A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.1****1
Sounds of lively chuckles of an infant filled the now-haunted Heart Palace. With her brilliance, she returned the colors it lost, bringing happiness to it once again.
"Peek-a-boo!"
Solana Gwyneira giggled and kicked her feet in the air. Princess Lorreign laughed too and buried her face on her stomach, and made 'eating' sounds, biting the child lightly.
King Liorei and Skadi Eira were watching them, sitting in separate long couches. As usual, His Equal is eating food with new flavors requested exclusively from Titania's restaurant by Titania herself.
The child was laughing so much that it threw up the milk she drink not too long ago.
"Princess, Solana is still full. Don't play too much," King Liorei told her as he approach them with the towel in his hand.
Solana watched him. She showed her excitement by giggling and kicking her feet, waving her hands in the air, opening and closing them.
"Close, open, close open~" The Princess sang and then tickled her.
"I hate seeing that Eggo so happy," Skadi Eira mumbled, allergic to children's simple happiness.
"You're so sad because you've never been one."
"An eggo?"
King Liorei returned to his seat after cleaning Solana.
"No, a child. Must be why you're so salty. You've never been happy. No childhood memories. A straight-out immature and stupid adult."
She threw her empty porcelain bowl to him.
"At least I'm powerful and strong."
"Indeed. Very so that you created a child 'out of a whim',"
Skadi Eira only frowned. She don't have a rebuttal to that.
"I'm bored. Do something. Entertain me. Eating is nice, but I'm bored."
"Play with your daughter, then."
Princess Lorreign carefully lifted Solana from the couch and brought it to Skadi Eira. She lean back, avoiding contact with her daughter.
"Eww. Get that Eggo away from me."
Solana's iridescent opal eyes shimmered with delight the moment she laid her eyes on her mother.
"Ah... Ahh.. Mmm... Ma-ah!" she babble, stretching her hands out to Skadi Eira while moving her tiny fingers.
"Yes, it's Mommy! Very good, baby! It's Mommy! Yey!" The Princess danced Solana and brought her nearer to Skadi Eira.
"Eww! Eggo!"
Princess Lorreign chuckled and put Solana on her chest. Solana drooled, then threw up with adorable giggles, and Skadi Eira shrieked when her drool drip to her chest.
"Stupid Eggo! How dare you!? Take this egg away from me!"
She stretched her hands up, shaking the child. Wattroid and Celia panicked. They both brought handkerchiefs for His Equal to wipe her clothes.
Skadi Eira expected the child to cry, but it didn't. Instead, it laughed, liking the way she's shaking her in the air.
His Equal's crumpling expression softened and watched the small thing over her. It was very excited. She could see her many reflections through Solana's opal eyes. Now that she's holding her, she realized how soft Solana is. Like a bun.
"Don't smile," she told Solana, but Solana smiled even wider. She's so lovely.
Zodiac was her inspiration. Therefore, Solana looked a lot like him. A girl version of him.
Solana stuck her tongue out at her.
Skadi slowly brought her down and placed Solana on her chest. Solana looked at her with a smile, tongue still sticking out, so Skadi Eira tried to pull it but Solana bit her hand.
At first, she tried to hold it in. Solana bit her finger harder, with her baby teeth just growing.
The room freezes with impregnable layers of ice coating every corner. She slowly turn to King Liorei who's already beside them to help her.
With tearful eyes, she sniffled, "I-I'm going to kill this Eggo. It hurts."
"Please, don't," the King could only say as he part the daughter from her mother. When he pulled Solana away to take her, she didn't let Skadi Eira's finger go and bit on it more.
The Heart Palace froze completely and hailstorm, larger than average, falling like boulders, began to crush everything and everyone outside.
"Solana! Stop!"
Princess Lorreign screamed in hysteria when she saw what's happening. Skadi Eira pursed her lips, holding back her tears. No, she won't let them see her cry. She's strong. She's His Equal. She won't entertain them with her tears. But that thing... It's the only thing that made her cry.
"Ma-mwah~"
Solana finally let go and jumped in the King's clutch.
Skadi Eira hugged her finger and turned her back on everyone.
"Oh, no! You made Mommy upset, Solana! That's bad! Biting Mommy is bad!" Princess Lorreign.
But Solana smiled so angelic that it melted her heart.
"No, that's not bad at all. You can bite me, too. Here. You're so cute, baby sis! Uwu~ How could you be~"
But when she realized who she looks like, finally, she felt like she have sinned.
"Mommy! Is this alright!? Why is she---!? She looks like---like... Like Wattsy's son!?" she covered her gaping mouth. King Liorei sighed. She caught up too late.
What a dilemma. The King don't know what to do. But he will deal with such later.
"Stop sulking. You bit her first. And calm down. Everything's frozen," he told her. She's curled up like a fetus, her shoulders are shuddering and they could hear her muffled cries. It sound so pitiful---like a puppy.
"Shut...*hic* up..."
"You're seriously crying over that!?"
Princess Lorreign smacked his arm. She's wearing a coat now to keep her warm. The King could withstand it, warming Solana. Wattroid is warming himself, while Celia remained unbothered.
King Liorei massaged the bridge of his nose. He sat beside her and placed Solana on her head.
"Put it away!"
"Just make up! Solana, apologize."
"Lala~" Solana wriggle and wrapped her fingers around His Equal's ring on her head.
They already saw another catastrophe coming, so King Liorei hold her hand to make sure she won't do something crazy. Like pulling the ring on her mother's head.
"Ma-ahh... Riri~" her sweet voice sang and snaked around her mother. She stopped to kiss her cheek.
Skadi Eira peeked between the gaps in her fingers. Solana scared her with her excited face who's waiting for her to look at her.
"A-boo!"
Princess Lorreign covered her nose when it bleed, holding all the feels together.
"A-booo~ Mwah!" Solana played and kissed the top of her nose.
Skadi Eira closed her eyes when Solana kissed her again, and again, until her face was filled with kisses. Somehow, her heart felt light.
"You can live for another day. Plus one day," she said while not looking at Solana. Solana giggled and kissed her cheek. Then she opened her mouth.
And she bit her mother again.
***
King Liorei entered the bedroom with a healing cream in his hand. Princess Lorreign and Wattroid is playing dress up with Solana on the comforter spread on the floor. Celia is overseeing them.
They moved to one of the Heart Palace's bed chambers---Crown Princess's designated room.
But Solana's mother?
On the bed, crying for real. Her tears shimmered like liquid diamonds, each droplet containing the essence of the universe's untold magic and history. As they fell from her eyes, they danced with ethereal light, casting a mesmerizing glow wherever they touched. Witnessing it, King Liorei felt a surge of awe and reverence, for he knew that within those crystalline tears lay the essence of creation itself, seeking what her tears are capable of.
The highest being, crying? At first, they panicked because the world was crumbling. Asteroids from space began to fall down everywhere, that every being in the entirety of Cosmo-Vale began to seek shelter, if not, pray for the Deities' mercy and seek their Empresses and Emperor's protection. They saw right before their eyes how their happiest memories and moment flashed back.
But after giving her chocolate, she calmed down at least, but she did not redo what she have done yet. Solana's bite mark remained on her cheek like a tattoo.
"Hey," the King made known of his arrival and gently joined her on her bed. He sat beside her.
He harmlessly placed his palm on her face to wipe her tears. It felt cold to his touch.
"I... I hate that *hic* Eggo. I'm gonna *hic* kill it..."
King Liorei smiled and gave her another chocolate. She stopped crying almost instantly.
"It's because her teeth are growing. Babies are like that. It happened that you were closer. Maybe she mistook you as a toy. You look like a doll."
Skadi Eira hissed and smacked his hand away. He chuckled.
He opened the lid of the cream and applied it on her cheek. Her tears did not dry. The cloth did not absorb it either. They are like jellies: bouncy, soft, and smooth.
King Liorei dipped his finger on her tears and tried tasting it. He waited for something to happen.
"Are you crazy? Did you just taste my tears?" Skadi Eira scoot away from him, disgusted.
"Experiment. Just trying if it would so some sort of effect---"
King Liorei clutched his chest when it suddenly tightened.
"Idiot."
He gasped for heavy breaths. He's feeling hot. So hot.
"C-Celia--!" He called and hopped out of the bed to fan himself. Skadi Eira laughed at him monotonously while clapping her hands.
"Y-Your Majesty? What's the matter?"
Skadi Eira gathered her scattered tears on the bed and sent them to King Liorei. She forced her tears' way inside his mouth, down to his throat. King Liorei widened his eyes at her and tried throwing them up but to no avail.
"Get me w-water---"
King Liorei fell on one knee. His gasps comes with whistles, and it's so bad to hear. Princess Lorreign left Solana as soon as she saw her father's struggle.
"Dad? What's---What's wrong!?"
When she tried to hug him so she could bring him to the bed, her hands were electrified and was caught on fire.
"Kyaaah!"
Skadi Eira's sheepish grin faded when she realized that something is wrong. She made a water ball in reflex and threw it to the Princess's hands which were set ablaze.
King Liorei groaned and held his head. It feel like it's being cracked opened. He didn't even know what just happened to his daughter. He's hurting. He's uncomfortable. He wants to do something to ease what he's feeling---or call his Mom to relieve his pain---but his senses are becoming too sensitive to the pain that he can't do anything but submit to it.
"M-Mommy---what did you do!? What's happening to my Dad!?" Princess Lorreign looked back at Skadi Eira with her teary eyes, but Skadi Eira couldn't tell what's happening either.
"Fuck!" King Liorei could only voiced out as he try to minimize the pain by himself. He slammed his fist against the floor, but when he remembered that her daughters are with him, he gritted his teeth so hard that they bleed, clenched his fists and gulped, controlling it all inside.
Intricate marks begin to emerge on his body when tears the same as His Equal's came out from his eyes. And from those tears, root-like marks spread all over his body with the otherworldly glow. These marks seem to pulse with a rhythm all their own, intertwining with the King's flesh in a mesmerizing display of celestial energy.
"Dad, oh my god! What's happening!? DAD!" Princess Lorreign's eyes were filled with tears from the fright she's witnessing. She tried going to him but Wattroid pulled her back.
Until his tears were tainted with black---like the darkness of the universe. His eyes, too, so dark and black like an abyss. They couldn't see anything past it. It reflect no reflection, only an eternal abyss that is home to beings of the dark.
Everyone could feel it. The power surging through him. Pulsating. Blossoming. Oh, the chills and goosebumps it brought to them. It was different from the rest they have felt. An aura so damned yet so divine at the same time.
Solana cried loudly. Celia immediately run to pick her up and rock her to calm. Skadi Eira walked to him. The King suddenly became calm. He's not hurting anymore. His mind is so serene. He feels light, on his knees, sitting upright before His Equal, who's enchanted about his appearance.
His mouth is slightly open. His breath like a cool mist.
Skadi Eira reached out her hand to his face. There was a sizzle when their skin touched. The King is burning hot, but she's the cold and ice, and the King liked the feeling. He closed his eyes and gently rubbed his face on her palm.
"Skadi," he called with his voice so husky.
"What do you see?" she asked.
He opened his eyes again and looked up to her. His sight is distorted, deforming her image. But the light surrounding her is so vivid. He's attracted.
"Light."
He wrapped his hand on her wrist and brought her hand to his lips. He kissed it to tenderly, feel her cold, and then fell asleep.