— she will die.

"Master! Mistress! There's another one!"

"B-but, there's already been two in a day!"

"Make haste," Master shushed his wife with a swift flick of his wrist and got up to follow the picture of exasperation that was their daughter's maid.

His wife was quick to understand the cue and pinched the crinkled sides of her dress, abandoning her tea and taking longer strides to catch up with her husband of three decades.

Her feet were used to it; they'd bounce almost in patterned precision and if one were to notice the subtlety of the way their carpeted hallway had heel and toe depressions on calculated intervals, they'd know why.

"Where did you find it?" asked Master in a grim tone.

"Does anyone else know?" stressed Mistress.

"In the study room, it was the new tutor. People are yet to notice," the maid replied. She tiptoed over the carpeted floor, shoulders hunched, taking as less space as possible in the wide expanse of the hallway.

"Dear Merlin! He was the Grand Tutor's nephew! His family has been teaching the Imperial children for decades! We are doomed!"

The silver doorknob on the pristine white door was turned open and the concerned parents rushed inside their daughter's study room. White walls were dominated by dead plants, white bookshelves housed dreary books, a white table captivated the centre of the room— the study lamp glowing flourescent over a charred skeleton. Its dark bones let out a minute sizzle, followed by an occasional crackle, as it laid over a hollowing centre in the desk. A lone silver band on its ring-finger shone underneath the lamp light.

He was to be wedded.

Now his fiancee would hold another's man's hand to her deathbed.

Mistress stepped behind her giant of a husband, long sleeves pressed over her nose and tears brimming her eyes. One could only see and smell so many sizzling skeletons in a day and Mistress surely seemed to have met her limit.

Her husband, though, spared guts enough to eye the evidences of the former man's remains with equal distaste as the previous two.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"She wasn't here when I came in," replied the maid, head bent and fists clenching around her uniform skirt.

"It's the third of the day. What is everyone doing around her?!" roared Master, making the maid and the Mistress flinch away. His dark eyes widened with fury as the seconds clock ticked by, "I APPOINT YOU TO CARE. I APPOINT YOU TEACH. I DO NOT APPOINT YOU TO LET HER OUT OF SIGHT. FIND HER. THIS IS IT. THIS SHALL GO ON NO MORE. TODAY IS THE DAY SHE WILL DIE."