In Cora's room, the girls sat in silence, waiting for something to happen. It didn't feel right to Maren. There was trouble afoot, and they were just meant to stay put? Lexi was out in that goddessforsaken mountain, surviving against who knows what and they were just expected to…sit tight?
"I don't like this," Maren said, finally breaking the silence.
She sat across from Cora's fireplace, her leg shaking with impatience.
"Neither do I," Cora answered, flatly.
She stood by the window, staring off into the distance, lost in her thoughts.
"But it would be reckless to go out now," she continued. "We don't even know what's happening."
Maren stood, moving across the room toward Cora.
"That's exactly the problem, though, isn't it?" Maren asked. "Ever since we left the Empire's Palace, we've learned more than we have our whole lives. And that's partly because the people around us couldn't hide it without all the walls and secrets!"
"Are you saying we can't trust the people around us?" Cora asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," Maren shook her head. "I'm saying we've become too…complacent. Only since we started the courting trials have we changed for the better. Our friends are out there, putting their lives on the line! I don't even think Ariel knows about the Darkspirits, or any of the prince candidates for that matter."
Cora stared back at Maren, listening.
"I'm just so sick of living like this, Cora," Maren continued, pacing about the room. "We're Starblessed and we're just sitting here!?"
Cora crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the window frame, nodding along as Maren let her frustrations out.
"I feel like a bird in a cage, just waiting to be eaten! That intruder couldn't have been lurking about for a good reason. And I'm sure nobody out there is going to update us on what's happening because we're not even in charge! We're supposed to be powerful vessels of a Goddess but we're treated like pretty dolls in a display case! I'm sure our powers have weakened because we don't even use them…"
Maren's chest tightened.
She hadn't realized she'd felt this way, but the current circumstances were pushing it all out. When life was slow, she simply agreed to things.
The courting trials — marrying both Cora and a prince candidate.
That's just the way things were.
That was tradition.
But when life began to move, she started to feel herself change — she started to feel both of them change. That complacency she'd felt before was naught but a shadow now, replaced with a fire that burned hot inside her.
"Maren," Cora said, steadying Maren with both hands on her shoulders, "I'm frustrated too. The last few weeks have been…intense. But we're in this together."
Maren sighed, the stress draining from her body.
"You're right," Cora continued, moving one hand from her shoulder to her cheek, "but we have to be smart about this. Why don't we go speak to the Commander?"
Maren gazed up at Cora, admiring her beauty in the dim light of the room. Her heart beat in her chest, heavy like a drum, pumping blood throughout her body. Her heart beat so strong she could feel it in her finger tips.
She remembered the way Cora touched her in the training room — the way their lips brushed in an almost-kiss. There was so much passion and tension lost to the suspense of the intruder, she felt it would be a tragedy to not try to rekindle some of it — especially when she found herself undeniably stirred by Cora's sudden reliability.
Cora went to move, but Maren caught her hand, placing it back on her cheek.
"Wait," Maren murmured, theatricalizing her best demure doe-eyes. "I want to, but…can we stay like this for a moment?" [1]
Cora blinked, moving her hand back in place, cupping Maren's cheek.
Though her expression remained neutral, Maren could feel the heat in Cora's hand spike instantly. Maren turned her face slightly, her lips brushing Cora's palm. She kissed a single, rough callus on her palm.
Then, she paused, eyeing Cora for permission.
Cora remained silent, but her expression was exactly what Maren hoped for. Her cheeks blushed, breath deepened and her eyes filled with a passion so serious, it only made Maren want to tease her more. She pressed her lips into Cora's palm once more and traced the bones beneath her flesh with a trail of kisses, moving slowly up her fingers.
Cora watched intently as Maren kissed her. It was so new, yet familiar. Her face burned as she recalled the night in the kitchens, just before they left for the trials. At the time, she hated how badly she craved to feel her fingers press between Maren's lips.
But as Cora watched Maren savor every inch of something as simple as a finger, she couldn't help but wonder what that would feel like now that they'd become closer.
In a swift motion, Cora grabbed Maren by the waist, moving her with ease, guiding her against a wooden pillar of the bedframe.
"Ah!" Maren gasped.
Maren gazed up at Cora. With one arm leaning against the bedframe and the other hand secured at her chin, she willed Maren to look at her.
She was so close, her body radiating a blaze of heat, Maren thought she might faint from the excitement.
"Maren?" Cora murmured, tracing her thumb over Maren's lips.
"Y-yes?" Maren replied, her chest heaving.
Cora gazed down the length of Maren's neck, down her collarbones, chest, and back up — lingering at her lips before meeting her eyes once more.
"Do you remember that night in the kitchens?" She asked.
"I do," Maren asked, the word like a ring on her finger.
Cora's body burned hotter as she leaned in, her lips brushing her ear.
"Can we do that again?" She asked, her voice low and intimate.
The question sent shivers of excitement through her. Maren met Cora's intense gaze, her heart beating rapidly. She opened her mouth to answer, Cora's thumb teasing the space between her lower lip and teeth.
She took in a breath, readying herself to give her permission.
Then, a sound like dousing a flame in gallons of water—
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Someone pounded their fist on the bedroom window furiously.
They jumped, their attention instantly snapping toward the angry banging on the glass.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!?" Ethan snapped, his voice muffled through the glass. "The castle is under siege and you two are making out!?"
Cora moved to the window instantly, unlocking it to allow him through.
"Seriously," Ethan scolded once his feet were firmly planted on the floor, his arms crossed in front of him. "Lady Twelve has been kidnapped and all you two can think about is kissing!? We have bigger things to worry about!"
"What?" Maren asked, his words piercing her.
"Hey," Cora snapped, "It's not like we knew."
Ethan let out a loud huff, his breath finally relaxing.
He was young, but Maren had forgotten how brazen he could be when it came to the wellbeing of Twelve. She practically adopted him, and raised him as her own. With Twelve around, he was observant and soft-spoken, but this was a side of him Maren had only seen one other time.
"It took me all night to get here," Ethan cried out. Once his attitude wore off, Maren could see the fear in his eyes. "I've been peeping into windows all night like some kind of weirdo, looking for you two! But…they're everywhere."
"We're sorry, Ethan," Maren said, guiding him to the sofa. "What do you mean? Can you tell us what happened? Who took Twelve? "
Ethan sat, his hands in his lap. "I don't know who took her. She made me crawl out the window before I could see but they sounded…angry. It must have been those guards."
"The guards?" Cora asked, her gaze flicking to Maren for a moment.
Maren remembered how desolate the walk back to their wing was. The halls were silent as the grave, urging them to be quiet too, for fear that if they made even a single sound, it would alert some unseen, imaginary monster.
But perhaps the monster wasn't so imaginary after all.
"There's something wrong with them," Ethan said, shaking. "They were growling, and — and biting, and…"
His words trailed off when he buried his face in his hands.
"It's alright," Maren said, running her nails gently through his hair. "You don't need to say anything more."
Maren shot Cora a nervous look.
The parasite spirit had infected the castle.
They were sure of it.
"Lady Twelve told me to give you this," Ethan said.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bit of blue and silver cloth, and immediately set it in Maren's hands. The moment she touched it, she could feel its magic — not the stone's energy alone but the fabric. She could feel it resonate warmly but that feeling was more of a low hum, like the distant buzzing of a bee.
She unraveled the fabric and out rolled the Dreamstone.
Instantly, Ethan snatched the stone and wrapped it back up inside the cloth, gripping it tightly between his little hands.
"Twelve thinks it wasn't a coincidence you two found the stone," he said. "Regular humans can't use Dreamstones the way you two have. It's likely someone else is using you to peer into its secrets."
"But magic has been illegal for some time now," Maren frowned. "And all known information on it was destroyed. How could any of them have learned enough to-"
"-really?" Ethan cut her off, giving her a dumbfounded look.
He gazed at Maren, tilting his head to the side. "Do you truly believe the other Kingdoms follow your word blindly or are you just pretending not to know?"
Maren blinked, taken aback.
Ethan rolled his eyes in response. Then, he looked her directly in the eye, "What are you going to do about Twelve?"
Maren's lips parted slightly, holding his gaze. She wanted to give him an answer, but truthfully, she didn't have one. She inhaled to respond, when suddenly –
Knock, Knock, Knock.
Then, silence.
It was heavy like a dark hallway in the dead of night.
Maren's heart beat in her chest. Ethan had told her they'd only knocked on the door. The guards hadn't spoken a word when they took Twelve away.
Have they beaten our guards? Maren asked herself. Are they coming to harm us?
"Princesses?" Commander Vincent's voice spoke, cutting the tension in half. "I have a visitor here for you."
Maren blinked, the terror building within her fell away.
Cora moved toward the door, her footsteps heavy, almost as if she were irritated over the Commander's timing. She yanked the doors open, and gazed up at him.
"As do we," she said, and moved away from the door.
Then, Thirteen stepped through, her appearance disheveled, yet still glowing faintly — her warm, golden light brightening the room.
"Thirteen?" Maren gasped, standing from the sofa and rushing to her side.
"Don't fuss, child," Thirteen said, waving her off. "We have bigger things to discuss."
She moved across the room, sitting beside Ethan.
"I'll be outside," Vincent said, retreating.
Thirteen nodded at him, and he shut the doors.
Maren and Cora crowded around them, sitting on opposite, single armchairs. The fire light crackled softly, its dim embers casting shadows across the room. The real light in the room was Thirteen, emanating warm, golden light.
"Twelve was taken by Darkspirits," she began, glancing at the boy. "Since Ethan is here, I suppose you already know this castle is infested with them. Well, only one, in truth. This one just happens to multiply."
"The one from the book," Maren confirmed. "I read that it can infect many people at once, and they take orders from a single source, just like a bee hive ."
"Yes," Thirteen said, pulling her shawl over herself more tightly. "But not as dependent as that. When the queen bee dies, the bees leave the hive in search of a new queen. Some find what they're looking for but many never do."
She sighed, her gaze falling to the ground. "But when the queen spirit dies, the others simply adapt. We don't know enough about this spirit to know how it works. Only that once the main spirit is destroyed, the rest do not leave, scatter and die like bees. And that's what makes this Darkspirit so dangerous."
Thirteen's gaze passed between each of the girls.
"But just like animals in nature, they protect the acting queen, even if she can be replaced. That is why we have not seen her thus far."
The strange visitor lurking near the training room flashed through Maren's mind.
"Then is she waiting to come after us?" Maren asked. "To strike when the time is right?"
Thirteen shook her head.
"Quite the opposite. We theorized she was hiding away in the mountains somewhere. Though she has lived for many years, she is the weakest among the other Darkspirits left in our world — just better at hiding."
"So then why..?"
"Because," Thirteen said, her voice low, "she is terrified of encountering you."
Maren and Cora shared an unsure glance and Thirteen continued.
"In every environment, there are predators and prey. But what happens if you take a species and place it in an environment it doesn't belong to?"
Maren's lips parted, realizing what she was getting at.
"With no predators, the species thrives. But when confronted by a predator from their environment — they might do anything to live — including taking over an area to make itself stronger."
"So in this metaphor, we are the predators?" Cora asked.
Thirteen nodded. "You are indeed. And more than that, the Starblessed cannot be infected. You can be subject to its other influences but it can never truly reach inside you. And that leaves it weak to your power."
"How do you know all this?" Maren asked.
Thirteen lifted her gaze, staring into the fire.
"Eliana, the Emerald Empress vanquished only one Darkspirit in her lifetime," she answered. "I did not see how she disposed of it. Only that she brought its near lifeless form to her room one night after her battle and the next morning it was gone."
A feeling struck Maren deep in her core.
She didn't understand this sensation. It was like emptiness and anticipation, but somehow more restless.
"There was no trace of it when the maids cleaned. Like it never existed to begin with," Thirteen explained, her eyes flat, but her nostrils flared slightly. "We never pressed her about it. She was an adult at this point, and a full-fledged Empress. It was not our place. But she was so secretive about it, I couldn't help but wonder…"
Maren's eyes locked with Cora's, wondering if she felt the same stirring within her.
There was a brief hesitation in the air between them.
What could be so awful about how it was discarded that the previous queen refused to do it in front of anyone? Maren thought.
"So the infected are avoiding the area because it knows we're here?" Cora asked. "Does it have some sort of magic that it's keeping an eye on us?"
"I'm not sure," Thirteen said. "Darkspirits cannot cast human magic. Oftentimes they will meld with a host that can, but on their own, they're unable to. It's far more likely that the spirit has had someone infected in the castle for some time."
Thirteen's eyes flicked back to the girls, "But now is not the time for all that. Twelve and I had discussed telling you together, but it seems fate was not on our side. Now, she needs you both. This castle needs you — before it is too late."
Her gaze moved between the girls.
"Together, only you two can save Forsyth."
[1] >>> characters that can't keep their hands off each other <3