Light of the Moon

4

King Fredric was visited late at night by a distressed Quirin. "Quirin, my dear friend, what's happened?" He asked with concern.

"A woman—she took him! My son—" He collapsed to his knees. "I tried to fight her...she used a strange smoke and I felt weak. She took him away from me!"

King Fredric knelt and hugged him close. "Oh, Quirin..."

"I'm sure it's the same one that took your little Rapunzel." Quirin clenched his fists. "I will not rest until she is found!"

"Nor I, my friend. We will not rest until our children are safely at home." King Fredric said firmly, helping him stand. "Will you use your skills as a knight to aid the search?"

"As a father and a knight, I swear it." He brought his hand to his chest and bowed his head.

"Let us hope that we find them quickly." King Fredric said grimly.

He didn't want to think about what may happen to them if they were gone too long.

--

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And then months...into years. Varian and Rapunzel grew up together, with Gothel coming and going, always returning with gifts for them.

Over the years, Rapunzel's hair grew longer and longer. By the time she was 18, it was long enough that she could drape it all over the place and still have room to walk around easily.

"Rapunzel, can you hand me that formula?" Varian asked, stepping over some hair on the floor to get to his worktable, his goggles over his eyes.

"Which one?" She asked, looking over his table.

"The pink one I've been working on?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh!" She handed it over. "Here you go! What's this do?"

"Well, assuming I did it right, it should create a sticky goo that hardens and traps the affected until I use this," he held up a bottle, "to remove it. Assuming I did the math right."

"I have no idea what any of your notes mean, so, good luck!" She gave him two thumbs up and went back to her painting.

"Hey, do you think she'll say 'yes' this time?" He asked as he poured the mixture into a ball and closed the lid before filling another one.

"Well...It is my birthday coming up. I don't see why she wouldn't!" She smiled optimistically. "Besides, I'll be eighteen!"

He nodded, frowning a bit as he closed the lid of the last ball and set it to the side with the others.

Growing up with Rapunzel, he'd been her only real concrete knowledge of the outside world, and he wished he had more to tell her. She especially wanted to know if he knew what the strange lights that light up the night sky every year on her birthday were, but he had no idea what she was talking about. So, both of them were a little bit anxious to know. There was one thing Varian knew they weren't: Stars. Which is the lie that Gothel told them every year.

"Stars don't move, and they don't look like that!" He had argued one time. That was the year after he first arrived here and the first time Rapunzel saw his powers at work. Gothel had told him sternly to control himself and he'd stormed off.

And no amount of breath control and thinking was making the black rocks go away. Clearly, she wasn't of any use. He would have to find this "Lord Demanitus" himself and find out what the incantation was. Sometimes, though, he felt like he was hearing words in the back of his mind. Broken and feeble, barely there, but words.