Chapter Text
"I'm glad everyone's okay, it sounds like you've all been through the ringer." Prince Cambam of KEWLTOWN says from atop his steed.
"Yeah, I'm going to go lie down. I'll see you guys." Shelby says, quickly running off while checking over her shoulder to make sure nobody's following.
She runs through the too large hallways of the too large academy, Firefly on her back keeping watch. They're going to do the ritual that they picked up from the royal wing. While the others have made promises to never do another ritual again until they're sure it's not corrupted, Shelby made that promise with her fingers crossed behind her back, fully intent on doing this. She isn't going to let anyone or anything stop her.
Rounding the corner to her dorm, she digs the book titled 'Starlight' from out of her bag, holding it in her hand as she comes to a stop in the entrance to her dorm. Checking around the main area she quickly darts up the right hand set of stairs, turning left and rushing into her room, locking the door behind her as the magical veil of soundproof mana settles over her. She won't be able to hear anyone outside the room, just as they won't be able to hear her inside.
She looks at the cover of the book again, and right below where it says the title instead of an author is just the word 'Forbidden'. Opening up the book she reads it aloud to herself.
"Starlight Blessing Ritual. Some blessings do not fall from the heavens. They must be invited." She turns the page. "Set a basic candle circle beneath open sky, or wherever the memory of stars can still be felt. Near the candles, scatter eight measures of glowstone dust, bright as captured dawn, and four amethyst shards, clear enough to hold celestial song." She hums falling into the rhythm of the rhyme as she reads.
"When the circle is prepared, ignite the central quartz." Two pages left. "If the rite accepts you, a pale blue radiance will gather at your feet and rise through your body like gentle lightning. Your eyes will open to the hidden paths of darkness, and your steps will quicken as though the stars themselves pull you forward." She turns to the last page.
"For a short while, night will lose it's hold over you. Walk with care, blessed one. Starlight reveals the road ahead, but it does not promise where the road will lead." She closes the book and pats twig on the head when he draws near, before rifling through her chests for the ingredients. Four amethyst shards are the easiest to find, followed by a block of quartz, and a lighter. She spends the next ten minutes looking for glowstone dust, only to gasp in dismay when she realizes she doesn't have any.
She has no glowstone dust. What is she to do now? Maybe one of her friends have some? But they would ask questions about why she needs it, and she can't reveal that she's going to do the ritual. They'll yell at her, or worse be extremely disappointed in her. Is there anywhere else she could find some? Maybe the ritual room?
Before she leaves her room she rifles through her bag, getting rid of three books by placing them in her bookshelf and leaving Starlight in her bag. She also puts away some flowers gifted to her by her friends, and a couple more odds and ends before leaving with the basic sword and pickaxe, along with the things she needs for the ritual, as well as her snack pouch and what she affectionately calls her key items pouch.
She leaves her room, and jumps down to the first floor, her magic creating a cushion of air for her to fall safely on, and makes her way towards the ritual room, checking to see that the magic instructor, Terry isn't there she darts in on silent footsteps, popping open the supply chests and rifling through them. There's no glowstone here, either.
Flying to her feet she quickly paces around the ritual room, racking her brain for any bit of info that could possibly help her. That's when she remembers the Guard standing in the main room. People give him little gifts of random things all the time, and with her ability to create things that she learned from her travels with her nomadic family, she can just say she needs the glowstone dust to make glowstone lamps and no one would question her.
She hastily leaves the ritual room, exits the hallway into the second story of the main hall and jumps down from the balcony, landing on the first floor safely thanks to her magic, she turns around and darts up the few stairs to reach the guard, Sausage, Graecie, and Legs sitting on the stairs and relaxing as they watch her pass.
Walking up to Guard Guard, she pleads her case. "Hey Guard Guard, do you have eight glowstone dust I can use to make into glowstone lamps for my room?" She asks him, while behind her the three that were sitting stand up to better eavesdrop.
Guard Guard nods his head and gives her eight glowstone dust, while behind her Graecie carefully slips a yellow flower crown onto her head. "Thank you so much Guard Guard." Shelby thanks him, before saying hi to the other three and darting back to her dorm.
Stopping in the domed entrance, she sets up the basic circle once the stars are visible through the skylight. She throws down the ingredients and lights the central quartz block, the area around her quickly filling with blue particles. She's struck once by magic lightning and starts to feel dizzy, the room spinning around her as footsteps start to come running, pounding and echoing through the academy. Her vision is obscured by the blue particles as they fill the space entirely, and she knows something's gone wrong when she blacks out after being hit by the second magically induced lightning strike.
Shelby wakes up on a sandy beach. The sky is overcast in grey clouds, barely any sunlight peaking through it, making it look like it's going to rain any second now. Feeling and memory come back to her in slow waves, like the waves lapping at her feet. She remembers performing the Starlight ritual, the world blinking in and out of focus and existence, intense pain when the second lightning strike struck, did she die?
She sits up slowly, some ruined stone structure on it's own mini island across from her in the water is the first thing she sees. She inches backwards before finally standing, with no idea where she is. She doesn't feel any weaker, or exhausted, like Drift had since she died so maybe not? Shelby shouldn't have trusted the book, it was forbidden for a reason.
She pats herself down to make sure she still has everything, then lets Firefly out of her bag to check her over for any injuries. Once she's sure Firefly is unharmed, she pulls out her dragon brush and brushes the sand out of her scales before helping her back into the bag and putting it back on her back.
"Shelby!" Drift's voice reaches her ears and she turns around to see…who is that?
A girl who looks like Drift comes running up to her before coming to a stop, two other girls close behind her. The girl on her left has orange hair, while the girl on her right is in a black and white dress with a red flower in her hair.
"Shelby?" Drift asks her, the two other girls exchanging glances among them.
"Why do you look like that?" Shelby asks Drift.
"Like what? I know Scott said I had to work on my style, but I didn't think it was that bad." The is it Drift? Responds.
"Scott's here?" Shelby asks.
"Are you alright, Shelby?" Orange haired lady asks and honestly who is she?
"I'm fine, just did something I shouldn't have…Who are you two? New students? I would've heard about any new students…" Shelby asks her.
"Students?" The three of them ask looking extremely confused.
"Do you mean me and Cleo?" The girl in the black dress asks and Shelby nods her head.
"Shelby do you not remember Cleo and Pearl?" Drift asks.
"I'm assuming the orange-haired one is Cleo, and then the one with the pretty dress is Pearl?" Shelby asks her.
"That is correct…" Drift says, looking at her almost hopefully.
"Then yeah, no, I don't know who you two are, sorry." Shelby looks both of them in the eye as she says sorry, Drift's face instantly becoming crestfallen.
An awkward silence falls over the four of them as the other three exchange worried glances.
"Well, uh, Shelby. Would you like to come back to Oakhurst with us?" Drift asks her, but before Shelby can say anything in response, Pearl says something worrisome.
"There's somebody else here." She says before looking at her.
"What did you mean by you did something you shouldn't have?" Pearl asks her, her voice veiled in suspicion.
"Turned herself back into a human somehow by the look of things." A man's voice chimes in, and Shelby jumps into the air in fright, looking down at the others as she slowly floats down. The newcomer is a man with long white hair and wearing all red. In front of him is Pearl brandishing what looks to be a sword made out of silver, all four of them looking up at her.
"How did you do that?" Drift asks her once she's back on solid ground.
"What do you mean, you were there when i first unlocked it." Shelby tells her.
"You've been a witch this whole time?" The man asks, sounding betrayed and flabbergasted all at once.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Shelby asks him, so hopelessly confused.
"So you don't remember me, you don't remember Pearl, and you don't remember Owen, but you know Scott and Drift?" Cleo asks her.
"Yeah?" Shelby says.
"You lost your memory?" The man, Owen, asks.
"Apparently. I have no idea where I am, who most of you people are, why Drift is dressed like that." Shelby tells him.
"What's wrong with how I'm dressed? This is the second time you've mentioned it." Drift asks her.
"I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not what I'm used to seeing you wearing. Normally you're in green, so seeing you in just brown is jarring to me." Shelby tells her.
"But wait a second, what do you mean turned myself back into a human? Also, I'm a mage not a witch." Shelby asks Owen.
"Do you not remember becoming a vampire?" Pearl asks her.
"Vampires aren't real." Is Shelby's initial response, but then she pauses and thinks.
"Unless I became one because I got corrupted, but if I was corrupted I'd be dead." Shelby nods her head.
"So yeah, no vampire." She announces to the group smugly. Firefly nudges her snout against her neck to gain her attention back to the present to see the four of them staring at her.
"Corruption?" Owen asks under his breath while Cleo and Pearl school their expressions back to normal.
"Right, so, Shelby's coming back to Oakhurst with us, and Owen I'd say you'd better scram unless you want to be dunked in holy water." Cleo says as Pearl and Drift come closer to Shelby.
"Hold on, what's Oakhurst?" Shelby interjects before Owen has the chance to say anything.
"Oakhurst is the name of town, Shelby." Drift tells her as she stands in between her and Owen protectively, Pearl standing in front of her with Cleo in front of her.
Cleo and Owen have a stare-down with each other, the tension so thick between the two that it could be cut with a knife, making Firefly start to squirm in her bag.
"Fine, but Scott and Pyro aren't going to be too happy." Owen ominously says before turning into a swarm of bats and flying away.
"Is that his magic?" Shelby asks the group.
"Magic isn't- actually vampires are real and they keep mentioning witches, so I guess magic is real." Pearl begins to say before stopping herself. As the four of them start walking in a seemingly random direction.
"Is magic how you jumped that high?" Drift asks her after a while of walking.
"Yeah? You know this Drift you helped me unlock my magic." Shelby tells her, then pauses. "Where's Fern?" Drift and the other two pause their walking and look at her.
"Who?" Drift asks, and alarm bells start ringing in Shelby's mind.
"You aren't Drift." Shelby accuses, backing away a step.
"Shelby what do you mean, of course I'm Drift. It's me, remember? We met a couple weeks ago, sure, but we became fast friends, at least I thought we were friends." Drift says sounding sad. But she's not Drift.
"ARE YOU A DOPPELGANGER?!" Shelby yells in confusion, backing away even more from the person pretending to be her friend as the three of them take a step towards her.
"What do you mean doppelganger?" Cleo, is she actually Cleo or is she a doppelganger too, asks.
"Shelby, you doing alright there mate?" Pearl, or fake-pearl, asks as Shelby's back hits a tree, the three of them moving closer.
"Don't get close to me, just because I don't know any offensive spells doesn't mean I don't know any defensive spells." Shelby threatens making the three stop walking and look at her like she's a wild animal.
"Shelby?" Not-Drift asks, and the hurt in her voice physically pains Shelby's heart because she sounds and looks like her friend.
"You're going to answer my questions and nobody has to get hurt, alright?" Shelby asks, brandishing her diamond sword to show she means business.
"There's no need for violence Shelby." Cleo tells her, but she's past the point of caring. She wants answers, and she wants answers now.
"What exactly did the starlight ritual do?" Shelby asks the three doppelgangers in front of her, only to see them look confused.
"Starlight ritual?" The impostor Drift asks, sounding oh so terribly confused.
The air itself seems to freeze as Shelby stares at the three figures in front of her, Firefly cowering in the backpack. She's not where she's supposed to be. She's not with her friends. She's alone, surrounded by the things that have been terrorizing the academy, terrorizing her friends.
She charges up a wind-blast and lets it loose, running off before the three even hit the ground, into the woods, away from the doppelgangers, away from this supposed town, away from the Drift who's not actually Drift even though she looks and sounds exactly like her. She runs towards the sunset, towards the dead woods.