The Misfortune of Distorted Truth

He Will Lie

Dehllah glided over to the trio with the grace of a swan floating across a lake. Her wings fluttered slightly, her fore-hooves hovering an inch or two above the ground, and her two-toed back paws covered partially with glimmering scales practically sliding with ease; they hardly touched the floor either. She was smaller than Azuhre, but not by much. Her eyelashes were thicker, and darker, and her pinkish gold hair was almost black at its roots. Her body seemed to be shadowed in just the right places to give her such a glowing, slim, contoured appearance. Dehllah was a subtle sort of gold, the kind that shimmered at a certain angle. If she hadn't been so well illuminated by the fairy lights hanging everywhere, M thought, she may have looked a pleasant sort of brown. Her scales, like Azuhre's, were an ocean blue. Her wings faded from a rose gold to, somehow, a soft baby blue. She was effortlessly perfect. M was envious, to her dismay.
"Mama!" Dehllah exclaimed, greeting them with a flap of her butterfly wing.
M started. "'Mama'?" she asked Asagwara.
"Dehllah is Azuhre's daughter," the boy replied patiently.
She watched, her lips pursed in resentment and further jealousy, as the two Teahdeean embraced warmly. She could see the love shared between them, and wanted nothing more than to have that with her own mother right then.
"I feel the same," Asagwara said kindly, as his hand was on M's shoulder. The girl shrugged him off again.
"Not your business," she said gruffly. It was a struggle to continue to hold back the tears that threatened to break through the dam she had built to keep them in. And it's not fair. Nothing, nothing is ever fair.
"My apologies," Asagwara offered. "I will be leaving with Azuhre." He exchanged glances with his Teahdee, whose head was perched on her daughter's curved shoulder. "And, you shall get to know Dehllah better. She will teach you all you need to know about your new - "
"Your new family," Dehllah cut in with an adorable smile. Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked charmingly at M. "Family. That's all we are. You have a Gift, and my only intentions are to teach you what it is and how to use it. I've been so excited to meet you! Val was of equal delight to share with me that I was to train you. Walk with me, won't you?" Her wing swooped over M's back welcomingly as she departed from her mother's side.
"What about Asagwara? He's leaving?" M was shocked to find herself disappointed and a little nervous about the boy going off without her. Even though he had kidnapped her, he was the only familiar face. And as much as his stony eyes frightened her, too, she longed to stay with the one human in existence down in these parts of Fortunia. M, of course, did not yet know that there were others of her kind.
"Yes. It's alright, sweet, you'll be safe. I will take you to meet Duygu and her Eyes. She will be pleased to add such splendid purple eyes to her collection."
A bolt of fear shot up M's spine. "Collection?!"
Dehllah laughed a high, delightful laugh, one that sounded like delicate windchimes brushing against each other in a light breeze. "My, you ask so many questions. Mama told me Asagwara was always so quiet at first. He was a shy little thing."
"I can't imagine that," M murmured. But her Teahdee had not succeeded in distracting her from what must have been an unintentional slip of information. What does she mean, "collection"?
She turned to watch Asagwara walking away down a darkened tunnel branching off from the main cave. He gave a wave over his shoulder, without so much as a goodbye. M noticed that Azuhre's wing was over him as well, but...like he was guiding him. As if he couldn't make his own way.
"What happened to Asagwara's eyes?" M prodded, cautiously. Dehllah blinked at her.
"Save your inquiries for when we reach our cave, if you please," the Teahdee smiled. It was a cold smile. She had not liked the question.
Is he turning to stone? Did Duygu steal his eyes?! Are they going to steal my eyes too? Will I be blind? Will I have to stay down here forever? What if Asagwara was lying? What if Dehllah will be my real, actual guide, like a guide dog? Why do they want my eyes, if they do? I don't understand! M had a million questions, most of them terrifying, but Dehllah had made herself plenty clear; she was not going to appreciate, nor answer any of them.
The Teahdee's wing hovered uncertainly over M's back for an extended moment. "How would you like to meet your, um, fellow humans? After conversing with Duygu, of course. And you'll need to return that Sorrowblossom to the Sorrowturtle. It was not that foolish Asagwara's to take, yet he did anyway. But after all of that, I am happy to grant you a free hour. I'll expect you to return promptly to my cave - our cave - once your hour is up. Clear?" Dehllah twisted her head around to smile at the anxious girl.
"Oh, uh, yes, " said M. "Madam Dehllah, would you permit me one question? It's urgent."
Dehllah's yellow eyes rolled upwards. "If you must, dear."
"First off, I want to mention that I don't...I don't currently have the Sorrowblossom." M hurried on before the Teahdee could interrupt. "My question is, will I be returned safely to my parents and friends, no harm done?"
The girl found Dehllah's sudden silence extremely disconcerting. She tried to get the Teahdee to face her, but to no avail. Her narrow head swung away from M solemnly and her thick, long mane concealed her expression.
"You said I could ask you a question."
"I didn't say I would answer it," Dehllah responded softly. Her haughty air, similar to that of Asagwara's, had been left behind a good few yards back where they had come from.
Yet another absence of conversation in M's life was filled by other subtle background noises - the scurrying of rodents in hidden passagways, thankfully not the Mousen; low voices in distant caves; a barely audible moan, likely from an animal in distress. Even the darkest corners of Fortunia had fallen quiet, as if they knew what was to come upon the arrival of the girl known, not solely, as M Desjardins.
At last the pair arrived at a cave entrance that was slightly bigger than others they had passed, and the rim was bedazzled with a few colorful gemstones, maybe reminding passerby of its paramount importance. "Duygu is expecting you." Dehllah motioned to the passageway, and M raised her eyebrows.
"I'm going alone?" The Teahdee nodded. "You could have told me that!"
"I just did." She nudged the human girl forwards, and promptly spun on her heel. She was gone as briskly and as rudely as Asagwara was.
M advanced, hesitantly at first, but she ended up being halted anyway. Something was blocking her way.
"Hello?" she called out. "I can't get in!" She shoved at the invisible force and got nowhere further. M then noticed the speaker in the wall, several inches beyond the entrance. It bombinated madly at her before a crackly, somewhat squeaky voice erupted out of it. "State your name, occupation, age, parents, siblings, intentions, purposes, business, and meaning of your presence!"
"Uh, I'm pretty sure those last few mean the same thing. Could I get that list on paper?" M waited. To her surprise and pleasure, a slip of paper the size of a short receipt slid from a thin slot to her left. She pulled it out and read it as she spoke. "M Desjardins, middle school student, twelve years, Capucine Moreau and Rafael Desjardins, and my intentions are to meet with Duygu as instructed."
"No," the crackly voice sneered at her. "Wrong."
"What do you mean, 'wrong'?" M seethed, annoyed at his tone.
"Your name is not 'M Desjardins'."
"It's a nickname!" she insisted.
"Doesn't matter. Full name, please." He was mocking her. Whoever the voice belonged to, he had not been taught any form of manners.
M blushed. She hadn't said her own complete name out loud in such a long time, it almost felt strange that she remembered it - but of course she did. It was challenging to forget. She sighed tiredly and discarded the paper on the stone ground. "My name," she informed him, "is Lyra."
"Full."
"Lyra Modesty Desjardins." M cringed at the very mention of her birth title, especially her middle name. She recalled the story of how she had gotten it, when her parents had told her at a younger age. She had been conceived and born in Greece, on the official Desjardins honeymoon. Capucine and Rafael had taken a really, really long honeymoon, it was true.
'But,' M remembered her mum telling her fondly, looking lovingly at her husband, 'that was because we just loved each other so very much, as much as we love you.' M thought that they loved each other quite a bit more than they loved their daughter, frankly, because they were constantly off on romantic cruises, private couple vacations, and trips to far-off foreign places like Venice and Athens. As far as she knew, they had been staying in Paris on "business" and "family matters" for the last ten months. The city was where their own parents lived, so that may have been an honest reason, but M could think of no business they could possibly be on.
In Greece, M's memory continued, Capucine and Rafael would have one or two expensive dinner outings each month. And at every one, they explained, they hired instrumentalists to play lyres. They eventually fell in love with the music that the lyres created, as they had with each other, and decided - once they knew the sex of their child - that their baby girl would be named after it. As for her middle name, M's parents had told her that they wanted her to reminded when she was older that "modesty" was important. Capucine had said, all those years ago, that if she ever had another child, which she didn't, of course, then that baby's middle name would be similar and meaningful.
"You may enter," the squeaky voice said at last, and M was able to pass the invisible barrier. As she crossed the line where it had been, it felt as if she was pushing her way through a substance like clay, fighting to go to the other side. Once she made it, M realized that the image setup of a tunnel was nothing more than a clever ruse, and it was like she was stepping into yet another reality entirely.
It was much, much darker in this fragment of Fortunia. The only sources of light glowed from the strategically placed gemstones colorfully decorating the upper walls, illuminating various areas like street lamps in the night. The ground was not stone, but composed of something that crunched beneath M's feet as she trekked forwards. A flimsy layer of sticky goo coated the surface, trying pathetically to grab at the girl's feet and hold her back. M could not see what truly lie on the path she journeyed upon, and if she could have she would have turned and departed from the scene.
"Mistress M Desjardins, welcome," a rumbling new voice boomed. M nervously shuffled closer to the gap in front of her that indicated the place where the owner of that voice resided.
"Um, hello," she prevaricated, unsure of whom she was addressing. Her footsteps crunching, M came to a halt several yards from Their Majesty, Duygu, the Leader of Fortunia. She knew who it was the moment she laid eyes on them, though she had not expected them to look like what she saw.
Duygu was an elephant of a beast, great in size and muscular strength. They were as tall as a giraffe, as powerful as a panther, as deadly as a box jellyfish, and as menacing as a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor combined. They had a prominent jawline and shoulder blades that gave them an air of superiority. Their skin was deep red like blood from a fresh wound, arteries pulsing as their crimson veins showed through. It was repulsively magnificent.
As they stood, reaching their full towering height, M saw their narrow, red gold eyes that seemed to scowl at her on their own, and their monumental jaws that boasted flashing rows of teeth like those of a shark's. Duygu's eyelids were black and hooded, and intense brown-tinged lines creased the rough skin that was underneath the eyes like they were being tormented by exhaustion. Ragged scars burdened their flesh in various locations, raw flesh that seemed charred by a mysterious flame. A particularly direful wound stretched across Duygu's side in long, scarlet slashes as if they had been sliced with a knife a dozen times, mercilessly. In some ways, M was reminded of a ferocious wild cat, abnormally large due to a form of savage scientific experimentation that had gone terribly, miserably wrong. On the other hand, Duygu was nothing like this at all. Really, they were impossible to describe or identify or compare to any living creature with reasonable accuracy.
"I'm so pleased you've arrived, after all this time," Duygu purred, holding out a huge red paw and examining the three hooked, blood-stained claws.
"Why did you wish to see me?"
"I wanted to see your glory for myself, of course." Duygu's face cracked into a terrifying grin and they gesticulated around them. "They did as well."
M's fear worsened as the vast space was suddenly filled with the light from the glowering, sneering, leering, glaring Eyes. They opened in unison, blinking slowly as if waking up from a lengthy nap.
"They did that day at the Market, that's true, but it was an unsatisfactory glimpse. My precious Eyes were ashamed to report back to me with a lackluster description of you. Luckily..." Duygu's head swiveled back and forth as they scrutinized each and every one of their minions. "Luckily for them, I was feeling sort of pitifully compassionate."
"Are you going to take my eyes for your collection, like Dehllah said?" M held her breath and willed herself to appear confident. The Eyes stared at her.
The leader of Fortunia was surprised. "What did that sniveling Teahdee tell you?" Their eyes narrowed and, like Asagwara's often would, their voice became like silk. "She lied to you, M. Or perhaps she misspoke. But I assure you that I have not taken anyone's eyes. If you were wondering, these Eyes are not those of humans. No, they are a different species entirely, a species that serves me. It may make you feel better to meet someone of your kind who has been here longer than Asagwara?"
"It would, thank you," M said gratefully. She didn't want to risk offending someone who was so powerfully malevolent. She did want to get away from Duygu and meet with a person of her kind who might be able to help her. With as little as she knew about why she was needed here, she required more information. Information that she could only acquire from one of her own.
"I have a feeling that you may very well
enjoy the company of a... special small town girl from Arnis, Germany," Duygu meandered. M grimaced.
"I understand your intentions perfectly.
I only wish to meet her and see her for myself, if you would be so kind." M was anxious to escape the dark quarters, for fear that if she stayed much longer then the Eyes would get to her. As they stared at her, she felt the urge to clutch her head at the tiny pain that pinched at the back of her skull. So these are Life, Death, and... She couldn't recall the other names Asagwara had mentioned that night. These Eyes, there must be something more to them. I can feel it. They did something to me that day at Market.
Duygu, meanwhile, was observing M closely, a contemplative smile playing on their thin, cracked lips. "You will do so well, I can see. Mistress Joshilynn acted similarly to you." They blinked tiredly. "Hmmm. Val did warn me about you."
Val again? M thought. But she resisted the nagging feeling to ask about him. She had another feeling that Duygu was already irritated with her. Wait... what did they mean, "acted", past tense? M's eyebrows raised in fear. What happened to "Joshilynn"? She forced the rising bile down her throat as she told herself that Duygu simply meant that this Joshilynn had acted like her when she first arrived. Maybe Joshilynn was mentioned because M was to meet her? M's spirits rose hopefully.
"But couldn't you give me the reason why you really wanted to see me, or at the very least tell me what I am meant to do?" M implored.
"Lyra," purred Duygu, raising their head to look imperiously down on her, "all shall be known in time."
M wanted to throw her hands up in frustration. Dehllah had, as well, avoided revealing anything of great importance to her, asides from the brief mention of a "collection". This was what struck fear in her heart. M desired to turn around and leave without a farewell, as both Asagwara and the Teahdee has done. But she was instead rooted firmly in place on the unsteady ground that moved when she shifted her weight.
M then realized, without confirming it for herself by seeing it, that what she stood on was a huge, deep, old and ruined pile of discarded bones. The lump in her throat returned and she resisted the need to cry out in disgust and abhorrence. She heard the revolting cracks of the fragile, broken pieces beneath her dust-covered boots, and could feel the strange unidentifiable film that made a thin layer over the bones cling to her soles. She wondered what it was, but didn't truly care to know.
The girl wanted to go home most of all.
M cast a longing glance over her shoulder where the faint fairy lights and gemstones glowed almost welcomingly, and refused to meet Fortunia's beastly leader's eyes again. Duygu smirked at her, and a low rumbling sound emerged from their throat like the growl of a cat hunting its prey.
"Peace, summon that Teahdee of hers," Duygu commanded. They rolled their neck so that it cracked loudly like the bone fragments under M's feet. She winced, still not looking at the monster. She saw in her peripheral vision the Eye that was called Peace close and vanish. It had an iris that was close to a milky cream color, a color that nearly blended in with its whites. The pupil, however, M saw had been dilated and pitch black. It was unsettling and yet... somehow, looking at the Eye, M had felt momentarily peaceful. Perhaps that was only right.
Duygu abruptly slammed their prodigious paws on the ground, so that thousands of shattered, blood-stained bones flew into the air and were scattered across the vast space. M lost her footing and was tossed roughly onto her back. Her violet eyes, wide with fear, accidentally fell upon the reddish gold ones of Duygu, and they locked. M rubbed her injured back to no avail as the two seemed to share an uncomfortable, grievous few minutes peering through the windows to each other's souls.
"It seems Anger was correct," Duygu spoke up, closing their eyes. "I understand what must be done." The creature's mouth curled into a disdainful grimace, and they snapped, "Now depart from me, girl, before I devour you!"
M was shaking as she scrambled backwards on her arms and legs until she could regain her footing. Without a final glance, she righted herself and ran down the tunnel, all the way to where she had encountered the invisible barrier. It was not there, and so she at last left Duygu's throne room and was able to catch her breath. M knew better than to believe the words of the beast. They had said that Dehllah was the liar, but no, that was not it.
"They will lie," she panted, brushing her black hair away from her face with her fingers. "They will always, always lie." Truth was not nearly as easy as covering it up, for some, wasn't it?
This, she had learned.