My Harshwhinnial

by horizon

Chapter 12, Part 3: Special Guest Chapter

Author's Note: Luther's coming home from his field trip tonight! It was rough for a while, but I think I've done pretty well following his instructions on this chapter's plot, even though I never was able to find any of his previous chapters. Please tell me how close I came to interpreting his deep and vivid world! He should be able to pass messages along to me once he posts this.

Now you can get back to his masterful (if badly spelled … haha) writing. I'm sorry you've had to put up with the horrible quality of my guest contributions!

Love and kisses, Mandy

Chapter 12, Part 3: In Which True Love Demands A Regrettable Decision

It had been a month since Rari-coeur's noble sacrifice. The princes had healed. Without Blakemel's leadership, the anti-magic terrorist organization had fallen apart. However, we were no closer to tracking down the mysterious villain behind the magical attack — even though King Celestio had spent long days with the video tape, and shared it with every analyst in the Magic Kingdom. I had watched it myself several times.

What really weighed on my mind was Twili-coeur.

I kept replaying the murder in my mind. The thin blade of the shim penetrating her chest as the gloved hand thrust forward. Her vital fluids spreading in a crimson pool. Her grip weakening, her eyes closing, as I cried out in fear and pain. She was gone, gone, and it haunted my every moment. The empty void where I expected her to be was a constant companion.

Yet no-one would help me track her down.

"Medal," coeur Luna had whispered, the first day I had asked him for help. "None can save her but you. The realms beyond death are grand and terrifying, alike for no two mages, and any who sought to help you would find themselves as lost as Twili-coeur is now."

"Then at least teach me the ways of heart magic, Luna," I pleaded. "I don't know how to follow that link."

"That's a skill only your heart-bond can teach," he whispered sadly.

Refusing to believe him, I tracked down every coeur I could find, travelling the length and breadth of the ethereal expanses of the Magic Kingdom by helicopter (a gift from Celestio). Each one I met said the same. Finally, I discovered the one living coeur who had completed the journey to save his lover. He said that the feat had taxed his mystical skills to their utmost. "What chance do you, with no magic at all, have?" he said. "Forget about it, Medal. Forget about her."

The next day, I was in my room contemplating the business end of my AK-47 — a pursuit which had become sadly all too familiar for me — when Prince Cadunce knocked at my door. I let him in. He closed the door and glanced out the window to make certain we weren't being observed. "Medal," he whispered, "I've heard of something you could do for Twili-coeur. But I'm not sure you should."

"What?!" My world spun. I fell to my knees. "Cadunce! Please! I'll do anything for her!"

"I know," he said grimly, "and that's the problem. Without knowing heart magic, your quest is futile. You'd never be able to locate her even if you could journey to the realms beyond death. But … I overheard Luna talking to his dad. 'Please,' Luna whispered, 'as a friend I have to tell him.' 'NO,' Celestio replied, 'AS HIS FRIENDS WE CANNOT LET HIM.'"

"Why would they hide something from me which could help me get her back?!"

"It's bad stuff," Cadunce said grimly. "There's a young sorceress who used to be a coeur. She is so feared, none dare speak her name. She wields great power, perhaps even greater than Celestio, but at a cost. Her heart magic is corrupted and deadly. Years ago they banished her to the far reaches of the kingdom."

"I have to talk to her," I said. "I have to. Please, Cadunce. Tell me her name."

He shifted uncomfortably, then leaned in and whispered into my ear: "Tripleheart."

* * *

Days later, I was standing at the doorstep of a crude hut deep within a dark and overgrown forest. Twisted, leering masks hung from trees and walls — presumably to frighten off superstitious locals — along with gourds and jars of what looked like alchemical ingredients. A cloying musk permeated the air, sweet and rich and dark.

I knocked. There was no answer. I tried the door — unlocked — and slipped inside, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. The interior of the hut was laid out as a single large room, a boudoir arranged around a central bed. The musk was even stronger, here. I felt lightheaded. Time hiccuped, lurched. I felt lightheaded. The musk was even stronger, here. I tried the door — locked — and looked around, fear rising.

"Tripleheart?" I called. "Hello?"

"Do you know why they call me that?" a voice slid through my mind. I couldn't tell if I was hearing it or not.

I spun around. When I did, the hut spun with me, and kept spinning. I staggered back toward the bed, disoriented. Shadows and shapes leapt at me, whirling and dancing, laughing soundlessly. Colors bled into my vision, brushing past my lips, caressing my arms.

I tripped and fell — expecting to hit the ground roughly, but instead landing on something soft, dark, and yielding. My vision focused long enough to identify the pillows and blankets of the bed.

"In my twenty-one years I have taken three heart-bonds," the voice said, around me, within me. "I have savored them, like fine wine. Then I have devoured them."

Adrenaline flooded through my veins. This was a bad idea. I crawled blindly toward the blobs of floating color that might have been the door.

A hand on my shoulder stopped me. Spun me around —

Beauty

Flawless, peerless, incomparable, incomprehensible

Beauty

She was the consummate ideal of a woman, every line, every curve, every motion, radiating perfection. I felt my body reacting involuntarily, heat rising within me. Some inner part of me was screaming: This is wrong. Don't think of her like that. She isn't Twili-coeur.

"Medal," she whispered, the voice liquid silk, "will you be my fourth?"

YES, my body screamed.

"No!" I shouted. Twili-coeur. I'm here for Twilie.

"I know you are," she said, caressing my face with the back of a hand. I struggled for breath, as if desire had wrapped thick claws around my throat and was strangling the life out of me. "What I would take from you must be freely given. Here is my offer. I shall journey with you to the realms beyond death, and show you where to find Twili-coeur. If you can rescue her … if … then I shall bring you both back. This, I vow upon my heart, upon my magic, upon all that I am. In exchange, all that I ask is your heart-bond. You will love me as deeply as ever you loved her. If you fail in the realms beyond death … come back to me. We shall have each other … for the remainder of your life."

My blood turned to ice at those words, but then she moved against me, and I couldn't help but think that that fate couldn't be so bad.

"I just want Twili-coeur," I said. It was a lie. I wanted Tripleheart. I had to have her. Part of me wanted to vomit at that, and part of me was screaming to take her.

She leaned down past my face — when had she gotten atop me? When had she removed her clothes? — and bit my ear, lightly. The touch sent a shiver coursing like an electrical shock through my body. "Listen to both of those voices, Medal," she whispered. "I can give them both what they want. You will not find Twili-coeur without me … and is it truly so unpleasant that I want you?"

"No," I said honestly, feeling soiled.

She smiled predatorially. The darkness around us felt a shade icier. "Will you consummate our deal, Medal," she said, "or will you depart?" She gestured to the open door, far to one side, so far away. A genuine chance at escape. My final chance.

I took a deep breath, reached for her skin, and leapt off the precipice.

I plunged into her, like a swimmer into an alpine lake, diving smoothly into the clean and still waters, sinking into the depths as the light faded from the rapidly receding surface; feeling the water compress around me, tighten my lungs. Struggling for breath, thrashing helplessly, flailing and grasping and clinging, I started to drown, my whole body wet, wet and warm, with sweat and with … her, sinking into impossible depths, the pressure around me growing, gravity pulling me farther and farther in, hundreds of feet, thousands, past the liminal zone and into the deep darkness where the water above dispels the sunlight, with not so much as the glowing nose-bulb of a predator fish to keep me company, into infinite and perfect darkness; nothing in the universe but me and Tripleheart; until I sank deeper than any man should ever go, and with one final gasp, my body imploded, and I felt all that was me leave my form and jet into the darkness —

I swam back to consciousness with my true love Tripleheart sleeping atop me, in a grey and drab hotel room, the noises of the city in my ears — strange noises, hollow and echoing, like the ghosts of men departed.

I sat up, being careful not to dislodge her, and looked around. It was the hotel room I'd stayed in when our team first visited Nightmoor City for the games, a lifetime ago, a world away. The hotel room in which I'd first met … what was her name?

It took me long seconds to remember. It didn't seem important, but I picked at it anyway, like gristle stuck between teeth.

Twili-coeur?

I'd loved her, once. I remembered loving her, long ago and far away. Loving her enough to … to … what had I been thinking? The evil sorceress in my arms, who wanted to suck the love out of me and drain me dry, was all I ever needed, all I ever could need. She had given me so much — conquered death itself for me — and for what? A silly errand for some woman I couldn't feel a thing for.

Tripleheart stared up at me, grinning slyly. She nuzzled into my chest, and my heart leapt. Then she sat up, pulling away, and I ached only for her touch again.

"We're in the realms beyond death, Medal. There's someone out there who you wanted to see," she said.

"I don't care," I said, lost in Tripleheart's eyes.

She laughed, sweet and throaty. "I know. But a promise is a promise. Go say goodbye to her, Medal. I'll be waiting."

I sat up, my heart sinking at the thought that I had to leave my true love even for a moment, determined to finish the errand and return as quickly as possible. "Fine. Where is she?"

She strode to the window and threw open the curtains. The dark city beyond was illuminated only by lampposts and store windows, flickering like a thousand thousand distant fireflies. Far away, out on the waterfront, was a radiant building. Even from this distance, it seemed to thrum — pulsing out the heartbeat feeding life through the black streets.

"The discotheque," we said simultaneously.

Tripleheart grinned, and gave me an exaggerated bow. "Welcome to Nightmare City, Medal. Enjoy your stay."

Comments

[Skywriter]

I hope this guest author stays forever! She makes great plot decisions and is in all ways superior to previous, more inferior authors!

[horizon]

2317137
aRRRRHGHGRHGHAGH U TEAK THAT BACK sKIRIDER… mADNY IS WURST NERD!

u TEAK THAT BACK OR i KILL U!!! tHAN i BAN&& U FROM MY FIC!!! tHAN i KILL U IN PLACE i BAND U 2

[Fuzzyfurvert]

i'"am goto sleep now.

yur sis is a terrible riter; herriting puts me to slep.

[yamgoth]

Luther, your sister's writing is made of fail and AIDs.

Please, let her write more ^_~

[Super Trampoline]

Jeez, I might need to break down and read some of your clop.

[PresentPerfect]

oKAY BUT THERES MORE SPEELING AND GROMMAR ERRORS