✿ The Splintering ✿

✿ chapter nineteen ✿

We had pondered the contents of the poem for days, even weeks for Q. I left the mirror frequently to ensure I was in good health for when the final fight began. I could tell it was coming soon. Something in the way Q began tiptoeing his way through interactions with me help to alert me that something was coming. Whether that was The Splintering or The Watcholder was still up to fate.

It felt weird bouncing between two lives, because it felt like wasn't in either place completely. When I was with Q, I couldn't stop thinking about Turbo and how he deserved better. He deserved someone less damaged, someone willing to love him in the way he needed, and perhaps most importantly, someone honest about themselves. But when I was with Turbo, I wanted to go back to the mirror. To read ancient texts and teleport to other worlds or simply watch Q do something amazing with his powers. I felt torn. Like there were too different Me's fighting for control of my body and mind at any given point. There was a part of me that like to forget, that likes to pretend to be someone I wasn't. Someone important, powerful even. But then there was the part of me drowning beneath a sea of unanswered questions, of things never said, of a world that felt like a constant weight on my chest until I would burst. I was broken, sure, I think I knew that for a long time, and somehow, somewhere, between craving adventure and an escape, I think I lost myself.

When I got back into the mirror after a few hour break to visit my mother, play the part of the perfect daughter, and to text Turbo and Skye and apologize for being so distant, Q was no where to be found. I called out into the silence of the forest, my voice echoing for miles it felt. There was no response. No half eaten apple thrown on the floor. He wasn't there. I followed the line of trees towards the familiar one that would bring me to Casanova, which was the only logical place he would've gone if he knew I was coming. I was right, of course I was right. Q was leaning against a tree a few feet away from the portal, his pocket watch clutched tightly in his hand.

"You found me," He smirked and began spinning the watch on the chain around his finger.

"I always will," I said. "You're not exactly a hard man to find. But why are we back here? Didn't we get the last clue?"

"I'm hungry. Are you hungry?" He asked before turning towards the distant glow of a fire and the muffled noise of the tavern.

"I mean I wasn't," I whispered. I jogged to catch up with him. He seemed more determined than usual. I wondered what he knew. Q had seen everything, every possibility, every choice I would make. He knew years before things occurred that they would. Perhaps something important would happen today. Maybe we'd find another clue here? I followed him like it was my job, because no matter how many times he tried to burrow it into my mind that I was the hero, the protagonist, I knew I wasn't. He might've had the gift of knowledge, but he still couldn't feel as I did. I knew, in my heart, I wasn't worthy of that title. But I loved when he would whisper it to me later at night, right against my ear as I sobbed silently into the night becauseI thought he was fast asleep.

"You're a hero, Juni. You're important," He would say in a hushed whisper. It would make my heart melt. When we got to the tavern we had made our tradition to visit each time we came to Casanova, rather than sitting in one of the empty tables scattered across the room, Q grabbed my hand and lead me to the back. He opened the door to a small private dining room with one long table and a ton of chairs.

"This is where the royals stay if they stop for a meal on their travels," Q explained as he pulled out a seat for me. I sat down and grinned.

"So they just let anyone in here now?" I snickered. "We are far from royalty,"

"I thought we could use the privacy," Q said, sitting in the chair to the left of me. "What have you learned?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head towards him and rested my elbows on the table as I scanned the room. The walls were a muted gray, the only art being the crest for each kingdom on a banner at the wall across from where we sat.