10 Giselle! Wait!

The panic grew intense. The sun lost its orange glow and soon retained an onyx black. Subject to the darkness as a result of the growing eclipse, the blood-red sky sent its ominous message across, depositing rigid fear in the hearts of all and sundry.

The darkness soon took over completely and the uproar increased...

"Good gracious!"

"What does this mean?"

"Is this how we get to die?"

"Somebody save us!"

In that instant, no one person could see the other. Husbands had gotten separated from their spouses, while mothers grew increasingly desperate to see their daughters who they felt were trapped within the enormous walls of the Castle.

Among such mothers was Lady Osborn who could not hold back her anxiety.

"Mr Graylock! Mr Graylock! For heaven's sake! Tell me that you are close by. Give me a sign. Say something. Oh God! Coming here was a grave mistake," said Lady Osborn to no one in particular.

She had long been separated from Mr Graylock.

With people scampering for safety in the heat of the panic for fear of being annihilated while they stood awaiting, it was almost impossible to not be separated from one's companion in the process.

Thus, Lady Osborn was separated from Mr Graylock, and Mrs Blythe also got separated from her husband.

Mrs Blythe's heart quaked within her garment as she held on to her breath for a minute. Then, she let go of the pressure she had inflicted on her poor lungs and let the polluted atmospheric oxygen diffuse into her nostrils while taking in hurried and desperate gasps. She was extremely worried for her daughter, Louisa, even more than she was for her husband, Mr Blythe.

'Oh! The heavens show mercy to my household. For I should not have come. If I had known that this would happen,' contemplated Mrs Blythe in her heart.

Unlike the others who scurried aimlessly, she chose to stay still in hopes that the storm would be over soon.

The darkness continued to increase in strength and soon crept into the Castle, paving its way through to the hall of Termarth and disrupting the ongoing ceremony.

The maidens screamed and were sorely terrified. Elizabeth held tightly to Giselle. While Louisa cursed in her heart that the odds were not in her favour to grant her, her one true request—to be the maiden of the new king.

'Poor me! My poor luck! I wonder if father and mother are okay as well,' reasoned Louisa.

The shrill cries of the maidens were truly bothersome to Briceus, as he began to grow regretful of the ill ordeal.

Standing up at once, he turned to Zeke whom he knew would still be by his side as he was not one to fret easily.

"Zeke! What does this mean?"

"Milord, I suspect that there has been a breach in the veil that separates the yonder realm from our world. A rift seems most likely and I don't know the reason for it," Zeke said in a calm tone that suggested to Briceus that the ill event was not a new occurrence to him.

"Hm, you mean we have visitors from yonder realm?" asked Briceus.

"It seems most likely, milord."

'This is strange! Why should this happen at the day of my inauguration as King?

Now, the rumours that have haunted me throughout my childhood would be verified in the hearts of everyone.

Why did father refuse to answer my question even on his death bed?

Why did he refuse to tell me if I was truly what they say I am... The devil's son!

Pff!

It makes no sense, and I should not let such baseless thoughts fuel my mind and corrupt my solid judgement,' said Briceus in his mind.

Everyone stayed where they were in anticipation of what would happen next, utterly dismayed.

Ominously, the light source from the flaming torches, several of which stood magnificently at strategic positions on the walls of the various corridors within the castle, began to go out, one by one; with the element of a whistling wind doing the deed to eliminate every source of light.

In that moment, a certain Royal guard screamed and dropped dead, then another, and another. And a total of seven bodies desecrated the Castle interiors at various positions.

As the screaming increased with the guard by the entrance to the hall of Termarth dropping dead as well, Briceus reached out for his huge blazing silver-sheathed metallic sword and drew it out.

He lay in wait for who or what would dare to be bold enough to attack him.

Briceus had his confidence sheath on him, because in either light or darkness, his vision was forever powered to foresee the incoming, an ability he couldn't understand the purpose of possessing.

Still, it proved useful at that moment and he was thankful that he possessed it.

While the maidens shrilled louder in panic, sweating profusely and ruining their heavy makeups, not one of them cared anymore about being chosen to be the king's maiden.

All they dreaded the most, was not making it out of the castle alive.

The hall was flooded with knights at this time, men who knew their way in and out of any part of the Castle, even in the dark as was a compulsory part of their training process.

Some surrounded the maidens. Some surrounded the King.

Briceus waited.

His right-hand man, Zeke stood on his guard.

But, as time continued to elapse, they saw nothing, neither did they see anyone.

Instead, the darkness disappeared gradually, giving way to a faint source of light from the huge torch lights which flickered constantly until they got stable.

"Strange!" muttered Briceus.

"The storm is over, it seems. Milord," said Zeke.

"I won't be so sure. However, dismiss the maidens! I have to get to the bottom of this!" muttered Briceus as he made his way out of the grand hall.

At the announcement that the maiden-selection process had been cancelled, every maiden held on to the skirts of her 'Ball-like' garment and skedaddled through the enormous corridors to make their way out of the castle.

Giselle and Beth were not left out as they joined in the race to make it out of the castle alive.

They had heard the desperate screams of the guards, the echoes of the hall doing justice to the frequency of the death-frightening sounds they had heard; sounds that gravely upset their senses.

As every maiden hurried out in desperation, Louisa ran as fast and made it out of the castle alive and in one piece.

While Giselle ran and kept running until she was no longer hand-in-hand with Elizabeth. But she was unaware of this.

"Giselle! Wait!" called Beth. But Giselle was soon lost in the crowds.

Knowing this, Beth concluded in her heart that there was no point in calling out to someone who was already far from her reach.

Still within the castle, Beth had made it to a cross route, a path where two corridors were linked. Unknown to her while she ran, the necklace she had secretly borrowed from her sister, Louisa, had fallen from her neck.

She was about to make it out of the castle when she realized how empty her neck was.

"Oh no! Louisa will surely notice and I can't have any more of mother's scolding. I need to go back!" said Beth to herself.

Squeezing herself through the crowd, she got to the cross-linked corridors, and tried to calculate the actual corridor she had initially taken on her way out.

Puzzled by the thought of it, she decided to trust her gut feeling and take any path.

'Both corridors should lead me back to the hall, I suppose. Also, I may not get back to the hall before I find Louisa's necklace and hurry ahead to join the carriage of Lady Osborn. Mother and father mustn't get home before I do. I need to act fast,' thought Elizabeth.

Meanwhile Giselle had made her way out of the Castle to her mother, Lady Osborn who had been rejoined by Mr Graylock because the climate had reverted to normal with the sun once again a blazing glow.

"Mother!"

"Giselle! My God! You are alive. Thank the heavens! We must leave here at once!"

Seizing her daughter by the hand, though in a subtle manner, Lady Osborn was prepared to walk as fast to the carriage with Mr Graylock when she suddenly remembered Elizabeth.

"Giselle, where is Elizabeth?"

"Mother, I thought she was with me all the while!" cried Giselle.

After speaking, Giselle attempted to turn around but saw no one near the likeness of Beth in looks or charisma and she panicked. All three of them panicked.

"My God! Giselle! The castle is a big place. How did you two go separate ways?" cried Lady Osborn to her daughter.

"Mother, I don't know. Truly we were hand-in-hand. I have no idea what happened."

As all three of them tried to figure a way out, Mrs Blythe was within ear shots at this point. When she heard Lady Osborn mutter Elizabeth, she knew Griffinwald had very few maidens that went by the name, Elizabeth.

Curious to feed her suspicions, Mrs Blythe excused herself from her husband and daughter, and took a couple of steps closer to the trio to try out her luck.

"If my ears do not fail me, dear Lady Osborn. Are you saying that my Elizabeth made it to Aegremonth in your company?"