Ink Stained

81: my Q̸̗͔̬͂̋u̸̘̦̼͗͛͝e̵̝͍̪̼̋̕ẽ̴̛̥͎̼͐̂̀͗̏n̸̙̠̫͎̑̔͑͋̎̄̅͠

She is dying to watch the fight.

She wants to go back. She wants to, oh, she wants to go back. She wants to see, she wants to see the edge of insanity Shinigami trails so dangerously close to, so, so close.

She wants to see Kagetora again, wants to see the knowing looks he gives her and not Pai, looks that the girl doesn't notice, looks that tell her that he knows she is in here with Pai. She wants to see him because he gives her the recognition she so longs for, so tired is she of being bound to Pai. She knows he hates her, loathes her, but she still wants him to see her, she still wants to see him.

It's been so long, too long.

But she can't. She can't go because if she does she might see him, too. She can't risk letting that happen. It is too early. Pai and Shin haven't even gotten anywhere yet. Pai has only just realized why her stomach flutters when Shin is around her, why her skin flushes when he touches her, why her cheeks redden to beautiful rosy fires when he looks at her.

All this time, all this boredom, and only now does she realize why she reacts to him when she is so aloof to almost everyone else around her.

She wants Pai to have a little more. Enough pain, enough sorrow and misery has plagued Pai's life. She wants to let Pai have just a little more, a little taste of happiness before the pain returns with a vengeance.

"Cruel..."

She reaches a lazy arm through the greyish brown cloud-ground. Her fingers trail over quiet, icy water, and she swirls her hand in circles. Her lips move in a half-smile when the tips of her fingers brush over huge, reptilian scales that swim just beneath the surface of the ocean that normally boils in rage, but is now calm and docile according to her mood.

"Some would think us cruel for wanting her to have some peace before we snatch it away. But we're not, are we?"

No, my Queen, a great, gravelly voice replies, its thundering echoes stretching far all around them. She listens to the water below the cloud-ground surging as the massive serpent below arches his body over the tranquil ocean he dwells in. You are not cruel. You wish the child to know that the world is not as evil as it will soon seem to her. This way, there will always be a part of her that remains pure when everything else fades to darkness.

"But isn't it?" She questions curiously, an old and familiar anger churning in her gut. "He promised us forever, and then he stole it from us. Pai dares accuse us of condemning her to our madness? He sentenced us to this place! Is that not evil? Is he not the cruel one?"

He is, the serpent replies, choosing to languish just below sight, obscuring his massive body from view in the waters that swirl around him. But you know why you must not go to her now.

"We know." She begrudgingly assents, pouting as she takes her hand out of the water and flops back on the cloud-ground, allowing the mist to coil around her naked body, obscuring her from view. "But we want to see."

If you go and he shows himself, even momentarily, you know you won't be able to control yourself. It will not be him you kill then – it will be Shin. Do you think Pai will let you continue invading her mind the way you have for so long if you kill him?