Consciousness returned to Ninon somewhere else. Her body was on a surface that was firm, yet soft. It was an utter contrast to the stone bed she had fainted on. She glanced below, finding her folded hands each wrapped in sterile gauze.
The reading… she realized. It’s done.
While most of her body rested on the back seats of the SUV she had originally left the Karesti Palace in, she found her head lying on a warm, uneven surface with fabric covering it very closely. She glanced upwards, only to see a woman resting her head against the window of a personal Craft.
Ninon had been sleeping with her head on Alda’s lap, who was patiently waiting for her to awake. Although in the process, the servant too had found herself drifting off as well.
“You’ve awoken, Your Highness,” the driver noticed with a yawn, having forced himself to stay awake in accordance with his main duty as a household guard. “Are you feeling well at all?”
Was he referring to wellness in the physical sense, or in the mental sense? Physically, she was just fine, with the exception her wounded hands. Mentally, the same could not be said. A wave of anxiety had taken a hold of her moments after she had woken up, a continuance of what she felt the moment Rhona had called to speak with her in the Palace parlor half a day earlier.
“I… suppose so…” Ninon answered cryptically, rising to a seated position next to Ninon, rubbing her eyes. As she moved, Alda too had stirred. The woman had always been a light sleeper, and her ward was well aware, so Ninon did not feel particularly sorry that she roused her from her short rest.
“How long has it been, Engel?” Alda asked the driver.
“Three hours since you brought Her Highness back, and an hour since you fell asleep, Ms. Silje.”
“We don’t have time,” Alda said, the driver’s words snapping back into her sentry-like disposition as Ninon’s caregiver and bodyguard. “Engel, return to the Palace as fast as you safely can. Right now.”
“Of course, Ms. Silje.” Engel nodded. He shifted the gear into drive, and within seconds, the scenery outside the window looked like fast moving strips of darkness, interrupted by the occasional cluster of wild florberry bushes.
Alda turned around slightly, making sure to face Ninon and look right into her eyes.
“Princess Ninon, please tell me what the priest and priestess told you. Tell me everything they were able to find out about your future.”
“They… they, umm…”
Ninon’s knees bounced rapidly where she rested her hands. Alda took this as a sign that something significant must’ve been said. She took the girl’s hands in her own, careful not to put too much pressure on them.
“One thing at a time, Princess Ninon. What did they tell you?”
Alda forced herself to smile in front of her fearful ward, even though she too was beginning to feel agitated.
“Th-They said… I’d have to find refuge for some reason, and then after a battle would be fought to take me b-back home,” Ninon managed to stammer. “Then, I’ll come across two men from my lineage, and they told me that it would be at the cost of another’s life. Does that mean someone will have to d-die for me to find them? A man from my family?”
“Just keep speaking, Princess Ninon.” Alda firmly instructed.
“A-lright, then. Peace will be restored and the ones responsible, they’ll… they’ll be punished. I believe that it would start a new era, in which I will be a facilitator. But… it won’t last forever,” Ninon revealed. “A war, one that pits armies we’ve never seen before, that’s what the priests told me, will come about. That’s all they t-told me, Alda.”
That leaves me no choice then, the servant told herself. The lack of clear information had only made Ninon more confused, more afraid, and less prepared and confident for the uncertain future ahead of her. Alda’s duty called, and it was not simply one that an employee had to fulfill because their employee had instructed them to do so. This was the duty a person who had cared for, taught and protected like her own had to fulfil. The one no one else could fulfill—not even blood. I will have to take her there and tell her everything myself. Nothing else matters.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
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To avoid being detected and cause disturbances to the sleeping servants of the Karesti Palace, Ninon and Alda entered it discreetly via a cellar door in the garden, which led down into storage space. Beyond this was a door, leading to a series of narrow but well-lit maintenance tunnels below the palace and between many of its walls, which were primarily used to transport food directly to the kitchen and to dispose of waste from all over the household. The tunnels were vast and intersected with one another at various points. But Alda had the entire floorplan memorised in her head, something she painstakingly took the past three months to learn. After her frightening encounter with Rhona in her own bedroom, Alda took many preparations to keep herself and Ninon safe, this being just one of them.
“Where are we heading?” Ninon asked as she followed closely behind. “I’ve never been in these tunnels before.”
“You may have not been here before, but the place I am taking you is somewhere you have stepped foot in,” Alda answered without turning her neck, keeping her gaze on the path before her. “Although you certainly can't remember it. We’re almost there.”
At the end of one particular tunnel was a door that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. While most doors on Titan were activated by motion and slid open and closed, this one had a knob, requiring it to be pulled open. Once the two stepped through the doorway, it was clear whatever room they had entered was not an ordinary one. The ceiling about thrice as high compared to an ordinary room’s. To even call it a room was incorrect. It was a singular, sprawling space, comprising of the entire floor. Next to the door on an adjacent wall was fixed an Utrium lantern, unlit. Alda took it in her grasp and infused it with a tiny amount of Reserve to get the lantern’s own Pool to power itself.
Everything in the room revealed itself before the lantern’s light. Vertical slabs of stone were embedded in the walls, simultaneously part of them but also their own separate objects at the same time. Other such stones stuck out of the ground like pillars, making the otherwise bereft space appear like a labyrinth.
“You brought me to a crypt? But why?” Ninon asked as Alda continued leading the way without pause.
“I must show and tell you what you need to know, Princess Ninon,” Alda informed her, the tone of her voice more stern than usual. “What you do with it is your choice, but you must know what you need to in the most comprehensive way possible. And this is not just any crypt. This is your own family’s crypt. One side of it, at least.”
Nearly a thousand Karesti family members, tied by both blood and marriage, from every era and every dynasty found their resting place there. Every single member of the lineage, legitimate or not, since the reign of the duumvirate co-emperors, was interred there, starting with Co-Emperor Emrys.
It was eerie. Ninon felt that these great ancient ancestors and relatives were gazing at her through the solid coffin-lids, as if assessing the very fabric of her soul. She felt a thousand noble energies and a thousand cold stares both at the same time. Every single sarcophagus was emblazoned with the Karesti coat of arms, reminding her with each step she took that she was the inheritor to immense power and massive bounties.
“We’re here. This is what I need to show you.” Alda said, guiding Ninon to the newest section of sarcophagi.
She had Ninon stop before one sarcophagus in particular, embedded in a wall. However, while the plaque mounted on it bore the Karesti name after its occupant’s first name, the sarcophagus did not display the Karesti coat of arms.
“Her name’s Ilmatar,” Alda stepped forward. She was hesitant at first, but her palm found itself pressed softly against the vertical coffin’s lid, which directly faced her. “This is where my mother lies.”
“Indeed, Princess Ninon,” Alda nodded, although she stood to the back of the girl. “Her Highness was buried here 11 years ago. But I’d known her for a year prior to that. She and your father were looking for a guardian to teach and care for you. Do you know how they came across me?”
“Did they not handpick you from the Military? You said you studying to become an instructor.” Ninon asked.
“That is only somewhat true,” Alda lowered her head. The shame she felt from hiding pieces of the truth was starting to show. “I was a good soldier. A great one, even. So great in fact, that my name was sent up as a nomination for Team Zero.”
“Y-You’re joking, right?” Ninon was baffled, breaking her out of her anxious state for a short period. “Team Zero? The most elite unit of our Military?”
“I am not,” Alda shook her head. “My nomination was rejected, you see. I was far too amiable. I get attached too deeply. For them, at least. I didn’t have the cold heart that was required of the team. Somewhere around that time, your mother and father had heard about my dilemma, so rather than have me sent back to the teaching school where my talent would be wasted, your mother herself came to my dormitory and asked me one simple question.”
“What did she ask?” Ninon turned around to face Alda.
“’Will you sign your life away to protect my daughter with every fibre of your being?’” Alda repeated the exact words Ilmatar Karesti had uttered to her 12 years earlier.
“I-I don’t get it, Alda,” Ninon admitted. “Don’t all servants spend their life in service of the Royal Family? What’s so special about that question?”
“Because, that…” Alda said, taking a breath to stop herself from choking. “That was when my life really, truly began. And it is because I answered that question that I know, from deep within my heart of hearts, that I must tell you who your mother is.”