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With little to do, he lay in the grass as night fell. His options were few now, and the stars above wouldn’t listen, so he quietly thought as he watched them through the branches of the tree and felt the locket.
He’d never wanted to go the way of insanity. The problem was that he was here now, and there was no easy way out. It would happen in some form whether he refused or obeyed. David probably wouldn’t need to stretch Aurelius’s time out for years and years. If he simply refused to do anything, David would work at cracking him. More terrible acts might not get the results he wanted, but Aurelius would eventually lose it.
He couldn't hold out forever. The base of his mind had already been cracked.
They left him alone the next day. His head pounded as he lay in the cool dirt by the tree where it was shady. Fuck wine. He couldn’t reach the water fountain, and his mouth grew dryer as the day wore on. When he wasn’t contemplating what to do, he dreamed of water to soothe his thirst and clean his mouth. When he watered David’s flowers with his piss again just to be a dick, his urine was dark yellow.
If they forgot him out here for a couple of more days, he might be dead. Oops. David’s new source of gold would be a dried-out corpse in the grass.
He fitfully dozed all afternoon and finally slept at night. When he awoke in the morning, two large waterskins were by him.About damn time. The garden was empty, and it creeped him out to no end that someone had gotten so close without waking him.
He slowly drained them and made his decision since he’d had time to think. David seemed content to give him time to imagine the unpleasant future coming his way. He probably thought thinking about the tortures that would come if he refused would help crack him a bit.
If Aurelius was going to die in some way, he might as well do it on his own terms. Maybe the rose wouldn't grant him extra power, but he wasn't going to sit there forever, accept whatever came, or do as he was told.
Besides that, David would bring others to use his item. Perhaps he'd make Aurelius watch as they were driven mad. Nobody deserved that.
Even if Aurelius died right at that moment, it would never stop because David wouldn't stop wanting. Once he passed, what would happen to the rose? No doubt, some poor bastard would find a nasty surprise one day.
He spent a good hour drinking his water instead of guzzling it all at once and making himself ill. The hydration helped. He was hungry too, but he’d live without a meal. If he could bear the weight of Mammon, perhaps he could see things through with the rose and end this. He’d managed with the crown and hand, right?
Jari would do his part with the items. He was likely already on his way to the ocean with them.
David would probably come soon to offer food and hold it out of his reach.
Aurelius stood and stretched while he eyed the chain. They’d slung it through a fork in the thick branches, and with the wheel, it could be drawn up. When he tried to pull the chain more toward the statue, that didn’t work, so he stood underneath the part that came straight down and grabbed it. Holding it as tightas he could, he lifted his legs. The access on the ground clanked as he swung himself a bit.
The branch could certainly take his weight, but for how long? He tried again, and instead of hanging, he jerked down and then swung.
The branch creaked. If he could break it, he’d have enough slack to reach the rose. He wasn’t entirely sure what would happen after that, but it was better than sitting around and doing nothing.
Aurelius tried tugging it toward the statue again, and he backed up before he took a running jump while clinging to the chain. The urge told him to gild it.
So he did.
The gold spread along the chain, covering each link as he swung. Catching his footing on the ground several feet away, he turned and used his weight again. The branch gave an alarming creak while his brain whispered to find something else and gild. Do it right now. Make the tree golden!
He was about to ignore it as usual but steadied himself on his feet before he ran to the trunk with the gold chain clinking behind him. What a rich prisoner he was. He slapped his hands on the trunk and let the urge go.
Fuck, it felt good.
Rich gilt spread up the trunk like water flowing in the wrong direction, going faster as it went. It spread along the branches and smothered the leaves, forever freezing and encasing them in a shiny prison. Something let out an alarming crack in the trunk, but it remained steady.
The rose was so close. He wanted it, and he’d gild the statue and make it pretty too. He’d never gilded something so big, and he could barely tear his gaze away from the absolutely fucking gorgeous beauty of a golden tree. As he stepped back, he let his eye roam along the branches.
Surely, no colored glass tree in the Kingdom of Glasswood even matched up to this. He went back to his original spot and tugged on the chain. The gilt was stiff, and it also added a lot of weight. A few good yanks and letting his body weight jerk on it as he swung made something crack again. The wood inside was already strained, and with so much weight, something had to give. Gilt can crack too, and with the wooden core broken, the rest of the branch might go.
He just had to help it along.
One way. The other. Back again. The chain irritated his palms, and he ignored it as he jumped and swung. Something snapped, and he was suddenly weightless. Reality slammed back as he hit the ground and scraped his leg on a tree root. The branch hit the ground behind him, and bits of gilt, bark, and shiny leaves flew. He almost laughed. The weight and swinging had been too much. David was a fool to leave him out here alone.
He stiffly stood and smirked at the collapsed branch while he tugged on the chain to free it from the mess. He had enough slack now, and why waste time?
He ran toward the boy with his hand out, as if to give the power straight to Aurelius. The petals were thin and sharp in his hands as he grasped and plucked it away.
His knees hit the ground as the weight, worse than anything from before, piled onto his mind. Fuck. How could it be so bad? He’d surely be crushed into the ground and smashed entirely. Where was the garden? Someone screamed although he wasn’t sure if it was him or someone else. He couldn’t feel his body anymore, and dear Elira, he wanted it all. Everything.
Fractured images flew at him. A place of heat and stone, so far below and away from the glory above. No fairies or humans walked that secret land, but it was theirs, and they left to play in the world whenever they wanted. The humans were like toys and so fun to use, fuck, and slaughter, and not always in that order.The face of a monster appeared as he had a sudden surge of want that burned in his gut.
