I have ZERO--I repeat, zero--idea how I managed to come this far without getting caught.

I breathed in deeply, the moonlight scarce with the crescent shape of tonight's moon, and licked my dry lips as my heart pounded in my chest.

This was the last hallway I had to cross in order to reach the said room.

I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been marking these palace rooms and halls to get a rough layout. I couldn't depend on Britt entirely, after all.

The less guards could be a result of......yeah, I don't know. Maybe the shifting of the troops? Maybe it was a patrol rotation I hadn't been aware of? Could be anything. Yet it felt deliberate and that confused me further. I knew I was being stupid but I had to have the only weapon I could and a connection to my parents, the object of sentimental value within my grasp.

I slunk past the unguarded hallway and soon stood in front of the dark stone room. It was empty surely. Don't ask how, but I felt like there wasn't any immediate threat. Still, it could backfire.

I exhaled shakily.

What was I doing?

But now was most certainly not the time to have cold feet. So I ambled forward and, as noiselessly as possible, opened the door and entered the room.

Shutting the door behind me after a glance on either side and making sure I hadn't been followed, I turned to face the slightly damp and musky blackness.

I gulped thickly, my stomach turning at the last memory I had of this place. I would've faced a bloody fate had it not been for Damien and Lucien. Damien and Lucien of all people! I shook my head and nodded firmly.

The room was still dark, save for some moonbeams entering from two fairly small windows. The humid feeling hadn't left and I could smell the slight metallic scent of blood in the air. I even spotted a few smudges here and there of dried blood.

I wonder what this room is actually used for?

The thought was nostalgic and only managed to make me feel more anxious. A chill ran through me.

I didn't get this room at all, yet for the second time today, I was in this darkly entrapped chamber full of whispered secrets never to leave the shadow of this very chamber.

I trampled over my curiosity and the feelings the room had awoken shortly.

Scanning the area, I wracked my brain to remember the place where the dagger had skittered towards. I followed the trail to where I knew I had been at he mercy of Minister Gallum and the the area I'd seen it falling towards from my peripheral.

I headed in that direction.

I slightly frowned when I reached the place and there was nothing there.

I looked around the area, here and there. I even drifted from the place I thought was where my dagger should've been. But nothing.

Nope.

Could someone have possibly taken it?

The thought made my eyes widen and my pulse skittered as the horrifying possibility played out in my mind.

It was possible.

I slightly frowned and exhaled as I turned around. I couldn't stay here any longer, it was too risky for me but.....

I crushed all my other thoughts and made my way silently to the door.

I was about to open it when a smooth voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Looking for this?"

I inhaled sharply and as my heart slammed against my rib-cage, I swallowed my fear and turned around to face the owner of the voice.

And the one in possession of my dagger.

My eyes instantly dropped to the dagger that Queen Kesla was examining. She ran a pale finger down the intricate designing of the hilt and the moonlight glinted off its blade. My breath hitched.

What the hell was the Queen doing in here? That too, with my dagger?

The only sounds were of my pacing heartbeat in the dim room.

Finally the regal figure lifted her dark gaze to look at me. She smiled sharply.

"Hello, Cara."

"Your Majesty." I was surprised at the eye contact I was managing to keep and the quiver in my voice wasn't noticeable.

Queen Kesla was wearing a grape colored dress that flowed down to the floor, spreading behind her like a trail of the rainbow color. Half of her was shadowed but the elegant looking crown seated atop her fiery red hair was a priceless shining reminder of who she was.

I let out a breath.

She stepped forward with the grace only a supernatural could conjure.

I shifted slightly, feeling the lack of my weapon like it had left me naked.

I asked slowly, "What's this room?"

The question had bugged me. The sole darkness and the hewn black stone structure, the dampness. It all seemed...ominous. The room itself gave me mixed vibes.

I wasn't expecting an answer but I was hoping for one. I didn't get it and Kesla trailed a finger down the side of a wall almost tauntingly. An unspoken message of being kept in the dark.

I let my eyes fall and kept them trained on the dagger, trying to make my motive clear without speaking, knowing my previous question had been ignored.

"Does this dagger hold some special value for you? Sentimental only?" Her question made me blink but I didn't allow myself to show any more of an emotion.

I remembered the bloody day when I was 12, old enough to remember yet the night was a blur for me. I could almost feel the hug my father gave me when he set the dagger in my hand. The way my mother kissed my forehead oh-so-lovingly as she tied her precious necklace around my neck. The words they spoke to me to let me know of their love and their pride in me. How powerful they said I already was. Of course those were words to ease a child, to prepare for the impending grief and loss.

A final goodbye.

My father had walked out to the front. My mother had stood beside him fearlessly. Against what, I do not remember. I remember the way my home burned down though, taking them with it in the ring of fire surrounding the area. But then there were so many blanks I could never fill.

I hadn't completely caught the fragments of how and when they sneaked me out the back into the arms of someone I cannot remember to this day before I was dropped into the world of slavery.

So many things I couldn't remember. Like someone had put a damper on them all.

I blinked and swallowed the lump in my throat, back to the predicament I was in.

"Yes." I replied curtly, but not impolitely.

"I see." She parted her lips and tilted her head. Her eyes traveled over my figure. "You're healthier." She remarked, still in possession of the dagger.

If I could, I would leave, but that was no longer my choice and I knew it.

"Thanks to you, Your Majesty." You wish, this was like a mini hell. I wanted out but that was not easy so I had to play smart. I held in a snicker.

Queen Kesla raised an amused brow, "Oh please, no need to be so formal with your replies, Cara."

I couldn't resist looking at her this time, "Can I have my dagger back?" I stopped beating around the bush not intending to fall into one of her well known riddled conversations.

"Of course." She answered firmly but made no other move.

I locked my eyes with her.

"I heard something today." She turned towards the moonlit window and looked out like a forlorn princess, this time I rolled my eyes. "How was your encounter with Gallum?"

I could practically hear the smirk in her words and I shrugged, "Alright."

She hummed and her dark eyes dropped down to my left wrist before she looked out the window again, her back to me. I pursed my lips.

"I'm assuming Damien and Lucien arrived in time?"

I felt a crease appear on my forehead, "I'm thankful."

"Ah, they wouldn't be anywhere else." She chuckled darkly, her words doing no good for my already perplexed state and turned her head slightly. "You must choose who you trust very carefully."

I snickered and blurted, "I'm more than aware of that, Your Majesty." I was. I mean, of course.

She smirked, shaking her head. "If it was someone else, they would be dead by now." She looked at me. "But it's you, so I'm in a bit of a fix, you see."

"What do you mean?" I outright asked, done with her confusing words. Because it was me?

She turned fully towards me. "I've been alive for more than a thousand years. Though Gallum is nine hundred and twenty." She stepped forward and I frowned. Where was she going with this?

"I wasn't aware, considering I'm a slave." Why can't I stop saying stuff without thinking?

Kesla rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes, whatever."

She waved a dismissive hand like a slave speaking back to her wasn't a surprise. Or maybe it was because the slave doing it was me as she said. But why?

"That means I had a lot of time. To live, to see, to make allies along the way. Deals, bargains, friendships even." She pointed.

I squinted my eyes in bewilderment.

Wait. She has friends?

Okay, sorry I know she said more stuff probably worth my attention but....still......

She continued on, like she wasn't really expecting me to answer. I'm not complaining either.

"You have to try." She looked at me intensely, like trying to send a message without voicing the true words. "Really. Try."

"For what?" I questioned, hating the clueless felling.

She smiled darkly. "Things are set into motion already. Not the way it was supposed to be, accepted, but it's done."

"What's done?" I stepped closer to the Queen of Celera.

"It's impossible for one to interfere when the strings that were tangled so long ago, broken unwillingly, have a chance to tie the knots again. For the unknown to venture into the darkest depths of Lucifer's gates and back. Without the anchors of the one intended, all for them to remain safe."

She stared at me, her gaze was like dark pits of molten tar. But so very serious.

Her tone implied that what she was saying was truly no joke. "It won't get easier."

I exhaled shakily, unable to tear myself away. My heart thumped and I willed it to calm down. My mind pondered over her so mysteriously spoken words to deduce an answer. Only to find even more perplexing ones.

"Could you be any more vague?" I found my words to be harsher than intended but that only elicited a smirk from the Queen.

"I could, actually. But alas our time is limited, I fear."

I let out a frustrated sigh, my head unable to assimilate all the riddles she was putting forth. "Why are you telling me all this?" I asked her genuinely, my eyes searching her dark ones.

Within a second, she was in front of me, the small distance between us long gone. "Because." She shrugged carelessly, yet it was a move of grace on her.

I clenched my teeth and narrowed my eyes as she slipped the Silern dagger into my hand.

Then she leaned in closer to me and her red painted lips parted to whisper mysteries, "Even the walls have ears, Cara."

It was so fast, it would have gone unnoticed by me had Kesla not said the words prior even as she didn't remover her eyes from my face.

The Queen's right arm stretched out in a blink and she closed her palm tightly and quickly. Simultaneously, my eyes flew to the wall it was directed at only to find a dark cloud emanating from the wall, a low screech following it.

And with a twist of Kesla's closed palm, it dissipated with a sharp cry of agony that I assumed would go unquestioned in this Palace full of merciless monsters.

My eyes widened marginally and breaths came out frantic as my heart skipped a beat.

I had fallen prey to Kesla's mind games. The ones she was know for. The ones where she said everything in riddles. Riddles only to confuse, no more bearing easy answers for anyone. But true nevertheless. She had me questioning my existence, reminiscing about my past, thinking about an unknown future. And this was anything but good.

I gasped as the strange blob of darkness vanished entirely.

I need air.

"What the heck was that thing? What just happened?"

I whipped my head back to look at the Queen.

But she was already by the door.

The only thing I caught was the finger she placed on her smirking lips, "Shhh.....it'll be our little secret." She winked as her whispered words slithered over the scary dark walls of the dreadful chamber. "All of it."

And then her figure vanished in the trail of the grape colored fabric of her gown behind her, leaving my world tilting on its axis in a predicament of a mistake that needed to be rectified.

•○•

AN~

So.

What do you think? How was the chapter hmm???

Lol, how about the vague riddles?

Or the mysterious creature of darkness?

Sooo much mystery, huh? Who is Cara?? What's happening? XD

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~Skyler