Fractured Soul

Chapter 36: Back to Ryn

"Fine. You've made your point, without explaining crap, may I add. Your cousins aren't even here, Highness. Either your mother or your sister summoned them to Ulma." Dilan started walking off. "Come on. Spill."

Wesley explained everything as they strode through Ryn, his voice and the clopping of hooves the only things breaking the silence. They reached the tall building where Mella had stayed while she had lived in Ryn.

"You believe all that, Mella?" Dilan asked after Wesley finished.

"Yeah, I do. It all makes sense to me." Mella hoped that Dilan would understand. They needed his help right now.

"Alright...I'll go with it. You'll have to convince Kai and Kev, too. That goes without saying, really. Clear?"

"Crystal." Wesley shot back coolly.

Things looked like they were going to become hostile again, but Mella intervened.

"Guys, knock it off. Dilan, we've been traveling for three days. We're cold, and tired. Can we please go see the others?"

Dilan nodded and opened the doors. The ground floor had been remade to look like how it had been before Nadai's festival. The fire-lily Mella had left on the banister was still there.

"We couldn't move it. It's stuck to the banister. Even when we melted the ice to rearrange everything back to normal, it stayed with it." Dilan explained as they climbed the stairs. Mella had absolutely no idea why the flower had done that. It had just been spur-of-the-moment. The lily glowed bright pink as Mella passed it.

Four flights of stairs later, the trio stopped on the landing. Dilan stuck his head into the room beyond. "Guys, we have company."

"Please don't let it be that one girl you're always talking with. She never shuts up."

"Then why don't you two get along?" someone said drily.

"Shut up, Kai."

Dilan pulled his head out of the room, his face slightly pink. "Come on in."

Mella walked into the room (which happened to be the one she had stayed in; the view from the window was the same) to cries of surprise, right before she was almost knocked over by tackle hugs.

"Guys...can't breathe." she gasped. They let her go, both Kai and Kev grinning ear to ear.

"We thought you got caught. Where have you been?" Kai asked, slightly worried.

"I actually was caught. I'll explain in a minute, but first you need to meet my travel buddy." Wesley snorted with laughter from the landing. He hadn't come in with Mella.

"Who else is with you, Princess?" Kev asked curiously.

"You'll see. Just...don't freak out, okay?" The two nodded slowly and looked over at Dilan, who shot a look back that said, "just go with it."

Mella pulled Wesley into the room. Kai's happiness and Kev's smile vanished in an instant.

"Don't freak out!" Mella said hurriedly. "Pass judgment after you hear him out." She nodded at Wesley as he told their tale again.

The two boys were silent as it sank in.

"It makes sense. I mean, your hair is black right now, and it was red at the festival." Kai finally said.

"We'll go with it, but no funny business."

Mella half-grinned. "Funny business is your guys' department, last time I checked."

The three water elementals grinned at that. "Fair point. But what happened to you, Princess? You said you got caught." Kev was curious.

"Gwen sold me out. I got sent to Ulma, learned a bit of magic, used as the princess's punching bag, and escaped with the help of Wesley about a week and a half, maybe two weeks ago."