Invisible (1)

(Leo)

***

"Put the damn paper down!" Inei shouted, continuing to pound on the barrier that he could not break with his weak magic. "I don't care what suspicion you have! I've kept you out because I don't want you tampering with anything, you mischievous brat!" He was exasperated, somewhere between crying and upset.

If he wanted any pity from me, he really needed to try harder. His pets in the moat would have done a better job at persuasion.

Over the edge of the letter I was scanning, I looked up at him. "You think that's gonna do anything other than breaking your hands? Just be patient. I only need a few more minutes before I put everything back."

He curled his fists so tightly that I was shocked blood didn't splatter everywhere. "I never said you could have that time in the first place!"

Whipping his head around, it seemed he would trigger vertigo in his crazed, distressed state.

"Seiji, help me open this thing!"

At the signal of the starting gun that was Inei's words, two idiots then slammed on the barrier. Shocking.

Pursing my lips, I settled somewhere between stress, joy, and passive-aggressiveness. I flipped the paper over so that I could see the indentions I had felt before. They were invisible, almost as if they were written in pencil and erased.

I was no expert in the tactile department, so I put them near the light to try to make out the various winding shapes. Their starts and stops were indistinct (which could have been chalked up to poor penmanship), and that made trying to locate individual lines like searching for the beginning and end of a pile of string in its difficulty.

Nothing could be deciphered. The bumps were tangible, but they could not be seen by the naked eye. With the incessant flailing of limbs in my peripheral vision, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold up the shield much longer without it cracking. However, it was necessary to weaken it so that I could use magic to make the memo's lines visible.

I sighed, mindful of the fact I had to time my actions well before Inei barged in. He refused to stop shouting—causing a stir around the castle and among the glass bottles—but I ignored him as much as I could. Between angry threats and proclamations, I tipped the scales of the beam balance, putting fewer fortifications on the door and illuminating the paper below me.

A mysterious, transparent ink turned lavender, and I grinned vilely as the commotion ensued outside the room.

That was it.

As I read the newly revealed words, I heard a cracking noise akin to the clinking of porcelain. Rapidly, my defenses were beginning to shatter as small chips disintegrated into nothingness. That did not pressure me, though, as I had already seen everything I needed to find.

The Moon King refused to calm down from his frenzy. "There's a reason I—"

I cut him off and wielded the paper like a scythe. "Because you didn't want me to find this. You didn't want to tell them it was your fault." I stared him down as his fist, which became scraped on the glass-like barrier, entered the room before the rest of his body. "You're a coward, but you must have known that to be acting like this."

"Then, you're also one! Nothing I've ever been told about you makes you sound courageous to me." Inei kicked through the entrance, and I knew I would have to escape soon to not face the wrath of his sturdy hands.

"Soon" had not arrived quite yet, though.

"Maybe you're right," I began decisively, "but at least, I try to change."

On the cue of a piercing smash, a thousand glossy particles dispersed throughout the archives room and wine cellar, spreading like the fluffy seeds of a dandelion except in many brilliant colors. As feisty as Inei was, that was something he could not have done with his own strength. I knew then that there was a force supporting him from behind that exceeded his capabilities.

My muscles tensed as uncertainty dawned upon me.

"Stay out of things that aren't your business. I told you that before, didn't I?" an imposing and deep voice called from beyond the door.

Algor flew into the room—oddly collected—and Inei stormed in behind him. The king did not bother moving past him, aware of the fairy's power.

Inei remained strangely quiet. I hoped it was an expression of guilt because that was merely the beginning of what he deserved.

"Oh." I glanced over at Algor, setting the paper on the floor with the flick of a wrist. "But it becomes my business when it's someone I'm close to. Did you not think touching Sinclair and Akiyoshi was a bad idea?"

Before responding, he ground his teeth together. "Shut up if you don't know Sinclair the way I know them." He stepped closer to me, and Inei—with the opaque whites of his eyes elucidating his thoughts—was visibly surprised behind him. "You'll never understand exactly what the problem is."

"Did I strike a nerve with that one?" I smirked. "Poor me." Putting a finger to my chin and pouting, I elicited a violent growl from Algor. "Why don't you try to explain? Oh," I said as I put a hand to my mouth to fake being shocked, "I forgot you're only as capable of speaking reasonably about them as a raven is able to swim. Pardon."

He pushed my chest, tripping me so that I nearly hit my head against a cabinet.

"You're young. Do you think you can understand this? Sinclair is a gullible bastard who doesn't have any morals of their own."

"And? What about *Daemon*? I wanna know about that."

I pressed my palms against the cold cabinet as I studied Algor's bulky figure to determine his next move. A queen or a pawn, there was no telling with him.

"Hush!" He stomped on the ground, and a fissure formed under me. "Sinclair promised they'd do anything for me. Anything!" More cracks formed. "Even if it was against the kings' will."

Inei made a haughty noise, disapproving of that statement.

"And guess what?" Algor's wings slapped the air. "They betrayed me the *first damn chance* they got."

He did not come close to answering my question, even though I was already aware of what I'd be told. I wanted to provoke him, though, just to see what else I could learn from his response.

While I stood in place, a few pebbles shifted under me as he took a breath. I was worried he'd make the ground crumble under us—the situation as dicey as I had expected.

"For your nosy purposes, they said they shot Daemon with an arrow to make him fall in love with me. You know what?" He threw his hands in the air and looked around. "The cheeky asshole never did it, and the prince got engaged to a woman from the Galaxy Kingdom. When I told Sinclair about it, they simply shrugged and said that nobody can fight their feelings. I smacked them and said *they* are the only one who can fight feelings, and they didn't give a single damn. They sipped on some wine and asked why they should bother anymore. Ridiculous and lazy of them."

Inei and I didn't seem to give him the intended reaction as he muttered the last insult, so he continued with a sigh.

"A few weeks later, they banished me." His expression tensed again. "How could anything be my fault when I had my trust broken like that?"