asra x fem! reader • apprentice

two - palace

-Asra's POV-

(Y/N) had seemingly had another nightmare during the night. I was hoping that they had gone away, but they still hadn't.

She laid against me, her heart rate slowing down, meaning the nightmare had finally ended. Sometimes she would mutter things in her sleep when she had these dreams, but not often.

-(Y/N)'s POV-

I woke up, lifting my head off of Asra's chest. He was asleep, and so was Faust, who had wrapped herself around his upper arm.
I rubbed my eyes and snaked out of Asra's arms, sitting up in bed.
I heard a loud crash, followed with someone swearing under their breath.
I snuck down the stairs, only to see Julian Devorak laying on the floor in front of the window.
"Er, hi. Fancy seeing you around here." Julian said, sounding oblivious. "This is basically my house..."
"I know," Julian smirked lightly. "Why do you think I broke in?"
"I don't know, actually, Julian." I said, crossing my arms.
"I need your help." He said, which wiped the smirk off of his face. He looked a little embarrassed to be asking for help in the first place.
"Why me?" I asked. "Because we're connected somehow. The dreams."
"Fine. What do you need help with?" I sighed, and excitement completely took over his face, "You really said yes? Nobody says yes when I ask for favors!"
"Ahem, so I had another nightmare last night, but I noticed something different about it. I recognized the location. It was in Queen Nadia's palace." He said.
"So, what, are we just going to break in?" I asked, sort of amused, since he didn't seem to have thought this through at all before he came here.
"I guess so." Julian replied, shrugging.
"Well, you'll need a disguise. I doubt Queen Nadia would find it pleasing to see you in her palace." I said, and then realized that Julian hadn't been the one to tell me about Count Lucio.
"You... know?" He said in almost a whisper, his face flushing.
"Yeah... Asra told me." I admitted, meeting Julian's eyes.
"Uh. Well, you're right!" He said, changing moods quickly as if to secure his ego.
I cocked my head to the side, studying him. His face turned redder and redder every second.
"I'll disguise you as best I can." I said, and started fixing his hair so that it didn't fluff up in front of his face as much. I pinned it back behind his ear with a small, black hairpin, and wrapped one of Sara's big, red scarves around his shoulders, fluffing it up so that it partially covered his mouth.
"That'll do." I said, smiling at him.

---

Me and Julian managed to sneak out of the house without Asra hearing us, and then he led me towards the palace, holding my hand.
Once we arrived at the front of the palace, in front of the gate, Julian stopped and looked over at me, "Uh.. what now? The gate's locked."
"It's not that high of a gate. And you're tall. You could help me up and I could open the gate from the inside." I suggested, and he nodded aggressively, looking as if that was the smartest thing he'd ever heard.
He awkwardly held onto my waist, hoisting me up until I could grab onto the top of the fence and climb over it.
I fell to the ground. Fortunately, I landed on my feet. I went over to the gate, about to undo the lock, when I heard a voice boom, "Halt!"
I looked behind me, and standing there was a royal guard.
"Uh, hi. We wanted to, uh, see Queen Nadia, but we didn't see a guard, so we though we'd improvise." I said, "If it helps, I'm the magician Asra's apprentice."
The guard seemed to recognize Asra's name, and nodded. But then he spotted Julian and his face darkened, "Then who's your friend over there?"
"My, uh-" I can't say he's a relative, we don't look similar at all, I thought, mentally face palming. "He's my boyfriend."
"Ha-ha. Why's he wearing an eyepatch? He think he a pirate or somethin'?" He asked, but shrugged it off, opening the gate and letting Julian in.
"You can go on in." The guard said, and I followed Julian to the palace doors.
One of the servants told us to wait in a waiting room as Nadia got ready.
I drummed my fingers against the wooden table in boredom.
"Why do you wear an eyepatch?" I asked Julian, looking up at him.
"I can't tell you. Sorry." He responded, running his fingers through his hair and zoning out on the door.
"Why did you tell the guard I'm your boyfriend?" He asked, still zoned out.
"I was gonna tell him you're my relative, but that's not very believable." I said, giving him a half-grin.
He opened his mouth to say something, his face red, when the door opened.
On the other side of the door was a tall, dark-skinned woman with long purple hair and a regal look on her face.
I curtsied, even though I wasn't wearing a dress, "Your majesty. It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."
Nadia sternly eyed the bodyguards behind her, closing the door in front of them and smiling lightly at me, "As it is you. I heard you were the magician Asra's apprentice. I've only heard good things about you."
"Same for you." I said, giving her a light smile back.
Suddenly Nadia's eyebrows creased a bit, and she rubbed her forehead with her hand.
"Are you okay, your majesty?" I asked, and she nodded, "Just a headache. I get them a lot."
"I used to get headaches a lot, too." I said, blinking at her.
"So, why did you need to see me?" Queen Nadia asked, going back to her regal look.
"Well," I flashed a look at Julian. "We didn't need to, or plan to, anyway, but we figured it would be easier this way."
"What would be easier?" Nadia questioned, cocking her head gently to the side.
"I've been having nightmares lately, your majesty. Not just lately, actually, for as long as I can remember. And all of them depict a ghost-like white goat creature with red eyes." I explained, and then looked back at Julian again.
"Jules here has been having similar nightmares, and he said that last night he recognized the background as the palace." I continued.
"Wait. You said for as long as you could remember? Like, since birth?" Nadia asked quizzically, and I shook my head.
"It's hard to explain, but I don't have all of my memories. The first thing I remember is waking up by Asra." I said, and Nadia's eyes widened.
"I lost a lot of my memories, too... I only remember the time a while after Lucio's death." She said, and my eyes widened as well.
"I am, too. Right up to Lucio's death." Julian chimed in.
"And I've had nightmares, too... with a goat-like ghostly creature. He threatens me, and taunts me, and tries to scare me." She said, her shoulders tensing.
"I'm glad you told me. Now we know we have a connection. What was your name?" Nadia said, giving me a light smile.
"My name's (Y/N)." I replied.
"(Y/N). That's a beautiful name. And you're name is Jules?" Nadia said, looking at each of us in turn. Julian nodded awkwardly.
"It's rather late. You two could stay in my guest rooms for the night, if you'd like." Nadia offered.
"If you would let us, we'd be happy to stay the night, your majesty." I said. I'll just wake up early and sneak back to the shop before Asra can suspect anything.
Nadia gave a small but meaningful dip of her head, "My servants will lead you two to your rooms."
"Jules, your servant is right here." Nadia said, motioning to a tall man in a white and gold uniform. Julian nodded and stood up, waving awkwardly to me as he went out the door.
"Portia will be here soon to direct you to your own room." Nadia said, turning to me and meeting my eyes.
"Okay. Thank you, your majesty." I said, smiling at her modestly.
"Please, call me Nadia." She said, just as a young woman with curly orange hair, light blue eyes and a face full of freckles walked in. She was wearing the same white and gold uniform as the man before had been wearing.
"Hello, Portia. This is (Y/N), she's gonna be staying for the night." Nadia said, motioning towards me.
"Hi! Nice to meet you, (Y/N)! I'm Portia." The servant greeted, grinning from ear to ear.
I smiled back, "You, too."
Portia led me to my room, which was right across the hall from Julian's.
"Do you need anything else, (Y/N)?" Portia asked as I walked up to the door. She presses her fingers together, ready to spring to action if I said "yes".
"No, thank you." I responded.
"Okay then, I'll get out of your hair. Have a good night! And don't be afraid to call for me if you need anything." Portia said, winking cheerfully at me.
"Good night!" I called after her as she walked away from me, back down the hall.
I opened the door to my room, and drank in my surroundings.
It was a really fancy, pretty bedroom. It was nothing like Asra's homey, comfortable bedroom.
I collapsed onto to the purple bed, falling asleep almost instantly. This time, however, I wasn't overtaken by nightmares. Exactly the opposite, actually.
"(Y/N)?"