Mei Ruan May 3rd, 20XX

The Gagnon sisters glowed with rage as they planned their revenge against Esmeralda. Their aggression was made clear by their hands that twitched around their wand holders and their wings that extended and retracted in micro-centimetres.

The usually calm Cambridge broke the tensioned silence first and slammed her hand down onto the table, breaking the expensive piece clean in half. A splinter broke off from the table and stabbed into her arm, breaking her skin. As a result, a thin line bronze blood caressed each curve as it slid down her arm, staining her skin it's colour.

Corin, on the other hand, just gripped her wand with an intense expression on her face and her lips mouthed one murderous spell after the other.

“I want her head!”

Talan and Aruna winced in fear at the odd display of physical strength that Cambridge had shown but the rest of us didn’t react. Well, save for Liose who I could see was mentally calculating the tab to send to Talan for the table.

Zera flew into the room with her robes all askew around her and clear signs of lack of sleep on her. She began to set up her explanation as to what she had found through her research but I couldn’t help but send a look to Liose who had stayed up alongside her but somehow looked as fresh as the day.

“According to what we found when we took apart the spell on the esteemed Gagnon sisters it became clear that Esmeralda not only cast an aversion spell on them but had aide from the Witches.”

I interrupted her. Even though we were technically on private property we couldn’t ignore the presence of the Gagnon sisters. It wouldn’t do any of us any good to be loose with our words or guard.

“Zera. Think carefully before you speak.”

She waved me down with an irritatingly soothing expression on her face, like she was used to dealing with my overreactions, and continued her speech while Liose drew out a detailed blueprint of what I could only assume was the spell that had been cast on the Gagnon sisters.

“This level of mind magic, as much as it pains me to say, is far superior to where the fairies are currently at. Look here.”

She highlighted a couple of complex symbols that were integrated into the physical structure of the spell.

“Most of my focus went to this section so you’ll have to forgive me if I can’t talk as much on the other parts of the spell. But what this part does is…. Amazing honestly. They managed to figure out a way to completely mask your awareness of the spell, which is incredible in itself, and to create an aversion to not only a certain thing, being his highness, but to the royal family all together! Forgive me if this sounds rude but how much time did you two spend in the castle for the past 16 or so years?”

She looked to the sisters, expecting their participation in her eager lecture but was met with a less than enthusiastic audience and the risk of having a fraction of their ire directed towards her.

Zera quickly calmed down and coughed.

“I- what I'm trying to say is simply, yes you were under such a spell and it was a very high levelled one as well. It was so expertly hidden as well, I doubt anyone in the Queendom could have found it without you expressly going to them for help. There-”

Corin stood up, strapping herself into her light armour as she glared Zera into silence. Beside her, Cambridge did the same.

“So basically, you have the proof to tie it to Esmeralda?

Zera’s lips sealed themselves together and she could only give a confident nod in response. nodded confidently but the desire to discuss more what she had learned burned in her eyes.

I got up as well, not wanting to give Zera the chance to make herself a target of the two enraged fairies. Although I had trained her myself I highly doubted that she had kept up with any of the exercises that she had learned.

I grabbed Corin by the upper arm and stopped her in her tracks. Her line of vision trained onto the offending arm that held her, but I didn’t let go.

“Calm down General and lieutenant! Although we know that it was her, we also know that it’s not that easy to depose someone known to the public as the queen’s Aide. You won’t be able to take her down on your own and those three don’t have the grounds to enter the castle as of yet.”

I indicated the three other fairies who would be indispensable to the plan, Zera, Liose and Talan

Corin levelled her gaze at me as she debated what I said versus cutting me down for stopping her. But I was in the right so I returned her glare, there were many places she could intimidate me or overpower me.

But not here where she had come to me for help.

“Take a seat General and let’s plan properly. The situation of the past 17 years won’t change in half a day.”

Or so I thought until one of Talan stood up from her seat and flew towards me. Her eyes glowing with the remnant traces of a communication spell she used to manage her information network,

“Mei! The prince…. The prince fled the castle after a meeting with Esmeralda. Sorry to contradict you but if we want to take her down now is the best time.”

Corin pulled her arm away from my grasp and shared a nod with Cambridge. They had decided to leave now, with or without us.

“Let’s go. If they are unwilling to help, we can do it ourselves.”

“Aruna!”

I broke their momentum by summoning my younger sister. Although I knew the two wouldn’t let this opportunity to dispose of Esmeralda so easily, I was more concerned with his highness’s safety.

“Yes, Mei?”

“What of his highness? Where is he?”

Cambridge looked at me oddly as Aruna activated the spell to contact the guards she had placed around his highness. Under my orders of course.

“How would she know the whereabouts of his highness, General Ruan?”

Once again, they attempted to intimidate me.

I knew they were on edge because they had discovered the spell that they had been under for so long. I also tried to keep in mind that essentially 17 years of restrained overprotectiveness towards his highness was crashing in and being aimed towards me, but I was not willing to shoulder it.

“If you are accusing me of overstepping my bounds in keeping tabs on his highness then I’m afraid we have one more point to disagree on. Imagine my shock when I discovered that during the attack his highness did not have a single secret guard attached to him and had to fend for himself as he tried to find me. I told Aruna to assign him one or two just in case…… I also left the orders that they were to leave on the occasion that official Royal guards were assigned to him.”

At my calling out their neglect of his highness, conscious or not, they had to leave me alone and waited for Aruna to return with news.

My younger sister blinked the last remnants of the spell out of her eyes and said with a pale face and a distressed expression.

“Mei… The guards are currently in battle it looks like... his highness fell under attack.”