The Courage of Stars

season 2 | chapter 20 (v.ii)

The performances she executed were revolting. Her persevering stance to achieve popularity to rise through Goldstream's elite prompted her to show a carefully curated mask to the world, yet the surprise was inevitable if one dared to remove it and face the frightening reality concealed underneath.

Hilary's efforts of expressing sincerity were another confirmation of the benefit she aimed for in the shape of her new puppet: Max.

The worst part of the situation – aside from the cooperation – was the true demand of the guardians for them; empathy.

An unavoidable question dangled upon him, serving to intensify the disorganization in his brain.

How was he supposed to show empathy to a person who was ignorant of it?

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Their mental and physical resources were declining as they etched one footprint on the reddish-brown sand after another.

The sun was still embedded on the sky, staring down at them with insolent glory. In retrospect, this might as well have been a simulator, yet the resemblance of the environment compared to the actual Eastern Union of Wizards, a country located far away on their earth after the Palmspring Islands was striking, if not nerve-wracking.

Max, Tyson and Hilary used every ounce of their willpower to not let their knees betray them and collapse, trudging with their last remnants of strength.

Hilary was back in her human form. She removed her shoes with swift movements and tossed them on the sand. A loud groan of exasperation ensued and she surrendered to her body's desire to sit. "I can't take this anymore."

Tyson persisted on not meeting her in the eye. "Of course you can't. You're a little princess who lives in her pink, bubbly castle and gets her food fed with a golden spoon. No wonder hardships are new to you. You didn't have to strive for anything in your life."

Hilary's ears were ringing for a reason she couldn't fathom. She ignored Tyson altogether, congratulating herself for her display of maturity. His petty comments were of no importance in the situation she had entangled them into.

If she pressed a button that went backwards in time, she would've directed all the blame to Selene for throwing them into the wolf's den with zero warning. However, she was at last, in a position to accept that magic was a never-ending mystery, an everlasting adventure with no map for one to guide himself but with an open heart.

At the end of Esmeralda's incantation that transported them here, she felt her speaking in her head in a kind of telepathy. Hilary could've sworn it was her because the words she told her were precise and concrete.

Open your heart.

She couldn't neglect the irony of the wise fairy's statement. The desert was one more example of a place that screamed hopelessness, helplessness and – as Max pointed out aptly – solitude. Her defenses were weakened and she couldn't think or act with clarity within an environment that assembled everything in its power to exterminate hers.

All of this was happening so they could prove to the guardian fairies their ability to spot the deeper meaning inside a challenge and derive strength from it, a strength they would embody in their souls for the trials lying ahead of them.

In between her delirium, something clicked with such indisputable accuracy that rendered Hilary still. They were searching for the mythical stardust that would change shape and morph into the base of the Moon Scepter...in the desert.

Either Esmeralda, Rosalia and Azura were delusional, or she was losing her sanity. The pieces of the puzzle were scattered for them to unbury with no clue and she had open her heart in a place she shared the same oxygen with Tyson. The ludiocricy was enormous and Hilary had to preserve her positivity by pretending there was always a bright side.