"Do you want to go back to your room, Lady Evelyn?" Ester asked when Eve walked out of the dining hall.
"No, I will be going up to the library," Eve replied, facing her.
"I will bring a bowl of lemon biscuits for you," Ester said and walked away. Eve ascended the staircase, passing maids cleaning the corridors. They bowed to her, a gesture she returned with a smile. As she turned into the corridor leading to the library, she heard a click, like a door being locked. There were only two doors in this corridor, the two large library doors, and a slightly ajar small brown door a few steps away.
Eve approached it and fully opened the door, which creaked softly. It revealed an empty room with a small wooden door that swung open and shut in the wind. This was where the click had come from, but nothing else was in the room. She stepped inside, leaving the door open, and walked towards the window. Below, she could see a large pool beneath the castle, featuring a huge fountain shaped like a glass fish, water flowing from its open mouth.
Eve was mesmerized. Despite her extensive tours of the castle, this was the first time she had seen the pool, which shimmered in the sunlight. As Eve continued to watch the pool, she heard the main door shut. She spun around to see it closed.
Who had closed the door? Eve thought as she quickly walked towards it and tried to open it. The door didn't budge as she expected. She tried the knobs again, but it remained locked. It didn't help when the window also slammed shut, plunging her into an uncomfortable darkness. She jolted and began banging on the door.
"Is anybody out there?" Eve called out as she continued to pound on the door. She twisted the knob again, pulling and pushing it several more times.
"Who is in there?" She heard Ester's voice from outside and quickly responded.
"Ester, it's me! Open the door," she urged. She tugged on the door knob again and it finally opened.
"My lady?" Ester looked shocked.
"What were you doing in there?" She asked.
"Did you see anyone on your way here?" Eve questioned. The maid shook her head.
'It must have been the wind then,' Eve thought, and perhaps the door hadn't opened because she was panicking. For a moment, she had felt like someone had locked her in.
"You should be careful, my lady. Some of the room doors haven't been refurbished," Ester said, to which Eve nodded in agreement.
"Thank you. Do you have anything else you need to do?" She asked.
"No, my lady."
"Then go and take your rest. I'll be here until dinner," Eve said, accepting the tray of biscuits from the maid. She walked to the library, turning one last time to see Ester still staring at her. Ester bowed and walked away, and Eve stepped into the large room where she planned to spend her day.
High above in the castle, on one of the balconies, Sebastian stood with Leif, watching the knights below during a training session. Some of the knights were challenging each other to swords fight while others practiced their arrow skills.
"The vampires are been let loose too much, I'll have to check on Sven today," Sebastian said, pulling Leif's attention from the guards below.
"I'll see Eve in the library before I go. Keep an eye on the visitors, we don't want Eve's interesting family to do something that might cost their heads," he added.
"I doubt they would," Leif said.
"Good." "Eve- the fang marks on her skin from yesterday has faded," Sebastian's words trailed.
"I wonder why, fang marks never fades. Not so fast," Leif acknowledged, as he was sitting on the left side of Sebastian on the dining table and Eve sat on the other side, he and Sebastian was able to see her bare skin, the marks were missing.
"Do you think she's not human?" Leif suddenly questioned, looking at Sebastian's to his lips twitch, as he attempted not to smile. His half-brother seem to know too many secrets, he thought.
"She is not?" He asked again.
"It's understandable to say so," Sebastian turned to him before looking at the guards.
"I'm yet to find that out." Leif waited for him to say more but he didn't talk about it again. He like to keep his personal things secret, a behavior he had grown with.
"Have the humans send to the court room. They seem gullible to think they would be able to rest in an enemy territory because of a darn truce," Sebastian smirked, his fangs that was still elongated peeking out of his lips.
Sebastian walked to the court room and soon enough, Krantz and his ministers appeared behind Leif and he gestured for them to take their seat. The Vizier and few Ministers also stepped in, bowing in greetings to Sebastian.
"I would be away for the day," he began staring at the elder humans who he was no doubt older than.
"As humans, you would have gone to sleep before I would return," he concluded to see them glare at him before schooling their expressions.
"Is there any other thing about the rogues attacking your Kingdom?" He questioned.
"There is nothing else, King Sebastian, our able Knights have been able to filter them out and burn them in the forests," Krantz replied proudly, waiting to see the change in expression in Sebastian's face but the vampire was rather staring at him lazily.
"For you to have burn them only means they weren't rogues but average vampires who wield magic," Vizier Markus said.
"Vampires wield magic?" Krantz questioned in surprise.
"Hmmm.. there are vampires who can kill you with a mere utter of words, it amaze me that your knights had been able overpower them. It means they were the below average ones," Sebastian replied and continued feeding them the differences in vampires.
The humans are real illiterate, thought Sebastian to himself seeing the surprise in their faces when they learnt they weren't only vampires who bite.
"For now, don't speak about this in your Kingdom, I won't be blamed for the bloodshed," Sebastian warned.
"But how do we know the rogue vampires?" A green eyed human, Salem asked. The vampires that had attacked them looked like every other of their fellow creatures. To think they possessed magic and use the spells, but weren't such things only in stories.
"Most of the rogues are huge," Leif replied, "And they have enlarged fangs and longer claws than the normal ones, you can say they are deranged."
"And their eyes," Vizier Markus added, "They have root-like veins around their eyes."