That morning, Ember had a feeling that Healer Zak checked on more than just her health. The human woman seemed to possess the power to measure Velth, a trait she noticed when the woman's touch lingered on her arm for more time than was necessary under the excuse of checking her pulse.
But that was not the only strange thing that happened that morning. Two of the five handmaidens that served the crown princess dipped her in a bath and gave a thorough scrub. They frowned at her rough hands, evidence of years of hard work as a servant.
Then the two girls that didn't look to be more than sixteen each proceeded to argue about how much time it would take to restore Ember's hands into something that looked more princess-like.
The first girl, quite hesitant, betted it would take at least a month. The second girl, possessing an audaciousness like no other, betted it would take only two weeks for her to transform Ember's hands. As dreary as their banter was, Ember was at least glad that the crown princess's maidens seemed to be taking the change quite well.
On Ember's part, it had not quite settled in that she was now assuming the identity of the Princess of a kingdom she only heard of in books. On one part, she pinched herself repetitively hoping this was all a dream because to be honest, she felt like she was floating on clouds most of the time.
But it was no dream; not when the handmaidens repeatedly kept referring to herself as 'your highness'. Not when they scrubbed her body—an act that had never happened before when she was just the servant girl of the Azure Witches.
Moments later, she was clad in an exquisite dress that didn't scrape at her skin the way her drab clothes usually did. Her hair was soaked in hood smelling scented oils that threatened to drive her mad from how so foreign they smelled. Then her red hair, which she was sure before that morning never to be tamed, was tamed under their skilled fingers into a single braid that dropped at her back.
Then to top it all, they apologized for the 'lackluster' treatment, promising Ember that better tidings awaited them when they went back to Thalor.
If that was lackluster, Ember couldn't imagine what they would term luxurious. But she didn't kid herself in the least at their goodness. At least she had the good mind to understand that it was Elara Thorne they treated well, not Ember AshFall.
Even if they knew she was just a fake, that indisputable truth remained.
Healer Zak, testament to the woman's skills, had managed to heal every single ache on Ember's body—so much so that Ember no longer felt any of the pain her body had taken the previous night. But the ache in her head remained, like a painful reminder of something she couldn't even remember in the first place.
But she shrugged off that nagging feeling while she, the handmaidens and healer Zak waited for the crown princess and knight Asborne so they would depart.
Meanwhile, Ember took note of the things she observed. The first being how so at ease the woman was to allow both the handmaidens and healer Zak in on such a traitorous secret.
The crown princess didn't seem like someone who would make such an error, so that only mean that the woman was at least confident that even under the most vicious torture, they would never rattle on her.
Ember guessed if that was the case, then the handmaidens were not from the clan of the huntsmen but had rather been serving the crown princess since she was a princess of the Seamen. She couldn't quite tell the woman's connection with healer Zak, but since the latter had been entrusted with the health of the deceased princess, then she must be held in high regard as well.
The second thing Ember observed was that despite the fact that they were in the crown princess's hometown, they were lodged in a desolate temple that didn't befit the woman's status. So why? The crown princess was a princess of the seamen after all, so why was she not lodging in her father's palace?
Ember didn't get to contemplate any more oddities when the duo they had been waiting for made an appearance. With the crown princess taking the lead and knight Asborne trailing protectively behind her, they departed by carriage for the port city.
Ember rode in a carriage with the crown princess's, and throughout it all, an uncomfortable silence lingered between them.
Spirits help them, but despite Ember's earlier confidence, she was beginning to doubt whether or not this fake mother and daughter relationship will work.
"You can stretch out and sleep," the crown princess said suddenly, breaking the silence, "the journey to the port city will take at least four hours. I reckon you're tired."
Ember simply nodded, then forcefully shut her eyes. Sleep? Yes she needed sleep. Sleep would help her sort her thoughts. Sleep was just what she needed. And sleep she did. Except when she submerged herself in the darkness like an empty room filled with void and nothingness, a flame was suddenly lit providing shadowy light like a lone candle.
But soon that lone, flickering light turned into an inferno that threatened to consume Ember and her entire being.
Fire… fire was the element her coven practiced. The only element they practiced in fact. She shouldn't be afraid of it, and yet she was.
She screamed, wanting to run away from it, trauma clawing on her throat like a sore-tasting thing. Yet she could not run. Instead with her eyes she witnessed the coven that never loved her submerged in flames that they once practiced.
And just when she thought she would die with them, someone approached.
A woman… no a man.
No, not a man… a woman.
A woman? Surely that was a man?
No, a woman.
Whoever it was… whatever it was, Ember screamed that it should deliver her from the flames lest they swallowed her. She didn't even practice the element yet it was there to incinerate her.
She didn't deserve to die… not when she had not even lived.
She approached, then stretched her hand. It was low enough that Ember could grasp it should she try hard, but it was still high enough that it danced away from her easily.
But she crawled, then stretched out her good arm grasping hers. But when she tugged her up, it was an impossible man that stared back at her.
A god…
Maybe not a god, but someone that certainly didn't walk their world.
"Who… who are you?" She stuttered the question while the flames about them blazed even fiercer.
A cruel smile tugged against his blank face. "Tell me, do you deserve to live?" He said to her.
What?
"You can't even answer such a simple question." He said matter of factly, no emotion in his words, "I guess I shall toss you back in the flames. The world is way too over saturated to take in someone who is… suicidal?"
Then he released her hand and she fell back into the flames with a terrifying scream.
And in the physical world, just as the carriage stopped at the port city, Ember kept screaming that she wanted to live.
"I want to live! I… I want to live!" She repeated over and over again while tears stained her cheeks.
Gentle hands patted her by the shoulders, offering comfort.
"Me too. I too want to live." A soft voice, quite unfamiliar, muttered while Ember's eyes snapped open to behold the crown princess's sapphire blue ones.
She was the one offering her comfort, and she was the one that said those words, yet Ember found it hard to reconcile that vulnerable voice with the woman before her.
"I…I had a bad dream," Ember muttered even though she had a feeling it was more than a bad dream.
That man… that god…that being… was he real?
"Nightmares have a funny way of reminding us of our deepest fears," the crown princess muttered, "just know it's just a bad dream." She finished, still patting Ember's shoulders.
Ember's eyes trailed to the woman's hands that offered strange comfort, but the hands were gone almost immediately.
"It's time for us to alight," she said in her normal authoritative tone. And Ember was just about to do that when a knock sounded on their window.
The crown princess opened it, "Knight Asborne, what is it?" She said.
"I've bad news, your highness. Your father has had your ship grounded. He says the Serpent of the Seas won't set sail until you've paid proper homage to him with your daughter."
Ember watched as the woman slammed the window close, her body reverberating with deep sated anger while every sign of earlier softness dissipated into thin air like it never existed.