Darker I rise

Chapter 2The Way

"Over the next hundreds of years more and more kings in the Illusion Tribe tried to take over Avatan," Maid Hecate says, as she slams the book shut with a satisfying pop. She reaches over and points at me, "And that, My Lady Kasdeya, is why we are forced underground.''

"You know that I liked to be called Deya," I say jutting out my chin, I hate my name, I was named after the poison demon. Sure I'm great with brewing poisons, but I hate that we have to be evil and I only use potions because I don't have powers. I specifically am expected to, since I am the princess, the only heir to the throne. My mother died before I got the brother my dad wanted.

He mainly avoids me, just sending other people to come and train me for battle and for political stuff. Maid Hecate grabs and twirls a lock of my jet black hair around her finger as I look down.

It's clear to see that I've disappointed her. She picked my name and she wants me to live up to it, "Respect your name-" now she grabs a chunk of my hair and yanks it so that I'm forced to look her in her icy blue eyes, "-and you might grow as strong as it is." She says, she always says that.

Along with my black hair, I have amber eyes, like my mom. A servant walks into the room and Maid Hecate grabs a letter from them. As she reads, her face slowly turns into a smile, "You are going to the tribe meeting My Lady."

The color drained from my face. "Oh, come on Lady Kasdeya you're turning 18 next month, which is also your coronation. You should be able to handle seeing the royal families from other tribes." Maid Hecate scolded.

I gulped, "Will... will Father be going." My father was a horrible person; he sometimes took people from other tribes to kill them or Illusionates them, which means he brainwashes them to serve him.

Maid Hecate nods firmly. I put my head in my hands. I can't go to that meeting. "Don't worry, My Lady Kasdeya, just act, bitter, like the poison you brew." Maid Hecate grabs my arm and leads me out of the Library.

She pulls me into the halls, I've always hated the dark gray walls with a shade lighter of flooring. She leads me to my apartment.

When you walk in there's a living space with 4 doors leading off of it. The one farthest to the right was where she took to, the closet. Every dress was either black, red, grey, white, or midnight blue. Even with a few colors to choose, I still had a lot of outfits.

Maid Hecate grabs 10 dresses and rushes me to the back of the room where the changing room is.

The first dress was a deep blue, strapless, went to an inch above my ankles, and it puffed out about a foot from my body. I stepped out of the room and Maid Hecate said, "No, makes you look like a cupcake."

The second dress was grey, had ruffles on the ends of the sleeves, waist, and the bottom, it was light and it stopped between my knees and ankles. It was too old fashioned for Maid Hecate's taste.

The third dress was red, had short sleeves, had an empire waist, and went to my knees. In short, it didn't feel like me.

The fourth dress was black, had a long trail, and had monarch butterflies on it. The tailor who made this dress put an illusion on it so it looked like butterflies were flying around the person who wore it. It reminded me of how our powers can be beautiful too. Maid Hecate agreed that the dress suited her needs.

We visited the room next to the closet, the bathroom. It was spacious with a jacuzzi, and toilet with a curtain shielding it from view. Then there was the sink. I pressed the buttons on the left and right of the sink, and out of them sprouted miniature dressers.

I went to the one on the left and opened the first drawer, blush, and picked out a light pink blush. Out of the eyeshadows, Maid Hecate picked a tablet with orange and black. The eyeliner was black and the lipstick was deep pink. When she was finished, we moved on to my hair.

"It should be elegant, yet comfortable. Superior, yet humble. A force to be reckoned with." Maid Hecate says probably searching through the catalog of hairdos in her head.

I stepped in before it got out of hand, "Make my hair wavy, and put a flower crown on?" "Yes, yes, perfect!" Maid Hecate grabs curlers from the miniature dresser to the right.

She puts them in my hair and presses a button on the left wall. The left wall folds to the right, as if it's an accordion, revealing a new room with multiple larger beauty products. It has a dryer, a basin to wet my hair, and a shelf full of hair dyes.

She seats me in a chair and dunks my head into the basin of water behind me, soaking every strand of hair but barely touching my face. She set a timer for 30 minutes. Once the timer was up she pulled my head up and moved back the water basin. Then she rolled over a hairdryer and put the lid over my head and switched it on. Finally, when it was done she rolled back the hairdryer and worked quickly to undo the curlers in my head.

When she was done she rushed me out of the bathroom so quickly that I couldn't even catch a glance of my hair in the mirror. We rushed into the next room, my bedroom.

There was a queen-size bed on the right wall, it had posts leading up to the ceiling but stopping an inch short of it. At the top of the four posts was a black see-through fabric that spilled onto the floor, slowly turning solid colors, stopping anyone from seeing the mattress.

That, however, is not where Maid Hecate takes me. she drags me over to the desk, at the left wall, and sits me down. Maid Hecate yanks open the second of three drawers on the side of the desk and reveal different crowns, a lot of them dark grey or black. She digs deep into the drawer until she finds what she's looking for, it's a crown of leaves with black and orange flowers weaved in.

She places it on my head and starts asking me what I will do once I get there, I have no idea so she spends an hour 'training' me. Basically, she talks and I daydream, I'll finally meet people outside the illusion tribe. None of the daydreams prepare me for the meeting though.