Chapter 9 Pondering and Wondering

Now, Aria didn't spend every single last waking moment thinking about the oddity of what Jackie said. She supposed she had her job, her life, and other distractions to thank for that. That wasn't a sarcastic statement either; she knew that if she spent too much time thinking about everything, she would worry herself into a corner. So, anything that could prevent her from dwelling too much on the words of her sister was definitely welcome.

So yeah, she didn't think about Jackie too much. However, when she did think about it… oh boy. Remembering the words that Jackie said in reference to her guardians was bad enough, but in a way, it paled in comparison to the thing that really got Aria's attention. That was, the look in Jackie's eyes. Jackie had looked so… well, there was just something there. Some sort of emotion that shouldn't ever be seen in someone's eyes; a worry and fear that caused even the soul to buckle under their weight. Thinking about those looks made Aria even more worried than she was before. It also ignited her curiosity in a morbid way and made her feel like something was absolutely, extremely wrong about this whole ordeal.

The only problem was she didn't know what. She had a theory, but she had no idea how exactly she was supposed to prove that theory. And honestly, she kind of hoped that her theory wasn't correct, because if it was… well, it would mean all sorts of trouble for Jackie. It would mean that Jackie lived a life that was filled with unnecessary pain, full of unneeded strife. She actually prayed that the theory she had about her sister's home life wasn't the case. She prayed that she was just thinking too negatively, that the reality of the situation wasn't nearly as grim as she dreaded.

Although, the fact that the prayers didn't reveal the answers to her only served to make her worry all the more.

As a consequence, as she worked on her computer three days after the breakfast she attended with Jackie, she couldn't help but keep her mind on this topic. She dwelled on it so much, in fact, that no amount of work could distract her this time. It ate away at her psyche, this worry. Based on the amount of fear in her mind, one could easily assume that she had been tasked with deciding whether or not to drop an atom bomb.

It got so bad, in fact, that she actually had to stop working. She closed her laptop and held her head in her hands. Why? That answer was not far away from her as she considered everything. She wished she knew what was going on with her sister, wished she knew what the issue with her aunt and uncle was so that she could do something about it and put the issue to rest once and for all. How could she find out about this though? She considered going down to Jackie's house, but that might not yield the most honest or truthful results. After all, people acted differently when they had company, and she figured Jackie's aunt and uncle were no exception to this rule. What she needed was a way to see how they treated Jackie was she was alone. She considered spying on them for a brief second, but ultimately dismissed the possibility as being overly complicated and unethical. So… how could she do this?

Ding!

Aria didn't know whether or not she felt relieved that her phone interrupted this thought pattern. She picked it off her desk and searched through the texts, not one hundred percent sure who she wished the text she just got was from. Regardless, she was not at all disappointed to see the text was from Ludwig.

Hey. Are you busy?

Aria snorted. The answer she should give was yes, as technically she had work that she was avoiding. However, what she ultimately texted was Nope. Sure, it wasn't entirely truthful. But the nice thing about her line of work was that she could easily turn away from it and go back to it whenever she wanted, at least for a couple of hours or so.

Great! Ludwig replied. Would you like to meet up at the Palace of Spice?

Aria considered this for a brief second. That… that might actually be exactly what she needed. After all, a nice lunch and maybe a quick round of karaoke could help distract her from the theories regarding Jackie's family.

That sounds perfect, she texted back.

Okay, so it turned out that her theory wasn't exactly correct. While eating at the Palace of Spice, the thoughts and questions she had regarding her twin were still as loud and as prevalent as ever. As a result, she mostly spent her time picking at her food. Yes, the meal that she thought would be the perfect thing to ease her mind didn't even get the chance to enter her body. She would say that's ironic, but honestly, she was too preoccupied to see any humor in the scenario.

"So yeah," Ludwig said as he stuck a bite of his own food in his mouth. "Celia really had a lot of guts to save Princess Aqua. I mean… it ultimately worked out for everybody's good, but she didn't know that at the time. All she knew was that she was going against the Koopa family." Ludwig smiled as he shook his head. "Anyone who does that deserves recognition at the very least."

"Mmhm," Aria said as she pushed her broccoli around. While she had to admit that she loved hearing stories from Ludwig's life before they got together, today it wasn't doing much to help her relax. She just stayed stuck in the state of pondering, wondering if there was a feasible way for her to get a hold of the answer she sought/wanted. She actually sunk a little bit into her seat, feeling more and more like that was an impossibility.

Thankfully, Ludwig actually noticed. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Aria bit her lip. "I… I've been thinking about a lot of things."

"Oh really?" Ludwig snickered. "Let me guess; this has to do with Jackie."

Aria chuckled. "Nothing gets past you, does it?" She sunk some more into her seat, especially because the scene with Jackie a few days ago played in perfect definition in her mind. "Something about her… bothers me."

Ludwig leaned forward. "How so?"

Aria sighed, trying to organize the best possible way to explain this in her head. "Well… I had breakfast with her a couple of days ago." She sipped at her soda, one of the very few things on the table that she felt she could consume. "Out of curiosity, I asked her about her family situation."

"Makes sense," Ludwig said.

Aria nodded. "Well… she told me that she lived with her aunt and uncle. And, um… well, she kind of clammed up when I asked about them. She said she didn't want to talk about it and just… walked away."

Ludwig blinked. "Really?" He thought about this. "Something about this situation doesn't seem quite right…"

"Exactly my thought," Aria replied. She took another sip of her soda, hoping that the sparkly flavor woul help her. "It all just struck me as weird. Really weird. And… well, I don't know if these feelings of mine are entirely appropriate, but I want to find out more about this situation. The only problem? I don't know how to do that?"

Ludwig snickered. "Yeah, asking her clearly doesn't seem like the best idea. And it's not like you can just place a webcam in their house and spy on them."

"Exactly my thought process," Aria said with a smile. She finally managed to take a bite of her food. "So… yeah, I'm at a loss. And I know that if I don't figure out this mystery, it's going to bother me for the rest of the week." She leaned back a little bit. "It's… it's frustrating."

"Yeah, I can see that," Ludwig said. There was a silence at the table, one that was only broken by the sound of Aria chewing. After about a minute passed, Aria considered moving on and changing the subject (no matter how much the current subject caught her interest). She was literally just opening her mouth to ask Ludwig something else when the Koopaling said something that made her heart skip a beat.

"You know… I think I know of a way to help you."

Aria's eyes grew wide. "You do?" She leaned forward. "What is it?"

Ludwig was silent for a brief spell before standing up. "I'll go pay the tab. After that, you and I are going straight to Bowser's Castle."

"Bowser's Castle?" Aria asked with a blink. "What's at Bowser's Castle?"

Ludwig's eyes glittered. "You'll see."

Flying to Bowser's Castle was probably the most thrilling experience Aria had had in weeks. With the wind rushing around her as she gripped Ludwig's hand, it was truly a magical experience. It was also somewhat humbling too, as looking down at the Koopa Kingdom with a bird's eye view really put into perspective how tiny everything was. The buildings were tiny, the people were tiny… everything was tiny. In a way, it kind of made Aria's problems not seem so daunting. It made her feel like everything could be sorted out. After all, the tiny problems of a tiny creature like her could easily be sorted out.

In a way, getting to Bowser's Castle actually served as a downer because of this. At least, for a very brief millisecond. As she and Ludwig touched their feet down in front of the front door, Aria started to feel excited. Ludwig hadn't explained what the method they were going to use to figure out what was up with Jackie was, but honestly, Aria didn't mind the mystery. If anything, she welcomed it; let it wash over her mind like some sort of soothing stream. She didn't really need to know the method. She trusted Ludwig enough to know that the method would work.

Anyway, the couple made their way into the castle. As Ludwig guided Aria toward the west wing, they managed to come across Ludwig's siblings, playing what looked to be a really dangerous round of indoor soccer. And boy, was there reaction to seeing her quite interesting.

"Hey look! It's Aria!" Lemmy exclaimed.

Roy squinted at Aria. "Or… or is it actually Jackie…?"

Aria snickered. "No big guy, I'm Aria." She looked back at Ludwig. "We are here to find out more about Jackie, though."

"Really?" Wendy asked as she made the ball rest under her feet. "How are you going to do that?"

Ludwig put on a smile. "I'm going to show her the memory sphere."

That caused Aria to do a double take. Wait, was he being serious? A memory sphere? A MEMORY SPHERE?

"Oh," Iggy said. He adjusted his glasses. "May I ask why?"

"We need to find out more about Jackie," Ludwig said, sounding pretty nonchalant for a guy who's last sentence talked about a friggin' memory sphere.

"Oh." Iggy nodded. "Alright then."

With a nod, Ludwig guided Aria back through the castle. After Ludwig yelled over his shoulder to reprimand his siblings for playing a sport inside, Aria gave him the most shocked of shocked looks.

"A memory sphere?" she asked. "I thought that those were just a myth!"

Ludwig laughed. "Oh no! They're real. Granted, they are only usable to the most powerful of magikoopas. So, you won't come across an average joe shmoe who's in possession of one."

Aria nodded after a second. "I… suppose that makes sense." After saying this sentence, and after wrapping her head around an object of legend actually being in possession of the Koopa royal family, Aria's excitement levels actually increased. That was the perfect solution to her problem! It would be able to reveal information that she could never hope to get naturally. Really, it was almost scary how easy this was. If she didn't know any better, she would assume that this was a fantasy that her overactive imagination had cooked up.

After a little bit, they got to a door in the west wing's hallway. A magikoopa opened the door (Aria was willing to guess this was the Koopa King's magikoopa advisor, Kamek). When he saw Ludwig, he raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

Ludwig snorted. "Wow, as welcoming and warm as always, Kamek." Kamek shot him a glare, which caused him to chuckle and clear his throat. "We need to use the memory sphere for a minute."

Kamek raised an eyebrow. He made eye contact with Aria, who actually squirmed under his scrutinizing gaze. "You're doing this for the purpose of aiding your girlfriend?" When both of them nodded, he let out a sigh. "Alright." He opened the door all the way. Smiling, both Ludwig and Aria stepped inside.

"So," Kamek said as he closed the door, meaning the only light source in the room was a dim kind of candlelight. "Whose memories would you like to see?" He walked over to a dias in the center of the room, one where a crystal clear orb rested. Aria immediately realized this was the memory sphere, and as such, she couldn't help but stare at it. It looked… man, she couldn't even begin to describe how tantalizing the sight was.

"We need to see into the childhood of a woman named Jackie Sidestep." Ludwig looked over at Aria. "Right?"

"Right," Aria said. She even nodded to further show her confirmation.

"Alright then." Kamek pulled a wand out of his robes and chanted an incantation. "Observus pastel Jackie Sidestep nina." He pointed at the memory sphere, and it glowed with a sickly green. Aria actually shuddered when she saw that. The color looked so… off. It looked like it was intentionally going out of its way to look as ugly as possible, to look so off-putting and horrifying and gross. Whatever memory this color represented… oh man.

"Well," Kamek said, looking straight at Aria as he did. "Put your hand on the sphere."

Aria nodded. She stepped toward the memory sphere, all at once feeling mightily hesitant. It was only the reassuring look from Ludwig that gave her the strength to touch the orb and enter the memory.