The rain lashes loudly against the firmly bolted windows, with the blackened clouds provoking even occasional lightning flashes outside, yet even the excitement of a thunderstorm cannot drag my attention away from my main concern. What exactly had happened in the Demanitis Chamber. Oh, and also maintaining my so far unbroken winning streak.
Eugene had participated in our the first round of cards, while Rapunzel had sat off the side showing her parents pictures and drawings, pleased at the fact how much more in detail they were remembering their previous lives. Ivy, as usual, had been right. But then without really any warning, both the princess and her partner had suddenly had to leave right in the middle of the game due to a mysterious message that they had received from Cassandra's owl, creatively named Owl.
All of us had simply assumed that he had gone off with his owner, but apparently he had not; as he'd flown up upon the window with a piece of fruit and a message tied around his leg alluding that the source of this plant would lead to where the Captain of the Guards was currently located.
And both Rapunzel and Eugene instantly recognised the plant.
I practically fell over when Rapunzel read out the word 'Captain'. "But he...." I began to stammer, aware of how stupid I sounded. "He led the search party that my parents were in!" Rapunzel and Petunia turned to me in astonishment, but I most assumed that it was mostly just due to the fact that I had finally broken my nearly four month silence relating to my parents. "But that could mean........" Rapunzel trailed off, as she reread the letter to be certain. I nodded my head before she could finish that sentiment. "They could still be alive."
Varian sat up now, his eyes wide at the sheer possibility. "Are you sure?" I shook my head. "Not particularly." As I said this, Rapunzel's expression hardened with purpose at this small chance. "Then Eugene and I will have to go over to Tirapai Island in the hot air balloon."
"I'm coming with you." I insisted, but Rapunzel shook her head at my suggestion, her voice firm, almost like a parent's. "No. That island is far too dangerous." The sheer audacity of her assuming that I would care about that was almost humorous. "I'll be fine. You may even need my rocks!"
If she had been firm before, she was now commanding, her voice didn't even rise an octave however as she reinstated her refusal. "Absolutely not. After what happened in the Demanitis Chamber, I would be homicidal if I took you with me. No."
Her gaze flickered over to Ivy, Petunia and Varian now, as she added, "You four stay here until we get back. Understood?" I shook my head in protest. "But my par-" "We'll be sure to ask the Captain about them. I promise." Rapunzel reassured me, yet it wasn't the reassurance that they were alive that I wanted, what I wanted was to see them again. Hear their voices again.
~*~
And now fifteen extremely tense rounds of Meow-Meow later, and neither of them had returned. If it weren't for the privacy allowing us to talk about subject of the red rocks, I was fairly sure that I would have jumped out the window to follow Rapunzel and Eugene by now.
"So you're sure that it was you who moved the rocks? Cassandra wasn't hiding out in the chamber somewhere??" Ivy presses as she scowls at her selection of cards that are fanned out before her face, before reluctantly pulling out a Jack from her pile and slapping it upon the messy stack that we have formed. "Change to Spades."
I shake my head, as I protest this, annoyed. "Cassandra wasn't there. We would have known. And even if so, why would she free me? She was trying to trap me in there!!" I absent-mindedly place a six of spades upon the pile as I say this. Petunia shrugs at this notion. "Maybe she was testing you?" She tries to peer over Ivy's shoulder to see her cards, and is rewarded with a sharp slap upon the wrist from her.
Yet Varian also shakes his head. "It wasn't Cassandra. I saw her move those rocks with my own eyes!! No one could have done it but her." He picks up a card from the deck as he says this, at which Ivy holds up her hands in a surrender like motion. "Don't worry! I'm not doubting anyone. I just wanted to weigh the optio- Petunia, for goodness sake!! Stop looking at my cards!" Petunia shifts away from her with a shrug. "So-RE." She also picks up a card from the deck.
Ivy sighs, before she continues what she was saying. "I do agree with Varian. I do believe that it was you who moved the rocks. But that itself presents a massive collection of questions. You hadn't summoned those rocks after all. It's not easy, controlling someone else's rocks." Ivy shifts herself the tiniest bit as she says this, preventing Petunia from being able to peer over her shoulder.
At her words, I sigh and tug at the cyan streak once more. "Even so, no one else should be able to move the rocks but Cassandra. She has the Moonstone!!! Surely the rocks would only obey her." Ivy shrugs as she puts another card down. "One of the biggest mistakes made is that you can only control the rocks if you have the MoonDrop. But the SunDrop and the MoonDrop don't work that way. They're more.....microphones."
Everyone stares at Ivy as if she's lost her mind. "Ah....maybe that wasn't the best example. The MoonDrop is more like a sword. If someone attacks you, you can fight back, and possibly succeed without a weapon. However, your chances of winning the fight are increased if you have a sword. Does that make sense?" I bite my lip. "Ah.....kind of???"
She elaborates even more. "Basically Violet, you can control the rocks just fine on your own, but if you were to wield the MoonDrop as well, you'd be even more powerful. Cassandra was completely ordinary before she took the stone, so with it, you two would relatively have very similar power sets, maybe yours a little bit greater because of your stronger connection, due to being born with your control, rather than recently receiving it. That is why Cassandra cannot see memories in the rocks like you can, as her connection with the Moonstone is physical, not mental; meaning that the ways you two will gain full control of the rocks will be different to the other's. And the way you would establish full control over the rocks is for them to connect with you also. You can do this by sharing your memories with the rocks. Your greatest moments of triumph, your moments of vulnerability; etcetera."
"But why Violet?" Varian interrupts, still as baffled as ever. "The rocks and the MoonDrop are fuelled by rage.....they're all about destruction. And Violet's the complete opposite of that. She's not vengeful....." He then turns to me. "Are you?" I roll my eyes. "Of course not." He nods his head adamantly as he continues. "So why can she control the rocks? It kind of undermines the entire purpose."
Ivy nods at this fact. "You're absolutely right, Varian. She's not fuelled by rage in the slightest. And that is because there is something much more powerful than anger. Anger in terms of magic, can only get you so far. The rocks may connect more easier with anger and vengeance at first, but soon it takes something far greater than simply fury to unleash one's true power."
She sees Varian's still confused expression, and elaborates with a question. "Tell me Varian, what is the opposite of love?"
"Hate." He responds instantly, but Ivy shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. Okay, I'll ask an easier one. What is the opposite of heat?" Petunia rolls her eyes by this question. "That's easy. Cold."
But Varian shakes his head. "It's not that simple. You can never gain cold, because although it is a completely different concept to heat, a form of heat source can still be found. The opposite of warmth is an absence of heat."
Ivy nods eagerly at this. "Precisely. It's the same with the emotion love. Hate, like cold being spawn from heat, is a product of love. Your anger is a part of you that knows that others' mistreatment of you is unacceptable. Your anger knows that you deserve to be treated well, and with kindness. Rage is a part of you that loves you as much as anything else. Anger and hate are both indeed a form of love. I'm almost certain that this is what spurred Cassandra to betray Rapunzel as well. Her anger stemmed from mistreatment, be it intentional or not. The only thing that matches the strengths of love is simply no love at all." Varian blanches in confusion. "So you're saying that this is Violet's advantage over Cassandra?"
She chews her lip slightly, her face crumpling, causing Varian's hopeful expression to sour, as Ivy reluctantly adds, "Not exactly." My eyes widen, as I turn to her. "Wh.......what do you mean??"
Hesitating, she finally states in a cautious tone, "Well, like I said before, you gain more control over the rocks by allowing them to connect with your thoughts. They're not just tools, they have somewhat of a sentience. They can be, I guess you could say........tamed, after a while, in which the Wielder is able to gain full control over the rocks. This will be shown by the rocks being the Wielder's signature colour, meaning a unique colour that indicates that the rocks are the doings by a certain Wielder. Yet both the wielder and the item have to be able to link to each-other in order to gain full control, meaning....." She falters now, her head bowing slightly.
Voice tight with fear, I demand, "Meaning what?" She hesitates once more, before finally she resumed in a much more lowered tone. "You had to give the rocks a piece of yourself in order for them to allow you to control them. You could only tap into your power over them once you finally gave in, gave yourself to the rocks. Which means that the only way for you to gain full control over the rocks is to let the rocks give you a piece of themselves."
I shrug at this revelation, confused by Ivy's wariness. "That doesn't sound so bad." She shook her head once more. "No Violet, that means that you have to let them control you."
The cards that I was clutching begin to slip out of my hand, as my eyes widen in sheer horror. "Wha.......what?! Control.....I can't let them control me!! What if I become a mind slave for Cassandra! What if I lose control and hur-"
"Violet." Ivy had fully turned to me by now, resting her hand upon mine. "Your rocks are different from Cassandra's, letting them control you doesn't mean that they possess you or anything. More accurately, it's more like swapping consciousness with them. It will take a great deal of concentration however, and even that may not be the thing that helps you gain full control."
She may have sounded reassuring, but her previous wariness from earlier suggested otherwise. Shaking my head in disbelief, I suddenly realise that it was my turn to put down a card again.
Although my heart pounded like a furious drum, I refused to show how her words had affected me, and instead forced a smile, trying desperately to appear calm and collected, as well as completely engrossed in this boring card game. Frowning, I peer at the cluster of cards in my hand, before slapping down my second last card. "Meow-meow." I announce as I do so, trying to hide the quaver in my voice. Petunia's eyes practically boggle out of her head as she lunges to her feet and leans over the table, trying to peer at my last card which I press protectively against my chest. "Again?? How?!" She exclaims, reluctantly crawling back to her seat after catching sight Ivy's murderous glare. She turns to Varian who simply shrugs. "She always wins. She's a card wizard."
"I haven't won yet." I clarify, as Petunia scoures through her fan of cards in the hunt for a jack, any spades or even a seven, something that somehow may help her achieve victory, before giving up and snatching another card from the pile.
One thing that I had learnt about Petunia when it came to cards was that she was a bit of a sore loser. Yet I had been informed by Ivy that she wasn't that bad at Ludo however, so perhaps that would have to be the next option if we ever tired of this game, although we probably wouldn't. Everyone, including Ivy, were simply too keen to see me fail just one round.
The sound of the door opening was so abrupt that I sprang from my seat with anticipation, my ears pricked at the sound, exclaiming, "They're here!" As I do so, placing my final card upon the table, a jack. "I would have won anyhow." Petunia shakes her head, as she teases, "You would have, cheater."
I roll my eyes, but it's more in amusement than annoyance. "Sure, believe whatever you want." At this moment, Rapunzel and Eugene entered the room, looking like they'd walked through a bush backwards; something that sits slightly odd with me, Eugene was obsessive with keeping every hair in place. That wasn't good.
"Did you find him??" I'm surprised by how high pitched my voice sounded. I could see Ivy, Petunia and Varian rising from their seats out of the corner of my eye, but I ignore this as I continue. "Did you-" Rapunzel raises her hand to silence me. "Yes. We did. He's okay, just.....well, Cassandra's betrayal really took him off guard. It took all of us of guard if I'm honest."
She chews her lip now as if to replay in her mind what had occurred, as I wait impatiently for her to continue. "During the search party, they had to go on foot. Well, several people were on horseback, but there weren't enough horses for everyone. Your parents were actually lucky enough to find a mule to ride-" "Samson." I hastily added, not eager to linger upon unimportant details anymore. "He was our mule, yes."
Rapunzel hesitated once more, before continuing. "It was only when they left Vardaros that things went downhill. They were passing through the alps when......." She faltered once more, yet my impatience was getting the better of me. "What? What happened?!" She screwed up her face once more, dreading to break the news. In truth, a tiny part of me suspected the worse, yet I refused to acknowledge the possibility. They had to be okay. They had to be. Her face screws up even more, before the words finally escaped her clenched lips.
"There was an avalanche."
My heart caught in my throat, and the air was immediately sucked from my chest as if someone had punched me there. My legs turned to parchment and crumpled under me, as I tried to grab onto something to regain my balance. Varian darted to my side as if by magic and seized my arm, holding me upright, as I flopped against his arms like a dead fish. The sheer enormity of Rapunzel's words was finally dawning upon me, as if every syllable was taking it in turns kicking me with steel capped boots.
It was absurd, as part of me suspected that this was the case, that they were indeed deceased; yet just hearing the words from Rapunzel's mouth had cut me more to the core than I ever had been before. The word kept echoing in my head over and over, an avalanche. It reminded me of after that terrible snowstorm, the worst day of my life; my father had cried to me at one point, "We were terrified that you'd fallen into an avalanche! What were you thinking?"
Ironic. I found myself thinking. That it was them who had been caught in the avalanche, rather than me. All eyes were on me now as my vision began to blur with tears. All of them staring at the 'poor girl who had no parents'. It felt surreal.
My compressed chest left me struggling for air, prompting me to dig my fingernails into my palms as hard as I could. The pain felt good compared to the sea of numbness that I was currently drowning in, so I pressed my nails even deeper; before eventually upgrading to tugging the cyan streak in my hair. I'd never be in a scenario where pain had been delightful, yet it was the only thing I could feel, so my brain latched onto it like a child learning their first word.
Anything to drive the image of my parents' faces from my head.
"Petunia, get her a chair." Ivy's voice sounds blurred, as if I were hearing her underwater. I screw up my eyes as tightly as I can manage the second they threaten to leak the warm salty tears from them, as the sheer idea of crying would make this ordeal four hundred times worse.
The sudden feeling of something supporting my legs takes me off guard slightly, as Petunia gently pushes the wooden chair under me, prompting Varian to release my arm, as I crumple into the mahogany. Petunia then kneels beside me and places her hand upon my shoulder, whispering softly, "Are you alright?"
I shake myself furiously. "Yes." The words sound slurred as if I were drunk, yet I ignore this as I straighten up. I was sick of being the weak one. "I'm-" Before I cut off mid-sentence as Rapunzel and Eugene's hushed conversation on the other-side of the room catches my attention. They made no effort to conceal their exchange form the four of us, yet they clearly weren't exactly keen for us to hear it either.
"This doesn't make matters any better." Rapunzel was saying, as she combed her fingers through the tangles that her hair had created. "We still have to worry about what Cassandra is planning. We can't really waste-"
Despite my best efforts, I noisily rise from my seat at this exact moment, everyone's gazes flickering frantically over to me as I do so, looking horrified by the fact that I was standing. Yet I ignore their looks, the only thing that matters to me now is what Rapunzel had said. Because she had unknowingly gifted me a glorious opportunity, a flawless excuse. "I'll handle that."
My voice sounded surprisingly cool and collected, as everyone still stares dumbfoundead at me, as I calmly stride over to Varian and grab his arm, leading him out of the room. "Where are we going?" Varian asks, trying to conceal his confusion. "Home." Is all I say. At that word, Rapunzel's face contorts in horror, possibly assuming that she'd offended me, before she scrambles after me, gasping my name, yet I hold up my hand to silence her before she can continue.
"I'm fine." I repeat, my voice still unnaturally cool as I temporarily stop in the doorway, releasing Varian's arm. "I'll find your friend for you." Before striding out of the room, Varian trailing behind me as I slam the door shut.
~*~
The rain had thankfully stopped before our walk home, which had coated the field that we were standing with dew, making the yellowing grass almost look as if it were dusted with sugar crystals. Yet not even the beauty surrounding us could yank my attention away. This was my distraction, the thing that was dulling the crippling ache in my stomach. I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingers.
Varian turned to face me more, his expression more concerned than I had ever seen before. "Are you sure about this?" I falter for a moment, pondering if I should be honest or not, before I reluctantly shake my head. "No, not really." Frowning at my display, I shake myself slightly, as I wave him off. "Okay, I need to concentrate now." Creasing my brow in concentration, I outstretch my hand, and point it in the direction of a patch of moss, before retracting my hand now, all while Varian looks over my shoulder in fascination.
Biting my lip now in anticipation, I screw up my eyes, and allow my thoughts to wander over to Cassandra. The version of her I'd seen in the rocks; a jaded woman wrapped in armour and cyan hair. I clench my fist even tighter, as I try to focus everything upon her. Not exactly past events, more accurately now events. As if I were trying to catch her essence in a way.
The rocks sprouted from the ground and glowed in anticipation, forming a fairy ring around me, causing Varian to have to take several steps back from where he'd been standing by my side. I clench and relax my fingers repeatedly, trying to craft an image of her in my head.
It was only when I felt the definite click in the atmosphere around me as everything seemed to slide into place, that I instinctively stretched out my hand, and a rock sprouted up and made contact with my hand the mere second I did so.
For a moment, I only saw nothing. Frowning once more, I press my hand harder upon the smooth surface of the rock, before finally the weird feeling of almost floating overcomes me again, identical to the feeling I'd experienced last time I'd connected with Cassandra.
It was only then, as my mind disconnected from my body once more, could I hear them again.
"I told you." The familiar voice belonging to Cassandra sighed. "That's all what's left of The Great Tree. All of the incantations were destroyed." Yet the tiny British person wasn't convinced. "Those incantations were our only hope of unlocking the power of the Moonstone!" She insisted, her impatience barely concealed in her tone.
She then hesitated, pondering as if she should say this, before casually continuing, "Well, aside for the Demanitis Scroll, but that was destroyed millennial ago." Whatever conscientiousness I had left inside of me clenched in horror at the sheer mention of that familiar phrase. Yet I barely had any time to react to this, because I felt Cassandra tense too, she recognised that sentence too.
"Did you say Demanitis Scroll?" She demanded, her voice rising several octaves in excitement. I could suddenly feel the surge of excitement that came from her friend, as Cassandra grinned at her reaction. "Ha. Guess that our next stop, is Corona."
I yanked my hand away from the rock, gasping feverishly for air as I tumbled backwards onto the damp grass. Varian's eyes widened in horror as he darted to my side. "What is it??" He demanded, trying but completely failing to disguise his fear. My reaction had clearly scared him. "What did you see?"
Gulping for air for several minutes, trying to quell my pounding heart that ached even more with each beat, I waved my hands back and forth, trying to ready myself to explain what I had heard, as Varian wrapped his arm tightly around me, trying his hardest to console me. "What happened?" He whispered now, as I continued to heave as if I'd just been pulled from waters that I was drowning in.
Finally, the paralysing numbness that encased me began to slowly release, and I finally took this opportunity to gasp, "She's coming." His eyes widened in horror, as he shook me gently, panic beginning to overcome me. "Who? Who's coming??" Shaking my head slightly, I felt the familiar prickling sensation of tears in the ducts of my eyes, yet I furiously blink them away, as Varian reached across and took my hands now, squeezing them reassuringly. "Violet, who is coming?" He repeated, at which I inhaled deeply once more as I delivered the final sentiment in a trembling voice.
"Cassandra."