The Eyes Of 'Rah

The Upper House

Aliona sprang out of bed while covered in sweat. She touched the side where her husband was supposed to be lying and it was cold, he must had been out of bed hours ago. She shivered as she remembered the nightmare she had. Searching her body quickly to check for any skin blemishes or disfigurement as she had dreamt.

"My lady" Vivian greeted her mistress with a mixture of joy and concern.

Glad to see her, Aliona smiled as she took her hands in hers,  "I'm so glad you're all right Vivian." She let go of her and turned away with a guilty look as she remembered Vivian's previous warning.

Aliona caught her worried face, "is everything all right?"

"Erm.." Vivian looked at Aliona's cloth as if she could see through her dress for what could confirm the rumour, even though she hoped to find nothing of such.

"Speak!" Ali instructed

"I caught two of the servants whispering about you having a dealing with a tainted witch"

Aliona suddenly whirled around to face her and she quickly told her mistress how she and Herbert stopped its spread and discouraged the other servants from believing such lies.

Glad that there were still some of their workers who believed her, Vivian vowed to clear her mistress's name as quickly as she could and ensure the people behind it be punished.

Aliona had always seen Vivian as the sister she never had, wanting to erase the concerned look on her face, she took off her clothes for her to see that there was nothing to show that she had dabbled in dark magic.

Satisfied, Vivian quickly covered her mistress with a warm blanket and helped her get ready for the day.

"We need to hurry up." Remembering how important today was, "do you know where Nickolai is?"

"He's in his study"

Dressed and anxious about what was to come, Aliona made her way to the study where Nickolai was already getting ready so they can head out.

He looked at her, with a narrowed eye, "Vivian did a poor job at concealing the fact that you wept during the larger part of the night."

"I specifically told her to do nothing about it. I want to make Josephine and your brother believe things are going according to their plan"

Nickolai nodded in approval, "fair enough. Let's head out, shall we?" Clasping her hand in his, they walked out, ignoring the worried glances of some of their maid. He was aware of the rumour, even though majority of them had so much faith in them that they found it hard to believe while the others were curious, he decided to show them the culprit, instead of explaining.

He was sure that by the time everything comes out in the open, they won't need to explain anything to anybody. With that in mind, they stepped into the carriage, heading to the Upper House.
*********

Nickolai watched everyone settled down, waiting for the event to unfold. He looked at the vacant seat of the leader which will be occupied soon. His eyes fell on his brother and sister-in-law who just made an entrance. Murmur filled the air, he knew the cause of the murmur was the rumour circulating. He saw the smirk on his brother's lips as he whispered something to one of the representatives from the human kingdom.

Lord Witcharoft stood and everywhere was silence, "I'm sure you all know how important today is. We're here to officially appoint the new leader of the Upper House who will take the baton of leadership from me. It was an honour to have served the house and the kingdom for this long and I am sure Lord Orsini will not disappoint us in rowing the kingdom to greatness"