The Amaryllis Project [ Chapter Twelve ]
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Mirrors, dozens of them, hundreds of them, greeted him. All hung upon the walls, reflecting what little light there was from the small skylight in the ceiling, illuminating the wall just that little bit. It was a small room, but high, much like how a length of a chimney would be like, opening up to a glass-covered skylight above.
'Creeeeeak'
Iriel turned.
"Eh--" the statement was abruptly cut off as the person ran to shut the door, pulling and shoving at the solid mass of wood until the slab clunked into place. "Hey Iriel, so you found it in the end huh?" Flipping the signature locks of pale hair -- or what was left of it -- tied back tightly in a strict, severe braid behind her back, the individual settled down next to him, stretching out the impossibly long limbs she possessed as she sat down, looking very much like a pretty, broken doll.
Iriel grunted.
Val refused to let go. "Oh come on, why're you here? Couldn't find the elusive Zephyrus Cornelia?" she was teasing now, the joking tone, so light-hearted and cheerful that was really a far cry from her mature facial features that were usually so stony and forbidding, "Something on your mind? How do you people here in Tanine put it? Oh, is it 'Penny for your thoughts'? Mm, how about I up that to a dollar for your thoughts? Will you tell me then?" she was so relaxed, even now when she was dressed in her librarian's vest and in the severe black and white get up, like some school teacher with some serious attitude.
"You know Val, I kinda wondered, what is it with all the mirrors. They aren't particularly gorgeous, they're pretty but not quite so... to be like, worth the effort in putting them up." He was avoiding the topic altogether, but Val didn't seem to mind. Instead she grinned as she lay back, propping herself on her arms to study the sky light above with a satisfied exhale, which echoed it's way up the chimney like structure.
"I think you've heard the rumours related to this hidden room?" she asked, in a manner Iriel thought infuriatingly mellow, passive and so patient like a parent.
Iriel snerked, "Steven went on about how it was a love story of some sort, he didn't know exactly what it was though."
"Mm... Well, he got the love story right," Val sounded more intrested now, yet incredibly dreamy as well, as though getting into the mood of the story. Iriel steeled himself for another one of those romantic love stories that his own sisters had grew up loving and admiring and swooning over, always wishing to be princesses and find their true loves. "Say, Iriel, have you ever felt in such a way that... well... someone was so beautiful, so perfect that you wanted... something to capture every single inflection of time on his or her face? A million images to convey that one beautiful person?"
Iriel sneezed, quite breaking the climax, but otherwise managed an answer that matched up. "No, never actually. But it sounds a lot like the mushy sappy things that my sisters read when they were young though."
Val grinned at him, though she never turned her head, still craning her neck back to study the warm beginnings of the light filtering through the finely ground glass. "He made all these for her. All these mirrors, the smallest one to the largest one all for her."
For a moment, Iriel was reminded of how his father used to make small little gifts for his own mother, little trinkets. A small wicker swan to put on her table, a soft chair for her office, a desk, bookshelves, vases even at one particular birthday of his mother's, but never actually did he give mirrors. It had always been something of at least a slight bit of practicality, although slight ornamental, it all came to be of some use in the end. "Why would she need so many? Was she vain?"
"She didn't," Val said in her still dreamy voice, "He did."
Iriel couldn't say he actually understood what she was trying to say, but tried to nevertheless. "He needed so many mirrors? Whatever for?" Iriel sounded incredulous now, but Val remained unfrazzled, pulling back her untied fringe of hair that curtained her pale face with their stellar green eyes.
"Were you listening to me? Oh, sorry, of course you were. What am I saying..." she laughed mildly, though Iriel didn't join in, "Well, he loved her. He loved her so much he would so to the expense of making a hundred different mirrors, a thousand different mirrors even all for her. All to see the thousands or maybe hundreds of different faces of his lover, all for him to spend his life delighting in the beautiful reflections of his wife. They must have been really crazy for each other, or at least, he was. Imagine that, to have someone love you so much that he would make you a million mirrors, just to gaze at you all day long, just to see you as someone so eternally beautiful yet so different in each and every passing moment," Val smiled up at the endless tunnel of mirrors, watching them glint at each other, merry and bright like a star in the warmth of the morning sun. Iriel glanced at her, then looked up, at the endless reflections, all the beautiful sparkles and the countless views of his own face surrounding him.
"I don't quite get it, but I think I understand what you're getting at," Iriel stated, though really deep down something clicked in place. The logical rationale within him however was always quick to add that that sounded really really suspiciously like something his sisters had always dreamed about. Iriel sighed.
"Mhm, kinda thought you wouldn't. Not that that's an insult, but ha..." she smiled at him, Iriel could see that from the mirrors reflecting and re-reflecting that bright expression. It made him feel dull, dark and sullen in comparison to his bright, spirited companion. There was a moment of silence as they both studied the countless reflections and re-reflections around them when Val spoke again. "Ne Iriel, have you noticed ever anything... strange about... oh, us?"
Iriel pondered the question and wondered if this was some sort of question that people would find in psychic games, on psychic hotlines... the like, but the question seemed innocent enough, quite passingly like a comment. "Apart from the fact that you have white hair, as in a full mane of white hair, not really. Unless by us you mean more than you then yeah maybe there's more. Steven for one is so weird that strange doesn't even begin to cover it. He's more of what the modern writers call sixteen shades of bizzare, and that's an understatement."
Val actually laughed at that, though Iriel was so serious about it that he had not meant it to be even remotely funny. "Well, as in you took Higher Geography... Uh, Pure Geography if your school calls it that," she added quickly when Iriel gave her a funny look, "You know what I'm getting at right?" she asked unsteadily, slightly doubtful for his sake. Thankfully though he nodded, and she continued with more life and animation than ever. "Well then you must have learnt about what we here on Tanine are so proud of in our inter-galactic travel... Did you learn that?" she stopped abruptly when Iriel's face seemed to show her that he was disconnecting.
Iriel shook his head, paused, then quickly bobbed his understanding. "I know about it, but I didn't know it was inter-galactic, I thought it was like from one end of the earth to another..." He frowned and scratched his head, then shrugged. "Isn't it?"
Val scratched her head and giggled a little, as one would expect a sagely old professor to sniff condescendingly with some knowledge that others did not possess, Val laughed in exchange."What do you call it? Oh sorry, not you, what does your teacher call it? The Quantum Leap? Oh sorry, bad pun my bad, but, it is something like that right?"
Iriel bobbed his head again, shrugging, "I remember that the teacher called it the QDM. Which was short for Quantum Displacement Module, which is sort of odd because we weren't studying rocket science. Said something about it being the main cause of why we have this world in the first place, as in the populations of humans were all from some other place but were brought here via the Quantum Displacement Module device thingamajig. Sounds like a whole lot of crap to me, but it must make sense since my great uncle loves to go on about how he's a full blooded Irish when there is no such thing as a race here. You belong to a country--"
"Or you don't," Val nodded, "I know that. I mean, here you aren't categorized by how you look like, what your parents were, it's the country that counts right? Oh, sorry, duh right. Strange they bothered to teach the concept of a 'race' when all you are taught to care about is citizenship," she laughed again, as though mockingly this time with a slight sniff at the end, "Either way. We... You were taught from young of this other... world called Earth." Iriel nodded to support her when sh suddenly paused for an extended period of time, "I got that right? Wow, okay..." she coughed as though mildly embarrassed and continued, "What if I told you that we came from another planet? Like... you know, straight from Earth!"
It was then Iriel's turn to laugh at her, "Impossible! They planned the system so that it was possible for the Earth... people to come and repopulate the planet... this planet we are on, without inbreeding. They would never need to return to Earth, but they also couldn't. What we know of the QD... Quantum Displacement Module, is from the plans that were left over, the bits of which are in the Local Tanine Museum along with the spaceship or what's left of it, since this was where they supposedly first landed. And--"
"And," Val cut in forcefully with a smile nevertheless, "with fifty couples, a hundred people essentially, they came to make sure that mankind would never be completely wiped out. It was a new fresh start with a new fresh world. Beautiful concept, but they forgot the possible existance of other worlds lucky enough to develop in manners similar to them. And that's where we came from, Gaia."
"So technically you're a friggin alien, is that what you want me to believe?" Iriel chortled, giving her an incredulous look as he wondered how the conversation came to this.
"If by alien you mean the weird green skin, big black bug eyed monsters with zappy laser guns, no. But if by alien you mean 'belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person' then you're absolutely right. There's also 'an organism, especially a plant or animal, that occurs in or is naturalized in a region to which it is not native' and 'foreigner', simply put, that's also quite near home." Val's smile was always so politely patient, sometimes almost irritatingly so since nothing got on her nerves, or maybe she didn't have any.
"Oh right, you're an alien person in our midst. But you're human enough, and if you can come here, you can go home. So what's the big fuss?" Iriel found the concept quite easy to handle actually, Val was a strange character, if very human and too humane, and if someone like her could be an 'alien' then well, so could an oddball like Steven.
"We can't go home. We're not so much from another planet, as from another dimension. Which always makes me laugh at your... QDM was it? Quantum Device Madagascar, or whatever it is. It can go screw itself in the head, it's useless. The concept of dimension is crazy, I doubt someone like you would have actually been taught unless you grew up where I grew up, or you studied abtract mathematics or something weird like that," Val was ranting now, Iriel noticed, she barely paused even when Iriel's face was clearly confused, what exactly was a Madagascar anyway? "But you... uh, sorry you probably are confused now. How about you think it like... this!" With an almost dramatic flourish, she pointed at the mirrors, one of the many surrounding them. This particular one however was one of the more unique ones, with an elaborately carved frame of painted brass in the shape of a flaring sun, with ten sharp wavy ends pointing out, lethally sharp. Val got up and walked over the the mirror, gently she took it in her hands and lifted it easily away from the wall, off the hook. Iriel gaped at her cavalier treatment of the artifact that he had expected to be fragile. She never noticed his expression either, for she went on to stick in safely in the crook of her arm before she 'hmm'ed thoughtfully to herself and went to take down another mirror in the shape of a big shining black beetle, with huge cumbersome horns and a last one, in green tinged blue metal that vaguely resembled a rock that had been overgrown by algae or moss. With the three mirrors, she took a seat, but this time, directly opposite Iriel.
"Are you sure you won't--"
"Hold it for me... Hmm, hold our pseudo Earth for me," she passed him the green and blue framed mirror without hesitation, and Iriel flustered to catch hold of it carefully as Val released it from her grasp too early. "Well, here we are. Hold it like this, a triangle, see?" And a triangle she had formed, with a mirror on each side forming the three lengths of a triangle, te reflective glass facing inwards towards each other. "The rhinocerous beetle will be where we are now... Is that vague for you? Oh you don't know what a rhino beetle is? Oh its the beetle you see here with crazy horns, and this is where I come from, Gaia the sun mirror."
"You're pretty discriminative aren't you?" Iriel laughed at her choices, a beetle for where they were, yet a sun for where she said she was from and a strange crumbling mirror for Earth, where he supposed everything stemmed. Val ignored him, though her lip twitched a little in response.
"This mirror represents a planet. A world is fine if you don't get confused later on. All the mirrors are a planet. Now bend over... No really, bend down, crane your neck and look into one of the mirrors. Nah, which of them doesn't matter, hell look at all of them if you want. Just glance and see." Val was a good coaxing teacher, with her patience and all, though she was a little too insistent sometimes. With almost some spiteful reluctance, Iriel titled his hend and craned his neck as told and squinted through the gaps of the mirror triangle, and into the mirrors. As he expected, there was the reflections of the other mirrors, over and over and over again it was reflected, the endless outlines of each frame till it went on and was obscured by the frame.
"What now?" he asked, not quite impressed.
"Oh you're such an old prudish cow you are, and that's a compliment. But if this is just a world, why are there so many reflections in it-- No, you are not allowed to say because it's a mirror and mirrors are reflective." Val had a small smirk on her face, and Iriel wasn't sure he wanted to bother with this, he was skipping class here, to play mind games with a librarian?
"But our world's aren't like that? A planet is a planet, not a flat mirror..."
"You're not answering," Val snapped.
Iriel glared half-heartedly at her, but she was still smiling patiently. "There's multiple reflections of a single mirror, like multiple views of a matter."
Val's smirk intensified into a grin,"Exactly. There's multiple facets like a diamond, how something could have been, would have been or maybe should have been. Each of these is a dimension. For example, someone could have come from a dimension that would have occurred if upon arrival from Earth via the... Quatum whatever, they brought their religion with them and took shelter in a forest. Or maybe a different world where they were thought the concept of racial differences, or there was only the ideal of monarchy and nothing else. We... are on the same frame of mind right?" Once again, Iriel was forced to nod, for Val, he was certain, would not continue unless he supported her statements every once in a while. "Aah, you understand! Mon dieu you smart smart kid, I came from here!" she pointed at the sun shaped mirror proudly, "And my world was far more advanced and special than yours is and will be for the next fifty years. But we're special, because we can travel dimensions~" Somehow, when she was proud, she would trill the end of her sentences like Xenia did, and expecially did when she was tipsy, even if just a little bit drunk. "Oh, sorry!" Val hurried to add when she realized, "I forgot myself for a moment, but ah, in my world it's... slightly odd. Around a couple of decades back, we mined up something weird, but would later turn out to be really valuable, like your gold on Earth, here. It was crystal, unlike anything we ever found--"
"Diamonds?"
"Better, magic rock."
.x.
Iriel was still processing when Val suddenly let go of the two mirrors she was holding and fumbled around her collar, tracing it to a spot behind her neck whereby she started to fidget around as though trying to scratch a spot she couldn't reach. "I think I have it here with me, I always wear it around since it's the only reserve of magic I have..."
"--Heh?" Iriel blathered as he tried to catch the mirrors before realising that Val had propped them against her knee carefully enough to ensure they wouldn't fall.
"Ah! Gotcha!" she pulled the necklace free, unclasping it at last and dropping it gently on the ground. It was unlike anything Iriel had ever seen, and it sure as well did not resemble anything that Iriel had known to be crystalline or a real authentic crystal. It was for one, perfectly like a mirror, a strongly reflective material which was black with silver flecks in it like impure diamonds. It seemed to be very light and deceivingly brittle in its current, solid, form. The material also had a faint odor of spices, strangely enough, and Iriel scrunched his face up with surprise.
"Covalacite, pretty isn't it?" Val cooed at it, like it was a precious gem and not a strange brittle piece of rock, "This substance's melting point is very high. It is also said to give off mild radiation and, maybe, as such it can be easily magnetized. It provides some insulation against temperature changes also, which is why it's always so cold. And I love it, it always smells like the herbs used for roasting lamb," she picked it up and took a deep breath of it, "Ah haaaa..." she sighed, "Rosemary and amaranth, perfect. It was also magical, but when I ended up here... well, it lost most of its capabilities, and even though I was supposedly born magical, I lost it too. Sad thing ain't it?" She checked it for cracks before she set it carefully on her lap, depressing a spot in her dark skirt.
"Wait... You, were born magical? How can that be? You look human! Even your ears aren't pointy!" Iriel protested firmly, squinting at her ears through the increasing glare of the mirrors just to make sure.
Val laughed at him again, touching the shell of her round ears with a grin, "Human fantasies are really the funniest ever. Ever read English Mythology kid? You didn't really think my name was a result of crazy hippie parents did you?" she laughed again, shortly, "Valkyrie Rinelth, who has a surname called Rinelth? Ridiculous!"
Iriel felt the urge to go retreat into a corner and start sulking if that was all he could do to comfort his lack of knowledge. "Then what are you? A Valkyrie whatever that is?"
"Spot on!" she cheered, visibly happier now that she was past the stiff logics, "A valkyrie alright. But you don't know what that is? How could you! My kind was said to win so many battles for your kind in the past when your ancestors were on Earth, they might as well give us some support and spread the story, you conceited humans."
"You're spirits of war?" Iriel wanted to laugh and somehow make the irony pass, but the intensity of the serious situation just didn't enable him to.
"Bi~ In~ Go~" she cheered, sounding like Xenia again, "Sorry. The morning getting to me, I don't know why my sugar levels rise so high, I think that wretched whiskey got me, che. But yes, I was born to a tribe of spirits of war. Well, we aren't technically spirits... more like minor deities, except we got worn so thinly that we're more like special humans now. Heard of Athena have you?" Iriel thought about it then shrugged, "biased you are, to study the Greeks and not us. We don't actually fight in wars any more, but since we're so old and we don't really... you know, reproduce very quickly like you humans and oh heavens above, those wretched insects in the fields, we tend to be a small conservative bunch. I was one of those younger ones who was silly enough to bother with human affairs and befriend humans." Val grinned at him genially, her green eyes bright, "I was actually a part advisor sometimes even if I was a little flighty and went everywhere."
"You don't reproduce quickly I can understand, the magic part not so much, but by old you mean like hundreds of years?"
"Oh yes. Tell me how old do I look?"
"Twenty, Twenty three about there." Iriel just knew she was going to disagree.
"Exactly, that's my current physical age. My body ages the same as you humans really, just much much slower thank god. That property lasted though when I was still back home and here, I'm still ageing reeeeeaaaally slowly. About like... I gain one year one my face while you all have gained ten. I'll be twenty for another six years, by the way. We start dying when we reach... physically, as in when we start looking eighty, which is--"
"About eight hundred. Geez, you all are like demons! With hugely long lives! Elves!" Iriel was starting to humour her, though maybe it was for the better, he came here to listen to some fun stories in exchange of lightening his mind about... about...
"You know what's the fun part about being two hundred and four?" Val grinned at him again, her white teeth flashing in the bright light, "We learn huge amounts of things. And not just the dorky bespectacled ones like me! Look, see what happens when I put my hand here?" Iriel watched, and like how the mirrors would be reflected, Val's hand was too, reflected over and over and over in the mirror till there seemed to be a million of her hands, all neatly in parallel lines. "If a mirror is a world, and a reflecis a dimension, what would this be?"
"A copy of a person?" Iriel laughed at the idea, but Val wriggled her fingers nevertheless, walking them as though they were legs to and back the reflection.
"Not a person, but afterall, since the world can have different endings, so can a human. Just as there are many reflections of a mirror, there are different people staged in each dimension and they are all different. They may even be repetitions, from one world to the other. While I, never being a human have existed in the world of Earth before, there is you. I met you back in my world too, same pretty face, but the temper my god, worse. But we were good friends that Iriel and I. And you were a stupid ass I tell you."
"Oi oi, that's going a bit far ahead now aren't you? When did I get into the story? How, do I get into that story anyway?" Iriel paused abruptly as Val suddenly propped her chin up with her hand, and tilted her head to fix him with an impossibly intense gaze, one that silenced him immediately.
"Earth's capsule, what if instead of landing here,they landed..." She skimmed her fingers against the horns of the rhinoceros beetle and then skipped over to trace the carvings on the sun shaped mirror with a small hum. "here? Or here?" her spun frenetically onto another mirror on the wall, and pointed with a forceful flourish. "Ano ne? What about here? Or maybe up there? Can you imagine if mankind, the pathetic mayflies you are, landed where I have lived? Because that was what happened you know, in another world and you, were a prince. Haa, memories maaaaa... Oh, and you and your three sisters, how are they?"
"Eh heeeeeh! How do you know?!"
"OH darn of course I know! But you sure got lucky, your mum wasn't actually going to have you, but she changed her mind about the abortion because she... well I don't the version here, but back in my time..." she stopped abruptly when she noticed his stunned expression, "Ah ne... you alright?" Iriel paused, processing the facts then reluctantly nodded. Val glanced at him, ticking one pale eyebrow upwards in a manner that was almost condescending. "Ah, maybe you weren't as smart as I expected, Iriel Sheltiel Azrael? I had so much hope in you too. Ah ha... Just another child, give over that." She took the mirror from him, hanging it back onto the walls exactly where it had been, to catch the light once more. "Ka, kodomo, kodomo, kodomo--"
"Haruko," Iriel said suddenly, "You speak like that red head girl from the cafe downstairs, what is it?"
"Japanese, you won't be taught it even if you ask. Everybody that was taught in this world was never taught the concept of a race, only citizenship but that was vague. And in this dimension, the original landing crew did not involve the Japanese, unlike my dimension, where the world you landed in was already inhabited, and where the travel into galaxy is possible. A world where strange customs and people like Katsurou and Kichirou's mum exist, the little minx."
"WHAT?"
"You mean you didn't know?" Val was losing interest in him, he could tell by the way she kept studying her nails and playing with her own hair while she spoke, even if she kept her green eyes on him, it was clear it was more of an obligation than a symbol of interest. "You really are a child, you were more intelligent back home."
"Valkyrie... Val, if you don't mind--"
"That Valkyrie is actually my surname you know, use Rinelth. Ri is good. And I won't mind so you can go straight into the questions before I have to go shelve books."
"O-Oh, okay then, Ri. Just asking, can you go over what happened in your world. Like how do I fit into all that, how you and Kichirou and Katsurou and Haruko fit into all that. And how it came to this."
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask!" And just as suddenly, Iriel knew he had asked the right question, she seemed to some back to life like a wind-up doll. Her eyes seemed to positively sparkle when she went right back onto the subject, getting livelier by the minute like a child who was delighted that someone finally praised, or some poor bugger who finally had someone understand exactly what she had been going on about without much avail. Iriel was not exactly sure whether or not he should have got her started on this strange other worldly discussion, but he really was not sure about spending his time alone here in the room full of mirrors with a thousand (a million would be more correct, but...) questions dancing through his head sticking their tongues out at him who would never know the answer either. Strange company with strange answers was better than no company and no answers wasn't it? And besides, who could say no to such a beautiful companion, even if she had been telling him over and over about how she was an alien and different and non human. She was still humanoid looking, she was pretty, and she was a very reasonable person. Not feminine enough for him, but pleasant enough to be around without complaint. This fact was doubly highlighted by the brightness she exuded as she rapidly came back to life. "I'm so glad you know, finally you are thinking you know?" she sighed and leaned back, "But since you're just a silly kid, how about you ask questions one at a time especially since you, have like a million questions in your head going 'whoosh', 'whoosh', 'whirrrr' in your head?" How she knew was a mystery, but hey, she was supposedly a two hundred year old spirit of war, from another world and dimension, of course she could know.
Iriel laughed a little, appreciatively and obligingly. "I kinda wondered you know, if for an example that I exist in your world right?"
"Not an example that, you do actually exist in my world and dimension. just slightly different, you father was a ruler then and now you're not, you had a great interest in horses, archery, fine brandy and fireplaces and now...?"
"Oh right right, but say that... was he called Iriel?" Val nodded at him, "Say that the Prince Iriel came here, somehow, like landed here by accident like you did? You did right? Oh he landed here, then wouldn't we be two copies in one world? What will happen then? would the dimensions collapse or something drama like that?"
Val thought about it, twirling her hair between her fingers. Finally, she pointed upwards, towards the skylight as though in a manner that suggest 'AHA!' much like Archimedes' 'Eureka!'. "A simple analogy here, have you ever noticed that Kichirou and Katsurou Yamasaki, have been respectively called Aiden and Adair? Of course you have, but do you know why? Of course not, stupid question my bad!" she laughed again as she continued twirling her hair between her fingers patiently, "Well, Katsurou and Kichirou when they were back where I lived, they had parents of two separate states, one of them came from a family that taught Japanese and valued their base culture, which was their dad, who was by the way based in the state Inverberg which was of of the most liberal but radical st--" she paused at the surprised look on Iriel's face, "You better get used to it, you might start hearing a lot of familiar names. Inverberg is probably the name of something in your family too?"
"Our family company, the one started generations ago, passed down..."
"Like the country. But you see, their mother was from a strange subculture, who learnt some strange language that could have been anywhere between Latin to Viking-- Uh, I think I meant to say Norse, sorry. And she belonged to a religion where the twins were baptised, and that was their equivalent of your Christian names. Except that theirs were really long, like four to five words long, incredibly annoying and useful at the same time. All the time back in our time, they were addressed by the name their father gave them, which is why you probably might have found the name "Kichirou Yamasaki" or "Katsurou Yamasaki" so funny, since its a language that no longer exists here. Dead language, completely supposedly slaughtered, but is not because of us few. When they dropped right out of the sky, they ended up in the house they now live in, with a family condition that was quite similar to their own at home -- i.e. parents not present, taken care by a guardian -- but different. They suddenly had multiple cousins living with them, and an aunt looking after them instead of a Governor. After a bit of digging around, they found out that what used to be a connection of ties related to friendship and business on his father's end had become this," Val waved her hand around the place, "A writing entourage which he attended. Franny was the only thing to exist here that never existed where he was back then."
"And the names?"
"It turned out that since Japanese was an unused language here, they had their initially just baptism names changed over into their first names. If you've been looking carefully, which I doubt very much you have, the elder generation, and only the elder generation, calls them Aiden or Adair. Their surnames however was exactly the same, since it is a name and you don't change a name for the reason that the language it belonged to was gone. Kichirou, Katsurou, that's their true names." Val waved her hand about, as though drying her nails in the air which was gradually growing slightly staler by the minute, "Have you ever wondered what colour is their real hair?"
Iriel ticked his eyebrows upwards with surprise at the question, "They aren't blond?"
"They're like me, pale haired," she grinned brightly, "When they first landed, they had green hair too, since that was the hair colour they had when they were wandering around in your court all the while."
"My, court?"
"Besides that, and yes your court, when people who had the chance to travel past the time barrier to another dimension, can either manifest as a completely new character with no known or existing past, like Francesca Noemi -- the sweet dear -- would be if she went back with us, or they overlap and erase the existence of the guy that had been them. Memories not included, so it gets tricky. I like to think that it's because the time space smooshes together like two tomatoes, but it isn't exactly the case. So does that answer one question?"
"Yes, yes it does. Thanks."
"You can still ask, I have a lot of answers. Two hundred and four years worth of them actually," she grinned, "would you like a relationship analysis for before and now? Between say you and Xenia? You seem to be... ah, really fond of her in a way?" Val's eyes were twinkling in a way that suggested some sort of mischievous malice, but Iriel refused to be fooled by it, she was absolutely serious, he was sure. "Ah, though of course you didn't actually have anything to do with Xenia since she wasn't part of your state. But Reisa, Yamasaki them both you know very well."
"I do?" Iriel blinked at her while he lay back onto the cool stone floor, staring up at the bright sun of morning, though it seemed to be nearing noon. He scratched his head absently as he studied the ceiling, looking slightly thoughtful, "If I know them, I don't feel anything. They never looked familiar before. But what about them?"
Val joined him on the floor, lying in a way that their scalps touched and they formed a neat line on the floor. "Oh yes you bet they know you. But Reisa is probably the only one who really managed to make any big change on the previous acquaintance. Mainly since you aren't the crown princeling, major spoilt brat with an ego the size of your state and larger, drama king and the real embarrassment to your fiancé--"
"And where did that come in?" Iriel shot upright then, while Val choked visibly as though she had just realized that she had said something she didn't mean to. She flushed when Iriel gave her look as though he had cheated him of something. "You never said anything about a fiancee!"
"It's not as if you are going to meet her anyway, and in the end marriage thingy had to be annulled since you lied to your parents--"
"I lied to my parents over getting married?! Where did that come into the picture?"
Val slapped her fore head and got up to attempt to pound her head against the entrance of the room, whthere were no mirrors to break by accident. Iriel caught her by the shoulders and gave her a good hard shake, "Oi, Ri, you better speak up you know, I really don't like secrets. And I'd like it if you just tell me everything."
"Or you'll what? Sneeze at me?" The Valkyrie had an incredibly condescending smirk when she spoke, as though she was talking down to him and not as an equal, though it wasn't exactly sinking down with Iriel's ego, he grudgingly ignored the tone. She was a magical being, a spirit of war and the descendant of some great diety that used to determine the victory of loss of a battle, that was enough on its own to zip his mouth shut when it came to this. Also, she was an elder, a full one hundred and eighty six years his senior, and people just do not disregard their seniors in this way. But still... It was kind of hard to just let her trample all over his head as she pleased just because she was
a) an alien
b) a spirit of war (so maybe this was more of a threat than an excuse, still...)
c) someone who was... centuries his senior
And anyway, Iriel was starting to wonder if maybe he came here because he knew that Val would here also--
"Oh right, how did you manage to find this place anyway?" Iriel stated suddenly, and Val - half way through slamming her head against the wall -- stopped abruptly to give him a look. She was, it seemed, vaguely insulted and wasn't too happy with taking that down.
"I am or at least once-- alright! I still am a magical being, just slightly frayed at the edges, not so powerful any more, but I still have my magic, and I have my Covalacite, which is by itself essentially magic rock. Are you trying to insult my intelligence? And I never quite understood why that moronic, idiotic, estranged, patrio-- oh, that was a wrong word... Agh! Anyway, I don't understand the big hullabaloo about this place, it's really special but a room that nobody can ever find? That's laughable. I always knew that you humans were like may flies, to gather at the light blindly and waste away your short lives, but seriously, I never knew that humans had the intelligence of a may fly. And that's saying a lot." The rant ended abruptly as Iriel twitched at her suddenly outburst, "And that moron out there--Shoot! I think he's nearby. Iriel, shut up." The addressed glared at her and gave her a look that was midway between irony and exasperation as the girl pressed her ear against the same patch of wall she had tried to smash her skull with, and listened intently.
"Is he there? That other librarian guy, I saw him last time right, mouse brown hair, kind of over grown along the front and sides, and he would always seem as though he was asleep, or reading very intently--"
"Sh, Iriel, shut up. The door is not exactly sound proofed or anything you know," Val had not bothered to turn and look at him, instead, she had her ear plastered against the door and was listening intently while her green eyes seemed to bore through the wall next to her with as much intensity as a laser drill. "And his name, it's... uh, shoot, I forgot his name as well. Well he's just a regular mouse so it doesn't matter... He's moving out I think, I don't hear anybody any more," she sighed as she slid down the wall into a vaguely sprawled out sit on the floor, "And Iriel, where was I again? We were talking about?"
"Uh, oh! You mentioned some strange thing about my... Iriel... oh the prince's lying to his parents about a marriage that ended up being annulled," Iriel scratched his head as he tried to figure it out.
"You, are confused." It was stated, and it was not a question, she did not bother to give him any space to argue or really, any reason to argue. Perhaps she already knew there was no need, "You are not him, you are not Crown Prince Heir of Inverberg, Iriel Sheltiel Azrael. You are who you are, Iriel Sheltiel Azrael, an average human boy with three sisters... And you never told me about Brianna and Irene and Victoria! You big weasel somehow managed to weasel your way out! Oh my god, I was so careless--"
"Eh, if it'll make you continue talking on the subject," Iriel cut her off, interrupting suddenly so that she would take the point and continue to speak, "they're fine. Victoria is expecting her first child, Irene is engaged, and Brianna is just Brianna, getting married in a couple of weeks from now."
"--Eh? Your world must move faster than I expected! Did Victoria marry a foreigner or was it a... local?"
"Foreigner. He was called Schneizer something even. Said he came all the way from Utaia."
"U... taia... Schneizer..." Val looked like she was deep in thought, as she considered it, her fingers tangling a loose lock of her pale hair as she twisted it over and over and over her finger, "Did he have... red hair or black? Eyes? Did he have... brown eyes?"
"Why yes, he had brown eyes and darkish hair. Brunet if I ever saw one, said he used to come from an Italian parent, but that really wasn't the point." Iriel spread his hands out in a careless shrug, "We weren't actually taught that concept, and most of the time all it meant that he was proud of himself. Or he was anciently old fashioned. He's really just an Utaian."
"Italian... Utaian... What does it matter?" Val smiled brightly, "I guess it's miscalculation on my part, I had thought that we weren't far from my dimension in terms of the way things moved. Like you, you were eighteen when we arrived as we were, Shiroi too was as we expected, eighteen. Even his parents were of the same age that they were when he had left, but it's not the case here I should think. I mean, look at this... Wait! Brianna as in Brianna Corinne Azrael, right? Irene as in Irene May Azrael am I right? And--"
"Victoria's full name is Victoria Eliza Azrael," Iriel blinked, "You got all the names right though. Perfectly the same."
"Then... I guess it's as I said, my mistake in calculations. That idiot girl Shiroi."
"Ri," iriel began, pausing cautiously when the addressed girl fixed her displeased green eyes on him as though trying to bore a hole through him with her gaze alone, "You really don't mind--"
"I don't mind. Since you have the face and name of a good friend, I can pretend that you're actually not another blithering idiot and really just the crown prince. Makes it easier for me to endure through it all."
Now that was totally unnecessary information, but Iriel felt obliged not to complain as, she had really been extremely patient with him, if a little condescending. "So the fiancée matter, what on it?"
"Well, because of the crown prince... can I say you? I feel really tempted to since you both are like... you mind? Oh fine! Whatever! Since the crown prince had an ego that size of a whole state, most of the girls around him were always nothing more than fearful acquaintances, who were more afraid of you than admiring. But you know, Crown Princes always have to get married in the end, and so they arranged for something that they hoped was satisfactory. This is sort of where Francesca Noemi Channing and her parents may have come in, but you--I mean, he never actually got to meet her because the crown prince employed on a crazy plan after an accident on Shiroi's part."
"Shiroi Nakajima? The Utaian student transfer brunette you share your dormitory with?"
"Her other self, back in Inverberg. The original Shiroi I knew. And anyway, she actually had an accident with a spell, it was sort of my fault actually since I knew she was going to mess up somewhere since she was such a big klutz and was sure to get something wrong. The accident was sort of part way hilarious and part way ironical because it swapped souls."
"Now you're telling me that we have souls?"
"Well, if it bothers you, try self-consciousness. It was switched anyway, and I don;'t know the details, though from what I heard later, Iriel woke up screaming one fine morning and acted really strangely. They didn't send for me like they would usually do if they suspected magic, maybe because they thought it was something he ate the night before or something. But it ended up in a way that it turned out that Iriel and Katsurou had their... do you really mind me using the word Soul? you mind? Narrow-minded freak--They had their self-consciousness swapped. The mind who was always so certain of himself as Katsurou, suddenly found that he was a brunet with green eyes and had a butler. Iriel on the other hand..." Val burst out into spontaneous laughter then, although Iriel was too busy checking the mirror to make sure that his features were still those of his own, the brown hair and green eyes. Somehow the concept of possessing the body of... Katsurou, was innately disturbing. And that would also mean being exactly identical to Kichirou... Oh heavens. "You look disturbed, but oh the crown prince had so much fun," she giggled again as she rolled over on the ground in fits of amusement, "he was so happy I tell you. But, ah, they managed to get Shiroi to kind of edit the spell so that it ended faster. But she managed to somehow glue both your--his and Katsurou's elbows together and in the morning--"
"They had to sleep together?" Iriel was starting to feel disturbed, it was getting sort of close to reality now, all that.
Labels: T.A.P.
about one xREDballoon
about meIt was the username that was adopted either in late August or early September of 2009. It was the combined effect of too many games on Orisinal (especially High Delivery) and also her long-time love for how the large red carnival balloons when they fly away.
about meFinalized as a digital signature only in November of the same year, it has since been used everywhere: her previous Gaia account, her account on bubbl.us, and of course every recent endeavor on web and graphic design. It was an aim of hers to use it as something of a brand. From her sketches to simple blog layouts, one xREDballoon presents is her favourite signature as of now.
about meone xREDballoon is the internet handle of a girl, born on a wet day in the early morning of late February. Although astrologically she is a Pisces, she displays many of the Aquarian traits, possibly as a result of being born near the time. She likes the concept of beauty in its most primitive classical form, ruffles layered upon each other generously for flounce or decor, detailed black lace be it crochet or woven, a whole palette of colours from turquoise to grey. She is charmed by the way an old well-read book smells on a wet rainy day, and the way the pages feel, all crinkly and wise under her fingers as she turns the page. She loves the inviting appeal of a blank notebook, and a good gel-ink pen in the colour of the sky.
about meLearn more about her in her personal blog.
about And Then She Fell
about meAndthenshe-fell@blogspot was named as such in October 09, on a whim and on a wish to match the layout that time. And Then She Fell was a lot of things back then: a roleplay layout (in bbcode), a roleplay idea (which was never developed) and also the words emblazoned in huge Ruritania upon an image which showed a falling girl. That was the beginnings of this writing blog as the all-new concept of And Then She Fell.
about meFrom the start, And Then She Fell has always been a semi-personal blog. While visitors are not unwelcomed, no particular effort is put into censoring the content or to sound polite. Just as well that the blog touches on intangible unimportant things, for if it were to talk of life and its nuances, things would sour quickly and it would become a blog of cynical views and criticism.
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