Puppet Master 🥀

First Impressions

Emily's POV:

Walter's still sleeping. Slightly snoring as I see land in the far distance.
Nowhere.
It's been two days and yet, I'm still buzzing and fizzing with excitement.

As I dock at the shore, I jump off the boat with great force, waking up Walter, as he too jumps, but in shock. I giggle since that was my intention. A smiley, aging man greets me, then tells me that he's going to get their 'charity' to greet me as well. Strange, but sweet. (What kind of charity is this though?) I assume that this man is the River Dealer for Nowhere, like Alfred is for Here. To be honest, they look extremely similar.
Though I've been trying to break this habit, I notice his red eyes and how his smile looks as though it was forced. It was only slightly though, he seemed genuinely friendly, but I could spot some pain in his eyes. Was it guilt? Distress? I couldn't tell.
As I looked around at the entrance of ToBeFound, I felt sorrow looming heavily above me. I passed houses that all looked identical. Small murals of Cameleons are drawn everywhere I look. Since Nowhere used to be ruled by Oliver, who had a pet Cameleon, the people of Nowhere use their murals as a way to pay their respects to their dead leader. It warmed me slightly.

I sat down at the fountain with a sleepy Walter. (On the way there, Walter made it very clear to me that he absolutely loathed travelling by boat because of the lack of space, so he didn't get any sleep last night)
I notice the old friendly man walking towards us once again, but his face sagged into a scowl. He didn't seem very friendly anymore. I try looking through his layers again, trying to understand what he's thinking...he found out.
Behind him are two children, one girl and one boy. The girl is taller with pretty golden hair that dangled elegantly in the bright rays of Terror. A bright green bow in the centre of her long hair. She wore a delicate white dress, with lace surrounding the edges.
She was very pretty, elegant and dainty. Like a white daisy spreading a plague of positivity.
Though her lips formed a slight frown and her eyes were red like the bony, old man that had figured out my secret.
The boy on the other hand, looked quite nuetral at first. Then I realised his eyes were filled with hatred towards the person he was looking at. It took me a while to realise that...he was looking at me. I assume the two children were about my age, and that they were siblings. For the boy had the same greenish grey eyes as the girl, and a green jacket in the same shade as the bow in his sister's hair. And the same expressions on their faces when they saw me...hatred.
To be fair, it's not everyday that you see a small girl in a black cloak with a crown hidden in her wine coloured satchel. It would be a very easy guess that I was from Here, (let alone the princess) seeing that my wine coloured satchel had a gold design of a bird. To be more specific, Here's national symbol, The Wine bird.
They know I'm Queen Eleanor's daughter.
The girl's expression changes to a cheerful tone as she greets me.
"Hello, welcome to Nowhere! What's your name?" says the girl enthusiastically. She seemed very friendly as she held out her to shake mine. I smile slightly, trying to ignore the sour stares from the two males behind the her and Walter, whose trying to poke his fingers into the fountain before the water spurts out onto him.
I reach my hand out to shake the sweet girl's in front of me, only to be cut off by her brother.
"Alice, she's the daughter of that 'serpent-eyed Queen Eleanor', I bet she's just like her mother." Alice's brother says rudely. My hand drops as my head does too. I coud feel myself wanting to cry as those words sink in.
I know my mother's done horrible things, that's why I escaped Here! But 'serpent-eyed' is...it hurts. My heart starts to blacken at this boy's words. Why did he hate my mother so much?
"Archie! Sorry, sweetheart, my brother can be quite RUDE sometimes," Alice says angrily at Archie. I sort of giggle as she says 'rude' in a funny way, making sure Archie can hear her. I smirk, thinking of a response only Solace would think of.
"It's okay, people like talking about my mother a lot," I say smugly, "and 'just like my mother' says, rude people end up like my father, and well, he's dead."
Archie just stares at me blankly, a hint of fear in his eyes.
I note down in my brain something important after that encounter.
I like Alice, but I don't like Archie.

A tall woman with big round earrings (that look like they were made of clay) comes behind a frightened Archie, who jumps slightly when places her hand on his shoulder. A short, hunched lady with a scar on her left cheek next to her.
"Welcome to our humble home, Nowhere, Emily!" says the tall women in a big, grand voice that seemed practiced, "I'm Alice and Archie's mother, Lydia, I'm guessing you've met my children, yes?"
I just nod shyly, knowing very well that it wasn't a question. Walter, who everyone forgot existed, walks up to Lydia smugly, grabbing her hand and shaking it firmly. Lydia's short and curly brown hair bouncing as she struggles to free herself from Walter's firm grasp.
"Hello, there! Love the earrings! Name's Walter, it's no biggie but I'm actually the royal guard for Queen Eleanor." Walter says winking, with a subtle flirty twang when he says 'Love the earrings', but Lydia notices it and doesn't seem very merry about it.
"I'm married, my husband, Oscar is right behind you."Lydia scolds calmly, scoffing in a very unprofessional way. Walter pivots 180 degrees, his eyes turn wide as a man about Lydia's height stares into Walter's soul with digust.
"I made those earrings for her." Oscar frowns, his eyes narrow, eyeing Walter down further. Others, who have come out of their homes to see us, are starring down at Walter as well, a few gasp.
I roll my eyes at Walter, why must he tell everyone we have connections to the Queen? For goodness sake, Nowhere is a place the Queen sends them if they disrespect or threaten her! Why would anyone be impressed by someone who works for their foe?!
Walter, who's two thirds of Oscar's height, shrinks even more in embarrassent. I giggle as Alice leads me away to show me where I'll be staying.
She tells me about her mother's charity, and how her and others invite new Nowhere-comers into their homes as guests for a year until they have their own home. But since I'm not over eighteen, I'll be staying in that house until I'm old enough.
Unfortunately, not many people want their enemy's daughter in their house. So the head of charity decided (had to) to take me in. Who is also known as Alice's mother, Lydia. Though I forget to tell her my name, Alice doesn't seem to care. I look through her layers, and realise that she's just glad she has anyone to talk to.
My question is, who in particular would she want to talk to?

"Unfortunately, we only have three rooms, you'll be sleeping in our garden shed. But luckily for you, it's been turned into Archie's workshop! So it'll be a bit cozier." Alice says sweetly.
"Why does he have a workshop?"
"Archie does SpellBinding, trying to, so to keep the house safe, he uses the garden shed."
I look to the workshop. It's probably as big as the lounge room inside the house! As I walk in, there are books and papers with messy handwriting covering all the shelves and stacked high on the wooden desk. Ink spills splattered all over the desk as well.
'So he's rude and sloppy?' I think to myself. Alice leaves to find Archie so he can clean up a bit, that's when I see a small test tube, filled with a red substance I know about.
I may be called The Witch of Here, but I was also called The Guardian of the Eclipse (or just Eclipse) by Terror and Solace. These were tears that belonged to Terror's Guardian of the Flame. So they're here, and their tears are also here...in Archie's workshop.
'Was he...no, he can't be! But he is, isn't he?'
I might as well help him since I'll be needing his help when we face Solace together.
If I think back hard enough, I can remember glipses of the past. Hoping if memory lane has what I'm looking for, I think deep, I dig deep. I may not be a SpellBinder, but I can do certain types of magic that I'm born with.
I am a witch after all.
Since I'm The Guardian of the Eclipse, I can draw magic from Solace and Terror, but even as I dig through my past, I don't have any memories that could teach me to draw magic from Terror.
Solace on the other hand, is a source of magic both me and my mother draw from...
(I think that's a story for another time)

"As shadows and shine don't mix, like you and your foe don't click, Solace, let's play one of your tricks!" I chant loudly, holding up the small tube to the sky. My heart blackens in response to Solace, who's magic begins to flow through my veins. I hear cheeky giggles as I feel Solace smirking through my blood.
Solace, you cheeky trickster.
In my other hand, a needle appears as it floats in mid-air. It stabs into my finger as I wince in pain. The small silver needle drops to the floor, then disappears without a trace. Blood strengthened by Solace began to gather to the surface of my finger, stinging as I let the blood drop into the test tube. Two drops will do.
I grin happily as I mix the mixture as it turns a dark black. Though both the tears and blood are red, they mix in a way that is hard to explain.
It's just...magic.
This magic in particular, is a locater. By placing a drop of the mixture on a map, whatever is desired would show up on the map.
"H-how did you do that?" a voice says from behind me, my eyes snap open as I realise I've been caught. And who by.
Archie...