Eternal Sleep [On Hold but Not Forgotten]

All the World's a Stage

Ever since we had devised our plan to fool Lilith, Phillip and I had been putting on quite the show. It had taken quite a bit of getting used to, but he would dote on me in public, in the courts and the gardens and I would pretend to act aloof to his advances. This was easier than it seemed, given that he couldn't actually touch me unless he was in Traumwanderung form, and he made a point of never sleeping so that he could pretend to show a tension that wasn't there between us.

Today was the fourth day that we had carried on like this. Phillip was as steadfast and loyal as ever, despite my guise of distaste for his presence in everything that we did. Lilith's raven had taken a pleased notice of Phillip's feigned despair and my fake mistrust of him. I hoped that she was buying the show we were putting on.

I was walking down the stairs when my father met me in the corridor that led to the gardens outside the castle. His role in this little play of ours was to pretend to tell me that it was necessary for me to marry Phillip—to go along with the version of himself that my mother had fooled me into envisioning should I have chosen to resist pricking my finger in the first place.

"My dear, how are you and Phillip faring?"

"We're... faring, to put it simply," I said, feigning a shaded distaste for discussing Phillip altogether.

"Come now, my darling daughter. I want to enlarge my kingdom by means of peace! Would you rather a war break out just to save your petty hand from marrying a man far more than worthy of your status? You've been locked away for so long and he could help you—set you free! He's paying quite a hefty price just to be with you in the first place! Do you want the Kingdom of Archon to fall because of your insolence? Your selfishness?"

His blonde, wispy mustache trembled under the weight of words that he never meant, no less had the strength to try and emulate. This was harder on him than anyone else.

"Aren't you satisfied with Lyrla as it is?"

"Ah, but that was days ago! An easy prize! Taking Layun would be that much easier if you would just agree to marry their prince!"

I faked a cold shoulder and waltzed away with him, holding my tattered, opaque skirts about me like a particularly miffed, shrill ghost. A bratty teen was the person I wanted Lilith to see; I wanted her to see a father who was bent on nothing but his own gain and a hopeless prince who couldn't find his true love. With any luck, our displays of falseness would be as successful as Lilith's had been to fool me. I clenched my fist and made sure to utter obscenities concerning my mother under my breath. They were just loud enough for the raven on the sill beside me to hear as I carried myself out into the gardens. I needed some fresh air.

Phillip met me there and I swallowed. This was the difficult part for me. Turning him down time and time again in such a heartless fashion was not of my true nature in the slightest. Despite this all being fake, it tore me in half to talk to him like this, but I knew I had to if Lilith was going to take the bait. His blue eyes sparkled with the recognition that everything I was about to say was a joke. He had the most subtle, but helpful facial cues to keep me calm and remind me that all was well beneath the façade of chaos that we were carrying on and about with. I hoped that this would end soon. I wanted my body back. I wanted to get married to my prince and live in the castle with my father as a normal princess would. I wanted to know how a kingdom worked—I wanted to learn all of the inner workings of Layun and Archon and Lyrla and all of the surrounding provinces that were to become a part of Archon's greater expanse.

Granted, I did have questions as to why we even felt the need to expand in the first place. Were the crops faring well? Was there a need for more revenue? Did we lack certain resources that the other kingdoms had? And how was it that trade didn't occur as a fair basis for obtaining the things we needed in favor of ransacking other kingdoms and creating hostility instead? Perhaps I was just misreading things... this only heightened my curiosity. But now was not the time to question things of this fickle sort. Now was the time to act.

"Phillip..." I addressed him coldly.

He grinned, letting sadness flutter against the edges of his lips as he was greeted with such an aloof, insulting tone. But he persevered and allowed the pain with which he was taking this all to settle in the air for everyone nearby to hear. A few startled peasants who had come to admire the flowers chattered nervously as they watched the tension build between us. I wished that I could let them know what we were really doing. But they could easily have been Lilith's spies as they could have been innocent residents of the kingdom. We couldn't take our chances by adhering to all the niceties I was so heavily dedicated to. I was a polite person, not some flimsy teenager. I may have been the regular village "flirt", but that was because my cordiality drew people in—not my flimsiness or cruelty. I had prided myself on this since the beginning.

"Aurora, my dear, has your father spoken to you today about our marriage plans? I was thinking that we should choose purple—"

"There shall be no purple anything! No decorations, no flowers, no dresses and no dances! I'm not marrying you Phillip!"

The urge to wince under the pangs of my own horrible interruptive insults was overpowering, but I successfully resisted the urge. I'm sure it was much easier for Phillip to recoil in hurt than it was for me to be something that I wasn't.

"It's okay, darling, I know."

"I want to scream. This is awful. What kind of idea was this on my part? Was I an idiot, or?"

"No, you were brilliant. If you and I are buying our own insults like this, then you know that she has to be buying them, too."

In the evenings, we had been retreating to the inner walls of the castle to help me strengthen my power and to find ways to be crafty about our communications with each other. We had learned to speak via telepathy and that had certainly helped things. Granted, it had only been four days and we had only been able to do this since yesterday, but it at least kept me from bursting into tears at the sound of my own, horrid voice.

"Phillip, I'm... I'm sorry to sound so harsh, but you mustn't get your hopes up for something that will never happen. I appreciate you helping me in my time of need, but it really isn't enough to get me to love you. I'll be happy to be your friend and acquaintance and to help you find your beloved, but... I'm just not that person for you. I'm incredibly sorry to say it..."

He lowered his head in shame and sauntered away from the fountain we now stood by at the center of the garden. I swallowed a lump of painful guilt and settled for walking off into the wall of shrubberies and flowers about the garden edges to try and find myself a bit of comfort in the loving smells of the roses and peonies instead of the wracking discomfort of being the opposite of myself on display for the public.

But, would it be enough? Could Lilith really buy what we were trying to sell her in this game of back and forth where we couldn't even see how she might respond?

"I hope to be freed from the tower soon," I said wistfully to the flowers I now cradled in my hands like fragile birds.

"You can be," she called.

I twirled about on my heel to find myself staring into the deepest, silvery pools of terror I thought I'd never see again, let alone so soon. The face of the daemon I'd once trusted—the person who I thought could save me. Boy, had I been wrong. I opened my mouth to scream, but her finger lighted over my lips and a leering grin spread across her face.

"Now, now," Lilith crooned. "Let's not cause a scene. Come, take a walk with me."