Chapter Text
The Virtues weren't supposed to feel anything. Baked to be untouchable and immortal gods, their mission was only to help guide powerless cookies into the right path, making sure everything stayed in order and there was nothing that could ruin the peace surrounding Earthbread.
They weren't supposed to feel like normal cookies. They were nameless unlike everyone else who surrounded them, only going by their titles.
Yet the Fount of Knowledge was most likely the virtue who felt too much, loneliness was his first real feeling, even if surrounded by people who were always eager to learn and hear about his different teachings, he was always alone in the end of the day and had no one to talk about the other sentiments that started creeping inside his beating heart.
Fear, sadness, anxiety, probably any negative emotion you could name, he already felt at least once. He felt like a failure after being screamed and even attacked by other cookies for just spreading the sour truth, being labeled as a liar by everyone who dared raise their voice towards him and his knowledge being used as a weapon against him, leaving him with a lot of permanent scars.
He always wondered if the other virtues felt the same way as him, however he'd never get himself to mention such topic in one of their exchanged letters, nor speaking openly about it in one of their rare meetings.
Every night, he would look at the stars and just beg fate to put someone who understood him in his life.
His pleads appeared to be answered the moment his mismatched eyes locked into that long blonde haired man wearing long white and gold robes who was in the middle of his office, staring at him with sprinkle of nervousness. It was like seeing an angel descending from the sky to his arms, his heart started fluttering in his chest and his stomach felt weird, like a million of butterflies were flying around.
That's how he discovered how falling in love felt, following with happiness for having Pure Vanilla beside him. The virtue couldn't deny he was the happiest when the ancient was with him, knowing his feelings were reciprocated and wishing to stay forever beside his now partner.
But of course, everything had to go crashing down in a snap of fingers.
Seeing your happiness split away from your fingers wasn't easy to witness to anyone, especially for a lonely Fount of Knowledge. Letting Pure Vanilla go was more painful than finding out what the future had in store for himself, yet it lighted something inside of him.
He knew now his destiny was to betray his nature as the holder of the light of Knowledge and become the beast of Deceit, nothing could stop the destiny for becoming reality, nonetheless there was an urge to stop the destiny from repeating itself and maybe he could use that new information to do so.
His reflection in the mirror made him jolt, his once flowy starlight hair was now completely dull with the back of it starting to become pitch black, his eyes had no life behind those vibrant colors and its typical sparkle had disappeared. He looked terrible.
He was starting to look a lot like Shadow Milk.
The Fount of Knowledge shook his head in complete denial while taking a few steps back, that mocking voice echoing in his mind over and over again, not letting him forget who made Pure Vanilla fall from the once Spire of all Knowledge's roof and made him go through the worse pains.
A lightbulb appeared in his head, giving him one idea of what could stop him from falling into corruption. He almost ran into his desk and almost jumped in his chair before whispering some words and make a diversity of books pull from his bookshelf to the cold wood of his desk, starting his extensive research to create a recollecting memories spell. Wouldn't be such easy thing to shallow neither to create, but no one could do such thing other than the Fount of Knowledge himself.
He would find a way to travel to the future using the dark side of the moon, just to gather all of Shadow Milk's memories and storage them inside of his own brain like it belonged to him. A very complex research would be needed to proceed with such plan, but he had a lot of time in his hands to achieve it.
His eyes traveled to the vanilla orchid resting by his side and a bitter smile escaped his lips, fighting tears was becoming more and more harder as his body was starting to enter a grieving process and to his own dismay, it had skipped the first two stages straight up to bargaining.
"I miss you so much, Pure Vanilla." he murmured in a hiccup, his name tasting so wrong in his tongue. "I will fight for us, even if it's the last thing I have to do."
It had been days since the virtue dared closing his eyes and consuming too much coffee for a regular cookie, not wanting to divert his focus to other thing that wasn't to complete that very important research. A long sigh escaped his lips while stretching like a cat, both pages were now completed with magical runes and the spells were ready to be tested, of course the Fount himself would be the one testing both.
Nothing would happen to him in the progress, he was immortal after all.
Moving his staff in a circle was enough to open a portal to his other realm in front of him and he jumped on it, entering the dark side of the moon and making his whole body shiver when the coldness of the place covered him like a blanket. While his powers had a huge part of dark moon magic on it, the Fount always stayed away from what was forbidden and considered untouchable, even if he was baked with such in his hands.
The virtue ended up stepping into a cold and almost pitch black bedroom, black walls and old victorian dark blue furniture gave the place a more sinister look, thick curtains not daring a singular light enter the place and a candle lit tried its best to illuminate it. His eyes traveled to the giant bed in the center of a room, discovering a body covered by silky sheets.
His steps were light in the cold white tiles, getting closer slowly until his vision finally see the face of the person laying down, crumbled cracks covered almost all his face and made the virtue get hit by a wave of horror. Shadow Milk's chest raised slowly with each breath and all the eyes in his hair were also shut just like the ones in his face, he was clearly deep asleep and the Fount knew there was no way he would wake up, always used to sleep like a rock everytime his face dared touching the pillow.
His trembling hands got closer to the other's freezing cold forehead, his eyes closed slowly before starting to murmur the spell words one by one and being hit by a wave of sharp memories as soon the last word escaped his lips, tasting the sour taste of the cruel reality on the tip of his tongue and getting hit by the wave of everything like he was drowning.
Every memory was a different type of pain to him, how people laughed at the Fount's face instead of treating him with respect, how his breaking point happened after not getting too much in his head and labeling himself as too weak for not fight all the mockery and loneliness, being jailed for eternity in the Silver Tree by the witches and having his own dough crumbling slowly out of despair until he become just a soul roaming that void-like prison. The cherry on top was seeing how his once benelovent virtue friends had become villainous beasts as well and yet turned their backs to him, leaving him all on his own and rotting in loneliness again after they barely escaped.
Nothing of it broke his heart more than seeing the face of a scared Pure Vanilla while staring at him, wearing waffled themed vestments and holding a vanilla orchid staff with both hands, totally different of his partner that always looked at him with the sweetest smiles, knowing what fully happened in the Spire of Deceit and how after all of it, he still wanted to befriend Shadow Milk.
And he still promised to spend the rest of his life beside the Fount of Knowledge, knowing everything he was in the verge of becoming.
That was how he felt rage for the first time, angry tears slided down his eyes and his hand gripped his key shaped staff tightly. The agonizing pain he felt was justified as no one deserved to go through such horror show in their lifes, but the virtue felt that nothing would be a reason to be beside such a vile villains and hurt so many cookies, including his other half who just wanted to help him and show that he could be happy once more.
And how he let that Dark Enchantress woman bake him a new body even if he was a brilliant genius who knew how to do so himself, no wonder he was crumbling as they didn't share the same body now, crumblimg because the Fount of Knowledge was far from corrupting now, that would make Shadow Milk's existence be erased from Earthbread.
No more beast of Deceit, and hopefully that's enough to prevent his virtue friends from corrupting too. He was the first one to embrace the darkness and cause chaos around Earthbread, so things surely should change if he stop himself from following that destiny.
Shadow Milk had to stay as just a part of him for eternity, hidden deep inside his soul and not daring to say the light of day. He refused to become someone who inflicted the same pain to others that he once endured.
The first thing he did after stepping out of the portal back to his right timeline was to walk with trembling legs to what used to be Pure Vanilla's chambers. Emptiness met him with a cold hug and his eyes darted around like he was hoping to find the once owner of the room, stopping only after spotting a piece of something layed in the chair. He walked closer to grab it carefully in his hand and noticing it was a soft light blue blanket, the whole length had lambs and bunnies carefully knitted on it.
Pure Vanilla always said the Fount of Knowledge looked like an adorable little bunny, and he always said the blonde reminded him of a fluffy lamb ready for some snuggles.
A scream loaded with mournful pain was all that left his lips before falling on his knees on the ground, not being able to hold such wailing that escaped without his permission. His shaky arms hugged the blanket tightly to his chest while his whole body was being covered with the regret of letting his beautiful angel leave his side, his heart was longing to have him by his side again and smelling that sweet scent of vanilla beans and cream that had become his favorite fragrance and the only one that managed to calm him down.
That was the Fount's first breakdown since Pure Vanilla left, and surely it wasn't going to be his last one.
Time can pass fast when you're immortal, schedules can turn tiring from being so repetitive and your body can start to experience fatigue as a result of it, or perhaps the Fount of Knowledge was just tasting the consequences of falling into such lonely habits all over again. Only stepping outside to preach his knowledge with a few of interested townfolks and then retiring to his Spire for the majority of the day.
Still he tried his best to change the path of things, his first goal was to start writing more frequent letters to the other virtues in hopes that would better their day and also start a conversation between them. He didn't know what they were dealing with behind closed doors and that alone made him think if the reason why all of them corrupted was the lack of communication between each other, often no showing any affection and barely any support between them.
Which was fair, no one teached any of them how to be a good friend, and they were never meant to have any sort of friendships. Perhaps, they were just meant to be colleagues and that's it, but the Fount still had so much endearment for every single one of them.
The smell of vanilla was slowly fading from his sheets and the once warm side were once the love of his life layed beside him every night was getting colder by the day. Sleeping started to become harder by the longer time passed and started becoming more of an option to escape reality, his chest felt tighter with everything traveling around his almost exploding mind, and how much he was yearning to fall into Pure Vanilla's arms once more, to hear his voice whispering that everything was going to be okay.
The Spire slowly started to feel freezing cold both physically and emotionally, holding all those memories on their happy days together between those same walls and mocking the Fount for letting everything slip out of his fingers just like that.
That's how he took a difficult decision, maybe something he would end up regretting in a further future.
"Are you sure, my Fount?" Blackberry Sorbet questioned with a worried tone, half trying to process everything the virtue had just said. "I will be honored to accept such request, but I'm worried about you, sir."
The Fount smiled before running his hand through his own hair in a nervous gesture, his hair was starting to sparkle like before and was not as dim and stale. "The Blueberry Kingdom needs a great ruler and I trust you will do a great job, Blackberry Sorbet. I also know you will take great care of my Spire too."
"But Sir..." she tried to debate, but ended up giving up when seeing the confident in his face. He was too determined to presuing what was in his mind. "... I accept your request, my Fount. May I perhaps know where our majesty is going?"
It was difficult to leave everything behind without a trace and head to the still brand new and very small continent of Crispia, part of him didn't want to leave all his life behind and take a fresh start but maybe that was what he needed all along. No more stress, no more worrying about the lack of response by his probably very busy virtue friends, no more having to focus on his duties solely and spend his time just taking care of everyone but himself.
That was how the Fount had the brilliant idea of inaugurate a powerful and the very first Academy of Magic and taking a new form thanks to his shapeshifting powers. His once light blue dough was now milky white, his starlight hair was lighter with some white strands and was always tied in a long side braid, now he used long white mixed with lilac and blue robes with a fluffy white collar with a bit of purple waffle fabric separating the cloudy part of it.
That's how he left his Fount of Knowledge persona behind and had become Blueberry Yogurt, the first headmaster of the self named Blueberry Yogurt Academy.
There was something very calming about seeing curious freshly baked cookies learning about the different type of spells and magic, especially when any of them came to him wearing their purple waffled themed uniforms and eagerly asking a diversity of questions about various topics, which the now headmaster was always delighted to answer every single one of them without a second thought.
Being a headmaster was surely more liberating than everything he was doing as the virtue of Knowledge previously, the only downside would be to take care of that dangerous dimensional portal hidden in the back of the library, however a simple blocking spell had apparently done the whole job and was enough to not get bothered by such thing for centuries.
For his dismay, the fate didn't want to give him a long break as it didn't take longer until all the peace surrounding him crashed like a thin glass when his council broke into his office with urgent news. The headmaster's eyes raised up while leaving his quill in the little ink pot and interspersed his gaze between both with a questioning look.
"We have terrible news!" Tiramisu exclaimed distressed, trying to control his panting to proceed. "Four of the five virtues had fallen and are bringing destruction and dispair in the lands now called Beast-Yeast!"
Blueberry Yogurt got up abruptly with wide eyes, making the chair he was sitting on fall behind him in a loud bang. His beloved virtue friends had fallen into corruption even if he didn't do so, his attempts to try maintain them uphold and to change their fate failed for his own dismay, maybe the letters weren't enough to help like he so thought, maybe he should've tried more, perhaps visiting them frequently to make sure they were doing good would've prevent such thing of happening.
"Our heroe Elder Faerie is trying everything he can to stop them for continuing with such cruel acts." Buccellato continued the talking with her typical soft voice. "However the most devastating information is that no one has found any traces of the great Fount of Knowledge, it's presumed he has passed when the Blueberry Kingdom was completely destroyed."
His eyelashes trembled before he felt his knees faltering and loosing balance completely, both cookies rushed to hold him firmly and prevent him from falling into the freezing ground. Not only his friends dunked into the sweetness of corruption, they also destroyed his whole kingdom in the process and everything he worked for centuries to maintain a float and in peace.
That alone made him wonder what was the objective when proceeding with such evil plan, maybe they were mad about him not corrupting too and tried finding his hidding place to force him into doing so, or maybe his sudden disappearance made them discount everything on the innocent people inhabiting the same Kingdom he once founded.
Or maybe they didn't care about the old Fount of Knowledge at all and just thought taking revenge on people would be the best way to proceed with whatever they were doing. It still felt strange to get notified that everyone just presumed he was deceased, even if the whole Earthbread knew he was an immortal.
With the excuse that he needed to investigate what was happening around Beast-Yeast and aim the powerful mages who were trying their best to lock the beasts away for eternity, the headmaster left all his life behind again after being completely sure the academy would be in great hands and decided to head back to the continent he once called home, not knowing what was going to be waiting for him.
The only certainty was the Fount of Knowledge wouldn't come back to the Academy.
Stepping into the now chilling cold Beast-Yeast grounds made his whole dough almost freeze, the surroundings were eerily silent and that alone made him know the worse had happen. Shadow Milk's memories rewinded to the fateful day were all the beasts had fallen, discounting all their rage into innocent cookies and turning them with the places they once called home into thin flour.
With a simple snap of his fingers, the Blueberry Yogurt disguise melted away and he was back to be his original form, his eyes darted around the place with suspicion while his footsteps remained very light to prevent unsolicited attention. The Fount knew there was a high chance the beasts or their faithful followers could be hidden anywhere in hopes of finding him, it was common knowledge that he probably one of their main targets in that moment.
Facing the now destroyed Blueberry Kingdom was like facing a dreadful nightmare, debris filled the ground of once lively town and the stillness around him made his ears buzz unpleasantly. His heart ached in agony, legs trembling with each step and threatening to fail at any moment. His mind reminded him of memories that didn't belong to him anymore, how previously Shadow Milk was the one to do it with his own hands who brought dispair into his once Kingdom, laughing maniacally when the cookies that once looked up at him begged for mercy before suffering such awful ending.
And now the Fount of Knowledge was standing there uncorrupted, looking around at the memories now crumbled down and nothing was remaining, everything got turned into dust or burned down.
His friends were gone, the virtues that once he saw as family were gone, his Spire with all its glory has completely vanished.
The love of his life was also gone.
He was completely alone... again.
A very familiar laugh exploded into his mind full of mockery, making both hands hold the sides of his head firmly in torment and trying to make the lingering throbbing go away with that torturing laugh.
"You really thought you would stop the inevitable? Oh so-so silly, Fount of Knowledge." the voice echoed in his mind, full of confidence and in an attempt to ridicule him as always. "You will always become the great Shadow Milk, even if you try fighting it like the idiot you are."
The virtue fell into his knees and his fingers grabbed his own starlight hair strands tightly, the discomfort taking over his whole body and making him feel limp. It was like he couldn't function anymore like before with such high amount of affliction mixed with grief covering him like a heavy blanket, something that made him too weak to even unable to get up from that ground full of debris.
He was supposed to be a beast, the frightening beast of Deceit who could crumble kingdoms with just a snap of his fingers. He was supposed to be strong and feared. He was supposed to be Shadow Milk.
A maniac laugh left his own lips, making his chest hurt even more with all those sentiments suffocating his poor heart. His eyes narrowed reflecting anger, his mind filled with the image of one face, the only person in the whole Earthbread he couldn't handle seeing any negative feelings in his face while looking at him, to disappoint him.
Blueberry Milk finally realized something important: truth could intimidating and bring you the worse of pains, yet deceit was poisonous even if it brought you temporary comfort.
"You really think you will win, Shadow Milk? You really forget you depend more of me than I do of you." The Fount murmured, his voice sounded deeper than normal. "One of us has to lose this battle, and I will do everything I can to swipe your existence off this word."
The mage finally got up with the help of his staff after his mind become suddenly silent, his whole body was still trembling and in the verge of collapsing but he knew he couldn't let his guard down, not when he was the only standing virtue and the beasts could be closer than expected.
He walked forward to finally facing what was left of the once grandiose Spire of all Knowledge, nothing other than debris mixed with some dark wood pieces of what used to be furniture and some burned pages of books he had spent long hours writing with his own hands. It was obvious the beasts were targeting him too, they wanted to eliminate everything that reminisced of their old life as compassionate virtues.
Fair, yet he couldn't pinpoint why that also meant getting rid of the Fount of Knowledge himself and everything that belonged to him.
His pointy ears captured a rustling sound making him turn on his heels rapidly, noticing he wasn't alone for his dismay. A siluette wearing a black armor stand a few meters from him leaning in his own shiny sword, purple hair flowed behind him like burning flames just like a torn cape that fell from his wide shoulders.
The Fount recognized that mysterious figure from Shadow Milk's memories and there was no way he wouldn't recognize that shining violet soul jam in his abdomen. It was Silent Salt, the once Saint of Solidarity and now Beast of Silence.
There was no denying how petrified he felt at that precise moment, the Saint of Solidarity held a relentless reputation for holding himself with tremendous power and never scared to start a battle if needed, having him as an enemy was asking to crumble. His eyes darted to the pristine sword and almost regretted it when seeing the neon purple shine it emitted, it was clearly venom.
A simple cut from that sword would crumble any cookie in pure agony, even a virtue.
In a blink of an eye, the beast dashed to his direction holding that sword tightly with both hands and the virtue simple closed his eyes firmly waiting for his tragic end, to die in anguish and to become just flour in the middle of the debris of his once Kingdom.
But nothing happen and the silence reigned around him like a curse, his senses were still pretty awakened for someone who possibly crumbled. He opened one of his eyes before open the other one before freezing, noticing that the once virtue standed a few centimeters from him, sword pointed in his direction and the tip of it almost touching his covered neck, like a silent threat.
"You need to leave, Fount of Knowledge." Silent Salt finally spilled some muffled words. "They are trying to get you."
What?
The Fount blinked a few times before frowning confused with the brand new information thrown at him, it was obvious he was talking about the other beasts and wouldn't be shocking seeing how he was probably painted as a traitor in their eyes for disappearing from the phase of the earth without any traces and reappearing uncorrupted.
But the question that traveled his mind was why Silent Salt was helping him? Yes, they were very close prior all of this corruption mess, spending an insane amount of time speaking to each other when the virtues decided to visit his Spire or vise versa for their rare meetings. He used to be one of the only people who would hear the Fount talking for hours about different topics without interrupting him a single time with questions.
"They think you crumbled somehow. We came here searching for you and didn't find you." The beast continued, making pauses like he was debating if all of this was the right choice. "They would force you into corruption nonetheless."
"Why are you helping me?" The Fount finally broke the silence in his part, his eyes looking at the other's helmet hoping he could see him through it. "I don't understand, Salt. We were close, but shouldn't you hate me just like them?"
The beast dropped his sword in the ground, the metallic sound of it hitting the concrete echoed around them. His gloved hands reached to his helmet to take it off and let the virtue see his face, a fresh vertical scar covered his right eye and made the Fount's stomach flip with worry.
Silent Salt's violet eyes stared right at him with fondness, containing a very familiar sparkle on them. "It's impossible for me to hate you, Fount."
The virtue stayed in silence, his hands grabbed his staff firmly trying to discount all the nervousness washing his whole body. It felt weird to not know if he should put his guard down or stay vigilant in case it was only a trap.
A crunchy sound broke his thought progress and a hand pulled him by the wrist to hide behind one of the only standing trees surrounding the destroyed town, his blue and cyan eyes stared at Silent Salt with curiosity while the other's pair of violet orbs darted around where the sound probably came from.
His hand never stop holding his wrist.
"I understand you are probably suspicious about my intents, but I need you to trust me for a last time." The knight whispered loud enough for him to hear, which wasn't too difficult as their faces were too close to each other. "I need you to stay safe. They might come back in any moment."
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me, Fount." his gloved fingers traveled to the virtue's white bangs, pulling a few strands that were covering his eyes. "I'm long gone, but you still can be saved."
A pair of voices echoed in the opposite direction, the Fount rapidly recognized them as his once virtue friends and that alone made him tremble in fear. His gaze was still fixed on the knight in front of him, who simply nodded before putting his helmet on again and grabbing his sword.
In a heartbeat, the beast of Silence was gone from his side and had joined the group ahead in their conversation. It took everything on him to not peek to stare at what he thought was his family, tears formed around his mismatched eyelashes before murmuring a simple spell to start floating in the opposite direction where they standed.
The Fount of Knowledge had lost everything. It wouldn't be hard to just pretend he was no longer in this world.
It was however very frustrating to think what to do next, walking around Beast-Yeast could be dangerous yet going back to his academy was not the right move either, leaving him hopeless. He finally sat by a tree when it felt like he was roaming for hours, his eyes locked into the stellar sky feeling a bittersweet taste in his mouth when he remembered of Pure Vanilla.
There was no words to describe how much he missed his dear angel, yet he was now certain he did the right choice by not letting him stay, who knew how catastrophic it would be if he was still there, probably the beasts would've done anything to make the Fount regret not picking the dark side. But knowing he was closer by day to have his Pure Vanilla in his arms again gave him comfort, even if he had to go through centuries still.
A realization popped into his head and made him gasp without noticing, the Soul Jam his partner carried was half of the same one he carried, meaning if he didn't corrupt, he would become a simple mortal without getting a chance to meet the virtue once again as he would've passed long since. There was no way he could let that happen, even if he had to take the craziest decision to ever burst into hi mind.
... Perhaps it was too dangerous.
His footsteps echoed around a very familiar path, the trees slowly becoming more dead and leafless while the ambient was becoming darker and eerie, his feet didn't take long before caressing the dry grass and his vision spotting the infamous Witches' Castle. The whole decoration of the place consisted of wore out victorian styled furniture and the walls were full of old paintings in hopes that would hide the spots where the beige wallpaper had already gave up and fall. Entering the place felt uncanny as he could feel a pair of eyes on him every step he took in that endless corridor, a chill traveled his whole body while both his hands gripped his staff tight, almost faltering.
He breathe in slowly, it wasn't his first time stepping into such squeaking and old wooden floor, however it still felt nerve-racking considering he was the only virtue standing, the only one who didn't betray the witches.
Facing the witches was not an easy task, especially telling them he felt in danger by having the full power of a soul jam, which wasn't far from the truth considering the possibility the beasts were running after him to rip his power off him. Yet abdicate of his light of Knowledge was even more draining than expected, having to say fully goodbye to something that accompanied him since he was baked felt bizarre to say the least.
But he would've given his whole life if possible for his Pure Vanilla without a second thought.
The witch gave him one of the halfs of what used to be the Soul Jam of Knowledge, making him stare back at her in surprise before picking the gem between his hands. It shined back at him with only half of its original power, like trying to greet his owner.
"The Soul Jam of Truth will be granted to a simple cookie with the purest heart." The witch commented, her long claw caressing the shiny and still unclaimed blue gem in her fingers. "I trust in you and I know you will take good care of the Light of Wisdom, Fount. Please, don't let people use you anymore, Knowledge was never about giving your all to everyone and I acknowledge we messed up a lot by letting all the virtues give your all to greedy cookies."
The virtue's eyes widened in shock with the revelation, he wasn't expecting to get the light of Wisdom of all of the possibilities nor hear a witch admit they failed by letting so many cookies step on the virtues. That alone woke up a sense of purpose on him, knowing now that he didn't have to spend his days worried about attending the cookies' needs and spreading his knowledge around like a living encyclopedia.
Now it felt like the weight in his shoulders had been lifted.
Leaving the Witches' Castle felt strange, knowing now that would probably be the last time he would dare step into such spooky forest but he was thankful to leave it unscathed, knowing that a lot of cookies who dare stepping into such situations would not meet the same fate. Still now he had a bigger problem: he didn't know where to go from there nor what to do with his own existence knowing that the beasts could caught him wandering around any moment from now.
One thing he knew for sure: the Fount of Knowledge was now dead.
The wind caressed his light blue dough like trying to push him delicately in an unknown direction, it felt chilling yet comforting. The mage let the breeze guide them and entered the dense forest, hoping the nature was just trying to help and guide him in this brand new journey.
Maybe the Millennium Tree was by his side all along.
There was no way to tell how long he walked, it could've been hours or even days to the point of regretting not floating his way instead of walking. His now pained feet finally touched a lighter green grass and silvery stepstones, giant silver kingdom gates welcomed him and made him falter with realization.
It was the Faerie Kingdom. While the Fount of Knowledge never step into it before despite knowing of its existence, Shadow Milk's memories bought him deep distress to be facing the gates to the point of taking a few steps back with horror sparkling in his eyes.
It was where the Silver Tree was situated, where he once experienced a turmoil of emotions, where Shadow Milk saw his beloved Pure Vanilla for the first time.
"Who goes there?!?"
The once virtue rapidly turned in terror to face a small pale grey haired cookie who was aiming his bow and arrow in his direction, his first reaction was to just pull his hands up to try showing surrender which seemed to work as the little faerie put his weapon down to look at him in shock.
"Wait, Fount of Knowledge?!?" the archer gasped in surprise before bowing in front in him. "My apologies, sir! Please accompany me, your majesty Elder Faerie has been looking for you."
Well, that was weird to say the least. The mage followed the faerie through the Kingdom, his whole body trembling at each step as memories kept flooding into his head and making him wonder if he should be there to begin with. He knew the full story of Shadow Milk and Elder Faerie after all, who could guarantee the same wouldn't happen to him even if they knew he was the only standing and uncorrupted virtue.
No, there was no chance everything would play the same, a lot had changed and the Fount of Knowledge wouldn't let everything happen again.
They finally entered the king's office, who didn't take long to turn around to face both cookies. A smile appeared in the man's lips and seemed to not think twice before dismissing the smaller cookie with a simple thank you, who bowed to both immortal cookies and stepped outside of the room, leaving alone so they could have their probably needed talk.
"I'm glad to see you still standing, Fount of Knowledge. We were frightened with the idea that the beasts found a way to crumble you or that you'd also corrupt." Elder Faerie's firm voice echoed the whole place. "I've heard from the witches that you gave them half of the Soul Jam of Knowledge, they plan on taking half of the others Soul Jams to purify and distribute around Earthbread."
Made total sense knowing that's exactly how it was supposed to go, the future was playing exactly the same for everyone else except for him. It was upsetting to know the cookies he thought were his family were going to be thrown into a torturous prison void and probably there was nothing he could do to show the man in front of him that decision wouldn't do any good.
"I would like you to stay here with us." The guardian broke the silence again with a warm smile in his lips. "I found out what happened to the Blueberry Kingdom and I have to give you my condolences. Here we would protect you from the Beasts until we manage to lock them up."
Maybe he shouldn't accept that invitation knowing about everything that happened with Shadow Milk, maybe there was another place where he could stay in hidden without being caught. Yet he still accepted the offer, feeling a certain fear of regretting that decision later.
The life in the Faerie Kingdom was different in a good way, his days consisted on teaching a small group of faeries about magic and how they could use it for self defense. The mage has started turning his classes into little performances, playing with theatrics to prevent them from getting bored and it was definitely working for his delight.
Most of his free time, he'd spend it sitting in front of the Silver Tree where the beasts were now locked and apologizing repeatedly to them, guilt was a common feeling when remembering of their faces even if he knew he wasn't to blame for their corruption in the end of the day.
They hated him anyways, as Shadow Milk or as Blueberry Milk. It was his destiny to be hated by them.
Meeting White Lily was a great surprise, the ancient heroe and he had a lot of things in common and anyone could say they clicked instantly. It was refreshing to see someone getting so excited to learn more about the story of Earthbread and knowing both shared their fondness to help cookies, it was interesting nonetheless to find about her long journey researching on a way to make cookies less crumbly, it surely went to the list of topics he was fascinated about.
The best stories in his opinion were the ones containing Pure Vanilla, learning how much of a hardworking king he was didn't surprise him at all but finding out how mischievous he used to be when younger was adorable. Always made him wonder if the blonde had more facts hidden behind his memories, especially knowing how secretive he was regarding his past pre-Fount of Knowledge, only making the virtue wanting to hear more about his partner.
When White Lily mentioned going to the Witches' Buffet to get more answers, Blueberry Milk tried his best to stop her by almost begging on his knees, knowing exactly what she would witness once she arrives on that terrifying enormous table and most likely wouldn't make it alive to see another day. The Witches weren't as nice as the poor cookies imagined, most of them didn't care about the population's well-being to begin with.
Still she ignored his pleads and took that opportunity by going anyways. It only pilled into that consistent guilt bubbling in his chest when he saw her laying down unconscious in that silver coffin, maybe he should've locked her into a room so she couldn't fall into the wolves' mouth.
Life become monotonous over again and getting hit my news from Crispia like a poisoned arrow, everything was falling apart as the Dark Flour War started and soon they received the news that the remaining ancient heroes had gone missing just like Dark Enchantress. Watching the branches of the Silver Tree shaped like the five soul jams becoming dim always met him with pain and sorrow, even if he knew that they were somewhere still alive, grief still hit him like a bomb.
Probably that was the closest he was to fully corrupting in his whole journey, still he refused to do so.
News stopped coming from Crispia abruptly after that, making the Faerie Kingdom to turn into a very closed and secretive place for the next eons. Yest spores invaded the Beast-Yeast forests and a lot of tourists always escaped before seeing such tiny yet dangerous threats, not having the guts to face whatever they could do to them.
Except for a group of cookies entering the Kingdom one peaceful day. Blueberry Milk was walking around the gardens in one of his peaceful breaks when he sensed some strange movement, he walked in rushed yet silence steps to a tree and peeked to see what was happening in a few meters from where he was standing.
His heart stopped beating for a few seconds due to the vision in front of him. A group of cookies had arrived into the Kingdom and, while he could tell who each one of them were thanks to Shadow Milk's memories, his mismatched eyes were locked on top of an especific figure wearing a waffle cone hat and with a smile brighter than the sun.
His hands hold the tree trunk firmly while tears steamed down his cheeks, his mind was battling the urge to run to the healer and hugging him finally after so long not seeing his precious face, to finally smell that wonderful vanilla beans and cream fragrance that only he seemed to carry around. Still Blueberry Milk knew he wasn't his Pure Vanilla, that was his past self unaware of everything that had happened between them and probably would've been met with humiliating rejection.
Blueberry Milk was sure he couldn't handle it.
That's how he knew it was time to leave Beast-Yeast to never return. Maybe he could follow with his initial idea of traveling around Earthbread to meet different cultures and places until the fateful day he finally could step into the Vanilla Kingdom and hug his angel again, to finally meet his forever home beside the only person he ever wanted.
...
Blueberry Milk closed his diary and put his quill back in its ink pot in a long sigh and allowed himself to stretch his whole body like a cat, his vision moved to the window in front of him, the everlasting night sky of the City of Wizards looked as pristine as always. It has been months since he decided to settle in the town due to reasons of force majeure, having Moonlight offering him a tender smile with the idea of letting him stay under her wing for an indefinite period.
That wasn't his forever home after all.
The moonstone beside him shined at its whole force making his gaze travel in its direction, it was a message from no other than White Lily herself. Panic washed his whole dough when he realized what that meant, they had a code after all these years and the guardian of the seal knew everything, especially when to call him.
His Pure Vanilla wasn't doing well.
The chair where he was once sat fell into the wooden floor in a loud bang yet his brain couldn't even bother with that detail. A snap of his fingers made his staff appear in his hands and he rapidly moved it into a circle, making his other realm portal appear in front of him before stepping on it without any ceremonies. There was no time to think about taking an airship to the Vanilla Kingdom so traveling through the dark side of the moon would do.
Once the portal opened in his correct destination, the mage stumbled into a dark alley— as it was the perfect place to not scare anyone —and took a deep breath, knowing that he was about to face the only person in the whole universe he was terrified of disappointing. Last time the Fount of Knowledge saw his dear Pure Vanilla wasn't their best memory together, it made him wonder if the healer would ever forgive him for letting him go so easily despite it being the right choice.
It could've been handled better.
The bright sun feeling warmer than usual was his first observation about the Vanilla Kingdom once he left the dark alley and was finally met with the town square filled with joyful villagers walking into all the different directions as they followed with their schedule accurately. In the middle of the town, there was a statue of the kingdom's founder welcoming him with opened arms, a diverse of daffodils and blue primroses covered the surroundings.
Behind it and all the buildings, the castle standed with all its glory and still very far from where he was standing in the moment, more colorful than what he had anticipated. The purple waffled themed roofs surprised him the most, perhaps that was something he would like to discuss with the once king himself some day.
"Blueberry Milk!"
A feminine voice screaming his name made his thoughts poof into thin air, the mage turned into the direction where it came from to see White Lily running in his direction, it was the first time he had seen her since leaving the Faerie Kingdom unannounced when she was still resting in that coffin.
It was great to see she was alive and doing well.
Blueberry Milk waited impatiently until she was finally in front of him, panting as she probably ran a marathon just to find him. "How is he?"
"It's bad, really bad." the ancient heroe announced, making his worry get even worse. "He fainted, and now it's refusing to eat. He keeps insisting on wanting to travel to Beast-Yeast and find someone called Shadow Milk."
The information that Pure Vanilla fainted hit him like a truck, healers usually don't faint as their power always manage to detect any signs of sickness and heal automatically. He took one of his hands to his head, what happened between them must have left the blonde so distraught to the point of leaving his magic too weak to function.
And, despite of being sick, he still wanted to find Shadow Milk.
"Where is he right now?"
"Last time I checked, he was in the gardens."
The once virtue didn't think twice before running in direction of the castle feeling the guilt start to eat him alive, he needed to see Pure Vanilla with his own eyes, it didn't matter if he didn't want to stay beside him forever after it.
That's how the once beloved Fount of Knowledge probably committed a huge amount of felonies by breaking into the Vanillian Castle and heading himself to the gardens, ignoring how a staff was screaming at him and trying her best to stop him from moving forward.
A mental note: discuss how they need better security as fast as possible.
The mage only slowed down his steps when he finally spotted Pure Vanilla, who was getting up with a certain difficulty as his limbs were probably trembling under his robes. When he finally faced the virtue, Blueberry Milk could see a trail of still wet tears covering his now pale cheeks, deep dark eye circles were almost covered by his snowy eyelashes.
His whole body was covered with only worry regarding his angel's health, however it was obvious now was not the perfect moment to shower him with his concern and possibly suffocating him.
A smile left his lips before bowing in front of the healer, a cascade of long royal blue to turquoise hair almost covering his whole figure, sparkling like a starry sky. "Your majesty."
He didn't have time to reajuste his posture before a shaking body was thrown on top of him and making him fall in his back into the concrete floor, making him groan in pain, yet the mage didn't think twice before holding the healer tight against his chest, his sweet vanilla bean and cream scent invaded his nostrils and let him relax automatically.
Oh my Witches, how he had missed that smell. Eons had passed since he felt that especific warmth in his body, and now he knew no one would take his Pure Vanilla away from him without an intense fight.
Only over his crumbled dough.