Oh my god. I am so sorry this has taken so long… I've been in such a slump. If anyone's still there, I beg your forgiveness.
There's plot development and waff, and, well… that's pretty much this chapter. Something exciting happens!
Taken
Chapter 10 (Kaguya's Perspective)
We both fell silent when we heard the doorknob turn. Had Kura overheard our plans to run away? We'd never get by his forces if they knew. He'd lock us up somewhere and we'd be stuck here forever, helping him achieve his twisted political schemes…
When the door opened fully though, instead of a slithering, triumphant Kura, there was a demure, quiet lady. Well, a quiet woman anyway. I'm not sure she was the embodiment of the term 'lady,' since she was a little on the underdressed side… ok, very close to being naked. I couldn't really call that demure. She did, however, carry herself like nobility. The gauzy, slitted legs of her attire flowed around her as she walked, and she held her bejeweled head high as if to look down on us all like a monarch. She was beautiful in a very mature, sophisticated kind of way, and I guess she was older than most of the similarly dressed women around the castle.
"Kaori!" Bambi-chan breathed, clearly as surprised as I was confused. I guessed Bambi-chan would know a lot of people in the castle, but why was this woman there right then? Would it make a difference if she had heard us?
"I heard you plotting to escape my master, ladies," the scantily clad woman began, not beating around the bush. "You realize it is my duty to warn him."
"Surely you can't have any affection for that… that scum! He makes you call him master, for Kami's sake!" Neither Bambi-chan nor Kaori would know what Kami were, but I guessed their chips would translate it into something they could understand. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And he probably makes you wear those slutty clothes, too, I thought. That would explain why she seemed so proud in spite of them. I could bet she was one of his "wives."
"Duty is not the same as affection," she answered. No, I suppose it wasn't, but could a person really be said to have a duty to the one that's enslaved them!
"Maybe you could come with us," I ventured, betting on her wanting to escape Kura. What kind of person would want to stay with him?
"I do not want to live in exile," she answered, and I could feel both my and Bambi-chan's faces fall. "It would have to be a complete coup, taking him out of power. If you plan to escape like two cowards, leaving everything else as it was, I will thwart you." She swept regally, intimidatingly out, leaving no doubt that she could do as she'd said. We looked at each other and said nothing, both seemingly so shocked by what the lady had said so calmly that we were speechless. A complete coup? We hadn't bargained for a battle with all of Kura's forces… but how else could we escape this place? I wanted to hide and never think about any of it ever again.
"She's right," Bambi asserted after a pregnant pause. "I can't leave these women… you haven't seen how they live, Kaguya-chan." Although my mind had been dizzily spinning with the thought of this… revolution we'd been commissioned to execute, everything stopped with that sentence. Bambi-chan noticed I was struck, and stared at me a little nervously, maybe about to apologize for whatever she thought she'd said to offend me, or maybe just wondering why I seemed so surprised.
"You… you just called me Kaguya-chan," I giggled.
"Yes, I did…" she answered apprehensively, seeming sort of embarrassed. "Was that wrong? Since you call me that, I thought…"
"No, Bambi-chan, it wasn't wrong at all. I like it," I smiled leaning in toward her with a little glimmer of hope. All those things she'd said… working for Kura just to find me, asking me to "stay" with her… I desperately wanted them to mean what I thought they meant…
A host of butterflies awakened in every part of me when I saw that they did. My eyes closed instinctively as her face came toward mine, and when we connected, I thought I would explode if emotion were a physical substance, because I was full to the brim with it in every inch of my being. It was over too quickly, and my eyes were still closed when she pulled away. I opened them to find her searching for something in my face; apparently she was, once again, unsure if she'd made the right move. Confident that I would not be rejected, I took it upon myself to show her exactly what my response was.
After that, Kaori-san made it a point to give the two of us meaningful looks each time we passed in the corridors of the castle. She was holding us to our bargain, the looks said. If we escaped alone, leaving Kura and all his concubines in their present state, we would pay. She couldn't really do anything about it if we just chose to stay here and be tools for Kura's political regime, but that was not an option for us. The only way was to perpetrate this "coup" Kaori-san had spoken of, but we really had no idea how to proceed with it. Neither of us had ever been a revolutionary before. We talked about it a few times, but never got anywhere. After the "what do we do about this coup thing" sentence, neither of us had an answer, so the conversation got stowed away in the backs of our minds again until Kaori's glares and our own scattered glimpses of the goings on in the palace had guilted us into bringing it up again. Finally, one time it was different.
"We ought to ask her," Bambi suggested after I'd forlornly acknowledged that I had no idea how to help the hundreds of women in Kura's household and the millions more people under his thumb elsewhere.
"Kaori-san?" I asked, a little surprised I hadn't thought of it before. "I guess, since it was her idea…"
We made our way nervously to her quarters, ready to lay it on the line that if she wanted this to happen, she had to help. Bambi led the way, although I was becoming more familiar with the castle now that I'd been there a bit longer. She still knew the palace better than I did, and seemed to know Kaori better. Butterflies came out of hibernation once more, although for a completely different kind of reason. When we reached the end of the too-short journey, Bambi-chan knocked on the door without hesitation. It threw me a little, since I had no idea how to start the conversation or where to begin, but when Kaori-san opened the door and invited us in, there was no turning back.
"Hello ladies, what can I do for you?" Kaori-san opened rather distantly.
"We have come to speak to you about this… revolution you asked us to begin. We don't know how to begin it." Bambi-chan was getting to the point awfully easily… It would have taken me ten more minutes to get around to the real subject if I were by myself.
"I was starting to think you'd given up," Kaori-san said, sitting down, smiling mischievously for a second, and assuming a less formal tone and posture. Bambi-chan followed her to a sitting position immediately and naturally, but I followed suit a little more awkwardly, still uncomfortable in the room of this almost total stranger. "I know this building better than anyone else, even Kura. When the time comes, I know how anything can be smuggled anywhere in the palace, and who can be found where when you need them."
"That's good to know," I chimed in, trying to be at least a little involved in the conversation.
"Princess, how do you feel about lying?" She addressed me for the first time specifically.
"Why?" I edged away a little, skeptical now of her plans.
"It would be highly advantageous if you could exploit the influence you have over the people who really believe you to be this… Girl of Ananai."
"What makes you so sure I'm not?" I was a little indignant that she could dismiss the possibility so easily, but deeper down, insecure about how she could have seen through me. I really didn't know if I was, but then, if it was true, I had a certain duty to some people, didn't I? Inside, though, I had to admit I didn't feel any special power, and I did sort of feel like I was lying, when I talked about the whole choosing thing…
"If you believe you are, then so much the better, since you won't be lying," she answered tactfully. I started to reply with another question, but she silenced me by gesturing with an open hand saying "Now is not the time to discuss that." She paused a moment, and then finished, "I have an engagement now, so if you'll excuse me, I have to go." She waited for us to leave, conspicuously not even beginning to get ready in our presence for whatever her appointment was. When we turned a corner and could no longer see her door, she had not left the room yet.
"Did that help?" I asked Bambi-chan, still pretty lost on what we would do. I hadn't even thought about whether anyone was around to hear us talk about it, and regretted my thoughtlessness when I saw Bambi-chan glance quickly and unobtrusively around the hallway we were traveling and at the passing doors.
"I still don't exactly have a plan, but the information will be useful, and she gave us the idea to use your… status, if you're comfortable with it." Responding to my half guilty and half just plain scared look, she placed a reassuring hand around my shoulders and continued firmly, "I won't let her force you, though."
I snuggled my face into her, which didn't take much movement since we were already so close, remembering once again that she was still my protector. From the day I met her, she had been protecting me first from the psycho Telenians that attacked me and sent me running for her house, then later from the armies that came after us both, from Kura before Seeu had come for me and doubtless after she'd brought me back as well, and finally from Kaori-san's overwhelming demand. Bambi-chan was my best friend, and had taken care of me better and in more ways than any other friend had. Seeu had tried, but couldn't really give me what I needed except physical safety. Not for the first time, I was glad I'd been taken away from my world. Maybe Seeu had known what he was doing after all.
"Bambi-chan," I began, "You're so good to me." I felt soft warmth both from her body and inside me, from how something was growing between us. She squeezed my shoulders with the arm that was still there.
"You deserve it," she replied simply. There had been so many of these moments lately, when I seemed to be filled with something, some kind of feeling I was really getting to love. I reached up hesitantly to kiss the side of her face, just under her earlobe. I blushed a little, feeling my heartbeat quicken with the small action that was still somewhat of an adventure for me. It wasn't as if I'd kissed someone's ear before, back on E- um, the third world. She smiled, pausing in her steps to entwine her slender, white fingers into my hair, bend down and kiss the spot under my jaw. Everything slowed down for me, and I stopped feeling nervous about my boldness As she placed a chaste, comforting kiss on my mouth. I embraced her waist, hugging her to me as we walked back toward our respective rooms. When our paths parted, reluctant to go separately, we lingered a minute, but it was getting late, and we were both ready for bed. We settled for the kiss and a heartfelt goodnight.
I left her in a euphoric state, calm and happy with the world. In spite of being prisoners of an evil emperor bent on the domination of not just his own world, but all of them, I was really, really happy. I floated into my room, in that perfect, tired but comfortable state in which warm and fuzzy things carry you off to your dreams so fast you don't even remember falling asleep.