The Princess of Krystallos

Trouble

 The next morning Alba was almost dragged to the breakfast hall as she had already tried to make excuses to go back to her room, thrice. The servants assumed it was because she didn’t want to practice, but they were also under orders and hence, ended up dragging her.

“Confidential!!” Blaze shouted, once the breakfast was served. Every maid excused themselves and the tension arose the moment they were gone, but this time it wasn’t as pleasant as the night before.

“Where were you yesterday, for the whole night?”

“I slept with the kids.”

“I left your room so you won’t be uncomfortable, and you slept outside.” He said, his pitch suddenly rising.

“Do not raise your voice at me, Blaze Conleth!” she replied, in low voice but placing emphases on every single word separately.

“Then why are running away and even sleeping outside?” he said, trying to lower his voice.

“Then why were you checking my feelings? Was the game fun to play?” her anger was rising.

“I was just checking your feeling to check if you actually are attracted to me.”

“But why?”

“Because I have always been in love with you. Even when you were not there, I still was in love with your memories. Now that you are here, all the time I am scared of losing you!” he seemed to be annoyed. But Alba couldn’t help laughing at this reaction of his, a laugh that was more of relief than anything else. Without a second thought, she got up from her place and rushed over to hug him.

“I was afraid of being the only one who felt it!” she whispered to him, her arms wrapped tightly around him.

The words made Blaze smile as he hugged her even tighter, before they realized the servants may come back and see, and got back to their respective seats. When the servants returned, they seemed to look suspiciously at the change of atmosphere.

“I will meet the kids before joining the training.”

“Sure. You have more than fifteen minutes left. I have some work. I will see you in the evening, my princess!” he ended the sentence in a teasing tone, making Alba blush.

Once the breakfast was done, she went to meet the kids. They were sleeping soundly and Rian was hugging Riza, just like usual, but something felt off. Alba looked closely at them; both of them had a cut on one of their eyebrow.

Alba rushed to her room and searched for the diary the old witch gave her, it was nowhere to be seen. She asked around for Crimson, but according to the servant she had gone to buy some daily necessities. She went back to the kids, the cut on their forehead was getting deeper and longer. Alba shook them up. They woke up, and rubbing their eyes looked at Alba. Alba checked their bodies, there were a no. of mini cuts on them.

“What is this?”

“We don’t know, we are still sleepy.” Rian said, in a sleepy tone.

“You are not Rian and Riza, who are you?” she said and noticed their facial expression turn dark for a second.

“Big sister, what do you mean?” Riza asked.

“You are not them, their eye color is different. Who are you?” she shook them by their shoulders.

Their eyes actually turned entirely black without even a little of the sclera visible anymore. Alba backed off, seeing the change in them. She rushed for the door, shouting in order to get attention. But before she knew, a hard object was struck on her head, making everything in front go blur.

Alba woke up to the clattering of human voices, her hand and legs were cuffed using strong and thick amount of metal. She was leashed by the neck and the other end of the chain was attached to the pillar by her side. The pain in her head seemed to have decreased substantially but her legs felt numb.

Crimson was standing in front of her, chatting with two men.

“Crimmy?!” Alba said in a weak voice and Crimson turned. The face was of Crimson, but the eyes, they seem nothing like hers.

“Alba you are up! How do you feel?” the way she asked, Alba felt the chilled to her bones.

“Where are the kids?”

“They are sleeping behind you.” Alba turned her head as much as she could, they were also cuffed and asleep, with a number of cuts on their bodies.

“Did you hurt them?”

“They cried too loudly, I was annoyed.”

“Crimson, what do you think you are doing? Blaze will kill you once he knows.”

“Well, I will start using your face by then. Then Blaze won't dare to even touch me!” She said, with an evil grin on her face.

“What have you done to Crimmy?”

“You should ask this question to yourself, where was this care, when you were busy making love with the emperor?”

“How is that connected?” she asked, trying to buy some time and trying to clear her head.

“She was sold as a child labor and the only person who treated her well was Emperor. But whenever you came, whether it was as a child or as an adult all his attention turned only on you. Do you think she was okay, seeing the one she loved only having you in his eyes? You were the only one who existed in his eyes, even when you left. How do you think she must have felt?”

Crimson placed the knife blunt edge on her right cheeks and slid it down softly, before suddenly cutting her wrist, missing the vein. Alba shouted in pain, but a sound forced her to bear it silently. The kids were whipped the moment she shouted. They cried in agony, while Crimson collected her blood into a pot, to pour in into a weird looking broth.

“Now flowing blood done, let’s get some power. Seems like you understand the rules. You need to bear the pain without shouting. It decreases the effectiveness.” Crimson clicked her tongue and left.

After almost ten minutes, she came back and sat next to her, looking amused. She held a knife on the star mark on her palm. Smiling an extremely wicked smile, Crimson slowly inserted the knife at an end of the star. Alba bit her lips to stop herself from shouting in pain. The loud crying of the kids reminded her of the reason for which she had to survive all of it. Crimson dig the knife deeper, before taking it out and placing her hand above the boiling broth, in order to make the blood drip directly into it. The vapor caused an excruciating pain and Alba fell from the chair, directly on her knees, grinding her teeth, before falling unconscious from the pain.