A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
***********************************
"Your Majesty, we could have chased them all the way to the border to ensure that Kiran never steps forth in our land again. Why was your decision to stop?" Grover asked.
Percy didn't know how to explain it either. "Intuition." He finally said. "It felt like a trap. And Princess Alana hasn't been in battle for the last few times. Don't you think something is off?"
"That is true." Grover scanned the troops who were in the midst of organizing themselves and healing the injured. "Maybe she was injured in battle?" He asked hopefully.
Percy recalled the glare full of putrid hatred Alana had sent him the last time they had met before Alana and her soldiers retreated. Unfortunately, she had been unharmed at that time.
After the victories in battle and the successful flushing of spies, the generals didn't question Percy's order of withdrawing. But the question remained. Where was Alana?
"Your Majesty!" Sir Rachel had arrived.
Her troop of soldiers followed behind, all panting and flustered. Had there been a skirmish? Percy glanced over them but other than some minor injuries, Sir Rachel and her knights looked fine.
"Report," ordered Percy.
"There is someone who wishes to meet with you."
Sir Rachel glanced nervously behind her. The soldiers spread apart as someone emerged from behind them, held up by a junior knight.
The stranger was not someone Percy knew, but some of the features in her face looked familiar as though he had met her quite recently. But Percy couldn't recall ever meeting this person.
The woman looked gaunt and with an unhealthy yellow pallor to her skin as if she had been ill for the majority of her life. Her dark hair was dry and limp. Yet, the woman's expression was regal, and age and sickness had not fully diminished her beauty.
"Greetings to Your Majesty, King of Eldoris." The woman gave a small smile. "I am the real Princess Alana, heir to the throne of Kiran."
Percy's hand flew to his sword.
"Peace." The woman claiming to be Princess Alana raised her hand before coughing. "I mean no harm."
Percy narrowed his eyes, his guard still up. "Why should we believe you?" After all, this could all be a trick. Princess Alana was surely in her early twenties. This woman looked to be in her early fifties.
The woman coughed again. "I truly mean what I say, and I will not use my powers to bewitch you, lest you mean me harm. I came to warn you. Your queen is in danger."
Annabeth! Percy's senses tingled.
"My mother, Circe, is the one who switched our souls eight years ago. She is in my body, while I am trapped in hers. That is why I look the way I do now." The woman gave a sardonic smile.
Naturally, it was hard for Percy to believe this woman's words. He knew that the Kiran Queen was a great wielder of light magic who had passed her powers down to Princess Alana. Annabeth was not related to the queen of Kiran, and so did not inherit such powers. The queen of Kiran was allegedly in ill health since eight or nine years ago and rarely showed her face outside of her chambers. This woman was ill, but to claim to be Princess Alana was a little too much on the lying side.
"We do not have much time." The woman continued to warn. "My mother is on the way to the Eldoris palaces now to capture my sister to use her as a hostage."
"Your Majesty, this could be some strange strategy of theirs." Sir Grover whispered.
But Kiran had never used such a strategy.
Sensing their continued reluctance, the woman looked at Sir Rachel. "Bind me with chains, if you do not trust me. I can understand that. But I speak the truth. I do not want my sister to perish again. Annabeth is in danger, Your Majesty."
Sir Rachel glanced at Percy to look for orders.
"Bind me." The woman ordered instead.
Light magic! Percy shrugged off the magic clouding his mind, watching as the knights around him rushed forward and bound the woman with chains before blinking and wondering what had just happened.
"Physical barriers mean nothing of trust." Percy growled. "I should cut your tongue off myself."
Only then would most of the source of light magic be cut off.
The woman gave a grim smile. "Perhaps my mother should have done that, but she didn't expect me to survive and escape. Nor would she want her original body to be desecrated as a means of her escape. Peace, Your Majesty. Didn't you think it strange that you haven't seen my mother, that is, the current soul living in my body as Princess Alana, on the battlefield these few days?"
That was true, which gave Percy some pause.
"My mother is a great sorceress of light magic. She hopes to achieve beauty and immortality by switching souls with her next of kin. And when each generation marries someone of influence, my mother will gain power over nations as well." The woman coughed. "But there is a downside to her magic. Our souls do not originally fit these bodies, so our bodies continually try to reject our souls. My mother often takes medicine to hide the incompatibility of this magic."
"Then why doesn't Alana—Queen Circe, just kill you to hide the evidence?" Percy demanded.
"This original body of hers is a last resort of escape. It is why I also ask to be bound. My mother does not know I have escaped. If my mother senses any trouble detrimental to her, she will immediately cast a spell to reverse our souls again. She will be safe once more as Queen Circe, while I unjustly face the consequences of the crimes she has committed in my body. Thus, if she is captured and switches souls back, she will at least be in chains and hindered."
Princess Alana's eyes were bright despite her illness. They reminded Percy too much of Annabeth's expression.
"My family has abused Annabeth in the dark for far too long. I did not know of her existence when I was young, and when I did, it was too late to take action. I was soon trapped within my mother's body. But that is no proper excuse. I am sorry for that." The woman, Alana, bowed her head. Then, she stared fiercely at Percy. "But my country and people are in danger. My sister, your wife, is in danger. We must work together to save her."
Before Percy could reply, Alana coughed and spat up blood, the red drops glistening on her pale lips. "It's too late!"
***********************************
Annabeth couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Her body felt over excited as Annabeth paced in her office again.
"Your Majesty, you're going to wear a hole right into the rug." Piper took the crumpled paper in Annabeth's hands and smoothed the report out, placing the report back on the large pile on the queen's desk. "Is everything all right?"
Annabeth was about to reply yes but stopped herself. "I don't know," Annabeth admitted. "Something just feels off."
"Are you worried about His Majesty?" Piper soothed. "I am sure His Majesty will be fine. The Eldoris lineage has always been powerful with water elemental magic. Eldoris will prevail."
A chuckle escaped Annabeth's mouth. Piper must be injecting a little of light magic in her words. She was so confident that Annabeth almost believed her. It seemed Piper had been using light magic constantly these days to keep Annabeth's spirits up.
Someone knocked on the door. "Your Majesty. The wizard lord requests an audience."
Before Annabeth could reply, the doors slammed open. "Lord Christopher! You can't just enter—"
The wizard lord entered in a rush despite a maid's stammering response. His dark hair was haphazardly blown and his cheeks were red as though he had ran up to her office. Both Piper and Lucy stepped instinctively in front of Annabeth.
"What's wrong, Lord Christopher?" Annabeth asked. There was still a slight mistrust towards him. She quietly picked up a sharp letter opener from her desk.
"We need to leave now, Your Majesty." Lord Christopher said with urgency in his voice. He glanced behind him as though looking for something. No, running away from something or someone.
"Why? What's wrong?" Annabeth also looked behind him.
"She's here! I sensed her presence." Christopher hissed. "We have to get you to safety or everything will happen again."
"You're not making much sense, Lord Christopher. Who's here? Hey, what are you doing!"
With a wave of his hand, Lord Christopher had summoned a mass of cloudy fog that enveloped the four people in the room. The dark fog then shimmered slightly before disappearing along with the rest of their bodies.
No, not completely. If Annabeth looked closely at her body, she could see the outline. But if someone wasn't looking closely or was aware, then she could blend into her surroundings like a chameleon.
"What did you do to us?" Piper asked, checking out how her arm matched the color .
"Invisibility spell." The wizard lord looked anxiously at them, or where the three would have been standing.
The wizard lord clapped his hands, muttered something under his breath and drew a symbol in the air. Suddenly Annabeth could see the others, but whenever she looked down, her body was still camouflaged.
"Good, we can see each other but no one else will see us. Now, we must make haste and leave the palaces."
"But why? What or what are we hiding from?" Annabeth demanded.
"Your sister. Alana's here."
Damn it, why can't you start with the most important details, Annabeth cursed.
"How? But they said Princess Alana was still on the battlefields." Piper cried.
"I do not know. This loop has been long broken with your survival. Nothing is predictable anymore," the wizard lord muttered.
Survival? Did he mean the elder Kiran princess' survival? So Lord Christopher must know that Annabeth didn't belong here.
Before Annabeth could ask, the wizard lord grabbed Annabeth's wrist. "Pardon me for my rudeness, Your Majesty." He led the way out of Annabeth's office with Piper and Lucy following in protest. When they approached a couple of maids, the wizard lord put his finger to his lips as a call for silence.
The four retreated themselves to the wall and let the maids pass. The blank expression in their faces caught Annabeth's eyes. Light magic? Had Alana's powers grown so strong?
This story of Clarisse's had long been unpredictable due to Annabeth's actions. Alana had always remained on the battlefield with the other male leads during the invasion of Eldoris. Now that two of the male leads were out, causing Kiran to lose some much needed military power. Was Alana's strategy to secretly invade Eldoris from the inside while having most of Eldoris' military power away at its borders? Or was Alana trying to use her as a hostage to barter with Percy?
They waited until the maids were out of sight and earshot.
"Should I use my light magic to counteract?" Piper suggested.
Lord Christopher shook his head. "Save your energy. We shall be in need of your magic soon."
As they made their way out of the palaces, they spotted more palace staff with strange expressions on their faces. They were definitely being searched for. Annabeth felt furious. These were her people whom Alana was manipulating! Her thoughts flew for a plan.
In order to control this many people, Alana's light magic must be dispersed as though it were in a thin layer. Ordinary people who were unaware couldn't throw off the magic, not without the help of someone like the wizard lord.
The four of them quietly descended the stairs into the kitchen where a door would lead to the outside. They had just taken a few steps outside when a cold voice chilled Annabeth to the bone.
"Thought it was easy to escape, did you?"
Lord Christopher cursed as Princess Alana stepped into view from a shadow of the garden wall. Suddenly, Eldoris knights and palace staff lumbered forward. Annabeth had an impression of the knights as zombies or puppets manipulated by the glowing Kiran princess before them.
Alana opened her mouth and spread her hands as if to use her light magic. Piper quickly interjected.
"Look behind you!"
Several Eldorisians did but Princess Alana quickly commanded them under her influence again.
"Fools!" Alana hissed.
It was enough interruption for Lord Christopher to unleash a dark fog that stunned the possessed Eldorisians in place.
Alana got her bearings quick. "Now, now, Lord Christopher, is it? I have been searching for you for a very long time––"
As if in unison, the dark fog dissipated as the light magic penetrated the wizard lord's own magic as the frozen Eldorisians surged forward. Lord Christopher lunged forward to counteract.
Annabeth felt something crawl up her skin like electricity. She turned around and raised her letter opener just in time to catch a sword on its hilt. The impact jarred her shoulder, but it gave her enough time to dance back from the sword. She would have given a good kick but the assailant was wearing armor.
The bearer of the sword was Luke Castellan, Princess Alana's faithful knight. This close to him Annabeth caught sight of his blank expression. Alana must be controlling him.
"Snap out of it!" Annabeth yelled.
"Your Majesty, duck!" The wizard lord shouted. He summoned dark tendrils that wrapped around Luke's legs and pulled him away, slamming the knight to the far wall. Not even fazed, Luke picked himself up and began walking towards them again.
Annabeth could tell that it was beginning to be futile. Piper was countering orders against Princess Alana, but Alana had a longer time to influence the palace knights and staff with her magic. Someone on the inside of Eldoris palaces must have let her in as well. The dowager queen, Annabeth bet.
"You have to escape, Your Majesty." Lord Christopher said adamantly. "I will hold them off for as long as I can."
"There's too many of them! We need to go together." Annabeth insisted.
Christopher was about to answer before his expression went slack for a moment. "It's too late, she's trying to control her mind like she's done before. Your Majesty," Lord Christopher urged her. "You are the key to breaking us out of this loop. You have to survive."
"Loop? What loop?" She demanded.
"Not enough time!" Christopher raised his hands and Annabeth found herself floating.
"Wait!" She protested.
But the winds were picking up and Annabeth was lifted higher and higher over the ground.
"Stop him!" Princess Alana ordered.
The last sight Annabeth had of Lord Christopher was the wizard lord clutching his head as Alana stood over him, her hair blowing in the wind. Then she, Lucy, and Piper were launched far over the palace walls with the winds picking up speed.
Annabeth couldn't control her limbs or the direction the magical wind was blowing. The rushing winds tore any words from her throat as they tumbled in the sky like ragdolls.
And then, Annabeth saw Gardenia Palace smoking and under fire. Eldoris had fallen.
***********************************
A/N: School is starting up soon. Goodbye, sweet summer.