Chapter 68 – Moon and Sun.

Noxx was standing in front of the nightstand.

The two pistols were still there, one beside the other, silent. After the little incident with Iris, neither of them had dared to say anything else. They were still, lined up on the dark wood, waiting.

Behind her, sitting on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed and her hands resting on her knees, the queen watched her in silence.

Noxx could feel that gaze nailed to the back of her neck.

It was not an aggressive look or a mocking one. It was worse. It was a calm, curious, patient look. The look of someone watching an interesting show and not wanting to miss a single detail.

Noxx swallowed.

'This is insane,' she thought, looking at the pistols. 'This is completely insane.'

Because Matt’s order had been exactly that.

Make a contract with both of them.

'Why?' Noxx asked herself, clenching her fists a little. 'Why this, of all things? Out of everything he could have ordered me to do, why this?'

For months, Matt had refused to make a soul contract with any ego-weapon. And not because he did not respect them. It was because a soul contract was a bond.

A soul contract with a vampiric weapon meant belonging, even if only a little, to the vampire kingdom.

And Matt had hated that kingdom with all his strength.

Noxx knew all of it. She had seen it from the inside.

And now Matt was telling her to contract both of them.

'Now,' Noxx thought, narrowing her eyes. 'Right now, while the queen is watching. Thank you very much, Matt. Seriously. Thank you very much.'

Inside her head, she got no response.

Matt said nothing.

'Ah, right. Now you decide to play silent,' Noxx thought, her inner voice loaded with sarcasm. 'Before, you wouldn’t stop talking to me when I needed you to shut up, and now that I need you to explain why the hell you’re asking me to do this, you decide to disappear. Very Matt of you.'

Silence.

Noxx slowly exhaled through her nose.

'Fine,' she thought, gritting her teeth. 'Fine. I asked for an order. He gave me one. I can’t start questioning it now, because then the whole point of asking for one falls apart. If you want to play it like this, then we’ll play it like this.'

Noxx took a deep breath and reached toward the nightstand.

"They’re beautiful."

The queen’s voice came from behind her, calm.

Noxx froze with her hand halfway there.

"I had never seen them up close," the queen continued, using that gentle tone she used when she wanted to get a reaction out of her. "An ego-weapon with two twin bodies is quite rare. And pistols, at that... that is almost unique. Your little adventure must have been very interesting."

Noxx did not answer.

'Don’t give her material. Don’t give her material. Don’t give her material.'

She repeated Matt’s words three times in her head, like a small prayer, and continued the gesture she had interrupted.

Noxx lowered her hand and touched one of the pistols.

Fzz!

A spark of heat ran up her arm the moment her fingers brushed the metal. It was not painful. It was recognition.

The pistols recognized her.

Or recognized the body, more accurately.

Noxx closed her eyes for a moment.

'All right,' she thought. 'How exactly do I do this?'

Inside, silence.

Noxx pressed her lips together.

'Matt.'

Nothing.

'Matt, don’t do this to me.'

Nothing.

A sigh.

Noxx looked at the two pistols.

The blue one, in her right hand, was lighter and thinner. The red one, in her left hand, had a slightly thicker barrel and its weight was better distributed toward the front. Both of them faintly shone under the room’s light, with a calm glow that did not come from reflection, but from within.

Noxx felt her heart beating fast... and started doing what she believed was how to form the bond with the weapons.

"I..." she said, her voice clear. "I want a soul contract with both of you."

The queen became very still behind her.

Noxx did not see it, but she felt it. The air in the room changed. That calm presence that had been there all morning sharpened just a little.

Noxx did not stop.

"I promise to carry you with me wherever I go. I promise not to leave you behind. If one day you break, I will carry your pieces. And if one day I fall, you will be the last things I let go of."

The pistols began to glow.

It was a soft glow at first, barely a warm shine across the surface of the metal, but it grew.

The blue one was covered in a cold light, like the edge of a gas flame. The red one was covered in a warm glow, closer to fire.

Noxx felt both lights climb up her arms, entering through her skin, searching for her chest.

"One of us will let go of the other someday," Noxx continued, her voice growing firmer. "I hope it’s me, and not you. But if it’s you, I won’t blame you."

Silence.

And then, the two pistols spoke at the same time.

"We accept."

It was a single word spoken by two voices. One high-pitched, one a little deeper. Overlapping.

Noxx let out the breath she had not even realized she was holding.

"Master."

The high-pitched voice came from the blue pistol.

"Mistress," corrected the slightly deeper voice from the red one, and the two argued for a second before deciding.

"Will you give us a name?"

"A name. A name, a name, a name."

"One for each of us. Don’t get lazy and give us the same one."

"Yes. One for each of us. Now."

The voices tripped over each other, coming out together, excited, more nervous than threatening. Like two girls who had been waiting for something for a very long time and were finally receiving it.

Noxx swallowed.

'Names,' she thought. 'Names? I wasn’t ready for that.'

Inside, silence again. Matt was not going to solve this one for her.

Noxx looked at the blue pistol. It was cold to the touch, but elegant. The blue of the metal was deep, almost like water.

'Moon,' she suddenly thought. 'It looks like a moon.'

"Moon," she said in a low voice.

The blue pistol trembled slightly in her hand.

"Moon?"

"Yes."

"Moon!" the pistol repeated, and her voice suddenly sounded much higher, almost excited. "Moon, Moon, Moon! I like it! It sounds round and pretty! Moon!"

"Okay, okay, don’t repeat it so much," the red one said, a little annoyed. "And me?"

Noxx looked at her.

The red one was heavier, warmer. The metal shone with a color close to the red of sunset, but with a deeper gleam beneath it, almost orange.

"Sun," she said.

The red one stayed silent for a second.

"...Sun?"

"Yes."

"I see..."

Noxx blinked nervously.

'Did she not like it...?'

Not wanting to give a bad impression to the ones who would be her companions for a long time, she cleared her throat before saying:

"Since I went outside and was able to see the moonlight and the sunlight with my own eyes... I couldn’t help comparing you a little to them."

"...Ah. Ah, yes. I like it more with that," Sun answered.

"You like it now?"

"Yes. Now it makes sense," she answered proudly.

"Just because it makes sense?" Noxx asked, confused.

"I’m practical. It’s a good name. Sun sounds pretty firm too."

"Moon and Sun!" Moon shouted, as if she had just discovered the best pair of words in the world. "They sound good together!"

"We’re twins."

"Matching twin sisters!"

Noxx felt the corner of her mouth almost twitch.

These two were loud.

Very loud.

And then the pain started.

Zsss!

It was a stab at first. Just one, sharp, right in the center of her chest. As if something inside her had recognized that two new entities wanted to enter and had decided not to let them pass yet.

Noxx tightened her hands around the pistols by reflex.

'What is---?'

Zssss!

The second stab was stronger, and it spread through her insides.

It was not only in her chest.

It went down to her stomach. It rose up to her throat and opened her lungs from within with a strange pressure that had no name.

Noxx’s knees bent.

"...Uh."

The sound came out weak.

She bent further.

Znggg!

The third stab made her fall. Both arms trembled. Her knees gave out. Noxx fell to her knees on the cold floor of the room, with both pistols still pressed against her chest, breathing through her mouth in short gasps.

"Ah---"

The pain did not go down. It climbed.

It was as if something inside her was splitting into three pieces. Or joining into one. Noxx did not know which of the two was worse. She only knew that her entire body was starting to tremble and that the feeling of being about to explode was very, very real.

'What’s happening? Why does it hurt like this?'

And then, behind her, the queen moved.

Noxx did not see her move, but she felt it. It was fast. One step, two, and she was already beside her, kneeling on the floor with a speed that did not match the calm she had shown all day.

Crack!

A dry sound.

Noxx barely lifted her gaze, her eyes blurry.

The queen had broken one of her own fingers.

She had broken it herself, with her other hand, without a single change in expression. The bone of her index finger now stuck out slightly at an angle it should not have, and blood poured from the broken skin. Red blood, dark, dense.

Queen’s blood.

"Swallow," the queen said in a dry tone. "Now."

And without waiting for an answer, she pushed her bloody finger into Noxx’s mouth.

Noxx wanted to pull away.

She really did.

But she could not move. Her body was not responding. The pain had pinned her to the marble, and the queen’s free hand, the one that was not broken, had already grabbed the back of her neck to keep her in place.

"Swallow."

The voice allowed no argument.

And Noxx, between the pain, the disorientation, and that firm hand on the back of her neck, swallowed.

The blood went down her throat, warm, dense, with a metallic taste that was not unpleasant like Noxx would have expected. It was... pleasant.

And as soon as the first drop touched her stomach, something in Noxx’s body responded.

The trembling eased slightly.

The pain did not disappear, but it stopped rising. It stabilized at a horrible level, yes, but a bearable one.

Noxx closed her eyes and kept swallowing, unable to do anything else.

◇◆◇

In the mental world, the grass was green and the sky was a calm blue.

Matt was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, and in front of him, a television and a console had appeared out of nowhere.

Well, not out of nowhere. He had created them, with the same naturalness with which Noxx created things in there, because after so many months he had already learned how this worked.

Aurora was sitting beside him, her legs pulled against her chest, her arms around her knees, and her full attention nailed to the screen.

"So," Matt said, pointing at the controller in his hands. "This is a joystick. You move the character with this."

"Where?"

"Wherever you want."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere the game lets you go."

"So not anywhere?"

"No. Anywhere the game lets you go."

"Then it’s not anywhere."

Matt sighed.

"It’s a figure of speech. Focus."

Aurora nodded seriously, as if she had just received the most important military order of her life.

"I’m focused..."

"This button is for jumping."

"And this one?"

"Don’t touch that one."

"Why?"

"Because it opens the menu, and the menu will confuse you."

"I don’t get confused."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don’t."

"Aurora, two minutes ago you asked if the joystick was chewable."

"It looked biteable."

"It did not look---"

Matt stopped halfway through the sentence.

Aurora noticed instantly.

"Master?"

Matt did not answer.

He was looking down, his brow furrowed, his free hand barely pressing against his chest.

"Master?"

And then it came.

Zsss!

The pain grabbed him all at once. It was different from Noxx’s, because he was not the one making the contract, but it arrived all the same, through the shared bond, with the force of something that did not ask permission.

Matt dropped the controller.

Tac!

The controller fell onto the grass.

Matt bent over.

"Uh---"

Zssss!

The second stab threw him to the ground. Matt fell onto his side, his knees pulled against his chest, breathing shortly. The green grass of the mental world lightly scraped his cheek.

"Master!"

Aurora stood up and remained standing, firm, both eyes wide open, looking at Matt and then looking upward, toward a part of the mental world’s sky that had nothing special about it but that she seemed to recognize immediately.

"Bastards...!"

The word came out with a force that was not her usual one.

"Bastards!" she repeated, louder. "Bastards! Bastards! Are you trying to fuse both of yourselves at the same time? Are you trying to shove yourselves into a soul that is already shared with three others? Do you not have any common sense?! BASTARDS!"

Matt, from the ground, with the air escaping him, looked at her through narrowed eyes.

'Aurora... is angry?'

It was strange to see her angry.

Aurora almost never got angry. Aurora got jealous, proud, curious, clingy, stubborn, stupid, charming, annoying. But angry, truly angry, with that serious face and that low voice, was extremely rare.

And now she was angry.

Aurora lowered her eyes toward Matt. Her expression changed instantly.

"Master. Hold on."

"What is---" Matt coughed.

"You’re feeling Noxx’s fusion with the pistols."

"Ah."

"But they’re idiots and they’re doing it wrong."

"How... do you do it wrong?"

"They’re pulling hard in every direction at the same time. And Noxx doesn’t know how to hold them. She doesn’t know how to close the door on one to let the other in. She doesn’t know anything. She’s doing everything for the first time, and those two idiots are pulling on top of a soul that already has three tenants."

Matt closed his eyes.

'That’s true.'

The realization hit Matt all at once, even through the pain. He had gone through this twice.

Once when he separated from Iris, when he first learned what his own soul was and how to push it, shape it, separate it from another.

And another time with Aurora, in the cave, when the fusion with the bow-lance had been so clean and so fast that it had barely hurt.

But Noxx had never done any of this.

Noxx had never separated a soul.

Noxx had never opened or closed a space in her own.

Noxx had only inhabited Matt’s. And now she was trying to incorporate two new entities at the same time without knowing how it was done.

'I forgot,' Matt thought, his face pressed against the grass. 'I forgot to explain it to her.'

Aurora crouched down, placed both open hands on the grass with her fingers spread, and lowered her head. Her eyes, one red and one blue, closed in concentration.

"I’m going to intervene," she said in a low voice.

Matt half-opened his eyes.

"What?"

"In the fusion."

"You can do that?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I watched you."

Matt blinked.

"You watched me do it?"

"Many times. When you separated your soul from Noxx’s in the cave. When you shaped it. When you pushed it. When you fused with me. I was there. I saw everything. And even though I couldn’t say anything because I was still just a simple weapon... I learned. I learned how it’s done."

Matt looked at her from the grass.

Aurora still had her hands on the ground, her eyes closed, her head lowered. And for the first time since he had known her, there was something about her that was not loud, childish, clingy, or jealous.

It was serious.

Very serious.

Matt felt a strange pang in his chest. One that, this time, did not come from the pain of the fusion.

'Aurora.'

He did not say it. He only thought it.

But he decided this was not the moment to stay lying down.

Matt placed a hand on the grass, pushed, and managed to sit up. The pain was still there, pulsing in every vein, but his body responded, barely, if he asked things of it calmly, and he ran a hand over his face.

"Me too," he said.

Aurora opened one eye.

"What?"

"I’m going to help too."

"You don’t need to."

"Yes, I do."

"I can do it alone."

"Aurora."

She looked at him for a second, and something in her face softened.

"...All right."

Matt closed his eyes and placed one hand on the grass too, beside hers, then took a deep breath and sank inward. He sank into the hot, wide feeling that was the bond between the four souls now, his, Aurora’s, Noxx’s, and the two new ones trying to enter.

He could see them.

Not with his eyes, but with that strange way of seeing he had learned over time.

Moon and Sun looked like two tight balls of light, one blue and one red, spinning in disorder around Noxx’s soul. They pushed to get in. They entered through different places. They crashed into each other. Neither of them knew what she was doing either.

They only knew they had to join, and they were trying to do it by force. And Noxx, on the other side, was trying to endure them with a soul that did not know how to open or close itself.

It was a disaster.

'Now I understand why it hurts so much,' Matt thought.

Aurora, on the other side of the mental ground, was already working. Matt felt it as if another hand had appeared inside the shared space, grabbing Moon firmly, still, holding her in place, silently ordering her to stop moving so much.

Matt did the same with Sun.

He did not speak.

He did not give orders.

He simply grabbed her, with that part of himself that knew how to hold other souls without hurting them, and held her still.

Sun stopped pulling. Matt felt the pistol’s confusion, small and full of energy, and sent her an idea. Just one. Without words.

Wait.

Sun waited.

Aurora was doing the same with Moon on the other side. Matt could feel it. She was there, present, firm, not like her usual noisy self, but like something much older, much quieter. Aurora had centuries inside her when she wanted to. And now she was using all of them.

Between the two of them, they started to bring order.

Moon first. Aurora pushed her slowly, patiently, guiding her toward the correct gap in Noxx’s soul. A gap Noxx did not know existed, but one Aurora opened for her from the inside with a simple gesture. Moon entered, settled in, and curled up.

Then Sun. Matt did the same on the other side, faster this time because he had already seen how Aurora did it. He slowly pushed Sun, guided her to the symmetrical gap on the other side, a space that opened as soon as he indicated to Noxx’s soul that it was time. Sun settled in and curled up.

The five souls, Matt’s, Aurora’s, Noxx’s, and the two new twins, finally arranged themselves in an order that made sense.

The pain stopped all at once.

Matt let out the air.

Aurora did too.

They both opened their eyes at the same time, still with their hands on the ground of the mental world, and looked at each other.

Aurora had a drop of sweat running down her temple. Matt held her gaze for a second.

"Good job."

Aurora smiled. It was a tired smile, but it was a big one. The biggest he had seen on her in weeks.

"Thank you, Master."

Matt nodded, then let himself fall onto his back against the grass, closing his eyes.

"I hope those bastards are useful."

Aurora still had that inside her.

◇◆◇

Noxx opened her eyes and was still kneeling on the floor, and also still had the queen’s finger in her mouth, swallowing blood.

But the pain was no longer like before. Before, it had felt like it was going to split her down the middle. Now she only felt very tired and drained, with her heart beating slowly.

Noxx breathed through her nose, slowly.

'It’s done... I did it...'

Noxx lifted her gaze, still with the queen’s finger inside her mouth. The queen’s face was very close and calm. Her red eyes watched her with that attention that had become almost normal lately, but that Noxx could never quite get used to.

Noxx tried to gently turn her face away. She pushed the queen’s wrist with one of her hands, still weak, to get the finger out of her mouth.

The queen did not let her.

"No."

Noxx frowned.

"Uh..."

"Not yet."

Noxx pushed a little harder. The queen tightened her grip on the back of her neck slightly. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to make it clear that no meant no.

"Not yet," the queen repeated, with that low, controlled voice. "Swallow a little more. Don’t hold back. This is not the time to act difficult."

Noxx looked at her, not understanding.

'Hold back...? What is she talking about...?'

But she swallowed.

The blood kept going down, warm, dense.

Noxx felt how her body absorbed it almost eagerly, how every swallow filled something that a short while ago had been almost empty. The weakness from the fusion was fading, yes, but she also noticed something else.

Strength.

A strength she had not had before. A strength that entered through her stomach and climbed up to her arms with a strange tingling.

'It’s her blood...' she thought, half-dazed, half-awake. 'Her blood is strengthening me.'

After a few more seconds, the queen finally pulled out her finger. She brought it to her own mouth, and with a small, almost elegant movement, licked away what remained and set the broken bone back into place with a calm that made the skin crawl.

Crack!

The finger settled back in place.

Not a grimace. Not a gesture.

"There," the queen said calmly. "Breathe. Recover."

Noxx swallowed air. And for the first time in several minutes, she was able to think calmly.

'What was all of that?'

The question appeared in her head with a clarity that annoyed her. Because Matt had not gone through this.

Noxx had seen it.

She had been there when Matt fused with the bow-lance in the cave.

There had been golden light, a feeling of warmth, a few seconds of tension, and that was it. Aurora had fused.

There had been no falling to his knees.

No splitting pain.

No queen’s blood.

Why had it happened to her?

Why had it been so different?

'Did I do it wrong?' Noxx thought, with a stab of shame. 'Was it my fault? Did I mess up by making that speech...? I think Matt didn’t make one...'

And then the queen spoke, still close, still kneeling beside her, with that same soft voice as before.

"What you just did was insane, you know?"

Noxx looked at her.

"Uh..."

"A soul contract with an ego-weapon is already dangerous on its own. It can fail. The fusion can be rejected. You can die, or the weapon can break... either outcome is possible, and it’s not rare for it to happen."

The queen looked at her.

"With two weapons at the same time... that is complete madness."

Noxx looked at her in silence.

The queen continued, her voice a little lower.

"So it’s normal for your body to be like this right now. It’s normal for your hands to shake. It’s normal for you to feel like you can barely breathe or for your vision to be a little blurry. Anyone in your place would be worse."

The queen lifted a hand and slowly ran her fingers through her short white hair.

"But everything is fine," she continued. "I’m here. And as long as I’m here, nothing is going to happen to you."

Noxx did not know how to respond to that.

Partly because the words would not come to her.

Partly because the queen’s hand on her head felt... strange.

Not unpleasant.

Strange.

And then, inside her head, Noxx heard two voices.

"Mistress!" Sun shouted.

"Are you okay?!" Moon asked.

"Answer!"

"I feel her weak, very weak!"

"Me too..."

"Mistress, answer! Say something! Anything!"

Moon and Sun had entered her head like Aurora had with Matt.

Noxx wanted to answer.

She really did.

But her eyes started to feel heavy.

'I’m... tired. Just a second...'

Noxx closed her eyes. The queen’s hand was still in her hair, moving slowly, with a calm that felt almost motherly.

Noxx wanted to tell Moon and Sun that she was fine.

She wanted to tell Matt that she had obeyed his order.

She wanted to ask Aurora why it had hurt so much and ask Matt why the same thing had not happened to him.

She wanted to do many things.

But she did none of them.

She let go.

And the last thing Noxx felt, before everything went dark, was the queen’s warm hand carefully resting her head against her shoulder.

THE 4-CHAPTER-A-DAY MARATHON WILL CONTINUE UNTIL WE REACH CHAPTER 90 ON PATREON!

(≧▽≦)/

Yesss! The 4-chapter-a-day marathon on Patreon will continue for the next few days, until we finally reach Chapter 90~!

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And over here, I’ll also continue posting 2 chapters a day until the Patreon marathon is over.

(っ˘ω˘ς )

I really hope you enjoy all the upcoming chapters!

(ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ