Jasmine clutched the sides of her dress, her lips parted as she breathed in air. Her forehead was matted with sweat and she raised her hand to wipe it. Standing in front of so many people made her jittery; she had never faced such a large crowd before.
'How do they do this?' Jasmine thought to herself as she wiped her face again. She could feel their eyes on her, which only made her more uncomfortable. Most of the crowd had caught sight of her, a pretty girl with milky skin, unfit for a maid's role. She contrasted significantly with the other maids, her radiance making their colors duller as she stood among them.
"Whose maid is that?" A man standing with a couple of guests asked, tipping his glass towards Jasmine.
"She came with the royal family," one of the ladies replied, and the rest turned to look in Jasmine's direction.
"She is Prince Nikolai's maid," one of them said, a lady in an olive-green dress with red hair, her eyes were as green as her dress. She was one of the guests present in the royal dining hall the day Nikolai had chosen Jasmine to be his maid.
Prince Nikolai's maid? The man who had initially asked the question pondered as he sipped from his glass cup. Since when had maids interested him to the extent that he was lucky enough to notice this beautiful creature? Soon, he saw the prince walking towards Jasmine, saying something before walking away. The girl followed him, and he watched them until they stepped out of the mansion.
"Gabriel, are you even listening to what I was saying?" One of the ladies called his attention, and he turned to her and smiled.
"Of course, you said the prince is so handsome, you wish to marry him," Gabriel repeated her former words, and the lady blushed before looking away.
Outside the mansion, one of the royal coachmen drove the carriage towards the first prince who had just emerged. The coachman jumped down from his seat and opened the door for him.
"Step in," Jasmine, who was standing beside him, heard him say. She looked up at him and then at the coachman, who looked slightly surprised, before she stepped inside, holding the door to steady herself.
Entering after her, Nikolai sat opposite Jasmine, who had taken a seat at the back, behind the coachman. The carriage began to ride out of the loud environment and onto the quiet evening roads.
Nikolai was staring out the window, watching Jasmine's reflection in the glass. Her head was bowed low, her eyelashes dusting her upper cheeks, her golden brown hair was tied in a bun, while a few strands fell over her face.
Pretty like a Fae, Sylvester's words echoed in his mind. Why hadn't he noticed this? He was more familiar with Faes than most of the people in Aetheria, as he often hunted them down. Humans were attractive, but the Faes were even more so, with a striking charm that captivated people, leaving them entranced.
And also.. they had this sweet scent all over them that calms humans. Most of them used this to lure unsuspecting humans, but this girl.. she didn't have that scent on her.
She smelled.. plain.
"Stop the carriage," Nikolai said aloud to the coachman from the little window opposite him, and the carriage was pulled to a stop. Opening the door, Nikolai stepped out of the carriage, and Jasmine followed him.
"Take the carriage back to Mr. Wells' mansion," he ordered the coachman, who bowed and turned the carriage around, the hooves of the horses sounding loud on the tarred road.
'What is he doing here? Catching Faes?' Jasmine thought as she looked around at the green forest across the road. 'But he won't have brought her along,' she replied to herself, following him when she saw him start to walk to the forest.
Her eyes fell on his back where he wore an emerald green coat over his black shirt and then black trousers. His black leather shoes left imprints on the sandy ground, and Jasmine stared at her own bare feet.
"I would surely harm myself," she muttered as they finally stepped into the forest. From the outside, it looked as if the forest was large and thick, but surprisingly it had few trees and wider space, leaving cool air in the environment.
Hard as she tried, Jasmine couldn't stop herself from getting hurt by the thorny leaves and twigs on the ground. Scrunching her face, she walked quietly behind her master, who hadn't made a single sound if not for his shoes crushing the dried leaves underneath them. They stepped out of the forest, and she could see the wide sea that flowed freely a few steps from the forest. Finally, Nikolai paused in his steps and turned, and she looked up at him.
This man was handsome, way more handsome than most of the men she had seen. The thought crept into her mind as she stared at him, meeting his grey eye and the blank color of his eye patch, which hid a rare color of eyes. She saw him reach up and remove his eye patch, revealing that eye that gave her chills. Realizing she had been staring at him for too long, she looked down, and he started to walk towards her, his shoes coming into view in front of her eyes.
"You said I am your first Master, why?" She heard his melancholic voice ask the question he had asked before, and she had given an answer to.
Why was he asking her again?
"Slaves are sold only when they are auctioned. I was never put up for sale," she replied to him.
"Why is that?"
Hm? Why was she never put up for sale? Why did he want to know? Jasmine asked herself, her hands going to twist her dress on the sides again.
"Look at me," she heard him say, and she raised her head to stare at his two-colored eyes, parting her lips. She breathed in deeply, wondering if he would send her back to the slave market if she said she liked the place.
"I- I was never chosen," the lie fell from her lips instead, which Nikolai caught on, but he didn't comment on it. He searched through those piercing blue eyes, thinking if he could get an answer as to which type of creature she was, as she wasn't falling to her knees by his left eye. Humans and Faes were always weakened when they met his eye, but this one...
"Or you never wanted to be chosen?" He asked the question, which made her eyes widen slightly.
"I.. uh.." How did he know!?
"You once mentioned wanting to go back to the slave market. Did you like such a dark place where you were being subjected to nothing but pure torture to the palace?"
The Palace was part of the outside world, and she disliked the outside world. Anything remotely close to it reminded her of that fearful night.
"I didn't want to be anyone's maid," she answered truthfully and then added.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"Can you please let me return back to the slave market, Prince Nikolai?" She asked and bowed her head to show more respect.
Nikolai's eyes narrowed, and he outrightly refused, "No." He saw her shoulders fall.
"You keep forgetting that you are in knowledge of something you shouldn't know," he said and started to walk away from her towards the sea, and she looked up.
"And besides," he tilted slightly to the sides to look back at her.
"Aren't you going to break Peter's heart by leaving?" A small smirk played on his lips.
Eh?
**
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