The Queen's words send the girls skimming every inch of the palace to fulfill her demands. They use all the strength they can but can't ignore the fact that their power is laced with shock which is holding them back.
June traces every inch of the garden, scavenging for the specified herbs the Queen ordered while Sonii tears the brewery apart as she searches for the adequate equipment. Lilli fulfills her role by staying put in the Queen's quarter.
Lilli uses her precise skill to paint the image handed to her by the Queen. The image of a delicate circle with intricate curves pulling the viewer into a trance of an unseen world. She manages to complete the image with speed and is ready once the other two bring their findings.
"Good, now we need to wait." The Queen says as soon as Lilli draws the final curve. The Queen rushes through the words as if she's out of breath. Her nerves doing more exercise than her body and mind combined.
"Wait?! For what?" Sonii immediately let's her anger and frustration show. The idea of waiting makes her feel sick. She doesn't want to wait. She wants her brother back right now.
"For the moment between day and night. The short moment when your father and I are both awake." The Queen's breaths heavily but focuses on slowly down her breathing.
"This spell needs power which you can harness from our encounter." Her mother speaks slowly and soft as if to comfort her. She still keeps the other half of the truth to herself.
When it's finally time, the trio pounce into action. They lay Sol at the center of the symbol and the girls sit crosslegged on the outside of the circle. They wait patience until the Queen gives Sonii the sign that it's time to start.
It's different from any other spells they have done in the past. In this moment, each of the girls draw a symbol in midair which glows and floats over Sol.
Sonii traces the symbol for the moon.
June draws the symbol of the Sun.
This leaves Lilli responsible for the stars.
It's almost beautiful to watch. The glowing symbols hang above Sol's heart before slowly sinking and fading into his chest. It's as if an invisible force pulls him upwards and he floats in midair.
He looks peaceful. The moment is magical as he hangs as if he is laying backwards on a swing. A few moments later, he sweeps down to the floor when the painted image on the ground has disappeared, signaling that the spell is complete.
But is it successful?
Sonii stares in disbelief as nothing happens.
No sign of movement, not even the flinch of a finger.
Within a few moments, the heavy sound of a chest rising and falling brings the room to a sigh of relief and thankfulness. Sol is okay
In this moment she is happy.
She is ecstatic.
It's as if nothing could ruin this moment.
Unfortunately, her moment is short lived. The moment the sight of Sol's movement hits the eye, Sonii releases a soul shrieking scream.
Her back screams with the pain of thousands of knives slices through her skin. The pain carved over two points at which she feels as if her whole back is on fire. She only felt this pain once before, the moment when she was at the Aura of Magic. But that time, the pain was short lived.
Something seems to push outwards from her back. First the tips that mimicked daggers but as her cries become louder, the additions becomes clearer. The light bounces off the set of silver that have broken through her skin.
Slender wings coated in silver, similar to that of a great hawk hang gracefully from her back. The pain subsides and she is hit with a wave of calamity and exhaustion.
It's a hauntingly beautiful moment.
And Sonii does not enjoy a second of it. She closes her eyes as the pain fades and the fear drains from her eyes. It is in that short space of time where she tips her head back, almost smiling as she experiences the euphoria of being without pain. Then she closes her eyes and collapses backwards the way a puppet would fall after its strings has been cut.
She is that puppet.
A puppet of destiny.
Her strings have finally been cut and now she will becomes a show doll to the women who appears at the door. The women who smiles proudly is not her mother. Sonii's mother watches in horror as her daughter plummets backwards.
The women, with the crooked smile, is none other than Hecate herself, the goddess of Magic.
YOU ARE READING
Pandora's Box
FantasyTourists think this town is magical. That's because it looks like it belongs in a fairytale. It's not. But it's the home of a family that are quite magical indeed. You would them find the floating around aimlessly while reading... Nursing flowers b...
