Clockwork Castle

The woman watched him write, nodding along, "My son's name is Adrian, and his boyfriend is Jacob," she answered.

Fidel stayed quiet, drawing the connection but letting Kirux answer while he still had an easy way to communicate.

xXx

"Maybe I just don't like you enough to share my tragic backstory," she said sarcastically.

She really wished he was of flesh and blood right about now. It was so much easier to tear someone to pieces when such an act didn't require metalworking tools.

Kirux's eyes widened as he spun back around to look at her - a big, childish grin stretching across his face.

"That's them!" he signed, only to remember that she didn't know sign language. He quickly wrote the reply down in the flour-

-and stopped after he finished the last word.

His jaw dropped, and he turned back to stare at Isadora after he realized she was the queen.


"Since when have jobs involved tragic backstories?" I asked, knowing that I was starting to stray into dangerous territory.

The woman smiled, "Well then, if Jacob and my son are together, and they're with your friends, they'll be in Jacobs shop. I can take you there if you'd like?"

Fidel nodded, "Yes, please," he said, realizing after a moment of thought who he was talking to, "Your majesty."

She smiled, "Right this way," she said, leading the way out of the alley.

xXx

Megara glared, "Since those jobs involve murder, love. I've been in the trade for long enough to get a widespread reputation, take a guess at how old I am and figure the rest out for yourself." The bitter warning in her voice was too clear to miss. She didn't know what she would do if he pressed on. She did know that it would probably end with her getting hurt.

Kirux eagerly fell into step behind them, a little skip to his step when he realized how soon they'd see everyone.

But then he came to a stop.

...The king had kept Jacob in prison, and wanted to marry him to someone he didn't love. Didn't that mean that the queen would want to do the same thing?

He made his keyblade appear, pointing the tip of it at the back of the queen's head - the hand holding it shaking.


I metaphorically blinked and actually stared.

...I was starting to realize we were more similar than I had originally guessed, and I didn't like that at all.

The queen stared calmly down the blade. "Is there a problem, dear?" she asked, her tone not having changed at all from before.

Fidel gave Kirux a cautious look, unsure of what to do. "Kirux..."

xXx

Megara picked a spot on the wall and pinned her eyes to it. If he decided to kill her, she wasn't going to resist, she decided. It would be about time someone did. Plus, there was the bonus of not having to explain her injury to her father.

Anything Skull did to her couldn't be nearly as bad as what she'd receive if her dad found out she'd gotten a permanently-damaging injury like this.

He gave a nod. He didn't have the flour to write in anymore, and neither one knew sign language. He didn't know how to act out what he had just thought of, either. He just had to hope that Fidel - the only person here who could understand - could figure out why he was doing it.

Keyblades really weren't scary weapons, unless you were a Heartless or a Nobody. The queen wasn't either one, so it was just a big key that probably looked a little weird. But he hoped that it looked a little intimidating, even when his hand was shaking.

He looked over at Fidel.


I needed a distraction.

I didn't know what that distraction was going to be, but I hopped off of my worktable and started looking for it. There had to be something I could check out here - something that would do a good job at making me forget about Megara and I's similarities for a little bit.

But I had already given the room a good once-over before, and it was becoming increasingly harder to find anything that I hadn't already noticed.

Fidel met Kirux's eyes, desperately trying to understand as the queenie stood calmly, as though waiting for all of this to be cleared right up.

"I don't..." Fidel realized he did understand. He looked at the queen, "Your son, the king wants to marry him off, do you have any part in that?" he asked, not knowing if that was the best way to word it.

The queen's gentle smile returned, "Oh, is that what you're so upset about?" she shook her head, looking over to address Kirux directly, "I assure you, that business is all my husbands doing. If it were up to me, Adrian and Jacob would be together openly and freely. If you will allow me to lead you to the shop, you can hear that confirmed by Adrian himself."

xXx

Megara watched Skull, sat quietly for a little while, decided she hated the quiet, and said, "What do you think the boys are doing up there?"

It had been a while. She didn't want to imagine what they might be up to, but she preferred to assume it was just a sappy conversation. The kind of thing she'd avoid like the plague if she could.

His keyblade almost immediately disappeared - flooding his features as his posture relaxed. He was glad that Queen Isadora was good. He wasn't sure what he would have done if she wasn't, but he didn't think he could be a good fighter in a situation like this.

He gave a big nod.


I mulled it over.

"They're probably just chatting things out," I said. I thought it over a little more, and then added, "And probably making out, too, since it has to have been awhile since they last saw each other."

I glanced over at her.

"What about the other boys?" I asked. "What do you think they're doing right now?"

The unspoken question was if she thought Fidel and Kirux had gotten caught, but I didn't want to think too much about that.

Queen Isadora led them through the winding streets to the shop's front door.

"Would you like to knock, dear?" she asked Kirux.

xXx

She shrugged, "They probably found some closet or something to hide out in while they wait for you or somebody to come find them. Either that or they're wondering about looking for us. Or they got caught. Does it matter?"

He gave another big nod.

Then he ran up to the front door and gave it a very confident, excited series of knocks - not thinking of how sudden and overwhelming the noise might have been for whoever was inside.


I froze and looked over at Megara.

There was someone at the door.

The knocking persisted, just as frequently and loudly as before. I didn't want to go to the door - I knew that we were technically escaped prisoners, and that kind of knocking sounded like it fit in perfectly with the type guards would make in a situation like this.

Megara exchanged a look with Skull, then gestured toward the back door, mockingly asking permission before leaving without awaiting an answer.

She slipped out the back and around to the side, peeking subtly out at whoever was at the door before returning to Skull. It only occurred to her afterward that she could have just left.

"It's Kirux and Fidel. They've got a woman with them," she explained, letting Skull choose whether or not to open the door.

"That's a plot twist," I said.

I opened the door, and the knocking immediately ceased.

Kirux was standing on the doorstep, hand raised - it was clear he had been the one doing all of the knocking.

"So you did get out," I commented.

He grinned and gave a big nod.

"We found the queen!" he signed. I peeked around him at the woman he had to be talking about - I wasn't sure what I was expecting her to look like, but I guessed I could see a little bit of a royal touch when I looked at her.

I leaned up against the doorway again.

"Hi," I said to the queen, dropping any of the formalities I probably should have used.

The queen gave a respectful nod, "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said with all the formality Skull lacked, "I'm here to see my son, is he with you?"

Megara hopped back onto one of the tables and examined Queen Isadora. She wasn't a short woman by any means - she was certainly taller than Megara - and she wasn't stocky either, or even really thin. She wouldn't be described as fat either, just...filled out. Like someone who didn't skip too many meals.

I could take her, Megara concluded. There weren't many people she couldn't take in a fight, but it was always best to evaluate a new potential opponent.

"He might be," I said. I didn't know why she was looking for him, and I currently didn't have a good feeling about her. She was hiding something. I just couldn't tell what that something was. "Why do you want to find him?"

Kirux stared at me with wide eyes, frantically shaking his head in denial of what I had said. I didn't know why - I couldn't figure that out no matter how much he did.

"The queen is nice!" he protested, his signing as frantic as how he had been shaking his head.

I'd leave that up to my own interpretation.

The queen's smile didn't waver, "I'd just like to find him. There are rumors of foul play about and I'd like to put them to rest by proving that he's merely decided to spend some time with his boyfriend."

Megara rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right. His boyfriend with a death sentence. Do you have a better excuse for us, darlin'?"

The queen looked at Megara, her expression never dropping its pleasantness even as a few unreadable emotions flicked by behind her eyes. "You're quite the disrespectful one," she commented, "Do you have a name?"

"Yes," Megara answered. She didn't elaborate.

Queen Isadora considered her for a moment longer, then turned her attention to Skull, "May we continue this conversation inside? Your friends here may be getting cold out here in the elements."