She still couldn't process what she just heard--he was murdered? She still couldn't think of anyone who would do such a thing. A part of the guilt that continuously blamed herself seemed lighter but she did wonder if her leaving made it easier for it to happen, in a raspy voice, "I just...need a moment." While they had talked, this was yet another miscommunication between the two.

            He kneeled down before her, holding onto her hands gently, "Suzie, look at me, take a deep breath--I am here, I am not dead--things will be okay." She couldn't help but cup his face at that, "See Suzie--I'm still alive."

            Hearing her nickname made her breathing calmer, he smiled as he wiped the tears from her face again--he couldn't help but chuckle at how red it became. Even though they were beginning to understand each other again, they heard a commotion outside. Suzette quickly regained her composure and went to the door, "You there! What's going on?"

            "The little miss...we can't find her!"

            Suzette lost all hope in her now cracking voice, "What do you mean?"

            The maid covered her mouth as if she wasn't sure if she should be talking about it, "Lady Cynthia was walking to her classes when she disappeared...her maids and guards were knocked out as well."

            Suzette covered her mouth, and dropped to the floor as her legs gave out, Theodore immediately ran over to her, she was in hysterics and kept saying, "No...! No...!" over and over. Seeing her unstable state, he gently touched her shoulders as he soothingly whispered, "My lady, please calm down."

            "I...I can't. Cynthia is...Cynthia is..." Her eyes kept twitching not being able to focus anywhere, and he could feel how high her pulse was even through her dress.

            "Suzie," He whispered into her ear and she snapped back to reality, she looked up at him with a determined look, she grasped onto his coat and said, "Fine--I'll marry you! On one condition--please, please! Deploy your knights and find my sister!"

            It burned his heart to see her in such a pitiful state from despair, it reminded him of how she reacted when visiting his grave, "As you wish, my lady, however--I have no wishes to buy your hand. I want to earn it once more." He grabbed her hand and kissed it tenderly, leaving her to the maid he dashed outside and had his knights search the perimeter. He didn't bring many along with him, and so he contacted the rest via a communication stone he had in his breast pocket.

                                                                        ***

As the search went on, and the light grew dimmer as the beginning of early evening, Cynthia had woken up tied to a chair, there were no windows around her to see the time of day and she also had a cloth over her mouth so she couldn't cry for help. Her hands were tied behind the chair with a rope, and she could hear someone coming so she pretended to be asleep again.

            The closer they got, the more an eerie feeling grew in the pit of her stomach, the steps were loud and heavy--which meant it was either a heavyset person, or a extremely muscular person, they had stopped right in front of her. Even though she was scared and began to sweat, she tried her best to continue acting asleep, the person in front of her removed the cloth from her face and grabbed her chin--she had almost yelped from surprise, "You're finally mine, my young porcelain doll."

            He began to trace his fingers over her lips and then began to open her mouth. She used that chance to bite his hand, hard. He yelped in surprise and pain, and while trying to wriggle his hand free the chair was knocked over, she ended up falling and it broke. The ropes sliding down her hands as if they didn't tie it tight enough. While he was trying to ease the pain in his hand, she noticed he was carrying a knife on the side of his pants, she dashed forward to grab it while he was distracted. His hair was greasy and slicked back, he had a crooked nose and what appeared to be buck teeth.

            She moved back a bit and had the knife pointed straight at him, "Who are you? Why are you doing this to me!?"

            He dropped his injured hand and stared straight at her, it was a type of obsessive, soulless stare that caused her body to tremble, "Ah, my porcelain doll is a bit on the feisty side, I see. I apologize for the brutish way you were brought here but, you are to marry me and forever be by my side with the rest of my porcelain dolls! I would have even resorted to marrying your ugly sister if that meant I could get close to you."

            His crazed eyes continued to stare at her, she slowly and carefully moved her feet--still pointing the small blade towards him, once she was by the entry way she started running. He was surprised at first, and even though his stride was wider, she was smaller and faster, able to gain some distance from him.

            She bit her lip, Thank god. I never knew that dad making me learn a bit of self-defense from the knights would be this helpful! She reminded herself to thank her father when she got home. She was near the exit when something came at her, making her drop the knife. A tall figure mainly cloaked in darkness grabbed her by the arm and forced her back towards the creepy man who was catching up.

            His voice seemed solemn, "Child, if you don't want to die, you best listen to him. I would prefer not to be commanded to kill a child."

            Her face was full of tears and she began begging, "Please, please let me go."

            "I'm sorry, I can't." He couldn't bear to look at her, "He made me swallow a contract stone, disobeying him or ending my own life will cause me to implode, hurting everyone else in the vicinity."

            She looked back over and the creepy man was not that far off now, she panicked as they began walking towards the creepy man who wants to marry her, she could hear his delightful yet nauseating voice, "Ah! You found her for me!"

            She was filled with instant dread, he took a quick breath and then ran towards them again, still in the midst of panicking, she ended up kicking him hard enough with her dangling feet. It caught him directly in the face and he fell backwards, passing out from the pain. The creepy man's knight couldn't help but whistle, his master was kicked dead in the face and knocked out. He found it hilarious--how he wished he could do it himself, and he lived vicariously through that moment, ignoring the creep on the floor, he continued, "As I was saying earlier, you have to initiate an action to escape. I...can't give you any more of a hint than that."

            Cynthia studied the man, he seemed too sturdy to go down with a kick, unlike the creepy fat lard that was chasing her. Before she could even think about kicking this seemingly sturdy brick wall, she could hear a massive amount of footsteps rushing to the door. The man holding her turned as well to them. The door burst open, several knights pouring in.

            Immediately seeing the scene before them, they acted by drawing their swords, "Unhand the lady and walk away."

            The sturdy man sighed, "Unfortunately, I cannot."

            "Then perish," They responded by closing in, ready to attack him. Everything went silent and still when they heard her shout, "Wait!"

            "Lady Cynthia?" The knights were taken aback.

            She stammered for a minute, her adrenaline beginning to settle, "This man was forced to swallow a contract stone, he's not disobeying you because he wants to."

            She heard the knights whispering amongst themselves, contract stones were illegal in the empire. During the confusion, Duke Theodore walked in, at his command he wanted answers, "What is all of this commotion? Has she not been found?"

            He hadn't looked past his wall of knights to see her yet, until he saw something swaying from his peripheral vision. That swaying reminded him of his murdered body in his previous life and he feared for the worse. He braced himself and looked, she was alive, dangling from a sturdy man's arm. His legion of knights explained, "Your grace--as you can see, she's been found but she wants to pardon the enemy..."

            Duke Theodore raised an eyebrow and walked through his crowd towards her, "My lady? Could you care to explain?"

            Cynthia felt relief, "Your grace! Well, um, this man mentioned to me that he was forced to swallow a contract stone. He was even trying to give me slight hints to escape, if he acted against his forced master his body would've imploded hurting anyone around."   

            "Okay, my lady." Duke Theodore smiled, he removed her from the sturdy man's grasp--as he did not try to resist. She felt quite warm in Duke Theodore's arms, even though she had felt so cold earlier. The rest of her adrenaline dropped and she felt at ease, now that she was safe she began to drift off, "For right now, arrest these two, we'll interrogate them later."

            There was no resistance from the suspects, as one was still unconscious and the other didn't move from his spot. He was quite happy this happened actually, perhaps they could remove that damn stone from him.