"My Princess you're still out here? The guests have begun to arrive and you're still not dressed?", Poppy said incredulously staring at Cecilia who was seated on a swing in the Empress's garden with a worried expression.
"Poppy, I have a bad feeling. Like something unpleasant is about to befall us. Anyway let's go inside", Cecilia said standing up from the swing to face Poppy.
"I hope she hasn't found out about the rebellion of Magenta and Marinan. I'll be so dead if my Lord finds out about it", Poppy said in a daze and Cecilia halted immediately.
"I'll go ahead, you stay behind while I dress up", Cecilia said in an absent minded manner and literally sprinted up the flight of stairs to her room.
On getting to her room, she closed the door as she let the tears fall from her eyes.
"Darn it, how could I miss something so obvious!", Cecilia yelled in utter frustration as she slumped on her Queen size bed and closed her eyes.
"Bam bam!!!', she heard loud noises coming from the outside. She immediately jumped off the bed and turned to her window and saw an army of fully equipped men on horses destroying everything in their path. She was then transported to the focus of the chaos.
"What's happening!!!,"Cecilia yelled at the top of her lungs but it was as though she didn't exist. The horizon was blood shot and the sky red.
She could see so many people running for their lives and the men slayed them mercilessly.
Then suddenly, three men appeared carrying a large sac that could contain an entire human being.
"As the Princess of Gastonia, I order you... to... stop", the Princess words slurred when she saw the person whom the sac contained. It was... herself.
"What the heck is going on around here?!!", Cecilia yelled but was then transported to the Emperor's throne room. She was about to breathe when she turned around.
She saw a man lying in a pool of his own blood.
"Father!!!", she tried to yell but barely spoke as her voice was getting lower and lower until she couldn't speak at all.
She tried to formulate words but couldn't, tried to move but was rooted to the place she stood.
She looked sideways and on one side could see her dead father and on the other was witnessing her own kidnap.
"Something's not right here", Cecilia managed to look up and saw a black hole above in the sky. Before she could realise what was happening, she was already sucked into the voidless hole.
Cecilia eyes snapped open as she was now staring at her room in horror.
"My Lady, are you okay. I heard you screaming from downstairs and rushed upstairs only to find you in this condition", Poppy said as she heaved a sigh of relief watching Cecilia sit up.
"You may leave, I'm fine now. I'll dress up and come down to join you shortly", Cecilia said coldly that her tone startled Poppy a bit.
"Of course my Lady", Poppy said retreating to the exit of the room. "She's never talked to me this way", Poppy confessed bitterly in her thoughts making Cecilia smile at her distatefully as she exited the room.
A few minutes later,
Poppy, who was patiently waiting for her mistress, jaws dropped at the sight of the Princess. Cecilia looked like someone who had jumped straight out of a fantasy novel as she descended the stairs.
Cecilia was dressed in a pearl white ball gown with silver lining running across the dress, she also wore some silver accessories. She had tied her hair in a stylish bun allowing some hair fall on her face and also put some net ornaments on the focus of the plait bun. The glow of the dress accentuated her delicate features.
Cecilia didn't say a word to Poppy as she walked ahead and Poppy automatically followed.
Poppy could sense something was off with the Princess and she was beginning to worry about the Princess even more.
"I hope she's okay, I'm only doing all this for her own good", Poppy said to herself as she further lowered her head in shame. Cecilia halted immediately she heard this.
Cecilia looked up to the sky and realised that it was dusk. The sky was just as red as it was in her dream and she shuddered in fear, remembering how helpless she was.
"I must not be phased. I cannot let them know that I have found out about everything", Cecilia encouraged herself internally and continued her journey to the Emperor's palace.
As usual, Cecilia would carry her signature look with her, an elegant Princess with a sword on her back. All of her dresses had an inbuilt scabbard that contained her one and only sword, Winter. It had a snowflake imprint on the handle as it was a blessing to her mother from the Frozen tribe of Arepha.
The sword was unbreakable and was made of the most strongest elements found in the Mekan Mountains in Asyrillian Empire. An Empire famous for its outstanding blacksmiths and goldsmiths.
Cecilia treasured the sword as it was the last momento of her mother her father let her keep. Her father was hell bent on taking the sword, so she always kept it with her even in her sleep. Eventually, her father gave up trying but that didn't stop her from safeguarding the sword.
Cecilia smiled recollecting the only memory she had of her mother she had, the day her mother died. She sighed as she and Poppy got closer to the Emperor's palace.
Meanwhile, in the Emperor's palace,
The Emperor, who was standing on the podium called the attention of all the guests in attendance.
"Greetings, great nobles of Gastonia. May I please have your attention!", the Emperor addressed them in an easy going manner.
"Greetings to the Greatest Emperor in Dallaire and to the Brightest lamp of Gastonia", the nobles chorused directing to the Emperor and Cecilia making Cedrick smile contently.
Just then, a man wearing a black suit with jet black hair and red eyes walked into the hall.
"I wanted to appreciate you for coming to the celebration of the Gastonian future Empress's eighteenth birthday celebration", the Emperor said in a cheerful manner and everything began clapping.
"Unfortunately, the Princess is not present at the moment but will be arriving later on", the Emperor said and the crowd began to murmur.
--To be continued...