She left them and went to her kitchen and brought back four small vials of pink liquid. “Here, take this. It will alter your faces so no one will know who you are. It shouldn’t last long, but we should be where we need to be before it wears off.”
Tim took the vial from Asilla, and without question, drank it. It tasted slightly like cherries. Asilla watched as they all did as she said. She looked at everyone, then seeming satisfied, said, “Okay, we can go now.”
She opened the front door and led them into the village. After so many twists and turns, Tim knew he’d never remember the way back, they stopped in front of a small shack. Tim looked at it doubtfully. It didn’t look big enough to hold the five of them, let alone have other people already inside. Asilla opened the door and motioned them inside. She stopped in the doorway. “I go no further. You will know where to go from here.”
She stepped back and closed the door of the shack, leaving them in darkness. Before Tim could question the point of standing in a dark shack, the walls seemed to shift, and he felt like he was moving. In the next moment, everything stopped, and the lights turned on. Tim was facing a wall that looked very familiar. He was back in the secret room! He looked at Anna. She recognized the room, as well. They both jumped up and ran from the room, Einna and Tre following them. “How did we get back in the castle?” Anna whined, “Everything we just did was pointless!” she stopped, seeing her parents, “Well, except that you guys are here now too. But I don’t understand how we’re supposed to find our grandparents now if we’re right back where we started!”
“You never had to find us. We’ve been here all along. You just had to be shown how to see us.”
Tim and Anna spun around. Behind them, sitting calmly in a room Tim hadn’t seen before, were eight people. Einna and Tre ran past them. Four of the people stood up and embraced them. Anna and Tim looked at each other. Einna was crying and hanging onto an older woman who looked very much like her, and very much like Anna, Tim realized. An older man was standing behind them both with his hands on their shoulders. Tre was also still greeting an older man and woman. Tim realized they were his parents as well. Tim had only been expecting Einna’s parents. Her parents were the royals- not Tre’s. Einna called Anna over and introduced her to her grandparents. They smiled happily and hugged her, then Tre’s parents also did the same. Tim stood where he was, looking away from the happy scene in front of him. Instead, he shyly looked at the other four people still, seated in the room. “I guess you’re my grandparents?”
One of the women, who Tim saw looked like an older version of his mother, started crying. Soon the other woman started crying as well. The two men looked uncomfortable and didn’t move to comfort the women. No one answered Tim. The room slowly grew silent. “Mit! Cire! How dare you treat that child that way!” the woman Tim assumed was Einna’s mother admonished the two older men.
She came over to him and smiled warmly. “Hello, Tim. I’m the last crowned Queen Anna. You may call me Grandma An, even though we’re not actually related. I’m very sorry for the way they are acting,” she said, gesturing to his grandparents, “They only recently found out about your parents and are still in shock.”
Grandma An’s comment about Tim’s parents seemed to wake one of the women up. She stood up and rushed over to Tim and grabbed his face in her hands. “You look exactly like my boy,” she whispered.
Tim could see the tears starting in her eyes again. Before he could respond, the other woman was also there, looking closely at him. “Yes, he looks like Prince Mit, but his eyes are Nelle’s. He has my daughter’s eyes.”
Both women started crying again, but instead of retreating, they hugged Tim, as tightly as they could. A loud cough echoed through the room. The women let go of Tim. One of the men stood up and came toward him. “I’m sorry, my boy. I’m your Grandpa Mit. Welcome home.”
Tim didn’t know what to say. The four people surrounding him, as the other man had also stood up at this point, were complete strangers to him, but he knew they were also the only family he had left. One by one they introduced themselves and gave him a hug.
His father’s mother was Grandma Amme.
His mother’s mother was Grandma Aras and his mother’s father was Grandpa Cire.
As everyone in the room came back into one group, he also learned that Einna’s father was Grandpa Leumas and that Tre’s parents were Grandma Eilime and Grandpa Siul.
Everyone eventually sat down. Anna was the first to speak. “How did you get here, in the castle? You weren’t here before. I was here all alone until Tim showed up.”
Grandma An smiled at her granddaughter. “We were always here. You just couldn’t see us, just as anyone who came into the castle through the door, if it would open for them, at this moment wouldn’t be able to see any of us, including you.”
Seeing Anna’s confused face, she continued, “Maybe I should start at the beginning. On the night before Prince Mit and Princess Anna were to be crowned king and queen, I saw what would have happened, if things went according to plan. I saw the Rebels attacking the castle during the ceremony and killing everyone inside. Then I saw them taking over, much as they have actually done. That is my gift. Every now and then I see things that will happen, unless we change them.
“So, I decided to change things. I went to King Mit and
