The Purple Eyed Girl

3. Awkward conversations

Dead silence. Absolute dead silence. 

I looked at my father, who was staring at General Foxglove like he was crazy, trying to figure out if he was joking or not.

So many thoughts were running through my mind like it was on drugs. The King and Queen were dead, probably murdered. Who did it? The Crosslings? And for what purpose? But the thing I wondered most about was how? The palace was supposed to be the most heavy guarded place besides the borders, so whoever did it must have been one hell of an assassin.

I instantly regretted delaying them for so long, but there wasn't anything I could do to change it now. The only adult thing to do was to apologize, and I might have been stubborn, but not too stubborn to apologize when I made a mistake. 

Most of the time.

I cleared my throat in an attempt to break the awkward silence, Foxglove's eyes staring at me the entire time. "I- I'm sor-" 

"Don't even try to give me some half-ass apology." He raised his hand and cut me off before I could get the rest of the words out.

I was definitely never doing that again.

I shot him a glare, if looks could kill he would've been 6ft under right now. "That vase was deserved." I murmured under my breath, turning my head to stare out the window.

Out the corner of my eye, I swore I saw him smirk at me a little, before he turned to my father.

"I need you to do a thorough investigation, we suspect it's the Crosslings but our warriors still haven't been able to locate them, so it's up to you to find both of the groups, investigate them and decide who did it." He said as if it was nothing, as if our King and Queen didn't just get murdered. I get that he had to follow protocol immediately, but damn didn't he have any compassion?

The only thing I could do was stare at him in disbelief. He glanced at me briefly, before continuing. "We will set both of you up in the guest quarters, where the generals will be residing as well since we're going to have a busy schedule in order to make a plan."

"Got it, General Foxglove, we will happily be of service in any way you need." My father said firmly.

I frowned at him and heard snickering coming from my right, making me sigh. I didn't come along with my father to be Foxglove's little bitch. 

After a long and annoying ride, we finally arrived at the palace. Since it was completely dark outside, there wasn't much to see, but I knew how it looked from the outside. It was an extremely large palace, it had expanded over the centuries as the Kingdom's power grew. It contained 18 wings stretching to the far left, right and back and it had 2115 rooms and 14 courtyards. The biggest courtyard was located in the middle of the complex, in the shape of a square. It's outside walls were white, with big pillars to support it and lots of windows and balconies. Big gardens surrounded the palace completely, with a large fountain in front of the main building. The area was closed off by white walls and a white gate, protected by the warriors of the army assigned as guards.

After we rode through the gate we arrived at the main building where a dozen of guards stood watch. As we stepped out of the car they saluted the general and my father, who they knew already, while they just stared at me. When we walked in, we had to go through security to check if we had any weapons on us. I was the last one to go through when I noticed the guard staring at my Seregsbond. 

"Oh, that's just a bracelet, can't take it off as you can see." I said while quickly shaking my wrist. I focused on his feelings to see if he believed me, which he did.

After the check, I could actually see the interior of the palace. It was dark, not just because it was poorly lit and it was the middle of the night, but also because of the colors, or lack thereof. The walls, doors, stairs, decoration and furniture were all either black or gray. Combine that with the armor of the warriors, plus the uniforms of the staff and generals, which were also black, and the only things that stood out here, were my eyes. It made a cold feeling move through my body.