Lunch And Discussions

An hour after the call from Mathias, and we’re all feeling more relaxed. Well, relatively speaking anyway.

Lena is no longer sobbing with Emma. Skylar has a discernible level of emotion in her face again, even if it isn’t much.

Mia’s even come back inside, Elsa in tow, looking a lot less angry than she was, which is a nice level of progress.

Belle came back inside a while ago. When I’d thrown a questioning look at her, she’d held up a hand in reassurance, and an expression that told me not to worry.

And when Mia came back inside a while later, it looked like whatever Elsa and Belle said to her had helped.

Nobody’s talking yet. I’m not sure any of us would know what to say if we tried.

Instead, we’re sitting quietly and thinking things through, while slowly sipping the hot chocolate that Ivy made everyone as a way of trying to help ground us all.

The sound of soft footsteps alerts us to Paige coming down the stairs. A moment later, she walks into the living room, looking red eyed and shaken up.

Ivy wordlessly offers her a full mug of hot chocolate that she saved, and Paige takes it, with a strained smile in thanks.

She sits down next to Ivy and I, and takes a sip of the warm drink.

“How are you feeling?” I ask her quietly, almost not daring to disturb the silence.

She takes a few seconds to think about the question before answering. “Not great.” Paige whispers, her eyes dropping to the ground.

I nod, and not really knowing what else to say, I offer what reassurance I can think of. “We’re here.” I tell her.

She looks at me briefly, the ghost of a smile touching the corners of her lips, before her gaze returns to a spot on the carpet.

The morning sun shines through the living room in an undeserved brilliance for the moment. This is not at all how I thought our day was going to go when I woke up this morning.

Paige leans her head against Ivy’s shoulder, and Ivy wraps an arm around her in a comforting embrace.

Paige doesn’t speak, but she’s at least not isolating herself, which I’m proud of her for.

Looking around the room, there’s a part of me that wants to try to motivate my guild to use Mathias’ threats as reason to train twice as hard. And there’s an argument that it would be a good idea to do so.

But something stops me. Training like that isn’t going to be beneficial if we exhaust ourselves in the process.

Rest is what we need. So I figure we can at the very least take the morning off to process that our families are now in mortal danger, and that it just became even more important to make sure we win the fight.

So instead of saying anything, I let us all sit there for a while. The room is silent, and the tension grows less and less over time.

The life returns to Skylar’s eyes, as she calms down from the initial shock of the moment. A determination that I’ve come to know from her, replaces the grief.

Lena’s not exactly sunshine and rainbows, but at least she’s no longer crying hysterically. She’s just absently cuddling with Emma.

Mia lays with Elsa on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Elsa massages Mia’s arm, comforting her the best she can.

Eventually, Ivy stands up and walks to the kitchen to make us all lunch. We’re all getting hungrier, even with the hours spent not moving, nor talking after the call.

Ivy, knowing that a good meal will help us all feel a bit better, declines when I offer her help. Stay with Paige. She says to me mentally.

Following her request, I take Paige in my arms, holding her and massaging her back. Paige gives me a small smile in appreciation.

When lunch is ready, we all quietly stand up and make our way to the dining room, sitting down as Ivy lays out a simple but delicious looking meal.

We begin to eat, and in stark contrast to how mealtimes usually are in the castle, there’s minimal chatter between most of us.

But after a while, we manage to start talking despite the tension still hanging over us all. The subject of musicals come up somehow, and Emma has strong opinions on them, apparently having a background in musical theatre.

Mia and Lena get more into the conversation, and it helps to relax the rest of us somewhat. I find myself listening with interest at how Emma talks about the subject, even with the strain from this morning.

Being a musical theatre actress, and having plenty of family and friends in the field too, makes her a pretty knowledgeable person about it.

“Are you okay?” Ivy asks Paige, noticing that she’s the only one who hasn’t touched her food yet.

Paige hesitantly nods, still not touching the food in front of her.

“Alright.” Ivy says, not believing her, but also not wanting to push her. “Well please try to eat, if you can. And remember that we’re all here if you want to talk.” She reassures.

A conflicted expression appears on Paige’s face, which confuses me. She seems to have an internal argument with herself, before finally deciding to speak.

“Mathias called me today.” She says quietly.

“What?” I ask.

“Mathias called me. After he called all of you, he called me by myself.” Paige says.

The somewhat lively conversation on the other side of the table dies down as all eyes shift towards Paige.

“What do you mean?” Mia asks, her voice betraying her worry.

Paige shifts uncomfortably, not enjoying all the attention on her, and clearly not enjoying what she’s about to say.

“Mathias wanted to talk to me alone, so he called me.” She says again.

“What did he say?” Skylar asks, her voice fairly neutral.

Ivy touches a reassuring hand to Paige’s shoulder, sensing she’s unsure about this. Paige shoots her a grateful look.

She gulps, a guilty expression on her face. “He said he had an offer for me. He said that if I told him everything about all of you, he would spare everybody. He said nobody needed to die, if I gave him the information he wanted.” She says quietly.

“What did you tell him?” Belle asks, a note of anger in her voice.

“Easy Belle. Just let her tell us.” I say.

The redhead shoots me an annoyed look, but doesn’t say anything in response.

Paige, tears forming in her eyes, struggles to speak. “I-I didn’t tell him anything. I didn’t…I didn’t know what to do…” She stumbles over her words.

Ivy pats her shoulder, trying to reassure her. “It’s okay.” She says softly.

“Hold on, that’s not okay.” Mia interjects, and we all look at her. “Mathias asked you to give him information on us, and you didn’t tell us about that?”

“He…he told me that if I told you, the…the deal was off…” Paige stutters, her voice breaking in the middle of her sentence.

“Wait, so you were considering it?” Skylar asks, looking hurt.

“No! No, I just…didn’t know what to do.” Paige blurts out.

“But it took you this long to tell us. It kinda sounds like you were considering it.” Mia accuses, her voice growing more upset by the second.

“Mia, hold on. Let’s talk this through, calmly.” I say to her, holding up a hand.

“No Gemma, this is a problem. We’re supposed to stick together here.” Mia shoots back at me.

“Wait just-” I try, but I get cut off.

“I am sticking with you! That’s why I’m telling you.” Paige says, the hurt evident in her voice.

“You should’ve told us before.” Skylar criticises her. Olivia shoots her a look, but Skylar doesn’t notice.

I can see something deeper in the shadow mage’s expression. The echoes of something. A far away pain.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t…” Paige tries, but she can’t finish her sentence.

“Okay, let’s all take a deep breath.” Ivy tries, but she’s ignored too.

“You know my past. You know what I’ve been through. Why would you keep this from us knowing that?” Skylar presses forward.

Paige’s shoulders sag and her head drops in shame.

“Skylar, I see you’re hurting. Please don’t take it out on Paige. She’s doing her best, that’s all any of us can do.” I tell her.

Skylar turns to me, her hurt deepening by the second. “Our best should involve being honest with each other. This doesn’t feel like honesty.” She says, the tears welling up in her eyes.

I don’t have an answer for that. None of us do, as silence falls over the table.

Skylar stands up, her chair scraping back on the floor. She exits the room without another word.

Olivia looks torn between following Skylar, and staying here with Belle.

She doesn’t have time to make the decision before Belle speaks up again. “I joined this guild because I thought you people were different.” She says coldly.

“We are! I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to tell you all! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” Paige stumbles over her words, everything tumbling out in a jumbled and barely coherent mess.

I try to comfort Paige the best I can, but Belle isn’t done yet.

“If we can’t trust one of our own, then how are we supposed to win this damn fight?” Belle challenges.

“Okay, Belle, just stop please. This isn’t helpful.” I tell her.

“No she’s right. How are we supposed to know that you didn’t tell Mathias everything about us? How do we know you’re not just trying to save face?” Mia throws out the accusation.

Paige recoils, the shock on her face mirroring my own feelings. “How could you think that? I love you!” She says, horrified.

“You have a funny way of showing it.” Mia says, shaking her head in exasperation. She stands up and leaves the table, leaving the rest of us stunned.

“Mia!” I call after her, shocked, but she just ignores me.

“What she said. How can we trust you after this?” Belle asks, the coldness in her voice like a hand around my heart.

Belle follows Skylar and Mia in leaving the table without another word.

Paige slumps forward, covering her face and sobbing into her hands, unable to say anything.

Ivy and I move to comfort her, while Emma, Lena, Elsa and Olivia can only watch with mixed reactions.

None of us know what to do. I thought we were going to be able to move past what happened this morning, but apparently it affected us all more than I thought.

I can understand why some of the others might be upset, but I trust Paige. I know what it’s like to be so overwhelmed that you become paralysed.

Ivy and I both hold Paige, and give her all the reassurance that we can, that we still love her, that we still trust her, and that while it might have been a mistake not to tell us earlier, that it’s okay.

I hope we can fix this. We all need to be able to stick together and forgive each other when we make mistakes. Both for our own sake, and for the sake of everybody put in danger by that awful man.