"And I suppose with that, the meeting ends." Astraea declared, stamping the last if the papers and looking towards the only two other people looking back at him.
"Well then, we shall look forward to tomorrow's meeting." Victoria added while standing up.
Aefia pushed back her chairs and bowed her head low in front of the first Aethalgard. "Rest well, my Sovereign." She blankly stated as basic courtesy before following the second Aethalgard out.
It was already a better day, until...
"So... How is your day, third Aethalgard?"
...this woman opened her mouth.
"It was nice." She replied with a smile. While internally, she wanted to tear her head from her shoulders. "I am just hoping it goes the way it is."
"Right. You just hope." She snickered back in response. Aefia felt like a literal time-bomb right there which was ticking to mark a time when she was about to blow and take Victoria out as her first victim. Although, it would have been better if she crossed the line at the right time.
The right time would be when Aefia plans on completely exposing her. That is when she has finally collected the last bit of evidence to—
"I heard you and Erebus had a misunderstanding conversation." She suddenly blurted out to the clear blue sky as they both walked out of the Justice Castle.
"Yes. I am not good around tweens." Aefia answered while rubbing her forehead. So this is how it will go. Great thing I trusted the right person.
"Oh. Well that is a sad thing. Thinking how you are the current leader of the Eclipse division."
"Yeah... I am not good with people."
"Hahah! Well that is humiliating. As the third Aethalgard, you don't even have the common skill that others have. You are a disgrace." Victoria let out a loud laugh. This gave Aefia an oppurtunity.
"Yeah... And you are a disgrace to the noble society. Which noble lady laughs like a donkey?" She smirked while walking towards the edge of the steps, headed towards the portal that would teleport her towards her castle. While the second Aethalgard walked towards the other end.
Of course, she had been struck by her words. However, it seemed like it didn't do much effect.
"Listen up kid... You know you are a mouse playing in a hungry lion's den." She declared, turning back to fire the insult to the unhinged third Aethalgard.
Aefia turned to look over her shoulder, a knowing smirk plastered to her face as her garnet eyes shone with a lingering hatred. "Think about it again... Are you truly the lion? If you remember carefully, you were the reason Vespera lived such a hard life."
"What does this have to do with you and Seraphina's mother?"
"I am trying to remove the enemies to my throne while also taking revenge for them." Aefia turned away, leaving the woman hanging with only that. Truthfully, she never had the intention with dealing with her unless it was that one incident that pulled them together and exchange words. Where Victoria was the one who started all this.
She reached the threshold of the portal inside the dense forest. With a slight touch, Aefia was already standing at the other side, right where the fountain was.
Looking up at her castle, she let out a tired groan. Stretching her arms above her head while letting out a deep breathe, then letting them drop back to her sides. She dragged her legs forward, where the black and white steps with the gold accents stared back at her with a mocking intensity.
"I am definitely adding an elevator." Aefia told herself while dragging her feet up. For the rest of the journey up, she didn't do or think about a single important thing. The only thought, was that she was flopping face-first into her bed and staying that way till the next noon.
However, as soon as she set foot into her room, her eyes immediately diverted towards a particular, dust-covered book underneath her bedroom floorboards.
Curious, she immediately bent down to pick it up.
Interestingly, it turned out to be an old journal that had a neat cursive handwriting that definitely belonged to the hands of someone from so long ago.
Her fingers grazed against the bumpy edges that stood proof of the age and how it truly was dated back to ancient times. And on the cover, was written 'Seraphina' in black ink.
If she wasn't wrong, then opening it would feature multiple empty pages.
True to her thoughts, it was incredibly light-weight, made of the least amount of papers and completely blank save for the few first pages.
"Now that... Is her true journal." Aefia muttered to herself while pressing her lips into a thin line in anticipation. She was careful about handling untouched things from years ago, and alongside that, she used her element to clean the pages off.
She opened the first page.
"Well, I am not always free to write in here, so I will try my best. So today is eight February, fourteen-fifty-two. I know it sounds absurd, but I saw many people keeping diaries and I decided to get one along with them. They say this brings them joy. Of course that just means I want to try it out.
"I do have some things to jote down. Apparently, Victoria is my step-mother who absolutely hates me for no reasons at all as if my existence was something she never wanted. And still, constantly she has been beating around the bush about how 'I' was the one who broke the vase at her foot. And she is definitely aware of how the lie detector method works, so even when she is telling partials truth, she is still trying her best to keep the lie in tact and have me sentenced for, 'emotional abuse'. Might I make it clear that she was the one who has been ruining me? She keeps trying to take away my 'mother's' throne."
"Hey! She did the exact same thing to me!" Aefia spoke with an irritated expression on her face as she looked over at the next page.
"Is it just because I am still fifteen that the people around me love to make me do their work for them? Not only that, I suspect Victoria has been doing something to the Guardians who have been going missing. So, the Aethalgards give them a mission to go claim an artifact... Then suddenly they never return but their magic stays as it is. It feels all mysterious to me."
"So she knew as well. That something was up with all this... Is that why she took her position as the third Aethalgard? To get a closer look?" She thought to herself.
"Does writing a diary feel exhausting? Or am I the one who is simply too tired? Anyways, it has been three weeks since I last wrote. And I am going to make things clear that Victoria has something kept securely inside my basement which she is trying to use to frame me. I went to investigate last night and I saw it truly has an interesting story behind it. I just haven't found the time to go and take a better look at it. I know it is her because she left a small trace of her magic behind by accident."
"Well that explains everything." Aefia slammed the journal shut. That was all she needed. Besides, everyone's magic was like a more visible part of their DNA left behind. If the second Aethalgard's leaves were left behind, than won't that have been enough prove?
All of the next pages were blank. It was all by luck that Aefia found that notebook.
She immediately ran to her office and locked the door behind her. Looking down at the other journals that were left behind by chance.
Yes, that was it.
The difference was vast. The sides were more ruined on the one she just found, compared to the ones that was left behind when she first arrived.
Her fingers reached for a blank paper from her drawers, than pulled out a pen and a bottle of ink.
"So, let's first assume, that the vase thing was a repetition of events to test how different I am from Seraphina and how difficult it would be for her to lure me into the trap. So that broken vase is a hint that can't just be coincidental. Although, that is just an assumption.
"Secondly, I too am quite intrigued to know about what that basement holds. Specifically since I never received any sort of keys that would open that door... Then Puppet handed me a strange series of keys to hold onto, without giving me a single detail of what that was for.
"Thirdly, the journals don't match up. The stories don't match up, and the fake journals doesn't answer anything either. So that explains the forgery.
"Fourth, a key witness spoke about having to corner three guardians and kill them. So that either means; Seraphina, Athena and Khione. Or that means; me, Erebus and the Guardian of Wrath. I will need to interrogate that a little further.
"Fifth, I have that conversation from my first day recorded in a small microphone."
She pulled back the pen from the paper and looked down at the notes she had written down. "With all that, it is safe to say that I can finally start the main game. Now to set the time perfectally."
Aefia leaned back against her chair as she finally let out a deep sigh and a smile, stretching her hands above her head as far as she could go. A sense of relief washing over her as she stared out her window at the fully white castle.
A harsh wind suddenly blew, wiping the pages off the table. She immediately stood up to rush behind them, her fingers going as far as they could to avoid the papers from flying away.
As soon as the wind died down, she fell to the ground on her knees, using her sleeves to wipe the sweat off her forehead. As she was doing so, her eyes caught the sight of the original dairy from where a pages had accidentally peaked out from the back pocket.
Aefia reluctantly pulled the notebook towards her, looking down at the backside from where it came from.
There were many more pieces of white sheets that had many more words written on it.
That was why, no wonder, the journal was overwhelmingly empty.
She pulled out more then just dozens of papers. And those all seems to be the writings of Seraphina from her younger days. About fifteen to seventeen. Around the time that Victoria tortured her the most.
However, much to her shock... As Aefia smoothed down the page against her lap, she was met with another side of her. A side of Seraphina where she isn't just thinking about work and surviving. It starts like...
***
It was just another rainy day that she usually liked. Dews settled against the windows in a mesmerizing pattern. The slightly acidic scent of the rain was a rather calming thing and she decided to take a stroll down the castle.
Free time was mostly a rare luxury to her, so when she did get it, she could only hope that the day wasn't going to go bad. She was sitting by the fountain, swinging her legs like a child when a shadow fell over her. Some very familiar and irritating silhouette.
When she looked up, a pair of yellowish-brown eyes stared down at her. He had hair almost ash-like and it was quite volumous and wavy that fell over his eyes. He wore a silk tunic which was off-white, and an annoyed expression plastered to his face.
"Is there something I can do you to keep away from you today?" Fina asked while staring back up at him. Her voice sounded more irritated then it would during the rest of the day.
"You weren't there in the office today. So I wondered where you might be." Pandora's brother asked back. His name was Chronos, the Guardian of Time.
Like the titles suggest, Time also hated Death.
For which, they were huge rivals.
Besides just that, he had a habit of throwing her books off windows into the mud and dumping ink onto papers that belong to the Guardians who make Fina work for them. And his only reasoning was, she is incompetent for the Guardian Realm.
"Don't worry, I was already done with my work. So you needn't look for those documents a second time today." She flatly replied while standing up. She walked towards her palace gates. Back then, it used to be white and gold. It allowed for the summer heat to bounce off.
But due to Victoria's claim that black was a fit colour for her theme, the castle was being repainted from top to bottom. There was no air system besides just windows and doors.
For which, Fina often went over to Francesca's head-quaters for rest.
"So how many people did you work for today?" Chronos asked while trailing behind her with his hands inside his pockets.
"Just five. Why do you care?" She turned over her shoulders to glare at him.
"And how much do you get by doing so?"
"None. Just uninterrupted silence for three months. Since my doing their work is more of a peace treaty from all that bullying."
"Right. So are you going to steal my work too? To keep me away from walking behind you all day?" He asked while coming to a stop, and folding her arms.
"If you won't stop and if I must." She turned around, offering her ink-staimed hands at him. "In fact, hand it over right now so I can easy cut you off."
He looked at her hand for a while. Then frowned, letting out a deep sigh. "You are impossible to convince."
"I know." She answered while tilting her head slightly to the side. Her hand still out-stretched. They stood still fjr a while more. Then...
"You know that it you overwork yourself, you will die like your mother." Chronos asked, dropping his arrogant act.
"I am aware." She answered while pulling her hand back.
"So why are you still wasting your energy like that? If you know Victoria is troubling you, just deal with her already."
Fina's eyes widened in shock. She stayed frozen for a while while observing him.
"How do you know that...?" She finally asked.