The ball ended sooner than expected as for the guests were told to return back to their homes, everyone knew it was because of the incident outside at the palace's garden, some guessed right, that a monster broke in, and tried to attack the Duke of ashbourne, but never knew the rare jewel was out there too.
When all the guests were gone and the palace was quiet, Alias resided in the palace's guest's room for a few days as the queen suggested,he knew there was more to this than meets the eye.
He took his coat off and wore a soft tunic and some pants which he was provided by the palace.
He sat on the wide bed as he thought about everything that happened.
The king called him back to Avelesse when he had no problem all those years to send him to war with only sending orders from where he was, he came back, three days before the princess' birthday, invited to her ball and now being asked to Stay back in the palace.
The king knew what Alias was hiding, was his plans to make him stay here and manipulate him by sending him to a war of another monsters?
He did this once, and that cost him his sanity….
He through himself on the soft bed when he felt something poking his back. He sat down and stared at the coat beneath him, the same one which he took it off.
He picked it up and checked inside it's pockets.
A tiara.
The one he picked it up in the garden when the royal family was leaving, it belonged to the careless princess, Isabelle. He sigh and took out something else. her notebook.
A plain notebook. Worn edges. Black ribbon frayed from anxious fingers.
He opened it, he knew he shouldn't but he did it anyway. What he saw, left him shocked… or yet — amazed.
But the moment the first page turned, Alias froze.
Monsters—
not childish ones, not scribbles—
but creatures so detailed, so alive, they looked ready to crawl from the paper.
Scaled jaws.
Eyes like molten stone.
Wings made of shadows.
Claws sharper than forged steel.
A dragon—no, a dhravok—rendered with such perfect anatomy it bordered on prophetic. The curve of its spine. The texture of its thick scales. The way its jaw unhinged in a scream.
" No wonder she knew so much…." He opened the next paper and came with it another monster.
A single word sat at the top in crooked letters:
"Ghrunak."
The drawing hit him like a punch.
A massive troll-like creature hunched forward, its body shaded in rough, volcanic textures. Long arms dragged toward the ground, ending in thick stone-like fists. Its spine jutted out in sharp ridges, each one drawn with careful, obsessive detail.
They were exactly as he faced them, it's as if she saw these things face to face and marked each one in her mind without missing a mark on them. He opened another and another and with each page, he found himself being intrigued.
He then saw the last drawing, a moon, a full bright moon with a clear sky. It was the moon on the garden this evening, when she stopped dancing or rather spinning, he remembered she bent down and drew something or scribbled something on it but she actually drew the moon above before she continued spinning where the dhravok attacked.
He shut the book and took the tiara in his arms, he should return these.
He stood up and strode to the double doors, he wanted to give these to a maid or a guard to return them to the princess, the tiara she had many of them, but he thought the book she might be looking for it. But when he opened it, no one was outside, the long wide hallways were empty in both directions, he checked his hands where he held the two items and let out a breath, he'd give these tomorrow then, face to face or servants deliver to them.
He was about to head back inside when he heard something, a very faint sound, like…. A scream. he listened to it again and heard nothing, maybe his mind was playing tricks.
He turned around when he heard it again, clearly this times.
"is anyone there?" He asked as he checked on all sides of the hallway, not being satisfied, he decided to check himself what was going on, he was walking when he heard the screams, louder this time, and that's when he ran, he ran while searching for where they were coming from, when he realized they were coming from the garden, he ran to a nearby balcony and checked what was going on.
Guards, about six of them were holding down a woman as she screamed at the top of her lungs… " I want it!!! I want it!!! I want it!!! I want it!!!" He heard her repeat these words over and over again, he couldn't clearly see who it was as he was on the second floor to the ground, but the situation in the garden didn't seem like something that he could interfere, they were only guards and maids outside, about three maids along with the six guards, the maids who looked like they were trying to calm the lady while the guards held her down.
Soon after, three women came, he knew them, the queen, and the three princess, from The crown of her head and hair, he could tell it was the first princess, princess Loraine, all running to the scene as the woman kept on screaming " I want it I want it i want it I want it!!!"
Alias now was really curious to what was going on, especially after the king came, from what it looked like, it didn't seem like he was supposed to know about this, because the first thing the king did upon reaching there was looking at the palace's balcony. And something in Alias made him hide from him, not wanting him to see him. He then heard " Take her away!! Now"
He came out of his hiding place and stared at the garden, he could see her now. A royal blue gown, with dark long messy hair, her skin white as snow which now was covered in dirt, then he saw her face, even from further away, he knew who she was.
The rare jewel, princess Isabelle