บท 39: Golden Sands, Questions, and Demons
Gabrielle woke back up in Elega, and rushed out of the castle to meet Skyler, who was waiting inside. She ran to hug him, and he embraced her back. He said there was something he had to show her. And he went inside the castle and had Shai open a portal.
"Where are we going?" She asked as she turned to Skyler.
"You'll see." Skyler grinned at her.
"Why did Shai have to open a portal, why can't you do it?" She wondered why he couldn't just open a portal himself.
"I don't have access, Shai does." He pointed to the white portal.
"I guess because it's white magic? Aren't you scared of getting hurt?" She worried about where it was going to go, and if it would injure him.
"I have my special shoe socks on, don't worry about it." He waved his hand slightly.
"Okay, but I'm going first." She lifted up her new dress, which was very regal looking with many golden markings on the bottom and golden accents on the shoulders and chest.
She stepped through the portal, and what was there amazed her. It was a beach that stretched into infinity, the sand was a beautiful golden color and the water was a clear crystal blue.
"Wow, it's so beautiful." She looked to Skyler who was just coming out of the other side of the portal.
"Yeah, these are the Golden Sands, my grandmother allowed me to come here, she's the protector of this sacred place. The mark you gave me ensures I won't burst into flames" Skyler chuckled.
"Why did you bring me here?" She gripped her dress and stepped further onto the sands.
"You'll find out soon, let's keep walking. Let's go this way." Skyler pointed to a mountain of sand.
"Okay." She nodded and walked up to him
They went up to the top of the sandy hill, the ground beneath them was hardened sand turned to stone on the way up. They got to the top, and they looked over the edge. The water and sand stretched out as far as the eye could see.
"It's so beautiful up here." She looked around breathlessly.
"I think it's the perfect time to ask the question now." He smiled.
"What did you want to ask?" She turned to him as he started to lean down.
He got on one knee, and she immediately knew what was happening.
"Oh… Oh my god." She covered her mouth.
"Gabrielle Cruz, you have been the love of my life these past few months, and now it's time to fulfill that promise we made under the cherry tree when we were young." He took a small box out of his pocket and presented it to her.
Her vision got cloudy because of the tears pooling under her eyes. She blinked hard and wiped the wetness away with her left hand, and sniffled.
"I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you. I owe you everything, and now, I've decided that you are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with." He looked at her with bright eyes.
She was silent, she had a knot in her throat on top of not knowing what to say. She had hoped that the day he would propose to her would come.
"Gabby, will you marry me?" He flipped the box open, and the ring was gold with a golden rose head in the middle, with a diamond in the middle of the rose head.
"Oh my god, yes!" She squeaked through the lump in her throat. She jumped up and down and hugged him.
She held him tight. Tears spilled out and cascaded down her cheeks. She was so happy. She pulled away and wiped her eyes again, only to find something surprising. Skyler was crying too, but his tears weren't black, they were clear. He intercepted a tear that was rolling down his cheek and held it out in front of himself.
"Look, my tears aren't black anymore, you've saved me." He made a face as he tried to smile, his cheeks quivered and more tears rolled down his face.
"I love you so much." She stared lovingly at him.
He took the ring from its box and slid it over the mark on her finger, even though it didn't completely cover it.
"Where's yours?" She continued to stare at him
"I have it right here." He took out another box and opened it. It was gold as well, with a golden rose etched into it, and a diamond in the middle. It was like hers, but the rose was outside the ring for hers.
He took off the glove on his right hand and slid it onto his ring finger.
"Will that fit under your glove?" She was worried that his hand or the ring would get stuck in the glove.
"It should, it's thin enough." He waved his hand gently.
"That's a relief." She smiled at him and giggled
"Do you want to go with me to return the weapon Wrackivorn stole to its owner?" He got up off his knees and brushed the gold sand off his pants.
"That weapon that scarred you was stolen? How do you know the owner?" She was surprised, she thought Wrackivorn owned it fair and square.
"Yeah, he's an ancient demon who was liked a lot by the big man himself. My ancestors stole his weapons from him before they went to Elega." Skyler nodded.
"Alright, but you'll be taking me out afterwards, right?" She put a hand to her face.
"Of course, and you'll be able to wear that cute red dress that you always wanted to wear." He smiled again.
"Then let's go back." She took his hand and started to walk back to where the portal was.
The portal was closed and it was just a silky white jagged and half translucent line. She waved her hand around where it was and it opened back up again. They walked back through and greeted Shai, who asked about the rings. They explained, and she said that if she had known Skyler was going to propose to Gabrielle there, she would have allowed him in earlier.
They went to the old sanctuary, and she was surprised to see two men who looked like Pain with a normal jaw and no bangs that were in neck chains, and with Dr. Gage holding said chains. One of them was dressed in in white with a sleeveless shirt and had silver eyes, he was smiling and tapping his foot, which had claws at the end, like his hands. The other one was dressed in black with the same kind of shirt only black, he was frowning and he glared at Gabrielle with red colored eyes.
"Why do you have them chained like that? Isn't that inhumane?" She looked to Dr. Gage.
"Believe me, you wouldn't like what would happen if I took the chains off." Dr. Gage shook his head.
"Where is it? I've been waiting like a good boy! I've wanted my old stabby back for so long! This is the last one, right? I got the rest from the nice man over there, yes?" The man in white looked to the man in black, who nodded and huffed.
"Yes, Xhe, this is the last one." Skyler summoned the axe that Wrackivorn had and tossed it over to Xhe, who caught it.
"Oh, I remember this stabby, Shadow Vortex, I missed you." Xhe started to cuddle it.
"You can snuggle with it when we get home." The man in black rolled his eyes.
"How has the secret underground base below the hospital been, Pestilence?" Skyler smiled at the man in black.
"It's been fine, I like it here better though, feels more like home." Pestilence smiled.
"Oh, hello pretty lady!" Xhe waved Gabrielle down.
"Oh Skyler this seems so mean, he seems so nice, besides the stabby comment." She looked to Skyler.
"He's a lot more dangerous than he appears. Also, if you ever see him again, don't ever ask him for help, or to help you in any way, if you even say the word help, you're in deep shit." Skyler frowned.
"Someone needs helping? I've already got a stabby ready!" Xhe smiled and made stabbing motions with the axe.
"Actually, I think you may be right." She recoiled and put a hand to her chin.
"Weren't you going to introduce yourself, Xhe?" Skyler turned back to Xhe, who nodded.
"I'm Xhe, and this is my boyfriend, Pestilence Machine, Pestilence for short. He's a bit grumpy right now but he's nice." Xhe pointed to Pestilence Machine, who huffed again.
"You're lucky I can't get mad at you." Pestilence sighed.
"Why is Dr. Gage in charge of these two?" She wondered why a doctor would be in charge of two dangerous people.
"Well for one, he's the one who helped make Xhe and Pestilence's current android bodies, they are both androids, I know it's hard to tell. They were fashioned after Pestilence's vision of perfection, which is what Hex looks like. Xhe was a randomly chosen soul, basically Pestilence wanted a boyfriend and he won the demon lottery." Skyler let out another singular chuckle.
"Don't tell me we don't look amazing." Pestilence's smile turned into a wide grin.
"I'd be a hypocrite if I said that." Skyler shook his head.
"Well, how did Wrackivorn and the others take your weapons, Xhe?" Gabrielle asked Xhe.
"They said they would borrow it from my armory but they never gave them back." Xhe folded his arms and frowned.
"You have an entire armory?" She was surprised a regular demon would have enough weapons to own an armory.
"He used to be Satan's right hand man, of course he has an armory." Skyler raised a finger.
"I miss mister Satan sometimes, but Pestilence makes me happy, so I'm not sad about it." Xhe hugged Pestilence, who smiled back at him.
"You big puppy." Pestilence ruffled Xhe's spiky triangle of a haircut.
Xhe made high pitched barking noises, and Pestilence laughed.
"You know, he may have a few screws loose, but he's really adorable." She giggled again.
"He acts like a kid but he's ancient, even Dr. Gage isn't sure why." Skyler shrugged.
"How old is Pestilence?" She asked.
"A lot younger than Xhe but still probably a couple hundred years old." He turned to her and put his hands in his pockets.
"It's weird that the younger one acts older." She wondered what caused them to act completely different to their age.
"I heard from Elaine that Xhe was always like that, and that she met him once before in hell. He looked a lot different than he does now, besides the height, he was always short." He grinned again.
"She's been to hell? That's terrible!" She never knew Elaine had went to hell, and always thought that it was a terrible place.
"She's a demon, hell doesn't torture demons. She was fine down there." He shook his head again.
"Oh, okay, I was just worried." She knew Elaine wasn't a bad person, even though people thought the default for demons was bad.
"She's right about having tea with mister Satan on Tuesdays, you know. She wasn't bluffing, I saw them." Xhe giggled
"I believed her." Skyler waved his hand slightly.
"She has prime real estate down there." Pestilence said matter of factly
"How do you know that?" Xhe turned to Pestilence with wide eyes.
"I still keep in touch with the big man down below." Pestilence gave a small smile.
"Tell mister Satan I said hi then." Xhe tugged on Pestilence's shirt.
"I will, I let him know how you're doing, you think I wouldn't? Or that he wouldn't be interested?" Pestilence said calmly.
"Oh, that's good, I'm glad." Xhe nodded again.
"I think it's time for us to go." Skyler turned and started to walk away.
"Okay! Bye nice shadowy guy! Bye pretty lady!" Xhe waved and grinned at them.
"Bye Xhe!" She waved goodbye and turned around and went to catch up with Skyler.
"I didn't really like them anyways." Pestilence huffed again.
"Aw, come on. They were nice." Xhe elbowed Pestilence lightly.
"Bye, I guess," Pestilence grumbled.
Skyler and Gabrielle went back to the castle and waited for nightfall together. They enjoyed each other's company, and talked the day away. He told her about how selfless Elaine was, that not only did she give up a piece of her soul to bring Pain into the world, but she had also used herself as a human shield to protect one of her previous boyfriends from getting shot, which was the first time she had died. She was confused as to why she had a boyfriend even though she was told before that she fell in love with Hex early on. Skyler explained that she was trying to forget about him and move on, but none of her relationships worked out.
She felt bad for Elaine, who gave up so much for the people she cared about. She said she wanted to be like Elaine, selfless and ready to lay down her life and even her soul for the people she cared about. But Skyler explained that she already was, and that her trying to control him while he was merged with Dahlia was extremely dangerous, as he knew that she was doing it. He was scared to tell her before because he didn't want to scare her. She was surprised, she barely ever felt in danger in the past months, but she was more in danger than she thought she was.
She hugged him, and told him that she was right to trust him. Skyler said that he was unsure about himself because of his past and dealing with mental instability. She understood what she was told before, that it took him a lot of time in therapy to even become remotely normal, but she still trusted him. She loved him with all her might, and she was prepared to spend the rest of her life with him.
Read the rest of The Light Maiden's Mark here: https://moonquill.com/book/46
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง