This chapter is one of my favorites. Enjoy!
Three Moon of Alicidale
Behind a Mirror
"The part of Alicidale that I was at was very beautiful." Lazeal said to Toya. "I was able to look out a the ocean from the castle, I could stare at the moon and the stars from my balcony. I wasn't discontent with any of my surroundings. I never wanted anything to change. But one day, it did."
I'll never forget. I was looking off the balcony when it hit. A fireball. It rained fire that day as the chaos raged...
Lazeal crouched down low in her closet as the room shook. She cried and screamed at every new tremor. Keroberos barged into her roo.
"Princess Lazeal! Princess Lazeal!" He yelled. "Where are you, princess?"
"I'm scared." She cried out, tears still rolling down her face.
Kero tore her closet open and went to retrieve her. "Grab on to me, princess. Do not let go."
Lazeal climbed onto his back and felt the security of his wings wrap around her. Keroberos, her faithful protector, sped from the room. She kept her eyes closed until they stopped. She opened her eyes and saw strange people around her. Kero spit fire at them, sending them off. To the side, she saw someone.
"Karta!" Lazeal yelled.
The other girl was smaller even than her. She screamed as someone tried to take her away. Lazeal put a determined look on her face. "No, you can not have her."
Lazeal used her ability to take on another's form and became the soldier. She pushed him away and threw her helmet at him, knocking him out. She returned to normal. "Are you alright?"
"Alright." Karta mimicked. She was very young and could only use her powers to repeat others.
"Come with me." Lazeal said.
"Come?" Karta mimicked as Lazeal pulled her. "Karta come." she said as she followed.
Kero picked up the two girls. "Hold on and don't let go."
"Hold on." Karta repeated.
Lazeal pushed Karta closer to Kero as she held on. He flew out of the castle and circled slightly over it. I didn't want to see it, but I looked anyway. I couldn't see much at first, just the flames. I tried to peer further...
"Hold on." Karta said again, suddenly. "Hold on. Hold on."
So I did. I didn't want to look anymore anyhow.
"Myself and Karta were the only ones I knew of that survived."
Karta, the voice card. She was captured as a child and will remain as so. I, at least, had the previlage of becoming a woman.
Toya placed a hand on hers on top of the table. "I'm sorry."
Instinctively, she nearly recoiled--purely from embarrassment--but, feeling the blush rise, she stayed that way. She'd wanted to. "You do not need to apologize. You ad nothing to do with it."
Lazeal paused to gather herself, smiling at him a little. It began to fade once she started her tail again. "I was only a princess, but I was not theprincess. The princess of Alicidale had just been born. Perhaps a few months sooner... Keroberos had taken the two of us to the Queen of Alicidale to ask for help. Queen Ari was very wise."
I remember standing behind him, before the queen. I was only a few years old and Karta was half my age or less. Kero explained to the queen about the attack, but I was only paying attention to Karta. She was scared and I kept trying to make her stop crying.
"Kata, please calm down." I whispered, holding her in my arms. "Everything will be alright. Don't cry."
She simply repeated my words as she cried. "Karta, cry. Karta, cry."
"It will be alright. You're okay." I tried. "No one will hurt you."
"No...no one. Karta hurt. You hurt."
I don't know when, but Queen Ari got up. She came to me and took Karta from my hands. She held her close, and when I looked up, she looked beautiful--like a mother. Her blue hair shone around her face and drifted down, her eyes were caring and deep green. "Why all the tears? Are you hurt, dear?"
Karta cried a bit less as she looked at the queen. "Hurt." she replied.
"Don't cry, my dear. You'll be alright. We'll take care of you, now."
"No cry?" Karta asked.
"No cry." Queen Ari confirmed.
Karta stopped crying, sniffling a bit. She looked at me. "Be alright?"
I looked at her, Queen ari, Keroberos. My guardian came over to me and I hugged him. "Yes." I replied to Karla.
"She took us into the castle and took care of us. Once my gift was discovered, I was assigned to be the princess shadow. I'd take her form to try and protect her, confuse anyone who'd see us. If she went out into public, I'd always be there. A scapegoat, I suppose. Yue protected the princess and Kero would protect me. Well...until the end."
I remember it was a few days before the alignment when he attacked. Clow Read had already captured a few of us. He used the chaos caused by the moons to put us under his powers. Once we were pulled into those cards we had no choice but to obey.
Yue fled from the castle to another after Queen Ari disappeared. The castle had been torn apart. The queen had fallen into caesium, but we weren't sure if she had perished. Princess Ala was born under a yellow moon. It made her hesitant and uncertain in all she did. Yue had fallen in love with someone from another castle--that was what Queen Ari had told me. She did not lie. Yue did not believe that Ala was fit to rule because of that uncertainty she had; and because he was in love, he abandoned her to save his love.
It surprised us all. Yue was the most dutiful person I'd ever known. For him to do something of that caliber shocked me.
"Because Kero and I had protected Princess Ala, we were caught. Yue was caught later with two others."
Toya pulled Lazeal into a tight embrace. She did not notice that tear were falling from her eyes. Time stopped for them once they were encased inside a card...but thoughts didn't stop. Feelings didn't stop. Even if they buried them deep inside themselves, sleep away the years of unuse, the moons bring out the truth in them.
"Being born under these moons is truthfuly a cruel thing. The yellow moon nearly stips you of your free will and you fall to whomever you're with. The white moon frezzes you into yourself, makes you into the sceptator whm cannot change. Then the red moon...it brings out the truth. You are controlled by it, but it taps into you. Your feelings unleashed, your desires pursued, your life changed...
"It's horrible to be trapped within these cards. All we have are our broken emotions and cycling thoughts. We can't live and we can't use our powers on our own."
I can't even love...even though I love you.
