The new Emperor Tristan celebrated his coronation with a culmination of the masquerade. He bid the group his farewell and thanks. Sorrel supposed he let them take Versailles with them just because otherwise he would have no way to contain him. Not that Versailles tried to escape at any point.

That was perhaps the strangest part in all of this. She watched her sister during the flight, unsure of how to broach the topic. Nothing seemed to have changed about her sister—but what had happened?

Gwynn for her part, shared no secrets.

Never had Sorrel felt so apart from her sister.

Or Coppelius, for that matter.

Pirlipat and Layla had taken to the cockpit for Coppelius had withdrawn into his cabin.

Sorrel sighed and pulled herself up from the lounge chair. She'd had enough of this. She disappeared from the lounge of the East Sun to the door she knew belonged to Coppelius.

She knocked. Once, twice—three times.

"Let me in!" She sobbed. "Please. . . let me in."

Let me help you.

The door opened of its own accord.

----------------------------------------

Filled to the brim with colorful trinkets and tapestries, like the rest of the ship entirely was packed inside this one room. Several crystal lamps and fairy lights lit parts of the room, like the stars at night. His bed was tucked away in a corner, made of wicker with a leaf-like canopy. Overhead, a patch of stars peaking through via the ceiling from within the bed.

Sorrel had to step carefully, to avoid all infinite trinkets and souvenirs. Still, she found her way to him.

He sat in the center of his bed, just as much of a nest if not more than the one he'd borrowed in Artorias Palace. He was holding the scraps of yellow fabric and the ring he always wore with the rose on it.

"I hated him," he said as Sorrel sat beside him. "I hated my father. I thought he abandoned my mother, left her to die when the Spider-Queen came for my world. But I was wrong. He died so long ago. . ."

"You didn't know." Sorrel placed a hand on his shoulder. "You were right to feel the way you did, with the information you had."

He shook his head. "I should have known, I should have—"

He broke off in a sob.

Sorrel looked to the ring with the rose. "Did that belong to your mother?"

"It did," he sniffled.

"Tell me about her."

He looked up at her, and there was a spark of connection. They both understood the loss of a parent, as he was beginning to realize.

"Her name was Coppelia Rose," he began. "She lived by herself—she was orphaned at a young age. But she always grew roses in her garden. My father, or so she told me, always loved roses. One sight of hers, and she said he fell in love."

He turned the ring over in his hands. "He left when I was still a baby. My mother never resented him, always believed he was her hero, that he'd come back for her. She was a great mother, a good friend to the others in the village."

"What happened?"

"The Spider-Queen." His eyes flashed in uncharacteristic rage. "One day he came with her monsters and led them to Kells, razed it to the ground. They killed my mother, my friends—everything. I fled then, didn't use my real name after. I took on one based on my mother. I hoped to find my father, make him accountable for what happened to Kells. But then he. . ."

He trailed off again.

"What is your true name?" Sorrel asked.

He looked up and met her eyes. "Florian."

She embraced him. He began to cry again, but she held on tight. She would never again doubt him, and she knew then and there that she would never leave his side.

----------------------------------------

When they touched down on Kells, they touched down on the roof of the cottage and the garden full of roses. Beyond it were withered trees and silvery-blue smoke, with the occasional red eyes of monsters peering in.

"I put a charm on the place before I left, so they wouldn't disturb it," Florian explained.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This was the last remnant of what Kells was. Sorrel only hoped that the rest of Kells had been so lovely as Coppelia Rose's cottage.

Everyone disembarked, and no one bothered to renew the bonds on Versailles. He wasn't going anywhere. No, he stuck close to Gwynn, like he was her guard-dog now.

Coppelius took the scarf and used a shovel leaning on the cottage to dig at the grass in front of a stone with a rose carved in it. He insisted on doing it alone—so Sorrel and the others simply watched in silence.

"This is where he would have wanted to be," Florian said as he finished patting the dirt in front of the gravestone. He did not get up, however. Rather, he stayed there as the sun was setting, in front of the grave.

Sorrel could hear the rustling of monsters beyond the garden. She could only hope the wards would hold strong.

"You can go inside, I'll be alright." He smiled at her.

She did not leave.

Rather, she knelt down beside him, as did the others. Even Versailles. The night passed by in silence, a vigil for the Prince of Light and his Coppelia Rose.

----------------------------------------

As the sun rose, Gwynn knew the question on everyone's tongues. Perhaps it was only natural then that Sorrel was the one to give it voice as the dawn broke over the horizon.

"What happens now?"

"I don't know." Coppelius's shoulders slumped. "If the Prince of Light is dead, then the prophecy's over, destroyed. The Spider-Queen can't be beaten."

Gwynn watched as the realization dawned on all of them. Resolute Delphine, stoic Pirlipat, optimistic Akira, and gentle Layla, her fierce and heroic sister. It weighed them down, made the spark die in their eyes. How could they stand against a god when even their greatest weapon against her had fallen?

Then it hit Versailles.

At first, his shoulders slumped too, his eyes darkened. But then it awakened something fierce within him.

"No, no!" He stood up. "Is that it? All of you so-called heroes are going to give up just because the prophecy was meaningless?"

Coppelius frowned. "Aren't you the one who always went on about how it was meaningless to resist the Queen and all of that?"

"I was but—" Versailles growled a note of frustration. "Just listen, for once in your life, Coppelius. We have the relics, don't we? And all of us together—that has to count for something!"

He then looked to Gwynn, with those eyes that made her feel so many things. Just as many feelings she detected in their indigo depths.

"And you haven't seen what I've seen," he breathed. "She can chase away the Queen."

He then looked to Sorrel. "She's afraid of both of you."

"Because that's how it is in fairytales." Sorrel rose to her feet too, a new glint of determination in her eyes. "The evil queen is overthrown by the peasant girl."

Versailles nodded. "If all of us work together, we can put this to rest."

Gwynn rose to her feet. "I'll help you."

"So will I." Sorrel took her hand.

"Me too." Akira stood.

"Might as well." Delphine shrugged as she rose. "I've already taken the plunge."

"It's what's right." Layla joined them.

"Wherever she goes, I go." Pirlipat took his place by Layla's side.

"Well then, that leaves just you." Versailles folded his arms over his chest. "What say you?"

Coppelius considered them. Then nodded, as he rose to his feet. "Then let's do it."

"My, how brave you have gotten." A laugh rattled the earth, and all of them looked around wildly for the source of the voice.

Versailles stood quite still, however, and narrowed his eyes. "I know you're here, Spider-Queen. Show yourself!"

"But of course, cousin!" The false cheer dripping from her voice put Gwynn at ill ease. In the blink of an eye, the whispy, faded translucent figure of the pale woman from her dream, the one she had chased away from Versailles's bedchamber in the waking appeared.

But she seemed more solid, more real this time.

"A family reunion, what fun!" The Spider-Queen extended her arms and she grinned. "What a shame you didn't invite me."

Brambles and vines broke through the ground and ensnared them—Layla, Pirlipat, Coppelius, Delphine, Akira—and Sorrel.

They screamed, and Gwynn reached for her sister—but she was taken up, out of her reach.

When the vines reached their apex, the bodies went limp and Gwynn feared the worst. Then she saw it, the rise and fall of their chests.

They were sleeping.

Before the relief could truly wash over her, the vines and brambles vanished—along with everyone inside.

"No!" Gwynn cried. She made to lunge at the Queen, only for Versailles to hold her back.

"You forget my power." The Spider-Queen grinned. "Now with all of them out of the way, Ondrina is mine! No one will pose a threat to me, relics or no without that silly Prince of Light!"

"What about us?" Gwynn demanded. "Aren't we a threat to you?"

"Admittedly, yes." The Spider-Queen tilted her head. "But I felt like sparing you."

"Why are you sparing us?" Versailles frowned. "It doesn't make sense."

Something in the Spider-Queen's expression shifted. Something sad. "I was in love once, too. His name was Siegfried. He was taken from me. My family took him away. I don't want the same for you. Consider it my last gift—and a goodbye, cousin."

"Wait!" Gwynn screamed, hands outstretched.

But as quickly as she had appeared, the Spider-Queen was gone.

She fell to her knees. Versailles was quick to join her side. He held her as she cried—she thought he cried too. She didn't know for how long. Her mind was a-storm with guilt, fear, all of the emotions she tried so hard to suppress, so hard to avoid. But she could not flee them. Not now.

In them, as the light came down on them, as the sun returned to Kells, she came to a moment of clarity.

Gwynn would not sit around, feeling sorry for herself or afraid. She rose to her feet and dusted herself off.

Versailles remained on the ground, but tilted his head at her. "What are you doing?"

"What has to be done." Gwynn pressed her lips thinly together. "What I've always done. I have to fix this."

"No, you don't." He scrambled to his feet. "Gwynn, listen, you saw what she just did. She granted us a mercy—we should take it."

He drew closer, reached for her hands, but she kept them close to her heart. She shook her head sadly.

"I have to rescue her." Gwynn looked at him pleadingly. "She's my sister. And you said it yourself—the Queen's afraid of me!"

Such an idea made her want to laugh, spoken aloud. For who could be afraid of a little mouse?

Versailles considered it. She could see it in his face, the way his eyebrows knitted together and he squinted, taking survey of the situation. And with it, that light returned to his eyes, even fiercer than before.

"I'll help you," he said. "I don't know if it can be done, and I'm still afraid. But I believe in you."

That was all that they needed.

"Come on." Gwynn took his hand. "I can't pilot the East Sun alone."