Reia and her sister walked up the path to the house and stood under the eaves for a moment to take in the scenery and watch the rain. The evening was wearing on, and the moon was high in the sky. It casts its light down and illuminated the courtyard before them. It was spacious. Flowers grew along the fences and the sound of trickling water from the nearby pond entered the ears of the sisters and calmed them.
Taking it all in, Reia felt at ease after a long time, and although melancholic, she forced herself to think of happier things to not drown in the feeling. Home had always been her safe space, but it had felt suffocating as of late. Being here at this moment with her sister was less so, but the oppressiveness was still there.
Sighing, she turned away from the picturesque scene and entered the house. The first thing she did was remove the cloak and take the small towel handed to her by the maid. And then, after drying her hair and wiping her face, Reia went up to her room to change into new clothes.
Not long after, she was called down for dinner and she went to join her family in the dining room. The aroma of the meal was the first thing to greet her when she entered the room, and the chatter between her parents and sister came next. It was warm and her mood lifted at the atmosphere that spread around the room, but it fell the next moment when she spotted the two men sitting at the table.
They weren’t strangers to Reia, and they stood up to greet her when they saw her in the doorway. One was tall, with dark hair and handsome features. He was known as Mikhail and was the youngest person to become an Elder in the Light Faction. The man next to him was about the same height, with blond hair and a sunny deposition, and he followed the other man around with eyes of worship. From what Reia knew, he was the closest person to Mikhail who worked under him.
Reia sat at the table, not forgetting to return their greetings, and while she smiled at the blond man, Alec, her smile tightened at the edges when she faced Mikhail. There was no animosity between them, but she knew her parents’ intentions when they invited him here. Where her deceased lover was one of the leaders of the Dark Faction and was seen as a bad influence by them, Mikhail was the opposite.
The man was a higher-up of the Lights and he was polite, good-natured and had worked hard to get to the position he had today. Whereas Silas, a leader of the Darks, had a fierce look that made him look angry at everything which led him to be misunderstood often. While Reia knew his true personality from being with him for years, others thought he wasn’t worthy and looked down on him. That was why her parents forbade her from seeing him and she had to sneak out just to spend time with him.
Then the fight between the Light and Dark factions happened and everything went downhill for them, especially for Reia who lost Silas. Thinking back on the day she watched as he was stabbed through the heart and his body fell lifeless to the ground, Reia felt queasy and the food before her suddenly looked dull and unappetising.
At that moment it wasn’t just Silas who had felt the pain of being stabbed in the chest, but so did Reia as her heart squeezed and it broke into a million pieces to never be put back together again. Nobody could understand what she felt that day and what it was like to lose the one person she loved more than anyone else in this world: they didn’t even try to understand what it meant for her.
So as she watched her parents flatter Mikhail, and tell him all of her good points to make him look at her as a potential marriage partner, the resentment within grew by leaps and bounds. Pushing back her chair and standing up Reia said, “may I be excused? I’m not feeling well and would like to return to my room.”
“Are you alright, dear?” Her mother, a petite woman with the same dark hair as Reia and a kindly face, walked to her daughter’s side and checked her over worriedly. “Were you in the rain too long? I always tell you not to go out when the weather’s like this.”
“I’m fine, mother.” Reia patted her hand and reassured her. “I just want to go and rest.”
“Yes, yes, you go ahead.” Her mother waved to a nearby maid and instructed them to make sure that Reia was settled in her room properly and to give her everything she needed to feel comfortable.
The father, who had been silent until this moment, waited until Reia left the room and turned to the younger men and said, “I’m sorry about my daughter leaving so suddenly. She has been frail since childhood and falls ill easily. I hope you take no offence to this.”
Mikhail smiled brightly and replied, “it’s no problem. I’ve known Reia for a while and know how she can be. Just let her rest and I’ll come to visit her another day. How about I send some medicine to her later? I know of some tonics that are good for relieving a cold.”
The father thanked him and got up from his chair, then he held out his hand towards the living room and said, “why don’t we go to the living room and have a cup of coffee? We can discuss the future plans there further.”
Mikhail, too, stood up and followed the husband and wife to the living room. His smile fell and a dark look appeared in his eyes behind their backs, and he signalled something to Alec wordlessly. Alec understood and slipped away to follow Reia without her parents noticing.
Unawares, Reia made her way to her bedroom and told the maid to go there first and she’ll be there in a moment. The maid was hesitant at first but left when Reia gave her assurances that there was something she had to take care of first, and then she would go to the room when she was done.
Sighing, Reia walked down the hallway and took a couple of turns until she reached an inconspicuous part of the house, and stopped in front of one of the bookcases against the wall.
Making sure no one else was around, she reached up and placed her hand on one of the ornaments. Pulling it downwards, a click sounded out in the otherwise silent hall, and she stepped back to allow the mechanism to do its work.
The bookcase split in the middle and both sides slid along the wall to reveal a darkened space behind it. Taking a lantern from the side, then Reia raised it, casting a light on the walls beyond the bookcase. With hardened eyes, she stepped through the doorway and started the descent to the room below.
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