Adara was climbing the Palace walls to the garden, cursing the Secret Organisation and all of the people in it. Why couldn't she just meet with her dad and sit in the garden with him?
I love that garden.
I love Dad.
Why can't I be with the person I love in a place I love?
She was also going to leave the Capital soon. After the Ceremony, she's going to climb into a carriage with Amiru and Cale and leave for the Ubarr Territory. She wanted to see Priest Charlie tonight, but that was no longer possible.
Adara scaled the wall to her and Cale's room. In her haste, she placed her foot wrong and almost fell, but she clung on. She pulled herself onto the window sill, her heart still beating fast from when she almost fell.
The window was still open, and she slipped inside it, dropping her invisibility spell as she did so.
Cale jumped out of his skin when he saw her appear. He did not recognise her for a second, as her skin was pale and she did not have her scars, but then he did, and he calmed down. But, seeing how out of breath she looked, he frowned.
"Adara?" he asked, setting his book on his nightstand and turning to sit on the edge of the bed.
Adara looked at the book on the nightstand.
The Retelling of Puzzle City.
Next to the book, an empty teacup with a simple golden fish design.
"Fuck!" she yelled, feeling like she wanted to destroy something.
Cale made a face at how loud she yelled. None of this was making sense. He thought she would be going to the Temple; she told him about Priest Charlie and how he took care of her in the 4 years that she disappeared from the public eye. He thought she would take longer.
And why did she seem so agitated? It was just an empty te—
"Who delivered the tea?" she asked, more agitation in her voice.
Cale got concerned as he watched how her hand clenched and unclenched, a bit of blood pouring from where her nails dug into her skin. He watched her take off the three hoops necklace with a stiffness to her. She put her sun pendant on instead, smearing blood on it.
"A maid," he responded, taking her hands into his own, preventing her from injuring herself further, the smeared blood a strong contrast to his pale skin. "I never saw her before."
Adara gritted her teeth, muttering a few curses so fast he couldn't hear them. "The tea was poisoned."
Cale froze. "What?"
Poisoned?
The tea?
Have I been poisoned?
He knew the safety hazards that came with travelling with Adara. He knew she was being followed by assassins more often than he took in stray beast people, but he also knew she was handy to have along and that the assassins were only targeting her. He knew there was no profit in killing him. He convinced himself to let her come along, assuring himself that he would never be the one to get hurt.
But those were his reasons before he knew her.
Now that he knows the person underneath that cold mask who threatened to kill him if he did not tell her who was in her best friend's skin, the one who is Adara, he was thinking less about if she was handy to have along, and more about her.
He thinks about how she laughs, he thinks about how mischievous she looks with a glass of wine in her hands. He thinks about how she recommends books she knows he'll like, he thinks about how gentle she is with the children.
But. He's now been poisoned.
He knows he wouldn't have been poisoned if Adara had not come along.
But he didn't care. Not anymore.
He knew what might happen if he travelled with Adara, and while he thought he had no choice then, he knew that if he did have a choice now, he would continue to travel with her. Once this whole poison ordeal was over.
Adara looked down at him, holding his hands tightly. "How do you feel?" she asked, barely controlled anger in her voice.
"Tingly," he responded honestly. Adara probably wouldn't appreciate it if he told her he was fine.
Adara scowled. "That's the poison. If you feel tingly already, then it means the poison has already entered your blood system." All we can do now is hope that the Vitality of Heart will heal him, she thought.
Cale frowned, suddenly wondering why she was so concerned. "I should be fine," he started; Adara whipped her head towards him, and he elaborated. "I mean, you were poisoned this morning, right? And, based on how you talked with Sadie and Rory, it was a very powerful poison, and yet you're fine less than 24 hours later because of the Vitality of the Heart. How is it any different if I've been poisoned?"
Adara shook her head, agitated and concerned. She would have used her hands to illustrate her words, but Cale was holding them, and his hands were warm. "We know it heals fast-acting poison; what you've taken is slow-acting poison. If you don't heal, you're going to die after a week. Slowly. Their purpose is different," she explained. "Fast-acting poison needs to get into the bloodstream as fast as possible. To either go to the heart or some other part of the body to infect. Its purpose is to find a blood vessel as fast as possible.
"But, slow-acting poison has a different purpose," she continued. "All it needs to do is to circulate through your body, poisoning every organ and every system, slowly corrupting all of your cells until you die. It's subtler. I'm not sure if the Vitality of the Heart will be able to stop it."
Cale squeezed her hands reassuringly. "I think we should trust the Vitality of the Heart. It's saved us so far."
Adara shook her head, more agitated this time. "But it didn't save Taylor when he died a week after."
I can't see you leave me, she thought, staring into those beautiful brown eyes she loved. Not again. I won't let you leave me. If you, out of everybody, left me, then there was no point in wanting to get better. I won't accept anybody's care if you're not there.
She squeezed Cale's hands back. If he dies, she thought, her thoughts now directed at someone quite different. Then I am going to kill you. She wasn't sure if you could kill a god. But she was going to die trying.
Cale opened his mouth, about to ask another question, when blood came out.
Adara's eyes widened, and she pulled Cale from the bed, bringing him to the bathroom.
He was leaning over the sink, the blood creating an even bigger contrast when he spat on the white marble of the sink.
Adara forcibly made herself calm down. Now would not be a good time to want to throw something into a window. She rubbed Cale on the back, smearing more blood on his white shirt.
"It'll be fine," she murmured, not knowing how to reassure Cale in this situation. "This is actually a good thing, it means the Vitality of the Heart is working."
Cale gave her a side glance she would consider vicious as he coughed up more blood.
"Sorry," she said. "That was probably not the best thing to say."
Cale violently coughed up a bit more blood.
"I can promise that this won't happen again," Adara said, murderous intent hidden in the crevices of her eyes. "I'm going to get my head off of the Underworld, and there will be no more assassins. And soon, that forsaken by the gods Organisation is going to stop bothering me. You'll be able to rest," she murmured, the murderous intent disappearing. "They should have never involved you."
Except, she started, now I know what happened that made me join that Organisation. They brought Cale into it. That's one way to keep me on a leash, she thought bitterly.
Cale was not exactly listening to her words; he was more focused on the burning feeling in the back of his throat as he coughed up more blood.
But he was losing his energy with every cough, until Adara was no longer rubbing circles on his back and instead was holding him up.
After a while, he stopped coughing. He had no more strength in his body, only getting supported by Adara's hands. He wiped the blood off his chin, looking at Adara. "It doesn't tingle anymore," he said, his voice hoarse and a murmur.
"That's good," Adara commented, her voice as soothing as she could make it.
Cale pushed himself up from the sink, trying to make his way to his bed. But he stumbled, and Adara had to catch him.
She led him to the bed and let him rest on it. But when Cale tried to go under the blanket, she shook her head. "Wait, your shirt needs to be changed; it's covered in blood stains."
Cale grumbled something, sitting upright and patiently waiting for Adara to find a better shirt for him.
He had no more energy in his body, so he let Adara pull the bloody shirt off of him and let her put another one on.
He looked up at her and saw that she was still annoyed. But at whom? he wondered. At the assassin who did this? He had no energy to ask. Even now, when he was looking up at her, his eyes were slowly closing.
So he let himself lay in bed. "You better explain this when I wake up," he muttered, his eyes already closed.
Adara nodded reassuringly, playing with his hair for a few moments.
After she was sure he was asleep, she ran out of the room, taking her dagger with her.
I have a Member of the Secret Organisation to kill.
Since Adara asked to be able to leave her room, there have been no maids to intersect her as she opens her door. Of course, the maids still repeatedly come in to see if they want breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.
So she walked for a bit until she came upon a maid. For such a big Palace, it took her quite a while to find another person.
She smiled when she approached the maid. "Hello," she greeted.
The maid stared at her in surprise. "Oh, uh, hello?"
Adara continued smiling. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if you knew where my servant was? I heard she was here recently, but I think I just missed her."
The maid's eyes widened as she nodded. "Ah! The one with the orange hair? And the sharp face?"
The maid had directed her to her room so she knew which one the Young Mistress was talking about. To be honest, the servant gave her a bad feeling, but she could not say that in front of the Young Mistress.
Adara nodded, a small smile still on her lips. She would have thought it was Hans had the maid not mentioned the sharp face. Hans's face was quite soft and round. "That's the one. Do you know where she went?"
The maid turned, pointing down to the corridor. "At the end of this corridor, the room on the left, Young Mistress. We had to give her a temporary room as she insisted that she should be at the Palace with her Young Master and Mistress," the maid explained.
Adara smiled one last time. "Thank you very much; your help is greatly appreciated."
The maid watched as the curly-haired Young Mistress walked away, only one thought on her mind. How nice, she smiles a lot. No wonder she saved the Plaza. But how can such a nice Young Mistress have such a cold and rude servant? The maid shrugged, turning around and walking away.
But this nice Young Mistress was now opening the door to a room from which only she would emerge.
Once inside, Adara saw the Secret Organisation Member sitting on her bed. She looked up, saw Adara and stood up, alarmed. She took out a vial from her pocket, holding it up as if proof that she could destroy it at any time.
Adara watched her take control back over her face. Based on her initial reaction, the Secret Organisation was probably relying on her being too concerned with Cale to think about the Spy, except for a few glares here and there. But Cale would be fine, so it was fine.
He will be fine.
He will.
So Adara was going to kill the Spy.
As a warning to them.
Don't poison my family.
The Spy's face hardened. "Don't take a step closer, or I'll smash it."
Adara put her hands up in surrender. "Do not worry, I'm no—." She raced to the Spy, snatching the vial from her hand and setting it neatly on the nightstand before slamming the Spy onto the ground.
A groan came from the Spy as she fell to the ground. Adara kept her arms and legs away from each other. Adara knew that no matter how valuable someone was to the Organisation, the second they were compromised, they needed to either get out of there or kill themselves. The Spy probably had a dagger on her somewhere, maybe a poisoned one.
Maybe I don't need to kill her right now, Adara thought, her eyes narrowing as she smiled. She will die. But I should at least try to put her to use first. "It's a lovely night, isn't it? Would you mind answering some questions for me?"
The Spy narrowed her eyes as well. "What the fuck do you think? I'm not goin' to tell you anythin'."
Adara smiled, holding her wrists even tighter. If I break her arm as well, it'll be ironic. Though Beacrox is not here to dispose of her. "Oh, it's quite a simple question. I was just wondering if you had an assistant."
The Spy looked at her, confused. "The fuck? Uh, yeah, I do? He's not very good, but he does fine."
Adara watched her with calculating eyes. From what I understood, she's the Poison Master of the Organisation. There's only one purpose for an assistant in such an organisation; it's as a replacement. But if he's not good enough yet, that means they'll refrain from disposing of her until he gets to her level.
That's why she's the one here, Adara realised. Because they think I won't do anything to her because I can't afford to. But their plan backfired. Nothing happened to Cale except some pain. He'll be fine when he wakes up.
"I'm sure," Adara said, inspecting the Spy's face. She had dull orange hair that she kept in a ponytail, a thin nose and round eyes. She was quite pretty, with a certain air of innocence around her despite her sharp face. "It's not easy to get to your level, is it?"
So he was bluffing, Adara thought. Sam said she wasn't the best person for the job. That was a lie. But I now have an opportunity to plant a seed. Later, she will die. Once her petals have begun to wilt.
"Can you get off me now?" the Spy asked.
Adara raised an eyebrow.
The Spy continued talking. "Well, you're not goin' to kill me, so this whole thing is fuckin' useless."
Adara let out a short chuckle. "What makes you say that?"
The Spy looked at Adara with a taunting squint of her eyes. "Even if you leave with that vial, the antidote won't last forever. You'd need to keep comin' back to knock me to the ground and steal it, or your precious boyfriend will die."
Adara huffed out a laugh, the opportunity presenting itself on a poisoned plate. "And what will it take for you to keep on giving me the antidote?"
The Spy wasn't stupid. She knew what the pretty person they wanted on their side was talking about. She also realised through her words that she was not even considering joining the Organisation. This bitch is probably going to ask me to be a double agent. I can always be a triple one. Might as well have some fun while I'm at it.
The Spy thought about what her price was. "Well, you have a lotta money, but so do they. Hmm, you'd need to give me somethin' that they can't give me."
Why are they all tiptoeing around the name of that damn Organisation? Adara thought as she raised an eyebrow at the Spy. "And what would that be?"
The Spy smiled at her, leaning up and setting her lips on Adara's.
Adara's eyes widened. As quickly as ever, she leaned away, grabbing her dagger from her belt as she did so, and raised it high above her head, about to bring it down on the Spy.
But she stopped, remembering she was in the Palace. She took a deep breath, putting her dagger back into her belt. "No. I am not offering my body."
The Spy raised an eyebrow. "Not even for your boyfriend's life?"
"Not even."
Cale's life wasn't on the line. If it was, that might have been a different story. But, right now, she would have been using her body to get someone's loyalty. Not her best friend's life. I'll use my words but never my body.
She stood up, not looking at the Spy. She took the vial from the nightstand. "I would rather let him die than use my body," she lied.
The Spy sat upright. "Prude," she muttered.
Adara laughed at the word. Ah, you wouldn't say that if you saw Cecilia and me a night ago.
The Spy looked up at her. "You're lucky that I'm obliged to give the antidote to him. Unless the higher-ups decide to cut off the supply entirely because of this little stunt."
Adara narrowed her eyes at the Spy. She still thinks she's the one with more control here. "Think again. How strict is the policy in your organisation about answering questions?"
The Spy frowned, realising somewhat where this was going. She felt her chest tighten at her words. "But answerin' some simple questions about my assistant isn't important?"
Adara was now at the door, her head turned to look at the Spy. "Isn't it?" she asked, her voice a cruel mockery. She was still annoyed that the Spy thought her body was something that could be offered. "You just told me a little about the members of your Organisation. Right now, I'm on my way to meet that nice member who came to me with the offer. I'm going to tell him you told me a lot more about the Organisation. I figure he's not going to be very happy about that."
The Spy's eyes widened. Her breathing getting slightly heavier. "That's not what happened!" she almost screamed. She saw what they did to Darius, she doesn't want that to happen to her. She could still hear Darius screaming from his punishment for messing up his mission involving her.
Adara chuckled. "And you think he's going to believe you? If this situation were real, then you would say anything to save your own skin." Adara watched the Spy panic with unkind eyes. "What the Organisation is going to do to you will be way worse than what I will do if I find you're still here come the morning."
The Spy's breathing was very shallow and quick. "Please! Don't tell him!"
Adara narrowed her eyes at the Spy. "Then, kill yourself."
The Spy's eyes widened even further.
"You need to choose between three evils," Adara said. "The Organisation, me, and you. I would choose the lesser of all three."
Adara turned her head, about to open the door, when she heard a body thump on the ground.
She turned her head to stare at the corpse, seeing a smaller vial in her hands. The fact that she died so fast after drinking poison means that inside that vial is Prototype 71. She left the room, sighing. All the gods should condemn the person who leaked the poisons; even the Secret Organisation has it.
She walked down the corridor, the vial of the antidote safely hidden. She wasn't on her way to Cale, she wanted to let him rest a bit more. She was actually on her way to a certain blonde individual. There was a body in one of his guest's rooms, and she didn't have the means to dispose of it.
She now recognised his door. It was tall and dark, with a gold doorknob compared to the brass ones the other doors had. Her door had a silver doorknob. She was about to walk in, but she figured she should knock first. She was about to inform him about a corpse, after all.
"Come in!"
She opened the door and saw him at his desk again. For a second, she marvelled at how messy his desk was. She hadn't noticed it when she passed out onto his floor, but she saw it now. It was messier than hers. She didn't know how he could even find a quill. "I thought you would be awake."
Alberu looked up at her and sighed. "Yes, you thought right." He was no longer surprised by her presence. He was only happy she was not about to pass out or bleeding.
She walked in, sitting in the royal chair across from him without permission. She knew what the proper etiquette was, but frankly, she wanted to annoy him.
And that she did, for Alberu sighed again. "Do you want some tea?" he asked, pouring some for himself. "Or some Henituse Wine?" If she wouldn't uphold to etiquette, then he might as well.
Adara shook her head, almost flinching at the word 'tea'. "Oh, I don't think it's a good time to be drinking anything right now. There's a very important question I have for you."
"Go on," he said, ignoring her warning and taking a sip of his tea.
"How good would you say your security is?"
Alberu frowned, putting down his teacup. "Pretty good, why?"
Adara shrugged. "An assassin just snuck into the Palace under the guise that she was one of our servants and attempted to poison both Cale and me."
Alberu's eyes widened, though he tried to calm himself. "From your use of the word 'attempted', I'm going to guess they did not succeed."
Adara smiled sweetly at him. "Excellent deduction skills, Your Highness."
Alberu sighed, taking a sip of his tea.
"And now there's a dead body in one of your guest rooms."
Alberu choked on his tea. What?
Adara shrugged. "I told you it's not a good time to be drinking tea; you are the one who chose to ignore me. Your Highness," she added as an afterthought.
"What dead body?" Alberu demanded when he finished coughing out the tea. But as he stared at her, he noticed her sun pendant. It was smeared in blood. He felt the hairs on his arm raise.
Adara stared at him for a moment. "Of the assassin."
"Did you—."
"No," Adara said, a slight twitch to her face that Alberu picked up on. "I'm in your Palace; I can't dispose of anything as I want."
Alberu wanted to sigh again. He didn't want to ask what had happened if the assassin ended up dead, and it was not by Adara's hand. "Where is she?"
Adara leaned in the seat. "Well, you apparently gave her a guest room to stay in as our servant. So, she's there. I've come here for a request."
Alberu buried his head in his hands and sighed for the umpteenth time since she walked in. "I'll deal with it." By all the gods, she can't get a break, can she? She was attacked by an assassin just this morning.
Adara smiled widely at him, and as he watched her smile, his workload felt lighter. "Thank you, Your Highness. It is greatly appreciated. However, I think we should discuss the official story before I leave this room."
Alberu knew she already knew what she wanted the official story to be, and she was only letting him give the power to her. "And what do you think the official story should be?"
Adara shrugged, the cogs turning in her head. "She never existed. She never entered the Palace, and she never got the room."
Alberu raised an eyebrow. "It will be easy to hide the fact a death happened," he admitted. He still wasn't sure if it was a murder. "I'm planning on having very little people work on disposing of the body, and I trust them not to say anything. But it won't be easy to hide the fact she existed; from what I can tell, quite a few people saw her before she went to her room. I can't dispose of them."
Adara was quite casual, sitting in front of the Crown Prince. "I've got planned already. One of Cale's actual servants has long orange hair, like she did. They look nothing alike otherwise, but the people who saw her will be convinced that they saw wrong."
"It sounds like you've got all of this planned out," Alberu commented. "Do you want your servant to stay over at the Palace as proof?"
Adara shook her head. "No, it's not needed. The story will continue that because of some urgent business; he had to head back to the Henituse Estate."
Alberu nodded. "The story isn't shabby. I'll send you a report later tomorrow detailing the exact official story, but it will be dealt with."
Adara smiled widely at him. "Again, thank you very much. May the Peace of the Night be with you."
She stood up to leave, Alberu watching her go.
With her hand on the handle, she turned around. "Ah, thank you for the wine offer. I didn't think you would remember it was my favourite."
Alberu watched the door close behind her. His eyes drifted to the wine bottle he had kept in his wine fridge. The wine bottle he bought today. It's no problem, he thought in response to her request, as if Adara could hear him. If it means to let you rest for even half a night, I'll do it. You have enough on your plate as it is.
Adara, who was now on her way back to Cale, was cursing herself and the God of Death until the Heavens. God fucking damnit, why did I say that bullshit idiom? She had lived there for four years; it was hard to let go of certain words. But it had still been dumb of her.
If the Crown Prince noticed, he would think it odd, and then he would probably try to investigate and find out where I was hiding for 4 years. And that's going to complicate the Temple because of my fucking mistake.
She only hoped that the Crown Prince wouldn't pay any attention to her words.
She was still annoyed at the Organisation for preventing her from visiting the Temple. If only they hadn't poisoned him. Cale was her priority for tonight; she needed to take care of him.
She also needed to be petty towards Sam. She would do that tomorrow to let them freak out about why they hear nothing from their little Spy. Tomorrow night.
Fuck them all, Adara thought. She couldn't go to the Temple tomorrow night either because the eyes of the Organisation would surely be on her if she walked to the Temple after ridiculing one of their Members.
She had reached her door by now. Inside, Cale was awake, simply staring at the ceiling.
"Hey," she greeted softly. "What's wrong?"
He looked at her from his bed. "I couldn't sleep," he responded. "And the words on the pages of my book were blurring. I was waiting for you."
She nodded. She walked to her desk and placed the dagger on its wooden surface.
"Where did you go?" Cale asked, his eyes on the dagger.
Adara changed into her nightgown. "I needed to deal with the person who poisoned you."
"Well, now you've just got to explain what that whole poison ordeal was about," Cale said.
She sat on the edge of their bed. "I..." she trailed off. "I think we can be certain that I joined the Secret Organisation in the novel you read."
Cale blinked. "What."
Adara waved him away. "Let me start at the beginning. I was going to the Temple of Death, as you know. I told you about the Secret Organisation member who choked me, about how he seemed to fall from the air as if he was teleported. Well, as I walked to the Temple in disguise, I heard that same thump.
"I ignored it and kept walking. I didn't want to get choked again. But then, a layer of magic was placed around me, trapping me with the Secret Organisation Member and a noise cancellation spell on top of that."
Cale frowned at the story. This was already not turning out well. "The same member as last time?" She didn't seem to have any bruises on her neck today.
She shook her head. "He's dead. His name was Darius. I don't know the name of the one I saw earlier today, but I named him Sam."
"You named him Sam?" he asked.
"Sam," she confirmed. "He asked me to join his Organisation."
Cale frowned even further. "But that isn't proof that you joined the Secret Organisation in the Novel."
She looked away. "No, but let me continue. I would have told Sam no immediately, but I wanted to see if I could get some information on the Secret Organisation. Sam could not tell me anything. So, I refused.
"That's when Sam told me that you had been delivered a cup of poisoned tea. The poison was slow-acting, and they would administer the antidote once I joined. But since you need to take the antidote every day, they would continue giving you the antidote for as long as I cooperate."
Cale's thought about that further. "That plan would have succeeded if I did not have the Vitality of the Heart." I guess... she really must have been part of the Organisation in the Birth of a Hero. He looked at her, saw how she wasn't looking anywhere in particular, her hands stretched across her knees to avoid digging her nails into her hand again.
"It doesn't matter," he said. He watched her look up at him with wide eyes. "You were forced to. Anything you might have done in that world is completely excusable because if you didn't do it, your best friend would have died."
"Yes," Adara agreed, but then she hesitated. "But, you are just one person. Can you imagine how many innocent people I've killed? Is it not moral to sacrifice one person to save a bunch of others?"
Cale heard the tone of her voice. He could not tell if she cared about the innocent people she might have killed or not. "Why are you speaking in the past tense? It has not happened. Nor will it ever happen. That is not your future anymore. Nor your past. You haven't killed any innocent people."
She looked up at him. He wasn't sure if he could see tears in her eyes or not. "No. I have not."
Cale nodded. "Just because someone with the same name as you, someone who looks like you, did it in another universe, doesn't mean you did it in this one. Because you are Adara."
Cale didn't know if Adara understood how much emotion was in that name. She was Adara. He could not have enough adjectives to describe how she— he did not have enough adjectives. She was just Adara.
She looked at him. And then she smiled.
And Adara, she would remain in his eyes.