Royal Flower

Chapter Six

Music filled Chase's ears as he walked into the main ballroom. Chase found the music to be quite pleasant, hearing the sound of all the violins and cellos harmonizing one another with the piano. He felt a little pity for regular humans. As an assassin, Chase was born with special non-magical abilities, including claws, enhanced hearing, and a hand judgment technique.

Chase's mind was everywhere. He was constantly thinking about Reese's request to assassinate the entire Azalea family, and the dilemma about who else was at his home when his family died.

The flames... they only grew bigger. Chase thought longingly.

He had been coming home from another mission to see his home on fire. He had seen his parents' and Dawn's bodies, already dead from the flames. Though they were assassins, all assassins had a fatal weakness to fire, which had made Flora a dangerous target. Chase had felt relief when he had managed to neutralize Flora's fire magic. He hadn't been sure if he could do it, but he took a chance, seeing that he had nothing to lose. There was still Amaryllis and Rose that could deal serious damage to him if his cover was blown, though. As for the other Azaleas, he wasn't sure how he would fare against their magic, but he knew that he would fare better against them than against Amaryllis or Rose.

His thoughts lingered back to the day his family died. He had darted up a tree and out of sight, and moments later he had seen a woman with wavy blonde hair walk past the tree he had been hiding in. He had a sense of who it was, but after Reese had came to him he connected the dots. Flora had gone out of her way to kill his family, and he didn't even know why.

Just then, water splashed onto his neck. Chase stopped in his tracks and looked up to see a lady wearing a green dress and white gloves with her mouth agape. Chase saw the empty goblet in her hand that once had water and opened his mouth to snap at the woman, but held his tongue when he saw a golden crown on top of her blonde hair.

A queen? Chase thought, narrowing his eyes slightly. She's not Amaryllis, though. When Chase took another look at her, he noticed the woman shared Flora's wavy blonde hair, and her facial features reminded Chase more of Flora than Amaryllis.

"I am so sorry." The queen instantly apologized. "I didn't see you."

Chase curtly bowed. "No apologies necessary, your Majesty."

He was about to walk off but the queen held out a handkerchief. He bowed his head slightly as he took it and began to dry his neck.

"What is your name?" the queen asked.

Chase replied, "My name is Chase, your Majesty." As long as he didn't reveal his last name, everything would be fine.

The queen smiled lightly in return. "I'm Queen Fern of Saffron."

Chase asked curiously, "What brings you to the Azalea kingdom, your Majesty?"

Queen Fern's eyes wandered around the room and set on her thirteen year old daughter, "My daughter, Iris, and I came to attend my sister's funeral, and to celebrate Princess Rose's twenty first birthday, apparently."

Chase widened his eyes slightly as he offered the handkerchief back. Fern graciously took it as Amber walked up with a pitcher of water.

"More water, your Majesty?" Amber asked.

Queen Fern shook her head. "No thank you, Amber." Amber and Chase locked eyes for a moment. Chase noted Amber's prominent ginger auburn hair, and how easy it would be to recognize this girl amidst a crowd. Amber finally looked away and continued on.

"I will take my leave," Queen Fern finally said. She placed a gloved hand onto Chase's shoulder. "I apologize again for running into you. You seem like a fine gentleman."