Crown Prince Cassian’s envoy started their journey back to Kingdom Eldara.
"Your Highness, it’s getting dark. We are near the forest. It’s dangerous to travel at night. Wild beasts might appear. We should camp here in the anti and resu our journey by tomorrow." Chancellor Igrin suggested after approaching Crown Prince Cassian’s carriage.
"Fine," Crown Prince Cassian plainly responded. He was still in a bad mood.
The Eldara’s knights started to set up their tents. Crown Prince Cassian remained inside the carriage. He looked a little bit distracted, thinking about Eve. He wasn’t able to say goodbye to her.
Sylvana just quietly watched him. When she could no longer bear the silence, she engaged in a conversation with him. "What’s on your mind, Crown Prince?"
Prince Cassian ignored her. He just leaned his back while closing his eyes.
Sylvana’s gaze remained fixed on his gorgeous face. There was a crease on his forehead. She had the urge to caress his face but she knew that Crown Prince Cassian would not allow her.
"I’ll get you sothing to eat," Sylvana said, stepping out of the carriage.
Sylvana looked around, searching for the carriage that was carrying their food supply. She wanted to get so fruit for Crown Prince Cassian. He hadn’t eaten anything yet since they started the journey.
While she was approaching the carriage of supplies, she ran into Princess Thalia.
"Sylvana, can I have your mont? I want to talk to you." Princess Thalia asked her with an imposing aura.
Sylvana bowed at her courtly before following Princess Thalia. They found an isolated spot where they could talk privately.
"Your Highness, what do you want to discuss with ?" Sylvana asked her. It was so rare for Princess Thalia to approach her first.
Ever since she entered the palace, Princess Thalia had never acted friendly toward her. The princess was jealous of her power. Sylvana was the respectable Seer of the Kingdom Eldara. The kingdom prospered with the help of her vision.
Crown Prince Cassian was the one who found her and brought her to the palace. Since then, Prince Cassian’s power and influence in the royal court have grown enormously. Sylvana was his greatest asset.
Slap!
Princess Thalia didn’t hesitate to slap Sylvana, releasing her pent-up frustrations toward her brother. She took out her anger on her.
"You are the reason why the enemy kidnapped . They were after you. But I ended up being captured by them. I suffered a lot of humiliation at their hands!" Thalia snarled at the Seer.
Sylvana could only frown while holding her cheek. She didn’t expect Princess Thalia to lay a hand on her. Was she not afraid of the consequences of her actions?
"Disrespecting is the sa as disrespecting your brother. Please be mindful of your actions." Sylvana warned her.
Thalia burst out into a sarcastic laugh. "I’m the princess, and you are just a seer!"
She raised her hand, attempting to slap Sylvana again. However, the Seer captured her wrist, stopping the princess from hitting her.
"However, between us, I am more important to the kingdom and your brother. Your Highness, I advise you to stop venting out your anger on ." Sylvana couldn’t tolerate an arrogant princess throwing a tantrum. She was not in the mood to entertain her whims.
"You are talking back now just because you have my brother’s support. You might see a vision of soone else’s future. But you can’t see your own fate!" Thalia pushed her away after yanking her hand out of Sylvana’s grip.
Princess Thalia imdiately turned around, leaving Sylvana behind. At that certain mont, flying arrows began to descend from the sky. They were getting attacked!
"We are getting ambush! Be careful. Move! Secure and protect the Crown Prince and the princess!!!" Avan, the Captain of the Royal Guard, yelled, mobilizing the royal knights.
The royal knights sprang into action as they tried to defend and block the enemies’ arrows.
Sylvana stood frozen in her spot as she looked around. Then her gaze stopped at the carriage of Crown Prince Cassian. She observed that the enemies were targeting Crown Prince Cassian’s carriage.
’How did they know that Crown Prince Cassian is riding that carriage?! There is definitely a traitor!’ Sylvana thought, worried about Prince Cassian’s safety.
She was about to run in the direction of Crown Prince Cassian’s carriage, however, before she could take another step, sothing hard hit her on the back of her head. She felt the excruciating pain followed by dizziness.
’No! I haven’t seen this coming. My prince... please be safe.’
In just a few seconds, Sylvana passed out, falling to the ground!
*****
Eight hours later...
Sylvana awoke to the gentle rocking of the moving carriage. Though she had regained consciousness, she was enveloped in darkness—her eyes blindfolded and her hands tightly bound with rope.
’Where am I? Did the enemy capture ?’ Sylvana thought to herself. She was lightheaded, still in pain. She pretended to be asleep as she listened to the conversation of the n in the carriage.
"King Zaraki will be happy to receive her as a gift. This woman is the Seer of Kingdom Eldara. She will be useful to us!" Sylvana heard the unfamiliar voice. His voice sounded like soone who was in his mid-forty.
"Yes. I should thank you for cooperating with . Now, I’ll get to et King Zaraki in person. It’s better to negotiate with him face to face."
Sylvana’s body stiffened upon hearing the second voice. She recognized it. That man was none other than Chancellor Igrin!
’He is a traitor! He is using to et King Zaraki. What does he want? Did he lose his mind? Kingdom Eldara is an allied kingdom of Averion. And now, he wants to negotiate with King Zaraki!’
Sylvana clenched her fists. She wondered if sothing bad happened to Crown Prince Cassian. ’I know he won’t die. But I’m still worried about him. What if he got severely injured from the attack?’
"You don’t have to worry, Chancellor. Our ruler is a wise king. If he stands to gain sothing, he won’t reject your offer," the man’s words were reassuring.
Then a sinister laughter echoed in the carriage. "I’m quite amazed. You are going to betray your allied Kingdom Averion. Does King Constantine know about this?"
"Of course. What I’m doing right now is representing the will of our king!" Chancellor Igrin said.
’He is lying! I can’t believe this. King Constantine will never conspire with them without Crown Prince Cassian’s permission.’
At that certain mont, Sylvana rembered her vision about the failure of Alaric’s mission. She told Prince Cassian to prepare and rescue Eve once she was cornered in Kingdom Zyphera.
If Crown Prince Cassian had to choose between Eve and her, she wondered whether he would try to rescue her over Eve.
’Is my life more important to him than her? Or maybe this is just my wishful thinking.’ Sylvana was saddened by that thought.
"By the way, I would like to ask you sothing. Why is King Zaraki so fixated on attacking Kingdom Averion? You still have neighboring kingdoms that you can invade before attacking Averion. Why did he change his plan?" Chancellor Igrin asked the man. He wanted to know King Zaraki’s motive.
The man let out another chuckle before responding to Chancellor Igrin. "I know you are familiar with the story of the Goldwyn Royal Family. Before his execution, King Arthur let his daughter escape."
"Oh. Are you referring to Princess Esralda?" Chancellor Igrin asked with intrigue.
"Yes. We’ve received information that the missing princess has been hiding in Kingdom Averion. King Zaraki wants to take her back because he needs her for his grand plan. We’ve been communicating with our hidden spy for the past few months. However, we stopped receiving ssages from our hidden spy. We assud that the spy we sent had been killed."
Sylvana continued to listen to their conversation. Just like Chancellor Igrin, she beca curious about this topic.
"Haha! I can’t understand. Why are you searching for her? She’s been missing for over two decades. She is no longer a threat to your kingdom." Chancellor Igrin found it ridiculous.
King Zaraki successfully took the throne and he already removed the potential threats. He couldn’t figure out why King Zaraki was still searching for Princess Esralda.
"Does he want to reconcile with his niece?" Chancellor Igrin asked.
The man shook his head. "Hahaha. Reconcile is not the term. He wants to use her. Because you are my old friend, I’ll tell you a secret. Among the mbers of the Goldwyn Royal Family, only Princess Esralda inherited the power of beast taming!"
Chancellor Igrin and Sylvana were both taken aback when they heard that.
"She’s a beast tar! Damn! King Zaraki will beco even more powerful if he gains control of this power! Can you describe what Princess Esralda looks like?"
"She has the most beautiful face in Kingdom Zephyra... so srizing erald eyes and silver-gray hair."
Sylvana silently gasped upon hearing that. ’Erald eyes, silver-gray hair, and a beast tar—those descriptions fit Princess Eve perfectly. Could Princess Eve and Princess Esralda of Zephyra be mother and daughter?’
Sylvana had a nagging feeling about this. Nurous speculations swirled in her mind. ’If she is Princess Eve’s mother, then where is Princess Esralda now? Are King Solomon and Queen Amara hiding her? Did they adopt Princess Eve?’
anwhile, Chancellor Igrin tried to recall whether he encountered soone. Then suddenly he snapped his fingers when he rembered sothing.
"Hey, old pal. I think I’ve seen soone who fits that description. However, she’s too young to be Princess Esralda. The third princess of Averion has erald eyes and silver-gray hair... her na is Princess Evelina."
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