I Must Save the Evil King

Chapter 15

I'm gonna stop with chapter titles for a bit. Hopefully, I'll remember to come back and add them. They just take so long for me to come up with I've had to delay chapters b4 because I couldn't come up with a title. Now back to the story! 

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Once I woke up Tillie told me everything that had happened. She and Camilla had been relaxing on the couch when the prince burst in carrying me in his arms. They had tried to wake me up but I was unresponsive. Emilee apparently had seemed very worried and she pestered the prince so much with questions that he left only after 5 minutes. 10 minutes after that Emilee stormed off, leaving Tillie and Camilla to keep an eye on me. 

"Wait... How long have I been asleep?" I asked still groggy, I felt like I had pulled an all-nighter. 

"Ummm... Only like 2-3 hours" smiled Tillie. 

"4 hours 16 minutes," added Camilla calmly. Well, that's not good. It felt like I had only been in the void for a few minutes. "You're gonna be late for the ball." 

"Ughhhh" I groaned. That was even worse. Tillie dabbed a cold washcloth against my forehead. That, combined with being in a flowy white nightgown, made me feel like the sickly female lead in one of those old-timey black-and-white movies. " Do I have to go? Can't we just say I'm too sick or something?" 

"I guess we could.." Tillie trailed off looking to her sister for support. I let out a sigh as I fall back into bed staring up at the ceiling I try and dissect what just happened to me. The prince's dead mother and the woman I stole the body of kidnapped my soul I guess and brought me to a void that had couches in it for some reason. Where did they get the sofas from? Claudette's words were burned into my head. 'red handkerchief'. It was more information than I had ever had but it was so vague.  

Then there was Darinella's mission, save the prince. As if that was a simple task or one that made sense. Surely figuring out who killed Claudette would save him? After all the war only started because of Claudettes death and it was the war that killed him. At least in the version of this world I know, but who knows maybe in one of her many previous attempts she tried the same things. It's almost like there was way more helpful information she could have given me then, don't get near the prince! I hoped she could hear my thoughts in her weird void. 

Wait a second. Red. I suddenly lurched up and Tillie and Camilla looked at me very concerned. 

"My lady?"  asked Tillie. 

"Ettie," I corrected quickly "Ettie works just fine. Quick question every noble house has a color right?" 

"I mean yeah technically but they tend to overlap." shrugged Tillie "Only so many colors in this world, like the Rousseau's and the Sardou's, are both blue."

"green," Camilla corrected. 

"REALY? That's much worse!" 

"So then are there any red houses?" I asked ignoring Tillie's confusion.   

"A couple. The biggest is Belmont but then there are the smaller ones. I'm pretty sure there is a craftsman clan that uses red as well." Camilla thought deeply for a second. "It's not too common though, it's mainly tied to houses that are involved in the military somehow." Finally, a perfect place to start, and there weren't too many of them. Though since I didn't know what their crest looked like I could only start to narrow it down. 

Now I just have to find a book identifying all of the house colors or.... ugh! or I could go to the ball and see them there... 

Fine, I'll go to the ball, but only because it is going to be so boring reading all of that. And while I could be reading romance novels! the horror!

"What are we waiting for? I need to get ready for the ball! I'm already late!" Tillie and Camilla shot each other a look but just shrugged. 

While Tillie wanted me to wear a gaudy bright pink dress, Camilla found a green dress near the back of my trunk which I like much more. It had the same high-waisted style as most of my day dresses which meant I wouldn't have to wear any corsets or underskirts, but it still was defiantly a ball gown. It was made of a beautiful dark green velvet and its long train was decorated with jewels and embroidery depicting a beautiful forest scene. 

The sleeves were short and my arms were covered the rest of the way by long white gloves, a lighter green fan was hung off one wrist and on the other, I wore a gold band with the symbol of the Rousseau family. Camilla was able to restrain my curly hair into a bun and placed a delicate gold tiara on top with emeralds on it. Despite all this luxury when looking in the mirror all I could see was a little girl pretending to be a princess. 

As I clumsily made my way down the hall the guards stationed against the wall staring at me. I could hear Tillie walking with her arm looped around mine, a smile on her face. My foot snagged on the fabric and I stumbled forward, luckily Tillie caught me before I could make a huge fool of myself. I heard a guard chuckle and my face went red as Tillie shot them a death glare.  

"He wished he could look as pretty as you in a dress," Tillie kept her head high as she whispered to me. The way the candlelight hit her orange hair she looked like a goddess. But then she cracked a wicked smile and once again the least serious person you will ever meet. 

"I wish you could do this instead of me," I mumbled, my eyes staying on my feet no longer trusting them to do their job. "You'd look much prettier in the ball gowns." 

"You will do great my lady. And if anyone gives you any issues you can just order them to be executed," We stopped as we reached the closed door that lead into the ballroom. Two guards were stationed in front of it and the one on the left gave Tillie a weird look, obviously confused by her comment. Tillie let go o my arm and slipped to the side as the guards opened the door. The light and sound of the party crashed through the evergrowing crack in the door and Tillie smiled at me, "And you are right, I do look lovely in a ballgown."