By the time Rapunzel got to breakfast, Eugene was sitting at the dining table with Lance and Varian. Eugene was sitting next to Lance while Varian sat across from the,. Lance seemed to be talking while Eugene quietly listened and Varian was going through the two scroll pieces and scribbling on a piece of paper.
Lance stopped talking when he noticed Rapunzel. He smiled and waved at her. "Morning, Princess!"
Looking up from the pieces, Varian smiled at Rapunzel. "Good morning."
"Good morning." Rapunzel greeted as she took a seat next to Varian. "What are you doing?"
"Going over these in case there was something I missed." Varian answered. Then he let out a small groan. "But without the rest of it, I can't be certain if what I'm reading is accurate or not."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Rapunzel encouraged. "Maybe some food will get us more energized for this."
"I hope so." Varian replied. "Because all I've been seeing for a while is just a bunch of phrases that make no sense!"
Shortly, a few servants came into the dining hall and presented plates of food to the group. The breakfast itself wasn't anything grand, just four plates of eggs, toast, and bacon. But it still looked good and Rapunzel was admittedly hungry after everything this morning. The four thanked the servants and began to eat.
"Eugene looks a lot better than he did last night." Varian commented to Rapunzel.
Rapunzel glanced up at Eugene, who was still talking to Lance, and noticed that Varian was right. Last night, and earlier this morning, Eugene looked so miserable, it hurt her heart to see him like that.
But now, while she knew he was still upset about the situation, he did look better than earlier. He looked more at peace, allowing him to be a bit more relaxed, and hope seemed to sparkle a bit in his eyes.
"Did anything happen this morning?" Varian asked her.
Rapunzel smiled a bit. "We talked, and we went to go see his father. Eugene probably feels a bit better after that."
"He actually went to see his dad?" Varian asked, surprised. "Wow, I never thought he would."
"He mentioned what he said to him before he left for Corona." Rapunzel admitted. "After talking to him about, we went to see his father, and Eugene apologized. It was tough for him, but he managed to speak to him."
"You managed to convince him to do all that?" The young alchemist asked in amazement. "Wow, he must really love you."
Rapunzel coughed up a bit of her breakfast in shock.
"You okay?" Lance asked as the three young men looked at the coughing princess. Varian patted her on the back. She nodded at them as he coughing mellowed.
Rapunzel took a quick drink of her cup to soothe her throat. "I'm fine." She replied quickly. "I think I just eating too fast."
"Are you sure?" Eugene asked, his voice was calm, but Rapunzel saw the concern in his eyes. It made her face warmer, and she was internally begging that no one could see if she was blushing or not.
"Y-yeah, I promise, Eugene." She said. At the moment, she really wanted the attention off her and onto something else, anything else. "So, Varian, did you have any other idea for how to translate that scroll pieces."
Varian thought for a moment. "Well, I was thinking on going over that book borrowed from Xavier in Corona. Maybe there is a clue in there I overlooked when I was reading it."
"That sounds like a good idea." Eugene commented.
"I was thinking of going to Library to do that." Varian added.
"Why the library?" Lance asked. "Why not your lab?"
"Dad doesn't want me to waste all my time in there." Varian confessed. "And Besides, my lab is a mess. The Library will be a welcome change and its cleaner than my lab, so maybe that will help me focus."
"That makes sense to me." Rapunzel said.
"Then it's settled." Eugene said. "We'll all head to the library after breakfast."
After breakfast, the group went to the library. The library was shaken up from when the black rocks attacked the castle, but it didn't look like it was damaged to severely.
The group have taken seats in a corner, were a few chairs a small table, and a small sofa resigned. Varian put his notes on the table and sat on the sofa while Eugene and Lance took the chairs. Rapunzel didn't sit down, choose to browse through the shelves near them, mesmerized by the books that were there.
"I'm not sure how long this will take." The alchemist confessed. "You guys don't have to be here while I read this."
"Nah, we might as well stay." Lance replied. "It's not like we have anything else to do."
"Besides, its probably best we stay together in case you do find something." Eugene added.
Varian shrugged. "If you say so. But I recommend you guys finding something to do so you don't get bored."
An idea came to Eugene's mind. He went to a shelf and pulled out and Atlas. "Rapunzel?" He called as he approached her.
Rapunzel turned to him. Eugene smiled as he saw her eyes brighten at the sight of the atlas.
"I was thinking you might like to read this while Varian looks over that book." Eugene suggested. "Back at the Snuggly Duckling, you mentioned meeting people from other countries, this atlas should have the maps of those countries, so you can get an idea of what they're like."
The blond smiled at him. "Thanks, Eugene!"
Then Rapunzel sat on the floor near the small table, she placed the atlas on the table and began to browse through it. She lost track of how long she was reading the atlas, she was enamored with all the maps of different countries.
When she finally looked away from the book, she noticed that Eugene and Lance were gone. She saw that Varian was still around, he was currently laying in the Sofa, still reading that Demanitus book.
"Where are Eugene and Lance?" She asked him.
"Huh?" Varian mumbled, looking away from the book. "Oh, they went to get snacks." Then he sat up, putting the book down and rubbed his eyes.
"No luck?" Rapunzel asked.
Varian shook his head. "Nothing that could help us with the scroll pieces. I don't know what I'm missing something."
"At breakfast, you mentioned you read phrases that didn't make sense to you." The blonde woman said. "Can I see them?"
The young alchemist nodded and gave her a piece of paper that had the translations. As Rapunzel looked over them, she thought of something.
"These look like poems." Rapunzel thought aloud.
"Poems?" Varian questioned.
"Or songs." She added. "The way they're written, it looks like their little songs."
"I don't think so." Varian said. "Demanitus was a poet or a musician. And besides, we don't know if these are accurate, sense we only have pieces, not the whole scroll."
Rapunzel shrugged." Maybe, but still, these would be nice songs with the right music."
Varian chuckled. "You wanna try and sing them?"
Rapunzel smirked. "Is that a challenge?"
"You know what? Sure." Varian said with grin. "If you can make a song out of these, then I'll consider what you said."
Rapunzel giggled then looked over one of the translations. She took a deep breath, then began to sing.
"Flower gleam and glow,
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse,
Bring back what once was mine."
Varian had to admit, she was doing a good job. The way she was singing, you could actually believe it was a song, like a lullaby.
But then he noticed her hair was glowing. It began to shine in a golden glow, and little lights began coursing through each strand of hair. Like magic
"Rapunzel!" He interrupted. Rapunzel stopped singing, and her hair lost it's glow.
"What?" She asked. "What happened?
"Your hair!" He exclaimed. "It was glowing!"
"It was?" She asked in shock, she moved her braid over her shoulder and looked over it.
"It was!" Varian confirmed. "It was glowing when you started...singing..." Rapunzel could see the gears moving in his mind. Then he smiled widely and stood. "That's what I was missing!"
Rapunzel was quiet as she watched him walk around, allowing him to explain.
"The entire time I was looking over the pieces, I kept thinking these phrases were incomplete because we only had two pieces of the scroll!" He explained. "But it turns out I didn't. When you started singing it, you made me realize how much sense those phrases actually made." Then he put his hands on her shoulders. "They're incantations!"
"Incantations?" The blonde asked. confused.
"Incantations for the Sundrop and Moonstone!" He nodded. "The one you were just singing was the for the Sundrop!"
"Okay...but what does that mean?" She asked. "Just make my hair glow?"
Varian shook his head. "No, it has to do more than that."
Rapunzel thought for a moment, but then an idea came to mind. She stood up. "We have to go to King Edmund, I think I know what this means."
Varian didn't bother questioning her, since it didn't take long for him to figure out what she meant. Then the pair ran out of the library and to the King's chambers.
"I still don't understand why we needed to get all of this." Eugene commented as he and Lanced walked back to the library with two trays of food.
"Because you know how hungry Varian gets during his research sessions." Lance replied. "And I want to make sure we all have enough food for a while we're stuck in that library for who knows how long."
Just as they reached the library, they see Rapunzel and Varian run out of library. The pushed past the two men, causing their food to splatter onto their shirts. They both dropped their now empty trays in annoyance.
"Looks like they're done." The prince groaned. Then he called. "What's going on?" Rapunzel kept running, but Varian stopped and looked back.
"We may have learned something major!" Varian called. "Meet us in the King's room!" Then he went back to following Rapunzel
Lance and Eugene looked at each other, but they obeyed, following Varian as he ran.
When they finally reached the King's room, they saw Rapunzel and Varian unbraiding her hair and carefully placing it onto the sickly king.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Eugene asked.
"If our theory is correct, helping your father." Varian replied. Once they were certain the hair was 'properly' on the king, Varian nodded and Rapunzel and she began to sing.
"Flower gleam and glow,
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse,
Bring back what once was mine."
Eugene and Lance just stood in confusion. Before they could question what they were doing, they noticed the princess' hair glow. Its magic began to flow through her hair as she continued to sing. Then they noticed Edmund glow a little bit himself, and soon he was glowing at the same intensity as Rapunzel's hair.
"Heal what has been hurt
Change the fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine."
When Rapunzel finished singing, the glow on both her hair and his father slowly faded. When the light faded, Rapunzel and Varian removed her hair off King Edmund.
As Eugene looked at his father, he noticed that his father did look healthy, like he did before the incident in the Moonstone Chamber.
Eugene hesitantly went to his father's side. "Dad?" He gently said.
Soon, the King's eyes began shuttering. and slowly, they opened.
"Son…?"
(Figured it was time to get this story moving to the big parts, and don't worry, more will be coming soon.)