Rising Shards

RainaStarlightFangirl: First off, that slap was fine because you saved everyone. Rain was captured so it isn’t super bad! Theres lots of worse reasons to slap someone!

OkaOhri: Yes…

RainaStarlightFangirl: I say we just hold our ground. If she really wants us to say something she should just say it.

OkaOhri: We can try that…but if Rain really does want me to admit it and I get arrested and spend years  in Novu jail for hitting a princess, will you still love me?

RainaStarlightFangirl: alwayd!!

RainaStarlightFangirl: *always

RainaStarlightFangirl: But we wont let that happen!!!

So went our frantic texts back and forth as we continued on.

To enter East Valataran officially, we had to have our fangs scanned with a funky looking device by some officials. This was to ensure we weren’t Pyre Cani. Dr. Diast had explained in class that East Valataran was the area most Pyre Cani apparently ended up at for one reason or another. Because their powers were highly unstable, any Pyre Cani in Lil East Valataran had to have deluxe power blockers on and have a Cani with a quick draw energy shield power follow them around, which sounded pretty embarrassing.

“This would be a cool locale for…” I started, trailing off as I almost mentioned our video project while we were kind of on a mission to keep the love trio from knowing about it (a mission that felt more rude the more I reflected).

“There it is!” Rain said.

In the center square of the district, a giant carousel turned, with spooky sounding music playing. All of the horses on the ride were skeletons with red glowing eyes. A large crowd gathered in front, waiting around a stage next to the carousel. A giant blaring sign read “CAROUSEL OF CLAWS: REVEALING THE TRUTH!” Upon seeing the sign, Oka looked ready to run away, but Rain quickly shooed us inside.

“So do we ride the carousel…or…heh…” I had the worst fake laugh ever, which wasn’t helped by me not saying anything that resembled a joke.

The inside of the building looked like a typical haunted house at a theme park. Or at least what I assumed those would look like, I had never been to one.

Before we got to the real spooky room, we stopped in a waiting room, as only one group at a time could enter the ride. Well, not sure if ride is the right word, experience maybe? Something like that. There was a little display set up with information on the River & Lyric Detective Agency, which had three members, Tik Moonheart, a darker skinned woman with piercing eyes and a cane, Kara Valor, a tall woman with long hair, and Mars Valor, a pale man wearing a big trenchcoat.

I frowned.

“What’s up?” Oka asked.

“Those names sound so familiar…” I said quietly, not wanting any more chastising from the love trio about not knowing who these three were. It didn’t feel like a situation where I heard about them on TV or something, but the names were foggy enough in my brain that I couldn’t rule that out either. “But I can’t place it.”

I didn’t have time to reflect on that further, as our group was next. Rain graciously paid for our tickets at least, but I couldn’t deny that I didn’t find the gesture too kind. I was busy freaking out about going into a haunted house, and Oka was busy freaking out, whisper/muttering something to me about being on guard for Novu knights who were about to snatch her up for her princess slap. Oka and I clamped onto each other as we stepped forward.

The floorboards were creaky, cobwebs were everywhere. An out of tune piano played in the distance. People dressed as zombies shuffled around.

“This isn’t…so bad?” I said, my shaky voice giving away how scared I was. One of the zombies lunched at me and hissed, making both Oka and I scream.

Another zombie blocked us from going into the next room. She unfurled a scroll and spoke in a raspy voice. “This is the tail of the wounded maiden…”

“Thank you,” I said. I have no idea why. I was trying to be polite or something. “Um, for all your hard work.” The haunted house employee dropped the zombie deal for a second, I could now add “say something so dorky a zombie rolls their eyes at me” to my lifetime achievements list.

“Follow…” The zombie said.

We passed through the decayed remains of a mansion, where a rich lady’s life was told through pictures.

“The maiden had everything,” The zombie said. “She possessed a great power. Within her heart she held a seal that kept a pit of the void beneath her home stable. As long as the seal remained unbroken, the zombies beneath would remain safely away from the world.

The story was a bit wordy to start, but I was keeping up at least despite my building terror.

Her life was filled with joy…but treachery soon followed.”

In the distance, I saw shadows of a woman running about. Rain clapped with glee as Amara and KJ were uncharacteristically quiet.

“The maiden had a dear friend…” The zombie held up a framed picture of a man in a fancy suit. “This dear friend traveled far with the maiden, helping her achieve all her dreams. But that dear friend had a secret…” It occurred to me here that the zombie voice was not great for explaining a big story and was kind of hurting the scary vibe. Lucky for them, I was still a ginormous baby so I was physically trembling, excited to be done with this. Oka was still expecting Novu assassins to jump out from the shadows, so I couldn’t hide behind her. We had to make do and shield each other the best we could be holding onto each other even more tightly.

“The dear friend had betrayed the maiden…” The zombie dropped the picture into a big metal bin, the sound of shattering glass echoing loudly. As we walked past the bin, I peeked inside to see a pile of the same framed picture in there.

We moved to another room, the maiden’s bedroom, which had large portraits of the maiden on it as well as a big closet and some chests strewn about the room. The zombie dramatically sat on the bed.

“A wealthy aristocrat offered the dear friend untold wealth if he would just do one thing.”

“What…what was it?” At least it wasn’t me that asked this time, but Amara, who sounded more terrified than I had ever heard her.

“To tell a little lie…a lie that would lead to the maiden’s death…”

The shadows of the maiden ran past across the portraits, chased by a monster with a blade, a cool effect that was likely from a Cani power.

“The dear friend kept secret that he knew of the plans to assassinate the maiden, and she was killed!”

Oka gasped as the shadow of the maiden was stabbed and collapsed.

“And now the maiden haunts these walls, her ghost tormented by those who keep…secrets…”

The maiden burst out from the chest in front of us, bloodied and shrieking. She cried out the same thing over and over. “The truth! Tell the truth!”

“Ahhh!” Oka screamed, her voice louder than my own wails as I hugged her, my tail more poofed up than I had ever seen it. “Fine, I admit it! I’m sorry, Rain! I slapped you! But we had to, because we to get you all not hypnotized and then everyone you were hypnotizing! And sure, maybe I did do a big speech beforehand and sure, it was a bit pretentious, but that’s just because you’re a huge jerk and you made them step on my Zeta’s tail!”

Silence filled the room as Oka waited for a reaction. The love trio looked completely baffled. The zombie looked like she was beyond ready for her shift to end. Once my tummy flutters settled from hearing ‘my Zeta,’ I recognized the look on Oka’s face. She had a certain expression when it dawned on her that she overthought something and whoever she was talking to had no idea what she thought they were upset about. I mainly recognized that face because there were a few times she’d given me that puffed cheek look that slowly deflates, when she thought I was mad at her or upset about something when I wasn’t.

We all just awkwardly and silently left the haunted house. And stayed quiet until we were outside on the street, in a private enough spot.

“So,” Rain finally said to Oka, breaking the tension. “This wasn’t about you, actually.”

“I…huh.” Oka said. “Oops? I guess?”

“So what was it about?” I asked.

“I was actually trying to get these two to admit to something.”

“Us?” Amara asked.

“Haha, good one Rain!” KJ said. “W-whatever would we have to admit to?”