House of Anubis: Reunion

Riddling

Later that night, Nina was sitting on the steps of the porch to the summer house. She felt the calmness of the lakes and protection of the stars would sooth her.

The front door opened behind her, and she turned to see Fabian coming to sit beside her.

"Hey, what're you doing out here?"

"Just-sitting, I guess. I just keep thinking about Set possessing Jerome and us involved in this mystery and yet another person we have to watch out for. I kind of wanted a normal summer with you guys."

"Maybe this is normal. Maybe it's our normal," Fabian smiled, slipping his hand into Nina's.

Nina remembered what Mara had told her, but she didn't pull away.

"Remember that kiss we had? Earlier in the summer?" Fabian asked.

Nina nodded.

"Good."

"What about you and Mara?"

"I-I really don't know."

Nina took a deep breath. She wanted this. She wanted Fabian to always be by her side, to be her rock. She wanted everything the way it was. And all she waited for was just a sign that Fabian wanted her just as much. And she was beginning to think she had it.

"I-I love you, Nina," Fabian swallowed. "But if I'm honest, Mara-"

Fabian went silent. Nina hadn't known why she didn't return the statement; perhaps she feared that, had Fabian finished his statement, he would say that he loved Mara too.

Nina slipped her hand from Fabian's and stood up, and Fabian stood as well.

"I'm sorry," Nina apologized.

"No, no I'm sorry," Fabian said quickly. "Love's overrated anyways. It turns out you only get your heart broken in the end."

"Fab-"

"I think I'll just get some sleep now." Fabian left, slamming the door behind him.

It was in this moment, Nina realized she'd broken Fabian's heart.

~~~~~

As soon as Nina was in her room, Willow exited hers, first going to see Amber before checking on Joy's progress with the deciphering. Amber hadn't been out her room all day. It wouldn't hurt to check on her.

Willow slowly opened the door and gently closed it behind herself. She tiptoed to Amber who was still dressed up, sleeping on top of her covers. Her eyes were puffy from crying and tear stains were crusted on her cheek. Willow didn't want to disturb her, so she wished Amber well and left as quietly as she came in.

When she entered Joy's room, she found Joy working hard.

"Any luck?"

"Listen to this," Joy demanded.

"Hidden in a vault of a gold,

A crown with ostrich feathers.

In the hands of the bridge between father and son,

The all seeing eye.

The child of the revived,

And the reawakened father,

Join together in the eleventh hour."

"Should I know what that means?" Willow asked.

"It's fine. I have no idea either. But it doesn't seem like an incomplete riddle to me, and that's why I'm stumped about what these unknown symbols mean."

Willow looked at the paper. "Well, hey, the same two symbols are repeating. They're the only two symbols we marked off."

Joy took another look. "You're right. And they only appear three times each, always with one space between them. Wait a second."

Joy took time to circle three partial phrases of the riddle they transcribed. She was circling every phrase that was found in the spaces between the two unknown symbols.

"See. 'bridge between father and son', 'child of the revived', and 'reawakened father'. It sounds like these are describing people."

"What about the bridge between father and son?" Willow asked.

"I'm gonna need more time."

"Maybe we can just have Fabian take a little peak at it, you know? He'd be the one to know this stuff."

"This is a Nubi thing. Let them stick to their Sibuna stuff."

"It still doesn't feel right keeping this from them. When we have an evil god living right among us inside our friend, and the 'special' people are with Sibuna, maybe we all should just work together, you know."

"They're still excluding us, if you didn't know," Joy stated sternly. "If they can't tell us everything, we won't tell them anything."

"A little riddle can go a long ways, Joy. This may result in everyone getting killed." Willow stood up. "Anyways, I'm back off to bed. Sleep on it."

Willow smiled and left to go back to her room. Joy sighed as she packed up all the tuff and placed them on the dresser. She wasn't willing to give over the information she and Willow discovered, but she could be putting everyone's life at stake here.