Note: Cuss words!
I woke up feeling strange. It was like the world was still the same, but I felt uncomfortable.
I glance down at Celestia who was sleeping peacefully besides me and reached out to stroke her head. The feeling started to grow stronger as she opened her eyes and smiled at me.
Something was off, but I couldn't figure out what.
"Good morning." I half-heartedly smiled at her before getting up. I could feel her eyes on me as I dressed and turned to face her lounging on the bed. "Lets break our fast." I held out my hand towards her.
Celestia slides off the bed with a flirty smile before taking it then stretching up to kiss me on the lips.
I froze as disgust briefly rears it's ugly head before I pulled away in shock. "Let's go." I quickly brush over my actions and lead the way out of our room.
::::::::::
"Does Tia seem strange to you?" I ask Kimbra as I watched her walk around the garden from my office window. I had managed to convince her to take a walk outside while I was working and quickly called Kimbra in once she was gone.
I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me. I kept feeling revulsion each time Celestia touched me.
I have watched Celestia for over 14 years: I knew every single habit and movement she makes. However, even though she seems exactly like her usual self- I knew something was wrong.
I wanted to see if anyone else close to her would notice as well.
"I'm not sure." Kimbra says finally, standing next to me. "But I think I see what you mean. Have you asked Suli or Jewel yet?"
I paused. Suli was Celestia's familiar, so he would be able to tell me if there was something wrong with her.
:::::::::
"I-i'm sorry, Your Majesty." A male servant trembles before me. "Master Suli had gone on a walk a few days ago.... And has yet to return."
I glared down at the sweating man at his words, although I knew it was no fault of his own. Apparently, Suli and Jewel would randomly disappear for days at a time, which wasn't really a surprise but this time it was horrible timing.
With them missing, I wasn't sure how to get rid of this feeling that has only been getting stronger. There are too many coincidences.
"D*mn it." I roughly pushed back my hair and slammed my hand into a wall causing the man to flinch. "Return to your duties."
He quickly bows and leaves the room as I sighed deeply to try controlling the feelings that threatened to overwhelm me while Kimbra looks at me with concern.
"Alaric-" She starts to say when a knock on the door interrupts her.
"Enter." I turn to look at the door, hiding my feelings behind a passive mask.
"Excuse me Your Majesty." Valerie enters and bows. "There is someone here to see you."
"Who?"
"She calls herself Quinn?" That was when I noticed that Valerie was slightly shaking as she spoke; I still had my oppressive aura out. I took at deep breath and forced myself to relax which allows Valerie and Kimbra to sigh with relief.
"Bring her in." I sat down at my desk as Kimbra stood besides me. A few moments pass before another knock echoed throughout the room. "Miss Quinn, Your Imperial Majesty."
The door opens and Quinn steps through, looking around before focusing on me.
"Hello Boy." She greets me with a nod as her pale skin contrasted the blue walls of my study. Each of her four pairs of eyes focused on me, glittering eerily.
I have gotten to know Quinn over the years and still have conflicted feelings about her. I have seen her mercilessly slaughter creatures that tried to attack our home back in Myrfall, smiling as she was covered in blood.
There was also the time when I have seen her assisting Celestia with baking before accidentally covering herself with flour and actually laughing; howbeit strangely, like she had never laughed before.
But the thing that most upset me was the fact that Quinn would drink Celestia's blood every so often. Of course, Celestia had explained why she shared her blood, but it didn't mean that I liked it so each time Quinn came for her blood- I insisted on being there to later bind her wound and realized that Quinn might be venomous since Celestia seems to be feeling off the next day and a half.
"Where is Master?" She asks, breaking the uncomfortable silence. A third knock answers her question as the door opens and Celestia enters with a smile on her face before freezing in place at the sight of Quinn.
I have never seen Celestia be scared of Quinn which quickly confirmed my suspicions of her not being her.
"Ah! Your here." I smiled at her and beckoned her approach, moving to stand besides Quinn. "Come here."
The fake Celestia tries to inconspicuously inch around Quinn to stand besides me, smiling at me and ignoring Quinn.
"You forgot to greet your friend." I say gently, moving her closer to Quinn.
"Hello..." She awkwardly says before smiling.
Quinn looks puzzled, staring at the fake Celestia for a few moments. "This is not Master."
"What are you talking about?!?!" The fake Celestia shouts, starting to panic. "Of course I am not your Master!"
"That is because you are not Celestia. Are you?" I place a hand on her shoulder and whisper into her ear.
"Wwwwhatt?" She stammers quickly retreating away from me as her face paled. "O-of course it's me!"
"Lying to me will not allow you to keep your head." I dropped the smile and stared coldly at her. "Where. Is. Tia."
I unleashed my aura which caused the bright room to darken as if it was night time. I was quickly loosing patience.
"A-alaric..." She gasps, clenching her hands around her heart as it struggled to beat from the amount of pressure I released.
As she did, the appearance of Celestia disappeared- leaving behind a cowering Lady Laila who was sobbing with each breath.
I feel a hand touch my shoulder which allowed me to regain control and I eased up on Lady Laila although not entirely.
I was surprised to see that it was Quinn herself who stopped me.
"There is a way for us to find out where Master is." She says simply, waiting for my acknowledgement.
I nod, which allows her to stand before the whimpering Lady Laila and take one of her hands and biting it.
"Ah!!!" Lady Laila screams in a panic, trying to wrench back her hand. "Let go of me you freak!"
Quinn releases her and stands up as a small trail of blood slides down her chin, staining her translucent white skin. She seems to be deciding to either swallow the mouthfull of blood or spit it out before swallowing it.
"Someone came to take Master." Quinn starts to speak, causing Lady Laila to freeze with fear. "They used some sort of magic to change her appearance and take something off of Master before taking her away."
'Take something off of Master...' echos throughout my head causing me to grab Lady Laila's left hand and used a bit of magic to make what I feared was there.
And there it was; my ring that I had given to Celestia six years ago, right before she had left for five years.
My heart stopped. There shouldn't of been a way to even remove the ring once I had placed it on her finger.
Now, my only link to her was gone.
I practically tore off her finger to remove the ring, uncaring of Lady Laila's cries and cradled it in my hands.
I stared at the ring that had failed to remain on Celestia's finger as waves of hopelessness rolled over me.
A burst of anger breaks up the hopelessness and I glowered at the person who had dared put it on her finger.
I grab her neck and left her off her feet, fully intending on breaking it.
"Alaric, wait!" Kimbra quickly grabs my arm and tries to pull me away. "We still need answers! We won't get them if she's dead!"
I glared at the unflinching Kimbra and reluctantly released Lady Laila who collapsed onto the ground in a heap.
"W-why?" She gasps as red marks started to form from my hands. "Why do you want her? Your supposed to be with me! I'M THE FEMALE LEAD! Your SOULMATE! Not that stupid Witch!"
Kimbra and Quinn both glared down at Lady Laila who started laughing hysterically.
"You were supposed to hate her! She was supposed to die a horrible, miserable death! No one is supposed to care about that B*TCH!!
Why isn't this happening like in the novels?" She starts to mutter, chewing on her nails. "He's supposed to be in love with ME! I'M supposed to be Empress!"
"Throw her in the dungeon." I say with disgust as she tried to grab onto my legs, whining like a dog. "Find out what else she knows."
Kimbra nods as she pulls Lady Laila away from me and drags her outside, throwing her out into the hallway and barking orders to a knight standing outside.
I slump down onto the couch, holding Celestia's ring to my head and closed my eyes.
'Tia!'