The Fallen Prince

⋇- 9: To Cambridge -⋇

Arisa examined the rune on Caris' pale palm. From the appearance of the character, it seemed as though all fifty-eight strokes had been drawn well to form the symbol despite looking a bit messy.

"The symbol looks fine," she said, breaking the few seconds of silence. "Let's see if it works."

Caris nodded and took a deep breath before she closed her eyes to concentrate her energy. As the Oceanian focused her powers on the palm of her left hand, Arisa saw that her silvery skin was starting to gain a little more pigment. Several seconds passed as most of Caris' skin gained a tanned tone and her long black-blue, slightly wavy hair shrunk into short curly brown hair.

Arisa blinked repeatedly, seeing that Caris' small fin-like ears had a human-like shape and freckles spread over her nose.

"You did it," said Arisa, clapping her hands and shifting a bit from the bed. "You can now disguise yourself using the rune."

Caris opened her eyes. "Really?"

Arisa replied with a nod, noticing that Caris' eye color had changed from dark brown to honey-colored. Caris touched her head, gazing at the oval mirror hanging on the olive-colored wall across the room.

"I wish I could see what my new appearance looks like," she said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Unfortunately this is the downside of this rune," said Arisa, sighing. "Besides draining your energy, reflections can show the real person behind the disguise."

Caris gazed back at her. "Well, at least I can walk around without troubling the team."

"You wouldn't bring us any trouble even if you couldn't use the rune to disguise yourself," said Arisa. "There's always a solution, so don't put yourself down."

Caris looked sideways and nodded. Gazing at her, Arisa realized that Caris lacked confidence and always found herself as a bother or troublesome. She remembered the first time Caris met the team. Before joining the team, the Oceanian thought it would have been better for her not to join them as she would bring trouble to them.

 Arisa wondered if that lack of confidence was because of what she went through in her world and the Forbidden Lands.

"You know," said Arisa, breaking the brief silence, "I'm amazed by how fast you were able to learn to draw that rune. It took me days to perfect the symbol and you just took a day and little hours."

Caris laughed quietly. "It's because of Kazuya and you. You two explained to me very well how to draw it, especially Kazuya. He's a good teacher."

"He is," Arisa agreed. "By the way, you should deactivate the rune to save your energy. You'll activate it again when we visit the museums."

"Oh, okay." Caris nodded.

As the little Oceanian focused again to deactivate the rune, Arisa remembered how Caris ended up learning the spell. After the dinner with the Malulus, on the day they arrived in London, the team gathered to make a plan before each member went to sleep.

Garoh suggested that for the sake of the Malulu's safety and theirs, it was better if they explored the museums using their disguise. Everyone found his idea reasonable since their presence would attract trouble for the family. Besides, with their disguise, no one would recognize them walking in the streets, making it difficult for the Guardians to find them.

Out of everyone, Caris was the only one who didn't have a disguise. Despite Thelma offering herself to use make-up and wigs, Kazuya wondered if Caris could use a rune since she had the ability to see auras. He thought that since her people could see other beings' auras, there was a possibility that for them to use that ability they needed some kind of magical energy.