12- The clone boy

"His disappearance was untraceable. It seemed he was helping a larger system," Simon announced. He strode nearer to Dominic and resumed, "All the souls he gathered for Mrs. Hamish were duplicates, unknown to her." He paused his speech, "Hunting him might guide us to our goal, don't you think?"

Dominic waited. He thought for an instant, "I think it's time to stop by an old friend." He said, and Simon turned his head. It was dark, so Dominic took a cloak and stepped out of the room.

___

"The officials aren't performing their duties? What's the use of keeping them?!" An irritated voice yelled. The shivering young man before him could only nod his head as he strived to avoid the wrath which wasn't ceasing anytime shortly.

"Make sure awful reports don't show themselves, now go and correct them." The young man nodded instantly and recklessly walked out of the door.

A few seconds later

The door opened.

"Better make sure those reports are corrected before entering, 'cause if not-"

"Still hot-tempered as always." The man who entered through the door spoke, to which the man yelling earlier shot his head up and peeked at him.

"Master Dominus!" The man exclaimed as he stood up shortly after recognizing the man before him.

"Long time, Maximus. You've aged." The man, Dominus, strolled towards Maximus. He settled on the chair across from him.

"And you're getting younger. How did you get past my guards?" He asked, although he already knew the answer he still wanted to be sure.

"They opened the gate for me," Dominus said innocently, despite knowing how far from innocuous it was.

"Did you impel them? The last time you did that I had to replace my trusted and most loyal men because their memories have been altered, constantly altered." He grumbled and looked at Dominus who had a bored expression on his face. Clearing his throat he asked,

"Didn't know you were in Verian, new disguise?"

"I arrived a few days ago. Still an archpriest."

"I've heard of an archpriest entering the kingdom but as a protector," Maximus said and earned a nod of admission from Dominus. "But the archpriest was a boy, not older than sixteen."

"Seventeen. I told you I concealed myself."

"Does the temple know about this?"

"I've always transformed myself, even at the temple." His tone was as if he was talking about food. He had even made the elder priests believe he was seven years old after turning into a small boy to enter the temple.

"How did you- that must be difficult," Maximus stated. He couldn't believe the late twenties years old man could keep himself as seventeen years old and that too for a long time. He had known Dominus [Or Dominic which he had heard the townies call him when mentioning the new archpriest in town] since he was little, they grew up together like a family, but after an incident, they became separated.

"What do you need?" He asks Dominus, knowing him, he understands he wasn't one to arrive unnoticed without the intention of getting something.

"Nothing Much," Dominus replied and adjusted himself on his chair. "Have you heard of the clone boy? A boy who duplicates?" He asked.

Maximum thought for a moment, then he nodded his head.

"Where can I find him? Apart from my investigator you are the next person who gets information fast." Maximus couldn't believe even when asking for help his voice was still hard, couldn't he speak softly when asking for something?

"I don't have information on that, it's quite surprising how a little boy gets to go in and out of a kingdom without being spotted." He said, but the look in Dominus's eyes made him regret his words.

"Appeared like you're tired and too old of being the council's head. I better prepare someone young for that post." Dominus said casually to which Maximus's eyes became wide from horror.

"I...I... will make sure to find out more tomorrow, Master Dominus, his Location wouldn't be hidden from us for long." He hastily uttered, knowing Dominus and his little patience, he understood better than to disagree with his requests.

"Good." That was all Dominus mumbled and stood up. He walks away without even bidding goodbye.

__

The moment Dominus left the council's head, Maximus's house, he changed back to his seventeen years ago self. He walked under the moonlight at a slow pace as he observed the night and tried to clear his head. Something ran past him catching him off guard.

"You are quite slow, aren't you Dominus, I wonder why they chose you." The figure that ran past him had then stopped behind him. His words only brought a smirk to Dominic's lips.

"And you're quite cunning and tricky for disguising yourself as a small helpless nine years clone boy, I expected something better from you," Dominic commented. He turned around and faced the boy behind him.

"You knew I'd come here." The boy accused causing Dominic to chuckle, not that he found what the boy said funny but because of how immature he still was.

"If I didn't I wouldn't be here. I think your little boy disguise is affecting your brain." Dominic watched as the small boy slowly transformed into a man, a man in his early thirties.

"What do you want?" The man asked calmly, talking harshly with Dominus wouldn't get you anywhere.

"Leave." His response was short but at the same time, it wasn't, not to him. "I excused what you did before but that doesn't mean it's okay. Leave and nothing gets out."

"But I-"

"Leave, Ryan, and don't come back. You know my limits." He said to which Ryan nodded. He transformed back into a nine-year-old boy and disappeared, leaving Dominic to his thoughts. He senses Simon coming and quickly composed himself. A few seconds later Simon appeared behind him.

"Your Majesty, I've got some news about the clone boy. He isn't a young boy, it's just a disguise and only a few people could do that trick which means he's from-"

"The clone matter is closed, but Thanks anyway." He interrupted Simon and stridden off, walking past a dumbfounded Simon. Something must have happened. Simon thought, and he was sure of that.

______

The next day...

Alexandra strolled around the house as she became bored. Lady Katherine and Thomas had been very busy these past few days including King Magnus, which then leaves her to Robert, and he wasn't the fun type. She would have gone to Dominic if he wasn't scary as hell. She walked aimlessly around the mansion before coming across a small hole that could fit her small frame to crawl through, and she did. She crawled through the hole and ended at the other side which was a room.

"Wow..." She acclaimed excitedly noticing how magnificently the room was decorated. However, she found the decorations quite unusual. Why was it decorated to the taste of a child? The only child in this Mansion was her.

She looked around for a door but there was none, the only entrance was through the small hole she crawled through.

Hmmm... strange?!

She shrugged it off and continued to inspect the room. The toys were big and plentiful, and the tiny bed was soft. She liked it here so far. The colors were very bright generating a smile on her face.

She lost track of time after playing with the toys and other stuff, and when she became exhausted she lay on the comfy bed.

𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝑳𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓

The patting on her back stirred her up from her beauty sleep. She didn't want to wake up as the bed felt so soft and the weather was... wait… freezing?

Her eyes shut open noticing how everywhere became cold, it was unnaturally cold. The pat on her back made her turn around to look who it was but ended up squealing after seeing a frozen girl in front of her. The girl was not older than six and she was all icy.

Alexandra shifts backward, away from the girl. She thought she was in a dream but the voice of the girl made her know she wasn't.

"What are you doing here?" Her tone was echoing, it was so loud and her ears hurt. She looked around and noticed it was dark and the small hole she had crawled through had been covered. She was trapped.

"N-Nothing-g..." Her voice trembles from fear. The girl before her was all blue, icy blue like how Leah's face had been, but the difference was that Leah was unconscious while the girl before her wasn't.

"Alexandra..." Her name came out as a soft echo from her mouth, it wasn't supposed to sound scary but it did.

"Y-you know me?" Alexandra pointed at herself with her slightly trembling forefinger, partly from the cold.

"Who wouldn't?" The hostility in her voice made Alexandra gulp.

"But I don't know you..."

"Of course, you wouldn't," The girl cuts her off, "People like us are peasants compared to you." The girl said and slowly moved towards her, to which Alexandra responded by moving backward, slowly.

"You are the reason many of us have to suffer!" Alexandra knew the girl was becoming angrier since the cold in the room began intensifying. Before she realized it, the girl forced her hand towards her, and her heart ceased beating for a second.

"Stop Right There,"