Gaurdia’s Queen had two lives initially, before her need to be rushed back after her father suffered from the backlash of the summoning ceremony, she lived a comfortable life undercover in the outskirts of the capital. Initially she had broken the ankles of her guardians and taken up a short life on the run, but she was quickly found and hauled back. Loving father that he was though, the king took pity on her tears and permitted her to continue living in the slums under the fake name she’d picked up.

It was there that she met her master and began training as the Seer that she was becoming.

But now there were three lives.

Her life had been complicated before but now things just felt overwhelming.

“Y’ok?” Third asked, extending a hand and gingerly patting the small of her back from where she sat on the side of the bed. Her expression was complex, and her cheeks were flushed almost further than they had been in the hours prior.

“Mhm, I’m fine.” Camilla confirmed with a guilt-ridden smile, as she gently squeezed his hand with her own. “When do you have to be back?”

“Not for a while, I sent the crew back and figured I could hitch a ride on one of the transports leaving the airfield this time.”

“That should be interesting…” Camilla muttered, thinking of the large heavily packed aircraft she’d witnessed taking off from the relatively new facility a few miles from the capital.

“I thought so.” Third laughed while pulling himself up from the bed and reaching over to the glass of water sat on the table beside him. Grabbing his pants from the bedside he fished a small orange bottle from his pocket and carefully begins unscrewing it.

“What is that?” Camilla asked, stepping around the bed with seemingly no shame and curiously watching the scene.

“Medicine, it helps me deal with…”

But Camilla didn’t allow him to finish, as soon as the cap came off the bottle she shot forward with a look of disgust on her face and forced the cap back on.

“No! Do not eat that.” Camilla cried out, shocking Third into complying and carefully screwing the cap back on. “That is not medicine!”

“It definitely is, but if you don’t wa—”

“That smell…” Camilla again muttered while racking her mind for a memory.

“It’s just an Antidepressant it’s not poison or anything.” Third tried to explain, but Camilla’s eyes were distant, as if she weren’t paying any attention to the words coming from him.

After a moment, Camilla shook herself and gazed back between the awkwardly curious Third and the bottle loosely resting in his grip.

“It’s already cured.” Camilla explained poorly with a pleading expression, “If you can trust me at least.”

“That’s a pretty rare commodity these days.” Third shrugged, glancing between the bottle and water glass before eventually placing it on the bedside in a fake bid at surrender.

Huffing quietly Camilla turned away and finally started to attend to her lack of dress.

Third considered using the chance to quickly sneak the pill but considering her reaction to the smell alone, he felt his time was better spent simply watching the pleasant scene unfolding before him.

Perhaps she’d expected the outcome as Camilla smirked when her eye caught his in the mirror beside her.

Eventually Third followed suit and clothed himself before stepping to a nearby window to take in high view of the city.

He felt a powerful desire to explore, and the adventure of making his way all the way to the airfield felt like the perfect excuse to do so.

Pinning a beaded earring to her right ear, Camilla stepped up beside him to share the view. Reaching to her toe’s she planted a warm kiss to his cheek before returning to gaze across the capital city.

“Be careful.” She stressed while nibbling at her inner cheek. She knew she couldn’t say ‘stay out of trouble’ but she figured at least this worked.

“I’ll do my best.” Third chuckled. Turning to inspect the fully gowned Queen, he couldn’t help consider the vast juxtaposition of the two versions of her. “The other outfit was better, but this is nice.”

Forcing a fist into his side, Camilla smiled again then gave a quick spin. “Looks fine? I’m to meet with the fleet commanders of the Federation navy at noon. The look I’m going for is ‘kind but intimidating’.”

“You should go then, its already twelve-twenty.” Third chastised lightly after looking to his watch. He knew they took time a bit more liberally here, but he felt like noon was still noon.

“Fi-♫-ne” Camilla chirped with some clearly feigned reluctance. Rising again to peck his cheek, Camilla spun on her heels and made her way out the room.

Third, while doing his best to maintain his usual demeanor cracked a smile as he pictured the wild princess morphing into her queenly form.

A few moments after Camilla had, Third too made his way out the room and instantly became lost in the maze of corridors linking the fortified castle.

Fortunately, being a highly staffed manor, it wasn’t too difficult to find someone to request directions from. The first person he saw after shutting the door behind him was a woman in a loose white gown. She locked her eyes with his the moment he released his grip on the doorknob, but with a single double take, she vanished as if she’d never existed.

With a shake of his head, Third extended a hand to get the attention of another nearby attendant, but just as he stepped up to explain his situation, instead of pausing, she instead continued without even moving her gaze aside. Even as they approached within inches of each other’s shoulders, she maintained her path as if planning to go directly through him.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Realizing her intent in the last moment, Third had to spin to dodge the collision. “Hey did you not—”

Again, as if not seeing or even hearing him, the maid simply continued towards her task without any regard.

“—in the hell is going on…” Third muttered as he noticed similar reactions the further he got from the room.

Staff of all shapes and sorts came and went but none looked or reacted to Third in any way. It began feeling off putting, so when a voice finally addressed him, he felt a massive sense of relief.

“Right this way.” The man politely said with a patient, but stiff, smile.

“Thank god, I thought I was going crazy.” Third sighed with awkward laugh. “I guess everyone just takes their work very serious.”

“Yes, everyone employed by the royal family has an important role to provide so we must never be neglectful.”

“Ow! Hey, I’m walking here!” Third groaned as a man in heavy black armor collided with him and continued without noticing. “Okay, now this is a bit too much maybe?”

The man leading Third said nothing, merely pausing a step for Third to catch up before continuing down the hall and turning at a nearby intersection.

“Is this how guests are normally treated or only the ones who sleep in the princess’ bedroom?”

“No one was seen coming out of the princess’ bedroom.” A gentleman with a pair of tools tucked at his waist adamantly stated to no one in particular as he stepped past Third and the man at his lead.

“Uhm…” Third mouthed quietly, glancing around with a chill running down his back.

The same words echoed through a few different voices that heard Third’s admission. Even the man leading Third calmly smiled as he glanced back to reiterate the workmen’s statement.

“No one was seen coming out of the princess’ bedroom.”

The words put a stop to Third’s questions. He felt he didn’t really want to hear the answer anymore.

Finally, after a silent walk, the butler showed Third to a familiar entrance way. He knew the way from here, but he still had a lingering question that he couldn’t shake.

“Why did you lead me back, while everyone else pretended I didn’t exist?”

“I was asked to lead you back to the staff entrance from the princess’ bedroom.”

“By who?” Third asked, unable to hold back his curiosity regarding all the strangeness. “Did she ask you to lead me from her room?”

“No one was seen coming out of the princess’ bedroom.” The man reiterated as if assuring Third of something he was having trouble accepting.

“…”

“Sir? Do you need something?” The man asked after abruptly pursing his lips as if an odd taste filled his mouth. “I have to ask you to leave if you have no business here.”

“What is…” Third started to ask, but when the man began motioning for the guards, Third understood better than to overstay his welcome. “Alright, alright I’m going.”

Spinning tail, Third followed the instructions and left through the door into the loading area nestled inside the castle walls. The place had been his landing zone the night prior, but in the daylight, it was totally different. Crates and boxes were spread seemingly at random and countless workers padded around like ants following invisible trails.

Shaking his head at the previous oddity, Third pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped out a quick message to his gracious host

III: [I say we stick with the winter house if you don’t want people to know, I’m not a fan of that invisibility act.]

Returning his phone to his pocket, not a dozen steps later he felt it buzz as an unusually fast response came from Camilla.

C: [???]

Third thought he was clear in the message, but even he wasn’t sure how best to describe the situation.

C: [What happened? Got lost?]

A part of Third wondered if she was joking. He was sure this was something done to keep his presence a secret, so he felt fairly confident that she either organized it, or requested it directly.

III: [Never mind. Talk later.]

C: [??]

C: [Ok]

Returning his phone to his pocket, Third looked around to better grasp his bearings. A few landmarks were familiar with what he’d seen from the window, so he chose a road that looked to veer in the correct direction and began down it.

He had no real destinations, but he did have a few places he hoped to locate while exploring.

The first and topmost wasn’t particularly difficult, because as he knew, they dotted the roadsides like fleas.

“Three please?” Third requested as his turn in the short line arrived at the small meat stand.

His first week here he made the mistake of trying to ask what type of ‘meat’ it was, but he’d only received the answer ‘meat’. So, he learned better, and this time instead simply asked for more than he anticipated eating.

A good tip when it comes to street food. Always get more than you want, because once you want more, the line will be longer.

Paying over the four copper and receiving a handful of rough copper slivers as change, Third retrieved his trio of skewers and blended back into the roaming city folk.

His outfit still stood out a bit, which certainly made it harder to blend, but at this point it wasn’t uncommon to see a pair of jeans or t-shirt on the occasional passerby or even selling at corner stands with exorbitant markup.

The impact didn’t stop at the surface level either. The air was packed with A&R’s influence pumping out of the pair of communication towers located on either side of the city. Even in the slums he could probably get four bars, that’s better than most mid-western cities.

Finishing the first of his skewers and tossing the stem into a nearby brazier, he began work on the second while losing his way in the mess of crowded streets.

For the first time since arriving, he felt a wave of newly formed nostalgia. Before he’d known why he’d been brought here, he spent several days getting lost in these streets. While it might have been frightening then, in hindsight it’d been one of the most incredible weeks of his life.

Keeping his eyes peeled as he went, the signboards blended together as he read each name one after the other in his head. He would know it when he saw it, he thought, but apart from that he had little to go on, the streets and buildings mostly looked the same apart from trivial differences in adornments or floor arrangements. And the naming sense of the capital’s merchants certainly didn’t help.

It made for a grand appearance from the castle window, but on the ground, it caused slight navigation struggles.

A familiar but unexpected Colosseum interrupted his view and massively skewed his sense of direction at the same time.

“Oh, then I’m—” Third quietly muttered as his location finally cleared up in his mind. Turning three quarters of a circle, he spotted the other landmark that assured him. Directly mirroring where the massive Colosseum stood was an equal in size forest that stretched high above the buildings surrounding it. “Perfect.”

Nodding to himself he hastened his step down a nearby side street, ignoring the occasional fruit or spice seller who would eagerly shout about their quality or price the moment he got nearby.

Eventually the shortcut paid off and he was dumped from the cramped alley onto the wide street that, in his mind, surely held his destination.

A few minutes and the rest of his skewer later, he finally arrived beneath the correct signboard.

Merchants out of the capital all tended to use flashy important names for their businesses, so although he knew the names of the people who would be inside the building, until he saw the sign once again, never in a million years would he have come upon the name.

“Day and Dusk, Carts Full and Co.” Third muttered with a hint of queasiness in his voice. He knew his own company didn’t have much ground to stand on, but he still felt they were at least slightly less on-the-nose than this monstrosity of a name.

He had begun to boldly lie to himself, so he stepped towards the structure while repressing the thoughts.

Reaching the door, he lifted the handle, and slid it towards himself. The familiar smell of his short-lived home away from home immediately invaded his nostrils as the door drafted the stale air towards him.

A short wooden stick attached to the top of the door softly clamored against a pair of chimes hanging in the doorway as it opened, alerting the few staff members of the arrival before any figure had appeared through the narrow entranceway.