Chapter 16: A Monkshood Medallion

Meanwhile, Irene rushed to the palace at the first light of dawn. She swallowed her breakfast the hour prior and barged through the hidden gate and into Everett's garden without a shadow of etiquette.

"Aqua's foam, what is wrong with you unruly lass?" shrieked Everett in greeting.

"Good morning to you too, Everett. I'm here to finish up yesterday's task. I must leave early today because I have a meeting to attend." Irene hastily dropped her cloak onto the floor by the door's entrance.

She picked up her little spade to continue yesterday's work. Everett closed the distance between them but remained by the edge of the yard.

"We only have 2 days until the coronation," Everett vexed, "you need to complete this before then and get going because I can't be here to supervise you during then."

"It's fine because I wasn't planning on working during then either, I'll be at the coronation too." Irene shrugged.

Her father had received an invitation this morning with the imperial seal on it, it was addressed to him with the highest priority. So even though Irene was his heir, she wasn't allowed to peek until he has deemed it acceptable for her to see. She was sure that it was an invitation, the buzz of the townspeople this morning was enough to ensure her of that.

"What will you be wearing to the coronation?" She asked, starting an easy flow of conversation while she worked away.

X

Ayu glanced through the gates for the umpteenth time today. She was currently practising the art of hiding boredom behind a facade of indifference. Unfortunately for the guards stationed by the gates, they were forced to squirm uncomfortably as the soon-to-be-queen bore the weight of her gaze entirely on their unwilling backs.

Oblivious to the woes of the innocent guards, Ayu replayed the conversation between Kolfor and her like a broken record. She bit back a sigh, she should've tried to compromise with Kolfor and not agreed to stay in. It's so boring.

With a heavy sigh, she laid down on her bed again, her tail curled limply beside her as she stared at the ceiling. Out of sheer boredom, she decided to practice her human disguise.

Not all dragons could do it. Some are forced to use utilitarian methods like wearing a cloak or binding their tails up if they want to go undercover. As a member of the royal family, this was as easy as touching your toes. Some could do it better than others, some really couldn't do it even if they tried.

In her early days, she had to undergo horrendous training monitored none other by her father as she trained to maintain the disguise until it was as easy as breathing. She was the crown princess, the pearl centrepiece of the kingdom. Her priceless value is impossible to overlook by those who know what to look for.

Still, she was still young, she didn't like the suffocation of pandering to her countless enemies, so she keeps her crimson hair in full view even when she sneaks out of the palace.

Her tail shrunk out of sight, morphing with her spine like a piece of a mosaic fitted into place. Her blunt horns similarly disappeared behind her silken strands draped carelessly atop simple ivory, leaving nothing but a bump that would be unnoticeable if one didn't rub their hand over her scalp directly. The lack of mental exaltation lulled the dragon's lashes to flutter shut, she decided she was going to sleep until the day comes.

Now sleeping, any dragon could do.

X

"Alright," called out Everett. "Time to take a break, it's lunch."

Irene exhaled and rolled her shoulders. She didn't bother hiding the wince as her arms shook from over-exertion. She eagerly dropped the spade that started to dig into her palms and left irritated swollen spots behind.

The blond girl had her long hair tied up in a neat bun today, courtesy of Momo who lamented about the messiness of her hair the day before. It was a good call because now she didn't have to deal with the nuisance of hair sticking to her face while she labours.

"What's for lunch?" asked Irene.

Everett led them to his table, which was cleared save for a tray in the middle. The large tray had two cups of steaming hot tea polarly placed to one another. There were three plates, the first was a simple assortment of salads with bedewed vegetables, clearly the appetizer. The plate beside it starred a rich meal with a large cut of meat as the jewel with a layer of gravy dripping off its caramelised sides with a neat bowl of mashed potatoes and two boiled eggs on the side. The final platter consisted of nothing but a whole cake with white icing and countless strawberries meticulously arranged to resemble a rose on the top.

"Are these all for me?" Irene drooled.

Everett glared at her. "No, in fact, this was supposed to be for me. But since I forgot to inform them to give us an extra serving, we'll have to share this. Here, there should be... aha," he fletched a wooden bowl from who-knows-where.

"This will be your plate. I'll be doing the dividing." His hands wielded the cutlery with surprising agility as he effectively sliced through the juicy steak. Irene's stomach growled as the smell assaulted her nose, and her face flared like flames.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry," she apologised, flailing her arms around in embarrassment.

Everett gave her a proud sniff of his nose. "Just this once, I will let that slide. Don't repeat that again, otherwise, they'd accuse me of abusing my workers. Anyways, here."

The portion was small, but it was enough to feed Irene. Just as her finger crept towards the food, Everett's hand shot out to grab her by the wrist.

"You haven't washed your hands," he spat and released her hand. The little girl hastily scrambled to the wash bowl and washed the mud off her fingers. All while muttering about how uncouth Everett was acting and how "there's no need to grab my hand, you could've just said something".

The dragon's ear twitched in response, but he remained unmoved as he devoured his own portion with gusto. Irene joined him a second later but slowed down when she feasted on the cake that she left for last.

X

"Alright, I'll be going now, see you next time, Everett!" Irene called out, taking her cloak with her.

"Oh, that's right," she paused in opening the door to turn around, "you wouldn't happen to know where to find my friend, do you?"

Everett stopped grinding his herbs. His tail swayed in annoyance at having to stop, but he cordially asked, "what's his name?"

"Uh, I actually sort of forgot... Ayule? I think. I know she's from around here."

"Sigh," the dragon frowned, "did you have any idea at all where you were supposed to meet each other? You can't just wander around and hope to stumble into her, this is the palace."

Her fingers picked at her cuticles out of sheer nervousness. Her tongue dumbly responded with a, "No."

"Aqua give me strength," he mumbled. "Just take this, to show it to anyone who decides to stop you," he rummaged through his coat pockets and fished out a medallion.

Then came a moment of surprise as Everett flung the medallion towards her at a frightening speed. The metal object shot through the air and landed, in the palm of Irene's outstretched hand.

Irene breathed a tiny wince of pain because her palm hurt from catching it, but she didn't want to intrude on Everett any longer.

"Okay, thank you. Bye-bye Everett," she waved and left the garden.

The medallion given to Irene was in fact the crest of the Monkshood family, one of the many noble councillors of the parliament. It was a tiny little thing made of solid gold. A singular stalk of monkshood or wolf's bane was carved in the centre of the frame.

To Irene, this meant nothing except it didn't look as pretty as the Wincott's crest, which was a butterfly.

"Hum, I can walk through the main gate now," Irene remarked jubilantly.

She skipped in her steps, her feet again, unconsciously following the mental tug of where her friend slept in the confines of the palace.

X

As expected, she was quickly stopped the moment she infiltrated the palace's interior grounds. The facial features of the guard were hidden by the helmet, so it made Irene more intimated, but other than that, she was excited.

"Knight!" she squealed, scaring the guard ever so slightly.

"W-what is your purpose here?" He tried to sound intimidating, but it immediately failed when Irene began inspecting his armour with ferocious intensity.

"This is real steel," she murmured.

The guard whose armour was being knocked relentlessly by Irene's little knuckles picked her up with one swift movement. "Intruder, speak your purpose otherwise I will throw you out of the palace."

Irene squirmed in his grip, and in doing so, she dropped the medallion from her hands. The guard eyed the metal that clang to the floor, but when he saw the engraving on the medallion, his tail became stiff.

"Where did you get this?" he whispered, as if he was scared of rousing unwanted attention.

"Everett gave it to me so that I can find my friend. Now put me down, I don't like to be carried!"

The knight placed her down with a surprising amount of gentleness, his hands retracted with a shudder. This human girl was deeply connected with the Monkshood family's head and uttered his name with such intimacy... Oh god, was he going to be fired for upsetting her?

"I'm so sorry, miss. I, I never knew," he stuttered.

"Hm, it's okay, just don't do it again," she waved it off. She was just happy to be on the floor again.

She picked up the medallion from the floor and began interrogating the guard.

"Do you happen to know where my friend, Ayule is? She's nearby, but I don't know where she is. She has looong, red hair," said Irene.