"Can you tell me what those men looked like?" Lark suddenly heard Tamen, the third prince ask the maid whose name he knew to be Jasmine.
He couldn't help it but his heart skipped a beat and his whole attention became focused on the maid still sitting on the floor talking to the prince.
He watched in distress as the prince passed her a small notebook and a pen before speaking.
"You can mention a few features or better still draw his or her face," said the prince with the knowledge that anyone that was qualified enough to be a queen's maid would be good in every form of art and embroidery.
Lark curiously watched the maid from where he stood and almost walked forward to try to move closer to be able to make out what she seemed to be drawing but he didn't, not wanting to be warned the second time to move back to his place.
He watched her a few more times as she seemed to write something down before crossing out whatever it is she had written, strongly enough for him to hear the sheet she seemed to be writing on tear apart.
He was however glad when she suddenly stopped scribbling and instead gave the prince his notepad and his pen back before opening her mouth to speak.
"No matter how hard I try to recall what he looked like, I can't. It was in the early hours of the morning and it was dark, the only feature of his that I remember is his dark blue hair," she said peeking behind the prince to look at the two people behind him who were meant to be Punishers charged with protecting citizens and punishing criminals but were criminals themselves.
Jasmine wasn't surprised to see a smile on the corners of the face of the one closest to the door as he seemed to smile in relief while the other one with the old face stared at her calmly as if he felt she was up to something.
Distracted, she was startled to again see the prince leap up and speak coldly to her, as he looked down at her from the height where he stood.
"I have tried talking to you gently but seeing that you have decided not to give up the identity of the person whom you said blackmailed you, I have no choice but to leave you to be punished by the Punishers," he said as he continued speaking to her, taking out the small notepad he had given to her a few seconds ago, which she had given him back and bringing it out of his coat pocket.
"Instead you would prefer to scribble nonsense and waste my precious time," Tamen said, waving the notebook in his right hand.
"Unlike you, I won't hurt or involve any innocent person but I promise you that this time tomorrow, You will pay," he said before turning away from her and striding with measured steps towards the door.
Quickly, Exiner moved away from the door and Lark thought it wise not to ask or proffer any suggestions as it was obvious that the prince was in a bad mood.
"Stay here and do not follow me," he said a moment after Exiner opened the door for him before walking away and out of the room.
"What...," Exiner again began wanting to ask a question but immediately stopped talking the moment Lark raised his hand for him to be quiet.
After making sure that the prince was gone and waiting for a full minute without hearing any footsteps, Lark finally spoke but instead of speaking to Exiner, he turned towards Jasmine who had not moved from her position on the floor.
" It's good that you decided not to snitch on us, if you had, your family wouldn't have lived till tomoro...," he said but he had barely finished speaking when three men dressed like black ninjas having their mouths covered with a strap of black cloth and heavy weaponry suddenly descended on him from all sides.
It wasn't up to a second before Exiner too joined him and the floor when the prince opened the door and stepped back in,
" Your highness, Whatever she told you is a lie, It wasn't us," Exiner quickly shouted out of fear.
"We are your royal..." He continued but was quickly interrupted by Lark.
" Shut up you stupid fool," he shouted, no longer calm as his eyes screamed bloody murder.
" He's right... You really should shut up," said the prince smiling happily since his plan of scaring the maid with tomato sauce ended with him discovering the people behind the incident.
"I'm actually happy, I didn't have to get my hands dirty this time around," he thought in his mind as he looked at both Lark and Exiner whom he had suspected from the very start when the maid kept glancing back at them.
"Take them away and put them in a secure cell guarded only by shadows," he said talking to the two fiercely covered men separately holding down Lark and Exiner.
In only a few seconds, they disappeared along with their prisoners and Jasmine couldn't stop herself from gasping in shock.
"It's one thing for mages to know how to use spatial magic on themselves and a completely different thing to use it on someone else," she thought looking at the empty space they had occupied only a few seconds ago, seeing no changes around the area almost as if they had never been there.
However, her mind suddenly came awake when she heard the last man dressed in the same ninja uniform the other two were dressed in suddenly ask the prince a question,
"Your highness, what should I do with her?" He asked getting on one knee as he patiently waited for further instructions.
But all Jasmine saw the prince do was stare at the partly covered face of the man kneeling in front of him as if he was somehow communicating with him through another means,
"You know what to do with her," Tamen said, before turning around, taking well-measured steps towards the door, not sparing Jasmine a single glance before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
"I truly didn't expect anything more," she muttered out loud as she watched the only other person in the room with her move his hand towards the small set of knives on his waist as he moved towards her.
"I promise to be good If somehow I am born again," she said out loud clasping her two hands to her chest before proceeding to say a prayer for her soul.