Chương 13: Meanwhile at the Castle

Sleepy. Every day, Bisque had always felt so sleepy. Her star coated pajamas were so comfortable. Her princess bed was just the right mixture of soft and firm. She'd always sink in enough to feel perfect. The air of her floor was the optimal temperature, and the stuffed animals were all plush. She'd always had dreams where her Mother, the queen, would clutch her tightly and hold her. Beneath starlit nights, they would sit at the edge of a cliff and overlook a gently splashing lake.

The queen would wrap her arms around her, and Mother would run her fingers through Bisque's silver hair. However, something about the dream had always felt off back then. The Bisque who sat on her mother's lap and slept away didn't seem real. It created more of a nightmarish feeling. It was something so distant that she could never hope to reach it. Every time she wanted to grasp it, she would wake up, and there the queen would be. But why can't I reach out towards her? Why can't I hold her?

Were the others the same? Didn't she make me for the purpose of holding me? Didn't she give me all of these clothes and soft things to show her love? When Bisque became alive in this new world, she was asleep at the time. That was the first moment in her entire existence when the dream felt real. She felt held and succumbed to the feeling of being adored by the mother who pressed her chin against her head.

It took her a while to wake up to that first dream, and when she did, the first thing she saw was Rela who ordered her to secure the castle. At that time, Bisque looked down at her hands with tired eyes and clenched them over and over again. Am I in a dream? After finishing the task, she realized that the new place was not a dream. It felt even more vivid than any other dream she'd felt prior.

She had to be held by her queen at all costs, and when it came time for that to happen, Bisque felt a bliss that was unfathomable before. She even carried me to the castle on her back. The golem looked around her room and lifted up a plushie of a black bat. She pulled it tightly to her small body. Please come back and hold me again soon, Mother. She kept her tired eyes open and left her floor, returning to the meeting hall where the others had gathered when the queen summoned them.

In there, she found the dragon Ampherea and Lenore the fallen angel. Lenore sat with her head against the table, her black wings drooping behind her. The angel's finger pressed against the bat emblem with the crimson moon in its mouth, and she swirled it around the crimson moon. She traced the edge of it while groaning. She slumped and breathed a deep sigh, speaking in a melancholic monotone voice.

"This is all so pointless."

"It's only pointless because you aren't making the best out of our situation," the dragoness said.

"If our queen were here, I am sure that she would give you something to do." Lenore gazed up at the dragoness with black around her eyes. It was as if she'd not slept a wink since arriving here.

"Really? Maybe she has abandoned me. The queen never delegated a task to either of us, remember?"

"Um," Bisque said, "I don't think Mother would ever abandon any of us."

"That's easy for you to say when you got to crawl up in her lap." The fallen angel looked towards the little golem and sighed again.

"It's not fair that you get to look like that. Maybe I should try and make myself small, so she can carry me around?" Ampherea laughed from behind her and tapped her shoulder with a scaled hand.

"If you did that, then maybe your authority would stop working? I could imagine you succumbing to bliss in her arms."

"Ah, that would be a great way for me to finally die." Bisque pouted and clicked her tongue. No, I won't let her talk that way. She waddled up to Lenore and grabbed onto the angel's hand.

"Mother would never want you to die. She loves all of us dearly."

"I think she knows that," Ampherea said, "this is just how she is."

"No, think about it, Ampherea," Lenore said.

"If I got to die, I could be resurrected again and return to her arms. Imagine if there was a drama about it. She loved me so deeply that in her Melancholy, she brought me back to her side. Maybe I should just end it all?"

"Okay, but if you end it all, I think she would be really mad at you. I could even imagine her getting more angry than Victoria." Bisque tilted her head and pressed a finger against her chin.

"Would she really get that angry? I don't think I ever saw Mother get angry before." Stolen novel; please report.

"No, I don't think so. By the way, did you see Victoria on your way down?" Bisque shook her head. Lenore groaned and leaned against the table.

"I am pretty sure that wolf is just venting her frustrations inside of her dominion. She also hasn't gotten called on yet, and she is probably mad at Rela for ordering her around." Bisque was already feeling tired of these conversations, but she held onto Lenore's hand just in case the fallen angel was serious.

"Say, little Bisque," Ampherea said with a sly smile, "can't you see what the others are doing? Your access to the castle's defenses lets you see all of us. If it's not too much, won't you intrude on their privacy a little?"

"I refuse."

"Awe, come on, don't be like that."

"No, I won't do anything that Mother hasn't told me to do." The dragoness clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.

"I have been starving for something exciting recently. There was that paladin, but that was easily taken care of by you and the queen. Atlus has been training that stupid wraith. Meanwhile, we've not even gotten scraps. I'm hungry, I'm starving, and I want to eat some skills. Won't we get attacked by something already? You and Atlus are in charge for the moment, aren't you? Won't it be fine if I just eat something nearby? I am sure the queen won't mind, and I can be quick. Nobody will even have to know."

"Shut up," Lenore said in her same monotone voice, covering her ears with her hands.

"Eat this, eat that, you are way too hyper for either me or Bisque. Why don't you go and eat that nearby mountain range if you are so hungry?"

"Did you just tell me to shut up?" The dragoness lunged forwards with her clawed hand, but an invisible wall stopped her.

"[Sloth: Immovable Wall]," Bisque said in a tired voice.

"Don't attack each other. Mother wouldn't like that."

"No need to be so serious. I knew that your wall would stop me."

"And what if I didn't?"

"If that were the case, then Lenore would have gotten her wish. Right?"

"So dull," the fallen angel said with a sigh.

"My Melancholy wouldn't let me die."

"Are you sure? I could have tried to eat it." A growl near the doorway caught their attention. They spotted Victoria the Werewolf with her arms crossed.

"We all know that you can't eat authorities, or else you would have tried to devour all of us."

"I would never do that!" Ampherea protested.

"The queen would never forgive me. Aren't you being a bit presumptuous?"

"Hah? You are the one that just tried to attack Lenore." The werewolf growled and readied her claws.

"Are you trying to make me angry?" Yet another figure formed in the doorway. This time it was the lustful demon with his red body and black horns curing upwards in front of his head. He held out a notepad and wrote with a quill.

"How absolutely fabulous all of you are. Your wonderful passions I can't help but write about." Bisque, despite how tired she felt, seized the opportunity for distraction.

"What are you writing?" The demon cackled madly.

"I am creating a poem about this fiery event. I'd been listening intently and decided to enter the stage when it was fit of me. It seems that Atlus has been too busy with the new recruits to pick up on the news, and I was here first."

"The news?" Bisque asked with a tilt of her head.

"Why, you didn't hear? My sister just told me that our beloved Queen Shadowspill will return promptly." Lenore's head sat up from the table, and her tired eyes seemed to clear in an instant.

"She returns for me?"

"For us," Luscious said, "silly Lenore. When she arrives, we should give her a proper welcome. As the lustful poet, I have plenty of ideas if everyone wants to hear them?" Victoria looked at him with her narrowed red eyes and a scowl.

"Go ahead, but if they aren't any good, I will cut out your throat."

"Tss, no need to be so hasty with removing my internal organs. Even as a demon, I would hate to have my throat removed." He placed a hand on his throat in an exaggerated movement.

"But I was thinking we could greet her with song and dance. Who doesn't like a beautiful melody to return to?" Lenore raised her hand.

"I would hate that. I can't find it within me to change the way I sound." Luscious sighed.

"It can't be helped. What about you, little Bisque? Surely the song of a little girl is enough to stir the queen's heart strings. If we stood behind you while you sang out a lullaby, that would surely..." Bisque shook her head, her voice coming out tired.

"I couldn't sing if I tried."

"Oh well, there is always the second option. It is obvious that our queen loves beautiful women and cute little girls. How about we have all of you women dress up and stand in a seductive line..." Victoria growled.

"You're trying my patience. I don't think the queen would want to see me dressed up."

"Me neither," Lenore said, her eyes flickering down to her ruined paladin armor.

"If I dressed up, that would be the dullest thing she ever saw." Luscious breathed another sigh.

"Well, we can all await her in her throne room, give her a proper welcome, bow to her greatness, and offer her all of our love." Ampherea laughed.

"That was going well, until you said that end part. Though, basking in her form does sound delectable. You've given me quite the appetizer to chew on. I wonder if she'd feed me directly from her hand." Bisque watched the way the dragon's hands coiled around herself. She looked down at her own hand gripping Lenore's, and then she looked at her other hand. Would Mother let me feed her from my hand? She can eat other things besides blood, right? I wonder if she would like a cookie.

Then again, out of all of them, Bisque was certain that she had the least qualifications to make cookies. Maybe she could ask Ava'Koz to steal one for her.

"Yes!" Luscious raised an eyebrow to her.

"So you are also on board with this idea? I suppose that we just need to have Victoria and Atlus agree." The demon looked towards the werewolf. Victoria breathed a sigh.

"I was ready to kill you, but if the others are in agreement, I can calm my Wrath for now." Ampherea tilted her head.

"Were you always that easily tamed?"

"Shut it, you glutton. When it comes to Her, I can calm my anger. Just imagining greeting her is already enough to alleviate a lifetime of anguish."

"So, it's decided then," Luscious said, not even bothering to look at Lenore.