Chapter Text
<><><>
Prelude: Weeping Vanillas
<><><>
White Lily hadn't visited the Vanilla Kingdom in quite some time, but she never got tired of the sweet, warm Vanilla scent in the air. She had come in the night before and had been told at breakfast that Pure Vanilla had forgone eating to attend his gardens this morning. Pure Vanilla was bent low over his flower box. It had taken time for White Lily to come to terms with her old garden having more than just lilies, but she had to admit, Pure Vanilla's spread and range of flowers was beautiful, and she loved it even more than anything she had done. He clearly didn't notice her coming up as he patted some type of fertilizer or treatment into the roots of a less than perfect patch of Vanilla Orchids. He grabbed his staff to check his work and jumped on seeing her.
"Oh! You blend right in with the lilies," He laughed, wiping his eyes.
He had been crying again.
Oh, Pure Vanilla.
They didn't know what was wrong with him. The ancients, as the other cookies called them, had had their regular video call meeting just a few days past and Pure Vanilla had been entirely dejected the whole time and very badly pretending that something was not eating at him. It wasn't unusual for Pure Vanilla to not wish to share his worries, but it was odd for him to be so clearly upset and not at least give them some hint about what was wrong. It was almost as though someone dear to him had crumbled, but he usually told them when that happened.
Unfortunately, it wasn't uncommon for immortal cookies to lose close friends to age.
She would have chalked it up to a bad day, but she had caught him crying in his room, and again as he came home from a visit to Shadow Milk Cookie. She thought it may have been the Beast's fault, but when she lightly suggested so, Pure Vanilla had vehemently told her that he was only crying because he'd had to leave the Spire of Deceit.
"Sorry, I was just about to announce myself and trying to figure out how best to without startling you," She laughed, ignoring his tears and kneeling with him. "I was also trying to figure out what you were doing,"
"It seems these orchids had some mites from when I moved them from the other garden. Luckily I kept it contained to this flower box. I've gotten rid of the mites, but they need a little extra love to recover and this is a mix of some special magical pesticide that only kills mites, and fertilizer with some recovery properties," He explained "This should do the trick to get them all happy and healthy again,"
The smile he gave her was genuine, and White Lily felt her shoulders relax. She couldn't help but worry for him, and smiled back as he moved on to the next plant.
"What is this flower? I'm not sure I've ever seen one like this before," She asked, leaning closer to and odd, lone flower in the box. It looked something like a mixture between a milkcrown and an orchid, but it's petals ended in elegant little drips and was very out of place in an all orchid box. It was quite a pretty little flower, though looking at it somehow made her sad. It drooped down towards the earth, and she wondered if it was wilting. "It's beautiful, though is it supposed to droop? Where did you find it?"
Pure Vanilla shifted his staff towards it, then took a double take.
"That's weird. This box should be all Vanilla orchids, I just weeded this morning. I must have missed seeing this little guy…." He leaned closer, and felt across it's petals.
"What is it?"
"I… don't know," He admitted, real eyes opening and White Lily gaped at him. He laughed on seeing her face. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually know everything," With another sadder laugh, he added "That is Shadow Milk's domain. In any case, I don't think I've seen this flower before,"
"Sorry, Vanilla, I just… the last time you couldn't identify a plant was your first time on Beast Yeast and by now I'm sure you could name every flower on that continent without stopping to think,"
Vanilla giggled again and rolled his eyes.
"You… aren't wrong. Which makes this little guy all the more mysterious,"
He went and got a separate, empty plant pot, and filled it with dirt, muttering to himself.
"How did it get-? OH! I have a theory,"
"What do you think it could be?" White Lily asked as he puttered around grabbing other items.
"I'm wondering if it propagates in the same way as the Milkcrowns… how familiar are you with them?" Pure Vanilla asked, coming back to the new little flower. Delicately, he scooped it up with the dirt around it and placed it in the pot.
"Not particularly… they were planted around Shadow Milk's Spire," She remembered.
"Yes, exactly. I'm lucky I have…" Pure Vanilla muttered to himself.
He bent over the flower, whispered a soft incantation as he took some dirt from around it's root and mixed it into soil in an empty pot. He then took a small vial with a clear liquid, dripping it into the soil in a second empty flowerpot. White Lily gasped as a stem worked it's way up from the earth, blooming a flower before their eyes. She grinned up at Pure Vanilla- it was a wonderful bit of magic he had just performed- but was surprised to see that he looked almost devastated.
"That was wonderful, Vanilla. Why are you not more excited?" She asked.
"Milkcrowns are the product of… watering the soil with tears. Once upon a time, the Fount of Knowledge cried tears of grief beneath the full moon. They fell into the soil, and where they fell, the first Milkcrowns sprouted," Pure Vanilla told her. "I…I used the same spell I use to propagate Milkcrowns. It… it only works with flowers that grow in the same way. I. Um. Was crying earlier," he admitted.
"Your… tears grow flowers?" She asked.
He blinked at her, eyes wide and helpless, then let out a breathy laugh.
"Oh, Lily. My dear, sweet, sweet friend… I-" He stopped himself, seeming to change his mind on what he intended to say "Yes, I suppose they do now," He took her hand, looking into her eyes, expression far too soft "I… have Truths I have not told even you. Things I felt were too far away, too heavy. I begin to think… nevermind. I don't wish to burden you with it now, but… don't you crumble before I get the chance. I think you may be the only one who I can trust with this Truth, aside from Shadow Milk,"
"What sort of Truth is it that Shadow Milk would know?" Before your friends, she didn't add.
"He and I… see more," Vanilla said, running his fingers along the plant's stem and leaves, then he laughed "Well, I don't see- you know what I mean. Something echoed through the dark side of the moon, recently. I felt it first, surprisingly, but Shadow Milk is more adept at interpreting these things- it's how the witches used to send him Knowledge, and… It hurts," His voice cracked "I am… trying not to allow it to cloud my judgment, but it sits at the back of my mind, lurking over my shoulder and informing my decisions. I truly cannot tell you yet, it's just not meant to be. Some Truths must be revealed at the right time, and yet…" He sighed.
She nodded.
"It must be… truly horrible if it's effecting you like this. I am sorry. I know what it is to be faced with horrible Truth. I can be honest, I would not do well with your Soul Jam, I think. I will try, Vanilla. I have no intention to crumble before you get the chance to tell me what grieves you,"
Her heart shattered in her chest at the smile he gave her at that, how comforted he looked. She hated to lie, but… well, it wasn't certain. She would do her damnedest to survive Dark Enchantress. For Vanilla.
For Silent Salt.
"So what do you want to call them?" She asked, gently rubbing his arm as he lovingly made another one. He was already looking around his garden, looking for a spot to move a patch of them into.
"Hmm? Oh, that's right. I suppose if they're new they don't have a name…. I create them, albeit not purposefully, but you discovered it," He said, a small smile and tilt of his head. She wrinkled her nose at him. He knew full well one of her dreams was to discover a new species.
"Well, I can't exactly name them after myself," She joked "Hmm… they are so sad looking,"
"They are the product of me sobbing my eyes out over a planter box," Vanilla stated flatly "I would imagine they'd look a little sad,"
"Milkcrowns don't look sad,"
"And Shadow Milk is a big liar," Vanilla giggled "Not even the flowers he grows tell the Truth,"
White Lily smiled, happy to hear him joking.
"Let's call them 'Weeping Vanillas', then," She decided.
"No," Pure Vanilla gasped, blushing.
"Weeping Pure Vanillas then?" She teased.
"You're a monster," He told her and she couldn't help but laugh. She ran a gentle finger across it's dripping petal and sighed. "'Weeping Vanillas'. It's too perfect not to use,"
He rolled his eyes and sighed, but his mouth turned up into a gentle smile.
"Fine. Would you like to help me make space in the garden for them? I think they'll look lovely somewhere between some Milkcrowns and orchids…. They grew in this soil, so perhaps with orchids? Oh, but they would be a nice contrast with the lilies too…"
White Lily laughed again and went to find an apron as Pure Vanilla began his mission of picking a spot. Knowing him, they'd spend the rest of the morning taking every meeting here over soil and manure and sweat. Gardening and getting those white robes all full of dirt.
She wouldn't change her best friend for the world.
"Do teach me how to propagate these? I'd like some in my garden too!" She called, and laughed when he turned to stick his tongue out.
---
War had come, as they had always known it would.
She refused to give up. She had only gotten stronger. It wasn't the first time Lily wished she wasn't so stubborn.
She remembered months back, her conversation with Pure Vanilla Cookie. He had spent a couple weeks crying more then she had ever known him to cry- quite honestly, Vanilla crying at all was more than she had ever come to expect of him- and then he had settled back into his usual self as if nothing was ever wrong. But White Lily Cookie knew it was a glimpse of the future Pure Vanilla had seen. To be cursed with knowledge, cursed with knowing ones own fate was a horrible thing, and while he hadn't meant to share that burden with her, there was really only one way Lily could have interpreted their conversation.
The Ancients were destined to fall.
The flowers that grew from Pure Vanilla's tears were the beginning of the end- she had pieced that much together by the way Vanilla had told her the Fount of Knowledge had cried in Milkcrowns. By the way Pure Vanilla seemed to lean more on Shadow Milk, spending as much time in the Spire as he could. By the way Vanilla was treating each of them gently and with such great love and compassion, it was almost as though he was saying goodbye.
She wondered if he was thinking he, in a way, already was.
The others chalked it up to pre-battle nerves, and it was a fair interpretation. During the Dark Flour War, Pure Vanilla had acted much the same. But White Lily knew better.
White Lily Cookie herself had already fallen. She had already seen what she looked like turned to a darker path. She was intimately familiar with her own goals and ideals when given ultimate power and no direction but her own dark and twisted determination. White Lily Cookie had no desire in watching herself become Dark Enchantress all over again. She didn't want to know what her friends would look like turned against cookiekind.
She couldn't stand the thought of a weeping Pure Vanilla Cookie, lost in the cruelness of their world. She could never imagine him becoming cruel himself- he would not fall like that- but isolated and sad and no longer caring for cookiekind, no longer acting as a shepherd and a shield and a bringer of Truth and Light and all things good… White Lily Cookie didn't think she could stomach seeing him like that.
She wouldn't.
"WHITE LILY COOKIE!" Pure Vanilla shouted, desperation in his voice, but hard determination etched into his features. He had launched a fearsome attack as he entered the scene, creating an opening. They needed to take it now "Shadow Milk is injured, but he managed to hit Dark Enchantress Cookie! We need to finish this now, he needs healing!"
His staff was in hand, glowing and ready, and White Lily felt almost as though time had slowed as she took in the sight of her best friend.
"Stay strong, Pure Vanilla. You go heal him now, I will strike! SILENT SALT COOKIE! TAKE VANILLA AND GO!" White Lily yelled.
Despite her order, she watched as Silent Salt grabbed Pure Vanilla and threw him, rather unceremoniously, back in the direction of Shadow Milk Cookie. Despite herself, she felt reassured to have him at her side.
"As soon as I do this, you need to back off," She warned. He nodded.
"So long as you can assure me you will be safe," He stated.
"I will be safe," from the fate of falling again. Crumbled, but free.
They charged together, and with one final Earthbread-shattering blast White Lily Cookie- all parts of her- was no more.