Prologue

-------------------

It all happened too fast. It was too late. I was only 13 when I watched in horror
as the masked man impaled my parents with a long silver sword, each of them letting
out a cry of pain before they took their last breath and their bodies went limp.
Their limbs were still bound as they hit the tile floor, blood pooling out of the
area where their hearts used to be. That is the last memory I have of my parents.
If only I saw the flash of silver sooner. If only I would have screamed in protest.
If only I would have done something to fight rather than watch the life leave their
eyes. Maybe then, they would still be here. “You’re stronger than you think, dear
Eleanor, don’t stop fighting for what you love,” were their last words to me.
Except that’s not true. I’m not strong, if I was, they would still be alive. Since
then, I seek revenge for the man who killed my parents.

* * *

The castle grounds consist of three class levels.The lowest is Civilians, the
middle are Knights, and the blood-born Royals. Civilians can work to earn an
Adminship, which allows them to work in the palace.

* * *

A handful of the residents of Sanrido, the capital of Forgo Keroppi, have the
first part of their last names coordinating with the power they wield. There are 3
main powers, Jester, Strong, and Book. But there exists one more, one that people
have forgotten. And that, is the power of Sun.

Chapter 1
----------------------

I wake when sunlight barely peers through the silk curtains and hits my face. With
a huff, I turn around to have my back face the window. I doze off again only to be
startled by the sound of something fragile breaking, perhaps a vase, followed by a
minute or two of complete silence. Then back to the shuffles and scurries up and
down the hall. No matter what I did, I couldn’t bring myself to fall back asleep.
It’s like the world wants me awake. I dramatically fling the silk blanket off of my
body and lay there for a few moments before sitting up. It takes everything I have
to heave myself out of the thick, comfy bed and onto my feet, sleep still pulling
at my eyes. I walk over to the water basin before the temptations to crawl back
into the cloud-like bed get too strong. I clean my face with a small, damp towel
and brush out my short, black hair. It barely reaches my shoulder but I’m able to
style it in a simple ponytail, my bangs swooshing in front of my forehead. I stroll
over to my wardrobe and open the smooth, wooden doors. I slip out of my night
clothes and into my favorite cotton tunic and pants. I don’t usually care much for
the dresses and gowns sulking on hangars. I lace on the only pair of boots I own
and open my room door, greeted with the hustling and bustling of morning
activities. I step out of the doorway and into the hall where a laughing little
girl bumps into me.
“Sorry,” the girl stutters, curtseying clumsily and scurrying away.
I watch as she trips over her foot and steady herself before disappearing around
the corner of the hallway. I take the opposite route from the little girl and take
my time getting to the courtroom. I see the Princess walking in my direction and
stick to one side of the hall to give her space to pass. She passes me, but I hear
her footsteps stop. I keep walking.
“You should know better than to pass a Royal without acknowledging them, Eleanor,”
she calls out. I roll my eyes but slowly stop in my tracks and turn around to face
her with a coy smile.
“Pardon me, Your Highness,” I say with a dramatic, flourishing bow. I can feel
Princess Irene narrow her eyes. I stand back up but slightly slouch my back and
cross my arms, leaning on one leg.
“Let’s not have this happen again,” she finally says. I roll my eyes, this time
knowing she can see me. With a look of annoyance, she steps toward me, closing the
6 foot gap between us until there’s only inches between our bodies. I’m not sure
why she came any closer, but she smells of fresh cut firewood and flowers. I’m
taller than the Princess by a few inches, so she doesn’t seem as intimidating to
me. Her shiny, light brown hair is tied in a braid that hangs down to the middle of
her back and she’s dressed in a simple pink dress that compliments her emerald
eyes. I straighten out to my full height and look down at her with a smirk.
“Let me help you here then, Princess,” I tease as I raise my right hand to move a
lock of hair out of her face. But before I could, I’m pinned against the wall, one
hand holding my right wrist and the other slightly squeezing my neck, a dangerous
taunt.
“You don’t get to do that. Just because you’re slightly taller than me doesn’t mean
that you’re better than me. You’re only a Knight, I’m a Princess,” she snarls.
“But I am better than you in a way, Princess,” I say with a wink, careful not to
let my smile falter. She looks away, lets out a huff of frustration and hurries
off, leaving me to be on my way again. I could have sworn her smooth, porcelain
skin turned slightly pink at the cheeks. As I walk to the courtroom to check in, I
pass groups of gossiping Admin and chatty Civilians, barely looking at me as I pass
by. When I reach the front desk, the Admin worker there saw me and motioned to the
throne room.
“The King wants to see me?” I ask. The Admin nods quickly, her eyes downcast. I
smile and nod to her in thanks and head over to the wooden gate that looms over its
little siblings. Two guards are stationed there. When they see me, they open the
gate and swiftly close it behind me. King Malik sits tense on his gold-encrusted,
quartz throne, his hands gripping the edge of the armrests. His bright green eyes
acknowledging my arrival. On the King’s left side, Princess Irene sits on her
throne, her hands folded presentably on her crossed legs and her eyes focused on
the door. On his right, a throne sits empty without a member. It belongs to the
Prince but he’s not here at the moment. I kneel down on one knee and bow my head in
respect.
“You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?” I ask without looking up.
“Indeed, dear Eleanor. You may rise.” He replies with a soft smile. I glance in the
Princess’s direction, and find her looking at me as well. We lock eyes for a moment
before she breaks it and looks to her father instead, who proceeds to speak.
“It seems to me that you know my daughter, do you two talk?”
It takes me a moment to process his question.
“No, Your Majesty,” I choose my words carefully. “We talked just earlier, but we
never spoke before that. However, I admit, I’ve seen her in many places but don’t
bother to say anything. I assume Her Highness has better things to do.”
With that, I look over at Princess Irene again, this time holding her gaze until
the King breaks the moment.
“Good!” he exclaims, his body relaxing and his smile widening. “Well, it must be
fate. I have a task for you, dear Eleanor, and you’re going to work with my son and
daughter. Alastor will arrive soon from his trip to Heliokitenskia.”
I freeze. What kind of task is this if I have to work with the Prince and Princess?
“With all due respect, Your Majesty, what kind of task do you propose?” I finally
say. King Malik lets out a boom of laughter that echoes throughout the room.
“There’s magic hidden within these walls, my dear! I’m trusting you to find out
who, or what, wields it.”
I’m blurting out a flurry of questions before I realize it.
“Since when was there magic? Who found out? Wouldn’t we have noticed? How come
we’re just finding out about this now?”
I quickly cover my mouth with my hand before I risk saying anything else. The King
looks at me thoughtfully, taking his time to respond. He strokes his cropped beard
before answering.
“I can’t answer those questions, my dear Eleanor. That is for you to figure out. I
don’t know much more than you or anyone else in the palace does. With that spirit,
I trust you’ll accept?”
I nod. “I accept, Your Majesty.”
“Wonderful! You shall get started as soon as possible. Irene proposed that she stay
in your quarters for now, so that making plans and taking action would be
efficient,” he says, beaming. I glance at Irene once again, who avoids my gaze,
looking down at the floor instead with cheeks a light pink. She glances at me, and
I nod to her with a soft smile. I turn my gaze back to King Malik.
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” I reply with a bow. I look over at the Princess one
last time before heading back to my room. I just arrive at my door when a hand tugs
at my arm. I spin around to see Princess Irene, out of breath and her forehead
glistening from light sweat, perhaps from trying to catch up to me. I’m pleasantly
surprised to see her, let alone grab my arm without being teased. I think she
notices my surprise because she drops my arm and straightens herself out. I speak
first.
“Can I help you, Your Highness?” I tease with a dramatic bow.
“Just call me Irene,” she says solemnly. “If we’re going to be working together,
there shall be no formality between us.”
“Aww, did you just say we’re friends now?” I joke. Irene rolls her eyes and for a
second I thought she was going to smile. I tilt my head back and laugh until she
punches me in the arm. Playfully I’m not sure.
“Oww,” I say. “You’re stronger than you look, Irene.”
“I’ll be back before sunset but don’t you dare think anything of this.” she growls.
“Wasn’t planning to,” I snapped, rubbing my arm. Irene scans my face for any trace
of dishonesty, though I’m being honest. With no success, she exhales sharply and
without another word, she turns on her heel and disappears around the corner. Now
all I can do is wait.

Chapter 2
--------------------

A knock comes at my door, informal and quick. I open it a sliver to peek at the
knocker. I swing the door fully open, opening my arms in a dramatic gesture.
“Irene, my best friend!” I exclaim with a joking wide smile, then I drop my arms
and just stand there.
I notice her hair is down. When it’s out of her usual braid that reaches the middle
of her back, her straight, blond hair hangs down to her tailbone. She scoffs and
tries to push past me to enter the room. I stick my hand out in front of her
without leaving my spot and catch her waist. Irene freezes, her eyes narrow.
“Woah, slow down there, tiger. I didn’t say you could come in.” I tease.
“Will you shut up and let me in?” she snaps.
“What’s the magic word?”
She whips her head to face me. “Are you being serious right now?”
I chuckle, “I’m being sooo serious. Now say the magic word or I won’t let you in”
Irene rolls her eyes and shoves past my arm. I tackle her in a way that I take the
pain from hitting the floor. I wrap my arms around her, restraining her arms to her
sides. She thrashes against my hold.
“What are you doing?!” she manages to yell. “Is this just because I didn’t say
please?” After a few more moments, my arms drop to the floor with a thud as she
holds herself up with her arms next to my chest. I smirk as she meets my gaze, then
she breaks it by getting up and smoothing out her cotton dress.
“What was that for?” Irene growls, glaring at me as I get up.
“Your defense needs a lot more work, Princess,” I explain with a coy smile, “If
someone with magical powers were to tackle you out of nowhere, you need to know how
to defend yourself and turn their actions on them.”
That stuns her, she sizes me up before finally speaking.
“And you’ve been attacked by a magic wielder before?” she says, one eyebrow raised.
“Never,” I reply, “I was just giving you a hug. But it’s just common sense. We
don’t know how this magic works.”
Irene pauses, turning my words over in her mind.
“If you’re going to hug me then make it a good one, Eleanor.” she says. “But I hate
that you’re probably right.”
“You hate that I have more common sense than you,” I reply.
“No I don’t, I just don’t like you when you’re right.” she bites back.
I throw my head back and laugh. When I compose myself, I see the corners of the
Princess’s mouth raise up slightly. I pretend not to notice, thinking that if I
bring it up she won’t let it slip again.
“You’re so stupid,” she says with a slight chuckle.
“I may be stupid but there’s a reason why the King made me a Knight. You need me.”
I hit back with a smile.
Irene rolls her eyes. “There are plenty of Knights in the palace, you’re not that
special, Eleanor.”
“Actually, Irene, I’m the most skilled Knight in the palace.” I brag, “You wouldn’t
know, you don’t go to Hailing ceremonies.”
She gives me a curious look. “How do you know I don’t go to Hailing ceremonies?”
“The whole palace attends, I’m sure they notice the Princess’s absence.” I reply
with a shrug.
“Whatever,” she says, “You probably just missed me.” She sticks her tongue out. I
stick my tongue out back.
“We’re getting sidetracked.” I say as I walk to the window. The night covers the
palace like a blanket, and stars scatter across the wide expanse. “We should get to
bed, I’m tired. We’ll start fresh in the morning.”
I turn around to see Irene taking off her boots and settling her bag down near the
foot of the bed. She opens her bag and pulls out a nightgown.
“Where’s the toilet room?” she asks. I point to the door next to my wardrobe. She
walks to the door, opens it, closes it, and walks back to the middle of my room.
“What’s up with you?” I ask.
“The toilet room is too small to change in.” she explains, “So I’m gonna change
here. Close the curtains and go face a corner.”
“I was already going to.” I reply, walking over to a corner of my room and standing
there facing the walls. I hear the ruffling of clothing behind me.
“You better not be looking,” she says. “I’ll kill you if you are.”
I roll my eyes even though she can’t see me. “Jeez, Princess, I’m literally looking
at the wall. All I can see is wall. Just. wall. Do you think I have eyes in the
back of my head?”
She ignores my question.
“I don’t trust you yet. You can never be too sure.”
“Aha, you don’t trust me yet. I’ll take that.” I tease. “You probably don’t even
look that good anyways.”
“I think I look amazing. Now shut up, you're distracting me.”
“How long does it even take for you to take off a dress and put on another?”
The shuffling comes to a stop. Irene ignores my question again.
“You can turn around now.” she says.
I turn around to see her dressed in a golden silk nightgown that drapes down to her
knees and has sleeves that come up to her wrists. The gold compliments her emerald
green eyes.
“You’re staring.” she says, narrowing her eyes slightly.
I realize I am and flick my eyes away.
“Sorry,” I mumble as I make my way to my wardrobe. I open its doors and take out my
night clothes. On the spot, I unlace my boots and start to take off my tunic when
Irene clears her throat. I turn around to look at her.
“What?” I ask.
Her eyes flicker from my eyes down to my body and back up to my eyes a few times. I
roll my eyes.
“You’re a big girl now, use your words.”
Now it’s her turn to roll her eyes. But they aren’t dripping with annoyance.
“Eleanor, I’m standing right here and you’re changing in front of me.” she says
with wide eyes.
“I know,” I replied. She gawks at me. It takes her a moment to find her voice.
“No you don’t get it, you are taking off your clothes in front of me.”
“I know,” I say again impatiently. “If it’s such a big deal to you, why are you
looking?” With that, her cheeks turn pink.
“You didn’t ask me to turn around.” she stutters.
“Listen, Irene, I could honestly care less if you saw my body. We are the same,
there’s nothing different on me than on you. But if it bothers you too much then
you should know to turn around yourself.”
She holds my gaze for a couple more moments until nodding and turning around so
that her back faces me. It doesn’t take me long to change. I walk over to stand
behind her and put my hand on her arm. She whips her head to look at me.
“I didn’t mean to come off like that, I’m sorry. I’m just so overwhelmed with
everything that's happening. That’s why I suggest we sleep now so we feel better in
the morning.” I say. Irene shrugs my hand off and turns her whole body to face me.
She has to look up at me and I have to hold in a giggle.
“I guess I should have known better, and that’s my fault, but I forgive you,
Eleanor.” she says, inclining her head. Her tone makes me laugh. She smiles, a soft
raise of the corners of her mouth, but a smile nonetheless.
“You’re right that was your fault, but I don’t blame you since I have way more
common sense than you. Plus, I didn’t want to start off this task upset at my best
friend.” I tease. “You can take the bed, since you’re the princess. I’ll sleep on
the couch over here.” I motion to the lounge couch near the window. She chuckles
and rolls her eyes, she looks a little surprised as well but she doesn’t protest.
She slips into the messy bedspread, chucks a couple of pillows at me and pulls the
white, silk blanket over her, her back to me.
“Goodnight best friend Irene,” I whisper loudly enough so she can hear. I hear her
scoff, but a second later she chuckles.
“Goodnight Eleanor.”

Chapter 3
-------------------------

“Eleanor, darling.”
I scan the blank white space, trying to find the source of the voice.
“Behind you, dear.”
I turn around and see Irene smiling at me.
“Oh Eleanor, truthfully, I find you very cute and your jokes make me laugh. It’s
hard to not smile around you.” she says, stepping towards me until we’re inches
apart. She takes my hand and holds it in hers.
“Irene-” I stutter. She puts a finger to my lips.
“Shush now, darling.” she coos, bringing her hand to my cheek. I close my eyes and
lean into her hand, placing mine on hers. I open my eyes to see her facing slowly
inching towards mine until I can feel her breath on my chin.
“I half expected you to tease me for something.” she chuckles, moving her hand down
to my neck.
“You haven’t said anything worth teasing yet.” I replied. “Plus you told me to
shush so technically I’m breaking the rules.”
Irene tilts her head back and laughs a hearty laugh.
“I guess that’s my fault then.” she says, finding her words.
I inch towards her, we’re so close now that our noses are barely touching.
“Eleanor-” she starts. I bring my hand to her chin and tip her head up just a
little more. I slowly start closing the gap between our lips.
“Eleanor.” Irene says. “Eleanor.”
I pause.
“Eleanor.”
I look at her confused. Her image starts to fade beneath my hands. I step back
startled, unsure of what’s entirely happening.
“Eleanor. Eleanor. Eleanor.”
I’m shaken awake by a soft hand on my shoulder. Through sleepy eyes, I look to see
Irene kneeling down next to me, her face just inches from mine.
“Jeez, Eleanor, you sleep like the dead. I’ve been trying to wake you up for 3
minutes now.” she complains. It takes me a moment to realize that it was a dream,
and that the real Irene would never say those things. I grunt in response. She
seems to understand what I mean.
“C’mon, get up, we’re going to meet my brother.” she says. Irene gets up and turns
around to continue her routine. But without thinking, I reach and grab her arm. She
stops and turns around to face me, I’m still laying down. It takes all the courage
I have to say what I want to say. But I hesitate before speaking, and she seems to
notice it, so she speaks first.
“Whatever you want from me I’m not gonna give it to you.” she says in a solemn
voice, but I would have missed the shakiness in her voice if I wasn't looking for
it. I tentatively drop her hand and heave myself to sit up. Irene is still facing
me, so I look up at her.
“Why’re you still standing there? I let go of your hand, you can continue doing
whatever you were doing.” I say, sleep clouding my voice. She hesitates a moment
before replying.
“What exactly did you want from me, if you held me back for something?” she asks. I
hold her gaze for a moment, I want to tell her but I second guess myself. I look
away.
“It’s not important,” I mutter as I stand up to walk to the basin. “It’s not like
you were going to give it to me anyways.”
Now it’s Irene’s turn to grab my hand and stop me. But this time she literally
yanks my arm to make me face her. In an instant, she grabs the collar of my shirt
with one hand and holds the fabric on my shoulder with the other. Our bodies are
touching and our faces are so close I can feel her slightly out of breath on my
chin.
“As your Princess, I command you to tell me what you wanted from me.” she snarls.
“Jeez, Princess, if this is your way of interrogating people you’ll need to step it
up. Not everyone would listen if you pull out the Princess card.” I say, half
teasing, half tired.
“Damn you, Eleanor, just tell me what the hell you want.” she growls, emphasizing
each word.
“Why do you wanna know so badly?” I shoot back, slightly raising my voice.
“Because earlier I had a thought to kiss you and you looked like you wanted to kiss
me too!” she yells. We’re both out of breath and silent for what seemed like
forever. I can hear the morning birds singing their song outside. Irene’s face is
bright pink, I can feel my cheeks go hot as well. I finally find my voice.
“You did?” I whisper, still trying to catch my breath. She lets go of me and takes
a step back, then she turns around, facing her back to me.
“Look, I don’t know how or why I feel like this towards you, Irene. I had a dream
about you last night, which is interesting because I don’t usually dream and
remember them. But I remembered this one of you, and I can’t explain it.” I say.
She doesn’t turn around, but she turns her head slightly to show that she
acknowledged my words.
“What was the dream about?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper. I look at her
curiously but I describe the gist of what happened. When I’m done, I notice her
body is tense and she looks like she’s barely breathing.
“Eleanor,” she finally says. “You better promise me you won’t say a word to this to
any other soul, do you understand?”
I’m not sure what she’s talking about but I nod before realizing she can’t see me.
“Yeah, I understand.” I replied. Irene takes a deep breath before speaking.
“What you saw and felt in your dream is exactly what I was dreaming about as well.
I have no idea how. I don’t know why I feel this way towards you either, and I
don’t know how to feel about it.” She turns to face me, and I guess my face looks
so confused that she has to hold back a chuckle.
“What are you saying?” I finally ask. She shrugs, her face red from embarrassment.
“As exact as our dreams were, our minds could be connected in some way or something
I don’t know.” she mutters. I nod, turning her words over in my mind.
“If I may ask, why were you dreaming about me? In that way specifically?” I ask.
“That’s none of your business.” she responds defiantly.
“That’s fair,” I say nodding. We stand there in silence, not risking making eye
contact. Irene finally speaks.
“Hurry up and get ready, we were supposed to meet my brother 13 minutes ago.”
“Right,” I say, walking over to the basin. I rinse my face and dry it with a towel,
then I head over to my wardrobe and grab my faded black trousers and slightly
stained white cotton tunic. I glance over at Irene, who’s now sitting on the edge
of the bed. I can’t see her face so that means she can’t see me. I take off the
night clothes and pull on the tunic and pants. I walk over to the door, lace on my
boots, and lean against the doorframe. I’m ready in 7 minutes.
“You sure you don’t want to tell me the reason you were dreaming about me?” I ask.
“I won’t be able to sleep without my curiosity nagging.”
“I don’t care if you won’t sleep, I’m not telling you, Eleanor.” she snaps back.
“Alright alright. I guess you’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight then.” I tease.
She whips her head to face me and shoots a deadly look.
“Calm down, Princess, I was only teasing.” I say rolling my eyes and smirking. She
breaks my gaze and huffs.
“Let’s go, it’s been 13 minutes since you told me to get ready. We’re wasting
time.” I call out to Irene. “Where are we supposed to meet him?”
She stands up and walks towards me but avoids my gaze.
“You are wasting time. We’re headed to the dock.” she replies, opening the door.
“Alright, let’s go.” I say.

Chapter 4
------------------------

I follow her out the door and fall a couple steps diagonally behind her. We walk in
silence to the dock. When we arrive, a taller figure stands near the end of the
dock, talking to a couple of men. As we walk closer, the taller figure looks up
from his conversation and spots us. Suddenly, his arm is in the air and moving big
distances left and right. I look at Irene, who has her hand raised to chest level,
gently waving back. It takes me a swift moment to realize that the taller figure is
the Prince. He says something to the men in front of him and they disperse. The
Prince meets us halfway on the dock, beaming at us. He looks like the guy version
of Irene, light skin, fit body. Except he has dark brown hair that is close-cropped
and slicked back, a lock purposely loose in front of his forehead. I bow my head in
his presence.
“Please excuse our tardiness, brother.” Irene says.
“No need to worry about that,” he says, shaking his hand in the air. “I was just
talking to the captain about some necessities for my next trip.”
“Very well then.” Irene replies. I’m standing behind her in a way that I can see
just over the top of her head.
“Have you met Eleanor?” she asks her brother, focusing the attention on me now. The
Prince shakes his head, but regards me with a wide smile.
“Pleasure,” he says, sticking his hand out. I shake his hand.
“The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness.” I replied. He tilts his head back and
chortles. He turns to Irene.
“I already like her!” he exclaims, then he turns back to me with a smile. “Please,
call me Alastor. There’s no need for formality if we’re going to be working
together.”
“You know, Irene said the exact same thing when the King informed me of this task.
Please tell me you’re a lot nicer than her.” I tease. I glance sideways at Irene,
who rolls her eyes and smirks. I blush slightly and turn my focus on Alastor, who
laughs heartily.
“I can already tell that you and I are going to get along very well.” he says, a
little out of breath from laughing.
“You two are going to be the most annoying taskmates ever.” Irene remarks with a
rare, most adorable smile I’ve ever seen. I try not to stare, but I can’t help
sneaking a few glances. While Alastor is still recovering from laughter, I turn my
head to Irene and lean down to whisper a question in her ear. Of course, she didn’t
know what I was doing so she flicked her head away from me and shot me a glare.
“Relax, Irene, I just wanted to ask you something.” I whisper as I roll my eyes.
“You could have warned me before you did that.” she snaps.
“Okay okay, I will next time. Just get over here.” I replied. She hesitantly puts
her head back into its original position.
“Are we going to tell your brother that our brains could be linked somehow?” I
whisper in her ear.
“No, that doesn’t have anything to do with the task” she says, still facing
forwards.
“Yes it does,” I argue. “It’s not every day your mind could possibly be connected
to another’s.”
With that, she turns her head slightly to me and then back to a confused Alastor.
“Ehm, did I miss something?” he asks. He’s so confused I have to hold back a
chuckle. Irene shakes her head.
“Something happened just earlier that may be connected to our task.” she says.
Alastor’s eyes went wide in curiosity.
“What happened?” he glanced between me and Irene. Her cheeks turn slightly pink,
and she furiously shakes her head. I don’t bother to cover my smirk.
“Eleanor, explain it to him.”
“You’re cute, Princess.” I chuckle before I explain the joined dreams to the
Prince. When I’m done, his eyes are practically popping out of his head.
“Wait a minute now, you think your minds could be intertwined?” he asks. I nod, so
does a now calmed Irene. He takes a deep breath.
“Let’s try something.” Alastor says. “On 3, I want you two to blurt out the first
number that comes to your head, alright?”
We both nod again.
“Okay, 1, 2, 3.” he counts.
“7.” I blurt.
“7.” Irene says at the same time. We whip our heads to look at each other, our eyes
wide with surprise. Alastor glances between us.
“First person that comes to your mind.” he says quickly.
“Eleanor.” Irene utters.
“Irene.” I call out not even a second later.
“First animal!”
“Otter.”
“Otter.”
Alastor beams at us. Irene and I exchange bewildered looks.
“Well, there we have it.” the Prince remarks. “There were uncountable possibilities
for each question I asked. Minus the first person, it was a trick question, you
guys were just thinking about each other.”
He smirks at us. I glance at Irene and we both start laughing. She’s laughing at
her brother, I’m laughing because I’m both shocked and amused and don’t know how to
feel. I compose myself before her.
“Tell me, Princess, what am I thinking about right now?” I tease. She calms down
and locks her eyes on mine. We stood there silent for a moment until I noticed her
breath hitch.
“Me,” she stutters, glancing at the Prince, cheeks pink. “You’re thinking about
me.”
“That’s the general idea.” I say with a wink. Irene raises her hand to punch my arm
but I predict it. As she extends her arm, I knock her fist up and grab her wrist. I
hold her arm over my shoulder, our bodies now touching, then hook my foot
underneath her leg to make her unbalanced, and raise my fist. By the time she
realizes what’s happening, I dramatically move my fist through the air, very slowly
making its way to her face, and just about touch her jawbone.
“Aaaand you’d be knocked out already.” I say with a goofy smile. Irene rolls her
eyes and pries herself out of my grip. She turns to Alastor.
“Oh I’m Eleanor, and I bully Irene because her defense needs so much work,” she
mocks, pitching her voice low to mimic mine. That makes her brother cover his mouth
to hide his smirk. When Irene realizes what he means, her jaw drops dramatically
and she gapes at him.
“You’re on her side, Alastor?” she rests her hand on her chest, acting betrayed. Me
and the Prince exchange looks then burst into laughter.
“Does this mean you like me now?” I ask between breaths. Irene chuckles.
“I’ve always liked you, Eleanor.” she blurts, covering her mouth a second later
realizing what she had said. I raise my eyebrows and smirk at her.
“Since when?” I push. I can see her physically struggle to make her joyous
expression fall to a solemn straight face.
“Since never.” she snaps, though I’m sure she doesn’t mean it. I glance sideways at
Alastor, who’s genuinely entertained by us.
“Sureeee.” I say, turning my head to the Prince and wiggling my eyebrows. He
stifles a laugh and Irene punches him in the arm, making him wince.
“Quit that, you two.” she mutters and turns on her heel to head back to the palace.
“We’ve got things to do.”
Alastor and I exchange raised eyebrow looks once more and turn to follow the
Princess. The Prince and I make good conversation on the way back. Irene stays
quiet most of the trip, facing forward with her back ram-rod straight. When the
chat turns silent, I don’t find it awkward. Instead, I ponder how different the
Princess acts with her brother and how she acts with me. I know I make jokes all
the time but I can tell when someone tries to hide their feelings. We make it back
into the palace and part ways with Alastor, he wants to rest before making a plan
so we agreed to meet later in the day to brainstorm. Irene walks through the door
to my room first, and I follow a step later. As soon as I close the door, the
Princess pulls me into an embrace, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist, her
face buried in my shoulder. My jaw drops open, but I put my arms around her
shoulders and return the hug. We stay like that for a good 3 minutes.
Chapter 5
--------------------

“You okay there?” I ask as Irene pulls away from the embrace. She nods
silently, avoiding my gaze.
“What made you want to do that?” I press, genuinely curious. The Princess
meets my gaze.
“I- I don’t know, I just felt like doing that all of a sudden. I tried to
push the thought away but as you can see…” she trails off.
“That’s okay.” I say as I nod. “You’re welcome to just ask me for a hug
whenever you want one.”
Her mouth breaks into a small, soft smile.
 “Thank you, that would be really nice.” she says. “You give great hugs, you
know. I found it comforting.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Princess.” I say with a smile. We stand there for a
moment until she snaps out of her day dream and goes back to playing her princess
card.
“Stop the sappiness, Eleanor.” she says.
“Hey now, you were the one that initiated the hug.” I say with a coy smile.
“Shut up, I’m going to take a nap.” she snaps, turning around to walk to the
bed. I chuckle to myself. The girl is amusing.
“There is never a dull moment with you, huh Irene?” I say under my breath. If
she hears me, she doesn’t acknowledge it. She slips into the covers and becomes
still. I walk over to the lounge couch and watch her. Not in a creepy stalker way,
but to ensure that she doesn’t die in her sleep. A couple of hours pass. I’m laying
down just about to doze off when I hear a noise. I sit up immediately, scanning the
room. It isn’t for another moment that it comes again, but it sounds more like a
whimper this time. I look over at Irene, who I thought was sleeping peacefully.
She’s shaking, and curled up in a fetal position underneath the blanket. I spring
up from the couch and make my way over to her. I gently place the back of hand on
her forehead. She’s a little warm, so I gently pull the sheets off of her. I seat
myself near her waist so I can keep checking up on her. I place a hand on her arm
when suddenly, my vision goes blurry. My mind flashes with horrid images. Blood
everywhere, Irene screaming my name in tears. That’s when I see it. Me, actually.
I’m laying on my side, on coarse dirt. I see Irene run to me and drop to her knees,
turning me over so that I’m laying on my back. She’s crying. All I can hear are the
sounds of her labored breathing and wails. I’m dead, I realize. My corpse hangs
limp in her arms as she leans her head forward and plants a soft kiss on my lips.
“I love you, Eleanor.” she manages to say through sobs. “I didn’t know it until now
but I should have told you sooner if I had known this would happen.”
My eyes flash once more and I’m back in my room. I think I just saw what she’s
dreaming about. Bit more like a nightmare. My hand is still on Irene's arm, but I
realize I’m grabbing it a little tightly. I slowly let go so that I don’t wake her
up. I just about place my hands in my lap when she stirs. I scan her body, making
sure she isn’t hurt physically. She groans and rolls onto her back, eyes barely
opening. When she sees me, her eyes start to tear up. I don’t want to tell her that
I saw her nightmare, so instead I play it off. I make my eyes wide.
“Are you okay, Irene?” I ask. “I saw you shaking so I took off the blankets
and stayed near you so I could check on you.”
She doesn’t say anything but sits up slowly and reaches towards me. I don’t move,
curious about what the Princess is going to do now. She gently tugs at my sleeve,
and when I look at her in confusion, she tugs a little harder.
“Do you want me to sit next to you?” I ask. She tilts her head down, bringing
her gaze away from me.
“I want you to lay down next to me.” she says, her voice barely a whisper and
even more quiet with sleep clouding her voice. “Please.”
I nod, crawling over her legs. I lay myself down a few inches away from her, not
sure if she actually wants me to be close to her. As amusing as the Princess may
be, she’s a little confusing, and I think she may be confused about her feelings as
well. I put one hand behind my head and the other on my stomach. She’s still
sitting up when she scoots herself closer to me and pauses.
“Are you sure you want me here like this?” I ask.
“Yes.” she says almost immediately. I raise my eyebrows but extend the arm on
my stomach to her. She lays down next to me, with her head resting on the crevice
of my shoulder. I wrap my arm around her and gently run my hand over her back and
shoulders. She turns her body slightly, moving one hand under me, rounding my arm
and resting her hand on the top of my shoulder. She places the other hand on my
heart, which makes my breath hitch.
“Irene, what are you-” I start, but I’m cut off by her steady breathing. Her
chest slowly rises and falls against my side. I breathe a sigh and softly smile. It
feels a little weird, I admit, lying this close to the Princess. But after what I
saw, I’ll do anything she needs me to do if it means I can help.

* * *
I don’t realize I dozed off until I hear a knock at the door. I struggle to open my
eyes. Irene is on top of me now, embracing me in her sleep, her head sideways on my
chest and her arms wrapped around my neck. My arms are wrapped around her waist, my
hands resting on her lower back. She was sleeping soundly, but she stirs awake,
almost like she senses me. She raises her head up to look at me.
“Someone’s at the door.” I whisper to her.
“Go answer it then, dummy.” she replies, eyes barely open, flashing a sleepy
smile. I smile back. With that, she just rolls over, falling off of my body and
plopping back onto my bed. She turns around to face me, but soon shuts her eyes
once more. I have the urge to give her a kiss on her cheek, but I ignore it and
heave myself off the bed to go answer the door. I won’t do anything to her unless I
have her permission or she asks me to. Another knock comes at the door just as I
get to it. I open the door to find the Prince standing in the doorway. He flashes a
smile.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” he says, glancing at my dragging
figure and fatigued features.
“I woke up when I heard you knock, Irene is still asleep.” I reply, jutting
my thumb behind me. He peeks over my shoulder and nods when he sees his sister.
“I’ll go wake her up, give me some time.” I say.
“Sure, go ahead, good luck with that, Eleanor.” Alastor replies with a smirk.
I raise my eyebrows and smile.
“I don’t need luck to wake up my best friend.” I joke. He chuckles.
“You may not need luck but it takes quite a while to get her completely up.
Take all the time you need, I understand. I’ll be over here.” he says, pointing to
the wall in front of my door.
“Thanks.” I say with a chuckle myself. He nods his head once with a smile and
turns to walk to the wall. I close the door and walk over to Irene. She’s near the
edge of the bed, so I kneel down on one knee on the floor. I reach my arm over to
her and gently tap her shoulder. She grunts.
“Hey, Irene, wake up.” I whisper. She grunts again. I can’t help but chuckle.
So this is what her brother meant. She groans.
“Why’re you laughing.” She draws out her words and physically struggles to
open her eyes.
“Sorry sorry, I just think you’re cute.” I say with a smile. Through sleepy
half open eyes, she flashes a small smile back.
“Whateverrrr.” she replies.
“You need to get up, Princess, your brother is already here.” I start. But
before I can say anything else, Irene grabs the collar of my tunic and pulls me to
her. Startled, I froze in my place. Her face is inches from mine. She slightly
tilts her head to the side and leans forward. I can barely breathe, my heart is
racing. She scoots her head to the side of mine and kisses me on the cheek. What
coincidence is it that I was thinking about that earlier? When she starts to pull
away, I take a deep breath and grab her shoulder, pulling her back. I kiss her on
the cheek as well. I lean back, face to face with her, locking our gazes. Our lips
almost brush against each other. I can tell she’s awake now. Her cheeks are bright
pink, and mine feel hot as well. She’s the one that breaks first.
“I’ll get ready.” she says, her tone serious but slightly shaky.
Chapter 6
-----------------------

I linger in my place for a few moments before I attempt to stand up. My legs feel
like jelly, but I push through it and walk over to the basin. We do our own things
in silence, before my curiosity gets the better of me.
“Did you want to do that?” I ask, without turning around from the basin. I
hear Irene pause.
“I don’t know.” she replies cautiously. “The thought came to me earlier, I
think when you got up to answer the door. Though I have no idea where it came
from.”
I fight myself, I want to tell her I was thinking about it earlier, but should I
really?
“Irene,” I start, this time turning around to face her. “I know it sounds
crazy, but I was thinking about giving you a kiss on the cheek earlier.”
She stops what she’s doing and gapes at me.
“Are you being serious right now?” she asks. I nod, averting my gaze
downward.
“So why didn’t you?” she continues. “You had the opportunity to, why didn’t
you take it?”
It’s my turn to stare at her in shock.
“I didn’t want to do anything without your permission, Princess.” I say when
I find my voice. “I’m not even sure if you like me back that way.”
“Eleanor. I literally initiated the cheek kiss first. Do you really still
think that I don’t like you back that way?”
I’m speechless at that moment. I decided to tease her.
“Are you implying you like me like that?” I ask with a smirk.
“Yes, I do. There’s no other way to explain it.” she replies, her face not
showing any bit of joke. “I like you, Eleanor. There, I said it. Happy now?”
“Oh-kay, not the answer I was expecting but I’ll take it.” I say.
She rolls her eyes and smirks. I blush slightly, I love it when I make her do that.
“I’m guessing you expected me to make some snarky comment and deny everything
you accuse me of?” she says with a chuckle.
“Yes, that exactly.” I laugh.
We finish getting ready and head to the door. We chat the entire time, I make jokes
and she laughs, then she makes serious comments that make me laugh. I smile and
pull open the door and hold it for the Princess. She looks up at me and smiles.
While saying thank you in a goofing tone, she subtly puts her hand on my waist and
runs it across my stomach as she walks through the door. My breath catches, and I
have to take a moment to reset. She turns her head while walking in a sideways
glance and snickers. The Prince sees us and stands up in his place.
“Hey guys!” He says with a big smile. I’ve found out by now that Alastor is a
smiley kind of guy. “Have a good sleep, sis?”
“I did indeed, brother.” Irene says, flashing a mischievous smirk at me. I
blush again.
“So where do you guys want to go to discuss matters?” I ask.
“Let’s head to the council room.” Alastor replies. I nod.
“Alright, let’s go.” Irene adds. As we’re walking to the council room, we’re
in a triangle formation. The Prince in front, with me and the Princess next to each
other behind him. We walk in silence, probably saving the chatter for the matter at
hand. I feel Irene’s hand brush against mine a couple of times. I take a sideways
glance at her, she glances sideways towards me as well. I feel like she’s implying
something, but what? I decide to take initiative, I inch my hand towards hers and
brush our hands together. She’s still facing forward, but I see her softly smile in
the corner of my eye. I hesitate a moment before I move my hand to interlock
pinkies with her. My grip is soft and gentle, not wanting to suffocate her finger,
but she grips my pinkie slightly harder. Almost seeming like she doesn’t want to
let go. We reach the council room, only one guard is stationed there. He looks
skeptically at me first, but at the sight of both the Princess and Prince, the
guard bows deep and quickly steps away to let us pass. The room is quite spacious,
with a single long table in the middle, and fancy office chairs surrounding it.
Alastor takes his place at the head of the table. Irene and I try to walk different
ways, but with our pinkies locked, we stop abruptly and ricochet back to each
other. I laugh lightly and she chuckles. She looks at me with beautiful doe eyes
but realizes her brother is in the room and lets go of my pinkie. I glance at the
raised eyebrows of the Prince, who may already know that there’s something between
us. Irene walks to the seat on Alastor’s right, and I take the seat on his left.
“So.” he starts. “What can we start with for this task?”
We all look at each other.
“Well.” I say. “Remember how my mind could be connected to Irene’s?”
“That’s a good start. That isn’t something you deal with every day.” Alastor
says.
“But where do we go with that?” Irene asks. Silence between the three of us.
“I’ve heard of people having the power of Sun, which is presumably the most
powerful gift someone can have,” says the Prince.
“It’s definitely not me.” Irene remarks, crossing her arms. “I would know if
I had the strongest power in the world.”
Their gazes turn to me.
“I don’t have it.” I say. “At least I don’t think I do, I would have noticed
if someone happened.”
“What’s your last name?” Irene asks.
“Sunchord.” I answer. She and Alastor exchange looks.
“What is it?” I ask. Alastor looks pointedly at Irene, who exhales sharply.
“Last names coordinate with the power you have, Eleanor.” she says. “Ours is
Bookeye, we’re practically just super smart.”
“That explains why you guys figured something out so easily.” I say. Irene
rolls her eyes.
“Why are you connecting minds with me?” she asks.
“I’m not doing it on purpose, idiot.” I snap. “I was just as surprised as you
were when we assumed it. I didn’t even know I had a power, I thought I never had
one.”
“Have you ever noticed anything happening from you relating to fire, the sun,
or light in general?” Alastor cuts in.
“No.” I admit. Alastor turns to Irene.
“She’s never been introduced to her power.” he mumbles to her. “Or to powers
in general.”
“Will she still be able to learn it?” Irene whispers.
“If she’s never known, it’ll be hard to try and unlock now.”
“We can teach her though, right? I want her to stop seeing my mind.”
“We can try, but there’s no guarantee. We’ll do our best.”
They turn to me.
“So what’s up?” I ask.
“You might be the magic source our father has been notified of.” Alastor
says. Irene stares at me, I get flustered.
“What are you looking at, Princess?” I snap. She looks up at her brother, who
glances at her and walks over to an abandoned candle on top of a side drawer. He
takes it and places it in front of me.
“Can you try to light this?” he asks.
“Poof magic it’s burning fire with passion.” I tease. But I try anyway.
I close my eyes and focus on the image of the candle in my head. I open one eye,
nothing happened to the candle. In my peripheral vision, I see the Prince and
Princess staring at me. I close my eye and focus again, this time picturing the
candle lighting. Something small in me snaps, and my eyes break open. My sight is
vivid, like everything got brighter and more annoying. I blink a few times,
flicking my head in different directions.
“You look like a chicken having a seizure, Eleanor.” Irene laughs. Instantly,
my temper flares, though I don’t mean to. My breathing quickens, and I feel my
heart race. I have no idea what’s happening. Irene’s eyes go wide. She starts
yelling at me to focus on the candle, but her voice is distant and muffled. She
points frantically at the candle, and I turn to face the candle. Something builds
up inside of me. I’m hyperventilating now. I can’t hold it in anymore. I close my
eyes and yell out, exploding. A wave of heat spreads out from me. I feel myself
losing consciousness, but just before I pass out, I see the candle lit with a
flame.
Chapter 7
-----------------------
I awoke to the soft chatter of two voices. I’m on the floor, on my side. Through
heavy eyes, I look ahead and recognize the Prince. He's sitting on a chair facing
us, talking about something I don’t know with Irene. Irene. I focus my attention on
the Princess. My head is on her lap, and her hand is gently rubbing my shoulder.
Her legs are outstretched, she’s propped up against the wall. I close my eyes and
savor this moment. Being this close to her like this, feels amazing. I open my eyes
and lock with Alastor’s. In my head I plead him not to tell Irene that I’m awake.
Like he read my mind, he snaps his attention back to Irene and doesn’t say anything
about me. I take a deep breath of relief and comfort but I suddenly feel Irene’s
gaze lay on me. I close my eyes quickly and pretend I’m asleep. I strain my ears to
hear her turn back to her brother, but I hear nothing. My heartbeat quickens. Like
she hears it, she speaks to me.
“Good morning, sleepy head.” she coos in a teasing voice. But she switches
her tone. “Get up, Eleanor. My leg fell asleep underneath you and has been like
that for the past 7 minutes.”
With a loud groan, I prop myself up. I turn and face her.
“Hey Princess,” I say with a soft smile and wink. Her face flushes red.
“Did you not just hear what I said?” she hisses.
“I did, sorry your leg fell asleep.” I answer. “Why didn’t you move me
earlier?”
I sit next to her with my back against the wall and rest my arms on my bent knees.
I glance over at the Prince, who’s raised eyebrows and obvious smirk gives me the
answer before Irene could speak. I turn to her and do the same thing Alastor’s
doing. She glances between the two of us.
“You two are unbelievable,” she mutters. I look at her brother and we both
chuckle.
“So what happened to me?” I ask.
“You passed out when you lit the candle.” The Prince said. “It makes sense as
you have never used your power before.”
“I got mad at what Irene said, even though I knew that you were joking.” I
admit as I turn to her. “I didn’t mean to get upset, sorry if I scared you.”
“You think you scared me?” the Princess scoffs.
“I mean yeah, when I felt my temper rise up, you looked pretty startled.” I
answered.
“Eleanor, I wasn’t scared, I was terrified. Your eyes started glowing, I’ve
never seen the Sun power do that to a person before.”
“What are you saying?” I ask. Irene rolls her eyes.
“Piece it together, Eleanor. You’re probably just a really powerful Sun.”
I look away and nod my head in acknowledgement. It’s silent for a moment before I
get a sharp pain in my chest and cry out in alarm. Irene immediately puts her arms
around me. The pain spreads through my body in panicked spasms. I try to stifle my
groans, but I grunt multiple times.
“What-” every word is a struggle. “Is happening- to me-”
The Princess holds me in her arms, embracing my shocked lump of a body. Her brother
is kneeling down next to us, a concerned look on his face. A few moments pass
before the pain eases down. Eventually, it stops completely, and it leaves me
gasping for breath.
“You forced your body too much.” Irene whispers. “Since you’ve never used
your power before, and then you suddenly unlocking a big portion of it, it sends
your body into shock.
“You’re obviously really powerful, but your body can’t handle that much power
yet. We’ll need to seriously train you.”
I catch my breath and look up at her. I try to talk, but nothing comes out of my
mouth. She seemed to notice because she pulls me closer. I wrap my arms around her
waist. We stay like that until Alastor speaks.
“You should rest up for now, Eleanor. I’ll request a meeting with our father
to tell him the news.” He turns to his sister. “I’ll let you take care of her.”
“Thank you, brother. We’ll come by your room when she’s ready.” Irene
replies. The Prince nods and walks to the door. He opens it fully and glances back
at us before heading to the courtroom.
“Alright, let’s get back to the room.” Irene says. I look up at her and nod.
I slowly stand up but she pushes me back down.
“What-” I start. But before I can say anything else, I’m off the ground.
She’s carrying me.
“Princess,” I manage to say. “You don’t have to worry, I can walk by myself.”
But we’re already out the door. There’s no changing her mind. I succumb to her
touch and lean into her, my head resting on her shoulder. When we reach the room, I
notice she’s out of breath but is trying really hard to hide it. I stifle a giggle
and I stick out my hand and open the door for us. She sets me down on the bed. I
sit up, and study her. I would never have guessed she was that strong. Like she
heard me, she spoke.
“Didn’t think I could pick you up huh?” she smirks.
“Honestly, I would have never guessed, Princess.” I admit, shrugging my
shoulders and throwing her my own smirk. I start to stand up, and she pushes me
back down yet again.
“What now-” I begin. But Irene’s lips are on mine before I can say anything else.
The kiss is short and small, and she breaks away quickly and scurries off to the
lounge chair, covering her face with her hands and bending her body forward,
resting her elbows on her knees. I stand up, struggling to ignore the sharp pain in
my head, and walk over to her. I kneel in front of her.
“What do you want, did you come over here to tease me about it.” she mumbles
through her hands. I gently take her hands off of her face and slip one finger
under her chin.
“No, for once I won’t tease you, I came to return the favor.” I say smiling before
I lean in and return the kiss. I break it after a couple of seconds and lock eyes
with her. Then I kiss her between her eyebrows and pull her into an embrace.
“Eleanor, you know we can’t be together.” she finally says. I pull away from her
and sit down cross-legged on the floor in front of her.
“Why not?” I ask.
“There’s never been a girl and a girl relationship in Sanrido.” she answers. “At
least, not that I’ve read about.”
“Then we can be the first.” I reply.
“How do you know you’re sure you want to be with me?”
Her question stuns me, I’m not sure how to answer.
“Because there must be some reason I’ve connected to your mind specifically
and no one else's.”
“Just that? It could have been anyone.” she says.
“So why is it you?” I look up at her. Her gem-like green eyes shimmer in the
setting sun. We sit in silence for a few moments before she finally speaks.
“I don’t really know how to feel, Eleanor.” Irene says. I look up at her and tilt
my head in acknowledgement.
“I’m not sure if I like you romantically with my own feelings or if they’ve been
affected by your magic.” she continues. “I apologize if I’ve been sending you mixed
signals, I’m just confused.”
I nod, then try to stand up, but my head has other plans. I get a sharp pain that
sends me back to the floor. I try to shake it off but I’m unsuccessful. Irene is by
my side at an instant, and I’m off the floor once again. She lays me on the bed.
“Stay,” she commands. She turns to walk away but I grab her wrist. She whirls
around.
“Please stay with me, Irene.” I manage to say, struggling not to pass out. I
hear her sigh and she literally rolls my body over to make room for her. I hear her
sit down next to me, I’m on my stomach with my face in the pillow and my arms by my
sides. Irene scoffs and chuckles and turns me over again. I settle down on my side
and look up at the Princess through heavy eyes. I reach my hand out to her crossed
arms and she holds out her hand and lets me take it in mine.
“That’s not fair,” I mutter. She looks at me. “I snuggled you when you were
sleeping, how come I only get a hand.”
Irene rolls her eyes, smiles softly, and pulls me close, gently stroking my
head and back. With my head on her chest, I fall asleep in her arms.
Chapter 8
-----------------------

I wake to golden sunlight peeking through the curtains. I groan and turn around, my
back now to the window. I feel extreme deja vu. Irene isn’t next to me. Have I been
dreaming the entire time? There’s no way, I couldn’t have made up the Prince’s
face, could I? I sit up and scan the room, I’m the only one in here. Disappointed,
I lay back down and rub my face, trying to shake off the delusion. I’m too awake to
go back to sleep, so instead I stretch out my limbs and sit up once again to stand
up. I hear a soft knock on the door, and I look over to see the Princess walking
through my doorway, carrying a tray full of food.
“You’re awake,” she says. “How do you feel?”
I stand up and look at her and feel my eyes water. She places the tray down on a
table.
“Eleanor? What’s wrong-” she starts, but her next words are muffled in my
shoulder. I hold her tight and close my eyes. She embraces me back. I let a few
tears fall before I step back and wipe them away.
“Eleanor?” Irene says. I lock eyes with her.
“No good morning?” I tease, my voice a little shaky. She takes my face in her
hands.
“Are you okay? What happened?” she asks. Her tone is kind, but stern. I smile
inside. She cares about me.
“Yeah yeah I’m okay.” I say. “When I woke up you weren’t around, and I
thought that I dreamt the entire thing.”
I clear my throat at the thought.
“I’m just glad you’re still here.” I whisper, smiling softly. She lets out a
relieved sigh and smiles.
“Of course I’m still here.” she says. “I may be confused about my feelings
but I know for sure that I care about you.”
I nod and smile as I feel my eyes water up again and Irene pulls me into another
embrace. This time, I let the tears fall. She doesn’t say anything.
“I see you’ve brought me some food.” I say, taking a deep breath as I regain
my composure. I turn my head to the table and see piles of filling food just
waiting to be eaten. My stomach growls and my mouth waters, I glance over at Irene.
She looks back at me.
“What?” she asks.
“May I, Your Highness?” I reply, teasing. She rolls her eyes and smirks. I
take it as a “go ahead” and slowly pull away from her. I grab a plate and pile food
on top. I sit down on the lounge chair and start shoveling food into my mouth.
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was.” I say through mouthfuls of food. Irene
chuckles and takes a seat across from me.
“Well yeah, that’s what happens when you use your power without proper
training, Eleanor.” she says. I throw a jokingly offended look at her.
“How was I supposed to know? You’re the smart one here, you should have told
me!” I exclaim. Irene laughs, I feel myself blush a little.
“Relax darling.” she coos. “I was only teasing.”
“Since when did you start teasing?!” I exclaim again, my cheeks hot. She
laughs some more. I finish up my plate and place it down on the table. She takes a
look at me and bursts into laughter. I can’t help but smile too. I let out a hearty
laugh and relaxed into the chair. I lean back, cross my arms, and close my eyes. I
hear Irene regain her composure. I open one eye and peek out at her. She smiles,
not a small lift of the corners of her mouth, but a full smile. My jaw drops. I
felt my eyes widen at how beautiful she is when she smiles. I didn’t notice she had
dimples. They look so cute paired with her vibrant eyes. I try to speak but nothing
comes out of my mouth. Irene lets out a playful giggle.
“What’s up with you now?” she teases, sticking out her tongue a bit. I stick
out my palm.
“Enough,” I whisper, closing my eyes with my smile downturned. “You can’t
just flash your adorable smile and then expect me to answer questions.
“Tell me, Princess,” I continue. “Did you get the habit from me?”
Irene smiles mischievously and bites her lip.
“Maybe I did.” she replies. I scoff and chuckle at the same time, then I
slowly get up and walk over to the bed.
“I’m going to go back to sleep for a bit.” I say. “That food got me good.”
I’m about to faceplant into the pillows when I hear rapid footsteps behind me. I
whirl around just in time to see Irene flying towards me. I have no time to react,
so I accept my fate and let myself be tackled by the unpredictable Princess. We
both hit the bed, her on top of me. I laugh and pull her close, trapping her
against me. She screams playfully. I roll us over, now I’m on top of her. She’s in
a fit of genuine laughter. I take a deep breath and try to tickle her.
“What do you think you’re doing tackling me like that huh!” I yell, smiling.
Irene can barely speak.
“I-I’m sorry I’m s-sorry!” she manages to say through loud laughter. “You
were the one who told me we should be prepared to be attacked by a magic wielder!”
“That was before we knew it was me you dork!” I laugh. I let her go, plopping
myself down next to her. We’re both trying to catch our breath.
“You dummy.” she says first. “How dare you.”
“Me?!” I replied, turning my head to face her. “Need I remind you who tackled
who first?”
She turns her head to me and holds up her palms next to her face.
“Oh-kay Eleanor, calm down.” she smiles. I smile back as she turns her head
to face the ceiling. We lay there for a few moments before she speaks again.
“I guess you’re feeling better?” she asks. I turn onto my side.
“Did we not just tackle each other just a few moments ago?” I tease.
“Gods, Eleanor.” she rolls her eyes. I stick my tongue out playfully.
“I want to do something stupid.” I say. “Let’s go do something.”
“We’ll get in trouble, idiot.” she replies.
“Not if we blame it on my power.” I fight. “We’ll say it’s training.”
“Eleanor, you're gonna pass out again.”
“You don’t know that.”
She raises a single eyebrow.
“You’re unbelievable.” she mutters, rolling her eyes.
“Ah but you like that about me.” I tease, sitting up.
“Shut up you dork.” she says, but a smile escapes her lips.
“Aww, you liiiike meeeeee.” I laugh. She sits up and shoves me down, hopping
off the bed herself. I can’t help but laugh.
“Let’s go tell my brother.” she says.
“Not yet, I want to try something.” I replied, sitting up once more.
She turns around to face me.
“And what’s that?” she asks. I motion for her to come to me. She obeys,
hesitantly. I pat my lap and her eyes go wide.
“Relax darling, I just wanted to try hugging you like this.” I say. She gives
me a reluctant look before tentatively climbing on top of me.
“I’m a girl of my word, Irene. I won’t do anything except what I say I’m
going to do.” I admit. “Do you trust me?”
“No,” she replies. “But it’s enough.”
“I’ll take it.”
I wrap my arms around her waist and back, closing my eyes and burying my face in
her chest. Her arms come around me almost instinctively. I pull her close, savoring
every moment; she seems to be doing the same. I take a deep breath. The Princess
smells of the air after rain and fresh-cut firewood. I take the time to memorize
her scent and the feel of her embrace. She gets flustered first.
“E-Eleanor. We have to let my brother know you’re okay.” she stutters. I turn
my head up to look at her and sigh jokingly.
“Alright alright, Let’s go.” I replied. She hesitates, then pulls me into one
more comfy embrace before hopping off my lap. Still facing me, she smiles and takes
my face in her hands and plants a kiss on my forehead.
 “Have I told you that you give really nice hugs?” she teases, starting
towards the door. I chuckle, remembering that one of our first interactions.
“So do you.” I say, smiling. I don’t know how big of a chance I have, but I
knew that was the day I fell in love with Irene Bookeye, the Princess of Sanrido.
Chapter 9
------------------------

The walk to the Prince’s room was unexpectedly fun. At one point, I took Irene’s
hand in mine. Since I’m a head taller than her, I have to slump down a little to
reach her hand. I think she saw when I did, cuz she barely stifled a giggle. The
entire walk to Alastor’s room was quiet, but nice. We reach his door, and I knock a
couple of times. No answer. I glance at the Princess, who steps forward and knocks
on the door herself. Still no answer.
“He always answers the door.” she mutters.
“Could he be sleeping?” I ask.
“He’s a really light sleeper,” she replies. “He wakes up when he hears a
slight noise.”
I nod my head in acknowledgement and move my hand to turn the doorknob. Suddenly,
something flashes in my head. I see the door in front of me open and a figure
lunges out with obsidian daggers. I snap back to reality just in time as I reel my
hand back and put myself in front of Irene.
“Put your back to that side of the wall and run when I tell you to.” I tell
her. I think she must hear my tone because she immediately obeys. I put my own back
to the other side of the door. I look over at the Princess, who locks eyes with me.
I nod once to her and slowly reach my hand to the doorknob. I turn it softly and
fling the door open and a black figure jumps out, daggers gleaming in the faint
lamplight. I lunge at the figure, who’s reaction was a moment too late. We fall to
the floor and tumble to the wall, arms straining against each other.
“Irene run!” I yell out. I glance over at her but she’s frozen in fear. The
figure and I are still wrestling.
“Irene!” I call out again. I see her snap back to reality and lock gazes with
me. Her eyes narrow and her brows furrow. She nods to me and darts into her
brother’s room. The figure takes advantage of my distraction and stands up, lashing
at me with a shimmering dark purple blade. I barely dodge, the blade cutting the
edge of my arm. I grunt in pain and use momentum to hoist myself up. I swing my arm
at full power at what I assume is the figure’s head. It makes contact with bone and
I hear a sharp crack as the figure stumbles back, holding its jaw. I take the upper
hand and lunge forward at the figure and wrestle its mask and hood off. A face is
revealed; I get one quick glance at it until I’m thrown to the ground and almost
struck down with the hilt of a dagger. I throw my fist at his face again but I only
hit the air. The man starts fleeing, fumbling to put his mask and hood back on. I
bolt down the hallway after him. I think I tapped into some of my power because he
doesn’t seem to hear me coming. I throw myself at his head and knock him down,
pinning him to the floor. He reaches for the blade at his hip but I get my hand on
it first. I take it out of its sheath and stab the back of his right leg. Blood
splatters out. He cries out in pain. I pull the dagger out from his leg and run it
through the other, leaving it there this time. Once again, he cries out in pain,
blood pooling around and beneath his gashes. But this time he barely manages to
speak.
“S-stop! Please!” he yells out, his voice not sounding older than 25. I place
one foot on his right arm and the other pressing the blade in his left leg. I hold
his head down with one hand and grasp his shoulder with my other hand.
“Who are you?” I roar. “What have you done with the Prince?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I swear!” he cries out. I lift his head with my
hand and slam it into the ground, a trickle of blood running out beneath him..
“Start talking or I will run this blade through your heart.” I growl,
pressing harder on the dagger in his leg.
“N-Never!” he shouts. I feel my anger wash over me, though I’m slightly
surprised he can still talk after the blow I dealt to his jaw. I close my eyes and
when I open them again everything is red tinted and vibrant. I feel something in me
spreading through my arm. I scan my hand, finding nothing wrong, and reach down,
placing two fingers on the man’s tensed neck. I’m about to unleash my power when I
hear Irene’s distant, muffled voice.
“Eleanor!” I barely hear her say. “Eleanor, he's okay!”
Because of that I calmed down a little bit. Using the remaining anger, I let it
build up in my finger until I feel overheated. This time I don’t need to close my
eyes or cry out. I released enough power to knock out the man without knocking
myself out. I check his pulse, he’s not dead; I guess we could use him later for
interrogation. I slowly stand up straight, careful to maintain my balance and not
helplessly fall to the ground for the Princess to carry me back to the room. Sure,
that would be nice, but obviously we’ve got bigger things to deal with right now.
“Eleanor?”
I turn around to see the Bookeye siblings, standing side by side, out of breath.
Irene dashes to me and wraps her arms tightly around my neck. I loop my arms around
her waist and back and hold her tightly against me. I guess I’ve been panting
because my breathing slows down at her scent and my eyes close at her warmth. I
feel my eyebrows furrow with relief. I open my eyes and glance over at the Prince,
whose face is full of concern and terror.
“Alastor, are you okay?” I ask, my words muffled in Irene’s neck.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I thank the gods I’m not hurt badly.” he replies, giving a
soft, reassuring smile. I scan him only to find a few bruises and minor cuts.
“You scared me, Eleanor.” Irene snaps. “You can’t just rush into battle like
that.”
“I have to, darling.” I reply gently. “I’m a Knight, that’s what I’m trained
for.”
She slowly releases her arms around me, taking my hands in hers instead. Her eyes
scan my body, and they widen at the gash on my arm.
“Oh my gods Eleanor.” she says, glancing between my face and my arm. “We have
to get you cleaned up before that gets infected.”
I take a look at the wound myself, it certainly doesn’t feel as bad as it looks. It
looks pretty bad, a deep gash, a small chunk of muscle missing from my arm, blood
constantly dripping down.
“Okay yeah it looks pretty bad.” I admit. “But I don’t really feel anything.”
Irene glances at her brother, who raises his eyebrows. She looks back at me, then
at the unknown, unconscious man.
“Tell me everything that happened while I fix your arm.” she demands.
“I have to get this guy to the King first.” I say. She sighs, knowing that we
can’t leave a possible assassin in the halls of the palace.
“Okay fine,” she replies. “But let’s make it quick.”
I nod in acknowledgement, reluctantly slip away from her, and grab the back of the
unknown man's collar, dragging him all the way down to the throne room. Alastor and
Irene follow me the entire way, where the guards there immediately let us in. King
Malik sits atop his throne, discussing some matters with a high ranking official.
The conversation stops when the King sees us walk in. He dismisses the confused
official, who glances between the four of us as he exits.
“What is this you have brought me, my dear Eleanor?” King Malik booms.
I throw the body in front of him and kneel down as Irene stands on my left side,
with Alastor on my right.
“A presumed assassin, Your Majesty.” I reply, bowing my head.
“An assassin!” he echoes.
I nod respectfully in response.
“Guards!” he commands. “Bring this fool to the dungeon!”
The 13 guards stationed around the throne room immediately went to work. They drag
the unconscious body out of the throne room.
“Permission to speak, Your Majesty?” I ask.
“You may rise, Eleanor.” he replies.
I stand up and proceed to tell him everything that had happened. I mention my
power, and only then does he interrupt me.
 “You have the power of Sun and you didn’t bother to tell me?” he asks, his
voice stern.
“Forgive us, Father, but we only just recently found out.” Irene cuts in.
“Eleanor had no idea of her power until when the three of us had our first
meeting.”
King Malik glances between the three of us. His gaze lands on the Prince.
“Is this true, Alastor?” he asks.
The Prince nods and tells the King about the candle I tried to light.
“I see.” the King finally says, stroking his short-cut beard and furrowing
his eyebrows, his gem-like eyes regarding the wound on my arm.
“If I may ask, Your Majesty.” I say. He looks at me with curious eyes.
“I’d like to interrogate the assassin myself.” I say, inclining my head.
“Get to the bottom of this.” the King replies. I nod my head in thanks.
Chapter 10
--------------------------

When we leave the throne room, Irene insists she bandage my wound before we
interrogate the unknown man. Reluctantly, I let her lead me back into Alastor’s
room. He follows us in, closing the door and locking it behind us. The Princess
points to a lounge chair a lot similar to my favorite one in my room. Does she know
that it's close to my favorite chair? I sit down and prop my wounded left arm up on
the armrest. Irene walks bristly from cabinet to cabinet, gathering medical
supplies and bandages. Alastor takes a seat next to me, and Irene grabs the one
across from me shortly. She scoots the chair really close and takes a seat. She
motions for me to turn slightly so I do. I watch as Irene cleans the blood around
the slash and cleans the wound in general. While she’s doing that, I start telling
them everything that happened about my power and about the vision I had before I
opened the door. I feel Irene applying a numbing agent to my arm and I wince at the
needle Irene pulls out of the supply pack. Though I don’t feel anything from the
wound, I’m glad she put on the numbing agent because looking at her stitching up
the gash makes my stomach churn. I finish explaining when she finishes the
stitches. She also wraps bandages around the closed wound to help prevent
infection. I glance at my clean arm.
“Thank you.” I say to Irene. She smiles.
“You’re lucky our father had us study medical treatment when we were
younger.”
“You weren’t lying about being super smart were you?” I ask. Irene shakes her
head.
“No, that’s our power.” she nods to her brother. “The few people with the
last name coordinating with ‘book’ are just smarter than the average person.”
“I’ve still got a lot to learn.” I exhale.
“Yes you do.” she agrees. I look over at Alastor, who’s spacing out.
“Alastor, are you okay?” I ask. “You look pretty shaken up.”
I see his eyes snap back to reality but he doesn’t look at me.
“Hm? Oh yes I’m fine.” he replies distractedly. I glance at the Princess, who
glances back at me.
“Alastor,” I say softly, gently touching his arm. “Tell us everything that
happened.”
This time he looks at me.
“Okay,” he says, his voice shaky. He takes a deep breath and starts. “The guy
came in through my door, which is odd if he was an assassin.
“He broke in and he started demanding I give him everything that’s valuable.
When I refused, he pushed me around. I still refused to give him everything so I
tried to fight him off. But he pushed me down and said he didn’t want to kill
anyone and that he just needed money.
“He then started to gather everything in that sack over there.”
He motions to the burlap sack sitting near the foot of his bed. I didn’t realize
how ransacked his room was. I take the time to scan the area: drawers opened,
knocked down lamps, books scattered all over the floor. I look back at Alastor, who
finishes the story.
“Then when we heard a knock at the door, he took his daggers out and waited
for someone to walk in. He looked like he was going to kill someone to get what he
wanted, but I’m glad he was stopped before he could fatally hurt someone.”
He nods to me. I give a small smile and nod back.
“I wasn’t tough enough to stop him, I apologize. I let him go too easily, I
should have done something. But I’d sacrifice my mentality and my life if it meant
the people of Sanrido would be one less killer safe.”
I reach out and touch his arm.
“Alastor, you did a great job defending yourself.” I say. “You told the man
you wouldn’t cooperate with him. He was on his own since the first place.
“You did good, trust me. I’m just glad we got here in time before anything
happened to you.”
He gives a soft smile and pats my hand.
“Thank you, Eleanor. You saved my life, I am in your debt.” he replies.
I shake my head.
“No worries, Your Highness. It’s my job.” I say with a reassuring smile. “Now
let’s get to the bottom of this.”

---------------------------------------------

As we walk down to the dungeon, passersby shoot us wide eyed looks and scurry out
of the way. I guess it is pretty intimidating to walk around as a trio of the
Princess, the Prince, and the highest-ranking Knight. We reach the dungeon and I
recognize the two guards there as the ones from King Malik’s throne room. They
recognize us as well, and one of them leads us to the assassin. He’s tied up, his
mask and hood off, and his weapons in a bucket way outside the cell. I immediately
notice something about the man, his ears aren’t pointed, they’re round. His jaw is
slightly out of place from where I hit him. The guard opens the cell door and
stands a good distance away. I grab the man by the collar of his shirt.
“You are going to start talking or I’m ramming this blade down through your
ribs.”
“Ha! What blade?” the man snorts. I stick my free hand out behind me and feel
Irene provide me an obsidian dagger. I point the edge at his collar bone and
slightly inch the blade into his skin. He flinches.
“Not so tough underneath all your bark, are you?” I smile, digging the blade
deeper into the bone. The man grunts under the pain.
“Start. Talking.” I growl.
“Never!” he shouts. “You’re all a bunch of freaks!”
I don’t say another word. Instead I bring the dagger up from his skin and above my
head and ram the point through his collar bone. A sickening crack fills the echo of
the quiet, moldy cells of the dungeon. The man cries out in agonizing pain,
awakening any rotting body left asleep down here.
“Talk.” I say.
“Okay okay, I’ll talk!” he manages to say through sobs.
“Who are you?” I snarl.
“Arthur Cabers!” he wails. “My name is Arthur Cabers, okay?”
Leaving the dagger in Arthur, I look back at the Bookeye siblings, their faces are
pale and their eyes wide. I flash an apologetic look to each of them.
“Either of you heard about an ‘Arthur Cabers’?” I ask. Both of them shake
their heads. I turn back to Arthur.
“Where do you come from?” I press.
“The United States of America.” he replies immediately, perhaps not wanting
another bone broken.
“Where is that?” I continue. Arthur looks at me confused.
“What do you mean?” he asks warily. “Am I not still in the US?”
I glance back at the Bookeyes, whose faces are covered with just as much confusion
as mine is.
“You’re in Sanrido, Arthur Cabers.” I say. “Sanrido, Forgo Keroppi.”
Arthur’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then his eyes went wide. He curses.
“How do I get back?”
“Sorry Arthur.” I shrug. “You’re facing attempted murder charges.”
“What does that mean.” He furrows his brows once again.
“A death penalty.” Irene steps in, her crown glimmering softly. Arthur whips
his gaze to her. I think he finally realized that I’m not the only one in here,
because he glances panickedly between the 3 of us.
“Who are you people?” Arthur asks. “Why are your ears like that?”
“I’m the one asking questions here, Arthur.” I say. “Why did you try to kill
and rob the Prince?”
“I didn’t take anything I swear-” he pauses. “Wait wait wait, the Prince?”
This time, Alastor steps up into view. His crown shines in the dim light. I smile
wickedly.
“That’s all we need from you, Arthur Cabers.” I announce, letting go of him
and yanking the dagger out of his collarbone, making him cry out in pain once more.
“Savor your last day alive. We’ll see you at the execution tomorrow.”
We leave Arthur and his cell, heading out of the dungeon. Arthur’s cries of pain
and begs of mercy are eventually unheard.
Chapter 11
-------------------------

Our trio heads back to the chambers, Alastor parting ways with Irene and I to get
some rest after the recent events. When we reach my room, I’m about to turn the
doorknob when Irene taps my shoulder.
“I have the urge to do something stupid,” she whispers, grinning
mischievously. Clouded with fatigue, I reply distractedly.
“I’m stupid, do me.” I mumble. Irene’s jaw drops, but her smile is still
pasted on her mouth. I glance at her, and only then do I realize what I said.
“Oh- oh no, I didn’t mean it like that. Well-” I shake my head, stuttering.
“I apologize, I’m tired, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Eleanor, darling, of course you weren’t thinking straight.” she teases. “You
are definitely not straight.”
This time it’s my turn to drop my jaw while still smiling.
“Your Highness!” I exclaim, smiling. “I thought I was the one that makes the
jokes here!”
Irene laughs heartily and playfully punches my arm. Softly though, as the arm she’s
facing is the wounded one. I smile inside, knowing she cares for me.
“Come on,” she says, grabbing my hand and running down the hallway, dragging
me with her. We take a turn into the corridor leading to the kitchen. She passes
the main door to get into the kitchen, and continues down the hallway. We stop at a
wall with a small table with a vase of flowers.
“What are we doing here?” I ask. “All I see is wall, just wall.”
A smirk flickers on Irene’s face. She steps forward, carefully moving the table and
vase away. She glances back at me and smiles, and I blush a little bit as she
reaches down and pulls away some of the wallpaper. A small passageway is revealed,
only big enough for us to crawl through. I raise my eyebrows in both surprise and
impress, and glance at Irene, who’s stance is confident.
“That is impressive, Princess.” I mutter, awestruck. As a kid, I’ve always
loved sneaking around when I’m not supposed to. Now I’m sneaking around the palace
with the Princess?
“Bet you never knew about this, huh Elly?” she flashes a smug grin. I tilt my
head at her.
“Elly?” I ask, glancing around. “Who’s Elly?”
“You dummy.” she chuckles. “I’m talking to you.”
“My name is Eleanor.”
“Gods, Eleanor, are you always this oblivious?”
“Care to elaborate?”
“I know your name, idiot. I’m calling you a nickname because it’s difficult
to say “Eleanor” all of the time.”
 “Oh.” I say.
“Get it now?” she rolls her eyes. I nod my head and smile.
“Does that mean I get to call you Eeny?” I tease, winking. Her face flushes.
“You can call me a nickname when you find an actually good one.” she
chuckles, then she switches her tone. “Don’t you ever call me Eeny or I will kill
you.”
I laugh as she kneels down and leads the way through the tight corridor. I stay a
good distance away from her so I don’t accidentally ram my face into her butt. We
don’t crawl for long, soon we arrive at a wall where I assume is the back of the
kitchen. Irene stops in front of me, and I pause to watch her gently push on the
wall in front of us. It’s an interception to the trash dump. She crawls forward and
pushes on the trap door, leading straight into the kitchen. She crawls out of the
tunnel quickly but carefully and motions for me to hurry up. I hop out of the
tunnel and stand next to her, dusting off my clothes. I stare in awe at the
Princess who tiptoes over to a basket and grabs some ingredients. She looks over at
me.
“Are you going to help me or what?” she whispers loudly enough that I can
hear.
I snap back to reality and smile, tiptoeing over to another basket and grab some
ingredients myself. We’re giggling and shuffling around gathering things in our
arms when we hear keys jingling outside of the kitchen door. I whip my head to look
at Irene, who’s panicked look says everything I needed to know. We quietly rush
over to the garbage disposal tunnel and open the trapdoor. She frantically motions
for me to go first, so I quickly crawl into the disposal tunnel and shift my body
weight to the right to grab a hold of the secret corridor. Irene shoves all of her
collected ingredients into my arms and swiftly crawls into the tunnel herself as
soon as the door to the kitchen opens. She turns around and softly closes the
trapdoor, backing up into the tunnel. She cautiously watches the cook that walked
in. Although I’m holding all the stolen food, Irene scoots back against me.
However, I drop a can and it clatters to the floor behind me, echoing throughout
both tunnels. Irene whips her head around to face me and gives me a wide eyed but
stern look, and I smile nervously back. We hear shuffling noises approaching near
the tunnel, and Irene scoots herself back against me even more, eventually knocking
me over, and hurriedly closes the secret tunnel exit. Straining our ears, we hear
the cook opening the trash disposal trapdoor. I hold my breath, and Irene seems to
do the same.
“Why are we hiding,” I whisper very quietly. “Aren’t you the Princess? Can’t
you just get away with it?”
“No, I can’t.” Irene replies softly, slightly turning her head to the side.
“The cook hates my guts for some reason. If they find out I’m taking food, I’ll
have to suffer a punishment, and I hate punishments for simple things.”
She then turns around and covers my mouth with her hand. Although we’ve been
crawling in a musty secret tunnel, her hands smell like pine trees in the snow. I
close my eyes and take in her scent, placing one hand over Irene’s and planting a
kiss on the palm of her hand. I open my eyes to see her face turn red and her
breathing quicken. Using the same free hand I had on hers, I put a finger to where
my lips would be had it not been covered by her hand and give her a gentle but
stern look to stay quiet. She nods softly in response, and I hold my breath once
more. We hear more shuffling around and we stay as still as possible for it to
stop. After a few moments, the investigation stops and we let out quiet breaths of
relief. Swiftly and quietly, Irene and I gather the stolen food in our arms and
clumsily make our way out of the tunnel. I stand up and put down the food to the
side, then turn around and hold out my hand for Irene to take. She pushes all of
her collected ingredients out of the tunnel, sees my hand, and rolls her eyes with
a smirk, but takes it anyway. I help her up and flash a playfully innocent smile,
bowing down low and kissing the back of her hand.
“Your Highness,” I tease with a wink. She blushes, and I smile wider.
“Whatever,” Irene mumbles, turning away to grab the stolen food. I gather as
much food as I can in my arms, the Princess stacking a few more items on top and
gathering the rest in her arms. We quickly shuffle back to our rooms, giggling
quietly to ourselves, silently hoping no one catches us. Thankfully, we reached my
chambers before the hallways busied with scurrying servants and gossiping nobility.
Locking the door behind us, we burst out in a fit of mischievous giggles, low-key
surprised at how we succeeded in getting away. I set my food down on the desk and
look over at Irene, whose face is lit up with both joy and the midday sun. I smile,
taking in her beautiful figure, how her green eyes glimmer like gems in the
sunlight, how her light brown hair shines like the bark of a happy tree in a sunny
forest, gracefully swinging its delightful branches underneath a cloudless blue
sky. She sets her food down next to mine and looks over at me, locking my gaze with
hers. Then she smiles, oh how she smiles, her dimples casting lovely little shadows
over the corners of her charming mouth. I feel my breath hitch, and it takes me a
moment to regain my thoughts.
“You okay Elly?” she asks me, still smiling, tilting her head oh so adorably.
“You’re staring.”
My mouth opens and closes as I struggle to find my voice. I dramatically widen my
eyes and shake my hands at her head, acting like I’m going to strangle her. She
laughs her melodic laugh and throws herself into me, locking her arms around my
neck. I love the way she smells. I wrap my arms around her waist and bury my face
in her neck, holding her close. She pulls away to look up at me, and her laughter
ceases.
“Oh Irene I’m sorry,” I start to say. “Did I do something-”
But before I could even finish my sentence, her lips were on mine. I got deja vu.
Her hands slither up into my hair, locking me into a fierce kiss. In return, I
gently grab her hips and pull her body against mine. We stay like that for a few
moments, I savor the taste and feel of her exquisite lips. I break away first.
“God you’re beautiful Irene.” I exhale.
I place a finger under her chin and tilt her head up for another kiss.
“You’re breathtaking.” I mutter against her lips. “Absolutely breathtaking.”
“And you, Eleanor, are enchanting and irresistible.” she replies, smiling
against my desperate kisses.
A few more kind words and kisses were exchanged until we both pulled away, each of
us slightly out of breath. I pull her into another embrace.
“Would you like to lay with me on the bed, Your Highness?” I whisper. Irene
exhales contentedly.
“I would love to, Eleanor.” she replies, giving me a soft smile. She takes my
hand and gently leads me to the bed. I settle down first, getting comfortable in
the mess of blankets and pillows, then I extend my arms towards Irene. She eagerly
climbs over me and nests herself in the nook of my arm and side, holding onto me
like an abandoned puppy finally finding a loving home. I kiss her head and tenderly
stroke her hair, occasionally moving my hand down to softly rub her back and
shoulder. She yawns, and without meaning to, I yawn as well.
“Haha, got you.” comes her angelic voice, clouded with sleep. I scoff
playfully and roll my eyes.
“No you didn’t.” I respond.
“I so did,” she mutters, nuzzling her face into my side. “Save it for later
Elly, I’m tired.”
I chuckle softly and absently brush her hair out with my fingers.
“Do you still feel conflicted?” I whisper softly after some moments. Irene
mumbles something incoherent.
I smile and ask again.
“Do you think you still only idolize me?” I inquire once more, planting a
light kiss on her forehead. She manages to raise her head to look at me, but barely
maintains her eyes open. We lock tired gazes.
“No.” she replies. “It’s not like that anymore. I know I love you Eleanor.”
My heart swells at her words.
“I know I love you too, Irene.” I murmur, smiling. She flashes an adorable
sleepy smile back.
“As it should be.” she mutters, her eyes fluttering closed. “Now let me
sleep.”
I smile to myself and continue softly rubbing her back. I say nothing, nor think
nothing, for the sound of my Princess’s calm and slow breathing sends me also into
an undisturbed, dreamful sleep.