Chapter 8: Thalia and Trevor

"We will be leaving tomorrow morning at five am so pack your bags and prepare yourself", said Ariana as she and Josh were walking.

"Okay, is there anything special I need to bring?" Asked Josh.

"There's no need so don't worry".

"I still can't believe I'm going to the Roses base! But why exactly do you want to bring me?"

"Shh, please don't tell anyone about this. It's best to keep this trip a secret until you get back to the castle".

"Okay... but can I tell people about it when I get back?"

"I will answer that question when we form a contract".

"A contract?"

"I'll explain in my practice room".

"How come?"

"Just wait and see".

Josh was curious; he had never seen what Ariana's practice room looked like and wondered about what kind of stuff she has in there.

The two arrived at the room and entered it to see it has walls made with enchanted stone, a glass wall in the middle with a door which splits the room into two. One side had charts on the walls, equipment, papers and books placed on tables. The other side had some targets and drawings on the wall. The room looked normal for a practice room, but Josh could feel large amounts of magical energy everywhere.

Ariana led him to the side with drawings on the wall and closed the glass door.

"Now Josh, since you're my student you can technically become a member of the Roses which means you have the right to know their true identities. Normally if you become a member you swear your loyalty by saying a magical oath but since you're not actually a member it's different. When members say their oath it's like signing a contract where you have to obey all the rules otherwise you'll get kicked out and have your memory erased. It's a bit harsh, but it's mostly for the safety of everyone and their families. Since your case is different we instead have to use a different way which is signing a paper contract. I have already written one up for you".

Ariana handed him a enchanted piece of paper and his highness read it.

The contract said that no matter who asked he could not tell anyone the details about Vas (the Roses base). He could not tell them how to get in, he could not reveal their identities, he could not take anything out of there without permission, he also has to obey the rest of the rules and he cannot use anything he learns from his time there to threaten the Roses.

"Of course since you're the prince we can only use the type of magical contract where it can identify who signed it, even if someone uses a fake signature the contract will know their true identity. It can't be destroyed nor changed. If you agree to all these terms then please sign here and put a drop of your blood onto the paper". Ariana then handed him a pen and a pocket knife.

Josh had no disagreements and signed his name and cut his finger then pressed it onto the paper. Ariana did the same and when she placed her finger onto the paper it started to sparkle. The contract was complete.

"Whoa! I've never signed a magical contract before", said Josh as he stared at the sparkly paper.

"You will have to learn how to make one later on which is something I will teach you when you start doing more work requires a contract".

"But why did we have to sign it here?"

"Because sometimes when people sign a magical contract for the first time it can explode if they have too much magic in their blood. It has only happened twice but I still didn't want to take any chances. I will be honest though, it is kind of a good thing if it explodes, since it means you have a lot of magical energy".

"Really? Then who were the two who had theirs explode?"

"The Rose and Black Assassin".

The first time Rosetta (The Rose) signed a magical contract was when she was getting permission to enter the forbidden library and the first time Black Assassin signed one was when he was pretending to go to the good side".

"It must've been annoying when they exploded eh?"

"Yeah, good thing the explosion doesn't hurt living things. Would've been nice if it hurt Black Assassin though, but now that's done you can get on your merry way and I'll see you at dinner".

"Well bye then!"

"Bye..."

Josh walked to his room as Ariana made her way to hers. She wrote a letter to Selena informing her of what happened and to tell the Roses to not reveal to the Prince that she is also The Rose. Once she was done she teleported it to White Rose and she started packing. As she put her stuff into her bag she thought that maybe she should give her spare infinity bag to Josh. That way it wouldn't weigh down the carriage much and they could run away with all of their belongings if something happened. It would all be easier if they traveled by magic but she has to get a few things on the way there.

She got her spare infinity bag, went to Josh's room and knocked on the door.

The door opened and she found him standing there with a empty bag and a variety of things placed on the floor. "Well it's a good thing you haven't put anything in your bag yet since I have decided to gift you with a infinity bag", said Ariana as she peeped into his room.

"Really?!" Replied Josh.

"Yeah".

She handed him a small, blue drawstring bag with some embroidery on it. You can enchant any bag into a infinity bag but of course it is incredibly difficult. It's easier with bigger bags but harder with smaller ones. For smaller ones in order to make it so anything can fit through the opening they also have to make it so the opening can stretch out far. Also for infinity bags you can add a extra enchantment that makes it so if you lose it it will appear near you after a few seconds.

Josh did some research about infinity bags because he once owned one but stopped using it since he didn't need it. He gave it to someone and he just used a normal bag if he ever went out. To have one again was kind of exciting for him since he hasn't had one for ages and was regretting giving his away since as he grew older he started doing more things. To have everything you need in one bag is easy for him so that way he wouldn't have to go back to his room for something or carry a large bag around. After a while he forgot about it and then remembered when he felt his new infinity bag in his hands.

"Thanks so much!" Shouted Josh.

"It was no problem. Also with this bag if you loose it it will come back to you. It just needs a drop of your blood so that way it knows who its owner is".

"Looks like I've got to cut myself again. Now that I think about it a lot of magical things require blood. Makes me wonder how many times you guys have cut yourself".

"Don't worry, we don't do it a lot and we always heal ourselves afterwards so it doesn't affect us much".

"That's good. Anyway thanks for the bag!"

"You're welcome".

She left him alone and he started to put a bunch of stuff in the bag. Good thing with infinity bags if you need something you just have to think of it and you immediately find it otherwise it can take forever to find a toothbrush or something if you have a lot in there.

Thanks to his new bag he was able to bring all of the things he wanted and finished packing after a hour. It was now 5:30pm and he still had half a hour left until dinner.

The rest of his activities were cancelled today so he was left with nothing to do so he flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. He wondered about what he is going to do there and what kind of place it is. He wondered about how they entered the place since outsiders who tried to find the the base ended up back at where they started. The base is in a forest which is actually owned by The Rose so unauthorized people are actually not allowed to enter any part of the forest. You also couldn't enter by above due to a force field so the only way in is through the forest. The stories he heard from people who attempted to get in said that when you entered the forest, no matter how far you went you could only see trees and eventually you would end up back where you started. Every time you looked up you could only see plants and the sky, no towers could be seen from within the the forest.

The reason is because the place is heavily enchanted which is why no one has ever been able to get in except for the Roses and guests which they accompany.

They are really powerful, even the most highest of nobles have to respect a magician from there, even if they are a commoner like the Yellow Rose and the Orange Rose or if they're new to the group.

After a few minutes Josh decided that if you're going to waste time then you might as well do it by doing something productive so he walked to library and did some studying. Eventually it was 6pm and he made his way to the dining room.

He and Ariana ate and he told her about his progress and she congratulated him. Afterwards they both went to the green house for a stroll.

"I'm so excited for tomorrow! This trip is going to be great!" Shouted Josh with a big smile.

"Try and get some sleep tonight. We have to leave early in the morning tomorrow at five. I have to get a few things on the way there and I want to try and get there before the sun sets", said Ariana as she looked at the flowers around her.

The plants in the green house are enchanting and beautiful. There is a variety of plants and all of them are different with there own specialty. It reminded Ariana of the gardens back at Vas and she too was excited to return again even though she has only been away for a few days.

Eventually the sky turned dark and one fell asleep while the other one was waiting for the next day to come.

-Early in the morning-

Josh woke up to hear knocking on his door and Ariana's voice, "Josh, we've got to leave in a twenty minutes so could you please wake up and get ready".

"Wait, what?" Grumbled Josh as he looked at his clock which showed 4:40am. Last night he was too excited and couldn't sleep but after a while he fell asleep and slept in for forty minutes.

He cursed and scrambled out of his bed then heard Ariana say, "just wash yourself and get your bag and tell me when you're ready".

The Prince wondered why but decided now was not the time to be wondering and showered, brushed his teeth and got his bag then said, "I'm done!".

Ariana opened the door and entered the bedroom to see Josh was only wearing a towel. Ariana quickly blushed and closed the door and he soon realised he was only wearing a towel and threw on a t-shirt and shorts then said, "sorry about that! You can come in now!"

Ariana slowly opened the door, looked at the also pink prince and said, "please spin once, I'm going to cast a spell that will disguise you so that way you won't be recognized as the Prince".

"Okay".

Josh turned around and as he was doing that Ariana quickly said, "mutatio".

He finished his turn and his facial features had changed, he grew taller, his white hair turned brown and he now wore a new outfit that a prince nor commoner would wear.

He looked at his new self in the mirror which looked nothing like his actual self. He looked around eighteen and his new facial features made him look serious and cold.

"This is your disguise, a person named Trevor who is on a important business trip for a company that sells magical items. You just became a adult three months ago and due to your skills you were upgraded to a high position in a month but you can't tell people which company you're from for some reasons you can't say, okay?" Said Ariana.

"Sure, but what about you?" Asked Josh.

"I will disguise myself as one of your workers. A woman named Thalia who was assigned to you two months ago and is a calm and quiet person. Once you leave breakfast you will be acting as Trevor until we get to the Roses base. I will meet you at a carriage and Sebastian will guide you there. He has already been informed of all of this and when I see you I will walk up to you and say, sir, we must leave soon".

"Got it!"

"I will also take your bag for you now and when we're in the carriage I'll give it back to you. Anyway I shall see you soon".

Josh handed her his bag and Ariana exited the room while his highness went to the dining room and had breakfast.

He ate quickly and Sebastian guided him outside where a woman who looked around the same age as Trevor approached him and said, "sir, we must leave soon. We shall be traveling in a carriage without a crest on it so that way people don't know about which company we're from".

Josh looked at the woman who had short, blue hair and brown eyes. It was Ariana's fake identity, Thalia. "Okay", replied Josh.

Thalia said their goodbyes then she and Trevor entered the carriage.

Once they were inside she handed him his bag back and told him that they would be stopping at a village nearby first to pick up a special package.