Chapter 25
Duet

Queen Arianna laid in bed, nurses taking care of her wounds.
King Frederic had decided to visit her to make sure she was alright.
"Her wounds are still very bad, it will take months to heal at this rate..." The nurse said sadly.
Frederic looked down at Arianna's hand and gently grabbed it and frowned.

She looked at Frederic with assuring eyes, "I'll be fine, Fred... Don't worry yourself..." She held onto Frederic's hand, rubbing it with her thumb. "I... I know, Arianna." He looked off to the side.

"How is Rapunzel? Is she doing alright? She hasn't visited the infirmary in a while..." Arianna asked, carefully moving her head to face Frederic. "She... had a bit of an argument with me the other day and hasn't much talked to me since, she's upset about what's been happening lately. The blizzard, Cassandra's retirement..." Frederic explained. "I... see..." Arianna said.

"She will be right in no time, I'm sure... She can't stay mad forever." Arianna added, comforting her husband. "Yes..." Frederic couldn't even look at Arianna's eyes. "Yes, she can't stay mad forever, of course..." Frederic's voice wasn't very confident.

"How's the alchemy going, genius?" Cassandra leaned in the doorway. "Huh? Oh, uh, it's going." Varian looked up from his work. Cassandra rolled her eyes, Varian was a funny one; she thought.

"Well, don't blow up anything, we don't want to be kicked out of here, not yet." Cassandra walked into the room and sat down on Varian's bed to get a better look at the alchemy he was working with. "So, is alchemy a hobby for you?" She asked.

"It's more than a hobby, in my eyes." He said with a slight excitement to his voice, "I hope that one day, I can be like Demanitus and become a famous engineer." He explained.

"Demanitus, huh? Isn't he that guy you and Raps were talking about that made that machine in the chamber we went to?" She peered over his shoulder to look at the glowing flasks.

"Yeah, he's so amazing." Varian wiped sweat off his forehead and tilted a beaker filled with an unknown chemical into one of the flasks. "I heard that alchemy is very shunned upon, why is that?" Cassandra figured she keep asking him questions, since he seemed like he enjoyed answering them. "People think it's magic, and witchcraft. Y'know, devil's work. It's not, it's just science." Varian poured the chemical into the flask before tipping it back and wiping the extra off of the brim of the beaker. "Between you and me... and Eugene; Rapunzel used to have glowing hair that healed people when she would sing." She whispered.

"What? Really?" Varian looked at her surprised. "There has to be a scientific reason for that, it can't be magic if that's what you're insinuating." He glared grumpily. "I'm just saying." Cassandra shrugged and laid back on the bed behind Varian. "Eh." Varian mixed the potion.

Kiera and Catalina climbed up a tree outside of the Kingdom of Corona and sat to watch the people coming into it. "You see that wagon right there, Catalina? That's one we're totally going to have to steal from. Look at that snobby lady inside! I bet even her spare bloomers are worth thousands of gold pieces!" Kiera pointed at the wagon.

"I bet she does." Catalina smiled warmly at how passionate Kiera got when she set her mind to something, even if it was something that wasn't...very... legal.

"And look at this guy, with his twirly mustache; he looks like an idiot, but he's got a suitcase practically filled with money, I'm sure." Kiera pointed at another wagon. "Mhm." Catalina nodded and just enjoyed watching the different people ride by with their different wagons, rather than stealing from said different people and different wagons.

Catalina then thought of something.
"Hey, have you seen Varian recently? I'm getting kind of worried about him."

"...You mean the guy with the doofy expression on his face and the beaver teeth? Had a weird raccoon that liked pine-cones and food?" Kiera looked at her. "Yeah, him. I hope he's okay." Catalina nodded. Kiera looked back at the wagons, "Me too." She wiggled her feet, sitting on the branch with her legs hanging off of it...