Amber Erin Anderson

When I'd asked Ember when we'd be leaving for the little but dangerous adventure of ours, his answer was quick - after two weeks.

And what was I suppose to do for two weeks while also worrying my ass off about what might be going on in my world? watch them get ready for the infiltration, of course!

Rolling my eyes while letting out a huff, I collapsed on Ember's couch, not caring about how my dress would be wrinkled due to my lying position. I rolled around, resting my cheek on my palms, watching Keith, who was practicing air manipulation, his hands ducked out of the windows.

I observed as he mumbled incoherent Elysian words, his hands spread out, his eyes closed, so focused I doubted if he'd realise if anyone bursted into the room and caught him red-handed. I watched as he raised the apple that he'd dropped from the window, slowly, until it was close to his hands and he grabbed it.

The soft smile that crept its way to his lips made it sure that he was successful in doing aeroportation after failing countless times.

Then, using his powers again, he threw the apple in the air and with his fingers swirling while focusing on the apple, he flicked his fingers, causing the apple to land on the fruits basket smoothly, its collision with the basket swiftly moving the other fruits.

"You're getting better at this," I commented, impressed.

If it wasn't for him facing away from me, I could've sworn he blushed a little, making me laugh and sit upright.

"By the way, Is Zenix's job is to only change Ember's eye colours?" I asked, when I realised Zenix wasn't present with us.

Keith nodded, giving me all his attention. "Zenix was hired by His Majesty himself. Zenix is an orphan, and doesn't have any relatives as well. His Majesty found him twelve years ago, struggling to feed himself and when he saw the potential in him, he brought him in, gave him a home in exchange for his energy. Zenix vowed to be in Ember's service till his last breath,"

"Quite the history he has with this family," I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "And you? How did you meet Ember?"

"Back in the days, when His Majesty would make frequent public appearances with the Princes, Ember would be there, too," Keith said, his thoughts already wandering away from here and taking a visit to old memories. "But Ember's mind would always be somewhere else. He never seemed to pay attention to what the king was saying,"

I didn't even realise when I began to smile, imagining little Ember's focus being anywhere but at the current situation, his eyes roaming here and there, trying to find something much more interesting than his father's lectures and the more I imagined him like that, the more it fitted his character.

"My cousin and I despised the king because he hated our kind so we would always watch him from behind the trees, sometimes from far away; until, Ember's sharp eyes landed on us and that was it before he hopped out of his horse without catching his father's eyes and marched towards us," Keith continued.

"We thought we were doomed and thought he was going to tell the king about us but he didn't. Instead, he extended his hand, introduced himself and said he wanted to be friends," now he chuckled, and I couldn't help but notice how melodious it sounded to the air.

"I was suspicious at first and wanted to test him. So, I told him to meet me at a certain meadow where three of us would talk. At first, I was almost certain he wasn't going to come but at night, when me and my cousin were finally done waiting for him, he came, smiled and said this place was his favourite," he looked at me and smiled, his dimple appearing.

"And then, began our adventures and it's safe to say that it's still going on," he laughed. "Soon enough, when three of us got close, he introduced me to Zenix. And although I hated him at first because of his straightforward comments, he soon became one of my favourite people in my life,"

I suddenly had an urge to be in their friends circle with Nathan.

"That's beautiful, Keith," I couldn't help but just voice out my thoughts, sighing.

"Say Keith," I decided to ask the question that was bugging me and since Ember was busy with court matters and with the preparation of his amalgamation, this seemed like the perfect time to ask about the King and how many times he amalgamated.

Keith gave me his attention, waiting for me to speak what I wanted to while I contemplated.

"The current Queen . . . is she Ember and his brothers' step mother?"

He raised one of his white arched eyebrows, looking at me incredulously but answered anyways. "She is - she is His Majesty's second amalgamator,"

I knew it!

"What happened to the former Queen?"

"Dead, of course," he mumbled, his voice quiet.

I couldn't help but question more - Keith wasn't like Ember who'd keep dodging questions and change subjects - he'd answer the question with no hesitation and I knew I had to take advantage of that if I wanted to know more about Ember.

"How did she die? Sickness?"

"There are some rumours of her death - nobody really knows how she actually died - His Majesty never confirmed," he began as I adjusted my position, my full attention to him and what he was about to say.

Keith began to walk around the room, his footsteps reverberating in the quiet room. "Some say she committed suicide," he glanced at me as I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Some say she was killed," he continued. "Some say she was executed, some say she was exiled,"

"How do you think she died?" I asked.

"I think she killed herself,"

"Why?" I furrowed my eyebrows, not liking the unpleasant truth of Ember's family.

His next words gave me goosebumps all around my body.

"Because, she gave birth to a despised Power Holder, an Ezèrian - in other words, Ember."

Everything felt still and silent at that time as I remained quiet.

And suddenly, everything began to make sense.

The Ezèrian were despised - why, I didn't know. Ember was an Ezèrian, the hated Power Holder and he was hiding his identity this whole time just because he was an Ezèrian. This was why I didn't see a single Ezèrian that day in the throne room, why Keith never stepped out of Ember's room, why he always had to use air manipulation to get out of the palace, why Ira and his father couldn't stand him.

Just because he was an Elementalist, an Ezèrian.

I ran a hand through my hair, wetting my lips, wondering what Ember must have gone through his entire life.

How was it like to live as a disgrace, as a shame, as a nugatory?

How many times was he ridiculed?

How did he live while bearing the burden of discredit?

How was it like to live while blaming himself for the death of his mother?

I shook my head before I could think more about him and returned my attention to Keith. "If everyone already knows he's an Ezèrian, why does he stay in a disguise?"

"Because only I think so. Most people think she committed suicide because she couldn't handle the fact of being an Ezèrian," Keith sighed. "But I know Her Majesty - she was a proud Ezèrian, she'd never kill herself for being a Gifted Ezèrian,"

"Sheesh, these are some dark messed up shit," I shook my head.

"If His Majesty hates the Ezèrian so much, why did he amalgamate her, then?" I couldn't help but ask the question.

Keith remained quiet for the next few seconds before staring at me, his grey eyes hard and darkened. "They say he loved her. He loved a despised one."

"His Majesty loved one of the kind he despises?" I scoffed. "Then why can't he love Ember too?" I was suddenly upset.

Keith was about to answer when a fellow maid came and announced the third Prince wants to have a talk with me. I instantly rose to my feet, looking at Keith who had used air manipulation to slide himself behind the curtain surreptitiously and just got out and saw my horrified reaction while I absentmindedly began fidgeting my fingers.

"Why. . .why does he want to see me? I don't like him! He's scary!" I exclaimed once the maid was out of the sight.

"It's been a few days -- he must've found something incredulous about you," Keith stated as I gulped.

Ember can't help me - he's busy with court and amalgamation matters, Ace is busy with political affairs, Keith can't help me unless he wants to be executed and I don't know anyone else who can help me.

I'm doomed for sure.

"You should go before he himself comes looking for you." Keith said, using air manipulation to slightly close the door as I made myself out of the room, my heart beating fast as I began cracking my fingers.

I looked behind, smiling in pain as Keith sighed. "Just act normal and lie smoothly. Go!"

Letting out one last dramatic whimper, I began striding towards where Ira's room was situated. With my heart beating faster than Ember's confession and my footsteps that were reverberating against the carpeted floor of the hallway, I prepared all the lies I was about to feed Ira. I definitely couldn't fool him the way I fooled the Head Maid -- therefore, I'd to come up with the utmost believable lies and fabrication.

I stopped in my tracks when I'd reached Ira's room, knocking on the black carved door softly, hoping he wouldn't hear it and would be too preoccupied to have a talk with me -- but he wasn't -- he heard the knock very well and indicated I could come in.

Crying mentally, I respectfully opened the door, entering and greeting my doom with a bright and jubilant smile plastered on my quivering lips.

"Your Highness, the pride and glory of the Elysian-"

I pressed my lips into a thin line in agitation when he raised a hand, stopping me midway.

I stopped curtsying and stood straight, smiling while observing his room that I'd stepped into for the first time.

Describing his room as dark would be an insult to the dourness that was radiating off of his ominous chamber - it was stygian - from the beginning to the end and so much opposite of Ember's one.

Actually, saying this was his room would be wrong as what I was currently observing was a giant library. The enormous shelves made of black wood were standing in every corner of his room and they were all stacked with books, no space between them and their covers, of course lacking bright colours and mostly of dark colours.

Other than the book shelves, there only was a bed as big as Ember, lacking numerous pillows like Ember, lacking luxuriance -- something that I wasn't expecting from a guy as elegant as Ira. Looking above, I noticed no enormous sparkling chandeliers, just a plain ceiling with black paint, a black canvas, a night sky with no stars.

Why is he so opposite to his renèi Possession?

And the creator of that dull, lifeless night sky was in front of me, sitting at a table that had thick books, one top of another one until there was another stack of it, his fingers laced, some ink smeared in his index fingers, making my eyes land on the spilled ink bottle on the table, its content nearly invisible due to the table being black.

He cleared his throat, breaking me out of my thoughts as I returned my face to his monotonous one. "As you know," he began. "I'm the third and the last Prince of this kingdom -- my father and his advisers think I'm of no use,"

My heart wreathed a tad bit hearing this.

"Ezekiel is the Crown Prince, meaning he will ascend the throne, Elliot is amalgamating, the first one to amalgamate and I'm just nothing," he explained, his voice so firm and strong there was no dejection to sense.

"I'm just my father's dog."

"And as for someone like me, I have limitless amount of leisure time," he gestured towards the bookshelves with his eyes, his black curls dangling while doing so as I bobbed my head.

Why is he telling me his sad life story?

"The reason why I told you this nugatory information is so that when I tell you I ran a background check on you, you won't think as a Prince, I don't have anything to do except for running background check on the maids," he stared at me intently as I stifled a laugh.

"Your Highness, I'd never think that! You can of course do so for safety measures!" I lied. Then, asked immediately: "If you don't mind me asking, what  did you find about me in my biography?"

His answer was also as immediate as my question. "Nothing, I found nothing."

"Eh?" I chuckled nervously, cocking my head to a side.

I'm so dead.

"Which is why I find you incredibly dubious," with that being said, he picked up a quill that had a raven feather attached at the back of it and just like Ember, using his left hand, he dipped ink in the quill and began scribbling down, the veins in his hand pulsating smoothly as he gently held the quill and wrote.

When he was done, he handed me the cream coloured paper, making me take it respectfully and smiling perplexingly as everything on the paper looked anything but understandable.

But his writing looked neat with no mistake whatsoever.

I stared at him, dumbfounded. How was I suppose to read this when I didn't even know their language?

"You're holding it upside down," he raised an eyebrow as my cheeks flushed red and I immediately corrected the way I was holding the paper.

"By any chance, are you illiterate?"

"Well, technically, I am," I mumbled as I shook my head.

"Fill this paper with your personal information -- I have to make sure you're not a threat to my family and my daft brother has hired a danger," he ordered in his usual dark tone.

"Now, tell me this: from which clan are you?" he suddenly asked as my eyes went wide in nervousness and I began to clench my fists, my nails digging into my skin, having no effect on me due to Ira's icy stare and straight face.

I'd have said a random made-up name but what if a place with that name doesn't even exist? That'd just make everything about me more suspicious than it already is. So, I decided to slowly change the subject while also remaining stick to the subject.

"I'm from a nearby clan, Your Highness,"

"Well, what is the name?"

I wetted my lips, swallowing the golf sized lump which was growing inside my mouth.

"It's a clan that's almost going extinct, you wouldn't know the name," I laughed.

"As I said before, I'm an idle man-- I have too much of free time, so I have visited and explored almost every places of Elysia - say the name of your clan," he sighed through his nose.

I began patting my foot on his embroidered black carpet, my head unable to think of anything due to my nervousness and paranoia.

Just when I was about to give up, I heard footsteps behind me, making me instantly turn around and thank my lucky stars.