"Emory, take these cushions some place else would you? No wait, wait Ruby don't add the blue coloured curtains again I hate those", Julie whined.
"But your lady....you yourself chose those curtains", the maid said obviously in confusion.
Julie sighed. Julianna's choices and Julie's completely clashed with each other. Those stupid blue curtains were too transparent. Her bed in the new room was way too close to the balcony and she didn't want to sleep feeling like someone was watching her in the dark.
After arguing with the maids and the butlers for a while, Julie finally gave up letting them decorate the room in the end. The staff sure looked happy as they left her room after it was done.
Julie entered after they left. They had nicely done up the job of cleaning out the small room. The cupboard next to her bed was filled with books and a small table lay in the centre of the room holding white flowers.
She looked around for a candle stand and was disappointed when she found none. It couldn't be helped that her old room had now turned into that jerk's storeroom. She wanted to search around that candle stand some more, looking for some more clues.
"Julianna!", her mother called out again.
Julie's heart skipped a few beats. Ever since she found out about that note, she had been paranoid wondering when the Mother Emore would appear again to drug her own daughter.
She wasn't fully convinced that it was her doing that she didn't remember anything about meeting Reynolds. But that memory gap in her brain felt way too unusual. She felt uncomfortable in a way, seeing as someone tried to mess with her memories without consent.
Julie quickly took a left from her room's door and found herself walking towards the old library. She decided to hide there for a while since Lady Emore was on a hunt for her.
But then, someone appeared from the West corridor of the room cutting her path to the library.
Julie caught her breath.
"Darling", Lady Emore said out stretching her hand and taking a few steps towards her. "You haven't come to see me after you came back from The Mcrose Mansion."
Julie tried not to sneer as Lady Emore's hand touched her face. Her skin felt like paper.
"I've been busy Mum. I'm sorry", she said quickly hoping to end the conversation soon.
Lady Emore's eyes narrowed. Julie's heart caught in her chest as she brought out a plate of cookies.
"We'll...since you don't have time. I've decided to bring tea with me. Come dear, let's sit in the library", she said leading Julie towards the library which now felt like a cage.
The cookies looked so ordinary that Julie felt her stomach roll over in fear. Bile rose to her throat and she wanted to throw up.
Julie suddenly broke free. "I have to go Mum, I suddenly remembered that there is something I have to do"
Lady Emore's grip on her wrist tightened. "What is this business that is so important that my daughter can't stay with me for a few minutes?"
Julie closed her eyes, trying to come up with a lie when suddenly a maid approached them. She was dressed in a Royal outfit.
"Your Lady Julianna", she maid said out looking at Lady Emore with a skeptical look.
"The Crown Prince wishes to see you. Apparently he found something of yours left in his new room and wishes to address you about it"
Julie had never been glad for the Crown Prince as she did now.
"How can that be?", Lady Emore said in a pinched voice. "Julianna has already moved to her new room. And the highness's furniture had arrived a week beforehand"
The maid look at her with a numb expression. "Should I tell majesty that Lady Julianna is not coming?"
"No wait, I'll come. I'll come", Julie said wrenching her hand from Lady Emore.
She didn't dare to turn back as she followed the maid to the Prince's chambers.
**********************************************
The Prince was standing in front of her old room's window when she arrived. The windows were closed but he was still staring out through it nevertheless.
"Greetings to your highness, the light of the Empire", she wished bowing.
The Prince didn't turn around.
"This wasn't your old room, wasn't it?", he asked in a hollow voice"
"No. It's the one attached to this room on the right end", she said pointing to the door at the end of the room.
The Prince's gaze went over to the door but he still didn't turn around. Julie was getting slightly irritated by this behaviour of his. She was thankful that his call had saved her from Lady Emore. But now did she make a mistake by coming here?
Also, what on earth was he still doing here in the Emore Manor when he had absolutely folied her plan with the Emperor and broken their pact?
"I'm still bounded by the people's opinion", he said as if he was reading her mind. "It's not like I completely destroyed your plan, is it now?"
Julie rolled her eyes. "You acted on your own, and you went against me"
"Please, I purely made a slight modification to your half baked, so called-plan.", he said in a flat voice turning around to look at her for the first time since he arrived here.
It hurt that he had to look so beautiful.
His golden green eyes and face were lit up by the slanting light of the sun. His hair was down in golden curls curling around his ears and neck. He was wearing only a creme coloured shirt and pants and Julie was a bit taken aback seeing him in mundane clothes that didn't make you go blind.
"Whatever", Julie muttered still staring in silent awe.
"Everyone please leave the room", The Prince suddenly said out looking at the servants. "I would like to talk to Lady Emore alone"
Julie's heart hammered. What did he mean?
Her thoughts ran back to that day in the garden, when he had managed to render her speechless. Kale sure had that dangerous ability to talk people into getting what he wanted. He wasn't going to ask something of her again, was he?
The moment the last maid left the room, the Crown Prince stalked over the room towards a set of tall drawers. He took out a black bag and grabbed a fistfull of what looked like charcoal.
"What are you doing?", she asked curiously as he spread them slowly near the door. Then, when he had formed a neat, slim circle he waved his hand in the opposite direction in which he had spread them and a small blue circle of fire erupted.
Julie opened her mouth to cry out and then found out that the fire's weren't really burning anything down.
It was a protective voice barrier.
"Now to tell you about the thing I called you for, Lady Julianna, do you have a map of the underground Maze somewhere around?", the Prince asked spreading the charcoal some more.
"N-No. As you already know, the Emore family burnt those maps years ago. But I do know how to locate the places within the Maze", Julie said. "I can teach you how to reach the phoenix, if that's what you want"
"No need, I already have that route memorised. I was asking for hidden routes, like passages through your room, or one in this room"
Julie winced. Her head suddenly hurt badly on her right side and she wanted to lie down, all of a sudden.
Passages....
She felt like someone had tried to talk to her about passages sometime before. Was it Reynolds? Canien? No not Canien....
"-dy Julianna!", the Prince called out loudly, snapping Julie's head-throb train of thoughts.
"Are you alright?", he asked his voice suddenly laced with worry. "You suddenly turned pale. Do you remember something?"
"I-..... I.. ", her heart thundered fast enough to give her a heart attack.
Should she tell this man? This man who changes his word anytime he pleases and tries to trick others.....Can she really trust him to tell him about the drawer?
"No", she admitted slowly. "There are no passages in this room"
"But there are in the other rooms?"
"I-I really don't know. I think I did, but I can't seem to remember", she whispered clutching her throbbing head.
The Prince looked at her with a foreign interest. "Memory seal? Or....something else?", she heard him mutter to himself.
"Let me look", he said taking a few steps towards her.
Julie took the very same number of steps backward at the same time.
"I'm fine", she insisted.
The last thing she needed was a Prince looking into her memories now. As if people around her weren't doing enough of that.
The Prince looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite make out. Was he disappointed? Or Sad? No wait that can't be it.
"There's one in the library", she blurted out, unable to move away from his gaze.
Stupid. So stupid..
"And?"
Julie sighed. "What is it that you really want Your highness? I really can't help you if you continue to talk in riddles like this"
The Crown Prince's gaze lingered on her face for a few more minutes before he went back to the drawer again and brought out a box.
"I've found the thing you asked for a few months ago. It seems that you forgot about it"
,he said placing the box on a table.
What? Julianna had asked the Prince for a favour? She tried to go through her memories and found no memory of her meeting with the Prince.
Julie began to wonder whether it was Lady Emore's work or maybe something had happened when Julie's soul entered Julianna's body. Had she damaged her memories somehow? If not, then shouldn't she remember important stuff like this?
Nevertheless she sat down in front of the table as the prince sat down opposite to her. The box was blue in colour with golden vines covering it in a beautiful design. Her fingers went over its lid and touched it barely before she noticed that it had a keyhole.
No way-
"Do you have the key?", she asked the Prince breathlessly.
"No. You said to bring it to you saying that you can open it", he said frowning. "Now open it", he commanded.
Julie bit her lower lip in confusion. This surely cannot be a coincidence. To think that she found a jewelled key just a week before the prince brought this box....this was getting way too suspicious to be a coincidence.
But she had no choice now. She hadn't really wanted to get involved in Julianna's matters. In fact, what she wanted was a way to get away from the capital and be someplace safe....but now....
"Wait here for a moment", she told him walking towards her old room. I don't really remember but I think I have the key"
She quickly moved towards her old room and shut the door behind her.
Her fingers slightly trembled as she pushed those engravings on the candle stand again and the drawer popped open, showing the note and key safe inside.
"Impressive ", a voice said from behind her.
The crown prince was standing in front of the door his hands folded looking at the key and the drawer with new found interest.
Julie stared. She hadn't even heard him open the door.
"And you continue to lie to me.", he continued. "Lady Julianna I believe it's time you told me what is really going on. A few months ago, you were frantic telling me about the whole underground network apart from your maze that you had discovered and now you pretend like you don't know anything"
Julie thought about his words carefully. According to the Prince's words just now, Julianna had found out about a whole network of underground tunnels apart from the small maze holding the phoenix under her home. This was critical information that he was telling her. And if his words were true, then that would mean that Lady Emore was maybe trying to drug her in order to keep Julianna's memories of the maze suppressed.
A small thought ran through her mind then. In that case, maybe Lord Emore, her father might be involved in this too....
Whatever it was, Julianna must have tried her best not to let her parents find out that she knew about this underground connections. And to think that she approached the Prince on behalf of this matter....
Maybe 'Julianna' trusted him. He obviously seemed to act casually around her now that no one was there to observe them.
He could maybe know something about what Julianna was doing before the soul transfer.
"Can I tell you something your highness?", she said pulling the note out of the drawer.
The Crown Prince's eyes seem to glaze in the dark room. "What is it now?"
"Don't eat anything my mother gives you"
**************************************
There were more than a thousand steps in that tower. Yet the woman climbed effortlessly never tiring of the endless climb. The walls were fully covered with books and each rack had a small ledge for a small person to stand on.
Saule looked down from what she calculated was the 24th floor. She stepped onto the small ledge from the staircase and carefully went round the circular tower searching for a forbidden book.
The books in this floor was especially bound with tight magic, which was centuries old and hopefully was the only thing keeping the books alive in the old tower.
It was when she was halfway round the tower, she noticed the small gap between two thick books that were bound by the ancient chains.
Saule ran her fingers over their names.
"The bone maker, and the wind maker", she read out aloud the names of the two books. "And the missing one is the sand maker"
That puts the mystery of the nobles sudden disappearance in the light.
This ancient tower was one of the most historical and safely guarded towers in the entire Empire of Liere. And for someone to just take away an ancient book binded by magic chains, just like that.....
Whoever the enemy was, they had a mage on their side.
And they sure looked that they knew what they were doing.
After placing a small tracking spell, even when she knew the chances of finding the book again was very low, she decided to continue her journey back to the Liere Capital.
Saule could feel it.
That unmistakable feeling of dread. Smoke in the air, Knives and blades drawn. Blood spills and gore....
War was coming again.