"Pour one more bucket", The bishop commanded.
Right now Julianna was undergoing what was said to be a cleansing process.
The Bishop was a man of many principles and vows but one thing which he could not overlook was apparently dishonesty.
"Are you ready to tell the truth of what happened now?", he asked again.
Julie's hands were tied behind her back and she had been enduring bucket after buckets worth of ice cold water. She glared at the Bishop. "Didn't I already tell you? I saw the same thing that Sir Warrel saw, I saw the nobles get murdered and a declaration of war"
Julie wasn't going to tell him about Princess Nele. She somehow felt that it wasn't the right time to declare about her presence yet.
"Liar", the bishop bellowed signalling for one more bucket.
The Bishop was dressed in large clothes that swayed as he walked. She could somehow make out his gait through her drenched face and she grabbed onto the end of his robes, pulling him towards the puddle of water.
"Have you reported to his highness yet?"
"We will. In time. When you confess probably", he added with a sneer.
"You know that holding a noble like me here would be a crime, don't you?", Julie challenged.
"You know that forfeiting information from the Temple can also be a crime right?", he retorted back.
Julie gritted out her teeth. "I seriously don't know what went wrong in there but the dragon seemed to know that I was in the vision", she admitted.
That pricked his interest. "Reirs did?", the bishop asked in awe. He thought over it for a while.
Then stroking his beard he answered "You seem to be telling the truth finally. I'll leave you this time Lady Julianna but beware, the Holy temple is not a place for you to plan your schemes"
"Won't even think of it", she murmured scrambling up from the wet floor and walking away quickly.
Outside the chamber the trio were still waiting and they looked at her with worry splattered over their faces.
"Let's go home", Julianna breathed.
**************************************
Tables were laid out in the sun again the next day and a dozen chairs were lined up. Representatives of the court and members of the Carsone family had managed to arrive too and the Crown Prince was seated at the opposite end facing Julie.
Tea was passed and drunk and they waited for a while for Lord Emore to arrive.
Julia had talked to her father in this world yesterday. He had seemed more surprised that she had come to talk to him about this matter and gave a fairly neutral reply for whatever he said. In fact him and her mom both had quite confused looks on their faces as she explained her vision and the visit to the Temple. She even managed to whine about the Bishop's treatment towards her, hoping that they wouldn't notice the transition from Julianna to Julie.
Lord Emore had said that he would arrive for the meeting but it seemed that he forgot about it today, just like everything else. Julie couldn't understand why Julianna's parents gave her so much freedom. In fact it was kinda weird talking to her parents since her real parents had died when she was 12.
They finally decided to start the meeting without Emore. The crown prince mumbled about the upcoming taxes and lower prices of the crops from the western side like he was talking to his ministers and the nobles on the either side mumbled with him not really understanding why they were here in the first place.
Lily managed to break in about rumours from the temple and that got everyone excited again. They talked about a new prophecy that the Bishop had announced about late evening yesterday and when he would reveal it.
Julie kept giving anxious glances at Canien and Reynolds sitting on either side of her not knowing when to begin.
"Lady Julianna you've been pretty quiet", Lily said out loudly giving Julie her opening.
The conversation went on with Canien helping her on one side and Rex making trouble on another and finally Julie stood up and handed the Crown Prince the letters of rejection.
The Crown Prince looked at her like she had suddenly developed a pair of spikes on her head.
"What on earth brought this on?", he demanded tapping his fingers against the table continuously like he was pretending to stab someone.
"The person whose prophecy the Bishop announced about yesterday was mine, your highness. I saw the destruction about to take place on the 25th. And during that ceremony, the enemy seemed to target only the noble families, the baron titled family onwards", she said trying to meet his gaze.
"But the Annual Ceremony has never been aborted before", he said deep in thought. And how come the Bishop never met father after hearing about this?"
"Those religious bastards won't face any problems if the nobles suddenly disappear. In fact it would only strengthen their own cause", the head of the Carsone family suddenly spoke up.
"If what the lady says is true, then we need to make sure that the nobles don't participate in the ceremony"
"The common folk won't agree to participate in the ceremony if they hear about the prophecy", Canien warned.
"We cannot abandon the Annual Ceremony and we won't. We will send a letter to Reirs and Saule and the ceremony will be conducted earlier and without any publicity", The Crown Prince declared.
Then, pointing a finger at Julie, he warned. "You, are not abandoning this"
Julie gritted her teeth helplessly. "Your highness I don't think you understand. I think the nobles are going to be targeted whether the ceremony occurs or not. Surely you're not going to put our lives on trouble for a Ceremony that would just end up being a mass-
Julie halted. She was almost about to talk about the war and the massacre.
"Mass?", the crown prince asked his golden green eyes dangerously shooting daggers at her face.
'Say it', his eyes seemed to dare her. 'Say it in front of everyone and see what happens'
Somehow with this small conversation he seemed to have understood what meant by the nobles disappearance. He knew that the war was coming.
And yet he was being so stubborn about the stupid ceremony.
"Stop all executions from today onwards", Canien opinioned. "We'll use the criminals to be executioned for this year's Annual Ceremony and postpone their executions for after the ceremony"
A cry of protest broke out from the table. Most of the nobles covered their faces with disgust but Prince Kale was calm.
"I'll talk to my father about this. And if the prophecy happens to be a hoax, what do you suppose you will do then, Lady Julianna?", he asked attacking her again.
"Then we be glad that none of the nobles disappear and that the enemy's plan has failed", Reynolds said coming to her rescue and saying something useful for once.
Silence engulfed the table once again. Julie felt like she had won a battle as she sat down giving grateful looks to Canien and Reynolds.
"Everyone leave the table. Except for Lady Julianna. I would like to hear about her prophecy in her own words", The Crown Prince ordered again.
Julie raised an eyebrow. 'ππ©π’π΅ π₯πͺπ₯ π©π¦ πΈπ’π―π΅ π―π°πΈ?'
The nobles immediately followed pursuit. Lord Carsone nodded at Julianna as he left. Lily dragged Canien out of the room while Reynolds stood in his seat looking at the Prince.
"Anything you have to add, Lord Reeland?", Kale asked, a stern look on his face. His golden green eyes looked like solid gold.
The garden suddenly felt colder.
Reynolds gave Julie one last glance before leaving the garden. Julie kept her eyes deliberately on the people heading towards her manor. The Prince's presence seemed to crawl through her skin like a bad itch and she found it unable to meet his gaze.
"Well played Julianna Emore", the Prince murmured taking a sip of his tea. "I'll help you"
"Don't you want to listen to the prophecy?", she asked innocently.
"Uh No thank you. I prefer to hearing from Sir Warrel himself who oversaw your reading", he said taking a small cookie now. Julie noticed that the Prince had a bit of a sweet tooth. She made a note of it in her mind in case she had to brainwash him.
"Also, you can drop the act now", he said absent mindedly stirring his tea.
Julie caught her breath. "What act?"
The Prince looked at her with an expression so serious, he might as well as burnt through her soul.
"You wanted me to be on your side, so you called all the high nobles, carefully avoiding the Alentia Family because they could prove to be trouble for your plan", he said smiling. "Don't think I didn't notice what you were doing. In fact I guess I was too careless. I thought you were more of an airhead"
Julie tried not to glare at his insult. Sure the old Julianna might've been somewhat of an idiot. But he didn't have any right to call her directly to her face.
But the prince was pulling out the conversation on purpose. Clearly he didn't make her stand behind just so he could mock her. Which meant-
"What do you want to say to me?",Julie asked with her dullest expression possible.
The Prince stopped stirring. His gold-green eyes inspected her like she was an insect.
"For helping your case, I want something in return"
"What is it?", she asked her throat tightening.
"It's a simple request", he said drawing out his syllables. "I want to take better care of my Phoenix"
Julie blinked. Does she want to take the phoenix to the palace? But the phoenix can't stay anywhere but the special rock cave built for it.....unless....
Unless he was asking her to move out.
He was asking her to move out of her own manor.
Tears suddenly stung her eyes and Julie wondered if it was Julianna's emotions resurfacing. Nevertheless she was angry now, she stood up making the dishes on the table clang.
"You seriously can't ask me to move out!"
"Why not?", he asked with a lazy look. "If I know correctly the Emores have a summer mansion in Reily right? They say the beach is near in Reily and it's a beautiful town-
Julie was going to cry. She was sure she had never hated someone even in get previous life as she hated this man sitting in front of her.
Did he hate her so much that he wanted her to move away?
She listened to him rant some more about the beaches in Reily and sat down in her seat again, guilt creeping up her throat.
She was sure her tears had leaked at the corners of her eyes when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.
Julie looked up to find a tall man with dark hair and same mystical eyes as hers.
Lord Emore.
"Why don't your highness stay here with us? It'll be pretty lonely by the manor all by yourself don't you think?", he asked with a dazzling smile.
Kale looked at Lord Emore suspiciously.
"Right. That can be also arranged I presume", he said his expression a bit vary.
Lord Emore pulled Julianna by the collar lovingly. Then patting her head he said looking her in the eye.
"Go inside. Your mother is looking for you"
Julie nodded biting back the sudden urge to hug him tightly and cry.
Julianna had wonderful parents.
**************************************
Both the Prince had Lord Emore watched as Julianna made her way back into the manor.
"I would like you to go a bit easy on her", Lord Emore muttered turning his attention back on the young prince. "She's not been feeling like herself for a few days"
"Do you even know what your daughter was doing?", The Prince asked sternly.
The Duke's eyes widened. "Young Prince"
he said taking out a large cookie out of the platter for him to eat. "I always know what my daughter is doing"