Clara — Wittelsbach Estate, Two Years Earlier
When I first arrived at the Wittelsbach estate, I couldn’t breathe. The grandeur was suffocating. Crystal chandeliers glittered overhead, and the air slled like roses and polished wood. The other maids glanced at , so with curiosity, most with indifference.
Back then, I wasn’t used to wearing stiff uniforms or keeping my mouth shut. I had no idea how to bow my head and pretend I didn’t see things I wasn’t supposed to. But I had to learn fast.
I wasn’t just a maid. I was a pair of eyes and ears, hidden in plain sight.
It all started two years ago, when Alessio ca to Grandmama’s cottage one evening, his face tense and his voice low. He didn’t notice at first—too lost in whatever burden he was carrying. I was just a kid then, barely fourteen. Grandmama shooed to the next room, where I listened through the crack in the door.
Marius Wittelsbach. Suspicious disappearances. A network of loyalists who seed to vanish into thin air. Alessio needed soone inside the estate, but it had to be soone Marius would overlook. A common girl.
That night, I didn’t sleep. I kept replaying the way Alessio’s jaw clenched, the haunted look in his eyes. He was doing sothing dangerous. Sothing he wouldn’t walk away from unscathed.
I didn’t tell Grandmama until the next morning, when I stood by the fire, hands shaking, and said, "I want to help."
She nearly threw the pot of stew at .
"No," Alessio said firmly, crossing his arms. "It’s not safe."
I shot him a glare, trying to ignore the way my heart hamred at how serious he looked. "You’re the one putting yourself in danger every day. Why can’t I do the sa?"
Grandmama grunted. "She’s stubborn like her father. But no. You’re too young."
I squared my shoulders. "I’m not a child anymore. And I’m not useless! I know how to listen. How to blend in."
Alessio shook his head. "Marius is... unpredictable. You don’t understand what kind of monster he is."
I wasn’t giving up. "But I know how to be invisible. Please—if sothing happens to you, at least I could help."
They argued for hours. Alessio remained adamant, but Grandmama finally sighed and muttered sothing about "damned fools running into the lion’s den." In the end, they couldn’t sway . I was going.
A month later, I passed through the iron gates of the Wittelsbach estate, heart hamring, hands trembling inside borrowed gloves.
Nearly two years have passed since that day. Alessio had already been a knight for a year by the ti I arrived, blending into the duke’s household as just another sword among many. Around , he was cautious—never eting my eyes for too long, never risking even a flicker of familiarity.
At first, his coldness stung. But I understood why. Marius maintained a tight grip on his staff, and while casual conversation among servants was tolerated, anyone caught whispering secrets or showing signs of unusual closeness was swiftly dismissed—or worse, simply vanished.
Even so, we found ways to communicate in secret. A slight nod here, a quick glance there. I left coded notes in the kitchen pantry, and if Alessio understood, he’d respond the next day by moving a specific jar.
But it wasn’t enough. Most of the people we suspected were involved in Marius’ sches had vanished before we could gather solid evidence. Those few who seed willing to speak suddenly fell silent—or turned up dead from "accidents."
I’d been at the estate for nearly two years. Sonia arrived about a year after I did—bright-eyed, full of warmth, and clearly unprepared for the shadows that hung over the place. At first, she didn’t seem like soone who’d matter to our investigation. But as ti passed, it beca clear she saw more than she let on—and before long, Sonia beca our most important lead.
In those early months, she brought light into the house. She smiled often, tried to lift the mood of those around her, and sohow earned even Marius’s guarded attention. But after the incident at the cliffs—when Marius brought her back—everything changed. She’d been full of life once—but now she just seed... fragile. I noticed how she pulled away from his touch, how her laughter didn’t sound quite right. She’d grown quieter, more withdrawn. Her bright presence had dimd, and so nights, I heard her crying softly in her sleep.
It was clear sothing had happened out there—sothing that had shaken her deeply.
One evening, I saw her sneaking out to the garden, tears streaming down her face. I knew better than to approach—Marius often had spies lurking—but I couldn’t just leave her alone. I walked past, just close enough to drop a handkerchief, and kept moving.
The next day, the handkerchief was on my cot, folded neatly. No note, but it was enough.
Sonia was barely holding it together. And in that mont, she wasn’t a noble or a lead in our investigation—she was just a girl trying not to fall apart. I couldn’t walk away from that. Not yet.
My plan was to leave after just a few months, but Sonia’s presence changed everything. I couldn’t abandon her—not after I saw how Marius’s grip on her tightened. Not when Alessio’s visits beca less frequent, and the servants whispered that the duke’s temper was growing worse.
When I could, I would slip into Sonia’s room and bring tea, leaving little treats she liked. One night, when the house was quiet, she whispered to , "Why are you kind to ?"
I didn’t have an answer. Maybe because I saw the way her hands trembled when Marius wasn’t looking. Maybe because no one else dared to offer her comfort.
"I just... thought you might need a friend," I replied.
Sonia looked at with wide, startled eyes. Then, for the first ti, she smiled.
In the days that followed, sothing in her began to shift. Slowly, cautiously, she started to co back to herself. She wasn’t quite as she once was, but the hollow stillness that had clung to her began to lift. She laughed more. Spoke a little brighter. I even noticed her spending ti with one of the younger servants—a cheerful boy from the stables with a quiet voice and a fondness for poetry. They never lingered long together, but sothing about his presence seed to soothe her. It was the closest I’d seen her co to peace in months.
Then, just as quietly as he had appeared, the boy vanished.
No explanation. No farewell. Just gone.
And Sonia unraveled.
Her silence gave way to sharp edges. She snapped at Marius in public, flinched more visibly when he drew near. Her emotions—once buried so carefully beneath smiles and quiet obedience—now spilled out in sudden flashes of anger and fear. That was also when she asked to stop bringing her the chamomile tea she used to love. Her voice was steady, but her eyes told another story.
I didn’t know what had happened—I wasn’t ant to. But whatever it was, it had broken sothing in her.
A week later, she changed again.
That day, she was confined to her room. A shackle at her ankle—it struck as a desperate attempt by the duke to keep her from leaving him, to control her completely.
Unlike before, when she seed fragile and unsteady, this ti felt different—more unsettling. Her behavior shifted in quieter, subtler ways. The way she spoke was slightly off from how she used to; she even joked now, and at tis, she seed lost in thought—her expression distant—and I couldn’t tell what was on her mind. She began asking strange questions about the calendar, about ti, history—and whether she had been acting strangely lately. She had also forgotten important events, like the incident on the cliffs.
I told myself it was trauma finally catching up to her—that everything she’d endured had simply beco too much. But her eyes seed more focused now. She was no longer unsteady—she had regained her composure. Maybe it was a blessing, I thought, that she’d forgotten the painful mories. I didn’t know. But I was determined to help her beco the person she once was—full of life.
Until the next day, when the news spread: Sonia was gone.
The estate fell into hushed panic. Guards doubled their rounds. Servants whispered in corners. And Marius—Marius was inconsolable. His polished calm shattered into fury and dread. I watched from the hallway as he gripped the captain’s collar and snarled through clenched teeth, demanding they tear through the surrounding villages if that’s what it took to bring her back.
Later that night, I was cleaning the corridor when I heard sothing smash against the wall. I peeked into the study. Marius stood with his back to the door, breathing heavily, his hands gripping the desk so hard his knuckles were white.
"Why... why did you run from ?" he whispered to no one. He laughed—soft, dark, and broken. "You can’t leave , Nia. You belong to ."
A shiver crawled down my spine. The tension in the room was suffocating, his obsession as raw and real as a bleeding wound.
He slamd his fist into the wall, the plaster cracking under his knuckles. Then he sank to his knees, muttering to himself. I pulled back before he could sense , retreating to the servants’ quarters with my heart pounding.
If Alessio and Sonia didn’t escape the territory soon, I wasn’t sure any of us would survive.
* * *
He returned to Sonia’s bedroom again, unable to bear the emptiness. Her scent still lingered—lavender and sothing faintly sweet. He traced his fingers along the bedpost where the chain used to be.
His hand tightened.
"She’ll co back," he whispered. "She has to."
He moved to the vanity, brushing his fingers over the hairpins left behind. A dark thought flared in his mind—had soone taken her? No, no one would dare. No one except...
His eyes narrowed. Alessio.
Right after he heard Nia was missing, a report ca in—Alessio had escaped the dungeon. The timing was too perfect; it happened the very mont she vanished.
Had he taken his Nia away? Alessio was the kind of knight you barely noticed—too plain, too quiet. Easily forgotten in the background until now. But sotis, the people you don’t pay attention to are the ones hiding the biggest secrets.
A low growl rumbled in his chest. If Alessio had stolen her, there wouldn’t be a place in the empire where he could hide.
He sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands. She was his. No one had the right to take her away.
"Nia..." he whispered, his tone a strange mix of desperation and adoration. "I’ll find you. Even if I have to burn the world to do it."
To be continued
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