]
"Awake my child, your time has come."
Friehalt blinked open her bleary eyes, adjusting to the light around her. While still covered in the eternal shadows of the Tangled Wood, the darkness the year of night brought had disappeared.
Beside her, Fallstar stirred. Friehalt flinched at the sight of her sister. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the way the ridgeback bragged about taking the life of the mirror prince, Boo. Her sister was a murderer.
Of course, Friehalt was supposed to be a murderer too. She had all the training skills, her muscles knew how to respond to the threat of attack and successfully neutralize an enemy, but the thought of doing so made her feel physically sick.
She hadn't always felt this way. She had once trained eagerly alongside her sister, not that she had the same natural talent and eagerness for sparring that Fallstar did. But that was before the had witnessed Yellan die.
The way the imperial had convulsed under the pressure of The Shade had haunted Friehalt's dreams. Seeing another dragon die brought a gravity she had not yet considered. Yellan had always been kind and sweet, she didn't deserve the fate she recieved, not the way that the royals did.
And even now, she wasn't even sure they should have the power to take another dragon's life. What gave Fallstar the right to decide when Boo's life should be cut short? Didn't it only spark retaliation when the princess had returned with Katie's body?
There had been a lot of bloodshed that night, and Friehalt shivered at the thought. Surely there was more than this? That was what the voice in her dreams had said. It was so calming. It wasn't sweet my any means, in fact it seemed as thick as the shadows around them, but it was comforting, to feel cared for. That was something she never got from her parents.
"You up already?" Fallstar groaned as she got to her feet. The other ridgeback was awake now, and immediately turned to her lightning scythe to polish it.
"Yeah," Friehalt felt her mouth dry up as she examined the crackling weapon. That had the blood of another dragon on it now. Maybe not physically, but she knew it had been used to take another life.
"How long were we asleep?" Fallstar asked, looking out the window in shock.
"A year," Friehalt admitted.
"And how the hell do you know that?" Fallstar asked, turning on her sister.
"Well, in my dreams-" Friehalt began.
"Dreams?" Fallstar snorted. "What nonsense is that?"
"Did you not have any dreams?" Friehalt asked, taken aback.
"Frie, even if I did have dreams, would I have taken care to remember them? It's just your imagination. Now, unless you want to spar, I'm going to go find Raithyra and get some battle training in so we can be prepared for this war."
Friehalt watched as he sister left the room, slamming the door behind her.
She didn't know what she wanted, but she knew there had to be more to life than this.
"Hey Boo! You'll never guess how long we slept!" Bohrium exclaimed, bursting into his brother's room. To his surprise, the room was empty, and the bed was made perfectly.
"Boo?" The fae fluttered around, trying to see if the mirror had hidden somewhere to surprise him. "Come on!" He called, panic rising in his voice. "We can play Beastclans & Bastions!"
But there was no response. The room was empty.
Where had his brother gone?
Suddenly, he saw movement in the corner of the room, and something silvery materialized out of the air. It took a moment for him to recognize what it was, but it soon became clear that it was very familiar indeed.
Before Bohrium was a mirror, pale and translucent. His head floated a good few feet away from his body, but he was undeniably his brother.
"Hey," Boo said, a sad smile on his face. "I guess this changes things, eh?"
Okay, so, it wasn't originally my plan to make Boo a ghost, but the descision process went a little something like this:
- Listening to Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! at the Disco (one of Jett's theme songs and the inspiration for this plot arc) and realizing that there is a line of lyrics that said "Dynasty, Decapitated" and I killed Boo by decapitation.
- Telling @CleverDual this connection because we listen to Panic! together a lot, only for them to point out that I should make Boo a ghost because the full line is "Dynasty, decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight!"
- Realizing that Boo is literally named Boo and therefore is destined to be a ghost.
- Realizing that Boo was exalted and therefore turning him into a ghost does not mess at all with anyone's post ATWL canon lore for him.
Also, I used 3 items instead of 5 because I had two back to back art pulls, so I figured it best to split the art into two updates. Also, while I'm playing catch up, I might organize pulls into smaller groups if there are a lot of big pulls so that big plot events can be more spread out.
Here's my art for my art pull, a continuation of mirroring the OTGW theme song, featuring Heaven, Nevaeh, and baby Jett on Heaven's back!
Also, special thanks to @
Dynami , who surprise gifted me with this AMAZING Jett art and made my day! This is the first piece of fanart I've ever had done for any of my stories that I had not already commissioned or gotten as like a Secret Santa gift!
