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SHADOWS OF SOVEREIGNTY | Part 16 | "Shadow of Masquerades" | 3,4713 words
Notes: The masquerade ball drama is finally here!
Flora and her friends headed slowly into the Sterling Multipurpose Center. Classical music played on the first floor, under the skylight showcasing a darkening blue sky. But none of the stars were visible yet.
Core light decorations hung everywhere around railings and tables. A huge pearl chandelier dangled high above them—spiraling several floors down.
Which perfectly blocked their sight of the upper floors.
Flora imagined that it was probably where the sovereignty would take students to steal their magic and bring them to Regent Sera’s palace grounds.
They side-glanced their surroundings as they moved through the ground floor. At least a hundred other students stood in their own little groups around the ballroom, chatting away and observing all the entertainment. It wasn’t just music.
One sorcerer juggled flame-like casting magic. Acrobats dangled from ribbons tied to the third floor railings, spinning around and drawing crowds. They also walked the fourth floor railings like balance beams.
There was a lot going on.
It was very distracting.
A few sovereignty guards stood near the piano and violin players. They dressed in black suits with deep purple sashes, stiff gold-lined collars, and epaulettes that rested over both shoulders.
As Flora and her friends wandered past them, one of the guards spoke up.
“Don’t forget to check out the buffet tables on the second floor.”
“We will,” Flora said, moving on without stopping. The plan was to scope things out first. They needed to figure out which guard was taking people to the palace.
Meanwhile, Imogene steadied her breathing as they walked around.
She couldn’t read the guards’ thoughts. They all had blocking abilities. Not just that, but they each carried multiple magic cores in their pockets. She could see their lights if she just barely squinted.
Most of them were green plant cores, which were no doubt poisons.
At the same time, Solara sat at the end of her bed—checking through the future.
Everything cleared up.
She couldn’t see the sovereignty guards take anyone. She saw them reading people’s magic and keeping mental tabs on them. But the masquerade ball went without incident.
She didn’t understand.
Earlier, before she decided whether or not to go—everything was blurry. She couldn’t tell what would happen. Now that she sat there on her bed, the future was clear.
The air caught in her throat as she realized what it meant.
The sovereignty changed their plans since she hadn’t shown. They wouldn’t make any moves while the guild still had a future reader on their side. Despite not attending, she could still communicate with her friends. She was perfectly safe in Charlotte's sealed suite. They couldn’t touch her.
So they wouldn’t reveal who the guard was.
Everything hinged on her attendance.
Solara closed her eyes and imagined what the next few moments would look like, ripples of light tracing her surroundings—yet only visible in her mind:
There were already two guards at the door. They would take her by the arm as soon as she set foot out the door.
Solara opened her eyes and jumped down off the bed. She scrambled for her notebook at the vanity to the side of the room and wrote a quick note to Kian.
I need to go to the ball.
Solara Evergreen
Kian stood at the Sterling center’s seventh floor platform when he got the message. He stood there with his guild family—hidden under a cloak of invisibility magic, unnoticed by any of the sovereignty guards on the lower floors.
He held the notebook in his hands, looking urgently up to Estrella beside him.
“We have to get Solara,” Kian told her.
Gemma gave a small nod of approval. Estrella had Flora’s mind control ability, so she knew that they would be okay together. Especially with the invisibility gift.
Once they got there, Kian used his time freeze gift to get past the guards waiting at the door. He knocked rapidly, announcing, “It’s just me,” before he pushed through the door and entered the suite.
Solara let out a sigh of relief once she saw him.
“Let’s go.” Kian waved her on.
They both rushed past the frozen guards together, joining back up with Estrella. It was only about a ten minute walk to the Sterling Multipurpose Center. But the faster they got there, the better they'd feel.
“Guards!” Solara pointed around the corner of one of the buildings.
Kian froze time so they could rush past them.
But there were even more guards hiding behind the trees, so Kian kept his ability active all the way back to the building.
Unfortunately, because his ability didn’t work on a very large scale radius—other sovereignty guards in the far distance caught his trail of frozen people. They knew that Kian had headed somewhere into the Sterling Multipurpose Center, even if they couldn’t visibly see him.
It was obviously his magic.
Kian knew it threw off a trail, so he froze the entire building until they returned to the seventh floor platform. Using his magic so much like that was tiring, especially on top of already being so exhausted from being on the move all the time. So he sank to a seat on the floor as soon as he unfroze time.
He caught his breath as Gemma and Melchior welcomed them back.
Yet that's when something pulled Solara's thoughts to the staircase behind them.
No, she thought. They know we're here.
Solara urged them all toward the staircase on the other side of the platform. They rushed over to the stairs together, helping Kian to get up and go with them. But as soon as they made it down the first flight, Solara whispered, “Freeze time!”
They suddenly realized that this was the sovereignty’s strategy. To give them the run-around and tire them out, so they could capture Kian once and for all.
Kian sat down on one of the steps, holding the side of his head as kept his power activated.
Gemma glanced over toward Solara—an unspoken question written across her face. She wondered how many times they would have to dodge the guards. Only Solara would know. She was the future reader.
Solara shook her head somberly. There were plenty more guards following their trail.
Without any further hesitation, Gemma reached down and set a comforting hand on Kian's shoulder.
“I've got this,” Gemma told him as she continued past him down the rest of the steps.
“Wait—!” Kian shot up so fast that he stumbled forward a couple steps in his dizziness, but Melchior and Estrella caught him.
They helped him sit back down. He couldn't stand up on his own anyway, so he sighed as he let go of his ability. He had to rest for at least a few moments.
Gemma proceeded downstairs without them. She spotted the sovereignty guards heading upstairs soon enough and cut them a sharp look, signaling them back down to the first floor without a word.
They mindlessly turned around and obeyed her mind control.
Including five guards further down the flights of stairs. Gemma proceeded all the way to the ground floor too, directing them with only her thoughts.
The guards moved to the Sterling center’s inner walls, forming a circular line and standing to her attention.
The crowds of students turned their heads and hushed at the way the guards marched mechanically into line. And that was before they saw Gemma emerge from the top of the stairwell, eyeing her perfectly little mind controlled soldiers.
Flora and her friends noticed her from a distance of about fifteen yards away. They held their breaths as they waited to see what Gemma would do next.
This wasn't part of the plan, as far as they knew.
“Unlock the seals.” Gemma ordered guards, narrowing her eyes as she glanced down the line.
But only one guard in the middle of the group spoke.
“We can't.” he says absent-mindedly.
“Who can?” Gemma said coldly.
“We don't know,” he said.
Gemma kept her mouth shut, letting the information sink in like an anchor in her chest. She didn't like it. The sovereignty knew exactly what their plan was.
“Then tell Regent Sera—,” Gemma began before some of the guards on the ends broke free from her mind control and fired casting magic at her. Comets of purple blazed past her as she jumped back.
She conjured a set of daggers and shot them in both directions where the attacks came from. Then she shot a look at the other guards, signaling them to hold the fringes back. Once they were under control, Gemma continued.
“Tell Regent Sera to send them.”
Yet before anyone could respond, Gemma’s fingers trembled and her lip twitched. A sickly feeling bogged down her stomach and her thoughts. It was harder to concentrate on controlling the guards and more of them appeared to be fighting against her mind control.
She forgot that it wasn’t just the guards in uniform.
There were also guards disguised as students. Like the ones that stood only a couple yards behind her, casting ambient poisons on her. Unbeknownst to her until that very moment.
Gemma spun around to mind control them, only to spin right back around and realize that she lost control of the others. The uniformed sovereignty guards charged after her and she conjured a set of daggers and blasted them through the crowd of guards.
Only to fall to her knees upon feeling the effects of their combined poisons. There were at least twenty guards in her immediate proximity alone. The second they moved in, it hit her like a ton of bricks. It was too much.
Even if she was an extremely powerful mind controller, that much poison at once made it too difficult to use her magic at all.
Luckily, a bunch of guild members ran in to defend her. They fired away at the guards, amethyst blasts of light and daggers flying everywhere. The battle was on. But even with a dozen more guild members coming out of the woodwork, they began to succumb to the poison's effects too.
Their reaction times slowed.
They missed shots.
They stumbled in their next steps.
It happened within a matter of seconds.
Regents Academy of Magic students gasped and moved back, including Flora and her friends—knowing that the guild advised Regent Academy students not to engage in combat.
Solara saw it all unfolding with her ability.
Her eyes widened as she turned to Kian and told him, “Stop time.”
He waved his hand briskly, pushing himself up from the ground and grabbing onto the railing so he could walk the rest of the way down to the ground floor.
Once he got to the last flight of stairs, all of the chaos struck him. The sovereignty overpowered them. Guild members were cornered everywhere he looked, falling to the ground on their hands and knees. Kian's eyes darted in search of Gemma.
She lay motionlessly on the ground, in front of the abandoned grand piano. The air in Kian’s chest tightened and he hurried down the rest of the steps. But his body drooped as he hung onto the bannister of the staircase. He was too weak to go any farther.
So Estrella and Melchior ran to her.
They pulled her up from the ground and Gemma opened her eyes weakly, her body drooping into them. She couldn’t stand on her own, let alone run. They knew they had to get her out of there fast.
Melchior picked her up in one swoop and carried her back to the stairwell. He rushed her to the second floor as Estrella trailed behind him.
On the way there, Estrella grabbed Kian’s arm to help him up the next step, but his tiredness wasn’t just catching up to his body—but his magic too. It slipped for an instant. Time resumed. A few of the guards caught Kian out of the corner of their eye.
Kian stumbled up the next step, panicking at his mistake.
“It’s okay,” Estrella said, pulling him along.
Yet they didn’t get very far before his magic broke again. Time resumed and the guards shifted their attention to him, rushing toward them. And just those few seconds allowed the sovereignty guards’ poisons to reach him too.
It only took a few couple seconds to really hit him. Kian collapsed onto the stairs.
Time resumed and the poisons got to Estrella too. She sank, her arm hitting one of the steps before she pushed herself back up and waved the guards back. They obeyed her command instantly. The only problem was that some of the guards teleported elsewhere.
She didn’t know where they went.
But Solara knew. Solar ran down the stairs, closing the distance between them, and grabbed Kian wrist
“Watch!” Solara yanked him out of the way.
A sovereignty guard teleported into place, exactly where she envisioned they would. But instead of grabbing Kian, they grabbed Estrella.
“Estrella!” Kian’s heart shot down his stomach.
She wasn’t anywhere to be found. But not for long. The guard took her to the center of the building. The next instant, he unhanded her—having fallen under her mind control. But he’d brought her to the worst part of this party.
She stood surrounded by guards, who cast their poisons on her as soon as she appeared. Even though she mind controlled them the next instant, she still felt a taste of dizziness. Her face heated as she struggled, just as Gemma had, to maintain control of the crowd.
Solara pulled Kian up the next few steps, but he couldn’t help but grab onto the railing and look back.
“Estrella!”
“Go!” Estrella yelled back from the center of the ballroom. “I’ll be fine!”
But after seeing what happened to Gemma, Kian froze everyone else on the first floor in time—allowing time for Estrella to focus on healing.
“Come on!” Kian called.
“It’s okay!” Estrella said. “I think they’ll take me to the palace! I can bring the seal keeper back here and we can go back home!”
Kian’s outstretched hand trembled as he looked to Solara beside him—his big eyes pleading to know what would happen to Estrella if she stayed there.
“I—,” Solara started, her mind drawing a total blank. “I can’t see what happens.”
Kian’s jaw tensed. His gaze shot back to Estrella. She had heard Solara too, but she remained firm in her resolve.
“Go!” Estrella yelled back.
“Estrella, please!” Kian broke away from Solara and hurried down the rest of the stairs, his ability cutting out for an instant. But he wasn’t in much better shape himself. He ran a few yards closer before stumbling onto his hands and knees.
“No! Kian!” Estrella cried, quickly shifting her focus on the guards and mentally ordering them all back.
They obeyed, retreating and allowing them all a few moments to breathe and recover. In the meantime, Solara ran down the stairs and caught back up with Kian. He wasn’t in any shape to get back up by himself. Solara crouched down at his side right before a vision flickered through her thoughts.
“If we leave now, they won't find us tonight!” Solara said.
“N-no—!” one of the guards yelled, fighting the mind control just enough to speak out. “Someone stop them! They’re dangerous!”
He was calling upon Regents Academy of Magic students, appealing to anyone who still felt loyal to the sovereignty. But most students glanced around, uncertain and shaken by the turn of events. They stood far back—unable to leave because a new seal locked them all inside the building.
Even if they usually always agreed with the sovereignty’s rulings, none of them were used to this scope of magic. Mind controllers, a sorcerer with the ability to freeze time, a student with the ability to see the future… Who knew what else they had up their sleeves? Many students also drew parallels between what they learned from the guild’s tournaments and how the sovereignty was fighting right there in front of them.
With a wide array of poisons. Just as the guild trained them to expect.
They hesitated to intervene.
Meanwhile, Flora and her friends traded glances. Nothing had gone to plan so far. They felt like such bystanders, watching as Estrella contemplated abandoning their plan altogether—without their key back home.
The sovereignty wasn’t sending the guard they needed until they got what they wanted: Kian.
Flora glanced around the crowds of students. It was a near dead silence, punctuated by the slightest of frightened whispers. No one stepped forward. The guard's request went unanswered for several seconds.
Until Flora stepped forward herself.
Time froze as she activated the pocket watch’s ambient magic—invisible to even those with core sight. She froze almost everyone else, leaving just a few people in motion. Including Kian who remained on his hands and knees, desperately waiting for Estrella so she wouldn’t sacrifice herself.
Yet as time froze, his face heated as he glanced across all the frozen people, including Estrella and Solara.
It wasn’t him. He didn’t freeze time.
“I can control him.” Flora declared, her voice echoing throughout all seven levels of the building. “But I want the reward.”
She spoke to a single guard, the only one she hadn’t frozen.
“That can be arranged.” the guard told her.
Flora nodded.
Kian’s gaze shot from the guard back to Flora. He knew that she didn’t have the mind control ability anymore. It had to be the pocket watch. He realized that she was only pretending to control his magic. But her heartless tone was unnervingly convincing.
“Then this way,” the guard beckoned them toward the stairs.
Flora moved toward Kian’s spot on the floor and stood looming over him, casting her gaze down upon him like he was worthless. She didn’t want to say anything. It had to look real. Like she was actually controlling him.
It took Kian a moment to collect his thoughts.
But he understood her plan. It was worth a shot. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself up from the ground.
“No, please—.”
Flora grabbed his arm and pulled him along, but Kian couldn’t completely tell if her grip was supposed to be a reassuring squeeze or making sure he couldn’t run. But he ultimately wanted to trust her.
They followed the guard up to the seventh floor slowly. Flora just wished the guard would hurry his pace. She only had a few minutes before the pocket watch ran out of ambient magic.
Once they got there, the seventh floor was eerily empty. And it was hard to see their friends so high up. Especially with all of the core decorations blocking their view.
That’s when the guard stopped in place and turned around. He forced a smile.
“I’ll take things from here.” he said, drawing a poison core out from his coat.
Kian jumped back, freezing the guard in time and darting to the stairwell. His freezing ability broke as he glanced back over—watching Flora strike the guard with a whip of energy.
But the guard recoiled in anger, immediately jamming the poison core into Flora’s chest as he shoved her into the wall. The one intended for capturing him, not Flora. Flora’s red mask dropped to the floor, her face flushing with shock as her body claimed the poison—a feeling she was all too familiar with.
She dropped clumsily to the floor as soon as the guard moved back, her body anchoring her there. She felt her consciousness slipping. She couldn’t even lift a finger, much less get back up.
Kian’s heart wrenched with pain as the guard crouched down and collected her from the ground.
He tried to freeze time, but nothing happened. The air caught in his chest as he panicked. He couldn’t just leave Flora behind. So he jolted back in her direction, except he didn't get very far before he had to lean into the platform railing for support. Kian slashed his other arm through the air, trying one more time to freeze time.
That's when a portal opened up behind the guard. And the whole scene froze.
The portal! Kian thought.
He stared for a moment before remembering where everyone else was.
“Guys! I’m up here!” Kian shouted toward the floors down below.
As soon as Gemma heard the sound of his voice, she pushed herself to her feet. She was only a few floors below them. Melchior had carried her as far away from the guards as possible and already cast healing magic on her. Her first few steps were a little wonky, but she could still run.
Kian just had to hold his magic for a few moments longer.
He sank to the floor, holding the portal and everything else in place as Gemma and Melchior’s footsteps sounded on the other side of the floor. Kian stared at Flora’s deep red dress spilled across the floor like fallen, wilting rose petals. He just had to hold his magic for a few more seconds.
Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him going.
But it wasn’t enough.
His power lapsed a few times. The sovereignty guard picked Flora the rest of the way up—and froze and unfroze. And then he stepped over into the portal, freezing with one step inside as if reality itself was glitching.
Time resumed just as Gemma and Melchior made it to the seventh floor.
“He has Flora!” Kian yelled.
The guard slipped into the portal and Kian froze time once more. Gemma dashed straight over, gaining speed and slipping through the portal herself.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I'm a new writer and I'll be posting installments of a collection of short stories following a central character here and am hoping for feedback of all kinds.
I will probably also shitpost as I get bored easily.
Thank you for your eternal attention and undying affection.
The House brings a coldness to the bed that feels its hands down to his bones. Pronouncing a history of trauma in which it was apparent that he was the faithless god committing adultery with the outside world. A crime avenged by it coming atop him, with their legs tangled so that one could not escape without the other.
Between them was a lengthy tale of errors . He had seen the house as a house , not understanding why it punished him for existing. And it was a house that had seen the divine in its purpose of watching over him through childhood. He had seen it as walls , and it had seen him as different from everything else it had stomached.
And so its mouth runs down his skin. Aroused and desperate, biting to undo his body so it could stuff itself inside. Palms spread wide to take back the love it had lost. A gentle claim holding his face upward so it could see how time had changed him.
“ You aren’t as soft as I remember .” Its fingers trace his face , slow and deliberate as to map him back to what he was before. “ It's all still there but it lacks the innocence .” The House’s voice drops to a whisper fearing that all that was left between them was the pain .
“ We all change in some-way or another. Did you not change when you thought I was in love with someone else? Were you not greedy, taking almost everything I was ?” Kabir keeps even toned - not wanting to stir any more negativity between them. “ Did you not almost …..” The last word dies upon his tongue. He had seen The House’s madness. The manner in which it turned and tossed him about - jumbling nerves to make a petrified child out of a man. And he decides to play the fool , just until he could find away to kill the house.
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A ROUGH , UNEDITED SNIPPET OF THE CHANGING HOUSE - AS A CHALLENGE TO WRITE MORE OFTEN. TAGLIT : @snickiebear AND @smidgen-of-hotboy ASKED TO BE ADDED OR REMOVED.
