A/N: My best picture of Queen Ilsadora Silverstein, because this chapter is very important. ^^^
Jeanette and Santiago were far more rattled than they let on. Viviana could tell. She felt awful about it, but she couldn't bring herself to offer more meaningless words of comfort to them.
How could she, when she'd run out of words of comfort for herself?
Ezra did not seem to notice how on edge everyone around her was. Ezra moved around them all, like a zombie, going about her morning routine as she prepared for their journey.
Today was the day. The day they would confront Ilsadora. The day Isabelle's fate would be determined.
And Viviana was determined to save her princess, or die trying.
She remembered her promise to Elena, and realized that she had no intent of keeping it. Not now, when Isabelle's death loomed closer with every passing day.
She would get Ilsadora to remove Isabelle's curse, or die trying.
Perhaps it was a selfish decision, made out of guilt because she was not sure she could live with herself if Ilsadora refused and Isabelle died.
For some strange reason, Viviana felt convinced that after last night, her life was completely tied with Isabelle's, as a familiar's life was tied with a witch. If Isabelle died, Viviana would too, at least emotionally.
There was no point in denying it to herself anymore. The princess had completely stolen her heart.
And Viviana did not want it back.
Viviana tugged on her boots, coat, and gloves, mulling over what she could possibly say to Ilsadora.
What do you say to someone who may or may not be a psychotic murderer to get them to help you instead of kill you?
"Ready to go, Viv?" Santiago asked, looking at a point over her shoulder instead of directly at her.
Viviana ignored it, tugging the hood of her coat up as she left Ezra's house. "I was born ready, Santiago. Let's go save Isabelle."
***
Ezra drove the snowmobile.
Viviana suspected Santiago had spoken to Ezra behind her back, and made Ezra drive because he was worried about Viviana's mental state.
Viviana wished she was driving. It would have given her something to focus on besides her unease.
Preisha did not feel the same way.
"You are falling apart at the seams, Viv! I'm worried about you, and I know Tiago and Jeanie are too. You can't save Isabelle if you fall apart yourself."
"Watch me." Viviana hissed. "King Silas did not think we would get this far, and look at where we are. I proved him wrong. If I have to, I'll prove you wrong too."
"That's low, Viv. I'm just saying, to go easy on yourself. You are not yourself at all."
"Fine."
Viviana blocked Preisha out, and took to watching the snow drifts instead. The sun was steadily rising in the east, on their left as Ezra drove through the snow.
All too soon, the snowmobile rumbled to a stop, skidding to the side as Ezra hit the brakes.
In front of them, stood a giant ice castle, glinting brightly in the light of the rising sun. Three towers touched the sky, with one turret hovering above all the others. The double doors of the entrance alone seemed to span half of the height of all of the towers. It looked like the castle was more about appearing intimidating than actually living up to it. Actually, it was surprisingly beautiful. Viviana half expected spikes and a horror movie style "No trespassing" sign. It was rather disarming to see something so... borderline normal.
But none of that really mattered when Viviana considered who lived there.
"This is as far as I'm taking you." Ezra insisted, pointing a blue gloved hand at the ice castle in front of them. "I can't bring myself to go any closer."
Viviana hopped off the snowmobile with Preisha as Santiago and Jeanette skidded to a stop beside them, hopping off the other snowmobile. Preisha pawed at the snow, looking at the ice castle with a challenging glint in her eyes. Viviana knew her familiar was guessing whether or not she'd be able to melt the castle if worst came to worst.
Viviana was sure she could destroy the castle before Preisha even sparked.
Ezra turned the snowmobile around, about to drive away, when she stopped.
"Be careful. Ilsadora Silverstein is an enchantress, not a witch. There's no telling what she's capable of."
With that, Ezra drove off, kicking up snow in her wake as if she was trying to cover up her escape.
Viviana tugged on her hood firmly, and started walking toward the ice castle. "She may be an enchantress. But you should never underestimate a desperate witch."
***
Viviana admittedly didn't bother knocking on the double ice doors.
After scaling the treacherous slippery steps, her only thought was to get inside before she broke something.
The ice doors were surprisingly heavy. All of them had to shove on one to get it to creak open enough for them to slip through.
But nothing about the ice castle's exterior could have prepared them for the interior.
The entrance hall truly was giant, but it was also short. Viviana estimated she could cross the entire thing in thirty steps. Three more staircases branched off from the center entrance. One was straight in front of them, while the other two were on the right and left.
"Where do we go?" Jeanette asked. "This place looks empty. How are we supposed to find Ilsadora?"
To their immense surprise, Santiago shrugged. "Anyone got any ideas?"
"You have answers to everything!" Jeanette hissed, her eyes wide with panic. "Tiago!"
"It's not a wide enough area for a locator spell to work." He protested. "What do you want from me?!"
"Hush, all of you." Viviana snapped. She was already five steps ahead of them. "We go straight."
She started up the steps, ignoring Jeanette and Santiago's protests. They would never have been able to find Ilsadora. Viviana only knew where to go because of her powers.
All she had to do was find another powerful source of magic in the general vicinity, and lock onto it. Then she could follow it through the castle.
If her magic was correct, Ilsadora was on the fifth floor, right above them.
Viviana took numerous staircases, making sure to stay as close to the entranceway as possible. She took rights and lefts when forced to, but otherwise stayed as straight as possible. She knew Santiago and Jeanette were just hopelessly following her. They were lost long before she'd gone up the first staircase.
Viviana burst onto the fifth floor from a side staircase, showering herself with snow as she bumped into a frozen painting from skidding sideways.
An intricate set of frozen double doors were in front of her. It looked like Ilsadora had tacked a twisting snake in between the doors, and wound a thorny rose around it.
Viviana grimaced at the sight, and shoved open the doors, careful not to stab herself on one of the spiky thorns.
These doors opened easier. So much easier, that Viviana almost fell forward onto the frozen floor.
She caught herself on the door snake and frowned.
The room was tiny, no bigger than a broom closet, and completely empty save for two things. A thin layer of ice set into the ceiling like a skylight, and a mirror hanging from the wall in front of them.
The mirror looked so out of place in the castle, Viviana was immediately drawn to it.
The glass was an oval shape, set into a wiry golden frame, which twisted itself into so many loops, Viviana did not bother following the spirals. Light from the skylight hit the mirror, and refracted around the room in golden specks.
But the most interesting thing was the mirror did not display any reflection. Instead, the glass was fogged, like an unused crystal ball.
And Viviana would know because she had never managed to make her crystal ball ever work. Her scrying skills only ever worked if she used some sort of prism with hard angles.
Viviana edged closer to the mirror, but she also made sure to keep a respectable distance from it.
The first rule she'd learned in Enchantments 101 class was to never touch an object if you don't know what it does. It could be harmless, and only turn your hair pink, or it could be really bad and saw you in half before you could blink.
And this mirror, despite its beautiful appearance, could definitely be the saw in half type.
Jeanette looked aghast. "I thought we were supposed to find Ilsadora! That's just a mirror."
It is odd that the mirror would be the most powerful thing in this castle. Perhaps Ilsadora has a concealment enchantment?
Viviana's thought process was interrupted when the mirror suddenly coalesced, and a blinding golden flash of light broke across it, and Viviana screamed at what she saw.
It was her. Her reflection was accurate down to the red snow boots she was currently wearing. But that wasn't why she screamed.
The Viviana in the mirror was standing in a broken world, surrounded by dust and ash. Her eyes were completely black, with glowing red irises that pulsed with dangerous magic. Her smile was one of complete lunacy, and deadliness. Preisha, ever the faithful familiar, sat by her side, wreathed in flickering flames. All you could truly see of the pyrokinetic cat was a pair of green eyes.
In short, she looked psychotic. They both did.
It was Viviana's worst nightmare, after Isabelle dying, brought to life. It was how she saw herself.
An unstoppable force of destruction, meant to kill and rip and tear at the very fabric of reality. A lunatic, capable of murdering fifty thousand people with a snap of her fingers.
Viviana staggered backward and froze, when a cold, controlling hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"Ah. I see you've found the Mirror of Veritas. Witches may call it something else though. Perhaps you are familiar with the El Vidrio de Verdad. Either way, it does not change what the mirror is, or what it does."
An icy cold, detached voice.
Viviana turned, her face paling as she found the woman she'd been looking for.
Former Queen Ilsadora Silverstein looked exactly as intimidating as the painting King Silas had been staring at.
Her eerie green eyes, focused and nearly unblinking, were analyzing Viviana's every move, like a predator about to strike. It didn't help that they were framed in dark eyeshadow. The eyeshadow only emphasized the stare, making it inescapable.
Actually, it was frighteningly similar to the way Isabelle stared at her.
Ilsadora slunk in front of Viviana, her silvery cloak sliding across the frozen floor. "The Mirror of Veritas, is the Mirror of Truth. It shows a person's true nature, who they know they are."
Ilsadora's striking green eyes flicked back to Viviana.
"And who they believe they are."
Viviana tried to turn her head to see Jeanette and Santiago, but she couldn't move. Ilsadora had somehow immobilized her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jeanette and Santiago similarly frozen. They could only blink and watch as the Snow Queen walked toward the mirror, tracing a hand down the side, careful to stay out of its reflection, so only Viviana's vision was visible.
"Tell me, what are two witches and a warlock- all underage I might add -doing in my castle?" Ilsadora demanded, her eyes narrowing to slits. "I highly doubt most people would venture into the mountains for an elaborate prank on the fallen Snow Queen. But most witches do things I can't begin to understand."
Viviana felt inexplicable anger rise toward the enchantress in front of her.
Does she truly not know how much pain and suffering she has caused?!
For once, Viviana allowed her magic to subtly rise to the surface, and fray the magic bond holding her in place.
"Princess Isabelle is dying, Queen Ilsadora." Viviana whispered, but her words might as well have been a swinging broadsword the way Ilsadora recoiled. "Princess Isabelle is dying."
"And what would you have me do about it?" Ilsadora looked unimpressed. "Did you all really come all this way-"
Viviana snapped.
"Have you no regrets?!" She shrieked, seething as her magic flew to the surface even faster. "Do you have no remorse for what you have done?!"
"What I have done?" Ilsadora's face contorted in fury, and frost spread across the frozen floor from her feet. "How dare you!"
"Yes, how dare I arrive on your doorstep and make you look your mistakes in the eye." Viviana snarled, as the last part of the binding enchantment fell away.
Viviana lunged forward, not thinking as she pinned Ilsadora to the wall by the mirror with maroon magic. Ilsadora's eyes widened in shock, before quickly fading back to fury.
"Isabelle is dying because of YOU! All because you cursed her at her own birthday celebration as a baby!"
Ilsadora broke the magic holding her and tried to pin Viviana with ice. Viviana's magic had already been unleashed, and now that she gave it a target, it flew from her fingertips, shredding the ice into tiny shavings that thudded to the floor, which cracked when the agitated tendrils of maroon magic struck against it.
For a moment, Viviana believed she could win. But then the mirror flashed next to her, and the terrifying red eyes leered at her over Ilsadora's shoulder.
It was all Ilsadora needed to fling Viviana to the other side of the room with a scream.
"YOU DARE INSULT ME WITH YOUR LIES?!"
Viviana's head cracked into the ice wall, but she laughed despite the pain, a crazed, on edge laugh. "You can't deal with the truth? You're the one who cursed her, that's a fact."
Ilsadora flew across the room, her green eyes stopping inches from Viviana as she whispered, each word sharper than the icicles she'd flung.
"Tell me, why would I curse my own daughter?"
A/N:
What did you think just because this is no longer ITS I gave up the plot twists? Who do you think I am LOL.
Also: May the fourth be with you and happy Star Wars day! I plan to watch Baby Yoda reels until my eyes hurt.
QOW: Do you like Star Wars or Star Trek better?
Personally, I prefer Star Trek, but Grogu holds the key to my soul.
See you next week for more chaos! The plot twists are only just beginning (Rubs hands together craftily).
-Eva