Dark Mer

12

The next morning, Andrew helped Varian out of the tub so he could become his human form again, which was really interesting since he was doing it while Andrew held him in his arms, and then he dressed and they had a short breakfast before Varian got to work.

First things first, they got rid of that annoying security thing. It was ugly and stupid and Varian was happy to destroy it and let Andrew used the remains for their fire. Next, he set to work summoning black rocks and twisting them into the shape of young Cassandra and her mother, standing together just like the picture he'd found. In little Cassandra's hands, they put the real music box.

Then he created statues of Cassandra's mother and young Rapunzel in young Cassandra's bedroom, with the door left ajar so it was easily seen from standing in front of the statue of young Cassandra. He'd seen enough paintings of young Rapunzel in the tower, and he prided himself on his memorization skills.

Finally, he took down the black rocks in front of the door and set up black rocks on the road to force their pursuers to stop and made a trail of little black rocks that led to the door.

Andrew clapped once he was done, looking over his handiwork. "Nice. You've gotten really good at this black rock stuff."

"Lots of practice." Varian said, beaming at his praise.

"You know, maybe we should use your black rocks to build New Saporia out of the ashes of Corona." Andrew said thoughtful. "Just think, New Saporia would be indestructible."

"That's a good idea." Varian nodded with a smile.

Madam Tiri appeared. "My little moon, the sun princess approaches. Do you have your exit secured?"

Varian nodded. "And everything is ready."

Andrew went to pack up their prepared travel food, since he wasn't part of the conversation between Varian and his invisible mentor.

"Excellent. Then let us take cover and enjoy the show." She giggled.

"Andrew." Varian called to him.

"Yep." Andrew nodded and turned on the music box before they headed into a side room, which was then secured with black rocks to make sure they could see and hear out, but no one could open the door and get to them.

--

"Ugh! I hate these black rocks!" Eugene groaned as they had to stop the carriage short. Tall, wide black rocks blocked the road entirely, halting their progress.

"Is there any chance we can go around?" Lance asked.

Rapunzel looked out the window and gasped. "Wait..." She opened the door and ran to a house that little black rocks were leading up to.

"Rapunzel, wait!" Cassandra got off the carriage and hurried after her.

"Wait!" Eugene called, getting out of the carriage. He gasped as black rocks covered the door as soon as it shut, trapping them in, followed by black rocks forming around the carriage to keep them from even trying to follow. "Oh no..."

--

The house was dusty, Rapunzel noted. A quick cleanup would make it rather livable, though. It was actually kind of cute, though all the mirrors were kind of weird.

"Rapunzel?" Cassandra caught up to her as they entered the main part of the home. The first thing they both noticed was the blue music box playing on top of some black rocks. As they got closer, they realized these rocks looked like...people.

Rapunzel gasped and stepped back as she recognized the taller one as looking similar to her kidnapper, the one she'd called "Mother" for so many years. The child next to her wasn't anyone she recognized, though.