039 - Dreams

Maybe some Myth x Lucette angst? "092. Die for you"?

092 - Die for you

'I would die for you.' Why was that sentence deemed so romantic, used as a declaration of love, when the reality about it was so terrifying?

Myth had never said these words, never indicated anything in that direction. They both hadn't known, what exactly was going on between them. Unsure, how to define it, fearing how pushing it further may change it into something suffocating.

She had never said these words either.

But during that one moment were Alcaster had managed to break free from the fight where Karma and Fritz were trying to subdue him, set in his decision to make the reason for his coup failing disappear-!

Lucette had only noticed what happened when the blood was already soaking through her clothes and Waltz was pulling her away so Rumpel could go about his work.

And now, she was damned to wait, listening to weak breaths, hoping he would wake again and not just stop breathing at some point.

What about 005?

You shall receive!

005 - Seeking Solace

Memoriesand dreams were the only solace Myth still had. His queen was encased incrystal. He was hiding who he was, unable to trust anyone and not able to moveanywhere, where hiding would be unnecessary.

He didn’twant to hide, to play loyal pawn to the king, who was undoing his queen’s work!He wanted-!

If he wascompletely truthful, he wanted his life back from before the Hunts. Being ableto hug his mother for reassurance and his father there to chase imaginarymonsters away. Seeking solace in the warmth and protection only his parents couldoffer him until they had gone up in flames together with everything else.

And whilethe queen had taken him in, she wasn’t someone to coddle her apprentices. Shewas no one to offer reassurance. Not to him, who wasn’t her child. She was noone to went to, to seek solace. She was a beacon, shining bright, but too coldto offer comfort or warmth. The only safety it offered was the light illuminatingyour surroundings.

But Mythmissed the warmth, missed the safety and having a place to belong. As it was,he needed to seek solace in his memories and dreams.

Hello I came to ask for Myth and friendship! I would like to see your take on Myth and Lucette (and maybe waltz) all being friends

Have a scenario were all three are getting along and Waltz and Myth try instructing Lucette on doing some magic from Lucette’s point of view.

It was apretty nice day, Lucette could admit that to herself. Even if it was still abit strange to spend days openly out of the palace like that, despite havingspent six months away.

The weatherwas nice and warm, the sun was shining brightly, she was out of town by a lake,sitting on a pier, feet dangling into the water, look sideways-

“-you didn’teven pay attention during the lesson, what the do you know aboutwater manipulation!?”

“Says theone, who couldn’t even warm up water without exploding part of it into steam!”

“I’ll showyou steam-!”

- and watchedas Waltz and Myth were ‘discussing’ how to best explain elemental water controlto her.

Lucettewanted to shake her head at them. It was ridiculous how easily they were ateach others throat. And how easily they teamed up against people trying to harmeither of the witches or her. She didn’t even pity Alcaster on that matter.Just the servants tasked with the clean up.

Well, atleast they were reacting to what the other one said, instead of just throwinginsults at each other.

Lucettewanted to shake her head at the two witches. Apart from each other they wereeasy to be around, even with Myth being… still not quite open about being awitch in public, but that was a matter of habit.

Put themtogether?

Myth was seriousabout magic, studying each field thoroughly, unwilling to let anything open forchance or surprise.

Waltz wasmuch more playful about his skills, willing to use it to humor crowds ofchildren and to discover nuances by himself. And he was a prodigy, who easilymastered where Myth needed time to learn.

She could seewhere Myth’s jealousy had come from. Seeing someone younger repeatedlyoutperform you, and not even studying seriously, could be… jarring. And withher mother hinting that maybe she was better of just teaching oneapprentice…

Their rivalryhad died down a bit over the last months, but she really didn’t want to knowwhat would have happened if Myth hadn’t gotten his head straight via Alcastertrying to kill him.

And she waspretty thankful for him being there for these lessons as well. Because beingthe Bearer gave her power not talent.

And sometimesit was nice to have additional instructions for the areas that came so naturalto Waltz. She knew Waltz didn’t mean any harm when he forgot to mention anaspect he thought was instinct and he had gotten better about it as well.

Myth had alsocalmed down a bit when Waltz had stopped putting showmanship into instructionsto show off.

Not that anykind if instructing had happened yet, today, because today they were disagreeingon information they had.

But it wasdefinitely entertaining.

Lucettelooked straight ahead again, looking over the lake.

It was a niceplace. Away from town, far enough that you needed horses to comfortably comehere in a reasonable time, so there were no town people-

A loudsplashing sound made her jerk up and turn back to the other two witches.

Waltz wasalone on the pier, looking dumbfounded and surprised, then smiled at her.

Myth was justsurfacing from the water.

“As it seemsmy information on water control is not faulty, I guess we can use it forinstructions,” he said, “It’s a bit like controlling the icicles from the lastlesson. You just need to identify the water to your magic first and push itinto the material before moving-” Waltz broke off when a wave swapped him fromthe pier.

Myth climbedback onto the wood, looking smug. “I recommend getting into contact with water firstand spreading magic into it, to identify the sensation of magic in water.Hurling it around has literally no skill to it.”

Lucettewatched as Waltz lunged out of the water grabbed Myth and pulled him back in.

Ignoring thesplashing noises she pondered the information. She was quite sure both maleshad the same information, just different ways of voicing it. Not thatneither would admit it with the other in hearing range.

So, pushingmagic into water to get a feel for it and then moving it around like theicicle…

It proved tobe a bit more difficult than the icicle. Water was a liquid and if she wantedto move it evenly, she needed to spread her magic evenly.

She watchedMyth and Waltz sending bursts of water at each other. Myth was sending waterfrom his immediate area to Waltz. Waltz ‘grabbed’ water away from him and shotit at Myth.

…could shepull water away from areas?

A short testproved: Yes, she could.

Smirking, shestarted to push her magic towards the males.

Their faceswhen they were suddenly on dry land were hilarious. When they noticedthat there was water towering up around them…

She let go ofit, before they could react.

And gave thema smile when they came up sputtering for air.

“I guess, Igot it,” she said, fighting down the laughter building up inside her.

Both weresilent. Looked at her, looked at each other, then back at her.

The nextmoment there was water flying towards her.

The sun hadmoved quite a bit when all three of them were stretched out on the grass, thesunshine warming them up and drying them slowly.

Lucette wasquite happy with the outcome. Win by superior firepower (and Crystallum enhancedresources).

“Well,princess, you definite understood the material,” Myth yawned from his place,looking like he was falling asleep. Waltz looked a bit more awake, but not bymuch.

Turned outthat Myth knew more about minimalizing his usage to last longer. She would lookinto that another day.

“That wasfun,” she finally said. Delora most likely wouldn’t participate in it. Maybewith the potion she had developed with Parfait and kept mumbling about, butotherwise she wouldn’t have the stamina. And the potion was a bit too expensive forthat.

And Parfaitwas too frail as well.

“Yeah, itreally was,” Waltz agreed, “What do you think, Myth?”

Silence.

Both turnedto the witch when he didn’t reply and Lucette fought back a snicker. Waltzlaughed quietly. “A nap doesn’t sound that bad,” he admitted and let out a yawnhimself.

Lucette lookedback into the sky. It was a prettynice day.

please ma'am I need a Myth/Lucette friendship before she was cursed

"Princess, I think your pet knight is catching up on something," Mythros' voice was calm, as he put the book away. A clear indication that the time was up soon. "And he may be planning to murder me."

"Fritz isn't my pet," she glared at him and then turned away again to glance down at the streets below them. "And don't be stupid. There is no reason for him to do anything to you."

"The king is also getting suspicious, how no one is able to find you, whenever he plans to have you interact with the new family members and how you always no of it beforehand. Especially when you're just 'taking a stroll through the gardens'," her father's advisor continued. "And you're underestimating your pet knight's protectiveness."

Lucette gave him a short glare and then demonstratively turned her face up and away, snubbing him. He only chuckled and she wanted to glare at him again.

He had only dared to call her adorable to her face once. But she knew he was thinking it.

"I don't think your father would object to us spending time together. He may even prefer it to you holing yourself up alone," the man finally said. "But they're starting to notice."

It made Lucette want to snarl how strangers intruded on her ordered life.

"We're not doing anything forbidden," she grumbled.

"We're on a roof outside the palace, I transported us to via magic," the witch's voice was flat.

"And keeping us hidden with it as well," she added. But she knew what he was talking about. She was the only one in the palace knowing that he had magic.

But she didn't want people intruding even further on her life than her stepsiblings already did. Didn't want to share these breaks she got from the palace and the whispers floating in the hallways. But Emelaigne was insistent on tracking her down to spend time with her. As such her disappearances were no longer as unnoticed as she wished.

But this was hers. Her choice. Her decision. And she didn't want it taken away. Myth had never said that he was a witch specifically but fairies weren't hiding what they were.

Her father was also not ranting against witches ever second or third day.

"It's time to go back," he said.

Taking a deep breath, she got up , steeled herself and grabbed his hand to let him lead her back through the portal into the palace gardens.

How would myth react to being in a love and having a love rival.

Well, here is what I came up with.

Was kind of tricky to work out and hope it isn’t too far fetched.

He ran intoher by accident. Even a year after her disappearance there were stillpossessions of his queen in the palace he had hidden away and sneaked into moresecure hiding places whenever he had the chance.

Like in thisnight, when he was moving the stash of magical books to somewhere else.

The librarywas dark when he had retrieved the first books and it was still dark when hecame back for more, dawn just dusting the horizon.

But now therewas someone else in the library as well. Stepping back into the darkest shadowshe slipped to the stash, made sure it was safely hidden and then went toinvestigate.

It was ayoung woman, not older than himself, taking books from the shelves and puttingthem onto a cart. Myth didn’t know her. The rebellion of the traitor had gottensome personal replaced due to ‘questionable actions’ under the reign of thequeen.

It was thesame reason why the former advisor had been let go, allowing him to slip intothe court.

It seemedthis woman was new as well.

Auburn hairframed a light skinned face with dark eyes. From the clothes she was wearingshe was either higher middle-class or lower high-class. Well, this wasn’t hisproblem. He barely interacted with the staff at all in anyway.

Myth saw heragain, when he was forced to consult the royal library for a dictionary  to better translate a contract he was tryingto make sense off.

She waschattering with a maid, passing by the shelf he was looking over and -when helooked over to identify the noise makers- she gave him a cheerful wave. Forcinghimself to stay in character of his new personality, he nodded back and thenscratched that meeting from his mind.

Then he runinto her for real.

For somereason the king was permanently shoving more work his way. On one hand, it wasa clear sign of being trusted. On the other hand, the man was most likelysimply trying to get out of tiresome and boring paperwork, now that his queenwasn’t terrifying people into respecting contracts anymore.

Myth roundedthe corner of a hallway and smashed into someone, paperwork sent flying.

They wereboth apologetic about the meeting, she embarrassed and he just done with theday, both collecting their own work which had scattered over the hallway andgoing their way.

An hour laterhe needed to hunt her down, because he was missing some sheets.

Her name, itturned out, was Elena. She had lived outside the capital in a town not far awayuntil the Great War ended and she had come to the capital looking for work,getting hired as a library.

She wascheerful, open and always up for making new friends. And she seemed to deemevery new person she talked to a friend.

Him included.

After thepaperwork incident -and yes, she did hold onto the sheets, because she didn’tknow if she could simply hand them off to another servant, proving the abilityof thinking sensible thoughts- she seemed set greet him every time they crossedways.

In thehallways, when she passed by his office, when he was forced to look somethingup in the library, it didn’t seem to matter to her.

The onlyreason why Myth didn’t leash out on her, was her ability to see when she wasinterrupting something and letting it be, leaving him alone to work through it.It was… kind of nice.

It took a fewmonths before he got a better grip on what she was like. How she was a bit shyaround strangers with no one around she knew and always willing to approach newpeople as long as she had a friend around. She didn’t like people mistreatingbooks -even had a slight temper there- and loved reading.

Myth foundhimself even slightly enjoying her company, it was way less offending than thetraitor had ever been, if only because she could stay quiet.

It took sometime for Myth admit to himself that he enjoyed Elena’s company. She was-everything considered- way less complicated than most women he had been forcedto interact with.

He likedbeing around her. He could make comments about books she understood, even makea bit of fun about how ridiculous some of the poetry books were, with theirperception of love and how it made everything just better and how marryingsolved every problem.

Then he foundhimself looking at books he had read some time ago and wondered if she wouldlike them. Was it something she may have read already? Something she would findinteresting? Or something she would put aside as boring?

Why did heeven care? His focus should be somewhere else completely, on securing andstabilizing the kingdom, so his queen would have everything she needed upon herreturn.

Why did hecare?

He… couldn’tanswer it.

Myth foundhimself thinking more about that question while living his days in hisdisguise. And then decided to just let it go.

He was workingon keeping the kingdom secured and he needed to wait a few more years for hisqueen to be released anyway.

As it was, heentered the library and found Elena joking with a young man.

She quicklyintroduced them. He was a young noble, visiting the castle and introducedhimself as Richard, complimenting him on achieving the position he had at hisage. Myth kept the conversation light and curious about the reasons about theman’s visit.

Richard was,as it turned out, visiting on behalf of his family, and had asked and receivedthe allowance to use the royal library for it.

Myth let itgot and went his way.

For somereason it bothered him that Richard was there, spending time with Elena.

And for somereason it bothered him that she was looking at him like- …like what?

When histhoughts caught up with him, Myth stilled. Why did he care that these two werespending time together? It was, all things considered, none of his business. Hehad way to much work to do anyway to play babysitter for two adults.

So why did itkeep bothering him?

He keptpondering that thought, trying to sort out his own mind.

The firstthing he really noted was, that he felt unnaturally happy and relaxed aroundher.

The nextthing was that -for some reason- he really liked her smiling at him.

And the lastfact was that for some reason he really couldn’t stand that man.

What the hellwas wrong with his mind? He would need to ponder that more…

Days blurredinto weeks and Myth found himself… strangely stressed.

He visitedthe library on occasion, always finding them in either blissful silence (hestayed a bit if that was the case) or in animated discussion (he left).

In a way hefelt… angry. He wasn’t sure at what. Like someone had intruded on somethingthat was his. Which wasridiculous. He had no reason to claim ownership to anything of the library.

Days passed,his mood riding and falling, him grumbling under his breath and the kinghearing and commenting -sounding way too amused- if he was jealous.

The commentmade something inside him freeze.

He thoughtabout it, when he was alone.

Was hejealous? He disliked Richard, disliked how he spent his time with Elena,disliked how she looked at the man, but not him-!

…was he…attached? Did he… like her?

More timepassed and Myth pondered this new revelation, remembering how comfortable hefelt around her.

…maybe heshould… do something about it?

The smallgifts were easy enough to come by.

Nothing too expensive,no reason to get intrusive or pushy. Richard did not seem to appreciate the newattention on Elena, glaring at him when she wasn’t looking.

He justraised a brow at the man, daring him to make a scene.

It still wentdownhill in the end.

He didpretend to be someone else, after all.

It was aninnocent enough conversation up to the point where fairytales came up.

There wereinterpretations thrown around, obscure ones retold (there were no books aboutthem in the library) and at some point it went to the source of this gap.

“I heard thequeen burned the books. As if it would erase everything,” Elena sighted,putting a book away, “I mean, just burning a few books doesn’t erase thecontent. There are more copies after all.”

“What do youmean with erase everything?” Myth asked, morbidly curious.

“What witchesdid. I mean, the fairytales tell you all what happened and so many of them areso gruesome!” the young woman shuddered, “I mean, these things must have beenreally bad to get written down. I’m sure you could add a few recent ones fromthe war as well!”

“We couldcall it ‘Rise of the Fairies’!” Richard added laughing, “What do you think,Mythros?”

“I rememberthat there were a few witches as well in the uprising,” he said after a shortbout of silence, fighting down seething rage and boiling blood.

“Sure! Andthe witch queen and the fairy leader were friends once! Would give it quite thedramatic spin!” she laughed, “But then it would just be a story!”

It isn’t justa are story. The tales are just a story! There is nothing true about them-!

Myth feltsomething squirming inside him, heart hammering, he forced his body to relax.

“Have fundiscussing it,” he said, voice neutral, “I have paperwork to get through.”

Later in theday, in the privacy of his own home he raged.

It was thefollowing day that he passed the painting of his queen.

He stopped and turned to the portrait.

The queen was looking down on him, eyes cold,unyielding and judging.

What had he been thinking anyway? Itwasn’t like he had time to waste on something like that. He had way more important things to get done.

ScratchingElena from his mind, he turned away from the canvas and went his way. Shouldthe two, naive idiots have each other.

His loyalty was to the queen and no one else. No oneelse was important. No one else mattered.

Opinion on all the LI’s?

I got themost curious message recently, asking me about the opinion on followingpersons.

Prince Rod:My truthful opinionon him? He is way too soft on his sister. While he is at least taking hislessons serious and tries to not be an embarrassment, his coddling of princessEmelaigne isn’t helping anyone. Outside of that we have no real points ofinteraction.

Klaude AidricRenaldi Mattheus Almonte:The missing prince of Brugantia has a… questionable reputation. I see no reason why someonelike that should be allowed near the princess. While he is a prince of anothercountry and it calls for a… diplomatic handling, there is no way I would lethim anywhere near the crown princess.

ChevalierDu Mont:From what I know, he is a doctor with no sense of business. With a justas questionable character as the foreign prince. Let him do his business byhimself long enough and he’ll be reduced to rags soon enough and relief himselfof any excuse to be near the princess. There is no place in court for beggarsafter all.

Fritz Leverton:The young knight isskilled with the sword, charismatic and his loyalty is unquestioned. Theprincess is quite fond of him, but I have personally no reason to interact withhim privately. He is quite dedicated to do his job and to do it well, which isa nice change from other people I know set on shrinking duties wheneverpossible.

Waltz Cresswell:…the traitor can goand rot in an alley with a slit throat for all I care. I would be quite temptedto do it myself, if I ever get the chance. But I would need to find him first.

71! (and with our dear Lucy if you would)

71 - Obession

Sometimes Myth couldn’t resist looking at the princess, like he looked at the portrait of his queen.

Imagening her looking at him and him alone.

She looked so much like her mother as well, the same hair, regal composure and a grace befitting her standing.

And utterly beautiful as well.

Myth knew better than imagening any kind of relationship with his queen. She was his teacher, his mentor, his savior as well. But she was also married -if only to gain access to the royal resources- and didn’t bother with any kind of familial relationships outside her daughter.

A daughter who was slowly maturing into something looking enough like her mother that it was easy to not feel the disgust for her, he had initially felt upon learning of her contact with Waltz and still different enough that he was very aware that she wasn’t his queen.

But she would be a queen at one point as well…

Myth was hoping she would be his by then, an allowance from her and a reward from his queen at the same time.

He hoped his queen would allow that…

Myth scolding Genaro for his bad parenting?

This takes place in the Fritz Route, after Hildyr got freed.

Myth wantedto sigh when he felt yet another pull at his spell controlling the king. The spell’sworkings were easy enough. Cut the connection where mind interacted with body andput the body either on remote control or let it follow a set routine.

It had the advantagethat he didn’t need to micro manage the king into doing the basic things ofkeeping himself alive. If there was food placed in front of him, he would eatit. At specific points in time he would move to the dining room, his sleepingquarters, the throne room or where ever Myth directed him to.

“Why do youeven keep trying to get control back? It wouldn’t help you anything. Not evenimprove your situation!” he glared at the man and felt the man’s mind reel, surprisinglydefiant looking how passive he had always been. And angry. Myth wanted tolaugh.

“Oh,blaming the witches on everything again? Do you really think it’s my fault? Sure, I guarded the Tenebrarumand showed the princess where it was, but I didn’t force her into freeing hermother. She still believed what she knew. Her mother loved her. You don’t care.You have more important things to take care of and direct your attention to,”Myth smiled at the way the mind recoiled, making it much less tasking to reinstatefull control, but well… a little gloating was allowed.

“It was so easy in comparison to how difficultit would have been, if you had botheredwith her, you know? But after you had ignored her for months? You couldn’t havemade it much easier for me. And then pretending it never happened and giving up so easily again!” The mind reeled, projectingmisery and guilt.

“It all happenedbecause of you. Because you feared the tantrum of a witch, who hadn’t evengrown into her powers yet. Imagine it: One day to tell her the truth, a fewdays -maybe weeks- to let her calm down and then? No more hiding, no more lies,no more secrets… But no- you wanted to be done with this part of your live. Andthis decision made the part come right back.”

Leaningback in his seat, Myth closed his eyes, basking in the fury, guilt and miserythe king was throwing against the ropes of the spell.

“Are youeven aware that Hildyr will most likely kill you, if you break that spell?” Onelast struggle- nothing. Myth smiled, showing teeth and feeling utterly elated.

It was so nice to be on the winning side.

i was thinking moonlight with MythLu? thank u. sorry for bothering u.

You aren’t a bother. If writing was a bother, my ask box wouldn’t be open.

108 - Moonlight

The moon was bright in the sky, turning the room into a strange pattern of shadows and strange patches of white and different shades of gray.

And Myth couldn’t sleep. He had fallen asleep, woken up, due to a nightmare, he couldn’t remember clearly anymore and then had found himself laying awake, heart still beating to fast, thoughts still running. Normally, he would have gotten up, left the bed and found himself a book. There was always paperwork in his office, waiting to ge finished.

But he wasn’t alone and there wasn’t paperwork needed to distract himself from these feelings anymore.

His Princess, to be his Queen (always his Goddess, but he had the feeling, she wouldn’t react well to that title) was still asleep, the moonlight illuminating her form.

He didn’t dare to cast a mage light, she had proven before that she was sensitive enough to notice, even when asleep and it was enough that he was awake. And the moon was bright enough anyway.

He watched her for a bit, before he carefully reached out and grabed her hand. Both of them didn’t sleep well too close to each other. As nice as the feeling was, it felt restrictive to sleep like that. Trapped.

It was enough if the other one was there when they woke up, not that they slept together often. The king just wasn’t sure how to find a chaperon that could keep a good eye on them, regarding how both of them could magically change places.

Closing his eyes again, he concentrated on listening to her breaths and the fingers around his, he drifted off back to sleep. Even so, he was sure that her grip tightened at some point.

051 - Games

For some reason people were always set to compare people in their plans to chess pawns. Myth knew that kind of thinking -had followed it at some point- but had in the end abandoned it. Real life situations were way more complicated than games.

More important as well and way harder to control. You couldn’t just restart, put pawns back on the board or undo a turn. The rules changed as the persons involved changed. Left the pattern, joined it, changed their views or what they wanted.

Chess didn’t fit it. Chess had only two players controlling a set of figurines without a free will, following an unchanging set of rules. Real life was… variable. Even know there were at least four sites to the situation. Whoever had the princess, the king and his loyal followers, Alcaster and his coup, himself and his allegiance to the late queen and maybe even the Lucis bearer and her allies. And there was also the unpredictability of people meeting at random and forming alliances.

No, these things really weren’t like common games. It didn’t even exist a clear win or lose. There was still the possibility of things turning south and him being able to slip away unfollowed, like after the rebellion. Not losing, but not winning either. The chance for another try.

He would see what the future would bring.