Lavinia’s been shot

Riley, Alice and Arcadia ventured further and further into the forest collecting the rarest and most beautiful animals they could find. On account of Riley, that decided not to kill all of the animals, but to simply capture them and then put them to sleep with Riley's black mist so that they wouldn't become distressed within the storage bag. Arcadia was key in capturing the animals, with her merge magic she was able to manipulate wood, thus she could make very good wooden cages from the wood of the trees to trap the animals in.

After an hour and a half the group had managed to capture a blue-blooded bull (which was quite a rare animal because of the royal blue colour of its fur), a fully grown phoenix (a brilliant and extremely rare bird that could use fire magic and lived at the very top of only the tallest Markenian trees), a crystalline snake (and extraordinarily large snake whose scales were made out of real crystal gemstones), a warrior shrew (a small mouse-like animal that could shoot poisonous metal quills out of its tail), a sorkinis quailer (a very impressive bird that was capable of belting out powerful yet beautiful tunes, Riley had thought that somebody was randomly singing opera in the middle of the forest until Arcadia had told her it was actually a bird), then lastly the asimenia fox (a stunningly beautiful silver-haired fox, that had glowing yellow eyes and very long whiskers that silver whiskers that dragged on the floor as they walked).

Since the three had travelled so deep into the forest they knew they would need quite some time getting back to the main tent, so they began their walk back to the tent with the use of Riley's mapping skill.

Alice had a proud glint in her eye, confident that she would beat her brother at the hunt this time. Arcadia had a cheery glow to her, she was grateful that she had had such an exciting and happy day with her new friends. Riley felt both the emotions that her two friends felt, proud of herself for being able to use her magic and cheery that she had had such a good time with her friends. All three girls were now excited to go and show the judges what they had managed to catch.

Ding... Ding...

"Aha! The bell." Called Alice excitedly as the three girls stepped out of the forest and into the clearing where the main tent was set up. Everyone was already there, waiting and chatting contently as the sky was starting to dye itself a bright orangey-pink, the sun was setting spectacularly that night.

"At last you have arrived!" Called Cornelius teasingly to his sister. Alice scoffed at his antics and marched over to him. "I hope that you at least caught something of note, unlike last year..." he smirked egging his younger sister on. Alice's mind snapped back to last year, when she had only managed to catch a grey-blooded Boar (the most common type of animal in the whole forest), she had been utterly embarrassed when Cornelius had managed to catch a blue-blooded Boar. Even worse, he had mocked her relentlessly for months, she would never forgive the unjust name calling... However this time with the help of Riley's mapping skills and Arcadia's wood magic, they would definitely come out on top and she would get a chance to tease her brother, for eternity.

Alice only snickered at him, she couldn't wait to see his face when the judge pronounced her the winner. Riley and Arcadia only laughed at their brother-sister relationship. Riley determined that it was some weird mix between loving somebody endlessly but also hating their guts at the same time. Sadly and luckily she was an only child and never gotten to experience the whole brother-sister relationship, however, since coming to Gismead she had really learnt the value of family from the Girannonians who seemed to value family above all other things. Well, wealth was also quite high up on the list...

Right on cue the announcer stepped onto a tree stump and began speaking.

"All contestants welcome back from your journey into the forest, we trust that your hunt was fruitful!" Alice giggled gleefully and nudged Riley and Arcadia in their sides. Yes, the hunt was very fruitful, she thought giddily.

"To make sure that everybody came out of the forest safely, some butlers will be walking between you to check that all the nobles who went into the forest came out safely." Immediately the butlers in the white robes politely and quietly made their way through the crowd ticking off names on their lists. "In the meantime, I have the pleasure to announce that the judges of this tournament will be Lady Ferelith Von Esterheim and her majesty, Queen Mirabelle!" proclaimed the man proudly. The crowd responded cheerfully by clapping and giving words of praise to the Queen and their hosts, all excited that they would have the chance to impress the Queen and Lady Von Esterheim by presenting their catch.

The announcer was about to carry on talking when one of the butlers swiftly walked up to him and whispered something hurriedly into his ear. The announcer's eyes immediately widened, then turned to whisper something back into the butler's ear. Both men wore their anxiety on their faces which caused the nobles to start whispering as they wondered what was wrong.

Lady Von Esterheim broke the silence as she called out, "Fitzwald, what is the matter?" At her words the butler suddenly remembered his place and covered his worry quickly, replacing his face with a face of piety and servitude.

"Milady, it seems that Lady Lavinia Hestia has not returned from the forest yet..." He said nervously. The crowd gasped, full of shock and worry for the poor lost lady. "Do not fear Milady. I have already sent some butlers to go and search for her." He assured not only Lady Ferelith, but the entire crowd who were starting to get louder.

Arcadia frowned, she knew something was wrong, she could just tell that Lavinia was up to something, something rotten as always.

"When was the last time we saw Lavinia?" Asked Alice as she tried to think back to earlier in the day. The last time she had really noticed her was before everybody had arrived, Lavinia had been fawning over Sinjin and persistently trying to get his attention.

"The last time I saw her was when the announcer was announcing the rules of the game." Answered Arcadia, as she remembered seeing Lavinia standing a few paces away from her, listening intently to the words of the announcer. Arcadia knew that Lavinia was no good with a bow and arrow nor very good at magic, and thus ever year she made sure to team up with people who were very strong in both areas, thus Arcadia had been quite surprised when she saw that Lavinia hadn't formed a group with anybody. Arcadia was now sure that Lavinia had planned something, something cruel...

"Riley, Lady Alice, I think Lav..." Arcadia was about to voice her concern to her friends when they heard a frantic pained wailing coming from a distance.

The whole crowd whipped around to see four white-robed butlers running out from the forest, the one in the middle was holding a weeping and hysterical Lavinia, bridal style in his arms. Lavinia's hand was placed on her forehead and the other arm was flailing about restlessly as the butlers carried her to the main tent. Her dramatic entrance was further enhanced by the blood that drenched the thigh area of her olive green gown with an arrow sticking out of her leg and her consistent wailing and pained cries.

The nobles gasped, completely shocked at the sight of her.

"Lady Lavinia!" "Oh, Lady Lavinia!" "Oh, Lady Lavinia! What has happened to you?!" Cried her posy of girls as they ran to her side and wept dramatic crocodile tears for her. Most of them were third rank nobles or lower, who wanted to get into Lavinia's good books (because they wanted the prestige that came with befriending a second rank noble).

The butlers entered the tent and lowered Lavinia gently, onto one of the sofa chairs. Lavinia shrieked as if they had dug their fingers into her wound.

"For goodness sake be gentle with her!" Scolded Lady Von Esterheim, thinking that the butlers had been careless with her. Lavinia grinned on the inside, knowing that she had now got everybody's attention. So she decided that she would start her performance.

"Lady Von Esterheim!" She Called out in a croaky and weak sounding voice.

"Yes Lavinia..." replied Lady Von Esterheim softly, as she approached the girl laying on the sofa. As Lady Von Esterheim looked down on the pitiful girl, she suddenly felt guilty for being so harsh with her the previous day at the garden party. The pitiful state the girl was in almost made her feel a bit guilty for snapping at her yesterday.

"Lady Von Esterheim... please help me... I have been wronged..." she said faintly, but just loud enough so that all of the nobles could hear.

"How has that poor Lady been wrong", "What on good Gismead happened to the Lady?!" The crowd of nobles whispered.

"How have you been wronged, dear girl?" Asked Lady Von Esterheim gently, taking a seat beside the girl on the sofa.

"Somebody purposefully shot me with their arrow, and then left me to die in the woods..." she sobbed. Lavinia grinned on the inside, her plan was working perfectly, she was gaining sympathy from everyone, even Lady Von Esterheim.

The crowd of nobles gasped at her words. "Heavens!", "My goodness!", "Lavinia has been shot!" "By whom?"

Lady Von Esterheim was taken aback by Lavinia's words, but they seemed to be true, how else would she have ended up with an arrow in her thigh?

"Who targeted you, Lavinia?" She asked solemnly.

Lavinia made sure that her voice sounded as croaky and weak as possible as she delivered her next lines. She even managed to summon up a tear.

"It was..." the crowd leaned in, eager to find out who shot her. "It was... Lady Riley Delton." She sighed out.

This time the crowd was truly shocked. They couldn't believe their ears. Could the kind and generous Lady Delton Who they had heard about really have shot Lavinia... Perhaps Lavinia was mistaken... Everybody turned and stared at Riley.

Riley was absolutely dumbfounded. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Had Lavinia actually just opened her big lying mouth and announced that Riley had shot her with an arrow...

Lavinia immediately picked up on the tone of the room, they didn't believe her, they couldn't believe that the saintly lady Riley Delton could do such a thing. Lavinia almost broke her composure and scowled at them, how dare they believe a third rank noble over a second rank noble.

"You see Milady... her arrow is still lodged in my thigh." She said meekly as she gestured to the arrow labelled with Riley's name, still sticking out of her thigh.

Lady Von Esterheim didn't want to believe it, in fact, she didn't, but she couldn't just dismiss Lavinia's claims as she was a second rank noble, after all.

"Lady Riley Delton, come forth." Lady Ferelith commanded firmly. Riley did as she was told as stepped forward into the tent and walked up to the group.

However, Alice suddenly burst forth from the crowd and interjected, "Lady Von Esterheim, Lady Lavinia is lying! Arcadia and I were with Lady Riley the entire day, we never left each other's side during the hunt. How is it possible that she shot Lavinia without Arcadia or me noticing?" Alice cried out. She was definitely the voice of reason that caused the other nobles to nod their heads in agreement, how could Lady Riley have shot Lady Lavinia, if Lady Alice and Lady Arcadia were with her the entire time.

Lavinia sucked in a breath as her heart started pounding in her chest; with Lady Alice backing Lady Riley, nobody would believe that Lady Riley had shot her. Lavinia's head was starting to spin and anxiety was creeping up on her because she would lose all credibility as a noble if they found out that she had actually stabbed herself with Riley's arrow in order to frame Riley for it. she was starting to panic she had to convince the others that Lady Riley had actually shot her.

"Then how do you explain Lady Riley's arrow in my leg?" Lavinia blurted out, forgetting to carry on acting weak and faint. Lady Von Esterheim and the other nobles noted the sudden shift in Lavinia's composure. Now most of them suspected that she was lying.

Now Arcadia pushed through the group of nobles and came to speak, "Lady Von Esterheim," She called out, "Lady Riley couldn't have shot Lady Lavinia because Lady Riley cannot shoot arrows. Since Lady Riley has amnesia, she has also forgotten how to wield weapons and thus, she does not know how to shoot arrows. So she couldn't possibly have shot Lady Lavinia."  Assured Arcadia, the crowd of nobles were now very suspicious of Lavinia's story.

"But that does not change the fact that Lady Riley's arrow has pierced me! How do you explain that?!" Lavinia snapped at Arcadia. Lavinia had now completely abandoned her wounded kitten act and was now just focused on defending herself. Alice and Arcadia immediately began to argue with Lavinia and the nobles behind them all erupted into a mess of opinions and speculation. Lady Von Esterheim looked between Lavinia and Riley and wasn't quite sure what to believe.

"I can explain it..." Riley chimed in, her soft voice barely audible over the bustle of the main tent. However, Queen Mirabelle had heard Riley's words and wished to hear what she had to say. The Queen simply raised her left hand above her head and held it there for a moment. As soon as the nobles noticed her royal hand in the air, they immediately stopped talking and turned to face her, and thus the room went silent in a matter of moments.

The queen spoke in a voice that was gentle yet firm and deeply soothing to its listeners.

"I believe that Lady Delton wishes to speak. Since she is the accused party, it would be best for everyone to hear her version of events."

Everybody then turned their attention to Riley, who stood in the middle of the tent, she was a picture of calm and collectedness. Riley knew he had done nothing wrong and was going to prove it. The room was completely silent as everybody just stared at her. Riley wasn't a fan of being stared at but just pushed that fear to the side in order to prove that she hadn't shot Lavinia. Even though Lavinia didn't have much of a case against her, Riley thought that it was best to stamp out rumours and lies like this definitively.

"I did not shoot Lady Lavinia." Riley stated simply.

"Liar!" Shrieked Lavinia. "She's lying!" Screeched Lavinia, Who was now in a state of desperation. She couldn't afford to have people find out that she had lied about the whole thing. She would fall into disrepute she would become an outcast, and even worse Sinjin would never marry her.

"Lady Von Esterheim! Queen Mirabelle! Can't you see that she is lying? All the proof that you need is right here! Look her arrow has been shot into my leg! This is all the proof you need!" She cried out, tears swelling up in her eyes and she pointed to the black arrow sticking out of her dress.

"Lady Riley." Started the Queen cooly, "How do you explain one of your arrows having pierced Lady Lavinia?"

Riley didn't quite know what happened but she had a pretty good idea as to how this all happened.

"My Queen." She began. "After the announcer had finished explaining the rules of the hunt to us, I went to the tent to retrieve my quiver of arrows and found that one of my arrows was missing. When I looked inside my quiver and saw that I only had eleven arrows labelled with my name, instead of the twelve that the announcer had said that each person would get." Riley then unslung the bow and quiver from her shoulder and held it up so that the Queen and all the other nobles could see. "Luckily Lord Alucard Von Esterheim was there and he very generously offered me one of his arrows as a replacement for the one I was missing. Therefore when I left that tent, I had twelve arrows, eleven arrows labelled with my own name and one arrow labelled for Lord Alucard Von Esterheim's name." The crowd of nobles then peered into her quiver and saw that what she said was true.

"Lord Alucard..." began the Queen, "Is Lady Delton telling the truth?"

Alucard first bowed to the Queen and then said, "Yes it is your majesty. I counted the arrows in her quiver myself and found that she only had eleven arrows." Queen Mirabelle nodded her head and Alucard stepped back to his place. The nobles in the crowd started their low whispers again. Some angrily denouncing Lady Lavinia for lying, some still believing her but were unsure as to how the arrow ended up piercing her. Lavinia was almost shaking in fear. It would all be over for her if she was discovered.

Queen Mirabelle frowned and then turned to look at Lavinia. She could tell that the girl was frantic and panicked just by looking at her. It wasn't the look of an innocent girl, but before she could go on denouncing people, she needed to find out the truth. But how? She could use the truth elixir on them, but it was such a waste to use that on such a matter. How would she resolve this...

The queen looked to her husband who had a distinctly displeased scowl on his face, her husband had always been a virtuous and righteous man, thus he especially hated trivial and dirty schemes like the one that had taken place before them. He thought it was disgraceful that nobles, who were supposed to be the pinnacle of Gismeadian society, could act in such a low manner. He refused to get involved in it.

In the midst of the confusion, the voice of a saint broke through. It was the clear and precise yet deep and wholesome voice of the First prince Geoffrey. "Guards." He commanded.

"Yes, Your Highness." Four men in armour replied back sharply.

"Go and fetch Lady Lavinia's maids." Everybody was silent as he gave the command and they silently waited for it to be carried out.

A few moments later the guards came back, escorting two young maids. One of the girls had a noticeable red mark on her left cheek, in the shape of a handprint. It looked as if she had been slapped violently across her face.

The two young maids immediately got onto their knees and bowed to the prince.

"Listen to me." He commanded. The two girls shivered in fear at being directly spoken to by the prince. "Do you dare lie to your Prince?" Asked Geoffrey coldly to the two girls.

"We wouldn't dare, Your Highness!"

"Certainly not your Highness!" The girls replied.

"Then tell me how your Lady ended up with Lady Riley's arrow  her leg." He commanded, his tone was cold and unforgiving, and the girls were very frightened. The first maid hesitated in telling the Prince what had actually happened and kept silent, however the second maid with the slap mark on her face, Sybil, had suffered so much of Lady Lavinia's ill will and abuse over the years, spoke out immediately.

"Your Highness. Lady Lavinia ordered us to go and steal Lady Delton's arrow from her quiver before the hunt started. Lady Lavinia told us that she would use it to frame Lady Riley and bring her into disrepute." Sybil said confidently. The other maid's head lowered in shame, knowing that their crime had been revealed. Lady Lavinia was speechless, she couldn't believe that her own maid had sold her out.

The crowd of nobles gasped loudly and erupted into noise at the revelation of what the maid had just pronounced.

"Here." Said the prince as he leaned down to the maid. He took off one of the gold rings on his fingers and handed it to the maid who had spoken out. Sybil accepted it gratefully and smiled a bright smile at her triumph over he horrid mistress. With this kind of money, she would be able to leave that household in search of another job. "This is your reward for being brave and telling the truth." Sybil smiled up gratefully at the handsome prince and then bowed her head to him.

"As for you..." The prince's manner became deadly as he switched to the other maid. "Guards take her away and lock her up on the charge of withholding the truth from royalty."

Two armoured guards left the prince's side and grabbed hold of the maid, who began to scream and beg forgiveness as she was forcibly carried away. Riley who was standing a few feet away was a little dumbfounded that it was an actual crime to 'withhold information from royalty'. She was dreading to hear what the punishment was for Lavinia who straight up lied to the queen.

"Lady Lavinia Izora Hestia, you have been found guilty of lying to Royalty, a crime punishable by death, however since this is your first offence your punishment will be decided for you at a later date. Guards escort Lady Lavinia back to the castle!" The guards then took hold of Lavinia who was too shell shocked to even protest. Her eyes were simply wide open and her mouth quivering slightly as the guards picked her up and took her away.

"Lady Riley." The Prince spoke again.

"Yes, Your Highness." Replied Riley, as she turned and curtseyed to him.

"Your name has been cleared of any stains, once again you are pure." Geoffrey said, looking at the dark-haired beauty before him. He saw that she was tense and watched as she let out a relieved breath and her hand went to her chest as if to calm down her heart that had been beating too passionately in her chest.

"Thank you, Your Highness." Again she curtseyed to him. The prince's golden eyes had a mysterious power that allowed him to see through people, distinguish their lies from truth, see their real emotions, as she looked at Lady Riley, he saw that she was exhausted and needed some rest, urgently.

It had been a long day for Riley, the journey to the forest, then the hours tracking through the forest where she had to use her powers, then the anxiety she had felt during the mini-trial she had gone through, on top of not eating much for the past three days due to the ongoing culinary onslaught of stew. All this suddenly rushed to her head and she felt faint, and before she knew it her vision started to blur and she lost consciousness and fainted.

Prince Geoffrey saw it coming and made it to her side in time to catch her.

"Go fetch her carriage and her maids." Ordered Prince Geoffrey, "I think Lady Riley has been pushed to her limits today." He looked down at her face and for the first time noticed a small mole, just behind her ear. It was a dark circular mole that looked so perfect and content where it was on her skin, for a moment the prince wondered what it would be like to be a small mole on Lady Riley's skin.

The other nobles were taken aback by the actions of Prince Geoffrey who was so being so gentle and caring with Lady Riley, who was lying asleep in his arms. Georgiana swooned at the sight of the gallant prince holding the beautiful dark-haired maiden in his arms. To her, it was like some wonderful fairy story.

Soon Riley's carriage arrived along with Edna and Agnes and all her luggage. The prince helped settle Riley into the carriage, while all the other nobles watched intently, still in awe of this gentler more caring side of the prince they had never seen before.

Agnes and Edna made sure their precious lady would be comfortable for the ride before taking off, as soon as they were satisfied with the arrangement of pillows and blankets that covered her they set off back to Riley's mansion.

After Riley had left in her carriage the party was still reeling from the events that had taken place. They were all so shocked that the once highly esteemed Lady Lavinia had turned out to be such a snake. However, the group was brought back to spirits when the announcer announced that they would be continuing with the judging of the hunt. Alice was excited to be named the winner, but she was sad that Riley wouldn't get to enjoy the moment with her. Alice decided she would write her a letter of the final results after she had gotten home.

A few hours later Riley was rocked awake when the carriage jolted as it rode over a large stone. She felt a bit confused and didn't know where she was for a moment, but she was quickly calmed down by the sight of lush green hills passing by in the distance. She soon fell asleep again and she began to dream of a golden-eyed prince who held her close.