THIRD BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF FANTASILIA SERIES
𝘈 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘈 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘺𝘯𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘺. 𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳. 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴.
Two sides of the same coin are brought to the light...
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The second mansion to the left was the royal family's residence and office. By the royal family, Reeca meant the whole Valkalin clan.
Glass flanked the opening that gave Reeca a perfect view of lounges and lobbies. Grand verandas with festooned balustrades guarded rooms by the second floor. Everything was made of glass that even the vines that crawled along the walls and some of the balustrades glinted against the sunlight.
Reeca glanced to her left and froze as she came face to face with a panting animal with fluffy, white fur that reminded her of a cloud. It sat on its haunches, its blue tongue lolling out of its mouth. Pink eyes followed Reeca as she followed Elred to the lobby and didn't attack. She didn't know how to draw her sword with this fancy gown of a glamour on top of her anyway. What in Pidmena's name were those creatures?
Reeca's boots that were glamoured to be sandals clanked against the glass floor of the mansion. Would all this glass break under her feet? Gold and silver candelabras hung from the ceiling with at least a thousand wax candles providing light on the whole room. Stairs curled here and there, each leading to various parts of the mansion. A counter was installed at the far end of the lobby where a single woman with bobbed pink hair sat.
Elred sped past the huge walls decorated with geometric shapes embossed into the glass and the hand-painted portraits of frowning people dressed in their finest textiles and jewelry. Reeca squinted at the portraits showing who looked like to be the King and Queen with their pale blond hair and eternally young faces. Elred stood behind the King's shoulder with an unknown fairy beside her. Both of them were also not smiling.
Reeca kept her eyes on the wall as another painting sped into view and this time, it featured just the King and the Queen. A mirror glowing faintly sat clasped in the Queen's hands. Reeca filed that information at the back of her head. Perhaps that's Helinfirth's throne.
Murmurs filled Reeca's ears as shard fairies milling about in the lobby turned their heads at Elred's quiet march towards the counter. Reeca lengthened her steps to catch up while keeping her eyes on the portraits.
The next one drove Reeca's eyebrow up. Elred was there, a circlet made from woven gems on her forehead, as well as the same young man she didn't know. Standing between the two fairies, however, was a boy no older than four having the same bored expression has Elred had on the portrait. Reeca stepped forward. Hell, the kid even looked like Elred. What—
A throat cleared, jarring Reeca back to reality. She straightened her back and whirled to Elred who had stopped in front of the counter. Dim corridors stemmed away from the lobby going deeper into the mansion's eerie insides. The darkness seemed to eat at it when Reeca narrowed her eyes in an attempt to fathom where they led.
From one of the chairs scattered around the lobby, a shard fairy was coaching a younger one on how to summon a layer of glamour. "Now you do it," the woman encouraged her daughter. The child extended her hand and light flashed. Soon, the woman was laughing with antlers growing out from her forehead.
