𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟐𝟔

NOTE: I KNOW I DISAPPEARED FOR TWO MONTHS I'M SORRYYYYYY!!! MY WRITING MOTIVATIONS TOOK A HIT BUT NOW I'M BACK AND I'M APOLOGIZING WITH A DOUBLE UPDATE I HOPE YOU ENJOY

~~~

Night time was something Delphina never truly had the time to enjoy on the Isle. Not only was the island surrounded by a magical barrier, but there was a dense layer of dark gray clouds that had loomed above the island since its creation. No matter how bright and sunny it was across the sea in Auradon, the clouds on the Isle remained.

They were so thick and so permanent that, for a large chunk of her life, Delphina thought that was what the night sky looked like; sad and gray. The first time she saw what the night sky was supposed to look like was in a book that had been thrown in with the rest of the trash from Auradon and dumped on the Isle. The first time she saw it in person was her first night in Auradon, during the failed attempt at stealing the wand.

The first time she got to truly appreciate it was now.

It was nearing three AM. Her homework was done, her alchemy was solved, her notes had been taken. There was nothing else for Delphina to do but just...sit there. She tried watching random videos on the internet, then she tried reading a random romance novel, which she ended up finishing in barely a minute.

It was the spell Mal had cast. Her brain needed to be doing something with purpose. Otherwise, her thoughts would just race around in her head, anxiously awaiting the chance to continue working.

So, she had resorted to sitting at the bay window of her dorm and aimlessly staring out at the campus. There was the occasional freshman scampering across the lawn to go meet their friends wherever. Maybe a squirrel scampering by, uninhibited by hundreds of bustling teenagers. Other than that, there was nothing. Nothing but the night. Nothing but silence. Nothing but peace.

Peace.

It hadn't even been a day, and the word already felt foreign in her mind. Peace was nothing but a distant feeling now. A faded concept she longed for, like remembering a childhood dream.

How could she even achieve it now? Peace was hard enough to achieve before all of this, before faes and spells and alchemy, back when she was taking care of her family on a cold, cruel island of trash. But now? In this new land of magic and freedom and mysterious family history? She couldn't find peace in this. She couldn't navigate this. She couldn't navigate something when she didn't have footing or background in it.

Mal may have been new to actually utilizing magic, but she'd been studying it her whole life. She knew how broad the capabilities were, how much she could do with it. That was why she had been ten steps ahead of Delphina since their arrival at Auradon. Delphina knew survival. She knew fighting and lying and thievery.

But she didn't know magic.

Sure, she was learning the history of magic and what it could do when combined with science, but she didn't know magic. Magic was Mal's arena. It was an ancient arena full of traps, tricks, and starved lions.

And Delphina always seemed to be the one holding the raw steaks.

~~~

Delphina ended up getting ready for school two hours earlier than usual that morning. By the time Audrey's alarm had gone off at seven, Delphina had showered, washed and deep conditioned her hair, gone through the full skin regiment Audrey had been trying to convince her to use, picked an outfit, and even done a little makeup. It was a scarily rigorous routine.

You'd think she was some dumb blonde doing all of this to impress a boy who couldn't care less about her.

Audrey was rolling out of bed, barely awake, when she noticed her unusually dressed up roommate sorting out her bed and stacking library books on top of each other. Audrey paused, watching Delphina shuffle around her bed with even more concern than the night before.