Twenty Three

They got to the clearing by sundown and George and I had already set up camp and did everything we could for Nathaniel. Nara immediately rushed over to him and checked on him, but luckily our efforts paid off and his fever had gone down quite a bit. I helped her give Nathaniel the medicine that he desperately needed and let him sleep, as we tried to figure out how to leave Pasiphae.

     We tried to figure out what Paul's motives were and I mentioned how he was a bit late to the ball and how Nathaniel and I passed him on the way to the ballroom. They asked me if I noticed anything strange about him, referring to glistening red eyes, but he looked perfectly normal. We concluded that he got the help of the sorcerer Zephyr to put a spell on the guards in the ballroom and got them to kill the kings and queens, so that he wouldn't get his hands dirty.

     Joan asked George how they're supposed to get back to Ceres since the land border was closed. Any passage using the sea would be monitored and constantly checked if it went to Ceres, so that rules out the sea route. Donatello asked about the mountains, and Nara said they wouldn't waste security on a natural wall between the countries. I brought up Merlin, and told them how he could probably get us to Ceres through the mountains with his magic.

     George told me that finding Merlin wasn't going to solve their problems, and there was no guarantee that he would even believe us and not Paul. They decided that they were going to head to Ceres and forget Merlin, which upset me quite a bit. I thought of fighting their judgement, but I felt like it wasn't my place to do so, so I just went to bed, eager to rant to my parents.

     I closed my eyes, but instead of seeing the endless white desert with no beginning or end, everything was on fire.