Jasmine:
"Ah, Roxy, there you are. I wanted to know if - oh. Who's this?" A man approached us from the corridor behind Roxy. He was smiling at her, but when he caught sight of me his expression changed suddenly. It was as if he had seen a ghost. Roxy didn't seem particularly pleased that he had noticed me either, which was the last thing I needed.
"This? This is Jasmine. She's an Arcan." She said the last word as though it would put an end to any further questions. The man seemed to disagree.
"One of the delegation?" He looked at me as he spoke, addressing me rather than Roxy. The Helian appeared content to answer for me though.
"Not initially. She only arrived a few days ago. Jasmine made her own way here."
"You travelled alone across the water?" Again he spoke to me. There was something strange about the way he said water, as though that were the most surprising part of my trip. Helians seemed particularly wary of the water.
"I came across with some news for Brae," I said, finding my voice and speaking before Roxy could answer for me.
"I see. You're connected to the royal family?"
"She's adopted, Dad," Roxy cut in again. "Abandoned at birth and brought up with the Prince." I blushed at the mocking tone of her voice. She made me sound like some tragic lost soul. Why was she so mean? And that man was Roxy's Dad? They did look a little alike, I supposed. He had similar eyes - although that could be said of most of the Helians. His hair was uniformly dark brown, a stark contrast to the fiery red of hers. And his features were less severe - they were almost kind. Most interestingly, he looked at me with interest rather than disdain.
Roxy had linked her arm with his now and began to steer him away and walk down the corridor. But before she had gone too far, she turned back around and called: "Don't forget to stay in the public zones!" Her eyes narrowed and I got the distinct impression that she was trying to let me know that she was keeping an eye on me. Well I was watching her too. There was no way I was letting her get to Brae.
This place, the people in it, it was all so confusing. I didn't know what to make of any of it. Everyone seemed to have something else going on beneath the surface, something they were hiding. It was the opposite of the Arcan Realm, where honesty was valued above all else. Not that I'd been all that honest recently, I supposed. My eyes moved automatically to my hair, paranoid that a strand of purple could have come loose.
I had wandered back to the entrance hallway by this point, passing a number of formidable closed doors and one which opened on a room filled with books. I decided to go up to the room I was sharing with Imogen and Devon to wait until Brae and the others were finished with their official business, which had been keeping them busy all morning.
The rooms in the palace were strange. The bizarre, unnatural light from the second sun burst through the glass taking up most of the external wall, filling the room with dancing, orange beams, so that it looked as though flames were licking the walls. Much of the space in the room had been taken up by three large beds (the third of which had apparently arrived only minutes after I did). There were also three wardrobes. However, these had been put in place before I came, to accommodate Imogen's over-packing.
A few books had been left on a green glass table. They were on Helian history and had probably been left there for 'educational purposes'. At a loss for what else to do, I picked a copy up and lay down on the bed to read. It was by someone called Dr Scott and the front cover informed me that it was volume 7 of 10 and dealt with 'myths and legends'.
I opened it mid-way through and ended up on a chapter on 'Inter-Realm Relationships'. Intrigued to see what the Helian take on relationships between members of different Realms would be I read on. I realised very early on that Dr Scott was not a romantic. He related the tale of Daphne and Evander (about a Helian girl who unwittingly fell in love with a Brizan boy she saved from near death after a shipwreck) without any emotion at all. Daphne was despicable, wicked and licentious for even considering running away with Evander when she discovered where he was from. Evander, on the other hand, was cunning and manipulative and overpowered the Helian's sense of propriety.
Although Arcans weren't exactly pro Inter-Realm relationships, it wasn't looked on with this level of hatred. It was seen as unusual and a bit odd. The Realms were so vastly different that it was difficult to see how such a match could exist without friction. It was hardly the crime Dr Scott made it out to be, however.
I turned the page. Despite the bias rendition, I was intrigued to find out what Daphne would choose to do. As I did so, I felt a tickling sensation inside my nose which grew until I suddenly let out an enormous sneeze.
I opened my eyes to a blaze of orange. In the split second that I closed them, the book had somehow burst into flames!
"Ah!" I cried out and slammed it shut in an attempt to beat them out, but the book slipped from my fingers and dropped onto the bed covers. I grabbed it up again and ran through to the bathroom, where I threw it in the sink, letting the spray from the tap put out the fire.
How did that happen? One minute it was a perfectly ordinary book, the next it was on fire!
Was it sabotaged?
It would be just like Roxy to leave me a self-combusting book. She'd probably installed some kind of camera in the room and was sitting somewhere watching the feed right now and laughing. Or maybe she had even more sinister intentions... Perhaps she had noticed that Brae had grown more cautious and was trying to get me out of the way, hoping that I would be far more seriously burnt by the flames.
In fact, I realised after inspecting my arms and hands, I hadn't got burnt at all.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror. "I can't let her get to me!" I said with as much resolve I could manage, but my heart sunk when I realised that two ringlets of purple hair had escaped from my bun and I set about hurriedly putting them back in. This was getting out of control. Maybe I needed to tell Brae soon before he noticed it for himself. I had a sinking feeling that those few strands hadn't been violet this morning.
Almost as if he had heard my mental call, the door to the bedroom suddenly opened and Brae walked in.
"Jazz? Where are you?"
Oh no! Not now! I quickly left the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I didn't want him to see the book, in case he thought that Roxy was getting to me. "Hi Brae." I greeted him with as much calmness as I could muster.
"There you are." He smiled warmly. "I'm finished for the day if you want to hang out." He went to sit down on my bed, but paused at the sight of the burn mark. Oh air! I'd forgotten about that. "What happened to your quilt?"
I shrugged as casually as I could. "I've no idea - it was like that when I got here."
Brae shook his head. "They really do go over the top when it comes to fire here, don't they? It's like a sign of power - showing the damage they can cause if they try. It's crazy." I nodded by way of response.
"I think they're all dangerous," I added with a shudder and sunk down onto my bed.
"I'm not so sure," Brae said, sitting down on Imogen's bed instead. "We still need to be wary, of course, but I think it's mostly a front. Roxy acts tough, but there's definitely something more to her."
"Yes: something even more dangerous." I looked at him pointedly. "Murderous, even."
"Are you still having the dreams?"
I nodded. "They're getting worse." Last night's one was. We were still at the cliff top, but this time I was there too, a figure in the dream, calling out to make him stop, but I was being held back by the cloaked figures and I couldn't get to him. He looked straight through me, as though I didn't even exist.
This new addition only made them feel more real. They had changed when I had arrived, as though I was influencing the future. The end outcome hadn't altered at all though, I had been quick to notice.
Brae sighed. "I really don't know what to think. Part of me, it finds the idea of these dreams crazy, illogical, but... I trust you - and if you say there's more to them then I believe you." He shook his head. "I don't know what to do. We can't just sit back and let them plot. We need to catch them out." He paused for a minute. "How exactly do they kill me in your dreams?"
"They just... talk to you. But not in their normal voices, smoother, like honey. And your eyes glaze over and you do what they tell you - without questioning it." I shuddered. "It's terrifying." Before I could stop it a tear escaped from my eye and trickled down my cheek.
"Hey!" Brae said, jumping up from the bed and coming to sit beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me towards him, resting his head on top of mine. "It's not going to happen. We won't let it," he spoke into my hair.