The room felt colder than before, as if Sianna's revelation had drawn a chill from the walls themselves. Each of the girls sat in stunned silence, their gazes darting between one another, searching for answers that none of them seemed to have.
Rish finally broke the silence, "So, what? We're supposed to play along? Be part of this… story? Great, just greate!" She crossed her arms defensively, her eyes darting to the window, where the twilight sky bled hues of purple and red.
"I don't think we have a choice," Sianna replied, her tone grim. "If we're really inside the novel Professor Pyches used to read to us, then this world already has rules. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. We need to figure out where we are in the timeline. Are we at the start? The middle? Or worse…" She hesitated, the unspoken words hanging heavily in the air.
"The end," Zia finished for her, her voice hard. She pushed herself off the ornate chair she'd been slumped in and paced across the room. "But wherever part we are, we're not just going to roll over and just let things happen. Right?" Her tone dared anyone to disagree.
Sianna bit her lip. "Zia, it's not that simple! If we don't understand the rules of this world, we could end up making things worse for us."
"Worse than being dragged into an unknown world without consent?" Rish interjected, her sarcasm sharp. She gestured to her muted reflection in the gilded mirror on the far wall. "Because I can't imagine how this could get any worse."
"Enough," Mauie spoke softly, but her voice carried a weight that silenced the room. She had been quiet up until now, her hands clasped tightly on her lap as she processed everything. "Arguing won't help. If this is a story, then we need to find out what role we're supposed to play. If we're the protagonists, the story will revolve around us. But if we're not…" Her voice trailed off, her meaning clear.
Zia's eyes narrowed. "Then we're expendable."
Silence fell again, heavier this time. Outside, the distant sound of a bell tolled, its somber chime echoing through the halls of the castle-like estate they found themselves in. The sound seemed to shake them from their stupor.
The room was heavy with the weight of silence. Zia, her eyes sharp and calculating, was the first to break the stillness.
"Okay, let's get this straight. We need to talk through this. We can't just sit here pretending we don't have any answers," she said, her voice steady but with an undercurrent of urgency. "We've all been thrown into some messed-up version of a story, and we need to figure out what the hell is going on."
"That's right. First things first, we have to pull out everything we can remember from that story." Sianna chimed in, her voice unusually calm but resolute.
Rish exhaled slowly, running a hand through her hair as she paced. "I remember bits of it but not everything, I'm sure it's the same for all of you. I remember the saintess, Azriel something being the protagonist together with her is a magician and a mercenary."
Zia tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. "The magician... wait, Rish. Isn't that supposed to be your brother? The strongest magician in the kingdom?"
Rish nodded slowly, her jaw tightening. "Yeah. My supposed brother. In the story, he was her ally."
"And the mercenary," Mauie added, her voice quiet but firm, "he was no less important. A top-tier fighter who stood by her side, protecting her through hell and back. Together, the three of them took on the dark forces that plagued the kingdom."
Sianna's gaze darted between them, her brow creasing in thought. "But what about us? What was our role? We weren't just extras in the story, were we?"
The room fell silent again, each of them digging through the fog of memory, trying to piece together the fragments of the story they had heard.
"Weren't there a scene from the beginning of the story that triggered the power of the saintess?" Mauie
All their eyes widened in unison as if a single thread of memory had pulled taut between them.
"The death of the four nobles children of high society!" they said in unison.
"It's us!" Zia shouted.
"Were supposed to die!" Sianna
Sianna gasped, . "That's it. That's what started everything. The deaths of the four daughters… it was the catalyst for the Azriel's awakening as the Saintess!"
"That means the story had already been changed by our arrival in this story…" Rish
Zia tilted her head, her violet eyes narrowing in thought. "But what caused our deaths? And what's our connection to the saintess? Try to remember as much as you can about what happened to the real owners of our body." she asked abruptly, her voice sharp and filled with the tension that hung heavy in the room.
Mauie, frail and pale, let out a heavy sigh, her red eyes clouded with thought. "If I remember correctly, the real owner of this body—Mauie—died from illness. Her family spent everything they had trying to save her, and when that wasn't enough, they went bankrupt. She… hated everything and everyone by the end, including Azriel." Her gaze dropped to her lap, her voice growing quieter. "Azriel came to pray for her every single day, hoping for a miracle, but Mauie only blamed her. Saying the Saintess's blessings were useless. That's when Azriel started doubting her powers."
Sianna bit her lip, her golden eyes glistening with emotion. "As for the princess… her entire life, she carried the blame for her mother's death during childbirth. Her father—the king—abandoned her. That guilt, that loneliness, it ate away at her. But what finally broke her was when the king… what was it again?" Sianna faltered, "Oh! When he told the young Saintess, who was sent to console him, 'If only you were my child.' That's when she… commited suicide."
A heavy silence followed, the weight of Sianna's words settling over them like a suffocating blanket. For a moment, no one spoke, until Zia broke the silence with an unsteady voice.
"Heziria… the daughter of Marquess Hakiel Isaac Glanister. She was the legitimate heir but was treated like an outsider in her own home. Her stepmother and stepsisters… they bullied her constantly. She ran away and met the Saintess, who gave her words of comfort and a blessing." Zia paused, her voice lowering as she hugged her knees tightly. "But when she returned home, thinking things might finally change, one of her stepsisters poisoned her during dinner." She exhaled shakily, a bitter smile curling her lips. "Remembering about it again, I really thought I was gonna die for the second time. Damn those bastards!"
The room went quiet again until Rish, who had remained unusually silent, finally spoke, her tone colder than usual. "And then there's me, I mean the real Rishanon…" She hesitated, her black eyes hardening as she forced herself to continue. "She was… abused."
All three pairs of eyes turned to her, wide with shock.
"You're what?" Mauie asked, her voice laced with concern. "Are you saying you're being abused? Why didn't you tell us? How is it happening?"
Rish smirked faintly, though the pain behind her expression was undeniable. "They keep giving me medicine—'to help me control my power,' they say. Every night, my father calls me to the basement and injects something into my body. Whenever I resist, he… gets physical." Her voice turned venomous. "How could he even call himself a father..!"
"Damn…" Zia muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Sianna hands clenched into fists, her s frame trembling with anger. "We don't deserve this. None of us deserved what's happening to us—or to the people who owned these bodies before."
"They're monsters," Zia said through gritted teeth. "But we're not going to let them win. Not this time."
Rish leaned back with a bitter chuckle. "I don't know about winning, but one thing's for sure—I'm not going down without a fight."
Sianna sighted, "Then what happens now? If we're alive, what role do we play? Are we still part of the saintess story, or… are we something else entirely?"
The weight of their realization hung heavy in the air, the enormity of their situation sinking in. Their lives—stolen, borrowed, or spared—had already changed the course of the world they now found themselves in. But what that meant for the future, for the saintess, and for the kingdom of Eldoria, was still a mystery they would have to unravel.
"We have to find her," Zia said, her voice firm with resolve. "Azriel. The Saintess. If we're part of this story, we need to know where it's headed. And if we're not…" She paused, her gaze sweeping over her friends. "Then we'll carve out a new one. Together."
The air in the room felt heavier as the four girls sat in contemplative silence. Their earlier realization lingered, each of them grappling with the implications of their survival and what it meant for the world they now inhabited. It was Rish who broke the silence, her voice laden with regret.
"I wish I'd paid more attention to Miss Pyches," she admitted, her hand running through her hair in frustration. "She read that story to us so many times, but we just brushed it off as one of her eccentricities."
"Same," Zia murmured, her gaze distant. "We always joked about how she got so absorbed in that story, but now…" She shook her head, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Now I can't even remember half of it."
"We can't dwell on that," Sianna said firmly, her voice steady despite the slight tremor in her hands. "What's done is done. We need to move forward. If we're going to survive in this world, we need information… and a lot of it."
"She's right," Zia said, nodding. "We need to find out everything we can about this story. Not just what happens next, but what's different now that we're here."
Out of nowhere, Rish blurted out, "Yeah, we're here… and we have no internet."
All heads turned toward her. For a moment, her words didn't register. Then the weight of what she'd said hit them like a brick wall.
"No… No! No! NO!" Sianna screeched, her voice climbing several octaves. "My Ipad, my followers, my social media! Nooooooooooo!"
"Shit! No mangas here either!" Zia added, clutching her head like the world was ending all over again.
"My…" Mauie's voice broke through the chaos, and everyone turned to her in alarm. Her expression wavered, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "My books…"
The room froze. Even Sianna's dramatic wailing came to an abrupt halt. All of them knew what would happen if Mauie lost her temper—especially over something as personal as her books.
Rish scrambled to her feet, waving her hands as if warding off an impending storm. "Mauie, listen! This might be a whole new world, but there are definitely more interesting books here than anything you've ever read back home. Think about it! Rare, magical texts, histories of kingdoms, ancient spells—stuff you'd never even dream of!"
"Yeah!" Zia chimed in, her voice unusually cheery. "You're going to discover so many amazing stories here. Way better than anything from our world!"
Sianna nodded fervently. "Exactly! I mean, the library here is probably full of books we couldn't even imagine. Isn't that exciting?"
Mauie sniffled, wiping at her eyes as she composed herself. "Yeah… that's right," she muttered, her voice steadying. It was almost as if she hadn't been seconds away from crying.
The others let out a collective sigh of relief, slumping back into their positions.
"Crisis averted," Zia whispered to Rish, who nodded in agreement, still watching Mauie cautiously out of the corner of her eye.
Rish leaned closer, muttering under her breath, "She's tough."
With that brief yet chaotic interlude behind them, the girls refocused on the situation at hand. They all agreed that the library in Mauie's family manor, while helpful, was limited. If they were going to uncover the bigger picture, they needed access to a much larger collection of information.
"The palace library," Sianna suggested, her tone resolute. "It's the largest in the kingdom, and as the king's daughter, I have access to it."
"Are you sure we'd even be allowed inside?" Zia asked skeptically.
Sianna smirked. "Don't underestimate my influence. Besides, if we explain we're researching something for the good of the kingdom, no one would dare stop us."
Rish raised an eyebrow. "Good of the kingdom, huh? We're just trying to figure out how not to screw up the story more than we already have."
"Semantics," Sianna replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Rish sighted, "Sitting here won't get us anywhere. The palace library is our best shot at understanding what we're dealing with."
After some more discussion, they finalized their plan. They would regroup at the palace.
When they each returned to their respective homes later that evening, the gravity of their new reality hit them again, harder than ever.
Sianna stood in the grand dining hall of the palace, surrounded by opulence and splendor—polished marble floors, crystal chandeliers, and golden accents adorning every corner. But none of it brought her comfort. Instead, all she could think about was the absence of Wi-Fi, her online friends, and the digital world she had taken for granted. The grandeur of the room felt suffocating, a hollow display of luxury. With a sigh, she poured herself a glass of milk, ignoring the disapproving stares of the maids who whispered behind her back. Without a word, she retreated to her room, her mind far from the palace and its empty splendor.
Mauie, on the other hand, made her way to the family library. The scent of aged parchment and leather-bound tomes enveloped her as she entered. The familiar sight of bookshelves stretching to the ceiling might have once been a comfort, but now, it only served as a stark reminder of the life she'd lost. These weren't her books, filled with the stories she'd cherished back home. Resolute, she set her sights on searching for more information about this new world and her family, hoping to uncover anything that might give her clarity—or control—in a place that felt alien.
Rish returned to the manor, her footsteps heavy as she crossed the threshold. The familiar coldness of the grand hall seemed to weigh down on her, but she barely acknowledged it. Her mind was still swirling with everything that had happened, and the silence of the manor only deepened her unease. As she reached the door to her chambers, she was met by the butler, who stood at attention, his face as stoic as ever.
"Young Lady," he said, bowing slightly. "His Grace requests your presence in the basement."
Zia returned to the cacophony of screaming voices. The shrill argument between her two stepsisters echoed through the halls of the manor, their words blending into a grating symphony of bickering. She didn't know what they were fighting about, nor did she care. Quietly, she made her way toward the backdoor, where the garden is hoping to avoid crossing paths with either of them.
"And where do you think you're going without even greeting us?"
"