Nevermore

Caught!

After welcoming the students, Rafal had decided to go and have a look on Avalon, where the Lady Of The Lake resided. He had already sent his old villians there, but Rafal wanted to see for himself. The moment good escaped, they would be almost impossible to track. 

As Rafal flew, he could see all the Ever Kingdoms bordered up with walls , trying to keep his dark army out. Ha! As if that would stop them! He couldn't wait until the moment that fire rained down on Maidenvale, corpses were scattered across Jaunt Jolie and blood and debris everywhere you turn in  Neverland. Oh, the joy...

Rafal had his future planned out in front of him. Sophie had killed her father. Tedros and Agatha were dead, no longer in his way. The only problem now was the survivors. After they were killed, he would attack all the Ever Kingdoms and the Never Kingdoms would submit to him. He wasn't naive enough to think that there would be no uprisings or rebellions in his time as emperor - which he hoped would be forever as he was immortal. 

Possibly even a child with Sophie, although that thought stirred up lots of competing emotions. He was aware that he already had two sons with Evelyn Sader and that brought up a lot of shame. How was he supposed to know she'd get pregnant? Anyway, the boys didn't even know who their father was . It was fine. It was fine. If it was fine, why did his gut tell him something was wrong?

Soon enough, he reached Avalon. The landscape was snowy and icy as if it had never seen the sun before. The wind howled and to a human it would feel cold but it didn't bother him. He touched down to the snow and looked around for the people who were supposed to be guarding the lake. He couldn't see them, but  wasn't too surprised as he himself could barely make anything out in the snow.

There.

At the corner of his eye, Rafal saw a flicker of flame. He turned towards it, and indeed, in the distance, there was a small bonfire. If they're anywhere round here, they'll be here, Rafal thought. As Rafal stepped into the light of the fire, he drew back a step, surprised. He was certainly not expecting them to be in this state. The weakest were dead, some were injured and some not there, footsteps trailing off away from the camp. 

Where was the evil stepmother? Where were the ogres and trolls? Rafal sat down on a log, processing this new information. 

It was quite far in the distance when Rafal saw it. Two distant figures, their footsteps leaving marks behind in the snow. If they were indeed the culprits who had done this to his army, he better catch them up. What were the chances of them being one of the survivors of good? It was evident who they were when he caught them up. Hester and Anadil. Rafal grinned wickedly. As he was soaring over their heads, snow falling all around, he fired a curse at them. Hester and Anadil dodged it just in time, looking up at Rafal with horrified expressions. 

Hester and Anadil had gotten up wearily, the awkwardness from last night lingering. Merlin had summoned them to the dining room where they had a delicious breakfast of waffles, pancakes, tarts, pastries and honey-glazed fruit. Merlin had said  " We need to discuss our next move. I think the obvious option is recruiting the ever kingdoms." 

" I thought it was evil who attacked and good who defends," Guinevere pointed out. 

" We have no choice." Hester replied. " It's either breaking these dumb rules once, or good gets wiped out and evil reigns forever anyway. Would you sacrifice these rules to save good?" 

 Merlin nodded. " She's right." 

" What should we do then? Evil is probably guarding Avalon this very second." Hort fretted, shoving more hazelnut waffles into his small mouth. 

" We need some brave volunteers to go talk to the leaders..." Merlin said, looking away, as if ashamed. 

" God no." Anadil said. " Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?" 

" There's no one else," Merlin sighed. " Guinevere is too old, I'm too old, Hort is ... it leaves you and Hester. You're talented, strong and youthful." 

" I guess we have no choice." Hester sighed. " Oh well. I'll do it."

Anadil glanced at Hester. " I'll do it." 

" Excellent." Merlin replied. " You'll leave in a few hours." 

Even as they left the Safe Haven, Hester and Anadil felt awkward around each other. They had trudged through the snow without a word, just silent and grim-faced. " I can't go on like this," Hester said. " Look. I'm sorry. I thought..." 

" No..." Anadil replied. " I...I'm not used to feeling attracted to someone. My grandmother always taught me villains couldn't love."

" Who cares what they all say? The rules have changed. Rafal and Sophie love each other." 

" Yeah, but they're a different type of evil. The dark kind." 

" Who says we aren't?" 

Anadil smiled sheepishly. " I guess so. Sorry." 

" For what?" 

Anadil shook her head. " Nothing." 

It had almost been too easy for Hester and Anadil to stun or kill Rafal's pathetic guards. They had all been drinking ale, singing heartily around the fire. Hester's demon did most of the work since Anadil's rats had perished,  so Anadil used her dagger. She hadn't realised how easy it would be to attack when people are drunk. 

It had only been a few minutes afterwards, Anadil desperately trying to find a place to wipe the blood of her dagger. She definitely didn't want the Ever Kingdoms thinking she was some kind of terrorist. And then? Rafal had seemed to just appear, firing curses at them. Hester and Anadil were shocked, to say the least. 

They had been lucky. Rafal continued to fire curses and spells at them, but the snowstorm was wild and he couldn't see properly, snow clinging to his lashes. He blinked a few times and they were gone. Just like that. Mogrification? Furiously, Rafal flew around but they were nowhere. High and low, north and south, east and west. It was as if they had just...poofed. He checked every crevice of the towers but still nowhere to be seen. 

His face a hard mask of stone, Rafal called it quits and decided to head back to the school for evil. They'd turn up eventually. Eventually.