Unaware that such a conversation was taking place up in Lindworm, the Queen of the Underworld rolled over in her sleep. To be perfectly frank, she was sulking.
“Hey, Queen Elle, how long are you going to shut yourself away in here?” Molly asked.
“And whose fault is it that I’m like this, you idiot?! I let Dr. Glenn get away after he saw me exposed! And all because of a subordinate I thought I could trust—you! These phoenixes are stuck to me and won’t leave me alone! Ugh! I can’t take it anymore!”
“I said I was sorry, ’kay? But I wanted you to learn that there are things you should and shouldn’t do as the Goddess of Death,” Molly explained.
“I’m done being a goddess!” Elle cried. She was curled up on her own bed, hugging a pillow.
Molly sighed, trying to decide what to do. She’d expected this, but might have gone a little too far with her betrayal.
There was black smoke rising from Elle’s torso—probably residual phoenix power. Even the accumulated life energy of this many phoenixes couldn’t restore Elle’s dead half. They were stuck to her body like maggots, perhaps spent from using up all their power. The phoenixes, which were capable of resurrection, would probably catch fire again if prompted, but it seemed they had reached their limit for now.
Even the dark fairies were stroking Elle’s shoulders and buzzing at her feet out of concern.
“This job sucks,” Elle said, dejected.
Molly sighed. She always wanted to save everyone she could, and this pitiful Queen was no exception. If nothing else, she wanted to lend the Queen her ear, so she could listen to her air every last one of her grievances.
“Oh?”
A dark fairy flew straight to her. The fairies didn’t use language, but their thoughts were conveyed to Molly, the fairy of death. She listened to the fairy’s report and giggled.
“Queen Elle, you have a rare guest,” she called out to the Queen.
“I don’t know who it is, but send them away,” Elle said bluntly.
“Too bad, I already called them in here,” Molly cooed.
“Why, you—!”
The guest entered just as Elle started to get angry. The room filled with the fragrant scent of flowers. The Underworld was deep and dark, lit only in the places where such guests stood.
“Well, you’re having a time, aren’t you, Elle?” a voice said.
“Eh. Fairy Queen.”
“Well, well, is that how you speak to me after I came all the way out here? Have you been using that floral perfume I gave you? My children have brought you some nice tea. Let’s chat,” the Fairy Queen proposed.
Molly took a step back in a gesture of respect for the guest, a woman with butterfly wings on her back. This was the queen who ruled over the fairies. The dark fairies fled from her grandeur and even Molly couldn’t look her directly in the eye. Her light was too strong for residents of the Underworld to face. Elle was the only one there who could speak to her on equal footing.
“What are you doing here?” Elle asked.
“I heard you were hosting one of my subordinates recently. The fairy in question gave me the full story himself, but I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for us to talk. We are neighbors, aren’t we?”
The dimensions of the Underworld and Fairy Village were close, but they weren’t exactly neighbors in the usual sense of the word. And yet, the Fairy Queen could easily cross the border into the Underworld.
“I’m not in the mood to speak to someone as sparkly as you,” Elle declined.
“Teehee. Then I’ll just be glum, like you.” The Fairy Queen giggled.
“Did you come here to make snide remarks?!” Elle groaned.
The Fairy Queen took a seat at the table in a lordly manner. Elle accepted the challenge and huffily joined her at the table. No matter how angry Elle became, the Fairy Queen paid it no mind.
“Teehee,” she giggled again. “I thought you were depressed, but the way you get so worked up—it’s like you’re back to being your old self.”
“Piss off. I hope you all die.”
“My apologies, but fairies don’t die.” The Fairy Queen snickered. “I do have time to talk to you for a few minutes, however. Now, what’s got you all full of spite this time?”
“I will bring you to the Underworld someday,” Elle insisted.
Molly knew that despite her abusive language, Elle loved the perfume she received from the Fairy Queen. The flowers of the Fairy Realm were effective in hiding the rotting smell of one side of her body…though that young doctor had noticed the smell despite the perfume.
She wasn’t one to hope for people’s deaths, but Molly really did want him to hurry up and die and become Elle’s attending physician. She giggled.
“What are you doing, Molly? Hurry up and prepare the tea,” Elle instructed.
“Right away.”
Molly smiled.
Everyone deserved to be happy. Efforts made toward that end were never wasted efforts.
Such were her thoughts as she prepared the tea, sending a fragrant scent through Elle’s drab room.
When the Fairy Queen said, “My wish is for everyone to live a good life,” the Queen of the Underworld shot back with “Everyone should just hurry up and die.”
When Elle held the teacup, a very thin layer of skin on her own hand—actually just the fingertip—was visible. The incurable malady affecting Elle’s right side seemed to be slowly retreating from the phoenixes’ power.
It will certainly take a long time…an extraordinarily long time.
Molly couldn’t say it out loud, knowing that doing so would anger Elle. But the nun smiled to herself as she prayed.
Please let Queen Elle find some relief.
✦ ✦ ✦
The bells of Lindworm were ringing.
Glenn stood at the church in the Central Plaza, dressed in a tux. The sky was clear, and the faces of all the attendees were familiar to him.
It was the day of his wedding.
“Doctor.” Sapphee smiled at him, clad in a wedding dress and holding a bouquet. Glenn remembered how glad he was that she’d gotten her smile back. Tisalia and Arahnia stood beside her, all of them ready to hold the ceremony together.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
He would continue being a doctor in Lindworm. And he would have the reliable pharmacist lamia right by his side.
Everyone who lived would eventually die. That was why he wanted them to live well. That was why he worked so hard to be the best doctor he could. In fact, Glenn believed he would be a doctor even after he died—if nothing else, he had to keep his promise to the Queen of the Underworld.
This was his first step toward keeping that promise. Even if he would wind up in the Underworld someday, he wasn’t done living yet.
“Glenn Litbeit—”
Molly was calling him from the altar of the church.
As neither Glenn nor Sapphee subscribed to any religion, they decided to have a wedding ceremony in keeping with monster customs. They asked Molly to officiate, and the nun habit made her look just right for the part. Glenn thought she was the perfect officiant to help them to swear their love till death did them part.
“Do you take this woman, in sickness and in health?” Molly asked matter-of-factly, her eyes bulging. “To have and to hold, until death do you part?”
Glenn glanced over at Sapphee. She was looking bashfully back at Glenn with a hint of uncertainty in her eye, as if afraid he might say no, even after they’d come this far. He silently assured her it was fine.
If you get sick, I’ll cure you. And if you die—
Everyone went to the Underworld eventually. That meant that even in death, they could meet in the afterworld. They would never part, even in death.
“I do, even in death,” Glenn answered.
She looked at him, surprise in her eyes. Though she looked abashed, she ignored wedding protocol and threw her arms around Glenn, skipping right to the kiss.
And it was a long kiss.