It was dark, darker than dark even, as my eyes slipped open to the black world around me. It smelled like murky earth and that underground smell that trapped air acquires below the soil. My skin was slick with moisture, almost like swimming as I sat up on the hard bed. It was probably wood, but by the clatter of chains I had become used to, I was distracted from it. As the four corners of the dungeon, because I was sure by now that was what it was, came into view, I could now see a barred wall, opposite which was what appeared to be a walking passage. There was no light, no warmth in that deep down, cold place, and as I scrambled up, wincing against the scratchy fabric of my gown, which had been changed since my blackout.
Squinting as I approached, I could see another cell further down the hall, but just as I neared the bars to look, the chain on my neck pulled me to a halt, preventing me from going any further. I hadn't even noticed the end of Illy's chain had been linked to a longer one, which was in turn hooked through a steel ringlet in the wall. I stepped close to it, and just to be sure, I gathered the dirty chain in my hands, the grimy soot smearing on my fingers, I gave it a yank. To my surprise, the ringlet split right off the wall like a snapped candy cane. Gathering the chain, which was thinner than that of Illy's, but looked just about as durable, I walked forward and set it upon the ground in a coil.
I took hold of the bars of the wall, which were spaced so they just barely held back my head. They were cold steel, a deep gray in the lightless corridor, but when I pressed them, they bent like thin wire, spreading in a diamond so I could step through, chain in hand. "Hello," I called down the corridor, my voice echoing off the stone walls, which seemed to hose about three other cells like my own, and had a door on one side, and a turn at the other. Supposing the door would be locked, I started going down towards the other cells, wincing at the disgusting grim on my bare feet as they scrubbed across the filthy floor.
"Hello," I called again, but received no answer, and when I reached the first cell, I found it empty, clad with the same bed, table, and bucket as my own. I grimaced at the thought of having to stay in a cell like that, but it mystified me as to why they built the cells so weak, if I could snap the chain and bend the bars, what would actually motivate anyone to stay down here? There were plenty of other pure-bloods around, why wouldn't they make their dungeon strong enough to hold them? As I progressed, the second cell was the same, so when I came to the third, I almost screamed when I saw the limp arm dangling off the side of the cot, and a head of tangled black hair laying lifeless on the board.
Immediately I yanked the bars open, and stepped through sideways, rushing forwards to the limp body. As I had dreaded, it was Mother, and in no better condition than earlier, drained of poison. I carefully took the chain in my hand and located where it linked with a circular ring of steel to Illy's chain, snapping it off here and letting it drop in a clatter to the ground. After snapping off her chain, which was weirdly connected in a sort of metal belt around the small of her waist, I lifted Mother and slipped out of the cell with her, looking back and forth towards the two ways. Surely Mortemine wouldn't put her own daughter down here, but on the odd chance she did, or that there was someone else down here, I decided I would explore the turn before starting towards the door.
It was a good then I did, because on the second cell down after the turn, of which's hallway housed four cells, I found Illy sleeping peacefully on a bed. "Illy," I called out, "Illy, wake up. I watched as she grimaced, squirmed, and rubbed her eyes, yawning.
"What do you," She began, but as she opened her mismatched eyes she stopped, seeing the pitch black around her. "Where am I?" She asked, "Did she throw me down in the dungeon again?"
"What do you mean again?" I asked, "I thought you weren't even sure if the dungeon was operational."
"I wasn't, it was a really long time ago, like, two millennium, I think." She replied, sitting up and blinking to help her eyes adjust. "How are you in here, did they put us in the same cell?" She asked.
"No, I was in a cell a hallway down." I replied, "And Mother is in one a couple away from mine."
"But, then how are you here?" She asked, standing up now and stepping forward, but she was pulled taught by the chain after a couple steps.
"I snapped the chain and bent the bars, they're pretty week, it's weird they went to the trouble of building a dungeon and didn't even make it strong enough to hold a pureblood." I replied, watching as her glowing eyes got big. I hated to admit it, but she was even hot in a jail gown, filthy with the grime of the bed.
"No," She replied, "I tried many times, the bars hold plenty strong, and I've never once succeeded in snapping a chain."
"What do you mean?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"I really down understand how you can be so strong," She mutter, "But never-mind that, I'll try again now, but if I don't succeed you're going to have to help." She turned around and approached the ringlet, taking hold of the chain as I had, but for her it only yielded after a long struggle, and seemed to stretch and distort instead of snap. I stepped aside and watched as she did the same to the bars, struggling against them until one popped out of the stone at the base, and the other bent slowly. Huffing, she turned to me, chain in one hand and started ahead towards where I had came. "Now let's get out of this wretched place."
"Agreed," I replied, and carried Mother back to the door, but halfway there we stopped in our tracks, as a rattling of keys was heard echoing down the corridor, and the door swung open with a loud creak. We ducked back into the indent of a cell, out of sight, and peered out, watching as a jailer carried a torch down the corridor, twirling his ring of keys around her finger. When she got to my cell she turned, and seeing the bent bars, jumped back in shock. After a couple moments of paralyzed and paranoid staring, she turned on her heels and began to sprint full speed towards the door.
"Wait," Illy yelled out, making the jailer stumble to a stop, visibly trembling even from this distance.
"Who goes there," She yelled feebly, still retreating backwards as she spoke.
"If you must know," Illy replied, stepping out of the shade and into the corridor, dragging me with her. "Princess Ilustra Caedis, my first slave Sapphire, formerly Eleutheria Clementia, and her mother, the banished and until recently dead Rosetta Clementia." Apart from the Princess, we didn't really have that great of a name for ourselves, and I could see the jailer was still adamant on retreating.
"If it helps anything my Mother is completely unconscious and I am chained to the will of the Princess, so really it's just her, if it makes you feel any better." It very obviously didn't though, as she started towards the door quicker now.
"Let me handle this," Illy whispered, taking me by the waist and starting forward. "I am fully aware that you are under direct and undeniably dangerous orders from the Queen, and therefore are risking your life simply by hesitating to run to her side now, but these are not typical circumstances. To begin with your position, if you obey us as opposed to her, I can, first of all, dispel any notion of danger you are in, as I have here an individual who, on my command, can raise dead with the lift of her finger, as I am sure you can ascertain from the damage done to your steel chain, bars, and the existence of the woman she is currently carrying.
"Furthermore, if you are willing to follow us, we would be much more willing to give you an entrance to noble society than the Queen, who might even consider chopping off your head just for the fun of it, with our escape as a meager excuse to do so. Our situation is rather dire, and for now all we wish is to get out of here and find some poison for Rosetta. We don't expect you to put your life in danger, just simply act as though you are oblivious to our disappearance until it is no longer possible to do so, and at that time notify us, so that we may both protect you, and come out of hiding." I had to admit, as Illy wrapped up, she had made a compelling argument, and the jailer as well seemed to think so.
She thought so hard in fact that she cease her escaping and was standing face to face with us by the time she realized. "Do I have a choice?" She asked, her voice trembling from our proximity to her.
"I'm hungry, so no," Illy replied, looking her up and down for effect. Although she was somewhat emotionally wrecked by the whole ordeal, she seemed to get the picture quick enough, and complied completely with letting us out, as well as not telling the Queen, though she could not guarantee that the Queen's agents wouldn't march down here any second. We assured her even if they did, there would be no telling them when the escape had been made, and therefore she would not be blamed by default. After a decent amount of coursing, we were finally snuck up the staircase and let go in the servant's hallway.
"Do you know where to go?" I asked Illy. "Can we go back to your quarters?"
"I've spent plenty of time in this castle to know it's every nook and cranny." She replied, "We should be safe back in my room for now, and if we send gold or someone to get poison it shouldn't be to suspicious." We took the stairs and after about half a dozen turns and corridors, a door cracked to reveal the slave's hallway, and Ebony pacing it.
"Where is the world have you been?" She asked angrily, running up to us and surveying the limp body in my hands. "Rosetta?" She exclaimed before we could even speak.
"Never-mind all that, I'm fine now. Go get me some poison, say it's to fill the storage unit here, get lots." Illy replied curtly, motioning her to the side so we could pass. She looked confused but after a moment she ran off through the doors. I laid Mother on the coach in the parlor, and a moment later the golden twins appeared with warm wet towels and robes for each of us, before leaving a change of clothes near the door and slipping away into the hallway. I stepped up and carefully snapped the chain off Illy's neck at the source, letting it fall to the floor. "So it hasn't changed your impression of me?" She asked, slipping her scratchy gown off and watching me blush.
"What hasn't?" I asked.
"Before, when Mother," She began, but her words slipped away. Thinking back I concluded she was talking about what she said when we were interrupted.
"I'm flattered." I replied, "Did you think I'de loose interest?"
"Why wouldn't you?" She replied, "The enigma is solved, isn't it?" She finished wiping herself off and set the cloth down, picking up mine and stepping up, wiping off my skin. I felt the warm dampness of the clean towel slide against me, sending a shiver down my spine.
"No, I think there's more to you than I'll ever be able to solve." I replied, letting myself step closer to her. She slipped her hands around my neck, tossing the towel aside and drawing me into a kiss. It was soft as she pressed her lips to mine, but slowly excilated, until she was dragging her teeth against my skin, and slipping her tongue into my mouth dominantly. We fell back onto the soft expanse of the other couch, and she slipped her knee between my legs, grinding against me so I had to break the kiss to let out a pant. "Illy, Mother," I whined, but was cut off by her tongue.
"She's asleep," Illy replied, grinding into me again.
"She might be but I'm not." I heard Ebony's voice from the door, jumped back to see her standing there with a large bottle in hand.
"God, what do I have to do in this place to get some privacy," Illy exclaimed, plopping down on the coach beside me, and snatching her clothing from Ebony as she brought it. "Twice now I've been interrupted." She grumbled. I slipped on my clothing, a deep blue short dress of vertically striped fabric, watching Illy dress in her crimson skirt and white blouse, black lace engulfing the neck of the shirt.
"You have to stop looking for trouble and settle down." Ebony replied, uncorking the bottle and stepping up to Mother. "Find some happiness, turn your kingdom into a peaceful one, stuff like that."
"Peace and happiness are boring Ebony," She replied, standing as I did to go to Mother. "I myself am much more partial to horrors and dispare." She laughed, going silent as Ebony tilted the bottle, pouring it slowly into Mother's open mouth. She coughed at first but then gulped it down hungrily, taking it from Ebony with her slender, emaciated hands and gorging on it, like a child on milk. I watched breathlessly as she seemed to regain all that was drained from her, as if she was a desiccated sponge now sucking back in it's water. Her arid white lips flushed pink and then a light red, her pallid cheeks regained their pallor, and even her black hair seemed to regain it's shine, as she skin puffed, gorged on what would bring death to others.
The bottle had been completely drained before she ceased, and when she finally let go of it, and her turquoise eyes popped open, hunger still seemed to lurk on their seams. "Well that was quite the experience." She said, sitting up on the coach and taking her hands to her hair.
"You fainted Mother," I replied, "we had to," I began, but she interrupted me.
"Sweetheart I know, I could hear just fine in that coma." She said, and I was glad she was focused on her hair and not me, because I could feel the blush heat my cheeks. "Now would you care to explain to me how in the world you ended up in about the last place I wanted you at only months after my death?" She asked, standing up and looking me up and down as if to ascertain whether I was still intact.
"In the car crash, you might of died, but I lost an arm to amputation, and from the hospital bills and most likely some Caedis intervention, the house and all it's contence except for a couple of small items was sold to pay off debt. Broke, homeless, and without an arm or a family, I decided the best way to pay for a prosthetic was slavery, because it would increase my value and I could get out with a new arm after a while. But that didn't really go to play either, after Illy dropped about five million more than necessary on my auction and whisked me away to here before I could even figure out what was going on, I began to learn about life here.
"Illy taught me, and I know you're probably not very partial to her, but you have to trust me on this. I read your letter, I found your key, I even."
"I get the picture," Mother interrupted, "Now for you," She said turning to Illy, her eyes narrowing. "You little rascal, you caught my daughter, how dare you." She yelled out, slipping up to face Illy. But something about her tone was off, mocking even, and Illy only laughed.
"Well I didn't think I was reeling in someone capable to waking her dead mother in her sleep." She laughed, stepping back as Rosetta gave her a slap on the back.
"I'm fully confident in the child I raised, but by golly if I see you laying your hands on anyone else's neck I'll have you on the stake before you can get a word out your lips, and I'll do the same again and again until Elly lets you rest for good." She laughed, making Illy shift a bit.
"Did you?" I asked, staring at them.
"How else do you think I won Mortemine's heart?" Mother asked, "I had to get insider information to pull of that gig, we were great friends back in the day, have a lot in common." I could see slivers of this self in my Mother's hidden form, but nothing could have prepared me for the person who stood before me today. "Anyway, did any of you solve my puzzle yet or do I have to explain this all to you?"
"What puzzle?" I asked, and she sighed.
"I never imagined you to be as strong as you are, but I can't say the same for your head." She laughed, but there was this lost quality to her eyes. "I'll tell you once I'm clean, I feel like grim itself." She said, making a face as she pulled the rough tan fabric from her thighs.
"Oh, let me get the chain," I said, reaching forward to try to find the safest way to snap it off her waist.
"No," She replied, standing and stepping back as I spoke, "I'll keep it on."
"Why?" I asked, thinking for a moment she didn't trust me, "I'm sure I can get it off, really."
"It's complex, anyway, you all need to leave, and get Ebony to bring me a dress." She replied, pushing us out the door. Illy and I retreated to the bedroom upstairs, finding the closet ransacked and Eleven gone.
"Why didn't she want the chain off?" I asked, slipping down onto the bed.
"It was Mortemine's favorite spot." Illy replied, standing before me,"The waist, if she takes it off, there's no hope for anything." I blushed realizing who my Mother had actually been engaged to, and tried not to think of it, now relieved that she probably couldn't do much to criticize my relationship with Illy when it would require revealing layers of her's.
"But," I began, but dropped my protests and Illy slipped forward, her hands caressing my back as she slipping in next to my neck, pressing kisses onto the warm skin there.
"Don't you want to continue?" She asked, nipping my skin. She slipped aside the neck of my dress and biting down on me. I felt her pointed teeth puncture my skin, and she drew up the blood in mouthfuls, but there was no pain there, only pleasure as she drew back, licking the beads of blood from my wound tenderly.
"Hey," I said, lifting her up to kiss her, "I never said drink." I protested, but really I didn't care, I was happy even. I could taste the sweet redness of her lips as she kissed me, and beneath that the tingling sensation of her taste, pulling at my lips. Her hands slipped dangerously low on my back, when I managed to push her off. "Come on, we've got to go back, " I whined, slipping off the bed.
"And do you want to?" She asked.
"No, but I do want to know what puzzle she's talking about, among other things." I replied, "I'll make it up to you later." I said, my voice smooth, and I could see her eyes flood out a little when I spoke.
"Promise?" She asked, leaning on the bed.
"Promise," I replied, swinging open the door and starting down the staircase with her on my heels. When we returned we found Mother on the couch in a simple white dress, sipping a new bottle of poison. She had combed out her windblown hair and it now lay in a braid down her back, tied in it's smooth braid by a blue ribbon. The metal cuff and chain around her waist hugged her tapered torso and had now been scrubbed off until it was a little shiny against her white dress.
"Start with what you do know," She said, looking at us, "and I'll build off that." We took seats opposite of her, Ebony in the corner, listening intently.
"As for what we know," Illy replied, "We read your letter, and believe you on that account, as well as the account of your friends, however we didn't make much sense of it beyond the fact that for years you were searching for a copy of The Fables of The People: Aparicita Janiman, but never succeeded in finding it."
"I found the key in the pocket watch, and from that also understand that you were most likely telling the truth about my not having a father, but I still don't know what the key opens or if it still exists, as most of your belongings were destroyed or taken into custody after you fled." I added.
"You thought the key was mine?" She asked, a smirk on her face.
"Didn't it have your initials, were you not called Master Clementia?" I asked
"I was, but I would not have initialized it with the M for master, M. C., come on Elly, Mortemine Caedis." She exclaimed, and for a moment I felt very stupid. "When I became engaged to her, she offered me two keys, one to her tomb, one to her library. When I fled I only had the key to the library on me, as taking the one to tomb would probably double the effort to locate me, as I had dangerous material. That key opens her library, I got it hidden in the pocket watch the moment I set foot on Britain, and gave it to you in case."
"Then you planned me to end up here?" I asked.
"No," She replied, "That I did not. My plan was actually to have you go through my books when I died, through grief, and finding information from them, ascertain the truth. I knew you were powerful, but didn't know the limits of your power, or expect you to wake me from the dead, or for the house to get confiscated. The idea was that through the books you could gradually make sense of what happened, and then decided what world you wanted to live in for yourself. If you chose humanity, you would know the precautions to take, if you chose Caedis, you would know how to go about it. I couldn't do much for you." I could see the sorrow bubbling up in her eyes, that look I saw so often on my Mother's face when we struggled
"Well, that doesn't pertain to now," I replied, "I told you I'd find a way, I know I will. I didn't wake you because I wanted you to suffer, though I didn't really have a clear cut purpose at the time. I woke you because I knew I could fix what had gone wrong, but to do that I need to understand exactly what it was that went wrong."
"I know, and I'll start with that." She replied, "Illy, how much did you understand of the letter?"
"Not much beyond what it said. I don't understand how it could be possibly, nor what it had to do with the book, if anything." Illy replied.
"In that book I only read one story, and in all honesty I thought nothing of it at the time, until I saw other things. At first it was just strange little slips of paper about the place that put me off, lined blue and stained with red, there was paper all over that study, with little notes sketched out in ink across them. Sometimes they were simple and made sense, poems about missing her husband after he died in the war, notes about philosophies, even charts. But then there were strange ones, ones that went on and on about Illy, saying she wasn't like Mortemine, that they weren't related, that she had birthed a baby that wasn't hers, labored over a child that lacked her own blood, weird things like that.
"Then there were DNA tests, scattered about relating everything back to Illy, saying that Mortemine wasn't related to her. I thought little of them at first, knowing Mine had had many traumas, and figuring they were all part of that, or even falsities for all I knew, propaganda or something. Then it happened, I found out I was pregnant. You know how it went from there, I wrote, I fled, and I hid. But all the time I was thinking, cursing the world and searching for how it had happened. I came upon that story from the book. It spoke of a breed of creature known as sole bloods, who are made from the refined blood of only one person, as opposed to two. These creature of incredible power who had at one stage ruled the earth, and arrived every so often to calm the world around them, that was in shambles.
"I wanted to believe that was who my child was, a sole blood, but it didn't add up. As far as I knew, the world was not in shambles, there was no need for a sole blood, and it seemed like wishful thinking to believe my child a god. Until you came into the world that is. You were beautiful, smart, but above all strong. Almost on accident you learned how to appear in mirrors, how to fade into the air about you, how to fly so fast I could only hope you would come back, as I could not catch up with you, and the little lights that swarmed you when you flew. Daily you would snap a leg off a chain on accident, snap glasses in half and bend the fausit on the sink into a knot. There became no other explanation.
"I searched high and low for that book, to read that story again in hopes that I might find the answers, but there was no copy anywhere, and we were poor. I did what I could, and thought all the time, until I began to think about Illy, about Mine. Do you know where I'm going, Illy?" She asked, but Illy shook her head.
"I've never heard my Mother say anything of that sort to me, though she did do some shady things at some point. But that's more of her personality, isn't it?" Illy laughed. "But you said that Sapphire could fly so fast you couldn't catch her, then how was it I could when we flew that night?" Illy asked.
"Sapphire?" Mother commented, "If you expect to keep my daughter you better call her by name, Illy, and I want an engagement the moment all this is over." I felt my cheeks flush as she spoke, it had never occurred to me Mother would be so okay with this.
"Oh yeah," I replied, "I was flying as fast as I could, but you kept right up with me, if there was anything strange about my ability it would show in my differing from Illy, she could snap those chains as well, just with more difficulty."
"Yes," Mother replied, "But consider this, what if Illy isn't normal either? She was born in the middle of a war, Mine wrote many poems about not feeling related to her, and the DNA tests even show it. What if Illy too is a sole blood?"
"But then I would be only my Mother's child." Illy protested, leaning forward in interest now.
"Not necessarily." She replied, "One needs a female body to grow a child, but that child does not necessarily have to be the child of the body that grows it."
"But then who's child am I?"
"You father's Illy," Mother replied, a smile on her face. "You are your Father's daughter and his daughter alone. He unknowingly created a sole blood, Mine grew you into a child, and though she raised you she wasn't related to you. She was so self conscious about it she transplanted her eye into you, trying desperately to make you her own., thinking maybe if you had her eyes, she would see the other parts of you that were from her. Ironically, that eye which links you to your Mother, is also that that puts a damper on your powers, because you are not wholly yourself. "
"But, is that really the only possibility?" I asked, "The world wasn't in shambles when I was born, it wasn't even in danger, was it?" Illy looked up at this like I had called her name, fear in her big purple eye.
"No," She replied, "It was in danger, greater than anyone could have known."
"How?" Mother asked, now intrigued. I could see her gulp, her head looked ready to fall to her hands like a stone in a pond.
"Mother was getting bored, she hated power, and for hundreds of years before your birth Rosetta, I had been the sole ruler of the country, and she had retreated back into death, lethargic for the world about her. I tried to rouse her often, but failed on all accounts, and before you she hadn't met a suitor in centuries, and all that I met just seemed to get worse and worse. We had considered many things, a new war, a break of the Clementian Caedis bond, even an introduction of aliens or human society. I was lethargic for being the ruler, but Mother was in no condition to do it herself, and forced the job upon me, and neither of us could retire without heirs, of which would never be had if we couldn't find anyone suitable for us.
"When you were proposed, I was so tired of it all I yanked Mother from her sleep and dragged her before the nobles before she could even protest, desperate for someone to get her out of bed in the least. But when she did fall for you, she left me to run the country as she always had, and confronted with her success and my failure, I only felt more alone. I would go out every night and draw blood from peasants, slip through the shadows of our society, even the underground, just for some fun. I recon I drained half the population of half their blood, it wasn't pretty, I don't like to talk about it. I would have kept on if Mother hadn't roped me to her side after the betrayal. No one knew, but if that had continued I might have gone mad, cut up the country, I don't know what." Her voice was downtrodden as she spoke, and I felt overwhelmed with how much I didn't know about her, it was no wonder I could never tell what she was thinking, when there was so much inside.
"We have to tell her, have to get to her somehow," Illy spoke now, focused on the current situation again.
"No," Mother exclaimed, "We mustn't let her know now. We have to wait."
"Why?" Asked Illy, "Can't we sort this out as soon as possible, she'll understand if we all present it right."
"No she won't, you don't know Mortemine like I do, emotions rule her like nothing else. She would take that proposal in front of a crowd, understand it from the lips of a banker or an artist, but from us, she'll never listen. In her ears all she will hear is threat, betrayal, even death. She'll kill Elly in a heartbeat, if she could, and she's the Queen of manipulation, she could pluck you from us like a feather off a raven, you know it as well as I do. From me she'll never hear anything at all, she can't listen with blood roaring in her ears, I know she can't. For now we have to hide, confirm our ideas, and when the time comes, confront her right."
"But," Illy protested, though I could see she knew mother was right.
"It'll be best in the long run, I'm sure." She spoke with a tad of desperation in her voice, and I could feel her will, trying not to get chased away again. But I could also see in her something else, a fear, a precaution she wasn't sharing. I looked down on her hands, restored to their slender pale fingers and flat short nails, a sigh escaping my lips. I think Illy caught it, because she scooted closer to me on the couch, her thigh pressing to mine.
"Where shall we hide?" I asked, "Surely we can't stay here."
"Yes, and how can we get information?" Illy asked.
"We have a key to Mortemine's library, but at a time like this I doubt she'll be anywhere but, so we have to wait until she's in the public. As soon as someone finds out she's awake they'll demand a ball of some sort, and we can sneak in then. Where do you think it would be best to hide until then?" She asked.
"Well, the guest rooms could do, but the maids clean there and such. Ideally, we would take up shop in the abandoned sections of the castle, as no maids go there and if Mother thought we were hiding from her, I think she would assume we had left the castle. I know a tower, and if I remember correctly there should be a beds and furniture there, but it's not close to the kitchen or anything else."
"As long as your slaves are willing to fetch us things, it shouldn't matter if it's close or not." She replied, looking up to check the clock. It was a quarter to midnight.
"Should we go now?" Illy asked, "She could call for us any time."
"I know she won't, because she'd want to see us disheveled, but we should go just in case, that servant could tattle any time. We'll go now, you two need anything?" She asked, looking us over, "Of course you don't, never-mind." She laughed, slipping a cloak over her white dress and following Illy out the door. For a moment I wondered how much attention three cloaked women in the halls would call, but it seemed as we walked that no one paid us any, disregarding the blue and black hoods as paintings on the walls.
I skipped up to walk beside Illy, Mother following behind, carefully cradling her chain to ensure it didn't draw attention. We slipped past servants and finally arrived at a large double wooden door in a more decaying hallway, which Illy opened just enough for us to slip into the dim hall opposite, and shut with a creak. The resulting part of the castle was completely different than any I had seen before, the floor laden with heavy layers of dust, the curtains drawn shut save for a crack that cast light upon the faded red carpet, and was laden with dust bunnies. The gold chandelier above hung with spider webs and each corner looked to be the home to some ghost of another era.
"This is the entrance to the abandoned section, this way to the tower." Illy said, her voice unmuted now that we were alone. We slipped through dusty hallways, conference rooms with unlit candles on their long wooden tables, and even the corner of a large, unused ballroom, it's tiled floor coated in enough dust to pass as snow, grazing my ankles as I walked. We unbolted a big birch door and started up a staircase now, spiraling around a tower, it's little windows boarded up at every turn with with wooden shutters, and the metal spirals of the railing stacked with dust. Then it suddenly opened into a large circular room, the stained windows coated in vibrant colored glass that distorted the stars into shades of purple, red, and green.
"Where are we?" I asked, stepping to a window and peaking out over the castle balconies and towers, the town barely visible in the distant clear night. "Who was this place made for?" I asked, marveling at the artful glass pictures of what looked to be ancient tales.
"Victoria Dracula actually, but she got caught up in Count Dracula's exile and it's been vacant every since." Illy replied, "This is the first floor, the parlor, the second is divided between a study, a library, a drawing room, and a small servant's quarters, and the third hosts the master bedroom. The attic has storage and a guest bedroom. Take your pick." She said, turning to Mother.
"I'm wondering which one I can hear the least in," She replied jokingly, making me blush.
"Mom," I protested, tightening my fists and the comment.
"Oh don't worry, she's not that loud," Illy replied, only making it worse.
"I'll take the guest." Mother said finally, "and we can meet here back in the parlor to formulate the plan for getting in the library when the next night comes. Do you have a way to contact your slaves?" She asked.
"Of course," Illy replied, "You know Ebony, she'll be up here the next chance she gets, and if she isn't, I can just drift down and get her, or any of us can for that matter."
"Very well," Mother replied, slipping past us and staring up the stairs, "I'm going to go to my room, I'll see you in the morning."
"But mother it's only midnight, the sun doesn't set until six." I replied.
"Tell me that after you fly a week straight child, you had me worried." She said, "I should have assumed Illy would latch onto you, but I didn't know who had gotten you."
"I told you not to," I replied.
"And what good did that do when in the end I got here just in time. I'm going to bed." Her voice was tired so I let off and allowed her to slip away into the shadows of the stairs to the jingle of her chains, leaving Illy and I among the worn furniture of the parlor. I ran a finger through the dust over the corduroy fabric, revealing the blackish blue beneath. Finding a handkerchief in a drawer, I slipped it across a couch until it was acceptable for sitting, but when I did plot down a plume of dust came up around me, making Illy laugh. She threw her cloak over the couch and sat beside me.
"A sole blood, huh," I said, turning to her.
"You too for that matter," She replied.
"But it sounds like I was just created to stop you from messing up the world," I replied, slipping down and laying my head on her lap. My skirt lay folded on my legs as I leaned them against the armrest, looking up at her face, her black curly hair hanging over her shoulder.
"I wouldn't dispute that if you want to believe it that way," She replied, and I could see a slight pink flush beneath her white cheeks. "The wife of a Princess isn't a bad title, is it?"
"Wife?" I asked, flattered, "I suppose not. Perhaps it's what I was destined for."
"Don't you want to run off and deny destiny a little?" She asked, her voice smooth and coaxing, running her fingers through my hair. I felt her hand on my hip, toying with the fabric of my skirt.
"For now I think I'm content with your regime, but maybe later, I'll consider it." I replied, feeling her hands slip up and toy with the strap of my underwear. "Are you looking for your promise?" I asked, bringing my hand up to pinch her thigh lightly through the crimson fabric of her skirt.
"God yes," She replied, biting her lip. "I'm hardly able to think of anything else.