As the killing curse lanced into their chest, Rei closed her eyes and sighed. She never got why Cedric stayed with Harry if he knew who he was. Interrupting her thoughts was a brisk and practiced knock on the door. Marking her place, Rei got up and smoothed her sheets before answering the door. She looked through the peephole, getting a glimpse of her visitor and some kind of party set up near her house. Reluctantly, she opened the door, and Touji barged in.
"Rei! Don't you have something better to do than read all those books?"
"Apparently…" Rei said, crossing her arms and looking away at the table. Touji walked over and sat down, resting his muddy black boots on the table.
"Haven't you ever dreamed of getting married Rei, of having children? I have! And dogs, too; I imagine six or seven of them running around the house."
"Dogs, or children?"
"Kids, Rei! Think of it: you and me, married, with a half-dozen Touji juniors running around!"
"...I'm sure the dogs would be lovely."
Touji stood, continuing as if Rei hadn't spoken. "But first, we have to get married! I know you're the one for me, Rei. Wouldn't you say so?"
"So."
"Come on out with me, Rei," Said Touji, walking towards Rei. "I know just the thing to show you that you're meant for me." Touji leaned over Rei, trapping her between him and the door.
"Touji, I want you to have what you deserve."
Touji's eyes lit up with an unholy glee, which soon turned to shock as Rei opened the door and slipped from under him, sending Touji tumbling out and off the porch and into a mud puddle. Rei went back to her book, reading on until she finished some time later. It was her favorite part, finishing the book- getting to live with all of the characters and knowing she could come back to visit them at that moment in time.
But outside of the book, it was time to feed the hens. Rei noticed the fresh breeze blowing as she stepped out of the house, how it seemed to call to her. She had a job to do, though, and ignored the feeling as she stepped around the coop scattering the feed. When she finished, it came back to her, and she wandered over towards the cliff, laying on her stomach and gazing over the edge towards the river. She could almost understand it then, how the villagers would mysteriously start singing. "I just want more than this…" Rei softly whispered to herself.
Coming up behind her was a clopping sound, and when she turned to look, it was Phillipe- but her father was not with him! He whinnied in that oddly intelligent way of his, motioning with his head towards the forest.
"Where is he, Phillipe?" Motioning again, Phillipe neighed, and turned sideways. Father is so brilliant, but I can hardly imagine him surviving in the woods… Rei mounted up on Phillipe, and at once he took her off towards the woods. The ride was like a half-remembered nightmare, blurring past until they arrived at the gates. Rei pushed and pushed at the gates, but they didn't open. Phillipe stepped up beside her then, put a hoof in between the bars of the gate on its bottom edge, and pulled backwards. The two shared a look for a moment before Rei cleared her throat and entered with a mumbled thanks.
The way was dark, and as Rei opened the door of the castle she found it was dim and shadowy inside. "Hello...? Father, are you in here?" As she ventured further into the foyer and beyond Rei began to hear the pitter patter of tiny, hurried footsteps.
"It's a girl!"
"Lumiere, please-"
"See for yourself, Cogsworth!" Whispered Lumiere, gesturing around the doorway. There he spied Rei, turning down the hallway.
"Good heavens! It is a girl!"
"She could be the one to finally do it!"
"Father!" Rei still heard the footsteps around her, but was beginning to feel lost. "Hmm…?" Quickly turning around, she saw a door swinging shut, and hurried over before it could close. She looked both ways and then went up the stairs. "I thought I'd heard someone…" Taking the last step up into the hall, Rei heard the sound of someone scratching on the walls, and went forwards to investigate. "Father…?"
"Shut up Rei, I'm- oh, Rei. How did you get here?"
Rei walked forwards, and felt the iron bars of the cell Gendo was locked in. There was a strange feeling in her chest that came up at seeing her father like this, dirty and disheveled in a cell. "Who did this to you…?!"
"You'll never believe it," Gendo said with a smirk. "It was… an angel!" In the dim light Rei could see bags under her father's eyes, and stray bits of straw sticking out of his hair.
"Father, we have to get you out of here- did you have any of your other inventions on you when you were taken?"
"No- listen, Rei, I'm so close to a breakthrough! I just need to recalibrate the monadic integration ratio and then-" Gendo was cut off by a swift clanking sound and a rush of air, and a loud voice.
"What are you doing in my castle?!"
Rei whirled around, but couldn't see the large figure clearly. "I, I came for my father."
"Ha! He's a trespasser, and will stay in there forever!" Shinji said, pacing back and forth.
"What if I took his place…?"
"And, he going to- huh? You… would do that?"
"Rei, no! I don't have anything to write down my calculations on-"
"Yes, I would do it." Rei squinted at the large figure in front of her, not able to see him clearly. "Come into the light…" Shinji stepped forwards into the light, and Rei gasped. The lines of his form looked so much like Lillith, her father's creation, but more natural. There was a bizarre symmetry to his form that she saw, alien and and beautiful. Shinji saw how she looked at him, but swept forwards past her and opened the cell, pulling Gendo out and pushing Rei in.
"Rei! You'll have to memorize-" But by then ShInji was far away, and her father's request trailed off into silence.
When her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the cell, Rei saw her father's equations scratched onto the wall. They almost looked familiar, but she could barely grasp the way her father worked with numbers. Then, there was the master of the castle, who had locked her father away. Though she would not admit it openly, Rei loved old fairy tales and dreamed of magic, and frequently wished for something beyond the ordinary in her life. Something, perhaps, like what was happening to her right now...