Chapter Text
A door violently slammed behind Silent Salt cookie.
He blinked.
It took a moment for any thought to form in the thick, ringing fog covering his senses.
He looked around, recognized nothing.
Before him, a round table of ancient chocolate wood presented a glass of yellow tea to him. The last strands of smoke reached him; yuzu tea.
Silent Salt cookie met great difficulty when he tried to move his eyes around, but he managed after a few seconds of effort. The table was at the center of a room. To his left, heavy doors of gilded pretzels led to a small balcony; it was either sunset or sunrise, according to the orange light that flooded in through the muntins.
He looked up despite the stiffness in his neck. The ceiling was high; wide beams held the underside of the chocolate roof, and had Silent Salt cookie been more alert, he would have been surprised that he could not make out the style of the structure, he who had travelled hundreds of times across all cities and counties in Beast-Yeast. A new civilisation, perhaps; quite a young one, judging by the still pristine state of the construction. He had half a mind to recognize that wherever he was smelled of recently polished sugar bricks and fresh icing decoration, the characteristic smell of a newborn edifice.
The scent was drowned among much too many perfumes. Fruits, chocolates, flowers and dairies; the mix-up was chaotic, menacing to turn his lightheadedness into a headache if he dared try to distinguish a single smell from this mess.
Familiar voices echoed in the distance behind him. He turned to see the door that had just been slammed shut. It was window-less, but he needed not to see the Beasts to recognize their bickering. Either the door was so heavy that it managed to muffle down their words to meaningless whispers, or his sense of hearing was still too debilitated for him to comprehend what they were screaming about.
He was too dizzy to taste the rage that tingled his jam just at the acknowledgment of the other Beasts' presence. He laid eyes on high panels of stained glasses at the opposite side of the room he was sitting at. Five, the one on the furthest right only half-placed. The palette of colours was familiar although not quite right, but the thought of what they represented failed to blossom in his mind. He stared at them for a minute, entranced by the way the sugar glass glistened under the flamboyant sun.
Voices stirred him out of his absence. He slowly turned his head towards the source, ignoring the protest of his neck at the movement. To the right of the arrangement of stained glasses, a small group of cookies had gathered in a circle to speak. He glanced at the Ancients without realising their presence, barely stopping at White Lily nor Pure Vanilla cookie as his eyes locked onto an iridescent silver armor.
He froze.
"Our first true discussion with the Beasts could have gone… Better," Elder Faerie cookie sighed. "But I was expecting much worse, I must say."
"… Why hasn't Silent Salt cookie left with the other Beasts?" Hollyberry cookie whispered, not wanting the knight in black to hear her. "Should we wait until he leaves to discuss about them?"
Golden Cheese cookie shuddered. "He's staring at us… This cookie makes my dough creep. Isn't he going to do anything?"
Despite the —perfectly understandable— coldness towards the Beasts Elder Faerie had just demonstrated a minute prior, he seemed not to mind the strange behavior of the remaining cookie who, indeed, had turned his head to stare at them. None could discern his eyes, and yet the weight of his gaze pressed against the faerie cookie's wings.
White Lily cookie looked like she wanted to add something, but she ultimately decided to keep quiet. She needed to pretend that Silent Salt cookie was nothing but an enemy, but she wanted not to do so as long as she was not required to. She threw an hesitant side look at Elder Faerie, who gave her a reassuring smile in return.
"I do not think we are about to speak of anything the Beasts do not know of, as such, it is no issue that one of them might hear us. I am more concerned about why he hasn't said anything since he woke up… Being stripped off their powers and confined here is a heavy change, especially for cookies who never lived without their divine blessings. Let us give them time and space to accept their situation."
Elder Faerie turned to Pure Vanilla cookie. The poor king had been stubborn enough to not stay in his room to rest, insisting that he was more than healthy enough to be present; but the malady he tried his best to hide was written all over his face. He had not yet regained the entirety of his healing magic after tending to everyone and then himself, causing his dough to appear sickly pale. His wide robes concealed the numerous bandages that held his body together, for the cracks he had been inflicted by the Silver Fork would take long to heal despite the strength of his Soul Jam; the dressings were only visible when he moved his staff around or held anything, thus revealing his swathed arms for a second or two, betrayed by the flowiness of his sleeves. But as he was too debilitated to move much, he managed to keep them mostly hidden.
He had however combed his hair back to its flawlessly symmetrical style, and hid his fatigue with a kind smile of his, hoping no one would look at the streaks of black under his exhausted eyes. More than worn out by the last several days they had endured, he was hopeful. Elder Faerie held a lot of doubts about their decisions, but when Pure Vanilla cookie appeared so confident, he couldn't bring himself to chew on his incertitude.
"Shadow Milk cookie definitely was, not happy about it," Pure Vanilla cookie conceded. "But the other Beasts were far less furious than we thought they'd be. If they can manage to calm him down, and they certainly can, this should go on with far less screams than we feared."
"Calling that 'not being happy about it'… Oh, Pure Vanilla cookie, my friend. Please, never change!" Hollyberry cookie laughed. "Should we be letting them by themselves so early? They must be plotting our executions by now."
Golden Cheese cookie scoffed. "I'd be curious to learn how they plan on doing that. There is not much these fools can do without their Soul Jams, after all."
"Let us try to not spill oil onto the fire, Golden Cheese cookie." Elder Faerie shook his head. "As hard as it is, we must try to not be hostile to the Beasts, even if they themselves provoke us. Pure Vanilla cookie, my dear…" The winged king approached the blond cookie to hold his hand, perhaps to help him hide the way it was shivering from fatigue. "You who fought for everyone to participate in this, how do you believe we should proceed now?"
Pure Vanilla cookie appeared uncertain. His staff looked above Elder Faerie cookie's shoulder with a worried frown. "Well, hum… The Beasts need to adjust, you are right. Maybe we should let them think about things for now…"
The Ancients' eyes were following the same moving point somewhere behind the winged cookie's back; Elder Faerie needed not to look to know they were staring at Silent Salt cookie, and cared not as he knew his friend would not be of any threat. Thus he let them throw him quick glances, pretending not to understand they were quietly asking him to turn around.
After a minute desperately trying to make him look behind him with wide eyes and small signs of the head, Dark Cacao cookie abandoned any attempt at subtilty. "…Elder Faerie, behind you," he hissed between clenched teeth. The fairy looked over to see Silent Salt cookie standing just behind him, immobile.
The Beast of Silence was without the shadow of a doubt the most grim-looking of the five. He was taller than most Cookies, a menacing silhouette of inky black lost in the colorfulness of the room. Even in the comfort of a peaceful castle, he wore a full uniform of heavy armor scarred after violent battles. His visage was concealed by an ominous helmet that breathed unease into anyone who laid eyes upon it, leaving nothing but blind guesses as to where he was looking at.
He bore a curious scent. It was strong, the same inconspicuous smog of salt that Elder Faerie had always known, one that came out insidiously and reached the eyes before it reached the lungs. But it was stained with the unmistakable stench of smoke, clenching to him relentlessly, following him everywhere like his shadow. It rendered his usually discreet scent almost as strong as Burning Spice or Shadow Milk cookie.
Even without his powers and his greatsword, Silent Salt cookie did not look harmless in the slightest. His strange gesture to lurk just shy of Elder Faerie's frame without still saying a word did not help make him look any less menacing.
And yet, the fairy appeared perfectly unmoved by the cookie who reeked of black salt and ashes, despite the cold helmet hovering much too close to his visage. His stoic face remained as neutral as ever, and he merely tilted his head, unimpressed.
"Silent Salt cookie, good morning."
The Beast did not respond. The plume that decorated his helmet flickered with a shy creak as a small draught brushed through it, the first sound to come from him. But he moved not, and with the heavy armor he carried, his immobility grazed on comical.
"… Is there something you wish to speak more of, Silent Salt cookie?" Elder Faerie spoke more slowly; a hint of unease for those who did not know, a sign of worry for the ones who were aware of their pretense. Silent Salt cookie tilted his head too, although his gesture was done more in confusion than mockery or imitation. The fairy searched for the timid sight of an eye behind the metal, but the knight was in too much turmoil to reveal himself.
The other cookies stared at them with widened eyes, waiting for Silent Salt cookie to spit out venom as the four others had done. It was almost hard to blame them, knowing their situation; but when the Beast spoke, his voice was devoid of any animosity.
"… Where are we?" His voice was febrile by not having been used for days, and yet the confusion in his tone immediately winded all menace away in a single breeze. The six cookies blinked, taken aback.
Elder Faerie frowned, now openly concerned. "What do you… In the meeting room? Of the Kingdom's castle?"
The Beast looked around the room for a few seconds. He ported his attention to the flags and emblems throughout the room, then looked back at the six cookies. He tilted his head again, which now looked nothing other than sheepish, as he was almost too embarrassed to enquire. "Hum… Which Kingdom?" He asked hesitantly, discouraged by the way he was being stared at. The Ancients exchanged looks like he had lost his mind, and maybe he had; he was buried in far too much fog to establish his own state, and the blinding sunlight pouring within the room was making him dizzy.
"The Cookie Kingdom…? Have you… not heard what we discussed about for the last half-hour, Silent Salt cookie?" Elder Faerie asked, and as he did, he feared he might have sounded too friendly. Not for the Ancients, who had no reason to suspect anything; but Silent Salt cookie sounded off, and the fairy was struck with the realisation that the Beast might very well forget to pretend they were nothing more than enemies. Acting outside of how legends depicted him as was acceptable and even preferable, because there was no reason for Silent Salt cookie to uphold the façade of a cold killer. But if he lent in the same sympathy Elder Faerie couldn't resist giving him, their masquerade would crumble to dust way sooner than expected.
Thankfully, Silent Salt cookie appeared to remember, or at the very least was too abashed to reveal himself. He passed a hand behind his head in shame. "I am… afraid not."
"Mh-mh," Elder Faerie nodded quickly with a reassuring smile, sensing Silent Salt cookie was shy of his own disorientation. He turned to Pure Vanilla cookie with an inquisitive look.
"Anesthetics should have long worn off by now," the healer worried. "I don't understand what's plaguing him..." He approached Silent Salt, who observed his movement with a cautious eye that he accepted to reveal to the light.
The Beast let him raise a hand to his neck to feel his temperature. Only Elder Faerie and Pure Vanilla were close enough to hear the faint hiss of discomfort at the gesture; the hand retired, not wanting to fret him. Pure Vanilla appeared puzzled. "He endured a handful during the War, he probably just needs time to regain his senses. Are you feeling ill, Silent Salt cookie?"
The knight replied with a hazardous shake of the head and a weak shrug. His head turned to the Ancients like he had not noticed their presence before- for he truly hadn't. He observed them for a moment just long enough that they grew visibly nervous. His eyes were then drawn again to the faerie cookie who still stood curiously close to him, since none of the two had deemed it necessary to recoil; the guards watching them from a corner of the room were obviously distressed by their proximity, but had decided not to step in after witnessing the rather inexistent hostility of the Beast.
"And where is that Cookie Kingdom we are in?" Silent Salt cookie asked.
"At the Western coast of Crispia," Pure Vanilla said.
Silent Salt stared at him for a second, dumbstruck.
"… All right." he gasped out. That explained the different air and the strange scents. "And, hum… If I may ask, of course…" He turned back to Elder Faerie; he finally took a step back, not because they were too close but because he was towering over the fairy, and Silent Salt cookie knew that his size tended to make most cookies nervous. Not that it ever had bothered Elder Faerie, but habits died hard, even after centuries of the Silver King assuring him that he found his stature comforting.
"Ask anything you wish. We'll gladly answer."
Silent Salt gestured vaguely at the king for a moment, unsure of how even to ask.
"… How?"
There was no frustration at the sight of an enemy brought back to life, not a hint of anger like his compeers had spewed at the faerie cookie; just stunned awe that unknowing ears mistook for the utter puzzlement of a Beast seeing its oldest enemy having returned from the dead.
He looked at the one who had kept him locked in eternal darkness for eons with something akin to surprise, without any trace of the expected bellicosity that came so naturally to decayed Virtues. He indeed hadn't paid much attention to how the same discussion had went with his fellows, else he would have feigned at least a sour coldness to the Guardian of the Silver Tree's presence.
Elder Faerie feigned the same confusion as the rest of the crowd. "I… gave away my life force to White Lily cookie when you five tried to escape back at the Silver Kingdom. With her regaining the part of her whom had become Dark Enchantress cookie, and surely with the blessing of the Sugar Swan, I was granted a second chance at life."
Silent Salt cookie couldn't decipher if the fairy's story was senseless like he felt it was, or if he was sinking in too deep to process thoughts. He attempted to repeat Elder Faerie's story in his mind, but the meaning of the words escaped him and he forgot to reply. He shook his head to reorganize whatever bribes of logic managed to survive in there, which did nothing to help him and instead worsened his appearing migraine.
A hand landed on his, startling him. Elder Faerie was staring; the winged cookie did a small movement of his head as he widened his eyes as if expecting an answer. Had he said anything else? If so, Silent Salt had failed to hear him. He looked at the hand holding onto his intensely, but forgot to take away his own.
Elder Faerie waited for the Beast to react, to do anything, but Silent Salt did nothing but stare at his hand for a solid minute, frozen in place. Another call of his name and the retrieving of the king's hand finally had him look back up, but the Beast still did not reply, instead looking around as if he wasn't sure who had spoken.
Hollyberry cookie couldn't contain her smile. She huffed a small chuckle and feared it would ignite the Beast's latent wrath, but he did nothing of the sort, instead looking at her with another tilt of his head. "What did you give to that poor guy, Pure Vanilla cookie? How did you manage to make the Beast of Silence so docile?"
"I only gave him what everyone received, medicines for the pain and wound management. Why he is like this, I do not know why… But it is not of my doing," Pure Vanilla cookie replied.
He gave a pressed look at Elder Faerie, who understood the message. The Silver king turned back to Silent Salt to get his attention back. "How about going back to your room to sleep, Silent Salt cookie? You evidently need more rest. Do you remember where your room is?"
The nod that the knight had given at the first question came to a sheepish stop as he realised that he did not remember whatever room Elder Faerie was talking about. "Not really, no…" He murmured, not wanting to admit out loud he couldn't remember ever being anywhere in that castle.
Thankfully, that was what Elder Faerie had wished to hear. "Then I will take you to it. Shall we?" He took a step back, hoping the knight would follow: when it became clear he wouldn't take the hint, the fairy sighed and grabbed his hand, yet again with no resistance. He gently pulled, eager to lead him away from the Ancients before Silent Salt cookie's inexistent hostility would become cause for conjecture. But the Beast failed to notice the attempt to make him walk at first, seemingly preferring to stare in White Lily cookie's direction. A more insistent tug at his hand brought him back to the cookie pulling him away, and he followed with no complaint.
"If you feel able to listen, I'll re-explain what was said earlier. It is important that you know where you are and why you are here, after all," Elder Faerie said.
"That would be very kind of you, if it isn't of too much trouble," mumbled Silent Salt cookie, struggling with his own words. "Thank you."
And, there it was. Not too friendly to be overly revealing, but enough familiarity in his tone to raise eyebrows. The Ancients watched them leave, stunned; by the time they began to wonder if it was safe leaving Elder Faerie alone with a Beast, the two had already left the room. The door softly clicked as it closed behind them.
"Maybe one of us should accompany him?" Hollyberry cookie asked. "Ah, well. Silent Salt cookie certainly isn't looking like much of a menace right now! I never would have imagined that the Beast of Silence would be like this. You might not have the worst of predecessors after all, White Lily cookie!"
"Do not let a moment of weakness fool you," Golden Cheese groaned. "He did slaughter his entire army and people for power, remember? Do not forget who we are dealing with here!"
White Lily and Pure Vanilla exchanged furtive glances. While neither of them enjoyed the prospect of having to let false history run rampant, they were to keep their promise. So they clenched their teeth, waiting for the storm to pass through.
"Yeah, you're right… But maybe he won't be as hostile as we thought. I feared he wouldn't speak a word, with him wielding the light of Silence and all that… But he's actually oddly nice?" Hollyberry cookie hesitated. "Or maybe, he's just drunk on medication…"
"He killed his own people in cold jam; I'll bet on the second option." Golden Cheese cookie said. She, as always, preferred to stay in the air rather than lay her feet on the ground; she flew around everyone at the will of her wings, but White Lily cookie had very well noticed that her gilded friend had not approached her once, it be voluntary or not. She observed Golden Cheese cookie do a swift circle in the air; as the cookie in green and white looked down, she was met with a heavy, unblinking stare from Dark Cacao cookie.
She maintained his gaze with a shy smile and the hopes she was misinterpreting the awkwardly long stare of a cookie who, too, had clearly not been sleeping well since the war. He couldn't have possibly noticed anything worthy of suspicions; but his gaze oscillated between her and Pure Vanilla cookie, and she could not stop herself from worrying. For how long had he been watching them? The blond cookie stared back with a smile too, causing Dark Cacao cookie to frown at his obvious gesture of deceit.
"Dark Cacao cookie, my friend. How do you fare today?" Pure Vanilla cookie asked nonchalantly.
If Dark Cacao cookie suspected anything, he thankfully trusted his friends more, and he finally dropped the inquisitive look. "I could be far worse. I was merely noticing that White Lily cookie looks nothing like Silent Salt cookie, whereas most of us appear to carry some similarities with our predecessors."
White Lily cookie wondered if he'd have let it go so easily if Pure Vanilla hadn't taken her side, but she brushed away the bitter thought.
"I bear some resemblance to the cookie he was before he joined his fellows into corruption… Maybe he still bears some of the white and green he lost under his helmet, but only he knows."
Golden Cheese cookie groaned. "Let's not get our hopes up, all Beasts are rotten." She seemed particularly unhappy to give them a chance, something White Lily cookie couldn't blame her for.
Silence fell for a second. White Lily cookie looked at them each, admiring a sight that she thought she could never lay eyes upon ever again; the five of them, by themselves for the first time since… Since the Dark Flour War, she recalled with a frown.
A thousand things had happened. So many untold stories that were yet to be said; or were said at the meeting she failed to attend, plausibly. What had their lives been like before the young Cookies of this newborn Kingdom had brought them together again? Her other self had witnessed their lives through short moments stolen by magic, but she wanted to know every detail, told by voices she hadn't been able to hear for eons. She wanted to tear up as she was narrated everything her horrific misstep had caused her to miss, to know of all of their burdens as much as they had suffered from her own.
Tears of shame again threatened to spill down her cheeks, but she wiped them off. There was no time to cry, when she had two wars and countless deaths to make up for. Yet many tears would be cried because of her actions, but she deserved not to weep alongside the victims of her actions.
Pure Vanilla cookie had a noticeable limp as he approached Dark Cacao cookie. The latter took pity and offered an arm to support his friend. Despite what he assured each time someone worried about his health, Pure Vanilla's condition was taking its sweet time to improve. He had refused to let any other healer take a look at him, not wanting to 'waste resources'; of all cookies, it was Mystic Flour cookie who had managed, by some miracle only the Witches would ever know, to finally examine him. She had not spoken about it, as she spoke about nothing unless absolutely necessary. As far as White Lily cookie knew, only Pure Vanilla and the Beasts had received treatment from her hands.
She suspected Dark Cacao cookie had too, in fact. His scent the evening of the War had carried the same hint of flour that followed Pure Vanilla cookie around. But Dark Cacao cookie had ferociously denied it, and she knew he wouldn't give in. There was no getting the truth out of him when he decided it was not meant to be shared; she knew how stubborn he was and admired him for it. He managed to maintain this part of himself as a quality, unlike her whose perseverance had turned to a lethal flaw.
She watched the two embrace with the strange feeling of being a ghost. She was witnessing what she wasn't meant to; this was not jealousy, merely the sensation that she deserved not to stand to the side of the victorious, for they had won against her. Could she still consider Dark Enchantress cookie as the other her, now that they were one? Was she to join in, or keep her distance as the defeated one?
An arm passed around her shoulder, stirring her out of her thoughts. Before she could say anything other than a surprised gasp, Hollyberry cookie grabbed Golden Cheese cookie and brought the two to join in the hug. White Lily cookie found herself bundled around Pure Vanilla cookie, softly so he wouldn't get hurt. His laugh came out muffled down amidst his friends, weak but honest.
"There, no more mopping around for now!" Hollyberry cookie laughed. White Lily cookie smiled at her with tearful eyes; she earned to be held enough closer. Years ago, she'd have whined for Hollyberry cookie not to squish her so hard, but now she couldn't see how she could have ever complained about it. "We're all together and well. It's everything that matters for now, my friends."
"I couldn't agree more. I've been hoping every day, that we could find ourselves all together again, and now…" Pure Vanilla mumbled against Dark Cacao cookie. He tried to make a bit space for him, which his friends allowed, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.
His eyes immediately went to White Lily cookie. She hoped she looked better than she felt, at least good for someone who just both won and lost a war. If she closed her eyes and returned his smile, maybe she would not spoil his moment of joy.
"This is a miracle, far bigger than anything I ever could hope for. I cannot thank you enough for trusting my plan, even as I presented it to you sick and failing to find my words. What I hope we can accomplish will certainly be arduous, but with you by my side, I am confident that we can succeed."
The smile he gave his friends, radiant and sunny as always, sparked in them a natural and irrepressible urge for another hug. Pure Vanilla accepted the gesture eagerly, for he had missed them dearly; and each new embrace, each look, each time one of them uttered his name, he was met with the warmth of tasting again and again their first reunion since before the Dark Flour War.
He tried to keep the memories of that desolate era away; each time the flashes of the past rushed back to him, he hushed it away with bribes of more joyful reflections of his friends. They too tasted bittersweet, tainted by ages spent alone in the dark and the dusty layer of dust gathered after years without hearing of the other Heroes; but Pure Vanilla cookie was resilient enough that only fragments of joy, even drowned under despair and loneliness, were enough to hold on.
He sensed the same sadness in White Lily cookie. She has become better at hiding her own sorrow, but when they huddle together and she thought none could see her face, her eyes became veiled by a bitter shroud. But his orchid scepter that he never let go of, its eye standing higher than them five, saw all.
His arms remained around her even when the others let them go. He brought her closer, humming in approval when she wasn't sure if she could pass arms around his waist without hurting him.
"White Lily cookie, my oldest friend, my dear… Tell me, what troubles you?" he asked without accusation, because it was no mystery for any in the room that she had a lot to be troubled about. "We have been through a lot, but try to use this more than welcome break to unwind."
"Pure Vanilla cookie… I apologize, I meant not to taint your joy. I struggle to receive your sempiternal kindness without guilt, when I yet have to make myself worthy of it… I hope I can do so in the near future." White Lily cookie turned to her three other friends, having finally found the courage to look at them in the eyes. "I am sorry for everything, and I know my words are nothing compared to the devastation my actions have brought to everyone. I want to atone for my sins… If you still want me by your side, of course…"
Hollyberry cookie laughed. "You think we all gathered here just to ask you to leave, White Lily cookie? Of course we want you with us, silly!"
"The War is over, and the menace of Dark Enchantress cookie is gone. We are once again together after years each on our side; it is with great joy that I greet you again, my friend. May our reborn union last forever," Dark Cacao said. "And when you wish to walk on this new path you've found yourself on, may you remember our presence by your side."
"Hollyberry cookie… Dark Cacao cookie… Thank you." she said, but her mind held a faint hope that Golden Cheese would finally speak to her. Eyes of the richest gold threw wary glances in their direction, but the winged cookie kept her mouth shut. Silence settled in in the wait of her part of the discussion, but she only fluttered her wings in anxiety.
The second of wait betrayed her own silence.
"Hum…" Golden Cheese cookie hadn't much to say, but all the eyes weighting on her pressed her to say something, anything that would not ruin her friends' moment. "Yes, it is nice to have you back, White Lily cookie." She mumbled with a failed pretense at honesty that echoed in the silent room like a cruel mistral. She bit her lip in culpability; she had not wanted her tone to sound so austere, but as she shifted her gaze and prepared herself to speak again, her eyes landed onto White Lily cookie, and her voice vanished in a cloud of smoke. The imagery of both her friend and the cause of all her loss merged together into a mess she wanted not to approach.
She hoped her astringency would be put on the count of the fatigue painted all over her face, even as her wings betrayed her unease. Knowing to discern disquietude under poor choices of words, Pure Vanilla came to hold her hand, her golden bracelet a comforting icy sensation upon his still feverish dough. "We know you wish a little bit time to process everything, Golden Cheese cookie. Thank you again for coming here." He said, although she had never said it out loud; but he knew the source of her strange behavior, and understood how she found herself unable to say it herself. The gilded cookie nodded, a sheepish smile shushing away her frown.
"…Thank you, Pure Vanilla. I am, too, glad that you are here… All of you," she almost whispered, just loud enough that White Lily cookie could hear her.
"Not to ruin the mood, everyone, but… Shouldn't Elder Faerie be back by now? I hope nothing happened to him," Hollyberry cookie said. She looked with worry at the door; two faerie guards stood on each side of said door, but shook their head at the pink cookie's worry. "You two seem awfully confident in his safety."
"What can the Beasts do against our king, now that their Soul Jams are safe and away?" one of the guards asked. They bore uniforms of shiny silver, a novelty in Crispia that had attracted a lot of attention onto the cookies of the Silver Kingdom during the first days. Thankfully for the timid fairies, most cookies had now grown accustomed to the sight of the elegancy of their wings and the grace of their armors.
Golden Cheese cookie shook her head. "They are strengthless without their powers; weaker, certainly, but not inoffensive. Let us not assume they are kind just because that knight in black was too dazed to bare fangs."
The faerie guard gulped: yet another hint for Dark Cacao cookie. Was this cookie scared at the mention of the Beast of Silence, or did he too hold onto the same secret that lingered between the few?
He noticed the restlessness creeping under their armors. No, this was not only the fright of speaking to the Queen of the Golden Cheese Kingdom. They, too, hid something.
"… No, we are not very worried about it." the same guard said, winning a side eye from his colleague. "At worst, Silent Salt cookie will taste Elder Faerie's sword and will have no choice but to give up."
The two fairies exchanged distressed gazes as Golden Cheese cookie flew in front of them. She was smaller than most, which rendered her the same size as the two winged cookies: yet she stood proud and regal, and the guards fixed their posture as to be as straight as a cookie can be, willing not to disrespect her.
"Of all cookies, shouldn't the fairies be the ones who know best about the menace that the Beasts represent?"
"We…" The second faerie guard began, for his partner appeared to have lost his voice. But she had no more ideas to say as he did; the fairies had not been told anything by White Lily nor their freshly returned king, and had nothing but suppositions of what might be going on with the Beast and what ought to remain untold to wingless cookies.
Silent Salt cookie had come alongside White Lily cookie when she came back to the Faerie Kingdom before the war. He had spoken not a word, but had not shown any hostility towards the residents of the place; he had not been resentful of the Tree he had been stuck in for ever, instead approaching it fearlessly. He had gone to the tombstone newly placed at the center of the place and had sat down until it was time to leave, not giving a word nor a look to any faerie cookie. Did that still make him an enemy despite his peacefulness at their Kingdom? Why was White Lily cookie acting as if the one she had brought in as an ally was now a foe? With the war and the return of their king, the fairies had forgotten to question the situation.
Behind Golden Cheese cookie, White Lily and Pure Vanilla stared at the babbling guard with round eyes. The cookie in green shook her head discreetly enough that Hollyberry cookie did not notice.
"…We trust the strength of our King. Be assured that he will come back unharmed, your Highness." The fairy lowered her head, throwing only the quickest glance at White Lily cookie to make sure she had chosen her words well.
Golden Cheese cookie sighed. Thankfully, the fairies were barely more talkative than their king, and knew not to spill anything unnecessary. "You are devoted subjects; I want to trust that your faith in Elder Faerie is solid. If you say he is that strong, then I shall believe that he is."
She turned to go back to her friends, and the two guards finally let out the breath they had been keeping in.
"I'm sure he's fine," White Lily cookie added. "He proposed to Silent Salt cookie to explain to him their situation, since he appeared to have not listened to us the first time. That might take time, with the state of the Beast..."
Pure Vanilla nodded. "That is most likely what happened. Let us wait for him to come back… I'll go and sit down, if you'll excuse me." Dark Cacao cookie gave him an arm to rest on at these words to help him to a couch at the back of the room, opposite to the stained glasses.
Golden Cheese cookie watched the two sit in thoughtful silence. Her gaze drifted back to the entrance door, a hint of worry still visible on her face. There was not much White Lily cookie could do to turn around her friends' vigilance towards Silent Salt without revealing him; so she said nothing and hoped that Elder Faerie wouldn't take long, even though she suspected he definitely would.
Though she was almost annoyed to have been left by herself to fend to her friends, however, she had the occasion to say what had remained stuck at the bottom of her throat ever since opening her eyes back at the Silver Kingdom.
She turned to her four friends, three standing close to Pure Vanilla who sat on bordeaux-red velvet with his robes of jasmine white pooling around him softly. He was right; this was a new era, and she ought to make it right at the very start.
"Now that the five of us are together again," she began, "I finally can give you the apologies you all deserve... each of you. I am sorry for not coming to the meeting before the War in Beast-Yeast… I went on my own way, as always. It was a terrible choice in retrospective, one that could have ended in tragedy. Now that this folly is over, I, too, must confront my mistakes as to never repeat them again."
"Why did you not come, if I may ask? Both you and Silent Salt cookie appeared out of nowhere during the War," Dark Cacao cookie asked, careful of his choice of words. He knew he had brushed over something when she bit her lip and needed a second to reply. He could not look at Pure Vanilla cookie to see his reaction without appearing suspicious, but he had a feeling he too had tilted at his question.
"I…" White Lily mumbled. But she quickly regained composure, and she buried down any trace of doubt lingering in her tone. "I found the Land of Silence, the now desert remains of the once Great Barren, empty. The Beast had left its domain before I ever got to meet him. When I explored down under the ruins and found the catacombs, it became clear that Silent Salt cookie had left very soon after returning to his land, and it appeared he was headed for an island at the south of the continent; in a rush to catch up to him, I went to get the fairies of the Silver Kingdom, and we ran to search for him." She explained.
The two faerie guards at the back of the room nodded, trusting that she had reasons to lie so blatantly. White Lily cookie gave them a thankful smile before continuing.
"I had so much to ask him, and not only did I fail to reach him before he vanished in the island, but I also failed to come to our meeting… I am sorry." She dared not add that she had been terrified to confront them, especially when her other her was still threatening Earthbread and everything they had ever built. "And again, I know how little my words weight compared to what my actions caused. I thank you for letting me stay despite what I did, and I promise I shall prove my will to better myself by actions instead of mere words…"
Among everything that could have sprouted in Golden Cheese mind, it was a bitter thought that emerged first. One that whispered that her being allowed to stay within these walls proved nothing, for the Beasts were here as well, and if anything, White Lily cookie had been invited as one of them and not as an Ancient cookie. But she held her tongue and ignored the sting of her own venom in her mouth. Everyone knew that White Lily cookie's situation was ambiguous, and she refused to be bitter when everyone chose kindness.
So she only nodded, relieved when Pure Vanilla replied for all. "And we shall support you along the way, White Lily cookie. Welcome back." He raised a hand to beckon her closer, and she did so with a shaky smile, lending a kiss on the back of his hand.
-
The Cookie Kingdom castle was a curious one. Most castles built in Beast-Yeast had quite promptly drifted away from the early architectural decisions that the first Cookies had forged, when they had no reference but their imagination and no resources but what the unknown nature offered them. But the residents of Crispia appeared to have returned to the basics of the Early hours of Cookiekind; as such, the sight of this castle felt like a welcome return for any cookie of the old times that visited it.
The stairs that led to the Great Hall, the knight doing his best not to step on Elder Faerie's wings as they went down, were of chocolate planks glued together with salted caramel. The walls had been built with thick bricks of maple sugar that glistened under the honey-orange rays of morning light, the roof with raspberry hard candy, still polished and shiny. Each window and door was decorated with dalgona sculptures, pennons of cotton candy hung happily from beams and guard-rails. Everything was primitive as a Cookie-made structure can be, and yet that only rendered it more charming: it was a concentrate of everything cookies did best, without the desire to create uniqueness that civilizations' vanity quickly developed, and as such it excelled as the quintessence of what could be made with nothing but small hands and big hopes. No doubt that the Herald of Change would have adored the edifice.
Silent Salt cookie, too, would certainly have enjoyed the visit if his attention wasn't entirely on the cookie leading him through the halls and passageways. He did not register their itinerary, and the sensation of the hand pulling him through foreign corridors was nothing more than an afterthought.
Even when the voices of his fellows reached their ears, he failed to acknowledge that they were nearby. He rushed the pace in accordance to Elder Faerie's, who had no desire to speak with the other Beasts for the moment: he had much to say to his friend, but couldn't do so in their presence. Not only that, but he feared someone was too befuddled to pretend. Luckily, the four cookies bickering in the distance sounded too angry to notice them, and they trotted away without issue.
They passed before a window that held a lovely view of the brand new fountain of the castle, and behind it, the Cookie Kingdom basking in the morning light. Elder Faerie stopped, expecting Silent Salt cookie to discover the place they had been brought to; but the cookie in black only stopped and kept staring at him, perfectly oblivious to the window to his right. Only when his friend designated the window did he finally notice and looked through.
But he had no noticeable reaction. He observed for a moment, silent; then his head turned back to Elder Faerie, as if he knew not why he had been asked to look outside. The king sighed and continued his route, the knight following blindly as the hand holding his wrist refused to let go.
Silent Salt cookie had been given a room in the Eastern tower, close to the ones of his compeers. It was of modest size, much like everything in the castle, but had the novelty of being circular; the candles on the walls had not been lit up, and it was timid dimness only broken by the corridor's light that welcomed them when Elder Faerie opened the door.
It closed with a soft sound behind them, plunging back the room into darkness. Only one of the two windows offered proper light at this hour, for the other one gave onto North. Ironically, Elder Faerie's room was much more sunny, despite him handling the daylight terribly. Having spent his entire life under the eternal night of the Veil, even tame luminosity was enough to blind him at least partially; considering his citizens had struggled against even the evening light back to Dark Enchantress's lair, it appeared all winged cookies were sensitive to daylight.
He took a few slow steps, feet doing a crystalline sound against the cold floor, and turned to Silent Salt cookie : finally, he could lay eyes upon his dearest friend without needing to keep his elation secretive. The soldier had thrown not a single glance at his own room, his head still fixed onto Elder Faerie. Now that there was no light to make up for his posture, he appeared frozen in either shock or confusion, his shoulders stiff and his head just too high to be relaxed. He kept his pupils concealed, but Elder Faerie knew their eyes met as Silent Salt shuddered as if startled, a small shift of the helm as their gaze crossed and reality struck them both. Elder Faerie let his wings caper in celebration, the sun reflecting on their surface and sending a myriad of tiny dots on the ceiling; Silent Salt stared at him still, immobile like an old statue that witnessed the world for the first time.
Elder Faerie had so much to say, and no idea where to start. He took Silent Salt cookie's hands longingly, sighed when he felt his warmth through the chainmail icing that covered the knight's dough as always. He would never resent Silent Salt cookie for his choice to conceal his person under his armor, but at that moment more than ever before, struck with the realisation that they once again stood together, the selfish wish to witness his friend without artifices emerged in his mind, only to be pushed away by the joy to be blessed with his presence again.
"Silent Salt cookie…" he said, gaining a small tilt of the head from the knight, who looked down at the hands with the same stupor he had been staring at Elder Faerie since the Great Hall. "I cannot find words to say how I feel at this very moment. It's you…! It is you…"
Silent Salt cookie jolted at the sound of his voice, for it felt like yet another vision. "It is you…" He repeated his friend's words mechanically, processing what the fairy meant.
This couldn't be real, he thought. Everything was a dream, it had to be; each new information and sight added up to a situation Silent Salt cookie could simply not believe was true. He felt absent, a distant witness to the impossible, the dubitative public to a play trying to lure him into lies with a reconstruction of his memories and hopes. The scent of that yuzu tea appeared just as distant as the very cookie standing in front of him.
But the way Elder Faerie's hands squeezed his own felt true. The dimness of the room alleviated his foggy mind from the hundreds of colors and scents the castle was jammed with; the only source of light were the rays of regal yellow passing through the window, catching Elder Faerie's wings in their mist. The projected shapes on the floor and wall were of periwinkle and lavender, sparkling as brightly as his veil of iridescence; and suddenly the presence of the Beasts and Heroes in the castle stopped weighting on Silent Salt's mind, replaced by a familiar sense of composure.
Elder Faerie was looking straight at him. These icy-blue eyes, half-lidded for the fairy appeared bothered by the thin sunlight invading the room… They could not have been a dream, too earnest to be an illusion, and yet too providential for Silent Salt cookie to accept they could be anything else but a trick.
"Are you alright, my friend? You are shaking." The voice sounded honest, a string of crystal amidst a flurry of mists.
A concealed, hesitant hand lifted to cup Elder Faerie's chin, almost too shivering to succeed. The other hand joined soon as the knight began to tremble. The Silver king said nothing, letting his friend take in everything as if he was awaking only just now, in this dark room after an hour in the Great Hall.
"It's… you…" Silent Salt repeated again, only this time he was finally grasping onto reality, or rather, reality crashed over him, and his voice broke to a shattered whisper. "It really is you…"
Elder Faerie certainly did not protest as Silent Salt cookie but threw himself at him for an embrace, uncaring of the arms pressing with force around him, flattening his wings against his shoulders. They would be sore afterwards, and he wouldn't have it any other way. He returned the gesture even more desperately, hugged just as tightly to make sure Silent Salt cookie could feel it through his armor. His hands passed under heavy pauldrons to find shoulders to clench onto, refusing to let go despite the growing shaking that ran through Silent Salt cookie.
The first sob was merely a failure of Silent Salt cookie's breathing, perceptible only as a small quiver of his frame that Elder Faerie certainly would have missed, had he not been hugging him like his life depended on it. The second was a choked gasp, buried under the black metal of the soldier's helmet. If he tried to keep his tears in, all hope was lost the instant the almost imperceptible scent of Elder Faerie, almost entirely concealed by the scent of lilies that followed him everywhere, reached him. The king had no more fragrance than his denizens, and proximity was required to sense even only the ghost of whatever scent it was that he possessed; he had always denied having any, and since the matter appeared to offend him, Silent Salt had never dared insist.
"It's…" he tried, but his voice gave place to a crescendo of silent weeps he couldn't stop. Elder Faerie held him through his tears, whispering quiet words of comfort between silent sobs.
How precious it was, to finally hold in his arms the cookie he had been oh so guilty to have caged. Saying he had been regretful would be a lie, as both had acted for the most noble of goals, and Elder Faerie would never put anything above his mission. Pretending he had not lost years, decades even, of sleep as the image of his friend being shattered to pieces by that righteous Silver Fork would not leave his mind, would be an outright lie.
How he had missed this. This comforting stature, this bashfulness hidden under armor by a cookie perpetually conscious that he might frighten others, always careful not to appear as a menace, hiding gods-given abilities behind genuine courtesy. Even in moments of abandon like this very one, the faerie cookie could feel restraint in the way the Beast's arms pressed onto his dough, his friend abstractedly never letting his strength go without strict control. It was something Elder Faerie had noticed during Silent Salt's very first visit of the Silver Kingdom, and he had been quick to become quite fond of it.
The same effort applied to the cloud of salt unique to him; as Silent Salt cookie lost his fight against himself, the air became slowly saturated by thin particles of obsidian and white. Something that tended to make some cookie shed a tear or to stir a cough out of others, but they had quickly found out the penchant of fairies for salt. As such, what was a source of self-consciousness for the knight had turned to a point of good reputation for him in the Silver Kingdom, much to his confusion. Had Elder Faerie's wings not been stuck in place by plated arms, they certainly would have betrayed his delight to smell this flowy aura of salt again.
The poor knight was in a meager condition; Elder Salt has noticed it immediately, but his failure to keep his usual stoic demeanor only proved it further. He did as he could to not lose his callousness as well, even as tears imbued his already struggling eyes. "It's me, my dear… It's me. I'm here, and I am not leaving." he murmured with a voice that almost succeeded in its attempt to not tremble. Perhaps was he tired, too. He brushed it off, instead putting all his focus on keeping his wings out of his way as he guided Silent Salt to kneel down. "I cannot believe you are free again, away from the Silver Tree… What a miracle fate has granted us, what a blessing it is to be by your side again…"
The hands holding onto the fairy's shoulders lost strength and lowered their press around his waist carefully. He brought Silent Salt cookie closer and let his friend's head rest against his shoulder, listening to his admittance of abdication without judgement nor pity.
"Let go of what burdens you, my dear. You are safe now, and you can trust that I will not leave your side. May we both enjoy the new lives we have been offered, together…"