Post Chapter Five - Malcolm

The lights clicked off leaving the room in a soft evening glow. A single lamp shown from the kitchen and one more was positioned near the archway that separated the living room from the bedroom.  Quietly, Malcolm went about, lighting a few candles, giving the room a warm bit of ambience.  Lamplight was sleeping in his bed and for the first time, Malcolm felt some of his tension ease.  Having two out of the three people that mattered to him, under one roof, gave him a kind of peace that he couldn’t often describe. Now they just needed Hazel here.

Quietly, he grabbed his keys, stepping out into the back garden.  The planter boxes that Hazel had helped make when he first moved in sat dead now. The flowers that had once grown were still standing but now were hollowed out husks. Life had continued without him while he was gone.  The bright blooming garden he had once sat in with his sister was a brown and rotting scrap of land now. And Malcolm didn’t know the first thing about fixing it.

Sitting down on his bench, he sighed.  Glancing back through the arched doors, he could see Milo pretending to sleep on the couch. Yet another situation he would have to deal with soon.  More than likely, he needed to stop dragging his feet and instigate a conversation between him and Milo. Between him and Lamplight. Possibly between all three of them. It just never felt like the right time. Even telling Lamplight that he loved them felt strained for the moment. A trauma response.

Maybe he was just overthinking it.

Drawing a few sigils into the dirt, the windows darkened giving both him privacy out in the garden, and Milo privacy inside.  He stared down at his keys. Little ones he had kept from his time as a Gatekeeper. They had been his emergency keys. The ones he kept here in the apartment in case he got trapped.  He could still feel the charge within them but had no way of unlocking them.

And he would rather die trying than go inside and ask Milo to unlock one for him.  Which in reality, should say something about the level of tension between the two of them.

Sitting back on the bench, he tipped his eyes up to the false sky he had installed. A blushing pink that felt warm and a series of wispy clouds that looked like the softest space to rest his head.

“You know, I thought things would be different with you back. Like the world would rejoice. I didn’t expect the world to be sleeping in your bed.”

Malcolm snorted a little at the familiar voice. “You should have shut the door,” he said. There was a waterfall in the corner of his garden. Made of abalone shells and barely any higher than his waist. But the depths of the pool were vast. So when he opened his eyes to find a wild mass of jet black hair and the coral tones of Kamille staring back at him, he wasn’t surprised.

“I would never shut the door on you, Malcolm.” Kamille twisted her arms to rest against the pool's flagstone side, her ebony skin glistening in the pink light.  “Besides, I wanted to keep an eye on your place. If I shut the door, I would have locked myself off from this side of the realm completely.”

The Deep was cut off. It had been since the lanterns had gone out. Except, it seemed that Kamille kept one backdoor. She always had been one of the more clever Barons.

“You look sad, Malcolm,” she mused. The gills on the side of her face fluttered, beckoning him forward. With great effort, he stood once more, tiredly making his way to sit by the pool.  “Oh, Malcolm,” sighed Kamille. “You are not taking care of yourself.”

Malcolm laughed a little, the self deprecating tone sitting uncomfortably around them. “Believe it or not, I am trying. Today was just a bit much. My mother is back and she’s done a number on Hazel again. And I think that she may have done a number on me.”

Kamille frowned. “You are afraid Lucinda has cursed you somehow.”

“I haven’t seen Hazel in nearly three months. I can almost guarantee it.”

The water lapped around Kamille’s bare arms, beading against her skin and falling like dew into the ground around them. There were no plants this time to benefit from the nourishment.  

“The lamps are still out,” Kamille stated. “Your mother is up to her tricks again. And the market is still dying. Any word of Taliesin Hynsin.”

Malcolm shook his head.

“It sounds like there is much going on involving the people you love.  Are you naive enough to think it’s not all connected.”

“Of course not. I just can’t figure out how to tie them together. And it's frustrating. Far more frustrating that I can show.”

“Malcolm Albright. Always keeping it together. Never letting go of control.  I’ve told you this before but it bears repeating it seems. That will kill you.”

“I’ve already died.”

“And do you think this world could take another death from you?” she asked with a raised brow. “You have a Gatekeeper that has come into his full powers this time and would most likely not let it stand as he did before. Not to mention that the persona of the Night Market slowly falling in love with you.  Those two together would be unstoppable in yanking you from the grave.”

“Lamplight is not in love with me.”

Kamillie smiled softly at him. “Lamplight. Yes.”

“I’m not going there with you.” Kamille was arguably his best friend. But Malcolm still had lines with her. Barriers he wouldn’t let her cross.

The amusement was rolling off of Kamille in little waves, forming into little seashells that pebbled against the ground before sprouting into brightly colored crabs that skittered across the garden. “You don’t have to, Albright. You don’t have to.” She then reached out, placing her jeweled fingers upon his own. “I have another request. One that is a bit more serious in nature.”

“About my mother, I presume.”

“And Taliesin.” Malcolm looked at her, his eyes darkening. That thing roaming around Lamplight had yet to be something he had come to terms with. “Inform me of their movements. Each and every one.  I have a suspicion someone is moving chess pieces and we are too small to see the bigger picture.  An outside perspective may be helpful. That, and someone that the market thinks is gone, should be in the background, helping everything develop.”

Malcolm eyed her suspiciously. “I’m not keeping this from the people involved.”

“I more meant keep it from the people we are against.”

“I can do that.”

“Then,” Kamille said, dipping further down into the water. “We are on the same page. Now, please go get some rest.The world can wait for you to sleep.”  She disappeared, never one to say goodbye, leaving only a bubbling mass rippling beneath the water's surface and an army of crabs.

The world could wait for him to sleep.

Malcolm wasn’t sure he agreed with the sentiment.