"That we have come together in such festive mood, I owe to the brave and unyielding ways of our loyal soldiers. As we look upon our Empire today, this victory stands as a testament to our rise as one of the most powerful nations on this great continent," Emperor William Theus de Arlen spoke with unwavering confidence in his own words, as servants walked through the crowd, handing a glass of wine to each eligible to drink, "so let us raise our glasses and dance to celebrate this day. Of course, I also greet our guests who have come from all corners of the earth. I invite you to join us as we honor the fallen and praise those who have returned victorious. Let us raise our glasses!"

His resonant voice, which could reach the deepest parts of the heart even when reading a simple instruction manual, urged everyone to do as told. No matter where they came from, this emperor had a certain charisma that was hard to ignore.

"For only if our hearts and wills come together like this will this Empire thrive for a long time," he added, glancing off to the side, "so that my successor may one day stand in my place, seeing what I see and hearing what I hear."

Looking back at the crowd, his eyes swept through the masses, taking in everyone and resting where Rowena stood.

"This is also a very special day for one of our own. Let us toast to a magnificent victory; to glory and good fortune. Who knows what bonds will be forged on a day like this?"

There was an absurd moment of humble rejoicing, as one would expect in an elegant palace ballroom. Though they were all full of emotion and exhilarated by their sense of accomplishment - which may not have been theirs per se, but could be felt by all nonetheless - they still knew better than to behave like a bunch of animals in front of their own emperor and even high-ranking foreign guests.

With the long-awaited toast, Rowena took a sip from her glass of wine. She was expected to do so now that she was allowed to drink, and her stepmother smiled in her direction as she did. This marked a change in how people would view her from now on.

While they would now treat her as a part of society, all of her mistakes would weigh more heavily. She had to watch where she put her feet from now on - even more than before. It also meant that she had to be more careful with her language in the presence of others.

"I didn't know a black dress could shine so beautifully, but maybe it's not the dress that is shining at all," were the words that brought her out of her trance and almost made her spit out the wine she couldn't even taste because she was so nervous. "Let me congratulate you on your debut. I was going to send you a card, but I decided I had to tell you in person."

When she looked up, a man with hair as blond as Cedric's, but eyes as golden as the thread of his elaborate outfit, stood before her.

He smiled at her as he held out a hand in her direction. She knew who he was as soon as she saw his eyes. The only person with golden eyes in the imperial family of Arlen - the bastard prince.

"You must be His Highness, Prince Cassius of Arlen. I'm honored to be able to meet you."

In a way, it could have been considered rude to call him by his first name, even though she used the proper title and affiliation.

In his case, however, since his mother was actually not a "Previa" but a "Valga", his full name was widely known to be a sore spot for the second Prince of Arlen.

"Don't say that, Lady van Varnhagen. Apart from the Princess and the Grand Duchess, wouldn't you be the noblest woman in the kingdom?"

'Technically, yes. Actually, not by a long shot. And even you should know that.' She wanted to roll her eyes at him, but had to take his hand instead, so he could kiss it in greeting. "I'm flattered, Your Highness."

He laughed. "Would you grant me this dance?"

"I mean no disrespect, but I haven't had my first dance yet." The first dance was important, after all, it might mean even more in the long run. "And I did not come alone."

He looked over at Lucan, who wasn't exactly pleased with what was happening. And, unsurprisingly, it seemed as if the Arlen Prince would back off.

It would be one thing if Lucan were a nobody, but at least the members of the Imperial Family would know who this young man was, so his challenge had to be taken seriously.

"I apologize - where are my manners?" he said, "But you have to have one dance with me, Lady van Varnhagen. When it's no longer an issue, of course."

He continued his charming smile, but his voice left no room for denial on her part. 'Oh dear, that smile doesn't touch your eyes with a ten-foot pole, does it?'

If he didn't really like her and didn't want to ask her, why did he insist on it?

It didn't make sense to Rowena.

But it wasn't as if she didn't have a clue at all. Surely, she looked up at the balcony and saw the eyes of a snake watching her from above.

"I was hoping to meet you in private, Lady van Varnhagen," a voice called to Rowena, who was standing alone on a terrace, taking in the cool evening breeze before turning her head.

"I haven't even seen you earlier, o' Venerable Saintess," Rowena replied with a quick smile, "to what do I owe this honor of being in your presence?"

"Don't be so modest, my lady," the black-haired beauty shot back with an equally quick but considerably more angelic smile, "I just felt I had to congratulate you in person."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

'Apparently, everybody felt that way today,' Rowena thought to herself at those words, "I don't know how to express my gratitude. Is it common for someone in your position to be so benevolent, after the hostility I have shown towards you."

Half of her words were lies, but half were not. She admired the way she always sacrificed herself and her happiness for others.

'Some might count her marriage to Prince Cedric as one of those sacrifices.' Like any prince in a romance novel, Cedric was a popular character, but there were many who didn't think so well of him, despite his general heroism.

"I don't see myself in a position to deserve that kind of praise." Scarlett reacted as Rowena had expected: Modestly.

"You will soon be the Crown Princess, and one day the Mother of this Empire. You are also the Saintess herself. So who, if not you, would be in a position to deserve such praise?"

"I misspoke," she duly replied, "I meant that no one does. To err is human, but so is to forgive. Being in a higher position does not remove me from my existence as a human being, does it?"

"That is indeed a good question," the Varnhagen woman said, tilting her head to the side, "which would be blasphemous for me to answer."

To say that the Saintess or the Empress were merely human defied their way of thinking, but to say that she was no longer human implied that she had either turned into a demon or that she herself had turned into a god. The former would be an affront to the Church and their Saintess, the latter an affront to their God.

'Really, there's no correct answer here.'

"I don't expect an answer," Scarlett said, smiling warmly, "I was just speaking my mind without much intention. Feel free to ignore my ramblings."

Rowena returned the smile, and though it did not have the same warmth and seemed a bit awkward, it still warmed the Saintess' heart.

'She is much better now,' she thought, 'there is nothing to worry about any longer.'

Rowena, on the other hand, wondered how someone so much more composed would end up with their naive Crown Prince. Would she truly marry him? Did she even want to?

'Without the pull of the author...' She paused for a second as her mind went blank. 'No, there never was an author, was there? Just a prophet who happened to write down what would have happened if Rowena had just died in that bathtub. I still can't get used to changing my perspective on that.'

At that thought, Rowena saw Scarlett in a different light: What if she had fallen in love with the idiot Crown Prince? Even she had to admit that he could be charming.

Her newfound hostility might even be entirely due to the fact that he had taken over Rowena's existence, and she didn't like the fact that he had treated her like a villain. As far as she knew, Rowena really was a scoundrel, no matter her reasoning.

And that wasn't all. Now that she thought about it, there was more than just the Shifting Ages that didn't seem to make sense.

'Well, it made sense in the book, but only because it was a book. You see a rich protagonist riding his carriage through the woods, and boom: bandits. We gotta hurry up? Sure, no one can say how long the Shifting Ages have to go on, right? So we can shorten them. That's how it is. But if all these are real events, then the next one would be-'

"Is everything alright, Lady van Varnhagen?" the Saintess asked, worry staining her graceful face.

Stunned for a moment, Rowena caught herself and blinked rapidly as she regained her composure.

"I," she began, thinking some more, "I'm fine, Saintess. Please call me Lady Rowena."

"But that would be rather uncouth of me, since we do not know each other that well, and you are an adult now, Lady van Varnhagen."

"Nevertheless, it feels as if we have known each other for a long time, Saintess. So why don't we make an exception?"

Now surprised herself, Scarlett was taken aback, but then began to laugh. "Is that so, my lady? In that case, I have no choice."

"Right?" Rowena backed her up, "I happen to have a question of my own, Saintess. Would you humor me a little?"

"I cannot promise to answer your question, but I can promise to answer it to the best of my ability," she said, "and since we know each other so well now, you must also call me Scarlett, Lady Rowena."

"Oh, no, I couldn't."

"I insist."

She did not have the nerve to argue like that, since her question had started to catch fire in her mind, thus, she just shrugged. "All right, Lady Scarlett," the lavender-haired woman relented, "my question is about our Hunting Festival. Was it you who saw to the blessing of the hunting grounds?"

Scarlett Raylee Baldwin had been asked many things by many guests that night, but this was not one of them. "In fact, I traveled there for quite some time and blessed the entire mountain more than once."

'That much I know,' Rowena thought, "in that case, I'm sure we will all be safe."

The third inevitable event in your average fantasy drama novel: If there's a big Hunting Festival, there will be blood, and it's not just the blood of the game. Another rule is that there is always a Hunting Festival.

Therefore, no reader questioned the fact that there was an attack of Visitors in an area that had just been cleared of them not long ago. Now, on the other hand, there was reason to doubt that this simple truth was the answer.

'Right, this is no longer a fantasy novel. So how is it that the fresh blessings of the Contractor of Uriel would come apart without much fuss, as it did in the novel?' Nobody was hurt, because people who helped were all over the place, but the mere fact that it would happen was now a concern in and of itself to Rowena. "I'm an idiot."

"What did you say?" Scarlett seemed confused by the other woman's behavior, though she really wasn't. 'She's merely lost in thought a moment ago, so what might have confused her this much?'

She could feel the storm of emotion brewing inside the young woman next to her. But it wasn't a dark storm like the one she had felt that day when she had thrown the holy water in her face and shouted some obscenities. This was very different, and yet Scarlett felt as if she had to help her out of her predicament.

In reality, Scarlett herself didn't know what was pulling her in like that. It felt as if there was something amiss, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. Just like Rowena, she had the feeling that an answer lay before her, but neither of them could reach it alone.

'I want to talk to her,' someone said, startling the Saintess visibly, 'It's important, my child.'

'What is it, Uriel?'

'There is something I must see for myself.'

'That is not possible, I'm afraid. She won't understand. I don't want her dragged into this... world,' Scarlett replied firmly, 'especially not after she's barely come out of that dark place she was in before.'

Rowena didn't notice any of this as she was lost in her own thoughts.

'I said I needed to change my perspective and I keep forgetting. Sure, I guess everything's going to be fine, but I still can't shake the feeling that there's more to it.' The one she had faced in the dry bed in Kadena came to mind. 'There is foul play going on, but there was nothing in the novel. Question is, will they show up this time?'

They must have tampered with the blessing somehow.

If there was human intervention, it wouldn't have been so hard.

"Now that we're close, won't you come with me to a tea party I've been invited to?" the Saintess asked without thinking.

"A tea party?"

"Yes, it is tomorrow. I was asked by the host to pass this invitation on to you." She moved her hand and pulled an envelope from a small purse. "It's on short notice, so we would understand if you couldn't accept. We would be happy to invite you again next time."

When Rowena saw the invitation, she thought her heart might have stopped if it were her own.

'Why would the Princess invite me to her tea party? And why smack bang between the Victory Banquet and the Hunting Festival?'

This was going to be one hell of a week, she could already tell.