Chapter Text
I placed third in uneven bars and second to last on vault, my other event in this competition, but I couldn’t even be upset. My acceptance letter from Alfea had arrived a few days ago, and I was sitting outside of an ice cream shop with Kiara, Caden, and Airen. Passers-by gave strange looks to the three royal guards standing at attention behind each of us, but I didn’t mind. The air smelled like freedom and vanilla.
Airen was already trying to give me notes on my performances, but I waggled my spoon at him.
“Not today, mister, we’re enjoying the city!” I punctuated my words with jazz hands, accidentally flinging a drop of melted ice cream onto Kiara’s cheek. She made a noise of protest.
“Oops, sorry.” I handed her a napkin from the dispenser on the table.
She used it to wipe her cheek, and then the majority of Caden’s face, who proceeded to continue eating his banana split just as messily.
“Hey, why don’t the guards get to have ice cream?” Caden asked, staring up at the broad man standing at attention at his back.
“We’re on duty, Prince Caden. It wouldn’t be proper.”
Kiara waved her hand, “We’ll bring some home for you all. I’d feel terrible dragging the three of you out here just to make you watch us eat ice cream.”
My guard dipped their chin deferentially, “Much appreciated, your highness. You’ll make an excellent queen someday. And— salted caramel, if you will.”
“Salted caramel?” Caden’s guard boomed out a laugh, “I think you mean mint chocolate chip!”
My guard shook their head in disdain.
Kiara’s guard cupped his hand around his mouth conspiratorially, “Princess, I’m afraid you have started a feud.”
She laughed, “And what’s your favorite flavor?”
“Chocolate fudge. I, unlike those two, appreciate the classics.”
I nodded sagely, “Chocolate will always be superior. I will forever die on my cinnamon chocolate hill.”
“Cinnamon chocolate?” Airen shook his head, “I’m more of a peanut butter swirl guy myself, extra protein and all that.”
I snorted, “You’re such a gym bro!”
“I’m your gym coach.”
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes, “What ice cream hill are you dying on, Kiki?’
“Earl Grey. But I’m certainly not dying on it, I know it’s a very subjective taste.”
“You guys are forgetting the obvious answer.” Caden piped in.
Airen raised his eyebrows, “Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“All of them at once!” Caden grinned, showing off his rainbow of miniature scoops.
We all laughed. We spent the rest of our time in more easy conversation, our guards joining in occasionally.
After we finished our ice cream, Kiara and her guard went back into the ice cream shop to get some more to take home, and I took Caden and our guards back to the ship. Airen stayed behind with the rest of my team, citing the need for a post-comp debrief. Caden coerced me into trying to catch a lizard scampering through a potted plant, and I let him hold it as we walked back to the ship port. I made him set it down in a small park just outside the city proper. The other part of our group rejoined us just as we were boarding the ship, and we flew home.
✭✭✭
“Incoming student at Alfea?”
Shit. Fuck. Storms, I could simply pass away on the spot.
Euphinia repeated herself, “Incoming student. At. Alfea?”
I had just walked into her office to tell her how the competition went, but the ice in her tone had me stuck frozen in the doorway.
“Is it true, Merreid?”
“How did you fi—”
She played the newsfeed on the tablet she was holding. The camera panned around me as I saluted the judges, the shine on my red leotard in utter contrast to Euphinia’s bloodless face.
“Up next, Princess Merreid of Callisto, medalist in four interplanetary finalist competitions since her debut at age twelve, and another incoming student at Alfea! She begi—”
Euphinia slammed the tablet down, audibly cracking the glass screen, and stared back at me. I felt like I was dissolving under her glare.
“I’m sorry you found out like this. I was going to tell you. Today at dinner, actually. I only just got my acceptance letter and I didn’t—” My voice cracked and I cut myself off with a gasp.
She stood up and began pacing around the room. She wrung her hands mercilessly, but it couldn’t disguise their trembling.
“Now, letting you go out after a competition is one thing, I was even considering organizing a trip to the city for you girls, but this.” She paused, shaking her head in disappointment, “This is too much, too soon. I won’t have it. You’ve broken my trust, Merreid.”
“I was going to tell you!” I barely held myself back from screaming.
She held up a hand.
“It’s too late, I’ve already given a letter to the princess of Solaria to give to Miss Faragonda, unenrolling you.”
I couldn’t hold back my sob this time.
“Why?” One little word, carrying my entire heart with it.
Auntie Fin just shook her head.
“It’s a boarding school, Merreid, you can’t be gone that long. You have responsibilities to your kingdom, to me.”
“I could call every day, I’ll come home on weekends and every holiday, please, this is all I’ve ever wanted. You know that, please!” My ears were ringing, I thought my hands might be shaking, maybe my whole body was shaking.
“If you really wanted it so much, you should have worked harder in your tutoring sessions.”
“What?” My voice sounded strange in my ears. Something was pulsing, pounding, inside my chest.
“You can’t go to Alfea because your control over your magic isn’t strong enough, dear.”
The feeling inside me quickly eclipsed all of my senses, drowning out everything but the sound of my aunt’s voice.
“Your power is unstable,”
The pounding turned to a ringing in my ears.
“And unpredictable,”
I couldn’t feel my body anymore. Was I still standing?
“At the best of times, and—”
I screamed.
The energy in my chest exploded, and a massive gust of wind poured out from me, knocking over everything that wasn’t bolted down.
Unstable, indeed.
The wind stopped as quickly as it came. I gasped in a shuddering lungful of air, poised to flee, pausing only long enough to watch my aunt shake her head at me as she pulled herself upright.
“Case. In. Point.”
Kiara grabbed me after I had only stumbled a few steps out of the room.
“I heard everything. Do you need me, or should I go talk to Auntie Fin?”
I tried to say something, to explain myself, but all I could do was sob harder.
“Okay, that’s okay. Just breathe, alright? I’ll check on her, then I’ll meet you in your room, okay?”
I nodded shakily. She brushed a tear away, another one immediately taking its place. Kiara turned into the room, and I ran.
A couple of minutes later, Kiara found me clutching my favorite stuffed animal, a fluffy round cat, and curled up into a ball in bed. I had taken a double dose of the magic suppressant pills I kept on my nightstand, the power roiling inside my body slowing to a sluggish crawl.
“Auntie’s fine. And she’s sorry.” Kiara lay down next to me, and some of my tension released, “She won’t change her mind, though. She’s just… scared. You know that.”
No more words had to be said. Kiara held me as I cried out the rest of my tears, and I fell asleep in her embrace.
✭✭✭
I couldn’t bring myself to leave my room for over a week.
Kiara stopped by every day to bring me food and some company. She told me she had gone down to see Airen, and that he told her to tell me I was missing ‘vital days of training.’ At least she gave me the mercy of not mentioning how Euphinia was, or the fact that students would begin arriving at Alfea any day now. She just read to me while I painted the view outside my windows, and I was thankful that she didn’t make me talk about it.