Proposition from the prince

Prince Kristopher could not believe his eyes, Cornelius had been completely healed. There wasn't a single scratch on him, it was as if he had never gotten hurt, the monstrous injuries that had marred his body a few moments ago were gone. The prince was about to rejoice until a thought crossed his mind. It was impossible that this girl, this dark-haired healer, was just some ordinary townswoman. Perhaps she was a noble who was staying in the town for some fresh air, but he found that unlikely since her clothes were so pedestrian, and he knew there were no dark-haired families among the nobles.

The most plausible explanation was that she was a noble from one of the neighbouring kingdoms, or even worse a spy sent to infiltrate Girannon. Kristopher remembered that the dark-haired girl had entered with his newest recruit, Lucian Briar. He thought that perhaps Lucian could shed some light on her identity.

While Riley and Cornelius were still hugging, the prince told the other members of the Order to follow him into a private room. Once inside he spoke to Lucian.

"You seem to be acquainted with her Lucian, who is she?" he asked, looking sharply into Lucian's eyes as he responded.

"My lord, I'm sorry to say that I don't know much about her. She barely knows anything about herself either..."

"What do you mean?" Asked Alucard from behind them, "Has she lost her memories or something?" He scoffed.

"Yes, she has." Replied Lucian sombrely. Not impressed with Sir Alucard's Snotty tone.

"We only met a few days ago, I had injured myself in the woods and was unable to move when she came and saved me," Lucian explained.

"She healed you too?" Alucard interrupted, "How do the wounds that she healed feel. Is there still some pain?"

"No. She healed me completely." Lucian replied sternly.

"Lucian, did she tell you anything about herself, something that you thought was a bit suspicious?"

"Well your highness, her whole story is slightly suspicious, but the more I have gotten to know her, the more I have come to believe her, I think that she is a good person and isn't here with malicious intent. The only thing that she told me was that she woke in the forest and had no prior memories of her life. She told me the only thing that she remembered was the name: Riley Delton."

"A very unusual name, she must be foreign." Interjected Alucard. "And why exactly did you believe this story?" Questioned Alucard condescendingly.

"Well, my Lord, she had no knowledge of the customs of this world at all. She had to be taught how much money was worth and she had to be taught what magic was and she had to be taught the most basic things about this world. On the first day that I met her, she was even wearing trousers..."

The knights internally gasped at the thought of a woman wearing trousers.

"As I see it, there are two possibilities: she is either telling the truth about her amnesia and is a gifted mage from another country, or she is lying and is a spy sent from another country in order infiltrate Girannon."

The rest of the knights agreed. Lucian frowned, he had thought of the possibility that she was an enemy spy, but he had pushed that thought out of his mind because she had been so kind and generous and most importantly, she had been his friend – the first one in a long while.

<---------------<<<

While Cornelius and I were having a conversation about life in the capital, the knight with the maroon coloured hair interrupted us.

"Miss Riley Delton, the prince requests your presence." He informed me sternly.

"Braxton, is something wrong?" Asked Cornelius, seeming unsettled by the other knight's tone.

I noticed that the knight called Braxton did not answer and I felt dread form in the pit of my stomach. However, I got up and walked towards the door he pointed me to, the dining room.

On one of the tables sat the dazzling golden-haired, amber-eyed prince, looking like the main character in a medieval historical romance novel. His face had a pleasant expression: a slight smile and a steady gaze but his thoughts and emotions were unreadable, it was like looking at a beautiful mask.

"Please take a seat." He motioned towards the chair opposite him, and I shamefully swooned over his long slender fingers, adorned with numerous expensive-looking rings.

I nervously sat down opposite him, my back straight and eyes wide open.

"Do not feel uncomfortable Miss Delton, I have only requested your presence because I wanted to give you a reward." He smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

He placed what looked like a solid gold tablet in front of me. It was really beautiful and had intricate carvings on it, the central carving looked like the crest of Girannon that Elsbeth had shown me earlier. The tablet was about the size of a pocketbook, maybe a bit larger.

"Here, this is for you." He said still smiling.

My eyes widened. I knew the value of gold in this country was really high so I couldn't possibly accept this golden tablet.

"No ways! I really can't accept this! I really don't need a reward at all." I said, swiftly handing it back to him. The prince was way too generous.

He took the tablet from my hands and enclosed it in his palm.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked with a real smile on his face this time, waving the tablet at me.

"Well, it's a gold tablet with engravings on it..." I said a bit confused at his line of questioning.

"You really must have amnesia if you don't know what this is." He chuckled, with a sparkling glint in his golden eyes. "You have passed my test, Miss Riley Delton." Said the prince with a grin. Exposing his perfect white teeth. I gulped. Why were the men of this world so beautiful?

"What test?" I asked confused.

"I wanted to see if what Lucian said about you having no memories is true. If you were a spy you would have found accepting this amulet irresistible, because this amulet is the amulet that commands the armies of Girannon, whoever holds this tablet, commands the armies of Girannon and therefore owns the worlds most destructive force. The other kingdoms ah e attempted to steal this tablet many times, thus, if you were a spy from o e of the other kingdoms, you would have grabbed it and ran out of here back to your own country."

"Oh!" was all I could say. These nights were a bit too devious for me.

"Wait, what would you have done if I had accepted the amulet?"

I froze at the dark look that crossed his face. I realised that they probably would have killed me if I had accepted it. This otherworld was turning out to be slightly more brutal than I had initially thought.

"You were right Lucian. I too, think that she is harmless." Said the prince satisfied.

I looked back at Lucian and smirked at him. I had passed the test. I felt the need to gloat over him since it was probably him who told the knight's that my story was suspicious. So, I very maturely stuck my tongue out at him.

"Your Highness, she has a suspicious device hidden on her person." My jaw dropped instantly, I could not believe that Lucian and just told on me to the prince. Lucian only smirked at. How the hell was I going to explain away my phone to them?

I slowly turned back to the prince guiltily. He raised a perfect golden eyebrow at me, telling me to show him the 'device' or face his wrath. I grumpily pulled the phone out of my skirt pocket and held it up for him.

"How did you come by this artefact?" he asked, eyeing it curiously.

"I found it on me when I woke up in the woods," I replied.

The prince then stretched out his hand and opened his palm waiting for me to hand it over. I placed it gently in his palm. The prince scrutinised the device and seemed to be looking for something. When he had finished searching, he handed it back to me.

"What were you looking for, your Highness?" I asked curiously.

"The other kingdoms emblems on it." I was beginning to think that the prince was a bit paranoid about spies from other kingdoms infiltrating Girannon.

"What exactly does this artefact do?" He asked, his smooth and clear yet stern voice warned me not to lie to him.

"Well, it can take pictures..." I suggested.

"What are the 'pictures' you speak of? Do you mean paintings?" He sounded perplexed.

"No, not quite paintings but real moments can be captured on the screen in an instant." The idea of pictures was hard to explain.

"Suddenly the knight who was called Alucard interrupted, "So, it is more like an instant painting." He concluded from behind me.

I decided that the best route was simply to demonstrate. I turned around to face the knight called Alucard and held up my phone and opened the camera. I tapped on the screen to take the photo. I opened the picture and then held up my phone to Alucard so that he could see the picture of himself.

Knight Alucard looked shocked as I showed him the photo. His eyes widened as he saw the mirror image of himself within my phone. The same stunning silver-coloured hair, with the same spectacular silver-coloured eyes, the same sharp jawline and cheekbones that made him look half-elf/half Viking. I could tell from his perfectly put-together appearance and his attitude that he must be one of the nobles that Lucian told me about. His obvious prejudice towards a lowly plebeian like me leads me to this judgment.

"Hmm, interesting." He said as he eyed the phone greedily as if he wanted it for himself.

"It's cast to only work for me," I interjected sensing Alucard's desire to have it. The realisation that only I could use it seemed to make him less interested in it.

"Does it have any other features?" Asked the knight who Cornelius had called Braxton earlier.

I turned around to answer him, "Well it also has a torch feature." I replied.

"It produces fire then, like a torch?" He commented a bit confused.

"Umm... no, it doesn't produce fire, it just produces light." I swiped up and the screen and tapped on the torch icon. I giggled as the maroon-haired, gruff-looking knight jumped back as the white light shone from my phone. Immediately Alucard snatched it from me, but as soon as he held it in his hands, the phone turned off and the screen went blank.

"Don't be rash Alucard!" interjected the prince, possibly angry that his subordinate had been so rude as to snatch a lady's artefact. "Miss Riley already told you that the phone is cast to only work for her."

"I was just making sure that the little healer woman, wasn't lying to us." He defended sounding annoyed. Alucard really didn't seem to like me. Begrudgingly, Alucard handed the phone back to me, giving me a sharp sneering look. I shrunk back from him, feeling very intimated and small under his glare.

"What are your plans for the future Miss Riley?" Asked the handsome prince as he crossed his legs and look straight into my eyes.

"Well, I don't have any plans yet," I said honestly. All I knew was that I was somehow supposed to help better the lives of the people in this world. How I was going to do that I had no idea...

"Have you thought about going to the capitol and becoming a  mage or professional healer." I liked the idea of going to the capitol because I would probably be in a better place to make a difference.

"No, I hadn't thought of it before, but that is something I would like to do," I answered him honestly.

"Then it is settled, you should travel back to the capital with us, tomorrow." Announced the prince.

"Great," I said content. However, when I turned around, I saw a frown on Lucian's face.

I told my self to ask him what was troubling him the next time we were alone together.