Chapter 28

I woke up to someone tapping on my door politely. As I went to roll out of my bed, I ended up doing a somersault, because I had an asian bed. My heel banged on the ground before i had time to stop myself, and I bit my lip to keep from swearing vehemently. The downey covers that I had used last night were promptly kicked off, revealing my bruised legs. Everything hurt, now including my heel, but I lept to my feet anyways.

Another round of polite tapping. “One moment, please!” I replied, while trying to not sound like I was in exasperated pain.

I finally managed to pull myself to my feet, and rush to the door. “Hey, what’s-” I began, and broke off as I saw who it was. Guess who?

Guards. Lot’s of guards- just what I didn’t need. (Okay five guards, but still.) Two girls, three guys.

“So, um, is there another challenge? And a reason for you being here?” I laughed nervously, ruffling my navy-blue  and silver hair on the back of my head ‘casually’. None of the guards broke their impassive faces, so I let my apprehensive giggles fade. I swallowed, and straightened in the doorway. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

The head honcho- out of the five guards that stood outside the door- cleared his throat. “Stella Lyra, we have orders to call you in for questioning about your whereabouts last night.”

I rolled my eyes. “Can I get dressed?” I gestured down at the simple shorts and t-shirt I had slept in.

The girl standing next to the head honcho nodded curtly, cutting him off. He looked like he definitely didn’t agree with her, but let her talk anyways. “Five minutes. Go for it.”

I nodded gratefully, and shut the door behind me. She may have given me five minutes, but I could easily get ready in three. Thankfully, I had a ton of experience from when Da pounded at my door in the morning. As the memory resurfaced, a stray tear slipped down my cheek. I wiped it away hastily, and quickened my movements.

Before long, my door was open to the five guards again. “Man, is this deja vu or what?” I said jokingly.

The woman that had allowed me to get dresses offered a thin smile. “We have orders; joking around isn’t one of them.”

I dropped the attitude and stepped out of the room. “And about what happened last night, I already told-”

“Tell it to the investigators.” They moved into a pentagon formation around me without a hint of hesitation.

I wiped beads of sweat off, right onto my trousers. My heart was racing, pumping blood as fast as it could. I took a deep breath to steady myself as we moved forwards- there wasn’t any use freaking out. If they did, they would think I had something to hide, and that definitely couldn’t be good.

They paraded me through as many hallways, courtyards, and other people-filled places as possible. Finally, after the gawks of what had to be hundreds, if not thousands, of people, I was led into the barest room I had ever seen. It looked like it had been carved out of a single piece of coarse, dull, gray stone. There was a spartan metal table, as well as two chairs. On the back wall was a mirror. Basically, an interrogation room. I was willing to bet an arm and a leg that the glass pane was a two-way mirror, and that Feidlimid was on the other side of it.

Anyways, no one sat in either of the seats, so I figured I was in for a bit of a wait. I turned to the female guard that I had pretty much been speaking to exclusively. “Should I?...” I gestured towards the closest chair.

She jerked her head towards the farthest chair. “That one, not this one.”

I nodded. “Cool.” I plopped into my seat. “So, what are my rights?” I asked as she and the four other guards turned to leave.

She didn’t warrant my question with an answer, nor did any of the other guards.

“Lovely,” I muttered. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, trying my hardest to appear nonchalant. Sure, I had never been the best actress, but I could perform when I needed to.

In case it wasn’t blatantly obvious, I needed to perform right now.

I tapped my foot, waiting for someone to show up. Hopefully, I wasn’t in trouble for being nice to Planeto, but you never knew with new people. At that moment, a man walked in. He was about as unremarkable as they come; average hair, average eyes, average height. Really, there wasn’t anything impressive or threatening about him at all.

My first instinct was to relax, but as he walked to the chair closest to the door, I began to think- if he wasn’t impressive physically and he belonged here, then he had to have some other talent or attribute that made him a good interrogator, right? Now, I was on my toes, ready for everything this guy was going to throw at me.

He smiled at me as he took a seat. “Hello, Stella. My name is Drew. I have a few questions for you regarding the events that occurred last night. Is it true that you saw,” he looked at a few papers that he had brought with him into the interrogation room, “a dragon that called itself-”

“Himself,” I muttered. I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Continue, please.”

He looked up at me. “As I was saying, is it true that you saw a dragon that called himself Planeto, and a witch named”, he gulped when he read the name, “Maleficent?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Want me to tell you about it?” I asked sincerely.

He looked over his shoulder warily, then the rest of the room. He leaned in closer to me. He nodded almost imperceptibly.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Well, I left my room to find something to decorate my room with. The walls are white, and the furniture is brown; no way in hell am I living with that for the next few months. Eventually, I came to the Egyptian section of whatever this place is- what is this place called, anyways?”

He shrugged. “A place of learning; the name does not really matter all that much. All that matters is what our guests and residents learn while they are here. Please, continue.”

“Anyways, I had gone to the Egyptian section to find what I was looking for. I had come across a small passageway that I had come across. Looking back, it was the kind of creepy hallway that a typical horror-movie victim damsel-in-distress, but I went down it anyways. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, and the walls covered in cobwebs…” I continued to tell the average guy about what happened.

At the end of my telling, he was gaping at me, and I was consciously trying to keep a smug smirk off of my face. “So, do you believe me?”

He cleared his throat. “Well, here’s the thing- Maleficent is the child of the Maeve before the last.”

“Ah.”

“Yes, I know. She was, arguably, the greatest Maeve to ever win the Maeve Trials, and by far the best Maeve there has ever been. In my opinion. Anyhow, she had one child with a warrior of her army. We don’t know the identity of said warrior is unknown for this reason- Maeve, due to political tension that was worse than bad, had sent the child to live in the realm of non-magic. Some call it the Above, the Below, whatever.”

“Where I came from- like the reality to Wonderland.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s a good way to put it.” He snuck a glance at me. “Odd that you put it that way, but it works. Mind you, you shouldn’t use those analogies; you are with the Legends, not the Tales. Anyway, Maleficent grew up in the Above, and one day was selected to be the next Athena. She lost the Trial, and became disillusioned. However, there was a very handsome young man that did win another recent title- that of Thor. He swept her away, like Prince Charming. The new Sif resented that she had to put up with his lover. Thor is not allowed to have lovers, except for residents of the Above. Thor, so taken with Maleficent, decided to abandon the Legends, recruiting those who were also of the same opinion. Collectively, they abandoned the Federation of Legends and created their own kingdom.”

I gasped, pulling a cliche face of surprise. “You mean, she-”

“Ex-act-ly,” he said, stressing every syllable. “Over time, they gained more land, more followers, until they were there own sovereign nation. One night, Sif become so consumed by jealousy that she attempted to kill Maleficent, but in doing so, missed her mark and killed her Thor instead. Maleficent, being maddened by grief, vowed to never let another Legend step foot in the Tales. She killed Sif on the spot, then stuck her head on a spike with a formal declaration. Maleficent vowed that she would one day convert every Legend into a Tale. Ever since then, nigh on three hundred years now, there has been a rift between the two.”

“So Maleficent being here spells bad news?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s quite foreboding. Now for those questions…” he flipped through his papers, looking through sheets of smooth, unwrinkled paper. “Well, it would seem that you account of that night covered all of these questions,” he said, sounding oddly disappointed.

I chuckled. “Look, I know you want more gossip, but that’s all I have.” There had been one thing that I had left out- the dragon's-teeth daggers. They had seemed pretty powerful, and I trusted them with a dragon, not the Fae, nor any other intelligent being. I was too new here to trust anyone. Well, everyone except Tam and Orenda. The thought pulled a smile to my face.

The interrogator tried to look nonchalant, but anyone with half a brain could tell that he was itching to ask me more. Finally he sighed and got up. “You’re good to go. Do you want me to send a guard with you?”

I shook my head, eager to get off and digest what she had said. “No, that’s fine.”

He opened the door for me, and I zoomed away as fast as I could, eager to bring this information to Orenda as soon as possible.