Friday

The next day dawned all too soon. Moonglade cracked open one eye and shut it immediately. The sunlight coming in through the window lanced at her corneas and made her head hurt. Along with that, her backside and other parts of her body also began to ache, a testament to how hard her mother had hit her last night, and likely from the poison in her bloodstream. The inside of her mouth felt dry and sticky, and the sheets suddenly felt a little too warm.

“Owww…” Moonglade scrunched up her face and threw her blanket off her body. She didn’t sleep so well all night, seeing as she couldn’t lie down facing up. If she wanted to change sides, she had to careful flip around so that her butt wouldn’t touch her bed. It was indeed a chore and all that effort had gotten her almost no sleep.

Her whole body was feeling increasingly warm, which wasn’t normal unless a changeling was sick, which she likely was now and when Moonglade shifted her head, things started spinning around her, forcing her to remain still and wait for it to fade.

“Warm…” She pulled up at her blue sleeveless top, leaving it just below her breasts to try to reduce the warmth, but it only helped so much. “Mother and her punishments…”

Moonglade lay there miserably for about ten more minutes, trying to figure out what to do when one of the maids brought her breakfast. It was a tray with a bowl of murky soup, along with two pieces of toast. The young changeling thanked her and tried to sit up, but when she pushed up, it hurt her backside, forcing her back down on the bed, groaning.

“Come on…” Moonglade shook away her dizziness and inched her way to the side of the bed.

When she was close enough, she first pushed one leg off, then used it to get up into a standing position, though she kept one hand on her bed so she wouldn’t fall down from everything spinning around her.

Kneeling down beside her bedside table, keeping her backside off the floor, Moonglade ate slowly, feeling a little better now that she had some food in her system, but the pain and the dizziness didn’t go away. If this was only her morning, she dreaded to know what the rest of the day would feel like.

Moonglade just wanted to lie down now and cry out all her frustrations and pain, but that would only make her mother happier if she found out. She also couldn’t think of Home Run, because she was trying to distance herself from loving him. She didn’t want to get another beating like that from her mother again, even if it meant not being able to love her boyfriend.

I’m sorry, Home Run.

Scooting carefully back on her bed, Moonglade grunted in pain as she tried to get comfortable.

She lay there for an indeterminable amount of time, simply breathing and wishing for an icepack to put on her rump.

She must have fallen asleep, because when she finally jerked awake, the sun was already past its zenith. There was a damp cloth placed on her forehead, which was slowly dripping water into her hair. The tray that had held her breakfast was gone.

“It’s still so warm…” Moonglade put her hand against the cloth, which was cool to touch, meaning it likely hadn’t been there long. Her skin had started to sweat, which was really abnormal unless she was exceeding her own limits without expanding any love energy. If she had to guess, the fever had likely already set in, meaning it would only get worse from here.

Moonglade lay there some more, debating whether it was worth it to stand up and take a shower or whether she just wanted to lie here and stew. Eventually, she pushed herself upright, wincing as the movement made her backside flare up with pain.

Once she was steadily upright, the aching princess tottered over to the bathroom and peeled off her damp clothes. She glanced at herself in the mirror, turning around to examine her injuries. Thick, dark stripes in the shape of her mother’s blade crisscrossed her cheeks, and while her aunt’s cream had helped lessen the swelling and the bruising, it still showed through the dye. Come to think of it, the poison had probably eaten away at the dye itself, if it was showing this clearly.

Moonglade sighed and stepped into the shower cubicle, turning on the water. It was cold, but she wasn’t in the mood for a hot shower. A cold one would be much more effective at cooling her down, if only temporarily. Halfway through, she almost lost her balance and fell, but she managed to steady herself against the wall as she waited for everything to stop spinning around her.

When she felt she had spent enough time under the shower water, Moonglade exited her cubicle and carefully toweled herself down before slipping into a pair of white underwear and her simple white t-shirt with her insignia on it. She didn’t bother with shorts, seeing as it was hot enough already.

Swiftly retreating back to her bed as things began to rotate around her, Moonglade fell against her soft mattress and stayed there for a while, too dazed to move herself.

“This stinks…” she groaned, scooting herself up her bed to her pillow very slowly. It hurt her bottom to lift her legs too high, so she simply opted to squirm over there like a worm.

Even though she had only just showered, sweat already began to drip from her face as her temperature began to rise, her fever not even at its highest point yet. She wanted to turn up the air conditioning, but that would mean getting up again, and Moonglade didn’t think she could handle a walk all the way across the room to get the remote control.

“Your mother isn’t angry of how you interact with Home Run, you know?” Mishter Schniffs suddenly said from beyond Moonglade’s pillow.

“She’s not?” The young changeling shifted herself higher, looking at her two plushies by the end of her bed, resting against the wall.

“Of course not, silly,” Stargaze Sunshine, her new unicorn, giggled. “She’s upset at how you just want to live a normal life and fall in love and all that. The things you said when you thought she couldn’t hear you. Gosh, you need to pick your words better next time.”

“But that’s how I really feel. I love Home Run. I know I’m not supposed to, but… I do.”

“Unless you want another beating like yesterday, I suggest you change that,” Schniffs snorted. “I’d hate to see you like this again.”

“Ugh, what’s with all these ultimatums…” Moonglade scooted one more inch and finally planted her face in her pillow with a sigh.

Her head just hurt too much to think now. Perhaps after more rest…

“I will absolutely not give her the cure.” Ebony Wings put her bag down on her floor and walked over to her closet, where she tossed a black coat beside. “If she continues to ignore my teachings like that, then she deserves all the pain she’s in right now. You heard everything she said when she was on her own. We didn’t give her that microphone clip just so we could forget all of it. No, she deserves this.”

“Show more leniency, Ebony, this is your daughter we’re talking about. Your daughter.” Ivory Wings walked up beside her. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

“As I recall,” Ebony sniffed, poking her head into the walk-in closet. “You’ve told her time and time again to watch it around this boy. She didn’t listen. To either of us. So, where the carrot fails, we must employ the stick.”

“The stick didn’t need to be your poison blade!” Ivory insisted. “It could’ve been a… a stick! Have you even gone to check on her?”

“I disagree. With a normal stick, she could just heal the stripes in a few minutes. To ensure the message stays with her, the punishment can’t just be something she can shrug off. Hence the kris. You see? I am a genius of discipline and thinking ahead.”

“Oh, yes, you sure are, Ebony.” Ivory folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at her sister. “We don’t even know what the poison would do to her! She’s not like us! What if it kills her? Huh? What then?”

“Of course it won’t kill her,” Ebony insisted. “It didn’t kill her when she was a baby and it won’t kill her now.”

“Yes, well- wait, what?!” Ivory spluttered. She grabbed her sister by the shirt and pulled her closer. “What did you do to your own daughter?!”

“First of all, let go of my shirt. I just had it ironed. Second, do you think this is the first time Chrysidea has been exposed to my sword’s poison? Of course not. So I know it won’t kill her.”

Ivory didn’t let go just yet. “You didn’t answer my question, sister. What did you do to her?”

Ebony sighed. “Look, when she was a few months old, I ran a few tests on my daughter to see how she’d be affected by… various things. As it turned out, poisons and toxins will make her sick, but won’t kill her. She’s strong enough to take it; there’s no real danger to her life here. So will you let go of my shirt, or am I going to have to pull rank?”

Ivory Wings grunted and let go, adjusting her glasses. “This doesn’t change the fact that your daughter is going through such pain right now. Her fever’s at forty-four degrees right now and it’s still only the first day. Give her the cure, sister.”

“How about… no?”

“You don’t have to be so cruel. And come on. Just give it to her. I have other things I need to get to work on, you know? The picnic is already this Monday.”

“Like I said, she’s not getting it.” Ebony picked out her white shirt and green skirt from her closet. “Or maybe… You’ve been so busy of late. Too busy for me. Perhaps I would think about getting little Dea the cure if… if you agree to sleep with me tonight?”

Ivory Wings sighed and rubbed at her forehead. “No, Chryssie. I think your daughter would rather suffer through this illness than for us to get so intimate again.”

Ebony slammed her closet doors shut and marched to her bathroom door. “Then suffer through it she will.”

“Ebony-” Ivory tried to follow her in, but the door was slammed in her face.

“She will not be getting a cure and nothing will change my mind, got it?” Ebony Wings said from inside. “You have better things to do, Ivory. Go do them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Ivory sighed. Her sister was right, of course. She had a persona to put together, a lunch to assemble, and a speech to rehearse, all before Monday. Moonglade would have to do this one on her own.

Saturday

When she woke up the next day, Moonglade had found the pain in her butt had gone down a little, but everything was so stiff. She could barely get out of bed to have breakfast, which a maid had brought for her. It was like someone had glued her joints together. The fever still raged in her body, making sweat drip down her nose and into her mushroom soup, but she didn’t have enough fight in her to bother about it. She just wanted all this to be over and done with.

Her situation was just so unbearable that it brought tears to her eyes. She had fought back against crying all of yesterday, not wanting to give her mother the satisfaction of knowing that she was suffering so, but she couldn’t hold it back anymore; the feelings were just too much for her.

Canvas Splash had sent her a picture on her Silver Rose phone of herself holding up a bucket of baguettes over from Prance, and it did cheer her up a little, but overall, it didn’t help much. She also had a few messages from Home Run, but just thinking about him made her feel queasy. She could hear the muffled voices of the sirens talking outside her room, so, feeling like an arthritic old man, Moonglade tottered over to her bedroom door (slowly), and eased it open. There was nobody directly outside so Moonglade peered down the hallway, where the second floor living room was.

The three of them were seated on the various couches, with Adagio controlling the reins of the archer from the Finest Fantasy game.

“I told you, you missed a collectible back there,” Aria said annoyedly. “I saw it. Clear as day.”

“And I told you, I’m not going back to get it.” Adagio pressed on, her character riding atop one some kind of giant chicken. Moonglade hadn’t gotten far enough in the game to see them yet. “Such a waste of time. Do they even do anything? Why do we have to collect them?”

“I think getting them unlocks some extra lore in the bestiary,” Ivory Wings’ voice came from around the corner. There was a rustle of fabric.

“Why do we even need extra lore?” Adagio complained. “Why do you want me to get extra lore, Aria? You’re the one that doesn’t care about everything.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Because if you don’t grab the extra lore, we might miss out on some information about enemy weaknesses. And it’ll count towards a hundred percent completion.”

Just then, Ivory Wings came around the corner, wrapped in an elaborate blue dress. It looked like something out of a period movie, with a long train and lace all over.

“What do you think of this one?”

“I like it,” Sonata Dusk said, lying by the coffee table, kicking her legs back and forth. “The color’s nice.”

“Looks like you’re gonna trip at some point, Ivory,” Aria answered boredly. “Too long.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right… besides, blue isn’t really my color. Perhaps the purple one… or the pink one.” Ivory Wings looked down the hallway at Moonglade’s head, which was sticking out of her doorway. “What are you doing out of bed, sweetie?” Ivory walked over to Moonglade and patted her on the head. “You should be resting.”

“Had to eat.” Moonglade rubbed her belly. “Hungry. But then I heard your voices so I wanted to see what was going on.” She lifted a hand slowly and pointed at the sirens after a long time.

“So this is how a half-changeling reacts to the poison’s second day, hmm?” Ivory wrapped an arm around her niece’s head. “You know, victims are normally paralyzed on the second day, but it seems it only makes it harder for you to move.”

“Yeah. Takes a lot of effort.” Moonglade tried to nod. “What’s with the dressing up, Aunt Ivory?”

“I’m putting together my persona for Monday,” Ivory explained, patting her blue dress. “I want to look elegant, but not too imposing. I suppose blue is too regal of a color. I’ll try the pink dress. Why don’t you go back to bed, sweetie?”

“Oh, okay, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade ducked her head back in and dragged herself over to her bed.

Falling once more onto her springy mattress, Moonglade crawled up to her pillow, careful not to hurt her backside.

“I don’t even know why I got up…” Moonglade depressed her face into her pillow, facing her butt up so it wouldn’t touch anything. She breathed in deeply, then fell into more unconsciousness.

Sunday

If anyone had told her that she had already felt the worse of the poison in the last two days, Moonglade would’ve agreed. Until today.

Today, she awoke suddenly, drenched in sweat, almost unable to breathe through the heat. She was still feeling drowsy. Extremely drowsy, in fact, but no matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t able to go back to sleep. And then there was the pain. Pain coursed through her entire body, like tendrils grasping around her insides. It hurt so much.

She knew the third day of the poison resulted in unconsciousness before eventual death, but it seems her half-changeling status was fighting that off, though, unconsciousness did sound a lot more forgiving than what she was currently going through.

A maid came in with today’s breakfast, but Moonglade was much too miserable to even get up to eat. She just wanted it to be all over now.

“Enddddd. Please just endddddddddd…” she groaned, kicking her blanket off her body. She felt like she was suffocating from the heat now. “Motheeerrrr, I’m sorry, please… Just end this…”

Moonglade didn’t know how much more she could take. It was like the poison was destroying her from within, just that it wasn’t able to do it completely. Right now, she was just wishing it would either go away or destroy her completely. This half-state was extremely unbearable.

“P-Please…” she began to sob. “I can’t… Aunty Ivory… help…”

And then, miraculously, the door to Moonglade’s room swung open, revealing Ivory Wings, wearing a flour-stained apron over her normal clothes.

“Sweetie? What’s wrong?”

Moonglade’s aunt entered, taking note of the sickly smell that permeated the room. Ivory went over to the balcony and pushed the doors open, letting in a cooling breeze.

Moonglade flipped around in her bed to face her, winced from the pain all over her body. Her nose was filling up with snot and she could barely see through all her tears. “I can’t do this, Aunt Ivory… Help… Please… It hurts. It hurts so much. I just… need it to end.”

Ivory Wings walked back to the bedroom door and peered out, looking both ways along the corridor. Seemingly satisfied with something, she crept over to Moonglade’s bed and stroked her sweat-dampened hair back.

“It’ll be okay, sweetie. It’ll be okay.”

Then her hand moved to her niece’s neck, her fingers finding the nerve cluster at the base of her skull and pinching hard. Unconsciousness was immediate.

“Ahem.”

Ivory Wings turned her head to see Ebony Wings looking into the room, a look of sour dissatisfaction on her shapely face.

“Yes, sister?” Ivory asked innocently.

“And what might you be doing here?” Ebony walked in, dressed in her white shirt and blue jeans, with a handbag slung on a shoulder.

“Just checking in on your daughter,” Ivory said, edging away from the bed. “I assume you’re here for the same reason?”

“No. I don’t care if she’s suffering today. She still deserves it all. She has to learn.” Ebony looked down at both of them. “I’m here because I sensed you here. I figured you might be trying to help her ease her pain, which I will not permit.”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Ivory said, wearing a look of cherubic guiltlessness. “She’s just sleeping.”

“Sleeping, huh?” The acclaimed actress crept closer, sniffing at the air. “Whatever. I have to get back to the set. What’s with the apron?”

“I’m preparing the food for tomorrow’s picnic,” Ivory said patiently, as if explaining something to a very small child. “It has to be ready so I can just set off Monday afternoon. It’s very important, as I’m sure you know.”

“Yes, yes. I know. So get back to it. Let my daughter suffer in peace. She’s only got today left. Let it run its course. I’m sure she’ll be thinking twice the next time she decides to let her emotions of that boy control her.”

Ivory sighed but said nothing. She wiped her hands on her apron and breezed out of the room, heading back to the kitchens. Ebony watched her go, snorted, then shut the door before making her way to the driveway, where her car was waiting.