Chapter Text
It was fine.
Everything was fine.
Everything is fine.
She was fine.
Everything was fine.
They were inside a hidden house on beast-yeast belonging to her master, maybe he conjured it up for their current situation, maybe it stood waiting for him for thousands of years, it didn't matter.
It was fine.
They were all here together surrounded by shadows and lies, puppets with strings that extended to somewhere they couldn't see, books with words that danced, mirrors that reflected darkness, portraits that changed and changed and changed.
It was home sweet home as far as creatures of deceit were concerned.
Yet.
Yet.
Her master immediately disappeared into one of the many rooms of the house upon their arrival; she had quietly followed him until she couldn't.
Black Sapphire sighed and slunk away to another corner of the house.
She sat on a sofa in a random living room, there were chairs on the ceiling, the clock ticked as it hands spun wildly.
She thought things were fine.
Yes, there was a bit of a setback, but her master would come up with a plan, he'd order her to do this and that, then she'd do her part with utmost loyalty, then that lousy insignificant little gnat who dared to steal her master's soul jam would be dealt with.
Then.
Then her master would lay waste to the world, spreading shadows everywhere.
Then.
Then, then she'd be happily watching it all happen by his side!
...
......
What comes after that? She didn't care.
She was....
Lost.
Things were not fine.
They haven't been fine.
Ever since that miserable wretch showed up, her master was infatuated with him, Pure vanilla this and pure vanilla that.
And she understands, she does! Corrupting someone that annoyingly righteous would be fun, even for her, and he stole her master's power, two birds for one stone.
But her master didn't just want to corrupt him, no, he wanted pure vanilla to come to him, to beg him, to want him.
He.
Wanted.
Him.
To.
Black Sapphire always thought she was a ditsy obsessed follower perhaps, but she notices things, it's what she does, she hides, she sees, she lies.
And she noticed the way her master smiled at pure vanilla.
And sure, maybe she didn't quite have Black Sapphire's knack for spreading rumors, maybe she was a bit too impatient at times, and maybe she was obsessed with her master, but.
How is that something to admonish? her master was the beast of deceit, the strongest in all of earth-bread, the one who had the witches themselves in a bind.
Anyone who didn't see his greatness was a fool.
And Shadow milk did not suffer fools.
Shadow milk did suffer pure vanilla though.
Why?
why!?
WHY DID THAT PUNY IDIOT GET TO STAND BY HER MASTER'S SIDE-
And, look where that got him, broken.
She thought that he'd be back to normal after Pure vanilla revealed what he was doing.
Yet, her master seemed to be in a daze.
He floated forward, he didn't look like himself at all.
He didn't look at her at all.
She didn't like that.
She didn't like that at all.
Did her master care if she lived or died....?
Did he care about her at all?
He did!
He definitely did.
If he didn't, why would he have gone through the trouble of creating her?
He told her a story once.
About a beautiful garden, with an apple tree. A marvelous garden created by the witches themselves, enchanted to be a paradise for cookies.
In the garden, the witches put two cookies, to observe them.The witches warned, do not eat the fruit of the apple tree.
The cookies obliged for a time, though the sweet shiny apples did beckon, they remembered the witches' warning.
That is, until a serpent appeared in the garden.
Hidden away from the witches, the serpent cajoled the cookies. He asked them, what harm would eating an apple truly do?
Why did the witches care so much about a single apple tree, when they can manifest a forest in seconds?
And, were the two cookies not curious about how the apples taste?
The cookies were convinced, one of them reached for the apple and took a bite.
The witches were furious, and cast the cookies away from the beautiful garden.
The cookies cried for their folly, they could never go home.
And Shadow milk said, "The serpent laughed, for he had achieved what he wanted"
Candy apple understood what her master must've meant by telling her that story.
He was telling her about her purpose!
About why he created her!
It made sense, she was the sweet apple, to lure in fools with sweet lies, fools that the serpent would bite.
Just like, she lured that imbecile.
Right to her master.
And her master was defea-
No.
No he wasn’t, this is but a minor setback.
The point was, she is more than a passing thought in shadow milk’s vast mind.
She had to be!
She had to be.
She had to be.
But how could she be sure of that?
She has to find out somehow, the truth of her creation.
See, proper professional deceit always has a pinch of truth, that is what her master taught her.
If she saw the truth of her creation, she could know that she matters, the problem was, where was this truth?
The most direct option would be asking her master, but he certainly isn’t in the mood to humor her, and that aside record keeping was not her forte.
There was that library, the one she planted a lie in, in the kingdom of faeries.
That place seemed exactly like the kind of place that would have information regarding her master, and a bunch of useless boring books. It’s a start at least.
She will have to disguise herself, and it will have to be a new disguise, green apple faerie is no longer an option, deceit needs a bit of truth, so instead of the color, perhaps a flavor change is required?
Hmm, red, red, red…there was an idea.
Her apples changed into red orange slices, her hair turned vermilion, her dough into a light gray with a simple long scarlet dress, her eyes remained the same color, but adopted a droopy look, her wings turned wispy white.
She looked in a mirror to gauge her disguise, instead of naive kindness, this time she played the role of a shy closed off cookie, one who looked like she’d crumble if someone looked at her wrong.
It was perfect, she smiled, it didn’t fit her face.