By Usui T
ANNE
I could feel my blood start to boil as my aunt lectured me about exploring our castle without her permission. All I could do was just stand there listening to her yell at me for not following the crown’s rules.
She kept saying, “You need to listen to me! I know what is best for you.”
Anyway, my name is Anne, and I live in a village called Luxor where my Aunt Ivy is the ruler. My father was originally the ruler but disappeared without a trace, making me the next person in line for the crown. Since I was still underage for the crown’s rules, my aunt took over instead. My aunt never was the kindest person, but we had no other choice but to make her the queen. I am very easy to spot since I have bright red hair and freckles as dark as chocolate chips. My aunt, however, has dark silky black hair and a beauty mark on her small and dainty chin.
After my aunt yelled at me for breaking the rules, she said not to come out of my room till supper was ready. I had noticed that my fists, when they were clenched, made nail marks in my palms. I walked quickly up the stairs towards my room with lots of things on my mind. I kept thinking about my father. What, exactly, had happened to him? Was he okay right at this moment? Just then, I heard a familiar voice calling my name, but right after it had called me once, it just stopped. My curiosity grew, as I wondered who that was that was calling me and what they wanted from a 15-year-old girl with nothing to offer, not even my magic since I wasn’t 16.
My birthday was approaching. This was my big day since I would be receiving my magic powers. This was a big moment in any girl’s life in Luxor because our town makes a big celebration for this occurrence. I am going to be having a great ball this Saturday with my aunt planning everything. My nerves were starting to build up since Aunt Ivy was making such a big fuss about this event.
IVY
I have serious concerns about my niece. Everything was falling into place, just as I imagined it would. I had my doubts about whether Anne would figure out my plan or not. Luckily, she couldn’t do anything in the first place without her magic. Of course, I had to make the necessary rules for Anne to follow since I didn’t want her to find out my secret. Yet she broke those rules again by exploring the castle without permission. She should know better than to disobey me. After all, I am the one with the crown. There is no beating me since I am the excellent Queen Ivy after all.
The time had finally come where I could finally get rid of her father. It was so dark, almost pitch black outside, but I had to go check up on him, making sure didn’t do anything funny. I walked slowly to my candle, making sure no one was around and pulled it up.
“Ah, my perfect passageway,” I said. Soon I realized that was a mistake since I didn’t want to wake anyone up. I walked down the stairs, suddenly hearing lots of banging, so I rushed over to the cell encased with my magic. I saw Anne’s father, known as Thomas, banging a tray against the metal cell. My body was enraged with anger, as I realized he was trying to get his daughter to listen.
I simply said, “There is no hope for you. She is going to be down here before she gets those crazy magic powers.”
He simply smirked, making me madder, so I took his food and walked away.
“One night without food won’t kill you,” I said.
ANNE
I kept hearing someone calling me, but I didn’t know where to look for this person. It was the same voice from before, yet I still didn’t know his name.
He kept saying, “Anne,” and then just stopped talking. This time was different.
He said, “Anne I need your help.”
“How can I find you?” I replied.
He simply said, “You have to figure that out on your own since I don’t have much time left, neither do you.”
After that, he stopped calling me, so my curiosity grew more and more till finally, I decided to look around the castle for clues.
The first place I looked was inside the castle. Eventually, I looked everywhere inside and outside of the house with nothing to show for it. I finally gave up and sat down on the couch, tired from all the running around. I thought that there was something I needed to find. I guess not. My hands reached back, stretching, and I bumped into Aunts Ivy’s candle. I started fighting with it, and suddenly I noticed the picture frame that was off the night sky moved. All I could see was darkness, but I decided to explore it--might as well. I stepped down the stairs through these cobweb-infested halls. I started to hear that voice again, calling me and saying,
“You’re so close... Just come a little closer.”
I kept walking through the hallway till I reached what looked like a cell. I realized that the voice I kept hearing was my father! He wasn’t lost after all, but how did he get down here? I stopped right in front of his cell as he turned away from the corner.
He said, “ Anne, you have come to save me at last!”
I replied, “Yes, Father, I am here, but I have many questions about what’s going on.”
“I have a lot to explain to you Anne, but the most important thing is that your Aunt Ivy isn’t as nice as you would think,” he said.
“I always thought something was off about her,” I said.
He replied, “Yes, my dear, but I need you to use your magic to get me out of here since I can’t use magic.”
I answered, “I would father, but I am not of age to use my powers yet.”
“I lied on your birth certificate. You are 16 today. I lied because I thought your aunt wasn’t in her right mind when she did all of this,” he said.
“Ok, let me try using them and see if I can break the cell’s barrier for you,” I said. I tried using my powers, but I couldn’t quite control them, so I ended up just slightly damaging the barrier.
“You can do it. I promise you are the daughter of one of the most powerful magicians ever to exist, and I’m not meaning me, or I wouldn’t be in this mess to start with,” Thomas said.
“Do you mean my mother?!” I said with excitement, but also fear, in my voice
“Yes, your mother was a great magician, so keep trying to use your powers. You might be able to access them if you think about your mom,” he said in a soft voice.
I could start to feel the magic rushing through me almost like I was some crazy witch. Before I realized the cell was open, and I was the one who did it.
“Congratulations, sweety! I can’t thank you enough for saving me!” he said.
IVY
I felt something off, but then I realized: where was Anne? She had been gone for too long. I was going to look for her before he found her first. Oh no, he already got to her. I can feel my magic coming back to my body, which meant...
“THE BARRIER!” I shouted. I ran as fast as I could towards the passway and saw the door open. I stepped down the stairs so fast that I almost slipped so many times. Once I entered the room, I saw Anne about to help her dad up.
I screamed, “Anne, stop! You don’t know what he wants with you! There was a reason he was locked up!”
She said back to me in an angry tone, “You have lied enough, Aunt Ivy. Confess to your crimes of taking my father to this awful cell!”
I was shocked by this, but then I realized that this wasn’t her fault… It was her father’s. Her father was the one behind all of these lies. He was the one who killed her mother just because he wanted power. I know that his intentions are to do the same thing with Anne, to steal her powers for his own use. I have to stop this! I don’t want her to get hurt like her mother.
“I did lock him up but not for the reasons you believe. You see, he was the one to kill your mother. It wasn’t just some tragedy as you believe,” Ivy said.
“IS THIS TRUE?!” Anne said.
“Wow, Ivy, you just went right to the point,” Thomas said.
“So, it is true… how dare you hurt my mother,” Anne said sadly.
“Anne, please don’t believe your aunt. I am not the one lying,” Thomas defended.
“I know now who is the one lying,” Anne stated.
“Who is it, my darling?” Thomas smirked.
“You, of course, Father. Why else would you call me down here, and why else would Aunt Ivy lock you up in this cell other than the murder of my mother to steal her powers?” Anne said.
I sighed with relief, as I said quickly, “Thank you, Anne, for believing in me, but we still need to lock your father back up. Quick, we both need to use our powers before he runs away!”
“Okay!” Anne said nervously.
We both put all our powers into a spell called Mavolx which encloses anyone with a blink of an eye if performed right. I started pushing all my magic powers at her father, and I saw Anne was doing the same. Eventually, not too long after, I would say about 2 minutes, we had him locked into the magic cell once again.
“Thank you, Anne, and thank you for believing me,” I said softly.
“How could I not believe you after you went to such lengths to protect me from him?” Anne said.
ANNE
The battle was finally over between Aunt Ivy and Thomas. That magic spell drained my body. It was hard enough getting down here, but with my strength now, I don’t know if I can make it back in time. I can’t believe my father could do such a thing to my mother. I think Aunt Ivy and my mom were closer than I thought since she tried so hard to protect me. I wonder what my mom was like exactly.
Anyway, after we got out of the passageway I realized that my birthday was tomorrow. I was too tired to move with excitement but still, it was a nice thing to look forward to after this terrible day. So I rushed up to bed for some night’s rest, and maybe I would be able to see what exactly my aunt had in store for this birthday party.
“Wake up sleepyhead,” my aunt said.
“It’s morning already! Oh no, I’m not ready yet!” I exclaimed.
“No need to worry--we still have a couple of hours left to get prepared for your beautiful party,” My aunt replied.
“Okay, I’ll get ready now and head down for supper,” I answered.
“Sounds like a great idea,” Aunt Ivy agreed.
I rose out of bed to slip on a nice dark green outfit and walked over to my cat Violet and gave her a good squeeze then walked off. I started to walk down to the dining table when I saw the table lined with foods I had never seen before.
“Wow,” I said.
“Wow, indeed. This is a special day, to be fair,” Aunt Ivy said.
I started with eating a plain butter roll as my aunt rolled her eyes because I never eat anything out of my food range.
As the day went on, I got more and more nervous since this party was a big deal, but before I realized it, Aunt Ivy was calling me up to my room to get ready. I went up the stairs towards my room, and as I opened my door, the room was filled with gowns and everything you could dream of, basically.
My aunt said, “Go on, follow the servant towards the changing room to get ready.” I nodded and walked into the room. I said hello to the servant as she dressed me. I was getting a little sleepy, so I didn’t take in what the servants were giving me or asking me to do. I slowly woke up to see the beautiful emerald green gown and immediately took it off the rack.
The servant said, “That’s a great dress! I’m sure your aunt will like it too,”
I walked into the changing room and walked out with the gown towards my aunt, and she looked almost shocked.
“Wow you picked perfectly Anne,” Aunt Ivy said.
“Thank you I think so too!” I replied.
I started to walk towards the door as Aunt Ivy waved to me. I walked out to see a full ballroom of people all watching me. That sight itself scared me, but I wasn’t going to run away from this amazing party for me.
I kept walking down the stairs towards the people as some waved, others didn’t, which was fine with me since I wasn’t a queen or anything. Lots of people were there, and yet I didn’t recognize many of them, which was not a good thing for such a small village like ours.
As the excitement of the beginnings of the party started to die down, my Aunt made her entrance with her dark blue dress.
She said, “I’m glad so many of you could make it here for this great ceremony.”
I was confused about what she meant by ceremony, but I thought it was just a mix-up of words. Not too long after her joining the party, I heard loud trumpets.
Aunt Ivy said, “Alright everyone it’s about to start.” I didn’t know what was happening, but I just went along with it since Aunt Ivy acted as if everything was normal.
“Okay, Anne, now I need you to walk up to that chair up there and just sit there for a bit then say I will,” Aunt Ivy said.
“Wait, what’s going on?” I replied.
“You will find out soon, just trust in me,” Aunt Ivy said.
I walked towards the chair as the doors to the castle opened, and a gray-haired man walked in. The women behind him had what looked like a crown. I just kept walking to the chair as my aunt told me to. The gray-haired man and the dark brown-haired women walk right next to the chair. At that moment I knew what was about to happen...They were about to make me queen.
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