Chapter Text
"It wasn't the Witches… but you… Silent Salt Cookie…?"
…
"SILENT SALT COOKIE!!!!"
SLICE!
"Hrgh–" Shadow Milk retched. He hadn't initially felt the pain; instead, he felt rage. Fury so great it could torrent an ocean. Level a mountain. Raze the entire Earthbread.
Only after a breath of silence did it hit him.
Agony; excruciating, extending throughout his entire body. His dough stung with a sharp ache, as if an iron hot poker was shoved through his gut. Jam bubbled up in his throat. He could hardly breathe.
He looked down at the pointed blade he was skewered upon, dripping and stained with his own thick jam. Bits of crumbs stuck to it. The slightest movement ripping deeper and deeper into his dough.
When was the last time he had felt pain like this? Perhaps when the Witches– no, Silent Salt and Elder Faerie– had sealed him away, leaving him to rot against the cold metal of the silver forks. Or maybe it was eons ago, when his ungrateful citizens had made an onslaught upon him, all because he had simply told them what they had wanted to hear.
Betrayal after betrayal. It was all just so… funny. He rasped a chuckle through ragged breaths, which then turned into a weak cackle that felt as if it was tearing his lungs apart.
There was a faint sensation of warm, wet tears rolling down his cheeks.
"YOU… FILTHY… TRAITOR!!!" Shadow Milk screamed, lunging over and reaching for Silent Salt. Desperately trying to claw into him, only to be left flailing into the open air. Stuck on the end of the sword, more jam gushing from his wound with every motion. Warm and sticky.
Silent Salt spoke, unreadable and expressionless behind jam-stained iron. "You call me a traitor, yet you yourself are the true traitor. For you have betrayed your divine purpose. The first to fall, and how far the once great Fount of Knowledge has fallen. There is not an ounce of Virtue left in your soul, and for this you must be convicted."
"YOU… How DARE YOU?" Shadow Milk shrieked, "You DARE act like you're better than me? More pure? You are no martyr, Silent Salt Cookie."
"Perhaps. But you, you are weak. You could not handle Knowledge, and now, you cannot even handle Deceit.
"SHUT! UP! SHUT UP! I'll show you WEAK–"
"SILENCE! This will be the end of your twisted fate, corrupted fiend! No longer shall you plague this world with your existence!" Silent Salt withdrew his sword from Shadow Milk's body, leaving him to crumple onto the ground, drowning in his own jam and writhing in pain. Silent Salt pierced the ground with his blade. "Plunge into Silence eternal!"
All went Silent.
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It was quiet– the deafening kind that clogged your senses and made it difficult to think. Dark, too. Shadow Milk couldn't see a thing.
Perhaps he was dead. That would be funny, wouldn't it? A pathetic death fit for a pathetic cookie.
Eons of studying, questioning, craving death, yet he hadn't expected it would come to him like this.
Was this it? Were the peaceful arms of death finally welcoming him into their gentle embrace? Finally releasing him from this pain?
Was he finally free?
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.
It still hurt.
Why did it still hurt?
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Was this to be his eternity?
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"O, Fount of Knowledge!"
The Silence was broken.
Shadow Milk's jam went cold as the voice echoed throughout the realm. He whipped his head around wildly, trying to locate it.
"O, Fount of Knowledge," the voice repeated, "Tell us, why were cookies created?"
A faint light shone amidst the sea of darkness, and Shadow Milk reached for it.
Suddenly, he was the Fount again. Standing upon a dazzling stage overlooking a sea of cookies, all clamoring for his attention.
"O, Fount of Knowledge! Answer my question!"
"Please, Fount of Knowledge! You know why, don't you?!"
"Fount of Knowledge, why?! Why were we created?!"
"Fount of Knowledge!"
"Fount of Knowledge!"
"Fount of Knowledge!"
No.
No, no, no.
Shadow Milk fell to his knees and wailed. He covered his ears, desperately trying to drown out the voices. Then, the scene shifted.
"Blessed by the Witches with infinite Knowledge? Why, it's a miracle! So useful!"
He saw the Fount's reflection in shattered glass. Bright-eyed, grinning, blessed. It flickered to Shadow Milk's, then back to the Fount's hysterical, tear stained countenance.
Again, the scene shifted, dragging Shadow Milk along with it. This time, his surroundings burned. Flames devoured everything in sight as screams of agony echoed around him.
Cookies; angry, weeping, pleading, suffering, all because of him.
The ringing in his ears grew louder.
"Why won't you answer my question?! You're supposed to know everything!"
"How can you call yourself a Fount of Knowledge if you don't even hold any true Knowledge?!"
"Fount of Knowledge, please, what do I do?!"
"Why did you lie to us, Fount of Knowledge?!"
"I don't understand… I– I did what you told me! You wouldn't lie to me… would you?"
"You don't know anything, do you?!"
"SHUT UP!" Shadow Milk squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stifle the sounds of their cries. "STOP IT! GO AWAY!" He cried.
"Liar!"
"Liar!"
"LIAR!"
"LIAR!"
Stop it.
"Fraud!"
"Fraud!"
"FRAUD!"
"FRAUD!"
Stop it.
Stop it.
Stop it.
"Let's go show that liar what happens when you try to fool everyone!"
Cookies swarmed him. Shouting accusations. Ripping him apart.
A single tear fell to the ground, and a Milkcrown bloomed. Soon, a vast field grew in tow.
The scene shifted once more.
SPLASH!
The icy cold depths of the Milk Lake of Truth greeted him with open arms.
Shadow Milk was sinking.
Slowly.
Quietly.
He reached up towards the light above the surface, yet it was out of reach. He was only sinking further.
Milk filled his lungs. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't gasp. Couldn't cough. Couldn't struggle. Could only suffocate.
His vision was beginning to darken as the light above him grew dimmer.
He closed his eyes and let the shadows consume him.
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"...Shadow Milk Cookie!"
A voice called to him.
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"Shadow Milk Cookie!"
Warmth seeped into his body, soothing the harrowing ache in his dough.
Shadow Milk slowly blinked his eyes open.
Through blurred vision, he saw a brilliant light. It called to him again.
"Shadow Milk Cookie!"
Shadow Milk, after immense concentration, was finally able to vaguely make out the face of the glowing cookie.
It was Pure Vanilla Cookie.
Pure Vanilla Cookie, cradling his limp body. Pure Vanilla Cookie, desperately calling his name. Pure Vanilla Cookie, pouring healing magic into his dough.
How pathetic, Shadow Milk thought amusedly.
He gazed up and locked mismatched eyes with Pure Vanilla's own frantic ones.
Pure Vanilla's gaze communicated a myriad of questions. Are you alright? Will you be alright? Are you hurting? Are you dying?
How do I save you?
In response, Shadow Milk only smiled weakly.