It was nighttime and the children were asleep. Well, some of them were. Malakai, Alfred and Michael were three out of the few that were still awake.
Alfred laid with his face to the ceiling seemingly staring into space. Malakai sat on the bed with his knees close to his chest and his head buried between his knees. From time to time, he would move the scarf and look at his arm hoping the pulsating aura had stopped, but it was still there. Michael lay on his side staring at the wall.
When would they be able to leave? When will they see their families again? Whatever awaited them here was not something pleasurable for sure. If there was a way to escape, they would by now. But they couldn't even open the doors that kept them inside. Even if they did, how could they pass the security? In their case, a better tomorrow had little to zero chances of happening.
After hours of hopeless thinking, they fell into slumber.
********
The next day came and Rasmus was rushing out of Aella's place. He had to attend to the needs of the rulers. Aella had on her silk nightwear which had a very open v-neck and stopped short of her thighs. She rubbed her sleepy eyes while watching him leave.
"According to the time you set up on the schedule, I have to be there at 8.00am," Rasmus said to her. She had asked why he was in a hurry to leave and why so early. When he replied her lips formed an 'oh' as she remembered.
She had intentionally set it that way making him resume in the early hours of the day and leaving hers at 12.00 pm. "Alright then, make sure you follow the list of how many and the person to be met accordingly or.."
"It will all be a mess, I know," he cut her off while taking the words from her mouth. At least he thought he knew what she wanted to say.
"Be a mess? You will anger the rulers and that is worse than having a mess up on your end. Their anger equals your death," said Aella.
"Again, I know."
"Run along now, get out. I need more sleep." She said and pushed him out of the door, shutting it behind him. She yawned and returned to her room. She didn't have work early, so she'd sleep as long as she wanted.
By the time Rasmus had arrived at the tower, he already received a lot of messages from the rulers. Unsurprisingly, King Roderick the most.
"I sleep in once and I am met with twenty unread messages, and I am only two minutes late," he said inwardly. Seventeen out of the twenty were from Roderick. Queen Brielle was the only one who hadn't messaged him. She also was the one with the most control and wouldn't mind his lateness. The others acted as though they were dying.
Rasmus hurriedly went to the children's room which felt more like a cage to them. They all had their baths as instructed and twenty-five out of them were given a change of clothing. They didn't know why, but they had a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen. They looked at the men behind them, separating them from the rest of their mates.
"Oh Lord, what's happening?" Alfred wondered. He was amongst the group whom stood in front. Beside him were Malakai and Michael.
Michael was trembling. Many thoughts ran through his head. "Was this going to be another round of pain? Are we going to be fed to beasts again? The same beasts the supernaturals are supposed to be taking care of? What will happen to us?" He wondered.
All twenty-five of them had around the same thoughts as him. They were all scared. Whatever would happen to them will be revealed soon.
"Let's go," Rasmus ordered. The children were blindfolded, moved out of the room, out of the tower and off the island.
He moved with the children to every place they needed to be delivered. Five children for each ruler. After every drop off, he would speak briefly to the rulers and they would give him information on what to do next. Every order he completed before mid-day. He had no rest ever since the day begun. Finally Aella showed up to help. Everything moved on smoother from then.
She handled moving some of the already deliver children to someplace else.
"The list of people that made special requests are on your communicator, and their locations as well. All you have to do is take them there." Rasmus said.
"You do know that I was the one who set up everything and know whom the children are supposed to be with and where. Don't spell out my work for me," Aella said and walked off.
Rasmus relaxed back on his chair with his arm placed behind his head. He took in a couple of deep breaths and closed his eyes. He had received a whole lot of yelling from the rulers, he had developed a headache. Working for them had given him continuous migraines.
He overlooked the stress though as a smirk etched on his face. "I wonder how long it will take for the boost," he said to himself.
While he now had time to relax, Aella was moving from place to place doing work as she was supposed to. She had met with Constantine, King of the Truman dynasty. As she had hoped, Constantine immediately took an interest in Alfred at first sight.
"I made sure he was sent to you. Out of the others, you would have more use for him," she said.
"You always know what it is we all would like and do your best to satisfy us, how is it that Blackman and Roderick overlook a woman as such as yourself?" Constantine said taking a few steps closer to her.
"Truthfully, nothing about my efforts are overlooked by either of them," she responded and took a step back creating some space between them both. His eyes darkened once she did.
"Aella, Truman needs a strong woman, a queen to give birth to next generation. You fit this role quite perfectly, why do you keep declining?" He asked.
Aella had a lot of words for him, one of them being her distrust for the man, and also dislike, but she chose to keep quiet. "There are others I need to attend to, my King. They wouldn't like it if I were to turn up late," she said and left.
Listening to her brother's words and words of Roderick, she would always keep the distance from Constantine and he knew this.
"Those two put their secret in a woman and are watching her every move. I can't take her by force, that will spring up a war. I can't convince her either, they've made sure my charm won't work. But, I won't stop. Roderick, I will know what you are hiding. I will know the truth behind Blackman."