The family had been quartered to a rather nice room where Dr. Jen was able to access the tools he needed, and with beds for all of them. The enormity of the palace was a space Trixie had only dreamed of, after having been cramped underground for so long. When Trixie wandered out of the room, her parents were as unphased as they had been at home. Trixie was aware she was not useful to their objectives, and neither was her survival. It was just the way things were.
Her leg stung from being transported by the demon soldiers, as a bit of silver blood came from her knee. She winced. Trixie considered what Dr. Jen had created from their blood. One year ago, Dr. Jen had created the Tai for extensive use as a barrier from extracts of many of the angels’ blood. It was the element that would protect their escape pod as it exited through the Hell-light ozone and onto the next galaxy. It was not large enough to save the ones above ground, but the hope was to rescue all those below ground. Trixie wondered if that plan was still possible, being that they were now on planet X.
As she glanced around, the portraits on the walls seemed to contort. Trixie wondered where the Empress Siasma was, for they had only met Ijin. She struggled to understand how the Empress ordered the destruction of Ijin’s people and then allowed her own people to be taken captive as well. This back and forth all came from the same Emperor and Empress! It seemed like a THEM problem, and yet it had negatively affected two planets of people.
As Trixie contemplated upon the insanity of her circumstances, she stumbled across what seemed to be a transparent door with cherry bronze borders. It was quite different from the other plastic and metallic doors.
She opened it. Within, a luminescent beauty of thorn bushes and roses appeared. Dandelions much taller than she with sunflowers and unknown assortments of lush plantation in a greenhouse of dreams. Her famished blue eyes that had been restricted to the depths of poverty were feasting! Darts of pink, ocher golden, and red illusions moved in and out the vines.
As she followed the winding stone path, she noticed the forestry was enclosed by mirror barriers, seeming to reproduce the effects and enhance the garden’s stature. She looked over to one of the everlasting mirror walls, and saw replicate reflections of herself, growing smaller and smaller and farther, but never running out. Whirling around, the same thing faced her in front, sides, and now behind. The door was gone. “What’s wrong with this place?” Trixie gasped. The sound of water led to a small cascade that rafted tiny rocks, splashing into a glittery pond with where lily pads danced like teacups and seaweed waltzed the basin. She looked behind again, and the path had now come from a completely different direction than before. “How am I supposed to get out of here?” Trixie sighed. If there was a way in that meant there had to be a way out- there had to be another door that led out somewhere...camouflaged within the mirrors- that was it!
The glass wall came to a dead end. Looking down, she saw that the brick path stopped there too. At once she distinguished a perfect crack in the mirror wall. Trixie smiled and whispered, “I found it!” she gently pried the barrier away from the wall to receive a chilly gust of refrigerated breeze.
The dark and mangled trees they had seen from afar surrounding the palace, before they had entered- Trixie now stood in that forest. “H-Hello..” She looked behind her, and as she predicted the gardens had disappeared as well. She stood alone in the forest.
Her anxiety launched rapidly. “I…I don’t want to be here anymore I want to go back!!” Trixie turned around and screamed in the direction she had come from, “Let me back in!!”
On trunks as wide as houses, branches of mile high trees swayed like bony fingers and obtruded the hazel gray sky, disallowing patches of moonlight to peek through their treetops. A hoot perked her awareness, the narrow slits of an owl’s eyes gazing with a cocked head from a high, poignant branch. Acknowledging the new intruder, the bird took off on velvet wings into the crest of midnight as Trixie raised her head.
She blanketed herself with pale arms and began aimlessly meandering into the forest, swaying from side to side. The tune of unusual comfort came to mind, and to escape her fear she began to sing her song again, “One little girl, wants to save the world...” her voice echoed like a chime in the wind.
A sudden rustle in the bushes grabbed her attention.. “Chro-Chronic roses sing…dancing blurs of- wait that’s not it…” Trixie became very frustrated, for the region grew deeper and darker no matter which direction she chose. She stumbled over a snare, ignoring her injured knee and hurrying back afoot--on a patch of clear dry soil.
Trixie then found herself in a small round clearing. The thick trunks were unseen as their tip tops spiraled high into the clouds…
“uhh---can’t see past the line,” she restarted her song, uneasily scanning the perimeter. “Murder at her-..” she stopped humming. Her eyes widened and she jumped back as her next footstep crunched on something gooey and red..She scurried past it, deducting the worst.
Past the first row of thick, rubbery black sprouts and the moon finally highlighted something between two trees. Trixie swiped a branch from the dirt floor and began stepping backwards, her head turning every way. She could hear twigs snapping, as if there were other footsteps. The sound paused. Something was watching her.
A brisk wind blew past her and she changed direction, yet the mist hung even as a sauna’s steam, inert, as if nothing had come. Trixie exhaled, wondering if the environment itself was directing a predator to its target. “No! It won’t happen!!” Trixie couldn’t let her imagination lead her to that fate.
“Why don’t you cry?” came a mocking child’s voice, threaded by two tones in the wind.
“There is someone here!” Trixie accused. There was relief in hearing it was another child’s voice
Piano chords in the air seemed to start, sending a tremor through the bushes. Then, an orchestra, peddling enchanted strings and chimes, so ancient and faraway that she couldn’t help but notice. Trixie cocked her head and blinked, coming out of the dreamy trance to hear the music hit a sharp suddenly. Again. And again.
She clutched her ears and began running out of the clearing. The branches drooped and purposely tripped her, frightening her more. “Where are you kid? Huh??” Trixie asked the air for the child’s voice, knowing even that might have been an illusion in this place.
The clit-clat of boots could be distinguished amid the fading musical chords, as a murky figure emerged from the path’s depths. She could not see if this was the kid or something else. From unconsciously edging away she bumped into a prickly bush, “Go-GO away please, whoever you are- I didn’t want to be here....I didn’t do anything to you so just...Just GO away-”
Trixie paused, then inhaled the aroma of the land with hesitant determination. Whatever it was that had access to her thoughts was using them to distort her sanity. She traced the scene, until eyes fell upon the figure. Shoulder blades of silver daggers protruded from his shoulders wherein a cloak worn to shreds dangled. It was a child, a boy.
“STOP right there!” Trixie ordered.
The creature had slit mismatched eyes, sunlit and ice colored. Without warning another tree branch fell, spiraling windstorms of reddened seeming wood like whips till she backed into a volcano of dust. Glancing up, Trixie saw the boy perched atop a branch, observing her. He had changed locations so quickly that she could’ve sworn he’d phased above her- and he had. He swooped from the branch landing directly to her front, revealing a row of pointed, glittery teeth, “You shouldn’t be here at this hour. I am the last demon you should ever wish to encounter.”
Trixie slewed to the side and headed back in the direction where she had first met the woods. The boy was a demon? Something about him was different though. She hopped over the mangled roots, ignoring the fact that there was no path for guidance. Nothing in this place was following the rules of reality or physics. She held her breath and wheeled around, her round little face contorting in fear as his shadow washed her back- he was leant aside on a stump, and when she glanced there he was standing in front once more. “You are no ordinary demon for a child” Trixie mused. The shadows moved briefly away for her to catch a glint of his boots swiftly moving sideways. It clicked in her mind. This was Prince Carris. “You-You’re him!!” A metal wrapped arm came into contact with her stomach, and the girl stumbled to her knees gasping for air even as he curled his fist into her locks and hurled the girl across the dirt, reappearing from behind to catch her.
“This is a game to you!” Trixie gasped, irritated. His laughter accompanied the five million of him that phased forward in blind flashes. The shape of what seemed to be a small bare foot slammed heel first and collided into scraped bark, using that to rebound and swing through the air, barely missing Trixie’s head- The windstorm slowed for her to see the Prince once again. “You are not much for talking” she mused, “I guess that is what I should expect for a child whose entire identity is following the will of dictators. Tell me, have you even heard of what a stuffed animal is? Prince Carris?”
He moved to the side- then spread curled fingers and muttered some unheard jumble beneath his breath as a mystical illumination developed within the curve of his palm- and from there, ignited it into a sporadic ivory blaze. Very slowly, he elevated his head, pupils smirking with danger. “DON’T!!” Standing quite a distance away Trixie tumbled into a trunk as the burst of energy zipped past her ear, specks of ground bleeding in a conflagration of raging white.
Trixie grabbed a piece of bark and stabbed the darkness, expecting the boy to turn up there. In turn Carris seized her free limb and flung her over his head into a tree root that thrashed and curled around her. From the curled position she let both feet shoot and pound against his chest, but the result was not enough to satisfy the effort. He was not talking, he was not immediately detaining her, and he was giving her a chance to fight back. It dawned upon her that the great Prince might have never played with other children before. Perhaps battled, but had he ever played? Trixie had not seen any her age in a long time, but she recognized his misguided attention seeking for what it was.
“You are an angel. Always causing problems..” Carris whispered.
Trixie seized the opportunity to launch, “YOU are half angel Prince Carris. You seem totally unaware of that as you beg for interaction with me rather than just doing your job!”
The ground quivered and erupted into a volcanic explosion of bronzed sand, a mudslide splashing down around them. It seemed her words had impacted him but he resisted any attempt to show it. Trixie wondered if this great affliction was truly the monstrosity he acted out to be or just a lost child hiding behind masks forced upon him. He started to notice, and he did not like it.
“What do you want?” Trixie added.
He looked down at her knee, and the dried silver blood over her cut. Unfortunately he was a smart monstrosity afterall. She could not let any classified information be revealed. The remaining demons could not discover that angels were what activated the Tanti gem.
“Lights out” he stated matter of factly. His testing play mode was off and the Reaper mode was on. It was swift and uncalled for, when his mismatched eyes flared and his fist came flying forward.
“WAIT!” Trixie yelled. There was a sudden stop, and she was utterly startled by what looked to be claws on his fingers inches from her face.
Even with the threat she could see his resolve struggle as he raised his voice, “Beg for your life!”
“Is that the first time you offered that to an angel? From what I saw you just do what you are told like a slave and seize control all over my planet!”
“If your family cared for your safety, you would have been above ground on Cyber like the rest of them” Carris fired back, “You wandering out here unaware of anything shows no one has cared to teach you or look for you.”
Trixie was well aware of her preferences to dissociate from reality for these reasons, but getting the Demon Prince to negotiate felt more important. Her confidence rapidly built as she said, “I see a scared boy who only wants to play and be loved just like any child should. A boy doing the labor of his abusers. I think they are using you Prince Carris. I think you have no one..but in your case, with your power, you really do have yourself!”
His fist and eyes stayed unmoved. He held the impassive and collected energy of authority that he had always been dictated to demonstrate but the air had shifted. Quietness befell the haunted woods, save for the hoots of the returning owl. For that moment, even the owl felt unafraid of the great demon prince.