April Fools 2010 - Four and One

This was originally posted on April 1st 2010 as Chapter 39 of Peacock King Book 3. As such it contains spoilers for chapters 1-38 of Book 3! You should probably read those first!

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Katherine
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I know when it happens. I'm already on my knees, hands covering my face. I don't want anybody to see, which is silly. I'm still alone, still sneaking around. Still trying not to let 'Sy find me. And for a moment, I just stay there, rock back and forth, and let the sorrow press in. It's going to come whether I try to stop it or not, and it'll pass easier if I just accept it.

I tried so hard to extend Elete's life. 'Sy and I both did. Considering that, it's especially cruel how he went. I can feel it all out, sense 'Sy's reasons as if I was there at the time. And, in a sense, I was. He couldn't Judge someone without me.

I just... I wish I would have been there. Why didn't Elete let me be there? He was a Time Lord, he could have--

That's what breaks me. The sobs take over for a little while, everything is white and grey and snowy. When I come back to myself, arms are wrapped around me. Big, strong arms.

'Sy's crying too. I pat his head. My hand's still so small. I wonder, for a moment, if I could have stopped all of this if I had been fully recovered at the time. But it's nonsense to think that way.

"There was no time," he says. "There's still no time, Katherine. I'm so sorry."

My fists clench. They're still so tiny now - I still look so young. And I feel young now, with that sense of the whole world betraying me that children feel so keenly because they don't understand things yet. I don't understand this. 'Sy pats my shoulder, and it makes me feel better, but it still doesn't make me understand. "What are we going to do, now that he's left us?"

Not 'now that you've killed him.' Elete brought this on himself, it was no murder. It was no suicide, either. It was just... tragic.

"...I." 'Sy finds himself speechless. I'm not surprised. I've asked him a question that I don't think he can begin to answer. How can he? He's not a Poet.

I am, though. And I can feel out these things in a way that 'Sy can't. It's difficult - there's a hole in the fabric of that which I'm running my mental fingers over. It's the absence of our Poet King. Without him there, it's so difficult to map out the possibilities, the try-to's and the don't-do's. It's so much guesswork, but I think...

...I think...

...I might just have it.

"Quick," I say. "We've got to talk to Elric. Now."

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It's so good to see Elric after so many years without his cheerful, bubbly presence. The man in front of me is a pale reminder of those happy days - Elric has bags under his eyes, his skin is stretched tight on his face, and he has a natural cringe to his posture.

What's worse, he already knows what's happened. The hardest thing for him is seeing past the tears, but he's holding them back now. He's listening to my explanation. There's a light dawning in his eyes - dim, but there. He opens his mouth to speak to me in his excitement - Camden is the one that claps his hand over Elric's lips.

Poor Elric. He looks so sheepish, with a hint of depression creeping onto his face. I speak up before it can encroach any further.

"As much as you're trying to choke those black words back, they may be the very thing that saves him."

Elric looks afraid, and Camden raises a protest, but they both know it's true. 'Sy only stands behind me, arms crossed, and shifts with discomfort at this very idea.

He hasn't told me no, though.

Elric looks pained as he considers it. Finally he looks back up at me. The brush of his mind is tentative. Do you really think I can do it?

Yes, I answer.

I just hope it's not too late.

* * *

Elric stands ready, Camden standing beside him with a hand on his arm, lending as much support as he can. Elric has to focus very hard on this task, and so Camden must be the one to make sure that Elric's guard doesn't slip enough to let... something out. I'm doing my best not to hear Elric's words. And 'Sy...

Well, he's standing behind me, readying himself. He'll draw Diyn and clean up any messes if one of us... well, if something goes wrong.

Elric keeps up his Nulspeak. By the look on his face, he's trying his hardest not to listen to his own words. Camden will stop him before he talks off his own tongue - I know he will.

I know this will work. It has to work. It's the only thing I could feel out, the only possibility in the shredded fabric of time that was left in Elete's absence.

Do you really think this will work? 'Sy sounds so... cautiously hopeful.

Shh. I have to concentrate.

He doesn't reply, but he shifts behind me, nervous as we all are.

The first sign isn't obvious. It's a wrinkle of shadow... or of unshadow. Like light, but liquid, almost transparent. Like the sheen on dragonfly wings. It ripples, then blossoms... and then it wells up, huge and whole. As it does so, Elric continues to speak, and concentrate, and we all focus.

We're almost there. If something distracted us now... but no. No, it'll all happen smoothly. It was meant to happen this way.

Elete sighs up from the Void, from nothingness, and then collapses onto his hands and knees. He shakes. He breathes. He looks up at Elric, bewildered but proud.

Elric keeps speaking, locked in a trance. Camden motions to him, then shakes his arm. Finally, the Poet falls out of it and stops. His tongue is still there, and really... really, he looks better than ever.

Elete looks better than ever, too. I fall to my knees and hug him. The Poet King just blinks, shaking his head, and then he looks up to me. He grins, then wipes away one of my tears with a finger.

"Really, girl."

I just cry. I'm so happy.

"Chanting Nulspeak backwards? That's so ridiculous that it had to work. My commendations to you all." He rises, 'Sy leaning in to help him to his feet. The Judge is grinning. We all are.

"Alright," says 'Sy, "the time has come at last."

"We're going there, then? Finally?" Determination wells up inside me. Everyone's posture straightens a bit. I can tell we all can feel this.

"Yes." 'Sy's grin is so huge that it's almost terrible, almost wrathful. "Let's go to Disneyland."

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Irk
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My April Fool's prank written and posted, I grab my bags. Time to change my name and move to somewhere my readers won't be able to find me.

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