The beginning of the end

Time passed after the court meeting, and in the Phelter's estates all the eyes, ears and mouths were shut, to prevent anyone from talking about the day Raelian didn't return home. In the morning, as Alastair promised, a fancy carriage showed up in front of the mansion gates, with a knight from the imperial palace and Raelian sleeping soundly inside.

"Pardon me for the late hour, but this is an urgent matter! Notify the duke to open the…" but somehow the guards as if they knew what was going on, opened the gate immediately without waisting another minute. When the carriage stopped and the butler came out of the mansion, the knight lifted Raelian and he escorted them both inside. Since that day, all of her classes along with sword training and her two maids were removed, leaving the other servants to think that maybe she was being scolded by the duke, but no one has seen or heard anything about her since then, it was as if she was no longer there.

"It seems you have finally come to your sense, Raeliana! How have you been doing for the past weeks?"

"Good…wonderful if I must say. Is not like I have another choice except for acting like I don't care, do I? But as far as having a mental breakdown every two hours for obvious reasons and constantly seeing the bites that look like they would not heal, I would gladly say that I am perfectly fine and sane! I would rather say that I am starting to see things more clearly now!"

The mansion was strangely peaceful again, the atmosphere inside wasn't as tense as it used to be when Raeliana moved freely inside and outside the house, and somehow, they all started to get used to the idea that she was not going to come out again, except for only one person.

"Raeliana, I know you are in there! Stop ignoring me and come out!" Mireya was the only one who took the time every day and went to talk with Raelian, but each time she was left alone in front of her room to talk by herself without taking an answer or a sign that the other person was hearing her words.

"You are at it again today as well?"

"Spencer, you are here too?! Of course, it's been two weeks and she hasn't left her room. I am worried if she is all right or not. But why are you here?"

Spencer looked uninterested as always and passed Mireya with a cold expression, he was carrying a pile of books and a pair of keys in his right hand, and without knocking on the door or waiting for Raelian's response as she did, he opened it and went inside. Mireya on the other hand was frozen in place with wild eyes and ran fast after him "Spencer is not polite to go inside a lady's room without notice. Where did you even find the key?". Her eyes went all around the room, looking at how different it had become from the last time and how empty it felt when she saw that Raeliana wasn't there.

'Why do I get the chills by standing inside an empty room? It is not the first time I come here, but without Raelian, this place has a different air going around! Books, broken glass, papers, and torn fabric were thrown all over the flour, other than the bed, everything else is a total mess. Why did the duke take away her maids for? Her room needs a good cleaning as soon as possible!'

"Lady Mireya, is time to get out now."

"What do you mean by that, and where is Raelaina?" 'The books…he replaced those on the shelf with some new ones?! So that's why he came here for.'

"If you want to meet the young lady, she is currently talking with his graces in his studio room."

'Really?! I have to hurry then…if she finishes before I get there, maybe I won't see her anymore and Raelian will probably close herself again! Whatever has happened in the court, this is not the right way to deal with it. She has to talk with us…no, she has to talk with me about it and get herself together!'

Despite Mireya rushing down the hallway as if her life depended on it, Spencer who was left behind, looked unimpressed by her reaction, and started to gently pick up all the things Raelian had thrown on the floor. While collecting all the books, fixing and organizing each individual paperwork and party invitation which were crumbled into a ball and smeared with ink, he noticed something "What are these weird symbols? Wasn't she supposed to answer back all the invitations?" every time he took a paper, the same thing was written on each of them, over and over again. When he collected them and saw the papers all in one place his left eye twitched, 'I think, I have seen this before, but slightly different from what I remember.' then he took them, walked down into the kitchen, and threw everything into the fire with all the old books he had replaced. 'Yes, I am sure of it… she was too lazy to write an answer and only scribbled the whole time or just too bored and left it like that. Next time I have to be there and teach her how to do it right before she messes up in the future!'

Meanwhile, the talk between the duke and Raelian was not going well. The two of them were waiting for one another, which was going to get the word and start the conversation. The duke was silent, tapping on the table with his fingers while watching Raelian who was sitting in front of him, looking outside with blank eyes, lifeless and cold that it gave him the chills.

"Ahem! So Raelian, back to the reason why you came here. Last time we both agreed to give you a chance, to show me how worthy you are, and you failed. Not to mention how you stood up and took the first prince's side on his proposal without my permission, and whatever you did after that…well, let's not talk about it since I can clearly tell from what I see. So…are you here to give me an excuse? To change some parts from our contrate? Well, I don't want to hear whatever you have to say, so you can go!"

"…What if I told you an important detail that I deliberately left unclear from our last talk? What would you do if I said that you will have the future emperor's unconditional support after this?"

The duke got up so fast that the chair he was sitting on overturned and let out a noise that broke the peace of the conversation, he slammed his hand hard on the table "What do you mean unconditional support from the future king? Don't play with me Raeliana! We both know that this is not possible. You said that you know the truth, but if you knew then this…this was going to make at least some sense if we were to talk for a reachable goal!" and looking at how she would react, but she didn't shake even a little bit. Cold…collected…silent! If she had to show emotions on her face, this was the best one to put fear in someone's heart without doing anything at all. Those who knew her never had the chance to feel the ice crumble under their feet, but those who had that luck felt that wild storm coming, looking deep into those shiny eyes.

'This feeling?! Why am I shaking like this…why am I feeling dizzy?! I am not scared, I am not! But the darkness behind those eyes, the glowing circle is just a trick to get the one who sees it closer, the more it shines the deeper I go into a dark hole!'

"Do you remember? I said that the princess of Iphoria, Adelaide was going to suggest war if the first prince broke off the engagement. Aren't you a little curious about the reason why he is going to do that?"

'Her face…why is she smiling so menacingly? She looked dead inside, that I thought that she was probably going to faint, just a minute ago!'

As she slowly got up from her seat, getting closer to the duke and pushing him with the tip of her index finger in his chest, looking directly at his eyes as she was smiling "I want you to send a message to the palace as soon as possible. Make sure to write that your beloved daughter is going to pay a little friendly visit to his highness, prince Alastair tomorrow! If he accepts it, you are going to see with your own eyes if what I told you is true or not." The duke gulped hard, surprised by himself he tried to think rationally and didn't want to leave Raelian to confuse him with the strange atmosphere it was created. "And what if he doesn't?"

That took her by surprise and that was shown all over her face, but it didn't take long for her to gain her confidence, so she put a little more force on her finger and the duke's body which had become weak every time he looked deep into her eyes, fell into the ground hopelessly. Now that Raelian was above him, smiling even wilder at the sign of a grown man below her gaze, she didn't have any doubt that everything was going to go in the way she predicted.

"You don't have to worry about that your grace. He is definitely going to accept it!"

'This kind of feeling is so satisfying. I love it! The one that makes you surrender to the strongest opponent, that makes you feel so weak that you have to forget about your dignity to save what is left from you. I never knew that kind of thing would come in handy in this world too because I thought that my existence was unnecessary, so I didn't give too much thought to the way I had to act in front of people. The more you know haa, the more you know?!'

"And what do you get from all of this? Why are you so on edge to prove something that has not happened yet?"

"Why, you ask? Well, you would never understand so I won't bother explaining myself to someone that can't find the reason to trust me. You have to do your work and I would do mine, the beginning of the end is coming so you better be patient!"