Just like everything else had for the past day, sleep had eluded Ilyana too. As light streamed through her bedroom windows and snuck past the curtains, marking her defeat, she headed to the library to make herself useful. Clove was nowhere to be seen and two other guards stood outside her chamber's doors instead, so she took that as the perfect opportunity to slip away without being followed.

The princess wound past towering shelves of books, running her fingers along the spines, until she reached a dark corner bathed in shadows. Any tomes with information or stories that weren't allowed to reach the public eye were locked away in a forbidden section that not even the librarians knew about.

She was sure her father had already combed through the dozens of books for answers about the Necromancer's Curse, but another pair of eyes couldn't hurt. Ilyana couldn't just sit there and watch as her kingdom suffered beneath her gaze. She needed to do something. Even if it was a fruitless task, she would feel as if she were helping in a way.

Retrieving the set of cool, metal keys from her pocket, the princess shuffled through them to match each one to a hole in the sides of the door. Six locks still weren't the best form of security, but it would buy guards time to reach any criminals who attempted to force their way inside.

The forbidden section was only a small room coated in dust. Balls of it floated in the air while the rest blanketed the tops of any surface it could graze with its wispy fingers. Low, flickering flames in the sconces that hung on opposing walls were the only source of light for the sparse shelves. The fact that there was light at all showed someone had visited recently.

Ilyana reached for the first book on a cart with rusted wheels and began to flip between the pages. From the layout, she could tell it was a journal of someone who had lived at the time of the necromancers. However, a frown found its way to her lips when she squinted at the scrawled handwriting. Some words were difficult to read and there were others she didn't recognise at all. Even peculiar symbols found their way into the text.

"You're going to damage your eyes reading in the dark like that." Ilyana jumped, her heart leaping into her mouth, and turned to see Clove leaning in the doorway.

"You- I- you can't be here! This is a private royal area!" the princess cried, attempting to shoo her back out with a frantic push.

The captain only caught her hand with a grin before it could work. "Where you go, I go. Take it up with your father if you have an issue with it."

Ilyana closed the book she held and returned it to its home. "You know what, I think I'll do just that." Now that she had exposed a royal secret, perhaps her father would take her request not to have a personal guard more seriously.

"Let me know how it goes. I'm sure I'll still be by your side, so you won't have trouble finding me."

If the princess had the strength and mind to hit someone, Clove would find herself at the near top of the list.

"I'm glad you've dropped the royal voice you had while talking to those Vahans," she continued, ignoring the fury that sparked in Ilyana. "All of those fancy words and posh talk hurt my brain." She winced and rubbed her temples, as if remembering the conversation that took place the previous evening.

"How did you even find me? When I left, you were nowhere to be seen." With the threat of the closing door behind her, Ilyana managed to force the red-headed pest out of the forbidden section and back into the library. She pulled out the keys and hoped that Clove would happen to wipe the existence of it from her memory.

"Whispers of lingering beauty led me straight to you." The smug expression on her face was starting to become a permanent feature — one that the princess couldn't bring herself to look at due to the heat creeping up her neck. "That, or it was my instinct. Either way, the fact that it happened only proves I'm meant to be your personal guard."

"You're making yourself sound insane. Hearing voices in your head won't help your case when I talk to my father." She arched a brow in challenge as she made her way towards the exit, her shadow following suit.

"Oh, come on. I was only joking! Well, about the whispers," she murmured to herself. "I saw you turn at the end of the hall as I was about to switch with your guards. I followed you here." Clove's smile was soon replaced with a frown. "If they didn't follow you, I'll be changing their shift to elsewhere since they didn't complete their orders."

"There's no need for that. I quite enjoyed the freedom this morning, even if it was short-lived."

The captain pressed a hand to her chest and feigned sorrow. "You wound me, Illy. Here I thought my company was the best around. What happened to considering letting me make it up to you? Did you dismiss it already?"

"There are much bigger problems at hand than forgiveness." They ducked through the library's exit, Clove holding the door open for her. "I haven't given it any thought yet." As long as the memory of the pain and loneliness she had suffered still lingered on the surface of her mind, letting her back into her life was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Is there any chance you would be able to make time for it in your busy schedule?" As she spoke, a servant walked past carrying a chest with the Vahan emblem engraved into the wood. From the redness in their face, whatever was inside had to be heavy.

"It's at the bottom of my priorities, but it's on my list."

"I'll have to accept that," Clove replied with a sigh. Her eyes watched the fire kingdom's insignia as the servant walked past before they returned to the princess. "Are you really betrothed to that arsehole? From the only conversation you've had so far with him, he looks like he'll burn the island down rather than become its ally."

"The betrothal hasn't been finalised yet, and it's understandable that he's angry. I just told him he cannot leave Wyrith, that we're essentially keeping him as an accidental hostage. Besides, he was nicer in the letters we've been sending each other for the past year." Being King Matthian's future wife didn't sit well with Ilyana either, for one reason or another. A small island only had limited power in its arsenal so alliances were necessary for the survival of the people. She had come to terms with that long ago.

"Letters mean nothing! You could easily create a facade with pen and paper. Do you want-"

"Your Highness!" A servant called as he ran down the hall with fear and panic riddled in his grimace. "I've been looking for you everywhere." He breathlessly bowed, his legs shaking after they had been pushed to their limits. A black stain had bled into his shirt that the princess' magic internally hissed at, begging for her to retreat from the substance that had tainted it.

"What's wrong?"

"You're needed in the infirmary right away! The healers have a soldier they have no idea how to treat and it's not looking good. No medicine or balm will even touch the pain she's suffering through."

If a healer had mentioned the situation wasn't looking good, there wasn't much time left for her magic to work. As soon as life faded from a body, there wasn't anything Ilyana's power could use to stitch wounds back together. She worked with threads of life and each one was limited and precious.

Ilyana picked up her skirts so she wouldn't trip on the way there. "I'll head to the infirmary right now."

The servant nodded and sprinted back down the hall, the princess and the captain following with equal speed. Before they burst through the doors, screams of pure agony echoed around them — the kind only elicited through grievous torture. Ilyana's necklace freed itself from the confines of her dress and floated in the air, dragging her toward the pain with the need to quell it.

As they entered, healers crowded around the bed where the soldier thrashed and writhed. Pots of creams and syringes full of strong medicines imported from other kingdoms lay scattered on the surrounding tables, yet the girl still screamed as if her organs were being pulled apart.

"Move," the princess ordered. "Let me see her."

Only a few remnants of humanity lingered within the girl the healers parted to reveal. Her flesh seeped with darkness, making her appear to be a demon who had crawled out of the darkest pits of the afterlife. A sea monster who had laid to rest at the bottom of the Molten Sea that had never yet seen the sun.

"Help me," she rasped before spewing viscous liquid over the bed she was being pinned to.

Ilyana took a step closer, but her magic tugged her back, repulsed by the guard and whatever had infected her. It screamed of perilous danger, a warning that it refused to let her ignore. It was scared. She pushed through the fear and made her way to the girl's side, trying her best to plaster on a warm smile.

"It's going to be okay." The princess hovered her hands above the soldier's constant-darkening body and reached for the few strands of life that lurked deep under the surface of her skin. Once she had a tight hold on the glowing threads, she pushed her magic through them, willing it to share the blessing she had and remove the taint that tormented her.

Only, her power bounced back and returned to her alongside something else. A harrowing sensation of death trailed behind, ready to strike, sapping the strength from her legs. Ilyana would have only felt confusion and panic if it weren't for the familiarity that wrapped around her too.

She had felt this before — when she had tried healing Vivi as she died in front of her all those years ago.

Before she had a chance to question it, the soldier shot forward and wrapped her now-clawed hands around the princess' throat. "The twins must die," she growled, her voice echoing with another — an archaic entity that had long since forgotten this world.

The sharpened nails dug deeper into her neck, securing her in place so the next steps of her kill would be easier. However, Ilyana was released as the girl was shoved back by Clove, a dagger piercing her heart. Her body twitched for a moment more before it stopped, the strands of life the princess had once reached for now dull and empty.

Ilyana sunk to her knees, her gaze darting between the captain and the soldier before resting on the girl.

She couldn't have been the one who said that. It didn't sound like the first plea she had asked of her and it didn't make sense. From the death and the nauseating power that had pushed back against her own, there was only so much that could cause it. It had to be the Necromancer's Curse.

Silence echoed around them as Clove extended her hand to help Ilyana to her feet. She gripped the captain for balance, for a constant warmth that the fear running down her spine had stolen.

She was their princess — the leader that everyone would soon look up to. She was the one who needed to seize the situation by the reins and steer it into control. "Thank you for trying to heal this guard and for summoning me so quickly," she addressed the healers who had gone pale with shock. "This appears to be something we've never encountered before and a sickness of some kind, which is why my magic did not affect it." Reaching out with a shaking hand, she closed the soldier's haunted eyes. "Hopefully, this will never happen again. I will be taking the time to look into it with the resources I have, nonetheless."

"Thank you, Your Highness." The Head Healer stepped forward and curtseyed. "We're sorry for pulling you away from your day."

"Never apologise for that. If someone is going to die and you feel you cannot save them, I would rather be pulled away from what I'm doing than hear of their passing." She summoned the strength to smile, wishing to put her worries at ease. "I've told you this before."

The Head Healer only nodded and Ilyana and Clove took their leave. As soon as the fresh, morning air filled their lungs, the princess rested her back against the wall of the castle and slid down until she sat on the ground.

"Thank you," she murmured to Clove.

Ilyana could see the captain's lips open in the corner of her vision to reply with something snarky, but instead, her mouth closed again and sat beside her. "That was not what I expected to see when the servant mentioned a dying soldier."

"Did you know her?" she asked. When she only got a quiet nod in response, she continued. "It's the curse. That had to be what took her life." And there was nothing Ilyana could do about it. The curse was a strong repellent for her power meaning she couldn't even try to heal those it affected. From the words that the necromancers had spoken before their lives were taken, they mentioned the whole island would die. There was no chance of deaths similar to what the soldier had suffered stopping and she didn't know if her heart could take it.

"What do you know about the curse?" the princess questioned.

"Not much. Only what your father explained to the High Table and the cryptic things he said to you about the reason your family was killed. I've been told not to question it, and so I won't." Clove shrugged as if the curse and the magic wall weren't a big deal.

Ilyana's heart yearned for someone else to talk to about the Necromancer's Curse other than her father, but sharing the secret would only lead to risky results. "I can't just sit here and let this continue. So many people are going to die, Clove." She resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands.

"What can you do?" The question was genuine.

"I don't know. Anything." The princess recalled her father's plans in her mind. Tracking down Morana The Cursed was too dangerous and she didn't want to get involved with any more necromancer. However, that still left another half of the scheme her father had laid out. "You said you wanted to make things up to me, right?"

Clove's eyes lit up with surprise. "I did indeed."

"Then we've got a sorcerer to visit."

Chapter Word Count: 2,525
Total Word Count: 22,137