The next day.

Castiel didn’t practice in the morning as usual. He slowly got up from the bed so that he wouldn't disturb Amelia who was again sleeping by his side. He silently exited the room and started decorating the house with lights and sparkles. He closed all the windows in the living room so the morning light doesn’t bleed in. Around 7 in the morning, Mei showed up with a cake. They set up the cake in the middle of the room. Inserted a candle in the shape of “5” into the cake and lit it. The room was absolutely dark now except from the faint light from the one candle on the cake.

Castiel approached his room silently and knocked on the doors. He kept knocking till he heard the rustling of sheets. As soon as he knew that Amelia awoke, he dashed to his hiding place. Mei was already hiding somewhere.

Amelia exited the room still half-asleep.

“Brother?” She was shocked by the darkness in the room. She thought it would be morning now since her brother was not sleeping. The candle in the darkness shifted her focus away. She approached the cake sleepily with every step robbing her sleep away.

As soon as she was within a foot of the cake, the decorative lights turned on automatically. They also illuminated the nearby sparkles.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMELIA!!!” Castiel and Mei jumped from their hiding places and shouted. The sudden drama scared Amelia a little but she soon understood what was going on and also started jumping in excitement. They both each held a hand of Amelia started a little dance. Her laughter melted their hearts.

After the cake cutting ceremony, it was time for presents. Mei opened a luxurious gold box. Inside were two identical rings. The ring’s body was pitch black, contrary to what one might expect to be inside a box so luxurious. But the stones inlaid in the rings were absolutely gorgeous. They were triangular tourmalines. While rubies are used more for one time inscription uses, tourmalines can be infused with incomprehensible amounts of mana to use the same inscription countless times before it breaks.

“This is a link ring. It is for two closest people. The wearer of one ring can listen to the pulse of the wearer of another ring. The ring’s body is made from an alloy of deep sea obsidian and reinforced mithril, almost indestructible. The ring cannot be removed without the wish of its wearer.” Mei explained to Castiel as she put the ring on Amelia’s finger. Even though the ring looked comically large compared to Amelia’s finger, it automatically resized itself to fit her finger.

“This is for you, Cass.” Mei handed the other ring to him. As Castiel put the ring on his right middle finger, he couldn’t contain his emotions. He hugged her tightly and started crying silently. Being away from Amelia even for only a few hours, always gave him anxiety. Amelia didn’t understand what was going on but she also hugged them both and started giggling.

“This is soooooo pretty. Thank you big sister.” She was enamored by the way light refracted from the tourmaline.

“I won’t ask how much this cost. I won’t say thank you either. But except for my life, anything you want, it’s yours, forever.” After a few seconds, he calmed down.

“You are a big boy now. Stop the waterfall.” Mei was a little embarrassed by his sudden burst of emotions. Castiel is never one to show emotions.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After a few moments, everything settled. Castiel wiped his tears away and brought out his gift to Amelia. He loosened his collar and removed the necklace he always wore. It was a silver necklace with an amulet. The amulet looked worn down. It was a heart-shaped cracked ruby. He tied the necklace around Amelia’s neck and kissed her cheeks.

“Baby, when you were very little, bad guys came to hurt you. Mommy used this necklace to protect us both. This will protect you in the future too.”

“Do I have mommy? Where is mommy? Does she hate me?” She asked questions in rapid succession. Amelia did not seem happy with the present. She looked a little angry.

“No, no baby. You are the pearl in the mommy’s eyes. Given the choice, mommy would never leave you but the enemies were very powerful. Mommy had to lure the enemies away to protect us. Even now she is fighting the enemy somewhere so that they can’t harm you.”

“Is she in danger? When can I see her?” She asked expectantly. Amelia accepted the reason and kissed the amulet.

“Baby, we are very weak now. We have to become strong so that mommy doesn’t have to worry about us. If we become even stronger, we can go help her to fight the bad guys.”

“When I grow up, I will defeat all the bad guys and save mommy.” She said while raising her fists in the air. She was just a kid. She didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

.

“Anything else you want?” He asked his sister.

“I have never played hide-n-seek with both brother and sister. I want to play hide-n-seek.”

They all went out into the garden.

“Do you want to hide first or seek first?”

“Seek first. You have to hide properly this time. You always hide near me.” Amelia said while wrinkling her nose.

“Your wish is my command, my princess.” He and Mei said almost simultaneously. After a short pause, all three erupted in boisterous laughter.

“Okay count to fifty and we will hide. Only in the garden, don’t leave the garden baby.” Both he and Mei started searching for places to hide. Mei was wearing green today. She hid behind the bushes near the place she and Castiel fought yesterday, perfectly blending with it. Castiel just climbed a random tree. Amelia was standing in the middle of the garden. They both had Amelia in their vision as they saw her counting to fifty. Amelia had a big grin on her face as she was trying to peek through her fingers.

“No peeking, Ame.” Mei shouted from afar. Amelia hurriedly closed her fingers trying to act innocent.

“.

.

18

19

20

21…” Just as Amelia reached 21, overwhelming pressure engulfed the garden. Castiel and Mei were frozen in place. The same type of pressure when he felt that day but he felt even tinier now. Every cell in his body screamed to go into action but to no avail. Amelia fainted immediately from the pressure. Mei also fainted after a while. Willpower alone was keeping him awake.

A large formation covering the whole garden shone below Amelia. A black-robed humanoid instantly appeared in front of her and caught her before she dropped to the ground. Castiel tried his hardest to at least see the face of the culprit but it was covered by the same gaseous anomaly as the four culprits of that day.

Cracks appeared in the formation as a giant black hand came out of the ground from the formation. It held the humanoid and Amelia in its clutches and retreated back into whatever place it came from. The humanoid looked at Castiel’s place one final time before disappearing. He tried to scream but no sound came out of his mouth. The formation immediately crumbled after they were gone.

As soon as Amelia disappeared, exhaustion finally kicked in and he fainted too. A few minutes later Mei woke up.