The Thorne royal palace is a place every maiden desired to serve, not just for the sake of service, but for something bigger than that. Lila have traveled miles away to this royal palace.
" Halt…you follow this lady here" one of the palace guards instruct the girls pointing to a fair, red haired girl, Hailey who stares sternly at the young girls. They all start to walk behind her into the gates of the palace. Lila's skin glowed like a moonlit marble with hair like a waterfall of ink and lips like crushed rose petals.
Inside everything about the palace was super special - the green garden radiated the beauty of nature, golden chandeliers dripped the ceiling like frozen sunlight. Marble floors stretched endlessly. Every servant was as busy as bees doing one or the other. She couldn't help but admire the beauty of the royal palace, but someone caught her eyes.
The three princes - Aiden, Harry and Istin
All wrapped in expensive royal garments.They stood like three gods are they watch the new maids being brought into the palace. Lila's heart danced in her chest, she was here to serve but something else have captured her heart. The three princes were statues to behold and the dream of any girl, be it a princess or commoner.
The three princes had a tricky history. Istin isn't a legitimate son of the emperor. His father, king of Sult province was murdered by the emperor whom he now stays with and the emperor's brother sent to take the throne of Sult province. After the massacre of his entire family, he was taken to Thorne, the empires capital at the age of 12. Aiden himself is the firstson of the emperor but his mother was the second wife of the emperor while Harry was the second to be birthed even though his mother was the first wife of the emperor.
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Hailey pauses for a while and turns to the girls
" This building is where you girls will be staying, it has multiple rooms…pick a room and drop your luggage there. Do everything you have to do today, because you are starting tomorrow"
Lila walk into her room - old clothes littered everywhere, she has a lot of work to do. She starts tidying the room with maximum possible speed.
Night
A knock on the door wakes Lila up. She reluctantly walks to the door and peep through the tiny hole in the door - a short man dressed in a black cloak with a mask on his face is standing in front of her room. Fear crawled up her spine like cold fingers, her heart drummed a warbeat against her ribs. She asks with a cracked voice
" what is it you want and who are you?"
" I'm not here to hurt you, I have an important message from one of the princes for you", the dwarf assured her with a voice that could calm storms.
She raises her hand towards the bolt and pauses for while before slowly pushing the bolt backwards. The stranger swiftly moves in and slams the door behind him.
" Are you Lila?" The dwarf ask as he grabs her hand
Lila became completely confused as her mind paced like a deer running towards the water. She hasn't come across any dwarf in her entire life neither did she tell anyone about herself nor where she was coming from, but how on earth did this man know my name, she thought within herself.
" Do you know me before?
She asked expecting a genuine reply from the stranger, but instead the short man grabs the stool close to the window and sits down. He looks at Lila and smiles, which makes Lila more confused than before. His voice, his eyes and confidence told Lila that the man must know much about her than she does. All she knew about her life was that has spent her childhood and teenage life as a servant in the courts of Sult province before being brought to the empire's capital where she has always dreamt of being.
" How about Sult province?, What do you know about your parents? Or no parents?" The dwarf ask looking into eyes this time around.
" I have no parents. I'm just an orphan that have been serving from my childhood" She stutter
The dwarf bends over and pulls out his shoe from his right foot and brings out a letter from the shoe and gives it to Lila. Lila coldly grab the letter and look at the man with mystery and confusion. Is this letter a set up or what, she imagined. The dwarf stands up and walk to the door
" Excuse me… can I at least see your face?" Lila request with expectation to at least know who the man is and his purpose of visiting her on her first day of stepping into the capital as a maid.
" You will get to know me, but at the right time. For now just read the letter and let no one know we ever met. Do you understand?" The dwarf reply with an entirely different tone that sounds a bit harsher than his usual voice. He opens the door and stops for a while as he looks around to be sure no mortal eyes notices him before vanishing into the dark night.
Lila quickly bolt back the door and freezes. Her inner self begins querying her again. Why did he ask about your parents? For she was never told any story about her parents, not even for once, but the dwarf has resurrected something within her - who are my parents? Are they still alive? Are they dead?. These questions continued to pop out from her head. She slowly walk back to her bed like someone who is tired from hunting wild animals. Falling back to her bed, she opens the letter to ascertain the content of the letter and she sees
" Lila, daughter of the late adviser to the late king of Sult province. I still know everything about the late king's son, prince Istin and you. The memories of the massacre have failed to leave me. Each time I lie on my bed to sleep I see it again and again. I've always dreamt of seeing you and prince Istin one day, because I strongly believe in Istin's abilities. I'm his teacher and I want you to still have Sult in your mind. Your father was a master strategist, that is why I trust you work with the prince"
The rooms shrank around her, the walls pulsing with pressure. She could feel a cold finger tracing her spine. She was speechless as she tried not to believe the content of the letter. Her mind wandered back to Sult province, but no one ever treated her like the daughter of a former politician. She began doubting the contents of the letter but the words of the strange dwarf and his confidence was making this more real than she thought. Her eyes start warning her to sleep, but her heart was stretching the more like a rubber.
"Sult province...Thorne…me" she says to herself, staring at the windows as if she was expecting to see the dwarf again to ask him questions, but he wasn't there any longer.