• Twenty-Six --- Declaration of war



    Kaida's P.O.V

    I examined the outfit the maid had managed to assemble for me in the mirror, turning this way and that to get a better look.
    My hair was longer, but I wanted to cut it, since I never really liked long hair from the start. My eyes were a stunning sea green, which struck me as odd, but Pierrot told me not to worry about it, so I didn't.
    The outfit was pretty nice. I had bandages wrapped around my chest, going down to my waist in blank white stripes, and I had a sleeveless unzipped coat over that. The collar stuck out a bit, with the inside of the thin coat orange and the edge a black line. The outside was a simple white and black, leaving my collarbone and arms exposed. The pants were black, with the bottom right pants leg in a checkered pattern. The waistline at the top left was checkered as well, and the shoes were really well made. One was black with a white stripe down the length, and the other was black with a stripe going down its length. My tattoo's on my right forearm and over my eyes were visible for all to see.
    "Is this acceptable for the Mistress?" The maid asked me, stepping back to let me take it in. "If it's not, I can go back and-"
    "It's perfect." I smiled at her, holding her right shoulder with my right hand - the gesture I'd seen many Darkness Denizens do as a greeting or a thank you. "I really apreciate you doing this for me."
    The maid really didn't look much older than me, maybe newly Initiated. I felt a little sorry for her, working for the King and Queen at such a young age.
    "I'll make sure to call on you if there is anything I need." I told her. The maid smiled genuinely, and left.

    As I walked down the hallway I crossed paths with Azuralia, Pierrot's mother. She brought her pace even with mine, walking beside me.
    "Do you like your new clothes?" She asked me with a smile. I really like her, she's a really fun person to get along with. That, and she's really understanding. I'm glad she accepts me, even after seeing me go crazy and almost kill her son.
    "Yeah, they're great!" I told her with a smile of my own. "Much more comfortable than my old ones. Everything's different here; I like it."
    "Can I ask you to come with me?" She asked, pausing in her steps. I stopped, and looked at her. She gestured down another hallway.
    Knowing full well I couln't decline - I could if I wanted, but I was curious - I nodded, and followed her down the new hallway.
    "We keep all the portraits of the past rulers of this Realm in the hallway you now walk down." She said in a voice I couldn't quite place - respectful, maybe. "We take great pride in these rulers, for they have led us down the ages, in their gentle rulings. My mother before me was the final Crossed One, and she showed me how to identify your kind.
    "Though someday I will have to leave my place, and leave it to someone who can lead this Realm down a safe, enlightened and beautiful road. Pierrot has long since agree'd to take Armaya's place once he turns seventeen, the age of adulthood. And... I would be honored if you would take mine once my turn has passed."
    I stared at her, blinking, shocked into stunned silence. She turned around and looked at me.
    She kneeled down in front of me, putting her hands on my shoulders and looking at me in the eyes. I tried to look away, but her gaze isn't that easy to ignore.
    "Wouldn't I have to... um... marry your son?" I asked, my cheeks a little red. I swallowed, my throat dry.
    "In your own time, yes." She said. "What I mean is that I give you my blessing, should you choose to go down that path. Since you are his Soulmate, there is no one else he could be happy with. Do you accept my request?"
    "For taking your place?" I tried to look away again, and failed.
    "Yes."
    I sighed.
    "I will never be able to be as kind of a ruler as you are, Mistress." I said in a soft voice. "But I will try. I accept your request."
    "Thank you." She smiled. "There is one last thing I wish to show you." She stood up, and motioned for me to follow her down a smaller hallway.
    I did so, following her down this unfamiliar hallway, with windows lining the stone walls every few feet. The black and red sky looked a little more ominous to me, but I figured it was nothing. The light coming in from the windows shone a little dimmer today.
    The Queen came to a door at the end of the hallway, lit with light, as if the sun was right behind it. She turned the handle and motioned for me to go first.
    Wondering, I thanked her and stepped through into a courtyard.
    It was quite something. The trees were from many different places, lining up along a line of Moon flowers, going around a stone-floored clearing with a beautiful fountain spitting clear blue water into its tub below. Around that sat about fifty people, with a few people sitting in front of them, in their direction. It was almost like a mini-stage.
    "What is this?" I asked her. She smiled, and motioned for me to sit down. I did as she asked her with a confused look on my face.
    "Welcome, one and all." Queen Azuralia started, speaking to the group of fifty people. "Today there are three events worth celebrating, but two of them you know about. I have called you here for an Initiation, and a celebration. The Crossed Ones have been reborn anew, it is a great event.
    "The Crossed One who brings about Death, The Angel of Death, on this day she turns sixteen, Kaida Keiko." Azuralia turned and looked at me, a smile on her face. I stared in shock.
    "Isn't the right age seventeen?" I asked her. She smiled.
    "In this Realm, we celebrate the age of Initiation at sixteen." She told me, and I stood up, walking to stand beside her.
    "I don't know my powers..." I said softly.
    "Let it come to you."
    I closed my eyes, keeping my head bent to try and keep the embarassement I'll get to a minimum, and I took a few dep breaths.
    I heard a pen drop, like if someone was startled, so I opened my eyes and looked up.
    A swirling wall of green - not necesarily wind, but it did have that feel to it - swirling around me, giving off an aroma of the ocean and of a tropical rainforest, my two favorite odors. I smiled, putting my hands through it, trying to touch what I could smell. When my hands went through it, it expanded away from me, doing a fifty yard radius and sinking into the ground. The smells the flowers and the trees gave off intensified, and even the water looked purer. I saw everyone in the courtyard visibly relax when the wall hit them.
    When it was all gone, I looked around.
    "Sorry." I whispered to Azuralia. She smiled a warm smile, gesturing that I sit down.
    "An amazing gift to have, Kaida. It is nothing to be sorry about." She told me. I felt a little better at that. "And now, the Crossed One who brings about Calamity, the Angel of Misfortune, Pierrot Yami, on the day he turns sixteen."
    Pierrot - who had been sitting beside me all along, but I was too distracted to notice - stood up and walked to where I had been standing a moment ago.
    He closed his eyes, sighing and whispering something under his breath. The sky rumbled, like there was lightning, but we just couldn't see it. Black lightning fell down, and he caught it in his hand.
    I stared, shocked. He opened his eyes, and started making a line of black lightning go from one hand to the other in a straight arc. It really was something to see.
    It left after about a minute, evaporating and leaving behind the smell of ozone. No one said a word.
    "And with this, I conclude this Initiation. Thank you all for coming, and witnessing the rebirth of the Cross Clan."

    "Why didn't you tell me your mother wanted to have me Initiated?" I asked Pierrot, who was busy scaling up a sort of maple tree.
    "Because that would have spoiled the surprise, now would it?" He said with a grin. "She talked to you about leaving her position to you, right?"
    "How'd you know?" I crossed my arms and looked at him. He sat on the top branch, and motioned for me to climb up.
    "Come, I want to show you something." I sighed and started climbing the tree. "Because it's the foremost thing on your mind, and when you turned into a wolf, the Link was completed."
    "Oh." I felt like an idiot. Grumbling, I hoisted myself up onto the branch he was perched on.
    "Look over there." He pointed westward. I followed his intructions and looked.
    "Sweet mother of crap." I gasped, leaning forward.
    The sea stretched out towards the horizon, followed by a beautiful blazing red and orange ball of fire. It was halfway set beyond the horizon. Every cloud that was always in the sky was white for once, revealing the blue sky colored pink, orange, purple, blue and yellow. It looked so magical to me.
    "Sunset is the only time we can see the blue sky and white clouds. It's the only time we can see the sun. Other than that, we can only see it during a Solar and Lunar Eclipse, and a meteor shower." He explained.
    "Beautiful..." I said softly.
    "Yeah." He said in harmony. When I looked at him, I was certain he didn't mean the sky.
    "So mother gave you her blessing, did she?" He asked, trying to hide a smile. I stared at him.
    "Oh, um... yeah, I guess." I turned back to look at the sunset.
    "That's good."
    I nodded, staring at the breath-taking sunset.
    He sighed. I looked at him.
    "Here." He put something in my hand, and jumped down to the floor. "It's yours. I think you'll find out what it means."
    His face was red, so it made me wonder.
    "Mother and Father want you to know that we'll be eating dinner in an hour!" He called back over his shoulder, not looking at me. "I'll come get you then."
    I looked at my hand, opening it to look at what I held.
    A shining golden red band winked back in the light of the sunset, with about five beautiful blue and white gems inbedded into it. I stared at it, wondering.
    Then I remembered the conversation just before he left.
    I blinked twice, feeling my face grow majorly red.
    "Mother would kill me if she knew." I muttered. I slid it onto my finger, smiled, and stared at the sunset.

    But maybe the most... enjoyable experience of the day was the dinner. It was the first time I ate there, and it really was something.
    At first it was a bit awkward, so no one really spoke. All you could hear was the sound of forks as we ate our mashed potatoes, chicken and carrots. The meal itself, however, was amazing.
    "What do you want to do, now that you're fully Initiated?" Queen Azuralia asked me. I looked up from my plate at her.
    "I think... I want to see more of this Realm. It truly is beautiful." I told her with a smile.
    "That sounds perfect." She smiled in return, and all was silent again.
    I sighed.
    "I'm sorry, I'm not used to eating with others." I said with a wince. "I never did eat meals with my parents."
    "Oh, so that's why you're boring?" King Armaya said with a grin. My face flushed bright red.
    "Don't worry, you get used to his 'jokes'." Pierrot said with a grin, not looking up from his plate. I figured I wouldn't be done with them, if he said that.
    "Well, if I may, I'm not the only one who hasn't said a word." I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. His cheeks flushed.
    "Touche." He grinned. He looked a lot like his father when he did that.
    "He usually talks more, but he's probably just shy this time." Azuralia said with a smile. "That's why we just say that if he doesn't talk, we'll show his baby pictures to someone."
    I saw his eyes fly wide, his entire face red, which made me grin.
    "Can I see them?" I pleaded.
    "No way." Pierrot said before his mother could respond. "Too embarassing."
    "Was he cute?" I asked her, ignoring his response. It probably was a bad idea.
    "Don't ignore me." He said, grinning, and poked me in the ribs.
    "Works every time." I heard his mother whisper to his father, while we were acting like three year olds having a poking war.
    "I surrender!" I pleaded. "You win."
    "So..." King Armaya gave his plate to a maid passing by, who bowed and left with it. "Did you give it to her?"
    Both of us stopped dead in our tracks, and the awkward moment came back.
    "I did." He said. I was suddenly very interested in my carrots.
    "And...?" He prompted. I winced internally.
    I was sure my face was beet red from my hairline to my collarbone.
    "I don't know what she did with it." He said honestly. He didn't look at me.
    "What did you do with it?" Pierrot asked me, not looking at me. I sighed.
    I placed my left hand on the table for the first time that night, eating my carrots in silence.
    I felt a wave of relief somewhere, but I didn't look up to see.
    "It used to belong to me." Queen Azuralia said with a smile. I looked up at her. "I figured it would look great on you, and I knew it would be the perfect one for you to use. But I was wrong on one thing."
    "What is it?" I asked.
    "It's not that it looks good on you, it's that you make it look amazing."
    "Um, thank you, Mistress." I said, looking back down to my plate. "To be honest, mother will kill me when she finds out, but I'm more than positive that she won't stop me."
    I smiled to myself.
    "Because she can't take away my freedom, like she's been trying all my life. I'm going to choose what I want, and this is what I want." My face felt like it was on fire, but my smile was genuine, for the first time in a long time.
    "That's exactly what this Realm offers that the Light Realm doesn't; Freedom." Queen Azuralia said. "Just be sure this is what you want."
    "This is what I want, Mistress, if you'll let me."
    "Of course."
    "Thank you." I heard someone say under their breath. I looked to my left, but Pierrot looked too into his dinner to have said that.

    I sat on the railing of the balcony, letting the cool night air run through my hair. I smiled, closing my eyes and just focusing on the wind.
    "I'm sorry." I heard him say behind me. "I probably should have-"
    "You say sorry alot, don't you?" I said with a smile, not looking over my shoulder at him. I heard Pierrot sit on the balcony chair not far from me.
    "Yeah, but you didn't have any warning, and I don't want you to think you're being forced. We can-"
    "Stop regretting the past." I chided. "You'll never move forward if you stray in the past."
    "I-I know." He sighed. "I just, I don't know... I'm wondering if you'll let me finish a sentence."
    He laughed to himself, and I opened my eyes, turning around to look at him.
    "How is that funny?" I asked, looking at him in mock annoyance. He looked at me from the corner of his eyes.
    "It just is." He said, grinning at me. I jumped down to the balcony floor, and stood in front of him, my arms crossed and my foot tapping.
    I bent down and took his chin between my thumb and index finger, looking at the arises of his blue eyes. He raised an eyebrow, and, seeing that I saw no red in his eyes, I smiled, contented, and sat down in front of him on the lawn-chair-ish chair he sat on. I kept my back to him as I crossed my legs Indian style, and then turned around to look at him.
    "Did I mention you look better with long hair?" He said, still looking at me with an eyebrow raised. I understood his un-asked question.
    "I was checking to see if you were still thirsty." I explained. He frowned.
    "You don't believe me?" He asked.
    "Just making sure."
    "And it's odd, but you don't seem to get thirsty." He eyed me sceptically.
    I looked towards the sky, avoiding his glance.
    "I always am, but I've learned to control it. It doesn't bother me as much as you might think."
    "It must get annoying."
    "That's normal. There's always something in this world that's annyoing."
    "Tell you what," He said, sitting forward and smiling. "I'll show you a secret place in the forest tomorrow. You'll love it."
    "Okay."

    Unknown P.O.V.
    It's time the princess face her match.