Vanya felt the weight of the entire world on her shoulders concealing herself within the shadows while staring down at all the crowd gathered below entering the castle. She rubbed her hands together and breathed deeply trying to calm herself while hoping and praying everything was going according to plan.

She wondered for a moment if it was all too much if she was unknowingly causing the people who cared for her to sacrifice their sanity and probably even their lives if it were to all end in shambles and they all get charged for treason.

She looked to Aren and Chief Han at a corner of the balcony speaking to themselves while observing the commotion below. Her eyes drew to the small door by the entrance. It was approaching the time when Roza and Taru would open that door and invite her in.

She opened her palms to look at the orange seashell in them. She had been clutching onto it ever since they left for the castle. She was devastated when Rhohaz took up the position to watch out for the man who hunted her the other night. Worry wore on her face as she hoped he would stay safe tonight.

She looked to the seashell again remembering Rhohaz’s words from earlier in the day when Joan forced themselves alone in the room.

“You kept it,” Rhohaz had said softly while letting her rest her head on his chest while wrapping their arms so tightly around each other.

“Of course, I stole it from you after all,” she had replied while a gentle smile crossed her face.

“Promise me you’ll keep it with you forever?” he had asked making her look to his pale eyes and respond, “Always.”

Her fingers wrapped around the seashell tighter and held it to her heart.

Just then, the tiny door opened with a creak. Vanya along with Chief Han and Aren jumped in unison. But were they glad to find Roza and Taru behind it.

Their feet sped up as they entered through the door and walked through the narrow passageways and dark corridors. Vanya was more surprised to find hidden pathways in her own home she had resided since being a teenager.

They heard the horns blare indicating the beginning of the ceremony.

“We must hurry,” Taru said guiding everyone through the final passageway leading to the upper balcony section overlooking the grand hall. It was so narrow and unsteady that only servants occasionally made it up here to store supplies and run off.

Vanya peered seeing the hundreds gathered below. The floor was packed to the brim with extravagant visitors from all over, vibrant dancers, servants serving giant plates of food, and lively music echoing throughout the hall. It was truly a grand feast and she was used to it.

The horns blared alerting everyone to turn as a loud voice announced the entrance of the queen. She appeared at the front of the entrance, her dress so massive and in blood orange. She dripped of jewels and her thin crown laid woven through her hair.

Next, the new heir to be, Vanya’s step-brother, made his way in dressed in navy blue. But his face was uncomfortable and annoyed on this grand day. Vanya sympathized with him for she knew how odd it felt to enter a room knowing the expectations and duty that was about to be placed on him soon. He was young, much younger than when Vanya was crowned the heir.

Finally, the King entered. His grand aura left everyone in awe. His deep red suit and matching mantle with gold detailing shone as he walked slowly towards his throne on the stage ahead. His crown decorated in large rubies and diamonds sat heavy and grand on his head as he walked down the aisle.

Everyone gathered as he faced them to greet and welcome all the guests to the crowning of the new heir to the throne.

“Please, enjoy yourselves. We will begin the ceremony shortly,” he said with his voice reverberating across Vanya’s bones. It wasn’t like she had never heard her father speak so. It was that she felt him sound so pleased to be conducting such a ceremony. He seemed so jovial despite his only daughter passing away days ago.

Roza’s hand on her shoulder brought her back to earth. “We must leave, Your Highness. It’s time.”

Vanya nodded in agreement. She took one last look at her father, the same man who was so involved in her upbringing ever since moving to Esmeth, the same man so impressed by her achievements, and refused to have his scholars question the reason she was considered his pick to be the next heir to the throne, seemed so unlike the father she knew.

Nevertheless, she followed the rest down to the floor where the entrance to the grand hall was located. Roza fell back wishing her good luck as Chief Han and Aren accompanied her to the entrance. It was all moving too fast.

They could already see it. The ministers were gathering on the stage to start the oath for the new heir. Everyone was adjusting themselves to a seat or a corner to view the ceremony about to unfold.

And before Vanya knew it Taru had convinced the announcer at the gate to blare the horns once more and announce the last guest for the evening.

Taru gave a quick nod to her and disappeared with his father. Aren let his hand out at her. She looked to him for courage to which he whispered, “I will be right beside you, my lady.”

Vanya took his hand hearing the horns sound out and echo across the corridor outside. She and Aren appeared in front of the entrance with the announcer, who was looking at her with his jaw gaping open, turned and screamed from the top of his lungs, “Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Vanya Helfan of the Northern Kingdom.”

Vanya never thought she be so terrified of seeing the shock written across the faces of so many gathered. It was as if they had seen a ghost, a dead body walking in front of their eyes, dressed in the most elegant of blue-green dresses, with skin so lush she did not seem even remotely dead to begin with.

Her eyes followed the puzzled and shocked faces beside her to finally look towards her father, standing there with his knees faltering with every step she was drawing closer to him. His eyes widened in shock and his lips quivered.

“My daughter,” he whispered.

***

Rhohaz felt his back crash against the walls that were closing in on him. It felt unearthly seeing him about to get crushed by two walls drawing closer by the minute. A hand pulled him up and out to suddenly have him thrown out onto silky sand.

He opened his eyes finding himself by the shore, while the waves spread its water as they crashed onto the wet sand. The moonlight shone on him coloring the world in black and white.

It’s an illusion…I’m in an illusion…

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His father, the one man he was deathly afraid of disappointing stood above him, arms crossed and watching him with narrowed eyes.

“What a disappointment you have become. My own son has dared to leave his position and venture out to save some girl. You should be ashamed of yourself,” he spoke in a deeper voice startling Rhohaz. His father’s words did not surprise him for he knew in his heart that it was exactly what his father would have said if he was alive.

Rhohaz stood up forcing his buckling knees to stand up straight. He observed his father closely. Strangely, he looked different from when he passed away a year ago. His face was much younger, his hair still containing color.

Rhohaz paused as his father’s words seared in his mind before he spoke, “I don’t care if I’ve disappointed you. I’ve done what I think is right. And I stand by it.”

He watched as his father’s face soured. A part of him always wanted to stand up to his father, make him known that his son was not always going to stand quiet and listen, that he had his own thoughts, and that he was his own person.

“Have I not done enough raising you? All you could do is to be better, be a man, and take care of your village—“

“But I am much better. I have control over my life. I’m finally free of the pressure put on by you and the council. I am free to do as I think is right,” Rhohaz cried.

“But you have a duty!” his father bellowed.

Yet Rhohaz only fell back to say quietly, “I would never abandon my people, you know it. But I refuse to sacrifice my hopes and dreams, and my desires, just to be a puppet in a corner…”

He inched closer to his father continuing, “…But I also know that I’m not really talking to you. I am talking to some person disguising themselves as you for I know how much more you wanted to say to me. I knew that at the end of the day, you wrote all those letters to Roza and me so that we would pick and choose our battles even when it seemed that we were born into a role. So I’m asking you, whoever you are, to reveal yourself. Talk to me as yourself without using my father, whom you’ve never met in your life, as a shield.”

For a moment Rhohaz thought he’d made a mistake. His father’s illusion remained unwavering before it suddenly faded to the face of the man they captured that night, standing there without putting on a fight.

“I knew your father for much longer than you did, kid,” the man’s words sent chills down Rhohaz’s spine.

“Stop lying!” Rhohaz shouted back to which the man smirked. Rhohaz saw it then, the dark brown hair and the pale eyes with the same stature and posture as his father.

“Why should I? You’ve already noticed it. It’s good to finally meet you, nephew.”

His words felt like Rhohaz was getting pummeled to the ground with a sea of rocks showering his way. He knew it instantly, he knew that the man standing in front of him was the same man Grandma Tilly mourned the death of decades ago. The same man who was the first to have been burnt at the stake for using magic to assassinate the former King. It was the same man his father told stories about. It was his father’s younger brother, whose death anniversary reminded everyone of the dark times they had to endure.

“Uncle?” Rhohaz barely let the words out when suddenly he felt his knees let go and he was falling infinitely down a pitch-black hole.

It may have been hours before he finally felt his back crash on a tangible floor. He opened his eyes as pain engulfed his body. He felt his limbs shaking before he finally realized he was still in the same corridor he had entered into, except this time he was alone, no walls squashing him, and no man in the shape of his father looking down on him.

He heard footsteps approaching revealing it to be Timmie, breathless, trying to get to Rhohaz.

“There you are,” Timmie heaved looking at Rhohaz in shambles, “Did you get him?”

Rhohaz paused for a moment sensing the man, his long-lost uncle. He was gone.

“I…I can’t feel him. What about the rest of them?” Rhohaz asked curious to know what happened while he was stuck in an illusion.

Timmie took a deeper breath to finally find his words, “We must go. They’ve announced her. She’s entering the room as we speak.”

***

Vanya drew closer to the stage finally able to reach out to her father when suddenly her stepmother stepped forward to shout, “What is this superstition? A dead body walking?”

Vanya saw her father’s brows knit in confusion. She threw her hands in front to say, “No! It’s me, father. It’s Vanya. I am alive and well.”

She reached out to show her father by holding his hand when her stepmother grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the ground, “Imposter!”

Vanya fell to her knees as chaos erupted. Guards were being called at her and her stepmother was shouting insults at Aren for conjuring a body out of thin air. Aren helped Vanya up to try and speak to the King, who was still shocked seeing his daughter standing in front of him.

“Wait!” the King thrashed his hand on the arm of his throne silencing everyone. The guards halted and the queen hushed.

He made his way to his daughter. Time slowed down as Vanya waited for her father to approach her. He stepped closer while his mind processed the vision in front of him.

“Tell me, dear. Where have you been all this time?” he asked softly.

“I…I was in the East. The same castle–the same place I grew up in,” she watched as her father’s eyebrows knit as he took a step back.

“You were visiting?--” he asked to which Vanya quickly interjected, “No, I was kidnapped.”

“But we found a body in your chambers after you locked yourself up for a month after falling sick,” he said as his voice began to shake in fear.

Vanya shook her head, “I was kidnapped. My death was a hoax!”

Vanya heard the crowd gathered gasp in unison and whispers catch on like wildfire.

“Whoever would do such a thing?” the King demanded.

“The same person who planned my assassination three months ago. The same person who faked my death while entrapping me elsewhere. The same family that would benefit from my death,” Vanya ended with a glare directed at her stepmother, who was erupting in anger.

“How dare you accuse me?!” the queen shouted back, “Guards, arrest her!”

Vanya felt a sudden pull in her chest before she saw her father get thrown to the floor and a dark cloud blurred her vision. She felt her hands pull back and her knees shift as she found herself frozen with a sharp object pressed against her neck.

The crowd gasped in shock and chaos unfolded. People were shouting and running with the guards blocking the view of the stage and surrounding the royals.

Vanya finally gained her balance to see she was in the arms of her kidnapper once more. Only this time he had the upper hand in killing her in half a second.

“Kill her now!” the queen commanded the kidnapper to which the blade against Vanya’s throat tightened.

“No! Stop!” the King shouted regaining his balance, “Let go of her! You answer to me, Rez! I am your master.”

Vanya froze hearing her father’s words.

“Not anymore,” the kidnapper whispered before his blade moved. Vanya felt her blood beading at her throat when suddenly she was pulled to the side by an invisible force and Rez fell back as a body tackled him.

Vanya turned to see Rhohaz pinning Rez to the ground. Timmie and Taru emerged from the crowd to help Rhohaz. They reached the struggling Rez and tried holding him down only to get propelled into the air and come crashing back down.

Vanya gasped seeing Rez on his feet. “Do it!” the queen shouted at Rez while a sharp thin icicle formed at Rez’s fingertips aiming at Vanya.

Rhohaz, too far from Vanya, gasped seeing Rez. He saw the icicle get swung at Vanya. It cut through the air only inches away from her when suddenly the King stepped between them and let it pierce his side.

“Father!” Vanya shouted grabbing him as his knees gave in and he fell to the ground.

“No!” she cried seeing the blood pooling at their feet.

Rhohaz managed to get to Rez and hold him down. His eyes found Vanya weeping on the floor while the chaos around her continued as the guards scurried to arrest the queen and her child. There was a sudden shock in the air seeing the King of the Northen Kingdom bleeding on the floor while in the hands of his daughter.

Vanya cried seeing her father breathless as she pleaded for help. She cried hearing her voice ripping through the air as her shrieks terrified the night itself.