The alarm on her phone rang as she opened her eyes to slam her palm onto the screen and press snooze. "Five more minutes." She muttered while shutting her eyes again, only to sense the faint sent of the lingering jasmine perfume hanging beside her for a moment. Her mind rummaged through different memories as to pick up where this familiar scent was from.
Suddenly, her eyes jolted awake as she panicked and sat up. Her gaze travelled to every direction of the room before she placed her hands against her face and climbed out. That woman is so clingy in my mind, that her voice echoes inside my dreams and her scent becomes alive when I wake up. What a weird illness I picked up.
She rubbef her eyes, then she silenced the alarm on her phone and glanced outside her window. She picked up the sight of a black cat, and her pace picked up towards her room door. The head was aching with fog and frustruation, she couldn't calculate why she was still calm, but also feeling a little odd.
She crumbled a note at her fingers that she had stored inside her pocket before going to sleep. Her alarm was set to a time when only servants would wake up, and this way, she could meet the person she needed to handle a few works with. Before leaving, her gaze dropped towards the coffee table, which had the single pill.
Her fingers traced the foil as she pocketed it and took her steps towards the door. If anything, I need to stay conscious around this time. Her thoughts turned clearer as she walked past a few murmuring maids, before stopping short of the loudest, who laughed.
"Hey girl! How does it feel?! To be beaten up by a mother who adopted you?!"
A smirk formed on Aefia's face as she turned to look at the laughing person, who dropped her laundries on the ground just to point a finger at her. She turned towards the servant.
"How does it feel to be beaten up by a mother who adopted me?" She copied the words that had reached her ears.
Her eyes turned shadowed as she used the index finger of her right hand to lift the servant's chin, despite being eye level. Her left hand stayed in a fist behind her back. The servant grinned further and mocked her, seeing this as an opportunities.
"And how does it feel to be betrayed by your own handmaid?" She spoke as her chin dropped from Aefia's grasp, but only this time, she got lifted by the throat up in the air.
"Like this... But only that she stood in your place. I would crack open her neck and feed her brain to the possessed dolls inside those dungeons like when someone gets executed." She replied while pressing her fingers in an attempt to choke the servant. "To be beaten by my adoptive mother... Well she didn't give birth to me, so it doesn't hurt or anything... Unlike what you might be thinking of it as."
"You spoilt brat!" The servant yelled while trying to escape her tight, and suffocating grasp. "I am indeed spoilt. Anything else for me? I am about to snap your back if you act all apologatic for my position." Aefia answered as the attentions of every other servants turned at her. Her grin widened as her eyes glowed an eerie red in a dark contrast of her hair.
The servant's eyes widened as she watched the young girl pull out her left hand, then press it against her arm. "Stop! Let me go!" The maid shouted while feeling the sudden heat arising at her wrist.
"You know one thing? I have seen that almost everyone in your small group of servants are hostile towards me, why?" Her eyes turned reder as her hair started to glow more silver in front of her.
"Don't worry... I am planning on staying much longer either ways. Then when I am gone, you can have the time of your lives. I know that everyone here would want me dead and gone." Her hands tightened as her smile turned more neutral, as she heard the servant start shouting due to the pain at her throat.
Just when her consciousness was about to slip from her eyes, a figure rushed to stop her while grabbing onto Aefia's wrist.
"Stop... The duchess might come before you much faster if you start taking your revenge right here." Cedric whispered at her ears as she let loose of her fingers at the maid's throats and watched the servant start gasping for air.
"I will continue this another time." She spoke in a much softer voice before being pulled away by his grasp towards the garden. As the breeze cut through her face, her eyes turned towards the black cat, sitting under the tall tree that stood right in front of her room window. As they came to a stop, he breathed a sigh of relief as he watched her squat down to unwrap the silk at the cat's tail.
"You need to make sure of your temper."
"Not until I deal with those things. Then I would think about your advice."
His eyes then traveled towards the cat she was petting.
"Now whose buddy is that? I have seen it come around a few times now, and I was starting to think it might just be a stray cat with a ribbon tied to its tail." He asked while smiling at the way it was meowing against her fingers as she traced them against it's forehead. "Lady Elanor's. And I will need you to do something... Follow the cat." She spoke sternly while tieing her note to the ribbon. "And when you are there, wait until she had read the message, then she will tell you what to do."
"I understand. But why am I going there? Won't the duchess be suspicious about this?" He asked while walking with the cat and trialing it's steps, as she moved towards the large fences to the boundaries of the palace.
"If she will, I will be the one to deal with it. For now though, don't think about coming back. I may head over to the Count's estate in a short while or maybe somedays soon."
"Is it some sort of necessity that I leave the palace?" He asked again, knowing well that she is hiding a much bigger truth then the rest of them. "Yes, and you might want to leave now before the duchess finds out. Besides... It is for the best." She answered while coming to a stop at the nearby bush. "Why? Am I being fired?" He asked again with a more tense and worried face, to force out the last words from her mouth.
Frustration started to settle into her face as she turned to face him with a stern look this time. "If you don't leave now, you will be killed. Do you understand? Lady Elanor will explain the rest for you when you reach the estate. I have to return back before mom thinks I am trying to flee the palace for real. If you don't want to really get fired, then you leave immediately. Follow the cat." With the last words hanging in the air, she pointed towards the walking black cat, then watched as he dissapeared from behind the fence.
Just then, she turned away and walked back towards the palace. "One down... Two more to go." She whispered to herself while hurrying back, in time to meet up with the guard midway to her room. "Good morning young master. You seem to be awake a little too early. Did you get a nightmare or were you trying to get yourself a snack but happened to realize it is already morning?" The guard joked as she came to a stop while constantly trying to catch her breathe.
"Please don't say a word and change into ordinary clothes. I need you to go on a small mission and meet Lady Elanor at the Count's estate. I can't explain why, just head over and the lady will explain the rest for you." She spoke while tilting her head upwards and seeming like she is about to faint.
"It would be best if you leave now before the duchess wakes up. Because if she catches you then, you won't be able to escape properly." As soon as she finished, she ran past the shocked guard until she reached her room door.
Just in time, her mind started to almost black out, when she pushed open the door and leaned against the knob for a short while, trying to calm down. When her eyes reopened after a short while, her mind wrecked against the inner walls of her skull as her eyes caught sight of Brittany, standing right beside her desk. The servant looked pale and worried, but still flashed a calm smile that said she was pleased that her young master was still alright.
Aefia hesitantly walked towards her desk with weak steps, and as soon as her hands hit the surface of her mahogany table, she fell to her knees with almost no strength to lift herself again. Panicked, the servant went up to her, while trying to support her arms as she helped her stand up. "Are you alright? I am starting to get worried for your health. Why are you awake so early?" Brittany asked while snapping back her smile onto her face.
"Take that smile off your face. I hate seeing your face when you seem like you are about to throw me off the third floor." Aefia weakly replied while her head hang forward due to no strength, her eyes half closed as she slammed her palm onto the desk.
"I am sorry if I seem like that. I don't mean to scare you like that." The servant replied while turning more expressionless then before.
"Not that too. I don't see your usual face nowadays for some reasons." Her right hand flew to her eyes as she heavily leaned against the wood of her table. She shielded her face with the remaining of her hand as her eyes diverted towards the medications on the coffee table. She found the courage to walk over to her bedside table first, then towards the sofa area. Popping off one tablet, she placed the medicine into her mouth while leaning her head back on the pillows.
A minute later, the servant walked up to her place and stood in front of her while bowing her head. "What do you want?" Aefia sternly replied while removing the arm from her eyes. Brittany hesitated for a short while, as she glanced up at the tired figure.
"I am sorry... That I followed the duchess's orders instead of shielding you from those injuries that day. I was in a fear that she would fire me."
Aefia let out a deep breathe as she sat up and looked the servant in the eye. "What makes you think I didn't know? In fact, I was already aware that she was going to use you as a weakness for me." She answered while keeping her face unnerving. "And if you are asking for forgiveness... I don't think you needed to ask for it anyway, because I don't see where you had a mistake."
The maid stared with shock as she straightened up, and a more genuine smile settled against her face as she watched her young master stand to her feet. Suddenly, the last moment of the duchess's face bloomed onto her memory and her excitement dropped the very next second.
"What is it now?"
"The duchess also happened to call the young master to her bedroom for a breakfast." She spoke while clasping her hands tightly until the knuckles turned white. "Which I suggest you shouldn't go. I have a bad feeling about this." The servant's eyes looked bloodshot as she glanced up.
"But if it mom were to call me. I can't avoid it." She responded while glancing up at the ceiling then back down at her own handmaid. "Well? Aren't you going to fix my look? Or are you going to stand there looking guilty just because of this bandage? I will need to seem presentable in front of mom if I were to meet her for breakfast. Otherwise... How am I supposed to not look like I just got out of a hospital?"
***
"..."
The duchess finally let out a heavy breathe as she looked at the girl sitting opposite to her in the eye. "You are too silent for my liking. Aren't you going to say whether you are alright now? Or however is your health?" She asked while keeping a poker face at the daughter to get an idea of what is in her mind.
"I am alright if that's your concern. But I am here because you asked me to be here. I don't know why I was called in specifically, so I don't know whar to speak about." Aefia replied while clasping her hands in front of her, while the dangling chains from her hair clip slammed against the side of her head with every movement of her jaw.
"Then... How about we start by describing what this drink is... And what it taste like." The woman smiled while pushing forward a cup of deep brown, warm liquid which looked like a tea to her eyes at first. Her finger's wrapped around the loop of the cup as she brought it to her nose for a swift intake of the scent. Well? Isn't she in a willingness to end me now?
"The smell is very floral for something like a tea. So I think it would be safe to say this is boiled water of some sort of dried herbs, and then milk was added for the colour." She answered after a short moment, while glancing back at the woman sitting in front of her, who stared with glowing eyes of anticipation.
"Now what does it taste like?" The duchess asked while standing up and flashing a smile.
Now she is about to force me if I reject, because I am definitely conscious of this poison. Aefia acted, as the cup reached her lips and she reluctantly took a sip, with the burning sensation at the back of her throat, that was caused by the wisteria that she had been trying to immune herself against the past few months.