Chapter 11
Kingdom Dance and Seeing the Light


(Author's Note)
Kingdom Dance is so cheerful and lovely, I love it~

Please, if you'd like, find a male cover (and female cover) of "See the Light" and play them with the fanfic!
You'll have to play Varian's part as a male cover (Rapunzel), then Cassandra's part with a female cover (Eugene).

~ VarianLeAlchimiste


Varian ran down the bridge, excitedly, occasionally looking at Cassandra with a look of disbelief that he was actually doing this. Cassandra walked with him and Fidella, until she noticed a wanted poster of herself, so she ripped it off and balled it up, but Fidella was giving her a look, so she stuck the ball of paper in Fidella's mouth with a smirk.

Fidella spit it out and it hit Cassandra's face, causing the two to get into a fight.

Ruddiger though, glared at them and made them stop.

(Even if Cassandra and Fidella were low key elbowing each other in the side afterwards.)

Varian looked around the place, there were so many people and so many decorations! His eyes practically gleamed and glowed at the beautiful sight of the festival.

He tried to walk, but was tripped up by his hair, and many other people were too, as it was all the way still at the bridge. Cassandra gathered it all up and looked around for a solution to fix it, and found some little girls braiding each others hair.

She whistled to get their attention, and held up Varian's long hair.
They all gasped at it and proceeded to braid it for Varian, jumping around kind of like they were playing jump rope with it. Eventually, Varian's hair was tied up into a long braid with a bunch of flowers tucked inside it. He gasped, "Thank you!" He twirled around, watching his hair.

Cassandra hid from some of the guards before noticing Varian and she slanted her eyes, looking at Varian with a love-struck facial expression. Fidella wiggled her eyebrows, and Cassandra pushed her away embarrassed. Varian and Cassandra then headed around the streets, Varian constantly picking things up, making comments about it and then putting it back quickly when he found something else to pick up and make a comment about.

Cassandra got in line to buy some from a stall, and Varian happily waited until he got distracted by a mosaic on a side of a building of the King, Queen and their baby, the Lost Prince.

The King was a black-haired man with a tough stature and stubble on his chin. The Queen was a orange-haired lady with a soft, warm smile, holding the baby. The Lost Prince was a blonde boy wrapped in a purple blanket, smiling adorably.

There were a few people at the place, it seemed to be like a memorial.
One little girl placed a flower on the stand and looked at her mother, "It's for the lost prince."

Varian stared at the mosaic even longer, very curious about it. He looked closer at it, specifically at the blonde baby boy. He nodded before remembering Cassandra and he wandered off, but got distracted by someone playing music.

Cassandra finally paid for the stuff she bought from the stall and paused upon seeing Varian dancing in the Kingdom's town square to the music. He held out his hand to a little girl, offering to dance with her and the mother let her and they began dancing and twirling around.

Then Varian moved on to a young man with a hat and pulled him into the town square too.

Soon, Varian was bringing everyone to the town square to dance with him and others. The music and the dancing got more intense, clapping and cheering, tapping of the shoes, they all danced around the town square. Cassandra crossed her arms and smiled at him.

Varian beckoned her, but Cassandra shook her head, telling him that she was fine, but Fidella used her back-end to push Cassandra forcefully into the town square. Soon getting dragged into the dance by the people. Once she got a small break, Cassandra bought a little Coronian flag from a boy selling things for the festival, and handed it to Varian.

Varian held it up to the sky and smiled at it, then looked at the pendants, realizing it had the same sun symbols as the flag. Then they all began dancing again.

It took a while for Varian and Cassandra to join each other in the Kingdom Dance, because they kept getting intercepted by other dancers. Once they took another break, Varian used his alchemy capsules to create splatters of purple and gold paint on the ground and the other people used chalk and paint to shape it into the Coronian sun, along with various other chalk art.

Varian and Cassandra hung out, hiding from the royal guards, as they ate cupcakes together, and listened to the people play the violin and dance, they decided this break was going to be longer, so they headed to the library and read books. Varian mainly read scientific books.

Then at nightfall, they began to dance again with all the other people.
And finally, after a long while, Varian and Cassandra twirled to each other and grabbed each other's hands, looking into each other's eyes with happiness filling them.

Someone shouted, "To the boats!" As it was time for the lanterns, so Varian and Cassandra headed there, since this is what Varian had been wishing for this whole time.

To see the lanterns.


Cassandra and Varian headed into the boat and was heading away from the pier. Cassandra looked back over her shoulder to look at Fidella on the pier.

"Hey Fidella!" She raised her brow, grabbed a bag off the boat and threw it.

The bag fell onto the pier and apples rolled out of it. Fidella seemed amazed, but questioned Cassandra with a odd look. Cassandra laughed, "What? I bought them."

Fidella proceeded to eat them...

Cassandra snickered, "Most of them."

Fidella looked up from eating apples with widened eyes...

Varian wasn't sure why they had gotten on the boat, "Where are we going?"
"Well, best day of your life. I figured you should have a decent seat." Cassandra gently set Ruddiger on the seat beside Varian and smiled warmly.

They soon made it to out in the water, the candle in the metal enclosure being the only thing lighting up the water, except for the stars that were overhead.

Varian thought the sight was beauitful, but then he sighed.

Cassandra frowned, "You okay?"
Varian's voice cracked, "I'm terrified."

"Why?" Cassandra asked him.

"I've been looking out the window for eighteen years. Dreaming about what it would feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything that I dreamed it would be?" He said softly, very worried. Cassandra patted his back, "It will be."

"And what if it is? What then?" Varian asked, confused, but curiously.

Cassandra laughed a bit at this, "Well that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream." She said softly, and looked at the sky, waiting for the lanterns.

They both stared for a while, quietly...


Meanwhile, in the castle.
Queen Ulla adjusted King Quirin's necklace, which had a gold version of the Coronian sun and blue jewels inside it. She looked up at Quirin with concerned, comforting eyes.

Quirin couldn't even look up, he looked down at the ground, so upset. He hated this time of year, and so did Ulla, but they loved it all at the same time. It reminded them of their lost prince, but... It reminded them of their lost prince. They were pleased to think of their lost prince, but they were upset that their lost prince was, well... Lost.

It upset them both, and Quirin couldn't bare it.
Eighteen years had passed since the lost prince had been taken.

It hurt.
So much.

Ulla frowned and gently put her hand on Quirin's cheek, trying to get him to look at her. Quirin did, but his eyes showed extreme sadness. Ulla rubbed her thumb on Quirin's cheek carefully and sadly smiled at him, attempting to get him to smile. And then she put her other hand on his cheek and stroked his face. Quirin finally forced a sad smile and grabbed Ulla's hand gently, petting it softly. And then they headed out to the balcony with their lantern.

The lantern stood on a pedestal, with a note inside.

Quirin and Ulla walked up to it and then released it into the air, signalling everyone to release their lanterns too. While Varian and Cassandra were waiting, Cassandra was pulling flowers out of Varian's hair and letting Varian gently setting them down into the water, watching them float.

All those days, watching from the windows,
All those years, outside looking in,

Varian suddenly saw the lantern floating upwards and he got up and quickly clinged to the boat, the opposite post of where the candle rested, rocking the boat and making Cassandra fall out of the boat. He saw it, and it was so beautiful.

All that time, never even knowing,
Just how blind I've been.

Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight,
Now I'm here, suddenly I see,
Standing here, it's, oh, so clear...

I'm where I'm meant to be...

And at last, I see the light!,
And it's like the fog has lifted.

And at last, I see the light!
And it's like the sky is new.

And it's warm and real and bright,
And the world has somehow shifted.

All at once, everything looks different.
Now that I see you.

Varian slowly looked at Cassandra and noticed that she had two lanterns for her and him. Varian got excited, carefully (but quickly) stepped away from where he was clinging at, and then sat down. "I've, I've got something for you too." He pulled out the satchel from his hair.

"I...should have given it to you before, but I was scared..."
He said softly. "The thing is... I'm not really scared anymore, do you know what I mean?"

Cassandra pushed the satchel down gently, "I'm starting to..."

Varian grabbed his lantern and Cassandra held her lantern.
Then they slowly let them go into the air with the other lanterns.

All those days, chasing down a daydream,
All those years, living in a blur,
All that time, never truly seeing,
Things the way they were.

Now he's here, shining in the starlight,

Cassandra looked at Varian with loving eyes, a soft smile on her face.
Varian was leaning over the boat, trying to touch the otherlanterns.

Now he's here, suddenly I know
If he's here, it's crystal clear

I'm where I'm meant to go.

Cassandra grabbed Varian's hand, which startled him at first but a warm blush spread across his face and he turned to her and they both started to sing.

"And at last, I see the light!"
"And it's like the fog has lifted."

"And at last, I see the light,
"And it's like the sky is new!"

"And it's warm and real and bright,"
"And the world has somehow shifted."

"All at once, everything is different."
"Now that I see you."

Cassandra and Varian slowly leaned towards each other, which caused Ruddiger to cover his eyes... But he peeked through his claws anyway.

"Now that I see you~"

Cassandra gently pushed a bit of hair that was in Varian's face, out and they both began to lean in closer, and closer, and closer and...

Cassandra paused, and glanced beside Varian, into the distance.
...The Stabbington Sisters were waiting for them at the nearby grounds with candles.

The sisters then walked off ominously.

Varian frowned, "Is everything okay?"

Cassandra shook her head, "Huh? Oh yes. Uh, yes of course. I just...I'm sorry, everything is fine." She looked down and gently grabbed her satchel. The boat reached the grounds nearby and Cassandra began to get out of the boat. "There's just something I have to take care of."

"Okay." Varian smiled.

"I'll be right back." Cassandra assured him and then ran off.

Ruddiger didn't look very sure that Cassandra was up to good.
"It's all right, Ruddiger." Varian pet Ruddiger softly...

"She'll come back..." He said quietly.