Exios carefully took one of the picture frames on the table.
With a white fabric on his hand, he started to clean the picture frame.
Wiping off all the dust, that were clearly seen by the sun's light.
While looking at the face of his beloved wife and child.
That was the last picture frame he had to clean.
Almost finishing on cleaning it, the tavern's door made a sound.
Creeek
A knight appeared at the entrance, standing still.
"His highness, we shall go.
The carriage is here."
Exios placed the picture frame carefully back to its place before glancing at the knight.
He recognized that knight.
The knight had dark auburn hair, honey colored skin and grey eyes.
"Lancaster.
You have also grown so well." Exios remembered the child that used to practice every day in the training grounds.
"What if I say no?
Will you get physical?" Exios smiled at him.
"His highness…
His Majesty said that you will get back to the palace regardless of what you try to pull.
He thinks that you would not resist or oppose to the orders." Lancaster made a soft cough.
"I also think that you would do no harm."
"Haha, that is true.
When did you get so mature all of a sudden?" Exios placed the white fabric near the picture frames and began to walk slowly towards Lancaster.
"I have missed you too, your highness." Lancaster gave a soft smile.
Exios used to be Lancaster's supervisor.
Every day when Lancaster used to train, Exios did not give him a break.
Either it was too hot, he had to swing the sword, either it rained hard, he had to run fifty laps on the field, either he was too tired, he had to stand with one leg for eight hours.
Exios was severe and rough, but he believed in the kid.
He did not give up on him, just like how he did not give up with the other kids that he supervised.
"Have you been doing well?
I thought I would not see his highness again." Lancaster took a step back from the tavern when Exios came near the door.
Exios took out the keys and locked the tavern's door.
Click
"Yeah, I have.
Day-to-day in the tavern, bringing out drinks and food to the people.
It kept me occupied and alive." Exios double checked the locked.
After that response, Lancaster gave off a worried expression.
He knew that Exios destroyed himself the day of the tragedy.
He thought he was gone for good, remembering how devastated he was.
Exios turned around and gave a smile at Lancaster, while the hopeless Exios faded away in his mind.
"But you know, something changed.
Now I have other purposes to pursue in life.
Not just the tavern, but maybe the answers, the truth, about what happened and why it happened.
And also a little girl that I took care of for a while."
"Do you mean that child?" Lancaster remembered the sight of a little girl with long black hair.
"Yes, she brought out some life in the tavern.
She brought some life in me too, unconsciously.
I didn't realize it, until you guys took her.
I was cleaning the picture frames, and not only did I recall my wife and child's smile, I also remembered the little girl's smile.
Though she smiled not that often, it was fun teasing her." Exios let out a chuckle.
Lancaster was at loss for words.
Thinking that Exios was not lost, like before.
"I see, it is great to see his highness like this." But for Lancaster, for him, it only mattered the fact that Exios was doing well.
"What about you, kid?
Have been doing well?"
"Oh, I have been doing well, but ever since you left, I missed those harsh trainings." Lancaster grinned.
"I see, well now that I am back how about you return to your old trainings?
This time 150 laps around the field."
"I regret saying such words." Exios took his hand out and shuffled Lancaster's hair.
"Look at you, you became a man.
Have you found a… lover?" Exios smirked at his own words.
"Unfortunately, I haven't, yet."
"And what does that mean?"
"It means that I am waiting for someone.
Until she, erhm, acknowledges me." Lancaster covered his mouth with his hand.
"Oh, so you are interested in someone!
Who is this young lady?
Is she from my family tree?
I can help you with that, haha!" He punched Lancaster's back in amusement, making Lancaster stagger a bit.
"Well, it is a complicated situation.
I have met the person only twice, during a ceremony and a birthday." His voice started to fade away.
"Oh, I guess someone in my family doesn't often come to the palace huh?
Who is it?"
Lancaster waited a few seconds to respond, he was hesitant to say the answer.
"Talthea Altantsetseg…" He whispered the name.
"Talthea who?
Alsegtanseg-
What?
Wait.
She is not an Achlys?"
"No…" His voice continued to fade away, as his eyes avoided Exios's face.
"Is she a noble then?
But why does her surname sound so familiar and exotic?"
"She is not a noble…
she is a princess."
"Okay… but she is not from our family's bloodline…
That means-
Oh.
Now I remember." Exios closed his eyes and gave a deep sigh, remembering the unusual and yet unique name.
"Why did you fall for a girl from a different Empire.
She is from Akeotretus Empire you imbecile." Exios started walking towards the carriage, while Lancaster was standing still out of embarrassment for a moment before catching up.
"I mean, you had your chances with the young ladies in this Empire, even with the aristocrats.
And yet you chose someone from an entirely different Empire?
As if that was not enough, a princess, daughter of the emperor of that empire, which is why the statistics are extremely low.
Yeah, good luck with that, you won't have a chance!" He let out a laugh.
"I know, but-
There is just something about her."
"Of course, she is a princess, I can't even imagine how charming she must be.
Their tradition and culture are completely different from ours, I guess your taste in women are extremely distinctive.
Well I have not heard of such thing since birth."
"Maybe, but when I met her for the second time-
I don't know.
Something kicked in, my vision around her became slow and all I could see was her."
He let out a sigh.
'He is in love.' Exios shook his head slowly.
"As I said, kid, good luck." As Exios grabbed the carriage's handle, to open the door, a loud noise was heard inside the carriage.
"Oh, I forgot- "As Lancaster was about to say something, Exios opened the carriage quickly and found Crimson tied up from head to toe with a bright rope made out from magic.
"We also detained the lady, but she was too aggressive that we had to… put her in that state."
"I am actually glad you did that; you cannot underestimate this beast." He said as he went in the carriage.
As Crimson heard Exios's voice, she stopped moving, turning her head aggressively towards him.
"Did you also silence her?"
"We had to, she kept on yelling." Lancaster did not want to repeat the situation, as it gave him the stress by just thinking about it.
Exios gave a laugh for a moment, ridiculing Crimson.
"You can let her speak again, take out every magic you have put on her.
She will behave now that she has met me." Exios sat in front of Crimson.
Lancaster swiftly made a gesture with his hand, causing the ropes to lose their light and tightness.
Crimson gradually sits up, fixing her attire before looking at Exios.
"You piece of shit.
Where have you been?!" She cursed loudly at him.
"What a way to behave, I might mute you again." Exios smiled at her.
Lancaster closed the carriage's door and left the two alone inside.
"Ugh, you have no idea what I have been through asshole." She said as she puts her hand on the back of her head, to where she felt the bump.
"You got out safely, no?
I guess you took out some of the knights that were with Lancaster, seeing him all troubled while talking about you."
Crimson smiled at Exios.
The carriage started moving, while the two kept on with the conversation.
"Oh, not only that.
A bastard tried to be all smart.
He did get me at first, I was actually out of control for a while, but his way of things was imperfect.
Thanks to that I was able to take him down."
Exios thought for a moment.
"Who was the poor bastard that tried to outsmart you?"
"Clarkson.
Twin brother." She said in an unbothered way, while touching the bump of her head.
"Oh, did he now?
What did he do to you?"
"He somehow managed to get one of the deities' powers.
Well you know the process of that, after all your blood is precious.
But Clarkson?
Oh, he managed to be at the same level as me despite training as a knight.
Almost, not exactly at the same level." She corrected herself.
"Mhm, I guess he trained hard and studied for years.
But not hard enough to get you pinned down."
"I underestimated him, I even thought I could have taken him down with a fucking stick."
"Well, what type of power does he have?
Who is the deity that he decided to follow?"
Crimson led out a smirk and finally let her hand in front of her, after touching the bump too many times.
"He hypnotized me.
Guess it."
"Hypnotization?
Mhm… Hishna, Persephone, Dionysus.
The most obvious one would be Hypnos.
But he could have followed evil Deities such as Yaoguai."
Crimson was so proud of herself that she led out a bright uncanny smile on her face.
"Maybe.
But my guess might be Medusa."
Exios instantly understood what she meant.
"Ah.
You looked into his eyes?"
Crimson nodded proudly.
"That fool kept blabbering about how he hypnotized me by looking into his eyes, not considering the fact that he let out such an important detail.
What a showoff.
Too ahead of himself." She rolled her eyes, seemingly annoyed.
"You were also like that, too ahead of yourself.
Well not that much has changed." Exios mockingly smiled at her.
Crimson suddenly sat up with her eyes wide open, as if she remembered something that bothered her for a while.
"What happened to that kid?
I fucking forgot about her because of that idiot of my twin brother."
"Don't worry, she's all right.
She is in the palace right now."
Crimson who got all worried, straightened her eyebrows.
"Don't worry?
Then why did I had to defend her or even stay with her while you were gone?
If things turned out like this, then I would have gladly given her to the knights."
"I knew that my brother would have taken her safely, but I also considered of outsiders taking her.
Not to mention, even traitors.
So you being there with her was all part of the plan.
My original plan was to catch the outsiders, but my brother was faster.
So the mission failed successfully."
Crimson couldn't believe what he was saying.
He planned out a plan to which if he caught the outsiders, it would have been a successful plan.
Thinking all of this made Crimson think if the child was a bait and she was a sacrifice.
"So… I was a sacrifice, and the kid was a bait?
Just for you to see if any outsiders or traitors would have gotten the kid?"
"Precisely.
If the outsiders were faster than my brother's troops, then i could have caught them and questioned them on everything they know about the child.
In the other hand you would have been fine.
I mean, look at you Crimson.
You are a beast, you could have extracted them on your own.
Though the situation that happened between you and your brother is making me doubt your strength and flexibility."
Crimson scoffed at his words, while Exios was enjoying the ride.
"Why are they taking me?
I have no relation to any of this anymore, so might as well let me go home, no?"
"My brother won't let you.
They need us to answer questions regarding the child.
So you might have to stay with me for a while.
Enjoy the luxury of the palace while you can." Exios smiled.
"Meh, as long as they put me in a nice cozy room and feed me well, then I won't have any problems.
But I don't think I am much of a help for them, I don't know anything about the kid."
"Just answer truthfully, that's all you have to do."
"All righties.
Can't wait to feel the soft bed."
Crimson tried to sleep in the carriage, by resting her head against the wall and closing her eyes forcefully, while Exios stared at her.
"What is it?" She asked him in an annoyed tone, while her eyes were closed shut.
"Did you enjoy your time with the kid?"
Crimson opened her eyes and looked at Exios.
"What's that supposed to mean?
Of course not."
"I think you did.
You might have felt a bit of warmness in her."
Crimson was about to answer but stumbled upon her words.
She couldn't give him a straight answer.
Making it obvious that Exios's point was right.
"You know what?
I'm going back to sleep.
Don't disturb me until we finally reach the palace."
"Yeah yeah, rest well." Exios smiled while looking outside the small window of the carriage.
Getting farther and farther from the tavern.
-----
The carriage arrived at its destination.
Exios woke Crimson, while she drooled through the whole journey.
Both of them got out from the carriage, while Lancaster was already outside near the gate waiting for them.
"Welcome back, your highness.
And welcome to the Imperial Palace of the Ephamour Empire, lady…"
"Crimson." She answered as she stretched her back, putting her arms up as she grunted.
"You may follow the guards that will accompany you into your rooms.
It is late now, so the questioning will be done tomorrow afternoon.
I hope you will have a great time staying in the Imperial Palace.
Now I'll excuse myself as I have important matters to attend." Lancaster bowed down and waited for them to walk inside the gates.
Exios nodded at him as the guards started walking in front of them, taking the lead.
Exios and Crimson followed them briefly.
Crimson took a glance at Lancaster for a second, before staring ahead of her.
She was curious as to why Lancaster stayed still, thinking that he was going somewhere when he said that he had matters to attend to.
As both of them were slightly far away from the main gate, Lancaster kept staring at the gravel path, waiting for something to arrive.
There he heard horses getting near the gates.
Another carriage arrived.
The carriage stopped in front of Lancaster.
Lancaster waited for the carriage's door to open through the inside.
And as they did a red-haired man appeared.
"Ah, how nice of you, waiting for me patiently." Clarkson got off from the carriage and smiled at Lancaster.
"Clarkson Ardit, his highness, prince Denver would like to see you.
Follow me, it is an order." Lancaster said with a stern face.
"Yeah, okay." Clarkson responded in a sarcastic tone.
Both went to a different path that led to a different palace.
After a while of walking through the gravel, Clarkson couldn't take a grasp on the situation he was in.
"I still don't get what I did wrong.
I took out one of the problems away, and his highness got the child safely." Clarkson said as they both walked at the same pace.
"It is what you did afterwards.
You tried to get your sister away with it."
Clarkson scoffed by his remarks.
"No, she is simply not needed in this operation."
"She is needed.
His highness clearly said to bring every accomplice of the child.
It seemed like you wanted to not get her involved, she is your sister after all."
Clarkson rolled his eyes and sighed.
"That is not how it was planned.
I wanted to take her out on my own, but somehow she slipped through my fingers." Clarkson gave an irritated smile.
"So, it was your doing after all, you did this on your own." Lancaster said in a displeased tone, while Clarkson was annoyed by the whole situation.
"Did it matter if I wanted to do this alone?
In the end you got the child and my sister, so the plan worked out well."
"It is a problem if it went through the worst case.
And we got your sister because she beat you down.
All the commotion was what lead us to her and you.
Otherwise we wouldn't know where both of you were."
As Clarkson heard Lancaster's words, he felt rage inside him.
"She almost beat me down.
Speak the facts." Emphasizing the word 'almost'.
"Oh really?
She somehow managed to get off from the hypnotic state in just 8 minutes and physically jumped onto you, pinning you down to the ground.
You couldn't even move a muscle.
Luckily the locals that saw everything that had happened ran towards us, because obviously we are knights.
Soldiers that protects the Empire." Lancaster responded in a calm manner, while Clarkson got more annoyed.
Clarkson decided to not talk and walk through the noisy gravel path that they were walking on, getting closer to the palace.
A palace in which a man on a green tuxedo suit awaits them.
Clarkson kept remembering the scene where Crimson broke free from his magic.
-----
Two identical twins walked through the shops at a distance.
Not near each other, but neither far from each other.
Crimson was ahead of Clarkson, while Clarkson kept an eye at her.
It has only been a couple of minutes since he hypnotized her, but time was not a problem for him.
Unless he breaks the magic free from her, she is still under his command.
Or that's what he thought.
There they walked slowly.
Through the path of dirt below them.
Clarkson started thinking of the operation, and how it may go bad for him.
Taking Crimson away from the tavern was not the original part of the plan.
But neither was going alone in the tavern.
'I couldn't care less about them shitting on me.'
And as he kept on thinking, while looking ahead of him, he realized that Crimson has stopped.
She stayed still for a moment and in a blink of an eye she suddenly disappeared from his vision.
Clarkson was surprised, but also agitated by the situation.
"What the fuck?" He kept looking around him for a few seconds, until a yelling was heard on top of him.
He looked up.
Crimson was falling onto him, with an uncanny expression on her face.
"Motherfucker!" She cursed at him as she crashed down onto him.
Bam!
Both of them were on the ground, but Crimson kept both of Clarkson's arms and hands tied up to hers.
Pressing her body against him.
Clarkson felt the pain and could not move due to the strength and pressure that his sister was giving him.
"I told you to go fuck yourself, didn't I piece of shit?!
Talking about being on the same level, yada yada.
Me?
Having nothing?
Don't make me laugh!" She ridiculed him.
The locals were overwhelmed by the situation, many were watching them as Crimson kept on cursing at him.
Some of them tried to find the knights, running into them and telling them the situation.
"Yes, I might have thought that you were just a normal knight, so I wanted to go easy on you, but you caught me by surprise.
Good job.
But that was the only good thing about what you did." She smirked as she blew off some of her hair in front of her.
Eventually the knight guards arrived at the scene, with Lancaster making a disappointed and annoyed expression, after trying to be in front of the scene by pushing some of the guards and locals.
-----
"Fuck." Clarkson suddenly cursed, thinking about it again.
"Language." Lancaster reprimanded him.
"You." Clarkson said as he put both of his hand onto his face, In frustration.
"You too." Lancaster sighed, as he was tired by Clarkson, but not only of him, he got tired of his twin sister too.
"God, how can the two of you be so identical."
-----
Denver was in his office as usual.
That office that had such a strong fragrance of different herbs.
The fragrance was supposed to make him feel at ease, cogitate and be in tranquility.
But as he shuffled through the papers on his hand, frustration got him.
Reading every paragraph of the 10 pages of letters that were delivered to him.
'The strange monstrosities have not done any damages in the empire or the villages of the empire.
They keep on creeping in the darkness during the night, near the forest of the Imperial Palace of the Everereal Empire, but they also creep in during the day using the shadows as an advantage.
Their usual activities are staying still, doing nothing but stare at the Imperial Palace of the Everereal Empire.
It seems like they do not see us, or rather they do not care about us.
We observe them from a distance, as we are careful of not getting too close to being sighted.
We do not know if this is a kind of preparation for them to attack the Imperial Palace, or observe for some information about the Empire.
It is strange that the knights are not aware about these anomalies, seeing how close they are.
Regardless, that is all that we can give you for now, Apothecary.
We will report the next movements in a month, as it will take a while for our men to deliver the letters at such a distance.
Sincerely,
Owls.'
That was what the last letter said.
Denver placed carefully the letters on his desk, he took of his monocle and sighed.
"You have done well." Even if he felt a little disappointed as they have no more information regarding the strange anomalies.
Denver remained silent, organizing his thoughts and connecting the ties between the little girl and the anomalies.
"She appeared in this palace at the same time that those things were sighted.
Could it be that she is the cause?
Maybe she created them… tried to make a run for it and got here as a result.
But the distance of the two Empires make it impossible for her to come here at the same day that those things were first sighted.
Even so, she is still connected to them somehow, it's evident.
But the question is… how can a little girl do such thing?
Having such an incredible amount of energy and mana."
Denver looked at his ceiling, where the chandelier was not emitting any light.
"What the hell is she?
If only I could see her core…"
In the midst of thinking roughly in his mind, the butler spoke loudly outside the closed doors.
"Prince, Denver Achlys, of the Empire of Ephamour. The Imperial knights, Lancaster Farrimond and Clarkson Ardit have arrived." The doors gradually opened, shining with a warm orange light the dark room that Denver was in.
Two unseen figures could be seen walking inside the room.