Ten

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Five years later...

Twenty-year-old Emberly Feu stared in the mirror of her small servants' room as she looked through her hair. She wasn't looking for lice. She was looking for something else.

Sighing, Emberly grabbed the tin of bleaching salve and began massaging it through her blonde hair.

After waiting thirty minutes, Emberly washed out the salve leaving her waist-length hair white. She then grabbed the tin of yellow powder, mixed in a little bit of water, before applying the powder to her newly bleached hair.

Waiting for the dye to work on her hair, Emberly stared in the mirror. She had her father's golden eyes, but she was dying her hair to match her mother's.

What would they say about me if they were here right now? she thought to herself.

Looking away from the mirror, she looked towards the small clock on her bedside table. She had forty minutes before she had to be up in the kitchens for her shift - and she didn't want to be late for fear of whatever punishment her superior would hand down on her.

Emberly washed out the dye in her hair, and towel-dried it. Grabbing a pair of scissors, Emberly began cutting her blonde hair to shoulder length, the locks of hair falling into the basin of her sink.

With five minutes remaining before her shift, Emberly quickly got dressed in her green and bronze servants' clothing - the green jacket with bronze stitching, bronze buttons, and the bronze Eirineftes maple on the front, the green pants, and the green scarf and head scarf. She tucked her blonde hair into her green head scarf, and quickly pulled her scarf over her mouth and nose, leaving only her golden eyes visible.

She ran out of her tiny servants' room and up the stairs to the kitchens in time to grab a few platters of food with the other servants. They carried the multiple platters to the grand hall where the Emperor sat at the head of the table.

To the Emperor's right sat a Krigerean man with shoulder-length ginger hair and bright green eyes. He had a teal tunic on with the top few buttons undone.

Emberly almost froze. There was only one person in all of Zemlja who looked like Baldur - the God of Light.

It was Commander Akaljot Bjorndottir—the Everlight.

The Commander's green eyes focused on her, and Emberly looked away. Had he caught her staring at him?

Emberly set a fruit platter down between the two Krigereans closest to her before continuing to set a bread platter down between the Emperor and the Everlight.

"Bread, Your Greatness?" she asked.

The Emperor looked up at her. "Yes, please, Miss..." he trailed off, trying to place her name.

"Miss Feu," Emberly said kindly. "How many would you like?"

"Just one will do, Miss Feu."

"Of course," she said, grabbing a pair of tongs, picking up a slice of bread and placing it on his plate. Emberly turned to the man on her right. "Bread, Commander Bjorndottir?"

"Please... Miss Feu," he said in rusty Eirineften.

"No problem," she replied. "How many?"

The Everlight held up two fingers.

Not used to speaking Eirineften, are we? she thought as she plated two slices of bread.

"Many thanks," he said gratefully.

"You are very welcome, Commander," she said, setting down the tongs.

Emberly stood by the wall behind the Everlight, waiting for when someone would wave her over for her services.

All of a sudden, the doors to the grand hall burst open and several people dressed in black and silver clothing walked a few steps in.

"Who are you?" the Emperor yelled, standing up.

The Krigereans stood—Akaljot being the tallest and most intimidating of them—reaching for their weapons.

The man in front, who had black hair and olive skin, smiled coldly and said, "I am Captain Miles Gomez of the Witch-Hunting Battalion."

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