Dimension Traveller

"Let's talk"

After reaching the palace, Cora yawned and lazily bid goodbye to Elena. She watched her go off, with Eleanor immersing in the darkness. As soon as she was out of sight, and no one was around her she straightened her back. Her eyes turned cold and she crossed her arms. She scoffed at Eleanor’s two-faced attitude and turned around to head inside her room.

She made sure to shoo away all the maids and closed the huge doors. She hated how they were always trying to secretly keep a lookout for her in case she did something suspicious. As she was walking forward, she realised that she’d reached the end of the bed and looked under it. Sure enough, it was there. She quickly took out a bag and put her hand inside. She leaned on the corner of the bed while looking through the useless trinkets she had gotten. She cursed herself for buying such stupid and useless stuff. Finally, her hands touched upon the thing she was looking for. She took it out and wore it on top of her clothes. It was a black cape. It was given by Noah in case of an emergency. The item was coated with invisibility magic and made sure the user had their presence completely erased.

After taking a quick look around to make sure no one was outside, she sighed in relief. “I’ll have to hurry up if I want to reach there in time,” she muttered to herself. She quickly sneaked past the guards. It wasn’t a surprise. She had been noting the pattern at which the soldiers were rotating everyday with the sly excuse of looking around and getting familiar with the palace.

At times she made quick dashes past them, and other times, she just went slowly, at her own pace leisurely. Cora knew that she didn’t have to be cautious, but still, it felt very weird when you walked in front of someone and they don’t notice you. After all, you can’t exactly take risks when you know that your end would be jail if you get caught.

When she finally reached the place that was her target, she looked up. It was huge and unbelievably luxurious. She sighed. She had to reach him somehow. After all, she didn’t have a choice. Cora had to tell him. Slowly, she crept around the place and went upstairs, right to the top, where her friend, Ryder was.

As soon as she was in front of the door on the second floor, she turned the knob and stepped forward. But, just then she felt a presence. She quickly hid because of instinct. Slowly, the person emerged. Cora covered her mouth and gasped. Her eyes went wide when she realised who she was looking at. It was the as*h*le from this afternoon!! Cora glared in his direction since she knew. She knew he probably came to Ryder for no good reason. The duke strolled out, with a satisfied smirk on his face. When he finally disappeared for good, Cora opened the door as quietly as she could and peeked inside. She entered the room and closed the door.

There wasn’t much to see, as all the lights were closed. Only the candle lights were flickering on the desk. But one thing she saw was the huge place. She knew that she couldn’t see the place with her eyes, but it was obvious just how grand and magnificent the room was. Even the desk that was lighted up indicated that. Although it was covered in books and papers, the extraordinary gold colour and frame didn’t go unnoticed by her gaze. She shook her head. This wasn’t the time to be in awe of someone else’s property.

When she turned her gaze back to Ryder, he was frowning and gritting his teeth. ‘Looks like his habit still isn’t gone even after all this time’. Every time Ryder was trying suppress his anger, he would do this. He was always a built man and had a pretty intimidating appearance, but he was far from being a prick. He never got angry and was always kind. Even if his emotions got the best of him, the poor guy would never vent it out in front of others.

Cora silently took off her cloak and went to where he was sitting. Ryder, unaware of what was going on behind him, was sitting in his study chair holding a bottle of champagne. He felt stressed because of the issue of the general population, the pressure of his ministers, and last but not the least, his ‘marriage’. The work was quite a bit, and on top of that, that damned duke just informed him that he would like to the marriage done a bit earlier than the scheduled date.

It was annoying. He wanted the date to be set even earlier when he knew just how busy the man was. “Hey,” he felt someone speak. He became startled and was about to turn around when Cora hugged him from behind and leaned on his shoulder. When Ryder breathed in the sweet scent, he instantly knew who it was and relaxed. He stiffened face became calmer and his brows smoothened out as well.

“Well?” Cora questioned.

“Hmm?” He hummed back in reply.

“What’s with the gloomy face?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Ryder sighed, exhaustion laced in his tone.

“Is it something not even your childhood friend can know?” Cora pushed him a bit, since she knew these words always worked. Besides, she was quickly growing impatient.

“You always use the same damn trick every time,” Ryder chuckled, playfully nudging her while ruffling her hair. She whined childishly and hugged him tighter. Sighing, Ryder soon gave up.

“Fine I’ll tell you,” Ryder said, not having enough energy to kick her out. He was already drunk, so what was so wrong in saying how he felt?

“Wait, let’s sit here,” Cora said. She quickly held Ryder’s hand and dragged him to the window in the corner of the room. Although it was pretty much invisible because of the darkness, the sparkling moonlight was shimmering alluringly through the place. “Sure,” Ryder grinned. Cora led him to the place and opened the windows. The wind greeted her and blew past to meet Ryder as well. He took a deep breath and exhaled. He felt strangely relaxed.

While he was sitting by the window, Cora went to get a bottle herself and clicked it open. She went to the window as well when she noticed that Ryder had already made himself comfortable./ She took a big gulp of the vodka. She sat opposite to him, and stared seriously at him. She put one leg over the other and looked at him sharply in the eye. But, right then she relaxed and giggled when Ryder had straightened up as well. She told him to relax and slowly urged him to talk. She could speak about what she found later. Right now, it was more important to listen to her friend.

“Alright then, let’s talk.”