Drosselmeyer's Finale: The Mouse, The Princess and The Curse

Chapter Eleven

Chapter 11: Confrontations and Frustrations

"Well..." Autor turned through the pages Fakir ripped out. "The Nutcracker became the Nutcracker after trying to relive the Princess of a curse. He fell over the Mouse Queen after cracking the nut and the curse was bestowed onto him... it's strange. In this case the Princess of the past is completely different from the girl Marie, who technically becomes the Nutcracker, prince of toys' princess."

Fakir's eyes rose to Autor. "I fell. Nesumir taunted me telling me I couldn't become the role, so I cracked a nut he gave me and then fell over..."

"Over the Mouse Queen?" Autor looked skeptical.

"Maybe not a mouse queen..." Fakir said before his body clenched in a strong wave of agony.

"FAKIR!" Ahiru leapt to his side and squeezed his hand, over his clenched fist of sheets. She was scared for him. This was dark, even for Drosselmeyer.

"Well that puts a large part of the puzzle together." Autor was clearly aggravated, and rolled his eyes." In that case Nesumir seems to be orchestrating some of this. What loose end could he fit into?"

"I really-don't-" Fakir's eyes were tight, and his words mustered out of pain.

"We don't know. The last director was the Sorcerer who turned me into a duck, and played out the Swan Princess...more or less." Ahiru finished for him.

"His son...his son died by my sword so he wanted revenge and tried to awaken him using -" Fakir stopped again.

"So I take it we hit another road block..." Autor said, accepting Fakir's pain as another way accepting they'd really left limited stone unturned. "Then, can you change your own fate, if you said you'd altered the stories yourself, added things in...can you change your own fate?"

"Trade..."

"Magic is a trade. And I don't think he could really write...it took a lot out of him before..." Ahiru said it half wishing it wasn't true.

"Well we might have to try." Autor said. "On the other hand, we need to address Nesumir. Nesumir is using...or Drosselmeyer, dramatic irony... he knows more then he's letting on, and we need to sneak it out. Ahiru could you do that?"

"Me?"

"No she's not going near him. Not if theirs a chance-" Fakir protested.

"Look. Drosselmeyer-" Autor cut him off.

"Drosselmeyer shattered a Prince's heart, twisted a girls mind to darkness, forced her to believe she was a duck instead of a human Princess...gave a knight a tragic flaw...and then this? He's going to do damage, and if it's through-"

"Nesumir is our only hope. I'm going to help Fakir try to write, Counter this ...problem even temporarily. I wont out-do him. If not we will try to decode this story line Drosselmeyer is weaving. You should hint to Nesumir and see if he opens up."

"But what do I say?" Ahiru asked.

"You cant be serious..." Fakir mumbled.

"He seems fond of you, so...ask him subtly about Fakir's injury. Play...damsel in distress...although at this point Fakir is more that char-"

"You should go with her." Fakir cut him off purposefully.

"I can't leave you, and you need my help to stop this dilemma of yours with a pen. For you, Knight or whatever character, the pen is going to be mightier then the sword...for now." Autor looked to Ahiru. "Don't mention anything outright. If anything he says fits, come back right away and let us know. I don't think...if he wanted to get close to you he'd do anything to hurt you; it wouldn't make sense, story-wise."