Maria felt her body go limp when the woman touched her arm. This time, she could clearly see her face. Her hair was silver, not like the gray strands Maria saw on her aging mistress, but more like Selina’s shining locks.
The slight contact with the ghostly figure sent shivers running down the maid’s spine; she looked at Abigail, who was in the same position. Selina and Kalelle were the only ones that were unaffected by the sudden coldness the woman brought into the room, even though it was already midday. When the woman walked toward Abigail, Maria felt her senses come back to her, and immediately ran out of the door.
“Who a…who are you?” Abigail stammered, taking a step backward with every word until she felt herself hit the wall. In a flash, Selina was in front of her. Folding her hands as if she was praying, she murmured words in a language her mistress didn’t understand. The figure stopped in her tracks and disappeared. Immediately, the gaping hole in the wall was gone, almost as if nothing had happened.
Selina let out a tired sigh and looked at Kalelle, who proceeded to take a necklace from her dress pocket. “I guess it can’t be helped,” she said, turning around, making her long, white, hair sway with her every move.
“What are you?” the mistress asked them, keeping herself near to the wall in fear. “You couldn’t have driven away that ghost if you were hu-” Abigail didn’t have a chance to finish her sentence, because right then, she felt drowsy and immediately fell into deep slumber.
Selina picked up a vase from the corridor and started to dust it with a handkerchief. “I’m as human as Kalelle,” she answered, focusing on the intricate patterns on the glass container in her hands. She waved her hand, and in an instant, she was holding a bunch of sweet-smelling rose geraniums. The intoxicating smell started to fill the entire house. Selina soon found herself the only one left awake inside the Desdemona Manor.
A cool breeze blew over the rooftop of the Ethelred University library. A single student was on the rooftop. She sat on the cold pavement, surrounded by dozens of student files. Her waist-length blonde hair fluttered in the sudden gust of wind. Sapphire ignored it; she had already spent three hours scanning the documents in her hands, looking for a student who matched Flame’s descriptions.
“I can’t believe this,” She said, slamming another folder full of important student papers onto a growing pile on her right. “I’d rather go to the human world than search for a girl who may not exist! At least there, I can get any piece of information with the click of a button,”
“But is the information credible?” someone said from behind her. It was Flame, carrying what seemed to be her school bag. He placed it carefully on the ground before taking a seat beside her, “You left this in class. It’s not like you to forget things, you know, but I guess the mission was a little harder than I thought. Can I help?”
Sapphire grinned at him, “Do you really want to mess everything up?” she joked as she slammed another folder onto a pile of rejected documents. “Trust me, even with a dozen helpers, you won’t be able to find a single bit of information about the girl you’re looking for. I’ve been trying to search the archives for hours before I found this stack…and not one of them turned out to be successful.”
“How can you say that? You haven’t even finished all of them yet,” Flame told her. He took the folder Sapphire had just put down. “Why’d you thrown thisaway?”
She sighed, her blue eyes gleaming in the sunlight. “I just don’t understand it. The girl’s practically a genius – she’s in every single honor’s class in Almira Academy – but after she graduated valedictorian a few years ago, she disappeared, and besides, I’m not throwing that file away. I checked the Archives for even a single bit of information on her, but all I know is that she’s from Alez,”
“Why don’t we check the Merchants’ Guild?” they heard someone say. It was Rowan, holding a thick envelope embedded with the Royal Insignia. “If she’s an immigrant, then she needs to check with the Merchants’ Guild before settling in. We’d have to go to Sairi, though, that’s where they store all their documents,”
“Since when did you know that?” Flame asked, “That would have been very useful information,”
Rowan smiled, “Well, at least we won’t have to worry about transportation. There’s a caravan heading to Sairi tomorrow to pick up Nathaniel Celestia. He’s supposed to be visiting the Merchants’ Guild right about now. I already asked Asrai if we could go,”
Sapphire grinned at him, “The prince of the Fire Elementals asking a water spirit for help, that’s a sight to behold,” she told them, “You do know Asrai is a spirit, right?”
“Wait, you’re not talking about the Asrai who works for the Celestias, aren’t you?” Flame asked Sapphire. “I mean, isn’t it impossible for a water spirit to work for humans? It’s against their rules, you know,”
Sapphire rolled her eyes, “The Celestias will kill you if they hear you say that. Do you really think they’re just ordinary humans? They’re as human as the three of us are,”
Kalelle’s eyes briefly fluttered open as she opened her eyes as if in a daze. She recognized the strong scent of roses in the air, and immediately assumed that she was in her mistress’s bedroom, which had always filled to the brim with elegance. However, she discovered that she had been asleep in a servant’s room – or more specifically, Selina’s room – her head lying on a smooth mahogany table.
She felt a sudden gust of wind enter the room. Kalelle tilted her head to look at the open window, expecting to see it open. Instead, she saw Kalelle, staring right at her with a smile on her face. “It’s two hours past noon, Kalelle. You need to wake up, the guest is already waiting for us outside the Manor.”
“Selina? What happened?” Kalelle said, rubbing her eyes to wake herself.
“Do you still remember the flowers a merchant brought for the mistress a few days ago? He forgot to tell us that the scent was intoxicating…and also known for creating hallucinations,” Selina explained, “Maria is helping Lady Abigail get ready in her room. The only thing we need to do is to entertain the guest until the mistress is ready.”
Kalelle raised an eyebrow, “Who is this guest exactly?” she asked, doubtful. Usually, their guests were merchants from other towns, which also mean hours of conversation about their businesses. They started making their way toward the patio.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Selina answered, hearing the soft tapping of shoes on the floor of the lounge. “But I guess the mistress is in a hurry to know. She and Maria woke up an hour ago feeling in a daze. Poor Maria’s been up trying to fix milady’s dress ever since.” She paused. “Though it makes you wonder, who would be so important that the mistress would risk letting only the two of us do the preparations? She’s trying to make the best impression possible.”
“Selina, Kalelle,” Abigail called. She walked toward them, followed by Maria and a tall, well-dressed young man.
Selina took one look at the man and whispered to Kalelle, “Could you excuse me? The guest’s already here, and Pierre hasn’t come with the food yet,” she started making her way into the house, but Abigail stopped her.
“Now, now…If you’re worrying about the preparations, don’t. Maria has taken care of that already,” she said calmly. Abigail pointed toward their guest, “This is Nathaniel Celestia, second in line to the head of the Celestia noble family,”
Nathaniel kept looking at Selina with an expression that was halfway surprise and worry. Even when Abigail asked him to sit down for their meal, he kept staring at the white-haired maid who served their tea. “Milady, may I ask how many helpers are in this estate?”
“Selina takes care of most of the records in Desdemona Manor. Personally, I wouldn’t mind taking care of the documents, but my schedule wouldn’t allow me. If you like you can talk with her for a while. I'm afraid I have to take care of something in the kitchen," Abigail said before turning around to face her maids, “Selina, if you please,"
“Three maids serve at the Manor,” she answered. “Four servants help in the Guild and two take care of the gardens,”
Nathaniel ignored what she had just said, and instead, narrowed his eyes at the young maid, "What do you think you're doing hiding out here? Every Celestia in Ethelred is worried about you,"
too much irony...
ReplyDeletetoo fast development of the story