Bad Move

When the loud knock on the door was heard, Alexa just thought she didn't want to be seen in a bathtub with a naked Prince Klaus at all.

"Your Highness, it's me Dankmer!

Apparently, whoever Dankmer was, he was a man of Prince Klaus' utmost trust, because he barely said that and opened the door, without any qualms.

"Dankmer!" The Prince's voice sounded both alarmed and irritated. Almost at the same time, Klaus suddenly stood up in the middle of the bathtub.

Alexa still had a glimpse of the Prince's firm buttocks while she had the opposite idea of submerging. But all the Prince's sudden movement caused a great oscillation in the water, creating waves that entered the damsel's nose and mouth as she slid underwater. Then her survival instinct spoke louder than her need to hide; she spat out water and tried to get up, completely blind.

That was when she felt the Prince's hand push her down again for a moment, and she couldn't do anything about it.

She even heard, or thought she heard,

"The prisoner, something happened to him!"

Alexa wasn't sure if she had been seen by Dankmer or not, she just struggled with the horrible feeling of drowning. The pressure on her skull suddenly ceased, and the maiden felt it when the Prince left the bathtub, and a new wave of water came over her.

Her mind wandered away from the petite mort once more, and she saw at the bottom of the tub a topaz that was the color of Prince Klaus' eyes. Her hand reached for the object, but as soon as she touched it, female hands started to push her head and shoulders to the bottom of the basin, and no matter how hard she struggled and tried to break free, she heard the voice of the Shades howling in pleasure, echoing the words of the murderer, USELESS GIRL! She was running out of breath and realizing with astonishment that she was dying. She was being murdered.

The door slammed loudly, and Alexa emerged fully, searching the air with grief,

"AHHHH! 'Damn bastard! Damn bastard! He almost drowned me!" it was what she expressed when her lungs had enough air again. Her eyes and nostrils stung like hell and she must have swallowed more than a honeysuckle with the water.

As the maiden calmed down, the images in her vision started to make sense. Recently, one person had drowned: Nerissa. That view had probably shown the most recent death near Alexa, by the same means as the petite mort.

She was still angry with the rude Prince, but she was relieved to be alone, at least.

Indeed, the moment of idyll was over, and more or less as she predicted: a new opportunity for the Prince to show that he was a selfish idiot and that he would never take anyone else's interests into account before his own. But Alexa had no time to waste remembering how deceptive that man was, always so full of ruses and stratagems.

What to do?

Alexa had only one alternative: to leave Kielstadt as quickly and secretly as possible. Getting out of the bathtub, she searched the room for some clothes she could wear. There was actually a dress there, over a chair, which she didn't really want to think about who it belonged to. That had to do.

Minutes later, riding towards the capital, Alexa hoped that her hastily made plan could work. Although after the bath the tiredness of so many hours without sleep, and so many events in the last 24 hours made her blink again and again to keep awake. She knew she needed a little more resilience.

Now it was not only Prince Klaus obsessed with her, but also his father, Gutard von Donnersmarck. What had Klaus hinted at in his words? Did he talk about the 'Third Queen'? Did he fear that his father would want to take her as his wife? The maiden was not feeling very bright in this tired moment, so she decided to focus only on the plan ahead: leaving Kielstadt.

As soon as Alexa crossed the city gates, she went straight to the cathedral. There, it was not difficult to get a messenger to go in search of Father Gianpietro di Borghesi. He was the only one who could get her out of Kielstadt secretly.

Looking for a more discreet spot to await his arrival, the maiden snuck through the side chapels and found the entrance to the ossuary open. Alexa made sure that she would not be locked there by mistake, taking the locking bar with her, and went down the stairs. She would spend time there while waiting for the messenger to go to the castle and return with the Florentine clergyman.

She was not afraid of bones. They were nothing but remains. Alexa just had a little curiosity about the past. The maiden was sure that most of the names on the wall signs were now Shades lost without any solace, wandering the castle.

She read their names and tried to imagine what kind of people they were. BARTHOLD ZWICK, FLOREKE VON HORGEN, OTILIEN TETTINGEN, ELSE AIGELS. There was a ZILDA BARTOLLINI, LOVED MAID OF PRINCESS LAETITIA. It was not the only name of Italian origin there.

Alexa sat for a moment on the stairs, to rest a bit. She really hoped to have hired a messenger able to find the Priest discreetly, as she demanded.

Kielstadt's story was closely linked to the Italian court that had come with Prince Gutard's first wife, Klaus's mother. She was murdered and her son survived by a miracle. And now she was the Black Queen, a vengeful Shade.

While Alexander's mother was the White Queen, and had been accused of witchcraft.

All of it would be important if she were to stay in the city.

Or if her visions were relevant to the future. But the maiden definitely wanted to ignore the vision with the wedding tiara she had in her first petite mort.

But the most recent experience, the death of Nerissa, the maid, still left the Greek Lady with a bad feeling of incompleteness.

However, her body was overcome by exhaustion, and she soon felt the sands of Sleep, Sibling of Death, in her eyes, taking her away from this world. Her head rested on a drawer of the ossuary, and she hugged herself promising it would be just for a little while… She just wasn't able to resist the darkness wrapping her sleep.

When she opened her eyes again, remembering nothing but Alexander's beautiful, serene face, she met Father Gianpietro's blue eyes, shaking her shoulder gently,

"Lady Saskia? Please wake up. Lady Saskia?"

Her energy suddenly returned, and Alexa had no idea how much she had slept; a few moments, or hours?! Putting herself on alert, the maiden pleaded,

"Father, please help me out of here!"

"Shhh! Calm down, bambina, calm down. Let's work it out!" Blue Eyes kept a half-smile, but his eyes did not follow his lips. Alexa, without understanding, looked around.

And then she saw the castle guards behind the priest.