"We have no idea who they are! They just appeared in the forest. The woman was panicked; speaking in a language I couldn't recognize and was in a terrible state. The girl was much worse however, seeing as she had a blade embedded in her chest... She's lucky to be alive. The thing missed her heart, but went straight through a lung..." Griffin told Faragonda and Saladin in a conference call in her office.

"And they'll put out notices to try and identify them within Magix first?" Saladin asked.

"Correct. For all we know, there might be someone here that knows them. Clearly they were trying to escape something. Perhaps someone here is destined to help them with that..." Griffin mused.

"I'll circulate the word among my staff and students. Who knows, maybe the word won't even have to go too far..." Faragonda said.

"For some reason, I have the feeling that it won't..." Saladin murmured.

"Anyway, I have to go. Another class to teach..." Griffin ended the call.


"The twins have been in a really ambivalent mood lately. Ever since Divina had what she calls a "mixed feelings" vision. She said it was something about their mother that while it had a lot of bad feeling to it, there was enough good to outweigh the bad..." Linden spoke to Queen Panacea on the phone as he sat in the office of his and Fern's potions shop.

"Is that so? Perhaps their mother's situation changed, but at a cost. How can we know for sure, though? Communications in and out of Ganymede are still solidly blocked..." The Linphean queen wondered.

"Perhaps try checking to see if other realms have had refugees from Ganymede that somehow managed to escape? For all we know, perhaps this Queen Adelaide managed to escape like her children did..." Linden mused.

"Maybe... I will have my people work from the major realms down, discreetly of course. Also, I will be coming to visit Malachi and Divina this weekend to speak to them about this vision of theirs. I will also bring my own daughter with me. Your Princess. She has been curious."

"Yes, Your Majesty. In the meantime, I can do my own little research into ways that this Kirova person could have possibly gained her power. Break that and perhaps... perhaps the twins can return to their true home..."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan. Of course I have researchers doing their own work on that, but as you are hosting the children and looking after them daily, it makes sense for you and your wife to do such." Panacea nodded. "I will check in again the day before I arrive."

Linden inclined his head towards her as she ended the call.


"It's been so weird. I can't shake it off, Malachi. I... we felt Kirova's rage and some other bad stuff, but unlike the last time, there was so much good to it that it didn't hurt!" Divina spoke to her brother in Ganymedi as they sat on the floor of the room they shared.

"I can't shake it off either. And about Mom too... What happened?" Malachi wondered.

"Something good and something bad..." Divina murmured.

They sat together in silence for a while, simply enjoying each other's company.

"Malachi...?"

"Yes, Divina?"

"Have I ever told you how awesome of a big brother you are?"

"No, but you may continue to tell me how awesome I am." Malachi smiled.

Divina rolled her eyes. "You can be really silly sometimes too. But still, you helped keep my... our spirits up when we were being held by Kirova. You were so strong and brave... Much more than I was..."

"I had to be. You're my sister, Vin. My twin sister. You were all I had left and I was all you had left. I wasn't about to let anything or anyone- not even Kirova- change that..."

At these words from her brother, Divina reached over to hug him tightly.


"They've been like that all week..." Miele said as she, Renata and Nicholas walked away quietly from the door.

"It is better than seeing them cry and suffer, that is for certain..." Renata pointed out.

"I only wish that we could understand what they were saying..." Nicholas glanced at Renata.

Miele did too. "Renata, I don't suppose your views on translation spells in this case have changed...?"

Renata narrowed her eyes. "No. They have not. These two were obviously having a private moment. One that we should not have been spying on!"

"Hey! You were spying on them of your own free will too!" Miele looked at her friend indignantly.

Renata rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Anyway... let's go over to my room and wait and see if they'll join us!" Miele beckoned for them to follow her into her room.

Sometime later, the twins entered.

"Hey! What's everyone doing?" Divina asked.

"Drawing. Care to join us?" Miele gestured to the art supplies in one corner of the room.

"Sure, though I don't know about Malachi. He couldn't draw to save his soul." Divina giggled at the annoyed expression her brother displayed at her statement.

"You're not alone, Malachi. Neither can Renata..." It was Nicholas' and Miele's turn to burst out giggling at Renata's annoyed expression.

"And you couldn't write an essay to save yours, Divina. My language skills are far superior." Malachi retorted to his sister.

Divina ignored him and sat next to Miele to draw as Malachi sat next to Renata.


In one of the dorms at Red Fountain, a blue-haired, brown-eyed young man sat alone, at a desk, looking through photos on his cell phone.

A picture of a woman with green hair and brown eyes.

A man with light blue hair and brown eyes.

Him, a little younger than he appeared now.

A girl, a few years younger than him and that bore a strong resemblance to him and the man.

Another photograph of him and the other three people beaming together.

The day he left for Red Fountain...

"Mother, Father, Antenora..." He sighed.

They had been so proud of him. The first of his family to go to college and to one of the most prominent ones in existence at that.

He was determined to make something of himself. Working and studying hard, he had earned a full scholarship to Red Fountain.

But when he'd left for his Sophomore year this year... Unrest was brewing... And merely a week after he'd started, he found that he could not communicate to them- or anyone else- in Ganymede at all.

Nothing was going in- and apparently, nothing was going out either...

Naturally, he worried. He hadn't been able to contact them... and he heard nothing from them or anyone else on the planet. Not even the media outlets on Ganymede seemed to have anything to say.

He'd mentioned his concerns to Professor Saladin, how had agreed with him that something was very wrong...

The school-wide intercom beeped, indicating that an announcement was about to come on, rousing the young man out of his thoughts.

"Haidar of Ganymede, report to my office immediately."

Headmaster Saladin's voice repeated the instruction over the intercom again before it beeped again, indicating the end of the announcement.

Wondering if somehow, the Headmaster had gained some information on the state of his home planet, he quickly neatened himself and made his way to the office.


"So you see, since you are the only Ganymedi national here, you can corroborate what she says. She claims to be the Ganymedi queen, but seeing as none of us here is familiar with that planet... We have to be absolutely sure..."

Haidar sat in complete silence at his headmaster's words.

"So... once you told them about me being here indeed and her having mentioned me specifically and Antenora..." Haidar trailed off.

"They want me to get you and have you escorted there to make sure that this woman and the girl are indeed who they claim to be..."

"So... when do I leave?" the Ganymedi teen asked quietly.

"As soon as an officer comes by to escort you over."

No sooner than these words were out of Saladin's mouth, than there was a knock on the door.

"And that should be him now... ENTER!" the headmaster called out.

A tall, sturdily built man entered the room.

"General Baxter..." Saladin shook hands with the man.

"Saladin, sir..."

"This is the young man I told you of that might be able to assist you and act as a translator without need of spells..." Saladin gestured to Haidar.

"Haidar of Ganymede, correct?" General Baxter asked.

"Yes sir." the young man answered smoothly.

"Good, good... Let's be on our way then. I assume that you have already been briefed?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Saves us time. I will keep you informed, of course, Saladin." General Baxter gave a salute as he left, Haidar close behind him,

Once outside the school, General Baxter pressed a device and opened a portal.

"Here we are." The pair emerged from the portal outside a hospital and walked briskly inside.

"Up on the fifth floor..." They headed straight to the elevator and it closed, with them as the only occupants of it the entire ride up.

As the buttons lit up with each progressive floor, Haidar felt his anxiety build up, though he tried to fight it down.

"Here we are..." the General ushered him out once they reached the fifth floor.

The only sounds as they walked down the sterile, white, brightly lit corridor was the sound of their footsteps and various beeps of medical machinery doing their work behind the many closed doors lining the corridor.

"Here we are..." they reached a door with two guards posted outside.

Haidar swallowed his nervousness and entered.

The woman in the bed there hand some drips on both arms and was dressed in a simple hospital gown, but he immediately recognized her.

Her hair was limp and her green eyes had lost their shine, but it was her. Even though he'd never seen her in person and certainly not in a state like this.

He looked back at General Baxter and nodded.

"It is her. Queen Adelaide." he said simply.

She looked up then and saw him.

"I... You are Haidar, aren't you? Antenora's brother?" She asked quietly in Ganymedi.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I am. Can you tell me what happened?" he continued the conversation in their native language and pulled up a chair closer to her.

General Baxter shut the door behind them and stood next to it, watching the Ganymedi pair.

"Kirova. Lady Kirova. She... staged a takeover... a coup... shut down the entire planet... prevented inter-realm travel, silenced the media. We have been completely shut off from the outside world..." Adelaide said quietly.

"You have. I have not been able to make contact with anyone at home since I've been here this year and I have heard nothing from them either. Not the media either. Though... Your Majesty, if inter-realm travel was blocked off, how did you manage to escape all the way here to Magix? Added to the fact that I was unaware that you had spell casting ability..."

"Your... sister... the girl... very, very brave... Antenora. She managed to break me out of prison and she had strong, strong magic. She was a witch..."

Haidar raised an eyebrow at this. Antenora certainly wasn't a witch when they'd last been together...

"...but Kirova attacked me in my cell when she was on guard duty... she... saved me... her guards... your sister... hurt... found myself in some forest they say is in... Realm of Magix..."

Haidar swallowed.

"How badly? Do you know how badly my sister was hurt?" he asked, not quite sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"I... don't know how to answer that. And... him..." Adelaide weakly lifted a hand to point at General Baxter.

"I will."

"Your sister was so strong and brave from what she told me. Your... parents would be... proud." Adelaide started to drift off into unconscious land then.

"My parents! What became of them?!" Haidar thought anxiously. "What the hell went on back there? How did Antenora get into this situation in the first place? Kind, sweet Antenora? We were just a humble family in Quisala, trying to get by and now this..."

He stood up and turned to face General Baxter.

"Well..?" General Baxter raised an eyebrow.

"She said things about Ganymede that any Ganymedi should know and she knows about my family. My sister Antenora, for instance..."

"So the girl we have here would be your sister then?" the older man asked him as he left the room.

"It sounds like it, sir. May I see her?"

"You may. Just down this way..."

After a little while, they came to another guarded door.

"This one you can do on your own..." the general had a sympathetic look on his face.

Haidar nodded and went in.

His sister was there in the bed; with many more drips and tubes attached to her body than Queen Adelaide had.

She looked deathly pale; struggling to breathe on her own and with a tube down her throat.

She just looked so weak and pitiful, lying there unconscious like this...

This was not the cheerful little sister he had left behind...

"You must be the young man they say would be coming over. Is she who the lady- the supposed Queen Adelaide- says she is?" the doctor spoke to him after she finished adjusting an IV.

Haidar nodded. "It is Queen Adelaide. And this girl here... this is my little sister Antenora..."

"I see..." the doctor's tone was sympathetic.

"Your sister then... Antenora... She's a strong one. A blade went right through her left lung, narrowly missing her heart. We had to do surgery to remove it and fix the damage that it caused. She nearly died on us in that operating room... but she pulled through and now...She will live. She's a real survivor, that one..."

Haidar swallowed.

"Yeah. She is..." he moved forward to hold his sister's hand gently.