"The magic of fire is a power none can explain"

The young Queen Arabella walks alongside her brother Grayson and she holds his hand, not wanting to let go of her brother, not after she just lost them. She did not even know the reason why they died nor who or what killed them as she did not know that it was Luna, her very own friend that did that. However, she knew none of that. "I cannot believe this, I will make this right. You can go back home, and live your lives" Arabella tells her older brother. The guilt washing over her and almost suffocating her flames, still they brightly live.

She might not know the reason why her brothers were killed, but knew it had to be for her. Making the guilt unbearable for her brothers did not live their lives like normal men for they had to take care of her and then they fell into a fate that she would not wish upon anyone. Even if it means that she would never see them again, she would do it, let them have their happy lives. She has already found hers, so why should they not be able to? Jaxon clearly in love for the first time.

"Queen Arabella" Thalia says as she goes over to Arabella and bows in front of her. "Yes, you can rise" The fire eyed girl speaks to the woman still bowing before her. "Am I free to speak my mind?" She asks, standing up with her head down at the ground. "Of course, you are my friend, you can speak however you like" Arabella tells her, confused at why she is bowing before. She is the Queen yet still not used to the fact that people bow before her and will seek her approval of things. All of this is of course new to her and she is not used to it.

"Before we shall see the King, I wish to make you look more beautiful in his eyes. I suggest to bathe and clothe you" Thalia says to her and Arabella thinks for a moment. It has been a long time since she had bathed, with everything going on and he dying a couple of times. "Yes, of course" She then speaks. She wants to look perfect in his eyes, she wants to impress him. Thalia and Arabella leave the twin brothers standing there, forgetting about them for a moment as they head for her bedroom.

"When do you think I will be wed him?" Arabella asks. Knowing her love already has a wife that unfortunately cannot die and she would never marry a man that is wed to another woman, as much as it does pain her. "I would say rather soon as he does love you and you love him. There is nothing greater than love. Well, perhaps you, my Queen" Thalia tells her as they walk up the stairs. "You can call me by my name" Arabella tells her. She might not be used to being a Queen, yet she would never want her friends calling her that, even if her friends do serve her.

They reach the bedroom and both of them are remembering the bad things that took place in there, knowing that something terrible always happens. And the pain that followed behind those things. "You can sit here, while I shall run the bath" Thalia tells her and walks into the bathing room. Her fire eyes look over the room, seeing the room that she has seen before, and it is as if she sees the pain that she used to feel the last time she was there.

Her eyes catch the white rose on the golden desk. The white rose that she was never able to figure out. She walks over there and as she watches it. Reaching to pick it up with her hands, then she feels this dark energy come off it and she stops herself. "Do not touch it, it is dark" Thalia speaks and she looks over to her as she stands near her. "Why? I can feel the evil yet I do not see it" Arabella asks, confused. Thalia walks over to the girl and stares at the rose.

"It may seem pure, yet it is not. It was pure when the King gave it to you, yet someone had to have spelled it" Thalia explains to her. It comes to her all at once. Her last servant, she was evil and she did try to kill her. Perhaps she was trying to kill her from the moment that they met. "There was a girl, she was my maid but she ended up trying to kill me. Yet, she thought me so much. I can read now because she taught me to" Arabella says. She remembers that it has been a long time since she read.

Just thinking about the past, which was only a couple of weeks ago, she's reminded by everything that can to pass. And she did not know when she was thinking about it all the times because that through the pain that she went through, there were also days that she was happy. She learned to read and she got to pick jewels that she knew she was not worthy of. It has been so long, that she does know yet at the same time it was only a short time ago.

"Could you teach me? I do not know how to read, I never learned" Thalia confesses to the girl that she admires, she did not want to admit it but when she did say that she recently learned, she knew it was time for that. Arabella turns to face her. "Of course I would love nothing more. Now, is the bath ready?" Arabella asks, wanting nothing more than to hug her but knows it is not the right time. "Yes, of course, it is ready for you" She answers her and the two of them walk over to the bathing room.

The flames on her dress die down until they become nothing and she stands there naked. She goes into the bath and lies down. The steaming hot water never burning her as she is surrounded by it. Relaxation runs through her. She might have questions for the man she loves and his father but she does also realize that she needs to take care of her body and bathe and dress herself nicely. It has been a long time. "Why do you think I was chosen? I understand because I was born to do this, yet I cannot help but wonder that there are so many other girls that might do this better than I" Arabella suddenly asks Thalia.

She had been washing her in the water. "I do not know why you were chosen as I do not know the way of the universe yet if you were chosen, it had to be for a reason and I have seen it myself. You defended me and you care for us, you subjects. You are the Queen that will rule the world. That I have no question about" Thalia tells her. Feeling her soft silk hair as she washes it, even when it barely looks or feels dirty.

"Your hair is perfect, how do you do it?" She then asks before the young Queen could say anything about it. However, she does think of it, thinking about the words that she said. Not knowing that her people and her friends felt and saw her like that, like the rightful Queen. She might be born to do it but it still feels strange for her to hear it coming from a someone she considers her friend. "I do not know. Try dying a couple of times and then you can tell me" She answers her question.

Both of them laugh at her words. But soon the bath is over and she stands up and walks out of the bath. And then something runs in her head. "I do not know how to create that dress and I do not know if I wish to wear it now" Arabella tells her. The fire dress is a sign of the fire Queen as Hellfire is inside her, yet she does not want to wear it all the time. Even when that dress does make her feel like she truly is the rightful Queen of the Underworld.

"We have many dresses, none as beautiful as yours but you can choose whoever you like" Thalia says to her as she leads her over to the door that leads to the closet. It always surprises her how many dresses and gowns they own and they are different and unique in their own way. Naked, she walks around. The water already dried up as the heat in her body did what it does best, keeping her warm. Her hair drying faster than any hair yet slower than the rest of her body. Walking around to see if she wants to wear something and then she stops in front of a dress that she likes.

Thalia takes the dress. "A beautiful choice, my Queen" She says. Helping the Queen into the dress the two of them stay silent yet there are words that both of them wish to say to each other. Arabella wanting to ask her about the love she feels for her brother and Thalia wanting to know what she plans on doing next as the Queen. Yet neither of them said the things they wanted. As the silence just took a hold over them and they found themselves enjoying it better than words.

After she has been dressed, she goes to choose the jewels that she is supposed to wear. She can remember how her maid had explained to her that the more that she uses, the more respects she gets. She did not understand it at the time yet she does now and she disagrees. People do not respect her for she has jewels, they respected her for they feel her power, her authority and they know she is the Queen and that she is powerful. That doesn't go past anyone. Arabella walks around the room.

Looking at the pillars with the necklaces, bracelets, crowns and other jewels yet never finds the perfect one. She stops and her thoughts go to the necklace she had over her neck before, the one that burned away with her fire dress. Her thoughts go over to it without wanting to and then the feeling of herself wearing it, she looks at her neck only to see that she has it on. As if it never even left at all. Only disappeared from her mind's eye. She knew that Thalia could not enter the room but she wishes she could have seen that happen to her.

Perhaps ask about it, for she does not know how this is possible. With a smile she walks out of the room to join her in the bedroom. Thalia stands there and when she sees the girl, she gives her a confused look. "I did not want anything else and neither do I need to" Arabella answers the unasked question that she knew she was thinking about. "And, I am ready. To face him now. I think I needed this. I needed to get my thoughts clear and I also needed to spend some time with you" Arabella continues, smiling.

She walks over to Thalia and before she could react, she hugs her. "Everything has me in a storm that I did not know I could get out of but now you have saved me" Arabella speaks in the hug. She truly did need a hug and she needed her friend. "If there is anything you wish to talk and get out, I am always here to listen" Thalia tells her and smiles to her. They break the hug and the happiness between the two is eternal, that they do know and perhaps in more ways than one.

After learning about who she is and who her father is, everything has been weighing her down and she did not know if she could save herself from it. "I always forget to tell you... that you truly have a beautiful singing voice" Arabella says as the two of them go out of the room, into the hallways. "What?" Thalia asks her, confused. Arabella smiles and let's out a giggle when she hears this and realizes that she did not know the truth. "It was your voice and your song that brought me back" She finally says.

Thalia stops with a shocked expression on her face. "I do not understand" She whispers to herself. Arabella walks in front of her and takes both of her hands. "I do not how or why but I was stuck inside a dream, a dream I loved and somehow wanted and then I started to hear your voice. At first I did not understand it as I did not recognize your voice nor the song. Yet I felt this pull inside me and I knew I had to follow it. And I did. It brought me outside and then I walked, like your song said. Taking another step" Arabella says.

No one had truly known what happened to her, except for Hades' father as he gave her a choice. "Then I started to remember... everything. All the memories that I had forgotten came back to me. Because of you and your song" She finishes. She had not told anyone about it but this feels like the perfect moment to let Thalia know that if it were not for her, Arabella would've been lost in that dream forever and there would be no way that she would ever have gotten out and back to the people that she loves the most.

"Really?" Thalia asks with tears running down her face. The fact that her pain and her the song she sang to deal with the pain brought back the most powerful Queen of them all, it makes her feel like she is important. When her whole life she has never felt important. "Yes, and for what you have done for me, I can never thank you enough for" Arabella tells her with a kind smile on her face. She too, with tears in her eyes but she doesn't let them fall down.

What started as Arabella standing up against injustice against a woman has turned into a friendship she values. They hug again and both of them feel like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. "We must get to your hopefully future husband, I believe he's waiting for you and he will not be able to take his eyes off you. I can tell that he will want to wed you where you stand" Thalia says breaking the hug. She had noticed how the young fire eyed girl is nervous to see him, perhaps because wedding and marriage has come up or perhaps for another reason, that she doesn't know.

"You think so?" The Queen asks her friend, she does want to be married to him and she truly wishes to marry him with all her love, yet forgetting that he is already wed and the fact that he has wed many other woman and girls is something she doesn't seem to be able to do and it somehow tears her from the inside out. "Of course, you do not see how soft he has become. Before you came here, all he did was punish people. Bring nothing but pain to them for it was his duty" She answers.

"Yet not, he has not. He does punish, but not extreme like he had done once before and it is because of how he has fallen in love with you. I may not understand the way of beings like the two of you are, yet I know love and this is love at its finest" Thalia tells her. Arabella smiles at her and wipes her eyes as she had started to cry a bit. She had noticed that he has grown soften, as he did yell at her when they first met.

As they started walking the hallways once again, Arabella felt a familiar feeling inside her. Like a sense of some sort. She turns around to see the midnight haired and violet eyed girl standing there. Having not have talked or even seen her since she woke up, she runs over to her and welcomes her into a hug that she knew Luna was not expecting. Luna is shocked at this but she does end up hugging her back. "I did a terrible thing" She starts, knowing that she finally has to tell the girl she knows is her only friend what she did.

She has never felt guilty about anything before and hurting Arabella is the only thing that she feels guilty about. She can't handle the feeling, yet she can't handle hurting her either. That would be the last thing she wanted. Arabella breaks the hug and looks into her eyes. "I do not care what you did, I care about you. You are my friend and I swore that I would protect you but I also swore that I would be your friend" She says, perhaps she doesn't need to know the truth, yet in her heart Luna knows she has to know.

"I was the one that killed your brothers" She finally admits and it breaks her heart to have to speak those words to her. Arabella pales when she hears those words being spoken and tears run down her cheeks. "I had to. I only meant to save you. I wanted you to live and I knew it was the only way to defeat your mother, she wanted to kill you and I did not think. I need you... now that I am free from my father, I wish to stay here, and be with you. As your friend" She says.

"I know you will never forgive me for what I did, yet now as they are alive, I pray that you might see past it" She says as she feels the sadness take over her. The words were hard for her to speak and even hard to tell to the person that she standing in front of. Arabella watches her in her fire eyes and she smiles. Perhaps it was the things that she has been through or the sadness or the moment she has with Thalia but she found herself saying. "I forgive you"