Reunion at Sea

Fortune

Varian hummed to himself thoughtfully as he looked over the scroll pieces. They'd stopped to make camp and, after making sure the area was sufficiently Disciple-free, finally felt relaxed enough for him to puzzle over the scroll, which his father had hidden a piece of for Varian's entire life.

Among other important things, but let's not get into that.

"Is this the Dark Kingdom castle?" He asked, looking at Hector sitting nearby him.

"Hm?" Hector leaned over slightly to look at it. "Yep, that's it. Gloomy place, innit? It's even worse in person, not to mention inside. Yeesh."

"It wasn't that bad." Adira said from where she was sparring with Cassandra.

"Agh!" Cassandra fell on her back and groaned. "Okay, someone else take a turn being beaten by Adira! I'm done!"

Hector got up and they started to enthusiastically spar while Cassandra limped over and took Hector's spot. "You reading that scroll?"

"Well, trying to. It's been a while since I last managed to sort of translate what this part right here said, and that was just enough to figure out that it was about the Sundrop being able to defeat the rocks." He sighed heavily. "I need my notes, but they might all be destroyed by now...I bet they raided my lab."

She sighed. "Well, I don't think they did, because that would be disrespectful to your dad, right?"

"They didn't care about my dad." Varian sighed. "Well, with any luck, they won't be able to get in my safe to get to my notes."

She shrugged. "Fingers crossed and all that." She knocked on the stool he had in front of him. "Knock on wood."

"Just one more day of travel and we will be in the Dark Kingdom!" Rapunzel walked up to him with a big smile. "You excited?"

"Honestly?" He sighed. "I'm kind of scared of the Mad King."

"The what?" Adira asked as Hector and Adira looked at him.

"Anyone that's managed to get around the Great Tree has ended up being attacked by 'the Mad King'." Varian explained. "He lives in the castle, so I'm told."

"The king lives?" Hector looked at her.

"Apparently." Adira frowned. "Quirin was the last of us to leave, wasn't he?"

"I wonder if they kept in contact." Hector mused.

"Well, all I gotta say is, I hope we packed our torches!" Rapunzel said with a grin. "You know, 'cause it's gonna be dark!"

Everyone else groaned in response to her joke.

"Sunshine, I love you, but can you not?" Eugene asked, looking up from his card game with Lance.

"Oh, come on, you liked it." Rapunzel walked over and draped her arms over his shoulders, kissing his cheek.

"Maybe a little." He sighed, then looked over at Varian. "Any luck with that thing?"

"I'd have better luck, if there wasn't a piece missing. Plus, I'm still recovering my memories from that crazy dream-world." Varian admitted.

"Yeah, Clementine said our memories should come back on their own, that since it's Disciple magic and not normal magic, their usual cure for memory loss isn't going to work." Rapunzel nodded.

Varian nodded. "I'm sure it'll come back to me in no time, though. Heh."

Ruddiger scampered over and climbed up onto his shoulders, nuzzling him. "Hey, Ruddiger. Did you find an apple?"