LIGHTNOVELONLINE Interlude 4 - Part 1
This is a story from about… a year ago now.
I thought my problems were so grand, so important.
I lacked perspective.
One day changed the entire trajectory of my life.
I gained a new outlook on life, though it almost cost me mine in the process.
“Bored…” a young woman sighed, sprawled out on her bed.
It was many sizes too big for her, she could stretch her arms and legs out to their maximum, and even her blonde hair was splayed out in all directions, long enough to reach her wrists. Slowly her eyes opened, striking yellows listlessly scanned the ceiling for any source of amusement.
None were to be found.
“Bored…” the woman repeated. She had exhausted her fair share of avenues of entertainment. The huge television that took up one of her walls remained off, the collection of game consoles underneath it gathering a farm of dust. The computer with six monitors hummed quietly on standby, but otherwise untouched for today. The bookshelves and their loads of books, comics, and reference materials were all well used, but tapped of their usefulness.
Wasn’t there anything exciting happening?
KNOCK KNOCK
She sat up upon hearing the rapping against her bedroom door.
“Lady Emelia? It’s time to get ready,” the visitor on the other side spoke loud enough to carry their voice through the door but still held reverence for the master of the room.
“Yes, yes, come in.” She tried to brush her long tresses back but they rebelled, not appreciating the haphazard mess they were left in.
Another woman opened the door, dressed in a blue qi-pao. For a moment the elder woman clutched her fists tightly, an eye twitching at the disheveled appearance of the young master before her.
Emelia knew the routine and dragged herself out of bed, plopping down into a chair. She flipped her hair around the back of the chair. The elder got to work brushing the young lady’s hair and beginning the meticulous process of braiding it.
“Have you considered any of them?” the servant questioned, eying a thick stack of paperwork sitting on Emelia’s desk.
“Milquetoast,” was the word Emelia decided on. “I’m the daughter of the King and Queen, surely this isn’t the best on offer?” she scoffed.
The servant bit her tongue, continuing her work. “There are many exceptional partners for you available there, surely you’ve reviewed their files?”
“I did,” Emelia replied simply. “None of them caught my eye,” she added after a moment.
“Will you simply stay with your parents for the rest of their lives?” the servant continued their line of questioning.
Emelia suddenly jerked her head back, grinning toothily as she looked up at her servant. “Will you stay with me if I do, Miss Ayame?”
Ayame stared back, before pushing the girl’s head forward. “Don’t move your head suddenly. It makes doing your hair difficult.”
The reprimand only earned a giggle from Emelia.
Emelia was a Princess in name only – she had nothing to do with the politics of her kingdom.
As such, she was bored – trapped within the castle walls, trapped within a life she didn’t ask for.
“Awwwwwwww-right! It’s time!” Emelia pushed her ornately tied-up hair into a cap and covered her eyes with a pair of shades. She wore a simple tan button-up shirt and chestnut shorts over black leggings and short boots. Nothing overly excessive or wealthy. After all, she was on a mission.
Mid-day had arrived and it was time for the Princess’ favorite activity: her daily escape. Most attempts failed and she was dragged back to her room kicking and screaming.
Today was different though. Some pope guy from one of the churches or something was coming. This meant all the servants and even the members of the royal court would be busy dealing with the members of the clergy or whatever.
This was the best chance to stretch her legs!
Sneaking out was the easy part. She usually at least got out of the castle itself. Emelia knew the layout like the back of her hand. Nineteen years trapped in the fortified walls gave her that near-exclusive knowledge. Her daily shenanigans also provided her with a rich understanding of the servants’ movements.
On a normal day, the staff knew to watch for the Princess’ escape attempts.
Fortunately for Emelia, today was no normal day. There were some service hallways not being utilized at the moment. As such the young girl darted down one such walkway, keeping her body low to the floor. A wise choice as a solitary servant found their way down the very same corridor.
The Princess did a jump, rolled, and hid behind some boxes, crouched low.
As luck would have it, her theatrics went entirely unnoticed. The passing attendant didn’t even notice the cap lying in the middle of the walkway that Emelia had lost when initiating her awesome jump-and-roll combo. When out of sight, the Princess retrieved her cap and continued in her stealth mission.
Making it out to the garden, more dramatics unfolded as she dodged the patrols of the guards, which were thinned out in favor of positioning them closer to the guests. The Royal Hedge Maze got her much closer to an exit. There was just one more thing she needed.
Traffic both in and out of the castle was quite heavy right now, meaning if she used a vehicle of some kind…
“Hey baby girl, I know you want to tear up some asphalt.” Emelia grinned toothily.
In the private garage reserved for the royal court and their families sat many vehicles used by the royalty, including a jet-black motorcycle. “Let’s go, partner.” The princess mounted her mechanical steed, flipped up the kickstand, and took hold of the hand grips. Clutching them tightly, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do.
“I got plenty of crystals on me,” she reminded herself. Her heart hammered in her chest as she edged her fingers around the hand clutch, the skin of her digits rubbing down the cool metal. Finally, she willed the flames of her soul, her Rhythm into the metal beast, bringing it to life as she tightened her grip.
“Ah, listen to that harmony drive purr,” Emelia cooed. The engine rattling under her calmed her racing heart. “Let’s go baby.” She put her feet up and urged the vehicle forward.
Emelia kept her head down as she slowly drove through the castle’s roadways, keeping her head down to hopefully avoid the few guards still watching the entrances.
She made it to the front gate undetected, just blending in with the other traffic. That was until the big box truck in front of her was stopped for a random inspection. The guards opened the back and began looking inside, frustrating the girl.
However, her luck turned for the worse as one of the guards caught sight of her. “Hey wait a minute, that’s the princess’ bike!” one of them shouted.
“Shit!” Emelia yelped. She had a split second to decide. One of her hands darted into her pocket and gripped one of the crystals contained within. Quickly draining its contents, she got the boost of recklessness she needed and came to her decision.
Both hands on the grips, she kicked the bike into gear, forcing it to squeal in protest as she urged it from a standstill to top speed in an instant. She whipped around the guards and the truck, earning many confused screams from the guards. She blasted down the highway between the castle and the entrance to a tunnel.
It didn’t take long for her to reach the tunnel opening with the speed she was going and she delved right in without a second thought.
“WOOO YEAH! NOW THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Emelia screamed as the wind whipped around her. She felt alive, it was incredible!
The motorcycle blazed out of the tunnel now at the base of the mountain, dropping her onto the highway that cut through the city. All around her, the city was illuminated by the light from above the concrete jungle illuminated in the glow of daytime. The feeling of speed coursing through her body, leaning back and forth to weave through traffic.
It was addicting, and she rode this high throughout the city, not once caring if she ever made it back home.
This was freedom, this was living.
“Ah, much better,” Emelia allowed herself a pleasured sigh as another crystal was freed of the blue rhythm contained within.
Emelia took a break on a bench, her bike propped up nearby, being charged.
Having a partner would eliminate her need to take in the Rhythm trapped in the Rubato crystals, but nobody ever caught her attention.
They wanted her, but she didn’t want them.
Reclining on the bench, Emelia watched a pair exit the convenience store she was loitering in front of. A human woman like herself, and a man with long fluffy rabbit ears adorning his head and a puffball of a tail behind him. The two laughed and joked. They shared a kiss before getting in their car and driving off.
Emelia pouted. How she longed for that kind of connection with someone. Jamming her hand into her pocket she studied the three glowing blue crystals she had left. “I’m not discordant but…”
She still needed these dumb rocks for motivation. “Uhg.” She thrust them back into her pocket. It was just better to have a partner. Everyone agreed on that. Besides the emotional connection, there was the magical one. The one that mattered.
In this world, being alone was crippling. It was as if the entire biological system was crafted in such a way that actively punished loners.
Though… it wasn’t like Emelia wanted to be alone. She was just…
“…too damn sensitive,” she mumbled to herself.
If people weren’t so easy to read!
Maybe they should just stop wearing their emotions on their sleeves!
It’s their fault!
Emelia sighed. “Why does this have to be hard?” she asked herself.
BOOM!
A sudden commotion in the distance startled the ruminating princess. “What the terra?!” she yelped, head instinctively whipping in the direction of the noise.
There was smoke further down the road.
Now two crystals remained glowing as Emelia drained one for a spike of motivation. The princess ran to her bike, yanked the charging cord out, and barely closed up the port before she took off towards the source of the chaos.
The rising column of smoke was a nice beacon to follow, though it did nothing to calm the Princess’ heart rate. This was actual, real danger she was heading towards. This wasn’t pretend or make-believe. There was the very real prospect that people would be injured… or worse.
Instead of turning away or slowing her roll, the young woman turned the clutch, urging the motorcycle to move faster than it already was.
As she approached the scene, the first thing she noticed was the many people running away from the source of the commotion. Emelia brought her bike to a screeching halt, throwing down the kickstand and dismounting from the ride. The smoke rising was further into the building. “The church?” she noted.
Sure enough, the source of the chaos was on the church grounds, one of the buildings in the rear of the property seems to have caught fire based on the column of smoke that towered from the structure. Soon enough a disorganized crowd of people ran her way, fleeing the property and dispersing in all directions the only commonality between them being that none looked back at the church they were escaping.
The rhythm the fleeing people radiated made the young woman pause. “Resonators,” Emelia observed. Heat, humidity, dirt, static – the Princess’ eyes were at their maximum width. These foreign feelings that invaded her. Rhythm could feel like this?
She had heard of other elements of Resonator that existed but never had seen one before. She whipped her head around. Reds, blues, browns, and yellows, all sorts of different colored Resonators were rapidly escaping her grasp.
No… they weren’t the one. None of these random escapees clicked with her.
Then again… what exactly was she looking for in a partner? Her parents always said she’d know when she found the one…
…and they were right.
“Let go ya fucking pricks!”
Through all the noise, she could only hear one voice. Emelia stepped forward, her rhythm pulling her towards the owner of that gruff, angry voice.
“Fight someone with rhythm why don’t you?!”
Her pace increased, a walk fading into a run as she was hopelessly drawn towards the oppressed one amongst the chaos. She needed no direction, an invisible string connected her with her target.
“Get your boot off my head you dick!”
THWACK!
Pain. Emelia was brought back into reality from the intense burning sensation in her fist. Her yellow eyes rapidly scanned the present situation she found herself in. Two men had pinned a third to the ground. The two assailants were in some kind of white ceremonial garb – the same kind that the Pope’s clergy wore…
As for the pinned man, he was a resonator, a black-clad man bearing four swept-back horns alongside a pair of great draconic wings with a thick scaley tail to match.
“Get OFF!” he roared, finally able to get enough leverage to knock the remaining assailant off of him.
“A-are you okay?” Emelia asked, holding her wrist as her other hand throbbed painfully.
“Do I fucking look fine to you?!” the dragon man snarled.
Emelia flinched, though she shook off her trepidation. “I’m Emelia and I-”
Before she could finish that thought the dragon grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her to the ground. The princess now had a sore shoulder to join her aching hand. However, when she looked up, she watched the dragon get lit up by some kind of polearm with an electrical end.
Despite the very visible electricity coursing through his body, the dragon retaliated, punching out the clergyman who had attacked him.
“Get up! You want to get killed?!” roared the winged man.
“R-right!” Emelia scrambled to her feet despite the protests of her body. “This way!” She grabbed the dragon’s hand and the two joined the other Resonators in escaping the facility.
“Alright, who the fuck are you?” inquired the dragon.
Emelia and the mystery boy had escaped the pursuing clergymen by running into the city. Unfortunately, this was in the opposite direction of Emelia’s motorcycle, meaning a quick getaway was impossible.
The pair had managed to find an abandoned building to hide out in while they determined what to do next.
“I’m Emelia Seijo, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the princess curtsied for the dragon.
He was not impressed by the theatrics. “What, you think you’re royalty using Seijo as yer family name?” He pointed suspiciously at the girl.
“Well, I am technically a princess,” she said. “Though I’m not part of the court,” she mumbled, quieter.
“Ahahaha! I got saved by some make-believe princess!” the dragon roared, unable to stifle his laughter.
Emelia pouted, glaring at the bemused Resonator. Suppressing her embarrassment, she asked the question her itchy rhythm demanded of her. “What’s your name?”
“Albarich,” he replied gruffly.
“Okay, Al! What was going on there? Why was the church attacking you?” Emelia asked her next question.
The dragon raised a brow. “My name is, oh whatever,” he decided correcting her wasn’t worth it. The more pressing matter made itself apparent to him. “I think I might believe you’re a royal,” he suddenly said.
“Why’s that?” Emelia tilted her head.
“Only a royal could be such a blind idiot,” Albarich glared at her.
“What?!” the princess shrieked, returning the dragon boy’s glare.
“Were you born yesterday? The church that the royals so openly support is trying to kill us.”
Emelia stared wide-eyed at the dragon. Yeah… it was kind of weird all things considered. She had never seen another element of Resonator in her nearly two decades of life. Every Resonator she had come in contact with had been a lunar element. Even this dragon boy radiated the gentle darkness of the lunar element that she had become so comfortable with.
The other elements were so intense though. The deep heat, the suffocating moisture, the stinging static; all of these sensations were so vivid they almost paralyzed the princess from how harshly they hit her. But above it all…
Those people were frightened, horrified. They were doing everything they could to escape. Even Albarich felt this way – that much was obvious. It didn’t take a strong social sense to see that. “Let’s etude,” Emelia offered without thinking.
“Eh? Me with you? In your dreams!” the proud dragon scoffed, wrapping his wings around himself and stepping away from her.
“Why not?” Emelia pouted.
“Do I look like I’m yer pet?”
“Huh?”
Emelia frowned. She couldn’t fathom what the problem was. Everyone in the castle would etude whenever things got rough. It didn’t make any sense to her.
“I don’t get it,” she uttered. “I just want to help.”
Albarich averted his gaze. Her stupid pouting face was… disarming. “You wanna help? Then let’s take the fight back to them,” he huffed.
“Okay,” her reply came in an instant.
“Eh?” Albarich whipped his head back in the direction of the princess.
“The church is doing something bad, right? We should stop them then.”
There was a moment of silence between the two.
“Are you stupid?!” Albarich finally roared.
“No?” Emelia tilted her head.
“Why are you helping me? What’s your angle?!” snarled the dragon, unfurling his wings. His red eyes pierced right through Emelia’s intentions, attempting to parse her motives.
Unlike her previous convictions, Emelia drew pause. Her face reddened as now it was her turn to shy away from looking her conversational partner in the face. “I… uhh…” she had to find the right words. She was so desperate to not screw this up. “I er…” her gaze flipped from one side of the room to the other in rapid succession as she avoided the dragon.
“Well?” He stepped towards her. She stepped back. “Speak,” he demanded.
“I want to be your Maestro.”
Silence.
Awkward, empty silence.
“You… what?” Albarich blinked, not certain he heard her right.
“I…” She lifted her head, looking him right in the eyes. “I want to be your Maestro. I want to etude with you. I want to give you my rhythm, my magic.” The words flowed so easily; it was a shock even to Emelia herself.
Albarich stared back, dumbfounded. “You really are stupid. No.” He shook his head.
“Ah… I see.” Emelia lowered her head. “I just thought-”
“What? You could say some words and everything would be stars and rainbows? That’s not how the world works princess,” the dragon growled.
“I see,” Emelia repeated. She made her way to the door, stopping for a moment. “Goodbye then,” she decided before walking out.