Reunion at Sea

Dormant

Rapunzel had not been expecting a visitor today; all audiences had been canceled and her subjects were evacuated to make sure that they would be ready when the Disciples made their appearance. So when a silver-haired woman came into the throne room without so much as an announcement, pushing guards out of her way with the Captain following her stammering, she knew this was going to be...interesting.

"Queen Rapunzel, I presume." She said, not even offering a bow. "First of all, welcome home. I haven't been in Corona since a few years after your kidnapping. Secondly, my condolences, your father is as good as dead. "

"I-I—uh—who are you?" Rapunzel asked, confused.

"Donella Merton, from Saporia." She pulled out the necklace to show her. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, is someone going to explain when Quirin's son found out about his powers, and why the Disciples of Zhan Tiri have him and are using him to attack Ingvarr?"

"What?!" Rapunzel rose from her throne.

"I scared them off, shot The Puppeteer, but they took Varian with them." Donella pulled out a device. "It's alright, though, I tracked his location. They're at Janis Point."

Rapunzel nodded slowly. "Uhm...you said you...shot Ruddiger?"

"Who's 'Ruddi'—wait. That's Ulla's last name. He mentioned being away awhile, he might've been in another form..." She sighed heavily. "Okay. I'm going to have to get you to tell me what's been going on so I know who to kill and who not to kill."

"Uhm...well, Regulus is Ruddiger, but Ruddiger was a raccoon for centuries." Rapunzel explained, then sat back down. "It's...a very long story."

"I've got someone watching the tower." Donella assured her. "Tell me everything."

Rapunzel sighed and nodded. "Okay. Uhm...should I call Quirin?"

"...Let's wait until I know what's going on before we bring him in, because he's going to scream at me for sure." Donella said, sighing.

–

In terms of jobs Hugo had done for his guardian, mentor and boss, this...had to be the most boring. Watch a building. Watch. A. Building. That was it. He sighed and looked out the window at the tower, then back at the alchemy he was working on. He looked up at it, determined the building was still there, then looked back at his work. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

After an hour of it, he was bored. He sighed heavily and cleaned up his alchemy, then tapped the mirror. "Don? Hey, Don?"

He frowned when he didn't get a reply and then looked over at the building, which was starting to look strange. "...Fuck it." He put his mirror in his pocket, gathered up his attack alchemy into his pouch and grabbed his gun before heading out.

He ran over and grabbed the doorknob, pulling himself and shutting it as the building shifted around him. "Okay..." He murmured, glancing around as the building changed into what looked like a dollhouse. "...Creepy demon house can change shape. Fun."

He steeled himself and continued through the building, pausing when he heard banging on a door. Confused, he walked over and found it locked. 'Okay...someone's in there.' He thought.

"Regulus?! Are you out there?!" A woman called. "Let me out! Let me see him!"

Well, Hugo had done dumber things. He unlocked the door and opened it to find a ghost-lady on the other side.

"Oh!" She looked relieved. "You're not one of them!"

Hugo stared blankly, then shut the door again before walking on. 'Nope.'