Prophet of the Gods

Chapter 15: Telling Liam

Gen received the note during lessons from Anna, Cora's maid. It had been a few days since Gen had seen her as she had left on a trip to visit Lady Eva at her summer home. Cora was eager to leave behind the palace which she had confessed to Gen earlier that week. After that horrid dinner, Gen had falsely assumed he'd calm down about Cora's engagement but King Alastair had not let up on berating his daughter over Prince Arden. Cora was now forced to write her fiance twice a week and she had been assigned a new governess. 

Yes, a governess. Gen hasn't ever heard of a fifteen, nearly sixteen year old girl being watched by a governess- they were for children. But King Alastair was not to be reasoned with. 

The note was the only one she had received from Cora as of late and it was frustratingly short:

Gen, 

         I need to talk to you urgently about our plan for the trip- things have changed and you're not going to like my idea. I miss you desperately and I promise I'll be back in a few days. Meet me in the gardens after breakfast whenever that day may be. 

      Yours, 

        Cora. 

Gen knew that "plan for the trip" was code for their plan regarding the map and she didn't know how to feel. She had told Cora immediately about the warlock and his demands. She had also told her that security was being strengthened which would mean their job would be a lot more difficult from now on. She didn't even know if the password she had gotten was the same or if they changed it to be safe. She hoped they hadn't. Maybe the king's pride would benefit them in that regard. 

She didn't want to give up necessarily, but the odds for their success were getting smaller and smaller and her seventeenth birthday was arriving closer and closer. She had a little less than four months until that date and the time was passing much faster than they needed it to. She didn't like to think about it because if she did for too long, she wanted to cry. 

So she pushed it out of her mind and continued with her daily routines. What else could she do? 

King Alastair was aggravating and arrogant as ever and he seemed to be even crueler than normal with the threat of the warlock and his ransom date approaching in not quite two days. He hadn't changed his mind about not giving up the map which as of now- Gen was grateful for. 

Everyone else had not quite recovered from the blow of the attack even now a week later. Dell was quieter than normal but that also may be for another reason. Gen had been noticing the absence of Nina in the kitchens lately but Dell never mentioned anything. Gen, after realizing she was too curious to ignore it, asked one of the kitchen hands, a girl named Mel, if she knew what happened. She informed Gen that Nina had been fired a week before for misbehavior regarding royalty. 

Gen was shocked and confused. She remembered the slap incident all to well but that had been ages ago? King Alastair couldn't just fire her based on that? But he could.

He was the king after all. He had the power to hire or fire anyone in the kingdom of his choosing. The thought was frightening even if Gen had been aware of it for a while. 

And Dell, who never told her about Nina, was suffering silently the entire week and she just chalked up to the disaster. That's what she was thinking the day before, but then she learned it was much worse than that. 

Out of those 789 deaths- one of those people was Dell's grandmother whom he loved and talked about a lot as he rolled and kneaded bread and Gen studied history for her lessons. She had overheard some of the other workers mention it under their breaths when Dell refused to take a break. They told him he could use it to take some time and feel better.