(Ophelia)
***
"Dad!" Roslynn protested, not moving any closer or farther from the conflict.
*His hands… I'm not going to be able to get them off.*
Held like a paperweight under the irascible man's body, I was thrown to the ground in a matter of seconds, the carpet suddenly becoming a tray of spikes against my back. Each of my vertebrae clicked as I stretched on the floor while the sound was the fanfare that announced the surging of pain in my nerves.
Koharu was already sedated, so she was spared from experiencing the man's wrath as he toppled on me until my legs were numb.
"Ugh," I choked out. "M-Move off… me."
*Mind the windpipe!*
"Get away, Rosie. They could be dangerous."
The man's knee dug into my stomach, and the unhealed bruises made me yelp in pain. I didn't understand why he didn't get a guard to deal with me. At least then I wouldn't have had to deal with the whining (and he wouldn't have had to get his hands dirty—a worthwhile exchange).
My mouth twisted into a pretzel of a line, and my face wrinkled. I tried to resist, keeping my abdomen tight so that his pointy, sharp bones would not impale me like blades put to paper.
I muttered, "What—"
Roslynn ran to her father to pull at his back as he held me down, mumbling something about his servants and sentries.
He talked into a small device—one I did not recognize—with a thick antenna that was an accessory on all kinds of screens, yet this rudimentary item lacked the rectangular glass.
*I promise you: You don't need reinforcements! I'm not that strong, and the only weapons I have are my uncut fingernails!*
I contemplated the amount I would have paid then just to vocalize those two sentences and get his ass off me.
However, Roslynn was unable to pull him away. She continued tugging on him as Aries flew to the ceiling.
As if she held a bow and arrow, she shot a dart of magic at the king. It turned into a rope that reigned him in, and Aries pulled it back like she controlled a bull.
He choked due to the string around his neck, deprived almost entirely of air as his skin lightened to nearly cerulean. The fairy loosened her grip on him but did not let him go upon noticing this. Finally, he seemed tame, a domesticated cat that could not pounce but waited with sharp claws.
The king grasped at the rope, sliding thick fingers under it as his veins protruded.
"Aries, what the hell are you doing? They stole and committed other crimes! I won't tolerate that when they involve my daughter. Let me go!"
Aries simply smiled and ignored him.
Although my stomach still ached, the oxygen returned to my head. I knew grotesque brown marks had yet to appear, but I thought of them as patches of soil that would be washed off soon after soiling my skin.
The man continued, "You're lucky I get along with your father or else—"
Aries tightened the string-like light once more around him, assuming a familiar posture. "Can you listen a minute?"
The way she smirked, posed, and chuckled…
*Just who are you if I don't know you?*
Silence. A gurgling noise in agreement was audible after a few seconds as fingers began turning a cold blue.
"You already know how fairies can jump through time. You see Mr. Algor Ward and others do it a lot."
I perked up my ears at the familiar name. Resting on my palms, I lifted myself from the floor.
*I wonder if she has met Leo and Sinclair, too. Maybe that could be a pipeline for help.*
"These two," Aries said while pointing at my passed-out girlfriend and me, "are from the past. Someone sent them here."
Lazily and almost in an annoyed manner, she clicked her tongue. "Dunno who, but they need to get back. If they're causing trouble here, your usual punishment is exile, anyway. This is just exile with extra steps. And permanent." She found herself more amusing than needed.
I figured Roslynn filled her in on everything while I was in the bath, and I added to the conversation, "Your Highness, it's all true. Someone put a curse on Koharu, and now, we're stuck. It was never our intention to cause problems."
Awkwardly curled next to a mahogany table, she kept sleeping off to the side. She nuzzled her cheek against it, completely unbothered by the fighting taking place around her.
*This girl—*
"I don't care what you have to say," the king replied with a little malice, "but I trust Aries enough in this case, even if she's a mischievous kid."
He shook his head around, rubbing his temples. "Very well. Get them out of here before my next meeting." As he straightened his back, he dusted off his clothes.
"I have better things to be doing than playing tag with some kid. I need to go review a law about public transportation. And," he continued while the string pulled at his neck and made him hiss, "for fuck's sake, tie them up instead of me! They're dirty criminals!"
*Dirty, no. Criminals, yes. Try again.*
"Got anything else to gripe about, or am I A-OK to let you go?" Aries held up a circular hand sign with her lips pressed together, a thin chuckle escaping from them. "I'll deal with them, old man."
"Call me that again, and I'll reconsider."
"Fine, King Dakota." Rolling her eyes, she conceded, "Could you use your magic to help really quickly then?"
He placed a hand on the center of his forehead, pinching the dry skin as flakes fell to the ground like snow. "Will it get this done any faster? Why can't you just get Algor to help?"
"Yeah, it will." She sounded like she was begging for toys in the most monotonous manner. "And he always runs off somewhere. I don't ever know what he's doing."
"Fine. Do whatever. Hurry up." Clicking his tongue, he swung his arms.
He glanced at a clock with bright numbers on the wall—no hands in sight. "Y'all have an hour, or it's back to the jail with them."
"Gotcha."
Aries then slapped her wing onto Koharu's back to wake her up, and the cloud of dust that accompanied the action brought relief to me, wiping the bruises on my skin away as if they were never there.
Koharu violently twitched on the floor before sitting up with a slight gag. Eyes droopy, she glanced around the room as everyone observed her carefully.
*This is basically like the reaction afforded to someone who belches and gets indirectly blamed for it by the entire group.*
"Why am I always the one asleep when stuff happens?" A frown streaked across her face.
I shrugged back at her. "You're a sleepyhead, I guess."
She yawned in response.
Aries spoke again in a derisive tone, "Listen here, strange and belligerent people…"
I blinked at her without the tiniest hint of enthusiasm.
Her plan wasn't nearly as complicated as her embellishments made it seem. She explained that she needed to have Koharu and I stand somewhere beside a clock, and then, she and the king would zap us back to the past—provided we could give her an approximate year.
The way she talked, it sounded like we were about to rob a high-security bank.
"So we'll infiltrate the main room and cast a spell. King Dakota will handle the rear. Roslynn, you take the front, and I'll handle things from above. This should go smoothly… Just back to the 1800s, right?"
I nodded, and Koharu did the same as she rested her chin on my arm, digging the bone into the muscle. I sensed some quiet hesitation from her as she moved mechanically like a plow on a field.
With a cocky grin adorning her, Aries clapped. "All set then. I'll get the stones from the drawer, and I need you all to sneak to the front so that we can get 'Operation: Time Leap' underway—"
"This is not a James Bond movie, Aries!" Roslynn complained. Red coated her face.
*Is… Is it something naughty? None of that sentence makes sense to me.*
Aries snapped to change instantly from the castle attire into a detective's suit and sunglasses, pulling them down her nose to look menacingly over the top.
"Then, why am I dressed like this?"
*Ask yourself!*
The fairy flicked an eyebrow up. "Anyway, let's just get this over with."