//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12, Part 2: Special Guest Chapter 
// Story: My Harshwhinnial 
// by horizon 
//------------------------------//

Author's Note:  Okay, I'm sorry … this is a LOT harder than it looks … but I'm figuring it out piece by piece from Luther's instructions on this chapter's plot.  His earlier chapters are NOWHERE on his hard drive … I wish I could read them.  Is he publishing them straight to the Internet?  

This is clearly some modern-day setting with heavy fantasy elements.  Royalty and villains with magic … AK47s and helicopters … action and romance … all this in a sports story!  Luther's sure nothing if not ambitious!  No wonder his story's gotten such a wide following.  I'm feeling really self-conscious!  I hope he can fix the things I get wrong later.

Chapter 12, Part 2: In Which A Cruel Sacrifice Is Made

I was shaken from my brooding by the ringing of my cell phone.  "Hey, Medal," Raricorn said.  "Time to go."

"What do you mean?"

"The helicopter's here."

I hurried outside to where the medevac copter had landed on the central field of the Stadium of the Heavens, and jumped inside after her.  The mysterious attack that had disrupted the competition and nearly killed the attending royal family had vanished as quickly as it had arrived, leaving only chaos and bodies.  It was too late for Twilicorn, but the young princes — stricken by powerful petrography — had not yet fully turned to stone, and prompt attention from the Magic Kingdom's healers could still save them.

A strong hand clapped down on my shoulder.  "HAH HAH!  MY BOY!"  King Celestio, the boisterous heir of the sun, was looming larger than life, as always.  Like his heavenly counterpart, he only had one setting: bright and overpowering.  I bowed and he gestured me back up.  "THE MAGIC KINGDOM OWES YOU ITS ALL.  I SHALL MAKE CERTAIN … WHY, WHAT IS WRONG?"  

I didn't say anything.  I didn't need to.

Corn Luna stirred on his gurney, sitting up with an effort, his skin grey and cracking from the foul curse.  "Medal is incomplete," he whispered, as quiet and enigmatic as the moon he ruled.

(Oh.  OH!  Hang on — now I understand the "corn" thing!  Oh Luther … that's brilliant.  How mature and romantic of you!  I'm so proud.)

Cadunce nodded from the gurney next to the coeur Prince Luna, his hand grasped tightly around his lover's, inseparable even despite the pain of his advancing petrification.  "Just as I would be if I lost you, my dearest," Cadunce said.  Once my fellow athlete, he had been the first to marry one of the otherworldly denizens of the Magic Kingdom — finding his soulmate in the love sorceror.  I recalled their lavish wedding, when Cadunce had been crowned and given the honorary title of the Prince of Love.  The immaculate perfection of that day had brought tears to my eyes.

"Is that why this hurts so much?" I asked.  "The bond between us that powered Twili-coeur's magic, ripped away?"

"The heart-magic of our kingdom bonds deeply and permanently," Luna whispered, stroking Cadunce's hair and giving him a lingering kiss on the lips, hungrily returned.  "When she left, she took some of your soul with her."

"And there is some of her with you yet," Celestio thundered in my ear, in what counted as him for a whisper.  "Do you still love her, Medal?"

"Of course.  Always.  With all my heart."

He smiled enigmatically.  "In due time, we shall see."

"What do you mean?" I queried, but he was already striding forward into the helicopter cockpit.  "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

Cadunce looked as confused as I felt.  The others in the medical bay — Luna, and his apprentice Rari-coeur — avoided my eyes.

I shoved my way into the cockpit — already crowded with Celestio and the pilot.  "Explain yourself, old man!"

"HO HO!  THERE WILL BE A TIME FOR THAT, BOY!" he thundered.  "FOR NOW, LET US FOCUS ON THE MYSTERY AT HAND.  IT WAS MAGIC WHICH LAID LOW THE PRINCES."

I stopped, surprised.  It had been!  The human terrorist groups that sought to drive the Magic Kingdom back from our world weren't capable of such a thing, and nobody had thought there was similar unrest in the other world.  "Do you know who did it?"

Celestio held up a video tape.  "WE WILL."

I gasped.  "You took the security footage from the stadium cameras!" 

He stared at the tape contemplatively.  "I SHALL WATCH THIS, OVER AND OVER, GLEANING ALL I CAN FROM IT.  I EXPECT ITS REVELATIONS TO BE MOST INTERESTING."

I nodded.  "Let me know what I can do.  I want them brought to justice — AAAH!"

That last bit was me yelping and hitting a wall as the pilot gave a strangled cry and slammed the controls hard to one side.  A bright blur rocketed past the copter, leaving a thin contrail that vanished quickly in the blades' wash.  The point of light whizzed past us into the distance and blossomed into a large puff of smoke, with a thump that rattled the cockpit windows.

"What was that!?" I yelled.

"EVASIVE ACTION!" Celestio said.  The pilot, sweat trickling down his face, cranked up the engine and started shifting the craft around in erratic circles.  Back in the medical bay, I heard three bodies crash and tumble around.

I ran back into the bay, leapt past the tangle of bodies and fallen supplies, and looked out the rear window.  An attack helicopter was on our tail.

I gasped in shock.  "Blakemel!" 

"General Blakemel?" Cadunce said, bracing himself against a wall.  "The terrorist leader?"  He cursed.  "Of all the rotten times."

"We can't even fight back!  This is just a civilian copter.  And all I've got is my AK-47 … no use at this range."  I swore.

"We do have one weapon.  Heart magic."

I turned around.  Rari-coeur was standing up, a grim smile on her face.

"Don't be daft!" I yelled.  "Twili-coeur's dead, Prince Luna's in no shape to cast spells, and as for you … Hah!  Do you even have a heart-bond?"

"I did.  Once."  She strode over to me and took my hands.  Her stare penetrated me to the core.  I felt small and naked in that intense gaze.  "He died, Medal.  He died, and my heart ripped in two, just like yours did today.  Then I found out … the heart-bond still persists, in the realms beyond death.  I heard stories of lovers following the coeur-bond into those realms … tracking the departed ones … finding them, and bringing them back."  Her eyes closed, and a tear slid out.  "I tried.  I wasn't strong enough.  I gave up.  For years, I've lived as though dead myself … it wasn't until I met you that I felt myself dare to hope I could care again."

"Rarie …" I said helplessly.

Another missile streaked by.  The copter rocked, slamming us into the wall.  She landed in my arms.

"I know you've never loved me, Medal, and you never could," she whispered, "but please … just kiss me.  Let's pretend, just for a moment.  Light the fire of my passion long enough for one single spell …" she swallowed, tears freely flowing.  "And then forget about me, and promise me you'll find her."

I looked out the window at the approaching copter.  I swallowed.  "Rarie," I whispered back, "I promise."

Our lips met.  I felt like I should be expecting a chill — to match the icy and imperious personality she'd always shown me — but she was warm and soft, smelling of jasmine and honeydew, her lips wet and salty from her tears.  I closed my eyes, pouring into her all my love and loss, desperately pretending it was my beloved Twili-coeur, feeling my heart twitch and jump for just an instant.

It was enough.

All my hair stood on end.  My eyes shot open.  Rari-coeur's body was glowing with a soft pink light.  Electricity hummed and crackled around her, sending the medical machinery into spasms of frantic beeping.

She smiled, and caressed my face with a glowing hand, setting my cheek to tingling.  Then her light flared, painfully bright, and vanished.  Out the back window, I saw a glowing body rocket back toward the attack helicopter, leaving no contrail.

"NO!" I screamed.

Blakemel's helicopter exploded.  I sank to my knees numbly, watching fine debris rain down from the new void in the sky, leaving only empty air.