It was weird. After that run in with Kori and her new gang, they backed off for a while. People started being nice to me again. Maybe they were just scared because there were now three people with Time Magic. Who knows? But whatever it was, it was nice to have some sort of normality for a while. Oh, and I did get a few apologies from some of the people I was friends with. They were on thin ice but I think they figured out why what they did was wrong. The others? Well, sometimes you just need to drop the dead weight. Friends come and go, right?

Now, because of my family's history, the whole 'things suddenly becoming normal' thing put me on edge like crazy. Can you really blame me? Things were fine then suddenly Enliatu was brought back from the dead and almost destroyed the world. Things were fine then suddenly the rebels attacked my school, kidnapped me, and almost destroyed the world. It was safe to say there was a pattern and I was expecting it to repeat. Things were normal so, naturally, something was about to try to destroy the world.

My friends noticed after a few days that I was even more on edge than usual. Because of this, Imogene came up with one of her genius master plans. She stormed into my room on the morning of our day off, pushing my door open with a loud BANG!, scaring the shit out of me, and declared we were going shopping. Because shopping solves all Creation's problems. Obviously.

After getting up, showered, dressed and breakfast, the six of us grabbed our things and caught the next airbus out to Lapide. 

It was a nice day and we weren't the only ones with the same idea. We waved to Nora and Nash as they wandered toward Starlight Plaza. Troy muttered under his breath something about being jealous of that before Maddie and Imogene pushed him toward Crystal Square. Sky, Isaiah and I all sighed knowingly before going after them.

Rule One of Shopping: Never get between Imogene and clothes. Seriously, just don't.

Imogene and Maddie led the way through the Square, pausing every now and then to gawk at something in the windows. Myself and Sky found ourselves getting caught up in their excitement. Troy, who considers himself "too manly" for such endeavours, pretended not to see anything he liked despite the fact he obviously did. Isaiah, who has never been a shopping person, followed along and acted as our voice of reason for money. I swear, we're not as bad as that probably made us sound. Promise!

By the time we'd worked our way down the first half of the Square, Imogene had Isaiah (ever the gentlemen) carrying four bags of clothes. Three of them were hers. The fourth was his. Maddie and I stayed close behind with our own single bags. Maddie's had some new makeup and mine had a mix of clothes, crystals and a very pretty knife. Sky had practically raided one of the gadget stores and was busy nerding about his new attachments for his computer to Troy who looked like he was begging the Gods for mercy.

We crossed one of the bridges into Starlight Plaza for lunch, finding a cute little bakery and café that Nikki had told me opened a few weeks ago. I'd been meaning to check it out but with classes and the incident that took place last time I was in town, I hadn't been back. A part of me was hoping the people working at this new store would have no idea what had taken place at the Seasonal Market. Unfortunately for me, the moment one of the waiters came to get our orders, he made a face that made it clear he did know what had happened. Funny how the ground never opens and swallows you when you want it to.

Thankfully, he kept his thoughts to himself and remained professional, taking our orders and heading back to the kitchen a little too quickly.

"Maybe he's excited to have a client from the Palace," Sky offered optimistically.

For the record, the fact I'm a Princess doesn't count for much. The crown of Lyriumia isn't passed through bloodlines, it's passed to whoever the God Naiu chooses to hold her power. My mum just happened to be the most recent person to become Queen, as did my Aunt (except hers was actually passed through her family's bloodline). The moment Naiu finds someone more worthy than my mum, I'm no longer a Princess. And anyway, the title is meaningless. There are plenty of people who live in the Palace who are normal people just like everyone else. The title is more a formality than anything else for me and, really, it's only caused more trouble than good.

We finished lunch quickly, paid, and said thank you to the workers who were trying very hard to hide their relief that we were—I was—leaving. If the others noticed, they didn't say anything. While part of me appreciated this, the rest of me wanted to scream. Y'know, in the way people do when they're frustrated.

"I'd like to go to Visionary and get some more charcoal," Imogene declared.

"No fabric this time?" Sky teased.

Imogene, our aspiring designer, has an unhealthy obsession with buying and hoarding fabric.

"Nope," the Firebringer answered cheerfully. "I want to get a few more sketch ideas for this new dress I'm thinking of down before I worry about that."

"Wow," Troy said, sounding surprised. "That's almost sensible."

Imogene flicked her fire hair toward him. Troy yelped and hid behind Isaiah who gave him a disbelieving look.

Troy laughed nervously and stepped out from behind theunimpressed Glacis. "Sorry, man."

"Visionary it is!" I said. "I'd like to get some seeds, too."

"I need to drop into Phoenix Creations to get some paperwork," Maddie said. "Might as well do it while we're here."

Troy moaned. "But I hate Visionary."

Troy doesn't believe in art.

"If we have to deal with your eating habits, you have to deal with our passions," Sky said simply. "It's not that bad. I've seen you eying the music shops."

Troy attempted to splutter out some denial but wasn't able to do so convincingly.

Honestly, being out with my friends and shopping really was helping me feel better.

So it was only natural that something happened to ruin our joy.