Feeling a bit dazed from the realization, Magolor redrew the map, making absolutely sure it was accurate this time. He checked each door three, four, five times. Apparently, figuring out what exactly the problem is is a huge part of the solution. As for the rest… no idea. I like him, but it's never going to work because Sectonia has been dead for only a day and a half, and I have absolutely no idea how any of this works. However, all of my other Taranza-related problems have been solved after I ignored them for over a year, so if I just do that, it will fix itself. Hopefully. Feelings like this are strange and I don't like dealing with them.

Regardless, I still need to get that mirror. There's no telling what might happen if Taranza starts looking into it as well. I should discreetly ask him about it in a way that makes it look like I don't know anything. …Yeah, that'll never work in a million years. I need help with this one. Magolor checked the time on the cell phone he remembered to bring back into the castle. 10:46 pm. Taranza liked to go to bed about fifteen minutes from now, and would usually read in bed for about an hour before falling asleep. How did I not realize it sooner? I remembered all that even though I had no reason to believe it would ever help me.

Magolor picked some books off a shelf at random, and skimmed through them to pass time in case Taranza came in to check on him. He's really considerate like that. … Of course, the doing nothing for an hour strategy means I will accidentally end up yearning in silence. I'd really like to be able to stop doing that. Man, I even sound like a moron in my own mind. At 10: 58, right before Taranza was going to bed, he popped into the library.

"Hey, did you end up reading any of those books I recommended?"

"Oh, yes, I liked them quite a bit. You have good taste."

"All of them? How did you pull that off?"

"I guess I read pretty quickly, ha ha." Even though I haven't said anything stupid yet, I still feel like an idiot.

"So what are you reading now-oh. Well then. I will, ah, pretend I didn't see that, er, goodnight!" Taranza hurried out of the room. Is this a weird book? I should have probably looked at it before I picked it off the-yep, that's weird. Of course. Never grab books from the dustiest section of the library without looking at them first. Now he thinks I like this kind of thing.

Once it was safely past midnight, Magolor went to the other side of the room the Lor was outside of and opened the door. This was where Taranza slept, among other things. Don't get distracted. I need to find the mirror. I am not going to spend any more than the necessary amount of time thinking about all the flowers, or the music box and the crate of discs labelled "lullabies'', or how soothing the one that's playing is, or maybe stealing a few of these? No! I'm not going to steal from people while they're asleep!

I really have changed, haven't I. That's a nice bit of validation from myself.

Magolor continued searching. He made sure to make no noise. The only place the mirror could be is in the locked door next to the bed. This sucks. Taranza's never leaving the general area, so any attempt to break the door down is gonna be heard by him. The only way for me to break down this door without getting caught is if he's not in the castle. I could try and do something now, but I don't know how light of a sleeper he is, and I really don't want to disturb him when he looks so peaceful, and I've been looking at him for too long. Gotta come up with a plan for tomorrow, and fast.

He wrote up a few plans for what might work, settled on one, and the sun was coming up soon. Taranza would be awake any minute now. Maybe I should make him breakfast? That'd be a nice thing to do, wouldn't it? Magolor went to the kitchen and cracked some eggs into a pan. He was finished with everything before Taranza came into the kitchen. It was about 6:30 by now. Magolor carried about half of what he'd made back to where Taranza still lay asleep. He set the tray on the empty nightstand that, he presumed, used to belong to Sectonia.

"Taranza, wake up." No response. How do you wake someone up? Magolor tried placing one hand on the pillow Taranza was sleeping on, and then shaking it slightly. Good job, me. Now I'm feeling the sleep deprivation. Taranza didn't respond. "How comfy does this thing need to be to let you sleep through that?" Maybe it's just from a lack of being woken up by explosions or black holes or being on fire for no particular reason. I've never asked, but I imagine that would help with sleeping more. Maybe I should be shaking him instead of the pillow? I guess that wouldn't bother him as much as it would me. Magolor reached down and gently shook Taranza.

He shifted, then blinked. "Magolor? Why are you in here?"

"I made breakfast, but you were still asleep, so I'm waking you up! The tray's right here." Magolor picked the tray back up and held it in front of Taranza.

Taranza looked at the clock. "It's 6:34. Could you not have waited for me to get the recommended eight hours of sleep?"

Magolor cocked his head sideways, puzzled. "Recommended by who?"

"Oh, it's something you're usually told when you, uh…"

"Live in a society that isn't run by creatures with 'doom' in their name?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"Well, I didn't know about any of that, but since you're up now, you might as well eat while it's hot."

Taranza obliged. "Wow, this is really good! Where'd you learn how to cook?"

"A magician never reveals their secrets." Magolor winked, then shifted his expression to something more reproachful. "I was thinking about it, and I wanted to ask you something."

"Go right ahead."

"Are you really going to stay here? I can't help but feel like it's just going to hurt you."

"No, I will not be staying here. I was actually going to ask if you could arrange for me living down in Dream Land within a few days."

Well, I suppose this makes things easier. "Oh. Then I'm glad I brought it up. Do you mind if I ask why? It sounds like there's a reason beyond the trauma thing."

Taranza brushed his hair out of his eyes. "The remaining citizens of Floralia are planning a coup d'etat because that's technically encouraged if a monarch commits a crime. They will be storming the castle with the intention of killing me on Wednesday."

"Oh no. I'm… very sorry to hear that. I know I haven't had any luck, but have you come across anything that might be responsible for Sectonia? Because if possible, I'd like to prevent it from ever happening again. Maybe there were hints of it before I showed up? I really don't want to consider the possibility that I somehow did it." That sounds sufficiently selfish to be in character, I think.

"I don't want to consider it either, but if it doesn't relate to you, I don't have the faintest idea what could've happened. She was completely normal until the day after you showed up. She was normal in the morning, I gave her that big mirror as a present, she was so happy, and then she started getting snappy after I got back from the Lor. That's all I have."

The tell… so he can see it too, even if he doesn't realize it. "All right. Well, I'll be getting you out of here soon, so you should probably pack up your things." Magolor's look of pained happiness was accurate to both the conversation and his emotional state, but not in the same way.

The rest of the day went by without incident. Taranza packed, Magolor helped when necessary, very nearly falling asleep in the middle of packing, which would likely have just been cold and uncomfortable after he told Taranza to not touch him. Taranza caught him nodding off and told him to go back to the Lor, where he proceeded to fall asleep until five in the morning the next day. He went back into the castle and saw everything finished that Taranza wanted done, but the door with the mirror behind it was still locked. Did that mean he didn't want it? That would make sense.

A phone call from Meta Knight. At this hour. Magolor groaned, exasperated, then picked up the phone. "Hello! Magolor S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G! How may I help you?"

"Did you get the mirror."

"All business as usual, eh Meta Knight? No, I didn't get the mirror. I'm working on it though. If I have it right, that whole thing should be taken care of by Wednesday. Hopefully. If not, it may cause more irreparable damage.

"What did it even do?"

"Next time the King freaks out over a bug, ask him why. Goodbye!" Magolor hung up, then picked the phone up again. "Hey Meta, it's me again. Speaking of the King, is he awake yet?"

"Why?"

"I need to ask him about an important issue regarding sovereigns and castles."

"He's still asleep. Why not ask me instead?"

"Oh, ok. Well, here goes. How do you get over the regret of your past sins?"

"What?"

"Don't worry, you wouldn't know the answer to the real question either." Magolor hung up again. Serves you right for calling me at five in the morning, asshat. He tried calling Dedede anyway.

"Magolor, why are you up at this hour?"

"Fell asleep reeeeally early. Anyway, you remember Taranza, right?"

"How could I forget him?"

"Great! About him, he will be moving into your home today. Please prepare accordingly." Magolor hung up again, sent Meta Knight a text message that said "fucker" and then played video games until 7:45, when he got up to make Taranza breakfast again.

After a bit of sentimentality over leaving Floralia, the two of them loaded all the packed boxes into the Starcutter, and began their descent. Magolor had made sure that none of the boxes contained the dimension mirror, which was fine. He could just go back later. Taranza seemed to be really enjoying the scenery as they descended, which helped with the whole running away from where he's lived since he was born thing. The ship landed, and Magolor picked up a box and carried it through the door, where Meta Knight was waiting for him. Taranza followed soon after, with two boxes.

"Magolor. Have you found it?"

"Yes, I have. We'll discuss this more later, but for right now Taranza's moving all his stuff. We'd like some help with all this." Magolor looked to the castle and saw a room near the garden, with things rapidly being thrown out the window, presumably in an effort to have Taranza move into that room. Everything was going well.

Moving boxes was time consuming, but easy. With magic, carrying things that are large or heavy looked easy. While they carried boxes, Taranza asked Magolor a question. "What were you looking for?"

"Oh, I have no idea. I hope I can figure it out soon, though, because he seemed pretty serious about it." They arrived at the castle.

Bandee was standing in the main hall, waiting for them. "The room's over there." They pointed to a hallway.

As Magolor and Taranza traveled down it, King Dedede and Kirby burst out of a room, with the former breathing heavily. "Right in here." They all went in, put down the boxes they had, and Magolor and Taranza were about to leave to get more when King Dedede stopped them. "You don't need to go back. The waddle dees will take care of the rest for you."

Magolor grinned. "Yes, Taranza should get some rest. But the boxes are on the Lor Starcutter, so I should go back to at least make sure that no one takes anything they shouldn't."

"So you really weren't kidding about this?"

"Not at all! What, did you think I was?"

Dedede stared at Magolor in silence for a few seconds. "No. That's why I waited until after he got out of the ship to start throwing things out the window."

Magolor giggled a little bit, and then left to supervise the move.

-... . -. .. -. -. .. -. -. / .- -. . .-

Taranza lay alone in his room. The sun had set, and he should be going to sleep soon. Magolor had helped get the music box set up early, among other things, so there would be no problems there. Speaking of Magolor, was he okay? Meta Knight seemed to be after something earlier. He looked out the window at the Lor Starcutter, and saw Magolor leaving to go… somewhere. He seemed a bit worried. That's not good. He eventually lost sight of Magolor, and the worry that came over him was too strong to shake off. Taranza opened the window and left to try and follow him. He started by approaching the Lor. Maybe she would know where he was going?

"Are you looking for Magolor?" The ship's voice was impossible to identify. If there was any tone, it was too subtle to notice.

"Yes, I am. Do you know where he went?"

"I do. But as it is none of your concern, I must refrain from telling you."

"But it does concern me! Meta Knight was looking for something from Sectonia's castle, and Magolor is supposed to have it but almost certainly does not! I need to make sure he is okay."

"He will be fine. I am sure of it."

"Well I am not, and I will not leave you alone until I am!"

"...Very well. I can tell you do not intend any harm to Magolor, so I will say this much. He is currently meeting with Meta Knight to discuss an item that was found to be stolen recently. Magolor believes you should be kept away from the investigation into this item, as finding out the truth will be unpleasant for you. If you wish to know regardless, I will help you. If not, then go home."

"I want to know."

"...Then welcome aboard." The door opened, and Taranza entered. "Go down that ladder to your left. As long as you make no noise, you will be unnoticed until the time comes. Remain still."

Taranza waited in front of the two doors that were now boarded up at the bottom of the ship. The sign between them read "RELOCATED". After several minutes, Magolor and Meta Knight entered the ship. Magolor was casual, attempting to start up a conversation in that voice he had when he was purposefully giving someone a hard time. Meta Knight wasn't having any of it. The ship started moving, and although Taranza couldn't see outside at all, he had a pretty good idea where they were going.