lady_moon | (no subject)

Her hand holds his in a reassuring grip and she smiles at him.

"Do you like the beach? The water is safe to swim in..."

"I can't swim," he whispers. "But it sounds pretty. Moon, what if Ruin comes after Draco again and I'm not there to protect him? Or Will?"

Moon blinks.

"Why would you need to protect Will? And you didn't protect him last time. Draco has to stumble on his own, Miniver. You holding him up every single time he falls isn't helping anything. Besides, I don't think Ruin's going to be doing anything to Draco anytime soon," she says somewhat smugly.

"I mean, protect Draco FROM Will and... and I know I didn't. And I know you talked to Ruin but... but... if I can't protect Draco, especially now he hasn't got his magic, what good am I?"

"Ruin will help Draco learn how to protect himself from the likes of Will," she assures him. Draco must learn to protect himself. Against enemies, against friends, against himself."

They near the castle.

"And you... you need to learn you have far more importance by simply being than by what you can do for someone like Draco."

"Okay, um, how? By getting kidnapped?" SULK.

D'Artagnan, who has more sense, nibbles at Miniver's ear.

"OW. Okay. Fine. So... I get to stay in the castle, then? Is there anywhere I can't go, or are you gonna tie me up or something?"

"Why? Do you like being tied up?" she asks with a faint smile.

He stops in his tracks, taking one step back. "No!"

She tugs him.

"Then why should I tie you up?" Moon smiles at him. "You're free to go anywhere in the castle where the door unlocked. The beach is yours, too, to explore. If you go far enough south, away from the castle, you'll find some forests... a fresh water lake... I don't know if there are any animals here. I've never bothered to look."

"...and if I get lost? Will eird magic things come eat me?"

"No!"

She laughs as they approach the massive doors to the castle.

"And you can't really get lost," she muses. "All paths lead here in this place... you just have to think about being here and when you turn the next corner... there it is."

"Okay. Will Dart get lost? He's just a baby after all..."

"Stop worrying, Miniver. This place takes care of what's in it. Dart will be fine."

The doors open on well-oiled hinges without her touching them, and she leads him into the main hall. Tapestries and paintings depicting the tarot and their various forms line the walls, and the stone floor is covered in a thick, deep red rug.

"Do you want to be in an upper floor room or do you prefer to be on the ground?" she asks, stopping at the massive spiralling stairwell in the centre of the hall.

Miniver's mind is only half with her or less. He's busy staring in wonder at the surroundings.

"Um, wherever you have a room, I guess."

Probably upstairs. He's a little like a bird. He likes to be up high. Always has.

She giggles and watches him from the first step of the staircase.

"You like them?" she asks.

"Uh-huh. Did you make them?"

Moon giggles.

"Skill did. She's the one who can do those sorts of things without any problem. I don't have all that much concentration. Have the creativity for it, the ideas... but not the ability to focus it."

"Woooow. So um... where is everybody? How many of you live here?" He holds Dart's leash to keep him from flying off to investigate. Miniver is not so brave.

"There's only twenty-four of us who have woken or been created. There's room for all seventy-eight of us, plus guests, but the castle sort of adjusts its size as we need it to," she explains. "Skill is in the kitchen and Sorrow is in her room. Star is here somewhere. She's come visiting for a bit. Fortune's also here, as is Choice. But Choice almost never leaves the castle. He's the one who has the power to make the other cards."

"Oooh. Wow. Sorrow. Sorrow's... Ruin's daughter? Right? Draco told me..."

He keeps following Moon, awed by everything.

She walks up the stairs.

Up and up.

"Yes. Her dallied with a peasant girl shortly after he was made into a card. Seven years later, she dumped the child on him. Hadn't even bothered to name the little girl, thinking she was nothing more than a curse. Ruin named her Reue. Raised her with help, of course, and when she was seventeen, she became Sorrow."

"Can I meet her?" he asks breathlessly. He's not used to exercise.

Moon slows down, pausing to give him a break.

"Would you like to?"

"She's not... like him.. is she?"

She giggles and shakes her head.

"No. Sorrow's... well, she's very quiet. Thoughtful. No one in our family is quite like Ruin. And he has his reasons for why he is what he is. Too much bad when he was a human, and then the burden of being Ruin. It broke him. But Sorrow has the best of him in her, I think."