Vivia froze, her breath stuck in her throat. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as if hundreds of small pins were stabbing her at the same time.
H-How did she…Wait, Captain Valtor is here too! Does that mean he also knows that I'm an imposter-
"You're not the real princess but a shell hiding her true heart."
"Ah?" Vivia gave her a blank look.
"Yes. The real princess is hiding inside a shell. You've goals and ambitions, but you can only hide your true feelings and aspirations behind a false smiling mask."
Is she talking about Clairette's life…? Wait, does she know about me reincarnating into her body or not?
"The responsibilities of the palace have crushed your true inner voice," Drisennia said with a somber gaze.
A pang of sadness hit her for Clairette. From her fragmented memories, she could attest to Drisennia's claims. At the same time, she heaved a sigh of relief, confident that Drisennia wasn't referring to her reincarnation but the real Clairette's life. The rollercoaster of emotions she had felt in this short span of time could truly make someone go insane.
Suddenly, I understand why the demons would lose their minds after meeting her…
"Place your hand in this mist, Princess. The changing color will show your fortune," her lips curled into an enigmatic smile.
Vivia stared at the sphere of a dusty white mist below. She took a quiet breath and nervously placed her hand as directed.
A few moments later, a deep hue of purple suddenly roared upwards, reaching all the way to the ceiling. Eurus jolted and quickly returned to Vivia's side, hugging her arm.
Her eyes stretched wide in confusion, but the most perplexed was none other than Drisennia. She faltered backwards, her lips parting with dread and alarm.
"What does this purple mist mean?"
Drisennia struggled to find her voice. Her heart was still beating erratically and in disarray.
"Impossible…" she breathed out.
Drisennia's reaction piqued Valtor's curiosity too, who until now was only interested in leaving. He had never witnessed such a drastic reaction from her.
"What's the matter? What does Princess's fortune say?"
Drisennia felt like she had stepped into a long stretch of fog with a distant voice echoing in her ears.
"The prophecy…The prophecy is going to come true!"
"Prophecy?" Vivia was taken aback.
Drisennia looked visibly shaken. "The world is going to end. We're all going to perish…"
"I don't understand. What prophecy is this?" Vivia asked with genuine curiosity, mixed with a hint of worry.
She hadn't been a firm believer in fortunes or the likes of it in her previous life. But ever since she reincarnated as Clairette, she was beginning to understand certain aspects of life that weren't necessarily visible or always logical.
"The prophecy. It has passed down in my family for generations. A single prophecy that'll change the entire course of our world. Every matriarch in my family would hear a whisper as they turned eight. A whisper of doom…" She said quietly but breathlessly.
Eurus didn't understand what was going on, but he clutched Vivia's arm tighter.
Captain Valtor grimaced as he refused to believe her 'world-ending' claims. "The world will not end, Madam Drisennia."
She bore her intense gaze into his, stretching her lips thin. "The prophecy never surfaced…until now. Only before the Princess has the prophecy revealed itself. This is not a good sign. Princess Clairette has something to do with a distant destruction that will soon fall upon us."
Vivia stared at her, stunned.
"I…am just a normal human. Why would I've anything to do with the world's end? Isn't that prophecy a bit drastic?"
Drisennia's eyes narrowed. "Foolish people have always ignored nature's warnings."
She stretched her arms up, facing the ceiling where the purple fumes continued to dance violently.
"The sun, the moon, the air, the water, the fire, the land, the seasons, the birds, the flowers, the mountains, the forests - nature always warns us of the impending disturbances, yet it's us who don't heed and bring ruin to ourselves. Balance, princess. It's balance that tethers our realms together. The Yin of the demons and the Yang of the humans must always remain in a delicate balance. The moment a ripple occurs is the moment when doom befalls."
Vivia wished she could shrug off the world-ending claims, but she found it difficult to ignore her. Until now, she had never believed that reincarnation was even possible.
But it had happened to her. In a split second, her identity changed. Her life changed and with it, the path to forge her future too. From a simple dancer, she was now a royal princess where the entire fate of the Human Realm and its citizens probably lay upon her shoulders.
It cannot be possible that…my reincarnation has something to do with this, right? Wait, does this prophecy hint at reincarnation?
She asked with urgency, "Can I ask what this prophecy says?"
Drisennia stared at the ominous purple hue, a shiver running down her spine. Her lips parted slowly as her hushed voice whispered the impending catastrophe.
"When twin worlds bleed beneath a fractured crown,
A veil-born shall tear the sky asunder,
From blackened roots, the serpent's wrath shall rise,
To drown the sun, eclipse the moon and pluck the stars like eyes.
Beware the hour when harmony wears chains,
For only the fractured can mend what the whole has slain."
A strained silence hung in the air as the words slowly sank in.
Vivia had replayed the prophecy in her mind thrice by now but…
"Forgive my lack of understanding, but this prophecy doesn't exactly point at me…right?" She let out a nervous smile.
It doesn't hint at me, nor Clairette or the reincarnation, so why am I the cause of the world's doom?
Drisennia squinted her eyes. She glanced at Valtor once to see if he understood it, but confusion reflected in his expression as well.
"It seems you don't understand the significance. Don't you know who a veil-born is?"
Valtor stiffened, his throat choking at the realization.
Vivia blinked twice. "Yes, I do. A veil-born is a half-human and half-demon child. The union of a human and a demon."
"Indeed. It's the most blasphemous sin one could commit under this sky. A truly abhorrent sin that has no place of respect and value. Humans and demons might come together for trade and diplomacy, but a conjugal relationship is strictly forbidden - let alone a child born out of this union. That is why we call it a veil-born - an existence that must be hidden and veiled. A child that should never see the light of this world."
Drisennia leaned slightly toward Vivia. Her demonic slit eyes watched her with caution.
"It has been the first time in our history that a human guest has stayed in our realm for this long. The prophecy doesn't directly point at you because prophecies hardly ever speak in a straight line. Yet I heard it again in a long time the moment you placed your hand in the mist. I cannot help but wonder. Are you connected with the veil-born? The human princess of Emberlain: Have you…fallen in love with a demon here?"