Chapter 21. The letter

Everything happened in a blink of an eye. Aeinshia scrambling to her feet, Evan rushing to her side and Peter walking around the room. "Are you hurt anywhere?", Evan asked immediately while checking for any visible injuries on Aeinshia's body. Aeinshia blushed a bit, but slowly shook her head indicating no. But, Evan was not gonna believe it. He kept on examining her body with a scrutiny gaze which was a bit uncomfortable for Aeinshia. After all, it was an embarrassing situation for her.

"What happened?", Peter asked breaking the awkward tension in the air. Evan just glared at his friend for no reason but, kept quiet as he also wanted to know what happened. Aeinshia's cheeks were getting hot and she hung her head low to avoid showing how flustered she was.

Again, silence took over the room and nobody wished to break it. Aeinshia didn't want to share what happened and the two men wanted to know the reason. After what seemed for like forever, Aeinshia finally sighed, knowing full well, they weren't going to give in even if she kept silent. 'Honestly, these men can't get the clue. Can't they understand I don't want to talk about it?' she thought internally but, openly glared at both men in front of her, who were eyeing her curiously and obviously trying to figure out what happened.

"I tripped", she declared still holding the killer glare on both. Without a single word Peter started to inspect the room for any clues, finally understanding it was embarrassing for her to say she tripped herself.

"How?", Evan asked.

Listening to his question,Aeinshia got baffled and wanted to hit him, while Peter silently snickered at his friend's dumbness and imagining his future fate.

Coming back from her dumbness, she patiently answered him.

"Something caught onto my dress", Aeinshia said and immediately turned around pretending to check around. Evan's confusion filled face was now filled with relief. Poor guy.

Aeinshia turned around with a red face both with anger and from embarrassment. She mentally hit and cursed herself for being so careless. Cursing on whatever she tripped and fell, she wanted to find that thing.

She was searching the desk of the dead official and couldn't find anything. So, she stood up to search for more in the room. Just as she stood up and took two steps, she tripped on something and fell. After a blink, Evan and Peter came barging into the room, concerned.

Aeinshia saw a small drawer like thing hidden in the floor. She tilted her head slightly, confused about the peculiar built. Who puts a drawer in the floor. Then again, it must be a secret drawer to keep secrets. Suddenly, excitement took over her as the hope to find something lit up in her. She approached it quickly and slowly sat down to open the chest or drawer like thing. Their was a paper like thing poking out from the drawers. She immediately but, slowly opened it, not to damage anything that was hidden in that. When she opened it, her eyes lit up. Finally a clue.

She took a tiny sized paper, which was apparently a letter carefully in her hands. This was most probably a Crucial clue and she can't afford to damage anything. But, the excitement and curiosity soon faded and confusion came with full force in her brain. "What's that?" Evan's deep but, husky voice cut her mind and she jumped slightly, clutching the paper in her hands tightly. "I found it here." she replied a little breathless and pointed to the small drawer like thing in the floor, which was well hidden and almost undiscoverable.

He came beside to her while Aeinshia stood up to show what she has. Peter also came seeing Aeinshia has got something. Now, they were looking at the almost brown looking paper, which has black ink writing on it. It was clearly, an exchange of orders, seeing as the words were short and they looked almost demanding. "What's this?" All three of them spoke at the same time. They glanced at each other and then focused on the mysterious letter, which held the key to something.

Aeinshia's senses were kick in high gear. She knew something was wrong and she was happy she decide to tag along with them. In the past, when she was conspiring she also wrote short sentences like these but, these were in some sort of different language. "Was the person who betrayed me, planned this way before? I knew I was a pawn and he had many powerful connections. But, I don't remember anyone dying at this time. Does it have to do something with the meeting? Me involving or the grand announcement. He needs power and connections, why would he kill this official?" Thoughts went on in her mind. She thought to the night, this official spoke of marriage pact as an alliance. "Was it lily or Carmondy people?" She thought on all the possibilities for the situation in the hand.

"These are some kind of orders. Definitely.It is written like that from Palace . But, what's this language?" Peter questioned after observing the letter carefully. It was written similar to the letters the Palace issued. These were mostly like secretive when the need for communicating secretly, arises. But, the language was the problem. "Certainly their code." Evan spoke while tapping the letter once.

The letter was certainly written carefully and intelligently. The sentences were short. But, the words were all jumbled up. It was in the speaking language but, it seemed like an utter nonsense. It was a code language and they were sure, it would certainly give everyone a massive headache and restlessness to decode this. Samuel Cullen, was certainly plotting against the palace. But, the entire kingdom would go haywire if they knew about the possible murder and the mysterious letter in a highly respected official's house. Evan thought of the situation and knew there was something terribly going wrong. It was same as the letter. Everything seem to be simple to figure and look, until you step and realize it was a total hurricane. His senses were alerting him about some hidden danger, he was never wrong when estimating.

"Let's take this to the Palace." Evan finally declared. Both Aeinshia and Peter glanced at Evan and saw his intense gaze on the letter.

"Yes, this was going to be bad. But, how?" Aeinshia's thoughts again started to wander.