Aurelia's stomach churns.
The landquake intensifies but she has no idea why everyone isn't running for their lives.
Ah, because they can fly and possess strong magic forces to teleport away in the face of danger.
Her nails dig into her palms as The Hoarder leans closer, down to her face, and stops with his lips beside her ear. Her breath hitches.
Aurelia is hyper aware of his minutest movements. She feels him suck a breath into his mask and whisper in the most hoarse voice possible, "I'm the only one who doesn't want you dead."
In the face of her mortality, Aurelia calms down. She pulls her hands away from her own grasp and lays them useless to her sides. She notices, through the subtle touch of her fingers on her thigh, that her leg was shaking involuntarily.
The landquake was her.
Aurelia gulps and grabs a hold of her thigh but it doesn't stop the shaking or even lessens it. A masked man to wed, stories with bad endings all in sight, Aurelia felt trapped within her fate.
It is in the moment when she realises that the cause of her misery was, 'Want.'
Nobody ever had anything to 'want' from Aurelia. She was just an unwanted existence, formed because nature needed to decompose trash. Although, she isn't even good at the one job all of her kingdom does. Truly unwanted in all forms and always left alone.
Being alone did not raise 'Wants,' and without them, Aurelia was comfortable in her isolated existence. The only wants she could have were with herself and the only person she could disappoint was herself. The stakes were never too high.
But for the first time, people Want something from her.
Someone Wants her to not die.
Someone Wants to use her as bait to save the World.
Folks actively show concern in her very existence.
The realisation was overwhelming yet comforting.
If death was already in her fate, why not quicken it when the stakes are still in her favour?
"So, should we start?" Words escape her lips without hesitation now, her hand slips in his without hesitation now. He clasps her fingers without hesitation, as if agreeing to a mutual pact, that 'Yes, death is inevitable, so why not enjoy the thrill of letting it stalk us,' or something equally villainous.
Queen Roachie was true. She was giving Aurelia's life a 'purpose,' though a short-lived one, but still better than being unwanted to the very end.
Right?
Or is she overthinking again?
Too late.
"Good decision, I collected a new suit just for the wedding," he clicks his tongue as if Aurelia is supposed to know the implication of it. She doesn't. The Hoarder was already leading her to the Centre.
The Emperor and Queen Roachie are still engaged in a battle of waving hands and fluttering wings.
With a flick of his hand, Queen Roachie is sent flying into the bushes and the Emperor finally stands straight. Other than her hand in his, Aurelia feels alone and insecure of her position.
Nevertheless, the tremor in her leg subsides.
As they draw closer, the waters of the fountain respond, shimmering with a vibrant energy. The fountain bursts into iridescent crystal droplets raining its magical essence over them. Sun's rays pierce each droplet and form a circular rainbow haloing above their heads.
The droplets hit Aurelia's cap and birth a cloud of blue spores around her head. Her heart races in awe.
"About time," The Emperor purses his lips in a crisp greeting. She squirms her nose as they stand right infront of the Emperor, contemplating if she should greet him or not.
Under the halo of the rainbow, the Emperor seems almost translucent. Aurelia greets him nevertheless, bringing her palms to face eachother and drawing them away with fingers twirling in representation of her rooty kingdom.
"Indeed," the Hoarder snaps.
"You've chosen well, Mossbloom," Ignoring the Hoarder, the Emperor smiles at her. He has a kind smile and it reaches his eyes and crinkles on the sides. Aurelia is compelled to smile back, even when the whole proposition of "choice" was utterly false.
"Your choices were real elaborate, I almost pulled an all-nighter," The Hoarder drawls, much to Aurelia's amusement. Water droplets stick to the fabric of his suit and drench him in a diamond glow under the setting sun.
The Emperor mocks a smile as he taps one of his many silver rings decked on his fingers. A screen pops into existence, making Aurelia's jaw drop in awe. The Emperor uses his thumb and index finger to enlarge the screen and with the flick of his wrist, the screen was now on the ground with Aurelia and The Hoarder standing over a series of intricate magical glyphs. They seem to be inscribed on the floor, forming a pattern like that of a long branch curved inwards.
"A priest was wise enough to not participate but kind enough to help," The Emperor remarks as the glyphs interact with the falling droplets and begin to glow.
Aurelia's stomach grumbles, not just in hunger but with a thought that gets her skin pale. Was all of this an elaborate plan to lure out The Hoarder and kill him before the bonding?
These glyphs act as conduits, channeling the energy of the Aurelia and The Hoarder and aligning their cores with eachother. The pattern of the glyphs along with droplets from the Fountain of Life augment this process by generating focused energy fields and amplifying the participants' spiritual essence.
His grip tightens around her hand and his head tilts slightly back, as if he was caught by shock.
Aurelia feels sick by herself. Her spores multiply all pink around her head. Her breath hastens and through the corner of her eye, she sees the glyphs glow darker by the blink.
Aurelia tries to unclasp their hands and run away but his grip only tightens. The pink cloud of her spores disappears into the dark smokes emitting out of the glyphs.
Just the nth bad decision of her life.
Aurelia feels panicked as the smokes get thicker. She uses her hand to haphazardly pinch the Hoarder over his sleeve and make him let go. She pulls and twists as her vision blurs by the second —
until a wet splash reaches her cap and face.
She presses her eyes open and her vision clears. He unclasps her hand and she is quick to hide it behind her back. Her heart thunders in its cage as he looms before her.
"Did you see something?"
"Only the onset of my doom," she gasps. Her voice is breathy due to all the exasperation.
"Unkind. I wouldn't let you go that easy," he raises his hand to fix his cuff that she probably pinched out and that's when Aurelia notices the red.
His white suit splashed in red.
A sticky substance dripping off her face, tainting the ground red.
All the red mixing with water, meeting its originator. The dead body of the Emperor laying cold, slotted against the basin. His head nowhere in sight, only splashes of red inking colour to the holy water of life.