Dark Prince: The Death Realm

Chapter 11

She opened her eyes to find the room a bit dark. It took her eyes a minute or two to adjust and figure out what she was really looking at. When she did, it gave her a start. The face of Kalik was there. Not far from her own face. But when she looked again, she realized that it wasn't just his face. He was materializing before her.

"What... what are you doing?" she spoke barely loud enough for herself to hear, let alone anyone else. "Why are you here? You're just going to make me waste more time! You made me fall asleep and waste precious time to find more pieces!" she scolded him. She was scolding the devil. She never thought that day would come in a million years.

"Oh, so I guess I'll just leave then... and stick this piece back on the ceiling... where it belongs." He said with nonchalance. He reached up, not even straightening his arm to touch the ceiling.

"Wait! Please just wait!" she called to him. She didn't want to call it pleading, for it wasn't right for a queen to beg... but that's what it was. She had to call it as it was. She pleaded with Kalik. "You're not wasting my time. But I do want to know why you're here. You probably didn't just come to give me this piece out of the kindness of your heart." She reasoned.

"What makes you say that? You don't think I can be kind?" Kalik asked her. The word itself was filled with malice and anger. "Who says the ruler of the realm of death can't be kind? I'm giving you a way back to your husband, aren't I? I'm helping you get closer to seeing him this very instant, aren't I? And on top of that, I might even be giving you a chance to visit the surface of the Earth to get your affairs in order! And you don't think I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart, Genevia?"

"You have some kind of trick up your sleeve. This entire place is a maze of tricks and fear. What can make me think that you're going to change your ways after countless years of doing this?" she gestured to the entire space around her. "You won't change. You want something for that piece. What is it?"

"Oh, you don't like to play around, do you? Just straight to the point. No small talk, no chit chat, no nothing. Just straight to the point. You aren't any fun at parties, now are you?" he tutted, shaking his head. "What I want is a little bit of your magick... a little bit of the energy you just regained. In exchange for the puzzle piece. It won't be much. Just... oh, let's say as much as you would have spent if you had got the puzzle piece free yourself. How is that for a deal?"

"What? But-" she started, only to have Kalik place his index finger upon her lips and interrupt her.

"Shhhh. Don't be so upset. That energy is perfectly able to be regained. It just takes some of your time." He pretended to think for a moment before putting on a sad expression that was so fake it almost hurt to look at. "Oh, that's right! You don't have much time to lose, do you? You have... let's see... What's today? Tuesday?" he pretended once again to think about his answer even though she knew that he knew the answer without going through such long, stupid actions. "It looks like you only have another four months!"

"Four months?!" she exclaimed quietly. It can't have been two months already. She had only found three pieces. She didn't even know how big this puzzle was, let alone how long it would take to track down all the pieces and find Zekrin.

"Oh yes. Time really does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together once rather loudly. "So... what do you say? It's quite a simple exchange. Won't hurt you a bit."

She didn't trust him. He sounded much too excited about this exchange. But she couldn't risk taking more time. She was sure that she would spend less time sleeping than she would spend trying to wrench that puzzle piece back off of the ceiling.