Lord Emore knew he had all reasons to have a panic attack and die.
He had a splitting headache on his left side and rings around his eyes like a deep well. On top of that he had been walking continuously for two days straight.
And yet, even when Reirs the dragon commanded him to stop walking, he wouldn't.
Or rather, he couldn't.
He couldn't go back home and face his wife without their child by their side. Not again. Not like last time.
And this time Julianna hadn't even left behind a letter for her mother's closure which clearly meant that she hadn't left the house on her own vices.
Something had happened.
And something did happen. Seeing the remnants of mana use found at the Royal Phoenix's cage had confirmed most of his worst nightmare.
Julianna and the Prince had fallen down into a blood sealed passage.
Blood sealed passages were quite common amoung mazes which functioned mostly on mana control and flow. They could be activated under certain conditions and when activated, helped the user to transport far away regions within a maze.
He had a hard time locating the underground city of Arcene last time to find Julianna. He wasn't sure he could do it again. Not without breaking the memory seal in his own head that bound the location of the underground city.
Time was running out and Emore knew that he would need to find his daughter again. He needed to do this, if he wanted to keep his family together. They can't be broken down any longer.
There were times he wished that he had just been born as a lowly count. Would he have been able to fulfill his duties perfectly then? Would he have been a better father to Julianna then? A better husband?
Surely, the curse of the maze would soon be passed over to Julianna. And he had no intention of letting it happen.
So he kept walking. Walking and walking in hope that he will find Julianna within time.
**********************************************
The round kitchen and living hall was covered with black smoke. Julie tried to grab the burning pot disaster with her bare hands and Vellona pushed her away in the nick of time. The pot fell on the floor with a loud bang and Julie heard Rivela cry from somewhere within the hall.
"The windows!!", Vellona yelled and Julie dashed towards the windows on the other side of the hallway. She coughed the smoke getting into her lungs like a burning snake and toppled down a chair.
There was a sound of a door opening up front and it was followed by footsteps and a loud string of curses which lined the hallway.
Kale's face suddenly appeared from somewhere within the black smoke earning a shriek from both Julie and Vell.
Kale had his signature frown on his face and he was looking through the smoke lines which were slowly disappearing through the window. He disappeared into the smoke once more bringing a sobbing Rivela in his hands.
"Now tell me who's decision was it to allow Julianna to cook?", he said still scowling.
Vell gave him an apologetic smile. Julie continued coughing. She had arrived late evening with Vellona and had come face to face with a very hungry bird and toddler.
Julie couldn't bring herself to look at Kale's face for some reason. So she went upstairs back to her room, leaving the dishes with Vellona itself, the thoughts of her encounter with Ashrynn flooding her mind. She hadn't yet decided whether she would use the memory suppressor antidote or not.
There was a sharp knock on her door.
Twice.
Julianna frowned. She could somehow feel it in her gut that it was the person she did not want to see standing outside her door. Sighing she opened the door coming face to face with golden green eyes.
They broke contact the instant they looked at each other's face. Julie turned around rubbing her neck nervously.
"Did you see around the city?", Kale asked sitting down on a small round stool nearby.
"Yes.....I did. And I got an idea of why a secret escape won't be our best plan of action", Julie admitted walking around.
She saw Kale nod from the corner of her eye.
Silence engulfed the room. Julie felt like her head would from burst from the pressure. She had this itching feeling in her mind that she should talk to Kale about the antidote. Which was hilarious if she thought about it. Kale Liere was the last person on earth that she would want to rely on.
"I was thinking...."Kale began and then stopped. He seemed to be struggling with his words which was rare.
Julie turned around to look at him. Kale was not looking at her face either which made her wonder what happened to him.
"I was thinking that I should take Wrel with me to the Bronze Well tomorrow", he continued after a pause. "If Wrel can somehow fly all the way through the Well then he might be able to fly all the way back to the surface. He might reach the palace or someone he knows....like your father", he explained.
That was a good idea. But it also meant letting Wrel out of their sight. It was a risky plan and Wrel was the nation's phoenix.
"Are you willing to take such a big risk?", she asked him slowly.
"Well....people need to know that we are alive. I don't really want my mother to fuss over this", he said but Julie felt like there was a deeper meaning to his words. Nevertheless she didn't press too much.
"Did you learn anything from the townspeople?", he asked.
Julie opened her mouth to tell him about Ashrynn Kleir and then shut it. He really wouldn't approve if she told him that she went against his words and followed someone who knew Julianna Emore's past.
Her past....
It did kind of feel unfair that she didn't have a right to know her own past.
Also there was something else that had been bothering her for a while.
"Did you know about the fact that my mother was drugging me with memory suppressors?", she asked.
The question seemed to take him aback a bit. "Why do you ask about this all of a sudden?", he asked not really meeting her eyes.
"It's something that had been bothering me for a while. When I told you about my mother's cookies you didn't seem to be that much surprised. And you even held a tea party with her and ended up not getting your memory erased. It made me wonder whether I was the only one whose mind kept getting messed with while everyone else knew the truth about me. You knew didn't you?"
"I admit I did hear that Emore family was keeping their daughter under check after her.....trauma from the time she was lost in thr maze", Kale muttered. "But that was common knowledge amoung the circle"
Julie felt a sudden burst or anger from somewhere within her soul.
'𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦'
The Emore family was keeping their daughter under check.
She was the only person getting drugged after all...
And trauma?
Everyone knew she was getting drugged. Everyone knew that she was being controlled by her own family for being an explosive wack job.
Little did she know that she had played right into everyone's hands by acting like an outright fool.
"And at the time of the prophecy too...did everyone know then too?", she asked silently.
"The daughter of Emore who has violent tantrums and is being controlled by drugs had a sudden prophecy about the future...", Julie scoffed. "I must have been the subject of your jokes for weeks"
"I admit it did catch me off guard", Kale muttered. "We really couldn't believe anything about the prophecy mainly because well...you were the source of it"
"You never really thought that the Emperor would change the date of the prophecy did you?....or wait...."Julie paused as a scary realisation ran through her mind.
"The Emperor isn't changing the date for the Annual Ceremony, is he? His meeting with me, his plans for a fake ceremony, it was all a lie to fool me, wasn't it? The whole news about the prophecy, he never believed a word of it, did he?"
Kale didn't reply. He sat on that stool like the world had stopped.
The world did stop for Julie too, a few whole minutes.
Her weeks of preparation and effort, made to look like a joke in front of all the nobles. Her, as the laughing stock of Liere.
Then,
"Get out"
"Julianna, just listen-
"I said Get out!", she shouted at him. Her eyes were blazing ,tears threatening to leak out any moment now.
Kale looked at her like he was chocking on his words. He finally gave up moved silently towards the door. He paused at the last moment, his hands pale from clutching the doorknob too tightly. Then he slowly closed the door.
Julie fell down on the floor and burst into tears.
**************************************
Julie didn't come down for breakfast the next day. Vellona was worried for her so she sent up food through Rivela. Wrel too flew around seeing through the tension in her room, but she was too angry to deal with the bird at the moment.
And she was even more angry at the Crown Prince sitting down a floor beneath her.
"To think that I almost thought of him as a friend...."she muttered to herself angrily.
She rolled around in her bed and screamed into her pillow in frustration. Rivela looked at her through thin eyelashes, looking slightly scared.
"Julie is sad?", Rivela asked slowly. Her white blond hair brushing past as she sat down next to Julie on the bed.
Julie mumbled into her pillow.
Rivela sat up patting Julie on the head for a while till she felt like an idiot. She sat up suddenly on the bed, startling Rivela for a minute.
She had made up her mind. She would drink the antidote and bring back her past memories. Maybe that way, she might be able to see things clearer now.....maybe she would stop feeling so stupid then.
But before that she wanted to meet Ashrynn Kleir again.
Julie couldn't help but feel that he knew her more than he gave credit for. She wanted to talk to him, for some reason, maybe to make herself feel better. She wanted to know the real Julianna Emore and hope that she wasn't such a dumb idiot like Julie.
She got off the bed and dragged on her clock and went downstairs without thinking.
She heard Vellona's voice near the door and paused. She was sending the Prince off. Good. This would go much easier if Kale was not around to butt in.
Once she heard the door close shut, she ran towards Vellona holding a clip in her hand.
"I need to go out. Immediately. Please do my hair and eyes for me"
**************************************
Julie walked around the streets trying to remember the lane where she met Ashrynn. She saw the huge hole in the wall in the Northern side and followed it till she reached the entrance where the knight had followed her. From there she took a left and followed till she saw the store selling apples.
The apples were red as ever as she slowly touched them pretending to be a buyer. The owner recognised her from yesterday and she striked up a conversation with him.
"Do you know who the blindfolded man from yesterday was?"
"Ash Kleir?", he asked surprised. "He lounges around here and there. Says he works for the guild sometimes and sometimes for construction. Are you perhaps a relative of his?"
"The guild....will he be there right now?", Julie asked hopefully.
"Maybe. You might as well as go and check out. But before that, would you like a bag of apples?"
Julie brought some apples to shut him up. Nevertheless she thought the apples made a good prop for her disguise. The knights seem to ignore her today. She should have just brought stuff yesterday and avoided unnecessary attention.
The guild in the city was small and it lined near a small underground river. She crossed a small bridge connecting the city to the desolated location of the guild and peered inside. The guild was quite empty as she had expected. When it was a small country without any forests and much territories, guilds didn't earn much.
A woman was standing at the tall counter talking to a small group of four huddled at the counter. Julie patiently waited for her turn and went inside.
"Ummmm Ashrynn Kleir huh?", the woman asked her silver hair bundled in a tight bun.
"I'm sorry but I think he is on an assignment at the moment. I don't think it would take him very long. He might be back before the day."
"Oh. Could I have his contact details please?", she asked fetching a piece of paper.
"Sure", the lady mumbled looking curiously at her. "Are you his lover?"
Julie blushed. "What? No! No, we are not like that. More of an acquaintance."
"Well the women around him always turn up to be more than his acquaintances.", the woman said slyly.
Julie forced a smile. "Thank you for the information"
She left the guild as fast as she could hoping that her cheeks weren't still red. She hoped that the woman wouldn't tell Ashrynn that she was looking for him. Although he would like the attention very much, that cunning man.
She walked halfway back to Vellona's place carrying the apples and the piece of information about Ashrynn.
"12x street, Yelmore Lane", she read out aloud. She decided to ask the apple seller where to find the place when she saw him.
Kale Liere.
He was being led around by four official knights. He was deeply engrossed in a conversation with them to notice her but Julie recognised him immediately. His hair was white blond but she could see that familiar shape of the back of his head.
They were leading him somewhere and he seemed to be in a hurry too.
The apples in her hand fell down on the floor.
Julie felt something sour turn inside her stomach.
What was he doing with them?
She opened her mouth to call out to him and was startled when a pair of fingers covered her mouth, blocking her shout. She thrashed her elbow back hitting her capture directly into the chest and turned around to find a chocking Ashrynn.
"What are you doing?", she hissed.
He held a finger to his lips, motioning in the direction of the guards.
"I thought I told you before, but you are a wanted woman Julianna", he said slowly. "You might be in disguise now, but all they need is to look twice and they will easily recognise you as you are now"
"They are taking my companion away. What do you think is going to happen to him?", she asked feeling the panic in her words.
Ashrynn's face went pale.
"Does he know your real identity?", he asked his eyes showing fear.
"Y-Yes. Why is something bad going to happen to him?"
Ashrynn heaved pulling her by her arm and leading her inside a shelter. "I think you should worry more about yourself"
"What do you mean?", she asked still confused.
"The king might have approached directly with your friend", Ash said his eye serious.
" might as well as turn you in for his freedom"
Julianna scoffed at his words and the paused.
Kale wouldn't really betray her like that.
Would he?
**************************************
Kale was brought back to the Royal Palace in the same manner as last time. This time however they removed the ropes binding his wrists earlier, although like that made much difference.
This time only the King was present in the hall.
"It's good to see you again, Your Highness", the King said greeting him. "I assume you are here because you decided to accept our deal?"
Kale leaned in resting his hands on his lap. He had thought a lot about this yesterday. Although his fight with Julianna had distracted him a bit, he was still satisfied with the plan he had come up at the end.
"Countering your deal, I would like to make a deal with you", Kale said with a smile.
"Excuse me?", the king asked surprised.
Kale frowned. The king had really thought that he would hand Julianna over hadn't he?
"I wish for you to listen to my plan first. The main issue at hand right now is that you are the current King. The young heir who had disappeared is obviously way too young to lead the nation. And even if he is found out, he would still be either killed by the anti-faction before he even gets to sit on the throne.", Kale said laying out the facts. "I propose that when me and Julianna Emore would leave the country, we will take the young heir with us. I will keep him alive in the best place where your people underground can't find him. And when he is of age, I will personally bring him back here myself"
The king seemed a bit taken back by his suggestion. He stroked his chin thinking it over.
"And how will you find the heir without Julianna Emore's help?"
"Yes this is what bothered me for a while. I know who the heir is and where he can be found. And I know that you know about this too.", Kale said suspiciously. "But what I can't understand is why you still needed Julianna Emore of you knew how to locate the prince."
The king smiled bitterly. He knew that he had guessed correctly then.
"Then, I thought back to your story of what had happened during the 12th's incident. Julianna Emore's return back to the palace. She came back right in time because she knew that The commander was going to kill the King beforehand. And she was going to try to stop him. And as the Queen mentioned, there was the possibility that Julianna was romantically involved with the leader of the 12 knights. Put in other words you wanted Julianna to remain here because you wanted to lure out the remaining members of the 12 knights and kill them yourself, before they became an even bigger threat"
The King shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"How long have you known who the heir was?"
"I had my suspicions when Vellona Weretti was being so nice to me at our very first meeting after I woke up. She seemed to be running from something and I couldn't understand whom. And then there was the kid. I happened to see him once when Vellona was dressing him and I have to say I was not very amused to see that she was dressing up a boy as a girl. The long hair sure helped him camouflage his image", Kale remarked.
The King looked horrified at the fact that he had found out or at the fact that he had seen the young prince naked. Either way he seemed to be in deep confusion. Things had taken a turn in Kale's favour again and he could feel a smile forming on his face at his victory.
"I also know that Vellona has been running for a while and at first I didn't know from who. It certainly wasn't from the Royals seeing how this city is swarming with knights. No...the person she was running from and the reason why she is being like this is because the people after her are the missing 12th Knights aren't they?"
"Vellona Weretti belonged to a faction of underground slaves that the king had rescued. She made her way to the top by the only way she knew, by killing", the King said gravely. "She was the best as well as the worst person to be looking after the Prince"
"And the Prince? His real name is?", Kale asked, wondering why Vellona had called him Rivela.
"Riler Arcene. And I hope you'll call him by that name when you take him to the surface world", the King said slowly.
Kale blinked. "Does that mean that you approve of my plan to take the Prince back with me?"
The King looked at him in the eye and then, for the first time, he gave Kale a small smile.
"I will do anything for the throne"