Novel Full Chapter 454 - 454 And Her Mother Knows It
----- Final part of Trigrath's story, Kamiko's thoughts still.
Leaving Kamiko's torture for just a moment, Trigrath was making his way into the auditorium. It was actually a rather impressive piece of enchanting work that had stayed in use for quite some time. There was a number of seats laid on in the standard formation for large viewing areas like the cinema or concert halls. The special enchantments on this one, was that it made the stage appear as if the watcher was in the front row regardless of their actual position in the room.
It did this with a combination of space warping runes that would actually work somewhat against Kat, because what was happening is that the runes would collect the light from the stage and make it look closer, rather than utilising an illusion technique. Kat would be able to tell something was wrong, knowing what she saw was almost an illusion but not through it… until Rank 3 or 4 when the ability got more sophisticated.
What this really meant though, was that it was an excellent viewing experience for the whole hall, allowing the judges to sit at the front in a private booth hidden from others without it causing viewing issues for the people behind them. Currently, the stage was being used by a small time band that had been contracted to play to keep the parents busy. It was more for them to get some exposure and practice then a true job, especially as the members were family members with the organiser.
Still, this kept Trigrath occupied while Kamiko and Aslena were in the other room. Back, to them actually, would find Kamiko with a large hat covering her eyes. Even for Aslena, watching her little sister try to hard to fight back tears was a somewhat painful thing once the rush of tricking her was over. Oh sure, she had no regrets, but that didn't mean she wanted to be reminded of how much she was traumatising her sister while she worked, so the hat was the second thing to go on after the dress.
What Aslena was doing, was starting to sew strips on. Those were actually the first accessory she'd started with. Trying to 'make it more professional' and fight against her instinct to just throw colours at the problem and make it go away. Aslena while a gifted designer, was still very much a child at this point. All the reading of fashion and knowledge of colour theory was great, but really bad at suppressing the childlike wonder of 'lots of pretty colours make everything better'
Still, she had tried to keep it professional with the fabric scraps. Sure some where a little too long, but that was fine. She didn't have time to sew them all on properly she only had an hour back here to work and she was going to use it.
Once she'd created what was basically a second skirt, Kamiko had recovered somewhat. She had a nice hat that hid the world from her, so she could pretend she was just at home and not about to be put in front of hundreds of strangers. It was a comforting thought that she decided to hold onto, just to stop the tears for a bit.
Eventually, as the deadlines started approaching, Aslena decided she hadn't done enough to stand out. In reality she really had, but she was something of a perfectionist, even if her idea of perfection was very wrong. The idea of creating the cutting edge of fashion had wormed its way into her brain and become a goal some time ago, and she couldn't just leave things as they were.
Because of this she started on the stickers. She had plenty of extra real estate to work with, having mostly just used the bottom of the dress at this point. So she just started going to town with them, plastering Kamiko's back and arms with them as best she could.
Finally, there was just the front left, and Aslena was really scratching her head on that. Five minutes to go and not a unique thing in the room. She reached over to the snack bowl hoping a little sugar would help her think of something when she paused. Her eyes drifted from the two snack bowls, to Kamiko, and back.
Aslena smiled, thinking she'd just cracked the code. They were told they could use anything in the room as long as they didn't break anything like the mirrors or the clothes horse holding the dresses. She decided the bowls were fair game.
So that was how Kamiko ended up walking out on stage with the bowls strapped to her, with considerable amount of glue to keep everything in place, even some on her skin, something Kamiko as a four year old, did not understand the problem with and thus had managed a fairly brave façade when she was finally called outside.
Standing in line behind the other girls who looked just as crazy as she did, was somewhat calming… until their numbers slowly dwindled. Kamiko tried to open her mouth to speak to the ones nearby, to try and gain some form of understanding, but the words died in her throat. She couldn't speak.
The stage was getting closer. The number of people before her dwindling swiftly, and the emotions building within her. There was no calming presence to reassure she was fine. Just a strange man with a clipboard standing off to the side looking disinterested. She started to hop lightly from foot to foot, the nervousness requiring some movement from her to contain properly.
As her movements increased though, the clipboard man placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her in place. Her movements had started to create a good deal of noise, and they couldn't have that. Kamiko paled, even more than she had already and sadness welled in her eyes but the tears wouldn't come. She was scared. She couldn't deny it. She was terrified. She wanted Mum, she wanted Dad. Heck, at this point she'd even take Aslena just to have someone familiar nearby.
So when all of a sudden she was pushed out onto the stage, not having the awareness to realise she was the only person who hadn't walked, she froze like a deer in the headlights. She tried to take a step forward, but found herself unable. Tears finally started to build in her eyes and started to trickle down her face.
The stage was so long, it never seemed to end. It stretched towards a darkness containing so many eyes that all held expectations for her. All wanted to see her in something she'd had no desire to wear, all wanting to see her FAIL. They were everywhere. More eyes then she'd ever seen, and she'd seen a beholder before. Kamiko's knees wobbled as she started to fall, her body giving out from the sheer weight of the terror starting to press itself in on her, when an angel, not literally of course, saved her.
What Kamiko didn't know, and even her Father would never learn, was that a colleague of Nira's was in the judges panel and had recognised Kamiko instantly, as well as the look on her face. She was a master illusion based Succubus and therapist who worked with Nira on specific cases, and had become somewhat of a friend with her. Her name was Karanth.
She blurred into action. The only Rank 5 on the panel, her illusion was thrown up over the poor shaking girl as she was brought into her arms and back into the judges' booth. Karanth went a step further, blanketing herself in an illusion the whole time so that when she made it back to her spot, nobody knew she'd been gone, and nobody could see the child she'd picked up. Karanth pushed her energy into a silencing skill bubbling out from her skin, as she held Kamiko close.
"It's ok little one. It's alright, breath" said Karanth
Kamiko lost it. Deep, heart wrenching wails broke out of Kamiko as the tears doubled in size, soaking deeply into Karanth's outfit. "Kamiko dear, it's you right?" asked Karanth
All Kamiko could manage was a small nod of her head as her tiny hands gripped what they could of Karanth's shirt burying her face into the impressive chest the Succubus sported. "There there girl. Cry it out, please" said Karanth kindly.
The contest went on. The Kamiko illusion acting as if nothing was wrong, even continuing offstage and acting in place of the original for a bit. Karanth waited till Kamiko cried herself out before asking. "Why are you here dear?"
This started the water works again, as Kamiko managed to choke out between sobs "I. I. Don. No"
Which lit a blazing fire in Karanth's eyes. Glowing a deep hostile red as her aura started leaking out of her and wrapping around Kamiko protectively. Karanth knew what she would do. Nira would hear of this. Aslena would be punished.
Of course, these details were not know to Trigrath, but Kamiko filled Kat in on them much later. And well… Aslena's punishment was legendary… but not part of this tail.