Chapter 2 "An Unforgettable Party"

The Next Day:

Melody arrived at School; she saw Daphne parking her car in the parking lot.

"There you are, still can't believe you preferred walking to school instead of riding", Daphne said.

"Its alright, you know I like walking in the morning, yesterday was just the first day so I was a bit nervous of being late so had to come with you", Melody said

"Whatever suits you", Daphne said while they both went inside.

They saw a crowd of people gathered near the notice board.

"Looks like a new notice is up", Melody said.

They went closer to see what it was. The crowd slowly started to decrease and they could finally read the notice. It wasn't exactly a notice; it was an invitation from the kingdom.

"What does it say?", Melody asked.

"Dear people of Lendian Kingdom, I cordially invite you inside my castle doors for a gathering, a gathering to celebrate a special guest", Daphne read out the notice.

"That's weird, who do you think is the special guest", Daphne added.

"I don't know, but I guess the kingdom's lockdown is going to end now", Melody said.

"Yea, maybe you were right about the whole witch thing being just a gossip and not a fact", Daphne said.

Melody didn't reply much as she knew the witch was actually real but wasn't sure if she wanted Daphne to find out about all that.

"Have you spoken to James lately?", Melody asked.

"Not recently, why?", Daphne asked

"Nothing".

"So, are we going to this kingdom's party?", Daphne asked

"No, I'm not in the mood for it", Melody replied.

"But why not? We never go to things like these, that needs to change this year, plus I've had a really weird first day yesterday so I need a fresh start and a clear mind, this party is the perfect opportunity for both", Daphne said.

"Yea tell me about it, I had a pretty weird first day too, but I don't even have anything to wear", Melody said

"Don't worry about that you can borrow one of my outfits, I have a lot", Daphne said. "Please come on let's go, it'll be fun", Daphne added to convince Melody.

"Okay fine I'll go", Melody said.

"Yay!", Daphne shouted.

Suddenly the bell rang and Daphne went to her class.

Melody had a free period so she went to find James.

Melody saw him at the stairs. She tried calling his name but she was too far away and he didn't hear her. She thought he was ignoring her so she followed him.

James sat down at the bench and opened a book. Melody reached him.

"Hi", Melody started the conversation.

"Hi", James replied.

"Are you avoiding me?", She asked.

"What? No, never, why would you ask me that?", James replied

"Nothing, I just thought maybe after everything that happened yesterday….", Melody said.

"No, Look I know we haven't spoken since last night and I probably should have called or something but I just.. I guess I just needed to get my head around everything that happened", James said.

"Yea I get it, it can be a lot to process. Considering you just found out your friend is a magical killing machine", Melody said while sitting down at the bench with James.

"Hey, don't say that, you know that's not what I meant. I'm concerned but not because of the fact that you have powers, I'm concerned for you, you know what the king does to people with powers, I guess I was just worried for you", James said.

"Yea, me too", Melody said.

"But I'm done thinking about it, I need to live my life as I used to, I'm just going to pretend that I don't have these powers, that way I won't think about them and won't accidently use them on anyone", Melody said.

"so your plan is to move on from all this?"

"Yes, that's exactly my plan, which reminds me, are you going to the king's party tonight?"

"I wasn't thinking about it, wait are you going?, Won't that be dangerous for you?"

"Yea I'm going, and don't worry it wont be dangerous, as I said I need to move on from the fact that I have powers, I'll just forget worrying about them, that's the only way to get through this, and the last thing I need is to miss this party cause I'm worried I might out my self"

"well okay, I guess I'll come too then"

"great! See you there then", Melody said while heading to the library.

At night, at the King's party :

Both Melody and Daphne arrived at the party, the whole place was crowded with people. Daphne was wearing a purple dress and Melody wearing a white outfit and a sparkly silver jacket. They both were looking around for James as he said he was coming too.

Just then, James came on his Floverboard. He stopped the Floverboard and got off it. He put his hand on the centre of the Floverboard and it turned into a watch.

"Hey guys", James said while looking at Melody and Daphne.

They all went inside the castle.

Melody had never been inside the castle before. It was a completely new experience for her. While both Daphne and James had been inside the castle before too on special occasional celebrations. The whole place had a completely different vibe then what Melody had pictured. Rock music was on. The palace was folled with colorful lights and the people were dancing like in a disco. The place had a great yet not so royal vibe.

The party was being held at the ball room. There was a sitting area for the King. It was much feet above the ball room ground.

After a while the king came to the ball room to make an announcement. Suddenly the whole place was quiet.

"Welcome to the royal castle, my people", The king started his speech. "I know the Kingdom was in sort of a lockdown the last few days but all that was done to make arrangements for a special guest. As I'm sure all of you are aware. I will be introducing you to a very special guest tonight. Someone who was away for a while but has finally returned.

My son, Alexander". The king said while pointing out to a door from where a young man, "Alexander" came. Everyone was shocked at first cause they did not know that the king had a son.

"Wait, why does the king has a son?", Daphne asked.

"Come to think of it, this kingdom doesn't even have a queen", Daphne said.

Suspicions were all around. People were very curious.

The king continued his speech and started talking about his wife and how the whole kingdom misses her.

Suddenly something started to happen to the people. Melody didn't feel something happening to her but it was happening to everyone else Including her friends James and Daphne.

"hey are you okay?", Melody asked.

"Yea I'm fine, I just had a headache for a second there, all good now though", Daphne said. "I'm so happy the prince has returned".

Melody was shocked when Daphne said that. "but just a second ago you said you didn't know the king had a son", Melody asked Daphne.

"What are you talking about? I never said that. Of course I know the king has a son. He was born just before the queen died, remember?", Daphne said.

Melody was clueless to what was happening. It was like someone was playing with the minds of everyone. She got extremely scared.

"I'm going to go outside for a minute, I need some fresh air", Melody said while heading out the castle.

When Melody was outside the castle, she felt something strange. She had only felt this feeling when the Dark Witch was near her but this time somehow she knew it wasn't the Dark Witch. It was like she could sense magic. She followed the feeling. She reached the backside of the castle but no one was there. It was coming from inside. There was a room but the window was locked. She could feel strong magic on the window too. It was as if someone sealed it with magic. Luckily there was no guard there, as all guards were at the front side of the castle. Of course there was still security everywhere but no one saw her in the darkness of the night. She knew something strange was happening and she couldn't just ignore this feeling so she decided to use magic.

She concentrated and slowly her hand started to glow with magic. She threw a magic ball at the window and it broke into several hundred pieces. She went inside. It was an empty corridor. There were a lot of stairs, she went upstairs and suddenly saw someone from a window inside a room, she hid herself. It was a man, he was using magic.

Suddenly a voice came from behind her.

"I'm impressed".

Melody was scared as hell. She turned around fastly, with her heartbeat beating so loud that she was shaking. Thankfully it wasn't a guard.

It was the Dark Witch.

"oh my god, you scared me, what are you doing here", Melody whispered to the witch.

"Nothing, just telling you I'm impressed that you were able to detect magic already", The witch said.

"Who is that? And what is he doing?", Melody asked the Witch.

"He is a Manipant", The Witch explained.

"what's a Manipant?", Melody asked.

"A Manipant is also a person with extraordinary abilities like you and me, you see magic comes in different forms, people who have magic don't all have the same kind of magic, some have combat magic, somw have nature powers, some light, some water, some electric and well it goes on, A Manipant is a person who has the power to manipulate people, he can change the minds of people and mess with him, he can create illusions, make people see things which aren't there or make people think something's that never happened", The Witch explained.

"Oh my god so that means he is the reason everyone is believing all the lies the king is feeding them?", Melody said.

"Precisely", The witch replied.

"Wait so what is my power?", Melody asked.

"I don't know, that's up to you to discover", The witch said.

Then suddenly a portal appeared and the witch left. Melody got startled by this and accidently hit the window which caused a noice. Enough for the manipant to notice her.

"Hey!, who are you", The manipant said from inside the room.

Melody started to run down the stairs. The manipant came out of the room and followed her.

Melody almost reached the window from where she came but the Manipant attacked her with a blast of power on the window.

So Melody stopped. Turns out it was just an illusion. But the Manipant reached Melody by then and she couldn't escape.

"who are you", he asked her.

"I.. i… I'm sorry.. I'm just a guest and I got lost but I'll be heading back now", Melody said while trying to leave but the manipant stopped her.

"How where you able to get inside, this part of the castle was sealed with magic to stop any non magical creature from coming in, unless you are..", The Manipant realized Melody had powers.

"I'm sorry I really don't know what you are talking about but I should be heading back to the party now", Melody said.

"Oh your not going anywhere, you know what I was doing at the party", The manipant said. "I have looking for you".

Melody was confused.

She knew it wasn't safe for her so she ran towards the window and this time the Manipant attacked her for real and not just an illusion. She fell down but hurried up and got up.

He attacked her again. But before the attack could hit her she unintentionally made a shield which repelled the attack.

He attacked her again and this time she attacked back. She used her hand and started to do magic against him. She was only using one hand at first. The manipant was going to win so she used both hands and gave herself a push. This increased her magic and defeated the Manipant. He fell down. She went to the window.

"guards, get her! she's the one, GUARDS!!", Manipant shouted.

A few guards from outside heard him and came after Melody.

Two guards were coming from both sides. Melody used both her hands and attacked the guards. And continued running. She left the castle grounds. She looked back at the castle and many guards were following her now. She had a tear in her eye, she knew that now everyone knows her secret, nothing will ever be the same. She ran towards the forest and soon the guards lost her.

"Its official, magic was returned to the kingdom of FLOALE!", every where on TV and on all newspapers, there was only one heading. "MAGIC IS BACK"/"SPOTTED LAST NIGHT, A GIRL USING MAGIC"

Nothing would ever be the same again for Melody now..