Determined to take control of their fates, Arjen and Arien escape Derolina Castle at the age of sixteen after their cruel mother dies. They adopt new names and find a home in the city of Aramore, while the Emperor of Yuriana searches for his missing...
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Alec wrapped his hands around the bars of the cell as his heart fall to the floor.
"Sh-She was alive when I checked on her a few hours ago," said the jail warden, sweating nervously. "I swear, no one else had been in here!"
Alec gritted his teeth. "If no one has been in here, that means someone from inside the jail did this." He threw a sharp look at the warden, and the man backed away.
"My lord, I-I'll investigate and find the culprit—quickly." He gave Alec an awkward, lopsided smile of promise.
"I did say this was an investigation involving the imperial family. You had better make good on your word."
"Yes!"
The warden scurried away. Alec would have him save the corpse in case there were any clues that could be gleaned. In the cell, the woman lay on her back, her arm on her chest and another spread out beside her. Her eyes were closed. From this angle, Alec couldn't see how she died. He couldn't see any blood. He guessed she may have been poisoned, but he wasn't sure how since he had taken her bottle earlier. But there were also various forms of magic that could kill with very little evidence.
He used magic to open the cell's lock. When he was inside, he knelt by the body and examined it closely without touching anything. He regretted sending Detective Birbeck away, because now he needed someone skilled to thoroughly investigate the scene. As a prince, however, he was permitted to at least explore however he needed.
Alec noticed something about the woman's outstretched arm. Her hand clutched something, and he opened her fingers. Inside lay a small scrap of paper, crumpled from the pressure of her hand. Was she trying to hide this?Alec unfolded the paper to find something scrawled there. At first, he couldn't make out the letters, sloppy as they were, as though written in a hurry.
"Raphael Faust," Alec mumbled. He'd never heard the name before. For some reason this woman had thought it was important enough to write down. Had she done it for him, anticipating her own death at the hands of her comrades?
He carefully replaced the paper in her hand and left the jail, a dark premonition occupying his thoughts.
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The following morning was warm and muggy. Alec exited a small restaurant where he'd just had a breakfast he regretted. Although he didn't mind visiting the domain of commoners, he sometimes missed certain aspects of the palace, and that was the food. The food here shouldn't bother his system too much because of his self-healing abilities, but he usually felt the initial symptoms. If it wasn't for that, he would be spending the rest of the morning on the toilet.
(( I didn't think you would eat that, )) said Niwe. (( Even I would've hesitated to eat it—and I'm not even human. ))
"Please be quiet," said Alec. He pressed a hand to his stomach. "It looked good enough on the plate."
