I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched
- Edgar Allan Poe
The Rink of Time
June 2
After all the discussion and Kaito convinced Delarune that having the younglins search would be faster and easier, Delarune agreed and just like that they all find themselves falling into the rink after holding onto Elijah.
"You have to be careful not to fall into any portal" Mr. Starling warns.
Since Kaito and Delarune had decided that more people meant better results. Well, Kaito and princess Lethia had convinced him, they had to be really careful and keep watch of the kids. The younglins asked what they would do about Seraphinius, they said Seraphinius would come too because they believed that the little sprite was capable given past circumstances when he saved Skai from dying. he would be helpful there since Seraphinius can sense danger.
"We've got that" Skai murmurs. The groups were Kaito, Seraphinius, Elijah and Skai. Delarune, Dexter and Emily. Lastly: River, Princess Lethia and Suzumi. They were all instructed to that they would search in different directions of their designated regions, seeing as the whole point of their company was more eyes on ground.
Suzumi had been given a piece of belonging from everyone to reach each other or convey information in case their scroll touches didn't work.
"You two" Princess Lethia turns to face River and Suzumi "No fighting okay? I'll put up with it any other day but not today"
The two nod compliantly.
As they ventured deeper into the rink they began to split into three groups. Kaito's group had the middle, Delarune's group has the left and princess Lethia's group has the right.
"Stay close to me" Princess Lethia says, and both listen. "But spread out too, I'll take the middle, Suzuki you take left' River take right, remember all eyes on ground "
Suzumi couldn't see so River couldn't see how her joining the search would do them good, but Kaito had told him that they needed a way to communicate because the likelihood of their scroll touches working in the rink are very low.
River notices Suzumi wandering farther from them towards a portal, and he pulls her back on instinct. "Are you trying to get lost?" he asks her, and she takes her glasses off putting them back on.
"Are you two fighting again?" Princess Lethia stops in her tracks turning around to face them.
"No, we're not" River responds still holding onto Suzumi.
"Oh well keep your eyes on alert, remember we don't have time to waste." She reminds them, turning back around "Finding whoever is here is just the first step"
"Are you okay?" River asks Suzumi still looking around for anyone and she hums.
"What happened back there?" he asks seriously. "It's not like you to wander off like that"
"My sight is gone" She confesses "As soon as we got here, I couldn't see anything at all"
"Weren't you always blind?" he asks her, and she tries to nudge him but misses. That's how he knew she was really out of it.
"It's complicated, don't mind me, just focus in searching" She sighs. "This rink is messing with me"
"Hold on to me" he tells her, and she complies without complaint. "I'll take left and right "
He offers, "You can get in my head if you'd like" 'What's wrong with me. You don't just let an annoying little girl into your head.' He scolds himself internally but at that moment he really couldn't care less. He just wanted her to be okay.
"Really?" she asks confused and he nods.
She holds him tighter sniffing him.
They walk and walk and walk, avoiding portals, moving around clocks. Nothing.
"Over there" Suzumi says in River's head and he does a double take he sees a figure walking in the distance before he could say anything the figure was frozen in ice. He looks over at Suzumi seeing her hand leaned forward and her eyes still closed.
They scurry over to the person she froze.
"Suzumi you must reach the others now" Princess Lethia turns to face her and her eyes open.
River reaches for his dad's handkerchief in his pocket and places it in her hand.
"He says they have someone too and we should meet them at the big clock" Suzumi tells them after reaching Kaito. "Someone else??" Princess Lethia gasps. "There could be more"
"We don't know that for sure" River tells her giving Suzumi Delarune's Broach.
"Mr. Starling will meet us at the Clock too." Suzumi says "How do we take him?" She latches back onto River her eyes closing after sniffing him.
"I'll take care of it as long as you can keep him frozen" Princess Lethia tells Suzumi creating a gust of wind lifting the frozen sculpture up.
Meanwhile Dexter, Emily and Delarune went back to the clock after catching no one. Shortly after Kaito heads back with Skai, Elijah and Phinius. Elijah looking up at a pale woman in the air with Skai flying next to her, metal cuffs on the woman's wrists.
"You won't get away with this" The woman calls out to all of them.
"Sounds like something straight out of a movie" Dexter chuckles and Emily nudges him.
"Not the time" she walks around him moving closer to Elijah when a ball of fire gets thrown in their direction.
Seraphinius instantly transforms as if on instinct taking the fire in his mouth and returning it to where it came from. Dexter sprouts a huge vine out of his palm wrapping the culprit up before they could run away.
Princess Lethia, River and Suzumi arrive soon after.
"I thought there were two people?" River looks up at the person Elijah is holding up in the air wiggling. Emily has a fire ball floating above her hand and Skai is next to the sprite in the air her wings spread out.
"Well there weren't" Dexter groans seeming to struggle.
"Let's get out of here." Kaito hurries "The portal should work since we're at the rink" he takes a vial out, opening it he throws the dust in it in the air muttering the word to open the portal.
They end up in Delarune Starling's Nieve hideout.
"Grandma?" Suzumi mutters when Dexter releases the vine from the woman he caught.
River turns to face her being the only one that heard her. 'Grandma?'
"What did you do to the clock?" Mr. Starling asks the blonde lady that tried to attack Emily. No response. She just looks away ashamed. Emily sighs taking in the tunnel quickly. It is under Nieves, where Mr. Starling was staying before he came to visit them. It's no home, just a tunnel with lots of blankets.
"We're not getting any answers" Kaito groans impatiently. "Look lady, the world is ending, and you and your little crew are to blame"
An embodiment of River and Skai Ladiston in one body.
"And you're innocent yourself little Ladiston?" The older man speaks up. Kaito was taken aback by that.
He walks towards Delarune whispering something to him. They both share a series of whispers before Delarune goes on to meet the man that spoke.
"You are?" He asks him. No response. "Fine, don't talk" he pulls out a knife. "Do you value your life?" Delarune asks.
"679 years is long enough don't you think?" The man cracks a smile.
"You have 2 hours, or you can all forget about your lives" after that statement, Emily turns away from the conversation shivers running down her spine.
She looks over at Skai and Suzumi sat in a corner talking and walks over to join them.
"Are you okay?" Emily asks Suzumi noticing that she looks paler than usual.
"That's what I was just asking" Skai sighs holding Suzumi's hand squeezing it.
"I said I'm fine" Suzumi stares at the ground in response.
"Is it River?" Emily asks, "If it is you shouldn't take to heart, he can be like that sometimes."
"Yeah, he does pick fights a lot" Skai sighs "But that's because he says whatever he thinks, I do that too but in a nicer way" she shrugs in thought.
"River didn't do anything" Suzumi pauses "I just-" she hesitates "I think I need to talk to him" She stands up walking slowly to where the guys were sat with princess Lethia. River and Suzumi walk to the far end of the tunnel together.
"That's...weird" Skai comments and Emily nods "Agreed"
"Do you think they'll be able to get word out of them?" Skai asks and Emily sighs.
"I think they are threatening them" Emily glances at their 'prisoners' "What if they kill them?"
"You can't get answers out of a dead man" Skai looks over at them too "Or in this case, a dead sprite"
"Who's dead?" Elijah walks up to them, Dexter trailing right behind him.
"No one yet" Emily shrugs.
"The sprites we caught look sort of familiar" Dexter lays his head on Skai's legs. "I can't be the only one seeing it"
"Two Northerners and a southerner" Elijah points out "Not a surprise they seem familiar, a lot of sprites look similar"
"Yeah but-" Dexter cuts himself off "Never mind, you're probably right."
"The blondie is gorggggggg!" Skai gapes "I absolutely need her skincare routine" she runs her fingers through Dexter's hair.
"Of course that's what you're thinking" Dexter chuckles. "She kept looking over at Phinius though, it really creeped us out"
Emily looks over at the blonde lady and just as Dexter had said. She's staring intently at Seraphinius who is in princess Lethia's arms asleep.
River and Suzumi make their way back to the other four awkwardly. Suzumi's eyes puffy.
"Suzumi are you okay?"
"You good Suzumi?"
Elijah and Dexter ask simultaneously. She doesn't answer, instead she sits next to Elijah quietly and River sits next to her, a sad yet conflicted look on his face.
"So, are you guys gonna tell us what's up or?" Dexter asks sitting upright.
"She'll talk when she's ready" River assures them. "She just needs time" he looks down at her in concern.
"You don't need to speak for me" she tells River still looking at the ground.
"Then speak for yourself, princess" he sighs looking away from her.
Every single one of their friends escaped confused looks.
"I-I can't right now" Suzumi stutters.
"It seems we missed a couple of chapters" Dexter speaks for all of them.
"Are you guys like together?" Skai blurts out.
"No" River yells just as Suzumi goes "I'd rather jump off Zephyr"
"You'd be grateful to date someone like me" River scoffs and Suzumi looks at him at loss for words before responding in annoyance.
"You mean I'd attempt suicide before I date you" she rolls her eyes. "Hate to break it to you River but you're not my type, I'd mentally and physically pour out my insides if I had to be with you"
"You make me sound so bad" River scoffs.
"Oh, I don't even have to try" she shakes her head.
"You wound me, princess" he pats her head, and she swats his hand away.
"Call me that one more time and I will end you" she climbs onto him holding a knife to his neck, proceeding to whisper in his ear. "And I'll enjoy every minute of it"
"Okay okay" Skai rushes over as Elijah is taking the knife from Suzumi's hand. "Let's not get too crazy."
"River Ladiston" Suzumi taunts "You can't handle a little crazy?"
"Oh princess" he smiles wickedly at her before whispering in her ear so no one else would hear. "You can never be too crazy for me."
"You're both out of your mind" Skai pulls Suzumi off her brother and River's eyes light up.
.....
"I knew she hated River, but I didn't think she'd try to kill him" Skai complains to Dexter as it was just the two of them left sitting on the ground.
"You're overthinking" Dexter says laying back on her legs "If I didn't know any better, I'd say River liked it"
"Liked what?" River settles next to Skai.
"Getting on Suzumi's nerve" Dexter chuckles boyishly. "She carries around a pocketknife, are you not scared?"
"Are you scared?" River turns the question back looking forward, Skai follows his eyesight, and they land on Suzumi who is with Elijah and Emily. They went to talk to the adults about the food situation.
,
"No, Suzumi is alright, can't be scared of someone you want to care for, can you?" Dexter responds.
"You want to care for her?" Skai's eyes dart back to him in confusion, and he nods.
"Suzumi is practically screaming for help, but she's scared of being judged." He looks up at Skai then to River "You should go easy on her Riv."
"Too deep" River shivers "Come back to reality Dex, the girl is psychotic" he mutters the last part of what he said under his breath so the others couldn't hear him.
"You like psychotic, don't you? That's why you liked Maliyah" Dexter shrugs.
"I like unusual, Maliyah was unusual not psychotic. Suzumi is psycho and she knows it" River shakes his head "There is no level ground with her, one moment you think you've found it then it's gone" he sighs seeming upset by it.
"Well, I think you're both psycho" Skai nudges her brother.
"I agree with Skai" Dexter smiles.
"That's very rich coming from you two" River chuckles.
"Why do you keep looking at her?" Skai asks. "If you hated her, you'd feel indifferent towards her, wouldn't you?"
"It's like with you and Maliyah" he responds his eyes still following her every move "You didn't like her, but you wanted to know what was up with her" he shrugs.
"It's nothing like that Ladiston" Dexter chuckles lowly and Skai nods.
"I didn't care if Maliyah was going on a trip or staying in school, if anything it irritated me when she'd update us on her whereabouts but if Suzumi were to leave this tunnel, you'd follow her because she worries you."
His eyes break away from Suzumi and lock in his sister's "She worries me because she can easily get hurt, her vision is having problems, and she has a knack for trouble. She can't die on our watch" he shrugs.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night" Skai shakes her head "What were you guys talking about earlier?" Skai asks him and he seems to be fighting an inner battle on whether or not he should tell her.
"You'll find out soon." He smiles softly just as he does Dexter falls asleep, Skai notices.
"He didn't get any sleep last night" She plays with his hair gently.
"Why?" River asks her assuming she'd know.
"Long story, he's torn between going back to earth and staying with his family here" she answers "I'm torn too"
"Because you'll miss him?" River asks.
"No, because it hurts to see him suffering what I can't fix" Her lips turn downwards, and she turns to face her brother again. "It's like asking why you frown when Suzumi frowns" Skai hints and her brother looks at her confused.
"No" he shakes his head "not the same thing, I just want to see her happy and at peace, I don't care about being the cause of it like you and Dex's weird relationship. I'm fine with being able to keep her safe. It's called being a decent person bubblehead" he argues.
"Does that help you sleep at night?" she asks him
"Like a baby" he huffs breaking contact with her eyes. Skai looks back at Dexter lovingly, grateful she had come to her senses.
"I have something to tell you guys" Suzumi speaks up as she Emily and Elijah are in front of Skai, River and Dexter.
Skai didn't want to wake Dexter. He looked so peaceful. Well, she didn't have to because River was already shaking him awake.
"Sorry" Skai tells Dexter as his eyes opens and he groans sitting up rubbing his eyes.
"The southerners are my grandparents." Suzumi blurts out and they all look at her in confusion except River.
After it had sunk in, they decided that it was important the adults knew. So Elijah had gone to call the adults away from the 'prisoners'. Two of which are Suzumi's grandparents. Then she told Kaito, Delarune and princess Lethia the truth and now they are thinking up a plan.
Suzumi didn't understand what it had to do with anything, she told them that she wouldn't let her relations with them interfere with it.
"We need that interference" Kaito points out thoughtfully and Delarune turns to his friend "No"
"You can't just turn down my idea because you don't like it" Kaito shrugs. A lot of things didn't scare Suzumi, but Kaito did, especially since she'd failed him before. But she refused to show her fear. she could feel River's eyes boring through her again. She wanted to tell him to stop again but knowing him, she was sure he wouldn't he'd just stare more to make her uncomfortable.
"What's the idea" She asks confidently.
"You don't have to go through with this" Delarune tells her.
"We'll use you as bait" Kaito informs her warily.
"What kind of bait?" Emily asks confused.
"We'll threaten them with you." Kaito takes a knife to Suzumi's neck turning her around, so she is backing him.
"No." River tells his father firmly "Take the knife off of her you could hurt her"
Everyone looks at him confused "I agree with little tides" Princess Lethia contributes rubbing Seraphinius' back as he sleeps. "She's still very young. Your hand could slip, you could have to go further, it's risky"
"I'll do it" Suzumi says, she wanted to prove herself to Kaito. "I'll be bait, you can even cut me to make it more believable."
River stares at her frustratedly, but they go with the plan anyways.
"Tell us how to fix it or your granddaughter dies" Kaito's every word was laced with malice and hate. Making Suzumi wonder if he actually does hate her.
He presses the knife on her neck, and she chokes in false pain, but he was careful with knife not to hurt her.
"You don't have it in you" Suzumi's grandpa snorts and Kaito presses harder she starts to force tears out of her eyes. Fear flashes through Suzumi's Grandma's eyes but it quickly disappears.
"P-Please tell t-them" Suzumi stutters.
"If you wanted to kill her, you would have gone straight for the heart, I can't believe you would try to fool us Suzy" Suzumi's grandma tuts and she sighs, Kaito let's go of her.
River walks over to Suzumi—surprising to her—his hand tracing her neck slowly causing her to wince. She looks up at him confused, his lips turn downward in a little frown, and he pulls her away to the corner where they were all sitting before. No one says anything, the tunnel is pin drop silent.
The two get to the corner and River pushes Suzumi to sit down grabbing a blanket looking around confused and disoriented.
"Riv-" he cuts her off.
"Don't talk" he shakes his head.
"You can't tell me what to do" She retorts ignoring the pain shooting through her neck.
"Suzumi" he grabs a blanket from behind him turning back to look at her. "You're bleeding. Your neck is a sensitive area so please stop talking"
She reaches up to touch it, but he stops her. It was like it was just her and him in the tunnel.
"I don't know what to do" his frown deepens. "We have nothing here but stupid blankets" he rips the lightweight blanket in half wrapping it around her neck like a scarf.
'He really is worried...why?' She wonders
"Are you warming up to me Ladiston?" She asks and his face softens, the frown leaving for a moment.
"A little" he tells her truthfully "you just keep getting hurt, I don't like that."
"I'm gonna do a lot of things you don't like" she tells him, and he nods understandingly.
"I'm used to it now, so I wouldn't say I'm surprised" he chuckles "you'll just have to grow sick and tired of me being here"
His eyes meet hers. "River?" she calls out.
"Yes princess?" He tucks the edge of the blanket in the side of her neck that wasn't injured giving her his undivided attention.
"What color are your eyes?" she asks curiously, and his frown makes its way back but quickly leaves.
"The color you would get lost in" he smirks, and she rolls her eyes.
"Are you okay going back there" he looks over at where the others are standing with her grandparents.
"Why wouldn't I be?" She lies. The truth is she wasn't, knowing her grandparents would be so disappointed in her. She couldn't go back there, but she believed she had to if she wanted to prove that she's strong enough.
"Don't" he tells her, and she looks at him. Her eyebrows scrunch up.
"What do you mean? Why not?" she asks.
"Stay here with me, they'll figure it out" he shrugs.
'Huh? Why would I do that?' She wondered but she didn't want to go there either so she decided staying with River wouldn't hurt.
"Fine" she sighs "because you begged"
"Of course, princess." He bows mockingly "I'm honored to have you in my presence"
"Just shut up Ladiston" she shakes her head.
Elijah looked over at River and Suzumi, He knew Kaito's idea was a dumb idea from the start but now Suzumi is hurt for nothing.
"Mommy?" Seraphinius jumps out of princess Lethia's arms. "Mommy! Sister Lily it's mommy!" Seraphinius runs towards the blonde lady. They all watch him quietly, Elijah glances over at Emily and he could see her heart visibly break. As Seraphinius comes face to face with his mother realization seems to kick in and he takes a step back "Mommy is bad" he runs behind Emily, and she picks him up patting his hair.
The blonde lady looks away in shame.
"You're Queen Soleil" Princess Lethia steps forward as if she finally pieced it together. "That's why you looked so familiar" she scoffs.
"Yes that's how she knows me" Kaito steps in next to his lover seeing as the cat was now out of the bag. "She would come over to Zale when I was a little boy with her friends; them" He turns to face Queen Soleil realization setting in "How long have you been planning this?"
Queen Soleil ignores them and turns to Seraphinius and Emily "Phinie, mommy isn't bad"
"Mommy tried to hurt sister Lily" he turns to face her his lips quivering.
"Well," Dexter curses.
"You have to let me go" Queen Soleil looks up at Kaito. "Your father doesn't have to know about this"
Kaito laughs "You wish you could threaten me" he pauses "My father isn't a part of this is he?"
Queen Soleil cocks her brow.
"No, he's not out of his mind" Kaito responds to her trap.
"But you are, aren't you?" She smiled innocently and Elijah could see Emily in her at once.
"Yes, way more than you can imagine" he imitates her facial expression stepping closer to her he whispers in her ear "I could kill you and everyone you care about in a heartbeat, if you don't comply, you know I don't bluff" she whispers back "You wouldn't kill your children's friend"
"Who said anything about Emily? You don't care about her, the only care she had was from your first son, if you cared you would have shown up. You know who I'm talking about" her eyes widen at that for a split second.
Elijah moves closer to Emily knowing she needed support. He wraps his arm around her shoulder pulling her and Seraphinius closer to him.
"Let's be civil about this" Queen Soleil shudders causing everyone who was paying attention to wonder what he told her. Kaito raises the knife he used on Suzumi up to Queen Soleil's heart this time the intent of murder glistening in his eyes. "He watches or you watch?" he asks calmly before his voice booms through the tunnel "Why?!"
"I'll talk" Queen Soleil sputters out "I'll talk" she breathes out shakily as Kaito takes the knife away from her heart.
"Smart choice" he sticks the knife back in his belt. Suzumi's grandparents looked at the Queen in complete disbelief. By now Suzumi and River had come back, a little blanket wrapped around Suzumi's neck River's hand over her shoulder protectively.
"I needed to go back in time, we all did" Queen Soleil starts "My life was messed up I hated it. Her father had been threatening me for years" she looks over at Emily "I-I killed him"
Elijah tightens his hold on Emily reminding her that he was there. Queen Soleil continues "I couldn't live with myself after that, so I decided the best way to avoid that was to go back in time and stop her from being born, from being conceived, stop them all infact"
Emily's weight falls onto Elijah and he looks down at her, tears streaming down her face. He uses his free hand to take Seraphinius from her letting her completely lean on him, River, Suzumi, Skai and Dexter walk over to them, River taking Seraphinius from Elijah and the others joining to console Emily.
"I'm here sunshine" Elijah tells her with a distressed sigh. "We all are"
"So you put our entire world in jeopardy because of your bad decisions?" Surprisingly it was Delarune that spoke "My wife is stuck on earth because of your carelessness! Stuck in time because of your selfishness" Delarune completely loses it, he was about to do something bad to her, but Kaito held him back.
"We can't get answers out of a dead sprite, Rune" Kaito tells him, and he struggles but he composes himself.
"Tell us how to fix it or what Kaito will be doing to you, I promise you will be child's play compared to what I'll do" There it was, the same intent of murder that was evident in Kaito's eyes evident in Delarune's. Hate is a dangerous emotion, it can drive any living being with the ability to feel and that is driven to the point where they become submerged in it to do things they wouldn't to calm minded. You really do not and should not anticipate to see someone that wields a naturally calm nature filled with hate.
"You know what I'm capable of" Kaito seethes and they all feel literal shivers running down their spine.
Elijah continues rubbing Emily's back "It's a battle of gravity" The Queen blurts out. "Hot vs cold, hot air brings things up, cold air brings things down. The only thing that doesn't come down is the main clock"
"How does this information help us?" Delarune asks and she gulps.
"I am getting to the point" she pleads "all you have to do is turn back the clock." She tells them "I wasn't a part of the clock turning in the past, so I don't know how it works, but I know they accidentally moved it forward, so all you have to do is turn the minute hand back to where the second hand is and the hour hand to where the minute hand is 10 times, that's 20 years."
"Okay" Kaito walks away in thought and Delarune follows him, the kids go to the other end of the tunnel.
"You think they'll go back?" River asks.
"I mean It's not like their purpose here is to fix the clock, of course they wouldn't go back but oh that's just me" Suzumi shrugs monotonously turning to River sarcastically "What do you think Ladiston?" She asks and he ruffles her hair in response his arm back around her, pulling her closer to him.
"Smart ass" he chuckles, and she frowns patting her hair down nudging him away but he doesn't budge.
Emily had stopped crying by now, now she is just sat numb, staring at the ground and Seraphinius is nuzzled in her neck crying. He wanted to be near his sister. He wasn't crying because of anything his mother said but just because Emily was crying.
Kaito and Delarune's footsteps surface in their ears. "You said it's a battle of gravity" Mr. Ladiston speaks. "What do you mean by that?"
She looks away.
"She's embarrassed" Suzumi mutters from beside River. River looks down at her humming.