Julie spent the entire week going forth and back from the temple.
The crown prince had done his job and the Emperor had been notified of what was coming. He had personally summoned Julie to meet him at the end of the week and she felt her stomach twist into numerous knots just by thinking about it.
The temple was annoyed that the crown prince got to him before they did but they bargained for Julie's time by asking her to do her visions multiple times again and again.
Lord Emore had been furious to find out how they were using Julie as their trial puppet and forbade her from leaving the manor.
Canien and Lily did their job of controlling the rumours. They also sent a letter to the Alentia Family who was kind of furious that they didn't get to participate in the drama. Reynolds and Julie spent hours in the library brainstorming on anything that could be identified as the Sand controller that Princess Nele had mentioned in Julie's vision.
"The original villain of the novel was the princess's uncle wasn't he?", Julie asked dusting of another book on the ancient sand kingdom.
"But he was more of a wind manipulator. It's easy for him to be confused with a sand manipulator", Reynolds muttered.
He closed the book with a bang, watching the dust flying around.
Julie smacked him on the head.
"Focus general. We need to come up with a defence plan so that we three won't get killed."
"Look at you get into character, Julianna Emore", he said mocking her. Then his face suddenly became serious.
"What?", she asked sitting down beside him.
"Do you think.....that we'll be able to go back home?", he asked slowly.
Silence.
Julie thought over his question. Rex unlike her had his real parents back home waiting for him. For him to cross dimensions and leave his world was harder than her or Caine. Caine back home lived with his older brother and grandmother who rarely talked to him as he was born out of wedlock. He seemed much happier here.
What about her then? Surely having parents was great but did she miss her home back home? Her friends and her cat.....
"I wonder who'll take care of Bill for me", she muttered rubbing her temples.
"Who, your cat?", he asked sitting up straight suddenly. "Are you seriously talking about your cat right now?"
Julie shrugged. "He's the only one waiting back home for me"
Reynolds went silent after that comment.
They began stacking back the books, tired of the whole thing. Julie's mind ran back and forth to her visions. She hadn't seen the part with Princess Nele after the first vision. The subsequent visions were carefully observed by Warrel and they saw the part till the sandstorm attacked and every noble family just disappeared.
Julie couldn't just tell Warrel that when the sandstorm was over their bones would be the only thing left. Nor could she tell anyone about the upcoming war. She might've hinted about it to the Crown Prince but that was all she could do for now.
She couldn't figure out whether the future was changing or not.
"Julie!!", someone called from upstairs.
The library was underground just like the phoenix's chamber so the voice was very faint for Julie to recognise who was calling her. She wondered what time it was and who was calling her now.
"Look at this one", Reynolds said holding out a book with silver cover.
It read the underground sand prisons.
"You said that the princess talked about someone in a prison right?", Reynolds said holding out the book to her. "Apparently underground prisons are quite common amoung the sand kingdoms. I cross-checked with Reynolds memories and yeah...they exist"
"This might be worth looking into then I guess", Julie murmured touching the edges of the book. She turned over the first few pages.
"A brief history of sand prisons enchanted and non enchanted. Wait they have maps"
"Julianna!!", someone called out again.
"I think that's your mother", Reynolds muttered.
Julie sighed closing the book. She had been avoiding Lady Emore on purpose. Fathers may be easy to fool but a you just couldn't fool a mother. She wondered how long it'll take before she realises that Julie's not Julianna.
A head peeked around the corner of their book shelf and a pretty woman with green eyes looked at her worriedly.
"Julianna?", Lady Emore asked holding up a plate of sweets.
"Mum", she said approaching her mother. She pretended not to gag at the sight of sweets. Julianna might've been a fan of sweets but Julie certainly wasn't. She smiled at Lady Emore, softly embracing her. "You brought sweets again"
Lady Emore was still looking at Sir Reynolds with a quizzical look. "You seem to spend a lot of time with Sir Reeland these days. I heard that the Annual Ceremony might be cancelled? What are you two doing here then?"
Reynolds took that as a cue and bowed to her before leaving.
Julie swallowed two small cookies. "Sir Reeland was explaining about the city's defence patrol to me", she lied hoping that she won't choke on a cookie.
"Oh you needed worry darling. You have your father to protect you. But it sure is alarming that only your visions turned out that way. Are you sure, the nobles were attacked?", she asked peering at her with narrowed eyes. "I mean...they could've also just disappeared in the storm."
"Ive seen the vision more than one time on repeat mum. It was more than enough for me to know that something was going wrong"
Lady Emore cocked her head to one side handing the plate over to a maid trailing her. "It seems like I'm seeing things, but darling you've been acting a bit weird these days. Are you sure you're alright?"
"What?", Julie asked taken aback by her question. "I'm fine", she answered weakly.
Lady Emore looked at her with such a worried face that it made her guilty.
"I know you've been mad at us for these past few weeks because we didn't allow you to use the underground passage to meet your lovers but as your father said, that place is way too dangerous for you dear. You haven't been meeting the men there again have you?"
Julie froze.
Oh my god. Underground passage? What Lover? Was she testing her?
Julie tried to go through Julianna's memories and found none. She was sure Lady Emore was testing her now.
"What passage mum?", she demanded like Julianna.
Lady Emore leaned in and tapped a hand against her forehead.
"Good that you don't remember. I can see that Killian did the job well. Don't worry dear, you won't remember anything about this conversation either. Don't bother keeping it in your mind "
Goosebumps rose on Julie's hands. What did she mean by that? Was she making her lose her memory doing something?
The cookies-
"Huh?"
Julie suddenly couldn't remember why she was in the underground library.
She looked in front of her and found a stack of books heaped on the table. Lady Emore was standing over them inspecting a book with silver cover.
"Now now, Julie darling, what did you say you wanted to tell me about your visions?", Lady Emore asked in an icy voice.
Julie sucked in her lips. But the answer came out of her lips without her consent.
"I saw bones mom"
"What?"
"I saw the bones of the dead nobles. Their bodies had been turned to dust by the sandstorm"
**********************************************
Lily Mcrose had been sleeping when the 'thing' suddenly decided crash land through her bed room.
She woke up immediately by the sound of a vase hitting the floor, her favourite Dewdrop flowers splattered onto the floor.
She could hear the sound of more furniture creaking as if something heavy was moving through her room.
Her room was divided into two parts. One with the bed towards the inner side and the another was the sitting which had an large open balcony. She had made it that way since she liked the night sky in Liere. Canien had called her an idiot for making herself more of an easy target. He had tried to redo the design and failed miserably trying to go against her.
And now she wished she had listened to him.
She grabbed a huge book from a nearby shelf wondering where on earth the maids were and what the guards were doing. Hadn't they heard the noise yet?
She peeked over the wall facing the balcony and found a large yellow mass slithering and filling up her room. A small cry of horror slipped through her mouth and the slithering suddenly stopped.
Lily sat down on the carpet covering her mouth, her fingers white from holding the book too tightly.
Her heart hammered in her chest and sweat trickled through on her face even though the night was chilly.
The slithering abruptly resumed and Lily prayed for all the gods she didn't care about till now. She wondered why a big fat snake could climb through her balcony at night into her house of all people.
A scary thought suddenly ran through her mind. Maybe the snake must have killed everyone. Because it was obviously making such a big racket and no one seemed to be coming.
Not even her brother Canien who slept literally two doors from her.
Her hands shaked as she peeked by the side of the wall once more getting a better view of the snake this time.
It seemed to be eating something.
Bile rose to her mouth as she got a whiff of the stench of fresh blood spilling over the carpet. Lily covered her mouth in horror, her heart threatening to burst now.
What in the world was happening?
Seeing the situation now and the smell of blood combined, she was sure that everyone was dead by now.
Maybe the snake was the monster that was going to kill all the nobles.
It had come for her family first.
Lily regretted ever doubting Julianna's words even when they had sounded like random blabber.
She tried to see the way to the exit and was suddenly glad to see that it was not in the pathway of the snake.
Lily decided to make a run for it.
It was either do or die right?
She decided to run.
Her weak legs clambered making a soft rasp on the carpet as she dashed towards the door.
But halfway through her way, a long yellow tail suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bashed her against the wall.
Then everything went black.
When she opened her eyes again, the smell of blood had increased and she found herself sitting in a pool of blood. She wondered if it was her own blood or the blood of the headless corpse in front of her.
A wail suddenly broke out from her lips and Lily clutched at her skirts trying to get up from the red mass. But halfway through, the tail reappeared again, this time somewhat smaller and on her throat.
Lily's eyes suddenly focused on the pair of large yellow eyes looking at her. The eyes were like large yellow jewels that had been lost under the sun and it's yellow scales were darker in contrast which yet, glistened in the moonlight.
Upon closer look she realised that it was not a snake after all.
The head of the animal had two white horns protruding out of it and it also had two pairs of limbs which Lily had failed to notice earlier because of its large size.
It was a dragon.
And it seemed to be shrinking.
"How did you manage to stay up under the dragon's flute?", It asked in a scratchy voice.
Lily saw black burning coals between it's teeth and swallowed. Her throat was too constricted to speak and she felt a dull ache from somewhere on her forehead.
Her eyes closed briefly for a moment and when she opened them again a man was standing in front of her.
He had those very same jewelled eyes but his features seemed somewhat familiar as if she had seen him before. Long blond hair fell about him in straight lines till his shoulders. He was bare-bodied except for the small gold coloured robe covering his waist which he pulled up by one hand. He was inhumanely beautiful and Lily felt herself like a prey being drawn towards a beautiful predator.
Then there was the matter of the blood covering his face and chest.
His hands were smeared with bloodstains as he gripped her cheek tightly with his other hand pulling her face towards him.
The sharp smell of blood poked her brain as she struggled to stay awake, his face inches from hers.
"What are you?", she heard him whisper before the world went black again.