The Secret Word

The Secret Word
By Invader-Hime

The word had been with him his entire life.  

        It didn't have any particular meaning to him.

        Some would say it wasn't a word at all, rather, it was a series of letter and number-like symbols he wrote in sequence over and over at various points in his life.

        Angela Morningstar first noticed the word when her son was four and had been playing with a set of magnetic letters and numbers that he had placed on the fridge.  It only stood out because it was nestled amongst properly spelled words like "cat," "Daddy," "Momma," and "bird."  Then there was...whatever it was.  Angela raised a golden eyebrow before brushing the entire set of magnets back into their box without a second thought.

        It was brought to her attention again when Michael's first grade teacher sent a letter home informing her that her son was "writing nonsense words" in his journal at school during free writing.

      "Michael, that is time to be spent practicing writing real words, not imaginary ones," she chided him

        The blonde child puffed out his round cheeks and pouted.

        "It is a real word," he insisted.

        Angela cocked her head to the side.

       "Really?  Is it?  What does it mean, then?" she asked.

       "I don't know, but I know it is a real word," Michael stated with all the seriousness he could muster.

       "Alright, if you insist.  Just don't write that particular word in your schoolwork anymore, alright?  You don't want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself," Angela said, her words sharp with an underlying warning.

        Michael nodded.

        Angela Morningstar never saw the word again.

        Neither did any of Michael's teachers.

        Or his friends or acquaintances.

        However, the word was carved into an asteroid in the Null Void.  He'd been horrendously bored and it was all he could think of to do.  

        He'd never stopped writing it, he'd just stopped letting others see him write it.  He lazily scrawled it when he was bored the way others doodled or filled in notepads while listening to something they didn't care about.  It randomly appeared in his notes and sketches.  He'd almost stopped noticing it.

        Until Charmcaster noticed it on a notepad he had left open.

        She'd turned a furious shade of crimson and glared at him.

        "What are you playing at?" she demanded, her voice deadly serious and her eyes flickering with purple flashes of enraged mana.

         Darkstar had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

         "I'm not playing at anything right now.  I could play at you if you asked politely," he countered sarcastically.

         A bright pink tentacle beam of mana shot out of her palm and wrapped around Darkstar and squeezed. Hard.  He bit back a groan of discomfort.

        "Have I inadvertently hit a nerve, Lovely Charmcaster?  Please, enlighten me to my error,"

        "YOU KNOW!  I know you know!  You son of a bitch!" she practically growled at him before slapping him across the face, leaving a reddish, purplish blotch on his thin, dry skin.

        Sunken, pale blue eyes stared out at her from dark sockets and Charmcaster's chest was suddenly tight.  Darkstar shook his head.

        "No, I don't,"

        The way he said it, she completely believed him.  Frustrated by either his absurdly good lie or his brutal honesty, she seized the notepad in her hand and shoved it barely a centimeter from his face.

        "I'm talking about this!  How do you know this?  Who told you?  Where did you see this before?  Who gave it to you?" she asked in manic, rapid succession.

        Darkstar found her sudden hysteria perplexing, but it bothered him to see her so upset.  Wait...it bothered him?  He didn't want her to be upset?  She'd just slapped him upside the face and he didn't want her to be upset?  There wasn't logic there...there was only...something else.  Something new and terrifying that he'd been trying to deny.  However...at the same time it sometimes felt...familiar?  

        "No one.  No one ever told me that word.  I've always known it.  For as long as I can remember, I've known it and have been writing it.  I didn't know it meant anything.  It clearly does, or yo wouldn't be so worked up about a scribbling on a writing tablet.  What does it mean?  What have I been scrawling for so long?" he asked, genuinely curious.

        The mana tentacle loosened its tight grip on him before dissolving into nothing as a sudden cascade of emotions washed over Charmcaster's features.  Frustration, sadness, and fear flickered over he face as a look of realization entered her eyes.

        Her eyes burned with anger and they went glassy with tears of rage before they softened and a hand tipped with black painted nails went to the mana witch's mouth.  She shook her head over and over.

        "No," she whispered, "No, no no.  That's not possible.  No, not you.  NOT YOU!"

      Hot tears leaked from her eyes and the witch sank to the floor.  Darkstar's chest felt tight.  He wanted to hold her, comfort her and make the outpouring of pain stop for her.  

       Why?

       He'd never cared about anyone quite like he did about her.  He'd seen plenty of young women cry and never felt an inkling of compassion or unease...but he could not stand seeing her in that state.

       "Why do you know that word?  How could you?  No one knows that word other than two people.  You are not one of those people." Charmcaster added sharply.

       "Looks like there are three, now, because I do.  I don't have any idea what it means, but it is obviously very important,"

       A gauntleted hand gently brushed a tear off of her puffy, red face and smoothed a loose piece of platinum hair behind her ear.  Amethyst eyes opened wide and stared into pale, sunken, blue ones intensely before their owner seized Darkstar and squeezed him tightly.

      "Don't...don't ever tell anyone that.  Keep it secret.  Promise me you will keep it secret!  For once, keep something to yourself, please.  You can tell anyone anything, but not that word!"

       Sharp fingernails dug into Darkstar's back.  He gently pressed the tips of his fingers against her shoulders, carefully trying to hold her without letting his palms touch her.  He didn't want her to get the wrong idea and think that he was trying to steal a taste of her mana.

        "If it will make you happy, I will promise to never say or write that word to another living soul as long as I live," he promised.

        For the first time in a long time, that's exactly what it was...and it was only because she asked.

        "It would," Charmcaster replied.

        "Then I promise to never say or write it to another living soul.  Cross my own blackened heart and swear to die a terrible death,"

        "Good," Charmcaster answered before placing a molten kiss on the grey skin of his neck and working her way upwards to his mouth.  

        Hands found hidden closures and traced seductively over exposed grey skin.  

        Darkstar found he quite liked this arrangement and was open to more negotiations...but only with the mana witch.

        Charmcaster was happy to hear that Darkstar really didn't realize that he had been writing her true name his entire life.  In her clan, it was an omen of intimately linked fates for one person to be born with the knowledge of another's true name.  What did that mean?  She certainly wasn't going to become some happy go lucky little hausfrau for him, but she got the distinct idea that Darkstar didn't want that anyway...and it suited her just fine.  Besides...if they were to be...intimately linked...she might as well enjoy it.