~RUNE
“What?” I exclaimed as I stared at her with wide eyes.
“You know how The Orin have crazy lust and hunger for blood, it was during one of his episodes that he attacked me,” Anna explained.
I closed my hands over my mouth immediately as the next thought began to cross my mind.
“D— did he actually—”
“No,” Anna cut in.
“Lord Morrigan stopped him.”
I raised my brows at her.
“Lord Morrigan?”
She nodded.
“He told him we were ladies arranged for the new Queen, touching us would be treason.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
Morrigan was the same Lord who set me up the last time.
Each time he looked at me, I could feel the hate he felt radiated from him.
“That’s insane,” I muttered.
“Lord Sylve is unstable. Perhaps almost as crazy as the king. What if he goes crazy and actually attacks you when no one is near?” Anna went on.
“You need to make sure you are never alone with him.”
I nodded slowly at them.
“Now, let’s go look at the pond!” Sofia exclaimed in enthusiasm.
I sighed heavily.
The pond was after all the main reason why I had run into Sylve in the first place.
“Okay,” I muttered.
Sofia pulled me gently toward the center where they must have met and gotten worried when they didn’t find me.
True to their words, the pond sat in the center of the garden with multiple colorful fishes.
They swam around happily like dancing rainbows, unaware of the world just outside this garden.
“It’s beautiful and satisfying to watch,” I muttered.
“I wish I could stay here forever with them.”
“I know right, they are so free,” Belle muttered softly.
I bent over gently and placed my hand in the pond.
The craziest thing happened, all the fishes began to swim toward my hand, tingling me and making me giggle in ways I never did.
“That’s strange, they like you…” Anna muttered in surprise.
“They usually disappear once someone does the same thing you are doing,” Belle added.
I shrugged.
“I guess they do like me.”
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pinprick against my finger.
“Ah!” I gasped, jerking slightly as the fish who did it darted away.
“Your majesty!” Anna cried.
A single drop of my blood rippled into the pond and almost immediately, the once happily swimming fishes froze.
Something in the atmosphere shifted as the water went eerily silent.
Then the fish lunged at once, swimming toward my blood, thrashing violently against one another as if desperate to claim it.
The women fell completely silent, also surprised by the scene before us.
“I— I think we should go back and start getting ready,” Anna stuttered, recovering first.
I nodded slowly as I stared at the fishes which were beginning to fall silent.
“Yeah… We should.”
Anna began to lead the way.
I threw one last look at the fishes who had finally stopped and were just floating, almost as if they were watching me before I followed Anna.
My heart was pounding heavily at the eeriness of what had happened.
I couldn’t explain it.
It felt way too strange, strange enough for me to know I had to leave.
An hour later, we were back in my room, exhausted from walking around.
There was a large box on my bed.
I frowned.
“I don’t remember leaving that there.”
Sofia smiled.
“It’s from the king. He got you a dress.”
I raised my brows at this.
I didn’t think Uriel would still do special things for me after realising I wasn’t Sayla.
Perhaps because we still needed to keep up the act of being in love.
“When is this dinner supposed to start?” I asked, hoping they could give me an answer.
“From our stay here,” Sofia began.
“It should start right after the sun sets.”
I looked out at the sky.
It would not be long before darkness fell.
“I guess we should start getting ready,” I muttered.
“Don’t you want to see the dress he got you?” Belle asked as she wiggled her brows at me.
Anna once again swatted her hard in the back, scolding her inaudibly.
“It’s okay,” I told Anna.
“You can open the box.”
Belle stuck her tongue out to Anna while Anna just rolled her eyes.
It was Belle’s awed gasp that filled the room right after she opened the box.
“It’s so beautiful!” She exclaimed as she lifted it out.
A red dress stared right back at me.
Instead of excitement, I felt my heart instantly erupt with fear.
Sylve’s words came back to me.
‘Red will look good on you…’
How could he have known?
Or was this just a coincidence?
My heart continued to pound heavily.
So much so that it became impossible to hear.
Echoes of Sylve’s tale began to come back and I felt as if I was starting to drown within all the whispers when—
“Your majesty!” Anna exclaimed.
This was enough to pull me out of the whispers I was beginning to drown in.
I blinked hard as I stared at them.
“Are you okay, your majesty?” She demanded, worry clouding her voice.
I forced a smile.
“I am. Let’s begin.”
They all hesitated for a split second before they surrounded me.
After what felt like forever but was only two hours, I was done and ready for the important dinner.
“She always looks so beautiful,” Sofia said as she stared dreamily at me.
I stood before the mirror and held my disguise necklace.
The red dress held my upper body perfectly, its corset shaping my waist before the gown flowed freely down my thighs.
The golden lines on the dress matched my eyes, just like it would a true Queen.
Sayla always looked beautiful no matter what she wore.
She was my idol after all and perhaps doing this was helping her live on within me.
“Let’s take you to the dinner hall. I hear they have all arrived and are waiting for you. Even his majesty,” Anna announced.
A cold chill ran down my spine.
It was time to step back into the dangerous world I had come into.
Spending time with my handmaidens had made me forget just how much danger I was in.
“I’m ready,” I whispered shakily.
They began to lead me out of the room.
We walked down the quiet haunting halls until we started to near a grand stairway which I was supposed to descend.
The sound of people talking filled the air.
The dining hall was down there.
“This is as far as we go,” Belle said.
“Be careful tonight.”
I nodded.
As much as I wanted to cling to them and beg them not to leave me, they were not the Queen.
I was and it was my duty to act my part.
I exhaled shakily, my fingers already getting cold as I slowly walked to the top of the stairs.
“People of Oraena!” The Herald called.
“Her Majesty, Queen Sayla has arrived.”
I froze as all eyes in the sea of black with little touches of darker colors below— turned up to look at me.
And there, slowly making his way to the bottom of the stairs— was King Uriel Vorn himself.
Clad in a black regal outfit, his hair allowed to fall freely down his back, his dangerous aura dominating the entire hall as he moved.
He took out his hand.
“My moon… I have been waiting for you.”
The one in red…