Liridia

Chapter 13: Slight imperfections

Hywel
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That woman is gorgeous. Too bad she's my brother's wife.

That dress. Everything was perfect about her. Too perfect. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her curves and they demanded to be seen. She was beautiful. No wonder my tyrant of a brother married her the second he saw her. She will be a valiant, strong but utterly vain Queen one day. I wondered what she was doing here without Xavier, they were both invited to the ball, but only she came. She says something about dark hair and dark eyes but I hardly listen, lost in thought.

I notice I'm looking down, but then I look up to see what I least expected. Her. The girl in the burgundy dress. Why in Versiim's name is she here? She looks at her feet sheepishly and waits in line. It eventually comes to her turn and I look up with renewed curiosity when she says she's a detective. Interesting.

Father tells her to come closer and she strides forward. He inspects her for some time and tells her to stand over next to Franco, the captain's second of the guard. He looks her up and down and I bite my tongue to keep from frowning. She whispers in his ear and he smiles. Making deals with the devil I see. She looks across the room and she stiffens suddenly. I follow her eyes to  a guard standing post at the door and I squint to get a better look. Why is she staring at James like he's a ghost?

I turn back to the man now talking and hardly listen to his bland words. The hearing finishes and father turned to me, a bemused smile on his face.

"What's wrong?" I ask, assuming a teasing to come out of his mouth.

"You can't stop looking at her. Can't you?" He states, like it's as common as 'the sun is out today'. I scrunch my brow with confusion and he chuckles. He points in Liona's direction.

"Oh. Yes. Well... she is attractive..." I finish weakly, he sighs tiredly. His eyes almost scream 'lift your game. Find a suitable spouse that would be a decent Queen. Do that, at least. For me.'

My father summons Liona and she almost hurries away from Franco, he is a bit intense, but she looks scared. She stands in her tunic and pants with her shoulder length dark hair hanging freely around her shoulders. Her skin is flawless, except for the almost invisible scar that curves with the edge of her left brow. She raises that eyebrow and I have to squint to see the faint imperfection.

"You are a detective, correct?" My father begins, entwining his hands together.

"Indeed." She answers calmly.

"Why were you invited to the ball?" A good question.

"I was filling in for someone else who couldn't make it. Madame Sconcia. She had pressing matters to attend to and couldn't be at the event." An even better answer. Father drums his fingers in his grand throne.

"You will be given your own quarters while you undertake your investigation. One foot out of line, you will be punished. Understood? When summoned, you shall come and you shall adhere to the commands given by anyone in the castle. Yes?" My father concludes with a patient eyebrow raised. She nods obediently.

"Then you are dismissed," he looks around the room and he finally nods "James shall show you to your quarters. Good day, Lady Liona."

She glides back to James and I narrow my eyes when I see his face. Since when did James have dark hair?

I turn to Father with renewed determination. "Father, why have you allowed this woman to stay here with nothing but her word to go by?" I ask, slightly flustered when an image of Franco smiling at Liona flashes into my traitorous mind.

Father looks at me, a weary and slightly annoyed expression plastered onto his face. "I thought it would be a great idea to search for something we may have missed. And you would get to know her more closely." He explains in a low voice.

I give a terse nod and he dismisses me to go find Liona, now in her quarters most likely. I want to find the story behind her scar. I travel the hallways into the empty west wing, where guests normally stay. The door at the end is slightly ajar and I knock softly on the hard wood. Hushed voices stop mid sentence and James opens the door for me.

"Sire, I was just showing Lady Liona the amenities." He says coolly. I nod slowly, wondering why a guard would show anyone the 'amenities'.

"You might be thinking that he's a face you haven't seen before." Liona starts, "but he's a replacement for the guard they sacked this morning, James, was it? I heard the hushed voices speak of him in the hallway."

Oh, that makes more sense. "And your name is?" I ask politely.

"Greggory." Liona interjects. He nods, bows and excuses himself. Liona sighs, then looks as if she was caught in the act of a murder. "He was a big talker. Tires me listening to him." She states stretching her neck, a crack piercing the tense quiet.

"Would you like a tour of the grounds, Lady Liona?" I hear the words come out of my mouth and curse my tongue for coming up with the nonsense. Idiot, idiot, idiot! She nods and smiles a small smile that churns my insides. Stop. It.

"In the castle, there is four courtyards and a main garden, the four smaller gardens are the element courtyards and the main garden is the day garden. We have one library here-"

"Where is it?" She asks, her interest piqued. She catches herself, "Sorry. Do go on." I look at her in a new light, an avid reader? Who would've thought.

"We will go there now. Come." I start off, cutting through the fire courtyard to reach the big pine doors. She stops in the courtyard and stares in wonder. I stop ahead of her and untangle a bright red vine from around a small stem of a flower.

I clasp her hand and pull her towards the bench made of fireoak and sit her down. She touches a small bud, and when the petals begin to spread she smiles. I weave the vine into her hair and turn her to admire my handy work.

"Beautiful." I whisper. She blushes and closes her eyes. I grab her hand again and drag her towards the library. She pulls back and says indignantly "I am perfectly capable of walking myself through a door, Your Highness."

I open the doors and turn to watch her expression. Totally filled with awe. Then an almost sad expression crosses her face for less than a moment, then it's gone.

"What's the matter?" I ask. She looks at her shoes. The red vine stands out in her ink black hair. Her smile is small, sad. Like a lost child.

"Books are tomes that recite the past. I don't want to go back there." She whispers, sending chills up my arms.

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Ooh, how interesting...

But anyways, I've had a shît-tonne of assignments, tests and assessments lately, so ive been a bit tangled up with writing and reading and other important things. You'll learn more about Liridia in the next few chapters! YAY!!

Thanks to all my readers! I really appreciate it and we are so close to 200 reads!!! O MA GAH!!

But honestly, I'm really enjoying holidays now and the opportunity of writing and sharing my hopeless writing skills with you guys, shout out to my palz, you know who you are and pat yourself on the back, you guys are just the BESTA!!

It's win-gar-diam levi-OO-sah, not levi-o-SAH! You'll poke someone's eye out with that!

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