As it was the weekend, all the Royal children of the Palace had gathered at the twin's place to spend a fun-filled afternoon.
Normally, the children would be checking each other's progress in their skills even during the weekends.
They would do that, especially because of Joyce.
Apart from staying in the sa classes as the others during the day, Joyce would also spend her ti practicing the arts of witchcraft. And the others would be curious to see what new magic spells she learned during the week.
Joyce was already sixteen. By now, she had already mastered the healing branch of magic. And needless to say, she was also adept at offensive fighting spells. Her defensive side still needed improvent though.
Though their usual routine was to see the progress, today, they were busy with sothing else. At least most of them.
Ramon was the oddball who was practicing his hand-to-hand combat skills in the backyard.
The others were casually lying down on the sofa of the living room while gossiping with each other.
A boy with ebony-colored irises rested his head on Joyce's lap. He looked up at Joyce's face and questioned her while displaying great curiosity, "Joy, tell us more about that handso man you t on the Golden Street."
Joyce scoffed and lightly ruffled Zachariah's short light brown hair. "And who told you that he was handso? I just said that I bumped into soone."
Zachariah had a capricious smile on his face. Even though he was just five years old, he was one clever boy. "You wouldn't have told us about that incident if that man didn't catch your eyes."
"Ahahahaha…" Joyce laughed upon hearing his remark.
She leaned down and smooched that little boy's cheek. And she replied while chuckling, "Well… he was handso. Yes. But not as handso as our little Zach."
Niylah also rested her head on Joyce's empty side of the lap and asked with a smile, "And then what happened after you two bumped?"
Joyce pursed her lips and then sighed. And she pulled the corner of her lips as if what happened after wasn't as per her expectation, "Well… he looked at . And then he ran away. He didn't even apologize for bumping into ."
Niylah creased her brows and probed, "Why? Did he realize that you are a Princess? Weren't you in a proper disguise?"
"I don't think–"
"Hey, what's the latest gossip?" Ariel suddenly barged inside the room and jumped on the nearby sofa.
Damien followed closely after and sat beside Ariel.
Joyce narrowed her eyes at those two and asked teasingly, "And where did you two lovebirds disappear to?"
"We're not lovebirds!" Both Ariel and Damien shouted simultaneously.
Joyce laughed and said, "I was just teasing you two. Why are you two suddenly worked up?"
Damien wanted to get away from the annoying Joyce who would always tease him and Ariel and make him blush. So he looked around and asked, "Where's Ramon?"
"Looking for your other girlfriend when Ariel is right beside you?" Joyce saw the flustered look on Damien's face and teased him again.
Damien gave a corner-eyed look to Joyce and tried to threaten the witch, "Joy, I'm warning you! Don't make turn you from 'Joy' into 'Misery'."
Joyce pretended to shiver and whispered, "Ooooh… I'm scared…"
Damien rolled his eyes and thought that it would be better if he kept his mouth shut. The more he spoke, the more Joyce would keep on teasing him.
They all laughed and gossiped and enjoyed their ti together until it was dinner ti.
Because Damien would be leaving before it was stark night, they would have dinner a little early on the weekends. And the children would have dinner together. Sotis the adults would also join them while the other tis, it would only be the children in the main dining hall.
Zachariah ran ahead of everyone saying that he was way too hungry.
And Joyce, being the eldest in the group, was asking him not to run. "Zach! Wait. Walk slowly, dear. Or else you'll fall down."
Joyce was about to run after Zachariah to catch him.
However, Ariel tugged on her gown and asked, "Joy, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Yeah, what is it?" Joyce turned around and glanced down at Ariel.
Ariel looked at Niylah who had stopped for them.
And she said with a little hesitation, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you in private."
Joyce raised her brows in surprise because she never had such a 'private talk' with Ariel before.
"Even Niylah can't listen to it?" Joyce asked again so that Niylah wouldn't feel hurt. She was a little too sensitive regarding such things.
Ariel directly looked at Niylah who was already looking down and said to her, "Niylah, it's sothing related to magic. It's a little embarrassing so… you won't mind, right?"
Niylah forced a smile on her face and nodded. She then looked at Damien and asked, "Damien, you want to co along?"
"Sure."
Damien had only taken a step when Ariel gripped his hand and nervously said, "Umm… actually, I also need him."
Niylah pressed her lips into a thin line and tried to smile. But the dissatisfaction on her face for being excluded was evident.
Ariel didn't like making Niylah feel excluded at all. But she couldn't announce to everyone that she wanted to sneak out of the Palace.
She couldn't tell that, especially to Niylah, because Niylah was the type of girl who could never lie no matter how badly she wanted to.
Ariel was confident that Niylah would never knowingly snitch on her. However, if the adults were to ask one right question then she would spill everything she knew.
So Ariel thought that it would be better to apologize to Niylah later than tell her everything about the escape plan.
After Niylah left those three alone, Ariel dragged Joyce back inside the living room.
She closed the door and then whispered to Joyce, or rather, begged her, "Joyce, will you please teach the invisibility spell?"
Joyce suddenly had that mature look on her face. She folded her arms in front of her chest and asked sternly, "And why do you need to learn that spell?"
Ariel put on her innocent face and replied in a playful voice, "Nothing. I just want to learn everything there is to learn about magic. And the invisibility spell looks kinda aweso. So, will you teach ?"
Joyce frowned because she knew that kid wasn't telling the truth.
And knowing Ariel, she thought that Ariel would definitely misuse the invisibility spell to do so mischief, most probably run outside the Palace gates.
She didn't really like it that Ariel was kept inside the Palace as if she was so prisoner.
However, Joyce recalled sothing and thought to herself, "There must be a reason why the Goddess herself asked and all the other witches not to teach Ariel that particular spell, right? And there's also this barrier… all to protect Ariel from sothing…"
The young witch sighed and straight-up denied Ariel's request, "Nope. I can't teach that to you."
"If that was what this secret talk was all about then we're done here." Joyce then made Ariel loosen the latter's grip on her gown and stord towards the door.
However, Ariel was already standing at the door before Joyce even took a step from her original position.
"Joy, please. Teach ." A hint of desperation could be seen in Ariel's eyes.
And that was even more of the reason not to teach Ariel what she was asking. Joyce denied again, "I'm not going to teach that to you even if you ask a hundred tis."
"Then I'll ask you a hundred and one tis," Ariel said with determination. "Please. I'll do anything you ask to do if you teach that spell to ."
Joyce glared at that stubborn Princess and said in a stern voice, "Uncle Theodore will eat alive if he gets to know that I taught you that spell. And Aunty Adeline might expel from the Kingdom. So, the answer is simple. No."
Seeing that Joyce was straight up denying her request, Ariel then compromised on her demand, "If you can't teach then I won't force you. But can you at least put that spell on and Damien next week? After dinner?"
Now Joyce was sure that Ariel was indeed trying to do sothing that would get her in trouble.
"Why?" Joyce asked while giving a smoldering glare.
"I just…" Ariel clenched both of her fists and looked down at her feet.
And she replied in a gloom whisper, from the deepest corner of her heart, "I just want to know how it would feel to splash my feet in the flowing river. I want to know how it feels to run barefoot in the forest. And I want to soar high in the sky without being closely followed by my dad or mom."
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