Flattery

Now there were nineteen slashes across the page under the leaf. My tallies had lost their neatness, clawmarks on the paper. I hadn’t noticed how wide the river had grown until imagined the shape of the broken bridge. Where it once stood wasn’t half the width of the acid. Watching out my window, I saw as it splashed over the foundation of the old palace. The place that had been my home for months melted away like the frost in Spring.

Lady Hen came down with a spreading fever. She worried that it would jump to Falcon, but it did not. Mr. Brick was taken by the illness, and another woman whose name I yet forgot. Lady Hen forced herself to recover even when her breath was thin and creaking. When I saw her today, it was like she’d never been ill at all.

Every morning, Bubbles loudly announced that a day had passed. It was like she was yelling it into the stars themselves, only tangentially aware that she was meant to only be telling us. She sounded prouder every day, and more somber every night. Sometimes she was apprehensive when I spoke to her, or maybe, only disappointed. It was only once people realized how few more days would persist this universe, they began bowing to me whenever I passed.

People who I hadn’t commanded to would bring me half-full buckets of water. Some gave me their water as soon as they collected it. They grimaced if I accepted it, and theatrically fell to their knees if I declined it. Some had almost never spoken to me before, and their names were lost to me. The ones who lost their homes to the expanding river slept around the outside of the palace. I had to command them to leave every night and again every morning, and they never questioned me. They wanted never to be so close to me that I had to ask them to disperse, but to not be so far that I could not see them. I wondered how these peasants imagined I would ever bother to choose them. I wasn’t about to so naively correct their hope.

Those who slept on the ground sometimes were survived by the night itself. In Dragontown, there was one of us per three who once lived. Finding someone melted through because the ground became too caustic while they slept became a regular occurrence. Of the rest, few had clothes any longer. We all had callouses and burns on our feet, yet they would still blister by the time we got onto solid ground. Non-living ground. There were even cracks forming in the bottom floor of the new palace. The floor was made of diamond.

Where the town square used to be was flooded. I walked along what had once been the outskirt of town. The temple, having once stood almost ten meters back from the riverbank was in danger of being overrun. Some fellow, Mr. Cross, or something, fell before me with his hands together as if in prayer. “Princess! I am honored to see you, today!” He managed to kneel just in the path I was planning to take. The soles of my feet hissed under me as I waited for him to get out of the way.

I nodded toward the man, then looked straight up as I walked around him. I grumbled, “Can you at least make the main roads walkable?”

“No,” Bubbles’ voice drifted. She sounded half-asleep.

I raised an eyebrow as I passed by Mack. He didn’t fall and grovel like everyone else did. The only other people who didn’t do such things were Madame Piff and Lady Hen. They already knew what choice I intended to make. I gritted my teeth as Mack didn’t even continue looking at me, and I marched over to him, “Good morning, Sir.”

“I’m just out to see if there’s been a food delivery,” he waved his hand over his shoulder.

I strolled after him, “Well, there hasn’t. You know, I was thinking…”

“I know I’m a dead man,” he tapped his foot against the ground, “do you want me to beg you when you’ve seen me as a nuisance ever since we met?”

“The food always comes later in the morning,” I hummed, “you know that by now. What are you really out for?”

“Wood. I’m building a raft,” he grunted.

“There’s nothing on the other side of the river.”

“I’m taking Daisy there. I’m getting her out. I don’t care if I die in the process. Now, Princess, leave me be.”

“I…” I bit my lip. I knew I wasn’t going to save them. I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to save you, Mack. You’re absolutely right. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my side…” I held my breath, “Don’t cross the river. There’s no use in getting Daisy hurt for nothing.”

“Either way…” he started.

“No,” I lied. I figured, they may as well live as long as possible, “tell nobody I’ve said this to you.”

He looked at my lips, trying to get a glimpse of some tell. His hand shook under him, “You- you would really? Princess, thank you. My daughter.”

I returned to the palace. There was Lady Hen on the second floor. She was bathing Count Falcon in one of the wooden buckets. Madame Piff sat, leaning against the wall beside her. I frowned, “Hen, can I ask you something?”

She turned slowly, “Oh, of course, Fawn. What do ye need?”

“I… Falcon will be. Would you stay here with me so that I can save Daisy?”

Her mouth curled downward. She looked down at Falcon, “If I forbade ye, her father would be having e’ry right to kill me. I don’t want ye to. What’s wrong with me?”

“Then, I will forbid it,” Madame Piff huffed, “Daisy would be left with nothing in the world but the beast that took everything from her and an infant she has no means or knowledge to care for. She would have no money, no ability to navigate the world. If they were left in any random place, they would both be eaten by wildlife.”

“But if I don’t choose them both. They’re young…” I held my breath.

Madame Piff rested her head in the palm of her hand, “There’s no use in saving them both if they shall die the same. There was another baby in town, Ms. Lock’s, who passed in the crib months ago. Did you even notice, then, Fawn?”

“I…”

She put her wrinkled hand up, “Hereafter lies the cruelty in mercy.”

I crossed my arms, “May I have a third name?”

“I’ve already set the rules. I cannot change them now,” Bubbles answered, “think carefully, Breakfast.”