The Masquerade (OLD VERSION)

chapter eleven

"So, uh," Tam said . "I hate to be a pessimist, but how exactly are we going to do that?"

"We could search Marella's room," suggested Linh, who had calmed down a bit. "The letter suggested that she had left clues for us."

Biana had no objections, and neither did Tam, so they finished breakfast, and headed towards Marella's room. She spent so much time at the castle that she had her own room, instead of just a guest room. The walls were white, and most of the furniture was mainly in warm colors. Clothing was tossed around the room, which was pretty normal for Marella. What wasn't normal was the wall that was almost covered with little scraps of paper. Biana picked one off of the wall. brown eyes. no abilities? it read. She looked at some of the other papers, but none of them offered any explanation. The only person who would be able to understand what these meant was Marella.

"Hey, guys?" Linh said, in a nervous tone. "I found something." Biana and Tam came over to see what it was. Linh had removed a painting from the wall, revealing a map of the continent behind it. Their kingdom has been circled, as well as the one they were at war with. A line with stars randomly interrupting it went from their kingdom to that kingdom.

"She must have gone to Solreef," Biana realized. That was the name of Maruca's kingdom. Suddenly, the door creaked open, and Sophie Foster came in. She was wearing a dark red velvet dress, and her blond hair was down.

"Uh, am I interrupting something?" Sophie asked. It must have looked pretty strange, with Linh still holding the painting she had taken off the wall, all the scraps of paper, and the clothing everywhere.

"Not at all!" Biana assured her, attempting to sound as unsuspicious as possible. Judging from the looks the twins were exchanging, she had failed. "How did you know we were in here?" She asked.

"I asked a maid where you were and she said she saw you come down this hall. Anyway, do you mind if I talked to you for a moment? In private."

Biana felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter, but she still said, "Yes! Of course!"

The two girls walked down the hall in silence for a few minutes, until Sophie checked that no one was around and pulled a tightly folded paper that was bound with string out of a pocket Biana had not realized was there. "Take this," she said, pressing the paper into Biana's hands, "But don't open it unless there's an emergency. Unless you need to leave." Biana had to process the words for a moment. This reminded her a bit too much of Marella's letter. Was Sophie part of the rebels? If so, which ones? Was she in danger? The unanswered questions swam through Biana's mind like the fish in the courtyard's pond.

"Sophie..." Biana started but wasn't sure how to finish. Sophie seemed to understand Biana's internal crisis. She nodded and looked Biana straight in the eyes, brown with gold against teal.

"I must go," Sophie said, pulling Biana out of the depths of her eyes, " But we can talk about this later, if you want. Preferably soon, though." She didn't wait for Biana to reply, walking quickly away, her shoes clicking on the marble floor. She turned a corner and vanished, leaving Biana with a feeling of loneliness. She had always hated being alone.

•••

"What did she want to talk about?" Linh asked as Biana reentered the room. Tam had gotten out a bunch of books and maps that he was now studying, while Linh was going through the paper scraps.

"She gave me this paper, and told me to only open it in an emergency," Biana explained, holding up the folded up paper.

"So, are you going to open it?" Tam asked, glancing up from one of his maps.

"Do I look like I'm currently having a crisis?" Biana rolled her eyes. "I don't want to open it against Sophie's wishes. It might be really private. What are you doing, anyway?"

"I'm trying to find the specific places on Marella's route. Seeing if there's any patterns or clues."

"Any luck so far?"

"A bit," Tam replied. "Most of them are just small farming towns, but there's also Atlantis." Atlantis was a city near the ocean, almost exactly on the border of Solreef and Everglen, which was Biana's kingdom. No one was quite sure what kingdom it belonged to, but no one cares enough to fight over it. The city was very progressive, many people there wanting to get rid of the monarchy and such. Biana often heard nobles talk about it disdainfully. "And in some of the farm towns, mostly the ones in Solreef, there's these stories of people with strange abilities."

"What sort of abilities?" Biana asked.

"People disappearing out of thin air, a girl causing a flood, someone walking through a wall." Linh, who had been quiet since Biana had come back in, perked up.

"Have any of those stories involved someone... controlling fire, perhaps?"

Tam gave her a look. "A couple, but most of them didn't turn out very well. Why?"

"A lot of these papers have to do with fire," Linh explained, spreading some of the scraps out on Tam's book. Biana read them, struggling to decipher Marella's messy handwriting.

Fire, one quite simply stated.

No burns? Said another. On and on it went, all of the papers having something to do with fire.

"So, what do you think it means?" Tam asked, once he was finished reading.

"I wasn't really sure before," Linh admitted. "But maybe Marella or her rebel organization or both are looking into the stories?"

"We should really go on this trail at some point," Biana said. "That will give us a lot more answers than just speculating. Maybe after all the festivities are over?"

"What would we say it was for, though?" Tam asked. "We can't just tell them that we're investigating our missing friend who seems to be fascinated by fire."

"We could tell them we're trying to meet with Princess Maruca," Linh suggested. "Because we're her age so we might be able to negotiate a treaty more easily." Although King Prentice was technically the ruler, and Maruca had an older brother, the king had been incapacitated for quite a while, and Prince Wylie was not very interested in government, so Maruca controlled most issues.

"Good idea," Biana agreed. Checking the time, she realized she had a dress fitting in thirty minutes. "I'm sorry, I really must be going. Shall we talk about the details later?"

Both the twins nodded, so she said her goodbyes and went on the way to her fitting. Walking down the hallway, Biana felt quite satisfied. Though she had uncovered far more questions than answers, it was a start. It was progress.

1160 words

In case you were confused, Maruca and Wylie are siblings in this.