Talisman

Poppy couldn’t help but run her fingers through Oak’s soft, silky fur. They lounged on Kai’s too-large bed with her satchel full of grapes and cheese she’d snatched from the kitchen. Between the down comforter and Oak’s fuzziness, Poppy doubted she’d ever be more comfortable in her life.

The mid-afternoon rays which leaked in through the pane windows settled on her skin in a warm embrace. It was the kind of warmth that could settle one into a nap, and it did. Poppy closed her eyes one moment, and when she opened them the bedroom was dark.

She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Oak rolled over and gave her a good kick in his slumber before blinking into consciousness as well. Poppy rubbed her bruising thigh and made a face at him. It seemed napping with this mouse always led to unexpected injuries.

“Watch where you’re kicking,” she mumbled and then yawned.

“Oh, good. You two are awake,” Kai said from his desk, back facing them.

Poppy’s spine instantly straightened up. “How long have you been there?”

He glanced back over his shoulder with a sinister look in his eyes. “A good while, I’d say.”

She glanced around the room and found the curtains were drawn, the lamp on his desk was turned on, and he appeared to be elbow-deep in official-looking documents. She cringed, then thought of how this would have looked when he entered. She highly doubted any giant, especially royalty, would like to return home and find a rodent on their bed.

“This isn’t just an ordinary mouse!” Poppy quickly explained. “He’s very nice and actually a friend of mine. In fact, fairies are known to be able to communicate with wildlife--”

“He?" Kai repeated with a quirked brow. There was a slight smile on his face, but it was one of grim amusement.

Poppy didn’t understand his attitude. If anything, she would have thought he’d be more angry and less… smug. It was almost as if he knew something she was unaware of. Poppy furrowed her brows and glanced at Oak.

The mouse was crouched down and making himself as small as possible. “Oak?” she said, utterly confused. Poppy reached out a hand.

“Don’t,” Kai demanded. Something about the seriousness of his tone made Poppy obey rather than bare her teeth at him like she normally would. She didn’t like being told what to do, this was obvious, but she found herself listening now.

Kai turned his attention to Oak. “Stop messing around, Colette. Turn back.”

Oak stared at him and didn’t move.

The prince glowered. “Now.”

Poppy didn’t stop staring at Oak as he glanced at her and backed away. She moved to follow him. “Don’t,” Kai said. “Just wait.”

Poppy looked at Kai, then at Oak. What’s going on? Colette?

The mouse got a good distance away from Poppy and settled himself on the comforter. The air around him grew taught for a moment, as if there was a pause in reality. Then there was a sharp snap! as a spell broke.

Suddenly instead of a mouse, there was a girl sitting on the bedspread. Long brown curls covered most of her, but she was otherwise undressed. Kai wordlessly handed her a robe with his eyes averted and she snatched it with haste.

Poppy felt her jaw hanging open and she had to remember to close it. Oak was a giant this entire time? A girl named Colette? Why did this name sound vaguely familiar?

Kai winced when he caught Poppy staring at him and scratched at his neck. “You may have thought this was just a mouse you were communicating with, but this is in fact my younger sister, Princess Colette.”

The princess looked at Poppy with a face the color of roses. “I’m so sorry for tricking you!” she claimed and fell forward into a clumsy-looking bow. “I didn’t mean to hide it from you for so long, but I was having so much fun with you! And then you fell into my eldest brother’s room and I thought for sure he’d squish you!”

Now Kai was blushing. “Why would I do something like that?” he demanded, half angry, half embarrassed.

“Because you’re cruel!” she claimed point-blank. “You always step on the bugs!”

Poppy felt her left eye twitch. So now she was on the comparable level to a bug.

“That’s completely different!” Kai argued. “You’re always crying and wailing whenever a bug crawls into your room, yet you cry even more when I kill it for you. Don’t you understand that makes no sense?”

“You’re supposed to catch it and set it free!” the princess rebuked. Poppy couldn’t deny how similar their facial features were. It was comical, how alike their angry expressions were, especially when aimed towards each other.

“Anyway, we’re getting off topic here,” Kai said and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose to release some tension. “Poppy, I apologize for my sister’s inadequacy as a decent human being. Also, she knew about you this entire time but I forced her to stay away for hopefully obvious reasons.” He cut a glare at her which she returned with her stuck-out tongue.

“She gave me the doll clothes while being fully aware of the fact I was giving them to you,” he continued. “She kept asking to meet you, but I thought it was too soon and, frankly, too weird. After all, you might have been able to realize she was the mouse after seeing her as a human. I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to meet her.

“I was going to formally introduce you eventually, but just hadn’t found the right timing,” he finished. “Poppy? Could you say something?”

She stared at the bedspread. Idly felt the stitching beneath her fingertips. This entire time, Oak had actually been Kai’s younger sister, Colette. The princess had also been aware of her existence this entire time, although she hadn’t approached Poppy because Kai thought it’d be a bad idea.

Sure, Poppy was currently shell-shocked, but it wasn’t like she was devastated. Even though Colette and Oak were the same person, though, it felt as though she’d lost something. She couldn’t exactly put her finger on it.

“Please don’t think badly of me,” Colette pleaded. She was still leaning forward so her face was quite close to Poppy’s. Her eyes were like molten gold. “I really wanted to reveal myself to you sooner, but this annoying brother of mine asked me not to. I didn’t want you to think I was avoiding you!”

Poppy stared at her for a moment and sighed. “I don’t hate you. How could I? You saved my life after all.”

Kai raised his brows like this was news to him but thankfully said nothing. Poppy turned her attention to him. “Did us meeting have anything to do with you?” she questioned.

He shook his head. “No. I swear I had no idea you two knew each other. At least not until Colette came running to my room in a huff, demanding that I let her inside.”

“I ran as fast as I could after you fell through the vent. Especially since it was my fault you fell through,” she hesitantly added with a nervous smile. “My brother wouldn’t let me in, though!”

Kai rolled his eyes. “Imagine that.”

“But wait,” Poppy said and immediately had both sets of eyes trained on her. She wasn’t used to this kind of attention and it took her aback.

She shook it off. “I thought you said magic didn’t run through the family,” she said to Kai, making sure to not give anything away. Poppy wasn’t sure if Colette knew of her brother’s heritage, and she certainly didn’t want to be the one to tell her.

“It doesn’t,” Kai returned coolly. “Colette, however, has a forbidden faerie talisman which allows her to transform into a mouse.”

Colette didn’t seem the least bit guilty about this and was more than happy to fish beneath her borrowed robe to reveal the large emerald set onto a thick silver chain. “I have to prick my finger and smear blood on the gem for it to work. It’s really painful, but being a mouse is fun so I don’t mind too much!”

Poppy’s eyes widened at the talisman. There were engravings on the sides in the old language. “Could I take a closer look at that?” she asked.

“Sure!” Colette agreed. The princess was more than eager to take off the talisman and set it on the bedspread before Poppy.

Poppy knelt in front of it and was almost startled to see her reflection in the gem. “When was the last time you polished this?” she asked.

Colette made a thinking sound. “Never! Not once.”

“That’s not something to be grinning about,” Kai chastised under his breath.

Poppy wasn’t looking at them, though. She was utterly entranced by this talisman. It was far too clean to have not been polished for saints knew how long, so it most likely had a charm placed upon it to prevent tarnishing. Not only that, but if this talisman could turn a person into a mouse an indefinite number of times… it had to be the work of someone with an unbelievable amount of power.

She read the engraving that wound all the way around the emerald, which was roughly the size of Poppy if she were to curl into a ball. It read, Es par et unes huef yednish echr vaniid.

This is for the ones who wish to remain unseen.

“A wizard,” Poppy decided.

“A what?” Kai said while stiff-arming his sister in prevention of her climbing atop him.

“This is the work of a wizard,” Poppy said with suppressed excitement. She could hear the warble in her voice and feel the shaking in her hands. “I don’t know how you came across something like this, but it’s very powerful. This holds more power than I could ever dream of conjuring.”

Colette’s eyes sparkled with the realization that her possession was much more awe-inducing than she’d realized. Kai, however, appeared more skeptical.

“Is it dangerous?” he asked.

Poppy shook her head. “It shouldn’t be. I would take great care not to break it or expose it to flames, but it shouldn’t cause any harm even if it were to shatter. Wizards are the best of the best when it comes to these things, so unless it were on purpose I highly doubt this talisman poses any threat.”

Typically when magical items such as these cause harm it is due to the creator being inept. The magic they force inside doesn’t remain stable and eventually it bursts outward, causing an explosion. Fortunately, this is not the case with this emerald.

“The magic itself is contained within the emerald,” Poppy continued, “so if anything were to happen to the silver it’d only be cosmetic damage.”

“Nothing will happen to it!” Colette claimed and picked the emerald back up, admiring its green hues in the light. “I’ll make sure to take extra special care of it. I promise.”

Poppy nodded. “Good. Because I can tell you, those things don’t come cheap. That in and of itself is probably worth more than this castle, so don’t lose it.”

Colette’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head and Poppy couldn’t help but snicker.

“Thank you,” Kai said to Poppy. “I was always worried about her having something like that, but I couldn’t just take it away from her. You’ve made me feel more at peace... especially now that I know my eleven-year-old sister holds a treasure worth more than my inheritance.” He shook his head as if exhaustion were to pull him under at any moment.

Poppy grinned. “It’s a nice feeling, isn’t it? Where did she find it anyway?”

“If I remember correctly, she said she found it somewhere down one of the servant passages, although I doubt she remembers exactly where. That was five years ago, after all.”

Poppy raised her brows. The princess had been exploring places she wasn’t meant to go even at the age of just six. Poppy couldn’t lie to herself and say she wasn’t impressed.

The girl was holding the talisman beside Kai’s desk lamp and marveling at the green rays which ricocheted out the stone and across the walls and ceiling. The three of them sat and enjoyed the light show.