~Chapter One: A Toothless Dragon~
There was something about evenings in Sparks that was more than just magical.
Daphne was convinced of this as she wandered the shadowing halls of her family's palace back to her chambers. Her hair and snowy gold-trimmed gown shimmering in the fading sunlight. The beauty of her homeland continued to delight and inspire her, as it did when she had been a small child.
So as she strolled she began, like she always had for the past two decades, to reflect on her situation.
About over a year ago (and close approaching two) she was still a detached spirit kept to the waters of Lake Roccaluce. Then, would you believe that after being kidnapped by a power-hungry triton prince and a Sirenix wish later…she had flesh, bones and muscle once more. And she was very much alive.
Normally that would be more than enough to keep her with a light heart and a content mind.
Normally.
Daphne felt a slight chill as the gentle breeze turned cold and hollow.
For a moment, she wondered if her time as a bodiless nymph enabled her emotions to influence the environment around her, maybe to a minute level. As she had no body to physically make them.
But the longer she turned the reflections in her mind, she kept thinking about her powerful, young…saviour that had made this all possible.
Her little sister, Bloom.
Daphne frowned, so slightly, so sadly, even at the thought of her name.
To think so much could change in such a seemingly short span of time.
She thought of when Bloom first began her journey to discover her identity, she seemed so simple.
An awkward but endearing 16 year old learning magic, making friends and finding self-confidence. While fighting and working towards her aspirations, Bloom reached so hard to her in her dreams. She was so sincere and happy at every opportunity to speak to her sibling, especially when she could outside of duty. And Bloom would always talk of how they could be together again, like an actual family. That was when ghostly meetings were rare and less.
Then Daphne regained her body.
It felt like after that point only distance between the two sisters grew. The more they saw of one another, the less sincere they became, the less happy the meetings as well and far more irritable.
The physical reality was so different, and Daphne found herself wondering about who her sister really was.
All that remained of the squirming babe that she loved to hold in her arms was a stranger.
Or maybe…
…Just maybe…she had never really known her at all.
The strange animosity she now experienced with her sibling made Daphne think of how much she actually saw of her little sister's life.
Daphne's hereditary instincts allowed her to sense any living members of her bloodline anywhere in time and space. But while that was possible, she could never actually look into her relatives' lives without the use of her magical powers. And her disembodied state obviously had effects on her magic. She could only interact whenever Bloom felt very strongly about seeing her, or at certain emotional influxes, and only when Bloom used magic in a similar vein as her sister.
In truth, the only time Daphne really saw and interacted with her sister was when she used her power for the first time. When she was 16, when her "best friend" Stella crashed into her common life, with ogres and witches right on her tail.
That left the rest of her early life as a worrisome mystery. And now Daphne was quite convinced that whatever Bloom did with her time outside of her friends and family, was probably just as troubling. Of course Daphne didn't exactly know how much time Bloom sought for her friends nowadays…but now with her body back and her magic fully flexible, she could probably spy on them all and see what was actually happening.
But she respected people's need for privacy, perhaps to a fault.
No…she wouldn't spy on other people, not if it was very-ever-so-much-seriously necessary. And she still couldn't follow Bloom even with her fully restored abilities, the same rules applied as it had when she was a spirit-nymph. Something she couldn't understand and frustrated her…
Because she could never sense Bloom's feelings anymore.
Had Bloom found a way to supress her feelings? Why was she now trying so hard to hide things?
Why should she be hiding things?
"You have to admit, her behaviour is most peculiar."
Daphne stopped quietly, after hearing her own thoughts voiced aloud by an older, male one. Minding how her shadow might betray her presence, she deftly came behind a pillar. And she peered cautiously at the two figures making conversation in the small open courtyard. One of them Daphne recognized as a royal advisor, constantly at her father's side. The other she could only tell as one of the commanders of the royal guard by his ceremonial uniform.
"Define peculiar." the commander said in a bored tone.
"Don't play coy, Arlen. You've heard the whispers running around!"
"All of which hardly matter. Crown Princess Bloom attends all royal functions and meetings internal and external, on time and well groomed as a princess should be. Not to mention her etiquette and behaviour is most appropriate."
The advisor gave a stamp. "Are you really this dense, or are you deliberately trying to infuriate me? This is no laughing matter!" he hissed impatiently.
Daphne wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to hearing Bloom referred to as the Crown Princess of Sparks. After spending most of her life being groomed and prepared for the role, it had instilled in Daphne a sense of responsibility and purpose…worth even. Now she was just a regular elevated member of the royal family, and while she appreciated the lack of attention, it had left her with strange feelings.
As she processed what she was hearing silently, Daphne watched as the commander Arlen fiddled with his sword hilt. He was clearly getting tired of the conversation. "If you want to discuss like a sad midwife, go find some servants to sate your lust for such shallow talk. Don't waste my time."
"Shhh! Not so loud you don't know who's listening!" the advisor shook his hands worriedly.
But Arlen was done. "Ulrich, please. Talk to me when you actually need to. We're both busy men." and with that, the commander moved to leave.
Ulrich grabbed Arlen's arm. "You're one of the few least-opinionated people quite close to the royal family. And you hear and see a lot more things more than I do." Arlen's eyes were rolling. "Please, doesn't it at least concern you that the king and queen are so blind to all of this?"
Daphne was biting her lips. The discord and worry she was experiencing had pervaded the royal court, and perhaps even reached down to the roots of her people.
And it was all because of Bloom.
"Blind to what?" Arlen slapped the advisor's hand off his arm.
"Bloom's prolonged visits to Eraklyon, both of a professional and rumoured personal nature. And her frequenting disappearances; she is far from Sparks more often than a Crown Princess should be. And no one knows where she goes, royal watchdogs and have failed to locate her continuously."
"Ulrich…"
"Gods, Arlen, haven't you heard all the spite going on in inter-realm senates and meetings? None of the realms can stop speculating about what she could be getting up to!"
"Any realm would be musing on the Crown Princess of a formerly powerful realm which has been considered dead for twenty years Ulrich. Not to mention she seemingly came from nowhere."
Daphne's eyes widened a little. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that.
And Ulrich looked taken aback. "Are you suggesting that the other realms…are not just threatened by Bloom, but Sparks as a realm?"
Arlen just looked at him. "Who wouldn't be?"
Ulrich stared at Arlen for a moment, stroking his chin, "And the king and queen? Are they aware of this?"
The commander looked into thin air distractedly. Now he looked as worried as the advisor did earlier.
"Arlen this is–"
"And will you be the one to tell them? After twenty years of torment? Ulrich, you and I and the rest of the population of Sparks was encased in obsidian, but in a dreamless sleep. We felt nothing, even when the Ancestral Witches must have possessed our bodies from time to time. But those two…I can't even begin to think of what agony they must have gone through."
"The other realms would consider this." but Arlen just shook his head.
"The other realms are scared Ulrich. There are just too many variables; there is no guarantee that we wouldn't destroy the peaceful balance the realms have enjoyed for the last two decades by our return."
Ulrich opened his mouth to speak but the commander continued. "And their young daughter isn't blind to this, she knows this fear, I know she does. I'm certain that is why Crown Princess Bloom is acting more carefully, cautiously and guarded because of it. But there is only so much she can do Ulrich, and gods she's just a child. A babe in the woods in all of this."
"Are you making reference to her upbringing?"
"She spent her childhood living such an ordinary existence with loving foster parents as I've heard. I doubt she ever dreamed of dealing with this kind of political and royal intrigue."
Daphne pinched herself after hearing those words.
How could she have been so blind and misinterpreted her sister? Maybe Bloom was just worried about all of this politicking, scared even. Just thinking about it made Daphne feel that should have paid more attention to what the court was whispering amongst themselves.
"And she carries herself quite well though, for one who was not royally trained from birth." Ulrich added.
"Maybe it's in her blood, instinct? She comes from old noble stock."
"No I don't think so. There's just this nagging feeling I have."
"To my shame, I have to agree with you."
"Really?"
But Daphne had heard enough, now she thought the two men were really going into idle gossip. There was only one thing on her mind, one overpowering feeling…
She had to see her sister, now. Just give her a hug, let her know that somebody close was there for her.
She wouldn't let herself think anything else.
Becoming mindful of her surroundings once more, she snuck to a door back in the unexposed hallway hidden from the courtyard which would lead into the main building of the palace.
"Do you even know where these rumours even began?"
That was the last line of conversation Daphne remembered clearly amidst the murmurs as she began running to her sister's quarters. Flying.
Some corridors and staircases later she reached her room. Taking a few breaths to compose herself…
She tried the door.
It was locked.
"I'm sorry your highness, but your sister is not available right now."
Daphne jerked at the sound, and found a servant staring at her.
"Oh, uh…Lucas was it?" she forced out a little breathlessly.
Lucas gave a slight bow, and without even a prompt added "She will be staying overnight in Eraklyon following a series of…business meetings." Daphne didn't like the way Lucas looked at her as he said that. "But if you must speak with the Crown Princess so desperately I can pass an official message."
"Oh. No, that will not be necessary."
Lucas looked at Daphne oddly for a brief moment again. Then said, "If you have any current engagements your highness, then I can–"
"No I do not, I will retire to my chambers, and I do not need directions on how to get there. Thank you." Daphne curtsied slightly and she walked off.
"I will just remind your highness that another servant will call on you when dinner is served." Lucas called after her.
Daphne wasn't paying attention though; she was getting lost in her own thoughts.
Lately she had been thinking so much about what she thought were problems caused by her sister, she hadn't really been thinking if there was something genuinely troubling Bloom…or her own problems for that matter.
Her own problems…did she even…
No she wasn't even going to think about it.
No.
But this insight into the state of Sparks compared to the other realms was new to her, and troubling. Yet above all of that she was more concerned about how Bloom must have been reacting to all of it. All of the gossip circulating around her little sibling. What was it all for? And why was she so guarded about it?
And that was then Daphne decided.
She would get to the bottom of this so-called-business.