Party Preperations

The days passed without much fanfare. Though Prince Peter began to question his wife, he could find nothing offensive, so he let her be. Instead, everyone was focused on preparations for the autumn ball.

Every season at Solarea had a ball to celebrate. Autumn marked the beginning of the harvest, so the autumn ball was the bigger of the four season balls. Often many delegates from allies and nobility from the whole land would gather at the palace to celebrate. Since Princess Olivia was the crowned princess, it was her responsibility to assist in planning, much to Luna's dismay.

The queen dragged Luna to and fro to complete all the tasks. Thankfully, as a princess, she wasn't required to know everything. This at least gave Luna some grace when she didn't know much of what was happening. She was so busy that she had little time to focus on replenishing her powers, or even to investigate the book she found. Her only solace was that she wouldn't be as busy once this troublesome party was over.

One day, Luna snuck away because she just couldn't take it anymore. She was getting ready to tear up every sample that she has to make a decision about. As she found a secluded corner, she saw an intriguing sight. She stayed back to not be noticed.

"Ren, my love, it is not my fault that wench survived!" Lady Aria whined. She was trying to placate to Prince Ren, who seemed more than just a little peeved with her.

"You knew that this could not end well with her here." Prince Ren growled at her. "She knows too much."

"I know." Lady Aria nodded her head. "Mother and I found the most vicious bandits to take care of this matter, but she still remains unharmed. I saw them take her away!"

"Well, you did not do enough!" Prince Ren roared, still dissatisfied with her performance.

Lady Aria then came closer to Prince Ren, then she spoke too low for Luna to hear. She watched a little longer, but noticed that nothing much happened. Lady Aria was able to calm Prince Ren down, and they left. Luna stayed there a bit before to process this new information.

Luna had assumed that Lady Aria was just a puppet because of jealousy or some other petty reason. It seemed that Princess Olivia made enemies on her own. Now the question of what had Princess Olivia unearthed to provoke this pair. Luna decided that instead of resting, she would search for Willow. Since Willow was Princess Olivia's best friend, she should surely know, right?

As Willow was a white mage in training, she was more than likely in the library to study. Luna decided to go there first, but she felt somewhat wary of bringing up the discussion of what she just witnessed. There would be too many people milling about. Word could easily spread, so she thought that maybe she should drag Willow to her room for tea.

Luna made her way to the library while avoiding anyone who could drag her back for party decisions. She quietly searched for Willow in the library, but she didn't find her at first. Luna almost left to search other parts of the palace, when she saw her target. Willow was hidden away in a back corner. She was a bit too focused on her magic, so she didn't notice Luna approaching her.

Willow was having some difficulty healing a plant. It seems that she couldn't get the little guy to fully bloom. Luna watched her, and she assessed Willow's attempts. Luna could tell that Willow's frustration was causing it to be worse. Luna often helped teach some of the younger witches, so she felt that the principles should be close enough that she might be able to help.

"Your thoughts are too clouded." Luna stated dryly.

"Huh?" Willow turned around. She was stunned for a moment that someone was behind her. "What did you say?"

"I said that your thoughts are too clouded for you to concentrate." Luna came closer. "Before you attempt again, try to make a connection with the bit of energy in the plant. You should be able to use the energy from the plant itself to repair it."

Willow was quite confused by her friend's sudden piece of advice, but she felt that it couldn't hurt to try. She focused on the plant with all her might. She felt a bit of a connection, so she fed into it. She started to see the plant revive. Willow was excited, and this led her to pump even more into the plant. Her excitement ended not too long afterwards because then the plant deflated once again.

Seeing Willow's disappointment, Luna decided to encourage her. "You have all the knowledge of the principles, but you lack the experience. Once you get the hang of it, you will know how much you need to keep a running current to transfer your energy."

"When did you learn these things?" Willow looked at her friend strangely.

"I just heard it here and there." Luna brushed off Willow's question. "Do you have a moment? Do you want to run away with me for a bit?"

Since Willow felt she did all she could for now, she nodded and followed after Luna. She still felt that her friend was not the same. Her doubts were buried in her heart, but it was getting harder to ignore them. She really didn't know what to make of her friend anymore.