5.2, Reverie

I hate this tagging thing. I can't use it. :< There is one Touhou Project reference in the beginning. Can you find it????

Ctlomoc softly pushed open the doors to the cathedral and entered the welcoming darkness, whilst I followed. Inside, the shafts of light from the morning sun were blessed with colours by the stained glass windows, each window depicting strange scenery and objects. There was a path in the middle of a field to a sun on the horizon; a girl in a blue skirt picking her way through an emerald forest; a sky filled with robed and winged figures; a dull and violently coloured rose; a sea of clouds frothing with lightning; a white cross upon a background diagonally divided into red and black halves...
  A morbid curiosity indeed.
  At our sides were obsidian pews with feet that made them look as though they had grown from the stone floor of the cathedral. The pews themselves were carved in perfect curves, having dark, stone leaves with tapering edges that looked like they could cut flesh.
  "Those that sat on these pews must have been truly devoted to their faith," I thought. I waded through the incredible cathedral, caught in its splendour and nostalgia, while Ctlomoc strode through the main aisle ahead of me.
  "You know, Ctlomoc, we should visit this place more often," I suggested absentmindedly.
  "You're the one that decides these kinds of things, not me. Silly master doesn't even recognize himself as a master!" replied Ctlomoc in a saccharine tone. Then, she mumbled, "Silly master doesn't even recognize himself as the master, so why should I?..."
  "Sorry, what? I can't hear you over the cathedral's architecture." I got the feeling that my familiar was rolling her eyes when I glanced at her back.
  We stopped in front of a brief set of low stairs leading up to a stout pedestal more than two arm lengths across upon which a large mirror stood, its frame also carved from obsidian. The mirror's surface rippled like water, but spontaneously, and it did not seem to reflect any light. Somewhat perversely, the mirror's surface seemed to be completely black, but tiny hair-like strands of violet occasionally pulsed and glowed across the flowing surface, like luminous veins.
  I shook my head fondly at the sight of the mirror. "Hoho, the memories that this mirror brings back, eh Ctlomoc?"
  "Memories of a time when I was called Alice by acquaintances, and not Ctlomoc by some half-baked boy," she replied smoothly.
  I fanned myself as I retorted in an insulted manner. "Half-baked? My dear Ctlomoc, I can assure you that I am fully baked, and also very delicious. I invite you to have a taste of me!"
  "W-What? What are saying!" she cried, clearly (figuratively) ruffled. I decided she still wasn't ruffled enough though, so I abused my height advantage and ruffled (literally) her hair. I tried to do so endearingly.
  I complimented her. "Oh you, Ctlomoc, you're such a fighter."
  Silence but for the sound of rustling hair. Ctlomoc was staring at her feet. Huzzah.
  "W-Why did you stop?" said a delicate voice - oh, right, my familiar.
  Wait.
  It was then that I realized that I had turned around in order to savour the moment.
  When I pivoted to face Ctlomoc, the sight that met me almost caused me to spin up into the ceiling of the cathedral, through the roof, into the sky, past the ozone layer, and then escape Earth's orbit. It also made me want to break my own nose. The sight was, simply, the physical embodiment of "adorable". Instead of exploding, I immediately knelt and embraced Ctlomoc, clamping on to her tightly. I checked to make sure I didn't have a nosebleed or any streaming tears whilst I held her to close to my heart. Surprisingly, she wasn't struggling.
  I hastily released her after a few seconds. Or, rather, that's what I tried to do. Strangely, Ctlomoc still clung to me, and very tightly at that.
  I noticed that she was trembling. "C-... Ctlomoc?" I asked hesitantly.
  I got a muffled noise in response.
  "P-Pardon?" I asked of myself, "Did I go too far?" The thought set my emotions running.
  Another muffled cry - Ctlomoc then seemed to latch on even tighter, if that were possible. Though I was tall, I was not particularly strapping; Ctlomoc's grip was beginning to cross into the realm of "painful."
  I managed to choke out, "Alice, I can't breathe - help!" Immediately, my familiar's grip broke. I caught my breath, and when I looked down, I saw something inconceivable, preposterous, unimaginable, impossible...!
  That is, the tear-stricken face of my familiar.
  The breath I had caught then caught something in me, and an unfamiliar pain welled in my throat. My skin felt as though it was being perforated by a thousand burning needles, and suddenly, I was palsied, frozen, stopped..
  My familiar, tremulous, terrified, was possessed by trepidation. And... I... I could not think. The only thing that was present in my mind was the very fact that it was my fault. But, then, my familiar's... Ctlomoc's... Alice's! words vindicated me.
  Sobbing wholeheartedly now, Alice cried, "Don't let go of me!" and she restored her arms around my stunned, selfish self, a selfish self that managed to break, somehow, the soul in front of me, the selfish self that thought to poke "harmless" fun at the one hugging me now, the selfish self that sought to amuse itself but agitate another in doing so.
  She cried vigorously into my sweater, sheltered underneath my open coat. She repeated the mantra, "Don't let go!", faster and faster and louder and louder and faster and louder and faster and louder... With each passing moment, faster and louder and louder and faster, but I was stunned, but I couldn't help it, but I could, but with each passing moment, but I was stunned, but I couldn't help it, but I could, but I couldn't, but! And! Since! I could help it.
  Slowly, ever so slowly, sluggishly, yet softly, surely, reassuringly, my arms enveloped that which cried so sincerely, that which poured its heart, into me. She then stopped her mantra, and what breath was saved fueled Alice's crying further.
  I whispered to her, "I won't let go." The one-liner of my life, I suppose, or maybe another's; I wouldn't know.