The Dark Castle

Chapter III

"What the hell do you mean?!" Flora went deathly pale.

"I've got quite the story to tell you," Thomas sighed softly. "But I can't do it here. She's hunting us out here."

"Who?" Lailos asked, his eyes narrowing further.

"I'll tell you when we're out of danger," Thomas snapped at him. "Now come on."

Lailos looked down at Flora, who nodded quietly. "Fine," Lailos muttered, gesturing for Thomas to lead the way. Thomas nodded, turning away from the trail the children had been following and leading them to a nearby cave. Lailos quietly set Flora down, and they followed him into it, looking around carefully. Thomas murmured something under his breath as they entered, and the entrance shimmered with green smoke, making it look like part of the cliff face it was apart of. Flora blinked, looking around at the spacious cave. It had been split into four rooms, looking almost like a house that had just been built inside a mountain instead of outside. "You should sit down," Thomas murmured, gesturing to the green couch in front of them.

Flora and Lailos sat down cautiously, as Thomas took a deep breath, pulling one of the chairs from the kitchen table over, and sitting on it so his chin rested on the back. "Explain," Lailos said shortly.

"I was friends with your mother, a long time ago," Thomas started. "We fought together, and occasionally had tea together. I was there when Epnosis was found, and again when Fauna was, I helped raise them for a little bit."

He took a deep breath and got up, starting to pace slowly across the room. His eyes were far away. "A few weeks after Fauna was found, I met a woman. Her name was *****."

"Her name was what?" Flora blinked.

Thomas sighed. "No one can say it without her permission," he said quietly. "Most people just call her Mistress now. But, when I met her, she was.....so different. Full of life and love, joy and goodness seemed to follow her wherever she went....she was an amazing healer, could heal basically any injury that came up. Some of them knocked her out for weeks, but she could still heal them. Saved a lot of lives."

There was a sad fondness in his eyes as he talked about her. "I was completely head over heals for her," he said quietly. "But then.....three days after Flora was found, she disappeared. Didn't come back for another 10 years, and when she did, she was cruel. She doesn't show her face anymore, keeps it under a dragon mask, and she enslaves everyone she comes across. Cuts a smile onto their face and makes them her puppets. A year ago, your mother went to try and talk to her, bring her to her senses, but...."

His voice broke, and he wiped his face. "She enslaved your mother too. Sewed her eye open so she would only ever see constant fractured images of the future, driving her insane....Victoria is even more of a puppet than the rest are. She took you to that house because she'd made it a place that Mistress couldn't find, and a place I could get to easily to watch you. Just in case she didn't come back."

Flora got up, hugging Thomas tightly. "Epnosis?" Lailos asked quietly, as Thomas wiped his face again.

"When Epnosis ran, Mistress was able to find him," he said quietly. "One of her shadows nabbed him before I was able to fight it off. The same thing happened to Fauna, and the shadows were coming for the two of you. She wants all of you."

"Why?" Lailos demanded.

"Because the four of you are the spirits of the seasons," Thomas sighed softly. "Epnosis is summer, Fauna's fall, Lailos is winter, and Flora is spring. It's why Victoria nabbed you and raised you together."