by Unknown
She did not know that Wizterian prophecy had a magic of their own. She was so young when she was ripped away from her home and family. It was no surprise that the anger and frustration of years of isolation were finally bubbling to the surface.
She stopped at the door of their home and stepped aside for Rexajon to open it. His hand glowed with magic. "Reteitrien," he whispered as he touched the doorknob.
The outline of the door shined and opened for them. On the outside, it was a small and modest house. A simple one bedroom, one bathroom house in bad need of a shingle replacement on the roof.
With Rexajon's spell, though, the inside was visibly different.
When they first moved in fourteen years ago, Kuri was adamant about the home being the exact replica for the Wizterian Palace for Solana's comfort. And so, Solana and Rexajon stepped into a large foyer that opened to a staircase and the hall for the rest of the house. There were sixteen bedrooms in
Solana's wing alone. It was a pity that she could not have sleepovers or friends over or any family to use them. It was even more pitiful that even if she could, she could not think of even one person to invite. It was only her, Kuri, and Rexajon.
Solana sighed and walked deeper into the house. “We're home, Kuri!” she announced.
“Oh, perfect timing!” Kuri exclaimed as she rushed through the hall and down the staircase. She giddily captured Solana into a hug. “Oh, my beautiful darling! I have a surprise for you!”
Her hand glowed with magic. She started at Solana's feet and slowly ran her hand up to Solana's shoulder. A stream of magic followed it, transforming her clothes as it floated past.
Soon, Solana stood in a light blue party dress, complete with satin bodice and sleeves and a lacy skirt. She smiled softly, looking it over. “How beautiful,” she breathed as she played with the soft fabric. “Did you design this one, Kuri?”
Kuri nodded. "With the Spring Fling coming up, I thought you would like something new. This dress is inspired by the dress your sister, Posimas, wore during her dimensional debutante when she turned 1200 years old. This is her favorite color." She smiled fondly and smoothed out the side of the dress. "It looks just as breathtaking on you."
Solana smiled with her. “You missed them,” she said softly.
“Everyday,” Kuri admitted with a far-off look. She smiled at the distant memories that played in her head. “I watched them grow up, your older sisters and older brother. It hurt to leave them behind that day, but they had their missions and I had mine.”
She smiled and caressed Solana's cheek gently. “I got the better end of the bargain, though. I'm the one lucky enough to watch you blossom into a beautiful young woman and a princess of your own right.”
Solana blushed at the compliment. She loved Kuri. She was not only her caretaker and guard, but she was a true friend. She easily understood why the king and queen entrusted her with taking care of
their youngest daughter. She got the better end of the bargain, too, because she was able to live with Kuri. It would be perfect if it were not for—.
Rexajon cleared his throat, effectively killing the touching moment. Stupid, old Rexajon.
A glance at him brought Solana back to the frustrations and grievances she had before entering the house. She rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the dress, Kuri,” she said. “But I don't think I'll get the chance to wear it. I'm not going to the Spring Fling.”
Kuri frowned, following the direction she was looking in all the way to Rexajon. “What? Why not?
What happened?”
“Rexajon did it again!” Solana complained. “A boy was going to ask me to be his date, but Rexajon scared him away.”
“A man worth your affections would not be frightened,” Rexajon said without even a shred of remorse, pushing his hands into his pocket.
“It's just a dance!” Solana said in exasperation. “He wasn't asking for my hand in marriage!” “Oh, Rexajon, you fun killer,” Kuri said with a laugh. Solana smirked. She liked that term. She immediately filed that away to be used later. “Stop frightening away all her suitors! She's young! She'll only be 1600 once!”
“Mother, she's sixteen.”
“What?”
“She's sixteen, not 1600.”
Kuri paused for a moment.
Solana's smirk faded. She did not like that pause. That pause meant she lost.
Like Solana anticipated, Kuri frowned and looked at her. She hugged her tight. “Oh, you're just an infant, dear. You have plenty of time to worry about boys! Just go to the dance with Rexajon!”
“Kuri!” Solana cried in horror. She wiggled out of Kuri's grip. “I thought you were on my side!”
“But you're so little and frail. Small and cute.”
“I'm a powerful dragon princess destined to save my entire kingdom from certain destruction!” “But that's when you're much, much older. Right now, you need to focus on eating vegetables and drinking milk to get big and strong.”
Solana shook her head. “I can't believe this is happening.” She glared at Rexajon. “This is all your fault!” With an indignant huff, she stomped out of the house.
Kuri looked at Rexajon. "Follow her closely," she said with an entertained chuckle. "She's throwing a tantrum and prone to bad decisions when that happens."
Rexajon gave a single nod, then started after her.
* * *
Solana knew Rexajon was wordlessly following her but refused to acknowledge him. Maybe he would eventually take the hint and go away. Unlikely, but still, it could happen.
“Princess,” he finally and calmly called after her. “Are you done with your tantrum? Can we return home now?”
“No,” she stubbornly spat.
“But where are we going?”
She stopped and paused. Where were they going? Before now, she was just angrily and aimlessly walking. She took a moment to think about what would drive Rexajon the craziest. That is where she wanted to go . “I'm going to find Tyler,” she finally answered with a smirk. “Since he can't ask me to the dance, I'll ask him.”
Rexajon stood silently for a second. "Do you like him?"
Solana turned to face Rexajon. Out of all the reactions, she expected, an effort to understand was not one of them. She nodded. “Yes, a little,” she replied. “Enough to want to go to the dance with him,
sure. I've had a crush on him since middle school.”
Rexajon gave a low hum. He lowered his gaze to the ground, as though processing this information.
“Alright,” he said after a minute. He held a hand out to her. “Come here.”
Solana frowned, wondering what he had planned but accepted his hand anyway.
He shined with power. “The note.”
Solana nodded in compliance. She pulled the note out of her pocket and handed it to him. As soon as he touched it and said, “Seidetwenim,” they teleported away.
They reappeared outside an apartment complex. "A beacon spell," Solana recognized the magic he used. “Used for finding the magic source of a spell.”
“Or the author of a handwritten note,” Rexajon added.
“Then you added a teleportation spell for easy transport. How did you do that?”
“Add -etwenim to the end of any tracking spell for teleportation,” he answered. “But it only works if you've been to the location before. I've been beside this apartment complex, but never inside. That's why we teleported out here. Understand?”
Solana nodded. “Add -etwenim to the end of the tracking spell,” she repeated.
Rexajon cracked half a smile. She was a fast learner. He liked that. “We have to get to the fifth floor. I'm not sure of the exact apartment number.”
“It shouldn't be hard for me to hear his voice and figure it out.”
Rexajon hummed his agreement. “Let's go, then. I'll leave it to you.”
They walked into the building together and rode the elevator to the fifth floor. Once it stopped and they stepped out, they took a moment to
survey the number of doors on this floor. Twelve.
“Remember, Princess,” Rexajon instructed. “You may not have your magic, but you are still a dragon.”
Solana nodded. Although she rarely needed to use it, Solana had very powerful hearing. She could
dissect a lone conversation in a crowded stadium, according to Kuri. Today, she only needed to pick up the familiar voice of her high school crush.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to focus on the voices on the floor. She heard so many things all at once. A toddler crying because she did not want to take a nap. A husband and wife whispering sweet nothings to each other. A mother scolding her child for breaking a dish. A businessman on a call with a customer. And finally, a teenage boy excitedly talking to his friends through a video game session.
She smiled. “Got it!” She jogged over to the right door and pressed her ear to it to confirm. “I'm telling you, man! I almost had her!”
She smiled softly. She wondered what game he was playing.
The person on the other end of the video game laughed. “I told you that brother of hers would get in your way!”
Her smile faded a little. She suddenly had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She had a feeling they were not talking about video games.
“That is not her brother. I know they go home together. I know a lot of people think they're siblings, but I don't. I don't know who he is to her, but he's way too obsessive to be her brother. It was like he had a thing for her or something.”
“Who cares! Either way, you failed! You lose!”
She frowned. She had a sinking feeling that she already knew the answer, but lost what?
He laughed, “Not so fast. The bet isn't over until I say it's over. She's interested. If that guy didn't get in the way, she'd be mine already. I'm telling you. It'll be the easiest $50 I ever take from you.”
His friend laughed. “What? You're only in it for the money? You're bold.”
He chuckled. “Don't be ridiculous. She'd be fun to keep around...for a weekend. I bet no one's ever been able to get that far with her. Oh, man! Here's the boss!”
“Did you save?”
“Where's the fun in that? I'm finishing this entire game in one take! That's what the people of this live stream want to see!”
His friend laughed again. “You ARE bold!”
Solana ripped her ear away from the door like it burned. She stared at it in horror like it hurt her.
She was visibly shaken. She took a step back.
Rexajon growled and protectively wrapped his arms around her. His hearing was not as good as Solana's but he heard enough. “Come, little one,” he said softly. He guided her back to the elevator.
Once they were inside, he pressed the button to go down. They stood in silence for a moment.
Rexajon spoke first, “I tried to warn you.”
“I know,” Solana mumbled quickly to spare herself the I-told-you-so lecture. “I know. You did.”
“Not all men are like that,” he offered.
“I know,” she said softly. She gave him a somber smile. “You aren't.”
“You are in a good place,” he reminded her. “You know his intentions before he succeeded. You're lucky.”
She chuckled dryly. “If I were luckier, I'd have my powers to shut off his power before he beats that stupid game.”
“You are the Sun Rose of Grace,” Rexajon chided her. “You should not lower yourself for such matters.”
The elevator dinged when they arrived on the ground floor. They stepped off and left the building.
Once outside, Rexajon placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from walking any farther. She stopped and looked at him.
He looked back at her and offered her a smile. With his free hand, he shot a burst of magic at the building. It gave an audible groan as the power shut down.
Among the gasps and groans of the surprise loss of lights, they could distinctly hear the horrified cry of one teenage boy that just lost a lot of data on his game. Rexajon smirked. “I, on the hand, am not the Sun Rose of Grace.”
Solana grinned, then immediately broke into a full laugh. “You're the best,” she grinned as she hugged him. “Thank you.”
“Of course, my princess,” he said as he returned her hug with one of his own. “I would do anything for the sake of your happiness.”
“I know,” Solana said softly. “I'm sorry I give you such a hard time.”
They broke the hug and together, they walked back home. Although they did not accomplish their original goal, they were just as satisfied with the outcome.
Rexajon guided Solana to the porch, then opened the door. “Reteitrien,” he spoke the spell that revealed the entrance to their true home. They stepped through and Rexajon closed the door behind him.
“I'll start dinner,” Solana offered.
Before she could go, though, Rexajon held out a hand to stop her. “Something is wrong,” he growled.
That got her attention. Her heart raced a little. “What? What is it?”
He did not answer her. “Mother!” he called. He waited, but there was no response. He growled again. “On my back, Princess.”
“What's wrong?” Solana asked again. She climbed onto his back as he commanded. She scanned the room nervously, but could not find anything out of place.
Once Solana was securely on his back, he crouched. He glowed and stretched until his human body transformed into a dragon.
If Rexajon was handsome as a human, he was even more impressive as a dragon. He kept his sharp eyes in both forms. His scales were red, but when they caught the light, they glimmered a soft gold.
His wingspan was double his body length, complete with the same coloring that made his scales so beautiful. "I sense a dark aura everywhere. We have to find my mother."
“But I don't understand,” Solana said with a frown. “I thought Kuri put a barrier around the house so only we could get in.”
“I did, too.”
Rexajon dashed through the house so quickly that Solana had to tighten her grip on his back as he ran. They rushed through the entirety of the house in a matter of seconds, but there was no sign of Kuri, just the magical remains of something sinister.
Rexajon stopped and angrily hit the nearest wall. He spat a Wizterian curse that Solana could not translate. She slid off his back and onto the floor. “A tracking spell,” she suggested. “We can try that, right?”
Rexajon nodded, trying his best to regain his composure. He returned to his human form and stood.
“Right, right, a spell,” he agreed. “Come on. We need my mother's grimoire.” He dashed to Kuri's study. Solana followed closely behind.
She could not see magic remnants or magical signatures in a room like Rexajon and Kuri could, but she knew that Rexajon said something was wrong that it had to be taken seriously.
Her heart raced when she learned that they were going to the study. She knew spells from her studies, but she could not perform them. Even without her magic, Kuri controlled a lot of what she learned. Many of the spells in this study were forbidden to her until Kuri deemed she could handle them, so much so that she was not allowed to even enter.
Once they made it to the study, Solana hesitated, but she finally stepped inside to join Rexajon. He pulled a book off the shelf—the most forbidden book in the most forbidden room—and flipped through it. “Here,” he breathed.
She looked at the page. It was written in ancient Wizterian. This book must have passed down in
their family for generations. She could only imagine the power and spells it possessed. It took her a second, but she slowly translated the page to a Wizterian dialect that she understood. She frowned and looked up at Rexajon. "This isn't a tracking spell."
“No,” Rexajon replied. “It's better. Watch carefully. The hand movements are key in ancient magic like this. If you can master it, you will grow even more powerful.”
Solana nodded and silently watched him perform the spel
l. Rexajon radiated with power. He waved his hand in a 'Z' motion and pointed to a corner of the room. “Eilarbimbor!” he boomed.
The room flashed and suddenly, all the color drained from it. Solana looked around in alarm.
“What's going on?”
A ghostly Kuri walked through the room. Solana watched with wide eyes. In all her years of training alongside Rexajon and Kuri, she had never seen anything like this before. She reached out to touch the figure, but her hand passed through it. The ghostly Kuri was unphased.
Rexajon guided her hand away from the figure and to her side. He watched it closely, scanning the room every so often for clues to his mother's disappearance. "It's a past seeing spell," he explained. "It allows us to see any period before our eyes."
"Cool," Solana breathed.
They watched for a while, but nothing happened. It was simply Kuri doing things that Kuri excelled in: potion creating and being boring while creating said potions.
Solana felt her attention waning. If there were answers anywhere regarding Kuri's disappearance, every second spent watching this was a second wasted in Solana's opinion.
That is until another figure appeared in the scene. Solana straightened a little. "What is that?"
A mass of darkness slowly approached Kuri. She lifted her head, and to both Rexajon's and Solana's surprise, she showed a look of recognition. "So you finally found us," Kuri said with a sigh as she placed her flasks aside. "I knew this day would come, but hear me. You will never have her!"
If the mass said anything, Solana and Rexajon could not hear it. Solana frowned. It was like they were missing part of the story.
Suddenly, Kuri and the mass burst into a fight. Kuri tossed energy blast after energy blast it. The darkness endured every shot, seemingly waiting for Kuri to tire herself out.
Again to their surprise, it did not take long. Kuri groaned in exhaustion and collapsed. Once she was no longer a threat, the mass of darkness slowly approached her. Once it reached her, she disappeared. A moment later, so did it.
With a flash, the room returned to its original color.
Solana looked at Rexajon. He was not very good at showing his emotions, but she knew that he was boiling with anger. Even after looking into the past, they knew nothing except that Kuri was, indeed, kidnapped.