"What is all this ruckus?" I asked a maid who was stood hidden behind a wall from the 2nd-floor banister.
"Oh my! Young master, you gave me a fright, you mustn't interfere the Emperor is here and he's demanding to see the Empress again." She yelped backward into the shadow and instinctively grabbed me too.
"The Emperor is here again?" I asked and the maid took a deep sigh.
"Yes, he's here again." She had a look of frustration enveloping her face.
"Alright… You're dismissed I shall go down and see what seems to be the problem." I spoke and before either of us could move I heard my father's loud voice echoing through the halls and ran down to see what had happened.
I was met with a very peculiar sight, there was a very distinctive black aura warping around in the foyer and for the first time in this life, my eyes settled on the fake Princess that brought destruction to the Empire.
"Your Highness!" I screamed and went down to where the young Prince had been standing moments prior, he knelt on the floor dry heaving.
"Your Highness, what's wrong?" I asked while I pulled him away from the black aura that I saw trying to coil itself around him.
"I… I can't breathe, that thing is… it's weird." I looked over to the fake and saw her trembling and hiding away but unlike the countless different acts I saw her put on in the past, this time she was genuinely shaking in fear.
Our eyes locked and innately I knew she was afraid of me.
'Strange, we haven't met yet there is no reason for her to be afraid of me there's also the fact that in the past she was adamant about marrying me.' I thought as I stared at her cowering behind the Emperor.
"Eva don't cry, your brother is just not feeling well that's all." In my eye, the only human who wasn't feeling well was the Emperor.
"What did you just say about my son?" To everyone's surprise, the Empress who had barely left her bed-chambers in days was now standing at the top of second-floor stairs, glaring down at the man who had insulted her son.
"Aya you're here!" the Emperor exclaimed, his entire being lit up with life as his wife came into his vision.
"Al and Lucas come here, it's not safe there." The Empress spoke completely brushing off the Emperor, I grabbed the Prince and walked up to the Empress as the black aura started to flood towards us.
"Aya…" He tried to speak again only to be cut off by the Empress.
"Don't call my name while standing next to that thing, I don't know how you see it but now it doesn't even look human, and for your majesty to say you see that as our Eva disgusts me." The Empress spoke loud and clear, had I ever seen the Empress this aggressive?
"She is our child! Our daughter, how could you call her a thing? Hold her just once, just once and you'll realize that you were wrong." he begged, pushing the fake towards the stairs.
"Bring that thing closer to me and I'll never see you again. That thing is not Eva, don't you dare call her that in front of me." The Empress spoke while my parents stood dumbfounded not knowing what to do as they'd never seen the Empress treat the Emperor in such a way.
"Daddy! I wanna go home, brother and mother hate me!" The fake started pulling the Emperor by his clothes trying to drag him out.
"Okay, alright let's go home." He said as he picked up the fake and headed for the front door, before leaving he turned back around and longingly stared at the Empress. There was another weird glint in his eyes, the black aura started violently wrapping itself around the Emperor and the glint disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
"Al, show me where it hurts." The Empress knelt down in front of the Prince and spoke ever so softly, the prior hostility no longer present in her voice, gesture, or face.
"I feel fine now… It was weird, it felt like my whole world would sink if I didn't run away but when Lucas touched me I felt alive again." The prince explained.
"Let us go to my chambers, Clara could you send a physician I would like to have Alistair checked." She had now returned to her former elegancy, one that Raven had naturally inherited.
"Of course, I'll bring him, Lucas come with Mother, let's let the Prince and Empress rest for a bit." Mother ushered me towards herself.
"Mum, there's something I'd like to ask Her Majesty and His Highness. If it's alright I'd like to discuss this now." I spoke hesitating a little, wondering if I should give them space instead.
"It's alright Clara, we'll wait for you in my chambers." The Empress spoke, and I could surmise that she too wanted to ask me a few questions.
"I understand, go on Lucas I'll bring the physician." Father returned to his duties that had been back pilling due to all of the recent events and the three of us walked back to the Empress's room accompanied by light silence.
We entered the chambers and sat on the couch, the Empress instructed her maids to bring some tea and snacks for us to enjoy while speaking.
"What is it you wished to discuss Lucas?" The Empress sat the Prince down next to herself and placed her hands on her own lap gracefully.
"Your majesty, I wondered if you saw the black aura that I witnessed emitting from the… the Princess?" I spoke, unsure what I should really call the fake when conversing with the Empress.
"You may call her whatever but just not Eva and yes I saw the black lump that she had become." She spoke, reading the slight hesitation in my voice when I called the fake a Princess.
"I don't mean if you saw her in her real state, I mean did you see the black aura that flooded out of her in great masses the more emotional she became? As soon as your majesty made your appearance the aura ran away and hid itself." I explained.
"I saw it, it swirled and was acting like a whip." The Prince who was sat silently listening to our conversation the whole time spoke out.
"A black aura that the fake emitted? No, I didn't see it perhaps she's capable of wielding black magic?" The Empress hypothesized.
"No, I've seen black magicians before but their mana does not move the same way as the fake's aura did if you'll allow me to be so impertinent."
I recalled the few black magicians I had met with in the past, they tried their best to hide their mana as people found being around it unpleasant. Black magic dealt with destruction and death but the feeling that rose from the fake's aura was not death or destruction but a curse. Only dark magicians can conjure a curse, that is why it's forbidden magic.
"Go on, there is nothing you could say that I myself haven't thought of already." For the past week, the Empress would call for me from time to time to hear the stories I had of Raven, she asked the same small details over and over again I could see her heartbreak every time I told her of Raven's tragic life.
"I believe the fake princess can either wield forbidden dark magic or is made of dark magic." I had come to my conclusion but that left me with more questions than answers, when and who swapped the Princess? Why were Raven's eyes red? The Imperial family could not alter their eye color yet she had. Where is Raven right now? And are we destined to meet again?