Aren
After arriving at the palace Bennett and I are shown to our separate rooms. Professor Solace, still invisible, follows me. While the Dark Forest Witch, Evelyn, tags behind Bennett. Ora and Ryland were immediately whisked off by maids that were fussing over their limited amount of time they were given to get Ora ready. It would have been nice for Ryland to join us, but with him being attached to Ora, it is too risky to have him and her sneaking around the palace. They will have the most guards watching them all night.
Once inside my room, Professor Solace sets up a magic tool that creates an illusion of me sleeping. We wait until the clock strikes 1am and then I cover my mouth and open the door. Before the guards can react I smash the sleeping vial Professor Solace made. As soon as it breaks a puff of blue smoke floods the hallway and I slam the door before any of the smoke gets to me. I glance behind me to see Professor Solace covering her mouth and standing at the opposite wall of the room. She nods in approval and I count to thirty before I take a deep breath and open the door again. The smoke has almost completely dissipated and the two guards outside my door are hunched over snoring softly. Professor Solace walks over to join me and slips her invisibility cloak over me, so we are both hidden.
We silently shuffle out of my room and shut the door behind us. Professor Solace waves her cane and the glass shards scattering the floor start to twitch then shoot towards her hand reforming into a now empty vial. I raise my eyebrow at her and she just shrugs then pockets the vial. "Vials are expensive. Besides, leaving the glass would be suspicious." Her voice is low and gravelly.
We follow the directions Ryland gave us until we find the gaudy door that leads to the Emperor's private office. Professor Solace breaks the silence. "They are already here." She states.
"How can you tell?"
"I know Evelyn's magic." Professor Solace states.
"The cloak makes you invisible, it doesn't make you unhearable." Evelyn's whisper carries to us. "Let's get inside before the guards pass by."
Without a response, Professor Solace pulls me over to the door, careful to keep the cloak over both of us, and then she lists her cane to the door. Her eyebrows furrow with concentration and sweat forms on her brow, but after a minute the lock clicks and the door creaks open.
With a swiftness I didn't know she possessed, Professor Solace pulls me into the office and looks around. She holds the door open long enough for Evelyn and Bennett to enter hidden under their own invisibility cloak, before she carefully closes the door. In a flash, she whips the cloak off of us and holds up her can infront of her, taping it to the door. After a second of pause, she then starts walking around the room waving her cane around. Evelyn joins her waiving what appears to be a small stick with roots on one end reaching around a green jem. I look at Bennett whose expression mirrors the perplexion in mine.
While the witches continue, Bennett and I jump into action and start investigating the room. While Bennett walks over to the shelves, I head straight to the large oak desk. I flip through the paper on the desk and find nothing but documents tracking shipments of goods and tax collections. I rummage through the doors and find nothing but more mundane paperwork. Just when I am about to move on, my hand runs across a protruding knob at the bottom of the largest drawer. I carefully press down on the knob until I hear a click. Movement catches my eye and I look up just in time to see a hidden compartment open just beneath the top of the desk. I quickly read over the newly revealed papers. My jaw clenches harder with each word I read.
Before I can speak, I hear a gasp from Evelyn. I look up just in time to see a safe slowly appear and gain tangibility.
Professor Solace rushes over to the safe. "Can you open it?"
"No. The magic lock on it is too strong. Even together, it would take us days to open it."
"I think I can open it." I announce to the room, clenching the newly discovered documents in my hands.
Everyone looks at me in shock. Bennett clears his throat. "You can? How?"
"I found a combination." I state waving the slightly crumpled paper for them to see. "That's not all I found. I found out what the Emperor is planning to do to guarantee the Bonding Ceremony goes smoothly."
"What is it?"
"He plans to give Ora an obedience collar that is disguised as a necklace."
"That is really dark magic." Professor Solace states.
"Does he just plan to give Ora one or has he created one for Ryland as well." Bennett asks.
"I only see plans for Ora's collar here. He must assume his son will be compliant enough without it." I respond. "Thats not all." I pause and take a deep breath. "Along with the collar, he plans to give Ora a love potion after the first part of the ceremony so she will gleefully consent to the mate bond part under the full moon."
"But a proper mate bond can't be created if one of the shifter's is under the influence of magic. Right?" Bennett looks horrified.
"That's correct." Professor Solace nods her head. "He must not care if a true mate bond forms as long as people think one does. As long as people believe Ora is mated to Ryland, the Emperor can use the necklace to control her and no one will question it."
I shiver at the thought. "That's not even the worst of it. If all else fails, he plans to cut off Ora's powers by blowing up the moon."
"What? That's insane." Evelyn states.
"Blowing up the moon won't cut off Ora from her powers. At best it kills her." Professor Solace huffs.
"That's the best case scenario?" I ask.
"At worst, it kills every single person in the world with shifter blood."
"We are so fucked." Bennett sums things up quickly.
I run my fingers through my hair. "How can we stop him?"
"He plans to use four witches to pull off this plan, so we just need to stop at least one of the witches."
"Why would they agree?"
"I don't know why anyone would agree to help enact this crazy plan. I do know that witches don't have any shifter blood so these people probably don't care how much death they cause as long as they are safe and get paid."
"How can we stop them?" I ask.
Evelyn sighs. "For now, let's try to stop the Emperor from controlling Eudora, and hopefully he won't have the opportunity to activate the moon destroyer."
Bennett cuts her off. "Hope is the plan?"
"No, once we deactivate the necklace and the love potion. We will locate the weapon and try to deactivate it as well. If we can't we will try to locate the Emperor's witches and stop them from accessing the weapon."
"We have to do all that, try to break the curse connecting Ryland and Ora and still rescue Jay all before attending and stopping the wedding?"
"It's going to be a long night. Now, let's open this safe and see what the Emperor is hiding." Professor Solaces states.
I walk over to the safe and spin the dial through the numbers written on the paper. With a click the safes door opens and inside we find everything we need. There are two vials of blood, a jewel encrusted necklace and a bottle filled with a glowing pink liquid and a heart drawn on the label.
"Lucky the Emperor kept the combination written down."
Evely pulls out the two vials of blood and replaces them with two identical vials she pulls out of her pocket.
"Whose blood is that?" I ask.
She calmly looks at me. "It's rat blood."
Bennett makes a gagging noise. "Gross."
Once the blood switch has been completed, Professor Solace pulls out the necklace and Evelyn pulls out the love potion. Solace waivers her cane over the necklace and focuses deeply on it. Evelyn does the same with her jewel stick. After a few minutes that feel like hours, they finish their work and return the items to the safe.
"What did you do?" Bennett asks.
"I broke the spell on the necklace and replaced it with a harmless one, that way the item is still a magical item. We will have to let Ora know what this necklace was originally intended to do so she doesn't give it away to the Emperor too early that it doesn't work."
"What spell did you replace the obedience with?"
"I put a simple perfume smell on it. It will make the wearer smell nice." Professor Solace smiles softly.
"The love potion was more difficult because I needed to change it in a way, but still maintain the color. I think I managed to change the potion from a love potion to a food love potion."
"What does that mean?"
"Instead of falling in love with the first man she sees, she will fall in love with the first food she sees. It is a very useful diet aid and the effects only last a day."
"You think it worked?"
"It is very complex magic, so we won't know for sure if it worked until the potion has been drunk. Let's do our best to keep that from happening."
We all nod in agreement.
"Do any of the paper's you found mark the location of the weapon to destroy the moon?"
"No." I glance back over the plans that describe the horrendous weapon. "It looks like it will be big and it has to have a clear shot to the moon. We should check the roof."
After more exploring and use of revealing magic, we find a hidden staircase that leads to a roof deck. I sigh with relief when my eyes land on the huge cannon-like weapon. The cannon has two levers on each side that each need to be activated simultaneously by a witch.
The relief dissipates as the two witches with me fuss over the machine for hours without any progress in deactivating the machine. The sun slowly peaks over the horizon lighting us with vivid oranges and pinks and I know we need to make our way back to our rooms to make an appearance waking up and exiting our rooms and greeting our other friends before sneaking off to the dungeon. Unfortunately, we do not have time to break the connection curse tying Ryland and Ora together.