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Your ears were ringing. The frozen air had a horrendous effect on you and your sisters. It was lucky you'd seen Heisenberg when you did, moments later you might not have been able to fly out of the room. Your priority now was to hide Cassandra while mother dealt with Heisenberg.
'Did you see that?' Bela huffed as she closed the wine room entrance behind her.
'Was that.... Mother Miranda?' Daniela opened the door into the small hallway that hid the entrance to the laboratory.
'I think so.' Bela said smiling. ' I mean, I hope so, I first thought it was a Samca but they don't have feathers. I just saw this black thing whooshing down.'
'Wait, what happened to the Samca then?' you said worried. How had Heisenberg evaded them, or worse, silently managed to get rid of them?
Cassandra was weeping.
'Aww, sis...' Daniela hugged her as you tried to find the right place to enter the lab.
'Cassandra... take this as you're super hot and he can't get enough of you.' Bela tried to cheer her up, but ultimately failed.
'Look at the mess I made...' Cassandra stuttered. She was a sad sight, you thought. So brave and capable but so frail at the same time.
You managed to find the entrance to the lab. All four of you got inside the dark room, trying not to fall down the stairs, and the loud noises faded as you closed the entrance behind you. There had been a lot of crashing objects and shouting, but you couldn't quite figure out who was shouting or what was crashing.
----
Alcina saw her girls disappear from the corner of her eye as she advanced towards Heisenberg. Her claws were out and she was about to make contact when a flurry of dark feathers came between them both.
'I sincerely hope an altercation is not underway.' Mother Miranda's serene voice was heard.
Heisenberg tried to bypass Mother Miranda towards where the girls had escaped, breaking all sorts of knicknacks and ornaments along the way. Lady Dimitrescu went after him and sliced his back deep, making him howl in pain.
'CHILDREN!'
Both stopped in their tracks.
'What exactly is happening here?'
'This pervert is coming after MY DAUGHTER!' Alcina was shaking with rage.
'Heisenberg?' Mother Miranda raised an eyebrow.
'Cassandra is mine!'
'Over my dead body!' Alcina put her hand up, ready to slice him again.
'With pleasure!' Heisenberg lifted his hammer.
'I did wonder why you were sneaking off into the castle at all hours. Cassandra is but a child, and she is not for you Heisenberg. Go find someone else to play with.' Mother Miranda ordered.
'But...'
'I do not want to see you anywhere near Lady Dimitrescu's daughters again! I gave you life and I will take it away if need be.'
Heisenberg was brave, but he was not stupid. Well, not completely.
'He nearly murdered my daughters! The swine!' Lady D said under her breath, her blood boiling.
'Indeed, he was reckless. I don't want to see ANY of you putting any one of our family in danger again. Understood?' Mother Miranda's tone was firm and threatening.
'He needs to pay! There has to be a consequence!' Alcina wanted revenge.
'Understood?!'
'Yes, Mother Miranda.' They both nodded.
'After you, Karl.' she graciously pointed towards the broken window.
Heisenberg left the castle and grounds under Mother Miranda's close supervision while Alcina ordered the maids to repair the window and clear the broken objects in the room. As she was walking to retrieve her daughters from their safe hiding place she couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened. More significantly, something Mother Miranda had said. She tried to find reason to what she had heard, but whatever perspective she thought of still did not make sense. Lady Dimitrescu saw Mother Miranda under a completely different light now, and that wasn't a good thing.
Her babies were safe and she had faith the idiot would not disobey Mother Miranda, so Alcina could now rest assured her family was not in imminent danger and would not be torn apart. Her sweet girls all came running to her happy to see her well and that it was all over. After some much needed comforting hugs and good night kisses, and some reassurance for poor Cassandra, Lady Dimitrescu made her way to her chambers with you. Although she was usually a placid person, living up to her title, you couldn't help notice how excessively quiet and even perturbed she seemed.
'What's wrong?' you said as you both changed into your nighties.
'Oh... nothing.' she casually said absent-mindedly.
You observed her going about her routine and waited quietly until she got into bed next to you before you attempted again.
'Do you want to talk about it?'
Lady Dimitrescu remained silent for a few seconds.
'She knew what he was doing.' Alcina reclined back in bed, staring up, completely lost in her own thoughts.
'What? Heisenberg?' you said, surprised, but not quite. This was Mother Miranda after all.
'Yes.' Alcina nodded, looking at you distressed. ' She knew about it and even after I came to her she allowed this to happen. She allowed him to put all of you in danger.'
You could see the concern on her face and you could hear it in her voice.
'She knows how much my daughters mean to me and how vulnerable you are at this time of the year and yet... she did nothing to prevent this. Absolutely nothing.'
You planted a kiss on her lips and snuggled up next to her.
