Roxane hurried to her room, in all the time it took her to make it to her door, she only thought about taking a bath and scrubbing her body raw. She yanked open the dark oak door to her room and to her surprise someone had lit up her room with a candelabra. There was only one person that she knew who would ever have permission to enter her room while she was away.
"Diana." She spoke softly, afraid that the figure who sat on her bed would get up and disappear from her life. She frowned at the thought. What made her think her friend would ever leave her?
"You're back." Diana's lovely smile appeared on her face as soon as she looked at Roxane. She even laughed as Roxane drove into her arms, getting on her knees as Diana held her close to her tiny frame. She started stroking Roxane's auburn hair and Roxane suddenly felt her eyelids grow heavy.
"Why did you draw attention to yourself like that Roxane?" At the sudden question, Roxane lifted her head up. There was no malice in her words, she was only trying to genuinely understand her. "You know there's no changing their minds. It's only a matter of time before I marry Xavier."
"Don't say that." Roxane's face twisted at her friend's subdued look on her face, it seemed like the color of her emerald eyes lost some of its luster.
"There is always a way."
Diana lifted herself up from the edge of Roxana's bed. She began to walk towards the door and with her back turned she said words that Roxane couldn't fully comprehend.
"I don't know what you're planning Roxi, but please, don't go through with it. I don't want anything bad to happen to you." She opened the door to the room, and before she walked out, she said with such sadness etched into her voice that a small part of Roxane was glad that she couldn't see her friend's face.
"You're all I have left."
Then she left, closing the door behind her with a soft thud, leaving Roxane still on her knees by the foot of her bed.
"How do you expect me to let things progress the way they are? Your face is all the evidence I need to make sure this marriage does not happen." She slowly felt the words leave her mouth, and although there was no one to hear them, Roxane felt comfort from having said them aloud.
She got up from the ground, grabbed her clothes and slipped out of her room. Her feet lead her to the bathhouse even though her heart wasn't in the mood to take a bath so late in the night, she willed herself to move. She hated the thought that the prince's touch would stay on her throughout the night as she slept.
She didn't expect anyone to be in the priestesses' bathhouse at the dead of night, but to her astonishment, she found Sabine submerged in the crystal clear waters of the marble bath. The middle aged woman had her eyes closed as she laid her head back, letting her blonde hair float on top of the water around her head. She didn't make a single move at the sound of Roxane's approaching footsteps as she got closer to the pool's edge.
"What are you doing still up at this hour of the night Roxane?" The woman's melodic voice disturbs the silence of the room as Roxane quickly undressed herself. "Don't you know it's bad for your health to go to bed with wet hair?"
She slowly stepped into the water, enjoying how the hot, steamy bath was always at the perfect temperature.
"I can't sleep when I am this dirty."
A snort came out of the High Priestess' mouth, and she opened one blue eye to watch her curiously.
"That is one way to describe the scheme you pulled tonight. Have you no shame child?" Even though Sabine scolded her, Roxane found her nagging consoling. Sometimes whenever she was in the woman's presence, she would think her mother would like Sabine very much were she still alive. Sabine, unlike the other priestesses, was never presumptuous and always respected others even if they did not believe in the same things as her.
"What else can I do?" Roxane said as she soaked her body in the water. "Can you tell me? How do I stop this marriage?" She asked the priestess, but she only sighed in response. Sabine straightened herself out and went back to resting her shoulders against the edge of the bath.
"I wish I knew the answer to that, I truly do. Truth be told, I also can't stomach the thought of giving away our precious Diana to that scoundrel of a prince." She handed Roxane a towel made for scrubbing her body. "But I am afraid that events far bigger than us have been set in motion. If we are to get in the middle of that we would be only faced with the severity of the consequences."
"You're not making any sense Sabine. Why? Why her out of all the priestesses at this temple?"
She angrily started scrubbing her arms, working the soap into her body.
"I cannot tell you the reason for why Diana was chosen. Divulging the answer would be close to treason if word were to get out." Sabine began pulling herself out of the bath. "Remember to get behind the ears."
"Sabine don't you dare leave without giving me a proper explanation. You know how much she means to me." Roxane's voice went scarily low, but she knew the priestess would not take any offense to her tone of voice.
"Of course I know my dear girl. Ever since you two showed up at the temple's doorstep I've known how close you two are. I've had faith that you both would settle nicely into this life, but truth be told I have always been worried for you. Diana, not so much."
She peered over to Roxane. Her blue eyes warmed her with a gaze so full of affection.
"I fear that the path you choose to take will be full of dangers. If you choose to whisk Diana away I can't even fathom what kind of pain you will go through. Your fate is a slippery slope Roxane and I hope you know that my heart is heavy with unease just thinking about all the fool-hardy things you could do."
"I would consider better options if you would just tell me the reason behind this marriage." Roxane pleaded once more to the woman who only shook her head again.
"Diana is a very special existence to this world. There's no telling what people would do just to get their hands on her." Sabine finally disclosed. Roxane mulled over her words as the woman got dressed. "Goodnight my child. May your dreams be light and full of beautiful images of our lady Kara." Sabine turned to leave, not bothering to stay for Roxane's reply.
Roxane finished her bath while Sabine's words replayed again and again in her mind. She still didn't understand the meaning behind those words. What kind of existence was her friend that even the Imperial Family were itching to get their hands on her? Not only the Solstine Imperial Family but the other kingdoms as well it seemed.
She was still stuck inside her own thoughts as she made her way back to her room. Once inside the security of her own room, she locked the door behind her and swiftly made her way to her favorite hiding spot.
She went to an obscure part of her room and took out a brick from the wall. Since the day she officially became a priestess of the temple and had to change from sharing a room with Diana to having her own room, she had found this convenient hiding spot to place her treasure.
The brick gave away easily and she took the bundle of fabric into her hands. She moved back to lie on top of her bed and placed the bundle on top of her lap, carefully lifted the edge of the fabric to reveal the sparkling surface of the ruby hidden underneath the gaudy piece of fabric that was protecting it.
Her breath caught in her throat at the way the light caught the edges of the perfectly cut ruby. It glittered in her hands as she picked it up. She has always done this without fail every night, getting lost within the deep red color within the ruby's surface as if she needed to imprint the image into her mind.
When Diana and her were still sleeping in the same room she could rely on her friend to keep a lookout in case anyone came in and she had her treasure out, but now she had to be extra careful whenever she took the gem out. It was the last thing she had left from her mother.
Roxane carefully moved the gem around her hand. It had always mystified her how her people were so obsessed with all things that glittered. She was given this precious stone by her mother to keep and give to the love of her life. When she explained her reasoning behind giving her the ruby, which was a part of her mother's precious stock of her own treasure, Roxane was still too young to fully understand the meaning behind her words.
"Roxane do you know who we are?" She closed her eyes, struggling to remember how her mother's voice sounded. "Roxane we are the last remnants of the most powerful beings that ever lived. Do you remember who those beings were?"
Little Roxane moved her head up and down, smiling widely that her baby teeth could be seen.
"Roxane remembers! Momma turns into one of them whenever she wants. She gets as big as a house and spews fire every time she roars!" Her mother twinkling laugh echoes inside her mind as her flashback ends.
"Dragons." Roxane murmurs, putting away the ruby back into its hiding spot. Then she turned off the candles around her room with a single one of her breaths before slipping underneath her covers.