“I’m fine, really,” Cherry assured, for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. “Honest.” She felt cared for and also a bit troubled to have caused such havoc around the other maids.

“You were attacked!” Leila’s voice went a pitch higher every time she repeated the sentence. “By a monster!”

“I’m fine,” the sixth time.

Leila shook her head. She had been interrogating Cherry since the early morning, everything from how to when to why. 

The accident happened last night. There was a sudden horde of monsters marching their way towards the castle. The warning alarm sounded as Cherry swept last step of she stairs leading to the gardens. One monster was faster than the others, already lurking around the lush greens. The monster launched at her the moment their eyes met. Her heart pounded painfully at her ribcage. The air stilled around her. The sound gone. Once more, she was at the tower. Besieged. Trapped with only death imminent. This time, she didn’t close her eyes and saw it all happen at once. The monster’s slow jump, the atmosphere crisp as that time. The stillness of it all. The eerie feeling flowing through her.

She had an urge to turn around and search for the Lord, the man that saved her before. It was all the same. But there was no one to slay the beast. No one to shield her. No wake-up call. 

Her heart drummed, the only thing not stilled. The fear returned to her body, freezing her and all that was around her. The air shimmered with the cold. And then it hit.

The explosion, they called it. 

She wasn’t sure what it was even after it was over and the monster laid unmoving on the lush frozen greens that bled red. The guards came hurriedly as confused as her. 

“Your Grace?” one of them whispered, almost a sigh but his eyes landed on no one in particular. 

The rest of the guards also came to similar conclusion. And that was the story that came around. 

“To be saved by the Duke,” another of the maids whispered, her face between awe and horror. The voice brought Cherry back to the present.

“Well, it is the Duke,” Leila also whispered now, “Isn’t it his responsibility? To keep us all safe?”

“He is a Mage,” someone else from the group noted pointedly, “People tend to forget because he seldom uses magic.”

“I heard,” the first maid started again, all of the good stories started like that, Cherry noticed, “That he won’t use it because it’s simply too much. That he blew up the castle when he tried to kill a single monster before.”

“The whole castle? But it doesn’t look all that new?”

“Not this one! It must have been some other.”

A surge of approving nods and a few disbelieving moans echoed the words. 

Cherry was glad the attention finally shifted from her. She let out a small sigh of relief, relaxing for a split second before Leila groaned loudly.

“Don’t you tire of following us around?” Leila’s eyes were set on a guard. This particular guard was always around, Leila noted, since a few weeks ago. Her newest theory was that he appeared just around the time Cherry came to work in the west wing and was spying on them for the Duke. What for, she still didn’t quite work out.

“I have a message,” the guard finally said as he approached.

“Well out with it,” Leila gestured widely with her hand. The group of maids hid safely behind her and giggled.

When sure she was done, the guard finished his sentence, “For Miss Cherry.”

The attention which barely left her came back at full force. Someone nudged her from behind and she came to stand before the tall guard. Cherry felt that he was familiar, other than seeing him so often the last few weeks, but she couldn’t really place him.

“Yes, that’s me,” she noted, hesitantly.

The guard looked as if he wanted to comment on something, something along the lines that he knew that perhaps, but he swallowed the words. Fixing his scowl, he simply said, “Miss Cherry, you are expected to attend Mage classes, starting tomorrow.”

“Mage classes?” she repeated, even more hesitant than before.

“Mage classes!” Leila shouted, grabbed Cherry by arm and shook her. “You’re going to be a Mage!”

Just as before, the whole group mirrored the same awed emotion.

“Mage?” Cherry asked again, looking at the guard. “Me?”

“By his Grace’s order,” the guard nodded.