Page 7 of Down from the Tower

“The problems in my territory extend further than Tressa. This whole area is infested with problems.”

“So is everywhere else in Mystica,” Lucius gripes, and I won’t get any pity from my old friend. As I watch through the stone, he brushes back hair that’s so blonde it’s nearly white, the slashes through both of his eyes making him look even more dangerous.

He’s mostly blind. One of the punishments he received in the Red Woods. With any luck, we’ll never have to go back there, not to the Queen’s court.

“I just got here Lucius,” I gripe, dragging a hand over my face. I'm sure with his limited vision, even with the magic, he can barely make me out. “I'm pretty sure the magic interrupting death is the princess.”

I stopped into the chambers where Midas holds council to observe. Usually I can travel where I please, and so long as I have the shadows to shield me no one ever sees me. The princess spotting me, and being so certain that I’m there, throws a lot of things into question.

Only the dead see Reapers when we use our shadow magic. And the princess is very much among the living.

“I've heard of Tressa’s golden flower,” Lucius snaps. He might not see well anymore, but his ears are keen. Behind the thorny rose hedges he broods in his palace, but when the itch kicks in, he travels to the nearest town for gossip and to do his damn job. He might have the least area to control in his zone, mainly because we do not mess with anyone past the Red Woods.

And besides, he’s got a girl of his own to take care of. Last I heard he couldn’t get her to leave the palace, even if she was never invited. “If it's the girl, end her and move on.”

With a sigh, I study my old friend. Of the four Reapers, he’s the one I’m the most different from. Until the last couple years, he had a family to rely on. For most of my life I’ve been alone. But I wasn’t tethered to any place in specific, and he’s trapped behind the deadly thorns. We aren’t as close as I am with Raymundo, but we’re closer than any sort of friendship I have with Ban. He’s estranged, off on his own hunt who knows where.

I twist my fingers, watching the shadows twitch from each digit, reaching out towards the space around me. Sitting on the rooftop of a castle might be an adrenaline rush for some, but there's no real joy or fear when the shadows will catch me.

They torture me as much as they protect me. When my beating heart mocked me and reason abandoned me, the shadows sank in. They comforted me, hugged me, and became a part of me before the bitter end.

That’s the first time I saw the shadow man. We all did, a spector who appeared in the moments following our death. There’s no reason and no explanation either. I haven’t figured out how to find him despite the decade that’s passed.

At least I can still see. Of the four of us, I think she tortured him the worst.

“Midas has dealings with Arthur and the Camelot Court,” I continue, pacing along the rooftop. The darkness is starting to surround the city, though it makes no difference to me. No one can see me in the light or dark. If anything, twilight is my favorite time to make the shadows play.

No one sees me except the girl with golden hair. Far too much hair if you ask me. It brushes against the ground when she moves, and I watched the way she bound Arthur with the strands. If she shifted her hair from his forehead to his throat I bet she could strangle the ginger King.

And through the veil, she sees me. I know what that means, and it just makes the princess that much more interesting.

“Midas should’ve died three decades ago,” Lucius grumbles. “He’s cheating death. I thought you were there to investigate that.”

“Aren’t we all cheating death?” I muse, and silence greets me from the other end of the seeing stone. “I think the rumors of the Golden Princess are true. There is a maiden in the castle who can reverse age, but only so far. She turned the grays in Arthur’s hair red again.”

Lucius is silent still. I know he’s thinking what I am. For our long lives, we traded our hearts - literally and this girl is gifting immortality without a second thought.

Not that she looked thrilled to visit the King and Queen of Tressa. I thought the princess was theirs by birth, but she hardly resembles either of them. Maybe she would look more like the Queen if she had the same color hair, but Midas has bits of gold throughout his skin, making it hard to distinguish who he once was.

“Arthur will gamble anything to keep himself young,” Lucius finally replies. “You know this. We all do. That’s why the Round Table is cursed. Now stop obsessing over the girl and kill her if she’s an issue.”

“I’m not sure she is,” I reply, pivoting on the rooftop. For a kingdom hidden behind a wall, it sure is well maintained. Far better than I expected, seeing as travel here is next to impossible. Without my shadows I’m unsure I could slip through the gates. Going back will be easier now that I know the weak points in the wall. Or perhaps I’ll let the shadows carry me back over the wall. “I need to study her.”

“Like the Mad Queen studied us,” Lucius snaps, and I think maybe I crossed the line. I may not chat with my brethren all the time, but anything to do with the Red Woods is a sore subject amongst all of us. “She did a fine job slicing until she was satisfied. Are you planning to dissect the princess?”

I would never be like her. This isn’t an experiment, it’s a study. I want to see how or if the magic affects her when she isn’t using it to bring back youth.

Pressing my lips together, I debate what to say next. Lucius twitches as he waits for my response, tilting his ear towards the phone more than once like he believes he missed something I’ve said.

“I don’t think this girl is anything like the Mad Queen,” I respond finally, stroking my jaw. I saw where she went earlier after leaving the parlor, a guardsman and someone resembling a maid carrying her from the room. I followed along, watching her unconscious form until the guard dropped her on a bed. He backed away as though revolted by her, wiping his hands on his uniform before glaring at the maid and leaving. The girl looked less than enthused when he left her to care for the princess.

“Her name is Rapunzel,” I continue, and Lucius scoffs at the name. “The Golden Princess. I think she breathes life, but if need be, I’ll hasten her death.”

“Good. We can’t let our personal feelings get in the way again. Everything needs to be done to protect Mystica. We can’t fail again.”

I don’t respond, looking towards the sky instead. Mystica never should’ve fallen to ruin the way it did, and visiting the Red Woods is the kind of mistake that starts a war. We’re in the middle of that now, whether or not the people of Tressa know anything about that.

Lucius grumbles a goodbye, and I barely hear him as I wave a hand, letting my shadows close off the looking glass.

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