"So.. where exactly are we going?" Ella asked as she looked around, her shoes clicking on the floor.
"To try to find my dad... usually he's yelling at servants and stuff..... it's wierd... I dont feel his presence," Loreley explained.
"His presence?" Mia asked.
Loreley nodded her head.
"When a god or goddess have kids, the children get some fragments of their parents powers while still having their own. Thus creates a type of... pull..? I guess is what'd you'd call it. Basically it feels like being tugged by a rope. But I don't feel it down here," loreley replied as she lead the way.
Ella stopped walking, looking around.
"Do you hear that?" She asked.
Everyone stopped, turning to look at her.
Carol looked around before spotting tracks on the floor.
"Dog prints," she stated.
"Cerberus," Loreley replied. "He won't hurt us. He's basically a puppy.... a giant, 3-headed puppy," Loreley joked.
As the group continued to walk, the light at the end of the tunnel shone through the darkness.
The road ended, and just below, the river Styx flowed.
"What the...." Loreley muttered as she knelt down, examining the river.
"What is it?" Clarissa asked.
"Theres no souls in here. Like... at all.... it's empty...." Loreley replied as she stood tall once again. "That can only happen if a spell is performed. But my father would never have let that happen.... unless it was a soul who was working right underneath his nose. And even then, there has only ever been a handful of souls with that power, and they were mostly good beings," Loreley explained.
Carol raised an eyebrow. "I taught John how to practice magic when we were younger.... but he called it nonsense and hit me. Not nonsense anymore apparently," Carol muttered.
"How abusive WAS he?" Ella asked.
"To me? Pretty bad... but to Alistar?...... I try not to think about it," Carol replied.
Ella looked away, her eyebrows furrowed.
"So how exactly do we undo this? Put everyone back?" Alruna asked.
Carol and Clarissa looked down in shame.
"Back?" Mia asked.
"Well... yeah I mean.... having the dead walk around as if they never left... that's gonna cause problems..... They're dead. They aren't supposed to be here anymore," Alruna replied.
"But-"
"Mia... darling... she's right. We don't belong up here. It's not natural," Clarissa spoke, placing a hand on Mia's shoulder.
"But... we... we JUST got you back," Mia argued.
"Yes. But you Also gained my son.. and my husband," Carol replied.
"So. How do we fix it?" Eli asked.
Loreley shrugged. "I've never had to worry about it..... my father told me that if we kill the spell caster, it could work. But he put loads of emphasis on the word 'could'" Loreley explained. "And we don't even know if it was Alistar's dad or not. We haven't confirmed anything," she finished.
"Then what do we do?" Alruna asked.
"..... we kill king John and hope and pray that he was the one who cast the spell," Loreley replied.
The group stood in silence before Lireley transferred them back to the mortal realm.
"Come on. We have another war to win," Ella stated.
..........
Alistar hissed in pain as the guards threw him into the cell, his hand cracking unnaturally as he landed on it.
Ah yes. His cell.
After the guards left, alistar scanned the wall for the opening that he had used to escape more than once.
His hand burned. But he would worry about it later. He needed to warn people.
Finally breaking through the wall, alistar made a run for it, taking a horse and riding away as fast as possible.
He let out a shaky breath as Ella's kingdom became visible....
She would kick him out.. immediately. But he had to try.
It was one thing when it was him she was going up against.
But his father? His father scared him. A lot.
And there she was.
A crown on her head adorned with Amethysts, her purple dress blowing as her friends walked behind her.
He took a breath.
"Ella!" He yelled.
She turned to him, her eyes widening with so many emotions he could barely even make out what she was thinking.
Elias' eyes flashed pure anger and hatred as he stood in front of his wife.
Alistar got off his horse.
"L-listen I know I'm an asshole and an enemy to you right now but my father... hes-"
"Alistar?" Carolyn's voice gasped.
Alistar snapped his head away from ella and Eli, seeing his mom for the first time in the past 30 years.
"M-mom?" He asked, tears in his eyes.
Carol made her way quickly to alistar, not noticing the flinch he made with the sudden movement before she hugged him tightly.
His face morphed into shame as he cried, not hugging her back.
She pulled away from him, noticing the scratches and bruises on his face, as well as his broken arm.
"Oh my god...... he did this to you?" Carol asked.
"It's not the worst he's done......" Alistar muttered, holding his broken arm to his chest.
"Okay this is a wonderful reunion between the guy who tried to kill us 10 years ago and his mom. But I wanna know why the fuck he's here," Alruna deadpanned.
"R-right.. well i-"
"He can tell us after his arm is fixed up," Ella spoke out, her eyes not wavering from him once, her expression unreadable.
Alistar looked at her before looking at the ground in shame.
.......
The group stood in Eve's shop. Ella's kids had been passed over to Clarissa in another room as eve worked on Alistar's arm.
"So what's going on?" Mia asked.
"..... my father is planning on taking over the island.. all of it. Including Morellia...." Alistar stated.
"So basically what you did?" Elias asked, harshly.
"I didn't want to take over morellia. I just-"
"Then what DID you want?" Eli asked with a sneer on his face.
Alistar stayed quiet.
"I..... I know what I wanted.... but I didn't..... make the choices that made sense to get it..... and I did horrible things to people who didn't deserve it.... and I realize that, and after this you can do whatever the hell You want with me. But my father is worse. And he won't stop from a stab wound. Believe me," Alistar muttered.
"Why should we?" Elias asked.
"Because I have no reason to lie.... i.... I dont have the energy to lie...." Alistar replied.
"Do you have the energy for me to punch you? Because I've been fantasizing about that all day," Elias hissed as he walked up to Alistar sharply.
"Elias," Ella scolded from her place I the corner of the room.
Elias backed off, stepping away as Ella walked slowly toward Alistar, lifting his head up gently to look at her in the eye.
She examined his face.
His eye was bruised, almost black. His lip was split and bleeding, and his nose looked broken.
Ella sighed removing her hands from his face.
"I believe him," she stated.
He's a 10 but he grew up with parents who taught him that love was weakness and hate is much stronger, emotionally damaging him for life so he pushed away his lifelong childhood crush who was the only person to ever make him feel loved and betrayed her, threatened her, punched her in the face, was veeery pushy and threatened his people to fight alongside him for his own greed, kidnapped her father, kidnapped a child, kidnapped her lover, then killed him but then when she didn't crawl towards him he realized he was a bad person and he just wanted to apologize to her to save his own soul, and that he is still inlove with her but she had already fallen inlove with the blacksmith she barely knew but hey atleast he treats her with respect.
Deena cried happy tears the following night after her niece was born. She had the biggest smile on her face when her family celebrated her birthday for the first time. Alruna teared up when she held Hope for the first time. She LOVED her family. She was the first to hug Alistar when they talked about ab-se. She cried for her blacksmith friend when he unalived.
The only thing I'm glad about @disneyanddisneyships story not being a popular movie/series or something is that I never have to see someone ship Deena and Alruna romantically.
She's a 10 but she's a princess who befriended her kidnappers and fell inlove with a blacksmith, then helped her kidnappers rob her own father for the sake of escaping her arranged marriage with a white boy who calls her a bird.