Eight Intertwined

191 - Simeon

Primrose rushed toward Simeon with her dagger aimed straight for his heart, but he avoided the stab by stepping to the left. Primrose was expecting it though, and she landed harshly on her right foot before pivoting and trying to slash at him again. Simeon pulled backwards as if pulled by some invisible strings, and he finally released the blast of darkness that he had been nursing with his fingertips. 

However, Primrose was shocked to see that the darkness did not approach her. Instead, it split into two separate spells before growing. Primrose was so surprised by the sight that she didn't remember to keep fighting Simeon for a few precious seconds. Luckily for her, Simeon didn't seem to try and strike back either. Instead, he simply sat down on a chair that had somehow manifested behind him, a content smile on his face. He held one hand out like he was controlling the three figures made of darkness. 

The shadows peeled away to show off a trio of familiar figures. They may not have had any facial features, instead standing as faceless husks of puppets, but Primrose knew them even so. The first silhouette of the pair was clearly meant to resemble Geoffrey Azelhart, and the striking center cut of his hair made that clear. Next to Geoffrey was another silhouette, this one far closer to Primrose in height and build, but it was not her. Instead, the puppet had short hair and wore a blue dancer's costume instead of the stark red Primrose had come to call her own over the years. 

"Yusufa..." Primrose whispered, her eyes going wide. She hadn't realized just how aware of her history Simeon was, but in hindsight, she shouldn't have been surprised. Simeon was bound to dig up any and all of her dark secrets as long as he thought it could benefit him somehow. He had kept tabs on Primrose even after she lost contact with him, and Simeon knew everything that she had gone through back in Sunshade. It was no wonder he had approached her the way he had; he knew exactly how to work through the defenses she had set up all that time ago. 

Simeon did not acknowledge Primrose's momentary crisis, instead simply leaning his chair back and forth while using his toes to balance himself. He held one hand out, and in the right lighting, Primrose could see threads stretching out from his fingers to the puppets he had summoned. His smile was easy to make out even through the fog, but Primrose didn't care for what he said or thought right now. She had something else far more important to take care of, and she would not let Simeon get in the way of it. 

Primrose moved toward Simeon, but she found herself blocked off by the puppets of Geoffrey and Yusufa converging in her path to keep her from reaching their creator. If she was going to reach her target, she was going to have to destroy them. They were just husks made of dark magic, and Primrose knew it, but she couldn't bring herself to like the idea of defeating them regardless. It wouldn't be right to attack people she had once loved so dearly. 

Then again, wasn't that the reason she had to do this? She couldn't let Simeon defile the memories of the people she loved so much. Geoffrey and Yusufa had given her strength when Primrose feared that the world would consume her under the weight of its despair. They would not like to know that their images were being used by a man as sick and twisted as Simeon. Primrose needed to honor their memories by fighting. They would understand. They would always love her too. 

Primrose turned her attention to the Geoffrey puppet first, and she moved to strike him in the chest only to stop at the last moment. If he was just a puppet, then she wouldn't be able to do much to stop him by attacking his body. The other option, cutting the strings that connected him to Simeon, was bound to be far more effective. After all, Simeon could not control his puppets if the link that tethered them to him was severed. 

"Enjoying the show yet, Primrose?" Simeon hummed. He leaned his chair back impossibly far before letting it fall forward once again. Primrose took advantage of the shift and sliced at the string connecting Geoffrey's left arm to Simeon. As soon as she did so, his arm went completely slack, and he raised his right arm to try and strike her next. Primrose rolled out of the way before coming up in a rising slash, and she cut the string on his right leg to ground him helplessly to the spot. When he collapsed to his knees, Primrose aimed for the third string on his other leg.