Chapter 30 - Dark Multiverse: The Countess's Smile

Some monsters don't want to be saved, but sometimes they hope a little queen sees them anyway a feather at the threshold.

There had been no sound, no light, not even wind, just a red feather red like a forgotten promise, red like a forbidden memory Saphira discovered it placed on the threshold of the Blue Tower, between two beats of silence a parchment accompanied it its paper was so pale it seemed to brush the invisible a single sentence, written in carmine ink.

—"To the little queen who does not tremble before abysses i invite you to dance. —C."

Élya, at her side, frowned. 

—"It's a provocation, or a trap, or worse, a seduction." Saphira took the feather between her fingers, turned it in the morning light.

 —"Or a hand extended," she said calmly, then looked up at the blue gate.

—"Open it."

The door opened but not as usual the pale blue darkened it turned indigo, then velvety black the flashes turned into frayed silk ribbons the door was no longer an invitation; it was a whisper without a word, Saphira crossed the threshold. Élya followed, hand on the hilt of her sword, her gaze sharp the Ecstasy Multiverse's air smelled of black cinnamon, faded jasmine, and a trace of musk that memory dared not recognize the streets floated in perpetual twilight, paved with frozen tears, set in the glass of doorless buildings, windows that watched masked nobles laughed too loudly from suspended balconies, and the stars the stars didn't shine they observed then she arrived she didn't walk she descended a staircase of living shadow unfolded beneath her feet.

The Countess. Long dress, black as absence discreet fiery lace scarlet hair, thick, heavy, alive. Warm porcelain skin and in her gaze, something between hunger and nostalgia.

—"Saphira Noctielle," she said, smiling. 

—"You are even more delicious than the rumors."

Saphira did not recoil she never had 

—"What did you invite me for? to watch me? to break me?" 

—"To warm you," The Countess replied softly. 

—"Here… everything is cold, even pleasure." she approached, her steps leaving no trace. —"You are a light I would like to borrow." Élya stepped forward, but Saphira raised her hand. —"I belong to no one but you could be… with me," the Countess murmured. Saphira shrugged, a sparkle in her eyes.

 —"I can listen to you."

The table was suspended in the void, as if forgotten by gravity dishes appeared without being served starry fruits, midnight bread, red wine like a wound the Countess did not eat she grazed, she tasted with the tip of her lips she spoke at length of her faded world, of cursed pleasures, of caresses that lacerated, and of kisses that had left only ash.

—"I am beautiful," she said."But everything I embrace crumbles." 

Saphira, her hands flat on the table, replied without looking away. 

—"Then let me offer you one thing not a promise just a hug a real one."

The Countess did not laugh; she remained frozen the wine shivered in her cup then, slowly, she leaned forward she extended her arms, and in a world that knew only ecstasy and oblivion, she was held without desire, without threat, without a mask held and for a few seconds, she trembled, not from fear, but from a memory.

—"You are dangerous," she whispered in the Queen's ear. "Not by your magic, but because you remind me that I can still feel." 

Before leaving, the Countess slipped a jewel into Saphira's palm a necklace: a red drop, a slowly pulsating heart. 

—"Keep it one day you might want to see me again." Saphira took it without a smile, without fear and when she disappeared in the pale blue flash of her own light, she left behind neither threat nor promise, just a sigh and in that broken world of masks and desire, The Countess closed her eyes, at peace for the first time.

End of Chapter 30 – The Countess's Smile