Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. This chapter will showcase Alcina giving her children dancing lessons, and Bela's least favorite thing: Singing. Things darken further along in the chapter when Bela uncovers Cassandra's secret, how will Cassandra react to her older sister upon this discovery? Thanks as always for reading.

The sound of the piano could be heard playing throughout the castle. Alcina's first true love: the musical arts. Never did she miss an opportunity to play, and never did she miss a chance to get her daughters involved.

Cassandra always ducking and dodging her mother whenever a music lesson was imminent, Daniela and Bela were always right by their mother's side. On this particular day, Bela was seated next to her and practicing. Scolding herself whenever she would make an error and have to do it over again.

"Let's take a little break," Alcina finally said.

Bela dropped her fingers from the keys, glaring at the musical sheet in front of her.

"Do not do that, my sweet, it takes time and practice to master such a challenging instrument."

"I know, Mother…"

Alcina started to stroke her hair, observing dark circles around her child's eyes. Heavy bags indicating she was not getting much sleep.

"If you are not feeling well, you may go and rest."

"I am fine. It's just I have been so worried about Daniela's damn cat."

"Really?" Alcina said, fighting back a smirk.

"Yes, it astounds me to see the thing still alive. I am so afraid Cassandra is going to try to kill it when we all fall asleep. Any small creek, shift of a body, any noise at all and I am wide awake. Just last night I was awoken by it hopping on my bed and curling up by my legs."

"Well, if it gets that bad you know you are always welcome to share my bed," Alcina said, smirking now.

"If I do that, I will never get a wink of sleep," Bela teased, making Alcina laugh. "Did you also know that Daniela has created a schedule for that cat. She has been working on it for weeks. Every hour the cat is meant to be in certain parts of the castle hunting rats or mice. Then she has naptime. Eats."

"I suppose it keeps Daniela's mind occupied," Alcina said. "She does tend to need a lot of stimulation. Well, all of you do actually…"

"I think it helps her to keep track of it. Just in case if the thing disappears, she can track it down and figure out where she was last."

"Oh, Daniela," Alcina shook her head, reaching out and flipping through the music book to pick out a song for herself.

"What song are you going to play?"

"I think something a bit fast paced to wake us up." Alcina started to play the song. Indeed it was lively. Giving Bela the sudden urge to jump up and dance about the room. "Close your eyes, my darling, and tell me what you are seeing right now."

Bela did as she was told, giggling as she imagined herself outside and riding a horse.

"I am on a horse and galloping through a meadow. There is a fox ahead and I am chasing it."

"What is the weather like?"

"Warm, but there is a breeze. Mmm, it is calm and cool against my face."

"Any clouds?"

"None."

"Are you still chasing the fox?"

"Yes, but he is getting away!"

"Which direction?"

"The forest. Left. I am giving chase, but it is difficult."

"Why?"

"The forest is congested with trees. It is too treacherous to continue riding the horse through it."

"What will you do, then?" Alcina continued to play, the music picking up speed just like the fox.

"Bide my time. He will grow exhausted from all the running and once he does, I will take him down."

Alcina stopped playing.

"You may open your eyes, and step onto the stage for me."

"The stage?"

"That is what I said. Go on."

Bela did not like where this was going, slowly getting up from the bench and taking her place on it.

"I want to hear you sing."

"No," Bela said quickly. "I-I mean, I do not have the voice like you. I would have the whole castle and village denizens running away."

"Nonsense," Alcina said, already flipping through the book to pick out at a song. "Rise and overcome."

Bela had no choice, noticing movement on the top floor where both Cassandra and Daniela had appeared to watch. Along with maids who had begun to gather. They had clearly heard Alcina playing.

"I wonder if Lady Dimitrescu will sing. Her voice is like a sirens." Bela had overheard a maid comment. The young woman was not wrong. Mother's voice was beautiful. No matter where, the moment she started to sing, all gathered around to listen in, which is exactly what Alcina loved the most. A grand audience. All eyes focused on she. Relishing; basking in the acclaim.

Bela on the other hand…

Alcina started to play the song and redo it, for Bela missed her moment to begin. She could feel the heat beating at her face and becoming worse at the sound of Cassandra sniggering from above.

"Quiet, Cass!" Daniela hissed.

"Why don't you go down and sing, then," she said.

"Why don't you!?" Daniela shot back.

"Hey, Daniela, where's your cat?"

That got Daniela running out of the room.

Bela could have killed both of them in that moment, but instead she kept her eyes on her mother, who was looking straight at her with a little smile and then casting her attention back to the page.

Taking in a deep breath, Bela started to sing softly until her mother spoke up.

"Louder!"

'Why the hell is this happening to me?' she thought, singing louder this time and beginning to wonder if her mother was extending the song. 'I feel like I have been up here for years!'

Finally the nightmare came to a close when Alcina finished the song and clapped including the maids who had been listening in.

"We will make a singer of you yet," Alcina said, rising off the bench and offering out her hand for Bela to take and help off the stage.

"I would not go that far, Mother," Bela said, standing up on her tiptoes as her mother placed a kiss to her cheek. "But thank you."

"Now to the next lesson this afternoon."

"What lesson is that, Mother?"

"Dancing."

{-}

Bela could not help but look forward to this dancing lesson, though she worried her mother would turn around and also turn into another singing lesson. She would have to start hiding like Cassandra now.

"What are you grinning about?" Cassandra snapped.

Bela did not answer, making Cassandra growl at her.

The four had just finished lunch and were led back to the Opera Hall by their mother, or rather for Cassandra it was a death march, Alcina had ordered Anya to be seated at the piano to play the song. While other maidens were moving furniture out of the way to give the girls space to dance.

Both Daniela and Cassandra were seated on the stage. Cassandra continuing to pout versus Daniela who was bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Mother!" Daniela said. "Are we to put on a play?"

"No not today, my darling," Alcina said.

"A singing lesson, then?" Daniela cleared her throat and started to sing.

"She already told us it is a dancing lesson, Dani," Bela said.

"Oh…" she lowered her eyes, disappointed to hear that.

"You will have a singing lesson soon, dearest," Alcina reassured her. "And I must say that was exceptional what you just sang there."

Daniela beamed proudly.

"Ugh!" Cassandra groaned, laying back on the stage.

"May I dance first?" Daniela asked.

"Of course," Alcina smiled, snapping her fingers at Anya for her to begin. "We will start off slow. Once I have gaged your skill level, I will change the music to something faster."

Bela gliding on the stage to get out of the way, she watched their mother take Daniela through a slow waltz.

"Eyes up, dearest," Alcina said.

"Sorry, Mother," Daniela said, fighting the urge to glance down with great difficulty. It took some time, but soon Daniela was staring straight at her mother without wearing a look of anxiety. She was smiling; giggling when her mother spun her around and lifted her in the air for a moment before lowering her back down.

"Not bad at all, Daniela. A little more practice and you will be ready for a faster paced song."

Daniela's shoulders dropped a little at that, but at the feel of her mother touching her cheek, did her spirits lift again.

"Now then." Alcina narrowed her eyes at Cassandra, who had closed her eyes and was breathing heavily. Had she really just fallen asleep?! "Cassandra!" she clapped her hands.

The brunette released another groan, slowly rising into a sitting position.

"Come, it is your turn."

Cassandra continued to make her throaty vocalizations at her mother. Chuffing at her. Hoping this tactic would somehow give her mother a change of heart and allow her to go free.

Sorry Cassandra…

"Enough of that!" Alcina snapped. "You know how to speak, Cassandra, now you will practice, or else I shall take away that workshop of yours. No more pets. No more of your fun."

"What?!" Cassandra said. "But. But Mother!"

Alcina pointed to the spot next to her.

Cassandra growled, trudging over bitterly.

"This should be interesting," Bela muttered.

Daniela giggled, sitting on the stage and swinging her legs back and forth.

"Do you think she will do well?"

"Cassandra may surprise us…"

Anya started to play the music again. Daniela and Bela enraptured by them. The two completely in sync. Not once did Cassandra falter. In fact, she was the one leading their mother. Even Alcina herself was left speechless. When did Cassandra learn to dance like this?

"Can we speed up the music? This is too boring."

"Anya turn to page 12. That song should be more than enough of a challenge."

"Yes, my lady."

"A challenge? We will see, Mother," Cassandra said, a daring look forming in her eyes.

"Amazing!" Daniela was on her feet, nearly falling off the stage if Bela hadn't pulled her back.

Mother and Daughter were twirling about the room. Nearly crashing into the furniture in their battle to out dance the other.

"This is not a challenge, Mother!" Cassandra was giggling wildly, her hood falling off her head; her hair whipping about as her mother kept twirling her around.

Finally the song came to an end. The two stopped in the center of the room, but neither one had let go of the other. Cassandra staring up at her mother with a smile; Alcina looking down at Cassandra with affection. The child never ceased to surprise her. Daniela and Bela predictable, but not Cassandra.

It was then did Cassandra pull away and bow her head.

Alcina answered with a curtsy.

"Top that," Cassandra murmured to Bela, who was being motioned over by their mother.

Not one to normally stoop to Cassandra's level; Bela could not help but retaliate this time.

"Play the song again," Bela ordered Anya.

"Are you sure about that?" Alcina said.

"Do you doubt my skills poorly lack compared to Cassandra's?" Bela said.

"I never suggested anything of the kind," Alcina replied smoothly, taking Bela firmly in her arms. "Begin!"

{-}

Bela steered clear of the Opera Hall once the dance lesson had been finished. It had not gone as smoothly as she had hoped, but at least she was on the same level with Cassandra when it came to dancing.

That being said, Bela decided to abandon the desk work for now and venture down to the cellar. She had the names of the maidens who were to be drained in the next few days'. Informing her mother she would take responsibility for shuffling some of the maidens about. The cell letters and names of the maidens written down, Bela also holding in hand were collars. They were all decorated in three distinct colors. Black, red and white.

The red stood for three more months of harvesting; white a month and black meant a few days.

"Cassandra's pet will be wearing white soon. Hmph, the sooner they are gone the better. Enough of Cassandra's stupid games," Bela sighed at the blindness of her mother at times. "Can she not see allowing Cassandra all this power will cause it to go straight to her head? She is not mature enough to handle it. Oh, Mother. Sometimes I worry about your decisions…"

Bela fell silent once she neared the first cell. The process slow at first, but soon Bela had developed a rhythm and the maidens were arranged in their new holdings. They were all so weak and frail none put up much of a fight. Allowing Bela to easily remove the old collar and place the new metal ones on. Pleased with herself and her progress, she came to a halt near Cassandra's workshop.

She could not stop herself from inspecting the room. Snooping through pieces of paper the unorganized fool had left on the tables.

"W-water."

Bela turned at the sound of a moan from the opposite side of the room.

'How could I have not seen that cage there?' she thought, walking over and observing a blonde haired maiden chained inside. She was bound with metal cuffs around her wrists. Her eyes unfocused and seeming to be staring straight through Bela and at something behind her. 'What the hell has that imbecile been doing?' Bela knelt down and inspected the girl closer. 'Those marks on her arms are from needles.'

She rose to her feet and eyed about the room much more carefully this time. Going through old drawers and shelves when she stepped on a loose brick. She reached down and removed it to find four syringes Cassandra had smuggled underneath it. Bela picked them up and inspected them closely to see a thick clear liquid substance inside.

"What is this?"

"What do you think you are doing?!"

Bela froze for a moment at Cassandra's voice, slowly turning without even attempting to hide what she had discovered.

"Playing with things you should not be, I see," Bela said, waiting for Cassandra's response. Sensing her sister was thinking about whether or not the right choice here was to fight her, or simply let things slide.

"So, you have found my little pet and her medicine."

"'Medicine?' What do you mean by that?"

Cassandra leaned against the doorway, inspecting her nails.

"That is not your concern. What your concern at the prior moment is to label the maidens, yes? Though you can never resist sticking your fat nose into everyone else's business."

"I only do that when I sense something is wrong," Bela said, slamming the needles down on the table. "And what you are doing is driving my senses into a screaming frenzy."

"So what? You going to run to Mother and rat on me? Tell her I have simply been torturing maidens with a new method I learned in a book?" Cassandra sneered. "You have nothing, Bela. Mother will continue to grow tired of your constant tattling until she no longer believes a word you say! The little gnat who cried—" Cassandra never finished her sentence, she was sent skidding backwards and hit the bars of a cell, staring at Bela in disbelief.

Her sister had actually punched her! And she was far from finished. Breathing heavily as her rage continued to boil through her veins, like a vicious acid, Cassandra could only grin.

"Good. I have been meaning to finish what we started that morning. And what makes this all the better is no Mother or annoying little baby brat to intervene."

"Do not call her that!" Bela shrieked, soaring straight at Cassandra who did not even dodge. She caught Bela's outstretched arms and used all her strength to slam her directly into the same bars. "Nice try!" Bela had materialized in a swarm of bugs, allowing her to go straight through the bars.

"Coward!" Cassandra snarled. "Fight me without the use of the bugs! Let us see who is physically stronger! Unless poor Bela is so weak she cannot fight without them." She giggled. "Go ahead and use the handicap."

"You are going to regret that," Bela hissed, appearing out of the swarm of bugs.

"I do not think so, in fact, I cannot wait!"

The two prowling around one another. Sizing each other up and determining where the weakest point to strike was located, the two then charged at one another. Bela slamming into Cassandra's ribs with her shoulder, while Cassandra responded by headbutting Bela directly in the face.

An explosion of pain erupted through Bela's nose. Causing her eyes to water and blind her for a second. A costly second that Cassandra was not about to let go to waste. Over and over she punched at her sister's body, which Bela could do nothing more than use her arms to protect herself.

'Damn! At this rate.' Bela then coughed out as Cassandra went low and sucker punched her on the chin. Following up by slamming her knee directly into her stomach. Bela went down to the floor, wrapping an arm around her midsection as a similar pain wracked her body. 'I cannot lose to her!' she thought, glimpsing the smug grin on Cassandra's face. 'I won't!'

"Oh, need a time out?" Cassandra sniggered, raising her foot and kicking Bela in the back. "Is this really all you have to show?! What a pathetic shell you are! Mother's beloved Bela reduced to a feeble mortal." Her yellow eyes scanned the faces of the maidens in the cells. All watching the fight in open mouth shock. "I bet these blood bags would put up more of a challenge than you!" Cassandra raised her heel and stomped down on Bela's leg.

She cried out in pain, gritting her teeth to fight back more bursts of agony.

"Hell I bet baby brat would be more fun."

"Shut up," Bela gasped. "You have no right to treat her like garbage all the time! She does not deserve it. She loves you and looks up to you, but all you do is put her down. Tell her she is worthless. Call her names." Bela pushed herself up on shaking legs, stumbling slightly. "If ever I hear you bad mouth her again, I will rip out your twisted tongue!"

Cassandra stuck out her tongue at Bela, laughing.

"Come get it, then."

"Why you!"

Once again they were swinging their fists at one another, Bela this time making ground and hitting Cassandra in the face. She stumbled back and tripped over a metal bucket. The contents of blood and water spilling all over her, making her growl out in rage.

"You son of a-"

Bela leaped on her sister, straddling her by the waist and started to claw at her face.

"Get. Off. Me!" Cassandra grunted, wiggling frantically to remove Bela. When she got the idea to wrap her legs around her sister. "My turn!" Yelling out as she used all her strength to flip them, Cassandra was now straddling Bela and wielding a broken piece of wood that had a very sharp point.

"Cassandra!" Bela catching her sister's wrists, held her off with trembling arms as Cassandra kept lowering the stake closer and closer to her eye. Now Bela was growing frightened. The look in Cassandra's eyes had changed. No longer was this a sparring match, but a death match. Her eyes were filled with the want to draw blood. A lust to see her prey die wreathing in agony. She was not going to stop until Bela drew her last breath. "Cassandra!"

It all happened in a flash. One moment Cassandra was on top of her and the next she was pinned to the wall, whimpering. Their mother's form slowly taking shape in Bela's eyes.

"What is the meaning of this?" Alcina said slowly. The intensity of her voice and stare causing even Bela to shrink away. "SPEAK!" her voice caused the corridor to creak and groan.

"M-Mother…" Bela could hear Cassandra whimper again. The hungry lioness gone and in its place was a scared cub.

"Mother release her!" Bela shouted, closing her mouth when her mother glanced back at her with glowing orange eyes.

"Were you two trying to kill one another? What sort of game are you playing?"

"Mother… please."

Alcina refocused her attention on Cassandra and finally relinquished her hold on her. The brunette dropped down on her bottom, coughing and rubbing at her throat.

Neither sister dared move or speak. Watching as their mother bent down and picked up the stake Cassandra had been holding. A silence fell between the three, Bela and Cassandra never once taking their eyes off her. Wondering what she was going to do next, or say for that matter.

"You two…" They both jumped as she started to speak. "You two along with Daniela are the most important things in this world to me. And to think you do not even care about one another. You would go so far as to kill each other. It makes me reflect on myself and ask, what kind of mother am I? Have I failed in raising you?" she tossed the stake away. Never once looking back at them as she started back down the corridor.

The two watched her go. Listening to her heels 'click-clacking' farther and farther away. Her words hitting a note between them as they followed her. Bela all too familiar with the feeling of shame, she wondered what was going through Cassandra's mind. Clearly she was feeling some form of it, too, and even possibly guilt. The way she was walking. Her shoulders slumped. Her head hung low. Arms limply swinging by her sides. For the first time in a long time, Cassandra was reminded of what fear felt like.

Never again would Bela do what she did. A realization she had never been conscious of. They were their mother's pride and joy. And in their failings, it was their mother who took the hit. She may as well have been punching and clawing Mother.

'I have to do better, and it is my responsibility to guide them, too. After all, Mother did say I acted like a mother to them.' Bela looked straight at Cassandra and boldly took her hand.

Cassandra met her gaze with a glimmer of tears in her eyes. Something Bela had not been prepared to see. She did not speak a word, nor wrap her digits around her sister's hand. She stayed quiet and let Bela guide her along back upstairs…