A Work in Progress

Sophia watched what she would call the 'future couple' with a wide grin. Everything was coming together beautifully in her opinion. She could feel the surprise and fascination coming off the boy as he watched the maid complete a work he thought came from The Fates, or was at least made possible by them. There was no other way to explain the knowledge he acquired while building this blueprint.

 While Renat believed in magic, he truly thought that science was better. Magic seemed too unreliable. He couldn't be happier than at this moment. The Fates he had heard so much about were so knowledgeable. In his heart, he desperately wanted to meet a Fate now more than ever.

All of these emotions were felt by Sophia. Her grin became more pronounced as she felt all that the boy was feeling. While she could have made these guesses based on his actions and her countless years of experience, there was nothing like experiencing these emotions from their source. While magic should never be used on humans, It was a risk that Sophia had been willing to take. 

The boy's survival depended entirely on her ability to change his heart.  Any other outcome would indeed spell his doom. When she told the others her plans, they looked at her as if she was mad. If she failed and the boy had to die. Then she would risk destruction herself. The pain and suffering would be unimaginable. So for her success was everything.

"How are you doing this?" Renat couldn't help but ask.

"I...I'm not sure. Maybe… I think… Don't laugh, ok?" she said, pausing her drawing to look at the scientist. Her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment. Allison had no idea how to tell him that she believed all this was from her mother. Who she now thought was watching over her somehow. 

"Don't stop drawing!" Renat half yelled. "I'm sorry, nevermind that I asked. Just don't stop before you lose the inspiration. Whatever this is, it won't last for too long."

Allison nodded and continued to draw the image that seemed to be imprinted in her mind. She was secretly very happy. Renat had never paid her any attention and rightfully so. She was after all just a handmaid. This had to be the second happiest day of her life. There was slight guilt in the back of her mind. She had always felt that Her Highness might have more than just a passing interest in the man, but when asked Mairwen would always brush it off, claiming he was just a great asset to the empire. Although Allison never believed it, she selfishly chose to now.

It was the only way her conscience would allow her to continue with her current feelings, and what these feelings were only time would tell.

***

For The Protect Meriwen Society, everything was going perfectly. Mairwen thought the scientist was dead, and the scientist thought that she saw him as nothing but a friend. The mind can truly fool itself to believe anything, especially when there is a Fate to help push things along.

Every night he would dream of "Mairwen". They would always spend time together building his new invention, The Flyer. He couldn't wish for more, save that it would have been nice if they didn't start building from the beginning in every dream. He had yet to even reach halfway. At some point in these dreams, "Mairwen" would transform into "Allison".  The transformation would always leave him bewildered, confused,d and guilty. He was not the kind of guy who would chase another woman. He was sure he loved Mairwen. He had never even given another girl a passing glance. Mairwen was the only one in his heart.  So why would he also dream of Alison? No matter how much he forced or tried to change it, he would wake every morning with Allison's smile being the most prominent thing he remembered from his dreams. It was as if someone had branded the image of her in his mind.

Renat was a bundle of emotions. His most powerful emotion was guilt. He felt guilty that an image of a girl he barely knew was always in his dreams. Renat felt like her being there was somehow his fault. He felt like he had been swayed too easily by the simple maid girl. Well, he didn't dislike her; she could be considered attractive. But there was no reason for her to replace Mairwen in his dreams. He felt that he truly needed to avoid Allison. Even when he awoke the maid's image would stay in his mind for hours after he woke up. It was frustrating to the point of suffocation.

At first,t Renat thought that he must have been poisoned or maybe the explosion caused something wrong with his brain. But no matter how logical he was when he was awake when he dreamed… Not only did Allison flirt with him, but he also flirted back. It was almost as if he was not in control of himself while he slept. He felt like a puppet in his mind.

Some alien or primal Renat was in the driver's seat in his dreams, which frightened Renat more than he cared to admit. Tumultuous is the only word to describe his emotions. For Sophia, this was both a good and bad thing. Spending so much time with him, she went through the same turbulent emotions. What was truly unexpected was Sophia began to enjoy her stolen time with him.

She suspected his emotions of excitement were bleeding off into her, and she in turn would feed them back to him through their conversation as " Mairwen". Sophia thought she was probably the first Fate to experience such a thing. She somehow found herself wondering what would happen if she kissed the boy as Allison or Mairwen. In this train of thought, she didn't consider the consequences of kissing him as Mairwen. She was busy fantasizing about all this when Brinn abruptly took the boy away.

"I assume that smile means everything is coming together nicely."

Sophia turned toward the voice and gave a knowing smile. Persephone scoffed as she continued. "How much time do you think it will be until you can make him leave the castle?"

"Not long. Hee would have left immediately to find Mairwen if I had not intervened." 

"That would not have been a problem. His life would have come to an end inexplicably if he was so rash."

"Yes, I'm sure you would have made a nudge in all the right places for that to happen," Sophia's voice was laced with a bitterness that surprised and confused her. The idea of killing Renat rubbed her the wrong way. It was a way she had never quite felt before, but she tossed it all to the back of her mind. she had used magic on a human. Some unexpected side effects were bound to occur.

Persephone noticed the odd tone but chalked it up to Sophia wanting to protect humans as best she could. Persephone believed that it was easier to stir the boy's desire for Mairwen and then let him fall upon some calamity. The peace of mankind was worth more than the life of one boy. 

"Well, I was told by Roland to assist you. How can I help?"

"Hmm, I need one final push to make him so guilty he would never want to see Mairwen again. I haven't had time to prepare and draw Allison to him, but she is much easier to manipulate than he is. She is already infatuated with the boy; it will only take a slight nudge in her case. Can you handle that?"

"What kind of nudge?" 

Sophia chuckled and told Fate Persephone her plan. 

***

Renat had been speaking to Brinn about the escape of the prisoner from the castle. He had shown her his flyer, which was able to carry three human passengers at a time. He had to argue for a long time before convincing the spymaster princess to go along with his plans.  The biggest headache wasn't gathering the materials to build these flyers. It was the attention it would get from the gnomes that would be hard to hide.

Brinn had promised to get him moved to an outer courtyard as long as he promised to follow all her rules. The only time he could work on it was at night. There had to be two of them, and he had to make it easy enough for another person to operate it. She had a few special people she wanted to help escape from Valiant. This lanky little scientist had given her exactly what she needed: 

A way out that couldn't be tracked from the ground. 

***

"Someone has a crush," said one giggling voice to another. 

Allison for her part didn't argue; the reddening from her neck to her cheeks was a giveaway. Giggles soon ensued as all but spoken confirmation was given.

"So have you spent time with our new head eunuch?"

Allison ignored the question again hoping the ladies would drop their inquiry. The only response was the ever reddening visage.

"Oh come on Ally, You must give us something"

"I...He is avoiding me."

A collective gasp was the only response to her words for a moment. While the maids had a silent conversation with their eyes.

"Maybe...maybe I'm not his type? Nor attractive enough," she asked no one in particular. 

"Nonsense. We all saw you together that day with those papers"

"Blueprints." Allison corrected. 

"Whatever. You know what I mean. You two looked perfect together. If I didn't know any better I'd say you've been friends for ages."

"That was not me though." Allison retorted. The words that she spoke that day were not really from her but her "Mother". Allison's "Mother" has not spoken to her since that day. 

"Well, we all must be blind for not being able to recognize you. Don't fret. We will help you. He has only seen you in a maid uniform. When we are done with you the boy won't know what hit him!"

Looking at the confidence of her fellow maids, Allison acquiesced. Though she agreed, it was backed by no real hope to turn this situation around. 

(Author's note: I'd like to leave out the dialogue of established characters. I don't have the confidence to do dialogue with the established characters and keep them close to the original author's original character traits save Renat. He's a Scumbag)