The Little Princess [Closed]

Mayari licked her paw casually.

"Former...?" she waited for an answer.

Rory, though, rolled her eyes.

"Look, I'm not in the mood for guessing games. Just know that if you try to hurt Remi, you're dead," she said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head upstairs and prep for bed. You should do the same. There's a room on the far right that's empty. You should be able to sleep there without a problem."

With that, Rory marched upstairs. Around the same time, another door opened and Remi would appear on the second floor balcony. She was looking at Valen from above. Her orange-red hair was a deeper auburn while damp, and her ruddy face was scrubbed clean. She looked at Valen eagerly.

"Thank you for staying with us, Valen," Remi said with a smile.

She started to gingerly head down the stairs, her hands stretched out against the banister due to her short height.

"Don't mind Rory. She's just grumpy because she hasn't had any sleep," she said. "She's really nice when you get to know her. She also really likes eating meat."

As she dried her hair with a cotton cloth, she walked up to Valen and stared at him brightly.

"You know, I'm not tired yet. I'd like it if you could tell me stories. Fable said he had a lot of them?"

"Yes! Yes! I have lots of interesting stories!" Fable wailed, the formless shadow stretching towards the girl pleadingly, but he remained anchored down. "Take this blasted thing out and I'll tell you lots of good ones!"

Valen sighed and reached down, yanking the spear head out of the ground. Fable immediately flattened against the ground and glided across the walls and ceiling.

"Fine fine, it's the author's right to tell his own story," Fable huffed as it enjoyed its restored freedom. "But from one incantus to another, I'm sure it won't take long to understand. What else in the world would have a spear designed to pin down an incantus?"

Remi went ahead and climbed up onto one of the thick armchairs near the fireplace. She tilted her head at Fable's remark.

"I'm not an Incantus, silly," she said. "I'm a girl!"

"I think he was referring to me," Mayari said.

In a wisp of violet smoke, she appeared at the foot of Remi's chair. Before Remi could ask, she explained, "I'm to keep watch of you while Rory bathes."

Remi nodded and then waited for Valen to sit in the opposite chair and looked at him intently. She leaned on one of the arms, her damp hair draping over her shoulders. Mayari curled up next to the chair.

"So how did you and Fable meet?" Remi asked.

Valen sat down and let out a sigh.

"He was left inside a cardboard box at my doorstep on a cold rainy day. He got attached to me and I couldn't get rid of him."

Fable let out a cackle while snaking across the ceiling above them. "Oh don't be like that! What are you to be ashamed about~!"

Valen gave an annoyed glare to the shifting shadow before closing his eyes and exhaling out his nose.

"Fable gave me power when I needed it, and since then I doubted my perspective and role," Valen stated. "As penance, I wander the country to understand better."

"You really are garbage at narration," Fable sighed as he slipped along. "You need more onomatopoeia! Oh I just love that word~"

The more Remi listened, the more she came to a conclusion.

"So...you're not a Walpurgis by blood?" she asked.

She looked at her own hand, and, if Valen was paying attention, she'd see that her seal was fading even more. If anything, it looked like ink that was slowly starting to fade as a result of being scrubbed off.

"My momma used to say that my Cantus would come to me one day," she said. "She said that if I believed hard enough, the seal would break and I could finally be one with my true soul."

She then looked at Valen and Fable and smiled.

"I'm glad you found your soul, Valen," she said. "You and Fable must be really happy together."

From smiling, though, she suddenly became saddened.

"Liseran can't say the same. Liseran's soul was killed," she said.

Valen crossed his fingers over his chest and lowered his head thoughtfully. He didn't know too much about Liseran to begin with, but he was slowly piecing things together.

He looked to Remi and slowly, hesitantly, he raised a hand towards her and patted her head.

"I will... tell you a story," Valen said. He leaned back and reclined his head. His eyes rolled a bit as if he was flipping through a book trying to find something. He breathed out of his nose and spoke.

"There was a little cat that was born with a little bell. With each step and bound, it could hear the little bell ring. The little cat and the little bell only had each other, but an old dog watched over them. It was strong and big so it protected the little cat and brought it food everyday.

Then one day, the little cat took a step and a bound but it did not hear the ring. The cat hopped and stepped, but it heard no ring. It was missing its bell. It cried and cried because it missed its little bell.

So the old dog went and looked for it. The little cat waited and waited, missing its precious little bell. The sun rose, then set. Then rose. Then set. Then rose. Then set. The little cat waited, missing its little bell.

Then it heard the bell ring. It leaped, looking for it, looking for the old dog. But instead of the old dog, it saw a young fox who held the bell in its mouth.

'Where is the old dog?' the little cat asked.

And the fox replied, 'The old dog was too old and it died looking for your little bell. He asked me to bring it back to you because it made you happy.'

The young fox left the little bell with the little cat and left them alone. When he was gone, the little cat cried because the little bell did not make her happy...."

Valen opened his eyes slowly as he finished his tale. "Magic is not necessarily happiness. Happiness is found in much more personal places.:

When Valen looked at Remi, he'd notice that the girl was now slumped in the armchair, eyes closed and her arms draped over one of chair arms.

"Oh, she's asleep," a voice said from behind Valen.

If he turned around, he'd notice Rory, her hair slightly damp and her clothes now those for going to bed. Rory would go over to Ren and scoop her up. Mayari simply nestled against the chair, not too different from a hound. She seemed pre-occupied with sleeping. Rory would turn to Valen.

"It was nice of you to keep her entertained for awhile," she said. "But I couldn't help but notice..."

She looked at him seriously.

"What do you have so much against Cantus?" she said.

While he had never outright said he hated it, Rory had been taking note of his responses and trying disillusion Remi from Cantus.

Valen gave Rory and plain glance before looking down at the spearhead in his hand. He tossed it upwards, the bauble flipping twice in the air before he caught it by the broken handle.

"I am not necessarily against Cantus," Valen stated, "Nor am I in support of it. But believing that magic is necessary to be happy and well can be a dangerous line of thought."

Valen slipped his spearhead back into its leather sheathe and slipped it under his coat securely.

"Ever since I formed my pact with Fable, I've been wandering," Valen stated. "I have collected many stories in that time and have played the role of both protagonist and antagonist, supporting character and main character, narrator and writer. In all that time, I have known magic to make people both happy and miserable. But what concerns me the most..."

Valen turned and looked directly at Rory. "I have seen people willing to do dangerous things in the name of magic. And somehow I accidentally stepped into the role of a hero for that girl. So for that, I should do my best to make sure she doesn't get in harm's way."

"I guess I can see where you're coming from," Rory said, shifting Remi's weight from one arm to another. "Anyways, I'm going to put Remi to bed."

Rory would head upstairs, but Mayari stayed at the foot of the armchair, sleeping with one eye open. As Rory disappeared into the upper floors, Valen would hear faint whistling outside followed by footsteps.

It didn't seem to be getting nearer, but it was just a healthy distance away. It was followed by singing.

City of stars
Are you shining just for me?
City of stars,
there's so much that I can't see...

If Valen peered out the window, he'd see a tall older gentleman just lurking about in the streets, hands in a brown frock coat, hair the color of golden wheat, and tired bright azure eyes. The scenery around him was entirely peaceful, just a paved street leading back into town. The pavement glistened, wet from a few hours' rain from earlier. In one hand, the man had what looked like a bouquet of flowers. In the other, he was holding a top hat.

He stopped walking as he stopped in front of the house. He looked at his top hat, peering down into it emptily before looking up at the sky.

Who knows?
Is the start of something wonderful and new?
Or one more dream that I cannot make true...?

He paused for a moment, sadly putting the top hat back on. He was about to move onward, but stopped once more and glanced at the house rather seriously.

He then started moving towards it. As he walked, Valen would get a glance from inside his coat, and see an Expiate badge clasped on the breast pocket of his vest.

Valen's eyes narrowed. He stepped back and pointed downwards with a hand behind his back, keeping an eye on the door. Fable slithered across the floor and melted into a pool under Valen's feet, completely indistinguishable from a normal shadow.

Valen pulled away from where he was peering and hid himself, patiently waiting to see what happened next.