As Luke reunited with Adaiana, she had a grin on her scarlet lips as they danced to the tune of a slow ballad.
However, Hara was standing in a corner, observing everyone with her sharp eyes narrowed into a calculating glare.

Yanna was having the time of her life, dancing with man after man. She had gotten quite popular, but it was nowhere close to the amount of men Kiarha had lining up for her, quite literally.

Luke noticed that she had gotten a new ring on her finger, a beautiful purple ring that looked like an amethyst. It fit her outfit surprisingly well, and she also looked like she was having a good time.

As time passed by, the ball wound down. The musicians performed one final song, and Hara had offered Luke a dance. Luke politely accepted, but was suddenly pulled onto the balcony.

There was a velvet sofa, along with a pillow on either end of it. Hara sat Luke down and fixated her stare on him.

"We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Yanna."

Luke was confused. Why would she want to talk about Yanna? He didn't think he'd done anything wrong, but Hara's expression said otherwise.

"What about Yanna?"

"Are you trying to court her, Sir Luke?"

Honestly? Luke wanted to. She had been perfect for him in his past life. They had banished both Hara and Kiarha in their past life, and that was only ruined when it was revealed that Hara had been spotted in her family's old manor.

Initially, Luke had planned to leave her alone, but when Hara started becoming more problematic, Luke had decided to take matters into his own hands.

Yanna had tagged along, wanting to stop Hara as well, but not wanting to kill her. She had still believed that Hara could be redeemed, but when Hara had shot at them with a bow and arrow from a broken window, that was all the evidence she needed to agree to killing Hara.

Unluckily, the chandelier above them had brought down a large chunk of the ceiling. And considering that the chandelier was made of diamond and the ceiling was made of marble, it was no wonder that their skulls got impaled.

Luke responded to her question, his words carefully chosen.

"If I had an opportunity to, and if it was allowed."

Hara's eyebrows furrowed slightly.
But she didn't push the topic and they went back inside the ballroom.
Just then, Luke noticed something strange.

All the men had a sort of dazed look.
Henry of Waterbury, Draco of Malfin,
Thorne of Baynes, and most of the other men looked like they had been smacked with an anvil straight to their dome.

He turned to Hara to see if she knew anything about this, but she had vanished.

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HARA'S POV

Hara was furious. Kiarha had been too reckless in using the amethyst. She hunted her down until she found her, when she had just finished hypnotizing another man.

She stormed up to her and jabbed a finger at her chest.

"Lady Kiarha! You must be more careful, you cannot just go around hypnotizing all of the men!"

Kiarha gave a nonchalant shrug, clearly not caring in the least.

"It's more for my army. And besides, who would notice? The tell is so subtle, most wouldn't even see it. And even if they did, they wouldn't think much of it. They'll think they're just tired and need a good bed."

Hara's eyes burned with fury.

"Schuyler noticed! He saw how the men still had that exact look! You'll need to completely master the amethyst if you don't want anyone to see the effect of it!"

Kiarha rolled her eyes, but didn't deny the practical truth in Hara's advice. She agreed to be more discreet, and went off to her guest room in the castle.

Meanwhile, Hara made her way to the balcony once more, and laid down on the sofa. Due to her small stature, she was hidden when she laid down.

She took out a small crumpled piece of paper, and unraveled it. It simply read:

"13.9.4.14.9.7.8.20 - 11.9.20.3.8.5.14"

Crumpling it back into a ball, she threw it in the bin nearby and waited until the specified time.

At midnight, she exited the balcony, careful to not be spotted by the night shift guards. As she made her way to the kitchen, she weaved through the rooms, also having been here in her past life.

Once she arrived, she rapped the door smartly, and Kiarha let her in.

"Lady Hara. You got the code, then?"

"Indeed. What is this about, Lady Kiarha?"

Kiarha led her over to the kitchen counter, where the amethyst ring was on full display. Hara had no idea she had changed the amethyst's form, and was shocked.

"So this is how you hypnotized those men... All you had to do was grab them on any part of their body..."

Kiarha let out a cold laugh.

"Mhm. And I've got something else too."

Kiarha gestured to a box. It was quite small, around the size of a wedding ring box. Hara picked it up, curious about what laid inside.

"The contents are private. What I'm about to show you doesn't leave this castle. Or this kitchen, for that matter."

Kiarha took the box from Hara and opened it. Inside was a small piece of parchment, with something scribbled on it.

Hara's eyes went wide.

No, this can't be...

The two words had shaken her to her very core.

Eternity Elixir.

How did Kiarha know about it? This concoction was so secret that it had never been mentioned in any book, ever. Hara only knew about it because her father had once ordered a flask of it, and the carriage rider had an accident on the way.

Eternity Elixir, as much as Hara knew, was created by melting the Amarok of Dyr and adding Essence of Immortality, which was another complicated potion. It was also very tricky and disastrous to get wrong, and had to be created over a span of six months, as there were a ton of other ingredients needed as well.

And according to what she had learned from her father when she asked about it, Eternity Elixir gave the drinker immortal life, as well as being able to use all the effects of the Gems of Fortune as well as the Amarok, without having to use the gems themselves.

Kiarha smirked at her horrified expression, her tone smug.

"Are you surprised, Lady Hara? You really thought only your family knew about it? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I have my own sources as well."

If either of them had been paying more attention, they would have noticed Yanna by the door, recording every word with her portable audio machine with her eyes widened in shock.

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LUKE'S POV

As he made his way out of the castle, he found the Eunelope carriage waiting for him outside the pearly gates. He got on, stated his destination, and leaned back in his seat.

He took out twenty-seven pieces of parchment from inside his sling bag, and wrote down letters that, in summary, stated that Luke wanted to get to know them better and was asking if they could be friends.

He wrote down a name for each one, the names he acquired from the piece of parchment he used to record the names of all those he had recognized, as well as all of those Kiarha had interacted with.

He knew that letters wouldn't be as powerful as words in person, but it was an attempt nonetheless. As he arrived at the property he would be staying in for the night, he bowed to the driver and walked inside.

This property of the Eunelopes was about half the size of their manor, with around six bedrooms total. This was clearly for guests who needed to stay over for the night.

He waited for a horse-rider, but gave up after checking the time. It was already past midnight, so there wouldn't be any until at least nine in the morning.

He sat down on the sofa in the main parlor and immediately slumped over, tired both physically and mentally.

In the morning, his back hurt. A lot.
Luke knew he shouldn't have slept while sitting down, but he had been so tired that he didn't even bother laying down anyways.

Looking at his watch, he saw that it was past nine in the morning. Hurrying outside, he spotted a horse-rider and asked him to deliver the twenty-seven letters to all the intended recipients.

The driver replied with a throaty Sorsolian accent.

"Ay, fine, but for twenty-seven people, who all live really far from here, no less, you'll have to pay quite a hefty price."

"How much?"

"Five thousand huknah."

That wasn't a problem for Luke. Depositing five coins into his hand, he held them out to the driver. The driver smirked and bowed, and agreed to deliver the letters.

As he drove off, Luke walked back inside the house, where he ate breakfast served by the servants and   workers of the property.

Then, he decided to wait for Hara and Yanna, because he had something important he wanted to discuss.

It concerned Hara in particular.