A/N: Hi. Here's the update. Sorry for not updating in a while, it was intentional. I thought no one gave a fuck of this story anymore so I just didn't bother, but people give a fuck apparently (judging by the recent reviews and faves and follows...for some reason?) so here's the update.
This was a HARD chapter to write to be honest. There's at least 5 previous attempts so sorry if it sucks. It's been a while so yeah.
Also, unrelated but tomorrow's my birthday! I'll be turning *beep* tomorrow. So...if you guys don't mind, I accept reviews and faves and follows as gifts! : Please?
"Here's your damn mirror! Take it and leave me alone! Leave, and never come back!"
Philip threw the hand mirror to the twins, who caught it with ease and cheery smiles, contradicting the dark auras surrounding them. He frowned, pure hatred in his eyes for what they made him do. He just wanted nothing more than to wipe those smug smiles off of their faces, and he didn't care if they were children or not. He just wanted to get this over with, for everything to go back to normal. He didn't even care about getting revenge on Hansel anymore. Screw him, screw her, screw them, screw everything!
But unfortunately, the twins still didn't look like they were going to leave anytime soon, and the golden-cloaked woman standing behind him resisted his temptation to straight up attack the little rascals and throw them out the window.
"Oh, but mister, we aren't done yet!" The wicked girl chirped, smug grin intact. The stupid boy nodded just as enthusiastically.
"What?" Philip snapped, eyes wide and in disbelief. "What do you mean?"
Without a word, the boy approached him, a mirror in hand. At first, Phillip backed away, expecting him to attack, but seeing his outstretched hand holding a mirror, familiar sickly green aura now surrounding it, he realized the boy was just handing the thing and accepted it. He looked into it and saw blurry dark colors at first, before it cleared to show an image of a familiar cloaked woman, a mask hiding her eyes, green hair slightly visible.
"Great job on retrieving the mirror, but unfortunately there has been a change of plans." the cloaked woman informed, her voice sounding ghostly. "You see, we are after seven ancient artifacts, and the hand mirror was merely one of them. I know you were tasked with the hand mirror, but the twins found out there was another artifact in this palace, a pair of spectacles."
The mirror briefly showed an image of a teenage girl wearing what's apparently the artifact: a pair of round, wire-rimmed spectacles. He didn't know the girl himself, but he did see her from time to time in Alfea and with Stiles and the others, so she must have been one of Stiles' friends, which makes it easier.
"So, you need to retrieve it no matter what. Then, after that, you're free. Do whatever, frolick around the castle for all I care." She told that with a scowl, but Philip squinted his eyes. Was that a fond subtle smile he just saw?
"Fine," Philip said and the cloaked woman's image disappeared. He noticed the twins were gone as well, but he knew they were just somewhere in the palace messing with people. He sighed, placed the hand mirror on his dresser, closed the lights, and went to bed.
It was a long day today, and surely a long day tomorrow.
"Ahh, I can't believe I forgot how good Solarian moon cakes were..."
Peace. Something they probably won't experience anymore in a while. Spark was rubbing his stomach contentedly as the rest of the gang lazed around in their large room as well after the lavish supper, well, more like a feast, that the king had given them despite all their shy protests. Well, at least they didn't leave much left, as nearly half of them were gluttonous.
However, while most of them were just doing and talking about whatever before they retired for the day, Leon sat next to the window, staring up at the sky intently. It was about 8 o'clock in the evening, so of course, it was reasonably dark. Though he couldn't help but notice the sky was overcast, large clouds dull and grey, obscuring the bright stars in the sky. Oddly enough, the moon wasn't obscured in the slightest, full and bright as it loomed over the kingdom eerily.
It was going to rain.
Leon's eyes widened. It never ever rained in Solaria, and if it did, people considered it a bad omen, which it was, as whenever it rained it was caused by some evil wizard during his late mother's golden years. And so, Leonard Wren of Linphea, a superstitious person at heart, gulped.
Something bad was going to happen.
"'Yon?" He looked up and saw Max with her head turned to him, tilting questioningly as if to say 'are you alright?'. 'Yon was a nickname Max had given him when they were younger when she complained that 'Leon' or 'Leo' was too much of a bother to say, though the name never really stuck, Max seemed to call him that every once in a while, especially if she was being genuine.
"It's nothing," Leon waved, trying to look as calm and collected as possible. He didn't want to worry them, to give off some false alarm. He had to be absolutely sure before he could give off hints. He looked around, "Hey, where's Cel?"
"She said she's going go to the bathroom but at this point, I think she drowned herself in the toilet." Spark joked.
Callum frowned before he looked down. "Eh, not too far from the possibility."
Damian stood up from where he was sitting and stretched. "Ah, well, I'm going to hit the hay. It's been a long day and all I want is to lay. G'night." He left the room (the guest rooms were separated for boys and girls because you know). Spark, Rover and the other irrelevant Specialists walked out the room.
Just as the other Specialists walked out, Celine walked in with her usual snarky look, usually, no one would pay any mind but Callum looked at her twice and noticed her rather stiff posture. "Cel?" Callum called, "Are you okay?"
"I think I'm going nuts," Cel said, Leon noticed she wasn't wearing her glasses and instead was clutching it in one of her hands a bit too tightly. "Well, that or I'm going blind."
"Why, what happened?" Leon asked, a bit too urgently.
Celine held out her spectacles to show her friends before she sighed. "I have no idea anymore. These glasses...I can see certain things when I look through it."
"That's so cool," Max said.
"What?" Callum asked incredulously, wanting her to elaborate.
She sighed, "Well, I was walking through the halls, minding my own business right? But then these kids- running around and swinging around the pillars and I tried not to bother them 'cause they might be some Duke's kids and I might get sued- started attacking me for no reason!"
Her brother's face scrunched into a face of disbelief and doubt. "What-"
Max shoved her finger to his lips to shush him. "Shush. I wanna hear the story of Cel getting attacked."
Cel rolled her eyes. "Anyway, they weren't much of a problem, they're kids after all, but then here's the thing: when the boy tried to punch me in the face, he managed to knock out my glasses," she gestured to her spectacles, "and when I looked up, they were gone! Like they weren't there all this time." She sighed, sitting down on her bed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked down to her glasses, her lips thinning. "I'm not the best at explaining stuff, but long story short, I could see certain things when I wear these. Is this cursed? Am I going nuts?"
"You're nuts." Max simply said, walking to her and swiftly grabbing the 'cursed' spectacles, before putting it on herself. "See, there's nothing here- what the actual fuck-" A hooded figure in the corner, her (or at least, it looked like a her) cloak was a bright golden color, familiar blonde hair seeping from the hood. Even from the dark corner, she still shone faintly, like the moon, still shining weakly in even the most dreary of nights.
Immediately, she threw the pair of spectacles and looked at the corner again. There was nothing. "What?" Callum asked, confused. "What happened?"
"You didn't see that?" Max practically demanded, nearly shrieking. Confused and slightly terrified, Callum and Leon shrugged. "There was someone in a cloak standing there, I swear!"
"Told ya," Cel muttered.
Curious, Callum walked over to the fallen spectacles and picked it up, almost putting it up to his face before Leon slapped it off of him. "There is definitely something going on with this," Leon muttered, examining it but never putting it on. "We're going to have to consult the headmasters about it when we get back," he said as he handed it back to Celine, "for now, hold on to it."
She bit her lip, "But-"
"It's getting late," Callum observed, looking down at his wristwatch. "Leon, let's go before Nick starts being an ass and locks the door on us."
"Ah, right," Leon said, following his friend to the door. He looked back to the two fairies and waved. "Good night, see you both first thing in the morning." And with that, the door shut closed.
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright!"
It was morning and Brittany and Stiles were in the infirmary to check on their servant/friend, Lemy. He still didn't have much energy and still seemed dazed, but otherwise, he seemed fine, so Brittany didn't hesitate to tackle him into a hug.
Air was knocked out of him and he was caught off guard but nonetheless, Lemy chuckled. "Yes, princess, I'm fine. No need to worry about me."
Brittany finally let go of him as she sat on the bed, her relieved expression soured and was turned into sadness. "What happened?"
Lemy stopped chuckling. "I...don't know. I was just bringing your luggage to your room when someone knocked into me and everything blacked out, or...I think."
Stiles, casually leaning on the wall by the door, looked at the servant with furrowed brows. "Who did it? The one who knocked you out."
"I...don't remember," Lemy said slowly, scratching his bandaged head as he looked down. He thought about it long and hard, digging through blurry and incomplete memories, straining his already damaged head.
"Y-you don't need to push yourself too hard-" Brittany said, noticing his great difficulty in remembering.
"It was him," Lemy said suddenly after overcoming a brief realization. He looked at the Solarian siblings with wide eyes.
"Who?" Stiles nearly demanded, almost impatient.
Eyes blank, voice monotone, he said, "It's..."
A funeral service was held for the fallen Duke and his family. Many royals and aristocrats, even some peasants mourned for them, whether it was genuine or not, it didn't matter. The ceremony was rather large, many flowers and people wearing monochrome colors, sniffles and the sound of tissues being blown. King Brandon, with the two previous rules behind him, Radius and Luna, was in the middle of some speech. Though the king tried not to look like it, it looked like he was about to cry.
Hansel was among the crowd of middle-aged women blowing into tissues even if he and everyone knew they were disingenuous tears. He sighed, looking at the crowd for any familiar people. Leon and the rest of the sophomores (except for Stiles, wherever he was) were in the corner, some looking disinterested. Well, he knew they were only there to wait for him before they dragged him to the ship and back to Red Fountain, where he'll be inevitably yelled by Headmaster Helia and probably made to be cleaned the dragon stables if he's lucky.
He continued looking around and immediately saw Philip. Surprisingly, he was standing in the corner instead of in the middle of the crowd, looking rather distant and desolate. Hansel bit his lip as Philip looked up and their eyes met. His eyes looked dull and blank.
Hansel was about to call out when he realized he was at a funeral service. After being shushed by some old woman, he looked up again and saw Philip was gone. He looked around frantically and saw Philip exiting the crowd. And so the prince did as well, navigating through the sea of mourning people and trying to keep track on him.
He needed to apologize to him. He knew he already did, but it was brief and he felt like his apology wasn't genuine enough. He needed to apologize personally, just the two of them, so Philip can yell and hit him and all the weight will be lifted from his shoulders.
"Philip, hey!" He started to yell as he entered the empty halls and away from the funeral service. But his yells fell on deaf ears, unfortunately, and Philip continued walking. Hansel continued following (well, more like chasing Philip, poor guy) Philip, until he saw Philip go into his bedchamber from a distance. Hansel frowned and ran faster before he reached the door to Philip's room and noticed it was ajar.
Catching his breath momentarily, Hansel approached the door slowly and knocked, causing the door to open entirely. "Philip...?"
"Oh, hey..." Philip said rather lamely, not turning to him. "What's up?" There's something about his voice that sounded so...eerie.
"Well, I just wanted to..." Hansel's words were cut off as soon as he saw a familiar bright glint on Philip's dresser and his eyes widened.
"Wanted to what?" Philip asked, his voice now mockingly sweet as Hansel felt an eerie and strong presence behind him. But Hansel didn't pay the presence to mind, instead looking at the object on Philip's dresser.
On the dresser, laid a familiar golden hand mirror.
A/N: I actually can't wait to write the next chapter.
No trivia 'cause I can't think of any.
Does this chapter make sense? I hope it does.
What do I usually say at the end of each chapter? Ahh I forgot.