Descendants

The atmosphere in the room is uncomfortable to say the least. The guests are whispering among themselves while glancing at the Prince and his so-called friends from time to time. 

The King sends his son a pointed look that’s saying ‘fix this’ before making his way over to the first group of guests to try and change the mood a bit. 

“I can’t believe this, Takeo!” Misaki hisses quietly as she steps closer to her brother. 

“Why is it my fault that she didn’t pick up on my obvious try to break up with her?” He asks annoyedly. “If she’s that obsessed with me, that’s her problem, not mine.”

“You’re disgusting.” Raidon mumbles hatefully. 

“What just happened?” A new voice cuts in and they look up to see Sumi approaching them. “I thought you broke up with her.” She looks up at Takeo in question. 

Misaki rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “He might’ve forgotten about that part.”

Sumi’s eyes widen in shock. “What? Seriously?”

“Oh, he tried.” Raidon says while glaring at Takeo. “But he was really subtle about it.”

“So she thought you were still dating?” Sumi gasps and holds a hand in front of her mouth. “She must be devastated!” She shakes her head. “I really didn’t know.” 

Misaki smiles sadly and steps up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. This isn’t your fault.”

Takeo balls his fists and takes a step back. “You guys can’t tell me you never noticed how all she wanted was to become Queen one day!”

“Then you should’ve broken up with her properly and live with her wrath for a while.” Raidon barks, pointing an accusing finger at the Prince. “You’re a fucking coward!”

“I don’t have to listen to anything you say, you damn barbarian!”

“Boys!” Misaki yells. “Stop fighting already or take it outside and fight it out for real.”

“Oh, because that went so well for dear little dragon boy in the past.” Takeo laughs. 

“You royal rat!” Raidon yells and stomps closer but Misaki quickly steps in to stop him. 

“He’s not worth it.”

“Guys…” Sumi interrupts suddenly. All eyes are on her within seconds before following her gaze, staring up at the top of the staircase where dark smoke is starting to gather. “What is that?”

That catches the attention of the crowd as well and soon everyone in the great hall is watching the thick smoke build up to form a silhouette. 

The crowd starts getting louder soon enough, several of them starting to panic while others are walking up to the staircase, ready to fight whatever might come at them. 

“I thought the castle was protected against intruders.” Raidon mumbles with a brief glance at Misaki, who keeps staring up at it in shock. 

“It is…” She breathes softly. 

More smoke fills in from seemingly nowhere before rushing closer to the figure. Features appear and a body starts to form. Bare feet, a knee-long ripped and burned dress, the glowing necklace seemingly burning itself into flesh. Wild blond hair falls over the person’s shoulders and a small smirk shows off slightly sharpened teeth. 

“Kazu…” Raidon gasps as he watches his best friend appear in the dark smoke. 

Misaki’s mouth falls open as she stares, Sumi grabs Takeo’s arm in fear and the young Prince narrows his eyes as the dark magic’s source is revealed. 

Kazumi waves the rest of the smoke away and smiles down at them but it looks twisted and wrong. “Hi!” She greets, her voice way too chipper. She lifts her skirts a bit and starts climbing down the stairs. “Sorry to worry you guys.”

Raidon glances at the others who simply keep watching in confusion and horror. He takes a deep breath and makes his way over to the staircase, pushing away the ones ready to fight. “What is going on, Kazu?” He asks, his voice shaking a bit. “Are you okay?”

She lets her gaze wander over the crowd with a small smirk as she steps down and stops at the bottom next to her best friend. 

Raidon takes in her appearance once again. “What happened?” He asks quietly. 

Kazumi’s eyes snap up to meet his and a chill runs down his spine at the strange glow illuminating the red irises. She blinks a few times and beams up at him. “I’ve never been better.” She tells him and reaches up to pat his cheek a few times, making him flinch back as his gaze drops to the strange necklace around her neck. 

“What is that?” 

The skin underneath the gold band looks red and burnt and the pulsing stone resting between her collar bones is surrounded by scars like it was pushing into her flesh. 

She narrows her eyes and her smile falls away. “None of your business.” She hisses and whirls around. “Takeo! My love!” She cheers and claps her hands together.

Takeo takes in her appearance and takes a hesitant step back. “Kazumi…” He shakes his head as she approaches them. “What did you do to yourself?”

She stops briefly to look down at herself and pouts once she lifts her gaze again. “What do you mean?” Slowly, she starts getting closer again, her gaze moving to lock with Sumi’s for a second. “Am I not pretty enough? Not civilized enough, maybe?”

“Don’t” Takeo says quickly. “We can talk about this somewhere else. I should’ve…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Kazumi yells suddenly and the room erupts in chaos. It’s like a bomb explodes in the middle of the room where she is standing. Her hair is blown back, her voice echoing off the walls as paintings crash to the floor, tables and chairs shake and fall apart. People scream in panic, some are trying to leave but the doors leading outside to a small terrace slam shut. 

Takeo looks around in horror before focusing on Kazumi again. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you doing this?”

Kazumi narrows her eyes and bares her teeth at him. She looks absolutely feral, her hair a wild mess on her head, her dress burnt and ripped apart. “You don’t have the right to judge me.” She says slowly and stumbles forward again, looking up at Sumi who is clinging to Takeo’s arm for dear life. “You chose this bitch over me. She’s fucking nothing compared to me!” The barbarian Princess yells, her voice breaking. 

“Kazu, you need to calm down.” Raidon interrupts and steps up to them. He makes to place a hand on her shoulder when a blow of dark smoke explodes around her, sending him flying back and crashing into the panicked crowd. 

She rolls her eyes and turns her head to look after him. “Sorry, I don’t have time for you right now.” She says almost calmly. “Now…” She glares at Takeo again. “What to do with you, huh?”

By now, a few of the more powerful guests and knights around try to approach them but they are quickly thrown back with the same force. 

Kazumi doesn’t even acknowledge their presence. She lifts one hand and smiles at the dark smoke whirling around her fingers. “I have a few ideas.” She whispers before sending Takeo a mischievous look. “But there’s one that stands out.” 

In the crowd behind her, Raidon is slowly getting to his feet again. He grimaces and looks up to take in the scene again. Around him, the guests are only paying attention to the royal exchange as well. 

Kazumi whirls around and beams at the crowd. “Also, I think everyone should be able to be part of this.” She tells them, her eyes wide and glowing. 

Raidon quickly ducks away from the crowd. His wings appear on his back to help him jump up on the staircase from the side and rush over to Takeo and the others again. 

“It would be way too boring if I only punished your Prince, right?” Kazumi laughs, the necklace glowing brighter as dark smoke rushes up around her again. 

“We need to stop her.” Raidon says quickly. “Somehow…”

“What can we do? We don’t even know what happened to her?” Misaki whines quietly. “I don’t understand…” 

They watch in horror as Kazumi raises her hands to the ceiling, shadows crawling up her arms. “This is a special one. It’s a bit personal.” She sighs before letting out an outright evil laugh. 

“I don’t care what happened to her.” Takeo hisses and carefully shakes off Sumi’s hand before stomping over to his ex girlfriend. “If she threatens my people, I’ll have to teach her a lesson.”

Raidon’s eyes widen and he quickly rushes after Takeo, grabbing his wrist to pull him back. “Don’t fucking touch her!” He barks. 

Takeo whirls around, his teeth bared in pure hate. He’s about to throw another insult the other’s way when dark smoke erupts around Kazumi once again, filling the whole room quickly and making it impossible to see. 

“What is that crazy bitch doing?!” Takeo yells. 

Raidon ignores him and lifts his free hand to his nose as he feels his lungs burn at the smoke. A strange feeling rushes through his body. His magic pushes to the surface and he feels the rest of his dragonly features appear unwillingly.

The smoke rushes around them, pulling at their clothes and hair, pushing at their skin while they are unable to see what is happening around them. 

Then it clears just as quickly as it appeared and the room comes into focus. Raidon drops his hand and blinks his eyes a few times before the scene settles in. 

“What is this?” Takeo asks quietly. 

Raidon lets go of the other’s wrist and steps up to the crowd he was thrown into before. In their place is a collection of stone figures, resembling them perfectly. 

He hears heavy footsteps and whirls around to see Takeo approach his sister and girlfriend. Both of them are equally stiff and now made of stone instead of flesh. 

“Is this a fucking joke?!” Takeo cries as he takes in the figures, his eyes roaming over them in shock. 

“Do you like it?” 

Both men turn to see Kazumi sitting on the stairs, looking down at her nails with a small smile. “Happy breakup!” She cheers and smirks up at him. 

Takeo shakes his head in disbelief, his eyes wet with unshed tears. His hands ball into fists and light up at his sides. “You bitch! Turn them back!”

Kazumi drops her hand and gets to her feet. “I think not.”

“Kazumi” Raidon tries carefully and she turns to look at him briefly, her glare softening a bit. 

“How you two aren’t affected by it, I don’t know.” She says before shrugging and crossing her arms. “Not that it matters. Good for you, I guess.” She sighs. “Now, have fun with my little gift. Good luck being King of a bunch of rocks.” She laughs and dark smoke surrounds her again. 

“Undo it!” Takeo barks and throws his burning fists up. He runs towards her, ready to attack. When his burning fist connects with the smoke, it flinches back and disappears. With it, Kazumi is gone as well. 

Takeo’s eyes widen before he crashes face first into the stairs. 

Raidon slowly approaches to stand in the spot Kazumi was just in. “She’s gone.” He sighs in frustration. 

“No shit!” Takeo groans as he pushes himself up to a sitting position, holding his nose. Blood is running through his fingers. 

A strange silence settles around them with everyone’s voices and shuffling suddenly gone. Both Raidon and Takeo look around, the new atmosphere threatening. 

“We need to undo it.” Takeo says as he glares down at his now bloody hand. 

Raidon glares down at him. “And how are you planning to do that?” He huffs and spreads his arms. “Look at this! This is as close to a curse as a spell gets! This is dark magic.” He calls and sighs. “Where did she even get that? That necklace…” He mumbles. 

“Necklace?” Takeo asks in confusion. “I don’t care about her choice of accessories.”

Raidon rolls his eyes. “You’re such a womanizer. That thing wasn’t just a random piece of jewelry. It looked bad.”

“Bad?”

“Yes, like it was full of dark magic.”

“That’s true.”

Both of them look up at the new voice, searching the crowd for the speaker. One of the statues starts to move. The stone slowly falls away from their body, seemingly burning away into nothing before even hitting the ground. 

“Uncle Tamaki!” Takeo gasps and runs over to the fae just in time to catch him before he collapses to the floor. 

Raidon’s eyes widen as he slowly approaches them. “You broke the spell?”

Tamaki looks up at them as he tries to catch his breath. “Barely” He nods. “Good to see someone else made it. That spell is nasty.” 

Takeo frowns and catches Raidon’s gaze. “Why didn’t it affect us?”

Tamaki slowly straightens his back but keeps one hand on the young Prince’s shoulder for support. “It’s probably Raidon’s dragon magic. It can resist some spells.”

Raidon blinks down at his hands in confusion. “Oh, so that’s why I felt my magic act up.”

“Wait” Takeo says, holding up one hand. “Then why am I…”

“Probably because we were touching when the spell settled.” Raidon groans and drops his hands. “Trust me, I’m not too happy about this either.”

Takeo glares at him. 

“Boys, we need to break the spell.” Tamaki mumbles weakly. “Kazumi probably managed to get into the locked part of the dungeons somehow. Momo and I were supposed to recash the protection spells next week.” He runs one hand down his face. “That’s probably how she got in.” He shakes his head. “We shouldn’t have waited…”

“So protection was weakened?” Takeo asks. “You’re doing it once a year, right? Why aren’t you doing it every six months. That’s a safety hazard right in our middle.”

Raidon blinks at him blankly. “Way to be sensitive.” He steps closer to face Tamaki. “Tell us what to do. Who can help us now. No offense, but you don’t look like you’ll be able to deal with that much magic right now.”

“I don’t know what spell she cast. The best way would be to get her to undo it or take the necklace from her.” The fae says thoughtfully. “I don’t understand why it would affect her like that. Back when I first found most of the cursed items that are now down there, I checked most of them and they were parts of the master’s dark magic, but that shouldn’t…” He pauses suddenly. 

“What is it?” Raidon asks quickly. 

“Oh no” Tamaki breathes and pushes away. “Katsuki was right after all.”

“What are you talking about?”

Tamaki carefully drops his hand from Takeo’s shoulder and manages to stand up by himself. “Back when her energy was just starting to form inside him, Katsuki was hit with the master’s dark magic. He was always so worried it would affect her somehow and then she wasn’t able to turn and…”

“Okay, calm down.” Takeo sighs. “No need to freak out just yet.”

“That does sound bad though.” Raidon adds.

The Prince glances up at him. “All we have to do is find her and rip that necklace off her neck, right?”

“Oh! Sorry! That sounds really easy. Excuse me, my lord.” Raidon hisses sarcastically. “Where is she, huh?”

Tamaki grimaces. “If the master’s dark magic really connected to that matching piece inside her then she probably ended up where he is.” He looks up at the two as if waiting for it to sink in. 

“Where he is.” Raidon repeats slowly. “You mean…”

Takeo turns away and reaches up to pull his hair in frustration. “The City of the Damned.”