The Cursed Mirror: Part Two

     “Uh, just a moment please!” Tessa shouted, trying to get her things together.

     As she was brushing her fur, the pounding got louder and quicker, waking Twist up at the foot of Tessa’s bed. He rubbed his eyes, then proceeded to fly over to the ground by Tessa, who was now struggling to fix up her bed and make herself look decent. Finally, the doorknob twisted and the Faerie Lenny from the front desk walked into the room, holding a key.

     “Sorry, queen’s orders,” the Lenny mumbled, shrugging and leaving the room. At first Tessa thought she was joking, but then a large, red Grarrl came in, followed by two guards, wearing a war helmet and chest plate. He walked over to Tessa, standing well over a foot higher than her.

     “Are you Tessa Blackwood?” the Grarrl said in an aggressive tone. He seemed to be unhappy with her, refusing to smile once on the whole occasion.

     Tessa clumsily put her backpack on and responded, “Yes, I’m Tessa Blackwood. Uh, who are you? I’m a little busy. I -”

     “We know,” the Grarrl replied, interrupting her rambling. “We have already contacted the Agency. They will hold your interview off until necessary. I need you to come with us, quickly.”

     Confused, Tessa picked up the things that had fallen off her backpack and tried to put them in neatly. “Who’s we?”

     The Grarrl sighed, turning around. “You’ll know in time. Just follow me, please,” he said, motioning her to follow him while leaving the room with his two guards following close behind.

     Worried that this had to do with the previous night’s incident, Tessa picked up Twist from the ground and put him in her back pack. She zipped it up and ran to catch up with the others.

     ~~~

     Upon walking out of the Agency, Tessa realized how important the Grarrl must have been. What she saw were hundreds of Neopets from all around the city gathered in front of the entrance, some who were present at the incident last night. They whispered to the unknowing others about their encounters and their opinions on her innocence.

     As they worked their way into the crowd, the guards moved forward and pushed through, with Tessa and the Grarrl close behind. Finally, they made it to the gate guarding the castle. It was considerably smaller than the other, standing a mere fifteen feet, but this is because no one would dare pass through it, as the consequences were strict.

     “Since I got here I always wondered how you guys opened this. I had never seen it opened once,” Tessa stuttered, trying to make conversation. Twist unzipped the book bag slightly and poked his head out, shaking with nervousness.

     The Grarrl put on a weak smile, then pulled out a small bottle of pink, glittery dust. “I understand why you're scared, but I’m afraid I cannot comfort you any more than I have already. You and I both know why we’re here, so I do not know if you are innocent or a thief,” he said in a gentle tone, sprinkling some dust onto his hand. “This is a public gate, simply for show. No one guards it from the outside. There is another way to enter the castle, which I could tell you some other time. There is a way to open this gate, though. Do you know what this is?” he continued, putting his large clawed hand out, showing the dust.

     Tessa shook her head, admiring the shiny particles that lay still in his palm.

     “This,” he said, bringing his hand back up to his chest, “is a very rare item that Fyora enchanted herself. It is the only way to access the castle from these front doors by magic.”

     “Amazing!” Tessa said, still admiring the dust.

     “The magic spell opens the door, then combustion pushes them open. These are thick doors, you know,” he responded, throwing the dust at the door with a grunt. This was followed by a loud bang along with smoke clogging up the air. The blast knocked Tessa down and blinded her for a moment. Once she brushed the dirt of her clothes, she noticed the Grarrl and his guards waiting for her at the now fully opened doors. Getting up, she walked over with annoyance.

     “Well, who invented that? Couldn’t Fyora have just made a spell to open the doors, rather than blowing them forward?”

     The Grarrl gave an exasperated sigh, holding his hands behind his back. “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” he mumbled, walking onto the castle grounds.

     Tessa shrugged and followed him. Once they got through the gates, Tessa gasped with amazement while Twist flew out of the backpack to get a good look. The castle was still quite a walk away, so the path they were walking on ran up to the doors to enter the castle. Between the castle and the gates separating it from the city were two huge plots of grass on either side of the path, covered with Neopets. These grass plots were decorated with streamers and tables with neat clothes draped over them. Other areas had small ponds where Maraquan petpets swam and mingled. Looking around, Tessa knew that many important officials lived on the grounds, but she didn’t know there were this many. Some were Faerie with jewelry beautifully glistening on their clothes, while other more important pets were Royal, dressed in bright colored robes. Others were from distant lands, like an Island Acara eating fruit at a snack table while a Tyrannian Korbat rested on a branch of a small tree watching aquatic petpets jump in and out of a fountain.

     The castle itself, though, was also magnificent to look at, now fully seen. It was much more massive than she thought, blocking out the midday sun. It was painted a calm pink with dark purple roofs, along with large windows that were perfectly carved. It had a main structure, which was largest at its base, then had multiple towers of all sizes jut off its body, making it smaller, until it reached its end at the final tower which had a jutting point at its top.

     “It isn’t always like this, isn’t it? There must be some kind of a festival,” Tessa pondered, who was also now being closely watched by the guards.

     The Grarrl, on the other hand, was being greeted and nodded at by some of the pets in large groups on the edges of the path. “In light of recent events, we’ve had to move everyone staying in the city into the castle walls for their own protection,” he said in a quieter tone, trying not to be heard. “Please follow me and don’t drift off the path. Not all of these people are kind either. Most of them are agitated by the recent change of lodging.”

     As she continued to follow the Grarrl, they finally made it up the path to the castle. One of the guards moved forward to the towering pink doors while the other stayed behind.

     The castle’s interior wasn’t much different from the inside. It kept with the pink and purple designs, along with beautifully carved borders on top of the walls. The floors were tiled with all different shades of colors from violet to periwinkle. The lightly-furnished lobby she was now standing in wasn’t very crowded as opposed to the outside, with the occasional Royal or Faerie Neopet running past her.

     The Grarrl looked at Tessa for a moment to make sure she was behind him, then turned to the left and began walking at a brisk pace. The guards behind her began walking at the same speed, forcing her to do the same. As they kept walking through corridors, hallways, and up quite a few staircases, there seemed to be fewer and fewer people walking around them. Another thing she noticed was that at every doorway there was a guard, opening up doors for their party. Soon, looking out a window, Tessa realized they were now much farther up than she thought, as she could see the people in the courtyard as small specks out of a skyscraper window. Suddenly she heard talking in front of her.

     “I’m afraid it will only be you and the girl. You know how it is these days, Sir.” A lone Pink Chomby stood on all fours at the side of two large double doors. They were the biggest Tessa had seen in a while, and probably the most decorative.

     The Grarrl sighed with a shrug. “Fine. Is she in there?” he asked the Chomby while motioning the other guards behind Tessa to leave. Exhausted from all the walking in their armor, they walked down the most recent flight of stairs the group had gone up, and continued back down to the first floor.

     “No, I’m afraid not, Sir. She just left for a convention with the city leaders. Perhaps you should be there, too.”

     The Grarrl opened the door and strode in with Tessa and the Chomby following close behind. “Very well. Look after the girl for me then, will you? Make sure she doesn’t go out of your sight either.”

     The Chomby nodded with nervousness as the Grarrl turned around to leave. Tessa, angry at how she was being ignored, walked over and grabbed his arm.

     “Don’t you leave, mister! I want to know why you have taken me SO far up into this castle, and haven’t told me one thing! I’m being treated like a prisoner! I want to know what’s going on, or I will use all my power to make sure your don’t get to that meeting!” she roared in anger.

     The Grarrl ripped his arm out of her grip and continued to walk out the door, refusing to acknowledge her face. “My name is Jayfus,” he said calmly. “General Jayfus. I command the Faerieland Army and Intelligence. I have already told you why I’ve brought you here; maybe he can explain what else you wish to know. It doesn’t matter, now that you’re here. Oh, and be prepared for company in forty-five minutes. Don’t try to run either,” he said with ever growing anger before slamming the door behind him. Tessa was now in the room with the Chomby guard who stood near two feet taller than her. He moved his heavy tail across the floor in anxiety.

     “Well?” she asked, trying to be polite as possible. “What’s going on? Explain it to me.”

     The Chomby took off his gold helmet, setting it on the floor. “Well, you see... Ms. Blackwood. Um, we received intelligence that last night you were at the scene of a crime, and the only one there when our... intelligence saw the scene. All we can do is assume that you were either a witness or the person that committed the crime. So we must keep you here.”

     “Here? Where’s here?” she asked with annoyance looking around the room. “Who was the person that was unconscious? Why was there a mirror? I did not commit that crime! I know nothing! I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!”

     The Chomby took a few steps back, afraid. “That Cybunny you saw lying on the ground was Advisor Linett. He was one of the three advisors to the Queen, and before last night, the only one not affected by the mirror. I don’t think you understand the severity of your witness. Multiple people in the castle have been attacked by someone with the hand mirror and anyone who’s witnessed it has also been affected. You are the only survivor, and in fact, the only person we can get answers from if in fact you did see the whole crime. As for where you are, this is the Queen‘s office. The only place we can hold you that’s safe, for now,” he explained.

     Still confused, Tessa blurted out a number of other questions, but the Chomby shook his head, putting his helmet back on. “Sorry, I’m not at liberty to answer anything else,” he said with a shrug, opening up one of the doors to leave. “Just wait another half an hour and you can get all your answers.”

     Before she could ask anything else, the Chomby shut the door to prevent her from asking anything else. Annoyed, she plopped down in one of the chairs and crossed her arms, falling asleep.

To be continued...