The Blood Prince's Curiosity

III

                       Irina served the youngest of the royal family and was often trying her best to be attentive about her liege's daily activities. She was aware about his late night escapades into the bustling city of Obsidius from that time that she stalked him from the shadows due to a growing suspicion about his frequent disappearances. He'd always come back though, just before the first rays of dawn. So, she wasn't completely worried about his small trips outside the castle.

                       The handmaid found him rather peculiar with his secretive demeanor and how less interactive he was with everyone else in the castle, unlike the other Ludvikas siblings. Then again, if Irina were to compare the five of them to each other, he would be on the more milder spectrum of eccentric. Having to be around for over thirty years in service to the royal household, she'd perceived Dragomir's children were all oddities of their own.

                           Though, she attributed the death of their mother and the absence of their father to have significantly influenced the development in their personalities. In her recollection of the short-lived childhood Nicolae had, he was more lively than the rest of the Ludvikas siblings. The more affectionate child who followed his brothers and sisters around the castle like a lost hatchling.

                    Irina found his admiration for them endearing, but he's changed drastically from then. She'd admit that the young royalty developed well, inheriting the stunning appearance of a Ludvikas. However, his refined complexion had woven a veil of misery at its front. The adoration in his brilliant golden eyes no longer there for his older siblings.

                    His overall presence in their residence was similar to a dwindling candlelight on an opened windowsill. Fading in and out like the silhouettes on the stone walls of the corridors in the castle. Serving his meals to him was the equivalent of playing snare the cottonhare to Irina. There were no patterns to where he'd be next. She took note of the majority of his activities and often times, he'd either be in the main library of the castle or just not present anywhere in the castle at all. Even if she sensed him nearby and screamed out his name a numerous amount of times in her effort to summon him, he'd rarely ever turn up.

                     So, out of mainly frustration, she'd just leave all his meals on his nightstand for him to find on his own. Which she was currently doing again after thoroughly combing through their enormous residence and not detecting his presence anywhere.

                      "Looks like the young Lord is out and about again," Irina whispered, making sure she was at a safe distance from the rest of the other Ludvikas children. "He could've saved me the trouble of having to be sent off on another goose chase if he just left a damn notice every time he vanishes."

                          The handmaid heaved a sigh, propping up the silver platter she carried on one hand as she gripped the black, metal door handle leading to Nicolae's chamber with her other one. "Even Lord Răzvan tells his servant where he'll be off to, and that boy is as gregarious as a wall of stone," Irina huffed, shoving the right side of the double-doored chamber wide open.

                            She peeked into the spacious chamber of the youngest of the Ludvikas', her dark eyes absorbing his vibrant collection of portraits and landscape paintings first, which adorned the walls of his room. Then, her attention fell onto the hand-woven tapestry of a blond infant being cradled in the arms of a beguiling young woman who's curled locks are of the same golden hue with a sable haired man wearing the most grim expression, looming over her. It hung right above the headboard of the prince's neatly arranged bedding, imposingly.

                              There was something eerie about the tapestry and Irina chalked that up to the extremely detailed eyes of the late Queen of Mardelle. A small part of her truly believed that it was alive and staring straight into her soul. Though, she thought it was silly of her to be rattled by Queen Sorina's presence even if it's on a decorative piece of furnishing.

                             Her late Majesty wasn't exactly the most graceful of all queens, yet she was the most benevolent of them all. Quick-witted and humorous, the late queen brought life into the dark and frigid region of Mardelle. Everyone in the kingdom practically wept for over four months from her unexpected passing. Even those who could care less were on their knees, sobbing with their hands clutching their chest as if their lungs had shriveled up and disintegrated.

                    The widespread state of dysphoria in Obsidius during the first months of her death was caused by none other than the King himself. Dragomir's grief carried such a large magnitude that his pheromones almost suffocated the whole population of the city. His overwhelming sorrow had even managed to take control over everyone else's and magnify it significantly.

                   Irina remembered being evacuated with the rest of the servants from the castle in steam carriages with the rest of the Ludvikas household and being taken to the royal family's enormous estate in Lunardelle for temporary refuge. Grigore and a few of Dragomir's retainers stayed put and remained by his side just in case anything happened during that vulnerable period of the kingdom.

                 That entire calamity had left the handmaid breathless and terrified to shed even a single tear from fear of it transforming into full-blown, painful, spasmodic blubbering. It was horrific to lose control of her own emotions and being forced into feeling that same dread that his Majesty felt and how strangulated her entire body was in the presence of his oppressive pheromones.

                    It was only due to Grigore's magic barriers that saved any more waterworks from imploding everywhere in Obsidius, however, it took nearly a decade for the castle to become livable again.

                    "Good evening, your Highness." Irina curtsied at the tapestry and as usual, held a one-sided conversation with it. "It seems your youngest is on another adventure today."

                     The habit was picked up as soon as she began serving his meals more often to his bedchamber. There was just something about it that soothed the tension in her nerves whenever she entered his room. At the start, she thought that she'd gone mad from having multiple conversations with a piece of artwork that had the late Queen's face sewn onto it.

                     Her superstition that the tapestry is actually haunted by her Majesty's spirit was just utterly ludicrous to the handmaid, yet her intuitions were telling her to continue speaking to the artwork. In a sense, she did it more for herself to calm her unease from the unsettling atmosphere in the prince's grand bedchamber.

                   "He always misses his meals, that boy." She shook her head disapprovingly as she walked to the side of his bed. "One of these days I'll tell him to leave a ...."

                 There was a folded piece of paper that was bound together by a thin string that sat on the surface of his nightstand. "Note," Irina finished, thinking that maybe he read her mind earlier seeing that he left something behind this time. "Will you look at that, your Majesty!"

                    Setting the silver platter to the side, she grabbed the small paper square and untied its binds. She unfurled it revealing the contents inside. The sentences written down bid farewell, but that's about it. There weren't any information about where he'd gone, it just mentions how he'll 'go across the seas to find the roots of treasures' whatever that meant.

                      The handmaid's fine brows knitted together at the strange message that her liege left behind. She reread it, letting every single word sink in. Her stormy eyes widened as she came to realization that his words meant that he'll be leaving the safety of his city. He'll be leaving Mardelle and his return this time would be indefinite.