The clock chimed nine.

It always did that, all the time, regardless of the hour.

Right now, it meant that Lux was late.

She ran through the empty hallway that seemed to go on forever, decked with dozens of paintings that seemed to watch her as she moved. The floors were slippery, making it difficult to run, and every window she passed by shone bright light in her face, making it hard to see. Finally, she reached doors twice her size, painted navy blue and adorned with gold handles. Lux swallowed hard before throwing them open.

And there she laid.

Her mother.

Her hair, as grey as storm clouds, billowed out behind her, with eyes like rubies and skin as smooth as silk. She wore a beautiful red dress, layered to perfection, and sat upon a golden throne as she looked down at her oldest daughter.

Her mother had told her that she was a queen. Which, she supposed, made Lux a princess.

"Lux." Her mother's voice was like a chill in the air. "You're late."

"Uh, well..." Lux played with her hair while she thought of an excuse. She didn't want her mother to know she had gotten caught up playing with the mirth again, as her mother would much rather she improve her swordsmanship or magic, for example.

Eventually, Lux thought of an excuse and beamed at her mother. "I was playing with Aurelia and Mer-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, because in a flash of light, her mother was down from her throne and pinching her cheeks.

"Lux Junia Callis! It would be wise not to lie to your own mother; I just saw Aurelia and Merce a minute ago! The fact that I just saw them raises even more questions!" She let go of Lux's cheeks and put her hands on her hips.

"Didn't I tell you to gather all of your siblings?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lux didn't know what to say then, seeing as her lie had obviously fallen short. Instead, she made an "err..." sound.

Her mother sighed and returned to her throne. "It would be quicker if you used your connection and told them all to come here." She crossed her legs and rested her head on her arm.

Lux and her siblings had something called "the connection." They weren't sure exactly what caused it, as it wasn't like other magic, but it was something their family had always had. In fact, her mother had the same connection with her aunt. The connection allowed all her siblings to communicate in their heads without even being near each other. Her mother said that the connection would work differently outside the castle, but Lux had no idea if that was true. She couldn't go outside, after all.

A slow grin spread across Lux's face as she looked her mother in the eyes. "But dear mother, finding them is the fun part!"

Her mother chuckled at her declaration. "Off with you then." She used her hand to shoo her away, and Lux set off with a bounce.

✦✦✦

Lux navigated the labyrinth that was her home, Adamas Palace, nicknamed the Sword on a Cushion of Stars. Lux knew this palace even better than she knew the map of her face and in turn was well-acquainted with its twists, traps, and where everyone would be.

First on her list: Aurelia and Merce, her youngest siblings, both aged five. As twins, they were always together, despite getting along as well as a cat would with a dog. Her mother had said she had just seen them, so that meant... Aha! She had them now. One would assume they'd be in their playroom, a repurposed music room tailored just for them. Every time Lux thought of that room, she shed a tear inside. She and her siblings had slaved away painting the walls and moving Aurelia and Merce's toys from their bedrooms upstairs, but they scarcely used the room. Instead...

Lux turned a corner to find a crack in the wall, attempted to be covered by a fluttering sheet of brown fabric. She sucked in a breath and climbed in, finding her younger brother and sister sitting on upside-down pails. Instead of using their playroom, Aurelia and Merce preferred to play in this empty space decorated with cobwebs in a random wall. It frustrated Lux to no end. She would have loved a personal playroom separate from her bedroom when she was little.

"Auri, Merce, what are you doing?" Lux crossed her arms and tried to look intimidating. Her mother had been telling her to get them to stop playing here, but they didn't care to listen. Rayne was the one they always obeyed. Once the little boy and girl noticed Lux in the room, they both brightened and jumped on her.

"Luuuxxx!" Aurelia slung her arms around her as she cried. "Merce's being mean to me. He said we could play my game after ten minutes, but he's saying we still have five minutes! But it's been ten!"

"Nuh-uh! It's been five; I've been counting!" Merce shouted from her other shoulder.

Lux sucked in a breath and set them both down. "Auri, Merce, do you know how many seconds there are in a minute?"

"Sixteen!" "Sixty!" they both replied simultaneously.

"See, Merce is right, Auri, which means you've been playing for five minutes." Lux lectured them with a smile. It was cute to see them arguing like this.

Tears started to well in Aurelia's eyes, and she covered her face with her dirt-covered sleeve. "B-but..."

"Don't worry; it doesn't matter anyway." She patted their heads. "Mother's calling us. She has been for the past few minutes."

"R-really!?" They both said together again.

"Yes, she's been expecting you both for a while now. If you don't hurry, she's most likely going to be extremely mad..."

They both rushed to collect their toys and dashed toward the exit. "W-we'll go now." Merce trembled, and as they both left for the throne room, Lux was sure she heard "If she's mad at us, it's all your fault!" echo down the hallway.

Lux chuckled to herself. Too easy. Two down, six to go.

Next, it would be best to look for Luther. He should be around here at this time of day.

The twins' hole in the wall was near their playroom, so they could easily transport their toys without much trouble. Seeing as the playroom used to be a music room, it was next to the many other music rooms on this floor of the castle. Many years ago, when there were other people in the castle besides her family, the music rooms were open for anyone to use. It's where many hidden artists discovered their patrons, according to her mother.

Lux raced down the hall, past the playroom, and around a corner until she started to hear the hum of a piano. She had definitely got him now. The trick for finding Luther was to simply follow the sound of music. She finally arrived at a grand door and pushed it open to find him sitting at the piano.

He was completely lost in the melody, pressing the keys without a care in the world.

I wonder how long he's been doing this, Lux thought to herself. Luther sometimes spent an unhealthy amount of time playing the piano, especially for a boy who was only twelve.

Luther finished his piece and snapped his head up to find Lux watching him.

"Oh, do you need something, Lux?"

"Nothing important. Play another piece for me." She flopped down on the nearest sofa and stretched, allowing herself a moment to rest.

"But if it's something important..." Luther hesitated and put his hand on the piano.

"Are you questioning your big sister?" Lux stared at him so hard it could have pierced his soul. Luther flinched and put his hands back on the keys. "Uh, of course not."

"Then play, Luther." She swung her leg and closed her eyes.

Luther started to play another piece, one he used to play with their father every time there was something worth celebrating. Lux nearly fell asleep, but the music soon came to a halt, and Luther snapped his head up again, as if he had forgotten that Lux was even there.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" He stood up and closed the lid of the piano.

"Oh, yeah, mother has been calling you." Lux jumped up from the sofa and started fiddling with the strings of a harp. "What?! Really! Why didn't you... You should've!" Luther continued sputtering all the way down the hall until Lux couldn't hear him anymore.

Another one down. Maybe she could make a new record.

Next, she should go and look for Kaia, but finding her was always quite tricky. Kaia spent equal time in her bedroom and the ballroom, so it was always a gamble. But seeing as the stairs were right outside this music room, which would lead directly to her room, it was a gamble Lux was willing to take.

Lux bolted up the stairs, not wanting to waste any time if Kaia wasn't there. Not bothering to knock, she threw open the doors to Kaia's completely baby blue bedroom. And in the middle...

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Lux almost fell over laughing. Not only did she find Kaia, but also her brother, Arden, and they were both wearing bright pink ballerina dresses.

"ARDEN!" Kaia screeched at the top of her lungs. "YOU POINT YOUR TOES. POINT. THEM." Her eyes found Lux's, and she visibly calmed down. "Oh, Lux, is there something you need?"

Arden turned around and looked at Lux as if she were a deity, before rushing up to her and nearly starting to cry. "Lux! Save me, please! She wanted me to return a favour, but I would never have agreed if I had known this was what she wanted!"

Lux almost burst out laughing again. Kaia often tricked Arden into doing things like this. One would think he'd have learned by now. Kaia and Arden were both fifteen, though they weren't twins; they had been born in the same year, which often made Lux wonder what on earth her parents were doing. Since they were the same age, Kaia often picked on Arden, despite him being the older one. Lux would stop it, but the situations it led to were too funny, especially since Kaia loved dancing and Arden often got caught up in her crazy routines.

"Don't worry, dear brother. I'm here to save you." Lux patted him on the shoulder and smiled at Kaia. "Kaia, you and Arden need to go see Mother downstairs. She's waiting for you."

"Oh goodness, I'd better go." Kaia brushed off her tutu and headed toward the door. "Hurry up, Arden." She didn't spare a second glance at Lux as she left. "Oh, well, uh, I should leave too. Thanks, sister." Arden didn't even bother to take off the tutu before he left.

As Lux watched them leave, she thought about how she was convinced she'd make a new personal record today, as she only needed to find Vivianne, Lyra, and Rayne. She decided to find Vivianne next, but she'd have to go all the way to the gardens. Well, nothing a little magic couldn't fix.

Lux looked out the window of Kaia's room. On the ground lay a gigantic basket, three times her size. It was a passion project of Vivianne's, but Aurelia and Merce had ruined it with paint they had found. Vivianne had then abandoned the project and left it in view from Kaia's room. Kaia claimed it annoyed her to no end, but she hadn't actually attempted to move it. Lux was glad she hadn't, because it meant she could do this.

She swung open the window and held her hands up to summon a large pool of water before dropping it into the basket. Then, holding her breath, Lux jumped, and she landed with a plop. She kicked her legs and swam to the top. Magic was fun if you used it right.

Climbing out of the basket, Lux used her magic to dry her clothes and continued to survey the garden in hopes of finding Vivianne. Despite it permanently being autumn, Vivianne always persisted in painting outside. She did always make stellar paintings in the end.

Lux continued through the garden, around a hedge, and under a tree...

And there was her little sister Vivianne, age eleven. "Vivi!" Lux called out to her. Vivianne turned to face her with angry eyes; she didn't like being disturbed while painting. "What do you want?" Lux pouted; Vivi could be such a downer sometimes. "Well, Mother's calling you." Vivianne got up from her painting and vanished back into the palace without a second glance at Lux.

Lux sighed and went back into the palace. Next on her list was Lyra. Lyra was a bookworm, so she would be in the library. In fact, she was so much of a bookworm that Lux often found her sleeping there. Lyra often ranted about the strangest things, and despite being only fourteen, Lux often felt like Lyra was smarter than her.

Eventually, Lux arrived at a colossal door, almost as big as the one for the throne room. She walked in and immediately started coughing. The dust from the books was worse than ever since there were no servants to clean them, and no one wanted to do it themselves, as the library was one of the biggest rooms in the castle.

Thankfully, Lux didn't have to look far, as she spotted a familiar clump of blonde hair on a table. Lyra was the only one of her siblings who had inherited blonde hair from their father. The rest had dark grey hair, like their mother's.

She walked across the room to Lyra and peeked at the book she was reading:

'The Capital City of Flei- Polemus'

This was one of those instances where Lux felt like Lyra was smarter than her. She had no idea what Polemus was, but she knew it had something to do with the outside world, at the very least.

With a quick roll of her shoulders, Lux tapped Lyra on the head.

"Where—what—who?" Lyra sputtered as she awoke.

"Good morning, my dear sleepyhead. I'm not sure if you'll care much with all your oh-so-important books, but Mother is calling if you'd like to go." Lux teased as she brushed Lyra's hair with her hand.

"Oh Lord! I'll go, thanks for waking me, Lux." Lyra closed her book and took it with her to the throne room.

Lux sighed; she was pretty much done now. Rayne would be in the same place he always was, which was no fun. When it came to her other siblings, the time of day would determine where they were, but Rayne stayed in one place.

Lux made her way to the training yard, humming a tune in her head as she switched from marble floor to rock. Eventually, she arrived and was about to call out to her brother, but he spoke to her first, despite being in the middle of a routine with his sword.

"Do you have a new record today?" he said between lunges.

Lux grinned. Her brother, her only older sibling and crown prince, knew that when she went to find all her siblings—the "sibling hunt," she called it—she would always come to him last. It just felt right to finish with the oldest.

"Yeah, I did it in around ten minutes." Her slowest ever was three hours, on a day when all her siblings had decided to play hide and seek without telling her, using the whole castle for their game. Well, not Rayne; he was always at the training yard.

"Good job." He stabbed the nearest dummy through the heart. She didn't know why he trained so hard, seeing as there was no one he needed to fight. "So, I'm going to guess that Mother wants us, right?"

"Mhm."

"Well, wait here. I need to get changed." And he hurried off behind the old shed.

Whenever Lux finished the sibling hunt, she walked back with Rayne to wherever they were going. It was great to have a moment of calm after running around in a panic.

"Alright, let's get going." He came out just as he pulled a shirt over his head, and they walked together while Lux described the sibling hunt to him. He chuckled when she told him about Aurelia and Merce's argument, Kaia and Arden's dance routine, and how Lyra had fallen asleep in the library. Rayne was a stoic person, but he did adore his siblings.

They were still talking when they reached the doors of the throne room. They opened them to find their mother looking down at them. All their siblings were sitting in a straight line, as if being disciplined.

"Ah, Rayne, Lux, you're finally here. Now we can begin."

They both sat down next to Lyra, and Lux started to play with her hair again.

"Lux, you had fun on your quest, I hope?" Their mother looked down at her with her piercing eyes, the same ones that Lux had inherited, though they didn't seem to have the same effect on people.

"Yes, Mother. I set a new high score today." Lux was proud of herself; she had been aiming for a new best for a while now.

"Good, good..." Her mother's eyes returned to the others. "Children, you may be wondering why I called you all here." Her mother's voice was strong and resolute. "I, hmm..." That was strange; her mother never stumbled over her words. "I have something to ask of you: do you want to go outside?"

Outside? O—outside? Lux's mind was reeling. When she was one and Rayne was three, her family had been sealed away in the palace. The rest of her siblings had never even set foot outside before. Lux was sure that Aurelia and Merce thought that the outside was a myth. Lux barely remembered the outside herself, but she had faint memories of... noise.

Lux looked at the rest of her siblings. Rayne had clearly stiffened, and the rest had various stages of shock painted on their faces.

"Soon it will be possible," her mother continued, looking at Rayne and Lux. "Rayne and Lux, I am assigning you a task."

Me and Rayne?! Lux panicked internally; she wasn't sure what this task was going to entail.

"You and Rayne will train for two months, then I will give you the chance to leave this palace and find out what has been trapping us for all this time."

Lux couldn't believe what she was hearing. Leave? The palace? The thought had never even occurred to her. She believed she would die in this palace without ever meeting a soul she wasn't related to.

Suddenly Lyra piped up. "Mother, may I go too?"

Their mother raised an eyebrow at this request. "Really, Lyra?"

"Yes, my knowledge would be valuable on this quest." Lyra clearly wanted to go outside very much, seeing as she read about it all the time, but Lux was against it. When it came down to it: Lyra couldn't harm a fly. She wouldn't be safe.

"Mother, may I object to Lyra's request?" Lux asked. Lyra seemed shocked at first, but then her expression changed to one that showed she had been expecting this.

"Oh, why do you object, Lux?" Her mother raised her eyebrow even higher.

"Because... she isn't made for things like this." Lux whispered reluctantly.

"Hmm." Her mother looked up as if contemplating it.

"Lyra, you can go."

Lyra's face lit up. "Really!?"

Lux interjected again. "But she—"

"No 'buts.' I am your mother, and your queen." Her look made it clear that the decision was final.

Lux frowned. Her mother was the queen of what, she didn't know.

"I gathered you all here as you should all know about your siblings' departure." Her mother addressed the rest of her siblings again. "And it's almost lunchtime. Go and set the table."

A few of them groaned, but they all left the room one by one, until only Lyra, Rayne, and Lux remained. They also started to head for the door, but their mother stopped them. "There is more to this quest, but I will provide the rest of the details at a later time." They all nodded and left for the dining room, their minds filled with many thoughts.

✦✦✦

They didn't need to do much to set the table, as it set itself every day. No one ever saw the table set itself, though. Once, Lux camped in the dining room to see if it would still set itself if she was there. It did not, and lunch was late that day, resulting in Lux getting her ear pulled.

Even though the table set itself, it had the same food every day, and although lunch was always a banquet, one could get sick of the same food. However, in the garden lay a mini farm with tons of vegetables and fruits. If you harvested them, they'd regrow in a week, and her siblings often used them to make dishes from cookbooks.

Making food together was usually fun, but today it was tense. Everyone was surely thinking about the quest that Lux, Rayne, and Lyra would embark on. As Lux peeled potatoes, Lyra came over to her.

"I wonder why we're trapped in this palace," she whispered while chopping carrots.

"I've never thought about it much; I don't really care for going outside," Lux said with as much enthusiasm as a tortoise.

"Hm." Lyra looked up as if she could see something only she could.

✦✦✦

Lux stared up at the ceiling of her room.

Outside, in two months, she was going outside.

And she'd have to find what was trapping them here.

It was too much, and she needed to sleep it off, but the stress was keeping her awake.

That's when she heard a voice in her head.

"Waaa." The voice of Aurelia rang through her mind. This was common, as sometimes Aurelia and Merce couldn't differentiate between speaking in their own heads and speaking in the heads of others.

"What's wrong, Auri?" Silence, but then:

"I don't want you guys to go..."

"Don't worry, it'll be alright, Auri. We'll return, and you can go outside. Don't you want to leave the palace?"

"I guess..."

"Good, sleep now. I'm sure you're disturbing everyone else."

Lux rolled over, and just as she closed her eyes:

"Could you all come to my room?" Aurelia's voice pleaded in her head. She often asked this, and each time Lux didn't know how to say no.

"Okay, Auri, I'm on my way." Lux threw off her covers and made her way to Aurelia's bedroom.

"I'll come too!" Merce's voice echoed through her mind.

"If I come, will you all be quiet!?" Vivianne complained.

"I guess I have to come then. Arden, if you don't come, I'll tell them all about—"

"No! It's okay, I'll come! Hehe..." Arden cut Kaia off anxiously.

"I'll go as well." Luther said, not wanting to be left out.

"I'm already on my way." Lyra said with a perfectly awake voice; maybe she had been reading.

Rayne didn't say anything, but Lux knew he would come anyway. That's how it went every time this happened.

Lux opened the door to Aurelia's room, where Aurelia was sitting up in bed, clutching the blankets and waiting for everyone to arrive.

"Do you have room for one more?" Lux chuckled and jumped on the bed, causing Aurelia to smile in return.

Eventually, everyone arrived, one by one, until they were all squashed together in Aurelia's bright pink bed.

Lux had been troubled just a few minutes ago, but on nights like these, with the rest of her siblings, she felt safe and at peace. It wasn't long at all until she fell into a restful sleep.