“Wait, hold on a second.” Spinner held out a hoof, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re saying that your grandmother runs Bright Night?”
“She used to,” sighed Mystaria. “She’s retired now. That’s what ‘emeritus’ means. But my dad’s journal makes it sound like she’s still a bigshot there. Or at least, she was when he and my mom left…”
She finished that by tapping the tattered notebook in question, looking at it with a troubled expression, which was enough to make Valor frown in confusion. “You don’t sound very happy to have found one of your relatives. Or are you worried that your grandmother might have died already?”
Shadow gave the muscled mare a flat look. “Real tactful there, Valor.”
Mystaria shook her head. “It’s not that. Well, I guess part of it is. But that’s not what I’m worried about; you don’t get to be headmistress of a place like Bright Night unless you’re a spellcaster of considerable ability, and when you’re capable of calling on that much power, there are supposed to be options for delaying the inevitable.”
“Hm, that’s a good point.” Closing her eyes, Spinner nodded sagely. “There are lots, and I mean lots, of stories about old wizards, witches, and sorcerers who’ve used their magic to live far beyond their years. Of course, most of those involve them delving into some sort of forbidden practice, like demonology, alienism, necromancy, blood magic-, ow!”
“Not helping, Spinner,” huffed Shadow, retracting her hoof from the back of her friend’s head.
For her part, Spinner had the grace to look embarrassed. “But they’re not all bad!” she hastily corrected. “Queen Iliana has lived for centuries, and everyone knows she’s as saintly as they come!”
Mystaria couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Thanks, you guys. But really, that’s not what was making me anxious.”
Woodheart churred, and while none of them could understand her in the slightest, the inquisitive tone in her voice made it clear that she was asking what had been on Mystaria’s mind.
Her smile fading a little, Mystaria turned the pages of her father’s journal. “According to what my dad wrote in here, he and my mom left Bright Night while she – my mom, I mean – was pregnant with me, after the two of them got into some sort of huge fight with my grandmother.”
Valor cocked her head at that. “But that has nothing to do with you.”
Mystaria shook her head. “This wasn’t just some argument. Listen to what my dad wrote.”
Coming to the page she’d been looking for, she read it out loud. “‘I hope that when that miserable old bitch finally gets what’s coming to her, her punishment doesn’t stop at simply dying in agony. When the black sludge that she calls her heart stops beating, I want demons to come for her twisted soul and drag it to the very bottom of the Abyss, where she can spend eternity screaming for mercy that will never come. And I swear to any gods who’re listening that if Perennial Stock – I’ll never again call her Mother – ever comes near my family again, I’ll be the one to deliver her to that fate.’”
Grimacing as though the words left a foul taste in her mouth, Mystaria’s ears folded back as she looked at the shocked faces of her friends. “That was my first reaction when I read that, too. He never says exactly what happened, but for him to be that upset…”
It was Shadow who broke the awkward silence then, moving over to sit closer to Mystaria. “Why didn’t you tell us about all this when you suggested we come up here?”
Unable to meet the other mare’s gaze, Mystaria kept her eyes on the ground. “In his journal, my dad says that I was born only a few weeks after they left Bright Night, so my grandmother had to know I was on the way. But when my mom and dad died just a few months later, she never came looking for me…”
Seeing what Mystaria was leading toward, Spinner gave her a sympathetic look. “Mysty, that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe she didn’t know how to find you.”
“She ran one of the most prominent magic schools in the Empire, even if it is infamous,” laughed Mystaria hollowly. “I think that if she really wanted to, she could have figured it out.” Shaking her head, she couldn’t hold back a sniffle. “I know you might be right, that there are a lot of reasons why she’s never showed up. But I keep thinking that, if she was as mad at my dad as he was at her, maybe…maybe she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
Her lip quivering, Mystaria managed to drag her eyes upward, brimming with unshed tears as she gave her friends an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, you guys. I didn’t mean to keep all this a secret. It’s just that you were all so excited about getting some money to enjoy the festival…I didn’t want to burden you all with my problems.”
That was all Woodheart could take, a heartbroken cry escaping the druid’s lips as she leaped at Mystaria, wrapping her up in a hug…one that was interrupted for only a moment as Shadow forced the possessed pony’s robe back around her. “How many times do we have to tell you, no naked hugs!” huffed the masked mare. “It sends the wrong message!”
“I think we all understand what she means loud and clear this time,” murmured Spinner, moving in to wrap her hooves around Mystaria from the other side. “I know I do.”
“Me too,” added Valor, joining the group embrace.
“I swear, you’re all too softhearted for your own good,” muttered Shadow, though the words lacked any real impact since she joined in the group hug as she said them.
It was only after they eventually released each other that Spinner, wiping her eyes, let out a sharp exhalation. “Okay, that settles it! Mysty, on behalf of the group, I nominate you to be the one to go talk to Lex!”
Blinking at the sudden pronouncement, Mystaria found herself momentarily at a loss. “Huh?”
“She’s right,” interjected Valor. “It should definitely be you.”
“Wait, what-”
“I agree also,” added Shadow.
“I don’t under-”
Woodheart, going back over to where Littleknight had curled up near the wall of the cave, gave a single bark and nodded.
“And that makes it unanimous.” Standing up, Spinner pulled Mystaria up as well, spinning her around to point her toward the mouth of the cave. “Okay, go get him, girl!”
“Hang on a second!” Looking completely baffled now, Mystaria looked her friends over, trying to figure out what was happening. “This isn’t unanimous, I don’t-, will someone please tell me what’s going on?!”
Sighing, Valor stood up as well, putting a foreleg around Mystaria’s shoulders. “Look, we get that this thing with your grandmother is bothering you. But right now, you can’t do anything about that. So maybe you’ll feel better if you focus on what you can do, which in this case is making sure that the dark wizard – or whatever he is – we’ve thrown in with knows that we’re not going to let him torture anyone.”
“Besides,” added Spinner, “out of all of us you’re best suited for the task anyway. I mean, you have the most in common with the guy, since you’re both arcane spellcasters who’re deeply religious. Not to mention that if you can figure out a way to become chummy with someone as prickly as Lex, it’ll dovetail nicely with that whole ‘gain a greater understanding as to why friendship, rather than magic, is the source of Luminace’s grace’ mission that you’re on sabbatical for. Once the festival is over, you can go back to Luminace’s temple with your head held high!”
“And even if you can’t make friends with a bastard like him,” chimed in Shadow, “it’ll still be good practice just in case your grandmother turns out to be as awful as your dad said.”
“You guys…” Touched by how considerate her friends were being, Mystaria felt herself starting to tear up again.
“Also, try to butter Lex up enough that he’ll conjure some of that incredible food again, would you?” smirked Spinner. “My stomach’s finally settling down, and I’m starting to feel kind of hungry.”
“Even better, get him to teach you how to cast that!” Valor couldn’t help but sound excited about the idea. “Then we can eat that good every day!”
That was enough to make Mystaria snort in amusement. “You do remember that I haven’t even mastered the basic version of that spell yet, right? There’s no way I could do whatever he’s doing to enhance it so much.”
“Then at least get him to stick a few castings of it in those gems of his,” offered Shadow. “That way you’ll be able to examine them at your leisure. Besides, even if the food isn’t poisoned, I’d still trust it more if you looked that spell over first.”
Woodheart chirped what sounded like some sort of birdcall, before opening her mouth and gesturing to it, then toward the entrance of the cave.
Still chuckling, Mystaria held up a hoof in surrender. “I’ll see what I can do. Just be careful, okay? The ‘silent table’ spell I used to keep our conversation private is going to wear off in less than a minute, so please don’t trash-talk the pony I’m going to be trying to befriend, okay? It’s like Shadow said: if Solvei hears anything she doesn’t like, she’ll probably report it to Lex.” Her smile faded a little as a new thought came to her then. “In fact, she’s almost certainly told him that we’ve deliberately taken precautions to keep her from overhearing what we’re saying now. That’s probably making him suspicious.”
“All the more reason for you to get out there and chat him up,” encouraged Spinner. “So get going! Show him just how amicable an up-and-coming nun of Luminace can be!”
“But don’t forget to tell Thermal Draft to come back inside before you try and strike up a conversation with Lex,” advised Valor. “That way you won’t have to worry about her running interference while the two of you are talking.”
Shadow shook her head. “That’s a bad idea. It’ll make Mysty look like she’s talking to him about something she doesn’t want the pegasus to hear. A jealous girlfriend is a problem we don’t need.”
Valor scoffed. “She was the one who pushed him to work with us. That’s not something an insecure mare would do.”
“That’s because Lex has made it plain that he hates our guts,” countered Shadow. “If Mysty starts mending fences, his squeeze might start to get worried.”
“You know what? I can use a quick augury.” Pulling out her lute, Spinner gave it a strum. “It won’t be a full look into the future, and so won’t be quite as accurate, but a quick glance at what will happen if Mysty asks if she can talk to Lex in private shouldn’t be too-, hey! Quit it!”
Her yelling had no effect on Littleknight as the almiraj – tired of his attempts to fall sleep being interrupted – snatched the neck of her lute in his jaws and yanked on it, leaving Spinner cursing as she fumbled to maintain her hold on the instrument.
The sight was ridiculous enough that Mystaria burst into laughter, her earlier amusement at her friends’ antics returning tenfold now. It was only when she’d managed to get her guffawing under control that she shook her head, a warm feeling spreading through her chest. “I feel like an idiot now,” she confessed.
Looking up from where she was watching Woodheart and Valor help Spinner recover her lute from Littleknight, Shadow raised a brow. “What’re you talking about?”
Giving the masked mare a smile, Mystaria gestured at her and the others. “I was so worried about meeting my grandmother I forgot that, no matter what happens with her, I still have a family.”
Then she went to go speak with Lex Legis.