CHAPTER FOUR: A HELPING HAND
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I wake up as someone knocks on my door and cracks it to speak to me. "Huh?" I croak out as I start to wake up.
"Princess Alexia, wake up. My name is Eliza Sorenson and your uncle has assigned me to be your chambermaid so I must get you ready for breakfast and going on the surface." A light voice says as she turns on the lights. A purple Merrow with pale blue eyes and hair comes into my room and does a quick bow. "Now up!" as she pulls the covers off the bed and forces me to get up. She shoos me to the bathroom next door and says "Please go take a shower while I make your bed and get clothing set out for you."
I walk into the bathroom and start to shower after using the toilet. I smile and start humming the song I vaguely remember mera singing to me as a child as I wash everything. I dry myself completely as I walk back into the bedroom. My eyes widen as Eliza has completely made the bed plus gotten a gorgeous blue ombre dress with stockings and plain shoes for me to wear. She helps me get into the dress and stockings and brings me a perfume bottle to try out. It is in a beautiful tall glass bottle with a top that looks like a pyramid. The fragrance is light and summery with a hint of watermelon and jasmine. "It's perfect!" I decry as I spray a small amount on my wrists. I get up from the bed and try to remove any wrinkles from the dress. "Ah! Can you please escort me to breakfast, Eliza" I ask as I open the door.
"Yes! Let me show you where to go!" she says walking in front of me and showing me through the house. "As you can see, this is King Alcandor's private residence that is not meant for the public to go to. In fact..." We walk further into the house.
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"Ah, niece! You have finally shown up for breakfast! I was worried you would take too long in the bath as it has been over a day since you have been in the water." Uncle Alcandor says the door opens after the tour is done.
I nod and hurridly say, "Yes uncle, I don't need as much water as Mother used to. I can go for days without having to really soak as she did." I sit down where Alcandor mentions as one of the waiters pushes me under the table. I grab my silverware and get eggs and bacon put onto my plate for me to eat. I look up as my uncle clears his throat and motions to his side.
"Niece, Alexia, this is my Queen - Killigan. Killigan, this is Alanni's daughter, Alexia." He motions to the female merrow next to him. She had pale blue hair with blue eyes and skin. "Everyone else is away for now, but we will introduce you to them later."
I nod and introduce myself to the Queen, "Hello Au-. Killigan. May I call you Aunt?" I bob my head a bit as I am unsure of the traditional ways to introduce myself.
They beam at me and say "It is wonderful to finally meet you! I was worried that Al would never meet his sister again, but," They reaches out and strokes his chin before turning back to me, "it is wonderful to have you in our house and court. You may call me Aunt Killigan if you wish."
I smile back at them and finish eating breakfast. As I ate, I kept looking outside to make sure not too much time has passed as I am eager to hit the surface. After I am done eating, I stare at my uncle and try to make him hurry up and finish. It works. Sort of...
"Fine! Stop looking at me with those eyes!" He says, motioning me to follow him. "I had the five Gheyo gather already, and they are waiting for you to get to the surface. Just remember, no Merrow is allowed to be up there, so do nothing to suggest you are Merrow." He brings me out through the front door and motions to the Merrow down below.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I gasp as one of them locks eyes on me. I wave and he steps up toward me with a bow. 'He is very handsome isn't he?' He has Nordic blue eyes that tug at my soul with pale skin. And his hair is so blue that it almost looks black. I gasp as he kisses my knuckles and then looks into my eyes again.
"Hello, your Highness, Princess Alexia." He says with a deep voice. "I am Tobias Marin and I am the captain of your surface guard. Please follow my guidance as we go up there." He bows again while motioning to his four fellow Gheyos. "This is Caspain, he is my second." As he claps a Gheyo with purple eyes on the shoulder. "And those three, well the light Gheyo with light blue eyes is Cove, the Gheyo with white eyes is Loch, and the Gheyo with dark blue eyes is Pike. All of us have been glamoured to make sure we are not outed as Merrow." as he points to the three Gheyo below him. "Please follow us Princess, and we will get you to the surface." He motions me to follow him.
I kiss my uncle on the cheek and cheekily say "Well uncle, I'll be back before bedtime! Time will fly while I am up there, so don't blink or you'll miss it." I follow Tobias as the Gheyos move away from the door and follow them to a close beach.
"Well, here we are Princess." Tobias looks at me and my soul gets tugged once again. "Although, we will have to call you something else while we are up here. How is 'Lexia until we go back below?" he asks me while still staring into my eyes.
"Um, 'Lexia is fine with me," I say shaking my head to get his eyes out of it. "How close is the city? I'm anxious to begin!" I chirp as I rock on my feet.
"Well, we need to 'register' you with the courts, though it has been approved that you get done under a false flag until the hunt actually starts," Caspian says as he steps forward. "Follow me and don't get lost. Also, don't allow yourself to get pulled into an alleyway. Some scum will try to abduct Submissives, but we will not allow that." He says fiercely.
I nod and follow the five of them to wherever registration is. The streets are quite packed and people are hustling through the streets. As I pass a group of dragels, an exquisite smell floats by me and I try to turn around but am urged on by the Gheyos. I try to look to see what has that smell, but all I can see are green-blue eyes as I am forced to keep going. I pout and try to start speaking, but am shushed and moved on.
"We're halfway there, 'Lexia. We just have to turn 3 more corners and we'll be there." Cove says and turns into a narrow alleyway and the rest of us follow. As Tobias turns, he makes sure no one is following us from behind. And then, as the alleyway grows larger, it happens...
As we get five steps into the alleyway, I hear "Get them!" from the side and get shoved down as Tobias dives down on top of me, probably to protect me. I see that the other three Merrow are trying to get rid of the attackers, but they are not managing to make them go away. Tobias eventually gets out his dual scimitars and stands in front of me with my back to a wall. Regrettably, he eventually gets harried by an attack and eventually falters while getting stabbed in the side. My soul lurches and cries out at seeing Tobias falling to the ground.
As I crawl to Tobias, he looks at me and smiles with blood in the corners of his mouth. "No, no, no!" I cry to the sky.
He takes his blood-covered hand and slowly caresses my cheek and says "I would have loved to become your Prince." and starts to breath weird.
"No!" I whine as I cover his palm with mine. And then as I am still hearing battle going on, I start shrieking to the world and do not stop. As I shriek, I hear many little bolts of lighting hitting something and see multiple flashes of light. I feel something at my back, but I refuse to look away from Tobias. And I am still painfully screaming for him to come back to me. I look up toward the sky and slowly stop screaming. As I stop screaming, I choke and look down at my front expecting there to be glass, but there is none. However, there are white and silver feathers around me. Around Tobias! I tense up and spin around with my teeth bared as I see her. She chirps at me and I slowly start to relax. As I do so, I pet the feathers and say "Oh, hello." And then I collapse into darkness.