Chapter Forty-Two: Shauna's Illusion (Part 1)

Here's the chapter for Day 3, readers, enjoy. Cya.

While the Black Bulls were on their way to Raquey, the lives of those in other Magic Knight squads still went on, one such squad being the Aqua Deer, the sun shined brightly over their base as another day began.

"Uh, is it morning already?" Zuka muttered to herself as she pulled her bedsheets up, covering more of her body. "I don't know, I don't really feel like waking up now, maybe in another hour,"

However, a knock was soon heard at her door. "Hey, Zuka, it's Shauna, I was waiting for you so we could head to the showers together, but you haven't come out of your room yet, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's just fine, I'm just a bit tired, just go on without me, I'll be up in about an hour," Zuka tiredly said back.

"Um, I think you already know that if you wake up an hour from now, you're going to miss breakfast, right?" the illusion mage reminded her.

"Oh yeah, I was so focused on sleep, I forgot about breakfast," the sparkle mage muttered as she got herself out of bed, putting on her flip-flops and grabbing her towel.

She opened her door and walked outside, letting out a yawn. "Good morning,"

"And a good morning to you, now let's get moving, the hot water from the shower should jumpstart you," Shauna said as the two made their way to the shower room, and as usual, once they came back, they went into their rooms and changed into their daily attire.

"I've noticed you've been waking up tired lately," Shauna mentioned as the two girls walked down the hall.

Zuka's face showed a little nervousness, but luckily, it wasn't seen by her red-haired friend. "You have a point, but I don't know what's causing it," she replied as they entered the breakfast hall, the two grabbed their plates and filled them with the usual items.

"Hey, Zuka, Shauna, I saved you a seat over here!" Oliver called, Shauna sat right next to him, while Zuka sat across from them.

"Good morning, Oliver," they greeted.

"Morning," Oliver said back as he took a bite of his flapjacks. "So, were you two talking about something, it seemed like you were when you entered the hall?"

"Yeah, I was talking about how Zuka has been waking up tired these past few days," Shauna replied as she popped a strawberry into her mouth.

"You have a point, I've noticed the same thing, I'm pretty sure it started around four days ago, have you been having any bad nightmares or something, perhaps that's what's causing your morning fatigue?" the wood mage said before asking.

Zuka shook her head. "No, no nightmares, in fact, quite the opposite, I've been getting nothing but great dreams," she responded, involuntarily holding onto her necklace.

"And then there's something else I noticed lately," Shauna began. "You've been wearing that necklace a lot, I even caught you trying to sneak it into the showers yesterday, do you wear that all the time?"

Zuka lightly blushed before she turned her face away, securing a pile of eggs on her fork. "No...I don't wear it when I go to sleep," she responded before putting the eggs in her mouth. The truth as to why she was waking up tired was because she had been spending her nights looking at her necklace, cheerfully giggling to herself as she recalled in her mind how Kenos gave it to her over and over again.

"I've never felt like this before, whenever I look at the necklace, I'm reminded of that moment, I never knew liking someone could give such an exhilarating feeling," the sparkle mage thought.

Oliver then laughed. "What was with that reaction?!" he then calmed down a bit as he slightly smiled. "You know, I wasn't really planning to be a part of this squad back then, but I don't mind being here now, especially with you two as my partners, and my friends, there's never a dull moment with you two around,"

His statement caught Zuka's attention. "Not planning to join this squad? Then what squad were you planning to join?"

Oliver twiddled with his fingers. "Well, at first, I was hoping that maybe I could be a part of...the Golden Dawn,"

"The Golden Dawn? You're not a bad mage, but I'm not sure if you're Golden Dawn material," Shauna said, trying to sound polite.

"No way you could join that squad, without me here, who would change your view on commoners, you'd be an arrogant brat like 90% of that squad," Zuka added.

"Isn't that Yuno guy a part of the squad, I bet if I joined their squad, he'd set me straight," Oliver said.

"Perhaps, but I'll be honest, when you get past the whole discrimination thing, you're actually pretty cool, I wouldn't want you anywhere but here, you're a part of our friendship trio," Zuka said.

"Thanks," Oliver answered as they all finished their breakfast.

"Great, now I'm feeling wide awake, I wonder if we're going to have a mission today," Zuka stated as she stood up and stretched.

"Hey there you three, I see you've finished breakfast," a familiar voice said from behind Zuka, she turned to see the captain's trusty messenger, Fragil.

"Yeah, we have, does the captain want to see us?" Oliver asked.

"He does, and right away too," she replied as she walked out of the breakfast hall.

"Well, that was incredibly good timing, I wonder what mission Rill has for us," Zuka wondered aloud as the three of them made their way to the picture mage's office.

They arrived at the door and knocked, being welcomed in by their young captain. "Hey there you three, I always love it when you get here so quick from the moment when I ask for you,"

"Fragil told us to come right away, is it an important mission?" Shauna asked.

"Um, no,"

"No?" the faces of the three showed confusion.

"I already have other teams handling any missions of importance, for you three, I want you to do some patrolling around the capital, it'll be a first for you two, Zuka and Oliver, so Shauna, you're in charge, show them how it's down,"

"Yes sir," Shauna replied as she clover-saluted.

"Great, that's all the news I have for you, now I can get back to my attempt at a masterpiece!" Rill cheered as he childishly ran over the bench beside his canvas.

"He'll never change," the three thought in unison, Shauna then spoke up. "Let's not waste any more time, onto the capital,"

The three left the office and got their brooms, heading outside, they mounted them and flew into the sky, no conversation was exchanged between them as they arrived at the capital.

"Ah, the capital, it's been a while since we were last here, hopefully, the Eye of the Midnight Sun won't attack again," Oliver said.

Shauna turned her head to him. "Now that you mention it, I haven't heard too much about the Eye of the Midnight Sun ever since the attack, I guess matters regarding them are being kept top-secret,"

"You have a point, we haven't had a run-in with them since then either," Zuka said as an image of the spark mage, Annalise, came to her head. "I wonder if I'll ever see her again, if I do, I'll totally kick her ass,"

"So, Shauna, RIll put you in charge, tell us, what exactly do we do during a patrol?" Oliver asked.

"Well, it's quite simple, what you usually do is-," the illusion mage was beginning to explain before a voice cut her off.

"Hey there! Zuka, Shauna, Oliver!" a voice called, it was coming from straight ahead, the three Aqua Deer knights looked forward to see Klaus waving at them, beside him was a girl they didn't recognize with light green hair tied in a ponytail.

The two walked over to them. "It's been quite some time since we last saw each other," Klaus said, he then motioned his hands to the girl beside him. "This is Letoile Becquerel, a squadmate of mine, she was supposed to be with us at the capital during the Eye of the Midnight Sun attack, but she was then assigned to a mission, Letoile, these are the three people I told you about from the Aqua Deer,"

"Hello there, I'm Zuka Glitenia," she introduced herself.

"Oliver Yggdrow, a pleasure to meet you," he added.

"And finally, there's me, Shauna Trixxton," she finished.

Letoile respectfully bowed. "It's nice to meet you three as well, I apologize for not being there to help, I bet it must've been tough,"

"It was, but don't worry, it wasn't your fault," Shauna stated with a kind hand gesture. "So, what are you two doing here?"

"Well, we were on our way to a mission, but Letoile said she wanted to stop by the capital," Klaus replied.

"I know an old friend who sells stuff around here, I just wanted to go and say hi," Letoile finished. "What are you doing here?"

"We're doing morning patrol, it's the first time for our group," Zuka answered.

"That's wonderful, morning patrol might not be as exciting as missions, but they're just as important, we should get moving, see you around," Klaus said as he and Letoile started to walk away.

"Wait," Oliver suddenly said, the two Golden Dawn knights, turned to face him. "I was just wondering...if your captain was doing alright?"

"Captain Vangeance? He's doing just fine," Letoile replied.

"Is there something we should know about him?" Klaus then asked.

Oliver shook his head. "Nothing at all, I was thinking that it must be a bit stressful, you know, being the captain of the kingdom's best squad,"

Klaus slightly smiled as he pushed up his glasses. "True, but I assure you the captain is eating properly and getting enough sleep, thank you for the concern, we best be off now," the steel and compass mages walked away for the second time, disappearing into the crowd.

Zuka turned to her squadmate. "What was that all about?"

"Oh, nothing, I was just a bit curious," he replied before turning to Shauna. "What were you saying about what to do on a patrol?"

"Oh yes, on a patrol, you merely look around to make sure everything is peaceful, there are people around, don't be afraid to chat with them, it'll help establish comfortability between us and them, a humanizing aspect to the Magic Knights if you will, another important thing is to-," she started explaining, but was interrupted once again as she bumped into somebody.

"Why do I keep getting cut off," she thought frustratingly as she turned to the person she bumped into. "Sorry about that, I-," she was in the middle of apologizing, but stopped as her eyes widened.

The illusion mage bumped into a woman, but she knew that woman, even though her back was facing her, she recognized her.

And she was afraid.

The woman started to turn around as she felt Shauna bump into her, but the Magic Knight reacted quicker, taking out her grimoire as it flipped through pages. "Illusion Magic: Disappearing Act," she mentally declared as she became invisible, she quickly backed up and grabbed Zuka and Oliver's hand, the nature of her spell making them invisible too.

"What the?" they wondered together, but didn't get to ask what was going on as they were pulled by Shauna's running, she hid them near a vacant stand as they became visible again.

"Shauna, what the hell was that for, why did you pull us away like that?" Zuka asked as she looked at her friend, but stopped once she noticed a look in the illusion mage's eyes that she had never seen before.

Panic.

"Shauna?" Zuka muttered, she saw Shauna peek from their hiding spot, the sparkle mage did the same, she tracked her gaze to see she was looking at two people, a grown man with medium-sized brown hair who was wearing a blue casual suit, and a grown woman with long red hair who was wearing a gray casual dress.

Oliver did the same as his two female friends, his gaze fell on the two adults as well. "Are they the reason you brought us here,"

Shauna merely nodded. "Let's patrol somewhere else around the capital, this place looks safe enough," she instructed, but her voice was laced with a slight mix of fear and panic.

"Shauna, who are those people, do you know them?" Zuka asked with concern.

"Yeah, we want to know, this seems to be really bothering you," Oliver added.

Shauna sighed as she turned to her squadmates. "Yes, I know them, they're…," she began.

Zuka and Oliver got close to hear the end of her response.

"...My parents,"

About three hours passed before the trio returned to Aqua Deer HQ, they had shifted to patrolling another part of the capital like Shauna had said, with neither the wood nor sparkle mages asking her about the obvious elephant in the room, but when they got back to base, they couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Your parents!" they both exclaimed as she nervously nodded.

Zuka put her hand on her chin. "Now that I think about it, you've never mentioned your parents to us before, I just thought it was something nobles didn't do,"

"But onto the million-dollar question we all have: why did you hide when you bumped into them?" Oliver asked.

"Well, that's because...I ran away from home,"

"You did what?!" the two exclaimed once again.

"Why would you run away from home? They didn't...abuse you, did they?" Zuka asked.

"No, at least, not in the traditional sense, it wasn't physical, mental, or emotional," Shauna replied. "My parents were trying to get me married,"

"M-Married?!"

"Yeah, the Trixxton House may be a noble house, but it's a minor noble house, as my parent's only child, they wanted me to marry someone of a higher noble house," the illusion mage explained.

"I've heard of that, it's a way for noble families to increase their own status," Oliver stated.

Shauna nodded. "That's right, ever since I was a kid, the only thing I could really remember was hours upon hours of my parents trying to groom me into a "perfect" lady, someone who was self-centered, and because of my non-offensive attribute, they barred me from fighting as well, I hated it, my life felt a lot like my attribute,"

"Your attribute? You mean an illusion?" Zuka asked.

The red-haired girl nodded. "Yes, my life didn't feel real, they were trying to turn me into a person I wasn't, all because they thought it would make me more desirable to a suitor," she said before looking at the sparkle mage. "Hey, Zuka, do you remember that meadow I told you to take Kenos after you went to his house?"

Zuka nodded, she could never forget what happened there. "Yeah, I do,"

"I found that place when I was 13, it became my happy place to visit whenever I felt overwhelmed by my parent's grooming,"

The blue and magenta-haired teen then widened her eyes. "Is that why you looked sad when you were telling me about it?" she realized.

Shauna nodded. "It is, while I did feel happy there, it's also a reminder of how I used to live," she then looked up. "I remember when I first came across it, it was one of the best days of my life,"

[Flashback]

Trixxton Household. Four Years Ago.

"Wrong, do it again!"

Inside the house were three people, a 13-year old Shauna, and her two parents, her father right next to her while her mother stood a few feet away from them.

"You must stand properly, as well as that, you must address the lord and lady of the house properly, but we'll handle that later," her father said.

Her mother then walked up to the two of them. "It's now time to start your formal dance practice,"

"But mother, I don't like to dance, is that really necessary?" Shauna asked.

Her mother extended her hand. "Of course it's necessary, Shauna, my dear daughter, you must learn to dance, it will make you more suitable to the higher nobles, especially since they do throw extravagant balls every now and then, so it's good to learn, do you understand me?"

Shauna could've sworn her voice darkened around the last part, she turned her head away from them. "Y-Yes mother, I understand,"

"Good, now let's begin, you'll practice with your father," her mother instructed as the two got into the proper position, Shauna wrapped her arms around her father's neck, while he wrapped his arms around Shauna's waist.

"Perfect, you've got the position down pact, now do a few waltzes around the area," her mother said, the two started turning each other around, maintaining their hold of the other, the grown woman silently tapped her feet to ensure the tempo they were going at matched her own.

She then clapped as they stopped their dance. "Incredible, you did amazing, Shauna, and on your first attempt of the day as well, you're starting to improve,"

"Thank you, can I go outside to practice my magic now?" Shauna then asked.

Her father shook her head as they separated. "Shauna, we talked about this, you use illusion magic, why practice, it's not made for battle,"

"But I can be a support mage then," she protested.

"A support mage might still need to join the battle if it becomes necessary, and that can become dangerous, besides, when you're married, you won't need to worry about battles, just leave that to the Magic Knights," her mother responded.

"But what if I want to be-," the young girl began, but her mother put her hand up again.

"Please, no more of this, your father and I have the perfect future planned out for you,"

Shauna put her head down. "Yes, mother. If I can, may I take my broom and fly around outside for some fresh air?"

"Of course, you did good with that dance, I suppose you do deserve a break, be back in an hour for dinner," she replied.

"Thank you, I won't be long," Shauna said as she left their presence, she then made her way to her room, grabbing her broom before heading outside, mounting it as she flew into the sky.

"Uh, why don't they ever listen to me, I don't want to do all of this, it's dumb, I won't even get to marry someone I genuinely love," she mumbled as looked down, seeing the multitude of people going about their daily lives. "I wish that my life could've maybe been something like theirs, those people are so lucky,"

The young illusion mage continued flying, she had gotten enough fresh air, but she obviously didn't want to return home any sooner than she had to, but then, something below her caught her eye, she looked down and saw something extraordinary.

"Flowers?" she muttered, seeing a plethora of colors, she decided to fly down in order to get a better look.

Once she landed, she gasped, before her was a beautiful meadow, filled with all sorts of flowers of different colors. "This place...it's beautiful, and it's not just the flowers, the grass looks so green, and it feels nice on my legs,"

Shauna started to walk around the meadow, kneeling down and picking up all the flowers that fascinated her, she then ran down a tall hill, laughing as she did.

"This place is amazing!" she excitedly jumped into the air before hitting the ground, she laid down on the grass.

"I don't ever want to leave this place," she giggled, for the first time in her life, she felt genuinely happy, but then she remembered her reality, she got up.

"I'm not sure if my hour is up yet, but with all the fun I was having, who knows how long I've been here, I guess it's time to go back to the prison called home," Shauna said to herself as she walked back to her broom, mounting it before she took off again.

A frown was on the illusion mage's face, sad that she had to leave the one place that gave her joy, but then she smiled, knowing that she could return there the next day.

[End Flashback]

"So that's how it happened, aye?" Zuka asked rhetorically.

Shauna nodded. "That's right, later when I turned I turned 16, I ran away from home and joined the Magic Knights, I've been here at the Aqua Deer for a year now,"

"Damn, and I thought I had a weird family history," Oliver muttered. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about them anymore, you're with us now,"

"Hey, you're back," Fragil said, the three turned to her, her eyes fell on the illusion mage. "Shauna, Rill told me he wanted you to stop by his office,"

"Oh, alright, I'll be right there," Shauna said. "Rill just probably wants to know how the patrol went," she then started to make her way to the office.

"Oliver's right, I'll never have to worry about my parents ever again," she thought as she arrived at the door and knocked.

"Come in," she heard Rill say.

Shauna then opened the door and started to head inside. "Hey there Rill, the patrol went great, Zuka and Oliver did well -," she began, but widened her eyes once she saw her captain wasn't the only person in the room.

Standing at the right of his desk, was her mother and father.

"No...it's not possible, how did they find me?" Shauna thought with panic, it took all of her willpower to not let her face match her thoughts.

"These are your parents, right Shauna? Seymour and Rosaline Trixxton?" Rill asked.

"They are," Shauna replied with a defeated tone as her parents ran over to her and embraced her.

"Shauna, my lovely daughter, you're okay!" Rosaline exclaimed.

"Do you know how worried you made us when you ran away," Seymour scolded.

"Oh please, the only thing that worried you was that you didn't have a daughter to marry off," Shauna thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"That's not important now, Seymour, she's safe," his wife said. "I bet you're wondering how we were able to find you. Well, when we first found out you ran away, we assumed you went far, so we spent months looking around the outskirts of the kingdom, it's only this week we decided to start looking around the capital, just today we were there, I showed some merchants a photo of you, and they said they recognized you from patrols, they then told us what squad you were in, and, here we are,"

Seymour then turned to the picture mage. "Thank you very much for taking care of our daughter, Captain Rill, I hope it's not much to ask, but can you give us a few minutes of privacy, we'd like to talk to Shauna?"

"Of course, take all the time you need," Rill replied as he left the room, leaving the three Trixxtons alone.

"So, you've become a Magic Knight?" Rosaline asked.

"That's right, I've been doing quite well here," Shauna replied.

"Well, I can't say we expected you to be a Magic Knight, but I suppose we're proud of you, if you've been here for the year you've been gone as Rill said, then you're no joke of a mage," Seymour said.

The illusion mage suspiciously raised a brow. "Um, thanks,"

"But now for the reason we've come," Rosaline spoke up.

"There we go, I knew it was too good to be true that they would come looking for me from the goodness of their hearts," Shauna thought.

"During the year you were gone, your father and I were able to find a powerful noble house with a son your age, so we've arranged your marriage, isn't it exciting?" Rosaline explained before asking.

"No," Shauna plainly replied. "I don't want to get married right now, that's the whole reason I ran away from home, besides, I've made friends here, and good ones, I don't want to leave this place,"

"Shauna, you need to stop being selfish," Seymour said.

Shauna's face grew serious. "Don't give me that selfish crap! This is all about status, you don't care about me, you never cared about me, ever since I was born, you just saw me as a bargaining chip to make yourselves better!"

"That's not true, you're a Trixxton as well, you would benefit from it like us!" Seymour yelled back.

Rosaline got in between her husband and her daughter. "Please, you two, stop yelling at each other, it won't solve anything," she then turned to Shauna and sighed. "I didn't think I'd have to resort to this, but you've left me no choice,"

Shauna backed up a bit. "What are you talking about?"

Her mother slowly walked over to her. "You ran away from home, from your family, which means you have no right to say otherwise, but if you don't agree to go along with the wedding, I'll cut your ties with the Aqua Deer and take you home, those good friends you talked about, I'll make sure you never see them ever again,"

"Y-You can't do that," Shauna stuttered.

Rosaline's face grew serious. "Try me, you won't succeed, however, if you do agree to go along with it, while you must leave the Magic Knights, I'll permit you to visit these friends of yours once or twice a month. So, what's your choice?"

Shauna didn't know what to do, she didn't want to give in, but at the same time, she feared the legitimacy of her mother's threat, she had never seen her use her magic before, so she wasn't sure what either she or Seymour was capable of, she knew her answer.

"Fine, my choice is to…,"

"That's odd, Shauna's been in Rill's office for about 15 minutes now, do you think something went wrong?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, does it take long to give a report on a basic patrol?" Zuka wondered aloud.

"Well, let's go check, we can see for ourselves," the wood mage suggested, Zuka nodded as they both started making their way to Rill's office, but stopped once they noticed that on the other side of the hallway was Shauna.

"Shauna!" the two teens called as they ran to her, but as they got close enough to her, they saw a shadow over her face.

"Shauna, is something the matter?" Zuka asked.

"When I went to Rill's office…," the illusion mage began in a sad tone. "...I saw my parents there, they found me,"

The wood and sparkle mages widened their eyes, the former spoke. "They did, so what now?"

Although they still couldn't see Shauna's eyes, they could see the tears streaming down her face. "What now? I'm…," she began again.

"...Getting married,"