by Natalie Erin
Keota’s face brightened. “Alright, I’ll come. But just for you.”
He stood up. “Is this the one that you want?”
“I think so.” She nodded. The dress rustled as she slipped behind the curtain to change out of it. Just as she vanished out of sight, the shop owner came into the backroom.
“Have you found one you like, miss?” she asked.
“I did,” Luciana said, walking out with the dress slung over one arm. “How much is it exactly?”
“Four hundred coins,” the shopkeeper informed her.
Luciana’s face fell. “Oh. I don’t have that much money.” She looked at her gown. “What am I going to do? I need a dress.”
“I’ll pay for it, Luce,” Keota offered, already bringing out his small, velvet moneybag “You don’t have to worry about paying me back.”
“Keota, that’s way too much,” she protested. “I know you can’t afford it.”
“Ionan’s good for it, trust me. He’ll help me out,” Keota insisted.
“Did you ask him before we came?”
“No, but he’ll be okay with it.”
Luciana doubted that, but she hugged her friend all the same. “Thank you, Keo.” She felt the deepest love for her best friend as she embraced him. Because of him, she now had a dress, a beautiful gown that would make her a queen for what she was sure would be the best night of her life.
The memory faded into a blur of colors, changing once again...
It was the night of the big dance. She was in her room getting ready, and the dress fit just as well as the day she’d bought it. Two small pearls dangled from her ears on silver frames, while blush powdered her cheeks. Her necklace was a small, pink flower her mother had given to her the day after her grandmother died, and complimented the pink in her eyes. She wore pink, high-heeled shoes that made her taller, and her white hair was gathered in a series of curls that were towered at the top of her head. For the first time in her life, Luciana finally felt pretty.
There was a knock at the door and she turned gracefully to open it. Rex came to her side as she opened the door to reveal Wyntier in his best clothes. Luciana thought his suit looked perfect on him, just as her dress looked perfect on her.
“Are you ready to go, my dear?” Wyntier bowed politely and took her hand.
“Of course I am. Come on, Rex.” The small black squirrel ran onto her shoulder, opposite of the other Changer. Vera was on Wyntier’s shoulder in the form of a small sparrow, a little purple bow tied around her neck. She didn’t say a greeting, only sat meekly on her Accompany’s shoulder. She didn’t seem half as excited to attend the dance as Luciana was.
“Don’t forget, we have to go get Keo,” Luciana reminded Wyntier casually.
“Yes. We must not forget the little whelp,” Wyntier said drily.
“Be nice to him, Wyntier. He’s my best friend,” Luciana said, trying to appear civil so she wouldn’t anger her date. Wyntier was always making mean comments about Keota, but Keota did the same to him, so Luciana tried to ignore them both.
Luciana practically wrenched her arm away from Wyntier’s in excitement as they approached Keota’s dorm. “Keo!” Luciana called, skipping into the room. “Are you ready to go?”
“Of course I am.” Keota turned away from the mirror to face her. “How do I look?”
Keota wore all black, like Wyntier, but a gold tie added a splash of color. His suit jacket was too big for him, though, while his pants were too small, exposing his ankles. Ionan sat on his shoulder as a cat, an emerald bow tie standing out against his white fur.
“Must I wear this foolish little thing?” the Changer snarled angrily.
“You have to look nice, Ionan.” Luciana smiled at the small cat, giggling at the bow tie she had picked out for him.
“Well, I think it’s ridiculous.” He scratched at it, appearing rather bothered.
“I think you look very handsome, Ionan.” Vera spoke for the first time in her soft, springy voice, glancing warily at Wyntier.
The cat looked down. “I suppose if you like it, Vera, it’s quite alright.”
“Why isn’t Rex wearing his, Luce?” Keota asked.
“Because I don’t know how to tie them right,” Luciana explained. “Could you do it for me?” She pulled out a piece of pale pink fabric that matched her dress.
“Sure.” Keota took the fabric and looked at Rex. As he got closer, the small squirrel ran to Luciana’s other shoulder, smacking Wyntier across the face with his tail. The Accompany didn’t say anything, but his mouth twitched.
“Rex, as your Accompany I order you to sit still while Keota puts your bow tie on!” Luciana commanded in a slightly playful tone.
Rex gave in, knowing he couldn’t disobey a direct order. Keota tied the bow tie and then backed up.
“It looks great on you, Rex!” Vera exclaimed happily, losing mind of her place. Wyntier glared at her, and she fell silent.
“Vera, I am your brother. You liking it does not matter to me as much as it matters to Ionan.” Rex looked at Luciana and appeared to pout, while Ionan hid his head behind Keota’s, embarrassed.
“The dance is going to start soon! Come on!” Luciana grabbed Wyntier’s and Keota’s hands, dragging them towards the event.
The entrance hall was decorated richly for the occasion. The walls were covered with ribbons and garlands of all colors, while a group of musicians sat in one corner, playing the most beautiful music Luciana had ever heard. The teachers stood against the walls, watching the students carefully as they waltzed around the room elegantly. Luciana thought it all looked like a wonderful dream. Wyntier took no time in leading Luciana out to the floor, parading her around lavishly and spinning her in time with the music. Keota leaned against a wall and watched, while Ionan and Vera snuck off together to a place unnoticed by their Accompanies. Rex had taken off with several female Changers, and was in the middle of dancing with all of them at once.
“Wyntier, it’s all so lovely.” Luciana smiled as they twirled, feeling enchanted.
“But not near as lovely as you are, my dear.” Wyntier touched her cheek gently and she blushed.
After an hour or so the headmistress took the stage, speaking in a loud, booming voice. “We would like to announce this year’s King and Queen.”
The music stopped and everyone fell silent in anticipation, eagerly watching the headmistress open the small envelope. “This year’s King is...no surprise here...Wyntier Ignavus!”
The crowd applauded as the brown-haired boy made his way to the stage, an arrogant smile spread across his face. As he was crowned, silence once more fell upon the students.
“This year’s Queen is…Luciana Morris!”
Even the headmistress seemed surprised when she announced the name. The room fell deathly quiet, and Luciana gasped, turning to Keota.
“I didn’t even know I was running,” she said.
“Who cares? Get up there and get your crown, Luce!” Keota pushed her towards the stage. “If anyone deserves this, it’s you.”
She nodded and walked to the stage, standing by Wyntier. As she was crowned, she felt tears fill her eyes. The crowd clapped politely and she held her head up, feeling so proud. She was once the most unpopular girl in school, and now, she was Queen. She’d never been so happy.
Wyntier faced her and smiled, his dark eyes sparkling in anticipation. The smile was different from the one that had graced his lips when the night had begun...it was no longer warm and nice. Something else had overcome it.
“I have something I would like to ask you, Luciana.” Wyntier twisted the words as he said them, making them thick and foreboding.
“You can ask me anything,” she told him. The collected students fell silent once more so they could hear the conversation taking place on the stage, inching closer curiously.
“Are you honestly so stupid that you don’t realize I never liked you?” Wyntier sneered. “I can’t believe that I had you going for so long. I th
ought you would have figured this out days ago”
The world seemed to freeze for Luciana. “Wyntier, what...what do you mean?”
“I did all this as a joke,” he said, spreading his hand over the crowd. “My friends dared me to take the ugliest girl in school to the dance, and so, I did. I never have and never will love an albino freak.” Wyntier began to laugh. “I rigged the voting so you would win Queen, so I could do this to you.”
From out of his jacket Wyntier pulled out a long knife. Before Luciana could even gasp, he’d taken the knife and run it down the front of her dress, tearing it in two and exposing her to the crowd. Attempting to cover herself with the fragments of her tattered gown, tears filled Luciana’s eyes. The Headmistress stared on with a stunned expression as Wyntier let out a booming laugh, unsure of what to do.
The rest of the students began to laugh with Wyntier. Luciana ran down the steps of the stage and towards the door. Tears poured down her cheeks as she pushed the laughing teenagers out of her way, scampering up to her dorm. Rex followed right behind her.
Luciana’s eyes opened quickly. Even now, years later, the memory made her eyes water. She’d hoped, in time, she’d recover from such nightmares. Recent events had only amplified their effect.
“Why must I remember such horrible things?” she asked, turning toward Rex. The Changer was awake and staring at her sympathetically, as if the memory was as painful for him as it was for her.
“Because it is the rough times that teach us how to get back up and try again, and the difficult parts of our lives that make us stronger.” He wiped her tears gently away using his large paw. “It will be okay, Luciana. I promise you, I will never let anyone hurt you like he did ever again.”
“I know, Rex.” She wiped her face and stroked the large cat gently. “You’re all I ever need. You and Keota can make everything better in my life.”
Rex purred softly as she stroked his head. Though she was tired, Luciana did not allow herself to rest further. She could not stand bringing back more memories. Her life had only gotten worse from that night.
Keota lay alone in a field of flowers outside the Verinian, feeling very confused. He hadn’t seen Luciana in ages, and now she’d suddenly showed up on his doorstep, asking for his help. He had no clue what Luciana expected of him now so he had come here to think, without telling anyone where he was going.
“I don’t know what she wants me to do. I have a wife,” he said out loud, as if reminding himself that he was married.
Luciana had been the whole reason he had met Kia. He’d been running away from her situation, trying to separate himself from the whole mess. It only turned up fifteen years later to haunt him. He wasn’t mad at Luciana...none of it was her fault...but he was mad at Wyntier. As always, every bad thing that had ever happened to him always came about because of Wyntier. Upset, he laid back in the sun and closed his eyes, falling into his unconsciousness to remember a much darker time...a time when everything for him had changed.
Even three years later, Luciana still hadn’t recovered from the night of the spring dance. They were about to graduate, and so the days of their freshman year were far behind them, but Luciana seemed to forget this as they walked from class to class amongst the massive grounds of the castle. She ducked her head and hid her gaze from whoever passed by, cringing whenever a student looked her way.
“Hey look guys, it’s the albino freak!” a black haired boy shouted across the hall, pointing in their direction. Keota placed an arm around his best friend’s shoulders, trying to shield her from the nasty comments.
“It’s okay, Luce, they just call you names because they don’t like themselves,” he said softly, not knowing what else to say. The name “albino freak” had stuck and never really gone away, all thanks to Wyntier. The bully had made a game out of tormenting Luciana as much as possible, ever since the dance had ended.
“You say that every time someone says something mean. It’s starting to get a little old.” Luciana never looked up.
“Hey, freak! Why don’t you ditch your little boyfriend and go jump off a cliff? Then we could see how many people really cared about you!” the boy called.
“Yeah, go kill yourself, you ugly bitch! Nobody wants an albino freak hanging around!” a girl at his side screamed.
Three years of endless torture finally made Luciana stop in her tracks. She dropped the books she was holding and they fell to the ground carelessly, discarded. “Why don’t you just shut up!” Luciana jerked her head up and glared at the boy, ready to fight.
“Come and make me, you little freak,” he snarled at her.
“Don’t you test me,” Luciana snarled. “I will tear you to shreds.”
“Is that a threat?” The boy came closer and stuck his face right in front of hers, daring her to make a move.
This was bad. Keota looked around for Rex and Ionan to back them up, but they were in other classes.
“No. It was a warning.” Luciana’s mouth rose in a snarl. “But now you’re just too late to protect yourself.”
Luciana grabbed onto the boy’s hair and slammed him into the wall. Before he could get up she was on top of him, clawing at his throat with her fingernails. He threw up a hand and she bit down on the bare flesh. She punched him the face and began to pull his hair out in large chunks. The boy screamed louder as Luciana continued her assault, too terrified to fight back.
“Luce!” Keota said. He tried to pull her off the boy, but the Accompany threw him backwards with a strength Keota didn’t know she had. Keota watched the scene in horror. He had never known that his shy friend could get so violent. Luciana, in her fury, was unstoppable.
No one dared to get near her, for they were all afraid they would be next. The fight only lasted a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours to everyone who witnessed it, horrified by the blood that was gushing from the gashes on the boy’s neck and face. It took four teachers and their Changers to restrain Luciana, and by that time, the boy’s face was little more than tattered ribbons of flesh.
The boy was sent to the hospital, badly injured. Luciana had hurt him so severely, his condition was critical. The Council soon came to retrieve Luciana, and Rex had been pulled out of his classes to go with her, even though he hadn’t been there. Keota spent that night nervously awaiting some sort of news, though nothing came.
The next morning, he heard that Luciana’s punishment would be decided immediately by the Council that day. The Council had been quick to call a trial, as nothing of this scale had ever happened at Dinkleberry before. He sat in the stands that afternoon, looking down at Luciana. She had been put in chains and Rex was confined in a small metal box with at least six locks on it. The small squirrel screamed angrily but Luciana didn’t move, only stood there like a stone statue, her matted and tangled hair dangling in front of her face.
Even though Rex was her brother, Wyntier hadn’t allowed Vera to come to the trial. Vera had begun spending more and more time with all of them and less time with Wyntier since the horror of the spring dance, but she never spoke up when her Accompany tormented Luciana, and Keota hated her for it. Keota didn’t care that Ionan loved her. Vera’s inability to stick up for her friend in three years was unforgivable, in his eyes.
He watched as the Council slowly took their seats before the crowd and listened as the oath of truth was given by all. As the final Council member took the oath, the room fell silent and all eyes turned toward Luciana in the center of the room.
“Luciana Morris, you are here to be punished for attempted murder. Is this correct?” Nicodemus, the head of Council, seemed so stern and stoic. The wyvern at his side quivered, as if excited by the judgement.
“Yes.” Luciana’s voice shook and her eyes remained locked on the floor as she confirmed the charges.
“Do you have anything to say to defend yourself?” Nicodemus asked cruelly, as if he’d already convicted her.
“No.” Luciana did not bother to give excuses, simply accepted
her fate.
“Well then, from what we were told earlier this morning, I believe the Council has come to a decision.” He turned to look around him at the other Council members. They all nodded their heads in agreement. “Luciana Morris, for your crimes you shall be sentenced with the highest punishment the Council possesses...permanent separation from your Changer.”
Luciana’s head snapped up. For the first time since the trial began, she seemed alive. “You can’t!” she lashed out as the guards surrounded her, attempting to break away from her chains.
Rex took the form of a panther, and the cage shattered to pieces as he lunged towards Luciana. Several guards restrained the giant cat with ropes and he roared angrily underneath them, trying to break free.
“Luciana Morris, you will serve a life sentence in Azazael, while your Changer will be sent to the work camps,” Nicodemus boomed loudly over the chaos, continuing the sentence. “You shall never see one another again, for the rest of your days.”
“You can’t do this to her!” Keota called, but the noise of the roaring Changer blocked out his voice. He watched in horror as Luciana was dragged out one door, and Rex out the other. Both cried out in defiance, but no one listened. No one had listened to Luciana since this whole thing began.
“I’ll get this fixed, Luce.” Keota whispered to himself. “Even if it’s the last thing I do, I will get this fixed.”
The memory changed. It was a month later, and Keota had been researching for weeks. His grades had slipped and he was at risk of not graduating, but he didn’t care. Nothing had mattered to him after the trial except saving Luciana. It had taken him days to finally convince the Council to hear him out. He was in the Council room, in the same spot where Luciana had received her sentence, staring upward at the Council members who gathered along the sides of the banisters like vicious crows. Ionan stood by his side in dragon form, ready to back him up. Ionan had suggested he make the argument for Luciana’s freedom, as he was more eloquent, however they discovered Changers were rarely, if ever, permitted to speak before the Council. Keota would have to speak on his own.