𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 {𝕍𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕟 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣}

-Chapter Thirty-One- Sally's Song

/i sense there's something in the wind/ that feels like tragedy's at hand/ and though i'd like to stand by him/ can't shake this feeling that i have/

-sally's song, the nightmare before christmas

When Y/n returned to the palace, she hadn't encountered Andrew. That was probably for the better. Y/n was an amazing liar, but she didn't know if she'd be able to lie to his face when she was this rattled.

It was late, and she was exhausted, but the thought of sleeping made her feel sick.

So, she wandered through the ivory hallways until she reached the cellar, pushing the door open without hesitation.

Varian had his back turned to the door, and was managing a beaker of crystals held over a burner, turning up the flame below.

Y/n knocked once on the doorframe, and Varian jumped, just like before.

He turned around quickly, and seemed to let out a breath when he noticed who was there.

"Y/n! Hi!"

His bandana covered his nose and mouth, but he pulled it down as Y/n entered, the princess walking over to the center table and collapsing onto it, burying her head in her arms.

She wallowed in the darkness for a moment before she felt a soft tap on her hair.

Y/n didn't look up, and the tap repeated, harder this time.

As the third tap came, Y/n lifted her head to see Varian leaning on the opposite side of the table, looking concerned and pulling back a quill Y/n presumed she had just been tapped with.

"You alright?" he asked gently.

Y/n exhaled and ran a hand through her hair, standing up straight.

Are you even the good guy?

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." she answered. "Some science might help, though. How are the experiments coming?"

Varian stood up as well. "Good! Good, um, at this point, I think we have enough of the wand's product and the minerals to start trying to formulate a compound."

He grinned sheepishly. "I haven't started yet, though. I wanted to wait for you."

Y/n smiled gratefully.

Are you in the right?

She tried to shake away her doubtful thoughts to the best of her ability. "Shall we get started?"

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

Y/n let out a long exhale. "Well, that's that."

"Thank Demanitus." Varian said with a laugh, and Y/n couldn't help but laugh with him.

Varian held the last sample of their finished compound up to the light, and Y/n couldn't help but admire it.

They'd spent too many hours- Y/n had stopped counting after six- perfecting their mix of the wand's product and the green minerals into an amnesia serum.

Using a few more unfortunate rats, they had gotten the ratio just right, and their finished compound would effectively erase the memories of anyone unlucky enough to ingest it. Afterwards, they'd replicated the formula, producing barrels of the stuff for the next experiments.

"What do you think we ought to call it?" Y/n asked as the two of them studied the contents of the vial, glowing green in the dim light.

Varian paused. "Are you sure you're okay letting me name it?"