"This is useless!" Remus declared with a groan. "I've been through all your stupid files and not a single mention of a boy who's moved house whose name is similar to Vee!"

"Really?" Roman asked, leaning forward. He picked up a file and ran his hand over the cover, as if he would glean knowledge from that. "Are you sure you haven't missed anything?"

"Are you sure you haven't missed anything?" Remus asked. "Maybe Vee... maybe Vee was from somewhere different. Maybe he never existed at all."

"Oh, a forest sprite, huh?" Roman asked, anger creeping into his voice.

"Yeah, maybe!" Remus said, his voice rising. "Ro, what other option-?" Something out in the corridor caught Remus' eye. He blinked and stared at the corridor just to check.

"Scales?" Remus thought.

"Re, you okay?" Roman asked, turning his head towards the door and then towards Remus. "What're you looking at?"

Remus spared his brother a glance. "Hold on." He muttered before getting up and leaving the room.

"Scales?" Remus asked. "What're you doing here?"

Janus jumped and looked at Remus with wide eyes. Quickly, they tried to collect themself and fixed their cape.

"Look, I need to talk to you." He said. "It's about Vee."

"You know who he is?" Remus asked.

"Yeah. I'm his friend, remember?" Oddly enough, the word friend didn't sound so strange anymore.

"Where is he? Who is he?" Remus asked. Instead of answering, Janus seemed to zone out, looking at the wall across from him. Something like yellow fire danced across their eyes before they blinked back to the present.

"Look, I can't tell you right now," Janus said, "but go to the Summers House. Summers House, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, Summers House." Remus repeated. "What's going on?"

"I can't tell you." Janus repeated. "But go to Summers House and go to the garden. Or at least get Prince Roman to go to the garden. It's important, okay? Lock him out of the house if you have to."

Remus grinned. "I have been waiting my whole life for this day." He said, rubbing his hands together. "Thanks, Scales."

"It's fine." Janus hesitated. "And it's Janus. Not Scales." They gave Remus what could've almost been called a smile and disappeared.

"Virgil?" Janus asked. Virgil looked up and his face broke into a relieved smile.

"Did it work?" He asked. "Am I going to get out of here?"

Janus hesitated as they sat down. "It'll speed up the process, most definitely." He said. "But I can't say how long you're going to be up here."

Virgil's smile faded slightly. "Who did you talk to?" He asked. Janus shrugged.

"Well, your boyfriend and his brother were already trying to find you so since this is a dire situation, I thought I'd help the process along." They said. "So I told them where you live."

"You told them to come here?" Virgil asked. Janus nodded.

"They were looking for you already. You caused quite a stir at the palace." Janus said.

"And you said my siblings wouldn't recognise me." Virgil said, like he has only just realised. "But here I am. Locked in my room because one of my step-siblings recognised me. So what happened? What went wrong?"

Janus shrugged, looking down. "I don't know." They admitted. "I thought it would work. I must've made a miscalculation somewhere or something." He looked up at Virgil and hesitated. "I'm sorry, Virgil."

Virgil looked at the ground and pulled his knees up to his chest. "Whatever." He mumbled.

I'M TRYING TO MAKE IT BETTER, OKAY?! I'M SORRY, OKAY?!
Bye,
Blaize