Tueur’s origin: Souls and Roses 🪦🌹

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Souls and Roses”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

In the kingdom of Rosesilk, where Queen Cordelia had ordered any deathly sick individuals to be executed, elven siblings fifteen year old Tueur and thirteen year old Moon Alchembark were training each other to fight with swords in the local woods, they could not let a Queen like Cordelia rule, no matter what their mother and father said about wanting them to be “careful and safe”.

They had been fighting until they were both tired, then they sat next to each other on the dried leaves, thinking of the army they’d have to face once they got to Queen Cordelia, once they left their home.

“Do you believe that we can ever have a chance for things to be beautiful again?” Moon asked. She loved to wear bright colored dresses and flowers in her waist-length golden blond hair. She looked like the embodiment of life, but her heart was full of woe.

Tueur stared thoughtfully off into the distance, thinking of what to say to Moon. His pale, spindly fingers curled over the leaves and his knee-length, nearly white blond hair slightly covered his green eyes. Unlike Moon, he was shrouded in gray and black clothes. His skin used to be peach-toned like hers, but he had grown interested in the dead, so his body transformed to reflect that. He could control the skeletons of animals and tree roots, which were much like skeletons, if he wanted to.

Yet deep down, he still believed in hope. The other elves were afraid of death, but if they could really connect with it, then they’d realize it wasn’t so bad.

“Of course. Where there’s evil, there’s good. Isn’t that why we train? To fight the evil? I know you have your doubts, I’ve had a bit of mine, but I genuinely believe that we have a chance if we keep putting in the work, just like how people can still love one another in trying times.” Tueur said.

Moon raised an eyebrow at Tueur as though she didn’t quite believe him, but that was alright. She’d feel a bit more confident once they set out on their own, once they were ready enough to fight. What Tueur was worried about was telling her what he wanted to do, what he had been thinking about for two years.

He wanted to find a creature that would understand his soul more than anyone, a creature he would spend eternity with, a creature that would clear the troubles from his mind. He felt a small prickle of emptiness inside of him all his life, but once he started getting older, the feeling grew stronger to the point that when he was alone in his room, he’d wonder if that would be his life as an adult, if he would spend an eternity with his own thoughts and his own loneliness, but, he figured out a way to end it.

Tueur just had to tell Moon and hope that she wouldn’t get too upset.

“You know, Moon, I’ve always felt this hollowness inside of me. Like there was just something missing, something that could complete the cracks in my heart. I used to think that I’d grow out of it, that I’d find something truly fulfilling, but it’s still here. It hurts the most when I’m in my room, with only the wind rustling the leaves to keep me company. Sometimes, it feels like the world is mocking me, telling me that I’ve always known what to do, but that I haven’t been smart enough to realize it.”

Tueur sighed, bringing out the heaviness of the words he was about to say to his concerned little sister and then he said:

“But now I know what I need. I need true love, someone who will spend forever with me, someone who will bring out the beauty in my flaws, someone I could do the very same for. Someone who is more than family, more than a friend, someone who will love at my absolute most terrible and reprehensible. What I need to solidify this is to take the Heartstring Oath.”

Moon’s eyes went and then, her lips curled into a scowl.

“Are you sure you want to take that oath?! You’re going to lose your voice all to find love! What if you don’t find love? What then? Are you just going to be silent forever?” Moon cried out, her words twisted in anger, but holding a bit of anxiety in it.

“Yes, Moon. I’ve thought it over. This is what I want to do. I’m not actually going to lose my voice, anyhow. I’ll still have it, it’s just that if I speak, I’ll kill those who hear it. That’s only if I speak physically, I can just use my mind to talk. I’ll get my physical voice back once I find love. Isn’t that romantic?” Tueur asked.

He always thought that it was romantic how the Heartstring Oath silenced those who took it until they found the one, but by the way Moon was frowning, she didn’t seem to agree.

“No, it’s not romantic! It’s horrifying! You’re going to lose your voice for something that might not ever come! Why don’t you just wait to find love? Why do you have to take the age-old oath? It’s outdated and dangerous. We already have to worry about a corrupt Queen and now I have to worry about my brother possibly never speaking again? Can’t you give it more thought? Could you just not do that?!” Moon yelled out, her eyes riddled with tears.

He could wait for someone to come to his life, but that wouldn’t feel like much. Doing the Heartstring Oath made him feel like he was making something definite, something guaranteed. If Tueur would never physically speak again, that wouldn’t be much of a problem for him because he didn’t like speaking to a lot of people, but he also still believed that somewhere in the dark, broken world, there was still a chance of love.

So, he brought Moon into a hug, wiping away her tears, reassuring that he would be okay, that he always had been, and that there would be nothing to worry about.

………………………………………………………………………………………

When the Alchembark siblings got back home, Tueur told their parents what he told Moon. They said the same thing that she said, asking him if he was sure, if he knew what it would mean, to which he said that yes, he was prepared, he knew what would come. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually, they said that he could take the Oath.

Moon was yelling even louder through her tears, attempting to get him to stop, but Tueur blocked her out. He learned to block out the sounds of the living when he tried to talk to the dead.

The Heartstring Oath could be performed anywhere, but he chose to perform it in the sitting room, where his family watched. In one of his claws was a stick that he decorated with a string of violet petals, a string he had put together with magic from a stick he found in the woods the other day. In order for the Heartstring Oath to work, one had to have a stick decorated with violet petals in hand or claw, in Tueur’s case, since he made a connection with death and was given ghastly claws as a result.

The next part of the ritual was to sit on knees, facing where the sunlight shone. Tueur did just that, facing the window where the sun sparkled the most.

He then pressed the stick to his heart, focusing only on the rustling of the trees and the calm, dreamlike whispers of the ghosts, then he said:

“Through the destruction of decay

And the horrors that may stay

I invite true love to light my way

Even as the world turns to hurt

Even as my soul begins to burn

I’ll find the right words to say

If I only let true love

Take me away

Hear and now, I make the Heartstring Oath

For the strings of my heart hold tight

They know where to take me, there’s no need for fright”

As soon as Tueur finished the Heartstring Oath, he could feel the violet petals stick melt into his heart, stems growing out of the flowers, acting as heartstrings, then climbing up to his throat, blocking his voice, making it tipped in venom. Tueur held back a wince so as not to scare Moon, for he knew what he was signing up for, but it was very, very painful.

Queen Cordelia may have been ruling over Rosesilk, but Tueur would still hold onto the poetic world of the afterlife and fated true love, for that was as much strength and defiance as an attack against Queen Cordelia would be.

It’d all be worth it, in the end.