New Galaxia

Chapter 12: Congratulations; you're an orphan

A fashionably accurate Rubik's Cube came hurtling at Hezago's face, only to miss and to come to a stop next to his head. Zack groaned, annoyed. "Oh my god, will you wake the fuck up!" he hollered, shocking Hezago awake. "My goodness, Zack, there's no reason to scream—"

"We're already here," Zack interrupted.

"Okay, but still—"

"Just get your ass off this train!" Zack said, attempting to pull Hezago out out of the train.

"Goodness, let me go!"

"No I won't you're always going off on your so-called royal duties, and that is NOT going to happen this time!"

"Alright, alright!" Hezago said, picking himself up. After visiting Gloria and informing them of the recent changes in government, Hezago was very tired. If given the opportunity, he would have slept for three days. Anyway, the two departed the train and went off to meet the rest of the group.

"Oh!" Elenora said, taking notice of him. "Hezago, there you are! Did you see the castle? It was splendid!"

"Oh? Do you, by any chance, know where it is? They must have dropped us off a bit far from the original location."

"It's just north of this area; you should be able to see it—"

"Thank you, then," Hezago said, accidentally cutting Elenora off. A long blue crystallised wand engraved with silver appeared in his hand before quickly turning into an umbrella. "Be right back." The group watched in slight disappointment as he walked off into the distance.

He reached a clearing, and then proceeded to float into the sky. He went as Elenora had said, went northward, failing to take notice of the teacher who had just taken notice of him.

After passing three highways, a small park, and a few rivers, he came upon an awfully large castle with nearly nine hundred turrets. It could have spanned the entire length of the CNA province of Puerto Rico, which was concerningly large for a castle, and that meant something coming from a person with like twenty castles.

Upon taking in the view, Hezago noticed something rather surprising. This school—Vonellia, was it?—had registered itself twice. First under the name 'The Academy' and then under 'Vonellia'. The purpose? To receive funding from the Galaxian government—twice.

No wonder he found that name familiar.

He came to a soft thud at a crescent-shaped lake that overlooked the floating castle. He was mildly startled when an elderly witch appeared beside him. He turned around and raised an eyebrow. "What on earth are you doing here!? I don't know what you're doing, but—" A subtle pop could be heard, and the witch fell silent.

"And you are...?" Hezago inquired.

"O- Oh... You're Queen Eragonia." She said, stuttering. Hezago breathed exasperatedly. "Yes, yes, enough of the formalities, straight to the point. Why on earth did you all register twice? If you really needed the funding, you could have just asked me. It's not that hard."

"Well, I suppose so," the witch stammered, "but I'm just a teacher. You'll have to talk to him about that—"

"Very well then," Hezago said, noticing the train had just burst through the doors of the school, "You shall be off now." And so the witch disappeared into the forest, leaving Hezago with his thoughts.

With a bit of magic, or perhaps a lot, it depends, the golden gates the train had burst through opened inward. A grand hallway, perhaps sixteen metres high and outdatedly decorated, beckoned him in, and did so successfully. Hezago took in his surroundings, watching people depart from the train that had somehow landed on a well positioned set of tracks.