Cygnus was awaken from her slumber by two of the palace maids, opening the bedroom curtains. The morning rays entered the windows and stung her eyes. Cygnus sat up and saw Alice still asleep, laying in midair, in the middle of the room, unknown to the maids. Her maids helped her change her clothes and brushed her hair. The maids left the room after finishing their task.

"Psst. Alice." Cygnus tried to wake Alice up by calling her name.

She reached out for Alice, with the intention of shaking her awake. Cygnus' hand passed through Alice's floating spirit. Cygnus pouted in defeat. She decided to take a look at the mirror to check her attire before heading out for breakfast. As she saw her reflection in the mirror, she let out a short squeal before quickly covering her mouth. This woke up Alice.

"What? What happened!?" Alice panicked.

Cygnus pointed to her reflection in the mirror. Her reflection was black and white, and was distorted. It looked like a television image, having bad reception. It was only her reflection that was distorted. The reflection of her bedroom was normal.

"Oh...That is a side effect of using the Staff of Hope. Your reflection will show the state of your mind," Alice explained.

"Eh? State of mind?" Cygnus stared at the mirror. Her state of mind was indeed similar to her reflection. She was confused and disturbed by the incident the night before. She was feeling down, as if she had lost her colours.

"What should I do? What if someone sees my reflection?" Cygnus questioned herself.

"It's alright. Only people who have touched the Staff of Hope can see it."

Cygnus headed downstairs to a different dining hall, much smaller than the one being used, the night before, for breakfast. Other than some maids who were serving her, she was alone at the table. Usually she would dine together with Neinheart and the Commanders, who lived together with her, in the palace. Cygnus asked a maid what's the reason.

"There was an incident nearby. Most of them went out to investigate," the maid replied.

"Most of them?"

"Irena is still asleep..."

"Oh..."

Cygnus knew it was probably about what happened the night before.

Later at night...

Cygnus paced on her bedroom balcony, in deep thought.

"I can sense it's somewhere in the west. Most likely, Perion," Alice said.

"But how can I get there in secret?" Cygnus asked.

"You're the Empress. Don't you have some sort of secret transportation?"

"..."

Cygnus suddenly jumped off the balcony. She completed her transformation in midair before landing on the ground. She took long strides through the forest. Her legs already knew their destination before her mind had figured out the solution. She got on a secret pathway of bricks and continued running on it. At the end of the path, was her garden. Shinsoo was there, staring straight Cygnus, as if she already knew Cygnus was coming.

"Where are you going?.." Alice caught up to Cygnus, only to be stunned by the presence of the majestic bird. She hid behind Cygnus.

"Urm...I..." Cygnus tried to find the right words to say to Shinsoo.

"I saw you fighting yesterday," Shinsoo said.

"Eh? So...you think...it's..."

"It's good practice for you."

"Err...but..."

"Can't always rely on others to protect you."

"K-kali-dahs..."

"Vicious predators from the Land of Oz?"

"Ah...appear...any-where..."

"That is indeed too dangerous to be left alone.

"Erm...dan-ger..."

"You should be able to defend yourself. If anything bad happens I will intervene."

"...help...travel..."

"I am always ready to serve my Empress. Hop on." Shinsoo crouched down and gestured Cygnus to climb on to her back.

Cygnus climbed on to the holy beast of Ereve.

"Where to?" Shinsoo asked.

"P-p-perion."

Cygnus held tight as Shinsoo shot straight into the clouds with just one flap of her wings. Cygnus dug into Shinsoo's large feathers; seeking the warmth of beast, as the cold night air stung her pale skin. Cygnus looked back to see Alice clinging onto her waist even though she could not feel her touch. A few minutes later, Shinsoo dived down from the clouds, landing on one of the rocky hills of Perion. Cygnus slid off Shinsoo's back. Her legs wobble as she took small steps to peer down the cliff. At first glance, it appeared to be a large blue creature loitering in the canyons below. Cygnus squinted her eyes and noticed the creature had horns.

"That's it!" Alice said, pointing to the creature. "Now, cast the stone barrier like how I thought you."

Cygnus pointed her staff to the ground just in front of her. A small dark glowing dome shape appeared. The bubble slowly grew larger and larger until it swallowed them and continued expanding outwards. As the barrier swallowed the creature below, it screamed and started running away. But the barrier grew at an exponential rate. Cygnus stopped expanding the barrier as the edges reached the horizon. She jumped off the cliff, sliding down the steep slope, into the ravine. The creature stopped fleeing, and turned towards Cygnus, noticing her presence. As Cygnus reached the bottom of the ravine, she got a clearer look of the creature, illuminated by the dark blue glow of her barrier. It was a bull-like monster, with an unusual mohawk made of flower petals. The Kalidah stood its ground, staring straight at Cygnus, ready to attack if she showed any threat. Cygnus transformed her staff into a bow and fired three magic arrows at the Kalidah. The Kalidah dodged the arrows at an unreal speed. Cygnus' arrows created big craters on the dry ground. In a blink of an eye, the Kalidah appeared in front of Cygnus. At close range, Cygnus then realised how large the Kalidah was. Its black horns was slightly taller than her. It head-butted Cygnus and threw her a hundred meters away. As Cygnus was recovering from the attack, she looked up and saw the monster head-butting her again. This time as she was flung in midair, she fired back. But it was no use. This Kalidah was too fast. Determined not to get hit for the third time, Cygnus immediately started running as she touched the ground. The raging bull narrowly missed her this time. On the move, Cygnus decided to change her weapon as the bow was ineffective. She transformed her weapon into a short sword. She swung it once at the charging bull at a distance. Similar to the night before, her swing of a sword created a shockwave that sliced the air and travelled a quite a distance. The speedy bull dodged it with ease and retreated; wary of the change in Cygnus' attack. Cygnus then realised her left arm was limp and she had lost the vision from her right eye. The shock of her realisation stunned her, allowing the bull to attacked her again. After being tossed and landing on the ground, Cygnus then realised that she had now lost the use of her right leg. It became apparent to her that with each of this particular Kalidah's attack, it robbed her of the bodily functions. She fell to ground.

"AAARRRGH!" Cygnus panicked and continuously swung her sword crazily at the direction of the Kalidah. The monster struggled to dodge the crescent shaped projectiles. Soon, it was hit by one and was crippled by the barrage, turning it to minced meat. Cygnus dropped her sword, catching her breath. The disabled parts of her body were slowly regaining their functions. She sat up, looking at the cloud of dust in front of her. The wind dispersed the cloud, revealing the corpse of the Kalidah which rapidly vaporised into the air, until there was no trace of it left.

"Wow, you're so strong," Alice complimented Cygnus. "You seem to need a bit of a...warm up a first. But once you are in full swing, you are unstoppable!"

Cygnus slowly climbed onto Shinsoo, who flew down to get her. Her stone barrier disappeared on its own, as it had fulfilled its purpose. During the flight back to Ereve, Cygnus' ears were filled with praise by Alice, who was trying too hard to cheer her up.

Just as Cygnus returned to her bedroom balcony, she heard knocks on her bedroom door.

"Your highness, are you there?" Neinheart said.

"C-c-coming," Cygnus said as she undid her transformation and walked towards the door.

"Yes?" Cygnus opened the door.

"Sorry to disturb you this late. There was a murder near the village of Ereve," Neinheart said.

"M-m-murder?"

"I advice you to stay indoors for the time being until we have finish investigating this incident."

"Oh."

"That is all. Good night your highness."

Cygnus nodded in reply. Neinheart left and Cygnus closed the door.

"That was close," Cygnus sighed.

"What was?" a voice came from the balcony behind her.

"Gasp! Phantom!"

Phantom walked in closer to Cygnus. "Is there something troubling you M'lady?" Phantom kissed Cygnus' hand. "A frown doesn't suit your pretty face."

"Pfft..." Alice held in her laugh.

"Oh, what is this?" Phantom dangled the bracelet in his hand and brought it to his eye level to inspect.

Cygnus quickly checked to see that the Staff of Hope she was wearing in bracelet form, was missing from her wrist.

"G-g-give it back..." Cygnus stuttered.

"Huh? What was that?"

"Give it back!"

"This plain bracelet? Or this sliver bracelet? Or perhaps this gold bracelet?" Phantom used a sleight of hand to change the bracelet into different ones.

"Give it back..." Cygnus beat Phantom's chest lightly.

"Hahaha," Phantom slowly retreated backwards as Cygnus continued to pound on him.

Cygnus suddenly stopped when she realised they were standing in front of the mirror. Phantom had touched the staff. He could now see what her state of mind was in her reflection. She turned to look at the mirror, in horror. Phantom turned to look too.

"What's the matter? Are you surprise how handsome my reflection looks?" Phantom posed in front of the mirror.

Cygnus let out a silent laugh. Her reflection looked normal.

"Give it back," Cygnus repeated.

"Which one?"

"The plain one..."

Phantom dangled the bracelet in front of her. Cygnus quickly grabbed it and turned away. "Hmph!"

"Looks like that cheered you up. I'll be on my way then. Good night."

Cygnus looked back to see Phantom had disappeared from her room. She looked at her wrists and saw that she was wearing both sliver and gold bracelets. She looked again at the mirror. Her reflection was now different from a moment ago. It was glowing and there was heart shaped bubbles around her.

"Fufufu." Alice was grinning.

Cygnus blushed.

Author's notes:

I realised what was missing in this arc.

Phantom!

But it's Cygnus arc, so a Phantom cameo will do...

(26 FEB 2015)