Whisper in the Dark

Chapter 20

Adult Content 18+

The next few days she took it easy and did not do much. She was not sure who to trust. The guard outside her door has tried relentlessly to make friends with her. She feels sorry for him. She is just not at that point where she is ready to let people into her life. Especially not people that she barely knows.

Every night she has had a nightmare that causes her to wake up in a sweat. The maids have noticed it and have changed her bedding everyday. She is not sure if they have alerted her mother, but no one has said anything at this point. It is the same nightmare every night. The day her parents were killed. She knows now that they were not her parents, but how could someone that kidnapped them raise them with so much love and adoration. It does not make sense. If they stole them as weapons, then why go through all the effort of loving them as much as they did. Alexa, well Starlette, and she did not feel unloved for one moment. Instead, there was not one moment that she could recall that would have suggested that they are not their biological parents. If she thinks carefully about it, they were better parents and more loving than most of the kids they got to know through school's parents. Something just does not add up. Something is very off about this whole thing.

Her mind tells her that if they did not care why teach them to defend themselves and why defend them with their own lives. She can clearly see that the queen is indeed their mother. The resemblance is definitely there. Maybe, her guardians thought that their mother was unfit to take care of them. It could be. She needs to be careful of these people. Somewhere along the line they will show their true colours. She does, however, like the name Velvette more than Soraya. It sounds exotic. She gets up with all the thoughts racing through her mind, walking to the bathroom to get the sweat washed off her face. Another nightmare, another day.

The maids walk in on queue, as if they were waiting outside her door for her to get up. She frowns at them.

"Sorry my lady, we have been waiting for you to wake up. The guard notified us as soon as he heard movement in your room," one of the maids say as she empties a pitcher with warm water in the basin for her.

"Thank you," is all she could muster. With the constant nightmares she has not been able to get a goodnight's rest and it has drained her these past couple of nights. Her nightmares were not as bad as it has been since she got here. Another reason for speculation. The maids quickly start cleaning her room, while others help her get ready. She still finds all of this very awkward.

"My lady, if I may be so bold to speak," one of the younger looking maids say. Another is quick to glare at her and elbow her in the side.

"No! Please speak. Do not be afraid of me."

"We have noticed the constant night terrors and sweaty sheets, are you sure we cannot call the royal physician and sorcerer for you? They can make you something to take away the night terrors." She can't have a doctor look at her. What if he notices that she is pregnant and at this stage she is not even sure if she wants to keep the baby, but she definitely do not want to be forced to have an abortion or give the baby up. There is no telling what these people would expect her to do.

"There is no need, I think I will be okay," she quickly says to the friendly face. The maid just nods her head and continues with her duties. She is soon left to her own. She does not feel like attending breakfast, she can barely keep anything down and she does not want to be in an awkward situation where she vomits in front of her mother, forcing her to come clean. She walks out of the room and he is still standing there like always at his post.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks him. He is completely stunned at the fact that she finally said something to him.

"Uh . . . Uh, yes my lady!" he quickly straightens himself before approaching her.

"Do you mind taking me around the castle? I did not pay much attention the other day."

"I would be delighted to." He holds his arm for her but she does not take it and rather walks besides him.

~~

"Harder!" Alexa is exhausted. She has been training non-stop with barely any sleep.

"I am tired Arabel. I cannot train like this, I need some rest." Alexa is breathing heavily and feels completely drained.

"Your off day is tomorrow. You need to be able to push past exhaustion. Your enemies are going to attack all at once and you need to be able to face them all at once. Your mother is a powerful being, and if you do not train harder and focus, you will not be able to defeat her."

The training has been intense. Each day consisted of magic training, physical warrior training and elemental training. It has been draining, especially the magical training. After every session she could barely stood upright, but Arabel did not care, she kept pushing and made her train harder and harder. Each day she would add more and more. Alexa felt completely drained by the end of the week. Her off day sounded like bliss. The other women usually came to watch her take on Arabel and not once has she been able to defeat her in combat.

"Weak girl! Get up! Again!" Arabel's voice was becoming a nuisance to Alexa.

She got up slowly before deciding to channel all her energy into her anger towards Arabel and let a siren scream out of her mouth. She could feel the power leaving her body, pushing it off the ground, levitating in the middle of the open space. She did not know how long she screamed but when she came to, a crowd was helping her off the ground. She got up slowly and Arabel was being helped up by a group of women as well. She had a nasty wound to her head. She limped towards Alexa before standing in front of her. Alexa's eyes widen, expecting a scolding from Arabel.

"Well done!" A smile forms on Arabel's face. She waves her hand over her body and instantly heals herself.

"What?" Alexa stands confused.

"You have finally decided to stop holding back. It took you long enough." Arabel walks out of the training area. "Training is over for today. You finally accomplished what we have been working on this entire week." She says over her shoulder.

A sudden relief mixed with exhaustion washes over Alexa.

~~

"I am quite new here and do not know much about the palace. I can tell you a lot more about everything around the palace but not the palace as such," he continues.

"It is okay. I would like to know a bit about everything in actual fact. Like how big is the kingdom? Does the queen have any known enemies, as well as the history of the kingdom? Did you know my father?" She quickly looks at him.

He drops his head before answering her. "I did." He sighs, knowing what she is going to ask next.

"How was he as a person?"

"He was a kind-hearted man. He was one of the greatest rulers this kingdom has ever seen. His death was such a tragedy to this kingdom, that I honestly do not think it will ever recover."

"Why do you say that? And please do not spare me any details. I want to know the truth. Do not lie to me. I want to know everything, it does not matter how hard it is to bear. I will not tell anyone what you tell me."

"It is not safe speaking in the palace." At that moment the queen walks up to Velvette and hugs her.

"My child. Where were you this morning during breakfast? I missed you so much." She gives a quick glance at the guard before she smiles a million dollar smile at her daughter.

"Oh, I asked Morlé, isn't it, to take me around the castle to help me familiarize myself with it."

"Oh darling, I would have been more than happy to take you around the castle again. I can't spend enough time with you. Oh, and I have another surprize for you!" She quickly waves with her hand for the person to come closer.

"This is Cynthia, she will be your new teacher in all things magic. She is the best in the kingdom and I have assigned my own personal guard to train you in battle. I want my girl to be ready for anything and everything." Velvette just nods and smiles shyly at the woman.

"Well come, come, classes start immediately."

~~

He was so close to breaking the ice with her and being able to get her confidence, but the queen was already on to him. He is not sure how much magic she uses to monitor her daughter, but now he knows that she keeps a close eye on her. He needs to get out of the palace and back to the sorcerer to have give him something that he can speak to Velvette without anybody knowing. If he dares approach her again, the queen will have him executed. He could not risk it. He needed to get her out of the castle and somewhere, where he can convince her to use the magic of the sorcerer to avoid the queen knowing about their conversations.

The princess has been reading non-stop about all the magic contained in the kingdom, her brain is like a sponge and she is just consuming the knowledge like her life depends on it. Even Cynthia has been astounded at the rate that she has been able to learn spells, memorize potions and learn the geography of the planet.

She has only been in training for three hours and she has gone memorized an entire book on potions already and is currently busy with a spellcaster book.

"Slowly my dear! You have enough time to learn all of these."

"No! I want to learn everything I can as fast as I can." Cynthia freezes to her spot and looks at the guard puzzled before looking back at Velvette.

"Why are you so pushed on learning so fast?" Velvette shuts the book hard before she looks Cynthia square in the eyes.

"Because in one of these books there has to be the answer on how to locate my sister, and if there is, I will find it, even if it takes me my whole life." She might not have been close to Alexa, but she knows that together they are a lot stronger and she has to find her sister, she just has to.

The queen lurks at the door and smiles at Velvette's words. Maybe, she might just be the key she has hoped for to finding that wretched coven. They always seem to mess up her plans. The quicker she can get her other daughter out of their hands, the quicker she can destroy them. Ronan's failure has caused them to get Alexa, who knows what they are busy with. She cannot afford them using her own daughter against her. She will rather kill Alexa than have her against her.

She quickly makes her way down the corridor with a malicious grin on her face. It is time to go visit Ronan for a change.