Chapter 3

Valency walked down the middle of the bowed crowd.  I could hear the gossiping murmurs all around me.  He climbed onto a raised dais in the middle of the hall.  He offered a hand to help me up, which I took gratefully.  The dais was several inches taller than me, and I was not going to try to scale that without help.

Valency held out his hand, and silence engulfed the room.  "The adored child has come!"

Shock consumed the room as I felt eyes wander all over me.

"Protect her!"  Valency continued.  "She will bring us our glory!  We must keep her unharmed in our embrace!  She is our hope!  Our key!  Our goddess!"

I gaped at him.  This was all very nice, but I am no goddess.  There was a sudden rush of introductions, and I didn't get a chance to speak with Valency.  He put me under the jurisdiction of a kindly woman who reminded me of Love's grandmother.  She spoke so quickly and quietly that I couldn't catch a word.  She led me to a room so beautiful that it must have come from a princess book.  The lady left instantaneously.

I plopped on to the giant bed and realized how exhausted I was.  I was out cold in seconds.

I know that it doesn't really seem logical for an imaginary to feel exhaustion.  We do feel though.  We have the basic emotions of any human being.  We have the basic physical feelings as well.  We feel exhaustion.  We feel hunger, to a point.  We feel pain.  We feel comfort.  We feel pleasure.  We feel thirst.  It is because we are fashioned by children and most often in the form of a human or humanoid shape.  We have exactly the same feelings that our children were capable of.  

It's a little bit odd too that while we may feel hunger, thirst, pain, and exhaustion, that these things will never cause us to die.  Imaginaries don't die.  I wonder what does happen to Imaginaries, if we are just destined to wander forever.  I'd rather not think about that.

I woke to the gentle shaking of the lady.  She said something and held out bath towels.  I slipped to the floor, and she led me to a closed door.  She pushed the towels into my arms, turned the ornate doorknob, and pushed me into the dark room.  This time, there was a light source.  Aways into the room, I could see a flickering candle, but that was all.  I couldn't even see what it was sitting on.  The lady pushed past me and blew out the candle, shedding light on the bathroom.  Against one wall, an old fashioned tub was tapping its foot.  The toilet in the corner gurgled and spit magnificently into the bowing sink.  On one wall, a mirror hung sobbing about how ugly it was.

The lady started the water in the tub, then left.

An imaginary emerged from the shadows, and curtsied.  This girl was a servant, clearly, but she acted as though she knew there was better.  I could tell by her posture.  Her face was hidden by a simple silver mask.  The only thing I could see was her chocolate hazel eyes.  I could see hardly any skin or hair.  She wore a conservative dress in emerald green that covered her from chin to ankles.  I smiled at the mismatched tennis shoes that peeked from under her dress.  Her hands were under shimmery white gloves, and her hair was hidden beneath a shimmery scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders.  

She looked confusedly at me.  "I know you."

I raised an eyebrow.  "Well, I'm not familiar with maids who hide out in my bathroom."

She looked down, ashamed, then curtsied.  "Call me Mercy, Miss.  I have no other known name.  May I help you bathe?"

I nodded, and she was immediately behind me, unbuttoning my old fashioned black frock.  Neither of us said a word.  

After I was clean, she helped me out of the tub, which was then doing a jig, not spilling a single drop of water.  Mercy wrapped me in a towel and led me back to the room to a wardrobe.  She shuffled through the dresses once or twice to take a better look at something.  She finally pulled a blue dress out and started to dress me.  

"Prince Valency certainly has his eye on you, Miss."

"Oh, why's that?"

"He's been searching for you a long time, the girl from the legend.  He's starstruck."

I nodded.  I didn't know what to say.  I looked around and panicked.  "Where's the key?"

Mercy looked up from the buttons.  "What key?"

I dashed back to the bathroom and searched every inch of the room.  The key was nowhere to be found.  "Where is the key?"  I growled to the toilet.  I looked back into the bedroom where Mercy had disappeared.  "Blast."  I curled into the fetal position, panicking.  I had failed the little nameless boy.  At the thought, tears dripped down my cheeks.  I couldn't have failed that little boy.  It didn't seem possible.  

Valency opened the door and came to where I was crying against the doorframe to the bathroom. He knelt beside me to comfort me.  "Dear, what is wrong?  Aren't you happy here?"

"I lost the key,"I sobbed.

"Oh, I'm sorry."  He put his arms around me and drew me onto his lap.  "Shhh, it'll be all right, Sweetheart."

"No, it won't.  I'll never complete the quest."  I could hardly understand myself through my tears.

"Quiet, Love, you'll be fine."

I looked up at him suddenly.  "Love's my girl."

An expression of fearful shock flashed across his face before it was camouflaged behind a face full of consolation.  "I was calling you love, dear.  You are so beautiful."

I gaped at him.  This wasn't making sense.

Valency stroked my hair."Get some sleep and calm down.  I'll check on you later."

He left, and I cried my confused self to sleep.

I dreamed.

I was in Love's room, and she was in bed, writing.  Her dirty blonde hair which was usually kept in a ponytail was now curling into waves around her face.  She was ready for bed in her tank-top and shorts.  She couldn't see me or sense me as she usually did.  She only continued to write.  I watched her.  I had missed her.  

There was a movement in the shadows of her room, and Valency strode to her.

"Love, my princess,"he said.

"Valency?  What are you doing back here?"  Love asked.

"I couldn't stand being away from you.  My only consolidation is in Aemy."

"Aemy?  My imaginary friend?"

Valency smiled.  "Yes, she is so much like you.  Although, I would really much prefer you."  He kissed her tenderly.  A dragon roared in my chest.  This man was lying to me and my girl.  That no good two faced lying prince!  As he leaned over Love and pulled her closer, a key fell from his partially unbuttoned shirt and dangled from the emerald ribbon on his neck.  I knew it was the key, the little boy's key.  

I charged at him and fell right through him.  I was a dream.

As soon as I awoke, I stormed through the castle to find Valency.  

"Princess Aemy!" a servant called after me.  He dashed up to me, and I spun on my heel to face him.  He was a timid young boy with mossy green hair and leaf patterns all over his skin.  

"Where is Valency?"I roared at him.  I probably should have been calmer since I didn't really know that what I had dreamed had really happened.  It was just a dream.  I couldn't imagine allowing him to lie and use and hurt Love.  I couldn't just stand by and have him do as he pleased.  That key he had stolen was important, and I knew it must be even more important than I had thought before if Valency was willing to steal it.  Then again, I didn't really know that he had stolen it.  It was a dream after all.  Dreams are the stuff of the imagination, though.  It wouldn't surprise me if dreams were prophetic to Imaginaries.

"He's gone away," the servant boy stuttered.  I clearly frightened him.

"Where?"I growled.

"Reality."

Reviews

[Demi Rose]

this has perfect tone and pitch. u have such a great way with words.