Suspicion and secrets

Briar, who was accompanied by Regius hastily returned to Marjoram. 

Huffing, the prince made his way to the servant's wing and barged inside Attropa's room. Unfortunately, he could not find the lady-in-waiting in her quarters. 

"She is not here." Regius commented. 

"Do you think she is with your younger sister?" the redhead asked. 

Briar could feel a sense of dread. If Atropa turned out to be Lily, who was out for revenge, then they would probably in danger. 

However, the girl had been working for a few months as his sister's maid and she never brought any harm to the princess. So, Briar was very much perplexed. 

As they made their way towards Rozen's room, the two of them were intercepted. 

"I respectfully greet your highnesses!" the newcomer called their attention. 

Briar turned just in time to see a wizard who was bowing slightly at the pair of royalty. 

"Zeke." Briar acknowledged his presence. 

"It has been a long time Prince Briar." The wizard made his way towards them. 

"I am glad that you finally decided to help us." The flaxen haired said. "How was the investigation?" 

"I have to apologize since I was not able to track down the culprit at the Hopley's massacre." Zeke replied. "We have acquired some clues but further investigation is necessary."

The wizard had noted the two seemed to be in a hurry. "I can give to you the report. I can sense that you must have an important task right now." 

Briar would have let the wizard go but he had got hold of him. "Zeke, have you received any information about Lily?" he asked while gripping the caster's wrist. 

The wizard fixed his spectacle and answered. "I have to apologize but after that incident a few years ago, we did not have any correspondence." 

Briar let go of the wizard. He knew that pressing on the issue will never bear any fruit so he had to confront things at hand. 

"Briar, we need to find that woman." Regius reminded him. "We have to confirm if Atropa has something to do with the breaking of the seal."

As soon as Zeke heard that, his eyes widened. "Wait! You are looking for Atropa Hemlock?" he asked. 

"Yes. Is there anything wrong?" Briar asked. 

Zeke looked troubled. "You have missed her. She left a few days ago for her vacation. She had asked me to protect the princess in her stead." 

"What? She is gone?!" the flaxen haired prince grabbed the wizard's robe. 

"She said that she was going to visit a relative and asked me to be her stand in for awhile." Zeke confirmed while keeping his cool.

Briar let him go and hit the wall in frustration. Emotion swirled inside him at the knowledge. 

Regius then narrowed his eyes on the wizard. "Zeke, how are you related to Atropa. You sounded like you know her since you accepted doing a certain favor for her." The red head asked. 

Zeke answered. "She is an apprentice that was temporarily assigned to me. But she left almost a year ago to search for a different job since sometimes mess up with her spell casting." 

"How are we going to find her?" Briar incised. 

"You do not need to find her. She will come back here. She will not leave Princess Rozen for a long time." Zeke reassured him. 

When the wizard left to prepare the report, the two princes headed to the study. 

"That wizard is hiding something." Regius informed. "I can sense that he mixed up lies with some of his statement. Are you sure he can be trusted?" 

Briar sighed. "The reason why I wanted Zeke to my side is because he used to be one of princess Lily's close friend and aid. I think he knew where she is." 

"He might be covering for her. If our hunch is correct then, he must be here to help my younger cousin escape." Regius said. 

"I just hope that Atropa would clear things up." Briar drew in a huge breath. He would still give the girl a chance to explain herself. He knew that she did not mean any harm. 

~~~

Meanwhile… 

A few days prior...to the current time… 

Atropa sweated as she threaded on a barren space. 

"This place looked awfully familiar." She said as she made her way towards nowhere. 

"Isn't this the dream world where I met that demon when Hazel opened my caster's circuit?" she asked no one in particular. 

Just then a sinister wind blew and a figure who resembled Lily appeared before her. 

But unlike the princess, this apparition looked a bit more mature and wicked. "You seemed to have acquired such power, my dear." Lily said. 

Atropa instinctively held unto Lumina. She did not reply and she tried to walk past the apparition. 

"You know, you should not deny yourself. You need my help in taking your revenge. Why don't you allow me to take over." Lily made her way towards Atropa. 

But Atropa dodged her advances and kept her distance. 

"You still refuse me after all these years!" Lily's form gradually changed. Her hair whipped around like snakes and her eyes were smoldering in anger. 

"Mark my words my dear, you will need my powers someday. Whether you like it or not, my darkness will consume you! I will have you!" the demon lunged at Atropa. 

However, before the demon could come near her, Lumina's bracelet radiated such bright light. The demon cowered and disappeared. 

"Whoaa!" Atropa gasped as she woke up from her nightmare. "it had been years since I last dreamt of that." The wiped the cold sweat which trickled down her face. 

After receiving Lumina, and returning from the ruins, she felt a strange presence from within. It was  like a snake squirming inside her and was trying to get out. 

"This is not my mana." She muttered. As she tried to calm the unrest within her. 

She felt weakened from their little adventure. "My mana was supposed to be depleted. So whose mana is this?" she wondered. 

While she was resting, Briar came and checked her condition. 

She had been feeling under the weather after their escapade, Briar had told her to rest for a few days. 

The prince even took that opportunity to give her mana transfer. 

"This is odd. The mana that Briar had given her has a different quality and for some reasons the mana he had shared is pleasant not like the strange entity that was struggling to get out." Atropa murmured while trying to assess her situation. 

The girl would have stayed on her bed, but she resolved to get back to work. Prince Briar had been away for a few days after the prince from Thyme came to fetch him.

Atropa did not receive any progress report from Rei, so she used the time to lure Rozen deeper to her side. 

After getting ready, the maid went to the princess for their early morning routine. When she knocked at Rozen's door, Atropa was greeted by the princess with glee.