DROPPED | A Witches Garden

seven

My body stayed frozen as the maids scurried around me. Dressing me and grooming my hair. Making sure I'd look perfect for him.

They put me in a dark blue dress that complimented my dark skin and decorated my absurdly long coily hair with pearls and gems. I, well moreso, Elietta, looked beautiful.

A maid led me as the other maids followed from behind.

"Did Roye say why he came here?"

"No... he didn't say a thing." She placed a finger on her chin as she thought. "He only said that he wanted to meet you. There was something important he wanted to discuss."

"I- I see..." The smile I gave her was filled with worry but she didn't seem to notice.

She stopped in front of a door and gave me another smile.

"He's waiting on the other side. We will stay back behind the door and enter if you need anything."

"You're not going in?"

The maid nodded. "Sir Finnsweld told us that he wanted to be... alone with you." She blushed.

It really wasn't what she was thinking...

I gave her a small smile and entered the room. It was brightly lit and decorated with vases and flowers. Roye sat on one of the chairs and glanced at me. His expression remained unchanged.

I sat down in front of him and looked away.

"Are you perhaps, feeling shy?"

"W- What?"

His smile grew. "Yesterday night you had been so confident, yet now you can't even look me in the eye."

"Do you regret it?" He watched as my expression changed. "Kissing me, I mean."

I took in a deep breath to regain my composure. The more nervous I got, the higher the chance I would slip up.

"A kiss? I don't remember doing that." I'd have to hope that the spell I had cast on him had taken even just the slightest bit of effect. I looked him deeply in the eyes. "Are you sure the person you met was me?" And for a moment he faltered. His eyebrow twitched just a bit and that was enough for me to know that my spell had worked. Not fully like it should've but it still did.

He crossed his legs and looked up. Like he was in a deep train of thought.

"I'm sorry Roye but if you have nothing else to say then you might as well leave. You should be happy that I spared you even a moment of my time, as you came here unannounced like this."

A smirk formed on his lips. As if he was intrigued. He spoke, and his deep voice nearly made me freeze.

"No, there is something else I would like to say."

"... Is that so?" I glanced at the window. "And that is?"

He chuckled. "The bombing of Airhamn yesterday, have you heard of it?"

So that's where he's going huh.

"Yes, why?" I asked, still not looking at him.

"Some strange things happened yesterday—"

"So you've come to gossip?"

"Do not interrupt me."

His cold voice cut into me and caused my body to still. "Pardon my rudeness."

"Like I was saying before, a lot happened that none of my well trained knights could comprehend. Did you know that the man who set up the bombing ran to one of my knights to tell on himself. He didn't know why he did it. All he could say was that he met a strange woman. After that everything was a blur."

"Maybe he was fed something strange, or he could've been drunk and was hit with a sense of guilt over what he was gonna do." I let out a sigh.

"It's possible, but you know what happened after? When the bombing had gone off a woman ran up to me and my knights, telling us to focus only on the other other bombs."

I scoffed. "What a strange woman."

"Indeed." He laughed. "All my knights saw her face, even me and while they described her as a brown skinned woman with blue eyes I remember her differently."

Oh oh. I bit my lower lip. My gaze stayed at my hands that were tightly knitted together. Getting sweatier by the minute.

"In what way?" I tried to keep my voice from sounding too shaky.

"Sometimes I'd remember her like that, but... other times..." He paused. "She'd have green eyes, eyes that reminded me of mint."

"Wasn't it the middle of the night? Blue and green can look pretty similar in strange lighting. And with the fire going around I doubt any of you could really focus on such a small detail as her eye color."

He laughed, and the sound echoed throughout the empty walls. Making my body freeze up even more.

"But do you want to know what was the strangest of all?" He went silent for a moment. And just then did I look up at him. He had a devilish grin on his face. One that chilled me to the bone.

"The fire. None of my knights nor me dealt with it, yet somehow it completely disappeared. Leaving no trace."

"That... that is strange." My voice was low.

"Yes, with the way the bomber acted, the strange woman he met, the strange woman me and my knights saw and the way that fire disappeared..." He smiled.

"You would think it's the work of a witch."