"The hell did she mean by that?" I strolled down the hall beside Illy.
"That's the problem, I've no clue, and how are we going to find whatever she meant in her library. I'm sure that's where it is, but without her, it'd take us years to find the thing." Illy said, opening the door into the tower to let me through.
"Well then we're going to have to find some way to get it out of her, but honestly, I'm worried. This was our best shot, what if we don't know something, we could be missing any number of things."
"But it's got to be this Elly. Nothing else explains it, and if there is another aspect to the sole blood theory, we've got to figure it out if we want to convince her."
"But she called you a demon when I said it, said you were a vagrant from hell. If that's true, and there is an aspect of that to the theory, is the theory still true. Do we want to argue that we're demons?" I asked, sighing.
"We've got to argue the truth if it's pretty or not. It's my mother we're talking about, she made me shoot a lover for god's sake, she's no saint."
"So we are demons?"
"I don't know." She sighed, letting her head drop low. I came up and hugged her, letting her head fall on my shoulder. "Well, you'd be my demon." She laughed, straightening up to kiss me.
"Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad then."
* * *
"Bedridden again Mortemine, grow up. You can't let your ex-fiancee take care of you like this." He said.
"Who let you in Clock?" I asked, glaring at Rosetta.
"All your doors are sawdust and splinters my Queen, it wasn't difficult. Really though, who did you anger this time that they got wrecking balls in to mess up your doors? Did you really piss them off that much in a night?" He stepped forward, readjusting his tie as he spoke.
"If you get the ears out of the room I'll tell you all about it Count." I replied, waving off Rosetta and waiting until she was out the door to speak.
"I know she's not done much to deserve your forgiveness, but I'm not sure why she can't stay through this at least."
"Oh thank god, someone in this world is still sane. You've not idea what's been going on in this castle as of late, it's the most tiresome ordeal since the war." I said as the Count seated himself in a chair in the corner.
"Well you'll have to bring me up to speed, but if I'm not mistaken, shouldn't Rosetta be dead? Who took the energy to bring her back? That slave girls not but twenty yet, and I can't see who else would bother."
"That's the predicament precisely, and I hate to say I'm undecided about it because it seems so absurd. That girl brought Rosetta back to life in her sleep and gave her energy enough to fly straight here from her tomb in Britain, and I've witnesses to vouch for it. Of course I locked them all up when I found out, but they broke out of my dungeon without any tools whatsoever, bending diamond coated titanium like the rest of us do copper wire. She broke my chains, figured out how to turn to air on her own, can appear in mirrors unconsciously, and put my hand in a bowl over there without even touching it."
"What?" He stood up on instinct, walking swiftly to the bowl only to blanch away from it when he saw the contence. "How the hell did she, why did she?" He stuttered, returned back to his seat in an uneasy fashion.
"I tried to strangle the menace, but these little light bugs swarmed and seemed to eat the flesh out of the air, and I can't get it back. It doesn't make any sense, none of it, you walked right through the doors she vaporized, and thought someone had gotten wrecking balls in here to do the damage. Just yesterday she showed up in my room alone, said Illy was off running the country, and didn't bother accompanying her. They treat me like an old mad dog. This is ridiculous."
"But why in the world would Illy agree to something like this? She'd never think of you like that, it makes no sense."
"That girls got her trapped and brainwashed, but what the hell am I supposed to do about it. And the lot of them think that Elly girl's a sole blood, and only god knows how many think Illy's one too."
"Sole blood?" He furrowed his brows.
"It's a myth from early Egypt. In sanskrit times they wrote it down, saying it's a creature created by the refining of one person's blood to create offspring with only one parent, in which the child is incredibly powerful and comes to the rescue of the world around it. Then in later Egyptian times they figured out it wasn't actually an angel escaping from heaven and possessing a being into the creation of a child to inhabit, but a demon. The idea is that a demon seeking liberation escapes hell and lies in wait for an opportunity to save the world, and earn their place as an angel in heaven. The result creates a creature of extreme power, but they're devils all the same, and the whole thing is a complete myth. Nothing of the sort has happened since Pharaoh Menkaure's time."
"But that Sapphire slave girls sounds a whole lot like what you described."
"She can't be though, it's a myth."
"Then what is she, you can't pass her by as normal, can you, for God's sake Mortemine, look what she's done to your hand." He pointed to the wooden bowl on the bedside table as I lifted my boney hand from below the covers, raising it so he could have a look. He gasped and put his hand to his mouth like he might puke.
"Don't you dare, human, I've had enough people in here scraping stuff of the carpet for my lifetime." I replaced my hand and sighed, blinking slowly. I wondered why even something as exiting as this predicament couldn't seem to keep me awake. "Don't you understand Count, if I accept that girl really is a sole blood, it means her mother was innocent. It means I banished my bride for no fault of her own, and it doesn't help anything with the current situation. We've got to get rid of the menace either way, and Illy's having none of it, and like hell Rosetta'll be thrilled with having her child killed, if we can even do that. If I even consider the possibility, it'll all go to shit."
"I see your point, but you're alternative is no better really. I understand your reluctance with Rosetta, but above all we've got to figure out what's true, and right now, that's not looking great. Now what was this about Illy being a sole blood?"
"That came up just yesterday, the girl thinks Illy's a sole blood, God knows why. It's a ridiculous proposition, Illy's strong but she's a normal amount of it, the only think to indicate that was just a little test that happened once but it doesn't matter."
"I'll judge that, Queen, at least tell me about it to get the image of your hand from my head."
"It was a long time ago when I first notice, actually, it was when Illy was just three. I realized she looked nothing like me, and all like her father, even though she was my child. Since I was the head of the kingdom and she my heir and not his, I decided she must look like me, and transplanted one of my eyes into her face to ensure she did, but it did nothing to extinguish my fears. As she aged, she looked less and less like me, until when DNA tests came out, I decided to do one on both of us, even if it was ridiculous, I wanted to be sure. I birthed the child, I was sure she was mine, but I did it anyway, and they came up false. According to the tests, we are unrelated."
"Unrelated?" He asked, "But you were the carrier, that can't be true."
"That's exactly what I thought, but I've run dozens of tests on us, and there is no correlation, it doesn't even peg us as coming from the same family trees."
"But," He put his hand to his forehead to think, staying silent for a moment more. "Then, before you chop my head off for suggesting it, could it be possible, that she's right?"
"Illy's no more powerful than me, she's not special in any other way. I might not know how it's possible but I know at least my daughter is no demon, and if I've anything to do with it, she'll not be courting one either. As soon as I get out of this bed I'll figure it out, I have books, a kingdom even, I'll figure it out."
"When you get out of that bed Mortemine?" He asked, standing up to survey me. I felt my neck drop even as he said it, falling limp under the weight of my head even when it was absorbed mostly by the pillows. My mouth felt numb from talking. Why wasn't blood helping? "From the looks of it my Queen, and I say this with the utmost respect, you may not be getting up again, not if something big changes around here."
"That's ridiculous." My voice only had half it's normal conviction though. "A little more blood and I'll be fine. I just need to sleep. I'll be up in the morning."
"Blood is doing you no good, I can see from here your veins are gorged full, and in this state I can hardly imagine your sleep is all that peaceful. You look like a ticking time bomb, and I can't say I'de be shocked if you didn't get up tomorrow." I sighed, the world almost looked like it was swaying around me, dancing with the demons I was now fearing around each corner.
"It's not as serious as it looks, but you ought to go away for today." I said, my voice sounded slurred. He turned hesitatingly and called Rosetta back, leaning in to whisper something to her in the doorway. I used what was left of my energy to strain to hear them.
"If she's not up by three in the morning tomorrow, if you could, I think you should let her drink. Don't let her know it's you, if you can, but otherwise, I'm not sure she'll wake again."