It was the morning of the meeting the emperor had called with all the kingdoms' royals and all hands were on deck. There were so many maids in her room helping her get ready that morning, that she felt like her privacy was being invaded.
Avila was not present, she had given her the day of the previous evening.
She understood that this was a very important summit, but still, this was overkill in her head.
They finally got her in her dress, and she had to hand it to the tailor. It was amazing. It was an off shoulder plum colored, A-line dress with a sweetheart neckline, and it worked very well with her skin tone.
They left her hair down, with only a single diamond encrusted clip holding one part of her hair behind her hair.
They put some dark red lipstick on her lips, and some kohl around her eyes to enhance their shape, and lastly, they put her tiara on top of her head.
She stared at herself in the mirror as the maids bowed and left.
'Damaged goods have never looked this good,'she smiled ruefully at her reflection.
She stood up from her vanity and made her way outside, where Sage was waiting.
"Good morning,your highness," Sage greeted, with a small smile, the ones only reserved for her, and her alone.
"Morning Sage,"she greeted back, with a disturbing amount of false enthusiasm in her eyes. She was happy to see him though.
"What's wrong?"Sage asked as he looked into her eyes, more like into her soul.
"Nothing,"she denied, furrowing her brows.
"See that's a lie, you are a very nad liar, your highness,"Sage told her, shaking her head.
"I am very good liar,"she argued, almost appalled.
"Of course, whatever you say,"he agreed, dismissing the argument
"Now, what's wrong?"he asked, his voice soft as he held her face in both hands,and she just broke.
"Everything!"She cried, her voice cracking with something she did not know, maybe be she was angry, angry at what happened to her or that she was crying, she really did not know.
She did not have to say more as he took her into his arms, it seemed like he was doing a lot of that this week and she frankly did not like feeling weak, even if it was in his hands.
"I thought I was over it but got some reason,it keeps coming back and it's haunting me, and - and if it it continues I might just loose my sanity. I dealt with it before and I - I will not do it again, even if it means giving up,"she rambled in tears then she buried her face in his chest. Thank the gods that he was wearing black, or else the kohl around her eyes would have stained whatever he was wearing.
He just put his head on her's and held her, patting her back, knowing fully well that nothing he would say would do much.
He sobs died down and she pulled away from him.
"I'm such a mess,"she giggled,her face puffy from crying. He just shook his head.
"I'm going to wash my face, I will be out in a minute,"she sniffled, as she tried to clean her under eyes.
She came out quickly and they got going to meet her father in the garden.
They arrived in the garden and her father sat in the veranda, with his personal guard; Zion, standing behind him.
"Good morning, your majesty," She greeted, with a small smile, while Sage bowed behind her.
"Good morning princess," her father returned.
"Let's go get mum, shall we?"Ophelia offered to teleport them.
"Okay,"King Arien nodded in agreement.
Ophelia snapped her fingers and they all appeared in Alkazar's–the dragon kingdom-palace, and her second home.
All the servants that were around the garden were startled by her sudden appearance,even though she had done this multiple times before.
They all walked through the halls to the queen's chamber with everyone bowing and greeting them as they walked past them.
They finally arrived there and Ophelia knocked on the door.
"Come in!" They heard her mother's voice from the other side, and her and her father entered.
As soon as her mother saw her father, her eyes lit up, it was borderline adorable
She got up from the vanity and flung her hands around his neck, with the biggest smile ever.
He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her in kissing her.
"Hi, I'm here too, seems my presence was ignored," Ophelia coughed, after letting them stay like that for a while.
"I could never ignore you,"her mother giggled, pulling her into a hug, while her father chuckled.
"We should get going, the fact that Ophelia can teleport us does not mean we should hold it off till the last second," her father spoke after they broke from their hug, and they both nodded.
"We are matching," Ophelia exclaimed with a smile, staring at her mother's dress that was the same color as hers.
"Oh we are," Queen Elara said looking down at her dress with a smile.
"So I'm the odd one,"her father pointed out.
"Exactly," Ophelia replied as they walked out of the room, and her father just shook his head.
They all stood in the hall and Ophelia snapped her fingers, teleporting them to the emperor's palace in the capital;Edoril.
They stood at the entrance waiting for the other royals who would also be teleporting, but by means of the pods placed outside the palace gates.
The thing about pods is that they are placed in every castle in the empire, but with different locations, and with a touch of magic it teleports them to any other palace they need to be in. It was very convenient, except for the fact that you basically moved through a void for five minutes.
Kingdom by kingdom the royals arrived,
First were the kings of Saleria; the elf kingdom, accompanied by their two royal guards.
Next were the king and queen, along with the prince of Baeldra; Land of the orcs, they on the other hand did not come with guards, it was something about them being warriors who did not require guards.
Lastly was the queen of Calypso Cove;the kingdom of sirens and mermaids, with her two guards.
'only the heavens know why one person would need two guards, it's not like they intend to assassinate you here…but then again you never know,'Ophelia thought, as she stared at the beautiful siren, in this case it was literal, because she was actually a siren.
Seeing as they were all present the door man flung open the gigantic double doors at the entrance of the power.
The palace's interior was gold,marble and more gold, so all in all incredibly pricey, but then again he was the emperor so what was to be expected.
They were led to the throne room, and one by one they were announced by the chamberlain, in accordance to the size of their kingdoms.
"King Arien, Queen Elara and Princess Ophelia of Alkazar and Alevarn," He yelled since it only made sense, their two kingdoms were technically joint and even at that they were practically the same size, but Ophelia was wondering why in the lands his voice had to be so loud, there were not that many people.
They stood in front of the emperor and her bowed, whilst her and her mother curtsied.
"Greetings Emperor Magnus,"Arien spoke looking Magnus straight in the eyes, Ophelia had to hand it to her father, he feared no one, respected? Yes, but fear? Never. He could be looking in the eyes of a god and he still would not flinch.
"King Arien, Queen Elara, Princess Ophelia," he nodded at each one of them and it would have been fine, if Ophelia did not feel a little bit of condescension in the way he said her name.
'Maybe it's in my head,'' she shrugged it off as she followed her parents to sit in one of the chairs placed around the throne room in an arena manner. It was surprisingly pleasing to the eyes.
"King Tariq and King Kian of Saleria," he announced in a voice that made Ophelia declare that it would be a long meeting.
"King Arghul and Queen Beska of Baeldra."
"Queen Azura of Calypso Cove," she thanked the gods the yelling was finally done.
They all sat one by one and the emperor sat in his throne, no evidence of there ever being another throne for an empress, with his usual enigmatic expression.
"I am sure you are all wondering why I have gathered every single one of you here for this meeting,"He said, face void of emotions, followed by a series of nods by every royal present.
"While I went to the outer lands to inspect it because I acted so much about my people-" his voice broke and it almost looked unconvincing.
"I saw the rift I closed after the great battle decades ago just reopened," and it was pandemonium. For royals you would think they would be more quiet, but absolutely not. Their yelling could rival a thousand people.
Her mother looked like she saw a ghost, her father placed his hand on the side of her waist trying to calm her down, he may have looked calm but behind his eyes he looked shaken.
The Orcs were praying very loudly.
The elves were questioning at the tops of their lungs how it happened.
Queen Azura was yelling at Magnus, asking him how he let that happen.
Ophelia, well she just sat there watching them like she was not truly present, the yelling almost brought her to the point of insanity.
She had not been able to stay in the presence of noise since the…incident.
"Settle down,"Magnus ordered…begged, his method of speaking was unconfirmed, but it worked so everyone went silent.
"But this time, It's different than before, the open is refusing to close. Everything around there is dying and if care is not taken it will spread, making it's way to Alkazar first," he announced as he turned her mother's direction.
"So what do you propose?"King Tariq questioned with a raised brow and a healthy amount of impatience.
"Seeing as I cannot seem to close it for the life of me, I shall give everyone of you present here four days to find a solution,"the frustration in his voice was very clear.
"We shall deliver one to you,"Tariq assured, with so much confidence.
"Good."There was no gratitude in his voice.