Like most fairytales, Nico thinks, this story starts with conflict.
It starts with the fall of Wizendom, with the advent of the Gibborim. It starts when the royal family of Gibb, the Deans, banish the dark kingdom from their empire. When Queen Leslie closes the gates on every Witch and Wizard, and breaks the ties that have held her family and the Minorus together for centuries. When the Steins, and the Yorkes, and the Wilders collectively vote to cast them out. It starts, when Tina Minoru, blinded by fury, vows to wreak havoc on the Golden Empire, and burn it to the ground.
Karolina, on the other hand, likes to think it starts with love. Everything in her story, she says, starts with Nico.
Her mother looks her right in the eyes while she asks her to bleed.
There is a fire burning in the middle of the room, and the heat is overwhelming. Nico curses Wizendom for its traditional garb of all black clothing, and concentrates hard on the flame in front of her. She is supposed to be repeating some holy words, to give her strength, but it is way too warm for her to remember them right now. So she mumbles some song under her breath, and hopes it passes for the mantra.
"Do you, Nico, my true heir, the Princess of Darkness, promise to lead Wizendom into a time of peace? Do you vow to do everything in your power to destroy the Empire of Gibb, to not rest until the entire royal family, and the reigning heads, have been captured and brought down to their knees in front of us? Do you promise to shed your blood and your sweat in the pursuit of vengeance?"
She nods, then realizes that the entire court is watching "I vow so."
"Then let your blood drip on this eternal flame, and let this mark the beginning of the end."
The long, curved dagger slices into her arm, and Nico has the time to register her own pain and the thinly veiled concern in the eyes of her mother, before her father takes her hand in his, and holds it over the fire. She watches the blood flow down her arm into the fire, and a cheer goes up from the entire audience.
This is just the beginning, she thinks, as her cut stings and burns from being this close to the orange flames, and closes her eyes.
Karolina Dean.
She is pretty, the princess, Nico thinks to herself, as she looks at her face projected onto the walls. Like, a floaty, flighty, and would-probably-die-if-you-cursed-in-front-of-her kind of pretty. It seems like the kind of pretty that wouldn't be any use in a fight. It somehow makes her feel both worse and better at the same time.
"You know what you have to do, don't you," Robert asks her. He is the only one who has misgivings about this entire thing.
"Find the girl, bring her here, watch mother torture her, maybe get an ice-cream on the way."
"Nico!" Tina's voice echoes in the chambers "Stop being flippant about this."
"Why? So I can take this seriously, and then have time to think about how I'm essentially killing a girl, a girl of my own age, who, like me, wasn't even born when this stupid fight happened? No thank you."
"They killed Amy," her mother says, and like always, it shuts her up "Your sister died because of one of them. Do you think she had anything to do with this stupid fight as you so eloquently reduce a decades-long conflict to? Do you remember that day? Weren't you the one who found her?"
"Stop," Nico mutters, weakly "Please, stop."
Tina stands in front of her, and hands her the Staff of One "Remember that the next time you feel like you might have a little bit of pity for anyone who has Dean at the end of their name."
The strangest thing about all the events of that day is how inevitable it all was. Even if the pebble hadn't existed, even if the other four hadn't been there in the room, even if everything had worked as planned, she believes she was meant to fail.
Breaking into Gibb had been easy. All she'd had to do was say the right command and the Staff had done the rest of the work. It wasn't difficult finding the castle, either. All she had to do was follow the random singing people. She had then commanded the Staff to mask her, and crossed the moat along with the courtiers. For such a huge, powerful empire, their security was shit.
She is currently crouching behind a pillar in the middle of the girl's balcony, waiting for her to come back from wherever she is. The room is completely empty, and very….bright, to say the least. The walls are painted a pale cream-white, and there are curtains everywhere and a lot of sunlight. All in all, a room fit for a princess.
She hears murmurs coming from behind the door, coming closer and closer, and she pivots her body, so that she is completely hidden with only her head exposed so that she can see. Just as she is done hiding, the door bursts open and about five people come walking in a flurry of movement and voices.
"What is it that you had to show us that absolutely couldn't wait?" a purple-haired girl asks, arms crossed.
"It's totally worth it," the tall, muscular jock-like boy replies, glee evident in his voice "Just you wait."
"Chase, it's not," a soft voice rings out, hesitantly, and Nico cranes her neck to look at its owner "It's really, not, much."
She has felt a lot of things in her life. Being sixteen years of age may not be much, but it is enough to have gone through rather turbulent shifts, and she knows what everything feels like. She has felt anger, at her mother for relentlessly training her, resentment towards her father for not daring to stand up for her. Sorrow, when Amy died. And yet, nothing she has ever felt comes close to what she feels when she sees this girl.
There's something in her chest that goes a little haywire, her heart speeds up and yet feels settled, and she thinks something like Ah, there you are. The pictures don't do you justice, she thinks, you're ethereal. Beautiful. I hope you don't put up a fight because then you'd get hurt, and I really don't want you to get hurt. The haze lasts for about a minute, and then she shakes her head, trying to realign it. What in the world…..
"Come on," a younger looking girl urges Karolina, and Nico refocuses her attention.
"Alright," she acquiesces, and slowly undoes a silver bracelet on her hand "Just promise you won't freak out."
Nico blinks once, and when she opens her eyes, the world is an abundance of colors. Karolina is glowing. Her entire body shimmers with red and yellow and blue, and the light pulses outwards from her, reflecting in her friends' awed expressions. She blinks again. And once more. The image does not disappear.
And that is when she screws up. When it fully registers with her, the fact that there is girl who is glowing like a freaking rainbow about ten feet away from her, her first instinct is to take a step back. Unfortunately, this results in her stepping on a tiny pebble, and nearly stumbling. She does manage to gather her balance, but
"Fuck!"
When she looks up again, there are five people staring at her.
She recovers fast, holding her staff out in front of her. Before they can even move, she barks out a command, pointing it at the girl "Sleep!"
And that is where the second screw up of the day happens. Her staff shakes in her hand, almost like it's rebelling, misfires and blows her off the balcony.
She likes to say she has never given much thought to death, but that's not true. She has imagined it in various ways. These are dangerous times they live in, and one spell could mean the end of her. Her mother has trained her for every kind of situation, has told her about all the things, all the people in the world that want to harm her.
And yet, falling off the balcony of a beautiful girl because her staff is faulty isn't one of them.
Except she isn't falling. Her body feels like it is being held in space, and when she does dare to open her eyes, she sees light all around her. Then she raises her head, and sees Karolina with her arms outstretched, and the strange, multicolored light coming from her palms.
At that point, she does faint.
When she wakes up, she is tied to a chair and her staff is lying on the floor. There are people furiously whispering among themselves, somewhere in her vicinity. Her head hurts, and there is a small period of time where she cannot remember why. Then it all comes flashing back to her, and she groans loudly.
"Oh, fuck me," is what she says, and everybody quiets down.
The five kids are staring at her again.
"What?"
"We know who you are," some dude wearing glasses steps forward.
She raises her eyebrows.
"You're one of the Minorus. You're….the Dark Princess."
"Good job," she tells him, dryly, trying not to give away how freaked out she is "Would you like a reward?"
"I hardly think you're in a position to be kidding around right now, do you?" the violet-haired girl asks her, and Nico likes her immediately.
"Alright," she concedes "So now that you do know who I am, why am I not in the dungeons right now?"
The four of them turn to look at Karolina, and she shrugs, clearly uncomfortable. Nico looks at her too, waiting for her to make eye-contact. When she finally does, her heart gives a familiar start, and she frowns at her.
"It didn't feel right," Karolina says, and Nico's curiosity increases.
"Well, bright side, at least she can't hurt us now," the muscular boy from before, Chase notes.
"Are you quite sure about that, dude?" she asks him, and at the same time, flips her palm upwards. The Staff of One flies into it, and she looks at him "Faint."
He crumples into a heap, and the others crowd around him. Nico unties herself, stands up, Staff in hand, and looks at it for a long moment. It doesn't seem wrong. Then why did it misfire earlier?
Karolina seems to be wondering the same thing, by the looks of it.
"What's wrong with him?" the younger girl questions her, frantic.
"He's fine," she answers, waving a hand "Wake up."
The boy opens his eyes, and immediately jumps up into a fighting stance. It nearly makes her laugh.
"Karolina, do your light thing at her," the nerdy boy urges "Blast her or something."
She seems strangely reluctant to do so, and Nico wonders why "I….would rather not."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, okay? Just…" the girl looks her straight in the eyes now "Leave. Go away."
The other four look as flabbergasted as she feels right now "What?"
"Do you have a death wish?" Karolina asks her.
"Um, no?"
"Then leave. And don't come back."
Amid the others' protests, Nico steps back, takes one last look at this strange girl made of light, and runs.
"But this Staff seems alright," Tina examines it from end to end "Are you sure you didn't just say the wrong thing? Or say the spell the wrong way?"
"I'm sure there are no wrong ways to say Sleep, mom," she deadpans.
"Then why did it do what you described? This has never happened to me before."
"Must have been a fluke, Tina," Robert reassures her "I'm sure the Staff is alright. And I'm glad Nico is fine as well."
He smiles at her, and she smiles back, hesitantly.
"Obviously, she can never go back," he continues, and both Nico's and her mother's heads whip around to stare at him.
"What? Why?" Tina asks him, and Nico holds her breath. She cannot explain why, but she wants to go back. Wants to see the girl again. Wants to figure out why her staff didn't work.
"Because the kids have probably told the guards by now. Nico won't be able to step one foot into the Kingdom without being recognized. And if the Staff malfunctions again…well, I shudder to think of what would happen then."
Her mother considers it for a while "Very well," she says finally "You will assist me with different matters. Diplomatic matters. Nico will not go back there for a considerable period of time."
Which is how Nico finds herself at the entrance of the city, ready to step into the den of the lion once again