"You know what I was thinking?"
Hollyberry's fingers were gentle as they carded through her hair, her hand warm and grounding. It slightly disrupted the flowers she tucked into her hair, but there were hundreds more. "I was thinking… it would be nice to have a little garden party, with all of my friends. It's been so long since I've seen them…longer since we've had a party…"
Eternal Sugar snuggled close, uncertainty rising up in her chest. "…tell me about them."
Hollyberry laughed, the sound no longer triumphant but soft. "You would like Pure Vanilla and Golden Cheese. Dark Cacao might struggle at first…" She laughed again, but it was distant, far away. "But that's nothing a few glasses of berry juice can't help with. And…" She paused on the fifth Ancient, the new guardian of the Silver Tree.
"I would like Pure Vanilla and Golden Cheese?" Eternal Sugar egged on gently, before her love could get too far away.
"Yes, yes," Hollyberry said. "Pure Vanilla wants to bring joy to everyone. He's a beacon of light…" She nuzzled her forehead. "But not as bright as you. Golden Cheese is greedy, like you."
"Ah? You think me greedy, my love?" She leaned forward to steal a kiss from Hollyberry's juice-stained lips. And another. And another. And-
"Sooo greedy!" Hollyberry cackled, wrapping her arms around her and holding Eternal Sugar tight. "But, you two love your people very much, and you have wings." She leaned back with a sigh, one of her clenching hands moving up to rub where one of those wings came out. "I would suggest a race to see who's faster, but you aren't interested in that sort of thing."
"No, I'm not…" Eternal Sugar sighed. Now that Hollyberry couldn't see her face, her smile dropped.
She couldn't tell her the fate of her friends.
Pure Vanilla, now Truthless Recluse, was the "partner in crime" to Shadow Milk. The two halves of the soul jam now combined, Shadow Milk kept his "partner" locked away in the Spire, supposedly screaming for the children he had brought with him and his kingdom. He still brought joy, but only to the Master of Deceit.
Golden Cheese was the "prized bird" of Burning Spice. Her days were spent fighting him and whichever opponents he wished, while her nights were spent believing she was free and with her dead subjects. Burning Spice was surprisingly less destructive now, now that he had her by his side.
Dark Cacao had turned to flour, Mystic Flour reclaiming her soul jam before she destroyed the rest of the Dark Cacao Kingdom. Afterwards, the Beast of Apathy had locked herself away in the Ivory Pagoda. Supposedly, she was meditating, but Eternal Sugar wasn't fooled. She was in mourning.
White Lily and Silent Salt, as well as Dark Enchantress, were both dead. She had no idea how cruel Shadow Milk could be until that day, but she couldn't say that their long, slow deaths were unnecessary.
None of them could come. The two that were still alive would never be allowed here, for fear that she would keep them.
"…I'll think about it, my love."
