Dark Mer

21

Once they returned to Corona, Demanitus set to work on his hot air balloon while Rapunzel went to talk to her father. Their lovable ruffians went back to their lives and Rapunzel figured it might be best to not take them for the balloon ride and...final battle.

There was something that really bothered her about that word. "Final". Like there was nothing after, like a rematch was completely out of the question.

It told her that, if she lost, she would lose everything. She shivered and hugged herself on the way to her father's study, where she found him looking over papers.

"Father." She greeted, looking in.

"Oh." He looked up. "Rapunzel." He beckoned her in and she walked inside, closing the door behind her before she walked over to sit across from him. "How is the, uh, destiny going?"

"I'm going to the Dark Kingdom soon. Father, please, tell me that Varian's wrong. Tell me that you didn't say you planned to use him as a weapon." She pleaded.

"I never said anything about a weapon. I was talking with my advisors and we were discussing how useful his black rock spikes would be for various things and I made a joke about having him use that other ability of his to take care of any pest problems. I guess he greatly misunderstood..." He looked at the papers. "Now there are people sending me messages, threatening riots if I didn't come out and own up to 'all the falsities'."

"I'll tell Varian the truth. Surely he'll change his mind when he hears the truth!" She insisted.

"Will he?" King Fredric looked mentally exhausted. "Did he listen when you tried to warn him about Zhan Tiri?"

"I..." She faltered.

"The boy is...stubborn. It is hard to convince him that he is wrong. He's at that difficult age." Fredric stood up and rubbed at his eyes. "Don't worry about me, Rapunzel. You just focus on..." He faltered. "Don't lose."

Rapunzel nodded. "I know."

--

The hot-air balloon soared easily through the air, carrying the small group towards the Dark Kingdom. They set down at the beach that Varian had come out at and he stepped out, looking out over the sea.

"So...there's a Kingdom here?" Andrew asked.

"Where is it?" Lance asked curiously.

Varian stripped down to just his armor and walked towards the water, holding out a hand towards It. He started to sing, his entire body starting to glow a blue color.

"Moonlight, shining low,
Let your power shine.
Raise what lies beneath,
Let me pull back the tide."

The earth started to violently shake and they stepped back, Lance gathering up Varian's discarded clothes as they went back to the hot-air balloon. Varian sang on, unaffected by the shaking as a wave of energy blasted out from his body towards the sea.

"Return what now is gone.
Change the fate's design.
Rise from where you lay;
Let me pull back the tide.
Pull back the tide."

"Oh...my..." Lance breathed as they saw land come out of the ground as Varian repeated his spell a few more times. The wave continued rippling towards the land as Varian sang again and again, his young voice echoing in the silence as the earth continued to shake around them.

Cassandra wondered how strong this earthquake was, if they were feeling it over in Corona. If Rapunzel was feeling this.

The submerged land connected with the beach and attached and then Varian finally started to fall back, the glow fading. Andrew, who was closest, ran and caught him before he hit the ground and Varian let out a happy but tired chirrup as he looked at his handiwork.