Vero's heart instantly started aching, she had hurt her daughter and they were connected by a strong bond so she could feel a sharp pain and her heart was beating loudly, she withdrew her nails from her daughter's neck and chanted a healing spell and the place she dug on her daughter's neck started to fade slowly until it finally disappeared completely, the blood from Era could not go to waste so she collected all of it using her magic and put it away on her old and almost broken cupboard that she had inherited from her grandfather, the blood was that of a young girl so it was most useful, she wanted to use it for one of her concoction or dark magic spells to make them stronger. Emerald had not inherited her mother's witchcraft, she couldn't even learn how to chant a spell right and always seemed to forget most things if not told repeatedly, this bothered her mother who was worried that Era might one day get hurt because she wasn't able to protect herself, she needed her mom for everything and she was more like a burden to Vero, she was almost useless. Vero decided to ignore all this because she had this great task for Era and didn't want her to screw it up
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And Thomas went around doing his normal morning routine which was, creating chaos and trouble all over the palace. None of the maids or guards in the palace liked him, because he was always setting them up and putting them in trouble or giving them double work, so everyone tried to avoid him, but they couldn't, since he was so sneaky and loved playing pranks on people, they tried to get used to his pranks, but it was not easy, for he always came up with something new, "hey watch it your gonna step on a rat"!!, tom shouted out to Lilly, the poor girl was so frightened she dropped the pile of plates she was carrying, twenty fragile breakable plates went crashing on the floor!!, "holy molly!!" Poor Lilly cried out, she was so terrified the chief maid will not be happy with her and she had worked so hard, to stay in miss Anne's good books(the chief maid)after tom set her up the last time and thanks to this arrogant prince again, she will have to go round the cycle once again, when Lilly heard the word rat, she didn't even stop to think and reason out that this was the palace not her house, there were no rats running around the palace, the Palace was cleaned thoroughly everyday by over two hundred mates, it was very big and the cleaners made sure the cleaned from the top to the bottom, the building was an ancient one, but not a single cobweb could be seen, the plates Lilly broke were one of the rare ancient collections that had been bought by king Dove, the present queen treasured every inherited thing in the palace, she had asked for this plates to be cleaned because she needed them for an important occasion, lucky for lilly, the plates were so many and the queen wouldn't mind too much for she was kind and understanding. Tom laughed out so loudly that his ribs started hurting and after 3 minutes of intense Laughter, he spoke "Oops Lilly dear, did I scare the womb out of you hihihihi, oh no!!, I guess I scared the plates out of your tiny little weak hands, holy shit, that's too bad!!, Miss Anne is not gonna be very happy with you but not to worry she won't eat you, she'll just say_oh Lilly!, don't be this careless next time, but Lilly if you accept to be my girlfriend I'll make sure your little hands are much stronger and more prepared next time''. Lily's face turned red from anger and embarrassment, she knew he was only joking but the thought of her being his girlfriend was worst than hell!!,he smirked at her and went on his way, Tom's hobby was, playing expensive pranks on people and teasing them his victims either got hurt or got into serious trouble and he didn't care, he seemed to derive joy from seeing other people hurting. Every day he made sure to hurt at least seven or more people with his pranks and once he got tired he would have his brunch rest a little and continue having fun, the queen was always so disturbed, she tried making Tom realize that he was to be the future king of the kingdom and he had to work hard and study, he had to be wise but that was completely opposite to what Tommy was, he was very bad at taking lessons and never did anything right in class, all he wanted to do was play with his brother and make fun of his teacher and now he was moving around the palace with a sly look ready to devour any poor maid or guard, he moved around for some time looking for the next opportunity to have fun, and before he could think of a prank, there was another opportunity before him and without thinking he stepped forward and said _"hey mister, looks like your new around here, are you lost?", "sorry to disturb you my prince, I thought I was on my way to the queen's study,she ordered for some soup, and it's already getting cold, yet I still haven't found her,I guess I lost my way"., "you guess?!, hihihi, are you kidding me?,you are completely lost,my mom's study is way over there" tom said pointing towards the lions den, oh thank you my prince your so kind, the unfortunate fellow said, and hurried towards the completely wrong direction, he had been on the right track too bad he met such a terrible director, who directed him to his doom, as he turned back to go towards the completely wrong direction, tom giggled, for some time, "good luck Phil(for that was the fellows name) have fun with the lions", he said and continued on his path, looking for more opportunities, Tom got hungry on his way and decided to go for a morning snack today, he could just ask the cook to get him something or order the maids to prepare his breakfast but Tom didn't like anything legal, he was sure to cause trouble even when there was no need to, he went over to the food store where all the foodstuff for the royal household was stored, it had a lot of space and the food hear was replaced once every two days with fresh food, fruits, meat and snacks, when replaced, the old food would be taken out and distributed to the villagers who really needed them, the queen had suggested for Tom to also go out sometime and help with the distribution of food for this could make him win the people's heart and it was also a tradition, the future king had to go out himself at least thrice to distribute food to the poor in his kingdom, that was one of the requirements to be able to pass the final test and be the king, this was the only reason Tom might ever consider doing that, he didn't even care about the people, he only cared about himself and wanted his mother, the queen to die fast so he could finally succeed and take his rightful seat and position which was to wear the crown and be the king of this great nation, the only thing Tom wanted to do once he was king was to expand his territory, he loved war and wanted to defeat all the neighboring places and even beyond, he wanted to rule the world, his mouth twisted and a cunning smile could be seen on his face as he thought of all the things he could achieve, he took out most of the snacks from the bag, this were the special ones reserved for the little orphans, Tom knew this too well but still decided he would have just those ones though there were other good snacks there, he went to the fridge, there were different cakes there but he took out the smallest which was yoghurt, strawberry and banana flavored, this was the queen's favorite and she had ordered the chief cook herself, to bake it for her, Tom put the cake besides his snacks and went to the next thing, there was Jerry's turkey and Tom took all of it, he went to get his own favorite now which was the chocolate cake and baked salmon he packed all this in a bag and carried them to his room, he didn't want anyone to see him so he used a secret door which he had just recently discovered, there was more to this secret passage, but someone like Tom was to stupid to care about it or notice, he only cared about getting safely to his room and framing someone else for stealing the kids snacks, the queen's favorite cake and Jerry's turkey. he finally got to his room and put the bag in a safe and hidden place, ate some cake and salmon, then went out again to continue his pranks.