Not So Sweet Candyland

IX: Silent Time

Late that night, Berry was sitting right near the warm fireplace, reading a book. It was then that Chase appeared, with some more firewood.

"Guess I'm not the only one up. What are you reading?"

"I'm surprised that you care about it." Berry looked up at Chase's face. Chase got to see a glimpse of the book that Berry was reading. There were symbols of unknown origin decorating each and every page, as if it was a foreign language.

"I don't think that you believe in the Supernatural." Berry laughed sarcastically. She almost went to throw the book in the fire, but Chase stopped her.

  "I believe in ghosts!" he quickly said and Berry laughed, keeping the book to her.

"Well, not quite. Just sit by the fire, across from me, and let me tell you a hidden secret only the Candyland nobles know."

Chase threw the firewood in the fire and then sat across the fire from Berry, who shifted a page.

"Long ago, before the thought of Candyland was born, there used to be a group of people called the Sages. The sages were witches, but used their skills for survival and strictly for danger purposes only. There were only 30 sages, the head male and female, the 7 sages of the north, the 7 sages of the west, the seven sages of the east, and the most famous, the seven sages of the south. They harnessed incredible powers and could even control the phases if the moon and the constellations. It was my grandmother that ended up kidnapping the sages, not for her personal gain, but because that she thought they were a threat to Candyland. It was my father then that forced the sages to exchange their powers for a chance at living, but, my father ended up killing them no matter how much they begged for mercy. My father of course, would kill the person but won't burn the evidence. Says a lot about him. I ended up teaching myself their power, but I'm pretty sure anybody who is in the castle has the sage's powers. Even the knights. If you try to break into the castle, you will die. Only official business, acceptance as a future spouse or harem member, or royalty residence. Funny, isn't it? Or in the recent years, my father has been hosting balls, parties, and dinners with guests. I'm assuming that he's trying to find a spouse. He wants to actually get married, and not just crown somebody like my mother for no reason. What does he even do? Not even I know. He's hiding the actual truth about Candyland from innocent Candisons. There are many Candisons that are homeless and they try to go to the king to beg for a home. Materials are crazy to find, and many candisons literally eat grass or mud every day just to survive!"

"Why didn't you step up? The Berry that I know wouldn't take shit from anybody."

"I was 16 when my father asked who would be his heir, me being the older sister, I was next in line, but I declined. You know why? I was hopeless, I was trying to find a way out. I was lonely, where would I go when I go to your world? What would I do? So, I didn't see the point in fixing a world that is supposed to be paradise that my father destroyed on the inside. I would face backlash from the candisons, saying that i was only making things worse. I'm not always the confident and self assured girl that you know. But, like you would care about my problems, you're probably being like 'Oh, can i go home? This is boring!' Listen, you can't take down the fire if you don't know how to take down the fire."

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the distance. Berry recognized the sound instantly.

"It's a spy." She whispered.

"A what?"

"A spy! Let me handle this!" She rolled down her sleeves and cracked her knuckles.

"Appeared you withered fool! Show yourself!"

A string of grey light fluttered around, and it went into the distance and caught the spy.

"What is your business here? Or, will you remain silent?"

The spy remain silent.

"By the power vested in me, Princess Berry of Candyland, the older heir, Restuium Paradexioxe!"

The grey strings turned into a shade of dark pink, and the spy was tangled up in them, trying to squeeze out, but ended up getting strangled to death. His body fell into the ground and suddenly, Berry collapsed.

Chase caught her.

"Berry!"

Her eyes were still awake, and she yawned.

"The bad thing is about this power is that you get hit with recoil, depending on how powerful the spell is, you can either feel lightheaded or feel fatigued. Because it was a death spell, it is obviously very powerful."

She yawned again.

'Can you take patrol while I rest? I should be up within an hour?"

"Wait, there are spies too?"

"That's a story for another day, Chase."

Berry slowly fell asleep in Chase's lap. Chase sighed. He slowly moved closer to the fireplace.

There were still a lot of things that he was confused about, what were spies doing? Why are there even spies? How does magic exist in a world that seems like an illusion? many things confused him, to the point where he so call feels stupid just to ask.

In this moment, for the first time in his life, he felt alone. The one person that won't hesitate to help although she can be awfully mean at times, she knows what she's doing. This adventure is eye opening, he realized how empty he is in his heart and how his life was filled with filler friends and filler feeling and a filler life that seemed no different from the next kid. His life was predictable. Wake up, go to school, hang out with friends, go home and go to sleep. Now, he started to feel like Berry. He IS alone, he is lonely, he has nobody. He could only watch the fire and think.

He heard a small whimper from Berry while she was sleeping and he saw a tear run down her face.