Arcania

Chaitra's pov

Chaitra POV
    In a span of few seconds, the whole mood of the hall changed. People started worrying and chattering quite loudly. We decided to go and check on Raveena's condition first. As we reached the hospital wing, we found her sleeping on the bed in a big room, unconscious. As we went near her, the nurse bowed down looking at us and said “I’m sorry to say but she is no more” I glanced at Muktha and Kanchana in shock. She was alright in the morning, talking normally with everyone. Her maid, Luna, gasped as she softly burst into tears and Alisha consoled her by taking her out of the room. She was such a sweet person and honestly the one who cared the most about three of us.
    As I was staring at her, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. It was Ryan. He motioned at the door. I didn’t even realise Muktha and Kanchana heading towards the door as I was busy in my thoughts. I followed them silently. We were silent for few seconds while we stood in the corridor and Mask joined us. He had the same placid expression. I at least expected him to be sad. Maybe he felt like being sad would affect his dignity. “I sent everyone back to prevent any chaos. We should head back and complete the ceremony” he said calmly. “But Miss Raveena died here and you want to continue that?” Muktha asked sternly. “A person’s inevitable death shouldn’t stop the Crowning ceremony of the Queens” he said staring at Muktha. “But she is your sister! Don’t you feel bad that she left you?” Kanchana asked with a surprised look. “My sister? Pardon me but I don’t have any sister. She was an extra tutor appointed for your training and was an imposter who called herself my sister” I was speechless by listening to him. The only one person who seemed to care so much about us was also a liar? The kidnapper was right, we shouldn’t trust anyone here. We didn’t have any words to defend so we just followed him.
    Our footsteps echoed as we reached the empty hall. The hall which was lively filled with people and music few minutes back was now silent. Raveena collapsing replayed in my mind as I stared at her place. We went and sat on our thrones silently. Mask clapped twice and servants came with trays. There were three crowns. It’s design was of lotus petals intervening each other with gem stones in between. It looked stunning! Derek took the one with diamond stones, Nolan with the sapphire stones and Ryan with the Ruby ones. They placed it in our heads as they smiled. Even though it was light weight, I felt like a burden was kept on my head, more like a huge responsibility. “I hereby announce you three as the Official Queens of Arcania” We gave a fake smile with so many emotions running in our minds.
    We came back to our room after having the grand feast for lunch. We changed into more simple and comfortable gowns. “I can’t believe she lied. She was so good with us” Kanchana broke the silence. “But we don’t know the complete truth yet. We can’t even trust Mask right now” Muktha said and we both agreed with her. “The only person who can answer our questions is her maid, Luna” I said and they both nodded. I went outside the room to find Alisha in the corridor. As soon as she saw me she came towards me. She entered the room and I closed the door. “We just want to ask few simple questions for you Alisha” Muktha said. “Sure Ma'am” Alisha agreed. “Did Luna mention anything about Raveena?” Kanchana asked. “Initially she never told anything, but she said that from past few days Raveena ma'am was acting a bit weird” she answered. “Weird in the sense? Like how?” I asked. “Like, she used to be worried sometimes, she wouldn’t be in her room most of the times and Luna didn’t even know where she had gone” she replied. Strange. Maybe she was up to something, good or bad, but she was very serious about it. After Alisha left we all slept off with so many thoughts running in our mind. We woke up in the evening, roamed around in the garden for while, had dinner and came back to our room. We spoke randomly for a while and slept off early.
   We had a day off on the next day, but we had to join the Kings in handling the court affairs soon. We decided to spend the day while doing our hobbies. Kanchana had chosen painting, Muktha loved redecorating the garden with different beautiful flowers and I selected learning polo. I wanted to learn horse riding from my childhood and finally my dream had come true. Muktha woke up early and left the room for gardening. I woke up second. I took a long shower and wore my collared t-shirt with pants and boots. I took my bag and kept my jacket, the one which I wore when I entered this world, and a towel. I left the room when Kanchana was still asleep. I told Alisha to inform that I won’t be coming for polo practice today, because I had some other plan.
    As I reached, I got down the horse and walked towards the lake. I removed my boots and kept them next to my bag. I stood near the shore. I sighed and jumped into the lake. It was the best way for me to escape the reality. I swam inside discovering multi-coloured fishes of different shapes. I wonder if they could recognise me or if I ever could talk to them. In that case I don’t think so I would have left this underwater world. I moved around by relaxing all my muscles with the cool water. After few minutes, I could feel someone’s presence near the shore, but I couldn’t recognise who it was. After few seconds something fell into the lake, something which that person threw. I swam towards it as it sank. It was a pendant of a large rectangular Emerald stone with golden chain. It should belong to someone from the palace because it looked expensive.
     As the person moved away from the shore, I slowly moved up to the surface to find out who it was. Luna? I recognised her from behind with her blonde hair tied into a knot. I came out of lake and called her out loudly. She was shocked by looking at me. I took out the towel from my bag to dry my hair and face properly. She came running towards me and pulled into the bushes nearby by looking around. “What is all this? And how did you get such an expensive pendant? And why did you throw it in water?” I started firing questions at her. “I had been searching for you three from yesterday evening ma'am. Raveena ma'am had instructed me to give this to you. Before I could find you three yesterday, Mr Mask came and told that I should leave the palace right then. Even though I requested him to give me some time, he didn’t agree at all. So I had no choice but to throw it away, or else people would think that I have stolen it” she said. “But why did she want us to have this?” I asked by looking at the emerald stone. “Because there’s something inside this” she pressed a small button behind and the emerald stone opened. There was some white powder inside. “She said that you should add this powder in a small pond or a bucket of water. And after that, your next move should start from the store room on the fifth floor” she said by closing the stone back and locking it by pressing same button. It was the same room where Muktha found that portrait. There’s definitely something out there. I thanked her for her help, she gave us a lead in finding out more about what’s exactly happening here. I wore the jacket which I got in my bag so that people wouldn’t notice my wet clothes and ran towards the carriage.
    As I entered the room, Muktha and Kanchana were discussing about something. “You are right on time. I have to tell you guys something serious” Muktha said as she showed a page in a thick ancient book. “You remember I mentioned about a different flower which I found in the garden, which fell from Raveena's window? It’s this one” she said pointing at a picture in the book and she continued “This is a dangerous exotic flower which is a slow poison. If a person inhales it’s fragrance for few seconds, it'll slowly start damaging internal organs and finally the person dies within few minutes or few hours. I had even been to her room to check and there I found a bouquet of these flowers kept near the window with a note 'For Raveena' ” So it wasn’t a natural death, it was a murder. “Its getting more and more complicated. We need some other clue to find out more” Kanchana said. “I guess I have found it” I said by placing the pendant in front of them.