Lavinia still hadn’t mustered enough to even get out of her bed. She hid like a child. Neala had asked her how she was doing, and she had barely answered her. Hiding away was easier than going outside and ending up like Kellice. 

Kellice’s mutilated body still haunted her. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Kellice would heal Val, make him happy. Yet she was dead now. Lavinia couldn’t shake off the feeling it was her fault. If she hadn’t been brought here, maybe Kellice could live. Max had quickly taken her back to the castle, bless him, but the feeling didn’t go.

It was dark outside when Lavinia finally managed to crawl out of her bed. She was hungry and sleepless. Calling Neala, she asked her to bring her something to eat. She was playing with the hem of her nightgown when the door opened. 

She had expected Neala, but it was Max who walked in, a tray of food in his hands. His shirt was unlaced at his chest, giving her a glance at his milky white skin. Lavinia tried not to blush as he sat beside her.

“Here.” He placed the tray in the space between them. “Sorry, I’ve been away. I have been rather busy.”

“I understand,” Lavinia said, picking at the various fruits and choosing a strawberry at the end. “So, what do we do now?”

“We will find another way. You are the ‘creator’ of our story. You should… I don’t know.” He paused. “Don’t you know the ingredients of the spells? I’m sure we can find another witch to do it?” Max asked. 

“Maybe, but I also have no idea. What if it doesn’t work?” Lavinia shook her head. “And why does it have to be a witch? Why can’t it be one of you? Or your brothers?”

“Well, unless Kellice had something special about her, any witch should be able to do it. Well, any trained witch.” He said. “Witches are different to us. They train to use magic in different ways. I’m not completely sure about it if I’m honest. If you want, we can go to the library.”

Lavinia nodded. “I guess we should go there sometime.” 

----

“I wrote down all the ingredients for the spell, here.” Fantasy handed a list to Tarquin. Caspian looked over Tarquin’s shoulder to read the list. 

One red petal, one young leaf, icy moonlight, one cloudy eye, tears of a petal, a cherry blossom, and a blooming flower.

“What is icy moonlight?” Caspian asked. 

“How do you get a cloudy eye?” Elijah asked right after him.

“I think it’s best to contact a witch first,” Tarquin suggested.

“I agree.” Max nodded. 

“Don’t you know where to get the ingredients, Fantasy?” Silas looked at her pointedly.

“I can tell you where to find thee obvious ones. I think I saw a red petaled flower in a bush outside in the courtyard.” She replied. “Alas, I don’t know where to find your personal dignity for you, Silas.”

“A witch would be best. Arguing amongst ourselves is not helping Val or helping anyone for that matter.” Elijah sighed. “Can you both stopping arguing?”

“I wasn’t arguing.” Silas turned the other way.

“I am not going to stand here and listen to his snarky comments.” Fantasy crossed her arms.

“Why did you have to write the story, huh?” Silas asked her accusingly.

“What do you mean? Aren’t I the same for you as well? Why write a tragedy about me?” Fantasy fired back.

“Enough!” Tarquin said loudly. “Accusing Fantasy of intentionally hurting Val doesn’t do anything. It does nothing. She thought we were fictional characters, the same way we thought she was a fictional character too.” He sighed. “We shouldn’t expect her to have all the answers.”

“It’s her story.” Caspian countered. 

“Not you too.” Elijah rolled his eyes. 

“Me being here changes everything. I can not write Val’s illness out of existence.” Fantasy said quietly. “I tried. I wrote down the entire story, changed everything around. Nothing changed. I no longer possess whatever power I had once.” She put a book down in front of them.

“But you still have the power of knowledge. Even if Kellice had been here, without you, it could have taken us a long time to find out everything. Now, we just need a witch.” Max said hopefully.

“You think Cythia and the queen will quietly let us do it? Do you think they’ll sit by idly while we heal Val and undermine their power? Hell no.” Silas leaned against the wall. “We can’t ignore them either.”

“They never said you can’t heal Val, did they?” Fantasy raised her eyebrow at Silas. “They never forbid it, and they don’t need to know. We can heal Val quietly and wait. Cythia and her sister can’t very well stop her either unless you let her. We just need to keep quiet.”

“They’ll- Well, Cythia will definitely try something again. She killed Kellice. It was clear that it was her. It’s her style of killing.” Silas said.

“How did she know?” Fantasy looked between them. “There was no way for her to know, right?”

It was like the entire room went cold. The brothers looked between each other and it seemed to make sense suddenly. No one had thought of that. Tarquin looked angry. “I’ll look into it.”

“Then, as Fantasy said, we’ll do everything quietly. So no one will know. No one will raise alarm or say any baseless rumors. We’ll find a witch, get things done and continue on.” Elijah said. “Keyword: Quietly.”

Caspian took another good look at Fantasy. Her dark hair pulled back, her eyes glittering with hope and fierceness. It made him want to hope too.