They arrived at Lilly's castle and Malphus sent Valerie to check the castle and to tell anyone who wouldn't let her in a room that they would have to talk to the King if they didn't.
Valerie heard two guards talking about some ''project'', Valerie wanted to know what kind of project they were talking about so she tried listening to almost every conversation that went on in the castle. Alan told her that he heard from one of the maids here that Malphus didn't love Lilly, and Lilly was going to change it.
Valerie knew that much, he never talked about her or sent someone to check up on her, but it had nothing to do with any "project" unless the guards meant Lilly's personal project was to get the King to love her.
Valerie doubted that was the case because if it was the guardsmen would have just said that. It was something bigger than that, guards never usually gossip, and when they do it's about something big.
The next day, Valerie was sent along with 70 guardsmen to search for the black witches in the forest. Valerie had tripped on a stick while walking through the woods alone and heard some guards speaking.
"Shouldn't it be done by now?" One asked.
"It should, but they haven't even started. They are so slow." The other said.
"I'm just scared for her majesty, they could flip on her after work is over."
What are they talking about? Shouldn't what be done by now? Why are they scared for Lilly? Is she ill? What could flip on her, and who are the 'they' people they're speaking of?
Valerie knew something fishy was going on. She needed more information, and the maids of the castle always know everything when it comes to royal gossip.
Once they got back to the castle after their failed attempt of looking for something that wasn't there in the first place, Valerie headed straight for the kitchen. Most of the maids were there because it was almost lunchtime.
She walked up to a random maid and asked "hey, do you know about the 'project' that is going on?".
"No, I know of no project. Except for one, Lilly wants Malphus to love her so bad she's gone to the dark side. Looking for answers" the maid said.
"I cannot say more, for I know no more" the maid walked away to clean the dishes in the sink.
'Gone to the dark side? What's that supposed to mean? She isn't evil, she said thank you when I brought her some wine yesterday.'
Valerie was stumped, she didn't know what the maid meant by 'gone to the dark side'. The woman wasn't crazy, no, she was very much sane. That was the only thing Valerie could think of when the maid said 'dark side'.
She gave up for the day, went to retrieve Alan, and headed to bed. She didn't sleep a wink, one because Alan's head was on her stomach all night and he kept twisting to keep her awake, secondly, her mind kept on tracing back to when she was told Lilly had gone to the dark side.
That wasn't possible in Valerie's eyes, Lilly was the sweetest person she had met. She never hurt a fly, or at least in Valerie's presence.
The next day, Valerie saw Lilly go down to the dungeon. Valerie was curious so she followed her, she walked past the guards and into an empty cell.
Why is she going to an empty cell? Did she lose something when the last prisoner was in there and had gone to retrieve it?
Then Lilly looked around to see if anyone was watching her, she didn't look good enough because she didn't catch Valerie, and pushed in a brick. It opened a door and Lilly walked in.
'What did I just see?!?! I have to try this for myself to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me!'
Valerie walked to that cell and pushed the same brick Lilly pushed, and a door opened for Valerie to see 5 beautiful females in the room with Lilly. Valerie quickly went and hid behind the vase that was right next to the door on the other side. The ladies didn't notice when the door opened because it was silent.
"Are we done yet, ladies? You got the bodies yesterday. I can't believe you had to hold a massacre just to be able to make one messily love potion." said Lilly as she walked over to see what the girls were doing.
"Well, love is worth every penny in the world. It's expensive because it's hard to find true love. These days it's all about money, sex, and power." said one of the girls with a voice that didn't match her face.
Love potion? Love potion! That's the project they were talking about. This is what that maid meant by 'gone to the dark side' she involved herself with witches so that Malphus will love her! That must mean, Lilly hired men to do the deed and bring the parts here. That means these are black witches!
Valerie almost gasped but caught herself. She didn't know what would happen if she got caught, maybe they would cut her up and use her in the potion too? Perhaps they would slowly kill her, making her suffer through her death. Whatever it was, Valerie didn't want it.