Chapter 04

I can't believe we are going to be caught right after we run away, shit, we didn't even have time to hunt for something to eat. I sigh and turn to the owner of that voice who sounded very angry, and seeing that it was a short and chubby man almost gave me hope that we could get past him and run, Carrie seemed to share the same thought, looking at Carrie I send a silent signal for her to get ready to run, just as we were about to execute our plan we are surprised when the man simply sighs and turns around walking down the hall.

- This is what Lenry gets for hiring children to do chores" - in the middle of the hallway he turns to us and looks even more furious - "what are you waiting for, I hired them to help at the consecration ball, not to walk the halls.

Carrie looks at me confused and I return the same look, what do you mean prom? Wasn't he here to arrest us again? It was then that I realized that he didn't know we were prisoners. I seize the opportunity and cling to the only time we have been lucky since we arrived at this place. I start to move forward with some haste and Carrie follows me looking even more confused.

- Excuse me sir, we were not trying to run away from our obligations, it's just... it's just...

I look at Carrie who is frowning and I signal for her to help me, like a light illuminating her mind, she finally realizes what I was trying to do, and concludes my thought.

- We were lost, this place is so big that we got lost.

The man looks at us both with a certain distrust, but soon gets rid of it, it seems that he was really desperate about this ball.

- So, I suggest that you both follow me so that you can prepare yourselves, if you don't want to end up like the prisoners behind that door, understood?

If only he knew we were two of those prisoners, nodding we began to follow him, but it was getting difficult since he was walking very fast, too fast for a man of his, let's say... stature. Rushing through the corridor with countless doors and swearing and ordering us to be faster, we came out in a large courtyard, a huge and beautiful courtyard where I had to hold my chin to not let it fall to the ground, I have simply never seen anything so beautiful before, it was unlike anything I have ever seen, while we were crossing it, the unbearably loud beating of my heart resounded in my ears and completely drowned out the sounds of the people working to decorate the place, where it was full of flowers, and several velvety chairs and tables that were placed in half of the big patio, plants adorned some steps, making a division from the other half that remained with only a few flags with strange symbols, I can identify two of them, one was the same one the forest kidnappers wore on their clothes and the other was the same one Erns wore. In front of these flags are two reserved chairs, embedded with rough diamonds, everything was directed to the center of the courtyard, but what kind of ball is this? It was more like a show.

Already crossing the courtyard we entered again an infinite corridor with other corridors and many doors, we went down and down stairs always with guards dressed in black and armed to the teeth, let's hope we didn't bump into Erns because he would recognize us without difficulty. After walking for what seemed like an eternity we arrived at a large iron door that was extremely exaggerated like everything in that place, the man then opens the door and quickly enters already shouting orders, Carrie and I remained at the door admiring that place along with the totally delicious smell that emanated from it where I almost close my eyes and groan with pleasure, I watch the various people in that huge room running around in their uniforms, I am so absolved by the parade of people and the smell of the place that I don't see a small, totally angry man in front of me until Carrie gives me a gentle shove waking me up from my reverie.

- Look here I don't have time to drag you by the arms, Grace will escort you to the changing room to put on your uniforms and please don't bother me anymore or I will send you back where you came from.

Wow, how nice, I see a middle aged woman with brown hair impeccably tied in a bun approaching where we were, he was carrying some clothes in his hands and asked us to accompany her.

- You are new here, aren't you? - before we can open our mouths to answer, we come to a room with a few closets - well, until you change clothes I will give you your assignments now.

I look at Carrie and we start to undress a bit embarrassed, as we are getting totally naked in front of a stranger, she walks around dictating rules and more rules, with an impeccable posture.

- Well, you serve the queen now and as such you must behave with politeness, poise and respect. Unfortunately you have come on a rather busy day, so I expect the best from you.

Carrie, now with the laces of her shoes tied, moves closer to Grace and does a half messy bun, while I struggle to get into a dress one size smaller than me.

- Sorry to ask, but what's happening today?

Grace giggles and moves closer to Carrie and undoes the bun to remake it much tidier with not a hair out of place, while I finally manage to get into the dress.

- Well no wonder you don't know what day it is today since your specialties are probably what, maybe floating small objects? growing hair? - she gives a small smile and helps me with my bun, while Carrie looks at me totally stunned which I return with the same look. - Today will be the consecration ball, where the most talented young people in the kingdom will present their specialties, and receive their medallions.

Specialties? medallions? What are these people going to do? Seeing our faces that we didn't understand a thing, Grace was kind enough to clear up our doubts, sighing, she tidied us up and asked us to follow her back to the kitchen.

- Once a year all the most powerful young men of the kingdom gather in a ceremony where they are consecrated and receive the medallion of their family, these medallions help them to master more their powers in this new phase of their lives where they will actually use them to defend, protect and help the kingdom. Normally this ceremony would take place in a few months, but with the latest events the queen thought it best to recruit as soon as possible more people to defend the kingdom from possible threats.

These latest events she was talking about, must be what Riven said in the forest that we were accused of. As we said nothing, she continued.

- as you know the kingdom lately has suffered numerous attacks and the losses have been catastrophic, we still don't know who is doing the attacks, and not only in our kingdom, it has been a long time since this happened, so keep an eye out and any strange movements let me know.

We nodded, now understanding why Erns was so sure that we had something to do with these attacks, since he didn't know us. Arriving at the kitchen Grace gives us some information such as how to serve, how to walk and how to behave in front of the guests at the ball as well as a don't talk to anyone and well, it wasn't that difficult since at the orphanage we received the same orders. At the end of the whole presentation I was about to faint on the floor from hunger, I lean on the stand of the most varied and appetizing food and look at Grace licking her lips.

- We can eat some, since this morning we haven't eaten anything.

Grace sighs and leads us to the back of the kitchen where we are fed dry bread and cheese while there was an extremely attractive table just a few feet from where we were standing. I don't know if it was because I was hungry but it was really tasty, I look at Carrie and she is devouring the food as am I who was almost groaning when I look at Grace and she has a surprised look on her face with her hand over her mouth while shaking her head negatively.

- You have no class whatsoever.

Finishing our snack we are taken to the other girls who are waiting for us, all wearing the same uniforms and already with their trays in hand, I look at Carrie as we pick up our trays joining the other girls. Grace stops in front of us and takes one last look at our uniforms and hair, with that we go back to the big courtyard that was now crowded with people, standing beside the diamond inlaid chairs placed in front of the flags I see Erns and give a sign to Carrie who follows my gaze is, I have a feeling it is going to be a long and tiring night.

X

We have been working for a while now, going back and forth from the kitchen bringing in endless amounts of drinks and food, so far we have not been surprised by anyone trying to arrest us so I think we were doing well with our disguises, but we still avoided being near Erns and his guards. I still wasn't sure what it was all about and what was going to happen next only knew that I had to serve a bunch of apparently rich and snobby people. There were more or less, with Carrie and me, about thirty girls to serve around fifty people, so we broke into two groups of fifteen girls, giving them time to rest and keep out of Erns' sight, I still didn't know what it was all about, well now we just wait and see. It was the other group's turn to go in, so Carrie and I and the other girls went back to the kitchen to fill our trays again.

I had already devised a thousand escape plans in my head and in all of them we were trapped and thrown into that dark place again, I mean, look at that place, it was a fortress of soldiers who were very attentive because of recent events, which made our escape even more impossible, and if that wasn't enough if by some miracle we managed to escape out of the palace, how would we get through the gate? We couldn't just scale it since it was so big that we could barely see the top, so the only thing we could do was to keep pretending to be maids and wait for some moment to escape, while this didn't happen we had to collect as much information as possible, one thing Carrie and I have learned from living alone is that you must know your enemy to find his weak points and defeat him. While it wasn't time to get back to work, Carrie approached me in a disguised manner.

- We need to know what is happening, or what is going to happen. Maybe we can find a loophole where we can escape and I don't know, try to find a way back home.

Yes, Carrie was right, so I nodded to her in agreement and approached a girl who was preparing her tray. The girl was tall and skinny with curly hair tied up in a perfectly neat bun, just like mine and Carrie's.

- H-Hello, um, so this dance is not - okay, I'm not good at making friends.

The girl simply finishes her tray and walks away from me grimacing, leaving me completely flabbergasted by the situation.

- Oh don't mind Pamela, she's a bit closed like that, hi, my name is Rebecca, you're new aren't you - we were startled when Rebecca appeared out of nowhere and started talking, holding out her hand to Carrie and I as she waited anxiously for our response, Carrie clears her voice and answers.

- Yes, we are new, my name is Carrie, and this is Lauren," Carrie says, pulling me to her side, lengthening Rebecca's length with a small smile and a slight nod, "and I confess to you that I have no idea what is going on here, like, what are all those tables outside?

The girl looks amazed and surprisingly excited, she then pulls us into a corner and peeks to see if anyone sees us.

- What do you mean you don't know what is going on? What world did you come from? since we were born we heard about the great consecration ball where the strongest of all the kingdoms receive their family medallions and consecrate their powers, and especially this year we're going to have the cutest of the kingdoms," she starts shaking herself, "the prince of the Illuminare kingdom and the prince of the elemental kingdom, and I wish one of them would look at me. Well, but they only hang out with that sourpuss Elenor.

Just when I was about to ask how this would work, our turn to serve arrived and we were forced to go into the large courtyard again. Now the place seemed much fuller and occupying the two diamond chairs now were two women of about forty, they were talking to each other and seemed close, one of them with long brown hair came forward and asked for everyone's attention. Rebecca approaches Carrie and me and informs us that this is the queen of the Illuminare kingdom.

- As you know, our kingdom has suffered countless attacks and we need all the help we can get to put an end to this problem that we don't even know the root of, so together with the leaders of the other kingdoms we decided that we would hold the consecration of our young people earlier this year. I honor your vows and honor your actions, may the Lord be with you all.

An exuberant round of applause begins and the queen raises her arms, thus ceasing all applause.

- Let the consecration ball begin.

Another round of applause begins as a girl enters the courtyard and stops in front of the audience, who stare at her encouragingly. She was the most delicate girl I had ever seen, it seemed that at any moment she might break, she had white skin and long golden hair that matched the color of her eyes, she wore a yellow dress with a golden cape that made her look like a real princess, next to the cape was the same symbol of one of the flags that adorned the hall, I still have to ask Rebecca what they mean. The girl then closes her eyes and slowly starts to raise her arms making small movements with her hands, that's when something happened, it started with a silent and almost imperceptible tremor on the floor which gradually increased, the girl was now completely concentrated and started to levitate a large rock taken from the floor, what the hell is going on, I grab Carrie who also looks astonished at what this girl is doing. Rebecca approaches us and pulls us into a corner, which she says is safer and more privileged where we could see everything that was happening.

- This girl is from the elemental kingdom, and she can control the earth, isn't that great? Well, not even the most powerful ones, but she can defend herself.

And as you know, this is crazy, the girl was simply levitating what seemed to be half a ton of ground. The girl is now focused again and the piece of ground is returning to its place, as if nothing had happened. Rebecca approaches but us and pulls us under a stand where no one could see us.

- Now the queen will call the family to take their vows and hand over the medallion.

Just as Rebecca said, the queen gets up and greets the girl, announcing the name of her family, from the middle of the tables a group of people with the same symbol as the girl comes out

- Vivian from the elemental kingdom - the girl gives a smug smile to the family that looks at her satisfactorily - please let the family come and offer you the vote.

Two people, a man and a woman, now go to meet the girl who kneels at their feet, then she closes her eyes and puts her hand on her chest while what I think are her parents pick up a jewel forged from what looks like some kind of expensive material with some symbols I can't even describe, Rebecca bounces beside us encouragingly and looks at us who evidently don't understand anything.

- Now the queen is going to ask them about their vote and hand over Vivian's medallion.

And it happens exactly as Rebecca says, she seems to really enjoy this day, the girl's parents lift her up and look at her seriously raising her head.

- Viviam Brown of the elemental kingdom, seventeenth generation of the Brown family do you accept the commitment to the kingdom and to the less fortunate people in it, to feed the hungry, to defend the weak, to help the sick, to treat them as equals and to protect and defend them to the death?

The girl proudly raises her head and steps forward, one hand on her chest and the other hand raised in front of her face.

- I, Vivian Larrouse of the elemental kingdom, seventeenth generation of the Brown family accept the pledge to the kingdom and to the less fortunate people within it, to feed the hungry, to defend the weak, to help the sick, to treat them as equals, and to protect and defend them until my death.

The queen then nods to her parents, who immediately place the medallion on Vivian, who smiles happily at them. The queen bends towards Vivian and hugs her welcoming her.

- I welcome you to the official guard of the kingdom.

Vivian exits beaming, as I prepare to leave our "hiding place", only to be pulled down again by Rebecca.

- What are you doing, do you really want to miss the introductions?

Carrie looks at me and shrugs, well it really was a tempting proposition, between watching people with superpowers levitate objects and serving potbellied old men, I prefer the first option, well I sit down again and settle into my seat. All right then, on to the next shows.