Chapter 4
Previously: Obsidian: Crystal Heart – Chapter 3
Arthur doesn’t know what he thinks about being a ‘bad man’ for not liking children according to Darcy. And he supposes he’s figured out what he feels about what happened the day before. So he snuggles in between the two of them, against Quincy and covered in half of Darcy, and sighs. “If we have an opportunity, I’ll help get Lucy Jr back, of course. But yes, in the meantime… I prefer the puppies and the rats and all.” He tilts his head to look up at Quincy. “You’re going to find someone for John to marry?”
~
“Despite the way Darcy is pouting mightily, she knows her heir needs a wife, and one that can make more little heirs. And I don’t know,” Quincy smirks, “how high do you think the chances are that John remembers that that would need some actual going out there and finding somebody when he could instead spend all his time just sighing smittenly at his girl?” He might pretend to dodge Darcy’s attempt to nuzzle her nose into his face, but he’s actually putting a little kiss back against it with a snort.
“Right,” Arthur says and pulls a face. “Still glad I’m not a noble. But you’ve got a point… So, you’re going to do it for him? How does one even do that? Also, would John even be okay with that? I don’t think I’d want someone else to organise who I marry…”
Noticing that they ran completely off course from the topic they intended to talk about, Quincy pats Arthur’s arm. “Leave that headache and getting grumbled and grunted at up to me. John’s not the topic right now, we were trying to talk about you, honey.”
“I don’t know if there’s anything more to talk about. It sucks and it’s frustrating, not being able to do anything, but, well. That’s how it is and I guess I just have to deal?”
~
Hearing the tone in Arthur’s voice, Darcy scoots back up, tries hard not to let the blanket fall off them, but starts to gently lick Arthur’s face.
~
“What my queen of the night is trying to express there is that you don’t have to do it alone,” Quincy supplies and puts his arm back around Arthur’s shoulders. “It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s okay to distract yourself. It’s okay to do something else just so that you feel there are other things where you can make a difference.”
~
Arthur chuckles at Darcy licking his face and puts one arm back around her neck, doesn’t try to pull away. “Not being alone with it makes it much better,” he admits.
~
Hm? What did Quincy just hear? Not hear out loud he thinks, it felt furry though, so probably Cycy. Bit of concentration and now he’s snorting and poking her. “Coward. But fine, just because you are my fallen angel, I’ll save you from the scary social thing.” Turning to Arthur instead, he smiles. “Speaking of not alone and distractions, do you remember that today is that science lecture Cycy got you tickets for?”
~
Arthur feels his eyes grow wide. “That’s today? Um, I forgot…” He ducks his head, and feels very bad that he didn’t keep track and forgot about Darcy’s gift like that.
“Better today than yesterday, honey. Now, for the more important question: Who are you taking with you?” Even while Quincy asks, he’s grinning and giving Darcy side eye because that woman has exactly zero poker face, not even as a wolf. Can she try a little bit harder not to be obvious in how much she wants to come along?
~
Arthur looks at Darcy and the hopeful face she is making and he can feel the swish of her tail under the blanket. “I haven’t thought about it… Do you want to come?” he asks her. “That sounds like it would be fun.” He doesn’t think Quincy or John are much into science, and Gregory would definitely just be bored.
~
“The answer is yes, and I don’t want to hear a single insecure thought out of you, Cycy,” Quincy answers right away and pulls on one of her ears slightly while she gives Arthur a wolf grin.
Arthur grins back. “Then we’ll go! I’m looking forward to it. Thank you for wanting to come with me!”
~
With a bark, she jumps off the sofa and runs a few rounds around it with her tail wagging and bouncing from paw to paw between little hops, not minding one bit that Quincy is laughing hard.
~
Arthur catches the blanket before she pulls it off with her and gets tangled up in it, and joins Quincy’s laughter. It feels good to laugh. Maybe things didn’t go great yesterday, and maybe they’ll go wrong again tomorrow, but at least he has friends who look out for him and check in with him.
Friends he spends the rest of the day with, first when Darcy drags Quincy along to check up on the animals in the hospital, and then, after his ride and lunch, he joins them for the paperwork until it’s time to go to the lectures in the late afternoon.
And it is fun. Well, excepting the paperwork, but even that is better when you get to work on it with everyone.
It’s a good day. There might have been a few rough ones in the last week or so, but this is a good day again.
~
28 Dec 1899
Darcy is giggling so hard. If this is her life now… maybe it’s okay to love life again. She’s still all bouncy from the science lecture she and Arthur went to yesterday. They were talking each other’s heads off about it all the way back and through dinner and grabbing books and checking things out.
That was only yesterday evening, this evening she’s spending with getting half-frozen burrs in her fur and sniffing all over the forest floor because John wanted to try out her Christmas gift, and how is he supposed to try out a hunting rifle without a trusty hunting dog? Well, hunting wolf (because obviously she can’t call herself a hunting dhampir, that would be just mean!) And she wants to be a good hunting wolf for him! Just… um, she might have accidentally chewed a bit much on the first bird he managed to hit.
Not that he was angry with her for it, he was too busy laughing, and that made her laugh and anyway, this is all about them, um, well, Quincy called it a date and that’s just really nice. Yes, she’s on a date with John and it’s just the best! She should go on one with Quincy, too, but not in the forest. Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean there aren’t what he calls creepy crawlies, and apparently those are the Divine’s personal master plan to keep him indoors.
She shrugs and munches down on that thing that tried to bite her, she’s the only bloodsucker here. Then does a runner when John gives her a look and goes: “No, what do you have in your mouth? Spit it out, no, bad wolf. Oi!”
He can’t run too fast after her in the underbrush, but he knows how she likes to play, so she only gives a short, startled yipp before she laughs as the underbrush right next to her foot explodes into mud and splinters from the shot he fired at her, and missed. Turning around, she sticks her tongue out at him and dances around to get him to try again.
He does and she again is so miffed at herself for not loving him the right way. How can she not love a man who is so unconcerned with how she wants to be loved and played with? Not that he manages to hit her normally, she’s too fast, and he hasn’t been shooting for that long yet, but it’s so much fun!
Bouncing between the trees, she keeps jumping so he gets a better idea where she is and lets herself enjoy the rush of dracial abandon that their game is giving her. Ooh, nearly! Yes, come on, mon borne, hit me, hit me, hit me!
He does- but only because she stopped in her tracks, forgot to keep bouncing and weaving because… because she knows what she heard! That badger just urged her to hide in his den from the hunter.
Turning to her human form, she shouts at John: “I found a magic badger! You need to hear this! He can talk!”
Said badger is hiding deeper into his den and giving her incredulous commentary on calling the hunter over. He was shooting at her!
Oh… oh right. Oops. Darcy lifts the leg where John’s shot hit her flank, now her thigh. Right, changing back before that was fully healed, and that’s another dress ruined with blood. The house spirit is going to be cross with her again, she’ll have to apologise. But if the dress is ruined anyway she can sit down and talk to the badger.
She always wanted to talk to her night friends! She’s wondered so often what stories her bats could tell her about what they’ve seen on their flights, or what family discussions she’d hear from her bunnies. What she’s hearing now is a grumbled, nearly grumpy, admonition against her being so friendly with hunters, he was just trying to protect her, not willing to let that guy know where his den is.
Darcy starts giggling, then cooing, because aw, now it makes sense that John would like her badger plushie the most! “John! The badger is totally you!”
~
The badger is what?
John’s still fighting through the underbrush, he’s no dhampir, or wolf for that matter, moving through this stuff is a pain in the arse! When he doesn’t sink into the ground where it’s wetter than it looks, branches and brambles snag at his pants… But okay, fine, he confesses, the hunting coat the molly got him is keeping him warm and makes carrying his supplies easy. He’ll have to thank him for it, but after he, uh, says hi to his girl’s latest friend.
A badger. Okay, he’ll admit it, that is pretty fucking wicked. Badgers are pretty fucking wicked!
There Darcy is… sitting on the ground that’s powdered with frost, in the middle of some bushes at a slight hill. He would never have spotted that den if not for her sitting right next to it, giggling into the dark of the opening and, wait, that’s new. Uh, what kind of sound was that? Definitely not a human or even wolf voice, but yes, he’s close enough to see that that was Darcy making the noise.
And of course, now that she’s settled down in one spot, John has to make sure not to step on any of the rodents scuttling towards her. Once, he accidentally stepped on a tail and he still feels like the world’s biggest meanie, (his girl’s formulation, obviously,) for it, given the look and whimper Darcy gave him.
“John! John! The mouse talks, too! I stumbled into a magic circle!”
Given that his girl definitely just mouse-squeaked back at said mouse, he’s not so sure it’s the place. Which really, that’s so typical his girl. She would be exactly the person to not notice how amazing she always is, but how about he test it?
Making sure to take the shot out of his rifle and sling it onto his back first, he crouches down next to Darcy and wishes the badger, (well, really, the dark hole in the ground,) a good evening. All he gets back is some snorting and growling noises but Darcy is pouting and… uh, he’s pretty sure his girl is reprimanding the badger, but her words drifted into what he guesses are badger sounds after the initial “Don’t be mean…”
“Culver, I don’t think it’s the place. I can’t understand them.”
He can’t help it, the incredulous and surprised look she’s giving him for that is just too plain hilarious, he starts laughing. “It’s your drac, I’d say! My wolf-girl is making animal… no, night friend sounds. You just learned to talk to your friends.”
Seeing her look at the mouse in her hand before she moves her lips but nothing coming out that John can hear has him chuckle more. She’s so fucking breathtaking when she is just being herself. All drac, all wolf-girl, all free. And that’s definitely what she is with the realisation sinking in, splitting the world apart with the most brilliant smile there ever could be, that smile like a fanged sickle moon.
And really, only his girl could make him think in metaphors like that, but he’s once more tempted to build a dreamscape scene where the moon really is her smile, because seeing that smile, hearing her sounds of happiness, that alone is the manifestation of bliss to him.
Her barrelling him over a moment later only makes it better, even if it means the rifle is digging into his back and he’s on the ice cold ground, but stuff like this is exactly why he learned to always unload his guns when they stop to talk. His girl has no concept of safety, and he honestly wouldn’t want her to tone it down. No, he wants to see her like this, no fucking mask anywhere, just her drac showing him that maybe she doesn’t love him as he hopes for, but she does love him.
His girl… his drac with her puppy love.
He’s not even jealous when she bounces back up because they have, have, have to show Quincy, too!
Nah, he’s not jealous of his bro, bit envious maybe, but it was Quincy himself who declared him the real husband, so what the fuck would he even complain about?
Nah, he’s happy to run (best he can manage) back to the castle and get huffed at for how dirty they are, and did they make sure not to drag any bugs in, and what is the ruckus even about? He doesn’t want to see any dead hunting trophies… oh, dhampir power? And from there, John is way too fucking amused at how adorable, (yes, he thought it, don’t think too hard about it,) the two redheads are when they whip each other up into a squealing storm of curiosity and appreciation.
~
29 Dec 1899
Oh no, kitten, I don’t think so!
Quincy can tell easily enough what Cobb is trying there. Cry him a river about being unhappily in love with him and being such a poor husband, afflicted with a jealous wife who was so very angry with him that he would gift Quincy a theatre.
Pff, as if Quincy was born yesterday, half of that is lies and half of that is utter and complete ineptitude. Yeah, no, please, if you are trying for blackmail, at least get on his level of drama here. This is pathetic and, huh, he’s not scared one bloody bit about the potential consequences of getting a knight postulant and his official patron angry with him.
So with a huff and flick of his wrist he wags his finger. “Kitten, tut tut, no. Cycy is no such thing as jealous and you are no such thing as in love with me. You are infatuated and it was cute in the beginning but please, I’ve been around for, Divine, wow, two weeks already. Tone it down, will you? I’m an actor, not a director, gifting me a theatre makes no sense at all. Good that your wife has plans for it already.”
What is that look on Cobb? He’s not sure, and that is the first time Quincy starts feeling uncomfortable. He’s good at reading people after all but that expression in Cobb’s ever-hungry eyes looks, there’s really no other word for it, dangerous. Shoo, Quincy central, pipe down on evaluating if that’s kind of sexy. Why is Cobb always screwing with his emotions so strangely?
For a moment, he has the worst impulse to fuck it better, but no, seriously, even he can tell that’s wrong and off and uh, that’s still not a friendly look. Maybe now he is a tiny bit scared after all. That one does turn into his own kind of hellbeast… (Not as shock inducing as Cycy after the ritual, but still.) Maybe don’t poke the angry demon kitty? Ugh, silence on the comment track, yes, yes, that sounded sexier than it had any right to.
Quincy periphery, though, is pretty sure this would be a terrible idea, and as much as those hungry eyes and the dark expression make him feel tingly all over, nope, cowards are smart and he’s not ashamed of being one, so he does the only sensible thing. Tell Cobb that Cycy and John are waiting on him, right now, in fact, they know where he is, so, yeah, better get going.
And he’s definitely not running like hell to get over to those two and making a bit of a scene of throwing himself into both their protective growling and hug at seeing that yes, he’s upset and not quite sure why he feels like he just dodged something really bad.
~
The last days of the century are shaping up suspiciously peaceful, Arthur finds. Oh, there’s the usual barony work, correspondence and bookkeeping and such, but it seems the tenants are all too busy with their own Christmas and New Year’s preparations to write to their nobles. And Darcy will have to attend the New Year’s ball in town with the mayor and the local gentry and important people and such, so he heads into town with her and Quincy to pick up her gown and have a final fitting two days after the science lecture.
After all, she can’t always show up in new gowns without anyone making them. Well, they could claim she bought them in London, but still. Arthur’s all for obfuscating their magic castle as much as they can.
Of course, he much prefers looking after the animals with the others, and spending time with Hannibal, riding, and having a test dance with Darcy for how to move in the gown, with Quincy along to alternately cheer them on and tut at Darcy not to stomp her feet like that.
It’s a nice few days.
That night, Arthur wakes up- except he’s standing rather than lying in bed, and there’s no feeling of blankets or pyjamas around him. No, there’s warm air and the creak of wood and the feeling of soft hands covering his eyes. The floor he’s standing on is swaying just a little, and John’s voice from beside him telling him that he didn’t forget about the Christmas present he promised, it’s ready now. And that Arthur can complain to Quincy for the delay, because of course the molly needed to comment. Which leads to an unmistakeably Quincy tut and smacking sound and giggle.
Going by the size and the angle of the hands over his eyes, it has to be Darcy holding them shut. Her giggle echoing Quincy’s from right behind him confirms it, and he can feel her bounce a little.
In short, he’s definitely in John’s dreamscape, and everyone else is there, too, and just that makes him start to smile, and only wider when Darcy asks, eagerly: “Are you ready, Arthur-dear?”
The only reason he doesn’t bounce along with her in agreement is that he doesn’t want to dislodge her hands and spoil whatever they have planned, so he only nods eagerly- but carefully.
~
With an excited squeal, Darcy takes her hands away so that Arthur can see what John and her, and, the last few days, also her Sang du Coeur, have been building for Arthur: his very own mage tower!
Right on top of the cliffs overlooking the bay where John’s pirate ship is anchored and across from the newly sprung-up, glittering city Quincy added.
~
“For me?!” Arthur asks, overwhelmed- yes, it’s the dreamscape, of course, that means John can build bigger and more elaborate things than in the real world, but… it’s a whole tower! Looking all… fairy-tale-like!
The bottom is made of paler, smoother stone blocks, and then the rest rises at least two or three stories high with darker stone, but the sunlight picks out glints and sparkles everywhere that he can’t wait to examine closer. The roof is a pointed cone of blue shingles, his favourite colour, and a whimsically crooked copper chimney rises from it, putting out a cloud shaped like a mouse. And there’s a balcony up there, shining white stone and more playful copper for the railing. On it, he can see the shape of a big telescope pointing out over the bay, and a thin, dark line, like a thread, running across the water to that glittering city.
“’Course it’s for you. Belated Merry Christmas from me,” John tells him and pats him on the shoulder.
Leaning in to give Arthur a kiss on the cheek, and then giggling hard when Quincy does the same on Arthur’s other cheek, Darcy chirps: “We wanted it to be just right, so it took a few days longer. Merry Christmas, Arthur-dear! We can go up to it and you can be in it as many nights as you want. We’ll be on the ship or in the city and you can always visit us!”
Arthur still doesn’t know what to say- as many nights as he wants to? And… a whole tower for him? He’s feeling very… very touched and… and included, and he doesn’t know how to express it, so instead he says: “Yes, let’s go look at it! Um, I mean, you’d know what it looks like, but…” He gives them all a shy look, hoping they’ll come along anyway.
“And miss out on your compliments about my interior design? It’s not about knowing what it looks like, but about seeing your reaction.” Quincy chuckles and winks before shooing at Darcy. “Swoop us up in style, Cycy.”
~
“Ooh, ooh, ooh, John, can I try the new angel form? I don’t want to steal my bat friend’s spotlight for when Arthur finds it!”
Bouncing from one foot to the other, his girl is obviously giving him puppy eyes and sure, why shouldn’t she try out if the physics he built her for Quincy’s addition to her shapeshifting work when there’s three people rather than two in her halo. Or, as the molly has giggled about it: ‘Divinity purse’. With a snap of his fingers, he lets her have the large black wings and sparkling aura she can use to lift things up with.
Hm, he thinks the sails don’t really react right to the gust of air she produces when she swings herself into the air, he needs to finetune that later, but that’s not so important right now. The glitter effect around their middles when Darcy activates her aura looks good, yes, snug against their bodies, clothes wrinkling just the right amount, good, he likes it. The touch sensation might need some work, it’s too close to normal touch, he thinks, and ever since their molly is commenting on every little bit of touch in here, he’s gotten more detail-oriented about it.
~
Right! John can do what he wants here, can’t he? Including giving Darcy new forms! Arthur finds himself giggling (and feeling a bit silly for it, he’s not a little kid anymore, but…) as they start lifting up from the deck, embraced by glitter. “Oooh, that’s so cool!”
~
“That’s why I told them we need it. Although ‘cool’ isn’t the word I used.” Lounging out comfortably in the glitter, Quincy reaches and strokes a hand over Darcy’s arm, smiles up at the gorgeous detail on the feathers in her wings and nods to himself. Yes, his darling has a splendid eye for beauty, he can’t wait to push him to the limits on what he can create here and bask in his dedication and all the Divine he can see in him when he gets serious about his power.
For right now, though, he’ll focus on Arthur’s reaction as they ascend up the cliff and all the little details of the decoration become visible. Including the door with its encrypted inscription for Arthur to solve and set himself a password.