Transcend

Chapter 10

Waaah another chapter that you can VOTE and COMMENT and SHARE OMFG.

and meh, sorry if it's uneventful, it's mostly a filler.

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Chapter 10

"Yes, send more pots and linens to the medical ward," Emma told a servant gently before turning to the next task at hand: evacuation plans.

Maps and charts were spread out on the large table, red dots denoting villages and blue lines denoting underground tunnels throughout the land. Emma and Petrova's biggest challenge would be editing the old evacuation strategies, which could only handle a hundred people or so, to accommodate the new populations since the old evacuation plans were drawn up 200 years ago. 

"You'd think that some kind of intelligent being would've wondered, 'Gee, maybe it's time to update those 'ole escape plans before we all get ambushed and killed,'" Petrova rubbed her temples with long, delicate fingers tipped with sharp black nails.

Emma chuckled. "Yeah... I have no idea what they were thinking with this map. We're going to have to venture out to figure out where everything is."

"I agree, now let's do something that doesn't make my poor head ache," Petrova was eager to give up, smoothing a ruffle on her dress as she straightened. 

"Your Majesties," a timid voice piped up behind the two queens. It was Lara, the servant girl David had probably traumatized for life after their encounter. "Sir Gale in the cellar needs assistance."

"Hello, Lara," Emma smiled sincerely. "I hope David didn't scare you too badly, I really shouldn't have dragged you into our little quarrel."

"It's alright, Your Majesty," Lara's eyes flashed up to meet Emma's for a split second, but quickly returned to the floor. "It was awfully forward of me to talk to you in the first place."

Emma sighed. She and David had never really talked about the incident. Of course, she had embraced her new existence with David with open arms after her expidition into the forest, but she had yet to have a clear discussion with David about her feelings about servants.

"Little Emma, are you coming?" Petrova's sardonic drawl brought her out of her thoughts. "I daresay this 'Sir Gale' won't be pleased in the slightest if his cheeses mold before we arrive."

Giving the vampire a mock scowl, Emma followed Lara and Petrova through another annex of the kitchen and then down a spiralling stone staircase that led deep underground. The damp cold of the cellar seeped into Emma's thin frame, making her shiver and rub her hands along her upper arms in an attempt to stay warm.

"Ah, Your Majesties, I'm glad you could come," a bookish man scrambled between two shelves, transporting cans of preserves and picked vegetables. "It seems that there's an anomaly in our food supplies."

"Anomaly?" Anxiety bloomed in Emma's chest. Was there less food than previously thought? What if they were trapped in the castle and the food ran out? That would quickly degenerate into a madhouse. "What's wrong?"

"Well, to be honest, I don't really know how this happened, Your Majesty," Sir Gale mused, seeming perfectly calm but perplexed. "But apparently we have extra supplies."

Emma glanced at Petrova, incredulous. She took a small jar of pickles in her hand, inspecting its contents. Surely something must have gone wrong. The initial estimate of their food supplies had been overly generous, and when Sir Gale was sent into the cellar to inventory all of the supplies, they weren't expecting a surplus. 

"That can't be right. We should test these for poison, who knows what the humans have managed to do," Petrova frowned. Emma nodded her head, agreeing. "We need someone with the Gift."