WARNING: SPOILERS!!! ~A Watty's 2019 Submission!

Saved for The Songtress

After they defeated Cap'n Crossbones, our heroes flew back to Kublai with the stones and laid the stones and Mornstar out for him in his cabin. Kublai stared at them in amazement.
"By the skies! You're swift, boy, I'll give you that! It seems you have yourself a full set of magic stones already!"
"We couldn't have done it without Tengri!" Esther told him modestly. "There's nowhere he can't fly!" Kublai laughed loudly.
"He's done me proud! He may be a mere fledgling, but he has all the makings of a legendary dragon!" Abyssa chuckled a little, crossing her arms.
"Well, he'd better be a legendary dragon after this mission! If he's ignored in the history books, I'll jump forward in time and fix them myself, with or without a Breach Time spell!" Swaine gave her a look.
"Please, I've had about enough of you and Breach Time." She stuck her tongue out at him. As they bickered, Oliver tried to put the stones back in Mornstar, but there was a small issue.
"Hm?" Esther asked.
"Uh-oh!" Drippy said. Swaine and Abyssa turned away from their argument and looked over at the stones.
"Eh?"
"They'll never fit!" Esther exclaimed. The stones were too big.
"Flipping heck!" Drippy shouted. "They're the wrong blooming size, en't they?" He gave Oliver a look. "Are you blind or something?" Oliver's cheeks turned scarlet and he looked embarrassed.
"I-I guess I didn't think to check..." He told the others. "I mean, we were so busy looking for them..." Abyssa gave Drippy a look back.
"Don't solely blame Oliver for this now! It could have been anyone of our faults! It's not like you bothered to check, Lantern-face!" Swaine shook his head.
"You're not seriously telling me we've ended up with a bunch of worthless counterfeits, are you?" Kublai shook his head.
"No. They're real, of that there can be no doubt. The Keepers of the Stones you crossed swords with were real enough, were they not?" Esther nodded, but then she shook her head as well.
"Then why don't they fit the wand?" She asked him.
"Tis Mornstar that has changed size. Like as not, it's shifted shape to fit the hand of it's new owner." Abyssa scoffed.
"Dang it Oliver!" She teased, nudging him with her hip. "Why were you born to have small hands?" He gave her a look, but smiled. She felt better, knowing she cheered him just the smallest bit. Someone had to keep his spirits up, and the other three weren't doing it!
"But there's bound to be a way to get those stones to follow suit, and I'll warrant some wise old soul has it scribbled down somewhere." Kublai continued talking. "I've a nose for plunder, and I'd say you'd best have a sniff round the selfsame place you first heard tell of Mornstar, and I first came by the map..."
"Hamelin! Of course! You're right, Kublai!" Esther exclaimed. Abyssa felt her heart leap. Back to Hamelin! And Marcassin...
"So it's back to Hamelin again, is it?" Swaine asked, looking at Oliver. "This seems to be becoming a habit. Come on then, Oliver." Oliver pumped his arms.
"Okay! Let's go see how Marcassin's doing!" As they turned to leave, Kublai called out.
"Harmony? Would you come back here for a moment?" Abyssa turned around and came back, the door shutting behind her.
"What is it, Kublai?" She asked, then noticed his grin. "You just called me Harmony, didn't you?" He nodded.
"I knew you were the Songstress's daughter, Byssy." He told her. "I figured it since the last time we met up." She glowered at him.
"Well, don't tell the others. They'll find out." Then she turned away from him and left, slamming the door behind her. "Hopefully, never." She muttered as she joined back up with them, the others looking at her in confusion.
"What was that all about?" Esther asked. Abyssa shook her head angrily.
"Nothing. Just, stuff that happened a while back. Now can we please get back to Hamelin?" Oliver nodded wearily, then cast a Travel spell to Hamelin, where they headed for the Porcine Palace, Abyssa pulling her hood on and slipping into the shadows. The others noticed, but for once, Drippy and Esther didn't say anything. They usually had something smart to say, but they said nothing this time. When they got into the palace and found Marcassin in his chambers, Drippy beat everyone there.
"Guess what, Youer Princeliness-we got all them stones!" Marcassin's eyes widened at the group, Abyssa pulling her hood off, but still slinking into the shadows, wanting to be away from him, but at the same time wished to be in his arms once more, the others gone, and know that everything would be alright.
"You have Mornstar's magic stones?" Marcassin asked, the question directed at Oliver as he also avoided eye contact with Abyssa. "So you recovered the map from Kublai?"
"That's right, Your Highness!" Oliver told him, then looked sheepish. "Well, actually, he kinda gave it to us..." Marcassin's eyes widened even more.
"Kublai helped you!? The sky pirate!?" Abyssa crossed her arms.
"He's really not that bad of a man. I've known since I was fourteen years old. He took me under his wing and treated me like family." Drippy nodded in agreement, but Abyssa could see that what she said went in one ear, out the other.
"Yeah! He's not a bad sort, one you get to know him. He took us under his wing, like she said. Even gave us a dragon to fly about on! Tidy, eh!?" Marcassin looked towards Abyssa after Drippy said this.
"He gave you a dragon!? Can this be true?" She nodded to him, then turned her head to the floor. After what happened with him before, looking at him was painful now.
"It's true, Your Highness." Oliver said for Abyssa. "Tengri helped us find the three magic stones. We couldn't have done it without him."
"The problem now is how to stick the stones back into Mornstar, and I won't lie to you-we don't have the foggiest." Drippy told him. Oliver nodded, looking a little sheepish.
"We were kinda hoping you might be able to help us, Your Highness..."
"Please give me the wand and the stones. I wish to examine them." Marcassin told him. Soon, a table was brought to the chamber and Marcassin laid Mornstar and the stones on it. Then he examined it. "Hmmm. This is rather a tricky one..." Esther tapped her chin, looking discouraged.
"Ohh, don't tell me you can't help us either!" She exclaimed. "The stones are just too big, aren't they?" Marcassin and Abyssa both shook their heads, not noticing that they did it in sync.
"Well, if it were a mere matter of unifying the sizes of the wand and the stones, my powers would more than suffice." Marcassin told them.
"It's true." Abyssa told them. "The mere factor of size is an easy fix, but even I can't get them to the right size." Marcassin nodded.
"Yes, I am afraid it is not only their dimensions that are out of alignment. There is another problem... One that I lack the ability to resolve." Drippy jumped up, exasperated.
"Hang on a minute! Are you telling us it en't just the wonky sizes we have to worry about!? It's never flipping easy, is it?" Abyssa nudged him, almost off the table.
"If it were easy, we would have defeated Shadar by now, now wouldn't we?" She told him grouchily. Then Swaine snapped his fingers.
"Ah, I think I've got it. Just think for a moment. When exactly did we get hold of Mornstar?"
"It was when we were sent back to the past." Esther said. "Which means... Ummm..."
"The problem may stem from attempting to join the Mornstar of fifteen years past with the stones you obtained here in the present." Marcassin answered her question. "As long as there is this... time difference, so to speak, it may not be possible to unite them."
"So we need to find Mornstar here in the present...?" Oliver asked. Abyssa shook her head.
"If only it were that simple. I've spent the last three years of my life searching for Mornstar. It appears that it was destroyed. It's as if it never existed." Marcassin nodded.
"Yes, I had my men search for it, but to no avail. Not a trace of it remains in our time." Esther tapped her chin again.
"Hold on. We brought it with us from the past, so surely it makes sense that it doesn't exist in the present as well." Oliver smiled.
"...Oh, yeah!" Then he furrowed his eyebrows and tapped his chin. "Wait... what?"
"Hold on, hold on!" Drippy shouted. "This is all getting a bit too flipping complicated for me." Abyssa shook her head.
"Everything is a bit too flipping complicated for you, Drippy." She muttered, but Marcassin looked like he was thinking hard.
"There may be one who can help you... I speak of Khulan." Abyssa quickly looked up. "Of the four Great Sages, her magical powers were the most formidable." Oliver pumped his arms.
"So if we can find the Great Sage Khulan, she can help us with Mornstar." But Swaine, somewhat like Abyssa, knew different.
"We're talking about Khulan, the Queen of the Heavens, right? She ruled a city in the clouds called Xanadu. But that place..."
"It's gone." Abyssa whispered, wrapping her arms around herself, not allowing herself to cry. Only the weak cried, and she wasn't going to be weak. Not again in front of Marcassin, who looked defeated.
"It was destroyed, yes." Oliver and Esther both jumped and Drippy shook his head.
"Jeepers! Her city was destroyed!?" Marcassin nodded, looking towards Swaine and Abyssa.
"Can it really be five years ago?" Abyssa's heart dropped.
"Five... years ago?" She asked quietly. Marcassin nodded.
"Yes, it must be. Five years ago, news reached us that Shadar had attacked the celestial citadel of Xanadu..." Abyssa's fists clenched.
"Five years ago?"
"By the time we mustered out forces, it was too late. When Hamelin's airborne divisions arrived, Xanadu had been wiped from the map. I am afraid I do not know what became of it's queen and her subjects. But perhaps... if you are lucky..."
"Only Five years ago!?" Abyssa growled. Everyone looked at her.
"Abyssa? What's the matter?" Esther asked. Abyssa's clenched hand tightened around her staff, gold glittering angrily in her brown eyes.
"Xanadu has been gone for over fifteen years!" She shouted, waving her hand over them, sending the wand, the stones, the table, and her friends flying back against the couch and the wall. Drippy ran and hid beneath the blue cloak that Oliver wore. Oliver looked frightened at her as she glared at Swaine and Marcassin against the couch. "My mother and my queen died that day! I almost died that day! And yet that day was forgotten!" She looked at Marcassin. "Who sent the message?" He pointed towards the end table next to the couch, and there was a white bird that looked rather old in a gilded cage. Next to the cage, was a letter. Abyssa went over to the letter and read it. It was from her beloved Queen Khulan, saying that they needed help from Hamelin. Then the letter burst into flames and her brown eyes turned completely gold as she stared at the bird.
"Magnamous." She said, her voice harmonising, yet not sounding like her own. "You were too late! Xanadu fell, and you were too late!" The floor around her burst into a circle of flames. Swaine and Marcassin ran over, trying to figure out how to get her out of the flames. Oliver stood up, ready to run over.
"Oliver! Esther! Drippy! Stay back!" Swaine shouted. "It's unstable magic! We don't know what's going to happen!" Then he looked to Abyssa. "Harmony! Stop! Before you hurt someone!" Abyssa... no, Harmony, turned her head at Swaine, her jasmine braid falling out and her hair floating around her.
"We were abandoned!" She shouted. "Forgotten! The world speaks highly of the Songstress, but where does she lie now!? Dead, buried under the sea! Along with everyone else on Xanadu! Because we were forgotten!" Marcassin reached through the fiery circle, taking her wrist that held her staff, trying to keep her stable.
"Abyssa... Harmony! Do not blame Magnamous! He is old, and frail! Do not blame yourself! It is nobody's fault but Shadar's! You mustn't act out like this! You're unstable!" Harmony looked over at Marcassin, and then to Oliver and Esther, who were watching her, frightened. Drippy was still hiding beneath the blue cloak. The Songtress's cloak. Her mother's cloak. Then she ran. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her to the one place she could think of. To the one person who knew who she was and understood her, but wasn't Swaine. She ran to the Black Market.