Chapter Text
Varian was alone.
There wasn’t so much as a sound. No words. No shouting. No laughter. Nothing he’d become used to over his time with his new friends on the road.
There was nothing but the black rocks around him and his own reflection, illuminated by the shimmering blue stone embedded right over his heart.
He’d been sitting for a long time. Hours, at least. Maybe days. Hunger came and went. Fatigue dragged him further towards the floor with every passing second, but his body refused to budge. His mind hadn’t yet caught up.
What had he done?
“You protected her, you know,” She said, fading into view. Her giant eyes, much too big for her face, were alight with sympathy. Tiny fingers settled under his chin to tilt it up to look at her. There was a small smile on the blue girl’s lips. “Rapunzel is alive because of you.”
“I made them angry,” Varian breathed, the words leaving quietly and without his bidding.
“Only because they don’t understand, my dear. They will be angry and hostile towards you. That is the way of humans, isn’t it? To hate what they don’t understand?” She floated around him in a circle, hand brushing over his back and fluffing his hair. “Like how no one ever understood the good you wanted to do for them back home.”
He hesitated.
“...You’re right.” The whisper came a little stronger this time. “I’ve never been understood.”
“Never. But, well, now you have me.”
He glanced up at her. “What… who are you?”
Her smile widened. “A friend. Well, at least, I’d like to be.”
“But… your name?”
“Ah.” She clicked her tongue, circling around him once more before tapping the stone on his chest. “Well, you see, I don’t really have a name. Moonstone, Opal, Destroyer, Evil One, Seductress.” She pulled back, eyeing him. “But I am not evil.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, you helped me.”
“Indeed. And now you are helping me in return.” She crossed her tiny arms. “You may call me Luna, spirit of the Moonstone.”
He nodded. “I’m… um, well, I guess you know, huh?”
Luna giggled, one dainty hand over her mouth. “Varian Quirinsson. Of course I know you. I have been watching you a long time.” She floated down to sit on the ground, elaborate embroidered skirts poofing out around her. Small gloved hands patted her twin buns, making sure not a hair was out of place. “You are the perfect person to carry the Moonstone. The perfect wielder of my power.”
He perked up, back straightening just a bit, even though his knees remained tucked against his chest. “Yeah?”
“Mm-hmm. Smart, humble, good with risks. Willing to do what must be done.” She reached out to pat his knee. “You’re a good person, Varian. I was right to choose you.”
A slow smile took hold of his features, making his eyes glow a bit brighter blue. “So what do I do? How do I help you now?”
“Simple!” She hopped up, gliding back into the air. “You see, the Sundrop must reunite with the Moonstone. It is the natural order. But death, of course, will taint the process, and we don’t want anyone killed, do we?”
He shook his head quickly.
“So I need you to use the powers I’m giving you and find the sacred incantations bound to the Sundrop and myself. These will help you and Rapunzel awaken your power in its truest form and then, we can finally unite.”
He nodded, then frowned. “Wait. If you’re the moonstone, wouldn’t you know it?”
“Of course not, silly.” She bopped him on the nose, making him giggle a little. “The humans are the ones who created the incantations. I am pure power; out in the cosmos, there is no need for fancy words.”
“I… guess that makes sense.”
“It will make more in time. You are not used to the world of magic.” Her eyes tracked down to the Moonstone. “But that is about to change.”
“...Oh. Yeah. Right.” He cleared his throat. “The magic. How do I…?”
“Mm.” She floated back, tapping a knuckle to her lip. “It works differently for everyone. But the best way I can describe it… is to imagine the Moonstone’s power as a liquid. Let it fill you, flood into your veins. Let it cover and drown you, turn you into something different and better.”
He let out a breath. “...How do I do that?”
“Well, first close your eyes.”
He did.
“Do you feel its power?”
He slowly nodded. It was a pulsing, cold burst frozen in his chest, embedded so deeply he wondered if it was part of his heart now. “Yeah.”
“Now imagine that power flowing out into the rest of you. Like water.”
One of his brows furrowed. “I’m… I’m doing it.”
“You aren’t. You’re envisioning it.” Tiny fingers settled on the stone, sending shivers through his body. Then they slowly tracked down, following the path of his artery down his arm. “Vision is, of course, only a small part of what we experience. You must feel it, Varian, in your very blood.”
He tried. He really did. But it just… wouldn’t work. It remained stuck, solid like a glacier. He ground his teeth, grunting in frustration.
Luna sighed and he felt her pull away. “I had such high hopes for you, and yet…”
She didn’t need to finish the sentence. You’re a failure after all.
Failure.
Freak.
Weirdo.
Disappointment.
The words flowed through him like acid, burning and bringing tears to his eyes and--
…
... it flowed through him.
If he could just do that with the power…
He focused. Really focused. Saw and felt and smelled and tasted power.
His veins lit up and so did he.
When he opened his eyes, it was to a giant smile. Luna watched as darkness overtook him, turning his clothes to ash only to be replaced with solid black crystal, hugging his skin and turning to one solid layer of smooth interlocking rock armor. A line of electric blue raced down from the stone, around his hip, down his leg, ending when it reached the floor. Spines rose on his forearms, shoulders, and ankles. A layer of rock covered over his neck, never squeezing but making him feel a bit as if he were going to choke.
“I knew you could do it,” Luna whispered, pride in her eyes.
And right then and there, Varian knew he’d made the right choice.
______
Cassandra collapsed, shaky arms holding her up. Her boots caught in a tiny divot in the mound of black crystal, trying their best to keep her from slipping. All the effort of climbing atop a slick, smooth mountain of stone and all for nothing. Nothing but dark, gloomy skies over a dark, gloomy countryside devoid of life.
“See anything?”
“No, Raps, I’m sorry.” She took in a huffing breath, trying to shove down the guilt twisting her heart and rising in her throat. If she’d just been quicker…
No, scratch that. If she hadn’t been such a self-absorbed jerk. Maybe Varian wouldn’t have deemed it necessary to screw up this badly.
Eugene sighed audibly down below. “Adira just got back with nothing. Lance and I are exhausted. I… guys, I don’t think…”
“No!” Rapunzel’s voice was strained. “No, we lost Varian, we cannot leave without him!”
“Sunshine, it’s… it’s been a week. Edmund’s stores won’t last much longer trying to feed all of us.”
“We can’t just leave him behind!” Cassandra swung her legs over the side, perching on top of the stone hill, to watch Vex speak. The girl was standing by Rapunzel’s side, both hands on her hips and pinched face in a glare. “That idiot risked his life for Rapunzel!”
“I know that,” Eugene spoke quietly. His eyepatch was on, for once, but his one visible brown eye shone with warring emotions. “But I don’t think we’re gonna find him, Vex. Adira’s looked, we’ve looked, Cass has looked, you’ve looked, Sunshine’s looked. All the animals are still out trying to find him. Ruddiger’s been sniffing around on his own for days and Owl just got back. I think he’s moved on.”
“Trust him on this,” Lance put in, nodding and for once looking completely serious as he sat up on the log he’d been relaxing against. “We’re thieves. We know how getaways work. And the little guy’s made one.”
“Besides,” Adira cut in, dusting off her coat. “We’ve finished repairs on his balloon. Taking that, we should get back to Corona easily. From there, we take the last scrap of the scroll from Quirin and piece them all back together. Then we can end this mess.”
Cassandra could see the refusal in Rapunzel’s eyes. Feel the hatred of the situation welling in her clenched bony fists. But, well, there was nothing she could do in the face of cold logic.
Sighing, she slipped back down the black-rock hill, dusting off her tunic to go put her good hand on Rapunzel’s shoulder. Her bad one might’ve been usable, but she didn’t care to deal with any more soreness than she had to. “Raps. Look. Believe me, I feel just as terrible about this as you do. It’s my fault, in a lot of ways, I think. But we have to listen to reason.”
They held gazes for a long while before Rapunzel finally stepped away, blowing out a breath and tugging her hair. Pascal gave a concerned chirp from her shoulder, patting her cheek. “Okay. I-- yeah. You’re all right.”
“I’m sorry, Sunshine,” Eugene whispered, reaching to hug her. She fell into his arms, face pressed to his chest.
Vex stomped over to the balloon. Cassandra watched her go, plopping down in the basket with a tight huff and crossed arms and legs. But there were tears in her eyes.
She knew how the girl felt.
“I’ll get Edmund,” Adira said, her voice uncharacteristically soft as she headed back into the castle. The rest watched her go, silent but clamoring with thoughts.
She returned just as the other animals did. Cassandra jogged up to meet the horses, reaching to run her hands through Fidella’s mane. “Did you find anything?”
She shook her head and Stelle whinnied, scratching at the ground with her hooves and tossing her mane from side to side. Ruddiger squeaked on top of her, patting between her ears to try to get her to calm down.
“I thought not,” Cassandra murmured, heaving a sigh. “Well… the group’s decided to leave. Balloon’s ready.”
Fidella, Maximus, and Fancy all followed, loading up in the basket with all the rest of them. Stelle and Ruddiger… did not.
Rapunzel frowned from inside the basket. “Guys?”
Ruddiger waved his tail, chittering and pointing to the horizon.
“They’re not leaving him.” Vex’s voice tore their attention back to her, red-eyed and sour-looking in the back of the basket. “Just like we shouldn’t be.”
Adira sighed. “Vex--”
“Adira, you are not my mother. I don’t want to hear any of your bul--”
“A Dark Knight,” Adira cut her off, eyes sharp, “Chooses her own path.”
Silence sat over the balloon and everyone stared at Vex. She, in turn, stared wide-eyed up at her mentor. “....Wait, what?”
“I knight you, Vex. Go.” She pointed to Ruddiger and Stelle, a tiny smile on the corner of her lips. “You know your path. Follow it.”
There was something seriously wrong about this, and Cassandra was glad she didn’t seem to be the only one to notice. Lance, of all people, was the one to speak up as they watched Vex race back over to Stelle and Ruddiger. “Um… Adira, do you really think letting a child…”
“No, not at all.” She laughed, unnervingly carefree for a woman who’d just told a child to wander around a wasteland. “But she’s a Dark Knight now.”
“She… she’s barely fifteen--”
“And so was I when I first traveled into the Forest of No Return.” Her eyes glittered, a smug smile on her painted face. “She has training and wit. She’ll live.”
Eugene’s wave caught Cassandra’s attention. Rapunzel didn’t seem to hear any of it, just staring out over the castle with haunted eyes, thoughts miles and miles away.
She nodded. “Alright, everyone. We’re loaded up. Let’s get back to Corona.”
“Back home,” Lance sighed, joined by Maximus’s forced-enthusiastic whinny. “Let’s get going, you guys.”
Rapunzel never stopped staring all the way up, staring at the dark spire of the castle as the clouds swallowed it whole.
Nothing would be the same.