Blinding Light: A Sleeping Beauty and Snow Queen Remix

Chapter 18

A/N: Princess Isabelle Ricosta^

Jeanette shakily climbed to her feet, bumping her head on the underside of the table. Viviana tried to help her friend as best as she could, but Jeanette had other ideas.

She sidestepped Viviana, and gave Santiago a scarily blank look.

"Start explaining, before I lose it." She said simply.

In response, Santiago held out the newt again. "I found my familiar, Jeanette. Her name is Ainara."

Jeanette gaped at the tiny newt in Santiago's hands.

"You're telling me, we almost died, murdered by falling plants and a black hole, and it was just a giant dimensional gateway for a familiar that is smaller than a basketball?! Why couldn't they size the gateway correctly?"

Preisha wound her way around Santiago, trying to see Ainara.

"It's just a standard, Jeanette. There is no sizing it."

Santiago figured out what Preisha was trying to do, and he knelt on the floor, allowing Preisha to see.

"Ainara, this is Preisha, Viviana's familiar."

Santiago had barely gotten the words out when Ainara croaked and crawled up Santiago's sleeve. Preisha looked slightly guilty, while Santiago frowned in confusion.

"No, Ainara, it's fine." He glanced at his sleeve. "There's nothing to be afraid of. I mean, she has pyrokinesis but that's not-"

He cut himself off abruptly, and Viviana realized she was listening to a one-sided conversation between him and his familiar. She felt like she was intruding. First conversations were always the most private and most complicated.

Or so she'd been told.

She didn't even remember hers.

To give Santiago time, she returned her attention to Ezra, who was just starting to shakily stand up herself, from underneath the table. Ezra's expression was stricken, like someone had stabbed her with a dull sword, as she kept her gaze fixed upon Santiago.

Viviana's expression crumbled into sympathy that she tried to disguise, but Ezra caught it before Viviana could hide it.

Ezra's eyes became devoid of emotion and her face shuttered, becoming passively blank, and now Viviana felt as though she was the one who had been stabbed.

Ezra just said she's still waiting for a familiar, and then we show up, and Santiago receives his. The timing could not be worse for her. She must think the universe is trying to tell her something. That she's not good enough, or that she can never belong. It's not fair!

"Tiago." Ezra said quietly. Santiago glanced up from his sleeve, where Ainara was still hiding, and blinked.

"I'll take you to Ilsadora tomorrow." Ezra mumbled, picking Del and Fay up off the floor, refusing to look at the rest of them. "There's blankets and pillows in the closet by the front door, you can use them to set up some kind of arrangement. I only have one bedroom, and that's mine. I'm going to bed."

She walked away from them, toward a doorway Viviana hadn't seen before because plant vines had been dangling over it. Viviana heard footsteps on stairs after that, and she swore she heard a sniffle, before Ezra's blue hair vanished completely.

Viviana was wracked with guilt. But it was also quite clear that Ezra did not want her sympathy or pity. If she tried to follow Ezra, she'd likely be lashed out at.

Santiago's eyes followed Ezra as well, a frown clinging to his lips. He had also likely figured out the reason for Ezra's abrupt departure, and determined that he was unable to help her.