"Captious, there has been a new development" said Stella as she was sitting in her office as usual.
"There is a breach in the Palace, Adrian was an imposter" said Stella
"What? how come?" asked Captious as he was sitting right across Captious
"I would not believe it myself, if not that I caught him red handed" said Stella as she sighed.
"How did you catch him?" asked Captious
"Well he tried to poison Maddie, and he was almost successful" said Stella
"I then questioned the Kitchen staff, and I found Adrian's behavior questionable" said Stella
"So he has been an imposter all along or?" asked Captious
"The imposter, who's name was Blaise, said that he was able to infiltrate during the Quies Confrence" said Stella
"What?? that was four years ago, then where is the real Adrian" asked Captious
"Probably dead" said Stella
"Good heavens, what sort of situation is this?" asked Captious
"That's besides the point, what I am worried about is if the imposter brought in more imposters during the time he was here, and I also need a new personal assistant" said Stella
"I agree, for your new Personal assistant, we can ask the council to provide you with one, as for the imposter, what do you suggest that we do?" asked Captious
"Well we need to question the remaining Palace staff, and we also need to be careful of who the Council will send" said Stella
"That is true" said Captious
"Well that is all for now Captious, you may go now" said Stella
"Thank you, and by the way where is Sapiens?" asked Captious
"Ahh, I heard that he had already left" said Stella
"Okay then, Goodnight" said Captious
"Goodnight" said Stella as Captious left the room.
"Come in" said Stella as she heard a knock on the door.
"Good Evening my Chancellor" said Mira as she walked in and bowed her head.
"Good Evening Mira, what brings you here?" asked Stella
"My chancellor it's the imposter he has been shouting and causing a nuisance saying that we should kill him" said Mira
"Really now? so what did you do?" asked Stella
"Well I had to shut him up with a binding spell" said Mira
"That was a good decision, good job Mira" said Stella
"Thank you My Chancellor" said Mira as she smiled and Stella smiled back.
"My Chancellor, do you need me to do anything else for you?" asked Mira
"No Mira, you have done enough, you should go home and rest" said Stella
"Really?" asked Mira, as she had been on duty for the past 3 days
"Yes, you may go" said Stella
"Thank you my Chancellor, Goodnight" said Mira as she bowed.
"Goodnight Mira" said Stella as she smiled.
"Why don't I just take Mira as my new persona assistant?" asked Stella to herself.
"No I cannot" said Stella.
Mira was not under her jurisdiction, she was a member of the cauldron, and a very valuable one at that, she could not just take her without permission from the Cauldron leader.
Besides that, Mira was a trained fighter, the job of her personal assistant was beyond just protecting her, it involved arranging her meetings and representing her when she was not around, she was sure that Mira was skilled, but that would just be too much for her to handle.
"Ah Adrian, I miss you, and I am sorry" said Stella, how could she have been so blind, to not notice that her closest friend was missing, was she that busy as Chancellor that she never paid attention to him, and now he was dead, because of her.
The next Morning
Stella and Annie were in the training room, and they were doing their normal morning routine.
Annie closed her eye and she was focusing, she had to lift Stella up without saying the spell out loud, Annie opened her eyes and looked at Stella>
"Levitatis" she said in her mind, but unfortunately nothing happened.
It had been like that for a while now, and Annie was starting to get annoyed.
"You know what dear, let's take a break" said Stella as she sat down and crossed her legs.
"Okay" said Annie
There was silence for a while until Annie said,
"So Aunt Stella can I ask you a question?" asked Annie
"Sure dear, you can, what is it?" asked Stella
"Aunt Stella do you have children?" asked Annie as she was curious, she never heard Stella talk about her family or her life outside the Palace or being the Chancellor.
"No I do not dear" said Stella
"I never got married" said Stella
"Why do you ask?" asked Stella
"Ahhh, well I was just curious" said Annie as she laughed awkwardly
"It's fine dear, so you don't want to know why?" asked Stella
"I thought that I would be prying" said Annie
"Haha no dear, it's not prying" said Stella as she smiled
"Really??" asked Annie
"Of course dear" said Stella as she smiled
"The reason I never married was because of this position" said Stella
"Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be the Vice Chancellor, so I trained to be the best and I was, I worked my way to the High Council and I finally became Vice Chancellor, but in the process, I ignored everything else, all my friends were getting married, while I was a career woman" said Stella
"Now in my old age, I find myself thinking of how different things would have been If I had just stopped to relax" said Stella
"Awww Aunt Stella, you are not old" said Annie
"No one is ever too old for love" said Annie
"I mean just take a look at Aunt Bella" said Annie
"What about Bella??" asked Stella
"Oops, I don't think that Aunt Luc told Aunt Stella about Aunt Bella" said Annie in her mind as she face-palmed herself.
"Hahah Nothing, I meant that you are still a young and as pretty as Aunt Bella" said Annie as she laughed sheepishly and tried to dodge the mess that she had made.
"Haha Thank you dear" said Stella as she laughed.
"Your welcome, but still I am serious Aunt, you don't need to regret anything, You are the best Chancellor I have ever met (and I have only met one which is you) but I know that you are the best, and followed your dreams, you are a very good role model and I am honored to call you my Aunt" said Annie as she smiled
"Awww dear, Thank you" said Stella as she hugged her
"Your welcome Aunt" said Annie as she smiled.
"Well dear, I think that is enough for today, you can go now" said Stella as she broke their hug
"Okay Aunt Stella, have a good day" said Annie as she stood up and smiled
"You too dear" said Stella as she smiled back.
Later that day
Annie was walking through the Palace halls, she had to get to her next lesson with Professor Sapiens.
As Annie walked to Sapiens office a familiar painting caught her eye, it was a painting of Stella, she looked so young, younger than she was now, and she wasn't smiling rather she had a serious look on her face.
Annie stopped to admire the painting for a while, until she remember that she was going to Sapiens and he was probably going to complain about her being late.
"Where is that girl?? she has no respect, making me wait like this" said Sapiens to himself in his office.
"Good Morning Professor, Sorry I'm late" said Annie as she walked into the room and she already heard Sapiens grumbling from outside.
"Mhmm Morning, why are you late?" asked Sapiens
"Sorry Professor, I lost track of time" said Annie
"Right" said Sapiens judgmentally
"Now no more wasting time, come here and stand" said Sapiens
"Yes" said Annie as she stood where Sapiens told her to.
"Now recite the Witched creed" said Sapiens
"Yes" said Annie
"Or don't tell me that you didn't read it?" asked Sapiens
"No, I did Professor" said Annie, of course she read it, it was the first thing she came across in the book.
"Then recite it" said Sapiens
"potestatem, credite," said Annie as she was cut off by Sapiens
"Wait, stand up straight, look straight at the wall and recite it" said Sapiens
"Yes Professor" said Annie as she did as she was told, but it wasn't like her posture was horrible.
"potestatem, credite, sacrificium et magicam constringite et facere magam" said Annie as she recited the creed
"Good, but I feel like it was lacking, do it again, but this time with more passion and heart" said Sapiens
"Yes Professor" said Annie
"potestatem, credite, sacrificium et magicam constringite et facere magam" said Annie once again, but this time with more "heart" as Sapiens said
"It was better, but I am still not feeling your dedication so do it once more, until I am impressed" said Sapiens
Annie wanted to say that how did reciting this creed have to do with her practicing magic?? he was just being unreasonable, but how could she say that to his face??
"Is anything the matter Miss Grey?" asked Sapiens as he noticed that Annie was not replying him.
"Ahh, no Professor" said Annie as she snapped out of her thoughts.
"Good, then do as I said" said Sapiens
"Yes Professor" said Annie as she sighed.
...
"Ughhh I am so tired" said Annie as she plopped flat on her bed
"Ahh Annie, welcome, why are you tired?" asked Maddie as she was reading Annie's potion book.
"Is it not that Professor Sapiens, he can be very annoying sometimes" said Annie as she sighed
"Haha true, but if he's so troublesome then why don't you tell Aunt Stella about it, I am sure that she would address it" said Maddie
"Yes, but I don't want to worry her about something so petty" said Annie
"True, but still" said Maddie
"But nothing" said Annie as she cut Maddie off
"So have you eaten?" asked Annie
"No" replied Maddie
"Why not??" asked Annie
"Well I have been suspicious of the food since I got poisoned" said Maddie
"Ahh right, but it's not healthy that you do not eat, you need to eat, so you can recover well" said Annie
"True but" said Maddie
"Why didn't you ask Curtis or Aunt Luc to scan the food for you?" asked Annie
"Ahh well I forgot about them" laughed Maddie
"Sheesh Maddie" said Annie as she stood up
"Where are you going?" asked Maddie
"I am going to get you your food" said Annie
"You don't have to" said Maddie
"I will be back soon" said Annie as she ignored Maddie and went to the kitchen.
Meanwhile in Evie's room.
"Psst Evie" said Matt as he entered her room.
"What is it Matt??" asked Evie
"Well did you know that our Grandfather is giving Annie a hard time" said Matt
"Whatt?? who told you?" asked Evie
"Well I heard Maddie and Annie talking about it" said Matt
"What how could he do that??" asked Evie
"Well let's go" said Evie as she jumped off her bed and dragged Matt's hand
"What?? to where?" asked Matt
"Well to our Grandfather of course, how could he be mean to Annie, she's an angel and we have to fight for her" said Evie
"Okay you are right, but no fighting" said Matt
"Of course, I am not going to fight our grandfather, we just want to ask him nicely to be nicer to Annie" said Evie as she smiled
"Fine, let's go" said Matt
"Yayyyy, but first we need to call the calvary" said Evie