The Duke

7- Interlude

After the shock, I laughed. The three men in the room looked at me confused.

"It is what it is", I grabbed my forehead turning around and leaving. "Yeah, it is what it is", I repeated to myself walking down the corridor.

My throat had gone dry and my eyes were itching. I understood them, I wanted to be emphatic, but why did things turn out this way? I stopped walking and stumped my left foot on the floor in frustration.

"I can't go back for real", I thought and fat tears started rolling down my face. I noticed the sound of footsteps.

"Elizabeth", called Derren grabbing my wrist and making me turn to him.

"I don't want to talk right now", I brushed him off and tried to wipe my face with my sleeves without luck.

"I'm sorry", seeing his anxious face didn't help at all. It wouldn't be so painful if I could only get mad at them.

I leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulder crying helplessly. I didn't want him to see me crying like that at all but I was an anguish mess. The least I could do was hide my face from him. For a while, he stood there like a statue; it surprised me when he caressed the back of my head for a little bit. When I calmed down, I excused myself and headed to my room while Derren stayed behind.

I had a sleepless night thinking about what to do from there on, but I wasn't sure of anything. Maybe I could ask Derren for help for a while and search for a way to go back, or I could just give up and start a new life there... The second option was difficult in many ways. I knew I just couldn't give up that easily, and even if I did, I knew nothing about the life outside the walls of the castle. What could I do to make a living? The more I thought about it, the more questions arose.

I fell asleep at dawn.

The next morning, as if she already knew, Sybil brought me a light breakfast and told me I didn't have to go see Evelio that day. I had a few bites and stayed the whole morning in bed. When she came back for lunch, she stayed with me without me even asking and suggested we could go for a walk. At that point, I knew she was aware of what was going on. I accepted and we went out after I ate and dressed up.

Sybil took me to another garden that time. It had a few roses here and there, but what you could see the most was pure green, grass, bushes, and trees. There were small fountains here and there too, but what caught your eye were the statues, there were around twenty-something.

Most of the statues were people I had seen in some portraits in the castle. I asked Sybil about it, and she told me they were important family members who had passed away. It gave me the chills, I'm not going to lie, but it was quite interesting in its own way.

I walked around leisurely with Sybil a step behind me while looking for a resemblance between the statues. Some were alike, but others looked completely different. I was thinking about that until I passed by a woman's statue whose face was awfully familiar.

"Who's she?" I asked Sybil.

"It's his Highness's mother". Of course, she was, Derren and Archie were the spitting image of her.

"How was she? Did you meet her?" I asked out of curiosity.

"I did meet her. But I was young back then, I didn't serve her. Those were tense days at the castle, I was twelve, I had just come to work here when she arrived".

"Twelve?" I exclaimed. She gave me a small smile.

"I understand why His Highness is so considerate of you. You are here because of something similar to our Lady after all".

"How is that?" Sybil hesitated a little before speaking again.

"I'm not sure when she arrived in this world, but she was on and off for some time. She sold potions downtown, or that's what I know. We were in tight political issues, the nobles always are, and His Highness called for her. He seduced her in an attempt to gain her favor and when she fell in love with him, he destroyed her robe. When she realized what was going on, there castle turned upside down. She could manipulate fire, and as she went out of control, the whole castle turned into flames. Everything you see now is quite new, to be honest".