The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension (4 page)

Though Devdan hadn’t looked, he had both felt and seen the pale dark haired boy approach on the edge of his senses. Despite the fact that Irvin had proven that he had no malicious intention towards MaLeila and by proxy him and Bastet, Devdan still couldn’t help but be on edge when the boy was around. While he may not have any malicious intention toward them, his family, even his mother, had proven that they did to some extent even if it wasn’t as malicious as most families. Whether Irvin knew it or not, the only reason his family allowed him to be friends with MaLeila, to come to her aid, to give her advice and even the advantage against the schemes of his family was that they held to benefit from it. And it was the only reason Irvin wasn’t back in England, waiting for the entire situation with Tsubame to hopefully blow over. And it wasn’t because Irvin was very rebellious either. He had gone back home at his mother’s and her advisors beck and call for less in the past.

Bastet rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like she’s some princess damsel in distress who can’t defend herself.”

“I didn’t mean it like that and you know it. But the fact of the matter is that none of us know what to expect from Tsubame. There’s no registry to give us hints or a trail of ravaged and dead people throughout history that will give us a clue as to what all her powers are and what her weaknesses may be. MaLeila’s got nothing to go on here and she’s not going to take the woman on head to head again because we all saw how that turned out,” Irvin replied.

Devdan caught Bastet’s gaze out the corner of his eye, in a manner that was imperceptible to the people surrounding them. Neither had mentioned that Tsubame and her two companions were alternate versions of themselves, mostly because they weren’t sure what exactly it meant and because they didn’t know how it was possible although Devdan guessed Bastet would certainly be asking Tilila once she had a chance to speak with her privately. As it was, they knew a lot more about Tsubame than Irvin was aware, but at the same time and for the same reason, they knew nothing.

In the brief second that they two discreetly met each other’s gaze, they reaffirmed their decision. They would say nothing about what Tsubame’s revelation yet. The consensus made, both turned their attention to Irvin and gave silent feigned agreement with the boy’s statement.

4

Tsubame said a lot of things, MaLeila was beginning to realize, and most of them were probing statements that had no real significance to try to spark a reaction so that she could latch onto the things that did spark a reaction. But Tsubame always managed to get to her with one simple sentence, as though through all her pointless probing she could read her like an open book. Worse than that. Tsubame read her like an open book that she’d read once and was reading through again every time she was in the woman’s presence. And the last words that Tsubame seemed to have gotten from her last reading of MaLeila and that she had spoken to her a few days ago reverberated with her.

Finally, you’re starting to show a little bit of who you really are.

MaLeila still wasn’t sure who that was or who she thought it had been anyway, but the idea that Tsubame knew, regardless of if she was an alternate version of herself, was almost as unnerving as the fact that the woman was an alternate version of herself to begin with.

“If she seems to know so much about me,” MaLeila said to herself, “It’s only fair I get to know a little about her.”

Besides, knowing more about Tsubame would even the odds. She hadn’t flat out told the woman she wouldn’t join her, but if she were going to get away from the woman and defeat her, she needed to be able to play the woman’s game. And unfortunately there was no registry with all Tsubame’s known history that she could download. Thus, MaLeila would have to resort to asking the right questions and finding out more about this alternate version of herself on her own. She could have asked Marcel about it, but they had enough things to straighten out between them without MaLeila demanding information about Tsubame and asking Tsubame herself was out the question so that left Nika.

The idea backfired, mostly because, MaLeila noted in hindsight, while Nika certainly possessed the same blunt straightforwardness the Bastet she grew up knowing over the years had, Nika didn’t possess the maternal and diplomatic gentleness. The woman told MaLeila in no uncertain terms that she was going to have to do better than that if she wanted to find out more information about Tsubame in order to get the upper hand on the woman, not that Nika even thought it would help. MaLeila’s response was to bluntly ask who managed to shove a stick so far up her ass and any chance she had of getting anything out the woman was lost.

Marcel showed up in MaLeila’s room later, chuckling as he relayed how disgruntled Nika was with her.

“She’ll get over it. She’s usually grumbling about how none of my girlfriends have a backbone and cry too easily,” he added.

MaLeila glanced over at Marcel as he came further into the room, occupying the chair that Nika usually sat in when the woman had nothing better to do besides watch MaLeila as she poured over the books she had gotten Tsubame to provide her with.

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t come in here and make yourself comfortable just to tell me that,” MaLeila said bluntly.

“No I didn’t,” Marcel admitted. “You asked for some time. And though I know everything’s not water under the bridge yet and you’re going to need more of it, I think I’ve given you enough space.”

This was the first time in a relationship that MaLeila had with someone where she wasn’t making the first move. Any time she and Devdan butted heads, it was always her extending the olive branch towards him. When she broke up with Irvin, it was MaLeila who picked up the phone after he left the states so they could have their first conversation as friends again. The reconciliation always happened on her terms, when she was ready, so she wasn’t sure how to deal with reconciling with someone when they had decided it was time to and she still wasn’t so sure.

“I guess so. But since we’re on the topic of Nika,” MaLeila added in effort to push off any discussion about the two of them as long as possible, “Why is she always in such a bad mood?”

Marcel rolled his eyes. “That would be my fault. She hasn’t been the same since I manipulated Claude into sealing her for almost two hundred years instead of me.”

“Oh yeah?” MaLeila said, curiosity piqued at unexpectedly getting some of the information she had been seeking. “How did you manage that?”

“I knew Claude was planning to seal us both, but I also knew he could only seal us one at a time…” Marcel said trailing off.

When he didn’t immediately continue, MaLeila furrowed her eyebrows and said, “What?”

“I want you to keep in mind that back then I wasn’t exactly the nicest or most considerate person,” Marcel said. “In short I was a total asshole.”

“If I can forgive Devdan for being an asshole to me all the time, I can forgive you for being one a long time ago,” MaLeila pointed out.

“Touché,” Marcel said and then continued, “Anyway, since I knew he could only seal us one at a time I took advantage of his weakness and manipulated him into sealing Nika first. While he was doing that, I left and came back after Claude died later disguised as a white auctioneer so I could take Claude’s magical theory book and what turned out to be Tsubame’s staff in the future.”

“What was Claude’s weakness?” MaLeila asked noticing that Marcel was conveniently leaving out exactly what it was he had done to get Claude to seal Nika first.

“Before I tell you this, promise me that you won’t draw conclusions in the present based on what I did in the past,” Marcel said.

“Now you’re worrying me.”

“It isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life, but considering our fallout it’s a big deal,” Marcel admitted.

“What did you do?”

“Claude was attracted to men, he had a particularly fondness for me and for a long time I rejected all his advances. Then—“

“You found out he was planning to seal you and Nika,” MaLeila cut in.

Marcel nodded his head. “I knew he had a thing for me, so I distracted him. Returned his advances and the night before he was supposed to seal us I slept with him.”

“And then what happened?”

“He let me sleep in for the rest of the day and decided to Nika to seal her first. He would have sealed me the next day if I hadn’t taken the opportunity to run off,” Marcel said. “Needless to say, when Nika found me and Tsubame almost two centuries later, she was furious and tried to kill me. If Tsubame hadn’t stepped in between us and said that the one Nika should have been pissed off at was already dead, I don’t know what would have happened. She forgave me for it eventually, but being sealed that long fucks with your head so she’s been much more aware of people’s manipulations since.”

MaLeila stared, not sure what to say. She pressed her lips together, trying to resist the first words that came to her tongue in effort to keep her promise.

“Go ahead and say it,” Marcel said. “I know you promised not to, but go ahead.”

With Marcel’s greenlight, the words spilled out her mouth.

“You expect me to believe that you didn’t use me for Tsubame’s plan, but here you are admitting that you’ve slept with people before to get what you wanted,” she said.

“Centuries ago.”

“So you’re telling me that was the only time. That you never manipulated someone for Tsubame in all those years?” MaLeila asked. “And don’t beat around the bush about it. Just answer.”

Marcel groaned and said, “No. It wasn’t the only time and yes, I’ve done it for Tsubame before. But that has nothing to do with you. I told you—“

“I know what you’ve told me.”

“And you don’t believe me,” Marcel said bluntly. “I don’t know what to say except if you don’t believe me then believe Tsubame. She’s a manipulator. She keeps things to herself for her own gain. But she’s not a liar. When she said she didn’t know what to do with you, that she had no plans for you even though she knew you existed, you weren’t part of her plan or anyone’s plan. In fact, I think she was surprised to find out that we were—are involved.”

MaLeila agreed with that. Tsubame wasn’t a liar. She simply let people make assumptions. Even when she offered to take the blame for Fathi’s murder, she never outright told anyone that she did it. She simply decided to go back home and didn’t confirm or deny anything when accused which was enough admission of guilt for the council. So despite Tsubame’s manipulative hand, MaLeila was more prone to believe the woman’s word over Marcel for now. And based on her interactions with the woman, MaLeila was sure that Tsubame hadn’t decided to integrate MaLeila into her plans until the last minute and MaLeila was also sure that Tsubame had been somewhat surprised about her relationship with Marcel, if only because he was a council representative. That was another thing. If Marcel had been a part of Tsubame’s plan, she wouldn’t have risked sending Marcel through the council. If she were Tsubame, MaLeila would have sent a man to capture her heart through something to do with modeling or school or some avenue that might have secured MaLeila’s trust faster.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you still came with her in the first place. That you knew who she was and you helped divert our attention away from her.”

“And what was I supposed to do? Tell you who she was? Who I was? I liked you. Why would I have done something that would push you away and see me as your enemy? At least this way you got to see for yourself. Before you even knew about my history with Tsubame or even suspected it, you started to see on your own that Tsubame was the lesser threat compared to what the council planned to do and is still planning to do. So don’t try to use me as your excuse for why you’re conflicted,” Marcel said, his voice not necessarily harsh, but definitely an octave or two lower than usual.

“That may be true, but that doesn’t change the fact that whether you meant to or not, for whatever reason, you lied.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Misled then.”

MaLeila and Marcel stared at each other for a few beats, neither willing to back down. Finally Marcel looked away and said, “You’re right. I’ll give you that. No matter what the reason, I did mislead you even though I wasn’t trying. I was trying to be as honest as I could though.”

“That’s the point.”

MaLeila could reconcile that Marcel was another version of Devdan from another world. She could even reconcile that he misled the council to help Tsubame’s plan fall into place. But what really bothered her was that she didn’t know him as much as she thought she had, only a faucet of him.

“Fine then,” Marcel said as he stood from his seat and crossed the room to stand in front of her. “Come with me.”

“Come with you where?”

“On a date.”

MaLeila raised her eyebrows and said, “I just told you that I essentially don’t know if I can trust you and you ask me out on a date?”

“So you can get to know the real me without me having to hide my past, who I am, what I am. You’ll get all of me, without the secrets and then you can decide whether you still want me or not,” Marcel explained.

MaLeila pressed her lips together before she opened her mouth and told Marcel that there wasn’t a question as to whether or not she still wanted him. She already decided she did. But the question remained was it because of her lingering feelings for Devdan or did she want Marcel because he was his own person? And if he was his own person, could she separate that in her mind and see it. And that was on top of the fact that the circumstances of their relationship was based on secrets if not lies.

“Where would we even go?”

Marcel shrugged. “I’m sure there’s something around here to do?”

“And Tsubame would be fine with you disappearing and whisking me away with you?”

Marcel huffed. “She’s my queen, not my slave master.”

In the end they settled for a walk through the dilapidated city. They walked in comfortable silence as they passed half ruined buildings one block and then perfectly sound and safe structures with vendors outside them the next.

“You okay?” Marcel asked.

“Yeah. Just reminds me of home as weird as that sounds.”

“It’s not. Whether you call it the slums or the hood or the ghetto or low income, it looks the same wherever you go, albeit with some worse than others, but still the same. A bunch of poor people who can’t overcome the obstacles their oppressors put in their way,” Marcel said. “I think Tsubame feels the same way. While they’re ostracizing her on television, she’s been out here every day getting water to families, helping people grow food, rebuilding their homes. It’s part of her plan of course, to make people think she’s some power thirsty woman scorned who killed her future husband and she may be doing it partly for the fun and challenge of it all, but Tsubame genuinely feels a kinship to these people.”

“So you’re telling me that Tsubame, despite her ruthlessness, is a benevolent queen?”

“Wouldn’t you be ruthless to defend the people under your charge or to right injustices done to those who are innocent? Especially when it’s the ruthlessness of those who take pleasure in oppressing others that get them their power in the first place. Nothing less can be used to take them down,” Marcel replied.

“That’s one hell of a philosophy.”

“It’s the one that works. Trust me. I lived through revolutions and wars and the people who are respected the most are those who would never actively aggress someone, but would definitely fight the hell back when someone messes with them,” Marcel replied.