I see the vortex and I'm pretty sure I know what it means. I'm going back to Magicae. While I'm occupied with such obvious thoughts, Emira and Cassandra pull me into the vortex, and it's not like I could have done much, I'm completely fucking tied up! After heading into the vortex I see Evie's throne room. I've been here before but only once, and that was for the second grade field trip! Leila's sitting on the throne and Cassandra explains, "We found her, but not the others, or even the princess if you needed her."

"Now that you mention it, I do need her," Leila says, smiling at Cassandra.

"We'll return once we drop this one off," she replies, eying me with a look of disgust. I quietly imagine talking back to her, but know better of it. After talking to Leila, they drag me off and down some stairs. The dungeons? Please no! I think but I don't say it. After being dragged through the dungeons for a little I see Lily, Lana, and Ally, all tied to the same pole. They open the door and drag me over to the pole, tying me right above Lily so that my feet hang over her head.

"Bye, you four, we'll feed you tomorrow," Cassandra says cheerily, and she leaves.

"So, I'm assuming you three were sent here after we...uh...left?" I say to the others awkwardly.

"Yes," Lily says, "we've been here for hours with nothing to do but stare at the one interesting thing in this dungeon."

"What?"

"The water dripping down the walls," Lana says dryly, "that's the most interesting thing down in this shitty place."

"One good thing happened after you left, well, sort of," Ally says.

"What was it?"

"Lily kicked Cassandra," she replies, smiling weakly.

"She grabbed my neck after that."

"At least one good thing happened to Holly, Snapdragon, and I," I say.

"What?" Ally, Lily, and Lana ask in unison. I lower my voice to a whisper in case Cassandra or Emira is listening.

"We found the princess,"

"You did?" Lily says—almost screaming—surprised.

"Yeah, we were climbing through her window and Cassandra and Emira came. I was still outside but the others were inside so I hid alone, but they found me. At least I'm pretty sure the others are safe. They should be coming soon, I hope," I stare out into the darkness out the bars of our cell, as if one of them is going to appear out there but only one thing moves: the clouds. I sigh and go to sleep.

-={+}=-

I wake up from the sound of the door opening. Somebody comes in, ushered by Cassandra, and clearly is confused. She has straight, medium length brown hair. She looks up at us, probably wondering what's going on from the looks of it. Cassandra opens our cell and ties the girl beside me, above Ally. Cassandra closes the door and leaves, but not before saying one more thing.

"Food in a few hours," she calls. The door slams shut and we hear it lock.

"Who are you?" I immediately ask.

"I should tell you because...?" she says, sounding familiar.

"Ivy?" I ask, unsure if this is the princess or not; time in jail seems to make you slowly go insane and forget stuff I think. AND I DON'T WANT TO GO FUCKING INSANE!

"No, but..." she starts.

"Look, we're all prison buddies here, just tell us who you are," I say, interrupting her before she lectures us.

"I'm Jade. Jade Ohara," she tries to wave or shake hands or something but can't because she's tied up.

"Why are you here?" Lana questions.

"I don't really know," Jade admits, "the person who was holding me—"

"Cassandra," Lily corrects in a bored tone.

"Yeah, her. She came up to me and asked where Ivy, Snapdragon, and Holly are. I don't know who Snapdragon and Holly are but I know who Ivy is. I told her I wasn't telling—since it seemed like she wanted to kill her—and she grabbed me. She created a vortex thingy and I ended up in a castle. Some other person, her mother, I think, told me to tell her where Ivy was but I refused. After that she dragged me down here and you know the rest," Jade still seems a little disoriented but I decide to tell her our story. I begin to tell the tale of our land and how Leila took over and stuff. After the history I go on to tell the story of our failed attempt to save the planet. Jade just stays tied there, what else could she really do? Once we get to the Holly-touching-the-painting-like-an-idiot part, I let Lily take over and explain her side of things. She finishes after a minute or so and turns to me to explain my side. So I explain the whole finding Ivy thing, and that's when things get interesting.

"Ivy?" Jade asks.

"Yeah, so?" I reply.

"I know an Ivy, live next door to her. She's my BFF."

"Last name?" I ask, wondering if this girl is who I think she is.

"Shadow," Jade replies. I gasp.

"You do know her! Except her real last name is Sapphire," Jade faints, well, sort of. She's tied up, so she just falls limp.

"Good job," Lana says sarcastically, "she's fucking unconscious." I glare at her but she doesn't notice because of the pole and nobody being able to move. We stay silent for a bit and I do my best to elbow Jade. She still doesn't wake up but I can see her breathing, so at least I didn't kill her. How much longer will this take? I don't know how much longer we can fucking survive.

-={+}=-

Meanwhile, Leila Savvy wasn't happy.

"You've found so many of them and you can't find the princess!?" she says to her daughters. They nod silently before Cassandra has an idea.

"We'll grab their parents!" she says with glee, "We can threaten them with threats of violence against their parents!"  Leila smiles for the first time in a while and nods to her children.

"Find their parents, and bring them here. I also need you to go recruit my—friends," she smiles again as she draws out the last word creepily, and Evie watches through her spot on the wall. This isn't good, she thinks, but she can't do anything but watch and wait.