The Truth Part III

Avery: Okay, I have a feeling that a lot of chapters are going to be called "The Truth" but there's a lot of truths that have to come to light so... yeah. Sorry updates get slow. School just seems to get harder and harder. Oh well, enjoy!

Selene sleeps through the morning. A dreamless slumber that she is thankful for. After the nightmare she's had, she's thankful to be allowed some peace. Nobody dares to try waking her until noon, when there's a knock at her door. The pounding on the door is light, but it's enough to rouse her from sleep. Her eyes are bleary and her room is blurry. Her head hurts as she slowly lifts her head off her pillow.

"Come in!" She calls.

The door opens up just a crack, light flooding into the previously dark room. Christine pokes her head in and smiles at Selene kindly. She flips on the light switch, causing Selene to hiss as light flooded in her eyes. Christine entered the room, closing the door behind her with a click. She held a plate of food in her opposite hand as well as a glass of water.

"Ellaria said that you weren't feeling well," She said, placing the plate on the bedside table along with the glass. "I thought that you might want something to eat."

Selene was hungry, having slept for so long and neglecting to wake up for breakfast. Her empty stomach growled at the mere mention of food. Selene took the bottle of water first, gulping down half the bottle within seconds. The cold water felt good against her chapped lips, and even better cooling down her dry mouth.

"Thank you." Selene was grateful, she really was.

'Oh, crud, I forgot to bring her the math homework.' Christine's voice filled Selene's head. She wanted to reassure Christine that it was okay, but then firmly remembered that she'd neglected to tell her friend about her abilities.

"You're welcome." Christine smiled. "We were all worried when you didn't show up this morning. Ellaria had to convince me to wait until lunch to see you."

Selene's eyes trailed to the ground where her friend had stayed the night before. The blankets and pillows were gone, now neatly folded and put away. Ellaria really was a good friend. Not many people would stay with her all night. The only other people that Selene could think of that would ever do such a thing for her were her parents and Romy, and all three were a whole dimension away. She missed them. She wanted to see them. She wanted to hear her father humming while he made dinner, and see Romy at her kitchen table with all of her sketchbooks scattered in front of her. She wanted to smell the scent of her mother's perfume, feel familiar arms around her, holding her and making her feel safe. It made her miss everyone terribly, she hoped that maybe she would be allowed to talk to them soon.

"What's for lunch?" Selene asked, eyeing the plate.

"There wasn't much leftover," Christine replied apologetically. "There's some pasta primavera and I saved you some cookies."

Selene smiled and took the plate off the bedside table. She sat up with her legs crossed on the bed, spooning a large portion of the pasta into her mouth. It tasted amazing. While the chefs didn't make pizza or burgers like her school on Earth, she applauded them for making food that didn't taste like cardboard with cheese on it.

"So what did I miss?" Selene questioned, her mouth still half full of pasta.

Christine's face fell a bit.

'I shouldn't tell her about it.'

Selene tried not to react, but it was hard. Something clearly had happened for Christine to think such a thing. But at the same time, was she ready to start telling people about her powers?

"Well, your dance partner missed you." Christine attempted to lighten the mood.

"What did he do in Etiquette without a dance partner?" Selene chuckled.

Christine smiled again. "Oh, Ellaria offered to be his partner in your place. You should have seen Prince Jon's face, he looked like he was about to throw a hissy fit."

The two girls giggled again. Prince Jon was so immature and repulsive that even his intended didn't want to dance with him.

'Rhaella shouldn't have said anything, it really wasn't any of her business.'

Usually, Selene had a good poker face. Usually, she would ignore thoughts when they came. But this time, she couldn't. The second Rhaella's name was mentioned, she knew that witch said something. It shouldn't have bothered her as much as it did, but clearly, there was something that Christine wasn't telling her. But Christine didn't know… But, there was no better time than the present…

"What happened with Rhaella?" Selene questioned.

Christine's eyebrows raised.

'It was terrible what she said about her and Leo.'

Selene's eyes narrowed. "What did she say about Leo and I?"

Christine's eyes widened and she let out the tiniest gasp.

'How did-'

"Christine," Selene started, taking her friend's hands in her own. "I think it's time I told you the truth about why I'm here."

Christine stayed silent, millions of thoughts running through her brain all at once.

"I am not here because I want to take back Mewni," Selene explained. "I'm here to learn how to control my mind reading powers."

Christine didn't know what to say. She was expecting Selene to start laughing and tell her it was a joke. But that didn't happen. Selene just stared at Christine, completely and utterly serious. That's when Christine realized that Selene was telling the truth. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she closed it. She wasn't sure what to say. And she had even more questions now than she did before. While it wasn't uncommon for people to have powers in the multiverse, the ability to read minds was still a relatively rare one. It was unexpected to say the least, but not exactly in a bad way.

"So, if that's the case," Christine finally replied. "Then why is King Alexander teaching both you and Leo? Does he have mind reading too?"

Selene shook her head. "It isn't easy to explain…"

Selene didn't even know the full story herself, trying to explain it to Christine wouldn't be easy.

"Our powers are different," Selene started. "Leo has the ability to control fire, so it isn't at all like reading minds. But I think there's more to it that my parents and Alexander aren't telling us and…" Selene paused to catch her breath. "Goodness, I don't even know. I didn't even want to come here, but I had to in order to learn how to control my abilities."

Christine sat in silence, her thoughts completely blank.

"All I know now," Selene continued. "Is that I'm part of something bigger than what I originally intended, and it terrifies me."

Christine wasn't sure what to say. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around her friend, pulling her into a comforting hug.

"You're strong," Christine told her. "And you're going to be okay, I promise you."

Selene hoped so too.

"So, what happened?" Selene asked again. "What did Rhaella say?"

Christine gulped.

"Well," Christine started. "She apparently saw Leo carrying you and she told everyone that you two were doing... um... things."

Selene's mouth fell open, then she rolled her eyes. She vaguely remembered Leo carrying her to her room after she fainted, and she definitely would have insisted that he put her down had she been fully conscious. But the fact that she wasn't, and now Rhaella was spreading rumours about them doing... things... Honestly, Selene had bigger things to worry about than schoolyard bullies. Sure, it still made her feel awful that people were talking about her, but she had thick skin.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Christine asked.

"No," Selene replied, perhaps a bit more harshly than she meant to. "It doesn't matter. Rhaella can go to- where ever it is vampires go to suffer-"

Selene could tell that Christine wanted to ask more questions, but before she could she was silenced by someone knocking on the door.

"Enter." Selene calls.

The door opens, and Queen Emma stands in the doorway. She is beautiful and regal in a long green dress, her golden tresses piled high on top of her head. Her dark eyes are kind, and the beauty mark on her cheek seems to wiggle as she smiles. Christine bows first, her delicate curtsy is as elegant as she is.

"Hello, Your Grace." She greets, her head still bowed.

"You may rise, my dear." Emma kindly gestures for her to stand. "If it's alright, I must speak with Princess Selene alone."

"Of course," Christine replied. Christine didn't want to leave, but she didn't want to disrespect the Queen. She turned to Selene. "I'll come see you after dinner."

Selene nodded. "Alright."

And with that, Christine left, closing the door behind her. Emma smiled down at Selene and offered her a hand.

"My husband and I have something for you," She chided excitedly. "Someone you'll want to see."

She pulled the covers off and accepted the Queen's hand.

"What?" Selene asked.

"It's a surprise." She replied.

Queen Emma looked like a dainty little thing, but she had quite the strong grip. She seemed so graceful and elegant, but at the same time, she looked like the type of person who can and will make you wish that you had never been born.

Emma leads her down the hallways, although she already knew the way to the King's office it felt better to walk with someone else rather than walk alone. She couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, there was something about these corridors that made her feel unwelcome and unsafe. She felt almost trapped. And with the feeling of being trapped came the overwhelming need to escape.

"Here we are!" Emma chimed.

She jiggled the door handle before pushing the door open. And there, standing in the middle of the office, was King Alexander, with the best surprise in the world.

"Mom! Dad!" Selene exclaimed.

She barely registered anything else in the room. She ran to her parents, throwing her arms around them. She held onto them so tightly, she was afraid to let go. She had never been hugged so tightly in her life. It made her feel safe. Like every terrible thing that she had been feeling had just melted away. Her mother and father kissed her head and caressed her hair, the way they did when she had nightmares as a child.

"I'm so happy to see you." Selene wiped tears that she hadn't realized were forming in her eyes.

"We're happy to see you too," Her mother's soft voice was comforting, especially now. "Are you alright? Alexander told us everything."

Selene looked between her parents and the King. Had they regretted their decision to let her stay here? Had they come to bring her home?

"I don't know." Selene almost stuttered, the memories of what happened yesterday came crashing down upon her. "I was okay, and then it was like there was someone inside of my head trying to rip me apart."

'No.' She couldn't tell if that was her mom or her dad, they were both looking at her in that way adults do when they tell kids that everything is fine when everything is clearly not fine.

"Did anything else happen after you woke up?" Alexander asked.

Selene opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Emma was the one who opened it, revealing Prince Leo. His eyes widened slightly at the sight behind the door.

"I had a question," He began. "But I'll just come back later."

"Nonsense," Alexander replied, gesturing for his son to come in. "Take a seat, this concerns you as well."

Selene noticed there was a small amount of discomfiture within his step, like he was almost hesitant to step any closer to her. He usually had such confidence and poise, when he entered a room he commanded it. Today, he seemed like a little boy instead of a prince. He shook hands with Star and Marco politely when he introduced himself, but he stayed relatively silent after that.

"Now, Selene, tell me everything you remember." Alexander continued.

Selene drew a long breath.

"I don't remember much," Selene recounted. "Everything hurt, I screamed, the window broke- sorry about that, by the way-" She gestured to the boarded-up windows in Alexander's office. "And then I just remember this woman…"

Both Star and Marco's eyes widened in shock.

"What woman?" her father asked carefully.

"I don't know," Selene replied. "I see her in my dreams. She's always underneath this tree on a hill, and she talks to me."

Alexander's eyes widened. He opened his drawer and dug through it, finally retrieving an old photo from the bottom of the drawer. The picture was faded, but she recognized the scenery. The tree on top of the hill, the same one from her dreams. And sitting underneath that tree, smiling gleefully at the camera. The same dark hair, the same pale and glowing skin. She even had the same warm and gentle smile.

"That's it!" She exclaimed. "That's the tree I see in my dreams! And that's her, that's the woman!"

A grave look crossed Alexander's face. He looked almost hurt. Selene wished that she could read his mind in that moment, she wanted to know what he was thinking.

'Selene…' That was her mother.

She looked to her parents, who had matching looks of horror painted on their faces. She looked

to Queen Emma, whose hand was covering her mouth, her eyes wide. Then she looked at Leo, who stared back at her with an equally befuddled look on his face.

"That's…" Selene heard her father breathe out.

Alexander sighed heavily.

"That woman," Alexander spoke softly, his voice just above a whisper. "Is my sister. And that tree-" He pointed to the tree in the picture, his voice cracking slightly. "-is the tree she's buried under."

Avery: dun, dun, dun! Okay, so this had to be cut in half and I thought that this was a good place to cut it. Well, I bid you goodnight! (or whatever time it is where you are!)

Hope that you enjoyed, ill see you in the next one!