I stood in the the garden for a few minutes after Sidapa and the spirit of Opal abruptly left. The soft rustling of the leaves and humming of the wind was all I can hear.
That idiot actually left just like that.
He left with a warning but did not even elaborate on it.
He really is an idiot. No wonder Athy doesn't speak of him much.
Athy!
I turned around to face Sebastiene who was standing behind me.
"Let's go." I told him and started to walk back inside with Sebastiene following behind me.
"Seb." I paused and motioned for him to walk beside me. "Do you have any idea what that idiot was saying about a darkness worse than him?"
"I think I do, my lady." Sebastiene answered. "But you should see lady Athanasia first. We can discuss it more in detail after the ceremony tomorrow."
I nodded.
He is right. Athy's health comes first. Other things can wait until then.
I walked as fast as my feet could and Sebastiene matched my pace.
I saw Anderson standing guard outside Athy's door looking nervous. He looked relieved when he saw me and knocked on the door to inform Uriel about my arrival. When I reached him, he immediately opened the door and I came in. Sebastiene stayed outside with Anderson.
"Sis.." I asked as soon as I came in. "How is she?"
Uriel was sitting on the bed beside the sleeping Athy.
"She hasn't woken up yet." Uriel replied.
I came and sat on Athy's other side, near the window. I looked at my little sister. She was sleeping rather peacefully, no indications that she was in pain or so. I was worried she might be hurting or thrashing in her sleep but she was okay.
"Are you going to sleep here too?" Uriel asked.
"Hmmm.." I nodded in response and started to take off my dress.
"You go wash first, I'll ask my maid to get you something to change." Uriel said as she went to the door to instruct Sebastiene to tell her maids.
Back in our old world, we used to sleep in each other's rooms, especially after watching horror movies. We also like to sleep in our undies. We did not mind it before so we still did not mind it now.
I went to the bathroom and took a hurried bath. When I returned, my sleepwear was on the table beside the bed. I changed into them and laid in bed with them.
"Sis, will Athy be okay?" Uriel asked me in a soft voice.
"Sidapa said there will be a recoil for what she did, but it won't kill her." I answered her.
"..." Uriel let out a sigh.
"Get some sleep sis." I urged her. "We will need to be ready for tomorrow. Hopefully, Athy will be awake by then. Mama and papa will be there so we have to show them that everything is okay. There will also be other guests, like Count Polit and probably his family, the heads of the clans, village chiefs and mayors. We have to show them the strength of House Castellan. We can't show any weakness. We-"
"Zzzzzzzz.." Uriel's soft snoring reached my ears.
"..." I stopped talking and stared at the ceiling.
Deep breaths.
'Take deep breaths Mel.' I told myself. 'You have to make them submit to House Castellan.'
I listened to my sisters' steady breathing. Sidapa's warning replayed on my mind.
'A darkness worse than the god of death.'
'What could it be that even the god of death was worried about it that he even warned us?'
'How does it connect with Athy and her abilities?'
I fell asleep thinking about those things. When I woke up, Uriel's maids were already in the room preparing our things for the ceremony in the afternoon.
Uriel was busy instructing the maids when she notice me get up and check on Athy.
"Sis, do you want breakfast?" She asked me.
"Did she wake up?" I asked her instead.
Uriel shook her head. "I didn't try to wake her up either. She should get as much rest as she could."
"Hmmm.. She should." I nodded and got off the bed.
Sebastiene looked at me when I opened the door.
"Where's Anderson?" I asked as I motioned him in.
"I let him go to sleep earlier. Humans need sleep to be able to focus more." He replied as he entered and bowed down towards Uriel who was sitting on the sofa drinking milk. I sat beside her and Sebastiene stood beside me.
"And you don't?" I raised my eyebrow at him.
"I'm not some human, my lady." He said as he hand me a glass of milk. "I could go a full year without even a blink of sleep."
"Gosh! I wish I could do that too." Athy commented from beside me.
"Unfortunately, the human body is not capable of that, my lady." Sebastiene smiled at her.
I notice that Uriel's maids kept smiling and glancing at Sebastiene, clearly trying to gain his attention.
"Seb, please take care of the things outside. Help mother with the preparations." I told him.
"What about you, my lady?" He asked.
"Uriel's maids are here, they can attend to me for the meantime. Make sure to not let mother stress over the ceremony too much." I reminded him.
"As you wish, my lady." Sebastiene bowed.
He then approached the maids who were preparing our clothes to check it and give more instructions. After everything was settled, he bowed towards us again and went out the door to help my mother.
"We really need to hire more maids and butlers for each of us." Athy said out of the blue.
"I know." I replied. "But I want ones that I could trust and that could also fight, especially for our parents."
Uriel nodded and we continued eating breakfast in silence. Only the maids were moving around.
"Sisters.."
The sound of Athy's voice startled us.