“Améliiiee hurry up, Grace is at the door!” Amy yelled across the apartment, alerting the older twin. Amélie patted down on her skirt before slipping her tote bag on and rushed out her room, meeting Amy and a good friend by the door. “Hi Grace!” She said with a smile, she gasped as she almost tripped over nothing and steadied herself, causing the rather tall plant demon leaning against the door frame to giggle. 

“Sorry for being late, I may have overslept,” She spoke, twirling her hair before she stood back up, “I’ll get you two to the closest portal, just be careful and hold onto each other while you step in.” Grace huffed and summoned a portal before them, and with a shrug of the shoulders Amy grabbed her sister’s wrist and walked right through without warning, making Amélie feel rather dizzy. She felt her body shiver as it went through the portal, a chill passing by, feeling lighter than usual.

Amélie swayed side to side as they reached their destination and leaned into Amy to her displeasure, feeling sick as Grace slipped through before it closed. The tall demihuman stood up quickly in an attempt to hide how puffed she was after doing such a heavy spell, not wanting the twins to worry about her.

“Here we are! Just ahh… Line up over here, they’ll log us in.” The two younger demons looked back at Grace as she ushered them into a line, with Amélie then focusing on guards of what appeared to be a much bigger portal than what Grace could make. They were strong and powerful, regarded as royal guards. 

These powerful demons would guard these portals with eyes like hawks, to prevent those with malicious intent from abusing these means of transport, they would keep watch in groups of four, each wearing their own symbols to that of the four symbols of each kingdom, the suits of cards.

The Heart, a symbol of Spirit Point, Amélie’s rather ghostly home.

The Spade, a symbol of Blackvall, the kingdom of the hottest fire.

The Club, a symbol of Leafdon, the home for those of nature.

And the Diamond, a symbol of Abermaw, the kingdom of all that is water.

Amélie fiddled with her hands as she stepped up to the portal, she was familiar with this, as all demons had to have themselves logged every time they went through a guarded portal, although she couldn’t help but be nervous over stating her name to the guard with the Heart symbol. Out squeaked her name and she blushed in embarrassment, wanting to feel queasy by slipping through the portal instead of thinking of what the guard’s face looked like underneath their helmet any longer. 

Amélie almost tumbled over as Amy slipped through, then Grace, then more as she leaned into the older demihuman for support. She thanked Grace with a wobbly smile and they made their way inside the gala, only to witness a fight going on. There stood Belle, a good friend of the Hyun twins, picking a fight with another fire demon.

“Hey, hey! Now what’s going on here?” Grace asked as she broke up the fight, seemingly picking Belle up by the back of her jacket like the scruff of a kitten. The fire demon raised her head up at the much taller demihuman with furrowed brows, then allowed her expression to soften, lowering her fist as she explained. “This idiot shoved me when I confronted him.” She muttered out as she stood on her tippy toes, tugging at her hood to signal that she wanted to be put down.

“Hey you were the one that bumped into me, dimlit! Watch where you’re going next time.” The other demon hissed, dusting himself off as he got on his feet and walked away. Belle glared at him as Grace let her go, then turning her attention to the twins who stood right beside her. Amy snickered,  “I was hopin’ you’d beat his ass.”

“A-Amy!” Amélie nudged her sister’s shoulder as she giggled and exhaled heavily, “Hey Belle, a-are you okay?” She asked rather quietly, the fire demon gave her a nod as she fixed her jacket up and folded her arms. “That asshole almost ruined my day but I’m not going to hold a grudge. How about yous?”

“Could be better honestly, I just came along for the food, y’know… finest pastries on Mars? Spirit Point? That whole thing.” Amy looked around in search of someone before she continued, almost seeming lost in the many crowds of people nearby “Where’s Cam? I thought he came with.” Belle let out a yawn as she stretched, almost unbothered with Amy’s question, “Ehh probably messing around with the games and all, chances are he’s off scaring the living Stars out of everyone.”

“Well thank the Stars it isn’t—“ Amélie let out a horrified shriek as Cam snuck up behind her and grabbed her by her shoulders, making the poor demihuman jump on the spot in fear, she turned to face the culprit who wore a very nasty yet goofy grin, finding her reaction funny to Amélie’s displeasure. “D-Don’t scare me like that!” She squeaked, gripping onto her tote bag as tightly as she could, Cam scratched the back of his head as he apologised, his silly grin remaining as someone else walked up beside him.

It was Hunter, another friend in the group who was very fond of Cam, more than enough to be his loving partner. She blushed in embarrassment as Cam wrapped an arm around her and brought her close, pouting as Cam told her to say hello to the small group that was present. She only gave a wave as she looked away, too embarrassed to speak as Cam started going on about what games the two had played together and won, albeit the fire demon decided that cheating his way into most of them was how to win.

“Yous should’ve been there for ghost hoop, I made a buncha losers go crazy because I kept getting the balls through! There’s some mad stuff you can do when you’re a fire demon.” He spoke smugly, causing Hunter to shake her head and pinch the bridge of her nose. “Yeah except you almost caught the place on fire.” Cam brushed it off with a shake of the head and grabbed Hunter’s hand to her surprise, “Yes, but,” He started, twirling the short demihuman around before pulling her close once more, “Didn’t think you had it in ya to cheat too y’know? You’re not slick to a guy like me, I knew what you did back there.”

“Yeah yeah fine now let me go!” She squeaked, flustered by Cam’s silly antics, he let go of Hunter with a wide smile and let her have a moment to breathe, giving Amélie and Amy a pat on the back as he leaned forward. “So, what were yous thinking about doing?” He asked, giving the younger twin a wink as she looked back with an amused smirk, Amélie readjusted her bag and fiddled with her skirt as Amy replied. “Ehh honestly I was thinkin’ about screwin’ around with people with ya, sounds fun, not that Mills here will let me though.”

“I-I just don’t want you giving people heart attacks!” The older twin exclaimed, she held onto her sister’s wrist tightly in fear that she’d scutter off to do as she wished and Amy rolled her eyes. “Since the killjoy’s not lettin’ me, ‘s there anythin’ else?”

“Actually there was this stand-in that I thought was pretty funny, it’s right over there if you wanna take pics?” He pointed at a rather odd cardboard stand-in of a stereotypical vampire and werewolf, but something about it seemed familiar to the group. With a squint of the eyes Amélie recognised two faces belonging to her friends Yazlyn and Hannah—yet another couple in their group—as they goofed around with the stand-ins.

The group walked up to their friends to Hannah’s glee, giving them a huge wave and unknowingly grabbing people’s attention as Yazlyn simply watched them come over. “HEYY! GLAD TO SEE YOU GUYS OH MY STARS!” She cheered, jumping on the spot, “Yaz and I took so many pics together oh my goodness you gotta see! I even got some of the little figurines that they were selling and I know it’s not anime but AGH!! They’re so cute!” The lot of them looked puzzled at Hannah’s word spew and Amélie shook her head, giving her good friend a smile as she greeted her. “U-Uh hey Hannah! Hi Yaz! How are you guys?” 

Amélie seemed surprised as Hannah cupped both her hands with hers and brought them together with a huge grin on her face, “We’re amazing! I swear Ghostly Gala gets better every year, too bad Fiery Festival is nothing like it,” mumbled Hannah, “It’s all about competition and being number one and blah blah blah… Where’s the fun in that?!”

“Ahh it’s not that bad Hannah you’re just lousy!” said Cam with folded arms, it led to the other fire demon furrowing her brows, “Am not! I deliver packages almost every darn day, heavy ones at that! Do you do that for a living?” Cam opened his mouth to say something but closed it shut to the sound of his stomach growling, “…On second thought we’ll leave that for later… Are yous hungry?” 

The group agreed with nodding heads and followed Cam as he walked off to a food truck nearby that sold a variety of pastries, they all waited in line before ordering some to eat and Amélie noticed the advertised pie that Grace had picked out for herself, having associated it with Spirit Point cuisine that Amy and Amélie’s parents used to bake a lot when they were little.

After picking up the pastries she walked behind the rest of the group as they found a huge tree to sit under, digging into their meals. She watched as Grace sat herself down and rested her back against the tree, having set the plate of pie down before doing so. She exhaled with a smile and lifted it back up, and with a gasp from the plant demon out came a bunch of snake-like creatures slithering out from her coat to Amélie’s shock.

“O-Oh gee! Hello there!” Amélie giggled, startled yet happy to see the little plant creatures appear to come to life one by one. “Ah ah, what did I say about eating other people’s food? You’ll all have your turns in a moment.” Grace scolded the demon creatures, giving the one wrapped around her head a little boop on the nose. Amélie knew just what these kinds of creatures were, they were Vannaths, considered the lesser creatures of demons, lacking human intelligence. Some acted as pets, and Amélie was familiar with all the Vannaths wrapped around the tall demihuman’s body. Snapperdragons, carnivorous plant-like creatures that took many forms of flowers, with the ones on Grace favouring the look of roses.

They were snappy little things, relying on their sense of smell to make up for their lack of sight. Grace had grown up caring for the many Snapperdragons, sneaking them into many places, as she was always compassionate to animals. Amélie watched as Grace shooed the little critters back into her coat before cutting into the pie, eyeing the piece that Grace had cut into which the plant demon took note of, instinctively placing a hand right under the piece as she brought it closer to Amélie’s mouth.

“Graaaace I can feed myself just fine!” The short demihuman whined, embarrassed by how motherly her friend was being towards her. Grace could only snicker as she replied, “It’s Stardrop pie! I’m sure you’ve had it before, but give it a try!” Amélie felt her ears droop down and whimpered as she hesitated, giving in to Grace’s encouragement as she bit down on the piece. Then, Amélie’s eyes lit up as she found the taste of the pie to be wonderful, letting out a joyous squeal as she kicked her legs.

“You know, my mother always used to tell me that they first made the Stardrop pie in Leafdon, however it ending up being eaten in the Ghostly Gala is still a mystery!” Grace said in a matter-of-fact tone, a prideful smile on her face.

Amy huffed, letting her back slouch. “Naaah, the only contribution Leafdon brought was the fruit itself, which, by the way, Leafdon exports fruit to the other ceremonies too. Besides, Leafdon doesn’t even have any other ceremonial pastries, ya just not known for it!”

Grace’s smile was quickly replaced with a frown. “We have a few pastries, and the pie is one of them! You’re just saying that because your parents own a bakery!”

Amy leaned into Grace, a smug grin on her face. “Am not, and if it’s from Leafdon why is the crust very reminiscent of the crusts seen in other Spirit Point desserts! Most of your “pastries” are just basic buns! Trust me, I’m a baker. I know a pie from a bun!”

“U-Uh guys?” Amelie’s ears drooped down as she tried to stop the two demons from bickering.

“The Stardrop is used in more than just the pie, Amy, it’s one of our most highly prized fruits and held in quite high regards! If the pie belongs to Spirit Point what is the Stardrop doing in the pie! A-And we have more than just buns!” Grace glared.

Amy was about to argue back at Grace before Amelie quickly got in between the two. “Look! I-It’s the… The thing! The ceremony is starting!” Amelie sighed in relief as Grace and Amy both whipped their heads up to the stage.

“Demons of Spirit Point, Blackvall, Leafdon, and Abermaw, we welcome you all to this year’s Ghostly Gala, a ceremony of not only fun and joy, but a time to think back on the many memories we have made with those we love and miss. I, Amore of Hearts, guardian of the new Ruler of Spirit Point, finally welcome Amenyrtr, Princess of Hearts, to speak for us all.”

Amélie grinned from ear to ear, jumping on the spot in excitement as she got ready to see the new Ruler of Spirit Point appear on stage, only to pause as she noticed something odd about the figure that made an entrance.

...She was small, very small in fact, maybe she was fairly young, she thought, but Amélie found it difficult to figure out just how old her new Ruler could be, as she wore a mask over her face just like how all the other Princesses do in order to protect their identities.

The little Princess finally made her way to the front of the stage, even with a better view Amelie still couldn’t tell if she truly was that small or if it was just a trick of the light, but nonetheless the Princess sighed as she pulled out a small set of cards, or did they just seem small, despite her stature the Princess’ hands seemed quite large, after some quiet fidgeting, only audible due to the mic that almost seemed larger than the girl in front of it, the Princess of Spirit Point finally began her speech.

“Good evening everyone, I hope you’re all doing well, a-and I hope the food has been good thus far! I know the chefs have been working quite hard to make sure you all have full tummies by the end of the night, please make sure to give them your thanks!” Amenyrtr’s nervous quiver was most certainly noticeable, but all things considered she seemed to be doing well, with another quick fiddle with her cards the Princess continued.