#webstory

[thearchmanofgreenfield]

All five of them were so caught by surprise that Lucian almost feel over. For a moment, he was convinced that it was his father, it took him a few seconds to register that the voice sounded more childish than any adult voice. But he wasn’t the only one, for he saw even saw Joe jerk his head and take a step back.

“AH!” they all said in unison. But as Lucian looked at the entrance to the hallway he realized who was actually standing there. For at the entrance to the hallway stood Luin, standing straight in a brown shirt and amber coat with a book in his hand. Looking confused as to Lucian and the others reaction.

“What?” he asked tilting his head curiously.

“What are you doing here?” Lucian shouted after taking a deep breath to calm himself.

“That’s what I want to know!” Luin answered back without hesitation. “Isn’t that your father’s study? Why are you trying to break into it?”

“That’s…none of your business!” said Lucian, finding it difficult to come up with a suitable reason to justify his actions. But his response only seemed to make Lucian more curious. Lucian realized he needed to find a way to make him leave. “Why are you awake this early? And what are you doing carrying a book around the house? I thought recluses didn’t like crawling out of their caves,”

“Excuse me!” said Luin, offended by Lucian’s remarks. “But this book isn’t for me, it’s for Elliott. I told him I’d show him of my favorites and see if he shares my taste”

The mentioning of Elliott attracted the attention of the Hatlys, who both looked Luin with confusion. “Elliott? What’s he doing with you? He’s supposed to be asleep,” said Laura. Luin scoffed, “He snuck out of his room and came to see me after you both left him alone. You should know not to do that. It almost seems…negligent”

Both Hatlys seemed to take great offense with that statement. Laura seemed furious. “How dare you accuse us of such things! Do you know who you’re talking to?”

Luin did not waver. “I do. But luckily Elli enjoys my company more than yours. So he was not too sad about it.”

The Hatlys were fuming. But Lucian knew that they didn’t have time to argue. “That’s all well and good, so why don’t you go back to wherever you came from and leave us be!” he said trying to shoo away his annoying cousin.

Luin laughed, which did not make Lucian happy. “Are you daft? Now that I’ve seen what you all are up to why would I just walk away?”

Lucian groaned and rolled his eyes. “What do you want? Do you expect us bribe you, is that it?” to which Luin simply grinned. He then began to walk closer to the group. “Tsk, tsk, dear cousin. Do you really think you can buy me? The fact that you tried confirms to me that what you’re up to isn’t very allowed,”

“Well, whatever we’re doing doesn’t concern you. And if you still wish for me to keep the secret of how you obtained that newspaper then I suggest you walk away and leave us be,” Lucian said, hoping that this might get him to go away. But alas, even this threat seemed to have little effect.

“Oh I doubt either my father or yours would care about an old newspaper when they find out you all have been colluding behind their backs”

The mention of the newspaper seemed to intrigue the others, particularly Joseph and Laura. “Hold on, you got that newspaper from him?” asked Laura.

“Yes”-replied Luin. “I told him I’d paid off the newspaper delivery boy to get me a copy. Now he’s trying to use my words to threaten me! How idiotic,” he said while narrowing his eyes at his cousin.

“Well either way,” Joe interjected, seemingly having had enough of the back and forth. “We do not have time to entertain this bespectacled imp. So either you go and or we make you go,”

Luin sighed. He finally seemed to get the message. He turned around to leave just as Lucian went back to trying to open the door, but stopped midway before turning his head back. “Well I could open that door for you, you know”

As expected, all five of them immediately turned to Luin again. “What?” asked Charlotte, interested in what Luin said. He simply shrugged casually. “I can open that door that you all are so desperately trying to get through. That is, if you let me stay”

Lucian raised his eyebrow. “I thought you said that Elliott was waiting for you,”

“Believe me,” said Luin. “If Elli has any good taste in literature, the books in my room should keep him preoccupied for hours. Besides, no offense to him, but this is far more interesting,”

Luin then approached the door while Lucian stepped aside. Lucian saw him peek his eye through the key hole as though were inspecting it. He then reached into his coat and grabbed a piece of wood shaped like a key.

“What are you doing?” Lucian asked, not understanding Luin’s train of thought.

“Something I learned from one of my adventure books,” said Luin while keep his focus on the lock. Lucian saw him insert the key into the key hole. He was still confused as to what he was attempting to do but then he saw him wave his hand close to the wooden key. He saw the wooden key break apart as Luin moved his fingers. He then saw the key change into a different shape. Lucian and the others watched with puzzlement as Luin turned the key and the lock opened. Luin turned the doorknob and swung open the door, leaving Lucian and the others both impressed and confused. Lucian looked at the key as Luin took it out; he saw that it looked completely different to what it looked like when Luin first inserted it.

“Clever,” he admitted. “You reshaped the key while it was still in the lock. I didn’t know you could do that,”

“Of course you didn’t” said Luin smugly. “I wouldn’t expect you to know something so basic even though you’re older than me,”

“Well at least I have some semblance of existence outside that library,” Lucian retorted. It seemed as though they were about to enter another argument. But fortunately the others seemed to have run out patience at that point.

“Well in any case, the door is open. So I suggest we go inside,” Joe interjected. He then swiftly pushed Lucian and Luin aside and went inside. Willow and the Hatly sisters followed him.

“So, what other rooms can you unlock using this?” asked Willow, stopping momentarily. Luin shrugged, “Theoretically can enter any room I please, as long as the lock can be turned by a wooden key”

“Hmmm,” Lucian heard Willow mummer as she walked into the room. Lucian walked in behind her with Luin being the last to enter. Luin then closed the door behind him.

Inside, the room itself was rather extravagant. The walls were dark red with a dark wood trim going along the bottom connecting it to the wooden floor. The room was quite large, with the centerpiece being a long mahogany table placed over an ornate carpet. Next to the table was an unlit fireplace and next to the fireplace was a thin bookshelf. Behind the table was also a window looking out onto the open street. However, the room’s most striking features was located above the fireplace. It was a portrait, large and detailed, showing Lucian’s current family. It hung above the mantel in an almost imposing manner, with nine faces including Lucian, Lily, the twin and his parents standing towards one side with his father holding a large almost six foot tall gold trident in his hands. Grandfather Wren was sitting in a chair in the center and Luin along with Lucian’s Uncle David standing on the other side of the portrait. They all stood staring at the center of the room in an intimidating fashion.

As they entered, Lucian noticed Joe’s attention immediately fixate on something situated on the other side of the room. He looked to see what it was and realized there was small steel safe, about two feet tall, tucked behind the table. Joseph immediately went to it, Lucian saw him fiddle around with the dial at the front while keeping his ear on the door, but it seemed as though his efforts were met with no results.

“What are you doing?” asked Charlotte.

“Trying to open this box” said Joe, “If Demon’s father was going to hide something, it would be right to assume he would hide it here”

The Hatlys sisters then joined him in trying to unlock the box. Meanwhile, Lucian saw Willow go and inspect the desk, where several books laid outstretched. But amidst all of this Lucian noticed Luin eye the bookcase suspiciously. Which once again confused him.

“What is it?” he asked raising his eyebrow.

“This bookcase, it seems…too neat” said Luin. Which did not make Lucian any less confused. “What do you mean ‘too neat’?” he asked, seeing that the bookcase had several books out of place and several books taken out of it and put on the table.

“Will you both stop discussing nonsense and help us open this?” asked Laura, seemingly getting frustrated at the fact that the safe would not open.

“There is something odd afoot here. It cannot be as simple as one safe,” said Luin, still pondering while staring at the bookcase.

“How would you know?” asked Charlotte. “Well, in my adventure books, no secret ever comes as easy as cracking a safe. There is always something hidden somewhere”

“Well WE do not live in a novel!” said Laura. Trying several different combinations. “There isn’t always a hidden layer of complexity to every trivial thing! So are you going to help us or not?”

Lucian heard Luin mummer under his breath. “Don’t forget who got you here in the first place,” then Willow spoke up, “But he does have a point” she said while holding an old book.

“What do you mean?” asked Lucian. Willow waved her hand and gestured him come closer. Lucian approached the table. Willow then directed him towards a book on the table. A book with a black leather over with gold letters. Lucian read the title written on the spine of the book, which read ‘The Circulion Code of Law’.  The outstretched book showed a page titled ‘The Higher-Circulion Official Confidentiality Act’. Lucian then looked at the book Willow was holding, the title read ‘Codes of Transmission and Communication’ and it showed to a page titled ‘The Circulion Cipher’.

“What is all this?” Lucian asked, scratching his head in confusion. “It seems like your father was trying to solve a code,” said Willow holding a sheet of paper up to Lucian’s face. Lucian looked at the paper and saw that it was full of half-scribbled letter and numbers, the meanings of which he did not know.

“It appears your father was deciphering something in that letter. According to the Code of Law, letters written under the Higher-Circulion Official Confidentially Act are written in Muso-Numeral Code. But I can’t find any code like that in this book” she said flipping through the book.

“So what? The letter is unsolvable. Undecipherable?” asked Lucian. Willow shrugged, “To know that we must find the letter”

“A letter that, may I remind you, is in this safe!” Joe exclaimed still being unable to open the safe.

“I am telling you that that’s not the right safe!” said Luin. “It cannot be that simple!”

Joe seemed to lose his patience. He stopped turning the combination lock and shot Luin a malicious glare. “I feel as though you have spent too much time dwelling in imaginary fantasies. If you wish to frivolously search for non-existent secrets then suggest you don’t pester us about it!” he then turned his attention to Lucian, “I suggest you control your little cousin. He’s only here because we let him be here”

Lucian saw Luin give him a sad look. But he simply shook his head. Luin seemed to take that personally since he switched his expression to anger before huffing and making his way over to the bookcase. Lucian then saw him turn the books one by one and truthfully, he found it quite intriguing.

“You’ll see. You’re wasting your time with the obviously fake safe,” he said aggressively flipping through the books. Joe chuckled, “We’ll see,”

Lucian and Willow exchanged glances and shrugged. Lucian saw the Hatly sister’s roll their eyes. Suddenly, when Luin flipped a book on the third shelf of the bookcase, Lucian heard an ominous clang. Like the sound of a gear turning. Then it was followed by a clank and the sound of screeching. Luin took a few steps back and gasped with joy as the sounds of machinery continued. Lucian followed the sound, as it seemed to travel through the wall from the bookcase to the mantel. He then heard the sound of something unlatching and, to his surprise; he saw the portrait above the fireplace move.

However, Luin did not waste any time. He quickly walked up to the portrait and pulled it, opening it like a small door revealing something hidden behind the painting. Lucian’s jaw dropped and so did the jaws of all the others. Joe looked scandalized. But Luin simply gave them a smug look of triumph.

“HA, see! I told you it was not that simple! That safe is most likely a decoy, made to deter would-be thieves like you all!” he said beaming with joy. Lucian had rarely seen him so happy while being outside the library. But Joe wasn’t about to admit anything. He simply straightened himself and looked down on Luin.

“I suppose the bespectacled imp can do something useful after all,” he said in a rather condescending that Lucian did not condone. He frowned at Joe and expressed his displeasure but Joe didn’t care. Meanwhile it was clear that Joe’s comment had hurt Luin, but not enough to make him waver. He simply stood with a smug grin on his face whilst the rest of the group focused their attention on the new safe.

Lucian noticed that this safe also had a combination lock. It was plated with gold and next to it was a golden handle. Above both on those was the symbol of the House of Demon, etched into the metal and embroidered with yet more gold.

“Well how are we supposed to open this?” asked Charlotte.

“Step aside” said Joe pushing Lucian and the others aside. He walked up to the safe and placed his ear on the door. “Let’s try this now,” he said as began to turn the dial. But after a few moments he took his ear off the safe and looked at it, baffled.

“That’s odd,” he said. “I can’t hear any locks turning”

“Hmm” scoffed Luin. “Perhaps your marvelous hearing isn’t as perfect as you boast”

Joseph shot a look of utter rage at Luin. Luin returned the same look. Meanwhile Lucian looked at the safe. His suspicious gaze fell on the symbol etched onto the metal. He then looked at the top of the mantel. He noticed that were a few suspicious red stains on it. Like raindrops.

“I have an idea,” he said suddenly. All eyes then turned to him. “What do you mean?” asked Laura.

“I need something sharp, like a needle or some other thing,” Lucian said hastily. The others looked at him with confused looks but luckily, they decided to listen. The Hatly sisters, Luin and Willow all started to look around the room for something sharp.

“What’s your plan here?” asked Joe, doubtfully.

“Perhaps that dial is also a decoy,” said Lucian. He then placed his hand on the symbol. “Perhaps the key is in this symbol. Perhaps we need to use the Flame to open it”

“A Flame Lock? Hmmm, interesting” said Joe, still doubtful. But Lucian didn’t care. “Well, it’s worth a try. And for that, I’m going to need the Blue Lantern hanging above the door to the great hall”

Joe raised his eyebrow. “What? You want me to get it?” Lucian nodded. Joe still looked as though he did not believe Lucian. But luckily, Lucian didn’t need to do any more convincing as Luin chimed in at that very moment, “I could get it for you!” he said like an enthusiastic army recruit.

“You can?” asked Lucian. Luin nodded enthusiastically. He then turned around and ran out of the room. But no before grinning smugly at Joe before leaving.

“Looks like the imp is more helpful than you” said Lucian smugly. Joe frowned at him. But he didn’t yell, for shortly after that, Willow came once again with a quill in hand.

“Try this,” she said handing the quill to Lucian. “I took out all the ink, but it’s a bit blunt. You might want to sharpen it,”

Lucian looked at the quill. He concentrated. And before his eyes we saw the tip of the quill move and slide to become a sharp point. He then held the quill with the tip facing his finger. He took a deep breath and with all his courage, he stabbed the quill directly into his finger. A small but irritating pain immediately came to his mind. But he tried to ignore the as he took the tip of the quill out of his finger and watched as small stream of blood oozed from the place he had stabbed. Lucian then took another deep breath and proceeded to place his bleeding finger on the symbol. He then proceeded to draw the symbol using his own blood.

After he was done, he took his hand away before covering it to prevent any further bleeding. The others looked at him with concerned expressions.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Laura. Lucian didn’t answer. He and the others then waited for the Blue Lantern. Lucian was partially concerned that Luin might be caught while taking the lantern. But he quashed those worries with the confident assumption that Luin’s mouth could get him out of any predicament.

After a few minutes of restless waiting, the door swung open and Luin entered the room with the blue lantern floating a few feet above him. “It took me a while to get it passed the adults. They nearly saw me taking the…” he said but Lucian just restlessly gestured him to give him the lantern. He lowered the lantern and Lucian grabbed it. He then held the flames up to the blood he painted on the safe.

Immediately, the blood erupted into bright blue fire and disappeared within a flash. Lucian put away the lantern and, after taking a deep breath, turned the latch on the door. And, to his relief and the relief of the others, it opened.

“That…worked?” asked Charlotte.

Lucian pulled the safe open all the way and he and the others all peered inside. Lucian was expecting something quite valuable or something of great importance. But to his shock he found it mostly empty with its contents on consisting of a single white envelope with a broken wax stamp.

“There it is!” said Willow. She pushed her way to the safe and grabbed the letter. The others crowded around her as she opened the envelope and took out the paper inside it.

“What does it say?” asked Laura.

Lucian saw Willow read the letter. Her expression went from one of curiosity to one of slight confusion. “Hmm, it appears we were right about the code,” she said raising her eyebrow while viewing the letter from several angles. She then sighed and handed the letter to Lucian, who grabbed it eagerly and looked at it.

To the Baron Henry Demon, written by [WITHHELD] on the 286th Day of the year 634 AF. Muso-Numeral coded in accordance with the Higher-Circulion Official Confidentiality Act as per the Circulion Code of Law.

F3.D3.A1.B2.F3.A3.D3.E3:A1.F2.A3.G2.G1:G3.E3-E3.B3.D4.B2.G2.G1:F1.A3.D3:F3.A2.E1:A3.D3.D1.E1.D3-F2.A1.D4.A3.D3.E3:D1.E1.A1.F3.A2:F1.A3.B2.E2.E1.D1-B3.E2.A1.G2.G2.B2.G2.G1:B2.G2.E3.G3.D3.D3.E1.C1.F3.B2.A3.G2-E3.G3.E3.B3.E1.C1.F3.B2.G2.G1: F3.A2.E1:G1.G3.B2.E2.D1.E3- D3.E1.F3.D3.E1.A1.F3:F3.A3:E3.A1.F1.E1.F3.D4—

B1D4:C2G3E2B2G3E3—

At first glance, it wasn’t what Lucian was expecting. In all honesty, he was mildly unimpressed.  “Hmm, we need to find out how to solve this,”

“We could take the letter to our library. I bet there is a book that could help us,” suggested Laura.

“But we can’t steal the letter!” said Willow. “If the adults come back and find it missing then we’ll be done for!”

“You all might want hasten your pace” Luin interjected. “Why is that?” asked Joe. Luin looked at the ground and rubbed his feet on the ground. “Umm… I might have overheard the adults talking while I got the lantern. And they might be coming here at this very moment”

The room went silent. “What?” they all said in unison. “And why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” asked Charlotte.

“How could I?” he protested. He then whispered under his breath, “When you are too busy ogling a simple letter,”

“Well what do you suppose we do?” asked Joe.

“We could copy the letter!” Laura suggested. “On a piece of paper or cloth. That way we don’t need to steal it,”

Lucian saw Charlotte glance at her sister for a moment before turning back and saying. “She’s right, that could work!”

The others shrugged. But Lucian knew that they didn’t have time to argue. “Fine, I suggest we find some paper. And Luin,” he said turning to his cousin, “Go stay outside and warn us if the adults arrive”

Luin shrugged but obeyed. Lucian heard him mutter, “Not like it would make any difference, we’re done for the moment they appear in the hallway,” under his breath while he walked. The rest of the group then scoured the room for writing material. Lucian handed Willow the letter and he too began searching. Laura gave Willow the quill that Lucian had used to prick his finger. Charlotte took out a bottle of ink from one of the drawers of the table and Joe found paper in the other drawer. Willow then kept the paper on the table, quenched the quill in the ink and quickly copied the letter as fast as she could. He let go of the quill and let it scribble away whilst standing by itself, it wrote faster that way. Meanwhile, Lucian and the others watched restlessly, the threat of being caught loomed over their heads more and more as time went on. Lucian looked back and forth between Luin and Willow.

“Is there any future where we get caught?” he asked Willow as she wrote.

“I cannot say for certain, but in my experience the number of futures where we do get caught would increase exponentially every passing second,” said Willow hastily. She made the quill scribble faster and faster. And seconds later, it stopped moving.

“Done!” Willow shouted joyously. She quickly took the paper off the table and handed it to Joseph who kept in his coat. “Now quickly! Put everything back! We can’t leave the safe open!”

Lucian grabbed the letter off Willow’s hand before throwing it into the safe and closing the door. The Hatlys kept the quill and ink in their proper places while Joseph rearranged the bookcase and activated the mechanism that made the painting close.

“Quickly! I think I hear someone climbing the stairs!” said Joe, which further hastened the group’s pace. Lucian launched himself out of the door the moment the painting closed with the Hatlys, Joe and Willow coming out moments later.

“Close the door! Use that key of yours,” said Lucian. Luin nodded, he then closed the door before taking out his wooden key and locking it. The then made their way their way out of the hallway and towards the staircase. The panicked feeling slowly dissipating the further they got from the study.

As they approached the staircase, Lucian heard a sound coming from in front of them, the sound of footsteps. As the rush from their swift getaway faded, he realized that Joe was right. Someone was coming from downstairs. Lucian almost instinctively turned away and entered the hallway leading to the library. The others followed him as the all ducked behind the wall of the hallway.

Lucian watched, as the footsteps got closer and closer. First, he saw his father appear, followed swiftly by Mr. Hatly and Mr. Morrow. Behind them was Mrs. Morning and behind her was Mr. Bernstein and a slim but tall figure Lucian knew to be Mr. Angelmore, Joe’s father. Lucian and the others took a step back as they all watched their parents walk across the room towards the study, oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

“Are they gone?” whispered Luin who had been pushed to the back of the group behind Joseph, who completely obscured his view.

“SHHHH!” said Joseph frantically, Lucian saw Mr. Angelmore rear his head in their direction, to which Lucian tried his best to hide behind the wall. Luckily, once he peeked his head over the wall he noticed Mr. Angelmore follow his father and the other adults into the hallway leading to the study. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“They’re gone,” he said. The others then relaxed themselves. But Joe once again stared furiously at Luin.

“What do you think you’re doing? Do you want us to get caught?” he asked. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything!” Luin whined.

“Well, thanks to you my father almost caught us!”

“Well gosh damn it! How idiotic of me!” said Luin sarcastically. “If only you let me see passed your pitiful attire I wouldn’t need to ask such basic questions!”

“You annoying little…” Joe began, but before he could finish Laura grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him back. “Will you both please stop? None among us can take more of your incessant arguing!” she said angrily.

Both Luin and Joe paused. Then looked away. Joe straightened himself as Laura gave him a disappointed gaze. But Joe wasn’t done. “I suppose being unbearably annoying must be a family trait, eh Lucian?” he remarked while smirking smugly as Lucian. Lucian saw both Hatlys frown whilst staring at Joe, so he could only imagine what he was actually thinking. Yet Instead of arguing he simply frowned, “We got what we need, that’s all that matters”

“Well true, but who knows? You might still have some secrets you’re yet to share. Hmmm?”

Lucian flinched before momentarily glancing at Laura who glance at him with an expression of surprise. But luckily for him, Joseph didn’t notice that. “Well it has occurred to me that we still have an hour before breakfast. I could go for some tea, anyone else?” he asked walking towards the staircase.

“I would like some!” said Willow rising her hand. She then shot a glance at Lucian while she walked towards Joseph. “I didn’t get to finish the one I had earlier”

Both of them then walked away and climbed down the staircase together. Leaving Lucian with only the Hatlys and Luin. “Sadly, I also need to go,” said Luin. “I still have to meet Elli, and I might even try to solve this letter,” he said holding the letter in his hands and observing it.

“Do you think you can crack it?” asked Charlotte. To which Luin laughed, “Moor knows that this is the most interesting I’ve done all year. And besides, I think I have a better chance than any of you,” he then put the letter in his book before walking towards the stairs. “So if you’ll excuse me, I shall see you in the breakfast,” he said before climbing up the stairs and disappearing.

This left Lucian with only the Hatlys. “I assume you both also have somewhere to be,” he asked quiet awkwardly.

“I personally would like nothing more than some sound sleep! Now that Elli is with your cousin!” said Charlotte. Lucian then turned to Laura. “What about you?”

“The thrill of breaking into your father’s study seems to have knocked all the sleep out of me,” she said. “I suppose I might as well tell all this to the Bernsteins and the Mornings, if they’re awake. Perhaps you can accompany me; I might need some assistance with waking them up”

Lucian’s face came inches away from turning red. “I…I…” he stuttered but luckily Charlotte cut him off. “Well, you both can do whatever you please; I’m off to get some rest well-earned rest! No chance am I helping you two wake up those featherheads!” she said as she marched off to the staircase.

Lucian struggled to open his mouth. But he then took a deep breath and calmed himself, to Laura’s confusion. “Perhaps you can wake them up and we’ll all gather around and talk inside the library,” Lucian suggested. “There’s usually no one there except my grandfather, and he won’t tell a soul! Mostly because he won’t remember anything we say. I could even get us some tea in order to knock them out of their sleep,”

Laura shrugged. “Well I suppose I could drag them here by myself. So be it”. She then turned away in order to leave. But before she did, she stopped. “And if you’re bringing tea, might I suggest you bring something else along with it. I cannot wait another hour for breakfast!”

Lucian nodded and grinned. “I know the place where Lily hides all her treats, I don’t think she’d mind if some went missing. She stole them from the pantry anyway.”

Laura chuckled. They smiled at each other for a moment. Laura then walked off and finally she too disappeared into the stairs. Leaving Lucian alone in the hallway.

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#writing #writers #writerscommunity #writers on tumblr #tumblr writers #tumblr writing community #tumblr writing society #writing community #writer things #writeblr #authors #fiction #lore #writer #creative writing #memes #original story #original writing #original content #original post #artists on tumblr #art #worldbuilding #stories #webstory #writers and poets #original work #read #readers #original art

[abd-appleboxdog]

I just finished the outline for Out of Bounds!! Gonna work on some more character design and comic study later after homework :3 after that I gotta actually draw the comic….

Here’s some photos that remind me of it!

#out of bounds webcomic #out of bounds #artists on tumblr #digital artist #comic #comics #out of bounds webstory #space aesthetic #sea aesthetic #sonder #humans #original character #misc post #webcomic #webstory #please follow me #I need the story to get more popular #before I release it

[hasanistories]

How is this not right

Read ahead at https://www.patreon.com/Hasanistudios

#ppg #powerpuff #powerpuff girls #hasani #webstory #series #story #webcomic #comic #cartoon #cartoon network

[children-of-atlas]

Children of Atlas - Chapter 1

Trying to wake up was like trudging through a thick pool of molasses, sleep clinging to her consciousness and calling her back. She was cold, and the ground was hard against her back. She never slept on her back, not even when she used to take naps on the concrete in the summer, and that fact itself is strange enough for her to continue the process of awakening. Tawny brown fingers began to twitch and paw around on the floor, searching for familiarity. They were met with foreign floor and brushed against the silky soft touch of something else. No blankets, no mattress, not even the hardwood floor of the house or the rough pavement of her garage. And that was finally enough for Cyran to fight against her fatigue and open her eyes. 

    A domed ceiling loomed high above her, and for a moment her eyes got lost in the intricate work of the architecture, reminiscent of a mosque or cathedral. Her head was pounding, like someone was beating a drum behind her eyes, and with stiff movements Cyran pushed herself to a sitting position, shoving whatever objects were surrounding her around, fingers gripped them without even thinking and brought them up to her face for observation. A sweet scent filled her nostrils. White lillies, dozens up n dozens upon thousands of them littered the floor of the room, with Cyran herself at the center of them. Beautiful. 

    “What the…” Cyran’s thumb caressed a petal - 

-before abruptly collapsing her hands together, crushing the flora. “What the hell is this?!” Her voice was loud and echoed slightly through the chamber, Cyran pushed herself up to her feet, kicking any flowers that g0t in her way as if they had personally wronged her. She flashed through any possibilities that could explain the situation - some kind of a prank, a dream, amnesia of some kind - and she reflexively wrinkled her nose at each one, seemingly more outlandish and unlikely than the last. With a swivel of her head she surveyed the room in its entirety, searching for any hints as to how she might have ended up here. 

The floor itself looked like it was some kind of a mosaic, forming a series of circles and perhaps even words, though Cyran couldn’t parse what they said. She could make out enough to see that she had awoken in the center of the biggest, middle one, which seemed concerning. Coming off of the central circle were four other circles, each of which were empty- no, wait. Cyran squinted across the room. There, in the middle of one of the other, smaller circles was a… well, something certainly. Not more flowers - which seemed to be at their thickest where Cyran had woken, and ended about three feet from the edge of her own circle. Curiosity getting the better of her, and justifying her decision with the fact that the direction the strange object was in was the direction of the only exit/opening. Cyran stretched her neck out, hands tucked firmly into her sleeveless coat. The object was a light green color, and round, roughly the size of a basketball. 

    “Now just what are you…?” Cyran muttered to herself, but the words echoed through the chamber, amplifying the sound, and much to Cyran’s abject horror, the thing on the floor moved, seemingly roused by the sound of her voice. Two little tufts, kind of like ears, twitched up at attention and one large eye opened. 

    “The hell-” Cyran leaned backwards, but not before the thing managed to leap up with incredible speed, launching itself right at her face. She could feel what she assumed were its arms, wrapping themselves around her head, and adrenaline kicked in, every horror movie Cyran had ever watched telling her that whatever this thing was intended to eat her face clean off. She frantically clawed at it, pulling and yanking, until finally it came free. Ruefully Cyran threw it onto the floor, the creature bouncing once or twice upon impact before she managed to lock it in place with one of her feet, panting and red faced from exertion. 

    “What is your problem?!” Cyran shouted at it, feeling her adrenaline naturally giving way to anger. “And… and what are you?!” Now that the creature was clearly awake and wasn’t stuck on her face, she was able to get a better look at it, improbably anatomy and all. As far as she could tell it was 75 percent face/head, just one big sphere with a big purple eye and barely enough room for a small mouth. It only seemed to have two arms and no legs. They were long and flat, shaped like the petals of a flower, and much to Cyrans horror each one also seemed to have an eye, looking up at her. 

    “Hmmm…” A squeaky voice responded, the creature seemingly unaffected by her foot on its’ head/body, moving one of its’ strange arms/hands up to its’ mouth in thought. “I don’t know!” It admitted its’ ignorance almost gleefully, still beaming up at Cyran. 

    “Don’t know what?” Cyran demanded. “Don’t know what you are or don’t know why you attacked my face?” 

    “Not an attack!” The creature offered a bright smile. “A hug! Because we’re best friends!” 

    “What.” 

    Cyran gritted the word out through her bared teeth, making no effort to conceal her contempt at the idea. 

    “Well, I don’t remember much.. Anything really before waking up just now. But I do know two whole things, which I think is a lot! I know that my name is Phly, and that you’re my best friend in the whole wide world.” 

    Cyran flinched, as if the accusation had hit her, and it just fueled the furnace inside of her more. 

    “You’re dumb memory isn’t this problem - if you don’t know what’s going on your useless. And you must be stupid, because I don’t have friends.” She turned away for a minute, relenting and lifting her foot off of Phly, before turning back around to fix them with the the coldest glare she could manage. “-and if I did have friends they wouldn’t be stupid Mike Wazowski looking beach balls!” Cyran expected Phly to shudder or cry or something at her comment, but instead it just looked off to the side in a somewhat adorable manner and gave a small hum of thought. 

    “W… what’t and bike wowski…?” Phlys’ ignorance and refusal to fight back against Cyran’s anger just frustrated her more, and she turned away, unable to look at Phly , anger suddenly feeling misplaced in her chest, aching. 

    “Whatever. I’m getting out of here.” 

    “Good idea!” Before Cyran could get too far away Phly hopped up and wrapped themselves around her leg so that they were basically sitting on her foot. Cyran jiggled her foot around a bit, but Phly did not budge, just looking back up at her with their wide eye full of innocence, clearly either not picking up or choosing to ignore her anger. 

    “Fine,” Cyran let out a sharp breath through her nose, feeling as if she should be breathing fire. “...I’ll let you tag along. But just because I don’t have a crowbar to pry you off my leg. You’re lucky you aren’t that heavy.” 

    “Yay!”

    Doing her best to ignore the weight on her leg, Cyran pushed onwards to the only exit to the room, entering along hallway. While the room she had woke up in had been pretty well lit, seeming to have some kind of windows near the top of it’s domed ceiling that let in light, and the reflective filigree of the architecture helping to spread that out, the hallway was significantly darker, having no windows to let light in. Instead there was some kind of rock inlaid in the ceiling, speckled throughout the otherwise dark rock like stars, emmeting just enough light that Cyran could see that there were empty sconces on the wall, seeming to indicate that ideally the hallway would be better lit than it currently was. For a brief moment Cyran felt a little bit like Alice from the cassette tape she’d listen to before bed. Curioser and curioser. She found it getting the better of her. 

    “Hey uh, thing. Phly. You really don’t know anything about this place?” Interrogating the thing was really the least she could do considering it was currently using her as a bus. On her leg she could feel Phly shift around a bit and then tap their little fingers on the back of her calf in thought. 

    “No, I’m drawing a blank.” Phly said, frown easily heard in their voice. Cyran felt stupid for asking, Phly had already mentioned they had no memories, and asking might have been mistaken for her trusting it. “But…” Cyran was forced out of her train of thought as Phly continued. “...it does feel strangely familiar. Like Deja Vu, or I’ve been here before.” 

    The hallway ended in a room somehow even larger than the one Cyran had woken in, with three other entrances similar to the one Cyran came from. It was about as poorly lit as well, so while Cyran could tell that there were some kind of symbols at the top of each door, she couldn’t make out what exactly they were. In the center of the room was a spiral staircase that ascended upwards, towards… well, Cyran wasn’t sure. 

    “This is just getting excessive.” Cyran commented, the words echoing. 

    “Oh, thank goodness! Other people!” Cyran couldn’t stop herself from flinching slightly at the unexpected voice, echoing just as hers had done, and then emerging from the darkness of the hallways opposite of hers was the figure of a young girl, probably around Cyrans age, also with a strange, small creature next to her, which let out a small murmur of sarcasm that Cyran couldn’t quite catch both parties walked to meet in the middle of the room. 

    “Hi there, I’m Isla and this is Tif! It’s so relieving to meet you both.” The girl stuck out a hand - just barely managing to peek out of her oversized turtleneck sweater - and Cyran took a moment to size up the girl. She had dark skin - though a shade or two light Cyrans’ own, and long dark hair that fell into a pair of long braids. Tif - similarly to Phly - had a the anatomy of an anthropomorphized volleyball, although they were mostly covered in short black fur with little feet and two slitted eyes, topped off with a plume of red, heart shaped hair. 

    “Oh, uh…” Isla had been left hanging for long enough that she was getting nervous, slowly retracting her hand until it disappeared back into her sleeve. “...if you don’t wanna shake t-that’s fine. W-what’s you’re name-”

    “No.” 

    Cyran let the word fall out of her mouth, stopping Isla’s stuttering in an instant.

    “I don’t know where I am, or who you are, and you just appear out of nowhere acting all buddy-buddy?” Cyran snorted in disgust. “I don’t think so. I’m not that stupid. So no, I’m not going to give you my name, or let you in just so you can stab me in the back down to the road. For all I know you-re in-”

    “Her name’s Cyran!” A squeaky, cheerful voice spoke up from below, making the rest of Cyran’s words catch in her throat. “...and I’m Phly.” Cyran looked down to see that Phly had unwrapped themselves from around her leg and had an arm outstretched towards Isla for a shake. 

“Oh! Well it’s nice to meet you!” Isla had fallen into a crouch, reaching to return the handshake. Anger wrapped around Cyran quick and hot she snatched up Phly, holding them up so that she could look them in their eye. 

    “Who the heck told you my name?!” She was sure she hadn’t told the creature it earlier - had been careful and deliberate. She did her best to fix Phly with a withering glare, hoping to see then budge or breakdown or something. Any indication they were the least bit bothered by Cyrans’ anger, but instead they just continued to look at her with a small smile on their face as they had when she had yelled at them earlier. Seeming unphased and also oblivious to the idea that they had done anything wrong. 

    “I mean didn’t you already know Phly’s name?” Cyran and Phly both turned their attention towards Isla, who was still on the floor and had her eyes fixed down at Tif, teeth worrying at her lips. “When Tif introduced themselves to me after we both woke up, their name felt familiar even though I knew it was the first time I was hearing it.” Isla gave Tif a little pat on the head. 

    “Don’t. Touch me.” Tif hissed back in return, and Isla hastily retracted her hand, muttering out an apology. 

    Cyran frowned, trying to think back to when Phly had introduced themselves to her. She… she didn have somewhat of a feeling, she supposed. Like she knew how it was spelled even though it just sounded like the word fly. 

    “I… I suppose that-”

    “AHHHHHHHHHH!” 

    Cyran went silent as all four members of their little party directed their attention to yet another hallway as an ear splitting scream echoed painfully through the chamber. 

    “What is that?! We, we have to hide!” Isla’s voice had raised about twelve octaves, making it nearly as high pitched as Phlys, her hands shaking and Cyran could see the blood leaving her face a discolored gray shade, as if she was becoming sick. Below her Tif was baring their teeth, clearly annoyed. Cyran couldn’t stop herself from snorting derisively at her behavior. So inexperienced - she could tell. 

    “No.” Cyran said, stern and defiant. “Hiding, running - they’re useless. People always catch you, find you, and ultimately make the choice for you. Your only real option is to stay,” Cyran curled her hands into a pair of fists, squeezing them tight. From the corner of Cyran’s eye she could see Phly nodding along with her words. “...and fight!” 

Cyran turned to face the corridor where the shrieks were coming from, adapting her stance to something sturdier, lowering her center of gravity. Phly glanced up at Cyran a couple of times and did their best to replicate the form despite their lack of legs and really any proper body. Isla’s head continued to swivel around, clearly torn between ducking behind the spiral staircase for cover and staying next to Cyran, if for no other reason than being alone somehow seemed scarier than confronting the screams. There wasn’t too long to make a decision however, as the noise grew louder by the moment, Cyran’s form becoming all the more tense for it, and a being emerged from the hallway, the irritating noise reaching its’ final crescendo. 

It was a child, smaller by far than Isla or Cyran, arms outstretched in front of them in blindly, as their eyes were squeezed tight - doing nothing to stop the wave of tears that were streaming down their face. They paused ever so slightly as they found themselves in a new room, spotted Cyran and Isla, and instantly continued their mad dash in their direction.

“What the-” Cyran got out before the kid basically launched themselves at her, latching their arms around her waist and burying their face into her chest. This made it hard to get a good look at them, as Cyran could only really properly see their dark black hair, in what appeared to be a chunkily, poorly done bowl cut. “Oh gross. Who is this kid and how do I detach them?” 

Phly let out a small giggle at Cyran’s plight, as she kept her arms as far away from the child as possible, doing her best not to touch them, except to occasionally nudge them with a single finger in an attempt to get them to budge, which was not getting her anywhere. Isla let out a small hum and walked over, picking up Tif on her way, who let out a small grumble of annoyance but made no move to extract themselves from Islas’ arms. She crouched down to get just below the natural sightline of the child. 

“Hey there, do you want to do me a favor?” She cooed in a soft, practiced voice. The small child slowly turned their head away from Cyran’s now damp shirt to look at Isla. 

“AHHHH!” They let out another piercing shriek and tore themselves away from Cyran in order to put more space between themselves and Isla, crouching and curling in on themselves on the floor, letting out little sobs and hiccups. Isla look as if she had been struck, clearly not the result she had expected, mouth moving soundlessly. 

“Hey great work Isla!” Cyran said, throwing the girl a thumbs up, pleased to be relieved of the child. 

“Yeah good one.” Tif agreed with a smirk. 

“Are you okay?” Phly half scooted, half hopped over to the kid, giving them a small pat on their arm. The kid peeked out from their arms once, a hand whipping out and slapping Phly partway across the room before retreating back into their little man made shell. Phlys face mirrored the shock and despair of Isla at the blatant rejection by the child. 

    “Whelp, kids broken, I say we move on without them. Clearly they’re inconsolable.” Cyran said, and turned to start to face the one hallway that had yet to have someone arrive through it. 

    “Can you at least tell us why you’re afraid?” Isla ignored Cyran’s, suggestion, instead sitting a respectable distance away from the frightened child and continuing to speak to them in a hushed voice, like they were a small rodent that could be scared away. 

    The child flinched slightly, but they did to seem to relax, if only marginally, at Islas’  soft tone. They uncurled from themselves somewhat, but stayed in a more or less fetal position, hands still firmly pushed up to their face, over their eyes, though Cyran could catch the glint of tears streaming out. 

    “The… the monsters.” The reply was really more of a whimper with the idea of words in there somewhere. 

    “Oh you mean the-” Isla was cut off from her reply by the sound of something coming down the same hallway from earlier. It was hard to really identify what it was - it had the pattern of someone walking, but the only thing that Cyran could really compare it to was the wet slap of a mop on the ground, or maybe like someone repeatedly throwing spaghetti noodles onto the ground. Cyran couldn’t really bring herself to be afraid of whatever was coming, and a quick glance at Phly told Cyran that they were on the same page. She had a feeling they both knew what was about to emerge from that hallway. 

    Isla on the other hand was freaking out again, but this time trying to shield the child, holding Tif close to her body as if they could protect her. Tif just looked bored. 

    It didn’t take long for the creature making the sound to finally reach the room they were in, and yes, it looked about as ridiculous as Cyran had been anticipating, if not almost disappointingly more normal, as it appeared to be more or less just a giant squid or cuttlefish, colored bright blue and green. Cyran would have thought that it would get around like an octopus, sliding on the ground, but she supposed seeing how it was managing to move made more sense considering the sound they had been hearing. The little thing would steel itself for a moment, and then take a leap forward - never seeming to manage to land on its tentacles in a balanced way and yet causing the loud, wet slap that they had been hearing. It would then take the moment to reset and correct its’ posture for a moment before doing the whole thing over again. While this did manage to get it to move, it was exhausting just to watch. Ever impatient, Cyran walked over to meet it halfway, feeling pretty secure in the idea that it posed no active threat to any of them, and if it did it would be easy to just kick like a soccer ball across the room. 

    “Angel!” The thing cried between loud and laborious panting. Cyran reached down and grabbed it, hoisting it up to eye level. 

    “Let me guess, you woke up with no memories in a room with that kid?” Cyran said, voice deadpan, heading back over in the direction of the others. The squid monster was still huffing and puffing from the exertion it had expelling in its’ laughable attempt at running and took a moment before they could respond. 

    “Yes. He’s my… Angel is my partner. I think. I know I’m supposed to take care of him. But he. He keeps running away.” At that the creatures’ eyes began to water and their voice became thick with emotion, face welling itself up into a watery frown. Disgusted and unsure what to do at the display of emotion, Cyran dropped it down a few feet away from the kid - Angel - who was still sobbing himself and covering his face. Great. Two cry babies - really the last thing they needed right now. 

    “Hmmmm….” Isla had one of her sleeve-covered hands lifted up to her mouth in contemplation. “I, uh, I have an idea.” She whispered, lowering down her sleeve a little revealing that she was nervously biting her lip, glancing from Cyran, to Angel, to the floor, to Tif, and then back again. Cyran let out a small snort. 

    “Yeah, cuz your last idea worked so well?” Tif spoke up, and Isla seemed to shrink in on herself, somehow managing to make her already oversized sweater appear even bigger. A twinge of guilt run up Cyran’s spine.

    “Well, we don’t have any better ideas right now.” Cyran muttered. “So, uh, you might as well go for it?” Cyrans words, while half hearted, seemed to be enough to bolster Isla back up, as she gave a little nod to herself and then turned to Cyran, clearly trying to appear confident.

    “Follow my lead.” Isla said earnestly, and with a few shaky steps to crossed the room so she stood by Angel, hefting Tif into her arms. “Wow, Cyran, isn’t it so nice to have a little buddy?” She said loudly, in a very obviously stage voice full of faked enthusiasm. Cyran just stared at her, and shook her head slightly. Isla gestured for Cyran to come over, and with an obligatory eye roll Cyran eventually walked over, lightly kicking Phly so that they skidded across the floor to be closer, and then propping their foot up on their squishy body. 

    “Uh, yeah. It’s, um, it’s something. Great even, some might say.” 

    “They’re just the best! Anyone who’s anyone has their little monster buddy! But it looks like our group is missing something. What is it? We have a red one, and green one…” Isla cued Cyran.

    “A blue one.” She replied in her most dead pan voice. Isla to her credit didn’t let it bother her and just continued on, either suddenly emboldened or not even picking up on Cyrans’ lack of enthusiasm. 

    “A blue one! If only there was someone here who had a blue one, then we’d really be lucky.” Isla kept her words animated, face pulling exaggerated emotions even though Angel wasn’t even looking. The form of Angel remained stationary, save for the occasional sniffle, and after a moment Isla’s shoulders lowered in disappointment, the expressions on her face falling into one of simple defeat. Cyran couldn’t say she was surprised. 

    “...blue…?�� The figure of Angel very slowly started to uncurl, showing a small face, red and blotchy from all the crying and screaming. Slowly he turned to look over at the squid thing, which was doing its’ best to stay still in an attempt not to scare Angel, but despite that they were still shivering. 

    Agonizingly slowly, Angel stuck their hand out and let it drift over to the squid, entire teeny tiny frame tense, hand shaking up and down. Cyran found herself holding her breath, along with everyone else in the room. After a few torturous seconds Angels’ hand finally came in contact with the creature, causing Angel to let out a small squeak of surprise and jump slightly, hand flinching away before they got a look on their face that can only be described as childish resolution and placed their hand on the squid again, holding it there for a second as if to see whether or not just touching the thing would truly hurt them. When a moment passed and nothing had happened their eyes widened with surprise, which quickly gave way to joy, and they scooched over to the creature, picked it up, and held it up to Isla’s face for inspection. 

    “Blue!” Angel said proudly, small mouth curving into a pleased smile. Cyran looked away, refusing to give the child any praise. She had seen videos before about people who pick up a baby duckling and it follow them around, mistaking them for its mama. Absentmindedly Cyran nudged Phly from his position on the ground. The last she needed was another creature to worry about. 

    “Oh wow! I think yours is the cutest of them all!” Either Isla held no such reservations, or was not as forward thinking as Cyran as she seemed more than willing to give Angel all her attention and praise, bending down and using that kind of exaggerated voice people only used when they were talking to kids, the kind that made Cyran’s lip unintentionally rise into a small snarl. At least from Cyran glance over there Tif was suffering more or less as much as she was, although they were making no attempts to struggle out of Isla’s arms they certainly seemed to be pouting. 

    While Isla continued to pander to the cheerful but still mostly silent child, Cyran slowly turned to survey the room once again, specifically looking at each of the hallways they had each come from, trying to memorize the strange symbols above each one. The one above Cyrans was some kind of a pointed oval with a square and circle in the middle of it, above Angel was a water drop looking form also with squares and circles within it, and above Isla’s hallway was some kind of a jagged diamond with three points facing up and several crossing lines along the bottom of it. Cyran stopped to face the last hallway, the one that none of them had come from, which had a hexagon with a circle inside of it. 

    Cyran turned to the other two after a moment, hands on her hips and expression serious. Isla was producing a bandaid from her shoulder bag and Angel had placed their squid buddy on top of his head and was fiddling with their gold locket thing.

    “Alright, so we each came from one of the hallways, so there must be someone in that last one. Someone who might know what’s going on.” 

#children of atlas #coa #webstory #writing #chapter 1 #book

[kumpulanjurnalmakalah-blog]

[solved] How to change all images url on webstory detail page in wordpress web story plugin using custom code?

[solved] How to change all images url on webstory detail page in wordpress web story plugin using custom code?

The Web Stories plugin in WordPress is a great addition to the platform as it enables creators to create visually engaging and immersive stories using a combination of text, images, and videos. However, there might be instances where you need to change the URL of the images that you have used on your Web Stories detail page. In such a case, you can use custom code to ensure that the updated URL…

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[todayonglobe]

Top 20 on Micro Nutrients and their Health Benefits

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[thearchmanofgreenfield]

As the sun slowly crawled up the sky from the horizon, the great clock tower of Bellmont read six hours after midnight. The early morning light fell upon the city. With the light came a sense of serenity and joy before the streets would erupt into chaos.

Lucian, however, did not feel very at peace.

He couldn’t remember when he woke up, only that it had been hours before sunrise. His mind was full of dread and nervousness. He had gotten used to thinking of his initiation as a distant hurdle he would never arrive at. Now it was mere hours away and the mere thought of it weighed as much as the ocean itself. He sat in the living room quietly pondering, too nervous to look down the hallway. The silence was calming but it wasn’t enough. So he sat still even as the morning light flowed in through the windows. He stared at the floor, too drowned in his thoughts to notice the things happening around him. All he could hear were the whispers and static as millions of thoughts raced through his head. He imagined what the ceremony would look like, ever since childhood he had been told that it was an event of utmost importance, a rite of sacred passage passed down from their ancestors from the ancient moor. He imagined walking down the hall with so many eyes fixated on him, judging him with glares and whispers behind their masks. He imagined the knife, the blood, the pain and the audience staring at him with disappointment. It was almost too much to bear.

“It’s not that bad.” The sudden voice had him jump in his seat. He looked up to find Willow sitting a few feet away from him in a red velvet chair, wearing her blue shirt over a whitish blue nightgown. She had a cup of tea in her hands, and a tray full of several more cups floated next to her head. “I think you’re too frightened of something so trivial.”

“How long have you been here?” asked Lucian, feeling quite awkward and embarrassed that he did not notice her sitting there.

“Give or take ten minutes. I thought you’d come around eventually but you were too busy wallowing in your own misery to notice me” She then made one of the cups in the tray float into Lucian’s lap. Lucian grabbed the cup and laid it on his knee. “For you. I made more for the Hatlys. They will be coming along any minute now. You better want to apologize once they show up.”

“Why is that?” asked Lucian as he blew on his tea. Willow smirked. “Because your thoughts were so loud that they’ve kept them up for the past few hours, especially little Elliott.”

Lucian’s face turned a mild shade of red. He nervously glanced toward the living room entrance. Willow just kept talking. “I suppose you’d want to talk about your deadly fear of ceremonies, it won’t do you any harm.”

Lucian stared at Willow. “Is that why you came here? Does talking to me alter the future somehow?”

Willow giggled as though Lucian had said something funny. “Of course not, silly! Is that how you think the future functions? You and I talking has no implications on any of what is to come.”

“Then why are you so keen to talk? Seems unnecessary in that regard, don’t you think?” asked Lucian, who appreciated it but also felt odd about it due to being used to Lily’s often not-so-sincere attitude.

“I’m bored,” Willow said simply, rolling her eyes. “What I’m here for won’t happen for some time so might as well observe your depressing state to pass the time”. Lucian felt a sudden sense of familiarity. Willow almost sounded exactly like Lily.

“Has my sister been telling you things about me?”

“She doesn’t need to. But I have seen her complaining to Charles about how difficult it is to live with someone who sobs and moans about something so small. I wouldn’t usually believe the ramblings of a younger sibling, but you’re not making yourself look better.”

She then leaned closer to Lucian, perhaps noticing his look of betrayal once he heard about Lily. “I hope you do not seek petty retribution against your sister. And if you do, keep my name out of it.”

Lucian sighed. He then raised his cup of tea and drank it all with one sip. It hurt his throat a bit but he didn’t mind. Even Willow seemed to change her demeanor to a more sympathetic state. However, Lucian wasn’t sure whether it was sympathy or pity.

“I suppose it is fair to fear the dagger, but It is not something to dread as though it were the end of your existence.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Lucian grimly, “There is no avoiding it now.”

Willow sighed. It was clear Lucian’s state was sadder than she expected, despite being able to see the future. “At least you’re not alone. That counts for something, does it not?”

“I don’t do well with crowds,” Lucian replied plainly. 

Willow tilted her head. “Even if those crowds are composed of your friends and relatives?”

Lucian scoffed. “Especially if they’re friends and family. At least with strangers you only meet them once.”

Willow smiled sympathetically before leaning into her chair and drinking her tea. “Well, at least-” she began but she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming from outside the living room. Two people in white nightgowns then entered in a dizzy haze. They were Laura and Charlotte Hatly. Willow stopped talking when she noticed them and so she didn’t finish her sentence, she just continued to drink her tea. Meanwhile, Laura and Charlotte appeared as though they hadn’t slept in weeks.

“Why good morning!” said Willow with a smile.

“Why are you both awake at this hour?” asked Laura, blinking several times in quick succession from sheer exhaustion. Meanwhile, Charlotte helped herself to a chair in the corner of the room.

“Why are you?” Willow simply asked back. Lucian said nothing; he simply sat in his chair and tried to look normal.

“Charlie and I couldn’t sleep; someone here was having the loudest nightmares I have heard in years! Hours of muffled incomprehensible rambling! Whoever it was kept waking up Elliott, and unfortunately his fits are more difficult to avoid than their thoughts,” said Laura in an exhausted and frustrated voice as she sat on a small sofa. Lucian saw Willow smile and chuckle behind her tea cup.

“Well I wouldn’t call what you heard nightmares,” she said. She then took two cups of tea from the tray and floated them into Laura and Charlotte’s hands. Charlotte seemed too tired to drink while Laura reclined on her chair and slowly took several sips.

“Why is that?” asked Laura. Lucian saw Willow shoot him a glance. Both Laura and Charlotte gave him a look of surprise and annoyance.

“All that ‘muffled rambling’ was him contemplating his initiation as though it was the end of the world. I’ve been trying to console him for the past few minutes,” Willow said, and then placed her hand vertically on her mouth to cover it from Lucian’s view. “And it’s not working” she whispered as though she thought Lucian couldn’t hear her.

It was at that moment that Lucian’s patience was overtaken by the desire for petty vengeance. He flicked his finger just as Willow was about to take a sip of her tea. Within moments, the cup from which she drank changed as the top shifted, stretched inward and covered the mouth making the cup more like a ball than a cup. Willow did not see this immediately and as her lip touched the edge of the cup; instead of her tea she was met with the feel of warm, partially heated ceramic.

She gasped and jerked backwards towards her chair in surprise for a moment before actually looking down at the cup and realizing what had happened. She gave Lucian a stern glare. Lucian simply smiled smugly. He also saw both Hatlys giggle in amusement as Willow’s annoyance.

“Why are you here, Willow? I doubt Morrows are ever anywhere they don’t need to be,” said Laura.

“Oh don’t worry,” said Willow while casually placing her now unusable cup on the floating tray. “I’m not here just so I can observe him,” she said with a smile gesturing heavily towards Lucian. “He’s merely entertainment. What I’m actually here for hasn’t arrived yet.”

Lucian didn’t know how to feel about being called ‘entertainment’ in his current state. He knew Willow had not meant it harshly, yet it made him feel awkward. He did not speak up about it, instead he watched as Laura continued her questioning.

“Care to elaborate?” asked Laura curiously. 

But Willow simply nodded her head. “If I did, it may change the outcome.” Her comment made Lucian raise his eyebrow since she had said the exact opposite to him earlier. Had she been lying? Before he could complete those thoughts, Charlotte chimed in.

“This isn’t about Joe’s little scheme, is it?” 

Laura glanced at Charlotte, as though wondering why she hadn’t thought that herself. But nonetheless, she seemed to agree with her sister. “Are you waiting for one of the adults?” she asked with more suspicion.

“I do not endorse Joe's plans,” assured Willow, clearly realizing that refusing the Hatlys was fruitless. “I was just curious. Perhaps he has a point.”

“Curious? Aren’t you the one who can see the future?” asked Laura.

“I cannot clearly fathom futures involving my own parents, hence I am blind,” said Willow swiftly, as though she took insult in the Hatlys doubting her ability. “Besides, if Joe is indeed correct, we might as well know more about what our parents are planning.”

Lucian suddenly remembered the conversation he had yesterday with Lira. She had said something about the ‘worst outcome’. As he was thinking, Laura gave him a glaring look, clearly having sensed something. Lucian panicked, recalling his vow of secrecy. He tried to get those thoughts out of his mind. Their eyes met. Lucian noticed that Charlotte had not reacted the same way Laura had, he assumed she had not sensed Lucian’s thoughts. He shook his head slowly at Laura. She saw this, but simply turned her gaze and opened her mouth to say something to Willow. Lucian panicked.

“Our parents have many secrets, and they all seem intent on hiding them. Even I cannot look into their minds. They’re all so…fortified”

“In any case,” Charlotte chimed in. “Who among us here actually wants to associate with Angelmore?” He is conniving and distrustful. Always has been.”

“I wouldn’t blame Joe too much,” said Laura. “Hearing voices behind closed doors can be a curse. And even if it wasn’t, I feel like being the only child of a Great House would make anyone distrustful. The Circle has a history of traitors.”

“No member of a Great House has been killed in fifty years,” argued Charlotte. 

“But it is still not wrong to fear the worst,” said Laura in return.

Lucian once again remembered Lira’s statement from the day before, “The lives of your peers…” the words rang in his head. But this time he blocked those thoughts before Laura or Charlotte would notice.

“I think it is best we find out what we can,” he said. “You all read the paper. The Circle is involved in some conflict with the Order. And that means danger is in the air.”

The room went silent. Willow nodded, while Laura and Charlotte exchanged glances. “Well, I’d never thought I’d see you agree with Joe of all people. I thought you detested each other!”

“We don’t detest each other,” Lucian snapped back, “He just detests me” he thought to himself in his head. Charlotte raised his eyebrow at Lucian. He simply ignored her “We just have never been… close. I do not agree with him on everything. But, he was right. It is suspicious that all the children of the Great Houses were brought to the same place on the same day.”

Lucian then heard something coming from outside the house. It was the sound of clanking metal and sliding rubber. The sound of a car. Lucian swiftly made his way over to the window with the Hatlys close behind him. He pulled back the curtains and peered outside. Outside the house, he saw what appeared to be a retinue of cars, five or six in all. They were all black and they circled the street before parking in an organized line outside the front door of the house.

“What’s going on?” he asked himself. The Hatly sisters were standing on either side of him and seemed to be wondering the same.

“Now I would appreciate it if you would all remain quiet,” said Willow as she sat sternly on her chair. Lucian and the Hatlys watched as a crowd of people came pouring out of the cars. Lucian noticed that most of them were wearing navy blue cloaks over white uniforms. Some had golden star-shaped badges and small golden chains holding their cloaks to their shoulders. Among them was also a small group of men who wore brown cloaks with no ornaments. Lucian didn’t know what he had expected, but this was definitely not it. They looked more like soldiers, not drivers.

“What are they?” asked Charlotte, perplexed.

“The blue ones must be the Gratousy,” deduced Laura, “Regular soldiers wear brown and silver. And I’ve never seen any except Boroughman who wear gold”

Lucian wondered. He knew what the Gratousy were. The most elusive branch of the Circulion army, made entirely of the most powerful and most loyal soldiers in the Circle. They answered to no one other than the Great Houses, their only objective, to serve and protect their lieges. Lucian had been around these elite men and women his whole life, he knew that all their drivers were Gratousy, as well as that at least a few of them patrolled Allison Street. They only allowed a select few people to enter the road, including the boy who delivered their newspapers.

“What are they doing here?” asked Charlotte, “And why are they all dressed in uniform?”

“That I don’t know,” replied Laura. Lucian and the Hatlys then continued to watch as the men dressed in blue and brown gathered around outside the house. Willow still sat on her chair ignoring them. Lucian watched as some of the men opened the rear doors of some of the cars. Some people in suits appeared from the back. He recognized all of them. From one car came out his father, Henry and his uncle, David. He also saw Willow’s father, Mr. Eustice Morrow and another he knew to be Laura and Charlotte’s father, Mr. Carlyle Hatly. He even saw a woman appear among them, he knew her to be Mrs. Morning, Arthur and Evelyn’s mother.

Lucian saw them all approach the front door; they seemed to be talking to each other. Lucian then turned to Willow. “Is this what you’ve been waiting for?”

“Yes,” said Willow, who was staring at the front door. “And I would very much appreciate it if you sat down and pretended to be somewhat oblivious! Can’t have the adults being suspicious.”

Lucian and the Hatlys obliged. They all rushed to their seats as the crowd of adults made it to the front door. Lucian returned to his lonely position on the sofa just as he heard the doorknob turn. He watched as the door opened and the first person to come inside was his own father, Henry. At first, he did not notice them. He was busy saying something to one of the Gratousy. It took him a few moments to turn towards the living room. Lucian saw him pause mid-sentence as he saw the four children staring directly at him.

“Oh…” he said, looking directly at Lucian and the others. “What are you all doing here?”

Lucian froze. He had not thought of an excuse for this moment. “Uh…” he stuttered. But luckily for him, Willow had him covered.

“Well we were all just having some tea, Mr. Demon,” she said, showing Henry her undrinkable cup. Henry raised his eyebrow and Lucian buried his face in his hands. “Figured we’d wake up early for such an important day, right?” she said gesturing towards the Hatly sisters, who seemed as unprepared as Lucian was. Lucian suddenly saw Laura fixate on Henry, as though she had seen something, or read something.

“Uh…yes! Yes indeed” said Laura immediately agreeing to what Willow said. Charlotte then nodded too. Lucian saw Willow’s father Eustice stare at her suspiciously, but Willow acted as though nothing was wrong. Her casual demeanor was almost incredible.

Lucian also noticed Laura’s father Carlyle surveying the room from behind the others. He tried his best to flood his brain with random thoughts. His father looked at him with doubt. Or was it doubt? Either way, he tried his best to keep eye contact and maintain a normal appearance. What followed was an awkward moment where both parties remained silent. A silence that was only broken by Mrs. Morning.

“Well then, it is certainly very nice of you all to stay by Lucian’s side! Is it not?” she said, holding Henry by the shoulder as she made her way to the front of the group. Henry, unfortunately, was too focused on the children to notice immediately. Henry flinched and jerked his head when his mind finally registered what Mrs. Morning had said.

“Yes!” he said quickly and almost half-heartedly, “Very nice indeed”

“Good, so why don’t we all let them be? We have other business to attend to after all” said Mrs. Morning. Henry then straightened himself and nodded. “Yes, agreed” he then gave Lucian one last look before turning to the soldiers. His father gestured his hand and pointed in various different directions. They then scattered with some going back outside and some going further into the house. Once he was done with that, Henry turned to his peers and gestured towards the staircase.

“If you all may,” he said with a polite smile. Mrs. Morning left without a fuss. But Lucian saw both Eustice and Carlyle look at their children suspiciously. Especially Eustice. Henry then turned to Lucian and, to Lucian’s surprise, nodded his head. Lucian, who was still quite unprepared, awkwardly nodded back. Henry then turned around without a second thought and left.

The moment all the adults were gone from view Lucian saw both Willow and the Hatlys sigh deeply with relief. And from his right, Willow stood up from her chair. She kept her undrinkable cup on the tray and placed the whole thing on a nearby desk before standing up and heading out of the room.

“Where are you going?” asked Laura, floating her cup onto the tray as well.

“Can’t you read it from my mind?” Willow asked. “I’m going to follow them.”

“Why? Won’t you be seen by the soldiers immediately?” asked Charlotte. 

Willow simply smiled smugly. “And what would they think? I doubt they will assume I have any ulterior goals when it comes to talking to my own father! Besides, I have the future on my side.”

Charlotte tilted her head doubtfully, “So that’s your plan? Walk into a room and hope to learn something?”

“No,” Willow said simply. “I hope to get something. As soon as your sister tells me what she saw when the adults walked in here.”

All eyes diverted to her, Laura gave Willow a glance. But she didn’t try to hide anything. “I didn’t see much,” she said, trying to recollect what she heard. “Just letters, numbers and an envelope. Everything else was shrouded in worried thoughts.”

Lucian didn’t like the sound of that. But Willow only seemed to pay attention to the first part of what Laura said. “An envelope, you say? A letter of sorts?” she said with intrigue.

“Yes, white with a wax stamp. But that’s all I saw” said Laura. It seemed to Lucian that that was all Willow needed.

“Well, I assume it must be important for it to occupy Mr. Demon’s mind so thoroughly,” she said, more convinced than ever. Laura nodded. Charlotte still looked at Willow with doubt. And all of it made Lucian’s curiosity reach a fever pitch. He knew that Willow was right, and he wanted to know more.

“I’ll come with you,” he said standing up next to Willow. Willow looked at Lucian with genuine surprise for a moment; she then smiled smugly and turned towards the Hatlys. “See? At least Lucian here is nice enough to help me,” she said while nudging Lucian on the shoulder.

“You didn’t ask for our help…,” said Laura. A response that Willow was apparently waiting for since she immediately cut her off. “I shouldn’t have to, it's common courtesy to help a friend. Even with something some would consider rather questionable, wouldn’t you agree?” She said, turning to Lucian. Lucian looked at Laura and Charlotte, both of whom were unimpressed. He did not respond even though Willow apparently expected him to. However, his silence still did not defer her.

“Well then,” she said, turning back to the Hatlys. “We’re off! And you’re welcome to join. I assume you’re a little bit curious… or bored,” she said. What followed was an awkward silence, as she did not receive any response to her very convincing pitch, even from Lucian. So she continued. “Besides, we still have hours before Lucian’s ceremony. We won’t even have breakfast for another three hours!  Are you going to just sit there and do nothing for a whole day?”

Lucian saw Laura raise an eyebrow, she then glanced at Charlotte who shrugged. Lucian knew they needed their help. He tried to echo that through his thoughts in a subtle manner, hoping they would take the hint. Finally, a moment later, Laura rolled her eyes and stood up.

“I suppose you’re right, we might as well come along with you,” she said, straightening her gown. To which Willow smiled joyously, “Wonderful! Our prospects for success are no longer non-existent!” she then momentarily turned to Lucian and whispered, “No offense to you”

Laura flinched. Her mood slowly shifted towards anger. “So you need us? Why didn’t you tell us that from the start? Instead of being so long winded!” she said with a voice laced with an undertone of annoyance.

“Oh I could’ve” Willow said casually, “But where’s the fun in that? Many people would like to know the future, but few would ever like to understand it. Best to just let them do it all on their own, it’s more amusing that way”

“And more frivolous, '' Laura remarked quite harshly. But Willow simply laughed at such a statement. “Time is an infinite road, Hatly. Everything you or I do is frivolous in the end. So why not have some fun?”

Laura went silent, and so did Charlotte and Lucian. Yet Willow continued, “I wouldn’t be so insulted by a little verbal mischief. Or are you just upset that you can’t read my mind as easily and conveniently as everyone else’s? Not when I don’t want you to.”

Laura was not amused; she stared at Willow with utter disdain while Willow smiled innocently. She then sighed and took a deep breath before composing herself. Willow said nothing; instead, she walked out of the living room gesturing to the others to follow her. Lucian saw Charlotte give a sympathetic shrug to her sister as she walked past her. He himself then began to follow her as they made their way out of the room. Laura walked up behind Lucian, staying quiet as they made their way to the stairs.

“Do you even know where the adults went? They could be in any one of these rooms!” said Charlotte walking beside Willow.

“Well, that’s a bit tricky. They could be anywhere. But I know they would be somewhere secretive” she said. She turned her head back to address Lucian, “Is there any place your father isn’t particularly fond of you being in? A private office? A study of sorts?”

“A study,” Lucian replied swiftly. “The second door in the hallway to the right. It’s my father’s private study”

“Then that’s where we’ll look first!”

Willow then quickened her pace as they made their way to the second floor. Charlotte followed suit, trying to keep up. Lucian also tried to walk faster but before he could take another step, he felt a hand grab him by the right shoulder. He turned around and saw Laura holding him back while the other two walked further and further away.

“You have some explaining to do,” she said in a quiet whisper.

“What do you mean?” asked Lucian with a shrug. Laura then walked in front of Lucian while still holding onto him in order to prevent him from walking away. “You’re hiding something! I’ve seen it. Your mind is burying something important”

Lucian tried his best not to panic at that moment. He had known that an eventual confrontation would come from either the Hatlys or the Morrows. But he wasn’t prepared for it. Lucian didn’t know whether he should talk. Would he be betraying Lira’s trust? Or was it inevitable? He took a deep breath and straightened himself while trying to keep his mind as blank as possible.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would I hide something from you?”

It was clear that his oblivious approach wasn’t working, Laura looked behind her for a moment and then grabbed Lucian by the collar once she realized no one was looking.

“I know you’re hiding something! You’ve been hiding something since yesterday. I can see glimpses of it in your mind. I know you lied to the Bernsteins, I know it!”

She then leaned closer to Lucian, her voice sounding cold and frustrated. Perhaps because she had been unable to get the information out of Lucian’s mind. “So what is it? Does it have something to do with our parents?”

Lucian’s mind was racing, still conflicted. “I’m not supposed to say. And it doesn’t have anything to do with our parents!”

Laura let go. Apparently realizing that Lucian wasn’t as persistent as she had original expected. Lucian tried to be as vague as possible while still trying to keep his mind blank.

“If it isn’t about the adults, then why are you so keen to hide it?”

“Lira told me to keep it a secret, and apparently I can’t even do that properly” Lucian remarked. The name Lira made Laura raise her eyebrow. “So Lira is involved? So that’s the reason she called you yesterday”. Lucian nodded.  She then placed her hand on her chin and pondered. “Of course she knows something; I suppose the adults are willing to let her in on the secret since she’s the oldest”

“She didn’t tell me much, just that the Morrows saw something. Something that will happen today! And it isn’t good”

“The Morrows?” said Laura, now more calm and curious. “So this has something to do with the future. Why didn’t Willow say anything? Actually, never mind that. Knowing her, she would convey it through a long series of ‘jokes’ that no one would find amusing”

“Willow doesn’t know. Remember, she said she couldn’t see anything involving her parents” said Lucian in Willow’s defense. Laura sighed. “So what is this future that Lira thought so dire as to warn you about? And why hasn’t she told any of us?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that it will happen after the ceremony. Maybe Lira thinks if I tell you it would change the future. Maybe that’s the reason they brought so many Gratousy here”

“Hmmm” he heard Laura murmur. “Perhaps you’re right. But I doubt it. Knowing them it was probably to stop us asking too many questions”

“Well, I still don’t think you should tell this to anyone else,” Lucian pleaded. “It isn’t very useful and I don’t want to take the risk of changing the future”

Laura pondered some more, perhaps wondering whether Lucian’s concerns were worth taking into consideration. “So what are we supposed to do during this so-called ‘bad event’?”

“I’m supposed to take you all into the Mirror for safety. When my ceremony is done, I’ll have the ability to open the Gateway. Lira told me that I would be the only one who can when the time is right”

“The Mirror? You mean the place that is impossible to traverse and the place that’s supposedly infested with grotesque monsters. The place that no Circulion is allowed to enter?” said Laura doubtfully. Lucian was worried whether she would think he was making this up.

“Lira said it will be the only safe place when the time comes, if the time comes. And that’s all she told me, I swear on the Moor!”

Laura narrowed her eyes on Lucian. Perhaps she was still trying to read his mind. She stayed that way for a few moments before relenting. She then turned around and gave Lucian a side-eyed glance. “I suppose telling the others right away wouldn’t be of much use. Not until we know more”

Lucian sighed in relief. Laura then turned around and gave him a stern glare. “But don’t think you can hide a secret from me or Charlie. You know better than that”. Lucian calmed himself, “I told Lira that, she didn’t seem to think you’d be a problem”

Laura chuckled. “Well it is clear that she was wrong”. She then smiled, apparently satisfied by Lucian’s reluctant openness. “It is bad enough that I had to endure Morrow, don’t have me worrying about you. Joe told us to trust each other”

That made Lucian almost laugh aloud. “Ha, I would bet my life that Joe is secretly suspicious of all of us. You know he is just waiting for a chance to accuse one of us. So it’s ironic of him to preach trust when he trusts no one”

Laura raised her eyebrow, seemingly interested in Lucian’s opinion about his peer as he ranted. She then began to laugh quietly while Lucian still spoke. Perhaps she saw all the thoughts Lucian didn’t say out loud floating around in his mind. “I suppose you’re right, but so is he. If we are to figure out what’s going on here then we should trust each other. Don’t you agree?”

Lucian nodded and managed a small smile. Laura smiled back in response. Then they both turned and walked in the direction of Henry’s study in order to catch up to Willow and Charlotte. They entered the second floor and turned right onto the second hallway, the hallway itself was sand green and plastered with a pattern of golden stars. Lucian walked onto the hallway and saw Willow and Charlotte standing in front of the second door. Both he and Laura walked up to them quietly as Lucian noticed that Charlotte had knelt down on her knees and placed her ear on the door. Willow saw them coming and sighed.

“Oh good, you came. I was beginning to worry that you both had run off”

“Was there a future where that happened?” asked Lucian. Willow tilted her head back and forth in response. Neither confirming nor denying.

“What are you doing?” asked Laura, watching perplexed as Charlie kept her head on the door.

“I can’t read their minds through the door, they’re too quiet,” she said in response while not moving. “I can just barely hear them through this door”

“Perhaps we should get Joe’s help. Hearing is of course his specialty,” suggested Willow. “I think his room is on the fourth floor”

“I’ll go!” said Charlotte, volunteering immediately, taking her ear off the door. “I can’t stand listening to this! It’s all jumbling and bickering!”

As Charlotte stood up to leave, Lucian took her place. He was curious so he knelt down on the floor and kept his ear to the door. He realized Charlotte was right; all he could hear was muffled noise coming from several arguing voices. He could barely make out which voice belonged to who. The only one he could recognize was his father’s, most likely because it was familiar to him. He could hear words like ‘you’ and ‘we’. But other than that he couldn’t hear anything substantial.

He watched as Willow and Charlotte walked off into the hallway in the direction of the stairs. Meanwhile Lucian took his ear off the door and leaned against the wall once he realized there was no point.

“Aren’t you worried?” he asked Laura.

“About what?”

“About the adults opening the door and finding us here. Wouldn’t you think they would find that peculiar?”

“I doubt Willow would leave us here without telling us that. Besides, I can hear their minds enough to know that they have no intention of coming out at this moment”

“You can hear them?” Lucian asked with mild surprise and intrigue.

“Just their loudest thoughts. I can hear minds better than Charlie, but walls always present a very difficult barrier,” said Laura, staring at the sand-green wall.

“Can you hear all their minds? Even your father’s?” Lucian asked, more curious than ever. The mentioning of her father made Laura look at Lucian with an expression of surprise But such a look only lasted for a moment before she went back to staring at the wall.

“No,” she said plainly. “I can’t hear his thoughts. Frankly, I have never heard them. My father has spent decades building walls around his mind that neither I nor anyone else can see through”

Lucian paused for a moment and thought about it. He felt bored and some thoughts ran across his mind. “So I imagine it must feel quite odd, listening and only hearing silence”

Laura cracked a small smile. “No, it doesn’t feel odd. It is quite relaxing actually. Listening to thoughts is quite overwhelming. It’s nice to hear nothing for once”. But Lucian then saw her frown. “Though it is quite daunting”

“How?” asked Lucian, eager to keep the conversation going. Laura didn’t seem quite as eager but she replied anyway, “There is a sense of longing in not hearing the thoughts of one of the people you’re closest to. Especially when you can hear everyone else. Imagine hearing the feelings and opinions of everyone around you, but never being able to hear it from one of the people you value the most”

Lucian understood what she meant. And in that moment he felt as though he shouldn’t have asked. He stayed silent and decided just to stare at the floor instead of probing further.

But just then, just as Lucian was about to wonder where Willow and Charlotte had gone. He heard the sound of a click and a clang. And when he looked at the source of the sound, he saw the door knob turn and the door open.

Within moments, Lucian saw Laura eyes widen with shock. Lucian himself staggered onto his feet while still leaning into the wall as though he were trying to avoid a monster. He saw an arm emerge along with the door, a body followed the arm, multiple bodies followed the first body and before he knew it, the adults surrounded him as they obliviously walked onto the hall.

The moment they exited the room Lucian saw all eyes turn to him and Laura. He saw Henry turn his gaze away from his discussion with Mr. Hatly and he felt its weight as it fell on him. He noticed Laura freeze when confronted with her own father. He saw that all the adults had shifted their expression from pleasantly casual to utterly confused.

“What are you doing here?” Henry asked suddenly after a long and awkward pause. And while his volume was not loud enough to be frightening it still made Lucian shake.  “I...uh” he stuttered. But his whimpering did not seem to improve his father’s mood. He saw Henry raise an eyebrow. He saw Mr. Hatly glare at him sternly.

“Nothing!” he then heard Laura say. He watched as all eyes turned to her. Eyes that were equally as confused.

“Nothing? What do you mean nothing?” Carlyle Hatly asked roughly. Laura seemed to be just as nervous as Lucian was. Perhaps she too was trying to block her mind. “What I meant was...” she said but then broke off, as she apparently had no idea what to say next.

“Soldiers,” said a voice echoing through the short hallway. Lucian desperately looked at the entrance of the hallway and saw Willow, Charlotte and Joseph standing there. Willow marched towards them with a cheerful smile on her face. She stood next to the adults and maintained a casual demeanor as she spoke.

“We came here to ask you about the soldiers. Specifically why you brought so many of them”

“Is that a problem?” asked Eustice standing tall next to his daughter. Lucian saw Willow waver, but she didn’t crumble like him or Laura. “Not at all, it’s just…concerning,”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry, dear” said Carlyle. “There is nothing to fret; it’s all just for extra safety,”

“Safety from what, though?” Willow inquired. Eustice then sighed. “You heard Mr. Hatly, Willow. There is no need to worry. And no need to inquire further,” he then turned to Lucian and Laura “And that goes for all of you, understand?”

They all shook their heads in agreement. Both Mr. Hatly and Mr. Morrow seemed to be satisfied. But Lucian saw Henry eyeing him suspiciously, so he put his head down and tried to avoid eye contact. Every second seemed to feel like an eternity. But luckily Mrs. Morning once again broke the sense the tension was slowly creeping into the room.

“Well, now that that’s settled. I feel like indulging in some wine, don’t you?” she said. “Besides, we have some things to discuss with Leonard. Oh wait, is he even awake, dear?” she asked suddenly turning to Laura. Laura took deep breath and calmed herself; the initial shock from the sudden confrontation seemed to leave her. “No, Mrs. Morning. I don’t think so. I didn’t see him downstairs,” she said sternly.

“Well thank you, dear. I suppose he’ll be along later. But in the meantime, I feel like getting a drink. What do you say, gentlemen?”

There was still a sense of uneasiness in the room. But it was clear to Lucian that they had somewhat successfully avoided seeming too suspicious. But Lucian wasn’t sure. “I think that’s a splendid idea,” said Mr. Morrow. A reply that made Lucian sigh quietly in relief. “I personally cannot wait to taste what old Henry has in his stores, right?” he said nudging Henry, who had been quite quiet this whole time, in the shoulder.

“Yes, yes” he said weakly, his mind seemingly preoccupied with suspicious thoughts about his son. “But don’t drink it all…or I’ll make you pay for it!”

All three of the others laughed cheerfully, especially Mr. Morning. “Good, good. So why don’t you all stop pestering the children and let’s have some merriment while we’re all here!”

She then slowly pushed both Eustice and Carlyle by the shoulder until both of them turned away and walked out of the hall. But Henry wasn’t so quick to leave, his gaze still fixated upon Lucian.

“Is there something you need to tell me, son?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. Lucian momentarily glanced at the others. He saw both Laura and Willow shake their heads slightly.  He returned his gaze back to Henry.

“No…father,” he said with as much confidence as he can muster. Henry glanced at the other children. He seemed to realize that whatever confession he was after, he wasn’t going to get it. So he simply turned away and walked out of the hallway without saying a word. Lucian watched tensely as Henry turned the corner and when he did, he unleashed a breath of relief so relieving that it nearly made him collapse onto the ground.

“Well, thank the Moor that that’s over,” said Willow, who seemed equally relieved.

But Laura didn’t seem to feel the same way. She jerked her head towards Willow maliciously. Willow took a step back. But within a moment Laura lunged at her, her face riddled with fury.

“Why did you DO THAT?” she screamed. She nearly reached Willow with her hands outstretched but luckily, Charlotte grabbed her by the waist and held her back while Willow hid behind Joe.

“Do what?” she whimpered. “Why didn’t you TELL US THAT WE MIGHT GET SEEN?” Laura continued after she stopped struggling to break free from her sister’s arms.

“I didn’t know! I can’t see any future where my father is present, remember? Have some civility!” said Willow still cowering behind Joe, who seemed too out of the loop and sleepy to do anything.

“She’s right!” said Charlotte letting go of Laura once she calmed down. “Besides, why couldn’t see them coming?” Laura turned to her sister, still angry. “I was distracted! And even then I could only hear vague thoughts; they were still in their discussion when they came out!”

“Well there’s no point in being needlessly angry about it now!” said Willow, “They are gone now. And you, thankfully, managed to avoid revealing all our secrets to your father!”

“Well I don’t think they were fully convinced of our innocence. Given Demon’s less-than-subtle performance, if you could even call it that,” said Joe, yawning with his eyes fixed on Lucian. “I wasn’t trying to be obvious. I was just taken by surprise, just like Laura”

“I’d say you couldn’t fool anything other than a worm. I doubt many Demons are astute liars”

Lucian frowned. He raised his finger in order to argue. But before he could, Charlotte spoke up with an intent to break up the arguing.

“Would you all stop this nonsensical bickering? Do I have to remind everyone of what we came here for?”

Everyone went quiet. Lucian put his hand down and Joe seemed to back off as well. Willow and Laura still glared maliciously at each other but neither said anything. Charlotte then approached the door and turned the doorknob. Sure enough, it was locked.

“We need to find a way inside if we intent to get to that letter” she said pulling on the door a few more times. “Do you have a way to get in?”

Lucian shook his head. He saw Joe raise his eyebrow snidely. Lucian did not take kindly to that. He approached the door and attempted to open it. It still wouldn’t budge. He then kept his hand on his chin and pondered while staring at the lock. He could try to force it open by shifting the door. But he knew such an action would be hard to conceal.

“Can’t you force the lock? Make it turn from the inside?” asked Willow. “That tends to be a common trick”

“I tried it once when I was younger,” said Lucian, trying Willow’s suggestion by placing his hand over the lock and attempting to open it through sheer will. “I wanted to see why he always fussed over this room. Unfortunately, he caught me rummaging through his desk. He was not pleased. I am sure he had the lock changed in order to make it harder to do”

He noticed Willow and the Hatly sisters give him amused and sympathetic smiles and gasps while Joe rolled his eyes out of disinterest. He tried to find some other way to open the lock. However, as he thought he heard a sudden voice echo through the hall.

 “What are you doing?”

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