The Deathly Scream - 𝟙

༒ Thirteen༒

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The next morning I knock on my father's door, asking myself if he wakes up this early every day. The sun wasn't even awake herself. A tired voice tells me to come in and so I do, looking around the office stacked with boxes. I look around confused and then see my father sitting behind his desk, searching through some papers. Not even looking up to welcome me.

I close the door and walk over to the leather seat as always but with one gesture my father points to a smaller desk on the left side of the room. That hasn't been here before. I sit behind it and stare at him while he folds the paper in his hands and throws it away.

'Good morning?' I ask carefully. He looks up, his eyes bloodshot, as if he didn't sleep last night.

'Good morning'. His hoarse voice fills the office. Father wipes over his face with one hands before standing up and walks towards the boxes.

'How can I help you?' I ask curious while he takes a box with a lot of effort and places it next to my desk.

'This', he points at the box. 'This are register forms of possible candidates. I thought I had been clear that we were looking for a young man from Ethura but apparently a lot of young men from Syrilia were interested to'.

'How did the register form get in Syrilia?' I mumble, not understanding when I think back of the purple force field between the pillars of the Seperation bridge that Levi showed me. There was no chance someone from Syrilia could've crossed that.

'I'm not sure myself. We may be dealing with an imposter on our side. I'm not sure who, but that doesn't matter now. I told Sir Woods to keep a close eye on our staff, but now I want you to throw away every register form send out of Syrilia'.

I nod a little before opening the box. This would take hours, maybe the whole day. Valentina was allowed to get her throne, this work was nothing for me. Sitting behind a desk all day, working on papers. My worst nightmare.

'I thought the possible candidates still had four days to register?' My father laughs soft while shaking his head.

'The best ones know what they want and made it their priority to fill it in as soon as possible. Still there are too many to overlook', he says, staring at the boxes against the wall. He slowly walks over to his desk again, opening the curtains even farther to let the soft light in.

After an hour or two I found only six register forms from Syrilia, and I also found out that young man on that island aren't particularly handsome. There skins are white as ice and most of them have black hair. I couldn't believe this many young man lived in our Kingdom.

I bow to take another register form. When I look at the envelope, a dark blue stamp glisters on top of it. The sword on it drawn in a goldish colour, shining in the sunlight.

Ezra Ryan Carter, Syrilia I read. I stretch my arm to lay it on the stack of the disqualified young man but something about that stamp catches my attention. Only Royalty used those kind of stamps, the citizens had normal ones, with the head of their leader on it.

I take the envelope back when my father doesn't notice and open it carefully, reading the information on his form. He was one year older than my sister, had leader qualities and if he hadn't lied about his appearance, he would look nothing like a citizen of Syrilia.

I keep quiet for a moment, thinking of what I should do. When my father looks up from his desk and sees me he coughs soft to get my attention. The look in his eyes tells me he wants to know what I'm up to.

'Father, I was wondering if there is a Royalty family in Syrilia with the name Carter', I ask doubtable. He frowns when standing up and takes the letter from me. While reading through it, his eyes widen a little, but he tries to hide it, not very successful.