The Naturalistic

CHAPTER 14

"I always thought I lost you and your father and will never again be able to find you. But soon rumours started to ring in the castle that you were alive and you were back. My happiness had no limits that day. It was the same day that the arrival of the Dark chest was said to be in the castle. When the chest arrived it was guarded by his most trusted warriors or so was his mistake. They handed me the chest with trust in their eyes and hope in their heart. Maybe they had all the information about you all and instructed me the same and so I came here in the search of you all. Now I guess all of my prayers were answered." A smile appears on her face. It is for me. All of it has always been for me.

"Wait!" Kate yells shifting her gaze at me. "So you are telling me that she is the heir to the throne?"

"Morning princess." Sam taunts her, but she ignores her.

I nod. "Yes." 

"Why was it hidden from me?" She asks. 

"It wasn't just you, it was all of us." Rick answers.

"And then you ask me to trust you all." She says. 

"It was for our protection Kate, people still cannot be trusted with my true identity. We never know who is our traitor. But we trusted you and so I hope that you trust us too." I explain. 

"All right, but still no promises." She says and I offer her a small but satisfying smile.

"I should stop expecting that surprises could only be given on their birthday because. . ." Sam pauses. "Surprise! You are annoying." She exclaims so loudly to Kate that it makes us all flinch. "Oh sorry." She then retrieves. "It's not a surprise, everyone knows it here."

"Oh my houses, I have never met an idiot like you in my entire life," Kate says and storms out of the room. 

"Pleasure's all mine," Sam replies. 

I facepalm and shake my head. God help us now.

"So you think the key is in Capital Castle?" Gloria asks me.

"It could be," I reply. "Why else would Ezuka shift the chest and bring it to him?"

"No." My mother snaps. "If he would have had the key, I don't think he would have waited so long to open it, the chest was kept guarded over a couple of days. No, he does not have his hands over the keys."

"Yet." I complete. 

"We have to find it somehow before he does," Rick says and we all bob our heads. 

"But how are we supposed to do it?" Sam asks. "We have no clue about the key."

"I'll put all of my undercovers into action to find any information possible on the key and ask Kate to do the same," Gloria says. 

"I and Rick will do the same," Sam adds and Rick assures her with a nod.

After discussing the spread outs of the undercover we all start to leave the conference room. My mother undertakes the responsibility of guarding the chest. She gets up and moves forward to pick the chest and I stop her.

"Mother," I call out.

"Yes?" She replies.

"Can I have a close look at it?" I request.

"Sure." She agrees. "Come here." She says and hands me the chest. It's not much big and nor it is much heavy as I expected it to be. I start examining the chest from its lid to find somethings carved on it. I do not identify the carving, it seems like someone has carved human figures on it. Seven human figures. Four women and three men. Each one seems to give a blessing to the person looking at them. As they are so small it's hard to examine there face, it's not clear.

"Who are these people?" I whisper, letting my fingers brush all of them.

"The carvings?" My mother asks and I nod in response. She comes closer to point out each of the figures. "These my dear," She starts softly. "Are the seven gods. The Guardians of Akonia." 

I don't reply or move even a bit, I just simply stare at them, searching for answers. "The Guardians," I mumble. I then shift my gaze from the lid to its lock. It's a way different lock then what I had imagined. It's like a piece of the puzzle when the first piece joined with the other, it completes the puzzle. We have to find the missing piece without any leads and if Ezuka had reached the chest, he won't be far from reaching out for the key.  

But something clicks inside me. The structure of the key seems familiar to me. I frown and get a closer look at it. It's a reverse triangle and has three holes at it's each angle. The key must be the opposite of it. So why does this look familiar to me? I question myself. Shaking my head off, I hand back the chest to my mother and leave the conference room behind.

Heading towards the training ground, I see Rick and Sam chatting with each other. I go and join them. They smile seeing me approaching and I return the gesture. 

"Are you okay?" Sam asks. "You don't look good."

"I'll be fine," I answer softly. "Trying to remember something, that's all."

"She needs sleep and rest," Rick advises. 

I bob my head in agreement, can't ignore the fact that I haven't slept for a couple of days. "I think you are right," I reply. 

"Hey!" Someone yells behind my back. "Look it's our next Empress."

I turn my attention to the person yelling it and find no one else but Laura. 

"What do you need now?" Sam asks annoyed by her presence.

"I want to make sure that she is worthy of it." She replies.

"Who the hell you think you are to make sure I'm worthy of it or not?" I ask her.

"Myself Laura Palidon, Lady of the House Palidon." She introduces. "And I challenge you to spar with me." She completes making all of our eyes go wide and I swallow hard.