The Sorcerer

Chapter 13: The Twins

A few weeks had passed since they left, and they were ready to be home. Alice and Andromeda walked through the front door only to be greeted by the boys asleep on the couch. Specifically, Corvus is asleep with Cas's head in his lap and a book opened in the hand of the latter. The girls quietly made their way through the house trying not to be too loud. Alice gently woke Corvus.

"Hey," she whispered, "we're home. We're going to go to her room so you both can sleep."

"Ok." He whispered back before going back to sleep.

Alice gently shut the door behind her.

"Do we have to worry about being quiet in here?" Andromeda whispered.

Alice shook her head. "No. The wards on the house allow us to make the rooms silent essentially if we want so we don't have to worry about that."

The girls relaxed on Andromeda's bed, thankful to be home. Alice glanced over at the girl sitting next to her. She looked like there was something on her mind.

"Is everything ok?" Alice asked her.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah I'm good just thinking."

"About what?"

Andromeda paused looking for the right words. "Cas and Corvus are they?" She trailed off, hoping Alice got the hint.

"Together?"

Andromeda nodded.

"No, they're not. They very clearly like each other but haven't done anything about it yet."

Andromeda was quiet and looked down at her hands.

"You can do stuff like that?" She asked voice barely audible.

"Like being gay? Of course you can. I don't see why not."

Andromeda smiled a little. "Back home that's not allowed. I thought there was something wrong with me." She wiped a stray tear that had fallen.

Alice turned to look at her and took her hands in hers.

"Listen to me, there is nothing wrong with anything like that Andromeda."

She nodded as tears fell down her face.

"I like girls too. It's nothing to be ashamed of, no matter what you heard."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. You've had a long day why don't you get some sleep ok?"

Andromeda nodded and grabbed Alice's hand when she went to walk away.

"Will you stay with me? Please."

Alice smiled and laid down with her.

"Is this ok?"

"Yeah."

The two quickly fell asleep after that.

Aquila raced around her room packing everything she thought she would need to leave. She needed to get out now. Everything was going so much worse than she thought it would. She knew her father would be angry, but this was extreme. She was afraid to be around him, more so than usual. He became much more ruthless and stricter with the laws he had passed. There was now a curfew and anyone who was suspected of treason or helping Corvus was thrown into prison. None of the people he arrested had any idea what was going on. General unrest was now punishable by law. If he ever found out it was her. She didn't like to think about what he would do. It didn't matter if she was his daughter or not. She had a plan to go to her friend's kingdom. They had been friends as children when their kingdoms were still allies. She had offered her sanctuary if anything got worse than it was. It was the dead of night when Aquila snuck out of the castle. She had made sure that her own guards were on duty when she planned on leaving. Giving a quick goodbye to her guards she snuck out to her secret hut to leave Corvus a note. She had told him to come by to get an update for tomorrow the last time she had seen him. Hopefully no one else found the note before him. With her escape route in place, she got on her horse and rode off towards her friend.