Work Text:
The King seemed to be taking his sweet time.
Well, sucked for him.
Marcy was using it to calculate every possible move and outcome, every reaction, every defence and offence she could deploy with her still available pieces, when something abruptly blocked her view of the board.
"Huh?" She frowned, eyebrows coming together and a slight frustration already building in her chest. A deep sound shook her from her thoughts, someone clearing their throat. Oh, right. It was King Andrias' hand, covering the table in front of her. Marcy's eyes rose to meet the King's face, who was staring down at her somewhat intimidatingly. Not like Marcy found him intimidating. Andrias was harmless, even though he could look scary at times.
"What?" She prompted, a sly smile on her face. She crossed her arms. "Surrendering already?"
King Andrias chuckled at her antics. The low rumble was louder than a normal-sized newt would have produced, but it served to ease the darkness from his features. "Why, no, Marcy. I've been trying to get your attention for quite a while now, actually."
Marcy felt the tips of her ears grow hot. "Oh. Uhm" her hands rose to fidget with her cape's fuzz, awkward laugh catching in her throat. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I know you can get" Kind Andrias smoothed his beard. "in the zone" he narrowed his eyes to horizontal slits as he finished his sentence. "Did I say that right?"
Marcy nodded frantically, shrugging off some of the embarrassment. "Yep."
The King let out an excited "aha!".
Marcy laughed, gaze landing back on the flipwart board. She'd let the King pick white, so that he could go first and gain some semblance of an advantage, but she'd already beaten him plenty of times, and she knew just about every way the game could turn out. Still, it never got boring. She enjoyed finding the most creative ways to get to the same result.
"I thought Anne was supposed to stay here with you" The King said, finally making his move.
Marcy faltered. "Yeah, well." Her voice strained. "You know, I couldn't stand seeing her so sad" she smiled despite herself. "I had to let her go with her family." She made the attack she'd been planning, her body moving through muscle memory.
"Oh, that's a good one" The King muttered under his breath, but Marcy barely heard him.
She could still feel Anne's arms around her, squeezing so hard that she couldn't breathe for a few seconds. Letting her go had been the right thing to do, and seeing the happiness back on Anne's face was more than worth the pain. Maybe it had been a little selfish, expecting her to stick around, while the closest thing she had had to a family in the last months walked away with a barely proper goodbye.
"But isn't it a shame? I did enjoy the company."
That hardly surprised Marcy. "Really?" She said, as a means of showing she was still listening.
It would be foolish to say she hadn't been looking forward to making preparations together. Their sleepover had been their last actual hangout, and it had somewhat made up for lost time, but Marcy couldn't help wanting more.
I could've taught her to play Flipwart, she thought, idly spinning a piece back and forth on the table. But she had to be patient. It wasn't like that was the end of their whole adventure. There were still three temples to go through.
"You humans are funny little things. You know, I do like your company too, Marcy."
"Aww" Marcy cooed, clasping her hands together. "Thanks, King Andrias. I, also, happen to think you're pretty cool. But if you're trying to butter me up, it won't work"
The King let out a playful hiss. His armor creaked slightly as he shrugged. "Worth a try."
He put his hand over his half of the board, making another neutral move, stalling.
"You know," King Andrias said, and his pensive tone made Marcy perk up. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. This seems like the right time."
Marcy felt her heart beat faster, curiousity taking a hold of her. She leaned a bit towards him, stumbled over her words in her haste to hurry him up.
"What- what is it?"
The King smiled at her obvious excitement. "The box" he said, slowly "it doesn't only lead to Earth."
"It doesn't?" Marcy echoed.
"It is a portal to a number of different worlds, dimensions, if you will. It's incredible, how many there are."
"Wait, really? Have you seen them?"
"Oh, sadly, I haven't. But our ancestors knew the powers of the box. They've told us tales, true ones at that."
"Well, tell me too!" Marcy urged, standing out of her chair. King Andrias chuckled, motioning her down with a hand. Marcy obeyed, but her energy could hardly be contained, legs bouncing like she just couldn't wait to run off and see for herself. "Please?" She added, for good measure.
"Alright, alright, I will. But don't forget about our game. I think I can win this one."
Marcy scoffed. "Ha! You wish." She smiled triumphantly as she ate yet another of the King's pieces.
King Andrias sighed, making a choice to defend his dwindling army.
"There are tales of creatures stronger and more powerful than any toad or newt has ever seen, colours we don't have words to describe, societies completely different from ours, from yours"
Marcy listened on, completely enthralled.
"My personal favourite is about a salamander taller than this palace, with wings like birds-"
"A dragon!"
"Yes, a dragon. Its name is Leviathan-"
"Isn't that also your name?"
"Yes-"
"Oh my frog, did they name him after you?"
"It's the other way around, actually"
"Oh"
"Now, if you'd let me finish"
Marcy gave a sheepish smile. "Right, sorry. Go on. I'll be mute as a fish."
"Leviathan was the first creature our ancestors met when they first traveled using the box. No one had ever come across something so great, for not even the tallest bug nor the most imposing heron reached half of its size. Its jaws were as big as an entire Barbari-Ant Queen, its teeth shaper than a Mantis' claws. They could hear its breathing, like wind blowing through the forest. The explorers feared for their lives, but then"
Kind Andrias paused, a hand raised in mid air. Marcy was hooked.
"They realised Leviathan was trapped. It was entangled in vines, moss had been growing on its body. Oh, the poor thing must have spent an eternity laying on the dirt, while trees and bushes grew their roots around him."
"The explorers set to work. They snapped the vines pulling his wings taut, they pulled up the roots to help it escape its prison. At last, Leviathan was free. And It hadn't tried once to so much as nip the explorers."
Marcy hadn't forgotten about the game. She hadn't, of course not, she just needed to know how the story ended.
"So then what happened?" She blurted out when the King didn't continue.
"Well," Andrias peered at her raising an eyebrow. His demeanor was still playful, yet something had shifted and Marcy couldn't put her finger on it.
"Leviathan understood that they meant no harm, so it welcomed them in its world. And that was the first of many peaceful missions to come."
Marcy draped herself dramatically over the table, as much as she could without jostling the board. "That's anti-climatic."
"Anti-what? Is that bad?"
"Sorta. It's kind of a boring ending."
The King chuckled. "Oh Marcy, these stories are better told alongside their paintings. Any of the pictures from the other worlds are some of the most beautiful views I have ever laid my eyes upon. I still find it hard to believe they were real."
"Oh, paintings?" Marcy shot up from the table, gripping the edges with newfound excitement. "Are those still around? I have to see them! Was everything else as big as Leviathan? Or was it just - wait, come to think of it, why are you so much bigger than everyone else?"
The King ignored her last question.
"They were all destroyed, in one way or another."
"Oh" Marcy whispered.
Her eyes wandered to a singular chip in the wood of one of the white towers. She hadn't noticed it before. It must've been recent - probably from one (or both) of them getting too carried away and quite literally throwing the pieces off the table whenever they ate them. It had a perfectly reasonable explanation, yet...it felt wrong, off-putting.
"Hey, how did that-"
"But, Marcy" The King interrupted her like he hadn't heard her, leaning over the table, hands on each side of their board. He almost looked menacing.
The edges of something like anxiety, or fear - why was she scared? There was nothing to be afraid of - began to claw at her stomach. The tips of her fingers felt numb.
"I have a proposition for you."
Marcy's throat closed up. Her eyes stayed transfixed on the board. She made a move, resuming their game.
"Wouldn't you like to see those worlds for yourself?"
The piece she'd chosen slipped out of her hand and fell on the board with a clatter. The sound that reached her ears was jarring and unfamiliar, more similar to a metal clang than a hard wood-on-wood thud.
Marcy pushed out a dry laugh, choking on air. "Why is that even a question?"
"I mean it, Marcy." King Andrias picked up the piece for her and set it back in its place.
She knew what he actually meant. King Andrias wasn't just telling her to take a peek and run off. He was handing her the whole "explorer" experience.
"You can't be serious- I mean" She gestured wildly with her hands, laughing again "How? What about Anne and Sasha?"
The King drew back, hands raised as a booming laugh filled the room "They could come too, of course!" The shift in mood gave Marcy whiplash. She scrambled to her feet and stumbled a couple steps back, feet catching on the legs of her chair.
The fabric of her skirt chafed against the skin of her thighs. She was about ready to throw up. "Well-" Her voice failed her.
It wasn't like she'd ever been serious about going back. Everyone had been so nice to her here - well, nicer, at least - and she'd done so much good work around the city, climbing to her rank so fast that it shouldn't have been -
"You didn't want to be alone, did you? Picture it, Mar-mar. You and your little friends, jumping worlds, having" he paused, then " 'a blast' " a low chuckle, and Marcy's ears were filled with cotton.
"Forever!" He tacked on, voice sickeningly cheery.
it shouldn't have been possible.
Marcy glanced at the board again. She had to check multiple times, because when had the odds flipped against her? Everything had been just as it was supposed to be one minute ago, the path to victory laid out in front of her, and then-
She surged back to the table, rushing to respond, a desperate last ditch effort to save the game. The muscles in her arm strained and burned as every lift of her fingers sent jolts of pain through her shoulder and chest. Cold sweat coated her forehead and palms, even her back, and her clothes stuck uncomfortably to her body and she gasped and gaped like a fish, suddenly realising oxygen was filing out of her lungs and she couldn't breathe.
"Ha-ha! Checkmate!" King Andrias exclaimed in celebration, and when he moved his piece forward it sounded like metal dragging on marble floors, leaving an ominous trail on the ground as it went.
"Wait, when-"
Fire and ice and lightning stabbed through Marcy's chest and stomach at once.
It was all she could do not to yell out in agony.
King Andrias stood, knocking over their Flipwart table as he did, and the pieces scattered all across the room, a cacophony of armor clanging and swords clashing and discordant screams and cries and static and she could almost make something out - someone calling for her, reaching out.
But she couldn't answer.
"Oh, Marcy" The King mocked, disgusted and distant and so, so cold. He almost looked sad. Disappointed.
She should have seen this coming, shouldn't she have?
It had all been laid out right in front of her from the start. Every last piece.
But King Andrias hadn't been the only one pulling the strings, leading everyone on, lying and scheming and -
"Now look what you've made me do." The words dripped with poison, or maybe that was just her blood.
- she'd lied too.
An apology fell out of her lips. This was all her fault.
"I'm sorry"
She should have known from the start.
"For everything"