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“There are some facts that only come out in dreams.” Merope’s hand tightened around Haru’s. It had been months since she came to the Velvet Room this way. And yet, it had to be important. She’d only gotten home, took off her new dress and passed out. And then she was here, in the Velvet Room. Merope reached towards the stars and pulled, a curtain of existence bunching in her grasp. A mound rose, one Haru hadn’t seen before. But she knew whose it was. The flashes of memory reaching out towards her.
A woman with a revolver, looking away as she gave her kindness to Haru. Her green hair that framed her face. And that rare blade of a grin, glinting in the darkness. Her lips that tasted of strawberries and fingers that smelled of copper and gunpowder. Mai Zenin, the impossible partner, always a dance of dimensions away. This was their bond, hidden away in her own mind. A dream away, only the Lovers and Merope to know it seemed. Merope released Haru’s hand, “There maybe rules, but dreams are mutable things.”
“Thank you, Merope.” Haru found her eyes watering, drenching her face in tears again as she walked toward the mound. She climbed it, handhold by handhold, the chrysanthemums growing from its soil a firm place to be. She had made everything easier in the caves and the apartment, why wouldn’t her bond now? She reached the top and sat down, feeling everything she was missing. The first person to care for her, to probably love her and she was doomed to forget her time and time and time again. Each of their meetings an upwelling of relief at finding each other again.
But then, why did Merope bring Haru here? Why now?
The mound shook, rib bones three meters tall and stained red grew up around her. A weight fell into Haru’s lap, light as Strohl and cold as the oncoming winter. Her heart crushed in on itself as she looked down. The blade of Mai’s smile had been extended for her, a cut across each cheek. Her eyes swung open, looking up at Haru in shock. “S-sunshine?”
“Hey there. I know it’s been a while.” Haru bit her lip, knowing why this all felt off. It wasn’t Mai, or at least a living Mai. She’d died, but she was here in the moment. She leaned her head down, “Look a little different. But it’s me. I missed you and couldn’t even put a feeling on why.”
“Same. S-so much happened. I think—” Mai’s body seized up. Gashes began to open across her cheeks, her hands. A long tongue came out of her cheek, teeth surrounding it. “I… I….”
“You died.” Haru wanted to close her eyes, not watch anymore. She was tired of watching people she cared for die. But that’s what life was, wasn’t it? You live and live and live, until you die. And those around you witness it, bear it upon their heart and continue on with you. “It’s okay, we get this moment.”
“W-we do, I don’t even know if I’m dead, I’m just—” Mai’s body jerked in Haru’s arm, the ribcages pressing in. “That thing is in me, shoving me deeper, away. I can’t.”
“Then we’ll do it together, please, stay with me.” Haru’s finger gripped tight to Mai’s the hand in hers biting at her hand, seeking a taste of her. It spit at the taste of her, her soul burning. Ceres writhed inside of her, aching to follow the mouths to their source and choke them to death. Mai’s body lost more weight, like she was being eaten from the inside out. “Mai, hold on tight.”
“I always told you, I was the weak one and you were the strong one.” Mai’s eyes closed, then opened now the wrong color. An abyss of darkness was there, her cheekbones shifting beyond whatever was put in her. And the wrong voice came. “Oh, she actually had a connection left? I think I’ll have to—”
“Goodbye Mai.” Haru hurled the weight off her lap and into the sea of stars. She laid down on the mound, feeling the maw of ribs retreat into the Velvet Room again. The intrusion over. Merope sat down with her, one hand on Haru’s forehead. “I don’t think I can… thank you exactly for that. But. I needed to know.”
“You did.” Merope pushed back Haru’s hair, a small thing as her fingers worked through a tangle. “She’s not weak, to have made it here to see you. I merely helped you have the chance to see her try.”
“Thanks. That means a lot, Merope. Can… when my Journey is done, can you take me to her world? So I can visit the grave?” Haru looked over through the haze of tears and against the gravity of her own heart. Merope nodded. “Love you.”
“I love you too. It is however time to return to the land of the living.”
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The Universe let Haru reach everywhere. Her bonds opened paths and methods and chances untold to her world. And with Demeter’s cooperation, she could sample it. And indulge. She followed a root of herself, snaking into the mound in the reflection of her soul. The root dug through the earth of existence to find a world that matched her own hours ago. Barren. Destroyed. Covered in nothing living. No it was worse, life did not breathe there, she knew its last inhabitant had left. A girl as cursed as Haru by fate, without the fair chance Haru got.
She couldn’t fix the oceans, but she could share mangroves with their edge and in time something would grow there. She couldn’t replace the people or the animals but she could cover their ruins in flowers, a funeral shroud. She didn’t have to leave anything edible, but she did. Who knew what could erupt in the following millions of years, Haru didn’t and there wasn excitement to that. She hadn’t found her target, not yet. She scoured battlefield after battlefield, leaving them lush and verdant in her wake. Until she found it, a red die, each of the pips replaced with eyes that followed Haru. Another seal. The root of Yggdrasil curved around it, her soul burning against its curse, hope against fear. Fear imprisoning hunger. And hunger imprisoned Mai.
And hope, much like a plant root seeking water, is persistent and will destroy all in its way. She pulled it apart, ripping free a hulking figure with carapace and mouths everywhere. She didn’t have time for him. He thought he was a god, but here he stood alone. His mouths a poor mockery of Yoko’s beauty in her memorial, she coiled her roots through each of those moths, choking his attempted challenge. Flames began to emerge around the mouth’s edge. Desperation in the face of a true death. The universe pulsed from the root and the body shattered in a wave of Haru’s soul. She withdrew from the body, Mai had been dead but now her soul could be let out.
She laid the body down on the soil, planting a new kind of symbiosis. A peach tree that fed a strawberry vine that found water for the tree. The two of them intertwined, with Mai’s body in the roots. And for a moment the two of them stood under the tree, spectral girls lost to what was imprisoned in them. Haru placed her hand on Mai’s hip as the sun rose over them, tilting her head to the side with a grin on her face. “I said we’d do it together.”
“You’re the one who dug here.” Mai closed her eyes, a bitter snort coming from her lips. She looked back to Haru, her amber eyes exhausted. “What now?”
“Well, I figure I at least owe you a dance before I return to what I have to do.” Haru began to sway, tugging Mai along with her. The sorcerer found her footing in moments, following Haru’s lead. “Maybe, I could take your soul with me even. I don’t know if the idea of living in me is… well ideal?”
“Maybe. It’d be a different experience to that fucker.” Mai spit on the ground, her spectral disdain passing over the broken body that had long since stopped being hers. She leaned her head on Haru’s shoulder, warmer than she had been during her sealing. “You really are the sunshine, huh? I saw what this world was for a moment. But, it’s not that.”
“Well, the Universe is a miracle I hear. I figured I could get away with this.” Haru spun Mai out, her heart at ease. All her loves were safe as they could be now. Mai relaxed, dipping her head back towards the sun. “I love you, you know that?”
“You think I couldn’t tell? You remembered my favorite fruit and merged it with yours. You’re not subtle, Sunshine.” Mai let herself get spun back, a hand cupping Haru’s cheek. Her thumb grazed one of the flowers on her cheek. “Love you too, in case you were worried.”
“Maybe I used to be, but I’m not.” Haru leaned in, tasting the ghost of a fruit plucked too soon. And Mai kissed back like it would bring her back to life. And then the indulgence was done. Life restored.