Cursed

After she left, Quinn sighed in relief as Apogee responded, "I've heard rumors that the King and Queen adopted a human child and gave her the title of princess. I thought that it was just a nasty rumor, but it was true... Yet, she's quite modest. Nothing like the other humans we've faced before."

Quinn smacked him lightly on the head with the pole of his spear and responded, "Of course not. As far as we know, the king and queen only allowed two humans in Faeland and the princess is the only one with authority and the love of both the king and queen. As she recovered from her tragic history, she immediately started taking classes and doing all she could to help her new homeland and the royal family. Rumor has it that the king and queen wanted to name her crown princess, but she refused the title or right to the throne. She only accepted the title of princess. She's very talented and powerful, but very modest and harsh on herself."

Quinn shook his head and sighed, "When I first arrived last year, one of her fairy caretakers were kidnapped by some human nobles to be auctioned off. She left with the goal to save her caretaker, crash the venue, and come back unscathed. When she returned, the caretaker was unharmed and the illegal auction came to light attracting the attention of the country's leaders. All who attended was caught red-handed but the princess returned with serious injuries on her body. She only shared the news with the king, though. She was afraid that her injuries would distract the queen from her negotiations with the Selphies during that period of time and, according to her retainer, it was a very difficult discussion. After that, we learned that someone from this school helped her escape with her life intact and she agreed to stay here to recuperate in case others try to pursue her, but don't tell anyone about this. If not because of our blood relation, I wouldn't have told you about this."

"I know, Uncle. Still, that is amazing..." Apogee said in awe, "Do you think, if I trained hard enough, I might be able to serve as her guard?"

"I don't know about that." Quinn responded with a frown, "I had heard from Pyro that the princess plans to return to her birth world."

"Return why?" Apogee questioned with a look of shock, "Does it have to do with her sickness?"

Quinn shook his head, "It was very vague, but I suspect that those who abandoned her as an infant actually is pursuing her for her life. So, she plans to return to settle the matter herself. If there's one thing the palace knows for certain, it's that the princess is not one to take other's kindness for granted. The king and queen are one of the few important people who saved her. So, they are family to her. This kingdom and their safety are more important to her than her birthworld, it seems. So settling the matter once and for all is the only way. The queen and king believes that it sadly won't end without bloodshed since those who abandoned her was wicked enough to harm a baby."

"I've heard of that tale before, but I didn't think it would actually be true..." Apogee sighed sadly, "The princess is so young and she already has to face so much danger in life. I guess we can only pray that she returns safely."

"Yes." Quinn patted his nephew's shoulder sadly, "So, let's pray that she has a safe journey and will return unharmed."

Upon entering the venue, she was met with a venue of green grass lawn perfectly cut over the stone pavement that should've lead to the small bridges over the aqueducts and entrances. Flowers adorned the trees and sides of the pavement as she continued to walk down the path of green grass. Aside from the metal and mirror structure of the building, this reminded her greatly of Faeland. She quickly followed the trail of mana to find Aqua still busy instructing the craft fairies the next steps. Seeing this, she waited until she was done before approaching her, "Aqua."

"Pr-prin-!" She closed her mouth and quickly hovered over in her minature size form then whispered quietly, "What is the princess doing here?!"

"Aqua, is Pyro with dad right now?"

The water fairy nodded her head, "That's correct. Does milady need anything?"

Lotus nodded, "What did mother say about the magic stone?"

"She still doesn't know about it." Aqua sighed, "Maisey and I have been trying to notify her, but, everytime we did, the queen gets groggy and sleepy."

"Then, forget about it." Lotus shook her head, "The next couple of days is crucial to the event. Nothing can go wrong. However, I'm afraid that someone already dares to tamper with the event."

"But we already expected that the students will-"

"It's not just the students." Lotus responded.

"However, spring is a very important season to all living creatures in this world. The starting of spring is controlled by us, fairies. Spring also brings new life, food and resources onto the land. Who would dare to tamper with the event?" Aqua questioned in confusion.

The fairy gala was an event that brings the season of spring. Without it, there would be no spring and everyone would starve for the year until the next chance arrive in the next year. If the event ever turned into a disaster, it would become chaos across the world!

"That's right." Lotus nodded with a frown as she folded her arms, "Aqua, think about it. Aside from the humans and living beings in this world that depends of Spring and the fairies who are loyal to the queen and seeking entertainment from the gala. Who else could care less about either of those things?"

"There shouldn't be anyone." Aqua shook her head with a frown, "Everyone in this world depends on the coming of Spring. To not care about it is to not care about this world and their life... Eh, wait... You don't mean..."

"When did mother start to show symptoms of grogginess?" Lotus questioned with a scowl.

"Shortly after arriving to the school." Aqua responded, "At first, Maisey and I suspected that she require time to adapt to the environment so we brushed it off. When we brought the magic stone, she was very entranced by it too, but there was nothing so special about it to us."

"Her complexion? Loss of appetite?"

Aqua nodded, "Lately, the queen seemed to have lost a bit of her shine and has trouble eating the fruits you've sent us. It wasn't a big deal at first and we assumed that it was due to stress, but, just yesterday, she suddenly didn't want to eat fruits and seemed rather irritated. In the end, she only managed a bite."

"It's very likely a curse." Lotus scowled angrily as they could feel the cold air raising, "Damn it! Since they couldn't get me, they dare lay a hand on mother..."

"P-P-Princess! Calm yourself!" Aqua panicked as she quickly whispered, "There are too many fairies here. Everyone will notice your presence..."

Lotus took a deep breath as she could feel the air temperature raise again. Breathing a sigh of relief, Aqua questioned her curiously, "Princess, do you know who could cause this curse? The queen is such a powerful fae. It's not that simple to curse her to this state."

Lotus sighed, "The reason I came today was because I felt that my pursuers were too quiet these past few weeks. According to my people, there has been no movement from them."

"Is that really bad?" Aqua raised a brow.

Lotus frowned, "It's not bad, but it's also not very good. It could also mean that they are either planning something or waiting for something."

"Were they planning this the entire time?" Aqua hesitated.

Lotus shook her head, "How could they? In this world, we have the home advantage when it comes to knowledge. How could they know to strike where it matters the most? I suspect that they overheard about the situation from the school headmaster when we first took the magic stone. Spring brings more resources. Take away spring and..."

"And we lose our source of resources!" Aqua gasped in horror and scowled, "Do they not care for other people's life?!"

"According to one of their defects, they are a community of assassins for hire. It didn't matter who is involved as long as they got the job done and reap the rewards." Lotus frowned, "So senseless killers. I should've placed a protective barrier over the garden before mother's arrival but now that's too late. So the only option is to break the curse. Problem is... I don't know how."

"You don't?"

"I've checked mother's mana trail on my way inside. It's tainted by something akin to blot. But I've seen this before. The culprit is an evil cultivator." Lotus frowned, "Evil Cultivators are cultivators that diverged from the path of cultivation of natural laws. One example is bring back life to the dead, creating undead beings or messing with corpses. These are against the natural law and are taboo. Cultivators can be surrounded by dead bodies of cultivators but they aren't allowed to use the bodies or anything ghastly to it to proceed in their practice or they could become tainted by the blot and turn their bodies' aura similar to that of a blot phantom. To bring them back on the right track is no easy task. It requires one in a million types of luck to achieve that. So for us, it's a path of no return unlike overblot where knocking them out is enough to save them."