was coming, they had promised. Who wouldn't believe the promise made to by the brightest minds of the time to the richest families of the time? It had been long enough now that the original citizens of Rapture now had young adult grandchildren. The city had been built just for them. Their lavish playground, or so they liked to believe. It was many years now since anything had been truly 'lavish', it was only as the joy now made them see it; glorious and delightfully decadent.

Some families considered themselves better than others, and rightly so. Few had the money and the power, while the many lived in squalor. One of these families were the Jansen's. The eldest son had two beautiful daughters, who in the society they had left would no doubt have been attendees of many parties and balls, all for the purpose of finding a husband. As it stood, the youngest girl seemed the most adept at wearing her mask. By day she was the spoiled little princess she was supposed to be, making fun of the lower classes and generally being a horrible person. But as night fell and her joy pill began to wear off... She often thought of life outside her parent's massive apartment, of life in the 'workers' levels of the city. Anika Jansen would fall asleep troubled by the things her imagination thought up. It was this particular night that she had finally plucked up the courage to slip out of her parent's home, though of course she would stand out a mile in her expensive clothing and perfect make up.

Anika whimpered quietly, not at the thought of hurting that man... but because she had caused the tree so much pain. Tree's had been extremely valuable commodities where she had come from, and she hated to think of one suffering.

Deacon still said nothing as he removed his shirt to tie it around her wound before lifting her into his arms. She may think her words couldn't hurt a creature like him, but they had. He was still silent as he took her to the mystics.

"Does that make you sad?" The king asked in surprise. "Why? It's just a worthless tree. They are even more worthless than the goblins."

The head mystic gave an oddly triumphant smile when she saw that Victoria was bleeding. "You may leave, your majesty." She said quickly. "Your queen is in good hands."

"Do you enjoy breathing, Mr. Monster?" Anika asked curtly, her red rimmed eyes finally looking up at him from beneath the cloak hood he had pulled over her head.

Deacon hesitated somewhat. He glanced around the room until his eyes fell upon the empty seat where Samantha had usually sat. "You will ensure her full recovery." He instructed.

"Not anymore." Arthurian confessed. It had been so long since he'd enjoyed anything, he'd forgotten what the word meant. Nevermind the fact that she'd asked in sarcasm. "Do you? The look in those eyes tells me no. Tell me something...did you ever?" 

One of the mystics was quick to sit in the empty chair, just in case Deacon got the idea to stay. "Of course we will." She purred. "We'll do everything in our power to make sure she...has a full recovery."

"I'll let you know the first time I take a breath that doesn't suffocate me." Anika replied honestly. "I suppose respiring and breathing are different in the same way living and existing are."

Deacon didn't seem to be letting Victoria go, something about the way the mystic had chosen to speak setting his senses on edge. "Then you wont mind me staying. There are many feral soldiers within the castle walls right now."

"I suppose." Arthurian sighed, her words filling him with a deeper sadness. "Come now. You can rest in my chambers and wake ready to tell me about the mirror and my mother." 

"We are magical, dear king. We hardly need protecting." Another said, looking up from her crystal with an annoyed look in her eyes.

"You still live under the assumption I intend to tell you anything. Our agreement was to keep Elliott from harm, yet you sent us to that place! It was your fault he was taken from me!"

"You seem to be missing a member. I would wager you have no idea where she is. Can you really be blind enough to assume your own safety?" Deacon asked with a slight snarl.

"He was weak and broken. He couldn't even protect himself!" The king shouted, his nerves frayed to match his exhaustion. "He was an embarrassment to everyone who neared him! I am not sorry he is dead!"

The smallest mage was cleaning Victoria's wound. She paused and shook her head. "We are all here." She said. She nodded to the door behind Deacon. "Samantha, dear. That dress looks stunning." Beside her, Victoria gasped, her now violet eyes wide.

"Well I'm sorry I was not killed with him!" Anika suddenly shouted for everyone to hear. "He was beautiful, and kind... and my best friend! You took everything from me!"

Samantha was leaning against the wall beside the door as though she had been there the entire time. She no longer hid her beautiful dress, her gift from Darkness, beneath the dowdy cloak of the mystics, instead she flounced across the room like she were the true queen. "Of course it does, it's on me, isn't it?" She purred, as egotistical and vain as ever. Truly the opposite of her 'twin'.

"Welcome to my world, sweetheart." Arthurian growled. Though his voice was gruff he reached out and touched her cheek. She was so soft. He could remember the last time he'd touched anything soft. "You are so lovely. He didn't deserve you." He breathed.

Victoria refused anymore treatment and sat up, searching Deacon's face. Is this why he wanted to marry Anika? Because he couldn't have this woman?
"The queen is bleeding." The head mystic said, her voice filled with meaning. "Heal her...if you would." She added, gesturing toward Samantha.

Anika continued to scowl, slapping Arthurian's hand away when he touched her. "You don't know me, you didn't know Eli..." She whispered, clearly not ready to forgot her only friend so soon.

Deacon was watching Samantha with a scowl. She had always been rather difficult, for a mystic, but she had never been so open in flaunting herself this way.
Samantha sighed rather loudly, as though it were the hardest of tasks. "You know... I wont always be around." She remarked, fingers glowing a slight green, even if she wasn't yet healing the Queen.

Arthurian was used to being sent on his way. Being a monster made him disgusting to everyone. Even other monsters. 
He untied Anika's bindings and shoved her toward his chambers. "You will rest." He growled, the pain spreading over him souring his mood. "You will let the boy go before he is consumed by Darkness and dragged to the underworld."

"You won't touch me." Victoria said, sensing something from the woman that she didn't like. "I am just fine. It's a scratch and the lot of act as if I'm dying." She got off the table, swaying where she stood. "Good day." She added, trying to march toward the door.

"It wont happen." Anika vowed. "I will offer myself to the Darkness long before then."

Victoria would suddenly find her feet would feel like they were stuck in mud, though there was nothing there. Samantha was watching the Queen with a smile. "Now, now... No need to be so prickly."

"The Darkness is nothing but a myth. He will not help you, child. You will die and be stuck in death for eternity." The king hissed, slamming the door to her room and locking it.

Victoria narrowed her eyes. "Stay away from me. I don't know what you are trying to do but you won't fool me."

"Then who is following me..." Anika whispered to the cold and quiet room.

"Fool you about what?" Samantha asked with wide green eyes. "I am a mystic, we exist only to do our king's bidding... whatever it may be."

"Ready for that kiss?" The Darkness asked, lounging on the bed behind her. He was smiling wickedly as of he'd been waiting for this moment to present itself. 

"Just one king?" Victoria shot back.

Anika cast a brief glance over her shoulder before she slowly turned around. "I don't understand... What do you get out of this arrangement?" she asked, not thinking her innocence to be all that valuable.

Samantha chuckled quietly, surprised Victoria was so astute. "There is only one king, your highness." She replied, though didn't clarify just who she considered this 'one king'.

Darkness kept grinning. He was so close. All the centuries of planning and work and it was all about to be over. He was all but giddy with excitement. "I've told you before. I get a happy ending. I do so love happy endings." He purred, patting the bed beside him. 

"And just who do you consider that to be?" Victoria asked, her fingers on the soldier's knife now hidden in the folds of her dress. She glanced at Deacon, hoping he caught on to where she was going with the accusation.

Anika found herself moving closer, like something unseen were pulling her. "Ever since I came to this strange place... people have wanted something from me. Eli was the first to simply... want me. Please, I need him." She whispered, now seated beside the third king she had met since coming here.

Samantha was all the cunning and duplicity Victoria herself were capable of, if she had no innocence to hold her back. The blond girl was smiling before her ringing crystal laughter filled the room. "I would never betray my king, I am here to heal you at his bidding." She replied, once again skirting around actually answering the question.

"Oh you'll have him." The Darkness promised. "You'll have everything your little heart desires. For a simple kiss..." He leaned closer to her, his ebony colored eyes locked on her face. 

"Yeah...no." Victoria stood firm, though she couldn't move her legs, she could shake her head. "I don't need anything from you. No one else should either. You stay over there."

"How?" Anika breathed, just as she was leaning a little closer. The young woman was certainly falling under the spell Darkness was casting on her, even if she didn't know it was happening.

Samantha complied and simply sat down in the seat Deacon had commented she was missing from, much to the annoyance of the other mystic she had pushed from it. "Very well. I hope you enjoy life as a goblin, as that what's happening since goblin saliva is now in your bloodstream. We all know Deacon only like beautiful things, so your hopes of a sickeningly happy marriage with him are long over, should that happen."

"You'll see..." Darkness breathed, his lips brushing hers.
"Anika...I would like to speak to you." Arthurian's voice was timid. "Please?"

"Deacon doesn't care for me anyway." Victoria said simply. "Being a goblin doesn't scare me. Though...I see it would greatly ruin your day." She added thinly, looking the woman over with a scowl.

Anika's head snapped to the sound of the voice that broke through the haze she was in like glass shattering. "These are your sleeping chambers, are they not?" She called through the door.

Samantha didn't reply right away, she knew Deacon well enough to recognise that look on his face when Victoria claimed to know his feelings. A slow smile spread across her pink lips, this feeling she was experiencing was rather delicious, and she was certain her true king would savour it just as well. "Doesn't care, or has worn out his use to you?"

The door creaked open and the troll king stepped in, holding out his injured arm. It was infected. "I...need some...help..." He whispered. "The mystic are gone." And so was Darkness...

That remark hurt. It was as if the woman knew her thoughts about being a cart horse. She didn't dare look at Deacon and it didn't help that the other women were smiling. For the first time since mating the stranger, Victoria cast her eyes to the floor.

Anika glanced to where the mysterious stranger had been seated beside her, and when she realised he was gone, or perhaps never even been there, she rose to her feet. "I know very little about medicine." she confessed, oddly cordial now.

When Deacon maintained his silence Samantha once more rose gracefully to her feet. "So I'm right. You got what you wanted from him, and now you are simply looking for a way out. My, my... Quite the little schemer, aren't you?"

"Then...take the knife from my gelt. I need you to cut it off." Arthurian said softly. His pain was worse than before. He could barely stand up. Samantha hadn't brewed his tonics.

"I am the one that's useless." She blurted out. For some reason she couldn't help herself. The words felt like they were being forced out. "I'm trying to give him a reason to get rid of me. I'm trying to push him away because...I'm afraid."

"What?!" Anika's voice rose several octaves with that startled squeak. "I'm not cutting your arm off!" She added a little more calmly. "Who usually helps you with this kind of thing? Maybe I can go and find them?"

Just as Anika's eyes often glowed violet, Samantha's were currently glowing a soft green as Victoria seemingly blurted out her innermost feelings without a second thought. "Afraid of what? That he might just give you the world?" She pressed.

"She is off looking for a damn crystal. I don't have time to wait." Arthurian told her. "Besides, wouldn't it make you feel better to hurt me as I have you?"

"I don't deserve it." The words were coming and she could do nothing to stop them. "I'm not like her. I'm not beautiful or prim. I'm an ugly cart horse..."

Anika sighed quietly, her body language betraying that once again Arthurian had wounded her. "There isn't enough pain I could cause for what you have done to me."

"Not like who?" Samantha's voice would be like a soft whisper in Victoria's ear, both soothing and inviting.

"You will thank me one day." Arthurian told her firmly. "Fine. I will go find someone else to do it." He growled, taking the knife back.

Victoria fought this one hard. She couldn't betray her sister. Or Deacon. "My mother." She answered after a painful moment. "She was so lovely..."