IMPERIUM

Chapter 9

"A little more to the left, no not that left I meant my left, yes, yes perfect. Now stay still!"

"Alayna, can we please go through the plan again because I don't understand why I have to bring all of this with me?" Lina's anxious voice said from behind the basket filled with towering towels.

Alayna couldn't help but smile at the sight of her friend looking like she was about to drown in them. "Okay, so you are going to walk in front of the guards and pretend to trip and hurt yourself. The guards will then come up to you and that is where I take charge for the doors."

"How are you sure they will believe this, maybe they won't even come up to me, or even worse they see you and we get caught and I die a miserable death by rotting in a cell for the rest of my life" Lina began to ramble.

"Lina calm down, I know it will work, I already know how excellent your acting abilities are" Alayna said, "It's going to be okay" she reassured with a comforting hand on Lina's shoulder.

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"I'm positive. Now let's stop worrying and let's proceed with the plan" she prompted.
Alayna signed to Lina to begin walking as she hid behind a big white pillar that would make her able to view what was happening, without anyone noticing her. Lina strutted confidently but as she was nearing the guards her steps were becoming more wobblier. Alayna could see the guards eyes following Linas steps 'perfect'. Lina's steps had now faltered as she was trying to balance the tower of towels. Fortunately for Lina, she plummeted to the ground with the towels following after.

Alayna couldn't help but giggle as she saw her friend getting buried in the towels. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth after realizing she couldn't make any noise. As expected the guards moved before Lina had even hit the floor, already knowing it would happen. Lina started yelping for the guards. As much as Alayna wanted to amuse herself she had to go through with her own plans. As the guards were distracted by trying to pull up the buried Lina who now was practically screaming for help. Alayna quickly hopped out from her hiding spot and darted for the giant doors. Lina's screaming helped Alayna push the big doors open without making anyone notice. Alayna looked back once to see how Lina was doing. To her surprise she was already looking at her with widened eyes. Alayna gave her a thumbs up because Lina's acting was definitely not something she would underestimate ever again, and for that Alayna earned a smirk from her.

The first time Alayna ended up in the banned section was merely a coincidence. The royal library gave Alayna the feeling of encouragement that made her want to read, hear, feel and see everything, but sometimes it was not completely fulfilling. Alayna always wanted something extra, something new. In the end she found herself in front of the giant doors to the banned section. However that time there were no guards and the doors were slightly ajar. Alayna's thoughts got the best of her and that was how her first visit to the banned section ended up happening.

As Alayna closed the door behind her she took in her surroundings. The banned section was more of a smaller version of the royal library. The royal library was glamorous and light. The royal colors of gold, white and violet painted the walls whereas the banned section was dark and eerie having this daunted feeling following you everywhere you go. The more Alayna took it in, the more she began to understand the reason for it being banned. Alayna was very familiar with the royal library. However the banned section was a whole other thing. As she walked through observing the dusty shelves she saw that none of the books had a title written on the cover. Alayna stepped toward one of the books on the shelves. She dusted it off before opening it to find the title on the first page of the book instead of the cover.
Alexander Westham's diary,  it read. Alayna scrunched up her eyebrows and proceeded to put the book back in its place taking out a new one. Just like she had thought the title was also on the first page but this time it read Herbal and Healing. She tried again and again but the results were all the same. Alayna was used to books that were arranged by the first letter of the title which none of the books here were. All of them were randomly scattered without a classification system involved.

"The person that arranged them was either lazy or they wanted to throw off unwanted visitors" she whispered to herself.

Alayna continued looking through the books for about ten minutes now. She was trying to figure out the system and yet it was still utterly impossible to find anything in there. The good news she got from this was finding some books she thought were interesting. The bad news was that they would probably not help her solve her own mystery. In addition she couldn't just take them with her. She had to remember where they had been placed and the concoction of the low light coming through the window didn't help her differentiate between the fairly similar color of the book covers. Her time was coming to an end. Alayna had to give up her search and return back to Lina.

As she slipped through the doors running towards her original hiding spot Alayna saw that more people had gathered around. There were two other maids that had collected the towels and were now leaving with them. The two other guards that were supposed to guard the doors were still occupied by calming down the complaining Lina. Alayna did also see another very familiar guard helping Lina to steady on her feet. The other guards offered to help but the familiar guard disregarded them telling them that they could return to their post. Alayna took it as her sign to reveal herself.

"Oh, dear Lina, are you okay!? What happened and why are all these towels on the floor?" she said, worry filling her voice as she rushed towards Lina.

"Oh miss, I am very sorry I was just on my way to the wash house when I tripped. But the guards over there were kind enough to help me." Alayna quickly glanced at the two guards.
 
"That was very kind of them. I must reward them another time but your ankle must be hurting, wait let me-" Alayna cut her sentence off, narrowing her eyes at the guards hands that currently were positioned around Linas waist. 'Hmm and what might this be?'

It seemed that both Lina and the guard noticed Alayna's eyes boring into the guards arms.
"Your highness" The guard addressed with the bow of his head, still not letting go of Lina.

"Ah right, this is Killian, he was just surveying the area when he saw what had happened and came rushing to help."

Alayna instantly remembered where she had met this guard, but the thing that seemed to bother her was not the guard specifically, it was how comfortable they both were with each other. "Ah, I remember Mr. Killian," Alayna smugly responded.

"You do?" Lina boomed. She was not the only one shocked because Killian also seemed surprised that she had remembered him from their last encounter. 'Yes, yes, I very much do. I wouldn't forget the person that ran through me and then was about to put the blame on me.'
"Yes, but that's a story for another time. Here let me help you." Alayna tried to not glare as much as she could at the guard and instead offered a very passive aggressive smile which appeared more as a threat than a smile. To his luck he understood the warning very clearly. Alayna swung Lina's arms around her shoulder, but Lina wouldn't stop her acting and seemed to put a little more body weight than what was needed on to Alayna.

"Do you need any assistance, your highness?" Killian offered with a smug look on his face from seeing Alayna struggle.

"No thank you. I can take it from here," Alayna had answered but it sounded more as a command for him to continue on his way. Suddenly it seemed as if Lina didn't care if she had put all her body weight on to Alayna. 

"I see, well it was a pleasure meeting you, your highness," he said, "And you miss Lina" He added taking her hand and placing a soft kiss on it, before leaving them alone.
"That sneaky little-" Alayna was about to curse but cut herself off remembering Lina was still standing beside her. Alayna turned her head to glimpse at Lina's reaction but was stunned to see that she was currently looking down at her shoes, her cheeks painting a rosy color on her face.

'Oh, what do we have here?' Alayna wondered.

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Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the short meeting with Killian. Dont worry he will appear in more chapters from here on.

S&S