A Queen's Redemption

Chapter 11- Breaking Silence

*Serene’s POV*

It had been a few days…since my breakdown. Amir had since placed a 24 hour surveillance on my home, just as precaution although they were sure that nothing would really bother me or my family in the coming days. I reasoned against it…or tried to at least, but he was adamant.

“It would bring me and the others at least some peace of mind. Don’t argue with me, the decision’s been made. And don’t worry, they’ll stay out of sight.” were his exact words.

I stared out my bedroom window at the trees. Even though it was dark out and I couldn’t see anything I knew at least 1 or a few of Amir’s scouts were in those trees. I sighed and turned back to look at the item that was glowing on my nightstand.

Against Amir’s and everyone else’s wishes, my explanations had to wait. Diamanda had returned to the palace and with her being a high suspect in everything that was going on, we had to take our time and be careful with how we proceeded.

I refused to go into the palace and they also couldn’t come here, so we were stuck for a couple days on figuring out what to do. That was…until I had a package delivered to my house. From Hazel.

I was dumbfounded when I opened it. It contained a Sleepwalking Crystal. I remembered my father had owned one when I was a little girl and had taught me everything he knew about them.

Contrary to the name, the Sleepwalking Crystal doesn’t actually make you sleep walk. Rather your conscience does. You say the spell that activates it, then when you sleep the crystal allows you to “dream”, except it’s not a dream, it's very much real time. It just mimics the experience of being in a dream.

It was quite a popular way of contacting and interacting with people, especially when you didn’t want there to be any eavesdroppers. It also catered to the people that didn’t have the mindlinking ability like humans. You just think about the people you wanted to meet and when you fall asleep, there they are.

There were only 2 cons about it though:

1) The person/people you wanted to meet had to be aware of that desire for it to work.

2) Each Sleepwalking Crystal had its own spell. No 2 spells were the same. In a way I guess that made it safer but in the long run it ended up being a hassle for users, especially when they were in a dire situation.

Nowadays the crystals, while they’re still used are also very rare and it’s extremely hard to come by them so how Hazel got her hands on one was a complete mystery.

I felt myself getting sleepy and figured now was as good a time as ever to activate it.

“WACH OH MEINE SEELE.” then I was gone.

I found myself walking through a dark hallway until I came to stand in front of 2 huge oak doors. They opened as soon as I touched them and I walked in. Conversation stopped and all eyes were on me. I’d never wished so hard in my life for the earth to swallow me up. I quickly caught my mother's eyes and moved to sit next to her. Which conveniently saw me sitting beside Amir as well.

I cleared my throat in an attempt to shove some of my nervousness down and that seemed to snapped them out of their staring fest.

“Serene.” I turned at Amir’s voice. “Whenever you’re ready, start from the beginning and take it slow."

I sighed and although I did not want to be doing this at all, they were hungry for overdued explanations.

I owed them that much.

“It started around maybe seven and a half weeks ago…”

*FLASHBACK*

As soon as I walked in I counted to five before I felt her monkey jump onto my back, smiling because I of course knew who it was.