Meeting the seer~
At the end of the royal meeting, all the guests left for their respective kingdoms, sending their messengers far and wide to announce to the people the meeting's outcome and the king's new decree.
Apart from those who traveled back to their towns and villages, the king arranged twelve chambers for the twelve seers to stay in before traveling the next day.
The seers were to gather right before midnight and enchant a spell to ensure that the decree becomes the law and is written in the scroll of laws that were made by the kings past and present. This was a yearly ritual, and the degree not only binds it but also extends it even beyond the other realms.
When the day turned night, the mood began to shine. The king sent guards to the prince's chambers to get them. Queen Bianca and Queen Jasmine rushed to the king's chamber along with Queen Violet to beg the king and ask him to spare their sons.
While all this was happening, Queen Luna took her nursing baby and tried to hide him, but just then the door burst open, and four guards barged in. Queen Luna's personal guard was pinned down by another guard against the wall.
"Please...please, he's just a child." Queen Luna tried to protect the child in her arms, who she wrapped with a thick blanket.
"My Queen, you will have to forgive us, but we are just following the king's order," the leader of the guard said, but Queen Luna shook her head vigorously, disagreeing and showing no sign of agreement to the king's order. "No...no..."
"You either give us the child, or we take him by force. "The guard looked prepared to seize the child, Derek, who was Luna's personal guard, tried to struggle with the guard who was pinning him down, but failed "Do not hurt the queen."
Queen Luna stubbornly held the child firm, and hot tears began to fall down her face as the guard started taking steps toward her to collect the child. " Cease the child!"
Outside the room, Elizabeth saw Queen Luna being forced to give up her child while she wept and pleaded with the guard. The child started crying, but the guards didn't budge.
"My Queen, please let's go, before someone sees you. "Kira led Elizabeth out of the scene and the hall and into another corridor, which led far from the king and queen's chamber, far from the palace guard. The other hall led to another set of the palace, where visitors were hosted, and where they were held was the twelve seers' chamber, most precisely the leader of the seers, who was called the high priestess.
Cristal was behind Queen Elizabeth, protecting her, although no one was looking for her; there was nowhere else he would rather be than with the queen.
Finally, they were out of the palace through a secret exit. Kira had studied each corner of the palace, but didn't know there was a hidden exit until she caught her mother five years ago passing through one of the tunnels.
The tunnel led to the building behind the palace; this was where the seers gathered to perform the yearly ritual.
Cristal was at first surprised that there was a secret passage in the palace and even more surprised that Kira knew of it and not him, he decided to save the question for later as for the moment he needed to ensure that the queen, Elizabeth successfully meet with whoever she wanted to meet without the king knowing or else it would be trouble for the queen to be seen outside the palace building by this time of the night.
Upon arriving at the building, two guards stood at the door, securing the entrance. Damn it!
"What do we do, your highness?" Cristal asked, Should he come out and fight them?, If he did, the king would surely find out. They needed to sneak in, but how?
"Let me handle this, your highness," Kira said, and brought out a flute from her pocket. Kira was from the kingdom of Tanzania (the heart of the kingdom), and they had the power of music; their music could lay a curse or a blessing on anyone they played to or sang to.
Kira took her flute and began playing a very calm, sweet song, facing the guards by the door. This was actually the first time Kira used her power in front of Elizabeth, because maids were supposed to keep their magic and not use it.
In a couple of seconds, the guards began falling asleep, and soon they were completely asleep. Kira, Cristal, and the queen came out from their hiding and quietly sneaked past them in order not to wake the sleeping guards up.
When the three of them entered the room, they found a staircase leading below ground. It was dark, but a little dim down there. Kira looked scared because she hated walking in the dark, and their magic light bulb had already gone off while they were passing through the tunnel.
Kira hesitated a little bit, but Cristal stepped forward. "Follow me," he instructed, and the other two nodded in agreement." Take my hands," Elizabeth extended her hands to Kira, who reluctantly took them as they both followed Cristal down the staircase.
Down the stairs were little candle lights and sand particles, as if the stairs and the building were built of sand.
Finally getting to the bottom of the staircase, they saw the twelve seers seated on a white cloth, forming a circle, with the high priestess standing at its center.
All the women had their faces covered with white linen, starting right above their noses and extending down to their jaws, like an upside-down triangle. Their eyes were all closed, and they seemed to be repeating a particular enchantment. In a language no one knew apart from them.
The eleven women had their hands clasped together, and Elizabeth noticed that all of them had a particular bead around their right wrist. The seers always wore a special bead that they never removed from their hands; it was made with black pears that rested loosely around their wrists. It represented something that they called "The covenant".
Just then, the high priestess opened her eyes and met the scared but curious eyes of Elizabeth. For like a minute, the priestess fixed her eyes on Elizabeth's eyes. Elizabeth didn't know why, but all of a sudden, she groaned out loud in pain and lost her balance and was about to fall when Cristal and Kira caught hold of her immediately, but she was already on the ground with her hands touching the sandy floor.
Elizabeth looked up at the seer, who was still staring at her emotionlessly. She looked like a goddess. Elizabeth didn't remember seeing this face at the royal meeting, or maybe she hadn't paid attention, but right now she looked like an angel.
Elizabeth has heard the rumor, once or twice, that the lineage of the royal priestess was directly from the daughter of Amirah, the goddess of beauty, purity, and cleanliness, and they were called Angels. Elizabeth never thought the myth was true, but she could clearly see it; those pair of eyes were as clear as the deep blue sea.
"Elizabeth," she called, and Elizabeth felt the pain again, far worse than before. She groaned loudly.