The royals were eating their brunch at the mess hall patio. They were surrounded with pots of plants, and shrubs had grown on one side of the wall. There was a white umbrella at the center of each large oak dining tables. The greenery and the shade were designed to ease the heat of the scorching sun. The interior designer did a great job; she is definitely a renowned professional on her field. But the place was so obviously designed by one of the perishables---one of those that are not yet cured. It was an unnecessary effort because the royals had no need of the protection. Each royal's skin is the perfect ashy shade with a powdery finish. Not a drop of sweat can be found on their forehead nor any sweat marks on their clothes.
The appetizer was already served.
The Princess, the Queen, and the King arrived a little late.
Princess Alyssa is thankful to the interior of the patio. The umbrella and plants alleviated the heat but a sweat still escaped on the side of her forehead. She immediately wiped it on her palms.
All the chairs are occupied. There was no designation of seats in here, it is a first come first serve basis and the main family is no exception.
Alyssa winced. There were two seats available beside Ziloh. But as she scanned the room, she noticed an empty seat next to the incredible old woman. Zenalda has the most sagging skin Alyssa had ever seen, it is a shame that she would look that way forever. To seat next to the old woman is pretty much the second worse seat ever. Zenalda's toy dogs were running under the table back and forth. The other royals were jerking their feet every few minutes in an attempt to keep the dogs away from them.
Alyssa sighted and was about to go sit at Zenalda's side when the King decided to be a gentleman.
"I'll just… seat there." He pointed at Zenalda. "See you my Queen." He winked at Queen Kathy and shambled to the empty seat.
Alyssa had no other choice but to seat with the House of Arquall.
Queen Kathy sat beside Cliff, Ziloh's father, and Alyssa had no choice but to seat on the worst chair ever.
"Good morning, Ali!" Kiva, Ziloh's sister, waved at Alyssa.
"Morning Kiv," Alyssa beamed.
Ok, maybe not that worse.
"Such a shame I did not see you yesterday, rumor has it you almost got eaten!"
An appetizer was served for Alyssa and the Queen, the rest were already halfway through theirs.
Kiva was at the town yesterday to listen to the people's concerns. They would complain about the most mundane things but knowing that there is a royal listening would ease them up.
"Funny that I have no idea that happened yesterday." Alyssa was eating her hummus quesadillas. "Probably did not happen at all."
"Rumor has it that you have a life debt to pay." The man in the middle, Ziloh, interjected. "And I have an idea on how you can pay in full." Ziloh did a once over on Alyssa.
"Dear brother, protecting the princess is a duty." Alyssa reminded him. "And an honor." She added.
"I think I just heard the devil's voice... " Alyssa looked at him as if noticing him for the first time."…and saw the devil's face."
"Then I should punish you tonight for being such a bad girl." Ziloh lowered his voice. "And I will gag that damn mouth of yours for lying."
"Ew," Kiva covered both of her ears. "picturing your best friend and brother together is not a good sight."
"Ew, no. Not gonna happen." Alyssa declared.
"Keep lying with that mouth of yours and I swear it's going to hurt." Ziloh smirked.
"You know my mother could hear you right?"
Ziloh shrugged.
"OMG!" Kiva smacked the table. "What if you get pregnant like on that Twilight Series?"
A few royals looked our way.
"You know that's fiction, right?" Alyssa reminded her best friend.
"I know, but it's a classic!" Kiva's golden eyes were wide open. "And everybody thought that zombies are fiction. Well, that was proven wrong! Eighteen years ago."
"Tone down your voice." Alyssa requested to her best friend.
"Did I say something wrong? It's the truth, and it's no longer fiction."
"You know we don't use that term in here!" Alyssa whisper-screamed. "Just… let's not use that word again." Kiva was about to open her mouth when Alyssa stopped her. "Not another word."
Kiva nodded, zipped her mouth, and threw an invisible key far away. Kiva raised her palms above her head and slightly bowed in Alyssa's direction, showing defeat.
The royal attendants carried the empty plates away and was replacing it with the main dish.
The main dish made Alyssa remember something.
Alyssa turned her head to face her mother to ask something.
But Cliff and Queen Kathy were having a conversation.
"Has it already been a year?!" Cliff is baffled.
"Yes, a year and two moths actually." Queen Kathy confirmed.
"More than a year! That's a record." Cliff shook his head in disbelief. "The King must be pretty good at servicing you." Cliff rubbed his chin in thought. "Every night, perhaps?"
"Well, not really." Queen Kathy said candidly. "No one dared to challenge him with those biceps of his."
"Preserved ripe muscles, what more can a man ask for." Cliff said thoughtlessly as his main dish arrived and caught his attention.
The conversation between the two seems like ended so Alyssa decided to talk to her mom.
"Mom?"
"Yes, my love?"
"Can I visit Barn after brunch?"
"Of course! Anytime of the day."
"Thanks, mom."
"I don't think that's a good idea, princess." Cliff chimed in.
"And why is that?" Alyssa lifter her eyebrow.
The nerve, even her Queen mother was not bothered for Alyssa to visit. Why does he need to make things a bigger issue than it really was.
"Because it's dangerous. You were lucky my son was at the right place, right time yesterday." Cliff, Ziloh's father, took a spoonful of his food. "They should make this more often."
They would serve exotic foods once in a while. And a new entrée was on the menu today, crocodile's brain.
"Barn won't hurt me." Alyssa had a different food on her plate, a Caesar salad and pumpkin soup on the side.
Alyssa always had a different menu than the rest and she would always get looks because of it.
Alyssa is happy to observe that Ziloh is not as enthusiastic with their menu as his father. But come to think of it, he was always a light eater.
"Don't be ridiculous Cliff." The Queen mother turned to her daughter. "You can visit her anytime you want, love."
"We all saw what happened yesterday." Cliff said matter-of-factly.
Overhearing the conversation, the other royal houses nodded in agreement. And the princess in distress and her knight and shining armor was suddenly the favorite topic at the table.
Since when did they care about my wellbeing, Alyssa thought.
"I'll still go whatever you say." She took a sip of the pumpkin soup. "He took care of me for seventeen years. I owe him a visit or two. Besides, he has nobody to take care of him."
"We could make an arrangement for that." Cliff suggested.
"No, I promised him I would take care of him post rebirth."
Alyssa accidentally sucked a cherry tomato and it went on the wrong pipe in her throat. She saw that her glass was empty.
"Water please." She said in between coughs.
"Are you okay?" Queen Kathy patted her at the back.
An attendant answered to her call and filled her glass with water.
She was about to drink from her glass when Ziloh suddenly knocked it away from her, causing the glass to shatter into pieces on the floor. Alyssa was about to argue with him but in a flash of a second, he pinned the attendant, who was carrying the pitcher of water, on the wall. She was sure she did not notice him standing up.
Alyssa drank from Ziloh's glass instead to ease her throat.
Then Alyssa jerked away from her chair. "Stop!" She was walking into the scene. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Who ordered you?" Zioh asked the young man as he increased the pressure on the young man's neck.
"I don't know…" The attendant struggled to talk. "what.. you're talking about."
"Let him go, you stupid!" Alyssa was punching Zilo's back. "Devil of the devils." Alyssa kept on punching as she breathed heavily into exhaustion. It was like her punches did not hurt him at all.
Ziloh ignored her, instead, he forced the pitcher into the attendant's mouth. The water splattered between them but Ziloh did not care. And after a few seconds, the attendant's mouth bubbled with foam and collapsed on the floor, and then he was still. Very still.
Alyssa covered her mouth and backed away from Ziloh.
The attendant was dead. The final kind of dead. She never saw someone die and never woke up.
"What…" Alyssa walked backwards towards her mother's side.
"Ali!" Kiva hugged her tight. "Are you okay?"
Alyssa nodded, she can't seem to find her voice at the moment.
Queen Kathy and Ziloh looked at each other, an information was exchanged.
"Guards! Imprison the attendants!" Queen Kathy commanded.
There were screams from the royal attendants as a group of guards suddenly appeared.
"Whoever did that was not so clever." Cliff said.
"Who dare threatened my daughter shall be executed." If tears from anger could have been shed, the queen would have. "I killed you once. I could kill you twice. And this time, you will be buried."
Each of the guards hand cuffed an attendant and scurried them away form the patio. It was chaos.
Alyssa never saw her mother this angry before.
"Ziloh, please escort Alyssa into her room." The queen said with a low voice as she tried to calm herself.
Ziloh grabbed Alyssa's arm as he half dragged her away from the scene.
"It's okay Ali." Kiva gently pushed Alyssa to Ziloh.
Ziloh dragged Alyssa straight through the stairs and they climed two floors non-stop. Alyssa was struggling to keep up with Ziloh's longer stride. Alyssa managed to walk fast as Ziloh took one wide step at a time.
Alyssa abruptly stopped. "Wait, let me breathe for a minute." Alyssa huffed.
Two guards were walking towards their way and saluted to Alyssa as they passed by.
"Fine." But Ziloh did not release Alyssa from his grip.
After a few seconds of silence, Alyssa finally caught her beathing.
"Did that just happened?"
Ziloh ignored her and continued to scan the hallway with his eyes. He was tense, all senses hightened, aware for anything unusual.
"Really." Alyssa released her arms from his grasps. "What just happened?"
"Use that brain of yours princess, there was just an attempted assassination on you."
"Me?!"
"Then who else? You're the only one on that table who could die from a poison."
"Right… I mean yeah, that's pretty obvious now that you said it." Alyssa knocked her head on her palm three times. "Sorry. I just…my brain just stopped."
"That is what you call shocked." Ziloh then grabbed her arms again and continued to walk as they rounded around the corner.
"I mean my life had been threatened before..." Alyssa struggled to match Ziloh's pace. "...but not this straightforward."
"I know" Ziloh rounded around the corner as he dragged Alyssa behind him. "The Queen will figure this out."
Ziloh released his grip as they reached the door to her chamber. "Stay here, I need to check on something."
"Okay.."
"Can I trust you on that?"
"Yeah, of course. Stay until the master says okay." Alyssa rolled her eyes.
"You still have your brain, princess." Ziloh disheveled her hair.
"Hey!" Alyssa knocked his forearm but found air instead.
He was already gone.
She splayed on her bed. She did not know for how long, but she just stared at the ceiling. Then the negative thoughts came first, she would have been dead at this moment. Like dead, dead. Like the attendant at the patio.
Somebody wanted her dead. It was not surprising, but she wanted to know why . And all of a sudden, the need to talk to somebody is palpable. She wanted to talk to Barn, he would know what to say to her.
So she stood up and opened the doors.
But standing outside was Kiva. Alyssa thought that the siblings' reason of existence was to bother the hell out of her.
"And… he was right." Kiva glared at Alyssa. "The princess lied to me again with that brain of hers, make sure she's locked inside her chambers.'" Kiva impersonated her big brother.
A steam of heat traveled on Alyssa's face. Partly because of anger, and partly out of embarrassment.
"So, let's just stay here and relax." Kiva pushed Alyssa right back into her chamber and went straight to the bed.
"I was on my way to the wards to visit Barn. I need to talk to him."
"You can talk to him later," Kiva lightened the lavender scented candle on the bedside table. "But for now, you can talk to me."
She led Alyssa to seat at the edge of the bed.
"But Barn is alone at the wards."
"Well, princess. Stop being a spoiled brat and stick your but in this room." Kiva handed to Alyssa a thermos tumbler.
"I'm not a spoiled brat." She countered. "What is this?" Alyssa did not notice she was carrying something earlier.
"Just drink it, to calm you down." Kiva gestured to the tumbler. "And yes you are, princess. The Queen made sure of that."
Alyssa frowned at her best friend, because she was right. The Queen gave everything she wanted and more.
Alyssa opened the lid and smelled the ginger milk inside. It was still very warm. Barn used to give her a cup on nights where she can't fall asleep.
"Better?" Kiva sat beside Alyssa.
"Yes, thank you." Alyssa took a sip.
"So I'm going to tell you what I scavenged at town, since you're more relax now." In contrast to Alyssa, Kiva has begun to be more animated. "Yeah, I found something."
"At this point, I'm just thankful you did not tell me this at brunch." Alyssa took another sip, more this time.
Alyssa is surprised herself that the effect of the milk was immediate. She felt more relaxed now.
"So…I already found it!"
Alyssa was looking into Kiva's eyes, looking for answers.
"I found it!" Kiva was waiting for Alyssa to get it.
Alyssa shook her head. "What?" Alyssa suddenly felt like her feet are getting numb.
"A cassette player! You dummy!" Kiva finally revealed in frustration. "We can play your tape now."
"oh thawts wrilly gwret." Alyssa slurred.
"Huh?" Kiva continued. "Don't get that excited yet, I still need some kind of a battery that fits."
"but sstill gwoood fwind." Alyssa began to feel dizzy.
Alyssa then fell on her bed, the last thing she could remember was Kiva's worried face.
"Alyssa!" Kiva shook her best friend's shoulders. "Alyssa!"
But Alyssa's body already felt like a jelly.
"Grrr, Ziloh! What have you done now?" Kiva then grabbed the tumbler and inspected the remaining content inside.
She smelled it first, it's just milk and ginger.
She tasted it, it tasted fine.
She gulped the remaining content. She waited for a few seconds. She felt fine.
She did not fall asleep.
Not for many years now.