RHAGAR
09.01.8462 - 1:58 AM
The new wings of the Spring Castle is a vast construction covered in Carrara marble that looked more like a theater; four large flower beds helped further enhance the palace's beauty and magnitude. Six columns supported a colossal balcony that covered the main door. Fernand parked the car just below the balcony, facing the front door. Alena, who had made a point of picking him up at the airport, jumped out of the car and climbed the stairs to the front door with extreme ease, not letting on a moment of tiredness at the height of her one hundred and thirty-nine years.
The doors opened, and as soon as Alena entered the room, a small girl extremely white, with red hair and green eyes, came to meet the queen. She shouldn't have measured more than 1.57 meters tall and probably didn't weigh more than 50 kilograms. The hall was decorated with yellow, black, and white marble, a grand staircase, a handrail made of black iron with gold accents.
"Alena, Vaše Veličenstvo!" Said the girl with a bit of a bow.
"Alojzia! Dobrý deň!" Alena responded to the bow. "Prosím, mluvte jednodušším jazykem. Máme hosty!" Alena opened her hands in the air with a laugh.
"Sure!" Said Alojzia. "Mr. Fernand, good evening! How are you?" Asked the girl.
"I'm fine, thanks," he said.
"That's good! Your sister and your children, except Mr. Nikolas, are already waiting for you in the . We already prepared The Silent Room for you," said Alojzia promptly.
"Oh good God, your people are very efficient," said Fernand to Alena. "Thank you very much for your help, Alena, and for your impeccable work, Alojzia."
"I also prepared your apartment so that you can rest after the meeting," Alojzia continued with a friendly smile. "I believe you will not return to the Capital of the Kingdom today, correct?"
"The capital of the kingdom is where the king is," joked Fernand.
"Should I lead you to the Silent Room?" Asked Alojzia.
"Just a second, Alojzia," Alena interrupted. "So, Fernand. I'll let you sort out your affairs with your kids. I'll be in my room having nice dreams with you if you don't mind," she laughed loudly, making the room vibrate. "In the morning, we will have a reception for you and the children, a 'petit déjeuner.' And I... I...," Alena looked embarrassed. "Well, I must say that I'm worried that you need my Silent Room for a meeting with my nephews. That means something is not going right, and...," Alena took Fernand's right hand and squeezed it with her two wrinkled hands. She looked deep into Fernand's eyes with extreme affection. "You know, I'm embarrassed about the problems my family tried to cause you, and I try to compensate that the way I can. So you can count on me for everything, my dear friend."
"I know that Alena, thanks for everything. You are really amazing, have pleasant dreams!" Fernand looked deeply into Alena's eyes and then kissed Alena on the forehead. "Come on," Fernand said, putting his arm around Alena's shoulders and going through a door under the stairs while Alena went up through them.
Alojzia and Fernand entered through a small door to the room's right behind the hall, a narrow staircase descending to a cellar filled with artwork and furniture covered with white sheets. It was the Castle's storeroom. Alojzia guided Fernand down a path he already knew, the two crossed the cellar, and by the location, Fernand knew he was right under the door to the main hall. A white sheet covered a huge painting about three meters high and two meters wide on the wall at the end of the room. One could see some traces of the painted landscape through the sheet, a floral arch, with a small girl in the center.
Alojzia removed the sheet from the painting and then pulled it aside, revealing a rectangular cut in the wall with a small round device more than one and a half meters above the floor. Alojzia stood on the tip of her toes, matching her eyes to the device, which then read her iris. The cut in the wall then shifted backward and later slid sideways, like a sliding door.
"Use it well," Alojzia said saying goodbye to Fernand. "I'll get the Princes and Princesses.
"Thank you again, Alojzia," said Fernand.
Fernand entered through the hole, and automatically, white lights came on in the ceiling, revealing another ladder that went straight down about 5 meters into the ground. He descended the steps, gripping the wooden railing as soon as the door closed. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, a door to the left opened automatically, revealing a room with an oval table in the center and twenty chairs around it. A television in the back of the room was turned off. The table was laden with snacks and jugs of juice. Fernand sat in one of the chairs and the door behind him closed itself.
That room was one of three rooms in the entire world where no kind of magic could work. The room, built well before the castle, had suffered constant bombardment of strong magic so that it would not allow anyone to perform any sort of spell or magic in that place. The oldest parts of Spring Castle were distant from that location. However, knowing the particularity of that region, when Alena was still a teenager, she had built new wings that reached above that underground room. The castle's main rooms were later transferred to the new wing, including a Ballroom, to throw off the room's existence. Alena always said: 'People tend to ignore what is right in front of them, and above all what is underneath.' She always ensured that the room was also free of any eavesdropping, allowing it to become a boardroom protected from magic and interception, used on rare occasions.
Fernand was tapping his fingers on the table and shaking his leg, looking at his MC's screen, running his eyes over some news. A few minutes later, the door to the room slid aside. Two men and five women entered. The first of them, the shortest one, had curly blond hair, wearing a white T-shirt that read 'One two, Freddy is coming for you,' jeans and sneakers. The boy seemed to be the youngest of the group. Secretly Fernand had always resented Mila's clear preference for women; otherwise, she would be an excellent match for his son Yuri. Fernand got up and went to greet him with a kiss on the cheek.
"Yuri," said Fernand hugging him. "Alicia," said Fernand hugging and kissing his eldest daughter, who wore a long orange dress that matched her fiery hair. The girl was the one that most made Fernand remember his deceased wife: tall, straight and short red hair and dark green eyes. "Sebastien," Fernand repeated the gesture with the middle son who, like his father, had long brown curly hair and brown eyes that could easily be confused with black. "Lara!" He exclaimed, hugging his daughter, the shortest of all, with curly red hair, part of her head shaved, close to the left ear, leaving a tribal tattoo in sight. "Alyona!" Alyona resembled her father, skin a little darker than the rest of her brothers, brown hair that reached her waist, wavy and dark brown eyes. "Sofia," Fernand said, greeting the last daughter to enter the room, the youngest of all and the tallest. Her red hair was straight and long, darker than Alicia's, her green eyes were clear as a river, seeming to be in motion. Cyrielle was the last to enter the room, patiently waiting for all the nephews to join first.
"Hello, Brother," she said with a particular accent.
"Cy, I miss you," Fernand hugged his sister tightly.
Fernand's six children sat with him around the table.
"And Nikolas? Late as usual?" Questioned Fernand.
"Yes, no one told him to assume the Kingdom, right?" Yuri joked. Fernand laughed. "He came on a separate flight, had to stay in town until later."
"Yes, complicated task. And you, how are you doing, my children? I missed you so much," he said, taking the hand of Yuri and Sofia, who was on his left and right side.
"Well, father," All consented.
"And you?" Alicia asked, looking deep into Fernand's eyes.
"I'm fine, with some concerns, but fine," he replied.
The door opened again, and a tall man, extremely white-skinned, with straight red hair, slicked back and held by a delicate golden tiara, entered the room. Nikolas was the tallest of the family; his face was unforgettable in its beauty, he wore a full-skirted knee-length green coat with gold buttons, his green eyes, just like Sofia's, looked like a moving river.
"Father! How long!" He said, walking quickly towards the table.
Fernand got up and hugged his son.
"Nikolas, miss you," he said, pointing to a place on the other side of the table. Nikolas came around and pulled out his chair to sit beside Alicia.
"I called all of you here today for a complicated reason," said Fernand. All the children nodded, worried. "I believe that we are about to experience the beginning of a crisis. Do you know Jeannie? Daughter of Vaughan?" All the children nodded again. "Well then, she disappeared. Some people were summoned to Asturias to look into the case. On the same night, there was an attack, a girl was injured, and another girl was extremely shaken by what happened. It all happened on Asturian Island. In addition to these facts, we have a Chief Representative, Oswaldo. You guys know him, right? He is missing, he was in charge at Kholodnyei Gorod, and has not been seen for two weeks. Something strange is happening. I called you here because I was given a task and I will be away for a while, as I have done on other occasions, but I could not accept a new mission without talking to you first. I'll probably be out of communication for a day or two, but don't worry, okay?"
Everyone protested indignantly in the room.
"Wait a minute, dad," Alicia said in a protesting tone. "You just said that people are being attacked and disappearing and that you will enter a mission that prevents you from communicating with us for a few days? This is not right...."
"My dear, it is right. Rest assured, no one else could take on the mission. I've already talked to Lélia, I'll need to visit some places here in the Old Continent, but I'll be back with the news until the end of the week. OK? Please don't be scared. I believe that today Charlotte herself will go to Royal TV to expose what is happening. I preferred that you guys heard the news from me.
"But father, why are you the most suitable? Why couldn't Lélia pass this mission on to someone else?" Asked Alyona.
"Aly, there are several reasons I can't reveal. You know how things work, but it must be me," Fernand said calmly. "Stay calm. It's no big deal, just investigative work. Nikolas, I need your help. Oswaldo was in the state your uncle and aunt command when he disappeared. If possible, mobilize a few people of your trust to find any relevant information about the Representative. I ask everyone, total secrecy about what I'm talking about here today, don't tell anyone, Nick, not even Ian can know, okay?"
"Right, father, but again, if it's something that even my husband can know, I think your mission is not that simple," Nikolas said.
"Fer, Nick is right, if not even Ian can know, is something bad," Cyrielle intervened. "Tell Lélia to do the job herself. She doesn't have a close family; if she disappears, people won't even remember her."
Fernand realized that Cyrielle's resentment for Lélia would be eternal.
"No, it's not that simple, but it's not dangerous either," he lowered his eyes, saddened. "And you don't need to talk about Lélia like that, Cy. She's a good person."
Cyrielle looked down self-consciously.
"I need to ask you for help too, Cyrielle. Could you stay at my home? Take care of Pandora?"
"Of course, Fernand."