The Princess, The Thief and The Servant

Chapter 5-Safe and Loved

     Lily raced through the palace to get to the dungeons and find Julia. She just needed to see that Julia was okay. She finally forced her way through a crowd of guards to get into the dungeon and froze. She had to remind herself to breathe after what she saw.

     There was Julia, unconscious on the ground, surrounded by bits and peace's of the now destroyed wall, a bit of red staining her fiery hair. The guards looked similar where they lay a little ways closer to what remained of the cell wall, although they seemed to have far more injuries as well as...were those burn marks? They probably put up more of a fight, Lily reasoned. Then she noticed the witch was gone. Had the witch done all this?

     Lily had no time to ponder this farther, struggling to get herself under control as her father entered the room, barking orders at the guards. She hardly noticed when the guards led her away from the scene and back to her room, where she continued to sit, dazed, as the time ticked by.
                                ~~~
Earlier

     The child watched, terrified and confused, as four people in all black came through the hole in the wall. Their ears were ringing and all of the guards were yelling the same time. They didn't know what anyone was saying. They didn't understand why Julia seemed amused as the guards scrambled for their weapons or why she was so prepared for the wall to come crashing down. Then they spotted the flower, the same one Julia had put in their hair, swinging on the necklace of one of the dark clothed people and they started to piece it together.

     Julia had done this before. Julia knew them. Julia was going to keep her promise.  And suddenly they weren't so terrified anymore. They knew they shouldn't trust these people so easily, but it was either the strangers that just blew up part of a castle in order to save them or death, and frankly, the kid preferred the strangers.

     "Is this the one?" One of the strangers asked, approaching Julia and the kid as the other three continued to fight the guards. She had beautiful, wavy, auburn hair that hung down past her shoulders and tan skin. The flower from before was tucked neatly into her hair.

     "Yeah." Julia confirmed. "Kid, I would like to introduce you to Cameron. She uses she/her pronouns."

     The child paused, confused as they had never heard anyone feel the need to say their pronouns. Usually the child just guessed and tended to get it right in this sexist country.

     "I see you got my flower," Cameron spoke, directing her attention at the child.

     "Your flower?" The child asked, confused as to how the flower that Julia had picked off the wall could be owned by this person.

     "Yep," Cameron confirmed as a flower crown of blue irises grow around her head, "It's my power. I'm a witch too."

     "Woah," The child marveled, staring in awe at the flower crown.

     Cameron glanced back at the fight going on behind her. One of the strangers was wielding a flaming sword while another seemed to be controlling some invisible force to knock the guards down as well using their dagger when the need a rose. The third seemed to have neglected any weapons or abilities in favor of hand to hand combat. Then, the third stranger made some gesture the child couldn't identify.

     "Taylor's gonna multiply," Cameron explained, "We should step back."

     The kid was confused, but did as they were told, stepping back with Julia and Cameron. They still hadn't let go of Julia's hand.

     The stranger who favored hand to hand combat was suddenly everywhere. There were too many copies to count and they outnumbered the guards by quite a lot. The child saw one of the guards lunge at a copy, and stared in amazement as the guard's sword passed through the copy with ease, having no effect on it. The copies aren't real, the child realized, more intrigued than ever.