"You know I got a lot to say
All these voices in the background of my brain
Y me dicen todo lo que estás pensando."
- Telepatía, Kali Uchis
That night, Elara had spent it tossing and turning. Those immense anxieties she had for what the next day would hold had overlapped with her dreams and now refused to let her rest. So around 5 am, the princess had risen from her bed without an ounce of sleep, beginning to get ready and start her day.
On her way down to the cafeteria, a singular figure had caught her attention as she passed through the corridor of windows- after closer examination, she had realized it was none other than Rivin, training in the specialist field alone. Scrunching her nose in confusion, the star fairy continued on her way to grab herself a latte, deciding to grab Rivin one too and join him.
If you knew Elara, you would know that she was most defiantly not a morning person therefore she rarely got to experience the tranquility it brought. Heading out the door, she was overcome by the stillness having never seen the school so quiet, she almost felt as though the air still smelt like night as the sun hadn't fully risen it was so fresh that she felt shivers run down her bare legs. Standing still for a moment or two, the young princess watched intently as the first rays of the sun slowly began to peak over the forest while the mist encircled the all in its path. She had never thought of mornings to be so beautiful before.
"Good morning." She greeted him, almost making him jump as he hadn't expected to see anyone up this early let alone her. Turning, Rivin couldn't even try and conceal the surprise of seeing her awake so early. The two of them hadn't spoken since that time they met under the willow tree, but it didn't feel awkward between them at all it felt normal as if nothing had even happened.
"Morning," he replied, placing his training stick back onto the rack, "I didn't think of you as a morning person." approached her, as she extended her hand that held his steaming cup of coffee. Smiling at the sweet gesture, he took it instantly while leaning in to thank her with a chasted kiss- only for the princess to move back slightly, causing his smile to drop instantly.
"Not so fast," She teased him, although she held a seriousness to her words. "I'm still technically in a relationship with someone else." Scoffing in response, Rivin took a sip of the warm brew and closed in next to her, placing a hand on the small of her back leading her to sit on the nearby bench.
"I think we both know that's over." He stated the obvious as they both sat, Elara decided to wrap her arm around his bicep for warmth as she let her head fall on his shoulder while Rivin let his hand drop to her thigh.
"It is for me, just not for him." she admitted as she lifted her head to gulp her latte, "What are you doing up this early anyway?"
"Could ask you the same thing." He countered, "I remember calling you at 9 am to make sure you got up for class and you told me to quote ' get fucked ' and then proceeded to chuck your phone across the room." on that recollection, Elara grinned at the memory but in her defense, she was astronomically hung over.
"I don't remember that, but that does sound like me." She giggled, the sound of it caused Rivin to smile wider as he watched her pause to take another sip. "But no," she got back onto topic, "I just couldn't sleep last night, you?"
Nodding at her explanation, Rivin huffed slightly turning his forward "Wanted to get some extra hours of training in, seeing as how shit I was yesterday." Her smile faltered, clocking onto how disappointed he was with himself.
"Hey," her hand had slid down his arm to hold his, "everyone has bad days, cut yourself some slack will you?" Knowing that she was right, he let out a small smile as he looked back at her, squeezing her hand in response.
"There you are," Elara had been sitting at the stone circle, finishing off her cigarette as Bloom approached with the book and device. "I was beginning to think you bailed."
"No," the fire fairy spoke begrudgingly, clearly still conflicted as she entered the circle, "Let's just get this over with." There were many differences between Bloom and Elara, one of them being that Bloom seemed to understand the gravity of the situation they were putting themselves in, while on the other hand, Elara only had one thing on her mind, getting that bloody book open and helping her friend get the answers she deserved.
Elara moved to stand opposite Bloom at the center stone, watching carefully as she opened the book to reveal the device Beatrix had given them. Lifting it, both girls had their hands positioned on the circular relic, letting their powers run freely into it as a mystical chime flowed into the air and the embedded crystals began to glimmer. Placing it into the middle of the stone they both observed intently as blue whisps of energy poured into each crystal individually until each one flashed with an amber blaze.
"Is this where the overachievers hang out?" a certain blonde specialist interrupted the ceremony, making Bloom quickly turn to face him covering the stone as Elara immediately covered the device with the book.
"Yeah, I guess it's, ah, loud in the suite," Bloom lied smoothly, as Elara moved around the center stone to join her side.
"What's that?" Sky had noticed what the girls were attempting to hide from him.
"O this thing?" Elara moved to place her hand on the book, "This is a book, sky, people use it to read." She explained to him as if he were a toddler, making Bloom smirk at her cheekiness before she joined in. "Bit concerned you've never seen one."
He stood there for a moment, it was almost awkward, his facial expression had made it obvious that he knew the fairies were hiding something. "I don't wanna do this," He admitted to the girls.
"Do what exactly Sky?" The princess asked him with false innocence.
"I don't wanna lie to each other and I don't wanna play a game." He continued seriously, but this was mostly directed at Bloom rather than Elara.
"There's no game." Bloom folded her arms at him, while Elara's eyes darted back and forth between the pair, sensing the tension building up.
After a second of silence between the three, Sky gulped before speaking up, "Silva wanted me to watch you." upon this confession, Elara looked to Bloom to see her reaction, "I told him he was crazy, and that nothing was going on. That you were just frustrated and you wanted answers and you--"
"You've been spying on me?" Bloom sounded hurt as she moved closer to Sky, although Elara remained with her back to the stone watching him with harsh eyes.
"What the fuck Sky?" The blonde spoke up in backing her friend, she could only imagine how violated she felt. "Do you always blindly do whatever Silva wants?"
"He gave me an order," Sky defended to the princess as the fire fairy stood between them.
"Which he could have given to anyone but he used you, used our... our friendship." She argued back, "But I'm the bad guy, right?" Scoffing she turned back to Elara who was staring daggers at the specialist, first her sister and now Bloom. How many more people in her life did he want to hurt?
Spinning around, Elara quickly grabbed the book only for Sky to abruptly snatch it off her much to her struggle to try to keep it in her grip. The princess's teeth began to grind together at her frustration towards him, "Seriously?!" Bloom just remained silent beside her, clearly just as infuriated.
Opening the book, Sky found the trinket straight away taking it out as he chucked the book onto the stone and observed it closer. "What is this?" He looked up at the two girls, expecting an answer from at least one of them.
"None of your fucking business." Elara snapped at him as she circled in a poor attempt to snatch it back out of his hands. Sky moved away from her closer to Bloom knowing his best chance to get any answers would be from her rather than his ex's sister. "I am trying to be on your side here. You're making it really difficult." He tried again to reason with them, letting his focus go back to Elara only to see the star fairy still in her stand-offish stance, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, clearly unconvinced but Bloom on the other hand was looking down at her feet a clear sign that she was close to giving in. "Bloom," He appealed to her in a softer tone, "you can trust me." Looking up at him and then to Elara who stood behind him, subtly shaking her head indicating to her that she shouldn't tell him, she gulped thinking of her next move.
"I'm not sure I can trust you." She admitted to him, staring intensely into his eyes to see if his truth was genuine. "But maybe I can convince you that what I'm doing is right." Exhaling determinedly, Elara couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh at Bloom's decision to let Sky in. This was not a good idea.
"Okay so while you're giving up information to the spy, I'm going to do something actually useful." with that the princess grabbed the trinket from Sky's hand and stormed off.