Valerian Empire

She didn’t know what got to him but she was glad to be back to the room she was given. After locking the door, Katie pulled out the chain and it locket, looking at them in light and wondering what it was doing there. Malphus hadn’t known about it until few days ago. She bit her lip lost in thought when she was called down to greet Lord Norman’s relatives in the evening.

“She’s a beautiful, girl. Congratulations Silas,” she heard a man congratulate him whilst she stood there holding her breath in silence.

When she had tried speaking, Silas had done nothing but dig his fingers into her skin to avoid her from speaking anything more. Lord Norman’s threat in the cell was fresh and it still rang in her ears, the fear crawling under her skin.

“And here I was worried that the Lord wouldn’t agree as she belonged to a different society,” a woman said it to Lady Ester making her smile.

“My husband would never take account on a person’s status. Being the Lord and Lady we need to set up an example for out people,” and this made Katie’s brows raise up in surprise and she felt the sting of pain on her hand again.

She glared at him, making him glare back in warning to behave.

“Your parents are nothing but frauds! You should be set as an example of what sham is!” She burst out when his parents went outside to see their relatives off in the carriage.

“Keep your voice down woman,” Silas replied.

“No I won’t! I am not your fiance, I haven’t agreed to it!” she exclaimed.

“You forget that you have charges against you. In any part of the of the empire, witches aren’t treated nicely which you must know already. Especially the the people of the south aren’t forgiving,” Silas smiled smugly.

“I am no witch and you know it well that who is the witch here,” Silas’ eyes narrowed at her words.

“What do you mean?” he asked her skeptically.

“I want to go home! Right. Now,” Katie said firmly.

“Home?” Lord Norman said walking towards them, “I heard you lost your family few months ago. I believe this is your house.”

“I want to go to the north empire. It is a human land just like Mythweald, that shouldn’t be a problem,” she heard Lady Ester laugh at her words.

“My dear, are you planning to run to where the Lord of Valeria is?” Lady Ester asked her with a smile.

“And what if I am?” she stared back at the lady.

“Girls like you are foolish little children, wasting your lives on something so useless and behaving rash while not listening to what the elders have to say. The elites will always choose capable and potential partners of their same circle. Don’t you know we have been considerate in taking you into our house.”

“What are you getting at?” Katie asked her to which she called the butler, asking him fetch the newsletter, “Read this in your free time,” she placed her hand on Katie’s shoulder and then walked away with her husband.

Switching her gaze from the Lord and Lady of the south she looked at the newsletter she was given. When she looked at the newsletter, she felt her heart drop reading the first heading of the page.

‘Lord of Valeria engaged to Lady Barton’. Lord Alexander has finally decided to settle down with Lady Caroline who is the businessman Mr. Barton’s daughter . The couple have decided to get married next month once the trial ends.This will also be a peace truce between the vampire and humans…

Katie stopped reading any further to look at the picture of Lord Alexander and Lady Caroline holding each other intimately, with a ring on her finger.

She breathed in and out carefully as she felt her eyes burn, blinking back the tears from any of them falling down. Without another word she went back to the room, locking herself there.

They were engaged. Lord Alexander.

All this time when she was in the south empire, not once had he tried to get past a message to her. He had promised to come visit her but three weeks had passed and there was no sign of him.

“Alex…” she whispered as a traitorous tear slipped past her eyes. She could feel herself giving up, she was alone and the loneliness was only consuming her while she fought the battle alone.

They would be getting married. She recollected something Dorthy had said, “I heard Lord Alexander is getting engaged to Lady Caroline.”

No she wouldn’t believe it until she saw it for herself. Not unless the words came right through Alexander’s mouth.

Suddenly Katie remembered that before she left for the south empire, Alexander had asked her for a favor. No not a favor but something he asked her to do if things turned out to be worst.

“If ever things turn dire, I want you to use this,” he said picking up her pendant in between his fingers and she looked down to see the blue stone in it.

“It wasn’t just a pendant when you gave me was it?” she asked to see him smile.

“I’m glad you’re catching up with my thoughts,” he said to open the locket into to halves to find a rose petal in between it.

“This…” Katie trailed looking at the blue petal which was from the rose Alexander treasured.

“Burn this for me,” he said pushing the strands of her hair away from her face, “Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah.”

She now tried opening the locket with her fingers but it didn’t open up. Trying to find the little opening, she ran her nails around the stone. Getting up from the bed she started rummaging the drawer for a sharp object but didn’t find it anything except for pins.

How could she burn the petal if it wasn’t opening. She made an exasperated noise and picked up the chain again. Suddenly an idea formed and she pulled out the chain she had picked from Malphus’ room which she had hidden under her bed. The locket was smooth and sharp, and using it she successfully got it opened.

Taking the petal out delicately, she threw it into the fireplace, seeing the fire burn brightly until the petal turned to nothing but dust.

Going back to the bed she saw the pendant lying one over the other after she had cracked open the locket. She felt a self realization form seeing the way they overlapped each other. It was never a triangle. It had nothing to do with the triangle because it was a pentagram from the beginning. The book spoke about five sides and to form a pentagram it took five sides.

“One of the dark, one of the white, one of the innocent and one of the witch. What is the other one?” she questioned to herself, “And if dark and white refers to witches here why was the witch mentioned again?”

Going to stand in front of the window she tried having a better look at the town but she could only see a part of it. All this while the witches were only performing massacres but this time it looked like they were planning something big and destructive.

Just as she was lost in her thoughts she heard a sound of flapping of wings outside in the dark, startling her as she narrowed her eyes to see if it was a bird. When a bat came flying right towards her she ducked down and saw it wait outside, flapping its wings before it dropped a little scroll of paper and vanished behind the trees.

Quickly picking up the paper, she unrolled it to read the message written inside it. Will see you soon. El.

Hearing the knock on the door, Katie threw the paper into the fire and hides the chain in her clothes.

“Ms Katherine?” she heard the maid call out for her and when she finally opened the door she smiled at the girl.

“What is it?” she questioned her like nothing was wrong.

“The young master said you didn’t have dinner and therefore asked be to bring you dinner,” she said pulling the trolley who was followed by Leroy.

“How thoughtful of him,” Katie murmured.